In Dreams We Meet : Chapter Two
After brandishing his sword menacingly in the air out of frustration, Cloud sighed and glanced over at Squall, who was looking bored and sleepy. Somehow, he reminded him alot of Vincent ... except Squall was less creepier.
"Shall we try to find a way out then?" said Cloud, breaking the silence.
"And how do we do that?" said Squall moodily, looking around them. Still as black as ever, like an empty void. Squall had been thinking about time compression, and he was still trying to figure out where they were. And he could only conclude that they were either at the beginning of time (if there were such a thing) or at the end of time, where there was nothing left. Hence the empty void.
"We could just walk. Bound to find a way somewhere, rather than just sit here and do nothing," said Cloud. Choosing not to reply, Squall got up, still brooding and looked at him.
"You lead the way."
"Fine."
Blind man leading another blind man... they both thought at the same time, yet they walked off anyway. It was gonna be a long walk, but they had to. The fate of the world, of their worlds lies in their hands ... and as the leader of a group, what would their comrades do without them?
"He's not responding," said Rinoa frantically. They had all arrived in Edea's Orphanage, with loads of SeeD corpses lying around. The future of SeeD looked bleak, and to make things worse, Squall was among the ones lying in the cold dirt, unconscious but still breathing. The orphanage gang crouched around him, trying to help, but no restorative magic nor items could wake him up. He just lay there, looking almost peaceful, as if there was no war going on at all.
"Vital signs stable," said Quistis, removing her hand from his wrist.
"Breathing normal," said Irvine, then shook his head.
"Everything seems fine," said Selphie, "But what's wrong with him?"
"What do we do now? Carry him into the castle?"
"We wait," said Rinoa firmly. Everyone turned to look at her.
"But..."
"Squall never abandoned us. We can't abandon him now."
They nodded, and sat down, watching the looming thunderstorm overhead Ultimecia's castle, hoping fervently that Squall would awake and lead them once more.
"He's not responding," said Tifa frantically. Tifa wanted to smack Cloud upside down; there he was sleeping peacefully, whereas everyone was worried about him.
"Maybe he's faking it? Induced sleep?"
"Nah ... it seems somewhat abnormal ... anyway, the question is what do we do now?"
"Can we fight Sephiroth without him?"
"No!" said Tifa, and everyone turned to look at her. "He said it himself. What are you all fighting for? He needs to settle this personal feud with Sephiroth. He has to come along."
"But Tifa, we don't have time to wait. Meteor falls in about six more days, and the battle with Sephiroth might not be so short a battle," said Nanaki.
"We wait," said Tifa firmly. "He'll come around, I know he will."
"So," began Cloud, in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence, "What's that weapon you have there? Looks pretty unusual."
"... It's a gunblade."
"What?" said Cloud, then stopped him.
"Let me see," he demanded, almost childishly. Squall sighed. Now he was behaving like Zell, during their SeeD exam in the Garden car on the way to Balamb.
"... No."
"We're both weapons masters, I'm not gonna manhandle that thing."
"I'll let you see mine," said Cloud, taking out his sword and waving it in front of Squall, much like a lollipop to a wailing child. Squall sighed, annoyed.
"Alright ..." he mumbled, then taking out Lionheart and handing it to Cloud. Cloud gleefully took it and examined every inch of it.
"The blade is cool," said Cloud happily, looking in wonder at the bluish-green glowing blade, and then looked at the handle. "So it's like a gun merged with a blade?"
"Yes."
Squall, on the other hand, had taken one look at the sword before deciding it was boring. It was just a sword, after all. What intrigued him more was the glowy orbs slotted into the sword.
"Does it have a name?" asked Cloud, fingering the blade.
"It's called Lionheart."
"Can I try it out? Defend me with my sword? I won't attack too hard," said Cloud, with boyish excitement in his eyes.
"Wha -" began Squall, looking from the sword to Cloud, who had backed away several steps and was in his battle stance.
"Ready? Let's go!" said Cloud, then dashed toward Squall, raising the gunblade, which was lighter than the Ultima Weapon, but still felt unusual. Squall, jolted by the short blonde's enhanced speed, managed to bring the Ultima Weapon up just in time to block Cloud's attack. Cloud jumped back and smiled, lowering the gunblade, fingering it fondly again. Squall lowered the sword too, and realized that it was heavier than his gunblade; a split second later and Cloud would have slashed him across his chest, earning him another scar.
"Why's it called a gunblade then? You might as well just use a normal sword," said Cloud, handing the gunblade back to its rightful master.
"..." Squall took the gunblade back, and handed Cloud his sword, and prepared his battle stance. Cloud readied himself, in a defence position. Squall ran lazily toward Cloud, not intending any real damage, and brought the gunblade down, pulling the trigger at the same time. A blast of fire came out, startling Cloud a bit, then Squall jumped back and lowered his weapon. Cloud gazed longingly at the gleaming Lionheart, but Squall cut him off first.
"No, I'm not letting you try it," said Squall firmly, even before Cloud began to speak. "Now can we go?" Cloud pouted and strapped his sword back, trudging along beside the moody Squall.
"So how did you like my sword?" said Cloud. He was proud of his Ultima Weapon, acquired from that monster Ultimate Weapon, which was one damned monster he never wanted to fight again.
"It's alright," replied Squall boredly. He didn't mention how heavy it was, or how big and bulky it was, nor did he ask how Cloud had gotten hold of it. Which Cloud was hoping fervently that he would ask.
"I fought a damned monster and got it," said Cloud, shuddering. "That damned Ultimate Weapon..."
Squall stopped stock still and stared at him.
"What?" said Cloud curiously, staring back at him.
"Ultimate Weapon?"
"You've heard of it?"
"I've heard of Ultima Weapon..."
"That's the name of this baby here," said Cloud, tapping his sword fondly and grinning at Squall.
"Ultima Weapon was a monster I fought. And Omega Weapon," said Squall, shrugging and resumed walking towards nowhere. Memories of those things were not something he wanted to relive or think about.
"But I fought ULTIMATE Weapon," said Cloud, following along beside him.
"I never said you didn't," replied Squall shrewdly.
"So like, your attacks are all just slash and burn, slash and burn?"
Squall gave him a weird look and said, "Yes, that's pretty much about it. And how do you swing that sword of your around? It's so big and bulky. Wouldn't it reduce your speed?"
"Nah, I've trained with it, so I'm alright. Yours is too light for me, feels kinda weird."
They walked on for some time, knowing that they had no idea where to go but refusing to give up all the same. Squall's thoughts fluttered back to the glowy orbs in the Ultima Weapon.
"What're those things in your sword?"
"These? They're called materia. Refining Mako, which is refined Lifestream, gives you materia. You use it to cast magic and summon and do other things."
"I see ... " mused Squall. Then he stopped, which caused Cloud to stop too. Without hesitating, Cloud took out his materia and showed it to him.
"This is the Restore materia, to cast Cure1, Cure2, Regen or Cure3 ... this is the summon Bahamut Zero, and the summon the Knights of the Round ... Double Cut, this enables you to hit twice or four times per attack, depending on the level of the materia ... Counter Attack materia... Final attack materia ..."
"I see ..." said Squall again. Cloud reslotted them all back, then remembered that Squall's weapon did not have materia in them. Then he remembered that he and Squall were not from the same time ... world ... whatever.
"What about you? You don't use materia."
"No, I don't. To use magic, we need to junction Guardian Forces. They're like your summons ... but we call them Guardian Forces. If I don't junction any GF, I can't use magic."
"Then where do you keep your magic?" demanded Cloud.
"Same way you keep your items ... we can only stock up to a 100 of each type of magic."
"So that means, you can use magic a hundred times over?" said Cloud sceptically. Squall nodded, somewhat exhausted by his explanation.
"Anything else interesting to tell me?" said Cloud eagerly. Squall, somewhat bemused, and still exhausted, complied anyway.
"We junction magic too. To raise our speed and strength, magic power, HP, spirit, and other stats, we can junction magic like Firaga or whatever to raise it," said Squall. Cloud blinked. He didn't really understand it, but he was not about to show it.
"Right, I see..."
Silence again. They continued walking on, until Squall heard this odd chime sounding from nowhere.
"Did you hear - " they both began, but was cut off by a cool female voice echoing everywhere and sounded nothing short of a receptionist at a shopping mall.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience caused. Please wait for a moment, and you will return to where you belong," said the voice pleasantly, and the chime sounded again. Squall and Cloud glanced at each other, wondering what kind of madness was happening, then promptly sat down to wait.
The switching of bodies will commence soon! Please review! I very much appreciate it!