38 New York, the Final Chapter.
Part One
I thought I had finally died.
The Lifestream carried me away, its arms my secure hold through a lightning-speed vortex of green light. To think I would know what was happening. It's not like I haven't done this before. My eyelids grew heavy, and my head slumped into Cloud's burning chest, feeling as light as a dead leaf. I should be panicking, my world shifting behind my eyelids, but I was exhausted, wishing to sleep for years to replenish my spent energy. My last ounce of energy led me to hold onto Cloud, my safe place during the ride. If I let go, will I stumble in a strange place? I didn't want to find out, shutting myself in with his arms as my sanctum. Voices traveled with me, acting as winds carrying us through space and time.
They whispered of grave danger ahead.
...
Everything was heavy.
All of my sorrows, my pain, all of it just dead weight hanging in my chest. If I were to stand, I would only lean forward because all the heavyweight pooled where my heart was, steering me into the floor until my face smudged in the dirt and I suffocated.
I inhaled, my airway open and free.
And yet, I still thought I couldn't breathe.
With struggle, I took in the taste of cold, gritty air. Familiar chemicals tickled my tongue, none of them Mako but more like gasoline, a scent left in my memories. I haven't smelt gasoline in Cloud's world before. The next thing to notice was rain, but icy and tasted bitter. I turned my head to cough out the horrible taste.
"Aqua," a voice trembled. It sounded like Tifa, but her voice was so far away.
A warm hand stroked my hair as I slowly returned to earth from a terrible nightmare.
I've dreamt of Jenova grinning at me and the Planet trembling over the crater bursting open with bountiful energy.
It's cold, like death.
Warm lips touched my forehead, and I was revived once again. When those lips spoke, they tickled.
"Aqua, I'm here," Cloud sounded strained, almost broken. He had awakened from his fighter phase, left exhausted but determined to be there when I woke up.
I blinked multiple times before opening my eyes.
And there he was, watching me closely with his blue gem stare a few inches above mine. A weak smile cracked across his weary face, and his warm hand cupped my cheek.
"There you are," he whispered. His eyes steamed, forehead against mine. "I'm glad you're okay," he sighed longingly.
My lips opened. When I spoke, I sounded hoarse. "I'm okay," I assured, mouth dry and throat sore.
Soon, the world's noises crashed in my ears as distant sirens, car alarms, helicopters, and screams. I gazed past Cloud, expecting the airship or cliffs of the crater behind him, but I only saw a red sky with lightning. Winds muffled the thunderous roar above, tossing Cloud's hair to tickle my face.
What happened?
I tried to sit up to see where we were, but I could barely lift my head or even push against what felt like cold, wet grass. I sighed as I relaxed again, clinging to what was left of Vincent's red cloak like a blanket. Someone must've laid it over me while I was asleep.
More faces came into view under the red sky. Barret, Tifa, Red, Vincent, Cid, Yuffie, and Reeve were there.
They all looked worried, but why? Didn't we defeat Sephiroth?
"Did we…" I cleared my throat to get rid of the old, worn voice and tried again. "Did we defeat Sephiroth?"
All the faces above exchanged silent, troubled looks. Tifa sighed and pulled away, Barret scratching his head and Cid bringing his hands up to the sky with defeat. Reeve bit his lower lip, and Yuffie trembled with her arms around herself. Vincent crossed his arms and looked away, not wanting to be the one to say it. Red slowly curled beside me, his head resting over my stomach. The strong winds blew his fur in different directions, his long earrings clanking together like delicate crystal wind chimes.
"He's defeated," the creature sighed. He surveyed the world around us, appearing to be the one to have lost the battle instead. Cloud avoided Red's yellow gaze, dropping his eyes back to me, and took one of my hands with his.
"Aqua….." He swallowed.
I sensed something was terribly wrong. Was it Meteor? Did we still have to worry about that, after all? Was defeating Sephiroth not enough?
The distant screams haunted my ears, forcing me to try sitting up again.
"Where…" I was extremely thirsty and still fragile. Cloud pulled me to sit up with him while Vincent crouched low and brought a bottle of Ether to my lips.
But I ignored the potion and, instead, looked beyond Cloud's gaze to latch onto what familiar structures laid behind him.
My lips trembled.
"No…"
Not sure how I could do it, I dug for every ounce of strength I still had to jolt onto my wobbly feet, my eyes widening as I tried to shove past Cloud to get a better look.
"No…" I choked, shaking my head.
Following a frosty green field and behind a thin forest of dead oak trees stood the scattered skyline of tall, familiar skyscrapers: Central Park Tower. The Park Hyatt. 9 West. Trump Tower. The Hilton. Rockefeller.
Slowly, I spun to gather where the hell we were. It looked like New York, but there was only one problem…
I looked up and smacked a hand over my lips to hide my squeaking cry.
No.
I stumbled until I fell into Cloud behind me with his hands on my shoulders.
"Take it easy," he warned.
I shook my head, tears wetting my fingers as they fell.
Meteor floated up in the hellish sky, talking up a quarter of space with leaks of red and black lightning and incoming red storm clouds. All of this couldn't be my New York. There was no way.
My New York had a blue sky and bright white yellow sun to glimmer the tall, executive buildings like pristine business gods, all lined in row after row. I knew exactly where we were; Central Park, standing at Sheep Meadow; it was supposed to be bright green, well-maintained, and regularly trimmed. Dog walkers, picnic goers, and couples would loiter here while basking under the hot sun or enjoying a bright blue autumn day.
I analyzed it all, the entire meadow empty with an occasional flock of crows and pigeons fluttering across the red background. No one was around.
A nightmare cracked through the sky and poured over my old city, casting it as a decaying thing with a time limit. Meteor was going to fall still, but not in Cloud's world.
It was going to fall in mine.
"We're…" I could hardly say it.
"We're in New York," I gasped.
Thunder growled, Meteor in agreement. Red lightning struck a corner of the meadow, casting more red light to glimmer on our faces. Winds tossed aside Tifa's and Vincent's long hair when they too analyzed the city surrounding them.
"This is New York?" Tifa asked, lifting her head more, chin tilted high to get a better view of the tall buildings outside the park.
"YOUR New York?" She clarified.
I clutched Vincent's cloak tightly, dragging it across the frosted grass like a gown, and tried to stand on my own. It made my stomach flop to stare at my home again, but at the transition of carnage under Meteor's wrath, a doomsday falling on the city.
I rubbed my hand across my eyes to dry them and sniffed.
"Yes. This is New York," I clarified.
I looked at my bare feet in the grass and whispered, "My home."
In my view, Vincent's gold claw shoved that Ether and demanded softly, "Drink already. You need your strength."
I took the bottle and drank.
Cid spun slowly to get a 360-degree view and whistled.
"You're home, huh? It looks like shit," he grunted.
I cracked a nervous smile, my voice going high-pitched when I replied uneasily, "It didn't always look this way." It was meant to be a joke, but no cracks of smiles nor chuckles, just dreadful silence for a long minute. The air thickened with uncertainty, the background noise of turmoil only making it feel worst. I squeezed the empty Ether bottle tight like a security blanket as I imagined the panic that must be sweeping across the city, the people screaming for their lives as they tried to make their way through traffic to get off Manhattan. But it didn't matter how far they went.
Once more, I looked up to stare right into Meteor's face.
No one can run away from this.
No one.
"Aqua, uh… Does your home has monsters, too?" Barret asked with his hand over his eyes to help him better look at the spread of dots along the stretch of the park. I analyzed with him, blinking at the strange shapes of creatures crawling behind dead trees or slithering into empty ponds. Great. Meteor wasn't enough. Let's add monsters in there, too, as well. Why not?
"No," I muttered, frowning at the far-off beasts that roam freely in a world unprepared for them.
"They must've got dragged with us. Everything alive in the crater came," I guessed aloud, disappointed.
Yuffie clung to Tifa's arm and screamed, "What the hell happened, anyway?!" Her high pitch wail echoed to mingle with the other distant cries of chaos exploding around the city. It reminded me of that movie Independence Day, the mess before the giant alien saucer strikes with an ultimate blow to destroy everything in a ten-mile radius.
"Yuffie," Tifa hushed, trying to push the ninja off her.
"Yeah, I thought we won. So, how did we get here?" Barret asked and laid one hard eye on me. Vincent looked at me as well and said nothing. I turned away to avoid their desperate stares for answers. Slowly, my feet sunk into the cold grass until I wanted to disappear into a deep grove.
Red dropped his ears and dragged his furry chin across the grass as he limply walked away from the group.
Cid crossed his arms behind his head and held his gaze on Meteor with a silent, honest conversation. A hard truth glimmered in his blue eyes, one that told us we would all die soon, but at least his home was safe. His Planet, where Shera settled, and his growing hometown were all safe.
"At least our home is going to be okay. Isn't that all that matters?" He asked openly.
"I'm just glad we're all together again. I don't know how I got here, but we're all here," Reeve chimed in.
Cloud pressed his lips together, never looking away from me as though he was boring his eyes into my soul to dig for the true answer to this horrible situation I had somehow created.
Guilt bloomed in my chest up to my throat, his intense stare only making me shiver.
I can't tell him.
I knew he wanted to ask me what had happened. One turn of my head to look at him, and I could see it in his steady eyes. He asked me carefully without even saying a word, but he held off and dropped his gaze with a short sigh.
And then, Reeve asked the big question that none of us wanted to hear.
"What do we do now?"
No one said anything.
Cloud lifted his gaze and said to everyone, "Well, first things first, we need to find shelter. We can't stay out here in the open."
Barret nodded intensely. "Right, right. But…Where?" He shrugged his big arms.
Everyone's eyes searched out in the open, every corner of the massive park appearing just to be a vulnerable spot. I blinked across the meadow and eyed the tall buildings to the South again, thinking of my old place.
Cloud's gentle voice pulled me away when he asked me, "Aqua, what do you think? You know this place better than any of us. Is there a proper place for us to develop a game plan?"
A game plan? Like, to still save the world? Or to sit together and wait for Meteor to hit while we all share our wishes and dreams like hopeless kids? I wanted to say that but bit my tongue instead.
I looked at Vincent's cloak over my shoulders and bit my lower lip. Looking down, I watched my bare feet stomp on the wet grass.
"I do know where to go. It's small, but it's all I've got," I began and swallowed as I raised my eyes a little South West where I knew my apartment rested.
"My apartment is about two miles from here. We can go there," I suggested and immediately thought it ridiculous. I've never had to squeeze eight people into my nine-hundred-square-foot home before. It was going to be awkward.
"Besides, I need clothes," I added, trying to joke again, but it came across as depressing.
Someone took my hand. I turned to find Cloud giving me an intense gaze.
"Then that's where we shall go," he ended, but those words didn't match his eyes. He squeezed my fingers firmly, sending me signals that he craved to have the two of us alone, though I was uncertain if he hungered for intimacy or to unveil thoughts he knew I hid away. But he also knew he wouldn't get that, and the restlessness only added more Mako until his eyes glowed.
Cloud stood there tall and ready, despite his cuts still leaking blood, his shirt, and most of his armor gone. Nothing but his cut-up pants and worn boots with his sword latched along his belt clumsily; half the blade dragged in the grass. A scar lashed across one of his eyes, making it unable to open as wide as he tried to give me a confident look. Since our first meeting, Cloud could already be ten years older. His once lean, lanky body from months ago had gone. That blond boy with cold, blue eyes and disinterest in the world has transformed into a complex body of muscle and scars, with eyes that glowed with an infinite fight. When we met, he had only one scar. Now, there were many, some of them still fresh. Looking at Cloud now, why did I feel so small? I saw myself as a child standing next to him, weak and helpless, with secrets too scared to share.
His Mako eyes blinked at me.
"Aqua, are you okay?" His tone told me he didn't desire a simple "yeah," answer to brush my internal struggles aside. But I pressed my lips together and muttered, "Yeah." It was precisely what he didn't want to hear, and what's worst, I steered my gaze away as I said it, an obvious sign I wasn't okay. I should've played the part harder, lifted a smile, or something.
Cloud didn't say a word, but his stare kept me prisoner for an uncomfortably long time before he decided to turn away with a sigh. He was frustrated but knew now wasn't the time to argue, so instead, he seethed, crossing his arms and looking at the buildings to pretend they interested him.
I was gladly distracted when Yuffie raised her hand. "I want to go! I want to see your place!"
Barret shrugged. "Why the hell not? I've always wanted to see this New York place, buuuuut…" he took one more survey around the meadow. "Not like this," he finished with a crooked frown.
Cid rubbed a gloved finger under his nose.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. As long as there are cigarettes on the way, I don't care where we go," he joined.
"And booze," Tifa added through her teeth.
Red rolled his eyes. "I hate cities," he sighed.
Vincent said nothing, appearing strangely naked without his red cloak. He almost blended with the dead trees in his tall and lean form, arms and legs like branches, while his black hair bled into his dark brown leather armor.
Reeve, too, was silent, lost in his thoughts.
The sky cracked, mighty bolts of red lightning cutting across it only to land and strike another part of the meadow. Yuffie screamed and hugged Tifa.
She wailed, "I want to go now!" Tifa narrowed her eyes when her eardrum almost blew.
Cloud sighed, keeping his arms crossed, and muttered, "We better get going."
Everyone nodded, whereas I swallowed uneasily.
Cloud was going to see my old place. I know it seems belittling to what was happening. Hell is breaking loose in New York; the world's end is coming for us and all. And yet, all I could think about was Cloud coming into a space I used to share with...Isaac. I've almost forgotten his name, his death feeling so long ago.
More warmth oozed around my eyes.
Isaac, I don't want to forget about you.
I'm glad he wasn't here to see what's become of his home. He's always been a New Yorker; he took pride in being born and raised here, his family from the old roots of this once splendid city. Isaac, is your spirit far away from home? Or are you here with us? I looked to the winds, the sky, and the shaking dead branches of trees, only to hear the far-off screams. We could be in the only peaceful area in the entire city.
What was even more troubling than any of us wanted to admit was when Reeve brought up another troubling question, his hands up. After being quiet for a long time, he finally spoke.
"Uh, hey, I just have one crucial question."
We all waited, watching Reeve swallow down his fear. His suit had been torn in many places, his tie gone and hair a black stuffy mess; more like a businessman stumbled out of a bar fight after working a twenty-four-hour shift.
He swallowed and slapped his hands down, his eyes following them on his thighs until he seemed to bow towards Cloud.
"What's the point?!"
He said it.
Immediately, Tifa whimpered, "We can't just stand around and do nothing." She rubbed her arm up and down quickly, one of her nervous twitches.
Yuffie smacked her hands on her hips, glaring at Reeve, and snapped, "Reeve!"
He waved his hands up as he spat at her, "What?! It's true, isn't it? Look, Meteor will fall on us anyway, which looks like soon. So, I'm asking, what the hell is the point?"
He looked at everyone and ended with me directly. I reflected on his worried gaze, wishing to agree with him, but I wanted to believe there was a chance to stop all of this. Yes, my confidence was slim, but I was not too fond of the image of us not trying, sitting around, and sulking as we waited for our deaths.
It's too cruel.
"There is a point," I blurted out of the blue without a backup line. Too late, everyone eyed me curiously. I forced a smile. Even though I simply wanted to die, I said, "We're all here; we can do something. I don't know what it is yet, but we can't give up, not yet. I want to keep trying." My flat voice made my little speech sound ironic, a joke.
What I really wanted to do, was lie down and curl in a fetal position. My stomach felt hollow, leaving me constantly empty. Sneaking it under Vincent's cloak, I pressed into my belly softly. Still firm but very tender, like someone scraped my insides with a ragged razor. Press too hard, and I cramped, wincing.
"Not yet, Reeve. Please?" I reached and grabbed for his shaky hands. We held each other's eyes steadily, his shimmering with moisture, thick black eyebrows up and lips twisted in a hopelessly crooked smile. What did he see in my eyes? Hope or death? I thought I tried, but maybe that wasn't what he saw. He saw someone already giving up but didn't have the courage to say it, so he took my empty words and tried to make something of them. Anything.
"I want to," he was saying, voice breaking. He shook his head, unable to clear from the hard truth growing above our heads.
"I'm scared," Reeve whispered truthfully, and he did a hard squeeze until my fingers turned white. I squeezed back.
"Me too," I shared.
I looked at our joined hands; knuckles stretched thin. Tifa's glove hand appeared gently and laid over both of ours.
"We're all scared," she added, her tiny smile possibly enough to pursue anyone not to lose sight of hope.
Reeve sucked in his lower lip, nodding. He then ducked his head, and all he replied was, "Okay." It wasn't convincing, however, there was no need to force it at this point.
Barret smacked his hand on Reeve's shoulder, causing him to trip over one side.
"We can do somethin. Don't give up just yet. We're all here. Together, we're an unstoppable team," he preached. He tossed Tifa his scruffy smile, and she gladly caught it. She reflected his grin.
"Yeah. We're badass when we're all together," she echoed. Just to give Reeve a boost of motivation, she winked at him. Reeve began to smile a little more.
"Thanks, you guys."
Cid picked up his spear and poked it at the grass.
"Let's get moving; we're too slow," he hurried, probably itching to get out of Meteor's giant view. All eyes fixated on me. I didn't know why until I realized they were all waiting for me to point in the right direction. They didn't know where I used to live. I blinked to snap myself awake.
"Oh, right." I pointed in the right direction. "That way."
We moved.
….
The meadow and most of Central Park appeared deserted. There were a few homeless, but they were easy prey for the large beastly creatures that came into this world. Close by, a scream would make me gasp, only to hear it end abruptly, as though swallowed—another meal.
Long, dead branches waved, clanking together as we walked under their high reach.
I led the way, but Cloud stayed close as he easily held his sword over his shoulder, ready to attack anything in our way.
It wasn't until we stepped onto the first street that my eyes opened to what New York was actually infested with. I thought it was only Meteor and wild monsters we had to worry about, but…
Bumps raised across my skin, and I gripped Cloud's arm tight.
"What is that?" I gasped and pointed ahead.
It wiggled freely from a large crack in the crossroads of West 59th and 6th ave. A giant, black tentacle, maybe fifteen feet. It gleamed like it was made of slippery wet rubber and glared red from reflecting Meteor's storm.
We all stopped, except Yuffie. She was too curious, ready to walk up to it, but Vincent snatched her skinny arm to pull her back.
"Wait," he warned.
Many deserted cars and taxis lay upside down or in pieces around the tall tentacle. There was hardly anyone around except for the occasional stranger panting as they ran. A gentleman burst out on the dead street from a high-rise apartment. He ran past the tentacle. Like a venomous snake waiting for its prey, the tentacle perked and struck the unfortunate man. He screamed as a sharp black blade protracted from his back, and then he hung limp and dead in two seconds.
Slowly, his life was released as a vibrant sparkling green dust cloud, ready to return to Earth. But the tentacle sucked the energy up like a greedy beast.
Reeve smacked his hands over his lips and looked away.
Cid dropped his jaw and uttered, "What the fuck?"
I looked over Cloud's shoulders to glimpse along the other streets, only to notice that there were more of these strange tentacles, scattered, lonesome branchless trees, alive and sucking life out of anyone who neared them.
"What is this?" Tifa asked, a hand around her throat. Her lips quivered, eyebrows up as her large, amber eyes wandered among the hellish streets.
"It's no wonder it's empty," Red groaned, noticing the many empty cars with open doors for anyone to take. The intersection light blinked red, stuck in its phase as it leaned heavily on its pole to one side, stressed by the winds. The flag of the United States flapped aggressively under the red sky.
Cloud stepped forward and readied his sword over his head.
"Whatever it is, it needs to die," he scoffed.
He didn't wait for permission, even when I stiffened standing there alone. I wish I still had his arm to hold onto, but I hugged myself until I felt sharp claws tap around my shoulder.
"Cloud, wait!" Vincent growled over my head.
Tifa ran to catch up. "I'll help you!"
Cloud dodged the quick flicks of the tentacle. Somehow, without eyes, it could know where to strike, but Cloud spun around a hit and hacked at it, his sword acting as a cleaver.
Tifa unleashed a fire-blasted punch, trembling the tentacle's core.
Cid used Materia to cast Blizzaga. He spun his weapon over his head, green Material glowing under his rough face.
"Break it to pieces," he shouted and blasted the tentacle with ice.
It worked, the tentacle froze over, and Cloud did the final blow, an overhead cut that broke the large piece in two. When it hit the street and cars, it cracked and turned into more pieces. A hissing sound escaped from the tentacle's base. What remained slithered back into its hiding place, with nothing left but a large hole on the asphalt.
We all peered inside, only to hear more hissing in the darkness.
My stomach squeezed, acid slowly building up in my esophagus. I clenched my hands around my throat to try and stop the flow, ready to keel over and vomit. The sickening feeling felt familiar, not in a pregnancy way but in a more disturbing way.
"One down, hundreds to go," Reeve pointed out. I began to sweat, and my legs grew heavy.
I almost fell over, ready to land on my hands, until an arm swooped around my belly. The back of my hands grazed the asphalt.
"Aqua, what is it?" Cloud gasped. I dry heaved, had nothing left to expel, and coughed when my throat felt dry again.
"I don't know," I whimpered, scared.
Orange sneakers appeared in my vision.
"Aqua, don't hold out now! We got to get you home," Yuffie cried.
"Anyone have water?" Tifa asked.
Yuffie looked in her Moogle bag and frowned. "Nope."
Reeve checked his pack. "I finished my last one."
Cid just sighed, hands in his hair. "Y'all know this isn't a problem, right?"
I leaned into Cloud as we all looked at Cid. He threw his hands up at what was around us.
"It's the end of the fucking world. I don't think it matters at this point if ya'll just jump into a shop and grab what you need. No rules apply when Meteor is about to fall." He shrugged at our shocked faces. "Just sayin."
"He has a point," Cloud agreed, keeping one arm around my waist to hold me up.
Gods, I've felt worthless.
All eight of us walked down 6th avenue against the frozen herd of traffic. More cars were left alone, their front beams left on and blaring against us as we slipped between them like we were in a small maze.
Seeing the familiar Wine and Spirits shop at the corner or a parked UPS truck felt so strange. This is my world. I couldn't grasp that fact quickly when I brought the worst parts of Cloud's world into the mix, altering everything. The city lay dead, many bodies piled beside more tentacles waiting for another victim. Monsters stomped between the high rises and smashed vehicles under their large, scaly feet.
More thunder and flashes of red lightning. Winds slipped through the streets sharply, blowing away litter and rolling the occasional body.
This was Hell.
I rammed my wet eyes in Cloud's arm, spreading my tears across his bloody wounds. Opening my lips to gasp and accidentally kiss his cuts, I tasted hints of his blood.
Yuffie stood in the middle of 56th street and 6th avenue, her head up at the tops of all the tall buildings under Meteor, and spun her arms out.
"Wow, this city is HUGE!"
"It definitely seems bigger than Midgar," Tifa mentioned. Her head seemed to be stuck looking up, too much detail to miss. I couldn't stop staring at all the familiar businesses, trying to snap in my brain somewhere that we were in my home, but there was a blockade. Was it denial? Was it guilt?
More slithering tentacles stood along the streets. Was there something sinister lying underneath the city? It seemed like wherever the tentacles came from, they had a source. Every time one of us damaged it, it would crawl back in its hole, to hiss back to where it came from, like a tree branch retreating to its roots.
Even more interesting was how my body reacted whenever I got near one. I grew weak, falling into Cloud like my strength had been zapped from me.
I slumped my head into his battered chest, breathing deeply for air.
Cloud figured it out before I did.
"You get ill near these things," he mentioned. I nodded, rubbing my wet forehead against his him.
"You used to react the same way when…" he paused. I looked up, seeing the roof of his chin over my nose. His eyes went elsewhere, widening.
"What?" I pried, knowing Cloud was hit with a jolt of resolution.
His neck stretched long when he looked up at Meteor, a giant red, fuzzy eye peering at us between the corners of high rises. His Adam's apple waved when he swallowed.
"Nothing…" Cloud lied.
I didn't have the strength to press him. Instead, I slumped my cheek against his chest. He squeezed me tight and bowed his head over mine long enough to help him collect one deep breath.
We carried on.
I led everyone to take a right on 55th street, finally with the flow of frozen traffic. Many sidewalk cafes stood empty; plates were left unfinished under umbrellas. Once in a while, a brave couple was sitting out, dull eyes going to their cups of coffee or dessert, stuck in their small world of acceptance of a possible one last treat before the end. Others must've hidden away in their homes, laid victim to the infestation of tentacles, or eaten by monsters. Judging by the dead trees and slight chill to the winds, it may have been early spring or late winter before we arrived.
Now the air was a strange cold humidity if that made sense. Chilly winds, and yet, I felt sticky, my hair sticking to my cheeks until it tickled too much to ignore.
"I'm sorry you all had to see it like this," I muttered, dragging my feet.
"I still can't believe we're here," Red replied. He padded next to my legs and looked up to read my expression. He must've disliked the state I was in because his ears drooped, and he sighed before glancing up at more USA flags waving over a corner cafe.
"I remember catching a glimpse of your home through Grandfather's place. I thought how extraordinary it all looked. I never thought I would actually get to be in it, especially like this," he said.
"Aqua." I looked down to give Red my attention. His yellow eyes twinkled.
"We'll find a way to save your home, just as you saved ours," he finalized.
I forced a smile, but it quickly melted away, and I tucked my eyes back on Vincent's cloak most of the time.
Many shops had been ransacked.
Windows had been shattered, glass everywhere. Many brave souls went home carrying 60-inch TVs or expensive game consoles. Cloud glared at a group of men slipping out of an electronics store with goods in their arms.
"It's like Midgar when it lost power," he commented. The puttering of a helicopter roared overhead.
We all looked up. I recognized the News logo on the chopper, and it whipped by quick as a hawk, swooshing over the buildings to show the world what New York had become.
"Your world sure has a lot of the same banks," Reeve mentioned after he eyed a Chase Bank sitting at a corner for the fifth time. "It's that, or we're going in circles."I heaved a lame chuckle.
"It looks that way, but we're halfway there," I updated.
"And hot dog stands," Red sighed, his eyes growing at a lonesome yellow cart where hot dogs were left sizzling.
"And coffee shops," Yuffie blurted.
As we dodged tentacles, monsters, and parked cars, more street lights waved over us. Billboards stayed lit, words rolling along the corners of buildings or flashing at us without sound. It's like most of the city's population just vanished, leaving the place as a dead zone.
We followed along 8th Avenue until I stopped in front of my old building.
It didn't really sink in until now.
That old Rite Aid sitting under the complex. The last time I was there, I bought pregnancy tests while it snowed outside.
Red lightning flashed, blinking against the tall 30-story building of brick and glass.
Everyone stopped around me, staring up at the building.
"Is this it?" Yuffie asked. She nudged her elbow into my arm to wake me up, but I stayed stuck in place, glowering at the building.
"This is it," I muttered, and yet, not believing a word of it. This couldn't be it. We couldn't be here. This had to be a dream or worst; we all died in the North Crater and somehow joined in Hell.
The entrance was locked, and nobody was in the office. Barret's gun transformed into a metal hand and it curled into a fist, ready to break the door down.
The glass shattered, metal bars flew into the lobby, and the big man grinned.
"Man, I love destroying shit," he boasted, Yuffie beaming up at him.
"Me too," she agreed, and they high-fived with shared enthusiasm.
I carefully walked around the glass until Cloud lifted me in his arms without permission.
"Monsters will get in," he sighed. I pointed to the elevators, and we all squeezed into the small space.
I pressed for the 20th floor and took a deep breath. The last time I was here, I was desperate to go back to the other world. Who would've thought that I brought some of that back with me? I never imagined taking my friends up this glass elevator. I thought I was stepping in between two places at once, unable to decide which world to settle in until time and space grew impatient and smashed everything together.
I hesitated at the door.
Number 2025.
The lock was an electronic tap system, but I must've left it open when I left for Iceland because the door clicked with a turn of its knob.
I held my breath and wavered.
I'm back here again, back in New York. I kept telling myself this, but like before; it just wouldn't follow through; the neuron pathways were blocked or shut off.
Yuffie stepped forward and pushed the door open wide. She grinned at me.
"There we go!"
Her eyes didn't match her smile when I looked at her. She was trying so hard, and that bothered me. She easily held my painful truth in her chocolate brown eyes but kept her smile up. It was too exhausting for me even to try. I simply walked past Yuffie and entered the empty hall with its familiar stench of stale air.
I wanted to take it all in slowly, but I knew the group was exhausted from the many random battles on the streets, barging in hurriedly.
"It's pretty small," I quickly mentioned apologetically.
Barret stomped down the hall, his large shoulders almost touching the walls.
"Yeah, no kidding," he scoffed. He left a few framed pieces crooked on his way into the living room.
Reeve flopped himself on my cream three-seater couch, his head leaning back to touch a curtain, and he sighed at the low ceiling.
"Finally," he breathed, closing his eyes as he melted into the leather.
Red sniffed around the wood floor, padding where I placed small rugs.
"It's cozy, but no fireplace," he complained.
Tifa peered into the stainless steel kitchen, her eyes growing.
"Wow, this place is yours?" She gasped.
I nodded, watching her explore all the cabinets and open and close the fridge too many times.
"Wow, this fridge is huge!"
Her face lit up with its white light until she closed it.
Yuffie dug through the pantry until she found a bag of pita chips. She waved them at me.
"Are these any good?"
I shrugged.
She tore the bag open anyway and took a handful into her mouth. I've forgotten how loud those chips cracked when someone ate them so boldly as Yuffie did. The sounds of her chewing brought me to a flashback of Isaac chewing those same chips, his favorite snack. He'd dip them in homemade hummus, chewing away while reading a research paper or watching one of his shows on the kitchen counter.
He noticed me watching him, his blue lens glasses on to keep his Macbook's light from destroying his eyes. In the better days, those brown eyes twinkled behind those lenses when they noticed I was catching him quietly.
"What is it, Aqua?"
"Aqua."
Isaac's voice turned into Cloud's until I was warped back into the kitchen, stone staring at Yuffie munching away until she blinked at me and paused. There was silence for a few seconds.
"Aqua."
Cloud took my hand, startling me. That allowed Yuffie to move her jaw again, her cheeks filled with more pita chips. Her chewing became an annoying background noise when Cloud told me heavily, "You need to come see this."
He pulled me gently towards the window. My apartment faced East, and on the twentieth floor, it was a gifted view of Manhattan in its glorious setting. Many tall, iconic buildings bled together into a maze of different textures and patterns with a background of red sky. Thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows, it was easy for Meteor's sinister colors to enter, turning my apartment red.
I neared the glass, shaking.
Four blocks away, I saw what Cloud was concerned about.
The Rockefeller Building.
It was one of New York's iconic structures, seventy floors high.
But something was gravely wrong.
I came closer until my nose touched the glass, trying to make sense of what I saw. Tentacles. Hundreds of them leaked out of the building, making it appear like a giant, black tree. They looked like tree branches sprouting through the windows and working their way down the city streets to spread death. At the top of the building, more tentacles, along with pulsating egg sacks and tumors. Half the building appeared alive but infected with widespread madness.
Cid almost crashed his open mouth into the glass.
"Well, it looks like we got two problems now," he clued in.
Cloud could see it easily with his eyesight, and he crossed his arms, disgruntled.
"We've got company," he seethed under his breath.
"What? I don't get it. Is Sephiroth here, too?!" Reeve began to panic, his hands in his hair while standing on my couch with his dirty shoes.
Yuffie dropped the bag of pita chips.
"What?!" She said with her mouth full, crumbs falling on the tile floor.
"Wait, let me see," Tifa demanded, squeezing between Cid and Yuffie.
Barret shook his head to clear his thoughts.
"No way, man! It can't be!"
Red squeezed between Barret's legs to have a look, and he sighed, fogging the glass.
Vincent's eyes glowed red at what he saw.
"No, not Sephiroth," he corrected, seeing our enemy clearly. He turned his head slowly to look at Cloud. The blond warrior continued to glare at the top of the building, zooming in on who was sitting on it like a king awaiting his coronation.
He opened his lips, and out came the name I didn't expect.
"Jenova."
Ice water slipped into my blood.
No one spoke for the longest time, all their mouths left open.
It all finally made sense to me.
My memories flared behind my eyes, and I saw Jenova grinning at me behind the mask of Sephiroth. She was done with him, leaving him to die under Cloud's sword, when I released all of my power to crack open the crater and leak the Lifestream. Jenova came with us.
She's here.
That explained the tentacles. The sickening feeling I get when I'm around pieces of her spread throughout the city.
Deep down, I knew why I turned ill in her presence after a grace period. I peeled my hands away, leaving behind moisture over the glass, and stumbled back a few steps, trembling.
"She's here, too," I whispered and fought to look away. I was going to be sick.
I ran across the living room and into the bedroom, where I knew the bathroom would be. Five seconds later, I knelt over the toilet, and dry heaved—still nothing except speckles of Ether.
Moments later, a soft hand rubbed up and down my back.
"Aqua, why don't you rest for a bit, take a bath, eat something, anything? Please?" Tifa's voice felt soothing, like a mother's. More fell into the toilet bowl, tears, tiny drops of rain falling from the edges of my cheeks. I sniffed, nodding to Tifa's suggestion, and rubbed my eyes roughly with a piece of Vincent's cloak.
I didn't look over my shoulder but felt him behind me. Cloud hovered near the doorway, watching quietly, his eyes stuck in thought.
"Cloud, why don't you check out that store on the first floor? I know we could use some supplies," Tifa suggested. It was a kind way of asking him to give me space. He detected it right away and immediately stepped back.
"Sure."
Somewhere in the apartment, I heard him suggest a visit to Rite Aid or other shops nearby. Cid cheered.
"Hey, Tifa! Still want some booze?!" He cried across the apartment with his cackling, smoky voice. Tifa hesitated, then she stuck her head out of the bathroom to shout, "Nah. I changed my mind!"
"Suit yourself!"
Footsteps shuffled about. A door closed. It was quiet. There was no telling who stayed behind. I stayed crouched against the toilet, frozen while my broken brain struggled to process all that had happened in less than a day.
Tifa ran a bath.
"Who knows how long we have, but that doesn't mean you can't pause and relax for a while," she soothed.
Someone stepped through the doorway.
"How is she?" Vincent sounded worried.
Tifa's voice was calm when she told him, "I can't really say. She's been through a lot. More than any of us."
While the two spoke softly, my eyes stung.
Cloud's child.
I clutched my empty uterus.
His hopes for a family.
I shut my eyes tight, trying to fight the wave of dark emotions hurling towards the dam of my spirit.
His wishes to rebuild his life with his child and me.
My throat closed up, ears clogged.
His dreams of rebuilding Nibelheim, filling its streets with children playing.
Tears spilled silently.
It's all gone.
I suddenly balled, my cries a heart-breaking screech from the bathroom across the apartment.
Warm arms took hold until I felt Tifa's bosom pressed into my back. She sat down on the floor with me, her legs out, and squeezed around my waist.
"Oh Aqua, I'm so sorry," she whispered. Vincent collapsed on his knees and wrapped his long arms around us. There was a faint smell of wine and gunpowder in his hair as it brushed my face.
"It's okay. We're here for you," he reminded in a low whisper. His breath tickled my ear, warm and moist.
I continued to wail, muffling it in his cloak. I pulled it over my lips. Water continued to gush into the tub as we stayed on the bathroom floor for a long time.
…
I settled in the bathtub, quietly thinking as water dripped softly from the faucet. The warm water rolled over my shoulders when I sank into it, letting it wash away my lips and tickle my nostrils.
Tifa sat on the toilet set, one knee tucked into her breasts as she leaned back and looked to the ceiling, lost in her thoughts.
Much commotion happened around the apartment when everyone returned from their shopping trip. Yuffie cheered something about pizza.
The bathroom remained shut off from the rest of the world. Tifa didn't have to stay. I felt terrible she wasn't out there, enjoying her last few hours with the gang drinking good beer and eating pizza.
"You don't have to sit in here with me, you know," I told her, my voice raw.
Tifa smiled to herself.
"I know."
I sank my lips back into the murky water. Slowly, its warmth eased between my legs to wash away the aches that lingered after the accident.
Tifa turned to me, her lengthy hair collecting in her lap.
"Aqua, I know it may feel like the end of the world. I mean, it is, but not like that, I mean, oh…" she huffed in frustration, her words not coming out smoothly as she liked. She took a deep breath and tried again.
"When we save the world, you can always try again," she eased softly.
I closed my eyes, picturing a life in Nibelheim with Cloud. I saw him with a bright smile, holding an infant in his arms like a proud father.
My lips lifted over the water.
"I don't know if we can even save this world," I croaked and rubbed my leaky nose with a sniffle.
"Or if you can ever go back," I ended.
When Tifa didn't say anything for a time, I blurted, "I can't tell him."
I huffed those heavy words out into the water, my breath rattling around my knees.
Tifa watched me silently.
I lifted a hand and watched the water run through my pruny fingers.
"It's what he's always wanted, Tifa. If I tell him…." I couldn't finish, my lips hiding back in the water.
It would crush Cloud.
Tifa bit her lower lip and hugged her knee into her chest a little more. She pressed her forehead into it and sighed, eyes half closed.
"I know it won't be easy, but he needs to know. It's his right to know, Aqua. I think… I think he'll understand."
I buried my face in the water, letting its warm hands wash away the stickiness of old tears before more emerged. Back and forth, my head shook, my hollow insides quivering to Cloud knowing the horrible truth.
"I feel so empty," I gasped sharply, my chest shaking with each word that leaked. Tifa sunk her knees on the floor next to the tub and wrapped her arms around my wet shoulders. Some of her hair leaked into the tub water, but she didn't care.
"You were right, Tifa. I should've stayed behind. I should've stayed with Reeve," I whimpered. I clutched one of her arms fiercely and shoved my eyes against her cool skin.
"No, don't do that. It's too late for that now. You did the best you could," she said heavily. She sniffed.
"It's not your fault."
And she took one of her arms to rub at her eyes with her glove.
"So please, stop blaming yourself. We need you back. We need the old Aqua to help us save her home. And then we'll all live together, here."
To make me feel better, Tifa began to tell me a fairy tale about how we're all going to stop Jenova and bring an end to Meteor. New York and the rest of the world will be saved. She'll open up her bar, 7th Heaven, on a corner of 5th avenue. Or she maybe even open a martial arts studio. Yuffie will be a famous art thief. Cid will easily be a pilot for commercial or private planes. We struggled to figure out what Barret would do. I thought of him showing engineers his gun arm mechanics, a revelation to prosthetic limbs that may give some answers. Since they get along well, Red will likely stick by Barret's side as a furry companion. Reeve will easily fit into the corporate world and become involved in politics. A classic Phoenix rises from the ashes when he becomes mayor of the city. Vincent was another matter. Tifa had no idea what he could do besides brood and drink red wine. We decided he would be a wine taster at a lovely bar. His good looks and loner personality will stir many hearts to visit him.
And then there was Cloud. What in the world would he do?
"He can just be an at-home dad," Tifa brought up. "You work at your hospital, and he stays home, taking care of your baby."
"That doesn't sound like him at all. He'll go nuts," I quickly deflated. We giggled at the idea of Cloud panicking as he circled the house, holding a screaming baby.
It was a lovely tale, and I smiled briefly. Maybe that all will happen if we save this world. Maybe…
I closed my eyes. A heavyweight of dark truth lingered, something I knew would never go away no matter how real Tifa's story sounded. It was something I never wanted to reveal because there could be no point in it. If we failed to save my world, then it didn't matter.
But if we did save it…
I breathed deeply.
"Won't you miss your home? Marlene? Midgar? Costa De Sol with Johnny?" I asked Tifa carefully.
She sank her cheek over my wet head and sighed through her nose softly.
"Yeah. I'll miss all of that. But our home is safe now. And we're alive, aren't we? We'll make it work."
A knock came at the door. Tifa gasped and looked over her shoulder, waiting to hear who it was. The door opened slowly. I could feel Tifa swallow against my head. A heavy silence hovered until someone cleared their throat.
"If it's all right with Aqua, I need to speak with her," Cloud requested, then added delicately, "Alone."
Tifa looked back at me as her arms loosened.
I didn't want to talk to Cloud. Not yet. Not ever. He wanted to know everything, but I may never be ready to tell him. My lips stayed under water, frozen in cold despair. The water became chilly too quickly. Tifa detected my distress and turned her doe eyes back to Cloud.
"I don't think now is the right-"
"No. It's okay," I interrupted when I quickly changed my mind. I blinked to fight the tears. Tifa paused, her arms frozen.
I licked the water off my lips and clarified, "I'll talk to him."
Tifa gave me one more tight hug.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
She brushed my loose hair behind my ears to glimpse my dim eyes, trying to smile for me.
"You'll be okay. We're here for you," she whispered and pulled away gently, her arms gone.
Before she left, she whispered to Cloud, "Please go easy on her."
The door closed.
It was quiet after that.
I thought Cloud had left to share a few private words with Tifa, but with a turn of my head, I saw that he was simply standing silently, watching me while sorting his words.
Again, I looked to the grey water around my knees and hugged my legs, silent. A drop of water fell from a short strand of my hair, making baby ripples around me. Cloud took deep breaths, standing there shirtless, battered, tired, older, and leaned his sword up against a corner, its blade dim as his mood.
He looked at himself in the mirror and quickly flashed his eyes away.
Behind the door, the rest of the apartment sounded alive with good spirits, the gang trying to stay optimistic with good food, booze, a glamorous view of the city, and cable TV. I heard the distant voice of a female news anchor, but her words were faint.
"Aqua." Cloud sighed my name, letting it roll in the air for a long time. It didn't sound like a request for my attention or even a question. I stayed stiff, hugging myself in the tub. I heard him shuffling about until he sank to the floor, sitting next to the tub with a long sigh, legs stretched out. A cool hand pressed against my back, and shivers spread through my body, creating more ripples.
His fingers brushed softly up my spine, feeling for each vertebra until I silently begged to have his hold dip through my skin, into my bones, and squeeze my broken soul back to life.
Cloud leaned over the tub's wall, still quiet. Was he waiting for me to talk? Or is he still thinking deeply about what to say?
I wanted to turn my head to look at him, but I was afraid to meet his gaze. One look and I may spill everything to him, his stare gripping mine with persistence until I crumbled. I never wanted his hand to pull away, closing my eyes to it. It was so quiet, I could even hear Cloud's lips when he licked them, and when they opened, the moist of his tongue came out before his words rolled over it.
"What happened?"
Straight to the point. Cloud was never a small talker, and I was grateful for that. Why waste time talking nonsense and just get to the matter at hand?
I tilted my head enough to let my lips float over the water, the first step.
The water turned cold, my feelings frosting the surface. I shivered, shaking my head.
My lips opened, but nothing escaped.
His arm curled around my shoulder to pull me toward the tub's edge, and his lips touched my wet hair.
"You can tell me. I won't go anywhere."
I closed my eyes tight. I squeezed my legs in my hands, nails digging into my skin, and sniffed. The tears still escaped no matter how tight I kept my eyes shut.
"I can't," I began, my voice cracked like a broken child.
"Why?"
"It hurts too much."
"And that's why I want you to tell me."
"No."
"Aqua, please…"
A hand curved under my chin and pulled my head towards him. I kept my eyes low, stuck to the water with a glimpse of his battle-damaged chest at the edge of my vision.
"Look at me," Cloud requested under his breath. I could feel his words on my face for how close he was.
Again, I shook my head and closed my eyes.
"No."
He held my face in his strong hands, his effort to catch my eyes with his never weakening.
"Look at me."
I flickered from the water to him and got snatched by his glowing blue stare. Damn it. I didn't mean to do that. How did he do that? How did Cloud handcuff my gaze so easily like that? The sounds of the tv and our friends muddled into a fog, the bathroom melting away. There was no world. Not mine. Not Cloud's. It was just us stuck in this frozen dimension where nothing else existed.
Cloud's eyes took me into a blue crystal cavern, letting me take my time to explore its sharp beauty. I grew careful, considering each crystal without stabbing myself.
"I lost it," I exclaimed, wishing every crystal in his marveling eyes would stab me already.
"I lost it," I repeated, my voice breaking. I closed my eyes, and tears came pouring out.
I pulled my hands out of the water and splashed them over my face to hide my shame. It didn't sound any easier to label the baby as "it", but that's how it came out.
"I lost it! Cloud! I lost it!" I couldn't stop saying it, those three words shattering my denial, Cloud's hopes and dreams. It was all that floated around my head like many cruel ghosts, until finally, after admitting it out loud, the ghosts floated through the walls, gone. I continued to sob, tears and bath water rolling around my hands to fall into the tub. The bathroom's tile walls freely echoed my inhaled gasps and shaky exhales. Behind my pressed eyelids, I was in darkness, giving me the illusion that I was alone, stuck, and lost.
"It was my fault you're all here," I gasped, my mouth free under my hands.
"It hurt so much, I-I…I couldn't control it."
I could be talking to no one for all I knew; Cloud was too quiet. What was he thinking? How did he feel? Did he blame me? Was he furious, already losing himself to the Mako until he drifted into his dark shadows?
Strong fingers laced through my wet hair around the back of my skull.
"Aqua," Cloud released under his breath.
His thumbs fought my hands away to reveal my awful face. He rubbed away my tears.
"I had a feeling," he whispered.
I couldn't stop crying; my eyes kept closed to avoid witnessing the possible destruction on Cloud's face. Unexpectedly, my lips felt a brush of his.
"It's all right," he said in my mouth, then pressed his forehead against mine.
"We can always try again," he eased.
I sniffed one too many times and blinked away the blurry tears to see a streak of his eyes looking down at my hands in the water.
Cloud sighed, his breath causing the water to shudder under his lips.
"We can always try again," he repeated. "What's more important is that you're alive."
"It doesn't feel like it," I whimpered, watching my fingers fiddle under the surface.
Cloud watched with me.
"I know," he uttered. His eyes began to glow, and green stars spiraled around his pupils.
His voice heated when he asked through his teeth, "Was it Jenova?"
I nodded, unable to say more, but Cloud didn't need to hear it anyway. He knew how it happened, how he lost his unborn child in exchange for my freedom from Jenova's cursed cells. He opened his lips, ready to say something but held off last second, only leaking out Vincent's name before shaking his head against mine.
"Nothing, never mind." He constantly blinked, green light flashing behind his eyelids.
"I don't mean to sound insensitive, but…" he swallowed. "If it meant freeing you from Jenova, it was probably for the best." His hands shook, fingers drilling into my scalp.
Cloud hissed through his teeth, "But…." His forehead trembled. "But…" I detected the fragility of his voice, his little boyish heart breaking. His breathing quaked when he grunted, "I wish it didn't…" he either decided not to finish or left it at that, sniffing.
I blinked, only to find his eyes shut tight and locked, but he had tears. I bravely took it all in, inhaling Cloud's pain, and lifted my wet hands to cup his cheeks.
"I'm so sorr-"
He kissed me hard before I could even finish my apology.
"Don't," Cloud breathed in my mouth and kissed me again, pulling my face into his to have our lips together roughly.
"Don't," he said again, his warmth rolling around my tongue. I welcomed him with hungry longing, filled with a desperate need that burst into the enormous flame I've ever manifested for him. It felt like life or death; I had to have his lips, his touch, his breath, all of him, or else I would die.
It grew cold when he pulled away, only to wrap his flaming arms around my shoulders.
"I still love you," Cloud whispered in my ear.
I clawed up his back, smudging my tears all over his glowing Mako shoulder.
"Okay," I gasped, holding on tight, even when it started to burn.
Cloud knew he had to pull away, his body heating too much with Mako pouring out of his pores like ghostly vines, but I refused to let go, taking in his heat and sorrow until we shared the same pain.
"Don't go, not yet," I begged, halfway out of the tub. Cloud forced himself to simmer down just so he could follow my wishes and stayed with me, the tub wall between us as we did in his Nibelheim home. Our home.
The water got cold. His breathing relaxed, and our thoughts held in our hearts. I may have fallen asleep or teleported. One second, I was in the cold tub; the next, in just a blink, I was lying in bed, looking up at a ceiling with blood-red light spilling across it. It almost looked like sunset colors; easy to mistake the time around late afternoon. I rolled my head to the side of the bed, finding that old digital clock on my dresser.
21:45
Thank Gods for military time, or else I would be confused if it was morning or night. Meteor's glow threw in too much chaos to tell what part of the day it was.
My vision cleared beyond the clock, finding Cloud's back to me. He stood quietly, focused on the framed photos along the walls. I rolled to get a better view and squeezed the old sheets between my fingers.
He was looking at photos of Isaac and me.
I swallowed before licking my dry lips.
Cloud was in my home. My heart jumped with anxious excitement. It was easy to fall into a dream for a few seconds, pretending that Meteor's glow was just a sunset, and Cloud voluntarily came back with me to my world to stay. He was still adapting to the change, slowly accepting that I had another life before our meet. No Mako fluttered over his shoulders nor arms crossed with displeasure; Cloud stood there, arms hanging at his sides while red light glared across his back to highlight his scars.
"Do you miss him?"
His low voice broke the silence, suspecting I'd been awake for a while without even a turn of his head to find out.
I pulled the sheet over my lips, considering his question. It didn't sound cold, but it came out as such, or perhaps more intense than he prepared for.
Calmly, I pushed myself up, sheet hiding my breasts.
"Sometimes," I admitted. Just the familiarity, the simple life of fretting over unimportant things, less trivial things.
"But more of just the average life, its predictable, simple pleasures, not entirely about Isaac," I corrected when Cloud remained quiet.
That's when he crossed his arms, my answer to his disliking, or maybe he saw his reflection blurring over Isaac's. Just a replacement.
"You liked living a simple life?" Cloud muttered.
I swallowed, sitting up more, and trekked lightly around him with carefully chosen words. It was best just to be honest.
"I liked how predictable it was, for a while at least."
Cloud said nothing, his eyes continuously burning on one particular piece, a 12x15 glossed photo of Isaac and I nudged together, shoulder to shoulder, under a soft yellow light. People surrounding us wore cocktail dresses, Champagne flutes in their hands, me in a long, sparkling black dress. New Year's Eve. That photo happened right after Isaac told me he loved me. My smile showed it. Frozen, crooked, uneasy, suppressed dreams and self-identity slowly drowning. The more extended Cloud stared at that photo, the more I squirmed uncomfortably in bed, fretting about pulling his attention away. I saw his reflection, his burning eyes lying over my long dress.
"Where are the others?" I tried, noticing it was quiet. I looked to the other side of the room where the one wall of top to bottom windows filed, taking up half the apartment. The red almost looked like a decaying late summer color, pollution and smoke left in the air to blur the sun into a crimson state, the air hot, humid, and still on those windless days. Flashes of lighting flickered under the fast-moving red clouds.
"They went to investigate that building where Jenova sits to gather what the hell is going on," Cloud answered.
I didn't have a proper reply, left to quietly gaze at Jenova's headquarters on top of the Rockefeller Building. What was her purpose here? Won't she get caught in Meteor's fall? Why bother?
Our friends out and about must've all been an excuse to help me relax. I could only imagine the mess in the living room; pizza boxes and beer cans everywhere.
Through the silence, I left Cloud alone to lose himself in the photos while I stared intently at all the shiny black tentacles wiggling over Jenova's chosen castle.
Sephiroth was never our true enemy.
I breathed deeply.
Jenova, the actual parasite, and now she chose my world to infest. Innocent lives were consumed, her tentacles sucking up their life force to give her more power while she awaited for my Planet to crack under Meteor's weight. I was transfixed on the scenery, New York City flooding under a red light as though Hell was an upscale high-rise city. I peeled out of bed, the sheet falling behind when I walked up to the window naked, basking in the light.
I pressed a hand to the warm glass and glared at what had become of my old home.
Jenova did this.
She did all of this.
I squinted.
With Cloud far away, whispers of my home tickled my ears, reminding me of what I had to do.
Well?
I turned sharply to her voice and found her hand touching the glass close to mine. Three of her metal bracelets jingled, the bells ringing of her presence.
What do you have to do?
Aerith turned her head and showed me her gentle smile under a long wave of her darkened rose gold hair, her beauty unaffected by Meteor's red spill.
I looked at the city again, watching Jenova slurp it up with her tentacles acting as straws. Meteor's incoming storm grew closer. The clouds began to funnel, taking shape to become full-blown twisters soon enough.
"I have to save my world now," I told her.
"What?" Cloud heard me. Whether he mistook it as me talking to him, he turned to look at me anyway. I blinked back to Aerith only to see her gone, and then I spun around to consider Cloud, my hand left on the glass.
I took a deep breath.
"I have to save my world. I won't let Jenova take yours nor mine. She's not taking anyone's home! She can go fuck herself."
Cloud actually grinned. It didn't look so bad in the light.
"There she is," he sighed with relief.
My eyes widened at his approach, how he stepped towards me and suddenly pulled me into his arms.
"There's my Aqua. My fighting spirit, strong-willed Aqua," Cloud whispered. He squeezed his head over my shoulder to look at the view. I was startled, unaware that my short window of being lost affected him that much. I returned his hold, wishing to lie with him. However, my inner scars burned too much to open the invitation. It could be our last possible opportunity, but it was also crucial to give my body time to heal. Cloud didn't nudge about it. He kissed me, and that was enough.
It was always enough.
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