Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or concepts from FFVII. I do own this idea.
A/N: I figured it'd be a bit mean to leave you with a half-page prologue and then make you wait forever for the next chapter. So now you get to wait an age for chapter two. ;)
Chapter One
The crater was silent. The Lifestream surge that had destroyed Meteor and saved the Planet seemed to have frightened or awed all life into stillness.
Or destroyed everything.
But hours after, in the depths of the night, something did start to move. The movements were slow and tortured, as though even breathing might cause pain, but something slowly struggled to its knees. After a brief rest, it got the rest of its way to its feet.
It was human.
She looked around the desolate crater and a choked sob escaped from her long, white column of a throat. "Cloud..." she moaned softly. Her wine coloured eyes held more sadness than all the Midgar slums, and her gloved hands tightened themselves into fists as she tried to stifle her sobs. This wasn't the time. The others, they might still be alive...
Oh, Cloud...
Tears rose in her eyes and ran unchecked down her cheeks. She had to look for the others, all her friends. If they were still alive, maybe the pain of Cloud's passing would ease a little. She knew she would feel better when she found them.
She just had to. Nothing inside her could stand feeling this way for long.
She turned her head and felt pain in her back, tugging agony along her spine and into the nape of her neck. She hissed at the pain, as though that could make it less. She chose a direction and took a step.
Her limbs felt weak and watery, and the burning along her spine didn't stop. She felt a twinge of fear.
Raising her arms before her caused a more pronounced burn. Trying to kick at anything produced a short burst of agony that made black splotches intrude on her vision. She collapsed to her knees in the icy rock debris of the crater and tried to understand what this might mean.
I might just be tired from all this fighting. I've never fought so hard in my life. It might just be that I tested myself a little too hard.
I might never be able to fight and protect what I love again.
She gritted her teeth and, tears stinging the corners of her eyes, she pushed herself to her feet and continued on. She wrapped her arms around herself and noticed for the first time that she was covered in blood. It had sprayed her white tank top, run down past her skirt and all down her legs to pool in her boots and stain her grey socks a dark, rusty brown. She caught her breath. Was it... was it her blood, or someone else's? She couldn't... couldn't quite recall...
Cloud was walking slowly closer to the Lifestream, staggering down the rocky tiers to the edge of the hissing, steaming green. He dropped to his knees. She called and called to him, but he didn't seem to hear her.
Sephiroth surged out of the Lifestream and removed Cloud's head with one swipe of the Masamune.
She screamed. She screamed long and loud and everyone heard her. Eyes as green as the Lifestream and as cold as a serpent's fixed onto her, and Sephiroth lunged, his blade a silver arc. She felt the barest of snicks as it severed her spine, and then all was surging warmth and darkness.
Tifa shuddered. So Sephiroth had tried to kill her. Tried... surely she was dead? She was supposed to be dead. After something like that, she had to be dead. She looked down to where dried blood had crusted on her stomach, and saw a scar. All the way across her stomach. She followed it with her hands to where her eyes could not see, and found that it ran around her body in a circle, crossing a knot of pain in her spine.
Like someone had just hacked right through her.
Tifa looked around the crater once more. If she was still alive after what had happened, then surely the others were all right. She cupped both her hands to her mouth and sucked in a great lungful of air.
"BARRET! CID! RED! CAIT! YUFFIE! VINCENT!" And, after a moment's hesitation. "CLOUD!"
Her voice echoed around the crater. She frowned and opened her mouth to call again, when faintly, from the distance, she heard an answering voice.
"TIFA... THAT YOU?"
The bellow, though faint, was most definitely Barret's. Tifa started to run in the direction of the voice, but slowed to a walk almost immediately as the pain in her back flared. "I'm coming, Barret!" She hollered.
From the faintness of his voice, she had assumed that Barret would be a long way away. In reality, he was only about two hundred metres away, hidden behind a collection of boulders. He was glancing about him warily, and even though she was far away, she held her breath at the sight of his face.
Blood was crusted all over it, from his eyebrows down. The blood appeared to have sealed his eyes closed, for he didn't react as though he had seen her. She called to him again. "Barret!"
The big black man jumped. This in itself was a worrying turn of events. Barret never jumped, even when he was startled. Still, his head turned in the direction of her voice. "Tifa. Tifa, you okay?"
She dropped to her knees and threw her arms around the brawny man. "I have never been so glad to see you in my life." She told him honestly, her voice trembling. "I'm fine. Are you okay?"
"Can't see a damn thing." Barret muttered. "All this blood must've dried my eyes closed or something. They hurt. That Sephiroth musta hit me pretty damn hard."
Tifa made a troubled noise in her throat. "I think he cut me in half. I've got... I've got this scar all around my waist. Higher than the one he left last time." She rested her hand on his arm. "I'm sure you'll be okay. We'll just have to soak off all the blood – I have it all over me, too."
"In half?" Barret sputtered. "Damn, girl! What th' hell am I worryin' about my eyes for?"
Tifa rested her forehead against the man's shoulder for a moment, smiling in gratitude that the Planet had seen fit to leave at least one of her friends alive. "I told you, I'm fine. Just a little stiff." She stood up, and tugged on his hand. "Come on. We need to go look for the others. They have to be around here somewhere."
Barret hauled himself to his feet. "You'll have t' lead me. I dunno where the hell I am."
Tifa took his hand and placed it on her shoulder. "Just so long as you keep your safety on while you're behind me." She told him. "I think I can see some light further down in the crater. It might be Red XIII."
In fact, it was Red and Vincent. Tifa nearly bit through her lip when she saw the state the gunman was in. Though his dark clothing hid the bloodstains, nothing could hide the bloody, gory mess that had been made of his right arm. The hand had been sliced clean off, leaving him with only his brass claw. He looked up at Tifa with empty red eyes, and she realised the pain he must be in.
"Barret, we've found Vincent and Red. Vincent's lost his hand."
"He'll be happy with that." Barret muttered. "Always seemed to hate the damn thing."
"The other one." Tifa murmured. Barret made a soft 'hmm' sound and fell quiet. Vincent raised his claw at them, and Red turned. Tifa wondered with a frown why he hadn't heard them coming.
"Vincent. Red." She greeted them. "Are you both...?" She paused. 'All right' seemed a bit redundant under the circumstances.
"As you see." Vincent said, holding up his arm pointedly. "However, Red seems to be suffering from lack of hearing. Is Barret blinded?"
Tifa shrugged. "We won't know until we soak off all the blood." She tapped Barret's hand, and he removed it from her shoulder, then crouched down to take Red XIII's head in her hands. "Nanaki?" She asked softly, looking down at him.
"It's no use, Tifa. I can't hear you." Red's words were slightly slurred, and a little louder than he meant them to be. His good eye was glowing fiercely, but he seemed sad. She stroked his mane and kissed his forehead.
"Don't worry. We'll find a way to fix this." She said slowly, making sure he could read her lips. Red cocked his head at her, and nodded his head slowly in understanding.
"Have either of you seen Cloud, Cid or Yuffie?" Vincent asked. Tifa closed her eyes tightly for a moment to stave off tears.
"I think Cloud is really dead. Yuffie and Cid might still be around... and Cait Sith."
Vincent shook his head. "We found his remains not too far in that direction." He raised his claw again, apparently not too fond of the sight of the gore attached to his right arm. "Reeve is probably still alive, but the robot he used is decimated."
Tifa reflected that words like 'decimated' really made her feel bad. She got to her feet. "All right... you two came from that direction, and we came from this one. Barret, you stay here with Red XIII. Vincent and I will go in opposite directions and look for Yuffie and Cid."
Barret nodded to show he understood, and sat down. Red cocked his head at Tifa, and was motioned to stay where he was as the woman started off in one direction. "We'll meet back here in an hour, no more, okay? If we haven't found them by then... we'll come up with something else."
Vincent turned and walked off in the opposite direction, the wind catching his cloak and making it flit past his legs. He glanced around, and started off in a likely direction. It occurred to him that it would be a good idea to call for his missing friends, in case they were awake and cognizant. It also occurred to him that without his trigger finger, he was going to have to rely upon his claw a lot more. He looked down at it in distaste, blocking out the throbbing in his other arm with the ease of practice. He didn't want to have to use the artificial limb in battle any earlier than he had to. Particularly not on the fiends that prowled the crater, as they were stronger than most.
However, after half an hour of searching, Vincent was getting more worried than he cared to admit. Cid was loud and crude, but he was a friend. And he did not like to think of the young, vibrant ninja as gone... she had too much life to be dead. Therefore, she must be alive. Vincent allowed himself the tiniest and bitterest of smiles. He was nothing if not a master of self-delusion.
"Cid! Yuffie!" He yelled into the depths of the crater. No answer. He shrugged. She must either be unconscious or not close enough to hear him. He kept walking, issuing the same terse calls every fifty metres or so. He received no answers.
Just as he was about to turn around and head back toward Barret and Red XIII, he caught a sliver of movement at the corner of his eye. He whirled to view it properly and saw Yuffie waving frantically at him as she moved slowly closer. It appeared she was limping. He decided to save her the trouble of making her way to him, and set off across the scree at a brisk jog. Yuffie halted her efforts to move when she saw him coming.
Why didn't she call out to get my attention? Vincent wondered.
"Are you hurt?" He asked when he was near enough.
Yuffie's jaw was tight, and she blinked furiously for a moment. She pointed to her foot – her ankle was indeed twisted. Vincent was momentarily distracted by its horrible shade of purple and green, but he looked back at her face and cocked his head at her.
"...why don't you speak?"
She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again they were brimming with tears. She made a few short gestures at her throat, and mouthed some words.
I can't talk. I'm mute.
After that she dissolved into tears, her voiceless sobs sounding like nothing but heavy, irregular breathing. Vincent watched her miserably. Of all the people to be silenced, it had been Yuffie.
Certainly, he had considered doing it himself once or twice – doubtless, so had the other members of AVALANCHE – but never seriously.
Though he was loath to touch her with his claw, he raised it toward her. "Do you need me to carry you back to the others?"
Her tears eased for a moment, and he saw hope light in her eyes.
They're okay? She mouthed. Vincent paused, and nodded.
"Barret, Red and Tifa are all mostly unharmed. Tifa went the other way, looking for Cid. Cait Sith is smashed."
Yuffie's face fell. And Cloud?
"It would seem Cloud is dead."
Vincent saw no need to lie to the girl, but as her face fell and her eyes froze over, he wondered if the harsh truth had been such a good idea. He grasped her lightly beneath her arm and hauled her to her feet. "Come, Yuffie. The rest are alive." He said, more gently than usual.
Yuffie's lower lip trembled again. Unable to speak, she buried her face into Vincent's shoulder in wordless gratitude for his unusual kindness. Then she pulled back and looked at him questioningly. Which way?
Vincent forgot, and pointed with his newly severed arm. Yuffie gasped. He hid it in the folds of his cloak again, but not before she had let out a soundless exhalation of shock and pulled a Hi-Potion out from... well, he didn't know where she'd gotten it from. She stood for a few moments, giving him a demanding look, and eventually stuck her hand into the folds of cape and pulled out Vincent's arm. He gritted his teeth – the whole forearm was tender – but allowed her to pour the Hi-Potion carefully over it. The flesh sizzled and smoked for a moment, but when it cleared, the limb was relatively clean.
Vincent once again hid the shapeless lump in his cloak, where it would not bother him, and gave Yuffie the arm with the claw. They started walking.
*
Red saw them first. He sent out a long, victorious howl that ended up forlorn and lost in the mists of the crater. Yuffie summoned enough energy to wave and bounce a few times, and then went back to hobbling along beside Vincent.
The tight muscles in Vincent's body relaxed ever so slightly when he saw the Cid and Tifa were sitting with Barret and Red around the tiny flame of Red's tail. Tifa stood up, looking as though she would run towards them, but refrained at the last second. Yuffie made a little choking noise in her throat, like she was trying not to cry. Vincent didn't look at her. She was too proud to let anyone watch her cry twice.
"Yuffie, are you okay?" Tifa enfolded the girl in her arms as soon as they arrived at the campsite. Yuffie shook her head and looked at Vincent for help. The red-cloaked man's face was like stone.
"She can't speak."
There was nothing Tifa could say to that. Yuffie would have found it ironic if she hadn't been so upset. She hugged Tifa, and smiled weakly at the older woman. It's okay. I'm fine. Tifa smiled back, and Yuffie looked around to the rest of the group, questioningly. Tifa whispered, "Barret's blind. Red can't hear anything. Cid keeps coughing up blood."
Yuffie sighed heavily. She looked at Tifa. The dark-haired woman tried to be strong. "I'm all right. My back hurts." Yuffie poked her stomach, right on the scar. Tifa looked at her. Yuffie mouthed, neat.
Tifa burst out laughing and hugged the girl tightly, despite the roar of agony in her back. It could have been worse. It could have been so much worse. Yuffie's voice was an important part of the team. Sometimes it was like it kept their hearts alive. It was gone now. But Yuffie was still Yuffie, and she still made the Yuffie things clear. Tifa felt tears of happiness sting her eyes, and a strange sense of gratitude tightened her heart in her chest. Part of her mind demanded what she had to be grateful for right now, but most of her hugged Yuffie even tighter.
***
A few hours later, their pathetic fire had died down to a few embers that flared stubbornly brighter the stronger the wind blew, as though trying to work up the courage to burst into flame once more. For the first hour or so, they'd kept glancing around suspiciously, as though the world was still going to end any minute. They'd been pumped. Thrilled and terrified at the same moment, hearts beating faster and faster.
Now they waited with relentless apathy. Only Cid's hacking cough broke the silence, but he muted them as much as he could. Yuffie watched the pilot with barely concealed worry in her grey eyes. She could live the rest of her life like this – not that that was likely to be a lengthy span, she reflected with humour that surprised her – but Cid didn't look as though he could cope so well. It was like he was greying around the edges. Fading.
Yuffie curled closer to Red XIII, fisting her right hand in his mane. The large, lion-like creature raised his head and looked back at her questioningly. She couldn't hide the fear and disquiet in her eyes. Nanaki managed to convey a great deal of understanding through his single golden eye, though he couldn't have heard her even if she'd spoken. He shifted slightly and lay his great shaggy head on her knees, letting out a rumbling purr. Yuffie pat his head absently. It barely even sounded forced.
It scared her that Cid looked this weak. It scared her that he wasn't smoking. He was normally like a miniature blond hurricane, surrounded by his cloud of grossness smoke. She'd hated the smell of his cigarettes. But even more than that, she hated the thought of never having to smell them again.
Her fingers tightened in Red's mane again, and she barely restrained a sob. Red lifted his head to try to comfort her, but before he could do anything, she scrambled across the middle of their huddled circle to cling to Cid. The pilot looked surprised, and that started him coughing again, but he stroked her hair and tried to speak soothingly as she sniffled into the collar of his weathered blue jacket.
Vincent watched this from the opposite side of the fire. His eyes were dulled to the point of being completely unreadable, except for perhaps the sliver of pain that kept breaking through his consciousness. His arm hurt. It really, really hurt. He couldn't drag his mind away from the undeniable fact that it hurt unbearably.
On the one hand, perhaps the pain was a good thing. Surely Chaos did not feel pain. Perhaps the strength of the agony meant that the demon had receded into true dormancy. But Vincent knew that this was not the case, even as he hoped it.
He needed something to take his mind off the utter wrongness of his arm – something else to do, something else to cope with. He looked around their circle.
Red kept twitching, twisting his head around to see what he could not hear. Barret's eyelids were half-open, as though he were trying to see, but the pain that must have been affecting him was too much to allow such a thing. Yuffie wept into Cid's jacket, and the pilot thumped her back gently in between bouts of coughing. Tifa's cheek rested on her knees. Vincent knew it had taken her about ten minutes to persuade her muscles to bend that way. She was staring off into nothingness. She resembled a statue in that he could see nothing in her eyes. She was numb. Of all of them, Tifa was the one who was never, ever supposed to be numb.
"It's nearly morning." The words spilled from his lips before he could stop them. "Nothing has happened yet."
Barret's head turned almost convulsively in Vincent's direction, latching onto the sound. Tifa didn't even blink. That fact alone made anger curl in Vincent's stomach, hot and tangible.
"We cannot sit here and wait for the world to end after everything we have endured." He said matter-of-factly.
"And whaddaya think we should do?" Barret demanded. "We can't do shit any more." He clenched his jaw then, as though admitting it hurt him. Vincent's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. Tifa slowly stirred herself and looked at him.
"I don't think we can do very much any more." She agreed softly.
Vincent remained silent, but he stared hard at Cid. The man shook his head slowly. Yuffie sat up and looked at Vincent across the remains of the fire. In the dark, he could see her perfectly, but he doubted she had his night vision. She nodded her head once at him. It said a thousand things, but the one thing he picked up was, I'm with you. I'm with you, even if no one else is.
Reassured, he said, "We cannot sit and do nothing. We can still do much. If Sephiroth is still alive..."
Tifa's lips pursed thoughtfully. Barret shook his head stubbornly. Yuffie got up and hobbled to the tall black man, tugged at his arm, then dug her gloved fingers into her own arms, frustrated with her inability to speak. Marlene! She mouthed to Vincent.
"...what about Marlene, Barret?" He didn't want to be the one to say it, but it had to be said. The girl was Barret's weak point. Yuffie knew that, but she couldn't use it right now, and that left him to be the one to inflict the pain.
"@#$% you." Barret muttered. "I know all about Marlene."
Vincent looked at Yuffie, who scowled and punched Barret in the arm. She hobbled over to sit beside Vincent and sulked furiously. Cid smirked. "I'm crazy, but I'll come with ya. Crazy bastards. I'll do what I can."
Tifa looked up into the sky. "...Cloud." She murmured. "It is nearly morning. We need help before we can do anything. Let's head south. Maybe we'll find someone who can give us supplies."