Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 and its characters belong to Square-Enix.
-oOo-
: Chapter Twelve : Nibelheim
Aerith had changed.
It was not that she was any less cheerful or gentle, or sweet or kind. Rather, Cloud began to notice, there were odd times when she would become quiet and withdrawn, and at these times, it became very hard to notice whether she was there or not. Likewise, Cloud's attitude toward her changed also. He had not intended it to be so at first. He had not meant to simply see her as a suddenly entirely different person. But it had been so abrupt and quick that he had hardly noticed it at all.
It was her eyes. It always began with her eyes. The day after she had told him she was alone, Cloud had looked into those emerald green irises and had thought; there is something there that I had not seen before: and that realisation had changed everything. Looking into those eyes, for a moment he had seen the very fabric of the Universe, the endless framework of a never-ending cosmos. He had been awakened to her as a person, not just as 'the last'.
"Take care of her," Bugenhagen had said as they had left Cosmo Canyon. "For she is your window."
Their window. Yes, that was what Aerith was. Cloud did not understand what the metaphor meant, but it seemed to describe Aerith perfectly. She was a window, clear, pure and perfect, and even the beauty of the flowers she had sought to sell in the god-forsaken Midgar were belittled by her inner radiance.
Whatever it was that she had learned from the elders that day in Cosmo Canyon, it had changed her. And it had perpetuated the reality that Cloud did not know or understand her.
Perhaps he never would.
-oOo-
After spending several days resting in Cosmo Canyon, the seven bid farewell to Bugenhagen and the elders, and set off in the newly prepared Buggy on the search for Sephiroth. Yuffie had become restless, and Cloud had been worried that she would suddenly take it into her brain to leave the group.
Following the coast of the New Continent and over the great Delta River, the landscape soon gave way to the mountainous ground such that had been seen in Mount Corel. As Cloud drove toward the hazy peaks of the mountain range, his heart gave a familiar wrench of joy, and sorrow. Tifa became fidgety in the passenger seat, and her eyes roved the vista with an unfamiliar anxiety as she spoke to him.
"Cloud, this isn't...?"
He nodded.
For five years he had not ventured into this place, this place he had called home. The summits of Mount Nibel were all that were left to help him recall his old life. Nibelheim had disappeared in the flames of that terrible misadventure five years ago. Cloud's hometown had been destroyed at the hands of Sephiroth, and would be a mass of charred earth where it had been razed to the ground. Cloud revved up the engine of the Buggy quickly. He did not want to have to witness the site where he had lost everything and everyone he'd cared for. So, it came as a surprise to him to hear Tifa suddenly call out to him in fearful wonder.
"Cloud, stop! Cloud, look!"
Cloud looked.
There, nestling between two twin peaks, was Nibelheim, exactly the same as it always had been.
The shock caused Cloud to hit the brakes immediately. The people in the back of the Buggy were flung forward into a jumbled squash. Yuffie poked her head in between the two front seats.
"Hey! What was that for, buster!"
Cloud stared at the form of the tiny village with its rosy roofs glinting in the pastel coloured sunlight that was radiating from between the mountain crevices. His heart seemed to churn in baffled bewilderment. Why was Nibelheim still standing?
"What?...Tifa, what is going on?" he stammered. "Is this real?"
She stared back at him, her expression timorous and shaken. Making his mind up, Cloud began to race the Buggy toward the tiny village, his brain willing him to believe it was just a mirage, a trick of the frosty sunlight. Yet, as he drew closer, the image did not disappear. Nibelheim still stood before him, approaching faster and faster with every inch he drove.
It was not long before they were right outside it. Gazing up into the windows of the houses, Cloud finally accepted that what he was seeing was no dream, no illusion. Nibelheim was as it always had been.
He ran through into the village entrance.
"Cloud!" Tifa cried, but he did not stop for her. The others, tired, confused, and grumbling loudly, bundled out of the truck to follow.
The seven comrades stood just inside Nibelheim village, looking round. Cloud took in every single little thing, trying to catch anything that was out of place. No: all things were as he remembered them. There was no give-away to say this was just an hallucination. There was the well where he and Tifa had made their promise; there was his house; there was Tifa's. It was all as it had been.
"Where the hell are we?" Yuffie demanded. "I wanna know where we are!"
"This is Nibelheim," Cloud answered quietly. "My hometown."
"What the fuck!" Barret exclaimed, mystified. "But you told us it was burnt t'the ground!"
"It was," he replied shortly, unable to swallow it all either.
"Then why is it still standing?" Red asked simply.
"I don't know," Cloud answered on a breath.
"Hang on a minute," Cait Sith barged in. "What's going on here?"
"Yeah!" Yuffie was indignant. "I don't get it! Is this place meant to be burnt or not!"
"Listen," Aerith began to explain patiently. "The last time Cloud was here, this place got burnt down by Sephiroth. Everyone died."
"Then why's it standing?" Yuffie cried out, voicing exactly the words everyone else had been thinking at that moment.
Cloud did not answer. He wandered into the heart of the village, still not believing what he was seeing. Nibelheim was meant to be dead. He had seen it burn with his own eyes - it wasn't meant to be like this. And, as he walked past the well, he felt something insubstantial and hazy in the atmosphere; it was as though Nibelheim was full of floating dreams that no longer existed. He shook his head violently, but nothing changed. He was still here, in his hometown, in a place that shouldn't be.
"Cloud..."
Tifa was behind him, gazing round with sad, scared eyes. He turned, grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Tifa, I don't get it! Why is everything here? I saw it, dammit! I saw Nibelheim burn with my own eyes!"
She shook her head slowly.
"I don't know, Cloud. I just don't know..."
He released her, and began to walk to the Nibelheim inn with violent purpose, Tifa following.
"Cloud, what are you doing?" she called, but he did not answer.
Crashing through the door of the inn, Cloud looked about him. As far as he could see, nothing here had changed either. It was the same inn that he and Sephiroth had stayed in on their mission five years ago. The only thing that seemed to suggest that this was not Nibelheim was the innkeeper that stood at the reception desk. Cloud quailed in triumph. This was a man he definitely did not remember, who did not fit into the framework Cloud knew so well.
"Cloud..."
Tifa was behind him, an anxious look on her face. Ignoring her and rushing forward, Cloud grabbed the man by the collar and shook him violently in his anger.
"Tell me where we are!" he screamed. "Tell me!"
The man, whose face wore a mixture of surprise, fright and outrage, stuttered out his reply.
"Nibelheim. We're in Nibelheim, goddammit!"
"You're lying!" Cloud yelled.
By now, the man seemed to be firmly convinced that Cloud was mad.
"Why should I lie!"
Tifa intervened quickly, grabbing onto Cloud's arms tightly.
"Cloud, stop this!" He thought he saw tears beginning to form in her eyes and he turned away, eyes burning with rage and pain. "Please, Cloud, don't do this!"
He reluctantly let go of the man, who glared at him.
"Would you mind telling me why you just came barging in and attacked me?"
Cloud's rage flared up again. He began to yell again, almost unaware that he was doing so.
"You lied! You told me this was Nibelheim! But Nibelheim burned down five years ago!"
The man, instead of becoming incredulous, began to bristle in anger.
"How dare you say such things! Why, Nibelheim has always been standing!"
"Stop lying to me!" Cloud shouted. "This is my - our - hometown! I saw it burn with my own two eyes!" He indicated to them vehemently to emphasise the point. "My own two eyes, for God's sake!"
The man's own eyes began to glint.
"You're not to say such things! Nibelheim never burnt down - you're the one who must be lying! You're mad, I tell you!"
"Mad?" Tifa intervened, her voice indignant. "He's telling the truth! His mother died in the fire, and so did everyone else! So you're not meant to be here!"
The man puffed himself up in rage.
"Either book a room or get out of my inn right now!"
Cloud glared at him for a moment, then, seeing that the innkeeper really meant to stick to his threat, stormed out of the inn with Tifa behind him. The others were standing outside, obviously having heard the seething quarrel from within.
"Mad, huh?" Barret muttered, crossing his arms. "That's just 'bout freakin' right."
"Shut up!" Tifa rebuked him. "Cloud's telling the truth! I remember the flames too! It's all true!"
"But then, what is this place?" Cait Sith put in, looking round.
"It's most strange," Red added, only to be cut off by a sudden cry from Yuffie.
"Hey, I've got it!" she shrieked. "We're in a time-warp, right! Oh wow!"
Cloud shook his head slowly.
"No. No, it's not a time-warp. I know it isn't. This is something more sinister. I can feel it." He paused, looking about him again in bewilderment. Did the Shinra rebuild this village again from scratch? Was it a cover up? And if so, what exactly did they want to cover up?
"Whatever the case, there's definitely something strange going on here." Aerith agreed softly. "I can feel something too. Something...that isn't right. It's coming from one of the houses over there."
"What?" Cloud cried, alarmed.
She looked surprised.
"Didn't I tell you?" She pointed to one of the houses to her right "It's that one."
Cloud stared at the house in shock, his whole being filling with a new kind of fear. The house Aerith was pointing at was his own.
"But...that's my house," he stammered.
"Your house?" Barret exclaimed. "Damn, this is screwed."
"Come with me," Cloud suddenly ordered, and they all followed him, somewhat doubtfully, into Cloud's house. With bated breath, Cloud pushed open the door and walked inside.
There was nothing, and no one. Everything was neat and tidy, quite in place. There were slight alterations to the house - most of the possessions and bits of furniture were things Cloud did not remember. But the placing of the belongings were exactly as they had been when Cloud had lived in the house. However, the room had a sort of unlived-in feeling about it, as though someone had renovated it and then decided they didn't want to live there anymore. The sound of the clock ticking monotonously on the mantelpiece filled the house with a dull, resonant timbre. Cloud walked up to it. The clock face showed the correct time.
Unbidden and unfamiliar tears stung his eyelids. What was behind all this? What was playing these tricks on his mind, on his soul? He was inside his own house, and he knew, deep inside his heart, that it was not meant to be.
"There's nothing here," he finally choked.
"No," Aerith shook her head adamantly. "There's something here."
"Talk about suspense," Yuffie said sarcastically, opening the door to the dining room inquisitively. Then, letting out a piercing shriek, she closed it back into place with a bang. Resting her back on it, she looked around at them with a terrified look on her face. Cloud started.
"Yuffie, what's wrong?"
She took in several intense breaths before replying.
"There are...strange guys in there."
"Strange?" Barret repeated. "Whaddya mean 'strange'?"
"Take a look for yourself," Yuffie answered, still not over her shock. "There's no way I'm headin' back in there!"
Walking up to the door valiantly, Cloud threw it open.
A tumult of words suddenly filled his head. Though he could not catch at them fast enough, they're meaning seemed simple enough. Oneness, togetherness...unification...Reunion...He held in his breath.
Inside the room were eleven people. He could not tell whether they were men or women, simply because of the fact that they were wearing long, black cloaks with hoods that completely shrouded their faces. They stood, inert, looking at the walls, through the windows, never facing the centre of the room. As Cloud entered, they turned slowly, completely in time with one another, so that they faced him.
For the first time in a long time, Cloud felt the unfamiliar tentacles of fear grip him. These strange beings scared him more than anything else he'd ever witnessed, but he felt drawn to them in some inscrutable, beckoning way. The black figures stared at him closely through their dark shrouds, each one looking exactly the same. Cloud realised it - they were the ones who were one, together, unified.
"Who are these people?" Tifa gasped, horrified.
Cloud did not even attempt to make a reply. He simply did not know. Then, something caught his eye. On the gnarled hands of each caped figure was a small red insignia. They were numbers, written in roman numerals. Numbers ranging from II to XII. Three of those numbers were missing, but the rest were there. Cloud felt his heartbeat thud against the wall of his chest. He knew that if he dared to pull back the cloak of the twelfth figure, he'd find himself staring into the eyes of the drunk he'd seen in the Sector Five slums so long ago. He gestured to Red.
"Red, look. These people, they have the same tattoos as you. Look, I to XII." He turned to the noble warrior beast. "You're the thirteenth."
Before anyone could question Cloud, one of the shrouded people spoke up in a low, hoarse voice.
"Thirteenth? There are only twelve of us."
"Yes," the fourth added, in a cold, faraway voice. "We are the chosen twelve."
"We are honoured," the eighth hissed softly.
"Honoured?" Cloud echoed. "What do you mean? What have you been chosen for?"
"Reunion," each one of the twelve uttered, their voices as one, frighteningly together. "Reunion."
"What?" Cloud persisted fearfully. "Reunion for what?"
"Sephiroth," the eleventh purred. "He is the first...our great lord Sephiroth will join the Reunion...we shall be one again."
"What are they talking about?" Cait Sith breathed, scared.
"Reunion!" they all called in unison. "Reunion!"
Cloud stepped forward.
"Sephiroth! You mean he's here?"
"He's in the Mansion," the seventh replied. "We wait for him here."
Cloud stood back, knowledge filling his face.
"The Shinra Mansion!"
Cloud raced out to where he knew the Shinra Mansion to be. The imposing old structure rose, bleak and broken, above the rest of the village, even more decrepit than it had been when Cloud had last seen it. He looked at the crumbling house.
"I'm going to look for him," he said quietly.
"Cloud, are you sure...?" Tifa put in, but he nodded quickly.
"Yes. I'm sure."
Red bounded forward.
"Cloud, I'm coming with you. I don't know what I've got to do with this so-called Reunion, but if it's anything to do with Sephiroth, I've got to find out."
"All right," Cloud replied hesitantly. He would have preferred to go by himself and face Sephiroth alone, but perhaps he would need the back-up."You can come."
He opened the front door to enter, but Aerith stopped him.
"Cloud, I'm coming too."
He shook his head firmly.
"No way! I'm not letting you, Aerith!"
She walked up beside him and looked into his eyes, pleading with him.
"Cloud, please, I'm begging you to let me come with you!"
"No," he retorted stubbornly. "It's too dangerous. What would happen if you got hurt? You know Sephiroth will kill you. I'd never forgive myself."
"Sephiroth and I are the same," she urged. "I must see him again, Cloud. Let me go with you, please."
He gazed back into her eyes and was oddly touched by the beseeching warmth in them.
"All right," he relented. "But if anything goes wrong, I'm sending you back."
She nodded to show she understood.
"Of course, Cloud."
They stepped inside the Mansion, the doors closing with a low creak, then a soft bang. The three looked about them warily. The greyed, dusty hallway lay still with a misty, time-worn quality. The only shaft of sunlight strayed from a set of stained-glass windows at the back of the room. A great oak staircase led to a long, richly-carpeted landing above. As they walked past, the floorboards groaned under their weight. The squeaking of mice as they scuttled along the skirting boards shuffled every now and then as the tiny rodents became alarmed at the disturbance caused by the intruders. Not even the grandfather clock nearby made a sound. It had stopped long ago.
Aerith moved in close beside Cloud as they walked through the old hallway.
"Are you scared?" he asked her, but she shook her head.
"No. Where do you think Sephiroth is?"
Cloud did not reply for a moment. There was only one place that he could imagine Sephiroth to be in.
"In the library. He must be in the library."
Retracing the path he had taken five years ago down to the cellar of the house, he followed the spiralling staircase down to the bottom, pushing the long strands of cobwebs from their course. When they had got to the bottom and into the corroding basement, Red suddenly stopped.
"There is something strange around here," he growled softly. "I can smell it."
"What can you smell?" Aerith questioned, puzzled.
Red began to sniff amongst the dirt and loose rock, right to the front of an ancient wooden door. It was the door that had been locked the last time Cloud had entered the Shinra Mansion. Red looked up.
"It's from here."
"Is Sephiroth in there?" Aerith asked.
Cloud went up to the door and turned the knob hastily. Nothing happened. It was still locked.
"No, he can't be in here. It's locked. Unless he locked himself in from the inside."
Red, who'd been scrabbling in the dirt with his paws, shook his head.
"No. Here's the key."
Cloud bent over and picked up the key. It was brown and gritty with rust. He examined it carefully.
"Why would someone lock this door and drop the key outside in such an obvious place?" he questioned, half to himself. "It doesn't make sense."
"Unless," Red interjected, "that someone wanted whatever it is that is inside to be found."
"I have a bad feeling about this," Cloud said, looking at the door doubtfully.
"Me too," Aerith added in an undertone.
"But I'm going in anyway," he finished. Stabbing the key in the lock, he turned it eventually, though rather stiffly. The lock clicked open grimly. Turning to the others cheerfully, Cloud spoke up.
"Well, here goes."
Swivelling the rounded handle easily, he pushed the door open slowly. It snarled into place to reveal a high-ceilinged room made of mossy, dampened brick. It was a circular chamber, and at the end of the room was a gnarled grate and a broken hearth. Remnants of used up coal lay scattered round on the stone floor, and slime slithered between cracks in the brickwork.
But nothing could prepare the three for what occupied that grim, barren room.
"Coffins," Aerith whispered, hanging back in repulsion. "They're coffins."
Gathered about at the walls of the room stood open coffins, facing inward to the centre of the room. Skeletons lay sprawled on the faded purple velvet, their lifeless faces staring up at the ceiling through eyeless sockets. In the middle of the room stood the only closed coffin, leaving little to the imagination as to what was inside it.
"This is disgusting," Aerith stammered, covering her mouth. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"What do you think is inside?" Red asked curiously.
"I don't know," Cloud replied. "But I'm going to find out."
"Oh no!" Aerith cried. "Cloud, you're insane!"
He shrugged.
"I'm curious."
Ignoring Aerith's pleas, he walked up to the coffin. It's once shiny lacquered lid lay peeling and dusty. As Cloud leaned over to place his fingers beneath the cover, he caught a faint musty smell trailing the air. And more than that, he caught the aroma of living matter. It was unmistakable. His stomach clenched.
"Cloud, please don't," Aerith begged one more time.
Cloud stared at the lid, blinked a little. No, he was curious now, he had to know what was inside. With little effort, he pulled up the covering just a chink. He peered inside the dark slit.
Dropping the lid with a clang, he raced back to the others, his heart racing. Aerith gazed at him in terror.
"What is it? Cloud, what was in there?"
He pointed at the coffin, his arm shaking.
"I don't know. I mean...I do...but..." he stopped, tried again "Someone - something - is in there! It's alive!"
"A vampire!" Aerith breathed, but Red shook his head with certainty.
"No. It's not possible."
A sudden movement from the coffin caused them to stop still and gaze at the encasement in trepidation. Slowly, steadily, the lid began to rise. A metal claw appeared at the edge, driving the cover out of its way. Cloud held his breath as the wooden lid was pushed away. What...who was in there?
Gradually, the cover was pulled aside and clattered uselessly to the floor. Sitting in the plush velvet lining of the coffin was a man. Slowly, he stood up, his features becoming apparent.
Cloud gazed on in speechlessness. The man stood, dignified and tall, his weary-looking face partially hidden by locks of uncouth jet-black hair. He was handsome, with young, roman features and exquisite almond-shaped, crimson eyes. He was dressed in black, with a rich, blood-red cloak draped over his broad shoulders. At his belt hung an old gun with awooden handle, an artifact from a past age. On his left arm had been placed a shining golden gauntlet.
The man glared back at the three with soulful, narrowed eyes. His mouth moved slowly, hardly making a sound at first, then his voice spoke, deep and flowing.
"Who," he began softly "has awakened me from my sleep?"
-oOo-
Next: A new recruit and another rendezvous with Sephiroth...