Disclaimer: I do not, have not, and never will own Final Fantasy VII or anything else of interest to you. Don't sue me.
A/N: Well! Certainly has been forever since I've updated, hasn't it? My deepest apologies. I was concentrating on my Yu Gi Oh! fic, Stranger Danger, but I decided that enough is enough. I hope this chapter makes up for the hiatus!
Ages: Cloud is twenty-one in the game. Thank you, Volian, forinforming me that Zack is two years older than Cloud.Since the Nibelhiem incident (last chapter) occurred approximately five years before the start of the game, that would make Cloud sixteen and Zack eighteen when that occurred. As far as I know, Square never told us when exactly the events of the next few chapters take place. I'm guess that it was only a few months before the start of the game. Therefore, let's say that Cloud is twenty-one, just like he is in the game, and Zack is twenty-three.
Dialogue: You may have noticed that last chapter (and in the beginning of this one) the dialogue consisted entirely of what they said in the game. I felt that would be more realistic. Well, the game doesn't show us everything I want to say for most of the following events; the cut scene is, after all, Cloud's broken, fragmented flashback. So I'm using my imagination with filling in between the lines, and that means it's my own dialogue.
Anyway… Enjoy!
It was almost time. Zack looked anxiously at the dusty clock hanging on the far wall, trying to see the positions of the hands through the greenish glow of Mako all around him. One of Hojo's assistants would soon be coming in to give the two prisoners a meager lunch, barely enough to survive on.
He shifted his gaze to rest on the tank next to him. There, floating in a tank identical to Zack's own, was the spiky-haired form of Cloud Strife.
Soon, Cloud. Just hang on a little longer... We'll be free soon…
Just as these thoughts had crossed his mind, the door to the basement slid open. In stepped the suited form of the man who had been assigned to deliver today's meal. Zack smiled. Now…
The man approached Zack's tank first. Zack's smile grew as he naïvely called out, "Hey! This is your food."
No, duh, idiot. What else would it be? thought Zack with some annoyance. His aggravation soon disappeared as he took note of the man. He appeared nervous, and Zack remembered that he was a new member of the team here. The former SOLDIER's smile turned to a smirk. He had been counting on that fact.
The man reached out to the button that would open Zack's tank, his miniscule training betraying him, just as the captive had known it would. Fool... Didn't tell you to inject a tranquilizer first, did they?
As the doors to his tank swung open, Zack lunged forward, his fist colliding with the hapless guard's chin. There was the sickening crunch of breaking bone, and the man fell to the floor. Zack looked at him emotionlessly. He could feel no pity for one of the people who had held him captive for so long.
He took a moment to take in is surroundings. His eyes widened in shock when he realized just exactly where they had been held for the past five years.
It was the library. The same library in which Sephiroth had spent days and nights researching his lost past, in which he had become mad and…
…And… burned the town to the ground. The library was located in the Shinra mansion. The Shinra mansion was located in the town if Nibelhiem. Why had it not been destroyed?
Shaking his head, deciding to worry about that once they were free, Zack took a step towards Cloud's tank, staggering slightly as his leg muscles, unused for so long, complained at the task they now had to perform. He leaned against the tank to catch his breath, the green glow from the Mako making his arm seem to glow, as well.
Feeling steady now, Zack opened Cloud's tank. Sickly green Mako spilled to the floor, followed by Cloud's unsteady, blue-uniformed body. He landed on his hands and knees, his head shaking in confusion. His body convulsed, and he collapsed to the ground.
Cloud! Zack's eyes widened, and he started forward to assist the young man. Suddenly, something caught his eyes, and he froze, turning his head to see it better. He felt a smile split his face. It was his sword! The idiot scientists had hung the Buster Sword on the far wall, as if it was some kind of sick trophy. Triumphantly, Zack trotted forward and swung it down from the pegs that held it in place. Its sheathe was leaning against the wall below the pegs. He picked it up and slid sword into sheathe, then slung it across his back. Its familiar weight was comforting to the black-haired man.
He looked about him and grabbed a uniform similar to his own from off the table. Cloud couldn't go around wearing the Shinra uniform that currently adorned his body; it was too easy to notice, too easy to recognize. He slung the uniform over his shoulder and hurried to Cloud's side. Guilt washed over him; he had left the young man convulsing on the ground while he found his sword.
He bent over the blond, shaking his shoulder. "Cloud? Hey, are you okay?"
Cloud moaned, twitching, and shook his head. Whether he actually understood the question and was replying that no, he was not okay, or whether he was merely lost in his own world of desperate confusion, Zack didn't know.
"Geez… You're in bad shape, buddy," he murmured. He grabbed Cloud under his arms and began to drag him to the door. The first thing they needed to do was escape; he could figure out how to help his companion when they had reached safety.
Halfway to the door, he stopped. "This isn't working…" he murmured. Cloud was a dead weight, and Zack was out of shape from five years of floating in Mako and being experimented on. "Need to find a different way to move you…"
He set the young man gently down, catching his breath. "Okay… Let's try this, instead." He bent down, wrapping Cloud's arm around his shoulder and heaving him up, trying to support the other boy's weight. He took a few hesitant steps, noted that this new method seemed to be working, and smirked. "Time to get out of this joint."
Their progress was sluggish, for even with his improved Cloud-transport system, Zack was still supporting most of the blond's weight. Slowly, they made their way to the door. With some difficulty, he opened it, stepping into an all too familiar corridor. An eerie purple glow illuminated the area, and Zack wrinkled his nose as the dank smell of musk and bat guano replaced the stench of Mako from the library. He had been in this cave-like hallway before, and he didn't appreciate the memories that the place held. With a scowl, Zack pushed forward.
He moved as quickly and as quietly as possible. He was hoping not to run into anyone who might attempt to stop them. However, as is so often the case in such scenarios, fate decided to dash Zack's hopes. It wasn't long before he heard someone approaching from the other end of the corridor.
"Shit," Zack swore, looking around for someplace to hide. They would never make it back to the library, and there was no where to turn…
There! A door stood not three feet to his right. Zack threw himself at it in relief, his free hand scrambling for the knob…
Only to find it locked.
The person was closer now. In scant seconds, they would be upon them. With no other options, Zack let Cloud slide to the floor and drew his sword. He would fight if he had to.
A man stepped into his view, freezing when he saw Zack standing there. He wore the standard blue uniform of a common Shinra soldier, his rifle slung over one shoulder.
Zack wasn't the kind of man who killed when he didn't have to. Life was too precious to waste; sometimes he wondered why he had become a soldier in the first place. However, he knew how to do what he had to do.
The guard hastily scrambled for his rifle, but Zack was already upon him. He couldn't let him shout, couldn't let him fire his weapon… All would be lost if the soldier made a sound.
The battle was over almost before it had begun. Zack had sliced the man's weapon in half before he had even raised it into firing position. Reversing the sideways motion he had used to accomplish that task, Zack sent his sword up and buried it into the guard's chest. With a strangled gurgling sound, the man – now merely a body – fell to the ground, red blood staining his once-pristine blue uniform purple in a sick imitation of a child's finger-paints.
Calmly, for he had killed many times before and was well past the stage of being stricken by such an act, Zack pulled the Buster Sword from out of the corpse's chest. He wiped it clean of blood on the body's pant leg, sheathed it, and walked back to Cloud.
Zack stared in wide-eyed amazement at the sight before his eyes.
They had had no further encounters during their escape. After they had left the corridor and made their difficult way up the spiral staircase and through the secret door, there had been many places in which they could hide if the need arose. No more men lay dead at the black-haired man's hands.
They had come to the front door of the mansion, the final thing between them and their freedom. Zack had pushed it open…
Only to find this. The town of Nibelhiem, which had been burnt to ruins with the slaughtered bodies of townsfolk lying in the streets, looked exactly as it had before Sephiroth had committed his sin.
Zack couldn't believe it. He supposed he could understand it being rebuilt; it had been five years, after all. But this? Every wall, every building, everything had been restored in its entirety. Staring into the distance, Zack could even see the same rusted truck at the entrance to the small town that he had passed upon entering so long before.
Had he imagined it? Had the Mako driven him insane? No! He remembered everything with such a clarity that he knew it had been real. But then… how?
"Mm… ah… gurk…" Cloud's mumbled nonsense brought Zack out of his reverie. The other man hadn't said a work since they had left the library; maybe this new sound meant that he was recovering. Though those could hardly be called words…
"Guess you're right, buddy," Zack said, as if he had understood him. "Shouldn't stand around gaping, should I?" He took one more look at the town and began to limp towards the town entrance.
Free.
A/N: Look, I had an action sequence in this! I know the battle was really short, but it's my first time really writing one, so any opinions or pointers would be much appreciated.
So would reviews, by the way... (wink)