"You’re finally out of my head." Cloud stood at the top of Cosmo Canyon, looking down at the vast land before him. In one way, he was relieved that the events of the past few years had finally been put to rest. Sephiroth was defeated, the planet no longer in danger and…the voice inside of Cloud’s mind had ceased to haunt him.
The others had gone about their own ways in the end. Nanaki was on some sort of quest to become more mature, Tifa and Barett were back in Midgar and Yuffie, she was most likely back to her old routine. Cloud hoped that her habit of stealing wouldn’t escalate to bigger things than materia. Then again, they had all grown older and wiser during their battle with Sephiroth. Perhaps Yuffie was finding herself a job or getting some schooling in alongside her ninja practice.
And there were the two people that Cloud found the most puzzling - Vincent and Cid. They sure did act strange when they were together or worse yet, alone. Was there something that Cloud was missing? Sometimes, he seemed to be so naïve in comparison to his former companions. When he asked Cid if there was anything going on between him and Vincent, the older man had laughed at him. That was it.
Although Cloud was soon to be twenty-two years old, he had yet to find a girlfriend or even go out on a date. "It’s all your fault." Cloud glared up at the purplish-pink sky. "Damn you, Sephiroth!!!"
"Don’t you have anything better to do?"
A shiver ran down Cloud’s spine when he heard that voice. "W…who’s there?" He whirled around to inspect the rocky hillside behind him. Nothing. Almost by instinct, his sword was drawn and held at the ready for an attack.
"Not out there - I’m in here."
Clearly, the voice had come from inside Cloud’s head, inside of his mind. "Not again. You’re dead! Why can’t you leave me alone?" Cloud pressed the palms of his hands to his temple, attempting to block out any further communication.
"If I were dead, you wouldn’t be hearing me. Really Cloud, I thought you had learned by now."
The voice had no tone, no depth, no identity, but it still revealed a hint of mocking. Was Sephiroth back to drive him insane?
"Oh please! Don’t compare me to Sephiroth, you’ll make me ill."
"You aren’t Sephiroth?," Cloud asked carefully. Thankfully, no one was nearby to eavesdrop on Cloud’s exchange of words with only himself.
"Not even close. I would love to play guessing games with you for the rest of the night but you have work to do. So, get off of your lazy butt and get to it."
"Who are you?" To Cloud, the person could have been a male or female. It was his own voice that he heard as if it had been flattened out to sound dull, and it also echoed.
"I’m hurt. You don’t know who I am?"
There was that teasing again. Who did he know that got a kick out of making him look like an idiot. Cloud sighed and sheathed his sword to sit by the edge of the canyon. "I’m through doing things for other people. From now on, this is my life and the only person I am going to listen to is me."
A lengthening silence followed making Cloud believe that it was over. "That’s very selfish, Strife. And, I know that you don’t mean it. Remember I’m inside you, I can hear what you’re really thinking. Want to listen for yourself?"
"Would you shut up?!!"
"I could but you still owe me one. Come to Nibelheim and we’ll talk, maybe have a coffee. Or better yet, a home cooked meal. I could really go for one of those right now."
"Nibelheim is gone, all that remains are some stupid clones and cheap replicated buildings. I’m staying right here, in this very spot for as long as I like."
"CLOUD!!! Either you do what I say or I’m going to keep screaming until you do. What would people think? I can be very, very annoying."
Anger filled Cloud for being bullied so easily. He had had enough of second and then third opinions cropping up in his head at the least popular moments. "Alright, you win."
"I always do."
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When Cloud entered his recreated hometown, he immediately felt sick to his stomach. There were a handful of townspeople walking around but no one was interacting. He didn’t even know who the clones were and which people the actors. "Now where the heck am I supposed to go?," he muttered under his breath.
"Here."
"Where?" A hint of annoyance crept into Cloud as he was led on by the mystery person.
"You’re such an idiot. The mansion. Come to the fucking mansion."
"You’re the idiot!," Cloud retaliated. Still, he made his way past the small homes to the large Nibelheim mansion at the base of Mt. Nibel. The old metal gates swung in for him which didn’t help his confidence any. Many memories, mainly unpleasant ones, brought forth an overwhelming feeling of disgust. Sephiroth had burnt his small town to cinders and his mother along with it. The fact that it had been rebuilt made Cloud incredibly uneasy and furious.
"I know," was all the voice said.
"You know what?" Cloud pulled open the heavy, wooden door to step inside the mansion. It smelled like dust, mold, disinfectant and the lingering odor of blood. This was the place it had all started - where Sephiroth had gone insane.
"I didn’t bring you back here to remember these things. That was not my intention."
"Whatever," Cloud sneered. "Then why am I here?" For a split second Cloud blinked, and then he was halfway up the stairs without recalling how he had gotten there. "Would you tell me exactly where to go so that we can end this little game of hide-and-seek."
"You know the way."
To the top of the stairs he went and from there, he made a right turn to climb a couple more stairs. Another right brought him into a room where he opened a secret entrance heading to the basement. He didn’t ask any more questions as he trudged down the winding staircase and peered out into the hallway. All of the monsters had been defeated when he had returned the second time to confront Sephiroth. There was nothing he had to fear…or was there?
His footsteps were unusually loud in the basement, his breathing too heavy. The stone walls seemed to be getting more narrow the further he went. Before he knew it, he was standing outside a room he recognized with cold dread.
"Do I have to ask you to come in?"
Again with the sarcasm. What Cloud wouldn’t give to give that person a good kick to the head. He hadn’t noticed but up until that point he had been holding his breath for a painfully long period of time. Exhaling sharply, Cloud moved inside the room and quickly scanned it. There were the machines that he had been hooked up to once, the vials of mako lined up on a row of shelves. That’s how he his eyes had changed to the blue hue he now possessed. Only a couple of mako injections had altered him somehow, made him different. It had been the beginning of the extra voice in Cloud’s mind.
"Now what?"
"Over here."
Against his better judgment, Cloud looked over towards the two testing tubes, one of which had restrained him while he had been experimented on. The first one was empty, the second… "It can’t be…" Cloud stared hard at the second one where a tall, masculine figure was standing upright with wires hanging from nearly everywhere on his body. "Who are you?"
"Are you that blind, Cloud?"
Cloud searched for a light switch and flicked it on, bringing the room a ghastly, yellow glow. Disbelief forced him closer until he was almost touching the glass separating him from the man with the dark hair. The man he had known as his best friend, his only friend. "Zack?"
Zack’s eyes were closed, his body still. Electrodes were fastened to his skin, the wires running up towards the ceiling and routed back down to the machines below. One IV tube was connected to his left arm and a oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose. Other than that, Zack was only clothed in SOLDIER, standard issue boxers.
"Get me off of these things."
Fascinated by Zack’s resurrection, Cloud found it difficult to concentrate. "I saw you…you got shot because of me. You died."
"People come back to life all the time."
Another joke, this one was more familiar to what Cloud had been accustomed to. Zack was alive. Even his personality confirmed it.
"Cloud…a little help here?"
"But, if I disconnect these machines anything could happen." Cloud was worried that he would kill Zack after finding him alive, believing for six years that he had been dead.
"They aren’t supporting me in any way. Actually, they’re pissing me off! So, hurry up!"
From one machine to another Cloud went, shutting them off entirely or pulling our plugs and connections. The low buzz that had been emanating from them suddenly came to a halt. Eager now, Cloud yanked open the door to the testing tube and detached the electrodes one by one. As he was pulling off the oxygen mask, Zack’s eyelids miraculously flew open. Cloud yelped and backed away with fright.
"Idiot," Zack said hoarsely. He shook his head slowly and took a step towards Cloud. The room started to spin as did his vision. While Cloud was gaping at him, Zack fell forward and into Cloud.
Cloud tried his best to support Zack but he was just too heavy. He ended up lying on his back with Zack pinning him down. A strange sound reached Cloud’s ears, then got louder. Zack was laughing hysterically. "What’s so funny?"
"You should have seen the look on your face." It was Zack speaking with his own voice, not harassing Cloud in his mind. Of course it wasn’t the nicest voice to hear with the dryness in Zack’s throat but Cloud appreciated it nonetheless.
Cloud couldn’t resist it, he laughed with Zack and then poked him in the ribs. "You nearly drove me insane." His laughter quickly turned to sobbing as the image of Zack being gunned down danced over his heart.
"Hey, what did I do?" Zack pushed himself up onto his elbows and gazed into Cloud’s face. Cloud wasn’t the same kid he had met that first time during Cloud’s orientation with the Shin-Ra army. He was all grown up now and the scars of war were too bright on his soul. Zack lay back down and wrapped his arms underneath Cloud to hold him tightly. Soon, Cloud returned the favor by hugging Zack just as securely.
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Inside the Nibelheim inn, the two reunited friends were trying to make sense of what had shattered their lives. Zack decided to tell Cloud what had happened to him after he was shot.
Hojo was disappointed that his two last test subjects had escaped when he hadn’t finished with them. He ordered Zack and Cloud to be found and taken back to his testing lab. The ShinRa soldiers he hired to do the job were too blood thirsty and couldn’t wait to drag Zack and Cloud back to Nibelheim. They wanted a fight to alleviate some of the animal cravings inside of them. At the time, Zack was doing all he could to get Cloud to Midgar to see a doctor. When Zack had rescued Cloud from Hojo, he had been incoherent and unable to even walk on his own. So, Zack was in the process of carrying Cloud to Midgar when they were ambushed.
If they had been given ten more minutes, Zack might have made it into the sector 7 slums and pleaded with some of the people there to help him. However, they only got to the outskirts of the area when three armed ShinRa thugs began to fire on them. Zack did the only thing he could think of. He put Cloud down so that he could fight and managed to take out one soldier. He wasn’t so fortunate with the other two. A bullet to the chest sent him reeling backwards and onto the ground. The pain didn’t come right away. Zack crawled over to Cloud and tried to lift him up. He saw the understanding look in Cloud’s eyes but his words made no sense.
Cloud was just about to pull himself up with Zack’s help when three bullets ended Zack’s journey. He was dead the second he hit the ground. The soldiers went off to get a drink, happy that they had killed another innocent man. Cloud wasn’t worth killing because in his state, he appeared to be mentally unsound.
Zack wasn’t able to explain how he got back to Nibelheim. The first thing he remembered was waking up to find himself back in the testing tube. And then, the voices in his head. Not one, but two voices.
"When did you realize you could try to contact me?," Cloud asked from where he rested on the bed.
For a while, Zack chose not to answer. He was too busy filling his stomach with room service and wine. "Since I heard your thoughts."
"When was that?"
Zack regarded him somberly. "The very moment I woke up. I tried to speak to you but your head was already too crowded for me. The more I tried, the more you got spooked out. It wasn’t easy when Sephiroth was joining in and contradicting everything I tried to say. Recently, I sensed a decline in his influence over you so I waited until he was gone. I’m still amazed at how easy it was to bother you." Now Zack was grinning with a sparkle in his eyes.
Cloud took a pillow and whacked Zack over the head with it. "Why you…" Instead of throwing a pillow of his own, Zack leapt onto Cloud’s bed and tackled him. They were both laughing when Zack crashed onto the floor with Cloud on top of him. "You’ve grown up so much." This time, the seriousness in Zack’s expression caused Cloud to grin.
"Since when were you the sentimental type?"
One of Zack’s arms grabbed Cloud’s waist and squeezed him closer. "I guess I died without doing a lot of things. Now, I’m alive so I want to tie up any loose ends."
Cloud didn’t know what to make of Zack’s behavior. "Maybe later then," he sighed. Just as quickly as he had grabbed Cloud, his arm retreated and Cloud was being pulled to his feet. "Damn. I need a shower." The bathroom was right in the corner of the room but he was still cautious. "I’ll leave the door open. If you need me, just call or…better yet, come on in."
That last invitation caused Cloud to blush and find interest in his socks. "Just take your shower and shut up."
The sound of water running calmed Cloud down a little. Zack was still the same old Zack. How old was he now? Twenty-nine? Thirty? Zack had been in SOLDIER, first class, the same as Sephiroth. The two men had been buddies before Sephiroth turned psycho. It was very lucky that Cloud was assigned to Zack on almost every mission. Or, was it more than luck?
Abruptly, the water stopped and Zack splashed around on the tiled floor, soaking wet. He fastened a towel around his waist and strutted out into the room where Cloud gave him a peculiar look. Zack was still in perfect shape, tall, muscular, terribly handsome with his long, dark hair. That hair was now dripping onto the carpeting as Zack flexed in front of Cloud. "What do you think?"
Cloud was envious but wasn’t about to say so. "What do I think?"
Then, Zack was hovering above him with a lustful glimmer in his eyes. "About me?," he clarified. He wasn’t expecting an answer nor did he get one. Zack merely smiled impishly and tugged on Cloud’s shirt collar. "Why don’t you take this off? It’s hot in here."
Was Zack flirting with him? No, there had to be another explanation. "It isn’t that warm in here. You must be imagining it."
"Oh…you wound me." Zack moved back to his bed and collapsed on it. "I must be losing my touch."
Just as Cloud was about to shut the bathroom door to take a shower of his own, Zack called out to him. "Leave the door open…just in case."
Cloud took a very long, extremely hot shower to erase the pounding headache he had. He really needed to relax and not be so uptight. It was hard convincing himself that his struggles were finally over.
From the doorway, Zack gazed in at Cloud, seeing his slim, muscled figure behind the opaque curtains. He wished that they were transparent but the hidden aspects of Cloud were more entertaining to him. The normally spiky-blond hair of Cloud’s was now flat against his head and neck. Zack watched him reaching out from the curtains for a bar of soap before he gave in and went back to bed.
Once Cloud was in his pajamas, he came back into the room to find Zack fast asleep. He had been hoping to talk with him in more detail but Zack needed his rest. So, Cloud settled into his own bed for a fitful night of sleep.
________________________________________________________________
"Where are you going?" Zack had awoken the next morning to see Cloud packing up his stuff.
"We," Cloud corrected him, "are leaving this town. I thought you would have had enough of it after being held prisoner for the last six years."
"Okay…where are we leaving to?" Zack yawned and stretched his aching limbs.
"I have friends in Midgar."
"Right. Tifa and Barett."
"How did you know?" Cloud nearly kicked himself for his own stupidity. "I guess all that lurking about in my head finally paid off. You never paid that much attention in magic class though. If you had, you could have defeated those soldiers with a fire or ice spell."
A small groan escaped Zack. "Please, don’t bring up anything involving studying. You were always better at that than me." He thumped out of bed and threw his arms around Cloud’s shoulders. "I missed you, Cloud."
It was so comforting to be held by Zack in this way. Cloud leaned back into him and shut his eyes. "I missed you more."
Zack was on the verge of doing something else when he realized what was happening. "Let’s get going." He released his friend and began to dress in some cheap clothes he had found in the mansion.
Then, they were off to Midgar using a borrowed boat from one of the townspeople.
The trip across the ocean was long and the water choppy and full of waves. Cloud was green by the time they reached the shores of Midgar. "I feel lousy," he complained.
"Yeah. You look it too." Zack lifted Cloud out of the boat and let him sit down to recover from his motion sickness. "Cloud…I don’t like being back here." Zack sat with his knees up to his chin and his arms around them. "I could probably point out the exact spot where I was shot."
"I’d rather you didn’t." Cloud rolled over onto his side and groaned. "Next time, I’m getting Cid to fly over here."
"What I’m trying to say is…well, I can’t say it nicely. Can’t we go someplace else? It’s not like Tifa is the most hospitable woman in the world. And that Barett, what an oaf!"
Cloud mildly slapped Zack’s arm. "Those are my friends you’re talking about. ShinRa is in pieces right now, they won’t come after us. Besides, we’re already here and might as well stay…at least until you can think of somewhere better."
It took thirty-five minutes longer than expected for Cloud and Zack to reach Tifa’s bar in the slums. Zack had protested all the way and demanded that they take a detour past where he had been previously murdered. Although Cloud felt nauseous the whole way, he readily agreed to avoid the tragedy which had struck both of their lives.
Tifa’s bar was empty save for some lone drunk and Barett with his daughter, Marlene. They were surprised to see Cloud again so soon and more than a tad bit curious as to who he was keeping company with.
"I knew you would come back," Tifa gushed. She had a couple of drinks mixed up for them before they had a chance to sit down. "Here. It’s on the house." She passed the drinks down to where Zack and Cloud were seated on barstools.
"Thanks but I don’t drink." Cloud was about to push it away when a greedy hand got there first. In the blink of an eye, Zack had gulped down two shots of Rum without pausing to breathe.
When Zack brought the glass back to the counter, he noticed that everyone was staring at him. "I needed it," he explained.
"Who’s your friend?," Barett asked from the table near the corner. Marlene didn’t resemble him in the least and Zack nearly commented but Cloud elbowed him in the ribs. Unfortunately, Marlene’s father and Barett’s best friend had committed suicide, leaving the job of parenting to Barett. He didn’t mind although she did get teased a lot for having a burly, dark man for a father.
This was the moment Cloud had been hoping to avoid. Everyone knew how he had pretended to be Zack for the past few years when his mind had been screwed up. But, did Zack know? "This is…"
"Zack!" Tifa rushed out from behind the bar and gave him a big hug. "I can’t believe it. It’s really you!"
There was something fake about the way Zack responded, as if he didn’t care for Tifa’s display of affection. He hugged her in turn and then flipped through his brain trying to come up with where he had met her. "Yeah, it’s me," he ended up saying.
Cloud was eyeing Zack suspiciously but he said nothing.
________________________________________________________________
Later that night, Zack was nagging about anything he could come up with. He had always been great at making Cloud laugh. This time, it was the lack of fluffy texture in Tifa’s selection of towels.
"Next time, bring your own." Cloud tossed a towel at Zack and listened to Barett whispering to Tifa downstairs.
"Sure was nice of Tifa to let us stay here." Zack tied the towel around his neck and pretended that it was a cape.
All Cloud did was shake his head with pity. "You’re drunk, aren’t you?" He smiled a little and found himself remembering the many times Zack had made a complete fool of himself.
"Nope. I’ll prove it." Zack covered his eyes and put one foot in front of the other. "See." Then, he tripped. "Damn!" Cloud was smirking at him, testing his patience. "I’m not!"
"Go to sleep, Zack."
The light was switched off before Zack could argue otherwise. In the dark, Zack crept up to Cloud’s bed and pounced on him. "Gotcha! Could I do this if I was drunk?" He began to tickle Cloud, causing him to giggle and squirm.
"Stop…Zack!" They played around a bit more before Zack toppled onto Cloud, his eyes glowing with mako in the dark.
________________________________________________________________
"What the fucking hell are those two doing up there?" Barett aimed his gun arm at the ceiling. "If they don’t quiet down, I’m gonna…" He paused when he heard the bed above creak with the added weight of Zack. Then, all was silent.
"Tomorrow, I’m going to invite Cloud to go on a date. I’ve never had the nerve before but now… He came back for me, Barett, I just know it." Tifa was all joyful with the fantasy of going out with Cloud.
Again, the bed above squeaked as someone shifted over to make room for someone else. "Tifa, I don’t think either of us know Cloud as well as we think we do. If we did, he wouldn’t be bouncing up and down on the same bed as Zack."
An icy glare was all that Barett received for that. "They’re friends, Barett. You have an awfully dirty mind."
________________________________________________________________
"Zack, what are you doing?" Cloud was amused when his friend straddled his waist and pinned his wrists behind his head. "I’m not as helpless as I used to be." He moved against Zack’s restraint but to no avail.
"Compared to me, you are." He gave Cloud a cocky smile and kept on looking at him with an unreadable expression.
The time for Zack to graciously withdraw had passed. Cloud became aware that Zack had no intention of getting off of him. What could he possibly want? "Shouldn’t you be recovering from being locked up in a basement for many years?"
Zack stroked his hand across Cloud’s cheek and kept looking into his eyes, as if he could see right through him. There was now a lack of playfulness about Zack’s behavior. "Cloud, you talk too much."
From Cloud’s position, he thought that he wasn’t talking enough. Somehow, he had stumbled upon an awkward situation, one he wasn’t too keen on being in. Bits and pieces of the past arose again and suddenly, it was all clear to Cloud.
"I never made it past the recruiting camp, did I?" Cloud saw a flicker of nervousness dispatch Zack’s mood. "You were responsible for getting me all those assignments."
"What does it matter? You weren’t cut out to be a SOLDIER and, now that I think of it, neither was I. I just wanted you to be with me so that I could keep an eye on you. If I had known of all the evil monsters ShinRa was producing, I never would have made it to first class. I would have quit but you were so damn stubborn and had to fulfill your dream of becoming some stupid war hero."
That did it. Cloud kneed Zack in the stomach and shoved him off of the bed. He crashed onto the floor, swearing and then climbed onto the opposite bed. "You never told me about that. If you had, do you think I would still have wanted to be a madman like Sephiroth?"
"Stop bringing that man’s name up. I can’t stand to hear it. And, I couldn’t tell you because it was classified information. I didn’t know the extent of ShinRa’s crazy schemes before it was too late. Either you accept that I made a mistake or I won’t forget how bad you are with that sword. Correction, my sword." The liquor in Zack’s bloodstream grew stronger and he couldn’t stifle a laugh. "Give me back my sword."
"Stay on your own bed." Cloud covered his ears with his hands and ignored Zack’s crazy talk. "Why can’t you remember Tifa?," he asked.
"I’ve met her before?"
"In Nibelheim. You kept pointing her out and telling me how attractive she was."
"I was trying to make you jealous."
"Of what?" Cloud was anticipating an answer, hoping that Zack would say something to confirm what he had been too afraid to admit.
"Cloud, go to sleep. I’m too drunk to talk to you." Zack watched Cloud turn away from him and pull the blankets up to his chin. The next time, he would make sure that he really was drunk before he chose to undertake any flirting with his friend.
