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Sentient Love	By : Hnoss Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male > Cloud/Zack Views: 940 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII and I'm making no money here either. All of this is purely for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter List
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Sentient Love
Flora_Winters
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII and I'm making no money here either. All of this is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Summary: Dreams lead Cloud back to The Forgotten City where he comes into contact with a spirit made flesh. A blast from the past wants this young avatar for their own devious designs and it is up to the ex-SOLDIER to protect him at all costs. Language, MM, OC, Violence
Chapter One
The whispering silence of The Forgotten City of the Ancient Cetra was eerie. Not a single creature made a sound for there was none to make any. His only company was the trees and the other strange plants that glowed during the night. He was always taken in by their phosphorescent hues.
He walked like a phantom amidst the white glow of the tall trees, not making a single sound as he took each silent step. For over 2,000 years this place had been his universe. The past haunted him, yet he was the ghost. A remnant frozen in time, seemingly doomed to forever wonder the empty streets to nowhere. He was the shadows and moonbeams that took human shape in the warm nightly mists between the trees. He longed to leave this place, but he was bound to it. As if by some powerful spell, he could not pass the boundaries that held him locked within. He was bound to the trees, the stones, the waters, and the very air. He was the spirit of The Forgotten Capital.
Except for the wind and water, nothing ever moved. Stasis was all he knew. The endless silence was maddening, yet he did not go mad. He didn't know how to.
He was old. So very, very old. When he would gaze upon himself in any reflective surface, nothing looked back at him. No surface would reflect an image to him. It was as though he existed without any existence at all.
Will I ever die? Will I ever cease to be?
He already knew the answer. The answer was given to him long, long ago. He was the sacrifice that had to be made.
I am one with Lifestream. There is no death. It is all a thinly veiled illusion wrapped in strangling fear. Gaia holds and preserves me. Mother of All. She who governs and protects all existence.
Upon his awakening, he discovered that he could manipulate the physical elements within his bound space of existence. It was as though he were a god. Limited, but still semi divine.
He could ignite flames with a thought. He could call down lightning with a mute gesture. He could freeze the surface of the lake just by dancing upon the surface of it. Just by projecting his will, he could make the ground quake and the wind to make the tallest tree bow or be snapped. Many a century he explored the powers of the day and the forces of the night. He even studied the time in between them. With all his power, he protected and preserved The Forgotten City. And over all the endless time, he grew bored.
So, he erected himself a bed and went to sleep. He slept and he slept until he heard a small voice call out to him in the darkness of his own dreamy design. A name he nearly forgot existed. It was a small prayer on a sweet scented breeze. A beautiful song to Gaia and then his name again.
Prayer invoked him.
Tears stirred him.
Blood opened his eyes.
Holy.
Holy. Holy. Holy.
FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7F F7FF7FF7
Cloud dreams.
Cloud Strife dreams of a lot of things.
Things that would make normal people jump awake in fright, running from the imaginary safety of their warm beds where the nasty creatures of stink and rot can never touch them with their razor sharp words of guilt or those rows of teeth in the darkness. When he is asleep, he can feel their rotting hands all over his naked body. They touch him, grope him, stabbing their maggot infested fingers inside him and lay him bare for all to judge. The dead crawl all over him like swarming flies on a fallen dumbapple. The hungry dead look at him through empty sockets that drip with venomous worms and poisonous scorpions. Those putrid lips cover him with rancid kisses that smell of the foulest decay. They smother him, drowning him in their moldering.
He screams. He screams and he screams. He screams as they sink their rotten, broken teeth into his supple flesh. The sound of his own skin being ripped open by careless claws fill his horrified ears, as those hungry maws tear away at him, snapping his bones with cavity filled teeth. He hears himself being devoured by all his victims, shrieking, screaming, and crying out upon a lake of fresh blood for somebody to save him before he's pulled under those molten depths.
"Are you not hungry tonight, Cloud?" Tifa asked, bringing him for but a blessed moment out of his never-ending nightmares.
Mako filled eyes looked up from the untouched salad. He shook his head. "No."
"Would you like me to fix you something else?" She asked, slowly rising from her seat with a non-defeated look on her face. "How about some soup or a sandwich?"
Cloud looked back down at his salad again. She had gone through so much trouble to make it. She had marinated the grilled chicken slices that were lying on the green spinach leaves for hours, and the dressing was a secret recipe. It was something she usually served to guests who frequented 7th Heaven.
He slowly lifted his fork and picked up a piece of the yummy looking chicken with it. It smelled really good. He went to put it up to his mouth and suddenly dropped the fork with a clatter. His breath froze in his lungs as he quickly pushed his chair away from the table.
"What's wrong?" Tifa asked in concern.
There was a finger on his fork. It was wiggling, looking as it were desperately trying to get free and have a go at him. It was beginning to rot right before his wide eyes and the salad was nothing but a plate of spiders and centipedes.
"Fuck me," he hissed, turning away his head, closing his eyes against the horrible vision.
That had been a mistake. He fell out of his chair with a yelp because a thousand hands came at him from out of the darkness behind his eyelids. He landed on his back, rolling over onto his side. Tifa was there, taking him into her arms, holding him.
"You're okay, Cloud," she said, helping him to calm down. "There is nothing there."
"Why do you let me stay?" He asked, looking up into her concerned eyes. "I'm insane. I see things. Why do you choose to take care of a crazy person?"
Tifa smiled her smile. "I already told you why."
She did? When? He didn't remember that.
"What?" He asked, looking around him, seeing that his salad was once again a mere salad on the table.
However, the glass next to it happened to have a brown serpent slithering out of it. It looked to be dripping with blood.
He dug his fingers into his golden flesh. He didn't even seem to wince.
"Does it really matter?" She asked, helping him back to his feet. "Do you want me to run you a bath?"
Cloud tightened his hold on her. He could still see his face looking back at him from the bathroom mirror. All of his skin had been missing. His reflection had been nothing buy muscle, tissue, and grinning teeth. He had looked away, only to see the bathtub filled with slithering serpents. They had all be different shapes, sizes, and colors. They had all been fighting and eating each other.
"Yes," Cloud answered, suddenly jumping in fright when a door slammed shut somewhere in the back. "What was that?"
"I opened the windows earlier to let the heat out," she said, letting him go.
"But," he said, grabbing hold of his black t-shirt with tight fists. "It's dark out. Why are the windows open?"
"I will go close them," she told him.
"NO!" Cloud yelled, pulling on his shirt, ripping it a bit. "Don't go back there! It'll get you!"
He was really beginning to panic now. All the windows were supposed to be closed and locked up tight at night. She knew that. There were things out there. Things that wanted to get him. They were all trying to get him. The dead were trying to get him. They wanted to fucking eat him.
"Cloud Strife," Tifa calmly said. "Nothing is going to get you. I won't let them."
He followed along behind her, jumping away from the snapping serpent that was slithering through his salad. It thought it could hide in there and get him later. Well, it was wrong. He knew it was there. It couldn't fool him.
"See, Cloud?" She asked, leading the way into the storeroom. She walked over the closed the window, locking it. "Nothing is going to get you."
Right as she said that, he jumped back against a shelf of dried goods, yelping when a face was suddenly pressed up against the glass. The flesh was dripping like candle wax from the blackened bones. The shrieking man was on fire. He was burning right outside the window.
"STOP IT!" Cloud screamed, falling to his knees, pulling at his hair. "STOP IT!"
The burning man was screaming. He was screaming in so much pain. His melting hands were smacking against the glass, trying to break it. He was yelling Cloud's name.
"I'M GOING TO GET YOU, STRIFE! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!"
"It is only the wind, Cloud," Tifa quickly soothed, kneeling down before him, struggling to keep his hands from clawing at his face.
It is only the wind? Yeah, right! Tell that to the fucking dead guy banging against the goddamn window. He's melting right before my fucking eyes. Oh, god! Make it stop. Please, make it stop!
"Come on," Tifa said, pulling him to his feet. "Let's just go to bed…"
Cloud allowed her to lead him from the storeroom, but he did look back. There was nobody at the window. There was no burning man trying to break in.
He must be running around to the front now…
"I'll stay until you fall asleep," she said, leading him into his little bedroom.
Cloud had her check the sheets for creepy crawlies. He had her check under the bed for the dead before he would even step foot into the room. He brushed his teeth and climbed into the twin size bed.
Tifa took a seat in the chair beside the bed, smiling into his handsome face. "Goodnight, Cloud."
It was moments like this that Cloud was truly the loneliest. His bed used to be bigger and someone had shared it with him.
The dead can't come back…at least…not the way we long for them to…
"Sweet dreams, Cloud," Tifa whispered, and started humming.
FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7FF7F F7
Shimmering lights were glittering down through the fine cracks in the ceiling of the old church that was forgotten down in the slums. He was standing in the midst of all the beautiful yellow flowers that had been so delicately planted and lovingly cared for. Their sweet scent permeated the warm air with a lovely intoxication.
Wisps of emerald-green lights flickered through the air all around him. They were so warm, and there she was. She was just standing a few feet away from where he was.
Strong arms embraced him from behind, holding him ever so tenderly as she smiled ever so brightly at him. Her eyes reminded him of molten green light and they shown with such comforting bliss.
If this was a dream, it was the best dream he'd ever had in a really long time. A gentle kiss was placed on the back of his neck, and that ever so familiar embrace was slowly releasing him.
"No!" He cried, trying to grab those big hands. "I don't want you to leave! Please! Not again! Don't leave me, ZACK!"
Cloud opened his eyes with a start.
The bedroom he was in was terribly familiar. It was so silent. The eerie silence he would never be allowed to forget. The Shin-Ra mansion had a way of closing out the sounds of the world beyond its huge wooden doors.
How did I get here? I don't remember. Am I still dreaming? Did I run away?
He could no longer remember. His view of reality was distorted, like trying to see into every piece of a shattered mirror.
This place always called out to him through nightmares filled with lonely terror.
Rising from the bed, he could hear the sound of music being played from somewhere in the large mansion. There was someone playing the grand piano in the old ballroom.
Fear trailed down his spine.
It was probably one of the many denizens that were doomed to perpetually haunt this place. Spirits and ghouls of all the failed experiments.
A cool breeze blew across his naked chest, causing him to shiver as he looked over at the window that suddenly blew open. A beautiful voice was singing on the haunting air. There were so many spirits in this place. He could hear them whispering from every shadow, from every unguarded corner. But, why wasn't fear squeezing at his heart? Where was all the corpses? Why was nothing trying to tear him apart?
The voice was so beautiful.
His feet carried him across the cold floor to the open window. The velvet sky above was alight with the blazing brilliance of a billion shimmering stars.
He used to love looking up at the stars with me on nights just like this one. There was always a story behind every different one he'd point out to me.
Cloud looked for the two he had said were the exact color of his eyes. He found them and they were both gazing down at him with their balmy blue radiance.
"You have the most beautiful eyes in the world, Cloud," he had told the blond with all the love in his heart.
Cloud could see the sable-haired man turning around, smiling his angelic smile that was just for him.
"They are like those twins up there. Burning eternally with their mysterious magic."
Cloud bit his bottom lip.
"It is as if the gods deemed you to possess the most beautiful eyes ever."
A warm hand touched his naked shoulder, causing him to spin around with his heart in his throat. There was nobody there. He bit his bottom lip again in order to keep it from trembling and that was when the pain stabbed at him like a dagger.
He turned to the closed bedroom door with wet eyes. He had to see who was singing. There wasn't supposed to be anyone here.
The silk drape tickled his back like playful fingers and he quickly bolted towards the door. He reached out, pulled, and it opened for him with a groaning creak. Slowly, he stepped out into the hall and the door slammed shut behind him like a distant echo of thunder. It nearly caused him to jump right out of his skin.
Piano music flowed all around him and the man's voice was calling him like ocean waves call to a siren. Cloud could see and hear him all around as he walked down the long hallway to the grand staircase. He could hear the shrill screeching of vampire bats and see the gaping jaws of angry ghosts.
Why were they not attacking him? They should have been swarming to get him.
To his surprise, Cloud found himself shrugging with pure indifference towards them. This act was totally unlike him at all. It was a though he was suddenly brave again.
Without Zack, what use do I have for a world? Perhaps this is why they do not attack me now. They now see that I no longer care about living. Do they think me a brother now?
It was sad to think that this place once held such horrors for him. It wasn't scary at all now. There wasn't a goddamn thing here that could hurt him anymore.
There are only memories of you saving me. Protecting me. Loving me.
Cloud began his descent down the dust coated steps. The piano music swelled and the ghouls didn't come near him. It was as if they were ushering him, escorting him.
Don't be afraid
Don't be alarmed
In the end of the night
You're in my arms
It was the memories that held the terrors deep within their sorrowful darkness. He could feel those bloody arms reaching out to hold him close. He was dying. He was watching Zack die all over again. There so many bullet holes.
He walked across the marble foyer and he could see the two of them in the back of that old man's truck. Zack was holding him tightly in his arms, going on about how pretty the blue sky was above their heads. He was so excited. All he could talk about was their future. He had painted Cloud such a pretty fairytale. It had been so bright, so full of promises, and now it was dead…like him. Like all beautiful dreams, they were over the moment you're forced to wake up and smell the burning coffee.
Cloud froze in his tracks when the music stopped. There was a man sitting before the ivory keys. His broad back was to him. His tall frame was cast in shadow.
"Who are you?' He demanded, angry that he was being disturbed. "Turn around or I'll blow your goddamn brains out your forehead!"
He didn't have a gun or weapon on him, but the intruder didn't have to know that.
The man chuckled.
Cloud paled.
"No…"
"You're still as loud as ever, Chocobo Head," that voice said, and the figure in the shadows turned around.
Cloud's eyes widened. "Zack…"
Soft moonlight passed across Zack's face as he rose to his large feet, walking through a sea of twinkling green orbs. The spirits parted in his graceful wake as he pulled Cloud into his muscular arms.
"Oh, god…" Cloud whispered.
He was so warm. He smelled just like the pretty yellow flowers in the forgotten church.
Zack started to move and the two of them were dancing in an endless field of golden flowers.
"Don't leave me again," Cloud whispered, holding onto him tightly, resting his head against his broad chest. "Please, don't let me go this time. Don't walk away. Not with that smile…"
So don't you worry
Just rest your head
Coz in the end of the night
We'll be together again
The past is dead, gone, lost forever, and yet it still sang to him like a voice in the loneliest of places. It reached out, touched him with gentle caresses in the darkest of nights. The voices, they whisper and they pull him in deeper. Oh, how he wished he would never wake up, but, like always, Zack let him go with a loving smile on his eternally beautiful face.
So come close, close to me
And I'll come closer to you
Coz in the end of the night
When all we have is gone
Coz in the end of the night
When I can be with you
Tears streamed from his glowing eyes.
I'm not in Nibelheim. I'm not dancing in the arms of my only love. I'm just lying on my bed of stones, in the arms of a rotting corpse. I can feel the flies on my skin, snakes hissing at me feet, and things crawling in my hair, menacing my ears with their deceitful hissings.
He began to laugh as he rolled over in bed and gazed into Zack's sightless eyes. His flesh was rotting and peeling right before Cloud's eyes. The flies were buzzing, crawling all over his bloated tongue. He smelled terrible and his flesh was all slimy under Cloud's trembling hands, coming off as he moved away.
Zack blinked and his left eye began to ooze out from its weeping socket and down his rotted cheek. He sucked in his tongue, scattering the flies as he smiled with teeth that were rotten and black. Maggots poured from his left socket and nostrils had he crawled on top of Cloud.
Cloud could feel his oozing hardness pressing down against him.
He began to laugh. He laughed hard and wild.
He was losing his goddamn mind.
No! Correction. It was fucking gone.
"Come on!" He cried, wrapping his arms around the zombie. "I no longer care! Fuck me! Fuck me with your rotting cock. I no longer give a fuck!"
Please, let me die…
"CLOUD!" A loud voice was yelling, and he could feel himself being shaken. "Wake the fuck up!"
He opened his eyes.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Cid was asking, looking down at him. "What the fuck are you laughing at?"
Cloud tossed back his head and howled with laughter. He could feel the snakes slithering around in his hair. They were in his brain.
He was about to tell Cid to fuck off when a shock went through his entire body and he fell back onto the bed with his eyes wide open and glowing as if a candle had been lit from within. Images flashed through his mind.
Glowing trees in the darkness, white orbs of light filling the darkness between them. Footprints of something invisible walking across still waters towards a temple made from a giant conch shell.
COME TO ME
Cloud opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
COME TO ME NOW
A staircase of light spiraling downwards to a city filled with glowing crystal spires.
ARISE AND COME SWIFTLY
Tifa burst into the room. "Cloud?" She asked, running to his bedside. "What's the matter? What is it?"
He shook his head back and forth, grabbing the bed sheets as tightly as he could. He saw her sinking. Sinking to the bottom of the lake.
Blood. So much blood. He was drowning in their blood.
I love you, Chocobo Head.
Another violent shock went through his brain and he bolted upright on the bed, smacking his head right into Cid's jaw, sending the older man stumbling backwards cussing and holding his face.
COME
COME
COME
To be continued…
Please review and tell me what you think. I would greatly appreciate it. Cookies for everybody! Just don't mind the maggots.
~Flora
Note: Song lyrics belong to Zola Jesus. The song is called, "Night."
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Sentient Love