Disclaimer - I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. Hope all of you will enjoy this new chapter! Please review!
Your Heart
With new determinations and a new friend by his side, Cloud trained himself with Kadaj for another three years in the Shinra Regular Army, but this time, it will be different, because he learned more than the other cadets in secret. The black phoenix had been visiting him each night when he is in the forest and helped him with his sword skills. Sometimes Cloud will just talk to it, telling his hometown and his dreams, while the bird simply listens to every one of his words.
Tonight, the 15-years-old blond went to the forest with two green materias, crystallized orbs made from the liquid Lifestream, slotted in his sword, since he never seemed to be able to activate them no matter how he had concentrated, he decided to ask for its help. When he arrived to his private training spot, he put his sword down and said: 'Moon! Where are you, Moon?'
Moon is the name Cloud gave to the black phoenix, since he had noticed it always seemed sad whenever it looked up at the moon and the name suits it, because the bird is like his light in the darkest moments of his life, just like the moon that shines in a starless night.
When he turned around, the bird was perched on small branch of the tree where he had put down his weapon. The teen smiled brightly as he extended his hand towards it, Moon flew off of the tree and landed on his arm carefully, as if it is scared to harm the blond with its claw.
'Thanks for coming, Moon.' Cloud said as his fingers played with the pendant the bird was wearing, the blond chuckled a bit when he remembered the time he had scratched his feathers on its head and Moon had almost bitten all of his fingers off for doing that, ever since then he hadn't touched any of his feathers, but the small silver-dagger. The phoenix looked at him with a look that said "what's so funny?"
'Nothing.' The young teenager said as he used his other hand to muffle his giggles. 'Anyway, I need you to teach me how to use the materias. That is if you know how.'
Moon flew to his sword and pulled one of the materias out of the slots before it went back to side, giving it to him. Cloud took the green orb into his hands as the bird rested itself on his shoulder and nudged him with its wing.
'You want me to show you how bad I am?' The phoenix nodded his head which caused Cloud to roll his eyes. The bird acted just like Kadaj when he asked for the silver hair teen's help; show me how bad you are and then I'll explain it as simple as I can. Oh well, at least Moon doesn't really talk, so I won't get any headaches for this one, unless he screeches.
Cloud closed his eyes as he concentrated on trying to activate the orb's power, but it had only glowed for a few second before it returned to a lifeless state. The blond reopened his eyes and let out a desperate sigh at his failed attempt to activate it before he said to Moon: 'See, I told you, I'm bad.'
The phoenix ignored him and placed his claws over the orb which immediately bursts into flame causing the blond to drop it in surprise. Luckily for Cloud, he was wearing gloves, so it had only burned the black leatherette material, he shot an angry glace at Moon who had caught the fire materia before it fell to the ground and mumbled: 'You could have at least warn me that you are going to demonstrate.'
The black bird had ignored him once again and in a blink of an eye, it held a tight grip on his wrist and placed the now enflaming materia on his hand again. Cloud closed his eyes and readied himself for scorching pain on his hand, but nothing happen.
He reopened his eyes and saw that the flames over the orb was not burning him or Moon's claw, but Moon won't get burn anyway, since it's a phoenix, a mythical creature that controls fires and born from the ashes. Cloud watched in amazement at the fire that doesn't harm either of them, he really envied his friend to have a perfect control over the materia and hoped he could too. Suddenly, Moon redrew his claw and the cadet had almost immediately panic, scared of being burn if the creature isn't in control of the power, but to his astonishment, the fire kept burning and he doesn't felt anything.
'How did-' Before he could completely uttered his question, Moon did another incredible demonstration. The bird flew off of his arm and the flames on the materia followed it, swirling around its wings, the bird flew into air and did a few spirals before it bent his burning wings for moment before it spread them wide and the fires shot five different directions, scorching each tree they hit.
Cloud simply stood there in shock at the display, he only snapped out his trance when the black phoenix switched the materia in his hand with the other one that had been in the slot of the sword since the demonstration and tossed it to him. He stared at the green orb in his hand a moment and then at the bird that is resting on the sword motioned him with its wing to try it.
The blond held the crystal orb in his hand tightly, closing his eyes and concentrated again, but just like before, it had only glowed for a few second before it lost the brightness again. When Cloud is about to give up, he opened his sapphire eyes just to see Moon over his right shoulder, his wings spread wide with their tips pressing gently on his wrist and left shoulder.
These light touches felt very strange, it almost had the same touch of a human hand, it's... Comforting... The blond almost laughed at his own idiocy, but he felt somehow safe and warm every time Moon was closed to him. I wonder if this is what feels like when your father is beside you and help you whenever you fall? The idea seemed rational, yet it doesn't seem to fit to what he is feeling right now. Why?
The thought of a father makes him think of his mother, in Nibelhiem, waiting for him to return with pride and maybe with a friend. With his eyes closed, he could perfectly imagine the face his mother will make when she saw Moon and Kadaj with him at the doorsteps. Cloud could even picture the happiness of the four of them together as a family, the three of them playing with the snow like kids and getting scowl by Rayne about how messy they were, cover in snow. That would definitely be wonderful.
Suddenly he felt a small nudge on his neck. He quickly snapped his eyes open and sapphire orb almost widen instantly when he saw the trees around him are completely covered in ice and the ground seemed to be frozen as well.
'Oh Gaia. Did I really do this?' Cloud asked as he stared incredulously at his surrounding. Not believing that he really turned half of the trees around him into ice. Moon nodded his head and used his claw to point at his heart. 'You mean, the way to control a materia, it's not by using my mind, but my heart?'
The black phoenix nodded his head again and this knowledge had explained part of the things the blond couldn't understand. So that's why I wasn't able to activate its magic, because I was only thinking about making it work, but not trying on letting my heart draws its power out.
Cloud looked at his feather friend and said with a bright smile: 'Thank you, for everything...'
'NII-SAN!' A soft voice yelled. The spiky hair teen turned around to spot something silver among the dark green bushes and when he looked back at Moon, it had already disappeared in the dark night.
'I'm here Kadaj!' Cloud called out as he walked towards the bushes and pushed some of them away to reveal a sliver hair teen.
'Nii-san. I was looking for you to see if you need help for the- Oh Gaia!' Kadaj shouted as he stared at the frozen trees in shock, his mouth gaping like a fish as he pointed at them.
'I didn't do it without help of course.' The blond answered the unasked question as he put the materias back into their slots of the sword.
'That person is me right?' The silver hair teen asked with a wide grin which Cloud returned with a small smile.
'Maybe.' He said as he took the small path that leads out of the forest towards the building with Kadaj behind him, shouting "Is it me or not?"
***
'Nii-san, I'm sure you are going to pass this test as easy as pie.' Kadaj said as he stepped out the forest with a still-not-very-confidant Cloud next to him. The blond wasn't really sure he could perform as well as he did back among the trees with Moon.
Suddenly a monstrous cry vibrated in the air, both teens jumped in surprise. Cloud looked around to see where that horrible sound came from, but it is hard for him to see through the dark night with only the faint light coming from the building. Then Kadaj fell to his knees whimpering with his hand covering his ears, Cloud had never saw the silver hair teen acting like this before when confronting a monster, he knelt down and put his hand over the quivering shoulder, asking as softly and as calm as he could: 'What's wrong Kadaj?'
'Nii-san... The noises... It... Hurts... Make them stop... Please...' Kadaj begged with his eyes clamped shut and tears running down his cheeks. He looked like he's in deep pain. The blond gave a gentle squeeze on the shoulder and whispering comforting words to the quivering boy, looking up whenever he heard the beastly cry which is sounding closer gradually.
'Kadaj listens to me.' Cloud placed his hand the silver hair teen's cheek and turned his face towards him, looking deep into those now unfocused green eyes. 'We have to leave now, it's not safe here. I promise I'm going to make the noises stop, but you have to help me, ok?'
Kadaj nodded his head. The blond immediately pulled the shaking teen up and walked as fast as they could, but the roaring sound isn't helping very much for their progress, because Kadaj flinched in his steps every time the loud sound echoed in the night and Cloud needed to hold him closely to be able to continue their way towards the building. Almost there. We're almost there. It's going to be fine soon, I promise Kadaj.
When the building's doors became visible for his blue eyes, Cloud let a mental relieved sigh, but his relief was cut short when a piercing shriek came from behind them. The blond turned around to see a black scaly skin creature with a dragon-like grey head.
'SHIT!' Cloud cursed when he saw three other creatures joined the first one and four more coming from behind. He quickly dashed towards the building and pulled the rather disoriented silver hair teen with him. Please let us make it! Please let us make it! Please let us make it!
The blond had completely underestimated the beasts' speed. When he risked looking back, one of them was jumping towards them with its sharp fangs and claws ready to tear them apart. Before he could do anything, the red orb he wore around his neck shone brightly and something shot out of the jewel, knocking the monster back towards the group behind it.
'Get out of here Cloud!' A distorted voice yelled above the two teens. Cloud looked up and his eyes widen in surprised.
'MOON?!' Cloud shouted in disbelieve as the black phoenix flying above them sent dozen of red generated blade towards the monsters.
'Get going now! While I hold them back!' Moon cried out, looking down at the blond.
'YOU CAN TALK?!' The spiky hair teen asked loudly as the phoenix sent three fireballs at the black monsters, burning two of them into ashes.
'We could discuss this topic later! Now go!' The blond was about to protest, but the small tug on his arm reminded him that Kadaj is with him and the trembling teen is defenseless in his current states.
'Ok, but be careful!' Cloud yelled as he continued his way towards the Shinra Inc. building with Kadaj, but when they were only a few steps away from the glass doors, there was loud crashing behind them and an alarm rang through the air.
'Enemy Alert! Emergency lock down!' A computerized voice announced and an iron grid dropped down, sealing the main doors and probably every entrance that could allow the two cadets to get in.
***
Meanwhile high inside the Shinra building, in the virtual training room of the 49th floor, three men stood on a stimulation of a giant canon pointing at the ocean. The one who stood with his back facing the sea wore a black leather coat and had waist-length silver hair with cat-like green eyes looking at the adversary in front of him, a young man with shoulder-length auburn hair, bright blue eyes and a single silver dagger-like earring on his left ear in a scarlet coat holding a glowing red swords. Behind them was a man with short black hair with an enormous broad sword on his back and a smaller one in his hand watched the other two.
'That laxness of yours, how long do you think you can keep it up?' The man in complete crimson asked casually before he lunged towards the silver hair man, but suddenly the holographic stimulation around them dissolved and an alarm rang inside the room.
Then three ringing tone echoed at the same time inside the room, the three men took out three identical cell phones from their pockets and flipped them opened.
'Report!' They said together ignoring the annoying alarm.
'Security had spotted several unknown black creatures outside the main entrances fighting, we do not have any data on them, and so we call you to capture the creatures, if possible, alive.' The person in the end of their line explained briefly. 'Sephiroth and Genesis will go to the mains entrances and confront the enemies. Angeal you'll stand by inside the building, in case one of them got inside, understand?'
'Roger!' They answered as they left the virtual room.
***
The spiky hair teen fumed and cursed under his breath as he looked around to find another place where they could be safe, but all he saw was dead ends. He turned back to scream for help, but he didn't when he saw Moon being clawed by one of the monsters, black feathers fell to the ground without the slightest stain of blood. No, I can't ask Moon to help me this time. I must find a solution myself.
'Nii-san... Ugh...' Kadaj groaned as he fell to his knees with his hand still holding the teen's blue uniform tightly. Cloud caught him by the waist and knelt down as he stared at his unconscious friend worriedly. He hated it! He hated being useless! He hated to see people getting hurt! A terrible roar caught his attention. The blond looked up to see a beast running towards them, his grip on his sword tighten as the slotted materias glowed brightly.
I won't allow you. Cloud lifted the sword up. None of you. His other hand held Kadaj closely. To harm those. The sword glowed brightly as hot burning fire and icy cold frost swirled around the blade. I CARE FOR DEEPLY! He slashed his blade downward and unleashed a powerful energy wave towards the monster which instantly annihilated it and three others behind it along with half of the ground. A small smile plastered on his face as he fell to the ground with his arm around Kadaj protectively as his eyelids slowly closed. I did it... I have protected you...
The remaining creatures were stabbed by the generated swords of Moon. The black phoenix turned his attention to the teens on the ground and landed next to them, Moon was about to use his healing power on them, but when it sensed the coming presences of two powerful people and it decided to return to the red orb for now.
'You did well Cloud...' Moon said as it pressed his black wing against the spiky hair of the blond before his body turned into red threads of light and was absorbed by the necklace.
