A/N: Ah! I finally came up with Chapter 9! This is where things get kind of complicated. I was confused so… it took me a while to edit the whole thing, trying to make it sound sense. :scratches head: Hm, anyway, thanks for those reviewers for reviewing!
Ah, and to Ri-kun, you'll know why Bugen didn't do that… in the next chapter.
Summary: AVALANCHE and the Turks talk to someone they didn't expect about how to return Cloud and Elena's souls back inside their bodies… while, Cloud, Elena and Number Thirty-four realize that if they don't escape soon… coughcoughspoilercoughcough
Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to me… only the dragon lady does… and I STILL want to draw her… dang… I'm so lazy.
Silent Wind
Chapter 9
Now or Never
"Cloud! Please, answer me!"
Right after the souls within Cloud and Elena's body had disappeared inside of the vortex, the Lifestream returned inside the earth and all was calm… except for AVALANCHE and the Turks. They obviously noticed the lifeless bodies of their fallen friends, and they had been wondering what had happened to them, completely ignoring that the whole world could have been in danger once again. Cloud and Elena's eyes remained a solid black color and their bodies were as cold as a harsh winter storm.
Tifa continued to shake Cloud's body and call out his name hundreds of times, hoping that he would just wake up and they could get on with the rest of their lives. But, that wasn't the case. Reno was the same thing, only, he seemed kind of pissed that one of his crew mates was down and out like that. He pounded his fist hard on the ground and yelled right into the woman's face.
"WAKE UP, DAMNIT!"
"Reno, please."
Rude had been trying to calm down the red head for a while, but, none of his methods worked. He gently grabbed onto his friend's arm and pulled him back, but Reno wasn't in the cooperative mood at the moment. Rude sighed, and watched his friend continue yelling at someone who wasn't going to be coming back anytime soon.
"WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?" he yelled to no one in particular. "W-WHAT-"
Several ear-splitting gunshots suddenly shot up towards the sky, silencing all that was making such a big fuss about their fallen friends. Everyone turned towards the source of the noise, which was Barret. He shifted his machine gun hand towards the Turk and growled.
"'nuff already! It's bad enough that Cloud's unconscious! We don't need to get anymore frustrated with yer fricken yelling!"
Reno, really pissed at what the big guy said, quickly stood up and clenched his fists. "HEY! You were doing the same thing!"
"You're the one responsible for all this!"
"We didn't know that this would happen! If we did, I would have done something sooner!"
"Pathetic."
Rude's quick reflexes immediately stopped Reno from running over to Barret and knocking the stuffing out of him. He grunted as Reno's fists were flying everywhere, almost hitting him in the head.
"Please, we'll find out a way to fix all this… and help return Elena back to normal."
The red head stopped at that and moaned, stomping his foot hard against the ground.
"Obviously, it was the Lifestream," Red XIII finally said in the back. "Perhaps… my grandfather can figure out how to obtain Cloud and Elena's souls back. He knows more of the Lifestream than any of us. He's bound to find something."
"I'm afraid… he won't know everything."
Everyone turned at the low toned voice that just unexpectedly replied. Two black figures descended from above and landed on top of a boulder. Reno pointed and shook his finger at the figures.
"GAH! It's that freaky woman's dragons!"
The dragons grunted as the bigger one snorted out smoke from its nostrils. "Freaky just doesn't do justice… more like… a simpleton."
"What the heck! How did you get out of the Lifestream?" Yuffie asked the dragons.
The smallest dragon flapped its wings. "We were never in the Lifestream to begin wit-"
"OMIGOSH YOU CAN TALK!"
"… eh… yeah."
"Please! Tell us how to return Cloud's soul to his body!" Tifa said with a shaky voice.
"Hey! And Elena!" Reno grunted at Tifa who gave him a dirty look.
The dragons looked at each other for a while then looked back at the worried team members. The bigger dragon flew towards the worried fighter and tilted its head at her.
"… you seem to be very good friends with this… 'Cloud,' yes?"
Tifa nodded slowly and responded with a soft voice, "… yes."
The dragon then made its way towards Reno who backed away from it, like it was some kind of contaminated object that he could poisoned from. It tilted its tiny head and narrowed its red glowing eyes.
"… you are the same…"
"Hell yeah! Gimme the soul already!"
The dragon grunted. "Alright," it turned towards the rest of the teammates. "My brother and I will help you find the souls of your fallen friends… however, the only way to do that, is to have our so called, 'master' return them… because she is the only one who can do that."
"Crap that!" Cid yelled, stomping his foot hard on the ground. "I ain't trusting any freaky woman with two freaky talking dragons!"
The smallest dragon whacked Cid in the head with its tiny wing. "Hey! We said we would help you! Our 'master' has gained several unbelievable powers from that experiment, and it's quite obvious that she could help!"
"Oh yeah?"
"She had the power to release Sephiroth's soul from the Lifestream and plant it inside of Cloud's body," Vincent added to the dragon's last comment. "But, how is she supposed to do that… when she is a soul herself?"
"The only way possible… is to have her take in that 'DNA' that made her a solid body. Since the Lifestream won't accept anything that's not a soul, she would then return to the outside, but it's risky… because the Lifestream would then resume to what happened a few hours ago."
"… she didn't have a body to begin with?"
"Yes, unfortunately, we do not know what kind of specific DNA Hojo had used on her… but, if it's possible to reach Hojo's lab…"
"There is a lab," Tifa spoke up, gesturing her hands to where Nibelheim might be located from the Gold Saucer. "It's the ShinRa Mansion…"
The biggest dragon nodded to its brother and turned towards everyone. "Ah, yes. Of course… that will do fine. Where there is a lab, there are always chemicals lying around."
"But," Red XIII quickly responded, "why should we trust you?"
"…… the Lifestream will keep Cloud and Elena's soul in tact before it's too late."
"… what are you talking about?" Reno said, sounding a little worried.
"New souls that enter inside the Lifestream have only forty-eight hours until they become one with it. It will take a lot of magic power to release them. So, if we fail to return their bodies back within the those hours… we'll never get them back."
"Answer my question!" the beast growled, pissed that the dragon completely ignored his important question from before.
"… because, we're the only ones that have the information on both Silent Wind and how to bring her back. So, it's your choice if you want to kill us… and leave your friends in this dangerous situation. We don't care."
Red XIII grunted and continued staring at the two black dragons as he bowed his head down. 'Just… who are these things?'
"Guh! I'm tired of just standing around! I came here to fight the SOLDIER… and that's what I'm gonna do!"
Number Thirty-four, quite impatient at the moment, just wanted to punch Sephiroth's face in. She got into a fighting stance and began punching right in front of her opponent's face. Sephiroth gave her a weird look, sighed, and shrugged, thinking about how stupid she really was.
"Whatever. C'mon, bash my face in so we can get it over with," the swordsman said flatly, obviously not interested in what the woman does.
SW grunted and lifted her hands in the air, trying to call out one of her magic abilities. After a few seconds, nothing happened. She paused and rapidly waved her arms around. The people in the back started giving her looks and snickered, wondering what the heck she was doing. The woman grunted and ran towards Sephiroth, lifting her right fist for a jab in the face. Sephiroth closed his eyes and remained in one spot. Right when the fist made contact to its target, it went right through, making the man's face static for a few seconds before returning to normal. SW blinked and fell over. Sephiroth sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
"… what? Is that the best you can do?"
"Quit toying me!" SW growled and jabbed his face again, but, like what happened before, the fist went straight through. The woman tried this several times before Sephiroth finally grabbed her arm and pulled it behind her back.
"When you're inside of the Lifestream… you cannot attack those who were residing here for more than two days."
"Let go of me! I wanna bash your face in!"
"… I'm telling you… the only way you can 'bash' my face in, is if we both have solid bodies. It's pointless to go on."
The woman escaped Sephiroth's grasp, turned and walked five feet away from him before turning around. "Fine. I'll get out of here, take your soul away from here again, then I'll kill you."
Sephiroth made a face. "Wow… how many times have I actually died in my life…?"
SW lifted her arms, and like what happened before, nothing happened. She waved her arms around and growled loudly.
Zack finally came in and patted her shoulder. "Sorry, you can't use anything out of the ordinary in here."
"Gah! Why not!"
He shrugged. "Dunno, that's just the way things work in here."
"Wait," Cloud said with a soft tone in his voice, still feeling kind of awkward to meet his old friend from long ago. "… what did Sephiroth mean?"
Zack turned to his friend and patted his shoulder. "It's hard to explain… but, every soul that enters in here… has to give out energy to heal the planet. That means… taking out every bit of our energy… which makes us unable to escape out of here. We become one with the Lifestream. And, it's going to happen to you guys within the next forty-eight hours."
Elena widened her eyes and stood up, shaking her fists in front of her mouth. "No! I don't wanna be dead yet! I still haven't finished all my Turk-ish related things yet!"
"And I'm not ready to become part of the Lifestream!" SW yelled out. "Not until I prove to Sephiroth that he was responsible before!"
"What the heck! YOU were the one responsible for this crappy situation that we're in! Besides, the Lifestream has been seeking you for who knows how long!"
"Not that! Why did Hojo have to concentrate on you! What was so interesting about you?"
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and turned away from her, trying to hide the dejected look on his face. "…that's all in the past now."
'Sephiroth…' Cloud frowned at his former idol from long ago, then slowly turned to Zack who smiled at him. "So… is there a way to get out of here?"
The man frowned then shook his head. "Desperate people tried, but… they couldn't figure out how. They too thought they weren't ready… but as time passed, they saw this as their new home. And soon, you'll get used to this place."
"… but, I'm not dead."
"What?"
"We didn't come here because we're dead! We just happened to be dragged in here because of two certain people who were supposed to come here!"
Zack blinked and stared at Sephiroth and SW, who were busy fighting… but, SW was mostly doing the fighting, trying her best to land a hard one right into Sephiroth's face. He just sighed and shrugged it off. Zack then resumed looking at Cloud.
"Sorry, I thought you…"
"You thought wrong."
Elena patted Cloud's shoulder and smiled. "I'm sure everyone's trying to figure out a way to get us out of here…"
"… but..."
"Nothing seems impossible after what happened before."
Cloud bowed his head and smiled. "… thanks."
'Arg… why am I touching him?' she sighed to herself. 'I'm too nice.'
A flash of light burst out from the back as loud screams followed after. Everyone quickly turned to the source and watched someone glow a bright green color. White orbs shot out of her body as they headed up towards the sky, soon dissolving into it. After a few seconds, the woman stopped glowing as she fell to her knees. People around her helped her up.
"Well," Zack said to Cloud and Elena. "I hope your friends get you out of here soon. Because, that's whats going to happen after your two days are up. And, you'll never be able to come out of here again."
A/N: End of Chapter 9! Ah! I tried my best to make it sound… not confusing. It's confusing… I do that a lot in my stories. :grunts: But, I always follow up with a chapter that makes it sound sense… so, don't worry. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please tell me how you thought of it!