- Into the Stars -

The rain had started when they reached the outskirts of Edge. A whip of wind and water greeted them like a guard barring entry to the towering dark maze, and Denzel could hardly see. Yuffie was next to him, trudging forward through the storm, equally soaked and shivering, but the altered serum was doing its trick, so Denzel knew he had to at least be thankful for that. Yuffie had drank some of it before they entered the city ruins and Denzel hadn't. Now they only had to hope the theory that Denzel was somehow naturally linked to Jenova was correct, or they would soon be overcome by a massive amount of monsters. Denzel could hear the creatures crawling all around them in the darkness. It was horrifically unsettling. The chattering noise of their mandibles and claws was almost impossible to bear, and he could imagine hordes of the things just outside of the scope of his flashlight. But they had to continue moving forward, quickly and quietly. That was the plan. Head towards the crash site, avoid Jenovites, and wait for Cloud to show up.

With flashlights kept low and dim, they moved together, occasionally halting and hiding in the sprawling mess of ruins to wait for a patrol ahead to pass by or a flock of Jenovites to scurry away. As they neared the crash site, the piles of rubble began to take formations Denzel had never seen before, honeycombed into vague semblances of structures, not quite fully formed. Eerie twisted images of homes.

"They build them on instinct," Yuffie explained, reading his expression, "They aren't human anymore, if that's what you're wondering. Elena and I have seen these before. When they first begin to turn, they build rough structures like these. There's so many here because we're nearing the place where the alien first took hold of people. The first victims."

The thought made Denzel shiver. Cloud was one of those victims, though he'd hardly been the first, and if Reeve and the others were to be believed, he wasn't even truly a victim. Denzel suddenly wasn't so sure of this plan. The last time he'd seen Cloud, the man was cutting apart WRO soldiers like paper with a terrifying mass of lethal creatures behind him. If this plan of Yuffie's didn't work, Cloud would likely kill them both. Or worse. The extent of the alien's infection was unknown when in close proximity. Nobody alive except for Tseng had seen the alien up close, and now Yuffie and Denzel were crawling right into its nest.

At the height of the next sloping junction of ruins, Yuffie paused. There it was, ahead of them. The crash site. The trail of destruction from the meteor's initial fall was overgrown and hardly noticeable but the gaping crater was not. It was nearly an entire city block and it was swarming with creatures. Denzel held his breath. The altered serum was still working though surely it was only a matter of time before Denzel attracted their attention. And when that happened, if Cloud never showed, their only plan was to run.

"Just run and don't look back," Yuffie had told him, "I can hold them off and rejoin you back at the Fort." But Denzel didn't like feeling that she was valuing his life above her own, so he mentally resolved to stand and fight with her if and when the time came.

Yuffie huddled beneath the awning of a destroyed cafe, and Denzel leaned next to her, gripping the rifle tight. Flashes of lightning periodically illuminated the marching horrors of the disfigured beings in the clearing below. Safe momentarily from the storm, but not from the cold, the two stood motionless, waiting, pressed into the shadows. It would happen soon, Yuffie assured him, especially now that they were stationary, but the darkness through the sheets of rain remained unbroken. Denzel stared hard into the emptiness, every cell in his body on high alert, ready to run or fight as the situation warranted. Yuffie busied herself by filling seven syringes with the ShinRa serum that protected against the alien's influence.

Questions and doubts spiraled in Denzel's head. None of it seemed like a good idea anymore.

Then a flurry of activity caught their attention. In the streaks of lighting, something had appeared below, walking from around the far side of the crater. Denzel knew it had to be Cloud even before the man emerged through the downpour. He'd recognized the clear cold dread that squirmed into his belly. It was the same sensation he'd felt before, when he failed so stupendously to take the shot. It wasn't quite fear, but it was pretty damn close. More like desperation for an alternative.

Cloud stepped forward, flanked by a dozen or so various monsters. The rain slid off their claws in long dripping torrents, and Cloud's blonde hair hung down, matted against his face and neck. But it was him. Untouched by Jenova's mutations. Just like the last time Denzel had seen him.

Yuffie held up one hand, signaling to Denzel to stay put and she held the syringes steady, eyes locked on her target. Cloud turned towards them, and Denzel felt without a doubt that, yes, he was the reason Cloud had found them. Twice now. And maybe Tifa was right after all. The pit in Denzel's stomach was making him queasy. Yuffie still held her hand up, though Denzel could see she was shaking now.

The creatures spilled forward suddenly, charging past their hiding place. Hideous wings and clicking jaws traveled by, and Yuffie shrank back further into the shadows, holding her breath. Cloud moved slowly, cautiously, as if trying to get a sense on the source of the disturbance. He approached, drawing his sword. The smooth familiar metal gleamed as he stepped right next to them, less than two paces away. Denzel hadn't been this close to Cloud since before the calamity, and the comforting warm presence he remembered of his surrogate father was nowhere near the thing that stood next to them. The edge of the sword turned. Cloud was looking around.

Then, finally, his back was to them. Yuffie closed her fist and leapt forward, syringes tightly in hand. But Cloud was fast. He instantly reacted, knocking Yuffie down without hesitation. The woman was thrown into the mud, then bounced back up immediately. One of the syringes was lost though, and Denzel realized she'd never be able to get close to Cloud unless the man was distracted.

So he did something brave. And stupid.

Denzel stepped forward behind Yuffie and looked straight at Cloud, rifle in his hands, rain between them. The blonde snapped his attention to the new threat, and the world froze. Cloud's eyes narrowed and for just a second, he ignored Yuffie. Just long enough for her to reach out and…

She grabbed Cloud's arm and jammed all six remaining needles into his forearm, plunging the fluid into him fast. The sword moved to counter and Denzel could see Yuffie's death milliseconds away, then the weapon stopped. Cloud staggered and gasped like he was drowning and he shook his head. Then his entire posture relaxed, and the lethality in his demeanor evaporated. He blinked at her in confusion.

"Yuffie…?"

It was him. It was Cloud. His voice. His eyes. Yuffie smiled the most she'd done in years and nodded rapidly at him.

"Cloud! Yes, it's me! Oh, Cloud!"

She embraced him tightly, crying and hugging and not caring at all that they were still in the thick of the most dangerous city. She only cared that he was back, that their crazy plan worked. Cloud threw down his sword and returned her hug, though it seemed more like a retroactive response, like he was still making sense of every bit of information around him. Then his eyes locked on Denzel.

"Denzel!" The happiness in Cloud's voice struck Denzel to the core, and the dread inside him melted away. It was all happening so fast. After all these years of searching and failing and losing and planning, they finally had him back. It was more than Denzel could bear, and he felt his throat tighten.

But something was wrong. It had been too easy, and suddenly Denzel realized they weren't alone. There was another figure approaching from behind Cloud. The blonde turned to see the newcomer, and the anxiety in Denzel's chest leapt hard upwards into his lungs and throat. Choking. Yuffie screamed and drew her weapon.

It was Zack. Or someone Denzel presumed had to be Zack. He was wearing a Soldier's uniform and had black hair perfectly angled away from his face. He, like Cloud, was also untouched by Jenova's mutations. Denzel suddenly realized he'd seen this man before. Yes, in his dreams. This was the Soldier standing in the red and yellow room, and somehow in his mind he knew this was the person Tseng had meant. The asset. The one that's dead. The one that the alien had taken as its human form.

Zack grinned and held his thumb and forefinger up in the shape of a gun. Then he pointed it straight at Denzel. Pow! And Denzel felt the most intense pain invade his head in sharp stabbing riots. A kaleidoscope of bright and dark flared in his vision. Pow, pow. Then everything went black, and he fell.