Something
By Queen of Curses
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Wish I did, tho.
A/N: *sigh* I thank Sweta (aka 'weirdo'), the only person who was brave enough to review the last time I updated. I kno I shouldn't bring my personal probs into the picture, but sometimes, all rationality flies right outta my mind. Sorry, y'all. Anywayz, here's the chapter in our fave trash-talkin pilot's POV.
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I knew we was all goin' on a wild chocobo chase. I told 'em all that there was millions of worlds out there, but nooooo, they didn't listen. No one ever listens ta me whenever I have something ta say.
The chances of finding Leon is a gazillion ta one. That's also partially cuz Aerith is the automatic leader of our group now. She was never good at leading people. Another is cuz Cloud's comin' along. The spiky-assed kid is probably gonna get us all killed. He finds trouble everywhere he goes! And then, there's Yuffie. 'Nuff said. If it isn't 'nuff said, I'll explain. She's interested in gummi ships. I bet ya the minute we take off, she'll start pushing a lot of buttons and make us crash somewhere. Aerith's also fond of her, and she'll probably make me let Yuffie drive.
God, someone help me!
Well, on with the story, we was all boardin' on the ship. In the cockpit, I went to the controls and gave Yuffie an empty blueprint and a pencil.
"Wanna help, kid? Start makin' your own ship. A hundred parts minimum, a ten-weapon maximum, put in a good radar, and add a Haste or Shield or somethin'." I said, tryin' ta get the annoyin' kid outta mah way temporarily.
"Aye-aye, Captain Cid!" She said, so full of perk. I just shook my head, relieved.
We then took off. In space, I looked at the map and tried to decide where to go. But Aerith just bossed me around.
"Cid, let's go to Wonderland. I think Leon is there." She said. I heard a snicker. It was Cloud. "What?" Aerith asked.
"Wonderland?" Cloud said, using the 'Teenage Attitude' voice that everyone could recognize by now. "It's so clear that he's in Traverse Town."
"No way!" Aerith yelled.
"Way!" Cloud yelled back.
And so it went like that for a while. Luckily, we didn't get hit by anything yet. The path was pretty clear.
"SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO WORK HERE!!!" Screamed a high-pitched voice in the corner of the cockpit.
"Oh, sorry, Yuffie." Aerith apologized. Spiky-ass just grumbled.
Suddenly, the gummi ship got hit by a huge meteor. Everything shook violently for a while, then all went dark.
"Aw, darn! Now I can't see!" Yuffie complained. Though it was pitch dark, I knew what everyone was doing.
Yuffie was making her way towards the controls. That was a bad sign.
Aerith was just silently sitting on the floor, probably still shaken up from the collision.
And Cloud--
"CLOUD! What the fuck ya doin', man! That's mah ass that you grabbin'!" I yelled.
"Oh, sorry, Cid." He replied.
"Ya better be." I mumbled to myself before finding a flashlight and turning it on.
"Y'all all right?" I received a 'yep', a grunt, and a nod. I took 'em all as a 'yes'.
Turning the flashlight towards the windshield, mah eyes most probably widened to the size of saucers, or whatever ya people call 'em.
"M-m-m-eteor-----" Yuffie started, her voice shaking from fear. She's been frightened of them things ever since she was very young. No one knows why. Maybe it was cuz there was a shower of 'em the night that our leader, Ansem, disappeared. Yeah, maybe that's it. She admired him greatly. Heck, all 'o us did.
"Shower." Cloud finished for Yuffie, trying to act all brave. I looked over to where Aerith was. Her knees were up to her chest and her head was down. It was the safety position we all learned a long time ago.
"Hold on to yer lunch!" I yelled. That was when all chaos begun. The meteors hit us, one after another. Soon, we began spinning. I heard some girly screamin', which I was pretty sure was Spiky. I don't know what happened between that and the time I woke ta find that we made an emergency landin', cuz then I blacked out.
I awoke and exited the ship ta find that we all was in some kinda cemetery. Aerith n Yuffie was just sittin' on one o those coffin things, as if they was waitin' for somethin'. I dunno where Spiky was.
"What the hell happened?" I asked.
"I pushed the big, huge, giant, round, circle button and we just landed here." Yuffie said.
"Where's Cloud?" I inquired.
Aerith just pointed ta somewhere far off in the distance. I walked there slowly, takin' mah precious time. If the damn kid was in trouble he could damn well take care 'o himself till the time I arrive there.
When I reached the other side of the cemetery, there was Cloud, all showin' off ta nobody in particular. He was usin' that Ultima Weapon 'o his ta do that Sonic Blade special attack over and over again on some weird-lookin' skeleton dude who kept dodgin' it. after a while, I wondered how he could keep this up. Last time I asked him, he only had 20 MP, which was far less than what he must have used up by now. I just shrugged it off. I had ta stop Cloud. He probably thought the skeleton was trouble. But I didn't think so, cuz he wasn't attackin' back.
I took out my prized weapon, the Venus Gospel, and stuck it out right in front of Cloud, causin' him ta trip n stumble n fall n all that shit. He just looked up from where he was on the ground n glared. I laughed.
"Hey, you! Skeleton dude! Ya know where we might be right now?" I asked the tall, thin, lanky man in black.
"You're just in time!" He exclaimed. "Today is Halloween Town's Halloween Festival!"
"So we're in Halloween Town," Cloud mused. "I heard you had a genius professor around here. Fact or fiction?" I snickered. Cloud was tryin' to act all smart n clever. Maybe he can pull that smarty pants crap on someone else, but nope, it won't fool me cuz I know for a fact that Cloud's brain is a quarter the size of Yuffie's, which ain't too much.
"It's a fact! Professor has the most intelligent brain around!" The skeleton explained. "Here, let me help you." And he offered a thin, bony, hand to Cloud.
"Umm . . . it's okay. I can get up myself." Cloud said nervously as he got up, eyein' the hand that was offered ta him.
"Let me introduce myself. The name's Jack. Jack Skellington." He said.
"Hey. Mine's Cid Highwind. Nice ta meet ya."
"Cl--AHH!" Spiky-ass yelled as I tripped him again with my Venus Gospel. "Cloud." He grumbled, his face in the dirt. I grinned.
'Oh, how I love teasin' Cloud like this. It's so much fun.' I thought ta mahself.
"Oh, yes, the professor. Would you like to meet him?" I nodded to Jack's question. "Wait right here! I'll get him!"
And so we all jus' waited there. When that Jack dude returned, he came along with some creepy guy in a wheelchair.
"Do they call you wheels?" I asked the old wheelchair guy, remembering a movie I once watched. I think it was X-Men: The Movie. (A/N: Umm . . . maybe u pplz don't get it. It's an inside joke between me and a friend.)
Cloud lifted an eyebrow at this.
"I am the professor." The wheelchair guy said.
"Have you seen a young man around here? Chocolate brown hair, blue-grey eyes, pale complexion, carries around a gunblade?" Cloud hurried said, describing Leon like he memorized his features pretty well.
"Ah . . . I think I have." The professor mumbled. "Yes, have. He's passed by here and just handed my maid Sally something, said something, then left."
"Do you know what he said?" Cloud asked, his voice almost showing an emotion besides cockiness. Almost. Maybe it was almost the emotion of worry.
"Hmm . . . yes, this fellow told her to take it and destroy it." 'Wheels' answered.
"What was this item?" Cloud asked.
"Here, take a look for yourself." And the professor handed something silvery and shiny to Cloud. Leon's Griever pendant. I panicked. I turned my eyes ta Cloud. And just as I thought, his eyes were all tearin' up.
I could understand why. Long ago, probably about a year before they started their relationship, Cloud fought Sephiroth . . . . yes, you heard me right, Sephiroth. He won, amazingly, but narrowly. He won with his HP at a mere 1 and MP at 0. He didn't have any items left, either.
After Sephiroth had lost, he teleported away, leaving only a pile of black feathers on the ground. Within the pile of feathers was a silver glint. It was the Griever pendant. Cloud took the long journey home to Hallow Bastion, all beaten and battle-worn, and collapsed at Leon's feet. But before he collapsed, Cloud said these few words to Leon: "For you."
Awww, ain't all this sappy shit sweet? So, yeah, that's what happened. Ain't it all touchin'? Cloud must've been pretty darn exhausted back then. Cloud gave it ta Leon as a sign of friendship, but eventually became their shared sign of love, like a weddin' ring or somethin'.
And so I knew them tears wasn't gonna come. Cloud's pride n ego wouldn't allow that. Cloud just grabbed it out of the professor's hands, and before walkin' into the Highwind, said these words ta me: "Fix it. Now."
The nerve o that spiky-assed kid! But even as much as I luv teasin' him, I'm smart enough to know that I shouldn't mess with Cloud during' his special 'sensitive' moments. Heh. So I fixed the Highwind within the hour.
When we took off, I immediately went to the controls ta make sure everything' was up n runnin' perfectly. I checked the warp-drive gummi last n found that the darn thing was broken. I couldn't fix it, either. Those things are hard to fix, find, replace, n all that shit.
"Oh, no! The warp-drive gummi is broken!" Yuffie cried.
"It's alright. We can manage our way to Wonderland without it, right Cid?" Aerith said.
"Yeah." I answered, scratching the back of head. I think I'm gonna get a bald spot there soon. "But it'll take a while."
"I'm willing to wait." Aerith said. "Let me take the controls." I just couldn't say no. She's a tough one. So I let her take controls and walked around the cockpit. Yuffie was still in the corner, working on her gummi ship blueprint. Suddenly, I heard some kind of sobbing from the bathroom. Yes, there's a bathroom in the Highwind.
I knocked on the door, but the sobbin' just continued. I knocked again, this time louder.
"Fuck off." Said a voice from inside.
"Cloud, what ya doin' in there cryin'" I asked.
"Can't a guy do his business without any interruptions? And I'm not crying, Cid!" Cloud shouted. And so I just left him alone.
About an hour later, we had finally reached Wonderland. I could've gotten us there in 10 minutes, but nooooo, Aerith had to drive so slowly.
Anywho, we arrived there and teleported ourselves to the saving point near the Queen's Court. Cloud's eyes were all red by then, too. Also, Cloud started his inquiry all over again. I just stood back as he argued with the Queen of Hearts. Aerith and Yuffie were waiting on the Highwind for us to return with some news. I really wasn't payin' much attention to their argument until I heard the 4 words that the queen was famous for.
"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!" She screeched. The damn woman sounds like a dyin' bird for God's sake. Well, then them card things started pilin' themselves on top 'a Cloud, football-style. When Cloud got out of the huge pile-up, he just ran into the Lotus Forest, where them card things didn't follow him, but just shook their fists at him.
Obviously, I followed Cloud. But before I did so, I just shook my head sayin' "That kid always seems ta get himself into some trouble wherever we go."
There in the Lotus Forest, I saw Cloud talkin' to this purple n pink cat thing that was floatin' in the air. The Cheshire Cat.
"Looking for a dear old friend?
Just follow this nice dirt path,
You'll find a clue there at the end,
But beware of the blonde man's wrath."
After its recitation of the little poem, the cat just disappeared into thin air. Cloud and I just walked silently along the dirt path. Soon, we reached a dead end, where there was a bunch of purple grass growing. Without hesitation, Cloud entered the purple grassy area. Yet again, I followed.
There, we came face to face with a manly man with honey-dew blonde hair and some pair 'o green eyes. He was also a good deal taller and much more muscular than spiky-ass. Them eyes reminded me 'o Sephiroth, too. Anyways, the man must've been a true fighter, cuz his weapon was up to Cloud's throat the second he heard us comin'.
"Nice gunblade." Cloud commented on the blonde man's weapon.
"Thanks." The man grinned a psychotic grin. This guy must be the one the Cheshire Cat was talkin' 'bout. "I call it Hyperion."
As if there was no weapon at his throat, Cloud carried on a casual conversation. "My boyfriend has a gunblade, too."
"So does mine."
"Care to place down your weapon?"
"Sure." And the green-eyed man lowered Hyperion.
"The name's Cloud Strife. You?" Cloud extended his hand. The other just took his hand and shook it with what looked like a great strength.
"Almasy. Seifer Almasy."
"Have you seen a man named Squall Leonhart come around here?"
"Nope." Was the answer we received from that Seifer dude.
"Oh, okay. Bye." And Cloud turned to leave, motioning for me to follow him.
"Yeah, I better get going to bring these herbs to my sick friend, ya know, the one with the gunblade." Seifer said.
It was only after a few minutes of walking around did the both of us realize that Leon once told us that there were only two gunbladers in the entire universe: himself and another that he did not know of. Seifer was that person.
When went and looked back to where Seifer had been, he was gone. But there was a saving point close by. He must have used that to teleport himself to his gummi ship, if he had one.
Cloud n I just brought our blonde arses to the Highwind where Cloud took control of the ship. I hated for the controls to get all sticky from his fingers, but I knew how important Leon meant to Cloud. But I kinda do mind helping a selfish bratty bastard like him. But I just went along, or else he'd be cryin' all day long. And I really wouldn't want that.
We saw a green gummi ship ahead of us. Cloud then assumed the darn thing was headin' for Traverse Town, so he warp-drove us all the way there. When we entered through the world's gate's Cloud began his search, questioning every person or moogle that he crossed paths with. Again, I just followed along, shakin' mah head every time he got into trouble. An example would be when the spiky-assed kid got angry at a bunch of innocent moogles and decided to pull at their pom-poms. They all ganged up together and started beatin' the shit outta Cloud. Heh. Serves him right. He should know that he should never mess with a moogle and its pom-pom.
Anywho, we found ourselves outside of a house that I've never seen before. I don't think Aerith or Yuffie had seen it before, either. Oh, yeah, 'bout them two, they was all sayin' they would just stay in the Highwind 'till we returned. There's really somethin' fishy between those two. Anyways, the house was black and red, with a huge sign that read "Sephy's'" in nice, neat, French Script. The first thing that popped into this ol' head 'o mine was: 'Shit. This can't be.' Oh, but it was.
"Say it isn't so," Cloud mumbled. "Say that Sephiroth didn't open up his own clothing boutique."
"I'm a afraid so, Cloud. Maybe he knows where Leon is. Or maybe where Seifer is." I said.
And so we entered the antique-like house. Inside we saw clumps after clumps of mannequins, walls after walls of shelves, and rows after rows of racks with hangers. And along with it all were a ton of clothes that looked like they were made for Goths. Everything in the store was black, except for the occasional grey, green, or red.
Within the whole cluster of black, I spotted a flash of silver.
"Yo, Seph!" I called out in the direction of the silver flash. Soon, we were faced with the world's greatest villain of all time. Well, actually, now he was kind of an ex-villain. Long story. Really can't explain it now. Well, the guy just smiled at me, but when he looked to Cloud, his smile immediately turned into a frown.
"Hello. Welcome to Sephy's Clothing Boutique for the Goths. Can I help you?" The silver-haired man said mechanically, as though he's said it many times before.
"Have you seen Squall anywhere? Leon? Seifer?" Cloud quickly asked. Seph just grinned evilly.
"I'll tell you what you want to know, if you do what I want you to do." He replied.
"What? I'll do anything!" Spiky-ass said, his voice almost in a pleadin' tone. Well, then the one-winged angel started humming some N'SYNC song as he went through some racks of clothing, looking for something.
"Here, put this on. It's new and I want to know if it's worth selling to the public." Seph said, handin' a pile 'o black n red ta Cloud. "The changing room is over there." And he pointed to a grey door about ten feet away from us.
"Umm . . . sure." And Cloud went over to where the taller man pointed, entered the room, and I assumed he was either changing or devising a plan to get out of this situation.
A few minutes later, when Cloud burst outta the dressing room, I burst out laughin' mah arse off. He was wearin' this silly ol' black dress. The hem, the waistline, and the ends of the sleeves were a deep crimson red. He also got one 'o those neck-belt chokers that has metal spikes coming outta it. His black platform shoes were 'bout five inches off the ground. And along with that, Cloud wore a wig that was long n black with red streaks in it. Heh.
The only way I recognized him was by his Mako blue eyes. His face was flushed to a deep red, too. How embarrassing. He's also lucky that Aerith ain't here. She would be teasin' him for the rest 'o his life.
"Don't say a word of this to Aerith." Cloud growled out to me.
"Mah lips are sealed, man." I replied, crossin' mah fingers behind me. Next time Cloud decides ta piss me off, I HAVE BLACKMAIL! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anyways, Sephiroth stopped hummin' his lil N'SYNC tune and took a good look at Cloud. "Hmm . . . the outfit is perfect." He mused to himself, his lips formin' a small smile. "It only looks bad because of the model." Cloud just growled.
"Are you going to tell me where he is or not?!"
"Okay, okay, just have patience." the one-winged angel replied. "Well, in changing room #12, you'll find something there from when Leon, or Squall as you call him, came here for clothes."
"I'll get 'em." I volunteered. Cloud just nodded as he headed for his changin' room ta get into his regular clothes. When I entered changin' room #12, I immediately found a pile of clothes that I knew belonged to Leon. I just grabbed the whole pile and brought them to where Seph and Cloud were waitin'.
Cloud took a good look at the pile of clothes. Surely, there were Leon's. Everything was there; the many belts, the bomber jacket, the leather pants, his shirt, and his boots. Inside the bomber jacket was a letter. I read it to mahself. Cloud was pretty annoyed cuz I wouldn't let him read it.
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Dear Leon,
Hey, it's been a while, baby. A month since ya last visited me here in mah world. I received your last letter. Yeah, I can get the herbs for ya from Wonderland. I'll drive there on mah new gummi ship. I just got my license a week ago. I should've gotten it when I was 16, but they said I was an "unsafe driver". Heh. I'll meet ya in Olympus Coliseum. Might take me a while, I'm new to this whole flying thing. Well, I better start getting ready for the trip.
Lotsa luv,
Seifer
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Aw, shit, just what we need--more complications. I folded up the letter into a tiny 'ol square. Then, I took mah lighter and burned it to ashes.
"What did it say?" Cloud said anxiously. I couldn't tell him that Leon had a new boyfriend. It would break his lil 'ol heart.
"Leon's at the Olympus Coliseum." I said, tryin' ta hide the guilt in mah voice for not telling him da whole truth. Fortunately, he didn't notice.
"Let's not mosey." Cloud said. I looked at him weird. Then, he restated his sentence. "Let's rush!"
As we was leavin' Sephy's boutique, I heard the silver-haired one sing something. "Bye-bye-bye-bye-bye!" Aw, darn, that's the N'SYNC song he loves so darn much. I think it's called 'Bye-Bye-Bye'.
As we enter the Highwind, we saw them two ladies makin' out. Cloud just coughed loudly to make our presence known. Heh, them ladies was scared silly. Anyways, I took control of the ship and drove us a fast as I could to the Olympus Coliseum. We arrived there in exactly 1 minute and 20 seconds.
Soon, all four 'o us was standin' right in front of the Lobby Door. Cloud stepped forward and entered. I was about to follow, by Aerith stopped me.
"Leave him be." She said.
"But isn't Cloud gonna get beat up by Leon in there?" Yuffie asked.
"Exactly." Aerith said, smiling.
I just sighed, wondering when the time will come when Aerith stops picking on poor 'ol Cloud. Yeah, it's fun, but she's a bit too extreme.
'Umm . . . yeah.' I thought to myself, and I went back to scratching the back of my head, finding a bald spot there.
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QOC: Hey! Good? Bad? Review! This chappie's a bit longer than the others. Yeah. In the next few chapters, Seifer (woo-hoo!) might be a bit out of character cuz i don't got FF8. Maybe I'll borrow it from someone. Anywho, to those interested, PLEASE read n review mah other KH fic, "Broken Promises". The pairing is Sora/Riku if y'all was wonderin'.