They buried Sky and Old Mrs. Danvers in the town cemetery in the morning. Each of the families had their own plot and they dug the graves on their own. Old Mr. Danvers and Alan Danvers took turns using the shovel, each taking over when the other was tired.

As for Cloud, he did his own digging at first. Breaking through Nibelheim's rocky topsoil took the better part of half an hour. When he had finally cleared away five inches of dirt in a five and a half foot rough rectangle, he had to stop to rest. Tifa pulled the shovel from his hand and kept at it. She managed to deepen the grave by a few more inches, but then she too dropped down to rest. Her hands, like Cloud's, were bleeding in places. Lightning finished the job.

Cloud had not had a chance to look in a mirror, but Lightning looked how Cloud felt. And he probably felt how Cloud looked. As he deepened the grave (and there was none of the trouble that Cloud or Tifa had experienced. The shovel blade sank into the earth like a knife through butter and left just as easily), he never once looked at Sky's coffin. He simply stared at the hole in the ground that she was going to be lowered into before sundown. He did not cry, but there was a hollow look on his face that spoke of bone-deep grief. Cloud could not understand why. It could not have just been for Sky. Whether or not Lightning really was related to the Strifes (and Cloud found that he flat out did not care anymore), he had never spoken a word to her. He did not know her. How could he be mourning for her? It was Nibelheim he had to be crying for. Nibelheim, all the people he had failed to save, and all the people he had failed to avenge.

Because the man had escaped.

Cloud had asked the moment Lightning came into their little hiding room in the mansion. Had asked if the man was dead. If his mother could die avenged.

"No," Lightning had said. "He got away."

He had sounded so empty when he said it. Like it was nothing more important than forgetting something from the grocery list. But his face….

Lightning had stayed in the room long enough to heal the survivors. His materia left no trace of the night's horrors on their bodies. After the spells, Cloud had even stopped coughing from the smoke damage. Then he had told them that they could bury the women in the morning and that they should stay in the room a little while longer. That he had to leave them for a bit to get help.

"You're leaving us?!" Justin had yelled. Just walking down the mountain would take even a SOLDIER a whole day. "We'll get eaten up here!"

Lightning had shook his head. "No, not for long. Just an hour or two."

He had left (and Cloud tried to follow him, did not want to stay with the burned thing wrapped in a sheet, but Lightning had told him flat out "Stay here. Stay. There are worse monsters where I'm going.") and come back as promised only a little more than an hour later. He was dragging a coffin behind him and so was the man who he had found. At least, Cloud was fairly sure it was a man. A person.

Vincent Valentine moved oddly. He would stand perfectly still and then lurch into motion like someone had pushed him. The strange thing was that he never bumped into anything, even though he always seemed to be one moment from falling flat on his face. He misjudged distances, his own speed, his own strength, everything, and yet nothing bad had yet come of it.

"He's still shaking the cobwebs off," Lightning had said when he caught Cloud staring. "Give him a few days and he'll be the smoothest thing you've ever seen."

Looking at Vincent as he was, Cloud doubted it. But the man was strong, without a doubt. He had carried the heavy coffin along as easily as Lightning had carried the other. Cloud looked at the gangly man's glowing eyes and knew where that strength came from. But what about the arm? What about the coffins they had brought up with them? Why had Vincent been living in the basement? How had Vincent been living in the basement?

"I'll explain later," Lightning had said.

So they had waited in the next room, away from the dead bodies. They had let Lightning and Vincent take care of the few monsters that were attracted to the noise. When the sun rose and the rain stopped, they had let Lightning and Vincent escort them back to the ruins of Nibelheim, still burning in places. And now Cloud let Lightning finish digging the grave for his mother that he had been too weak to complete himself.

(Pathetic.)


Before ten o'clock had come, the dirt was being piled back into the hole on top of the coffin.

Cloud and Tifa stood by while Lightning dumped pile after pile of dirt back into the ground. Cloud had chosen a spot beneath an old oak tree and the shade kept the worst of the sun away. It also made it harder to see the words he had carved into the bark with a knife scavenged from the mansion's kitchen.

Sky Strife

Beloved Mother

January 4, 1968 – June 10, 0000

(He could pretend it was someone else in that coffin.)

The rest of his family was buried a ways off to the left. Lightning had quietly asked him earlier if he was sure he wanted Sky to be buried apart from them. Cloud had known the answer. However nice they might have been to Sky growing up (and he was not too sure about that, either), his family had thrown her out for falling in love with his father, for getting pregnant with him. That was not the sort of thing Cloud could forgive. If they wanted her away from them forever, it was damn well going to be forever. Alive or dead, he did not want his mother to put up with anyone's nagging.

Nearby, he could hear the sounds of digging over by the Danvers plot. As near as anyone could tell without a doctor or a coroner nearby, Old Mrs. Danvers had just died of shock. She had never had a strong heart and the events of the night must have been too much for her. The old woman had survived long enough to reach safety and cry herself to sleep only to never wake up, which made it worse somehow. She had been awake before she had died. She could have said goodbye, had she realized what was happening to her.

"Done."

Cloud and Tifa both jolted violently. That was the first word Lightning had spoken since he began his grim task. Now even filthier than the night before, he leaned the shovel against the tree and stepped back from the grave. It rose above the ground in a small mound, the darker loosened soil showing against the paler packed earth.

It looked wrong.

"Are either of you going to say something?" Lightning asked softly.

"Why? She can't hear me now," Cloud said. "We still need to dig a grave for Tifa's dad, too. Better to not waste time."

(Better to not think about it.)

Lightning looked at him. "You'd be surprised about what the dead can hear," Lightning said. "And if you… I never got the chance, when my mom died, I mean. I didn't get to say goodbye. You do, so you should. It… might help, later."

"I said no. Give me the shovel. You can go grab another coffin," Cloud responded. When Lightning hesitated, Cloud stormed up to him and snatched the shovel out of his hands. Tifa followed not long after and they wandered back towards Nibelheim together. Lightning watched them go for a moment and then turned back to road that led up to the mansion.

He still had one more thing to do.


Mayor Lockhart had been laying in Cloud's bedroom when Cloud last saw him. The house was a shattered wreck, having taken even more damage after Cloud left, but it had not burned down. Most of the furniture inside had been smashed to pieces, but his sheets were still in one piece. Cloud and Tifa stripped them off the wreck of a mattress and rolled her father's body on top of the fabric. They had him bundled up shortly and between the two of them managed to drag him out of the house and to the cemetery.

(If Cloud saw tears streaming down Tifa's face or heard her breathing break apart into sobs he said nothing. She had said nothing about his mother. He would return the favor.)

Lightning was gone when they arrived at the spot Tifa's mother had been buried years earlier. Cloud offered the shovel to her, but she shook her head. While Cloud began the backbreaking task of digging into mountainous soil, Tifa collapsed beside her father's shrouded corpse and cried softly. Cloud did not stop in his task. The abrasions on his hands opened up again and soon the handle was getting dark with his blood. Cloud ignored it. There were worse things.

He was maybe a foot down when Tifa tapped him on the shoulder and took the shovel away from him. Cloud had gone numb by that point, deaf to the screaming of his body. He stumbled out of the hole and fell down onto the ground. Behind him, Tifa stopped and turned to reach out to him. Cloud waved her off and crawled to the nearest rock to lean against it. Tifa began deepening the grave and Cloud took a moment to look around.

The cemetery was located higher up from Nibelheim. Looking down the trail offered a decent view of the town. Rather, what was left of the town. Fully three quarters of Nibelheim were turned to blackened ruins. Only the area around the mansion trail was somewhat untouched, Cloud's house and that of the Elliot's among them. The water tower had collapsed when its legs burned and the spill still glimmered on the south edge of the square, a miniature pond that would soon disappear. A few small fires still flared within some wreckage that had not yet burned out. And there were bodies everywhere, littering the yards and porches and the square. Some were charred, others in pieces, some whole and looking perfect but for the dark red stain that covered the ground around them.

Nibelheim.

It had been his home his entire life, but he looked at it and felt nothing. The town was dead, yes, but it gave him no grief. Everything had been sucked out of him and all that was left was cold. That would probably change later, but for the moment Cloud was hollow. All he could –

Something moved below.

Cloud straightened up, his hand reaching for a rock without permission. Had the man come back?

But no. The flicker came into focus as a blur of red, not silver. Vincent. The man had been sent down to scavenge what he could from the stores and homes below. He had taken the order without complaint and vanished not a moment after reaching the town entrance. Cloud had seen neither hide nor hair of him until just then.

The Danvers family was still at their work. Cloud could hear Old Man Danvers instructing his son and daughter-in-law to help him lower Old Mrs. Danvers' coffin into the ground. Little Missy was crying loudly, begging them to bring Grandma out of the box.

And there was Lightning, coming back to the cemetery with another coffin on his shoulders.

Lightning….

Cloud did not know what to make of him. Why had he come back to Nibelheim? Hours had passed between Lightning leaving him in the mountains and Lightning intervening to save Cloud's life. Moving quickly, Lightning might have been able to leave the mountains and be on the road to Rocket Town by then. But for some reason, he had turned around. Why?

(Less questions, more digging. Isn't Tifa tired by now?)

He turned to look at her. No, Tifa was not going to last much longer. She was stabbing the shovel head against the earth, but had lost the strength to penetrate the ground. Sighing, Cloud got back up and walked over to take the shovel from her.

"I'll finish. Rest," he said.

Tifa shook her head and stubbornly kept hitting the dirt. Cloud frowned and reached….

…Wait. Tifa had not said anything. She had just shaken her head. And the time before, she had done the same thing when they arrived at her family's plot. When was the last time she had spoken? …The night before. 'He said I had to follow you,' or something like that. Nothing since.

"Tifa, can you say something?" Cloud asked.

"Don' feel like talkin'," she mumbled.

Okay, so the smoke had not damaged her throat, at least.

"Still digging?" Lightning asked as he arrived. The coffin shook the ground slightly as he set it down. "Are you sure you don't want me helping?"

"Yes!" Cloud snapped. "You can put it in the grave, but stop bothering us about the rest!"

Lightning looked at him, but it was not angry. He just looked sad again. With a quiet assent, Lightning left the coffin with them and walked away towards Sky's grave. Glaring at him (but it was not his fault. Things would be easier if he helped), Cloud turned away when Lightning was out of sight and went to work on the coffin. The clasps holding it shut had been broken, probably by Lightning, and the hinges gave no more protest than a squeal when he pulled the lid up. The purple velvet inside was dusty, but there was no damage to the lining.

No, wait. There was a dark smudge on the velvet beneath the dust. It extended from top to bottom and nearly looked like a….

…Oh.

Oh.

(Tifa could never look at this.)

(And what exactly had Lightning done with the… remains?)

Cloud left the coffin and returned to Mayor Lockhart's side. He grabbed the sheets and started pulling, dragging the body to the coffin. Behind him, the sounds of digging stopped.

"I've got it," Cloud said.

The sounds resumed.

He aligned the body with the coffin and took a deep breath before grabbing the upper half. It took a great deal of heaving and grunting, but he eventually got the body onto the edge of the container and then rolled it over. Tugging it into a proper position took just as much effort. Finally, he slammed the lid shut and stepped away. He doubted Tifa was going to want to look at her father again.

"Le…. Let me know… when you get tired. Okay?"

"Got it," Tifa responded quietly.

Cloud left her to the bitter task.


They could dig the grave even if it took a long time and he could get the body in the coffin even if it took a lot of effort, but to drop the coffin into the grave, they needed Lightning. The older man heaved the whole thing up, wood and body both, and gently lowered it into the ground. Then Tifa and Cloud took turns pushing the dirt back into the hole until it rose into a dark mound.

The grave marker was nothing beautiful. Just a large piece of wood dragged up from the town ruins. It took the last of Tifa's energy to carve her father's name, the dates and an epitaph before she simply collapsed. Lightning was the one who placed it at the head of the grave and it was Lightning who carried Tifa down to the town center where the rest of the survivors were meeting up as the day ended. Cloud limped along quietly behind him.

They were a small and ragged bunch. Missy Danvers had cried herself to sleep and was resting in her father's arms. Old Mr. Danvers was stone faced and silent. Mrs. Danvers was clutching a bag full of scavenged supplies, as was Timmy. The Elliots were much the same way, grim and dirty. They each held their own, smaller bags of food and medicine. Only Justin had managed to find a weapon. Someone's hunting rifle was strapped to his back and a belt full of bullets was wrapped around his hips. Between the rifle and the backpack, it must have been heavy, but he said nothing.

Vincent stood apart from them, half hidden in the shadow of a support beam that had survived the night. Cloud could make out a pistol on his hip, but aside from that Vincent seemed to have nothing for himself.

Looking at them all, Cloud wondered if they should even be doing what they were. Everyone was exhausted and hurting, yet Lightning and Vincent wanted to leave as soon as possible. It would be better to stay, wouldn't it? They could send someone down to the nearest outpost and call for help. Why not rest for a night?

"Do you need anything?"

Cloud started in shock. It was Lightning, coming back toward him. Tifa was still resting in his arms.

"From your house, I mean. Do you need anything? Medicine, a coat, a weapon, something of your family?"

Cloud forced himself to think. But still, the question remained. "Why do we have to leave? Everyone's ready to collapse and you want us to spend three or four days hiking down a mountain."

Lightning frowned and looked over the little group. "Ordinarily, I'd agree with you. But that man…."

Cloud stilled.

"I don't know when he'll be back. I know he'll come back sooner or later – he's a complete monster and hates leaving a job unfinished besides – and I was barely able to protect even these people last night. The best I could do was get them out of the line of fire. If Vincent were in better condition I'd leave you with him, but I don't know that we have that much time. If I leave you all here now and he comes back, you'll die. That simple. If we try to go down the mountain together, Vincent and I can keep you safe from the monsters and that man won't be able to find us as easily. Not much of a choice, but there you go."

"Why can't Vincent go himself?" Cloud asked.

"Two reasons. One, I'm not sure he could find the way without getting lost at least a few times. Two, he can't be seen by any Shinra personnel if there's the slightest chance they'll pass his description up the chain of command."

"He's a criminal?"

Lightning scowled softly. "No. He's done some bad things, but he never enjoyed them. And he…. Look, he does not deserve what they'd do to him, okay? No one would deserve it. Until he can dye his hair, hide that damn claw and a few other things, he can't be seen."

Cloud turned back to look at Vincent. The man had said nothing to him at the mansion, nothing was they went down the path to Nibelheim; he had said nothing at all to anyone, not even Lightning. Come to think of it, how did they know each other? And was Vincent why Lightning had come to Nibelheim?

…Why had that man come to Nibelheim?

"Lightning?"

The older man looked down at Cloud curiously.

Cloud stared blankly up at him.

"Was that man after you?"

….

….

….

"…I need to get everyone moving," Lightning said quietly. "Go grab anything you need from your house and meet up with us soon."

Lightning moved away, Tifa still cradled in his arms. Cloud had a brief, insane urge to rip her away from him. It was almost as strong as the urge to pull the kitchen knife out of his pocket, stab it into Lightning's gut and twist it until answers were given. Both actions would have been doomed to failure. Cloud went to his house.


His heavy coat.

(Even summer nights in Nibelheim got terribly cold and that was when he slept inside.)

A biscuit tin packed with all the traveler friendly food he could dig up.

(Mostly his mother's smoked jerky and rosemary hard tack. She had said they would need more than last year because he was getting bigger.)

His better pair of boots.

(So much walking yet to do.)

A canteen of water.

(Because that would kill him before loss of food.)

His father's heavy knife, the one precious thing from Virgil that Sky had saved besides the hair clip he had given her.

(He was going to need it, but only for one purpose.)

The aforementioned hair clip, three small pearls acting as stars beside a moon pressed into the silver of the ornament.

(What was he going to do with this? There were no more Strife woman to give it to.)

A sleeping bag from the attic.

(The ground would suck his warmth away.)

The gil his mother always kept on hand, the paperwork for her savings account, and his own birth certificate.

(He'd leave a name when he died.)

There was nothing else.


"All right. Is everyone ready?"

A stupid question. They were all half dead on their feet. But everyone nodded.

"It'll take three days, maybe four, to get down to the base of the mountain. If we're lucky, we can borrow a car from the outpost on the way down. If not, we just walk. If any of you feel ready to collapse, let me or Vincent know. We can stop for a bit or carry you. Don't be embarrassed about it.

"If anyone wants to stay here and wait for the authorities, that's your choice. I very much do not recommend it. This is the only settlement for miles and that madman will likely be coming back here for supplies if nothing else. Better to be far away when he does.

"If anything happens, leave it to either Vincent or myself. We are used to fighting monsters; you aren't. Don't try to be a hero, because it will probably kill you or someone else. Any questions?"

"You ever done escort work before?" Old Mr. Danvers asked bluntly.

Lightning smiled bitterly. There was something old and sad in his answer. "Once. A girl needed me to walk her home through the slums. For what it's worth, she didn't have a scratch on her when she got back to her mom. Anything else?"

"That man…" Karen said, shivering slightly. "That man in the black coat. Was that… was he really Sephiroth?"

Everyone stared at Lightning. If being under close scrutiny bothered him, he gave no sign of it.

"…I don't know," Lightning finally said. "That was not the Sephiroth I remember and I doubt the world's leading SOLDIER could go AWOL long enough to get up to the Nibel Mountains without me having heard about it on the way. Could be Sephiroth off his medicine; could be an insane copycat pumped full of mako. I don't know."

(He lied he lied he lied he lied and Cloud would get the truth out of him even if it killed him)

"Anything else? Did we get everything we needed? …All right, let's go."


They only made it three miles out of town before stopping to rest for an hour. Lightning and Vincent were chafing to move faster, Cloud could see that clearly, but they did not protest. All they said was to avoid any fires and try to stay quiet. There was no reason to draw monsters in any more than they could avoid.

Cloud hunkered down next to Tifa and Mrs. Danvers, using a large slab of rock jutting from the ground as a windbreak. Missy was curled up on her mother's other side, dead to the world still. Cloud rather envied her. Despite all that had occurred, he was still wide awake. Sleep held no allure for him and his mind kept turning the facts around and around.

Lightning came to town.

Not-Sephiroth came to town.

Town burned.

Lightning returned.

Hid in mansion.

Lightning came back.

Vincent found.

Mother buried.

Town abandoned.

…Why didn't he feel anything?

"Look," Tifa whispered. Cloud glanced at her face and followed her upturned gaze.

High above them, from the other end of the path where they had come down from Nibelheim, the sky was beginning to glow faintly orange. Cloud, for one moment, thought it was the sun. His mind kicked in after a moment, telling him it was too early and in the wrong direction. And then he saw the smoke.

(It would not be until later that he realized neither Vincent nor Lightning looked particularly worried or even surprised by the blaze behind them.)

(And in the depths of Nibelheim, the fires that had begun in the far below lab continued to rise and consume the mansion.)