![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Rising
Author: GW Katrina aka![[insanejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/ij-userinfo.gif)
icedark_elf
Beta:skeren
Series: Nibelheim Burning
Wordcount: 1,525
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Crazy Zack? Though if you have read the others, you should know this.
Rising
He remembered his mother. She loved to smile. Everyone said he had gotten her smile, which was fine by him. He looked a lot like her anyway, and he knew it.
"How do you end up in scrapes like this?" she'd ask, bandaging a knee, kissing a red mark on his arm, patching up injuries he had given himself as he tried to do something new, or explore someplace he'd never been.
His mom would always be there, ready to help him. He knew it, and something in him relaxed as she murmured over him now.
"It's bad. I'm not sure how much I -can- fix...."
"You'll try though, right?"
When winter came, it was always a miserable time of year. Cooped up in the house as the rain came down, and he couldn't go outside. When he got older, that went away some, but there really wasn't much to do unless you liked to end up doused in freezing rain.
At least it was clean. He'd miss that when he went to Midgar.
"It's possible this might do what we need it to do."
"Fine. Prepare him and it and see what you can salvage."
Midgar was a dark, nasty place. Coming from a reactor town, he knew what kind of ick the mako reactors could produce, but it was concentrated here. With so many reactors, and more people than he had ever seen, he hadn't known what to do. Other than focus on the tests that they all ran through as Shin-Ra weeded out those they didn't find desirable.
And it took a lot of focusing. He wasn't going to go back, not after how he had left. He was going to prove he could do this, and he wouldn't let some test kick him out.
Green. It was all over the place, and there were murmurs all around. He shifted, trying to get away from the voices, but there were hands on him, and he couldn't get away from them.
"It'll be fine. I promise."
At first, he had looked at the snow covered mountains in disbelief. They had crashed. Of all things to expect, crashing in a helicopter had not been one of them.
At least there was someone else to talk to as they had left the Turk and the other trooper behind.
It had been nice to meet another country boy, especially one willing to talk with him. The mountains were quiet, and it would have gotten boring really fast just walking silently.
Even if there were more than a few monster attacks.
"It appears to be working."
He didn't know that voice, but it didn't matter. He had more important things to do. Like trying to remember who he was, remember what he was supposed to do.
It was hard, with all the voices in the green, whispering, talking, speaking of things he didn't know and didn't understand.
It was so hard to focus.
So he just drifted.
Once they had found each other, gotten used to one another, it was hard to find one and the other not be close by. If Zack went to visit Aeris, Cloud would often be one step behind, smiling almost as brightly as the older teen. Or shaking his head, eyes rolling, as Zack told some wild story to Sephiroth. Or Zack would be watching as Cloud went through some exercise, grinning proudly. Sometimes, he'd be there, lounging around, answering questions about being SOLDIER.
They fit together in a way that made Aeris jealous, so she teased them, but it was somewhat true.
So why did things feel so odd now?
"You can't go. I promised I'd bring you back. You aren't allowed to die, do you understand!"
An angry, fearful voice, and a grip that wouldn't let go.
He wasn't trying to leave, but pain was everywhere suddenly, drowning out everything, the voices, even the one who was angry with him, and everything went sickly green.
Sometimes, he wondered.
Were his parents proud of him?
Did his mom still smile?
"His heart rate is off the scale."
Suddenly, everything jolted, and he tried to twist, to pull away from the things that held him here, when all he wanted to do was sleep.
Then, there was a voice. "I thought you were more stubborn than this."
An angry hiss. Why it was angry, he didn't know.
But it did make him want to prove that he was as stubborn as they said.
His dad was less of a powerful memory, though he loved him as well. But he wondered, what did he think? What would he have thought about what had happened in Nibelheim. Of what had happened before. Shin-Ra's treachery wasn't unknown to their family, yet he had gone to them anyway.
Would his dad have been proud of what his son had done?
There was something there, something he could almost reach, but it never seemed to get close enough. Something kept him away. Two things, repulsed by each other, seemed to keep him from touching the thing that called to him.
Then the voices all ran together.
WakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP!
So, he did.
///
Aeris never felt such a powerful wave of relief as she did at the moment that Cloud opened his eyes, the blue almost glowing. Not unexpected, of course. They were in one of the many pools of lifestream that littered the Nibel area. Cloud's mother had shown her this when she had first tried to heal Cloud and realized just how extensive the damage was.
But she had more resources than she came with, and once Cloud was in the pool, Aeris right beside him, she had curled around him, mentally and physically, as only she could.
It had been...hard.
She couldn't understand the voices, not well. The human ones wouldn't have been so hard, but there were so many that it was near impossible to separate them. A thousand, a hundred thousand times worse than living in Midgar. The shock of being immersed in them was worse than when she had fallen when she was eleven and gave herself a concussion.
And it wasn't as if the Cetra were any better, murmuring and saying something in words she couldn't understand.
If she had been able, she would have kicked all of them.
But the only thing she could do was focus on Cloud, on reminding his body what it was supposed to be like, then searching for him in the endless stream of green and voices. She attracted some, parents who had lost their own children, lovers who had lost those they loved, friends who had died far from each other. All of them knew the pain of losing the ones you cared for, and they felt their pain echoed in her.
Humanity sometimes amazed her.
They had helped, calling to Cloud as well. They had helped, and she knew it was because, for once, they could spare someone the pain that had hurt them.
These were the ones who gave her hope, but she knew that her hope was probably in vain as long as Shin-Ra ruled.
It didn't matter. Not right now. Right now, all that did matter were the blue, blue eyes that looked at her, recognition in them.
She smiled at Cloud, tears in her eyes, then looked to those who sat at the edge.
"We can get him out now."
Nidara's look of relief was a match for her own, and Sephiroth....
Sephiroth's eyes lightened some, but the blank expression on his face didn't shift one bit. Later, she'd kick him in the shin and make him explain what happened.
At the moment, all she wanted was to get out of the pool, into clean clothes, and to curl around Cloud and keep him right here. When he was settled, she'd find out her answers. Until then, she would work on making sure he wasn't too damaged by the sheer amount of exposure he had to the lifeblood of the planet.
Later, she would mourn for the one who was gone.
"He's going to be okay."
///
Hojo frowned as the man in the tube opened his eyes, then shut them again.
How was he supposed to get answers if the man refused to wake up?
No matter. For now, Fair was in the mako tank, and there he would stay until Hojo decided what to do with him. For a while, it had been touch and go, but the man had, somehow, survived.
Impressive.
Hojo still had plans on finding out exactly what had happened in the reactor. There were signs of Bolt being cast, and it had done a fine job of erasing all the reading and recording of the last several weeks of reactor information. Still, the Turk that had reported in had done her job in keeping the man alive. And as long as he lived, Hojo had him.
Eventually, Hojo would get his answers.
Wow, it's been a while since I've worked on this one. I forgot how much fun it is to be evil like this.
Author: GW Katrina aka
icedark_elfBeta:
skerenSeries: Nibelheim Burning
Wordcount: 1,525
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Crazy Zack? Though if you have read the others, you should know this.
Rising
He remembered his mother. She loved to smile. Everyone said he had gotten her smile, which was fine by him. He looked a lot like her anyway, and he knew it.
"How do you end up in scrapes like this?" she'd ask, bandaging a knee, kissing a red mark on his arm, patching up injuries he had given himself as he tried to do something new, or explore someplace he'd never been.
His mom would always be there, ready to help him. He knew it, and something in him relaxed as she murmured over him now.
"It's bad. I'm not sure how much I -can- fix...."
"You'll try though, right?"
When winter came, it was always a miserable time of year. Cooped up in the house as the rain came down, and he couldn't go outside. When he got older, that went away some, but there really wasn't much to do unless you liked to end up doused in freezing rain.
At least it was clean. He'd miss that when he went to Midgar.
"It's possible this might do what we need it to do."
"Fine. Prepare him and it and see what you can salvage."
Midgar was a dark, nasty place. Coming from a reactor town, he knew what kind of ick the mako reactors could produce, but it was concentrated here. With so many reactors, and more people than he had ever seen, he hadn't known what to do. Other than focus on the tests that they all ran through as Shin-Ra weeded out those they didn't find desirable.
And it took a lot of focusing. He wasn't going to go back, not after how he had left. He was going to prove he could do this, and he wouldn't let some test kick him out.
Green. It was all over the place, and there were murmurs all around. He shifted, trying to get away from the voices, but there were hands on him, and he couldn't get away from them.
"It'll be fine. I promise."
At first, he had looked at the snow covered mountains in disbelief. They had crashed. Of all things to expect, crashing in a helicopter had not been one of them.
At least there was someone else to talk to as they had left the Turk and the other trooper behind.
It had been nice to meet another country boy, especially one willing to talk with him. The mountains were quiet, and it would have gotten boring really fast just walking silently.
Even if there were more than a few monster attacks.
"It appears to be working."
He didn't know that voice, but it didn't matter. He had more important things to do. Like trying to remember who he was, remember what he was supposed to do.
It was hard, with all the voices in the green, whispering, talking, speaking of things he didn't know and didn't understand.
It was so hard to focus.
So he just drifted.
Once they had found each other, gotten used to one another, it was hard to find one and the other not be close by. If Zack went to visit Aeris, Cloud would often be one step behind, smiling almost as brightly as the older teen. Or shaking his head, eyes rolling, as Zack told some wild story to Sephiroth. Or Zack would be watching as Cloud went through some exercise, grinning proudly. Sometimes, he'd be there, lounging around, answering questions about being SOLDIER.
They fit together in a way that made Aeris jealous, so she teased them, but it was somewhat true.
So why did things feel so odd now?
"You can't go. I promised I'd bring you back. You aren't allowed to die, do you understand!"
An angry, fearful voice, and a grip that wouldn't let go.
He wasn't trying to leave, but pain was everywhere suddenly, drowning out everything, the voices, even the one who was angry with him, and everything went sickly green.
Sometimes, he wondered.
Were his parents proud of him?
Did his mom still smile?
"His heart rate is off the scale."
Suddenly, everything jolted, and he tried to twist, to pull away from the things that held him here, when all he wanted to do was sleep.
Then, there was a voice. "I thought you were more stubborn than this."
An angry hiss. Why it was angry, he didn't know.
But it did make him want to prove that he was as stubborn as they said.
His dad was less of a powerful memory, though he loved him as well. But he wondered, what did he think? What would he have thought about what had happened in Nibelheim. Of what had happened before. Shin-Ra's treachery wasn't unknown to their family, yet he had gone to them anyway.
Would his dad have been proud of what his son had done?
There was something there, something he could almost reach, but it never seemed to get close enough. Something kept him away. Two things, repulsed by each other, seemed to keep him from touching the thing that called to him.
Then the voices all ran together.
WakeupwakeupwakeupWAKEUP!
So, he did.
Aeris never felt such a powerful wave of relief as she did at the moment that Cloud opened his eyes, the blue almost glowing. Not unexpected, of course. They were in one of the many pools of lifestream that littered the Nibel area. Cloud's mother had shown her this when she had first tried to heal Cloud and realized just how extensive the damage was.
But she had more resources than she came with, and once Cloud was in the pool, Aeris right beside him, she had curled around him, mentally and physically, as only she could.
It had been...hard.
She couldn't understand the voices, not well. The human ones wouldn't have been so hard, but there were so many that it was near impossible to separate them. A thousand, a hundred thousand times worse than living in Midgar. The shock of being immersed in them was worse than when she had fallen when she was eleven and gave herself a concussion.
And it wasn't as if the Cetra were any better, murmuring and saying something in words she couldn't understand.
If she had been able, she would have kicked all of them.
But the only thing she could do was focus on Cloud, on reminding his body what it was supposed to be like, then searching for him in the endless stream of green and voices. She attracted some, parents who had lost their own children, lovers who had lost those they loved, friends who had died far from each other. All of them knew the pain of losing the ones you cared for, and they felt their pain echoed in her.
Humanity sometimes amazed her.
They had helped, calling to Cloud as well. They had helped, and she knew it was because, for once, they could spare someone the pain that had hurt them.
These were the ones who gave her hope, but she knew that her hope was probably in vain as long as Shin-Ra ruled.
It didn't matter. Not right now. Right now, all that did matter were the blue, blue eyes that looked at her, recognition in them.
She smiled at Cloud, tears in her eyes, then looked to those who sat at the edge.
"We can get him out now."
Nidara's look of relief was a match for her own, and Sephiroth....
Sephiroth's eyes lightened some, but the blank expression on his face didn't shift one bit. Later, she'd kick him in the shin and make him explain what happened.
At the moment, all she wanted was to get out of the pool, into clean clothes, and to curl around Cloud and keep him right here. When he was settled, she'd find out her answers. Until then, she would work on making sure he wasn't too damaged by the sheer amount of exposure he had to the lifeblood of the planet.
Later, she would mourn for the one who was gone.
"He's going to be okay."
Hojo frowned as the man in the tube opened his eyes, then shut them again.
How was he supposed to get answers if the man refused to wake up?
No matter. For now, Fair was in the mako tank, and there he would stay until Hojo decided what to do with him. For a while, it had been touch and go, but the man had, somehow, survived.
Impressive.
Hojo still had plans on finding out exactly what had happened in the reactor. There were signs of Bolt being cast, and it had done a fine job of erasing all the reading and recording of the last several weeks of reactor information. Still, the Turk that had reported in had done her job in keeping the man alive. And as long as he lived, Hojo had him.
Eventually, Hojo would get his answers.
Wow, it's been a while since I've worked on this one. I forgot how much fun it is to be evil like this.
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Creative Recreation