Yay another reasonably-quick update! I'm on a roll!

In this chapter I decided to show you the song that the title of this story comes from, 'Still Standing' by the Rasmus. I think it kind of fits as you'll see if you read the lyrics…it was certainly a part of my inspiration for this story!

'I wish you were here tonight with me to see the northern lights

I wish you were here tonight with me

I wish I could have you by my side tonight when the sky is burning

I wish I could have you by my side…

'Cause I've been down, and I've been crawling

Pushed around and always falling

You're up there; you're always with me

Smiling down on me

Can you stop the lies?

Falling from the skies

Down on me

I'm still standing

Can't you roll the dice?

I might be surprised

Conscience clear

I'm still standing here…'

(The way I see it, the 'I' of the lyrics would be Cloud, talking about Zack, but you can twist it any way you want…)

Chapter 6:

Zack narrowed his eyes as he dropped low to the ground, trying to read the direction of Cloud's passage from the vague markings of his footprints in the dust. Dr Freed, beside him, laid a placating hand on his shoulder, which Zack batted impatiently away.

"Zack-he's long gone. There is nothing you can do for him now."

"I'm not asking for your opinion," Zack snarled through gritted teeth, straightening up and pointing. "He went that way." They had already left Midgar, following Cloud's uneven trail, and now the surrounding wasteland yawned before them, devoid of human life, the craggy rocks and cliffs like traps, or prisons, or hiding places. The sky was grey and empty, soulless, and Zack could not help thinking that it exactly reflected his mood. He did not even dare to think too deeply in case despair overcame him. He had to focus his mind on finding Cloud, and from there he would just have to improvise.

"He's lost control, Zack. I told you what that means. He's gone and all we can do is kill him to spare him further pain."

Zack whirled on the doctor then, face taut with fury. "Will you just shut up? I honestly don't care what you think of this, he's my friend and no matter what I am going to get him out of this. You understand me?"

The doctor looked cowed by his rage, but spoke anyway, quiet and sorrowful. "I'm telling you that you can't get him out of it. It's impossible."

Zack just turned away and pressed on after his lost friend, ignoring his companion completely. He was not even sure why Dr Freed was coming along, except that he had just followed him, and there was a strong chance that one of them was going to need a doctor before this was over, which was why Zack had not yet sent him packing. But he was growing more and more tempted to do just that: he did not need to be told again the doctor's opinion that there was no hope for Cloud. It did not help at all and it made little difference.

Zack and Freed tracked Cloud all that day: his trail was quite clear, as in his maddened state he was evidently not in any condition to think about concealing his passage or even why he might need to, but he had come far, propelled by a strength that was not in his body but preying on it. Finally the trail ended on the rocky step entrance into a deep, winding cave in a small ravine: peering inside Zack could see nothing at all, the shadows pressing so closely into pitch blackness, blocking out any shred of light even five metres in.

"It would make sense that he would go underground," Dr Freed mused. "The power might be trying to return to its source."

Zack shrugged. "Maybe. Well, I'm going on in, but you're not expected to come." He strode forwards fearlessly, the darkness swallowing him up in silence after mere seconds: Dr Freed hesitated, then gritted his teeth and followed the young SOLDIER into the shadows of the cave.

They walked for what felt like hours through total darkness, Zack completely unafraid for himself but fighting the panic over what might be happening to Cloud, the doctor jumpy and on edge, perpetually stumbling over loose stones and walking into walls. After a very long time Zack glimpsed a flickering of light at the end of the tunnel and, heartened, quickened his pace. Gradually the light grew brighter until he realised that it was the emerald mako light that he had come to associate with Cloud.

They were catching up.

Zack paused at the end of the tunnel, shrinking back into the shadows to get his bearings before ploughing on in. Before him lay a small, almost perfectly round stone chamber, its walls unnaturally smooth and glistening with minerals and precious stones that flung the green light all about the cave, distorting the shadows and casting demonic tints against rock formations, giving them the aspects of evil, twisted gargoyle faces. Kneeling with his back to Zack across the cavern, Cloud was slumped with bowed head, his fists clenched and still glowing fiercely with the power sparking within him. Zack's heart lurched at the sight of his friend so alone and defeated, but as he made to take a step forward Dr Freed grabbed his shoulder and dragged him back.

"If you insist on going in there then you can at least try not getting yourself killed!" he snapped in a whisper. "Be careful. He's not what he seems. He's not your brother any more."

Zack looked away with a kind of desperation, back to Cloud's trembling, tense figure so tormented by the intensity of energy no human being should ever have been exposed to. "He'll always be my brother," he returned almost inaudibly, more to himself than to his companion, and stepped boldly forwards into the chamber.

Cloud did not turn as he approached, though Zack made little effort to be quiet. He did not want to sneak up on his friend; he doubted it would help the situation much. He crossed the cavern without hesitation until he was standing just behind Cloud, then reached out to touch his friend's shoulder.

"Hey, Spike, I came to bring you home."

Cloud jerked round, coming to his feet in one fluid motion, knocking Zack's hand away. Zack felt his heart sink: it was clear that Cloud did not recognise him, that he was still under the control of the energy within him. For an instant they stood frozen facing each other, their eyes locked, the tension between them rising to an unbearable peak, and then quite suddenly Cloud spun round and loosed a vivid emerald lightning bolt at the doctor, who had just been coming forwards. The green light connected-struck him in the middle of the chest-Dr Freed was flung backwards without a cry to come to rest twisted against the rocks, motionless, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his clothes singed away from a burned, blackened diamond shape above his heart. Zack did not know if was alive or dead-all he could dwell on in that moment was the horror of what Cloud had done.

Cloud turned slowly back to Zack, his right hand still raised against his chest, the green flame flickering in his palm, apparently not burning his skin or emitting any heat. His eyes blazed with inhuman, animal power and his head lifted. Zack just stood there, unable to comprehend how things could have gone so badly wrong.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered as Cloud took another step towards him, hypnotised by the ruin of his friend, his brother, whom he had died for, and fought for for so long. "I'm so sorry…I failed you."

Cloud stopped.

"So maybe there was nothing I could have done in the lab," Zack went on, his voice low and hopeless. "I always tried to protect you, Spike. I'd tell them to take me, not you, sometimes I'd attack them, fight to stop them taking you. But it was you they wanted-I guess this is why. The mako did stuff to you it never did to me. But hell-there must have been something I could've done."

Cloud had gone unnaturally still, his eyes still blazing but somehow faraway. The hand that did not burn green was clenched at his side, so tightly Zack could see the tendons standing out stiff in his arms.

"It was like you were all I had to fight for," he said softly. "I stopped caring whether I made it after a while, so long as you were okay. I should've been ready for this. I should've stayed with you. I could've helped, I know I could. I'm so sorry, Spike. I'm so sorry…it's this screwed up world that did this to you and I should've been able to protect you. You were never meant for this."

And Cloud, suddenly, was flying:

Zack smashing a bulky orderly across the face. Zack dragging him up off the ground into his arms, distorted voice pleading with him to be strong just a little while longer. Zack thrashing furiously against his bonds as Hojo stabbed yet more needles into Cloud's skin. Zack curled on a stone bench, grimacing with the effort of not screaming, blood trickling from long diagonal cuts across his face. Zack summoning a smile, weary but bright in an endlessly dark place, a joke Cloud could not now remember. Zack carrying him slung across his back in the light of the moon, gaze fixed on the distant lights of Midgar. Zack tipping water into his mouth, joking about the indignity he knew Cloud must be suffering and making it okay. Zack telling him to sleep, to ease the pain, that it would seem more bearable come the morning. Zack, always there to help. Always there.

Zack, standing before him, destroyed by pain and grief, having suffered so much and sacrificed so much to finally arrive at this point and die at Cloud's hands. My hands. My hands-my power.

Cloud's eyes clenched shut. The world was mako green, a miasmic haze of light and pain, a barrier. He thrashed against it but in vain, mustered all his will against it, flinging himself against it, clawing at it desperately. It's my body, he howled into the silence of his own mind. My body-my hands-my power. I should be able to stop this-

An explosion of pain and light-he felt hands catch him as he pitched forward, lowering him down onto the stone-he had not been aware of beginning to fall. Trembling violently, his breath coming fast and ragged, head spinning, throbbing, he looked up at Zack through the fronds of fair hair spiking into his face, and Zack was smiling, crying as he knelt before him, holding him up by the shoulders.

"I knew you could do it," he was saying, over and over. "I knew it wasn't too late…"

"Zack-" Cloud gasped. "Zack-you gotta…you gotta kill me…stop this happening…again…"

Zack's face set in a sudden scowl of angry obstinacy. "No," he snarled. "No, Cloud. We can deal with this together. You're not dying on me now."

Cloud gripped his arm, blue eyes wide and pleading. "I can't hurt anybody else," he begged. "Please, Zack. I'll…I'll do it myself…can't live like this…"

"No!"

Another voice then, weak and strained-they both turned to see Dr Freed struggling towards them, one arm twisted at a wrong, painful angle against his back, his face bloody, clearly in terrible shape but speaking fast and hoarsely: "There could be another way." Cloud opened his mouth to say something, to apologise, uselessly, but Dr Freed cut him off. "It isn't you, Cloud. It's all right."

"What other way?" Zack pressed forcefully. Dr Freed paused, gathering his waning strength.

"You came down here because the energy inside you wanted to return to its source, in the earth," he said to Cloud. "There's a chance you could discharge that energy here…but I don't know…what the consequences…" He broke off suddenly into a hacking cough that convulsed his whole body, and when he was done spat blood onto the rocks before continuing doggedly: "What the consequences…could be…anything could happen…unlikely you'd…survive…"

Cloud lifted his head. "What do I have to do?" he said. Zack yelled in anger.

"Cloud, no! Didn't you hear what he said? It could kill you!"

"I can't live like this," Cloud repeated simply, staring back at his friend with equal stubbornness. "I have to try, Zack. I have to." He looked back at Dr Freed and nodded.

Following the doctor's instructions Cloud got to his feet and made his way to the back wall of the cavern, the one that glistened brightest with minerals: he laid his two hands against it, feeling the roughness of the sparkling stone under his palms; he took a deep, calming breath.

"I don't know how to do it voluntarily," he admitted quietly.

Dr Freed and Zack still stood at the back of the cavern, where the doctor deemed it just about far enough away to be safe. "It is within you," he now told Cloud. "But…"

Cloud turned and Zack's mouth tightened. "But?" Cloud asked warily. The doctor sighed.

"If you purge yourself of the mako energy this way it could destroy you. You need to be aware of that before you try this, Cloud. No-one has ever attempted anything like this before, but the energy has become a part of your body and losing it now could be…devastating."

"Well then why are we wasting our time here?" Zack spat. "Cloud and me can just deal with this our own way. C'mon, let's get outa here-"

Cloud shook his head. "No, Zack," he said softly. "I have to do this."

Zack stumbled forwards as if against his will, reckless in desperation, haling unsteadily halfway to his friend and freezing, helpless. "You can't," he pleaded. "Don't you understand, Spike, I can't do it without you! Not after everything!"

He saw the heartbreak in Cloud's eerily glowing eyes, saw it and dared hope. Then-"I'm sorry, Zack," Cloud whispered, and turned back to the wall, bracing his hands against it. Zack yelled in anger and started forwards, and then there was a blast of emerald light so intense it blinded him, flinging him back against the rocks to Dr Freed. Suddenly Zack could think only to crawl, to struggle to some meagre shelter and cover his face-in one swinging flash of darkness he saw Cloud's slight form tense and shaking, fused to the rock wall, in the exact centre of the miasma, and then he had to shield his eyes again, unable to bear the sheer searing brilliance of the energy loosed into that chamber. The energy inside Cloud.

The green light faded fast, draining out of the air like blood from an open wound, leaving only the crystals and minerals of the cavern walls gleaming faintly the colour of mako. Zack looked up, came to his feet, seeing Cloud leaning as if exhausted against the wall across the cavern, breathing hard, head hanging low.

"Cloud?"

Cloud looked up and met his eyes, and then he suddenly crumpled to the ground and lay motionless on the rock, utterly spent.

There'll be one more chapter of this story to come, hope you liked this one! Reviews are inspiration!