onepassingnight | [008 ☿] Cliff-Diving

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[008 ☿] Cliff-Diving

[There's a gorgeous view from up here: a rocky cliff face overlooking the sea. The breeze plays with her hair as Ami waits at the very highest point, right on the edge. She looks down, an angle likely to give vertigo but she only grins broader.

She's going to jump.

She lets go, and her body suddenly looks so small against the backdrop of open sky as she plummets towards the water and sinks beneath the waves. The movement is a thrilling rush and the moment she's immersed, she smiles. She lets herself stay there, savoring the feeling, and she rises to the surface only reluctantly and belatedly.]

(ooc: not necessarily theme, but I'm open to theme antics as well if anyone wanted to catch her here for them; let me know)

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[Maybe it's that protectiveness that draws her close to him. Among so many other things. It's not even the fall that ever hurt her - it was having to do it alone. Fall alone. Make her way alone.]

If it's like that, want to climb back up there?

[Cloud's never been able to abandon someone he calls a friend and he's never been good at letting them go through something alone either. Even when he's been roughly told to butt out. He's not good at telling his friends what they mean to him, but his actions do the speaking for him and he hopes that's enough. Somehow, if he was thinking about it, which he isn't, he wouldn't be surprised to hear that Ami is used to falling alone.

Doesn't mean he thinks she should be left alone to do so.

At the minute though he's looking back up the cliff and his lips are relaxed into a small smile. The city he lives in now is a long way from the mountains of his youth. So there's the slightest of head nods and a relaxed:]

Yeah.

[They need to talk about this. Instead, she turns without another word and heads up the path, only calling back to Cloud once she's gone a small distance.]

And when we get to the top? What will you do?

[he doesn't mind a bit of a hike and he catches up to her easily with a few long strides. It's nice to walk somewhere instead of driving all the time and he enjoys the feel of having to work for it as they follow the path. Her question gets a shrug and he slants her a look from the sides of his eyes.]

I guess I'll find out when I get to the top.

[As they near the top, the rocky footing gives way to enough room to stand, and the view is spectacular.]

I like it best places like this.

[the view is amazing and the air is crisp and clear up here. Cloud will take his time and inhale it, enjoying the view. Whether this is his world or Ami's it never ceases to amaze him that somewhere there are beings that would destroy all of this for smaller, petty dreams. Even without people, the world is a fascinating place and there's never enough time to realize that. His word is an unconscious murmur:]

Beautiful.

[That simple word makes Ami break into an honest to goodness smile.

It's the excuse that covers so many other things, but wanting to see this world continue, wanting to see places like this still exist, all of that had also been true. She doesn't want her world to be damaged or to disappear. None of them had; only the prince and princess had been ready to risk that.

And that makes the smile fade.]

This world was nearly frozen in ice by a being who came here to try to possess it.

Places like this are rare now.

[it brings his brows down and he looks over the world in front of him again. It's alive and strong and yet he too knows how quickly that can change.]

You defeated it?

We did.

[She smirks, as though there was no doubt of this, not even a possibility. She gestures to the land around them.]

This planet is ours. We won't hand it over.

Who's 'we'?

Myself, and the shitennou - the four kings of Heaven: Kunzite, Zoisite, Nephrite, Jadeite.

[there's a soft hum sound to show he's paying attention as he continues to look out over the scenery. After a minute, voice low, he asks:]

Allies or friends?

Allies.

[She called people 'friends' once, for the first time in her life. She won't make that mistake again.]

[his answer is a quiet noise. Like the Turks then. He can understand that. Though he has noticed that she never actually mentions friends.]

Is your planet healing now?

Slowly. A damaged planet isn't so easy to recover.

[They don't have - or trust - the dangerous power of the princess, which could heal it in a moment but which has such horrible consequences and has already damaged the planet itself.]

[he nods. His own planet is still recovering from its first wound centuries ago. It's second... they're still finding out how deep it went this time. Absent, his hand shifts to knead his other arm, down where the muscles ache.]

Where there's life, there's hope.

[remembering her claim to not believe in hope, he adds:]

As long as there's someone there to defend it.

The years it will take are a long time to a human.

[She states this neutrally; she might be including herself or might not. The senshi have longer lifespans she should be able to expect - and yet a senshi had died of some illness, this time. They aren't what they were.]

[he makes a soft sound, understanding. He's done his part for the planet. Already played its hero and he's glad it's over. Sephiroth is dead, Meteor is gone, the planet can get back to healing. He doesn't want to be a hero and he doesn't need the planet's attention. He'll be happy to grow old next to Tifa and die when it's time.

Or die before his time in a fight or accident...

The fingers of his left hand flex, trying to shake feeling back into them and he shakes his head the smallest bit.]

Defenders have a way of showing up. There's always a next generation of heroes waiting to have the chance.

[and boy did he feel sorry for them]

Wasn't there someone before you?

[It's different for her. Very different, in this respect, and although she doesn't put it in the same terms, it speaks of the frustration of infinity, the other side of immortality.]

I was the one before me. In my past life, I watched over this planet. When Mizuno Ami disappears, Mercury will still live on in a next time.

[They're words any of the senshi could speak, would speak; but they're words that speak of a certain futility to their human lives, even without the additional struggles she's gone through in the darkness.]

[it's not the first time he's heard about reincarnation from a young girl and his head turns to look at her, eyes curious. Little pieces of puzzles from other dreams click into place a little more for him. But first, he has to ask:]

Do you remember each life, when you move on to the next?

[She shakes her head.]

Not at first. Even now, some of the ones who lived back then remember it more than others. I didn't know about the past life at all until I was fourteen.

[he makes a low noise to show he's following what she's saying, brows down as he looks back at the horizon. It's still death than, losing all you are, all you've worked so hard to be. A second chance too though... except if you don't remember what you did wrong the last time how were you supposed to do it right the next round?]

I met a Princess Mercury.

You met me.

[It's natural to say it, when he already knows so much.]

I was the Princess Mercury in the past. [She seems to consider this, and corrects herself.] No, I am the Princess Mercury. All the power of my planet is still mine. I'm still the heiress to Mercury.

[She's half talking to herself, by now.]

[it makes sense, he thinks, that the princess he met was from the past. It would explain why she didn't remember him or being Ami. It would explain the differences between the two women as well, because he noticed those and is still sorting through them in his head. Guessing, but fairly sure of the answer given the conversation he'd had with the younger princess, he says:]

We're not on Mercury though, are we?

No.

[For a long while, it seems like it might be all she says. She struggles with emotion, held back as she schools herself to calm.]

The Mercury Kingdom was also destroyed. This is Earth, where I was reborn.

[Everywhere, everywhere, the reminders of the past and her nature, the story of the Princess Mercury tied to the story of where they are now, tied by an inexorable cord to the destruction and the moon princess who hated the ones who should have been closest to her.]

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