Hidden Identity (Book Two)-Complete

Year Five, Day Eighteen Part 2

Cress POV

"We can use the elevator Hojo used to get up to the roof," Barret suggests. "Let's get going."

"Yeah!" Aerith agrees. As the others walk out passed me, she pauses in front of me. "Do I...know you?"

"I wouldn't know. My memory is blank past five years ago. Still...you seem...almost familiar..." I reply, cocking my head and squinting at her. Then, I shrug it away. "Nevermind, we should go."

"Right. Well, I'm Aerith."

"Crescent X, but you can just call me Cress."

"Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," I reply with a smile. "We should get going."

"Right."

We hurry to catch up with the others. Soon, we're all crammed awkwardly into the rather small circular elevator. I find myself uncomfortably squished between Aerith and Barret. My heart rate increases, and I feel like the walls are closing in around me.

When the elevator finally stops on the next floor, we all tumble out gratefully. Breathing deeply to calm my pounding heart, I silently curse my claustrophobia and look around the huge space. I stiffen. I know this place. 

In the center of the chamber, directly in front of us is another large glass tank holding a monster with an almost humanoid, feminine body: JENOVA. And all aorund, on different levels, are the wards: rooms containing monsters. This is where I was trained to fight. I was thrown into one of the wards every day with my weapons, each time forced to fight a new monster Hojo had brought in.

Cloud stepped forward towards JENOVA, his hand clutching his head again. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man appeared before us on the metal walkway. His hair was long and silver like mine, but his eyes were this blue-green color and were full of uncaring coldness, the eyes of a demon.

I feel anger and hurt boiling up inside of me for some reason. Tifa gasps and steps back in fear and shock. Barret frowns, not sure what to make of the man. Red growls, and Aerith looks scared but determined. Cloud, though, takes a step forward, still gripping his head.

"Tell me...is it really you?" he asks the man. 

The man smirks, and Cloud gasps in pain and doubles over, now clutching his arm. He stumbles forward. I try to move to stop him, but I find my feet won't move.

"Don't deny me," the man says. "Embrace me."

These words seem to break the spell that was over us all. Cloud lets out a yell. Drawing his sword, he dashes at the man. Tifa and the others move to stop him, but I draw my own swords and run to help him.

The man slashes his long Odachi-style sword at the walkway, cutting clean through it. The walkway begins to break and fall, but Cloud pushes off from it and swings down at the man. The man effortlessly blocks him and shoves him back into the chasm below. 

I copy Cloud's technique of pushing off the falling walkway and flip through the air until I land behind the man. For some reason, hot tears are pouring down my face, and rage and pain twist in my chest. What is wrong with me?

It's his fault,  a voice in my head answers. Everything you've been put through for the last five years is all his fault. All the pain and suffering, loneliness and hardship, it's all his fault.

"It's all your fault!" I cry, swinging my dual blades at him. Fueled by the emotions swirling like a storm inside me, I fight him, jumping and twisting around to dodge his counterattacks. 

"My fault? I don't even know you. You are as significant to me as the bugs that crawl on the ground."

For some reason, at those words, I fall to my knees. My blades clatter to the ground at my sides. Dammit, get up! Get up and fight him! What are you doing!?

"Pitiful," he says, sneering. He points his sword at my heart. "You humans are all weak. Your emotions always get the better of you. But rejoice, you shall soon join the Lifestream. You shall become one with me."

I close my eyes. Is this the end? Will I die here? At his hand?

A blurry memory swirls into my mind. Warmth. A pair of soft lips kissing my forehead. A whispered promise to return. Silky silver hair vanishing behind a closing door.

"I guess...you kept your promise," I whisper, but I don't know why. Drained, I collapse at his feet.

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Cloud POV

Finally, after many fights, we all make it back up to the level with JENOVA's tank, which is now broken open and empty. I spot Cress lying on the ground nearby and hurry over to her. Her expression when she attacked Sephiroth was one of pure rage and hurt. I didn't know there was someone out there who hated him more than me. I still can't believe he's actually alive...

"Cress!" Tifa exclaims, kneeling down next to the silver-haired girl. "Please wake up."

"She doesn't looked injured," Aerith says, coming over, too. "Just unconscious. I may be able to wake her up."

She crouches down and places a hand on Cress's head. A strange greenish light, almost like that of Mako energy, swirls around her hand for a moment. Then, Cress wakes up with a gasp, sitting up straight and breathing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Red asks her.

"I...I think so...I'm not sure...why he didn't kill me," she replies between breathes.

Tifa helps her to her feet. "You okay to keep going?"

She nods. "Yeah, besides feeling a little dizzy from sitting up so fast, I feel fine."

"Great, now let's move. If that bastard is finally done playing with us, we should take that other elevator to the roof," Barret says impatiently. "We've got a ride to catch."

"What about Sephiroth?" Tifa asks, looking both concerned and afraid. I notice that Cress stiffens at the sound of his name.

"He was the one that took JENOVA. Look, there is a trail of blood all the way to the elevator," I point out. "I've got a score to settle with that bastard, so that's where I'm going."

Cress nods. "I'm with Cloud on that."

"Whatever, let's just go."