Title : Surviving (working title) (part 1/WIP)
Author : Tierry Leoine
Pairing : Zack/Cloud
Disclaimer : sure, they're mine. And I'm redoing the game. And the white mice are eating your keyboard right now.
Author's Notes : this is entirely Daughter of Night's fault. Entirely. I'm easy to bully it seems. But, she's also a wonderful person and a great beta, so all the existing mistakes are my own.
Summary : what would happen should Zack survive the whole ordeal and managed to get both Cloud and himself back to Midgar?
Part 1
The familiar face opening the familiar door brought a wave of relief so deep his knees almost gave in under him. At least he hoped it was the relief. It also could have been the blood loss.
"Zack?"
"Hey, Aeris. Long time no see, huh?"
In the end they shot him twice, which was not a bad score, considering the amount of bullets targeted at him, but it was still two wounds too many, even with his SOLDIER enhancements, for he was not alone in this. And that was from the sniper gun. Before that, before the open area of the road they had no chances.
Zack ducked behind a pile of rumble, dust and pieces of concrete shooting into the air following him and setting in white smudges on his clothing, mixing with the blood to a rusty color. He cursed, as his hand got some of the soot out of his eyes. Now they had done it. Irritated at being held back from gathering his companion by simple troopers, who did NOT have the training to stop a lowest Soldier, not to mention one very determine 1st Class Soldier prodigy, Zack found himself a weapon.
He was too fast for them to react properly and in time, too quiet, so once he got to the first trooper and his gun, it was over. The gun he got on the first one, after a simple kick to the head, proved much more effective in his hands, disabling the men fast. Hopefully fast enough.
A lone trooper was guarding Cloud, apparently unable to lift the sword, holding the comatose man between the forged metal and the pillar. Really. Such carelessness. What if someone, he for example, came and simply knocked the man out? They would be free to go.
"Hey, Cloud, you alright? Sorry, I had to leave for a moment. We can go now." He lifted the sword back and sheathed in into the harness.
ShinRa would not get them, not while he still breathed. And they should have known better than to send a team of badly equipped troopers to do a Soldier's job. They forgot what they taught him themselves. Never underestimate the enemy.
Zack smiled bitterly.
"Come on, buddy, we've gotta go."
The bike ride was fun while it lasted, as he sped, pushing the uniform machine to its limits and beyond until he stopped noticing the smell of burned rubber and the heat of the engine. Until the fuel ran out.
The surroundings and the calm atmosphere, the sweet smell of flowers greeted him well, almost as if he was coming home. It gave hope of everything being alright again.
They hit the road soon after, hoping for the miracle of a vehicle passing by. He did not care much about the danger he might be putting the civilian in. After all, he was pretty positive ShinRa lost their trace for a little while at the very least.
Lady Luck must have been on their side since the beginning, as Zack managed to convince a passing driver to give them a ride. Somehow. They did not really look THAT trustworthy, but the Soldier was not going to complain about the lack of suspicion from the man, who was helping.
The men found themselves on the back of an old truck, heading to Midgar through the deserted, dry lands in the full morning sun. With the wind in their hair it felt almost as if they were truly free men.
The old man, when asked what Zack could do for a living, said they could do anything. Anything, while they were still young. And Zack, despite having lost time in that damn basement, was young, his companion painfully so. And they would need money.
"Let's run a business together, Cloud," he decided, turning his face to the bright sun. "We'll be mercenaries." His wishful thinking that Cloud would finally respond to a jibe was getting him nowhere at the moment, but he hoped. He still hoped.
The road was endless in the back, just plain, brown and red rock formations, dust blowing in the hot air. Zack was tired of this landscape, so he turned to the driver, leaning over the cabin of the truck.
"Old man, are we there yet?" he asked.
It was pure instinct that saved them, from Zack noticing the sun reflecting on something high on a slope to his covering of the unconscious Cloud. The bullet grazed his side then.
He smiled at her faintly, as she took in his appearance, the make-shift bandages, the unconscious blonde he was supporting and opened the door wider.
"Come in, Zack." She offered him a sanctuary, allowed him to keep his promise, even if she did not fully realize it.
The ride ended soon after with the man unwilling to risk his life for them. Giving a ride to two complete strangers was one thing, but now with bullets flying it was something completely different. It was business.
Midgar was visible then, not far, but not close enough for them either. And they had to use stealth to get into the city.
Zack decided, while looking for a good path to the city, while not staying in the open, that his luck was rotten after all. And getting to the gates later with another bullet embedded, this one in his thigh, only strengthened that opinion.
The inside of the house was just as pleasantly unchanged and the exterior. He breathed in deeply there, the tension leaving his body along with the last reserves of energy. He slid to the floor, Cloud still in his arms, a faint smile on his face. They made it after all.
He patched his shoulder as quickly as he could in the circumstances, but the graze on his side would have to wait to get a better treatment than a scrap of cotton over it. The Restore materia, that he had found by one of the troopers was not advanced enough for this, only temporarily slowing down the bleeding.
Trekking to Sector 5 proved to be a little tricky, since Zack really did not look inconspicuous with his Buster Sword ,bloody arm and a comatose friend on his arm. Perhaps the blonde he had been carrying looked more like he was unconscious, but nevertheless it did not look good even in slums.
He found the house easily enough, for the slums had not changed much over the years. They were as poor, dirty and dusty as he remembered from his ventures into the city while he had still been in ShinRa's employment.
As he walked through the passage, the sweet and heavy smell, that hit his nostrils made him relax slightly, breathe in the air and hope with it.
"We made it, Cloud. We really made it." He grinned at his friend, who stared back, unblinkingly.
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