A/N: I'm working on another fic at the moment, so this will probably update every other month (longer, if life gets busy), but I will continue to update this fic, promise.

Also, for those of you who read chapter 2 when it started with Cloud heading straight to Sector 5, I did add an extra scene at the beginning to help ease the transition between that and the end of the first chapter. Totally not needed to understand the rest of the fic, but if you're curious, it's only an extra ~600 words.

Cloud slaps the roof of the yellowing pickup truck and leans towards the driver's window. "Old Man, how close can you get me to those Behemoths?"

"Eh? Dumbass say what!?" Zeke yells over the hum of the engine and the roar of the Behemoths ahead of them. "Have ya lost yer damn mind? The plan was to drive like a Zolom outta hell!"

"That was when we thought there'd be nobody else out here. Plan's changed." Not counting the two that already lay dead at the edge of the battlefield, there were three Behemoths left to take care of. Three extremely pissed off Behemoths, if the tense, stiff way in which they held themselves was any sign. It was a wonder those SOLDIERs were able to hold their ground for this long. But they were running out of time, and fast. "Get me as close as you're comfortable with, then feel free to continue straight to Kalm. I can figure the rest out from here."

Zeke grunts as if he plans to argue more, but Walker beats him to it. "What? No, Cl – " Walker shakes his head, aggravated – "Sky, you can't! You'll die!"

"Look over there," Cloud says, pointing to the near-carnage off the truck's left-hand side. It was obvious, to him at least, that the two 3rds' strength was already flagging. Especially with the way they were taking each attack – each swipe of a paw, each swing of a tail – head-on. Sure, they were trying to protect the downed man behind them, and they were actually doing a pretty decent job of it, but they wouldn't be able to keep that up forever. Not when they didn't have the time to land a hit of their own. "If I don't do anything, they will die."

"But they're SOLDIERs! What can you do?"

Cloud snorts. What could he do? A lot more than those cornered 3rds, that's for sure. He may have never taken on three Behemoths at once, had never even seen that many hunting together to be honest – they preferred going it solo – but it was nothing compared to what he had been through before. It would still be a challenge, even if, going from the dull grey-blue of their coats, they weren't King Behemoths, but it definitely wasn't a Sephiroth-level challenge. They wouldn't stand a chance against him. "This isn't the first time I've fought a Behemoth – " he has the scars on the side of his ribcage to prove it – "and it won't be the last either. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"But…"

The rest of Walker's complaint goes unheard, by Cloud at least. For Cloud finds himself much too distracted by the battle that still rages to their left. The lankier of the two 3rds just barely manages to avoid the tail aimed at his head, though with how he recoils, the barbs must have grazed his face. And the brawnier one had started to swing his sword wildly at the Behemoth he was facing. The one that seemed to be far more interested in the prone man behind him, if the way it kept trying to round the SOLDIER was anything to go by.

Things were getting bad.

What didn't make sense, though, was why the third Behemoth was hanging back, biding its time. If it rampaged along with its friends, the fight would already be over by now. So why wasn't it attacking? Was it afraid of the SOLDIERs?

Wait.

No.

Cloud recognizes this. The drawn-out fighting; the calm, almost cocky way in which the monsters held themselves; the attacks that were meant to injure, but never maim (aside from the man on the ground it would seem). This was the same shit Sephiroth always pulled with him. These Behemoths weren't being cautious about the 3rds, they were toying with them. They already knew they were going to win, so they were just playing with their food at this point. Or, more accurately, they were just prolonging the SOLDIERs' pain, their suffering… their deaths. Fitting revenge for the monsters' fallen comrades.

They didn't deserve this. Sure, these guys might be with Shinra, but they couldn't know about the company's dark secrets – the experimentation, the cover-ups, the torture. They were innocent. How could Cloud honor Zack's memory if he just left them to die? How could he claim to be better than Sephiroth if he just ignored their suffering?

No, he has to save them.

Turning back to Walker, Cloud ignores the pinched look on the man's face (he knows Behemoths can be scary), and claps him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I've got this." He doesn't wait for a response this time, though, or really any kind of affirmation. Instead, he leans towards the driver's window once more and says, "Please, Old Man. I don't want their deaths on my conscious."

He's asking a lot, he knows. The truck was far enough away that the Behemoths probably hadn't even noticed them yet. Probably wouldn't even notice them if they just kept driving. Not when their attention was already hyperfocused on the SOLDIERs in front of them. So, Zeke would be entirely justified to ignore him and put the pedal to the metal straight to Kalm. And Cloud half-expects it, too.

So, he can't deny his surprise when the old man growls deep in his throat (he could give the Behemoths a good run for their money) – "Bleedin' hearts, the lot of us!" – and turns hard towards the monsters. "Ya better know what yer doin', kiddo!"

The sharp turn is something both he and Walker are woefully underprepared for. But while Cloud gets away with a slight stumble and the ominous bubbling of his returning motion sickness, Walker is nearly sent tumbling over the side of the truck. More reflex than anything, Cloud finds himself latching onto the back of the man's dirty overalls to keep him upright.

"Thanks," Walker manages, rendered breathless as his knee connects, hard, with the wall of the truck bed. Ouch. That would definitely leave a bruise later.

"You ok?"

Walker nods normally enough, but there's still a hint of pain to his voice when he responds, "I'm not the one about to take on an army of Behemoths…"

"You get used to it," Cloud says with a shrug, letting go of the man's overalls. Honestly, this was a nice change of pace over Sephiroth trying to destroy the world every other year.

But it's not the reassurance Walker was looking for, and the man reaches forward to grab Cloud by the arm before he can turn away. "Just… Don't die." His eyes drop to the floor of the truck bed, the hand on Cloud falling just as defeatedly. "Please."

Cloud hums in agreement – he wouldn't be dying today. Not when Sephiroth was still out there. "Make sure you take good care of the old man."

"Oi! I can handle myself, thank you!" Zeke yells from the driver seat. "Wait! What am I sayin'!? This ain't no time for idle chit-chat, idiots! We're almost there!"

Almost there was an understatement – another minute and they would find out just how effective ramming a Behemoth with a beat-up pickup truck was. "Old Man, this is close enough. I can take it from here."

"Shut yer trap! You wanna get close to those giant-ass freaks, so I'mma get you close!"

"I said as close as you're comfortable with, Old Man."

"Yeah, well that ship already sailed when I turned around! So just shut up already and get ready! I don't need no deaths on my conscious neither!"

So, shut up he does. He hefts Tsurugi back over his shoulder, his hand tensing momentarily around the hilt. As long as his motion sickness doesn't prove too debilitating, he shouldn't have a problem. This wasn't the first time he had fought multiple enemies at once, of course. Sure, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz had been far more reasonably-sized, but fighting them had been no walk in the park. And these Behemoths wouldn't even come close to their level of cunning and planet-consuming rage. Nor would they be turning into Sephiroth and skewering him anytime soon.

Small miracles.

Returning his attention to the fast-approaching battlefield, Cloud can finally see that the injured man must be a SOLDIER too, going from his outfit. And a 1st at that. How had a 1st lost to a handful of Behemoths? Had he taken a hit for one of his companions?

…Cloud's not sure why, but something about that just sounds wrong.

He's not left to his musings for long, though. A deep, guttural lowing rumbles across the battlefield, and Cloud looks up to find the third, previously uninvolved Behemoth pawing at the ground.

They had run out of time.

"Wait! Isn't that Commander Rhap – " Walker tries to yell, but whatever it is will have to wait. Cloud's already taken off, already jumped from the back of the truck to meet the Behemoths, Tsurugi held at the ready.

The squealing of tires behind him is sign enough that Zeke must have noticed his flight and was getting himself and Walker the hell outta there. Fair enough. Cloud didn't need to worry about their safety too. He'd just have to foot it the rest of the way to Kalm. Which was fine. Worse things had happened to him. He just hopes Walker had managed to hold on to the truck this time.

Spinning to gain momentum, Cloud brings Tsurugi down, hard, on the closest Behemoth's head. A loud crack resonates from where metal meets keratin, the force of his attack knocking one of the Behemoth's long, black horns clean off. The monster tries to regain its balance, but the damage is too much. With a deafening yowl, it crashes bodily to the ground, distracted from its bid to maim the lanky SOLDIER in front of it.

Huh.

Cloud doesn't remember it being that easy with Bahamut Sin.

First things first, though, he needs to finish off these monsters.

He lands gracefully enough, but as the initial adrenaline wears off, the churning of his motion sickness rears its ugly head. Wobbling a bit in place, he feels distinctly like Yuffie as he hunches over and slaps a hand to his mouth in an effort to keep his insides… well, inside.

His distraction is so complete that he forgets everything aside from his churning stomach. It's a rookie mistake, one he'll scold himself for later, but it takes the disbelieving yell of "What are you doing?" and the aggravated roaring of the recovered Behemoth to remind him he doesn't have time for this right now. As it stands, the loss of its horn makes the Behemoth no less violent, and Cloud finds he barely has the time to roll out of the way of the barbed tail now aimed for him.

Ok, that's it. He's driving next time.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the one SOLDIER yells again. And, well, it seems like Cloud wouldn't be the only one scolding himself for that blunder. Great.

"Saving your life," is Cloud's terse response, but he refuses to take his eyes off the Behemoth this time. The one that watches him warily in return, those glowing yellow eyes searching for another opening to exploit.

It wouldn't find one, though. Cloud wouldn't let it.

"Saving our lives? You just hurt yourself knocking that thing's horn off! All you're doing is getting in our way!"

Cloud's not sure if it's the amount of contempt in the man's voice or the fact that this dude's Shinra, but he can tell that he won't have the same instant connection with him as he had with Walker and Zeke. "I'm not hurt, I just have issues with motion sickness. It'll pass." The injured Behemoth shakes it head, agitated and ready to attack again, but Cloud can't help one last barb. "Besides, I'm not the one half-dead."

The SOLDIER grunts, offended, but is interrupted by the one-horned Behemoth's roar. "Look out!" the man yells, whatever lie he was planning to sell ("We were doing just fine!"?) lost as the monster charges, straight at Cloud. But this time? This time, Cloud is ready. This time, he lunges forward to meet the beast, ducking under a swiping paw and slicing a large gash into the monster's flank.

The Behemoth recoils with a high-pitched shriek, dark purple blood gushing from its wound. But instead of retreating, as would be wise, it huffs harshly, shaking its head and pawing at the ground again. It wasn't down for the count yet. No, it was raring for more.

Twin growls echo from Cloud's left and he finds the other two Behemoths padding his way – they must realize he's the real threat now – their heads held low and their hate-filled, yellow eyes trained on him. They take their time approaching, either to assess his strength or to drag out their intimidation, before converging around their injured comrade, their tails flicking erratically behind them.

And, well, it just had to be Behemoths. It couldn't be rampaging Hedgehog Pies or rabid Mus, now could it?

Just Cloud's luck.

A booming sound somewhere between a snort and a snarl is the only warning any of them have before the largest of the Behemoths charges, its two companions holding back to give it space (and in the case of the injured Behemoth, to nurse its own wounds). The earth shakes as the monster approaches, dirt sent flying every which way around it. It grinds to a stop just before Cloud, throwing its head out for the kill. But Cloud hops back, using the flat of his blade to swat away the horns meant to gore him.

As quickly as he had dodged, Cloud steps back into the fray. Twisting Tsurugi back to its sharp edge, he slashes like he had with the first Behemoth, intent on severing something vital this time. But this Behemoth proves far more cunning than its injured counterpart, far more cunning than Cloud would have given it credit for, and bounds clean out of the way. Back on the defensive, the monster takes a few slow, menacing steps around him, its head held low to the ground again.

Cloud nearly falls for it, too. But he had been around Marlene and Denzel (and Yuffie) long enough to know when he was being distracted. To know when he was being played for a fool. He still follows the cunning Behemoth, though, turning his back to the two behind him. If they were going to go through all this trouble, he might as well put on a show for them.

The other uninjured Behemoth lunges without warning, but Cloud is no less prepared for it. Spinning with a grace that would impress Andrea all over again, he rolls out of the way of the claws meant for his spine. And as he pushes himself back to his feet, he brings Tsurugi up in a swift arc, cutting through hide for the second time that day. But it doesn't have the effect he was going for. For while the Behemoth screeches like its one-horned friend, while it bleeds just as badly, it had still somehow managed to turn at the last second, Tsurugi missing its jugular by just a few inches.

Dammit.

He knew this was going to be a challenge, but there had still been that little sliver of hope that things would be surprisingly easy for once in his life.

Guess not.

The next few minutes pass by in a blur of red fur and yellow eyes, their fight turning into a frustratingly repetitive dance. None of the Behemoths stay in one place long, each taking turns trying to maul him to death before dropping back to the sidelines, another ready to fall in at no more than the flick of a tail. Which wouldn't be so bad – better than all three attacking at once – if it didn't also prevent him from doing any actual damage.

Honestly, it almost reminds Cloud of how he and his friends used to fight. So familiar were they with one another, with their skills, their thoughts, that they no longer needed words to communicate. No longer needed to talk to know where they were needed most. They moved and breathed as if they were all part of one collective whole, all meshing together into one seamless, but extremely deadly force.

But what once brought him pride, now only reminds him of everything he had lost. The similarity only serves to chip away at his hopes – of finishing this quickly, of finding some sort of meaning in this new world – leaving behind just a bitter, empty shell. What was he even fighting for this time? What did he even have left to fight for?

"We have to help!"

He's not sure what it is about the words – the suddenness, the urgency, the novelty of the unknown voice (it wasn't the same SOLDIER who had gotten snippy with him before) – that convinces him to look. He wouldn't normally, not when he was still fighting. Not when the Behemoths were still attacking. But luckily for everyone involved he does look. For the lanky SOLDIER – who presumably was the one who had yelled – had his arm held out, his bracer glowing.

He was trying to cast magic.

Idiot.

"Don't you dare use that materia!" Cloud yells, snapping his attention back to the Behemoths in front of him. He hopes the finger that he points at the moron will be enough to deter him, but he doesn't have the time to double-check. The one-horned Behemoth, while weakened, wasn't down for the count yet. And it was doing its best to prod for any holes in Cloud's defense.

…Or rather, prod holes into his defense.

"What…? Why not? I'm just trying to help!"

Cloud groans at the stupidity of it all – honestly, didn't Shinra teach these imbeciles anything? "Their horns are still intact. Use magic and they'll counter with Mega Flare," he explains, exasperated, ducking underneath an enormous paw and around to the one-horned Behemoth's side. One more hit to that damaged flank and the monster might finally fall, once and for all. "Trust me, it hurts like a bitch. None of you are in any condition for that, especially not your friend there. If you wanna help, then stay out of my way."

He doesn't wait for a response, instead swinging Tsurugi back around to meet the monster in front of him. But as had become tiringly routine, he's blocked from actually landing a hit. The middle-sized Behemoth (or Goldilocks as Cid would probably call it) digs its horns into the arid terrain and sends dirt flying up into his face, giving its comrade time to retreat.

Of course.

Wiping the crud from his eyes, Cloud lunges forward in the same breath. Lunges at Goldilocks this time (he wouldn't admit it out loud, but he'll miss the gruff pilot). Perhaps if he feints right, he could get a hit in on the monster's –

Bang!

"What the…?" Cloud startles to a stop, Tsurugi still held in the air. Definitely a poor choice if he was fighting Sephiroth – he had been impaled two too many times to be sure of that – but Goldilocks was just as distracted as he was. Though, that probably had more to do with the fresh gunshot wound to its neck than anything else.

The bullet doesn't seem to have done that much damage, not when Cloud could still see it sticking out from the monster's neck, purple blood oozing around it. But that doesn't stop Goldilocks from freaking out, the monster jerking its head from side to side in some poorly thought-out attempt at knocking the half-lodged bullet out. Perhaps they weren't that cunning after all.

But that wasn't important right now. Not when Cloud finds himself searching for the source of the interruption just as intently, though nowhere near as furiously, as the largest and least injured of the Behemoths. Where had the bullet come from? Zeke and Walker had already left for Kalm and none of the SOLDIERs had anything resembling a firearm on them (not that they were even in the right position to get Goldilocks where it had been shot), so who else could it have been?

It's as he turns that he hears it. Hears the distant rumbling that couldn't be credited to the Behemoths around him nor to his empty stomach (he only skipped lunch cause he figured he would be having dinner with Tifa and the kids). And it's as the large Behemoth in front of him shifts out of his view that he finally sees it. Finally sees the yellowing pickup truck circling the battlefield, Walker braced up against the wall of the truck bed, his rifle aimed their way.

They hadn't high-tailed it for Kalm after all, then.

The large Behemoth snorts next to him – a good enough sign that it had noticed Walker, too. And then, loud and commanding, it stomps its way around to face the truck, before pawing harshly at the ground, as if getting ready to charge the still-moving vehicle.

Cloud has to do something.

Bang!

A second gunshot rings across the battlefield before being completely drowned out by the large Behemoth's screeching. Like Goldilocks before it, the larger Behemoth flails violently from the pain, but as it swings its head Cloud's way, Cloud can tell it has far more of an excuse to be having a meltdown than its smaller counterpart.

Walker had shot out one of its eyes.

Damn. Zeke had said Walker was quite the shot, but Cloud hadn't realized that he was this good. Honestly, he could almost give Vincent a run for his money.

Oh.

That's right. Walker, Zeke, Aerith, Zack, Avalanche… even this world's Cloud. He had almost forgotten in his grief, his self-pity, what it was he was fighting for. But this was it. They were what he was fighting for, and that was more than enough. It doesn't matter if he doesn't belong here, doesn't matter if he doesn't even want to be here in the first place. This was his fight now. It was his burden to bear, whether he really wanted to or not.

And he would gladly shoulder that burden, any burden, as long as it meant that this Zack lived. As long as it meant that this Aerith was only ever treated like the saint she is and never like the lab rat Hojo only saw her as.

True, they might not know him in this world, but he knows them. It doesn't matter if they weren't the same people he had built a life with, he knows that they're worth fighting for. Worth dying for.

He wouldn't forget that again.

And he wouldn't let this distraction go to waste either. No, he wasn't one to look a gift Chocobo in the mouth. So, while the largest Behemoth continues to thrash wildly with the loss of its eye, and while its two smaller comrades forget all about Cloud to growl threateningly at the truck, that's when Cloud strikes. That's when Cloud charges.

Faced away from him, Goldilocks doesn't even see him approach. It's not until Cloud has a foot firmly on its back that it notices him. But by then it's already too late. Too late for it to get in his way again. For Cloud has already used its back as a launching pad, vaulting himself high into the air above its one-horned friend.

Goldilocks tries to grunt out a warning, but Cloud's not about to give the one-horned Behemoth time to run away this time. No, spinning as he falls, he slams Tsurugi down onto its back, sending it crashing to the dusty ground below. The impact knocks dirt up into his face again, but he doesn't give himself time to miss a beat. Blinking past the sting in his eyes, he plunges Tsurugi deep into the monster's already damaged flank with a growl of his own.

The Behemoth howls as it dies, something Cloud might feel bad about later – he's never truly enjoyed killing monsters, not even Sephiroth – but for now he ignores the pitiful cries in favor of finishing the job. With a gritting of his teeth and a great heave, he pulls Tsurugi out of its flank only to slit its throat, watching soberly as the rage, the fear, and the glow all fade from its yellow eyes.

"Rest now."

An agonized roar rumbles from behind him, not that Cloud needs it to know that the fight wasn't over yet. Taking a deep, yet melancholic (exhausted?) breath, he turns to face the remaining Behemoths. If he thought they were angry before, that was nothing compared to the fury stitched throughout every fiber of their beings now. But it wouldn't be enough. It had taken what felt like forever to get rid of one of them, he wasn't about to let either of them regain their bearings now.

And with a deep grunt, he finally activates his Limit Break, blue light twisting familiarly around him. He charges at Goldilocks first – hopefully, giving it a name wouldn't make things more difficult – an underhand swing enough to knock it on its side like the one-horned Behemoth before it. Slipping easily into Omnislash, he carves into the monster's underbelly over and over and over again, one final slash to its throat taking it out just as easily as its one-horned comrade.

The last remaining Behemoth and the largest of the three doesn't take the loss of its two companions well, the monster rearing back onto its hind legs in its anger. The intent is probably to crush Cloud beneath its oversized paws, but what the monster doesn't realize, though, was that it was leaving itself laughably open (something Cloud had painful experience with). That its soft, vulnerable underbelly was now on full display.

Big mistake.

Not focusing on the similarities between this and his fights with Sephiroth (if Cloud was 20 feet tall to Sephiroth's 6, that is), Cloud lunges forward to bury Tsurugi into the monster's belly. And before the Behemoth has realized its fate, Cloud calls on the last dregs of his Limit Break, cleaving clean through the monster's internal organs as he finishes it off with Climhazzard.

"Holy shit…" one of the 3rds breathes as Cloud lands back on the ground, but Cloud doesn't turn to look. No, he heaves a sigh of relief – it was finally over – and just stands there, his back to the SOLDIERs. He could probably play it off as just making sure the monsters were actually dead (definitely a good practice), but he knows Tsurugi had severed everything from the monster's stomach to its neck. There was no way that it was coming back from that.

In all honesty, Cloud was just tired. Tired of it all – the constant fighting, his shitty luck, Sephiroth's petty-ass bullshit that landed him in this mess to begin with. He just couldn't catch a break, could he? So, he selfishly rests a moment more while the blue aura around him fades and the last Behemoth crumples to the dirt, its stomach painted purple.

Everything else could wait.

It's not until he can hear the pickup truck hobbling over that he finally summons the resolve to turn around. "You guys ok?" he asks the SOLDIERs with a soft sigh, taking the few steps needed to land himself right in front of them.

But the two 3rds aren't interested in answering him, not going from the gobsmacked looks on their faces. "Your eyes…!" the brawnier of the two manages. And, well, here we go again.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he bites out, "Before you ask, no, I'm not a SOLDIER, and no, I don't care to talk about it right now." Or ever really. He didn't know these two idiots, and he certainly didn't trust them. He had only really told Walker and Zeke because he felt a surprising kinship with them. A kinship he could tell he wouldn't share with these two.

"But…"

"Isn't your friend injured?" he cuts in. He means it as a distraction, just a way of getting the attention off of himself. But as the 3rds turn, concerned, to their ailing friend, Cloud finally sees the state the red-clad man is in. Blood pools beneath the man (something Cloud had originally thought was just an extension of his coat), and Cloud can just make out deep gouge marks beneath the hand held to the man's side. "Shit." He really shouldn't have taken that minute to rest.

He moves to kneel in front of the man, the words "What happened?" on the tip of his tongue, but he doesn't make it that far. Not when the brawnier of the 3rds blocks him, his attitude returning once more. "Whaddya think you're doing?"

Cloud raises an eyebrow at the still-helmeted man, suddenly wishing he had never jumped from the pickup truck in the first place. Idiots needing help was something he could deal with, even if they were Shinra employees. But idiots needing help while still being belligerent about it? That was something he had no patience for. "Trying to save your friend's life. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"We don't need your help! We're SOLDIERs, we can do it ourselves!"

Oh. So he was that type of idiot. "Sort of like how you could totally take those Behemoths by yourselves?" Sure, it's probably petty, but like he said – no patience.

"Hey! What do you – "

"Look." He cuts the man off. "You can't do everything by yourself. You need to learn when to accept help."

"But we don't even know you!"

The lanky one nods along with his friend, and Cloud won't lie – he is a little disappointed. He had hoped this one would have a little more common sense. But he supposes this guy was the same one who had tried using magic on the Behemoths. So… maybe par for course.

"I didn't go through all that trouble saving your asses just to, what, kill you myself?" How did that even make sense? "If I wanted you dead, I would have let those monsters finish what they started."

"…I suppose you do have a point."

"Ya don't say," Cloud responds dryly, somehow resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Listen. Do you guys at least have healing materia on you? Now would be the time to use it."

"Uhh… Healing materia doesn't work."

"Healing materia… doesn't… work?" He was honestly one stupid comment away from knocking these two out and healing the red-clad man himself.

"Not on Command – ow!" The lanky one starts, but is cut off by an elbow to his ribs. What follows next is perhaps the worst silent conversation Cloud has ever seen in his life, so much so he's not even sure why they bother. For every twitch, every shrug, every 'surreptitious' glance at their friend on the ground tells him everything he needs to know. Tells him that they don't want him to know who the man is, not that Cloud really cares in the first place. He just wants to know how a 1st Class SOLDIER got his ass handed to him by a Behemoth.

Though, to be fair, he supposes there had been 5 of them to begin with.

"Uh… I mean, healing materia doesn't work on our commanding officer here," the lanky one finishes, his words painfully drawn out as he watches his fellow 3rd to make sure he wasn't misspeaking again.

Cloud takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, praying to whatever deity listening – not Gaia – that when he opened them again, he would be back in his own world. If, for some reason, healing materia really didn't work on this guy, more than a Behemoth's claws was at play here. He knows this because he had taken Masamune and a bullet through the chest and was still able to stand afterwards. And this 1st must have at least as much mako and Jenova cells in him as Cloud. No, something weird was going on. "Will you at least let me look?" he asks, only somewhat disappointed when he peels his eyes open and finds the nervous 3rds still standing in front of him. "If we don't do anything, your friend will die."

The brawny one opens his mouth to argue again, but ends up getting slapped himself this time. "Ryu, you know we have no idea what we're doing. Do you want to be the one to tell Commander Hewley that his uh… friend died cause of us?"

"What? Of course not!"

"Then let him help. He's right. He already saved us once."

The brawny SOLDIER – Ryu – growls (not entirely like a dragon), but finally steps out of the way. "…Fine. Have it your way, Rowan."

About damn time.

Moving faster than when he had jumped from the pickup truck, Cloud kneels down next to the injured man. Something about the snow white of his hair and the red of his coat reminds Cloud of Zack, of months trapped in a nearly conscious-less existence, of fighting… and black wings(?). But he can't focus on that right now, can't chase elusive memories (if that's what it was). Not when, from this close, he can see the ashen skin, the jagged lines across the man's face and neck as if he were cracking pottery. He had thought the claw marks in the man's side looked bad enough, but no Behemoth had done this. No Behemoth could do this.

"Do either of you have Scan on you?" he asks on auto-pilot, his fingers falling to the man's throat. The two 3rds tense above him, but must realize he's only checking the man's pulse, because they otherwise keep silent.

As for the red-clad man, his eyes remain closed, but his chest rises and falls almost imperceptibly – he must still be breathing – and his pulse is steady. Faint and slow, but steady. He wasn't out of the woods yet, but perhaps Cloud could help him after all.

Or, at least, he would try to if these SOLDIERs knew the definition of being cooperative. As it stands, the two only shuffle awkwardly in front of him, as if a request for Scan materia was so foreign to them. "I need to know the extent of his injuries, otherwise I can't help him," Cloud tacks on, not even bothering to hide the way he rolls his eyes. He swears, he's making less ground here than with the Behemoths.

There's a soft "Oh… makes sense" from above him (Rowan, he thinks), and then an orb of materia drops into his outstretched hand. But Cloud was no longer paying attention. He was far more interested in the claw marks in the man's side. For a wound as deep as it looked, it seemed to be bleeding surprisingly lightly.

Curious.

Peering closer, he's taken aback by the scorch marks he finds. The ones that seem to wrap around the parts of the injury he can see. He tries to nudge the man's hand away from his side – another inch and he'd have a much better view. But he only manages to lift one finger before the man groans and clamps his hand down harder. Not that it matters. Cloud had seen enough. Seen enough to know that the man had tried to cauterize his own wound.

Shit. No wonder this man was a 1st. Not many would have the foresight much less the balls to do that to themselves.

But while it seems that the man had tried to stabilize his own wounds, Cloud knows he shouldn't move him just yet. Not without checking his head and spine first. So, he activates Scan, and finds himself no less confounded by the picture it paints than everything else he had seen up to then. The wound on the man's side was the only one he had suffered, save for a small scratch to his shoulder. But his insides looked like that of an old man – brittle bones, weak constitution, and Cloud had never seen someone's vitality quite so low. Heck, even those who had died from Geostigma looked better off than this.

And yet, the man's strength was almost on par with Sephiroth's. What the hell was going on here? Was he another clone? He didn't look like Sephiroth, though. The hair was all wrong.

"I beg your pardon?" The injured man grunts somewhere between offended and in pain, and, well, it would appear that Cloud had spoken at least some of that out loud. Whoops. "Look like S-Sephiroth? Don't you – " he coughs wetly – "Don't you… know who I am?"

"…Can't say I do, no."

It's the wrong thing to say, judging from the weak snarl that works its way over the man's face. "I-I… I am…" he blinks his eyes open, his bloodied hand rising shakily from his side to curl into Cloud's sweater. He tugs Cloud down, and, wow, Cloud hadn't realized the man had that much energy left. "I am… the great… Gen—"

"The great…?" Cloud tries to nudge, but it's too late for that now. As the man's glazed-over eyes start to focus on Cloud, the sneer drops from his face, replaced instead with something more like… awe?

"By the Goddess…" the man breathes reverently, his lip quivering. "Little bird… have you come to collect me at the end, after all?"

A/N:

- The FF Wiki page for degradation says degradation "makes the body weak, brittle, and susceptible to injury", but also that "a sufferer's combat potential increases", so that's why I described Genesis as being almost as strong as Sephiroth while still having terrible vitality (I'm using vitality to mean defense here).

- I know there have been a few action-y bits in Memory's Struggle, but I still feel like this was my first action scene, so I hope everybody enjoyed it!

- If anybody was confused about Goldilocks, I was thinking "large Behemoth, small Behemoth, the middle-sized one is just right!" or something equally silly, and then couldn't get Goldilocks out of my head.

- I wanted Cloud to say something to the dead/dying Behemoth, but "Goodbye" felt too generic and "Good night" seemed too special to me since that's what he said to Zack when he died. So I ended up going with "Rest now" which seemed more respectful than "Goodbye"

- Ryu in Japanese means dragon, hence the joke about him growling "not entirely like a dragon".