New story! Tee hee. It's about Squall and Cloud ... how they accidentally switched bodies before the big fight. The idea is horribly unoriginal, I'm sure, but it's slightly different. It takes place during the time compression, before Squall gets to Ultimecia's time, and right before Cloud leaves for the Crater, to battle Sephiroth.
In Dreams We Meet : Chapter One
Time compression. Sure, Laguna did say time compression would happen, but where did all these bloody Sorceresses appear from? They don't even last longer than Bite Bugs, thought Squall vehemently. The gunblade master groaned inwardly as they felt themselves drop into yet another different dimension ... Rinoa's presence beside him felt comforting, somewhat, and he knew the others would make it there. He knew what Rinoa felt, knew how hard it is to mourn the loss of a loved one. They would make it, he assured himself firmly. Against Ultimecia.
But what about me ...?
Something's not right, thought Tifa. Cloud just lay there, unconscious, and yet a fully mastered Life materia and Cure materia could do nothing for him. Just before the battle against Sephiroth ... Cloud, how could you do this? What's happened to you? We can't fight without you leading us ... Meteor falls in six more days ... she could tell everyone was worried. If they battle Sephiroth and lose, Cloud would be the only one left alive. Or perhaps dead, seeing his situation now, but they did everything together. For each other, watching out for each other ... yet could they put him aside for the world? Or the world aside for their friend and leader?
Cloud ...
Squall's eyes fluttered open and he sat upright. Ow ... he groaned and rubbed his forehead. His vision finally clearing, he looked around him. A black ... void? The first thing he looked around for was Rinoa, his heart stopping for one moment when there was no sign of blue. Trapped in time ... Instead, to his right, he only saw Zell sprawled on the floor. Or at least, he thought it was Zell. But Zell doesn't wear armour, he thought, frowning. He approached the man cautiously, unsure of whether to wake him or let him be. He was inches away when the blonde groaned and tried to sit up. Squall knelt down and looked on questioningly. Amazingly, he could see his features clearly through the dark.
"Where am I...?" said the blonde, muttering.
"No idea," said Squall promptly, standing up again.
"Who are you?"
Squall paused for a moment, then decided the man wasn't a real threat to him (although the big sword stapped to his back looked quite threatening) before answering.
"Squall. I'm a SeeD from Balamb Garden."
"Cloud Strife ... ex-SOLDIER ..." mumbled Cloud, but thinking in his head, Ex-SOLDIER my ass. But I'm not about to be pouring out my life to this Squall.
"Soldier? Dollet or Galbadia?" asked Squall, rather sharply. The man creeped him out a little. For Hyne's sake, his eyes were glowing.
"Dollet? Galbadia? What's that?"
"... Never mind."
"What's SeeD?"
"You've never heard of SeeD before?" said Squall, throwing a weird look towards Cloud. Cloud gestured for him to sit, which he complied.
"No, I haven't. And I've travelled around the world more than ten times," said Cloud, ignoring the weird look and unstrapped his Ultima Weapon from his back with a sigh.
"So have I, but everyone's heard of SeeD. We're elite mercenaries. We're sometimes hired by others and go on missions, but our main goal is to defeat the sorceress."
"Sorceress?"
Squall paused again. This was really weird. Where did this guy come from?
"Ok. You're not from around here, are you? Sorceresses have been around for centuries."
"By 'here', where exactly do you mean?" said Cloud, gesturing to the darkness all around them. Squall remained silent, as he had no answer to that question. Instead he decided to address the question of the sorceress.
"Sorceresses are descendants of Hyne," said Squall, then quickly added after seeing the 'what-on-earth-is-Hyne' look on Cloud's face, "Hyne is like ... our creator. He created people, but he gave a portion of his power to certain females. They were called sorceresses. Quite powerful."
"Right ..."
Silence. Squall pondered over the disturbing fact that Cloud doesn't know about Sorceresses and SeeDs, while Cloud was worrying about his friends and Sephiroth. But it didn't even look as if there was a way to somehow get back.
"I think we're both from different times," said Squall thoughtfully. Cloud looked over at him but said nothing. Squall took it as a sign to continue.
"My friends and I... we're supposed to be defeating a sorceress from the future. She somehow achieved time compression ... that's Time magic, where past, present and future all meld together. We were supposed to be moving through time compression towards the future ... and somehow I ended up here. Maybe it affected your time too."
Silence again. Squall never talked so much in his life before, and he felt exhausted. Still, he was curious to know about Cloud's background.
"What about you? What do you mean, ex-soldier? Retired?" asked Squall.
"Kind of. I guess you've probably never heard of SOLDIER before too. In my time ... the fuel of the planet is called the Lifestream. It's this green, glowing ... thingy. It's basically souls. We are all made up of Lifestream, when we die, I guess we become Lifestream again. ShinRa, some big-ass company, harnessed the power of the Lifestream to make Mako energy. Basically, refined Lifestream. SOLDIERs were not normal soldiers ... we were showered with Mako energy. Enhanced speed, strength and stuff ... that's what I was."
"I see," said Squall. No doubt they were from different times. Mako ... Lifestream...
"Ever heard of Meteor?"
"Sure."
"Then I'm probably from the past, and you the future. So that means the world was saved then? Cool," said Cloud, relieved.
"Wait. Meteor destroys the world ...?" said Squall, confused.
"Well duh, I mean, it's one big-ass piece of rock moving towards Gaia and it was summoned by some megalomaniac to destroy the world... didn't you just say you heard of Meteor?"
"The Meteor I know of isn't a 'one big-ass piece of rock', it's 'ten big-ass pieces of rocks'. And it's a type of magic you can use on your foes," said Squall, raising his eyebrow. Different types of magic ...?
"You know what, this is too weird ... And when are we gonna get outta here?" said Cloud, getting up and brandishing his sword uselessly into the air.
Next chapter : Battle lessons! Lol. I'm sorry if this is kinda short, but I really have to go. Please review! Thank you!