Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Second Life ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

I watched him from the shadows of the small church, located in Sector 5 Slums. I was surprised that one could still get into the Slums after METEOR. But, I was here and I had died as METEOR tried to destroy the world, so anything could be possable. It was fortunate that the one in front of me made it there in time and killed me, so the Planet could take its normal corse again. I looked up to where a tiny but of light came into the old church. Something must of happened here to cause the hole in the celling like that, but it didn't matter to me. What mattered was keeping an eye on the wounded man in front of me. Tears and whimpers would constantly escape him. Shutters and shivers passing through his body like waves of the ocean. I wondered what happened to him, but questions weren't to be asked that night. At least... not by me. I walked out to him, or to be more accurate I stepped out of the shadows into shadows where a little light leaked in. The place was dark, and darker now than it probably ever was because all of Midgar's power had been shut-down and destroyed. Now, it wasn't the hole in the celling that lit the church up like it might have been, but candles the man had set up. Beautiful he was, even in sorrow. I could see him, but he was too lost in the flower in his hands to see me. Where he sat... The hardwood floor was broken away to show a small garden of flowers and green, healthy plants.

Hours passed, a few candles had burnt out by now, making the small sancturay darker. I had sat down near one of the pillars that held the old upper floors up. This place, even in its age was still very enchanting and peaceful. Though, it looked as if in the slightest breath of wind it would collapse. The man I was watching had sat in the same place for that full hour, not moving, not speaking, not anything. I didn't see any changes in his face, his eyes, his emotion. I wondered if he knew I was there with him. I smiled a little. I doubt it, I thought. Then he looked up to me.

Our eyes met, his sapphire with my aqua-marine

Surprise.

Anger.

Remorse.

Death.

Emotions danced within his eyes, and I felt emotions within my own. I wished I could make things right again... I wish I could make up for the things I had done... But no one would forgive me. I... I deserved isolation, hatred, and distrust from the world, didn't I? Why did I let those things get to like I had? Why did I believe what was written in those books? Why did I let her get to me? If I hadn't, then this man before me would have someone to love... As I looked into the man's eyes, I felt him shift the blame off of him and onto me. It was becasue of me that everything went wrong. It was because I attacked Zack and Tifa, her father... The whole town... that everything had happened. It was because I let those books get to me...

Forgive me... I was weak...

"You have a lot of nerve coming here..." He said in a harsh tone. No emtion except pure anger was heard. I was silent as our gazes were still locked. "Leave. Now. This place..." His thoughts seemed to be mixed up. "This was Aeris' place. You of all people should not be in here!"

I stood up slowly and put my hands in the air, to show I ment him no harm. "You are right, I shouldn't. Forgive me for intruding." I hesitated a moment, then moved closer, causing him to reach for one of the candles.

I raised my hand and shook my head. "No need for that..." I made eye contact once more before jumped up through the hole in the roof. I sat down up there, thinking. I looked around at the thrashed Slums of Midgar. I could only imagine what the plate above looked like. The dirt streets were crowded by fallen pieces of the plate, garbage, dead corpses... It was sickening to look at, and I caused it all. I caused so many deaths. I shivered with the sickening feeling of guilt. I was a murderer. A cold hearted murderer. I looked down as the man left the church. "Cloud..." I whispered. "I'm sorry..."

I paced back and forth in the living room of an abandoned house by the sea. How could I get the world to forgive me? Or should I change myself and take on a new identety? That was possable.... Logical... And easy. Many "criminals" before me have done it. 50% chance no one will recgonize me. Colored contacts, hair-cut and colored, new wardrobe... New name... I walked across the bare room, floor creeking under my feet, to a dusty wall where my sword rested upon contently. I put his hand on the hilt, runing my fingers down it. Once my hand was at the base of the blade, I picked it up and swung it slowly with a rotation of my wrist. Good thing that living room had a high celling. Good thing nothing crouded the room. I contiued to practice slowly with the sword, practice some art called a Sword Dance, for that was all it was. Basically like martial arts looked more like a dance when taught and practiced than it did when it was put in action. After I was done I looked down at my only friend. The only one that ever really listened.

"I have one more thing to ask of you, my dear friend," the sword seemed to gleam in response. "I need you to never crave that taste of blood... ever again..." With that I took the sword and cut all but a foot of my hair off. Long silver strands fell to the ground around my feet. I leaned over and picked it all up. After wading it all up, it kind of looked like a creature with sliver hair poofing out at all sides. "Foolish," I chuckled as the thought processed in my head. I walked outside and put the hair in a pile. Birds would take it to make their nests. It was that time of year again... Time where life started again from where winter left everything dead. And he, too, was going to resprout himself and grow to a better person like the wildlife of the Planet.

I walked back in and tried to think on how I was going to get his hair a different color, and what color. With a color in mind and no other distractions, I left the small house to the closest town... Nebelhiem.

At first I didn't realise it was Nebelheim since, from my memory, it had been burnt down. I didn't notice until I saw the mansion. The mansion where it all started... Where the books were... My body froze. Guilt and nausia tortured my body. Shakily I turned towards a shop and walked in. It was a very small building, with not a lot of things in it. Luckily there was some sort of hair dye. I walked up to the pudgy blonde woman at the counter and asked if I could buy it. She smiled and nodded as if I were just another person. Innocent person. Did she not know who I was at all? Oh well, I needed the dye and I needed to get out of that town. Out of that town before that memory captured me.

Fire....

Blood....

Death....

I pulled money from my pocket and put it on the counter, all of it, snagged the dye and ran out of the shop as fast as I could, yelling, "Keep the change!" I had to get out of there. That memory... It was starting to hurt physically. My body ached everywhere, my head pounded like a hammer on steel. I whimpered soflty as I got out of the town. Oh, did my head hurt. I fell on my hands and knees, panting and gasping in pain. Everything around me grew blurry, then it went away just as fast as it had come. I could see blades of grass in front of my nose as clear as day. I shook my head and got up slowly, unsurely, carefully. I started to walk back to my house when a group of men... a total of 4. I kept walking, looking at the tall Black man, then I realised who was in that group of merry men. Barret, Cloud, Cid, and Vincent. We were abou an hour away from each other, but I could see them easily thanks to the Mako treatment I was put though.

I could change a little in that time. Hair dye takes only... I looked down at the box. 20 minutes... I had some time. I ran to the little pond of water. Clean or not, I didn't care. I ripped open the box and looked for the instructions. All I found was the dye tubes and a pair of plastic gloves. I looked around to see if I could find it, but I didn't see it anywhere. Where could it've gone? Oh well, couldn't be too hard... I broke open one of the tubes and looked at the back. "The two tubes mixd together... shake... and I better be doing this right..." I took off my shirt and started to put it in my hair, and slowly but surely I got it all in there. I looked at my watch. Ten mintues had passed already. I looked down at my shirt, an glad to see that it hadn't got any of the dye on it.

I came up from under the water, getting the last of the conditioner from my hair. My hair was now a rich brown. I looked at the color and put thought into it. Wasn't that bad. Wasn't too light, nor too dark. I shook my hair out and walked to my shirt. There was talking close by. They started to pass by me as I put on my shirt. One of them had made a remark to the others, but the all seemed to ignore him. The disguise worked, only Vincent... The red eyed one... He looked at me with narrowed eyes as if he could see through my own eyes. It was a very unsettling feeling. I raised an eyebrow, hiding all the nervous and guilty emotions and walked on to my house.

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