Hi all, hope you've been well 🌸 We're only one chapter away from the end, plus an epilogue. At this pace, we'll be completely done with the story by Saturday. Thanks for tagging along!

As always, big thank you to silver-doe287 for editing the chapter 💐

Enjoy!

"No," Tifa said again, but she couldn't hear herself speak. Her ears were ringing. Her throat felt tight. Her legs were numb beneath her, and it was then she realized that at some point she had sunk to the ground, the car's aluminum floor cold beneath her, her arms hanging limp at her sides. She made an aborted attempt to shuffle forward. "No– Cloud…!"

Sephiroth scoffed. "Are those the only words you know?"

It took Tifa a moment to parse what Sephiroth had just asked here, but when she finally understand, the rage that abruptly tore through her veins burned. She was suddenly alight with it, afire with it, the world singed in shades of red and yellow before her.

She didn't remember standing. She didn't remember the two steps it had taken to cross into Sephiroth's space, and she didn't remember taking Sephiroth's collar into her fist, but she didn't care. "You killed him," she snarled, a knife in her hand– when had she pulled her knife?– and then she was swinging, its sharp edge glinting in the car.

Only for Sephiroth to suddenly catch her wrist, his grip like iron.

"He's not dead."

Tifa jerked. "He's– What?" She glanced back towards Cloud, wide-eyed, and yet nothing had changed. He was still crumpled on the floor, his eyes still glassy and sightless, and his neck–

She abruptly turned away, her stomach seizing. "Don't lie to me," she hissed, the knife trembling in her grip. "I saw you–"

"He's alive," Sephiroth said again, his tone one of boredom. He glanced down to his feet, towards Cloud. "Aren't you?"

In answer, Cloud's fingers twitched.

"Get up," Sephiroth ordered. Tifa couldn't breathe. "You're an embarrassment, lying on the floor like that. On your feet."

A small part of Tifa nearly snapped at Sephiroth for speaking to him like that, but a much larger part could only stare as Cloud made a low, gurgling sound from his ruined throat– the sort of sound hell might make, she distantly thought. Then he shifted, twisting unnaturally, his hand slapping against the ground as he pushed himself up, and Tifa's stomach clenched as he staggered to his feet. Each of his limbs jerked into place as if they were made of wood; like he was a puppet, connected to the ceiling by wires.

She swallowed, hard. Her mouth tasted sour. "Cloud," she managed to say, taking a frail step forward. The world blurred before her no matter how rapidly she blinked. How can I fix this? she wondered, uselessly. How can this be fixed? "Cloud, you–"

As she spoke, Cloud reached for his head and snapped it back into place. The resulting wet crunch had her jerking back.

"Cloud," she tried again, weakly, but if Cloud was in there somewhere, he couldn't hear her.

Then he lifted his head, and Tifa realized why. His flat-eyed stare was slitted, his eyes colored impossibly green and so bright, they were practically luminous in the dimly lit car. They're just like Sephiroth's eyes, she realized, something crumpling within her like wet paper. They were worse than Sephiroth's, even. Not even the other man's gaze was so lifeless, so hollow, so uncaring and unseeing.

Fear flickered within her. Suddenly, breathlessly, she wasn't sure if this was something that could be fixed. What medicine could he possibly take? Did he recognize her anymore? Or – and this had her fear twisting into something far louder– was he even there at all, or was Sephiroth just controlling his dead body?

"Cloud," Sephiroth said suddenly, jolting her back to the present moment. His lips were curved into a sharp, carved smile. "Kill her."

Cloud's head jerked in her direction, and then several things happened at once.

Cloud lurched forward, a gangle of loose limbs and tottering motions. On instinct Tifa threw herself back, futilely; Cloud's weight barrelled into her like a bull, and the walls blurred as she slammed against the wall, denting it, rocking the entire car with her momentum. She gasped, a wheezing sound, then cried out when Cloud's fingers wrapped around her windpipe. She grabbed his wrist in an effort to stave off the inevitable–

– except he wasn't squeezing. His fingers didn't flex to choke her. It even began to tremble, and then she noticed that his slitted eyes were madly contracting, spasming even, their color shifting from green to blue in turns.

Tifa's heart pounded. He's still in there . Releasing his wrist, she instead brushed her hands against his face– carefully, as if she was cradling a small bird– and trailed her thumbs against his cheekbones, traced the dips beneath them, memorized the new lines and scars carved into his skin. He was warm beneath her touch.

"Hi, Cloud," she whispered in the scant inches between them. "I missed you."

Cloud's eyes contracted feverishly. His lips parted and he made a low, garbled sound.

"Kill her," Sephiroth said again, his voice snapping Tifa out of her heartache. "Once you kill her, we can go."

Tifa ignored him. Instead she brushed Cloud's bangs out of his eyes, and– pointedly pretending not to notice the bruising along his temple– said, "I love you." Even after all this time, the phrase was still easy to say. "And thank you," she added, "for coming back to me."

As she spoke, Cloud continued to stare blankly at her, his body still penning her against the wall and his hand still limp around her neck. But as she watched, tears filled his eyes and then slipped down his cheeks. He didn't react to them.

Tifa swallowed down her own tears and managed a thin smile. "It's okay. It's okay, I'm okay, I know you're trying. You've been trying all on your own for so long, haven't you? You must be so tired, but you've done so well." She brushed her thumbs against his cheekbones, wiping away any trace of wetness there. "So well. I'm so proud of you, and I'm here now. I'm not going anywhere."

Beneath her touch, Cloud shuddered. He shuddered, and made another faint noise, and then– when he glanced back and met her gaze– she realized that his eyes were blue.

Blue. Not green.

"Cloud," she said, hardly daring to breathe.

Across the room, Sephiroth snapped, "Kill her!"

Cloud blinked. Emotions flickered across his face, too quickly for her to follow, before settling on something like pain.

"Tifa," he croaked. "I'm sorry."

Then, with her next breath, he was moving. One moment he was brushing his hand against her cheek, and then he had spun around and had slammed Sephiroth into the back wall. The entire train car rocked from the impact, sending boxes tumbling and barrels pitching onto the side. Sephiroth snarled and attempted to fight back, but he was too slow, far too slow, and then– in a blur of motion– Cloud's hand had punched straight through his gut.

The car was suddenly silent.

But no, it wasn't quite silent, was it? Tifa distantly heard Cid's groan of pain as he slowly fought back towards consciousness. Closer, she could hear blood dripping off of Cloud's red-stained hand to patter against the floor. Wind whistled through the cracked windows. Her breaths were startlingly loud in her ears.

Then Sephiroth's gun clattered to the floor, startling loud in the shocked quiet. "H-How?" he managed, blood bubbling from his lips.

Cloud shifted his weight to his other foot, the heel of his boot grinding against the metal floor. "You'll never understand," he managed to say, his speech a dry rasp. In a single smooth motion, he jerked his hand out of Sephiroth's sternum. Blood waterfalled from the wound and spilled across the floor, the color so dark it was nearly black. It pooled around their boots, as inky and still as a midnight sea.

Sephiroth flicked his gaze up to Cloud, stunned. "We could have been… great…"

"No," Cloud said. He coughed and winced, rubbing his throat. "Hurtin' people isn't greatness."

"But– But the power you were given…!"

Cloud's expression shuttered. "You know, I imagined this moment for a long time," he eventually murmured. "I imagined it being one grand moment of revenge, about how I'd paid for how you've hurt me and the people I love." Sephiroth's eyes widened a fraction as blood continued to drip from his chin. "I've thought about what I'd say to you in the end, but now I'm here, I just…" He exhaled, a frustrated sound. "I pity you. You don't understand anything."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed, only to go wide when Cloud knelt on the ground before him. Blood stained Cloud's knees, but he didn't seem to notice.

"I hope," Cloud managed to say, "that wherever you end up in your next life, that it's a kind one. Even if I'm not there to see it."

Sephiroth looked struck. "What are you…"

But before Sephiroth could finish speaking, Cloud reached forward and gently pressed his hands against the side's of Sephiroth's head, then– his face expressionless– snapped it to the side, harshly. Tifa couldn't help but flinch as the sound echoed throughout the cabin.

Sephiroth's body fell heavily to the ground, his eyes wide but unseeing. Dead, Tifa immediately knew. She dragged her gaze upward, to Cloud. The other man was kneeling over Sephiroth's body, his gaze pinned somewhere in the middle distance. His shoulders were trembling. His lips were pressed tightly together, as if he was trying to keep silent.

When Tifa placed a hand on his shoulder, he flinched, hard.

"Cloud," she murmured. "Look at me."

She could feel Cloud's shaky exhale, and then– ever so slowly– he turned to face her, his expression shadowed in the dim lighting. "Tifa," he managed, and his gaze dropped from her face to her neck. His expression twisted, fractured like glass dropped from a height. "I… I did that to you, I…" He reached for her, only to go stiff when he recalled that his hand was streaked with blood. He lowered it, his eyes squeezing shut. "I–"

"I'll get the horses," Cid murmured, standing by the door. Tifa nodded in acknowledgement, her gaze never leaving Cloud.

The moment Cid's footsteps faded, Cloud blinked open his eyes– his blue eyes– and said, "You should go with him."

"I– what?" Tifa stared at him. "But–"

"Tifa, I did that to you," Cloud choked out. "I– I grabbed you by the neck, threw you, hurt you. What if I–"

Tifa grabbed his hand. It was slick beneath her grasp, and she tried not to think too deeply about it even as Cloud's eyes flew wide. He made a gasping sound and tried to pull his hand away, but Tifa only held on tighter. "Cloud, you listen to me. Nothing– and I mean nothing – will make me afraid of you. You weren't in control of yourself, and then you fought as hard as you could to come back to me."

Cloud's hand trembled. "I… Of course I would, but I still–"

"Don't blame yourself for things Sephiroth did," Tifa told him. "You've done nothing wrong. "

"I've done everything wrong!" Cloud's shout echoed through the cabin. "Everything! This is all–"

"It's not," Tifa interrupted. Cloud closed his mouth with an audible click. "Did you choose to leave home for months? Choose to disappear off the face of the earth? Did you choose, just minutes ago, to grab me?"

"No! No, of course not, I–"

"Then it's not your fault." Tifa smiled at him, small but honest. "You were hurt too, Cloud. Hurt more than any of us."

Cloud's hand twitched in her grasp. "I still did that, though," he said bitterly. "You should be scared of me. You should hate me for what I did."

"Hate you?"

"Yes! I–"

"Cloud, I don't hate you," Tifa interrupted. "I'm not afraid of you, either. Of course I'm not. I love you."

Cloud sucked in a shaky breath, one she felt in the heart of her. His eyes were bright and shining in the dark, brimmed with unshed tears. "You can't mean that."

Tifa tightened her grip. Miraculously, Cloud squeezed back. "I do," she said. "Always. Every day. I looked for you, mourned for you, wondering if the last words I'll ever say to you would be to hurry back instead of I love you—"

– and Cloud crushed his lips against hers. Tifa's eyes flew wide, then she closed them and looped her arms around his neck, partially to deepen the angle of the kiss, but mostly to keep him from running away— like if she held on tightly enough, he'd never disappear again.

His lips were hot and wanting against hers. A familiar heat built in her abdomen, a fire that had been cold for so long, and she shifted a bit closer–

— and then Cloud jerked his head back like he had been stung. For a long moment they stared at each other, Cloud's expression flushed and wild, breathing hard as if he'd been running.

"Tifa," he began, his expression carved open. He opened his mouth to say something more… but then his eyes widened and, with Tifa's next breath, he suddenly gripped her shoulders and pushed her away.

Just in time for a bullet to tear through his shoulder.

Tifa barely noticed hitting the wall, hardly noticed the jagged pain in her ribs or the ringing in her ears. "Cloud!" she screamed, already pushing herself upright.

As she screamed, the broken back door was thrown open and sunlight streamed in. Gunshots cracked the air. Figures sat on horseback outside, their dark silhouettes haloed by the sun. Each had a gun trained on Cloud– Cloud, who had been choked and injured by Sephiroth. Whose eyes were still fading back into their usual sky blue. Who had fought alone for so long and for so hard, only to be gunned down by people who did not care for his sacrifice.

Rage kindling within her, Tifa shakily pushed herself to her feet and stepped in front of Cloud, her arms outstretched. Cloud made a choked sound behind her, but he wasn't getting to his feet– a bad sign.

"Get out of the way," one of the bounty hunters shouted. "You daft?"

"You wanna die with 'im?" another added.

Tifa clenched her jaw. "Hell no," she said, just as she noticed Vincent and Cid galloping towards the car, Yuffie just behind them, their guns drawn. Relief coursed through her. They made it, she thought, but Cloud only made a low, panicked sound.

"Vincent?"

Vincent similarly looked stunned, his expression visible even despite being shadowed by his hat. His lips moved, and though Tifa couldn't hear his voice, the words were unmistakable: " You're alive." And then, much louder: "Behind you!"

Tifa turned just in time to see one of the other bounty hunters step into the train car, his pistol already drawn.

"Goodbye, Simmel," he sneered, lips curled back to reveal black, half-rotted teeth.

Cloud lurched into action.

But instead of trying to take down the gunman, he instead raced towards her. Before she could react, he had picked her up by the waist– he made a pained noise as he did so– and then, with a grunt, threw her out of the train car and right into Vincent.

" Run!" he shouted above the wind, above the following gunshot that split the air.

Vincent's arms wrapped around her, warm and solid, and Tifa fought against them. "Cloud!" she screamed, clawing at Vincent's arms. Her fingers scrambled uselessly at his leather bracers. "Let me go— Cloud! Don't hurt him, don't—"

A sob clawed out of her throat as one of the bounty hunters kicked Cloud's legs beneath him. He went down hard, easily, blood spilling out of his thigh, and yet— when his eyes locked with hers— he smiled, soft and gentle and real . Her breath snagged in her throat like barbed wire.

Then his gaze jumped up to Vincent and his expression hardened. "Go!" he shouted, "get her out of here!"

" No! No, don't listen to him, don't—"

Her voice was drowned out by the others: "He's worth more to us alive!"

"It doesn't matter, just kill him."

"Think of the money!"

"We can take them," Tifa cried. There were at least a dozen others here besides their small crew— sharp odds, even for them. But what did the odds matter to her? When have they ever? "Vincent, please," she pleaded, "we can't leave him. We have to go back, we have to, we—"

"I'm sorry," Vincent murmured, already galloping away. "I made a promise."

He didn't elaborate on what sort of promise that was, but he didn't need to. She could guess easily enough.

"Cloud!" Tifa screamed, but it didn't matter.

Cloud was gone– and this time, she couldn't blame anyone but herself.

I'm sorry for that ending... again 🙈 But unfortunately it had to happen, I've had the next chapter planned since chapter one and I was going to railroad (hah) the hell out of the plot to get there.

As always, if you'd like chapter updates & previews, you can find them on my twitter Rand0mSmil3z and, more recently, my tumblr (same username)

Until next time, wishing you all nothing but the best 🌻