Mirror Image
By: Phoenix Dayze
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or its characters. No disrespect is intended.
The bike roared beneath him, moving faster and faster, swerving and swaying, and taking Cloud where fate insisted. There was a part of him that wanted to distance himself, to pull away, to simply not fight… But Sephiroth…Sephiroth was his challenge, and as such, he would continue to move forward, to chase, until the silver-haired men were destroyed. Or he died. It was his duty.
Cloud closed his mental eyes against the onslaught of images that spun, loud and demanding in his head. Sephiroth's warm, dark chuckle—his cold, malicious laugh. Zack's eyes bright and mischievous—the determined violet dim and lifeless. Aerith's touch of stillness that calmed him and brought him peace—Aerith so still to the touch that he could feel himself cracking apart. It was too much. He couldn't allow his pain, his failure to swallow him up. Not now. He had to pretend to be strong. Had to make himself out to be the hero so that the world could believe.
Red hair caught his eyes, a knowing smirk, and green eyes locked with blue for a fleeting eternity as he thundered past, leaving the man behind. Another man making a stand, pretending that he was doing this for less than selfish reasons, and Cloud understood all too well.
He urged his bike faster and let it all go, left it in this man's hands. Trusted, because the enemy of your enemy is your friend. And in the hollow silence that drowned everything else from his soul, Cloud knew that death would claim one of them today. Fate would extract a price for the help she would give them.
A foul mouth, smirking and smoking—lips slack and tinged in blue… Cloud swallowed. That was a failure he didn't need.
Cloud narrowed his eyes, focused, locked the image away with his fractured, cloying past. It would be what it would be. But he couldn't help the silent prayer whispered by a ravaged heart. Let it be me.