Lightning moved.

He had to have moved, because he was not in front of Cloud anymore. Neither was Sephi… the man. Instead, there was the screeching sound of metal striking metal from above, the right, the left, behind the fountain, on the roof, everywhere at once and then something was sent hurtling through Mr. Black's house with enough force to knock down the front wall.

Lightning was in front of him again. Cloud was pulled to his feet and Lightning's hands were knocking the glass out of his hair, Lightning's voice asking over and over again, "Are you all right?! Are you all right?!"

Cloud must have stammered out something resembling my mother because Lightning left and smashed his way through Cloud's front window, the same one that Lockhart had come through only a minute before. Cloud turned to watch him. The inside of his house was blackened, but only a few things had actually caught on fire as a result of the man's spell. His curtains, for one. The rug. His mother's night gown.

She was still burning when Lightning carried her back out. He gently set her on the porch and patted the flames out with his hands. Lightning was covered in dark blood and soot. Sky was making soft moaning sounds and she kept twitching. Cloud stared down at the wreckage of melted flesh that had been his mother. Her face was a barely recognizable smear, warped by the fire into something from a horror tale.

"Kid!"

That was his mother.

She was going to die.

"Kid!"

Even if she lived, would she want to?

"Kid!"

Something touched him and Cloud threw himself backwards. It was only Lightning, trying to get his attention. The blue Mako eyes were like headlights and Cloud could not look away.

"Listen, that man isn't down yet. You need to take your mother and hide somewhere, okay? I'll come and get you later."

There was so much wrong with that. Cloud wanted to scream, cry, laugh: my mother isn't going to live through tonight my home is destroyed my whole town is dead why is this happening what made Shinra hate us. Instead, he nodded and pointed up the mountainside, where the fire had not yet spread.

Madman, dragon, avalanche; it was all the same. Do not think. Survive.

Something in Lightning relaxed and the man nodded. "Okay, I'll go that way afterwards. Use these," and he gently pressed two small vials into Cloud's limp hand. "They're called Elixirs. They can help your mom a bit, fix some of the damage, but not all of it. Use them to get her – "

Something behind Cloud exploded and Lightning shifted his gaze away. The look on his face changed, going from focus to absolute rage in less than a second. Without another word to Cloud, Lightning grabbed his massive sword off of the deck and launched himself back towards the town square. Cloud turned around and saw –

A black coat and silver hair that the fire did not touch; a long sword that had slaughtered so many and yet still shone brightly; a serene, confident smile of madness as he stepped through the fire of the Black house.

He walked through the fire like it was nothing to him.

Something in Cloud snapped and he was abruptly pouring the Elixir over his mother's torso without any memory of opening it.

(Gotta run gotta hide gotta run gotta hide.)

The liquid splashed over charred skin and Cloud watched, numb to amazement, as it began to regrow. All over his mother's body new flesh began to peek through the dead flesh, bursting from the seams like an over packed bag. Before it had even finished, Cloud had uncorked the second vial and poured it on. Throwing the now useless container aside, Cloud stood up and stepped over his mother to reach the window. His blanket was still there, just beyond the hole that Lockhart had made and Lightning enlarged. He could see the boot prints where Lightning had walked over it. Ignoring the burning curtains to his sides, Cloud reached in and grabbed his comforter off the bed. Glass rained down with little tinkling sounds.

Walking back to his mother's side, Cloud draped the blanket over the deck. Then, carefully, he pushed and pulled his mother until she lay down on it. He held his breath and tried not to think about how strangely her flesh moved under his hands. When Sky Strife lay on the makeshift stretcher, Cloud grabbed two corners and started pulling.

It was painfully, terrifyingly slow getting her down from their deck and across the town square. Cloud could hear the sound of fighting through the roar of the fire and once caught a glimpse of Lightning when he dashed from one house to another ahead of the man in black. Twice, massive gouts of flame that could not have come from any natural fire came at him and were countered by other spells. Each time that happened, Cloud moved a little faster, ignoring the pain in his bare feet. Screaming elsewhere told him he was not the only being targeted.

He was halfway to the mountain trail when someone began pulling with him. He did not notice until they ripped the blanket corner straight out of his hand. Turning, Cloud saw Tifa Lockhart holding the other half of his mother's carrier.

"He said I had to follow you," Tifa whispered.

Cloud did not need her to explain who 'he' was.

They continued up the path, hacking and coughing when the wind blew the smoke in their direction. They never once stopped. Somehow they both knew they would not be able to start again. It was either get away or die.

Tifa was not the only one to join him. Three times more they were joined by people, blackened with soot and in their night clothes, who ran up the trail after them. The teenage son of the town repairman, Justin Koenig; a newly married couple, Mr. Nicholas and Mrs. Karen Elliot; the whole Danvers family. The last had, apparently, been awakened by Lightning crashing full body through their dining room wall. He had pointed them towards the mountains before rushing back out through the same hole. Justin he had pulled from a burning house. The Elliots had woken up on their own and simply hightailed it out of Nibelheim after pulling on their shoes and coats. Cloud envied them for their foresight.

Nicholas had picked Sky up into his arms, blanket and all, rather than force anyone to drag her along behind them. Cloud had mumbled a tired thank you, feeling his arms cry with relief. His mother was not a large woman by any means, but dead weight was dead weight, particularly when going uphill. Tifa immediately claimed his vacant left hand. Cloud wondered if she even knew what she was doing.

"Where are we going?" Justin finally asked.

"Away," Cloud answered. "He said he'd come and find me later. Find us later. He has to stop that guy first, then he'll come and find us."

(He has to stop him or we'll just be chased and hunted down like rabbits please don't let that man win please)

"But where?" Justin pressed, and Cloud suddenly, irrationally, hated Justin's guts for it. "Where are we going to stay? There are monsters in these mountains and I didn't bring dad's rifle."

"There's always the mansion," Karen said. "It hasn't been demolished or anything, right? We could stay there and figure out what to do later."

No one agreed. No one disagreed. Nicholas was huffing, already tired from carrying Sky. Tifa was walking in a daze, the expression on her face almost sleepy if not for the blasted look in her eyes. She would not relinquish the death grip she had on Cloud's hand. Justin was silent, his questions all dried up. George Danvers, the Danvers patriarch, ignored everything else but his wife, gently coaxing her along with him. His son Alan was carrying little Missy Danvers, while Alan's wife Josephine led Timmy Danvers along by the hand. Cloud, still in the lead, let all thoughts beyond 'get away from the fire' leave his mind.

Direction could wait. Shelter could wait. Rest could wait.

Do not think.

Survive.

The Shinra mansion loomed up in front of them like a colossus.

It was every bit the wreck people had called it. Several of the windows were smashed. Weeds had overgrown the lawn and invaded the porch. The fence was rusted and buckling in places. The paint was peeling off of it in great strips. Shingles were missing from the roof. Lightning flashed in the background.

That last one was just due to the oncoming storm, but it was still appropriate.

George went in first, kicking the old gate down with his bare feet. It collapsed with a shriek of rushed metal.

"Come on," he said.

They followed, one by one. Cloud and Tufa hung by Nicholas, Cloud focused on the wheezing gasps of the bundle Nicholas carried. The wind picked up again and threw a smattering of dead leaves at the tired party. They were ignored. The old porch groaned and squealed under foot when so many people stood on top of it. The door, huge and solid, barred their way only for a moment. Justin looked beneath the mat and pulled out an ancient looking key.

"Everybody does it," he muttered by way of explanation.

The lock was stiff, but enough force in the wrist cause the tumblers to give way. The lock opened with an audible snapping sound and there was not a doubt in Cloud's mind that they had broken something. Still, the door opened fine, so it was no trouble for them.

The interior was no better than the exterior. Debris that had flown in through the shattered windows coated the floor. Dust lay heavy on everything. There was no sign that anyone had lived there for decades.

They ignored the stairs and went into a little room on the right. There was a sheet covered couch against the wall and Nicholas lay Cloud's mother down onto it. She still had not woken up. Cloud looked at her body, with new scarred flesh webbed around old blackened meat, and found that he almost wished she never did.

Sky had never been a woman with much. The life of plenty ended abruptly with her pregnancy and exile. Growing up, Cloud could only remember his mother taking pride in him. Not her name or home or anything else. But she had always tried to look her best, even if most of the townspeople would never give her the time of day. She had loved her hair and always rubbed cream into her hands in a futile attempt to keep them soft. Her body was something she had enjoyed, even if she had no one to enjoy it with. And now it was nauseating to look at.

She would be horrified, Cloud knew.

"Did anyone else hear that?!"

Josephine's sudden question startled everyone and Cloud snapped his head around to stare at her.

Suddenly nervous beneath the stares of so many people, Josephine stuttered. "I-I mean, I th-thought I heard something. Just a second ago."

The man had come to kill them, Cloud realized. Lightning had lost or the man had gotten away from Lightning, but the result was the same. The man was here and they would die too.

Without thinking, he wrapped his small fingers around a floorboard that jutted up from its brethren. He pulled as hard as he could and yanked it up a few more inches.

"What are you doing?" Justin asked.

Tifa knew. She dropped his hand and added her own muscle to help him. The floorboard groaned and slowly, ever so slowly, was pried loose. Rusty nails jutted out from both ends and Cloud felt splinters digging into both of his hands. It did not matter. Tifa evidently agreed with him, as she immediately began pulling up another one.

"Weapons," Cloud growled at the people staring slack-jawed at his apparent insanity. Really, what else would they use? The only other bit of furniture in the room was an end table that looked far too solid to easily break apart.

"Oh, nice idea," Karen said. She walked over to help Tifa wrestle with her board and, getting the idea, the men began tearing up their own.

It was slow, messy work. Cloud's board had come up easiest. The others had to be hauled up from the floor at the expense of much cursing and yanking. In the end, they only got four: Cloud's, one for Nicholas, one for Justin and one for George Danvers. After a bit of thought, Justin gave his to Alan, who was much bigger across the shoulders. Cloud was fine with that, so long as no one tried to take his away.

But even though it had to have taken a whole minute to get the floorboards up, no silver haired man came to interrupt them. Cloud could have believed Josephine to have been mistaken, were it not for the instincts in his mind screaming that something was wrong.

(Everything is wrong tonight.)

"Stay here," George said. "Nicholas, Alan and I will have a look around."

'Be careful' someone whispered, but Cloud was not listening. Less people meant less protection meant he was protecting his mother with only a floorboard and whatever help a teenage boy and two women could give. Old Mrs. Danvers was sitting against the wall with a hand over her face, weeping softly; Missy was asleep or unconscious; Timmy was next to his grandmother, shaking uncontrollably and muttering 'not real' to himself over and over again.

He could not rely on any of them. Had to do it himself if –

Wood snapped and Cloud bit back a curse before he saw the source.

Tifa Lockhart held up the half a floorboard she had broken loose and switched her grip to put the nail end up and out. The vacant look was gone from her eyes. Cloud was not sure if the burning something that had replaced them was any better. She saw him staring at her and gave him a quick nod.

…Okay, maybe not entirely on his own.

Behind him, his mother continued to wheeze in and out. Each shuddering gasp was proof that she still lived. Maybe she would want to die when she saw what had been done to her. Maybe she would not. Either way, it was Cloud's job to make sure she stuck around long enough to make that decision.

He settled against the couch, splintery weapon in hand, and waited for something to happen.

It was a long time before the men came back.

Cloud could hear them thumping around the old house, opening doors and walking down the hallways. Twice, there had been a sudden bout of yelling and crashing that had his heart in his throat. But both times, they died down and his grip on the floorboard loosened. Finally, the three explorers crept back in through the door and shut it firmly behind them. All three of them were bleeding somewhere. Nicholas seized the end table and jammed it in front of the door before lowering himself to the floor.

"Well, we aren't alone here after all," Alan said softly. "It isn't that maniac, though. Just a bunch of monsters that infested the place."

Cloud felt no relief. Monsters could kill just as easily as people and they had no decent weapons.

"Did they follow you?" Karen asked worriedly.

"No. We only got attacked twice and beat them off both times. There wasn't anything behind us when we came back, so I think we're okay here," Alan replied.

"Well, there's that at least," Karen said and that ended conversation for quite a while.

Outside, Nibelheim burned.

They could see the glow from the one window in the room. It face out towards the path that led to town and the cherry-red light was visible even from there. The smoke smell was still with them, though it was impossible to tell if that came from their own bodies or the wind. The scent of charred flesh and blood came with it. Sometimes a scream drifted up to the house, but it could just as easily have been a bird.

No one stayed at the window for very long.

Karen and Josephine helped Cloud tear the sheet up for bandages. Most of them went to his mother and were immediately soaked through when they came into contact with her skin.

(What was left of her skin.)

The rest was spread out among themselves to staunch blood flow from scrapes and cuts and gashes. Tifa used hers to wrap up her feet and, after wiping his face clean as best as he could, Cloud did the same. He wanted to be able to run and having torn up feet made that harder. The only ones who had come out of the ordeal more or less unharmed were the Elliots and the Danvers children. All the rest had been knocked about and, in Cloud, Tifa, and Justin's case, breathed in a great deal of smoke. Those three spent every other breath breaking into coughing fits for the first two hours. Everyone in the room soon became used to the sound of hacking.

But, again, Sky was the worst.

Her dull, wheezing rattle was the only sign that she still lived. Sometimes it would cut out for a moment or two longer than normal and Cloud would feel his heart start to race, but then it would begin again like a motor kicking over.

Things did not get better with the arrival of the summer storm. The sound of rain falling against the roof made Cloud sleepy, made him lose focus. Twice, he nearly gave in to his exhaustion and nodded off. Twice, Tifa noticed and pinched him. The adults were against it at first, telling her that she should let him sleep. Cloud silenced them.

"I want to stay awake," Cloud informed them in no uncertain terms. "If I die, I want to hurt that man before I do."

That shut them up.

It was a kind of slow madness.

Mother will die.

Mother will live.

Mother will want to die.

Mother must want to live.

I need to kill that man.

That man will kill me.

I want to kill that man.

That is not an evil thing.

Yes, it is an evil thing.

He is an evil thing.

He is your hero.

He is a monster.

We are going to die here.

We need to get out and keep moving.

Where could we go?

Anywhere.

Never make it out of the mountains.

Have to try.

Need to be stronger.

Should have fought him.

Where is Lightning?

Four and a half hours after limping through the mansion door, a filthy, drenched, exhausted Lightning finally caught up with the small group of survivors huddled in the mansion.

Of course by then both Sky Strife and Old Mrs. Danvers had been dead for over one hour.

Another chapter, and in record time too. Well, by my standards.

For those of you who noticed the ages of Cloud and Tifa, congratulations. Yes, Nibelheim has been torched a bit earlier than expected. BUT HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

…Well, someone lit it on fire. Duh.

But as to how and why said person did such a thing? You'll have to stick around for the long haul.

I'm also starting another story set in the Christopher Nolan Batman Begins universe. If you're interested, go check it out.