Authors Note: Okay. Hello all. Just to start off, please don't forget that all important question in the last chapter's end authors note. I have to be certain. Either way that will not be showing up for a while yet, so I can continue until I reach it. Okay now to move onto the content of this chapter. A continuation of The Heart of a SOLDIER plot arc, and will reveal the answers to some questions that had gone unanswered. While it's not a must to have read the story, it'll help. To keep you up to speed, if you've forgotten since Point of War, Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud are from a world known simply as Nibelheim. There Sephy used to work with two other heroes. Genesis and Angeal (Nearly said Angelus then...) and due to Sephy's strange creation, he became manipulative and dark, tricking his friends into helping him resulting in their deaths, and Cloud's loss of memory. In PoW Zack worked to restore Cloud's memory, and did so, now they both are unwillingly about to stumble upon answers that may turn their worlds upside down, and reveal some of the monstrous and wonderful science projects SOLDIER went about during their time as an active organisation. I hope you enjoy, and I'm sorry for yet another long note... it stops now. :)
Chapter 11: A Dancing SOLDIER
"Ready?" A voice came from within the darkness that had engulfed the room two men had hid in.
"Ready." The other man responded.
The two men burst out into the bright light of the day, only to find the streets empty. That had travelled via star shard, the rather mode of transport that the King had used many years ago to help out Ven, Terra and Aqua.
Mickey had managed to collect some before abandoning Disney Castle to the war, and so had given a few to those who couldn't always travel via gummi ship, or didn't wield a key blade, or didn't have an organisation coat to protect them whilst travelling via dark corridor. The star shard was the only other mode of transport, that they knew of anyway. Well that was a slight lie, there was actually one other. Natural portals. Small links that still remained between the worlds. However, they were less reliable than the star shard, and as Ansem had once described them, you had more chance firing a cannon ball at a moving target... from a moving cannon. Sure you could hit something, but it would never be what you wanted.
It was said that such portals didn't work anymore, but both Cloud and Zack were certain that Sephiroth was still using them to get around. He didn't really have another mode of transportation, and he had been known before to make use of them.
However he got around, Zack and Cloud were now somewhere they didn't want to be. They had been sent on a mission. A small group in Neverland. Very small in fact, just a few passers by, and this time it was actually a small group, unlike the incident in Twilight Town. While it didn't do much, it was getting out of the Castle at the The World that Never Was that meant something. Being trapped in there, for days on end, would be enough to drive anyone crazy.
Not unlike the star shards however, they had not ended up in their intended location. No, they had returned home. For the first time in many years.
"This isn't right..." Zack pointed out, as he realised where he was.
"It's been awhile."
Zack nodded. "Too long."
Cloud just walked off, taking a few moments to look around.
Zack followed close behind.
"What's wrong?" He asked as he caught up.
"Can you hear them?" He asked, spinning around quickly, alarming Zack.
"Who?" He asked worriedly. "Pure Light? Total Darkness?"
"Neither." He said, taking a few more strides forward into the town.
"It's so quiet..." Zack said, trying to break that very silence.
"No one's here remember. Those fragments did all the worlds that wielders had never been to. They made sure everyone was safe in the other worlds." Cloud pointed out.
Zack remembered. "It's been such a long time."
Cloud nodded, before carrying on into the town.
"What do you hear?" Zack asked as he continued to try and keep up.
"People." He said bluntly, almost as if he had reverted back to his old self.
"What are they saying?"
"I don't know. It's too quiet."
"Where are they?" Zack asked, not Cloud in particular, but he asked none the less.
"I don't know."
They both continued walking, slowly making their way towards an old house that seemed to be in a worse state than the others around it. In fact the war seemed to have not even come here. Which was strange. Impossible even.
Cloud broke down the door with one swift strike, and walked into yet another dark home.
Zack threw up some light magic to light the place up. The room was lifeless. Nothing inside but grey walls, covered in dust. The floor was just concrete, and the walls seemed to only just be holding onto life.
There was only a single object in the direct centre of the room. An old radio that had been developed back when this place was full of life. Why it was the only thing in this room was unknown, however, it was the thing producing the noise. The voices.
"I can hear them now." Zack pointed out. "But they're so quiet. How did you...?"
"I don't know." Cloud cut him off, before looking down at the floor. Fresh footprints had been made in the dust. Disturbing it.
"Someone's been here." He pointed out.
"How do you...?" Zack began again.
Cloud pointed at the footprints, before standing where they began.
They seemed to just step randomly around the room. Almost like someone had been dancing, in the dark, damp and dust.
Cloud took a step forward, following the steps in the dust. Then music began to play from the radio, taking Cloud's thoughts into it. He took another two steps. Then sidestepped to the left. Before taking a step forward, and another sidestep, this time to the right. He took two steps back then, almost following the same route he had come.
How he knew what to do was a mystery, he almost seemed like a man possessed.
Then, completely changing where the footsteps led to, he returned to where he had started with a step towards his left, and then spun on his heels ninety degrees clockwise. Then with a deep breath, he took a step forward, and disappeared from sight. The dust that he had cleared away with his own steps, suddenly returned, and the only clear floor left, was where the previous footsteps had been.
Zack stood amazed, but he only realised what had happened once the soft whispering had taken the place of the music once again.
"Cloud?" He asked. There was no answer.
Zack stood worried and afraid. Something was at work here. Something he didn't understand.
xXx
Another man from Nibelheim walked it's streets this day. Or maybe that wasn't exactly true, as another man did too, but those that had once known him, know knew him to be gone.
Sephiroth spun around, lifting his sword, expecting to see his pursuer. There was however no one in sight.
He shook his head, annoyed that he had become worried for no reason.
Even being as strong as he was, if someone snuck up on him these days, he ought to be scared. Everyone was so much stronger than they had been all those years ago, he was beginning to be the average person.
What had brought him here on this day, was also unsure to him. He didn't know why he had come, but he just knew he had to, and now he felt like he was being followed. Something was very wrong.
Sephiroth found himself at the old SOLDIER building. The very building where he had massacred everyone inside, just to prove a point. A point that he was stronger than all of them. Or maybe it was just for fun. He had never been sure, but he knew something now, he regretted it.
"My friend, the fates are cruel." Someone spoke, someone who Sephiroth was very afraid of. Not because he was strong, that he was, but no match for him, but because this man was as dead as dead could be.
"Genesis." Sephiroth said, spinning around, this time no lifting his blade.
"You came." Genesis said happily.
"You called?" He asked, making sure.
Genesis nodded. His form barely there. He looked just like a ghost. Almost transparent. Made up of very little colour but grey and the whitened colours of his old clothes.
"What for?" Sephiroth asked.
"You're not even going to ask about me being here?"
Sephiroth shook his head. "I've seen stranger things."
"Indeed we have." Genesis replied, caught in memory. "It's been a long time."
Nothing was said at that comment.
"We called you because we had the chance. We wanted to show you what you can have."
"What I can have?" He asked.
"Remember, we spoke to you. Angeal and I. We told you, you could join us if you helped them."
"I haven't hurt them since..." He pointed out.
"Is that enough though?" Genesis asked. "You have to help, not avoid the feeling to kill but to help as well!"
"What are you offering? If I end up like you, I'm not in."
"Come with me, and I'll show you." Genesis said, before disappearing again. "Follow the music." He said.
Sephiroth shook his head confused, before he heard. The old music that used to play at those pointless meetings the members of SOLDIER used to have. It was the sort of thing you'd gather around and dance slowly to, but no one ever did. He could hear it being played a few homes away. What was he looking for exactly?
After following it to where it was coming from, it suddenly stopped, as he stood outside a ruined home.
"Cloud?" Someone called out from inside. Someone Sephiroth knew only too well.
"Zack..." He said under his breath.
Suddenly the music came back to life, and Sephiroth watched through a small crack in the boards that covered the windows as a ghost like figure danced around the room, and suddenly disappeared from sight, and the music once again stopped.
Zack stood there completely frozen, like he had seen a ghost. Because, after all, he had.
Sephiroth burst into the room, not really thinking about what for, or what he was going to do.
Zack quickly drew the Buster Sword from his back.
"Sephiroth!" He spat. "I knew something was up!"
"This isn't me." He said calmly. "I just want to go where they went... And I'm not here to pick a fight either. Not yet anyway..."
Zack looked even more confused.
"Where? Where did they go?"
"Not sure."
"Can we follow?" Zack asked worriedly.
"I can." Sephiroth said, before following the steps as Cloud had just done, and then the ghost Genesis had too, without being seen in full form. Thankfully there was always someone at those old SOLDIER meetings who wanted to show them how to dance. It was meant to improve their fighting, and help them relax. Again, no one ever took part, but he remembered clearly how to do this.
Sephiroth repeated the steps carefully, then disappeared, as he stepped forward.
Zack was even more confused now, but without a second thought repeated exactly what he had seen twice now. Hoping he too would end up there.
xXx
"Through the looking glass, and what they found there." A voice said, as he stood on a small perch of what looked like just a normal church. A overly decorated one, but still a church at it's heart.
With one swift motion the man lifted his hand, and a single mighty white wing followed it, stretching out into the sky.
Down on the ground inside the church like building Zack walked towards its centre. In it's centre a patch of dirt lay, where thousands of swords all different shapes and sizes rest.
Cloud stood beside them, examining them, hopefully looking for something that would make sense of all this.
In stepping into the world they had found themselves walking forward through the doors of this building. When they tried to leave again, they found they could not. If they tried, they would walk through a bright light one moment, only to find themselves walking back in. No recollection of ever turning around.
"Cloud!" Zack called.
Cloud looked up from the swords all around him.
He just smiled as Zack approached.
"Did you see Sephiroth?" Zack asked.
Cloud shook his head. "He's here?" He asked, concerned.
"Yeah, he stepped through too."
Cloud took a deep breath. "I guess we've got to go find him then."
Cloud carefully walked out from the swords, and towards Zack.
"Where are we then?" Zack asked.
Cloud laughed. "I have no idea."
xXx
"I guess you want answers?" Genesis asked, as Sephiroth approached him, armed with his blade.
Sephiroth nodded slowly.
"Well... We're in a different universe. But it's not a whole universe. Angeal is better at describing this than me."
"Try!" Sephiroth demanded.
Genesis laughed. "What exactly are you going to do?"
He lifted his blade and forced it through his old friends stomach. "This." He replied.
Genesis continued to laugh, before moving back off the blade.
There was no mark, no mark at all.
"SOLDIER discovered this place a long time ago." Another man spoke, landing on the ground as he did so, tucking his wing away once again. "They had no name for it, no name for what it was or what it was called as they had never seen anything like it. No one had. They did know something however - Those linked to this 'pocket' universe... Their entire existence was the opposite to what it was in our universe."
"What?" Sephiroth asked. He honestly had no idea what to think.
"Those that die in our universe, are born here. Until, they don't wish to live here anymore. They choose how long they want to live. Here where anything can be. This church, we fought here, don't you remember?"
Sephiroth nodded.
"Yes, inside."
"In this 'pocket', we control what we see. If you wished to be back in Wutai, reliving the good days, you could be there. There wouldn't be any people there, but the places, the monsters, they would be. This entire universe, in all it's small size, exists only with what is in our minds."
"So what does it look like truly?" Sephiroth asked. "Where are we truly?"
"Look around." Genesis spoke this time.
Sephiroth did as he was told, and saw the skies around him. He saw what surrounded this church, what was truly here.
xXx
"Those swords?" Zack asked, as he and Cloud explored the rest of the church.
"Ex-SOLDIER" Cloud pointed out. "All of them. Marked with their owners name."
"But..."
"I believe some people would have called this a Heaven." Cloud pointed out.
"Then, did we just die?" He asked.
Cloud shook his head. "I'm not some people. I think this is something in between. Not death, not life. A way of living beyond your years. Beyond the fight. Look around, do you see anyone? They've all moved on."
Someone began to clap slowly.
"A for effort." Genesis said as he floated down with his one black wing. "They all did. We're still around though."
"We?" Zack asked.
Genesis laughed happily, before walking closer to the two men. "Hold on."
They did as they were told, each grabbing onto his forearm as he took flight back to where he had come.
xXx
Zack and Cloud looked out at the impossible surroundings. In exiting the insides via flight, they had found themselves standing on the roof, staring out at the empty skies. Completely empty skies.
There was nothing there.
Nothing at all.
It was impossible to imagine. No light, no dark. No life, no death. No anything. And in terms of the nobody nothingness, there was none of that either.
It was just emptiness.
"This is a blank universe." Angeal continued, now that they were here. "A blank pocket universe. When SOLDIER operatives die they are reborn here, and are given the choice. Live here in an empty hell forever, or just move on. Those that chose to move on, would truly die. What happens after that, I don't know. But there is something you all should know."
Zack and Cloud stood there amazed, Sephiroth stood there like his brain had just melted.
"Due to the war, it broke the lock on this universe. Sometimes we can just pass through. You've seen us already... a few times."
Sephiroth nodded.
Cloud realised. "Beast's Castle?" He asked.
Angeal nodded. "I wasn't just about to leave you to fall to your death. You were lucky I passed through... It's just the full forming of a body thing, doesn't always work."
Cloud now understood, everything made sense.
"And us?" Zack asked. "Does this happen to us?"
Genesis nodded.
"Yes." Angeal answered. "For Cloud and you, it does?"
That comment hit Sephiroth hard. "What!? What makes them different!?" He demanded an answer.
"They're not different. You are. We told you, you need to help them win to come here. Otherwise who knows where you'll end up. Only those of a good heart and mind may come here. We've forgiven you old friend, but the universes haven't."
Sephiroth shook his head violently, and lifted his blade.
"How dare you!"
Zack and Cloud reached for their blades, but Angeal stopped them with a shake of his head.
Angeal seemed to only blink as Sephiroth was launched into the air.
"This is our universe, old friend. We control it. You are a guest here for now, and if you don't listen to me, I'll never help you return, and if you don't hurry, you'll never get out. Trapped in this place forever, without the option of moving on, or getting out."
Sephiroth stopped.
"Much better." Angeal said. "Now, Genesis, take Zack and Cloud down. Show them the exit."
Genesis nodded.
"Wait!" Zack shouted. "We can't speak? Nothing?"
Angeal shook his head. "You need to go back. Time passes differently here. You've already been gone a couple of days. When your times come, we'll have all the time in the universes to talk."
"So you'll still be here?" Cloud asked.
Angeal nodded. "Until the day I'm not needed."
Both men smiled.
"Genesis." Angeal said again.
He nodded again, and grabbed a hold of the boys, as he glided down through a small hole in the roof, from where he had come.
"Look after them Sephiroth. Otherwise I'll find you!"
Sephiroth stood stunned.
"Other than that, good luck with your redemption. I look forward to having my friend back."
Sephiroth turned around. "How do I get out?" He asked.
"Down there. The same way you came in. The radio it acts as a bridge... I thought you would have realised that one. It appears now and again. Lets people come here. It'll disappear soon... Just to protect this place."
"From the war?"
Angeal nodded. "I only want to help you... So please, try to overcome this hatred. This darkness you have."
"One day." Sephiroth said, before opening his own wing and following Genesis through the hole in the roof.
xXx
The room with the radio on this side was almost identical to the one in the full universe. Apart from this one was clean and well lit. With a guide on the ground on how to pass through.
"One last question." Cloud began. "How did you get us here, like you did?"
Genesis laughed. "I don't know." He said. "I would like to say that maybe the world wanted to see a SOLDIER dance one last time."
With that, Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth passed through the border, and back into their universe, leaving that pocket, that impossible pocket alone.
One day they would return.
And on that day, their friends would mourn.
xXx
Authors Note: Well... Yeah. Pocket Universes... What can I say? Fringe Science! :L I thought "Hell why not have the old SOLDIER group have a division for Fringe Science." You know the extreme, strange and implausible kind. Including passing through a universe, into another where everything is different. We're not on about alternates, but a universe which is attached to another, but sealed off, out of touch. Too much? You tell me :) Why did I include this you may be asking yourself. Well, this is actually important. You've actually come into contact with another pocket universe already. As early as The Lost Keys. That'll finally be explained now. As well as this entire feature will be the answer to a question that will be asked much later on in the story. Maybe finale kind of questions. :P I'm only saying so you'll know if you're right later on down the line. I'm going to bet you'd have forgotten by then though, so we'll see. :P Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you enjoy the next which is of course the last battle of the Key blade Graveyard, and finally Ray's return to the group. :D Thanks for reading.
P.s. Sorry for the extended length of this chapter. Ended up needing a lot more words than I thought. :L
