PREMISE: a piece featuring the remnants of sephiroth from advent children. the reunion was an utter disappointment. they aren't allowed access to the lifestream by decree of their almighty mother. the planet is still aching, but loz has two siblings to watch over.
expect some altered pronoun usage. yazoo is a trans woman in all of my interpretations of these characters nowadays, and kadaj is nonbinary. loz is nonbinary too, but uses he/him pronouns. i focus a lot on loz because i think he doesn't get nearly enough love. all of the remnants are cardboard cutouts but i think he really gets the short end of the stick, and takes the brunt of both fanbase and creator ableism that kinda makes me ill. so a lot of what i write with the remnants are from his perspective. a fresh one, if i'm being honest.
Loz began to dream like any other human would. Sometimes it was his hair getting plucked from his head, other times it was the drip tube in his arm, and still more times it was just Yazoo. Rather, it was the both of them. Their bodies -- all silver and porcelain -- shone brilliantly against a shallow, murky sea that gathered in the void. A chilling breeze stirred the black water at their ankles and neither of them said a word. Stranger still, a heavy presence lingered between them -- a nameless, formless force that seemed sentient enough to enjoy the dream far more than either of its subjects. Loz often awoke with a sore throat and bleary eyes. He never had the courage to ask Yazoo if she remembered her own dreams.
The days were becoming less and less eventful in contrast. Kadaj was on their second death, Loz and Yazoo were recovering from their first. The youngest child's manic energy had dropped off into a state nearing catatonia. It was frustrating, but how could Loz blame them? Mother was not just gone, but She had lied. There was no gentle, eternal Togetherness to return to -- there was just the miserable planet or the beast who took Kadaj's body and left it bloody. The siblings' utopia was over as quickly as it had begun, and so they resigned themselves to an uneasy retirement. Roles shifted. Kadaj was unspeaking, Yazoo was often caught wiping tears from her face, and Loz became swept up in playing their guardian. He fed them and broke into shelters and accosted those who would dare disturb their listless travels. He carried Kadaj often.
They remained in the city, much to Loz's disdain. Edge reeked of rust and stagnation. Any thrill derived from sneaking through alleys or climbing atop buildings had disappeared long ago, replaced with the mundanity of necessity. They had easy access to food and abandoned tenements, but it was far too crowded. The people that milled about made Loz anxious. Every time a shadow stirred, his whole body would go stiff in anticipation. What if someone recognized them? How well could he fight anyone off with his barely conscious sibling in one arm? The possibility of imprisonment was a fear that swallowed him whole every time someone made eye contact. But, almost infuriatingly, it seemed no one noticed or cared about their existence. Jobs and errands took precedence over the haunted vessels that stalked in the night. The denizens of Midgar had witnessed so much in the past 40 years that three embodiements of human suffering made material was just another tally on the board. Loz's worries were misplaced at best and selfish at worst. All around him, the world continued to move on.
Tonight, the flock was being evicted from their current refuge. An old man with a severe brow had caught Loz climbing into the window and was now standing on the stoop, yelling himself red about this new generation of freeloaders. Had he been in his right mind, and had it not been for Yazoo shuffling behind him to shield Kadaj while muttering promises of safety, Loz would have screamed back and kicked the bastard's teeth in. Instead he stood, dissociated, and took the lashing as though it was one of Kadaj's old sermons. Eventually the old man gave up, stepped aside, and gestured dramatically for the trio to exit. Yazoo gathered their slight belongings and as Loz lifted Kadaj from the floor. The sudden changes was no big deal -- there were other places to hide.
A car park would serve them well for the night. The upper floors remained unused -- not enough vehicles survived the most recent obliteration of Midgar to fill a whole lot. The frigid ground was made slightly less miserable with a layering of stolen blankets and bedrolls. The moment he moved to lay down, Kadaj pressed themself against Loz's side and hid their face. Loz heard their breath hitch and felt the hand that grasped desperately at the bottom hem of his shirt. Kadaj shook and wept for a few moments before moving as close as they possibly could, and going still. Loz's own eyes stung as he rested his hand on their clenched fist. The vice-like grip loosened ever so slightly. Just under a month ago, he would have been chastised, called soft for the gesture. But now, no one around felt the need to speak, save for the drainpipe that dripped endlessly across the way. The water's echo turned the car park into a cavern that cradled the remnants in familiarity as one by one, they drifted to sleep.
[here was going to be further exploration of loz and yazoo's shared dreamspace. this was one of the biggest reasons i never finished this. i never felt satisfied with anything i wrote in this segment for weeks upon weeks. so it wont be here. imagine what you will. NEXT!]
Returning to consciousness was a test of strength. It would have been so much easier to remain in the dream. The experience of total safety in the realm of still water and the arms of his twin -- truly, his other half -- was a perfect opposite to the gnawing fear of the physical world. But he steadied himself anyways, and opened his eyes to ever-present concrete and steel.
Loz could tell that Kadaj was still fast asleep, curled into a tense ball at his side. Their face twitched sporadically. At his right, blankets shuffled, signalling Yazoo's arrival to the waking world as she sat up and brought her knees to her chest. Loz hesitated to look anywhere in her direction. While the end of his dream seemed pleasant enough, he hadn't realized how horribly small he felt afterwards. As though all of the work done to harden himself for his siblings' sake had been torn down in just a few hours. A sudden, burning shame leapt from his hear, magnified by the still-vivid memory of that presence that mocked his predictablilty. It didn't matter how he tried to carry himself, or Kadaj. His mind was weak. It was easily broken by something as simple as a dream -- pure fantasy. The fire spread to Loz's face and smoldered, but he willed himself not to start sobbing again. His will was only partially intact. A few tears and a sniffle masked as a waking sigh was enough of a release for the day, he thought. When he finally turned to look at Yazoo, she was staring him down with a knowing look. His jaw tensed, but her expression was soft. Loz swore that behind her usual mask of stone, he could see a stray glimmer of a smile.
There was nowhere for them to go. No urgency of Mother's return, no battles to be had, no pesky older siblings to keep at bay. Cars in the lots below their resting place rumbled to life and overworked men groaned before leaving to return to their daily toils. Suffering and normalcy blended into a single, droning note that filled the whole city. Loz's thoughts, for the first time in weeks, slowed, and he took a deep breath. It was strange, the comfort it all brought. The planet's pitiful heart would continue beating, even if he and his siblings sat in a parking lot for all of eternity.