Chapter 71: Fleeing Darkness

Today had been a very tiring day.

Tifa had been wandering the Worlds for a while now, per usual, with nothing but a vague feeling in her chest telling her where it might be best to head next. It was less she was trying to keep up with Cloud (because, in reality, that was an impossible task), more she was just traveling and hoping to bump into him.

Her last stop today was Olympus Coliseum.

She shifted the bag that was slung over her shoulder. It was small, but heavy, considering all the supplies crammed into it. The sooner she got to an inn and could drop this off, the better.

But first: the coliseum itself. Cloud stopped by here often enough. She might as well see if he was here, competing, before she went and paid for an inn.

It was a good thing she decided to stop here, too.

Outside was crowded with people and the roar of upset customers, more than one person hassling Phil for their money back, and him frantically replying that wasn't his department. That meant there was trouble in the coliseum. Cloud? Probably.

Tifa pushed her way through the crowd, and came to a halt once in the coliseum, taking in the sight before her.

Sora—not that she knew that was his name, yet—was engaged in battle with. Someone who looked incredibly like him? That was strange. Sora was attacking furiously, the other guy defending only with a string of chains. Tifa pondered stepping in, because this didn't look like any sort of casual fight, but then her eyes found Cloud.

He was lying away from the battle, remaining very still. A small groan of pain escaped his lips, but nothing more. And though she was a good distance away from him, she could see blood, and plenty of it. There was a blade in his chest.

"Cloud!" she gasped, rushing over to him. She skidded to a halt and sunk to her knees beside him, dropping her bag a she did so. She grimaced at the wound, but was relieved to find that he was breathing.

"N- no," Cloud coughed, pushing her off. "I'm- fine. Help Sora."

"You are not fine, Cloud," Tifa said, sternly. She turned her attention to the blade now, frowning at it. There was something… dark about it. It probably wouldn't hurt too badly to touch—so long as she didn't hold it for long—but that didn't make her eager.

To her immense luck, it vanished before she could even lift her hands to remove it. It must've been a magic blade.

Except, wait. If it was magic, and its owner had called it back to them…

Tifa connected the dots, and turned over her shoulder to double-check. Sure enough, the blade had reappeared in the hand of—whoever that was Sora was fighting! She set her jaw, eyes narrowing. Started to get to her feet.

No, no. She had to heal Cloud first. She really wanted to punch whoever the hell that was in the face, but she should heal Cloud first.

She put her hands to his chest and pumped her strongest Curaga possible into him. She had a pretty good idea of how to heal serious wounds at this point, but she was no Aerith. And, it was really hard to cast magic when you were very distracted by being angry.

Satisfied after a few moments that Cloud was stable enough he wasn't going to die any time soon, even if he still needed some more serious work done, Tifa told him "hang on" and got to her feet for real this time.

Whoever it was Sora was fighting felt like a lot of darkness.

And the best way to hurt a lot of darkness was to use a lot of light.

So Tifa summoned all of her light to her and ran at this entity. Her fist connected with his gut.

xxx

Sora's Shadow was not having anything near a fun time. Whoever this girl was that showed up—she was very bright. What had been a kind of decent fight with Sora had descended quickly into nothing fun at all, as all of this girl's—Tifa's—light pounded against his brain, rapidly giving him a headache.

Do you know how hard it is to fight with a searing headache? It's very, very hard.

She was throwing a lot of anger at him, too, which normally would be a good thing. He fed on anger, and hatred, and other people's ill-thoughts of him. (Especially Sora's ill-thoughts of him.) But when those ill-thoughts were coupled with so much light? It just hurt.

"Dammit," he whispered, only barely managing to get his blade up to block Sora's in time.

I can't just leave right now! I'll look like a coward.

Better thing of something good to say to Sora first, and then I can—

Wait a minute.

Is she. Is Tifa planning on—

He wanted to laugh at the thought, except it was then that her fist connected with his gut. The wind was thoroughly knocked out of him, to say nothing of the pain.

He coughed and choked, reeling back.

"Uh… thanks?" Sora said, turning to Tifa, looking a little bewildered.

"No prob," she answered. "He hurt Cloud, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's get him."

A spike of—well, he wouldn't admit to feeling fear, but Sora's Shadow definitely wasn't feeling too hot right now, that was sure. It was still impossible to breathe, and his head felt like it was on fire. Tifa looked ready to murder him. Sora seemed a little hesitant, but only barely.

It definitely wasn't the bravest thing he had ever done or would ever do, but he vanished from there as fast as he could. He enjoyed living too much.

Dammit, Tifa. You just had to ruin my fun, didn't you!?

xxx

Sora watched his Shadow go and grimaced. He thought about yelling after him, but then thought against it. It wasn't worth it, and this friend of Cloud's was standing right next to him anyway, and…

"Drat," she grumbled. She looked very upset. "I really wanted to punch him a couple hundred more times."

Sora laughed, more nervously than anything else. "I'm, uh, surprised you could see him?"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, uh… most people can't. I dunno." Sora wasn't sure entirely how to explain it, and didn't feel like getting into the details right now anyway.

"Well… I'm Tifa. Thanks for defending Cloud."

Sora smiled nervously, scratching at the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, it was kind of my fault he got hurt… I'm Sora."

Tifa got a look that reminded Sora very much of the one Kairi got before she stared prying incessantly about a subject. Before Tifa could open her mouth to do that, though, Cloud let out a low groan of pain.

"Oh, shoot, sorry Cloud," Tifa said, hurrying back over to him. "I just- I really wanted to punch him."

"It's fine," Cloud told her. He was pushing himself up, though based on the look on his face, it hurt a lot to do so. "I'm healed enough."

Tifa looked him over like she didn't believe it.

"I think we'll have to go see Aerith."

Cloud groaned, and then let himself fall back onto the ground. "Look, just. Finish healing me, alright Tifa."

Tifa laughed, looking a little amused. "Come on, Cloud, you know I'm not as good as Aerith."

"Yeah, well, I just left Aerith's, and don't want to bother her again—"

"You two got in another fight again, didn't you."

"Please, Tifa."

Tifa sighed quite loudly, and dramatically, but gathered curing magic to her hands and pressed them to Cloud's chest again. She was shaking her head the whole time. "I'll see what I can do, but if it's too bad, I'm dragging you back to Aerith whether you want it or not—"

"If it's that bad, we'll just call Leon. He can heal."

"He'll be just as mad at you as Aerith is if you—"

"Then we'll find another healer."

Sora tried not to watch too closely, kicking his toes against the ground awkwardly. He felt kind of like he was eavesdropping?

He wondered for a second about what Cloud and Aerith could have possibly fought about, but then realized he didn't really have to. The memory he had seen, and the things his Shadow had made him say to Cloud—Those gave him enough of a picture. It was something about Zack. Something Sora shouldn't know about.

So he pushed those thoughts aside, and coughed nervously.

"I, uh… I'm sorry this happened," he told Cloud.

"It's fine," Cloud told him. His voice was a little strained, but maybe that was because Tifa was healing him. "It's not your fault."

"But- but if I'd stopped him—"

Tifa sent an inquisitive look up at Sora. After a second, though, realization dawned on her face.

"Ohh. This is a Shadow thing, it?" she asked.

"Uh. Yeah," Sora answered. "And Cloud I'm- I'm really sorry. For the things he made me say, too."

"It wasn't your fault," Cloud said, and, yeah he was definitely having trouble answering. Sora felt bad, because maybe he should have waited until Cloud was healed, but he couldn't help it. He was sorry. He just wanted to apologize.

"Yeah, I know, but." Sora swallowed. "I'm sorry he brought it up. And since he's not gonna apologize, I guess- I guess I'll apologize for him."

Tifa scoffed shook her head firmly.

"There's no reason to do that," she said.

Makes me feel better, Sora thought, but didn't voice. He understood where Tifa was coming from.

"Anyway," Tifa pulled her hands away from Cloud. "That's as healed up as I'm gonna get you, Cloud." She grimaced at her gloves, then pulled them off of her hands. "There goes this pair of gloves," she grumbled. "And they were such nice ones, too."

"Sorry," Cloud said. He pushed himself upright again, and seemed to have a much easier time of it this time around.

"It's fine. I should have taken them off before I healed you—I know leather and blood don't mix." She sighed and shook her head. "Anyway, we should get going, huh?"

Cloud raised his eyebrows. "We?"

"Well, someone's gotta keep an eye on you to make sure you don't get hurt anymore," Tifa argued.

Cloud rolled his eyes, but didn't seem too upset.

"I guess I'll uh, see you around," Sora said, waving.

"Yeah, see you!" Tifa told him, waving. Cloud also waved. They headed for the coliseum's entrance/exit.

Sora reached into his pocket for his star shard. But… something was still eating at him. He shouldn't ask, because Cloud was dealing with enough—but he couldn't not know any longer.

"Hey, Cloud!" he called, jogging to catch up to them.

"What is it?" Cloud asked. His eyes narrowed with concern. So did Tifa's.

Sora shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other.

"It's… not really your fault, is it?" he whispered. He didn't have to elaborate. Cloud knew what he was talking about.

Cloud turned away.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he said, and started walking.

Tifa looked between the two of them, confused, and then she seemed to understand.

"Why do they always go after Zack?" she moaned.

Cloud stopped walking, and rounded on her.

"Because it hurts!" he screamed.

Sora flinched and looked away. Tifa glared in annoyance.

"It was more of a complaint than a—" she began, but broke off. She took a deep breath, scowling hard. "I know, Cloud. I get it. I miss him too. And it hurts, that he's gone, but- it's not your fault! It's not anyone's fault but—"

"I don't want to be having this conversation right now!" Cloud said. He turned back around and stormed off.

Tifa watched him go, and then her glare deepened.

"FINE!" she called after him, cupping her hands around her mouth so the sound would carry. "Go on then, on your own again! I'll head back to Hollow Bastion, just like I was planning beforehand!"

Sora swallowed, face feeling hot. He definitely felt like he shouldn't have really heard, any of that. He really shouldn't have asked.

But, worried about Cloud, he looked to Tifa.

"Shouldn't… shouldn't we follow him?" he asked. Sora knew leaving a friend when they were upset like this wasn't a good idea.

"If you want to go after him, be my guest!" Tifa said, gesturing his direction. "But there's really no point. He's so damn stubborn when he gets like this. There's nothing to do but let him deal with it."

Sora sighed. On one hand, maybe a fresh opinion could help Cloud out. On the other hand, Sora had meddled enough, hadn't he? Even if it was his Shadow's fault…

"Alright," Sora said. He raised his hand up in a wave again. "It was nice meeting you, Tifa."

"Nice meeting you too."

They parted ways.