As unfortunate as it may be, I do not own Final Fantasy VII nor any of it's amazingly loveable characters. If I did, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction about it and Cid and Vincent would be mine.
please forgive me for bad spelling and inconsistancies you may find in the story. ; i'm not perfect.
"The Sweetest Thing"
CHAPTER 1 Alter It
Blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl
Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing
You can sew it up but you still see the tear
Oh oh oh , the sweetest thing
Baby's got blue skies up ahead
And in this I'm a rain cloud
You know we got a stormy kind of love
Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing
U2, "Sweetest Thing"
He heard laughter, soft and distant like a shallow, bubbling brook. It was dancing around his senses, bidding him to open his eyes and follow, but in his current state, he wanted nothing more to simply lie where he was. Calm and serene, all about him was something he had never known before, and yet he didn't bother to wonder on it. Then he heard the laughter again, a voice all too familiar, calling his name and coaxing him, in her sweet tone, to rise and follow her. So he did. Rising from where he lay, suddenly finding the binding chains he had known in the world gone, he stood, feeling light as the wind, as if he had wings of his own, and bounded towards the voice, still following it's sound. And then he opened his eyes and saw her smiling face, welcoming him.
"You're not alone. I said I'd come back."
Red XIII looked about him, some strange land, green and lush and yet far from comforting. The sky could not be seen through the twisted entanglement of treelimbs, entwined and choking each other in their thick net. All around him he could make out the shapes of his friends, in the trees and around the dark green of the undergrowth. He heard the laughter of Tifa and pushed through the green until he broke free into a small glade. This is where the noise had come from. All of them, everyone, was there, gathered, and yet apart from one another. He could see Tifa sitting on the grass, but he was surprised to find that she wasn't laughing. She was crying. He made his way over and tried to nuzzle her arms, which held her hands clamped over her face.
"What's wrong, Tifa? Where are we?"
She shook her head and continued to sob. "He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. And all I ever wanted was him."
Red tired to persuade her to come out of her fit, but she wouldn't cooperate, so he turned to find someone else who could help. But he wouldn't recieve more help from them.
Barret was with Marlene, but he had his back to Red, and no matter how much the creature tried to face him, he could never look into his eyes.
"Barret, you have to help me with Tifa!" He barked. But Barret would only repeat the same things over and over again.
"She's in there somewhere's. Gotta build Correl for 'er, for me 'n Marlene. She's in there somewhere . . ."
Red was going to try and grab Marlene's attention, but noticed, somewhat in shock, that she was thoughtlessly playing with the mutilated limb of what had once been Barret's great gun arm.
"What? Barret!"
"She's in there somewhere . . ."
Frightened by what he saw, Red turned and ran, stumbling into the next person he could find. But it wasn't much of a person as it was more of a machine. Cait Sith, or what remained of his mutilated body, sparked and gushed both electricity and machanical fluids, bleeding across the dark green of the thick grass. Red's ears laid flat and his tail tucked between his legs, backing away from the mess.
"It's the future . . ." The badly broken mechanical voice croaked. ". . . the future . . ."
Red turned and recognized Vincent's coffin, running towards it he clawed on it in a desperate attempt to get it open. Vincent was always a man of solid reason and calm intellect. He may know what horrors were going on. But no matter how much he chewed and clawed, the prison wouldn't open, indifferent and uncaring to all that took place around it.
"Vincent! Come out!" Red barked. "Please, what's going on!"
The only sound that came out was a deep hissing growl, something dark and monstrous, and Red slowly crept away from the ominious crate and found himself before Cid. The pilot gazed up at the stars, silent, a shadow behind him that Red could not make out, even when he tried to approach it.
"My dream." Cid said, sounding quite far away from where he actually was stationed directly in front of Red.
"Cid! What's happened to everyone? Why are we all here? Is this some sort of nightmare?"
The pilot took out a cigarette, ignoring the dog, and stuck it in his mouth, lighting it up like Red had seen him do so many times before. Only now, when the pilot breathed out the smoke, instead of a whisp of gray, a stream of blood flowed from his mouth, but Cid didn't seem to notice.
"Going up there." He puffed again, more blood flowing down like a faucet. Behind him the shadow suddenly lit up two perfectly round glowing eyes.
"He's sick, you know."
Horrified, Red backed up and found himself before Yuffie, who sat on the ground counting her materia. He turned to her, trying to hide behind her from the ghastly sight but no matter how much he ran to her, tried to reach her, she was always just a little beyond his reach, counting her stock, a raw hunger in her eyes as she toyed with her prized posessions, oblivious to Red's distress and the horrors happening around her. She was always off on a little patch of ground far from Red and the rest of the group.
Finally, tired and exhausted from running, Red gave up and collapsed to the ground, wailing for the nightmare to end. His ears pricked beyond his own howling, and he noticed a shape, a shadow, moving beyond the trees, as if watching the whole thing take place and yet not wishing to become involved in it. Red sat up nervously, watching in silent apprehension as the shadow continued to pace. He didn't want to approach it, in fear it may be some even greater terror, but he was almost sure he recoginized the odor from somewhere . . .
"He's out there, you know. He's woken up."
Red spun around, his hackles rising, but froze as he recognized Aeris smiling down at him.
"Don't be afraid, there's nothing to fear here." She glanced back out at the shadow and fell silent. "You'll find out eventually."
Red snapped himself out of his shocked stupor and bolted towards her, hiding in front of her legs.
"Aeris! What is this terrible place?"
Aeris smiled. "Don't be afraid, Nanaki." She looked at the others, all in their own states of ghastly unrealness. "This is just a dream."
"A dream?" Red ventured. "Of what?"
"Hmm." Aeris smiled down at him. "Many things. Things that are to come and things that already are. And some things that can be avoided . . . I hope."
Red looked at the others from his safe spot with Aeris.
"But Aeris, aren't you dead?"
"Yes, Nanaki."
"Then are we all dead too?"
"No, those aren't really you're friends. They're just symbols for them, sort of like messages."
Red straightened up somewhat and looked back over at them carefully.
"I don't think I understand it. Why am I having this dream?"
Aeris smiled and knelt down beside him.
"Because something is going to happen, and you are the only one who is awake and capable of hearing these messages. Vincent could, if he wanted to, but he no longer wishes to be so involved in life as you are."
Red continued to gaze at the ghosts of his friends.
"I believe grandfather once told me about being one with the world and recieving such messages. I just never thought I was old enough, or I would actually partake in any. But I'm afraid I still don't know what to do, Aeris. What should I know from all this?"
Aeris sent her gaze over the party as well. "Who is still a mystery? You knew them all very well, it shouldn't be so hard, some of them."
Red frowned. "Does Tifa cry for Cloud?"
Aeris sighed and smiled sadly. "Yes. But she does a very good job of hiding all her pain away."
Red looked over the others. "I don't understand Barret."
"That is a future you can prevent, hopefully."
"And Cait Sith?"
"The future as well."
"And what of Vincent and Cid and Yuffie?"
"Vincent is the present. He dwells on constant sorrow and regret, grief is his motive and he wishes for nothing but a permanent escape, a long rest. He cannot get over his loss and he cannot see beyond his own self-hate. Though you all did a wonderful job in helping him become a better person, I'm afraid his state of mind is not fully healed. Cid is the present and the future. His bad habit is finally catching up to him. He is sick from all his smoking, and though he may not realize it yet, it's going to claim his life eventually. Too soon, actually. He won't live to be fifty. For the future, I'm not sure what that'll hold. Yuffie hasn't changed all that much either. She still gloats over her prizes, and she worries little about anything other than Wutai and gaining more of her precious materia."
Red nodded his head slowly.
"Can . . . can I alter it?"
"Alter it?" Aeris repeated.
"Yes. Now that I've been given this chance to see it, can I alter it? I don't want it to play out like this! I want to stop it! I don't want to see Barret wounded, I don't want to see Cait Sith destroyed, and I don't want Cid to die! I want Tifa to laugh and mean it, I want Vincent to learn to live again, and I want Yuffie to realize there's more to life!"
Aeris bent over and kissed Red on his head.
"You're waking up now."
With a start, Red XIII jumped up from his bed, blinking his eyes against the lonely rays of the barley rising morning, and bounded across the cave and down the hall.