A/n: Ok, here's chapter 11. I hope you guys like this one!

To my reviewers:

jisAtsU siLENcE – thanks a lot for always reviewing…! You've been great!

the Dr. – Thanks, I had fun. Sephiroth will die…eventually, and yeah, I probably am going to make them totally slaughter that guy. (smile)

glamrockbloodbath – Thanks, I really like 'em, too. And though Aeris isn't such a bad character (that's not saying I liked having to rescue her all the time during the game) I just don't support the CloudxAeris pairing…but hey, that's just me. (grin)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this fic.

Chapter 11 – Bloody Confrontation

I'm there for you

No matter what…

"Great…we're in for it now." Yuffie muttered.

"Man, why do we always have to do it the hard way?" Reeve asked.

"Because we're the good guys." Cloud said, smiling despite the seemingly desperate situation they were in.

"Yeah…but why are you smiling?" Cid asked.

Tifa answered for him. "Because the good guys always win, no matter what."

"…No matter what?" Cloud remarked, grinning at her.

She nodded, smiling back. "No matter what."

Their friends looked at them with confused expressions on their faces. "How do you think we'll pull that off?" Barret asked, gesturing to the other side of the cave where their would-be attackers waited for them.

"Simple." Cloud said, pointing to a small hole to the right of the dark cave.

"Eh? How do you suppose we fit into that?" Reeve inquired.

"We won't have to fit into that, actually, we can make it bigger." Cloud replied.

Reeve gave Cloud an inquiring look and then asked, "How do you propose we do that?"

"Like this," Cloud said, motioning to Tifa to go ahead.

After getting the signal from Cloud, Tifa raced towards the said hole and performed her ultimate limit break, making the stone barrier disappear, revealing a fairly straightforward path that led to another just ahead.

"Whoa…" Cid whistled.

"How did you know…?" Red XIII asked.

Cloud grinned. "You guys remember Tifa getting cut earlier, right?"

The others nodded.

"Well, it's gone now."

"What?" nearly everyone exclaimed at the same time.

"It's true," Tifa said, showing them the part of her arm where the cut was supposed to be.

"What the – what does this mean?" Vincent asked, disbelief written on his normally expressionless face.

"It means all those guys out there aren't real." Cloud replied, tipping his head in the direction of their enemies.

"What? But how?" Reeve asked.

"That first guy – the one Barret talked to – he's the one. He has to be the one who created and is controlling all those other guys." Cloud said.

"Okay, that's good, but they're still there, and we still can't just go through them without incident, even if they are just illusions."

"Then we get rid of the source of those illusions." Vincent stated.

"Now that's a plan…but, just one thing. How do we do that?" Barret asked.

"We get rid of that first guy." Yuffie answered.

"That's good and all, but…how are we supposed to find him? They all look the same."

"Good point, Ba - huh? Everybody, duck!" Yuffie shouted.

Everyone jumped away as a big chunk of cave rock came falling from the cave roof. "What just happened?" Tifa asked, wincing as she landed hard on her backside.

"I think we just found our man." Cloud said, pointing to his right at a man in a hooded black robe who looked like he was chanting some sort of spell.

"Let's go get him!" Barret yelled.

"How do you propose we do that?" Vincent asked, gesturing to the new chasm that had just opened up in front of them.

"Huh? Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

Cloud turned to look behind him then, and he immediately found himself regretting the action. "Uh, guys…"

Everyone turned to him. "What is it this time?" Yuffie asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Look behind me."

And they did. "Oh my god…" Tifa whispered.

Cloud looked towards the chasm again, and, taking a deep breath, he started walking towards it.

"Cloud! What are you doing?" Tifa called, her voice laced with worry and alarm.

"This is all an illusion, right? As long as I don't let myself believe what I see and focus on the fact that it's not real, then…"

They all watched, frozen, as Cloud stepped into the seeming abyss…and saw his feet touch what looked like air like it was solid ground.

As Cloud continued to cross, the rest of them slowly followed, and, just as it had been with Cloud, they felt solid earth beneath their feet.

As they reached their destination, Vincent saw something from the corner of his eye, and as he turned to see what it was, he saw that it was the man they'd been looking for. Quickly and without hesitation, he took his gun out from its holster, aimed, and fired.

The shot rang out in the sudden silence, and everyone watched as a man in a black hooded robe fell to the ground, blood gushing out from a wound in his left thigh.

Vincent started walking towards the injured man, the look in his eyes completely unnerving the helpless individual. Stopping just in front of him, he pointed his gun in the vicinity of the man's head. "Tell me. Where is Sephiroth?"

Despite his obvious fear, the man looked back at Vincent defiantly. "I'd rather die than betray the Master." he stated.

"I'd be more than happy to grant your wish," Vincent retorted, "but you're no good to us dead."

The others arrived then. "So, what do you think we should do to him?" Reeve asked.

Tifa cocked her head to the side, studying the harmless-looking man. "I don't know…what do you guys think?"

"We could torture him until he's ready to tell us where Sephiroth is." Barret suggested.

"We could shake him up a little bit and see if he has any materia!" Yuffie said.

"Nah…we could just get rid of him right now," Cid said, pointing his spear right in the man's throat.

"Sephiroth won't spare you after this anyway, so why don't you just tell us where he is? It might save your life," Cloud stated.

The man tilted his chin up in continued resistance. "I refuse."

Cloud's blue eyes flashed with barely restrained anger, and he decided to throw democracy into the wind. "Are you sure?" he asked, adding his Ultima Weapon into the mix of weaponry that was pointed at Sephiroth's loyal servant.

The man's façade of defiance started to crumble then. Kneeling beside him, Tifa smiled gently. "Please. Tell us where your master is. I promise we won't hurt you."

He looked at the woman in front of him, her serene smile abating his fear just a bit. "Alright." he relented finally. "I'll tell you. The Master is - "

"The Master is very disappointed in him," a voice, vastly different from the man's but all too familiar to the members of Avalanche, spoke. Sephiroth had taken control of his servant's body.

Everyone jumped away immediately, and the man smiled. "Surprised? Well, then, I'm sure you'll be even more surprised when I do this!" he stated, the smile still on his face when Sephiroth used his servant's own hand to slit his throat, effectively silencing him for good.

"No…" Tifa whispered, horrified.

"Damn. I should've known…" Cloud muttered.

"We…we all just…" Yuffie stuttered.

"We all just watched him die," Vincent finished for her, his expression grim.

"We can't let this kind of thing continue…Sephiroth will kill even more people if we don't stop him…"Tifa said, her fists clenched so tightly they hurt.

"She's right," Cloud said. "We need to find Sephiroth as soon as possible."

"Yeah…but where do we start?" Barret asked, gesturing around him.

"We could start by going that way," Vincent announced, pointing in the direction of a path that lay straight ahead.

"Why? What makes you think Sephiroth's location is that way?" Cid asked.

"This," Vincent answered, holding up a roughly sketched map, with an X with the words 'The Master's room' written beside it. It was partly smeared with blood.

"Well, now, that's convenient…" Reeve muttered.

"Yeah, well, in any case, we should try it." Tifa said, turning in the direction Vincent had pointed out earlier.

With Tifa leading the way, the others started to follow when a dark figure, until then going unnoticed by everyone, swooped down and snatched Tifa away.

"Tifa!" Cloud shouted, running after them.

Everyone else followed immediately. "Cloud! Wait up!" Barret called, running as fast as he could…but to no avail. Cloud had already disappeared around the corner and when they turned at that same corner, they were forced to stop. There, in front of them was a magical energy barrier blocking the way.

"Oh no…" Yuffie said dejectedly. She, as well as the rest of the crew, could see Cloud talking with his girlfriend's abductor from behind the barrier, but they could do nothing.

"There must be a way to break through…"Red XIII said. "We must get to them quickly."

Vincent agreed. "Yes. As strong as Cloud is, he can't fight well with Tifa in danger. He'd be too distracted."

"Yeah. And you can bet that that guy, whoever he is, will definitely try to hurt Tifa to get into Cloud's head."

"So what're we waiting for?" Cid asked, his spear already in hand. "Let's start cracking."

So they did.

Meanwhile…

"Let her go!" Cloud yelled angrily.

The hooded man simply smiled, observing the man who stood in front of him. He was Avalanche's leader, was he? Well, it looked like taking this girl away was a better move than he thought it was. It was obvious to him that this girl meant a lot to his unwilling visitor.

He looked down at the unconscious young woman's face and smiled. She was beautiful, and he could understand why Cloud seemed to be so taken with her. He started to touch her, but a warning voice stopped him cold.

"Don't you dare touch her," Cloud said, his clear blue eyes flashing with an intense, unwavering anger as he looked at the man who had so easily kidnapped Tifa.

"Or what?" the man taunted, his arrogant smile widening.

"Or I'll kill you," he replied.

"Oh? Would you be willing to destroy your old best-friend?"

Cloud frowned at this. "What do you mean?"

Smiling, the man pulled the hood from his robe, revealing spiky jet-black hair and a face Cloud remembered now only in his nightmares. "Zack…?" his old friend whispered in disbelief.

"Glad you remember me, buddy."

"Wha – What are you doing here? I thought - "

"You thought I was dead? Well, you were wrong."

"But how…?"

"Master Sephiroth revived me."

"Sephiroth…? Why would he…?"

Zack shrugged. "Who knows?"

Shaking off his surprise, Cloud again focused on the situation at hand. Zack may have been his old friend, but he'd still kidnapped Tifa, and he would never forgive him if he harmed her. "Whatever, Zack. Just let Tifa go, alright?"

The raven-haired man raised his eyebrows in surprise. So this girl was Tifa? She'd matured quite a bit… "So this girl is the same one from Nibelheim? The one you were so hung up over?"

Cloud nodded.

Zack laughed. "I guess I can't blame you. She is a very beautiful girl."

The blond-haired man's frown deepened. "Let her go, Zack."

"What? Jealous?" his somewhat-former friend asked.

"Let her go!" Cloud hollered, his sword now in his hands.

Obediently, Zack lay Tifa down on the floor, her wrists bound behind her back. "Happy now?" he asked, a slightly unnerving grin on his face.

"You still haven't let her go, Zack. What the hell do you want?"

"It's not about what I want, it's about what the Master wants."

"Damn it, quit playing games! Just tell me what you want and let Tifa go!"

Zack frowned. "You really do like her, huh?"

Cloud only stared at him, murder in his eyes.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You have such a one-track mind."

His patience at an end, Cloud muttered a spell. "Ice."

Seeing this, Zack quickly jumped out of the way. "Watch it, man! You might hit me!"

"That's the idea," Cloud muttered, uttering yet another spell, trying to get him as far away from Tifa as possible.

"So you want to fight?"

Cloud didn't answer.

Taking his new opponent's silence for a yes, Zack charged towards Cloud who swiftly dodged the attack.

"You've gotten better," the black-haired man commented.

Cloud continued to say nothing, his worry for his girlfriend's safety growing with each minute.

After a few minutes of Zack's aggressive attacks and Cloud's continuing to just dodge said attacks, a lone figure appeared above them, his long silver hair swaying in the still air as he bent to take the still-unconscious Tifa into his arms. Turning, he started to disappear back into the darkness with her when Cloud looked up.

"Sephiroth!" he yelled, running towards him. "What do you think you're doing?"

Sephiroth smiled. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm taking her with me."

"No! Damn you, let her go!" Cloud shouted, desperation and worry creeping into his voice.

"I don't think so," the silver-haired man replied.

Zack turned also. "Master? What are you doing with her? I thought you said we were only going to use her as bait…"

His master turned to look at him with an unrepentant smirk on his face. "I lied."

The dark-haired man's eyes widened. "What…? But…"

"You do not need to know. Just finish him for me."

Clenching his fists, Zack nodded. Turning to face Cloud, he said quietly, "Sorry about that, man. But orders are orders, so."

Cloud turned to look at him with burning animosity and unhidden disgust. "I need to go. I need to get her back."

Zack shook his head. "If you want to get her back, you'll have to beat me first."

"Damn you," Cloud muttered furiously, his Ultima Weapon now raised and poised to strike. "I will beat you. I must."

"You can try."

Later…

The sound of swords clashing and bodies crashing to the floor echoed through the cavern. Both men were tired, sweaty, and dirty, but their will only grew stronger with each passing moment. For Cloud, his overwhelming need to save and protect Tifa, and for Zack, his determination to follow Sephiroth's orders.

"Why, Zack? Why are you with Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.

"Because he brought me back to life." Zack replied.

"But what would you want to come back for?"

"Something important…or, should I say, someone."

"What? You mean that girl?"

"Yeah. Aeris."

"But she's dead."

"Yeah. The Master promised to bring her back if I helped him."

"You fool! Sephiroth never makes good on his promises!"

"I'd rather take that chance than go on without her!"

"Sephiroth's the one who killed her!"

That stopped Zack cold. "What?"

"Sephiroth's the one who killed her." Cloud repeated. "In the City of the Ancients."

"You're lying!" he screamed, once again clashing swords with Cloud.

"It's the truth! Why won't you believe me!"

"No, you're lying! The Master promised he'd bring her back for me! That's all that matters!"

"You're a selfish idiot!"

"I don't care! You're not getting through me!"

"I don't have time for this! I need to go get Tifa back!"

"Not before you beat me!" Zack shouted hysterically, the tip of his blade coming into contact with Cloud's left arm, making blood fly everywhere.

"Then I'll finish this right here!" Cloud screamed, ignoring the pain in his arm and jumping forward, performing Omnislash, effectively disarming and severely injuring Zack.

Falling to the ground in a heap, Zack smiled. "You've gotten good. Really good," he said, the blood flowing out from his wounds making a pool around him.

"I'm sorry, Zack. I had to…"

"It's alright, I know. Now go get your girlfriend."

"But - "

"Go, Cloud." It was Reeve. "We'll take care of him."

Cloud nodded and immediately rushed off in search of Tifa.

"We should split up," Yuffie said. "Spiky probably won't be able to handle Sephiroth alone – especially in his state."

"You're right," Vincent said. "Who's going to go with us?"

Cid and Barret volunteered to go with Yuffie and Vincent while Reeve and Red XIII decided to stay with Zack.

"Alright, then, let's go."

And they were off.

Elsewhere…

Tifa slowly opened her eyes and looked around her at the unfamiliar room. "Where…am I?"

"You're home," a man informed her.

"Home…Dad?"

"Yes."

She smiled. "I'm so glad…"

a/n: Okie…that's it for chapter 11! Sorry for taking so long to update, I was busy with school stuff. You know how it is…Anyway, r&r…please? Thank you!