He felt eyes on him. Someone was there. Watching. He felt the hypnotic pull of their heart. Something in him wanted it. To devour. To consume. He stumbled to his feet using the dumpster as a brace, claws rending chunks out of the steel dumpster. Yellow eyes gleamed in the dark. Thinking was nearly impossible. He felt starved. The next thing he knew he was lunging towards the figure he saw shrouded in the light in the doorway.
At the last instant, he froze. Barely half a foot away from them. His face was locked into a furious snarl, and his fangs gnashed together and slitted feral eyes glowing. He knew this person. Even so, he felt the pull of her heart. But something in him raged against hurting them. He couldn't hurt them. They were important to him, weren't they?
"...Ti...fa..." A name stumbled brokenly from his lips, his voice a strange duality of beast like and human. This woman. He knew her. He sank down to his knees, breathing heavily. Offset uneven wings fell limply to the pavement behind him. The light revealed him completely now. The man that used to be Cloud Strife, shrouded in darkness, now changed into something resembling a demon more than man.
"I'm... Sorry." He ground out.
Tifa spotted movement in the distance, body tensing as if ready for a fight. Her eyes softened when she heard her name, though it wasn't quite normal. They widened, in fact, once she registered why that voice sounded so familiar. "...Cloud?" she called out, before stepping into the alleyway and walking quickly towards his slumping form.
She gasped at the sight of him. Gone was the blond hair farm boy turned soldier that she knew. In his place was...something else entirely. But she could tell beyond the blackness that he was there. She felt it in her chest, deep down.
"What..." happened to you? She wanted to ask, but he seemed like he was in a great deal of pain. "It's okay...I'm here."
Approaching him slowly, she reached out, tentative and unsure, but desperate to help him.
Cloud didn't move despite the pull he felt. The pull of her heart that beckoned. He resisted. He couldn't. He wouldn't hurt her. Even as his offset black wing draped itself limply on the pavement, his breathing evened out. It took a long moment, but a clawed hand reached out slowly and took her hand. His shadowy skin was cold and clammy now. His fingertips sharp, yet they did not so much as scratch Tifa's skin.
"...I'm sorry." He repeated. Stability was coming now. And with it, memory.
"Heartless, far too many. I tried to lure them away. Fought for days. They wore me down... They got me." He felt like he let her down. Everyone.
"...Sorry."















