Final Fantasy Oneshots and Drabbles

Sweet Nightmares Are Made Of This: FFVII

("Spoilers" for a little bit of the FF7 remake)

Cloud blinked.

His head was aching again, less severely than before but it still hurt like hell. Which was significantly worrying, since this was almost surely a dream.

Cloud clambered up and glanced around, his hand on the hilt of his sword. This place is disgusting. He thought to himself. The ground was swamp-like with strange, crooked formations and branches sticking out of the mud, and disgustingly cold plants that sloshed on the ground and dug into his legs.

There was something revolting about it, and yet, incredibly familiar at the same time.

Cloud knelt down and tapped one of the branches with the blade of his sword. It fell over with a sickening crunch and sunk into the murky ground, vanishing into the mud. "Ugh." He muttered, wiping mud off his weapon. "What even is this?"

That's when he noticed what the mud was mixed with.

Blood.

The branch was a disembodied arm.

Every "formation" was a corpse.

Cloud backed away in horror, not seeing another rotting body behind him that caused him to trip and drop his sword suddenly. It vanished into the mud within seconds. He cursed under his breath, not seeing how this could get any worse.

Then he stopped. Something was against his neck.

Something very cold.

Cloud slowly glanced down and felt his heart stop. Why did he think it couldn't get worse?

It always got worse.

There was a long, silver, and wicked sharp katana pressed to Cloud's throat, cutting off his ability to breathe. He tried to cough something out but it was lost in a gurgling choke.

The wielder of the sword spoke first.

"Hello, Cloud."

Cloud, his head still swimming in pain, mentally yelled at himself for letting this happen. He had refused to join him once before at the edge of creation, so of course he'd return for vengeance, or worse.

"I said that you couldn't escape your destiny." Sephiroth whispered, tightening his hold on his weapon. "You didn't listen."

"It's a shame I'll have to end you now." He mused mockingly, twisting the sword ever so slightly. "Isn't it, Cloud? What a waste." Cloud retched, as the tiniest bit of blood dripped from his neck.

"D-don't." He hacked out, trying to ignore the nasty feeling in his gut. There was something foul about begging for his life from Sephiroth, but it was either that or losing everything.

Sephiroth audibly snickered, and suddenly pulled his katana away, causing Cloud to stumble forward, gasping for air. "Follow me." The man said, turning away and stalking off into the undergrowth.

That was the last thing Cloud wanted to do, in any sort of circumstance. He questioned whether or not he could get away, and if Sephiroth would kill him if he did.

Turns out, he didn't have a choice in the matter

A soft snarl came from behind him, and Cloud slowly turned around to hear something snarling in the underbrush. Before he could blink, it lunged.

The creature let loose an unholy screech and immediately attempted to maul Cloud with glinting black claws, as he backed away suddenly. This is by far the worst dream I've ever had. He thought bitingly, as the monster tried to attack him again, before getting stuck in the mud.

He watched the monster sink into the ground with a dying screech, and stared at the space where it perished for a second. There was silence for a second, and Cloud began to loosen.

Then more snarling echoed from the shadows.

"Okay, okay, I'm going!" He shouted, exasperated. The monsters backed away, and without any other option, he headed into the underbrush.

Sephiroth was waiting for him outside of the swamp, near what looked like a small village. Judging by the smirk on his face, Cloud knew he had sent those creatures and the idea that Sephiroth had complete control over his dream sickened him. But there was nothing he could do without his sword.

"What do you want, Sephiroth?" Cloud snapped, crossing his arms. He was trying his best to keep his distance from the other man. Sephiroth smirked and began to pace around Cloud, like a lion around its prey.

"You already know." He responded simply, leveling his katana. "Especially here." Cloud stared at him, confusion on his face. "What's here?"

No response. Sephiroth stayed silent, his smirk still etched on his face. Cloud looked around, trying to figure out where he was.

Then began to slowly dawn on him. The memories, the flashbacks, the fire, it was all coming back to him, and it was coming back fast. Cloud squeaked and backed away from Sephiroth. He tripped over a branch, and landed on his back roughly, as he attempted to ignore what was happening in his memories.

"T-this." He gagged. "This is Nibelheim." Cloud grit his teeth, and tried to focus, but then he coughed, the air in his chest stamped out.

Sephiroth had slammed his boot down on Cloud's chest, and all Cloud could do was watch as the other man lifted his chin up with the tip of his katana. "This is just the beginning." He purred maliciously, staring Cloud down. "You will witness much more."

Cloud grit his teeth as Sephiroth dug the heel of his boot into his chest. "Beware Meteor." He hissed. "I'll see you soon, Cloud. I swear it."

"CLOUD!" Someone shouted, causing Cloud to jump up. He was laying beside a tree, with his sword directly beside him.

Aerith had shaken him awake.

As he yawned, she slapped her staff on his head. "You're awake. Good. How are you feeling?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"How am I ...feeling?" Cloud asked, clearly confused. Aerith rolled her eyes with a little huff. "You fainted while we were talking, dummy." She replied, crossing her arms with a slight smile. "Now answer the question."

Cloud tapped his neck, feeling around for the gash. "Yeah, I'm fine." He replied grumpily, standing up. "We should catch up with the others." Aerith shrugged. "As long as you're not about to die, that's fine by me."

She grabbed his arm, much to his chagrin, but as she went to pull him, a whisper echoed through his head.

Her death is imminent.

Cloud hissed to himself. Sephiroth couldn't lie to him here either way. "Let go of my arm, Aerith. I'm coming." He grumbled, following the girl out.

******

HOOOO boy, let's talk.

The Sephiroth/Cloud cutscenes in the remake are quite uncomfortable.

There's a lot of...tension between these two (Yes, I'm saying tension, put your own adjective in front of it).

This is just over 1k words of absolute "fun", and the next one is even better. It's about Rufus Shinra. Yaaaaaay

Vote, comment, ask me why I'm not writing something FE related or whatever. Have a nice day/night everyone