TBIAD1
To be in a Dream
Chapter 1
Story by: Cessy Angel



My eyelids were becoming heavier, my breathing slower, yet even there I could hear someone say my name as I lost myself in a world of dreams. I did not want to go, because I felt my obligation to stay in the real world, with the one with whom I had given my life to. But that force, a unexplainable force, drove me deeper into myself, where I could no longer defend myself from the hidden truth...

I opened my eyes, but I found myself unable to see anything. Only darkness, to my right, to my left, it enveloped me in its depths. I could still see my hand when I put it in front of my face, and I could see my whole body as if it were the middle of the day, yet beyond there was nothing more than darkness.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming towards me. I didn't know from where they came, because they seemed to be coming from all around me, but I knew that only one person was coming towards me. I got up and peered into blackness, and I thought I saw a grey figure, then again, it could always be by imagination.

"Cloud..."

I whirled around at the sound of a voice calling me, although no one was there. That voice, I had heard it before, from my childhood to the encounter I had lived through what seemed years past. The sweetest melody could be the deadliest, but why did I find myself melting as it said my name, so gently and with a caring tone?

"Cloud..."

Again the voice called me. It sounded so close, almost as if the person had been directly behind me, his breath on my neck as it softly whispered into my ear. But this person wasn't just anyone. My long thought friend, my General while I was in SOLDIER, the one who killed my beloved Aerith, and the one I had killed with my own hands.

"Sephiroth."

His name now spoken, he appeared in front of me. Walking in such a slow pace, his long greyish hair flowing on each side of his body, his mouth not much as slightly curved, and his seemingly glowing emerald green eyes peering at me through the darkness.

Yet he stopped just as he was two feet away from me, and his mouth finally curved into a soft smile, or maybe it was a grin. He looked up from his being, and pointed towards me, then turned around, compelling me to follow him.

It wasn't much of an order, but I followed him without a word. I should have asked, and I knew that this was nothing more than a dream, and I followed him without saying anything, even though the questions in my mind were multiplying by every step. I wanted to go by his side, and every time I did try, he also advanced in a faster pace. Didn't he want to see me?

In all of an instant, I saw that both of us were no longer in darkness, but with bubbles of air rising on every side, a faint mist of blue blurred my vision, and I saw that we were at the Ancient Capital. Not only that, but we were where Sephiroth had killed Aerith, and where I had buried her afterwards.

We were nearing something, it was so white it shone with the help of a faint shimmer coming from the surface. No, it couldn't be, he couldn't possibly think of bringing me here. Yet now that I came closer, I could clearly see something that would certainly make this dream a nightmare. It was Aerith, only that her once beautiful skin gone, her green eyes lost in the wash of the small lake, and her long brown hair hanging from her skull.

"No, Sephiroth, please don't bring me here..." I pleaded, but he only continued walking towards the skeleton, and stopped. I looked at him from where I stood, my knees shaking, my lower lip trembling. Even at this moment, I couldn't distinguish the feeling, be it anger, fear, or maybe my unableness to see the one that I had killed be living.

He crouched over the skeleton, his green eyes peered at the skull while his fingers played along the form of the bones gently, each finger touching every bone over the skeleton. He whispered something that I couldn't hear, and out of nowhere, I saw Aerith as I had known her from the slums. Her face was now the same as she had been before, her hair long and loose around her body, and a pink dress matched the color of her lips.

I was stunned by this, I looked at her, thinking she might rise up and smile at me, but I saw that she wasn't breathing, and that what Sephiroth was showing me was nothing more than a simple image.

"Do you think she's beautiful?"

His emerald eyes were now set on me even though his face stayed unemotional. His hand now framed her face, his index finger shaping her cheek and then sliding onto her lips. Yet his gaze never left mine. A face begging for an answer, or maybe it was just me.

"What do you mean?" I was too confused to possibly give an answer for it.

"Do you think she's beautiful?" He repeated, refusing to answer my question.

I didn't know how to answer him. Why was he asking such a question? Why did it matter to him if I thought that Aerith was beautiful, the same as for Tifa. My head began to throb, all he was doing was to mess with my mind. I knew he was, and even though I knew he was, I still answered back.

"I don't know. Maybe she was beautiful to me before, but what would it matter to now? She's dead. I'm married with Tifa, she is what I think it beautiful. What is the meaning for these questions? Why do you ask them?" My hand balled up while the blood rushed to my head.

"So you think Tifa is beautiful, same as for this Ancient..." He looked disappointed, but then his head lifted and he got up. Walking towards me, I found myself unable to run, or to move. But he stopped only inches away from me, and his hand brushed my chin. "Do you think... I'm beautiful?"

"What?" I could tell my eyes were looking at him intensely, I wanted to push him away from me, to push his questions away. Why would he ask me such questions?

"Do you think I'm beautiful, Cloud?" Sephiroth's eyes seemed so alive then, his lips moved as if to coo me. His grip on my chin tightened, and now his face was directly in front of me.

"I don't know..." It was true, I didn't know how to answer him.

"There are many more things that you don't know Cloud. I will teach you. Don't think that your grudge against me is going to make things different. Forget everything, okay? Forget that you have killed me, because I am in front of you, aren't I? Come to me again Cloud. Promise me."

My whole body shook, and I closed my eyes. But the force drove me to promise to him that I would come to see him again. This was a dream, how could I meet someone in a dream? Something inside myself told me that this wasn't the same Sephiroth I had encountered in the Northern Crater, but the Sephiroth I had met in SOLDIER.

"Goodbye, Cloud. I hope to meet with you again soon." He said something under his breath, but I didn't hear it. I was already floating to the surface. My hand shot out to reach him, and I cried his name over and over again.

All I saw was him reaching out to me, and then he closed his eyes and got engulfed by the darkness of the waters. All I could do was watch, and my eyes blurred from the light coming from above. This was a side of me I thought I had hidden away forever. But the truth would be shown to me later. Maybe too soon...

"We'll meet again, Sephiroth. I promise you this."


Author's Note: Liked it? Hated it? I know the first chapter isn't very long (I can never write long chapters...) Oh well. It took me a while to chose from which POV this fic would be from, and of course, it ended up being Cloud. Anyways, please leave feedback to tell me if I should change anything! Don't forget to review!