- 007 || high above the world.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

One wouldn't think a place like Midgar could be this cold, much less effected by such an intense level of snow and ice coating the once-lively city. The thick, winter sky above graciously littered the land in gentle, white flakes, resting upon layers of already-compacted snow on the ground, the buildings... and something else towering above

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[waterfell]

She's on the roof. Clad in her uniform, sword in her hand, Mercury looks out over the city from a short distance away, beside the dragon.

It isn't the first time, for her. When the Dead Moon had attacked her world, there had been not just the enemy's own attacks, but the people themselves suddenly stirred up to angry tempers, fighting each other and ruining the town without the enemy even doing anything more.

She doesn't recognize who she's standing beside, but something in the dream keeps her from being afraid, either. After several moments, she turns towards the dragon. Covered in snow, he makes an unlikely conversation partner, but she tries.

"Where is this?" Coated in winter, she doesn't recognize the places she's seen before quite yet.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

There's a deep, crunkling shuff as the snow over his giant maw unsettles, smacking into the side of the building, then tumbling out into the ruins far below. There's a small smile - or as much of a smile as a dragon can muster - on the being's face, recognizing the voice and feeling the presence beyond this simple dream.

"The most disgusting place on the Planet," Its voice booms, sounding much like hissing smoke through a volcanic crater. "And it used to be home. It was home for a lot of us." But it's familiar, beyond the distortion.

"Now look at it. This is what's gonna happen."

And even if it wasn't exactly this, Midgar wouldn't thrive for that much longer either way. There were numerous possibilities, numerous outcomes, but the sad, longing Voice of the Planet said it all.

His tail shifts a little behind him, and the dragon continues to wait.

[waterfell]

"If that troubles you, why stay here and watch it? Make the future you want to see instead." She'd say it to anyone, challenging them to do so - if they dare, if they will, if they can. She's done it for herself, using her two hands and her power to shape not just her own world, but the others she's affected through the nexus and these dreams.

"Right now, standing here is the same as permitting it to happen." The senshi who would have allowed the princess to repeat the fate of the past, simply by not standing against her.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

"We can only guide those who can." He responds quietly, with the slightest movement of his wings. "In this world, this place... we're pretty much just watching the world go by. Our time to be alive's over."

Because within these ruins, this pain and suffering... there was a light. It hadn't made itself known yet, but the Planet gave him assurance that it eventually would. The details on that were something not even Gaia could tell them - something that had to happen by fate alone.

"And I'm okay with that, even if it is a little lonely."

[waterfell]

"I wouldn't be pushed aside so easily." Then again, she has the luxury of words like this, living in an existence like hers. And she doesn't believe in the way she and the others of the Silver Millennium watched over human evolution anymore. She believes in shaping it more directly.

She refuses to be pushed aside.

"So if you can't do something better, don't expect pity."

[hisdreamsmyfate]

"And how would pity help anyone?"

The dragon shakes its giant head, sounding more amused by the statement than anything else. "Nah, we're the Planet's mind and eyes. We keep it thriving, even in Midgar keeps sapping the energy out like this. We'll all do our part to fight, even if it isn't in the physical sense."

And right now, he had a sick friend to take care of, who was in these walls. This was why he was waiting, and watching. He would help Cloud come back to himself, and follow him wherever he went. He had died for the man, but that was hardly the end of it, he resolved.

"I refuse to go back to sleep until everything's better."

[waterfell]

It's an ironic decision, for the girl who sometimes wonders if it isn't time for Mercury to disappear and sleep until her next incarnation. What is there to hold her to her world? Even the things she's found in dreams are only dreams.

But she has duty, and a purpose, and a vision. She'll stay on this course until her time truly runs out. In fact, it lets her know what else he's waiting for. "You want to see this world rebuilt."

[hisdreamsmyfate]

The snow crumbles, a light nod the most movement the beast has managed since they began talking. It just misses falling upon the other, but he would be able to stop it even if it did. He had control over his own reality, even moreso than a normal dream.

"Until then, I can't be at peace. Not until there's a real sky to shine over this city. I... promised I'd show her it, after all."

That task was left up to Cloud now. And if the feeling he'd gotten had been true, it wouldn't be long before she did.

AVALANCHE was different now, led by good people with the best intentions.

[waterfell]

"Her?" She loses some respect immediately, if this is born of some tender so-called promise, made to be worthless from its start even if he's that rarity: someone who'd keep it.

"I didn't know you were the foolish type." She dismisses the emotion immediately, eyes flickering to the dragon dismissively, then back to the city as if she doesn't particularly care to look at the source of those words.

[hisdreamsmyfate]

The quip doesn't faze his confidence at all, that smile still wide on his face.

They could say what they wanted, and nothing would shake how he felt about Aerith. His friends were important, even if that friendship was filled with promises he had trouble keeping. If they were real friends, they would understand.

He did.

"Maybe I am. But it's a hell of a lot better than spending eternity alone, mulling over what could'a been. Better to look to the future than back at the past, yeah?"

[waterfell]

The words sting, not from any cruelty - he hadn't meant it cruelly, she knows - but because they cut to the heart of the difference between them. She cannot live her life chasing after friendship anymore, but she finds herself wanting it still even though she knows that.

And they sting because she falls into the assumption she'll be alone for the eternity of her long lives.

"Looking isn't enough," she says to dispel her thoughts. "Make that future what you want it to be."

[hisdreamsmyfate]

"It'll take some time," He says at last, closing his eyes in that reverie. "But the pieces'll fall into place all on their own. For now, I'm working on my own future. Here."

So it didn't look that fantastic right now. That was why the Lifestream was so eternal. There was no time limit, no rush, no urgency - for all the pain and suffering its inhabitants had gone through in life, this was their chance at peace. Or... that was what he believed, at least.

"You have faith in Cloud, don't you?"

[waterfell]

It's a question she hadn't been expecting to face. Her mind isn't made for those loyalties and bonds anymore. But Cloud is someone who's been a constant part of her dreams since they first met, many months ago now. He's been there when she's needed someone, he's seen parts of her very few others have, he's even been called Brother. She believes he has the ability and strength to do what he needs to do in his world.

Is that faith? Maybe.

"Just maybe." She gives nothing away in her speech, almost as though the question itself makes her suspicious.