Things unspoken
Somewhat of a routine has settled in a little bar called 7th Heaven, located in Sector 7 of mega city Midgar. That bar was hideout/base for small group of eco-terrorists named AVALANCHE and it was routine that they settled there every night after daily activities against Shin-Ra, the worlds biggest monopolistic company. The bar was run by Tifa Lockhart, a beautiful martial artist and she was also member of AVALANCHE group although she rarely actively participated in actions against Shin-Ra, her duties were mostly logistic support and running bar as a cover for their operations.
With the addition of an new member, Cloud Strife – ex SOLDIER 1st class, little group has enjoyed much more success in operations against hated company. True, he was at first hired as a mercenary, unlike other members who fought driven by their beliefs that Shin-Ra must be stopped before it brings whole planet to ruin. It took more than several missions for others to accept Cloud as trustworthy member, even their leader Barret Wallace was beginning to acknowledge him as an okay guy.
Big part in that acceptance played Tifa, for she and Cloud were childhood friends from little town called Nibelheim, and it was her that smoothed out initial disagreements between Cloud and rest of the group. It made her happy that she helped bring harmony to their group of different backgrounds and others were also happy that they always had safe haven in her bar after daily hardships.
It has also become routine, or more of a ritual, that each night Cloud would sit on one of the barstools while Tifa mixed him up "something hard" as he liked to call one of her strong cocktails. They talked seldom during those short moments they shared each day, Cloud was a silent type who didn't like to speak if he didn't had something important to say, and even then he mostly used short, army style sentences. Tifa on the other hand was more open person and enjoyed talking much more than him but when she was with him she adapted to his way of communication. She understood what he preferred and so they mostly conversed via eye contact and gestures, it maybe seemed strange to outsiders but to them it was something common, even in childhood days Cloud did not talk much.
After relaxing drinks in the bar group members would usually gather in a hidden room beneath the bar to discuss course of action for the next day and Tifa would often join them too as those meetings usually took place after last customers have left the bar. One of those meetings was happening right now, and all members were listening to the Barret as he relayed current situation to them.
"Yo listen up gang, as you all know we have been doing a lot of ruckus to Shin-Ra lately, and as result we have been facing far more opposition on our missions than before. Firstly, we will need to act more carefully and choose our targets with more planning. Jessie, I want you to scout Shin-Ra network for activities and weaknesses, also you will need to make new fake IDs for all of us, cos the ones we currently have are probably too dangerous to use now."
Young brown haired woman nodded in acceptance – "Leave it to me Barret, ill have them ready in a day or two." She was somewhat second in command to Barret and he always liked to give her important duties, not without a reason – she was versatile character and often irreplaceable both in combat and organizational matters.
Trusting that she will do exactly as she said Barret continued his speech: "All right Jessie, secondly another thing has come up from our contacts in Fort Condor, seems Shin-Ra has increased their presence there also and that will be our next agenda – we cannot allow them to regain control of Mako reactor there and eliminate rebels who are defending it. I want Biggs and Cloud to go there and help rebels to defend Fort Condor until we manage to gather more funds to employ more mercenaries to strengthen defences there. Your task will be mainly to organize defence and provide leadership because most rebels there are inexperienced fighters."
But Cloud felt the need to object to this: "OK Barret but I don't want Biggs to go, I am more trained in military aspects than he is and he will be more helpful here, especially if Shin-Ra gets closer to discovering you guys here."
Barret paused to think about that suggestion and Cloud took a quick glance towards Tifa and found her looking at him too, expression of concern could be seen on her pretty face. Cloud somehow felt that she would also like to join him in defence of reactor but he knew she cannot go - she was needed to continue keeping cover for others while running the bar.
"Hmpf if you say so Spikey ill trust ya, but you better be able to hold those lines until we get more reinforcements or ill kick your ass to high heavens if you fail there. Transportation from Midgar to Fort Condor is already arranged, you'll leave early in the morning. I expect we will have reinforcements ready in few weeks time. As for us others, we will lay low till Jessie makes us new IDs. Meeting closed." said Barret as he gave Cloud paper with details about transportation before he headed towards exit of the secret room.
Biggs, Wedge and Jessie said short goodbyes to Cloud before they left too but Tifa lingered behind others. She approached Cloud and looked him directly into eyes as she spoke: "Cloud I know it has to be done but I still don't like the fact that you are going alone to help them. It's very dangerous there, please promise me that you'll be careful. And no unnecessary heroics, if situation becomes indefensible you must organize retreat for everyone, lives are more important than reactors."
As Cloud looked back into her beautiful but worried eyes one of his rare, slight smiles appeared on his lips: "Right Teef, be careful and no heroics, I promise so don't worry."
Somewhat reassured Tifa nodded to him and wished him luck before she too went back to the bar. When he was finally alone Cloud let out a small sigh and leaned back into his chair. Why did he always feel rather embarrassed when she showed concern and affection to him? After all they are childhood friends and it should be all right to show care for each other. True, back then in Nibelheim he had developed quite crush for her and always kept it a secret but that was so long ago. Now they were good friends and comrades in arms, but still... what was this feeling that he always felt in his heart when she was close? Is it possible that I still love her after all these years or is this just deep friendship that I feel?
Cloud shook his head in confusion, it was so hard to think about those things, and many other things too, it felt like there was some kind of painful barrier in his mind that was not yet ready to be lifted. He sighed again as he rose from the chair and headed towards sleeping quarters.
It was still dark outside when Cloud has woken up. He glanced through the room they all shared for sleeping, his eyes resting upon bed that held still image of Tifa. She looked so peaceful and sweet when she slept. And so beautiful, even in her sleep. He was glad everyone was still asleep, it gave him little more time to silently look at her with warmth in his heart. Then, reluctantly he tore his gaze away from her and gathered his already prepared equipment before quietly slipping out of the bar. Cold, fog laden air welcomed him and he shuddered a little, hopefully quick walk to his ride will warm him up.
After a short walk through empty streets of Sector 7 he found his way to designated spot his transportation was supposed to await him. Sure enough, a truck was waiting with engine slowly running. Barret has arranged for him a spot in a supply truck that ferried food and other shipments between Midgar and neighbouring towns. It was not uncommon that drivers had armed escorts on their trips as the wilderness was rather dangerous place, monsters did not shy to hunt for prey even on roads connecting the cities.
As he neared and entered into the truck driver only nodded as a greeting, this driver probably didn't even know that Cloud was no ordinary armed escort. And as he shifted engine into gear and headed to nearest exit from the Midgar Cloud relaxed in his seat and played his role of regular escort. Guards at the checkpoint didn't even bother to seek their IDs or search the truck, it was much easier to leave the city than to enter it and it also seemed they knew well this driver so they just waved them to pass.
Surprisingly the journey was uneventful and boring, so Cloud was happy when they finally reached one of the bigger villages in Fort Condor area that was this trucks destination. Driver was also a silent person, and Cloud was happy about that too, he preferred boredom to idle chatter. Without many words he parted from the driver who probably had another escort ready for return trip. It was day time now and Cloud decided to first head to local inn to get some food and wait for darkness to descend, it will be much easier to sneak through perimeter of Shin-Ra forces that were surrounding Fort Condor. Luckily that place had only one feasible route of approach and attack and majority of enemy forces should be camped there. That meant that Cloud shouldn't have much trouble sneaking in using one of mountainous routes.
When darkness came Cloud left the village and headed towards the Fort. It took him several hours of quick paced walk to reach foothills and his Mako enhanced vision aided him to avoid unnecessary encounters with monsters. His vision also helped him to spot two Shin-Ra soldiers that guarded his chosen route of approach long before they even could detect his presence. In a flash of movement he was upon them and swiftly dispatched them before they realized that they are attacked, and even though they were the enemy Cloud couldn't help but feel sting of remorse for taking human lives. But this was war and in war one could not afford to listen to the voice of reason, they were here to attack and kill rebels and so he had to do the same to them...
More than one surprised rebel gasped in shock when blonde warrior suddenly appeared amongst them from direction of supposedly impassable mountain cliff. Before they could react or attack him Cloud raised his palms in reassurance and introduced him self. Soon he was led to the elders that were leaders of small rebel force and after he explained to them why he was here they brought him up to speed with events here. When they finished with report Cloud sighed softly, situation did not look good. Most of the rebels were simple villagers along with a small number of monks that originally lived here. There was also a small unit of mercenaries they previously recruited, and Cloud decided that they would be his strategic reserve to plug holes in defences when need arises. Shin-Ra forces were mounting increasingly stronger attacks each day, determined to reclaim their reactor. The fact that huge bird chose to nest on top of the reactor seemed not to be their main objective. Elders informed Cloud that giant bird remained motionless in its nest throughout all of the fighting below it but they were sure it was alive, it just did not want to leave its nest. In this monster infected world Cloud has seen much stranger things so it did not surprise him that monks and other rebels regarded this beast as holy animal and were determined to sacrifice their lives in order to protect it and its offspring.
So without much delay he started organizing defences of the reactor as best as he could in given situation. More trenches needed to be dug in strategic positions during breaks in fighting, also traps and perhaps boulders ready to be let loose, anything that could give them edge over numerically superior enemy.
One week has passed since Cloud's arrival at Fort Condor. Strategic measures and tactical planning that he brought into rebels ranks proved to be just the right thing they needed, losses amongst rebel forces were minimal. Unfortunately, increasingly mounting losses on Shin-Ra side did not seem to deter them from continuing attacks. In fact they seemed even more determined to break through and more fresh troops were thrown at defenders, also the quality of those troops increased accordingly. Relatively untrained rebel force now faced almost overwhelming odds as attacks were spearheaded with advanced machines of war accompanied with increasing numbers of what seemed to be SOLDIER 3rd and 2nd class instead of regular troopers. As each new day passed in the desperate defence of the reactor Cloud found him self more and more forced to break the promise he gave to Tifa before he left Midgar. Mere leadership and organization was not enough any more, he was constantly forced to join battles in the first ranks with defenders, giving them morale boost they so much needed. In brief lulls of fighting Cloud was sometimes smiling in his thoughts – if Tifa saw him now she would be more than angry because he was anything than careful and non heroic. In fact his heroics were becoming dangerously deadly as Shin-Ra troops learned how important blonde warrior was for defenders, as they always saw him running like a lightning to most endangered zones yelling orders and mowing down unlucky opponents that faced him. Sometimes pure luck seemed to save Cloud from certain death in enemy attempts to surround and eliminate that bold warrior.
He knew he wasn't immortal and his aching body told him the same story. Despite best efforts of few healers and doctors rebels had in their ranks more new scars from recent injuries were evident both on Cloud and remaining rebels and they all knew that healing spells and potions couldn't keep them fighting forever, their bodies will soon need time to heal and recover naturally. And new tactic that Shin-Ra troops developed wasn't helping also – using their superior numbers they kept rotating troops in attacks giving rebels less and less time to recover and sleep.
With those developments situation became desperate as second week of fighting came. Cloud was now in the trenches all the time, resting a little whenever he could and always ready to jump back into the fray. In his mind the idea of retreating and saving what left of the rebel forces now seemed imminent, in a day or two the reactor could not be defended any more. He hated that idea, it felt shameful to him that he couldn't do what Barret asked of him but at same time he knew that he had done everything what was humanly possible but it simply wasn't enough any more - without fresh reinforcements of their own the rebels were doomed.
But it wasn't the need to live up to Barret's expectations that gave him the will to continue fighting as long as he could, no it was memory of Tifa and her gentle smile that was somehow giving him more strength to fight on. In brief moments of rest thinking about her brought him more comfort and power to exhausted muscles than just resting itself. And in of those short moments of rest a hope finally came.
From the same direction that he used to reach Fort Condor his Mako eyes spotted the figure of Biggs approaching them. Cloud was instantly on his feet and even before two of them came close to each other he yelled to Biggs: "Are reinforcements here!?" As Biggs neared closer he responded to him: "Yes they are here, they are near behind me and should be coming soon over that mountain pass."
A look of relief appeared on Cloud's face, his mission won't fail after all but then as Biggs came to stand next to him he spotted something strange in the man's expression.
"What's wrong Biggs?" he asked him with worry in his voice.
For a moment Biggs avoided Cloud's gaze before he found enough courage to look him in the eyes - "I... I don't know how to say this to you Cloud, but..." Man's expression became desperate as he managed to utter more words: "Cloud I'm so sorry to say this to you but Tifa is dead."
"What!" yelled Cloud at him as he unconsciously grabbed Biggs by the collar of his clothes and lifted him from the ground: "Don't you dare say such a thing, ill kill you for such jokes!"
"Please Cloud, I'm not lying, it's the truth. I would never lie about such things..." pleaded to him Biggs.
Cloud dropped him from his grip and slumped onto the wall of the trench as Biggs continued talking: "It happened six days ago, we were all on a mission and Tifa was as usual left behind in the bar. Some drunkard that apparently couldn't cope with the fact that she rejected his passes onto her simply pulled his gun and shot her in the head while she was turned away from him. No one present there saw that coming, no one could rescue her..." Biggs fought with lump in his throat as he struggled to continue – "Before we returned from mission Shin-Ra police force came there first and arrested him, he is facing prison for life sentence. Barret was so mad that he even wanted to break into the prison and kill the man but we managed to stop him somehow. I'm so sorry Cloud..."
Realization slowly crept inside Cloud's mind – she is gone. He would never see her again, he will never again hear her sweet laughter, never have chance to tell her... All those things he hoped that he would have the chance to tell her some day will forever be left unspoken... Why did the planet allowed her meaningless death, why was he not there to help her. Is everything in this world meaningless, wars, friendships, love... Is his life meaningless too?
His broken mind caught sounds of another Shin-Ra attack incoming, and without any thought he picked up his sword from the ground and left the trench to meet them. With steady pace he walked towards the wall of enemy uniforms that faced him. He could not hear Biggs yelling to him from behind. In his mind there was no more thoughts, his thoughts had no meaning any more, his life had no meaning any more...
A/N : I'm sorry if this story saddened you dear reader but I simply felt the need to write it. I know my stories dialogue skills suck, maybe that's why I like to write about Cloud because he is a man of few words, only this time I couldn't give him a happy ending...