Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ tsuku ( Chapter 8 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: awwaw 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.15.2003 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 216 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.15.2003 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 216 | Status: Completed
Standard disclaimers apply.
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
tsuku
The morning was mostly uneventful. Any random monsters were quickly cut down by the strangely motivated team of four. Not surprisingly, Zidane was the only one complaining non-stop about the weather and lack of entertainment, having completely forgotten what had happened yesterday. Kuja played his part of the patronizing brother well enough, smiling slightly every now and then to the corny jokes the monkey was making. But otherwise, he was quiet and restrained. Even Cloud was beginning to feel like giving up, whereas Squall, being Squall, continued looking bothered and bored.
When Midgar became more than just a dark silouette in the foreground, Cloud stepped on something he decided was debris. Bending down on one knee to examine it, he realized that it WAS debris. Except for one thing. It was also covered with pulsating green liquid.
"... Mako..." He found himself spitting the words out as if they were poisoned. When the rest looked over, he spun around and warned, "Don't touch the green thing; it's poisonous."
"What exactly is it?" Squall asked in curiousity. "It looks... beautiful." He said, for lack of a better adjective to describe the mesmerizing green glow. That made Cloud scowl angrily, to everybody's surprise. It was rare to see the usually cool mercenary lose his control, especially not to such an extent, especially not when the cause of his anger seemed entirely unrelated to him at all...
... or maybe it was... ?
Cloud knew that Mako was beautiful. Cloud knew that Mako was also helpful. But Mako was also industrially refined Lifestream. It wasn't natural Mako hiding the mountains of Mount Nibel. It wasn't concentrated Mako which people termed as materia, and used for calling upon the Ancient's knowledge. How could he agree to such a life-drainer being nice and spiffy? He knew the others didn't know, but Mako didn't bring back good memories at all. No, not one encounter he had had with Mako had been pleasant. It didn't matter if the others didn't understand. It would be better if they didn't know, anyway.
"Let's go." He stood up and said tersely. When he walked briskly forward without a second word, even Squall was wide-eyed with unbridled surprise. He merely threw Zidane and Kuja a quick look and then followed Cloud down the grasslands. Zidane shrugged and followed too, leaving only Kuja behind, staring at the green glow with a thoughtful expression on his face.
Whatever he had been thinking about was quickly shoved to the back of his mind, when he turned around with his usual grace and slowly made his way to where his three other comrades were.
During the short walk to Midgar from there, they encountered alot more debris, all with glowing green goo painted over them. The monsters started to increase in frequency, grow in size and double in power. The walk was short, granted, but the battles probably made it longer. They finally arrived at the Sector 5 gate, safe and sound, and Cloud dug around for the Key to Sector 5.
While he did that, Zidane looked through the translucent walls of the city and pressed his face against it, trying to see beyond the metal and light of the outer shell of the city. It was a large city. He was exciting himself to explore it. Maybe there'd be a lot of pretty girls inside. It's been some time since he had chased skirts down. He sniggered, turning around and leaning against the stout gate of Sector 5.
There was a loud crash.
And the stout gate of Sector 5 wasn't so stout anymore.
"Zidane! You okay?" Kuja was the first to run to the cloud of dust that had formed where the gate to Sector 5 used to be. He coughed hard when he breathed the particles in, but continued waving the dust away until Zidane's tail was visible. By that time, Cloud and Squall had gotten over their shock and were already beside him, trying to lift the brittle metal gate to reveal the trapped monkey. They didn't have to. He revealed himself in time, coughing and gacking away.
"That's one hell of a security system this city has!!" He cursed immediately when he was well enough to speak, shaking his fist at the door that wasn't there anymore. He agressively dusted his pants and gave the debris a hard kick.
Cloud frowned and stepped beyond the broken doors to feel the air of Midgar once again. The air was heavy with emotions, mostly negative. Even though the rotting pizza wasn't exactly situated at a place where winds could reach with ease, the lack of breeze disturbed the one-time Midgar mercenary. Without warning, his feet began to take flight.
There was something wrong. He wanted to know what it was.
"Cloud, wait!" Squall called out after the running man, confused. Looking back at Zidane and Kuja, they both nodded to give him the go ahead to follow. Squall then ran off in Cloud's general direction. When Zidane was about to do the same, he noticed that Kuja had bent down to inspect the debris, or more specifically, the ground and the green goo covering it. Quickly, the tail-boy stopped and back-tracked, wondering what was so interesting.
Kuja looked decidedly disturbed. He reached out and touched the green thing.
"!!" was all Zidane could express before Kuja removed his hand and inspected whatever had gathered on his hand. The former then shook his head and exclaimed, "Cloud said it was poisonous! Do you know what you're doing?!"
"Ah, yes. It is poisonous all right." Kuja shook his wrists, making the green goo on his hand fly all around. "But only to those who receive their energy from it. Only to those who receive life from it." He put his hand on his waist, staring far away with his brows knitted together. "Those who do not originate from this planet... this green substance can do no harm to them..."
"... Then that means... we're not on Terra..." Zidane's voice startled Kuja into whipping around at breakneck speed. "Terra's fuel has always been blue." The boy continued, with the same, dead-pan expression as he had when he sprouted some naught about Garland and Memoria the other time.
Kuja could only stare. With staring, he observed that Zidane's eyes were blank and phased out. Light did not reflect off it. Shadows did not form on it. He did not blink once. When a stoic wind stirred, Zidane looked almost eerie.
Kuja could only stare.
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He raced, leapt and finally caught up with the subject of his pursue, the latter of which had made his way deep into the Mako fortified city but had currently stopped to take in the surroundings.
His face was blank, but his indignance could be felt.
"What did you think you were doing, running off like that..." Squall muttered breathlessly, holding onto a nearby boulder for support while he tried to catch his breath. The boulder crumbled at his touch and fell to the ground, leaving him wide-eyed with surprise. Further attempts to grab the remaining boulder proved to be futile, so the boy finally gave up and concentrated on extracting answers from his silent companion instead.
"Midgar..." Cloud finally said quietly, turning his head in all directions to look at the once-magnificent city. "... what happened... ?"
Squall, in turn, gave Cloud a mystified stare. He then took a few steps foward to join him in looking at what was around them. What he saw was a pile of debris, just like the ones they had seen outside the city. Except, this area they were in was probably the center of the city. There was a huge pool of green substance swirling around in the middle of the debris, green glow bouncing eerily off the tall, abandoned buildings around it.
"... This is Midgar?" Squall raised an eyebrow. "Where're the people?" Was his first enquiry after the green goo. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cloud shake his head in disbelief.
"It can't be!" He dug around frantically for something, finally fishing out a tele-communication equipment from his pockets. He then jabbed at it as frantically as he got it out.
The SeeD watched with slight amusement, although he knew he shouldn't be amused, at Cloud dialling in number after number, but failing to establish a connection no matter how. He saw Cloud grow from frantic, to puzzled, to irritated, and finally, to frustrated. After a long while, the blond mercenary sighed and switched off the PHS, signalling the end of his attempts to get anybody he knew around.
When he caught Squall's eye, he gave an exasperated expression and nodded, saying, "Yes, yes, I know. Time is wonky. Magnificant buildings of my time have now become piles of rot. People I know no longer exist to be contacted. Technology I use no longer work, or can be manipulated." He sighed. "So, what's new?"
"..........." went Squall, "... hey, look on the bright side." He leapt from where he was standing to the boulder Cloud was perched on. "At least we now know we're going further and further into the future from your time." He tried a silly version of a grin he always saw Rinoa do. "That's why buildings are starting to decay and technology get out-dated, right?"
Cloud could only nod, rubbing the temples of his head furiously. "That's candy dandy and all, Squall, but could you stop shaking the boulder? I'm beginning to get motion sick."
"?" Squall looked down at his feet and saw that the boulder was indeed trembling, ever so slightly. Takes a real motion sickaphobe to detect soft shaking like this, Squall grinned inwardly. However, he was sure he wasn't causing the shaking, so he asked, "What do you mean? I'm not shaking anything."
The blond looked up at him with intense Mako blue eyes, as if questioning the truthfulness of that statement, until the shaking got so bad, they both had to leap from boulder to boulder back to the firm ground. The pool of Mako stirred and groaned, the quaking causing large bubbles to burst atop the surface. Finally, the trembling turned into a full scale earthquake. The duo only had enough time to pull out their weapons in preparation for the worse.
A massive, gargoyle-like creature rose from the depths of the Mako pool, screaming and screeching for dear life. For a few seconds, all they could do was stare gap-jawed. Then Cloud shook out of it and scanned the area around them, asking, "Where's Zidane and Kuja?"
"I don't know?" Squall replied, turning to look behind his shoulder at the vast, empty land behind him. "I thought they followed me, but apparently, they didn't." He then turned back to the creature, which was busy shaking glowing Mako off it's body and advancing towards the two other living souls in the area.
"No time for that now!" Cloud yelled, leaping nimbly away from a snide slash of the creature.
"First we survive this, then we talk!"
-------------------------------
After listening to Zidane yabber on for some more, Kuja began to notice that the surroundings had started to change - drastically.
At first, it was just the ground. Soft mud turned into hard, cracked soil, peeling off the surface of the earth as dried paint peels off walls. That he could attribute to the winds, but it was funny to see the transformation occur so quickly and without warning. Then he noticed the debris as well. intimidating chunks of rocks and boulders, in a matter of just a few seconds, degenerated into nothing more than sand and stones on the dried ground. He turned from left to right, unable to believe his eyes. The skies, too, changed from reddish orange, to darkish blue, to reddish orange again, engaging in an everlasting cycle of day and night. Kuja finally looked up from his observations with slight horror evident on his face.
It was as if time was racing forward for the earth, but staying put for them.
Zidane still had the blank look on his face, the winds whipping his hair around him. As he stood within the fast changing scenery, Kuja could sense a weird energy coming from within him. It was creepy. Absolutely creepy.
"Terra is dying." Zidane suddenly said, widening his already widened eyes, his empty, green irises betraying the state of his mind no matter how intelligent he sounded. "We must absorb Gaia to survive."
"Zidane, stop that!!" Kuja's eyes turned feline and Flare gathered in his right hand. "Don't make me do it for you."
He didn't know why the boy was sprouting so much nonsense, although he had hoped that it was his subconsciousness slowly feeding his consciousness with what he had known when he still remembered the past. Right now, the situation was looking bleak enough. He sure as anything didn't need Zidane to pass out on him if he was going to try too hard to remember, again.
As if in reply, the boy closed his eyes slowly and relaxed. The next moment when he opened his eyes, Kuja jumped at the difference. The blank, phased out look was replaced by the usual gaze of relaxed awareness the thief had always possessed. For a confused moment, Zidane looked at Kuja, who was still ready to cast Flare. When a big sweatdrop rolled down his forehead, Kuja too realized what he was doing and extinguished the spell immediately. He laughed.
"Gee, thanks." Zidane raised an eyebrow in semi-exasperation. "And to think I was just standing here, trying to admire the scenery."
Kuja opened his mouth to rebut that statement, but closed it immediately when he knew Zidane wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying anyway. Whenever he went into semi-trance mode and started spewing information only the Zidane with memories knew, he could never remember what had happened after that. So instead, he said, "What scenery? Unless you're telling me dust and stones are your cup of tea, I don't really..."
He stopped in mid-sentence, when Zidane stooped down and pulled out a handful of fresh, green grass from the ground. An audible gasp escaped from his lips, which he quickly covered with his hands. A quick scan of the surroundings confirmed what he was seeing.
The dried earth that had been there just a minute ago was now a vast land of lush greenary. Even the brooding winds turned into a refreshing breeze. Birds flew overhead, animals scampered about. The tallest building in the middle of the city, which was apparently the only metallic thing that remained, was covered from top to toe with climbing vines.
Too many shocks in one day was not good for his health, Kuja decided as he sank slowly to his knees, on the verge of hyper-ventilating.
"Zidane! Kuja!" He heard a couple of voices from afar. When he looked up, he saw Cloud and Squall trodding through the grasslands that was Midgar towards them. Zidane waved happily, but Kuja decided that he was too out of it to acknowledge them. He groaned and sank further into his mind.
"Hey." Cloud greeted as soon as he came within hearing range. Squall merely stood somewhere nearby, trying to catch his breath. "Good to see that you're all right..." He stopped when he saw the look on Kuja's face. Okay, maybe they weren't ALL that all right. Damn, that guy was hard to read. The fact that he had the weirdest moodswings didn't help. Deciding to ignore the silent silver-hair man for a while, he turned to Zidane instead.
"I don't suppose I could ask you this, but, what happened?" He folded his arms across his chest. "One moment we're fighting this huge, green thing that came out of a deep, Mako pool, the next thing we know, it just ebbed away... disappeared just like that, and we're surrounded by greens and more greens." He scratched his hair in confusion. "You didn't do anything, did you?"
It was to everyone's surprise that Zidane started to consider the question. Even Squall was pretty sure he'd start denying it vehemently and then they'd have to go back to square one. From within his eyes, one could spot disturbed thoughts.
Did Zidane know? Or did he not?
"The blue light..." He began to speak, releasing the grass he had gathered previously. Lifting his hands to cup his head, he contined, "... it must have been the blue light... !"
"The blue what?" Squall surprised himself by exclaiming. He quickly shut himself up and ignored the funny stares he was receiving from Cloud and Kuja. Hey, he thought, I've got a voice too... so what's so weird about me talking?
Before anyone could continue, they heard a voice from afar.
"CLOUD!!"
Okay, it was getting closer and closer. The footsteps were, too. When Cloud turned around to the direction of the voice, he was bowled over in a series of somersaults on the ground by the force of a large red beast with a flaming tail. His three other companions looked on with varied degrees of interest, but none said anything until Cloud finally stopped turning in circles. The large red beast's tail swept around excitedly.
"It IS you! Oh my goodness! I... I can't believe this!" The beast said, causing all the other 3 to grow in curiousity at the talking animal.
Cloud cracked open an eye and looked at the entity that had pounced on him. His disorientated look was quickly replaced by one of joy. "Nanaki!" He clambered into a sitting position, putting his hands on Nanaki's shoulders. Well, whatever he had in place of shoulders, anyway. He laughed, genuinely happy. "How long has it been? Imagine meeting you in circumstances like this!" Cloud stopped when he noticed the two little cubs Nanaki had beside him. He shot the sentient beast a sly look. "Oooh, you have a family already, haven't you? Congrats, man!"
If the red beast could turn redder than he already was, then he probably did. But he shook his head quickly and turned serious, putting a paw on Cloud's leg. "Cloud, where have you been all this time? We had such a hard time looking for you!"
"Oh, here and there, there and here." He shrugged nonchalantly. When Nanaki looked weirdly at the 3 people behind him, and was reciprocated, Cloud then stepped aside and smiled.
"Hey, meet my new friends, Squall, Zidane and Kuja." He introduced, starting from left to right. "Guys, meet my old friend, Nanaki."
"Pleased to meet you." Kuja was quick to be polite, as usual, standing up and giving a sweeping bow. Zidane waved and Squall nodded.
"Pleased to meet you too." Nanaki smiled slightly. He wasn't going to start questioning things now, so he turned back to Cloud, who was beginning to want to say something.
"I came to Midgar to find Tifa, Reeve and the rest of the guys." The blond mercenary informed the red beast. "I wanted to discuss something." He jerked a finger to the 3 standing behind him. "About them." He then looked at the beast with hopeful eyes. "It doesn't look like they're here, so... you know where I can find them?"
Nanaki frowned tremendously and retreated a few steps away, shaking his head.
"Cloud," he managed to say, "it's been 500 years."
Everybody's jaw dropped.
"What makes you think they're all still alive... ?"
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tsuita
13/6/2001 http://cloud-is.ourfamily.com/
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sore kara...
-------------------------------
tsuku
The morning was mostly uneventful. Any random monsters were quickly cut down by the strangely motivated team of four. Not surprisingly, Zidane was the only one complaining non-stop about the weather and lack of entertainment, having completely forgotten what had happened yesterday. Kuja played his part of the patronizing brother well enough, smiling slightly every now and then to the corny jokes the monkey was making. But otherwise, he was quiet and restrained. Even Cloud was beginning to feel like giving up, whereas Squall, being Squall, continued looking bothered and bored.
When Midgar became more than just a dark silouette in the foreground, Cloud stepped on something he decided was debris. Bending down on one knee to examine it, he realized that it WAS debris. Except for one thing. It was also covered with pulsating green liquid.
"... Mako..." He found himself spitting the words out as if they were poisoned. When the rest looked over, he spun around and warned, "Don't touch the green thing; it's poisonous."
"What exactly is it?" Squall asked in curiousity. "It looks... beautiful." He said, for lack of a better adjective to describe the mesmerizing green glow. That made Cloud scowl angrily, to everybody's surprise. It was rare to see the usually cool mercenary lose his control, especially not to such an extent, especially not when the cause of his anger seemed entirely unrelated to him at all...
... or maybe it was... ?
Cloud knew that Mako was beautiful. Cloud knew that Mako was also helpful. But Mako was also industrially refined Lifestream. It wasn't natural Mako hiding the mountains of Mount Nibel. It wasn't concentrated Mako which people termed as materia, and used for calling upon the Ancient's knowledge. How could he agree to such a life-drainer being nice and spiffy? He knew the others didn't know, but Mako didn't bring back good memories at all. No, not one encounter he had had with Mako had been pleasant. It didn't matter if the others didn't understand. It would be better if they didn't know, anyway.
"Let's go." He stood up and said tersely. When he walked briskly forward without a second word, even Squall was wide-eyed with unbridled surprise. He merely threw Zidane and Kuja a quick look and then followed Cloud down the grasslands. Zidane shrugged and followed too, leaving only Kuja behind, staring at the green glow with a thoughtful expression on his face.
Whatever he had been thinking about was quickly shoved to the back of his mind, when he turned around with his usual grace and slowly made his way to where his three other comrades were.
During the short walk to Midgar from there, they encountered alot more debris, all with glowing green goo painted over them. The monsters started to increase in frequency, grow in size and double in power. The walk was short, granted, but the battles probably made it longer. They finally arrived at the Sector 5 gate, safe and sound, and Cloud dug around for the Key to Sector 5.
While he did that, Zidane looked through the translucent walls of the city and pressed his face against it, trying to see beyond the metal and light of the outer shell of the city. It was a large city. He was exciting himself to explore it. Maybe there'd be a lot of pretty girls inside. It's been some time since he had chased skirts down. He sniggered, turning around and leaning against the stout gate of Sector 5.
There was a loud crash.
And the stout gate of Sector 5 wasn't so stout anymore.
"Zidane! You okay?" Kuja was the first to run to the cloud of dust that had formed where the gate to Sector 5 used to be. He coughed hard when he breathed the particles in, but continued waving the dust away until Zidane's tail was visible. By that time, Cloud and Squall had gotten over their shock and were already beside him, trying to lift the brittle metal gate to reveal the trapped monkey. They didn't have to. He revealed himself in time, coughing and gacking away.
"That's one hell of a security system this city has!!" He cursed immediately when he was well enough to speak, shaking his fist at the door that wasn't there anymore. He agressively dusted his pants and gave the debris a hard kick.
Cloud frowned and stepped beyond the broken doors to feel the air of Midgar once again. The air was heavy with emotions, mostly negative. Even though the rotting pizza wasn't exactly situated at a place where winds could reach with ease, the lack of breeze disturbed the one-time Midgar mercenary. Without warning, his feet began to take flight.
There was something wrong. He wanted to know what it was.
"Cloud, wait!" Squall called out after the running man, confused. Looking back at Zidane and Kuja, they both nodded to give him the go ahead to follow. Squall then ran off in Cloud's general direction. When Zidane was about to do the same, he noticed that Kuja had bent down to inspect the debris, or more specifically, the ground and the green goo covering it. Quickly, the tail-boy stopped and back-tracked, wondering what was so interesting.
Kuja looked decidedly disturbed. He reached out and touched the green thing.
"!!" was all Zidane could express before Kuja removed his hand and inspected whatever had gathered on his hand. The former then shook his head and exclaimed, "Cloud said it was poisonous! Do you know what you're doing?!"
"Ah, yes. It is poisonous all right." Kuja shook his wrists, making the green goo on his hand fly all around. "But only to those who receive their energy from it. Only to those who receive life from it." He put his hand on his waist, staring far away with his brows knitted together. "Those who do not originate from this planet... this green substance can do no harm to them..."
"... Then that means... we're not on Terra..." Zidane's voice startled Kuja into whipping around at breakneck speed. "Terra's fuel has always been blue." The boy continued, with the same, dead-pan expression as he had when he sprouted some naught about Garland and Memoria the other time.
Kuja could only stare. With staring, he observed that Zidane's eyes were blank and phased out. Light did not reflect off it. Shadows did not form on it. He did not blink once. When a stoic wind stirred, Zidane looked almost eerie.
Kuja could only stare.
-------------------------------
He raced, leapt and finally caught up with the subject of his pursue, the latter of which had made his way deep into the Mako fortified city but had currently stopped to take in the surroundings.
His face was blank, but his indignance could be felt.
"What did you think you were doing, running off like that..." Squall muttered breathlessly, holding onto a nearby boulder for support while he tried to catch his breath. The boulder crumbled at his touch and fell to the ground, leaving him wide-eyed with surprise. Further attempts to grab the remaining boulder proved to be futile, so the boy finally gave up and concentrated on extracting answers from his silent companion instead.
"Midgar..." Cloud finally said quietly, turning his head in all directions to look at the once-magnificent city. "... what happened... ?"
Squall, in turn, gave Cloud a mystified stare. He then took a few steps foward to join him in looking at what was around them. What he saw was a pile of debris, just like the ones they had seen outside the city. Except, this area they were in was probably the center of the city. There was a huge pool of green substance swirling around in the middle of the debris, green glow bouncing eerily off the tall, abandoned buildings around it.
"... This is Midgar?" Squall raised an eyebrow. "Where're the people?" Was his first enquiry after the green goo. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cloud shake his head in disbelief.
"It can't be!" He dug around frantically for something, finally fishing out a tele-communication equipment from his pockets. He then jabbed at it as frantically as he got it out.
The SeeD watched with slight amusement, although he knew he shouldn't be amused, at Cloud dialling in number after number, but failing to establish a connection no matter how. He saw Cloud grow from frantic, to puzzled, to irritated, and finally, to frustrated. After a long while, the blond mercenary sighed and switched off the PHS, signalling the end of his attempts to get anybody he knew around.
When he caught Squall's eye, he gave an exasperated expression and nodded, saying, "Yes, yes, I know. Time is wonky. Magnificant buildings of my time have now become piles of rot. People I know no longer exist to be contacted. Technology I use no longer work, or can be manipulated." He sighed. "So, what's new?"
"..........." went Squall, "... hey, look on the bright side." He leapt from where he was standing to the boulder Cloud was perched on. "At least we now know we're going further and further into the future from your time." He tried a silly version of a grin he always saw Rinoa do. "That's why buildings are starting to decay and technology get out-dated, right?"
Cloud could only nod, rubbing the temples of his head furiously. "That's candy dandy and all, Squall, but could you stop shaking the boulder? I'm beginning to get motion sick."
"?" Squall looked down at his feet and saw that the boulder was indeed trembling, ever so slightly. Takes a real motion sickaphobe to detect soft shaking like this, Squall grinned inwardly. However, he was sure he wasn't causing the shaking, so he asked, "What do you mean? I'm not shaking anything."
The blond looked up at him with intense Mako blue eyes, as if questioning the truthfulness of that statement, until the shaking got so bad, they both had to leap from boulder to boulder back to the firm ground. The pool of Mako stirred and groaned, the quaking causing large bubbles to burst atop the surface. Finally, the trembling turned into a full scale earthquake. The duo only had enough time to pull out their weapons in preparation for the worse.
A massive, gargoyle-like creature rose from the depths of the Mako pool, screaming and screeching for dear life. For a few seconds, all they could do was stare gap-jawed. Then Cloud shook out of it and scanned the area around them, asking, "Where's Zidane and Kuja?"
"I don't know?" Squall replied, turning to look behind his shoulder at the vast, empty land behind him. "I thought they followed me, but apparently, they didn't." He then turned back to the creature, which was busy shaking glowing Mako off it's body and advancing towards the two other living souls in the area.
"No time for that now!" Cloud yelled, leaping nimbly away from a snide slash of the creature.
"First we survive this, then we talk!"
-------------------------------
After listening to Zidane yabber on for some more, Kuja began to notice that the surroundings had started to change - drastically.
At first, it was just the ground. Soft mud turned into hard, cracked soil, peeling off the surface of the earth as dried paint peels off walls. That he could attribute to the winds, but it was funny to see the transformation occur so quickly and without warning. Then he noticed the debris as well. intimidating chunks of rocks and boulders, in a matter of just a few seconds, degenerated into nothing more than sand and stones on the dried ground. He turned from left to right, unable to believe his eyes. The skies, too, changed from reddish orange, to darkish blue, to reddish orange again, engaging in an everlasting cycle of day and night. Kuja finally looked up from his observations with slight horror evident on his face.
It was as if time was racing forward for the earth, but staying put for them.
Zidane still had the blank look on his face, the winds whipping his hair around him. As he stood within the fast changing scenery, Kuja could sense a weird energy coming from within him. It was creepy. Absolutely creepy.
"Terra is dying." Zidane suddenly said, widening his already widened eyes, his empty, green irises betraying the state of his mind no matter how intelligent he sounded. "We must absorb Gaia to survive."
"Zidane, stop that!!" Kuja's eyes turned feline and Flare gathered in his right hand. "Don't make me do it for you."
He didn't know why the boy was sprouting so much nonsense, although he had hoped that it was his subconsciousness slowly feeding his consciousness with what he had known when he still remembered the past. Right now, the situation was looking bleak enough. He sure as anything didn't need Zidane to pass out on him if he was going to try too hard to remember, again.
As if in reply, the boy closed his eyes slowly and relaxed. The next moment when he opened his eyes, Kuja jumped at the difference. The blank, phased out look was replaced by the usual gaze of relaxed awareness the thief had always possessed. For a confused moment, Zidane looked at Kuja, who was still ready to cast Flare. When a big sweatdrop rolled down his forehead, Kuja too realized what he was doing and extinguished the spell immediately. He laughed.
"Gee, thanks." Zidane raised an eyebrow in semi-exasperation. "And to think I was just standing here, trying to admire the scenery."
Kuja opened his mouth to rebut that statement, but closed it immediately when he knew Zidane wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying anyway. Whenever he went into semi-trance mode and started spewing information only the Zidane with memories knew, he could never remember what had happened after that. So instead, he said, "What scenery? Unless you're telling me dust and stones are your cup of tea, I don't really..."
He stopped in mid-sentence, when Zidane stooped down and pulled out a handful of fresh, green grass from the ground. An audible gasp escaped from his lips, which he quickly covered with his hands. A quick scan of the surroundings confirmed what he was seeing.
The dried earth that had been there just a minute ago was now a vast land of lush greenary. Even the brooding winds turned into a refreshing breeze. Birds flew overhead, animals scampered about. The tallest building in the middle of the city, which was apparently the only metallic thing that remained, was covered from top to toe with climbing vines.
Too many shocks in one day was not good for his health, Kuja decided as he sank slowly to his knees, on the verge of hyper-ventilating.
"Zidane! Kuja!" He heard a couple of voices from afar. When he looked up, he saw Cloud and Squall trodding through the grasslands that was Midgar towards them. Zidane waved happily, but Kuja decided that he was too out of it to acknowledge them. He groaned and sank further into his mind.
"Hey." Cloud greeted as soon as he came within hearing range. Squall merely stood somewhere nearby, trying to catch his breath. "Good to see that you're all right..." He stopped when he saw the look on Kuja's face. Okay, maybe they weren't ALL that all right. Damn, that guy was hard to read. The fact that he had the weirdest moodswings didn't help. Deciding to ignore the silent silver-hair man for a while, he turned to Zidane instead.
"I don't suppose I could ask you this, but, what happened?" He folded his arms across his chest. "One moment we're fighting this huge, green thing that came out of a deep, Mako pool, the next thing we know, it just ebbed away... disappeared just like that, and we're surrounded by greens and more greens." He scratched his hair in confusion. "You didn't do anything, did you?"
It was to everyone's surprise that Zidane started to consider the question. Even Squall was pretty sure he'd start denying it vehemently and then they'd have to go back to square one. From within his eyes, one could spot disturbed thoughts.
Did Zidane know? Or did he not?
"The blue light..." He began to speak, releasing the grass he had gathered previously. Lifting his hands to cup his head, he contined, "... it must have been the blue light... !"
"The blue what?" Squall surprised himself by exclaiming. He quickly shut himself up and ignored the funny stares he was receiving from Cloud and Kuja. Hey, he thought, I've got a voice too... so what's so weird about me talking?
Before anyone could continue, they heard a voice from afar.
"CLOUD!!"
Okay, it was getting closer and closer. The footsteps were, too. When Cloud turned around to the direction of the voice, he was bowled over in a series of somersaults on the ground by the force of a large red beast with a flaming tail. His three other companions looked on with varied degrees of interest, but none said anything until Cloud finally stopped turning in circles. The large red beast's tail swept around excitedly.
"It IS you! Oh my goodness! I... I can't believe this!" The beast said, causing all the other 3 to grow in curiousity at the talking animal.
Cloud cracked open an eye and looked at the entity that had pounced on him. His disorientated look was quickly replaced by one of joy. "Nanaki!" He clambered into a sitting position, putting his hands on Nanaki's shoulders. Well, whatever he had in place of shoulders, anyway. He laughed, genuinely happy. "How long has it been? Imagine meeting you in circumstances like this!" Cloud stopped when he noticed the two little cubs Nanaki had beside him. He shot the sentient beast a sly look. "Oooh, you have a family already, haven't you? Congrats, man!"
If the red beast could turn redder than he already was, then he probably did. But he shook his head quickly and turned serious, putting a paw on Cloud's leg. "Cloud, where have you been all this time? We had such a hard time looking for you!"
"Oh, here and there, there and here." He shrugged nonchalantly. When Nanaki looked weirdly at the 3 people behind him, and was reciprocated, Cloud then stepped aside and smiled.
"Hey, meet my new friends, Squall, Zidane and Kuja." He introduced, starting from left to right. "Guys, meet my old friend, Nanaki."
"Pleased to meet you." Kuja was quick to be polite, as usual, standing up and giving a sweeping bow. Zidane waved and Squall nodded.
"Pleased to meet you too." Nanaki smiled slightly. He wasn't going to start questioning things now, so he turned back to Cloud, who was beginning to want to say something.
"I came to Midgar to find Tifa, Reeve and the rest of the guys." The blond mercenary informed the red beast. "I wanted to discuss something." He jerked a finger to the 3 standing behind him. "About them." He then looked at the beast with hopeful eyes. "It doesn't look like they're here, so... you know where I can find them?"
Nanaki frowned tremendously and retreated a few steps away, shaking his head.
"Cloud," he managed to say, "it's been 500 years."
Everybody's jaw dropped.
"What makes you think they're all still alive... ?"
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tsuita
13/6/2001 http://cloud-is.ourfamily.com/