Standard disclaimers apply.

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WHEN YOU WISH UPON A MATERIA
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CHAPTER THREE

Cloud Strife has learnt something new this day in history.

Running is nice.

Running with a shrieking flying snake hot on your heels, is not.

"Out of my way! Please make way! Sorry! Excuse me! Get away, please, and thank you!" Cloud shouted out all the warnings he could pluck off the top of his head while stomping through the corridors of the Shinra Military Training Centre. The scenary flashed by in a blur. People walking along the corridors were forced to stop or plaster themselves against the nearest wall to avoid getting hit.

'Find a place with nobody around, Cloud,' Vincent suggested.

"You make it sound so easy, Vincent," Cloud retorted out loud, then clamped a hand over his mouth.

'Don't worry, you're running too fast for anybody to notice you talking to yourself,' his friend laughed over the mind-link.

Cloud growled. He deftly avoided running into a wall and made a sharp turn left. Leviathan did the same. The blond was dismayed to find that there were people lingering around in the new area he had ran into. He ignored the shouting and screaming he was causing in this area and concentrated on finding a place where there was no people. 'Why can't I just stop and let Leviathan catch up?' He grumbled in his mind.

'Because Leviathan is going to curl up around your neck like a tame little kitty and you do not want people to see that happening. Therefore, find a spot with nobody before you think about stopping, okay?'

At this point of time, Cloud was too busy avoiding people to answer back. After a short jostle through a throng of people who was coming out from who-knows-where, he stumbled into a room with a high ceiling, and even more people. He groaned. 'There're people everywhere!' He griped with frustration.

'Then find a place where there aren't any.' Vincent was enjoying this. Too much.

'I'm trying!' Cloud thought, then yelped as Leviathan swooped down in an attempt to give him a big, wet, snakey smooch. He scrambled to his feet and quickly ran down a path that was flanked by benches and tables. Astounded cadets sitting on the benches stared openly at him first, then Leviathan. Belatedly, Cloud realised that this was the military cafeteria. He glanced quickly around, then dove under a nearby table when Leviathan tried to smooch him again.

"What's going on here?" He heard someone ask over the din that was threatening to give him a most severe headache. Rolling out from under the table, he leapt to his feet and took off in a sprint.

"This big snake came out from nowhere and started chasing Cloud!" A voice that sounded like Bunkmate2's answered the first voice. Cloud ducked as Leviathan tried to pounce on him again, destroying a few benches when it missed.

"Cloud, get over here!" The first voice then shouted. Cloud frowned. It was not the voice of any of his bunkmates, but that voice sounded really familiar. "Cloud, come on!"

Without any pause in speed, Cloud turned and charged towards where he thought he was hearing the commanding voice from. A few cadets who were clamouring around to see the spectacle had to quickly step out of his way. Leviathan blazed down the same path among the crowd that Cloud was clearing. Cloud risked a glance backwards, aghast to see that Leviathan was going to catch up soon. He had nowhere to hide this time. Quickly he turned to look in front, trying to focus on simply running. He ran right smack into something hard and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Ow..." he put a hand over his face. Although in pain, he realised that he had something more important to focus on - his pursuer, who was rapidly catching up even as he turned to look at it, horrified. 'Oh man, Vincent,' Cloud thought despondantly, 'I'm never going to be able to explain this--'

There was a bright flash of light, and the sound of an unseen blade slashing through the air with inhuman speed. The flash of light cut through Leviathan like hot knife through butter, slicing the creature into two clean halves. At the very same moment, a searing hot pain burned through Cloud's consciousness, causing him to cry out. The bright light was swallowed up by darkness soon after. Before he completely passed out, Cloud saw the severed Leviathan parts slowly dissipating into thin air. He hoped that wherever it had gone to this time, it would stay out of trouble and preferably out of sight, if at all possible.

The darkness lasted for what seemed like an eternity and a short while.

When Cloud next opened his eyes, he was staring at the white ceiling of an unknown room. He blinked. 'Where am I?' He thought to himself.

'Cloud?' Vincent's familiar voice came over the mind-link. 'You're awake?'

Cloud sat up, looking down at the white sheets that covered him. He was in a bed at the infirmary, that much was apparent. He was unsure, however, as to the reason of his presence here.

'Somebody hit Leviathan rather hard just now,' Vincent explained, as if able to see Cloud's uncertainty - which by all accounts would not be too far-fetched considering he was reading Cloud's thoughts, 'and then you blacked out. A nice man in a SOLDIER uniform carried you here, but he had to leave with a Turk who came by just now. I believe you can leave too, if you let the infirmary doctor know that you're fine.'

The blond looked down at his hands. He flexed them, testing his reflexes. They seemed perfectly okay. 'Why did I pass out?' Cloud frowned. 'Did it have something to do with Leviathan getting attacked?'

Vincent coughed slightly. 'Cloud, you should know the reason. Remember that summon creatures require a medium to project themselves in our world? Usually that medium is materia. When a summon creature is damaged or otherwise defeated, that materia likewise becomes damaged or dies. Leviathan... well, your Leviathan at any rate, it was summoned with you as the medium. More specifically, your MP is the medium it's using to project itself. When it got hit just now - quite an astounding hit, at that - the part of your mind controlling your MP received that damage as well. Apparently it was unprepared and thus was unable to withstand the strike. That's why you blacked out.'

'Oh,' Cloud clenched his fists together. 'What happened to Leviathan then? I saw it getting cleaved into halves...'

'According to the readings we have,' Vincent was saying, 'Leviathan is still alive. There's no sign of it anywhere near you, though. Maybe it's hiding somewhere.'

While Vincent was speaking, Cloud examined the room. When he turned to his right, where there was a table beside the bed, his movements jerked to a stop. 'Vincent,' his mind-voice sounded strained, 'Leviathan is right there on the table.'

There was a short pause. At length, Vincent said, slowly, 'I don't see anything there, Cloud.'

Cloud frowned. He stared at the table, where he could clearly see the curled up, sleeping form of the water dragon. He rubbed his eyes and stared again. Leviathan was still there. Wrapping his hand around the materia on the necklace he was wearing, he swung it around a little. 'Are you sure this thing's not broken? Because Leviathan is definitely there.'

'Stop swinging the camera, Cloud,' came Vincent's quick retort. Another pause. 'I still don't see it. But I can see the rest of the room perfectly fine.'

'That's... strange,' Cloud was confused. He looked at Leviathan again, breathing a deep breath in. "Leviathan," he said out loud. The snake immediately lifted its head from the curls of its body. It stuck a forked tongue out and hissed softly. "Come," Cloud beckoned at the summon creature, who was all too eager to obey. It slowly uncurled itself and glided over, settling itself on the blanket in front of Cloud. 'Okay Vincent, can you see it now?'

'No.'

Cloud took the materia pendant and held it as close to the snake as he could. 'Now?'

'No... wait, Cloud,' Vincent called out, a hint of an idea in his voice. 'Try commanding Leviathan to become visible.'

'What?' Cloud raised an eyebrow in disbelief. 'You really think that's going to work?'

'It listened to you when you asked it over, didn't it? No harm trying.'

The blond stared long and hard at the slippery creature in front of him. "Are you invisible?" He eventually asked. Leviathan hissed. Cloud had no idea what it was saying. "If you are, can you make yourself visible?"

Leviathan hissed again.

'...I see it now, Cloud.'

'What? But nothing happened! Leviathan didn't do anything... except hiss.'

'This may seem ridiculous to you, Cloud,' Vincent sounded brooding, 'but I certainly saw Leviathan slowly shimmering back into view just now. Almost like a ripple in mid-air. It's really quite interesting.'

'So... it was invisible just now, until I commanded it to show itself?'

'Yes.'

The blond slunk back onto the pillows behind him, swinging an arm over his head. 'How did it become invisible in the first place? I didn't command it to do anything.'

'Or did you?' Vincent asked. 'Do you remember what your last thought was before you blacked out?'

Cloud thought about it. 'I saw Leviathan fading away... and I was thinking... hoping, actually, that wherever Leviathan was now, it would stay out of trouble and... maybe out of sight...' His train of thought stopped here. He jerked upright, causing the old springs of the infirmary bed to creak loudly in complaint. '...no way...'

'Apparently, Cloud, Leviathan is able to read your will and act accordingly without you having to voice it out loud.'

This time, Cloud buried his head in the palms of his two hands. 'The whole world can see what I'm thinking.'

'Just Leviathan and me, Cloud, don't worry,' Vincent said soothingly. Cloud lifted his head from his hands and glared at the sheets in front of him, hoping that Vincent could sense his displeasure. Vincent laughed. 'At least we've learnt something new about Leviathan and how you are bonded. Although, it really shouldn't have been a surprise. MP measures the mental strength of the caster, and since Leviathan is feeding on your MP, it only makes sense that it can read the stream of thoughts that you convey along with it.'

Cloud sighed. 'Speaking of MP,' he then gulped. '...how am I going to explain how I blew that machine up?'

'Play dumb, Cloud. Leviathan stirred up enough chaos for you to easily talk your way out of this one. More importantly...' The older man's tone turned pensive. '...I suppose now that we know you can give Leviathan silent commands, it would make things much easier. Can you ask Leviathan to stay out of sight from now on? It won't do for you to be attracting more attention than you already have.'

"Stay out of sight, Leviathan," Cloud monotonously repeated Vincent's request out loud. He could sense an inquiring silence on Vincent's part, and he pouted. 'Look, let's leave this mind-commanding thing to cases of emergency. It's already freaky enough spacing out all the time to talk to you. If I have to add Leviathan to the list, I'd be kicked out of the army before the week!'

'That is sadly true,' Vincent found himself agreeing. He went silent for a while more. 'Wait, Cloud. You have to tell Leviathan to be visible to the materia pendant. Otherwise, we won't be able to observe it enough to devise a solution to send it back.'

Cloud furrowed his brow, wondering how he should give that command. "Let Vincent and only Vincent see you," he pointed at the waiting snake. Leviathan tilted its serpentine head to a side, flicking its tongue out.

'I still can't see it.'

'It doesn't seem to understand me.'

'I think not even Leviathan is powerful enough to choose to appear to someone who is watching via a materia from another time and dimension.'

'What should I command it to do then?'

There was a long silence, in which both Cloud and Vincent tried to think of a good, foolproof solution. Then Vincent spoke up, saying, 'Maybe you can ask it to appear to be visible to people who possess a certain level of MP. Set it so that both you and I will be able to see it, but nobody else.'

Cloud perked up at this suggestion. Nobody in the past world could possibly have enough MP to rival either him or Vincent. "Did you hear what Vincent said, Leviathan?" He addressed the snake, who hissed. "Can you do it?"

Leviathan hissed again.

'I can see it now, Cloud,' Vincent sounded impressed. 'It looks like a summon creature who is pulled from its dimension without materia is able to understand complicated commands.' There were sounds of paper rustling over the mind-link, which was probably Vincent taking down notes. 'Strange that it doesn't understand the command for it to go back home, though.'

There was nothing Cloud could do but sigh in response to that. It was not a moment too soon that they had managed to figure a way to get Leviathan concealed properly, for the next moment, a nurse walked into the room Cloud was in.

"Ah. I thought I heard noises from this room," the strict-looking lady adjusted her glasses and glanced through the observation chart that was hanging in front of Cloud's bed. She wrote something on it and looked up at Cloud from beneath her lashes. "Mr. Strife, it appears there is nothing actually wrong with you, except for maybe a bit of a nervous breakdown. You may sign out of the infirmary anytime in the next hour. I will inform the SOLDIER who brought you in about your current status. Have a good day," she finished politely, taking the clipboard with her as she hurried out of the room.

Cloud watched her until she was no longer in sight. 'She didn't see Leviathan,' he let out the breath he had not know he was holding. 'So it's really working, then.'

'Hmm, hmm,' was Vincent's reply. He sounded distracted.

'Vincent, I'm going to cut the mind-link,' Cloud said, his voice tired even in his thoughts. 'You can still see and hear what's going on here without the mind-link, right?'

'Absolutely, Cloud. You need some peace and quiet, I'm sure. I will speak with you soon, then.'

The blond nodded, not sure if Vincent could actually see it, but too weary to speak whether out loud or in his thoughts. He terminated the spell, then flung himself back on the creaky old bed, sighing heavily.

A while later, he sat back up, hopping off the bed and planting his feet on the ground. His jumbled mind slowly cleared and he started to recall what the nurse had been saying just now. As he walked towards the reception to sign himself out, his mind was on one thought alone.

"I wonder who was the SOLDIER who brought me in...?"

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9 dec 2007
tougenkyou . net / xd