Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII

Thank you to those who have reviewed/followed/faved this story! Love you guys!

There will be an OC in this chapter, but I hope it won't be annoying to you. I do intend to stick with the original group so don't worry.

Enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 11: The Road To Junon

When he finally found a spot to park the car near the Inn, Zack let out a sigh of relief. His bones cracked happily when he opened the door and stretched his legs. He could hear Aerith giggle and then he knew he was smiling like an idiot. After he rolled back his shoulders a few times and cracked his knuckles, he took the keys from the ignition and stepped out of the car.

"Ya sure no one followed us here?" Barret asked and Zack nodded, he closed the door and locked the car. "Yeah I'm sure."

"So what's the plan?" Aerith asked and was looking around, she immediately stared at the giant construction in the distance. The huge cannon did, of course, stand out next to the small houses in town and Zack knew Aerith was beginning to worry when she saw Shinra's logo all over the place.

"What is this place?" she then asked.

"Junon is one of Shinra's most important airbases and ports." he began en Barret immediately started to yell.

"Then why ta hell did ya bring us here? This place is crawling with SOLDIERS!" he shouted and Zack threw him a nasty glare.

"I don't think you should be yelling at me like that. You should show a little respect." Zack said and saw Barret regretted his words and nodded. He muttered an apology and Zack just sighed, he wasn't going to get any more from Barret anyway.

"We should rest for now, I was thinking about crossing the sea to Costa del Sol, but I just... I want to wait a while. Maybe Cloud and Tifa got out..." he said and Aerith slipped her fingers through his and squeezed his hand. Zack let out a short smile when he felt Aerith's warmth beside him and thanked her by squeezing back.

"We should be alright as long as we stay out of sight." Zack continued and specifically looked at Barret who simply grunted.

"We'll go to the Inn and stay there for a while. It's too risky wandering around town."

Everyone nodded in agreement and walked towards the Inn.

He could feel a slight sting in his chest. At first it was very faint but after a while started to annoy him because it got so itchy. He started to scratch it, but it seemed like it had the opposite effect. The itching got worse, a lot worse and he began to panic when suddenly his fingers were tainted with blood. When he looked down to see where it came from the air escaped from his lungs and he couldn't breathe anymore. The hole in his chest became bigger and bigger and there was blood, so much blood. He tried to yell for help, but no sound came out of his mouth and he was left there to choke on his own blood.

He widened his eyes in shock when someone called his name.

"Hello Cloud."

He looked to his right and saw Sephiroth standing next to him, smirking at him.

Cloud gasped for air when he shot upright. He was still panting when he noticed the change of environment, everything was so white and he started to blink. He gradually calmed down when he looked around the room and then realized he was in a hospital bed. When he had just calmed down, his heartbeat shot right back up when he started to feel around his chest, but he couldn't feel any blood, or a hole. His chest was perfectly fine and he frowned.

"Was it just a dream?" he muttered to himself and then heard footsteps coming his way.

Cloud looked up, surprised when a young, blonde woman opened the curtains and approached him. She seemed in shock when she saw him sitting in his bed and Cloud eventually cleared his throat.

"Where am I?" he asked and the woman looked like she woke up from her daydream and walked to his bed. Cloud immediately noticed her soft brown eyes and her pink lips. She had her hair in a bun and wore a simple gold necklace. She was very pretty.

"You're in Kalm, in the hospital." she said and Cloud frowned again.

Kalm? But...

Cloud widened his eyes when slowly the memories started to drift back to his mind and he swallowed hard.

"I found you on the road not too far from town. You were in really bad shape." she said and then put down the documents she was holding. "It's quite miraculous..." she muttered when she started to inspect Cloud's body.

Cloud remembered now. The bombings, Midgar, the cells. They had been able to get out of there, but then ran into SOLDIERS and Tifa...

"Tifa!" he suddenly yelled and the woman jumped back in surprise. "Where is she? Is she okay?"

Cloud pushed away the covers and stepped out of the bed. His actions were so sudden that the woman accidentally dropped her pen.

"Where is she?" Cloud repeated and the woman looked up to him and pointed to her left. "She hasn't awoken yet, she doesn't heal as fast you do..."

When Cloud rushed forward, the hospital gown he was wearing, slipped off a little bit and he could see the obvious blush on the woman's face when he turned around. She immediately reached for a bathrobe and he quickly put it on before making his way to the curtain that divided his bed from Tifa's.

He swallowed before opening the curtains and his gaze immediately fell on her sleeping figure. He came closer and saw she was still a little bit pale, but she looked rather peaceful. He noticed some bruises and cuts were still healing and the infusion she had attached to her arm. He was surprised she didn't have broken bones all over her body after that fight.

Cloud sighed, she looked so fragile and weak and Tifa was usually quite the opposite. He softly brushed her bangs away from her face and then the blonde woman entered the room. Cloud didn't look away from Tifa, he was secretly hoping she would wake up if someone touched her, but he knew it was highly unlikely.

"She's going to need more time to fully recover. She had a bad concussion, but we've already healed that. The rest of her body should follow soon."

Cloud looked to the woman who had outstretched her arm and held out her hand.

"My name is Sophia, I'm a doctor." she said and smiled.

Cloud took her hand and nodded. "I'm Cloud."

"Is she your girlfriend?" Sophia suddenly asked and Cloud was taken by surprise. "Um...no."

Sophia simply nodded and then sighed. "We need to talk."

Cloud gazed at her and eventually nodded and followed her away from Tifa's bed. He could see some nurses running around the place and felt a little uneasy. He never liked hospitals.

"When I found you... I thought you were dead." Sophia began and Cloud looked down to the floor in thought. "Your chest and even your heart were impaled by something. I was really surprised when I found out you were alive and your wounds suddenly started to heal really fast."

Cloud started to shiver when he heard Sophia's words. It didn't make any sense, that would mean that his dream...

It wasn't a dream...

Sophia continued to talk, even though Cloud already remembered what had happened he let her speak. He needed some distraction to keep him from panicking.

"And I knew you were a SOLDIER, with the uniform and all. I know what kind of treatment you go through, but... this is something different." she said and Cloud looked into her eyes and saw the worry.

Cloud didn't react to it and stared at the floor instead. He was still replaying the fight with Sephiroth in his head and each time he remembered the Masamune sliding through his body he could feel that same sting again. He suddenly felt sick.

"It seems like you have been poisoned..." Sophia continued and Cloud remembered how that green liquid had burned inside his body. He started to tremble when he thought back to the excruciating pain.

"I don't know exactly what it is, though I've seen it before. I just... I don't know how to cure it."

Cloud looked up and saw Sophia was waiting for his reaction. He shook his head. "It's okay."

Sophia frowned and both of them suddenly got startled when a phone started to ring. Sophia quickly reached for her phone in her pocket and picked up as she turned around and started to walk up and down in the room.

Cloud walked to the window while Sophia was on the phone and looked down to the parking lot, a smile crept up on his face when he saw his bike between the cars and then looked down to his bed side table and saw his keys and leather gloves laying there.

"I'm sorry, I had to take that call." Sophia said and Cloud turned around.

"Where's my sword?" he asked and Sophia was taken aback by his question, but she quickly answered the question. "In the garage, weapons that big don't belong in a hospital."

Cloud nodded and then his gaze fell on her phone and he pointed to it. "Can I borrow your phone?"

Sophia immediately handed the phone over to Cloud and then heard a nurse calling her. "Sorry." she quickly said and then walked away.

Cloud opened the cell phone and started to dial Zack's number. He prayed that Zack still had his phone on him before he pressed the green button.

Please pick up.

Cloud waited for the beep sound and swallowed to moisten his dry throat. When he heard an 'hello', Cloud let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

"Zack?"

"Cloud! Cloud is that you?"

From the moment Zack said his name, he could hear other voices yell in the background, though he couldn't understand what they were saying.

"Yeah it's me." Cloud said and he heard Zack laugh. It was that kind of laugh that sounded like you were about to cry, though Zack would never actually cry.

"Oh man, you don't know how happy I am to hear that! Are you okay? Is Tifa with you?" he fired his questions one after the other and Cloud had to smile.

"Yeah she's here, we're okay-"

Suddenly Cloud heard a loud, deep voice yell to Zack. Cloud could easily recognize it was Barret by the way he was talking. He wanted to talk to Tifa and Cloud frowned when he couldn't understand Zack anymore.

"She's asleep. Zack, keep him quiet please."

"Sorry, but where are you? What happened man? I managed to get Aerith and Barret and Marlene out bu-"

"Wait, Marlene's there too?"

"Yeah, Aerith was looking after her when all hell broke loose. Cloud, what in the world happened?

Cloud paused and then sighed. "I can't explain everything right now. We're in Kalm now."

"Kalm? So you got out of Midgar."

"Yeah, but the President thinks I had something to do with the bombings so he's hunting our asses. Where are you now?"

"We're in Junon. I was thinking about crossing the sea to Costa del Sol."

"That's a good idea. It's safer out there, but how do you plan on getting past security?"

"I know how to get to the changing rooms, we could disguise ourselves as employees and get on the ship. If we keep out of trouble it should work."

"Mm, yeah it's worth a shot, but we'll need some time to get to Junon first. Where are you staying?"

"We're at the Inn, we should be safe here for a while."

"Okay, stay there, we'll get there as fast as we can."

"Okay. But Cloud, how did escape anyway?"

Cloud wanted to answer the question, but a sudden massive headache prevented him from speaking. He placed his left hand against his temple and started to slowly rub it, but it didn't help.

"Cloud?"

"I gotta go Zack. Stay there!" Cloud exclaimed and when he wanted to press the red button on the phone, his vision got blurry and he almost lost his balance. He grabbed the end of the bed and held on when another wave of pain hit his head and he started to grimace.

"Cloud, I brought you some clothes."

Cloud heard Sophia's voice behind him, but he couldn't see her when he turned around. Flashes of silver and red appeared before his eyes and he fell back. He suddenly heard a loud yell and then all kinds of chaotic noises. The pain throbbed in the back of his head and the flashes kept coming. This time he could clearly see a fire and black hair. Why did it seem so familiar to him?

Voices started to speak inside his mind. Some he could recognize, but other voices felt strange and distant to him.

Papa! No!

We depart for the reactor at dawn.

I won't let you go in there!

NO! Please... don't! Nooo!

"Cloud!"

Cloud widened his eyes when suddenly Sophia and two other nurses were crouching down in front of him. Sophia was checking his forehead and his heartbeat.

"Cloud! Are you okay?" Sophia asked and Cloud gasped for breath he had been holding before. He started to pant. "Y-Yeah."

"What happened?" Sophia asked and told the nurses it was okay.

"I... Don't know." he stammered and pushed his body up. He sat down on the bed and looked at his hands. He could swear he still felt the heat of the fire on his hands.

"You blacked out completely! Gave me a scare."

"Sorry..." Cloud mumbled. He gave himself a scare as well. What happened to him anyway? Was that Tifa's voice? And Sephiroth? How was that even possible?

"Are you okay now?" Sophia asked.

" Yeah."

But he didn't know if he was okay. Was he beginning to hallucinate? Did Sephiroth do this to him? What was going on?

"You don't look that fine to me... Perhaps, this is a side effect from the poisoning?" Sophia said, but Cloud didn't answer, he was still thinking about it. Sophia probably saw the confusion and doubt in his eyes.

"Maybe I should analyse your blood again... This is dangerous, Cloud."

Cloud looked up to her and shook his head. "No, I'm fine. You don't have to do that."

"Are you sure?" Sophia asked and frowned. Cloud could tell she wasn't convinced, but nodded.

"I'm sure."

"Okay, here are some clean clothes. I apologize if they are a bit too big." Sophia suddenly put the pile of clothes in his hands and Cloud looked up.

"Thanks..." he said, still distracted by whatever had happened to him. He saw that Sophia wasn't too sure about it either, the way she was shuffling around. Cloud eventually just tried to put the incident aside and focus on the current situation. He had to find a good route to get to Junon.

"I'll go check on Tifa." Sophia said and before she could leave he stood up.

"Hey! Do you have a map I can have?"

"Um, I think so. I'll go get it."

When Sephiroth entered the meeting room, he sighed as soon as he saw Scarlet and Heidegger sitting at the table. He absolutely hated those two and their ridiculous laughs. When he closed the door behind him, he just hoped he would be able to resist the urge to cut their annoying heads off during the meeting.

"Ah Sephiroth, you're here." the President said and Sephiroth quietly stood in front of the large meeting table.

Reeve was also there and Sephiroth could tell he was annoyed by the way he had distanced his chair from Scarlet. That dumb woman was probably annoying them all with some new weapon technology that didn't even work properly. It was all so tiresome.

"So, what happened to my two SOLDIERS?" President Shinra asked and Sephiroth immediately answered. "They're dead."

Heidegger jumped up in anger, his hands banging on the table. "What?! That's impossible!"

Sephiroth felt a chill run down his spine when he heard Heidegger's voice. Ha managed to keep his frustration under control and simply looked at the fat man with cold eyes.

"He killed them both." Sephiroth said. He didn't have the slightest difficulty with lying about it. After all, he had perfected that art a long time ago.

Before Heidegger could start complaining, Sephiroth interrupted him to annoy him some more. "You didn't really think Cloud would be defeated by two 2nd class SOLDIERS?"

Heidegger growled and slammed his fist on the table again. "That little!"

"Heidegger, sit down!" the President yelled angrily and then looked to Sephiroth. "Where are they?"

"The most logical option would be Kalm." Sephiroth said, crossed his arms and waited for an answer from the President.

"Yes probably." he mumbled and then Sephiroth glanced at Reeve who was keeping out of this conversation. Oddly enough.

"We'll find them Mr. President." Scarlet suddenly said and sat up straight in her chair. "They can't keep hiding forever!"

The hair on Sephiroth's arms stood up straight when Scarlet started to laugh. The President suddenly started to smile, it was one of those stupid smiles he always did when he thought he was in total control of the situation.

"Heidegger, Scarlet. Go to Kalm, and this time bring enough manpower with you! I want you to find them and bring them to me!" he ordered and then Heidegger and Scarlet nodded to him.

"Use any means necessary!" the President added and Heidegger and Scarlet soon got up and left the room.

Sephiroth glanced at the President who was still in thought. He simply nodded goodbye to both him and Reeve and when he exited the room and shut the door behind him, his lips curled up into a devilish smirk.

Everything was going according to plan.

When her eyes fluttered open, she had no idea where she was. The first thing she saw was the white curtain in front of her and then the bed with white sheets she was laying in. When Tifa wanted to move her arms, she grunted because they felt so damn heavy. She pushed her body up with both her arms to sit up straight and then noticed the infusion attached to her left arm. She frowned and then looked around the room.

A hospital... What happened?

Tifa suddenly grimaced when pain started to sting in her head and she rubbed her temples. Slowly, but surely Tifa started to remember the last things she did. Her heart started to beat faster and faster when she thought back to the fight that had knocked her out. She let out a heavy breath and then panicked.

"Cloud." she quickly said and cleared her throat.

Where is he?

"Hello?" she whispered, maybe someone was out there and they could help her with all this medical stuff.

When Tifa didn't get any response, she started to tug at the infusion that was inserted into her arm. She pulled out the needle and wiped away the small amount of blood that trickled out the opening. She pulled away the sheets covering her and shivered when her bare feet touched the cold floor. When she stood up, she noticed she was still a little bit light headed, but she just waited a few seconds for her body to adjust and then took some steps forward. She looked around the room for her own clothes, but couldn't find anything but her gloves and shoes laying on the side table

Oh great.

She let out an annoyed sigh and then opened the curtain in front of her and looked right at Cloud.

"Cloud?" she softly said in doubt, but then he stirred in his sleep and then Tifa saw a woman sleeping against his shoulder. Tifa raised an eyebrow and observed the blonde woman, she assumed she was a doctor since she was still wearing her long white coat. She was pretty too.

Tifa then huffed, she looked away in embarrassment when she realized she was watching two people sleep. It only annoyed her a little that Cloud was one of them and that that woman was resting her head on his shoulder. Even though she was annoyed by it, now she knew he was alright. Maybe he had brought her here? So he had probably defeated the two SOLDIERS.

Tifa then looked around the room and didn't see anyone else. She decided to go see if there was anybody still working who could help her. When she wandered through the hallway she saw several displays and poster mentioning Kalm. At least she knew where she was. Carefully, Tifa descended the stairs she squinted her eyes when the bright light of the reception nearly blinded her. She walked up to the desk and then an older woman who was packing her things in her purse suddenly looked up to her in surprise.

"Oh my! You scared me! What are you doing out of bed?" she said and Tifa scratched her head.

"Um, I don't know where my clothes are." she simply said and the woman first looked surprised at her question, but then had to hold back a chuckle. Tifa also imagined she was quite the view with the hospital gown.

"We threw them away, they were burned and torn, but... Are you sure you're feeling okay?" the woman asked her and walked over to her to get a better look at Tifa.

"I'm feeling fine." Tifa said with a short smile and then took a good look at the woman.

She noticed she wasn't wearing any kind of uniform so maybe she was just a receptionist who couldn't really help her. The woman obviously saw Tifa wondering about her work in the hospital and she gestured to come along with her.

"I was about to go home, I'm a nurse here. We'll get you some new clothes, this way."

Tifa smiled and followed the woman to a small dressing room.

"We keep spare clothes here, you can look around to see if anything fits you. I'll call the doctor to tell her you're awake." the woman said and Tifa quickly shook her head, thinking about Cloud and that doctor sleeping on the sofa. "Oh no, she fell asleep. I'll wake her up when I'm dressed, I don't want to hold you up."

The woman simply nodded and said goodbye to Tifa who thanked her for her help. Tifa then rummaged around the boxes filled with clothes and found some plain black trousers, a white tank top and a denim shirt. After she slipped into the clothes she made her way back upstairs to her room and when she passed the sofa, she cleared her throat as loud as she could while she started to put on her shoes.

Cloud was the first to wake up with a start. He immediately saw Tifa and widened his eyes.

"Tifa!"

Tifa didn't react to him at first and then Cloud noticed the doctor was now waking up and lifting her head up from his shoulder in confusion. Cloud got up as soon as the doctor was sitting up straight. He reached for Tifa, laying his hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" he asked and Tifa reached for her gloves after she had put on her shoes. "Yeah I'm fine, just woke up. Cloud what happ-"

Suddenly the doctor was standing beside her and put a hand on her forehead, which startled Tifa.

"How long have you been awake? Hmm your fever is gone, that's good. How are you feeling?"

Tifa was a little bit confused, but just reassured the doctor that she was okay. The doctor smiled in a relief and stretched out her hand, while the other one disappeared into the pocket of her coat.

"I'm Sophia, I'm a doctor."

Tifa shortly smiled at her and shook hands. "I'm Tifa."

Right after meeting her doctor, Tifa turned to Cloud. "What happened? How did we end up here?"

When Cloud seemed a little bit uneasy and nervous to answer her questions, Tifa frowned and put her hands in her sides. "Cloud."

"I dealt with the SOLDIERS and brought you here. You were beat up pretty bad." Cloud said, but Tifa noticed he was speaking a lot faster than usual, so she raised an eyebrow. Cloud swallowed and looked to Sophia who glanced from Cloud to Tifa. She suddenly started to smile and nodded. "Yeah, he brought you in."

Tifa gazed into Sophia's eyes for a while longer until the young doctor became uncomfortable. "I uh, I have to get my report now that you're awake. I'll be right back." Sophia said and hurried out the door.

"I do have good news." Cloud suddenly said and Tifa snapped her eyes to him and saw he was smiling.

"I called Zack."

Tifa widened her eyes in shock. "You what?"

"I called Zack, I was hoping he would still have his phone on him and he did." Cloud said and Tifa let out a laugh of unbelief. "He's with Aerith, Barret and Marlene in Junon and they're alright."

Tifa brought a hand to her mouth when she could feel tears of joy welling up. In a rush of happiness, she reached out to Cloud and swung her arms around his neck, laughing against his chest. For a few seconds she wasn't thinking about the awkwardness or the difficult situation between them, she was just grateful for the safety of their friends. Tifa felt Cloud's hands on her back and couldn't help but to notice he was actually returning the embrace. She enjoyed the warmth of his body a few seconds longer before pulling away and clearing her throat while she awkwardly glanced to the window and back to Cloud.

"So, to Junon?" Tifa asked and Cloud nodded.

At that moment Sophia entered the room again and Cloud looked at her. "Yeah, Sophia and I have been figuring out a safe way to get there. It shouldn't take us too long."

Tifa saw how Sophia grinned at him and before she could throw her a nasty glare, Tifa mentally kicked herself for being such a bitch and brought out a smile. This wasn't her, she pushed the jealousy towards Sophia away and focused on what had to be done.

"Okay great, when do we leave?" Tifa asked.

"Once I get the bike ready." Cloud answered. "And when you have eaten something!" Sophia added and Tifa smiled.

"Sounds good to me!"

While Cloud was preparing the bike, Tifa was still thanking Sophia and the nurses for their help. Suddenly Sophia came up to him and judging by the worried look on her face, he knew she was going to try and talk him out of this.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sophia asked and Cloud smiled at her.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

Sophia then looked behind her and came a little closer to Cloud. She sighed.

"You have to tell her. She needs to know the truth." Sophia said and Cloud shook his head and glanced at Tifa in the distance. "No, she'll only worry. I can deal with this on my own for now."

Sophia was about to protest when Tifa suddenly joined them.

"Let's go?" she asked Cloud and he nodded to her.

"Be careful." Sophia said and Tifa smiled brightly at her. "Don't worry, we'll be alright!"

Tifa got on the bike and Cloud turned to Sophia who was still worrying. "Thanks for everything." he said and she slightly smiled, but he could tell she was forcing herself.

Before Cloud could get on the bike, Sophia quickly gave him a quick hug and he patted her back. "We'll be fine."

Tifa waved one last goodbye and then the both of them took off towards Junon.

"Be careful!" Sophia yelled while watching them disappear.

A few hours later, while they were driving along a quiet road in the open fields. Cloud was thinking about Sephiroth. He was trying to figure out why Sephiroth did it to him and why he killed that SOLDIER? Was he an enemy or was he helping them? No that couldn't be right. Sephiroth wasn't helping them, but he wasn't trying to capture them either. It was so confusing and Cloud still had a hard time accepting that his idol, his mentor had left him for dead on a deserted road. Sephiroth was the one who had promoted Cloud to 1st class. He still remembered that day, like it was yesterday. And now...

Suddenly, a flash of red appeared before his eyes and Cloud gasped. The same pain as before dug deep inside his head.

No..No! Not now!

Another flash shot through his mind, it was red and hot. Cloud grimaced when the pain in his head became even worse. There were so many flashes and Cloud couldn't figure out what was going on.

"Cloud?" Tifa yelled to him in confusion when the bike started to sway from side to side.

Cloud started to breathe heavily when his vision became blurry and he was losing his balance. He tried to keep the bike under control, but he knew he couldn't drive anymore. Instead he reached for the brakes and abruptly stopped, without crashing luckily.

"Cloud?! Are you okay?" Tifa was yelling, but her voice was barely noticeable to him. He could see her yelling his name, but he couldn't hear her. He could only hear the chaotic noise of a fire.

"Agh!"

Cloud fell down to his knees and grabbed his head with his hands. He could see the fire now, but he couldn't see where it was until he suddenly heard a name.

Tifa! No! Tifa!

Who was that? Was Tifa there? Cloud dug his fingers into his hair to try and soothe the pain, but it didn't stop.

It's not real! It's not real!

He saw a flash of silver and then heard Tifa's name again and again. Suddenly the images were gone and Cloud could hear his fast breathing and nothing else. He heard footsteps and then saw a door and Cloud recognized that door. That was in Midgar, in the Shinra Headquarters!

"Cloud!"

What?

"Cloud! What's wrong?!"

Everything disappeared in the blink of an eye and he could feel someone shaking him, he could feel strong hands on his shoulders.

"Cloud!"

He gasped and widened his eyes when he heard Tifa yelling at him. He saw she was sitting down on her knees and then looked up to her. She was panting and stopped shaking him when she saw him look at her.

"Cloud?" she whispered, as if she was afraid she would lose him again.

"Y-Yeah..."

She let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes for a short while. Cloud could feel his hands were still trembling and put them down on his knees to make it stop. Tifa suddenly placed her hand on his forehead and she frowned. Cloud didn't know what she was looking for, but he knew she wasn't going to find anything physically wrong with him.

He took her hand and carefully moved it away. "I'm okay."

Tifa shook her head. "What happened? You looked like you were in so much pain."

"I...It's over now." Cloud muttered, but he could see the disbelief in Tifa's eyes.

"Cloud! What's going on?!" she demanded to know and Cloud looked away. He really didn't want to tell her, but he knew he had to now. She wouldn't back off until she knew what was going on. There was a long cold silence between them until Cloud finally gave in.

"I didn't get us to Kalm..." Cloud began and Tifa let out a sigh while rubbing her hands over her face. "Sophia found us on the road. After you passed out..."

"What? What happened?"

Cloud hesitated. He wasn't sure how the news would affect her.

"Sephiroth showed up."

Tifa widened her eyes in shock and he could see her clenching her fists. She looked very angry, angry and shocked at the same time. "Sephiroth?!"

"He did something to me. He was talking about his mother or something." Cloud continued and he could tell Tifa was very confused. He couldn't blame her though, he didn't understand it himself.

"But why?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know!"

"I'll be fine Tifa." Cloud said, laying a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

"No you're not fine Cloud!" Tifa yelled, making Cloud startle, but then she calmed down and wiped away the few tears that has escaped. She stared at the fields in front of them and sighed.

"What are we going to do?" she mumbled, letting her head fall down, admitting that she was powerless in this situation.

Cloud glanced at her and sat down beside her. He laid his arm around her shoulders and slightly pulled her closer to him. Tifa rested her head on his shoulder and kept staring at the grass fields.

"We'll figure it out." Cloud softly said and squeezed her arm. He could feel her muscles relax and for a short moment they forgot about the mess they were in and enjoyed each other's company and comfort.

Cloud was waiting on the bike for Tifa while she stretched her legs and rolled her shoulders back. She didn't understand how he could still sit on that thing after all these hours of driving. She could understand that he wanted to get to Junon as fast as they could, but Tifa really needed to rest once in a while.

"Are we almost there?' Tifa asked when Cloud was checking their location on the map.

He nodded. "Yeah, we should get there by tonight."

Tifa let out a sigh of relief and walked around the road. She knew Cloud wanted to leave again, but she wanted to enjoy the freedom for her legs a little while longer. Suddenly she looked up when she heard a car approaching fast. Her first reaction was to call out to Cloud in a panic.

"I don't think that's Shinra." Cloud said while he was looking at the vehicle in the distance.

Tifa then noticed the car was slowing down and she raised an eyebrow.

"Then why is it stopping?" she asked and Cloud didn't answer, but she did see him reaching out for the swords hidden in the bike. She as well, prepared her fists for whatever was coming their way.

When the car came closer, Tifa could take a better look at the driver and then looked up in confusion.

"It's Sophia."

Cloud got off the bike while Tifa made her way to the car. Sophia opened the door and Tifa could see the relief written on her face.

"Thank goodness I caught up with you!" she exclaimed and both Tifa and Cloud were just looking at her with puzzled expressions.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked and Sophia dropped her shoulders. "They came looking for you."

Tifa and Cloud both widened their eyes and looked at each other. "Shinra?"

Sophia nodded. "There were so many of them. They started to interrogate people and when they couldn't find anything they started to attack the town."

"What?!" Tifa immediately shouted and brought her hands to her face while shaking her head.

"I barely managed to get away, they were looking around the hospital. I... I didn't know what to do." Sophia almost broke out in tears, but Cloud quickly laid his hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

"It's okay, you're safe, that's the most important." he said and Sophia sighed.

"I just don't understand why they are doing this." she mumbled in disappointment.

Tifa, however, knew exactly why they were doing this and she could feel the anger boiling inside her body. She clenched her fists and started to yell. "They're after us! And they're hurting innocent people because of us, because of me!"

"Tifa, calm down!" Cloud exclaimed and reached out for her arm, but Tifa backed away and gestured towards the road.

"Don't you see? They will keep hunting us and hurting people wherever we go! They'll blame it on us, on AVALANCHE and turn the people against us!" Tifa continued and she could see the shock on Sophia's face when she heard the name AVALANCHE, which only confirmed Tifa's theory.

"We need to go back!" Tifa said and looked firmly into Cloud's eyes.

Cloud shook his head and could see Tifa getting annoyed. He quickly interrupted her before she could start yelling again. "If we go back now, we're dead! We can't do anything about it now! I understand how you're feeling, but let's think about this first."

Tifa looked away from him and huffed, crossing her arms. Cloud just sighed at her reaction and then glanced at Sophia who was obviously still processing the new information.

"Wait, you are the two prisoners who escaped from Shinra? You did the bombings?" she asked and Tifa could feel Sophia's accusing gaze burning on her side. She looked to the ground and nodded.

"I'm part of AVALANCHE. Cloud had nothing to do with it..." she quietly said and Sophia widened her eyes. "But why? Do you know how many people died that day?"

Tifa swallowed and thought back to the bombings. She had to hold back the urge to start crying. She knew people died that day, her best friend died that day, but she didn't know what to say to Sophia.

"We can continue this conversation some other time. If Shinra was in Kalm, they're right behind us. We need to go and warn Zack and the rest." Cloud suddenly said and Sophia looked from Tifa to him. She hesitated for a while and then nodded.

"Cloud's right. We need to go."

Cloud turned to Tifa, who still had her face hidden from them with her hair. "Tifa, can you drive? I'm sure Sophia can use some rest." he asked and she softly nodded. "Good. Try to keep up!"

Cloud put his goggles back on and got on the Fenrir. He started the engine when Sophia jogged to the car and got in the passenger's seat. Tifa hesitated a little bit before opening the door and getting in the car. Once she roared the car to life and started driving, her thoughts drifted off to everything that had happened.

This is such a mess. How did it ever come to this?

She could feel Sophia watching her, but she didn't turn her head. She didn't want to talk about it and deep down she knew it was because she was ashamed. If they had never bombed those storages, everyone would still be alive. Wedge, Biggs, Jessie... all those other people. Cloud and Zack wouldn't have been forced to betray Shinra and Aerith wouldn't be in danger.

Why did they have to do it in the first place? Who said it was up to them to decide the planet's future? Why couldn't they just have left everything the way it was? Maybe they weren't supposed to do any of this, maybe somebody else was destined to change the world. Maybe she made a huge mistake and she would never be able to forgive herself.

And then there's Sephiroth...

How did she end up in this mess?

Tifa's eyes widened in surprise when Sophia laid a hand on her shoulder. She was smiling and Tifa just looked at her with confusion.

"I'm sorry for my reaction. I'm sure you had a good reason. You're not a bad person." she said and Tifa focused back on the road without saying a word. She used to believe that, but now she wasn't so sure anymore.

So what is Sephiroth up to? Shinra is blaming the people's suffering on AVALANCHE and Cloud is getting nasty hallucinations.

Next chapter our friends will be reunited and will have to face new challenges together. I hope you will stick with me until then! Please review/fav/follow! It would make me very happy and it encourages me to keep writing.

Next chapter: crossing the sea and a mysterious ninja