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Chap. 7

Above him, safe on the dais, Yuffie leapt from a fainting Squall like he was infected with a contagious disease. She stumbled away, staring horrified at his blood on her hands. I didn't--I didn't mean to grab him around the middle, I was just trying to help... Her mind was retching, reeling at the realization of what she'd just inadvertently done: she'd just caused the loss of one more life and once again, just like it had been with her village, it was that of a friend...

It wasn't my fault, she assured herself. He was falling anyway...Squall wouldn't've held. I was just trying to help...I didn't even stop to think... There was no quieting her conscience just then, though, so she left Squall on the ground and busied herself gathering up the weapons she'd dropped in her hurry to help.

I...failed him. It was becoming harder and harder for him to form thoughts in his head, but there was enough of Squall's consciousness left to make him aware that another one of his comrades was gone. Just as Cloud had, he succumbed to a wave of complete stoicism, not caring that his breath was growing shallower and more difficult to draw each time he exhaled.

I liked him, he realized offhandedly, and was mildly surprised. He hadn't acknowledged any such thing since…well, since before his own home had been demolished by Heartless. The past tense of his thoughts didn't really register within his clouded mind just then: Cloud was still alive but so was he...for how long was the actual issue.

There had been competition between them, he knew, a palpable sense of rivalry. It had been just enough to make their sparring sessions a little more serious, though in the time they'd traveled together the better of the two had not been conclusively decided. Cloud was all power but Squall was fast, as lithe as his comrade was strong. Depending on the moves each made and their state of mind, one would beat the other once and then lose the next time around.

Funny how…things...end up. Below him, Squall could just see the battle through his blackening eyes. Cloud was limping badly, fighting off the shifting mass of shadows as well as a flock of wizard Heartless that were hovering just above the fray. There was no emotion left in Squall now: his thoughts grew more disjointed and his consciousness was ebbing, just as his life force was ebbing. As he faded, he acknowledged one final thing: at least the girls are safe. He felt nothing as he coughed blood onto the concrete before him, cared less than an ounce that the only feeling in his entire body was the constant stab of unrelenting pain from his side and shoulder. The last image he registered was a wizard's glistening fireball shattering against Cloud's chest; Squall grimaced as the warrior stumbled backwards, dangerously close to left side of the precipice. A shadow leapt and Squall looked away as Cloud, jostled hard as the creature hit him in the same place the fireball had, stumbled further still. He teetered at the brink before finally losing his balance and careening over the side and down into the abyss below. Squall clenched his eyes shut.

I'm...sorry Cloud. He passed silently, though the reaction in the surrounding scene was akin to a Molotov cocktail's explosion. Aerith finally lost her grip on her Stop spell when she heard Yuffie's loud curse; shaking herself out of her dazed trance, she looked above her at the airship. It was suddenly devoid of motion, hovering steadily in tune with the hum of its engines, its attackers having pulled back and regrouped a short distance away. The wyverns kept their altitude, seeming to watch the platform, none of them moving but to flap their large wings. Understanding, Aerith spun.

She noticed two things immediately: first, Squall had gone limp, entirely still, and second--she noted with horror--Cloud was gone. Dashing to the side of the dais she slid to her knees and stared desperately over the edge. Down on the damaged concrete below, the shadows and wizards had frozen just as the wyverns had and, just like the other creatures, were looking directly back at her. It was disconcerting to say the least, but there was something more disturbing still.

"God no, no please..." She couldn't see him. The battlefield was crowded with nothing but Heartless, no one but Heartless. Looking to Yuffie she saw the ninja's thin shoulders shaking. She didn't even have to ask--the younger girl was pointing, her hand quivering as badly as the rest of her. "Did he..?"

"Over the side," was all she whispered. A ringing screech drug an unwilling Aerith back into reality as a wyvern dive-bombed the platform. She pulled her staff out and extended it just in time to beat the creature away, though she realized had it curved closer it would have had her. Unless, perhaps, it hadn't been aiming for her.

Well, I finally updated! Tell me what you think—more soon!