~Ten~

"So you told him we're keeping him here?" Johnny asked Zack almost in confusion. Johnny had just gotten back to the warehouse and they were discussing Galen.

"Is that a problem?" Zack asked back and Johnny exhaled forcefully.

"Well, it could be," Johnny told him. "I assume you want him alive. That means keeping him alive. Food, water. We also don't know if anyone's looking for him and his brother. And I don't want to think of this anymore than you do but what happens if it takes longer to find Cloud than you're hoping. You were gone for four years before."

"I know how long we were gone," Zack snapped at him. "No one was looking for us." That wasn't entirely true. Kunsel had been looking for them for the first year they were gone.

Johnny shook his head. "Regardless, you can't just keep someone locked up for what could turn into years all on the chance they turn out useful at some point in time," Johnny scolded him.

"You can't?" Zack challenged angrily.

"Well. I'm not," Johnny stated firmly. "So if this is what you want then you're going to have to find someplace else to keep him." He turned away from Zack, beginning to walk away. Zack followed.

"I don't get you, Six," he called after him. "You'll torture people. Kill indiscriminately. Pull a gun on a friend, but you won't do this."

Johnny stopped and faced Zack again. "I'm sorry about that. Sometimes…I just react before I can…"

"What?" Zack asked. Johnny's eyes were on the floor. He shook his head as if shaking his thoughts away.

"I can't help you keep someone prisoner. I just can't. I'm sorry. Take the rest of the night to decide what you want to do," he instructed. "Go home. I won't do anything to Galen and his brother. I'll just be here. You can tell me what you've decided later in the morning."

Reluctantly, Zack complied. He went back to the apartment where he got into bed next to Aerith. He lay for a few moments with his hands behind his head, resting on his pillow, before Aerith stirred. She turned toward him, moving herself closer and placing her head on his chest. She reached her one arm around him and hugged his body tightly. Slowly, he lowered his arms, wrapping them around her and holding her back. He only wanted to think of her but he couldn't keep himself from thinking of Cloud, the way he'd held onto him in the past. He thought of Cloud lying alone now. In a cell somewhere, cold.

"Are you okay?" Aerith whispered to him in the darkness.

"Johnny and I have been holding a man and his brother hostage in his warehouse," he said back. She said nothing at first but after a moment she propped herself up on her elbow next to him and looked at him straight.

"Are you serious?" she asked and he nodded. He turned onto his side to face her.

"It's Galen. Hojo's lead assistant from the mansion, the one who took Cloud and brought him to Genesis," he explained. "Johnny found him, thought maybe we could get information out of him as to where Cloud could be."

"Did you?" she asked, surprising him a little. He had expected her to give some sort of disapproval first.

"He said he doesn't know where Hojo has Cloud because he doesn't work for him anymore, but he showed us on a map the approximate location of one of Hojo's other labs. One where Cloud could be," he told her.

"Where is it?" she asked almost hopefully.

"Gongaga," he answered before rolling himself back onto his back and staring up at the ceiling.

"That was all he knew?" Aerith inquired quietly and he nodded slowly. "What are you going to do with him?" was her following question, spoken with some apprehension.

"Pretty sure Johnny thinks we should just get rid of him and his brother," Zack told her with a bit of a shrug.

"What do you think?"

"I thought it might be a good idea to keep Galen around awhile. He cured Cloud of his mako sickness. Figured he could do it again if Cloud needs it when we have him back," he revealed truthfully. "Johnny isn't willing to do that though. Said he wouldn't help me keep someone prisoner."

"Is that really something you could do, Zack?" Aerith asked him, studying his expression critically. "After what you've been through? Knowing what that was like?"

He hadn't really thought about it until then. He wondered if it made him a bad person that he could imagine doing something like that to another person. That even though it had been a terrorizing experience for him and Cloud, he could still inflict that on another person. Johnny must have felt differently. Why was that? It hit him then that his experience was different than Cloud's, than Johnny's. He'd had the opportunity to escape the mansion but he'd chosen to stay because he refused to leave Cloud behind. He knew very few details about Johnny's experience in captivity but he was confident Johnny wouldn't have stayed if he'd had the opportunity to get away. He wasn't sure that was the entire reason for Johnny opposing his views but maybe it had something to do with it.

"I don't think I can just kill them, Aerith," he confessed. "Galen's brother hasn't done anything. He took care of Cloud when they had him. That's what he said anyway. And Galen…I hate to admit it but he may have saved Cloud's life. I just…I don't know what to do."

"I'd be worried if you weren't having a hard time trying to figure it out," Aerith spoke softly to him as she ran a hand over his chest soothingly.

"Can't kill them. Can't keep them," Zack sighed, placing his hand over Aerith's gently.

"Let them go," she suggested and he let out a dry laugh before looking at her to see if she was serious. She was.

"What if they call the police and send them after us?" he asked her.

"Did Johnny let them know where he was taking them? Would they know where the warehouse is?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Probably not, knowing him." He raised an eyebrow as he thought of it. "You think this is a good idea?"

"I don't want you saddled with more guilt than you already live with," she told him. He smiled back at her.

"You're pretty smart, you know that?" he said.

"Yeah…you aren't too dumb either," she joked. "Most of the time." He laughed in return. "Maybe the Turks have some information about that lab in Gongaga," she suggested after a moment. "Maybe Reno—"

Zack gave her a stern look. "He's useless now that he's not working for them."

"I could try contacting Tseng," she offered, drawing a grimace from him.

"Or I could," he countered.

"Or Kunsel could," she said. "You should talk to him. It's been awhile."

"You're right," he told her, then a thought entered his head. "How do you know?" he asked and she hummed in question back. "How do you know how long it's been since I talked to him?" he clarified. "Have you been talking to him?" He waited for her answer but she kept quiet, only moving herself from where she was next to him and shifting herself over him, moving her hair from where it cascaded into her face so she could kiss him. "Aerith," he started to speak and she shushed him gently before placing her lips on his. She placed kisses on the bare skin of his chest. He let her go as far as his stomach before he was stopping her.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I think—"

"It's okay," she whispered back. "You have to trust me, Zackary Fair," she told him. He knew he had to do what she was asking. Not because she wanted him to or because he ultimately wanted to, but because something about it felt like the right thing to do in that moment. For weeks he hadn't been able to turn his brain off and it was messing with his mind, body, and emotions. He needed to get away from that constant feeling of helplessness. He needed something good, something real to light his way, if only for the night.