Author's Note – Although I haven't played the latest FF7 game, Crisis Core, I've watched a bunch of videos on Youtube and I've read the translated game script. It's fascinating to know what went on before the Nibelheim incident, even though Cloud had a small part up until the end. Crisis Core fills in all the gaps we didn't see in the original FF7 game. In a FF forum, I read complaints about Zack Fair dying at the end of Crisis Core, that it should have ended differently. But that's how the story goes. Square-Enix can't change it now. It's a very sad ending. For anyone who hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it. Go to Youtube and do a search on Crisis Core. It's the video that's over 9 minutes long and in Japanese. I haven't seen a translated video yet, but again, I've read the game script, so I know what Cloud and Zack say to each other…and get out the box of tissues cuz you'll need them.

Chapter 12 – Disarray

The tunnel Tifa mentioned ended up being a labyrinth of different-sized caves. It reminded me of the time in the Northern Crater, with all the different paths and caves we went through while searching for Sephiroth. She said she and her friends had only been in the very first cave one night and were too afraid to venture any further, so she could never have known how deep into the mountain this went, or if there was even another way out.

I dug my phone out of my pocket to check the time. 5:30. We had been wandering around for over six hours, looking for a way out besides the way we came in. Luckily I had the good sense to mark the paths we had already taken so we weren't going around in circles. There just didn't seem to be an end in sight.

Tifa was shivering and clinging to me for body heat. It was cold. If I had known we were going to be driving around, I would have told Tifa to grab a jacket and not left her in just her tank top. But the plan had been to get in the chopper when Reno arrived, so jackets wouldn't have been necessary. So much for that plan.

"Cloud, can we stop, please? I gotta go."

"Hold it for just another minute, I'm gonna take us back to the cave with the water. At least we'll have something to drink." I glanced up at the scattered holes in the ceiling of the tunnel. Most of the caves we had searched had similar holes. When it was still light out, some of it had actually found its way into the caves. But it was dark now and the only light came from Fenrir's headlamp.

I carefully drove around a cropping of stalagmites and headed back into the cave I had already marked as having no exit. After I pulled to a stop, Tifa immediately dismounted and ran off behind some rocks in the glare of the headlamp.

I dismounted and walked to a corner to take care of my own business. Then I walked around and gathered small pieces of wood lying around. When Tifa came out from behind the rocks, I pointed to the ground around her feet. "Grab that wood over there."

A few minutes later we had a large pile of wood.

I picked up my Dragon Claw and inserted a Fire materia into one of the slots. With a flick of my hand, the pile of wood began to burn.

Tifa sat down on a large rock near the fire and held her hands up to the flames to warm herself. She looked alittle distressed, which was understandable, given the trouble we were in. "Cloud, I'm sorry for bringing us in here."

I shrugged. "It's not your fault, Tifa. Besides, it's better in here than out there." I went to retrieve my heat-radiating blanket. It was only going to get colder as the night wore on. Then I remembered my duffle bag and pulled one of my sweatshirts out. "Here, put this on."

Tifa took the sweatshirt and slipped it on over her tank top. Then she moved over to make room for me.

I sat down next to her on the rock and threw the blanket around us.

She rested her head on my shoulder. "Do you think they'll do something to the school?"

I knew what she was thinking, that they might hurt everyone, including her friends. "I don't think so." I really didn't know because I didn't know who was behind all of this. Who was the enemy? What were they capable of doing? Would they torch the school and everyone in it? I hoped not. It was all so confusing. The death threats. The warning shot in Rocket Town. The stolen Shinra helicopter. They were going to a lot of trouble to get Tifa. Whoever was after Rufus Shinra wanted more than to see him dead. What did they want from him? They could have easily killed him in Rocket Town with one shot. I was really afraid for Tifa. There was no telling what they'd do to her to get whatever they wanted out of Shinra.

Tifa wrapped her arms around me and I held the blanket tighter around us.

We sat together in silence like this for awhile. I couldn't tell how much time was actually passing. She seemed lost in her own thoughts so I didn't want to bother her with mine.

"Whatever happened to Zack Fair?" she suddenly asked out of the blue.

I sighed, remembering Tifa had met Zack when I went to Nibelheim with him and Seph five years ago to check on the reactor. Apparently she didn't hear the news of his death. It was never published in the papers because it was covered up by Rufus's father. It would have been bad publicity if people knew he had been involved in the killing of a SOLDIER hero. "He was killed last year by Shinra guards, just outside of Midgar. That's when Rufus's father was still in charge. Besides you, Zack was the only real friend I ever had. He believed in me." The memory of Zack's gruesome death was still painful to remember. "He inspired me to be the best that I can be." I detached myself from her to tend to the fire, tossing in more pieces of wood.

After a few more minutes of silence, she spoke again. "Why do you do it?"

I looked at the wood in my hands. I was pretty certain she didn't mean why I was throwing it in the fire. "Do what?"

"Why do you put up with me?"

Oh, that. Hm…what was the appropriate response to that loaded question? "Because I care about you."

She looked down. "I thought you forgot about me."

Now was probably as good a time as any to tell her. It's not like there was anything better to do. I was just going to tell her the truth without sugar-coating it. "The truth is, Tifa, I did forget for awhile. In the reactor in Nibelheim, before I killed him, Sephiroth ran his Masamune through my chest. I should have been dead. A man named Hojo, who worked for Rufus's father at the time, had me and Zack brought back to the Shinra mansion. I only remember bits and pieces of what happened because I was in a coma most of the time. But the parts I do remember, I wish I could forget. I remember a lot of pain…Mako showers and injections…It went on for over four years. I'm pretty sure it was Hojo's doing to send that letter back to you, saying I was dead. It was to cover up what he was doing and cut all ties connected to me."

Tifa wrapped her arms around my chest and leaned her head on my shoulder again.

"Zack managed to get out of his Mako containment and got me out, too. But I was so out of it I couldn't even help him fight the guards chasing us. We almost made it to Midgar when the Shinra guards caught up. I didn't see it, but I could hear Zack fighting. There were just too many of them. When it was over, I crawled to him and he died right there in front of me, right after he handed me his Buster sword." I stared at the fire for awhile, recalling Zack's last words to me.

Continue living. You are proof that I existed. My dreams and my pride, I give it all to you.

"I was so confused after I left him lying there. I hardly remembered anything about my life before that and for awhile I thought I was a First Class SOLDIER, just like Zack. I joined AVALANCHE when I got to Midgar, because I hated everything about Shinra. They were responsible for Zack's death and everything that was wrong with me. Our goal was to destroy all the reactors in Midgar because they were draining the life energy from the planet. President Shinra came after us with everything he had. He purposely blew the pillars holding up Sector Seven and didn't give a rat's ass about all the people that were killed when the plate collapsed on top of them."

"So it was his fault," Tifa whispered to herself.

"We discovered Sephiroth was back when we found President Shinra speared with a Masamune in his office at Shinra headquarters. Hell, I guess Seph did us a favor back then by killing the man."

"So you had to kill Sephiroth again?" she asked.

"We chased after him from one end of the world to the other until we caught up to him at the Northern Crater. It was during that time I rediscovered a lot of things about my past. But not everything." I decided to save Sephiroth's third resurrection story for another time. "I guess all that's happened just left me feeling pretty bitter."

"I don't blame you for being pessimistic, Cloud. Look at what you've been through." Tifa pulled back so we were face to face. "Were the memories of me so bad that you blocked them out?"

"I have no bad memories of you, Tifa."

She smiled. "Liar."

I found myself smiling back. "Alright, so maybe there were a few times I wanted to push you off a pier, or down a cliff, or in front of a bus..."

Her smile faded. "Okay, I get it."

I laughed briefly. "I'm kidding. It took seeing you again for me to remember everything about us."

Tifa frowned and looked down. "When I saw you in the papers for the first time a couple months ago, I wasn't sure if it was even you. They had pictures of someone fighting a monster as big as a building. The story identified the person as Cloud Strife. I wondered if there could be two people with the same name." She shrugged and continued to look down. "But then the papers started publishing close up pictures and even though I didn't want to believe it, I knew it was you. All this time I thought you just didn't want to be friends anymore."

"I'm sorry, Tifa."

"No, Cloud. I'm the one who's sorry. I feel like such a jerk. Here I was thinking bad about you for months, not knowing the terrible things you had gone through all those years."

"Why don't we just start over?" I pulled her into a hug underneath the blanket and squeezed her tightly. "This is what I should have done when I saw you in Redgrave's office that first day."

She let me hold her for a few minutes before she drew back a little.

When she moved to sit sideways on my lap, I wondered if it was because she wanted to purposely get closer or because her butt was getting cold sitting on the rock.

She nudged my nose with hers. "This is what I should have done when I saw you." She gave me several soft kisses on the lips.

I was afraid to react because I wasn't sure what she was trying to do. And I certainly didn't want to get all hot and bothered if she was just messing with me again. A guy could only handle so much rejection from the same girl. I had my pride to consider.

"I wasn't sure if you were the same Cloud I knew in Nibelheim. You were different. I didn't trust you." She kissed me again.

I pulled back to look at her. "And now?"

Her cheeks turned a little pink. "I love you, Cloud. It's always been you."

I couldn't believe my ears. She said it. She actually said it. I closed my eyes and leaned against her forehead, not trusting that I wouldn't burst into tears in front of her. There was so much I wanted to tell her, so many feelings I wanted to share…I felt like a love struck teenager. Damn, this was not a good feeling…or, maybe it was alittle. "I love you, too, Tifa." The words came out of my mouth like it didn't belong to me. Since when did I become such a sap? I couldn't help it. My arms were full of Tifa. I'd promise her anything if she asked me.

"I know."

I pulled back to look at her. "Whatta you mean you know?"

She giggled and kissed me with an open mouth without giving me an answer.

I forgot the question anyway by the time our lips touched. It was tongues and teeth and saliva. Dammit, I loved making out with her. She had a way of sucking on my lower lip that shot electric currents down to my groin. My raging hormones begged for more. But I behaved myself, which was quite a surprise and an accomplishment.

When Tifa started getting sleepy, we laid down on the ground and I folded us in the blanket. She rolled on her side, facing me and I scooted close against her to maintain the body heat between us. She used my arm as a pillow.

As I laid there next to her, watching her sleep, I thought about the future…the immediate future. Where would she be safe? Not at the Seventh Heaven. The bad guys would think that'd be the first place I'd go. It would have to be Healin, where Rufus was staying.

I pressed my face against hers and closed my eyes. No matter where she went, I planned to go with her.

In the morning, the cave was bathed in spots of sunlight. I almost would have thought it was magical if Tifa and I weren't in our current predicament. It was cold, we had no food and there were people out there looking to kidnap her and kill me.

When Tifa started brushing her teeth next to the pool of water in the middle of the cave, I impatiently rolled my eyes as I sat on Fenrir, ready to go. "Tifa, come on."

She held up a finger, telling me to wait.

My cellphone rang and it echoed loudly in the cave. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the display. Aeris. Oh, shit, I forgot to call her back yesterday. I quickly answered it. "Hello?"

"Cloud, is everything all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine." I didn't want her to worry so I decided I wasn't going to tell her anything.

"Did you get my message yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Well, why didn't you call me?"

"Sorry, I forgot."

"Did you read the paper?"

"Yes, I read it."

"What're you going to do?"

"I took Tifa out of school and we're headed for…Bone Village, yeah." I hated lying to her, especially when we were headed to the Forgotten Capital, the city of her ancestors. But if she knew the truth, she'd try to do something to help and I didn't want her to get involved in any of this. I just hoped her boyfriend kept his mouth shut about everything that happened.

"Is that where Reno's picking you up?"

So Reno did say something to her. I wasn't sure how much though. "That's the plan."

Tifa finished brushing her teeth and walked up to mount behind me.

"I'm worried about you, Cloud," said Aeris.

"I've been in worse situations before, Aeris. You know that."

"Just be careful, okay?"

"I will."

"Bye."

"Bye." I closed my phone and slipped it back in my pocket.

Tifa leaned in and kissed my cheek. "She's worried, isn't she?"

"Yeah, a little bit." I turned to look over my shoulder and Tifa planted a kiss on my lips. Damn, Tifa knew Aeris and I were living platonically together. Hell, everyone reading the newspapers knew about it because it was mentioned a thousand times before. It was the main reason the Seventh Heaven was always busy. People came to see if I was around. They wanted to meet the 'infallible Cloud Strife' as the newspapers often dubbed me. If Tifa ever found out me and Aeris had sex once, she'd kick my ever loving ass. I knew I'd have to tell her. The last thing I wanted was for her to hear it from someone else. "Ready to find a way out of here?"

She wrapped her arms around me. "Let's go."

I climbed up the side of the cliff and peered over the top, looking in the direction of the voices.

There were three of them, all in Turk suits. The one looked so much like Tseng, they could have been twins. A woman was also among them. I hadn't seen her earlier at the school, so she must have been the one flying the helicopter.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, so I scooted more to the right until I was out of their line of vision. After hopping up from the ledge, I snuck behind a cropping of rocks and crouched to listen.

"I'm telling you, if we get the dogs down there, we can have them within a few hours."

"They could have backtracked during the night."

"No way. The girl would have froze to death without a coat. He wouldn't risk it."

"Well, either they're heading for Bone Village or they're not coming out of the caves."

"Some of those caves contain hot springs. They could stay in there for a pretty long time."

"Yeah, but I doubt Strife had time to pick up any food before they left, much less have any room on his bike for it. And I don't think those caves have much in there to snack on."

"I say we head for Bone Village and be there when they arrive."

"The boss says he wants Lockhart by tomorrow. We gotta do something now."

"Like what?"

"How the hell should I know?"

I glanced up at the tail end of the helicopter, just above me. There was above six inches of space between the tail blade mechanism and the top of the rock I was hiding behind. If I could just reach it to lop off a couple of those screws…

I raised my head to look over the top of the rock. The three of them were near the front of the chopper. Two were facing the other way while the Tseng look-alike was pacing back and forth. He took three steps away and then three steps back. I unsheathed Apocalypse and waited until he moved away before I reached the tip of my sword up to pop one of the screws. I pulled the sword back down when he was taking his three steps back.

I repeated this four more times. Five out of six screws would do the trick.

"Let's just get in the helicopter and go!"

I snuck back to the ledge and crawled over the side. After three good jumps, I was back on the ground. The sound of the helicopter blades starting reached me. I ran for the narrow cave opening where I left Tifa.

It had taken us three hours this morning to finally find this exit. But luckily I had the good sense to look around before we headed out. Otherwise they would have heard us and the chase would have been on again.

Tifa finally listened to me for a change and stayed seated on Fenrir like I told her. "Did you see anything?" she asked.

I mounted up. "Yeah, they're right above us. I got close enough to hear them but they didn't say much. I was hoping they'd say a name. No luck." I didn't tell her that they had plans to get her by tomorrow. Not if I could help it.

"Couldn't you use your Fire spell on their helicopter?"

"That's not gonna do anything." If I had my Ifrit Summon, the helicopter, the three goons up there and half the mountain would see some serious Hellfire. Fuck, I couldn't believe I was that stupid to leave it back at the school.

The thumping sounds of the helicopter blades echoed into the cave as it flew overhead.

Fenrir was well hidden on the side of the cave opening, but I could still see what was going on outside.

As the helicopter hovered for several minutes, I unsheathed Apocalypse and popped it into battle mode. "Get ready," I said over my shoulder.

"Ready for what?"

"You'll see."

"Cloud, we can't just…"

"Wait for it."

Suddenly there was a loud rattling sound as the rear propeller came loose from its carriage and flew twenty feet away. The helicopter went into a sudden uncontrollable spin and the tail section struck a tree. The rest of it dropped from the air and crashed on the ground.

"Time to go." I started Fenrir and kicked up the brake.

After spinning the rear tire, we shot out of the cave like a rocket.

Sparks were flying all around the helicopter and I could hear its occupants yelling as we flew passed them.

I glanced in the left mirror and saw the helicopter door fall off its hinges. The three Turk imposters jumped out and ran just before the helicopter turned into a fireball.

"Woohoo!" yelled Tifa as she happily drummed her hands on my shoulders and then hugged me around my neck.

The trees soon became scarce and I headed us in an eastern direction.

Please review. Thanks. By the way, next chapter is 13, the bad luck number. What bad luck could possibly befall Cloud? Hm, wait and see!! (quickly runs out of the room)