iuHunter/u
brPart 5/i
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pIt wasn't long after Barret fell into darkness that Cloud got his first glimpses of the demon...

pVincent was perched on the roof of the Shin-Ra Mansion, waiting for the inevitable Storm to come...

pRed XIII was still sleeping, uneasy, as dark dreams filled his head. He had know idea these dreams would soon become his reality...

pTifa still lay asleep in Cloud's bed, not knowing that she would never spend another night with Cloud...

pAnd so Cloud walked on, knowing none of these things. Soon, he would wish he had.

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pCloud walked along the almost lifeless streets of Midgar. He didn't know what was happening, what would be happening. All he knew was that something at the lab was going terrible wrong. And they wanted him back at headquarters for something else. Cloud had no idea that everything intertwined into one hell of a nightmare. All he knew was that he was waking down a lifeless street in the early hours of the morning, ten minutes walk ahead of him to the next train station that would go to AVALANCHE/Midgar HQ.

pCloud had a lot on his mind. How in two years Midgar had been rebuilt. AVALANCHE worked side-by-side with Midgar. They no longer needed Mako energy. Some other kind of power was being used. God knows what those scientists had thought up.

pCloud was a man who ran on instinct. He had things to do, places to go, a reaction for almost everything, and a clear head to think things through. But he took most things on instinct. And when walking by the small shop right outside of the train depot, he stopped. Instinct had grabbed him.

pi'Tarot'/i the sign proclaimed on the wooden sign that hung above the door. Cloud had know idea what the fuck i'Tarot'/i was, but he was determined he was going to find out. He decided later that he wished instinct would just go fuck itself.

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pCloud had made his way into the small building (More like a large one room hut then anything) only a few seconds earlier. The scent of incense was poignant in the air, and the torches that lit the room gave it an eerie glow. He was getting a royal case of the creeps. He had come through the door into a small lobby. The lobby had been dark, except for one torch above. The room was polished hard wood, and Cloud had never seen a room that was so small, eloquent and creepy all at once.

pHe walked through the passage way that lead from the lobby to the main room. It was merely a door frame, the same polished wood. Beads of dark blue, purple, and black hung down, blocking the doorway. Cloud pushed them away and stepped silently forward.




pThis room was bigger. It was four times the size of the lobby. There were two torches on the walls to his right and left. There were also torches on either side of the doorway he had just passed through. There was a huge block of polished wood in the middle of the floor, that came down on each side in steps, making it look like a polished wood pedestal. There was purple silk over top of this, and silk wadding and pillows on either side of the pedestal. There was another beaded doorway beyond this.

pThe beads to the other doorway moved, and Cloud felt he didn't want to be here. He wanted to be gone from this place, to find out whatever the hell it was that had gone wrong out at Head Quarters.

pThen the beads were parted, and a woman who couldn't be any more then half Cloud's own height, came out from between them. She wore a dark purple robe that covered her entire body, and pooled around her feet. The hood was pulled over her head, and he could see nothing of her features. He couldn't even tell that it was a woman until she spoke.

p"Sit down, young man," She said in her cackling old voice. "I sense you come with a burden on your mind?"

p"Yes." He felt the words slip from his mouth, as if something had muttered them from inside him, rather then them being muttered by he himself.

p"Yes, yes. I knew it," She said more then kindly. "Sit down, young one. I usually charge for readings, but I think I shouldn't charge you, young lad."

pCloud was obedient and sat, not responding to the woman's word.

p"Now, the reason for me not charging you lad," She said, "Is that I don't think you're going to like your reading. I don't think you'll like it one bit. And I don't have any use for your money any how." She cackled on.

pCloud felt compelled to ask her what exactly Tarot was. He had somewhere before heard the there where things card Tarot cards, and that they're users had some mystical power with them to tell the future of a person. He needed not ask, as she brought her boney hands out of her robe sleeves, the right hand holding the deck of black backed cards.

p"Now this is my own Tarot deck," She said. "I found that a standard deck didn't suit me. So I fixed in some cards of me own. And I have a feeling I'll need some of these cards for you, lad. Your fate is not a pretty on, but it is a rather long one. I well draw seven cards instead of five."

pCloud now noticed she talked with an odd accent, but did not ask her about it. He watched, mesmerized, as she shuffled the cards gracefully in her old hands. She them put them down in front of her, and flipped the first card off the top of the deck, putting it upside down for herself in front of Cloud so that he could clearly see.

p"The Awakening," She said simply. In the picture, Cloud saw a black silhouette of a man being surrounded back Mako. "He is raised by the breath of the earth raising another. He is an accident of the Planet."

pThe old woman flipped a second card.

p"Death," She said solemnly, "But not for you." Cloud looked in horror at the picture on the card. The picture had the shadow-man on the background, his arms spread wide. In front of him were several bodies. One was the body of his friend Yuffie, her head ripped away from her body. Another body was that of Cid, blood puddling around him from a mutilation of holes in his body. And beside him was Reeves. And beside Reeves was Barret, his daughter Marlene lying in her daddy's arms. The only way he knew it was Marlene was her head. The rest of her was a bloody mess. "Death to those that are close to you."

pCloud wished to leave. But he couldn't. Something magical held him. She flipped the third.

p"Love," The old witch said. The picture was a man and woman, both naked, held close to each other. Cloud thought of Tifa. "Love is the only thing you have, lad. And soon, it will be a bitter-sweet thing."

pCloud sat fixedly, looking at that cards. The woman flipped a fourth.

p"Death," She said in her same, emotionless tone. "But still not for you. This is someone you love more then the others." Cloud could clearly tell he loved this person more. The picture on the card showed Tifa in the foreground. She had been cut open from her neck to about one inch under her belly button. She was covered in blood. Cloud was shocked.

p"This can't be!" Cloud screamed, knowing it would all be true. "It can't be!"

pThe woman ignored, and flipped another card.

p"A Dark Star," The woman said. The picture on the card was that of a small child as it would be in a woman's womb, in front of a blazing star. The young child, whom should be still growing in its mothers womb, seemed lifeless. "A child destroyed before its time. The lone star of a woman has fallen into darkness barely after its conception." She looked at the card, then up at Cloud. He could see her eyes glowing an eerie yellow.

pShe flipped the sixth card.

p"Death," She said. Cloud was tired of seeming death today. He felt sick. "This is not for you. You still live through the pain." Cloud saw his friends on this card as well. All of them now. Vincent. Red. Tifa. All the others. He even saw Aeris on this card. But she was dead. But had something actually happened at Head Quarters. He would see.

p"This is your final card." She said. She was evil. Cloud knew. She flipped the card. He was expecting to see Death again. He saw something different.

p"Darkness," The woman said. The card was as black as the back of the other cards. Cloud thought that was what it was at first. "Darkness. You will go into the darkness, and face the darkness..."

p"Then what will happen!" Cloud demanded. "What!"

p"You must figure that out on your own. You will travel into the darkness and-"

p"I will not travel into Darkness! I don't want any of this bullshit!
I'm fucking tired of these games!"

p"That's all it is. A game. But who will win in the end? Who will triumph in the darkness? What will-"

p"I've had enough of this bullshit!" Cloud yelled. The woman was silent. Her head was pointed down.

pCloud watched in horror as blood began to drip from the robe. It dripped and flowed, falling over the purple cloth. The witch cackled madly and threw the hood of the robe back from its face. Its face was the face of Sephiroth, bloody and beaten. The face didn't look human anymore. It didn't look like Sephiroth anymore. Cloud also saw Jenova there. He saw a morbid smile spread across his face. He began speaking and a bubbling voice. It was bubbling over blood.

p"You... You will DIE..." The witch thing said. Cloud had had enough. He unsheathed his sword, and brought it down on the things shoulder. It's right arm fell off. Blood squirted everywhere. And the thing laughed.

p"You can't kill... me!" The thing said slyly. Another arm began to grow out of the mess of the old arm.

p"This... This Can't BE!" Cloud hollered. He brought the sword down again. This time, the sword didn't hit the witch thing before it bounced back at him. It had hit something in the way. And Cloud wasn't waiting to find out what it was. He was off and running. He was out of the building soon.

pHe sheathed his sword, and turned back for a second look at the building. He saw that nothing had been there in the first place. The door was boarded. There were windows now, too, and they were boarded. And The sign that had read i'Tarot'/i was gone. In it's place was a smaller 'For Sale' sign.

pBut on the broken porch stood the thing. Now it looked like Sephiroth. Sephiroth in his black robe.

piI will destroy you,/i it said in his mind. And then it was gone. Suddenly gone. Cloud could tell it really been there. Yes, it had occupied some space. There was a dull 'pop!' like a cap gun when the thing disappeared, as air fell in to fill the space the thing had occupied.

pCloud had been nearly scared pissless. Now he looked to the sunrise. It was now peeking up, its first rays hitting Midgar. Cloud walked toward the sun. And the Tarot cards never left his mind.

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Hunter Copyright of Raven-Chan
brFinal Fantasy copyright of Squaresoft, etc. etc.

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