A/N: Many have asked why I prefer to pair Cloud Strife with Tifa Lockhart, and they aren't being snide - they are genuinely curious as to my reasons. Many like him with others, and this can range from Aerith, Yuffie, Lightning, Zack, Vincent, one or all of the Remnants, etc. *Chuckle* To this I have often answered with one single word: KARMA. Cloud as been through so much hell in his life I believe he truly deserves someone as fantastic as Tifa.
Chapter Summary: Denzel and Marlene are playing in the ruins of Midgar when they find something out of place. And even though they know they are going to get into major trouble for being where they shouldn't be, there are times it's worth it. Especially if it's to save a life - or two...
The Patient, Part 1
By Ivy Elise Tanté
Dodging around a piece of uprooted concrete, Denzel Lockhart flattened himself to the ground just behind it and tried to keep his labored breathing as quiet as possible. Somewhere else in this section of the ruins of Midgar lurked his sister, Marlene Lockhart. And if he could just stay hidden for five whole minutes, he would win their game of hide and seek and not have to wash a single dish for the coming week.
How the challenge came about still tickled him. Barret Wallace and Cid Highwind loved to spin tales just to scare him and Marlene, and the latest was about the beasts that prowled about the rubble, searching for tender young children to eat. In the end, Marlene had dared Denzel he wouldn't last five minutes - from her or the residents of the wreck.
So here he was, crouched down on the leeward side of what appeared to be a column of some sort, deep in the gloom and as motionless as possible. Although he loved his sister dearly, it was time to prove that the two years between their ages made him the more mature sibling.
A faint pattering to the west had him cocking an ear, listening with all his being while his eyes scanned the area. The tower of debris to the left cast a thick shadow against the mid-afternoon sun, making his hidey-hole cool and dark. For a long moment there was only silence amid the destruction and wreckage of what used to be the Sector 5 slums. Then a strange, low moan came faintly from somewhere behind the boy, and Denzel leaped right out into the sunlight in shock, landing practically on top of Marlene as she dodged around a corner.
To give the young girl credit, she saw the horror in her brother's eyes and immediately steadied him with a hand on his shoulder. "What is it, Denzel?" she whispered, trying to peer into the darkness of what she considered the perfect hiding spot, a bit envious she hadn't noticed it before. But she had seen the way Denzel bailed out of it in such a hurry and knew something was wrong.
"Something in there... made a noise," Denzel answered, still shaken. They both knew the ruins were dangerous; why else would their adoptive mother -Tifa Lockhart, owner of the Seventh Heaven Bar in Edge- forbid them to play in the area unless accompanied by an adult armed with weapons and/or materia? Both had thought she was being over-protective when that ruling was laid down, which was why they were in the ruins to begin with.
But monsters didn't moan - scream, shriek, howl, hiss, growl, and chitter, yes. The sound Denzel had heard was human, and in pain.
Taking a deep breath to bolster his courage, Denzel asked, "Can I use your penlight, Marlene?" When she handed over her key ring, he separated the little cylinder from the rest and hunkered down, preparing to crawl back in. But a second, even fainter moan had her grabbing hold of Denzel even as he grabbed hold of her.
Fear was in her eyes as she tried to tug him further away. "Denzel, please don't back in there. I'm so scared."
So was he, but it wasn't going to stop him from going down the rabbit hole, as Morpheus would say. There were two different voices he had heard so far. Was there more? Even though his nerves were crawling, he had to check this out. Midgar might have self-detonated over two years ago, but people were finding strange things in the ruins all the time. This wouldn't be the first time someone missing had suddenly appeared from within the depths of the wrecked shell of the demolished city.
"Stay right here, okay? If I don't call out in five minutes, run straight to Aerith's shop and have her call mom. Promise me you will." Denzel turned to her, eyes insistent. He didn't think he had the courage to go in if help wasn't near. And Aerith Gainsborough -one of their mother's closest friends- had innate magic that didn't need materia to function. It made her a handy ally in times of trouble.
Faced with her brother's persistence, Marlene finally gulped then nodded.
Shivering even in the mid-day sun, Denzel stooped and crawled back into the little nook. Working his way through the darkness, he kept going until the ambient light nearly disappeared. Cutting on the penlight, he shined it ahead of him and waited until his eyes adjusted to the gloom enough to see... bones. The sight made him jerk back in shock, and he inhaled sharply and breathed in enough dust to make him sneeze. But as heartrending as the sight was, they were just bones gleaming white in the little beam of light and posed no threat to him. Moving forward on his elbows and knees, he could see they were human and picked completely clean. As there was no smell they were probably from the initial explosion that crippled the city.
Once passed them, the darkness seemed to close in as the faint sunlight completely disappeared. Denzel found himself swallowing hard when the penlight revealed other bones hidden by the shadows, some of them small enough to be children. A faded and crumbling poster on the wall made him realize this place had probably been a daycare. Deciding that President ShinRa had met a fitting end when the upper levels of the ShinRa tower exploded, he stopped long enough to take careful inventory of everything around him. Monsters abounded; there was no such thing as being too careful in there.
Moving on, he reached an arch that confused him for a moment, until he realized it was the crumbling remains of a doorway, so buried in rubble he had to dig to make the opening large enough for him to get through. Wriggling into the narrow space, Denzel entered another room with the entire back wall missing. Presuming it buried in debris, he swung the light around and found himself looking into a dark opening with fragments surrounding it that had been blasted outward. Something had broken free, though Denzel couldn't see anything in the opening but a bit of black cloth.
As there hadn't been any other openings along the way, the moan had to have come from the niche in the wall before him. But it was taking a lot of courage to even contemplate going down that black abyss. Moving slowly, he reached the beginning of the blown-out debris and realized there was no dust accumulated on the pieces of brick and insulation scattered about. Whatever force had caused the blast had been recent.
And the piece of black fabric moved.
Denzel shot backwards into a far corner of what was left of the room, right into a massive spider web. Controlling his instinctive aversion with difficultly, he worked his way free of the clinging silk and sat hunched over with his hand to his pounding heart. It was humiliating to acknowledge he was so scared he was shaking. But if someone was down there, his panic wasn't helping them. So he gathered his nerve and approached warily. Shining the penlight closely made him realized what he was looking at was a black leather glove, frayed and in poor condition. He was better prepared when it moved again, meaning in all likelihood there was a hand in there.
Reaching out, he touched it as lightly as he could, and other moan floated through the dank air. When he curled his fingers around the glove, a shudder rippled through the worn leather and a sound -a sigh- came again. "I'm here," Denzel whispered. "I want to help you. Can you move any on your own?"
The silence stretched while Denzel scoffed at himself. Whoever this was, they had found a way to blast a hole in the wall, hadn't they? Then the hand tightened on his, and the sound of movement over gravel echoed about the tight space. Bracing himself, Denzel pulled gently as he tried to help them work free of the blasted wall.
The penlight illuminated what appeared to be a man dressed in some kind of dark clothing, although the color was impossible to identify because of all the dust and grit covering him. His hair was blonde and stood up in tufts all over his head, and the one glimpse Denzel had of his face indicated he was a young adult - just out of his teens, early twenties at the most. The movement cost him dearly, for once he was free of the opening he collapsed completely, his wasted frame racked with dry heaves.
Propping him up as best he could, Denzel pulled out the small water bottle from his hoodie pouch and unscrewed it, bringing it to the man's lips and doing his best to trickle it down his throat drop by drop. Too much water at one time could cause unpleasant abdominal cramps, Tifa had told him once during a hiking trip. Tremors continued to wrack the man and Denzel was embarrassed to realize he was crying, but was so dehydrated his eyes could not produce tears. "It's okay, I'm here. I'll get you to safety, okay?" Since water was essential, he continued to drip it into his mouth until about half the bottle was gone.
It seemed to help just a little, for the man made a sound, a soft whisper and a cry at the same time. Although Denzel tried as hard as he could, he didn't understand what he was attempting to say until he remembered there had been two different voices. "Stop, stop," he said, hoping to end the man's obvious distress. "I heard two of you, right? There is someone else down there?"
His nod was sharp, and this time he managed to articulate enough that Denzel caught the name, "Z-Zack."
"Zack is still in there? And what is your name?" Denzel was shivering at the thought of going into that black hole, but if someone else was down there needing his help, then by the Goddess they would have it. The awful shape of this man made him fear for his companion.
"Cloud," said a second voice, stronger and more lucid than the other man. "A hand?" he asked, and he sounded right at the end of his physical endurance. Another black leather glove was thrust through the opening.
Denzel shifted Cloud carefully and crawled his way over to help Zack. It didn't require as much of a pull to bring him up from below. Zack was a tall, nearly gaunt man dressed in much the same clothing as Cloud, but his hair stood up in tufts of black instead of blonde. He looked to be a little older, and had a scar on his left cheek that looked almost like an 'X', or maybe a cross. It was when he raised his head to look at Denzel that the boy jumped back and nearly hit his head on the low ceiling, scrabbling to put distance between him and the one identified as Zack.
The man's eyes were glowing softly in the dim light; a blue so rich it was nearly violet.
"Don't," he whispered, collapsing near Cloud. "Don't be afraid. Please." And the last word was said with such desperation that Denzel hesitantly scooted closer and offered Zack the water bottle.
"Cloud drank a little," he squeaked out, watching as the older man put his fingers to the pulse in Cloud's neck.
Zack nodded and took a careful sip that he rinsed around his mouth before swallowing. "What's your name, kid?" Some of the rusty tone was gone when he spoke again, "And is there anyone nearby to help you with us?" He had another sip and tried to prop Cloud up but just didn't have the strength.
So Denzel helped while he told Zack, "My sister, Marlene, was going for help if I wasn't back in five minutes. That was nearly a half-hour ago, so the Calvary should be arriving soon. And my name is Denzel, but most just say Denz."
It was with a deep, shuddering breath that Zack buried his face in Cloud's shoulder and said quietly, "You know what we are. I'm praying none of that help is in the form of ShinRa infantry."
"There... isn't a ShinRa militia anymore, Zack," Denzel told him. "Midgar's infrastructure imploded two years ago, taking most of the power company's council with it. President ShinRa was one of the first declared dead. One of the Heads that escaped, Reeve Tuesti, took what remained and created the World Regenesis Organization. Through the WRO, he shut down the reactors and had the city of Edge build near the ruins."
As he was speaking, Denzel watched Zack's face closely. Yes, he did know what both men were. SOLDIERs, the elite force of ShinRa. The entire division had disappeared just before the explosions, leading many to believe ShinRa had executed them after the fiasco of General Sephiroth going insane and carving up a few scientists - Hojo and Hollander in particular, though to his credit he had sliced and diced any he came across during his rampage. Two 1st Class SOLDIERs had somehow stopped him after Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley were killed trying to do so, but Denzel only knew their last names; Fair and Strife.
Fair was supposedly tall with black hair and Strife average height and blonde...
Could these two possibly...?
Suddenly there was the sound of a voice, and a bright light pierced the darkness. "Thank the Goddess," Zack muttered softly, and Denzel realized he hadn't taken his hand away from the pulse in Cloud's neck. "He's fading fast despite everything I did to keep him alive."
Denzel grabbed Zack's hand even as Cid Highwind, the pilot from Rocket Town that often spent time at the school talking to the students about aviation, stuck his head into the small opening. His eyes went wide at the sight of Zack sitting there with Denzel, Cloud all but in their laps. The unlit cigarette in his mouth dropped to the floor in shock.
"Zack! Strife! Where in tarnation have you two fuck-ups been?!"
"Cid, Cloud isn't in good shape," Denzel started, only to be interrupted by Zack.
"Got any materia on you? I think there's something crawling up behind us," Zack said urgently, gesturing to the hole. "I managed to blast the wall yesterday by cobbling together anything with an electrical charge and hitting it with my sword. Nearly took me apart, but the opening was wide enough we could get through. It was the toughest climb of my life, and Cloud... well, he's in such bad shape it was all he could do to make it to the top, even with me pushing."
Equipping two different orbs, Cid hit first Cloud, then Zack with shimmering green light. Then he aimed his spotlight at the hole, revealing a green snout and glinting teeth. "Duck!" he shouted, unleashing a Bolt from the second orb. Instead of trying to hit the creature, he aimed for just above it, striking the top of the opening. When all the dust settled, it was once more sealed shut. "That should hold the little fucker for a while," Cid said in satisfaction as he hit the two SOLDIERs with Cure again. "I'll pull, you push, okay, Denz? Leave the penlight for Zack."
"Zack is going to be right behind you," he dryly informed Cid. "Mind hitting me with that Cure again?"
Again green light shimmered, and Denzel was caught in it slightly. Never having experienced materia in any form, it was quite an eye opener for the ten year old boy. All of a sudden the little stings from the scratches on his hands and knees faded, and the nagging itch of gritty eyes stopped. Wonder filled him and he sat there with his eyes comically wide and his mouth gaping open.
Cid looked up to tell Denzel to help them dig out the opening a bit more, caught sight of his expression and grinned, "Feels fucking good, doesn't it? Now get your ass in gear and start shoveling!"
It was when Denzel uncovered a small human skull that finally did his stomach in. All the tension, stress and fear piled with the tiny remains had his face going an alarming shade of green. Pitching to the side, he vomited almost violently. As he shivered and moaned piteously, comforting arms encircled him and rocked gently. "It's okay, Denz. Just relax. That sick feeling will pass, I promise." The water bottle was offered. "Rinse your mouth out, okay?"
As he did as ordered, Denzel found himself sizing up the SOLDIER. What little he could remember of them was enough to give him the heebie-jeebies, but Zack seemed so different from what he expected. Despite the glowing eyes, he obviously cared for his companion, Cloud, and he hadn't hesitated to help Denzel get over his sickness. How much of the stories were truth and how much made up by ShinRa?
Denzel knew the only way to be sure was to get to know Zack and Cloud.
And to do that, they needed to get out of there. So taking a deep breath, Denzel started pulling debris out of the way again. In a couple of minutes the air was filled with dust and grit, but the opening was large enough to get the prone figure of Cloud through. Zack didn't have the strength to assist, but he was still trying.
Denzel put a hand on his arm, "Zack, you can't help. Just work to move yourself along, okay?"
The SOLDIER shuddered and his head dropped to his chest. "It's just so hard. We've been trapped down there for at least two years, to go by what you said earlier. Drugged and stuffed away because ShinRa thought we would all go crazy like Sephiroth. Six of us to begin with - and Cloud and I are the only ones left. The others gave up and just faded away, even Kunsel. Goddess, I miss him."
It had taken Denzel at least twenty minutes to work his way back to the blasted out wall, and it was nearly twice that long to get back. When he finally saw the faint daylight shining into the cleft, he seriously thought he was going to cry. Then arms were reaching in to help, and Cid and Denzel were relieved of their burden and were free to help the faltering Zack crawl into the sunlight he hadn't seen in years.
