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ladybug_archiveLisa and I have been fangirling over Crisis Core today. X3 There's a translation of a new and very sad trailer out, plus these two demo translations: http://www.adventchildren.net/fullstory.php?subaction=showfull&id=1179175835&archive=&start_from=&ucat=37&antirelayd=1&entropychat=1&exim=1&eximstats=1&ftpd=1&ftpdmonitor=1&httpd=1&httpdmonitor=1&imap=1&mysql=1&mysqlmonitor=1&named=1&pop=1&popmonitor=1&spamd=1&syslogd=1&exim-altportnum=26 My fave part is the last lines of the first demo scene. **fangirl squeal!** Yay Seph and Zack friendship! X3
And here's version 2 of Saturday's blurb!
Cloud groaned weakly, clutching the deep wound in his side with one hand. He could still hear Jenova's cruel voice from the fight, as she had stabbed into his flesh with her staff . . . "Poison."
It was swiftly working, too. His whole body was on fire. In one way, he felt extremely nauseous. In another, the dizziness was overwhelming him. And he was being carried by his nemesis.
He pried his eyes open halfway. He was laying in Sephiroth's arms as the other half flew, half fell back to terra firma. The silver-haired man looked just as dizzy as Cloud felt, and despite the seven flapping wings, it was a weakened effort at best. He had been badly drained throughout the fight, and as the blond unwillingly slumped against the other's bare chest, he could hear Sephiroth's heart racing wildly, yet slowing down.
"You're in no condition for this," he mumbled. And he felt a certain distaste over being carried by his arch-enemy, even after everything they had been through. Sephiroth looked like he felt the same.
"Feel free to fall the rest of the way," he grunted. His wings, one by one, were giving out, until none of them had the energy to move any more. He hissed in pain as he hit the grassy hill hard on his back, Cloud sprawling across his upper body with a surprised cry.
"I thought . . . that was an optional choice," the blond gasped.
More than anything, Sephiroth wanted to push Cloud off of his aching chest and arms. It was much harder to breathe with him there. But if he tried to move the other, he might do more damage to the wound.
"If you had hit the ground at the speed with which you were originally falling, you'd be dead now," he remarked.
"Oh, so I'm supposed to thank you for saving my life?" Cloud retorted.
"I don't expect it of you, no."
They lay in silence for a long moment, each one trying to get his bearings. Jenova was sealed away. Everyone else had made it off of her sky fortress in the Shera. And they were no doubt looking for Cloud, at least. How long would it take them to find where the duo had descended? Maybe it would take too long. . . .
"I'm probably going to die anyway," Cloud muttered now. "The poison . . . I can feel it's spread, in just a few minutes. . . ."
"We might both die," Sephiroth said flatly. He could tell that his body was shutting down. It had started with the wings. Now his vision had started to fade, as well as his hearing, and his breathing was shallow.
Though maybe the latter was partially because Cloud was still unwillingly pinning him down.
"This isn't how I wanted to die," Cloud grumbled.
"It isn't my first choice, either," Sephiroth retorted.
Weakly the blond forced himself to stand, shaking, on the grass. Whatever happened, poison or not, he was not going to perish crumpled on his arch-enemy's chest and shoulders. His legs immediately gave out, sending him crashing into the soft blades.
Sephiroth watched him through glazed eyes. "You're going to hurt yourself worse," he mumbled.
What would death be like, this time? Would Zack be there to meet him? Would Zack come for him? Zack was the only person in the afterlife whom Sephiroth cared about, and who cared about him. Heh . . . among the living, Sephiroth had no one who cared. Not that he would ever think he would, after what he had done in the past.
"Sephiroth?"
He frowned, glancing over to Cloud again. The blond was laying on his right side, watching him. His blue eyes had glazed over as well, and he looked pale and ill. His next words made it sound as though he was slipping into delirium.
"Don't die!" he snapped. "Haven't you done that enough already?"
Sephiroth was amused, in spite of himself. "What if I do, Cloud?" he said. "What if I die and don't come back?"
"You always come back," Cloud retorted.
"I wouldn't have any reason to, this time."
"So you'd just let Jenova take you out?"
A silence. "Honestly, Cloud, I didn't think you'd care what I'd do."
"I don't!" He gripped tightly at the wound, his hand trembling as he started to sit up. "I'm sick of everyone dying around me! I'm sick of just standing by and watching it happen! Zack, Aerith. . . . I watched you get turned into stone! I thought you were dead then!" A mist came into his blue eyes. "I . . . I had to bury Zack. . . ."
A stricken look passed over Sephiroth's face. No . . . he did not want to hear it.
"Can you imagine what that'd be like?!" Cloud demanded, his voice rising. "I saw my best friend just get gunned down to save me! I . . . I saw him die right there, on the hill overlooking Midgar. . . ." He could no longer control his tears.
"We were all alone, there wasn't anyone else to bury him. . . . I couldn't carry his body all the way into the city. . . . I . . . I started digging with my bare hands at first . . . I couldn't get very far. So then I took a rock . . . and then I took the buster sword. . . . I had to make it deep enough so that nothing would try to dig him up. . . ."
He was sobbing now, his shoulders convulsing as he struggled to speak.
Sephiroth forced himself to sit up, gripping at the other's upper arms. "Pull yourself together!" he ordered, a sharp edge slipping into his voice. No, he could not bear to keep listening to this. This was Zack Cloud was talking about. Zack . . . his only friend, the sole person Sephiroth had deeply cared about. He did not want to hear how Zack had died. He did not want to be told in detail of how Cloud had been forced to lay the brunet to rest. He did not want to think of Zack's body laying cold in the ground, with ravenous animals trying to dig him up. . . .
No, that was not Zack. . . . The real Zack had lived on, and still came to visit Cloud and Sephiroth. But right now, Cloud's distraught condition was rubbing off on Sephiroth. Or maybe that was an indication of how badly he himself was injured.
"Then when I finally got it deep enough, I had to get his body down in the hole . . . and I didn't have any way to lower him down. . . . I had to drag him over and then throw him in, and I didn't want to, because I didn't want to hurt him. . . . Even though I knew that he wouldn't feel anything anymore. . . ."
Sephiroth gripped tighter. "Stop it!" he yelled.
Cloud struggled briefly to pull away, but instead he slumped into his enemy's arms. "Has that ever happened to you?" he mumbled. "Did you ever have to see your friend die? . . . Did you even have a friend?"
Sephiroth did not answer. No, he had never experienced it. He had gone insane and had seriously wounded his friend without remorse.
"Zack really liked you, you know. . . . He said you and me were the brothers he'd never had."
Sephiroth shut his eyes tightly. Yes, he knew. He had betrayed his friend. He had done so many horrible things, and yet the worse of all seemed to be the thought that Zack had witnessed everything. Every day, he had been stabbed anew by Sephiroth's actions. And yet, he had still forgiven the other. He still wanted Sephiroth to be his friend.
He fell back into the grass, overwhelmed by the emotions Cloud was stirring, coupled with the immense vertigo and fatigue. He was still clutching Cloud's arms, too, and the blond fell to his knees at Sephiroth's left side.
"Sephiroth?!" he screamed, staring into the other's glassy eyes. "No . . . don't die too . . . I can't stop it, I can't do anything for you. . . . I can't bury you too . . . I don't have anything I can use. . . ." The poison overwhelmed him. Everything went black as he pitched forward onto the other's chest.
Sephiroth grunted weakly. "Cloud . . . get up," he muttered. But he knew it was no use. Cloud would probably never get up. And Sephiroth did not have the strength to push him away. He could not even raise his hand enough to see if the blond was still breathing.
Footsteps running through the grass caused him to look up blearily. A familiar brunet dropped to his knees on the silver-haired man's right side, obvious concern and worry shining in his lavender eyes. "Oh man . . . Seph . . . you and Cloud are in bad shape. . . ." Gently he reached out, touching his fingers to Cloud's limp neck. "Still alive," he murmured, and grinned weakly.
Sephiroth could only stare at him. Why would he not already know whether Cloud lived? That was one of the perks of being dead---everything about the living seemed to be known. Maybe . . . maybe he was delirious now. Maybe everything Cloud had said, along with the effects of his own injuries, was doing this, making him think Zack was there.
"Zack . . . how?" he asked weakly, his voice barely there.
Zack smiled, taking up Sephiroth's clammy hand and gripping it tightly. "I'm here, buddy," he said reassuringly. "They sent me back, finally! Aerith too. And we're gonna make sure that both you and Cloud pull through this." The crystalline in his eyes seemed to be born of both joy at being back, and sorrow at his friends' pain.
"You're . . . back?" Sephiroth repeated. No . . . it could not be real. It had to be his illness. He was imagining Zack here because that was what he wanted so badly.
"Yeah . . ." Zack smiled fondly. "Just rest, Seph. Everything's gonna be okay." He let go of Seph's hand, standing up and walking around to his other side. Gently he took hold of Cloud, moving him back and laying him flat on the grass. Immediately he pressed a cloth against the serious wound.
The blond stirred weakly. "Zack . . ." he mumbled, seeming to have heard his friend's voice through the mists of unconsciousness.
"It's me," Zack told him. "Just hang in there, Cloud. You're gonna be fine. Hear me? It'll all be fine."
"Zack . . ." Cloud groaned, turning his head to the side. His voice was choked with delirious emotion. "I couldn't save you. . . . I'm sorry . . . I could never save anyone . . . !"
"Now, that's not true," Zack said firmly. "Just rest, Cloud."
Sephiroth gazed at them both as the remainder of his vision faded to black. "Zack . . ." he whispered. "You . . . you're alive. . . ." Then he knew no more.
****
Cloud did not know what was happening to him. He was laying down on something soft, but at the same time, he was wandering over a plain. He was wandering through the wilderness, back to Zack's grave. . . . He was falling to his knees by the rusted buster sword, his emotions overwhelming him as he cried for his lost friend, and for his own inability to prevent this.
"I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm sorry. . . ."
And he always heard Zack answering back, "There's nothing to be sorry for. It's okay, Cloud. It's okay."
Then he would feel a gentle cloth being placed on his forehead, or else being dabbed around his face and over his chest. It felt good, and for a few moments he would be cooled down.
He was always burning. Sometimes he was falling, down, down, into the fire. What fire? The flames of Hell? They lapped at him on all sides, searing off his clothes, scorching his hair, burning and melting his skin. He screamed, his lungs burning as well as the flames cut through deep enough to reach his bones.
And then water was poured over the fires, dousing them and chilling him to the bone. He crashed to the ground, landing on top of an icy lake. The crystal shattered, sending him plunging down, down . . . down to the bottom, where Aerith had been laid to rest. He hit the lake's floor, next to her decaying form. Then, suddenly, her head turned and she stared at him, empty holes where her eyes had been.
"This is what it's like to be dead," she told him with a ghastly smile, her lips pulling back over rotting teeth.
And he screamed again, horrified and repulsed, clawing frantically and vainly for the surface. He had to get out of here! He was not dead, was he? Even if he was, he could not bear this! He could never stay here, in this lake with Aerith's body, for an eternity. He could not see her this way. He would go mad. No, he was mad!
A hand took hold of his wrist, gently drawing him upward. "Cloud, it's just a dream. You're okay." Zack's voice echoed all around him, until the scene faded back into the darkness and all he could hear was the raven-haired man talking to him.
"Can you come back to us, Cloud?"
Come back? How? This darkness was endless. There was no way out. . . . But the hand was still gripping his wrist. Cloud clutched the other's wrist and arm desperately, with both hands. "Help me," he pleaded.
"I'm right here," Zack said comfortingly. "Don't let go. Just keep focusing on my voice."
And Cloud did. Then he was laying down again, his eyes closing wearily in sleep. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he had been laying there all the time.
****
"Cloud?"
Weakly he opened his eyes, his eyes focusing on something long and flat . . . no, several things long and flat, lazily turning around and around over his head. . . . It was a fan. Where . . . where was he?
"Hey . . . how you doin'?"
Zack leaned, concerned, into Cloud's line of vision, laying a hand of flesh and bone on the other's shoulder.
Cloud stared at him, his heart picking up speed. No . . . no, it was not possible. This was still part of his surreal experience. It was not reality. Zack could be here, but not like this. Never again . . .
He gave the blond a mock stern look. "Boy, Cloud, you've given us all a big scare these last few days. Gotta admit, I wondered sometimes if you really were gonna make it." He broke into a grin. "But you're stubborn, just like always. You've beat back that poison!"
This seemed so real. . . . And not in the nightmarish way that his strange experiences had felt. This was more quiet, subtle . . . peaceful . . . as a good dream from which one hates to awake. Cloud reached up, catching Zack's arm.
"You can't be here," he choked out. "I . . . I can't be touching you. . . . You . . . you aren't . . ." He stared up at his friend, shaking.
Zack sat down on the edge of the bed, his smile turning soft. "I'm alive, Cloud," he explained. "I'm really alive." He wanted to pull the younger man into a hug, but would Cloud be strong enough? He should probably stay where he was, so he wouldn't damage his side. Jenova had done a pretty bad number on him. He was lucky to be alive at all.
He was not expecting for the blond to suddenly push himself up, launching himself at the other and clutching him tightly in a hug. "You're alive . . ." he rasped, his shoulders shaking. It was not a dream. That part had never been a dream. Zack had been there, all that time, trying to take care of him. He remembered the poison vaguely. He must have been delirious. . . .
"Hey . . ." Zack held him close in a brotherly embrace, smiling shakily. "You're gonna pop those stitches. Oh man . . . I missed you . . . so much. . . ." He could feel that his own eyes had gotten misty. He was back. He had been watching over his friends since his death, but it was not the same. Now he was with them again. He still had not fully processed it, even several days later.
At last Cloud pulled back, keeping his hands on Zack's shoulders as he stared at him. "How?" he whispered.
Zack looked back, grinning. "I guess they figured, since we'd all ended up on a different planet, and since everyone else'd gotten another chance, Aerith and I deserved it too."
Cloud blinked. "Aerith too?" he exclaimed.
"Yep!" Zack smiled. "She's been helping to take care of you too. So's Tifa."
Cloud slumped back into the pillows, slowly shaking his head. It was so much to try to take in. . . .
"What happened to Sephiroth?" he found himself asking.
Zack's smile turned sad. "He's been really sick too," he replied. "That modified Safer form of his . . . it's more powerful than the first, but it's really a strain, especially on a completely mortal body."
Cloud frowned slightly. "But . . . he'll be alright, won't he?" For Zack's sake. . . .
Zack grinned again. "He'll be just fine."
And here's version 2 of Saturday's blurb!
Cloud groaned weakly, clutching the deep wound in his side with one hand. He could still hear Jenova's cruel voice from the fight, as she had stabbed into his flesh with her staff . . . "Poison."
It was swiftly working, too. His whole body was on fire. In one way, he felt extremely nauseous. In another, the dizziness was overwhelming him. And he was being carried by his nemesis.
He pried his eyes open halfway. He was laying in Sephiroth's arms as the other half flew, half fell back to terra firma. The silver-haired man looked just as dizzy as Cloud felt, and despite the seven flapping wings, it was a weakened effort at best. He had been badly drained throughout the fight, and as the blond unwillingly slumped against the other's bare chest, he could hear Sephiroth's heart racing wildly, yet slowing down.
"You're in no condition for this," he mumbled. And he felt a certain distaste over being carried by his arch-enemy, even after everything they had been through. Sephiroth looked like he felt the same.
"Feel free to fall the rest of the way," he grunted. His wings, one by one, were giving out, until none of them had the energy to move any more. He hissed in pain as he hit the grassy hill hard on his back, Cloud sprawling across his upper body with a surprised cry.
"I thought . . . that was an optional choice," the blond gasped.
More than anything, Sephiroth wanted to push Cloud off of his aching chest and arms. It was much harder to breathe with him there. But if he tried to move the other, he might do more damage to the wound.
"If you had hit the ground at the speed with which you were originally falling, you'd be dead now," he remarked.
"Oh, so I'm supposed to thank you for saving my life?" Cloud retorted.
"I don't expect it of you, no."
They lay in silence for a long moment, each one trying to get his bearings. Jenova was sealed away. Everyone else had made it off of her sky fortress in the Shera. And they were no doubt looking for Cloud, at least. How long would it take them to find where the duo had descended? Maybe it would take too long. . . .
"I'm probably going to die anyway," Cloud muttered now. "The poison . . . I can feel it's spread, in just a few minutes. . . ."
"We might both die," Sephiroth said flatly. He could tell that his body was shutting down. It had started with the wings. Now his vision had started to fade, as well as his hearing, and his breathing was shallow.
Though maybe the latter was partially because Cloud was still unwillingly pinning him down.
"This isn't how I wanted to die," Cloud grumbled.
"It isn't my first choice, either," Sephiroth retorted.
Weakly the blond forced himself to stand, shaking, on the grass. Whatever happened, poison or not, he was not going to perish crumpled on his arch-enemy's chest and shoulders. His legs immediately gave out, sending him crashing into the soft blades.
Sephiroth watched him through glazed eyes. "You're going to hurt yourself worse," he mumbled.
What would death be like, this time? Would Zack be there to meet him? Would Zack come for him? Zack was the only person in the afterlife whom Sephiroth cared about, and who cared about him. Heh . . . among the living, Sephiroth had no one who cared. Not that he would ever think he would, after what he had done in the past.
"Sephiroth?"
He frowned, glancing over to Cloud again. The blond was laying on his right side, watching him. His blue eyes had glazed over as well, and he looked pale and ill. His next words made it sound as though he was slipping into delirium.
"Don't die!" he snapped. "Haven't you done that enough already?"
Sephiroth was amused, in spite of himself. "What if I do, Cloud?" he said. "What if I die and don't come back?"
"You always come back," Cloud retorted.
"I wouldn't have any reason to, this time."
"So you'd just let Jenova take you out?"
A silence. "Honestly, Cloud, I didn't think you'd care what I'd do."
"I don't!" He gripped tightly at the wound, his hand trembling as he started to sit up. "I'm sick of everyone dying around me! I'm sick of just standing by and watching it happen! Zack, Aerith. . . . I watched you get turned into stone! I thought you were dead then!" A mist came into his blue eyes. "I . . . I had to bury Zack. . . ."
A stricken look passed over Sephiroth's face. No . . . he did not want to hear it.
"Can you imagine what that'd be like?!" Cloud demanded, his voice rising. "I saw my best friend just get gunned down to save me! I . . . I saw him die right there, on the hill overlooking Midgar. . . ." He could no longer control his tears.
"We were all alone, there wasn't anyone else to bury him. . . . I couldn't carry his body all the way into the city. . . . I . . . I started digging with my bare hands at first . . . I couldn't get very far. So then I took a rock . . . and then I took the buster sword. . . . I had to make it deep enough so that nothing would try to dig him up. . . ."
He was sobbing now, his shoulders convulsing as he struggled to speak.
Sephiroth forced himself to sit up, gripping at the other's upper arms. "Pull yourself together!" he ordered, a sharp edge slipping into his voice. No, he could not bear to keep listening to this. This was Zack Cloud was talking about. Zack . . . his only friend, the sole person Sephiroth had deeply cared about. He did not want to hear how Zack had died. He did not want to be told in detail of how Cloud had been forced to lay the brunet to rest. He did not want to think of Zack's body laying cold in the ground, with ravenous animals trying to dig him up. . . .
No, that was not Zack. . . . The real Zack had lived on, and still came to visit Cloud and Sephiroth. But right now, Cloud's distraught condition was rubbing off on Sephiroth. Or maybe that was an indication of how badly he himself was injured.
"Then when I finally got it deep enough, I had to get his body down in the hole . . . and I didn't have any way to lower him down. . . . I had to drag him over and then throw him in, and I didn't want to, because I didn't want to hurt him. . . . Even though I knew that he wouldn't feel anything anymore. . . ."
Sephiroth gripped tighter. "Stop it!" he yelled.
Cloud struggled briefly to pull away, but instead he slumped into his enemy's arms. "Has that ever happened to you?" he mumbled. "Did you ever have to see your friend die? . . . Did you even have a friend?"
Sephiroth did not answer. No, he had never experienced it. He had gone insane and had seriously wounded his friend without remorse.
"Zack really liked you, you know. . . . He said you and me were the brothers he'd never had."
Sephiroth shut his eyes tightly. Yes, he knew. He had betrayed his friend. He had done so many horrible things, and yet the worse of all seemed to be the thought that Zack had witnessed everything. Every day, he had been stabbed anew by Sephiroth's actions. And yet, he had still forgiven the other. He still wanted Sephiroth to be his friend.
He fell back into the grass, overwhelmed by the emotions Cloud was stirring, coupled with the immense vertigo and fatigue. He was still clutching Cloud's arms, too, and the blond fell to his knees at Sephiroth's left side.
"Sephiroth?!" he screamed, staring into the other's glassy eyes. "No . . . don't die too . . . I can't stop it, I can't do anything for you. . . . I can't bury you too . . . I don't have anything I can use. . . ." The poison overwhelmed him. Everything went black as he pitched forward onto the other's chest.
Sephiroth grunted weakly. "Cloud . . . get up," he muttered. But he knew it was no use. Cloud would probably never get up. And Sephiroth did not have the strength to push him away. He could not even raise his hand enough to see if the blond was still breathing.
Footsteps running through the grass caused him to look up blearily. A familiar brunet dropped to his knees on the silver-haired man's right side, obvious concern and worry shining in his lavender eyes. "Oh man . . . Seph . . . you and Cloud are in bad shape. . . ." Gently he reached out, touching his fingers to Cloud's limp neck. "Still alive," he murmured, and grinned weakly.
Sephiroth could only stare at him. Why would he not already know whether Cloud lived? That was one of the perks of being dead---everything about the living seemed to be known. Maybe . . . maybe he was delirious now. Maybe everything Cloud had said, along with the effects of his own injuries, was doing this, making him think Zack was there.
"Zack . . . how?" he asked weakly, his voice barely there.
Zack smiled, taking up Sephiroth's clammy hand and gripping it tightly. "I'm here, buddy," he said reassuringly. "They sent me back, finally! Aerith too. And we're gonna make sure that both you and Cloud pull through this." The crystalline in his eyes seemed to be born of both joy at being back, and sorrow at his friends' pain.
"You're . . . back?" Sephiroth repeated. No . . . it could not be real. It had to be his illness. He was imagining Zack here because that was what he wanted so badly.
"Yeah . . ." Zack smiled fondly. "Just rest, Seph. Everything's gonna be okay." He let go of Seph's hand, standing up and walking around to his other side. Gently he took hold of Cloud, moving him back and laying him flat on the grass. Immediately he pressed a cloth against the serious wound.
The blond stirred weakly. "Zack . . ." he mumbled, seeming to have heard his friend's voice through the mists of unconsciousness.
"It's me," Zack told him. "Just hang in there, Cloud. You're gonna be fine. Hear me? It'll all be fine."
"Zack . . ." Cloud groaned, turning his head to the side. His voice was choked with delirious emotion. "I couldn't save you. . . . I'm sorry . . . I could never save anyone . . . !"
"Now, that's not true," Zack said firmly. "Just rest, Cloud."
Sephiroth gazed at them both as the remainder of his vision faded to black. "Zack . . ." he whispered. "You . . . you're alive. . . ." Then he knew no more.
****
Cloud did not know what was happening to him. He was laying down on something soft, but at the same time, he was wandering over a plain. He was wandering through the wilderness, back to Zack's grave. . . . He was falling to his knees by the rusted buster sword, his emotions overwhelming him as he cried for his lost friend, and for his own inability to prevent this.
"I'm sorry," he choked out. "I'm sorry. . . ."
And he always heard Zack answering back, "There's nothing to be sorry for. It's okay, Cloud. It's okay."
Then he would feel a gentle cloth being placed on his forehead, or else being dabbed around his face and over his chest. It felt good, and for a few moments he would be cooled down.
He was always burning. Sometimes he was falling, down, down, into the fire. What fire? The flames of Hell? They lapped at him on all sides, searing off his clothes, scorching his hair, burning and melting his skin. He screamed, his lungs burning as well as the flames cut through deep enough to reach his bones.
And then water was poured over the fires, dousing them and chilling him to the bone. He crashed to the ground, landing on top of an icy lake. The crystal shattered, sending him plunging down, down . . . down to the bottom, where Aerith had been laid to rest. He hit the lake's floor, next to her decaying form. Then, suddenly, her head turned and she stared at him, empty holes where her eyes had been.
"This is what it's like to be dead," she told him with a ghastly smile, her lips pulling back over rotting teeth.
And he screamed again, horrified and repulsed, clawing frantically and vainly for the surface. He had to get out of here! He was not dead, was he? Even if he was, he could not bear this! He could never stay here, in this lake with Aerith's body, for an eternity. He could not see her this way. He would go mad. No, he was mad!
A hand took hold of his wrist, gently drawing him upward. "Cloud, it's just a dream. You're okay." Zack's voice echoed all around him, until the scene faded back into the darkness and all he could hear was the raven-haired man talking to him.
"Can you come back to us, Cloud?"
Come back? How? This darkness was endless. There was no way out. . . . But the hand was still gripping his wrist. Cloud clutched the other's wrist and arm desperately, with both hands. "Help me," he pleaded.
"I'm right here," Zack said comfortingly. "Don't let go. Just keep focusing on my voice."
And Cloud did. Then he was laying down again, his eyes closing wearily in sleep. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he had been laying there all the time.
****
"Cloud?"
Weakly he opened his eyes, his eyes focusing on something long and flat . . . no, several things long and flat, lazily turning around and around over his head. . . . It was a fan. Where . . . where was he?
"Hey . . . how you doin'?"
Zack leaned, concerned, into Cloud's line of vision, laying a hand of flesh and bone on the other's shoulder.
Cloud stared at him, his heart picking up speed. No . . . no, it was not possible. This was still part of his surreal experience. It was not reality. Zack could be here, but not like this. Never again . . .
He gave the blond a mock stern look. "Boy, Cloud, you've given us all a big scare these last few days. Gotta admit, I wondered sometimes if you really were gonna make it." He broke into a grin. "But you're stubborn, just like always. You've beat back that poison!"
This seemed so real. . . . And not in the nightmarish way that his strange experiences had felt. This was more quiet, subtle . . . peaceful . . . as a good dream from which one hates to awake. Cloud reached up, catching Zack's arm.
"You can't be here," he choked out. "I . . . I can't be touching you. . . . You . . . you aren't . . ." He stared up at his friend, shaking.
Zack sat down on the edge of the bed, his smile turning soft. "I'm alive, Cloud," he explained. "I'm really alive." He wanted to pull the younger man into a hug, but would Cloud be strong enough? He should probably stay where he was, so he wouldn't damage his side. Jenova had done a pretty bad number on him. He was lucky to be alive at all.
He was not expecting for the blond to suddenly push himself up, launching himself at the other and clutching him tightly in a hug. "You're alive . . ." he rasped, his shoulders shaking. It was not a dream. That part had never been a dream. Zack had been there, all that time, trying to take care of him. He remembered the poison vaguely. He must have been delirious. . . .
"Hey . . ." Zack held him close in a brotherly embrace, smiling shakily. "You're gonna pop those stitches. Oh man . . . I missed you . . . so much. . . ." He could feel that his own eyes had gotten misty. He was back. He had been watching over his friends since his death, but it was not the same. Now he was with them again. He still had not fully processed it, even several days later.
At last Cloud pulled back, keeping his hands on Zack's shoulders as he stared at him. "How?" he whispered.
Zack looked back, grinning. "I guess they figured, since we'd all ended up on a different planet, and since everyone else'd gotten another chance, Aerith and I deserved it too."
Cloud blinked. "Aerith too?" he exclaimed.
"Yep!" Zack smiled. "She's been helping to take care of you too. So's Tifa."
Cloud slumped back into the pillows, slowly shaking his head. It was so much to try to take in. . . .
"What happened to Sephiroth?" he found himself asking.
Zack's smile turned sad. "He's been really sick too," he replied. "That modified Safer form of his . . . it's more powerful than the first, but it's really a strain, especially on a completely mortal body."
Cloud frowned slightly. "But . . . he'll be alright, won't he?" For Zack's sake. . . .
Zack grinned again. "He'll be just fine."
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Date: 2007-05-15 03:27 am (UTC)Oh geez, Cloud's visions freaked me the hell out. o_o But wow, this was such an intense blurb, and then the end was sooo cute. XD
Annnnd now I'm up past my bedtime, but it was so worth it. See you later!
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Date: 2007-05-15 01:00 pm (UTC)I had no idea what Cloud was going to envision when I started out, so I began it and let it go from there. XD Creepy, creepy.
When I ever get to this part chronologically in the series, I think I may do it like this, while incorporating more elements from version 1, too, if possible.Later on I plan to write another part to the scene, where Sephiroth comes and talks to Cloud.