Well here's the last chapter for you all! Hope you like it-I think I should probably point out that I'm not trying to keep this to canon especially, since I don't know most of what happens in the game, just so you're warned it's not my intention.

Epilogue:

Cloud thought, as he sat on the edge of the pavement outside the clinic waiting for Zack, that the sky had never been bluer, and in the middle of a large, thriving city like Midgar that was certainly an accomplishment. He smiled, for what felt like the first time in years, as Zack stepped out of the building opposite and hurried towards him.

"The doc's gonna make it," he reported, beaming. "He's conscious, they even let me talk to him. So you didn't do as much damage as you thought, huh?"

Cloud nodded. "Thanks," he said softly. "I mean for finding out."

Zack surveyed him narrowly. "You look tired," he observed. "C'mon, I think it's time we got home…" Cloud grabbed at the wall to steady himself as he levered himself to his feet, a little unsteady and very pale, but a lot better than he had been only days ago. He had almost died in the cave-Zack had been convinced he had. Dr Freed, however, had found a weak pulse in his wrist, and somehow they had managed to get him back to Midgar and the seedy motel room, where he had lain for three days tormented by a dangerously high fever, delirious and fading fast. Zack had not dared take him to a hospital for fear of being recognised, and in any case according to Dr Freed, who of course been admitted to one straight away, it would do little good. Cloud had to fight this battle on his own. And fought it he had, and won it too, and now barely a week later here he was, mobile and walking, still weak and shaky, not to mention reliving it all in horrifically real nightmares every time he closed his eyes, but, at last, okay.

Zack had worked a couple of nights as a bouncer in a city bar not far away, thus earning just enough money to pay for their stay in the motel a little while longer, and by now it was beginning to feel like a kind of home. Cloud was no longer swamped with memories of the dungeons of Hojo's manor every time he stepped through the door, as he did now: maybe nearly dying in a place could do that to you. He dropped onto his bed, exhausted by the short walk, frustrated by his weakness.

"You have to give yourself time," Zack told him ironically. "You went through hell, Spike."

"You keep saying that," Cloud muttered. "But you've endured it too."

Zack sighed and sat down on his own bed, facing Cloud squarely across the narrow barrier of floor between them, feeling as they had been heading for this conversation for a long time now, and slightly disoriented that it came so suddenly and unexpectedly now. "Look," he said. "I know you don't like seeming weak. I know you're humiliated by being poisoned. I know you seem to think you have to prove something."

Cloud lowered his eyes. "Zack…"

"No, listen. You don't have anything to prove, Cloud. Getting over the mako poisoning wasn't something anyone could do. You were lucky to survive what happened in the cave. You don't have anything to be sorry about, or ashamed of." But the certainty and the trust in Zack's voice only scraped Cloud's heart the more raw: he felt unworthy, suddenly of such a friend.

"Zack," he whispered. "I failed at getting into SOLDIER. I failed when we went to Nibelheim, if I hadn't let Sephiroth stab me we could've got out before Hojo found us. I failed over and over again in the lab, I was weak, I hated them-hated them for making me weak. And then-afterwards-" he took a shuddering breath, fighting tears now that finally he was admitting everything, all the unworthiness and uselessness inside him. Now Zack would know what he really was, at any rate. "Everything I've ever done in my life I screwed up," he went on, voice roughening. "And you've suffered for it. I'm not a little kid who needs taking care of every second, and if I am I shouldn't be. I'm twenty years old and all I have to show for it is failure." He bent his head to hide his face, eyes clenched tight shut against the searing pain, hearing Zack's silence like an accusation.

"Spike."

He did not respond.

"Spike, that's not true. Our lives have been screwed up these past years. Both of us. You…you were unlucky and that's nobody's fault. You haven't failed in everything. You killed Sephiroth, remember? I was watching-nobody else could've done that, injured like that. It was…amazing. You're still alive, and let's be honest that's one hell of an achievement."

Cloud shrugged, not trusting his voice.

"And SOLDIER…" Zack sighed. "Well, look what happened to SOLDIER. There's times I've been ashamed that it's a part of me. To get into SOLDIER you don't just have to be good, and smart, and well-trained, you have to be ruthless, too, when you have to be."

"I could've been," Cloud said, almost inaudibly. "I could've…"

"Maybe. If it helps, you would've made a great SOLDIER. If for nothing else then 'cause you're so damned stubborn." He grinned but Cloud's heart was not lifted. "There's luck involved, too, and who your family knows, and whether the examiners like you, and what kind of mental state you're in at the time…you shouldn't be ashamed of not getting in. It's as corrupt as anything else." He gazed across at the dejected figure of his friend opposite him. "And who even cares?"

Cloud's head bobbed up. "Huh?"

"You heard me. Who even cares whether you got into SOLDIER or not? You pissed them off royally and that takes the more skill in my book. It's all in the past, Spike, and this whole world might be out to get us so we've just gotta pull ourselves together, look ahead and never stop fighting. Okay?"

"But…"

"Whatever we remember, we have to put it behind us. It hurts and maybe it always will, but we've gotta make a future now. You with me, Spike? 'Cause I don't want to have to do it on my own." There was just a trace of fear in Zack's dark eyes, just a trace of doubt, as he looked at Cloud, waiting for a response, and suddenly the sun struck through the dirty window and cast a beam of pure light across the ex-SOLDIER's face. Cloud smiled then.

"You don't want to?" he quipped. "You couldn't if you tried."

"Is that a challenge, chocobo-head?"

"Hey," Cloud said half-heartedly. "There's nothing wrong with my hair."

"No," Zack agreed. "Not for a chocobo." Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Hey, I nearly forgot. I met somebody at the bar the other night, somebody who asked about you."

Cloud frowned. "Me? But I don't know anybody in Midgar…"

"Apparently you do," Zack said, a glint of mischief plain in his face. "Some girl named Tifa…now where did I put that phone number she gave me…" He made a big show of hunting through his pockets, while Cloud watched, astounded. "Aha, there it is." He held up a small scrap of paper. "She actually told me to give this to you but since you apparently don't know her…" he wagged his eyebrows. "Well, she was hot."

Cloud leaped on him, snatching for the paper. "Give that here!" he ordered, laughing.

Zack blew out a noisy sigh of exasperation. "Spike, you'll never call her. You'll just stare at the phone looking freaked for three hours. It's a waste."

Cloud fumbled for the paper. "I will not."

"Oh, yes you will. You even did it to your mother when you were in the militia. I was there. You just have a thing about communicating with people…"

Cloud finally managed to snatch the paper off Zack and backed away fast, triumphant. "We'll see," he challenged. Zack rose up off his bed, grinning a shark's smile, and gestured to the phone. "Go ahead. I'm watching."

Cloud's smile vanished and he stared at the phone as if it were a live wire. Zack folded his arms. "What did I tell you…"

Cloud shot him a glare, then marched across, scooped up the phone and dialled fast, clearly as much to prove Zack wrong as anything else. He waited for three rings, heart in his mouth, then started to put the phone down. "She's not picking up," he aid with a mixture of regret and victory, then suddenly started violently as the phone was lifted at the other end of the line.

"Hello?" a voice he recognised instantly asked. "This is Tifa…"

"Hey," Cloud said hoarsely, palms sweating. "Hey, Tifa. It's Cloud Strife, remember me?"

Well there it is, the end! I hope you liked this epilogue and I want to thank all those who read this story, who added it to alert or favourite, and most of all those of you who took the time to review, especially LastOrder1 and Irish-Brigid who've reviewed all the last few chapters, it's hugely encouraging and I wouldn't have finished it without your support! So thank you all so much!