Chapter 5: Shattered Souls
Disclaimer: Square Enix owns Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, its predecessor and all their characters.
Nibelheim. His hometown, the place he grew up… It had been so long since he last visited. Cloud led his black chocobo through the almost deserted town, inviting a few stares, one for his slick steed, one for his blonde hair and arrestingly good looks and one final curious stare for his strange eyes. Ashura warked and nuzzled Cloud's hair gently, Cloud smiled and stroked his beak gently with a gloved hand. "We can rest soon. The journey was hard on you…"
"Wark. Wark!" Ashura grabbed a tuft of Cloud's hair and yanked indignantly, his new favourite pastime. "Oww… Ashura…" The black bird glared at him with narrowed sea green eyes. Cloud sighed before fishing out some Gysahl greens from his travel bag and tossing it towards the menopausal bird. Ashura caught the greens easily in mid air in his great beak and starting chomping. What a pain… Named after the God of calamity and strife, the great black chocobo's superior speed and stamina was more than enough to make even top breed chocobos weep. However… Cloud stole a quick glance at Ashura and received a haughty murderous glare in return. I think his character leaves much to be said… Well… At least he's loyal.
"Greetings Cloud. I trust you are well?"
Vincent Valentine leapt from the entrance of the Shinra Mansion and landed soundlessly at the bottom of the flight of stairs in front of Cloud, his red cloak fluttering in the wind, splashing across the dreary background of the town like the blood of a slaughtered lamb. "To whom do I owe this pleasure?" his smooth quiet tone was welcoming as he gave a slight bow. Over the course of several months, the two mopers had found a lot in common and were now as close as brothers. "Vincent. I see you haven't changed much." His friend smiled slightly and gave a curious glance over at the great black bird. "Friend of yours?"
Ashura puffed his chest feathers proudly and gave Cloud's hair a sharp yank, causing the blonde man to yelp and flail his arms helplessly. Vincent stifled a laugh, "So THIS is Ashura… He seems… Fond of you." "……" Cloud was silent. Still smiling, Vincent gently took the reins from his friend's gloved hand and led the chocobo to the mansion. "I have straw. He can rest here." The blonde man nodded and followed the taller man to the cozy chocobo stable at the back of the Mansion.
As Cloud lay down the soft straw and helped Ashura to snuggle in for the night, Vincent's red eyes meticulously studied his blonde friend. Though his hair was carefully styled in its elaborate array of spikes and his handsome face completely inscrutable, Vincent could practically see the waves of despair radiating from him in almost visible lines, his dull gaze a silent testament of his anguish. Though Cloud uttered not a word, Vincent knew that the inner demons within his heart continued to torment him, just as his own did to him. "You have a question." Vincent stated quietly. Cloud froze a little under the piercing stare of his friend's wine red eyes boring into the back of his head, earning another yank on his hair from Ashura.
"How did you know…?"
Vincent arched an eyebrow. "…"
"That obvious?" Cloud sighed, filling the food basket with greens and stroking Ashura's soft black feathers to placate the irritable bird. "This is evidently not the best place. When you're done come to the library, we could talk over tea." Vincent drawled coolly, squeezing Cloud's shoulder lightly with his long, pale fingers. "Just up the stairs and turn right." "…" Cloud's silence was indicative of his consent.
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The library. Vincent's library… The large sitting room had undergone heavy renovations and was now lined wall to wall with books. Ever since the group had gone their separate ways since the battle with Sephiroth, Vincent had moved into Shinra Mansion, the same place where he had been sleeping in his coffin for more than 20 years and dedicated himself to studying and restoring the research books from the basement. Cloud took a deep breath; the sweet, tangy smell of polished wood, leather and earth tinted the air. It felt good. Vincent's library always made him feel as if he was absorbing all the knowledge on Gaia just by being in it.
A soft giggle and a contented sigh. There she was again, peering curiously at the numerous spines of books, rocking on her heels. She read the spines intently, then sticking out her soft pink tongue between rosy lips as if to say. "It's so hard." Cloud walked over to her and stretched out a hand to touch her. But his hand felt nothing and his fingers went right through her shoulder. He bit down on his bottom lip to prevent himself from crying out loud, the remorse overwhelming him. She turned around to face him and smiled a little before running right through him, her eyes not seeing him or the longing in his eyes, her ears not hearing the desperation in his voice.
She ran over to the cozy, roaring fireplace, clapping her hands in glee as she watched the crackle of flames dance across her eyes in a graceful ballet. Cloud's heart sung seeing her obvious merriment. She sat herself gracefully down, folding her long shapely legs modestly as she did so to bask in the fire's warmth. Slowly as if sensing someone watching her, she turned her head and attention to Cloud, her eyes widening, as if seeing him for the first time. The soft firelight lit up her soft features, blending with her fair skin and made her skin glow golden, her eyes shinning like shimmering green pools. She looked every bit like an angel. An angel fallen from the heavens. Her rosy lips parted; kissing the very air she breathed and moved. Her voice was faint, like the echo of shadows, so soft that Cloud could barely hear her, her lips mouthed. "Why are you so sad?"
A soft shuffling of feet and the soft chink of china against polished redwood trumpeted the quiet cloaked man's opportune arrival. Cloud shifted his gaze towards Vincent as he quietly set up the coffee table in front of Cloud for tea. "My apologies for the wait. Please, let us sit by the fire where it's warm." He stated barely audibly, gesturing towards the velvet covered armchairs by the now empty fireplace. Cloud sighed, she had gone, vanished into thin air like she always did, leaving not a trace of her essence behind except a terrible sadness that made his heart bleed.
The two men sat for a moment in an uncomfortable silence. Vincent waited; he wanted Cloud to be ready and willing to speak his mind. It didn't matter how long he took, patience was his forte… And he had PLENTY of time. He was after all, immortal.
Cloud rubbed his temples lightly, feeling the first waves of an oncoming migraine and flinched slightly. Slowly, he raised the steaming teacup to his lips and sipped, the bitter taste of tea leaves and chamomile invading his mouth and enslaving his tongue. Almost instantly, the weariness in his bones melted away. He lowered the teacup onto the redwood table and settled back into the soft black velvet covered cushions.
"… I had a dream."
"A dream? Of… Aeris?"
Cloud's body stilled at sound of her name and shook his head ever so slightly. "…Someone else." He fished out the object from his jeans front pocket and held it out towards Vincent. The dark haired man uncrossed long legs and leaned forward from his position on the armchair stretching his hand out and accepting the metallic object. Running long fingers across the cool textures, Vincent found himself staring at what looked like a rectangular silver pendant on a matching solid silver chain. "An identification tag?" Cloud nodded solemnly. "Not just any ID tag…" Vincent's brow furrowed in confusion as he took a closer look, the design of the logo was intricate, the workmanship impeccable, angular strokes that ended in gothic points spelt out a single word, "SOLDIER" and underneath that in fine print was the word "Shinra" and a series of numbers (an ID code?). Turning the tag over, Vincent found something even more interesting, a lone word with its letters carved in capitalized italics and underneath that in bold "First Class". Z… A…C… K… Red eyes with confusion warring with fascination met serious ocean blue. "Who is Zack?"
"Who WAS Zack." Cloud whispered quietly averting his gaze to the crackling logs.
Vincent nodded solemnly, understanding where this conversation was leading to. "And you saw him?" "…" Cloud was silent. "A hallucination perhaps? Maybe you had this with you all along but never realised because you used to be…" He stopped, hesitating, trying to find the right word. "Unstable?" Cloud laughed a little feverishly and shook his tousled head. "There's just one problem."
"What is that?"
Cloud looked back at Vincent, his features stone cold. "I watched him die. The ID tag… Was buried… WITH him. I would know… I was the one who buried him."
The flickering flames gave a loud, sharp crackle, causing a log to shift and fall over to one side.
"Tell me Vincent. Did any of the other SOLDIERS before experience something like this?" Vincent's pale face was grim. "Few did, but they assumed it as the ghosts of those whose lives they'd taken." He lifted the fine china to his lips and sipped slowly, contemplating. "Records indicate that much. There was only 2 others that experienced what you just did, the actual visual manifestation of a dead person." Cloud sat up very straight in his armchair.
"Who?"
Vincent lowered the teacup onto the table, his face contorted with rage. He practically spat out the word. "Sephiroth." Cloud sighed falling back into the soft black velvet, somehow he had anticipated that. "However, as far as my research shows, spirits only manifest themselves when they are searching for something important… Their unfinished business if you will." Another sip. "More tea?"
"No thank you. Unfinished…?"
"A longing or desire or worry that keeps them bound to Gaia's surface… However, there IS a catch…" Vincent stopped for a while as if he was trying to remember something, his forehead wrinkling in frustration. "Catch?" Cloud prompted. "Not just ANYONE can see the dead my friend… I wonder… Could it be?" Vincent stood up from his armchair suddenly and strode over to one of the large bookshelves. After a quick scan, he selected a thick leather bound book and walked back to the fireplace, flipping through the yellowed pages furiously as he did so.
"Mako Dreams… The actual manifestation process of this phenomenon requires a lot of energy on the host, with insufficient energy; the mythical abilities to see and converse with the dead in dream could cease to never be awakened. After the awakening however, the process is irreversible." Vincent paused a little to absorb the information before reading on as he settled back into the armchair. "The host will permanently thereafter have contact with those who have passed on, hear voices from the planet in other words have the abilities of the Ancients. However, this theory is merely hypothetical and circumstantial; evidence of this phenomenon is still insufficient to warrant this theory as fact."
"…"
"Only Ancients can see the dead. And this has always been a fact. Congratulations Cloud, it seems you've become a synthetic Ancient… A Mako Dreamer, though it is not of your own free will."
"…………………"
"My guess is that your dream visions are a result of the combined prowess of the Jenova cells and the Mako infused within you. It makes sense does it not? Why you too can hear the voice of the planet, why you were the ONLY one who heard Sephiroth's voice in the depths of North Crater." Vincent pointed out, staring straight at Cloud. "… And that dream you had before Aeris…" Vincent shook his head slightly, "Coincidence Cloud? I doubt it. Lightning only strikes the same place once, no more than that."
"…" Cloud clutched at his temples, a migraine starting to take over. "So what awakened mine?" He asked in quiet monotone, the timbre of his voice quavering slightly. Vincent took another sip of tea. "I can only speculate. But I believe it would be the intensity of your feelings for…"
"…Aeris." Cloud finished. The constant frustration that I could never tell her how I felt since the day I met her, even until the day she died... His raven haired friend nodded solemnly, his usually indifferent expression completely serious. "And Sephiroth?"
"For Sephiroth, it would most likely be his desperate desire to see his 'mother'."
Cloud nodded slightly, the pieces fit to form a most unexpected puzzle, the links subtle but definitely there. A powerful negative emotion… Sorrow, anguish, agony, desire, longing, anger, fury, emptiness, loneliness… That's where the energy stems from. It all made perfect sense, the cobwebs of doubt were very carefully blowing away. … But… There was something… Something that Vincent said before that troubled him. "Wait. You said there were TWO others. Who was the person besides… HIM?"
Vincent gave Cloud a pained smile, his red eyes bruised and filled with remorse. "You're looking at him." He sighed and stared into the flickering flames, the rays drifting over creamy, translucent skin like the ripples of a golden shimmering river. "I just wanted to see Lucrecia again… It didn't matter if she didn't love me, just as long as I could keep my memories of her safe… in here." He whispered, tapping lightly at his chest, the area above his broken beating heart. "I'm… Content just to have found someone to fall in love with."
Cloud watched the crackling logs not really seeing the flames, he could understand Vincent's feelings perfectly. The feeling of having someone there right in front of him, then by a cruel twist of fate, snatched away from his grasp… In the flames, he saw her smile, that same wide cheery smile that lifted his spirits and made him feel that life had suddenly become much brighter, the same smile that made him forget all about earning his keep as a mercenary… The same smile that she wore… Even in death. Suddenly, he understood why the 3 of them could see what they saw.
"We are cursed men."
Vincent nodded. "Cloud… Why did Zack approach you?"
"……" He's watching you… He couldn't comprehend what Zack meant and it troubled him greatly. Who? Why? Cloud decided to keep mum about it for now; after all, Vincent did have a lot on his mind. "To find someone…" But HOW? Who? He thought frustrated, another question that troubled him.
Vincent stared off into the flames. "Sometimes the answers you seek lie in the most unexpected places." He recited slowly, as if he had read Cloud's mind. Cloud's brow furrowed in confusion. Vincent smiled mysteriously, "Where is Zack now?"
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Aeris's hands trembled as the papers fluttered from her hands onto the stone floor. It wasn't possible… It CAN'T BE… It just CAN'T. The thin papyrus sheets falling onto the chemical and glass covered floor and dissolving into a glob of meaningless pulp.
The air smelt stale, the smell of rotting leaves and musk. It confirmed that the lab she was in was underground. A perfect place to contain…
A…
A… Monster… A damned creation…
Cloud… Oh Cloud…
She shook her head furiously, her honey brown strands whipping against her skin. It can't be… It just can't be… Oh Gaia… WHY? Frowning slightly in irritation, she tore a strip of white cloth from the lab coat she had grabbed off a hook and donned and used it as a ribbon to tie back her long locks, twisting the cascading locks into its usual waterfall of loose, soft spirals.
She tore the sheets of calculations and hours of research papers into smaller uneven pieces and flung them from the desk upwards towards the ceiling and immediately cast Level 3 Fire, with her enhanced body; she found no need for the use of materia. A definite plus point. She pulled the lab coat around her and buttoned up, tying a torn piece of rum coloured leather around her waist as a belt. Now she only had one last thing to do…
Soon, the torn sheets were aglow and flitted in the air, fluttering downwards slowly like fireflies. It was beautiful… Aeris never saw all this and walked out of the laboratory, flinging open large oak doors, jogging up a flight of stairs and bursting through a trapdoor into the moonlight, wanting to leave the last of her nightmares behind, within the blizzard of falling flames. She stood in the middle of an expansive plain, the trap door well hidden beneath tall blades of grass, a perfect hiding place.
She sucked in a deep breath of well needed fresh air. It felt good to be alive again… It felt good to breathe and feel… To be able to smell the dewdrops on the blades of grass and to hear the sound of crickets singing their sweet, sweet symphony. A single thought was running through her mind as she blindly headed north, stumbling from not having been on her feet for ages.
I want to see you again… Where are you? I can't find you…
Oh… Cloud… Where are you?
(Stretches) Ahhh… That felt good! Ha ha…. I need a LOOONNG break! (stretches again) Ever spent close to 6 hours non stop wrecking your brains out and smashing your forehead against the table just to write a chapter? (does a victory dance in my jammies) Well… Was reading through all the nice nice suggestions and decided to at least touch on each of them once! Heh heh… (Scratches head sheepishly) Ah… My poor murdered brain cells…
Sorry I took so long all my loyal readers out there!
Hoo hoo! Guess what's gonna happen in Chap 6 and 7? Anyone? Ha ha… I do! Cause it's all written already! (NOW you all know what took me so long ne?) Ha ha ha… Just gonna torture everyone whilst I edit and edit and edit until I'm happy with it! (Evil laughter) Want a hint:P (sticks out my tongue :P) Ok than...
(Drum roll)
Cloud will be in it!
Ba dum pum! Man… I am so EVIL! (Hides with my bunnies in the cage… YES… I have two little balls of fluff! Kumo and Ame! It's Japanese for Cloud and Rain!) AHH! Don't kill me:P (On the verge of hysterical laughter) Oh yes! I also finished writing Chapter 1 of a new fic too! So look around for it ya? Titled "Silver and Silent" (winks) Ha ha ha… Anyways til next Chapter! Thank you all my loyal reviewers out there! Keep the nice nice reviews coming ne?
OoooOOOo! Record number of reviews! (sniffles and blows into a tissue) I love you guys!
Ja Ne!
Shouts To!
Valerie-eliza: And yet another new reviewer! (glomps) Wow… Thanks! I would love having your support!
Ayane7: YAY! New reviewer! Aeris Requiem? I read that before! That was good! XD Cloud and Aeris all the way!
LastCetra: Seriously? You poor thing… (Pats your head) My cousin ran down to some cannot be found on the map shop to help me buy! It was difficult to find, apparently they dun sell many copies of Japanese games around here… sniffles too Cost me a bomb… But well worth it! It's really cute! All the chibi FF characters!
Clorith: Pervy stalkers? Na…. Unless they got a screw loose somewhere! XD
ASDFG: Ha ha ha… I think all the Cloud fan girls can relate to that:P Myself included! Ha ha… Think its his cool character? Or the fact that he's so DARN cute! Hee hee! (Glomps Cloud)
asga: (Huggles) Really? (Sniffles) OK! Shall do my best than! Hmmm… Concept wise so far… Difficult to figure out… Hmm… (Scratches head) Ha ha… Think it'll have to depend on my mood… :P Either that or I flip a COIN! (Evil laughter)
lady tsuzuki: Sure! Just send me your e-mail address than I send you the pic pics! OoOOoOo! So fun! This was my first cosplay! SQUEE! There was Cloud and Aeris there too! Took lots of pictures!
icewolf9: YAY! YAY! Ok… Trying to make the chappies longer! Any difference so far? (Squints than scratches head)