Chapter 7

The Parting of the Skies

—

The sky was filling with dark, ominous rain clouds as Tifa and Cloud walked together across the wooden and deserted dock, making their way toward the large metal ship. Tifa leaned heavily on Cloud's arm as they started up the ramp leading to the deck.

Once they reached the top, Tifa stopped to catch her breath. She looked around her, still seeing no signs of a crew the size that this ship undoubtably required. Before she could even ask Cloud how he managed to run this ship alone, he pulled gently at her elbow, looking at her with concern.

"We need to get that leg of yours taken care of," he said, sparing a quick upward glace as fat drops of rain began to fall from the heavy, dark clouds above them. He tightened his embrace around her waist in an effort to support her as he began to lead her toward a nearby open cabin door.

Tifa ignored her many questions for the time being and nodded numbly instead as the twisted muscles in her ankle shot a new stab of pain up her leg. They entered the small room and Tifa gingerly sat down on a stiff, dusty bed. Cloud busied himself with procuring bandages and ointments from cupboards and random corners of the room. Tifa surveyed her surroundings, taking in the musty scent of the mattress and the layers of dust on the counter tops.

No crew to clean it, of course, Tifa agreed with her own assumption.

Cloud kneeled in front of her, setting the bandages on the floor next to him.

"Alright, Teef, stretch your leg out on the bed so I can get a clear look at it," he said, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he surveyed her wounds.

Tifa listened to the rain that had started to pour down outside while Cloud began to clean up the cuts on her leg. She could feel the waves as they rushed against the side of the ship, rocking the cabin in time to the sea.

As Cloud gently rubbed a very bitter smelling potion onto her wounds, Tifa ignored the tiny pinpricks of pain by considering which of her many pressing questions to ask him first.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked.

Cloud grinned broadly, but didn't look away from his task.

"Getting the gravel out from underneath your skin so that I can use the Cure materia to close the wound, obviously. Unless, of course, you happen to like the idea of rocky bumps of gravel permanently lodged in your leg..." he added humorously.

"No, I mean, what are you doing here," she asked seriously. "Why are you here now, after having disappeared for two years? Why were you on that cliff dressed in that black cloak?"

The rain fell loudly, hammering away on the metal siding around them as Cloud's smile vanished. The familiar lines of concentration formed again on his brow as he prepared to cast the healing spell. He held out his left arm in front of him and popped a small green orb out of the bracelet on his wrist, quickly replacing it with a shining, seemingly identical green orb.

He put his two fists side-by-side above Tifa's leg and nodded his head once. Immediately following this gesture, a flash of green light emitted from the bracelet. Tifa felt a familiar tingling sensation wash over her leg and knew that the spell was doing its job. The light disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving nothing but a shimmering after-glow in the air and newly-healed flesh on Tifa's leg.

Unfazed by this beautiful light show, Tifa continued to focus her steady gaze on Cloud, who was now extremely intent on unwinding a length of bandage to wrap around Tifa's still-swollen ankle.

"Cloud..."

The rusted ship groaned loudly as the waves crashed against it.

"Don't worry, Tifa," he said, carefully winding the cloth around her ankle. "The wrap is just a precaution, because bones don't heal as quickly as flesh, and its still going to-

"Cloud! Why are you ignoring me!" Tifa suddenly shouted, her hands balled into fists at her side.

Cloud looked up at her passively, taking in the outrage written all over her usually peaceful features. He looked back to the floor and began to pick up the scattered bandages and bottles before standing up and packing them all back into the cupboards. The wind was now howling outside, and the waves were beginning to rock the ship a little harder, forcing creaks out of its rusty hull. Tifa glared silently at Cloud.

After rearranging everything unnecessarily around in the cupboard, Cloud reached up with both of his hands and rubbed the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the counter top, the palms of his hands covering his eyes. Tifa's own eyes faltered in their intense glaring and softened at the sight of him. He looked so tired.

Tifa hesitated for a moment before she stood up shakily and crossed the short distance to where Cloud was leaning over the counter. She placed a hand on his shoulder and forearm, giving him a small squeeze. He stood up straight and stared hard at her, studying the small lines of worry etched into her visage. He couldn't tell her right now, didn't want to tell her right now. And she knew it.

Tifa wrapped her arms around his waist, rubbing her hand soothingly along his back. He felt his own arms slip around her as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

With a sudden and violent jerk, the floor seemed to heave upward, sending Cloud and Tifa crashing against it. The storm seemed to have suddenly intensified, breaking giant waves against the protesting metal siding and producing earsplitting creaks and groans from the rusted joints of the ship. Cloud scrambled to his feet, pulling Tifa up with him.

"Are we going to be alright in here?" Tifa practically yelled over the sounds of the violent storm. "I mean, should get go back to land and try to find shelter that can't sink?"

Cloud was still grasping Tifa's hand tightly, but she was a bit startled to see a look of anxiousness and anger on his face. He looked back at her, smoothing his features to reassure her with his professional leader look.

"Wait here," he spoke loudly. He ran to the door of the cabin and tried to open it. The driving force of the winds held the door solidly in place. Cloud tried again, heaving his shoulder into the door, but it wouldn't budge.

"You're totally crazy if you think that you're going out there!" Tifa exclaimed in disbelief, running to the door. Cloud just threw himself at the door again.

"He did this!" Cloud yelled, kicking the offending door.

"He!? He who!?"

"We have to get out here now, Tifa!"

Tifa, hearing the urgency in Cloud's voice, nodded. Together, they heaved themselves at the door, throwing it open to the storm outside.

The rain was pelting viciously against the deck and the wind nearly tore them out of the doorway and into the sea. They clung to the railing and Tifa stared as far as she could toward the dock. Even beyond the blinding sheets of rain, there was no land in sight.

Horror surged through Tifa as she saw that the ramp leading to the dock had been retracted, and all that she could see was wave after crashing wave of water.

Cloud dragged himself against the force of the elements toward the bridge. The door had already been thrown open, rain soaking the inside. Cloud fell against the monitors and controls of the giant rig, desperately searching for the navigation screen.

Miles. They were miles away from Wutai, right in the middle of the sea. Cloud's numb fingers jabbed at buttons and yanked at levers in vain. Nothing budged.

The storm screamed its relentless rage all around them as Tifa stumbled into the room, wiping her matted hair from her eyes. She stared at Cloud, terror in her eyes at the look on his face.

"Cloud! What's going on! Why are we at sea? And where is the crew?! We can't get this ship through the storm with just the two of us!"

Cloud slammed his fist against the controls.

"Auto pilot! That bastard is navigating the ship by radio!"

"Who?! What is going on?"

Cloud gasped suddenly and doubled over, clutching his head and screaming in anguish. Tifa ran over to him, a new wave of terror rushing through her as she saw Cloud crumple to the ground in pain.

"Cloud!!"

The wind screeched ferally, drowning out Cloud's cries of agony, even though Tifa was kneeling right beside him. If they weren't in the middle of an ocean, Tifa would have sworn that the pounding of the waves and winds were a train thundering all around them, the shrill whistle an urgent warning to anyone near the tracks.

Water swept into the room without sweeping out again, leaving them sitting in a shallow pool. Tifa's knuckles were white from clutching Cloud's shoulders as she held him to her, trying to keep him sitting upright. He leaned against her, his own hands still grasping his head in a death grip as if he could squeeze the stabbing pain out of his skull.

Another wave of water washed into the room unnoticed by the drenched pair huddled on the floor. Tifa was past the point of panicking, her own mind as numb as her freezing flesh. She just held Cloud tighter, slowly rocking them both back and forth, her eyes shut tightly against the storm.

—

Cloud was not aware of the storm raging around him. He was not aware of falling, nor of Tifa catching him before he hit the ground. Distantly, there was screaming, but if it was him or Tifa or the wind outside, he couldn't tell. All he knew was the pain. It ripped through his mind like a shockwave from some devastating bomb that had been dropped inside his head. It brought back a memory– the kind of memory that your mind can't consciously recall but was permanently engraved in your nerve endings to be recognized if it were ever felt again.

A thousand times, a million times worse than the Mako poisoning, but somehow the same. A wall of glass. Green water, bright lights, the knives and the needles...

Zack, Zack...

Cloud began to stand up, the storm-ravaged world of the ship and the sea swimming back into view.

He's here.

"Cloud?"

Taking several heavy steps, Cloud was in the doorway. The rain was nearly blowing horizontally across the deck; the world was a gray vison of water. He saw him.

Cloud's fingers twitched, reflexively grasping for the hilt of his sword but closing around nothing but air. He wondered vaguely how he was going to kill him without his sword.

"Cloud!!"

He saw him, smiling serenely some thirty feet in front of him, arm raised, holding the Buster sword across his back. His sword.

Cloud snarled, striding across the deck. He'd kill him with his bare hands.

"What are you doing? Cloud!!" Tifa screamed from the doorway of the bridge, holding tightly to the doorpost so that the wind could not knock her down. Cloud was walking straight out onto the windswept deck, ignoring the gale as if it were merely a breeze. Tifa struggled to follow him, but the wind pinned her in place, almost acting as if it were some wall of air and water between her and Cloud. She looked beyond him, wondering what he was striding so menacingly toward. Then she saw him.

She gasped as she took in the long and unruly dark hair, still in that spikey style she remembered from so many years ago. Unchanged was the cocky smirk he always wore right before a battle. The way he held himself, as if daring you to pick a fight with him– there was no way, it couldn't be...

"Zack...?" She murmured.

Cloud stopped several feet in front of his former best friend.

"Cloud!" Zack called out jovially, as if he had just spotted an old friend in a crowd.

"What have you got for me today, Cloudy?" Zack asked politely. "Rain again?" He smiled and held his free hand out in front of him as if to catch the drops of water.

Tifa could see from her position outside the elemental barrier, where the rain and wind were still viciously attacking from every angle, that the storm was not touching the two men inside. Not a single drop of water penetrated the wall to muss a hair on either ex-SOLDIER's head.

Cloud's upper lip curled menacingly.

"Go back to hell!" he snarled.

Zack's eyes betrayed the fixed smile on his face as stared coldly at Cloud.

"But I can't go back empty handed, now can I?" he spoke evenly.

"You failed, Strife," he went on. "You failed her and every chance of happiness you could have ever had. But, a deal is still a deal, and I'm here to ensure that you'll uphold your end..."

The wind swelled to an ear-splitting howl, closing in on all directions. Cloud leapt forward, aiming for Zack, but the wind suddenly changed direction with enough force to hurl him against the side of the ship. Cloud's head struck the iron railing and he fell unconscious to the deck.

Tifa screamed and tried to run to Cloud, but the wind caught her as well, pinning her to the floor. With the storm bearing down full force around her, Tifa could still distinguish a sound– a man's cold, deep laugh of triumph, before she gave in to darkness clouding her eyes.