Every Now and Then
Chapter 8: Lost Souls
Reno pressed his fingers to his temples, rubbing gently, hoping to deter the headache he felt coming on.
“What in the name of Holy was that?” he wondered allowed.
“Um… Reno? Care to fill us in?” said Yuffie. Reno cocked an eyebrow at the ninja. Hadn’t they even noticed what was going on? Behind her, the bulky little creature she’d adopted ambled about, sniffing at the floor, as though he too were trying to figure out the reason for the redhead’s strange behavior.
“So you didn’t see her?” Reno asked, hoping to confirm the thought that was beginning to form in his mind.
“See who?”
“Nevermind… Look, tell me what happened just before I went after Elena,” he replied. On hearing her name, Elena snapped out the her own reverie.
“You just… stopped,” she said, “You were totally out of it for a minute… Just standing there, not doing anything. And then you suddenly turned around and… attacked me.”
So they hadn’t seen her. They hadn’t heard him talking to her. It had all been in his mind? Maybe he really was going nuts.
“Reno, what happened?” asked Yuffie.
“How the hell should I know?!” he snapped, starting off down the hallway again, “One second, I’m here… the next I’m talking to… Shit, this is just too weird.”
“Reno! What are you talking about? Talking to who?… Where are you going?” Elena called after him.
“Where do you think? I’m going to find Strife, and then I’m getting as far away from this island as possible.”
———-
“Cloud? What are you thinking about?”
He was staring up at the patterns of the stars in the tapestry that was the night sky. Nibelhiem… His home… He’d looked up at these stars so many times when he was younger. So many times, that their twinkling pattern had engraved itself in his mind. Stars just didn’t look quite the same anywhere else. They always reminded him of…
What was it they reminded him of? He suddenly realized that he couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember at all.
“Cloud?”
“I… I’m trying to remember…” he said absently. What was it? He closed his eyes, thinking hard. Not a what… a who? Who did he think of when he looked at the stars over Nibelhiem? Something wasn’t right.
“Aeris… I think…”
He turned to look at her, but she was gone.
“Aeris?”
Cloud stood, looking all around. The night breeze ruffled his hair, and in the low bushes, a chorus of crickets chirped merrily in the warm night. He looked out from the top of the well where he was perched. There was something familiar about this, too…
“Aeris, where did you go?”
“Cloud!”
He turned toward the panicked summons, eyes widening at the sight he beheld. Aeris… alone, and unprotected. From high above, descending from the night sky, from the very darkness itself, a shadow fell. It’s form somehow darker even than the night around it, it came closer, like a great bird of prey diving for the kill. The moon emerged for a brief second, and Cloud saw the glint of moonlight on metal.
And then came the laughter. Cold, and cruel, it sent a chill down Cloud’s spine. He tried to run toward Aeris, but for every step he took toward her, she was somehow two steps farther away. And still, the shadow dropped, and the icy laughter rang in his ears. He tried to tear his eyes away, but some unseen force held his gaze on Aeris’ slender form. The clouds parted and the moon shown down, and now he could see the shadow for what it was. He saw Aeris’ stiffen in fear, and then he heard her scream.
“No!”
All the world seemed to slow, as if to prolong the moment when the cold, hardened steal of the Masamune met soft, innocent flesh. The great shadow landed behind Aeris, whose eyes had gone wide. Shining with blood, the massive sword skewered her, and she slumped forward. A gloved hand drew back the blade and let the last Cetra tumble gracelessly to the ground. From behind a silver curtain of hair, Sephiroth’s eyes glowed a harsh green.
“Aeris!”
He could finally approach her now. She lay pale, lifeless in a growing pool of crimson. Her features were frozen in a look of horror, so very different than the serene look he had seen on her face before.
“Bastard!” he yelled. Sephiroth smiled, standing over her body. She had come back… She had come back, and this monster had taken her from him again. “Why?!” Cloud demanded, the word issuing forth with a choked, forced sound.
“Because…” the silver-haired soldier replied, casually, not the least bit phased by the heartless act he had just committed or by the unrestrained fury that flashed in Cloud’s eyes, “… Because you care about her.”
Cloud rushed forward with a primal scream, not caring that he was unarmed… not caring that Sephiroth would kill him as coldly as he had just killed Aeris…
———-
“That thing is not coming with us, Yuffie!”
“But I can’t just leave Kaji here… He needs me! And what if that weirdo comes back for him?” the ninja protested. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. The two women had finally ceased their interrogation of him over what had happened in the hallway. He was in no mood to discuss it… especially since he wasn’t sure himself what he’d seen. And now this. An elevator to the lower levels of the complex… to the source of the fountain… and he had to contend with Yuffie and her new pet. But there was no way in hell Reno was going to cram himself into an elevator with a wild dragon, baby or otherwise.
“Fine… Stay here with him, then!” he countered.
“No way am I missing out on seeing this materia fountain, Turkey!”
“The fountain or the dragon, Brat… Hurry up and chose.”
“… What’s all the noise about?” came a new voice from the shadows. Reno turned his attention from the annoyingly stubborn ninja-thief and her pet monster to the two new arrivals at their little party.
“Just the brat bein’ an idiot,” he replied, perfectly aware that a statement like that was bound to get him in trouble. He was right. Reno had only seconds to dodge the punch the aforementioned brat aimed at him. The little dragon growled and hissed at him, in response to its new master’s aggression toward the Turk.
He grinned at her, only to be caught off-guard by a sudden attack from behind. Tifa had effortlessly swept the distracted Turk’s legs out from under him, and Reno fell to the floor. He growled at Yuffie’s mocking laughter, and quickly got up, nonchalantly dusting off his jacket sleeves. The glare he shot at Elena quickly quelled any laughter that she might have been holding back, but it didn’t stop Rude’s quiet snort of amusement.
“Very funny,” he grumbled at Tifa. Though it was quite clear from the look on her face, that she would welcome any excuse she could find to give the Turk a good pummeling. She was trying, albeit only half-heartedly at the moment, to goad him into a fight. ‘Not gonna work, sweetheart,’ he thought to himself. He knew better than to fall for that.
“Can we focus here?!”
This new demand came from the most unexpected source. Elena, far from being as amused as he’d expected, stood rigidly with her arms folded across her chest, looking every bit the stern disciplinarian that she usually was not.
“You’re all acting like children! In case you’ve forgotten, we have bigger problems than Reno being the all-around assholethat he is!” she continued, and Reno had to try very hard not to smirk. Her tone of voice sounded more than a little childish herself. Almost a whine, but not quite, and any moment, he half-expected her to stamp her foot or throw a tantrum. She definitely needed more practice at taking charge. Unfortunately, she was also perfectly right. This was not the time for petty squabbles.
———-
It was enough to drive a person nuts… Reno, in his infinite capacity to annoy people, just had to provoke Yuffie. Yuffie, she had rarely seen back down from a fight, especially when it was Reno who was starting it. And of course, since it was Reno, Tifa joined in at her friend’s side. And then there was Rude, who seemed, for the moment, perfectly content to let them go at each other until they worked things out. This was ridiculous… They were supposed to be looking for Cloud. They were supposed to be looking for the scientists that worked on this island. They were supposed to be trying to figure out what was going on around here.
They were not supposed to be fighting amongst themselves!
“Can we focus here?!” she yelled.
Elena had no idea where that sudden burst of confidence had come from, but it certainly got their attention. Even Reno shut up and gave her his undivided attention.
“You’re all acting like children! In case you’ve forgotten, we have bigger problems than Reno being the all-around asshole that he is!” she continued, the words coming of their own accord. And just as suddenly as it had come, the surge of confidence dwindled, and old fears crept back into her mind. She sounded pathetic. Like a little kid trying to get her way. But they were getting nowhere like this. ‘Well, I’ve dug my hole this deep… Might as well keep going,’ she thought.
“We’re all in this together, so I say we act like it!”
Reno was going to have a field day with her later. For a moment, no one said anything.
“Damn, ‘Lena… I didn’t know you had it in you,” Reno said at last. Elena blinked.
———-
“Damn, ‘Lena… I didn’t know you had it in you,” he said. That was a lie. Despite his ridiculing remarks to the contrary, Elena was one of the strongest women he’d ever known. She just needed to let that side of her show through more often.
He grinned.
“Well, I guess we’d better start workin’ together, then.”
———-
Cloud’s enraged charge was met with an infuriating coolness from his opponent. Sephiroth stood motionless, almost as though utterly uninterested in the situation… until Cloud was within striking distance.
The battle and death, one way or the other, that Cloud was expecting did not come. Instead, one fluid movement forced him to the ground. Cruel hands that were strangely warm on his skin held him down, roughly twisting an arm behind his back. Sephiroth straddled him, keeping the younger man, who lay face down where he’d fallen, immobilized.
“You lose,” his silky voice whispered close to Cloud’s ear, “And now, you’re mine.”
A soft hum filled the air, and everything around him was illuminated by the brightest light he had ever seen. The smallest grains of dirt and gravel on the ground stood out in sharp relief. It grew brighter still until at last, Cloud was forced to shut his eyes against it.
The next feeling he knew was the unnerving sensation of falling…
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