SimpleNClean92: Urgh I know! This site sucks for alerts lol. Ha ha, yes Marlene and Denzel's excitement levels did differ slightly hee hee
Katie 4 Clorith: One shall not speak of that event…EVER if one values one's life!
Aerith-Heartilly13: Thanks, hopefully this chapter will be just as good for you.
kez92p9: Nice easy penname to type there lol. Thanks for the review I hope this chapter's good enough for you
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Thanks for all the reviews!
Chapter One
He groaned as he tried to gain back consciousness. Everything was coming back to him now as his brain finally began to awaken. His dreams, Aerith's image appearing and disappearing as he Marlene and Denzel visited the Church. He sat bolt upright suddenly feeling wide awake.
"Marlene! Denzel!" he yelled looking around wildly but there was no sign of them anywhere. Cloud looked around again, frowning as he realised he didn't recognise his surroundings at all. For miles, all he could see was old city ruins stretching across parched grasslands.
"Where am I?" he muttered. The city certainly didn't look like Midgar, nor any other city on Gaia that he could remember from his travels. He ignored the pounding in his head as he struggled to his feet, reaching for his sword only to find that it wasn't there. He whirled around, frantically looking for the large weapon, but it was nowhere to be seen. And it was only then that he detected the slight roaring of motorcycle engines, still faint in the distance but with his Mako-enhanced senses, he knew one thing. The riders were coming in his direction and as the distant roar became louder, he looked at his hands doubtfully. In the back of his mind, he wished he had sparred with Tifa more often when she'd asked. He never had been any good at martial art type fighting. He just hoped that these people would just ride right past him but sadly this was not to be.
The leader, a woman judging by her figure, swerved her bike suddenly and came to a halt in front of him. The action caused dust to flare up into Cloud's eyes and mouth and he lowered his hands to move the dust away, spluttering as he did so. The rest of the group surrounded him in this moment of weakness. The woman spoke.
"Who are you?"
To most people, the sentence would have been almost impossible to understand but Cloud had picked up some Wutaian from Yuffie and managed to work out what was being asked.
"My name is Cloud Strife. I don't know how I got here, I just...appeared." He stopped as he saw the group exchange looks with each other, obviously doubting his story already. Frowning in annoyance, Cloud continued. "I'm from Midgar."
The group exchanged looks once more but this time, Cloud picked up on a sense of shock and confusion. After a long silence, the woman lifted her helmet off her head and shook the blonde hair out of her eyes. Her skin was a tanned colour further confirming her Wutaian origin. Her bright green eyes were fixed on him and as Cloud stared back he noticed the pupils had an odd shape in them, almost like a snake. Now that he looked at her features, Cloud guessed she was no older than sixteen.
"Where did you say you were from again?" she asked in English this time. Cloud sighed irritably
"Midgar."
"Impossible!" the girl replied. "Midgar was destroyed a thousand years ago!"
"Meteor didn't destroy...wait...did you say a thousand years ago?"
"Duh! Where have you been?" she replied before slapping her forehead. "Right. The toxin must have gotten to you."
"The toxin?" he questioned. The girl tilted her head and regarded him curiously.
"Yeah. Did you get too close to Sin?"
"What is Sin?"
"Oh boy, looks like it's worse than I thought!" she said, shaking her head sympathetically. "Oh well, have to fix ya up again somehow. I'm Rikku, by the way."
"Right. So what's Sin?" Cloud asked again. Rikku pulled a face and looked around her cautiously.
"Sin is...well it's hard to describe really. I guess the best way to describe it is that it's a monster that attacks cities, killing thousands in it's path. He's immortal and the only way to live in peace is to bring the Calm. That only lasts a few years though."
"The Calm?"
"Man, this is going to be a long night!" Rikku sighed. "Listen you can come with us until you're healed but you've got to make yourself useful, okay?"
"Okay."
Cloud had assumed that "making yourself useful" had meant fixing the groups bikes, cleaning up after them and perhaps helping to navigate their boat. What he had not assumed was being ordered to dive to the bottom of the ocean with Rikku and find some sort of treasure or whatever in an old sunken building!
Yet, with Rikku's friends pointing their guns at him all the time, his argument never got spoken out. So, it was with annoyance that he changed into a scuba uniform and met Rikku on the deck. She grinned when she saw him.
"I wonder if that spiky head of yours will flatten in water," she mused teasingly as she fixed her goggles.
"That's what Tifa used to say to me," Cloud replied, staring out into the horizon.
"Oh you're remembering!" Rikku said happily. Cloud shrugged. He couldn't be bothered explaining that he hadn't forgotten Tifa in the first place, nor could he be bothered going over the whole 'coming from Midgar' argument. It was much easier to just go with Rikku's assumption of Sin's toxin.
"So," she asked with the same teasing tone she had used for her jibe towards his hair. "Is Tifa a girlfriend?"
"Is Tifa a girl?"
"Yeah."
"A...girlfriend?"
Pushing the memory of Aerith's hinting question, Cloud shook his head and sighed. "No. We're just really close friends."
"Well, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you. Hey! You know what? You should go to Luca! Someone there will recognise you! Maybe Tifa will see you on the TV. That's if she watches blitzball of course, is she a blitzball fan?"
Cloud blinked at her. He had no idea what blitzball was and he had no idea where Luca was either. He looked back out at the horizon with a frown. The fear that had been pushed to the back of his mind came charging through his thoughts with a vengence and Cloud began to realise that it might not be a fear anymore. He swallowed thickly as one thought circled around his head.
Had he been transported to a completely different world?
