Chapter Text
Blurring motion, dark never ending walls, wretched howls of tailing beasts, air coming in rapid gasps and hollow coughs.
Chest aching, muscles crying out to rest.
Blood drip, drip dripping.
Soundless.
Could knew he was in trouble, big trouble, he could feel blood dripping from his wounds, but he couldn’t stop, he had to keep running, keep searching for a place to hide, to rest.
His sword some long ways behind him, lost in the scuffle, the beasts that had ambushed him still close and angry.
I just need to find a way to lose them, he looked around desperately as he ran, his body protesting the whole way.
He had no Materia, he had no sword, he had nothing but the clothes on his back and he was running from a horde of beasts, alone.
Tifa’s gonna kill me if I manage to survive. She had been getting on to Cloud a lot as of late about his reckless behavior, but when he heard from someone in Edge that a nest of monsters had made a home in the ruins of Midgar and were slowly branching out and endangering the nearby areas, he couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. However, he had made the mistake of not telling Tifa where he was headed and he had forgotten his PHS back on Fenrir.
Running hurt, his left hip crunched and ached uncomfortably as he sprinted down the alleyway, when he had first been ambushed he had still been riding Fenrir, three rabid guard dogs had leapt down targeting Fenrir's wheels, sending fenrir into a uncontrollable spin and sending cloud skidding across the uneven debris ridden cement of the midgar streets, he come to a stop on his side but not before his hip slammed painfully against a jutting out piece of fallen debris. He didn't know how he didn't see it coming, he should have, it was a stupid mistake and now it was going to get him killed.
This can't be how I die, I refuse to die here! Cloud grit his teeth against the pain and leapt to his right, catching the broken rung of a rusted fire escape ladder with his right hand and swung his legs forward, flipping up onto the hole ridden platform.
His hip clicked painfully and his knee buckled but he managed to stay upright, then began to sun up the fire escape staircase.
A rabbid guard dog leapt up behind him, it's front claws snagging the back of his left ankle as he attempted to sprint up the staircase, pain shot up his leg and he barely managed to keep down a yell, the last thing he needed was more monsters coming after him because they heard injured prey.
He kicked the beast in the face with his uninjured leg and sent it falling back to the ground below before turning to run up the stairs once more, he was not alone however, because more and more beasts were making their way into the fire escape, it's rusted metal frame groaning from the weight of them all. Gaia, I've gotta get to the top before this whole thing comes down, Cloud swore under his breath and pushed himself harder, his wounds burned white hot as he did but he would not let up, not until he was safe.
He had not realised just how tall the building he was currently sprinting up was until he looked towards the roof, his way out, and saw that the building was in fact more that a mere couple stories high, it was quite tall and Cloud released a sigh at his luck, of friggin' course I just happened to pick the tallest building in Midgar besides The Shinra Building, he almost rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Just then the fire escape let out an ear splitting screech of metal shearing apart, the beasts howling in surprise at the noise and Cloud felt the whole platform shift under his feet, son of a Tonberry you've got to be kidding me, Clouds eyes narrowed, had no choice but to jump, he knew he wouldn't be able to jump to the top from where he was at, still being quite a few stories from the roof, so he jumped to the side, hands reaching out for the edge of a windowsill just a couple feet above him, he latched onto the windowsill with a death grip and used all of his remaining strength to keep himself from slipping right off and falling, at the same time the fire escape shuddered and collapsed, sending the monsters that had been chasing Cloud screaming and crashing to the cement walkway below. Cloud could not help but grin, serves them right for trying to make me an afternoon snack. The skin of his fingers scraped painfully against the rough brick of the windowsill, he could feel the callosed flesh start to give and growled in pain.
I can't just sit here and wait for help, I've got to do something, his strength was waning and he was starting to feel light headed, he looked up at the window, the glass was already cracked, good, I bet I can break through that, he started to climb a bit higher until his feet were resting on the windowsill where his hands had been, his fingers left dark splotches of blood where he grabbed hold of the top of the window, a trickle of it dripping down by his feet. Cloud sighed and pulled his uninjured leg back, then kicked out as hard as he could, which was much weaker than normal but at least it was enough to shatter the glass, letting him slip inside the abandoned building, his knees shook and buckled but he forced himself to stay standing, he could not risk collapsing into unconsciousness when he did not know his surroundings or the state of his injuries. At first glance he could tell the building was not stable, dust drifted down from the ceiling, visible by the light cast from the sun thought the window, there was no other light source in the room, not that that was unexpected, everything had run on Mako back when the building was not a tower of rubble waiting to fall over and since Mako was no longer used as a source of electricity and there were no working Mako factories, Cloud was not surprised that the building was dark, it did make things more difficult as he moved slowly through the halls though, even with his enhanced vision, the sun outside was going down so his only light was beginning to vanish.
I need… to check my wounds… Cloud told himself slowly, even though he had no way of healing said wounds right then, he still had to know what was wrong so that he could make a plan on what to do next.
He braced himself against a sturdy enough wall and faced the dimming sunlight softly shining through a nearby hole in the adjacent wall. Cloud took a deep breath as the adrenaline pumping through his veins started to fade.
He was about to rest and check himself over when a wave of dizziness swept over him, Cloud gasped, slapped a hand over his mouth and screwed his eyes shut to calm the uneasy feeling, but the dizziness did not go away and as soon as he tried opening his eyes a blinding pain shot through his skull, what on Gaia— he staggered down the hall, trying and failing to simply walk it off, he clutched an arm around his midsection, his fingers felt like they were burning as they squelched against his side, that's odd, he was pretty sure his stomach was not supposed to make such a sound, he pulled his hand back and stared at it, oh… I'm bleeding, when did that happen? He supposed he should be more frightened by the prospect, but he did not have enough energy to do more than stare at his blood stained hand.
His vision blurred and the world tilted dangerously, he blinked and something cold and hard was resting on the side of his face, Wait… no… this is the ground… When did I fall over? His thoughts lost their continuity and shadows encroached at the edges of his already blurred vision.
Then he heard his own heartbeat, a soft thud thud thud wrapping at his ribcage, slowing at was he thought should be an alarming rate.
Worse still, he also heard what sounded suspiciously like claws scraping against stone, and the soft padded thump thump of pawed feet headed his way.
He could only hope that when the monsters found him he would already be dead, the last thing he wanted was the excruciating pain of being torn apart and gored by monsters being his last memory.
Am… am I really going to die like this?
After everything… I–I'm really g–gonna die like this?
...Some hero you turned out to be.
•====×====•
You walked down the streets of Midgar, your soft footsteps barely made a sound, this made you happy since you had been working tirelessly to subdue any noise you made so that nearby monsters wouldn't outright attack you every time you went out for supplies.
Today just might turn out to be a good day, you thought almost cheerily as you snuck down a barren street way.
Everyone had abandoned Midgar after the Meteor Fall, running away and making a town of their own that they dubbed Edge, but you weren't swayed by the prospect of leaving your one and only home, sure now it was practically a wasteland, a landscape of shattered glass and rusted metal infested with monsters and every so often another building would shift and fall. Even when the Geostigma struck you stayed and you luckily never got sick. This was your home, it always had been and always would be and you would always be tied to the place.
You walked quietly around broken and shifting buildings, scavenging through the wreckage for any supplies you might find.
Supplies are running really low though, even when I go out scavenging I can't find much anymore. I might just have to give up and go buy supplies in a nearby town, but it's not like I have any Gil to buy things with.
You sighed but continued on your way.
Then you heard something that made you pause, it was a gargled snarling sound, oh crap there must be a pack of monsters nearby, I should get out of here while I still can. But for some reason you hesitated, turning your head back towards the sounds, because something was off, something was wrong and you knew it you just had to figure out what. So you listened and waited.
And then you heard it, a soft almost inaudible groan, that barely pierced through the growls of the monster, a very real, very human groan.
Oh Gaia. Who would possibly be stupid enough to venture through Midgar while it was hunting time without knowing the hunting territories of the monsters?
Technically you were doing the same thing but it was different because you did know the hunting territories, you knew which packs came out to hunt and when so you knew which areas were safe and which were not, those kinds of things happen when you live in a place like Midgar, you have to adapt or you get eaten.
A part of you said to just keep going on your way to leave whoever it was because they were probably already dead, but the other part of you, the part that you don't often show because there's no choice but to hide it, your caring side that hurt at the prospect of leaving someone to be ripped apart by monsters, that side screamed in your head, willing you to go in at least look and see if the person was dead already.
I suppose just going to look shouldn't be too bad.
You vaulted through a gaping hole in the wall of the building where the noises were coming from, carefully checking your surroundings to make sure there weren't any monsters on thay floor before continuing on.
The noises sounded like they were coming from several floors up so you edged your way up the stairs as quietly and as fast as you could, you could hear the sounds of scraping like something being dragged, and you prayed that the scene wasn't too gruesome.
As you reached the second floor of the crumbling office building you could hear the sounds getting very close so you found a decent place to hide and scout around, there was a nice hole in the wall that would serve as a good viewing point for you and you hid behind it peaking your head over to look around.
Finally you could see the shadow of something coming by, it was going slow, and the shadow soon revealed to be a rabid guard dog, but it wasn't alone. The guard dog was dragging someone, you had been right it was a person a real honest to Gaia person, a man with matted spiky blonde hair and wearing clothes of all black, he looked to be about your height give or take a couple inches, you could see that his eyes were closed but you could not tell if he was breathing anymore or not.
Well now I've got no choice, you thought, part of you perturbed and the other part determined.
As the guard dog dragging the blonde man came close enough, you dodged around the wall you had been hiding behind and brought out your only weapon, an old Turk issue guard stick that you had found while scavenging one day.
You felt the weight of it in your hand as you clicked the button and turned on the power, electricity flared to life and danced across the end of the baton, the rabid guard dog dropped the blonde man as soon as it heard your approach, but it was too late, you swung the guard stick with all your might, lashing the guard dog across it's ugly face, the electricity doing its job and stunning the dog, it whimpered and whined, scratching a paw over its muzzle, you did not wait for it to recover, you hit it again, this time slamming the baton into its ribcage. You felt a short lived flash of sympathy for the creature before you could stop it, but you could not let that stop you. You did not let up until you were sure the dog was not getting back up for the time being.
After running a shaky hand through your hair, you slide the guard stick back into it's concealed holster low on your back, then turn to the blonde man who lay limp on the ground.
You winced as you took in the blonde man's appearance, blood matted his hair flat against his forehead, rolling rivulets of dark blood ran down the contours of his ashen colored face, pooling slightly around his right eye. You could tell he also had a rather nasty wound on his midsection, but you could not quite gauge how bad it was while his black one sleeved shirt was still on, all you could see was the patch dark stickiness that betrayed the injury's position near his side.
You leaned down and hovered a hand over the blondes nose and, to your amazement, he was still breathing, it was uneven and came too short and too shallow for comfort, but he was actually breathing which meant he was actually alive.
Holy mother of Shiva he's really alive!
Acting fast so as to not risk him possibly dying right then and there, you dropped fully to your knees and swung the small bag you used for carrying supplies around and started rummaging through it, come on come one it's got to be here somewhere! After what you thought as far too much time looking, you finally got a hold of the potion you had stored in there for emergencies. If this isn't an emergency I don't know what is, you thought as you uncorked the potion and tentatively lifted the blondes head.
You brought the potion to his lips and pushed the potion against them ever so slightly until his lips parted, he was limp in your arms and so his mouth fell open quite easily, to your relief, and you began to slowly pour the potion down his throat,
"Come on," you whispered as the blonde man, who was still unconscious, started to swallow the potion little by little "That's it, keep going, this will help."
The blonde man's brows suddenly scrunched up and his eyes fluttered, you got the briefest glimpse of bright turquoise Mako colored eyes, is he a former SOLDIER? A Mako junkie maybe? But that doesn't matter right now you told yourself, once you had coaxed the blonde man to swallow the entire contents of the potion, watching small scratches and bruises fade as he did so, you put the empty bottle back in your bag and looked around to check if it was still safe to move.
Once you were sure there were no beasts nearby that could interfere you came back to the man who was still unconscious on the floor, you knew his wounds were still bad and would need serious medical attention but you couldn't do any of that there, Guess I'll have to take him back to my place, you sighed at the prospect of having to carry an unconscious man all that way but resigned yourself to it anyways.
You managed to grab the man under his arms and haul him up so that he was sagging on your shoulders, it wasn't the most efficient way to carry someone but it was the best way to keep from aggravating the wounds he already sustained.
You made your way slowly and carefully down the flights of stairs and out of the building, from there you headed in towards what was once the Shinra Building, your temporary hideout was near that building in a smaller one about a street away, you dragged the unconscious blonde man the whole way, not once did he wake or even stir like he had when you were giving him the potion, I probably shouldn't keep calling him blonde man, but what am I supposed to call him? I don't know his name, you looked at him briefly as you thought and let out what you thought was probably your millionth sigh of the day, what have I gotten myself into? I sure hope this guy isn't some dangerous murderer on the run or something, wouldn't that just be the perfect way to end the day, you almost made yourself laugh with that last thought. Almost.
You didn't laugh though because thinking a little deeper it was actually a real possibility that this man you were carrying could very well be a bad person of sorts, whether he be a murderer, a thief, for Gaias sake he could be an assassin, he was clearly someone who was used to fighting, telling from his physique, you looked down at his biceps which were wrapped around your neck, He's got muscle but he's no bodybuilder that's for sure, you found yourself staring at him, his lean well muscled but not too muscled figure, his spiky yet somehow soft pale golden hair, his— stop that! How is not the time to get all weird, this guy needs help! You shook your head clearing your train of thought.
As you made your way into your makeshift hideout with the man in toe who you had now dubbed Mako Eyes seeing as how that aspect of his appearance had been the most shocking to you, even with his absurdly spiked hair, you laid him down on the pile of assorted blankets and pillows you called your bed, since he didn't have a mattress you had to make do with something.
"Nnhg," Mako Eyes groaned as you set him down on the blankets, his eyes fluttering opens slightly once more and his brow scrunching together in subdued pain,
"Sorry sorry," you soothed, "you'll feel better in a minute I just have to go get my supplies, I'll be right back, don't go anywhere."
You highly doubted Mako Eyes was going to go anywhere while you were gone but you still felt the need to say it as you walked out of the tiny room heading towards the room where you kept your supplies in.
As you suspected, when you returned with your medical supplies Mako Eyes hadn't moved an inch. You knelt down next to him and pulled out the scissors from your medical pack and set them down next to you in case you needed to cut away any of his blood matted clothing, then you set the rest of your supplies down and paused, where do I even start? I'm no medic, what am I supposed to do? It's not like I have any Cure Materia. You closed your eyes for a minute and took a studying breath, deciding to take care of the wound on his head first.
You reached over to brush away his hair from his forehead, it cracked slightly as you rustled the dry blood that clung to it, after moving his hair away from his forehead you could clearly see the wound.
It was a good size gash up and a little to the right on his forehead, it didn't look deep but it was long and you knew that forehead wounds often bled more than other wounds, which to your relief made the wound look worse than it actually was.
The wound on his forehead was barely bleeding anymore probably thanks to the potion you had given him earlier, so you took out your disinfectant spray and a wet cloth, you rubbed away what you could of the blood from his face and then started cleaning the wound, as you cleaned it you tore off scabs making the wounds start to bleed slightly again but you quickly wiped away the blood and put a decently thick piece of gauze over top of the wound and wrapped it tightly against his head, he winced as you lifted his head but otherwise didn't react.
After the wound on his head was taken care of you decided it would be best to cut off what remained of his tattered shirt so that you could see what wounds he sustained underneath
The shirt came off quite easily but as you pulled off the sticky blood soaked remains of his shirt the thick stench of coppery blood hit your nose you realized the wound underneath was worse than you had thought.
What you had thought was a simple cut turned out to be a large portion of the side shredded, four vicious long claw marks ran down from midway up his chest all the way down to his abdomen, several of the wounds were still completely open and bleeding freely, you had to briefly turn your face away to keep from gagging at the sight and smell of the wound.
Gulping down your panic you rushed hand through your medical supplies looking for more gauze and bandages, acting fast you quickly cleaned the savage wounds causing Mako Eyes to groan, his eyes fluttered and his brow scrunched in pain but you had to act quickly, you knew if he lost any more blood it could be very dangerous and very possibly life threatening.
The wounds clean, or at least as clean as you could get them, you began placing gauze over the deepest parts of the wounds trying to get as much coverage as you could, with the gauze placed you just had to bandage him, it was a long and very difficult task since you had to lift him up every time you wrapped the bandages around his chest, thankfully he wasn't too heavy but it was still very awkward position and difficult to maneuver with any success.
As you bandaged him and focused more on him you saw that the blonde had many scars, some of them old and faint some of them knew and still pinkish, your eyes lingered on two particular scars, both on his chest one right above his sternum and one right below that were practically identical, but what frightened you more was the fact that as you began to lift him to bandage around his back you found that those two scars had matching scars on his back, these look like… Stab wounds? Has this guy been run through, twice??
The thought that anyone could have so many scars and be so young disturbed you to no little amount. realizing you were starting to get lost in your train of thought you shook your head free of the distressing wonder.
After the task of wrapping the wounds on his chest you decided to do a quick once-over over the rest of his body to make sure that you didn't miss any potentially dangerous wounds.
As wrong as awkward as it felt you had to take off Mako Eyes pants as well, at least for a moment so that you could check his legs for any wounds. So as quickly and delicately as you could you stripped him down to his boxers.
He had quite a few bruises and scrapes on his legs and one particularly deep purple bruise on his left hip but those were things that could probably be taken care of with another potion or two so you quickly slipped his pants back on for the sake of the man's dignity and yours.
Well now what am I supposed to do, wait for him to wake up? Try and make him drink another potion? Should I make some food in case he's hungry? Get some more blankets or maybe another pillow?
You groaned at all the questions in your head, having no idea how to really take care of an injured person besides bandaging them up, how exactly were you supposed to take care of this guy's recovery? Or would he just wake up and leave?
After a lot of debate you decided to simply wait for Mako Eyes to regain consciousness, and when he did you would wing it from there and hope you did everything right.
•====×====•
Cloud dreamt, he dreamed of his adventure, of his friends, those who fell and those who survived, the dream was a jumble of memories and emotions that he had thought long faded.
He was in pain, his whole body felt like it was throbbing, his brain a muddled mess of unconnected and messed up trains of thought.
Where am I? What happened?
Oh that's right... I'm dead.
Right?
Cloud had always thought dying would be peaceful, that after the pain and the blood that he would just slip into unconsciousness, drift into the Lifestream and be at peace for once.
But he was not feeling peaceful, he felt like his body was on fire, like every cell was warring against one another. Was this truly what death felt like? He did not like it one bit. I want to go back, he thought longingly, I… I don't want to leave yet.
•====×====•
You watched as Mako Eyes slept, not in a pervy way, you just did not want him suddenly dying on you while you had your back turned, so you anxiously watched and waited for him to wake. Please, oh Gaia please don’t die, you bit your lip in apprehension, you had seen many deaths in your lifetime and you sorely wished you would never have to witness another, the last thing you ever wanted was to see people in pain.
Never again. Not ever.
Mako Eyes shifted, drawing you away from your dubious thoughts. His head lulled to the side, facing you. You could not help but think about just how young he looked while asleep, when you had first seen him you had assumed he was at least six or seven years your senior, but looking at him now he looked almost your age.
Scooching closer to Mako Eyes, you brushed a stray lock of hair away from his closed eyes, his brow was beaded with sweat and you noticed his face was a tad too pale for your liking, what am I s’possed to do about that? You continued to worry your lip between your teeth as you fretted over the unconscious stranger.
“You really have some nerve Mako Eyes,” you huffed at him, “making me worry like this, I don’t even know yo--” a harsh whimper split the air, cutting you off, your gaze shot down to Mako Eyes and saw his face scrunch up painfully, he brought weak shaky hands up to his chest, grasping the bandages you had put on him.
“No no, oh no you don’t that took me forever don’t you dare,” you gently but firmly grabbed his hands, placing them back at his sides, you winced as he let out a confused and pained noise but kept your grip on his wrists.
“...n-no…” his garbled rasp took you by surprise, you had not heard him speak yet so his voice, while not bad, was a little jarring.
“I’m sorry,” you apologized, your ire from a moment ago forgotten the instant the word left his mouth, “I just don’t want you to accidentally hurt yourself.”
“...not… not y-yet…”
“Huh?”
“Can’t… die… now..”
“What?!” you exclaimed before you can help yourself, “y-you’re not gonna die! Least I don’t think so, please don’t die!” your panic was rising again.
His eyes fluttered and opened a sliver, his gaze glassy and unfocused. “Tifa?’ he asked in a small voice.
You felt quite a few emotions in the span of a microsecond but managed to mumble, “I- uh, I’m not Tifa,” you said tentatively, a spike of… something, an emotion you could not place, pin pricked at your heart, who’s Tifa?
“Oh…” his voice was soft and weary, clearly too exhausted to care that he was alone with someone he did not know.
There was a very awkward moment of silence after that and you began to think Mako Eyes had slipped back into unconsciousness when his eyes closed, but he soon broke the silence, “h-hey, uh…” his voice was ragged and whisper quiet, but in the small space of your hideout he was still easy to hear. Before he could regain enough of his voice to continue what he wanted to say you leaned over and snatched the cup of water you had gotten for him a while ago, “here,” you said holding the glass close to him, “this outta help with your throat, plus I heard it’s good for you to stay hydrated when recovering.”
Gaia he looked like a little lost chocochick when he looked up at you, barely able to lift his head enough to look at you in the eye, his Mako blue irises shown bright in the dark, normally, you would probably find this unsettling, but you had long since decided that this man was most likely not going to harm you, call it a gut feeling.
"Thanks.” he mumbled. He began to reach out to take the glass from you but his hands were shaking and it was clear moving caused him pain.
“Wait, let me?” it was phrased like a question but even if he declined you would not be letting him handle a glass that could end up a shattered mess on your floor. Perhaps sensing your decision, Mako Eyes simply looked away but nodded.
With that you set the glass back down and made to help Mako Eyes sit up, he winced and barely hid a grunt as you did so, once he was sitting upright you fetched the glass of water again, raised it to his slightly chapped lips and helped him take a few gulps. When he was done you put the glass back.
“Where am I?” he asked, his voice much clearer now though it was still faint.
“On what remains of the Sector 3 Plate, near the old Shinra building,” you told him.
He nodded at that, “so you found me and brought me here?”
“That about sums it up.”
"How long has it been?”
“Only a few hours since I found you, the sun should be coming up anytime now.”
“You… healed me?”
“Yep, as best I could at least.”
“I–thank you…”
“Hrm? Uh no problem, I couldn’t just leave you there,” you left out the part where you almost did.
Another wave of silence fell over the two of you. So I guess this guy isn't much of a talker, maybe we'll get along then. You stretched and felt your back pop before looking back toward Mako Eyes, there was so much you wanted to ask him, but it was late and you were exhausted.
“Well it's been a long night for both of us, you should get some sleep.” you thought he might be suspicious at your words, but either he was too exhausted to care or he realised you meant him no harm because he gave another half nod and let you help him back down from his sitting position.
After not long had passed you heard his breathing even out some and thought he was asleep.
“Goodnight, Mako Eyes.”