Chapter 9: Memoria

"Kupo. What’s Mognet?" A moogle was standing over Cloud. It was THAT dream again. Except he didn’t seem to be anywhere built by man. It seemed like a cave, lit by red lights.

"…Where am I now?" Cloud asked as he got up.

"You’re in Pandemonium, Kupo." The moogle replied. Cloud looked around. A little bit over in the distance, he saw a couple of people trying to talk to another person with a tail. A couple of those people he recognized. There’s that Freya woman, and that Eiko girl. And there’s that Black mage and the white mage girl. But with them was a big knight, a big guy with claws, and another big white thing in cooks’ clothes. All of them seemed to be trying to talk to the kid with the monkey tail, but he kept shooing them away and staggering on. He looked real hurt. Cloud watched as the kid walked towards a door and opened it. All the other people tried running to him shouting "Zidane! Zidane!" but he ignored them and went through. Th black mage, Eiko, and the jumpsuit white mage girl ran through. The others were a bit slow in catching up.

"What’s going on with them?" Cloud asked the moogle. "Just who are they?"

"Those are a special group of people, not unlike you own circle of friends. Together they try to stop the evil plaguing their world and this one. The one in the lead, Kupo, is Zidane Tribal. He’s having a troublesome moment and is having a reality problem."

Cloud thought. That kid sure does remind him of himself. Back in the days of Sephiroth.

"The group of people are his friends that he met on his journey. They’ve been together for a while and want to show him that he is not alone. Friends don’t do that to each other."

Cloud thought about this to. He had been doing that lately. Not appearing for his friends. He was lucky to have them. Barret, Tifa, Red, Reeve, Yuffie, Vincent, and Cid. This past year has been tense on him, mostly because of the memories of Aeris. He didn’t want to think about her or anybody. He just wanted to get on with his life. But his friends still stick with him and defend him. "What was I thinking?"

"Huh?"

"…Nothing…"

"I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news to you Cloud, but something is going to happen to you. Something big is going to occur to your world and theirs. I’m just a moogle from Terra and I don’t know much, but I know that the EON is coming and you’d best watch out, kupo. Defend your friends and they’ll defend you. That’s what Zidane is learning here. You’ll need them. Good bye." The moogle waved at Cloud as he glanced back at where this so called Zidane was. All of his party had gone in after him. Cloud turned back and faded away.

** *

The little girl sat on a rock in the wastelands, singing her beautiful song in front of the truck. She looked around 14 with long brown hair. She was wearing a blue skirt and vest, with a black shirt. In her lab there was a small young moogle. She was petting it and singing the wonderful song. What was that song? She was pretty, even for her age, with bright green eyes. She hadn’t noticed the truck twenty feet away from her, she was just petting the baby moogle and singing. The condors flew past, on their way to wherever they were going. A gently warm breeze lifted the dust off the dry barren ground and hurtled it across the blue sky. The sun was nearing the west and soon the sky will turn a brilliant array of red, orange, yellow, and other colors of sunset.

"What is that song?" Tifa asked herself. "It sure is wonderful."

"Who is that girl? And why is she out here?" Cloud asked as he approached Tifa.

"Oh, you’re up. I haven’t a clue, but she can sing."

"Like hell she can." Cid said. Cid wasn’t one for "fine" music, but this song seemed to entice everyone.

"Well, I’m going to find out. It can’t be too safe for a little girl to be out in the wastelands." Cloud pulled himself and stepped out of the back doors, letting the dry heat into the truck. Cloud marched across the dry orange mud towards the little girl who hadn’t noticed him. The sun was starting to sink below the horizon and the sky turned to a vast array of red’s, oranges, yellows, violets, and blues. Even the Midgar wastelands looked good in the sunset. The little girl had just finished her song.

"Hey little girl. What are you doing out here?" Cloud said as he approached her from the back. She quickly spun around, startled. She then noticed the tall, lean man with blue clothing and spiky blonde hair, and the truck behind him.

"I was taking care of this moogle. Something happened to his mother and I found him all alone." She replied.

"Do you live around here? What’s your name?"

"I-I don’t know…" She turned away from him.

"Gawd Cloud, what’s with the 20 questions?" Yuffie appeared behind him. "Hey kid, that was nice singing." She smiled.

The girl turned back towards them. "R-Really?"

"That was hell of a song." Barret was behind them now.

"…Thanks. My name is Memoria."

"…Memoria?" Cloud thought aloud.

{This is Memoria, a place created from your memories.}

Cloud looked up to the sky. "Did you guys just hear something?"

Barret and Yuffie looked at each other then at Cloud. "No…"

"I could swear someone’s talking to me…"

{It’s just an illusion Quina, We’re not really in the ocean.}

Cloud grabbed his head and fell to his knees. "Who are you?!"

{This is space. Between our world and another.}

"Agh! Shut Up!"

{Why should this world exist without me? It’s just not fair.}

{Shut up! If you’re going to die, then leave us out of it!"}

"Why are you talking to me?! Answer me?!"

Yuffie, Barret, the rest of AVALANCHE who had come out, and Memoria looked at Cloud.

{This is now undeniable. All life exists to die. Kuja has just proven it.}

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

{First there’s anxiety, anxiety leads to fear. Fear then leads to anger, and anger leads to suffering…. Life exists to die.}

{Foolish creature. You doubt these words? Cloud Strife of Nebelhiem, your answer is waiting}

"Who are you?! What do these messages mean?! What is with these dreams?! TELL ME!" Cloud stood up. There were no more messages. No more thoughts.

"…Cloud?" Tifa began to approach him.

"Whats going on cloud?" Red XIII asked.