Chapter 1 - Waking and The Past: part 1

I am in my kitchen, when I hear my front door open and then shut silently. Curious, I head to the door. Seeing no one there, I assume it was my mind playing tricks on me again. I turn to head back into the kitchen, when slim, pale arms wrap around my waist and hug me lightly.
"Konnichi wa, Cloud-kun. Miss me?" said the smooth voice belonging to the person behind myself.
Instinctly, I froze. "N-nani?" I ask in a shaky voice.
"Now Cloud, don't you remember me?" asked the voice, a hint of hurt in it.
"Iiye," I say softly, feeling one of the strangers hand move down to my hips, carresing lightly.
Letting out a light moan, I turn to face the preson who had been behind myself. Sharp, jade green eyes stare into my own. My eyes widen slightly as a crack of thunder breaks the silence. (uh, yeah, it's a dark and stormy night, powers out, you have a gas stove and candles all around the house to put a light glow into each room. Oh, yes.) Yelping lightly, I hugged the slim, pale body in front of me, shivering lightly.
"Doushoota no?" the stranger asked.
"I have a terrible fear of storms," I whisper into the chest in front of me, then added lightly, "Sephiroth."
A small glimmer of mischief appears in Sephiroth's smile. "So you do remember?" he asked softly.
"...Kinda," I reply, "but it all seems a blur."
Sephiroth's smile fades a little. "What do you remember last doing?" he asks.
"A...bright light...cars...flying past, as if in a rush," I reply softly, "then...tires squealing. My body lurching forward...." I trail off, a tear rolling off my cheek. Sephiroth petted my head lightly, as if to comfort.
"Shhhh, you musn't strain yourself to remember," Sephiroth soothed, stroking my head lightly.
I hiccup. "Seph, what happened to me?" I ask softly, trying to quell my flowing tears.
Sephiroth sighed. "I have been informed to tell you what had happened little by little," he replyed quietly.
"Please, tell me," I say, a little urgency in my own voice and looking into the dark, jade eyes, glowing lightly in the candlelight.
Sephiroth looked at me. "You have been in coma for quite a few years," he said. "A few weeks back...you awoke, being in this room."
"I remember that," I say, a small thoughtful look in my tear-stained eyes.
Sephiroth continued. "In the year you were unconcious...many things happened.....," he said, but I interrupted him.
"No," I say, "about me."
Sephiroth took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "You were involved in a major car accident...causing you to go into a coma," he said softly, looking at the ceiling. "I was with you, you driving. Vincent was with us...you remember?"
I stay silent, as if trying to remember, but I couldn't. All I could hear in your mind was a silent scream...from....when?
"Please, Cloud, don't think too much or you'll pass out," Sephiroth said.
Cloud? Was this my name? All I remember is Seph being by my side, laughing about a long forgotten joke.
"How long?" I whisper.
"How long what?" Sephiroth asks you.
"...How long have I been unconcious?" I ask, a slight worried tone in my own voice.
Sephiroth stayed silent.
"Seph?" I ask, reaching up to touch one of his cheeks.
Sephiroth jumped lightly at my touch. "Yes?" he asks, a slight dazed look in his eyes.
"You never answered my question," I reply, my hand still on Sephiroth's smooth cheek.
"Um, Cloud...." he began, but I interrupted him once again.
"Why do you keep calling me Cloud?" I ask.
Sephiroth tilts his head to one side. "That's your name," he replyed, a small hint of worry in his voice. "Do...you remember?"
I shake my head.
"Professor Gast said you might not remember much," Sephiroth said, looking at the ceiling again, as if mesmerized at it.
"Professor Gast?" I questioned, suddenly intrested, but not entirely. My mind still wanting unanswered questions answered.
"Yes, Professor Gast," Sephiroth replyed. "He was the one who saved you from a horrible fate."
My heads tilts to one side, as if in confusion. "Horrible fate?" I repeat.
"Yes," Sephiroth replys. "One that could've cost you your life. He managed to piece you back together. It started on small things, like who I am, or who you were. Gast was not able to completely find all your old memories, he replaced them by finding new ones, more happier ones to conceal your terrible past."
I watched the older man in confusion. Past? All I really remember from my past is a moutain somewhere far off in the east. Snow covering the tops and kids my own age playing in the snow, throwing snowballs or building snowmen. I snap out of my little world to listen to Sephiroth once more.
"And then came the difficult memories. Some, he simply refused to give to you, others, he allowed. Happy ones he kept, sad ones, discarded," he said, a lone tear trailing down his pale cheek. He sighed and continued. "Most of your memories might have been lost forever, but thankfully, Professor Gast was able to retrieve them from your once beautiful body, mangled by the crash, and placed them in the body you are now."
I tilt my head to the other side, confusion overpowering my system. The question I had asked earlier was still fresh.
"How long have I been unconcious?" I ask, a little frightened by the question itself.
"You have been in a coma for more than twenty years," Sephiroth replyed. "All of the world you once knew, is now a dense city, filled with people and very few creatures to thrive off of."
Twenty years. I hug Sephiroth again as if wanting to see the world that was once filled with forests?
"May I see?" I ask softly.
"See what?" he asks.
"See what the world looks like now," my reply comes out soft. A vauge memory of a lush forest filled with life and happiness passed through me. Fast as it was there, it vanished.
I whimpered lightly. Sephiroth pets my head again. "You really want to?" he asked. "It might shock you as to what happened to all the lush forests and beatiful beaches."
Slowly, I nod. Another fast memory of a beach, watching a sunset with a faceless person. And then it was gone. The faceless person had long, raven black hair and a hand wrapped around my waist, squeezing lightly. Shivering lightly, I push yourself slowly away from the warm body I had clung to so tightly. I look into the deep jade green eyes, wanting to see an actual smile from him. Few memories popped in and out of my head, seeing the tall man before me, smiling warmly.
Sephiroth noticed something unsure about the way I looked at him. Slowly, he took my hand and led me away from where I stayed for a few weeks. Opening the door lightly, bright rays of sun peeked through dark clouds. As I step out, I became of what might happen if I went too far away from my safe haven. Shivering all over, I cling to Sephiroth's arm, fearful of this strange world I now lived in.
Everything I could remember, gone. No more lively forests, only the few trees that tried to stay alive, but were slowly dying each day. No more lively calls of the birds that had once occupied the slightly polluted air, now you could only hear a slight hum of engines all around myself.
The fear increased as I became aware that some people were watching me with funny looks. Whimpering lightly, I tug at Sephiroth's arm a few times, telling him I wanted to go home. Understanding, he led me back home, the only place I felt safe, away from the the danger of this odd, new world I had to adapt to now. Seeing my own house in view, my fear lifting slightly. I look at the lone tree in my "yard", I let go of Sephiroth's arm and went toward it. Kneeling down, I feel a powdery substance on the ever slowly dying tree. Feeling a light shock from the tree, I pull back in pain and fear.
Taking the finger that had been shocked into my mouth, I look up at Sephiroth. "Why?" I ask softly.
"I really don't know why they did this," he replyed quietly, placing a gentle finger on the tree, "but I do know that Professor Hojo had something to do with this."

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