Chapter Text
It happened again.
He woke up panting, hot tears pouring down his face as he grasped helplessly at his chest. The way his heart was aching was almost unnatural, and he was sure it might finally give out on him. A person could only wake up like this so many times before the pain was too much, surely.
How many more nights could he take like this?
Dreams were supposed to be a beautiful thing. That was what he had been taught his entire life. They were sacred hours spent with their soulmate, whether they had formally met or not. It was a person’s chance to glimpse into the future and bear witness to an event that would help define their entire relationship.
Dreams were a window into their soulmate’s last few living hours.
Everyone on Gaia had a soulmate—a person they were destined to meet, who they would be irrevocably bound to in a way that transcended love. When a person was of age, they would start to see snapshots in their dreams. Little glimpses into how their soulmate’s life would end. It usually took a few years to piece it all together, making each night something to look forward to. The chance to unlock another piece of the puzzle.
Would their soulmate die naturally in their arms? Would they be happy? If they were unhappy, was there something that could be done differently in life to change that outcome?
That was how most the stories unfolded, after all. A happy pair, dying in each other’s arms. Most people sought the comfort of their dreams for that very reason—a chance to be with their soulmate before they had even met. It was supposed to be a peaceful moment in time.
For Cloud, there was nothing he feared more than the night.
-----
When Cloud was old enough, the first thing he did was leave Nibelheim.
Every instinct in his body was telling him to go to Midgar—to follow his personal dreams. The problem was, he wanted nothing to do with his dreams. Not if they lead to all the horrific things he saw every night. The gunshots flashing behind his eyes. A strong arm pulling him down, pressing his head against a wounded chest. Blood dripping down his face that wasn’t his own.
“You’ll be…my living legacy.”
Fuck. No, he would not be anyone’s living legacy. Not if it meant watching his soulmate die while he just sat there not doing a thing to help. His heart ached at the very thought—he couldn’t imagine it happening in reality. There was just no way.
What was wrong with him, anyway? The dreams never went back far enough for him to be certain. All he knew was, his soulmate seemed to be on the run with him. Taking care of him. It was almost like he was comatose as he watched the events unfold, helpless to raise a finger against their enemies.
The whole thing was impossible to understand. All he knew for sure was, if he couldn’t do anything to help his soulmate in the future, maybe he could do something now.
“Cloud,” his mother warned, seeing right through him when he told her he was going to go live in Rocket Town of all places. “This isn’t something you can run from.”
“I have to save him.”
“And you can. You have to work together though—you have to find out about his dreams.”
“I can’t risk that,” Cloud insisted, shaking his head adamantly.
Whoever his soulmate was, they were better off not meeting. Not if their time together would lead to such a disastrous ending.
-----
His soulmate died in a fire this time.
Cloud could almost feel the heat of it as he shot up from his bed at the Rocket Town inn, sweat drenching his body as he tried to piece it all together. It was kind of a blur, but he was sure he recognized where it had happened.
That fire…
It had been in Nibelheim.
-----
Bone Village was his next stop, figuring nothing could go wrong in such an out-there location. Somehow the fire dreams kept happening though.
-----
He’d gone to Costa Del Sol next. No change.
-----
Gold Saucer wasn’t any better.
-----
Cosmo Canyon had been interesting, but his dreams remained.
-----
Gongaga had almost felt like home somehow, but the flames behind his eyes only seemed to spread more rapidly there.
-----
A full year of traveling Gaia had led Cloud to two definite conclusions.
One; if he stayed in Nibelheim, he would somehow meet his soulmate and watch the guy get gunned down by ShinRa’s army.
Two; if he went anywhere else on the Planet, his soulmate would die in a fire that would also consume his entire village.
Leave it to Mama Strife to be right. Running away wouldn’t solve his problem.
-----
Midgar was the only logical destination when all else failed, but that didn’t mean he was stupid enough to walk right up to ShinRa Tower and ask to see the SOLDIER directory.
Hells, he didn’t even know his soulmate’s name. The uniform, the eyes…that was all he knew for sure. Enough to assume his soulmate was indeed a SOLDIER. Enough to assume ShinRa Tower was the last place he wanted to be. At least until he was sure something would change this time.
“Cloud…”
He was sitting on a stool at some bar where his oldest friend worked, not even old enough to drink. Luckily she always humored him, allowing him to frequent the place since she was literally the only person he knew in the city.
Tifa had left Nibelheim around the same time as him, but her first and only destination had been Midgar. Why, she hadn’t said, but he could only assume it had something to do with her own soulmate.
Soulmate dreams were something of a private topic in Nibelheim, even among close friends. His own mother was the only person who knew the details of his dreams, and that was only because she had to been the one to comfort him when he woke up crying out in tears back when it all first started. How many nights had he awoken his poor mother, screaming out nonsensically like he had been the one gunned down?
All Cloud knew for sure about Tifa’s soulmate was that they hadn’t met just yet despite the time his friend had spent in Midgar.
“You have to sleep eventually,” Tifa warned, though she placed another cup of free coffee in front of him. “It’s not something you can run from.”
“I know. I already tried running.”
“Did they change—the dreams?”
Cloud shook his head dismally. “Not for the better.”
“Mine were different while you were traveling.”
“Why would anything I do impact your dreams?” he asked, frowning.
“It’s complicated,” Tifa responded, fixing him with that same look—one she sometimes gave him that hurt his heart.
It was like she could understand exactly how he felt at times. The depth of sadness in his heart every time he woke up from that nightmare. Every time he saw it, he wanted to ask her why—what it was that happened that was so painful for her? But he knew all too well that wasn’t something so easy for a person to talk about.
“Are they different now that I’m here?” he wondered.
“They’re back to normal.”
Cloud’s frown deepened. If his own were back to normal, then he was no better off than he was in his travels. “I think I’ll stay up another night.”
Three days spent in Midgar, and he hadn’t dared to sleep once. The fires behind his eyes had been brutal enough. Reverting back to a time where he sat idly by while his soulmate was gunned down…he wasn’t sure he could take that right now.
-----
Eventually he fell asleep. There were only so many days and so much caffeine before it was inevitable, and honestly, he was pretty sure Tifa was plotting to hit him with a Sleep spell if he didn’t doze off on his own soon anyway.
It was the strangest thing when it finally happened.
He dreamt of nothing.
“Cloud!” Tifa exclaimed the moment he walked into that bar the following day, throwing her arms around him in a way that caught him off guard. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve sworn she was crying which made no sense. “What happened?”
“What do you mean what happened? I had the best night sleep in—”
“You weren’t there,” she cut him off, shaking her head into the crook of his neck. “When she dies—you’re always there. It was someone else this time.”
“Someone…else?”
“I don’t know who he was. He was holding her though—my soulmate,” Tifa explained in a hurry. “Why weren’t you there?”
Cloud just patted her back, a bit helpless to explain. He had no idea what she was even talking about. No idea who her soulmate was, or how she died. “I’m usually holding her when she dies?”
“Every time. She’s already gone by the time you get to her, but…you’re close, Cloud. You mean a lot to her—to me. What happened to you?”
Cloud just kept holding his friend, not entirely sure. There was only one person who would know his fate, and it wasn’t like he could call the guy up and ask. He still didn’t even know his soulmate’s name.
“Everything’s okay, Teef. I’m okay,” he reassured her, which only made her hang on a little tighter. “The guy in your dreams…what did he look like?”
“He was a SOLDIER. Dark hair, a cross—”
“Shaped scare on his left cheek,” Cloud finished, swallowing hard as she finally pulled back and looked at him with curious eyes. “That’s my soulmate.”
“Why is he taking your place in my dreams?”
“Because whatever I’m supposed to do when I get to Midgar, I’m not doing.”
There was only one logical conclusion to draw from that, and he shook his head before Tifa could protest or scold him for it. Apparently he was on track to die before his soulmate this time around.
He could live with that.
-----
There were probably a lot more rational ways to react to years and years of dreams suddenly taking a bizarre turn, but frankly, Zack was pissed.
What the hells had happened?
One night his soulmate was dying comfortably in bed when the time came, and the next…He shook his head, still trying to blink the thoughts from his mind. It made no sense. And all he could do was watch. Never in all his life had he felt so damn helpless.
It was like he had been a prisoner somehow, trapped in a tank or something while some jackass killed his soulmate right in front of his eyes. A scientist, maybe. It had all happened so quickly, and he had only seen it once so far. He’d probably have to relive it all week before he fully understood what it was he had seen.
It had definitely been a lab of some kind, but not like the ones he had seen in ShinRa Tower.
“Zack,” Angeal called out, planting a firm hand on his shoulder as he tried to piece it together in his head one more time. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“It changed, Ang. Last night…”
“Your dreams?” Angeal wondered, raising a brow when Zack gave a small nod to confirm. “I thought you said your soulmate dies naturally.”
“He did. Every damn time, he did.”
Except the last year, maybe—but those were strange dreams. It was like the whole world went black that year, and he hadn’t known what to make of that. A lot of people had reported similar dreams though, and they’d been told not to worry. That it was just a lapse in the fates. There was no other explanation for so many people suddenly having the same exact dream of nothingness. Not unless the entire world ended, but that was ridiculous.
“With Genesis?” his old mentor confirmed, prompting another nod. “Zack…did you ever wonder why your soulmate died with one of mine?”
“C’mon, Ang. I’m not stupid.” There was really only one explanation for his soulmate dying in the arms of another man years and years later—Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis didn’t need to share the details of their own dreams for him to understand. “It means we die first.”
Otherwise their soulmates would never have needed to find solace in one another. He liked to assume Genesis and his soulmate had become friends over the years—that they had leaned on each other after whatever happened ended up happening. Whatever that friendship turned into, he couldn’t be sure just from the dreams alone. All he knew was, they were in each other’s arms whenever it happened.
It had always seemed so peaceful.
“It’s quite possible his dreams haven’t always been as pleasant,” Angeal reminded him, brows furrowed. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I don’t end up—”
“Ang!” Zack exclaimed, scowling at his mentor. He knew enough from the way Genesis had literally attacked him the day they met, like the very sight of him was a threat. Sephiroth too—even to this day when he could call both men friends, they still gave him looks from time to time like he had wronged them somehow. “I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“You don’t. You save me, Zack.”
“Screw that! I already told you, whatever it is they think I do to you, it’s not happening,” Zack insisted, shaking his head adamantly. “Just like this shit with my soulmate, it’s not happening either.”
“He was probably thinking the same thing.”
“What did he do, then? How’d he change it?”
“Instinctively, he knows what he needs to happen. What he wants to do.”
“And he’s trying to do the opposite.”
Angeal nodded. “To save you, I would assume.”
Zack’s heart broke all over again in a way he hadn’t been prepared to handle, and he found himself cursing his stubborn soulmate. Why would he change things? Sure, Zack may have died first, but he was okay with that. His death meant his soulmate would live out a happy life. There were worse ways to go, surely.
“Spike…” Zack muttered, losing some of the heat from his anger.
Gaia, he wished he knew how to get in touch with the guy so they could talk about this. If they could just meet, they’d figure it all out together somehow.
“Spike?”
“It’s not like I know his name,” he shrugged absentmindedly. “Didn’t you tell me you and Gen had given Seph a nickname before you met him, too?”
“I’ve heard it,” Angeal told him slowly, the unspoken offer lingering in the air. “When I see Genesis go, he mutters something.”
“I doubt it’ll help me find him.”
In a city like this, there were dozens of Zack’s. Unless Genesis happened to mutter the guy’s first and last name, it would only get him so far. And that was assuming his soulmate was even in Midgar. He could be anywhere, realistically, and if he was trying to fight their destiny then it would make sense for him to be somewhere very far away.
“It’s a unique name. Something you might hear in a mountain village.”
Zack quirked a brow. “A mountain village?” There couldn’t be that many of those out there. “What is it, then?”
“Cloud.”
“Cloud…” Zack repeated it again, finding he liked the way it sounded on his lips. “Hey, Ang?”
“Yes?”
“If my dream changed last night…did yours, too?”
“Yes, it did.”
Zack raised a brow, waiting just a beat before he realized Angeal wasn’t going to say it. “C’mon! What is it?”
“I’m not certain. Everything was just…black.”
Black. That same nothingness he had seen for an entire year before he finally started dreaming again last night. What the hells did that mean?
-----
Angeal, Sephiroth, and Genesis had alternating dreams—the perks of having two soulmates. They typically alternated every other night with little variance, but there were days that the sequence wouldn't quite match up. More often than not though, it was very routine.
Needless to say, Zack was awed when Genesis pulled him into his arms without a single word spoken two days later. He just stood there awkwardly, patting the guy on the back as he waited to discover what had prompted such an uncharacteristic embrace.
“I did it this time. I killed Angeal.”
“What?”
“All these years, I blamed you, but now…How could I?” Genesis murmured, holding on just a little tighter. “Sephiroth wouldn’t even look at me this morning.”
“Gen…it’s not your fault. It hasn't even happened yet!”
“I killed him. How could it not be my fault?”
“Ang said it over and over—I was saving him,” Zack insisted, though he had never personally understood what the hells that meant. Instead he preferred to believe he just wouldn’t let it happen, period. “Maybe you're gonna save him instead.”
“Why did it change?” Genesis huffed, pulling back and eyeing Zack critically. “Angeal mentioned yours may have as well. What happened?”
“I don’t know. Usually Cloud dies with you, years and years from now.”
“And now?”
“He dies in some lab,” Zack sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “Ang said he’s prob’ly trying to change it. That he didn’t like what he saw with me.”
“Have we ever told you how Sephiroth passes?”
“Uh,” he paused, thinking it over before realizing, “No.”
“He’s usually killed in combat by a young man—one I never recognized. Angeal insisted he had seen this man before though. It took him some time to piece it together,” Genesis explained slowly. “He’s not a young man in Angeal’s other dream, you see.”
“Wait…are you saying Cloud kills Sephiroth?”
“Yes.”
“My soulmate kills Sephiroth?” Zack repeated, eyes blown when Genesis nodded again. “And somehow he ends up with you?”
“So I’ve been told. I don’t see my own death in my dreams.”
“Everything changed though. If Cloud dies early, how does Sephiroth die?”
“That’s the strange thing,” Genesis responded. “I'm not certain he does."
“He doesn’t die?”
“It doesn't appear so."
“How’s that even possible?”
“I suspect it’s because he wins.”
Well, shit. What did that mean? Something about the look on Genesis' face told him the redhead couldn't quite answer that question yet either.
“We need to find Cloud—he’s the key to all of this.”
“Yes, it would seem he is. I already have the Turks working on locating his whereabouts. I've told them he's a person of interest for one of my missions.”
“You don’t get to meet him before I do,” Zack huffed.
“I don’t intend to. When I have his location, I’ll pass it along to you. All I ask in return is that you bring him to us so that we can work this out together. Our fates are entwined, it would seem.”
"You're not gonna give him a hard time, are you? Like you did with me?"
Genesis scowled. "I've watched him kill Sephiroth hundreds of times now and you expect me to greet him with a smile?"
"Damn right, I do. We're gonna save him—we're gonna save all of us!"
He wasn't sure how or when or what would have to happen, but Zack was a man of his word if nothing else. Whatever the price of freedom was, they'd find a way to pay it together to get their happily ever afters.