Note: Hello everyone! I just wanted to say that this chapter is the Cloud final chapter of Love, Aerith. I will post a Zack final chapter next time and that will be it but this chapter is as if it was the ending too… If you are a Zerith fan reading my story please don't skip this chapter just because it's a Clerith ending… Thank you so much everyone!


Love, Aerith

Chapter 11: Rescue

Stay with me

Cloud's heart thumped deafeningly in his ears, and all he could think about was hearing her voice again, seeing her face, and the fact that she might be somewhere alone, hurt and injured. He was almost there, and yet there was this voice inside his head telling him to hurry up before it as too late. Time was passing and the longer he kept going without knowing she was alright the tighter his chest felt. Zack motioned him to slow down while they reached the door to the 63th floor and leaned their backs against the wall to catch their breath. They couldn't help but feel, as they waited on the other side of the door, they were about to enter a house of terror.

They didn't know what to expect from inside those labs, but they knew one thing for certain, they were about to end it. Zack slowly turned the doorknob after taking a deep breath and opened it. At first sight, the corridor seemed deserted, but there was a strange vibration coming from inside. It was dark, and the only thing they could make out were the bright white lights coming from under the several iron doors the corridor held. Suddenly, there was a loud bang echoing from deep within the floor, which caused a cold shiver to run through the two ex-SOLDIERs' bodies. Something was very wrong.

Without warning, loud footsteps marched across the corridor and came close to where they were hiding. Zack and Cloud quickly opened the door closest to them in an attempt to hide, but they were too late because the door was firmly locked. Seconds later, a group of five infantrymen turned the corner, almost bumping into Cloud and Zack. Spotting the intruders, they came to a halt before the leader of the group shouted something for them to get into attack position.

"Cloud… Go." Zack smirked as he drew the long Buster Sword from his back, his eyes not leaving their enemies.

"What? No!" Cloud cried, watching as Zack stretched one arm to the left to let the group of infantrymen know they weren't going to pass by him.

"I'll take care of this. Find Aerith, quick!" Zack insisted and his feet squished on the floor as he rushed towards the group, his sword held tightly between his hands, a smirk on his lips. "God I missed this." He heard the sharp clank of bullets as they rained down upon the surface of his blade while he ran.

Cloud closed his eyes as he ran away from the battlefield to try to distract himself from the sound of bullets and the shouts of the men attacking Zack in the distance. He'll be ok, he kept trying to tell himself. Then Cloud stopped to look around before continuing. It all looked similar to his previous whereabouts.

" Great, more doors," he mumbled under his breath. He reached for one and tried to turn the doorknob but it wouldn't budge. He tried opening one more door before he finally found one that opened. He warily pushed it open and walked inside. His eyes widened as he gazed upon several huge tubes of green fluid standing tall in a corridor of fluorescent green. Each tube housed a vicious dark purple monster that resembled a hell hound. At the tip of their fingers were long grey claws, and their slightly agape mouths revealed rows of small pointed teeth, like that of a piranha. Their heartbeat could be seen thumping heavily against their chests, which meant those creatures were alive and probably still developing. Cloud shuddered, he turned away in disgust to leave the hideous creatures alone. He would deal with them later.

First he needed to find Aerith. He couldn't help but wonder how they could have kept her in the close vicinity of these sorts of things. Treating her like a mere experiment… that was another thing Hojo would pay for. But as Cloud walked away towards the door, he heard a deep growl from behind him. He slowly turned around to face one of those dogs staring at him in a threatening position with fangs bared and pitch black eyes glowing from the light of the mako tubes. He only had time to draw his sword before the dog came jumping towards him, green saliva dropping from its mouth as he went for his arms.


Zack stood up panting as he finished the last one of the infantrymen who tried to stand in his way. He placed the Buster Sword on his back and took a few seconds to catch his breath. He looked at the dead men around him and sighed.

"You asked for it," he said finally. He wasn't going to feel regret for slaying these men. They had tried to kill him ruthlessly before, this couldn't have been avoided. They were there to save Aerith, and he would kill everything and everyone who stood in his way. Without thinking about it much longer, he proceeded.


Aerith had lost count of the times Red had tried to violently throw himself against the cell's glass walls without success. It was a very strong and thick layer of glass, made to keep even the strongest of creatures inside.

"It's no use Red…" She kneeled next to his head and ran her fingers softly through the hair on his shoulders, which were probably already sore. She conjured a small healing spell she had learnt a while ago to help his shoulder heal. "Thank you for your effort my friend. But I don't think we'll be able to get away from this place." She sat back and sighed while a tear escaped her eye. Red dropped his head in sadness.

"There has to be another way." The huge tiger said, his mind searching for a plan they could follow. They couldn't be stuck in this place forever.

Aerith reached for her pendant. There was a strange feeling of anxiety inside her, as she closed her hand around the small silver heart and thought about Cloud. Where was he? Silently sitting there, she did the only thing she could do inside of that small cell, she prayed.

Feeling the soreness on his shoulders lessening, Red continued his attempt to break out of the cell, making a loud sound echo throughout the walls as he did. He wasn't going to give up, that glass had to crack at some point.


Cloud wiped off the blood spattered on his face with the back of his hand and drew back his sword. Turning around, he walked away from that room before more of those dogs crept out from the shadows. Walking further down that floor, he eventually reached a hall where the only way out was through a single door at the end of the corridor. He opened it carefully and entered a bright room full of messy desks with opened books and scattered papers on the desk and floor.

"So, the prodigal son returns home." He heard from one of the corners of the room.

"Hojo…" Cloud's eyes locked on the dark silhouette robed in a doctor's white coat. The man was standing before him, peering through his glasses, shining with the reflection of the bright lights overhead. Cloud walked slowly towards the man, his eyes glaring threateningly at him. Hojo didn't move but he had a sickening smirk on his lips. Cloud placed one hand on Hojo's neck and backed him against the wall to the point that his feet lifted from the floor. "Where's Aerith?" Cloud asked menacingly.

"I knew she was with you." Hojo managed to say between gasps for air as he felt Cloud's hand closing in on his neck. "During the experiments, she kept calling for you as she drifted off into unconsciousness." Cloud's grip on his neck became tighter while his other hand shook violently with rage.

"You've always enjoyed provoking me," Cloud said between gritted teeth. "But I didn't come here so you could test me and my patience. I'm going to ask you this one more time, where is Aerith?"

"Somewhere… safe," Hojo struggled to say before he pulled out the taser-gun he had been carrying in his pocket. Cloud didn't notice what the old man was doing until he felt the shock strike him on his stretched arm. The blond soldier reflexively let go of Hojo and dropped to his knees in pain, gasping for air. While he endured the pain as the electrical shock numbed him, Cloud saw Hojo running away through another door at the back of the room. Cloud rose to his feet with considerable effort, grabbing his stomach while he did, feeling it lurch with sickness and pain.


Zack thought he had heard another muffled bang coming from somewhere within that floor. He tried to follow those sounds as they kept repeating. Something had to be making that loud noise, and since he didn't know where to begin looking for Aerith, he figured the source of that loud noise might provide an answer. When he was finally able to find the door from where the sound was coming from, he tried to open it but it was locked. He sighed, wondering why everything in life had to be so damn hard. He drew the Buster Sword and lifting it high above his head to gain some balance, he sliced the doorknob off, causing the door to unlock and start opening slowly.

Zack found himself facing a long room of transparent cells when his eyes caught something pink in the distance. With a string of hope, his heart started beating fast, and he started running past the cells to reach the one with the pink color.

"Zack!" Aerith called in both disbelief and confusion. Her face brightened up as she saw him standing there on the outside. There was hope after all or perhaps she was dreaming. She had dreamed of seeing him there so many times before that she feared she would wake up any minute now. She reached for the glass that separated them and placed the palms of her hands on the smooth surface. She wanted to touch him, really touch him, and tell him how much she missed him. "I'm so happy to see you." For now this would have to do.

"Aerith..." Zack called from the other side of the glass, smiling kindly at her, relieved that she didn't seem hurt. "Don't worry I'm taking you out of here. Stand back," he ordered.

Red and Aerith leaned against the back wall of their cell while Zack lifted the Buster Sword to try to break the glass. The first attempt was useless, the glass only cracked in a tiny vertical sliver. "What is this thing made of?" Zack asked in frustration. The second strike came down much stronger than the first one and the glass finally broke into pieces. Aerith had to cover her face with her arms not to be hit by the tiniest ones. When the dust settled, and they could finally see each other, Aerith ran towards Zack to embrace him and her freedom.

"Are you ok?" He asked worriedly as they parted. Placing his hands on her shoulders he checked for bruises on her arms or something else that might have indicated injury.

"I am now!" She replied with a smile. "Red had been trying to break that glass before… How did you know I was here?"

"That's a long story… Let's get out of here first." Zack looked behind the flower girl to the orange tiger. "Thank you for taking care of her." Red bowed slightly at Zack's remark, he was the one thankful to that man for breaking them free. "I need to find Cloud now."

"Cloud is here?" Aerith's head started to spin. She needed to see him. "I'm going with you."

Zack shook his head. "No, I should take you somewhere safe."

"I'm not leaving this place without Cloud." Aerith's eyes flickered with determination. She almost stomped her foot in the ground stubbornly.

Zack looked at her attentively, noticing the desperate sound in her voice. If only she felt that way towards him. "Cloud is going to kill me." He sighed, finally giving in to her statement. It was better to have her close to him than leaving her somewhere alone. At least he could keep an eye on her.


Hojo was about to go inside an elevator that would take him to the roof where a helicopter awaited him when he felt the strong grip of a hand pulling him.

"Were you going somewhere?" Cloud's voice rang out.

"I knew I should have gotten a more powerful taser-gun." Hojo turned around to face the ex-SOLDIER. "One who could put a beast to sleep, isn't that what you are? I gave you those supernatural powers you have, and this is how you thank me?"

"I have nothing to thank you for. I loathe you with every fiber of my being. These aren't new powers you forced onto me, this is a curse. In fact, the reason I'm here is not only to take Aerith back with me, but to put an end to your miserable life. You will no longer destroy the lives of other people like me, like Aerith, like… Zack." Cloud said while he drew his sword from his back to point it at the man in front of him. "Any last words?"

"I should be asking you the same, "Hojo smirked.

Cloud heard the safety catches of several guns pointed at him unlocking. A group of infantrymen had surrounded Cloud to protect Hojo.

"Cloud!" Aerith gasped as she entered the room and saw that Cloud was surrounded by a small army. One of the infantrymen pointing his gun at Cloud was suddenly confronted with a situation he wasn't prepared for. In his days of training, Shinra had taught him that in the midst of confusion, he should shoot everything, even if that meant attacking a defenseless woman. He turned his gun around without thinking clearly and shot it anyway despite the consequences. Surely Hojo would thank him for that later, maybe give him a promotion.

He didn't know who he was facing in that moment, he just aimed and shot. It all happened too fast, as soon as Cloud heard the shot, his sword went whistling in the air towards that infantryman's chest and he never knew what hit him. The same thing happened to all the infantrymen; only some of them processed what was actually happening.

Aerith's eyes widened in shock as she felt something very cold pass through the shoulder right above her heart. She gasped for air with the piercing pain and dropped to her knees, feeling Zack's strong arm hold her by the back as she fell. She heard both men scream her name and the last thing she saw before closing her eyes was the vivid color of her blood on her hand and Cloud's terrified face as he looked at her.

"Take her out of here quick!" Zack shouted in fear. "I will end this madness!"

Cloud took Aerith in his arms, carefully holding her delicate body, which seemed so frail now. Tears escaped his eyes as he held her close to his chest and started walking out of there. "What were you doing in there?" His voice broke as his warm lips pressed against her forehead. Her blood soaked up his shirt. "I can't lose you, please hang in there." His chest burned in despair as he looked at her unconscious. It was getting hard to breathe with each step he gave and his vision turned blurry with tears while his mouth dried. He wasn't going to be able to live in a world without Aerith.

By now, Hojo was already on the roof yelling at his worthless servants as he was thinking about starting the helicopter's engine. The night sky above was dark with grey clouds, and the rain fell down heavily. As Hojo placed his foot on the helicopter's step, a hand grabbed him by the collar and violently pulled him down until he fell to the ground.

"This is your entire fault!" Zack shouted at the top of his lungs above the sound of the rain. "You made me lose four years of my life. You made me and Cloud nothing but mere experiments. We had gotten to the point that we didn't even know what we were, and now you tried to do the same thing to Aerith! She's hurt because of you! If something happens to her I swear…" Zack stopped talking to shake away the urge to break that man's neck with his bare hands, ripping flesh and tissue off his body.

Zack kept Hojo in place on the ground with one foot planted firmly on his stomach.

"But no more Hojo. Finally justice will be served. I hope you burn in hell." With that, Zack lifted his Buster Sword with both hands and pierced the old man's body as if he was nothing but a worthless piece of wood in his way.


One week passed before Aerith started feeling better. The wound on her shoulder was healing although she still had to wear a bandage around it for a few more days. She woke up that morning feeling like she was finally able to get out of the house and breathe some fresh air. She spent most of her days sleeping and resting because of the drowsy side effect of the pain medication she was taking and the extra care needed to heal her critical wound. She remembered Cloud sitting there by her side, Zack talking to her, and hearing Red's voice in her room too and it had seemed like he was speaking some sort of gibberish conjuring some words she didn't understand. Now that she had finally woken, none of them were there. She got up and got dressed after taking a careful-not-to-wet-her-bandage shower and walked outside to face a pair of surprised glittering blue eyes as she closed the door of her house.

"Zack!" Her face brightened up.

"What are you doing?" Zack asked in disbelief to see her leaving the house.

"Don't worry, I feel fine!" She smiled reassuringly and she tried to lift her arm, but she only raised her elbow a little before she felt pain and had to drop her arm back carefully.

"I can see that." Zack raised an eyebrow. "You should go back inside."

"Zack… I've been inside far too long now… I needed to get out and see you and… Cloud." She said and looked down at the ground.

"He's at the church now… He's been there for quite some time now actually." Zack informed her.

She lifted her head and stared at him intensely while he stared back at her. For a moment there, none of them knew what to say. They remembered the last day they saw each other, and things didn't go that well between them.

"I had forgotten…" Zack broke the silence as he stared at her, bewildered. His eyes locked on her emerald ones, his voice seductively silky. "How you were able to strike me breathless." He gently placed a lock of her chestnut brown hair behind her ear with his fingertips.

"Don't say that…" She almost pleaded; her voice came out a little shaky. She smiled at him warmly. She couldn't help it, but when she looked at Zack, all the memories of their past seemed like an eternity away. He had been her first love and that's how she wanted to remember him when she looked back on that time, that's what she felt like when she looked back at him, at those shimmering blue eyes. She would never forget that he had been her first love.

"I'm sorry…" She said while her eyes started burning with tears. Her reaction showed that she didn't have the courage to tell him aloud.

"It's alright." Zack smiled a tiny reassuringly smile. "I understand. I figured it would end like this." Aerith slowly leaned forward and getting on tiptoes to reach him she kissed him tenderly at the corner of his lips. She let the warm tears fall down her cheeks softly as her lips felt the warmth of his skin. She couldn't help but feel guilty that she caused him so much pain.

"This is not a goodbye." She whispered as she fell back on her feet. Zack gently brushed her tears away with the back of his finger and smiled at her.

"Of course not!" He said cheerfully, but his heart carried a bittersweet sadness within. He didn't want to believe it was a goodbye but he wasn't going to be able to be around her knowing that she couldn't be his.

"Thank you Zack. For everything." She said while her hand caressed his cheek. He held that hand on his one last time until she slowly started walking away and their hands parted.


Cloud stood at the church, the place where they had first met. Somehow that place calmed him. Everything was silent as he stood there lost in his thoughts. He had been feeling so helpless these past few days just watching her sleep that he thought the very least he could do was going to that place and put whatever faith he had into praying for her recovery.

The dusk light came down through the hole in the ceiling and illuminated the flower bed which glittered in hues of yellow and green. He thought about the day he almost boarded that train out of that city. If he had, all would have been lost, Aerith would still be in that lab probably, and Zack wouldn't have heard from him again. He shook his head as he tried to forget about that. Aerith was getting better; he was still there and would forever wait for her regardless of her decision. But would she come to him this time? If she hadn't been captured by the Turks, would she have made it in time to stop him? No… this time, he would make sure he had the time to be there for her.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of footsteps at the entrance of the abandoned church. He slowly turned around on his feet to see her silhouette against the fading sunlight coming from outside. Was he hallucinating from the lack of sleep? If not, what could she possibly be doing there then? He saw her emerald eyes glittering and her rosy lips curving into a wide smile as she looked at him. Her chest was moving quickly as she regained her breath from running as fast as she could all the way there.

He took one step forward in her direction to make sure he would hold her if she was to fall, but she followed his moves. Slowly but determinedly they walked towards each other until they were only inches away from touching.

"I'm here Cloud… and I want to be with you, forever." She said almost too eager while her hand cupped his chin. "I was afraid I'd be too late this time." She said worriedly.

"I would have waited forever." Cloud replied and closed in on their distance. He placed his arms around her slim body, holding her tightly against his making sure he wouldn't hurt her bandaged shoulder. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, thankful she was there, and she returned the embrace by placing her arms firmly around his body, her hands tightly gripping the back of his shirt. She felt like never letting go of him now that he was finally there. "I missed you, Aerith."

"Cloud…" She said softly.

"It's ok…" Cloud pulled back to look into her eyes. "I'll never let go of you again." He said as if reading her mind. She smiled warmly, that's all she needed to know. Gently, he brushed his lips against hers. Finally she was there with him, and he was never letting go.


Dear Zack,

It took me a while before I finally decided to write you this letter. I heard you went back to your village in Gongaga… I was happy to hear you were doing fine. I wanted to let you know that Cloud and I have been traveling around the world; he's been showing me these new places. For someone who had never left Midgar before, I have to say I'm doing great!

I don't know if you had heard news of us before, but I figured you would like to know something about us. I wish we could meet again as it's been what… two years since I last saw you? Maybe, who knows, if you would like, we could pass by your village and look you up. I'd love to see you again and I know Cloud would too. He talks sometimes about past missions that both of you went on, and he gets this look in his eyes. . . He misses you. I do too you know. Zack, I can never thank you enough for all you've done.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Love, Aerith.


Another note: So, this was it for Cloud! I liked to write this story so much and I love both couples so much that I had to do two versions of its ending! I hope you don't mind! The Zack chapter will be very different from this one, so please if you were reading my story read both versions and tell me what you think, Clerith or Zerith fans you are all great! Thank you everyone reading! And thank you so much to the people reviewing! You kept me going! Also, a special thanks to my lovely beta chibipinkbunny!She has been great with me; I gave her so much work on this one! Thank you so much Bunny!!! Also I want to thank Persistence because she puts up with me and I always ask her so many questions about parts in the game I can't remember! I hope you liked the ending!!!