"Unnhhhh…" Tifa groaned as she rolled on her side and onto her back again. She did not wake, but the stir caused Cloud to do so. He lied awake with blurred senses for a few seconds, although it seemed to him like hours. Still dazed and unsure of where he was or what had happened, he sat up. When his vision finally cleared, the first clear image he could make out was that of a beautiful woman in few clothes and a seductive pose.
Cloud looked confused, but the word came to his lips almost involuntarily. "Highwind?" Sure enough, the painted panel of the ship stared him in the face. It was still in the same swimsuit model pose as always, regardless of the epic struggle that had taken place. He looked around, still feeling groggy, observing the deck of the trusty airship, now in shambles. He suddenly snapped fully into consciousness, remembering all that had happened with Sephiroth, Meteor, Holy, and all of his comrades.
He stood, only to realize that his legs had not yet the strength to do so. A pain shot up his left leg, his knees buckled, and he caught himself with his hands before falling flat on his face. On all fours, and his head down, he found himself staring into the face of another woman, even more beautiful than the one painted on the ship, and he smiled.
Cloud felt an odd calmness inside him while observing Tifa's inanimate face. He leaned back and shook her lightly, while speaking in a soft voice. "Tifa… Tifa, wake up." She stirred, groaning yet again. Cloud let out a long held breath upon seeing that she was, in fact, alive. Her deep, soulful brown eyes fluttered open. Slowly, she focused on Cloud's face, which blocked the sun from blinding her eyes as they adjusted to the light.
"Cloud." She said it as the answer to a question, rather than asking one, as if she expected nothing else than to see him.
Cloud smiled brightly and sat back so that he was no longer over her. "Good, you remember me." His face became slightly concerned, and his Mako blue eyes dimmed. "Are you alright? I was pretty dazed when I came to."
Tifa however, had already come to her senses, and regained her strength. She grinned at him and leapt straight to her feet from her previous position flat on her back. "Of course! Who do you think you're dealing with, anyway?"
Cloud was shocked to see how quickly she had recovered, whereas he was still unable to stay on his feet. His jaw dropped as she smiled at him with the same cocky, confident smile as ever, an unscathed gem among the wreckage of the Highwind.
Again she surprised him by running to the top of the small but wide crater that the Highwind had left in the ground. She gasped in surprise, and Cloud, having not seen the final outcome of the battle between Meteor and Holy, began to worry. She ran back down the crater to the small portion of the deck where Cloud still knelt, a telltale smile on her lips. "We did it, Cloud! Meteor is gone! We did it!" Joy overcoming her, she knelt and hugged Cloud, who still had not risen to his feet.
Cloud was overwhelmed, but he welcomed her embrace, and returned it. "It's over. It's finally over," were the words he spoke into her shoulder, quiet yet full of emotion. He hesitated, and sadness took a sudden strong hold on him.
Tifa noticed his hesitation immediately. "What's wrong, Cloud?" she asked, knowing well the answer. She leaned away from him, breaking the embrace, and she waited to hear the one word she didn't want to hear.
Her thoughts followed his words precisely as he answered her. Sadness, but not tears, filling his bright eyes, he replied slowly. "Aeris… I wish… she were here."
"Me, too," Tifa lied. She had never disliked Aeris, though she did feel a great deal of jealousy towards her. After all, she had known Cloud ever since she was old enough to walk, although they had been better friends in the last ten years than in the first ten. Only lately had she seen Cloud in the same light as she did now, but still, it seemed to her that Aeris barged in on her place. Aeris suddenly got closer to Cloud than she had ever been, and she didn't like the feeling of being number two. Although she was saddened when Aeris was killed, deep down, another part of her also felt relief. She tried to suppress these feelings as much as possible, as they made her feel very guilty and selfish. Nevertheless, Aeris was no longer competition to her, and the thought was a strange, unsettling comfort to her.
"Tifa? Tifa, are you listening?" Cloud asked, and Tifa realized that she had just spaced out while Cloud had been talking.
"Yeah, I'm listening," she bluffed, and tried to pick up on what he had been talking about.
"So, what do you think? Will you come with me?"
She smiled, because even though she wasn't sure where she was going with him, it didn't matter, as long as she could stay with him. "Of course, Cloud. I'd follow you anywhere."
Cloud smiled, and yet there was that hazy look of concern in his eyes again. "You're sure? I mean, you don't have to, I'd understand. You're sure you're alright with it? It could be dangerous, and besides…"
Tifa interrupted him in mid-sentence, and she retained that same gracious smile as before, although the offer seemed much less attractive now than before. "Yes, I'm fine. I mean, after all of this," she gestured to all of her surroundings, the Highwind wreckage, the direction of Midgar, and even the sky itself, "You're gonna talk to me about DANGEROUS?" She giggled. "And besides that, why would I have a problem with it?"
Cloud laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I don't know. I just thought you… nevermind. I guess it does sound silly, making a big deal out of something so small after we saved the planet, huh?" He smiled warmly. "Thank you, Tifa. I'm glad you're coming with me."
"I'm glad, too. But," she looked around; "I'm concerned. Nobody else has turned up. Shouldn't we look for them?"
He nodded. "I was going to, but… well, I found you first, and I kind of lost track of everything else."
Tifa blushed at his words, and found herself without a reply, so she merely turned around and said, "Come on, let's go find the others!"
She began walking away, expecting Cloud to follow, and he did try. The pain in his leg foiled his efforts again. He yelped as a searing pain numbed his whole left leg, and he collapsed back onto the hardwood platform.
Always alert, Tifa whirled around and saw him, face down. "Cloud! What is it?" She noticed him clutching his left leg.
"It's nothing, Tifa. I'm just a little banged up, that's all. Must've happened in the crash. Just go, I'll catch up," he said, while wincing and lying on his stomach. He tried to put on a strong front, but he was actually worried about what may be wrong with his leg.
Tifa read his phony expression like a book, and started back towards him. Cloud tried to stop her, assuring her there was nothing to worry about, but she never faltered. Secretly, he appreciated her concern, but didn't want her to worry about him. So he stopped refusing as she knelt beside him.
"Where does it hurt?" she asked, full of concern.
Cloud hesitated, then answered, "My left leg. A little above my knee."
Tifa rolled him over with arms that were much stronger than they looked, frowned, and some color came to her cheeks. " You're bleeding, Cloud," she said, looking at the crimson stain in the left leg of his pants. "I'm… gonna need to take a look at it," she managed to get out.
Cloud lifted his head and stared at her. "So then that means you have to…"
Tifa nodded, not waiting for him to finish. "Yeah. I'm going to have to partially undress you a little bit.
Cloud sighed and slammed his head back down. "Oh, good, and here I was afraid it was going to be something awkward," he said sarcastically.
Tifa glared at him. "Look, you could be seriously injured. I need to see what's going on, so I can take your to a doctor if need be, okay? Now come on, let me take a look," she said, trying to be the mature adult in the situation.
There was another sigh from the blond-haired man. "Alright, do it," he said finally. He tried not to let his relief show on his face, since the pain had begun to blur his vision.
Tifa looked suspiciously at him. He usually didn't give in that easily. What was he trying to pull? She tapped his leg lightly, but firmly, as a test.
Cloud howled in pain. "Tifa! What're you doing down there?!"
Tifa felt a little guilty, but she was satisfied with her experiment. "Just checking to make sure you weren't bluffing me. You're wearing something under these, right?"
He glared at her. "Yes, I am. Look, just get it over with, would you? I'm not any more excited about this than you are."
Tifa didn't look him in the eyes. "Sure you're not," she said, and gingerly pulled his pants down to his knees. Both their faces turned different shades of red at that moment, but Tifa's changed when a gigantic purple-black bruise was revealed, covering the whole of Cloud's upper left leg. There was a small cut in the center of it, and while it was not wide, it was deep. It looked as though a small knife had cut straight into his leg in a stabbing motion, then pulled straight out.
"Oh, damn," she exclaimed. "That's hideous!"
"What? What is it?!" Cloud asked, a little bit panic-stricken, and
he tried to sit up.
Tifa put a hand on his forehead and pushed him gently back to the deck before answering him. "Well, I don't think anything's broken, but… you have a huge bruise on your leg. You must have hit it on something during the crash. It's no little thing, I must admit; it's no wonder you couldn't stand up. Oh, and, sorry for hitting it."
"It's fine, but what're we gonna do about it?"
Tifa's expression went blank. "I don't know. I'm not a doctor or anything." She dug around in her pocket for a couple seconds, searching for something. "Got it!" she exclaimed, and pulled out a small vial of liquid. "This is all I have, Cloud. A potion I was saving, just in case. All the others were probably destroyed in the crash. We shouldn't have to use it for anything else, so, you might as well use it now."
Cloud took the vial and swallowed the liquid. He felt a bit of a jolt through his body, but his leg still hurt. He looked down at it, and it was no less bruised than before. "Tifa, I don't think it's working," he said with a frown. "How long have you had that potion?"
She looked at the label on the vial, and sighed. "Too long. It expired a year ago. I've just always had it with me for a situation like this. I guess we'll have to think of something else, but that should at least keep it from getting infected."
All the while, Cloud was getting uncomfortable in his situation. "That's fine, but do you think you could pull my pants back up? I mean, we know what we're working with, so…"
Tifa giggled. "Sure, Cloud." No less timidly than before, she grabbed the waistline of his pants, and slowly began to pull them back up to their original position, being careful of his injury. Though she had managed to fight it the whole time she was playing doctor with him, she finally let curiosity get the better of her. She shot a quick glance between his legs, and tried to pretend she hadn't.
Cloud was not fooled. "TIFA!"
Tifa's face flushed in red and her ears got hot. She said nothing. Hastily she pulled her hands back, leaving his pants still where they were. She smiled inwardly despite herself. Just like I always imagined, she thought to herself.
All of a sudden, a familiar voice came from around the corner of some engine wreckage. "Aw, geez. I know you two like each other, but get a room, awright?"
Tifa shrieked and jumped back from Cloud. "Barrett! How long have you been standing there?!"
Barrett, who was apparently unharmed, the same as Tifa had been, grinned from ear to ear. "Why you wanna know? 'Zere something I shouldn't know about? You hidin' somethin', Tifa?"
Tifa's face was completely flushed. "N….no! He's injured!"
Cloud winced, but mustered the strength to do a sit-up and pull his pants back up to a decent level. He was surprised to find that the pain from the injury had seemed to spread from his upper leg to all throughout his midsection. He tried, and was able to hide his discomfort, so as not to draw any more concern to himself. He glared at Barrett once he leaned back to the deck. "Don't be an idiot, Barrett. Have you seen anyone else around?"
Barrett shook his head sadly. "Not a soul. You're the first ones I found."
Cloud frowned. "That's not what I wanted to hear." He hesitated. "You two go look for survivors. I'll be fine here until you get back."
"Since when do I take orders from you?" asked Barrett, with mock aggression.
"Since I joined Avalanche, whether you know it or not."
Barrett rolled his eyes, but he was in too good a mood to let himself be irritated.
Meanwhile, Tifa found herself troubled by the aspect of leaving Cloud alone and injured. "Cloud, I have a better idea…"
* * * * *
"You okay there, Cloud?" Tifa asked, a wide smile drifting on and off her lips as she tried not to laugh.
"I'm not hurt, Tifa… just my pride."
Barrett led the way through scattered wreckage while Tifa followed behind. Cloud, however, was nestled neatly in Tifa's delicate-looking, yet exceedingly strong arms. She carried him in a typical fashion, one arm supporting his legs, one arm supporting his head.
Barrett finally broke down and busted out laughing at him.
Cloud groaned. "Tifa, put me down," he objected, "this is humiliating."
Tifa smiled in spite of herself. "Nonsense. You're staying right here, whether you like it or not."
Cloud knew Tifa well, and he knew it was useless to argue once she had made up her mind. Reluctantly, he submitted to her and stopped squirming. Though he was hesitant to get used to it at first, he finally found himself not only used to it, but rather comfortable.
The trio found themselves among still more scattered shrapnel, some large pieces of fuselage, some small as a nut or bolt. It seemed to them that the Highwind had not left a crater, but a long, deep trench, indicating that the airship probably slid on the ground for a while before stopping. To the best of their calculations, they started at the point were the ship stopped. There was no indication where the crash started, and the trench was endless from their viewpoint.
Tifa gasped as she nearly stepped on a small piece of tattered crimson, such material as they had all seen before. "Over here, Barrett! I think it's Vincent!" she called out to Barrett, who had gone several paces ahead. She set Cloud on the ground nearby and started searching under some of the larger fuselage. Barrett did the same once he reached her. They all called out for him while searching, but there came no reply. Tifa was the one to overturn the right piece; a panel from near the back of the ship. An unconscious Vincent lay there, still breathing.
Tifa was silent while searching him for injuries. Eventually, she found a part of his cloak on his right shoulder that was stained deeper red than the rest of it. She sighed. "I feel like the group's new medic, or something."
Barrett grinned at her. "Well, you've always had that gentle womanly touch, Tifa."
Tifa kicked at him playfully, but then she was all business. "I need some spare cloth." They all looked around at one another. Cloud tore a strip of cloth off the bottom of his vest, since none of them had a sleeve. He tossed it to Tifa. She pulled Vincent's cloak back over his shoulder, so she could examine the wound. It was a gash into his shoulder, probably from more flying ship parts, but the cut wasn't deep. She tied the cloth around his shoulder, tight, but not so tight as to cut off the circulation to his arm. Vincent's face twitched and twisted slightly, as if he were enduring pain in a dream as Tifa worked.
"There, all done," she said after a time. Vincent shifted and his eyes slowly drifted open. His eyes focused on Tifa, then on Barrett, as they stood over him. He then looked over to his shoulder, then back to Tifa. "Did you…" he began to ask, but he trailed off.
Tifa caught his meaning, and nodded. "It's not deep, just try to keep it still, or you'll reopen it."
Vincent sat up, looking at Tifa with the same mysterious coldness as always, but his voice was softer and kinder. "Thank you," he said simply to her. He glanced over at Cloud, still expressionless behind his scarf. Cloud stared back at him, and there was an awkward silence.
Barrett finally broke the silence. "Awright, so we oughta get moving again, people! Vincent, you coming with us?"
Vincent looked thoughtful for a moment, but then he nodded. "It's the least I can do."
Vincent, who had no trouble walking, went ahead with Barrett while Tifa continued to carry Cloud, lagging a little behind. Cloud, meanwhile, had settled in quite nicely to Tifa's arms. He had gone from uncomfortable at first, to now, where he found her soft touch very appealing. Tifa sensed his leisurely appearance, and spoke in a playful tone to him, "Don't get too comfortable, Miss. Wouldn't want you getting any ideas, now."
Cloud, while a little embarrassed, laughed at her jest. "You're never gonna let me live this down, are you?"
Tifa giggled at him and pretended to think. "Hmmmmm… nope, probably not. No, this is one for the ages, right here."
Cloud was too comfortable to argue, so he figured he would enjoy the moment while it lasted, since he would be heckled about it for the rest of his life. His eyes drifted away from Tifa and back over the bleak scenery of the Highwind's grave-trench, looking for signs of his partners.
Tifa gazed fondly at Cloud while he peered through the dimming light of the now setting sun. As she watched him, she nearly lost step on a small fragment of a propeller. She caught herself in a single hard step, but it was enough to shake her from her daydream. Tifa hurried her pace when she found that both of her comrades were waiting for her, next to a third, slumped figure.
She rushed up and immediately recognized a blond-haired man with his head in his hands. His flight goggles hung limp around his neck.
Cid Highwind looked up at the group that had approached him. Much to everyone's surprise, his face was red and his eyes were teary. "This ship…" he began, "it's all I had."
Cloud was shocked that Cid would show this much emotion over his creation. He was much more accustomed to seeing the pilot play the tough guy.
Cid's emotions seemed to be tilting between sadness and anger, for his expression quickly changed, as did his voice. "What are you all looking at? What, because I'm human, too? Is there a problem with me being a little emotional? Well, save your pity. I'm a man, dammit!"
Tifa looked at him with a great deal of compassion. "Cid, I… we're glad you're okay."
"Yeah?" Cid began, as if he was about to say something rude or sarcastic, but his face softened, as did his voice. "Me, too. It's good to see you all safe." After saying that, he hardened his emotions again and put on his poker face, the side of him his companions were more used to seeing. "So, is it over or not? I mean, Meteor's gone, Shinra's gone, but is Sephiroth gone?"
Cloud shrugged, a difficult motion for him in his position. "Who knows? Sephiroth challenged me one-on-one in some pseudo-reality world, and I think I killed him… but everything's so messed up, I can't be sure."
"Whatever," Cid responded, "just as long as he doesn't screw around with us or the planet anymore. I just want to go home."
Everyone nodded in agreement. That seemed to sum up each of their thoughts, in a nutshell.
"Me, too." Cloud said quietly, but audibly.
"Me, too," said Tifa, looking at Cloud thoughtfully.
"Yeah, me, too." Barrett said, his thoughts clouded with Marlene.
Vincent remained silent for a while, staring off into the distance. Finally he spoke. "I would like to say the same, but I'm afraid I have no place to call with such fondness as you all have. I imagine I will do some traveling. Staying in one place for too long is so boring."
Everyone looked at him, trying not to show too much pity for him. Having heard Vincent talk like that, even having a home made them all feel guilty in his presence. And still, Vincent's eyes showed no sadness, no regret, as Cid got to his feet, and they walked on.
Once again, the group walked ahead of Tifa and Cloud, giving Tifa time to ask him a question that had arisen in her. "Cloud, I was just thinking."
"What's the matter, Tifa?"
"Well, you said you wanted to go home."
"Yeah, so?"
"So…" she started to ask, but she hesitated. "So, where is home to you? Is it Midgar?" She showed curiosity on the outside, but on the inside, she winced, hoping she wouldn't have to deal with an affirmative response.
Cloud hesitated a tiny bit before he responded. "Tifa, Midgar is where all of this began. Sephiroth, SOLDIER, Shinra, all of that came from Midgar. It's a big part of my life, though, and I have a lot of history there. It's hard to forget a place like that."
Tifa smiled bitterly. "I understand."
Cloud nodded at her. "I'm glad you understand. 'Cause I'm going home. To Nibelheim."
Tifa was so surprised, and so overcome with joy that she nearly dropped him. "You mean it, Cloud? You're going back to Nibelheim?"
Cloud laughed. "Of course! You really think I'm gonna go back to that city after all that happened there? Place is half destroyed, anyway. Of course, I can't go home immediately. First I have to do that thing I told you about."
Tifa was grinning ear-to-ear, and didn't pay much mind to his last comment, as she began to daydream. "Of course you do, Cloud. That's fine."
"Hey, lovers!" came a voice from ahead. Both looking towards the sound, they saw Cid standing with a sly grin. It soon melted into his poker face again, and he looked to the same place as Barrett and Vincent, a small pile of nuts and bolts on the ground, on top of a flat white cloth and some stuffing. "Better look at this, you two. What do you make of it?"
Barrett reached for the cloth and flipped it over, sliding the stuffing and parts onto the ground. The other side of the cloth revealed the face of a Mog. He sighed and shook his head. "It's just like I thought. Cait Sith."
"Oh, no," Tifa groaned.
They all stood for a moment, silent. Then Cloud spoke. "Wait a minute, you guys. This is stupid! Cait Sith is a puppet, so it doesn't matter that he's gone! What we want is the puppeteer!"
"Reeve," they all said at the same time.
"But," Vincent began, "Reeve is in Midgar." He gazed over towards the city, barely visible from the deep trench where they all stood. "Hard to tell if anyone at all could have survived there," he said matter-of-factly.
"Well, don't you think we oughta go an' at least try ta find 'im?" Barrett said. Everyone looked at him, and he responded to them by saying, "Yeah, I know, I know, he's Shinra, he's a spy, whatever. But ya know what? He's awright by me, and we oughta at least see if he's alive."
Cloud nodded, "But let's find the other two first, and then see who's coming to Midgar and who's not. Yuffie and Red XIII are still out here somewhere." He added, "And Tifa, put me down already. I'm sure I can walk with some assistance."
Tifa was extremely fatigued from carrying him, but made no move to show it, and was still reluctant to do as he asked. "Are you sure, Cloud? I mean, your leg is pretty badly hurt."
"I'm sure, Tifa. I can feel my dignity slipping away by the second, and at this point my pride hurts more than my leg."
"Hmph, so it's just a stupid man thing? Fine, I'll put you down." Tifa said in a half-mocking, half-joking manner. She placed him on his feet, which was a big relief to Cloud. Although he would miss being that close to Tifa, especially being in the spot that he had worked into, admittedly at the top of her torso. Of course, this would be something that Cloud would never admit to Tifa for a long time to come.
As Cloud was thinking all of this, his face began to flush, and Tifa became suddenly very self-conscious of the fact that he had carried Cloud for about a quarter of a mile, that close to her chest. Her impressively developed breasts had always made her self-conscious, since they had always attracted a legion of men her way. She had lived about the past five years of her life dealing with guys talking to her with their heads always drifting down away from her face. Cloud was one of the few men she had met that did not do this to her, which was one of the reasons she started liking him in the first place. However, having now given him a pretty close shot of them for what seemed to her like forever, but was really only about forty-five minutes, she was rather embarrassed of herself. She opted against asking what was the matter with Cloud, and walked ahead, her arms crossed, and a bit of attitude building up in her.
Barrett, Cid, and Vincent, who had silently watched this entire scene with amusement, now walked on ahead, searching for the last two members of their party, Red XIII and Yuffie. Cid paused and turned back, seeing Cloud standing alone, favoring his left leg. Tifa had gone on with the group, and Cloud was still unable to walk alone, so he came back to Cloud and put an arm around his shoulders, giving him support enough to walk on one leg. "Easy, now. This is all you get. I'll be damned if I'm gonna carry your scrawny ass."
Cloud smiled. "Don't worry, if I wanted to be carried, I'd have never told Tifa to put me down." The two began to move forward, though slowly, and the group had already gone far ahead of them.
After a few steps, when Cid was convinced that the other three were out of earshot, he started talking in a lower voice. "So, listen, kid. What would possess you to have her put you down? I mean, everyone can tell you like her. And why shouldn't you? Tifa's a gorgeous young girl, after all… and in the position you were in, well, that's not a place a man can just ask for."
Cloud sighed and shook his head. "I know, I know. But after a while, I think I was getting a little too much enjoyment out of it, and it made me feel a little guilty. So I had her put me down on a basis of conscience, that's all."
"Look, kid, I've been around the block a few times, and there ain't nothing wrong with enjoying a woman's company." Cid lowered his voice a little. "And there ain't nothing wrong with enjoying her chest, either. I mean, let's face facts, here. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know when I say that girl's got a rack that brings grown men to tears."
Cloud smiled despite himself. "I've been there. But still, I've known her forever. I just couldn't enjoy the guilty pleasure any longer, that's all."
"Well, alright, it sounds like you know what you're doing. I won't argue with your spiky-headed ass. But, I said it before, everyone knows you and Tifa have something, or it seems everyone knows it except you and her. Well, I'm just saying, maybe you should act on it."
Cloud was completely shocked, once again. Cid seemed like an entirely different person since they had found him. The "tough-guy" in him had almost completely diminished, and behind it was a highly emotional man who read people's feelings like books. Cloud said nothing, and he hopped along on one leg, leaning on Cid for support.
Up ahead, Barrett was having a similar talk with Tifa.
"I do not!" came Tifa's reply.
"Yeah, ya do, and everyone knows it. The only one who hasn't picked up on it is Cloud! But, whether ya know it or not, he likes you, too. Think about it. When he had to pick two people to come with him, how often were you one of them?"
Tifa's eyes widened slightly as that thought entered her mind, and then she looked away. "Oh, stop that, Barrett."
"See? Ya know I'm right."
Vincent, who had tried to pretend he was uninterested in the conversation, said, "He is right, Tifa. Even I can see it. After all of this, there are now important things to consider. We've fought to keep our lives and the lives of everyone on this planet. But now that we've won, ask yourself something. What are you going to do with this life that you've fought so hard to preserve? Where will you go? Who with? These things are what truly matters."
Tifa, like Cloud, was shocked at her comrade's sudden change in personality, and hearing a point she couldn't argue with, she fell silent.
Silently, Vincent walked over to a rather large pile of fuselage, and carefully examined a small tuft of red hair stuck on a metal grate. "He's here," were his words, simple, but unmistakable. He began flinging metal aside to the best of his ability, favoring his injured right shoulder. Tifa and Barrett joined in, and they dug through metal scraps for about ten minutes before Barrett found more red fur. "Yo, I think he's over here!" was his call. Soon after, the three uncovered a lifeless red panther-like creature with the roman numeral XIII tattooed on him. Vincent checked for a pulse, then listened for breath.
A very worried Tifa stood nearby, waiting for a signal from Vincent. "Is he breathing?"
"It's very faint, but yes. He needs some medical attention immediately, I think he has some broken ribs. He was badly crushed in that pile."
"Well, ya think he'll make it?" Barrett asked, equally worried.
Vincent was silent for a moment, before saying, "Hard to tell. As I said, he needs medical attention. I will take him to Kalm immediately."
"But… you're injured! That's unreasonable, Vincent, you can't take him to Kalm on foot by yourself!
Cid and Cloud reached the scene at that moment, and shared a look of concern upon seeing Red XIII's motionless form. "Is he…" Cloud began.
"He's barely alive." Vincent said. "I will take him to Kalm, and get him some medical help. I believe his rib cage may be partially crushed, and he probably has some internal bleeding. A doctor may be able to help him, but even still, his future is uncertain."
Everyone fell silent. Vincent picked Red XIII up, being cautious but firm, and slung the creature over his good shoulder. "You should find Yuffie, then come to Kalm. Red XIII and I will be waiting there."
Everyone nodded in unison, nobody wanting to argue with him anymore. Vincent climbed out of the trench, and walked northwest, quickly disappearing from sight.
"Find me? Who's gonna find me? Hah, I found you" said a voice from behind. Everybody whirled quickly, with the exception of Cloud, who clumsily hopped around to face in the other direction.
Obviously, Yuffie stood there on top of yet another pile of wreckage. "I wouldn't trust this bunch to find their own right arms."
Cloud grinned. "Yeah, we're glad to see you, too, Yuffie."
The young female warrior attempted a look of indifference, but smiled it away. "I know you are. You're helpless without me, anyway."
Good to know somebody's the same as they were before. Cid and Vincent were starting to creep me out. Cloud thought with a smile.
Yuffie leapt down to where the group stood. Her grin faded when she saw the grave looks of the people around her. "I heard. Let's get going to Kalm."
Wordlessly, the group agreed, and finding a spot in the trench that wasn't as deep as the rest, they climbed out. Tifa had to pick Cloud up again, since the slope was too steep for him to handle, but she put him back down once they reached level ground. And so, reminiscent of their early days together, the small band of victorious warriors left the direction of Midgar and headed to Kalm, not knowing anything that was in store for them in the future.
As they began the hike to the small town, Yuffie stayed in back, hiding the huge gash running across her lower back, covered in dried blood.