V Death and Depression

"You seem distracted" Angeal pointed out a few days later. "Did something happen?" he asked, concern showing in his tone.

"No" he lied, trying his best to hide his pain.

"Zack" Angeal began, placing his hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "It's not healthy to keep your emotions bottled up inside."

Zack sighed, and sat down on the ground. He had been spending most of his time in Gongaga now, not wanting to be hurt even more than he already was by seeing Aerith with Cloud some more.

"It's Aerith" he admitted. "I want her to be happy and live a good life, but…"

"But?" Angeal asked him.

"…She's with Cloud now" he said softly as he stared at the ground.

Angeal frowned, and sympathetically placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I just don't know what to do Angeal"

He couldn't do much to begin with, and realizing that made him clenched his fist in anger and stand up.

"This is all ShinRa's fault" he spat.

He should've never joined up with that company in the first place. For so long his eyes had been closed to how corrupt they were, and although he did realize it when he escaped the lab in Nibelheim, it was already to late. If he had never joined SOLDIER, he would still be alive.

"You can't change the past Zack" Angeal told him. "You can only shape the present into the future"

He wasn't sure if had only been a few days, or perhaps a couple of weeks, but eventually he decided it would be best to check up on his friends just to make sure everything was going well. When he opened his eyes and looked around he saw Aerith kneeling by an alter, her hands clasped in prayer, but then he saw that Cloud was in front of her holding the Buster Sword in his hands tightly as began to bring it down on her.

"What are you doing?" he yelled, eyes widening as he couldn't believe what he was seeing

Thankfully Cloud suddenly snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and backed away from Aerith as he shook his head. It was like something had been controlling him. He sighed in relief, and turned back to Aerith to make sure she was alright. She hadn't appeared to notice what was going on around her since she was so focused, but she opened her eyes and smiled at Cloud.

It was then when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and his SOLDIER instincts sensed that danger was near. A cold gust of wind blew by from above, so he glanced up. He couldn't see well because of the way the light cast a dark shadow on the figure descending from above, but the sunlight reflected off metallic object that he immediately recognized as Sephiroth's Masamune.

His eyes widened in horror once again as he dove forward to try and push her out of the way, but his panic caused him not to concentrate enough, so he phased right through her, and Masamune pierced her chest as Sephiroth came down.

No! This isn't happening, you need to live!

But her blood began to flow from her chest wound, and she fell forward.

"Hellllo!"

"An angel?"

"No silly, I'm Aerith"

"They're pretty, just like the sky, but not scary at all"

"Will I see you again?"

"I have twenty three tiny little wishes, but you probably won't remember them all, so I combined them all into one: I want to spend more time with you"

"Aerith..."

She was gone, she was really gone. She would no long talk or cry, or even get angry. She would join with the lifestream like everyone else, but that's not what he wanted. He wanted her to live. He barely was aware of the battle that followed, but he stood by Cloud as he gently carried out her corpse to the lake and let her go, knowing that he probably felt the same way, if not worse.

"It's alright Cloud" he said softly. "I'll take care of her now"

He stayed when the rest of them left, waiting for her spirit to emerge. Angeal did tell him that it took a bit for a soul to leave it's body as it was adsorbed into the lifestream, but he stood there patiently staring down into the water with his hand reaching towards her so that he could pull her out. In a way it was just like what Angeal did for him. Then he felt her hand finally grasp his own, so he lifted her out of the water and met her gaze.

"Zack" she said, sounding rather surprised.

"Hi Aerith"

More than anything he wanted to wrap his arms around and kiss her, to tell her how sorry he was for not making it back, but he kept reminding himself that she was in love with Cloud now.

"I'm sorry" he apologized, dropping her hand knowing it was probably awkward for her. "I tried to make it back, and I did get your last letter, but the army finally caught up with me and I was outnumbered" he explained.

She nodded silently, gently biting her lip.

"Zack...I-

"I know" he interrupted. "You're in love with Cloud now, and he loves you back"

She looked up at him confused, so he decided to explain.

"I've sort of been watching over you guys" he told her, hoping that he didn't sound like a creepy stalker.

"So that really was you..." she said softly, now making Zack the confused one. "I heard you speak a few times, but..."

"You thought you were just hearing things" he guessed, and she nodded.

"I tried to wait for you Zack, I really did"

"Five years is a long time" he said softly. "I can understand why you gave up, but you should know that I never did find someone, and I..."

Don't say it. He told himself. It'll just make things worse for her.

"I respect your feelings for Cloud" he said softly, trying to hide the sadness in his voice. "But I still care about you"

"I...I need some time alone" she told him, lowering her head.

He nodded, expecting it from the beginning, so he left.

He had explained to her how the lifestream worked, so he wasn't surprised when he saw her watching over Cloud about two weeks later. She tried to smile at him when she saw him, but he could easily tell that it was strained. They still hadn't spoken much, and frankly the whole situation was awkward for both of them.

"How is he?" he asked, causing her face to fall.

"No change"

A few days ago Cloud had accidentally fallen into pure lifestream Mako, and had washed up on Mideel with a severe case of Mako poisoning. Even greater from the one Zack had saved him from before.

"Tifa's taking good care of him though" he observed, glad there was someone to try and help him get better.

He was just worried about what would happen to him, they both were. After all the last time it had happened it had serious messed up his memory, and this time there was the chance that he wouldn't recover at all.

Tifa, please take care of him...

"Zack!"

It was the next day when Aerith came to him when he was talking to Angeal before he went to check up on Cloud. She paused when she caught up with him, and if it wasn't for her relieved expression he probably would've panicked and guessed that something terrible had happened.

"It's Cloud," she began. "He's awake! AND he has his memory back!"

Since he knew Cloud had told her what he 'remembered' at Nibelheim, so he decided to tell her what really had happened so she wouldn't get confused.

"That's great!"

So with a wave of goodbye to his mentor he left to go see how he was.

Cloud stared at the Buster Sword for a long time. He just sat there on the airship, staring at all the scratches and dents it had on it as he held it. He couldn't remember any scratches and dents being on it when it was Zack's.

Zack...

"My dreams, my honor...They're yours now. You'll be my living legacy"

"I don't deserve to be you're living legacy" he said to himself.

"Don't say that!"

He flinched and looked around. He hadn't expected a reply from anyone, especially Zack. He remembered hearing his voice a few times, but then, and even now, he thought he was just going a bit insane. Seeing that there wasn't anyone around.

"Zack?" he asked, wondering if he really was going insane.

"I'm here" he told him, placing a hand on his shoulder so he knew that he was really there. "I came to check up on you"

"Zack..." he whispered. "I'm so sorry. If I had known Aerith was yours I would've tried to stay away, I tried to protect her but-

"Cloud" Zack said, cutting him off. "It's alright, I don't blame you for anything that's happened"

"Aerith..."

"She's alright"

"Is...Is she here too?" he asked softly, hesitating with his words.

He shook his head, but then remembered that he couldn't see him even though he was practically right in front of him.

"Cloud?"

It was Tifa, apparently she had decided to check up on him.

"I'd better go now" he told him. "But we'll check on you soon"

Author's Notes

Well I don't know about you guys, but here in the Midwest we're in the middle of a blizzard right now (Or according to facebook, SNOWPOCALYPSE!). Sorry it took a little while, but this was a bit longer than the others. I wanted to put the Meteor scene as well, but I was just getting tired of this chapter and wanted to end it. So the next chapter will be the last one (probably around 2000-3000 words) and I should have it up within a week.