Fallen

    Cloud was resting in my and Aeline's room; he had been badly injured after I had gotten ambushed by Genesis copies. He had taken the hit to protect me.
    "This is all my fault," I whispered to Cloud, as if he could hear me. "If it weren't for Genesis, I'd never have this wing, and you wouldn't be lying here now..." I stretched out the large white wing that sprouted from my left shoulder.
    
    My mind flashed back to a few weeks earlier, during my fight with Genesis. Zack, Aeline, Cloud and Sephiroth were all trapped, surrounded by countless Genesis copies.
    "Skyler!" Zack shouted. "Take him out!" I heard my friend's voice and glanced at Genesis, still keeping an eye on everyone behind me. He had changed. Not just his appearance, but his entire being had completely changed.
    "Genesis, what's happened to you?!" I yelled, staring at the large black wing that had sprouted out from his left shoulder.
    "I came to my senses.." He lowered his head and glanced upwards at me, then lunged forward with an evil smirk. He was so fast, I barely had time to defend myself. The Buster Sword met his sword, blocking his attack and sending sparks flying. "And now you will too!" He half jumped, half flew up and soared over my head.
    "Skyler! Behind you!" screamed Aeline.
    He's too quick! I thought, my vision blurry from Genesis' sudden disappearance. I turned around and tried to block his attack again, but I was too late; his sword hit my shoulder, cutting through my shoulder armor, leaving a deep gash. "Cloud.." I muttered as I fell to my knees.
    "Sky!" Cloud broke through the ring of copies and ran to my side, Zack, Aeline and Sephiroth following behind to cover him. Genesis stepped back, surprised that they had broken through his rank of copies. He turned and took off, flying away through a hole in the wall, leaving the copies to finish us off.
    Cloud and Aeline helped me to my feet, while Zack and Sephiroth took out the last of the copies. "Sky.." Cloud's voice drew my attention away from the fighting and the pain in my shoulder. "Are you ok?" he asked, his voice quivering.
    "Y-yeah.." I stammered. "It's..just a scratch." Aeline backed up, and Cloud reluctantly let me go. I picked up the Buster Sword and suddenly felt a surge of energy flow through me. I rushed towards the last remaining Genesis copy that had creeped up behind Zack, who had gotten distracted by me, and cut if off before it could attack him.
    Zack stared at me, finally realizing what had almost happened to him. "Skyler?" From the tone of his voice, he was astonished at how I was able to move after being injured so badly.
    "I'm fine." I smiled, but as I lifted the Buster Sword over my shoulder to fasten it to my back, the surge of energy I had faded away and I fell to my knees again, blood streaming down my arm.
    "You need to get that looked at immediately," Sephiroth said, walking up to look at my shoulder. "Let's take you to Hojo." Cloud helped me up and carried me to the helicopter where I finally passed out before the helicopter was in the air and on it's way back to Midgar.
    I woke up days later in Hojo's lab. My shoulder was stiff, but I could still move it. I looked around the room, searching for Hojo, but he wasn't in the lab. I reached for the Buster Sword and carefully fastened it to my back so I didn't reopen my injury, and walked out into the lobby.
    "Skyler!" called a voice. I turned to see Aeline running towards me. "You're ok! Oh, I'm so glad!" She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me.
    "I told you guys I would be," I replied, hugging her back. "Where's Zack? And Cloud?" I glanced around the room for them, wondering how long they had waited for me to wake up before finally getting bored.
    "In the training room," she replied. "It actually took a few tries to get Cloud away from you though."
    "Very funny." I playfully nudged Aeline away and walked into the training room where I found Cloud watching Zack, who was in one of his famous squatting contests with one of the lowers ranked SOLDIERs. "Hey, Cloud," I said, sitting next to me.
    "Skyler, you're awake!" He smiled softly and looked away.
    "You know nothing can keep me down!" I scoffed. I smiled back at him and looked back at Zack.
    "We didn't think you would wake up," Cloud said after a while, finally looking back at me. "You were unconscious for a week."
    "You were worried?" I asked. Cloud didn't say anything, he just kept watching Zack. I got up and walked out of the training room, feeling uneasy from the silence. "I'm going outside to get some fresh air," I told Aeline.
    "You look like you need it," she teased.
    I rolled my eyes and walked out of the ShinRa building. I took a deep breath of cool air, but as soon as I did, and intense jab of pain shot through me. I grabbed my shoulder, feeling for blood, but instead grabbed feathers. "What is this?" I gasped, looking at the handful of white feathers in my hand.
    "Skyler!" I turned to see Cloud running down the stairs inside the building. Oh no..he can't see me like this! I thought, panicking. As I started to run, I felt the sudden urge to fly, and the next thing I knew, I had taken off, and was in the air, high over the ShinRa building. I looked down to see Cloud standing in front of the doors. "Sky?" he called, looking around for me.
    "I'm sorry guys," I muttered. Turning away from my friend, I flew off in the direction of Modeoheim. I had to hide this dishonor from everyone, or they would never trust me again.

    "Skyler?" Cloud's shaky voice brought me out of the vision and back to the present.
    "You're finally awake," I said quietly. "Are you ok?"
    "Yeah," he replied, smiling. "But.." His smile disappeared. "What about you?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "You're..crying." I felt my face and turned away, trying to hide the tears. "You were that worried about me?"
    "I was thinking about the day I woke up," I replied after a while, my back still turned. "Aeline told me that you almost never left my side.."
    "You were unconscious for so long," he said, sitting up. "We all thought.." His voice trailed off.
    "Honestly..that would be better than the way I am now.."
    "You don't mean that."
    "Look at me Cloud!" I cried, turning to face Cloud. I turned so fast that feathers flew off of my wing and floated to the floor. "I'm a monster.." Tears started streaming down my face again and I turned to face the wall, fanning my wing out block Cloud's view of me.
    "I am," he replied calmly. "That's not a monster's wing." Cloud bent over to pick up one of my feathers and laid his hand on my shoulder to turn me back towards him. "That's the wing of an angel." He held out the feather for me to look at.
    I looked from him, to the feather, and back again. "Cloud.." He grabbed me before I could start crying again and pulled me into a hug. "How..after all I've done?" I asked, my voice breaking.
    "I've always liked you," he replied. "You just never noticed."
    "It was kind of hard to with you acting like such a jerk," I teased, a small smile showing on my face.
    "Hey, that was Zack's idea," he laughed, remembering what had happened at the beach months earlier.
    Cloud let me go and I looked at him. "Let's go," I said, leading him to the door. "The others are worried about you too."
    I opened the door and let Cloud lean against my shoulder to support him, and we walked out into the hallway. "Cloud!" Zack shouted. "You doing ok, buddy?" he asked, looking him over.
    "He's just a little cut up," I replied, slightly moving my wing to cover our hands, which were held together.
    "Hey, Aeline!" Zack called over his shoulder. "Check out the two love birds!" I glared at Zack and snapped open my wing, sending feathers flying everywhere. Zack jumped back, startled. "Sorry!"
    "Don't you have someone to go visit?" Aeline asked, walking up.
    Zack looked at her, utterly confused. She then help up his phone, which had 3 voicemails left by Aerith. "Oh..crap. I forgot!" Zack snatched his phone from Aeline and ran off towards the stairs. "Later guys!"
    Cloud and I laughed, and Aeline just rolled her eyes. "I'm happy for you, Sky," she said, walking up to me to whisper in my ear. "I knew you'd work things out with him." She looked at Cloud and continued, "Careful with her, she's a tough one."
    "No kidding," he teased, smiling softly at me. I nudged him gently with my wing and he stumbled. "Hey!"
    "C'mon, you two," Aeline interrupted, smiling. "Angeal and Sephiroth said they wanted to talk to us as soon as Cloud woke up." She turned and walked into the main meeting room, Cloud and I following closely behind her, our hands still tightly held together.