poor Cloud - he really got nailed for that 'thank you'. I can't tell you how I laughed... does that make me evil? Not like he didn't deserve it though. and hey - welcome to all my new readers! Especially those of you who reviewed. Reviewers are my Kipling's 'best beloveds'. And speaking of which - demonegg - seriously. I adore you. yes, yes, yes - you got Cloud's conundrum perfectly! and me too apparently. Until you mentioned it I didn't even realize it but I do enjoy exploring the 'what makes us human' question - lol. We'll see what Tifa (and Cloud though he's being sneaky) can do about messing with that abstract triangal. Oceanee - I'm so glad you're enjoying this. Your reviews are so much fun for me to get in my email. LOL - it did take 60 chapters for that kiss, didn't it? Not that they move slow or anything... and I'm glad you enjoy the Zack/Tifa/Cloud dynamic. I really have so much writing the three of them together. You should get together with Peeka-chan and hunt my characters down with frying pans the way she's always threatening to as well. You are not alone in wanting to beat sense into them ;) That said, I'm glad you like confused conflicted Cloud - 'casue I'm about to make his life even harder :) Calenlass - glad you're enjoying. Hang on tight to something and keep your hands inside the ride at all times ;) Which brings me to Dis - yep, no sense making Cloud's life easy. Where's the fun in that? and hey - you're still here! Sometimes Real Life jumps up and bites you. Glad to see you managed to escape it and rejoin the rest of us. Fairheartstrife - you really do make my day with your reviews! Glad you liked the Cloud/Tifa 'holy CRAP what are we doing?!' moment. I should let them deal with the awkward repercussions of it but I think I'm going to go with violence and mayhem instead. Biskitty - you were right to be nervous... very, very right... bwahahaha - er. Yeah, so I'm glad you're enjoying the character interaction too. I've got to admit, I've got a cloti soul. It's hard not to let the two of them get tangled up whenever they get near each other. They do it so hopeless too. All I have to do is put them in a room and turn my back for a minute! Zack and Tifa - yeah, I adore the way those two turned out. I just can't imagine the two of them not bonding as friends considering their personalities and their mutual watching out for Cloud. And hey, who could resist letting Zack flirt with Shera. Poor woman was so abused in the game. zi-ling - oh my LORD! I ADORED what they did with most of ACC! I really liked what they did with Zack and Cloud during the battle and also like that they, for once, let Cloud be on time for his family and Tifa. Not to mention him and the kids was too adorable. I'm glad you're enjoying Zack as well as Cloud. I love being able to have Tifa think of them as 'her boys'. destiny's charm - here 'yar. Binkledup - when you catch up to this part - welcome to the party! drinks are in the fridge, grab a comfy chair. Hit that review button anytime you want. I love feedback - it feeds my little writer's soul. Jini - hey and welcome to you too! I'm so glad you're along for the ride. And hey, we've got plenty more to go before the end. Yeah, that kiss probably doesn't help that I grinned like a dork the entire time I wrote it - lol. And of course thanks to Peeka-chan who didn't threaten with frying pans this time but did supply enough written gasps and shrieks to make me chortle like a bad sci-fi B movie villian enlarging ants.
Okay, gang - ready for more?
Chapter 63: Crossing Over
Tifa felt the lurch but after all those ancient rope bridges they'd crossed on the way up here, she'd almost been prepared for it. So as the walkway over the drop down into the Lifestream groaned and then tipped, she dashed forward and grabbing at the railing with both hands braced on either side of her. She'd gotten more flexible with all of her traveling and fighting and her arms were stronger. Nothing compared to one of the guys but strong enough to support herself and she used her arms to push off, up and forward. It got her to a stable part of the walk and she sprinted the rest of the way to the core. Walking carefully hadn't been working so maybe flat out running would.
She reached the other side without any more problems and turned to give Zack a jaunty wave from the stability of the core platform. She couldn't see it well in the strange light or hear anything over the whispering murmur of the Lifestream so close but she was pretty sure he was glaring at her. With a smile, she moved over to the structures that made up the main support. This was the place where the machines tapped directly into the core, the soul, of the planet itself. Little firefly lazy sparks of green drifted up from torn tubes and Tifa tried to avoid those. Who knew what they held? Memories? Energy? Something else entirely? At least she didn't have to feel guilty about blowing up this reactor. There was no one here to worry about hurting and collapsing it would be a relief to the town below once the Lifestream was buried again and the monsters stopped mutating so wildly. Careful but quick she stooped down and found a good spot for the explosive she'd gotten out of Zack's pack. Arranging it and setting the charge, she then touched her vest pocket from habit to make sure the trigger was still there.
Had it been less than a year ago she'd had no idea about explosives, Shinra's real face, or what to steal off of green dragons? Her old self might not have recognized her – but she didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing. Carefully standing up and backing away she turned her head to look back over the abyss.
Zack and Red both gone from the doorway.
More monsters?
She gave the remaining walkways that weren't tilted a quick look and found the one that looked the most stable. Starting across it carefully, she stayed toward the middle so that her slight weight didn't unbalance it. Walking as quickly as she could without jarring things, she made her way across.
Had something come out of one of the pods?
Somethings?
She told herself that Red and Zack could take care of themselves just fine but that didn't mean she wasn't pushing safety limits on how fast she should be moving by the time she reached the last part of the walkway.
She heard the crash from the outer room just as her boots touched the solid outer walk and without even having to think about it, she was running, materia already coming alive on her hands and in her mind.
What she saw as she cleared the door wasn't what she expected though.
Her eyes focused on Zack first. He was halfway down the stairs, lying amid several broken pods as if he'd been careless tossed that way. He was struggling to raise himself and she saw his face was covered in blood. His hands were empty. His sword - ? She'd never actually seen him conscious and without his sword nearby and she looked for it automatically –
And found it.
It was lying on the ground behind the man slowly ascending the stairs.
Tifa's breath caught in her throat and the approaching man paused and slowly raised his face to her.
Pale. He was so pale. With long white hair and pale eyes like jade. But there was something... almost reptilian about him, about those still, patient humanless eyes. Tifa felt a shudder move through her soul. The way it had when she'd fought the Jenova birth. What was in front of her wasn't natural. It didn't belong here no matter what it looked like.
Zack made a noise.
"Teef – get out of here – "
Far down at the bottom of the stairs, in growing horror, she could make out Red's crumpled form against some crushed pipes.
"Hush," the white man dressed in black spoke softly to Zack. Gently. "You're nothing but a dead dream of someone else. Don't speak in the presence of real people. Hollander should have never forced life into you."
And he raised a long, thin sword that seemed to go on forever to Tifa and advanced on the fallen SOLDIER. Zack raised his head and grit his teeth, glaring at the approaching man with narrow eyes.
"Go to hell, Sephiroth," he grit out and the man smiled softly in response.
"No!" It tore out of her throat and Tifa called down the strongest lightening bolt she had. It ripped through her as she activated the materia and the raw power blasted down from the ceiling, screaming, blinding and white as it enveloped the white haired man. Sephiroth? Her mind had one instant to feel the horror of recognizing the name and then Tifa was charging down the stairs before her lightening even had a chance to dissipate. Seeing Zack from the corner of her eyes as she bolted… cheerful, joking Zack – who wasn't joking now. Horrified she saw the flare of power as Sephiroth emerged unscathed from the fading tangle of electric energy. Using her momentum, she swung her leg wide, boot coming low for his ankles. With no apparently effort at all, he flipped backward in the air and came to rest at the foot of the stairs, almost floating down to land silently. And his pale lips smiled.
Zack. He was her friend, he was like a brother. She had to protect him. Had to give him time to use some of the healing materia she knew he carried. He called after her but she couldn't run. Not and keep him safe. So she took her fight straight to her enemy, moving in fast and hard, trying to move fast enough, quick enough, erratic enough, that it would work.
Even as she threw punches and kicks though – she knew it wasn't going to. Not against Shinra's greatest war hero. He dodged her blows almost carelessly and she knew – she knew – he was simply indulging her.
But what was the alternative?
"How insignificant you humans are," he stated calmly. "And how frail."
Tifa caught the flash of silver coming up toward her from the floor from the corner of her eye and that was all she had time for. Something tore through her chest and sent her flying backward and the sudden shock and the sudden pain were so intense her world actually went white and then black even though she knew her eyes must still be open. Her body landed against the stairs like a rag doll thrown in a child's temper tantrum and Tifa couldn't even begin to try to cushion the fall or how her arms and legs tangled as she thudded into the stairs. Boneless, her body rolled down them and that hurt.
But it was nothing compared to the fire radiating out from her chest.
She tasted blood, a metal taste in her mouth, and her vision swam back to her as if it were moving through water. She couldn't – couldn't seem to breath and she felt sick to her stomach. And the pain – the somehow worse word than pain – was radiating out of her chest like some dark hole ripped in reality itself. She wanted to curl up and surround it – and she didn't want to move and touch it. She wanted to writhe – and couldn't seem to remember how to past the pain. Couldn't even concentrate enough to active the materia in her gloves and she'd thought she could do that in her sleep. Somehow she still managed to hear, past the rushing in her ears, the sound of footsteps, slow and calm, approaching on the metal stairs.
Zack…
The pale man was coming for Zack.
The pain was everywhere, drowning her but – he was going to kill Zack!
He'd have to get past her first.
Squeezing her eyes closed she concentrated. Sweat broke out on her forehead and she heard her own breathing starting to wheeze in her throat, filling her ears. Felt liquid filling her throat and mouth.
She sounded like Dad.
The thought made her realize - this was about more than Zack. It flashed through her mind as she inhaled liquid. This was about Marlene and Denzel and the entire team down at the Shinra mansion. The nameless faces in Wutai and Costa del Sol. Aerith's father and the horror in his eyes when he spoke of thoughts inserted into his own mind that weren't his and creatures that were supposed to be long dead that spoke. This was about the madman of Wutai and Jenova and horrible things happening to the world – all because of the white haired man on the stairs.
"Zack?" it wheezed out of her and from somewhere behind and to the side he answered. His voice was just a broken as hers. Did he know what she was thinking…?
"Finish it, Teef."
Her fingers jerked in response. Flicked crimson blood from the puddle she way lying in. Locking her jaw, biting down hard with her teeth, she made them flick again and then slow, sight spinning with white lights and then going black at its edges, she made her hand move. Not much. Just a little. Just – just a little…
Black boots moved into her vision, just the toes of them, standing there in her blood. Waiting. Slow, painful, buying time, she gave him what he wanted and turned her face. Just enough to see his. Or the blur of him because the pain had ripped tears into her eyes and she hated – hated – to think he might think those tears were for him.
Only Cloud was allowed to have her tears.
Only Cloud…
"Pitiful," his voice was calm. And Tifa bared her teeth in what would have to pass for a grin. Knowing she needed a real zinger of a come back. But all she managed was:
"Yep."
And her thumb pushed the button on the trigger in the pocket of her vest and the explosions started.
Tifa's head fell back so that her face was once again almost buried in her own blood and exhaled completely. An explosion of Lifestream and fire flew over her head and scorched her hair. Her last thought surprisingly was –
'at least now I don't have to worry about not acting guilty the next time I see Cissnei…'
