32 — Not once, did the light in the basement go out...
This isn't the Reactor. The door closes into a shadowed, cool interior that smells of musty books. Tifa is in a long corridor of dim blue lighting. Someone is at the end, rustling through papers. She's underground, judging by the vaulted wooden beams in the ceiling. She turns, and behind her is the laboratory.
She's in the Shinra Mansion basement. No, this can't be right. She turns again, unable to understand the teleportation trick because she was sure she had entered the Nibel Reactor. That is the source of Cloud's missing memory from that night, and that's what she was focusing on when she walked over that threshold.
Yet now she's in the basement. Again.
But things are different. There's no sign of the dead MP. The laboratory is dark and humming with minimal activity.
There's murmuring down the hall, a tearing of pages. Exasperated sighs.
She tiptoes forward. The library is a small circular room at the terminus opposite the lab. Binders of research notes line the shelves. There are very few traditional books. It seems to be a private collection or an archive.
A man sits on the floor with papers spread around him. He's tracing lines from one set of documents to another with one finger. He seems very distraught, and, even with his back to the door, Tifa is quite sure she knows who this is. The silver hair and black uniform are unmistakable.
It's the General, but he isn't like she remembers. The calm and confident man she'd once been thrilled to take a photo with is distracted, harried, long hair tied in a disheveled bun. The obsessive aura reminds her of Cloud's unnatural determination to track Sephiroth—but where is Cloud? This can't be one of his memories. Sephiroth is alone in this basement.
He slouches over a new set of books, flipping through and scanning.
"Sephiroth," a voice says from the hall.
Tifa jumps, expecting it to be Cloud, but it's that First-Class SOLDIER, Zack.
"One of the guys said you were down here," Zack says, easing into the library.
Sephiroth doesn't look up, but he acknowledges Zack with a grunt.
"So, the mission is over, right?" Zack says. "I mean, we stopped those monsters from attacking the town. HQ will want to know—"
"I'll deal with HQ," Sephiroth interrupts in a low voice, poring over the research. "The mission is over when I say it is."
Zack adjusts the sword on his back. It's a broadsword so similar to the one Cloud favors that Tifa gets the uncanny sense of him standing right there. Even the way Zack crosses his arms is reminiscent of Cloud.
The SOLDIER runs a hand through his raven-black hair and exhales.
"How long you been down here?" he asks.
Sephiroth ignores him.
"When was the last time you slept?" Zack steps closer. "Or ate?"
He speaks to the General as if they are friends. This shouldn't be surprising—she recalls Zack saying Sephiroth and he were the only First-Class SOLDIERs remaining—yet Tifa had placed Sephiroth as an inhuman murderer. She can't imagine him ever having friends. Yet here is one in sympathetic appeal.
"You should get some rest."
"Listen to this," Sephiroth says, grabbing the open binder on the desk. He reads from it, "An organism that was apparently dead was found in a two-thousand year-old geological stratum." He skips ahead a few paragraphs. "Professor Gast named that organism Jenova."
He pauses for emphasis and looks at Zack. Tifa notices the brilliance of his emerald eyes, seeking understanding.
Zack scratches his head.
Sephiroth huffs and reads on, skipping over the dates, "X year, X month, X day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient."
"This stuff is so old…"
Sephiroth holds up a finger as if baiting anticipation and grabs another research binder. Papers scatter around his feet. Tifa moves into the library against one wall, and the two do not react to her at all. She is an observer, nothing more.
"Y year, Y month, Y day. Jenova Project approved. Mako Reactor One approved for use." Sephiroth pauses, and hungry eyes sweep the mess of notes on the floor. "The Jenova Project, don't you see?!"
Zack doesn't look convinced.
Sephiroth rattles on, "My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova Project... Is this just a coincidence?"
"I don't know…"
"You remember what we saw in the Reactor. That doorway marked J.E.N.O.V.A. None of this is a coincidence. It can't be."
A feverish look overtakes the General. He is once more lost in the research. Tifa glimpses the Shinra logo stamped bright red atop each page.
"Sephiroth… You need to sleep. Who cares what a bunch of old smelly books say? It's probably outdated nonsense." But even Zack doesn't sound like he believes this. He's trying to console his friend.
The General isn't listening. "Professor Gast... Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?" He pulls a fresh stack from the shelves and sits back down in his circle of scatterings.
"...Sephiroth." Zack reaches out, but the General halts him.
"Let me be alone."
Zack lingers like he wants to say more, but then he leaves. The memory goes on, however, and Tifa realizes this must be an echo of someone else in the Lifestream. Not Cloud.
Sephiroth continues reading, adjusting his position, often underlining passages or scribbling in the margins. The night wears on. Sephiroth leans against the bookshelves with one knee up, a hand over his forehead.
He is distraught. The origins of his life are splayed open in this room, and all signs point to him being a monstrosity. The unnatural union of human and alien cells, conceived in the womb, from what Tifa recalls Vincent saying.
Sephiroth sighs and leans back with eyes closed. He sits very still for very long, and then he goes back over the research notes with renewed vigor.
He does this nonstop like a man possessed.
Tifa backs away down the corridor. The General seems harmless, fragile. It's difficult to understand how he will soon transform into a force of malevolent destruction.
She goes upstairs, but the Manor is quiet. A clock ticks.
She finds Zack pacing in a bedroom upstairs. Time has passed.
"He's been down there for days," Zack mutters. "The mission should be over by now."
A Shinra MP appears in the doorway. Tifa's heart jumps because this could be Cloud, but it's hard to tell with the helmet's visor down.
"Sephiroth seems different," the MP says. His voice is too quick and soft to identify.
"Yeah, something's gotten under his skin," Zack says, tapping his chin. "I don't like it. I'm gonna go see him."
The SOLDIER heads to the basement, and Tifa follows. This string of events is significant, somehow, and she must understand why.
From the stairwell, she hears Sephiroth laughing.
Zack pauses at the library. The shelves are ransacked, and books litter the confines. Sephiroth looks like he hasn't slept. His eyes are wide with insomnia as he snaps attention to Zack.
"Hmph, who is it? A traitor?"
Zack recoils. "A traitor? It's me, your friend. Sephiroth?"
"You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you." Sephiroth points at him with menace. "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra, an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on. At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."
"Uh, what?"
"But those that disliked the journey stopped their migrations. They elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving anything in return!"
"This isn't—"
"Those are your ancestors." The accusation lays thick, divisive.
Zack holds up his palms. "Hey, I don't know what you've been reading, but I think it's time we left this town."
Sephiroth glares. He strides atop crumpled pages.
"Oh, I've been reading plenty," he proclaims. "The truth. All locked away in these files. Gast was a brilliant man. Studious. Analytical. It's all here, the history that led to the Jenova Project. When disaster struck this planet, long ago, your ancestors survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors multiplied. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."
Zack crosses his arms in consternation.
"Don't you get it?" Sephiroth says, elevating his tone. "An Ancient named Jenova was found. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients...no, the Cetra. And I am the one that was produced."
"Produced?"
"Yes." The calm confidence is back. "That's right. I know what I am."
A veneer of madness smooths Sephiroth's face. The expression becomes cold, detached, and it sends shivers through Tifa. This is who she faces in the Reactor. Now it's starting to make sense. This is leading directly up to—
"Get out of my way," Sephiroth says to Zack. Tifa jolts because he's looking right through her.
"Yeah, I agree we should leave. This basement… It isn't good for you."
But Zack's voice is uneasy. Sephiroth picks up the sheathed masamune on the desk. The weapon spikes instant fear in Tifa's chest.
"What are you going to do?" Zack asks, eyes flicking to the sword, but he isn't scared. He's concerned.
Sephiroth shoves the SOLDIER aside with astonishing strength. Zack hits the wall, and books flutter off the picked-over shelves.
"I'm going to see my mother," Sephiroth says with a strange grin.
He disappears up the stairwell. Zack rubs the spot where his sheath compacted against the bookshelf. Something catches his eyes in the papers where Sephiroth had been standing.
"Could it be true?" he whispers, leaning over the mass of open binders and underscored lines. He touches a research note. "Project S?"
His phone rings. It startles him, and he pulls it out to check the caller.
"Oh hey, Aerith."
The voice on the other end talks fast.
"I know, I know," he says, reading through the notes. "But look, the mission should be over soon, I think. Then I can come see you."
He listens, shifting weight, anxious. Whatever he's reading can't be good.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I gotta go. I'm in the middle of something. I'll call you later."
Again Aerith speaks. Tifa wishes she could hear her, and a deep sadness wells because she knows the two will never see each other again.
"I will," Zack says, and he smiles. "I promise."
He hangs up, and the smile remains a moment more. He is lost in a joyous thought. Then it's snuffed out. He tosses the papers aside and hurries upstairs after Sephiroth.
Tifa doesn't want to follow because she knows what comes next. This basement, these writings, were the impetus of Sephiroth's insanity. She hesitates after Zack leaves. The manor is no longer quiet. There are screams emanating from outside. So many screams. Tifa's heart hammers. The smell of burning penetrates the dusty interior.
No, it is happening. She can't look away. This is what she came here for. She went to the Reactor to seek this moment in Cloud's life, to learn the truth, and this is what she needs to see. She opens the doors, and smoke fills the atmosphere. Flames eat the night. The town is ablaze here and in her nightmares again.
Again, it stings her eyes. Again, it suffocates her heart. The screams, the smells, the sounds of crackling wood, splintering beams. The bodies of her neighbors slashed apart. Everyone she'd grown up with and cared for. Sephiroth did this.
Now it's time to go to the Reactor. She climbs the mountain path, nauseous and trembling. The construction of these memories is leading her down a single track into the abyss. The Reactor spirals amid a starless sky, pumping red and lit with silver.
She takes a deep breath. It's only a memory, she reminds herself. Nothing within can hurt her.
The interior of the Reactor is shades of blue like harsh metal, not how she remembers. The layout is the same, but the Mako smell is gone. A bitter foreboding tumbles in her belly. She wipes sweat off her cheeks and enters the core.
Zack is there. He's rushing across the catwalk above the cistern.
Tifa's father is dead on the other side of the platform. Her heart catches. No, he's been dead for years. Zack pauses at the sight, then runs faster into the antechamber.
Tifa crosses, unable to look away from her father's corpse. He's cut open and frozen in a wild fear she will never forget.
Zack is in the area of Mako-condensing units. He kneels next to a young Tifa's bloodied form. She'd been reckless to think she could take on Sephiroth.
"Did he do this to you?!" Zack cradles Tifa, but he shakes with rage. "Sephiroth?"
A noise clangs from the gaping open doorway marked J.E.N.O.V.A. Zack grits his teeth and heads up the stairwell. The sad crumpled body of her sixteen-year-old self gasps for breath with arms around abdomen, unable to halt the flow of blood. She will survive, of course, but seeing the extent of her damage from this perspective turns something in Tifa's soul.
Onward. Upward. Into the heart of the Reactor.
She reaches the maw of Jenova's chamber. Zack is inside, staring up at Sephiroth, who perches atop the mass of tubes jutting from Jenova's glass housing.
"I've thought of a great idea, mother," Sephiroth is saying. "Let's take this Planet back together. Let's go to the Promised Land."
"Sephiroth!" Zack shouts. "Why did you hurt those villagers? Why did you kill so many?!"
The General shatters the glass chamber, and viscous fluid spews out, stinking of acidity.
"Oh mother, they are here again. Those people who stole the Planet from us." He rips off the metal crown adorning her head. Sparks fly as the device tears from the ceiling. "They should never have done this to you. But what do they know, these worthless creatures?"
"Sephiroth, stop! What's gotten into you!?"
"You and I are destined to rule this Planet."
Zack draws his sword. "I said stop!"
The General turns as if observing an irritating fly.
"You were my friend, Sephiroth. What's happened to you?" Zack demands, sword steady. That perfect First-Class stance is a mirror of Cloud's form. "Tell me what's going on!"
"You think I'm upset?"
"I don't know, I just—"
"What do I have to be upset about?" Sephiroth laughs. "I am the chosen one. I will bring our mother to the Promised Land."
Zack has tears in his eyes. It's unreal. "No," he says and shakes his head. "No, I won't let you."
Sephiroth narrows his eyes. He draws the masamune with lightning speed.
Before Tifa can comprehend, their blades are locked. Sephiroth leaps off the housing chamber, and Zack blocks the frightful blow. The force of it slides Zack across the grating. The pair attack, deflect, and evade with supernatural quickness. She's never seen two actual First-Class SOLDIERs in combat before, and their fluidity and intensity are frightening.
Zack holds his ground for several excruciating seconds, catching Sephiroth's blade at each strike until the General evaluates a weakness in his subordinate and stabs Zack right through the heart.
Zack sputters. The broadsword drops. Blood dribbles over his gloves, splatters onto the hilt.
"Se-Sephiroth… I trusted you." He spits red. "No, you aren't the Sephiroth I know."
But Sephiroth doesn't finish the job. He kicks Zack backwards, sending the poor man sailing into the antechamber of condensing units, and then he returns full attention to Jenova. He climbs onto the harness of wires holding the alien in place.
Zack is at the top of the staircase in the other room. He grasps the railing with one hand and hobbles down one step at a time, spewing globs and dripping gore. His sword lies abandoned. Sephiroth tinkers with Jenova while Tifa follows Zack, hoping against all odds that he can survive. But she knows the step he will reach. She knows where he falls.
He hits the bottom stair and collapses. His gasps sound like muffled sponges. She cringes. She remembers hearing that sound, the rattling of his death as she faded in and out.
Then a newcomer arrives. A blue uniform. The Shinra MP.
Tifa's heart floats up. That must be Cloud. The MP spots Tifa, then Zack. He takes off his helmet, and a very terrified Cloud heads to Tifa first. Then Sephiroth's laughter stops him cold. He looks up at Jenova's chamber.
No, she wants to tell him. Don't go in there.
This is where we first met, she recalls the nightmare version of Cloud saying to her, not long ago.
But Tifa is a ghost in a dream, and this is not her memory. She has no bearing and cannot interact. It may not, she realizes, even be Cloud's memory, but a patchwork of Jenova's inferences of this event from the perspectives of all who hold her cells.
Cloud climbs the stairs. He sees Zack's broadsword and picks it up. The weapon looks far too large for him. He struggles with the weight of it.
Within Jenova's chamber, the alien mother has Sephiroth transfixed. His back is to the door. He is slicing off her head as Cloud approaches with Zack's sword dripping blood. Tifa cannot believe what she is seeing as Cloud steps up the mounds of tubing to the shattered platform. He clenches his jaw. His eyes glisten.
He stabs Sephiroth through the spine.
Zack's sword juts from Sephiroth's back as the General cries out. He grips onto the frame of his mother, reaching for the masamune and falling down, curling.
Cloud is gone, dashed down into the antechamber before Sephiroth can recover. Tifa sprints after him, because yes, this is what she remembers, too.
The MP hovers over her young self, hands shaking. "Tifa…" Cloud says. "Tifa, please be okay."
The impaled version of her moans at the brink of consciousness. Bleary eyes can't focus on Cloud's, but she knows he's there. She'd thought it was delirium.
"Tifa…"
His hands cover her wound, ineffective. He's panicking, but there is no one to help. Zack is dead.
Sephiroth staggers out from Jenova's chamber, clutching the severed head of his mother. Long silver tendrils of hair drag through drips of iridescent ichor.
Cloud remains at Tifa's side, though his posture adjusts as he becomes aware of Sephiroth. Tears streak down his face in silence.
"Hmph," Sephiroth demeans as he walks past. "To think someone like you—a nobody—did this to me."
She sees Cloud's blood pounding, the anger transforming. The raw hatred and pain and culmination of everything Tifa can relate to. The head of Jenova seems to peer over at Cloud through goopy eye sockets.
Sephiroth tightens his fist in Jenova's hair and carries her into the main chamber of Mako.
The MP stares at Tifa, absorbing the damage done to her. He looks at Zack. A fury is building. The broadsword is on the staircase where Sephiroth has dropped it. Cloud grabs the weapon and stalks after the General. Vengeance emboldens him.
He confronts Sephiroth above the pool of Mako.
"Hey!" he shouts, broadsword held out.
Tifa knows this is the end. Cloud will die here. She saw the aftermath herself.
"Sephiroth!"
This time the General stops. His black uniform is soaked with red, and the dripping head of Jenova is tight beneath one arm. He unsheathes the masamune.
"You," he remarks at Cloud. "Don't push your luck."
Cloud charges. The slash glances off Sephiroth's blade. And the masamune impales Cloud.
The strike goes into Cloud's stomach, up through his heart, slices through ribcage, and extrudes from his back.
Tifa gasps, and the scene freezes. Or it appears to.
Sephiroth smiles, triumphant. Cloud's body is limp. Then the MP summons impossible strength. The General lets his guard down, confident that he's killed this little pest, and Cloud heaves his weight onto the masamune, cleaving his insides further. It throws Sephiroth off balance. The diabolical blade tilts in its owner's hands. It's enough to bring Sephiroth to the edge of the railing.
Weak from the stab Cloud dealt him in Jenova's chamber, Sephiroth falters. He slips. He refuses to let go of Jenova's head or the masamune, and he cannot grasp the railing fully.
The General plunges. Down into the murky Mako. It swallows him up.
Cloud lays on the grating, blood everywhere. The perfect incision from the masamune streams out.
"No…" Tifa is a faint whisper against fate.
The MP draws paler every second. She's watching him die. She squeezes her eyes shut.
When she opens them again, the Turks are here, though she only recognizes one of them. Tseng peers at Cloud. He snaps his fingers, and two fresh MPs pick Cloud up.
"Bring him to Professor Hojo, at the mansion."
Her stomach twists. So that's how it happened. Cloud loses consciousness again, and the memory fades. The Reactor dissolves. She's alone in a void. She's left with a hollowness that feels like grief.
The lake of ooze materializes around her, smooth and still. The cosmos turn.
Tifa blinks away tears. "Please show me a good memory," she says. Because the Lifestream had responded to her request before, to witness this particular event in Cloud's life, with stunning detail.
The lake doesn't recede, yet a shadow forms. She's within a simple house, sitting at a kitchen table. A woman stands backlit by a curtained window. It's a sunny day. The woman is speaking, but it's impossible to see her face.
This woman is kind and warm, loving. Tifa feels comforted, happy in this thought. Then she notices the tendrils wrapped around her wrists, the violet fog seeping across her boots.
The woman is not human at all. She's an amalgam of body parts stemming from a central feminine core and strands of her coil around Tifa. Her sweet voice continues, lulling as the slithering masses constrict. Paralysis sets in, but Tifa doesn't panic. She feels right at home.
At home, here with her mother.
Her mother. Then it fades. Tifa becomes aware of darkness, inky and permanent, in all directions. She stumbles backward in the lake and hits something. Someone. Her heart jumps.
Cloud stands behind her in faint starlight. He's wearing the Shinra uniform, splattered with blood, and his expression is blank. This is the shadow-Cloud she'd seen in the Reactor beneath the container of Jenova.
Worms writhe atop his skin, and his eyes follow hers. She's so close to him, their bodies the barest width apart. She could lean forward and kiss him, touch his chest.
"Cloud?" She tests the word, hoping it's still his.
It looks like he wants to speak. Yet when he opens his mouth, ooze pours out. It chokes him, and she can see his lips move. He's saying something, over and over. She watches, spellbound, unable to bring herself to touch him. He repeats the words without sound, and she realizes what he's saying.
Tifa Lockhart.
Over and over. The ooze flows.
Then he closes his eyes, and everything goes dark. A sudden impact pulls Tifa at such velocity that she loses her breath. The lake, the man, the stars, the woman—gone, gone, gone. It blurs and blends, and Tifa feels sick.
A bright light sears away the miasma. She coughs sticky trails of Mako.
Senses return in clear and potent veracity: A harsh orange-tinged sky. A meteor hanging ominous. A balmy wind that smells of the tropics. She's held by someone, encircled by arms tight. Too tight. She throws herself free and scrambles up before realizing where she is and what's become of reality.
The town of Mideel is gone, replaced by a wide simmering pit of Mako. She's atop a sandy embankment near uprooted foliage, and Cloud lies next to her, unconscious. He's covered in green residue. The planet is spinning, or it seems to. She's reeling from his memories, even if they weren't all his own.
The ruby Weapon is very close, roaring and swatting at HKs like flies. Its segmented neck and long arms throw swaths of shadow over the clearing. Each stomp shoots tremors through the earth and sends tree branches tumbling. She cannot find her footing.
"Cloud," she says, keeping her eyes on the Weapon. "Cloud, wake up!"
She shakes his shoulder. There's dust and blood smeared across the Shinra pauldron, and it comes off on her hands. Her gloves, she realizes, are gone. Barret, Nanaki, and Yuffie… She hasn't forgotten what Cloud might've done. But they need to move. Now.
The Weapon crunches an HK between its immense claws and tosses it aside. The burning wreckage ignites palm fronds, and smoke spirals up.
"Cloud, wake up! I need you to wake up!"
The tremors are not stopping. The Weapon pummels the ground, relentless, and she sees its appendages can tunnel. The worst quakings coincide with each pop of soil as claws shoot up and spear the Shinra forces. The Weapon cleaves a black helicopter in two, and a broken propeller flies downward.
"No, no, no!"
She heaves Cloud out of the way as the metal clips through a tangle of vines and stabs the rocky shore near the Lifestream. The sides of the pit begin to crumble.
Tifa's heart goes wild. She cannot fall into the Lifestream again, but Cloud is too heavy to drag much further on her own. Not with that damn sword on his back.
The sands begin to cave in. The pool of the Lifestream grows and churns, eating the chunks of metal from the helicopter. Rocks and compacted dirt plop into its depths. The Shinra HKs are no match for this beast and more drop from the skies.
She has to move. She unstraps his sword and wrenches him free. Now she can hoist him up with one arm around her neck. The Weapon bellows, and the nearby foliage spins and sinks, independent of its arms.
This isn't good. She has to move faster. The radius of destruction grows, and the trees nearest her are caving in as the soil transforms to quicksand. She runs—hobbles—pulling Cloud along. Her hip hurts, and her shins and knuckles sting. She realizes, with a stroke of horror, that the blisters from the Reactor remain. Real and painful. That whole event… It was not a dream.
Gunfire streams from the remaining Shinra helicopter and HKs. Cannons boom from an unseen vessel, loud and close. She scurries towards the treeline, away from the towering monstrosity, and the quicksand opens up the ground. Rocks and roots and trees swirl into an impossible moving abyss. She grips Cloud's torso tight and leaps, summoning all of her strength, as the rock beneath her spirals away. She lands in thick marshy wetlands. Mud and blankets of algae coalesce into a landslide, carrying her fast through thorny upheaval. All she can do is hold Cloud close with one hand and extend the other to grasp anything. Anything at all. Twigs and stones scrape and bruise.
At last, she grabs a branch. The mud piles around her, making it harder to hold his weight, but she must. She has to. The Weapon continues to roar, and another HK carcass falls nearby. Plumes of smoke rise from each dead unit in the jungle. Another boom of cannons sounds.
Her muscles quiver, but she edges her toe onto a solid form of land. It's slippery, but it holds. She braces and heaves herself up, running on pure adrenaline and something akin to fear. But it isn't for loss of life. No, she is afraid of losing Cloud. Mud covers his body, rinsing off the last of the Mako into streamlets of vivid green, and as it vanishes along the trail of muck, she realizes he may wake up and not know her. She may be risking her life to save someone who is about to end hers.
She doesn't care. She pulls him out of the flow and stumbles onto solid ground. The quakes continue, and she's still in marshland, but drowning under sand and mud is no longer imminent. The cannons have stopped, and the gatling guns echo in infrequent spurts. The ruby Weapon's head crests into view above the waving treetops, teeth glistening, claws puncturing the sky.
She tries again to wake him. "Please," she says, and she's falling into desperation as she wipes mud from his cheeks. "Please, wake up."
His pulse is weak. His breath is shallow. She's heard of Mako poisoning, but she doesn't know what it looks like. Another boom reverberates the forest. The murky waters ripple with every stomp. She pulls leaves and strings of roots from her arms and hair.
Then, he stirs.
"Cloud?"
She doesn't think she can carry him anymore, and the Weapon is still too close.
"Cloud!"
His eyes open. He looks up at her, and a feverish impulse ignites. He rubs his forearms, his chest, everywhere, clawing at his own flesh.
"You're okay!" she says, but he is not. He won't stop wiping the mud away.
She grasps his hands, feels his muscles tense against hers. Then he stops. His breathing is rapid. He looks at her. Their hands are locked together. Trails of mud cover both their faces. And his eyes focus. Onto her.
"Oh," he breathes out. His hands relax. "Tifa."
She resists the urge to hug him because she needs confirmation first. The jungle shakes, and a palm tree capsizes into the sludge, sending a wave up onto their abdomens. He twitches and rubs at the liquid.
"It's... It's all over me," he says like a scared child. "I can't get it off."
"It's okay, Cloud. You're with me. We're back."
Her voice steadies him.
"We aren't in the Lifestream anymore," she says.
This seems to clear his frenzy but not his confusion.
"But you...you fell in," he says. He looks down at the pool of muddy waters. Then, all around. His gaze settles on her. "You're alive. You didn't… I thought…"
"The basement," she replies, and she studies him for a reaction. "Do you remember that?"
Do you remember us, she wants to ask, or anything else aside from what Shinra programmed?
There's a moment of pain, immense and immeasurable, across his expression. One hand goes to his chest, right above the scar from Sephiroth. Then his fingers follow the trail of needles she knows once pressed beneath his skin.
"Yes…" he whispers.
Another metallic shriek resounds as an HK explodes.
Cloud grabs Tifa's hand.
"Yes," he says. "I do."
Then he snaps out of the reverie and looks all around as if for the first time.
"My sword," he says. "I can't find my sword."
"You don't need it," she replies, getting to her feet. "We've got to get out of here. Can you stand?"
He searches the mud, ignoring her.
"Get up," she says. The Weapon is no longer in sight, but wreckage continues to fly, and she doesn't know if more quicksand approaches.
She extends her hand to Cloud, but when he looks up at her, he doesn't move.
"You jumped," he says. "You would rather die than take my hand."
The accusation pushes her back. She withdraws hand to hip. Her jaw tightens.
"Did you kill Barret?"
He tilts his head. "What?"
"Barret," she repeats. "Yuffie, Nanaki. Did you kill them? Whose blood is all over that uniform?"
He looks down as if this were news to him, then up at her again.
"I didn't kill anyone. One of the Hunter Units—"
A tree crashes nearby, and the gunfire heightens. But she needs his explanation. She needs to know if he's a murderer.
"One of the Hunter Units pursued a local," Cloud says. "There was an...altercation. They shot him. Right in front of me."
Does she believe him? She wants to. The relief sickens her.
"Did you see Barret?"
Cloud holds her gaze, and she knows that he did.
"You were more important," he says. "But you… you jumped."
"I fell," she emphasizes. "You're the one who jumped."
"That's right."
"Because you wanted to take me to Shinra."
"...Because I wanted to catch you."
It's absurd to think he could've done so without falling into the Mako himself. She folds her arms.
"You told me my friends were dead," she says.
He stands opposite her, holding onto a mass of vines, and she notices his pallor beneath the mud. The dark circles beneath his eyes.
"I thought it could make you surrender if you thought you were alone."
"I'd never surrender to Shinra."
He sighs, and it's almost a laugh. "I know." Then he wobbles a bit and wraps one arm around his abdomen. He shuts his eyes.
"Cloud?"
"I'm okay." He says it too fast, too dismissive. He straightens. "C'mon, we've gotta go."
She couldn't agree more. There's no specific path to take, just away. To the shore, she thinks. To anywhere with clear sky.
They trudge through marshlands that quiver with each spike from the Weapon. Tree limbs shed sediment like rain, and gunfire clicks nonstop afar. The muck slicks to her thighs. Jungle creatures squirm past her legs, and Cloud carries on ahead of her. But he doesn't look well. They are both covered in mud, hair clumped with dirt, but he takes uneven steps. He pauses and holds his ribs. They have to backtrack several times when reaching impassable snarls of jungle, and he laments not having his sword once or twice. But even his voice sounds scratchy and weak.
"You're not okay," she says when he leans for a while against a large gnarled tree.
"I-I'm fine. I just…"
Then he collapses. Tifa bounds over and lifts him from the water. His skin is ice cold. She curses, smacks his cheek, begs him to wake up, but he is out. There's a slick sheen on his skin when she wipes away the mud, almost a shimmery residue. Almost like the thickness that coated the corpse in the basement.
It's Mako, she realizes. Under his skin. He's been poisoned.
She drags him the rest of the way, and it isn't far. They'd almost made it to drier land. The gunshots and rumblings diminish. The Weapon has not left the Lifestream, to her relief. Traversing the jungle is difficult, but she pulls Cloud along, each step a progression towards her goal. She can see the shore, the crisp blue ocean, the expansive sky. The meteor.
At the end of the jungle, her knees give out. Ants crawl over her mud-caked knuckles. No, she has to reach the water. The Highwind should be nearby, but she doesn't know which side of the island she's on anymore or whether Cid stuck around knowing Shinra is near.
Somehow, she makes it to the beach. She lays Cloud next to her. He's unresponsive, pulse once again shallow. And she rolls to her side, the one without the bruising. Humidity throttles her breath. She rests a hand on his jaw. He seems so harmless. How could she have ever been afraid of him?
Exhaustion overtakes her. When she closes her eyes, the world spins in blotchy darkness. The Weapon may kill her. It may send an avalanche to bury them both. But she no longer has the energy to move. The world blurs and sounds blend.
From the mesh of noise, a turbine emerges. It's an airship.
Tifa slivers an eye open to see the Highwind. It's descending with the cargo doors open, and a man wearing goggles and a blue jacket leans out. Cid waves to her.
"Tifa!" he shouts with a smile. Then he spots Cloud. "The fuck happened to him?"
She sits up, noting the layers of grime stiffened atop her clothing. Cloud is still unconscious.
The Highwind hovers above the beach, blowing her hair, and she must squint to see Cid approaching. Barret follows, and Tifa's heart elevates.
"Barret," she says, though she doubts anyone can hear her over the wind. She smiles, but her hand hasn't left Cloud's chest.
Barret hauls Tifa to her feet and hugs her close. He feels warm and comforting.
"Damn, girl, you had me for a fright. Thought we lost you back there."
She nods when he releases her. She'd thought the same of him. And Yuffie and Nanaki. They're all on board, Barret assures her, then he scowls at Cloud.
"An' what the fuck is this? You ain't seriously expect—"
"Please, Barret," she says because it's too much to explain, and she's too tired to try. "Please help me get him onto the Highwind."
Cid crouches over Cloud, poking as if he were a dead fish.
"Huh, Mako poisoning."
"How the hell he get that?" Barret wants to know. "An' no, we ain't bringin' him on board. I saw him marchin' around in Mideel with them killer robots."
"I fell into the Lifestream when the Weapon attacked," Tifa says. "He jumped in to save me."
Barret gives an incredulous look. "He jumped in? What is he, crazy?"
"I suppose," she sighs.
"That still don't change those colors he's wearin'."
It's true. The violet shade of First-Class is visible beneath spots of dried mud. The company-issued pauldrons and belt and gauntlets are all present.
"An' how the hell you both fall into the Lifestream, yet he the one who gets Mako poisoning?"
She doesn't know. Except she does.
"He protected me from it," she says. "And this is no time to argue. Just please, bring him on board." When Barret hesitates, she adds, "Trust me on this. It's not what you think."
Cid regards Cloud as the wind from the Highwind whips at his jacket.
"Well, if he is still a threat, he sure as shit ain't doing much in this condition," Cid says.
Barret grumbles and hugs Tifa again. "Fine, we take him with us. But if he turns out to be a maniac, I'm sayin' I told you so."
The three haul Cloud into the cargo hold, and Cid instructs the co-pilots over the intercom to get the hell away from Mideel. The farther, the faster, the better. The ruby Weapon has destroyed all Shinra units, but it hasn't left the area near the Lifestream and remains a threat.
The bay doors shut, and Cid and Barret stare at Cloud on the floor. Tifa sits atop an empty munitions crate.
"How he survive fallin' into the Lifestream anyways?" Barret murmurs.
"Jenova cells," Cid answers. "Or whatever he is."
"Guess it can't go back into the Planet," Barret says. "Ain't never from this world."
They continue to stare as if expecting Cloud to do something incredible. Then Cid sighs.
"Well, there's some medical supplies and an aid onboard. Assuming he's treatable as a human."
"He is human," Tifa says, though it comes out sounding defensive.
Cid calls the medic and excuses himself to the bridge, not keen on allowing anyone else to pilot his ship for very long.
"What was it like?" Barret asks Tifa as the ship ascends. "Inside the Lifestream."
The experience defies description, and she wouldn't dare reveal the depths of what she found.
"It was…painful," she decides.
The medical aid arrives and whisks Cloud away. Tifa is left with a vacuum of adrenaline that settles into exhaustion. She goes to the bay door window and leans her forehead against the cool metal. The island where Mideel used to be is a vast puddle of green fluid rimmed with broken forest and sand. The Shinra forces are fiery wreckage amidst an obliterated jungle.
"We still need to find Aerith," Tifa says, not willing to keep the topic on Cloud. "Find a way through that barrier around the north crater."
Barret puts an arm over her shoulder. "I know. We gonna figure all that out. Les' go up to the bridge. I'm sure everyone be glad to see you."
And hear more about Cloud, the implication rests. She nods and follows Barret up, but she can't stop seeing Sephiroth in her head, the corpse in the basement, Zack bleeding out all over the stairs. She can't stop hearing that last phone call with Aerith while he went through the papers that drove Sephiroth insane. Cloud had survived all that, even if what remains is a mimicry of memories. But that remnant is the Cloud she knows. Not the boy from Nibelheim.
As she ascends from the cargo hold, a delicate melody plays in her head. A tune on piano, a gentle crescendo. Then a pause. She sees him looking over at her, one hand hovering atop the keys. Waiting.
