A/N: Happy Halloween to one and all! I've never been too good with deadlines so I was a little under pressure to reach this self set one but I did it and I hope you like how it's turned out. No worries, there's plenty more to come so please please please tell me what you think thus far and I'll see when I can get to posting the next chapter-R&R!
Standard disclaimers (FFVII) apply. Background music-I have a whole track listing but for this part I listened to a lot of old school Linkin Park lol.
Touched
by MakoRain
Prologue
This wasn't supposed to be happening. Chaos in such a serene place wasn't possible, was it? Cloud had his doubts brought to life as he finally made his way through the surrounding disarray only to reach the center of the storm where all was eerily calm and at a stand still.
"Angeal!"
His mentor and Keeper of the Oracle stood before someone they had trusted so easily. He was one of them, so why would he do this? The reason didn't matter as Cloud finally reached the eye of the tornado, the whole unfathomable reason Heaven was on such high alert: Sephiroth was trying to take the Oracle.
"Why my son? Why would you do such a blasphemous thing?" Angeal asked, as if trying to reason with the rogue angel or voicing aloud his own thoughts.
Cloud felt his hands ball into fists at his sides with Sephiroth's cruel laughing in response but was held back by a calming hand on his shoulder. Angeal held a look of calm and understanding, the same look he always had which struck the younger angel dumbfounded. How could his master be so collected when literally the future was at stake? Even if he didn't understand it, he trusted Angeal and so relaxed his hands once again at his sides.
Sephiroth watched the exchange in silent contemplation, an eyebrow slowly arched as he took it all in.
"I can see how I was lead to believe these ways for so long. You are very persuasive, Angeal." Sephiroth noted, holding the Oracle closed securely to his chest as if it were his most prized possession. In fact it was, but it didn't belong to him, it belonged in Angeal's care.
"You know the rules, Sephiroth. To even hold the Oracle is enough to have you stripped of your wings."
Sephiroth glanced at his mentor as if contemplating this offer with a wavering gleam in his eye.
Angeal took a deep breath to retain his calm. "Now that is something I would regret having to do. If you will hand over the Oracle without anymore of this nonsense, all will be forgiven."
That gleam turned hard as a shard of glass as Sephiroth scoffed at the offer. "I cannot go back to being blind and obedient, Master." He said the title with a sneer as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. Then turning to Cloud, he said with a hint of pity mixed with a lot of disdain, "You have no idea, do you little angel?"
Angeal put a hand in front of Cloud before he could take a step towards their aggressor.
"Do not disrupt this young man's teachings with taunts of knowledge far beyond our comprehension. How dare you read the unseen pages of the Oracle! They are meant for those angels who have had the complete proper training." Angeal's voice rang with a cold conviction but never broke the level concentration he held to keep it that way.
"So that would be only you? Why is it that the fate of us all is left in your clearly incapable hands, Angeal? I've seen the light and nothing you say can make me stray from the true path away from you and your lies."
Cloud took a step forward, unable to stand idly by any longer.
"It's the only way! We guard the Oracle, and he is the Keeper. There is no other way!" The blond angel pointed to himself, Sephiroth, and Angeal as if to get his point across. It only served to upset their silver-haired cohort.
"That's where you're wrong, Cloud Strife."
Before the young man could further object, Angeal did so for him.
"You know the rules, Sephiroth!" Angeal yelled and it was the first time Cloud had ever heard him raise his voice. It was startling and had him stone still but their lighter-haired ex- companion.
"Rules are made to be broken, Angeal Hewley."
Angeal paled and Cloud shuddered, knowing the power the name held and Sephiroth took the opportunity to take a drastic topic change.
"You don't even know who you are, do you? No memory of why or how you got here, just floated up mysteriously. Don't you want to know what those dreams you keep tossing and turning to mean, Strife?"
Dreams? How did he know?
"Angels can't dream. There is no subconscious state possible to achieve in Heaven. This is the ultimate state." Cloud recited with the conviction he felt in knowing this was the one and only truth...wasn't it?
"Keep telling yourself that, you naive fool. I know better. This is the only way."
Cloud didn't know if it was pity or condescending smugness that filled Sephiroth's eyes. All he knew is that he'd never been more angry before in his life and he was ready to talk it out on the self-righteous bastard. Just as he took another threatening step towards the lunatic with the Oracle, said lunatic pulled something out of the scabbard on his back. The metal shone with an unnatural glow, the hue as red as blood.
Demon's blood.
It all happened so fast and yet slow enough for Cloud to recall the moment for lifetimes to come. Sephiroth struck with a quick ruthlessness, cutting through to the hilt in one simple motion and pulling out just as easily. Before he knew it, Angeal was laying in a crumpled heap on the floor and Sephiroth was standing there, an instant of sorrow in his mad eyes.
"He was always in my way," the young man whispered, looking down at his slain mentor and the compassion was gone, replaced with resolve to claim what was rightfully his.
As he turned to flee, Cloud fell to Angeal's side, reaching the man's side moments too late. Failing at words, he simply slid the dying Keeper's head into his lap and waited for the inevitable with tears of rage and sadness silently streaming down his face. To his relief, Angeal had some remaining breath left to speak his last wishes.
"Cl-cloud, g-go."
Cloud clutched the dying angel's hand tighter, unsure of what he meant. Go? Go where? It was then that he turned to look and realized Sephiroth had not yet escaped from the heavenly plain. He'd have a chance to catch him if he-
"But what about you?"
"Go! You're the only one who can stop him!" Angeal urged until his words were cut off by his violent coughing.
Before Cloud could protest any further, another arch angel of the high council appeared in a flurry of wings at Angeal's side.. "You're the next Oracle in line, Cloud. Retrieve was is almost lost. You're our last hope, don't fail us!" Rufus urged. Cloud allowed one last look at his dying mentor before diving after the man who held everyone's future jeopardized in the balance...
Please tell me tell me tell me what you think of this revamped version :D