Chapter 2: Dreams and monsters

Cloud tossed and turned in his sleep. His brows furrowed and he clenched and unclenched his fists. A struggle was taking place in his mind. Cloud tossed himself back and forth before lying completely still. His mind had settled.

"Dream"

(W, what the?)

Cloud blinked. He was standing on a white plattform. A lake lay below the plattform. His attention was directed to a figure before him. A young woman was kneeling before him with her hands clapsed together. Her eyes were closed and she appeared to be praying. Cloud´sright eye twitched, he knew the woman before him.

"Aeris?" Cloud thought out loud.

Then it hit him. He had been here before. This had happened a long time ago.

The young woman before him raised her head and smiled. Cloud´s left eye twitched again at this. Suddenly, his Buster Sword was in his hands. His legs moved, taking him close to Aeris. Cloud blinked. (What the fuck am I doing?) Was all he could think. He watched his own arms lift the Buster Sword above his head. His eyes widened in horror.

(M, my body won´t move! It´s as if something else is controling me! No, no, no! I can´t do this! Stop!) Cloud thought. He desperately tried to move away, but his body wouldn´t listen. His hands clenched the sword handle hard and pulled the sword even further back. Cloud closed his eyes. (Not this! Not again!) He thought.
Then, his arms brought the Buster Sword down. Cloud could only watch as his sword made it´s way towards the brown haired woman. Suddenly, a sharp light flared in his mind.
(WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, MAN? CUT IT OUT CLOUD!)
Strong hands suddenly grabbed his own and held them tightly.
Cloud´s eyes were opened wide and he was panting hard. The Buster Sword was positioned in an almost horizontal posture. The sword´s sharp edge was only inches from the woman´s forehead. No hands were holding his own. He quickly backed away, shaking his head in disbelief. Beads of sweat rolled down his temples. Aeris smiled at him, then she looked up. Cloud did as well. His eyes widened again. A black silouette crashed down from above with a thin long sword. Cloud knew this man. Oh yes, he knew the green eyed, silver haired devil quite well. Sephiroth.
The second before Sephiroth´s sword reached Aeris, his vision blurred and everything turned black.

"End dream"

Cloud bolted up into a sitting position. He was panting heavily and his eyes were wide open. He was soaked in sweat.

"What the ...flying fuck...was that?" Cloud wisphered.

His chest heaved up and down. The person in the other bed stirred for a second before sitting up as well. She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to get rid of some of the sleepyness.

"Cloud? What´s the matter?"

Cloud shook his head and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He looked at the young woman with a somewhat calm look.

"Nothing Tifa...nothing at all." Cloud said.

He laid down again and rolled over. Tifa frowned. She knew him well enough to tell that he was lying.

"Cloud, that´s not true and you know it. Now are you going to tell me what´s going on, or am I going to have to force it out of you?" Tifa said.

Cloud sighed in defeat. He then frowned. (I´m not even sure what to tell her. I had a bad dream, so what? I´ve had these kind of dreams before and I got over them. But...this one was different somehow. It was as if...as if it wanted to tell me something...) Cloud thought. He turned to Tifa after some more thinking.

"I had a bad dream, that´s all." Cloud said flatly.

Tifa raised an eyebrow at this but remained quiet. Cloud once again rolled over and tried to sleep.

Tifa wasn´t convinced however. (Cloud´s hiding something, and I´m going to find out what. But I´ll save that for tomorrow...) Tifa thought. She yawned and laid down as well. Sleep catched her in a minute or two.
Cloud wasn´t that lucky. The dream he had was bothering him to his very core.
(Back then, when I saw Aeris on that altar, my mind blurred. My body moved by it´s own will. It wasn´t untill I nearly killed Aeris, that I understood what I was doing and was able to think for myself again. Nightmares of that event has plagued me a long time after. But I eventually got over them as Aeris got revived. But this time...something was different. This time, I could think. For a second, I could hear someone in my head, screaming at me to stop at the top of his lungs. And...I could almost swear that I felt someone grab my hands this time. It was as if someone...interwiened and stopped me...) Cloud thought.
He closed his eyes.

"Just what the hell is going on with me?" Cloud wisphered to himself.

He closed his eyes and did his best to relax. It took 2 hours for him to fall asleep again.
Even then he slept uncomfortably.

The next morning, Cloud woke up early. He sat up slowly and yawned. Cloud shook his head in an effort to clear it from it´s current sleepyness. He looked at the other bed and found it empty.
(Tifa must already be up.) Cloud thought. He stood up and stretched before he started to get dressed.
Tifa was humming happily to herself as she heard heavy footsteps. She turned and saw Cloud coming down the stairs, he looked like he always did in the mornings. Ruffled hair, and foggy eyes. Tifa smiled at him as he sat down.

"Good morning Cloud." She said.

"Mrnin..." Came cloud´s groggy reply.

He let out a small yawn, then he shook his head and looked out the window. Tifa shook her head at him while smiling.
After a few minutes, Tifa put down a plate with stacks of food on it before Cloud.

"Eat up. We´re going to meet the others soon, remember?" Tifa said.

Cloud´s face darkened. Vague flashbacks flashed in his mind. Cloud sighed and shook his head. (No use in worrying about it. At least not now.) Cloud thought. He quickly devoured the food. After he finished, he quickly went upstairs and changed into his normal attire.
Tifa had gotten ready before Cloud so she patiently waited for her childhood friend to finish up. Cloud came down the stairs 5 minutes later, fully dressed and ready to go.

"Let´s go." Cloud said flatly.

Tifa nodded. They walked out of the villa and continued out of Costa Del Sol.
The two childhood friends could see the big Highwind a distance away. Cloud and Tifa exchanged
no words during the short walk from Costa Del Sol to the Highwind. They were both thinking the same thing.

30 minutes later, Cloud was standing in the Highwind´s conference room.
The rest of AVALANCHE was seated at the long table. They were all waiting for the blonde man to speak.

Cloud turned to his friends and nodded.

"Yesterday, I was attacked by a strange man. He had managed to sprinkle some sort of powder on me that made me completely immobile. He then transformed into a big snake-like monster and tried to devour me. Luckily, Vincent showed up just in time." Cloud began.

Nanaki nodded.

"I asked Vincent to go into Costa Del Sol to purchase some new Materia." Nanaki said.

Cid fimped his cigarette and straightened his goggles.

"He told me to take off. Somethin´ about havin´ somethin´ to straighten out. I never sorted that out. What the hell did you mean, Vince?" Cid said.

Vincent nodded and finally took part in the conversation.

"I was planning on spending the night at the Inn before heading out to the mountains. I wanted to take some ore samples from the old mine there. I heard that Materia was hidden in it." Vincent explained.

Yuffie bent closer to Vincent. Now she was interested.
Cid snorted at this.

"Oh yeah? Then why didn´t you just friggin´ tell me about it? That would have spared me a hell of a lot of confusion!"
Cid almost yelled.

Vincent simply remained quiet. Cid gave another snort but didn´t push the matter.
Cloud sighed. Everyone seemed to be so out of shape.
Then again, he was no exception.
Suddenly, the whole room shook and threw everyone out of their chairs!
Cloud fell to the floor but he flipped himself up onto his feet again in a
second! Everyone else shakily stood up as well. Another tremor shook
the room and threatened to throw it's inhabitants off their feet again!
Barret swore as he barely kept his balance.

"What the HELL's going on here?" Barret yelled.

Just then, one of the room´s walls exploded! Unfortunately, Cloud was the one standing beside that wall.
The blonde man was thrown forward by the sheer force of the explosion, but with superb skill, he
managed to somersault himself back onto his feet. Cloud heard Cid let out a string of curses as he looked
at the former wall. A big hole was all that remained of it. A strong gust of wind blew through the hole and
almost took the people in the room with it. Cloud threw one look out the hole and his eyes widened.
A large black shadow swept past the hole. And if he wasn´t sorely mistaken, Cloud could have sworn that it
looked almost like a big dragon! Cloud turned and started running towards the now-open doors.

"I´m going to the upper deck! You guys take cover on the Command Bridge! Now!" Cloud yelled.

Cloud ran out of the room and quickly made his way up the stairs that led to the upper deck.
The members of AVALANCHE didn´t have to be told twice. They all scrambled to follow their leader´s
order. Everyone bolted out of the room and ran towards the Command Bridge. Everyone, except one.
Tifa turned and ran up the stairs to the right of the Conference Room. She was determined to face this,
whatever it was, together with Cloud!

Cloud emerged on the upper deck and a small gust of wind hit him in the face. The force of it would
have sent a normal person reeling backwards, but he was no normal person by far. The force of the small
but powerful, and also unnatural wind paled in comparison to the sight before him.
Cloud stared and his mouth opened midway. He slowly walked towards the edge of the outside deck while
never taking his eyes off the sight before him.
The door behind him then opened and Tifa jumped through it. She ran up to Cloud and looked into his face.

"What´s going on, Cloud?" Tifa asked.

Cloud didn´t answer. He didn´t need to. Tifa wondered why he wouldn´t answer her and slowly directed her
gaze into the same direction as he was staring in. Her rose-red eyes widened in shock and her mouth hung
open.

Just then, the AVALANCHE members all ran up to the centre of the Command Bridge.

"What the FUCK'S going on´?" Cid barked at the workers.

The workers had all stopped controlling the levers and were all staring out the huge window before them.

"What the HELL are you lazy, good-for-nothing´s-" Cid began saying, but he was interrupted.

Barret shook his head in disbelief at the sight before him.

"Hey, Cid! We ain´t got no time fo´ that! Man, you´ve GOTTA look out the window!" Barret exclaimed.

"Why the hell do I- ... Oh, fuck...!"

Cid started a new string of curses while moving his head towards the window at the same time.
The cigarette fell from his mouth as he gaped in pure shock at the sight before him.

Hovering and flying around the Highwind, was a huge horde of big dragons! They were all mutated in
some way and their skin was coal-black. They roared occaisonally as they circled around the ship.

Cloud finally managed to close his mouth and get his brain working again.

"What the heck is going on here?" Cloud exclaimed.

Tifa managed to snap out of her own state of shock as well at this.

"I don´t know! But it´s probably NOT going to be anything good!" Tifa yelled.

Tifa yelled for one simple reason. Cloud wouldn´t have heard her if she didn´t. Strong winds were blowing
around the ship, plus the dragons´ roaring were drowning out every other sound.
As Cloud stared at the horde of monsters, a small light flickered in his mind. He blinked and shook his head
in mild confusion. The light disappeared almost faster than it came. Cloud shook his head again.
Now wasn´t the time to be pondering on this!
Cloud´s right eye twitched as he noticed that the dragon´s had all turned towards the ship.
They all opened their mouths and gathered energy.
Tifa gasped and took a step back. Cloud growled and put his hand on the handle of the Ultima Weapon.
Just then, his PHS rang. Cloud picked it up and answered it.

"What?" Cloud almost barked.

The person on the other end of the line swallowed and said:

"I think you already know this Spike but... If we don´t do something soon, then we´re all gonna be in some
SERIOUS shit!"

Cloud would have snorted if they weren´t in the situation they were in.

"No shit, Cid! NO. SHIT!" Cloud yelled with irony-drenched words.

Cloud flipped his PHS closed and slid it into his pocket. His right arm returned to the handle of the
Ultima Weapon. His fingers closed around it. Tifa moved closer to him while raising her fists.

"Cloud! What do we do?" Tifa asked.

Cloud frowned.

"I don´t know, Tifa! I don´t know!" Cloud stated.

The leader and members of AVALANCHE all racked their brains in search of a solution.
They knew that they had to do something quick, or be roasted like ducks in an oven.

Just then, the dragons opened their mouths wider than before and the energy they had gathered
glowed brightly.

Cloud gripped the sword-handle tightly, then he pulled the Ultima Weapon out of it´s scabbard in one,
swift move.


Ah! Finally got Chapter 2 out! Hope I didn´t keep you waiting too long! I hope you liked it!
Well then, time for me to get on with Chapter 3! See ya then!