Disclaimer - I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. Enjoy the new chapter!
Nightmare
A few weeks had already passed since the special promotion to the Third Class for Cloud Strife and Kadaj Novia, everyone in the building continued their daily routine, but somebody under the Shinra Inc. building was having some extra works than others.
In a room filled with small monitors and computers screens, Hojo was replaying again and again the footage of the silver hair cadet fighting a giant Behemoth with only a thin katana and wrote down some notes before he moved to another screen where the spiky blond hair cadet infused his sword with the power of Fire and Ice materia. The professor was beyond excited, he couldn't believe his luck to find two such rare specimens by simply hacking into the computer main frame of the virtual room and changed the level of training of a Third into a First, but what made him happier than anything, it's what the computer next to him was showing him: the vitals readings of a strange life form named JENOVA.
For years of researches, the mad scientist watched the life of the alien humanoid ever slowly slipping away, but six years ago, the dying life form was having some life once again and a few weeks ago, it was strong enough to send some kind of signal from the abandoned Reactor in Nibelheim to here, Midgar.
'Oh, She is searching for her son or sons. Who will be her favorite?' The evil doctor whispered gleefully as he rubbed his hand in anxious and eyed the screen where showed the data of Kadaj. 'Oh, I so love family problems.'
When Hojo heard the beeping sound of one of the computers, he almost jumped around like a kid who had ate too much sugar, he opened the file that had been sent to him and ran down the list till he arrived at the name Novia and then he quickly opened the report and scanned its contents: No Mako rejections symptoms. Absorbing Mako as fast as a First Class Soldier.
Then he looked into Cloud Strife's Mako injection report and its contents were the same as Kadaj's, no rejections and absorbed the blood of the Planet like he had been taking it for his whole life.
Oh, the Reunion is finally coming. Hojo thought as he put the files of the two cadets to his own personal folder before he sent the rest of the file back to the computer main frame of Shinra. All it needs is a little push.
***
At night, outside the building of Shinra, in the small forest, Cloud is running blindfolded with a sword in his hand among the trees and bushes as three red generated swords shot out of the dark green leaves. The blond dodged the first two and cut down the last one.
Before the spiky hair SOLDIER 3rd Class could relax, a dozen of generated swords fell from above him, but he evaded them just in time by jumping as high and as far as he could. Then three fireballs were thrown at him and he created a thick ice wall in front of him to block the fiery attacks as he landed on the ground which suddenly exploded and threw on him on his back with his weapon slipped out of his grasp.
When Cloud was about to get back up, he felt a small pressure on his neck and a distorted voice said: 'Touché.'
The blond groaned, even though he had taken Mako injection, his five senses and his strength enhanced, Moon had still caught him off guard. The blond removed the black cloth that blindfolded him for almost an hour and half and stared up at the flying black phoenix as he said grimly: 'You know that's a sneaky trick.'
'Didn't I warn you about expecting the unexpected on the battlefield?' Moon countered as he dissipated the energy sword while Cloud slowly sat up, but the black mythical bird didn't expect the blond to pull one of its claws. In matter of seconds, Moon found itself pinned down on the ground with a smirking youth hovering above him. 'You know you are going to regret for your little prank.'
Cloud chuckled as he replied confidently: 'Nope, I won't regret it and beside, you won't hurt me anyway.'
After saying these words, the blond rolled over to the side, freeing the winged creature from his hold as he stared up at the cloudy sky and let out a heavy sigh. Gaia, he missed the starry sky he watched every night back at Nibelheim. Since Midgar's Reactors produced so much pollution in both ground and air, the sky is almost always covered by the dark clouds, so he could hardly see the beautiful clear sky. The spiky hair teen closed his eyes as he breathed in deeply the fresh air that the trees around him were able to produce.
'You miss Nibelheim.' The black phoenix said. It was of a more of statement than a question.
Cloud cracked one eye opened and took a glance at his feather friend who hadn't moved from his spot on the ground and stared at the starless dark sky like he did, then he closed it and replied: 'Yeah, I couldn't see the sky as clearly as in my house. I really wish I could see the stars again, they remind me the most of my mother.'
The boy remembered the beautiful smile of his mother that shines brighter than any star among the sky. When the blond opened his eyes again, they widen in surprised at what was floating around him: small glowing green flakes, which assumed that were made by the Lifestreams, were floating in mid-air or were zooming around like a small meteor.
'It might not be as real as if you are in space, but I hope it is enough for you to pretend that they are stars.' Cloud turned his head to look at Moon whose eyes were glowing bright orange-yellow.
The SOLDIER smiled happily as he stared at the now starry sky and replied: 'No, it is perfect.'
So perfect that I could stay here, lying on this ground and stared at them forever. Cloud thought as his eyelids covered the sapphire orbs and he let himself drifted to the world of dreams as he felt Moon went back inside his materia.
***
Strife...
Strife...
Cloud Strife...
'SOLDIER 3rd Class, Cloud Strife!' A soft, but solemn voice called out. Cloud's eyes immediately snapped open and stared up at the lean shadow figure standing above him, judging by the strong Mako glow in those piercing azure eyes that this person is a SOLDIER and not just any SOLDIER, it's Commander Rhapsodos, the boy quickly got up and saluted the man. 'Professor Hojo had an appointment with you and Kadaj Novia at the Underground Lab 2.'
Huh? I don't remember we have an appointment tonight. Cloud thought as he thanked the Commander and ran as fast as he could.
When he made it to the labs, he saw Kadaj lying on a metal table without his top uniform, eyes closed and the left arm was pierced by a needle attached to a tub filled with a green substance that Cloud presumed as Mako, the scene was horrible.
'You boy!' A voice barked. The blond turned to his left to see Hojo walking towards an empty table that was paralleled to Kadaj's with a tray containing two syringes filled with a thick black liquid that Cloud wouldn't dare ask what it was. 'On the table and shirt off!'
The spiky hair SOLDIER glared at the professor with hatred as he removed his shirt and lay on the cool metal table as he eyed his friend in worry, but when he felt a needle pierced his skin, his eyes snapped close and he felt light-headed.
What? What's going on? Cloud thought as he felt his body was burning and every inch of it hurts like hell. Then he felt something pierced his skin again and a high-pitch screech echoed around him. He curled into a ball with his hands over his ears. STOP IT! SHUT UP!
Traitor! Puppet! Broken useless puppet!
Calamity. Sky. Evil. Meteor. Crash. Virus.
I SAY SHUT UP! Cloud shouted as the shriek is getting louder, images of a burning village and a ugly creature floating inside a tub flashed and then they all melted away, only to be replace by Kadaj wearing a black leather coat in his arms dying as he used his remaining strength to utter a single word: 'Nii-san...'
Betrayer! You useless puppet! You'll always be the broken puppet! Everything you cherish will be gone! Traitor!
NO! NO! NO! KADAJ! Cloud yelled as everything around him turned into ice. Suddenly he heard a faint low growl and he looked up to see two of those black creatures that had attacked them before, snarling at them. GET AWAY FROM US!
Calamity. Destruction. Kill. Protect. Child.
The blond no longer care what is talking to him in his head, all that matter is Kadaj to save and to do that he must kill every one of those creepy beasts. Holding his dying friend close to him with one arm, he extended his only free arm and called out the power of the ice, the only element he had been able to master without a materia with him. Three ice spears formed out of thin air and hurled towards the two monsters, but unlike the ones he had fought before, they moved faster and evaded his attacks easily.
DAMN YOU! Cloud placed his hand on the frozen floor and immediately dozen of icicles shot out. I GOT YOU NOW! The ice-summoner shouted in his mind as the two black creatures were having a hard time to dodge the icicles coming out of the ground, but one of them melted his ice attacks with a fire spell. WHY YOU!
'NII-SAN!' Someone cried out. Cloud looked around and spotted Kadaj, well and unharmed, standing a few feet away from him.
What? Kadaj? Then- The blond looked down at the silver hair teen he was holding who is now looking at him with poisonous green eyes with an evil smile on him. Cloud quickly got up and pushed the stranger away, but the body of the look-alike Kadaj suddenly turned into a black smoke and started to swirl around him, burning the skin of the blond who tried to get away.
You can die now. Chosen one of Gaia. Cloud heard the vicious voice whispered in his mind when he inhaled some of the smoke which burned his lungs. The boy clutched his throat as he fell to the floor.
Get away from him JENOVA! The SOLDIER heard a distorted voice shouted threateningly, then a bright red light covered his vision and he felt the burning sensation left him before he blacked out.
***
'Nii-san!' Kadaj shouted. He is beyond scared when he woke up, Cloud was turning and clawing his skin on the metal table as the evil professor was taking notes in a corner of the room. Then his brother screamed in agony as he got up and everything close to him turned into ice. When Commander Angeal and Genesis entered the lab, it only got worse, Cloud, whose eyes were glowing bright blue, attacked them by casting some sort of ice spells without a materia. This nightmare had only stopped when the body of the blond convulsed and fell to the floor.
Genesis slowly approached the unconscious teen with Angeal close to him and placed his hand over his neck to feel his pulse and then he looked over his shoulder and said: 'He is fine, but we better get him to Infirmary.'
The raven hair Commander nodded his head as he knelt beside the now sleeping blond to pick him up and headed towards the door, ignoring the protests of Hojo, followed by the crimson coat Commander and Kadaj.
'Is Nii-san going to be fine?' The silver hair teen asked Genesis hesitantly.
The auburn hair man turned around and looked at him with an unreadable expression, but Kadaj had the feeling that the azure eyes are not looking at him directly, but at something else, something he should know. After staring at him for a few seconds, he said: 'He will be fine, he's stronger than he looks and had people who care about him.'
For some unknown reasons, the SOLDIER 3rd Class felt that he doesn't belong to the list of the people who care for Cloud that Genesis refer to.
