FINAL FANTASY VII: DISORDERED ILLUSION
Written by Surrect Tiger
CHAPTER II
Aeris was alive. Cloud's heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. She was alive! He turned to Tso. "...She's alive...." He couldn't find any words that could fit his feelings.
"Yeah. Listen, who is she anyway?"
"Aeris Gainsborough...just a good friend...." Cloud found himself stumbling over himself for the right words.
"Yeah...and does that explain why you said 'she's alive'?"
"...She died about a month and a half ago. I can't explain...but...."
"What does she look like?" asked Tso.
"Brown hair, green eyes, wears a pink dress with a red vest. Just about your height."
It suddenly struck Tso. He pulled out his pen camera, and hit a button on it. After a little whir, a picture came out, fully developed. "Is this her?" She was the girl he had bumped into downstairs.
"Yeah! Where is she!?"
"She's in the building!"
"Where!?"
"Down on the bottom floor!" They both about killed each other getting out of the room. Cloud was leading Tso, reaching the elevator first, not waiting for the other, and pressing the buttons. Tso made it through the doors just before they closed.
The door seemed to open too slow for Cloud's liking. His heart raced as he dove out, searching through a crowd. Looking at everyone would be impossible; every person he turned to seemed to have brown hair and green eyes. Somewhere in the ocean of heads, Cloud and Tso became separated, but Cloud saw this as an advantage. "Do you see her!" shouted Cloud, waving his hand over the heads to catch Tso's attention.
After just about thirty seconds, Tso jumped in the air, Cloud looking immediately in his direction. "There!" shouted Tso, pointing towards the door. Cloud turned, and spotted a girl with brown hair and a pink bow.
A pink bow. He had completely forgotten about that.... He was almost in a trance, looking at her once again. She turned back one last time, and he saw her full, beautiful face once again. It seemed to completely absorb every thought of his brain while looking at her.
"What are you waiting for!?" shouted Tso. "Get her!" He had forgotten that they were trying to reach her. She turned, and seemed to be running from them.... Cloud began to shove his way through the wave of heads that seemed to stretch to the horizon.
Finally, he reached the doors, and she was gone. Tso came up right behind him. "There!" said Cloud, pointing down the street. She was riding away on a black chocobo. "Give me your phone!" Tso reached into a pocket, and pulled out a small cell phone. Cloud quickly dialed a number. After a few rings, a voice answered. He didn't wait. "For a thousand Gil, have Chocobo five running east in five minutes." He turned to Tso, who was nowhere to be seen.
Then the President pulled up beside him on a chocobo of his own. "Get on!" he ordered.
"Better make that two minutes," said Cloud into the phone before dropping it. He climbed up behind Tso, and they raced down the street.
Within a minute they were on the outskirts of Midgar. Cloud could see the stables out ahead of them, and a black chocobo twice as far ahead. "You sure about this!?" shouted Tso over the winds racing by their heads.
"We don't have any other choice!" answered Cloud. They saw a tall, slender yellow chocobo being herded at a fast running speed. "Towards the black one!" shouted Cloud to the herder, who was going the wrong way. Soon both chocobos were almost side by side.
Tso saw a large crevice in the ground that spanned down hundreds of feet into rocky waters just a thousand feet away from them. The black chocobo and its rider were just beginning to cross a long fallen tree that crossed the opening. "We don't have time for you to stop!" shouted Tso. "You'll just have to stay with me!"
"No!" shouted Cloud. He put a hand on Tso's shoulder, and leaped.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Cloud leaped from Tso's chocobo to his own.
It was a good thing chocobos have strong backs, or else Cloud's would have been flattened then and there. At any rate, he raced ahead of Tso at an amazing speed, and reached the crevice in the ground just under a minute later. By then the rider on the black bird were just at the end of the tree, hopping off to safety. The tree crunched as a crack grew on the opposite end. "For your own good," said Cloud, ripping a piece of cloth off of a pack on his bird, and tying it around its eyes. He strongly regretted what he was about to do.
He pointed his bird in the right direction, facing the log. Sweat fell from his forehead as he wondered...Is it worth it? Then he decided. I might never see her again....
He kicked the bird in the side, and it squawked. It immediately ran across the log. Cloud almost injured his arms keeping the bird pointed in the right direction. It was halfway across that he looked down. He saw, hundreds of feet below, rocks jutting out of raging rapids that meant certain death if his bird took one wrong step.
Then the cracking began. Every step his chocobo took from then on made a loud crack or crunch in the log. I'm not going to make it, he thought. Just as his muscles tensed to halt his bird, he saw Aeris, on her black chocobo, stopped. She had stopped? When? Had she even continued? But she sat there watching every move he made.
He continued barreling forward. Just a few dozen more feet! Crack! Crunch! Crack! Crunch! The weight of he and his bird was almost too much. The tree began to wobble with every step.
Thirty feet!
His bird missed a step, and almost threw him off the saddle. He quickly regained posture.
Twenty feet!
The tree wouldn't probably last another single second. It gave a loud groan as the wood splintered and popped in the air around him. It snapped at every step his bird took.
Fifteen feet!
The tree gave way. The long part of the body behind him groaned and screeched against both rock and dirt as it fell downwards.
Ten feet!
His chocobo was running uphill now on the remainder of the tree. Virtually nothing! I'm not going to make it!
Eight feet!
His bird's talons gripped the end of the stump, the other leg poised to take the last fatal step. The poor bird would die either way.
Five feet!
Then he looked, as if he knew this was the end, at Aeris, the beautiful green eyes seeming to give him power.
The chocobo went downwards very slowly, everything suddenly seeming to have no sound at all. As he fell from the saddle, he felt all emotions in the world one could think at once. I'm sorry, Aeris.
Then she whispered his name. Everything was going very slowly. Cloud couldn't hear anything else except his name.
He positioned his foot on the chocobo's back, and leapt.
He outstretched his hands, fingers open to the edge of the cliff.
He was going upwards, reaching a foot.
Then he began to descend.
Closer...
Closer...
Four fingers grasped the edge of the crevice. He was overcome with joy, then sudden fear and pain. His fingers felt like they were going to pop right out of their knuckles! He grabbed with the other hand, and pulled himself to safety.
By the time he was on top of the other side, she was already riding away on her black bird. "Aeris!!!" he shouted, his voice so loud it scratched his throat. She went on as if she never even heard him. Then he thought, Where is she going?
"Cloud!" shouted a voice behind him, trying to carry over the sound of the rushing waters below. He turned to Tso, who was with four other men on the other side of the drop. "You alright?"
"Fine!" shouted Cloud.
"Your bird ain't!" Tso pointed downwards. Cloud was sickened at the torn body mass below.
"Be pal!" shouted back Cloud. "When you get back, schedule me a boat that leaves in ten minutes for Costa del Sol!"
"Sure thing!" Tso talked to one of the other men, and he quickly raced away. "Why there?"
"Remember that the document you had said her hometown was del Sol!?"
"Oh yeah!" Then it suddenly hit Cloud. Wait a minute, he thought. Who is Lion866?
Tso had done a good job; Cloud had gotten a private vessel bound for Costa del Sol, nonstop for 72 hours. Three days, he thought. All too long while I know she's alive. He sat down on the bed as a sailor came in, and saluted him. Boy, it was a good thing he was good friends with Tso.
"Sir!" said the sailor in a rough voice. "The boat will be departing in 0005 hours, sir!" Cloud nodded, and the sailor left. He could just say five minutes.
He walked to a window, and looked out over the vast ocean. It was mind boggling to wonder about how wide the oceans are, or how deep the universe was, or how things were possible...
...Or how dead people come alive.
He shook his head. He hadn't stopped thinking about her since the second he understood she was breathing again.
He went up to the deck, and leaned on a rail.
"Hey, stranger," said a voice behind him. He turned to Tifa, who was standing just a few feet from him.
"Tifa...it's been a while."
"A month. We haven't talked in a month, Cloud."
"Tifa...it's been a while," he repeated. She smiled, then stood beside him as they both looked out over the endless sea. "How did you find me in five minutes?"
"I was already here, and when I heard a sailor with a radio say 'Arrange a vessel for Cloud Strife', I thought it might be the same Cloud." She paused. "So, why are you going on a private vessel?"
He suddenly stopped short. What could he tell her? It would make her angry to know he was pursuing something 'of his imagination', as she called it. "Just...taking a cruise."
"Usually people don't take cruises at Juno. It's a cargo port."
"I do." She smiled again.
"Always trying to be different, eh?" She stepped away. "Well, I figure I'll let you go on another hunt for whatever." She took a few more steps, then, "...At least tell me where you're going."
"Costa del Sol," said Cloud. She nodded, then waved goodbye.
He looked at a setting sun, a beautiful one. Going from leaping over a river to looking at an amazing sunset can tire someone, thought Cloud. Not wanting to talk to anyone or anything, he went back down to his cabin, and locked the door.
There would be days ahead of him before he reached his destination.
CONTINUED IN CHAPTER III
