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It wasn’t until the pain stopped that he knew things were bad.
Before that, he believed he’d been through worse. That he would recover, just like he always did.
Sometimes he needed a Cure. A Cura.
Something told him that this time, not even a Curaga would help.
Though it was pitch black, his SOLDIER eyes cut through the dark.
He saw the rock walls.
The stalagmites and stalactites. The small whisper of a stream running through the dark.
And he saw Zack.
Zack sat there, leaning against the wall, studying him. His head tilted to one side… then the other, as if a different angle would help him see better.
Cloud blinked. Hard.
It didn’t help.
Zack still sat there.
Unblinking.
Unmoving.
Was he even breathing?
“Hello, Cloud.”
Zack’s mouth didn’t move, but his voice echoed around Cloud—loud enough to hurt, but only inside his head.
He tried to answer.
All that emerged was a wet gurgle.
He didn’t have long left.
“Oh, Cloud. What have you done to yourself?”
He squinted his eyes, but Zack didn’t come into focus.
If anything…
the edges blurred.
This wasn’t right.
Zack was gone.
Had been for a long time.
He shouldn’t be here—
not now.
Not at the end.
Yet there he was.
Watching.
Waiting.
Something about him was off.
What, Cloud couldn’t grasp.
He was fading.
It wouldn’t be long now.
“Don’t go. It gets so lonely here. Stay a while. Play.”
Despite the numbness, a wash of cold ran through him.
That wasn’t Zack.
A part of him had known.
Yet… another part of him had hoped.
Hoped he wasn’t alone.
At the end.
The thing wearing Zack’s face grinned. Its smile stretched too far.
“Stay and play. You know you want to.”
Cloud didn’t want to die.
But somehow he knew staying wasn’t right.
It would hurt.
So he closed his eyes.
Stopped fighting.
The last thing he was aware of was an angry growl—
and then a wash of green, welcoming him home.