II Irony

From that day on Zack spent as much time as he could keeping an eye on Aerith. However he also checked up on Cloud a few times because he was worried about him. He wasn't sure when exactly it happened or why, but somewhere along the way from when he was killed, and Cloud getting to Midgar his memory had gotten seriously scrambled up, and his friend had actually appeared to have taken on his identity.

Apparently he was working as mercenary know, and had taken up a job with AVALANCHE. He had 'followed' him during the first job when they blew up the Sector 8 Mako Reactor, and in frustration had yelled at him to open up his eyes to his past. What was strange though is that he acting like he actually had heard him, but according to Angeal that should've been impossible.

He pondered over it for the next few days, wondering if Angeal had been wrong. Then again neither Tseng or Aerith had appeared to hear him when he was in the church, so maybe it had just been a fluke, Maybe Cloud had just heard something else when he yelled at him. Either way, he wanted to try it out, so while he was walking down the streets of Loveless Avenue one day he paused and shouted the most random thing he could think of, then looked around to see if anyone had noticed. No one did.

Then a bit later on when he was watching over Aerith in the church again, something unexpected happened. They both glanced up at the ceiling when they heard the Sector 5 Mako Reactor explode, then moments later Cloud came crashing down from the roof. Aerith yelped out in surprise and backed up a bit since he was practically right next to her, then calmed down a bit and peered over him. They were both having a strong sense of Deja' vu at all this, and Zack couldn't help chuckling at the irony of it all.

"Can you hear me?" Aerith said softly as she sat down beside him.

Cloud groaned softly, which was a good sign, and appeared to be talking in his sleep.

"Yeah..."

"Back then, you could get by with just skinned knees" Zack commented.

"What do you mean by 'back then'?"

Zack blinked. He could hear him? But then why couldn't everyone else. Still not believing it to be true, he decided to talk to him some more.

"What about now? Can you get up?" he asked.

"What do you mean by 'that time'? What about now?"

"Don't worry about me" Zack told him. "You just worry about yourself now"

"I'll give it a try"

"Oh! He moved!" Aerith exclaimed, glad he was alright.

Zack smiled, now a bit relieved that he appeared to be alright from the fall, but the flower bed had broken it.

"How about that?" he said. "Take it slow now, little by little"

"I know" Cloud said. "Hey, who are you?"

But Zack didn't answer. He wanted him to get his memory back and all straightened out, but he knew that it would be best for him to do it on his own.

"Helllllo!" Aerith called out to him, the same way she had done with Zack years ago. "Helllo!" she repeated.

Cloud groaned again, but then opened his eyes and blinked a few times before sitting up.

"You ok?" She asked as she stood up and brushed herself off. "This is a church in the Sector 5 Slums" she explained. "You fell from the sky; really gave me a scare"

"I came crashing down?" Cloud asked.

Aerith nodded.

"The roof and flower bed must've broken your fall, you're lucky"

Cloud glanced down at the flowers around him for a moment silently, then hopped back up on his feet just like Zack did and dusted himself off.

"Sorry about that" he apologized.

"That's alright" she said.

He watched as the two of them talked for a bit. She told him about her flowers and the Materia she had, then introduced herself as "Aerith the flower girl". Cloud then told her his name and said that he was a mercenary, but by then Zack wasn't paying that much attention. Reno, a Turk had just walked in, and he got a bad feeling about it. Aerith noticed him too, and frowned.

"Cloud, have you ever been a bodyguard before?" she asked. "You DO do everything right?"

"Yeah, that's right" he said now also paying attention to the Turk.

"Then get me out of here," she told him with worry in her voice. "Take me home"

"Ok, I'll do it" he told her. "But it'll cost you" he warned.

"Well then, let's see..." she said taking her mind of things for a moment. "How about if I go about if I go out with you once.

"What?" Zack said making sure he had heard that right.

She couldn't be serious, could she? And why did she have to use his line?

"That uniform" Cloud said, stepping towards Reno, and the three other ShinRa infantrymen that now accompanied him.. "You're a Turk, a ShinRa spy"

Zack noticed that Cloud's hand was slowly reaching towards his Buster Sword attached to his SOLDIER First Class uniform, and cringed when he noticed how many scratches and dents there were on it already. Cloud wasn't taking very good care of it...

"No wait!" Aerith said, stopping Cloud. "Don't fight here, think of the flowers!"

With that Aerith took his hand and led him towards the back door, where Zack followed to make sure they got out alright.

The back room was in horrible shape. There were floor broads missing, and dust was everywhere. The two of them ran up the stairs where they were welcomed by a few minor monsters, but Cloud quickly cut them all down.

"This way" he said as he easily jumped over a large gap in the floor, but Aerith just shook her head. She wouldn't be able to make it like he did.

"There they are!" Reno shouted, pointing at them from below.

"Alright, I'll hold them off" Cloud told her.

"Make sure they don't get through"

"The Ancient is getting away! Attack!" Reno shouted.

Then the infantrymen fired their guns at her, and rage boiled within Zack. Aerith screamed, then fell down to the floor below while he and Cloud yelled out her name in unison. He couldn't believe it, the Turks were supposed to be protecting Aerith, even Tseng promised him he would, so why the heck was this happening? What had happened to ShinRa?

"Think we killed them? They should've put up a fight"

One of the infantrymen jumped down to where Aerith was, and she cried out for Cloud to help her, which he responded to by pushing a barrel onto him.

"Cloud get her out of here!" Zack shouted, knocking another one of the infantrymen off his feet before he could get to Aerith.

"Aerith this way!" Cloud called out to her as he led her out through the large hole in the roof.

"They're looking for me again..." she said.

"You mean this isn't the first time they've been after you?" Cloud asked.

"No..."

Zack clenched his fist in anger. Why was this happening? What did they want with Aerith, and why couldn't he be there to protect her now of all times? Why did he have to die?

Questions with answers he didn't have. Questions that brought more pain to him.

Author's Notes

Alright, well first off I hope this chapter wasn't to confusing, and if it was plot wise with the whole no one but Cloud can hear Zack thing, I've got something planned so please just bear with me on this. I took some of the dialogue from the game here and edited parts of it (I OWN NOTHING) and I'll be doing that again in this fic. Just so you guys know, Wallmarket is next, and we all know what that means XD