sephiroth, “tol alien boy”, SOLDIER first class. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
supersoldier) wrote2019-07-10 03:06 pm
supersoldier) wrote2019-07-10 03:06 pm
( PRISMA INBOX )
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He loathes this. He loathes everything about this. There's no anger. Only an amalgamation of lingering fears and...respect. Respect for a piece of the past that got dealt a terrible hand. What the hell kind of complicated feelings are these?! Yet at the end of the day, Sephiroth witnessed the fear in Cloud's eyes for himself.
The silence is palpable as the answer sits on the tip of his tongue...
A name. One very close to the two of them. Where it all began. And so where it shall continue. ]
Nibelheim.
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The name of that town shudders through them, rippling in the space between himself and Cloud. The point in which he came from, in which Cloud and the others had always been so departed from.
Suddenly, it hangs above both their heads like tempered steel, doesn't it? He recalls, quite clearly, that he had said none of them had been subtle; that there was something being obscured from him, and he knew it, though he would not chase after it quite yet.
But now-]
What's made you want to talk about Nibelheim?
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He can't doubt himself now. Warning bells are screaming at him to consider this. If he's not prepared...he'll be risking everything should matters venture south.
But he makes his choice. And the voice in his head has one cryptic message.
Tread carefully. ]
The truth.
[ Facing it. Perhaps even, foolishly, hoping that despite their destinies, on this planet a difference could be made. A chance, fleeting though it may be. Sooner or later, he felt like Sephiroth would face him. He can't let himself be caught off guard like that. So it's time. Cloud's the one who'll be making the move and holding the cards for once.
Shakily as the hand that's holding them may be. ]
Can we meet somewhere?
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So, he has finally decided to speak on it. He wonders at the change of heart; and strangely, Sephiroth feels the grip of something very rare for him -- uncertainty. He disavows it, sets it aside. Refuses to allow it to twist into anxiety because he never affords that kind of second-guessing to exist in his veins.]
Name the place, and I'll be there.
[Maybe the answers will finally come. Maybe the disadvantage of being years departed from this rest will finally dissipate.]
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[ He only asks because Amegahara was but a mere couple hours' ride away now. ]
There's a park out in the Greatmoon Groves.
[ Insert location here. ]
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[What else is there to say? The communication is filled with silence for a moment, before Sephiroth severs it outright.
He'll not make him wait. Greatmoon Groves is an easy distance away, and he'll be the first one there when Cloud arrives.]
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...
[ Okay. He's ready. ]
[ The view this place gives is a calming one- especially when the sun finally begins to set across Lunatia. Giving a clear shot of the Crystal Beach in the distance and the city that spans across the 2nd Level, the Greatmoon Groves was vast. It was also the place where Cloud & Sephiroth first came to blows, during one of the blond's early Sanguis cycles. For someone who'd apparently never fought the legendary SOLDIER one-on-one before, he seemed awfully familiar with his fighting style. Thinking about it now as Cloud passes that very spot on his way to their meeting point...
He thinks. If their first meeting at the beach wasn't the problem, then where did the seams start to come undone? The rescue from the Sinless? The distance that everyone made with him whilst never giving a reason why? The fight beneath the crimson moon that saw Cloud's weaknesses show? Wherever it all went wrong, one thing was certain.
Everything was torn apart the moment he stared at Sephiroth with broken fear, saved from his own illusions by the very man he'd sworn to put to rest. Even in sanity, it's like...he's being guided still. Even if neither of them knew where this ship was sailing. But that's why Cloud was here. To finally clear the fog so that they can see ahead. Would it be dark skies, thunder and lightning that await? Or the breaking sun if he can do this right? ]
When you said "shortly", you meant it.
[ Cloud speaks up as he approaches the park. When he lays eyes on Sephiroth, there is no assault on his mind- like his brain being singed and his nerves being untangled from beneath his skin. It's how he knows... All this time, with the looming future hanging over their heads, that it's been the same man he and Zack had once admired. Maybe...he can't change the future back home. When their time comes, Cloud would be fixing his life and working towards a happier home with his family. His sins were buried.
But here, on this second life that he'd come to call another home...
That which lies ahead does not yet exist.
Cloud carries the Fusion Sword with him, sheathed to the back of his waist much like the day they first met. He's also wearing the same attire he'd shown up to this world in. Not that the blond has any intention of using his weapon. Or even daring to reach for it. He feels no danger here. Not in the physical sense anyway. Honestly, at this point, if he's not sporting casual attire while spending time with someone, he's always got his blades on hand. One can never know with this place when the world would get threatened. Majestas and Tempeste taught him well on that front. ]
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Sephiroth turns his head, glancing at Cloud from over his shoulder. Masamune is held idle in his left hand, though he did not bring it here with the intent to use it — is it the mere habit of a SOLDIER, to always be armed and at ready when departed from the heart of the city. He is so rarely seen without it.]
I wasn’t busy.
[It’s the truth, but also an omission of a clear fact — he would have made time for this, regardless of what was scheduled for the day.
Sephiroth turns to face him properly, his frame outlined against the clouds marching across the sky.]
And I didn’t see a point in making either of us wait.
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He approaches the man without fear, with purpose yet there's something calm about his stride. ]
Fair enough.
[ Cloud doesn't stop in front of him. Rather, he stands by his side, the blue of his mako-eyes cast beyond the railing- into the vast grove before them. ]
... .... .....
[ Despite the dwindling daylight, the breeze that sweeps across the park and between the two is still warm. Calming even. One would think that standing side by side with a man whose sword sentenced so many lives to oblivion would put him on edge. But instead...now that he's here, he feels... Well. How else can he describe it? He's not sad. He's not angry. He's not scared. Hell if he knows if he can put it into words as to why.
But it's a somber atmosphere. At least on the end of a would-be Ex-SOLDIER. He doesn't hold to his silence because he's prolonging the truth. There's no stopping that. Cloud is still staring straight ahead when he finally speaks. There's no doubt. No hesitation. There's no warmth, despite the subtle softness to his voice.
Clarity. ]
When you helped stop the Sinless...and came to Iris when Tempeste returned...
[ Wherever and whoever Sephiroth's assisted, ]
All this time we've been keeping you in the dark...you were still there.
[ He doesn't feel resentment or self-loathing in admitting anything anymore. Cloud's tired. Tired of hating. Tired of fighting. Tired of pitying. The future is set back home; all that remains of Jenova's memetic legacy was the young man standing at Sephiroth's side, and the memory of a one-winged angel. What's done is done. But here in Prismatica, after almost a whole damn year of enduring both the arrival and departure of people he cherishes, for however long this world may allow it...
This future isn't engraved. Here, at least in Cloud's eyes, Sephiroth was still a paragon of SOLDIER. What it meant to be SOLDIER. Just like Zack. ]
You saved Tifa. [ Even if there's a part of them, deep down, that will never forgive him. ] You saved me.
[ Even if it was from his own ghastly and godlike visage. This may be the last time he ever tells him this. He sure as hell isn't going to repeat himself as he finally turns to look up to Sephiroth. There's no smile. No fondness in his voice. No animosity. Only one singular truth. ]
Thank you.
[ Letting it all sink in, the wind brushing across his clothing as the draped fabric on his side flows with, the blond's eyes finally narrow. His tone firms once more. And he starts with, ]
Tell me what you were doing in Nibelheim. Before you were brought here.
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It’s a different and heavy thing, strangely-shaped on his shoulders. So often, he had been thanked for a job well-done back on Gaia, though he was just a weapon playing its part, and Shinra’s appreciation felt hollow when the shade of expectation drove it forward. Here, he is free of that — and yet here, he still seeks to make himself feel useful, to take up his blade to help the population, to quietly find himself in the company of others from Gaia and make sure that they, too, are not falling apart at the seams on a foreign, new planet.
How long has he been here now? Surely he’s encroaching close to a year. (Sephiroth kids himself; he counts the days.)
So perhaps this time, the gratitude is more valid than it ever has been before. Cloud speaks it as a heavy, weighted thing, with no warmth of overt friendliness, but it isn’t clinical and cold, either. Merely the truth. Thank you.
Sephiroth doesn’t know what to say. He only looks at him, quiet, brow pinching vaguely— And is glad that another subject comes barreling forth, straight to business.
Tell me what you were doing in Nibelheim. Before you were brought here.]
You should know the answer to that.
[Cloud was there, too; though he had taken such pains to keep an infantryman’s helmet plastered to his head. Yet he asks for specifics, and Sephiroth delves into memory — still bright, still fresh — and answers.]
We were just about to leave town to start our expedition to the Mt. Nibel reactor. That woman, the one who’s here… [A pause.] Tifa. She was going to act as our guide, but before that, we had a photo taken of us. Myself, her… Zack. That was the last I recall before I arrived here.
forgive my brain and delay let's do this dkjfah
It's time he fills in the blanks, leading closer and closer to burdensome territory. ]
We made it up to the Reactor. Non-Shinra personnel weren't allowed inside, so while you and Zack checked things out, I supervised Tifa. Apparently you figured the reactor was malfunctioning 'cause of a broken section with the Mako purification tanks.
[ Seems rather clear so far. But it's only the precursor. Cloud has to be careful. Take things one step at a time. Not only has he been inside the reactor, but even revisited it as the party ventured across Mt. Nibel in pursuit of Sephiroth. That was a minute detail. Not necessary. What was necessary, however...was the first big hurdle. ]
If we're gonna find the truth, [ And keep going with the rest of the Nibelheim incident, ] I need you listen carefully to what I'm about to say.
[ Tip of the iceberg. The park feels eerily silent. He's focused solely on the tall man at his side, not even the sound of the wind reaching him as he says her name. ]
It's about Jenova.
You’re totally fine!
It’s clear, by the way the air stills around then, that Jenova had been that leap.
That name. His mother’s name. Something clenches in his chest, though he remains statue-still.]
How is my mother relevant to any of this?
[He had mentioned briefly upon their arrival to Nibelheim, what he knew about his family (how very little, nothing at all), but all of that had been throwaway at best.
That Cloud would bring it up as a preamble to something— what? How was it relevant to their trek to the reactor? He cannot fathom it, and his lips twist into a frown.]
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[ A leap that begets a very heavy-handed statement. There's no other way of going about this. And he'll need to take steps to let Sephiroth talk. For some reason, it feels like deja vu. Vague as his memories of that time were, it feels like he's the one piecing together someone's true self. Rather than letting someone fall down a path of fabricated madness...
Professor Gast's recordings and interviews with Ifalna were the key. He recalls the footage. What's important. ]
Jenova was an alien that crash landed on the Planet 2000 years ago. It would infect the Cetra, take their appearances to deceive them so it can prey on more life.
[ Cloud paces ahead of Sephiroth as he looks to the warm Prismal sky. ]
The "calamity from the skies"... When Shinra found its remains, they concluded it was an Ancient. [ He turns back to Sephiroth, brow furrowed. ] In an attempt to find the Promised Land and its limitless energy, they began the Jenova Project.
They figured making a Cetra-Human hybrid would lead them to the Promised Land, but, [ Cloud shrugs. ] they had no idea what the hell they were doing...
[ There's more that he would ask of Sephiroth. But he pauses there. Tip of the iceberg was a severe understatement. But Cloud holds strong to his words, and waits. ]
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Jenova was an alien that crash landed on the Planet 2000 years ago. The world loses its noise, and it takes a SOLDIER’s wheeling focus to reel himself back in and listen to the rest.]
That doesn’t make any sense.
[Suddenly the correlation between the name Jenova and Nibelheim is forgotten in favor of this. This is shaped a bit too closely to questions he’s wondered at for so many, many years. He feels as though they are encroaching upon an origin point with that wording, and not in the way that he likes. Cloud treads treacherously dangerous ground, the parts of himself that are laden with hairline fractures that he has kept to himself — and so closely bound.]
Why would Shinra lie? And say that Jenova was the name of my mother—
[Unless it was not so much a lie but a twisted version of the truth, and Sephiroth’s gaze follows where Cloud treads, as though he might pursue these answers without the ground beginning to crack beneath his boots.]
You said hybrid.
[Angeal and Genesis. Project G. And now the Jenova Project, just another dark secret of Shinra affecting one more in its scope—]
Who?
[Carefully, Cloud. Carefully.]
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Seeing the silver-haired general war with this information, only builds the tension. Yet it feels different from before. He still doesn't fear the tilt of his blade. He's walking a very treacherous tightrope. But now, Cloud still feels himself balancing his way across. To his first question, the blond trades the question for a rhetorical suggestion. ]
Ask that son of a bitch, Hojo.
[ It's too soon to drop the even heftier bombshell as to who his father was. Drip by drip. Breadcrumb by breadcrumb. So long as Cloud doesn't stop supplying a path for Sephiroth to follow, he'll tell him everything. This detour is almost done. It has to come back to Nibelheim soon. What was inside the Reactor. Why there was so much tension and distance between Sephiroth and many others from their shared world. ]
... .... .....
[ "Who?" ]
[ Was tiptoeing around the obvious answer the best way? Cloud wonders this. Backed with the knowledge he wields from the future (thank you Hojo for this tidbit. shudder), he stares up at Sephiroth. This time, that stoic deliverance is dulled. His mako-infused eyes are tinged with something else. Before, he would think and look upon his fate-bound nemesis with pity and anger. But...all that's left is the truth.
Sadness. One step above despair. ]
You.
[ Let him try. Let him pull you out of this cycle of despair. He has to clear the air. Now. ]
Hojo took Jenova's cells and injected them directly into a fetus. While you were still in your mother's womb.
[ Project S. That was the result. Cloud never knew the true name of the project, nor did he care. But that's what it ultimately boils down to. Angeal and Genesis degraded, whilst Sephiroth remained the 'perfect' being. A cut above the rest. All because science went too far and they foolishly thought they were reviving the Cetra. What was thought to be the beginning of a shining future for Shinra, became just another door opening the way towards a dark end. ]
Jenova's not your Mother, Sephiroth. All Shinra cared about was birthing someone who could lead them to the Promised Land.
[ And they unwittingly used a dark harbinger to attempt it. ]
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Monsters. Does he have the same kind of contagion flowing through his own veins? Cloud confirms as much, says that his DNA has that of an alien entity laced into each strand. It would make so much sense, why he always feels so different, so far away from the rest of the world, how he knew that he was special but not like his. Never like this.
Cloud’s still talking.]
I—
[He needs to bring himself back. His free hand presses its heel into his forehead, and his brow tight. The world threatens to wheel again.]
Then what does that make me? Just another one of Shinra’s creations in a long line of them. [He scoffs, humor so strained that it’s dead on his tongue.] But it makes so much more sense now.
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That he soon would be revealing. When his free hand presses to his forehead, the dead scoff filling the space between them, Cloud doesn't try to reach out for him. He will advance, but he will not push. But as Sephiroth speaks of being just another creation of Shinra...
Scientifically speaking? Maybe so... But, with his own brow tight, Cloud decides to step forward. ]
That's not true. [ "SOLDIER is like a den of monsters. Don't go inside." ] You're different. Doesn't mean you're not human.
[ He stares down at his gloved hand then. His lip forms a tight line, a resounding 'Mm' to confirm what he said. ]
Doesn't mean I'm not either.
[ The leather crunches as his hand balls up. ]
I never made SOLDIER. [ There it is. The first lie he spun, despite the mako that remains aglow in his sapphire gaze. ] Just an attempt at recreating one after what happened in Nibelheim.
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Something that is not so easily believed by Sephiroth, that wheedles at his insecurities kept close to the chest, but it's enough to draw him out from inside himself.
The sound of leather tightening brings him back a second time, too. Sephiroth lowers his hand, letting it hang loose at his side, and cants his head at Cloud. Strands of silver fall across his face, touched gently by the breeze.]
Your eyes—
[The Mako glow. Cloud even had the battle competence of a SOLDIER, too, and Sephiroth isn’t sure what to think of this. That he was given a lie so easily believed because the man had fit the bill.
Again, it all seems to lead back to Nibelheim.]
All this time... It isn’t that easy to just recreate being a SOLDIER, Cloud. [But they both know that. And as if the conversation is snapping back into place from its slight detour—] You're saying that was a lie? What happened in Nibelheim to make that necessary?
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He may not have control of destiny back home. By the time their time comes and everyone has to say goodbye to this planet, for all he knows...everything will be back to the way it was. In a way, thinking of it was depressing. For all their struggles and fighting they do for this world, it's been a bigger reprieve not having to rebuild theirs. Especially with time standing still. The bonds that he's made here... Whether it's newfound companionship, a new lease on life, love, or even...here and now.
Cloud can't deny a very dangerous fact. Sephiroth. This Sephiroth was an ally. The man that Zack trusted. The man that everyone admired. Seeing him here and working alongside him here, witnessing a completely different side of him, his humanity guarded yet...there.
He can't hate him. He can only hate what he's destined to become. As the topic seems to return back to the story of Nibelheim (a much-needed detour aside), he lets out a terse little huff before rubbing the back of his neck. Perhaps the last speck of light in his tone before matters turn dark. ]
Yeah— [ Cloud goofed. ] —Tifa really let me have it for that one...
[ Now. ]
In the Reactor... You found Jenova's name on a sealed door. Along with humans mutated inside the Mako chambers. After that, you holed yourself in the mansion's basement. It's...where you discovered the Jenova Project.
[ The one that falsely diagnosed the Calamity as a Cetra. ]
When you finally came out...you...
[ The rage. The hatred. The misguided vengeance. The sweltering heat that threatened to burn his flesh off his bones. The screams.
If he didn't know Sephiroth as well as he did, just how strong his will truly was, he'd have asked him to sit down for this next part. Cloud thought that he'd be strong enough to explain everything without a single hitch. But in the moment, everything just...hits him. Forcing himself back into that scenario, or even the recent illusion cast upon him. Everything he swore he'd keep locked to his memories, he's confronting all over again. Not for his sake.
But for someone else's. The man he too had committed to stowing in his memories and nothing more. And now look where they are. ]
You killed the townspeople. And burned Nibelheim to the ground.
[ He can only manage to look at Sephiroth for so long before his lips form a thin, tight line. Even now, Cloud struggles to keep the two visages separate. The haunting smile as he tread through the flames in wake of his "mission", as he went off to go see his "mother".
His head is bowed, a damn miracle that his voice hasn't broken in any fashion at all. It's still strong, despite how easy it could be to break. ]
Tifa's Dad... My Mom... I barely stopped you by the time you were back at the Reactor.
[ That's what happened in Nibelheim to make that necessary. He breathes, stepping back towards Sephiroth's side after realizing he'd found himself pacing without his realizing it. ]
When Shinra came in to cover up the incident, Hojo turned Zack and I into his experiments. I...barely remember a thing after that.
[ Or rather, by the time Cloud was conscious and not a vegetable, it was too late to save Zack. ]
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He is not that prone to falsities, is he? He is not that desperate to learn of his mother, his origins, any trace of family that might ground him to his life and make him feel less isolated, that he would cling to the notion of a terrible entity labeled Jenova. His pride — that fault of his can never be erased — decries against it. Tells him to question it. I wouldn’t believe that, he wants to say.
But such notions are swept away under a more terrible admittance, Cloud’s countenance seeming to shake, as though he was fighting back the memories in which he relays. Though the fire he speaks of might burn them all to the ground, the more he dredges up the recollection.
At this, Sephiroth’s knee-jerk reaction is very expected, and in the end, very human.]
No. I wouldn’t do that.
[Tifa’s father? Cloud’s mother? That’s impossible. How would the other man even be able to look at him like he does now, without wanting to take that blade through his middle? He cannot comprehend it, and for a moment, his mind does circles to find ways in which it is as improbable as it sounds, shucking away the evidence of how they’ve acted around him time and time again, ever since his arrival to this planet.]
To what end? I should feel angry with Shinra, and I might think of a few faces to skewer with my sword — but I would never slaughter a whole town of innocents, Cloud. That’s the work of a—
[Wings sprouting from his old friends' back, DNA spliced into DNA, fashioned as something other. And so they cycle back.]
—monster.
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How did it feel to have his conscience split in two? So adamantly on the side of pity, hatred and sound resolve in defeating him every time he'd come back. Only to have it come bearing down like the weight of Masamune on his sword... It's a very human response, and while Cloud hoped that would be the result (morbid no matter the intent), it still rocks him to hear his mortal enemy say this.
The details on their battles don't matter. Not now.
Good on Sephiroth to think Cloud ought to run him through! He'd make a killing in gil if anyone bet against him on that call.Monsters... Cloud feels a chill at the word again. How Zack once persisted in SOLDIER being that very breed. At the end of the day, he supposed that anybody with Jenova's cells inside them, even Cloud... Fabricated or modified, if not monsters, they weren't ordinary humans anymore. Yet Sephiroth's reaction, despite the dangers that cycling around and succumbing to the terrifying truth may bring, brings some modicum of clarity to Cloud. He never stopped being careful. But he said what needed to be said. What had to be done.
He's not talking to his enemy. For whatever fleeting time this planet allots them...if there's no way to change the course of destiny? Then Cloud's unwittingly made up his mind by confronting Sephiroth today. He's going to try. Try to save him from himself- before someone comes along to twist the legendary SOLDIER's mind. Again. ]
That's just it... The reports were all you had to go on. That she was some Ancient. And that the Cetra were stripped of their right to rule the Planet. It wasn't that you didn't hate Shinra...
You hated everything.
[ Hated the humans that took the world and the Promised Land away from his "mother". Cloud finally has to take a step back. To turn the other way and gather his bearings. His back is turned to Sephiroth now. Even now, he may remember what every single impalement felt like, but he doesn't fear it here. With his hands on his hips, he lets out an aggravated sigh as he cranes his head up to the orange sky. Short, terse, but...not at what Sephiroth's future self would do.
Cloud shakes his head. You really made a mess of things. Didn't you, Hojo.
Maybe if Gast never left Shinra when he found out the truth... ]
We've been through a lot. But... [ He turns to face Sephiroth again. ] We can stop for now. That's your call.
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A part of him already knows the answer, a part he does not wish to think about. The side of Sephiroth who feels so different than the rest of the world, who had always wondered at why, if there was ever a moment in which he would feel like he belonged— and not looking at everyone else’s life through a pane of thick glass.
He does not know if what Cloud is telling him now helps or hinders that. He cannot know, it is too much to process, and too fresh. And apparently—]
You mean that there’s more?
[There is also an unflattering part of Sephiroth that will follow the line of revelation no matter how detrimental it might be to his emotional or mental state. To seek answers until they are too much; Cloud should know that, too, realizing what that time in the manor’s library did to him.]
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He was talking to a man. But he can't take back what's been said. He can't regret it. Because he was talking to a person... That's why unless Sephiroth persists, Cloud is going to stop for now. A frown mars his lips. And while he doesn't say it outloud, it's written all over his face. Something that he would never, ever be able to stomach saying to his mortal nemesis. To the one that would falsify himself to impending godhood.
This was to the man he once called his hero... ]
Yeah.
[ He's sorry. ]
Now you know why we were trying to be discreet. [ A pause that's punctuated by a brush of wind between them. He huffs, not quite a laugh. But it's bittersweet. This isn't something to joke about in any capacity. But he can at least conceded to the man in front of him. ] And doing a bad job of it apparently.
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I would rather hear the truth than to be kept in the dark, no matter how badly you’ve managed it. Shinra has been pulling apart lives with their falsities for too long; even those I used to call friends had everything shattered for them, because of—
[He stops himself, tries to rein in the emotion creeping through the cracks in the armor, for however long it’s managed to hold. A miracle unto itself.
He shakes his head, silver bangs swaying.]
I want to know everything. Cloud, tell me.
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...even if the twisted truth was all for Sephiroth to take, and to make his ill-gotten decision from. Tampering with time and destiny was a risky gamble. And it may not do too much in the end, but at least for now, there's little else to do.
Could it be possible, that if he were ever sent back yet recalled here again...if he retained his memories of this planet...
Cloud inwardly shudders to think of the amalgamation of ideals that would create. With the past, present and future colliding. May it never come to that. ]
Guess it's only right, now.
[ On that note? The blond will start to walk, only slowing to spare a glance over his shoulder. ]
C'mon. I'll explain while we walk.
[ Where to? Whose to say? Cloud just feels the anxiety creeping the longer he stands still with such a heavy topic. Perhaps it's back to the city. To Level 1. Wherever their feet may take them, or even just to change the scenery. ]
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