Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Green.
Life-Stream green surrounds him.
Choking, cloying in every breath.
His mind is lost to the sea of green.
The color of memories, his lost long ago to this same shade.

In exchange for his memories he was given others, a tide of memories out, a tide back in. Mako-green memories filling all the pockets of Empty left behind with the shifting sand.

Why was he here again?

He thought he remembered leaving this place behind, first with new memories. Cloud the Ex-Soldier Merc with a heart of steel, only living for the cold hard cash he could earn.

Second with things more balanced, less Clack-the-jerk, and more Cloud-and-Zack, still easy to fall over into the other, but with a friend by his side to help him stay grounded.

And then again last when the Sickness was cured, “no place for you here” echoes loud and clear.

Why is he here? What had happened to send him adrift again?

He remembers–
Ice –
And darkness –
And death –
Hela the goddess of the underworld had reluctantly come to claim them all, but if the world was dead, why hadn’t he rejoined the Life-Stream once and for all?

“Oh Cloud,” it giggles, the voice familiar, though he could tell it wasn’t her. “There is no place for you here.”

But what does that mean? If the end of days had come, and there is no place for him in Hel or Vallhalla, where will he go?

“Back to Gaia, silly.”

But Ragnarok –

“-has brought about a new cycle, you could say. And so the world begins again.” It says. “Things will be different this time, Cloud.”

But if it truly is the cycle of rebirth, then how can things change?

There is a shift.

He is still surrounded by that Life-Stream-green, but everything is different now. Where before there was calm, now there is chaos. Where before there was numbness, now there is pain. Where before there was death, now there is life. He chokes, breathing in the liquid Life-Stream but it isn’t Life-Stream, it burns instead of soothes, he can taste that it is tainted, not pure.

His eyes open to a scene from his nightmares. His memories are patchy at best but this-this took up far too much of his life to be forgotten completely. He doesn’t remember details exactly, but if he did it would be this. He looks to his left to confirm his suspicions.

Zack, the Hero, is unconscious floating in the tube next to him. He stares for a long moment, too long.

There is a tap on his glass prison. His head jerks towards it, only to recoil in horror.

Hojo’s manic expression grins at him from behind the glass. His words are distorted and almost impossible to hear through the viscous liquid filling his ears, but Cloud has known how to read lips since he was young.

“What an interesting development…” The Monster muses, eyes alight in unholy glee.

Cloud shivers under his gaze, uncertain as to what has happened to him. He was supposed to be dead, or born again, or something.

He shouldn’t be here.

And he shouldn’t remember here and there is no reason for Hojo to be alive and this close to him.

He feels trapped because he is and defenseless without his sword and he’s angrier than he’s been in a long time.

He wants to break from this tube and rip Hojo’s throat out and he wants to burn this place to the ground-

-but most of all he wants to save the Hero who once saved him.

He forces himself to close his eyes and feign sleep. He’s certain Hojo is aware of his act, due to his constant muttering and mumbling and pacing. He knocks on the glass a few more times, trying to get a reaction, but Cloud has cut himself from his emotions, and the surprise stays stuck as only the thought of twitching.

Eventually the man leaves and Cloud takes the moment to observe the room.

It is almost exactly as he remembers it from After, the two specimen tubes along the back wall, a door leading to the hallway, a desk lined with papers and a clunky desktop computer. Nothing that could be used as a weapon, unless he wants to chuck the bulky computer monitor at an unsuspecting scientist. He’ll leave that as a last resort.

With nothing left to observe externally, he turns his gaze inwards.

He’d been blocking the pain from his mind, but now focuses on it. It’s been a long time since any form of Mako burned him this much. It must be pretty early on in the experiments, if he still feels like his skin is melting off like acid. How early, well that’s impossible to say with his patchy memory.

There’s a tap on glass.

He stares in bewilderment. Hojo is gone. He, himself, hadn’t bumped against the glass…that leaves…he glances again to his left.

The Hero.

His eyes widen in surprise. Zack looks rough, and yet revitalized all at once. That cheeky grin spreads across his face and his relief is clearly visible.

“What?” Cloud chokes out. He’s really alive and relatively unharmed. Cloud had half convinced himself this really was a nightmare. That he’d wake up and the world would still be decaying before his very eyes.

“You okay, buddy?” Zack mouths at him.

He nods, locking eyes with him. “You?”

“I’m good. Glad to see you back with us. I was worried for a while there.” Zack’s talking fast and not really keeping his head turned to Cloud and it’s only Clouds intimate knowledge of this man that enables him to know what he’s saying. “Do you think we can break out of here?” Zack asks, eying the tubes with determination.

“We have to!” Cloud knows his eyes are lit with equal fervor.

“I can’t read lips well, but I think that was a yes.”

Cloud laughs, no sound escapes, the feel of thick Mako-goo moving through his lungs as he breathes out distracts him and makes him want to gag. Zack taps on the glass again.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cloud nods his head and gives a thumbs up in lieu of mouthing words Zack won’t be unable to understand. “Good! Let’s do this Spikey!” Cloud laughs even longer.

Zack frowns lightly in concern. The part of him in his head that is Zack, tells him he’s calculating the odds of Cloud actually being okay, what with having been doused in Mako for months on end. But Cloud had been absolutely unresponsive to everything since his first injection so any progress is progress.

Zack rears back and smashes his fist against the glass as hard as he can. Clouds eyes widen as his hand shatters. Zack winces in pain, pulling his hand back to cradle it against his chest.

They can’t hear the door open but the light pouring in from the hall is signal enough. Zack drops his hand back to his side as Cloud closes his eyes, feigning sleep once more.

There is a strange hissing sound in his tube, his eyes widen as they mix something with an influx of new Mako. He glances over to Zack to see him panicking.

“Not Cloud! Take me!” He shouts, pounding on the glass. No one even glances at him.

Suddenly there’s a bitter aftertaste in his mouth: he’s been drugged.

He’s unable to focus on anything except the bottom of his tank as the Mako slowly drains out. His weight follows the flow, knees hitting the grate as his torso leans against the glass tube. As the air hits the soles of his bare feet he loses his battle with consciousness.

-|====>FFVII

He’s got the hang over of the century when he wakes. What had Tifa given him, that it affected him this strongly and why on Gaia had she held out on giving it to him for this long? His mouth is full of cotton, his throat is raw, his eyes are swollen and his body is full of lead. What he wouldn’t do for a glass of water and a few Curaga. Must have been one hell of a night. He goes to reach his hand up to rub at his face, only to realize he strapped down.

He goes from zero to sixty in half an instant. He’s strapped to a table, hospital lights overhead. What had happened? He remembers Ice-and Hela, but that wasn’t right, because there was more after that. The Life-Stream and Zack and Hojo’s ugly mug is currently grinning above him. He tests the restraints but it’s no use.

“Hmmmmm.” Hojo makes a notation on his clipboard. “The Specimen seems more aware than projections anticipated.”

“Fffff-uk you.” Cloud rasps. His throat is uncomfortable with the air that was once necessary. The Mako coats his throat and he coughs, feeling it, still slimy in his lungs like mucus.

“It has higher levels of cognitive abilities, perhaps the Mako sensitivity for this one has peaked. And with it, a different outcome than usual. How peculiar.”

“Whasss goin’ on?” He asks, head twisting as much as the restraints allow. There’s surgical equipment all around and Cloud has a horrible feeling that he knows where this is going.

“I will begin the procedure now. Let us see what the difference truly is.” His mad curiosity is obvious in his every move. “Due to the specimen’s recent removal from the Mako tube, we will have to forego any anesthesia.” He notates, grinning slightly as he reaches for his scalpel.

Cloud locks his emotions away the second the knife reaches skin. He’s sure he suffered worse elsewhere…he just can’t remember exactly when right now.

Hojo mutters to himself, about Mako, healing, absorption, and S-cells. He takes samples from his organs, bones, skin, even his sweat is collected and labelled, placed neatly on a tray for further processing.

Cloud holds out as long as he can, but eventually the pain gets to him and he can’t help but scream.

Hojo only humms in delight.

-|====>FFVII

The next time consciousness returns slowly. He’s floating gently and everything’s fuzzy. There’s no pain, no sound, the green fills his vision. He’s back in the Mako tube. He feels like he should be angry, that there should be some emotion burning at him, but he must still be drugged.

There’s a tap at the glass.

He blinks groggily, eyes slowly turning to where he knows Zack is.

He looks bad. He’s thin and haggard, what with just pure Mako fueling him. There are bags under his bloodshot eyes, but still, Zack looks relieved to see him conscious. Cloud feels like there should be some emotion to feel, guilt or regret or anger or something, but the drugs keep everything cushioned.

“How long?” He asks, forcing his hands to tap his wrist where a watch would be.

“Don’t know, two months, maybe three. Glad to see you awake, Spikey.” Three months? His eyes should be wide in surprise, he knows this, but he can’t muster up the energy.

“Drugged.” He mouths.

“I know, me too.”

“What happened?”

“Hojo took you…you started screaming…even through the tank it was…you were gone for a while. Then he brought you back in. We’ve been here since.”

Gone a while, but they’ve been in the Tubes since. Which means either Hojo got exactly what he needed, or he got absolutely nothing. Either way he’s probably left.

“Escape?”

“I’ve tried. The glass is too thick for me to break.” He breathes Mako in, he breaths Mako out. The drugs keep him hazy but he knows he should be in pain. The Mako should burn, but it doesn’t, of that he’s certain.

He lifts up his hand, bringing it to his face. The muscles in his arm are whipcord thin, but strong. His nails are long and thick. Something is different in this Mako then the Mako from before, besides the drugs, he’s not sure what.

He scratches an X into the glass, the sound is grating. It’ll need to be deeper, if only he had First Tsurugi, this would be a breeze.

Mako in, Mako out. He scratches constantly at the glass, digging in and in until one by one his nails break, drops of his Mako-filled blood mixing with the Mako in the Tank. He ignores Zack’s tapping to get his attention, he ignores the incessant buzzing of Mako and Life-Stream, he ignores the longing for a sword abandoned to the future. As his nails break he moves onto the next one, and by the time he gets to his pinky finger, the thumb is healed up again. He’s gotten a few millimeters deep, but time is running out. They can’t have much longer until the scientist’s return, ready to start the next round of observations or experiments.

He glances over at Zack, a grin splitting his face. There is no emotion behind it, but Cloud knows it is an appropriate expression for what he is about to do. He pulls back his fist, focusing all of his strength into the next motion.

He’s attempting a crude limit break as he explodes forward, pushing off the back of the tube to put his whole body behind the punch, as much as he can anyway. The glass cracks as his hand breaks. Mako begins leaking out. His bones heal quickly and he rears back for another punch. This time the tube shatters. Mako explodes out and splatters the entire room. Mako out, air in, he coughs violently.

He smacks his lips at the fresh taste of stale underground air and realizes the Taint that was in his Mako is gone. The Monster must have moved him up to pure Mako in an attempt to…what maximize results? Lucky him, pure Mako is just Life-Stream condensed, and he’s been in there often enough that it helped instead of hurt.

Zack stares in surprise as he makes his way over to the computer, inputting the sequence to release Zack’s tube. Warning signs flash due to the Mako not being drained first but Cloud bypasses them in his rush to get the Hero out of this hellhole.

Mako spills across the floor and Cloud rushes over to catch him. Zack’s coughing and sputtering as he breathes Mako out and air in.

The Life-Stream seems to sigh in exasperation, Cloud ignores it in favor of steadying the man who had once saved him, only to almost trip over the floor. But it’s not the floor, First Tsurugi appears in the Mako pool as it drains from the room. Cloud knows there should be some emotion, surprise or confusion or fond understanding, but the drugs in his system still hold him down.

With every breath in things seem a little clearer. With every breath in Zack seems a little steadier, until Cloud can let him support himself as he reaches down to grab his sword.

He splits the sword, giving Ascalon to the SOLDIER.

“Spikey, what?”

“No time to explain. Let’s get out of here.” He can’t possibly know that he looks like a man possessed, eyes bright with Mako, the sticky green drying to a tacky film covering every inch, giving him a disgusting sickly pallor. His easy ignoring of it is even more contrasted by the way Zack wants to peel his skin off, itching every centimeter he can reach, eventually being able to peel it off in a nauseatingly thick layer like a monster shedding its skin in that one horror movie they’d watched back in Midgar.

The path they blaze through the mansion is filled with blood. There are several scientists, two SOLDIERs and a TURK that stand between them and freedom. Cloud is sure to detour them towards Vincent, the Life-Stream guiding his actions.

“A Vampire?” Zack asks, incredulous. Wondering how Cloud knew about the sleeping creep, and what he wants with him. “Cloud?”

“Vincent?” Cloud asks as he ignores the True Hero. The red clad man slowly sits up from the coffin, but Zack’s eyes move on to see his equipment conveniently stashed with half an armory’s worth of others.

“Chaos.” Is the short response. Zack makes a happy sound at the sight of the Buster Sword, his materia and other equipment as he quickly moves to suit up.

“Let’s go.” Cloud mutters impatiently, taking Ascalon when Zack hands it back. A pair of boots are placed in front of him and he grins in sheepish thanks.

For all the people they kill, Hojo is nowhere to be found. Cloud had figured, but it still made things more difficult.

An MBarrier and Firaga ensure the Shinra mansion will need to be rebuilt-again. They make their way up the mountain, stopping at a decently sized cave far enough away for now.

“Cloud. What is going on? You’ve been totally weird since we escaped…maybe even before then.” Zack asks once they’re safely tucked away.

“Zack…” Cloud starts, fingers twisting around the handle of First Tsurugi. “We were just held captive and experimented on by the company we worked for. I think weird is expected.” He’s still monotone, but words are coming to him quicker than they had in years. He finally doesn’t have to think about WHO is reacting, Zack is sitting in front of him, Sephiroth is dead, and JENOVA is nowhere to be heard.

“…I didn’t expect you to survive, you know.” Cloud should be surprised, but he can’t bring himself to be. “Hojo kept talking about how weak you were and how it was a shame that you were the one who was so Mako-tolerant. He enjoyed watching you scream your lungs out in front of me while he pumped you full of Mako. You should have stayed poisoned…but something changed. You started absorbing it almost faster than he could pump you full of it, which lead to the grand idea of pickling us in it. Do you have any idea what happened? What watching that did to me? I’m not a hero, I never was, even if I dreamed to be…” Cloud watches him, eyes wide, face expressing the emotions he still can’t feel.

“Zack…while we were…‘pickled,’ I went into the Life-Stream…”

“So you did die…” He mutters to himself.

“But Lady Frigga, or Gaia, or the Cetra, or someone, I don’t know, they told me I had to live. That we, you and Vincent and I, have an important mission to fulfill.”

“What are you talking about, Cloud?”

“We have to save the world.”

Zack scoffs, and Cloud knows the man well enough, Hela, he has been the man enough, to know that he doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.

“My friend…the fates are cruel, there are no dreams, no honor remains…”

Zack flinches at the quote, mind flashing to Genisis and thus Angel, looking at him with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you know Loveless.”

“Cloud.” Vincent speaks up, voice intent as he looks to the cave entrance with wary eyes.

“Who is this guy anyway?” Zack asks, but is promptly ignored. “Did you guys know each other before you came to Shinra?”

“What is it?” Cloud stands promptly, attention focused.

“We have company…” Vincent replies, Cloud joins him while Zack dithers behind them, fumbling for the Buster sword, which he left lying on the floor.

The Nibel Dragon’s rage is palpable. Cloud immediately casts Poison on the creature as Vincent casts an Mbarrier for the dragons flame thrower. Zack steps into formation taking his turn to attack before the dragon can get an attack in. From there it’s simply a matter of wearing the creature down.

They’re exhausted and sweaty by the end of it, and Zack just collapses onto the floor.

“What are our next moves?” Vincent asks running a cloth over his standard Shinra-issued gun.

“We’ll have to take out the reactor.” Cloud says putting First Tsurugi back together. “But first we need to rest and recuperate. Shinra won’t expect us to stay close. We’ll stay away from Nibelheim. They’ll expect that or for us to go back to Midgar…They’ll probably send a few Turks when they realize they lost track of us. Are you prepared for that?”

“Of course.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Can I get some answers, please? What’s this about taking out a reactor?”

Vincent looks him over and answers, “there’s an alien entity inside named JENOVA. She is the Calamity and must be destroyed. Hojo will have had her brought here for his experiments on the two of you.”

“Cloud, man, you guys sound…touched.”

“He’s right though. I know it’s hard to believe, but I spent how many months inside pure Mako? We’re both lucky we’re not lumps of mutated flesh.” Zack makes a sound of agreement but still sends him a dubious expression. “Look, if we get to the reactor and there’s no alien there, you can cart me off to a psychiatrist…after we figure out what we’re doing about the company that kidnapped us and experimented on us without worry of consequences.”

“That’s just how Shinra is.”

“And you’ll just accept that? You don’t think they’ll try again, that you can just go walking back into your old life and no one will question it? I bet anything that we’ve been declared KIA along with Sephiroth. If we try going back we’ll just be putting everyone we love in danger.” He knows he’s manipulating Zack, but he also knows what Zack will decide to do if left to make his own choices. He didn’t have much to work with last time, but Cloud’s coherent this time, they have Vincent, and options. Things will be different.

“I don’t-“ Zack starts, but stops just as quickly, actually taking a moment to think things through. Excitable puppy he may be, but he’s only a few years full of torture shy of being a self-sacrificing idiot. Oops. He totally meant to think Hero, same difference right? And as Cloud can attest, there isn’t much room for mental or emotional growth when drugged out on Mako, so he must still nearly be the same man.

“Now, we rest. Tomorrow, the reactor. After, Shinra.” Vincent sums up.

“Now, we rest.” Cloud repeats. Before sliding down against a cave wall, his sword propped up beside him within easy reach.

“What about the dragon?” Zack asks. Cloud glances over at it.

“It’ll keep the predators away, for now. Anything stupid enough to try and attack something that killed one will be easy enough to dispose of.”

“I’ll take first watch.” Vincent says, Cloud nods his head, closing his eyes, ready for sleep to come.

He doesn’t count on the night terrors.

But he also doesn’t count on something soothing him before they can wake him fully. “It’s okay, Spikey…we’re gunna be okay…” That voice is more than enough to send him back off to slumber.

Half the night is gone before Vincent wakes him. There are few words spoken as understanding just comes naturally. Zack is curled up beside him, hand resting on Clouds knee.

“So this is your Zack Fair? I can see why.” Cloud feels as though he should be embarrassed, but he can only crook a halfhearted grin.

“He’s so much more.” The than I could ever be, goes unspoken.

“You are enough.” Now his cheeks do redden in embarrassment he still doesn’t feel.

“Go to sleep.” Cloud mutters, setting Zacks hand over his own chest. He raises quickly and stretches out the kinks.

The quiet man settles down a few feet away from the puppy and Cloud makes his way over to the corpse among them, quietly settling in to harvest some valuable parts.

He doesn’t have anything with which to properly store the delicate pieces, but dragon skin and a few hollowed out stones will be enough for what he can. The really valuable bits, heart, venom, blood, will be all but impossible to preserve so he settles for harvesting what is less fragile. He slices the dragon’s throat, after dragging the head downhill to let the Mako-infused blood drain. The scales peel off easily enough and the skin goes next. He activates a fire materia below it to help dry it out. Then come the claws and teeth, circled around the materia to dry out the flesh and gums still attached. The most tender muscles follow, with a Fira set to roast them for food. The organs are piled to one side, Cloud wishes he could do more with them, but they’ll make good bait for other animals. A few of the bones are valuable and those go behind the teeth to dry without becoming brittle. He contemplates the rest of the corpse, wishing he were feeding nine instead of three.

Chapter Text

The smell of cooked meat fills the air as the crisp winter sun begins its journey across the sky. Zacks stomach growls a few times before the man manages to bring himself into awareness.

“Mmmm, what is that smell?” He mutters groggily, eyes slowly ticking across the cave, seeing but not observing all the changes from last night.

“Breakfast. And probably lunch and dinner too.” Cloud says, looking up from his work. He’s using a bit of bone shaped into a needle and string made from some tough winter-grass to sew together a few pouches for item storage. There are already a few piled next to him holding the other dragon parts he salvaged.

“Okay…what is it?”

“Dragon.” Zack blinks into full awareness at that statement, eyes roving across the cave again. It’s warm, which is a bit of a change from when he fell asleep, and the dragon corpse looks like it’s been torn apart. Vincent’s still snoozing knees pulled up to his chest, arms draped over them, head lolling forward in what must be the most uncomfortable position Zack’s ever seen anyone sleep in. But there’s meat roasting over a materia and Cloud’s sewing-

“What on earth, Spikey?” Zack asks eyes stuck on Cloud whose hands are bloody but dry and is calmly stitching dragon skin into backpacks. Cloud just raises an eyebrow at him, but Zack’s stomach takes that moment to remind him that food-food is good and he hasn’t eaten a proper meal in months-and so what if it’s dragon? He ungracefully pushes to his feet, not nearly as dexterous as he was before the-the captivity, but still better than yesterday. He’s had a cure cast on him, and the only one with that materia is Cloud, but there’s food. Cloud hands him a bundle of dragon skin, Zack opens it to see meat, real cooked meat, and a few of the tougher mountain vegetables, also charred. “Thanks.” He mutters before all but inhaling the offering.

Cloud holds out another pouch and Zack goes to take it but Vincent seems to materialize next to him and holy shit wasn’t he just asleep all the way over there?

Their expressions turn more amused and Zack can’t help but think they’re silently laughing at him.

“Sooo…reactor today?” He asks, trying to distract them from his surprise.

“I thought you’d put up more of a fight…” Cloud not-asks. And yeah, he totally would have, if Cloud hadn’t been muttering his name in such pain all night, begging for Zack to be okay and not dead, pleading that he would be okay, really, and that Zack should just go on without him, would be ‘better off just leaving his comatose ass to rot’. And the fact that Cloud hadn’t calmed down until Zack had curled up next to him, telling him that it was okay, and that he wasn’t leaving him behind, muttered reassurances back at him, ignoring Vincent’s uncomfortably knowing look.

“Yeah, we’ll see about this Calamity, and then I can cart you off to a psychiatrist.”

“After we deal with Shinra.” Cloud deadpans.

“Of course.” Zack says in an ‘I’m-just-humoring-you’ voice. Cloud shoots a grin his way, and Zack feels totally okay slinging one back at him.

The trek to the reactor is quicker than Zack expected. Apparently they’re already halfway there, since escaping from the mansion. It remains unguarded and he can’t help but remember the last time they were there. Sephiroth had been with them. Sephiroth, who had lost his goddamned mind after reading files in the Shinra library, and had tried to kill them over something in the reactor. Maybe Cloud wasn’t totally insane after all…

“She’s here.” Cloud says ominously.

“How do you know?” He asks, watching as Vincent and Cloud share a look.

“…I can hear her.”

“And just what do you mean by that? I don’t hear anything?”

“You…don’t have the right cells.”

“What? You know what, never mind. Just show me this great and mighty Calamity.”

The walk into the reactor is silent. Zack expects to see evidence of their battle, but it seems that it really has been almost two years, Shinra has cleaned up the mess. Cloud unerringly leads the way through the reactor, headed to the same place where they had fought Sephiroth.

The scent of Mako is almost overpowering, making him cringe back even as Cloud continues forward, head cocked to the side, listening to something. He makes his way across the catwalk, to the metal tank sitting in the middle of the room. With the input of a code, the metal slides away revealing a tank similar to the one they’d recently been held in. Inside is a metal construct surrounding a female form. Man. And he’d really been hoping Cloud was just crazy.

“You are no mother of mine.” Cloud responds, seeming out of nowhere.

Vincent tenses at his side. Hands itching for his gun.

“There will be no reunion.” Clouds voice echoes with power, his words seem to hold the weight of prophesy. “You are the Calamity. You are death and destruction personified, and Gaia will not allow the Calamity to strike again.” Firaga spits from his fingertips as Life-Stream swirls up from the depths of the reactor, powering his spell even more. A horrendous shriek fills the air as JENOVA is turned to less than ash, nothing left to dissolve into the Life-Stream.

“S-spikey?” Zack asks looking at the younger man in shock. There are sirens blaring, the clamor spiking before going silent. Cloud freezes mid-turn as Vincent swirls to face the door.

Nothing is there to greet them. No guards come running, no Hojo spitting mad, no Turks on to them faster than they can blink. Nothing.

They stay frozen for a moment, Zack is utterly confused at their reaction, but decides to snap them out of it.

“Weeeeell, alright then, now that that’s over with, let’s move on shall we?” They both flinch at the sound of his voice, echoing in the empty chamber.

“Right. We’d better leave,” Cloud starts, making his way back down the catwalk.

“ShinRa will have been alerted to our presence here, and with our escape from the mansion, it won’t take them long to connect the dots.” Vincent seems to continue Clouds thought, and really how can they possibly know each other well enough to do that?

“We won’t have much time, then.” Cloud finishes as he steps up alongside them.

“Let’s mosey.” Cloud and Zack say in unison. They stare at each other in shock while Vincent muffles a series of amused snorts.

“I’ll get the video footage, unless someone was watching the reactor live, we should be good.”

“Sounds good, Zack and I will do some housekeeping.”

“What do you mean, housekeeping?”

Zack really wishes he hadn’t asked.

“You mean to tell me this could have been us?”

The Mako must have messed with his memories as much as it did Clouds.

“Yes, this is the foundation that Sephiroth and the SOLDIER program was built off of. Hojo’s experimentation and constant strive for improvements.”

“How do you know all of this Cloud?”

“You must feel it too, the holes in your memory, the pieces from another puzzle slotted into place, they fit, but they don’t match at all.”

“I…” Zack thinks for a moment, rooting around in his thoughts. He can remember he’s from Goongaga, but he can’t remember what his mother and father look like. He remembers days getting dirty in the swamp fending off Touch Mes, but doesn’t remember his trip to Midgar. He remembers passing the SOLDIER exam, but not what it took to get there. He remembers Angeal and Genisis and Sephiroth, but not spending time with them, or training, or missions or any other SOLDIERs, though he knows he’s a friendly guy and must have had more friends than just his bosses. He remembers falling into the church and meeting Aerith, but he also remembers finding a thousand letters and the heartbreak that followed. He remembers the gentle green of death, the Life-Stream claiming him and scattering everything that made him ZACK FAIR. He remembers things that can’t possibly be real, the fear when the Calamity first fell from the sky, the birth of each of the WEAPONS, where each sleeps awaiting their fate, he remembers chocobo births and racing at the Gold Saucer, TEIO being his biggest rival, he remembers the Geostigma sickness and the death of all things.

The hiss of Mako spilling from a dozen containers pulls him from his disturbing thoughts.

“Come on, Zack.” And yeah, that is definitely who he is, Zack Fair, (ex)SOLDIER extraordinaire. “Let’s get these guys cleaned up.” And Zack lets himself get lost in the motions. He’s still rusty, but getting more fluid with every swing, every cast, every jump and twist and block. Cloud is there, constantly, filling in gaps, covering weaknesses, curing wounds. They work like a well-oiled machine, and it’s surprising. But also not.

“We’ve done this before.” Zack states as they finish up, cleaning monster guts from his sword. “Well, not that, but this…not this but this. Do you get what I’m saying?” He asks, confusing himself in his inability to put the feeling into words.

“I do.” Cloud replies, motions mirroring Zack as he also cleans his sword. “There was a time I didn’t recover so well. We spent months, a year almost, traveling. And what happened after…can’t ever happen again.” He looks up to Zack, eyes locking, a fire burning in them.

“I think I understand, at least a little.”

“Then you know Shinra must be stopped. We need to destroy the reactors. We need to heal the SOLDIERs, to stop Geostigma from happening. We need to save Aerith.”

At that, Zack’s heart freezes, in all his memories, lost and not his, he doesn’t know what happened to Aerith. But Cloud does, and Cloud knows they need to save her.

“I know, Zack, I know. Come on, Vincent should be waiting for us.” He lets himself be distracted.

“But how, we’ve been in the front room this whole time. There’s no way he got past us, even if we were distracted.”

“Oh, he has his ways.” Cloud grins.

And Cloud is right, as they exit the reactor, low afternoon sun blinding them, Vincent stands beside the door, a silent sentinel.

It’s strange to think, that Cloud knows Vincent so well, even though he’s never mentioned him before. Vincent seems to know Cloud just as well, and it’s jarring because Zack is coming to see that Cloud seems to know him equally as well…but he doesn’t really know this new Cloud at all.

”We’ll head to rocket town, then maybe across to Wutai.” Cloud muses, leading the way down the mountain. Vincent a stoic shadow at his back. Zack trails along, lost in thought, thoughts lost, trying to find himself and his missing pieces amongst the green coating his thoughts. He’d thought he’d gotten rid of the Mako when he’d managed to peel it from his skin, but it seems like it’s seeped into his very pores, coating his thoughts and memories in addition to his lungs and veins.

“It’ll feel better with time.” Cloud says, and Zack looks up to see him looking back at him. “The Mako, and your memories.” He clarifies, making sure Zack knows he knows what is occupying his mind. “I bet if we make it to the Ancient Capital, the Planet can help you with them. She did with mine, after all.”

“I just don’t get how you can still be coated in the stuff.” Zack says, brushing it off with a grin. Cloud glances down at his arms in surprise.

“I didn’t even realize…”

“You’re washing up at the next stream or river or pond or whatever we come across, man. I can smell the Mako from here.”

“…it really is uncomfortable.” Vincent chimes in when it looks like Cloud is going to come back with some rebuke. Instead he glances at Vincent and sighs.

“If you insist. I don’t know why it isn’t burning me like usual…I wonder if the Planet…” He trails off getting lost in his own thoughts and Zack smiles, watching him.

It’s crazy, nothing like he’d ever imagined. Getting abducted by his own job, tortured, experimented on and almost killed. He thought for sure Cloud was a goner, had hoped not of course, but had known in his heart none the less. But here he is, a little mentally unstable, but whole and able, in spite of all they’d gone through. They’re out of that hellhole, free as can be, and have a plan for what comes next, they’re not wandering aimlessly across the world, just trying to avoid capture from Shinra. He got them out, he knew about Vincent, he was right about JENOVA, and according to Cloud,

They’ve got a World to Save.