- 006 || eternity stares back.

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

Is it dark? Are you still awake? Where are you? Is this a dream?

All of these thoughts and more would flutter through your mind, caught on the thin wire between consciousness, and being trapped within the confines of your own imagination. In time, it slowly dissapates, burning away as the universe reveals itself. You might find yourself standing on a tall, icly pillar, gazing at the stars that seem forever locked in twilight. Or perhaps you're deeper, nearly drowning in a pool of water that seems to have an almost green tinge, wouldn't you agree? and just barely managing to float to the surface. Planets are out of line, the clouds are tricoloured and thick, but no matter what.

The stars remain.

This land is open, free. Shattered. There are absolutely no restrictions here, and the asteroids have already grasped the concept. They shift and crumble before you, just before drifting into the great abyss. You might see those you know, wandering the stars - some with a confused stagger, and others with defined purpose.

Look down.

One of the asteroids is misshapen.

And there is the faint outline of a man resting upon it, sitting as if in meditation.

The will of this world guides you towards it.

Comments

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

His back is facing the Turk - the very same Turk he'd ask to watch over Aerith those years ago as he, Sephiroth, and Cloud headed to Nibelheim. It was the mission that would change their lives forever, and ended two of them that night. And he's still in that meditative stance, a lack of a Buster Sword making it difficult, but manageable.

The voice booms in the man's head, nonetheless.



He doesn't even need to turn around to know who it is.

[plotdeviceturk.livejournal.com]

"She waited for you." Came the non-answer, "At least, for a while."

He still had those letters for Zack, sitting in a locked drawer of a desk. He'd never read them and never would either. Their contents weren't meant for him. He'd had a plan, once upon a time, a sideways manouver that had never come to pass because Zack had been just that good at hiding.

"I'm sorry."

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

The former SOLDIER is quiet, only shifting a little in his near-transparent position to give the man at least some acknowledgement. But then he eventually nods, taking in the information. Aerith had waited for him... then she stopped. She stopped when she realized he was never coming home, and maybe it was better this way.

She'd be safe. He trusted Cloud.



Finally, he turns to glance over his shoulder - dead eyes staring back at the man, still alive, though laced more with curiousity than anything else.

[plotdeviceturk.livejournal.com]

"My duty is to the Turks."

It wasn't a lie either, they'd walked out on ShinRa while Zack had been held in Nibelheim and Veld had been ordered executed. Tseng had shot him yes, but Veld had lived quite nicely after being patched up.

"It's been seven years since I last saw you. A lot has happened."

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

Tseng's comment is bypassed - he's heard enough of the 'because it's my jobs's or 'because I was ordered to'. What does he think, he want? Not the Turks as a whole.



He isn't angry, or accusing. Just... sad. The air has gotten thick around them, even in what was meant to be the vacuum of space.

[plotdeviceturk.livejournal.com]

Tseng hadn't always followed orders the way they were meant to be, taking over a decade to actually bring Aerith back to ShinRa had been one of the more obvious ones.

"...I would have given you some letters I was holding on to for you." He says after a while, evading the comment about sickness. After that there had been a few possibilites; hiding them away like Veld and Aerith 'mysteriously' slipping their watch and the city, bringing the two of them on as Turks, he'd even briefely considered the insanity of taking the Turks out of ShinRa but that would have only gotten them all killed.

"It's too late to change the past though, what could have been isn't a possibility for any of us anymore."

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

This is about the first surprise Zack has remembered hearing in a long, long time. The entity finally stands from its position, his back still tuned but his words quiet and even.



All that time in the lab, he'd worried.

He'd worried about Aerith, if she was worrying about him... and afterwards, if ShinRa had just burned all 88 of them. To hear that they'd been kept safe, after all this time, and probably still in the man's desk drawer...



No. It was too late to change anything now. It's a relief in itself to learn that the Turks, all of them, had been on their side the entire time.

[plotdeviceturk.livejournal.com]

"Don't. I didn't manage to do anything Zack." Tseng replied roughly, "Even here, you've done a better job saving people than I ever did."

He couldn't take the man's thanks, not after everything that had happened. "All I ever did was hold on to things that weren't mine to have."

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

The phantom's tone is solemn, almost sad as that telepathic voice booms around the other man. But from the sight of the Masamune laying out in front of him, it's obvious who he means.

[plotdeviceturk.livejournal.com]

"You can't save people who don't want to be saved." Tseng said gently, "Sometimes... you have to let them go their own way and learn that the path they've chosen is lonely and cold, eventually they'll find the end of it and turn back. It's our job to wait for them to come back, not go running off in to that void after them."

[hisdreamsmyfate.livejournal.com]

Tseng will feel a coldness around him, a bitter sadness that dwells through the asteroid and beyond. The voices chime in, growing louder and insistent but he tries to push them back for now. He didn't want to go to Sleep just yet.

He still had plenty to say.



It's happened before.

The asteroid is cracking.

A lifetime of misery until it's too late.