A/N: Rated M for language and sexual content.

Apologies for the delay.

Chapter 33:

Cloud's headaches had subsided to the point where he thought he could live with them if it meant going home to Tifa. He had stayed at the Forgotten Capital a few more days to see if they would go away completely, but after speaking with Aeris they remained, albeit rare. He packed up this belongings and cleaned up the area around Aeris' lake to make sure it was exactly how he found it.

With one last look back and a silent prayer, he left the lake and headed back down the narrow tunnel toward the entrance to the Forgotten Capital to where he parked his bike just outside the Sleeping Forest. As he approached the fork in the road leading to the forest, he noticed the number of monsters traveling along the path that led to the mountains and the Northern Crater had increased exponentially. No longer a single-file line, it now appeared as though a massive migration was taking place, with fiends from all over the world traveling north.

Cloud noticed a few trickplays and boundfats messing with his bike. The trickplays were climbing on the seat and handlebars while the boundfats seemed to be fiddling with the tires and storage containers. Cloud drew his sword and ran toward the monsters. He easily sliced the trickplays in half, but the boundfats jumped on him, sniggering as they clawed at his legs and face. He stumbled backward, struggling to keep his balance as he tried to shake the creatures from him. He managed to kick away one of the beasts and slash it with his sword. He dropped his weapon to pull the boundfat off his face, leaving deep scratches on his cheeks.

He threw the creature to the ground and cut its head off in an instant before prying another one off his other leg. The last one bounced a few feet away, and Cloud was upon it in a flash, slicing it across its middle.

He returned to his bike to survey the damage. The trickplays had ripped the leather seat open and pulled out much of the cushioning. He crouched down to see if the tires or any other part of the bike were damaged. Everything appeared to be fitting tight and working properly, so he hopped on the damaged seat and sped off into the forest.

The forest was almost full of monsters, and Cloud found it difficult to maneuver around them on his bike. Once he found an opening, he accelerated, concentrating on avoiding trees as fiends leapt out of his way. With his eyes on the distant light of the opening at the end of the forest, Cloud suddenly saw the ground rushing toward his face. He reached his hands out in front of him to break his fall and roll to lessen the impact. He succeeded in this but didn't count on the back of the bike rearing up into the air and flipping over him. He quickly found himself crushed beneath the weight of the massive motorbike. The vehicle had spun sideways in the air before landing on him, and the back wheel was now stuck spinning wildly, the rubber tearing the skin on Cloud's back to shreds.

He cried out in pain as he felt the flesh torn from his spine, grasping desperately at the ground to try and pull himself out from under the bike. As he struggled, the source of his current predicament showed itself and he felt the massive claws of a grand horn lift him into the air and throw him against a nearby tree. With his back in tatters, Cloud felt the bark of the tree with a pain he never thought imaginable, as though his insides had collided with the oak. Without being able to see, he knew he had left a significant amount of blood behind on the trunk – and brought some bits of bark with him as he fell to the ground.

The grand horn swiped its mighty arm to fling Cloud's bike into a tree, the twisted and broken metal smashing against a large trunk and falling to the ground. Cloud could smell gas and smoke as he reached into his pocket for a potion. He uncorked the bottle and drank it quickly, feeling his skin heal itself and his strength return.

He staggered to his feet and gripped his sword. He ran toward the grand horn slashing wildly, quickly cutting off the beast's dominant arm and one of its horns. The creature howled and lashed out with its remaining arm. It lowered its head and charged Cloud in an attempt to impale him, but the blond warrior countered with an uppercut that signaled the creature's demise.

Cloud rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath, still weakened by the bike and the fiend. Before he could stand up fully, he was thrown through the air by an explosion, knocking his head against a tree. Getting home was going to be a serious struggle if the entire trip was this full of monsters.

The blow to his skull caused a pretty intense headache – a combination of the pain from the injury and the migraines that had been plaguing him for months. The union caused him to pass out until a pack of Nibel wolves came sniffing around. Cloud opened his eyes to see a snout just inches from his face, a nose blowing hot, rancid air into his own nostrils. The beast then bared its teeth at Cloud and began to growl before snapping at him. Cloud rolled to his other side to avoid a bite to the face and leapt to his feet in order to begin attacking the creatures. As he cut one down, several more would lunge at him – scratching his body and chomping on his arms. Just as with the boundfats, the blond would shake off a wolf and kill it while others would attack.

Cloud soon found himself back on the ground under a pile of wolves. With no help and in his weakened condition, he grabbed one of the few materia orbs he kept from Yuffie and concentrated. The wolves' ears perked up at the shrill screech of the spell and they were soon consumed by a bright green ball of fire. The wolves fell to their deaths and Cloud pushed himself up onto his arms to catch his breath. He took another potion and stumbled through the forest. Bone village was just a few hours away; he could restock there.

Bone Village was a few hours away without having to fight fiends nonstop. Cloud, however, was no sooner back on his feet when a griffin swooped in for an attack. The swordsmen groaned and swung his sword, wishing more than ever that Tifa were here.

He wasn't used to fighting alone. He only had a few materia on him, thinking he'd only need them for a rare emergency. His potion supplies were low, and he now worried he wouldn't have enough to get to Bone Village at this rate.

Usually Tifa had been with him through battle, and he realized just how much he needed her even though he was a competent fighter. She would always be by his side with a cure spell or potion, and she carried more practical magic materia to assist him in battle. Cloud only had with him Full Cure, Ultima, and Knights of the Round – he really thought he'd only need them under dire circumstances – and was already running low on potions. He only brought a few ethers, so he was trying to use magic sparingly.

The griffin reared back with the help of its wings and lurched forward to peck at Cloud. He dodged and rolled to the side, swiping his sword low to the ground to kneecap the fiend. With a wail the beast crumbled to the ground to die of shock. Cloud had little time to gloat as a group of cactuars descended upon him. They chirped and sniggered as they shot thousands of needles at him, quickly turning him into a pin cushion. Cloud held up his arms to protect his face, and the creatures ran as soon as he took one swing at them.

He didn't know how much longer he could go on like this. He was still hours from Bone Village, and he desperately needed to use the Full Cure to get back on his feet. With renewed strength, he figured he could avoid using one of his precious few ethers for a while.

He wouldn't arrive at Bone Village until the next day, fighting monsters from around the world non-stop. By the time he saw the familiar skull of an ancient creature, he was out of ethers and potions, and was struggling to stand. Each step was already agonizing, and he welcomed the chance to purchase more supplies. He hadn't brought much gil with him, but he had enough to buy the needed supplies to hopefully last him until he returned to Tifa.

He leaned against the skull for balance and looked around. For the first time he realized the dig site was crawling with monsters heading toward the forest. He groaned between labored breaths. The place was deserted. He wouldn't make it home like this if he couldn't stock up, but there was clearly no one around to sell him anything.

With great effort, he made his way through the beasts hanging around the site and picked up a few items that had been dug up as the creatures walked through. He reached the rib cage where the item seller usually sat and found that in his rush, the man left behind a nice stash. Cloud pocketed a dozen ethers and hi-potions and had been lucky enough to find a turbo ether and an elixir shining on the surface of the ground in some monster tracks. With his supplies replenished, he opted to crawl into the small living area vacated by the dig site, propping up a nearby rib to deter monsters from snooping.

He was awoken in the middle of the night by one of his headaches. He had been in the middle of his recurring nightmare, at the point just before he brought his sword down on Tifa, when the headache hit. Though he was in excruciating pain, he actually welcomed the headache to take him out of the nightmare.

He woke up hours later surprisingly refreshed and ready to make the trek back to Edge. With his bike destroyed, he'd have to walk the entire distance back to the city. Even with the items he picked up in Bone Village, if he were to face constant monster attacks the whole way home, he didn't know how long it would be before he could hold Tifa in his arms again and tell her how sorry he was.

A thought suddenly shot into his brain. If the fiends were this bad up here, what was Tifa going through down in Edge? Was she hurt? He looked around his temporary shelter for any sort of communication device but found nothing. He could only pray that his absence hadn't meant physical danger to her. He'd never be able to forgive himself if he went looking for forgiveness from Aeris only for Tifa to be taken from him.

He paused from inside the ribcage to take note of the creatures passing by outside. He waited for a break in their numbers, but none came. He gathered what he had left and slowly moved the false rib to the side and emerged from the shelter. Before he could even stand up he his legs were swept out from underneath him by the tail of a gagighandi. Cloud landed sprawled on his back, which caught the creature's attention. It hissed and slashed at him with its webbed feet, dodging Cloud's first swipe of his sword. When he saw the beast staring into him with stony eyes, he quickly lunged forward to drive his sword through its heart.

As had been the norm, he no sooner took a few steps toward the open plains south of Bone Village when he was struck by six consecutive spiked limbs. When he regained his composure, he swung his sword, cutting off half the death claw's talons in one swoop. He then hacked the creature to bits. Cloud dug the nose of his sword into the ground and used the hilt to lean against for a moment to catch his breath.

Time to keep going.

Bone Village had actually helped create a bottleneck for the monsters to pass through as they continued north. Once the landscape opened up, Cloud was trapped in a crowd of creatures fighting each other and trying to push through further on the trail. The light seemed to disappear as he was shoved and trampled by the creatures. He slashed his sword to cut through as many as he could, but they overwhelmed him with their numbers.

With a loud screech and a bright blast of green light, the monsters around Cloud fell. The distraction allowed him to escape the immediate cluster of creatures, and he traveled along the base of the mountain chain heading southwest. It seemed there was no escape from the hordes of beasts roaming this part of the world, and Cloud took shelter in a small cave he had never noticed before on his previous adventure.

He travelled to the back of the cave, about 20 feet from the mouth, and watched as the creatures passed by the entrance without taking notice of him. He had left the Forgotten Capital days ago and had barely covered any ground. He sat on the cave floor to rest. He was still in prime fighting shape, at the top of his game, but even he couldn't handle this much fighting without any breaks in between attacks. He sat in the cave for a while, trying to come up with a plan of action. He had never been the best tactician, but with no one else around to help him, he was going to have to figure out a way to get home alive on his own.

"Tifa, can you hear me?" he asked softly. "Can you see how hard I'm fighting for you?"

He hoped Tifa would somehow understand, even though he now realized he had gone about his quest all wrong. He wished he could go back in time and explain to her exactly what was going on with him. As he left it, he wouldn't be surprised if Tifa never forgave him. God, he was such an idiot!

He pounded his fist against the cave wall, agitated at himself for getting into this predicament. If he had properly explained things to Tifa, she might have gone looking for him after he didn't come home for a while. But no, he had to leave her like he was breaking up with her, meaning she probably wouldn't come looking for him for fear of looking like an obsessed puppy. Or she hated him for what he had done, making her feel like nothing, like he was in love with Aeris and not her.

He hit the cave wall again, a little harder. He couldn't possibly have caused it, but at that very moment, he felt the entire cave shake ominously. Dust fell from the stalactites, and Cloud coughed a little. Another shake. This couldn't be good. He stood up to slowly make his way out of the cave so as not to cause any more damage when the walls shook violently and began to collapse around him. He tried to rush toward the entrance but was struck by a rock on his head, and was soon buried beneath the cave under the mountains.

Sometime later…

Cloud wasn't sure at first how long he had been knocked out. Everything around him was dark and there was an intense weight pressing down on his entire body. Every bone in his body felt broken and he wondered how he was alive at all. He concentrated for a moment and soon he could see bright white orbs in the darkness followed by an intense beam of golden light. He felt his body quickly repair itself and he regained the strength to begin maneuvering out from under the pile of rubble that previously had crushed him.

First, he wiggled his arms and legs to try and dislodge what he could. He felt some movement from some of the boulders and continued to shimmy until he heard something fall. The progress was slow going and he considered using an Ultima spell to destroy the rocks, but he feared it might lead to another rockslide. After God only knows how long, he freed his left arm from the rubble, finding a pocket within the debris.

He reached up as far as he could to discover that if he moved too many rocks, more would fall onto him. Of course, just as he realized how much trouble he was in, a headache caught him by surprise. He couldn't grip his head – not that it helped anyway – and had to lie still on his back suffering through it.

He couldn't die in this cave, he just couldn't. When the headache subsided, he again worked on clearing the rock pile on top of him. If he could just get some light, he'd be able to figure out what he needed to do. The Full Cure he cast was too blinding to get a good look at his surroundings. With his left hand, he slowly felt the rocks still on top of him to see whether they were bearing more weight – like some life-threatening game of Jenga – before removing them if he could. He wasn't the most ambidextrous individual, and he wasn't that great at multi-tasking, but when he could remember, he'd try to wiggle his right hand to free it as well.

He had no concept of time within the cave walls, so he had no idea how long it took him to move enough rocks to where he had enough room to shift onto his stomach and turn around. To be honest he couldn't tell which way the entrance to the cave was but had a feeling he had fallen backwards when he was hit on the head, meaning the mouth of the cave was beyond where his feet were when he woke up. He managed to get his head and arms out of the initial pile via the pocket he had created with his left arm. He couldn't stand up or squeeze his whole body through, but he had at least made some progress, though how much, he was unsure.

He tried to breathe as lightly as possible, knowing his oxygen was probably limited. He had to get out of here quickly, or at least find a way to get more air. Now that he had both arms free, he could more easily clear rocks to form a path. He would carefully feel the area in front of him for loose rubble and then gently coax it from its position once he was sure it wouldn't cause another collapse. He'd then pass the rock behind him and work it back toward his feet. If he was heading in the wrong direction he would definitely be trapped here until his death.

It was exhausting and tedious work since he had to limit his breathing as much as possible. Because he could see nothing but inky blackness, he imagined Tifa standing a few feet from him, calling him to her and giving him the encouragement he needed to keep going. Specifically, he imagined Tifa wearing that low-cut blue dress she wore to Don Corneo's mansion. She was just out of his reach in those matching heels, her long legs just begging to be touched. As Cloud pulled another rock from the pile, he imagined reaching Tifa's feet and practically climbing her legs to her waist before standing up to embrace her.

With another rock removed, Tifa crouched down, her knees unfortunately obstructing Cloud's view up her dress. She smiled at him warmly and reached out her hand to help him.

"Come on, Cloud. You can make it," she said to him.

As he reached to grasp her fingers he felt another migraine. This time he was able to bring his hands up to his head in pain as images of Sephiroth and Jenova replaced Tifa in his mind. When he came to, he could swear he heard movement somewhere far away in the rubble.

He continued moving rocks one at a time slowly, making inches of progress in an agonizingly long amount of time. Again, he didn't know how long it took, but he began to feel lightheaded after some time had passed, as his oxygen supply started to run out. Full Cure could heal him, but it couldn't make air appear, so he was stuck. He didn't know how far from the cave entrance or even an air pocket he was, but prayed he was close.

Tifa had disappeared, so weak was his mind from lack of enough oxygen. He had lost track of the number of headaches he had while digging himself out and was getting tired. He had slept several times while digging, though he wasn't sure if it was because night had fallen or because he was exhausted from his excursion.

His head was in an entirely different kind of pain at this point, and he thought he might actually have gone crazy. Sure, imagining Tifa wasn't exactly sane, but now he felt loopy and really was convinced rocks were being moved somewhere in front of him.

The last thing he remembered before passing out again was a rock being lifted away from him. He could see a sudden flash of white and… Zack?

Later…

Cloud was still lying on his stomach, his arms draped over a large boulder and his legs still in the tunnel he had dug for himself. When he opened his eyes he could see light coming from the mouth of the cave. It burned his eyes and he had to shield his face, unsure exactly how long it had been since he had seen natural light. Though he now had plenty of air, he felt physically weak from hunger. How long had it been since he had eaten?

He pulled himself on top of the debris and collapsed, sliding a few feet down to ground of the cave. He reached into his pack and pulled out one of his few remaining rations that hadn't been in the motorbike when it was destroyed. Without even sitting up, he ate it quickly and cast Full Cure to regain his strength.

Replenished, he finally left the cave to continue his journey home. He was immediately met with the stench of rotting flesh. He looked around and discovered that the rockslide that had caught him had killed multiple fiends, and by the looks of it, they had been dead for quite a while.

The amount of monsters in the world had only gotten worse since his stint in the cave. When he finally reached the onramp to the highway that connected the northern continent to the eastern, he wondered whether it would be easier to travel along the southeast peninsula and then swim across the shallow part of the ocean to reach the desert around Midgar and Edge. There were monsters packed from railing to railing along the bridge, and the peninsula didn't look much clearer. Maybe swimming across the ocean would be easiest? No, that would be insane. There were fiends in the ocean as well and he would have no way to defend himself in the water without special materia.

It was agonizingly slow going across the highway between the two continents. The monsters were packed in tight, pushing and shoving their way north. Since Cloud was walking the opposite direction, it was nearly impossible to make his way through the crowds. He hacked fiercely with his sword through the thousands upon thousands of creatures heading toward him. At times it seemed he would hack and slash his way only to be pushed back several feet, yet he continued as best he could, the fear that Tifa was struggling alone against all these creatures providing him the motivation to keep moving.

When he tired, he would cast Full Cure or take a potion. He worried about using too much magic on the bridge. If he ran out of ethers, he would become woozy and unable to get away to rest. He had to trudge on, reaching his breaking point before healing so as to conserve supplies. Horns, claws, talons, fangs, and spikes all slashed at him, tearing his flesh and injuring his body. Blood spilled from his injuries and from the damage he did to the fiends, coating him and only serving to entice more monsters hungry for a meal.

He had to keep going, no matter how impossible the task seemed. The sooner he could get back to Tifa, the easier it would be to undo the damage he had done to their relationship by leaving. Day turned into night turned into day again, yet he couldn't let up.

The biggest obstacle came when he would suffer a headache while on the highway. They started occurring closer together the further he was from the Forgotten Capital, and each time he suffered one on the bridge, he'd come to with fresh injuries and a trail of blood that showed he had been dragged back from where he was when the migraine first hit.

His supplies were dwindling by the time he saw the end of the highway, still hours away at this rate. Potions were losing their effect and he was saving the last of his strength for a Hail Mary closer to the end of the bridge. With another clawed hand to the head, he found himself unable to stand. This was it; his last chance. It was too early, but it was necessary. Trapped on his stomach down on the pavement, trampled by hooves, feet, paws, and talons, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

The gray sky was replaced by black for a moment before the first knight appeared, slashing through the creatures near Cloud and giving him enough space to get to his feet. Eleven more knights would appear, one by one, taking out more fiends and allowing Cloud to stagger and stumble toward the end of the bridge. He was still quite far away even with the knights' help, but he had made significant progress.

He could barely stand but continued to slice his way through the never-ending line of fiends. When he finally reached the ramp leading down from the bridge, he heard the faint sound of a helicopter in the distance. He looked around until he spotted it, too far to see him. It seemed to be flying around the desert perimeter of Edge, searching for something, but not landing. As he continued to fight through the monsters, he saw the helicopter getting closer and tried to jump up to get its attention. He stopped abruptly once it turned to the side and he squinted to see the Shinra logo on its side. What could Shinra be looking for here?

When the helicopter turned briefly toward the bridge, Cloud dropped to the ground, fairly certain he couldn't have been seen from his vantage point amongst the throngs of beasts. Was that… Reno… flying the helicopter? Why the hell would he be out here just flying randomly?

After a few more minutes, the helicopter was gone.

He scanned his surroundings for anything out of the ordinary – voices, footsteps, anything – but found nothing. Whatever Shinra wanted, they hadn't found on this trip.

Cloud used the last of his strength to lean against the railing of the ramp and roll over the edge, falling to the beach below. Unable to stand any longer, he crawled under the bridge to rest, just in case Reno or any other Turks came back. He wasn't about to be part of anything else Shinra may have wanted.

Now that he was on the eastern continent and further from the northern crater, his headaches returned more frequently. He couldn't sleep more than perhaps an hour or so before he would be woken up by one. He gave up hoping for a full sleep by daybreak.

His longest slog was still ahead of him, and there would be nowhere to hide along the way. He had used his elixir once he cast Knights of the Round so he could make it to the end of the bridge, which meant he had no more potions or ethers for the rest of the trip home.

He didn't see how it would be possible, but he had no choice. He didn't even know what time or day it was, since his watch had been broken since some time after leaving the Forgotten Capital. All he knew was that he needed to get home to Tifa.

He struggled to his feet, weary and unrested, but determined. He staggered up the hill along the side of the ramp. While the monsters were more spread out here on the open plains, there were not any fewer than there had been on the bridge. Cloud took a deep breath and gripped his sword, walking toward the hordes of fiends that stood between him and Tifa.

He slashed until a headache hit. At least some of the fiends would recoil when he would bring his hands to his head, fearing what this strange creature might be capable of doing. That helped somewhat to allow him to keep his place instead of being pushed back like on the bridge. Other monsters would still attack him when he was suffering, but there was not much he could do about it. He had tried to fight through it, but the headaches were getting more intense as they got more frequent. Oftentimes he'd drop his sword during one.

He was traveling southeast to the entrance of Edge. The trip wouldn't have taken more than a few hours on his bike, a few minutes on the airship. But on foot? And with the increase in monsters? Cloud had no clue when he would actually get home. Progress was slow with the headaches and fighting. He could see the old Shinra building towering in the distance.

"Tifa, I'm coming."

Just as when he was on the bridge, Cloud lost track of how many days he traveled. Night, day, it didn't matter. He couldn't sleep due to the headaches even when his body did give out on him. And if a headache didn't wake him, a fiend thinking it had found a free meal did. Cloud exhausted quickly on the trip, swinging his sword as best he could hoping to scare the creatures away from him rather than actually slicing them. His strength was sapped from lack of sleep, but he kept pushing. With each step, Edge was closer, as was Tifa.

Sleep. Headache. Fight. Sleep. Headache. Fight. He thought he was going crazy. Occasionally he would get a second wind and be able to tear through creatures faster, but that became rarer and rarer the closer he got to Edge. By the time he knew he was in the homestretch, everything became even more difficult, as he looked so close to death the monsters were taking more chances to attack him. He began dragging his sword behind him, only lifting it in an attempt to scare the beasts away. When at last he collapsed, prepared to die, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Need some help?" he looked up to see Zack standing in front of him.

Yep, he had indeed gone crazy after god only knows how long he had been on this path. He stared up at Zack with his mouth agape, not believing his old friend was indeed standing before him.

"You did your best, now let me help," Zack said, offering a hand to help Cloud up.

The blond's expression didn't change as he strained to get up. Propping himself up on his sword, Cloud made several unintelligible noises in Zack's direction.

"Relax, man, you aren't crazy," Zack said, drawing his sword and turning toward Edge. "But you're gonna have to keep up if you want to get home."

Cloud followed his friend, trying to stay on his feet as he watched Zack hack through the hordes with ease. Cloud stepped over corpses left in his friend's wake, and was all at once reminded how weak he had been when he and Zack escaped from Nibelheim so many years ago. Just like now, Zack had to do all the work of saving them, while Cloud clung to life. Zack died because of Cloud's weakness. He had gotten stronger since then, but now he appeared to be in the same position again.

"…How?" he asked his friend while trying to stay conscious.

"Don't worry about it, just keep up," Zack said, smiling over his shoulder as he continued to fight.

When they reached the main entrance of Edge, Cloud couldn't lift his sword and was covered in blood from the creatures Zack had killed. The blond warrior never realized how much blood his strikes would draw, and now understood why his comrades always had more blood on them than he did.

"Think you can make it the rest of the way?" Zack asked as they stood on the main road.

Cloud nodded his head and grunted weakly. He didn't think he could take another step, but he didn't want Zack to have to escort him to Tifa's bar. Zack couldn't always be there for him and he needed to take care of himself now.

He passed his old friend, dragging his sword behind him, blood dripping from the injuries he had sustained over his travels. Each step was torture, but he knew as soon as he saw the sign for Seventh Heaven that he wouldn't have to fight much longer. He would be home.

End notes: Hope that chapter was as much of a slog to read as it was to write. Cloud's trip was always going to be boring, but I thought it was necessary to show just how much he struggled while trying to get home.