Forgot to mention last time. There's another piece of story art for MM. This one is of Reno during the Zolom bashing scene. ^_^ http://www.geocities.com/t_u_r_k_s/RenoforMM.jpg
By Moira
Chapter 4-A Fool's Dream
He sat against the log now, the breeze ruffling his hair. The blond bangs whispered across his forehead and feathered lightly back into their original positions. Moss from the dead wood clung to his uniform in patches, and despite the stagnant air from the swamp, his personal space smelled of green and water. He gazed out and far across the land, eyes looking but not seeing. The mountains rose in modest peaks, their rocky masses like an uneven pattern of stitches. Gray and brown, molted green. The air was warm and heavy, drowsy and inviting for sleep. His blue eyes focused for a brief moment as something in the distance took flight. The wings beat at the air and a cry of triumph echoed down into the valley. Unoccupied once more, his eyes unfocused and the lashes fluttered downward. In a moment his innocent dozing became much deeper.
A haze of blue beat at the undersides of his eyelids. As the wings of that bird he had seen, the azure hue throbbed and breathed like any living thing. He signed peacefully and straightened up in his dream. He was sitting cross-legged, the Ultima sword braced against his knees. All around him the wall of color and light seemed to spread, envelope. He looked down at the weapon balanced on his legs. There was writing on the handle and the blond brows bunched together in an unspoken question. He lifted it to his face and traced the flow of angular letters.
PAST ME
I CAN ONLY SEE
THE RED OF WHITE
THE WHITE OF GOLD
THE ONE WHO AGES
BUT DOES NOT GROW OLD
I HAD A NAME
BUT I NOW FORGET
SOMETIMES I WONDER
WHERE IT WENT
I AM THE END OF A LINE
YOU KEEP ME STRUNG
MYSELF I NO LONGER OWN
BUT YOU ARE OWNED BY THREE
AND ONE OF THOSE GONE
BUT LEFT HERE
IS THE PARTIAL OWNER
ME
His lips parted as he repeated each word. Moved a finger through every groove, and reached the end where it began again. The sword had never had any writing. He knew that, and recognized the discrepancy in the dream, but there it was.
"I am…"
Blue beat at his senses. He turned his head side to side, listening for a sign. The scar on his arm began to throb dully, distracting him. He rubbed it unconsciously, lightly tracing the path of the wound like he had the engravings on the sword.
"I am…?" He repeated, a note of doubt entering his normally reassured tone.
"You are a fool," a familiar voice said evenly.
"I…Sephiroth?!"
Out of the undefined blue area stepped a man that had not been a man for over a year. He remained unchanged in appearance from those last days. His silver white hair still radiated power, and the pale countenance positively glowed. This man had once contended to be a god. He looked the part, and acted like a devil. Or had. He wasn't alive anymore to judge.
Cloud stood up stiffly, his body betraying the anxiety he felt flood his senses.
The taller man looked at him with severity. Under the disapproval of those green eyes the younger man flinched. Even after it all, it was still the general and the soldier that never quite made it. His face flushed with shame and he straightened.
He might have imagined it, like everything else in this dream, but he thought he caught the ghost of a smile pass over those cold lips.
"You're dead," He began.
"And you're a fool." Sephiroth repeated.
Cloud tightened the grip on the sword he now realized he was holding.
"You're a fool, because you still haven't learned."
"What're you talking about Sephiroth?"
"He means," came another voice. "That you should know by now, that we're not-"
"That we're not living anymore. Zax, stop footing around it." Sephiroth directed to another man, who was stepping through the wall.
The new arrival was entering backwards, like someone climbing out of a window, only of course, there wasn't one. His hair struck out at erratic angles like blackened spears, and it reached down almost as far as Sephiroth's. Turning his head as he made it into the 'room' with the other two, and a disapproving frown creased his features. It was directed, incredibly, at Sephiroth, who merely snorted and looked aloof. Seeing Cloud though, a smile burst forth like sun through the clouds.
It was contagious, and Cloud grinned back, but his eventually faded into confusion.
"And that makes me a fool? I don't understand," he said, his voice close to cracking with emotion.
Zax glanced at Sephiroth, and then back to Cloud with a sad smile.
"I know, and I want to help you, but this is something you have to sort out by yourself Cloud."
Sephiroth folded his arms across his chest, giving Zax a look that clearly said, soft.
"You are hopeless Zax. He will never get it. Look at the time that has passed, and he still doesn't even have a clue."
The black haired man spoke softly, but there was an edge underlying anger to it.
"This from a fallen god-wannabe?"
"You know I regret that. Even controlled by that… Well even dying like that held more dignity than being shot like dog."
"At least I wasn't put under by a toy cat."
"It was a very armored toy cat and…"
Cloud's expression during this exchange flowed from anger, to bewilderment, to deathly pale.
His voice cracked, but he swallowed and went on nonetheless. "Don't you dare speak about it like he died without meaning you megalomaniac, pretentious, psycho, murderer, asshole %^&@# BASTARD!!!"
Both Sephiroth and Zax looked surprised at the outburst, as if they had forgotten he was even there.
Something was stinging in his eyes, and the hand on the sword hurt terribly.
Sephiroth didn't have the decency to look embarrassed, but Zax flushed from head to foot. The dark haired man was almost as physically accomplished as Sephiroth, but with one hand in his nonexistent pocket, seeing as he was dead and all, and slouching, the SOLDIER first class seemed boyish and thin. He stepped forward and put a hand on Cloud's shoulder. The blond was shaking, whether with fury or emotion, it couldn't be told. Zax bent down and looked into the blue mako eyes that stared relentlessly forward.
Cloud blinked furiously and finally acknowledged him.
"Cloud…" Zax said. "I know, and he does too even if he doesn't show it. It was a poor way to die-"
Cloud opened his mouth to retort this, but Zax held up a gloved hand.
"It was a crappy way for a SOLDIER to go, especially because it left you by yourself like that." "No," he said, reading the indignation in the other man's face. "It wasn't fair, and yes, I regret leaving you despite whatever weird ideas you have on the matter. You always did berate yourself too much." "But," he continued, "It wasn't meaningless. You made it didn't you?" He smiled broadly. "You succeeded where we left off, and look at you! You saved the freaking world!"
If anything Cloud's face fell even more at these words. His arms held slack now at his sides, the strength gone from them. He looked away from Zax and the long bangs hid his face.
"It never ends though. I can't get away from it. Any of it." He looked up into Zax's tense face. "It should have been me. I never know what to do," he said bitterly.
Sephiroth opened his mouth to speak, but Zax glared him into continued silence.
Cloud stared fixedly at the ground, his teeth clenched into the parody of a smile. The intensity of it was unerving. Zax shook him lightly.
"Cloud…"
"…."
"You may be a fool," Sephiroth abruptly broke in. Zax looked ready to kill, but the once General ignored him completely. He walked in long strides till he reached the younger man. Appraising him with scrutiny the green eyes ended on his sword arm. The white scar there was almost luminescent on the tanned limb.
"You did, beat me once Strife. If this little thing drives you to do…foolish things, then I shall have to attribute that victory to luck."
"Gee, that's generous," Zax said dryly. "Alright, while his royal highness here-"
Sephiroth scowled darkly.
"…has problems even condescending, he does mean well."
Even Cloud had problems buying this line. Zax grimaced at his choice of words and tried again.
"Ok…uh, look. That guy you fought in North Crater, yeah I know all about it, that was Seph and JENOVA. In flat terms, that guy was so far off his rocker he would have eaten a live chocobo and giggled while he did it."
There was disquiet shuffling from Sephiroth and, "…giggle?"
"This guy here," Zax jerked a thumb in his direction, "is the same cold bastard that made me cut off my own thumb to get out of cuffs while in the SOLDIER training program. And then made me CURE it myself the heartless…."
Sephiroth seemed unfazed by this description, but Cloud thought he caught another questioning, "…giggle?" mouthed under the General's breath.
He looked back to Zax, the blue eyes still troubled, but catching on.
"So, this is the old Sephiroth? What happened to…"
Zax shook his head vehemently. "Don't even think it Cloud. Really. Don't until you pick up on the other thing."
"What other thing?!" Cloud was beginning to get irritated by all the secrecy, but then he noticed Zax and Sephiroth were no longer paying any attention to him. They seemed to be listening for something. Zax withdrew his hand from Cloud's shoulder and backed up to stand beside Sephiroth.
"Seph…" He said, a note of serious underlining the mood.
"I know," Sephiroth said quietly, and with one smooth movement drew Masamune from out of nowhere.
Zax performed a similar trick and the Buster sword was out. He held it in front, and flanked Sephiroth protectively. Years of fighting together hadn't faded with even death. His light blue eyes flicked from left to right, searching and not finding the source of tension that suddenly permeated the atmosphere.
Cloud stepped towards them, his hand out and the question posed on his lips.
The walls were darkening perceptively now, black bleeding into the crystalline blue. Sephiroth gave Zax an almost imperceptible nod, and they both moved as one, backing up slowly towards the remaining blue wall.
"Wait! What's going on?! Don't leave yet!"
Zax gave him a tight smile. "You just go back. You can't stay here and neither can we."
"But why? What's going on and what am I supposed to understand?!" Cloud shouted, and had to, because a buzzing began to overwhelm the pulsating beat.
Sephiroth grabbed Zax by the arm. "We are leaving." He growled, pulling the other man backwards. They started to sink into the wall, Sephiroth first, his hand still clamped tightly to Zax's bicep. As Zax began disappearing as well, he shot Cloud a nervous grin.
"If things keep going like they are, we talk again! Real soon!"
"But-"
"I promise! Just remember to he-" And he was cut off as the buzz became deafening and all traces of the two visitors from the grave were gone. Cloud spun in a circle, looking desperately for a way out himself. There had to be one! This was… Wasn't it only a…? He dropped the sword and fell to his knees as he was sure blood would begin to flow between the fingertips clamped over his ears. Should it hurt this badly? For Holy's sake, it was only a-"
"-DREAM!" Reno shouted in his ear. "Dammit Cloud! Wake up! You're-"
Cloud shook awake with a start. He gasped in pain as Reno bellowed into his ear even as he was fully conscious now. White light lanced through his head and he thought he might be sick.
Reno recoiled at the withering glare shot in his direction.
"Jeez," he said. "You're the one who was all thrashing and babbling. I just woke you up because you looked for a moment like… Well, I woke you up anyway. No need to kill with the eyes."
The red head made the sign of the cross, mock fear slipping into one sided smile.
"Besides," he added with a smugly. "Guess who finally showed up?"
Cloud struggled to his feet and tottered there, his balance tenuous. Reno frowned and stood as well, but his manner clearly said, if you fall I'm gonna either laugh or rifle through your pockets for spare gil and take off.
The blond managed his footing and whipped his head in the direction a loud "wark!" suddenly came from.
Sylth stood placidly beside Reno's tree stump, and favored them both with a look that put them below her standards; and as she nipped daintily at the sparse patches of grass, below priority too.
Reno stalked over to her grabbed the reins roughly. He yanked her beak away from the grass, and she yanked back catching him completely off guard.
Cloud looked on, but said nothing. The dream was still too fresh in his mind to fully appreciate the spectacle of a Turk wrestling a chocobo in mud, but he logged it away for later.
The bird finally won out, but some Millet greens persuaded it to behave. With the setting sun they were eventually able to move out.
Reno, in an unexpected show of common sense, had Cloud ride while he jogged along side. It would have been senseless for Cloud to do the running because of his injury, and they both couldn't fit on Sylth, but the lack of fuss on the Turk's part was nothing short of eerie. The Turk earned even more grudging respect when he was able to keep up with Sylth's moderate pace well into the night. They still had another hour before Junon was a certainty, and Cloud kept to himself, mulling over the dream with a recollection he had never had for any other.
Beside the bird Reno loped in ground eating strides, his breathing steady, but telltale heavy. He had a few questions to put to Strife when they arrived, and not all had to do with snakes and destinations. Something he had muttered in his sleep had struck familiar grounds in Reno's own memories. An explanation was needed. He deserved at least that much. And when they finally got to Junon, they would have a little talk about this Nibelheim thing. Oh yes. And Zax too. Reno had thought of another little snippet of info that needed addressing. There was much to discuss, and little enough time to do it in.
* * * *
Author's Note: Yeah-yeah. I promised Junon and you got mud wrestling. Go figure. I'm just gonna quit promising things and say fervently, I HOPE for Junon next chapter. Hoping is safe. It doesn't get you bricked. Usually. O_o As per normal procedure here, R&R comments, suggestions, and canned goods if you feel so inclined. Thanks for the input last time too. I'm still blushing. ^_^ -Mo