By a Fraction of a Degree
A FFVII Fanfiction work by findthetiger129
Rated T for Violence and Language.
I do not own Final Fantasy VII, or any of the characters, trademarks or likenesses from Final Fantasy VII or its spin-offs That honor goes to Square-Enix.
Part II: Reunion
Chapter 35, Into the Lifestream
December 30th [ ν ] – εуλ 0007
Morning dawned bright and early as the Tiny Bronco sailed along the shore line towards a small beach near Banora's western edge. It was still a mile or so to the actual ruins, but that was as close as its pilot could get the craft they had at their disposal without endangering its cargo. Tifa sat on the wing next to where Cloud rested, making sure he wasn't going anywhere, while Rayleigh sat on the other side of him, helping her keep him secure. Kunsel was seated on the other side of the cockpit, eyes alert for any possible dangers while Freya carefully piloted the craft, making sure to avoid waves and swells so as to make the journey as smooth as possible.
Cloud had not made any sign that he was aware of the goings on, but Tifa was hopeful. As soon as Zack had called her last night, sounding somewhat like he had a head cold, to tell her they wanted him in Banora first thing in the morning, she'd felt her heart lift. There was something that could be done after all. "Just hang on a little longer Cloud. We're coming," she thought. The beach had just come into their field of vision and she could see two familiar figures waiting at the line where the sand met grassy fields and brush.
Zack spotted them first, and she could see him pointing them out to Aerith before they walked to the sand and waved them in. Freya carefully steered the seaplane in at a point where the surf wasn't quite so rough and soon they had made landfall. "Glad to see you made it!" The dark-haired swordsman called up to them. "Did you have any trouble?"
"Not really. Freya sailed us real smooth," Kunsel said.
Zack then turned his attention to what he was really worried about. "How's he doing?"
"Still no signs of coherence, but other than that, he's stayed stable," Rayleigh answered. She had insisted on coming along due to the unorthodox nature of what they were about to attempt.
Once he was satisfied Zack turned his attention to Tifa, while wading out into the shallows to help Kunsel with the ropes they were going to use to pull the craft out on the beach where the surf wouldn't wash it away in their absence. "What about you Tifa? Are you doing all right?"
"We got him through the night just fine," she answered. "We even got him to eat a little this morning."
"I'm definitely glad about that, but it wasn't what I asked." Zack clarified. By now Kunsel had joined him in the water and they were getting ready to pull.
"I'm okay. I really wish there was more I could have done…"
"It's not your fault," He nodded to Kunsel on the other side of the nose of the plane and they proceeded to drag the aircraft up onto solid ground. "More than anything… I should be apologizing to you for not being able to keep him out of trouble… but that's not the point." He grunted the last part of the sentence as he heaved forward a final time and the plane now rolled up on its landing gear and off its pontoons. He and Kunsel secured the plane to a nearby rock with the ropes before he walked over to the wing and proceeded to help Tifa lower Cloud to the ground. Once he had him secure in his grasp, he draped Cloud's arm over his shoulder and hitched him up by his waist in a motion that belied a lot of practice. "What we've got to do now is make it right." Once everyone was on dry land, Zack and Aerith led the way, the ex-SOLDIER carrying Cloud as gently as he could.
Tifa stayed next to Cloud, keeping an eye out for any brush that might hinder Zack's movement while the others were behind them. They eventually made it to a worn dirt road which showed signs of having been recently cleared somewhat by a large object.
"I cleaned out some of the brush here to make it easier to get in," Zack explained when he saw her taking in the debris on the sides of the path.
"Ah, I see."
They walked a little further before coming to a clearing with a chair near a dumbapple tree. She was rather surprised to see it, since they'd become rather rare as of late. Dumbapple juice from the Mideel region was a popular additive for certain mixed drinks, but it was expensive, since there weren't a lot of producers left.
"I'll bet you never thought we'd come back here, huh Cloud?" Zack's words broke her out of her thoughts as the ex-SOLDIER paused in the middle of the clearing, and at that moment she caught sight of the ashes of a campfire nearby. This must have been where he and Aerith had camped for the night.
There was no response to his query from the blond swordsman.
Zack on the other hand seemed to have accepted it. It had been hard to watch him at the chocobo farm as he'd tried vainly to get Cloud's attention, but it seemed that his brief absence had been enough to help him get his head back on straight. Now, he just looked calm and determined. "So, are we ready?" he asked when the others joined him.
"I think I am," Aerith said.
"Okay," Zack said. "How do you want him?"
"Why don't we let him lie down here," the Cetra indicated a patch of grass under the shade of the tree.
Zack nodded and turned to Kunsel. "Could you go over to our stuff and get a bedroll for me?"
He nodded and immediately went to carry out the request. Before long, he'd set it out on the spot Aerith had indicated.
Zack moved to lower Cloud onto it, but Tifa walked forward at that moment to help him along with Kunsel. Once the swordsman was lying on his back, Tifa sat down behind him and gently pulled him so his head rested in her lap. Upon seeing the gesture, Zack smiled. "I guess he could use a pillow, huh."
"This is fine," Tifa assured him.
"That means you'll be going in with us," Aerith said.
"I wanted to go even before you told me," she answered, one hand balling into a fist. "I'm not losing him either."
Aerith put a hand on her shoulder. "Then we'll look for him together."
"We'll keep watch while you're busy then," Freya suggested, taking a seat near the ashes of the fire.
"Probably not a bad idea," Zack agreed. "I don't know how long this is going to take, but it'd be pretty awkward if something got the drop on us."
Kunsel backed away so he stood next to the lady Turk. "We'll be right here with Rayleigh so don't worry."
Zack nodded before taking off the Buster Sword, sticking it into the ground and sitting down next to Tifa.
No words needed to be said as they looked at each other, though Tifa saw Aerith take hold of Zack's hand before setting her staff before her and instructing them to shut their eyes. The last thing Tifa noticed before the world changed was a green glow peeking under her eyelids…
When Zack opened his eyes he found himself standing in the middle of the field with the vast open sky above it, and there was no one else around. He had expected this to happen, since this was where he'd ended up before. But still, it would have been nice to have everyone around. No time to fret about it. He considered where he needed to go. A dirt road led out of the field, and so he decided to head in that direction. He could feel the Buster Sword on his back as he walked, and felt content in knowing that if he were faced with an adversary, he could fight.
Upon walking further from the center of the field, he found himself looking out on a strange sight even working with Aerith hadn't prepared him for. It seemed that rather than connecting to Aerith's 'field', for lack of a better term, this road seemed to be suspended out over a vast empty space before disappearing into fog of green mist. Further, he could distinctly hear a pervasive cacophony of whispers surrounding the path on which he stood. "Hello?!" he called out into the void. "Tifa? Aerith! Can anyone hear me?"
No response.
Zack took in his surroundings. He didn't feel insecure here, in spite of the eerie reminders of his time bathing in the mako tank. Perhaps this was because they were taking an indirect approach rather than actually immersing themselves in the stuff. It may not have been leading to a clear destination, but the road he was on seemed to lead somewhere. The first time they'd tried this, the road had led to Aerith, so maybe if he followed this road, it would lead him to Cloud. It was a legitimate theory anyway.
Squaring his shoulders, he started along the path, trying to ignore the swirling green that surrounded him, and the whispers that echoed in his ears. It was hard when they were everywhere.
He had been walking for some time when up ahead the area around him suddenly began to get a little more… well, if he had to put it into words, he supposed he would have to describe it as 'weird.' Rather than a linear sort of space like what his own and Aerith's appeared to be, what ground had appeared before him seemed rocky and broken up, floating around the path at various levels. Some of it might have even been blasted apart. It kind of reminded him of a belt of rocks that had been circling the sun in Bugenhagen's observatory, and that did not seem like a good thing. At the very least, these didn't seem to be moving anywhere.
The path continued deeper into the field of rocks before he suddenly found himself coming upon the shattered remains of a mountain path covered in snow. His boot had just crunched onto the fresh powder and the ice that had hardened below it when up ahead of him he saw a figure standing at the summit. Upon coming closer, he found himself looking at the figure of a lone trooper, watching the snow fall onto what appeared to be an old excavation site below, though in places, it looked like huge chunks of the scene had been gouged away revealing the green swirling abyss beyond.
He called out to the trooper when he reached the summit. "Cloud?"
The trooper looked in his direction, not taking off his helmet. "Don't lie to yourself Zack. He was right… I'm not… I was his puppet, all along. Forget about me… I'll only get in your way."
Zack shook his head. "Sorry, I can't accept that. I don't know what he said, but we didn't come in here after you just so you could tell us you believe that son of a…"
"We?" the trooper looked surprised even under the helmet.
"Yes, 'we.' I don't know where they are exactly, but Tifa and Aerith are somewhere around here too. So try to work with us a little. We came to help. Now take that helmet off. I know who's hiding under there."
The trooper paused. "I don't think there's anything you can do to help… I'm not…"
Zack put both hands on the trooper's shoulders emphatically. "Stop saying that! Of course you're Cloud. I don't know how we're going to prove it, but if it takes us all day we are going to set things straight. So just give us a little time, okay?"
The trooper looked down at the ground and sighed. It was as close to a surrender as Zack thought he could get from his friend, and so he reached up and lifted the helmet off his head. He was surprised to see the face that lay underneath it. It was indeed Cloud's but he was as Zack had first seen him here at this mountain, a teenager, still smarting from his failure to make it into SOLDIER, though Zack hadn't known that yet. He decided to run with it. Stranger things had happened before. "You see?" he said. "There's no monster," he offered a grin, though Cloud backed away when it looked like he might be about to try ruffling his spikes. At that moment, his attention seemed to be caught by another familiar voice.
"Yo! Don't fall too far behind!" Zack turned to see his younger self calling back to a younger Tseng as he walked next to another trooper. As they approached, past Zack turned to face the trooper. "At least someone's keeping up!"
The trooper spoke softly when he answered. "Well, I'm a country boy too."
"From where?"
"Nibelheim," the trooper said.
Past Zack quickly burst out laughing and the trooper asked "How about you?"
"Me? Gongaga." His past self was grinning like a maniac even as the trooper started chuckling himself.
His past self stopped. "Hey! What's so funny about that? You know Gongaga?"
The trooper shook his head, still grinning under the helmet. "No, but it's such a backwater name."
"Ditto Nibelheim." With that, his past self continued up the path.
"Like you've been there," the trooper said.
"I haven't, but there's a reactor there, right?" The trooper nodded at past Zack's observation and he continued. "A mako reactor outside of Midgar usually means..."
The two spoke the next line in unison, "Nothing else out there," before breaking into laughter again.
Zack's younger self looked back down the hill and called "Good news, Tseng! Me and…" he paused and looked over at the trooper.
He pulled off his own helmet revealing a second younger Cloud as he spoke his name and past Zack continued. "Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts. Oh yeah!"…
Zack looked away from the scene and over where what he assumed was 'present Cloud' stood. "You seem to remember how we met pretty well."
"Only because you told me. The Jenova cells probably filled in the rest…"Cloud walked away from him and Zack could see the dirt road he'd been following leading deeper into whatever this place was, so he decided to follow it, catching up to his friend. He was so much shorter here. It was a little jarring. "Okay, why don't we try thinking of something else then?" Zack suggested after a moment.
"I don't know what you could suggest…"
"What happened to that promise of yours?"
Instead of having the desired effect, it seemed to make Cloud even more slumped over. "It wasn't enough," he mumbled. Zack looked ahead of him and saw they were walking towards Nibelheim as it stood today, vacant and empty. It wasn't long after when they found themselves somewhere Zack wished he couldn't go back to and he almost recoiled. But he forced himself to look at the interior of Hojo's lab. It was empty.
"You know, Rayleigh said your scars matched up, so why would you not think that's evidence?"
Cloud continued to stare at the floor. "I don't remember anything about the lab, and if what Sephiroth said was true, then it would be easy for me to change my appearance."
"What about what happened while we were in the lab with Tifa and the others? Those were memories, right?" Zack asked.
Almost immediately he regretted asking as he looked over at the operating table and there was a brief flash of a figure lying bound upon its surface, blue eyes wide with terror as a hunched man descended with a scalpel. "Rayleigh's reports…" Cloud intoned. "We both saw them, and you confirmed a lot of them."
The scene vanished, leaving the lab empty and Zack walked deeper into the room. "Yeah, they were pretty horrible. But that's no reason to think you aren't the real deal. If anything, I would think that would make our case more convincing."
"Even when you said what Hojo was doing was killing me…"
"It was. I know. I had to watch."
"Then, if I am Cloud, how am I even here now Zack?"
"Because you were tough," Zack said. "And because I wasn't about to leave you when I escaped."
Cloud shook his head in disbelief. "That's your reason?"
"One of them," Zack said. "Let's keep going, maybe we can find some more."
Cloud didn't look like he believed him, but he shrugged and they continued down the path. Up ahead, something rumbled violently and he heard a voice echoing through the vast space they were in. It took him a moment to make it out but he did manage to pick it up eventually.
"Failed…"
He heard a moan from the young teenager standing beside him and turned to see he'd crouched to the ground, clutching his head in pain. "Cloud!" he knelt down next to him trying to figure out what was wrong, and really wished he knew if there was something he could do about it. Did Cure spells work on someone's subconscious self?
"Don't bother…" the younger man said. The pain seemed to have been momentary, though it had clearly left him breathless.
"Why shouldn't I? We're friends right?"
"But I failed at so many things. I failed at getting into SOLDIER, I couldn't help anyone when it mattered…"
Zack stretched as they continued onward. "Hey, there's a lot of things I wish I could have done better, but you can't let that get to you. There's also a lot of things you've done pretty damn good. Like for one thing, Kunsel told me about what happened with that robot on the Midgar highway. That was no failure. You helped keep Aerith safe when I couldn't be there, I owe you big time for that... And then there was the Gold Saucer. You totally beasted with Joe's chocobo in the race, and you didn't do too shabby in Battle Square either. Tifa and Barret would both be dead if not for you, and let's not forget the biggest thing of all, at Nibelheim it was you who killed Sephiroth, not me…"
"What does it matter? He seems pretty alive to me, and even if saving Tifa was my idea, I didn't do it alone, and it was on the ideas of someone who isn't even alive." Cloud wasn't looking at him anymore.
Zack frowned again but upon looking ahead of him he saw what appeared to be an intersection of the path with two forks, and on the path to his right, he could see two people approaching. He couldn't quite see who they were yet, but when he saw that the taller of the two was wielding an ornate staff he felt he had a pretty good idea of at least one of their identities. "I don't know about that, but I think we're about to find Aerith. Maybe she's found something."
Aerith had been walking for some time along the road through the mists when she saw what appeared to be a young boy standing at a gate up ahead. Upon coming closer, she realized it was the gate to Nibelheim, and the young boy in front of her was none other than Cloud. Though to her eye, he couldn't be much older than ten. Eleven at most. "Cloud?"
The boy looked up. "Aerith? What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you of course. What else would we be doing here?"
The blue eyes that met her green ones looked far older than any child should have. "Why would you deceive yourselves?"
"Why would we?" Aerith repeated. "Would you walk with me?"
Cloud followed after her as they strolled through the empty village. When they reached the well however, Aerith heard the sounds of someone coming. She paused, listening before a familiar man appeared. She was about to call his name, when she saw he was desperately dragging a familiar young man with him in a SOLDIER uniform. Zack had appeared, looking around warily and dragging a comatose Cloud towards them.
"He's always been like that," Cloud murmured. "He didn't deserve what happened to him. What I've been putting him through. Especially not when I'm not even the one he wanted to… When I wasn't even worth… He'd have been better off if he'd left me..."
Aerith frowned at him. "You think you weren't worth saving?"
"How could I be when over and over again, I failed so horribly? I didn't make it into SOLDIER. I couldn't protect Tifa. I couldn't keep Sephiroth from destroying our home. I didn't even make a good enough experiment to be worth giving a number…" As he spoke, the Zack from the past continued to drag his charge out of the village and disappeared into the ether.
"Stop it," Aerith chided suddenly understanding something. "This is Nibelheim right?"
The boy nodded.
"Well, then take me to the reactor."
"Why?"
"Because I want to verify something," Aerith knew the story well. She just hoped Cloud's memory of it was more intact than his memories of the lab. The young boy nodded and they followed the path until up ahead, she saw the entrance to the reactor, at the top of a flight of stairs. Just ahead of them, she saw a trooper race through the door and knew it was Cloud's teenage self. They followed him through the door and along the catwalks until they saw him stop at a prone figure on the floor and tried to shake her awake. "Hey… Freya…"
The woman groaned but didn't move and Cloud tried again. "Freya! Come on, tell me you're alive! Get up!" Freya groaned again. "Just wait a little longer." He hurried through the door leading to the core, and as they passed the lady Turk to enter the room, Aerith saw an antechamber filled with pods and leading up a set of stairs to an open doorway underneath a plaque with the word JENOVA written upon it. The scene before her took her breath away. A younger version of Tifa lay injured nearby and the sound of clashing swords could be heard from the other room. After a particularly loud clang, a body flew through the door at the top of the stairs and Aerith gasped when she saw Zack land on his back at the top of the stairs before bouncing into the air from the force of the impact and landing face down on the stairs. An unenhanced man would have died from that and she resisted the urge to run to him knowing it was only a memory.
The young trooper climbed the stairs and Aerith and the child followed him to peer into the room where Jenova waited. Sephiroth had pulled her mask away to reveal the abomination within the tank, his attention only on her as the young trooper pulled the Buster Sword out of the soft metal it had cleaved into to stand upright when Zack had been knocked out of the room. He picked up the heavy weapon and climbed the tube leading to the tank. Grimly, he ran Sephiroth through the back with enough force to send a sharp crack through the glass. "You… who… who are you….?" Sephiroth growled, but the trooper ignored his question.
Instead he pushed the sword deeper. "Mom… Tifa… my town… give it back… I had so much respect for you… I admired you…"
The silver haired man collapsed on top of the pipe and after dislodging the Buster Sword, Cloud walked back out into the antechamber, and hurried down the stairs to check on Tifa. Aerith steeled herself for what she knew was coming next as Sephiroth limped out of Jenova's chamber, carrying her head and his eyes landed on the young trooper. "How dare you…!"
Zack attempted to pull himself up at that point, and she heard him grit out "Cloud… Finish Sephiroth off…"
Cloud looked at his friend and nodded before gently putting Tifa down, hefting the weapon once more and standing before the wounded general. With a loud battle cry, "Sephiroth!", he rushed up the stairs ready to strike. Leaping into the air, he came down hard on Sephiroth's blade, but the far more experienced fighter flicked the Masamune such that the younger man landed in Jenova's chamber, the Buster Sword flying askew.
Cloud had no time to pick himself up before the silver haired man impaled Masamune through his chest and lifted him up into the air. The general gave him a look of utter hatred as he growled malevolently "Don't… test me!"
Aerith brought her hand up to her mouth, forcing herself to look on, tears falling from her eyes. Ignoring the pain he was obviously in, the young trooper glared down at his tormentor, before gripping the blade and pulling himself to the ground, holding it solidly in his hands.
"No...! Impossible!" Sephiroth exclaimed. With a burst of strength that was almost inhuman, Cloud angrily lifted the general into the air and used the Masamune to throw him into a wall. The sword flew free as Sephiroth fell into the bowels of the reactor below and Cloud steadied himself. After a moment, the exhausted trooper dragged himself back into the antechamber to collapse down the stairs…
"I don't understand how you can say you don't have any worth, or how you could call that failing for that matter." Aerith turned to her small companion.
"What don't you understand about it?" The child asked. "I let the man who I thought was my hero destroy everything... The most I could do was attack him while his back was turned!"
"The fact you were even capable of fighting him at the time was amazing," Aerith said. "And none of this could have been helped. How would you have known it would happen?"
"I don't know… but…" Cloud stopped talking and he shut his eyes, doubling over, and grasping his head in his hands, moaning in pain.
Aerith knelt by him "What's wrong?" As soon as she asked, a wave of echoes rippled through the chamber. There was no mistaking the word cascading through the walls, causing them to fade and darken. The world around them seemed to be shattering from the sound.
"Failed…"
It was the status report she'd retrieved from him at the lab. She recognized it now as Zack and Tifa faded away, leaving them alone on the road she'd been traveling down. "How could you measure yourself by Hojo's opinion? Or limit yourself by it?"
Cloud didn't say anything.
Aerith put a hand on his shoulder. "We've all been really worried about you. I know it's been hard, and you're probably very confused, but the least you can do is not give up, and let us help, all right? Can you at least promise me that?"
"But what if I'm not who you think I am?" Cloud asked.
"Well then, we'll just have to keep looking. But I'm pretty sure you are. After all, you remembered who Tifa was right away when you saw her on the TV, how would a copy know that was her?"
"It was Freya…" Cloud said softly. "She didn't know what she was doing. She was trying to get Cloud's attention. She didn't know she was giving me information to use. To make me into a better copy…"
Aerith shook her head. "And how does that argument make any sense at all? If you don't think you are Cloud then why would his accomplishments or failures mean anything to you?"
Cloud looked up at her startled and she continued. "Memories are nothing without the feelings attached to them. Tell me, if you aren't the real Cloud, then what do you feel when you think of me? Or Zack? Or Tifa? If you were truly just a clone would you even have such thoughts?"
"I don't know…" Cloud admitted.
"Well, don't think for a second that you weren't worth saving. Zack believes you are, and so do I. He and Tifa are here looking for you right now too, so why don't we go find them, okay?"
"But won't I just hurt them?" he asked.
Aerith shook her head. "No you won't. If anything, staying here will just make them worry more," she reached out for his hand to pull him up. "Come on. Let's go."
After a moment, the boy stood. "All right."
Aerith smiled and as the two of them began walking again, she thought she spotted a crossroads up ahead intersecting three paths, with a platform in the center that could be reached by a set of bridges. Upon getting closer, she saw down the fork to her left that two other people were coming towards them. One of them was Zack.
Tifa had been surprised to find herself standing in the middle of Seventh Heaven. The bar was to her left and just ahead of her she could see the old pinball machine with the secret door leading down into AVALANCHE's planning room. It felt warm and familiar and she was struck by the merriment that seemed to fill the place in spite of the fact that no one sat at the tables. After a moment of taking it in, she went to the swinging doors, thinking she would see the Sector Seven slums outside, however upon opening them and walking down the stairs, she found herself standing on a paved road leading into what looked like a green abyss. Since it was the only direction available to her at the moment, she decided to travel along it. After a while it became broken up and rocky, before turning completely to dirt.
It wasn't long after this when she began to see large chunks of rock hanging in the mist. Some of it looked like it might have been part of a coherent space at some point, but she couldn't be sure. She had been walking for some time when up ahead she found herself looking at the old well in Nibelheim, and right in front of it, regarding it with a tired expression, was a familiar blond swordsman.
"Cloud!" she ran up to him as he turned to face her, and his eyes widened.
At that moment, something strange reverberated through the entire area in a rumble. An unearthly voice speaking a single word. "Failed…" Cloud seemed to crumple as though it physically hurt him and she hurried over.
"Tifa?" Upon her approach she was surprised to see him scramble away from her. "Don't!" he begged, standing again only so he could keep his distance. "Just let me go…"
"Don't be stupid!" she exclaimed. "I'm trying to help you."
"I don't know how you can…" he said softly. "Or why you'd want to…"
"What do you mean? Haven't we been friends since we were little? Why wouldn't I want to help?"
"You were friends with Cloud," the swordsman answered.
"But you are Cloud, aren't you? You remembered the promise and came to save me and Barret when Shinra would have killed us. That was you right? Zack said it was your idea."
Cloud shook his head. "I thought it was my idea, but…"
A strange sensation flowed through the empty space. It felt warm and wet, and in her thoughts she found herself experiencing the sensation of a bright light coming from somewhere and a familiar voice. "Cloud, do you remember the promise you made to Tifa? About how when you made SOLDIER you would keep her safe? When everything happened at… When it happened, you were so worried. But it's all right… You did it. She made it out safely… and I know she's out there somewhere… So try to wake up for real, okay?"
As the sensations, and Freya's voice faded, Cloud hung his head.
"That doesn't mean you aren't the real Cloud," Tifa argued. She walked up to the well and climbed up the ladder leading to the platform. Cloud appeared across from her as two familiar children appeared between them. "You remember don't you?" she indicated the blue dress her younger self was wearing. "This was my favorite dress," she gestured to the younger boy with a short rat tail, and spikes that even then had been impossible to tame. "And that's you, right there! You were so small then…" she sat down next to her younger self, turning a little pink as she looked away from him. "…And cute," she added as an afterthought, before moving on to her next argument.
"That sky up there…" She indicated the night sky awash with stars, brighter than they'd been in Cosmo Canyon. "Did you imagine it? No, you remembered it. How else could it be this vivid here? Don't you remember? It was just you and me… and we talked at the well." She turned to look hard at him. "When you and Zack rescued me in Midgar, I never doubted you were Cloud from Nibelheim. I still believe that's the truth, and so does everyone else…"
Cloud refused to look her in the eye, or even respond.
Tifa sighed. "You don't believe it yourself anymore, do you? Sephiroth's hurt you so much you don't even know what's real." She lowered herself down from the water tower and stood on the dirt path waiting for Cloud to join her. "I guess this memory isn't enough anymore."
She walked along the road a few more steps before a thought occurred to her. "Cloud, what about your other memories?" She paused to rethink the question as the man looked at her curiously. "Maybe not memories, exactly. A memory is something that has to be consciously recalled, right? That's why they can be confusing and not add up sometimes. But that's different from the feelings attached to them…"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" Cloud still wasn't looking at her but she walked around him and tried to meet his eyes.
"What about another memory that has to do with me? If we told you about it, then it might not be a memory, but if you tell me something and I remember it too, then we'll know for sure you're you, right?"
Cloud frowned, trying to think. "I don't know…" he repeated softly.
Tifa was almost pleading now. "Talk to me. About anything, some memory that's important to you…" When he didn't respond she brought her pointer finger up to her chin, trying to think of something. "Now that I think about it, why did you want to join SOLDIER in the first place? I always thought it was a sudden decision you made…"
The man standing in front of her spoke, but somehow a second, louder voice also echoed through the space they inhabited. "…I was devastated. …I wanted to be noticed."
Cloud continued the train of thought as naturally as if it were his own. "I thought if I got stronger I could get someone to notice…"
Tifa looked at him, surprised. "Someone to notice you…? …Who?"
"Who…? …You know who! …You, that's who!" The louder voice intoned.
Cloud seemed be horribly embarrassed when he spoke a single word. "You…"
Tifa looked surprised. "…Me? Why!?"
Cloud's eyes glazed over and he seemed to have been lost to somewhere they couldn't even reach in this dimension, but another, younger voice rang out ahead of them on the path. "Tifa…did you forget…about those days?"
She looked up to see a very small boy, not much older than five. In spite of the age difference, there was no way she could miss the spiky head of hair. This boy was also Cloud. "Look… I… I'm sorry…" She said, "But what are you talking about?"
The boy gestured that she come closer as he shook his head. "No…it's all right. You were having a hard time back then," he continued, "You were so busy with your own things, it's only natural you don't remember me."
"Back then?" she asked.
The boy nodded. "It's important to me… I hate to say it… But it's a very important memory…" He looked up at her gravely. "Do you want to see it?"
Another vibration racked its way through the area and the older Cloud seemed to sway, clutching his head in agony. While Tifa fought to keep her balance, the younger Cloud looked around worriedly. "We may not have a lot of time…" he walked over to the older Cloud and the water tower behind the swordsman disappeared to be replaced by a familiar window. "Come on!" the younger boy called.
The older Cloud stepped to the side, and when Tifa passed him to look through the window, she distinctly heard him muttering "…a sealed up secret… wish… tender memories… no one can ever know…"
The boy gestured to the scene before them. "Do you know where this window goes to, Tifa?"
Tifa looked around her as the scenery changed and the three of them no longer stood outside the scene but physically inside of the building to which the window was attached. "My room?" she asked.
The boy nodded again. "It was my first time there."
Tifa frowned, trying to remember. "Was…it?"
"I only used to look up at it from outside," the younger Cloud said.
Four figures appeared in the room. One of them, Tifa could see was her younger self, curled up at the foot of the bed in tears, while three other boys about her age were standing around her. One of them looked out the window and said "Hey, look! Cloud's coming! You think he wants to come in?"
Tifa's younger self looked up at the question before lowering her head again without a response.
"Was that the first day you came into my room?" Tifa asked. Then a new realization hit her. "...Wait, that's right. We lived next to each other, but I really didn't know you that well." She blinked as it came flooding back. "I've known you since we were children, and always thought we were close…" she walked closer to the group, still thinking. "Now that you mention it…I don't recall you ever being in my room…"
The younger Cloud spoke again. "You always used to be with this three-some."
Now that she looked, each of the boys did seem familiar. "…That's right," she confirmed.
The younger Cloud turned away from her and now he lowered his gaze to the floor. "I used to think…they were all stupid."
Tifa turned to face him in surprise. "What!?"
"You were all childish, laughing at every little stupid thing."
She frowned. "But we were children, back then."
The boy sighed. "…I know. I'm the one that was stupid. I really wanted to play with everyone, but I was never allowed into the group." He faced her with a shrug. "Then later… I began to think I was different. Different from those immature kids. And maybe…"
The older Cloud seemed to flicker as he took a step towards the children in the memory, but it was again the disembodied voice that spoke, completing the younger Cloud's thoughts. "Just maybe, they would invite me in… I thought that might happen, so I hung around… I was so prejudiced, and… weak. The night I called Tifa out to the well…" The older Cloud continued to flicker, but the expression of uncertainty, and the traces of hopelessness were impossible to miss. "I thought to myself she would never come…that she hated me."
Not knowing who else to address, Tifa nodded to Cloud's older self. "Yeah… it was so sudden. I was… a bit surprised. But… It's true that we weren't THAT close, but…" she turned back to the scene which seemed to have frozen by her bed. "After you left town, I really thought about you a lot. I used to wonder how you were doing. I wondered if you had gotten into SOLDIER. I started reading the newspapers, thinking that there might be an article about you. "
The younger boy smiled. "Thanks Tifa." He glanced over at the older Cloud. "Tell him what you told me, later. He'll probably be so happy."
"Okay," Tifa agreed.
The older Cloud looked pained again as another vibration rumbled through the area and for a moment the scene in the corner phased out before reappearing. The younger Cloud steadied himself, once again alerted to the fact they had a limited amount of time. "We need to hurry."
Tifa nodded grimly. "All right, so what happened on this day? Was it special?"
The younger Cloud looked at her sadly before glancing at his older self. "This was the day…"
"Tifa's mother…" the voice supplied.
It suddenly made sense. "The day Mom died…?" Tifa asked, but she almost hadn't needed to as her younger self seemed to have become animated in the corner again and was speaking between sobs.
"I want… to see…Mom…" With that, she ran past the other children and Cloud's younger self. A new scene played through Tifa's mind, and she found she was watching herself walk towards Mt. Nibel, hearing the other children speak through Cloud's ears, punctuated by his breathing has he struggled to catch up to the group. "…I wonder if there's anything beyond that mountain?" she heard her younger self say.
"Mt. Nibel is scary. Many people have died there," one of the other boys said.
Another sounded worried as he said, "No one crosses that mountain alive…"
Her younger self glared at the last boy who had spoken. "How 'bout those that died? Did mama pass through the mountains?" Through Cloud's eyes, she saw herself walk further up the path, squaring her shoulders in determination. "I'm going."
Cloud had almost caught up and he passed one of the other boys who had turned around after deciding not to follow her. The other boy noticed him but didn't acknowledge him as he walked past. Cloud's younger self hurried onward, struggling to catch up to the rest of the group, though the scene changed at that point and she could see herself walking across a bridge. The other two boys had just turned back, and Cloud had gone past them to catch up to her.
"I don't remember the path I was on," she heard Cloud's older self say, "Tifa missed her step. …I ran to her…but didn't make it in time. Both of us fell off the cliff." She saw herself stumble and the bridge jostled in his vision as she could feel him running breathlessly closer, emotions running high as the boy tried vainly to catch the girl. She then felt the gut wrenching sensation of a long fall. When Cloud's vision cleared, he had looked over at Tifa to find her not moving. "Back then, I only scarred my knees but…"
A familiar, yet furious voice, her father she realized, entered her awareness through Cloud's senses and he looked up to see him looking down at him with angry disapproval. "Cloud! Why'd you bring Tifa to a place like this!"
Thoughts of explaining rushed through his mind in a torrent but for whatever reason, the words couldn't come and he sat there mutely, looking up at the man. "What the hell's the matter with you?!" her father thundered. "What if she dies!?" One of their neighbors had picked up Tifa's younger self and was already carrying her back towards the town, and her father followed after him, clearly much more worried about her than anything else. Cloud's younger self simply sat there, hanging his head. The emotions running through his thoughts in a torrent all too familiar now that Tifa recognized them for what they were. Failure… It was his fault she was like this.
His older self interrupted as the scene faded into the dark. "Tifa was in a coma for seven days. We all thought she wouldn't make it. If only I could have saved her… I was so angry… Angry at myself for my weakness. Ever since then, I felt Tifa blamed me… I got out of control… I'd get into fights, not even caring who it was... That was the first time I heard about Sephiroth. If I got stronger like Sephiroth then everyone might…" The light returned to her eyes and she found herself standing alone on the path facing Cloud's older self, and right next to him was a shadow, still speaking in his voice. "If I could just get stronger…Then even Tifa would have to notice me…"
Tifa's eyes widened in understanding. "So that was it…" She looked at his older self, hoping he would actually hear her. "Sorry Cloud. If I had only remembered what had happened, I could have helped you sooner."
The shadow was already starting to fade back into the Lifestream, but Cloud's older self remained and his eyes seemed to clear a little as he shook his head. "It's not your fault, Tifa."
"But now I do…" she smiled back at him in triumph as a new realization hit her. "Cloud, I think we've done it! You're memories weren't made up! This is our proof!"
Cloud looked at her in surprise. He seemed more aware than he had in a while as though he had only just truly woken up, and then as he looked at her, his face hardened in determination. "We need to find Zack and Aerith."
Another quake shook the road on which they stood, and Cloud barely kept his balance. Whatever it was had definitely hurt, but instead of curling in on himself, he gritted his teeth, forcing himself to keep his eyes open as he glared down the road in the direction Tifa assumed they needed to go. Whatever these vibrations were coming from, the epicenter seemed to lie that way. Once she had her balance she walked over to help steady him, and he breathed hard a few times before pulling himself fully upright again. He glanced back at her before reaching for the simple broadsword that Tifa now noticed in his sword harness and the Yoshiyuki materialized in his off hand out of nowhere. "Let's go." He started off at a run down the road and Tifa followed after him. Wherever he was leading her, it looked like they might be headed into a fight.
"Zack!" Aerith called out to him when she approached and Zack now saw she was accompanied by what looked like a much younger version of Cloud. The kid couldn't be much older than ten, he figured.
"Glad to see you made it all right," he said. Aerith seemed just as surprised to see Zack's companion.
"Are you also Cloud?" she asked.
"So he says." Cloud's teenage self gestured to Zack.
"Of course he is," Zack said. "How he was when I met him." He turned his attention to the kid. "So you're Cloud too? He'll probably kill me for saying so, but he was tiny as a kid."
The boy glared at him indignantly, but said nothing, and even under the circumstances, Zack couldn't help but chuckle. "Any sign of Tifa?" he asked.
"Not yet. I expect she's probably close by though. If we traveled down that road, we might find her," Aerith gestured to the third dirt path that led off through the Lifestream.
"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Zack said. He looked at the two Clouds. "Don't worry, we'll take care of this and then we'll go after Sephiroth together…"
He started across the circular platform marking the center of the fork, when Aerith suddenly got his attention. "Zack! Look out!"
He looked up and he barely had the chance to roll out of the way as a long sword sliced through the space he had only occupied just a moment ago. "Really? You're certain it'll be that simple?" The new arrival seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, looking at Aerith with hungry green eyes. Zack hurriedly put himself in front of her and the two Clouds, drawing the Buster Sword and pointing it at Sephiroth.
"And why won't it? All we have to do is kick you out of here, and then come and kill you… again…" he paused to think about that. "Come to think of it, how are you even alive to begin with? He threw you into a reactor!" He pointed at teenage Cloud.
Sephiroth chuckled. "Go ahead. I'll only come back. As confused as my puppet is now, it's only a matter of combining my influence and suggestions with a sufficiently powerful assault, and I could break him completely." He nonchalantly stabbed Masamune into the ground and everyone nearly lost their balance from the tremor flowing out from his sword in a wave. Behind him, Zack heard both Clouds whimpering in pain and an emotion he rarely felt burned through his arteries like fire. Pure unadulterated rage. He picked himself up and rushed at the silver haired man, aiming to stab him through the heart with the Buster Sword.
Sephiroth simply stepped out of the way, chuckling that he had gotten the dark-haired SOLDIER riled. "It's no use. From the moment Hojo had you in his clutches, there was no escaping from me. You ought to know that by now."
"Oh yeah? Then why is it you're only attacking Cloud? Too scared because you know I'll fight back?" He taunted angrily.
The former general smirked. "Who says I've only been attacking him?"
"What do you mean?" Zack demanded.
"Everything comes at a price, whether it be a few gil, or a few thousand lives. You decided to defy me and deny me what is rightfully mine, therefore I will deprive you of something precious to you. If I happen to gain a new loyal servant to help me get back what you stole… all the better." Sephiroth landed his gaze on Aerith. "You, Ancient, are not welcome here."
In an action Zack had no way of deflecting, Sephiroth raced forward with the Masamune again, but inexplicably, he saw his girlfriend raise her staff and bring it down to the ground below her feet. A barrier of energy from the Lifestream appeared between her and the former general, deflecting what might have been a killing strike in the real world away from her and the two boys behind her. "Neither are you," she said coldly, and Zack could see she was just as angry as he was.
He readied his sword and rushed at the silver-haired man, hoping to get him while he was off balance, but he only just grazed his leather coat when the man leapt out of his way. Zack slid across the dirt, whirling around again to face his opponent.
"Are you simply going to play? I thought you wanted to get rid of me," Sephiroth taunted, stabbing his sword into the ground again. A second rumble spread away from the sword, and he noticed several of the floating pieces of debris around them crumble into nothing.
"Playing?" Zack growled. "We're way beyond playing!" He swung again, and this time his aim was true. The gash he inflicted across Sephiroth's thigh looked like it was trickling blood when next he looked. However, it was a little disconcerting when he saw that the blood dripped down his leg and then vanished before it hit the ground.
The silver-haired man ignored the wound, but assumed a forward stance before rushing at Zack, apparently having decided he was serious now. Zack deflected with the Buster Sword just in time, but the power behind the thrust pushed him back towards the edge of the road. He didn't know what falling would do in this case, but he didn't care to find out, so instead, he pushed back with several strikes.
Sephiroth did back away a step, but he parried each one before unleashing another powerful blow. Zack blocked and then lunged, the Buster Sword singing in his hands from the vibrations. He wondered how this even worked in the Lifestream, but there was no time to reflect on this conundrum because he was already rushing in, trying to force the silver general to give more space between their fight and the edge of the road.
His opponent leapt into the air, coming down behind him and attempting to strike him from the rear. It was only a fraction of a second's decision to turn around and deflect with the Buster that kept the Masamune from piercing his heart… or at least, he guessed that was what it would do. Even then, the blade grazed his shoulder, leaving a cut to match the one he had just inflicted.
Zack attempted to press his advantage by kicking at the man to throw him off balance and then throwing the full weight of the Buster Sword in front of a shove intended to send him off the side of the road, but it didn't get nearly as far as he would like. Sephiroth retaliated by whirling away from the blade and trying to come in underneath the Buster with Masamune, attempting to slash at his chest.
Zack backed away to avoid the blow but found himself getting too close to the other edge of the road. This was definitely a better situation than when he had faced Sephiroth in the bowels of the mako reactor, and they'd only had that slender catwalk between them and the mako glowing below, but not by much. He rolled to avoid another strike before lunging up from the ground, trying to take advantage of the Masamune being too far out for defense to cut into Sephiroth from the side, but found the Buster inexplicably meeting steel again. The general had apparently seen his plan at the last minute and curled the sword so he held it with the blade parallel along his arm in a block.
The deflected sword ran sparks along the odachi, as the two stayed locked in parry for several fleeting moments. Finally, Sephiroth decided to end the stalemate by kicking at his opponent. Zack leapt into the air, gaining purchase on one of the rocks floating above the road, before diving back into the fray for another lunge, but Sephiroth parried again, throwing Zack to the ground and looking down at him with a scowl. "Do you need another demonstration of how helpless you really are? Very well." Zack's eyes widened as the man stabbed the ground one more time, sending out another tremor.
"Don't do that again!" the dark-haired swordsman growled, pulled himself upright and lunged once more, this time going for Sephiroth's head, but the man brought Masamune up in a block. Zack was beginning to realize that when it came to this kind of combat, Sephiroth still had the upper hand. He was sure he could hold his own for now, but eventually, he would get tired, while Sephiroth was acting as though he was still fresh and spoiling for a fight. He broke off his current attack and went for several more quick slashes attempting once again to try for the advantage but Sephiroth's defense remained solid. It was almost like trying to fight a wall.
"If you're so determined that I won't then why don't you give back what you stole and obey my orders like a good puppet?" Sephiroth taunted, "Oh yes, that's right, you gave it to the keeper of horrors. You brought this upon yourself." Taking advantage of a moment where Zack's sword was coming around for another swing, he lunged forward, striking with Masamune's hilt to Zack's chest, knocking him across the road.
Dirt crumbled under the toe of his boot and he felt it slide over the edge as he attempted to pick himself back up.
"Zack!"
It wasn't just Aerith who had called out, he realized. Two sets of footfalls were coming in his direction. Upon standing up again, he saw that Tifa was running down the road towards them, however, it was the man that was several steps ahead of her that caught his attention. It was Cloud as he was now, his broadsword and the Yoshiyuki in his hands.
Upon reaching the spot where Zack stood, Cloud angrily raised his broadsword and pointed it at Sephiroth. "Get out," he said coldly.
Tifa assumed a fighting stance next to Cloud, but the former general scoffed. "So now, just because of one little pep talk, you think you can kill me? When the only thing you accomplished last time was to make me more powerful than you can even comprehend?"
Zack shot him a look. "Where have you been?"
"I'm not exactly sure," Cloud answered, not taking his eyes off their opponent.
Zack looked back at Sephiroth, realizing that now was probably not the best time to be asking such things. "We'll take him together, and then we'll talk this out, got it?"
Cloud nodded and they stood with their swords at the ready. Sephiroth seemed to already sense their intentions but was waiting for them to move first. The two rushed in, each taking a flank, but Sephiroth jumped backwards to avoid their blows. Zack leapt after him with Cloud in hot pursuit and Tifa not far behind, and when Zack landed next to the man, he lunged for his heart once more. Sephiroth blocked it easily but had to dodge out of the way just as Cloud came at him from his left side. Tifa took advantage of his being off balance to land kick at the man's back, but it was only a glancing blow and she had to get out of the way as the two swordsmen both began slashing away at the silver general. Sephiroth jammed his sword into the ground once more, and Cloud's current self collapsed to the ground, panting hard from the pain he'd just been subjected to. Zack raced ahead of him, taking advantage of the general's momentarily having his sword locked in the ground to slice at this side again.
The blow connected, and Sephiroth backed up a step, clutching his chest.
"It's over!" Zack held the Buster Sword at the silver general's throat.
Sephiroth frowned at him, clearly annoyed. "You think you've won, traitor? This battle means nothing. He'll never escape me, and neither will you."
Zack scowled, not moving the sword. "Then consider this a warning from me Sephiroth. We're coming for you. If we can't escape you, then we'll kill you with our own hands, however many times it takes."
Sephiroth retreated into the green fog, as though he'd never been there in the first place. The last words he heard from the man's lips were "You are really getting to be a problem…"
Zack watched the spot he had disappeared from for a few seconds before lowering his sword. "Cloud!" Tifa and Aerith had knelt by Cloud's older self.
"Don't worry about me… I'm okay…" he said.
Zack frowned at him. "You sure? I mean, I could be wrong, but…" he glanced over at the other two Clouds as they stood silently nearby, apparently mute. "Is it really healthy to be all… fragmented… like this?"
"I doubt it…" Cloud murmured, pulling himself upright with some effort. "I should probably do something about that…"
"How?" Tifa asked.
"I… don't know…" Cloud walked past Aerith, frowning as he considered the issue and looked over his other selves.
"It's all right," everyone's attention was drawn by the sight of a younger spiky haired boy, no older than five that had appeared on the road down which Tifa had come with Cloud's older self. "I can take things from here."
Aerith looked over at the young boy in surprise, and then she seemed to realize what was going on and smiled at him. "Well then, we'll leave him in your capable hands."
"What do you mean, Aerith?" Zack asked.
"Trust me," she said, gesturing that they move out of the way to let him through. "We've done what we need to do."
Zack ran a hand through his dark spikes and stepped aside. "Then what's next?"
"You'll see," the younger boy answered him. With that he walked to the youngest of the various 'Clouds', and the slightly older boy seemed to almost walk into him, creating a full-sized shadow outside of the young boy's form. The boy inside the shadow closed his eyes and was soon enveloped by the teenage Cloud.
The last and oldest one looked back at them. "Thanks for coming after me…" he rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "We'll definitely meet again…"
Tifa nodded. "Of course we will!"
"Hey Cloud!" Zack called after him. "If there's still time after you've pulled yourself together, I'm going to want to collect on that spar we had to break off!"
The older Cloud grinned. "You can count on it. Just remind me when we get out of here." His form dissolved into shadow to cloak itself around the boy who could barely be seen in the dark before the entire collection of fragments reformed itself into a whole and complete being.
As the shadows fell away, Cloud dropped to the ground. The world around them seemed to shimmer, and though when it returned, it definitely didn't look like it was back a hundred percent, the vast expanse wasn't completely green mist with floating rocks anymore. Instead, they found themselves standing in a familiar forest clearing. Though there were still chasms in places through which the Lifestream could be seen, and whole chunks still left to be filled in, not one of them could mistake the overarching feeling of safety and security this place held. Across one of the larger chunks they could make out a pathway of flagstones leading off into the woods towards what was probably an old, no longer abandoned hunting lodge. Zack realized too late, as the images began to fade, exactly why this feeling was so familiar. It was the feeling of home…
Another very very long chapter. Hopefully we won't have another doozie like this one for a long while yet, but there was a lot that I wanted to happen here and I really didn't want to break it up. That was actually the main reason I didn't go into italics for Cloud's Lifestream Sequence, even though I did it for Zack. It would have meant a long continuous stream of them and that just felt like major overkill. ^^;
Ahem... in the original timeline, Cloud regained consciousness today, and Aerith left. Where we've ended, the party is probably still in Gongaga regrouping.
Until next time everybody!