I want to start off by saying thank you to all my readers and reviewers, and I'm sorry this took so long to be put up. Between work, dealing with depression, and attempting to study for my permit I hadn't had much time to work on this. I also decided to put the warnings in the description and will probably add more in later chapters. Well I hope you enjoy.
The nine remaining warriors have finally left the Sanctuary and are now recuperating in a forest ripped from Bartz's world. Terra is knelt down next to Squall, attempting to heal his wounded leg with what little magic she has left, as Onion Knight cuts pieces of cloth into makeshift bandages. Once he finishes this task, he takes the cloth over to the pot of boiling water Tidus set up and begins placing them in one by one.
"Careful not to burn yourself."
Onion Knight looks over at the oldest member of their group who is getting ready to pop Cecil's arm back into its socket. Usually the teen would have shot back with a snaky and arrogant remark, but instead replies with a simple okay. Cloud gives him a nod before turning back to Cecil. The silver haired Lunarian sits on a log, nursing the small flask of liquor Cloud gave him an hour ago and looking around at his other companions. Zidane is pacing around the grotto, arbitrarily picking up sticks along the way for the fire, as Bartz applies ointment to the back of Firion's neck and arms. The two of them talk quietly amongst themselves but stop and become silent as Zidane walks past, but then restart their conversation once he is out of earshot. He then looks to Tidus who stands atop a large boulder keeping watch for any wandering Manikins that may cross their path or, to the fear of the group, Chaos minions that have come to finish them off. Cecil takes a sip from the flask and rests his forehead on his knuckles, unfazed by the fist being pressed into his armpit. With a quick jerk, Cloud pops the joint back into its socket, giving Cecil a final bit of relief.
"Thank you." Cecil tells him as he rubs his arm.
Cloud mumbles back a reply as he retrieves the flask and takes a seat next to the younger man. He takes a swig from the metal container and then joins Cecil in his silence and scoping of the area. The others continue their tasks, not saying a word, until the silence is broken with one of the questions that have been plaguing their minds since leaving the Sanctuary.
"What do we do know?" Zidane asks while dropping sticks into a pile by the fire.
Eight pairs of eyes shift to Cloud, who just stares blankly at nothing in general with the flask pressed to his lips. He lowers the flask and softly sighs while trying to rack his brain for an answer. Cloud rubs the bridge of his nose in frustration and glowers. He didn't want to be their pseudo leader, but he wasn't going to contest a dying man's request.
"It's probably best to stay here for the night so we can get ourselves back together. Then we'll head out in the morning towards the mountain range. It should take about a day and a half to get there with a few short stops along the way. We'll then camp out their and come up with our next move."
"Why the mountain, what's so special about it?" Onion Knight asks while fiddling with the fire.
"There's a portal there." Tidus says looking down at them from atop the boulder. "It'll take us to the Lunar Subterrane, right Cecil?"
Cecil nods his head. "Also, if I remember correctly, a moogle has taken residence around there so we would be able to buy supplies from it to replenish our strength for the battles we will face from here on in."
Onion Knight stops his prodding of the fire and looks over to Cloud with a sense of dread. "We're still going after Chaos, aren't we?"
Firion answers this time with a response that makes the teen grimace. "We have no other choice but to. It's the only way this will end."
"That's if we can even defeat him." Squall says. "I'm not trying to be pessimistic here, but we've never fought him before, and after what just happened to us-"
"But we weren't fully prepared then." Terra interrupts while standing up. "I know once we're all back to full strength we can defeat them and Chaos. We just need to give it all we got, right?"
Terra looks to each of her male companions but none share her enthusiasm, not even Bartz or Zidane. The green haired half breed sits back down and wraps her arms around her legs, before resting her head on her knees glumly.
"Why-" Onion Knight begins as he fiddles with the feathers on his helmet. "Why didn't they kill the rest of us? They could have easily but, they didn't."
The others become silent, trying to wrap their minds around the teen's question, but nothing comes to them besides more questions. Were their enemies really trying to kill them, was the Warrior of Lights' death on purpose or an accident, how would things be if he was still alive, are the Chaos Warriors planning something, will they come after them again, will another one of them die, and does this fit in somehow with the Goddess's cryptic words before she was slain?
Tidus rubs his head painfully and groans before looking down at the others. "This is all just too much too think about right now, we should just sleep on it and then talk more later."
They others agree and become silence once again. Cloud lets out a low sigh and slowly gets up with a slight wince.
"What's wrong Cloud?" Cecil asks him, noticing the discomfort in the older man's stance.
"I'm just going to the creek to fill the flask with water. When I get back we'll decide on the order of who stands guard through the night." He says and begins to walk off.
"Cloud wait, what about your wounds? Do you want me to heal you?" Terra asks.
Cloud's eyes widened and he lightly gasps. "Wounds?"
"You're covered in gashes." She tells him making him look at his arms. "I have a bit of magic left and it won't be too much for me."
"They're just flesh wounds, it's fine."
"But Cloud-" Terra begins but the blonde ignores her and continues on.
Firion watches him walk off and knits his brow worriedly, knowing exactly what the blonde is really up to, as Terra plops back down with a disgruntled groan.
Cloud arrives at the creek and sits down next to it while slowly unhooking his belt. He looks back for a few seconds, making sure no one followed him, before pulling the belt completely off. He lifts up the bottom of his bloody turtle neck and places his fingers on the blood soaked bandage across his abdomen. Cloud peels it off and checks the wound the Ex-General gave him. The skin around it is bruised and puffy, while the actual wound has begun to crust from a mix of plasma and blood. Luckily for him though, it hasn't gotten infected. He dips the cloth into the water and rings it out before repeating the process again. Once the bandage is somewhat clean of blood, he douses it in the liquor from the flask and presses it to his wound. Cloud cringes slightly as the liquor causes his cut to burn, but eventually it lessens and he pulls his hand away.
"You should have let Terra healed you when she asked."
Cloud lets out an annoyed groan and turns to the brunette behind him. "She already did too much for the others, so she doesn't need to worry about me as well."
"Well Cecil or Onion Knight c-"
"They're in no state to use magic, and before you ask I used up all mine trying to…." Cloud stops talking and glowers. Again he wasn't able to save someone close to him, and it ate at his conscious to no end. If something like that would happen again, would he be able to save the others?
Such a pathetic failure
Cloud's eyes widened, realizing who spoke to him. Sephiroth. He waits for another snide remark from his antagonist but nothing else is said. Cloud lets out a sigh and rubs his eyes. Must be his imagination, he thinks to himself. A hand gently touches his lower back, causing him to tense up, but he relaxes once the hand is removed. Bartz looks down at the red liquid caked to his palm and knits his brows before looking to the older man.
"Cloud…."
The blonde groans and takes out a needle he had hidden inside his glove and dangles it by the long piece of thread tied to its eye. "If I allow you to sew the wound on my back, will you stop nagging me?"
"What about the one on your stomach?" Bartz asks taking the needle.
"I don't have enough thread." Cloud says and rests his hand on his abdomen. "Besides, this one won't be very hard to care for."
The brunette frowns but complies. Cloud pulls up his turtle neck and leans forward slightly to give Bartz better access to the wound. The younger man winces, looking at the black and blue back of his comrade, before turning his attention to the wound. He places the needle to the throbbing mound of flesh but stops as his hand begins to tremble. He's fixed up wounds before, but they were always his own and not someone else's, and he was afraid he might hurt the other man worse. Bartz swallows hard and sticks the needle in quickly. A sense of relief spreads across him when Cloud doesn't make any noises or movements of discomfort, but just sits there looking across the lake with a blank face. He continues to carefully stitch the wound and even attempts to make small talk with the other man, but just gets grumbles and nods in response. The brunette completes his task and ties the end of the thread before carefully cutting the needle free with a pocket knife and handing it back to Cloud.
"Here, it's done."
"Thanks." Cloud replies while placing the needle back into his glove. He fixes his shirt and begins to replace his belt but stops and looks back to Bartz. "Don't say anything to the others, they have enough to worry about."
"But Cloud-"
"Not a word!" He snaps and buckles his belt.
Bartz sighs and turns away, not saying anything else to him as he walks back towards the woods. He stops next to a figure leaning against a tree and shakes his head in dissatisfaction.
"I don't think we're going to be able to do much more for him then that." He whispers and continues walking.
Firion hangs his head down and sighs before looking over at Cloud who is sitting with his head rested on out stretched arms. He contemplates whether or not he should go sit with the blonde mercenary and try to talk with him, but decides it's best not to bother him anymore for the night and heads back to the camp.
