Beginning Notes: Hey all! Sorry for this being so late -*ducks behind the door to not get hit by flying, sharp, pointy objects*- ahem, anyway… My personal life is been pretty busy and my teachers are practically smothering me in schoolwork so I don't know when the next update will be but hopefully soon. Thanks to you reviewers for your nice comments!
Alright you all know the deal. I don't own Final Fantasy VII or the characters, yadda, yadda, yadda…
Ahem… now, on to the fanfic…
Chapter Warning: Angst based chapter. This is rated mostly for excessive language and minor violence.
-=Complicated Souls=- ---Written by: Isrea----=Chapter Two=-
---Awakenings---
Fire…Screaming…
Blood…
Death…It all flashed before his eyes in a jumble of memory. Images of people he did not recognize but should have flashed before his red-clouded vision. Blurred images dulled with the passage of time and horror struck faces clear as crystal etched into his memory -his mind unable to let him forget. Fire raged around him as he picked his way through the rubble of the once beautiful town of Nibelheim, which was now only a burning ruin in his nightmares. The sky above burned crimson, the clouds alight with orange flame. All around him red was smeared on walls and pavement stone. Sephiroth's doing… He didn't really want to think about that right now, though he had little choice. This was a dream. He knew it was a dream because he'd been having the same dream for nearly three weeks straight. Any little bit of sleep always spawned this hellish prison. Every time he closed his eyes he saw it flickering across his minds eye… But that did not dull the reality of it. It still hurt; still pained as much as it had the first time he had seen all this in reality… He reached bend in the road just before the Mansion, stumbled to a stop and watched in horror at the scene that unfolded before his eyes.
Before him the Masamune rose and glinted wickedly in the firelight, the sharp blade winking at him almost tauntingly. But it did not rise to strike him, no. The image and setting abruptly changed to that of the Mount Nibel Reactor and the mighty weapon fell down upon his best friend Zack. And it fell hard… without warning and without mercy…
He winced, feeling the bite of the sword as though it was he who had been struck by Sephiroth's blade and not Zack. And in an indirect way, he had. The death of his best friend pained heavily on his soul. Zack had been more then a friend, more then a best friend. Zack had been family… They were like brothers. Closer then brothers even. But now that Zack was dead Cloud was alone again, without family and without a home… All he had was his friends and he distanced himself from even them now, afraid that he may end up losing them one day either in battle or something alike it. He was afraid they would leave him, or worse, betray him if they were to ever fully understand how mentally screwed up he was… He would not have been able to stand that, knew he couldn't…
These things always accompanied the dream -the thoughts and images of betrayal that flashed through his mind. He always began to think this way toward the middle of the dream but could not help himself from doing it once more. He told himself over and over again that it was just the dream talking, but still he felt the lingering doubt. Even beyond the grave Sephiroth's illusions tormented him. The blond figured it would probably never truly go away. His mind had been too scared from the incident… His mental state, shaky at best before, was now in total uproar as the images and fake corpses littered around him stirring up old feelings, old hatreds, old memories…
Zack had not died there though… no. Hojo had then captured the two of them and experimented on them for nearly five years. Five years of fucking hell. Five years of tortured screaming and hopeless nights. The same five years he had begun to remember right after Sephiroth had died at his hands. Five whole years of pain and of needles and scalpels and test tubes and wires, of chemicals and white washed rooms that smelled of mako… And Zack had saved him from all that. Only to die for his troubles…
Sometimes, some things are best left forgotten…
Stumbling to the right he caught himself on the ledge of a broken wall and clung to the rubble for the strength to stand, involuntary sobs shaking his blue clad body as he sucked in a breath to try and calm himself. Even if this wasn't real right now… even if this was all fake at the moment…
It had happened. Nibelheim had burned. Zack had died…
And it was entirely his fault!
He had failed.
He was a failure…
Guilt piled atop his already emotionally loaded mind and slowly the blond warrior collapsed against the wall, turning to press his back into the crumbled brick and sliding down it slowly. The ShinRa guard uniform did little to comfort his back against the scrapping stone and as he sat he drew his knees up to his chest in misery. Unshed tears gathered in his eyes and his face screwed up into an expression of impossible pain and suffering as something snapped within him; just like it always did in the dream. The pain broke loose and flooded his senses without restraint, drowning out all logic and reason as sorrow washed over him. He could feel hot tears spilling down his cheeks and made a half-hearted attempt to wipe them away. It wasn't very successful.
He let out a pained howl-like cry of remorse, hands clenching into fists as they beat the ground at his sides relentlessly, causing minor fissures to appear in the surface of the stone beneath his gloved hands.
"Damnit!!" His voice shouted over the crackling flames in rage and sorrow and he turned and thrust his fist into the very wall he was leaning on, embedding the gloved limb four inches into the thick stone. A spray of rock and dust was sent flying in every direction. "It's my fault! It's all my fault!! Mom! Tifa! Aeris! Zack! Sephiroth! Everything is my fucking fault!!"
He mourned Sephiroth, although he knew the rest of his group hated the man. She had forced Sephiroth into insanity when he had allowed her into his mind in a moment of weakness and then she had used his insanity against him. But Sephiroth himself had been under Jenova's control, he had been manipulated! It hadn't been Sephiroth in mind, only in body. Jenova's vile presence had filled in the rest. And above all, Cloud understood that. But even so it did not make it any easier to deal with. Nor did it help him in addressing the subject of Sephiroth himself. A rage smouldered in the depths of his soul that cried out even now for vengeance. He could no longer feel anything more then a simmering hate for the man who had destroyed his life. At least, he thought he could never forgive, but… somewhere in the back of his mind he was reminded of a far away day… A day when three friends had sat around under the noonday sun and told of their hopes and dreams. A day when one man's laughter rang out above all the rest, pure and joyful, the other two friends -as close as brothers they were- joining in with similar tones. He was reminded of the good old days…
He had done what he had to do for the planet. He had made the right choice!
Then why did it hurt so goddamn much? What ever happened to the good old days, anyway?
He had pieces of Zack inside him; of that there was no doubt. Hojo's experiments had not left him unscratched. But even with part of his best friend inside him he felt empty and very much alone. After Sephiroth had been defeated down in the northern creator and Jenova finally destroyed Cloud had begun to remember his past. He remembered that he had been a trooper in platoon 34. He also remembered that he had been an expert with the broadsword and a lethal specialist in advanced tactics. He had been the strategist in the group as well as the materia major. No one could come up with as effective and quick combinations of materia then he could. In fact, during trooper training he had even been placed in charge of handing out and dealing with the materia specifically because of his amazing skill with the stuff, even though there had been two other materia majors in his platoon. He remembered Bill, Rick and Ray, his three trooper friends extremely well. They had been the only three of the Regulars to stick by with the shy, untrusting young blond that went by the name Cloud Strife. And then there was Zack, who had taken an interest in him after a chance meeting at the ShinRa building while he was on escort duty. Something about the young boy must have fascinated the SOLDIER second in command enough to look up on him from time to time, and then more and more frequently they talked, until Zack had practically declared it to the entire barracks that Cloud Strife was hanging around with SOLDIER's second most powerful man by picking him up after duty one day for a regular men's night out, SOLDIER style. Right in front of the entire barracks.
And that had been when he had met him.
And since that day the three of them had never been apart. Both Zack and Sephiroth seemed to think that Cloud's failure to get into SOLDIER had been solely due to the fact that he had incompetent instructors testing him. According to the two of them, Cloud was exactly what SOLDIER wanted and needed. He had begun training with Zack during the early part of the day under specific orders from Sephiroth –who you did not cross if you valued your life and your job- and soon he was ready for a retest.
But that retest had never come. Instead he had been sent with his two friends to Nibelheim on a mission. And from there?… Everyone knew that story already.
He realized two things all at once right then. That thinking about the good times hurt, and that he had never before actually sat back and thought about the good times. It seemed so long ago, so distant, as though it wasn't even him at all in those infrequent flashbacks. But it still hurt like him, damnit.
A steady stream of tears fell unchecked down the blond fighters face, streaking dust covered skin with lines of liquid that only served to mar it further. He didn't care nor made any attempt to wipe them away this time. All he did was bury his face in his hands, fingers digging through dirt clogged blond locks and blood caked scalp -he had fallen and hit his head some time ago- and cried. Really, truly cried.
"Black, the color of night. Deep morning, impossible sorrows, depression, self blame…"
The voice was not mocking but understanding and kind. It was a child's voice, soft and gentle against the noise of the crackling flames and crumbling town. Amidst the tortured screams of the town folk it called out to him, seeming to banish the darkness with its softly spoken words and Cloud looked up slowly. Before him stood a little girl that could not have been more then ten or eleven years old of age... She wore a plain pink dress, brown leather sandals and her light brown hair fell just below the shoulders. She was as plain as any girl who had lived in Nibelheim so long ago that she fit into the scenery nicely –even red stained and smoke choked as it was.
But her eyes were an entirely different story. Deep green so intense that even mako could not compete with their glow. They were sparkling jade depths that were endless…. For quite a while he just stared into those cool green depths, feeling the shudders grow more infrequent and the sobs eventually ceased entirely. He could feel himself being lifted away from the spiral of self-pity, away from the path that the dream had normally taken.
This was certainly new…
Cloud sniffed silently and wiped at his tears with a dirt stained arm, causing a long streak of black to cross his face as he did so, but successfully banishing the liquid from his eyes. He could not bring himself to say anything. Not yet, not just yet.
That seemed to suit the girl just fine for she took a tiny step forward and spoke again, "None of this was your fault, you know." a wide eyed Cloud merely stared back as she continued. "None of this has ever been your fault. Don't be sad over something that you had absolutely no control over." She smiled at him -a calm and reassuring smile. "Sephiroth was manipulated, and maybe it's his fault for succumbing to darkness so easily. Maybe its Professor Gast's fault for tampering with Jenova cells to create Sephiroth, or Vincent's for not stopping him. Or maybe its ShinRa's fault for ordering it to be done in the first place… But…" and she paused here for a moment before continuing on, stepping up close to him and squatting down until she was eye level with the blond warrior. "Its far from ever being your fault, Cloud Strife."
"B-but…" he managed to get out after a moment of calming himself. Right now he felt like the shy, confused, scared teenager that he had once been back in Nibelheim. "I should have stopped it! I should have talked to Seph when I noticed something was wrong! But I didn't! Sephiroth only found out about that room in the basement because of over-curious-doesn't-know-not-to-touch-things me! And then Zack died because he was carrying me to safety!" it all came out in a rush of breath, his tear choked voice raspy and his throat tight. "I wish I had never found that door!"
"You did nothing to trigger this or anything that followed. That room was bound to be discovered, be it by you or any other in your party. He would have found it eventually, simply because all this was fated to happen. Because it did one of the planets biggest adversaries was finally destroyed. Unfortunately, though, fate chose you to open that door -and it also chose you to correct it. And correct it you did. You saved the world, Cloud. You did what you had to do, and you did it well. Jenova is dead once and for all and finally, thanks to you, the planet can begin to heal. So don't you cry for this town. Don't you cry for Vincent's or Nibelheim's or ShinRa's faults. Don't cry for something that you couldn't stop. And don't cry for Zack or Sephiroth… I don't think they would have wanted you to be sad… I know I wouldn't…"
The words struck home like no other thing ever had. Maybe it had been the way she had softly uttered them, but they pierced past the fog of guilt and pain and opened his eyes for the final time to the truth. It wasn't his fault. It just wasn't his fault. He had done what he had to do. No matter what the cause or casualty –and there had been casualties- he had seen it though to the end. There was nothing he could do or say in light of the strange girl's words but sit there and stare into her green eyes long and hard. The light and warmth he saw there melted the darkness around his heart like ice to the flame and with a strangled cry Cloud threw his arms around the girl's shoulders and embraced her tightly, sobbing once again. Not for the past this time but for himself. For himself and for the friends he had lost, on both sides. Willingly the girl in pink hugged him in return, rubbing his back softly and cooing words like "It'll be okay" and "It's over now" into his ear.
The pair stayed that way until the older of the two had cried himself out, unable to do more then that and certainly not wanting to. Finally regaining what was left of his tattered wits he drew back, blinking rapidly to focus his vision. The girl drew back as well, stood and rocked back on her heels slightly. She tilted her head to the side with a look that said plainly 'are you going to be okay?' and for the first time in a long, long while, Cloud Strife smiled. With that simple gesture she smiled back -a bright, beaming smile that shattered the rest of the darkness surrounding him like a million rays of light never could. Though, he knew it would be back another night. But at least tonight, if only for a brief moment, he could finally rest.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Isrea."
And with a start Cloud realized he was no longer in the broken town of Nibelheim. On all sides a vast field sprung out around him, flowers of all conceivable types and colors stretching off into an endless horizon of fairy-tale beauty. Their bright, sun touched pedals swayed with movement on the wind and bushed his body, silky soft against his skin. The deep grass rose up and tickled his arms and legs along with the flowers. Above him the sun shone golden against the pale clouds and pink sakura pedals danced in the wind merrily, sweeping happily in wide arcs. The aroma of the flower field was so strong and so dazzling that he found that he was awe struck at its magnificence. And for a moment, just a brief moment, he felt that all was right in the world. The not-quite spring breeze ruffled through his golden hair, cooling his brow and neck, and Cloud found himself closing his eyes against its feel and shivering in delight at its touch. It had been a very long time since he had stopped to feel the wind on his face, and even longer still since that he had felt quite so at peace.
A quiet voice weaved its way into his thoughts, bringing his attention back to the little girl standing next to him. "I have something very important to tell you, Cloud." Isrea began softly "Something that you absolutely need to know."
She spoke with such a calm sort of urgency that Cloud forced his attention on her, wondering what could possibly be so important in a place like this, so wonderful and peaceful. And then it occurred to him that he had not questioned this girl's presence at all. Not once had he looked into Isrea's eyes and felt anything but a quiet sort of familiarity. Not once had he had any hesitance about spilling his emotions out in front of her. Before he could ponder this more she began again however, now speaking almost hurried.
"The Day of Darkening is at hand, Cloud. The threat of old stirs from its slumber far to the east." His full attention was ensnared immediately. "The Keeper of Chaos knows no bounds and once again threatens to engulf this world with his darkness. You must not let this come to pass…"
Cloud turned that over slowly, absorbing everything the girl was saying. In a small voice he answered only with "What should I do?" What else could he say under her intense stare?
"Seek out the Vassals of Light for only with their help will you be able to face the Apostles of Darkness."
Cloud blinked in surprise. "Who are they? The Vassals of Light? The Apostles of Darkness?"
"The Apostles of Darkness are the twelve servants of the Keeper of Chaos. He is their lord and master and commands everything they do. They will come into our world soon and take all the light away. All that is good and kind will fade in face of them. They are darkness, Cloud. Demons of chaos spawned by the Keeper himself. They are his twelve generals." The girl sat down beside him, plucking a flower from the bed beneath them and twirling it in her fingers. "They are death." Somehow, the vision of a ten-year-old girl playing with a flower and so loosely speaking of horrors beyond the horizon did not fit well into the same picture.
"And the Vassals of Light? Who are they?"
"I cannot tell you directly. I am not allowed to do so. But I can leave you with some words of guidance. I can recite to you a song told through the ages. It is of the Vassals of Light and their purpose. Hear me, for this is a prophecy also, sung among us through the ages. It is very important you remember my words, Cloud…"
The blond warrior merely nodded and leaned closer.
Isrea took his hand and firmly placed the white daisy in his fist, closing his gloved fingers around the stem. Slowly she began to recite a poem, her musical voice echoing oddly in his ears as the tune caught on the wind and carried throughout the fantasy realm of flowers and sun touched grass. It might have been his imagination but he thought he saw, just for a moment, the briefest flicker of green on the distant horizon. His thoughts were immediately brought back to the words the girl recited, however, her voice lifted in gentle song:
"Twelve there were but now six there are,
to face the darkness growing.
Each one born under a special star,
Their souls alight and glowing…
Against the twelve they must fight,
Lift their swords to face our enemy.
With their courage an unwavering might,
And their hearts be full of levity
You are the first of your noble cause,
Strong against each foe.
Two shall be of your long ago past,
Two others you currently know.
The other is a mystery and said to be the last,
Hidden beneath a proud ideal and the strongest mask…
Go now on to Sanaka,
The place of hidden dreams.
Hurry now to Sanaka,
The place of secret dreams…
Bring them hither west to the field,
Each willing to follow thy cause.
Under their might the guardians will yield,
And the darkness will surely pause…
A powerful thing they will be given,
A thing the darkness must fear.
The Keeper of Chaos be livid,
The darkness be downed in tears…
For the savours have come to help us,
Once again he shall feel their swords.
The thing given shall unite and thus,
Together they must beat his hoards…
This I tell to you now as you waken,
Be swift as the wind as you go.
Save that which was taken,
And banish all of our woe…"
Isrea smiled slightly as her voice faded, the words carrying for a long time like magic. But it was a grim sort of smile and already she could feel herself fading away into nothingness. Cloud was not looking, and bringing one hand up she noted that her hand was transparent. She gave him a little wave with that transparent hand -though he did not see it- and closed her eyes. She had known this would happen sooner or later and was glad that she had managed to send out her message before she had been taken by it –by him. She had completed her task and both parts of the equation had been pushed into motion –she hoped. Isrea sighed an inaudible sigh, accepting her fate as she finally passed from the realm of the dream and vanished with a quiet sort of finality. She just hoped he would heed her words and that, somehow, he would wake… before it was too late…
His eyes roamed the flower field as the voice floated, slowly memorizing the words she had sung. But when Cloud turned back to the girl he found she was gone. Jumping to his feet the blond looked around wildly, but there was just no trace of the girl in pink and even now her voice had faded from the wind, only to repeat itself in his memory.
The wind suddenly turned cold, stinging his skin as it picked up and whipped his hair and clothes around violently. The sakura pedals swirled now in violent, angry spirals around him, almost as though trying to shield him from something. "Isrea?" he choked out, a feeling of both dread and cold anticipation taking hold. His voice echoed strangely but there was no answer from the girl.
All at once he felt the ground slide out from under him, inky black leaping up at him from under his feet. A feeling spread through his entire mind like someone was straight looking into his soul and he had to bite back the scream he felt bubbling up in his throat. Without Isrea's presence he felt completely vulnerable and he knew with a deadly certainty that something terribly wrong was happening.
A horse cry escaped his lips as he plummeted into the abyss, only to be swallowed up by its searing black walls. Headfirst he tumbled into its endless depths, the smell of flowers fading rapidly until it was almost non-existent -the light above him growing more and more distant as he fell. He lifted a hand to reach out to that quickly dimming light, as though he could somehow grab onto it and hold it -grasp it for whatever was to happen next. But the blue of the sky vanished before his vision and not long after he found himself plunging into pitch black, not a shred of light to be found.
Through nothingness he fell, his cerulean colored irises searching for some fraction of white or color within the black. Not even the mako glow of his own eyes made the smallest amount of light; and he found that more unnerving then anything else. He flailed his arms wildly, trying hard, desperately even, to find something to grab onto that would slow his headfirst decent into oblivion. But there was nothing. It was just… empty…
The blackness pressed in on him and as he fell a pressure began to build in his head. It was like something or someone was trying to push their way into his mind. He had felt this kind of sensation before! It was just like what Jenova had tried, but more dark and twisted then she could have ever hoped to be. And then came the laughter, slow at first but steadily getting louder. Dark, menacing, horrible laughter that mocked him and his desperate attempt to save himself. Still he tried to find something, anything that would stop his fall. Anything would do! Anything!
He immediately took that back.
Dread suddenly ran through Cloud's veins, freezing his blood and stopping his heart as long fingers stretched out from the darkness toward him. Their black, almost shapeless appearance was barely noticeable until they were latching onto his clothes and arms, grabbing his legs and any appendage they could get and clawing at him as he fell past them, slowing with each hand that touched him. Eventually they stopped his fall and he was suspended in black nothingness. Cloud was trapped, held prisoner in this zero gravity world by lifeless fingers on equally lifeless hands.
Cloud could feel those black hands latching onto him two or three at a time, dozens more to follow as they grasped his arms, feet, shoulders, head, hair -anything they could get their desperate fingers on, smothering him by the thousands. He struggled vainly as the darkness closed in about him, threatening to suffocate him as it invaded through his mouth and nose and traveled down his throat, choking him. With each touch of those icy fingers he felt a torment and suffering equal to his own, screams of long forgotten pain echoing out past the still ringing laughter. He felt a thousands of these pained souls rage through his body nearly one after another, each trying to tear away what sanity and life he had left. And as the last barrier between himself and the darkness shattered, leaving him defenceless in the face of this unseen and unnamed foe, he felt very much cold and dead –as cold and dead she could while still being capable of feeling pain. Oh yes, he felt a lot of pain. He hurt more then he had ever hurt in his life. Each raging soul stole away a part of him as their black hands touched him, and he felt as though each part had been viciously ripped from his body.
All at once his mind was bare to the creature seeking entrance and he felt its icy grip wrapping around his mind, cold and unrelenting as it closed over him and forced its way deep into the darkest recesses of his innermost thoughts. And even still the souls flooded his mind with their anguished screams that set his teeth to gritting as they stole little pieces from him until there was very little left of 'Cloud Strife' to go around.
And then they got to his memories. He could feel each face, each familiar name he had worked so hard to place to each face, fade as they were taken. Parts of his past were erased with a deadly swiftness, the emptiness in his soul only growing with each snatch of something he treasured so much. He had finally, finally, gotten his head straightened out. He had named each face and remembered each moment of his life with so much clarity. He had finally known who he was. He had finally known himself, Cloud Strife. And then after Isrea's words he had finally felt like the real Cloud.
And now that was going to be taken from him, again? He was to become another empty doll, void of emotions, thoughts and feelings? Was he to fade away yet again into a puppet with no memory of who he actually was?
That hurt. It hurt more then his body ached.
To this the laughter only rose in volume -delighted in the pain of it's victim, both mentally and physically. The thoughts swirled in his head until those too, were taken from him. Finally, an empty shell of someone he had once been and longed to be again, he broke. Not able to handle any more of this madness he snapped like a twig, a violent scream ripped from his lungs and throat and exploded from his mouth. Hot tears spilled down his face as he screamed one word, long and loud.
"Nooooooo---""---Ooooooo!!"
The blond fighter shot bolt upright in his bed, his scream echoing loud and panic stricken through the thick night air, cold sweat drenching his pale face and brow. Violent shudders ran through his body as he fought off panic, his breathing quick and shallow. Cloud was visibly shaken from the nightmare. In fact, he was still unsure if it had been a nightmare at all. Bringing his hands up to his face and pressing his brow into his bare palms he tried to calm himself down. 'It was only a dream. A dream! Get a hold of yourself Cloud!' But it was no use. The 'dream' was far to fresh in his mind. It had been far too real. Even now he swore he could still feel the last traces of an icy grip fleeing from his mind.
Rapid footsteps and then a loud bang signalled his door had been thrown open. He took no notice of the person who ran in and flew to his side -not until their hands were resting on his still shaking shoulders, anyway. Leaning into the reassuring touch his head came to rest on their shoulder, his body still shuddering and his blue eyes still wide in fear.
"Its okay, Cloud. It was just a nightmare. Everything is alright." Tifa whispered in his ear, rubbing his back slowly. This had happened way too often for her liking. Ever since he had defeated Sephiroth down in the northern creator, Cloud had never been the same. Nightmares plagued him on a regular basis. Now more then ever he had woken in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. She was half afraid to leave him alone at all anymore.
'Oh Cloud! If I could have changed places with you I would have! You don't deserve this! I wish there was something I could do to help you!' The brunette was almost in tears as she wrapped her arms around the shaking man's shoulders, resting her chin idly on the top of his head. The others didn't see it, couldn't see it. But oh, she could see it! That haunted look behind his cerulean eyes was always present. Even when he laughed it was there, though he worked so hard to hide it. Maybe it was because of the time they had spent in the lifestream together, she didn't know, but she could see it as plain as day every time she met his stare.
Cloud nearly went limp in her arms, using only enough effort to keep himself upright and not caring to do any more. Slowly the shudders ceased and his hands fell from his face as his breathing returned to normal. He wasn't shaking any more and his heart was no longer beating so hard that she could feel it through his chest. That was a good sign. She let out a slow breath. How many times had they done this? She didn't care to count right now.
Tifa gave the blond in her arms a small squeeze, burying her face in his golden hair. Cloud needed her, more now then he had ever needed her. She wasn't about to walk away from him.
"Tif?…" a hoarse whisper. He had been crying in his sleep again.
"Yea?" she answered into his hair, giving him another gentle squeeze.
There was a deep intake of air, a soft, shuddering breath that was meant to steady frayed nerves. "…Thanks…"
Tears as soft and fine as mist gathered in her eyes. All she could do was hug him back and whisper "Your welcome" in return.
Long minutes passed before either one of them made a move to retreat from the comfort of the hug. But eventually his mind cleared and Cloud forced himself back into reality. Drawing back from the embrace he shook his head, taking another deep breath and letting it out slowly. It was just a dream, he told himself. 'A dream just like all the others.' He raised one trembling hand to run it through his hair and was about to speak again when something snagged half way through. Frowning slightly he brought his fist down to his face, clutching whatever it was firmly in his grasp.
And in his hand was the stem of a white daisy, its pedals pale against the shadows...
---To be continued---
Author's Notes:
1. A bit of plot there. Well, actually, A LOT of plot there. Heh. I liked the way the end turned out in this one, though I think I made it a bit overdramatic. I think my fic is turning angst on me! Help! Nah, its just this chapter… uhh… kinda. But your not supposed to know about that! Shhhh!!!
2. Thanks goes out to a friend of mine by the name of "Keeper Chronos" for all his help with this chapter! He helped solve my biggest dilemma of this entire chapter –how to separate the dream part from reality! At first I was going to put stars in there but I was advised against it by my good friend Chronos. Thanks Chronos, I almost made a huge mistake! (It would have looked so awkward!) He also pointed out a lot of on-going sentences and errors! THANK YOU CHRONOS!!! Your review of this chapter really helped me out!
3. Thanks also to those of you who sent in reviews and comments! Even if they were brief, everything helped to spur me on to writing the second chapter. ^_^
4. And I know I said that this chapter would reveal only a little bit of plot, but don't worry, I haven't spoiled all of it yet! There's much more plot to come in future chapters! You haven't even met the bad guy yet! Phew though… that poem/song took me hours to write out!
5. Again, comments/suggestions/hate mail can be sent to AdinaWolf_X@hotmail.com OR you could just push that shiny little button down there at the bottom that says "Review!" I like to hear from my readers about what they think so send those emails everyone! Keep the creative streak going and send me comments and reviews!
