The Past of the Future
It hurt. It hurt so much. His body was in pain. His eyes burnt from the tears. He couldn't believe it, Zack was dying.
"No, no. Zack don't leave me." Tears streamed down his eyes. "What about becoming mercenaries? What about making an odd jobs business? Please, don't die." Zack reached up and grabbed Cloud's hand with the little energy he had left.
"C…Cloud, those weren't my dreams, they were our dreams. You can go on and live them out. Live them out for the both of us."
"Zack, you said you'd never leave me. You're breaking your promise." Zack put his hand over Cloud's mouth. Cloud looked down at him. His usually smiling face was crying.
"D…Don't talk like that, C…Cloud. I'll never leave you. I'll live on as long as you remember me. We're best friends, aren't we?"
"Zack, you can't die."
"I'll only die if you forget me. Don't forget me Cloud, don't forget the good times we had together. O…Oh, and one l…last thing. Please, take care of A…Aeris for me."
"Zack, Zack? God no, no, no, no." Cloud wept for Zack. He dragged himself over to Zack's Buster Sword. He grabbed the handle, hoisted it into the air, and shouted. "ShinRa, I will destroy you. I will kill you all if it's the last thing I do!"
Cloud sat there. He was ashamed of himself. For a few years Cloud had forgotten all about Zack and his last request. With Tifa's help, he remembered Zack and his promise. But did he want these memories? What was he thinking? Zack was his best friend. Even the memory of his death was a welcome memory. Zack never did come back though. All these years, Zack was still gone, and Cloud let Aeris die. What was the world coming to? Now all he had were his roommates and a man telling him that he came from an alternate dimension. Maybe he should listen in…
"Yggdrasilia is an alternate dimension from Earth. Strangely enough, my planet too used to be two dimensions, one was Sylvarant and one was Tethe' alla. On each dimension was a common ground, the land where the Tower of Salvation stood. When the world was restored back to its original form, the Yggdrasil Tree grew in place of the Tower of Salvation, and on the other side of the world, a black city of steel appeared on the other side. Above the city was a clash of light and dark. We called it the cataclysm. A massive darkness crashed into the power of the planet, the source of mana. We learned later that the darkness was an alien life form named Jenova. At first we were weary of the city, but then we investigated. Apparently, the city was actually located on a separate plain called Earth, yet it shared our mutual mana source. When we enter the city and leave the city, we go to and from Yggdrasilia. When you, on the other hand, go to and from it, you stay on the Earth plain. It was quite a phenomenon. We tried to investigate further, because of a loss we had, all of our power granting spheres, exspheres, were at the spot where the city was erected. This was a devastating loss of resources. We learned only later that you people had learned to harness the exspheres capabilities. You carved runes into the exspheres themselves, allowing you to absorb them directly into your bodies. We used this city to…harvest the exspheres, which you began calling Materia. Everything worked for many years, the city grew and grew, and it was greater than anything we could have built ourselves. But then came that fateful day. ShinRa corp. decided to build its first Mako reactor. It used up the planet's mana to create power for your cities. Soon many Mako reactors sprouted up around your planet. By that time we had figured a way to bypass the dimensional barrier. We used a prototype materia, the grey materia. A person who had that in their body became anchored to the opposite planet. Take it off and they came back to their own plain. Over time, the planet's mana was becoming exausted. We tried to stop it. We had our spies spread propaganda about ShinRa. From that propaganda came AVALANCHE. Things were looking up. Then there was a complication, a man named Sephiroth. He planned on using the planets mana energy to create a god of himself. This blow would have been too devastating to the planet. How did he gain this kind of power? Our stupidity. The upper echelons of Cruxis extracted from the gray material, black and white. Life and Death. Sephiroth got his hands on the black, so we planted the white in the hands of a child of the ancient civilization. Then came your fateful battle with Sephiroth. You defeated him and brought peace, but there was one problem, Jenova."
"Wait, wait, wait, we killed Jenova," Cid said confusedly.
"That's what we thought," said Kratos, "but Jenova fled to an asteroid outside of your planet. It stayed there and recovered. Now it is back on the move. Here's an interesting fact for you: Sephiroth's evil personality was really Jenova's. The man we fought back there isn't Sephiroth, but he has the personality that Jenova crafted for him. I am here to use that man to find Jenova and destroy it. Jenova knows there is a higher power connected to this planet. It landed on Earth because of an accident, but stayed because of your sudden link to our planet when it crashed."
Cloud decided to join in, "So your saying that Jenova has been pulling strings for hundreds of years?"
"Exactly."
"Wow."
"Yes, its ultimate goal is the Yggdrasil tree source of mana, or what you call Mako. If it gets its hands on the tree, both Yggdrasilia and Earth will die." Seifer put his head on his hand.
"So this is kind of a 'save the world' thing, except now it's two worlds?"
"Yes, but I work alone," Kratos said. You could tell there would be no point in arguing.
"But you wouldn't mind if we did our own thing?"
"As long as you don't interfere."
"Perfect! That settles it." Seifer stood up. "Were going on an adventure." Cloud looked indignant.
"No, we aren't."
"Why not?"
"Because…" Cloud paused, he didn't have a good reason.
"You have five seconds."
"You can't just decide something so fast."
"I'm doing this cause you're a bum when you have nothing to do."
"Screw you, I'm not a bum."
"Yes you are." Cloud started to get angry.
"YOU SHUT UP! YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" He shot up and grabbed Seifer by the collar.
"You're a bum. I might have been a drunk, but at least I made the best of things."
"JUST SHUT UP! MOST OF MY LIFE I LEARNED EVERYTHING I KNEW WAS A LIE! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'VE GONE THROUGH!" Seifer just stood there.
"No, I don't," said Seifer. Cloud faltered. He wasn't expecting this answer.
"My heart used to be like yours: confused and afraid. I hurt the ones I loved because of it. I've lost loved ones too, but no, I never had to figure out that most of my life was a lie," Seifer slapped Cloud across the face. "But don't be such a chicken-shit." Cloud let go. He sat down. Seifer put his hand on Cloud's shoulder. "Come on. It'll be good for you." Cloud sat there for awhile. Then Kratos walked up to him. He didn't look him in the eye, but you could feel his understanding.
"Sometimes," Kratos said, "it is best to keep the past in the past. Always look towards the light." He walked away, but as he did he said, "I don't know what your choice will be, but remember, things are only as bad as you want them to be." Kratos disappeared into the shadow of the alleyway. No one knew when they would see him again. Cloud turned his head backwards.
"Hey, Cid, you've been quiet. What's your opinion?" Cid looked up.
"I'm gettin' old. It sounds dangerous, but if I die, I might as well die with my boots on." Cid stood up and lent Cloud a hand. "We know that what we see with our eyes alone isn't necessarily the truth...won't you join me on a journey for the truth?" Cloud grabbed his hand.
"Thank you, Cid. Thank you, Seifer. I know what I want to do know." Zack, Aeris, it must have sucked watching me be such a loser. I'm going to be myself again, whatever that may be. I'm going to search for my purpose. Cloud looked at both Cid and Seifer. Now he knew. No matter how much of a loser he was, no matter how bad things seemed, no matter what happened, they smiled. They kept him going these past years. They always had an outstretched hand for when he stumbled. They had their flaws, but who didn't. It was time to shine anew.