Legacy of a SOLDIER - Chapter 3
by EclipsedReaper
Darkness pressed in from all sides, suffocating and unending, unraveling time and engulfing thought. Somewhere in the void, a muffled voice cut through. It was as if he—whoever he was—was underwater, the voices warped and distant.
"Cloud! Cloud, can you hear me?" The voice sounded concerned, almost fearful. Something about it clawed at the edges of his mind, familiar yet slipping through his grasp like mist.
"Get back! Guards! The subject has escaped!"
Before he could hear any more, he plunged back into oblivion.
He didn't know how long it had been. Hours, months, centuries—for all he knew, it could've been mere seconds. He saw a bright light shining above him; felt a sharp pain in his right arm; heard the familiar hiss of a syringe as it was being injected. He groaned, a strange buzzing sound filling his ears and penetrating his mind. In his mind's eye, he could see a girl kneeling among flowers in what looked like a run-down church. A strangely colored materia was in her hands. Before he saw anything more, the vision faded into blackness.
He opened his eyes to the inside of a tank. "Where am I?" he thought sluggishly. An icy liquid pooled around his ankles, slowly crawling up the sides of the glass. It glowed greenish-blue and had an ethereal sheen to it. "Mako," he realized. His fingers barely twitched, as if his body belonged to someone else. He tried to speak, but no words came out. Looking around slowly, he saw another tank next to his, filled completely. Drifting inside was a familiar black-haired figure. "Zack?" he tried to ask, but his voice failed him again. A creeping fear grew inside him as the mako slowly swallowed him, inch by inch.
As it flooded the tank, reaching up to his knees, he could feel adrenaline flooding his veins. Panic surging through him, he lurched forward off the ground, groping around the sides of the tank and searching desperately for an exit. He tried to call out once more, and, this time, a sound escaped his lips. "Zack! Wake up!" A wave of dizziness overcame him, and the same buzzing sound he heard before filled his ears. A vision filled his sight; a strange materia, unlike any he had seen before, fell onto a stone pillar—but just as quickly as it had come, it disappeared. His legs shook, his knees quaking as they attempted to keep him standing.
The tank continued to fill, the mako reaching almost up to his neck now. He called for help, desperately straining to keep his head above the liquid. But it was to no avail; he took a deep breath as it rose to his chin and then his mouth. As it grew to his nose, he tried to breathe out to keep it from filling his lungs but ran out of air after only a short while. It poured into his chest like molten lead. His body convulsed, lungs screaming for air that no longer existed. His vision blurred, the light growing dimmer. As he lost consciousness, he saw a face, that of someone he felt he should know, someone who was vital—and then, it was gone.
He saw a light.
Who was he?
Where was he?
Those questions seemed important.
He heard a voice.
"Cloud!"
The name... felt familiar.
Was it his?
He couldn't remember.
He heard glass shattering.
Arms wrapped around him.
Cold air surrounding him.
He felt... wet.
Why was he wet?
He didn't know.
He didn't know a lot of things.
He felt... tired.
He wanted to sleep.
Yes... sleep was good.
Notes:
To my very few readers, sorry for the long wait! This chapter was a bit hard for me to write and I'm still not wholly satisfied with it, so I'll probably go back and edit it in the future. I also apologize for the much shorter chapter this time, but the next chapter should be over 1k words. For now, I hope you enjoyed reading!