Chapter 70: A Painful Memory
Sora's Shadow dug his blade a little deeper into Cloud's gut, a grin stretching across his face.
"Oh Cloud," he laughed. "Poor, poor Cloud. Been dabbling in the darkness too long, haven't you? You must've, if you can see me."
Cloud's only reply was his cries of pain.
"Leave him- alone-" Sora gasped.
His Shadow slowly turned. Sora was staggering to his feet, though he ended up collapsing more than once. When he finally managed to get to his feet, he drew his blade and trudged forward, a fierce glare in his eyes.
"First you make me start ragging on him for things that happened in his past that- that I-I-" Sora stopped and clutched his chest, as his darkness wrenched at his heart. He made a face, regained his composure, and continued: "That are none of my business. Things that I'm sure he doesn't want to think about anymore and then- then you- ahg!" He stopped again, crumpling to his knees this time. "Then you go and stab him-" he gasped.
Sora's Shadow rolled his eyes. "He's been through worse," he muttered.
"I don't care!" Sora snapped. He tried to get back up, but stumbled again, this time his blade fell out of his hands and vanished.
"Damn you're weak!" his Shadow laughed. "I mean, seriously, I hardly even touched-"
"Shut up!"
"Shut up," his Shadow replied, his voice mocking. He then clenched his hand into a fist and pulled, causing Sora to fall flat on his face. Sora groaned, but instantly felt sorry for it. Cloud, who had been silent for a bit, suddenly let out another gasp of pain.
Anger flared through Sora, and he rolled to the side. Before his Shadow knew what he was doing, he was running to Cloud—
He never got there.
His vision suddenly went fuzzy, and then it warped the scene around him. Suddenly, he was reliving a moment from only a minute ago, but it was different. It was like he was watching the scene play out before him, instead of actually living it. This was, however, ten times worse.
It was disorienting, for starters. The scene refused to stay in one area, and kept flashing around, focusing on random things and then warping them before his eyes. It was also very painful. He felt his own pain, and his own frantic thoughts. But he also caught thoughts coming from his Shadow, and an unbearable pain in his stomach; probably what Cloud was feeling.
"Things that I'm sure he doesn't want to think about anymore!" he heard himself shout.
His Shadow laughed, but for the life of him he couldn't tell if it was coming from the memory or if his Shadow was actually laughing. The laughter was clearer than everything else, though.
And then—it was hard to say what happened exactly. But…
Sora got the sense of standing on a building—a building? There was a pain in his gut, sharp and small. Someone with long silver hair sneered down at him.
"Still too weak, aren't you, Cloud?"
Those were the words his Shadow had said, but, it wasn't his Shadow's voice. It was the man with silver hair. Cloud's memory?
"Doesn't it sting, to know you weren't strong enough to do anything, weren't strong enough to stop it?"
The image shifted. A dark, rainy night. Blood on his hands, blood on his face, his nose stinging from where it'd been slammed into the ground. He heard—someone, someone he knew (no he didn't) cry out in pain behind him. He heard someone tut disappointedly above him.
"You're weaker than I thought. Not even worth the effort."
The sound of a gunshot reverberated in his mind.
The silver-haired man's voice rang in his ears.
"Zack died protecting you, except your attackers didn't even want anything to do with you in the end. He died for nothing, didn't he, Cloud?"
But—this wasn't his memory. This was Cloud's!
"STOP!" Sora cried out. He shook his head furiously, bit his tongue to try and ground himself back in the present. The memory released him, throwing him to the ground. He curled his fingers into the dirt. He closed his eyes, feeling tears threatening to fall.
That memory…
It wasn't his, but it made him want to be sick, made him want to curl up forever and disappear.
"Why!?" he screamed, dragging himself up to glare at his Shadow. "I- I didn't need to see—I had no right to see that—!"
He was too furious for his mouth to properly form any words.
But if those were Cloud's memories—they had to be Cloud's—then he had no right seeing them. No business poking in them, in things that Cloud would probably rather let stay in his past.
His Shadow laughed. "You act like I meant to do that!" he laughed. "All I did was see some dark memories, thought I'd poke at 'em—how was I supposed to know you'd get caught in the backlash?"
Somehow, that was so much worse.
How casually his Shadow considered this.
How casually his Shadow was treating painful memories, like they were just something to toy with! Would he keep poking at Cloud, if they went on like this? Sora couldn't bear that. Cloud had suffered enough.
Sora grit his teeth, gathered his strength and staggered to his feet. He readied his blade and ran straight at his Shadow.
"LEAVE CLOUD ALONE!"