I do not own FFVII nor make money with this writing. Characters belong to Square Enix Inc.
The Crypt Part I
Cloud liked Vicent Valentine. Even more, he respected him. The man was just trying to adjust himself to a new life so as Cloud. However, sometimes, Cloud took his friend full of whimsical bullshit. Truth to be told, Vincent Valentine had a demon inside him; it should be hard not to be mystical dealing day after day with this, who knows for how long.
The fact was, Vincent never lied to Cloud about their battle's chances, in every time they fought together side by side. Defeat Sephiroth would require both mind and body strength and would have damages in both cases, winning it or not. Geostigma was not just a disease, and what could happen after Sephiroth's death to the infected ones was still an incognita. Again, Vincent was right. A bunch of people died regardless of Aerith's fount. Scientists from the entire planet, finally, concluded that the mutable character of the virus would never leave its host. Geostigma could or not be activated someday, but it would be there, printed at the victim's DNA forever. The researches were still going through discoveries to healing people for good, but until now, they had not gone far.
Cloud sighed, placing his hand over his rib. The bruise had gone along with visions or dreams about Sephiroth. He twisted in the chair wondering if it had something to do with Geostigma, still running inside his body. Sighing again, he looked around at the Highwind's big hangar. Cid was doing great indeed. Cloud was sitting in a comfortable chair and a sexy girl that reminded him Tifa offered tea. Fancy office in fifth's style. Highwind was not there now, he had another company in Costa Del Sol. Right choice thought Cloud about the place, much more pleasurable than provincial Wutai.
A delivery, and his curiosity, put him there. The weird coincidence was the only hangar to have a ship, potent enough to flight in harsh conditions was Highwind's Flights. Eventually, Vincent would know he had been there, but he did not want to show his worries, thinking it was better to go there alone. Also, Cloud feared telling someone about his dreams with Sephiroth, and end up locked in some Shinra or WRO's facility.
What really caught him was the fact that Vincent was not a chatty person, so why he tossed out about green lights in Northern Crater? It would be impossible to Cloud not check it out. Sephiroth's mad words during their last battle crossed his mind, the inexorability of death for Gaia and its inhabitants. Did Sephiroth know what could happen in the future? Would he waiting for the final blow to come back with to a dead planet?
"No! Get out of my thoughts, Sephiroth."
Cloud returned his digressions about Vincent Valentine's immortality and the punishment of eternal life. Valentine lost his true love, a great part of his life deeply slumbering, his career as a Turk, and perhaps, a family. Vincent beat Cloud in losses on his life. Did he at some point try or want to kill himself, unleash Chaos, and get free of such a tortured existence? Cloud sighed, thinking the Planet had some kind of magical choice, giving the right tasks for the right person. Even if it was a terribly heavy and painful burden. Chosen for that, he would blow it up for sure, and probably the planet would be dead by now.
"Why faking a rage that doesn't exist?" Sephiroth came to his mind again, invading his thoughts, whatever Cloud was sleeping or awake. The more he wanted to get apart from him, the more his mind found a way to attach him back to Sephiroth. It was almost a strangulation on his soul, Sephiroth kept coming on his life in one way or another. He took a sip of his tea and leaned his head in the chair, sinking himself in its velvety softness.
Analyzing Vincent's features when they chatted, he was almost sure it was more a request than an irrelevant gossip. He wondered if he would find something related to his weird dreams or if Vincent knew something about it. Cloud was confused, a mix of emotions boiling on him, wishing he could end his anxiety by finding nothing at Northern Crater, but at the same time, wishing to find Sephiroth. "Sephiroth is dead, his body should have deteriorated to the point of disappearing."
That miserable remnant said he was the black sheep of their flock. He was a missing sheep, inevitable, and necessary for their so-called Reunion. Cloud lightly shook his head, remembering the childish face of Sephiroth's clone. So young, so deprived of life, and full of blind faith. Cloud lost the track of his thoughts, picturing scenes he tried so hard to fight back, which dragged him to oddly sensations, a mix of nausea and excitement coming back. He should go to a doctor, it was getting frequently, and maybe it was still Geostigma running on his veins. He feared so much to end his days mad and locked in a jail.
"Cloud Strife?"
The voice of the flight's attendant woke up him out of his reveries. The man handed him a fly pass with the ship's number. Cloud would pilot and after he had checked the map, Northern Crater was incredible far from Wutai. His phone ranged. He tensed at seeing the screen. Tifa. "She seems to guess my steps…"
Cloud did not hang it and continued walking towards his ship, adjusting his goggles.
The flight there was not easy, but a couple of hours later, Cloud contemplated the white, frozen landscape of Northern Cave. Though hostile, it has its beauty. The wind runs in simultaneous directions, making it hard to balance the ship. Not to mention the climb down there. After landing the ship at a safe distance from the entrance, Cloud examined the area looking for the singularities Vincent had told him. He could not see anything different from the snowed rocks, the distant village, and the path for the crater. He was positive Shinra never cared to come back, after the mess they left in the village to grab Jenova's head. "Rufus, heartless bastard."
Cloud stretched his neck to the entrance, the wind was weirdly strong at the spot; his spiky hair flew just to look at down. He went back to his ship, retrieved his climbing equipment, and two Materias just in case. Carefully, he trailed close to what was once a path and now was crowded with rocks and snow mud. The soil was slicker and the wind was not helping at all. "Why it would be easy?"
Cloud put on his goggles, attached the hook, and slid down the rope. His face was tense, he could feel his teeth-gnashing and not because of the cold. The first sector of the cave had about three meters. The second one was deeper, and the rocks begin the show up pointed, and sharper. He was almost there, but the wind was making him struggle to fit himself in place, and not crash on the rocks.
"Damned it!"
Too late, his leg scraped at one of the stone's razors, and instantly, blood oozed out from the torn skin. It would be just ridiculous if he died down there. He should have called Vincent and stopped with his stupidity about dreams. He was getting tired of hanging on the rope but was close to the last level. He closed his eyes, summoned his strength, and dived down the abyss, clinging to the rope so tight that his hands burned under the leather gloves.
He made it. He was at the last level. The air was heavy and poor in oxygen, ice and snow surrounded him. Cloud took a minute to breathe before starting to walk, leaning hands over his demi bended knees, not even paying attention at his wound. Thanks to himself, and Avalanche for had killed all the monsters in the past, it was quiet there, peaceful, only the noise of the wind, nothing different from rocks and snow. However, that feeling on his bones that something was there, pursued him.
Cloud walked about thirty minutes, feeling his wound aching until a huge wall of rock blocked his path. He was in the cave's deeper end. Harshly breathing, he leaned his back against the rock. There was nothing there, only snow, rocks, and certain, death. He would need to quit it or would die, frozen down there along with his dreamy bullshits. It was such a disappointment, admit that find something would be better than the day after day emptiness he felt. There was no cure or any explanation for his dreams with Sephiroth than his broken mind and heart.
"Damn it! Fuck!"
Sighing in frustration, he prepared himself to climb back when something called his attention. From the corner of his narrowed eyes, Cloud perceived his goggles' lens reflecting a green shimmer. He veered his head and saw it, weakly pulsing under a pile of fresh snow in the center of the crater, close from when he was, but in a new level under the last one, he had no idea it existed. He was not wrong at all to be there alone. Cloud's heart raced, and he could hear the thuds on his ears, an uncontrollable giggle came from his dried throat. The hope of finding mingled with thousands doubts about what to do with his discovery, if he makes it up.
The young man scanned the better path around and went towards the light. Cloud would not know how to describe the moment that he stepped on an obstacle. He concluded that the new level should have appeared after the said explosion of green light. He was inside an unmarked, but a still visible circle of rocks. The light concentrated in a spot covered with snow, approximately of his height, and Cloud dug it, the faster he could, removing stones and snow. Suddenly, the green shimmer became stronger. He kneeled on the snowy floor. The fear and excitement about what could be under the stones were so intense that Cloud whimpered. He drifted away from his lack of air, worries, and pain, and started to dig more and more, almost frantic until a crypt revealed itself.
Cloud shouted, falling backward in the snow, his first impulse was to drag himself away from his discovery. His heart speeded, he felt dizzy and nauseated. Deep breathing, he tossed away his goggles and regained his balance to step forward with legs trembling. Carefully, mesmerized with the center of the crypt, he strolled in anguish, rage, excitement, and huge fear. In some very weird way, Cloud felt relief in knowing he was not crazy, but the certainty that he would never be sane again was laying in front of his eyes.
"Sephiroth…"
He was naked, cataleptic, closed eyes, blank expression, and his skin, paler than ever, shinning with the green mist inside the casket. Some sort of greenish roots enlaced his body like several umbilical cords, pulsing, and twisting themselves over Sephiroth's chest. Astonished, Cloud saw a scar on the man's chest linking it with his dreams. Heavy warm tears rolled down from his cheeks, dripping in the crystal, melting the ice to draw a path over Sephiroth's face, revealing more of his nemesis. He did not seem so treacherous in that state, also trapped, and locked as himself, exactly like those dreams told him. Cloud rubbed his eyes with the back of his gloved hand and dried his face. The young man imagined Sephiroth should be laughing by now, of how stupid Cloud was to think he would be dead. The previous sorrow at seeing Sephiroth in that way, turned into a furious rage, a need for violence that nowadays, only increased. If that crypt would be open, he surely would drag Sephiroth out there just to strangle him with his bare hands. Better, chop his head off with Bustersword. "Do not be stupid Cloud; everything you are seeing here is to deceive you. You need his blood, you need him dead to fresh start your life, do not hang on stupid memories of the past."
Cloud got close to the casket, his breath blurring the crystal surface.
"I will kill you Sephiroth. For good."
Adrenaline overwhelmed him, Cloud was a hunter, with an easy prey to catch, he took off his gloves, running down his hands over the crystal, cleaning the snow. He looked for openings or flaws and found a green crystal, near the base of the crypt.
Cloud drew his sword back and gave a blow on the stone, imagining that it could open it. However, even it had sparked, nothing happened. The crystal just glowed more intensely than before, as if mocking Cloud for his silly attempt. Groaning in disappointment, Cloud tried to yank it, and a wave of shock traveled from his hand to his brain, suspending him out of the ground, and shaking his body. He could feel the waves of energy, tearing apart his skin, running through his spine, and blowing on his mind.
His first thought was that he would die. Suddenly, he was not in Northern Crater anymore, but inside Lifestream, swimming in energy. First, he thought it could be Jenova manipulating his senses through the crystal. Notwithstanding, it was much more powerful than an alien plague. It did not have a shape, just a voice vibrating inside his head, feeding him with images, and acknowledgment.
Cloud was not a hero, not a man, not a puppet, but a powerful instrument that was apart from his actual purpose on the planet. It had been there all the time, hidden inside his feelings of anguish, diseased cells, and most of all, his undeniable appetite for violence and destruction. Everything became so clear and all his torments vanished. Sephiroth was right, Cloud had been living a fake life, but now, he was fully aware of his role in that huge play called universe. Once, he was as trapped in guilty as Sephiroth was in madness, and now he would fix everything. The voice whispered over his ears, it was audible now, Cloud closed his eyes, floating while warm energy cuddled him, healing his soul. Not scared anymore of being a merely despised puppet, he opened his senses to hear another voice, shouting at his head. A desperate crying to know if he was there, sharing his thoughts, feelings, begging to not be abandoned again.
It lasted less than a minute, a flash of conscience from all his life came to him, and when it finished, Cloud landed on the floor, gently and safely. The last strays of electricity ran fast through his skin until it completely disappeared. Cloud deep breathed as if he was awakening from a slumber, and when he reopened his eyes, he fixed them at the crypt. He quickly put the snow back, covering the casket, and the green light. The recent burst of energy gave him wise, not a better-enhanced body, the lack of oxygen still dizzied him. He desperately needed to get out of the cave, rest, and come back later.
Cloud began the hard mission of climbing back the crater. He was almost close to the first level when he noticed the blood trail of his leg, painting in red the white snow down there, exactly where Sephiroth was. It could somehow call unnecessary attention. "I must come tonight. No time to lose."
The excitement caused his heart to beat so intensely that he shocked himself to how fast he had made to crater's exit, to be surprised again.
Long dark hair flying in the wind along with his red cape. Vincent Valentine, the last person in Gaia he wanted to see now, was leaning against Cloud's rented ship. Cloud gasped, mentally cursing his luck. He could not even kill Vincent to avoid evidence. The velocity of this thought scared him to his bones; he felt his nostril inflating to get more air, he needed to put himself together. If Vincent Valentine would interfere on his plans, it would be all damned. Cloud would not find any excuses for the last man on that planet that actually knew him, even more than Tifa. In this mission, he was lonely than ever. He turned up his eyes to look at his friend, who extended his arm, and hand to help him out of the hard climbing.
"Are you insane to come here alone? You could have died."
"But I didn't. Help me here."
Vincent aided Cloud to get out of the climbing's ropes and both men strolled back in silence to the ship. Cloud knew he had to come to something reliable enough to let Vincent out of that crater. Already inside the ship, Vincent sat and turned on the engine, his red eyes scanning the better way to the take-off.
"I guess, I'll open a rescue service only for you."
Cloud chuckled with a weary expression.
"How did you know?"
Cloud, feeling himself very dizzy and harshly breathing, flinched on his chair, attaching the safe belt with trembling hands, aware of Vincent's red eyes at him. He felt his throat constricted and his eyes heavy, but managed a 'thank you again'.
"I was in Wutai with Yuffie. Did you find anything?"
Talking was an immense effort, the momentary privation of oxygen demanded too much from his body, the urge to rest was obliging Cloud to not think properly. He feared to tell more than he wanted to his friend.
"I made to the…deepest end. Guess what... I found nothing. Cold, loneliness and…Just rocks…"
Indeed, Cloud's breath was heavy and he seemed exhausted to Vincent. Cloud could not say if the man had bought what he was telling him, but he had a try.
"You need oxygen. Stay at Cid's tonight, he won't mind."
Cloud nodded at Vincent, only to not speak anymore, and took the oxygen tank the man handed him. Vincent gave him a look that made him shivered as if he actually knew what was found out in the depths of the cave. Those red eyes scanned his face. He hoped for his life, that his dear friend would not get in his way. He had to come back, tonight, he could not lose any minute. The powerful energy claimed him and he, finally, had understood its purpose. He remembered of Vincent attaching the mask in his face, his cold metallic hand caressing his hair in a paternal way, and drifted in slumber.
~~/~~
Cloud woke up on the couch at Cid's apartment above the hangar. No sign of Vincent. He sat on the couch, took the phone out of his pocket, and four hours had passed. It was already night. Tifa had called him twice. The usual. Still, on his hand, the phone ringed again. Tifa. "She deserved at least a call."
But what he would say? He had nothing good to say, nothing that could make her or anyone else understand his motivations. Worse than that, he did not care. Cloud closed his eyes, thinking about how ordinary his day started, and how surprisingly it was ending. Tifa gave up, and Cloud turned off the device. All the communication he would need, he already had. The voice inside his head was weak but still vibrated, making him arch his chest, deep breath, and relieve the nauseating feeling.
The outside lights cast a yellowish dim to the living room. Sat on the couch, he called for Vincent and relaxed a little bit when no one had answered. Cloud looked around at the apartment; Cid was really doing great living in a fancy big loft. He tried to stand up, but still feeling dizzy, sat again, this time his eyes landing at the coffee table in front of him. Cloud gulped.
"What the fuck..."
