Disclaimer: I do not own any piece of FF7's characters!

Summary: Zack was dead, but Cloud did something to revive Zack. Story set after Crisis Core.

WARNING!! THIS STORY CONTAINS YAOI, SHOUNEN-AI, BXB RELATIONSHIP, WHATEVER YOU CALL IT! IF YOU FEEL OFFENDED, PLEASE PUSH THE BACK BUTTON OF YOUR INTERNET BROWSER. IF YOU DO NOT MIND (hopefully) PLEASE CONTINUE TO READ!

Pairing: CloudxZack (at first, Cloud one-sided, depends on how I wanted the story to go, they might become lover ;3), ZackxAerith, TifaxCloud (Tifa one-seided. Oh yeah, Tifa always had crush on Cloud)

A/N: I do not own a PSP so I do not play Crisis Core (I plan on buying it though), but from a lot of fictions I have read, I assume I have sufficient knowledge of the story. If you happen to find anything wrong, please be kind and inform me.

This is an edited version. Many thanks to my wonderful betas for correcting the mistakes and improving it.

I know I haven't upload for so long and I'm sorry (and worse, I got short chapter here…) Well, just forgive me cause I'll upload another one immediately ;D

Oh yeah, thanks a bunch for Spiralgal for the comment. It's nice to know that someone actually read the announcement hehehe…

Story 9: Weakness

My whole body ached. I knelt on the hard surface, grabbing my arm tight. I was almost sure it would leave marks, but I didn't care. My mind was occupied by the pain. Tears fell to the earth. I gasped, but I quickly bit my lips. I knew how sensitive my hearing was and I knew Zack possessed the same ability. I didn't want him to find me in a situation like this. I suppressed the urge to scream and bit my lips harder. I knew I bit too hard when I tasted copper on my tongue. The weird thing about these whole pain attacks was that they were always so sudden and would subside in a moment. See, the pain receded. I sighed in relief, but fate seemed to hate me. My sensitive eyes caught a slight movement from quite a distance. My heart raced. The thumping sound of it filled my sensitive ears. I felt horrible.

"…I have bad feeling about this…" I whispered to myself. The only thing that appeared mostly in night time was monsters. I hoped it was not a pack of monsters or I'd be in trouble.

I stood up and walked away from the fire. When it was near enough, I was sure that it was indeed a monster, only one, but huge. Size did not matter to me, but I didn't want to wake everybody up because of some monster attacking the camp. I reached out for my sword that lied coldly near my tent and took it out from its sheath soundlessly. I approached the monster slowly and carefully so as not to produce any sound. The monster didn't notice me, so I proceed closer. I mentally counted the distance from my current location to the camp. From the look of it, I was quite sure that I was a safe distance away as to not wake them up while I was fighting. When I was nearer, I realized the monster was bigger than what I expected. Since it was dark, I was not very sure about the color. It had big horns and red eyes. Smoke came out from its mouth as it walked. Its claws were sharp, maybe sharper than this sword that I had. I proceeded cautiously from its side to the back. I noticed a line of sharp spikes on its back. I shook my head to get my focus back. I need to kill it fast, so I dashed toward the monster and prepared my sword. I reached the distance where I could slice its back, but the spikes seemed really hard. I spun slightly and raised the sharp metal and slashed through its belly. The sound of metal hitting metal rang dully in the silent night.

"Oh...Shit…" I cursed. Its red eyes met my blue. I could feel wrath from those orbs. I back-stepped and provided myself with some distance before attacking again. I held my sword tighter and prepared my stance. Most monsters with big size are usually slow, but that was not the case with this one I guess. Just as I prepared to attack it again, it was nowhere in sight. My eyes cautiously scanned the surroundings. I focused my ears to the slightest sound. At first it was silent, and a second later, I could see stars. I was lucky because my ears picked up its breathing sounds from behind me and I spun around and rolled just in time to avoid it from burying its claws in my body. Instead its knuckle hit my head. I shook my head to clear the dizziness and my hand grabbed the sword instinctively. With my free hand, I touched the part where I was hit. The back of my head was wet. I opened my eyes and checked the wetness on my hand. My pale hand was stained with the darker color of blood. I rolled my eyes in search of the thing that made me bleed. It was nowhere in sight. I was surprised to find that such a big beast was able to move so fast. It was no mere monster. I stood up and again raised my sword and prepared to attack it once it appeared.

Zack's PoV

I was sleeping, yet I could hear soft whispers. My eyes were closed yet I felt awake. The voices outside made it hard for me to sleep soundly, as if my brain was yelling at me and my instincts told me to eavesdrop. My intuition was usually correct. I felt like I had to know whose voices they were and what they were talking about. I wanted to know, but my body felt dead. My consciousness was awake, but my body was asleep. Suddenly the voices stopped. After that I heard a gasp, but it disappeared almost immediately. As the night grew more silent, my consciousness fell back into the dream.

…

…..

…….

I didn't know how long I had been sleeping. It must have been only a few hours. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. There was no light, but my eyes, like Cloud's, were Mako-enchanted eyes. We could see better than normal humans. I turned my head to the side, but I couldn't find the blonde. Unknown to myself, I was smiling. I only realized it when I sat up and looked at my own reflection on the small mirror that I put on the table last night. I seemed to smile whenever I thought of the blonde. He was one hell of a cutie.

I took my handphone and pressed a button. The clock showed that it was still early. Most of the members must've still been sleeping. I should have been asleep too, but I didn't feel like it now. Maybe I should take the watch shift or talk with the blonde. Ever since we left Midgar, we rarely spoke and I really missed it.

I reached for my vest and put it on. Although I thought it was not really necessary, it had become my habit to only go out when I had my vest on. I pushed open the cover of the tent slightly, but there was no blonde in sight. I put my boots on and walked out of the tent. I searched the surroundings but there was no sign of the younger boy. I smelt the air and noticed a slight smell of copper lingering in the air. I knew the smell. I was familiar with it. It was the very same smell, the sickening scent that you will always know if you were a soldier. It was the smell of blood. My heart raced. I looked around in hopes to find the blonde. When he was nowhere in sight, I began to panic. What if something happened? No, he was a soldier too. He could take care of himself. Furthermore, his physical and mental abilities were enhanced with Mako. He should be fine for now, but I still need to find him. I closed my eyes and concentrated with my ears. It was not clear, but I could hear the sound of clashing metal from further away. It should be Cloud. I took my Buster Sword and ran as fast as my feet could carry. I was confident about his potential in battle. I doubted he would lose to some common monsters, but my heart wouldn't stop racing. I had a bad feeling.

When I reached him, I saw a huge monster, a type that I had never seen before. Its arm was raised. Its claws prepared to hit the lithe body in front of him. Cloud was staring at him. His eyes were dead. I could see no emotion in them. No fear, no anger, nothing. It was as if the blonde had prepared himself and accepted his death. I looked around and found his sword had broken into two, lying shattered on the ground. In that moment, I was not sure what happened. I could only see flashes of images. My sword hit the monster, a pool of red, Cloud's eyes fixed into mine, and the last thing I heard was the monster's pitiful roar of its final breath. I sighed in relief and fell to the ground. Cloud didn't move. He stared at me for a while before reaching out his hand and touching my head.

"Zack…you okay?"

"Dammit, Cloud, that should be my line! You could've died just now if I was not awake!"

He looked away, but his hand was still on my head. "Sorry, Zack. I thought I could handle it. I never thought…that I was THIS weak…" the look on his face was predictable although his bangs covered most. He felt defeated.

"Cloud, you are not weak at all…this monster…"

"It's okay. I know myself better than anyone. Thanks for helping me. Let's go back to the camp." He took his hand away from my head and walked away. His steps swayed a bit as he walked. I couldn't help but wonder. Cloud seemed different lately. He always avoided being together with me alone. It was not because of hate, I could guarantee that. No matter what I did, he only showed me affection. Him avoiding me seemed to be more like he was trying to hide something from me.

"Zack, are you coming?"

His call woke me from my train of thought. I didn't want to force him to tell me everything. He would tell me when he thinks it's the right time.

"I'm coming!"

Yeah, you will tell me eventually, won't you Cloud?