When Heart Rules Over Mind

Everybody suffers

Cloud slowly blinked his eyes open, and instantly felt the stretching sensation of pain throbbing in his temples, and across his forehead. He groaned, and lifted the lead weight of his head up off of its hard resting place on the metal floor.

Wearily looking around him, there was a lot left unseen from where he was. The corners of the large room were hidden in shadow, leaving the area above him literally invisible from here. He patiently allowed his eyes to adjust, and he slowly recognised a narrow upper walkway running around the four walls of the room above him, with a thin metal staircase leading up to it near to where he sat. He could barely make out the source of a blinking red light above him, through the bottom of the mesh platform above. He recognised this place…

The cargo hold in one of the cargo ships he had ridden before.

This was the room Sephiroth had been inside…

That made him sit up.

Now his mako eyes could see the contours of the room, placing them here halfway from memory. He remembered being here; battling the creation Sephiroth had left for them. He let his glance roam around the whole room, eying the area above where he had found a fallen man's ether – and taken it. He cringed, but he couldn't do anything about his actions before. He had been a hard man, and he took anything he got his hands on, if it served his plight.

They had found Ifrit's summon orb lying right about – there.

Cloud's eyes widened in the darkness.

Dark hair…long…scattered over the cold floor beside the door…a hand lying still…a silver ring…a pear drop earring glinting through the locks of thick chocolate hair…the copper glints in the strands being picked up every other second, when the red flash of the broken light above flickered, spilling her in a solemn red dust of light.

"Tifa…"

Cloud scrambled his weight onto his feet, and barely stood as he made his way rapidly to her side.

"…Oh God, please…don't hurt her again …"

His hand gently took her shoulder, turning her body over carefully, as the other cupped her neck, supporting her delicate head - which felt frighteningly lifeless. Gradually, she faced him, her body being pulled into his supportive arms, her hair spilling over her. His fingertips delicately pulled her hair away from her face and as the red light blinked on that second, the red showed the last element to this fallen figure –

The blood.

Cloud's eyes pained as he caught sight of it, staining the material of her thin, green thin-strapped top that clung to her, leaving her arms cold and bare. He flinched at how cold her skin felt against him, the sight of the blood seeping over her; He felt angry that it was even touching her.

"…Why?" He whispered, his voice cracking under the light. Why her? He questioned the inner torments of his mind. It was always her, always Tifa who had to suffer because of the situations he got himself into. And now? Barely a few days with her, and now look at her.

He looked to her face, blinking his eyes tight for a second, biting his lip to get any shreds of his strength in order to protect her. All he felt like he could do was break down, but he couldn't. For her sake.

He gently shook her fragile body in his arms. "Wake up Tifa…please…come on Teef…it's – it's –" He cracked, his throat clamping up so tight he could hardly breath his own name to her, he couldn't tell her he was here.

Pulling her up, he held her as tight as he would let himself, holding her head against his chest, as he rested his cheek on her hair. His arm wrapped around her middle, supporting her against him as he encased her, as if he felt it was a meagre achievement; protecting her from the only threatening element in the room – a simple light. It was pathetic, but it was the only duty he could do. He wanted to hold her, protect her from whatever was here.

Though nothing was.

Just him. And that was useless to her now. He rocked her limp body back and forth gently, his cheek resting on the cool silk of her hair. He stroked her head lovingly as he closed his eyes, whispering her name, telling her he was here, waiting if she needed to wake up. Praying to whoever or whatever was out there, for her to just open her eyes, stir in his arms, speak…

After what seemed like forever, Cloud opened his eyes slowly, detaching himself from thoughts of the woman in his arms. Tifa felt slightly warmer than before, due to him rubbing her arms soothingly, and her back, and holding her as close to him as he could, sharing his body heat, hoping she would take it. He lowered his arms, holding her head and upper back supportively, as if holding a child in his arms, her head resting in the crook of his arm, on his elbow. He stroked her face with his fingertips and waited as his glowing blue eyes looked at her, just urging her to look up at him as she used to…

Her fingertips twitched.

Cloud's eyes snapped down to her hand as it lay on his thigh. When he looked back to her face, her eyes were barely open, her eyelashes blinking with poor effort under the heavy layer of red light above them. Cloud held her tighter, his hand finding hers as he gripped it.

She immediately found her strength and squeezed back, slowly and weakly, but it was enough for him. He smiled in absolute relief, nervous as hell that she would slip again, so he withheld the urge to simply pull her into a hug. He daredn't, in case he would overpower the little strength she was - even now - attempting to use.

"Teef? How you doing down there?" He said, a nervous smile on his face, as he held her, all his effort taken up to stop himself pulling her close and just –

Her eyes flickered slowly upwards. But she didn't smile.

Then Cloud's smile plummeted. The red light flickered again, and the red glow of the room snapped his attention suddenly back to the blood…

"Oh God, Tifa, what happened? How badly are you hurt? I just saw the blood and I –"

He stopped, seeing her lips part, ready to speak.

Waiting a few more precious moments in silence, he listened as she finally whispered, the pain in her words choking any reply he could have made, keeping the words firmly in his throat.

"It's not mine…"

Cloud simply looked at her, her eyes falling away from his once more as she looked down at herself, her free hand that wasn't holding Cloud's, moving onto her stomach, where she gripped the soaked material, her eyes cringing tightly shut as she felt the cold wetness of blood. His blood.

Cloud could hardly bear to be holding her. He felt suddenly like it wasn't right, that he had no place being the one sitting here with her now. He should be someone else. That someone else should be holding her, making her smile again. Cloud himself should be the one who was – dead.

Cloud lowered his gaze, the glow of his eyes shaded from Tifa's glance as she looked up at him in that moment. Cloud knew who Miguel was now. He also knew how much he had meant to Tifa. He had seen them in the street earlier today…today? It seemed at age ago. But he could still remember the unspoken bond between the pair, though Tifa had never said it out loud, just seeing them together revealed to Cloud the feelings between them.

He wanted to let go. Right now. But he couldn't leave her, not by herself. He had to support her. She had clearly been injured to have the bruises around her wrists. Cuffs he expected, just like him. That meant she had had the treatment he had had from their captors, who he still didn't know the location or purpose of.

Suddenly he felt pressure on his hand. Tifa was trying to lift herself to rest against him. Cloud immediately followed, pulling her carefully against him, circling her back with his arm, his other hand still holding hers as he held it against his chest, until he felt Tifa's body leaning against their clasped hands too. Her arm slowly reached around his back and she rested her head against his chest with a soft sigh. She squeezed his hand before falling into a regular breathing state, and slipping into sleep. Cloud kissed her hair and rested his cheek against her head, rubbing his thumb soothingly over the skin of her hand.

"I'm here Tifa…I'm here."

"Remind me why we're doing this again." Reno questioned, frustrated at the situation they were in. He rested the handle of his gun to his forehead as he leaned back in the office chair in the now deserted media room in the Junon building. His colleagues were still with him, though both were growing as impatient at the situation, as they were with him.

The question was rhetorical, as the silent figure of Rude figured out. Elena however, always missed this important part.

"You've told us more times than I can even bother counting anymore. 'We're not doing it for the publicity Elena, this is serious – blah blah blah'" She piped up with, from where she was stood, half sitting on the edge of one of the computer desks in the room. The high-pitched way she attempted at mimicking Reno's voice sent his glare straight at her.

"Button it blondie," He snapped, pointing the butt of his gun in her direction before again resting it against his forehead and closing his eyes as he leaned back.

Elena opened her mouth to protest before she felt a grip on her upper arm. She jumped, turning her head to find herself looking up at the tall figure of Rude. His silent expression shut her up there and then. Releasing his grip, Rude walked calmly toward the wide window at the head of the room that took up practically the whole wall. Reno sat up while Rude's steps echoed in the room.

"Come on though, honestly, what's the deal with this guy? 'Dylon'! It's laughable. The guy is giving his first name as if he is on our side, or even superior enough to be known by his forename, like a God or something." Reno chuckled as he swivelled his chair round in a rapid circle, speaking with a wave of his hand as he revolved a few times. "Tsch, yeah right. Not likely somehow. I'm afraid 'Dylon' will not get far, not with a poxy name like that." He came to a stop, planting his feet on the ground to face the now still form of Rude.

"It isn't uncommon for someone of his calibre to want to be known by his first name. It's a simple revenge mission for him, he is not in this business for the long haul".

Reno mulled over his friend's words for a few moments.

"Hmmm…maybe you're right there Rude. But, the guy's a crackpot, to want to challenge Cloud Strife, and not only that, but doing so with a half decent plan, it…well it makes me suspicious. He might be hiding a little more info from us here."

Elena folded her arms and faced the pair.

"You're forgetting something."

Reno rolled his eyes, and swivelled his chair to face her. He sighed and rubbed his forehead, leaning his elbow on the chair arm. He also made sure to not even both to look at her. "Enlighten me."

She scowled at his patronising tone, but didn't fall for the bait.

"This Dylon guy has a score to settle. With Strife. He has a lot in common with all of us for a start. He will want us to take his side from the outset. The world knows us by our forenames so maybe the guy is trying to think himself as part of the Turks. It won't matter to him that the Turks don't exist anymore. Just the fact that us three are still a team is good enough. We're not a formal organisation anymore, well, least not in the way we were before. We are businessmen, and women, now. He's trying to coax us into trusting him and going to join in his dirty work."

She pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled.

"He doesn't want to seem like a client. He thinks he's part of us."

Reno blinked.

Rude looked at Elena, then focussed on Reno.

Reno slowly smiled. "You know what? You've just pulled a brunette comment from that head box of yours. Well done."

Rude smirked while Elena continued to smile, not caring Reno insulted her. It was the only way he could stomach giving a compliment to anyone if he insulted them first, and she appreciated his effort, however unusual. Besides, she was used to it now. It was like she was the little annoying sister always having to prove herself, but when she did, she often kicked the older brothers in the teeth with it.

Reno continued to smirk as he stood up.

"All right then, we better get this thing started up. The guy is brining the three celebrities here within the hour. We want to make sure everything is to their liking don't we?"

Rude turned away from the window and headed out the room. Elena pushed herself up from the desk and did the same. Reno paused for a moment, walking over to the window as he looked out over the view of the sunset over the sea.

He stood there for a few precious moments as the colours blazed through the glass against his skin, matching the flame of his hair. He smiled at the warm sensation of it against his skin. There were few occasions to witness this, for Reno at least. And every time he had time to stop and appreciate it was before something was going to be set in motion. And today, he would be welcoming a certain arrival he had waited a long time to meet.

"So how's he doing?"

The male doctor slowly flipped back the patient notes on the clipboard in his hands and sighed letting his hand holding it fall limply to his side.

"Not good. Not good at all. Have you read these?" He said, waving the clipboard at his female colleague.

She shook her head, and held out her hand for the notes, to which he acknowledged and handed over.

She took a few minutes to look over them.

"It's a joke, it really is. This so-called 'calm' period Strife and all them brought after Sephiroth? Doesn't make mankind any less of a heartless bastard." The doctor commented as he watched the nurse read the notes, and watch her expression closely change to one of shock and disgust, the further she read.

"Jesus…" she gasped.

The doctor nodded. "Poor sod. It's awful. Right in his home, just out of nowhere, shot down like that." He shook his head and lifted his gaze to look through the thick glass of the window through to the scene of Miguel lying in his bed, wires coming out of him, Sofia and his mother closely sat with him. "It's just not right. Miguel's just an ordinary guy, nice enough. I've been down to Solana Mar after work some nights; he ain't half a decent guy. And for some goon to come along and just shoot him down for no reason? It makes me sick."

The nurse nodded and sighed as she handed the clipboard back.

"What are his chances?"

The doctor paused. He stepped aside to let a patient being pushed on a trolley past, nodding to the porter pushing it. Then he looked back to the window, watching with sullen eyes at the unconscious form of Miguel.

"Not good."

He ran a hand through his short cut sandy hair.

"Not good at all. For someone of his build, fit and healthy condition, young age – he's lucky to have been in the physical state he was. Otherwise he wouldn't have even made it into the bed there, despite the fact he's wired up to a machine."

The nurse folded her arms and turned to face the window also. After a few moments she turned her head to face the doctor again.

"Have you spoken to his family yet?" She asked nervously, whilst beginning to re-braid her long blonde hair, her break now over with.

"No. But I'm just about to."

"Okay Jax. But you listen to me," She placed her hand on his shoulder, finished with her hair. He turned his glance to look at her. "We're all going over to Sam's after shift's over tonight. I know you've been wanting to wind down at that place for a while now. It's a nice little bar."

His face slowly showed signs of a tired smile.

"Okay Selena, I'll consider it."

She frowned but began to continue on her way, half turning to face him as she walked off. "That's not good enough Doctor Callaway. You'll either be there or you won't."

Jax reluctantly smiled, his hand now on the door to Miguel's room. "Save me a seat then." He called back, to which she accepted, judging by her smile. He watched her turn her back to him and continue her way down the corridor, before he turned to push open the room door, his smile instantly failing him as the task at hand returned.

Sofia instantly looked up as the sound of the door stripped her desperate gaze from her brother. "Doctor!" She called expectantly, getting to her feet. She noticed straight away the 'I'm sorry' expression on his face, and she didn't like it one bit.

"Miss Guarrado, Mrs Gaurrado," He greeted in turn. Miguel's mother was still grasping her son's hand as she looked up to face the doctor, her cheeks sunken and stained with tears. Her rich and usually neat hair was spilling over her shoulders, un-kept.

Sofia looked no better. If anything, the young beauty looked worse. A constant stream of tears had made the richness in her brown eyes fade, the area around them red and puffy, sore from being rubbed dry. Her raven curls were pulled back into a lopsided clip she obviously hadn't bothered to tend to, as most of the strands meant to be clasped in it were either loose or tangled around it.

"Well!" she pressed. "What's going on? What's wrong? Is he going to be okay?"

The doctor gave himself a moment, motioning for Sofia to sit, though she didn't.

"The injury Miguel has sustained is very severe. His lung was punctured by the shot. The surgeon has recovered the bullet in the operation that went successfully, as you know." Sofia nodded quickly, urging him to get to the bad news she knew was coming.

"However," He began. Mrs Guarrado gasped, clasping her hand over her mouth lightly, her lips murmuring panicked words in her native tongue in-audibly, as her eyes began to fill with tears once again. Sofia's face showed signs of giving in to emotion, but she strained to keep her expression hard, expectant.

"…Miguel's body went into severe shock. The damage is fatal. It is extremely lucky for him that he is of the strength his youth provides a man of his age. For, if he had not been as strong, he would not have made it this far. The fact that there were signs of a struggle after the shot had been made, suggests he was not even knocked unconscious immediately as a cause of the bullet, and that he had strength to fight back his attacker. For this, we are all hopeful that he has still got a fighting chance. Though, I must still stress his chances are still slight, even for a man of his strength."

Sofia nodded weakly, her eyes wide as she stressed them open as not to break the water building up in the corners, free. Her mother was clutching her son's hand tightly, whispering comforting words to him still in her native language, as tears spilled over her aged face.

The doctor stepped further into the room, closer to Miguel's mother. Sofia stepped back to join her, placing her hands on her mother's shoulder to get her to look up. Sofia nodded toward the doctor, and her mother faced him, reaching one hand up to firmly clutch at her daughters. Both women looked at the doctor desperately waiting for him to continue. His voice stuttered on his next words because of their looks, and he coughed his throat clear.

"But I must tell you, in realistic terms we are giving Miguel a forty-eight hour period of observation. If he does not show any signs of improvement during this critical time, I must ask you to consider giving us permission to turn off his life support machine –"

Miguel's mother's eyes widened suddenly and she instantly started shouting her objections and outrage at the doctor, though he could not understand the traditional Costan language that wasn't used anymore. He stood back, slightly caught off guard.

Sofia squeezed her grip on her mothers shoulder and soothed her into quietening down, which she finally did. Sofia's mother turned in her chair to face her daughter, and wrapped her shaking arms around her middle, pressing the side of her face against her daughter's stomach, as she cried into it. Sofia closed her eyes as she shushed her mother, stroking her hair. When she opened her eyes, this time she allowed her tears to fall, they were unstoppable by now. She even sobbed quietly, while she stood there with her mother, bowing her head slightly while she cried.

Eventually Sofia looked up, breathing back her sobs as she looked at the doctor. She nodded to him.

"Thank y-you…for all y-you've d-done for him." She stuttered out. The doctor smiled sympathetically at her. He could only marvel at how mature and strong the girl was, so ripe of an age.

"Can you…c-could you…make sure you t-try your hardest to h-help him b-before…before…"

"I assure you we will do everything we can for him. The team of doctors we have here are second to none Miss Gaurrado. I promise you your brother is in safe hands."

Sofia closed her eyes and bowed her head as she ran her hand comfortingly through her mother's hair, trying to give her support whilst keeping herself from crying.

"Please…leave us."

"Of course." The doctor replied quietly, before turning and slowly exiting the room. He closed the door with a click and sighed heavily, walking alone down the corridor.

It had been a hard day.

For everybody.

Author's Notes:

i love CloTi! Cloud and Tifa belong together. In my opinion people! Anyways, the next few chapters will give some quality time to them. Alone...in very small spaces, all alone and afraid. So obviously prime oppertunity to take up oh I dunno...a whole chapter with our favourite pair? Haha! Teasing you guys yet? Hope so! I really cannot stress how much your opinions out there matter to me. thank you so much to eveyone who has me on author aler too! you're wonderful, and to those who have me as one of your favourites? I've been looking, and i am among some reallt top notch writers. kinda makes me go all happy lol,.

And finally, one special shout out to Destiny Awakaned, a.k.a a lovely person who sent me an email telling me that I shouldn't worry about my writing, and it was just a really nice, positive email that made me have a much happier day than the one i was having, and kicked me into updating, so this chapter goes out to you!

Email me anybody and everybody. I'm happy to reply.

Xx Jessie xX