dreamcrystals | A Letter to Home

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A Letter to Home

Sender: Zack Fair
To: All
Subject: No Subject (Backdated to the first week)

[ Words that begin to appear in the journals are written slowly, as if with intent. The handwriting is... coherent at best at this slower pace, but every word is coming in gradually and seemingly with more frustration.

Guess who thinks this is just a plain ol' journal to use? ]

~~Dear Aeir~~
~~What's up!?~~
~~Hello! Hey th———~~

Hey Aerith.
Hope things are going ~~well??~~ good for you

[ UGH ]

Sorry it's taken so long for me to write back... I know youve been waiting a long time
I can't call right now but soon, okay?
~~how are the flowers?~~ you swimming in gil yet?
Theirs ~~theres~~ lots of weird stuff going on that I'll explain when I get back.
So... yeah. ~~See you soon~~
~~Regard~~ [ No that was SO STUPID ]
bye

[ The words at the bottom of the page are suddenly cut out, as if completely disregarded or tossed away.

But seconds later another one appears: ]

Hello!

[ Nope that one is gone, too. ]

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Ahaha! You're tellin' me! [ Okay... this was actually nice. Zack had been so hung up about the negative feelings that it made it a little difficult to focus but somehow, in his own way, Cloud was slowly dissipating the worries. ]

She was so hung up about making this wagon to sell her flowers. And when I finished it? She didn't even like it! So much for being grateful.

[ Cloud's smile, while small, was infectious. And for a moment talking about shared experiences helped push back the raw and hurtful emotions of her absence.

It was nice to be able to talk about her to someone else other than the Turks. ]

She's really somethin else. Wouldn't have even met her either if I didn't fall through the roof of the church that day!

Edited (oops had to add that) 2023-03-11 17:51 (UTC)

[And that was probably the first time Cloud's expression shifts fully during this entire conversation. Whatever Zack had said at first was lost to him. Gone was the briefest of smiles that broke through his usually cool demeanor, immediately replaced by a pair of raised eyebrows.

He blinked once, twice before pushing himself off his position against the wall. Turning his body fully to face Zack, his eyes are wide in surprise, his mouth hanging open. Did he hear that correctly?]

Hold on. You fell through the roof of a church? Was it onto a patch of flowers?

[ ... Oh. Whoa, what the!?

The reaction startled Zack too; jolting a bit in his seat when Cloud had turned suddenly towards him.

He clocked his reaction, noticing his surprise as Zack's face molded to match. ]

Huh!? Yeah... it was- [ Wait, why was he being so specific? Surprise soon turned to confusion, and the man moved to place his hand on the back of his chair to steadily begin to pull himself up. ]

-Why the face? It's not like I actually crushed any of them! [ He didn't take Cloud for a flower guy, and he never gave that indication from all the conversations they had before. ]

[Similar to Zack, the response he got only confused him even more. It was bad enough that he seemed to be suffering some kind of déjà vu from what he'd just learned, but he didn't want him to get the wrong idea either.]

I'm not worried about the flowers. [He says with a furrowed brow and a shake of his head.] It's just that I fell through the roof back when I met Aerith.

[Just what was going on here?]

[ ...

He stares, eyes desperately reading Cloud's demeanor. ] You've got to be kidding me.

[ He was, wasn't it? Not like Cloud was much of a jokester, but he had his comebacks from time to time. ]

Just tell me if you're pulling my leg. Ain't no way that happened to the both of us!

[ Aerith what are you doing to these boys and how are you drawing them towards you like this!? ]

Do I look like I'm joking?

[His tone is as flat as the look he's giving Zack. With his eyebrows knitting even closer together, he crosses his arms in front of his chest again.]

Fell from the top plate, right through the ceiling, and landed on the patch of flowers. She was there when I came to.

[She's just collecting all of the SOLDIER boys like bees to honey.]

[ Zack balks a little at the face, but recovers quickly to try and better assess the situation.

His mouth still hangs open though, a clear sign of his confusion, before a hand goes to rub the backside of his neck. ]

Just like me... [ A pause, his tone scoffing. ] Guess we both saw an angel that day, huh?

[That's one hell of a weird coincidence. But he's never been one to use flowery words like that.]

Guess you can call it that.

[His days had been one thing after the other since he started helping AVALANCHE. With the bombing, the multiple encounters with the Turks, and the jobs Aerith had suggested he took, he had his plate full back then.]

Did the jobs I mentioned after we met, then headed back to Tifa and the rest at Sector 7.

[ He's... still trying to wrap his brain around it, too. Zack knew whacky things happened to him all the time, but for that to happen to Cloud, too? Now that was just weird. ]

Oh, that's right! You did mention you did a few jobs for her... what kind?

[ Looks like he met up with Tifa in Midgar, too. Sounds like one hell of a party he wasn't invited to.

To think there was a time didn't even want to see her. But he didn't want to mention that, not yet. He wasn't sure if Cloud even knew about the events of Nibelheim, let alone his interactions with Tifa during that time. Just one step at a time. ]

Mostly helping around the Sector 5 slums so I can get my name out.

[While he was appreciative of the sentiment, it was definitely one way to get acquainted with other places in Midgar he hadn't been to prior.]

Dealt with some monsters at the edge of town, looked for a couple of kids. Pretty much anything that was available. [Cloud raised his hand and shook his head as he recalled this particular one.] She even asked me to be her bodyguard from the Turks.

[ Oof. The Turks. That certainly struck a cord with him.

But a bodyguard against them? Now that caused his eyebrow to raise a little. They said they would watch over her and keep her safe, then why- ]

They weren't tryin' to hurt her, were they?

Not hurt her, no. They were trying to take her back to Shinra HQ.

[Because she was the last remaining Ancient. Once again, he didn't know how much Zack knew about Aerith's past, but he'll err on the side of caution for this one. It wasn't as if it was his secret to tell anyway.]

They eventually got to her in exchange for a little girl's safety. But we made sure they didn't have her for too long.

[He, Tifa, and Barret owed it to her to get her out of there, after all. So he made sure to at least reassure Zack of that. In fact, he might be looking a little proud of himself for that.]

Heeeey Mr. Hero! [ He can sense that look!! Zack leans his body over in the chair as far as he could go to reach over to nudge Cloud, rough enough to try to move him slightly, before grinning. ]

Glad you were able to keep her safe! I'd have to rough both you and the Turks up otherwise. Could never tell what those guys were thinking. [ And never really wanted to mess with them, either.

... Maybe after the whole ordeal with him and Cloud they turned sour. Too many questions, never enough answers. ]

[The nudge does exactly what Zack wanted it to, catching Cloud unaware, and jostling him slightly from where he stood. Despite it, he still manages to let out a cocky hum.

But his expression shifts to something more serious. The Turks weren't the problem. At least not completely.]

The Turks are just Shinra's lapdogs, following his orders. They think she can lead them somewhere that has more mako for them to use. [Cloud shakes his head.] But even Aerith doesn't know where that is.

More mako?

[ The sentence is enough to dampen the playful mood, and Zack settles back into the chair with a heavy creak of his weight against wood. ] Think they’d have plenty of that stuff already.

[ It was hard for him to slowly begin to realize just what kind of corporation Shinra truly was. Before he would just blindly follow orders, all too enthralled with the joys of raising his ranks to really consider the consequences. And even now he had a difficult time wrapping his head around it all.

He never took the time to consider, but somehow he felt as though Cloud knew a bit more about it then he did. What he did know however was about mako and what it could do to a person or place. That he was all too familiar with. ]

Sounds like you all got into some pretty serious stuff.

[Serious would be an understatement for the things he had found himself caught up in. From blowing up the mako reactor in Sector 1, to finding themselves inside Shinra HQ to save Aerith, to eventually fighting Sephiroth, the last few days before he was whisked away to the dream world had been quite eventful.]

You know about Sephiroth, right? How he was suddenly declared killed in action? [Cloud makes no mention of the events that transpired back in Nibelheim. At least not yet. But still, he tenses, his hand closing into a fist.] Apparently, he's alive. We were hot on his trail before I wound up here.

[ ...

Zack tried to hold back his surprise. His heartbeat so loud it drummed against his ears he was sure Cloud could hear it.

"You know about Sephiroth, right?" ]

He's... alive? [ No. No. This couldn't be right. Cloud had defeated him, he was sure of it. He could remember the noises coming from the other room in the reactor, he knew Cloud had finished the job... that he had avenged his hometown.

That against all odds he had defeated Sephiroth. So then how...? ]

That can't be right...

[ Zack folds his arms over his chest to try to keep himself still. Trying to not let himself be too involved. His hands squeezed against his arms to control his breathing. ]

[All Cloud can glean from Zack's expression is that this was the first time he's heard of this.]

Whatever you've heard in the news, it's all Shinra propaganda. He's alive somehow.

Have you actually seen him alive? Did you run into him- [ He was going to say again but the words halted in his throat before he could say it.

How much did Cloud know? Did he actually remember anything that happened that night? ]

Yeah, we did. Just at the edge of Midgar... [He shakes his head, one hand tightly gripping on his arm. The words Sephiroth said to him still didn't make sense but he remembered them clearly.]

No, the edge of creation. Whatever that meant.

The edge of... creation? Sorry, that doesn't ring a bell. [ But the fact that Cloud had seen Sephiroth again just makes him sick to his stomach. But if he knew anything about Firsts, is that they didn't go down so easily... ]

But man, that's wild to think about. [ He turns his gaze away, staring into his lap. ] Do you, uh, remember any of the details about how he died in action? Hard to believe someone could just show up again after an announcement like that.

[Cloud doesn't fault Zack for his reply. It wasn't something he could explain either, even if he tried.]

Unfortunately, no.

[His reply is accompanied by a shake of his head.]

I remember finding him at the reactor in Nibelheim. He'd gone mad and burned the whole village down. [There's a pregnant pause. It's hard to recall the events of that day in his mind, even more so having to recount it like this. He grunts, deciding that he shouldn't go into further detail.] I went up against him on my own. But I can't remember actually fighting him.

[A lump formed in his throat, imagine all sorts of scenarios on how that actually battle went down. And yet, for some reason, Sephiroth didn't kill him. That alone made was hard to believe on some days.]

All I know is that I lived somehow.

[ ...

Wordlessly Zack will pick himself out of the chair, almost abruptly, and begin to pick up the pieces of paper thrown about his room.

He had to move, he couldn't sit still. The words that Cloud spoke to him tightened a deep knot in his chest. His body felt cold. He needed to move. To occupy his mind. Anything but think about the obvious hole of his existence that was somehow was left out of Cloud's mind.

Why... why couldn't he remember him?

What the hell was going on? ]

... I see. [ He uttered after leaning down to take another piece of paper off the ground, never looking back to read the man's facial expressions. He just couldn't do it. ]

Gotta be someone pretty special to take on Sephiroth by yourself. [ What does he even say? His mind was too clouded to try to navigate the conversation to make it seem normal- like the events Cloud was explaining didn't have to do with the both of them.

He felt sick. ]

I'm sorry that happened... but you can count me in the next time he tries to square up against you.

[The noise of Zack getting up from his chair was enough to make Cloud look up from the ground and toward the other man. Was he taking the news of Sephiroth's return that hard? He wouldn't have blamed him. Sephiroth was a legend who just fell off the face of the Planet suddenly. To hear about his reutn was no easy feat.

But Cloud doesn't comment on that or Zack's suddenly shift of tone. Instead, he watches him for a while as he paces around the room.

Considering it was just himself, Zack, and Tifa who he assumed knew about Sephiroth's existence in the dream world, that vote in confidence to aid him helped, no matter how little.]

It might not happen, but I'll be counting on you if it does.

[His gaze still follows Zack cleaning the room, realizing just how many times he's tried to work on this letter. Since deciding to room with him, they had mostly been cleaning up after themselves. But now...]

Do you need any help with that?

[ Even though Zack had only met Cloud for around a year before the events that followed in Nibelheim, he found himself slowly trying to pick up the pieces of their scattered friendship much like the papers on the floor. Maybe it was alright for Cloud not to remember, as traumatic as it was. But regardless of reason or whether any of it made sense, he felt a sort of calmness wash over him to know that Cloud was still reliant of him.

That through all of this, he was still able to protect him.

He felt a small sting of pride to know what Cloud could count on him, and it was with a half smile that Zack shook his head. ]

Nah, I'll take care of it. Gotta get rid of all this evidence anyway.

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spikyheaded - 2023-05-11 17:10 (UTC) - Expand

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theheroics - 2023-05-16 13:25 (UTC) - Expand

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