Cloud has a talk in his head, Zack tries to solve problems on his own. Bad things happen. Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 6

With a flurry of colors and lights, Cloud found himself somewhere he didn't know. The horizon was an endless white like the lifestream, but when he looked up all he could see was the endless green swirls and shifts of the lifestream above him. So either he fell through the lifestream without noticing it, or he was being called by someone in the lifestream.

'You are a smart one, Golden One,' a voice rang from behind Cloud. 'Much more beautiful than I remember myself being.'

Cloud turned around quickly, hand reaching for his blade, which was, of course, absent.

'You need to relax a bit,' the voice rang out again, chuckling. 'Come to me. I wish to show you something. Just keep following the path before you.'

Cloud was about to ask what path, since all he saw was the endless white, when the white shifted and gave way for a crystal forest as far as he could see. The path he was supposed to follow was large stepping stones placed lovingly on the forest floor.

This screamed trap.

Cloud started down the path anyway. Trap or not, Cloud was here because of the owner of the voice, and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting out of this without giving into what the person at the end of this path wanted.

'Oh you amuse me, Golden One,' the voice laughed out. 'I won't force you into anything, this is just a talk. I have no real power over you here.'

"That's not reassuring," Cloud muttered, slowing his pace and looking around at his surroundings. The trees were crystal, but they glowed with a golden hue, the grass looked like someone had gone overboard with the sparkly gold glitter and never bothered to clean it up, and by the looks of things even the stepping stones were becoming more gold as he got further into the forest. "I hope this isn't supposed to impress me. I don't like gold, unless it's money. Then I need that to keep my family fed and housed."

The laugh rang through the air again, but no answer was given. Cloud wasn't really expecting one if he was honest. He had enough shit going on in his life, he really didn't need this. Cloud sighed and looked forward, preparing himself to walk for a long time. How long he didn't know, just that he had a feeling when everything was gold he would be at the end of the damn path.

The laugh rang out again, and this time a voice followed the sound. 'Talk to me, Golden One. Tell me all about the world since I have been imprisoned so long ago.'

"I doubt it's changed much since," Cloud responded. "But I'll tell you about the wonders I've experienced in my life, I doubt it will hurt anything to just talk about anything."

The voice laughed again, and Cloud found himself talking about anything and everything, his friends, his battles, his life, the seemingly endless time resets him and others were going through. The owner of the voice stayed silent and let Cloud talk, gave his condolences at the parts that still choked Cloud up, and gave him advice towards things he was struggling with. He was so involved in the conversation, he didn't realize he had reached the end of the path until he almost slammed into a golden wall.

'You have a wonderful life, Golden One,' the voice said gently. 'It's more beautiful than mine ever was. Come up the stairs, you are so very close to what I need to show you.'

Cloud looked up the stairs that ended in an arch that hid what was at the top. "Are you going to lock me here?"

'No,' the voice whispered gently from seemingly right behind Cloud. 'I would never wish this fate to anyone, not even the ones who locked me away here.'

Cloud took a deep breath and ascended the stairs, his eyes never leaving the top of the stairs. When he reached the top he stopped dead in his tracks.

Before him was a double golden door with his exact likeness etched into both sides, the only thing about the door that wasn't gold. From his blonde hair to his blue eyes, even down to the stitching on his black outfit, it was impossible to be anyone other than him. Even the sword both of the engravings were holding onto, almost as if the sword was the lock itself, was the exact copy of First Tsurugi down to the details of the blade Cloud had engraved himself into the base of the blades.

'You are more then you remember, Golden One,' the voice rang out, this time clearly behind the doors. 'You will not get stuck here, I promise.'

Simple reassurances, meaningless when given by people you don't know, he shouldn't listen.

Cloud pushed the doors open and walked into the chamber they hid.

It was a large dome, nothing really of interest on the outer walls, no, what was interesting was the almost crystal-like dome that took up half the chamber, a dome that glowed green, the top connected to the lifestream above them by three thick ropes. Laying off to the side, brown and dead, was what looked like a tree root.

'It's the fourth rope that sealed my prison,' the voice said, answering the unspoken question. 'It snapped sometime while you were still in the womb. It allowed me to reach out into the world and find a host to see the world with, to see if locking me away helped my mother and the Ancients in stopping the Calamity that they were so fearful of.'

"So you grabbed onto a child in the womb?"

'It was not my choice,' the voice repeated, the sound of footsteps echoing from the crystal dome. 'I was drawn to the only one who held the same genetics that I do, a curse and a blessing I must say.'

Cloud turned around, ready to see whatever monster had dragged him here, he might not have a sword, but he could still put up a fight if needed. Except he turned around to come face to face with himself.

The man in the dome looked just like him, messy blonde locks, soft slightly feminine features, even the outfit was exactly like Cloud's, the only difference was while Cloud had blue mako enhanced eyes, this man had golden eyes that glowed like the lifestream itself.

"Who are you?" Cloud asked, blinking in shock, his mind not really comprehending what he was seeing.

'I have no name,' the man said. 'I lost it when you were born for the first time before Gaia started resetting. Something is hurting her inside the lifestream, something that her beloved last Ancient couldn't heal.'

"So I took your name?" Cloud asked, moving closer to the dome.

'STAY BACK!' The man said. Cloud stumbled and fell backwards, he felt as if he had just been punched. 'If you wish to leave this place and not be stuck here with me forever, never get closer than ten feet from the dome. It will sense you and drag you into the dome if you get any closer. And I promised you wouldn't get stuck here.'

Cloud stayed on the floor where he landed, holding his gut. "What the hell did you do? That really fucking hurts."

'I guess I forgot my own strength for a moment,' the man offered sheepishly, moving to sit on a chair that appeared out of nowhere.

Cloud blinked as he sat up. The man was sitting in the chair like Rufus did, with that same 'the world is mine' arrogance.

The smile the man shot at Cloud also made him remember this man could hear his thoughts.

'I have all the rights in the world to own it,' the man said, his eyes flaring even brighter. 'I am a god, after all, if I wanted it, I could change Gaia forever to suit my desires, and absolutely no one would be able to stop me. Not even my mother, Minerva, could stop me. She and Chaos slaved to seal me away for years, which resulted in Chaos losing his physical form and becoming a spirit of sorts, while my mother locked herself away in a statue where her followers were loyal enough to protect her while she recovered, which she still hasn't. If either of them were to face me in their conditions, I would wipe them from existence.'

Cloud sat straighter, his mind reeling and also blanking at the same time.

'This is not a threat, Golden One,' the man stated, his smile turning insane. 'It is the truth, simple facts even. I am not one to lie to people, I never have and I never will. I am the reason so many people hid the full power of materia from others, the reason why the Ancients passed on knowledge of magic to their descendants. Fear makes people do things they later regret. They learned that the hard way when they feared me and my power while fighting Jenova's hellspawn and begged to have me locked away. They are all gone, erased from existence because they feared the only one able to eliminate her and her armies.'

'You, Golden One, are the only one who was able to fight Jenova and win after I was locked away. You are more special then you realize you are. You are the small sliver of my own being that escaped when the fourth rope broke. And as such, you can harness more power and control then others, it is why even unenhanced you were able to overpower and defeat our beloved Sephiroth. It is also the reason why you must never trust Minerva and Chaos to have your back if you ever find yourself in that situation. You are the only one that can save me, that can save us.'

"Save us?" Cloud asked, trying to process what he was hearing. "What do you mean? What are you trying to say?"

'Go home now, Golden One,' the man said, rising from his seat. 'We can talk more later, but now, you must return to your family.'

Cloud tried to protest, but he found himself flung out the doors and down the stairs, even though the forest, unable to stop or say a word. And before he felt the draw of his body laying in Zack's arms he heard one last thing from the man.

'And go save our beloved Silver General. He may not be in physical danger, but mentally he is putting so much before himself, he will break if not shown that he can be selfish and want more than what's just good for his men. A good oral servicing goes a long way to helping men realize they can be selfish and want.'

FINAL FANTASY 7

To be fair, Zack kinda had it coming when he thought about it. Cloud was an experienced warrior who had nightmares of Hojo's labs, even after lifetimes out of them. He had been around Cloud when he woke up from them, so Zack really couldn't blame him, as Zack found himself flipped and slammed into the wall opposite of the room and into the hallway.

Didn't mean it didn't hurt any less though.

"Zack!" Aerith called as she ran to his side, instantly helping him stand, her eyes wide with fear and surprise. "What happened?"

"Spike might have had a nightmare and I accidentally woke him at the wrong time," Zack responded, using the wall to help himself to his full height and to give Aerith help to get him standing again. "He's going to be upset that I broke the wall though."

Zack paused and turned his head to listen into the room, and what he heard made him chuckle in laughter.

"Zack?" Aerith asked, sounding worried.

"Wasn't a nightmare after all then," Zack chuckled, then hugged Aerith to him, pushing his front against her back. "He had a fun time wet dream of Seph."

"Not funny Zack," Aerith grumbled, moving out of his arms, heading to enter the room through the door.

Zack laughed again and climbed through the hole in the wall, moving to throw himself on Cloud's confused and dazed body. Spike was adorable when he had just woken up.

"Zack!" Aerith called out, trying to pull him off Cloud. "Get off him before you get thrown through another wall!"

"Thrown through a wall?" came the confused reply from under Zack, before Cloud could poke his head out and look right at the wall that was broken. "My wall is broken…"

Deadpanned, not all their responses, and the continued confusion. Zack lifted his head to look Cloud in the eyes. Bright blue, brighter than normal glow, slightly more gold flakes, but no sign of someone looking through his buddies eyes.

"Cloud?" Zack asked, shifting so he could restrain his best friend if needed. "Are you okay? You hearing any voices?"

Cloud blinked up at him slowly, as if it was taking time to process what was being said. "Why would I be hearing voices? What are you doing sitting on top of me anyway?"

Zack blinked, looked down at how he was on top of Cloud, and sure enough, he was sitting on Cloud's legs, his hands on either side of Cloud's head. Zack looked back up at Cloud's face, his eyes clear and sharp, fully awake.

"I mean you're hot and all," Cloud began, pushing Zack up. "But you're not my type. So save the position for Aerith."

Zack, let himself flop off Cloud, watching as his best friend stood and started stretching his body. He probably saw it because he was so focused on Cloud and what he was doing, but Cloud winced every time he stretched out his stomach muscles. It was like Cloud had been punched and his body wasn't kicking in to heal it.

Zack knew he couldn't let this slide, Cloud had gotten hurt somewhere and he had to help his little buddy, his best friend, his baby brother. But Cloud just waved and said he was going to go get breakfast before spending his day with his little girl.

Zack knew he was dismissed, could hear it in the tone that Cloud had used, the same tone the older Firsts used with them when military business was done being conducted. Zack gritted his teeth and watched Cloud walk away, watched his best friend look more wary and defeated then he had ever been.

Zack wanted to help.

Zack needed to help.

But Zack just let his head fall into his arms, he felt so useless, so helpless when it came to Spike. He didn't know how long he had sat there, but when he looked up from his hands he saw Tifa and a bear of a man with a metal arm working on fixing the wall, Aerith sitting on the floor with her head on his leg and her hand resting on his arm, asleep.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, Zack," Tifa said, moving over to him from the significantly smaller hole in the wall. "You didn't respond to any attempts to get you out of your thoughts. Aerith eventually just gave up and curled against your legs. She was worried about you, said after Cloud left you just collapsed and stopped responding to what was around you."

"Your red coat wearing SOLDIER buddy came by to see you today," the burly man said, moving to lean against the wall. "He said your mentor was in a fit and was scared you were one of the few SOLDIERs that were killed for good in that battle. You should return to them as soon as you are healed."

"But you're always welcome back at any time," Tifa chimed in. "You're family after all! Even if Barrett is a pain in the ass about it!"

"Don't be a stranger," came a young female voice from the hole. "We don't like our family staying away for long periods of time. We just barely tolerate it from Vincent, we won't from you though!"

"Get out of the walls Yuffie!" Barrett called out, banging on the wall beside him. A startled yelp rang out before Yuffie was quickly into the room from the opening in the wall. "Cloud would be mad knowing you made a maze system hideaway in his walls. He gave you an entire maze-like cavern with access to the sky and ocean to build your shrines to your water gods. He even gave you the tools to keep making more caverns and caves, to make traps and shit to sate your overactive ass."

Zack smiled lightly at the antics of the group before him, they were a true family. He wished that he had a family like them, but Angeal and Genesis had been drifting closer to the other and further from him, and even Seph was slowly drifting away from him. Even Cloud had walked away from him. His family was falling apart, while this family before him were building themselves stronger than ever, and Cloud was part of this family.

Zack sighed softly and shifted so he could pick up Aerith and lay her on the bed. When he turned around everyone was looking at him.

"You guys are right," Zack said, forcing fake cheer into his voice. He couldn't feel anything but shame and self-hate at the moment. He couldn't help anyone, not his family, not his friends, and not himself. "I'll drop by again, but I do have to get going. I'll bring back the money I owe for breaking the wall when I drop by next."

Zack waved and walked out of the room with his smile forced into place. He walked out of the house and through the mist wall surrounding Cloud's property never once dropping his smile or happy go-getter attitude. Only when he had reached the path down the mountain, did he let his smile fade into a frown and his mind wander.

"How am I supposed to protect my family when I can't even keep my family from falling apart around me?" Zack asked into the mountain air, kicking the loose rocks on the mountain path. "How am I supposed to help those around me when I myself can't even fight on the same level as them?"

Zack was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn't notice the red eyes watching him descend down the mountain to the town below.

Later as Zack found himself being attacked from behind, he could only blame his own inattention to his surroundings as his face hit the mountain path and his world went black.