Cloud stood outside the bar with a bag full of supplies, watching the moon fade in and out of sight as clouds rolled across the night sky.

He felt extraordinarily guilty when he got the call from Tifa—he'd forgotten his own sadness could affect her so much, and he probably should've told her a long time ago about his strange connection with Aerith. Just another thing to add to his list of screw-ups. One way or another, I'm going to fix this today.

Cloud would have been happy leaving immediately—the sooner they got this show on the road, the better—but both women had told him on the phone that there would be hell to pay if he wasn't still at Seventh Heaven when they got back. And so he filled a duffel bag with a few extra sets of clothes, with the optimistic assumption that Zack would be taking a pair, and got Terra saddled up and ready to travel. He could wait another ten minutes for Tifa and Yuffie to get back, but he wasn't about to wait for an airship. Not when his friend's life was on the line, not when he had such a large debt to repay.

I've waited eight years for this…I'm not going to wait any longer now that there's a chance of finally getting him back.

That's what it came down to, really. Cloud had just barely managed to hold it together when Zack collapsed, but after he'd shown them the scars, and after the initial shock wore off…he couldn't say he was surprised at the state of him. Gaia, everything they'd concluded about what must have happened to the other man—all of the pieces fell into place. No one held on to their sense of self as strongly as Zack did. Forcing Cloud's own indecisive identity (and his Sephiroth-like resistance to death) onto him was probably the only way Hojo could get him to succumb to the mako.

If he was being honest with himself, Aerith's plan had occurred to him already—that sort of dangerous measure was the only reason he was still alive. But he knew Tifa wouldn't have let him go, with the chances of either of them coming back again so slim. Gaia bless her, Aerith could be very persuasive sometimes, and knowing she would at least make sure he made it back was enough for Tifa to be on board with the idea. Cloud was going to do whatever it took to save his friend.

The last few weeks had been undeniably hard, on everyone. Cloud had tried to remain hopeful at first, for the others' sake as much as his own. Tifa had distracted him from Zack's illness by giving him a lot of the housework, and Yuffie's own antics had kept everyone occupied for a while—but this sort of waiting-and-watching was just not something he could keep up, and he had been more on the edge of despair with each passing day. He had a newfound appreciation for everything Tifa had done for him—she'd managed to keep this up for a lot longer than he could, without anyone else's support, and she hadn't had any idea what to do to help him get better. Tifa had never told him how it felt, to be so powerless in the face of someone else's suffering but stay with them all the same. If her pain had been anything like his was now…he could save the world a thousand times and still not make it up to her.

Cloud went to where Zack was laying on the ground, and got him into a sort of sitting position near the base of Terra's neck. It'd be hard, riding double and having to be in control from the back, but it was the only position he could think of without risking having Zack fall into the ocean. He put the pieces of First Tsurugi in their harnesses just in case they ran into trouble, and strapped it and the duffel to his back. A few more minutes passed before he heard the telltale roar of Fenrir's engine.

"Tifa's a much better driver than you, Cloud," Yuffie said lightly, hopping off. "I don't feel sick at all."

The blond shrugged. "That's your opinion. I bet Zack will think I'm an awesome driver," he said, trying to keep his tone light. He needed to believe this would work, even if it wasn't a sure bet.

Tifa smiled, but even Cloud could tell it was a front. Gaia knew how much it would hurt her, hurt them all, if he failed this time. Her smile gave way to an expression of concern. "Yeah, he probably will. Are you sure you want to go alone?"

He nodded. "I don't know how long this will take, and you need to keep the bar running and watch the kids. And…like Aerith said, there's not much either of you could do once we're actually in the Lifestream. I just gotta hold it together for Zack long enough to fix this."

"Hey," Tifa said, pulling him in for a much-needed hug (another thing he'd come to appreciate more in the past few weeks). "I believe in you. You can do this."

Yuffie butted in, making it a sort-of-awkward group hug. "You better let us know as soon as you get there," she said, looking up at him. "And as soon as you get out, and if you want to get picked up—"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, ruffling her hair as she scowled. "I'll call."

They broke the hug, and Cloud got on Terra's back behind his friend and headed out towards the sea.

With little else to think about, Cloud started to feel like he was marching off to battle. He embraced it—those sorts of nerves were familiar territory. The last time he'd traveled to the city with such a feeling of purpose, it was to save Aerith. Well, that had gone to shit, but she had forgiven him, and he knew it wasn't his fault. Zack's fate had been inextricably tied to his ever since Nibelheim, and now he was going to the city again to save him. And Goddess be damned, he was going to succeed this time. He had to.

Cloud let the feeling of determination settle over him as they reached the ocean shore, and moonlight reflected off of the water in a way that made it look like glass. They traveled due north as quickly as possible, and as the air cooled with the latitude, the sky started to brighten.

For someone who'd spent so much time breeding chocobos, Cloud could never really comprehend how the golds managed to run over the water so gracefully. Cid had thought it was funny, that he'd named an ocean chocobo after the earth, but Cloud had justified it pretty well. Terra could walk the whole earth, not just parts of it. And the Knights of the Round materia they'd nicked from that obscure island had been more than worth the effort.

Terra seemed to be sensing his appreciative thoughts, because she gave him a happy kweh as the Northern Continent came up on the horizon. Cloud used his free hand to ruffle his friend's hair, as the rising sun shone washed everything in shades of red and gold. "We're almost there, Zack."

He felt a sense of longing grow inside him as they passed Bone Village and rode through the forest. This is where he'd met Aerith, more than once, when he'd been in need.

He could see the City of the Ancients in the distance as they closed in. Back during Meteorfall, the cries of the planet itself could be heard in this canyon, eerie and mournful. The monsters in this area had retreated, and humanity had accepted that mako power was too dangerous to keep using. A deep feeling of peace washed over him, and he knew it wasn't just the spiritual energy of this place.

Entering the city, Cloud dismounted Terra and rearranged his gear. He kept First Tsurugi closest to his back, layered the duffel over that, and finally Zack, his legs hooked through his arms like a very large hiking bag. Cloud hadn't brought a guide rope for the chocobo—she wouldn't wander off too far, and she needed to be able to find greens to eat while they were away.

"Warkwark?" the bird cooed, as Cloud moved to leave.

"Yeah, wark," he replied, stroking the feathers around the base of the chocobo's neck as best as he could around Zack's leg. "See you soon, Terra."

He couldn't get his phone to his ear without dropping Zack, so he settled for sending Tifa a text as he made his way farther into the ruins. Made it here. I'm still okay. Zack's really heavy though.

Aerith had yet to make an appearance, so he made his way to the pool where he'd let her body come to rest…a part of him felt like it was probably the right place to go.

Sure enough, a blurry vision of her was waiting for him when he reached the clearing in the trees. She gave him her signature sweet smile. "You made it," she said, although he had the distinct feeling her words were only audible in his own mind. "Are you ready?"

"Ready for what, exactly?" he asked, setting all of his things down on the ground before picking Zack back up. The place was deserted, no one would take them.

"Well…if you come to the center of the pool here…"

He followed her out, to close to the exact spot that he'd let her body come to rest. He couldn't help but feel like things had gone full circle, now that he would sort of be doing the opposite.

"The Lifestream is very weak here," Aerith said. "It's much safer for you this way, but it also means you can't get in on your own…I'm going to put you both to sleep, okay?"

"What...what do I do once we're in?" The nerves had finally shown up in full force—Cloud could feel his heart rate increase and his palms get sweaty.

"Trust me," she answered, in a way that eased some of the tension. "You'll know what to do." And with that, she gave Zack's comatose form a light kiss on the cheek, then turned to do the same for Cloud. Slowly and then all at once, the physical world faded away.

The frustrated owner of Seventh Heaven put her hands to her temples. "You called Reno? Why?"

Yuffie shook her head and sighed. "Because you need a distraction," she said. "He can be pretty distracting. And he says you still owe him and the others drinks."

"Damn straight, yo," said a voice at the door. The redhead in question sauntered through the door with a smirk, followed closely by Elena, Rude, and Tseng.

"Uh…hi," Tifa said, reining in her negative feelings. "Not to be rude…but who told you I owed you drinks?"

"The big chocobo himself, yo," Reno responded. "And Yuffers here said that you guys would appreciate some extra company right now."

"Where's Rufus?"

Tseng waved off her question. "He'll be fine. He said he'd appreciate some alone time, which I took to mean he wanted to sic Reno on both of you for the day."

Tifa resisted the urge to rub her temples. It wasn't that she still held a grudge against the Turks for what went down during Meteorfall—on the contrary, they were usually on somewhat friendly terms now. It was just that…Reno was annoying. She knew Cloud appreciated his particular brand of snarky humor, but that didn't mean she had to. "Alright," she said in resignation, "What'll it be?"

The next few hours were…surprisingly pleasant. Reno made a lot of jokes at Yuffie's expense, mostly surrounding their joint encounter with Don Corneo, and she retaliated by unleashing her full arsenal of creative insults on him. Rude hilariously sided with Yuffie, and Tifa added in her own stories. She hadn't forgotten the time the two Turks were gossiping like children outside Gongaga, and she wasn't going to let Reno forget it either.

Thankfully, they kept the conversation clean and didn't get more than a little buzzed, because all four Turks were still at the bar when the kids came home from school.

"Tifa, guess what?" Denzel said, dragging in what looked like a very large bag.

"Did your game win the contest?" Yuffie asked excitedly.

"Yeah! The judges really liked the art on the cards!"

Reno gave the bag a pointed look. "What's in the bag, yo?"

Denzel gave him a suspicious glare, but Marlene answered without hesitation. "Lots and lots of candy!"

The Turk's eyes widened at the mention of candy. "No way…"

Denzel's face lit up with a sly grin. "If you want any of the candy, you're gonna have to beat me at cards."

"You're on, yo."

Tifa couldn't help but feel immensely proud as Denzel wiped the floor with Reno for every round of Triple Triad they played. The Turk insisted that he was only letting the boy win, but his greatest blunder each hand was that he couldn't resist using the Reno card every chance he had—and that card didn't have particularly good numbers.

Marlene and Rude had taken some of the deck and were playing a game of their own, and Yuffie had to leave before it got too late to cover the most urgent deliveries, leaving Tifa at one of the corner tables with Elena and Tseng.

The brunette had always appreciated Elena—she did her job and she did it well, but she didn't let it take over her life and she didn't let the criticism of others bring her down. Tifa really liked that sort of attitude. Above all, the blonde was usually kind and understanding to them in a way that most of the other people affiliated with former ShinRa just weren't.

"In all honesty, Tifa," she said after the three of them had a few drinks, "how have you been holding up?"

"It's been…hard, I'll admit," she responded. "I mean, I've been through this once already with Cloud. But he's never been on this side of it."

"What is he doing up north right now?" Tseng asked.

Tifa had hoped this wouldn't come up. Turks were Turks, and she could never be sure that Rufus wouldn't find some way to use this information against them…but if he wanted to know, he'd get the information somehow. Might as well tell the truth. "He's gonna see if he can get inside Zack's mind, like I did…through the Lifestream."

Elena gave a small gasp, and her eyes widened in concern. "Isn't that especially dangerous, though? For him?"

"Yes, but…we've got a friend helping us. He'll get back out again. Zack, I'm not so sure," she said, taking another sip of her drink. "It's all up to Cloud now."

Tseng nodded thoughtfully, seeming to understand what she meant. "Hopefully…he can succeed where we failed."

Wait…what? "Come again?"

After drinking a rather large sip from his cocktail, Tseng related to her the Turks' own stake in the ambush on the cliff. It was hard to tell with him, but Tifa could sense that he felt…guilty. She tried to be understanding, but she didn't know him well enough to know how to react. Thankfully, Elena changed the subject quickly.

Eventually, the bar opened for regular business, although the Turks still hung around. Tifa made burgers and chips for everyone, and most of her regular patrons were fairly entertained by Reno's antics. I could hire him to just sit around, maybe get some more business. If I could put up with him on a regular basis, that is.

Just as the sun was setting, Yuffie returned. "Any news, Tifa?" she asked.

"Not yet," the barmaid responded, mixing margaritas for a couple sitting at the end of the bar. "It's been all day…I'm getting really worried."

"If you're that anxious, yo, just send him a text," Reno said over his whiskey. "It'll make ya feel better if nothin' else."

Tifa nodded and pulled out her phone, trying to think of what to say, eventually just setting on please call. It's not like Cloud would need to know what she meant. I sure hope he's alright…

Cloud opened his eyes, but everything around him was black.

He was drifting through a sort of thick nothingness…was this the Lifestream? Or…where was he? It was all very confusing.

Suddenly, a thought bombarded him from all sides, one that he identified as distinctly foreign. Who…are you? And…who am I?

"Zack, is that you? Where are you?"

No…I can't be. That's not right. You…you know what this is, don't you? You attacked me!

"No, I would never do that! Gaia…I didn't know it was you! You didn't know it was you! I could never hurt you…"

Okay, I guess…but still…who am I?

Cloud had no idea what he was doing. He could hardly remember what happened when Tifa saved him—he remembered feeling very confused, and having to question a lot of things—hold on, that gave him an idea. "…Who do you think you are?"

Ha, I guess I haven't really thought about it too much. Um…I was in SOLDIER, right? No…no I wasn't. I tried to get in, but I failed, and then a lot of bad things happened…I let a lot of people down…

"That wasn't you, you never let anyone down! That was me."

Are you sure? That seems pretty…me to me. Wait…who are you again?

"…I'm your best friend, remember?"

I don't have a best friend anymore….I'm not worth it, I'm just a weapon. I couldn't save any of them, I failed…

Cloud took a deep breath. Or, a deep something. He supposed he wasn't really in any physical place with physical air to breathe. "I want to help you, but I can't see anything."

I'll see what I can do.

The black nothingness swirled all around Cloud, and he felt like he was being flushed down a drain. A metaphysical drain.

He suddenly found himself in what he guessed was Zack's subconscious. It was overwhelmingly green, which he'd expected, and...wait a minute. "Zack?! Where are you?"

The image of his friend appeared somewhere above him, holding his head and screaming silently. A single door appeared in front of him, and something that looked like the floor of the old Sector 5 reactor materialized under him.

Walking through the door, Cloud found himself in Wutai. Or a vision of it, anyway. He saw a younger Zack and Angeal standing outside what he recognized as Fort Tamblin, and another Zack suddenly appeared next to him.

Cloud hesitantly reached out to touch his arm, unsure of how to act around the mental manifestation of someone's soul. "Do you know who that is?" he asked.

"Yeah…the younger one is…me, right? He looks like me, anyway. My name was..."

In the memory, Angeal said, "Use brings about wear, tear, and rust. And that's a real waste." He'd be pretty mad if he could see the Buster Sword now…

The Zack next to him furrowed his brow in concentration. "I remember…he used to call me 'puppy.' But that's definitely not my name, right? Please tell me that's not my name."

Cloud laughed a little, and was then relieved when the sight of past-Zack leaping over the brush caused current-Zack to have a sort of epiphany.

"So…okay, I believe you. My name is Zack, I remember now. But…" he turned to Cloud, "…where is this, then? When is this? Who are you, anyway?"

Both men simultaneously scratched the backs of their heads, and then looked at each other awkwardly. Cloud cleared his throat. "Well…this is Fort Tamblin, so this must have been towards the end of the Wutai war, about…wow, about a decade ago."

Zack gave him a searching look, taking note of how he conveniently ignored the last part of the question. Past-Zack made his way through the front gates, and they followed him. A little girl Cloud recognized ran out to confront him.

"Wait…I've seen her before," Zack said next to him. "And…not like that. More recently."

Cloud nodded. "That's good—I know that definitely happened, so that means you're remembering something. Who is she, though?"

"She's…very confident, is what it looks like," the older man said, watching his younger self's encounter with nine-year-old Yuffie. "Why did I pretend to lose?"

"Because you're a cool guy like that, Zack. But seriously, do you remember her name?"

"I think it was…Yuffie, right?" he answered, and Cloud nodded excitedly. "Wait, you know her too?"

"Yeah, I know her pretty well," he said truthfully. Should I be telling him this? Is it gonna mess things up? "She's grown up a lot since then, but…she's still got that confident attitude."

"Didn't she try to steal my stuff at one point?"

"Probably," Cloud replied, snickering. "I wouldn't know for sure, but we can ask her soon, alright?" Gaia, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

Zack made a move to follow his younger self inside the fort, and Cloud trailed close behind. They watched him fight the monsters inside, and then watched past-Zack get thrown against the wall. "Wow, that was stupid of me," he said.

"You got smarter…eventually."

Angeal followed in, and current-Zack's face lit up in recognition when he saw the older man fight with the Buster Sword.

"You're a little more important than my sword," Angeal said. "But just a little." And then the memory faded, he was back in the Sector 5 reactor. Cloud was pleased to note that dream-Zack had followed him out. That's gotta mean something.

"That—that was my sword!" he said excitedly, putting his arms up as if he wasn't sure what to do with them. "But wait…why would I be in charge of something like that if I never made SOLDIER?"

"Because you did make SOLDIER," Cloud answered patiently. "I think you were even second in command at one point."

"Wow…I was pretty far off, then," Zack said, looking sheepish. "Then who was I thinking of?"

What do I say? "I…think you need to find that answer for yourself." Zack pouted at him, but Cloud didn't budge. "I'm serious, these are your memories we're sorting through."

Several doors suddenly appeared around them, and Zack debated for a moment before picking one. The blond let him go in first, and they suddenly found themselves just outside Gongaga.

Past-Zack conveniently identified the place as his hometown, and it didn't seem to surprise current-Zack at all. "Yeah, I remember my parents being from there," he said. "I…haven't seen them in a while, I think."

A woman Cloud didn't recognize showed up and started talking to a very tense-looking Zack. "Couldn't you guess your hometown would be...the first place we'd look?"

"And…yeah, her name was Cissnei. She was…a Turk, right?" Zack said, looking to Cloud for confirmation.

"I actually don't know who she is," he replied, "but she looks like a Turk."

"That was you in the sidecar, yeah?" Zack asked him, and Cloud nodded. "Why were you asleep? And why were Turks looking for us?"

"I wasn't asleep," he said darkly, unsure how much more to say.

Past-Zack turned away from Cissnei. "I think he may have helped us…escape ShinRa manor." Then the memory faded, and they were back in the old reactor once more.

"Why'd we have to escape from somewhere?" Zack asked him, and he took note of the way Cloud's face hardened. "Did…did something bad happen there?"

"You need—"

"—to find out the answer for myself. Yeah, yeah. Let's pick a different door."

Zack found himself drawn to one that gave Cloud an overwhelming sense of dread. "Hey, let's try this one out," he said, frowning when he saw the blond's reaction. "Come on. It's just a memory, right?"

Calm down, Strife. It'll be fine. The sight beyond the door disproved that thought immediately, because it definitely wasn't a part of Zack's memories.

There was the deep hole where the Temple of the Ancients once stood, and Cloud saw himself holding a materia he never wanted to lay eyes on again.

"Whoa, I'm not even in this one," Zack said beside him. "But…that silver-haired dude, his name is Sephiroth. I think we used to work together. Who's that girl, though?" Cloud didn't answer, suddenly realizing something about the full scope of Zack's amnesia. If Hojo gave him cells of mine from while I was out…some of my memories while under Sephiroth's influence will be in here, and we'll probably have to see all of them… "Hey, are you okay?" the other man asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I won't let you do it! The future is not just yours!" Aerith shouted from below, and Sephiroth just laughed, a sound that still haunted some of Cloud's nightmares.

"Ha, ha, ha…I wonder?"

Despite how much it hurt to watch, the scene was still just a memory. Cloud only felt the ghost of Jenova's control as his past self convulsed in pain. The image faded in and out as past-Cloud lost consciousness, and Zack's eyes widened in worry and shock. "This…this one's your memory, isn't it?"

I need to be strong, or we're not going to make it back out of here. Cloud didn't look at him, but Zack seemed to understand. "Sephiroth…he was using you as…a puppet," he said with some certainty. "I think someone was using me as a puppet, too…but why is your memory in my head?"

Past-Aerith knelt down on the ground. "Cloud…be strong, okay? It's not your fault."

"Damn right, it's not his fault!" Zack exclaimed. Even when he's so lost, he's still trying to protect me. "…Whatever it was."

The memory faded, and both men found themselves back on the Sector 5 reactor floor another time. "So, do you wanna tell me why some of these memories aren't mine?" Zack asked him, crossing his arms.

"I…think you need to remember who I am first, before I can answer that," Cloud said. "Let's try another—"

He was interrupted as the floor gave way, and they found themselves falling into a very different reactor.

"What about MY sadness?! My family…friends? The sadness of having my hometown taken away from me!? It's the same as your sadness!"

"What…" Zack seemed confused at the memory before them. Hell, Cloud was, too. "Why…what did he do?"

"This…this is all wrong, Zack," Cloud said. "This isn't what happened. It's fake."

Sephiroth glared, holding Jenova's mutilated head. "I have orders to take the Planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What should I be sad about?"

"Hold the phone," Zack said, and the memory literally stopped. He's regaining control…? "I definitely remember Sephiroth saying something like that to me. Why am I not there, then?"

"Because…honestly, I'm not sure why this memory is here," Cloud answered, scratching the back of his head. "This is what I thought happened for a while…but I know the truth now. You should have the real memory in there somewhere, too. So try…try to remember…"

Zack screwed his eyes shut and balled his hands into fists. All at once, the scene changed again—the same reactor, but with Zack in Cloud's place. "Yes, yes!" the blond exclaimed. "You did it, this is the right one!"

The older man indulged himself in his first victory squat of the day, much to Cloud's delight. He's acting more and more like himself again. That has to be good.

They watched as Zack lost his battle with Sephiroth. After a few minutes, a helmeted trooper carried the Buster Sword and stabbed the silver-haired man through the back. "I had so much respect for you…I admired you…"

"That trooper had a lot of nerve, taking my sword and then trying to take it out on the General," Zack mused beside him. Seeing his younger self get nearly killed hadn't fazed him all that much, but Cloud knew he didn't prioritize his own safety very high. They wouldn't be here right now if he did.

"Well, he was pretty pissed off," Cloud answered, being careful not to give too much away and putting old feelings aside.

Zack gasped when the trooper took off his helmet. "Oh, that was you, Spike!" he said in wonderment. Cloud's face lit up at the familiar nickname, and Zack looked confused for a moment. "Wait, your name isn't actually Spike, is it?" he asked incredulously.

"No…but you did used to call me Spike a lot," Cloud answered. "You're remembering more and more."

Past-Cloud went back into the room with the pods and ran over to Tifa's bleeding body. "Hey…that girl, she was our tour guide, right?" Zack asked, and Cloud nodded. "Her name was Tifa…she kept asking me if there were any blond guys in SOLDIER."

Cloud blushed (she never told me about that) and Zack grinned and ruffled his hair, a familiar gesture. "What, is she your girlfriend or something?"

"In a sense, yeah," he answered, finding no reason to lie about this one. "But…it's more complicated than that. I'll tell you later, okay?"

They kept watching the memory, but before Sephiroth reentered, the floor gave way again, and they found themselves in a very familiar church.

"Hey, it's that other girl again," Zack said, eyes going wistful. "Man, is she beautiful."

Cloud could swear he heard another giggle from somewhere behind them. Is she watching us, even now?

"An angel?" past-Zack said, looking up from the floor.

"No! I'm Aerith."

"Okay Spike, please tell me I ended up dating her," Zack said next to him. "I'd be really mad at myself now if I didn't."

Cloud shushed him. "Just watch."

"No, no…hey, how about one date?" younger Zack said, holding up one finger and causing current Zack to double over with laughter.

"Man, I wasn't subtle at all, was I?" he said, looking very amused. "Did I do that to anyone else?"

"Uh, me, actually," Cloud said with a tinge of embarrassment. "I think."

Zack wasn't paying attention, though—too wrapped up in memories of his old girlfriend. Rather than disappearing like the other places they'd seen, the church stayed as the two men watched what seemed like every time Zack visited Aerith in the church. Thanks for making at least this part easy, Aer.

When they finally found themselves back in the room with the doors, Zack seemed calmer than Cloud had yet seen him. The next door he picked had another strange aura around it, and Zack couldn't seem to sense it—Cloud braced himself for the worst.

Sure enough, a series of happy memories had to be followed up by a cruel one. Cloud saw his younger self on a platform very close to where their physical bodies must be now, sword in hand.

"Oh…this is another one of your memories, isn't it?" Zack asked, not really looking for confirmation. "And you've got my sword again…hey, what's Aerith doing…whoa, what are you doing?!"

"Stop!" past-Tifa yelled from somewhere beyond sight.

"Ugh…what are you making me do?" past-Cloud said, backing away.

Cloud turned away at what happened next—he'd seen it too many times—but Zack watched it all, if his cries of grief were anything to go by. He couldn't ignore his younger self's pained words, though.

"…Shut up. The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing. Aerith is gone. Aerith with no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry…or get angry…"

"Spike, please tell me this one isn't real," Zack pleaded, shaking the blond's shoulders. Cloud couldn't bring himself to say it, and the other man couldn't look away as the rest of that memory played out, all the way through him laying Aerith's body to rest. "So you loved her too…" Yeah, I did.

Mercifully, the scene faded again before Cloud could say something stupid, and they found themselves back in the no-space again. The number of doors was definitely decreasing, much to Cloud's relief—but Zack still had a lot missing.

"Which door doesn't give you a bad feeling, Spike?"

He picked the one closest to them, getting to the point where he just wanted to get this over with, and was incredibly relieved to see the mountain terrain of Modeoheim in front of them.

Past-Zack and a trooper were somewhat ahead of two others. "A mako reactor outside Midgar usually means…"

"Nothing else out there," the two said together, and their laughter filled the air.

Zack smiled next to him. "There's something really nice about this memory…" he said. "That's…you under the helmet, isn't it?"

"Good news, Tseng! Me and…"

The trooper took off his helmet to reveal familiar blond spikes. "Cloud."

"Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts. Oh yeah!"

The Zack standing next to him was even more excited than the Zack in the memory. "You're Cloud! Your name is Cloud! Man, I'm sorry, I'm just so happy I remember it now!"

He didn't resist when Zack pulled him in for a hug—he'd almost forgotten how affectionate the other man could be. "It's alright," he said. "This was the day we met."

"Well, I think I'm starting to remember more now," Zack said cheerfully. "I…we got close pretty fast, and I think you were my best friend, yeah?"

"I mean, you were definitely my best friend."

Zack was only halfheartedly paying attention to the memory before them—a lot of things seemed to be rushing back to him all at once—but he got very serious again when his younger self found Genesis. "Oh no," he said. "I…something bad happens here."

His happy expression faded more and more as he watched his confrontation with the ex-SOLDIER, and then became one of pure distress when they watched Angeal turn into a monster. Zack brought a shaky hand to the scar on his face as his younger self earned it.

Both Zacks started to cry at the same time, and Cloud reflexively reached out to take his hand. Zack held onto it like a lifeline as Angeal uttered his last words. "Protect your honor, always…"

Past-Zack held up the Buster Sword like a prayer, and the grip on Cloud's hand tightened. "…he just gave me the Buster Sword…and you had it when Aerith was killed. Did I…?"

Oh no. Modeoheim was swept away in an instant, and their escape from the labs played out as if in fast-forward. Zack watched them run from troops and Turks alike, watched himself take care of Cloud, and watched himself fight Genesis one last time. "Cloud…they did so much to us…you had mako poisoning…I…I didn't know what to do…"

Finally, the rocky outcrop where it all ended appeared before them. Past-Zack ruffled past-Cloud's hair, and the younger man raised a hand in protest as he went out to meet their attackers. This is going to be harder for him to watch than it is for me. Cloud squeezed his hand in reassurance. There wasn't anything he could do to make this easier.

Zack winced as he watched himself decimate so many soldiers, watched himself get shot to pieces. "I…I did it all for you, Cloud…" he said, eyes wide with grief. "I missed you so much…I thought taking you to Aerith was our only option, even though I knew it would probably be suicide…"

The sun disappeared, and the rain began to fall as past-Cloud dragged himself over to the edge of the cliff. "Z-Zack…"

"For the…both of us…"

"Both…of us?"

"That's right. You're gonna…"

"You're gonna…"

"Live," past-Zack said, dragging past-Cloud's face to where his heart lay open and bleeding. "You'll be the proof that I existed. My honor…my dreams…they're yours now."

The Zack beside him broke down, letting go of Cloud's hand in favor of pulling him into his arms and crying into his hair. "Gaia, Cloud…I'm so sorry," he said, shaking. "I died, and I left you all alone…"

"It's not your fault, and you're not dead," Cloud said determinedly, hugging back and rubbing those small circles, in hope that it would be comforting for Zack too.

"Thank you," his past self said. "I won't forget." Here come the tears…so much for being strong.

"Zack…I…I fucked up too, okay," he confessed. "I forgot you, and I forgot everything else too, and I almost destroyed the world before I could remember again…"

The other man didn't have anything to say to that, so they just continued the embrace as white feathers rained down around them. Time seemed to stretch and speed up at the same time, and a layer of green washed over everything. Eventually, a ShinRa helicopter landed, and Hojo got out and instructed a few lackeys to take Zack's body.

The helicopter flew all the way to Wutai, and Hojo unceremoniously threw Zack's body into the strange mako tank and started to type commands into the computer console.

The amount of green in their vision increased, and Zack broke the hug. "Cloud…how am I here right now? I died. I…I remember being in the Lifestream, remember starting to become a part of it."

Cloud couldn't tell what was going on, but Zack seemed to understand some fundamental aspect of what was happening as the colors of the Lifestream swirled around them. "So Aerith came back to me after all, huh," he said softly. "And then…ah. You got sick again, but you were survived…so Hojo put some of your cells in me…to see if it would bring me back…"

A hole in the green suddenly appeared before them, and Cloud saw himself and his friends in the bar, and he finally understood what happened. "Zack…once I remembered you, I didn't tell anyone but Tifa about it for a long time. I think when I did, it…called your spirit back into your body, somehow."

"Yeah, it did…because I didn't want to exist for another moment without you." Gaia, if he wanted to make me cry again, he could've just said so.

The bar disappeared and so did the Lifestream, and they found themselves standing in the no-space again, with all the doors gone.

"Spike…I got sick too, didn't I?" Zack said, looking away. "How…how long was I out?"

"You've been comatose for a few weeks," Cloud answered, struggling to keep his voice even. "But…before that, you'd been gone for…three years."

Zack took a few heaving breaths. "That long, huh? Well…what do we do now? We're in the Lifestream, aren't we?"

"Yeah…Aerith said she'd get us out." Hey Aer, now would be a good time to take us home.

He felt her presence wash over him again, and Zack's mind disappeared along with everything else.

Cloud opened his eyes to find himself on the pedestal where Aerith had died, clothes almost dry. He must have been asleep for a while. He sat up and stretched his arms, looking around for Zack. Oh no…did he not make it? After everything that just happened!?

Cloud frantically scanned the area for his friend, seeing no trace of him. "Aerith, where'd he go? Zack! Zack, where are you?!" But her spirit was gone, probably spent from getting him out, and Cloud ran around the clearing in a haze of panic.

He ran up that horrible staircase, and burst through the door to the clearing to see Zack standing up from where he'd washed ashore. The other man turned around, and, thank Gaia, recognition flashed in his eyes. "Cloud?"

It was only for the speed of Zack's mako reflexes that they both weren't knocked back into the pool again with the force of Cloud's embrace.

"It's you, it's really you…" he said, burying his face into Zack's neck, not caring if the tears flowed. He deserved a few good cries after what they'd been through to get here.

He heard Zack's voice, hoarse with emotions. "Yeah, it's really me."

Cloud held onto Zack like he was the only solid thing in the whole world, and tried not to babble nonsense as his best friend rubbed small circles into his back. He was never, ever losing him again, not for the rest of their lives.