CHAPTER VIII: Estauns Interius (Cloud's Story)
NOTE: As noted in previous chapters, I am continuing the story from several points of view. This is continuing with Cloud's POV from Chapter V. This is a short chapter, finishing up Cloud's story. (He's still in the rest, however… well, you'll see.)
The mist was slowly spreading thin and disappearing under the warm sun as the young girl Purishira continued on her morning stroll along the sands south of Junon Harbor and away from the heavy pollution. She had just turned old enough to walk by herself, and now she pondered about what was going on in the world as the sand sifted between her toes. Hands together behind her back and watching her toes, she reminisced of Cloud and how he had saved her from the water beast earlier that year. I wonder where they are now, she thought, I wonder if they remember me and Mr. Dolphin. Little did she know that the heroes of her heart were now the saviors of the planet. She would never find out, but her wish of seeing me again… would soon be fulfilled.
As her mind drifted in thoughts of joy, and happiness filled her heart now that Meteor was gone and the apocalypse would never come after all, she noticed something resting at her feet. Something different; something wrong. Something that made her tiny heart skip a beat and jerk her quickly and unsteadily back into reality.
A golden, yellow chocobo feather: dripping in dark red blood.
In horror her eyes wandered upward, spotting multiple other reddish feathers and wooden fragments. It was then that she noticed the stained red sea. It was then that she noticed the smoldering mass of metal twisted in the shore rocks that was once a Shin-Ra freighter. It was then that she noticed me, shoulders bobbing upward and down again in a hysterical laughing fit among the debris.
It was then that I noticed her.
'My god,' I thought in the back of my mind with what little reason I had left. 'Why can't I stop myself?'
"You can't stop me." The Sephiroth inside me said. "I am you, yet you are not me. Enjoy the show." I/He cackled hurriedly, unsheathing the Buster Blade and readying for the sacrifice of a poor young girl. Facing the girl, I recognized her immediately, yet there was nothing I could do. In utter disgust at myself, I, under Sephiroth's influence, plunged at Purishira, who looked up at me with confusion and fright at the second of her death. So small, so puny, so helpless, I thought. I had no trouble in killing her, for the blade slid through her neck like butter, until she laid cold, dead, and decapitated in the warm summer sand.
It felt good… What!?? Am I…?
I'm giving in to his power.
Everything is black. Am I… dead?
'No…'
I think… I… have lost. Sephiroth is alive now, I am the one who is slain.
No, …wrong.
I am Sephiroth, Sephiroth is Cloud. We are one and the same. I share his blood, we share the body, the cells, the genes.
Master, I am your servant. Guide me, oh one-winged angel! Come! Let us destroy all!
NOTE: As noted in previous chapters, I am continuing the story from several points of view. This is continuing with Cloud's POV from Chapter V. This is a short chapter, finishing up Cloud's story. (He's still in the rest, however… well, you'll see.)
The mist was slowly spreading thin and disappearing under the warm sun as the young girl Purishira continued on her morning stroll along the sands south of Junon Harbor and away from the heavy pollution. She had just turned old enough to walk by herself, and now she pondered about what was going on in the world as the sand sifted between her toes. Hands together behind her back and watching her toes, she reminisced of Cloud and how he had saved her from the water beast earlier that year. I wonder where they are now, she thought, I wonder if they remember me and Mr. Dolphin. Little did she know that the heroes of her heart were now the saviors of the planet. She would never find out, but her wish of seeing me again… would soon be fulfilled.
As her mind drifted in thoughts of joy, and happiness filled her heart now that Meteor was gone and the apocalypse would never come after all, she noticed something resting at her feet. Something different; something wrong. Something that made her tiny heart skip a beat and jerk her quickly and unsteadily back into reality.
A golden, yellow chocobo feather: dripping in dark red blood.
In horror her eyes wandered upward, spotting multiple other reddish feathers and wooden fragments. It was then that she noticed the stained red sea. It was then that she noticed the smoldering mass of metal twisted in the shore rocks that was once a Shin-Ra freighter. It was then that she noticed me, shoulders bobbing upward and down again in a hysterical laughing fit among the debris.
It was then that I noticed her.
'My god,' I thought in the back of my mind with what little reason I had left. 'Why can't I stop myself?'
"You can't stop me." The Sephiroth inside me said. "I am you, yet you are not me. Enjoy the show." I/He cackled hurriedly, unsheathing the Buster Blade and readying for the sacrifice of a poor young girl. Facing the girl, I recognized her immediately, yet there was nothing I could do. In utter disgust at myself, I, under Sephiroth's influence, plunged at Purishira, who looked up at me with confusion and fright at the second of her death. So small, so puny, so helpless, I thought. I had no trouble in killing her, for the blade slid through her neck like butter, until she laid cold, dead, and decapitated in the warm summer sand.
It felt good… What!?? Am I…?
I'm giving in to his power.
Everything is black. Am I… dead?
'No…'
I think… I… have lost. Sephiroth is alive now, I am the one who is slain.
No, …wrong.
I am Sephiroth, Sephiroth is Cloud. We are one and the same. I share his blood, we share the body, the cells, the genes.
Master, I am your servant. Guide me, oh one-winged angel! Come! Let us destroy all!