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Ranma and Final Fantasy VII Crossover » Dreams of an Angel
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Author of 4 Stories |
Waz’zup guys! Missed me? Hehehe!!!
Anyway, before anything else, I just wanted to first rant about what a shitty last week of September I had. If you’ve been tuning in on CNN or any other news station that covers international events then you should be aware of the fact that my country got seriously FUCKED UP by two typhoons! The 1st floor of our house was literally underwater! Damn!!! It was like fucking Waterworld out there. I even had like three REALLY REALLY close calls too since the water current was so damn strong (and I was also stupid enough to go outside to see if there were any stores open **total dumbAss moment**)! And the worst part was that the original drafts of this chapter got washed out by the water so I had to redo everything from scratch (T_T). But on the bright, at least none of us got killed! And most importantly the 2010 season’s about to start (Ron-Ron gonna lock somebody the FUCK UP!!!). Anyway, here’s Chapter 21. P.S. Make Sure To Read Through All of IT before commenting!
CHAPTER 21
‘Is this what you really wanted, Cloud..?’ the raven-haired girl spoke with a heavy heart as she tightly held onto the small hand of a little girl with brown hair and equally brown eyes who carried a bouquet of Aloe flowers.
The silence of the church where the two of them stood mirrored the melancholy that they and the others who were with them felt; their collective gazes staring at the familiar bed of lilies. These white and yellow blossoms that were once tended to by the flower girl herself had continued to thrive even without the care and guidance of others.
This church that had stood the test of time remained unchanged, the old wooden pews were still there and so too was that great hole at the top of its roof wherein the light of the sun shone through. The light from the morning star illuminated a rather new piece that was not present in this old church before… It was a white marble slab that served to mark the grave where it stood as the eternal resting place of someone whose life had come to an end. At it’s front were engrave the following words:
CLOUD STRIFE
(1987-2012)
YOU WILL FOREVER BE MISSED…
The little girl carrying the bouquet of Aloe blossoms gently frees herself from the older woman’s grasp and slowly walks to the front of the grave, laying her gift with utmost care.
The others start to follow suit; they too carried flowers of their own that they intended to offer as a token of farewell to their fallen comrade.
A black male who had a prosthetic gun arm in the place of his right hand was the first to place his gift on the grave, positioning it just beside the bouquet that the little girl had laid down just previously.
‘You an idiot, you know that..?’ he said though his voice was without spite. ‘And I wuz too…’
‘Damn kid!’ the blonde pilot that was with them cursed after placing his offering as well. ‘I wish you were still here so I could kick your ass for making me this goddamn sad!’
The female ninja who had been doing her best to suppress the flood of emotions trapped within her finally burst into tears, turning her gaze from the grave and burying her head onto the chest of the pale-skinned man beside her. The man’s golden claw wraps over the young ninja’s head as he softly threw the flower that he held on his other hand onto the cold ground where his fallen friend lay.
The fiery-tailed wolf for his part offered a prayer, wishing that his comrade’s soul would find peace at last, though if what the elders had said to them bore any semblance of truth, then he feared that his prayer may not be enough.
Soon they begin to leave, slowly making their way out of the church one-by-one until only three of them remained. The black male from before, who had decided to finally go on his way as well, walks over to the little girl and tried to convince her to go with him as well.
‘Come on Marlene, we gotta go…’ he tells her adopted daughter.
‘I wanna stay here a little longer, Dad. Can’t I?’ she requested as her eyes remained glued to the grave.
‘Alright.’ the man answers granting his child’s request. He looks to the direction of the raven-haired young woman that stood not far from where they were. He gives her a slight nod; it was his way of telling her to look after his daughter in his place. Afterwards, he starts to make his way towards the exit as well, leaving the two girls to themselves.
A long and depressing silence reigns over the two girls like a dark cloud, neither of them wishing to break it. They simply stood there, trapped in their own quiet contemplation as their thoughts dwelled upon their memories of a young blonde who had been an important part of their lives.
A male youth whose life had been simply too short for their liking though there was nothing that they could do about it.
The raven-haired woman in particular seemed to be quite saddened as she reminisced about that moment where in she and her companions had found him.
She could still remember it so vividly… the snow pouring down from the heavens, blowing in all directions, obscuring her vision as she tried to look out the window of the airship that had served as both their shelter and transport.
And then suddenly, as if an unknown force had guided her sight… her garnet-red eyes see it… the flash of metal as it reflected the search lights of their ship.
She could still hear herself shouting at the blonde pilot that captained their flying vessel to land quickly, her voice shrill and with such a deep sense of urgency.
She could still recall how she stumbled through the thick snow, her nails frantically digging the snow-covered ground…
And most importantly… no matter how hard she tried…
She could never forget the feeling of grief and loss as she cradled the dead blue-eyed blonde in her arms. His skin and flesh that was once warm and pulsating with life… cold… his heart no longer beating… his blue orbs forever hidden behind its closed lids…
In that one night, she cried a lifetime’s worth of tears. She and the others had searched for him for the better part of three years with every intention of convincing him to abandon his futile quest.
But they were too late… much too late…
As she wallows in her despair, the brown-haired little girl that stood near the grave suddenly speaks from out of the blue.
‘Cloud… lied to us…’ her gaze slowly looks back at the older female that stood just a short distance from where she was. ‘Tifa… How could Cloud lie to us like that..?’
‘No Marlene… It’s… It’s not like that…’ Tifa answers in an apologetic manner. She did not have the slightest idea how she would be able to explain something as complicated as this to her.
‘But he promised…’ the girl named Marlene insists, her eyes without a single tear staining them, yet just by looking at them the raven-haired female could feel her heart shattering. ‘He said that he’d come back after he found onee-chan… but he…’
‘No, that’s not true..!’ she quickly interrupts as she immediately approaches Marlene and kneels down to look at her sad eyes, her hands clutching at the young one’s shoulder.
‘…’
‘Cloud would never intentionally lie to us… especially not to you, Marlene.’ she embraces the young girl, her eyes misting with tears even though she didn’t want them to. ‘Cloud would never lie to you… not to you… It’s just that sometimes this is how things turn out. It may not be fair but… it’s just the way things are.’
As she buries her head on Marlene’s shoulder, the abrupt sound of the door opening catches both of their attention. They focus their gaze on the new arrival, a middle-aged gentleman with very slick black hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard who was attired in a rather business-like manner. Closely following the man was what looked to be a stuffed-toy in the form of a black cat with a golden crown atop its head, in its hand it carried a bouquet of flowers.
‘Reeves?’ Tifa says as she starts to recognize who their guest was.
‘I’m sorry if I came at a bad time… May I enter?’ the man asked for the older female’s permission.
‘Of course.’ she tells him as she stands whilst wiping the remaining traces of tears in her garnet-red eyes.
The man named Reeves begins to approach the front of the grave. As he stood side-by-side with the two females, he starts to pay his respects to the fallen youth while the stuffed-toy cat with him lays the flowers that it carried in its hand.
‘May you finally find the peace that you have been searching for… Cloud.’ he prays in silence as he bows his head.
After offering his tribute he then looks to the raven-haired young lady beside him who had a rather quizzical look on her face.
‘Where are the others?’ he asked.
‘They just left close to half an hour ago.’ she answers.
‘Is that so… Do you think you can gather all of them in one place as soon as possible?’
‘Yeah, I guess… Why?’
‘That’s good.’ He slowly reaches for his pocket and draws out a frayed envelope that he then hands to Tifa. Take it and read it to the others as well.
‘What is this?’
‘It’s a letter that Cloud gave me before he left.’
‘A letter… from Cloud..!’ she says, shock and surprise playing in her eyes.
‘He told me to give it to you if anything were to ever happen to him.’
She stares at the letter in her hand, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.
This letter contained the blonde-haired Strife’s will… His last wish…
‘Kasumi..?’ a male voice suddenly calls out from behind her, prompting the worried maiden to look back.
‘Father.’ she says in recognition of the man who had drawn her attention, his long dark hair and prominent mustache quite familiar to her.
‘Why are you still up? Everyone’s resting in their rooms now; you should be doing the same.’
‘Maybe later.’ she speaks with a slight smile though this gesture would not be enough to fool the keen senses of her parent. ‘I want to wait for Akane for a little while longer.’
‘I see… Then I’m going to wait for her here as well.’
The brown haired maiden, Kasumi, was not at all shocked by her father’s choice. After all, she had always known him as a loving parent. She slightly nods at him as her gaze returns to the forest outside.
The two of them continue to wait for the young Tendo, unmindful as the seconds turn into minutes. After awhile however, Kasumi hears her father speak about a rather strange subject.
‘You know… I’ve been thinking about this for quite sometime now.’ he slowly lowers his head and looks down on to the ground. ‘In a way… this is all my fault.’
‘…Father?’
‘If I hadn’t made that agreement with Genma, then Akane and Ranma… those two wouldn’t have met each other… And if they hadn’t met then we wouldn’t be here right now… my daughter’s wouldn’t need to suffer this much, especially Akane… We’d all probably be back home, drinking a cup of warm tea and eating dinner…’
‘…’
‘I guess I really am a bad father…’ the old male speaks in a rather somber tone. ‘I promised your mother that I would take care of all three of you… but instead I placed my craft ahead of my own children… how pitiful…’
‘Father, please don’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong.’
‘You’re a good daughter, Kasumi.’ he slowly places his hand on top of his daughter’s head just as he used to many years ago when this young woman before him was just a little girl. ‘I’m truly lucky to have been blessed with a child like you. But I’ve made up my mind… After Akane comes back, I’m going to apologize to her… and then I’m going to ask her to forget about her engagement with Ranma.’
‘I’m sorry but… I don’t think she’d agree to something like that…’
‘What do you mean, Kasumi?’ her father asked, very perplexed.
‘Akane… she loves Ranma too much to let him go. And it’s ending up hurting both of them.’
‘Kasumi, I’ve wanted to ask you this for quite some time now… It seems that unlike your sister, Nabiki, you’re not angry at Ranma at all. Why is that?’
She gently embraces herself as a cold breeze kisses her skin.
‘No matter how hard I try, and even though I’m on Akane’s side on this matter, I just can’t seem to bring myself to hate him…’
‘Why? What’s your reason?’ he interrogates his daughter a little further.
‘…It’s because of his eyes, I guess.’ she answered cryptically. ‘Staring at them and seeing just how sad they seem to look is enough to make me sad as well. It’s like he’s suffered and gone through so much… there’s no way that I would want to wish badly of someone who’s already in so much pain.’
‘…’
‘And also…’ she continues on. ‘I do think that he really does love Akane. I might be biased being that she is my sister, but I really believe that… It’s just that it seems that he loves Aeris as well.’
‘Kasumi… I…-’
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of rustling leaves accompanied by hurried footsteps. Both their gazes travel to the source of the noise, just in time to see a blue-haired girl quickly running towards them.
‘A-Akane?’ Kasumi speaks; surprised as her youngest sister abruptly embraces her. But what caught her attention the most was the tears that ran through the youth’s cheeks and stained her clothes as Akane buries her head onto her chest. ‘What’s wrong..?’
The young Tendo raises her head. But instead of seeing sadness and grief on her face… the complete opposite was present.
She was… smiling.
There was a bright twinkle in her eyes as her face exuded absolute glee. Those tears that she was shedding were not that of loss and pain but rather of happiness and joy.
‘We’re going home…’ she whispers to the older female, the exuberance in her voice apparent. ‘We’re all going back to Nerima… and Ranma’s coming back with us!’
‘W-What!!?’ their father quickly responds in both shock and confusion.
‘I was able to make him promise. He told me to tell the others…He told me that we were going home.’
‘T-That… That’s… That’s wonderful news!!!’ the Tendo patriarch quickly shouts. ‘Well done, Akane!!!’
Kasumi turns to the older male. ‘But father, I thought you said that-…’
‘Oh, about that… I was just… err… We better tell everyone to get ready. Yes, I’m going to tell Genma the good news right now..!’ he blabbers nervously as he makes a run towards the stairs.
‘Kasumi, what were you two talking about?’ Akane asked.
‘It was nothing at all. Don’t worry.’ the eldest of the Tendo sisters answered with an innocent smile on her face. ‘But all things aside, I’m happy for you Akane…’
The blue-haired Tendo tightens her embrace on her beloved sister.
‘He picked me… He really did…’
‘…It’s time.’ a rather stern voice echoes from the entrance of the shrine.
He slowly looks back and sees the demonic figure that stood not far from him. He stands, his eyes remained glued to the man that had called him, seemingly unfazed by the beings grotesque appearance.
“Vincent…”
‘Your friends are waiting for you outside… you should meet them now or they might become impatient.’
But instead of acknowledging the demon’s statement, he chooses to ask him a simple question…
“Did you bring it..?”
A small smirk could be seen forming at the corner of Vincent’s lips as he hears this query. He slightly raises his left arm, his right hand then digs into his massive left wrist as if it belonged to a specter. Slowly, he pulls something that looked to be a green sphere and throws it to his direction.
He easily catches the sphere with one hand. He looks at it quite intensely, the light above him causing the small object to glisten like an emerald gem before he decides to hide it inside his pocket.
As he begins to exit the shrine, he hears his loyal comrade speak once more…
‘Are you sure about this..?’
He pauses briefly before answering him.
“…Yes. This is what I’ve decided.”
‘…Then do as you wish.’
He advances a couple more steps, just enough to pass the demonic figure, before abruptly stopping.
“Thank you, Vincent… Even though you weren’t obligated to, you still remained true to our promise. I am eternally grateful to you…”
‘Think nothing of it.’
“I guess this is goodbye for now then… my friend.” he bids his trusted ally farewell as he slowly leaves the shrine.
‘Until we meet again… Cloud.’
‘Genma, I think we should start planning for Ranma and Akane’s wedding as soon as we get back!’
‘I agree!’ he responds approvingly. ‘If there’s anything that this experience has taught us, it’s that there’s no time like the present and something as important as the merging of the two school’s shouldn’t be allowed to wait!’
‘I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments, Genma my old friend!’
Quickly, the two heads of their respective families raise their fist in triumph.
‘To the merging of the Anything-Goes School of Martial Arts!!!’ they shout unison.
Both of their guards were down when they were suddenly kicked in their rear ends by the blue-haired young female who seemed to be quite embarrassed by their talk of marriage and the like.
‘Dad, will you cut that out! You’re embarrassing me!’ she reprimanded as she watches her father and the other middle-aged male fall to the lake.
The drenched elder Saotome, who had now transformed into a Panda, immediately pulls out a sign that read: ‘That hurt!!!’
‘Geez, you two..!’ the youngest Tendo starts to mumble to herself, her cheeks blushing a faint red. ‘We’re not even home yet and you’re already talking like that!’
‘That’s right, young one.’ the Amazon elder, Cologne, nods her head as her great granddaughter Shampoo stands just beside her. ‘It’s too early for you to talk about YOUR marriage with son-in-law since he is still engaged to my granddaughter as well.’
‘Ha-ha-ha-haaa!’ Kodachi’s maniacal laugh is quickly heard from the background. ‘The old hag is right. Now that our common enemy is no longer a threat, I officially declare our temporary truce now dissolved..!’
‘Shampoo agree with crazy girl!’ the purple haired Amazon starts to speak her mind. ‘I learn my lesson now. Shampoo going to try to take Airen for myself, no more wasting time!’
The young Tendo could barely fake a smile as she stares at the determined look on the two females faces.
‘They do have a point you know…’ Akane hears Ukyo’s sentiments from behind her as the Okonomiyaki chef walks to her side. ‘Although we do owe you a lot for getting Ran-chan back, once we’re back in Nerima then it’s going to be a free for all again. So if I were you then I probably wouldn’t let my guard down anytime soon.’
‘…Ukyo.’
‘May the best fiancée win, right Akane?’ she smiles at her blue-haired rival.
‘I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.’ she answers confidently as she flashes her a smile of her won.
‘I guess everybody’s back to normal, huh?’ Akane hears yet another feminine voice commenting from behind her. It was her sister, Nabiki, who looked calm and bored as she usually did. ‘We’re not even back yet and they’re already acting like their usual selves.’
‘Huh?’
‘Look over there.’ Nabiki signals her younger sister to look at the others who were waiting with them.
The oldest of the three Tendo siblings, Kasumi, was now helping their father and the elder Saotome out of the lake and was talking about what the two men would want to eat for dinner.
Happosai, who had spent most of his time together with the new additions to his ever expanding collection, kept rubbing his cheeks against the big sack that was filled with underwear that he had stolen from the beauties of Sankt Anton.
Both Kuno and Mousse on the other hand seemed rather unhappy with how things had panned out. Kuno had hoped to see the green-eyed flower girl depicted on that accursed warlock’s portrait, but after that possibility had flown away he had at least wished for the young Saotome to completely lose whatever sanity he had left thus prompting both Akane Tendo and the pig-tailed princess to realize that he IS the superior male. Mousse, who shared Kuno’s latter wish, was understandably disappointed too. Meanwhile, Ryoga looked to be in a state of inner conflict. A part of him was relieved that he would still have the chance to settle the score with Ranma, but there was also a part of him that was somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that his Miss Akane and that dog’s engagement would remain legal.
Nabiki slightly shakes her head in exasperation as she gazes at this familiar chaotic scene.
‘And to think that idiot actually made me act out-of-character..!’ the middle Tendo returns her sights to her younger sister and quickly notices the small knapsack that she inconspicuously carried behind her. ‘Akane, what is that?’
‘Oh, this..? Just a little souvenir, that’s all.’ she replies. ‘By the way, about that thing we talked about…’
‘I know, I know…’ Nabiki answers. ‘I’ll have all the problems back home ironed out, don’t worry about it. But it’s going to be a real bother.’
‘Well, you were the one who caused all that ruckus in the first place.’ she scoffs at her older sister. She then begins to grin a bit, not because she found Nabiki’s answers amusing but rather due to the fact that she could now finally put all of this behind her, her nightmare slowly coming to an end. She looks to the lake that lay not far from where they were, and for the first time since they came here she was at last able to look at that majestic pool with a smile on her lips.
Gently, the young Tendo starts to whisper words that only she could hear… words directed to the one person whom she considered as her only true rival for his beloved’s heart.
‘I’ll only borrow him for this one lifetime. I’m sure you won’t mind, right..? And in exchange… I’ll do my best to make him happy… I promise.’
All of them continue to wait, some of them even beginning to grow impatient.
After one more hour of waiting… they finally hear the approaching footsteps of the person that most of them had longed for…
‘Ranma, you’re late!’ Akane scolds the newly arrived male, her voice sounding very irritated though she couldn’t hide the sly grin that lay at the corner of her lips. ‘What took you so long?!’
“…”
For a moment, their was an apathetic look on the blue-eyed Saotome’s face… that same look that he had on that night when he told her to forget him… even going as far as trampling on her delicate heart by declaring his love for the flower girl right in front of her.
For a moment, she was fearful that he had changed his mind; she even noted that fact that he was still wearing those same odd clothes that he had been sporting during their stay here in this place. Could this mean that he viewed their promise as something that was unimportant… something that could easily be disregarded?
But to her delight and relief, his face slowly lights up with that confident smirk that had been his trademark for all the time that she had known him. His eyes were now shining with that brash arrogance that she had come to both hate and love.
“Don’t be stupid. Of course I had to say goodbye to Vincent first..!”
‘Well, since you’re done… shall we go home then?’
He smirks. “…Yeah.”
‘Uh… so how do we get back home exactly?’ Ryoga asked with that same look of confusion that he usually had on his face.
“Just leave everything to me…” he answers without a moment’s hesitation.
He then tells everyone to draw closer to one another and in response to his instructions they begin to follow suit.
‘So what happens next?’ Ryoga asks again.
“Well, what I’m going to do is use the same teleportation materia that I used back at the school rooftop. If everything goes as planned then we should appear at the same spot where we left.”
‘That sounds simple enough.’ the young Tendo starts to pull on his arm, coaxing him to join the others. ‘Let’s go then.’
But to her surprise, her invitation is met with resistance.
‘Ranma..?’
“…”
She tugs at his arm a little harder but the male refused to budge.
“Akane… There’s something that I have to tell you first.”
‘…’
He slowly closes his eyes, his blue orbs hiding behind their closed lids.
“I… I want to apologize…”
‘Apologize? For what?’
“…”
He slowly opens his sight and to the young Tendo’s horror she sees the same look of despair and apathy that she had wished to never see again from him. The warm aura that was exuded from his deep blue eyes just moments ago now replaced with that cold indifference.
“You see… the truth is… though I didn’t want to…”
He quickly releases his hand from AKane’s shaking grip as he pushes her towards the others. And as her body falls she sees the sadness in his eyes. The Ranma that she knew and had learned to love though it was only now that she had found the courage to acknowledge it… her Ranma… was fading right in front of her… And so she couldn’t help but shed a tear for both of them…
Her nightmare was far from over… it had only just begun…
“…I lied.”
‘Ranma, No!’ she shouts as she picks herself up from the ground and tries to rush towards him, but…
A bright light is quickly emitted from the great sword that was safely stowed on his back as one of the crystal spheres slotted on the base of the blade glows a blinding green.
He could feel the light from the sphere warming his body. And for some strange reason, that warmth reminded him of the numbing cold that he had felt on that day… that moment… when this wheel of death and rebirth first started to turn…
He remembers it…
His last memory as the man named Cloud Strife…
He stands gingerly on his own two feet, his legs looking as if they could barely support him. Snow was reigning down from the heavens like rain. This unyielding blizzard surely was not doing him any favors as it made this already hellish tundra of ice and snow almost impossible to traverse by foot. His breathing was heavy and quite deep, he could even see his own breath misting in front of him. His skin felt cold… frozen… having forgotten the feeling of warmth brought about by a burning campfire. His now thin hands tightly grasp at the hilt of the great sword that had served as his only companion for the entire three years of his search.
His blue eyes, that barely had any signs of life in them, reflected the shady outlines of the wolf-like entities that circled around him. Their fur was as white as the snow that covered these lands from miles-on-end, making them hardly visible at all. Their eyes, however, were filled with hunger and bloodlust. Like him, they too had probably yet to eat a decent meal. Their pale yellow mane being ruffled by the arctic winds as they bare their sharp fangs at him, ready to dig into his cold flesh. There were probably at least a dozen of the hungry beasts that surrounded him, all of them waiting for the right time to strike.
He grips the hilt of his sword even tighter, readying himself against their attack that was sure to come. In more favorable circumstances, he would’ve probably disregarded such lowly creatures as nothing more than mere nuisances… but right now, he could only dream of such a luxury.
He had been greatly weakened by this three year journey of his. The lack of food and sleep, especially this past month, had taken its toll on his body. The constant and never-ending battles against so many fiends and monsters had exhausted him to the point that his spirit had finally been broken… He couldn’t even cast a simple spell to dispatch of these filthy mongrels that now preyed on him.
At the corner of his eye he sees his image reflected at the surface of his sword’s blade. Looking at the reflection of this shell of a man that he had become, he couldn’t help but pity himself and wonder where his youth and strength had gone.
Quickly, his time for self-contemplation is cut short as the white-furred wolves begin their attack.
Three of the hungry pups immediately charge at him head on and with reckless abandon. Their mad rush prompts him to move forward and like a swift gale he cuts their bodies in half.
The other members of this blood thirsty pack choose this time to make use of their advantage in numbers as one of them attacks their prey from the back while two others bulrush him on each side. But soon they find out that their prey, even at his weakened state, was not someone that could easily be defeated as he swings his sword at them, instantly severing their jaws wide open like a hot blade passing through a piece of meat.
He is bathed in their blood, the crimson liquid running down his eyes and blinding him momentarily. The remaining predators quickly see a window of opportunity abruptly open in front of them. They attack him in unison with the intention of not letting the sacrifice of their brothers be in vain. They bury their teeth onto his leg, his arm, and the side of his abdomen. Their tongues get a taste of his blood, drawing the beast into a frenzy as they wished to drink more of his life fluids.
The searing pain that he felt was enough to make his usually stoic face wince in agony. He raises his sword above his head and starts hacking at his attackers’ bodies like a mad butcher. He slashes at their flesh and beheads them one-by-one until their white fur finally turns crimson with the blood that oozed out from their wounds, he himself drenched in a sea of red.
Thinking that the battle had been won, he starts to collect himself only to be ambushed by the last remaining member of the hungry pack. The lone wolf pins him to the ground and as he falls he feels his blood-stained hand lose its grip on his sword. His attacker continuously jaws at him, flashing its fangs in front of his blue eyes. His left had stands between his face and the creatures gaping mouth, its serrated teeth now digging past his gloves and into the flesh of his palm as it lacerated his skin and fingers.
His right hand tries to reach for his sword as the wolf-like entity’s saliva and the blood from his own mangled left hand drips onto his face. Somehow he is able to find the strength to reach the hilt of his weapon and emphatically drills its blade straight through the creature’s abdomen. A loud grunt escapes from the wolf’s mouth before its body grows stiff and limp.
He pushes its dead corpse to the side, his sword still buried in its abdomen. And as he lay there on the cold ground, his fingers dig into the thick snow and brings a portion of the frozen substance in front of him. He looks at it intently and sees it colored with blood, whether it was his or from the wolves that had attacked him he really didn’t know.
With all the energy that he had left, he lifts himself up. He feels his head ache as the world around him starts to spin, but being the brave warrior that he was he simply tries to shake it off like a bad hangover. He pulls his sword from the dead wolf’s body and tries to stow it back behind him, but he finds that the sheer task of lifting it proved to be almost impossible. And so he decides to simply drag it against the snow covered ground as he again continues on traversing this cold plain.
His feet were heavy, the blood from his wounds start to soak his own clothes. He had basically exhausted all of his energy; it was no wonder that even after almost half-an –hour’s worth of walking he had barely made any headway.
He looks back, gazing at the site of his last battle from a far, the corpses of his defeated foes covered by the harsh blizzard making them close to invisible. His azure eyes then begin to survey his surroundings, only to be met by mile-upon-mile of snow.
Everything around him was cold… barren… lifeless…
“The Promised Land… is a lie…”
He moves forward, the blade of his sword scraping the ground beneath him; his left had that had been deformed beyond recognition slowly starting to feel numb.
“I’ve walked to the very ends of this world… and there is nothing…”
He looks ahead, the path that awaited him seemingly leading to nowhere… and in many ways… it mirrored the uncertain future that awaited him, both for whatever time was left in this life and the next ones that would follow.
“No matter how far I go… the same road just keeps going on and on…”
Finally, his strength reaches its limit as he finds that he could no longer bare the burden of dragging his sword. His hand, succumbing to defeat, releases its hold on the hilt of his trusted blade and simply leaves it lying on the ground as it was quickly covered by the falling snow from above. But even so he keeps on, continuing to tread that long and winding path that seemed to have no end…
“So then… Why..?”
He falls to his knees, blood gushing out from his wound and seeping through his upper garment. The feeling of numbness slowly starts creeping over the rest of his body, his vision blurring. His eyelids were growing heavy as well; the urge to rest was almost irresistible now though he knew that to fall asleep in such a place would only lead to death. But even with all those things weighing down on him, though he was completely broken in both body and spirit… his will continued to drive him forward.
He stands again, his physical being begging him to rest but his resolve forcing him to move… to go forward… telling him that he only needed to reach for it… to want it so much… too much… and he would surely find it… After all, the impossible was nothing but improbable to a madman…
“Why am I so driven… to find it..?”
He falls for the last time, the snow that covered the ground serving as his bed. He felt nothing… not hunger… not thirst… not even pain… only this strange sensation of numbness and cold that now blanketed him. His eyes start to close and as they did he sees his life flashing before him like a video in fast forward… and accompanying it were all the emotions that came with those memories…
But out of all those bits and pieces of his past, there was one memory that stood out… a moment that seemed nothing more than a simple trick of the mind… but felt so real to him nonetheless…
It happened after he had finally defeated the one-winged angel, avenging her death at last.
Bright emerald streaks circling his being…
Green sparks of light illuminating the very spot were he stood…
And as he raises his head to look up to the heavens, he sees her hand… reaching out to him…
He couldn’t explain the feeling that came over him back then, even until now, but it prompted him to reach back… the whole world coming to an abrupt standstill for that one moment in time…
Their fingers don’t even brush, and maybe they were never meant to… but still… he tried…
And since then… he has never stopped trying…
Soon his sight is exiled to darkness, the world that he had come to know slowly fading into the black empty void known as death…
It was finally over…
He… Cloud Strife… had died…
“…”
And yet…
“…”
…He continues to breathe.
“…”
…But why he continues to breathe was beyond him.
“…”
…Death was not supposed to be like this.
“…”
…He was not supposed to feel the soft texture of flowers underneath his back.
“…”
…He was not supposed to smell the sweet scent of lilies that now tickled his nose.
“…”
…And most importantly… there was not supposed to be a soft and caring caress tracing the outlines of his cheeks.
“…”
His blue eyes open once again, just when he thought that they would be forever hidden in eternal sleep. And as they did, for the first time in a very long while… he smiled.
“…Aeris.” he whispers as he is finally able to once again get a glimpse of her smiling face. His head cradled by her lap. However, that smile was accompanied by small dew drops of tears that ran across the flower girl’s cheeks and fell onto him like soft rain.
“Aeris… why are you..?”
Her fingers softly seal his lips preventing him from speaking any further.
‘You don’t have to say anything… Just rest for now… and listen…’
She places her hand on his chest as she looks at him with those same emerald orbs that he had longed to see… the warmth of her touch causing his heart to beat that much faster… All of this was so surreal to him.
‘Our time together… will soon come to an end…’ she tells him in such a sad tone.
He feels his heart stop abruptly. Those words that she said… and the way that she said them… it felt as if a cold blade had just passed through him.
‘Soon, you’re going to be reborn as a new person… You will cease being Cloud Strife… and I’m going to have to leave as well…’
“But… Why?” he asked her. But what he really wanted to ask was how could someone as kind as her be so cruel.
‘It’s already started…’
The flower girl slowly shows him her other hand and to his horror he sees it losing its form though it seemed to be trying to fight the urge to scatter into oblivion.
“Is that… Is that because of Geostigma?”
She nods.
‘Once you’re reborn… it will be strong enough to ward me off completely… And with each passing lifetime it’ll grow more powerful… And then it will start to torment you with every sad memory that you’ve had… forcing you to relive them and trapping you in a never-ending nightmare.
“…”
‘That’s why it’s important for you… to forget me and the time that we spent together…’
“…”
She starts to shed even more tears, her smile completely fading from her lips. She may have possessed a strong will, but like the young blonde that she cradled on her lap, she too was just a mere mortal… she too could be overwhelmed by sadness to the point that even she wouldn’t be able to conjure up a smile…
‘You have to let me go… so that in the next lifetimes that will follow this one, even if you do end up reminiscing about our past, you’ll still be able to live a normal life… So please…’
But instead of answering, he suddenly clutches on to her waist like a small child holding on for dear life, both his arms embracing her tightly.
“No..! I won’t do it!”
‘…’
He buries his head onto her flesh, his hands and fingers that were once cold clinging on to her skin.
“Our memories together are the only things that I have left… So please… don’t make me throw them away..!”
‘…Cloud.’
“Even if it pains me to remember, I’d rather suffer than forget..!”
‘Cloud… I…’
He tightens his embrace, his voice now sounding like a pleading child.
“I don’t want you to leave me again… Please, don’t leave me again. I won’t let go even if you tell me to..! I don’t want to be alone ever again..!”
As he continues to hold on to her as if his very existence depended on it… he hears the flower girl give off a slight sob.
‘Cloud… I’m so sorry…’
She returns his embrace for the first time. Her hands drew him closer to her body that now faded even more, green sparks of light escaping from within her being though she willed them to stay in place in order for her to be able to continue to retain her ghostly form.
‘I’m sorry for making you suffer so much… I thought that by leaving I would be able to force you to forget, that one day you’d be able to forget me and live your life… but instead I made you more miserable…’
She continues on, her voice cracking but now taking on a gentler tone.
‘But you’re wrong… because I never really left…’
“…”
‘You were never alone in this journey of yours… I was there with you every step of the way…’
“…Aeris.”
‘I was there with you every time you sought shelter from the rain. I was there at every battle that you ever fought, praying for your safety, and every time you were wounded or got bruised I felt so sad because I didn’t even have the power to help you mend them. I walked by your side during those days that you went without food or water, I could see how much pain you were in and there was a part of me that wanted to break my vow and comfort you… but I did my best to be strong. I kept telling myself that you’ll give up on me soon and that I only needed to wait, so I held back even though it pained me to see you like that… And I lay next to you in your sleep, caressing your cheeks and lulling you to sleep…’
“…”
‘I was always there, quietly watching over you… I never left you… not once…’
“Then please, don’t leave me now..!” he speaks, lifting his head up to meet his beloved’s gaze, his tight embrace not giving off a single inch. “If you love me… then promise that you’ll wait.”
‘…Cloud.’
“You believe in me, right..?”
‘Of course I do…’ she answers without hesitation.
“Then I need you to believe in me for a little while longer…” he replies back. “As long as you promise me, as long as you believe in me… then I’ll be able to make a miracle happen… and I’ll find a way for us to be together… That’s why I need you to promise me…”
His eyes stare at her with such determination, such passion that she couldn’t stop herself from crying even more. And though she knew it was wrong… though she knew that she would only be sentencing him to a fate worse than death… she couldn’t help but answer…
‘…I’ll wait for you …I promise.’
She had resigned herself to the fact that, deep in her heart, this was what she had wanted. Although she had kept on telling him to forget, there was a part of her that really didn’t want that to happen. No one, not even the saintliest of martyrs, would want to be forgotten by the person that they loved. And so… even though she knew that this was the worst thing that she could possibly do to him… he had finally allowed herself to succumb to her selfish desire.
‘No matter how long it takes, I’ll wait for you… so please… find me…’
“I promise… I’ll find you no matter what..!”
‘And when that time comes…’
His body trembles as he sees his flower girl’s image fading, the shining emerald dots that materialized her body dispersing into the air like fireflies being blown away by a strong wind.
“Aeris!”
He holds on to her like a fleeting dream, his hands trying desperately to gather the green specs that escaped her body.
‘The Promised Land that we had wished for… will…’
“Aeris!!!”
But it was too late…
Their time… had ended…
He stares at his empty hands, looking at the now empty space that had once been occupied by the faded flower girl, failing to recognize his own fading self. And for the last time… he screams in anguish… his being disappearing to the unknown oblivion that was his reborn life…
The others that were trapped inside as well as they try to break through it. Kuno with his wooden bokken slashes at the unseen barrier as he accuses his blue-eyed rival of cowardice for using such “foul-trickery”. Ryoga tries to use his “Bokusai Tenketsu” (Breaking Point Strike) but it proved to be ineffective seeing as that the wall around them was invisible and it was impossible for him to detect its weak spot, not to mention the fact that being that this particular barrier had been created by magical means then such techniques wouldn’t have worked in the first place. Mousse was throwing everything that he had hidden in his sleeves against it, while the other fiancées were losing their minds trying to force their way out of this entrapment. Everyone including the two patriarchs of the Tendo and Saotome households, as well as Cologne and Happosai, were doing there best to free themselves from this transparent jail.
But their efforts proved to be all in vain…
“…Don’t waste your strength.” the blue-eyed youth advises all of them. “It’s no use… No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to break it.”
‘Just what the hell do you think you’re doing, boy!!?’ his father shouts at him, clearly not happy with the trick that he had pulled on them.
“I’m going to keep my promise to all of you… or at least a part of it.”
‘Ran-chan… what’re you saying..?’ Ukyo, who together with the others had given up on their futile attempts of freeing themselves, asked him. A look of dejection could be seen in her face because somewhere in the very pit of her insides she feared what this man in front of her was going to answer.
“I’m going to send all of you back to Nerima now…” he slowly pulls out a familiar purple-colored sphere from his pocket. “…But I won’t be coming back with you.”
‘Stupid!!!’ the young Tendo in front of him yells; her hands that she had now balled into fist pounding against the unseen obstacle that separated the two of them. ‘You promised me, remember!!? You told me that you’d come back to Nerima with us! You said that that you’d give me this one lifetime! That was what you promised me, remember!!?’
He simply looks down, answering her angry queries with his silence, not wanting to meet her gaze.
‘You… you…’ she starts to cry, her cheeks now bathed in tears of loss and betrayal. Her knees finally give way as they crumble to the ground, her body leaning against this magical barrier, her forehead resting against the invisible fence between them. ‘…You promised …you promised me.’
He sighs as he hears Akane’s words. He kneels to meet the young female eye-to-eye, his hand touching the very spot where her forehead lay.
“We are more alike than you can ever possibly imagine..?”
She raises her downtrodden sights toward him, his words drawing a look of curiosity out of the young Tendo’s face.
“Like you, I begged her to stay with me… to promise me that she’d wait for me, no matter what…”
‘…’
“…But unlike her, I can’t grant you your wish …I can’t give you what you’re asking of me.”
‘Why..?’ she whispers to him, a wave of emotions quickly building up inside her as her nails scrape the dirt-filled ground beneath. ‘I don’t understand you at all… Why do you want to continue living in the past!?’
“…”
‘You’re not Cloud or whoever this guy is that you’re claiming to be..! You’re not him… You’re Ranma… Ranma Saotome… the stupid pervert that always calls me names and criticizes me at everything… So stop living someone else’s life and come back with us!!!’
“…Akane.”
‘This isn’t right..! You’re chasing after someone just because you loved her in a past life.’
“That’s not it…” he whispers to her, flashing a small grin as he did. “I’m not searching for her simply because I loved her in the past…”
‘…’
“I’m searching for her now because the part of me that was Ranma… fell in love with her too… Each time that I’m reborn, I fall in love with her over and over again… that’s the reason why I’ve continued to reach for her… that’s why I try to do my best to keep my promise to her.’
He clutches the purple sphere in his hand tightly, causing it to glow with the intensity of a small sun.
‘…It’s not fair.’
His grin grows a little wider as he suddenly remembers all the pain and heartache that he had endured from his days as Cloud Strife up to now… He knew exactly what this young woman was feeling right now… because he had felt it too… many times over…
“…It never is.”
A small pillar of purple light suddenly appears from inside their invisible confinement, engulfing the panic stricken group one-by-one in its ever expanding wake.
“I’m going to ask you for one last wish, the same wish that she asked of me but I never dared to fulfill… I want you to grant this wish for the both of us…”
‘Ranma.’ she whispers his name for what maybe the last time as the purple light begins to swallow her body as well, the figure of the male youth disappearing before her.
“Forget me… and live happily for the rest of your life.”
‘Oh, it’s you Yuka. Good morning.’ the girl named Sayuri greeted as she held her own umbrella high in the air to protect her from the gentle down pour.
‘Any word about Ranma or Akane yet?’
The two of them shake their head.
‘No, nothing yet. I visited their house again yesterday and it was still empty. Even Kuno-sempai and Ukyo aren’t back yet. I’m starting to get really worried about them.’ Sayuri speaks out.
‘Uh, Sayuri… I think you’re forgetting who were talking about here.’ the lone male in the group, Daisuke, sarcastically said. ‘Those guys would beat up anyone who’d try to mess with them.’
‘Yeah, I guess you’re right. But still…’
‘I already told you to stop worrying. And besides, after that big mishap, I think that Ranma may even be thinking of not coming back here for a little while longe-… What the?!!’
The three of them along with the other students in the school grounds look up at the top of the school building, their mouths agape and eyes stricken with fear as they beheld an ominous purple light piercing through the dark rain clouds that covered the sky.
This light… the three of them had seen it somewhere before…
‘Hey, isn’t that… Wha-?!’ Daisuke instantly blurts out as he feels himself being dragged by the two females with him.
‘Come on, let’s go!’
They immediately run past the other students who were still uncertain as to how they should react upon seeing this strange phenomenon. The three of them quickly enter the building and ran past the many stairwells that ultimately led them to the very top of the school. As they finally see the door that served as the entrance to the rooftop, they see the purple light that shone from the other side slowly fading.
The girl named Yuka reaches for the doors handle and cautiously opens it.
‘Wh… What’s going on here..?’ she whispers to herself as they see the bodies of their lost friends, unconsciously lying on the ground.
Such a sight had already rattled them, but there was still a more shocking scene that awaited their eyes… for at the center of the fallen group was the figure of a blue-haired female. Her hands were embracing her shins as the continuing rain drenches her body, her face hidden by the wet strands of her blue locks.
Both Sayuri and Yuka come to the aid of their friend, their worries concerning the young Tendo even more magnified as they see the empty look in her eyes… Something was definitely not right…
‘Akane, what’s wrong..? What happened? Akane?’ they ask with utmost care seeing how fragile her state of mind seemed to be.
But the young Tendo refuses to meet their probing gaze… her only answer to their persistent questions was her deafening and very eerie silence as drops of tears start to trace her cheeks…
Author’s Note: It’s Special Trivia Time! (Q1) For 10 pts. Name the monster that basically made Cloud/Ranma “kick-the-bucket”? (Q2) For 30 pts. Guess the materia Cloud/Ranma used to put up a “Barrier” on Akane and the rest of the NWC. (Q3) For one gazillion pts. thus making the other two questions as nothing more than filler… What Anime inspired the death scene of Cloud and all the cheesy dialogue with it? (Clue: There’s a reason why I used them wolves ya know!)
Oh, and one other thing… MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT coming up next chapter so don’t say I didn’t give you guys a heads up!
