Chapter I
Cloud Strife, an average twenty year old, stood calmly with his eyes lowered to the audience that had gathered beneath him. Lights of every color shone down on his pale skin, reflecting his every bony feature gallantly to the world. He drew in a deep breath as the weight of his electric guitar pulled on his masculine arms once again.
Just breathe, his mind advised as he shut his sight from the roaring crowd that was eagerly a waiting to hear the new singer's word. Everything around him dimmed as he felt the onrush of memories lust into his brain. The thoughts of all the incidents that had happened leading him here…lead singer of a punk rock band. Flowing like an ocean beneath him, he opened his eyes to the audience once more with a superficial smile on his face.
Of course, life had not always been so stressful, at least not in this manner. Fame and fortune now led him down a path of riches and luxury, but at one time he had been trying to save this pathetic world. All the people that stood before him, he saved. And for what? Well, he still could not come up with a half decent answer. But, he had a feeling that it all started just a year earlier, after the triumph over his worst fiend.
"Cloud?" he could still remember her sweet serenade as if it were yesterday. At least, as much as he could hear over the over powering thunder of the propellers above his head.
"Yeah?" was the only response that he had managed to mutter back then. He regretted his lack of social skills now, but in a way he was thankful that he had not spoken much back then.
"You know, you're going to grow a hump on your back in you keep standing like than," Tifa gave a sly remark as she took position on the ever elusive metallic bar that seemed to keep Cloud in hunched position, which he seemed transfixed in. He gave no reply as he felt her presence next to him, neither did he give her a smidge of his attention. Rather he kept his attention in the distance, where his gaze and mind felt safe far away from the people of the world at which he survived in.
Tifa noticed his farfetched look and joined him in his grimace over such little things. She tilted her head from one side and then to the other as she looked at the rolling hills of earth sprouting hairs of grass for miles upon miles, as far as the eye could see. Still not seeing the excitement of the scene, she began to tap her foot loudly on the concrete of the great airship that they were seeking refuge on for the next few days.
Suddenly, Cloud did some of the most absurd movements by flinging his arms in the air, one after the other. Soon he found himself standing away from the bar and standing up straight but still continuing the motion. Tifa quickly found herself furrowing her eyebrows to Cloud's actions.
"What are you doing?" she asked, almost worried about her friend's peculiar behavior.
"Trying to rid myself of a pesky fly that insists on annoying me," his words were emphasized directly towards her.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Tifa asked a little hurt from his unexplained temperament.
"Forget it," he mumbled and took his position back on the elusive safety rail before him.
"What is the matter with you, Cloud?" her tone held her emotions in its grasp.
"Tifa…I just don't know right now. Everything just ended so quickly, and I just don't know what to do. My arch-nemesis is dead, and…and just everything that I spent my whole life to achieve is gone," he explained more with his hands than with his tongue.
"You miss her, don't you?" Tifa's words were soft, and yet still held her optimism.
"What? Her? Yes, but I never loved her like everybody is constantly thinking. Hell, I don't even know what love is," his voice calmed down and looked over at her. She raised one of her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest and stood up straight with a smug smile on her lips.
"Well, love only gets people in trouble anyway," Tifa explained and began to fill the air with her happy laughter. Cloud smiled. He didn't laugh, more or less he couldn't laugh. It just seemed too awkward to let your body convulse in a manner where you let out a simple phrase usually consisting of a "ha ha" or a "heh heh." Tifa though, could tell that the subject bothered him and that it was obvious that she needed to say some helping words.
"Don't worry Cloud. You'll know when you're in love…" were the last words he ever remembered her saying. She left him there standing on the rail and she walked off. The gang found her missing the next morning along with the chocobo that they had taken along with them.
With nothing left for him at Cid's Highwind, he decided to move on with his life also. Figuring that there was nothing left at Nibelheim, he decided to travel in the opposite direction where he found himself in the partying city of Costa del Sol one rainy, dreary night.
He stumbled into the only bar that was ever founded there that fateful night. To his luck, the bar was not crowded, but there were a few residents lingering around, but most were too drunk to be claimed conscious considering their shot glasses were plastered to their stone cold grips. His comfort level in the bar was already low, but when he looked to his right he saw a group of four people chatting silently and he felt that he shouldn't be there.
The four that sat there consisted of three males and one female. Although in all truth he couldn't tell consider it seemed as if they were all wearing facial make-up, and he thought of that hideous and grotesque. He didn't pay them much attention besides the fact that one of the men had an overly large mo-hawk and the other two had deranged forms of spikey hair.
The girl on the other hand caught his attention, but that was only because she was closest to him and he could clearly make out her features. She had to of been around the age of seventeen or eighteen, for her body was thinner than death, yet she still held a gorgeous figure. She wore very large, torn denim pants that hung on her hips and were only held up by a bondage belt that had to have been on its tightest hole. Her skin was pale, almost white in the lighting and her hair hung to her shoulders, feathered a mint green.
Cloud could feel her steel blue eyes following him up to the front table where the bartender held a glass in one and a cloth in the other. He sat, ignoring the small hush that he left on the strange woman's table. The leather stool sunk only a centimeter under his weight, and he relaxed his feet on the supporting bars on the legs of the stool. He gave his order to the bartender, which was only replied with a nod.
"I'll be back," the woman spoke quietly among her comrades and stood up from her table, pushing her chair a few inches back. She strolled up to the counter and took a seat directly next to Cloud. Placing her elbows on the table, she complained to the bartender about the classical music that was being emitted by the jukebox in the far corner.
"I bet you're losing a lot of customers because of it," she intrigued casually, and then glanced at Cloud. She winked at him with an innocent smile on her face. Her attention was then back towards the bartender at which she whispered some words that Cloud couldn't make out, but the bartender then walked off.
"Wha…?" Cloud questioned with his lip curled in frustration.
"Cloud Strife is it?" she asked before putting her gaze back on him.
"Who wants to know?" Suddenly he felt like he was in an old western. He shook off the thought and waited for the stranger to reply.
"All right, I'll get to the point. My gang needs your help…"
Author's Note: Short, I know. Hopefully having a lot of chapters will make up for it in the long run. Anyway, this was just some deranged idea that I had one night and I'm finally putting it down on pencil and paper (and then keyboard.) I don't have any clue as to who the coupling will be in here…and I have no idea how many chapters it will be. Hopefully I'll receive some good reviews that will help me in this as so I might actually finish it. Thank you for your time…and please review.
Oh, I don't own any characters of Squaresoft, but these new characters that obviously weren't a part of the legendary game of Final Fantasy VII are mine. I doubt anybody is truly that desperate as to want my characters, but if you ever do use them…for anything, you will inform me first. Please, not through e-mail, for I don't check my e-mail anymore.