Hey y'all. It has been a while since I wrote anything. Fancy that. Anyway, this story has been kicking around in my head for a while now. I want to sort of explain how the ffvii characters in KH got where they are, how their story began. This will mostly be looks into pre-apocalypse time with the use of handy dandy flashbacks. Anyway, if there's any inconsistencies with KH canon, leave it in a review, but please cite your source.

Pleasant readings...

Run.

Run.

Run!

Radiant Garden fell in the night. If he hadn't been running for his life, Cloud might have reflected on the irony. Radiant Garden, a land of light, burned to the ground by the darkness. Lighted to death by the darkness. But there isn't time for bitter reflection when your world is blazing like damnation. Reflection – and introspection – would come years later, maybe. If he survived this.

Actually, if Cloud had only been running for his life, he might have paused for some reflection. And for some air. But Cloud wasn't running for himself. They were out there – they had to be. After what his parents....

NO.

No, Radiant Garden was falling. There was no time. Just... just no more time. 12 years wasn't enough to make Cloud ready for this... but Zack, he was there, at Cloud's side. Well, more like Cloud was at his side, at his proper place. No civ could claim to lead a SOLDIER. Especially a SOLDIER First, like Zack. As long as Cloud stuck with Zack, he'd be fine. He was always fine with Zack. Zack's ghost, Zack's shadow. None of the guys would ever call him that again.

But his friends weren't with Zack. Everyone needed to be here, now, with them. With Zack. Then they'd be safe. The monsters – and they were monsters – couldn't get to them through Zack.

But he had to find them first. And he could hardly bear to look. Everything was burning, everything. Houses, trees, Gaia was burning. And her people burned with her.

If they hadn't already... if they weren't like Cloud's...

NO.

Time enough for that later. If he just found them, if he just did one thing right in his entire life... But he didn't have to worry. He had Zack. Zack who had been fighting off those monsters since forever. Since Cloud knew that monsters were more than stories. Since they'd torn out the heart of a six year old kid in broad daylight and left his broken, bleeding corpse like some kind of sick calling card before vanishing back to whatever Hell they spawned from.

They kept running. Sometimes Cloud lost his focus, forgot they were still searching. The screams – Gaia, the screams were almost too much. They'd stopped at first for every scream. Zack would take out that behemoth sword of his, dispatch the baddy, save the damsel. But for every twitchy, little monster Zack flattened, twelve more took its place. And they came quickly, drawn to the greasy black blood of their own dead, and the glowing, crystalline hearts that would float up into the heavens. No one else in Radiant Garden could do that to the monsters. Only Zack. Zack was special. That's why he and Cloud felt obligated to help their people. But they ran out of hi-potions in the first ten minutes, and the ethers were almost gone. They had one phoenix down each, and Zack had that look on his face. He had sworn that he'd get Cloud out– sworn it! And that was good enough for Cloud. Sometimes you just had to have faith.

But Zack was getting tired. Scratch that, Zack had passed tired a mile and a half back at the old park when Cloud had tripped over the subliming bodies of his neighbors. That's what its called, Cloud remembered, when a solid object moves straight to the gaseous form. Science lessons from that bad-mouthed pilot feel like another lifetime. At least they'd been able to grab the supply packs from the poor folks. Standard packs, two potions per person, and at least one ether. Emergency supplies set aside for just this sort of occasion.

Catastrophe had not dropped in unannounced, you see. A couple of years back, maybe a little less, the first of the Ants had appeared. Not so much named for appearance as it was named for the jerky, antennae things on its head, and the scrambling way it moved about, the Ant hadn't seemed like much of a threat. At first.

Like their unrelated namesake, the monster Ants came in droves, and acted in large groups to take down their prey. Unlike real ants, though, they were about the size of a large cat. And they were always hungry. Always. They also had the curious ability to fade into the shadows, like an extension of darkness itself. It was a kind of magic Gaia had never seen before.

The attacks got worse. The monsters came in new sizes and shapes, many of them appeared with a new type of symbol etched in their dark flesh, but they all hunted the same thing. Hearts. And after feeding, they were stronger. None of them were ever stronger than Zack, though, or the General.

Except Zack had been fighting for so long this time, since the first wave around midday. Cloud wasn't old enough to be a part of the Royal Guard, even though he really, really wanted to, but he'd been training with Zack. He knew he could help... if Zack would just let him. But so far the instructions had been: sit down, shut up, and wait for Zack to finish pulverizing the bad guys.

Badly winded, Cloud clutched at his side, but never slowed. They were passed the outskirts of town, almost to the center of the residential district. It was the worst here. It was quietest here. The heart-eaters were drawn to places with the most potential food – the most hearts, and the residential district had been targeted almost immediately. Zack had fought his way out of the city to get to the dilapidated old cottage by the foothills that Cloud's family lived in. If he hadn't, Cloud could imagine what would have awaited him. But when Zack had left, there were still people running for the shelters, for the ships. People fighting and screaming. There was nothing now, not even the monsters.

Every crumbling, burning building gaped open like a demon's smile.

Every flickering streetlight cast a bloody glow around the ruined area.

Cloud half expected to see more bodies, but the heartless had been gone for a while, and both they and their victims never stuck around long – dead or alive. The most terrible thing was that Cloud could see the pieces of daily life right there in the aftermath. He and Zack zipped past upturned diner chairs, little broken dolls lying forlornly in the street, scraps of clothing rustling in the wind.

And then they were at the bridge. A few more skirmishes with Ants had Zack breathing almost as hard as Cloud, but his blue eyes glowed with a fierce determination, something fueled by more than just Mako. The castle walls lay maybe 200 meters from them. So close, so far.

Clouds friends would be here, or they wouldn't be anywhere.

Their wise and benevolent leader had left his people to die in this mess, this darkness of his own creation, and his castle was almost untouched by the monsters. The monsters wouldn't want to ruin their own house, of course. And because they were out terrorizing everyone else, the castle was the safest place to be, and it held the most aeroships of any aerostation on Gaia. If there was any peice of untouched land on this world, they'd need the safety and mobility of an aeroship to find it.

They crossed the bridge. Zack turned around to look at where they'd been, and Cloud could see him stretch out his arm slowly, a great ball of light gathering around his clenched fist.

Gaia, he was going to burn it. Burn the bridge.

Cloud flung himself on Zack's arm, tried to force it down. Zack looked slightly put upon.

" You can't Zack, you can't!" he screamed. He hated how his voice cracked on Zack's name. Hated how weak he sounded. "We can't leave everyone else stuck on that side. We heard them out there, we heard them-"

"We heard them dying," Zack said softly. Gently. Cloud wanted to slap him. "Anyone out there is going to be a threat soon enough, and I can't take 'em all, kid." Kid. Spike. Cloud swallowed a lump. How many more times would Zack call him by the old nicknames?

"But what if they aren't ... changed?" Cloud tried.

Zack only frowned. His arm was still up, still gathering heat and energy. All of Cloud's weight wasn't enough to make him budge. And then he shook Cloud off as easily as he would a fly, and doused the light.

Cloud hit the ground hard, but he didn't care. Zack's hand wasn't full of magic anymore. It was full of sword.

Cloud shifted himself into the crouch Zack had taught him. He couldn't see anything, but Zack's eyes were a million times better than his, and Zack could see in the dark. He heard them before he saw them, a group of maybe five or six. Their footsteps clacked loudly against the wood and stone of the bridge. The bridge Zack had almost obliterated a few seconds before.

The group stepped into the glow of Zack's military issue belt lamp and Cloud almost couldn't believe his eyes. His friends! His friends. All here, all accounted for. He coughed wetly, the taste of his own tears the first thing he'd eaten that day besides sickly sweet potions.

Rough and tough Tifa, sweet and gentle Aerith, little baby Yuffie, and Squall, Cloud's best friend and sometimes rival. Cid was the only member of their group over the age of twenty, and he looked like he'd taken a few hits from the monsters. Cloud handed him his last potion before Aerith and Tifa leapt at him in a blur of ribbons and hair. Cloud was too relieved to push them off.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay,"

"We've been looking for you, looking for ages,"

"Everything's burning! Sweet Shiva, I saw my parents this morning and..."

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay, you're okay,"

No one really knew who was saying what. Even normally stoic, too-old-to-play-kid-games Squall was laughing and crying. Cid rubbed his nose and ripped the lid off the potion with his teeth before messily chugging the brew. Aerith slipped out of the chaos around Cloud and gently folded herself around Zack. She was older than Cloud, younger than Zack, and she and the black haired SOLDIER had been dating only a few months.

Cloud thought she was nice, but he couldn't imagine wanting to hold a girl's hand and go around with her like Zack did with his girlfriends. Cloud preferred his exploration in the opposite gender to stick with Tifa, who acted more like a boy anyway, and his mom, who was a mom, and therefore not actually a girl. But his mom wasn't anything now, except maybe one of those...

NO.

Everyone was here. Everyone was with Zack. Cloud had done a good job. They would all be safe now because Zack was here, and nothing bad could happen to them while Zack was here. Nothing. The ships were so close. Look, the gates were open, and they just had to climb a couple of flights of stairs and then they'd be there. Safe.

Yuffie was too little to run for very long, but too big for anyone but Zack to carry her and still run quickly. Zack on the other hand, needed his hands free for fighting any stragglers, and Cid and Squall were too tired to run anyway. The group set a fast paced walk, keeping their eyes and ears open. Aerith mumbled a few words under her breath, and suddenly the were shielded by brilliant light.

Cloud chanced a peak at Squall. The older boy's grey eyes were puffy from crying, and Cloud thought he could see a large weeping cut on his forehead. If only he'd had another potion... It was a bit odd though, how quiet Squall was. Cloud remembered just a few days ago, how Squall had roped him into another game of War. Squall was always so bossy when it came to games. Always had to be the leader. Just because he was a few years older he felt like he was king of everything... But this wasn't a game, and Cloud could see Squall shaking a bit, like that little puppy the girls had found lost in the old Bailey.

Now that the euphoria from meeting up with everyone had worn off, Cloud could see the faces missing. That old guy who hung out with Cid, Valentine, where was he? And Squall's jerk friends, the ones who wouldn't play with Cloud. Where were they? Where were Kunsel, Seifer, Rinoa, Reeve? The others... he knew what had happened to them...

If only someone would just say something, the darkness wouldn't feel so deep...

The stairs made Cloud's thighs burn, but he didn't say anything. Squall was carrying Yuffie on his back, and he was barely sweating. Cloud walked faster until he was a step or two in front of Squall.

"It's not a race if there's only one runner," Squall said tonelessly.

"You just say that cause you know I'd whup you so bad,"

"Still acting like a little twelve year old," Squall whispered at Cloud's back.

"Still twelve years old," Cloud replied. It was a comforting exchange. He could have said all the lines himself.

Squall sighed, "You –"

Zack held up his hand at the front of the party. They had reached the top of the stairs, but Zack wasn't moving.

"Odin, Bahamut, and Shiva," Zack swore. Cid's choice of expletives was several shades more interesting, but Cloud couldn't devote his mind to remembering it all. He shoved past the girls to get to Zack's side and stared out across the walls.

It was like looking into a writhing, torrential sea.

An ocean of monsters. The heart-eaters were coming back towards the castle.

And that meant... that meant that they were done. Either whatever, whoever, had sent them out was calling them back, or Cloud's group was the last patch of life on the planet. The last hearts. And every heart-eater in existence was coming for them.

Cloud threw up over the side of the wall, and Tifa started shaking next to him. Yuffie giggled and pulled Squall's hair.

Suddenly they were running, and screw Zack's sword. Cloud vaguely remembered it being thrown out into the sea of monsters and through the chest of one of the larger creatures, but how he knew that he couldn't be sure. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking.

They were in the courtyard, and Cloud could see there had been fighting here. Dead men lay with their throats cut, and their bodies whole and unsublimated. He could see pieces of legs and arms peaking out from dented titanium walls and large piles of dirt. Cloud wondered if heart-eaters didn't like the taste of dead heart for some reason.

Zack headed for the first ship he saw, a massive Cruiser most likely built to ferry ambassadors from continent to continent. Cid grabbed his arm, though and pointed off into the distance a bit. He said something to Zack, something that made Zack lift one eyebrow and stare. It sounded a lot like "gummiship".

But there wasn't time to argue, the monsters had breached the castle, and the little flying ones that had set the world ablaze were hovering about their heads like overgrown wasps. Zack and Aerith aimed a few blizzagas at them as Squall fired at them with his gunblade. Cloud ran along feeling useless and helpless.

Ants started appearing from the ground, materializing out of shadow. Cloud frantically looked about for something, anything to use. He flung himself to the ground and clutched at a large sword on the ground by a large burn patch and some rubble. He tried to ignore the red stains on the pommel as he launched himself into the mass of heart-eaters. This was what Zack had trained him for. Cloud moved like water, slashing and stabbing, dealing death blow after death blow. He felt sharp claws rake through his flesh, felt a thousand tiny cuts. He only stopped fighting when Zack dragged him from the fray by his collar and threw him bodily into Cid's arms, a good forty feet away. Cid staggered from the impact, but held on tight.

Cloud looked up as Cid thunked him on the ground. They'd made it to a ... to a ... something or other. It was vaguely ship-like, but the thing didn't have any wings or hot air balloons, and it looked like it had been made out of five different kinds of jelly.

But this was where Zack had led them, and Cloud believed in Zack.

The girls were already inside, and Squall was on the ramp, one hand stretched out to help Cloud up. Cid jumped into the pilot's seat and revved the engines, or whatever it was that made the thing go. Cloud wasn't some kind of tinker- block- ship expert.

Zack was still fighting.

"Hurry the fuck up, you lazy good for nothing SOLDIER asshole!" Cid's dulcet tones reverberated through the darkness like windchimes from Tartarus.

Cloud thought Cid could have been a but more polite to the guy that was saving his life, but the apocalypse was enough to make anyone jumpy. He just wished Zack would get over there. Probably showing off for Aerith like always.

Then he heard her. Aerith. He heard her let out a keening wail, so inhuman he almost didn't believe it was her. But he could see her through the window of the Gummi-thing, could see her mouth stretched open, could see her bright green eyes spill over with tears.

And he knew what would make her make that sound.

Zack.

No. NO! ZACK!

There were too many heart-eaters, too many of the huge, potbellied monsters that could take a Limit Break and still stand, two many little bobbing colored things which fired spells like they had ethers for blood, too many grasping, monstrous, ravenous, HEARTLESS, beasts! And they'd dragged Zack down.

Cloud could see one little Ant with its claws poised above Zack's chest.

Cloud turned to help him, but almost simultaneously he felt a vice-like grip wrench his arm back.

"Squall, that's Zack! That's Zack," he wept, "Look! Look at him, I can save him. We - we can save him, come on!"

Squall was shaking again. "No, Cloud," he whispered, "No, you look. We have to leave. Zack... That isn't Zack anymore. Think of the girls, Cloud. We have to keep them safe." Squall spoke unbearably slowly. Zack was still down, but he wasn't... He was still Zack. For now.

"ALL YOU EVER THINK ABOUT IS YOURSELF!" Cloud screamed, "ZACK NEEDS HELP, YOU STUPID, SELFISH IDIOT!" And suddenly, Cloud's face shut down. "You," he said calmly, "are a coward, but I won't let him die out there."

He ripped free from Squall, and flung himself once more into the mass of monsters.

And then the claws swiped down into Zack's chest.

With a wild cry Cloud launched himself at the monster. His cuts and scrapes, his weariness and fatigue, all of it faded to nothing. He was only an extension of his sword, a tool, just like Zack had taught him. He wasn't water anymore; he was fire. He couldn't tell time anymore, he may have fought for a minute, an hour, a day.

But the monsters never stopped coming.

Cloud could see the gummiship. If he could just drag Zack to it... But that was almost impossible. The monsters had more than enough in sheer numbers to keep Cloud on the defensive and lay siege to the ship at the same time.

In fact, he wasn't sure how long they'd last, sitting up there. They needed to leave. But Zack... Then Cloud heard the engines. Apparently jelly ships used engines too. Cloud almost tried to look at it, but remembered at the last second that he was standing over Zack's bleeding body for a reason. Engines... They were leaving. Cloud felt like crying. He was just so tired now.

The ship was gone the next time Cloud resurfaced from the fight. He was shocked to see that several chunks of his own flesh were missing from his legs and his arms. He couldn't even feel it. But he could feel the next monster that slammed into him with all the force of a bullet train. As he was sent flying, he looked back, one last time into Zack's glowing eyes. He looked regretful in that moment between them.

Cloud was a failure. It was all his fault. He'd let Zack down.

And he would die for it.

He hit the ground, but he still had his sword. He'd be damned if he forgot the first lesson Zack had ever given him: Keep the pointy end ready. So he turned the blade in a large arc, scattering the Ants nearest him, and finally pointed it at himself. He be doubly damned if he let those monsters feed on him, get stronger because of him.

Tifa, Aerith, Squall... They would live.

He, and Zack, would not.

And then at the same moment that one of the nastier monsters stuck its grimy fist into the hole in Zack's torso, Cloud readied his sword. He never looked away from Zack, even as the dark creature ripped out Zack's beating heart.

There was a burst of light

and then