020 | [Lets Test this Puppet's New Strings] [tag:Cloud]

[sephiroth_san]

When: Day 55 Morning - almost 24 hrs after this 
Where: ShinRa Manor, Nibelheim.

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[bigdamnsword]

A hand; a cloth.

It's like a dream that Cloud slowly wakes up out of; as if he is swimming upwards through murky water until he breaks through the surface. Sharp, clean air, blurry vision, hearing dimmed.

(He thinks that there's a sort of symmetry to this and Aeris; only, he let Aeris' drift below the surface of the lake, falling slowly and slowly, the edges of her body blurring until she became indistinct, and she faded away from their sight.)

(This is not something that he will tell her.)

It’s not a sharp awakening to reality. Cloud’s too tired for that, or maybe he’s just too used to be underwater. It’s not a sharp awakening to reality; rather, as if he were lying on the beach, the tide lapping at him, ready to take him back if only he would let it, the sun blaring down on him.

Cloud has a memory of Tifa leaning over him and assuring him that she will be back soon, and not to worry. (And there's also something about pies?)

(Wake up, please…)He can… sort of remember what’s happened. He can remember being told to wake

[ooc: Here goes...hope this works]

[sephiroth_san]

[Like a crash of a violent wave the sinking feeling rises up and pours over Cloud. Sephiroth needs to test boundaries now that Cloud is recovered, keeping Cloud out of the way will be vital to the future.]

[This feeling is twisted easily into a sense of failure. That Cloud, by not succeeding had failed Tifa, Aerith and all of those others whom he held dear. Images of darkened streets are forced into Cloud's head. Once in focus, small battered feet are pounding the pavement nearby- children running but from what? It's impossible to see but some other sense (smell?) betrays their fear like the pain on their blistered and cracked feet. Small dim yellow streetlights line the paved road but are obscured by fine mist and what feels(?) like smoke]

[ooc: Lets play with this illusion some more eh?? Can't let him get away that easily]

Re: [ooc: Here goes...hope this works]

[bigdamnsword]

This feeling is familiar.

This motion is familiar. Waking up. Auto-pilot, while things sink in.

This time, it’s slightly different.

It’s unreal; he’s used to Tifa being there, or Denzel, or Marlene. The house is too empty. (But at least it smells like Tifa’s special pie.) He stares blankly at the PHS.

Footsteps; Cloud jerks sharply and looks around wildly. Lights flash inside him; his vision dims, refocuses, dims again until he’s standing in a shadowy space, corners barely lit by dim lights.

Footsteps.

In the distance, he sees Aeris walking away; she does not look back.

Where are you going now? Cloud tries to run after her. He runs, runs, pushes himself as fast as he can. She remains that same distance ahead of him

Re: [ooc: Here goes...hope this works]

[sephiroth_san]

[Gunfire continues, the whistle of a bullet near missing Cloud's head. It seems to be getting more and more constant through this vision and in every direction turned the gunfire seems to be aimed at his friends.

Another ghostly child runs through Cloud and as it passes through him the ropes on the bridge snap. There is final silence as time slows down, Tifa's figure headed for the same obliterating doom of the countless wooden planks which had fallen before her. Each second flashed into memory like a nearby flickering streetlight.

There is a small tug on the back of Cloud's clothing and Marlene stands behind him gazing up at him with large brown eyes. Blood and dirt grace her face like some fairy tale gone wrong, but oddly she still retains the innocent aura]

"Why don't you ever do anything for us?" [The 'anything' emphasized desperately, as the ghosts of tears form in the corner of her eyes]

[bigdamnsword]

Tifa is falling, slowly. He has to go to her, catch her, save her this time. He can’t move; his feet are made out of lead, and Marlene is looking at him.

I’m sorry, Cloud tries to say. His voice seems to be swallowed up into the void; he’s not even sure if the words make it past his throat. Marlene’s voice is swirling around in his head until all he hears is anything, footsteps turning into gunfire into footsteps into gunfire.

There is a piercing shriek, and Tifa’s body is on the ground, and then she is falling again. Cloud can hear his name being called, and her voice is merging with somebody else’s, with Aeris, and then Aeris/Tifa is telling him to save her, no, that everything will be alright and that he shouldn’t worry, and her voice is choked as if something’s bubbling out of her mouth at the same time, as if she’s choking on water, there is the sound of falling rocks.

Why are you never here, says Denzel, standing behind Marlene, and his eyes are glowing green.

Hey Spike. Why did you make it, whispers Zack from the distance

[sephiroth_san]

[The images speed up flashing memories behind Clouds real vision. The walls of the bedroom close back in and there is a whisper of a shadow which had been in the doorway. Or at least thats the impression that is left; that someone had been in there all along watching Cloud and only now gave up and left. The door softly closed behind the shadowy female figure, a streak of blond hair left burning in Cloud's memory. But blond turned to silver, rosy cheek turned to stone blue as the impression faded]

[bigdamnsword]

It’s cheap of him to bring his mother here, thinks Cloud bitterly. He never wanted his mother to see him like this, the only saving grace of Nibelheim’s fires. He’s never really known if his mother was one of the clones, but if she were, during the long chase for the black coated man, Sephiroth would’ve dangled her in front of him, another chip against his sanity.

(After Meteor, even in the confusion, bodies were found; some whole, some not. Cloud looked at them, eyes blank, and somehow, even though he’d stuttered the words out, sentences mangled, Reeve had known what he’d somehow been trying to convey.

There are memorials in Nibelheim left for the victims of the initial purging. Cloud still hasn’t asked Reeve if his mother is there.)

Panic twists through Cloud, making his stomach churn, the bile rise. He keeps his expression mostly still, though he knows his eyes are flickering around, panicked, taking in images.

Calm down, he whispers to himself. The images aren’t real; Cloud doesn’t know where Tifa is, but he’s pretty damn sure

[sephiroth_san]

In the End...

[Memory twists it's way into this hallucination, forcing it to go on even though the Host wants to wake up. The tainted lifestream was summoned in a whirl all around them, darkening the sky, forming the backdrop for the fight that Cloud had already won before. He shouldn't have to keep saving the Planet again, why can't this SOB stay dead?]

..We'll find a new Planet...

[Sephiroth cannot be seen in the hallucination itself but the presence is all too familiar, the feeling is reminiscent of the fight 3(?) years ago, when Sephiroth was defeated for a third time by Cloud. The speech breaks up, only fragments picked out with that smooth voice echoing around Cloud's head]

...a shining future.

What sort of future would that be? Couldn't be much worse than the state of the Planet currently. Could it? Had Cloud been the cause of all this continuing suffering of the people of Gaia due to his own personal inability to drop a grudge? Sephiroth had destroyed his hometown, true enough. But this new world...everyone could have

[bigdamnsword]

Abruptly, it all stops.

There's a sharp pain, then the world tilts around him, and their faces blur.

Cloud comes to, curled up on his side on the floor. His head aches slightly.

The house is too silent; he can still hear the echoes bouncing around in his head; gunfire, voices whispering to him. The visions have imprinted themselves on his eyes so that he sees them, whether or not his eyes are closed.

Cloud. Cloud.

Cloud doesn't tell them to stop it. He lies there, still, on his side, the floorboards cold beneath him.

(End.)