A/N: Hey guys. Quick update as always. This chapter took a lot of thinking about so I hope you enjoy it.

Summary – Selphie learns to drive the Sentinel and Cloud recovers from his recent attack. But he and Squall have both been badly injured due to another Mako-Mutant attack. But this time they were aerial. After beating Squall and Cloud, they fled. What's going on?

Chapter 17 – Shared Nightmares

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They all watched as the Mako-Mutants flew out of sight. Then they remember what had happened.

Rinoa kneeled beside Squall, her fingers at his neck. She had to make sure his pulse was strong enough. It was. She felt it, even though it was quite faint. Thanks to Zell, he hadn't drowned but he would certainly be knocked out for some time. Irvine lifted Squall up and put Squall's arm around his shoulder. He carried him down the stairs to the recovery room.

On the ground Tifa was examining Cloud. Tifa cast Cure3 on him but it didn't help much. She thought about reviving him with a Phoenix Down but decided that it would be better to let him rest. He had stopped bleeding at least. She heard something near her and turned to see Chaos. He walked up to Cloud and kneeled down.

"I'll take him to the ship." he said, in Chaos' menacing voice.

"O-okay." she said shakily.

Vincent lifted Cloud up and put Cloud's arm around his shoulder, like Irvine had done with Squall. He spread his dark black wings and flew up to the ship. Tifa walked up to her Bahamut and climbed on.

'Cloud…Squall. I hope they'll be okay.' she thought.

* * * * *

Squall lay calmly on the bed while Quistis examined him. She was quite surprised to see how little damage he had taken. He had lots of scratches and cuts, but none of them were deep. Some of his skin was burned along with his leather jacket. Other than that he was fine. Quistis was concerned. Squall had taken worse beatings than this and managed to stay conscious.

'What's wrong with you Squall?' she asked mentally.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the door opening. She turned round and saw Vincent, who had transformed back to normal, carrying a very badly beaten Cloud. Vincent lay him down on a different bed as Quistis rushed up to check him.

"Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed, "He looks terrible."

He did indeed. He had dozens of deep cuts, mostly at his chest and ribs. Some blood had dried around them and the skin on his bare arms had been burnt from the electricity. Quistis touched his right arm.  I was very hot and, though he was unconscious, Cloud winced in pain. She lifted his head up slightly and saw a red liquid show through his golden hair. He had obviously hit his head hard and if the electricity shocks hadn't knocked him out, that certainly would have.

"Can you fix him up?" Vincent asked.

"Sure I can. I helped Dr. Kadowaki in the infirmary at Balamb Garden. I've dealt with injuries like this before, but they weren't this bad. He should be fine though." She paused for a second. "And could you get Selphie for me? Her limit attack might help here."

Vincent nodded and went to get her. Quistis went back to examine Cloud, before she was interrupted again by Tifa, Barret, Rinoa and Irvine coming in.

Rinoa walked up to Squall and brushed his hair away from his face. She held back tears, and prayed that he would be okay.

Tifa walked up to Quistis. She had no tears in her eyes, only a worried look on her face.

"How is he?" she asked Quistis.

"He's fine. I've ask Selphie to come in here and she'll fix them up."

"How'll she do tha'?" Barret asked.

Quistis couldn't answer as Selphie burst through the door with her usual attitude on the go.

"Quisty! What do you want me to do? Can I use it? Can I use it?" she squealed happily.

"Yes! Yes! You can use it." Quistis shouted to calm her down. Selphie stood back near the door and took her nunchakus off her back. She brought the two ends together and twirled them round. She then lifted them above her head, separated as far as they could go. A burst of energy appeared round, both Squall and Cloud. Their wounds quickly healed and their blood vanished. Their clothes were also repaired.

"Wow!" was all that Barret could whisper.

"Woohoo!" Selphie shouted and ran back to the bridge to take over the Sentinel again.

Tifa ran up to Cloud and looked at him. All his cuts and burns had disappeared. It looked like the work of a 'Full Cure' spell.

"Should we wake them up?" she asked.

"No." Quistis answered. "Let them rest. They've had a long day."

"Quistis?" Rinoa said suddenly, "Why was Squall knocked out so easily? He's had worse injuries than that and he's still managed to stay awake."

"I think I know why." Tifa told her. "Squall has recently been using materia. All of AVALANCHE uses it and Cloud taught Squall. When you equip materia, it affects your body in some way. I could make you slower, make your magic stronger, but I'm guessing that, with Squall, his stamina was lowered. All in all, materia is like a two ended sword."

Rinoa nodded and looked back down at Squall. She noticed that he was tossing his head slightly, from side to side, as if he was having a bad dream. Rinoa started panicking as his body started to twitch.

"Guys! What's happening to him?" she shouted.

* * * * *

Insert – 'Those Chosen by the Planet' music

Squall was walking down a dark street. There was fog surrounding him. He could hardly see, but he could hear well. He heard screams and yells coming from the distance. He heard a familiar scream.

"SQUALL!!"

He recognised that voice.

"RINOA!!" he yelled and sprinted off to where the sound had come from. He darted through alleyways and through the fog. His mind was screaming for Rinoa to hear him. He exited the alleyway and looked up the street. He gasped and his eyes went wide.

There were corpses littering the ground. Through the fog, he could see the puddles of blood pouring out of them. He rushed up to the nearest one. He was turned over so he faced the ground. Squall pulled him over and looked at his face. He yelled in shock and his eyes started to fill with tears.

It was Quistis. He rushed to each body in turn. He saw Zell, Barret, Cid, Yuffie, Selphie and even Tifa.

'What happened?' his head screamed as tears began to run down his cheeks. All of his friends and AVALANCHE were dead. He looked further up the street. He strained to see through the fog. He noticed a female body on the ground with someone towering over them. He ran forward and stopped when he recognised who it was.

There she was. Lying face up, a large cut across her chest and blood coming out the side of her mouth. Her black hair was stained red and there were tear marks down her face. Her blue outfit was ripped and her eyes were wide open, staring at him.

Squall's heart thumped in his chest. She was gone. He hadn't been able to save her. He had failed as Knight. His tears began to burn his eyes and he stared at her lifeless body. He looked up at her murderer. He couldn't see their face very well, but shocked and rage rushed through his body and he realised who it was. His large sword, his spiky hair and his piercing green eyes.

Squall's eyes narrowed in confusion. He didn't have green eyes. What was going on?

Cloud slowly turned and looked at Squall, a smirked owned his face. Squall stepped back in shock. He couldn't believe that Cloud was doing this. Why would he do it to his own friends? Why would he do it to Tifa?

Cloud began to laugh quietly as he looked at Squall's face. He brought his sword up with one had and pointed it at Squall.

"You're next Leonhart!" he said. His voice was scary. It sounded like Cloud's but someone else's voice was with it.

Squall didn't have time to think about it. Before he knew it, Cloud was rushing forward, with his sword raised. Squall couldn't move and he watched in horror as the sword lowered and headed straight down to pierce his chest. He saw it in slow motion. Cloud's sword inched closer and it almost made contact, when everything went black.

* * * * *

Insert – 'Who Are You' music

Cloud was in the void of darkness once again. He wandered around like he did last time, only, he didn't see anyone.

'Man!' he thought, 'What the hell is this place.'

He started to walk again but he wasn't moving. It felt as if his body wasn't responding. Suddenly, he was engulfed by a bright light. He shielded his eyes with his arm until the light disappeared. He looked around him and gasped.

It was the No.1 Reactor in Midgar. He yelled when he saw he was floating in midair. He looked at the reactor core. His eyes widened. It was him and Barret. This was a flashback from over a year ago. This was his first mission in AVALANCHE, to blow the reactor. He looked down at himself and realised that this was when he still had his personality split. He saw himself grab his head and heard a familiar voice.

'WATCH OUT! THIS ISN'T JUST A REACTOR!'

Cloud heard it as well only louder. He had to cover his ears to stifle the noise. The reactor vanished and he was at the City of the Ancients. He saw Aeris on the memorial. She was praying for Holy. He also saw himself walk up to her sword put. This was when he was being controlled. He watched in horror as he saw himself raise his sword above Aeris and he brought it down.

Before he could see anymore, he was at Northern Crater. He wasn't alone there. Tifa, Barret, Rufus, Hojo and Scarlet were there also. Cloud saw himself holding the Black Materia and realised what was about to happen. Sephiroth took control of him once more and his body floated up to where Sephiroth was sleeping. His hand slowly inched towards the pod.

"NO!!" Cloud shouted but it didn't stop himself. The Black Materia slipped into the pod and started glowing brightly.

Cloud grabbed his head as he heard another familiar voice.

'You're not as safe as you think Cloud. You'll never be safe from me!'

Cloud screamed in agony as his head felt like it was going to explode then he passed out once again.

* * * * *

Squall yelled as he woke up from unconsciousness. Rinoa grabbed his wrist and he tried to force it away but stopped when he realised it was her.

"Rinoa." he whispered.

Rinoa hugged him tightly and he happily returned it. He had been so scared, seeing her lying on the street.

He heard another yell from the other side of the room, and saw Cloud sit up quickly. He watched as Tifa put a hand on his chest to calm him down. He had a scared look on his face and he stared at Tifa in surprise. They both held each other tightly.

Squall wanted to go over there and kick the living daylights out of Cloud, but it had only been a dream. It didn't mean anything.

Or did it?

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A/N: Whooooo. Spooky eh? I enjoyed doing this chapter for once. If anyone wondering where I got Squall's nightmare idea from, it was from the demo of Silent Hill. The streets filled with fog but I made the rest up. Hope you enjoyed. Another update soon.

Shout-outs –

Jessica Holmes – Glad you liked it. I'm not always good at descriptions but I'm definitely improving. Also, that was my first major battle scene that I've wrote. It was kinda inspired by The Matrix 3 cause I'm a huge Matrix fan. And don't rush your update; a masterpiece takes time to write. ;D

Brutal2003 – Well, I'm glad that someone agrees with me. Thanks for your review. Much appreciated.

Mako-Magic – Yeah. I got a bad flame from just-an-inquiry (gave them a shout-out on previous chapter) about Squall getting attacked a bit much. Also for giving Cloud god-like abilities, which I do not. Anyway, glad you liked the pic I sent you.

Cloudude55 – Same as always. Thanks for review, and I can't wait to edit your new chapter. Talk to ya later.