(no subject)

[herobydefault]

Who: Cloud and Stella
What: For once it's not Cloud waking up on the floor of Aerith's church.
Universe/CR: FF7-world, Luceti CR




Nobody else seems to remember what happened in that world. Not Tifa, not Barret or Cid. Nobody who was there. Denzel doesn't remember either, and it's not like he can check with Zack or Aerith.

God, he wishes he could. It took a few days of being alone in the wilderness for him to get through the worst of the grief of losing them all over again.

With nobody else to corroborate his story, Cloud doesn't know what else to think. He know Tifa and the kids worry, and he helps them with the move to the villa in Costa del Sol because Edge is dirty and dangerous and the benefits of being in a large city greatly outweigh the drawbacks. The kids are safer there, in a smaller resort town with a small school and enough room in the villa for maybe a few more. After the attacks in Edge a lot of people are moving away from the area. Just as well. Midgar sucked the life from this spit of land long, long ago.

Still, that leaves Cloud where he always seems to find himself, in the skeletal remains of something he feels should be remembered but for which he can't quite do much justice. Sometimes it gets bad, really bad, standing at the edge of where the plate had crushed Sector 7, air still stinking of melted beams and mako and turning his stomach when he thinks about just how many people died there. Biggs, Wedge, Jessie...the lady in the item shop who'd passed him a potion for free just because 'ya look too skinny, runt' and Johnny's parents, the gun shop owner who was an asshole but didn't deserve to go like that. He stands there trying to remember them, knowing only Tifa and Barret remain to help him with it and it's just more of the same, more of it all over again. Half in and half out of a past with which he's not sure he should be trusted.

It's the same with Luceti. Already he can't remember how green the trees were, he can't remember what the beer tasted like in the bars because it was different from here. He knows that, he just doesn't know how. He's already forgotten so many names, so many faces, he's forgotten hardships and triumphs. He remembers Zack had a chocobo that he loved and named after his mother but he can't remember her name.

He could go to freakin' Gongaga and find out, but he's too much of a coward to do even that.

"Holy's sake," he mutters to himself, turning on his heel and heading for Aerith's church. He's even annoying himself with his behavior now. Wasn't this what Tifa and Aerith and everybody had been trying to tell him? How long is he going to drag this out? Feeling sorry for himself, burdening himself like this isn't going to help anyone move forward, much less him. If Luceti was just a fever dream-

If it's something he made up in his head, to...to cope somehow, then it's about time he tried to forget it. Or at least time he admitted it. There was no Simon. There was no Nina, there was no Stella. Those things didn't happen, those people didn't exist.

Cloud moves aside the door to the church, still broken off from the struggle with Kadaj (and he'd have to fix that soon, it just doesn't feel right to leave it leaning up against it like a stone sealing a tomb). Night falls a lot quicker around here, the pollution in the air never quite clearing and lending itself to smother the sun as it dies at the end of the day. The church always seems to find the last little rays of sunlight though, so it's no surprise for the inside of the church to be light when the outside is nearing dusk.

Not like this though.

Cloud's hand is on First Tsurugi within seconds as he stares at the pool where the flowers used to be. His chest had tightened because at first it had looked like the glow of magic but no, no. Magic glowed greenish, glowed white and red for summons. This is blue, this is a soft blue, sky blue, a clean water blue that doesn't show up anywhere near the Reactors. More than that, there's a shape in the pool where it's coming from and whatever the properties the water has left (some healing maybe, even after cleansing the Geostigma), glowing isn't one of them.

Cloud takes a few steps forward. And then he stops.

"Stella," he says, gasps out and he's already running, already dropping gracelessly into the water and splashing over to her, wading through the pool and reaching out to pull her up into his arms. It's not possible, it can't be possible, but it's her. He hasn't forgotten her face yet, her name, she's one of the clearest pictures he has of Luceti and it has to be her because her hair is glowing. Right. Right, her people- they're some kind of ocean race or something, she can breathe in the water so it's not like she'd drown and this is Aerith's pool, this is-

Look what I found.

A sound like a giggle trips down Cloud's spine and he shivers, looking behind him though he knows he won't see anything. Was it her? Did Aerith find Stella somehow, in the Lifestream or- How?

Check on her first. She might need help. Cloud fumbles for the mastered Restore materia he carries around and pops it into his bracer, cradling her in the crook of his elbow and letting the rest of her float in the water. That'll do just as much good as a Cure 3, probably. "Stella," he says, louder, more insistently. If she doesn't know him- If she doesn't know him, he'll handle it from there. He'll manage somehow.

Comments

[goldenfirefly]

She'd failed.

That was the last thing she remembered. Stella had stood before the very core of Luceti, ready to take her test... and she'd failed it. The screams of the Ferines overpowered her, rendered her unable to move, unable to do anything. It felt like she couldn't even breathe, her heartbeat overtaken by the blood pounding in her ears.

And when she opened her eyes, the gaping maw of the planet was open, then shutting around her, and everything became nothing.

For a short while.

The first thing Stella became aware of was light behind her eyelids, but there was no way to open them. It was as if she had no physical way to command that simple action. Something... someone was there, and the sensation she felt was matronly, as if she were being pulled into the loving embrace of someone she yearned to know. It was like the embrace of Nerifes when her soul had shattered, and she gladly sank into it. She'd died and had been brought back so many times now... perhaps now, she could be at peace.

Stella.

The sensation was cut off by someone pulling her, the water around her flowing and resisting and pushing with the motion. It faded for a moment, until the healing power of the materia washed over her and brought her senses back. Suddenly there was a warm body against her side, the air was cool yet pleasant against her skin, there was the sound of silence in her ears and - and when she was finally able to open her eyes -

Familiarity.

Stella's head was still swimming, and every part of her felt like lead. But there was a connection to this man, she knew that much, this man with the hair and eyes of a Ferines and yet wasn't. It was a struggle, but Stella still found herself slowly lifting her hand to touch his cheek.

"Cloud?"

It's quiet, barely a whisper, but it's there. Yes, she knows who this is. It's becoming more and more clear to her with every second that passes. This man, this person who became such an important part of her life, was Cloud.