Sinner
Chapter Ten: Changing
Was it normal for insane people to be strongly dizzy, if only briefly? Was it normal for them to experience pure thought pressing into their skull at every angle?
For a moment, Cloud wondered when he had accepted the fact that he was not altogether sane. Maybe when he had made a deal with Hojo, of all people? The guy had tortured him, after all. It was madness not to kill him on the spot.
So did that make him sane after all?
But the intense wave of vertigo hit him again, and he buckled slightly on the gurney. His train of thought was practically disintegrated by the sudden and extreme force that penetrated his mind yet again.
WEAPON, WEAPON, WEAPON-!
Stop it! Stop the-!
Cloud? Why didn't-?
Dimly, Cloud was aware of a blob of white in his peripheral vision. Who was that?
"Specimen C-2 seems to be expressing strange symptoms."
Come, your Planet is-
Sweet, sweet, WEAPON. Where are you now-?
Protect! Annihilate it!
I've come back~
"Symptoms include perspiration, short breath, and glowing eyes the colour of gold. Further observation is needed. Specimen C-2 also seems to be in pain; the source of this apparent agony seems to be within the cranial area."
The Cetra! Danger!
You shouldn't have come back-
Where do you have to go, Cloud?
What? You thought you were a hero?
A joke.
WEAPON!
"Two theories are probable. Theory One; since Specimen C-2 has been tested for possible mental impairments that have been proven positive, it's likely Specimen C-2's damaged state of mind is the cause of this. Schizophrenia is one of the likely causes for this fit, as well as PTSD."
"Hey, Cloud! Come one! You have to promise! Please?"
...
"Haha, you have such spiky hair! How do you get it to stay like that?"
...
"Stay happy, okay? I don't like seeing you so sad! Forgive yourself, ne?"
Wait.
"I can't stand it. I want to help you! Let me help you, Cloud!"
CALAMITY-!
"Don't you want to be happy?"
That was a false memory, Cloud.
Don't listen-!
That sentence was spoken by someone you hadn't even met.
Stop that!
Surely you would be an expert on made-up realities by now, right?
My son-
Even if you weren't aware of it.
What? Cloud couldn't comprehend this. The stream of thought was flowing relentlessly into his mind. He just wanted it to end.
"Theory Two; it is also likely that the Planet itself is communicating with the subject. As Specimen C-2 has explained, he is a WEAPON, created by the Planet itself to be one of its living defences. While this may have been woven falsely as a fantasy, a fact supported by the positive test on the subject's mental stability, there are also the factors of the subject's abilities and strengths. Subject maintains a high amount of energy, and the immune system and natural physical defences are beyond human capability. There is also the case of Specimen C-2's glowing eyes-"
Cloud couldn't stand it. He managed to look up at the white blob – Hojo, his mind vaguely identified – and glared coldly.
"End it." He hissed at the scientist. "End it now."
And underlying his venomous tone was a distant, yet desperate plea for help.
Cloud turned suddenly. Zack's wary eyes were momentarily distracted from Tifa by the blonde's movements.
If he could guess, he'd say that Cloud had turned back in the direction of Nibelheim, but he wasn't too sure. Tifa herself looked confused as well, but kept her practised battle stance.
Zack moved forward, reaching out to touch Cloud on the shoulder. "You alri-?" He stifled a gasp as he came into view of the blonde's facial features.
His eyes were glazed and for a terrifying moment, Zack was worried those episodes came back. But what freaked him out the most were Cloud's irises – they were glowing faintly. And not with the familiar Mako light that Zack had slowly grown accustomed to, but an almost fiery gold.
"Cloud...?" Zack asked, worry highly apparent in his tone. What the hell was going on now? Did it have something to do with Nibelheim itself? Or maybe... maybe there was a connection with his counterpart that was only just showing now?
Yet why was Cloud looking towards Nibelheim?
Suddenly, it felt hard to breathe.
"We should keep moving." Zack said quickly, tugging Cloud along even as the blonde just stumbled after him blankly.
"What? No way!" Tifa stood her ground, her stance relaxing slightly. "What's wrong with Cloud? Why is he acting so weird?" She demanded, though her eyes shone with concern for her friend – even if she did suspect him to be someone else.
"Later." Zack said firmly, and his tone was enough to move her. "Later, we'll tell each other everything."
And behind him, Cloud's expression fell into despair.
Aeris held up her staff, trying to recover quickly from her shock. The monster was advancing on her fast – almost too fast!
From far away, the face of this creature could have been mistaken for indiscernable. But up close, Aeris had to acknowledge the vague, humanoid features of the monster, and even then, it had no face.
Only a gaping mouth with large, pointed teeth – teeth that were aiming straight for her neck.
Even as she began to charge up a Thundaga, she knew it wouldn't be on time to stop the attack.
"No!"
Suddenly, Angeal was in front of her, shielding them with his sword. Up close now, Aeris vaguely realised that some rust lined the edges of the Buster Sword on his back.
She shook the thoughts out of her head. Now wasn't the time for such idleness! Hurriedly, she finished casting Thundaga, spurred on by the pained grunts of Angeal as he attempted to keep the vicious teeth at bay.
Finally, the spell came into effect, judging by the wave of exhaustion that fell over her. In the back of her mind, she wholeheartedly regretted not practising her spell casting for a long while. However, she managed to pull Angeal back as several bolts of lightning struck the monster. It let out a roar of outrage, but Aeris cast Thundaga again and again, ignoring the extreme dizziness that assaulted her.
When the final flash of lightning subsided, burnt flesh permeated the air, and Aeris gagged on the smell. She backed away from the monster as it keeled over and lay still.
There was silence.
Aeris stared at the fallen creature, and asked after a few tense moments. "Angeal... do you know where they came from?"
"No." The First Class answered quickly. Unbidden, suspicion curled its way around Aeris' mind. As if realising his mistake, Angeal backtracked.
"Actually..." He relented, hesitation clear in his voice as he attached his sword to his back again. "I know the person who created them. Ah, knew anyways."
"Knew?" Aeris examined his face as he finally turned to look at her. His eyes were guarded, his expression clear of any emotions.
"Professor Hollander." Angeal admitted after a short moment, and Aeris sensed that was all he was going to say on the matter.
She decided not to push it, as fogged as her mind was with exhaustion. Besides, she was keeping things from him too. Hopefully, everything would be cleared in Kalm.
"Let's go, then." The brunette gave him a tired smile, and made to move. Surprise laced up her as her legs gave way. Angeal immediately dashed forward, catching her and holding her gingerly.
"You rest." He told her firmly, and proceeded to manoeuvre her prone form onto his back.
Aeris would have replied, but she was already fast asleep.
"Here. We'll rest here." Zack said, still holding tightly onto Cloud's arm. He knew he was holding on too tightly, but there was a nagging feeling he was going to lose his friend.
He didn't want that to happen again.
Zack glanced at Cloud when he halted, inwardly sighing with relief that the blonde's eyes had stopped glowing. Instead, he just seemed bewildered.
Tifa had followed more slowly, caution in every step she took toward them. Finally, she stopped a few metres away from them. Her expression was drawn into a frown, an expression that Zack saw on her far too often.
"Sit down." Zack chided, and did so himself, crossing his legs easily. He pulled Cloud down with him, placing him beside him. This action seemed to wake the blonde up, and he scowled at Zack.
Even so, the First Class could see sadness present within those blue eyes, even though they were glowing eerily caused by the presence of Mako.
So he is keeping something from me, Zack concluded, though he wasn't happy at the revelation at all. Cloud trusted him, didn't he?
A sinking feeling appeared in his stomach.
Tifa hesitated a moment longer before coming to join them. However, she sat in a position that allowed her to defend at any time. Her mistrust was clear, but what caused it Zack was still unsure about.
He briefly looked up. The sun was going to set soon; he'd have to set up a few tents to make camp, but decidedly after everything was sorted. They couldn't travel together like this or even function as a team to fight off any monster they came across.
"Okay, you go first." Zack nodded to Tifa. She stiffened at that, but agreed with a slight incline of her head.
"I don't exactly know what's going on, but I do know one thing: my memory is the real thing." She started, carefully keeping her tone level. "The promise between me and Cloud... I really believed it happened."
"It did happen." Cloud interjected quietly, and they made eye contact, holding each other's gazes steadily. "Only, we remember different versions of it."
Tifa broke away first, looking resolutely at the ground in front of her. "I made you promise me not to leave me behind." She finally said quietly. "I knew... I knew that you were drifting further away from me, Cloud. I knew that someday you wouldn't see me as a friend anymore. You were growing stronger." She shook her head.
"I would never leave you behind!" Cloud said firmly, and Tifa looked up at him, uncertain. "I have and always will consider you my friend! I wouldn't abandon you so eagerly."
"Not just in that way." The dark-haired woman sighed. "I thought you'd think me weak – that you'd leave me behind to try and protect. Even though all I ever really wanted was to be with you, and to be able to support you where I could. I was afraid that I'd somehow drag you down, so I trained harder when you left for Midgar."
Cloud didn't say anything, and Tifa nodded her acknowledgement of the silence. "See? Just like I said, you would try to protect me; you'd think that I would get hurt if I got involved. That's why I had to make you promise not to leave me. I want to help you, Cloud, not be the damsel in distress."
There was a moment as both Zack and Cloud processed this. The former decided to keep out of this – clearly it had been a rather defining moment in their relationship.
The blonde stayed silent for a moment longer before folding his arms. "What I remember is entirely different." He said slowly. "You made me promise to come and rescue you whenever you were in a bind." He smiled slightly at the memory, but it disappeared a second later. "You said you wanted to experience that at least once."
Tifa lifted her hand to brush back her bangs delicately, confusion apparent on her face. "I... I honestly had no thoughts of that during the night by the well. What-?"
"I think," Zack cut in, his apprehension growing, "Cloud should say his piece now, if you don't mind." The bad feeling was growing in him, and he suddenly wasn't so sure of everything anymore. If this Cloud had different memories than this Tifa, then...?
No, he had to have more information. He turned to his blonde friend, noting the tenseness that took a hold of his lithe figure.
Cloud took a deep breath, as if mentally preparing himself for what was to come. Zack waited, thinking with all his might to the blonde.
It's fine, Spiky. Come on, you can tell us! I won't judge or anything, but I suppose I am confused as to why you haven't said anything beforehand. Still, what you know isn't too horrible, is it?
He could see Cloud visibly trying to chase away all emotion out of his face as he looked both Zack and Tifa in the eye, one after the other.
"Do you guys promise not to think I'm crazy?" He asked hesitantly.
Bewildered, Tifa and Zack looked at each other before gazing back at Cloud, nodding in agreement. This seemed to put Cloud at ease, if only slightly.
"Okay, well..." The blonde's hand reached up to scratch the back of his head. "I've time travelled."
Silence.
Zack could almost hear the crickets chirp.
As for himself, he could only gape. TIME TRAVEL?
Well, that made sense. Cloud had suddenly gained such ageless and wisdom-y eyes in such a short amount of time, leaving the First Class to be befuddled by it without any explanation. But then, at what age did Cloud come back into? Had it been during his time with Zack? Or beforehand? Before the promise with Tifa in explanation of that event altering?
Tifa merely stared. She was shocked, that was to be understood, yet she adopted a look of pure confusion.
"When... when did you appear? Or jump back into your body? Or whatever you call it?" Zack stumbled over the sentences, his mind still trying to conjure up numerous reasons as to how, why, and when.
Cloud smiled, though it was empty. Inwardly, Zack shivered at the look. Had the blonde acquired that expression after or before he had time travelled?
"During our third mission together; you, me and two other troopers had to go and investigate the monsters that were originating from Banora." He shook his head, "Now that... that confused me. Back in the world I had come from, there was no Banora. As far as I remember, Banora was destroyed by an airstrike by Shinra."
Zack frowned, "Airstrike? Were they... trying to cover something up?"
Cloud nodded, which made Zack's lip curl in disgust. "Yeah, but no one was left alive in that town anyway."
The First Class shook his head. "Still, they eliminated all evidence. It's... such a Shinra thing to do. I doubt they would've cared if there had been anyone left anyway." He cocked his head, frowning. "Wait, Angeal and Genesis grew up there. Why was it...?"
"Long story." The blonde said. "But the fact that Banora is still standing before I came back is a surprise. And the promise with Tifa is different too..." He cast a curious glance at Tifa, and she shrugged.
"Maybe someone else has time travelled too?" Zack offered haphazardly, though his thoughts were still on Banora, and what else could have possibly happened for Cloud to time travel, of all things.
"Can't be." Cloud said, frowning once again. "I think I..." Distress shone in his expression, and he ran a hand through his bangs.
"What?" Zack asked, leaning forward. "What's wrong?"
"I think I could have time travelled into an alternate universe instead." He answered shakily.
A/N: The 'winner' for the incentive is Thunder Of Friendship. Their requested one-shot will be the interlude that I will post next. Normally the scene I will be writing up wouldn't have been written, but I guess it will be after all. Should be fun.
If the review count gets up to 100, then the 100th reviewer can choose the next scene to be written. Same conditions as the last incentive. I'm still confused as to whether this offer actually works... does it at all?
As always, reviews are appreciated.
Also, I'd like to thank the people who have reviewed so far:
- noodlepower, Irish-Brigid, Thunder Of Friendship, Kagami Kamiya, SapphyreMyst, LadyChaos1011, 'Guest', SymphonyOfDestruction, kit572, 'Nitro', JenesisX, chibipinkbunny, 'tolazytologin', Dark Hikari Twilight, Skiestrife, findthetiger129, spiel, saster123, HazzaTL3, exaigon, Mreaca, 'Hahnflower', 'wolfawaken', 'KHGiggle', AngelsOnTheMoon98, skywright.
