[One-Shot] Making Amends
Title: Making Amends
Author: kryss_delrhei
Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fatnasy X
Types: Video Game
Characters/Pairing: Yunalesca, Cloud, Tifa
Word Count: 2,060
Genre: Angst, Crossover
Rating: G
Warning: None
Summary: Yunalesca shows Cloud that he is worthy of forgiveness.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy X nor the characters, just borrowing them from Square-Enix for a little while.
Author's Notes: This is the first time I've ever been able to write a crossover fic, so I'm very proud of myself for getting this done. The timeline for this fic is right when Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream together in Mideel, and after Yunalesca is defeated in the Zanarkand Temple, but before Yuna has defeated Sin completely. Considering that if Yuna had defeated Sin, the Farplane would be unbalanced with the flux of all the souls entering it.
Prompt: hc_bingo : Atonement ( April Mini-challenge)
--
The sweet scent of moon lilies aroused Cloud from the thick fog of sleep blanketing him. Blinking, his tried to will his eyes into focus as orbs of Lifestream essence floated around him. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand, before running his fingers through his tousled hair.
Cloud was in awe of his surroundings, so much so he felt the tugging of an awakened fear in his chest. Waterfalls roared with life in the distance, the water sparkling and clear in the soft sunlight. A gentle breeze lifted the moon lilies scent into the air around him, orbs of the Lifestream danced with the floating lily petals.
“You are one of the living.” The voice startled Cloud, as he turned toward the owner.
She was tall and elegant, her white blond hair flowing in the breeze as several orbs circled around her. She opened her palm and allowed an orb to hover before floating off. The woman followed the essence with her gaze before turning her attention slowly back to him, slightly narrowing her golden eyes on him. “This is no place for you, little one.”
Cloud met her gaze evenly, “Is this the Lifestream?”
The tall woman kneeled next to him, the bangles around her wrists jingling together in her movements, as she smoothed her skirt beneath her knees, “This place has been called many names, but yes, it is a realm that holds the universe in the balance.”
“Then are we dead?” Cloud asked, though his stomach pulled tighter at the fear that resided there.
“You, little one, are not dead. I, however, am.” Her stoic face, gently spread into one of calming serenity as she gazed upon him, “I was sent. A small flower with the lion’s courage at her side. The two of them battled me and then ushered my soul to the Farplane.”
Confusion crossed his face, “Farplane?”
She smiled genuinely, her golden eyes filled with a soft kindness he recognized, but failed to place, “The name that my realm uses for the balance of the universe.”
An orb of essence circled them, catching Cloud’s attention as it bounced in front of him. “What are they?” he asked, his curiosity continuing to mount.
Her voice was calm and warm as she reached out to caress the floating orb, “Pyreflies. The essence of what’s left of a soul.” The orb danced around her, before flying off on the breeze. “They have lost the ability to take a human form.”
She watched the pyreflies dance together, smiling to herself, though her words held a sad tone, “One day I’ll loose that ability as well.”
“What’s your name?” Cloud turned to face her, his deep mako colored eyes questioning.
“Yunalesca,” she answered easily, “And yours?”
“Cloud.”
“You look lost, Cloud,” she rested her chin on the palm of her hand, the bangles sliding down her arm.
With hesitancy, he responded, “I feel that I am.”
“I’ll help you.”
She offered her hand to him, sincere in her proposal. The earnestness of her offer surprised him, the fear inside tugging tightly on his slowly building resolve. He swallowed, staring evenly at her hand, not taking it in fear of the possibilities of what could happen.
“But my sins…” he whispered, feeling the anguish rise up.
“Do you feel that you have not atoned for the sins of your past long enough?” Her words were soft and simple, filling him with doubt.
“I… don’t… know…” he mumbled, staring down to the moon lilies that blanketed the ground. The guilt tore at him. There was so many unsaid regrets, too many to count. His actions, what he had spoken, and the thoughts of betrayal that all plagued him.
“You do. It’s inside of you, here.” Yunalesca pressed her outstretched hand to his chest, over where his heart beat with a fierce life.
Cloud sighed, shaking his head, “It feels empty, like it always has.”
“There was a time where you must have felt something,” she said simply, retracting her arm back to rest on her bent knees.
“Maybe,” Cloud said.
Thinking about it caused images to flash through his mind, of a sweet and caring girl with large chocolate eyes. The fear in his stomach tugged at the images, feeling his anguish double as he gripped his shirt over his chest, where Yunalesca had touched him previously, “Tifa.”
“She has a kind heart to be looking for you,” Yunalesca said easily, surprising Cloud as if she had punched him in the stomach, his heart racing. When he caught her stare, Yunalesca motioned to the ripple of the realm that reflected the perfect image of Tifa as she ran down the road that headed into Nibelheim.
His breathed hitched, his heart hammering as he realized she was trying to find him, searching through his hazy memories of what was the truth and what was a lie. “Yes, she is,” he said, looking away.
Yunalesca eyed him with a stoic curiosity, “You feel as if you have wronged her.”
“I have,” Cloud said in a hushed voice, the pain of his heart stealing his breath away.
“And this is what you feel you need to atone for?”
“Yes.”
“Then I shall wait with you,” Yunalesca shifted from her kneel to sitting amongst the moon lilies just as Cloud was. Her white blonde hair flowed around her, the bangles around her wrist jingling and making the only sound between them.
Cloud watched her before he turned his attention to the reflected image of Tifa, her quest uncertain, but it still pulled on the fear deep within him. And he knew that at the end of her quest, she would see him as what he was… a liar and a coward.
“Why is it you do not wish to leave?” Yunalesca asked quietly, after several long minutes of silence, breaking Cloud away from his musings as she plucked a lily, lifting it to her nose to inhale the sweet scent.
Cloud shifted his eyes away from the reflected image of Tifa to the lady by his side, “I’m afraid.”
The statement came out in full honesty, Cloud heaving a sigh before he turned to watch Tifa and the reflection of his memories. He could see she was piecing them together, and a part of him wanted to go to her and help, yet he could not make himself budge. The fear gripped him too tightly to do anything else than to sit there and watch.
“This is not a place for the living, it’s poisonous to the soul,” she said, tossing the lily into the air as an orb circled it, carrying it off on the wind.
“It’s the best place for me,” Cloud mumbled, not sure if he should believe his own words.
Yunalesca watched the images as they flashed, she gently touched his shoulder, before nodding toward the open field, “She has come finally. Are you ready?”
And in that moment, Cloud could feel the trepidation that pounded hard in his chest as he shook his head frantically, “No, you can’t let her see me. I’m not ready… I thought I had more time.” The panic caused him to pause as his throat tightened with the emotions he had yet to release.
Yunalesca pressed a slender finger to his lips to hush him, “Are you afraid that she’ll hate you just as much as you hate yourself?” Her question was even and serious as she stared at him with that stoic expression, her golden eyes betraying nothing of what she felt as far as Cloud could tell.
Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Cloud whispered, “Yes.”
She said nothing for a while, before giving Cloud a small smile, even if it didn’t reach her eyes, but Cloud figured it was because she was just stoic for the fact that she may have already been dead. “She won’t.”
“But how…” Cloud shook his head, “How can you tell?”
“Look how she wishes to find you, Cloud.” Yunalesca motioned toward the reflected images, her voice soft, “A woman’s heart is her own.”
Cloud continued to watch Tifa, this time the images reflected her searching through the glade of moon lilies. She was here, for him, and he hoped beyond all kind of hope that it wasn’t to disown him for his sins of betrayal.
“You will find your atonement with her,” his companion shifted, standing up next to him as she smoothed her robes of white of green, symbols foreign to Cloud decorated the sides of her gown. She offered her hand to him again, the bangles jingling in her movement.
Hesitantly, Cloud spoke, “You believe that I will?”
Yunalesca gave him a look that furnished him with a surge of courage, “Yes, Cloud.”
And in that moment, Cloud felt like he could as he took her hand. She helped him to a stand as another voice pierced the glade, interrupting the stillness that had calmed him.
“CLOUD?!”
The fear returned, tugging at his heart as he watched Yunalesca fade from in front of him, leaving him alone to be found. His heart pounded against his ribs as he turned to face where the voice was coming from, knowing it was Tifa and that she had finally found him. Their eyes met in the briefest of seconds before she took to a full run toward him. The emotions playing across her features as she surged at him confused him as he waited, stuck in place.
“Cloud, I was so worried,” she was breathless when she made it to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders, “I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to find you.”
Her kindness had always pierced him to the soul, he ached with the weight of his betrayal as he hardly returned her embrace, lightly pushing her away to stare down at her. Tifa’s large chocolate eyes stared back at him with tears glistening, her heart shaped face a sight for sore eyes.
He gently cupped her cheek, “I didn’t want you to find me.”
She gazed up at him with such an expression he had to pull away from her, turning his back so that he could stare out at the waterfalls. Tifa touched his arm, pressing her forehead to the center of his back, “It’s alright. I’m here with you now. We can go home together.”
Cloud hesitated, closing his eyes against the rushing emotions that caused the lump to reform in his throat, “But Tifa…”
She shook her head, the pressure against his back making him pause, “It’s okay. I understand. It took me a while, but I understand you Cloud.”
She has seen his memories through the Lifestream and still she had come to find him deep within. He felt the tears of anguish overwhelm his vision as he fisted his hands, Tifa slowly wrapping her arms around his abdomen, unsure if he would push her away for doing so.
“Tifa…” he released a cracked cry, completely unlike the Cloud that he’d been in the months they had been reunited, and more like the Cloud she knew he had been when they were younger.
Smiling against his back, Tifa chuckled and tightened her hold on him, “And I forgive you. So let’s go home.”
Without a second of hesitation, he nodded, “Okay.”
From the distance, Yunalesca crossed her arms lazily, watching the two of them, her stoic face never changing, “Thus you find your atonement,” she whispered, twirling her finger in a circle, opening a portal that ripped through the fabric of the realm. She would send them home, and it would be just one to the many lives she was tasked to save in repentance for her very own sins.
She watched them for several long minutes, the two stepping through the portal to their own realm, before she turned away and headed back to where she had come, where she would continue to heal the souls that came to the center of the universe.
And for the briefest of moments, her stoic expression shifted to one of genuine regret filled with sadness. “Zaon, my love, I will forever repent for what I made you become,” Yunalesca looked up toward the pyreflies as they swirled around each other, before she disappeared along with them.
Cross Posted to: hc_bingo
Author: kryss_delrhei
Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fatnasy X
Types: Video Game
Characters/Pairing: Yunalesca, Cloud, Tifa
Word Count: 2,060
Genre: Angst, Crossover
Rating: G
Warning: None
Summary: Yunalesca shows Cloud that he is worthy of forgiveness.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy X nor the characters, just borrowing them from Square-Enix for a little while.
Author's Notes: This is the first time I've ever been able to write a crossover fic, so I'm very proud of myself for getting this done. The timeline for this fic is right when Cloud and Tifa fall into the Lifestream together in Mideel, and after Yunalesca is defeated in the Zanarkand Temple, but before Yuna has defeated Sin completely. Considering that if Yuna had defeated Sin, the Farplane would be unbalanced with the flux of all the souls entering it.
Prompt: hc_bingo : Atonement ( April Mini-challenge)
--
The sweet scent of moon lilies aroused Cloud from the thick fog of sleep blanketing him. Blinking, his tried to will his eyes into focus as orbs of Lifestream essence floated around him. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his hand, before running his fingers through his tousled hair.
Cloud was in awe of his surroundings, so much so he felt the tugging of an awakened fear in his chest. Waterfalls roared with life in the distance, the water sparkling and clear in the soft sunlight. A gentle breeze lifted the moon lilies scent into the air around him, orbs of the Lifestream danced with the floating lily petals.
“You are one of the living.” The voice startled Cloud, as he turned toward the owner.
She was tall and elegant, her white blond hair flowing in the breeze as several orbs circled around her. She opened her palm and allowed an orb to hover before floating off. The woman followed the essence with her gaze before turning her attention slowly back to him, slightly narrowing her golden eyes on him. “This is no place for you, little one.”
Cloud met her gaze evenly, “Is this the Lifestream?”
The tall woman kneeled next to him, the bangles around her wrists jingling together in her movements, as she smoothed her skirt beneath her knees, “This place has been called many names, but yes, it is a realm that holds the universe in the balance.”
“Then are we dead?” Cloud asked, though his stomach pulled tighter at the fear that resided there.
“You, little one, are not dead. I, however, am.” Her stoic face, gently spread into one of calming serenity as she gazed upon him, “I was sent. A small flower with the lion’s courage at her side. The two of them battled me and then ushered my soul to the Farplane.”
Confusion crossed his face, “Farplane?”
She smiled genuinely, her golden eyes filled with a soft kindness he recognized, but failed to place, “The name that my realm uses for the balance of the universe.”
An orb of essence circled them, catching Cloud’s attention as it bounced in front of him. “What are they?” he asked, his curiosity continuing to mount.
Her voice was calm and warm as she reached out to caress the floating orb, “Pyreflies. The essence of what’s left of a soul.” The orb danced around her, before flying off on the breeze. “They have lost the ability to take a human form.”
She watched the pyreflies dance together, smiling to herself, though her words held a sad tone, “One day I’ll loose that ability as well.”
“What’s your name?” Cloud turned to face her, his deep mako colored eyes questioning.
“Yunalesca,” she answered easily, “And yours?”
“Cloud.”
“You look lost, Cloud,” she rested her chin on the palm of her hand, the bangles sliding down her arm.
With hesitancy, he responded, “I feel that I am.”
“I’ll help you.”
She offered her hand to him, sincere in her proposal. The earnestness of her offer surprised him, the fear inside tugging tightly on his slowly building resolve. He swallowed, staring evenly at her hand, not taking it in fear of the possibilities of what could happen.
“But my sins…” he whispered, feeling the anguish rise up.
“Do you feel that you have not atoned for the sins of your past long enough?” Her words were soft and simple, filling him with doubt.
“I… don’t… know…” he mumbled, staring down to the moon lilies that blanketed the ground. The guilt tore at him. There was so many unsaid regrets, too many to count. His actions, what he had spoken, and the thoughts of betrayal that all plagued him.
“You do. It’s inside of you, here.” Yunalesca pressed her outstretched hand to his chest, over where his heart beat with a fierce life.
Cloud sighed, shaking his head, “It feels empty, like it always has.”
“There was a time where you must have felt something,” she said simply, retracting her arm back to rest on her bent knees.
“Maybe,” Cloud said.
Thinking about it caused images to flash through his mind, of a sweet and caring girl with large chocolate eyes. The fear in his stomach tugged at the images, feeling his anguish double as he gripped his shirt over his chest, where Yunalesca had touched him previously, “Tifa.”
“She has a kind heart to be looking for you,” Yunalesca said easily, surprising Cloud as if she had punched him in the stomach, his heart racing. When he caught her stare, Yunalesca motioned to the ripple of the realm that reflected the perfect image of Tifa as she ran down the road that headed into Nibelheim.
His breathed hitched, his heart hammering as he realized she was trying to find him, searching through his hazy memories of what was the truth and what was a lie. “Yes, she is,” he said, looking away.
Yunalesca eyed him with a stoic curiosity, “You feel as if you have wronged her.”
“I have,” Cloud said in a hushed voice, the pain of his heart stealing his breath away.
“And this is what you feel you need to atone for?”
“Yes.”
“Then I shall wait with you,” Yunalesca shifted from her kneel to sitting amongst the moon lilies just as Cloud was. Her white blonde hair flowed around her, the bangles around her wrist jingling and making the only sound between them.
Cloud watched her before he turned his attention to the reflected image of Tifa, her quest uncertain, but it still pulled on the fear deep within him. And he knew that at the end of her quest, she would see him as what he was… a liar and a coward.
“Why is it you do not wish to leave?” Yunalesca asked quietly, after several long minutes of silence, breaking Cloud away from his musings as she plucked a lily, lifting it to her nose to inhale the sweet scent.
Cloud shifted his eyes away from the reflected image of Tifa to the lady by his side, “I’m afraid.”
The statement came out in full honesty, Cloud heaving a sigh before he turned to watch Tifa and the reflection of his memories. He could see she was piecing them together, and a part of him wanted to go to her and help, yet he could not make himself budge. The fear gripped him too tightly to do anything else than to sit there and watch.
“This is not a place for the living, it’s poisonous to the soul,” she said, tossing the lily into the air as an orb circled it, carrying it off on the wind.
“It’s the best place for me,” Cloud mumbled, not sure if he should believe his own words.
Yunalesca watched the images as they flashed, she gently touched his shoulder, before nodding toward the open field, “She has come finally. Are you ready?”
And in that moment, Cloud could feel the trepidation that pounded hard in his chest as he shook his head frantically, “No, you can’t let her see me. I’m not ready… I thought I had more time.” The panic caused him to pause as his throat tightened with the emotions he had yet to release.
Yunalesca pressed a slender finger to his lips to hush him, “Are you afraid that she’ll hate you just as much as you hate yourself?” Her question was even and serious as she stared at him with that stoic expression, her golden eyes betraying nothing of what she felt as far as Cloud could tell.
Swallowing past the lump in his throat, Cloud whispered, “Yes.”
She said nothing for a while, before giving Cloud a small smile, even if it didn’t reach her eyes, but Cloud figured it was because she was just stoic for the fact that she may have already been dead. “She won’t.”
“But how…” Cloud shook his head, “How can you tell?”
“Look how she wishes to find you, Cloud.” Yunalesca motioned toward the reflected images, her voice soft, “A woman’s heart is her own.”
Cloud continued to watch Tifa, this time the images reflected her searching through the glade of moon lilies. She was here, for him, and he hoped beyond all kind of hope that it wasn’t to disown him for his sins of betrayal.
“You will find your atonement with her,” his companion shifted, standing up next to him as she smoothed her robes of white of green, symbols foreign to Cloud decorated the sides of her gown. She offered her hand to him again, the bangles jingling in her movement.
Hesitantly, Cloud spoke, “You believe that I will?”
Yunalesca gave him a look that furnished him with a surge of courage, “Yes, Cloud.”
And in that moment, Cloud felt like he could as he took her hand. She helped him to a stand as another voice pierced the glade, interrupting the stillness that had calmed him.
“CLOUD?!”
The fear returned, tugging at his heart as he watched Yunalesca fade from in front of him, leaving him alone to be found. His heart pounded against his ribs as he turned to face where the voice was coming from, knowing it was Tifa and that she had finally found him. Their eyes met in the briefest of seconds before she took to a full run toward him. The emotions playing across her features as she surged at him confused him as he waited, stuck in place.
“Cloud, I was so worried,” she was breathless when she made it to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders, “I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to find you.”
Her kindness had always pierced him to the soul, he ached with the weight of his betrayal as he hardly returned her embrace, lightly pushing her away to stare down at her. Tifa’s large chocolate eyes stared back at him with tears glistening, her heart shaped face a sight for sore eyes.
He gently cupped her cheek, “I didn’t want you to find me.”
She gazed up at him with such an expression he had to pull away from her, turning his back so that he could stare out at the waterfalls. Tifa touched his arm, pressing her forehead to the center of his back, “It’s alright. I’m here with you now. We can go home together.”
Cloud hesitated, closing his eyes against the rushing emotions that caused the lump to reform in his throat, “But Tifa…”
She shook her head, the pressure against his back making him pause, “It’s okay. I understand. It took me a while, but I understand you Cloud.”
She has seen his memories through the Lifestream and still she had come to find him deep within. He felt the tears of anguish overwhelm his vision as he fisted his hands, Tifa slowly wrapping her arms around his abdomen, unsure if he would push her away for doing so.
“Tifa…” he released a cracked cry, completely unlike the Cloud that he’d been in the months they had been reunited, and more like the Cloud she knew he had been when they were younger.
Smiling against his back, Tifa chuckled and tightened her hold on him, “And I forgive you. So let’s go home.”
Without a second of hesitation, he nodded, “Okay.”
From the distance, Yunalesca crossed her arms lazily, watching the two of them, her stoic face never changing, “Thus you find your atonement,” she whispered, twirling her finger in a circle, opening a portal that ripped through the fabric of the realm. She would send them home, and it would be just one to the many lives she was tasked to save in repentance for her very own sins.
She watched them for several long minutes, the two stepping through the portal to their own realm, before she turned away and headed back to where she had come, where she would continue to heal the souls that came to the center of the universe.
And for the briefest of moments, her stoic expression shifted to one of genuine regret filled with sadness. “Zaon, my love, I will forever repent for what I made you become,” Yunalesca looked up toward the pyreflies as they swirled around each other, before she disappeared along with them.
Cross Posted to: hc_bingo