Disclaimer: you know the drill, I currently do not own anything associated with Square-Enix, Key word CURRENTLY evil laugh
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Funny. I joined SOLDIER so I could get away from home, now I'd do anything to be able to go back.
The belated thoughts of a exhausted , worn down, fugitive ex-SOLDIER on the run from his old colleges.
It would have helped if his friend wasn't in a state of total catatonia.
But there have been a lot of should haves and would haves over the last 7 months.
Then again anything is better than before.
Trapped in the clutches of a madman is on no ones to do list – he'd found that out the hard way. But it wasn't the torture to himself that haunted him.
No…it was watching his only friend go through worse than him and he could do nothing about it but watch. As an optimist it really went against his character to be guilty, but he felt responsible for what happened to Cloud.
"Cloud shouldn't have had to fight Sephiroth. He had no chance. I failed him."
And that made enduring watching all the worse. It seemed to him that he was making all of those incisions and injections and inflictions to Cloud himself.
"If I'm the reason he's in here, then I'll get him out of here" He recalls thinking to himself once, "and I'm not gunna fail him now – were almost there"
Even as the soldiers approach from his rear he does everything in his power to save his friend. If only to give the kid – no man a chance. He's never had one his entire life.
He places the kid down out of sight before the troop are guaranteed to get there…this would be his last battle. He knows it but refuses to accept it.
He knows he can't out run this crowd. Not in daytime in an open desert. Not even in top shape while taking care of a fallen friend.
But he wasn't in top shape. He'd been running for longer than he cared to not to mention carrying a 21 year old man the entire way.
Hell he'd gone half way around the planet and now he was trapped.
Even as he walks away he hears the rustling of his supposed catatonic partner lifting out of the stages of unconsciousness. But he knows its too late. The kid would be lethargic at best, if he could even stand.
It breaks his heart to know he's leaving Cloud behind but, it had to be done. He can't look back, It'd only stop him as he hears a groan that he would have given anything for days ago, and that would get them both killed.
No…Cloud would live, he'd see to that.
He walks out into the open only to see a group of at least 100 soldiers all with automatic rifles, sights trained on the spiky-haired renegade.
He raises his sword to his head in a type of battle prayer
"There's only one thing left then…
I'm sorry Cloud. Live better than I have."
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Should there be a sequel? I can't decide...