Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ kaette kuru ( Chapter 18 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Standard disclaimers apply.

LiStEnInG aS i WrItE:.:!
Hikari (all 4 versions!.!) - Utada Hikaru (kingdom hearts main theme)

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sore kara...
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kaette kuru


"It's raining..."

Cloud looked up from the book he was reading at the sound of his mother's voice. The latter was staring out of the window at the gentle shower while in the midst of preparing dinner.

Turning to do the same, the young boy watched the rain fall on the window pane, gently... softly...

"So it is..." He muttered quietly, to nobody in particular. Reaching down to slap the book shut so he could shelve it and go rest while dinner was being made, Cloud was slightly miffed to find that the book wasn't on his lap, where it should been.

In it's place, were two thick folders, bulging with paperwork waiting to be perused.

For a moment Cloud simply stared at them, stumped.

From the distance, he could hear the sounds of raindrops from a heavy shower.

"It's raining..." The voice caused him to snap up and look for its' source. Right across the lobby sat the man he once - and perhaps... still, respected. The silver-haired general was looking out of the window contemplatively, his thoughtful pose accentuated by the gloved hand under his chin.

Following Sephiroth's glance, Cloud blinked at the sight of rain in Midgar, glad that he was on the plates, not under them. Even the slight shower appeared to bring a happier mood to the dark city.

"So it is..." Cloud found himself repeating, to nobody in particular. Turning on his heels, he was about to march out of the lobby to wherever he had been headed for when he brought himself to a dead stop.

Tifa stood not a few feet ahead of him, straw hat and all. She had her hands clasped gently behind her back and seemed to be rocking gently to the tune she was humming.

*This isn't real.* The blond mercenary decided, and brought a hand up to give his eyes a good wipe, perhaps hoping that it would somehow clear away the illusion. He found it rather hard to reach his face, though, and only realized why when he felt around his head and discovered that he was wearing the Shinra trooper helmet, veil and all.

He stiffened slightly when Tifa turned around. She didn't appear to have noticed him, as she simply tilted her eyes upwards and stared at the sky.

"It's raining..." She said quietly.

More than mystified by now, Cloud turned and looked at the sky as well, wincing slightly when the tears of the heavens touched his exposed skin. It was a slightly heavy rain, the kind that always hung around Nibelheim at this time of the year.

"So it is..." He couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. He blinked, a sudden jab of pain surging through his head. He could now feel the rain dropping heavily on his body, even his supposedly protected head. Fatigue and fever overwhelmed him. He felt like his eyes were on fire, burning right into his very essence. It had been a long time since he remembered feeling pain so bad... so bad that he would have wanted to die but was powerless to do so.

Disorientation set in. Cloud decided that he was now very confused. Indeed. What was his number anyway?

The whirling sound of the engine stopped, and through his stupor he could hear voices. When it sounded as if the people had gone all quiet, Cloud heard a soft, gentle voice speak, almost whispering, from beside him.

"It's raining..."

A sudden wave of energy passed through Cloud, and he didn't feel quite so sick anymore. He wondered briefly if he could bonk Zax on his head for that statement.

Then he suddenly realized that he never would have a chance.

He never did had a chance.

The world receded into darkness, leaving him standing on its planes.

It was raining.

But there was no sound.

A bell sounded in the distance, attracting his attention. At first he could only hear the lonely chime of a solitary bell... as it rang... rang... rang... Just when he thought he had gotten used to eerie ringing, another bell chimed - further in the background. He blinked, because he then heard another, that was nearer this time. In all directions, bells awoke, as if from a deep slumber. Cloud did not know what they were ringing for - nor did he have time to think about it. Flapping of wings could now be heard, accompanied by the massive influx of a bird on a wild shedding spree.

Blinded by the black and white feathers flirting with his personal space, it was only after long that the mercenary managed to sweep most of the irritable things out of his sight to be able to see ahead.

The sky was dark still.

In front of him stood a girl, her head bent and shoulders shivering, as if in pain. She was dressed in light blue, and had the curious design of a pair of white wings painted across the back of her outer garment.

Cloud was not one to consciously pride himself on sharpness, but as he kept looking, he thought he could see... the pair of wings phasing between the two extremes of light and dark. At her feet lay feathers of the colours black and white.

The first person he connected her with was Squall. For some reason.

But when she turned around like she had noticed his presence, the darkness invaded once more; throwing him back into the time when... yeah, he remembered now. The time when Zidane (or at least, the entity that lives in him) threw them all into time compression - apparently more violently than he ever had.

When the world suddenly became a void, Cloud had slipped and fell into it right immediately.

One more scan of the surroundings confirmed Cloud's fears.

"Looks like I'm trapped somewhere in time." He shrugged, to nobody in particular.

"I'm glad you realize that," a voice suddenly spoke out. Unfazed, Cloud merely looked straight ahead, at whoever had spoken.

A long period of silence followed.

"You don't seem like you're interested in getting out of this fix at all." The voice remarked, sounding slightly amused.

Taken aback, Cloud could only generically respond with a, "... Not really..."

He sighed.

"I'm just not sure... about alot of things..."

At that, the voice chuckled. Yet there was no scorn or satire in it's tone. It waited for Cloud to continue.

"I just went through the past again." Cloud eventually did continue, clenching his fist at the recollection. "I keep thinking... that if the past reflects the future, then perhaps it would be better to just keep... staying... where I am... It doesn't matter... I don't have to answer to anyone..."

He could feel curious eyes on him - although the darkness was not supposed to have a form.

"But if you don't understand your past," the voice suddenly spoke out, "then you can never build your future."

"... I don't need to." Cloud frowned. "The past means nothing to me." He muttered, bitterness evident in his tone.

"... Perhaps the future means nothing to you as well?" The voice paused for a moment, then asked.

The blond mercenary glanced to his side, wanting to do anything but look straight.

"Perhaps." He answered, after a long silence.

"What are you contending with?" The voice continued after him, seemingly sensing some inner conflict within the distracted mercenary.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Cloud could feel his nerves being gotten on. He narrowed his eyes warily.

For a while, he thought he could hear a telepathic sigh over the air waves. That idea was dismissed soon enough, though.

"Because the road of a hero is not as easy as so many people think it is."

Cloud perked up - if only a little, at that statement, which appeared to be important. While he waited for the unknown entity to continue, a bright flash ahead got him to turn his head and stare at the quickly dissolving ball of piercing light. Without warning the light exploded. The spikey-headed mercenary quickly threw both his arms up to shield himself from the naked glare of the light, only daring to put them down after it seemed to have reduced to a reasonable level of brightness for sight. He almost gasped at the scene he beheld.

A magically woven path arced forward from his feet straight onwards, then split into a million million other paths which led into the unseeable gloom of darkness. The bright paths continued splitting from where they had originally split and traversed the width and height and length and depth of the area. They did not appear to be stopping, for as Cloud continued gazing, the paths kept splitting, some even bending backwards to pass through him himself.

Somehow he knew this whole scene could not be real... yet somehow he could not help but feel pressurized by it.

"Where do you stand," the voice asked, while the paths continued cutting their way through the darkness, "in the paths and processions of what has come to pass and what will yet come to be?

"If one starts from his view, one walks the road of a hero - but if one has not a view, one loses the way to walk in... Understanding your past is critical to creating the future - especially in a world where all time is one time, all sky is one sky, and all rain... is one rain..."

"I don't understand." Cloud muttered. "I'm not a hero, anyway." He sighed, sick of that title to no end.

"No, you are," he could almost hear the voice smile, "we all are... we are heros of our own stories, heros of our own time, heros to those who trust us and heroes to those who care...

"Walk in the road of a hero, Cloud," a flash of bright silver crossed his vision, but not lingering long enough for him to fully comprehend what was happening.

"Perhaps you will do better than I did..."

The paths spun, around and around, until they twisted out of existence and threw Cloud back into the backdrop of a dark, gloomy sky.

The rain slammed hard on him.

*Do you know, that this is the same rain that fell, all those times many years ago... ?*

Lifting his face, and closing his eyes to allow the rainstorm to hit, a strange feeling encompassed the blond mercenary. It felt stranger than the trickle of cool, wet drops that rolled down his forehead and off his cheek - and yet he welcomed it with all his heart. Unfolding his fingers so that his palms could catch the rain as well, Cloud continued taking in the spirit of scene.

*... Where do you stand... ?*

He could hear the voice echo around him.

*And where should you go to?*

*... perhaps, to someone you can find it in your heart to answer their simple comment about this eternal rain... ?*

As he slowly felt the presence of the voice disappear, he frowned.

*The past doesn't matter..." He thought to himself, confused beyond compare by the little period spent with the mysterious darkness just now.

*... does it?*

He opened his eyes just in time to hear a tired Squall sighing.

"It's raining..."

He said.

Cloud put a hand to his forehead, pulling the tattered piece of wet cloth away while sitting up slowly, trying to adjust to the environment.

He glanced at where Squall was glancing, at the ever familiar rain.

"... Tell me about it..." His heart warmed up at the sight of something else but darkness. At the same time, he flung the piece of cloth at the occupied teenager.

When the cloth hit, and the dark-haired teenager turned from looking out of the window, he managed to stay completely calm for a good 3 seconds, before opening his mouth to almost shriek. "Cloud! You're awake!"

"Yes..." Cloud murmured incoherently. For now he felt like his entire head was an egg on an over-heated sauce-pan - thinking about things made his brain do flip-flops upside down. He stifled a groan.

"What happened?" He managed to sluggishly ask after adjusting to the light in the room. Squall had dragged the roller-seat from it's previous location near the window to a table somewhere near the bed Cloud was lying in. After settling down, he looked up at the blond mercenary and blinked.

"We fast-forwarded." Squall said, leaning backwards on the creaky chair. "Time played tricks on us again."

"Oh," Cloud muttered under his breath, moving very slowly as he did. "Zidane and Kuja?" He asked about the first thing that came to his mind.

"Um..." Squall looked away, nervously twiddling with his fingers, trying to look unconcerned. "... They... um..."

Sensing something wrong, Cloud leaned forwardly quickly, meaning to demand Squall to speak up. Unfortunately, his head was not being too kind to him, and instead of looking menacing, he ended up writhing in pain with a skull-splitting headache instead.

"Woah, calm down man!" Squall panicked considerably to jump out of his chair. "You're still kindda weak..."

"Wha- what happened to them?" Cloud managed to ask, through gritted teeth. At this point of time he would rather bang his head on the wall than suffer from this here-and-not bout of Mako poisoning. Still, he wanted to know what happened to the others.

Squall put a gloved hand on his forehead, succeeding in looking really really bothered. He slid it down so that only his closed eyes were visible, and stifled a sigh.

"They... They're...

"... they're in the cafeteria, cooking up... something... for you..."

The world stopped spinning immediately.

"Say that again, please?" Cloud said in a small voice.

Putting both his hands on his hips, Squall turned to look at the ceiling, biting his lower lip and twitching tremendously.

"Zidane and Kuja are in the cafeteria, cooking - or trying to cook, something... that's supposed to help break your fever..."

The crows-from-nowhere(TM hammerspace) flew across the room, from left to right, sqwaking loudly as they did.

"I have never felt better in my whole life!" Cloud leapt out of bed and stood, stretched and did warm-ups. "I don't think I need that wonderful thing they're brewing for me now, so why don't you show me the way to the cafeteria, Squall-boy?"

Bristling at the '-boy' suffice, Squall still managed to point at the only visible exit in the room, through an amazing amount of rubble and debris. "That way, just keep following the path until you see the sign that says 'Cafeteria'."

"Thank YOU!" Cloud smiled slightly, and bounded out of the room with unprecedented energy.

The blond-haired mercenary had barely reached the door Squall called out, "And, Cloud?"

The mercenary turned back to stare at the teenager, slight surprise evident in his Mako eyes.

"Thanks, for coming back to us man."

They stared at each other.

"Fancy that coming from you..." Cloud didn't know whether to be utterly honoured or completely horrified. Giving a slight small and a quick nod, he decided to take the words as they were. He turned and went out, but after a few steps he turned around again.

"By the way!" He almost grinned. "You have a really pretty girlfriend."

Leaving Squall gaping at those words, he turned down the empty corridors in search for the cafeteria before Zidane and Kuja blew it up.


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kaette kita
19/4/2002

Author's note: Observe my oggly eyes...
This chapter is dedicated to Nefas. ;D