**This is Tifa's POV after Cloud passes out from the last chapter- just to tell you a little bit about what happens while Cloud is asleep. I tried to make the way Tifa narrates a little different from the way Cloud narrates…**

Cloud smiled dreamily up at me, his eyes focusing on something far off. His hand holding mine suddenly grew heavy and his body went limp onto the ground.

"Cloud? Cloud!" I shouted, holding his head up. My heart ached with a thousand torn emotions.

Sephiroth began laughing.

"Fuck you!" I shouted at him. His laughter was silenced.

"No need for profanity, Miss Lockhart. I'm enjoying this scene immensely," he chuckled again. "Now, move out of the way. He's already probably dead…"

I traced his chest with my hand and stopped, looking for a heartbeat. Slow and steady, his heart still beat.

"He isn't dead, you bastard!" I couldn't stop the angry tears seeping down my cheeks.

"He isn't?!" Sephiroth's chuckling ceased and his eyes hardened. "How can he NOT be dead yet?!"

He rushed forward and grabbed Cloud's limp arm from under mine. He pulled Cloud's heavy body up in an instant before I could stop him.

"Sephiroth!" I yelled and bolted forward, ready to beat the hell out of him.

He flung Cloud on the ground, his body landing with a dull thud. It was sickening- I was afraid Sephiroth would break Cloud's fragile bones.

"Stay away from him!" I threw all my weight into Sephiroth knocking him forwards into the pool of LifeStream that still boiled alongside us.

He turned and grabbed my shoulder, bringing me into the emerald liquid with him.

"Mother says I cannot kill you, but you are turning into a bigger pest than she thought…" he spat.

The gooey LifeStream churned around us, and I fought towards the rocky edge. Cloud lay motionless on his back. I needed to reach him before Sephiroth did.

Sephiroth was also struggling in the waters and reached the shore first, kicking me in the face as he climbed out. I tried to grab a hold of his boot, but he was too quick, slamming me in the face with it. I was shoved backward and when I resurfaced, I saw Sephiroth standing near Cloud, his hand pressed tight around Cloud's neck.

"Sephiroth!" I shrieked and hauled myself from the water as quick as I could.

"And now you will die- pathetic and alone in this world and the next," Sephiroth whispered to Cloud, his hands still wrapped chokingly tight.

"NO!" I shouted, trying to wrestle Sephiroth's hands away from Cloud's neck.

Cloud was oblivious to it all, peacefully sleeping.

I slapped Sephiroth hard in his face. A loud smack suddenly halted our struggle. His eyes narrowed at me.

"That was a mistake! Mother says I can't hurt you, but you are becoming more than a simple threat!" He released Cloud and held my wrists instead, talking close to my face.

"Let go of me!" I yelled, my anger reaching its peak.

He threw me down with such force that I was sure I couldn't get back up. My shoulder that I had landed on ached fiercely, but I didn't want to leave Cloud at Sephiroth's mercy. My rage had reached its limit.

Sephiroth had turned his attention back to Cloud and I stood, pain rippling through my muscles and my breath was uneven.

"Final Heaven!" I shouted and performed my exasperating final limit break in its entirety.

The final punch to Sephiroth's face threw him back against the far wall of the cavern, the rock cracking from his weight.

I didn't even bother to pay much attention as to whether or not Sephiroth was ok. I rushed to Cloud's side, picking him up with all my strength. He weighed more than I thought, but my adrenaline was pumping through my veins and I dragged him, half running, as far away from Sephiroth as I could.

I needed to get him out of there. I had to get him safe! My feelings were so confused with this boy that I was trying to save. He wanted to take my life, so why would I save his? That's what Sephiroth had argued.

But that was all Jenova before and now I knew it. I saw it in his eyes and felt it in his words when he told me. I knew it was the truth. Conflicts still raged within me, but I tried to silence those voices by reassuring myself that I was saving his life for the better.

"Tifa! You can't possibly be trying to get away with him!" Sephiroth's voice was far off behind me, yelling.

My shoulder ached intensely and I realized I wouldn't be able to carry Cloud up out of the crater. I looked back to see Sephiroth staggered towards me, just getting up from the attack. He looked weakened, but not by much.

"Tifa…" he growled in between gasps of air.

I was praying for a miracle. After everything that had happened, my mind was exhausted and I couldn't think of any ways out. Half of me just wanted to give in and let Sephiroth kill Cloud…but my other half couldn't let Cloud go after hearing all he had to sacrifice for me. It would be too easy to just allow Sephiroth to kill Cloud and then perhaps everything Cloud suffered through would be for nothing if I were to just hand his body over to the enemy.

I continued to climb, pulling Cloud alongside me, half of him leaning on me, half of him dragging. I wouldn't be able to get away in time, judging from how fast Sephiroth was traveling towards me.

His emerald eyes gleamed fierce in the glow from the LifeStream. His crazed smile reminded me of a lunatic.

"Get away from us!!" I shouted and felt the rocks under my feet slipping.

Sephiroth was grinning.

No! It can't end like this!

His Mako-lit green eyes pierced me and I began to feel true fear rub my spine. I knew I was safe from Sephiroth, but Cloud wasn't. And I was his only hope now that he had passed out. He was too weak to fight anyway…his condition would worsen if he tried.

I held Cloud's arm wrapped around my shoulder and felt my leg muscles tighten and ache as I pulled us up the edge of the crater inch by inch, knowing Sephiroth was gaining.

Sweat was streaking the dirt on my face and I desperately clawed at the dirt and rocks with my free hand, trying to find a foothole to help me climb. Cloud was too heavy for me and I felt him slipping.

"No!!" I cried.

I heard Sephiroth so close now and I gave up my strength, my arms and legs aching terribly from the climb. Looking down, I saw I had climbed about halfway out…but I couldn't make it.

But I had gone so far! I couldn't stop now!

I closed my eyes for a second, catching my breath and I felt a hand suddenly grab my boot. I gasped and kicked Sephiroth in the face.

"Pathetic creature! I'm sick of this! I'm ending it now!" he yanked me down by my ankle and I landed next to him on a small ledge, Cloud dropped to the rocky ledge with a dull thud, his face bloody from scraping against the rocks.

"Cloud!" I called, but he was still unconscious.

Sephiroth's lip was bleeding from my limit break and he wiped it away with his hand, picking up Cloud effortlessly with the other.

My head was spinning and pounding, adrenaline rushing vigorously to my brain trying to aid my escape.

Sephiroth froze, his eyes bulged and he dropped Cloud's limp body. I froze also, staring as this terror known as Sephiroth shrank to the ground on his knees, shaking and cursing.

"J….JENOVA!! Why…why….aahhh!!" he cried out in pain as his body began to mutate.

"What the hell…" I found myself saying slightly under my breath, watching wings sprout from Sephiroth's back.

"Jenova! Give me time to …kill Cloud! I…I almost have him!! Why are you mutating my body…so….quickly…after revival…?" he was talking to a voice only he could hear.

I didn't wait around to see what he was mutating into. Wasting no time, I heaved a giant kick at him with all my remaining strength and he fell from the ledge, still quivering, into the rocks far below in the center.

I peered over the edge and saw him struggling while his Jenova cells mutated. He wasn't dead and the next time I saw him he would probably be the One-Winged Angel or worse… I had to get out before he was done mutating.

I collapsed, catching my breath, staring up at the blue sky high up above. Tiny vanilla clouds drifted and I struggled with the sudden urge to sleep. I had to get Cloud out before Sephiroth regained his strength. Good thing his cells reached their mutative point before he could hurt Cloud.

I picked myself up off the ground and felt sharp pains in my shoulder and all over my back and face. Cloud looked peaceful still. His hair was practically gray and his face was covered with a veil of blood and dirt.

I smiled despite everything and picked him up, throwing his arm over my shoulder and commenced climbing.

It felt like hours before I reached the top and I was exhausted, but at least I didn't have to push myself or worry about someone climbing after me. Looking down, I could barely see a small image of Sephiroth laying still.

The frosty wind bit at my face and icy snow covered the giant glacier that lay as my next obstacle. It would be easier if Cloud could walk on his own, but he was knocked out cold. Hope in the distance though. I could see Icicle Inn in the distance. I couldn't give up now. I had come so far…

My feet tasted the coldness of the snow first as the wind whipped my hair around. I reached the edge of the glacier when I saw three other guys huddled around a fire talking quietly.

"Help! Help me..!" my teeth chattered in the cold and I dropped Cloud into the snow, collapsing alongside him a moment later.

"Who are you?! What are you doing in this freezing cold, missy?" a young man stood over me. Another dragged Cloud near to the fire.

"What happened to him? Is he ok?" an older man was asking.

"Thank god…Thank god I found someone," I chattered.

"We were hiking up this mountain to explore that huge crater and didn't expect to find someone else here!" the third man explained. "We're from Icicle Town."

"Take me there, please! Cloud needs help and I need to get him someplace warm!" I felt someone wrap their coat around me, but I was too exhausted even to open my eyes again once I closed them.

"We'll spend the night here and take them back tomorrow morning," one man explained to the others.

They covered Cloud with spare blankets and lay him down next to the fire while they pitched up a type of tent. I curled up inside a jacket offered to me by the fatter man and fell asleep my mind entirely exasperated from the day's revelations.

**So that was a lil intermission whilst cloud was unconscious to let ya know what went on. Next chapter it's back to Cloud's pov! So stay tuned! It'll be done shortly!**