Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Nightmare ❯ III ( Chapter 3 )

Nightmare

By: Akiko

Chpt. III -

Disclaimer: The Characters in this story are not mine and are the property of Square-Enix. But, the story and the idea, are mine. Thank you.

“A bad dream?” the man repeated, blinking his crimson eyes as he watched the blonde in front of him. “Do you wish to talk about it?”

Cloud shook his head. “No, that's all right,” he told Vincent and stood up, running a hand through his messy blonde hair. “Was there something you wanted?”

“I stopped by to see how you were doing, considering I was in the area. Tifa called me and said she hasn't seen very much of you lately. She's worried,” he explained, lifting his head up a bit so more of his face was visible.

“She's always worried,” Cloud mentioned as he walked towards the kitchen., only to get Vincent's hand snatching his wrist lightly, causing him to glance back at the man. “What?”

“She's worried Cloud, she hasn't been able to keep in contact with you since you lost your phone during that fight with Kadaj and the others. Don't you think you should visit her? Calm her worries down?”

“I can't right now,” the blonde stated, looking towards the ground slightly and closing his eyes as his hair slipped forward.

“What's that reason, Cloud? We've always helped each other through difficult times, even when the person didn't ask for help.”

Cloud kept silent for a moment, his eyes reopening but his gaze remaining on the ground. There was a long moment of silence before Cloud broke it with a soft voice. “Sephiroth,” he stated simply. “Sephiroth is the reason.”

Vincent's hand dropped back to his side, releasing Cloud's wrist. “Sephiroth is your reason as to why you won't go and visit the others? What is it that would make them worry more about you?” the gunman inquired.

Cloud shifted his weight from one leg to another before turning around and letting his glowing blue eyes meet with Vincent's unnatural crimson ones. “I've been having flashes of my past,” he told him. “They've all been things that I hated, and they've all revolved around Sephiroth. The memories of Aeris dying, those eyes, his smirk, Kadaj's death, the recent battle with him, getting shot by Yazoo..” Cloud paused for a moment, shifting his weight once more, but seeming more uncomfortable than he had before. “Then there have been the dreams… rather nightmares… with Sephiroth actually in them. Fighting…”

“It's normal to feel guilty about things, Cloud, more so when it comes to the recent events that happened. Kadaj was a spirit fooled by Jenova, he was young and child-like,” Vincent started but paused when he noticed Cloud shaking his head.

“It's not that I feel guilty,” Cloud spoke, watching the ground with a thoughtful expression. “It's not my own choice to have these dreams… nightmares… flashbacks, I have no control over them and they happen at anytime of the day and anywhere.”

Vincent watched Cloud, being slightly shocked at all of this, but of course keeping his reactions well hidden, like always. “Sounds complicated,” he spoke softly, not sure quite what else he could say.

“You could say that…” Cloud muttered, running a hand through his hair once more, closing his eyes. He couldn't exactly tell Vincent what actually happened in any of those nightmares, well, in the latest one anyways. “And sometimes.. they feel so real..” Cloud murmured and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a soda out of the fridge.

“Those are the worst,” Vincent spoke in his soft toned voice. He closed his eyes as he shifted his weight once more. Reopening those deeply set crimson eyes he glanced at the window, noticing the nighttime starting to emerge. “I'll get going now,” he told Cloud, looking towards the kitchen and watching the blonde appear from the doorway.

Strife leaned his shoulder against the frame of the doorway leading to the kitchen and just nodded, taking a sip of his soda. He watched Vincent give a small nod, nodding back, and then watched him walk to the window and basically vanish once he was out of it. “Never knew how he did that,” he muttered to himself.

“So, Tifa's worried about me? Just because she couldn't get a hold of me?” He gave a soft laugh, running a hand through his hair again before shaking his head. “She worries too much,” he smiled softly before walking to his window and watching the sky.

“Miss me?” came a dark, cold and mocking voice from behind Cloud. The blonde whipped around to find no one there. He looked to his right and to his left, blonde hair slipping into his eyes and having a confused look to them. “What?” he questioned himself softly before he shook his head. “I'm hearin--”

Cloud grabbed his head, closing his eyes as he felt pain pounding inside of his head. He fell to his knees, closing his eyes tighter and bit his bottom lip to keep himself from crying out in pain. He took in heavy breathes of air, trying to get rid of the pain.

A gloved hand snatched his chin and forced his head up. “You look to be in such pain, niisan,” came a soft voice.

Cloud opened his eyes a bit to find Mako green eyes staring down at him, but not the same as the ones in his flashbacks, these ones were softer looking, not hard and cold, they had a playful, child-like look to them. The silver hair brushed over the man's shoulder, but it wasn't as long, it barely hit the male's shoulder.

“Ka-Kadaj?” Cloud got out, his hands on the floor beside him now, but still trying to fight off the pain from his head.

The boy just smiled, he didn't look to be any older than a teenager. “Sephiroth-sama is having fun toying with you,” he explained and kneeled down.

Cloud moved a hand up to smack Kadaj's away, only for the teen to grab his wrist with his free hand. “Niisan, that's not nice,” the teen exclaimed, giving a small frown. “Sephiroth-sama wouldn't be happy with that,” he told him.

“So why the hell are you here?” Cloud asked, suppressing a growl as he glared at Kadaj.

“Because, Sephiroth-sama wanted me to finish up the job. I really don't care to though,” he sighed and stood up, walking around in a circle around the blonde. “But I'm the only one of the three that can hear Sephiroth-sama so clearly, so I'm the one who has to do it, he said.”

“So, because Sephiroth said you had to do something you're going to do it?” Cloud questioned, only to watch the teen nod. “So, you'll play Sephiroth's puppet this time around, huh? Let him pull all the strings instead,” Cloud pushed.

“I'm playing his puppet now just like you played it before me,” Kadaj explained, placing his boot to Cloud's chest and shoving his back against the ground, hard, and gaining a gasp of air from the ex soldier. “I have to, otherwise Sephiroth-sama won't leave me alone, niisan,” Kadaj sighed, pulling his foot from the blonde's chest and walking around him in a circle again.

“Yea, Sephiroth can be a pain in the ass that way, not leaving you alone even after the bastard's already dead,” Cloud growled and sat back up, and moved to stand, only to get more pain surging through his head, causing him to stay on his knees.

“Sephiroth-sama didn't like that comment, niisan, but it didn't surprise him that you would say something like that,” the teen sighed, ignoring the silver strands of hair that fell in front of his right eye. He then used his boot to shove Cloud's back against the ground again, but this time he straddled the blonde, his gloved hands managing to keep the blonde's wrists against the floor. Kadaj didn't have brute strength, that wasn't his department, but with the pain in Strife's head, it was enough to let the fragile looking teen to over-power him.

Cloud struggled a bit, trying to move, but stopped dead when he looked up again, finding that the Mako eyes he had seen before looked more cold and hard, more like glowing orbs than before, that silver hair was flowing over the black leather outfit that any of them wore and that those silver bangs were brushing over his cheeks. A sickening smirk crossed those lips. It wasn't Kadaj that was holding him down anymore.