Zack's Final Mission

Chapter 13: The Reunion

"Calm down!" Cid was already dizzy from watching the brunette.

"I just can't wait here Cid!" Aerith cried walking from one side to another frantically. "What if something happens to Cloud too now? I shouldn't have told him… I should have just gone there myself. I feel so powerless!" Aerith sighed frustrated but she had to agree with Cid, what could she do better than two SOLDIERS against Sephiroth? But at least she wouldn't just sit there, that had got to be better than doing nothing at all.

"Excuse me…" A girl's voice interrupted Aerith's buzzing. The flower girl looked up from the floor to see a woman dressed in a tight mini skirt and a white tank top with red hiking boots matching her red gloves. She stared at Aerith with two big round ruby eyes and a warm smile across her features. "I was passing by and I heard you say something about Cloud. Is it by any chance a blond inexplicably spiky haired SOLDIER with blue eyes?"

"Yes." Aerith nodded. "Do you know him?"

"I'm travelling with him and the rest of our group." Tifa answered. "Have you seen him? My name is Tifa by the way."

"Humm… I'm Aerith." She smiled slightly but worry was spread across her eyes. "I might have done something stupid Tifa…"

"What happened?"

"He went after my friend to the Reactor ahead because Zack was going after this dangerously powerful man or whatever he is! I didn't mean to send him there, I wanted to go after Zack by myself but neither of them let me and this… this man! Isn't helping me at all!" She pointed at Cid glaring at him. Cid only yawned which made Aerith roll her eyes. Why couldn't he take the situation seriously?

"Who were they after exactly?" Tifa asked curiously.

"His name is Sephiroth." Aerith replied looking back at Tifa.

"Do you mind coming with me, Aerith?" Tifa asked closing her eyes when hearing the name. "We will be more comfortable speaking in my house, if you don't mind that is."

"Oh…" Aerith looked back at Cid unsure he would take her offer as well.

"Oh go right ahead, I'll just wait here so don't mind me!" Cid leaned against one post light and started lightening a cigarette absentmindedly. Aerith shrugged and followed her new friend back into her house which was just two houses ahead from where they had been standing.

"Don't worry, I'm trustworthy." Tifa noticed how uneasily Aerith was looking around her house. She could sense her nervous gaze and hands shaking slightly.

"Oh it's not that!" Aerith shook her head. "I just can't stop thinking about Zack."

"Just out of curiosity…" Tifa reached for something in her pocket and handed Aerith the small photograph for her to see. "Is this the Zack you came here with?"

Aerith eyes widened as she stared at the picture in her hand. Zack was standing in front of those same houses from the same town she was now in, next to the girl she had just met and… Sephiroth.

"It is…" The flower girl gasped. "How did you-?"

"Zack has been here before… with Sephiroth before he turned mad like I heard." Tifa explained. "It seems like he and Zack belonged to the same work team. They sort of used to be friends before. As much as I would love to go to that Reactor right now with you, I think it's best if we wait here for them. We might interfere."

"I guess… you're right." Aerith looked down wondering why Zack didn't tell her that before.

Aerith sat on Tifa's piano chair and rested her fingers on the white keys while Tifa went to the kitchen to make them some tea. She started playing a tune to distract her mind from wanting to go after Zack. Elmyra did well on teaching her how to play it.

Five years ago… I have been to this Reactor. With Sephiroth. Sephiroth climbed these stairs.

The sense of déjà vu made his head spin making him hold the metal banister of the stairs to get some support. He lowered his head panting. What is happening to me? Why doesn't it make sense? Where was Zack when I came here, I remember him here but I don't remember it clearly. Aerith told me he didn't die, that he is in there. How can that be?

His head hurt madly and his heart was hammering inside his chest. Step by step Cloud dragged himself to the top of the stairs leading to the inside of the Reactor.

"Sephiroth!" Zack firmly called once he reached the first platform. Up the stairs and in front of where Jenova's torso was dipped inside a tube stood the majestic figure of the long silver-haired man with his back turned to Zack. He slowly turned around to see who was calling his name.

"My mother was right after all." Sephiroth smirked diabolically. His eyes were narrowed and devilish. He didn't show any sign of surprise to see Zack there. "You are alive."

"You weren't expecting that were you?" Zack asked returning the smirk.

"Actually it has always surprised me how you were able to last that long." Sephiroth remarked. "Tell me Zack… who healed you?"

"No one healed me! After this proof you still underestimate me." Zack couldn't believe how much he knew about what had happened to him. He feared he knew about Aerith being the last Cetra. Sephiroth had claimed before to be one too. He thought his mother was an Ancient. His blood started boiling inside his veins.

"How curious… it wasn't you who I was expecting to see here." Sephiroth kept speaking. "I had to summon a meeting to call for someone but this gathering will be much more interesting than what I was expecting it to be."

"What are you talking about Sephiroth? What are you doing here?" Zack noticed Sephiroth had given one step forward in his direction causing Zack to automatically draw his sword from his back.

"What happened to Angeal's sword?" Sephiroth noticed the sword Zack held in his hands wasn't the huge buster sword Angeal had given him a long time ago.

"That's none of your business!" Zack growled greeting his teeth.

"It should be interesting to know how well you do without it." As soon as Sephiroth said that he dashed towards Zack with his masamune in position to strike him. The black haired man was able to block his attack as two blades brutally collided to one another making a loud clinking metal sound. Sephiroth smirked and bolted to the right rounding his sword in the air and towards the side of Zack. Zack jumped in time to dodge the attack making his sword pause at the edge of Sephiroth's neck. He realized then Sephiroth had done the same thing. They both stood there holding their swords into each others necks.

"Not bad." Sephiroth kept smirking. "But you are not me."

"SEPHIROTH!" Someone yelled causing Zack to look by the corner of his eye at where the voice had come from. Sephiroth took that opportunity to advance on Zack and soon the masamune's tip was headed towards Zack's chest. Zack watched in slow motion as he moved his arms to block Sephiroth's attack but a shadow came faster from the other side in time to place a huge silver blade in front of both of them. The ringing noise of clashing blades echoed through the reactor's walls. In front of Zack was a crouched blond spiky-haired man holding Angeal's buster sword high in the air covering both him and Zack from Sephiroth's sword. Zack couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the scene take place.

"Isn't this nice?" Sephiroth let out a laugh. "Now the group is complete. What a reunion!"

"What do you want from us?" Cloud brawled; his arms were starting to shake under Sephiroth's powerful pressure of the sword. Usually Cloud didn't tremble like that but his head was already killing him with pain. Sephiroth jumped back away from the two.

"You have always been the weakest." Sephiroth closed his eyes.

"That's why I impaled you with your sword five years ago." Cloud countered standing upright but still holding his sword in his hands.

"Your powers don't come from you. All you have acquired was what the mako granted you with. But you were such a guinea pig that Hojo overdosed you with mako to see how far you would resist. Your body is probably 80 percent made of mako. Hojo had much interest in you because of your resistance to that sort of exposure. You absorbed the mako into what you already had within you making you stronger. But you sometimes have relapses don't you?" Sephiroth told. "Therefore it's no shock to see sudden strikes of mako running through your veins causing these attacks of powerful strength. But of course you have weaker times as well, times you can't even lift that sword with your hands."

"Those are all lies!" Cloud screamed falling down to his knees and holding his head between his hands.

"Just because you wear a first class uniform doesn't mean you are one in the heart." Sephiroth smirked. "You are but a mere puppet. A clone of Zack. That's why your memories are all scrambled up with his. The SOLDIER that came with me to this reactor five years ago was Zack, not you."

"That's not true!" Cloud yelled. "I was here that day!"

"Believe what you want if it makes your pathetic life happier." Sephiroth turned his back at them but tilted his head to the side to look at him by the corner of his eye. "I've got what I came here to get." He lifted his hand up and Zack saw a black stone glittering in between his gloved hand. Black materia. And with that, Sephiroth let out his dark wing from his back to lift off and leave through the top of the Reactor.

Zack snapped out of his dazed state and looked out at the man kneeled on the floor. Slowly he placed his hand on Cloud's shoulder but Cloud strongly moved it away from him with his arm.

"Is it true?" Cloud managed to say between his cries of the pain his head was bursting with. He remained kneeled on the floor, his elbows helping to support his weight.

"Of course not Cloud!" Zack assured him kneeling down on the floor beside Cloud. "Sephiroth's mind is more twisted up than ours believe me."

"I watched you die." Cloud lifted his head a bit to glare at the black-haired man. "How do I know you're not a clone as well?"

"That's ridiculous Cloud trust me. I've seen clones before…" Zack looked down thoughtfully. He sat down leaning his back against the wall and resting one arm on his bended knee. "They are not like us." He remembered Angeal and Genesis. "The clones I've seen are deformed abominations of nature. They don't even last more than a few days. Plus you couldn't be my clone if you wanted to with that yellow chocobo head of yours."

"I'm so confused Zack." Cloud tried his best to laugh at what Zack had said but the pain was almost unbearable. "Tell me I have been here before."

"Of course you have!" Zack exclaimed. "You were part of our group that day five years ago."

"But I wasn't like you." Cloud finished.

"You were an infantryman that time." Zack remembered.

"Then I have never made it to first class…" Cloud shook his head and rested his forehead on the floor. Zack kept silent. "I just wish the headache would stop. Will you stay here until it does?"

"Yeah…" Zack closed his eyes leaning the back of his head to the wall behind him. "I have been looking for you."

"So I've heard." Cloud said remembering the flower girl at the town. "How did you survive?"

"Someone found me and… Aerith helped me." Zack answered thinking about Aerith's smile.

"She's quite special isn't she?"

"You have no idea." Zack smiled. "Thank you for helping me out with Sephiroth."

"Don't mention it. It's good to see you again." Cloud tightly shut his eyes giving in to sleep.

If it probably wasn't for Zack talking to him that time, Cloud hadn't been able to come out to the surface of the confusion he felt like he was drowning in.

Note: And there they are!! Confused? Me too! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! I feel bad for Cloud though… Thank you so much for reading!!! And thank you for the reviews!!