Note: Holy cripes I'm late! (And that was the understatement of the year!) Totally sorry, guys. I completely lost my groove with this story, and having to start from the beginning again as noted, well... Yeah. Let's just say that I haven't had much time lately to write my stories. It bothers me a LOT. If anything, I blame school for my troubles. Being at the grade I am with my "important future ahead of me," I have to put priorities first and... well, the result on the other side hasn't been so enlightening. (Kill the homework!!!)
So, I hope that I get the chance to write more, even if it takes me longer than normal. Well, let's see what several years of absence will give us, 'ey?
By the way, the supposed "second half" of the previous chapter that I made? Lost it when I wiped my work and started over. I'm a very bad person, I know. I should probably be shot, because I screwed up everything... (cries)
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The Complete Opposite
Chapter XVII
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Inhuman blood-red eyes darted toward the window, narrowing at the scene outside. It was dark, impeccably dark. It was as if someone had cast a blanket over the town, blacking out the sky. And strangely more so, even though it was nighttime and darkness would thus be natural, and even though the stars and moon were visible, there was a strange quality to the night sky that seemed almost... artificial.
The more he studied the sky, the more he realized the absence of any wind or clouds ...which made it even more abnormal because it was raining outside. Gaea, it would seem had suddenly decided to magically create rain without rain clouds.
But Vincent knew better than that. He knew that Gaea would not -- COULD NOT accomplish such a feat. He strained his ears for any cry from her, for any sign of what the cause of this distortion was. He tuned in to Chaos, but the beast was silent. That was dangerous. Very few times was Chaos absent from Vincent's conscience, each happening foreshadowing an event of destruction.
Feeling the hair on the back of his neck prickle, Vincent slid off the bed and approached the window, studying the sky intently. He unlatched the lock and slid the window open, inhaling deeply. The air didn't smell any different; and when Vincent stuck out his tongue, he noted that it didn't taste different either. It really did seem like nothing was amiss. Frowning, Vincent drew him mouth into a tight line and stepped back from the window. He didn't know what it meant. He didn't know if he needed to confront Red or Sephiroth about this, or if either would be available to engage him in a discussion.
Both weren't necessarily hard to find; Red was below in the living room, probably with Cid, Tifa, Zack and Yuffie. Sephiroth was down the hall with Cloud, probably guarding him like a hound. Vincent knew those two wouldn't get along, especially if they would be sharing a room together, even more so a bed, but he didn't think that either man would do anything extreme. Cloud, from what Vincent could see, was... sane and almost pacifistic. Sephiroth, despite his piss and bile towards Cloud, was also rationally calm and would never act without reason, especially around a dangerous character like Cloud Strife, a JENOVA's child. If anything were really to happen or be caused by Cloud's mischief, Vincent knew Sephiroth would react immediately and would instantly forward the situation to the rest of the team. So if Vincent dared to exclude Cloud from the abnormality, then he didn't have a clue as to what was going on above. It unsettled him terribly, his palm was itching to grip the Death Penalty.
"Vin."
Vincent startled, jerking as two arms wrapped around his torso. He sought out the identity of the person behind him and physically relaxed when he realized it was only Cid. The man pressed himself against Vincent's back and wound his arms around him more tightly. Vincent could feel the man's chest rise and fall with each breath, could feel his breath near his ear. He felt as if he should mold himself into the embrace and succumb to the man's simple, subtle show of affection and comfort, but his mind was still on edge and had to restrain himself from breaking away.
"What's got you worked up?"
Cid's voice was rough, it always was, but in that one question, Vincent heard it smooth out just slightly in concern. He would've smiled, had the time been right, but something about the air, no matter how calm it seemed, was chaotic. It was distorted by some unknown, unseen force that he could only guess about and not quite comprehend or decipher.
With some difficulty, as Cid was rather reluctant to let him go, Vincent stepped out of the man's hold and approached the window again. He looked up at the empty sky and squinted at it.
"Chaos won't speak to me," he said quietly, a sentence that should've answered all of Cid's questions. Unfortunately, it only caused more to spring forth.
"For how long? Since when?"
"I don't know." Vincent frowned.
"Well, did the beast give you any warning?" Vincent could hear Cid's clothes rustle as the man moved closer. "Is it that punk, Cloud Strife? Is Sephiroth with him?"
Vincent's gaze dropped to the side, his head tilted slightly in a move to look behind him, but he didn't quite look back, his gaze stopping at the edge of the window sill. "He is, you know he is, and I don't think it's him." He looked out again. "There is something different about the air. I don't know what it is, I can't seem to understand the pattern it's creating, but it isn't coming from Cloud."
Cid exhaled heavily and shifted his position again. Vincent felt him move closer, to his side, and stand with him at the window. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Cid staring out at the sky. He doubted the man could even pick up what he felt, but it touched him to know the other man cared enough to at least fake it and try.
"I say we haze the little snot just in case," Cid said offhandedly, and Vincent knew he was only joking. "You never know if he's secretly casting some forbidden JENOVA magic while we're on our asses relaxing."
"I don't think it's him," Vincent repeated. "It's something from the outside, something that could be coming toward Kalm, yet I can't see it or sense it."
He studied the sky again, shifting his gaze to edge of the town where he could only half guess the enemy would come from. Cid shifted next to him and followed his gaze. Vincent felt a hand wander to his shoulder and squeeze it gently. He looked away from the outside to peer in a side glance at the blond man. He saw his brows wrinkle together in a frown, his face expressing perplexity.
"I don't know, Vin," Cid said, sucking on his front teeth, "I think your inner demon is cuckoo." But even though he said it, his expression was serious as he turned his attention toward Vincent. Vincent returned his gaze.
"I cannot hear Gaea," he said quietly, voice deadpan.
Cid's hand on his shoulder froze. The man's eyes widened at the news. "W-What about Aeris?" he stuttered to question. "She hasn't said anything."
Vincent shook his head. "She probably already knows and has only yet to inform us. She probably doesn't understand it any more than me."
"Shit," Cid cursed, tightening his grip on Vincent's shoulder. "I'm not doubting you, Vin, but maybe you should go and talk with her or Red about this. I can't help you any more than the others, but at least those two can. Hell, even checking up on Sephiroth and that punk Cloud will help if it means reassuring yourself he really isn't the cause."
There was a pause before Vincent laid his human hand over Cid's and nodded. He stepped away from the window and turned to leave. Cid's hand left his shoulder as the man stayed by the window; he knew that there was no need to follow the man just because he was worried, he would instead stay and wait for him to come back once he was calm again. He watched Vincent headed for the door to their room, grinning to himself as his eyes were ensnared by the movement of the other man's body.
Vincent felt Cid's eyes on him, but was only half aware of it when halfway across the room, he felt a sudden tightening of his chest. He stopped as it strengthened. It was a familiar twist of his heart.
Vincent...
Chaos. Vincent immediately turned around to look out the window. It was seconds before he saw bright, fiery orange mass plummet toward the window, and evidently, toward the second story of Tifa's house. Vincent dashed forward to Cid and yanked him to his body, rolling him to the ground a split second before the fireball crashed into the house. Cid barely knew what was going on until he felt Vincent jerk him up to his feet and shout his name. He was surprised when he saw Vincent's paralyzed face just before the explosion. He dragged himself up and looked behind him at the hole in wall and the monster beyond that caused it.
"Cid!" Vincent called out to him again, gripping tightly to the man's arm. "Get the others!"
Cid jerked his attention toward Vincent for a split second, then shoved away to grab his spear. "Hell no!" His hand brushed over the materia laid in it, out of the corner of his eye he saw Vincent already poised with the Death Penalty in hand. "I'm not running just to get those lazy asses, let them come themselves. I ain't leaving these bastards to you."
Vincent smiled inwardly at Cid's impossibly motherly concern. He would never understand it, not even to the day of his death, but he was satisfied and comforted by it. Certain his smile didn't creep unto his features, Vincent moved forward, to the hole in the wall and the beast outside. Chaos echoed in his head once more and roared in anticipation of an upcoming battle.
"Fine," Vincent said, eyes trained ahead as smoke and debris started to settle. "Let them come." He shot at one of the monsters that waited beyond the house.
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Cloud gasped as he was jerked out of bed and sleep, and thrown to the floor. A very hard floor. He felt something press at the back of his head as he shook himself awake and started to move out from under the weight when said weight pressed him more firmly into the floor. Cloud wanted to protest when a nearby gunshot caught his attention. It came from the other side of the wall, yet it sounded so clear...
Cloud turned his head to see a giant hole in the wall, right where the edge of the bed used to be. Now, it was no more than half of a lump of mattress and debris, pieces of the wall still crumbling away. Beyond the smoke and gaping hole where a room-dividing wall used to be, Cloud saw the source of the gunshot. Vincent held the Death Penalty trained on an opposite building; atop the roof perched a Diablo, crescent fourteen foot wings unfurled behind it like a massive cape. In echo, Vincent's own bloody cape wrapped around his tall wiry frame much like Chaos' sixteen foot wings. Cloud awed Vincent's deathly appearance, but didn't have the time to fully capture it and be enthralled. He shifted under whoever was shielding him; he turned his head and looked to see---
Sephiroth!
Cloud immediately jerked his head away from the man's touch. Green eyes bore down upon him; Sephiroth stood up and pointed outside.
"If those aren't your doing, then fight them," he said.
Cloud stared at Sephiroth before standing up as well and looking out of the hole in the wall. The Diablo tilted its head and looked at him, its eyes glowing. Cloud clenched his fist as the demon shifted on its perch and pulled its lips back in a snarl. Twin wings swept up in the air and the Diablo poised for launch. When it pushed off the roof, Cloud braced himself. The demon flew threw the air, extending its claws as it tried to land inside the house. Vincent shot at it, aiming for the head, but the Diablo surprised him when it let out another fireball. Vincent was forced to dodge, ducking to the side with Cid. Cloud shielded himself as well, though his bare arms didn't provide him with much.
When the giant flame burst into Vincent's and Cid's room, the explosion blasted both parties. Cloud, underdressed and without his Ultima Sword to help shield him, was thrown back. Sephiroth caught him and they both crashed to the floor. Smoke rose everywhere, and wherever the fireball touched was set afire. Cloud gasped for breath and coughed when he accidentally inhaled some of the smoke. His eyes watered and he blinked away the tears as he pushed himself up off the floor. He turned toward the other room, not surprised when he saw the hole there even bigger than before. Pressed against the opposite wall were Vincent and Cid, both men just getting up.
Cloud shook off the dirt and pieces of wall that flew with them, glancing around the room wildly for his sword. He usually kept it right next to the bed for incidents like this. He didn't see it amongst the rubble and smoke, and glancing behind, it wasn't next to the door either. Where was his sword?
Zack!
Crap, Zack still had his sword. Damnit!
Cloud cursed under his breath as he focused his attention on the Diablo. It snarled and snapped its teeth together several times. Its wings were folded against its body like a shield, its attention turned toward Cloud like he was the only thing worth looking at. Cloud shifted back, ready to run. He wasn't stupid, he couldn't possibly fight the beast barehanded. He didn't trust Sephiroth or the others to care enough to help him if he was the only one the demon wanted, which he was pretty sure was the case, so if he had the choice of risking himself to run out of the room to get his sword, then he would do it.
The Diablo growled from deep within its throat and started toward Cloud. Cloud rued lending Zack his sword. He shifted back again, ready to bolt. Next to him, Sephiroth stood up, catching his attention. The silver-haired General didn't bother to brush himself off as he stood, simply unsheathing his sword.
"You're no use without a weapon," he said without looking at him. "But if you can stay alive without running away, then distract it."
Cloud was insulted. He glared at the tall man. He was told to get up and fight, and now he was being called useless! He bit back a retort and refocused his attention on the Diablo. He shifted to the side, away from Sephiroth. The Diablo followed his movement, tilting its head to the side as he crept farther away from Sephiroth. When Cloud stopped moving, the Diablo moved toward him some more, blind to the movements of the other three men.
He stood perfectly still and waited. To his right he saw Sephiroth with his sword at the ready; to his left he saw Vincent and Cid also trained on the demon. He didn't quite trust Sephiroth to help him, but he wasn't going to risk moving anymore. The Diablo looked feral, and with each step closer its claws dragged into the floor, scraping and making hideous, high-pitched sounds in his ears. Cloud tried not to wince at the screeching. It was horrible to hear, almost distracting, and he wished the noise would cease. The demon was relentless, though, as it continued to drag its claws across the floor and make that awful sound.
Cloud was forced to close his eyes and distract himself from the pain. He clenched his teeth together and balled his hands into fits. He opened his eyes a moment later, cursing the squealing in his ears. He was surprised to see the Diablo suddenly charging at him. Cloud threw himself to the side, just as Sephiroth moved forward and sliced through the Diablo's head, its blood spraying all over the room. The Diablo screamed, clawing at its surroundings. Cloud cringed at the horrible sound of the beast dying and its claws scraping against the floor. He clenched his teeth together more tightly, ignoring the blood splattered all over his body.
"Seph!"
Cloud looked out of the corner of his eye to see Zack crash through the bedroom door. He had Cloud's Ultima Sword strapped to his back, his Buster Sword clutched in his hands.
"You're f-cking late, Zack!" yelled Cid from across the gaping hole in the wall. "It took you long enough!"
Zack snorted, caught between defending himself and cracking a joke. "Well, I'm here now," he settled for, lamely. "And by the looks of it you didn't even need my help." He grinned and lowered his sword, reaching behind him to unfasten Cloud's sword from his back. "By the way, I brought Cloud's sword, just in case."
He laughed and turned to Cloud. Cloud pushed off the wall to meet Zack as the man approached him. He still couldn't get the ringing out of his head, but the worst of it was gone. He held out his hand to take his sword.
"I guess you don't really need it right now, though, do you?" Zack joked, giving Cloud the handle. He turned away once the blond picked it up, and looked across the room toward the hole. "Jeez... And this was from just one monster?" He approached the hole and waved across to Cid and Vincent, greeting them.
Vincent shook his head. "Two."
Sephiroth sheathed his sword. "Not only were you late, Zack, you make jokes about the mess without thinking of cleaning up."
"What was it – whatever 'it' was - doing here?" Zack asked instead of responding to Sephiroth.
"It was after Cloud," Vincent answered, approaching the other side of the hole.
Zack looked over his shoulder at Cloud. His browed knitted together in a frown. "Really," he said quietly.
Cloud approached the hole in the joining rooms near Zack, staring outside. His sword, loose in his grip, was almost dragging as he shuffled. The rain outside was heavy, and Cloud noticed for the first time that there were no clouds overhead. He stood at the lip of the hole, at the edge of the room, and looked up at the sky, frowning at it. A small breeze touched his drenched skin and brought some of the rain toward him, extinguishing the small embers created from the fireball, and washing away some of the blood from his skin while most still clung to his clothes and scalp. He shook his head free of water and blood as it started to run trails down his face, closing his eyes when he felt the foreign liquid burn at the corners.
Behind him, Zack was inspecting the damage. "I'm surprised that the floor didn't totally give way." He knelt before the hole in the floor, the diameter about the length of Zack. Below could be seen part of the living room. "Hey, down there!" he called, waving.
From the first floor, Aeris looked up at Zack and gripped her hands together in front of her. "Zack! Zack, is everyone okay up there?"
Zack nodded. "Yeah, everyone's okay. How about you? Where's Tifa and Red? And Marlene? Is she okay?"
Aeris nodded. "Yes, they're all okay. No one is hurt."
"That's good." Zack stood up. "Tell the others to stay down there, Aeris. We'll take care of the mess up here, okay?"
Aeris nodded, hesitantly, and let Zack disappear from her sight as he moved away. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around at the other occupants of the two rooms. Over Sephiroth's shoulder he could see Cloud staring out at the sky. The blood running off his hair was making blood tears around his eyes. It was hideously beautiful.
"So why did the... whatever go after Cloud for?" he asked quietly. The sound of the rain splattering inside the rooms echoed in the silence.
"A Diablo," Vincent replied. "There is no definite reason why, but... it is Cloud Strife we are talking about." He said it as if saying the blonde's name explained everything. Sadly, it did.
Zack stared at Cloud's back. He knew that the others were looking at him too, though he wondered if the blond could tell, since he was so engrossed with the unnatural weather outside. The name "Cloud Strife" was the reason for everything. The destruction of Gaea; the death of millions of civilians, innocent and crook alike; and the birth and continuation of their despair. Just saying his name explained all that has happened this past decade or two.
Zack wondered what this Cloud Strife, this seeming innocent, was feeling, stuck in a world where everyone hated his guts. ...What was it like to be everyone's enemy, when you weren't at fault, yet every being and essence was evidence against that?
Cloud gripped at his sword. He didn't lift it, but it seemed to thrum within his soul and warn him of...something. He looked up at the sky and searched for the answer. He frowned when he couldn't find it, and closed his eyes as more of the blood stung at the edges of his eyes. The rain was harsh and biting at his skin. The thrumming in his body sounded faintly like the hymn of the Ancients, their voices tangling together into one single voice that echoed nonsense in his brain.
His expression tightened as he tried to push past the gibberish, tilting his head up a bit as he did so. Whistling accompanied the voices and humming. It was high-pitched, irritating. It whined in his ears. Cloud snapped open his eyes and looked sharply to the right. A dark blur was heading straight for him. Cloud brought up his sword just in time to block the swipe of a massive claw with six inch nails.
The force of the blow, though blocked, sent Cloud flying through the air, out into the street. From the second floor, he faintly recognized someone shouting his name. He twisted in the air and landed on his feet, his heels scraping against the concrete and he slid to a stop. He gritted his teeth at the pain, and pushed it aside as the monster before him descended.
It was another Diablo. Cloud dodged another swipe at his head and scanned his surroundings for other fiends. Three more demons: a Behemoth, an Ironite, and a Valron. Cloud clicked his tongue, shaking his head at ringing between his ears, and held up his sword, shifting back into a familiar fighting stance. The fiends eyed him from their stations, silently, cautiously. The Behemoth twitched from its perch above someone's rooftop. They were ready. They were waiting.
Cloud heard above him his name. He knew it was Zack; no one else up there would care enough to call out to him in worry. But Cloud ignored Zack, shifting against as the Diablo focused its attention on him. Now that the Ultima Weapon was in his grasp again, Cloud didn't feel so weak and helpless. A smirk played on Cloud's lips; he was waiting for this.
The Diablo let loose a roar and reared back before charging forward, its claws scraping against the concrete. It opened its jaws, its fangs dripping with saliva, and leapt for Cloud. Cloud met the beast halfway and thrust his sword up at underside of the demon's jaw. The Diablo swiped at his sword, but Cloud deflected it, rolling his body with the momentum of his joust and sliced through the beast's shoulder, dislodging its whole arm. Then, pivoting on the ball of his foot, Cloud continued to swing, bringing his sword around to sever the demon in half, lengthways.
Behind him, Cloud felt the ground shake when the Diablo collapsed in a clumsy fall. Cloud turned around. The air prickled his cold, wet skin, and the slightest brush of air difference didn't go unnoticed on his sensitive skin. His ears were still numb from the constant ringing in his head, but he could hear perfectly the cries of the beasts surrounding him. The Ironite swooped down from overhead, spreading out its web-like wings. Its thin and elongated body was made perfect for zigzagging through the narrow street, his extended claws just barely brushing the outer walls of the buildings.
Cloud frowned and pushed back into a fighting stance, ready. But then, he felt the prickling on his skin again. From behind him. Cloud jerked and looked over his shoulder just in time to see the Valron make its descent. Cloud could feel the Ironite speed closer, but also the Valron. He would have to choose between the two of them which to attack.
The Valron dropped on him like a rock, quicker than the Ironite. Cloud cursed and was about to launch himself into the air to cut it when a person leapt through the air and separated its head from its shoulders. Cloud had enough time to see a wave of black hair before he was forced to spin around again. The Ironite slammed into him, its jaw hanging open as it dared to devour him. Cloud blocked with the flat of his sword, trapping it between the fiend's teeth.
The two flew, the Ironite pushing Cloud up off the ground and into a nearby wall. Cloud was slammed from both sides, one side by a brick wall, another by the underbelly of the Ironite. He groaned as his skull cracked against the wall on impact. Stars swam in front of his eyes, and he didn't have the time to shake his head to clear his sight. The Ironite trapped him against the wall; its mouth still trapped around the sword. It breathed heavily on Cloud, each puff a hot stench against his body.
The demon's breath quickly became intolerably hot. It almost burned Cloud to be so near it. Looking around his sword, Cloud saw the starts of a flame from deep within the Ironite's mouth. Cloud jerked and pushed against the Ironite, struggling until he could wiggle his sword in the demon's mouth and pull it out, slicing up and through the demon's upper jaw.
The Ironite shrieked and pulled away, dropping Cloud as it writhed and started to die. Behind it was Zack who had come down to aid him, and he thrust his sword into the heart of the demon before it could even think past the pain to counterattack.
Cloud fell to the ground, catching himself as he dropped to his knees. He blinked furiously at the patches of white in his vision and suppressed a groan as he felt the mako in his body fight the pain flowing through his spine. He stood up as quickly as possible and looked around for the last beast: the Behemoth. It disappeared from its perch on the rooftop, but it was still lurking around. Cloud sighed heavily and focused on his surroundings.
"What in the world is going on out here?"
Cloud jerked as he heard a neighbor's door open and an older man poked his head outside. He cursed and rushed toward the man, knowing that the noise and smell of the man would attract the Behemoth right away.
As if on cue, the beast burst out from above, from a different rooftop. It leapt out onto the street and charged toward the man. Cloud cursed again and nearly ran into the man as he stopped in front of him, roughly grabbing him by the front of his clothes and pushing him back inside, slamming the door close after him. The Behemoth crashed right into him as the door clicked shut, scraping the bottom of his teeth against his side as he tossed him in the air.
Cloud hissed at the pain, but twisted his body like before and dropped back to the ground on his feet, soles of his feet scraping and sliding against the wet concrete. Cloud could barely control his movement in all the wetness and being half naked. Still, he bent his legs like a spring and waited until he slid to a complete stop before he rushed forward, bringing his sword forward as he darted back toward the Behemoth.
He passed Zack who could only stare at him -- in wonder, in appall, in horror, he didn't know -- and continued on to meet the demon halfway. He slid across the concrete, sweeping his sword through the air to deflect a blow from the Behemoth's claws. He pushed back against the Behemoth and prayed he wouldn't slip against the wetness.
The Behemoth roared and pulled back only to ram forward again, making a swipe with his massive claws again. Cloud held his breath as he jumped out of the way and leapt into the air. He swung his sword forward and manipulated gravity to send him plummeting back to the ground faster than natural, slicing clear through the Behemoth's head. The demon screamed and jerked back, shaking to and fro, its body going through a seizure before all functions ceased and all nerves shut down.
Cloud was slow to standing up and pulling his sword out of the ground. His ears still ached with high-pitched squealing, but it was considerably less than before. He hoped that it only had to do with the monsters that had showed up. And the edges of his eyesight were blurry from injury. Blood pooled down his side, but his body was too cold and numb to really notice the throbbing.
Gingerly, he touched his wound. It wasn't deep, but it wasn't shallow either. It wasn't something a good mako-enhanced body couldn't fix in a few hours --- cut that in half with a Cure spell ...if someone was kind enough to either give him back the rest of his materia or else cast the healing spell on him.
"Cloud!"
Zack came to his side with an odd expression on his face. Cloud frowned at him, not exactly sure what to do with the other man.
"Are you okay?" the taller man asked.
Cloud nodded. "I'm fine."
"I wish I came down sooner. I thought you could've handled them all by yourself..." He sounded so guilty...
Cloud shook his head. Even in another world, he realized, certain characters could still act the same. "I could've; but they caught me by surprise. I didn't expect to be at such a disadvantage in the rain."
Zack's violet eyes wandered down to his bleeding side and gave him a sympathetic look. "Yeah. That looks pretty bad." He put his hand on the man's shoulder and pulled him forward gently. "Hey, let's get you inside. Aeris can fix that for you in a jiffy." He grinned in reassurance.
Cloud was grateful to know that Zack would help him, though he couldn't help suppress the shudder that ran through him at the thought of a dead girl dressing his wounds. ...No. He couldn't think of Aeris that way. She wasn't dead in this world. She wasn't dead. She isn't dead.
You're in a different world now, Cloud.
He silently berated himself as he followed the tall man back toward the house. From the second story, the blond could see the gleam of Sephiroth's silver-white hair, the man's cat-like green eyes bearing down on him. There was something in those eyes that unsettled Cloud, but he couldn't get himself to look away as he approached the house. He was drawn by those eyes, and he couldn't understand why.
Zack interrupted his gaze as he led him inside the front door. Inside, nearly all of the occupants of the house were gathered around the living room, even Marlene, who was curled up next to Barret, fighting sleepiness. The only ones missing were Vincent and Sephiroth, both men probably still upstairs in their rooms. Cloud suppressed a sigh as he met the gazes of those in the living room.
"Aeris." Zack urged Cloud forward, more into the center of the living room. And the center of attention. "Can you heal him?"
Cloud slumped his shoulders, dragging his sword. The Ancient stood up and came toward him. She touched the green materia at her wrist, making it to glow, and extended her hands toward him. Cloud resisted the urge to freeze; she had extended her arms out like this once before, in the Forest before her death.
Her hands were gentle, barely brushing over his side as she worked her magic. A tingling sensation crept through Cloud's body; the bleeding staunched, and his skin began to stitch together. Cure, no matter how lifesaving, good or convenient, still made the injured feel ill and nauseous as their body worked in overtime, closing their wounds and stilling the blood flow.
The backs of Cloud's eyes burned with the mako in his body, the mixture of JENOVA cells and Gaea in his blood fighting against this world's Gaea's magic. Cloud narrowed his eyes as he felt his body begin to try to resist the curative spell. He prayed in his mind that his body would relax and let the healing be done and over with, it was taking far too long already.
Aeris frowned as she willed the wounds on Cloud's skin to stitch close. She too didn't like how his body was resisting the spell. It wasn't hurting him, it was just... not working as it should. It was taking twice as long to heal him, and she couldn't understand why.
Mother Gaea, why don't his wounds heal as they should?
Aeris sighed as she pulled back. Cloud's body wouldn't allow her to heal him anymore. She had stopped the blood from flowing, and closed most of the cuts, but she couldn't fully heal him. She tried not to frown as she stared down at the man's side and sat back down in her seat. He looked so small in his tattered, oversized shirt. The tail of the shirt reached mid-thigh, just barely long enough to leave the man somewhat decent. But just under his arm she could see the gashes where the Behemoth tore at his shirt and skin, and how the wounds were still raw and tender.
"What happened out there, Zack?"
Cloud spotted Red as he sat up to speak. Zack, beside him, shook his head. "Fiends were targeting Cloud. We don't know why."
"JENOVA."
Cloud looked up at Vincent as he descended the stairs. The focus of the rest of the occupants in the living room shifted to black-haired man.
"What do you mean by that?" Zack questioned.
Vincent's red eyes settled on Cloud. "Cloud Strife, Son of JENOVA, is being called by his Mother, to either join her, or meet the same destruction as the rest of Gaea."
Eyes of AVALANCHE were drawn back toward Cloud as Vincent's words sank in. Join. Or die. Wouldn't Cloud, as the Son, logically join his mother in wreaking havoc on Gaea? Or was this man before them really not the Son of JENOVA, just a person with the same face, the same destructive power? What would Cloud choose? And how would they adapt to either choice? He looked unbelievably sane and vulnerable, underdressed and weary from not just the battle but something else entirely.
Could this 'Cloud' really be different? Is he really not the same person as they once knew?
What would they do?
"I will kill you before you even think of rejoining JENOVA."
That single, cold sentence cut through the silence, drawing attention to the silver-haired Ex-General that stood at the foot of the stairs. His piercing green eyes were focused on Cloud, and Cloud could barely suppress the urge to flinch under the gaze. It burned him; there was so much emotion in those eyes, he couldn't comprehend how well Sephiroth spoke with his eyes. He wasn't insane; he wasn't deranged; he wasn't cold and unfeeling. He was merciless, but behind his stony face was a pool of feelings and emotions that Cloud couldn't stand, that he couldn't bear the weight of.
Cloud swallowed as he struggled to discern the strange feeling that ran through his body. He stared back at Sephiroth, trying to understand the emotion that ignited the mako in the other man's eyes.
What was it? Why was Sephiroth looking at him like that? What was in his eyes that glared at him so?
Cloud clenched his jaw tightly. He didn't know.
What was it?
Cloud felt his heart freeze. The glow in Sephiroth's eyes changed, softening. That was impossible. 'Soft' and 'Sephiroth' didn't go in the same sentence!
But then Cloud understood. Like a light bulb suddenly coming to life in his head, he recognized the look in Sephiroth's eyes.
Concern...
... and...
love.
It took all of Cloud's sheer, desperate will not to drop like a rock or run like hell was on his heels. ...And if he wasn't wrong --- Dear Gaea, let me be wrong! --- then Hell was definitely bearing over him right now.
----
Afterwards: I'll never promise to "be back real soon!" again. That has got to be the worst lie I've ever told in fanficcing history.
But hey, how doest thy chapter suit thee? We got some angst; some huggling, love and fun; some Cloud kicking butt; and scary enlightenment at the very end! ... Poor Cloud. I feel so sorry for him. I really screwed him and all the other characters up. But him especially. At least Sephiroth's still semi in character... I think? Hehe.
Well, please keep an eye out for my bio because I still post up random updates on what I'm doing with my stories and my how far along I am with certain chapters.
Until then (whenever "then" is...),
DoD out!
Completed 02112007