#* dissidia verse.

“Like two peas in a pod. Good to see you again, Cloud.” The familiar tone of a man Cloud’s come to detest expresses his sickly humor when presented with his two foes. Two foes he’s in fact encountered in the past with different circumstances enforced around those encounters. “Will you make it worth my while this time, half-esper?” Nonchalant thrill weaves neatly through every word which only manages to anger Cloud even more; seeing where Sephiroth’s interest is laying mostly on Terra. To his shock that Terra’s even dealt with the guy in the first and at all.

It’s a pretty chilly night and that much is evident even to Cloud, who has an entire blanket wrapped around himself as he sits before the fire he and Terra set out for camp now that the coast is clear. He notices her shiver every so often from his peripherals so he moves away for an instant, making it seem like he’s going to get supplies where they have them dropped, but instead he pops up behind her, veiling the rest of the blanket around her to provide her warmth just like it does for him.

“Why do you fight?” The question comes out before Cloud can actually try to stop himself. With his back facing the mighty warrior in purple armor he questions his faith. “Why do we fight? To save the world?” He continues. What kind of simple mentality was that? To strike and strike over and over again for something as sanctioned and pure of a cause? Resorting to such disorders to create order? Isn’t that odd? Don’t the ideals clash with one another? “If we retrieve our crystals then what? What’s to come from it?” Eyes of mako energy close as even he gives it some thought. There’s interest in him no doubt about it, just as there is uncertainty as well. If they retrieve what they were ordered to get back there’s no certain ending, this ending that’s been made believe would come from that finished task. There is nothing that assures them that the moment they all collect every piece and find one another again then everything will be restored. That usually doesn’t happen, at least not from what Cloud believes. That only happen in fantasies, made up stories, this isn’t one of them. Where happy endings just happen. He hates to be that guy, okay maybe he doesn’t hate to be that guy but it’s something to consider. Not something that can and should just be ignored only because a deity says so. “What..” He pauses and considers his next words carefully because he’ll be mentioning where the seed of doubt is within him. It provides some discomfort even if he doesn’t want to reveal too much or is keen to it. “What is your dream?” He finally asks.

“What dream has you keep fightin’ this much?” This powerful dream that keeps this warrior in purple armor going. The reality that he has a way and a path set out for himself and doesn’t doubt it, so sure and certain with every step that can be taken. Wait a minute.. could it possibly be envy? What Cloud feels? What inclines him to ask? That unlike him he finds himself doubting and questioning everything? Even his own decisions? Cosmos herself? Because it’s something he doesn’t have, a painted path. He’s so far just been going along because of what he’s been told, but even that he questions at times. He clenches his fists slightly while he looks out to this world that seems to be in the brink of utter oblivion. 

Thunder roars across the night sky, lightning striking respectively afterwards and beforehand to light up the small war that rages in the no man’s land. The silence of the night finds its slumber’s disturbance in the form of a champion from Materia fighting to keep his constant intake of breaths alive. He wields the fusion sword with the expertise of time speaking volumes in the absence of words in this battle. The manikins hardly prove to be a match, it’s only when a spike in their strength settles in or when one’s heavily outnumbered by them when worry should start to waver the will of one. Cloud’s never been one to let fear petrify him in place and get the best of him though. It’s why he’s even alive right now. He draws out an individual blade from the entire ensemble of his sword to strike down the numbers down a notch, though quickly places it back into one piece, swinging to dispose of his enemies before they make that out of him. The battle draws to a close when it becomes apparent that he’s the last man standing..hopefully the last one in this case. Adrenaline still rushing within his body, spiking his senses and putting his paranoia into overdrive that when he catches the smallest of sounds his gaze shifts in that direction.

I know a lot of people take this as a cloud/aeris hint and interpret it that way because it’s the character going back to their canon basically. There’s hints of lots of these oh so great ships everywhere not saying no but at least in my interpretation of Cloud he never fell completely in love with either Aeris or Tifa (I know he had a crush on Tifa when he was young but again that’s when he was young not denying that). Was he interested in any yes but in love or beyond certain levels to me no, I think at the time of the OG there was just too much going on for him to fall in love (not saying it can’t happen but at least that’s just me).

Okay now that I got that out of the way so hopefully the shipping police isn’t after my ass I wanna talk about this scene under the canon it’s from which is Dissidia. If you’re familiar with the game he shares a dream with an ally of his, a dream that originally belonged to Firion who wanted to fill the world with roses. After believing Firion, quote unquote gone Cloud carries Firion’s dream around with him (in the form of a gleaming rose like the beast’s Rose in that one glassed case thingy) and isn’t exactly too sure what to do about himself with it. In the middle of all of that he encounters Terra who’s got her own demons to handle to put it shortly and to the point. Cloud shares this with her, tells her what’s on his mind and from it Terra tries to expand on it. Why limit it to just one kind of flower or to a couple when it can be many and of different kinds that will remind them of their friends (if you look at the picture there’s a couple of white flowers here and there). Might be pretty simple minded for a character like Cloud but he doesn’t deny that the thought of it is nice and at the time of this proposition Cloud didn’t have much to fight for so I’m sure being given something meant a lot more to him than it would have maybe meant to the other dissidia characters who already hold things to aspire for, to fight for. Something Cloud actively struggles to find under this canon. So having someone tell him hey this is something worth fighting for or aiming for I’m sure it was something he appreciated that Terra did even if it was a proposition from his part initially, sharing what he had, she expanded on it and gave him something worth hoping for in some way. So that’s the dream, fill the world with flowers that remind you of the friends you love. At least what was agreed. in 

Fast forward to where all our heroes are returning back home. This scene is what Cloud sees before he goes back to his canon (again many interpreted it as a ship thing but I interpreted it within the canon of Cloud’s story in Dissidia). When I first saw it and I still see it this way is like he’s getting a preview of that dream he finally set himself to chase, telling him that hey this is how the world would look with your dream. Again it’s a very simple minded dream but to somebody who was desperate to find some sort of path it was a pretty big deal to him. So he’s staring at everything and all of those flowers, then he looks over his shoulder and smiles a little, claiming he isn’t interested (implying that his memories from his canon came back) and then fades away. I know not every character in Dissidia will remember what happened to them within that canon but I do carry this little part over where his memories are back and the memories he has of everything within Dissidia. Just that little snip of him seeing the flowers and looking over his shoulder and basically telling everybody bye. He won’t remember everything and all of them by name when he goes back to his canon obviously but he will remember that feeling he got when he saw the flowers, that sense of accomplishment of hey I did it and he’ll also have inklings of knowing that it was something he was aiming for with somebody else. 

She said her dog’s name is Angelo. What a faithful companion since Angelo doesn’t seem to stray away too far or leave her side very often. “Where did you get Angelo?” He asks curiously while the dog so happily begins to pace forward, careful of what surrounds them, or perhaps her more so than him since she’s the rightful owner. A little surprised that a pet was allowed through to this world at all.