Author's Note: Disclaimer found below.

I'm sorry.

(Fourteen)

Kadaj and his brothers were off by the time they reached the building. Cloud didn't care what the Turks were doing, so long as they stayed out of the way. The world narrowed to four things: the three motorcycles in front of him, and Tifa at his back, so angry that he could almost feel it.

Maybe he could feel it. It was frightening.

They were heading for the unfinished highway, clearly hoping to have their opponents taken care of before they reached its end. Kadaj crashed through the safety gate, the sign from it whipping through the air and narrowly missing Cloud and Tifa as they ducked. Tifa looked behind them before raising her head again, and saw Loz swerve around the sign before it was left behind. Yazoo was on the opposite side of the road, glaring back.

He looked angry.

She smiled in satisfaction.

She saw something flash - Yazoo caught something in his right hand, his gunblade already in his left. Loz's gunblade that matched his own. He stashed it somewhere on the far side of his bike.

Tifa's eyes narrowed as she looked back to Loz. If he was giving Yazoo his gunblade now, it meant that he'd no intention of staying far enough away to make use of a ranged weapon. Good.

It also meant that Yazoo suddenly had twice as many shots available. Not so good.

Yazoo pulled close, lips pulled back in a snarl that changed his smooth face into something wild and cruel - something that finally resembled his nature. He twirled his gunblade, building up some dark charge that swirled about the weapon like smoke, before bringing it into position and firing. Two fiery, meteor-like shots glanced off of Fenrir before Cloud could pull ahead. Even when pushed to his limit, Yazoo's shots were nothing if they didn't hit their target.

Loz had gotten ahead of them, and he swerved close on their left as they reached him; sparks flared as his motorcycle rammed Fenrir, then forced them to scrape against the highway wall. Tifa drew her legs up, knees to her chest and feet finding the seat, ready to spring to Loz's bike as soon as they stabilized.

Loz raised his fist, pilebunker charged and crackling with electricity and aiming for Cloud. Tifa tensed, acutely aware of how awkward her position was - she was balanced with her hands on Cloud's shoulders, and she could barely reach around him to get in a hit.

Loz's eyes flicked toward her for less than a second, slit pupils dilating slightly. Tifa's lips twisted into a malicious smile. She couldn't reach him with her fist, but she could kick his bike -

She didn't have to. Cloud hit a switch, and the sword casings along the front of Fenrir sprang open, knocking Loz's motorcycle aside. Tifa grinned openly as he spun out, sparks flying as his bike scraped along the concrete barrier before he could regain control.

The scrape of metal on metal told her that Cloud was drawing his First Tsurugi base blade, and as Tifa quickly brought her gaze back to the road ahead, she saw why - Yazoo had pulled ahead now. He spun his bike, tires shrieking and smoking at the abuse as he swung the bike sideways, momentum alone causing him to continue to drift ahead. He fired -

- Cloud blocked the shots easily, gunning the engine and ramming Yazoo with his sword stabbing forward like a jousting lance.

Yazoo parried, the First Tsurugi scraping sparks out of the gunblade. The impact sent both motorcycles spinning out of control, locked together, before one or the other of them pushed away enough to break them apart. Tifa could only hang on, maintaining balance and trying to watch for Loz, who would undoubtedly catch up any moment now -

Cloud pulled ahead, made a small noise - Kadaj had taken an exit. He veered toward it, only to have Loz come up on that side, perched on his bike and jumping -

Cloud threw his weight to the side, dragging Fenrir away from the impending blow just in time - but also from the exit that Kadaj had taken.

Tifa didn't follow. She leapt.

Loz missed Fenrir, his gauntlet striking the ground with an explosive shockwave that shattered pavement. His head snapped up and he glared at Cloud, who skidded away backward before righting his bike.

And then Tifa's feet hit his shoulders.

He caught himself before his face slammed into the jagged asphalt, pushing back as Tifa leapt from him. His motorcycle was skidding toward him, Yazoo speeding next to it, aiming his gunblade at Tifa in the air.

Loz jumped, swatted at Tifa with a snarl, only to be kicked aside as his bike passed underneath -

Yazoo caught his arm before he struck the road, swinging him onto his bike behind him and glaring straight ahead at Cloud.

Tifa landed standing on Loz's motorcycle, staring at him intently as she spun with it for a moment before dropping into the seat.

Loz tensed to jump again, but Yazoo slid his leg back, locking his foot around Loz's calf as he accelerated. Cloud was getting too far ahead.

Scowling at Yazoo's interruption, Tifa followed, thankful that she'd spent enough time around Cloud and his bike to know how to drive a motorcycle. More or less. The Remnants pulled ahead; unsure of how to coax more power from the bike, Tifa began to fall back a little, barely keeping up.

Loz kept looking back at her. She could only see his eyes over his shoulder. At first he seemed angry, but the third or fourth time he looked back, she realized that he was checking to see that she was still there.

She finally found the right gear and shifted, gaining more speed. She smirked as she passed them, shooting ahead into a tunnel right behind Cloud.

She managed to pull next to him; he tensed, his sword raised, before he realized that it was her. For a moment, they locked eyes, and she smiled at him fiercely, challenging.

He nodded back before his gaze flicked back to the road ahead. He could do this. He would do this.

Tifa dropped back, swerved to the side, and leapt from the bike as she sent it skidding into Yazoo's path.

Yazoo spun aside, Loz leaping into the air as well, his eyes on Tifa. Cloud gained distance as the other two motorcycles momentarily whirled around each other, close but not touching.

Tifa somersaulted in the air, struck the ceiling with her feet and pushed off again, her Premium Heart beginning to spark with energy. She punched at Loz beneath her, but he caught both fists, growling as they tumbled through the air. Eyes met eyes, and Tifa smiled again - this time full of cruelty. She curled and kicked him in the stomach with both feet.

He spun away, managing to kick off of the wall to land on his still-skidding bike, and dropped into the seat, trying to regain control.

Tifa landed gracefully in front of him and lunged for his throat; he threw himself back until he was lying flat on the bike, her swipes barely missing him. She drew back for balance, and he reached for the controls again. Rather than straightening out the bike, he accelerated into the spin, drifting with dizzying speed as he tried to shake her. Tifa clamped her hand down over one of the air intakes in order to hang on; the metal dented beneath her fingers.

Yazoo drew ahead, flinging himself sideways again and firing at Cloud, who blocked the shots with the sword. Cloud swung to the side, slammed Fenrir into Yazoo's bike, swinging his sword and locking them together in a spin once more.

The scream of tires and engines and the stench of friction-smoking rubber and exhaust filled the tunnel, punctuated by the shots and harsh gunpowder-scent from Yazoo's gunblade. Chaos.

The rear wheel of Loz's bike collided with that of Fenrir, breaking the spin with Yazoo and nearly sending Cloud into the wall. His sword scraped along the wall, leaving a gash that glowed long after the sparks burned out.

They straightened out, Yazoo in the fore and the other two bikes side by side. Loz punched at Tifa with charged gauntlet; she jumped, flipping in the air. Cloud tapped his breaks once, slowing down just enough to catch her on Fenrir's rear fender. For a moment she crouched there, one hand on his shoulder again, gloves flaring with power.

Yazoo twisted in his seat and fired, scowling at her in particular; Cloud blocked again, leaning forward with narrowed eyes.

Loz pulled up next to Yazoo, and they glanced to each other for less than a second - and then Loz was pulling ahead. The engine of his bike began to strain; it wouldn't last long this way.

It didn't have to. He went sideways, threw himself down, stabbed his pilebunker into the asphalt and lifted himself up. Lifted the bike between his legs. Swung it about.

Let go.

Yazoo knew - whether he just knew or saw the reflection in his gunblade, Tifa couldn't tell - and he ducked, firing again. But nobody was there to hit; Tifa leapt up, and Cloud leapt forward, swinging his sword.

Cloud twisted in the air, cleaving the bike in two. Tifa saw Loz push off from the ceiling in a Haste-enhanced blur, drawing his arm back to hit Cloud -

She cast Haste on herself, kicked off of one of the sparking halves of the cleaved motorcycle as it passed beneath her, and landed on the back of Yazoo's bike. The sparks on the falling halves caught leaking fuel and ignited, the broken motorcycle becoming a fireball hurtling through the air behind them.

Loz saw, and saw Yazoo trying to turn without losing control of his bike, and saw the mad grin on Tifa's face as she raised one blazing fist -

He blurred again, pushing off of Cloud like lightning, reaching between Yazoo's head and Tifa's fist. She struck; the pilebunker on his arm snapped in two. He barely had time to fling it away before it exploded, spinning to catch Tifa's following fist in his other hand. Yazoo jerked the bike away from the small explosion, skidding and slowing; Cloud, back on Fenrir, pulled ahead.

The three of them were too much weight - they'd never keep up with Cloud like this. Balancing with one foot on the seat and still hanging on to Tifa, Loz glanced down toward Yazoo once -

Then threw himself backward, dragging Tifa with him.

For an awkward moment they spun in the air, wrapping around each other - and then gravity caught up to them. Loz's shoulder hit the road first, scraping hard and twisting him. Tifa felt her own shoulder strike, then her back - they were rolling. Somehow her head hadn't hit yet, and she wanted to keep it that way; she pulled as close to Loz as she could, using him as a shield. She thought that she glimpsed Yazoo looking back, but he sped on, straining to catch up to Cloud.

They tumbled to a halt, Tifa finally losing hold and rolling to a stop a few feet further on. She was momentarily too dazed to move, trying to take stock of her injuries. She seemed to have done all right - just scrapes and bruises somehow, nothing debilitating...

The scream of metal hitting pavement hit her ears. Her head snapped up; the flaming pieces of motorcycle had finally hit, barreling toward them. She got her feet under her, gathering herself.

Loz grunted, turning onto his side in time to see the wreckage coming their way. He rolled, not to his feet but into a handstand, allowing the burning debris to pass on either side of him - the narrow space between the spinning pieces was just wide enough.

Tifa jumped straight up, called on the Haste spell again, and blurred down toward Loz, landing a kick to his side. Still moving fast enough to leave after-images on the human eye, she danced back, off of the side of the tunnel, and lunged again, this time aiming for his head as he righted himself and whirled at her.

Blurring with Haste as well, Loz punched, blocked each time. He flipped back, away from the wreckage partially blocking the way out, but Tifa ran and slid, barely missing his legs as he jumped away. "No time!" he shouted, turning toward the end of the tunnel.

She was in front of instantly, kicking his jaw and sending him flying back. "No!" She leapt up, punched him down hard; the asphalt shattered beneath him. "NO! Not after what you did to me! You're mine to end!"

She backed off, letting him flip to his feet, sinking into a fighting stance with head low and fists raised. He did likewise, then suddenly bolted forward, landing a hit to her shoulder before she got in three to his chest. He staggered back, managed several kicks to deter her from getting close enough to hit again.

He was getting tired, and Tifa had passed tired and come out the other side. The Haste spell was useless now that she had her own. He'd never suspected that anything like this could happen; they'd never known any human to react to Geostigma like this, becoming... something Other. Something Wonderful.

It dawned on him that he was going to lose...

"'Course I'm yours," he panted, trying to throw her off. "Just not on your terms -"

The glorious rage on her face, blue-green eyes blazing, was what made the remark worth it. He'd almost caught his breath by the time that she rushed him again, and he had to use Haste just to defend against her. It was draining him fast.

"Lying BASTARD!" Tifa snarled, finally dodging around his blocks enough to get her hands around his throat.

He broke her grip, pushing her back and snagging a hold of her wrists. Something in his face changed, some of the excitement dropping away, replaced by hurt. "I never lied to you!"

She opened her mouth, about to scream something at him, but she didn't get the chance.

The tunnel exploded.

Both of them turned their heads, staring at the fire and smoke and buckling metal and collapsing concrete, a wave of destruction heading straight for them.

He let go of her wrists, and they turned, both punching down into the road at their feet. The asphalt broke, thrown up by the shockwave, deflecting the fire around them as they crouched behind it. The roar was deafening.

The fireball was the easy part. The subsequent tunnel collapse was what was going to be difficult.

Especially since the power cut, lights shattering into darkness with only fire and burning embers in the smoke to see by.

The asphalt wall broke, tumbled down around them. They were up almost instantly, both using Haste, both lashing and striking away the debris flying at them, almost sensing it more than seeing it. Between smoke and dust, it was nearly impossible to breathe. The tunnel groaned, metal supports shrieking, floor twisting - the tunnel itself was elevated as part of the Plate at this point, and something had given way. Up ahead, toward the exit, the dim light that had been visible from the end of the tunnel winked out in a crushing scream of breaking concrete.

Something directly above them made a dangerously similar sound; Tifa looked up. Loz was suddenly no longer at her side, but in front of her, lacing his fingers with hers, palms flat together. He threw himself back, feet still as firmly planted as the now sloping floor would allow, and flung her up toward the noise without releasing her.

She kicked the falling slab of concrete that would've crushed them both with all the force she'd been saving to use on him. It cracked in two, falling on either side of them.

She didn't see. She was looking down into his face. Loz grinned up at her, no trace of pain or fear present - only exhilaration. She knew exactly what he was feeling - she felt exactly the same.

And Tifa smiled back.

And then his eyes focused over her shoulder, on something behind her, and the grin became a grimace. He twisted, casting her away with as much force as possible, his hands slipping from hers as he let go.

She struck the curve of the wall with her shoulder, shouting in surprise and anger as she slid down. The entire tunnel seemed to fill with noise and darkness and the feel of flying debris.

And then it ended, replaced by an eerie, near-complete silence.

Slowly, Tifa opened her eyes, but there wasn't much to see, even with this enhanced vision. What light there was came through newly formed cracks in the ceiling, blazing beams of energy that cut through the dark and were difficult to see around.

Some of those holes looked big enough to crawl through. She pulled herself into a sitting position, kicking dirt and chunks of cement and asphalt from her aching legs, surrounded by a pale shaft of light.

There was a groan from the darkness. "Yazoo..." A shaky, wet sound followed, with another groan. "T - Tifa?"

She froze, staring in the direction of the sound. After a moment she saw it; it would've been invisible to anyone else. A small, moving, blue-green light. Two. Eyes. Loz.

She became aware of a terrible, irregular, almost gurgling sound, and realized that it was his breathing.

"Legs won't work," Loz mumbled with a grunt of effort - then began coughing. "What's... ah... hurts..."

Slowly, almost against her will, Tifa drew her legs under herself and made her way toward him. It took a bit for her eyes to adjust once she left the light; her hands found him before she could see him.

What her fingers touched was raw and wet and pulsing erratically. She yanked her hands back in shock. Given where his eyes were, that should have been his chest.

"Tifa," he whispered, coughing again as he tried to focus on her. He choked, stopped breathing for a moment, eyes closing - she hoped that it was over - but then he gasped, his voice strangled and weak. His eyes opened again, unfocused. Still there.

Her eyes adjusted, and she quickly looked away - but she couldn't keep herself from the scent. Dirt and dust and ash and smoke and blood.

The ceiling had broken and fallen, far more than that first slab. Some piece of reinforced concrete had hit him, twisted, torn him open.

Assuming that she could even get the debris off of him, it would take a Phoenix Down to do anything other than prolong this kind of suffering, and she knew that neither of them had that.

He didn't deserve this, not even after all he'd done. Nobody deserved this. She listened to the way his breath came in short gasps, almost whimpering, and she wished that he'd just stop trying to stay alive.

She realized that he didn't know how to give up. Letting go wasn't something that he or his brothers knew anything about. Their very existence was purely for the sake of survival. It hadn't been cruelty that had prompted him to ask her why she'd tried to commit suicide on the boat - he really didn't understand.

The light in his eyes was so dim...

She focused on his face, and tried not to look at the rest of him. She didn't want to see. She could sense large pieces of concrete far too close to not be crushing him. Inching closer on her knees, she lifted his shoulders to lay his head in her lap, trying not to think about the way his body moved wrong or the sound he made as she did so.

Tifa tried to speak, but her voice wouldn't come out. She closed her eyes, steeled herself, took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, he was looking into them.

"I can make the pain stop," she said softly.

The fading glow in his eyes seemed to flare slightly, and suddenly he was moving. His left arm reached up, caught her by the back of her head, pulled her down. Their lips met.

He tasted of nothing but blood. He pushed his tongue into her mouth, once, barely a shadow of his former ferocity. Then his hand fell away, and the kiss was broken.

Loz shuddered, his breath becoming even more ragged, and closed his eyes. He stilled, whispered. "Do it."

The killing blow was simple and swift. His body twitched once, then went completely still.

The silence in the broken tunnel was again nearly complete. Tifa sat still for a long moment, cradling his head in her lap, unconsciously smoothing his hair back. She bent low over him, her teeth clenched and her lips pulled tight.

She tried to scream, but couldn't - only when she gasped for breath did sound escape her. Her eyes ached until she felt hot flame burning down her face, tiny trails that seemed to cut into her flesh.

There was a low rumble from somewhere outside, the ground trembling slightly. Dust sifted down from what remained of the fractured concrete above.

Tifa lifted her head. It was nearly time now; she could feel it. She had to get out of here, before the tunnel collapsed the rest of the way.

She lowered his body to the broken asphalt, reflecting that her gentleness was pointless.

This had no right to hurt this much.

She stood, took a step back, then hurried as fast as the dared to some of the debris that reached up to one of the fissures in the ceiling. Time to get out of here.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.