FFVII – Part 55: Both Sides Now

Summary: We learn the truth of who Cloud is, and what really happened five years ago in Nibelheim. This is so cool.



Cloud’s Brain – Mt. Nibel Reactor

-As soon as they get to Nibelheim, they head to the reactor. Five years ago.

-Sephiroth slices Tifa.

-Spikey black hair dude comes up. She sees him as Cloud, but that might have been delusion.

-No. It’s a guy named Zack.

Not!Cloud, a.k.a. Zack, to the rescue!

-…Zack? Aeris’s boyfriend Zack? I guess so.

-So that was Zack with Sephiroth, who ran into the Jenova container to confront Sephiroth. Where was Cloud in all of this?

CLOUD: “I… saw everything.”

-We hear a pulsing heartbeat. The same lone sound as when he Sephiroth killed Aeris. This is unbelievably tense.

-Zack gets sent flying out of Jenova’s room.

-A shadowy figure in a Shinra guard uniform with one of those ridiculously huge swords comes running up the stairs.

-CLOUD WAS ONE OF THE GUARDS ACCOMPANYING THEM

-HE RAN INTO JENOVA’S CHAMBER AND STABBED SEPHIROTH

-HE KILLED SEPHIROTH

-He was there the whole time, but not as a First Class SOLDIER, just a random Shinra guard.

-He didn’t reveal himself to Tifa or anyone because he was embarrassed that he didn’t make it in SOLDIER.

-IT WAS RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME AAAAARg

-Looks like Sephiroth didn’t die. He staggers out of the chamber holding something. Is… is that Jenova’s head?

-Zack asks Cloud to kill Sephiroth. Cloud pursues Sephiroth.

-AND GETS FUCKING SKEWERED BY THE KATANA

-BUT NOT EXACTLY BECAUSE HE USES HIS BODY AS A FULCRUM WITH THE KATANA THROUGH HIM TO FLING SEPHIROTH OFF THE LEDGE WHILE HE’S STILL HOLDING JENOVA’S HEAD

-WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING

-How did Cloud not die then? Or if he did die and get reborn, how did he have the strength, even in his dying moments, to do that? Maybe it was just that he got skewered in a non-vital area? (I’m reaching.)

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Cloud’s Brain

-Kid!Cloud says goodbye to Tifa for now. His three ghostly Cloud forms surround him and join back up with him. This reminds me strongly of Kain’s story in FFIV: The After Years. [Supernatural S6] Naq yvxr Fnz'f nep va gur raq bs gung frnfba, "Gur Zna Jub Xarj Gbb Zhpu."

-Cloud’s back. Whole again. Maybe for the first time in a long time.

-They swim back up the lifestream, back to their friends.

-Not sure how any of them will avoid Mako-poisoning, but we’ll see.

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Next time: towards Port Junon for the final Huge Materia.

”I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down,
And still somehow its cloud illusions I recall.
I really don’t know clouds
At all."
-Joni Mitchell