By Ever Lasting Night Life
Authors Notes: Before we begin, I would just like to say that this actually was a project that was being planned for a while now. I apologize if there or any spelling or grammar mistakes and also if Cloud seems out of character. I just wanted to write a fic where he would be able to remember Aeris for what she was to him before she died.
The song is "Sleeping With Ghosts" from the album "Sleeping With Ghosts" by Placebo.
It seemed as if all was quiet now, everything that had come to pass just a figment of what was left of the dream that had fallen apart. A small world torn apart by the destruction each continent may have possibly witnessed since the fight for the planet. This wasn't an existence anymore, not that it really had been for Cloud, his own small take on the world seemingly torn in two by the hands of another who sort to become one with the planet using what he thought was his mother as a weapon to stop anyone interfering with his plans. Sephiroth…Yes, that was his name wasn't it? And the dark knight who claimed that everything he was doing was what his mother wanted created the world he now saw before his eyes.
The sea's evaporating
Though it comes as no surprise
These clouds we're seeing
A foot tapped against hard metal, humming out an old song that seemed to have no place in his world now. Cloud had no true feelings for such things since he seemed to find them rather bothersome especially when it came to killing just for the greater good. Then again, what was the greater good to him now? What he had received from life was neither good nor evil, its neutral anxieties seeming to mix both as if this was what he was destined to feel…like a puppet with no strings. A cool, pale hand swept past his face, pushing a blonde piece of hair that had fell out of place to the back of his ears, hooking it around the curved piece of flesh that jutted out only slightly under the thick mesh of spiked blonde hair.
They're explosions in the sky
It seems it's written
But we can't read between the line
He could feel the cold steel behind him, a constant reminder of what was left from a memory now, from a time when he and another escaped from a laboratory in the old Shinra Mansion – a place that seemed to now haunt his very dreams as if they were trying to tell him something that he needed to know from that time, a dream turned to a memory. A wolf lay nearby, seeming to find him to be trustworthy. Cloud knew that there was a pack that lived around here, one that seemed to find him a human that was worth trusting as it were. Both eyes were shut, the creature possibly dreaming of fantastical things that he couldn't imagine. Then a small footstep alerted him, the feeling of needing to sleep evaporating from his mind.
Hush
It's okay
Dry your eye
Another seemed to follow after the first, causing him to turn around quickly to see who it was that had decided to follow him yet when he turned, he noticed that no one was there. The wolf was awake now, walking over to him and lying down, taking comfort in his presence. He closed his eyes once more, hoping that it was just his imagination seeming to play up on him. After all the imagination could be a cruel instrument if it really wanted to. Then a melody seemed to reach his ears. The wolf had stood up once again but the creature didn't run away. It seemed gentle, each word bringing a sense of peace to his mind. The voice inside the melody he couldn't quite place yet…he knew that he had heard it before, from a woman he once knew.
Dry your eye
Soul mate dry your eye
Dry your eye
He started to hum, the melody seeming to flood his mind with all thoughts and images of times that he had once enjoyed with a woman who radiated peace. An ancient, someone who was important to the planet as it were. Then an image froze in his mind, a woman praying in the centre of an ancient city, a man with a sword hanging not to far above her, the deadly tip pointing to the lower region of her back. Each small detail of the memory seemed rather intricate and yet also seemed to be a haunting reminder of something that he was once told not to dwell on…yet who actually told him that seemed to not come to his mind, as if his imagination had distorted everything that he once knew in life as it were. Then a beeping sound seemed to reawaken him from his current dwelling in his mind.
Soul mate dry your eye
Cause soul mates never die
He quickly hung up the phone. The melody was beginning to haunt him now. All he wanted to do was just abandon life, to be free from the memories of his life so far. He threw the phone over the cliff now, not caring if it seemed rather out-of-character or if it was something that he needed. There was nothing left in the small machine that was useful to him now. Sitting once more by the blade that had been dug into the ground rather swiftly by his own hands, his eyes seemed to droop once more even as he felt the unfamiliar feeling of something that he hoped to never feel build up inside him: fear. The image reappeared in his mind, except something seemed odd about it. The disturbing photograph in his mind now began to move in slow motion, making him watch as the woman met her demise, a cruel smirk on the face of her killer.
This one world vision
Turns us in to compromise
What good's religion
He awoke once more to the sound of more footsteps behind him now, the wolf disappearing to go and alert the others. Then a gentle hand seemed to touch his cheek, eliminating all fear from his mind, a feeling he remembered when he began to slowly feel something for a woman that was full of mysteries. He remembered a lie he gave her once. A question was directed at him by this woman that he couldn't seem to remember the name of, asking as to whether Tifa was his girlfriend. He agreed, not wanting to become involved with anyone since it was hard for him to keep up such an important responsibility of caring for another. And now this was his punishment for what he had said and let happen to her. He took one look up into the gentle face, only to see it disappear.
When it's each other we despise
Damn the government
Damn their killing
Damn their lies
For the first time, he felt the need to mourn a death that he still couldn't understand, an important event in his life that was shut out of his mind until now. A tear fell down from his cheek, quickly wiping it away just in case someone was witnessing this moment of weakness. After all, in a world torn down by war, you never knew what was lurking around the next corner. A padded footstep behind him alerted him. There seemed to however, be more following what was creeping up on him now. Turning, he could easily recognise the wolf that sat next to him following what looking like a leader of the pack that was surely to follow, a white wolf whose fur seemed to gleam wonderfully within the light of the moon.
Hush
It's okay
Dry your eyes
The melody seemed to echo around the pack, as if it were what had been calling them to him now. A howl escaped the snout of the leader, before the others followed after him. The howl was long, a simple instrument possibly used along with the melody that was beginning to grow within the power of the inner voice inside the song. The leader seemed to give him a small lick before lying down next to him, enjoying the oddly cold presence of the person next to him. Even to an animal, it was clear that this person had been out far too long without protection from the cold. Hands were raised to his chest, fingers pressing lightly into the upper regions. The wolf that lay with him before crept closer, surrounding his body with the warmth.
Dry your eyes
Soul mate dry your eyes
Dry your eyes
The gathering of the wolves seemed to remind him of another gathering he had witnessed when he was playing along with a plan to get into the local Don's mansion. He had gone into what looked like a true pleasure club for people who just enjoyed that sort of thing. All he was really in here for was some suitable lingerie and to be done up in make-up properly since he didn't understand how to actually use the stuff. The workers at the club seemed to all gather around the woman whose name was still a mystery to him now, all of them being men who were interested in her for what he assumed was just her beautiful looks. However, as he approached, they all ran back to there work stations and so the memory seemed to disappear.
Soul mate dry your eyes
Cause soul mates never die
His eyes opened up to witness the light of day, or what was left of it as it were. A dim ray of a light bulb in the sky as it seemed to witness its last breath before clouding over with defeat. It seemed as if another memory wanted to flood his mind. He took the time to look back on it, a ride that she wanted to go on in the Gold Saucer which was something that he wasn't really interested yet at that time, it seemed as if that moment at the top of the ride, where the whole of the amusement park could be seen in its prime condition. He could always remember her saying how beautiful it all seemed from so far up, yet he pushed away everything she said almost coldly, like the way he always used to do when he was around others.
Soul mates never die
Never die
Soul mates never die
"Go on…say my name…" A small voice added on after the singing…a voice he could remember rather clearly. Memories rushed past his mind, the organ struggling to comprehend what was happening before he was given a scene, a small flower bed with flowers growing beautiful inside a church, the only thing that had truly changed for the greater good in Midgar. Yet what was strange about it was that it was impossible to see flowers growing in Midgar because of the pollution being pumped out from each of the Mako Reactors in each section. A tear fell down his face, remembering what it was like to be introduced to this person who seemed to want to be remembered. Then a name came to him, one that he was sure that he had never heard before.
Never die...
Soul mates never die
Soul mates never die
"Aer…is…Aeris!"
Soul mates never die
Soul mates never die