Huddling at the very top, turning away from the cold rain, he buried his face in Cloud's golden spikes. Feeling his hands lock around his neck, he reveled in his soft warmth, kissing the honey off his lips. He breathed words into his mouth.

"I don't want to lose you." Every insecurity Zack ever felt floated to the top, blocking his throat. Feeling the arms around him tighten, bringing him impossibly closer.

Through the rain, with the dirty-orange sky above them, Zack pointed at the mountains off in the distance. Darkness overcame him. Deep inside, opening its maw and swallowing him whole.

"I planted bones, but only sins grew." He turned back to Cloud. "They ripened and rotted inside of me."

"Don't speak like that." His gentle softness held back the dark.

"It's the truth. You wanted to know."

"What happened there?" Urgent curiosity sparkled in his eyes.

Zack turned away. "We had a mission. I killed a man and we were trapped."

"In the glass tubes." Cloud was catching up.

Green, cold ice swirled around him and then disappeared. "Yes. How do you know?"

It was Cloud's turn to avert his eyes. "I have dreams sometimes. Nightmares. They don't make any sense and I try to forget them, but sometimes I can't." Comfortably nested against Zack, he hid his face in the dip of his shoulder. "It's colors mostly. You'd think colors wouldn't be so scary."

"The green..." whispered Zack, marveling at the mud that covered his shoes.

"Yes, and red and silver and orange."

Zack snifed, feeling the cold seep under his skin. It was time to go.

Cloud went on. "I wish I could tell you more. It's only bare snatches."

Zack fell silent, absorbing the rain, tightening the jacket around him. "The man that I killed. He was our friend."

Cloud squeezed his hand, urging him to continue.

"That place changed him. It—" he sighed, "everything was going fine until he discovered those incubation pods. And then...then he just lost it. It was a massacre, Cloud; I did the only thing I could."

"I'm not blaming you, I know you wouldn't kill without a reason." He kissed his forehead gently.

Zack turned away. "Don't be so quick to judge."

"Zack, I think I need to go there."

Zack glanced at him, ripping himself away from the inner well of self- loathing, "What do you mean."

"That place...it calls to me. My past is there. Maybe it'll help me remember."

"If that's what you think you need to do, I'll go with you. Just keep in mind, ours are not the only secrets buried there."