Crossed Fates
Chapter five:- Light in the darkness.
"Squall..." A voice called his name from the darkness. "Can you hear me...?" Squall was sitting, alone, surrounded by the inky blackness of unconsciousness. He stared into nothingness. Somewhere behind him a figure materialised. "You know when I said I'd visit your dreams, I didn't mean a mako induced hallucination." She touched his shoulder and he flinched. "Aaah. A sign of life! Can you hear me?"
"You again."
"It lives! How are you feeling?"
His blue eyes wandered across the void and then he gazed upwards at the strange woman who he had only met once before. Even in darkness her eyes seemed to hold a light all of their own and her hair held the lustre of gold shining in the night. "I'm not quite sure." She knelt down beside him. "Who are you?"
"You don't remember?"
"I remember just fine, but I never knew you name did I?" She shook her head. "What is it then?"
"Kiar-li. Karly to those that chose to call me friend."
"Which should I chose to call you?"
"I'd prefer Karly. I would like to be a friend to you Squall, if that's okay with you..."
"It would be better to keep on the good side of someone as powerful as you, wouldn't it?" Karly grinned and shrugged. "Where is this?"
"Lifestream. Where life ends and begins anew. Someone will come to help you through this, it always happens. It's the planet's way of making sure you have a chance of surviving what it throws at you."
"Who?"
"That I don't know. First your body will be found, then you'll find your mind again. It will be soon." She looked up. "I should go."
"No, wait." Squall was afraid. Afraid that if he was left alone again, the voices would begin anew. The screams, the pleading, the taunting and all the others. He was more scared than he had been in a long time. "Will you wait with me for a while?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"What do you mean?"
"The great Squall Leonhart must want something from me, otherwise he wouldn't ask me to stay."
"Whatever."
"Now that's the Squall I've been watching grow up! You must have some questions for me... Don't you?"
"What are 'Watchers'? Were you always one?"
"Watchers spend eternity watching the different realities. There are an unknown amount of realities. There are thousands upon thousands of possible destinies for each person. That goes for you too. And no. I haven't always been a watcher. I was a human like you once. I became a watcher after I died." She glanced at him. "I guess you'd like to hear how." He nodded. "There is a time and place for everyone to die. Sometimes an outside influence will change that. People who have been killed at a time which was not supposed to be, are often offered a chance to come back as watchers. Not many take advantage of this opportunity though. When I was alive, I was very much in love with a man. I thought we'd see forever together. Being a watcher gave me another chance at a life with him, or so I thought. By the time I found my own home reality, the one I loved was already dead, four years after myself... I... I missed him so much. I still do." She wiped a tear from her cheek. "I have watched people in different realities for millennia since then. I've seen sorrows and joy, pleasure and pain. But of them all, Cloud and you have been the ones that struck me most. You've both had so much pain that neither of you deserve."
Squall bit his bottom lip. She was crying now. Tears were running down her cheeks in a steady stream. He put an arm around her shoulder. "Come on, it's okay."
"Sorry, I haven't cried for a millennium. There are so many tears left unshed. The same goes for you, doesn't it?"
"What?"
"Since Rinoa died, you've only ever cried once. Sometimes there's a tear on your cheek when you dream of her, but that's all."
"Whatever."
"Twice in one conversation, you're as bad as you were two years ago."
He shrugged. "Sometimes I am."
"I should go. I've got to transfer two people to your world before the dark ones find them. I'll see you later Squall."
He nodded. "Good bye."
She waved as she disappeared.
Squall was alone again.
Then the screams began once more.
Karly found herself in another time. The landscape would have been familiar to Cloud and his friends, but the planet was younger at this time and so were they.
Children, were laughing and playing in the streets of Nibleheim. A dark haired young girl was playing tag with some other kids. Someone a year older than her was watching from his home. He brushed his spiky blonde hair out of his eyes and whispered the name of the one he would love until the day he died. "Tifa...."
Another man sleeps what he believes to be an eternal slumber beneath their feet.
In Midgar, a pretty young girl runs past the tiny house where she lives with her adoptive mother. She dives behind the flowering shrubs and hides from the people in blue suits once again. They won't rest until she is theirs, or she is dead...
A young man is being promoted in the building that belongs to ShinRa. His heart is full of unknown courage and his head full of ideas. He believes that the machines he makes hold the key to his bravery and his redemption for working with the ShinRa.
In the war torn city of Wutai, a girl is training so that she can take revenge for what the silver haired weapon of ShinRa has done to her town. "I will be a master materia Ninja." She swears to herself.
"Nanaki." The children of Cosmo Canyon call his name as he hides.
He jumps from the ledge and cries "Boo!" The children giggle and run. He chases them, building up his hunting skills as well as using up the energy that is supplied boundlessly with childhood.
"These mines are out of date, we have to find a new way of making money!" The old man said.
"Mining is our heritage. It's what we've done all our lives." Barrett sighed. "Without it, would we lose what makes Corel, Corel? Or what makes each one of us ourselves? We are Miners and that is all we should be." He did not add the worry that was in his heart. 'But the coal is needed less and less. We will need to move with the times... Is Mako the answer?'
He looked up and saw the smirk on her face before he realised it was her, Scarlet.
"Damned, blasted @&'(/_* thing." He kicked the door of the rocket. "I'll never get off the ground at this rate!"
"Calm down captain Cid!"
"If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times. It's just plain Cid, dammit!" He turned to look at Shera. "What are you doing up here?"
"I've been told to make you go home and rest because you're driving everyone crazy."
"Even you?"
She nodded. "Home Cid, now."
He thought for a second, picked up his whiskey bottle and said "Okay!" Before promptly collapsing.
She shook her head and whispered "Dammit Cid, when will you see that I love you?"
Karly observed all this in her mind but she could not find the one she was looking for. "Who are you?" A strange, silky soft voice asked. It was masculine.
"You hide your mind so well already. I would like your help." She swung around. "Your abilities are needed for good, Sephiroth."
"That will make a change."
"This will help your chances when you are judged after you die. You don't deserve to go to hell Sephiroth." She offered her hand to him. "If you come with me you may find peace, you may find torment. Either way it's your choice."
He had no idea why but he took the hand. "I'll help you."
"Thank you." She sighed with relief. You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that." She looked up into the green eyes of the Sephiroth who, here, was sixteen years old and silently prayed she wouldn't have to stop Cloud or any of the others from killing him. "I have to take you to a time and place where they won't think to look for you until you are needed. I have to make a stop on the way though...."
Back in the present, Karly knocked on the door of the small house at the edge of Wutai. "Yuffie Kisargi! Are you in there?"
"Who the hell is banging on my door at this time of night?!" As the door opened Karly pushed her back. She clamped a hand over Yuffie's mouth.
"Keep quiet. Your life is in great danger." Karly watched as Yuffie's eyes widened as she saw Sephiroth over her shoulder. "It's not from this Sephiroth. It's from a group of people that have been called 'Dark Ones'. If you make a sound I will knock you out! I swear I'll shut you up if I have to."
She removed her hand from Yuffie's mouth. "What do you want?"
"To get both of you out of here!" A white light began to shine around them, and a dark doorway opened. They floated through and found themselves outside the town of Balamb.
Back in the other world, a man with blonde hair burst into Yuffie's home. His darkultima sword in his hands drawn and ready. Again it is empty. They have not had much luck in finding the people they have been sent to destroy. It does not matter as they will succeed anyway. He has no doubt in that fact.
The dark Cloud left the building without noticing the strange residual energy that had made the air crackle when he had entered.
Karly knocked on the door of the apartment that Selphie had begun to rent only recently. They had struck up a friendship and Selphie believed that she, Karly, was a student at another Garden who just happened to frequently visit. "Oh hi Karly! How are you?"
"I'm great, Selphie. Listen, my friend here's hiding from someone. Could she stay here for a few nights?"
"Who's she running from?"
"My ex." Yuffie quickly interjected. "I'm not from around here but he's chased me wherever I go. He's really mad with me."
"She can't stay with me Selph, he knows where I live."
"It's okay Karly, she can stay."
"I'll be back in a couple of days. It should be sorted by then." She hugged Selphie. "You're the best! You don't know how much this means to me."
"I guess we'll see you soon then."
"Bye." Kiar-li rounded the corner and took hold of Sephiroth's arm. "Come on, you can stay at my place. Yuffie doesn't know where it is so she won't try to kill you." Sephiroth didn't know why she wanted to kill him but didn't want to ask. "I'll make your dreams show you why she wants to kill you."
They finally arrived at the small house Kiar-li called her own. She let Sephiroth in and left him there with the message "what you see in your dreams will not and cannot be changed." She didn't tell him that the memories of the dream would not be allowed to remain with him when he went back to his own time.
Author notes.
Okay, I know this story is getting freakyer, but I'm on a roll here. Some events in these chapters have proved a little... shall we say controversial and I'd appreciate advice and reviews. Wait until you see what will prove to be the most controversial chapter yet I think it's 12 or something.... I am the Darksquall nicola.wilcox@talk21.com