Chapter Four

Cloud stumbled over a rock and struggled to keep his footing. He looked around, and cursed under his breath. Even though it all looked exactly the same, he was sure he'd been over this path before. In trying to get to where he thought Tifa was, he had to be wandering around in circles. Now he had no idea where he was in relation to house, or where Tifa had fallen, or anywhere for that matter. He needed some way of getting his bearings. If only he had a compass…

Cloud jumped at the sound. It was close, very close. It had come from behind him. He wasn't sure what it was, but it meant somebody was there. He turned round and approached cautiously, steadily nearing the point the noise had come from. He thought he could hear footsteps, padding lightly away, then he rounded another tree and saw what had caused the noise. Cait Sith's large stuffed cat stood motionless, while the smaller cat was sprawled on top, clearly dead.

"Cait!" Cloud cried, running over. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

He knew he wasn't going to get a response. Sadly, Cloud picked up Cait's fallen megaphone and solemnly placed it beside the dead cat. There would be time for a proper ceremonies later. Once the traitor was dead.

* * *

Tifa picked herself up off the ground. She'd landed painfully on her side, and been knocked unconscious for a while. How long, she couldn't tell. Probably not long. Where was Cloud?"

"Cloud?" she called.

In the distance, she thought she heard somebody. Was it Cloud, calling her? Tifa ran towards the source of the noise, her fear growing as she realised that the traitor could be anywhere, even right behind her. She ran faster, hoping she'd find Cloud or one of the others. Safety in numbers…

She heard another voice shouting, and homed in on the sound. There was a clearing up ahead, and Tifa could see two people standing there. One of them held a weapon. Tifa kept running. She burst through the trees into the clearing, and gasped when she saw who was there.

Cid stood on her left, his body tensed and his eyes fixed on the other person. Vincent, on her right, held his Death Penalty, pointing it directly at the pilot's head. His eyes were narrowed and he was staring at Cid with undisguised hatred.

"Vincent, no!" Tifa screamed. "Don't do it!"

Vincent turned to face her, murder in his crimson eyes.

"Don't try and stop me, Tifa," he rasped.

"No…" she pleaded. "There's been too many killings already!"

"Too many killings," Vincent hissed. "Yes, so much spilled blood…"

He shut his eyes and shook his head to clear his thoughts. His grip loosened on the Death Penalty. Cid took advantage of Vincent's momentary distraction to leap into action, shoving Vincent to the ground and grabbing the Death Penalty from the surprised gunman's arms. Vincent recovered quickly, rolling over and getting to his feet in one fluid motion.

"Give me the gun," he demanded.

Cid shook his head, "I don't think so."

He shot Vincent in the torso, and the raven-haired man was sent flying backwards, colliding with a tree, lying in a steadily growing pool of his own blood.

* * *

Cloud came crashing through the tree-line, into the clearing, just in time to see Vincent getting shot and collapsing against the tree. Vincent looked up, blood dribbling from his lips, and tried to form words. They wouldn't come, and he slumped sideways on the ground, dead.

Cloud breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. They were safe.

Cid turned and shot Tifa in the chest.

Cloud gaped with horror. He'd been wrong.

Tifa's upper body erupted in a shower of red blood as she was spun round by the force of the shot, and flung into the undergrowth.

"NO!" the heart-rending scream was wrenched from the depths of Cloud's soul.

Oblivious to Cid pointing the gun at him, he ran forward and collapsed, shaking with tears, by Tifa's side. Her face, miraculously untouched by the shooting, was still beautiful, still perfect, even in death. Just like Aeris.

Cloud's blood boiled and fury rose in him like a volcano as he heard Cid's dry, mocking laugh from behind him. Wrenching himself to his feet, Cloud screamed, "WHY?!"

"Why?" Cid repeated. "Stupid question, really. Money, of course. What else matters?"

"A lot of things," Cloud heard himself saying, in a hollow voice, as if his insides had been ripped out and replaced by a vacuum. "Love – friendship – family – all the things you've taken away from me."

The treacherous pilot shrugged, "Don't care for those things myself. Money's my only concern."

"Is that why? Is that why you turned against us? Why you killed my friends? You were bought?"

"I never turned against you. I was never on your side in the first place. I was working for President Shinra long before I met you."

"But when we met you in Rocket Town – you were with the President then – he tried to kill you and you joined us."

Cid laughed once more, "I never joined you. The whole thing was staged so I could infiltrate your group, and you were simply too stupid to realise."

"But Rufus is dead – how can you still be working for him?"

"He isn't dead. He survived the Weapon attack. A few days ago he contacted me and told me to eliminate your group."

"So you've been killing us off, one by one?"

"That's right. I took out that freak lion first, since he was the only one among you with a brain. He'd have sniffed around and figured things out, made things difficult for me, so I wanted him out of the way from the beginning. Then I killed that moronic Barret – he was the protector and father figure of your group. I guessed that without him, you'd begin to lose your way. Looks as if I was right."

"Then you killed Cait."

"Oh, you found him, did you? Yeah, he was bumbling about in the forest while I was tracking Vincent. I had to finish him before he started asking awkward questions."

"Then you shot Vincent and – and Tifa," Cloud felt his voice falter and tears coming into his eyes once more.

Cid smiled, but it was the smile of a shark, "Yup, and now I'm going to finish the job. I was offered ten billion gil in reward. Once your party is dead, I'm going to be a very rich man."

"No," came a voice from behind him. "You're going to be a dead man!"

Yuffie leapt from the trees, knocking Cid to the ground, pummelling him with blows.

"How could you do that?" she screamed. "How could you murder Vinnie and my other friends? I'll kill you!"

Attacking in a blind rage, she was unprepared for Cid swinging the butt of the Death Penalty into her side, and pushing her away with his arms. Yuffie was thrown aside, landing beside Vincent's dead body, her fury spent, replaced by a deep, terrible sadness.

"Vinnie," she sobbed, burying her face in the dead man's chest. "Oh, Vinnie."

"Touching," Cid said sarcastically, cocking the Death Penalty and walking over towards her. "You and he had a thing for each other, I take it."

"He told me he loved me," Yuffie said, heartbroken. "Right after Aeris' funeral. He told me loved me and he wanted to spend time with me. That's how I knew he was innocent. That's how I knew he wasn't a killer. He wouldn't have said that to me if he was just going to kill us all."

"How sweet," the pilot mocked. "Yes, I have to admit I framed him. The weapon I used to kill Red XIII was stolen from Vincent. He must have figured out it was me – that's why he attacked me outside my place last night. I knew that sooner or later, he'd tell the rest of you about me. I had to make him look as guilty as possible so that nobody would believe him. Then, when he showed up here, I decided I might as well silence him permanently."

"You've killed five people – five of the bravest, most heroic people I've ever known – all for money," Cloud spat angrily. "I hope you can buy yourself a new conscience."

"Never had one," Cid smirked.

He pointed the Death Penalty at the sobbing ninja girl's head and pulled the trigger.

The only sound that came was a hollow click. The shotgun was empty.

"DAMMIT!" Cid yelled.

Cloud screamed, a raw, primal howl of vengeance as he sprang towards the traitorous pilot. Wrestling the taller man to the ground, he let every last vestige of his anger flow into his attack, battering Cid with repeated blows to the head and torso. As his anger and strength began to ebb, Cloud slumped and collapsed on to his side. Cid lay on the ground, bruised, bleeding, dead, the empty shotgun still in his hands. Cloud didn't feel any triumph or satisfaction at having beaten his enemy. All he felt was a deep, unquenchable sadness, for the loss of his love for the second time in his life. He curled into a ball, feeling sick to his stomach, unwilling to get up and face the world, a world without Tifa, a world without Aeris.

A hand touched his.

"Cloud?" said Yuffie.

Cloud looked up. Her face was streaked with blood and tears, her expression the same tragic mask that he knew his own face must bear. She was the only one left. Once there had been eight. Now there were just two, just him and Yuffie. Six people had died, all to satisfy one man's insatiable greed for money.

Cloud's rough, callused hand closed around Yuffie's small, soft hand. They gripped each other tightly, unwilling to let go of the only person they had left. He pulled her close to him and they lay together, sharing their loss, their pain, and their terrible, unrelenting sadness. They wrapped their arms around each other, and Cloud, as he felt her small, vulnerable form against his, knew that he'd do anything in his power to protect Yuffie now. She was all he had left. He'd move heaven and earth for her.

He loved her.

The End

A/N: well, I hope you enjoyed the story. Please leave a review! Thanks to all those who have already done so, especially DarkThought for his/her extremely well thought-out analysis. You certainly picked up on one or two of the more subtle clues I left. Don't worry, I didn't alter the story to annoy you, I knew who the traitor was from the very start. In fact the whole idea of the story was based on it.

Thanks once again and please read some of my other FF7 works.