Chapter 8

Love Hurts

—

"Look at the stars, Cloud. Do you think they know how hard we're fighting for them?"

Tifa was staring up at the night sky when Cloud finally caught up with her, panting as he stumbled up the crest of the hill. They had been running through this valley all night, although if Cloud had really been thinking about it, he might have realized that he didn't even know when "all night" had started, or how they had even gotten here to begin with. He just knew he was following her and that now he had found her. That was all that really mattered.

Cloud walked slowly to stand beside her, surprised to find himself wary that she might take off again, flying over the soft grass like a breeze with her white dress fluttering along behind her. He resisted the urge to reach out and hold her in place, to just reassure himself that she was real and that she was here.

He settled instead to turn his own gaze up at the sky. He suddenly couldn't understand how it could be dark outside with the sky so packed full of light, so deep and so close.

He glanced at Tifa's face, which was full of admiration and wonder as if she were watching the stars spell out some fascinating story for her private enjoyment. She turned her head slightly to look at him, catching him slightly off guard with a smile as bright as the stars that inspired it. He was addicted to that smile; jealous when it was shared with someone unworthy like a patron in her bar, and almost uncontrollably angry when some shadow forced it away from her lips, making them quiver and frown with worry.

And it was now that the stars began to fade and confusion's frown tugged at the corners of her mouth– her lips were moving but he couldn't hear the words...

He broke from his state of enchantment as he suddenly realized the world around him growing dim. He instinctively reached out to keep Tifa close so that he would not lose her in the darkness, but his hand closed over air.

Cloud stared wildly around the darkness– the hills, the sky, the stars– they were all gone.

"Tifa!" he shouted harshly into the void. He saw her, being drawn away into the distance as if she were a puppet being pulled by some invisible string.

—

Cloud's eyes snapped open. There was no soft realization of the warm waves washing over his body as he lay on the beach, face pressed hard into the sand where he washed ashore. It was brutal suddenness, waking when he was certain he hadn't fallen asleep, that he was still chasing Tifa over those hilltops...

He narrowed his eyes. A dream. That's all that was. But as for the ship and the storm...

Still laying in the sand, Cloud quickly scanned his surroundings without moving an inch, as he was trained to do when waking up in alien territory. The beach was deserted, except for the few gulls scavenging from the broken wreckage that had washed ashore with him.

He squeezed his eyes shut against the bright sun and rubbed the salt from his face. There was no amnesia here. He remembered Zack with biting clarity, of how he had thrown himself into the attack as the sky did the stinging winds and pelting rain of the storm. He had been thrown off of him and into the ocean, leaving Tifa to that monster's mercy...

Cloud sprang up, jaws clenched in anger. He stared up and down the beach, but he already knew that she wasn't anywhere near him. She was with Zack and that other damned demented maniac, and God only knew what they were planning to do for their revenge...

Wiping sand from the corners of his mouth, he started down the length of the beach, squinting into the distance. There was a dense, tropical forest cropped very close to the sand, but further down the beach, he could see the unmistakably trademark thatched roofs of a fisherman's village.

As he approached the tiny cluster of mud-walled huts, the shrieks of children's laughter rang all around him. Several small village children ran past him, chasing each other into the surf. He allowed himself a small smile, watching them run past him as if drifters from the sea were an everyday occurrence. Heck, they probably were in this kind of town.

Cloud approached the nearest building and ducked under the low hanging veranda, entering what was most likely a bar. Another staple in the tiny seaside village genre. Cloud slumped onto a bar stool, signaling the bartender.

A tall, reedy looking man with greasy hair scurried up on command, grinning toothily at Cloud.

"Yethir?" The man said with a heavy lisp. He leaned over the counter until he was nearly two inches from Cloud's face. "How can I helthp you today?"

Cloud leaned back and winced at the man's close proximity as he gestured to the dusty shelf of liquor bottles behind the counter.

"I want something to drink," Cloud said without enthusiasm. He just needed something in him to make him function for a while and take the sting off his memories.

"May I suthgest the world-renowned 'Leviathan Currant?' Smooth asth the river ofth the godsth..."

"I need something hard," Cloud said slightly grumpily. "Got any Hellfire?"

"Ah ha!" Cloud nearly fell off his stool at the bartender's sudden screech. "One 'Islandth Hellthfire,' coming up!"

"Hey, wait a minute," Cloud said as the man started to scurry away. The bartender whipped around immediately and scuttled back up to the edge of the counter, peering into Cloud's face as if there were a parade of ants marching across it.

"Where am I, anyway?"

"Wuthai! Technicthly," the reed man trilled excitedly. "Well, we're a few milesth off from the main villath, but this whole islandth ith still goo' ol' Wu-

"Alright, alright," Cloud interrupted. He should have suspected that anyway, without calling attention to his situation. Not that any idiot couldn't deduce enough from his bedraggled appearance. "Shipwrecked" wasn't exactly the style this season.

The bartender hurried away again, and Cloud looked down at his torn and salt-encrusted black clothes. He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a handful of soggy sand and a very battered-looking PHS. Vaguely, he remembered something that Barret had said about water wrecking the cell phones, but Cloud had never paid much attention to him at the time, as he did not now. He flipped open the phone and after shaking out a few drops of water, dialed Barret's number.

It didn't even ring twice before someone answered, but it was definitely not Barret.

"Hi! This is Daddy's secretary! Will you hold please?" sang a girlish voice.

"Erm, Marlene? This is Cloud. Could I speak to your father, please?"

"Cloud, you're supposed to be holding!" Marlene giggled and then began humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for the holding music. Cloud didn't want to be impatient with a six year old girl, but he was really in a hurry. He tried not to imagine what could have happened to Tifa by now...

"Did I hear you say 'Cloud,' Marlene!?" called a voice in the background.

"Yes Daddy. You have a Mr. Cloud waiting for you on line 2. Should I tell him you are out to lunch?" Marlene giggled again. There was a shuffling noise as the phone was exchanged, and Barret's deep, gruff baritone answered.

"Well I'll be a... Cloud! Goddamn, man, where the hell you been? You know you been gone for damn near two years wi' out so much as a phone call? Damn, Tifa been worried sick..."

"Barret, listen," Cloud interrupted impatiently. "I need you to call up the crew. Whoever can come, load them up in the Highwind and bring them on down to Wutai. It's an emergency."

"Wha? Damn man, what's goin' on?"

"There really isn't time to explain," Cloud said with a sigh of exasperation. "I'll tell you all when you get here..."

"Well, you must be wi' Tifa then, 'cuz she's down at the Turtle Paradise, did you know?"

"Yeah, she was..."

"Huh? Whaddya mean, she WAS?! Where the hell–

"Barret! Just get everyone else down here. Meet me at Turtle Paradise."

Cloud snapped the phone shut and stared out the bamboo-framed window for a few moments, lost in thought. He turned around suddenly as he remembered that he was thirsty, and ran face-to-face with the oily barkeep. He had been leaning over the counter next to Cloud's ear during the entire phone conversation and now looked deeply terrified as Cloud threw an angry look of annoyance at him. He picked up his glass, took a hard gulp, threw down some Gil, and left the bar, walking down the road to the main town of Wutai.

—

"...Tifa."

Tifa opened her eyes groggily, the world appearing as a rather unbecoming fuzzy mess to her sleepy eyes. She was suddenly and painfully aware of the frozen cement floor she had been lying on as her aching muscles protested the movement. She propped herself up on her elbow and squinted into the darkness. There was the shadowy outline of a man beyond what appeared to be the bars of a cell. Tifa stood up suddenly, and instantly regretted it as a wave of nausea swept over her. She doubled over, clutching her head between her hands when the man spoke again.

"Long time no see, Lockheart."

Tifa's heart leapt into her throat. That voice... That voice had died seven years ago...

"Aren't you even going to say 'Hi,' Teef?"

"Z, Zack..." Tifa croaked, unwilling to lift her head and make her eyes believe her ears.

"I knew you wouldn't forget me, Tifa," Zack said with the ghost of a smile. "You always were so considerate of others..." The faint smile faded from his face. "Shame that same respect can't be repaid..."

Tifa fought to lift her head, forcing herself to make sense of the blurry outlines.

"What are you... I thought you..."

"I didn't die, if that's what you're thinking. Didn't your precious Cloud tell you anything?" Zack spat, surprising Tifa with his sudden vehemence. "About how I saved his worthless life from Hojo and escaped to Midgar seven years ago?"

Zack trailed off into bitter silence as Tifa continued to stare at him. She clenched her jaw against another wave of pain that seemed to pulse throughout her body as if it were in her very blood.

"He..." she began. "He didn't remember... And from what we saw in the Lifestream..."

Tifa's hand flew to her mouth as she gagged on blood and bile that had suddenly risen to her throat. Zack stared hard through the bars at Tifa's hunched over and choking figure.

"You honestly believe in Cloud's memories? He, who didn't even know who he was for years after, and who lied to you..."

"No!" Tifa yelled between gasps of air. What was happening to her?

"I believe him," she continued, still holding her hand to her mouth to catch the dripping fluids. "He just didn't know the truth. He was just... hurt and..."

"He was hurt!?" Zack shouted angrily. "He wasn't shot sixteen times in the guts with a rifle! He didn't have to crawl, bleeding, through the rain and mud, scavenging on rats, barely alive..." Zack closed his eyes, his fists shaking.

"He..." Zack continued. "Instead, he became me– no," Zack's eyes snapped open and he stared beyond Tifa and the cellar, a mad travesty of a half-grin on his face. "He tried to become me. He acted, spoke, attempted..." He slammed his fist suddenly into the bars before Tifa, causing her to involuntarily jump in surprise.

"He found her, he tried to take her from me..." The mad glint in his eye faded, and his hand slid from the bars to rest limply by his side. "He couldn't even protect her. He let her die..."

Tifa stared at him wide-eyed. Zack was silent for a few moments, lost in his own thoughts and staring at the invisible something over Tifa's shoulder.

He's completely insane, Tifa thought for a few fearful moments. He's kidnapped me to lure Cloud here, and he wants to kill us both...

Zack suddenly looked at Tifa, softness returning to his features.

"I'm no monster, if that's what you're thinking," he said softly. "I don't want to be here anymore than you do, but we all have our... priorities..."

"What are you talking about?" Tifa nearly whimpered. His manically unstable reactions were making her teeter over the breaking point. "You don't want to be here? You brought me here, didn't you?"

"I did as I was ordered," Zack said curtly. "Tifa, I won't lie to you– and that's one place where Cloud failed to copy my identity." Tifa saw the glimmer of bitterness spark itself in his eyes for a moment.

"I want you to know this isn't your fault. I don't blame you for any of this, and I don't think that you should have to suffer for him," Zack said, his voice calm once more.

Tifa's mind was whirring. She felt as though her body were rocking slowly back and forth underwater, totally out of control...

"This isn't your fault," Zack repeated softly. "But..."

Tifa heard him as if he were a million miles away, she was falling deeper into the water...

"But... I want you to die with the understanding that love hurts."