Love is the most beautiful of dreams... and the worst of nightmares.

Chapter 35 – The Nightmare

Lightning jolted upright with a gasp as her panicked eyes darted around in confusion, trying to make sense of her unfamiliar surroundings. It was dark; so dark that she could barely see anything at all past the thin blanket that now lay tangled in her lap. Her clothes were drenched in sweat as were the sheets beneath her, and she let out a shiver as the cool air wrapped around her damp skin. Taking a deep breath, she attempted to steady her erratic breathing, but ended up in a fit of coughs instead.

Defeated, Lightning just lowered her head onto her knees and tried her hardest to push the images from her nightmare away. It was so vivid and had felt so real. She could still see the look of pain glowing in her friend's eyes when the sword drove through his back. She could still feel her own surge of emotion as she watched that sword pulling away and then the agony that consumed her as she watched the light fade from his eyes. She had been so powerless to stop it. But it was a dream. The nightmare that plagued her while she slept was over and it was time to return to the real nightmare that was now her life.

Hope was dead.

'He's dead,' she told herself for what felt like the millionth time. 'Gone. Stabbed through the heart by the man you love most.'

Never again would she see his face or that infectious warm smile, and never again would she hear his laugh. In just a moment, she had lost the young boy that she had grown to love as much as she loved Serah, who was her own flesh and blood. After all they'd been through together back on Cocoon... after all she'd done to protect him, she had ultimately failed him in the end. How ironic. To be granted life and freedom once again only to have it ripped away almost instantly. This time, however, there were no promises of eternity or even a lifetime damned to servitude ahead of him. There were no gods here making ridiculous demands and dangling his fragile life above her head. He was just gone and this time he wasn't coming back from his fate.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Lightning tried to stop the tears from flowing, but they poured down her cheek anyway. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She didn't want to see his face every time she closed her eyes, but there he was. He was always there. She just wanted to drift away from this place and be somewhere, anywhere else. In another time, perhaps, when things were better. A place where there was no sadness and no heartbreak. No gods or cruel men to toy with their lives and emotions. A place she could be happy and have those she loved most surrounding her. But she knew that such a place couldn't exist… at least not for her anyway. Her life, it seemed, had been marked for pain since the very beginning.

Sniffling, she wiped the tears from her face and laid back onto her pillow and pulled her damp blanket over her head. She wanted so badly to sleep, to escape this horrible reality for a little while; but alas, the nightmare would be waiting for her there as well. There was no escaping it and now she would have to live her life with regret and the constant reminder of her failure.

Cloud.

Her blonde-haired lover's face passed quickly through her mind as she attempted to dismiss yet another disturbing image. Those eyes. The look of pure regret reflecting in them as he pulled his sword from Hope's back. The man hadn't even spoken a word to her since the night before. Maybe he was scared or perhaps he just couldn't find the right words, but his silence was just as deadly to her emotional state as a dagger was to her heart. His actions in the reactor hurt her deeply, but she knew that he'd meant well. He'd seen Hope as a threat and he was only trying to protect her. And why wouldn't he? Hope had been a Cie'th. A monster. Seemingly no different than the one they'd encountered in Cosmo Canyon. Cloud had no idea that he was striking down someone that she loved and never in a million years had he expected the boy to be there. Nevertheless, it didn't make things any easier. It was hard to look at the man she loved and not see the same man that killed her friend, and he couldn't seem to look at her either without spiraling off into his own pain and regret. It felt never-ending and she wondered if they would ever be able to make it back from this point.

What was he doing there anyway? she wondered as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. Could there more of her friends that had somehow managed to end up on this planet as well? Sazh, Vanille, Fang, Snow…. Serah. Was it possible that she hadn't come alone after all? Could they have encountered the same fate as Hope? There had to be some sort of connection. Something that linked it all together. Something to explain how she and Hope, and perhaps the rest of her family had ended up on this foreign planet. Some explanation as to how Cie'th were now showing up here. Could it all be the Shinra's doing? Could Hojo be behind all of this?

Hojo!

Of course! The mad-scientist had to be behind all of this. He was creating Cie'th! Those monsters that Cloud had spoken of—the humans that Hojo was torturing and infusing with Mako; the immortal mindless monsters created with the blood of the planet. They were all Cie'th. They were no different than the ones back on Cocoon created by the Fal'Cie, and Hojo had somehow discovered how to make them for himself.

With the sudden realization, Lightning threw the blankets aside and jumped out of bed, taking care not to wake Aeris and Yuffie, who were sound asleep in the two beds next to her own. She quickly dressed, pulled on her boots, and then retrieved her gunblade from beneath her bed and secured it in its usual place. With one last look at the sleeping women, she quietly exited the room and ventured through the unfamiliar hallway and down the stairs in search of the exit.

They'd been in this town a day now. Rocket Town, she thought someone had called it. They'd arrived during night before and Lightning's head had been too noisy and jumbled for her to make sense of anything at all, so she hadn't gotten a proper look at the place. But none of that really mattered now. She was leaving it behind so all she was interested in was finding her way out. She was going to track down Hojo and then she was going to beat all the answers from him until he was nothing more than a broken and bloody corpse. He was responsible for everything that'd happened, and she knew that now. She wasn't sure if he was responsible for her presence on this planet, but she knew that he was definitely connected to Hope and the Cie'th. She could feel it in her very soul. This was no accident or coincidence.

The cool crisp air assaulted her still damp skin as she cracked the door and then stepped out onto the front porch of the Inn. In the darkness, there wasn't a whole lot to see of her surroundings. The place was poorly lit, and Lightning found it hard to distinguish any of the buildings. However, in the distance, she could make out a large shadow of a rocket that stood as the town's namesake. Before heading out, she double checked her thigh pouch, feeling around to ensure that she had the necessary supplies and her hand wrapped around the PHS. Pulling it out, she looked at it through the darkness for a moment before gently placing it on the railing of the porch. She wouldn't need it anymore. This was something that she had to do alone.

"Where are you going?"

Startled, Lightning spun around to see Aeris standing in the doorway. "I-uh…" she began but couldn't seem to find her explanation quickly enough.

"Light, please," the flower girl begged as she rushed out onto the porch as if she knew every detail of Lightning's master plan. "I know you're hurting, but don't do anything stupid."

"I need to go after him," Lightning replied. "He did this, and I need answers. I need to know why."

"It won't bring your friend back," she reasoned. "He did this to get to you… can't you see that? He wants you to come to him."

"What?" Lightning countered. "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"And you're not thinking clearly!" Aeris scolded. "You're smarter than this, Light! I know you're hurting and your mind is a mess but try to think rationally about this. You've been his target from the very beginning. He wants you for something! You slipped away once and now he's doing everything in his power to get you back, but he knows he stands no chance at that while you're with us. He doesn't want you to think clearly. He wants you to act recklessly and he wants to isolate you. Why else would he have put your friend there? Don't you find it strange that he was the only one in there? That all of the other tanks were empty? He put him there knowing well what would happen. You would recognize him and hesitate, and then Cloud would do what he did to protect you, not realizing what he was actually doing. He wants there to be a rift between you and Cloud. He wants you to blame and distrust him for what happened. He wants you to be in a weakened state. You're being played, Lightning!"

"I think I would know if I was being played," Lightning spat back.

"You're blinded by your pain," the flower girl responded. "You can't see anything past it. It's there no matter where you turn. It follows you when you're awake and it haunts you when you're asleep."

"How do you know that?" Lightning questioned as she furrowed her eyebrows suspiciously.

"I've told you before… you talk in your sleep," she replied quietly. "Lightning…. Please be smart about all of this. You'll get your chance with Hojo, but not now and not on your own."

"I have to do this," Lightning insisted. "… I need to do this."

"And I can't let you go."

"How do you plan on stopping me?" Lightning challenged. "Are you going to fight me?"

"If I have to," Aeris replied bravely. "I'm not going to let you do this."

"Move," Lightning instructed as she pushed forward, only to find the flower girl still blocking her way.

"No," she countered as she wrapped her arms around Lightning to stop her from proceeding.

The pinkette struggled against the petite woman, trying to free herself without injuring her, but the more she struggled, the tighter the hold on her became. "Let go!" Lightning commanded through gritted teeth.

"Please," Aeris begged with a tone full of emotion. "I don't want to see you get hurt again!"

She was crying. Lightning stopped struggling and looked down at the flower girl, whose face was now streaked with tears. "Aeris..."

"Please," the flower girl begged again. "Come back inside. Stay with us. I know that you need this, and I don't blame you. You deserve your revenge, but don't go alone... let us help you..."

Lightning stood there for a moment in silence as she pondered her options. She wanted so badly to leave right now, to hunt Hojo down and make him pay for what he'd done but she needed to think this out a bit more. If she left the group, would the flower girl actually try to stop her? Would she follow her? Would she run back to alert the others that she'd left? She wouldn't get very far in that case and she absolutely refused to put Aeris in serious danger. She could always knock her out and get a head start, but could she intentionally hurt the kind woman who seemed to have nothing but her best interests at heart? Even then, could she get enough of a lead on the group before they figured out that she'd gone? And once they realized that she was, could she somehow throw Red's nose and the rest of the group off her trail? Since she was in unfamiliar territory with no real idea of which way she needed to go, probably not. They'd catch up to her in the end and it would be all for naught.

"Fine," she retreated, and the flower girl closed her teary eyes and sighed in relief.

"Thank you," she sniffled. "I'm sorry... I just, I-"

"No need to apologize," Lightning dismissed. "You're right."

And maybe the flower girl was right. Perhaps Hope's presence in that reactor really was Hojo's attempt to pull her strings. Maybe he knew that they'd be passing through the mountains of Nibelheim in pursuit of Sephiroth. Perhaps he knew that she was aware of what he kept in there at one point and wouldn't be able to resist seeing it all for herself. Maybe it all really was an attempt to lure her out and isolate her.

The deranged scientist somehow knew more about her than she had originally given him credit for. But how he'd found out about Hope and the connection that the boy shared with her was still a mystery. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Was it really possible that she wasn't alone, after all? And if the others were here, were they still out there, somewhere in this word, waiting to be found...? Was Hojo now holding all of the people that she held dear, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them against her? And how exactly did she fit into whatever grand scheme that he was hatching?

Lightning sighed in defeat as she realized that none of her questions could be answered without coming face to face with the monster responsible for her nightmares, and sadly, that wouldn't be tonight or anytime soon. Looking back down at the flower girl, she nodded and then allowed herself to be led back into the Inn, but not before glancing up to one of the windows to see a pair of remorseful cerulean eyes piercing through the darkness.

Cloud...

A/N: Hey guys! It looks like a few people are still reading so the updates shall continue. Three days on this one, so I hope that helps to excuse my recent hiatus. Again, my apologies for that.

This wasn't a long chapter and there wasn't much in terms of story progression, but I really wanted to use this one to explore Light's emotions while they were still fresh. Hope is really dead and his death is going to continue to eat at Lightning, feeding her emotions and sending her down some of the paths that I have planned for her. She's beginning to piece things together now and she sees that Hojo seems to be at the center of it all. She's starting to see that he has some sort of plan that involves her, but she hasn't quite figured out what exactly that is yet. I wanted to use this chapter to develop her a bit more and to start making her come to these realizations, but I also wanted to use it to strengthen her relationship with Aeris. So far, she's obviously bonded with Cloud; She and Barret formed a pretty strong friendship after the prison; and despite Tifa's feelings/jealousy over Cloud, she and Light have a pretty solid friendship as well. Even though her character is a huge part of the game, I think Aeris has spent a lot of time in the background in this story. I don't see her as a warrior, so she's never around for the action. I wanted her to contribute to an emotional scene like this. She's fragile but she's smart and strong in her own way. I wanted to showcase that a bit here. I wanted her strength and her bravery to shine at a time when Light was at her weakest. I think that's important for her character, so I wanted her to be the one to challenge Light and to stop her from making a stupid decision. Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed it.

Thanks to all those who left feedback in the reviews. They're always the best motivation. It's always helpful to know that people are actually reading this thing and I'm not wasting my time lol. Also, I may take breaks occasionally, but this story will never be forgotten. I started writing this story because I believed that two distant souls could fall in love and overcome all adversities to be happy together. I still believe in that, so I'll be finishing this story. I promise!

I love you all! Don't forget to drop me a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter!

-Lady A