Awakened Dreams...

Here's Chapter 8

Golden: I will steal souls...well don't blame me I gotta make a living somehow. Anyways, he'll get his memory back eventually, but it seemed too easy to give it all to them all at once.


Chapter 8
Redeemed Hope

"Oh, yeah, right there..."

"Like that?"

"Uh, yes!...God Cloud...push harder!"

"I'm already tearing this shit up...you sure?"

"For the love of Gaia, push the damn thing!"

Cloud and Tifa had spent the last few minutes shoving at the filing cabinet that had blocked their entry into a hidden part of the archives of Hojo's lab. Upon entering the lab they'd found the computers had for some reason been shut off and refused to turn back on, so they had to look through the paper archives. Finding it eventually they also discovered a bunch of filing cabinets and desks thrown against the entry to the rest of it. When they came across the final one, they'd been forced to wrestle with it to remove it from the doorway.

"Oh, I think it's going to..."

A large screech of metal sounded through the air as the cabinet finally disengaged from the doorway. Tifa groaned as she finally was able to see properly into the room. She shook her head as she looked into the large room filled with bookshelves and more filing cabinets.

"Great, oh wait it's Reeve..." she said as she glanced down at her now ringing PHS. She sighed as she answered it, "Hello?....No we haven't really found anything....oh, they're back already?.......Oh....alright we'll be up in a second, bye."

Cloud glanced over at her warily, "What's up?"

"It seems that Eron and Cid are back, they've found something out, apparently it's important."

Cloud looked exasperated, "Are you serious? After all of this effort...and time?"

"That's life, now let's get going..."

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The room was basically silent as Reeve, Eron, Cid, Yuffie, Nanaki, and Vincent all sat around waiting for Cloud and Tifa. Within minutes they walked in glancing around the room. Tifa's eyebrows raised at the sight of the obviously troubled Eron, but knowing him she decided not to bring it up, especially in front of the others. It took some work though, he seemed to have something brewing behind his eyes, something different than the last time she had seen him.

"So what's the big emergency?" Cloud asked, sarcasm evident in his voice.

Eron, true to his nature barely gave Cloud a glance as he spoke, "It seems that long ago when these beasts first came here, Gaia enacted it's own defense. Along with the Weapons, it created a new lineage within the human race. A race of new magically embued warriors that could battle these creatures. They were based off of the four elements as well as the creatures, a balance persay that the planet decided to use against the beasts. Last time these warriors were enough to seal them, but now it's time to send them back to hell."

"It's that simple then?" Cloud asked unbelieving.

Eron's face twitched slightly as he turned towards the irritated leader, "No, nothing is that easy, and it's a bit foolish to so impulsively assume something as such."

Cloud turned red as he opened his mouth but was cut off by Eron, "Nonetheless, there are three more points on Gaia that contain the power of these elemental warriors."

"I believe you said the elements, if you are saying there are only three more, than one of those warriors has awakened?" Vincents deep voice cut into the conversation.

Eron nodded, "Yes, that's true."

"Which more than likely seems its you?" Vincent replied.

Eron nodded when suddenly Cloud spoke up, "Of course it is, who else would it be but him?"

Tifa's mouth gaped open in suprise, including the others, even Vincent looked mildly suprised and offended at such a degrading response. Eron's eyes narrowed, turning very quickly ice cold, covering up the magical fire that had seemed to burn behind them.

"I highly doubt," Eron began, "that petty jealousies or indifferences should ever cloud someone's judgements when it comes to the planet's wellbeing. Now if you're done acting like a child, we have some work to do."

"Who the hell made you boss?" Cloud demanded.

Eron's eyes fell over the ex-soldier, the man was very quickly getting on his last nerve, "And who proclaimed you the leader? Yourself?"

"Last time I checked I was the one that had been made as such by everyone else, I was able to be the guiding factor."

"Yes and it seems that your leaderships skills and knowledge necessary for leading seems to be falling short in the face of a new threat that you neither can comprehend nor handle in spite of the fact that you are the "leader". " Eron's eyes radiated fury behind his cold stare.

"What are implying?!" Cloud looked positively outraged.

"I'm not insinuating a thing, I'm quite plainly stating, that if you cannot keep your petty emotions in check and be able to accept the help of someone who knows many things of the threat you face, then you should be leading no one."

Cloud's eyes went wide at the insult, he stood up, his sword drawn pointed at Eron. Tifa gasped and jumped up to grab Cloud's arm, Eron merely held up his hand calmly to stop Tifa.

"You sonofabitch!" Cloud bellowed, "do you think you're better than me?"

Eron's eyes were cold again, "Do you wish to fight me Strife? Because if you are so intent on proving yourself in combat against me, I would be more than willing."

Cloud to say the least was pissed, "Fine! You wanna get your ass kicked again then so be it."

"No!" Tifa called out in protest.

"Leave 'em be Tifa" Cid spoke up finally from behind his cigarette, even he was a little suprised by the turn of events.

"How can you think like that?" Tifa asked her eyes wide, "They're supposed to be on the same side!"

"This is true," Nanaki began, "but also they are two warriors and they have a dispute. The only thing that can solve this is a fair duel."

Yuffie nodded, coming from a village of ninja's she had often heard and even seen a couple of these "honor duels" even she did not have a protest.

"Let them solve their problems their way," Vincent spoke up.

Tifa sat down in resignation, being outnumbered there was no way she could convince them other ways. Reeve shrugged as well, "fine, just not inside the building please, or within the confines of this city, it's seen enough of it's share of fighting."

Eron nodded, "Then outside the city limits?"

Cloud snarled, "So be it!"

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(zomg! a fight between Eron and Cloud?!? Once again, who didn't see that comin' a few chapters back?)
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The desert outside of Midgar billowed around in the wind. Sparse plant life sagged under the pressure of the wind. Green eyes met blue one's as the wind rushed around them. The others stood several feet away from them anxiously waiting for them to begin.

"You're going to regret this!" Cloud called out to his opponent, his massive sword out and pointing towards Eron, eyes filled with fury.

Eron threw his head back and smirked, he unsheathed his swords from his belt, twirling them around before getting into his fighting stance, "I doubt that very much."

Cloud's eyes narrowed in anger as the wind blew hard. Tifa shook slightly at the sight of them preparing to fight. It had all gone wrong, she knew that Eron was quickly getting on Cloud's bad side, but she never imagined it had gotten this bad, not at all. She clenched her fists to restrain herself from calling out in protest again, when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked up into the crimson eyes of Vincent.

"Warriors know no other way to solve their disputes, this is the only way for them."

Tifa nodded grimly, still resigned. The wind then died, sand fell the ground, with that the two leapt at each other, swords at the ready. Metal clanged loudly against metal as their energy burst out in a wave, kicking sand up into the air again. The onlookers winced and covered their faces to protect themselves from the sand storm. When they glanced back up, the two fighters were locked in the duel.

Both twisted and turned, flipping and turning around one another as their swords met in a flurry of metal slices and blocks. Cloud spun around, swinging his sword to be blocked by Eron and returned with a swing of his own to which Cloud parried and met with another slice. Eron jumped backwards and then leapt upwards, Cloud following close behind. Suddenly the others couldn't see anymore as the two fighters movements and blades became blurs to them. Swords clanged and clashed as did attitudes and egos. The flurry of slices and blocks were unseen, only the look of determination on both faces. Suddenly two blades met one, locking the two fighters together momentarily.

Eron pushed with a great force, sending Cloud flying back towards the ground, Cloud landed roughly as his hands glowed and with yell he sent out a blast of Bolt 3. Eron's eyes widened as the blast hit hit full force, knocking him back into a sand dune.

Tifa gasped, she couldn't believe Cloud was taking this so seriously.

"Fuck..." Cid muttered trying to conceal the look of concern on his face.

Suddenly the sand dune began to glow red as a blast of fire erupted out from the dune, turning the dune to pure glass. The blast met with Cloud, his last minute reaction to bring his swords blocked a healthy of the blast, but he still had taken a hard hit from the blast. His skin and clothes pretty badly scorched, as he watched Eron climb steadily from the glass dome his blast had created. Eron's eyes burned with fury as he stared hard at Cloud.

"I wasn't aware that Magic usage was part of the duel."

"Guess you do now!" Cloud called out looking smug.

"Yes, but it seems that you're little manuever cost you more damage than it has me..." Eron said with brow raised, and it was true, other than a few last minute muscle twitchings, and some scorched clothing, his body was fine, it comparison to the damage Cloud had taken.

Cloud snarled as he leapt at Eron again, his body glowing, Eron's eyes widened limit break?

Cloud flew through the air, his sword detaching into many more swords as he reached Eron. Suddenly he became incorporeal as he sliced through Eron, then grabbed another sword that had flown behind Eron and repeated the process several more times before slamming into Eron finally. He smiled cockily as Eron staggered to one knee, his wounds pouring blood. Eron's eyes blazed with a newfound hatred, the warrior had tried to kill him, but he'd made the mistake of not doing so, and had driven his body to it's limit as well.

He let loose a blast that sent Cloud flying backwards and frantically fighting off the flames that were burning on him. He looked up in shock at the now standing Eron, "how?"

"Idiot," Eron snarled, "Now you'll pay for not having finished me like you were so intent on doing! Omnia...Domina...Eternia...Forgia...."

Cloud's eyes widened in fear as he realized what was coming up, "No!"

Eron's eyes widened in fury as he bellowed out, "GAIA'S JUDGEMENT!"

Suddenly the ground began to rumble and shake, giant stalagmites shot up from the ground jabbing into Cloud roughly in a circle, the final one coming from beneath him, sending him flying into the air, a giant spiral of air caught him and wrapped him in a torrent of high moving sand that tore through his clothes and skin. Suddenly he felt what felt like knives slicing his body as he noticed small shards of ice falling from the sky into him. The tornado disappeared, as did the falling ice as he plummeted limply to the ground, he fell facedown, seeing the ground becoming red hot, lava beginning to get ready to shoot up into his falling form.

So this is the end? he thought to himself desperately. Then felt something grabbed ahold of him and send him over the pit of lava, as it suddenly shot up with a fiery intensity that would have surely killed him. He hit the sand roughly, face down, sand went into his mouth and all over his face, as he felt the effects of a Cure spell hitting him, only healing him enough to be able to feebly pick himself up. He looked up into the face of his savior, Eron.

"Admit defeat." Eron stated plainly his face serious.

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Alright, so I didn't make it as long as I wanted, but I wanted to get another one out before I had to go to work, so here it is.
Tell me what you think!
Hopefully the next one will be a little longer, with a bit more of some twisting and turning in it...I've kinda been feeling like this hasn't really added a good enough twist lately, so I'm gonna try.
Leaves me reviews!