The Fifth Act, Chapter 29

[sinnatious]

Title: The Fifth Act

Rating: T for violence.

Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.

Author's Note:  Lots of new faces popping out of the woodwork in the comments, I clearly need to thank a mystery somebody for a rec.

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Re: Naw, you're such a sweetheart.

[daemoninwhite]

When he stumbles across the door to the mansion, the first thought that had gone through his cold-affected mind was that he had somehow stumbled across the doors to Hel. He'd struggled to get the door open - the wind was blowing him flat against it, Cloud a worryingly dead weight on his back. He had finally got them open, and had to abandon Cloud in a heap just inside the door in order to attempt to close the door. It took a long time, too long, and when he'd finally finished, Cloud had been half buried in a snowdrift.

If it didn't scare him so much, it would have been kind of cute.

But Cloud had been so cold before - he'd been wet, and that amount of snow would simply turn to water to frost, if not to ice. Zack had seen what happened to those people hit by an Blizzardga, how their fingers and toes and nose went first blue, then purple, then started to rot, and that was if you'd dug them out straight away, and he hadn't, he'd left him to freeze and Cloud deserved so much better than that and-

Zack was a Second Class. That enabled him to hear the faint whimper that Cloud made even as he panicked himself into a worst-case scenario.

"Shit, Cloud!" In seconds he was kneeling by the snowdrift, digging towards that tuft of blond spikes. "I'm so sorry, man, don't worry, I'll get you out of there-"

He thought that it was ice, at first, but it had been too soft and too smooth, and it hadn't started to melt under his fingers. He wrapped his hand around the limb - thank all the gods, there's a heartbeat, he can feel it moving sluggishly, slowly, too slowly, but it's there - and pulls Cloud free with an almost audible popping noise.

Like a little, frozen, Cloud-cork from a Champaign bottle made of ice and snow.

And they said that he wasn't poetic.

Notes:
And we begin to see my love of mythology bleed through. I can't help it - we have Midgar/Midgard, and Jotunheim, and you cam summon Odin …. Hello Norse mythology!
Hel is, naturally, the realm of the dead, also ruled over by the monster Hel, who is half alive, half dead.
Skadi is a giantess associated with skiing and hunting, though she's generally seen in a much darker light.
Allfather and his daughters refers to Odin and the Valkyries.
Blizzardga - is that the top-level ice spell? I've only ever played X, X-2 and XII, see, so I'm not sure. That's what it is in KH, anyway, I think.

Re: Naw, you're such a sweetheart.

[daemoninwhite]

Warning: Zack has a bitty, he's-my-best-friend crush on Cloud.

"Oh Cloud, I'm sorry, I had to shut the door but that meant that I had to lean against it because it was fucking heavy and the blizzard was so thick, I had to put you down and I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry I-"

Cloud laughs, twice and almost silently, more of an exhausted slightly amused breath of air than anything with actual sound. Still, when Zack hears it, he can almost fele his heart stop.

"Oh Cloud."

He can't think of anything else to say.

"Oh Cloud."

He cradles a frozen hand in-between his, pulls an iced-over body closer to him, and begins to rock slightly. Zack's a SOLIDER, he's killed and seen people killed, some of those who he's counted as a very good friend. But Cloud is different, he's so adorable but so gun shy, flinching away from touch when his eyes make it plain that he craves it. He's contradiction given human form, with hair and eyes to make Sif envious.

And ever since he touched that Hel-bound staff, Cloud sings to a part of Zack's soul. It feels a bit like warmth, and a bit like love, but mostly like Cloud does when he allows Zack to hug him, or scrub his knuckles through his hair. It's a little eerie, high pitched and wild in a way that nothing Zack'd ever experienced in Gongaga, or in the civilised Midgar. Like wolf song, the first time he heard it. Like the battle cry of a chocobo. Like a fierce, ever vigilant protection.

Like Cloud.

Zack loves Cloud, he really does. What type of love, he isn't really sure. He wants to keep Cloud, to be able to pull him into a hug or a long cuddle whenever he wants, to protect him and keep him safe, even when he knows that Cloud is far too independent to allow it. Fuck, he's never been good at defining the barriers between emotions anyway. He just labels it love, shoves it away to a corner of his mind, makes a mental note to introduce Cloud to Aerith, and wraps two fingers around Cloud's wrist.

Thank the Allfather and anyone else who was watching. The pulse in steady now, still slower than Zack's, but perfectly respectable. He uncurls himself from Cloud, wincing slightly as cold air rushes over the areas where their bodies had been pressed together and chills the water that soaks them both.

Cloud wriggles and scrunches his nose. "That's cold," he whines, without opening his eyes.

Zack laughs. If it sounds just a little too relived, or if it stumbles slightly over the lump in his throat … well, Cloud isn't saying anything. "Yeah."

Cloud finally climbs to his feet, wringing out the soaked patch of his skirt and running a hand through his hair. Miraculously, the spikes bounce back into position now that they aren't weighed down by snow and frost. "Let's find the General."

Eternally childish, Zack's on his feet and bolting off between one heartbeat and the next. "Last one to get there is a rotten egg!"

Cloud's half annoyed, half amused "ZACCCCCCKKKKK" echoes behind him.

Notes:
Sif, wife of Odin, with beautiful golden hair.

I hope that I haven't gotten too serious for anyone? But it was serious! Cloud almost got frostbite! Yay, meta thinly disguised as plot Yeah, that rant, though odd, is needed.

alfkjslfj

[sinnatious]

*__________* YOU WROTE SO MUCH!

XD You've taken a completely cracky cross-dressing magical transformation story and turned it into an epic survival complete with mythology, and then in the next part something akin to a fluffy blanket scenario. AMAZING. Some kind of challenge to cover all the possible genres! <3

By Blizzardga I think you're after Blizzaga (so you were close!). Although in other Final Fantasies it has sometimes gone up to Blizzaja. (Goes Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaga normally) Rather impressed with this, considering you haven't played any of the VII games.

Ahahaha, does this mean Sephiroth is the next one to wind up in drag? XD

Re: alfkjslfj

[daemoninwhite]

I was so close! And, let's all look at the person who write actual chapters on a regular basis, shall we? I reread all of these little things and my expression is pretty much 'DDDD:' so many errors--.

Thank you~.