The next day, Cloud found himself sitting in his history teacher's classroom in his usual slouched position while she called the roll. As her nasally voice called out different names, his head lolled to the side and he stared out the window, studying the weather.

After the sudden heat blast, all the moisture in the ground had evaporated and gathered into large storm clouds above Mt. Nibel that threatened to rain at any moment. Deep in the clouds, lightning flashes were briefly lighting up the vapor masses. Despite the weather, the two history classes at the school had decided to push through with the field trip to the mako reactor anyway. They would join together to take a battered old bus up the mountain side to the reactor.

Zack had immediately nominated Cloud as his seat buddy the second he found the blonde after receiving the news in his class.

"Of course, I'll let you get the window seat," the raven haired young man had laughed. Cloud grimaced. He hated mechanical transportation vehicles.

Looking back to the front of the class, he noticed Mrs. Rigs was almost finished with the roll call.

Finally, he thought to himself.

Mrs. Rigs slapped the attendance book closed and stood up from her desk. "Alright, students! Settle down! Yes, you too, Johnny. So! As you all know we're taking a field trip to the mako reactor today." There were a few excited whispers and exasperated moans from the teenagers.

"Quiet! We'll be heading out to the bus in just a few minutes. We will have some of the ShinRa enforcement officers with us to make sure none of you get into any trouble, Johnny." The redhead smirked from his seat in the back of the room.

Mrs. Rigs continued, "We also have been given the honor of receiving a tour of the mako reactor from one of Midgar's top scientists! This is a truly rare opportunity, and I expect all of you to make the most of it!" More whispers circulated around the room and even Cloud perked up at the news. Nobody ever came from Midgar. Because of its status as capitol of Gaia, the renowned and rich from the upper crust of society flocked to the metropolis. Very few who lived there viewed any city or town on the outside worthy of attention. The fact that one of the capitol's top scientists was visiting was phenomenal at the very least.

As the class started filing out of the room, Cloud spotted Tifa. She gave a small wave and said, "Hi, Cloud," before disappearing into the swarm of people making their way down the hall to the front entrance of the building. Cloud pushed into the crowd himself and started weaving through all the people. As he made it out of the building, he spotted the bus and his heart sank.

The old bus was painted with the typical yellow color, but the paint had started to flake off and reveal the rusted metal underneath. The small stop sign on the driver's side had been bent to an almost ninety degree angle and one of the headlights was completely busted and fogged over. Looking it over, Cloud started to wonder if the rickety old bus would even make it out of Nibelheim, a whopping trip of six or seven minutes. Standing around the bus were the ShinRa enforcement officers, but Cloud was surprised at their dress.

Instead of the traditional Caps uniform, these men wore a more militaristic style. Each man wore a strange, streamlined helmet with a small protrusion covering the forehead. The protrusion had three red glass orbs forming a triangle in the center. Underneath it, the troopers' eyes were covered by a dark visor. The soldiers wore a light green scarf, a button down dark blue shirt, and baggy pants of the same color were held up by a thick leather belt with padded suspenders. On their shoulders were smooth silver pauldrons and their knees had metal guards as well. They wore brown leather boots and gloves as well as leather straps that strapped the bottom of the pant legs to the boots so they would not get caught in something. A nightstick was strapped to one of their legs, and – more alarmingly – two or three of the troopers even had semi-automatic weapons strapped over a shoulder.

As Cloud studied them, Zack walked up and crossed his arms at the sight. "Are the guns really necessary? What on earth do they think we're going to be doing up there, anyway?"

"Maybe it's for the monsters around the reactor," guessed Cloud. "After all, we've seen firsthand what all the mako is doing to them."

"Still, it's a bit unsettling."

"Yeah."

The doors of the bus opened and the students started to climb into the rusted out vehicle. Cloud and Zack walked down the aisle of the bus, looking for a decent seat. All the imitation leather cushions were worn to the point that foam and springs stuck up out of some, while others had chew marks from some type of animal. As Cloud and Zack sat in their seat, the bench beneath them gave a drawn out creak. Both boys shared a slightly nervous glance.

"Do you think this hunk of junk will keep itself together on the way up and back?" Zack chuckled.

"No, not really," muttered Cloud as the doors of the bus swing shut with a hiss.

The bus driver was one of the officers in charge of the trip, but his slightly intimidating presence from his military garb was canceled out when he stuck the key in the bus ignition and the machine grumbled to life for a brief second before giving a belching cough – which gained a couple of squeals from the students in the front seats – and shuddering back into silence. The driver cursed and opened the bus doors to march out and promptly kick the bald tires and then the hood of the bus.

Zack was snorting at the scene when the engine suddenly roared back to life, once again startling the students in the front of the bus. The driver climbed back into the bus, shut the doors, and then the bus started to pull away from the school. Zack started up a conversation with some girls on the neighboring seat while Cloud stared out the window at the scenery going by. It only took a few minutes for the bus to leave Nibelheim and start the long winding climb up the mountain to the reactor.

While the bus was groaning and scrambling up the gravel road, Zack started to joke with the girls about the structural integrity of the bus as they were bounced around by the bumpy road. Their laughs echoed hollowly in Cloud's ears as he felt his stomach start to churn slightly at the blur of trees outside his window. He clamped his mouth shut and held still, fearing any movement would upset his nauseous stomach even more.

Zack turned to ask his friend something, but when he saw his stiff posture and pale face, he thought otherwise.

"Oh, man. I forgot you had problems with motion sickness. Just hang in there, alright buddy?"

Cloud didn't answer as he tried to keep down his breakfast.

When the bus finally wheezed to a halt at the mako reactor and the students were let off, Cloud bolted out of the doors with Zack still a few people back. He came to a stop a few feet away from the bus and bent over, concentrating on breathing as he fought down his close call with vomiting. As his sweaty face started to regain some color, he groaned at the thought of making the second trip down the mountain side. He felt a gentle hand on his back and looked up to see Tifa, concern reflected in her deep red eyes.

"Are you okay, Cloud?" she asked as he looked back down at the ground. After a brief moment, he nodded and straightened up with a deep breath.

"I'm fine, thanks," he said curtly. Tifa backed off and headed back to Eleanor and Shera with a little wave. Zack walked up and took his arm.

"Come on, man. Let's get with the rest of the group," he ordered as he pulled the blonde's arm toward the crowd of students.

In front of the crowd, one of the ShinRa officers had stepped forward. His red scarf made him stand out from the other troopers.

"Okay!" he belted out over the noise of the talking students. The teenagers all gave him their attention and quieted down. Once he was sure everyone was listening, the trooper continued.

"This facility is the source of income for many of you and your families, so I expect all of you to act respectfully inside and do not disrupt any of the processes or distract the workers even if you know them! If any of you make a problem, you will be removed from the group and forced to remain on the bus while one of my men babysits you. Do not let that happen! We have no patience for that type of crap, got it?" A few mumbles of consent came from the group. "Good! Do exactly as we say and no one will get hurt in the reactor."

With that said, the trooper took a step back. The entrance to the reactor – a large metal wall – slid down into the ground just then and out stepped a large bellied man in his late fifties with gray steaked, dull black hair. He wasn't exactly the tallest person Cloud had seen; he appeared to be at most five feet and seven inches. He wore a lab coat with tan slacks and a t-shirt underneath the coat that said "Banora." The man strolled over to the school group. Every step he took made a loud clapping noise, and Cloud realized he was wearing flip flops. The man came to a stop and started stroking his graying goatee while he surveyed the group before him.

"Good afternoon, children," he rumbled. His voice was quite deep. "My name is Dr. Hollander. I will be giving you all… a 'tour' of this mako reactor."

The students started whispering among themselves. So this was the scientist from Midgar. Cloud stared disbelievingly at Dr. Hollander's attire. That was what the rich wore? Seriously?

As if reading his thoughts, Zack leaned over and whispered, "He's not exactly easy on the eyes, is he?" Cloud's expression answered the question for him.

Dr. Hollander began walking back to the reactor. Cloud could have sworn he heard the scientist mutter, "Hopefully this won't take forever. I don't have time for this."

The students followed the scientist into the reactor. The many different shoes clanked against the metal floor as the ShinRa troops shut the door behind the two school classes. They all came to a stop on a large platform with a railing to stop people from wandering over the edge and into the large, glowing open space. The students lined up against the railing and peered over the edge. Cloud grabbed the railing tightly as he looked over the edge and felt a sense of vertigo. The reactor was deep; there appeared to be at least five stories that lead down to the glowing pit of roiling mako below. The thick liquid sluggishly splashed against the sides of the pit, leaving splatters of glowing green residue on the rock walls. A few of the splashes of mako appeared to be evaporating, but it was a strange type of evaporation if that was what one could call it. Strands and wisps of green light snaked off the drying mako before disappearing. About twenty feet above, few catwalks stretched across the diameter of the pit, leading to different rooms carved into the stone of the mountain side. Looking up, Cloud realized that the reactor was open to the sky. It made sense, he thought as he detected a strange metallic and earthy smell coming from the mako far below.

Dr. Hollander started the tour by leading the teenagers down two flights of stairs and into a large control room with a glass wall. Behind the glass was a large room that had been blasted into the rock. A large turbine hummed inside. As all the students gawked, Dr. Hollander explained the usage of mako.

"… and because of those properties, mako does not need to be enriched like uranium. By itself, mako releases more than five times the amount of energy in fission than the uranium-235 that was used in nuclear reactors over sixty years ago. There are no harmful air emissions, and the byproducts of mako fission are less radioactive than the mako itself, and therefore are released back into the Planet's Lifestream for later use." Cloud stared through the glass without fully seeing as the scientist drawled on in the background. Tifa walked up next to him and Zack with her two friends. The girls and boys stuck together as the scientist led them out of the room. The tour continued to a byproduct containment room and then to a room for the staff to suit up in case of an emergency.

As the group made its way back into the large open space, a boom of thunder sounded above and rattled the catwalk the group was currently standing on. One of the troopers quickly interrupted Dr. Hollander mid-sentence.

"Sir, the lightning storm is right on top of us. We need to take these kids into one of the rooms so there isn't a lightning strike hazard."

Hollander laughed. "No, that's alright. We're on the last leg of the tour, we have time to make it to the top story so they can get on their bus and go home."

"But sir—"

"Quiet! Quit wasting my time and do as I say!" the scientist snapped. The trooper backed off, but Cloud, Tifa, Zack, Shera, and Eleanor looked at each other nervously.

"A lightning storm while we're standing on these metal catwalks?" whispered Tifa. "I don't like it." She nervously hugged herself as she looked up at the dark sky above. A light drizzle had started to fall down into the reactor and patter on all the walking surfaces, making them slippery and dangerous. She really didn't like the look of this. All her senses were screaming at her that something wasn't right. She shivered and then felt a hand on her arm. She looked up met Cloud's icy blue eyes. They glittered reassuringly.

"It's going to be fine, Tifa," he said in his quiet, rough voice. A flash of lightning above lit up the gloomy interior of the reactor, and for a split second, the lighting around them was a mix of white light and glowing green as a crackling boom echoed around the reactor. It was enough to change Hollander's mind.

"We're going to end the tour now!" he shouted over the rain that had started falling harder into the reactor. "Everyone, hurry back to the room we were just in!"

All the students began scrambling back towards the rock wall. Cloud and the others were at the very back of the group as it rushed to the safety of the suit up room. The rain pinged loudly against the walkways, making them even more slippery and treacherous. Another flash of lightning crashed overhead, prompting screams from some of the students and startling Tifa. She faltered for a small step and it cost her her balance as her foot skidded and slipped on the metal. She went down hard with a yell as she slid under the railing that stood between her and the mako below. Cloud stopped running and turned to spot her hanging from the catwalk with two hands. Zack and the two other girls were almost to the suit up room when they heard Tifa's shout. The three stopped and started to frantically run back to their friends, but Cloud waved them away.

"Don't worry!" he called to them. "I've got her!" The three nodded and they made it to the room within a few more steps as Cloud fell on his belly and quickly grabbed Tifa's wrists. "Don't worry, I got you!" he grunted as he started trying to pull her back onto the catwalk, ignoring the feeling of his straining muscles. "I won't let you fall! I promise!" She stared up at him in terror, tears running down her cheeks. A couple of the troopers spotted Cloud helping Tifa to her feet and started rushing towards them.

"What are you two kids doing?" shouted one of the troopers. "Hurry it up!"

Just as Cloud and Tifa were about to answer, Cloud felt the air crackle around him and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. A third lightning strike flashed – into the reactor itself. The bolt of electricity from the sky struck one of the catwalks overhead and the structure broke off from the wall with the screeching sounds of tearing metal. Cloud and Tifa could only watch in horror as the large metal walkway seemed to fall slow motion towards them. The troopers were skidding to a halt on the slippery catwalk and shouting at the two to move, but there was no time. The large hunk of metal railing and platform crashed against the wall, knocking a few large rocks loose before slamming into Cloud and Tifa's catwalk.

The impact was incredible. Cloud was knocked into the air for a few seconds alongside Tifa before they hit the bending and flexing catwalk as it started to tilt down into the mako, the weight of the fallen walkway proving to be too much for it to hold. Tifa was securely holding on to a mangled piece of railing, grasping it with all her strength. Cloud was relieved to see she was safe, and he started to crawl towards her when their catwalk shuddered and started dipping down at an even faster rate, groans from the metal echoing around them. Adrenaline spiked in Cloud's blood and his stomach dropped as he felt himself start to slide away from Tifa and towards the drop into the Planet's glowing green lifeblood below.

Spotting him slipping, Tifa cried out, "Cloud, take my hand!" She reached as far as she dared towards him as he tried to reach back. The two locked eyes like that day not so long ago in the hallway. The difference between then and now was as obvious as black and white. Cloud's clear blue eyes were dark with terror and Tifa could only look on in horror as his hand missed hers and he continued to slide out of reach. His hands grabbed at the smooth platform surface, but he could find no purchase.

Cloud helplessly started to slide down the steep slope of the broken catwalk at an even faster rate. As he slid down, he sped over a jagged piece of metal that had broken off the platform. It sliced the underside of his left forearm and his mouth opened in a silent scream at the sharp pain. The silent scream turned into a real one that echoed throughout the facility as he finally reached the steepest point and dropped off the catwalk towards the bubbling mako below. He could see Tifa's mouth open as she cried out in horror to him, but he could not hear it or his classmates' screams over the blood roaring in his ears as he fell.

He had always thought that twenty feet was not that big of a drop, but his fall felt like an eternity. He could only watch as the mako rushed to meet him. He crashed into the pool of viscous liquid and fell deep into the pool before he finally came to a halt. He frantically swam towards what he hoped was the surface, but he was completely lost and the thick mako made movement extremely difficult in his panic. After a few seconds, Cloud's eyes started to tingle, but the feeling soon turned into pricks of itches and pain. The fresh gash on his arm lazily leaked blood into the green liquid being churned by his movement and the mako took its place in his bloodstream.

It burned like fire and had the strange almost gritty feeling like a limb that was regaining circulation after falling asleep. Cloud felt the sensation slowly travel down into his left hand and slowly up his arm towards the rest of his body. The pain was the most debilitating thing he had ever felt in his life. He opened his mouth to cry out in pain, but the mako flooded his mouth while he lost precious air from his lungs. The mako gushed into his lungs, burning just as badly there as in his arm. He thrashed frantically as the mako spread throughout his body, screaming into the green world around him until he suddenly heard whispers. The whispers echoed in the back of his mind, building momentum until they became shouts that echoed in his skull. Memories not his own started to pound against his mind and flash before his eyes. In his shock, Cloud stopped struggling in the mako, not noticing as he slowly started to sink. He watched through frozen eyes as the light green surface of the mako pool started to disappear as he sank into its dark green depths.

The cacophony of voices in his head reached a fever pitch and he finally screamed out in his head, Leave me alone! The voices did not stop and Cloud felt himself start to sink into a mental darkness. He panicked and tried to shake himself into awareness, but the darkness kept closing in. He felt his eyes begin to close as the gritty fire burned throughout his body, paralyzing him. He soon became too weak to fight back.

When strong arms wrapped around him and started to pull him towards the surface, he was too deep in the safe, painless recesses of his mind to feel his rescue.

Tifa stood with her classmates, wrapped in a blanket as she shivered in shock at what had just happened. After Cloud had fallen into the mako, he had not resurfaced. The ShinRa officers had run around the far length of the catwalk to retrieve her while calling into their radios for more help. They had carefully pulled her back away from the mangled railing despite her flailing and screams at them to do something about Cloud. As they walked the shaking girl back to her classmates, Tifa had spotted some of the reactor's paramedics gearing up in the special suits she had seen in the room her classmates were taking refuge in. The men had run to a set of metal rings bolted into the wall and one of them had put on a harness with a cable that the others had hooked onto the rings before they lowered him into the mako.

Tifa and her classmates watched on as the search continued. After a few minutes, the cable jerked a few times and the men on the secure catwalk started pulling the cable up out of the mako. The group of students had surged forward to see what was happening, Tifa in the front.

Slowly, the man who had gone into the mako after Cloud started to rise out of the lake of green. As his chest cleared the surface, everyone could see a head with limp blonde spikes resting against him. As the diver finally came free of the mako, Tifa stared at Cloud's motionless form. In her heart, she feared for the worst.

The diver finally settled onto the catwalk and he set Cloud down so he was lying flat on the ground. The diver hurried off to change out of his suit while the other workers got to work on the small blonde teenager. One of them immediately started performing CPR and the other reached into a bag he had brought with him and started to towel off as much mako from Cloud as he could. Tifa only managed to see that much before the teachers, troopers, and Dr. Hollander started to push the students back into the suit up room.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Tifa. Mrs. Rigs gently placed her hands on the girl's shoulders.

"Tifa, we want you all to stay in here so you don't see if… If something bad happens," the teacher explained in an uncharacteristically gentle voice.

Tifa stared up at her teacher, not able to comprehend what she meant until it suddenly hit her. "Oh, goddess. You think he's going to die, don't you?" Mrs. Rigs' silence confirmed it for Tifa, and tears started to streak down her face. A few of her classmates watched the scene with fear written across their features. Eleanor and Shera wove through the crowd to reach their friend, each giving her a reassuring hug as she stared at their teacher.

"He was down there for over five minutes, dear," the older woman explained softly. "He... may have drowned. And even if he didn't, very few people survive that much exposure to mako."

Tifa shook her head in denial. "That can't be! He'll be alright!" Before her teacher could answer, Tifa roughly pushed past and ran to where the reactor paramedics were trying to resuscitate Cloud. The shouts of the ShinRa officers were ignored as she raced past them. She slowed to a stop as she reached the blonde young man. The paramedic performing CPR did not allow himself to be distracted as Tifa kneeled down next to Cloud, taking his right hand in hers as she avoided his injured left arm. His skin was cold and damp from the drying mako that coated it. She looked into his face, willing his closed blue eyes to open.

"Please wake up, Cloud," she whispered. "You saved me. Please come back."

As if answering her plea, Cloud's chest suddenly started heaving as he began coughing up the green mako out of his lungs and taking in life-giving gulps of air. His paramedic turned to one of the officers who had chased after Tifa and told him, "Go alert the teachers and chaperones that this young man is breathing again." The troop gave a nod and sprinted back to the students, careful not to slip on the wet catwalk. Tifa and the paramedic carefully rolled Cloud onto his side so he would not choke on the green gunk he hacked out of his lungs.

The paramedic reached into the bag next to him and pulled out two towels. Handing one to Tifa, he ordered, "You can clean the mako off of his face. I need to deal with his arm." Tifa looked at the injury the paramedic was about to tend to. The long gash was covered in a thick layer of black residue. As Tifa looked closer, she realized it was a mix of drying blood and mako. She felt herself become slightly nauseous at the sight as the paramedic began to carefully wipe the worst of it off the wound.

As Tifa used the cloth given to her to wipe the mako off of Cloud's chin and neck, the paramedic who had dived to save him reappeared with another man as they carried a stretcher over to the revived boy. Tifa let go of his hand and backed away as he was lifted onto the stretcher and rushed to the top story of the reactor.

She stood so still as she watched them she had not noticed Zack standing next to her as they took his best friend away. She turned to see his red eyes and the tear tracks along his cheeks. He felt her stare and glanced at her. He then asked a question that echoed in her mind as well.

"What's going to happen now?"

A/N: Oh no! Poor Cloud. D: This was such an amazing chapter to write as well as the largest to date: 4,500+ words! I've been wanting to write it for months now, and once I started I just couldn't stop! I ended up typing until 1:30 in the morning for this one. xP

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Irish-Brigid: I know, they're so awkward! I'm glad that came across well enough. xD

sunflowerspot: Thank you! I just couldn't leave out Denzel. He's gonna pop up again real soon. :)

Please leave reviews! They help inspire me to keep on writing. :D