By: Mags

Cloud rubbed his head groggily, then scratched the back of his neck as he stumbled from his room. He had managed to throw on some of his old clothes in only about 15 minutes, with minimal success, that is. His shirt was inside out and backward, and his pants were on backwards, too, with the pockets bunny eared and hanging out of his pants and flapping lightly with every step he took. He hadn’t even bothered to comb his hair, and as a result half of it was mashed into an odd-looking pile, and the other side was pressed into the side of his head, and the back was completely spiked, except it wasn’t supposed to be. Needless to say, he was a total wreck, as he hadn’t gotten a very good night sleep last night.

"You look like a wreck. Didn’t you get a good nights sleep last night?" Tifa asked, with concern in her eyes.

"I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night" Cloud lied.

"What are you talking about? You were out like a log by 10, and as far as I know you slept like a log through the entire night. A very loud log I might add, but still. Are you not feeling well?"

Cloud smiled weakly.

"Perhaps I’m coming down with something, then" Cloud suggested, albeit a lie.

Tifa reached out to feel her lover’s forehead and once she made contact, her eyes went wide and she drew it back with a cry of pain.

"Oh my god! Cloud, you’re burning up! Back into bed with you, mister. On the double!" Tifa ordered.

"Oh…okay" Cloud said, not wanting to start an argument over something so trivial, especially since he hoped that doing so would help him get the previous night’s nightmares our of his head. He turned to walk back into the bedroom, when all of a sudden there was a loud buzzing that began to run through his head. He fell to his knees and grabbed his head, squeezing it in hopes that it would help cure him of his current ailment, to no avail.

"Aaaugh!" Cloud screamed in pain, as the buzzing grew worse. He began to claw at his head in hopes of helping numb the pain, but all it did was make his scalp begin to bleed. Soon his head was a mess of masses of blonde hair matted red with blood, and the buzzing sound was growing worse with no signs of letting up. It looked hopeless. Tifa had run for the Cure materia, but it did not seem to have any affect, in fact it almost seemed to make it worse. It did indeed look hopeless. Until it stopped. All of a sudden, Cloud felt it’s absence, and attempted to rise to his feet. He was not successful. His legs buckled from under him, and he was on the floor again a second later.

"Oomph" Cloud muttered as he hit the floor.

Tifa reached out to help him up.

"Cloud! Are you okay?" Tifa asked, as she tried to help him to his feet. "Maybe I should help you into bed" she suggested.

"I…I’m …alright" Cloud lied again.

"I don’t think so. Here…let me help you." She reached out and put her arms around his waist to help support him. Suddenly, Cloud lashed out with his free arm, his elbow catching her in the stomach and sent her flying across the hall into the far wall with a rather unpleasant crunch sound. Cloud remained on the floor, once again clutching his head and wincing in pain. Cloud coughed, and he spit up some blood.

"I… said I am OKAY!" Cloud roared angrily.

Tifa gazed at him wide-eyed for a minute. Something was wrong. Cloud was acting funny. That was an understatement, and she knew it. He was acting down right malevolent. Suddenly, she realized that she didn’t recognize him at all. This couldn’t be the man she had married, the man who she had loved almost all her life, the man who had given his vow of loyalty to her not three years ago in the Messaluna Cathedral. It couldn’t be that man. That man was gentle and kind, a kindred spirit among a vast ocean of cruelty and despair. But this was defiantly not that man. He seemed cold and distant, like Vincent when they had first met him in the ShinRa Mansion. Or like Dyne, Barret’s friend from Corel. Or even like…no…it couldn’t be… she refused to even acknowledge the thought, but she couldn’t deny that the similarities were there. The cold eyes, the merciless intent, vast reservoir of anger and rage, Cloud was acting like Sephiroth! But it must just be a coincidence. Sephiroth was dead. He, Cloud himself, had landed the deathblow himself. She had seen him; she had been a part of it. She had felt the pain of his brutal attacks, but they had been nothing compared to the pain in Tifa and Cloud’s hearts for what he had done to them. And with that anger, she had seen Cloud hurl his sword directly into Sephiroth’s black heart and she watched him die, with less satisfaction than she had hoped that she’d have. He was dead. Of that, she was sure. But what of Cloud? She rubbed the back of her head. There would be a very big bruise there tomorrow. But that was not what mattered right now. Cloud was what mattered now. She slowly got up and approached Cloud with the utmost caution.

"Cloud?" Tifa asked him gently.

Cloud looked up at her, his eyes shimmering in the light. But they were not the eyes of a killer; they were the eyes of her beloved Cloud.

"Cloud, are you all right?" She asked again, this time a bit closer to him. She was carefully making her way slowly towards him, not quite sure if she would be able to defend herself against him even if he did strike at her again, but staying on alert just in case.

Cloud met her cautious stare with an innocence that seemed to emanate from him. He gazed into her eyes like a child who knew that it had done something wrong, but didn’t know what. Tifa relaxed, letting her guard down. Cloud seemed to be no danger to her, now. But how long would it last, she wondered.

"Wh…what happened?" Cloud asked, not quite yet remembering the occurrences of the past few minutes. "I was…then you tried to…then I…" his voice trailed off, then his eyes got wide as his memory returned and he looked up at Tifa with concern and fear.

"Are you all right, Tifa? I’m so sorry Tifa. Really, I don’t know what came over me. You gotta believe me, Tiff!" Cloud pleaded. He scanned her brown eyes, hoping to find some emotion that he didn’t seem to be finding. He couldn’t believe that he had done such a brutal and dirty thing to her, that he could have done it to anyone. It was unthinkable. He would never think of hurting her, but for some reason he had lost control and assaulted her.

Tifa tensed up again, but forced herself to relax. Whatever had possessed him to strike at her like that had now passed, thankfully. Tifa calmed herself gradually, and although she dropped her guard, she was mentally on alert of any sign of danger. She would not let Cloud get in another shot like that again, should he lash out at her again.

"Cloud?"

"Yes, Tifa?"

"Are you alright? Is there anything that you want to tell me, to that I should know about?"

Cloud thought about it for a second. He couldn’t tell her about his dreams, because at this point, that’s all that they were. Dreams, nothing to really get worked up over, but he knew that Tifa would worry all the same only because of who had been in them. He had no reason to worry her when he didn’t have to. He decided that unless something else like what happened today happened again, hopefully not the exact same circumstances, but severe enough, nonetheless. Only then would he burden Tifa with the dreams that had so recently been troubling him. But until then, they were his and his burden alone. He would see to that.

" Cloud, are you alright?" Tifa asked again, priming herself just incase, but still unsure of what to expect.

"I…I guess I am" Cloud muttered, more to himself than to her. He rubbed his head again, the dried blood in his hair crumbling and falling off in little clumps. He had a very odd noise in his head, and although it was not nearly as bad as the terrible buzzing sound from before, it was bothersome all the same. However, he just assumed that perhaps it was just a repercussion of the buzzing sound, but as he concentrated on it, he decided that it was too different to be of the same origin as the buzzing sound.

"Well, I’m going to call Cid and Shera and tell them that they can’t come over today because I think you should be in bed, and then I’m going to…blah blah blah".

Tifa droned on as Cloud began concentrating on the noise, trying to pinpoint it exactly in hopes that that knowledge might aid him in getting rid of it. And it seemed to work. As Cloud concentrated on the sound more, he could start to hear it more distinctly. Soon, he could hear it perfectly, and he realized that it was not coming from somewhere outside, but its point of origin seemed to be his very head. Once he realized what it was, it sent a chill down his spine and gave him goosebumps. It was…laughter!