Tifa's POV


My eyes fluttered open to the silver of dawn creeping through the window. It was barely sunrise. Funny, I usually never wake up this early.

I turned over to see who else was awake and then I noticed he was gone. His bed was empty,... but he always was the late sleeper. Cloud and I are usually the last ones to wake. But today...

Where was he? I guess maybe he couldn't sleep because he knew that today we would be facing Sephiroth- his hated archenemy. Anxiety and tension made my sleep difficult too.

Slowly rising to my feet, I put on my gear and went out to look for him. The others might complain if I woke them up this early.

Kalm was still asleep and the haunting glow of late night still hung around the shadows. He isn't here. A spark of fear and panic aroused and I felt something was horribly wrong.

Leaving the town, I walked out into the fields, fresh with morning dew. Meteor glared down at me from the twisted purple sky that surrounded it. But right now, I didn't care one bit about it. I needed to know if Cloud was ok...

Why would Cloud disappear like this? Facing Sephiroth would be hard for all of us, but running away was a bit extreme?

Then I saw someone lying down in the middle of the field.

"Cloud..." I sighed with relief and a bit of embarrassment for being so worried about him. I smiled to myself.

"Cloud, you made us all worry! Why did you leave like that-" I called to him, but as I neared his sullen body, I noticed he wasn't moving.

His eyes were closed, like he was sleeping.

I felt my heart drop and I ran over to him. He lay motionless on his back, facing upward and his face was pale.

My heart turned into lead as I felt his face with my hands. He was ice cold. A dead weight suddenly burdened itself on my soul and I felt my legs crumble beneath me.

I collapsed next to Cloud, tears bursting from my eyes and my chest began aching with a horrible pain.

"Cloud!" I sobbed, kissing his face and lips, hoping for anything than this.

But he didn't move and it felt like an iron hand as squeezing my lungs because my breaths came in short gasps of air as I let out long sobs of sorrow.

Cloud wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead! We had all come so far!

"No! This isn't fair!!" I yelled, hysterically crying, biting back against the choking feeling that made my throat hurt. I wept over him.

Everything was a blur of tears and I felt like I had been crushed... I felt I had died and I didn't care about anything else in the world suddenly. I could feel my own body weight weighing me down into the earth and my head felt heavy on top my spine.

I laid my head against his chest and cried into his blue shirt, weeping for him. I never got to tell him how much I love him, how much I need him next to me in battle...

Now, I didn't care if Meteor hits and everyone died...

I just lay with my head on his chest and closed my eyes, wishing he would wake up...just wishing it would be ok... Thud...thump...

I froze and I swore I just heard his heart beat. I popped opened my eyes and stared back at his face, a glimmer of hope arising.

His lips parted slightly. A struggled rasp of a breath escaped and his chest raised slightly and fell.

My eyes and heart leapt with joy and excitement!

"Cloud!" I jumped up and cradled his head in my arms, kissing all over his face. "Cloud!!"

He lay still. My joy evaporated. "Cloud...?" my voice cracked and the choking feeling came back again, worse.

Did I imagine it? Tears were frozen in my eyes and I stared at his cold still body, watching. Again, a slight raspy whisper of a breath departed and again he was still.

"Cloud..." his name suddenly felt foreign to me. I lifted up his upper body and hugged him tightly, my tears washing down into his face. "What's happened to you...?" I whispered and held him tighter, weeping.

"Tifa, where did you and Cloud go?" RedXIII asked calmly. I didn't even realize he was there until he spoke.

I tried to clear away my tears, but they came tumbling down the moment I tried to speak to him.

"Red..." was all I managed to say.

"What's wrong with Cloud? ...Is he dead?" Red asked in fear.

"I...I don't know... He's breathing, but he's ice cold... Cloud..." I broke off and hugged Cloud again. His face was wet with my tears.

"I'll get the others immediately!" Red announced and trotted back to Kalm.

I lay with his face close to mine for a few minutes and I thought back to the time when he had gotten severe Mako Poisoning from the events on the snowy mountain...when he handed the Black Materia over to Sephiroth. Poor guy...he couldn't stand or talk, but he managed to survive that so maybe...

"Tifa! I heard sumthin' wrong with Cloud!" Barrett ran over to me and he noticed I was kneeling next to Cloud's body.

"Oh my god! He's dead!" Yuffie began hysterically crying and hugged Vincent, hiding her face of tears.

Vincent stared down emotionlessly and his eyes ventured to mine.

"He's not...dead..." I sobbed, unable to let Cloud go. "He's breathing...slowly..."

"Ah damn! I take back all those mean things I said about him when he wasn't there before!" Cid kneeled down next to me and began checking for a pulse.

"He has a heartbeat..." I solemnly told Cid. He returned a grim frown.

"How...how'd he get like this?" Yuffie sobbed. "Was he in a fight?"

"There's no cuts or bruises on his body, no blood loss... It looks like he just fell asleep in this field and never woke up again..." Cid said grimly.

I couldn't even think about it without bursting into tears again.

"I...love...him!" my eyes welled up and my throat was dry. I closed my eyes and continued hugging him.

"Don't cry, Tifa! You'll make me cry!!" Yuffie mumbled through hysterics of tears and rushed over to him.

"I...I don't know what to say..." Barrett's eyes were sunken and misty and he turned away.

"He's not dead though! He's still alive. There's still some #!& hope!" Cid shouted to us.

"No there isn't. What do we do?!" I demanded, my sorrow turning to rage. "What do we do now that we don't have Cloud? Why bother fighting Sephiroth anyway? He's already won if Cloud's gone..."

"Cloud's not gone! And we can beat Sephiroth! I know we can!" Cid retorted and half-smiled cheerfully.

"How can you be so cheerful? One of our friends is in a coma - practically dead!!!" I screamed at him!

"How can any of you not be affected by this! I loved him! I care about him so much! I need him there with me! Why aren't any of you sad!! Cloud is almost dead and not even a tear for him!!" I shouted throwing my glare around at each of them.

"I...I cried for him..." Yuffie added timidly.

"I can't believe any of you!! How can we go on without him!! How can I go on!" I twisted around to glare at Yuffie, whose eyes widened. "We have to take him back to Kalm, back to somewhere safe! He could wake up at any minute!" my breath was hurried and I ushered the others to pick up Cloud.

"Where are we gonna put him?" Barrett asked sadly.

"...In Kalm! We'll rent out the room again! We have enough gil!" I yelled.

"He needs a doctor..." Cait Sith commented for the first time.

"Cid, you can fly to Mideel and pick up the doctor over there. He'll know what's wrong with Cloud! Hurry!" my rage was extinguished and I walked alongside Barrett, next to Cloud's limp form. "It's ok, Cloud, we'll get you help..."

"Tifa...you need to relax. We are all upset over Cloud, but he isn't dead or anything. We can only hope for the best. But please, Tifa, first you must calm down," Cid said to me.

My first reaction was to tell him that he had no idea how upset I was over Cloud and that nothing could possibly compare to the pain of seeing a loved one fall. But then I thought that maybe he was right.

I took a deep breath... "Ok, Cid...I'll...I'll try... It's just that..." I had to stop because again my eyes had clouded with tears once more.