Splintered Dreams
Chapter Twelve
"All Fall Down"
It took no more than an hour for the two of them to traverse the tunnels—narrowly avoiding some of the oddest looking monsters Tifa had ever seen—and make their way to an abandoned train graveyard, but it was the longest hour of Tifa's life.
Twice she'd tripped over her long dress, and—frustrated to the point of screaming—she'd bunched the material in her hands and tore it off just above her knees. Soggy, barefoot, and in the tattered remains of her gown, she emerged from the sewers, spurred by gut-clenching terror and Zack's steady mantra of, "We'll get there."
She climbed the dirty rungs of the ladder, hoping that he was right.
"You doing okay?" Zack reached down, helped her from the manhole. She hopped up on one leg and pulled a piece of glass from between her toes—the third so far.
"Yes." She tossed the shard aside and was running towards the eerily silent boxes of metal that blocked the way to the Sector Seven gate before the word had fully formed on her lips. She could feel Zack close behind her, but she didn't look back.
Please....not too late. Please.
They moved quickly between the train cars, climbed through and on, and kept their silence. Neither wanted to voice the option of being too late. It badgered her heart, none the less, and with each heavy pulse in her ears she waited for the shriek of metal and the sound of doom.
Clear of the train cars, they rounded the corner and Tifa staggered when she saw the legs of the Reactor Tower still intact. With a gasp, she skid to a stop. "We made it!" Relief made her momentarily light-headed and she had to bend at the waist and catch her breath. "It's still standing." Thank, Shiva. She turned to Zack, the smile on her face quickly fading when she saw the sharp glow in his eyes, and his Buster Sword now in hand. "Zack?"
"Gunfire." He glanced up, his jaw tight.
Tifa followed his gaze. She couldn't hear anything but she trusted him enough to believe he heard it.
"Zack! Zack, over here!"
Both heads turned toward the voice calling his name. A bright splash of color amidst the dreary slums was weaving between people, hurrying toward them.
"Aerith!" Zack glanced quickly at Tifa before he ran forward, worry tightening his features. "What are you doing here?" he demanded, gripping Aerith by her slim shoulders and peering down into her face.
"I was on my way home when I heard helicopters and gunfire." Green eyes flashed anxiously.
"So you ran toward it?" Zack shook his head, caught somewhere between amusement and frustration.
"I was worried," she defended, brushing her hair from her eyes.
"It's not safe here," he told her. "You need to get out of here. Shin-Ra is here. They're about to drop the plate—"
"No!"
The scream snapped his head around and his heart stuttered to a stop at the absolute horror he saw on Tifa's face. He followed her line of sight and felt his stomach knot into a sick ball. Oh, no.
A body—pudgy and familiar—fell from the highest point on the tower, tumbling end over end before it came to a jarring halt against the harsh, unyielding ground with a sickening crunch. People around them shrieked and gasped, murmurs of confusion turning to shouts of panic.
Tifa was the first of the three of them to react. She hurried to the man on the ground, falling to her knees, her hands hovering over the broken body with a trembling uncertainty. Her breath was an asthmatic wheeze but she managed to rasp a name."Oh, Wedge..."
Zack started forward, guilt already tightening that ball in his gut to a lead weight. He could still hear the sound of gunfire overhead, shouts—incoherent and rapid—as well as the low thumping of a helicopter in the distance, but his attention was focused on hunched shoulders and shaking hands. Over those shoulders Zack saw a body broken beyond repair. A splinter of bone protruded from Wedge's upper thigh and his chest looked like someone had pummeled it with a sledgehammer. "Shit."
Tifa heard Zack swear behind her, heard him approaching, but she didn't look up. She kept her eyes locked on the dimming light in her friend's pain laden ones.
"T-tifa..."
"Hey, there." She offered him a soft smile, stroked his bloodied hair back from his forehead.
"Barret...at the top...gotta help him..." Each word was a choked gurgle, painful and forced.
"Easy, Wedge." Zack now, kneeling beside her.
"Tifa...Zack...sorry I wasn't...any help..."
Tifa closed her eyes, turned her face away. Wedge was always so heartfelt, always trying his best.... she couldn't stand the idea that he thought he'd failed them. She wanted to tell him—to say something—but her voice remained trapped by a throat too constricted to breathe, much less speak.
"Don't talk, ok. Save your energy," Zack's voice, on the other hand, was steady and reassuring. He grasped her shoulder, his warm fingers squeezing as he stood. "I'm going up. Aerith," he turned to where she hung back, "can you try and help Wedge?"
Moist green eyes blinked at him and she hesitated, then slowly nodded. "I'll try."
Tifa shook her head, her gaze steady on Wedge's. She bent forward and kissed his lips gently before she rose to her feet. "No."
"Tifa!" Zack gaped at her.
She clenched her hands together into tight fists and repeated the word. "No." She turned away from Wedge and faced Aerith, walked to the other woman. "It's too late for him, isn't it?"
Slowly, Aerith nodded. "I can feel it. He is mostly gone." A tear slipped down her cheek. "But I can try... I can."
Tifa reached for her hand, squeezed it. "I need you to do something else, okay? I need your help. I have a bar, called Seventh Heaven, in this neighborhood." She waited for Aerith to nod. "There's a little girl there. Her name is Marlene. Please..."
A trembling hand wiped across pale cheeks, and resolve hardened moss to emerald. "I'll find her, and I'll take her somewhere safe. You can count on me."
"Thank you." With a nod and a shared look of determination both turned away from each other; Aerith, running toward the Sector and Tifa for the Tower. "Everyone get away from the pillar," she shouted at the people milling beneath in curiosity and fear. "Everyone get out of Sector Seven!"
Like a match to tinder, Tifa's voice ignited the simmering unease around the crowd of people and there were cries of alarm as panic emerged. She was forced to physically turn some toward the exit, while dodging questions she had no answers to from others. She ushered off as many as she could, but couldn't wait to see if everyone followed her orders.
Trying not to look at Wedge's prone form, she headed for the Tower stairs. Zack met her at the bottom, a pair of worn boots in his hand. "Here." He shoved them at her.
"What are these?"
"Shoes. You can't very well fight barefoot." His face was a mask of calm, and Tifa knew he'd entered SOLDIER-mode.
"Where—?" She stopped, gave them a look. Blood and dirt smeared the beaten leather and a smiley face button adorned the left laces. Wedge's boots. Oh, Gods. Appalled, her eyes shot to his, but the stark blue she found there held her tongue.
She nodded at him, took a steadying breath. The sharp, abrupt sound of a scream snapped them open again and she slipped into the boots, yanked the laces tight. There was no time for sadness. They needed to move.
She turned and found that Zack was already halfway up the tower, his feet flying over steel. She grit her teeth, pushed the pain and panic down, and followed. She raced blindly up the stairs until she nearly collided with the broad expanse of Zack's back. She touched his shoulder, drew a quick glance, but nothing more.
He was gripping someone, helping them lean against the rail.
Tifa peered around him and should have been more surprised than she was to see Biggs, wounded and clutching his side. He glanced up when she said his name, gave her a crooked half smile. "Hey."
"How bad?" she went to him, and kneeling, tried to assess his injuries.
With a gruff curse, he pushed her hands off. "No time to worry about me. Barret...Jessie...still fighting. Go."
"But I—"
"You heard him. Let's go," Zack gripped her hand, pulled her up. He had seen Bigg's injury and chances were the other man wasn't going to last long. Having Tifa witness more than one of her friends die before her eyes was something he wasn't willing to allow.
"We'll come back for you," Tifa assured him.
"Biggs gave her a weak smile. "Sure."
As Zack turned them away he gave Biggs a salute, silently hoping that the other man's passing was quick.
They managed another few flights before they came across Jessie, sprawled across the blood stained metal stairs, with her breathing shallow and labored, but conscious.
She turned her head toward the sound of footsteps, drew her gun weakly and aimed it at them.
"Wait," Zack held up his hands, "it's us."
Limply her arm fell to her side and she pressed her forehead to the cold metal of the stairs. "Zack..." A soft, broken laugh came from her, causing Zack and Tifa to exchange concerned looks. "I'm glad...wanted to see you one last time."
"Hey, whoa." Zack crouched beside her, stroked her cheek lightly and gave her, what he hoped, was an encouraging smile. "Don't go saying things like last."
"Hm..." She rolled her head to the side, a soft, sad look on her face. "Always the optimist...always liked that... about you. Where's Tifa...?"
"I'm here." Tifa knelt, lifted Jessie's cool hand into her own. "Right here. And Zack's right. We're going to get you out of here, okay? Just hang in there." Please.
"It's alright...because of us...so many people died... so many...this is...probably our punishment..." Jessie gave a wheezing cough. "Deserve it..."
"Jessie, no. Please, hang on." Tifa squeezed cold, limp fingers. "Please."
The loud thrum of a helicopter rotor cut off anything else Tifa was going to say. Wind whipped her hair around her head in a frenzied dance and tore at her already tattered dress. She covered her eyes and rose to her feet.
"Come on!" Zack motioned for her to follow him. "They're attacking from the chopper. We need to get to the top if we're gonna help Barret!"
With a last, longing look at Jessie, Tifa followed. It wasn't right that she had to leave her there on the cold, unforgiving metal stairs, she thought bitterly. Warm, open, generous Jessie, laying in a puddle of her own blood, her face twisted in pain, saying she deserved her death. That image would haunt her forever, she knew. One more to add to my collection.
"Tifa! Zack!" Barret's booming baritone sounded over the rotor blades and Tifa's knees went weak with relief.
"Barret!" Excited, she rushed forward only to be shoved to the ground as bullets ricocheted beside her.
"Damn it, Tifa! Be careful!" Zack levered himself over her, eyes narrowed on her face. He threw an angry glance at the helicopter buzzing overhead. "Barret!"
"I got you covered!" Barret shouted, laying a spread of fire from his gun arm.
"Sorry," she pushed herself out from under him and sprinted toward Barret again, without much more regard than she had before.
Zack swore and bolted to his feet. As he rose he caught sight of a flash of unnaturally bright red as the helicopter hatch slid open. Shit! Zack gripped the hilt of his sword, swinging it over his head as Reno dropped down beside the Pillar's main control panel.
The glint of steel caused the Turk to lift his head and when his eyes met Zack's he smirked. "Too late, traitor. Once I push this," he pressed the button. "Oops. Shows over."
"No!" Tifa shook her head, her face paling. "You have to disarm it."
"Sweetheart," Reno leered, hand on his EMR. "I don't have to do anything."
"Fine, piss-ant, then we'll make ya!" Barret growled as he hefted his massive arm up and leveled it at the Turk. "You think your little stick scares me? Disarm it!"
Reno's smile was laced with something akin to amused malice. "I'm afraid I can't do that. No one gets in the way of Shin-Ra. No one. Isn't that right, Zack Fair?" Light eyes flickered to swirling blue. "I knew I'd remember you sooner or later. Been awhile." Reno tipped his head, lobbed a cocky grin.
Zack adjusted his stance, cricked his neck. "Not long enough."
With a quick flick of wrist, the EMR extended with a crackling snap and Reno leaped toward them. He caught the edge of Barret's arm with the end, sending the pulse through the metal, magnifying its effect. As Barret jerked back—stunned—Tifa sprung forward, swinging her foot in a round house kick.
The little bastard tilted to the side, and her heel only managed to graze the hair at his temples. His low whistle irked her, but not so much as the irritation she felt when he caught her ankle and pushed, using her own momentum to send her tumbling to the side.
"Nice try, sweetheart," he praised with a chuckle.
Zack came in fast and hard from the left, not giving Reno any warning. He swung his sword in a smooth slash, the blade glancing off a hastily thrown up EMR.
"Shit!" Reno stumbled back, barely keeping his footing.
Zack swung again and Reno dodged, rolled, sprung to his feet. His gaze skittered from Zack to a rousing Barret, then to Tifa who was already stalking toward him, then back to Zack.
"Disarm it," Zack ordered, his voice hard. He angled the Buster Sword, his eyes tinged green. "Now."
Reno shrugged, dusted his shoulder. "Like I said. Can't." He glanced at the railing; smirked. "This has been fun though." With that, he tossed a flash grenade that was apparently laced with stun and swung himself over the metal rail, catching the last rung of the helicopter's ladder as it flew past.
"Fuck!" Barret flung his hand over his eyes.
"Damn it!" As soon as he could move, Zack ran to the rail. He hung over it, cursing the Turks.
"Zack!" Tifa stood at the control console, her voice tight. "How do I stop this?" She looked up at him and the red flecks in her eyes shimmered. "I don't know how to stop this."
He didn't either, Zack realized when he was beside her. It was a time-bomb the likes of which he'd never seen before. "It's not a normal time bomb," he muttered, vocalizing the running thoughts in his head.
"Lemme just shoot the damn thing," Barret demanded, shoving between them.
"Brilliant plan," Zack muttered, giving him a look. "Why wait for the countdown when we can blow ourselves up now."
"You got any better ideas, Princess?"
"Not at the moment, but it's kind of hard to think with you breathing down my neck."
"Enough!" Tifa shouted. She ran a shaking hand over her face, exhaled. "Enough. Okay. Just stop it. We need to figure this out. You two can get back to your usual 'who's the bigger ass' game after."
Contrite, both men returned their attention to the flashing display only to have it jerked away again as another helicopter swooped along the side of the tower and hovered there.
Barret shifted position, using his larger frame to corner Tifa back in case they opened fire and Zack tightened his hold on his sword. What now? He wondered, grimly aware that with Shin-Ra anything was possible.
The side window slid open and a familiar face peered out at them.
"Tseng," Zack spat the name.
"You'll have a hard time disarming that," the Turk informed them, almost conversationally. "It'll blow the second you try."
Zack's brow raised, questions already forming in his head. What was Tseng up to?
Tifa tried to shoulder past Barret to no avail. "Please," she shouted, "stop it!"
"Only a Shin-Ra Executive can disarm the Emergency Plate Release System." Tseng spoke directly to Zack.
Why bother telling them that? The way he spoke skirted apologetic, but not quite. If there was one thing Tseng was extremely good at, it was his job. He did it efficiently, completed the mission no matter what—even if that meant betraying a friend. Zack's eyes narrowed into slits.
"Why the fuck are we talkin' with this Shin-Ra tool?" Barret shouted. He lifted his arm, the mechanism whirring as rounds chambered into place.
"I wouldn't," Tseng informed them, moving to the side a bit, revealing soft green eyes and pale skin.
"Aerith!" Everything in Zack went cold, then red hot. "You hurt her, Tseng, and I'll kill you! You hear me? I'll fucking kill you!"
"Zack!" Aerith shook her head. "Don't worry, I'll be fine! Tifa, she's safe!"
Tseng turned, shoved her back. She pressed forward regardless. "Hurry! Get out!"
This time Tseng slapped her back.
"Aerith!" Zack and Tifa shouted in unison.
Above them, a section of the tower exploded, the force releasing chunks of flaming steel and concrete.
Barret swore. "Shit! No time now! We gotta go!" At the railing, he looked down. After a moment he reached forward, ripped up a tight metal cable. He jerked on it a few times, and satisfied with the tension, motioned Tifa and Zack forward. "We can use this!"
"It'll hold?" Zack asked, reaching Barret.
"Not like I've tested it, Slick," Barret countered. "But the options are kinda limited."
Nodding, Zack had to agree. It was risk their necks on the cable with a chance of survival, or stay on the tower and be crushed. Of the two options, climbing on Barret's big back seemed the more appealing. He started to do just that when he realized Tifa had made no move whatsoever to join them.
He looked over his shoulder and there she stood, watching the sky fall.
"Tifa!"
She didn't turn.
"Tifa!"
Barret turned too. "Teef! Let's move!"
She looked toward them, but remained in the same spot, surrounded by crumbling ruin and flames. "It's all coming apart."
She sounded so small, Zack thought. So lost. "Tifa, please, come on." He held his hand out to her. She glanced at it, at him; impassive.
"Move your ass, Lockhart!" Barret shouted.
Zack wanted to smack the guy in the back of the head, but to his surprise, that shout did the trick. Tifa blinked, her brows came down and she was suddenly running toward them. With the same fluid grace Zack was used to witnessing in her daily activities she swung herself around on Barret's lap, her hands tight on the wire.
With a grunt, Barret hefted the three of them onto the railing and shoved off. The drop was sickeningly fast and Zack would wager money that his stomach ended up somewhere in his mouth, but then the cord went abruptly taut, swinging them into a long arc, and Zack was left baffled at how Barret managed to maintain his grip.
Metal shrieked and the heat of flame chased them until the wire trembled and finally snapped. Zack heard Barret's gruff exclamation and Tifa's soft scream, then nothing as the ground took from him his senses and left him in swirling black.
"What fine specimens you two turned out to be."
"My mother's name was Jenova."
"Hellooooo..."
"I have twenty-one tiny wishes...."
"Cloud!"
"Zack...Zack....Zack!"
His head jerked to the right, eyes snapping open.
"Finally!" A dirt smeared Tifa sat back on her heels.
Zack rolled to his side, levered up onto his elbow. He rubbed his eyes, then his cheek, which was throbbing.
Seeing this, Tifa gave him a half shrug. "I had to slap you a bit."
"Oh." He sat up fully, taking in her ragged appearance. Hair straggled, dirt smeared and pale as a sheet, she looked shaken—and very frail. It wasn't a look that suited her, and it made something in him ache. With a low sound, he ran his hands over her arms. "Are you all right?"
Something like pain flashed on her face, but she pushed herself to her feet, stepped away from him. She tilted her face away before she answered. "Yes."
Liar. But he wouldn't push it. Not yet. "Where's the big guy?" Zack got to his feet.
Tifa nodded toward a broken pile of rubble that was at one time the plate above the sector. Barret was there, his fist pounding into the burnt metal.
All around them, destruction, Zack thought as he surveyed the damage. The playground he had been surprised to find standing was standing no longer. Everything was demolished; shards of debris protruded grotesquely from the Moogle head slide and smoldering remains littered the ground.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Barret shouted, his hulking body slamming into the wreckage like a battering ram.
"Barret!" Tifa moved behind him, reached for him. "Barret, stop it!"
He shook her off, leveled his gun and opened fire on the wreckage, screaming his rage and pain and grief into the sky. "Jessie! Biggs! Wedge!" Another round of fire. "Marlene! Marlene!Marleeeeene!"
Tifa covered her heart with her hands. His pain tore at her, through her, and nearly felled her. "Barret..."
He dropped to his knees, punched the ground. His voice was a hoarse choke. "Marlene..."
She circled him with her arms, pressed her face into his back. "Barret. I think...I think Marlene is safe." She felt rather than saw his head come up.
"What?"
Gods, she didn't want to kill that hope in his voice. She hoped she was right. "Before the helicopter flew off, Aerith...she said 'she's safe'. I think she got Marlene out."
Slowly, the weight against her shifted and Barret stood. Tifa stepped back, waited for his reaction.
"But...the others..." He turned away from the mangled remains of the plate, but still not facing Tifa. "I don't wanna think they're gone."
"And so many others in Sector Seven," Tifa added. She felt drained and so empty.
"This is so fucked up," Barret shook his head. "They destroyed an entire village just to get to us. Killed...Gods only know how many."
Tifa swallowed. "Are you...so it's our fault."
Barret turned to her, his dark eyes earnest. "No, Teef. It ain't that. It's Shin-Ra. Always the damn Shin-Ra. They're evil! Everything about them is sick and they're using this planet to line their pockets, destroying lives. Our fight ain't over until we get rid of them. Every last one of 'em."
Tifa turned away for a moment, took a breath and allowed her gaze to find Zack. He had his back to them, his own head bowed. "I...don't know," she murmured.
"What don't you know?" Barret asked tightly. "You don't believe me?"
"It's not that. I'm not sure...about my feelings."
Barret followed her eyes, sighed. Another look at her and then he was striding toward Zack's silent back. "And what about you?"
Zack's head lifted, but he didn't acknowledge Barret in any other way.
"You think this is our fault?" Barret nudged him.
Yes. Zack thought, but refused to say it. Refused to add that one more wound to Tifa's already bleeding heart. "What I think, is that we need to get moving." He adjusted the Buster Sword on his back. "There's only one place Aerith would have taken Marlene."
The cottage was just as quaint, just as homey as she remembered it, but there was something off about it now. Like a picture perfect painting in the wrong colors. Tifa wrapped her arms around her middle, took slow steps along the path, falling behind both Zack and Barret.
The front door opened before they reached it, and Aerith's mother stepped out onto the front stoop. She wiped her hands on her apron, her face showing tight expectation, like someone waiting to get slapped, and Tifa's stomach tightened even more.
"It's about Aerith, isn't it?" she asked as they reached her.
Zack nodded, the look on his face reflecting pain and hurt and apology. Tifa wanted to reach out to him, she did, but she couldn't. Not now. "I'm sorry. But Shin-Ra...they have her," he informed Elmyra.
"I know." She surprised them. "They took her from here."
Zack's jaw tightened. "They were here?"
"It was better that she went, she said. It was what Aerith wanted." Elmyra's expression pinched a bit, like she was fighting tears, before she managed to speak again. "So she went with Tseng on her own."
"It's because of who she is, isn't it?" Zack asked, his expression hard.
"Not so much who, as what." The older woman's sigh was long suffering. "The last Ancient."
"Last?" Barret questioned. "Aren't you her mother?"
"Not biologically." Elmyra shook her head, her gaze traveling back to a place they couldn't follow. "Nearly fifteen years ago...I went to the train station to see my husband. He was coming home from war...or so I thought. He wasn't there, but there was a woman...she had a child with her." Elmyra paused, pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "She asked me to take her. I had no children of my own, and Aerith was so small...I couldn't refuse. So I took her with me."
"That was a very noble thing for you to do, Ma'am," Barret commented.
Elmyra's smile was a bit rueful and a bit wistful. "Oh, I imagine part of me was selfish. I wanted a daughter, and Aerith was so lovely, so chatty. We talked of everything. It became apparent, though, that she was different. Special. She knew things..." Elmyra stopped, lips clamped shut. "Shin-Ra wanted her, at any rate. They've been after her for years."
"It's amazing how she avoided Shin-Ra all these years," Tifa murmured, awe in her voice.
Elmyra nodded. "They needed her, so they wouldn't hurt her. She's managed to avoid them for a long time, and Tseng..." a smile ghosted her lips and Zack's brow raised. "Well, he has a fondness for her, and assured her that he wouldn't take her from her home."
Zack's eyes narrowed. A fondness, he nearly snorted. What a nice way to say obsession. "But he did," Zack felt the need to point out.
Elmyra turned to him. "She brought a little girl here. On the way, Tseng found them. She decided to go with him in exchange for the child's safety."
"Marlene?" Barret edged closer to the stoop. "I'm sorry. Marlene's my daughter. She was caught because she saved her, I'm so sorry."
The look Elmyra turned on him could have frosted the sun. "You're her father? How in the world could you leave your child like that?"
Tifa's eyes widened and she waited for the inevitable Barret explosion, but to her astonishment, he simply shook his head and gave the most impassioned speech she'd ever heard him make.
"Please, don't start with that. I feel guilty enough, every day. Every day. I think about what would happen to her if something happened to me, but then I think about what her future will be if I don't fight for it. For her. If I don't fight, this planet is gonna die, and my baby along with it. I won't let that happen, Ma'am. I won't. I gotta take care of her the only way I know how, but that don't mean I don't wanna be with her, because I do. Always, I always wanna. I do it for her...and now, now I'm talkin' in circles."
Elmyra reached out, placed her hand on his arm, halting him. "I think I understand," she smiled softly. "She's upstairs. Why don't you go see her." She opened the door.
Barret nodded, thankful, and went through. Elmyra waited a beat, closed the door and turned her attention back to Zack and Tifa. "You better make this right," she told Zack, pointing her finger at him. "That girl would do anything for you, and now..." she shook her head, closed her eyes.
"It wasn't his fault," Tifa defended. "I was the one that asked her to help me. It was my fault she got involved." She almost wished she hadn't spoken when those eyes came to rest on her. Dirty and smelling of sewer, still wearing the remains of her seduction dress, Tifa felt like a lowly worm. She stared down at the ground.
"Aerith doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do," Zack interjected before Elmyra could speak. "Never has." His blue eyes flashed a dark, swirling color. "So no one blames you, Tifa." His voice dared the other woman to say different. He'd take her scorn, her displeasure, her sadness and bear them—it was no more than he deserved—but Tifa didn't, and she'd suffered enough today.
Elmyra, apparently had no intentions of countering that statement. She opened the door again. "Come in. Let's get you cleaned up and in something more..., well, more." She even offered a gentle smile and a hand.
Tifa blinked up, and accepted both. "Thank you."
"Head on up. You remember where Aerith's room is?"
"Yes." Tifa started up the stairs.
Zack followed, at the foot of the steps he turned to Elmyra. "Thank you."
"No need to thank me," she told him quietly. "It's a mother's instinct to fix what's broken, and that girl,"she let her eyes follow Tifa. "She's broken."
But was she fixable? Zack wondered, and with a heavy heart he climbed the stairs.
He used the spare bathroom in the hall to shower and freshen up. Elmyra even managed to find some old clothes of her husband's for him to wear. The shirt was a bit tight and the pants a bit loose, but they weren't covered in shit and blood, so he had no real complaints. When he was done he wandered down the hall and debated with himself for ten minutes before he finally turned and went back to the closed white door of Aerith's bedroom.
"Tifa?" He tapped the bedroom door with a knuckle. He heard rustling from the other side, and he briefly hoped she wasn't crying, and then the door opened and he saw her dry eyes and stark expression, and he immediately wished she had been.
"Zack." Just his name, in some odd, flat, horridly lifeless voice that wasn't Tifa's.
She was clean now, her long hair still damp over her shoulders and dressed in a white tee shirt and brown slacks. Her feet were no longer in Wedge's boots, but encased in a pair of canvas sneakers decorated with flowers. His lips quirked a bit at that. Aerith and her flowers... His heart panged in his chest and the smile faded from his eyes, leaving them shadowed with worry. He shook himself and said, "Barret's in the shower and Marlene is downstairs," he told her, for lack of anything else to start with.
She nodded. "How's Marlene coping?"
"Holding up fine. Better than us, I think," he admitted. He reached out, cupped her chin and lifted her eyes to his. "How about you? How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine." She stepped away from him, not allowing herself that small comfort.
"Tifa." His hand closed in on itself, wanting so much to hold her, to help her. "I'm here for you. If you need to cry..."
Her eyes, when they finally met his, were the same dull rust color they'd been the night he'd told her of Cloud. A look he mistook for icy indifference, but knew now was one of acute pain. "I said I'm fine."
"Tifa," he tried again to reach for her.
"I need some air," she evaded, moving past him and out the door before he could stop her.
"Well, shit," he muttered, hand on the back of his neck. He heard the front door open and close, and he knew she had left the house. Damn her and her stubborn pride, he thought with a scowl. He shoved out of the room and headed downstairs.
"Barret!" Zack pounded on the closed bathroom door. "Barret!"
The white wood flung open and bleary, red-rimmed eyes narrowed. "This had better be fuckin' important!"
Zack withdrew slightly, feeling awkward and that perhaps he'd interrupted Barret's moment of grieving, but he had the larger man's attention now and it was important. "It's Tifa."
Immediately his stature shifted, became broader—if possible—and intimidating."What about her?"
"She's outside, and she's...well," Zack scratched the back of her head. "She's upset."
"Of course she's upset. Shin-Ra just fucked us over again!"
"It's more than that--" Zack began only to have Barret wave him off.
"She's a grown-ass woman, Slick. Leave her be."
"But—" The door slammed in his face. Perfect. Zack sighed, rubbed his eyes. Feeling helpless, and uncomfortably useless, he headed for the kitchen.
She didn't turn when she heard the door close. She sighed irritated, toed the ground. "Zack, I said I was fine."
"I ain't Zack, and I ain't buyin' it."
She swung around at the gruff voice. She tried to shrug, tried to feign calm. "Barret, I..."
He held up his hand, shook his head and opened his arms.
She stared at him, fought the trembling of her lip, shook her head.
"C'mere," he encouraged, letting her see the tears in his own eyes. "We've gotta hold onto each other...we're all that's left."
"Oh, Barret!" She flung herself into his arms, heaved such a sob that it shook them both. "They're gone!" Her shoulders shook, and her fingers clutched. "They're gone and I couldn't save them!"
His big hand smoothed over her hair and he rocked her, his own frame wracked with gruff hiccups.
"I want them back," she choked. "I want them back so much."
"I know. Me too." He hugged her closer. "Me too." They stood that way for a long while, clinging to one another and grieving their fallen brethren, neither aware of the blue eyes behind them or the shaking hand that wiped his own tears.
Back inside, Zack sat at the table, placed his head in his hands. Faintly he could still hear murmurs and tears, and slowly, so slowly, they began to fade until they stopped altogether and all that was left was aching silence.
AN: Again, my apologies for the delay in updating. Life is fun, isn't it? Many thanks to those of you who are enjoying this and so encouraging! And especially for you guys that review. It keeps me motivated :) I hope you enjoyed! More soon!