Zack's Final Mission

Chapter 12: The Town

"Ok… Are we sure we want to do this?" Aerith crinkled her nose while staring nervously at the old airplane in front of them. Every time she looked at the airplane she could swear she saw new holes in the paint and new dents that weren't there before. That airplane was a wreck she realized uneasily. It surprised her how it could still fly.

"Weren't you the one saying we should take this opportunity?" Zack asked smiling at the anxious girl next to him that had tightly grabbed his hand. "That it was destiny what put us Cid in our way?"

"I know, I know. But, is it too late to change my mind?" Aerith bit her lower lip while leaning against his arm which made Zack grin proudly noticing how she turned to him for some confidence or protection. "Are- Are there any pills we can take to sleep while it flies?"

"Come on Aerith! You'll miss all the fun and beauty of the landscape!" Zack laughed shaking his head although he understood how she was feeling. "It's our only solution, and I'll be right there next to you."

Aerith nodded slowly and swallowed dryly. She was the one encouraging Zack to take Cid's offer and now she was getting cold feet about it although she had to admit the pilot's way of being and how the airplane looked like could make everyone insecure about flying with them.

"It's fine… I won't be scared." She took a long breath and closed her eyes concentrating on controlling her nervousness. There's nothing to worry about. I made Zack agree to fly. Plus, Cid is a professional.

Suddenly they heard Cid kick the engine from the outside and as soon as he did the engine growled a couple of times before shaking the airplane to life.

"Good as new!" Cid laughed placing his hands on his hips and admiring the airplane up and down. Aerith quickly turned around to leave but Zack was able to hold her by the waist with one arm to make her face him.

"It will be alright. Trust me." Piercing blue eyes met hers and suddenly there was no Cid around which was a relief, no airplane, no where to go to, just those glowing blue eyes and Aerith.

"I- I trust you." She stammered taken aback by his gaze. Zack smiled at her warmly and Cid helped them get to their seats behind him once inside the airplane. Making sure they had fastened their seatbelts Zack gave Cid a thumb up and Aerith tightly shut her eyes for the lift-off. Gradually the weight sensation of going up was no longer on their heads giving place to the constant movement of the machine once Cid had steadied the airplane.

"Are we there yet?"

"You can open them now." Zack laughed before whispering in her ear and above the loud sound of the thriving engine. Aerith had never seen anything like that before, the sky was a clean soft blue, there were only a few clouds in the sky and the ground looked like a mix of green and brown down below them. She slightly opened her mouth in awe as she gazed out of the window. She turned to Zack and smiled at him thrilled just to see if he was enjoying the flight as much as she was. He was right as always, it would be alright as long as she kept holding his hand firmly on hers.

"You're not scared are you?" She asked noticing him staring blankly ahead, thoughtfully.

"What? No… I've been through a lot worse than this." He said turning to the flower girl and grinning. "But I have to admit I'm a little scared of him." He tilted his head towards Cid.

"I think we will be alright!" Aerith said cheerfully.

"You look a lot better." Zack smiled back at her remembering that a few minutes ago she wasn't so sure they had made the right choice.

"Things don't look as scary once we finally try them."

When they could finally leave Cosmo Canyon they took with them more than a fixed buggy, a new member joined their group. Nanaki, or Red XIII, a native tiger of that village but also a former experiment of Hojo's lab back at Midgar that had managed to escape before it was too late for him. His grandfather, the elder of the tribe and a man with great knowledge, had taught them there are powerful materia scattered around the world, materia they didn't know could be so powerful. Helpful in the right hands but extremely dangerous in the wrong ones. Nibelheim was their next destination.

It had come the time when Cloud had to explain his friends what had happened there five years ago and what he had done before he met with them. Entering the small town he couldn't restrain the images of the fire from flowing in his head. Sephiroth rising from the flames, it was still so vivid in his mind. The town looked the same as before: the main round square with a small well in the very middle of it while most of the houses stood around it.

A small country town. His hometown, at last. But there was something different in Nibelheim that day. Scattered around the town but all headed in the same direction, towards the Shinra Mansion ahead, were dozens of men covered in black capes slowly walking.

"Do you think it's some kind of cult?" Barrett asked watching the men.

"Before we continue… There is something you all need to know." Cloud slightly turned his head back to look at the group behind him. He motioned for them to follow him into the Inn.

Tifa ran her thin fingers through the smooth surface of the keys of her piano. Her bedroom was exactly as she had left it to her surprise. She guessed that after the fire the villagers tried to reconstruct every house keeping their previous form as it once had been to respect the people who had died then.

Her mind was still processing the story Cloud had told them earlier. It was not coherent to what she had lived. He had come back there after he had left. He was present when her father was killed by Sephiroth. Then, why didn't she see him if she was there too? There was something going on with Cloud that she needed to pay attention to. She felt like she needed to be there to help him. Tifa sat down on her bed sighing and looked around until her eyes stopped to stare at the drawer of her desk.

If I remember clearly… She walked up to the drawer and slowly opened it hoping that what she was thinking about was still there.

Inside the drawer was a squared photograph with three people in it.

"Finally we're here." Zack exclaimed looking around at the almost deserted town if it weren't for the suspicious cloaked men walking.

"This is small…" Aerith looked at the houses amazed. "We can't thank you enough for bringing us here Cid." Aerith smiled turning to the pilot behind them.

"Don't mention it!" Cid grunted and Zack rolled his eyes surprised they got there safe.

"Where are you going now? Do you want to join us looking for our friend?" Aerith asked glancing at Zack for support but he just crossed his arms to his chest.

"I can't go far now that you mention it… The tank is out of gas." Cid sniffed. "Hey you guys aren't on honeymoon or something like that are ya?"

"No!" Aerith promptly said feeling her cheeks getting warmer.

"Not yet…" Zack mumbled to himself.

"Then don't mind if I join ya!" Cid grinned at Zack who sighed defeated. "So who's this friend of yours we're looking for?"

"A SOLDIER like Zack." Aerith answered pointing at the black-haired man. "Except Cloud is blond." She giggled.

"That shouldn't be that hard to find!" Cid laughed. "Hey what's up with those?" Cid pointed at the men in cloaks.

"Do you think he will be here Zack?" Aerith shrugged but Zack was thoughtfully staring at the path leading to the Shinra Mansion, there was something in that place that felt wrong to him, there was a strange energy emanating from that path. He didn't want to think about the kind of atrocities the walls of that house hid amongst them. "Zack?" He finally heard the flower girl's voice reaching his ears.

"Yes?" The SOLDIER snapped back to reality but kept looking by the corner of his eye at the path.

"Do you think Cloud will be here?" Aerith repeated worriedly looking at him.

"Sure." Zack said absentmindedly. When he focused on something, Aerith thought, it was hard to bring him back.

Suddenly a local man came from the passageway looking a little dizzy and staring every two seconds back at the trail.

"Just give me a minute." Zack turned to Aerith before running in the man's direction. "Excuse me… Did you come from that Mansion?"

"Yeah…" The man nodded nervously.

"Is there something going on there?" Zack asked noticing Aerith and Cid approaching the two.

"I just saw a sinister man with long silver hair leaving the Mansion and heading for the Reactor! I check on the house once in a while but I never go inside, that house creeps the hell out of me!" The man explained shuddering.

"A man with long silver hair?" Zack asked unbelievingly.

"He looked at me threateningly when I told him no one was allowed in. He only smirked and made sure I saw his sword before moving along down the rail. I ran away from there as fast as I could!" The man shook his head; they could tell he got quite the scare.

"Thanks." Zack said and the man walked away mumbling something to the air.

"Sephiroth…?" Aerith asked looking at Zack who was staring blankly ahead frozen.

"Aerith…" He suddenly called and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Stay here with Cid. I have to see what's happening in there."

"You're going to the Reactor? No… No!" Aerith exclaimed loudly grabbing his arm. "Let me go with you."

"I won't take long… If it's Sephiroth in there I don't want him near you ok?"

"Zack please…" Aerith's eyes filled with tears while her hand tightened around his arm. "Let me go with you." Aerith couldn't deal with the fact that Zack was about to expose himself to that kind of danger. She remembered the horrid scene of the dead snake.

"I'm sorry I won't let you. Hey… Don't worry; I'll be back in a second." He smiled and slowly moved forward to kiss her forehead. "Could you watch her for a couple of minutes?" He turned to Cid. "No matter what, don't let her go there. Please."

"Yeah… No problem man." Cid nodded not fully understanding what was going on.

"Thanks." And he left followed by Aerith's green gaze until she lost sight of him.

"That's not fair!" Aerith yelled feeling her heart beating fast. "Cid I'm going after him. I can't just wait here." She gave one step forward but Cid's hand restrained her by the shoulder.

"Do you realize how dangerous it can be in there?" Cid asked.

"It's because I know how dangerous it is that I don't want him to go alone." She answered looking in the direction Zack had just disappeared.

"And what exactly do you think you can do against Sephiroth if it comes to that?" Cid asked amazed at her determination to go help Zack.

"I don't know…" Aerith's voice was shaky. "I almost lost him once Cid. I couldn't bare the same pain again… If I'm there maybe I'll be able to do something."

"Hold on a minute there! He didn't say anything about fighting anyone! He's just going to check on things! He'll be back soon enough!" Cid assured her, he didn't know what more he could possibly tell her do dissuade the girl from going after Zack.

"Aerith?" Someone called. Their heads both turned in the direction the voice had come from. Standing there in front of her was a tall man with spiky blond hair and a pair of shimmering blue eyes as blue as the most perfect of the sapphires she had ever seen, the same colour of the ones that belonged to the man that had just left her there. He still wore the same uniform he did when she met him, the same first class SOLDIER uniform Zack wore.

"Heeeeey! Look at that!" Cid pointed at Cloud in disbelief. "He fits the description you guys told me! What a small world this is huh?"

"What's going on?" Cloud looked from one to another bemused.

"Cloud!" Aerith exclaimed appalled. "It's you!" She smiled widely. "We were searching for you. How did he know we would find you here?"

"Who are you talking about?" Cloud blinked even more confused.

"Cloud you have to come with me!" Aerith pleaded.

"Where to? What's happening? What are you doing here?" Cloud shook his head.

"Zack and I have been looking for you!" Aerith finally said.

"Zack?" Cloud shrugged.

"Zack Fair." Aerith told him his name. "Your friend from SOLDIER."

Cloud ran as fast as he could in the direction of the Reactor, past the Shinra Mansion. He was too lost in his thoughts to notice he had heavily stepped on a puddle splattering water all over his leg.

"That's impossible…" The blond haired man said thinking that if that was some kind of sick joke it was not funny at all.

"It's not impossible; he was just here a minute ago!"

Cloud kept running.

"Are you sure? I- I-" I watched him die, he wanted to say.

"Yes." She looked at him intently and he noticed the stray of a teardrop running down her cheek. She didn't look like she was kidding.

Cloud hastened to reach the end of the passageway that led to the Reactor bumping onto one of the cloaked men but he didn't bother to help him up.

"Where is he now?"

"Someone has spotted Sephiroth going towards some Reactor. Zack went there after him."

"Stay here, I'll go get him." Before Aerith had time to reply Cloud was already gone. She tried to follow him but once again Cid didn't let her.

"Zack. Hold on!"

Note: So you guys thought they'd meet this chapter... I don't blame you I thought that too but the story took another course and it will only be next chapter! :D Cloud is in for a surprise! Thank you so much for reading!! And thank you for the reviews! I can't get tired of thanking people for the support!!