Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

A/N: As you've no doubt noticed, I changed my pen name.

Reviews, critiques and flames are welcome. I absolutely love all reviews about the story as it gives me motivation, I use good constructive criticism to help my writing improve and I feed the flames to the fires of my imagination.

Thanks to my before posting beta Queen of Jokers and my after posting beta SubZeroChimera!

"Get busy living or get busy dying." –Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption

Chapter 61

After Hojo entered and he'd been dismissed, Tseng went directly to Rude's desk, "It's started. Get Reno," Tseng walked to his desk and pulled out the papers and found the file to put them in. He glanced up and saw Reno walking with his usual laid back stroll and Rude not far behind him. Tseng weaved himself out of his office and got the file to Reno.

Without missing a step Reno nodded, "Sir," He took it and walked toward the back elevators. Rude followed Tseng back into his office. Tseng typed in the password to the secure Turk computer and the bald Turk sat at Tseng's desk, pulled the file up and quickly got the enhanced security footage and bugged program transferred to the main computer.

Tseng's phone rang and with the most professional voice, he answered, "This is Tseng… yes sir I will be right there." He hung the phone up and glanced at Rude as he went back to his own desk.

Opening the door to the office, Tseng took several steps in and bowed, "Sir, you wished to see me?" He stood back up.

The President looked up from the computer and waved Tseng over, "Perhaps you can tell me what this is?" His tone was accusatory.

"Of course sir," Tseng walked around to see the computer screen and Hojo glanced up at him. He looked at the very grainy black and white image, "What is it that I am looking for sir?"

"Just wait a moment when you come into view… see there!" The President pointed to something on the screen.

"Could you replay it for me?" Tseng looked over the President's shoulder and could see Hojo wiggling in expectancy.

Tseng came into view with a sword pointed at his back. He had something around his eyes and another man with blond spiky hair came up behind him and shoved him down on the desk and held him there. When the sword came down, he caught a glimpse of the top of a head full black hair.

Hojo jumped, "It is my specimens!"

The President straightened up and asked Tseng, "You mean to tell me that you didn't see this?"

Tseng stood firm, "Yes and it may very well be your specimens, but the footage was poor quality so we had a copy taken to be cleared up. That was until this morning." He had to admit, the footage looked really well done. It was brilliant that the sword man wasn't Sephiroth, after all, the president and Hojo knew about their friendship.

Sephiroth didn't like Turks, but for some reason he tolerated Tseng better than anyone else. When Tseng had visited him and told of his plan, Sephiroth seemed to relax at his presence. Noticing that Sephiroth had changed during the time he'd been missing, he even called him friend. Even though Zack wasn't there that night, Reno and his anonymous associate had done a very passable job on the enhanced footage.

"What happened this morning?" Hojo asked pointedly.

Tseng looked at him, "It seems that there was a witness and we are getting their statement now."

The President sat back down in his chair and tapped his fingers on the desk. He looked at Tseng and then Hojo, "Hojo, I think that you should leave this to my Turks. Just keep your damn projects under control!"

Hojo straightened up, fully incensed, "Fine! I know that it was my specimens. When Z escaped from here, I was hoping that he would lead us to the other two, but it seems that your Turks are incapable of the simplest tasks. If you trust their judgment though Mr. President then I suppose I have no choice than to trust their judgment too," He finished gathering the things he brought with him to the office and left in a huff.

Rude entered as Hojo was leaving and Hojo rammed him into the door frame and mumbled an obscenity. Rude straightened his suit and stepped forward, "Tseng. We have the statement if you want to go over it."

"Thank you Rude," Tseng held his hand out and Rude took the few steps into the office and handed him a folder with a few pages in it.

Rude added, "Tseng, we have also gotten a sighting from a reliable source. Reno and I are ready to check it out if you have nothing else for us," Tseng looked at Rude and nodded his head once, Rude turned and headed for the back elevators to meet Reno at the helicopter.

Harding returned from going to the bathroom, to an empty camp. He stood there and just looked around, stunned, asking out loud, "Where did everyone go?" He walked over to the truck and it was empty, the back was empty as well. He turned around and scratched his head, "What the hell?" He walked to the cab of the truck to dig under the seat for a flashlight, "Yes!" Flipping the switch, nothing happened, "Ahh, damn it!" He banged it against his palm and tried again, "Come on you piece of shit!"

Then he heard a woman scream, "Sephiroth!" Suddenly Harding saw the silver haired man sprint in front of him, jerking back to keep from getting run over. A motorcycle engine revved loudly and then was gone.

He turned in the direction he'd come from and saw Vincent and Yuffie running toward him. Harding stopped them, "What the hell happened?"

Vincent said, "I will tell you on the way. Right now just get your med kit and come with me." He turned to Yuffie, "Tifa said the keys are in Cloud's bag." She nodded and ran off to the other side of camp where Cloud's bag was.

Briskly walking to Cloud's bike, Yuffie brought Vincent the keys and when Harding got to the bike, he said, "I'm ready Vincent. Now, what happened?"

Sephiroth's heart and breathing seemed to have stopped the moment he saw it. Cloud and Zack just disappeared from right in front of him. Cloud's face stuck in his memory just the way it was at that very moment. Cloud's eyes; Sephiroth had seen those eyes before, in the lab. Dread and horror overflowed with a menacing swirl of blue and green battling for supremacy, the glow of fright was unmistakable.

Sephiroth's brain hadn't registered it completely until he was already on his way back down the mountain trail on his motorcycle. He wondered if that would be the last time he would hear their voices. He couldn't have just seen that, no, it couldn't be right. He had friends, good friends that would lay their life down for him. He would lay his life down for either of them. 'No, this can't be happening. They are okay; they have to be okay, because I'm okay. If I'm okay, then they have to be too, right? I would have felt it, maybe?'

He pushed his bike to the limit trying to get to them before…

"Before what exactly?"

Sephiroth straightened his spine and looked around. 'Who said that?' He must be hearing things; it wasn't uncommon for people suffering a traumatic event to hear things. At least that's what he told himself.

An upcoming corner was sharp and he took it too fast. Sliding down to his side, he went skidding into a boulder on the side of the trail, "Son of a Bitch!" He lay there a moment before he jumped up and pulled his bike up and swung his leg back over and restarted the stalled bike.

Going forward once again, he took the next turn at a slightly slower speed. His eyes scanned forward looking for any sign of them, anything to indicate that they were there. Then he slammed his hand back on the brake and came skidding to a stop. His feet hit the ground on either side of the bike and he waited and listened.

Nothing but silence, but he felt something, pulling on him -to the left. Hitting the gas, he soon found himself upon his friends. Jumping off the bike, he ran toward the scene. Cloud and Zack lay still and it appeared that Zack had landed on Cloud with a mix of legs, arms and tree limbs, "Cloud!" From his knees he looked up and the drop was a phenomenal distance. There were broken tree limbs all the way down and loose rocks, leaves, branches and small boulders that littered the area. It was miraculous that they'd missed the rocks.

"Cloud talk to me!" He put a finger tentatively to Cloud's neck, praying to find a pulse until he finally felt the steady rhythm of the blonde's heart. Reaching over Cloud he felt of Zack's neck and found an even stronger rhythm than Cloud's. Against his better judgment he got a hold of Zack and carefully pulled him off of Cloud's chest. Gently he laid him on the ground next to Cloud and he took up a place on the ground between Cloud and Zack. Cloud was completely limp and Sephiroth put his hand gently on his chest to feel his breaths. He didn't know how long he sat there, but when he felt a hand touch his, he looked and Cloud was reaching up to Sephiroth's hand, "Cloud!"

His eyelids fluttered and opened slowly. He tried to move but quickly stopped when he was hit with a painful shock. In a quiet voice, "Ahh, oww… what happened?"

"Before or after you took a header off a cliff?" Sephiroth furrowed his eyebrows at his joking question, but one side of Cloud's mouth turned up in a smile.

"I guess, after," Cloud sighed out a painful laugh. "Where is Zack? Is he alright?" Cloud tried to turn his head again and let out a light cough and groaned in pain.

"Zack is over there and yes he seems alright."

Cloud looked up at the spot they had fallen from, "How in the holy hell of all that is weird, did we survive?" He raised his head off the ground to look up and around.

Sephiroth gently pushed Cloud's head back down to the ground, "To tell you the truth, I thought I was on a body recovery mission."

Cloud jerked, "Oh shit! Tifa! Where is she?"

"Just relax, she is fine. Hysterical, but fine," Sephiroth's heart pieced itself back together. He'd grown to love these two men, his friends. It was weird to him. If it had been six years ago and someone told him that he would feel this way about other people, he would have scoffed in their face.

From a tree high above the three men, she sat and listened to their talking. She learned a lot from them and wished that they were ready for her to take them, but it just wasn't time yet. They weren't ready to be with her and accept their fate. She was glad that she decided to follow them, after all, if she hadn't, two of her fathers would be dead. Sure she could bring them back because of mother, but it took a lot out of her.

Resting her hand on a tree limb, she laid her head on her arm, gazed down at them and watched their faces and the way they interacted with one another. They were almost ready; she just had to wait a little longer. She sighed, sat back up, opened her wings and silently took the sky.

Vincent and Harding rode down to meet up with Sephiroth. Harding wasn't expecting anything but broken bodies. When they finally came into view, Sephiroth shielded his eyes from the bright headlight. Impatiently, the silver-haired man trotted over to Harding and grabbed his arm and pulled on him, "Come on Harding. They both have pulses and I only moved Zack because he landed on Cloud."

Harding got down on the ground and asked Cloud, "Can you move?"

"Yes," Cloud moved to turn to his side and stopped short, "Ahh… no, I guess not. It's my side."

Harding moved to the other side and shined his flashlight, "Well here is the problem. You have a tree limb stuck in there." Harding turned to Vincent, "Can you come over here and hold him up this way?" Harding pushed Cloud up to his other side to get a better look at his side and to see his back. Cloud let out a long grunt of pain when they moved him, "Okay, it doesn't look too bad, but we need to get you back to camp where I can look at this in more light."

"What is it Harding?" Cloud tried not to move.

"Cloud, I just need to see better, that's all," Harding looked at Sephiroth and Vincent, "Let's get him up. Vincent, can you get him back to camp and get him in the back of the truck?" Vincent nodded and they got Cloud up and behind Vincent on the bike.

Cloud grabbed Vincent's waist and Sephiroth said, "We'll see you up there." Then he looked at Vincent, "He has motion sickness so go slow." He smiled and patted Cloud's back. Sephiroth went back over to where Harding and Zack were. Harding was in the middle of taking his vitals, "How is he?"

"Well his vitals are good. But he is still not conscious," Harding sat back on the ground, "We need to get him back too. I don't see that he has any injuries, but I want to make sure."

Sephiroth rubbed his chin and looked at his bike and then back at Harding and Zack, "We have a little problem. I don't know if all three of us will fit on the bike. It's large; I guess we could try though."

Harding looked up from the ground, "I think it's safe to move him, let's just get back, because I'm kind of worried about Cloud's injury."

"You said he was fine!"

Harding started packing everything back into his med kit, "Seph, just calm down. It is probably nothing, but he does have a foreign object in his side."

Sephiroth went and picked Zack up to sitting, "Zack. Wake up." Zack's eyes moved under his lids, "Wake up, we're gonna get you back to camp."

Zack opened his eyes and looked around nervously, "Where is she?" He curled up and started mumbling quietly, "Cloud is the key and he gave her a name… Don't know how it works. Fire burns my flesh and the cut is the last one…"

Sephiroth pulled his face to him, "Zack, focus on me." When Zack looked at him, he began, "We will figure it out together." He pulled Zack up to standing and walked him closer to the bike, "Do you want to ride the motorcycle Zack?"

Zack's eyes brightened and he walked by himself to the bike. Running his fingers along the metal that was still warm, he looked back at Sephiroth, "Fast, no, slow… I was next, no, last…"

Sephiroth took Zack by his arm and pulled him to the seats, "Swing your leg over." He looked over at Harding and he came over and waited for Zack to get situated on the seat, "Harding, this is going to be a tight fit scoot back as far as you can."

"If I get any farther back, I'm going to be sitting on the tire," Harding slung his med kit bag over his shoulder.

Sephiroth got on and reached around and got Zack's hands and wrapped them around him, "Zack hold onto me. Harding, keep a tight hold on him." Zack touched his hands together and then started to snap his fingers and poke Sephiroth in the belly in the process, "Zack, stop doing that." Sephiroth stifled an involuntary giggle as the gestures the brunette was doing was effectively tickling. He hadn't thought about him being ticklish before, but he let the thoughts fall away.

Sephiroth started the bike and started back up to camp. When they started going forward, Zack grabbed Sephiroth's shirt and buried his face in his back. His scream was muffled by the wind.

From over his shoulder, Vincent offered, "If you need me to stop, let me know."

"I'm gonna try not to get sick…" Cloud was already turning green.

"How do you drive this bike if you have motion sickness?"

Cloud took in a few hesitant breaths, "It doesn't seem to bother me when I'm driving."

Getting closer to camp, Cloud suddenly loosened his grip and then quickly pulled himself back up to Vincent's back. Cloud laid his head down on the top of Vincent's back and he looked down at Cloud's hands and they gripped the front of his shirt tightly. Then his grip loosened again and slipped back farther to Vincent's sides. When he felt a weight tip over to one side, he grabbed Cloud's hand as he slowed down to stop. Before he could stop completely, Cloud went limp. Vincent held one of his hands to keep him from falling. He got to a stop and lowered him down to the ground and stretched him out, "Cloud." He looked around and he was close enough to camp that he picked him up and carried him the rest of the way.

He could see camp just ahead and he could make out a few people pacing back and forth. He stumbled into camp and almost fell. When Barret saw him he jumped and began to run. At the sight of Barret running, Tifa gasp and ran to them, "Cloud!" She looked at Vincent, "He's okay?"

Vincent accepted the help that Barret offered and said, "Yes. He was awake when we started back up to camp, but then he lost consciousness. Harding wants him in the back of the truck."

Barret carried him the rest of the way to the truck.

Vincent followed Tifa and Aerith to the truck and they got him laid out in the back. Tifa opened his shirt and the wound on his side was seeping blood, "Where is Harding?" Tifa swallowed her tears back.

Aerith took her hand, "Tifa, you need to calm down. Cloud needs your help and Zack may be in worse shape than this." Tifa looked as Aerith fought to keep her composure.

She squeezed Aerith's hand, "You're right," Tifa took a deep breath and got to Cloud's ear and whispered, "Are you going to wake up?"

When the other motorcycle could be heard approaching, Aerith said, "I'm going to out to see if they need help."

Once Tifa was left alone in the truck with Cloud, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him, "Cloud, don't do this. You need to wake up okay."

Harding came and got in the truck, "I heard he passed out. Did you take his vitals?"

"No, he just got here," Tifa looked at Harding, "If you need help, I'll help."

Harding touched Tifa's hand, "Tifa, I will do what I can and I promise that you will be the first person I ask for help. Okay?"

Tifa looked at Harding, "Thank you Jacob." She sighed and leaned back over to Cloud and stroked his hair, "Cloud, please."

"Birds have two wings and two legs… I fought a tonberry one time that liked to hop… hop… hop!" Zack sounded like he wasn't hurt as Sephiroth led him to the back of the truck.

"Here Zack, get in the truck so Harding can look at you," Sephiroth pushed Zack up and into the truck and he fell forward and landed on Cloud's lap and stomach.

Tifa jumped and pulled him over to the other side of Cloud, "Here Zack sit down." She reached over and gave him a bottle of water to drink, "Drink some water."

She put the bottle to his lips and he started to swallow and then spit the water out. He was alarmed and shouted, "Where is my Spiky!" He leaned forward to Cloud, anger showed on his face as he stared at Tifa, "Hey, my Cloud! You hurt him… Behemoths smell really bad and I don't care!" Zack had grabbed Tifa's arm and leaned so far over her, she was almost laying on her back.

Sephiroth jumped up in the truck and put his arm around Zack's neck and shoulder and pulled him back, "Zack, she didn't hurt him, he fell. They are trying to help him."

Zack relaxed and looked at Sephiroth and grabbed his hand. In a calm but sad tone, "The day I was born, it was rainy out." He pulled Sephiroth down to sit next to him and he put his arms around Sephiroth's arm and put his head on Sephiroth's shoulder.

Harding turned to Zack and Sephiroth, "I am going to need some help if he wakes up, he will need to be held down when I pull this out."

Sephiroth looked at Zack and asked Harding, "I hope Zack doesn't mind us doing that."

Aerith stuck her head in and asked, "Does anyone need anything?"

Tifa said, "No, I think we are good for now. We might need help in a little while though."

Aerith looked at Sephiroth and they exchanged a smile. Then Aerith pointed at Sephiroth's leg, "What happened?"

Sephiroth looked at where she was pointing and there was a gash in his leg. Sephiroth shrugged, "I guess that happened when I fell on my way down to Cloud and Zack."

Aerith pulled his leg out straight and got a closer look, "Well it still needs to be bandaged." She got some bandages and cleaned it. When she was finished dressing the wound, she climbed up in the truck just enough to give him a kiss. Zack looked at her from across Sephiroth's chest and he glared and then a low growl was directed at her.

She put her hand up and said in a quiet voice as she backed away, "Zack its okay. Do you want something to eat?"

Sephiroth gave Zack a pat, "Zack, calm down." With the mention of food, Zack calmed and settled closer to Sephiroth's side.

Harding got to work on checking the wound in better light, "Well it doesn't seem to be too bad, but I still need to get it out." He gave a bottle of antiseptic to Tifa to pour over the wound. Harding washed his hands as well as he could and got a hold of the small blunted branch. It only stuck out a little, but he was able to get a hold on it and pulled it out. Blood followed and Tifa put the pressure where Harding told her to.

Cloud jerked and a groan was closely accompanied by a weak, "What's going on?"

Now that he was awake, Tifa beamed at his question, "We're performing surgery on you." Cloud's eyes widened and he stiffened unconsciously and Harding froze.

Cloud's eyes went to Sephiroth and his silver haired friend put a hand on his shoulder. In a shaky voice, "It's okay Cloud; we aren't in the lab." Cloud took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"Oh, Cloud… I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking," Tifa shut her mouth and stroked Cloud's hair.

A/N 2: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."

Please send me your reviews if you want. It is really easy. Just click your arrow in the little box, write what you thought or felt about the chapter and then click right down there, just below the box. A little lower… a little to the right… yeah, right there! Click it! *grinning*