//------------------------------// // Chapter 30: A Trip Down Memory Stream. // Story: My Little Fantasy // by GuyWhoWritesThings //------------------------------// Chapter 30: A Trip Down Memory Stream. My head feels heavy. I struggle to open my eyes, but the world isn't what I expect it to be. It's misty, lights twinkling around like small stars, a faint green afterglow coming from behind the mist. Is it the Lifestream? No, it's... different. I twitch my feet, only to experience a lack of ground beneath them. I'm... floating? No, it feels like drifting. Drifting with a gentle current, though I don't seem to be moving anywhere. I hear something. It's too far away, but... it's a voice, and somehow I still know what it said. It wants me to move forward, but, how can I do that? Think... think about moving forward. My body slowly begins to move forward in response, deeper into the mist. As I move, screens begin to appear along the sides of my path, moving around as if someone is slowly placing them in order. They contain images... memories of my time as a kid in Nibelheim. One, however, stands out in particular. A memory, from so long ago, at the well in Nibelheim, under the stars with... "Go on, touch it." A voice from deep in the mist says. It's wavy, almost as if it's trying to talk while underwater, but I can understand it. I reach forward and touch the memory, and it ripples. A warm pressure pushes my hand deeper, and I sink into the image. "Sorry I'm late." Tifa says, sitting on the well with me. We'd grown up in Nibelheim together. She was wearing a turquoise dress with matching sandals that night, her long, black hair worn straight down to small of her back as it always was. "You wanted to talk about something?" She asks. I look up. "Come this Spring, I'm leaving this town for Midgar." "All the boys are leaving town." She replies, swinging her feet on the well. "But I'm different from them." I insist. "I'm not just going to find a job." I stand up and face her, determined. "I'm going to join SOLDIER. I'm going to be the best there is, just like Sephiroth!" "Sephiroth... The Great Sephiroth?" I nod to answer her question. "But, isn't it hard to join SOLDIER?" "...I probably won't be able to come back to this town for a while." She giggles in reply. "Hey... let's make a promise. If you get really famous and I'm ever in a bind, you'll come save me, alright?" She looks at me. "If I'm ever in trouble, my hero will come rescue me. I want to experience that at least once." "What?" "Come on! Promise me!" She insists. "All right... I promise." I feel a warm presence next to me as the memory dissolves, and I find myself back in the mist. It makes a small, comforting heat sprout in my chest as well, but it only lasts for a fleeting moment... "We're still at the beginning." The wavy voice says. "You need to keep going." I will myself forward as the voice instructs, continuing down the ethereal path. My final memories in Nibelheim pass me by, and I leave the town for Midgar, a massive industrial city that's separated into upper and lower halves via large, industrial plates that people live atop. I move forward still, but the memories... are beginning to become blurry, and out of order, like the force arranging them can't tell where they go. I reach out to one, a memory of my early time as SOLDIER, First Class, but as I try to press my hand against it, it vanishes, dissolving into mist. "I'm sorry." The voice speaks again. It's a bit clearer. It sounds feminine, but the distance and distortion make it impossible to recognize beyond that. "Those ones shouldn't be here." Shouldn't be here? How could... I look around some more, and find an image of another memory, a clear one. It's a memory of Cloud Strife, the soldier in the Shin-Ra Electric Power Company's Infantry Division. How could I have a memory of being SOLDIER, First Class when I never was able to get into SOLDIER to begin with? As a member of the Infantry Division, though, I had met a man in SOLDIER who eventually made First Class. Zack... he bore a cross-shaped scar on his face, black hair, and a massive weapon called the Buster Sword. He was strong, and charismatic, and it turned out we'd both been from backwater towns, so it was easy for us to get along together. I continue, until I come across one memory: Nibelheim. Zack and Sephiroth had been assigned to investigate the Mako Reactor on top of Mt. Nibel, as there had been reports of strange monsters. I was with them as well, as part of the escort detail. Tifa still lived there, and was the one who showed us up the mountain paths to reach the Reactor. Thankfully, the helmets worn by the Infantry Divison included visors that obscured the face, so I was able to hide the shame of not making it to SOLDIER by just not speaking and not removing the helmet. However, inside the Reactor... something happened with Sephiroth. After the initial investigation, he stayed locked in the basement of a mansion owned by Shin-Ra on the edge of the town, pouring through countless books and research notes of the scientists who turned the library in the mansion's basement into their labratory. "There's more..." Some more memories begin to appear, dragged with apparent effort from further down the mist path. These new memories are from five years later, after we began our quest to stop Sephiroth. Scouring the notes as Sephiroth had years ago, we learned of Shin-Ra's investigation into the Cetra, a race of people from two-thousand years ago. The Cetra were said to be able to call the Lifestream forth to fertilize the land, helping them keep up a nomadic lifestyle as they searched for a fabled 'Promised Land'. Shin-Ra wanted this ability for themselves, to ease the production of Mako Energy, once they found frozen remains of a Cetra from the crater in the north that they named Jenova. Scientists began splicing the cells of regular humans with the cells they found, resulting in the birth of the super-soldier, Sephiroth. Believing the people on the planet had stolen it from the Cetra, Sephiroth left the basement, destroying the town of Nibelheim and heading to the Mt. Nibel Reactor. "...That's not the whole story either, is it?" The guiding voice asks, hesitating slightly as still more memories are moved down, working themselves into the composite that's being built. Yes... it turned out that the scientists that believed Jenova was a member of the Cetra were mistaken. Two-thousand years ago, when the Cetra disappeared, a meteor fell from the sky and struck the north. Out of it came a life-form the Cetra who survived would dub the 'Calamity of the Sky'. It shifted shapes, gleaning memories to take the forms of loved onces to get close to Cetra settlements and spread its cells among them like a parasite, turning them into twisted monsters. Those that survived banded together, and somehow sealed the creature at its impact site in the north. This is the creature that Shin-Ra would later excavate and name 'Jenova'. Had it been the influence of this creature inside him that truly drove Sephiroth mad? The filter of new memories stops coming and I turn away, moving myself ahead. I don't need to go far to find the memories of Sephiroth's carnage. Nibelheim's burning stands out starkly among the images, and I'm tempted to linger, but... something pushes me forward. Yes, it hurts, but... there's something more important. Sephiroth returned to the Reactor on Mt. Nibel. This memory calls out, much like the memory of the well, though this one is cold. I collect myself, and without needing instruction, reach out my hand... I rush into the Reactor, down the catwalks above the Lifestream that's being welled up to process into Mako. I reach the final room of the structure, one bathed in red light, with rows of pods containing monstrous, distorted creatures kept in a stasis, set to either side of a long staircase. I scan around and... Tifa! Why is she here? Any thoughts of why a Mako Reactor would have a room like this disappear as I check to be sure she's still alive. She's injured, unconscious, but... fine, for now. I look up, seeing a second body on the stairs. Zack is sprawled, face down on the stair case. He's badly injured, but, like Tifa, still alive. I turn to the top of the stairwell. At the top is a doorway labeled 'JENOVA', with a door that had clearly once been sealed. I rush up the stairs, through the doorway, and see him there: Sephiroth. His back is to me as he runs his hand along a glass tube in front of him. Inside is a distorted, grey-blue skinned fascimile of a woman, with the remnants of leathery wings on her back, and fleshy tubes running from different parts of her body down to a massive heart where her feet should be. On the floor is Zack's weapon, the Buster Sword, and I don't hesitate to take it. I rush forward, down the small, rail-less path between us, able to use his fixation on the creature in the tube to run him through with Zack's blade, going straight through Sephiroth and nearly smashing his precious tube open as well. I pull the blade out as he reels, knowing no person can survive a wound like that from a weapon this large as I rush back to the previous room. I lay the weapon down and cradle Tifa, laying her unconscious body in a sitting position in a corner of the room. I set my helmet to the side, ready to try waking her... when I hear steps coming from the top of the staircase. "How dare you..." Sephiroth spits from the top of the stairs. I stare at him, wide-eyed, unable to believe he's still alive at all. He's limping, his sword held loosely in his left hand, while in the right hand, he holds the head of the creature from the tube, dangling by its hair. "Cloud... finish Sephiroth off...!" Zack says, conscious again, his body twitching on the staircase as he fails to move anything of use. I don't hesitate in taking up Zack's Buster Sword again, rushing down the man who turned Nibelheim into an inferno. Sephiroth is gravely injured, but, in a single clash of our weapons... he demonstrates the difference in ability between a First Class SOLDIER and an Infantry. The impact flings the Buster Sword from my hands and sends me hurdling down the stairs, out of the pod-filled room and into the room before, with the Lifestream flowing to be processed below. My body reels in pain, barely able to move... then intensifies as his sword stabs through my stomach. The pain is whirling as he picks me up of the ground like a scrap, using his sword to hold me over the edge to the Lifestream below. The memory becomes blurry now, the pain obscuring the details. I remember he spoke, but not what he said. I remember the feeling... knowing in that moment, I was going to die, and that I couldn't accept letting someone like him walk away. I gripped the sword lodged in my chest and pulled myself forward, impaling myself deeper on the blade until my feet reached the catwalk again. Then, somehow... somehow, I threw him off the side, into the Lifestream, and collapsed. The Great Sephiroth had been defeated, at least for the time, by an insignificant member of Shin-Ra's Infantry Division. "You did something pretty great, didn't you?" The voice asks, a warm feeling tempering the bad memory. I did, didn't I? I move forward, through the screens of memories. These memories are blurry, obscure, as if I was only partially there to experience them. Sometimes, more memories from further ahead are pulled down, doing their best to clarify what's missing. That's right, eventually, other members of Shin-Ra found Zack and I collapsed in Mt. Nibel's Mako Reactor, and took us. Somehow, Tifa got away from being taken by them as well. Maybe another survivor of Nibelheim came and took her first, leaving Zack and I behind due to our relation to Shin-Ra? Regardless, we weren't taken to be treated for our injuries, but instead... we found ourselves in the mansion's basement. Shin-Ra's scientist, Hojo, took interest in us after learning we had somehow killed Sephiroth. I remember fading in and out of consciousness, weak and unable to move as Hojo kept us both in tubes filled with Mako. The scientist wanted to make more soldiers like Sephiroth, and spliced us with Jenova's cells. I don't recall much of what happened next, but eventually, Zack was able to break us out, allowing us to escape the mansion. Though... I was nearly catatonic, the Mako Poisoning leaving me entirely as dead weight. Zack probably should have left me behind, but... that wasn't his style, was it? Another memory draws me close. It's a bit distorted, due to the Mako Poisoning, but unlike the rest it's still clear enough to recall. He had dressed me in one of his extra SOLDIER uniforms, and we were riding in the back of a pickup truck, Zack hitch-hiking our way as far from Nibelheim as we could get... "Yo, old guy! We at Midgar yet?" Zack asks the man giving us our ride. "Shaddap! You're lucky I even gave you a ride!" Zack turns away from the guy, bending down next to me. "What're you gonna do once we get to Midgar?" "..." "I know what I'm gonna do. I got a place I can crash for a while. No, wait, the mother lives there, too... guess that's out." He shakes his head. "Yep! Gotta change my plans! Hmm... no matter what I do, I'm gonna need some money first." He looks at me again. "Hey, wanna start a business? But what could we do?" He stops to think for a moment. "Hey, Cloud, think there's anything I'd be good at?" "..." He turns to the cab of the truck. "Hey, old guy! What do you think I'd be good at?" "What're you yappin' about? You're still young ain't ya? Young folks should try everything! You gotta pay your dues while you're young. Go out and look for what you really want." Zack turns back to me, muttering. "Go out and try everything... that's easy for him to say." He takes a moment, doing squats to help himself think before pumping his fist in the air and looking up to the sky. "Hey! Of course! I got a lot of brains and skill and stuff that other guys don't! That settles it! I'm gonna become a mercenary! Yeah! Thanks pops!" "Hey... didn't you even hear a word I said?" "Listen, I'm gonna become a mercenary and that's that! Boring stuff, dangerous stuff, anything for money. I'm gonna be rich!" Zack turns back down to me. "So, Cloud, what are you gonna do?" "..." "Just kidding... I won't leave you hanging like that. We're friends, right? Mercenaries, Cloud, that's what you and I are gonna be!" I feel it again as I pull away from the memory with Zack, the warm presence I felt when I viewed the memory of my promise with Tifa back again. It wraps around me, staying with me this time as I glide a bit further along the misty path. I find one more memory of Zack, one that makes me stop. The warmth stops with me as I move toward it, slowly reaching out my hand. "..." The sound of the voice glides past me, though it sounds more like an intake of breath than words. Even without touching it, I can remember this one clearly, despite my Mako Poisoning at the time. Zack and I had nearly reached Midgar, and were on a ridge that overlooked the city. However... we weren't alone. Shin-Ra had found us at some point, and chased us here, wanting to dispose of their failed experiments. Zack hid me among some rocks before they were able to truly catch up to us and stood in the open, waiting, his Buster Sword raised in front of him, intent on keeping all the attention squarely on him. I had finally been regaining a bit of my senses, but... my body wouldn't move. I couldn't do anything. I don't need to touch the memory to remember the words he said as Shin-Ra's soldiers surrounded him. "Embrace your dreams, and whatever happens, protect your honor... as SOLDIER!" I pull my hand away from the memory, curling my fingers uncertainly. I know what happens next already, but... the warmth wraps around my hand, guiding it back. My fingertips glide gently across the top of the memory... It's started raining. Shin-Ra's soldiers have left, satisfied with their job well-done. After all this time, I've finally found the strength to crawl, and make my way to him from the rocks. Zack's body is staring up to the sky. My encounter with Sephiroth proved that someone subjected to Jenova's cells could survive more trauma than any ordinary person, but... everything has its limit. I finally reach him, and stare down at him, still on my hands and knees, my mind reeling. "For the... both of us..." Zack mutters through pained breaths, somehow still alive. "You're gonna..." He reaches out, placing his hand on the back of my neck and pressing me to his chest. "Live!" He pauses, struggling for a next breath. "You'll be... my living legacy." His hand falls away and I pull myself up, sitting on my knees as he looks to his right. He reaches his right hand out, grasping the hilt of the Buster Sword and slowly dragging it, holding the hilt out in front of me. "My honor, my dreams... they're yours now." Not knowing what else to do, I close my hands around the hilt of the sword and he releases it, pressing his hand over mine and pushing the hilt to my chest. I'm pulled forcibly away from the memory before it can finish. The warm presence wraps itself around me tighter. That's right... Zack wasn't the only one to die that day. Cloud Strife, member of the Shin-Ra Infantry Division disappeared as well. Maybe it was the Mako Poisoning, or the experiements, or even... my own grief, but I took Zack's words too literally. The person I used to be was replaced by Cloud Strife, mercenary and former SOLDIER First Class, able to take any job. For a long time, those memories of Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class and fellow country boy, disappeared. I'd recall myself in his place, as the new First Class recruit that investigated the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor as his first mission, and confronted Sephiroth for revenge over the loss of his home town. The warmth finally leaves, flowing like a wisp up the path I've been put on. "There are happy things here, too." The guiding voice says, ever a bit more clear. It's familiar... a voice I've heard before. "Let's keep going." I follow it, the memories of my time in Midgar returning next. Boring stuff, dangerous stuff... just like Zack said, I did all of it. At least, I did, until one day I got a job from an environmentalist group called AVALANCHE. They knew the processing of Lifestream into Mako would eventually cause the death of the planet, and wanted to stop Shin-Ra's manufacturing by destroying the eight Mako Reactors around Midgar. While Shin-Ra had other Mako Reactors, such as the one on Mt. Nibel, they used Midgar as their base of operations. They essentially owned the entire city, with their business headquarters being the focal point of Midgar's upper layer, so destroying the Reactors here would cause severe damage to Shin-Ra regardless. At the time, though, none of that mattered to me. To me, it was just another paycheck. I met them and infiltrated the first Reactor with a man named Barret. He was a burly, dark-skinned, muscular man, with an implant of a gun replacing his right hand and a vocabulary not fit for anyone. We didn't get along very well at first, to the point I wondered if he disagreed with me just to be contrary, but, in the end, he was a good guy. We were able to plant a bomb inside the first Mako Reactor on their group's list and destroy it without much difficulty, then return to their base of operations, a bar named the 7th Heaven. That's where I met someone I wasn't sure I'd ever see again. Tifa was there, working behind the bar, herself a member of AVALANCHE. It wasn't that surprising, though... she may have asked me to come and protect her like a hero back in Nibelheim, but she didn't exactly need it. She was strong-willed and trained by an expert martial-artist, after all. Joining a group for the sake of getting revenge for the events at Nibelheim wasn't particularly surprising of her to do. She came with us for the second job. At first, it was an easy job, but Shin-Ra trapped us, delaying us and forcing us to fight our way out. As we crossed one of the bridges outside the Reactor, the bomb went off, causing it to collapse out from under me. Tifa tried to catch me, but... I ended up falling a massive distance, from the upper plate, through the roof of a church, and onto a flower bed. Ironically, had it not been for Hojo's experiments, that might have been the end for me. The memory of the following events glides up to me, and I press my hand against it. "Hello?" A woman's voice says, rousing me from consciousness after my fall. "You okay?" I sit up and turn to her. She's a bit older than me, with long, brown hair wrapped into a single braid along her back, tied by a ribbon, a pair of bangs hanging in front of her face. She has a soft, welcoming appearance, accentuated by a long, pink dress and a red vest-jacket. I shake my head clear, and she continues talking. "This is a church in the Sector 5 slums. You suddenly crashed down on top of me." "...I came crashing down?" She nods. "The roof and flower bed must have broken the fall. You're lucky." I look down at my landing zone. "Flower bed... is this yours?" I get to my feet, turning to face her. "Sorry about that." "It's alright." She assures me. "The flowers are resiliant because this is a sacred place. They say you can't grow grass and flowers in Midgar, but for some reason, they have no trouble blooming here." She crouches down for a moment, tending the flowers before continuing. "Say, do you have any Materia?" "Yes, some. Nowadays you can find Materia anywhere." She stands back up, clasping a piece of white Materia I'd never seen before. "Mine is special, though." She replies. "It's good for absolutely nothing." "Good for nothing?" I ask. "You probably just don't know how to use it." "No, I do." She insists. "It just doesn't do anything. I feel safe having it, though. It was my mother's..." She moves to the far side of the flower bed, inspecting it. "Oh, my name is Aerith." It wasn't long after that when some Shin-Ra soldiers and a uniformed man named Reno, from a special operations force called the Turks, came into the church. Instead of being after me, though, they were after Aerith, calling her an 'Ancient'... one of the Cetra. We escaped their pursuit, and eventually, she decided to show me the fastest way back to Sector 7, where the 7th Heaven was located. On our way, though, we saw Tifa had been captured by a rich scumbag named Don Corneo, who went through women faster than most people go through socks. We infiltrated his mansion in Sector 6 to save her, though it turned out she had been captured on purpose in order to obtain information, as the Don had ties with Shin-Ra. We learned from him that Shin-Ra intended to destroy the support plate for the upper half of Sector 7, using it to crush the lower half and destroy AVALANCHE's base, all while blaming the attack on AVALANCHE itself. We rushed back to Sector 7 quickly, meeting up with Barret, who scaled the support beam for Sector 7 with Tifa and myself to try and stop Shin-Ra. While we were able to confront them, including Reno, we ultimately weren't able to stop them... and, somewhere during the chaos, Aerith had been captured by the Turks. So we did the smart thing, of course, and decided to storm the Shin-Ra main headquarters to save her. While there, we found the headless body of Jenova, moved from Mt. Nibel, inside a containment chamber, and freed both Aerith and a red, sentient, feline-like creature with a flaming tail, and a brand that labeled him as Red XIII. It was at that point that Shin-Ra captured our entire group, but our cells malfunctioned not long after our capture, allowing us to escape. What facilitated our escape, though, is what ultimately started our quest. The tank containing Jenova's body had been destroyed, and much of the building had been completely trashed, the survivors muttering about how Sephiroth came back from the dead and killed President Shin-Ra. After learning Sephiroth was no longer inside, we made our escape of both Shin-Ra Headquarters and Midgar, deciding for our own reasons to chase down and defeat Sephiroth - Tifa and I for revenge of the events at Nibelheim. I finally pull myself entirely away from the dense memories of our journey's start. The misty path ahead is still long, but the memories are able to quickly slot into place from here. We made our way across the continent, before using a boat from the harbor town of Junon to cross the ocean to reach a separate continent entirely. As our journey stretched on, we gained plenty more friends. We found out that Red XIII's real name was Nanaki, and that he was a member of a long-lived race of warriors with a sworn duty to protect the planet from harm, captured by Shin-Ra for various experiments, much like Aerith. We also met the ninja and Materia thief, Yuffie, from Wutai, which lost to Shin-Ra in the previous war. Cid joined us, a crass man from Rocket Town with a dream of being the first man to take a rocket up to space. There was Vincent, a man sealed in the basement of the mansion in Nibelheim in a deep sleep... subject to a fate not too dissimilar to myself and Zack. Finally there was Cait Sith... an animatronic of a small, black cat riding a giant moogle we met while investigating the resort known as the Golden Saucer based on rumors of Sephiroth's appearance. He turned out to be a puppet controlled by a man named Reeve, from Shin-Ra, leader of their Urban Development Divison. Reeve intended to betray us at first, but eventually began to help us in secret using the Cait Sith animatronics, helping us avoid Shin-Ra's attempts to capture us so we could save the planet from Sephiroth. "You've had a lot of good friends, haven't you?" The voice from the mist says, after being silent for so long. The waviness is disappearing, and its tone is soft. The warm presence again appears at my side, lighting the small fire inside me as if to emphasize its question. Thinking back on it... how could I have forgotten all these people? Each of them had joined me on what was originally a selfish quest to avenge my home town, which turned into a quest to save the planet itself the more we learned of Sephiroth's true intentions. They really were good friends, and no matter how hard things became, none of them ever walked away. Despite what our quest entailed, there were plenty of good times, and we always found ways to laugh through the bad ones. Well, except for Vincent, he... he wasn't the most outgoing or empathetic person. We encountered 'Sephiroth' repeatedly, though each was in truth a piece of Jenova, transformed into his likeness. Working together, we were able to survive, defeating these pieces as they revealed their true forms to fight us, and continue ahead. I keep moving on the mist path, the events of that quest continuing to unfold and find their proper places back in my mind. Eventually, we found ourselves at the Temple of the Ancients. It was, as the name implies, an ancient temple, built by the Cetra long ago to seal away the Black Materia, which was capable of summoning Meteor and destroying the planet. We were on Sephiroth's heels, as obtaining this Materia was a key part of his true plan - a plan to summon Meteor, creating a wound large enough that the Lifestream would need to act immediately in order to save the planet, where he could then place himself in the center and use all that Lifestream in one location to elevate his power to that of a God. It was difficult, but we were able to secure the Black Materia from him, except with one problem: The truth was that the Temple itself was the Black Materia, transformed by the Cetra to protect the planet. Solving the puzzles of the Temple would cause it to slowly turn back into the Materia, but the person inside would be crushed. We knew Sephiroth had his own ways to bypass this defense, so Reeve sacrified one of his Cait Sith animatronics to solve the puzzles and transform the Temple back into the Materia. As I retrieved the Black Materia, however, Sephiroth again appeared, playing his newest card: He'd somehow gained dominance over the creature, Jenova, and used the cells of it inside my body to dominate my mind, forcing me to simply... give him the Black Materia. A strange, distorted memory sits next to this one. I... remember this. That night, Aerith somehow spoke to me, in a dream. I can only remember the words, but... "Cloud, can you hear me?" "Yeah... sorry for what happened." "Don't worry about it, Cloud." "...I can't help it." "Oh... then you can keep worrying about it, and let me handle Sephiroth!" "What?" "And Cloud... take care of yourself. Don't have another breakdown, okay?" "..." "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. That's why I'm going to protect the planet. Only a Cetra, like me, can do it." When we woke up, Aerith was gone, run ahead to a Cetra city known only as the Forgotten Capital now. She planned to pray at the altar there, calling forth the power of the planet to activate the White Materia her mother had left her. It was apparently the final defense against Meteor, meant for when the Black Materia fell into evil hands, with the power to summon a great force to protect the planet... but only a Cetra could obtain the guidance needed from the Lifestream to use it. The next memory flies close, as if asking me to touch it, but I pull away. I remember clearly enough what happens next - I don't need to relive it. We went to the Forgotten Capital after Aerith, eventually finding her at the pedestal in the center of the city. As I approached her, however, Sephiroth dominated my mind again, urging me to kill her. It was only due to my friends, the ones I'd forgotten all this time, that I'd been able to stop myself... But, while I was collecting myself from his attempt, he took his opportunity - appearing from an upper level of the city and jumping down, running Aerith through with his massive blade, the Masamune. Unlike a member of SOLDIER, however, a Cetra doesn't have any particular vitality, so... it didn't take long for her to die. Again, while not being able to do anything, I... "...We're almost at the end now." My guiding voice assures, as if it can sense my resolve wavering, almost all the distortions in it gone now. The warm presence sets off down the path once more, and like always, I follow, the remaining memories coming with clarity. We set Aerith's body to rest in the waters surrounding the Forgotten Capital, and continued forward based on a comment Sephiroth made. "All that is left is to go North. The 'Promised Land' waits for me over the snowy fields." What had once been 'merely' a quest to save the world for most of us now had a personal gravity, and our resolve hardened as we made our way north. We learned that Sephiroth was waiting in the Northern Crater, the impact site of Jenova from two-thousand years ago, and moved to confront him. Another piece of Jenova in Sephiroth's form stood in our path, and after it assumed its true form to fight us, we defeated it. It turned out to be the piece that was bringing the Black Materia to Sephiroth, and I entrusted it to Nanaki, not wanting to risk a repeat of the incident from the Temple of the Ancients. I catch up to the warm presence. It's resting in front of a powerful memory, one that feels like it's drawing me in. I feel compelled to reach out and touch it, to let it take me away, but the warmth stops me, at least for a moment. I look at the memory and see why, but... it's too close to the end now. I reach out. Throughout all our adventures, whenever anyone had asked about Nibelheim, Tifa had always allowed me to speak, supporting whatever I told the others. This time, however, she wouldn't be able to, as we found ourselves in an illusion created by Sephiroth, using the power the Lifestream flowing so near to us in the Northern Crater. I reach out, the warm presence no longer attempting to stop me, and touch the memory... the memory of the death of Cloud Strife, mercenary and former member of SOLDIER, First Class. "Nibelheim..." Tifa mutters under her breath, as we approach the illusion of the town we called home all those years ago. "This is an illusion Sephiroth made up." I reply. "He's trying to confuse us. Come on, let's keep going." Tifa turns to me. "Yeah, you're right... Look!" She exclaims, looking behind me, and I turn, before the two of us move to the side of the town's entrance, as an illusion of Sephiroth enters the town, just as he did when first investigating Mt. Nibel. "All right, let's go." Sephiroth says, turning to the people behind him. Two members of the Shin-Ra Infantry Divison approach behind him, as well as another man - a man with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek, black hair, and a large sword with two simple Materia slots. The four men walk forward. "Stop... Sephiroth." Tifa's voice wavers slightly, issuing the command as Sephiroth walks past her. "This is so stupid..." I mutter. The illusion of Sephiroth laughs, throwing its head back, and there's a white flash. "Stop it already!" Tifa yells as the scene changes, to the fires I remember from five years ago, at Nibelheim. We're near the well, the flames surrounding us. "He's going to try and show us another stupid illusion." I insist as I turn to the mansion, where I had ran out after Sephiroth began his rampage those years ago. As if on cue, the black-haired man runs out instead, running into the town to check for survivors. "See, what did I tell you?" "I don't want to watch this..." Tifa says, her voice still shaking. "Cloud, don't watch." "Sephiroth!" I yell. "I know you're listening! I know what you want to say, that I wasn't in Nibelheim five years ago! That's it, isn't it?" There's a flash, and another illusion of Sephiroth appears. "I see you finally understand." "What you're saying is you want to confuse me, right?" I ask him. "But, making me see those things won't affect me. I remember it all. The heat of the fire, the pain in my body, and my heart!" Sephiroth shakes his head. "Oh, is that so? You're just a puppet. You have no heart. You can't feel pain. How can there be any meaning in the memory of such a being? What I've shown you is reality. What you remember, that is the illusion. Do you understand?" "I don't want to understand." I respond, turning my back to him. "But I want to ask you one thing. Why are you doing this?" There's another flash, and the illusion is again to my front, laughing. "I want to take you back to your real self, the one that gave me the Black Materia. Who would have thought a failed experiment would prove so useful? Hojo would die if he knew." "What does Hojo have to do with me?!" I ask angrily, walking up to the image of Sephiroth. "Five years ago... you were created by Hojo, piece by piece, right after Nibelheim was burnt. A puppet made of vibrant Jenova cells, her knowledge, and the power of the Mako. An incomplete Sephiroth-Clone, not even given a number: That is your reality." "Cloud, don't listen to him..." Tifa pleads from my side. "Close your ears! Close your eyes!" I look at her, confused. "What's wrong, Tifa? I'm not affected by it. I'm not listening to him." Tifa continues, as if I never said anything at all. "All that talk of Hojo constructing you is a lie. Don't we have our memories together? Being kids together, starlit nights..." Sephiroth laughs again, pulling our attention back to him. "Tifa, why are you so scared by those words?" In reply, Tifa merely turns her back to him, burying her face in her hands as he laughs more. "You look like you're not feeling well." "Tifa..." I turn to her, her reactions beginning to worry me as the Sephiroth illusion vanishes. "Is Sephiroth right?" I shake my head at her lack of reply. "Why are you so scared? I'm alright. No matter how confused I am, I'll never believe a word Sephiroth says." I sigh. "It's true, sometimes I can't figure out who I am. There's lots of things muddled up in my memories. But you said 'Long time no see, Cloud', right? No matter what else anyone says to me, it's your attitude that counts..." "That's not true, Cloud..." Tifa says hesitantly. "I don't know how to say it..." In another flash, the Sephiroth illusion reappears, this time across the fire. "Cloud, don't blame Tifa. The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words: That is the power of Jenova. Inside you, Jenova merged with Tifa's memories, creating you. Tifa's memories... a boy named 'Cloud' may have been part of them." "Cloud... please, don't think right now..." Tifa insists, her voice wavering ever more. "Think, Cloud!" Sephiroth's illusion yells over her. "Oh... excuse me. You never had a name." "Shut up, Sephiroth!" I yell, getting sick of his games. "You still don't get it? Then... do you remember the picture we took before heading to Mt. Nibel?" He turns to Tifa. "...Tifa, you remember, right? But there's no way he would know." He reaches into his coat, pulling out the picture. "Do you want to see it? It turned out pretty good." "Cloud, don't..." Tifa's pleading voice is getting softer, less able to vocalize. "I... should be in the picture." I reply, giving her a confident nod. "Even if I'm not there, this is just an illusion Sephiroth made up." I walk over and look at the picture - the picture of Sephiroth, Tifa, and the black-haired man, causing the illusion of Sephiroth to disappear once more. "Just as I thought. This picture's a fake. The truth is in my memory. Five years ago, I came back to Nibelheim, to inspect the Reactor. I was sixteen. I saw my mom. I saw the people in town." I place my hand to my head, thinking. Tifa's back stays turned to me. "I spent the night and went to the Reactor on Mt. Nibel. I was excited about it, because that was my first mission after becoming First Class in SOLDIER." There's a flash, and I drop to my knees, gripping my head. "SOLDIER, First Class? SOLDIER? When did I enter SOLDIER? How did I join SOLDIER? Why can't I remember...?" After that... I began to believe Sephiroth's versions of events. We reached Sephiroth, the real Sephiroth, contained within a cocoon of Materia crystal, perserving his body. I took back the Black Materia from Nanaki, who was relieved to have the responsibility taken away, and then... Sephiroth exerted his influence once more, and I gave the Black Materia to him... again. He used the Materia to begin summoning Meteor, and the chamber began to shake. Eventually, the floor gave way, and while the others escaped, I didn't even bother to try and fell into the Lifestream. And... that's the end. "No, it's not." The voice is clear now, on the tip of recognition. Of course it is. Sephiroth showed me the truth, that the 'Cloud' I believed I was didn't exist, and in turn, I gave Sephiroth the Black Materia. Then, with Sephiroth still inside the Materia cocoon, we both fell into the Lifestream, and somehow, the planet expelled us both, sending us to... "No!" The voice becomes authoritative. "You already know Sephiroth's version of events is wrong! You remember!" ...The voice is right. It had assembled my memories carefully, so that Sephiroth's lie couldn't be true. I remembered Zack. I remember hiding my face from Tifa all those years ago, back in Nibelheim. Those are the real memories, so I can't just be some composite made of Jenova's cells. "That's right!" It insists. "How can you see those memories, if they weren't already there?" I had... I had remembered all this, once before. "Yes!" Sephiroth's damage had been undone once before. "Yes!" Then, I am Cloud Strife, of Nibelheim! "..." ...Is that wrong? "...I don't understand the next part enough to say." Next part? But... there's nothing left ahead, just empty mist. "You've built a strong wall around this memory. You'll need to break through it." A strong wall? Around a memory? How does that work? "Your heart's afraid of what's inside." How do I break it? "Let your friends help you, like you always do." But... those friends are long gone now. I may never see them again. "Yes..." The voice softens. "But you've made plenty of new friends, haven't you?" That's right, I have... "Do you think they'd abandon you if the last memory contained something terrible?" The ones that matter the most wouldn't. "Then why are you afraid?" Why... why am I afraid? As I ask that question, the path forward appears, along with a new memory. I will myself over to it, but it's damaged. Touching it doesn't do anything. However, parts of it still come back. Falling into the Lifestream wasn't the end. After a while, Tifa somehow came, and the Lifestream allowed her to somehow enter Cloud's subconscious. Bit by bit, she found the scattered parts of Cloud's memories and put them back together. All the memories on this path, Tifa had found them and fixed them, brought back the real Cloud Strife, the one who had a best friend and hero named Zack Fair, of SOLDIER, First Class. All the memories, all the pieces of Cloud Strife's personality... but one. That one piece... it had been me. I remember now. A small piece, insignificant, squirreled away in a corner of Cloud's mind, most likely not any important part of him at all. Tifa eventually saw me, and attempted to bring me back to the rest of Cloud, but... something pulled me away. It tugged me, somehow drawing me into the Lifestream. After that, I woke up, being dragged out of the river by the Everfree Forest. If Tifa had been able to enter Cloud's subconscious, I suppose it makes sense a piece of a subconscious could leave, but... how did that happen? "I don't know." There's nothing after this? "Not about this." Then, how did Sephiroth follow me? "I don't know." Then how am I supposed to beat him? "...I don't know." Am I even really Cloud Strife anymore? "Does it matter?" Of course it matters! If I'm not, then these memories that I've just gone through all this work regaining, they're... "They're not fake." But they're not mine. What difference is there between this and what Sephiroth... "There is a difference!" The voice quivers. "You have a heart! You've made new memories, and new friends, haven't you?" The presence I've been feeling alongside the voice appears once more, stronger than ever, and pushes me forward on the path. "Whether you're Cloud Strife or just a piece of his heart, they wouldn't turn you away, would they?" No, they wouldn't... Equestria's... different, but I've made plenty of friends here, too. Friends that have helped me despite them barely knowing me at all. Despite not having memories at all, despite being something they've never seen before, the day Twilight Sparkle brought me to Ponyville, they were willing to help me. There was even a party! Maybe the pink one wasn't so bad, after all... I was callous to them and left without warning or direction, but that didn't stop them looking for me and wanting to help. Though, because of that, I also met one more friend. Someone egotistical and dedicated, but also care-free in their own way. Someone who didn't care who or what I was back then, either. We traveled together. That's right! We jumped on top of the train to Appleloosa! We saw buffalo! We put on a great magic show! We... "That important, huh?" Trixie! "Took you long enough, idiot." But... "But, what? Are you still moping about this?" ... "Think about it. Isn't it better this way?" ... "That girl, Tifa... she was... that sort of important to you, wasn't she?" ...Yeah. "Then isn't it better that her hero is still there, ready to keep his promise and stop Sephiroth's Meteor?" It is. But, what about... "What about you? You're here! You're alive! You have friends! Do the details really matter anymore?" I guess they don't. I'm in my own world, with my own friends. My past is important, but even if I'm not 'Cloud Strife', I can make my own path forward. I should be focusing on what I am, instead of caring so much about what I'm not! There's no reason to let Sephiroth try to confuse me anymore. "That's right." You could learn something from that, you know. "...Shut up, or I start rewiring things to make you think you're a dog." Noted. "...There's one more part left to go, but you'll need to do it alone." How can there be one more part? It's been half a day since Sephiroth attacked us in the Crystal Caves! How can there be another part? "I said there were side-effects, remember?" The path in front of me flashes white, blinding my vision. Once it returns, I'm in a similar mist to before, but the glow behind it is blue instead of green. I look around, trying to get my bearings, then will myself forward like always. As I move forward, the memory screens begin opening, as before, except something's... different. These... aren't my memories. They're memories of a small, azure unicorn. Elated at being accepted to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Distraught at failing. Consoled by a grandfather with stories of traveling magicians of old. Uplifted by acting classes with an older sister. Enamored by a first magic show with special friends... ...I shouldn't be looking at these. I 'feel' the memories, more than experience them, the raw emotion from each strong memory welling up in my chest as I pass it by. They reach out, strong memories, buried memories, wanting to be looked at after so long, but I resist the temptation to turn my head, to touch them. It's not my business to rummage around of Trixie's memories. As I move forward, the memories become colder. Is this the part Trixie spoke about this morning? The time she 'became' The Great and Powerful Trixie, instead of playing the role? I could look, but... Eventually, one memory catches the corner of my eye. A memory far past the initial coldness, a memory of Ponyville. This one burns hot with anger, and I don't need to linger on it any more to know the contents. She's told me that story enough. I keep going ahead, and the angry heat only grows. I chance a glance at one of these memories, to see a dirt-covered, hat-less, cape-less Trixie beating furiously against a rock with a pick held between her hooves. Eventually, this Trixie gives way to the one I'm used to seeing, again with her hat and cape, wandering off into the wilderness of Equestria with the money she's gleaned from farming rocks. After a while, though, the anger begins to subside. Curious, I turn my head, willing to make another small peak, to see a memory that isn't just hers, a memory of practicing a brand new magical display, only to drag a strange, never-before-seen interloper from the bushes. I smile and turn away, keeping on the path ahead, knowing the end is close now. Had someone to travel with, someone to not feel competitive with... had that really helped you so much? As I near the end, though... one memory stands out, as it gives off an unreadable conflict of emotions. I get closer, curious, less apprehensive now that I've reached the memories we share. This memory, though, is one of the few that we don't. It's the day after our magic show in Ponyville, and the... incident that followed it. The morning we took the train to Canterlot. Trixie had requested to speak to Twilight alone inside the Golden Oak, while Spike and I waited outside. Confused at how such a simple memory could give off these feelings, I absentmindedly reach my hand forward, and before I've realized what I've done, I've plunged my hand into it. "...What is it, Trixie?" Twilight asks tentatively, as the two stand in the center of the library. "Tell Trixie about this talk of memory spells." Trixie replies in her usual, abraisive manner. "It's not all that complicated, really." Twilight answers. "Cloud and I met in the Everfree Forest, and when I took him back to Ponyville he said he couldn't remember anything. So, I adapted a spell I used in the past into something I could use to both help him get his memory back and help me do a bit of research into whatever a 'human' is. All this... everything else, came later." "...Teach Trixie this spell." Trixie says after a silent moment. "What? Why?" Twilight looks at Trixie, a bit confused. "You can't think I can just teach you a spell that interacts with people's memories that easily, can you?" "What?" Trixie raises her head, glaring at Twilight. "Do you still not trust Trixie?" "No!" Twilight insists, shaking her head. "That's not what I meant at all! I mean, a spell like this is complicated, and it's not something you can just, well, practice. Teaching it to you right now would be..." "Are you not the Magnificent Twilight Sparkle?" Trixie stomps one hoof angrily. "You can do everything else! Surely you can do this!" "I mean... maybe there's a way, but..." Twilight hesitates. "Why do you want to learn this spell, Trixie?" "Because..." Trixie looks down, collecting her words. "Because, Trixie's magic has proven unsuitable for aiding her assistant against his foes, so she needs another way to aide him so he won't think of her as less than Great and Powerful." "Trixie..." Twilight says, comfortingly. "I don't think that'll happen. Don't be silly." "You don't understand, Sparkle." Trixie insists, before looking directly at the floor. "Trixie can't fail again..." "Trixie..." "Do you want me to beg, Twilight Sparkle?" Trixie's voice becomes soft and dejected. "What?" Twilight looks at her, dumbfounded. "I asked if you want me to beg, Sparkle!" Trixie's body quakes angrily as she jerks her head back up to face Twilight, the sudden motion sending her hat from her head to the floor next to her. "You... you....! Whether it's stage magic or combat magic or whatever else, ever since you showed up, you just have the answer for everything! And now, I've learned my friend is missing his memory, and that you can just wave around a fix-it spell like it's no big deal! You couldn't-!" Twilight walks forward, placing a hoof on Trixie and giving her a sympathetic smile, causing the rest of the magician's words to get caught in her mouth. "I understand, Trixie. I'll teach you." Twilight removes her hoof and takes a step back. "But... the only way I can teach you this quickly... is to use the spell, and give you my memories of making it." Trixie blinks, collecting herself. "You... can do that?" "Sort of." Twilight turns, pacing the library as she talks. "The original spell was made to restore shared memories between myself and my friends while facing a monster called Discord. The new one uses the same principles, but... it's not the same." She turns, facing Trixie again. "This spell lets you take the other pony's memories, place them back where and how they're meant to be, then give them back to the other pony. But... there's a catch." "A catch?" "Yes." Twilight nods. "As I said, this spell was originally meant for restoring shared memories. So, to be sure they're restored correctly after you've fixed them, you'll need to... bind them, with bits of your own memories. I was hoping to learn about Cloud's world, and I figured he'd find information on Equestria useful, so this didn't bother me much, but..." Trixie nods. "And to teach the spell, you'd..." "Right." Twilight confirms. "It'll be harder, but... I should be able to only give you the memories you need to use the spell. To do that, though, since I'm the one casting the spell, you'll have to give me a memory first. A strong one, that I can bind the memories you need for using the spell to. ...Is that okay, Trixie?" "...Let's get it over with, Sparkle." Trixie... A strong memory... "You already know the answer to that, Twilight." Had Trixie given Twilight the memory of the birth of The Great and Powerful Trixie, just to learn this spell? I turn back to the path I've traveled so far, littered with the rest of Trixie's memories. Is that memory happy? Is it sad? Is that memory really so important, she'd keep the act up, even now that it's started to make her miserable? ...Should I try to find it? I slowly drift down the path, absentmindedly, back the way I came. After just a moment, though, I stop myself. No... I'm curious, but, I shouldn't look. I turn back, heading the rest of the way forward up the misty path, a bright light signifying its end. Light at the end of the tunnel, huh? I'm not sure if that's cliché or morbid. I move forward regardless, entering the light... ...And blink, the brightness dissipating back into my recovery room in Canterlot. "There you are, Dusk." Trixie's voice greets me to my right, soft and relieved. I turn to her, and she looks visibly exhausted, her eyes partially lidded as she slumps to one side in her seat. "Did it work?" "...Yeah." I nod. For a few minutes, there's silence between us, as I try to collect the memories again, back in the waking world. "Thank you, Trixie." She gives me a small smile. "Just another trivial feat for the greatest unicorn in all of Equestria." "Of course." I reply, returning the smile, though the moment doesn't last. "But... I'm still not sure how we can beat Sephiroth." "Dusk..." "For some reason, I'm much weaker than... than Cloud." I take a moment to breathe. "Like being only a part of his heart means I also only have a part of his power. And without knowing how Sephiroth came here, we don't know his plan, or whether he has something like the Black Materia." "Is it possible that... it's only a part of him that's here?" Trixie asks. "Despite the strength he had in your memories, Princess Celestia defeated him easily." "That was just a duplicate, made in his image with Jenova's power." I think back, remembering the remains of the diamond dog that had been leftover upon its defeat. "There's no telling how strong the real one is compared to it, even if it's just a part." "Then, why not just get some help?" Trixie asks, as if its the simplest question in the world. "You had help in your world against Sephiroth. Here we have the Princesses, and Twilight... and the Elements of Harmony, that Princess Celestia said can make miracles happen. Maybe we can seal him away, like those ancient people in your world did to that creature from the crater." "Maybe..." I meet her eyes. "Though, on that list of people, you forgot someone important." Trixie turns away from me, finding keen interest in the nearby wall. "Say, Dusk," Trixie starts, "would you... make a promise like that with me?" "What?" "That girl, Tifa... She isn't the only one to have silly fantasies, you know." She answers. "If I'm ever in a bind, would you be my hero and come rescue me, too?" "Yeah," I assure her, "I promise."