Life is Good : Cold

Warnings: Flashback and angst

Major plot twists and events have been deliberately ignored, because I don't give a flying fuck for technical details. A nod to the almighty Armageddon Spell from Ultima VII.

Through frosted glass, the young blonde watched disinterestedly at countless, indistinct flecks swirling violently into the inky darkness. Strong winds pummeled the wooden walls of his shack relentlessly, rattling a few loose planks which thankfully, still managed to keep the cold at bay.

Cloud Strife leaned closer towards the sole window to the outside world, and shivered when his fingers touched the frigid surface. Snowstorms continued unabated outside his shelter, ravaging the skies and threatening to bury the entire western continent under ice. He didn't think anyone caught in the storm would live through the wintry night.

If there were any humans left alive out there, that is.

Cloud sighed. Even till that day, it was unfathomable how a string of good, even remarkable, events had taken a sudden turn in just less than six months. In the years before, remnants of Jenova periodically clawed their way through from hidden caches of reactor pods or underground Shinra laboratories, causing widespread destruction and unrest – but in the end, they were appropriately dealt with by Cloud and his friends.

Life flourished and endured, nurtured by mankind's determination to save their Planet, spurred by an ever-increasingly rich concentration of lifestream that no longer ended up in someone's Mako reactor. The WRO was committed to rebuilding towns and cities, Shinra's wealth was spent on revitalizing non-Mako-dependent economies and technologies, and the new Avalanche worked hard to maintain peace and stability among different nations and their diverse cultures. Synthetic materia ceased to exist under new laws that prohibit the use of such destructive energy sources.

It was good back then.

Cloud blinked a few times, when he felt his eyes water from the dry air that permeated his tiny abode. He saw his reflection on the window glass then; his blurred image was no longer one of youth, strength and leadership, rather, he looked thin and weary, having fought more than a lifetime's worth of battles and exhaustion. Even the once-vibrant glow from his Mako-blue eyes had somewhat dulled.

The storm began to subside, and gradually dwindled to a heavy snowfall. This was not a normal sign of the passing seasons; it was in the middle of summer, and if one paid careful attention to the falling flakes, one would immediately realize that the snow was glowing a deep shade of blue-green. The luminescence was faint; its deceptive beauty disguised as a harbinger of a more sinister consequence.

Six months before, as Cloud recalled, marked the final return of Sephiroth and his monstrous armies of alien spawns and mutants. Mankind waged a war on an unimaginable scale by uniting against the new menace, but ultimately, the bloodthirsty minions of the legendary silver-haired demon overrun every last known bastion of Men.

In Gaia's darkest hours, She was forced to make a terrible choice. Cloud could still taste the fear and panic in the hearts of many Men, as they watched the rise of Neo-Omega from the heart of a devastated Midgar.

Without Chaos, they could not stop its ascent from the Planet's surface.

Without lifestream, their world would simply crumble into nothingness.

The blonde shuddered at the flood of unpleasant recollections. He stepped back from the window, suddenly disgusted by the coldness of the glass, and the bland, monotonous sight that it beheld. Where green grasslands and lush forests once covered the continents, there were now only barren snow-blanketed hills, and miles after miles of newly-formed glaciers and tundra wastelands. Thick fog permanently shrouded the lowlands, and violent storms frequently swept across the gloomy landscape.

Cloud held his arms close to his body, noting that his frail frame was clothed only by a loose shirt and a pair of worn pants; hardly enough to shield him from the icy temperature. He would need to return to bed soon to conserve his body heat through the night. Tearing his gaze away from the hypnotic sight of glowing snow, he took in the view of his tiny shelter for the night.

Darkness swallowed every corner of his abode, save for the occasional flicker of dying embers from a fire pit that was hastily carved out from the frozen ground. A cooled piece of half-eaten rabbit roast was stuck on a spit and placed next to the makeshift campfire. Some empty crates lay strewn about the two-room building, decorated by sparse furniture, a rickety cot, walls stained with blood and ash, and broken floorboards; the shack was probably the remains of a hunter's lodge.

As the blonde absently picked on a scar on his forearm, he recalled the final hours of the last battle. Cloud would have gladly accepted Gaia's decision, and allow Neo-Omega to take its maiden flight into the far reaches of outer space, if only to escape the clutches of Jenova's wrath and to carry life to another world.

But Fate was cruel.

The young ex-SOLDIER had spotted a familiar face amongst the green rivers of lifestream that weaved into Neo-Omega's core. Instinctively, he had leapt into the smoky, crimson-tinged skies, with all eight swords ready in battle stance. Anger and regret clouded his thoughts, as he plunged straight into Neo-Omega with the same inhuman strength that brought down Bahamut-Sin. At that time, all he desperately wanted was to reach that one person whom he could never forget, could never forgive himself for, and could never let go.

Cloud Strife, once hailed as the hero of the Meteorfall, single-handedly slain Gaia's last life-giving gift to the Planet, only to claim the reward of his beloved for himself.

The young man frowned, feeling unease at the memories of his wrongdoing. He returned to his spot beside the window, and allowed the chill to cover him. Midnight was closing in, with streaks of unnatural purple lightning occasionally painting the backdrop of jet-black, dotted with numerous flakes of glowing blue-green.

Blue and green were once the colors of life, but they now signified otherwise.

Neo-Omega shattered upon its demise, as Cloud remembered, releasing massive quantities of concentrated lifestream into the atmosphere. The shockwaves were tremendous, killing everything within a 100-mile radius and leaving only the empty, ruined, twisted shell that was once a rebuilt, inhabited Midgar. No one knew what happened to the lifestream from Neo-Omega, but the resulting fallout turned out to be the deadliest substance that humans had ever encountered.

Unidentified blue-green mako-active substance rained from the skies for many days. People immediately began to die of acute mako poisoning; animals and plant life soon followed thereafter. Magic ceased to work, and any remaining materia or any form of processed mako turned to dust. As if that was not enough, oil wells ran dry overnight, the great oceans receded, machines and electronics deteriorated rapidly, and temperatures fell dramatically on a global scale. Some said that the Planet had stopped living, others prayed that It was merely hibernating for the winter. Life as Cloud knew grinded to a halt.

Evil was not spared by this cataclysmic change; even the strongest of Jenova's underlings could not withstand the onslaught of altered mako. They gradually withered from the poison, leaving only small pockets of weakened, surviving swarms to scour the forsaken lands for scraps.

Cloud had lost everyone he had known, including friends from Avalanche and WRO, but he was content.

Cloud Strife disappeared from the known civilization then, running away from the needy, the sick and the dying, and away from the fact that he had brought death upon his world. All that mattered, of course, was the person whom he rescued from Neo-Omega, safely cradled in his arms.

Cloud had been on the road for many months now, seeking shelter, gathering whatever survival gear and rations he could find, and moving on when his hideout had been discovered by marauding bands of monsters. He wasn't sure if anyone survived till that day, six months after the mako-active fallout; he hadn't seen any other living humans yet. Very few lifeforms survive, including himself and his beloved, for some unknown reasons. Perhaps it was due to their inherited scientific mis-experiments, or perhaps it was some sort protection bestowed upon them by the Planet; he would never know. But no matter, he thought, there was enough out there in the wild to sustain them, and enough supplies from abandoned cities to live on comfortably.

The winds eventually subsided, bringing a respite from the deafening howls and thus, awakening Cloud from his reverie. The blonde's skin immediately prickled at the unfamiliar silence. Cloud realized his senses have lost some of their usual alertness, because in the next moment, he was caught off-guard by the sensation of warm, calloused fingers sliding along the small of his back.

"Hey, babe. The bed's cold without you," a voice rumbled seductively from behind. Feather-light touches danced around his sides, gentle and caressing.

Cloud's lips curled into a smile. He leaned back, pillowing his head on the firm, satisfyingly warm chest, and settled to listening to the soothing sounds of a living heartbeat.

In this dark, desolate world, perhaps things weren't too bad after all.

Life can still be good, Cloud thought.