Happy Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend, and that you also have a wonderful week ahead :)

This chapter was honestly sooo hard to write. I feel like I say that literally every time, but it's especially applicable this time around. I've written and re-written the POVs countless times. I've changed the dialogue, changed the order of events, changed which character we were watching from... it was a mess, but we managed.

As always, thank you all so incredibly much for the words of encouragement while I was writing and editing this chapter. Your kudos, comments, and views are so appreciated, and I hope you enjoy the chapter :)

ALSO: Shoutout to silver-doe287 for giving this chapter a final edit before I posted it - I miss SO MANY MISTAKES it's unbeilable, so big thanks to her for making this chapter actually readable!

When Cloud had woken up this morning, he hadn't thought that he'd spend part of the day wading through literal shit. He didn't know why he didn't think of this, exactly. Since the time he had woken up, nothing had gone the way he had expected it to. He hadn't expected Zack to be alive, hadn't expected Tifa to audition to be a crime lord's wife, and he sure as hell hadn't expected to dance for the same opportunity. So, taking a leisurely stroll through the sewers was probably the least unexpected thing to happen to him all day.

But at least now the scenery looked as good as he felt.

Cloud dragged his tired gaze along the wall. A thin layer of slime coated the walls, fuzzy mold huddled beneath leaking drainage pipes, and a thin river of sludge trickled down the walkway's indented center. Floor lights flickered with a weak, sickly glow. Rusty pipes snaked along the walls. In summary, Wall Market's sewer system looked exactly how he pictured a sewer to be – namely, old, gross, and reeking – though he hadn't expected it to be so quiet. If he closed his eyes and held his breath, he could almost pretend that he was in the mountains somewhere: the dripping water was rain slipping off of pines needles, the sludge river was a small creek gurgling down a stone path, and that distant pinging noise was a pebble bouncing across a lake.

But the moment he opened his eyes or inhaled the rotten fumes, the illusion snapped like the brittle thing it was. He wasn't in the mountains. He wasn't even outside. Instead he was surrounded by sewage, because that was just the sort of day it was.

"I'd kill for a shower," Tifa murmured to no one in particular.

Aerith loudly sighed and drawled out a long, "Saaaame."

"And I'd kill for a pizza," Zack added from the back of the group. "I want the cheese to be so gooey it sticks to the plate. I want the pepperoni to be piping hot."

Aerith wrinkled her nose at him; though since the moment they had entered the sewers, her nose seemed to be twisted in a permanently disgusted wrinkle. "Seriously, Zack? How can you even think about food here?"

"It's been a busy day," Zack argued. "I'm a growing boy."

Cloud idly kicked a rusty screw down the walkway, where it bounced across the concrete before coming to rest in a fuzzy puddle. "I want a pizza," he said weakly. The raw sewage smell, though it was stunning, wasn't enough to turn him off the thought of a warm meal.

Zack's expression lit up. "See? Cloud gets it!"

"Boys." Aerith rolled her eyes. "We are literally surrounded by poop and we're also underneath one of the largest cities on the continent, which means that there's a lot of poop. And you're thinking about pizza? Gods above and below," she added with a rare curse. "I don't think I can eat again after this, ever. Ugh, the smell."

"Well, I need something to look forward to!" Zack protested.

Aerith turned to him, aghast. "And getting out of here isn't enough?!"

"We have pizza at the bar," Tifa interjected. She threw them a smile over her shoulder, though it wavered a fraction when her eyes landed on Zack. Turning around, she continued, "It's just leftovers, but we could probably heat it up. The electricity has been pretty reliable these past few days."

"That's the best news I've heard all day. No – second best," Zack amended. "The best news was when I heard that Reno wanted Cloud's number."

Cloud made a choked noise. "Zack!"

"What? It was funny!"

Tifa looked as if she had been struck. "A Turk asked for Cloud's number? Why? What would he want with -"

"It's all good," Zack cut in. Tifa blinked at him in disbelief. "You see, he thought Cloud was one of the Honeybee dan-"

But he was promptly cut off because right at that moment, Cloud slapped a hand over Zack's mouth and hissed, "One word and I will push you in the sewer, Zack. I swear I will."

Zack laughed as he pulled Cloud's hand away. "All right, all right! I won't, I promise."

Now Tifa only looked confused. "Honeybee?" she echoed with a tilt to her head. "Like the Honeybee Inn? In Wall Market?"

"Sorry, Tifa." Zack shrugged as if saying, What can you do? "My lips are sealed."

"Besides," Cloud added, "it doesn't… doesn't even matter." He tried to imitate Zack's authoritative tone, but his stammer betrayed his exhaustion and the attempt fell flat. He couldn't find it within himself to care though, and instead he turned back down the hallway with a tired expression. "Let's just go."

"Brilliant idea, Cloud." Aerith clasped his shoulder as she strode past him, determined to leave this place as quickly as possible. "I'm beyond grossed out, and the sooner we get out of here, the better." Then she sighed and added: "Or not, because it's ridiculously late and my mom's gonna kill me."

"No, she's going to kill me," Zack corrected. "You're going to be fine."

"Your mom?" Tifa asked, casually. But there was something else buried within her tone, something that Cloud recognized from a lifetime ago: the creaking groan of wood, the harsh crack of a collapsing bridge, and the wind whistling between his fingers as he reached out but grabbed only air. "You live with her, then? That must be nice."

Aerith replied with a cheerful hum, but Cloud was no longer paying attention. His focus was turned inward; all he could hear was a decade-old cry of fear, the wet crunch of bone hitting solid ground, the crushing silence afterwards, and his gaze slid unseeing to the wall. His fingers twitched, a feeble attempt to form a fist, but he couldn't find the energy to even do that. Shame pulsed thickly through his veins. I wish, his thought began, but he wasn't sure how to end it. What did he wish for? What did he want?

He wanted to start over.

In a sudden moment of clarity, he realized that all he wanted was to just take back everything bad that had ever happened and simply… redo it. He wanted – no, needed – a second chance. If he could do it all over again, he would catch Tifa's hand. He would make it into SOLDIER. He would stop Sephiroth from burning down his home, from murdering his mother, from ruining his life.

He would make a difference.

Footsteps suddenly mirrored his own, and it took Cloud a moment to realize that Zack was next to him. The larger man had slowed his strides until they were walking side by side, and Cloud braced himself for the inevitable, Are you okay? or How are you feeling? but the questions never came. Silence, filled with Tifa and Aerith's conversation about Sector Five, stretched between them.

Somehow, that was so much worse than questions. The silence grated against him and, unable to stand it anymore, Cloud slid his stare back to the wall and murmured, "I'm fine."

Zack's gaze remained straight ahead. "Want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No. Or maybe." Cloud sighed. "I don't know."

Zack hummed, and then his hand was suddenly ruffling Cloud's hair, which was crisp with hair spray. "Chin up, Spikey. These things will work out." Coming from Zack, it wasn't an optimistic outlook – it was an inevitability, and Cloud felt some of the tension melt out of him. "And how about this: we'll get to Sector Seven, get some good-ass pizza, and then we can get some good-ass sleep."

Sleep. Cloud's eyelashes fluttered involuntarily. "That sounds -"

But the rest of his sentence was lost as something hissed in the dark.

Before Cloud could blink, Zack reacted. With one hand the former SOLDIER forcefully pulled Cloud behind him, an instinctive motion that seemed to surprise them both, and with his other he reached for his sword as he simultaneously took one step forward. Cloud stumbled backwards into the wall; Zack effectively blocked Aerith and Tifa from whatever was waiting. His luminous gaze narrowed against the murky dark as another hiss rattled down the walkway.

"I hate these bastards," Zack muttered under his breath.

"These?" Aerith repeated, her wide eyes focused on the source of the sound. She held her quarterstaff in a white-knuckled grip as a shadow peeled away from the wall. "What are these?"

Tifa held her fists in front of her as the shadow fully materialized. "It's a Sahagin," she replied, jaw clenched. "They live in the sewers in packs."

Aerith turned to her, horrified. "They live here? On purpose?"

Cloud leveled his pistol as the Sahagin stepped forward. It was a bipedal, reptilian-type monster with an armored back and yellow eyes, with the pupils pulled sideways. Its spear gleamed in the sickly light as it looked at each of them in turn. Sweat pricked Cloud's brow as his weapon wavered in the air.

But then the Sahagin pulled back its lips and shrieked. It was a sound akin to ripping metal and for a single, hectic, wide-eyed moment, all Cloud could think of was: It doesn't have teeth.

Then it attacked.

Cloud flinched despite himself and fumbled with his pistol. At the same time, Zack streaked forward, his sword an arc of silver behind him, while Tifa followed close behind with her fists raised. She landed the first punch while Aerith, the materia in her staff glowing a bright green, launched a fireball through the air. Cloud felt the fireball's heat as it slammed into the wall and sent embers flying in all directions.

Cloud's eyes, already wide, flew wider as a nearby pipe sparked. Oh, shit.

"Aerith, don't!" His shout ripped through the air as he grabbed Aerith's staff just as she launched a second fireball. There was a harsh clang as Zack's sword was introduced to the Sahagin's spear, followed closely by dull impact of Tifa's punch finding its mark. The staff was hot against his palm. "The methane!"

Aerith's mouth formed a small o just as another pipe sparked, then exploded.

As far as explosions went, this one was particularly glorious. In a single moment, Cloud saw every possible shade of red, orange, and yellow before he heard the blast itself; a deafening sound, one that imitated the voice of a god, and then everything went black.

Next thing he knew, he was lying on his back. The air tasted like charred ozone and exactly what you'd expect a burst sewer line to taste like, and then – once the world had stopped rocking – he tried breathing. His chest stuttered before giving way to a single sharp inhalation and a harsh coughing fit. Everything hurt. He tried very hard not to think about bad taste in his mouth.

"Tifa!" He rolled over onto his stomach, then pushed himself onto his elbows. The world swayed slightly, but he was mostly just pleased that nothing felt broken. He was even more pleased when he noticed his gun just a short distance away. "Aerith!" he coughed out. "Zack!"

"H – Here!" Tifa's voice rang clear, and he saw her a moment later. She was just getting to her feet; her knees were scuffed and her dark hair had curled from the heat, but he was relieved to see that she was relatively unhurt. She squinted in his direction; questionable smears stained her cheeks and elbows. "Is everyone okay?"

Her question was answered by a loud, "Shit!" and then Zack emerged out of the green-tinged haze. His left side, the side that had faced the explosion, looked sunburnt, but mostly he just looked pissed. He spat on the ground. "I got that in my mouth."

"I – I'm so sorry," Aerith said from somewhere behind him, and Cloud glanced over his shoulder to see that she was standing. She also appeared to be unhurt, though her pink dress was covered in dark streaks – dirt, he hoped – and there was more dirt on her hands and face. "I – I wasn't thinking! I haven't used this materia before, and, well, I didn't think that it was that strong - !"

"It's fine, it's fine." Zack snapped his sword onto his back before once again spitting on the ground. "No one's hurt. Right?" He squinted at the party. "No one's hurt?"

Cloud pushed himself onto his feet, wincing slightly. Just scrapes, he told himself. Nothing broken. "Don't think so," he replied, "but what happened to the Sahagin? Did anyone see where it went?"

Tifa inclined her chin towards the pool of water waiting beneath them. "It jumped in there."

"Jumped?" Cloud peered down at the pool. For half a second, his adrenaline-addled mind thought that it would be a good idea to follow, to get rid of it before it alerted any of its friends. But then he noticed that the pool of water was not clear but brown, he was in the sewers, and he really didn't care much anymore. He took a half-step back.

"I can't believe it jumped in," Aerith said to no one in particular.

"Well, at least the water's warm," Zack commented, and then glanced at them with a sharp smile. "Nice and steamy."

Tifa shot him a disgusted look. So did Aerith, who promptly told him, "Don't be gross," before apologizing to the group all over again. "I just didn't think the materia would be that strong," she murmured again, shoulders sagging. "I didn't mean..."

"Again, it's fine," Zack cut in. "Really. I have a Restore materia, so we don't need to worry about the damage or anything. And besides, that was an impressive explosion." The corner of his lip quirked up. "A real banger, if I do say so myself."

Cloud sighed in a self-defeated sort of way. "No more puns," he said. "Puns are now banned."

"Aw, Cloudy, don't be a party-pooper," Zack replied with a sharp grin.

Cloud pinched the bridge of his nose and almost wished that the explosion had knocked him out.

Before long, Zack had Cured the entire party of their scrapes and bruises (he had tried to Cure their singed and dirty clothes as well, but failed), and soon they could continue their walk. They reached the sewer's waterway system in good time, though it turned out the 'waterway' was more of a dam than anything all pointedly avoided looking down while crossing the thin ramps; pools of brackish liquid gurgled beneath them, and questionable contents floated at their surfaces. It made Cloud's stomach twist itself into disgusted knots, and he tried not to take deep breaths as he made it to the other side. In fact, he tried not to breathe at all. He didn't think he would ever get the sewer smell out of his nose.

From the horrid waterway, the team took a sharp turn and followed Tifa to the aqueduct. As promised, the aqueduct system was a short five-minute walk away, and as expected, it was no cleaner than the waterways. The air grew more humid the deeper they went: condensation beaded the walls, pipes had rusted over, and mold grew in societies large enough to develop intelligence and form new religions. Cloud desperately wanted a shower.

"I'd kill for a shower," Tifa said, echoing her earlier sentiment.

Aerith frowned at her. "At least you're wearing gloves."

"True."

Zack sighed loudly as he peered down the hallway, his sword in hand. "My sense of smell will never be the same," he mournfully added.

Aerith grinned at him. "Still want that pizza?"

"Hell yeah."

Cloud stepped over a particularly tepid pool and asked, "Are we almost there?"

"Almost," Tifa replied. "There should be a worker's break room before the aqueduct, so we can probably stop there for a bit before we keep going. Just for a little bit," she added, smiling at him. "I could use a break, to be honest."

"Me, too," Aerith agreed. "And Zack, wanna trade materia?"

Zack's grin went sharp. "Why? Don't want to blow us up any more?" he asked. Aerith smacked his arm, which had him jumping away and laughing. "Fine, fine! Yeesh. Yeah, I'll trade with you. But are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

"But you were great with Fire! You roasted that Sahagin and sent it running! Er, swimming!"

Aerith shot him a dry look. "And I almost blew your face off."

"This face?" Zack ran a hand along his chin, a loving gesture. "Sorry, but that would be impossible. But fine," he said, grinning at Aerith's puckered frown. "What materia did you want? I got Restore and Lightning."

Aerith briefly inspected the materia cinched into his Buster Sword. "How about your Restore?"

"Sure."

They swapped materia, and Cloud inspected his own weapon for a materia slot. The pistol didn't have any slots in the main weapon, but it did look like one could fit in the snowflake-like chain that dangled from the grip. However, the chain seemed to have been broken – one of the silver spines of the snowflake had snapped off, and a long crack ran down another.

He frowned before slipping it back into his belt, disappointed.

As it turned out, the break room was just down the hallway. It wasn't the most comfortable of rooms, though it was larger than what Cloud had been expecting. Iron shelving units had been stuffed full of cardboard boxes and cleaning equipment. Rain jackets – he tried not to think why rain jackets were required in the underground sewers – had been orderly hung along the wall. A ping pong table had been shoved in the corner, a blue bench had been placed opposite of that, and a vending machine sat beside the door.

Cloud eyed the vending machine for a moment, just long enough to appreciate the stack of chocolate granola bars waiting inside, before he remembered that he had exactly zero gil. In fact, he didn't have anything except the clothes on his back, a stolen pistol, and pastel pink nails, so he instead took a seat on the nearby bench. If he couldn't have food, then he could at least sit down for a second. Just for a second.

He felt so heavy.

Meanwhile, Zack leaned against the entrance with his arms crossed and his mako-stained eyes trained outside the door. Cloud watched as his gaze flicked from shadow to shadow, from potential threat to potential threat, and jealously flickered in his chest. Zack could protect everyone, effortlessly. But him? As much as he wanted to also stand guard at the door, his body refused to cooperate. All he wanted to do was rest, just for a moment, and then he could do something productive.

Just for a moment, he repeated as his eyes closed. Just for a…

And the world went dark.

"He's asleep," Tifa said as she removed her hand from Cloud's forehead. His temperature did feel a bit warm, but she wasn't too concerned – his slight fever would go down with a little bit of sleep. She was mostly happy that he could rest for a bit, that his breathing was deep and even, and that he wasn't nearly as pale as he had been back in Corneo's mansion. Turning to the others, and strongly resisting the urge to brush Cloud's bangs out of his eyes, she continued, "Think we can stay for ten minutes or so? He's exhausted."

Zack turned to her with a shadowed expression, and then said with enough venom to have her going cold, "Of course Cloud's tired. Why wouldn't he be?" He shoved himself off the wall and made his way to the vending machine, his footsteps strangely loud in the quiet room. His entire being radiated with unsung tension. "Yesterday, your little terrorist group manipulated him into blowing up a Shinra reactor. And then, less than twenty-four hours later, he went through a bunch of shit that involved both a slumlord and the Turks to save your ass." Tifa flinched. "So of course he's exhausted. Even someone without mako poisoning," he added with a sharp glance her way, "would be exhausted."

And there it was: the elephant in the room laid bare neatly before her, and all she could do was stare and try not to cower. Here was the reason he had been giving her guarded looks all day. The reason why any smile he shared with the group dimmed when he looked at her. The reason for his harsh sighs, his pointed stares, his trembling silence. But the worst part of it all, the part that made her glad that Cloud was asleep, was that she had absolutely no defense. Zack was right. He was completely, entirely right: no matter how good her initial intentions had been, she was the sole cause of this entire mess. She was the reason for it all.

It was suddenly hard to breathe.

"Zack," Aerith murmured. Her voice was little more than a soft echo in Tifa's ringing ears. "Maybe we should talk about it later."

"Why? No time like the present." Zack punched his finger into one of the vending machine's buttons, and it promptly blared out an error message. His jaw clenched and he immediately pushed another with similar success. "I mean, after five years – five long years – he finally woke up. He finally said my name. He could finally look around and see things. Gods above," he continued, repeatedly pressing the Burman Coffee icon - "he actually -" click - "ate his -" click - "oatmeal by himself -" click - "this morning -" click - "but now -"

All of a sudden, Tifa realized that Zack wasn't mad at her – at least, not entirely. He was just scared.

Somehow, that made all the difference.

Aerith's hand gently landed on Zack's arm, stilling him with little more than a touch. His finger hovered above the button. "Zack, just relax," she gently told him. "This is just a misunderstanding." Then, to Tifa, she said, "Tell him."

Tifa wasn't sure what Aerith knew that she didn't, but she softly exhaled and tried to find the words she needed. That was one of the rules of the slums: never waste an opportunity, and she was determined not to waste this one. Glancing at Zack's back, she tentatively began, "When Cloud and I were children, he promised to help me if I was ever in trouble."

How quiet her voice sounded.

"Then he left Nibelheim to join SOLDIER. Nibelheim burned to the ground years later, and I thought that I would never see him again. Until I did." She glanced at Cloud, fast asleep beside her, his eyelashes fluttering in his dreams. "I was shopping when I found him at the Sector Six train station. He was wearing a hospital gown, was jumpy and confused, but he… recognized me. He told me that he was a SOLDIER First Class, and that he escaped from somewhere. He kept telling me that he couldn't go back."

Tifa glanced at Zack, but his expression was unreadable. She continued her story.

"The rest of Avalanche found out that he was an ex-SOLDIER. They tried to recruit him. I… I did my best to hide Cloud in my apartment, keep him distracted and away from them, but he's not an idiot. He figured out that I was upset about something. And then, when he eventually met the rest of the team, he figured out why."

"You let Cloud meet a terrorist group?" Zack asked, incredulous.

"I didn't let Cloud do anything," Tifa retorted, eyes flashing. "He's an adult, an ex-SOLDIER, and is fully capable of making his own decisions. But of course," she added after a pause, "I didn't realize that he had mako poisoning, or that Shinra was after him, or… anything like that. How could I?"

Zack opened his mouth, undoubtedly with some comeback or protest, but quickly shut it again. Instead he glowered at the wall, jaw clenched and expression once again cast in shadow.

Tifa's heart rate continued its rapid pace as she continued, "Anyway, Cloud pissed off Barret – that's Avalanche's leader – which impressed him, because he asked if Cloud could join the mission."

"Aka, the reactor bombing," Aerith surmised.

Tifa nodded. "The reactor bombing. I protested it, but Cloud's… he's stubborn. He swore he could do it. And when we got him a weapon and he took out some Wererats in the Scrap Boulevard, he proved it. You should have seen him," she added, her gaze distant. "I've been training my whole life, and even I couldn't keep up with his movements. It was unbelievable, really. I haven't seen anything like it. That night, he went with the rest of the team to the upper plate to blow up the reactor.

"But then," she added in a whisper, "he never came back. I waited at the train station nearly the entire night, just in case another train came by, just in case he was in it. But it never happened. And the entire time, all I could think of was that I put him there. That it was my fault."

As she spoke, her hands were clasped on her lap with her fingers so tightly interlaced that the knuckles had gone white. Aerith made a move to put a comforting hand over hers, but seemed to think better of it. The other woman's hands returned to her side.

Tifa licked her lips. "The next morning, a man came by Seventh Heaven. He's the one that mentioned the bounty on Cloud and Barret, and after a little, er, convincing, we also found out that his employer was Don Corneo in Wall Market. I volunteered to go, and I wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Maybe you should have," Zack said, but there was no bite to it. He only sounded tired now, which was a vast improvement from earlier.

Tifa felt a little optimistic. In fact, she almost managed to smile at him when she said, "Maybe I should have." But then her tentative optimism flagged, and she dropped her gaze. She couldn't look him in the eye for what she was going to say next.

"Zack," she began, "when we get back to Sector Seven, would you… mind telling me everything? About Cloud, and you, and what happened after… after Nibelheim? I just …" Her voice trailed off, and it took her a moment to piece together what she wanted to say. "I just… want to help. I want to do better. I want to make sure," she said, "that nothing like these past couple days ever happens again."

Zack said nothing.

But Tifa wasn't done. "Please. I know that it's… insensitive of me to ask, and I understand that it won't be easy to talk about. But I… I want to do better."

For a long while, Zack continued to say nothing. He only stared at the vending machine without seeing it. His arms were limp at his side and his expression was torn, pained even, a mosaic of everything he used to be.

Then he sighed and murmured, "It's not a happy story."

Tifa turned back to Cloud, passed out on the bench beside her, feverish and exhausted. "I figured."

Silence descended on the group, a heavy quiet that was only broken when Aerith suddenly clapped her hands together. "Well. Now that that's over, anyone want anything to eat?" She pulled a single coin out of her pocket, one that inexplicably had a piece of string tied around it. "My treat."

Zack blinked at her. Life returned to his eyes. "What are you planning on doing with that?"

"Watch," she said as she made her way over to the vending machine. "Zack, anything you want?"

"Coffee. And the Carbuncle Cookies," he added, almost as an afterthought.

Aerith hummed as she selected the two items, then slipped the coin into the slot… only to reel it back up with the string. She repeated the process until the coffee and cookies were paid for, and a moment later they fell to the bottom of the vending machine with a clatter. Handing them to Zack, who looked thoroughly impressed, Aerith then turned to Tifa and said, "And you?"

"A coffee sounds good," Tifa replied. She almost felt bad for essentially stealing the food, but the vending machine was owned by Shinra. Her guilt quickly faded. "And maybe a granola bar?"

Aerith made quick work getting Tifa's selection. "And Cloud?" she asked as she handed Tifa her items.

"Um, maybe milk?" She had a vague memory of Cloud drinking a lot of milk when he was younger, though she had no idea if he still liked it. "And, how about a… granola bar?" That seemed like a safe option – who didn't like granola bars?

Aerith punched in the milk, and then asked, "What flavor of granola bar? There's lemon zest, peanut butter, and chocolate."

"Er… chocolate?" Tifa ventured.

"Definitely chocolate," Zack agreed, and to Tifa's shock, offered her a thin smile. After a moment, she mirrored the gesture.

Maybe he didn't hate her as much as she thought.

"Chocolate it is," Aerith said, and soon the milk and granola bar tumbled to the bottom, which she quickly retrieved.

Tifa accepted both items as she glanced over Cloud, who was still completely passed out. His lips were lightly parted, and their corners were damp. "Should we wake him up?" she asked. She didn't want to – it didn't seem very fair – but they had to keep going. They weren't in the clear just yet, and everyone knew it.

Zack and Aerith exchanged a brief glance, and then Zack sighed. "Let's wake him up," he said, regretfully. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"And I'll get us some more snacks," Aerith added. Zack had already emptied his cookies, and he shot her an appreciative glance as she used her hacked coin to order some chips.

It wasn't difficult to wake up Cloud. Tifa had barely touched his shoulder before he was jolting awake, wide-eyed with mako irises flaring, before he remembered where he was. He calmed further when Tifa handed him food, and even managed a smile as he opened the granola bar.

"Thanks," he murmured as he took a bite.

"Thank Aerith, not me," Tifa replied. She tried to sound lighthearted, but there was no helping the worry that bled into her tone. His cheeks were flushed – undoubtedly from his slight fever – and his eyes had a glazed look about them. But, besides all of that, he looked okay. Nothing that a good night's sleep won't fix, she thought, stubbornly.

Cloud glanced to the door. Something flickered in his expression, there and gone a moment later. "How much further until we're out?"

"Not much," Tifa replied. "Maybe another five, ten minutes."

Zack made an agreeable noise. "Thank the gods for that."

Tifa continued, "And once we're out, we'll need to work our way through the train graveyard. It shouldn't be too bad. There is a rumor that it's haunted though, so we'll have to stay on g -"

"Haunted?" Cloud interrupted.

Tifa met his wary gaze and nodded, just as pleased as he was. "Unfortunately."

Aerith hoped that the train graveyard was haunted. It certainly looked haunted, at any rate. Rusted cranes groaned over forgotten trains sitting on broken rails, and the warehouses' smashed windows reflected the dull lights of the distant slums. Trash tumbled along the dirt only to gather in the nearby weeds, and one of the warehouse lights flickered weakly before going inexplicably dead. When she peeked inside one of the trains, she noticed that the seats had been scavenged and anything else that was vaguely useful had been ripped out – even the door's bolts and screws had been removed.

"This place sure is creepy," Tifa murmured.

Aerith, normally not one to be bothered by the supernatural, had to agree. Their footsteps were unnaturally loud in the large, empty space, and there was a strange groan in the air. At first, the groaning almost sounded like creaking metal or the trains settling, but the longer she listened, the more human-like the moaning became. It was almost enough to send a shiver down her spine.

Almost.

She leaned towards Zack and asked him in a stage-whisper, "Have you seen any ghosts yet?" From the corner of her vision, she could see Cloud and Tifa minutely cringe at the mention of ghosts and walk a little closer together, though neither seemed to acknowledge it. She suppressed her grin as she turned her attention back to Zack.

"Hmm… not yet," Zack replied. He squinted into the shadows, and his fingers twitched as if getting ready to grab the Buster Sword. "But I'm keeping an eye out. Think they're weak to fire? Particularly explosions?"

Aerith shot him a long look. "Zack."

"What? It's a valid question!"

"Shh, guys." Cloud's head was on a swivel as his fingers rested on his gun. "What if something hears us? Tifa, are we close to the end?"

Tifa's gaze was just as shifty as Cloud's. "We should be. All that's left is to -"

A loud, distant clatter suddenly cut her off. The clash sounded like a metal beam had dropped from the ceiling, or maybe one of the cranes had toppled over; regardless, the resulting crash cracked against the ground and buried Tifa's terrified squeak.

"What was that?" she whispered.

Zack, his voice much louder than Tifa's, demanded, "What was that?" His luminous eyes flicked back and forth to the shadows, and he held his Buster Sword at the ready.

"A ghost?" Aerith offered, excited.

"Or maybe the wind?" Cloud weakly added as the tip of his pistol wavered in the air.

"It was probably just a cat or something," Tifa stated matter-of-factly, though there was no denying the waver in her tone. "Definitely a cat, because ghosts aren't real. Right?" She turned to Cloud with her brow furrowed and lower lip puckered. "Right? Ghosts aren't an actual thing. They don't exist."

Cloud nodded, though he never put his pistol away. "Yeah. I mean, people go to the Lifestream when they die. They don't stick around. …I think."

Zack grinned at him. "You think? You don't sound very confident there, buddy."

"It wasn't a ghost," Cloud told him with a glare.

"'Cooourse it wasn't." Zack looked immensely pleased. "Like you said, it must have just been the wind -"

Without warning there was another distant clatter, and all heads snapped towards the sound. Dust rained towards the ground. Something pinged against glass, and a sound much like a laugh pillowed the air before the world went abruptly silent.

"It's a cat," Tifa breathed. His fingers dug into Cloud's sleeve, but he didn't seem to notice. "It's definitely a cat."

Zack's smile was sharp as he held his sword at the ready. "Maybe it was just the wind."

Cloud turned to him with an equally sharp grin. "You thought it was a ghost earlier. Change your mind?"

Zack's smile widened. "Asshole."

Aerith completely ignored their banter. Her gaze scanned the dark for the source of the noise, because she hadn't just heard a ghostly laugh. She had also heard the words 'This way' bounce against the walls.

She suddenly heard those same words somewhere to her right, and she immediately turned to the direction of the voice. "This way," she announced. Zack cursed under his breath but dutifully began to follow, but when she didn't hear another two pairs of footsteps, she glanced over her shoulder. "Well?" she addressed the two lagging team members. "You two coming?"

Cloud and Tifa shared a look, and Tifa was the first to reply, "Of – Of course. Um… Cloud, I'll be right behind you?"

Cloud made a face. For a moment Aerith thought that he would protest, but then he mumbled, "Sure. We'll be right behind you, Aerith." Then to Tifa, he said, "Keep your gloves up."

Tifa tried to chuckle, but she only sounded a bit strangled. "Sure thing, coach."

They continued through the train graveyard. Eventually they worked their way through the abandoned trains and rail roads, and were soon approaching the giant warehouses that lined the yard. Their windows were broken, and the remaining shards were outlined silver beneath the dim lights of the upper plate. Wind whispered through them with broken moans.

Aerith squinted at one of the highest windows. It had only been for a moment, but she could have sworn that she had seen a face peering down at her.

"Aerith!"

Zack's sudden shout pierced the air and then she was being pulled backwards, his hand wrapped around her arm and the Buster Sword swinging out between her and the empty ground before her. But then, with her next blink, the ground was no longer empty but instead splattered with paint. The neon colors glowed in the dark as she stared at them, stunned. Pink and green splattered nearby walls. Crudely drawn faces smiled up at her from the dirt.

Cloud and Tifa jogged up to them, both prepared for a fight. "What happened?"

Zack jerked his chin to the paint splatter in answer. "Still think it's a cat?" he asked Tifa, whose lips thinned in answer.

Cloud stooped towards one of the splatters of paint – a splash of purple that looked as if it had been thrown. "There's no paint cans," he noted after scanning the room. "No footsteps, either."

"Could it have been a ghost?" Aerith said, echoing all of their thoughts.

Tifa paled a fraction. "I… still think it's a cat."

"Yeah, a ghost cat," Zack replied, just as something giggled in the dark. It was a childlike laugh, sweet and innocent, one that belonged on a playground rather than lost in a graveyard of forgotten machines. It bounced against the walls for a strangely long time before eventually fading away.

Cloud's eyes were wide, and their mako burned hot enough to stain his cheekbones a sea glass green. "It's the ghost," he murmured, horrified. He had both hands on his pistol. "It's here."

"No it's not," Tifa hissed as she wildly looked around the room, arms lifted and hands clenched into tight fists. "It's – It's just a cat."

Zack shot her a look. "Are you for real right now?"

Tifa glared at him, but there was no malice in the look just as there was no bite to Zack's tone. The two of them had reached some sort of tentative truce in the sewer system break room, a fact that had Aerith secretly relieved; not only was the lack of silent animosity nice, but she knew that it would help Cloud's recovery, too. He would need both Zack and Tifa to fully recover, and his recovery would go much more smoothly if Zack and Tifa weren't fighting.

"There's a message here," Cloud suddenly said, pulling her out of her thoughts. "Look, hidden in the bag ghost looking… thing." He glanced at the rest of them. "Do you see that?"

Aerith peered over his shoulder. Sure enough, the words This way! had been scrawled into the paint. The letters were messy, as if written with a child's hand.

"It's a message," Aerith decided, and she squinted deeper into the graveyard. "The spirit wants to guide us deeper in…. But why? Why would it want to do that?"

Cloud made a face. "We should ignore it."

"I agree with Cloud," Tifa firmly added.

Zack grinned at her. "Think it's a ghost now?" he asked, and she glared at him.

"I didn't say that."

"Actually," Aerith slowly began, "I don't think we have a choice on whether we can follow or not." She rose to her feet and nearly brushed the dust off of her dress, but thought better of it once she remembered that she had dirtied it in a sewer system. Shoving that particular thought from her mind, she continued, "We have to keep going to get to Sector Seven, right?"

Tifa looked as if she had bitten into something sour. "That's right."

"But there's another way, right?" Cloud looked at each of them in turn, and there was something almost frantic in his expression. "To Sector Seven? So we don't have to go this way?"

"Well, we could go all the way around, but…" Tifa shook her head. "Honestly, it's not very safe. We'd have to climb over a barbed wire fence to get into Sector Six, and then walk along the tracks back to Sector Seven since the trains don't run this late. And since there's no trains running, wild animals and monsters wander the tracks for the day's road kill."

"Gross," Aerith observed.

"Yeah. And they get… territorial." Tifa shifted her weight to her other foot. "There's a reason why Avalanche travels through the sewer system instead."

"Well, I sure as hell not going back down into the sewers," Zack declared as he tightened one of the gloves he was wearing. "Let's just follow our new ghost friend to Sector Seven."

Cloud kicked a stray pebble. "Ghosts aren't my thing," he mumbled.

A strange mist appeared out of nowhere as they entered the first of the warehouses, and soon a thick fog was hugging the ground and had obscured the tracks running up and down the massive rooms. Aerith tripped over one of the hidden rails, but Zack's quick reflexes steadied her; she shot him a brief smile before continuing forward, her gaze narrowed against the graveyard's dim lights. The rusted trains creaked and groaned in the stale breeze.

There's something here, she knew. She didn't think of herself as someone who had good senses, but even she could tell that something was off about this place. Loneliness gnawed within her, familiar and unwelcome. A chill whispered across her skin and sent goosebumps peppering her arms. Old memories bubbled to the surface; old hurts became more fresh, more recent, more painful. The chill reminded her of the air-conditioned lab. The loneliness had her recalling the lab's white walls. She remembered splattering paint across them, as well as their acidic smell as she formed flowers and clouds and rainbows out of their colors.

And, of course, whenever she remembered her childhood home, she also couldn't help but remember her mother. Not Elmyra, her adopted mom, but her Mother – Ilfana.

She didn't remember much of when she and her mother had escaped the lab, just blurs of lights and alarms and shouted orders before they somehow made it to a train station. In fact, the train they had gotten on looked a lot like the ones that currently surrounded her. Maybe that same train was somewhere here too, rotting away in the dark, utterly forgotten.

A dull ache settled in her chest. She placed a hand over her heart, her hands clenched around the pink fabric of her dress, and she soothed Zack's worried stare with a smile before continuing on. He had so much on his plate already; she couldn't let him carry her hurt, too.

Without warning, another ghostly laugh suddenly rippled through the air.

Zack jumped backwards. "Ifrit shit Shiva fuck."

"Language," Cloud muttered.

Aerith froze and scanned the darkness, her breath misting in front of her in light puffs. That laugh was closer than before, much closer, and then she spotted something shift the dark like a shadow peeling off the wall. Eyes faintly glowed in the tepid gloom.

Aerith's heart hammered in her chest, a wild thing in too small a cage. "Who are you?"

There was a pause, and then the figure hovered forward into the dim lighting. It didn't look anything like a human. Instead, it looked more like a plastic bag that had been picked up by the wind. Red claws peeked out of its long, tattered sleeves, and some sort of tentacle curled in the air beneath it. The expression carved into its ragged face was one of despair.

"That ain't a cat," Zack whispered.

Tifa didn't even react; she was too busy staring up at the ghost in muted horror. Metal hissed as Zack held the Buster Sword in front of him, and Cloud's pistol wavered in the air as he muttered something under his breath, something that sounded a lot like a string of curses.

"Language," Zack told him.

Aerith said nothing, and unlike the others, she hadn't even drawn her weapon because she saw something else besides a bloated ghost. Beneath the sack, the cloth, the sad face, she saw a little boy. His details were fuzzy and indistinct, but she did notice his brown hair, his scuffed knees, and the fact that he was crying.

She took a step forward; no one else made a move to join her. "Hi," she murmured, looking up towards the hovering ghost. "Are you lost?"

Zack looked at her as if she was crazy. "What? Aerith, maybe -"

Aerith flashed him a brief smile – It's okay – before turning back to the boy. "We're a little lost too. But if you like, you can come with us."

Tifa made an inelegant noise behind her.

The spirit bobbed in the air, much like a balloon would on a windy day, before it suddenly vanished into smoke. Aerith's chest squeezed as she watched it fade away.

"So." Zack was the first to recover, and he shot Tifa a sharp grin. She scowled at him. "How's your cat theory holding up?"

"Oh, shut up."

Aerith turned towards the rest of the team. "Something wasn't right. The boy was… crying."

Zack grin faded as he turned towards her. "Boy?"

"Yeah, boy," Aerith said. "Didn't you see him? He was sort of… inside the spirit, if that makes sense. Like the boy was the source or something."

Zack arched an eyebrow. "I didn't see anything, just the potato-sack thing."

"It had claws," Cloud pointed out to no one in particular. "Did you see its claws? Can ghosts hurt people?" Then, after a pause: "Can our weapons hurt it?"

"No one is hitting the ghost. Especially not when it's a little kid," Aerith told him, scowling.

Cloud looked unconvinced. "Are you sure it's a kid?"

"Yeah, maybe it's a cat," Zack said with a pointed look towards Tifa.

Tifa scowled and turned away, completely ignoring him.

She's learning, Aerith noted before glancing further into the train station. The strange mist that had been clinging to the ground seemed heavier that way, as if it was trying to hide something – or someone – from view.

It almost reminded her of a game of hide-and-go-seek.

Once again her chest panged, but she turned towards the rest of the group with a smile. "Well," she began. "Shall we keep going?"

Cloud's expression pinched. "Do we have to?"

"Yes, if we want to get home tonight," Tifa replied, though she didn't sound very happy about it.

Something flickered in Zack's expression at the word home, but then he sighed. "Tifa, you still got that pizza at your bar?"

"Yeah, unless Wedge ate it."

Zack didn't ask who Wedge was, though it didn't look like he cared. "She better not have."

"Wedge is a guy. How many girls do you know are named Wedge?"

"The same as the number of guys I know named Wedge – None."

Aerith sighed at their banter. "Let's just keep going, guys," she announced, and that was the end of that.

They entered the next warehouse. Like the one before it, several trains had been abandoned on the tracks; but unlike the ones outside, these looked marginally better. They weren't as rusty as the ones outdoors, and some had even managed to keep their seats. Their windows were covered by a layer of dust, but in some places, the dust had been disturbed by small handprints. Aerith could clearly see individual fingers streaking the glass.

She didn't like that at all.

What she also didn't like was that this warehouse was also much colder than the one before it. It wasn't cold enough to make the windows frost, but even so, Aerith crossed her arms over her chest and wished that her jacket had longer sleeves.

"I read somewhere that ghosts can drop the temperature," Zack observed, unhelpfully. "How many do you think are living in here?"

Cloud's throat bobbed as he swallowed. "None."

"Aw, don't say that, Spikey. Don't you want a ghost friend?"

"No."

They turned the corner, and to no one's surprise, the same luminous paint from earlier had been splashed across the walls. This mosaic was far more elaborate than the one before it, and it included shaky drawings of spirits, stars, and more splatters of neon color. Aerith stopped cold upon seeing it. Zack did as well, and she could see how tense he was as he stood beside her.

"Look, Zack. It's your friends," Cloud said dryly.

Aerith had to tilt her chin up to see the entire mural. "The ghost – boy, I mean – wants us to keep going. He just wants to play." And then recalling the hollow ache she felt earlier, she added, "He's probably just lonely."

Tifa stepped up beside her, clearly still terrified but doing her best to control it. "I don't like this."

"You and me both," Aerith admitted. "But oh well. Come on, let's keep -"

Several things happened at once.

The first was that several other spirits appeared. Unlike the boy, she couldn't see the actual souls behind the strange burlap sacks that floated through the air – they were empty, little more than vessels, and that alone sent fear trilling down the small of her spine.

The second was that, in a bust of fog and ash, the boy's spirit suddenly appeared beside her. She heard Zack's shout. She heard the loud pop as Cloud fired his gun, as well as the distant ping as it slammed into one of the empty trains. Yet, she herself didn't have time to even scream before the spirit's clawed hand reached forward and latched around her arm.

Her eyes widened as his icy digits curled into her skin. Oh, she thought dumbly, and then glanced over her shoulder. "Zack -"

"Aerith!" Zack shouted.

And the world collapsed into inky darkness.

Aerith blinked open her eyes. Wind roared around her, whipping her hair and lifting her dress, and her ears popped as she squinted into the endless black. Light burst in the dark, little more than flickering embers blowing out beneath a winking sky. She pushed herself up to her feet; somehow she had ended up on her knees without her realizing. Loneliness weighed heavily upon her. That hollow ache pressed against her in rhythm with the gusting wind.

I'm not hurt, she told herself, and immediately knew that to be true. There wasn't a scratch on her. Everything's fine. I just have to figure out where I am.

So she lifted her head, a false bravado, and said, "Hello?" Her voice echoed around in the dark space as she took a stumbling step forward. "Boy? Are you here?"

All the while, her mind tumbled on itself. She thought that she could hear voices from beyond the wind – Zack's shout, Tifa's battle cry, the harsh pops of Cloud's gun – and figured that she was still in the warehouse. That was good. Now she just had to figure out how to get out of… whatever she was in.

"Hello?" she called again.

This time, a faint voice replied, Play with me.

Aerith squinted into the gloom. "Play what?" she asked. She had to shout over the wind to make herself heard.

There was a lengthy pause, then: Hide-and-seek?

She heard, as if from an impossibly far distance, Zack shouting her name. There was fear there. Real fear. It didn't take her very long to realize why.

"I'll count to ten," Aerith said.

There was a faint gasp of excitement, and then a rustle as the boy hid.

"One," she began. "Two. Three..."

On ten, she began her search. There wasn't much to search, as she was trapped in some sort of spectral whirlwind with no discerning features, but it was also difficult to see more than a few feet in front of her. She stumbled forward, hand stretched out in front of her with fingers splayed.

"Where are you?" she called.

A childlike giggle echoed in the dark.

He wants to be found, she realized. And if he wants to be found…

She scanned the midnight world around her, eyes narrowed against the wind. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, exactly. All she knew was that it was there.

But then she saw it, a darker patch against the eternal black, and she reached her hand out on instinct. Her fingers brushed against something cold and dry. She resisted the urge to pull away.

"Found you," she murmured.

Something shifted beneath her touch, and then the spirit appeared – not the potato-sack like creature from before, but the boy that had been beneath the shapeless form. Tears no longer streaked down his face. In fact, beneath his mused brown hair and rumbled school uniform, he seemed to be smiling.

Found me. Maybe play again sometime?

Aerith managed a small smile. "Sure," she replied.

The boy's grin widened, and then with a last laugh, he was gone.

Aerith stood there for a moment, when a sudden hand wrapped around her wrist. She nearly pulled her arm back out of reflex, but stopped herself when she noticed that it was Tifa who had grabbed her.

Tifa was pale, but smiling. There were bruises on her fists. "Found you."

Aerith blinked, then smiled. "You found me," she said, and then she was suddenly enveloped by a pair of arms. She returned the hug with a bright smile. "Zack, you're squishing me."

He pulled away, mako eyes bright. "You're not allowed to be kidnapped by ghosts again."

"I'll do my best," Aerith smiled before turning back to the rest of the team. "But are you guys okay? It sounded like you guys were fighting something."

"And it wasn't cats," Zack said with a grin.

Tifa ignored him completely. "Yeah, it was ghosts."

"And our weapons didn't hurt them at all," Cloud added unhappily. He lifted a hand to rub his eyes, then thought better of it when he remembered where they had been before the train graveyard. He lowered his hand and instead continued, "Can we go now? Tifa, are we almost there?"

In response, Tifa pointed at one of the warehouse doors and said, "Just through there and we're in Sector Seven."

Cloud sighed. "Thank the gods."

Zack said, "Pizzaaaaaaa."

Aerith laughed as Zack started running and, somewhere in the warehouse, something seemed to laugh with her.

Pizza was probably the only thing keeping Zack sane at this point. In the past forty-eight hours alone, he had found guns pointed at Cloud and Aerith on the upper plate and had to carry a half-comatose Cloud back to Aerith's house. In the past twenty-four hours, he had learned Cloud had completely forgotten the past five years, had to tell him an abbreviated version of that particular nightmare, got kidnapped by the Turks, saw Cloud dancing on stage – which knocked at least another five years off of his life – and then fought Wall Market's infamous slum lord, figured out there was a huge bounty on Cloud, and then took a trek through the sewers. And, damn it all, he wanted a pizza. The universe owed him at least that much after the hell it put him through.

Now that they were all out of the train graveyard, Tifa confidently led the way towards her bar, Seventh Heaven. Her demeanor shifted the closer they got to her home. In Wall Market she had been distracted, in the sewers she had been uncertain and fidgety, and she had been outright scared in the train graveyard. But here, walking through her own neighborhood? She was confident. Determined. Bold, and as she told them about air filters and various buildings, Zack could suddenly understand how she had managed to build a home in the slums after what had happened to Nibelheim.

She was a survivor – just like him, as much as he hated to admit it. And he wanted to hate her. He wanted to hate her for putting Cloud in so much danger when he had been so vulnerable from mako poisoning. He wanted to hate her for putting Cloud right in front of Shinra.

But he found that he couldn't. He simply couldn't, because hell, he actually liked her. She could hold her own in a battle. She could take his sense of humor. But more importantly, she cared for Cloud in a deeply obvious way. In the past couple hours alone, he knew that she would never willingly put him in danger.

So now here he was, a tight bundle of conflicting emotions, all tied together with a stunningly intense desire for pizza.

"And here we are," Tifa said as she stepped up to a wooden building. "Welcome to Seventh Heaven."

Zack had been expecting something more fitting of the Midgar slums – a tin roof, termite-eaten walls, copious amounts of trash, and a familiar rotten egg smell he'd come to associate with the slums – but that wasn't the case at all. In fact, the Seventh Heaven was an impressive size. It was two stories, with a balcony on the second floor and a wide patio on the first. Well lit stairs led up to the front door.

"It's… nice," Zack eventually said. In fact, it was more than nice. He could see why Cloud liked it here, besides the obvious.

Tifa unlocked the front door. "It's after hours, so we should have the place to ourselves. Well, mostly to ourselves," she amended as she swung the door open. Golden light spilled onto their shoes. "A few of my friends may still be here -" friends, not Avalanche terrorists, Zack noted - "but don't mind them. Make yourself comfortable."

Aerith flashed Tifa a smile as she stepped inside. "Thanks, Tifa. Really."

Tifa returned the smile, and then gestured for Zack and Cloud to enter. Cloud took a step forward, but suddenly hesitated. Uncertainty flickered across his expression.

And Zack knew that look. Without thinking he took a sharp step forward, effectively cutting Cloud off from the front door, and reached for his weapon as he strode into the Seventh Heaven…

… and stopped short, his lips pitched into a frown. "Cissnei." The Turk smiled at him from the bar counter, her legs crossed and a clear martini in hand. "What the hell."

Aerith turned to him, one eyebrow arched, while Cissnei uncrossed her legs with a slow smile. "Zack. Shouldn't you be in Wall Market right about now?"

He ignored her comment. "What are you here for?"

"To continue our talk earlier," Cissnei easily replied. "I did promise that I would meet you later, after all. Did you forget?" Zack opened his mouth to reply, but Cissnei lifted a hand, cutting him off. "Though, before we get into all of that… Cloud." Her expression subtly softened as she glanced over Zack's shoulder. "It's good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?"

Cloud had a hand lifted against his temple. The mako in his gaze burned hot. "You're a Turk."

Cissnei's expression dimmed. "Not right now," she promised. "You're looking good, though. I liked your dance earlier."

Cloud looked like he wanted to dig himself a hole and die. Tifa, who had been hovering beside him, glanced at him in confusion.

"How the hell do you know about that?" Zack demanded.

In reply, Cissnei help up her phone. Displayed on its rectangular screen was a text conversation with Reno – he had said, This could be us, but you playin' - and a brief, three-second video clip that he had sent to her. She pressed play and, to Zack's faint amusement but mounting horror, he watched as Cloud and Andrea Rhodea spun across the stage. Rhodea wore a dazzling outfit and an all-knowing grin. Cloud, cheeks flushed, looked as if he was trying to bend a spoon with his mind.

Zack leaned back in his chair. "Fuck," he summarized.

Tifa looked from Cissnei's phone, then to Cloud, and then back again. "I didn't know you could dance," she finally said.

Cloud made an ineligible noise.

Having thoroughly embarrassed Cloud, Cissnei slipped her phone back into her pocket. "But anyway." She took a dainty sip of her martini. "Back to the matter at hand."

"I'll, um, just go ahead and heat up that pizza," Tifa murmured, and she snuck past them to go behind the counter, where another bartender was standing. The bartender, a military-looking guy, looked distinctly uncomfortable. He kept wiping his hands on his apron and made quick gestures to Tifa, gestures that had her shaking her head and smiling.

Making a mental note to ask her what those gestures meant, Zack took a seat at the bar and said, "You mentioned this morning that the Turks weren't safe. What did you mean by that, exactly?"

The only indication of Cissnei's uneasiness was a faint tightening around her lips; other than that, she might as well have been carved out of marble. "Besides the obvious?"

Zack's lip quirked up as he recalled the day's events. "Besides the obvious."

"Hm." Cissnei glanced around the bar before suggesting, "How about we take this somewhere else?"

Zack frowned and briefly glanced at Aerith, who was seated at a nearby table. She shook her head, making her intention obvious: if Cissnei, a Turk, had something to say, then she could tell it to everyone here. Even the bartender, Zack noted as Tifa caught his gaze and also shook her head. Which means he's Avalanche.

Zack turned back to Cissnei.

Great.

He leaned back in his chair, determined to have at least one good thing happen today, excluding the pizza of course. "No. You'll say whatever you need to say here."

Cissnei's lips further tightened, but she only inclined her head. "If that's what you want."

"That's what I want." The microwave clicked when Tifa opened it. "So, talk to me. What's going on with the Turks?"

"Where to begin…" Cissnei glanced towards Cloud, and Zack's throat tightened a fraction at the brief look. "One of the most pressing issues is the fact that both you and Cloud have gotten on Hojo's radar. That's not a good look, Zack."

Zack made a face. "We know."

"So you found the bounty," Cissnei noted. It wasn't a question.

"We did. Shinra's pay-rolling the entire thing." Even just saying the name Shinra out loud put him in a bad mood. "And the Turks? What about them?"

But then a far quieter voice behind Zack murmured, "Hojo?"

Cloud. Zack whirled, hands pressed flat against the counter, to see Cloud seated beside Aerith. His hand was pressed against his temple, his fingers tangled in his blond hair, and his breathes were sharp gasps. Zack made a move to stand but Aerith had already snapped Cloud out of the flashback; her hands were around his, he was watching her, and she mouthed something that Zack couldn't make out. Whatever she said seemed to help though, because after a moment he relaxed a fraction. Aerith shot Zack a subtle thumbs up.

After a lengthy pause, Zack turned his attention back to Cissnei. "Maybe we should go somewhere else."

"I'm fine," Cloud said quickly. He made a move to stand, but Aerith made sure he didn't. "I'm fine, really."

"Spikey..."

"What else, Cissnei?" Cloud pointedly avoided Zack's eyes as he turned towards the Turk. "What else about Hojo?"

Cissnei paused, as if debating with herself, before smiling at him. "You don't have to be so brave, Cloud." And when Cloud blinked, taken aback by her statement, she continued, "It all started with security footage that survived the recent Mako Reactor explosion. It identified both former infantryman Cloud Strife and former Kalm resident Barret Wallace as perpetrators in the attack, and the footage circulated through Shinra's executives before landing on Hojo's desk. Hojo has an… interest in finding you, Cloud. He is the one who pitched the bounty idea to the President, who agreed."

Zack clasped his hands together. His knee bounced. Nothing of what Cissnei just said was comforting in any way. "And you mentioned that they have footage of me, too?" he asked.

Cissnei nodded. "That's right. One of the infantryman's mounted cameras got a blurry shot of you taking them out. By the way, you have a spectacular right hook," she added with a faint smile. "Perfect form."

Zack sharply exhaled between his teeth. "Damn." He had specifically aiming his blows for the cameras, but he must have missed one. That, or they made the cameras a little sturdier than they had five years ago.

Cloud cleared his throat, momentarily interrupting the conversation. "But what… what about Hojo?" he asked. "Is he after Zack and me again?"

Cissnei gave him a pitying look, but continued in her no-nonsense way, "He's not so much interested in Zack as he is with you, Cloud. At least," she added at Cloud's stricken expression, "that's what I've heard through second-hand sources."

"And how reliable are these sources?" Tifa asked, speaking up for the first time. The microwave's glass plate fumbled as it reheated leftover pizza.

A shadow flickered across Cissnei's expression, there and gone again. "Extremely," she admitted. "Hojo is the one that sponsored the bounty on Cloud, after Scarlet delivered the Reactor photo to him. He'll likely double it within the week."

Zack's fingers tapped the counter. "Scarlet, that bitch." Tifa slid a plate of pizza to him, but he suddenly wasn't hungry in the slightest. His stomach was too busy tying itself into knots, so he instead handed the pizza behind him to Cloud and Aerith. "I never liked her."

"Me neither," Cissnei agreed.

"But you still haven't explained what's going on with the Turks."

Both Aerith and Cloud split the plate of pizza; Aerith was far more enthusiastic about it, but Cloud wasn't far behind. Apparently, pizza was the perfect distraction from remembering that psychopath – the same psychopath that experimented on him for four years and put him in a coma – also put a bounty on his head.

Cissnei took a small sip of her martini. "I haven't," she noted, and then pulled a small box out of her bag. She slid over to him. "Open it," she directed, and when Zack hesitated, she added with a small sigh, "It's a present, Zack. Not a bomb."

"I don't get many presents," Zack pointed out, but did as instructed. Inside the box was a small phone, along with its specific charging cable. The charging cable looked brand new; the phone, however, looked as if it had been beat to hell and back. Scratches covered its screen, its sides were dented, and it looked like there was dirt pushed into its charging slot. On the back, a small ZF was written in permanent market.

He glanced at Cissnei with wide eyes. "How…?"

"Shinra-issued items that had belonged to MIA or KIA'ed SOLDIERs are kept in storage," Cissnei replied. "You have to have special clearance to get there, but then again, I'm a Turk. But more importantly, I adjusted the software on the way here."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that your old PHS is no longer registered under Shinra. In fact," she added with a slightly brighter smile, "they won't be able to use it to track you."

Zack ran his thumb along its weathered back. "Really?"

"Life doesn't work in guarantees, Zack, and I don't either. But in this case I'll make a rare exception. Shinra won't be able to use that PHS to track you. It's completely off the grid."

"How?"

"Well, no job is impossible for the Turks, right?" Cissnei smiled one of her small smiles, as if there was some sort of inside joke there.

Zack slipped the PHS into his pocket. "So they say."

"But I'm not just giving you your old PHS back just to be friendly. You – all of you," she added with a sweeping glance at the room, "need to stay under the radar. Not only because of Hojo, but because Tseng has given up on protecting Cloud due to the bounty. According to him, it's too high risk -"

"Bull shit," Zack hissed.

"Well, it wasn't like they were doing a great job before," Aerith added under her breath.

"- and because Cloud's current infamy is also the perfect distraction for the Turks' other goal," Cissnei finished.

Tifa handed Zack another slice of heated pizza, which he accepted with small nod. "Which is?"

Cissnei set her martini down on the counter. "You're not going to like it."

"I figured."

There was a pause, one filled with the rhythmic beeping of the microwave, before Cissnei said, "Tseng wants to use you to assassinate President Shinra."

Out of all the things Zack was bracing himself to hear, that hadn't been one of them. He couldn't help it; he laughed, a sharp sound that had the small hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

And then he went silent. It was as if something had snapped within him, and all that was left was a cold, steady rage.

Zack grabbed the slice of pizza. "Hell no," he said, taking a bite. "I'm not doing that."

Cissnei's expression softened. "I thought you'd say something like that."

"Wait." Zack's eyes widened. "Is that why you picked Cloud and I up in the wastes? Is that why I was given that contractor ID? So that – that you guys could use us?"

"No!" Cissnei said adamantly. "Not me. I swear, Zack. I didn't know what Tseng had been planning. I thought – I really thought – that we were saving your life."

"You wanted to use us," Zack repeated, bitingly.

Cissnei's expression shuttered. "Not me," she repeated in a boneless whisper. "I only wanted to help. Remember, Zack? Remember all the times I warned you when you and Cloud were on the run? Remember how I tried to help you?"

Zack turned his glare to the wall. Yes, he remembered. He had even asked her to take care of his family, since he didn't think that he could ever go home again. That particular memory still stung.

"And that's why I'm here now, Zack. To help you." Cissnei ran a finger along the martini glass' lip, and it hummed beneath her touch. Her gaze was distant as she watched the liquid vibrate. "I'm risking a lot to be here right now. Turks don't betray the organization, after all, and if Tseng found out… Well, it would be my early retirement," she finished with a small grin his way.

Zack frowned. He admittedly hadn't thought of that.

"Tseng wouldn't do that to you," he decided.

Cissnei only shook her head. "Have you ever heard the name Vincent Valentine?" she asked.

"No." Cissnei faintly smiled, as if that was answer enough. Familiar worry needled Zack. "Why?" he asked, unable to stop himself. "What's in it for you?"

For a long moment, Cissnei said nothing. She only pushed her full glass towards the bartender, signaling that she was done, and collected her small bag before rising to her feet. "Truthfully? Nothing at all, yet at the same time… everything."

Zack's brow furrowed at the cryptic answer. "What does that mean?"

"Don't worry about it. And I have to go, but… thanks for hearing me out. Maybe I'll see you again sometime." She then glanced behind Zack to smile at Cloud, who had one hand pressed against his head and another holding half eaten pizza crust. "And I hope you feel better soon, Cloud. Stay safe, okay?"

Cloud, despite his pallor and guarded expression, tentatively returned her smile. "'Kay."

Zack walked Cissnei to the front door, and eventually to the dirt road out front. The roads were empty this late. The gas streetlamps flickered above them as they splashed orange light onto the gravel. Crickets chirped in the dark.

"Are you going to stay with the Turks?" Zack asked.

Cissnei shook her head. "After this? No."

Neither of them mentioned that there's no such thing as quitting the Turks.

Zack shoved his hands into his pockets. "So what would you do after?"

"I'm not sure." Cissnei tilted her chin back so that she could see the underside of the upper plate. Faint lights flickered against their dark metal. "I've been dreaming of flying lately, and maybe even seeing the stars again. Maybe that's an omen," she added with a faint grin. "You know, thinking about the heavens."

Zack's expression soured. Angeal could fly thanks to his advanced degradation, and he could vividly remember his single white wing splay across the sky. He remembered wishing that he could fly like that, too.

He didn't wish for that anymore.

"That's not even funny," Zack told her.

Cissnei laughed as if it was, but then she sobered. Her expression shifted; she was still smiling, but now she only looked sad when she looked up to him. A stray breeze pushed her copper hair over her shoulders. "Take care of yourself, Zack. I mean it. Don't do anything stupid."

"I never do anything stupid," Zack scoffed.

Cissnei laughed again, and then with a final wave began walking down the slum road. Her footsteps echoed hollow against the dirt as the streetlights split her shadow.

"By the way, Zack," she called over her shoulder. "You stink."

Zack flipped her the bird.

She laughed again before turning the corner, and then she was gone.

Elena, crouching beneath the Seventh Heaven window, couldn't have been happier. She ended her phone's audio recording before slipping down the alleyway, a smile on her face and her phone secure in her pocket. Before long, she was in Sector Six pillar taking a hidden, executive-only Shinra elevator to the upper plate.

She had heard everything Cissnei had said inside the bar.

And soon…

Tseng would hear everything, too.

Tifa and Aerith's POVs were the absolutely hardest ones to write, if only because I had to write them over and over and over again. Like literally in the first few drafts, Tifa and Zack didn't have their heart to heart talk (if it could even be called such a thing?) and instead, Tifa was insecure about how well she knew Cloud and had trouble picking out what vending machine food Cloud would want. That's what you guys almost read. And as for Aerith's POV, at first I made that ghost her mom (Ilfana) who after death had attached itself to one of the trains, but the more I read it the more I didn't like it. If I'm going to add Ilfana to the story, I would want her to take a much larger part of the story instead of a one-off train scene thing, so instead I changed the ghost to be a random kid to highlight Aerith's kindness and connectedness to the Lifestream. I figured that would fit better in this chapter than trying to do something too crazy.

But anyway, moving on: If you enjoy story updates or chapter previews, feel free to follow my twitter at Rand0mSmil3z! Links to my Ko-Fi page can also be found there if you'd like to support my writing, but there's absolutely no pressure to do so - if you're enjoying the story, then I'm happy :)

Until next time: Stay well, stay safe, and I wish you all the best :)