Chapter 105: Into the Dark
"So where's Sephiroth?" Zack asked it in the brief moment between cutting down a silver haired clone and the next wave of bizarre monsters. Tifa had been wondering the same.
If she were guessing, she'd guess they were at least halfway down the hall. Behind them were, in no order, dissolving clones, monster bodies, fleeing Shinra workers and the rest of their team. In front of them…
In front of them was the end of their world and a whole lot of more of what they'd already waded through to before they got to it.
Cloud shook his head, hair damp against his forehead. They were all sweating and bloody and covered in monster gore. Despite the Cure spells and potions, they were panting and bleeding and bruised. Cloud wasn't using his left arm any more and Zack had taken up a position at his left to cover him there. A small, steady trickle of black was dripping off of Cloud's fingers on that side, mixing with the rest of the gore on the corridor. Zack had a wicked looking cut across his jaw that was leaving red drops on his shoulder plate and Tifa suspected that one or more of her fingers were dislocated and she hadn't had time to snap them back into place so that a Cure would heal them right. Just in front of them Red and Vincent, the latter in some kind of monster form Tifa had never seen before, were giving them a break by fighting as the front line. In the hallway, the amount of trouble that could come at them at the same time was limited and Tifa was grateful.
She grit her teeth and messed with her fingers as Cloud answered Zack's question:
"At the end. Just before Jenova herself probably." He reached out and took Tifa's fingers in his, the warmth and comfort of it helping make up for the pain as he straightened them for her.
"Wouldn't it make more sense to just keep throwing him at us?" Zack asked as Red's burst of energy lit up the hallway and several clones vanished without a chance to even disperse into black mist. "I mean, he channels through the clones, right? So can't she just send him out and give him a new body each time he dies? Why are we fighting second rate clones instead of him, him, him?"
The glow of a Cure spell moved over Tifa's fingers as Cloud cast it and then he shut his eyes and lifted her hand to his lips, rubbing.
"He's mad," Cloud's voice was soft and Vincent's bubbling, tar-thick laughter almost drowned it out. "There's nothing sane left of him. But he's strong. And he hates her." Something in the soft way he said it told Tifa it was a memory he was reliving, not speculation. It answered her question about whether he'd been aware when he'd been carrying Sephiroth inside his head with him. His lips pressed a kiss to her knuckles and he opened his eyes, aqua and beautiful. "He's hard for her to control. She'll save him for last."
"This is no good, man," Zack reached out to give Tifa's hair a gentle tug. Needing the touch but not having the excuse that Cloud and Tifa did. She gave him a smile and leaned a shoulder against his chest while she raised her fingers to rub them over Cloud's cheek.
"We're gonna be burned out just when we need our energy most," Zack commented, shaking his head. Cloud nodded, a single, thoughtful gesture and exhaled, leaning his head a little so Tifa's fingers could thread into his hair. It made her smile and she lightly scratched his head for him. On either side of them chaos continued to reign but for the moment they could breathe.
"All right," Cloud's voice was low. "Let's do this differently. Let's take the vents."
Zack blinked at him and Tifa looked sideways at the nearby air vent in the wall.
"Isn't that what that spider thing came out of earlier?" she asked hesitantly. Cloud made a quiet noise of affirmation.
"So… monsters in enclosed spaces where we can't swing our swords and materia is probably going to backlash on us if we use it?" Zack asked for clarification.
"Hopefully most of the monsters will be outside of the vents in the hallway," Cloud's dry voice didn't, however, disagree with Zack's assessment of the suggestion.
Zack turned his head to look at Red and Vincent in front of them. At the semi-orderly fleeing people and the rest of the team spread out to protect and direct them in the other direction. He scratched at his bottom lip. Then he shrugged and grinned at Cloud.
"I suppose you wanna be in line behind Tifa for the view, huh?"
Tifa hit him, not entirely lightly, as Cloud snorted.
"Of course." He simply gave her an innocent look when she turned on him. "But Tifa has to go last. Her legs are stronger than ours."
"In case anything comes up behind us?" she didn't want to ask it and Cloud didn't want to answer because he simply nodded.
"All right," Zack punched his fist into his other palm. "I'm goin' first. 'Cause I'm bigger than you two and if I get stuck because the vent's too small you're going to have to pull me out."
There was a moment of thoughtful contemplation and Red skid back into their group as something threw him and he managed to get his feet under him. Tifa cast an automatic Cure over his matted fur.
"We're taking a side route. Think you can keep this up here?" Cloud asked the beast and Red snorted. He was ragged looking but his single golden eye was gleaming.
"The mutt fights well," he answered in his rough, rolling voice. "I think we will continue."
Not waiting for an answer or, Tifa thought, the possibility of having to hear last words, his toenails clicked on the slick floor as he charged back into the fight.
"Let's go," Cloud's voice was steady. "The faster we end this, the safer our friends are."
'Friends'. Not 'team'… Despite the situation, Tifa smiled.
They didn't automatically take the first vent. Instead they waited until the hallway curved and the battle moved beyond the curve. If they were sneaking, entering a vent while the enemy was watching probably wasn't the way to do it. They paused, crouched down in front of their chosen vent once they'd taken the grate off and all three of them listened carefully. The sounds of battle echoed strangely down the vent but Tifa at least couldn't hear any scrapes or soft sounds that would hint at anything waiting deeper inside. If Zack or Cloud heard anything, they decided to go anyway, because Zack pushed forward, head and shoulders into the metal opening and then, after a minute more, started forward. Cloud turned to look at Tifa. What was in his eyes made her heart soften and she gave him a weak smile.
"I love you too," she answered and he made a soft sound that might have been a chuckle. Tender, he reached out to stroke her cheek.
"See?" his voice was just as soft as his touch. "I'm not the only one that can read minds now."
Quick, he leaned forward and kissed her, spiking fire through her, and then he turned and fit himself into the vent. She watched the soles of his boots disappear.
"I want him. For always," she whispered the prayer into the hall and then scooted forward to follow her friends into the dark embrace of the vent.
The metal was slick and cold under her knees and a lot more uneven and harsh than movies made it out to be. It made clambering along awkward but it was manageable. She could only imagine how Cloud and Zack, with their wider shoulders and oversized swords were doing though. Looking ahead their forms blocked out any of the light that might have been seeping in through the regularly placed grates most of the time and she relied on the sound of them, the soft slide of fabric, the tap of their boot toes and the scrape of metal to let her keep track of their forward motion. She hoped, if they stopped, Cloud would at least grunt at her or something or she'd be plowing up over the tops of his shoes before she realized it. She realized the metal was a bit slippery under one of her gloves as she moved and her heart twisted when she realized it was the left glove that was following the left side of the vent. She knew what Cloud was doing.
He was putting everything he had left inside himself into this one, last effort. There wouldn't be anything left for him to fall back on when it was done.
She'd just make sure she would be there to catch him at the end.
Nicely enough, Cloud did make a humming sound in front of her each time they stopped so Zack could peer out of grates into rooms or dim hallways beyond. Whenever they did stop Tifa would reach forward and curl her fingers over the backs of Cloud's boots. Just… just for the solid feel of him. The first time she did, he made a soft sound and rocked his foot just a little. Just so that she would know he was aware of her and there. Finally, after a long stop in a line of stops, Zack's whisper floated, tinny and bouncing, back to them.
"Looks like the end of the line. There's a grate ahead and that's it." There was a pause. "Stay put and I'll check it out."
Cloud gave a grunt of agreement and she heard him shifting his sword, carefully aware of her behind him. Another moment more, and Zack made shuffling noises that started to grow faint. Under her palms, Cloud's boots started to shift so she let go, shifting back just a little and wondering if she could find a way to get comfortable for just a minute or two while Zack played scout. Her knees hurt and her arms felt sore.
"I hate tight places," Cloud's whispered comment sounded more as if he was saying it to himself than reminding her. But it did remind her. Both he and Zack hated enclosed places and this had to be so much worse than the cave entrance in Wutai.
"Cloud…" she reached forward for his shoe again and her fingers closed over the toe of it. He was apparently on his back.
"Tifa," his voice was soft but it was obviously a call despite the quiet of it and she made a soft noise herself as she carefully crawled forward. He pulled her down to rest on top of him and wrapped both arms around her, careless of the fact they were both filthy. It was a startlingly intimate position even considering how they'd slept next to each other before and it took her a long moment to get adjusted to the feeling of it before she relaxed entirely into him. He didn't say anything and she didn't either. They'd already said everything they needed to say and they'd never been good with words anyway. This was better, Tifa decided. Her body would remember this better than her ears would remember any words. His fingers trailed lightly along her spine through the fabric of her shirt and her exhales dusted against his throat.
"Maybe crowded places aren't so bad." Cloud's whisper was almost lost in the silence but she still heard it and against him, she smiled.
There was a moment more of peace and then the sounds of fabric on metal.
"You two are pathetic," Zack's hissed whisper announced his return – and his mako enhanced eyesight. Cloud just grunted.
"Come on," Zack's voice was softer. "We're there but you're not gonna like what you see."
