Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Gift ❯ Prologue

A/N (which is always longer than the prologue): Having recently finished the game (in the half-assed way that I just blew through it as fast as I could, most likely missing a ton of important stuff, though it still ended up being turned back to the video store about a week late - thank god Video Library pro-rates. Some day I'll actually buy the game and play it properly), I spontaneously got about four fic ideas - which is entirely typical for my fic-muse, Shonia, who likes to obsess about one fandom for a while before focusing on something else. This is actually the second fic I wrote; the first, a short introspective thingy, will likely not be published because I decided to take many ideas from it and fit them into other stories - like this one - with the Sephiroth/Cloud pairing (as opposed to Sephiroth/Zach), where they work a lot better.

Now, while we're on the subject of pairings, the only pairing for this that I have planned is Sephiroth/Cloud - Cloud/Sephiroth and mainly it's in flashbacks; other pairings are possible.

Another thing I have no idea about is the plot. All I have is a situation at the moment, but I figure I'll come up with a plot around chapter 6, and then have to go back and revise everything I've written up 'til then (I always do if the story is going to be more than 6 chapters, which this one almost certainly will be). So, yeah, I'm basically flying by the seat of my pants and hoping for the best.

Lemee see...is there anything else I can say about this without giving things away...? Nope; though I'd like to take this opportunity to comment that if Square doesn't let me watch Advent Children in Japanese a few people are going to become...intimately...acquainted with my ankle boots - if the narrator for the English trailer is any indication I want absolutely nothing to do with the dub (hell, if FFX was any indication... ::strangles Tidus and Seymour's VAs::).

Yeah, okay, I'm done ranting (for now).

Final note:

-:- Text -:- = Telepathic speech

Block of text = Flashbacks - there will be a lot of these in the course of the fic.

Now, on with the fic!

The Gift
Prologue

-:- Cloud... -:-
Cloud's eyes snapped open as the all-too-familiar voice rang inside his head. He forced his frozen lungs to draw a breath, and then slowly sat up in bed, gripping the sheets tightly in an attempt to stop himself from shaking.
Four deep breaths later, the blonde man was ready to dismiss the voice as nothing more than the remnant of a dream, but then it came again.
-:- Cloud. -:-
Unmistakable this time.
"Sephiroth..." Cloud felt like someone had poured ice water down his back. "It can't be!" he whispered urgently.
-:- Cloud. Come. -:-
In response to the command, Cloud drew into a ball; arms wrapped around legs, fingernails digging into shins deeply enough to draw blood. He fully expected his body to start acting of it's own volition; that he'd suddenly get up from the bed and go...wherever it was that Sephiroth wanted him to go.
Nothing happened.
It was a command, yes, but Cloud was not compelled against his will to obey it.
-:- To Mideel. -:-
Cloud clenched his eyes shut, trying not to hear the voice.
-:- Come! -:-
"No."
-:- Come, Cloud! You must! -:-
"No! I won't!"
A feeling much like a sigh rippled through Cloud's being.
-:- There isn't much time, Cloud. -:- The voice was softer, almost gentle. -:- You must come to Mideel. -:-