AN ;; Trying to keep the story at a good pace, tell me if it gets too slow or goes too fast to keep up with. Sephy is interested in Cloud, while Zack also has some sort of 'thing' he doesn't quite want to admit to himself. Cloud on the other hand is blissfully unaware of the two having any interest in him. He wants to just focus on being strong enough to protect the planet from the destiny he failed to change, and try to convince Zack he's not insane.
So here is chapter fourteen. Seph isn't in this chapter, sorry guys. Concentrating on Zack and Cloud's dilemma for now.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Zack braced himself as he pushed open the doors to the church, taking a few shaking steps forward. Boots stepping heavily down onto the cobbles beneath them, he made his way forward. What Cloud was telling him was preposterous, unbelievable, cruel… but somewhere in his heart, he could tell that Cloud was not insane. The raven haired SOLDIER looked through the darkness, shadows seeping across the wooden benches as a few mice scurried away from the humans as they slowed around six feet from the glistening flowers beneath the faint starlight. Zack waited for Aeris to get to her feet as she lay there on her knees, praying to the planet with silent whispers. Cloud said nothing as he stood behind the second class.
When Aeris finished, she titled her head up slightly, a low hum escaping her. The flowers seemed to tilt towards her, as though her soft song was a type of calling to the plants. Petals shivering within the soft breeze coming through the doorway behind the two men, Zack and Cloud said nothing as she began.
"You came."
Zack glanced at Cloud as he took a cautious step forward, closer to the cetra, not knowing whether Zack would permit him to pass by him. Zack made no attempt to move as Aeris also got to her feet, turning to face them with those beautiful, emerald eyes so many men fell in love with instantly upon a single glance. Her beauty radiated beneath the celestials above, powerful enough to blind anyone who was not worthy of being within the confines of the religious structure. Aeris stepped carefully through the flowers and slid her arms around Cloud's upper arms, pulling him into a close hug, her head resting on his shoulder. Zack did not feel a pang of jealousy as he thought he would upon seeing this, slightly slouching his shoulders in the darkness they stood in, the light of the stars above being the only way they could see each other, despite the mako in the two males' systems.
Aeris released Cloud from her arms and stepped back, leaning forward slightly.
"Smile, silly." her voice, always the tone of gold honey even when she scolded them, managed to bring a small smile to the blonde cadet's lips. Zack said nothing as the two stood before each other, Aeris' eyes filled with adoration for the younger of them. When the cetra turned to him, he didn't quite know how to respond.
"I suppose you want answers, Zack." Aeris played with the pink bow in her hair as he stood bewildered before them. Cloud shuffled away and sat down in the flowers, making sure not to crush any under his boots. Aeris held out her hand to Zack and led him into her garden before sitting down also.
"I probably shouldn't have said anything." Cloud murmured as Aeris tilted her head towards him, the three sitting in some sort of strange flower filled triangle.
"Don't worry. He would have found out sooner or later." she confirmed, the raven haired man still silent other than his quiet breathing.
Aeris scavenged through the flowers and found a golden one for Cloud, and a white one for Zack. She placed the flowers into their spiky hair before continuing, Cloud running his fingers over the satin like feeling of the petals.
"Everything Cloud has told you is true, Zack. Cloud has lived this all before." Aeris began, her hands on her lap as she turned her full attention to the second class, "this world is just one of many paradox realms which intertwine in the lifestream."
Zack nodded, not quite sure what to respond. So the cetra continued.
"The cetra could move through the lifestream into the different realms. My mother stayed behind when the rest of our people left to enter a new world." she explained, pulling off the beaded bangle on her arm and holding it in the air, "it's kind of like this. The beads are the worlds, and the string is the lifestream. It flows through the worlds and connects them all. Although each world is the same, there are varying events which result in the differentiating fates of each world. In Cloud's world…" she turned her emerald gaze to Cloud, who sat with his knees up to his chest, "they all died."
Zack blinked, turning to stare at the blonde cadet. Cloud said nothing as he listened to Aeris explain.
"In Cloud's world, Genesis and Angeal started degrading, as they were made from G cells by the scientist Hollander." Aeris noticed Zack's eyes widen as his mentor was mentioned, "they needed S cells to survive, but ShinRa refused to help them. They were…replaceable."
Zack felt anger building in his heart. ShinRa had left Angeal and Genesis to die? What kind of monsters was he working for?
"Genesis and Angeal's disappearance from ShinRa lead up to Genesis revealing the secret of Sephiroth's birth to him. The general was created from the DNA of an alien known as Jenova, who sought to destroy the cetra and take the planet as her own."
Upon hearing the silver general's name, Cloud shuffled where he sat, eyes hardening, but continued to stay silent. Zack on the other hand was staring at Cloud, the guilt washing over him.
"ShinRa made Sephiroth as the ultimate SOLDIER so no one could stop them taking over the world. They did not care for his feelings, nor for what would happen when he finally realised his true birth. He destroyed Cloud's hometown, and tried to kill you." Zack felt the blood draining from his cheeks as the idea of Sephiroth going crazy made him openly terrified, "Cloud stopped him."
"…Then?" Zack had to ask. He wanted to know everything.
However, it was Cloud who replied.
"Hojo got us." the blonde murmured, staring down at his lap where he held his knees. His face hidden beneath the fabric, only Cloud's shaking body explained to Zack of the pain he was feeling. Zack crawled closer to the blonde and pulled him into his arms, resting his head against his cheek.
"I'm here now, Cloud. I wont let him hurt you." his eyes narrowed as he found himself near snarling, "never again."
"Four years passed until you escaped." Aeris continued, watching her boyfriend cling to the fifteen year old Cloud, "when you did, Cloud had mako poisoning and was in comatose. You protected him…" she had a tear running down her cheek, "ShinRa had their army hunt you down and kill you. Cloud survived, carried on without you, but he absorbed your memories, became you…"
Zack had tears pouring from his eyes. This was too much. Far, far too much.
"How do you know this, Aeris? How can you possibly know this?" he turned his radiating blue eyes to the cetra, pain wracking through his mortal body.
"Because I was there." she whispered, Cloud suddenly jolting in Zack's arms. Zack held him as Cloud let out a cough, followed by a soft moan as the suffering he had held within him began to flow out of him.
"So…after I died...Sephiroth?"
"Cloud and the remainders of the group AVALANCHE took on Sephiroth and ShinRa, and managed to save the world." Aeris smiled slightly, tilting her head.
"But…you died… how-?"
"My psychical body was destroyed, but as a cetra, it takes a much, much more powerful force to remove my soul from existence."
Zack turned to Cloud as his cold, hardened glare emerged, moving his legs out of the way, he bit his lower lip.
"I couldn't… couldn't save them. Not you, not Aeris…" tears swelled from his reddening eyes as Cloud's resolve slowly shattered, "Barret, Vincent, Cait Sith, Yuffie, Nanaki, Cid, Tifa…" his entire body was shaking violently. Zack held him tighter, burying the blonde's face into his chest.
Zack was silent. He turned back to Aeris, who was holding a flower in her trembling hands.
"And Angeal? Genesis?"
"They did not make it. You defeated Angeal in one final battle for his honour, while Genesis degraded alone beneath the slums of Midgar, until he was nothing but dust and ash..."
Zack swallowed. He had killed Angeal? He had been the cause of his mentor's death? His heart ripped to pieces within his chest a dozen times over as he pictured Angeal's cold, pale, bloodied face, his sword worn and rusted beneath the frozen rain.
"As Sephiroth could not be absorbed into the lifestream due to the Jenova cells inside him. He came back, again and again, and again…" she closed her eyes, allowing the tears to drip onto the petals in her fingers, "eventually, Jenova infected the planet itself, they all died…"
Cloud was not motionless, regaining his composure in Zack's arms. Zack felt the warm wetness on his shirt and knew it was Cloud's tears, so stroked his hand through the blonde spikes, turning his tired eyes to the cetra.
"Then...how...how are you both here?"
"I am a cetra, Zack. My spirit can move through the lifestream to any of the other seven worlds. While my body was killed in Cloud's world, my spirit was transported here, to aid Cloud in his mission to save this planet. Cloud's spirit was sent here after one of our friends prayed to the planet to give him a second chance. To save this world. We both kept our memories, and most likely many of our friends kept their's too, but will need to meet us before those memories are restored."
"Wait." Zack blinked, suddenly his lips parted and a frown buried upon his features, "you're saying that will all happen here, too?"
"Yes. That is why Cloud was sent. To be the saviour of this world, where he failed in the last." Aeris confirmed as Cloud looked back up to her. She smiled, "I know he can do it. I know he can."
Cloud managed to find the strength to pull away from the SOLDIER, staring straight into Aeris' eyes.
"I wont fail, Aeris."
"Cloud, even if you do, you will just be sent to another planet." the cetra replied, Cloud's eyes widening.
"What? How-?"
"The lifestream made you a cetra, Cloud."
The blonde fell back into Zack's arms as he felt his body go limp. Zack held him and stared at Aeris in disbelief.
"The lifestream can do that?" when Aeris simply nodded, he was taken aback, "so the cetra are..?"
"Those made into cetra by the lifestream are favourites of the planets, champions chosen to protect the lifestream from enemies such as Jenova." Aeris informed. She noticed Cloud was no longer concentrating at them anymore, staring at the floor as he lay numb in the second class' arms. "When we die, we are reborn again and again, on different planets, for the sole purpose to serve the lifestream."
"It's not fair…" Cloud breathed, then clutched his fingers into Zack's arm, holding onto him as he felt faint, "why me…?"
"Because the lifestream chose you to be it's new saviour."
"I don't want to, Aeris, damnit I don't want to!" Cloud shot up, his eyes blazing, "I don't want to be a cetra! I don't want to keep fighting! I'm tired of it! Why wont the lifestream just let me die?!"
"The lifestream does not care for your feelings, Cloud." Aeris sighed, running her hands over her arms as she shivered in the cold of the night, "it is not compassionate, not hateful, not conscious. It does this only to make sure it lives on. We are simply weapons, nothing more. The lifestream cares not how many times we die, we are simply reborn time and time again in new bodies on either the same world or another. Our fates deem us to serve the lifestream for the rest of eternity."
"I don't want this." Cloud shook his head repeatedly, clinging to the raven head, "I...just wanted it all to end..."
"You can't change it. I'm...I'm sorry."
Zack turned to Aeris, who herself was falling apart, realising this all seemed terribly cruel to the blonde cadet.
"What about Genesis, and Angeal? Do they remember? Does Sephiroth-?" Cloud shook in his arms upon mention of the general's name and Zack stopped his sentence abruptly. Aeris noticed how Zack had said Angeal's name, swallowing back the bile in his throat, still taking in the fact that he had been the one to kill his mentor in Cloud's former world.
"No. They don't remember. They wont remember, either. Telling them would serve no purpose to the lifestream." Aeris tilted her head, "I'm sure they wouldn't be as understanding as you, either, even if you did try to convince them."
"This is madness." Cloud muttered bitterly in the SOLDIER'S embrace.
"If Cloud is a cetra, Hojo will find out." Zack shook his head, "it's too dangerous for him to stay in the facility. You both have to go, get out of here."
"No!" Cloud clenched his grip on Zack's arm and sat up, confronting Zack, fuelled with a sudden urge, "I wont let them kill you again! This time, I'll be the one to protect you!"
Zack stared back at those old, hurt sapphire eyes and sighed. He couldn't force Cloud to leave SOLDIER. Not now that he was given another chance to help them all. The raven haired man noticed Aeris watching them curiously, holding a thumb to her lower lip. Cloud did not tear his optics away from Zack until the SOLDIER grabbed him in a headlock and pushed him to the floor, knuckling his head.
"I already told you I wont die! I'm too good to get killed!" Cloud's soft laughter broke the silence as the man pinned him to the floor, and as Cloud twisted to try and escape, he landed on his back, crushing a good amount of Aeris' flowers. Zack held him down by his wrists, clambering onto Cloud's lap so he could not get away. He grinned as Cloud smiled up at him, eyes beginning to fill with hope again.
"Ahem."
Zack turned to find Aeris with an eyebrow raised, gesturing to the broken flower stalks all around them. Zack and Cloud muffled their apologies before Cloud got up to his feet, ready for orders from the second class. Zack also stood and turned to talk to the blonde when Aeris coughed again.
"Zack, could I talk to you?"
Cloud seemed to get the picture and started to walk towards the doorway, the floorboards creaking under his boots as he made his way outside to wait. Zack turned to find Aeris smiling at him, but with tears in her eyes.
"Aeris?" he knelt down onto the flowers once more, running his hand over her cheek, "Aeris, it's ok. I wont let them hurt him again."
"Zack, I know you love him."
The second class was silent as Aeris planted a small kiss on his forehead. She looked away to the side, Zack's cheeks flushing red as he repeated what she said in his head over and over.
"I…Aeris-" he stuttered, his tongue becoming caught in his own mouth.
"It's ok, Zack. I understand." the cetra wiped a tear away from her cheek as it broke the barriers of her eyes, the clear liquid running down her pale, beautiful skin.
"Aeris…" Zack's eyes softened and he pulled the girl into a tight hug. She slid her arms around his back and held him, the two embracing for one last time as lovers. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
"It's ok, Zack. You've both been given a second chance at being happy. Please, make his life in this world worth the pain…"
"Aeris, I...I don't know how I feel for Cloud, I really don't... I...I think..." do I love Cloud? Zack wondered. He had loved Aeris unlike any girl he had met before, but there was something inside his heart that was so powerful, so irreplaceable when it came to Cloud...
"Don't hurt him." Aeris whispered into the man's ear, as she loosened her grip around his chest. Zack pulled away from her as she stood up, beginning to walk away, she stopped, a small sob escaping her.
Zack got to his feet and approached her as she turned back to face him. He smiled softly and ran his hand across her cheek, catching another tear as it glided down. Even while crying, Aeris was still as beautiful as a goddess. Zack kissed her on the forehead, gently stroking her hair with his other hand.
"I wont. I promise."
AN ;; Ugh, this chapter is so short. Anyway, poor Aeris. She's not some annoying sob like you get in some animes and I love her for that. She understands Zack has deep feelings for Cloud, which are even more apparent in this world than they were in the last one. I don't like writing weak female characters, like a lot of stories have on here just to make them seem annoying or uninteresting, to focus more on the YAOI couples. No, all the girls I write will be exactly as they were in Final Fantasy 7, from the always loving, caring Aeris, to the powerful, passionate Tifa.
Do you agree with my decision to make Cloud a cetra? Drop me a review with your thoughts :)