If this chapter is extremely lacking don't blame me. The stupid FOX network has decided to have us watch football instead of the timeless comedy of the Simpsons. I need my inspiration back! Sorry football fans but I've been looking forward to these shows all day! Wah Okay that's over with. So here it is. I know many of you thought Zack should have flipped out at seeing Cloud but remember in my note in chapter 7? It explained how Zack thought they were all dead. So he just doesn't think it's him. I'll touch on that again in this chapter.

Chapter 10

He wouldn't lie

Cloud was lying on top of the table while scribbling furiously in his newfound coloring book. Zack was sitting on the edge of the bed. He wanted to sleep but his mind kept buzzing with useless thoughts and unanswered questions. So now he had taken to watching Cloud in his little games. "Kid, how old are you?"

Cloud didn't look up from his work. "Ummmmm….twenty-something." He tried to show him with his fingers but discovered that he didn't have enough.

"So what are you drawing?" Zack got up and leaned on the table trying to see the page.

"My friends. See?" He moved the book out from beneath his arms so Zack could see. The dark haired man felt an odd tingle run over his spine. He pointed at one of the stick figures on the page.

"Who is that?"

Cloud pointed to the stick figure also. It had brown lines coming from the head to represent hair and a pink triangle was meant to be the dress. "My friend Aerith." He sat there for a moment enjoying the fact that he had managed pronounce her name correctly. Zack starred at him for a moment trying hard not to gawk.

"Cloud," he asked carefully, "do you know who I am?"

The blondes face saddened. He seemed hurt that Zack didn't know him. "My best friend." He said sadly. "Am I still yours?" He jumped from the table and hugged Zack tightly. Zack hugged him back but couldn't help but wonder what had become of his old friend.

The door suddenly swung open to reveal Aerith standing in the hallway. She jumped when she saw him standing there but spoke in her usual calm tone. "Hello Zack."

"Aerith…you're-you're really here."

She smiled and then her eyes widened in realization. "You found Cloud!" She ran up and hugged Zack around the shoulders. Cloud was squished between them.

"Halp,"He choked. "Halp." He slid free and ran to the door. Yuffie was standing there so he ducked behind her legs and peered out at the couple.

"Yuffie we should probably move into the room before the entire hotel wakes up." Tifa said urgently. They bustled inside quickly. Reno was the last one in and quickly closed the door behind him.

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They didn't have much time to socialize. They had the book and they had Cloud. They could go home now. It would be best to leave before anything else happened.

Zack was instantly bombarded with questions. "Where have you been?" "How did you find Cloud?" "Isn't he just adorable this size?" The last question had come from Yuffie. He answered them all quickly. "I've been traveling between worlds. Cloud found me. Yuffie quit hugging Cloud so tight. He's turning blue."

Surprisingly he had taken the news about how Cloud had come to his current state rather well. Merlin had always been clumsy, especially when it came to his specialty, magic. Sure, Merlin's spells going haywire was nothing out of the ordinary. What surprised him more was the fact that Merlin was still alive. "I thought that old geezer would've kicked the bucket for sure by now. I mean pretty much every experiment literally blew up in his face."

"I don't understand. I thought that you all died when the heartless came," He wondered aloud.

"Cid got us out on the gummy ship." Yuffie said and let it all sink in.

Tifa looked at him quickly. "We're surprised that you made it out. I guess whatever happened to Vincent happened to you." Before Zack could say anything Aerith spoke up

"Zack, will you be coming with us?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

He reluctantly shook his head. "I have to stop Sephiroth." Aerith frowned, "Sorry." He added.

"It won't work." She nervously tapped the spell book it her lap, not wanting to argue.

"You know I can defeat him. I have to."

"No, even if you did he would come back… he always does."

"That's not possible." Somehow he knew it was true. They all sat there as he mulled it over. Well everyone except for Yuffie. She being her usual perky self was twirling around in excitement.

Cloud was looking out the balcony window. He was having too much fun drawing on the foggy glass to even bother to pay attention to their conversation. He breathed heavily on the glass to watch it fog again and drew a smiley face.

"Cloud come away from there." Tifa snatched him away from his fun and set him on the bed. "Someone could have seen you." Correction, someone had.

He pouted and crossed his arms in dissapointnment.

"Tifa has a point," Vincent said, "We should leave now, before sunrise."

There was a quick shuffle as everyone grabbed their weapons and headed for the door. "Reno, what will you do?" Aerith asked in their haste.

He chuckled. "I'm going with you, yo." I believe you owe me for saving your boyfriend."

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They were at the gates; their gummy ship was just on the other side. "Wait. I forgot my sword." Zack spun on his heal and headed back to the second district. They followed after him just incase another swarm of heartless felt like showing up. (Wow that scene went fast)

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Kairi sat on top of the brick wall with her feet dangling over the edge. She impatiently tapped the backs of her heels against its side. She just wanted to get back on their ship and go back to Radiant Garden. By now she was fairly certain that she would fall asleep before home was even insight.

Zack and the others were busy trying to find his sword. For some unknown reason all the lampposts, except for the one beside Kairi, were out. A strange tickling on her arm made her turn around. There just behind her was a heartless. It was as black as midnight and crouched low to the ground. Its two shiny antennae twitched and tapped the back of her arm again out of curiosity. She squealed her disgust and slid down from her perch. Running over to where she though the others might be, she ran smack into something tall, skinny, and cold. She figured it was a lamppost. But the fact that a loud hollow clang hadn't resounded from her head colliding with said object caused her to reconsider. As if the entire situation was planned the lampposts flickered to life just as she screamed.

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Zack fumbled beneath one of the districts three benches trying desperately to find his sword in the dark. At last his stumbling fingers ran over the cold steel. He smiled victoriously and quickly found the handle. He backed out carefully from beneath the bench but managed to bump his head anyway. He grunted in annoyance and rubbed his sore noggin. There was a weird sound surging through his ears. Is someone screaming? He wondered.

The district was suddenly illuminated by the many lampposts, blinding him temporarily. Soft hands gripped his arm in fear. "Zack…" That was Aerith's voice. "Zack look!" She shook him roughly and aimed him towards the scream. His heart sank as he stared straight ahead at the looming figure. And just when they were almost home free.

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Kairi jumped back when she realized what she had run into. She had screamed louder then she thought humanly possible at the sight. Somehow she knew this person was bad news. It may have been his cold stare or that evil smirk that chilled her to the bone. She could hear the voices of her friends calling to her, but she couldn't make them out. Her fear was clouding her senses and rooting her to the spot.

A pair of small hand s grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the figure. She barely noticed them she was far too bust starring at the tall man in front of her. "Kaiwi!" A small childish voice called from behind her. She snapped back to reality and saw Cloud clinging desperately to her hand.

A cold laugh came from the man in front of them. He raised his sword up to her throat and cocked his head to the side. "Now here's a new face." She gulped and gripped Cloud's hands as tightly as she could. Sora had told her about this man. She knew why she knew this man. It had been in Sora's stories. That long silver hair was a dead giveaway. Sora had called him Sephiroth.

She gasped realizing that the sword tip was still at her throat. Suddenly it was pushed away by the same hands that she had just been holding. "Cloud…" He stepped bravely in front of the sword and stood between her and Sephiroth.

Sephiroth seemed disappointed. Apparently he had planned for them to put up more of a fight before surrendering the child. But he could still make this fun. Using the blunt edge of masamune he swept cloud aside and sent the child tumbling to the ground. He made to slash at Kairi next but was forced back by a Zack's buster sword hitting him heavily in the side.

Sephiroth staggered back a few steps but remained unfazed. He turned his smile on Zack who glared back. Zack ordered for the others to leave. "Get to the ship."

Aerith felt her heart sink. She didn't want to lose him again. "Promise you'll come back with us."

He smiled and gave her a nod. She knew he wouldn't lie to her. "Let's move." Vincent's cold voice commanded and they quickly headed for the gate.

Kairi picked cloud up and held him close to her. Their only protection was Zack. Their being there would be a distraction when he fought, but she just wasn't sure if she could risk running. Leon made the choice for her. He had run over while Zack was telling the others to leave. He grabbed Cloud around the waist and carried him while ushering Kairi towards the others.

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Everything happened so fast. Kairi had grimaced as the gate slammed shut behind them. She wanted to turn back to see if Zack had followed, but Leon wasn't about to slow their pace. Before she knew it the hatch of the gummy ship had slammed shut, locking them inside. Things started to slow down then. The whole ordeal finally caught up with her and now she could barely believe that she was still standing.

Aerith was rocking back and forth in her seat. Her fingers twitched with impatience and worry. Tifa was trying to comfort her but it was hard, seeing as how she too was obviously nervous. "He will be back any minute, I'm sure of it."

Aerith nodded trying to convince herself. He wouldn't lie to me. He'll be here. She told herself that over and over until she was believed it was true. There was a rapid pounding on the door and Yuffie sprang up quickly to open it,

"Wait," Leon and Vincent said in unison. It could be Sephiroth, even though it was entirely out of character for him to knock.

"Will you hurry up and unlock the door!" A familiar voice yelled from the other side.

"Thank Holy," Tifa sighed and beat Yuffie to the latch. She gave it a quick spin and the seal one the door was removed. The ninja pouted at being beaten as Zack quickly jumped inside. There wasn't a single scratch on him.

"Let's go yo." Reno yelled and slammed the door shut. He seriously doubted that Sephiroth had been taken down that fast.

"Keep yer shirt on." There was a quick jerk as the ship took of. Only Cloud was strapped into his seat. The others had been left to stand and lose their balance with the sudden force. He could only watch as everyone was thrown back and tumbled into the wall in a large heap. A series of cold looks were shot towards the cockpit where Cid was at work at the controls. Ignoring their urge to scold him they untangled their bodies and quickly threw themselves down into their proper seats and strapped each other down.

"Zack what happened." Aerith asked while busying herself with her restraints.

"He just let me go." They all looked at him, appearing baffled. "I lost my sword and he had me cornered. Then he just left." The ship gave another violent jerk. Except for a few whines and complaints of motion sickness from Yuffie they were silent the rest of the way.

Next chapter will be the last chapter. But don't worry I'm still planning on doing a sequel. (No cute little babies sorry)I just have no idea where it is going to go. Thank you all for you're great reviews. .