Yuffie dragged Tifa from the room and down the hall. She kicked the third door from the left open and pulled her inside. Zeo jumped and sat up quickly.
"What is it! What's happening!"
"One of those stupid clones came for Tifa," Yuffie lowered her onto the bed beside him. Tifa groaned, closing her eyes and breathing shallowly. Zeo looked up at the door, listening to the sounds of the fight.

Nanaki tackled Ryan. They rolled around on the floor for a moment and the clone threw the orange-red creature away, reaching for his gun. Vincent fired his own weapon and sent it clattering away from the copy's reach. Cloud ran forward, slicing across his chest. Ryan jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding the huge sword. He backed away and glanced down at the shallow gash on his front.
"That was foolish..." he muttered, casting a spell. The Trine attack hit them hard, and all fell to the floor. Cloud got to one knee, clutching a wound in his side.
"Take this!" he spat, running forward.

Cloud's sword began to glow and he brought it forward with a hard lunge. Then he sliced upward, across, down, forward, hitting the clone twenty different times. Cloud finally jumped high overhead–his Ultima Sword glaring a harsh white–and threw the blade down, cutting Ryan deeply. He backed away, panting and Vincent's duplicate fell to one knee, gasping in pain. They stood back and watched as he slowly got to his feet. He grunted, then looked up at them all with his eerie green eyes and began to laugh.
"If you believe that can defeat me, try again!" he cried. Everyone crouched to attack again, but suddenly it got dark. They all looked around and something screamed loudly. Ryan looked up to see BahamutZERO's attack racing toward him. He could only widen his eyes in shock and then it struck him, making the entire building tremble. The explosion shattered all the windows and blew all the doors off their hinges. They all waited for the summon to die out, then finally looked up at the caster.
"Is everyone alright?" Zeo called weakly.
"Huh!" Cid blinked.
Red XIII suddenly yipped: "No, everyone isn't alright!"
The real Vincent was crouched, hunched over and trembling. Cloud knelt beside him and looked him over.
"Vincent, are you okay?"
He slowly looked up at Cloud, and the boy blinked as he peered into Vincent's ashen face.
"These clones..." the man grunted, getting to his feet. He choked and a mouthful of blood hit the floor. Cid and Barret winced, Red flattened his ears back, and Cait Sith meowed worriedly. Vincent limped toward Zeo. Cloud held out a hand to help him but the man shook his head and came face to face with the mysterious boy.
"That's right," Zeo nodded. "These clones are you. Though you will not die when they do, you will feel pain."
"For how long?" Cid asked.
"A short while–give him an hour or so," he replied.
Cloud shook his head, turned, and left the room. Zeo watched him go.

Yuffie Kisaragi jumped up the moment he entered the room.
"What happened! Did you get him!" she cried.
Cloud Strife nodded: "At a price–Vincent's not doing so well."
"Why not!" Yuffie shrieked.
"Apparently these clones hold some sort of bond with the originals. When they're defeated, we feel it, to some extent." "He won't die, will he!"
Cloud looked over at Tifa who was sitting up and staring at him with wide, scared eyes.
"I...don't know."
"Vincent!" the ninja-thief leapt up and raced out of the room. Cloud watched her go and he felt Tifa take his hand. He looked to her, and her eyes were filled with tears.

"Zeo will be helping them," Hojo paced back and forth in front of the stone pillar. His strange mako eyes flickered over the seven shadows kneeling in the darkness around the center shrine. "Damien! Arina!"
The Cloud and Tifa-clones stood, saluting the mad scientist. "Yes, Master."
"I need you to make sure this city is secure–go patrol the area. Destroy all that is not necessary."
They bowed and disappeared. Hojo turned to the others.
"If it would please you, Master," Cid's clone stood up, "I'll be the next to go capture the woman."
"Yes, Marione," Hojo looked at him, "perhaps you will succeed where Ryan failed. But I will not tolerate another failure."
"Forgive my questioning, Master," Yuffie's double spoke up, "but why is that woman so important? Why were Arina and Damien created differently anyway?"
"In due time you shall figure this out, Katrina," the scientist glanced at her. "For now, Marione, you and Kenya will go back to the other continent and capture Tifa Lockheart."
"With all due respect, Master–" the Red XIII-clone growled.
"You will accompany Marione," Hojo said softly. "You will both bring Tifa here to the City of Ancients, and one of you must eliminate that problem."
"Problem?" Barret's clone looked up.
"Were you not paying attention, Waylon!" Hojo snapped. "Zeo must be eliminated."
Waylon bowed and said nothing else. Marione sneered at the dark man, turned and left the inner city, Kenya following reluctantly at his heels. Hojo giggled and turned away from the others, clasping his hands. Two pairs of glowing green slits shone from the darkness of the passageway leading to the outer city. The sharp sound of metal against glass screeched loudly through the darkness, as if a sword were being drawn. The eyes disappeared.

Cloud lay in his bed, staring out the open window into the night. Too many things were on his mind: the clones, Tifa, Hojo, Tifa, his friends, Tifa... There was no way he could possibly get to sleep at this rate. He continued to stare up at the crescent moon in the dark sky for some time until a noise by the door made him jump and look over in surprise. Tifa stood in the doorway, blushing and looking down at the floor.
"Sorry if I startled you."
"No," he shook his head to clear it, "that's okay. What is it?"
"I had this really weird dream...and I don't want to go back to sleep all by myself," she blushed furiously. Cloud blinked at her for a moment, then threw the quilt off of himself and climbed out of bed. He made his way over to her and smiled, taking her hand.
"Then you can stay with me."
She smiled bashfully at him, but nodded. He led her back over to his bed and threw himself down onto the mattress. Tifa giggled and lay down beside him. Cloud turned his body to face her and pulled the sheets up to cover them. Tifa slipped into his arms, laying her head against his chest and closing her eyes. He slowly stroked her hair back, staring into her face for a long time. Her brown eyes slowly drifted open. She peered up at him and Cloud's breath caught in his throat. Tifa shook her head and looked away.
"I dreamt about Aeris."
"Aeris?" Cloud blinked.
"She was in the City of the Ancients, where we found her right before Sephiroth..."
Cloud nodded. "Yeah."
"Well," Tifa continued, "just like then, a figure dropped down from the eaves above us and rammed a sword through her...a different sword."
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't Sephiroth this time," she said. "It was you."