AUTHOR'S NOTES: All Final Fantasy VII characters, vehicles and themes © Squaresoft, and no infringement is intended.
Repressed Memories
Chapter Nine: Am I still the Cloud from Nibelhiem?
Written by Cloud

     Drip
     The sound of water falling in beads into an Erlenmeyer Flask shook what remained of me awake again.
     Drip
     "He couldn't stand the pain."
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     "It's no use trying now, we'll only kill him."
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     "He was too weak to resist the Mako Poisoning."
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     "The Jenova cells aren't reacting well with his psyche. He won't be able to communicate with the others telepathically."
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     "Shall I put the number seven on him, Professor Hojo?"
     Hojo!
     "No, save it for the next one. This was nothing but a failed experiment."
     Drip
     The door closed behind him, leaving me alone in the dark.
     Drip
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     It would all be over soon. I'll find a way out of here you freak, you inhuman bastard! I'll find a way, I always did. Even when I was back in Nibelhiem…
     Drip
     Nibelhiem? What did I know about Nibelhiem? What did I know about anything? Who am I?!
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     "WHO AM I!!!" I shouted in rage, tears flowing in rivulets from my disfigured eyes. Hanging my head in shame, my eyes melted into tears. It was all I could do to sit there crying in the darkness. It lasted for what seemed like days, no one had come to claim me from the steel hell that was my prison. My stomach swelled with hunger pain, it felt so long since I'd had a decent meal. I also had to piss really bad, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it, chained like a dog in the darkness. There was no place to go. I was shackled to the wall itself and could barely move at all. The pain was becoming unbearable; I had to let it go. I felt a sickening warmth enter my pants as the nauseating liquid spilled all over me and dripped to the floor in a disgusting puddle.
     Pathetic.
     Who?
     Drip
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     "Who are you!?" I shouted.
     You'll know soon enough, but more importantly…
     Images flashed in my head, burning my brain with the blazing flames of recognition. Images of my mother, of Tifa and the townspeople of Nibelhiem. I was this pitiful creature? This unloved child who just wanted so desperately to be like everyone else? I was nothing! I am nothing! Nothing but a murderer, Hojo had said it himself. The images continued- the world was a stage and I was the extra on the side, so unimportant that it sickened me. Nobody cared about my pain, they were all too busy with their own lives; their own struggles that seemed so insignificant compared to mine. They weren't so different from me, I have wants and needs and loves and I was nobody's damn puppet! Nobody's but Fates.
     That's not true, Cloud. You are MY puppet.
     Drip
     What?!
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     Tell me what's going on!
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     Damn you, COME BACK!!!
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