Zack's Final Mission

Chapter 10: The Anxious Hearts

Two days have passed since Aerith and Zack arrived at the welcoming chocobo farm. Its owner had arranged with them that he would provide them with food and a place to sleep if they could give him a little help taking care of the chocobos while they were there. But they would only be staying for four days which by the time they would leave, the owner agreed to pay them for their effort. They didn't have that much work to do in the farm though; their job consisted in giving the chocobos their food and take them out to the fields to run. On the other hand they felt thankful to the old man for being so thoughtful towards them.

But Zack felt more relieved for other things rather than the shelter and food they were granted with. Those four days in the farm would give him time to think about what he was going to do next and where would they go. He thought about Cloud, it seemed he was out there and for what he knew about him he would be capable enough to wander around searching for people he should not be searching for.

If Sephiroth really came back from wherever he had been hiding, they would have a huge problem on their hands. At night Zack would stare into the dark sky through the sky-light of the roof's barn where he was sleeping next to Aerith in a small room on top of a ladder. At night he would stare at the stars with both hands under the back of his head, just thinking, until the sun came up again bringing another day with it.

It was at night when everything was silent and quite that certain images haunted his mind. He thought the nights would ease his heart, but they wouldn't.

That was one of those nights.

He saw Sephiroth looking maliciously at Jenova's body in Hojo's lab. He saw him holding her dead head on his hands, turning around smirking at Cloud. He remembered how he used his sword against him, mad in his own delusion. And finally, Zack saw him rising in between the fire that destructed Nibelheim that awful day, like one death angel with only one dark wing coming from the flames. Except that that was no angel.

"Can't sleep?" The sweet voice of the young woman laying next to him in the yellow dry hay bed interrupted his thoughts. Her eyes were round and glowing as if she had been awake all the while just trying to figure out what he was thinking until she gave up guessing. She laid to the side on top of her arm and head rested on the pillow, looking at him.

"Too much on my mind." Zack replied smiling up towards the sky-light.

"Care to share?" She asked. "Maybe I can help clear away some space."

"I was wondering where we should go next." Zack sighed closing his eyes. He didn't want to put her at any risk and if they were going after Cloud who probably was after Sephiroth he was exactly putting Aerith at risk. But he didn't want to leave her. He promised her he wouldn't leave her again. "What you told me about Cloud… And if it really was Sephiroth killing that snake…"

"You think we should try to find Cloud." Aerith finished it for him.

"He might need a little help. What do you say?"

"I say we should go find him." Aerith rolled up on her back placing both hands with fingers interlocked on her belly. "If he really needs our help then we'll help him. If he doesn't, well, at least you have reencountered an old friend!"

Zack paused for one moment just processing her words, thoughtfully looking above.

She says 'we'… I wonder if she knows what Sephiroth is capable of. That snake was nothing.

"Thank you." He finally turned his head to smile at her. "You did clear some space. I needed to hear you say that."

"Then you will be able to sleep." Aerith looked back at him. A pair of sapphire eyes shimmering by the white faint light of the first quarter moon on the sky met hers. His gaze was warm, comfortable and he felt the same way as he looked at the emerald ones of the young woman next to him.

I won't leave you and I won't let anything happen to you.

Next thing Aerith remembers was having a strange feeling inside her stomach until she closed her eyes to sleep.

That night she dreamt she was by herself in a blue crystal round altar. She looked around her frightened and searching for him but the place was empty. She could hear the sound of dripping water in the distance. He wasn't with her or anywhere near and she remembers the panic she felt in her heart. She felt alone again just the way she had been feeling for the last five years before he walked into her life again. There was a void inside her chest. She wanted to scream but somehow she knew deep inside her that it was her purpose to be there on that place without him.

She woke up restless the next morning but when she did he was sitting there next to her already awake or not having slept at all. He was looking at her with a worried expression in those sapphire blue eyes.

"I was about to wake you." He said. "Were you having a nightmare? You were moving so much I was afraid you'd fall down from the platform."

Suddenly she reached for him hugging his chest tightly between her arms and resting her head on his shoulder.

"You're here." Her voice was shaking.

"Of course I am." He passed one hand through her brown hair placing the other arm around her carefully. "Were you dreaming I was gone? I understand the despair." He grinned.

"I would so punch you in the arm right now if I wasn't so happy to see you." Aerith giggled breaking the embrace. "We should go check on the baby chocobos. They must be hungry." Aerith climbed down the ladder head down and with her heart anxiously beating. Usually her most vivid dreams meant for bad signs.

There had been one new addition to the AVALANCHE group. They were walking through one forest when suddenly Barrett caught one shadow that had come from the bushes charging for their materia. The shadow wasn't expecting to be caught so it was to her surprise and deep sadness that she had to return the materia to their owners and apologize for her "stupidity" as Barrett had called it. Yuffie Kisaragi happily joined the party thinking she should be able to get plenty of materia if she followed them.

They agreed to ride the buggy to the nearest town to fill up on food and water before they could continue. The nearest town was Gongaga.

There were just a few houses in the small town and what stood out from it the most was its cemetery. There was something in that town that made him feel uneasy.

This was his hometown. Cloud thought while walking down a dirt road that led to the centre of the small town. I remember when we compared our birthplaces… He was such an easy person to talk to…And he was right, he beat me in hometown subject, his is smaller.

"Well well well… What do we have here?" A mocking shrieked voice interrupted the party. A spiky red-haired man smirked tilting his head up while looking at their puzzled faces. Next to him was a tall bald man wearing dark sunglasses looking in their direction with arms crossed to his chest. "It's payback time…" Reno placed himself in battle position lifting his electric rod to his shoulder while Rude lifted his hands to chin level turning them into threatening fists.

"You never learn do you?" Barrett grinned amused by the up-coming battle.

"You want me?" Without thinking twice, Cloud drew his buster sword from his back as it glittered in the sunlight. "Come and get me."

"Aerith?" Zack's voice called worriedly from the outside of the small compartment where the young woman sat stroking the feathers of a sick chocobo laying down on the straw floor breathing shallowly. "I've been looking all over for you…"

"Yeah, I've been here." Aerith quickly wiped away her teary eyes before he could notice. "Do you need anything?"

"Yes!" Zack did notice her sudden attempt to hide the tears from him but he just guessed she was sad because of the sick chocobo. He was wrong.

"What do you need?" Her voice trembled a little.

"You."

"Oh…" Aerith rose to her feet and joined him closing the wooden stable's door behind her taking one last glance at the chocobo.

"Come with me!" Zack pulled her by the hand. That was becoming natural.

The old man from the farm borrowed his old motorcycle to Zack so he could take Aerith to the top of a hill that stood majestically in the middle of the green grass fields contrasting with the flat plains. Aerith had to hold Zack tightly by the waist to her discomfort of riding on a motorcycle. She didn't trust those machines at all.

"Do you know how to ride one of these?" She asked before they took off looking petrified as he climbed onto it and motioned for her to sit behind him.

"Sure!"

"Something in that answer makes me doubt you." But before she had time to rethink her decision to climb onto the two-wheeled vehicle she already had her eyes shut firmly and her head leaned against the back of his neck holding him on to her life. Although the old motorcycle didn't reach a considerable speed for her own sake, it still made her feel nervous.

"We're here." And then it was all over. "One of your letters that I've been reading said you wanted to see the sun set for the first time with me. Well, we kinda didn't have that chance yet since we've been on the road. I mean a proper chance. With no one around, nowhere to rush to. Just me and you and the sun itself."

"Zack I-"

"You don't have to say anything." Zack interrupted her putting one finger gently on her lips. "Just enjoy this moment with me."

There was a golden orange mat spreading across the green fields from the horizon, the same colour reflected in the few clouds on the sky.

"It's beautiful." Aerith felt tears watering her eyes and struggled to keep them from falling.

"Is there something wrong?" Zack asked.

"No, it's just that I wasn't expecting this…"

"Well, I figured that when we leave to search for Cloud we probably won't have a calm time to ourselves like this again, at least not until we find him." Zack looked into the distance scratching the back of his head. "I really like that you are here with me." And he meant for every word he said. Despite the bad times he predicted that could be coming, as long as she stayed with him, every thing would turn out alright.

"Before we leave tomorrow…" Zack started. "There's something I wanted to tell you." He walked closer to her bringing up one hand to gently caress her cheek with his fingers. He rested his forehead on hers and closed his sapphire eyes to better breathe in her flowery scent.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud explosion noise coming from the sky. The next thing they saw was an airplane with a tail of smoke from under it coming down in their direction. Zack quickly covered Aerith with his strong arms and pulled her down to the ground protecting her head. They felt a strong wind above them as the airplane passed by their heads and heard it land down on the ground behind the place where they had left the motorcycle.

The airplane twirled around a couple of times before it finally stopped hitting one tree as it did. It had formed a cloud of grey smoke where it landed when its pilot lifted the cockpit's door minutes later and popped his head out to see the damage.

That was it for Zack.

Note: Thank you everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Thank you so much to the people reading!! Until the next one!