Ok.. so like.. here's a readable version @.@
- Kus Kus
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dilandau
WARNING!!
Spoilers for FFVII Disk 2 ahead
Spoilers for FFVIII Disk 3 ahead
Adult language
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: ff78.txt
Sometimes...
Sometimes things change...
Sometimes things happen... and you wonder what if?
...What if you'd made the right decision?
...What if you'd been given another chance?
...Or perhaps, just a chance to make someone else's life right?
Aerith smiled at him, through her fear. He was going to be sad,
she knew, and that look of frustration on his face almost broke
her serenity. But he would understand in the end.
Her smile faltered at the sounds above; a howling rush of air,
leather flapping, the hiss of a sword leaving its scabbard...
A moment of doubt clouded her resolution.
Wasn't there another way?
Don't let Cloud suffer...
Don't let Sephiroth suffer...
Please...
* * *
"Please listen to me, Seifer!"
He drew in a ragged breath, already spent from his wounds and
the exertion of the recent battle, standing on virtually
willpower alone. Yet he was the Sorceress' Knight, and there was
still work to be done.
...Right?
Then why did Rinoa's sweet voice suddenly cut into him like a
knife? Why were Fujin's last, pleading words echoing in his head?
Manipulated...?
My dream...
Something's wrong...
* * *
No...
I'm not being manipulated...
Mother...
Lamb to the slaughter...
Glory for Mother...
Such an innocent...
Innocent...
I love...
No...
...What am I doing?!
Something's wrong...
* * *
Stars burst behind his eyes. For a moment he thought that
Squall must have caught up to them and had struck him from
behind. The coward!
...And suddenly he was falling. His heart raced suddenly in
panic. There was steel in his hand! Far lighter than he
remembered, strangely balanced, and raised above his head as
if to strike at the young woman who knelt below. She looked up
at him, smiling. What the hell was she doing just sitting there?!
He twisted mid-air, and his side slammed into the stone floor
with enough force to knock all the breath from his lungs.
Whatever blade he'd been holding skittered away and clanged
loudly against something or other. Taking into consideration
his wounds and his depleted physical state, there was no way
he could stand after such a fall.
But then again, he wasn't wounded. And he wasn't tired. And
there was this annoying little voice in his head telling him
he needed to kill the stupid bitch! He clapped his
hands over his ears.
"Damnit! Shut the fuck up!"
***
He stumbled.
There was no longer the sound of rushing water, or the haunting
echoes that blessed the underground hall in the Ancient City.
In fact, the multi-colored sheen on the rocky face nearest to
him would definitely not be the dusty gray rock that he was
familiar with.
That, and he was tired. Blood trickled out of the side of his
mouth. Each breath he took was an effort, the chest movement
sliding up and down broken ribs. Idly, he remembered similar
(and worse) wounds he'd suffered back in his days as an elite
ShinRa SOLDIER.
...My god...
He remembered!
A euphoric smile broke on his face. For the first time in weeks,
months, YEARS, he'd had a thought unhindered by hate and ambition,
free from the madness that had engulfed him so long ago. Laughter
began to rumble in his chest, but whatever injuries he was
suffering from twisted it into a harsh fit of coughing. Once it
was done, he looked about; there was an individual in his midst
that required more than just an apology.
Then he caught sight of the frightened young woman, beautiful in
her own right, her upper arm grasped in his hand. His eyes
followed the black glove up along the gray sleeve, peered at
the blue shirt crossed in white, trailed across the steel-toed
boots then fixated at the absurdly constructed blade in his other
hand.
The only other living being around was the woman. He shook her
roughly.
"Where am I?"