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Chapter 11

The startled whistle Zack gave as Kinya crested the lip of the crater was audible even over the rush of wind from her passage. Cloud reined her in, and she came to a halt perched at the edge of the crater. Before them spread out the awesome destruction and desolation left behind when Holy and Meteor had met in a place that had already been the site of an ancient cataclysm.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Cloud asked quietly, raising his goggles and looking out over the steep slope leading down into the crater. There was no sign of life below them; most of the powerful monsters that had once inhabited this area had been wiped out by Holy and Meteor.

"That's one word for it," Zack agreed, marvelling. The sheer scope of the destruction was astounding. It made the damage done to Midgar look like a temper tantrum thrown by a child over a tower of blocks. He'd seen Gaea's Cliff from a distance a few times on missions as a SOLDIER, but he'd never actually gone up over the cliff and into the crater. It would have been a damn difficult trip without Kinya, that was certain.

"This is where the WEAPONs came from, and Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz," Cloud told him. "Sephiroth created a body for himself here once before. Maybe he's found a way to do it again." Please gods let that be the case. Then he could fight the bastard without having to worry about the fact that he was also fighting Zack.

"Well, we'll never find out by sitting around up here," Zack pointed out. "Let's head down." Cloud nodded and pulled his goggles down again, then nudged Kinya into a bounding lope that took them down over the rocky slope at a fast clip.

The closer they got to the bottom the more Zack could feel a growing ache in his bones, a sense of pressure that made his whole body feel squeezed. By the time they reached relatively level ground his very teeth were vibrating with it. "What is that?" he gasped when Kinya slowed once more.

"The Lifestream," Cloud informed him through gritted teeth. "It's right at the surface here, massive pools of it scattered through the caves. It resonates with the mako in our systems." He could feel it too, stronger here than anywhere else in the world. Even the remains of Mideel couldn't compare to the sheer strength of mako here in the crater. He didn't come here often, and he'd forgotten just how bad it was.

"Right," Zack grimaced at the thought. "Let's do what we came for and get the hell out of here. More than a day or two of this and I'll be the one going batshit." He glanced at Cloud, and winced. The younger man's eyes were shining brightly enough to light a room, and it gave him a look far too reminiscent of the vacant-eyed expression he'd worn when he'd been comatose for so long.

Lifting a hand in front of his face, Zack sighed when he saw the reflected shine of mako changing the colour of his leather glove from black to sickly green. His eyes were glowing just as strongly as Cloud's, so much so that the colour had gone green instead of indigo. That meant the mako levels in the area were phenomenally high, and they weren't even inside the caves yet. He wasn't sure what prolonged exposure might do to them, and he didn't really think he wanted to find out.

Cloud didn't bother to tie or hobble Kinya; she would come when he called, and he wanted her free to run from any remaining monsters that might venture down here. He left her plenty of grain and a bucket of melted snow for water, just in case they ended up staying inside the caves for a while. If something happened and she needed more, she could always go forage outside the crater for a while before returning.

"I'm ready," he declared, hefting his pack onto his back and checking to make sure it didn't interfere with the movement of his sword. Zack gestured for him to take the lead, and Cloud led them down into the first part of the cave system.

The moment they walked into the caves the pressure of the mako increased tenfold, until it was a nearly audible hum hovering just under the level of their ability to hear. Zack shook his head and rubbed at the spot just behind and below his ears where it seemed to resonate, but nothing helped. "I've never felt anything like this," he commented. He'd used a hushed whisper to speak, but his voice still bounced off the walls of the cave until they returned as a twisted, eerie echo that made him shiver.

"It gets worse," Cloud confided, his mouth twisting in something that didn't quite manage to be a smile. "Though if you think this is bad, you should try actually being in the Lifestream."

"I'll pass, thanks," Zack said hastily. "This is close enough for me. Where to? And what are we looking for, exactly?"

"I don't know," Cloud sighed, choosing a path at random and moving deeper into the caves. "I'm kind of hoping I'll know it when I see it." It sounded stupid when he said it out loud like that, but what else where they supposed to do?

Chuckling, Zack patted him on the shoulder. "I've worked with worse battle plans. I'm sure you remember that one time outside of Junon..."

Rehashing old battles and stories helped keep them distracted from the resonation of the mako, and let them concentrate on searching for anything unusual or out of place. Cloud had brought along a couple of old-fashioned mako-powered lanterns; non-mako power sources still hadn't come up with much in the way of portable energy. This close to open vents of the Lifestream they wouldn't even need to recharge the power cells, though Cloud did feel guilty for even this tiny use of mako in an area that was essentially a raw wound on the planet's surface.

They didn't have much choice, though. SOLDIERs could see well in the dark, but the caves were pitch black without a light source of some kind. Unless they wanted to stumble around blindly, they needed the lights.

After about half an hour of walking, Zack frowned as he realized the quality of the light had changed subtly. "What's that? Hey, Cloud, douse your lantern for a second, will you?" he called, twisting the knob on his own lamp to turn it off.

Cloud obeyed, and a moment later they found themselves standing in an eerie, dancing light that didn't quite illuminate anything well enough for them to see. "Mako," Cloud identified it. "There's a pool of Lifestream somewhere nearby. This way."

Leaving the lights off, they cautiously edged down the tunnels until the mako light was bright enough for them to see where they were going. Shortly after that they rounded a corner and encountered the pool itself, shining brightly enough that Zack's eyes watered and he had to look away until they'd adjusted.

"It's beautiful," he said in awe when he was finally able to look at it properly. The shimmer of green should have given him instant bad associations with the tank of mako he'd spent so long immersed in at the labs, but somehow in its native form it seemed less... malevolent.

Soft colours played over the surface of the pool, like a half-seen rainbow of iridescence. Despite the increased ache in his bones, Zack couldn't help but stand there admiring it for a few moments. "Hard to believe we're looking at the lifeblood of the planet itself," he murmured. "Mako in its purest, most concentrated form. No wonder Shinra wanted access to this place so badly. In five minutes they could suck up the equivalent of a year's worth of mako from all the reactors combined."

"And the entire planet would have become a wasteland like the areas outside the cities," Cloud countered just as quietly. He moved to crouch at the edge of the pool, stripping off one glove and reaching out to trail his hand in the viscous green liquid. It coated his fingers like a second skin, tingling and making him shiver at the intensity of the sensation. It was like touching electricity made liquid, like holding a live wire and feeling the current run through you as it connected you to every soul in the world. Was this how Aerith had felt whenever she had used her Cetra powers?

"What are you, nuts?" Zack exclaimed as he glanced over at Cloud and saw the blond dipping his fingers in the liquid. "Hades, Cloud! Those are souls you're dragging your hands in! Not to mention the sheer concentration of mako you're exposing yourself to! You want to trigger yourself back into another coma?"

"Yeah, you're right," Cloud sighed. He was reluctant to pull away; he never felt more alive than when he touched the Lifestream. Which was ironic, because usually the only time it happened was when he was dead. This was the first time he'd been able to touch it with his physical body when he was conscious, and it was intoxicating.

Still, Zack was right. The last thing they needed was Cloud suffering from even a mild case of mako poisoning, and the gods knew he was prone to it. The pool drew him like a moth to a flame, and it was twice as dangerous.

He stood to turn and follow Zack deeper into the caves as the older man moved off again. At least, he tried to. He'd sincerely intended to do so, but when he blinked he realized he was now kneeling at the pool's edge instead of crouching, with his hand in it up to the wrist. Again he attempted to stand up, and this time he got a wave of dizziness for his trouble. When he sorted himself out again, he found himself leaning out even farther over the pool.

"Zack?" Cloud's voice came out as a harsh whisper, not loud enough to get the brunet's attention. Sitting hard on the panic that was threatening to bubble up through him, he forced himself to raise his voice. "Zack!"

"What? Did you find something?" Zack asked, turning back and seeing Cloud leaning out over the pool. He frowned when he saw how tense the younger man's shoulders were, his whole body shaking as if he was straining against something. "Cloud?"

"I can't... I can't pull my hand away," Cloud told him, trying to keep his voice steady but failing as it cracked with fear. It was getting more and more difficult to focus on anything but the seductive shine of the Lifestream, and he had to keep tearing his attention away from the subtle play of colours on the surface.

He knew this sensation. This was how he'd felt when he'd slowly lost his grasp on consciousness as he hung suspended in the mako tank at the Shinra mansion, and again when he'd been dumped into the Lifestream and washed up in Mideel. The real world seemed to fade into insignificance, leaving only the inaudible whisper of the souls in the mako to occupy his attention.

Desperately Cloud struggled against it. Surely he could keep it from pulling him under completely. He'd done the unheard of and fought his way back to sanity not once, but twice. And the second time had been after a full immersion in the Lifestream, causing a level of mako poisoning beyond anything the doctors had ever seen anyone survive.

That had been with help, though. In all honesty, Cloud wasn't sure he could do it on his own. "Zack! Help!" he cried, truly panicking as the mako began to wind its way up his arm in thin green tendrils.

Cursing, Zack sprinted back the few steps to Cloud's side. Dropping to his knees beside his friend, Zack grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled backwards, trying to pull him forcibly out of the Lifestream. It resisted him, clinging to the blond and tugging him even further down. "Cloud! Stay with me, damn it," Zack ordered as he got a glimpse of the younger man's eyes and saw the way they were hazing over. That blank expression was far too familiar, and it made Zack's gut wrench with memories of their time on the run and Cloud's lifeless, unresponsive state.

Aware of Zack's presence only as a burning pressure on his shoulders, Cloud fought the lure of the mako. It was a battle just to remember who he was and why he was there, as the combined 'voices' of thousands of souls poured through his mind. He knew there was something important he was supposed to be doing, some reason why he needed to fight against the desire to join with the other souls, but he couldn't remember what it was. In a few minutes, he would forget about it entirely.

"Don't you dare go comatose on me now, Cloud!" Zack shouted, his voice shrill with fear. "I won't let you go, you hear me? I didn't let you go when we spent a year on the run, and I'm sure as hell not doing it now!" He pulled with all his strength, not caring now if he damaged Cloud's body with his efforts to free the younger man. Injuries could be healed, but somehow he knew that if he let Cloud get sucked any further into the Lifestream it would be a disaster at the very least, and possibly the end of his friend.

"You have too much to live for!" Zack reminded him fiercely, babbling the first thing that came into his head as he watched the intelligence and awareness fade farther and farther from Cloud's glowing eyes. "Remember? Tifa, and Denzel and Marlene. Your other friends. Kinya. Me, damn it! I need you here with me, not drooling in a chair somewhere! Cloud, don't you dare leave me behind. I won't let you, do you hear me? Get yourself back into your own damn head, or... or... so help me, I'll dress up your comatose body in the most embarrassing outfit I can find and take incriminating pictures. And I'll show everyone!"

It was a stupid threat, and Zack couldn't believe it had even occurred to him, but if necessity was the mother of invention then desperation was its father. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working. He wasn't even sure Cloud could hear him any more. The blond's head was drooping, like a puppet with the strings cut, and he wasn't struggling against the hold of the Lifestream any more.

"Oh, no you don't," Zack muttered, his eyes narrowing in determination. Last time he'd been trapped in his own tank and forced to watch as his friend's mind had slowly slipped away, but he'd be damned if he'd just sit here helplessly this time. Shifting his grip so he only needed one arm to prevent Cloud from sliding any further into the pool, Zack tugged off his other glove with his teeth and plunged his hand into the thick liquid.

Immediately a thousand, a million voices tried to crowd their way into his mind. They didn't speak in words, exactly; more like they were trying to impose themselves directly on him in a sort of wordless state of awareness. It was infinitely worse than his other experiences with mako exposure, and it took everything Zack had to fight them off. He clung to his sense of 'self' with the tenacious will that had given him the ability to go all the way to 1st Class, refusing to allow the mako to wash him away.

Even so he could feel the edges of himself being frayed and worn away, like a thousand mice nibbling at his extremities. It wouldn't take long before even he was bogged down in the sheer weight of the Lifestream, dragged away until he lost his connection to himself. All that would remain would be two empty bodies, left to rot by the side of the pool.

Cloud! he tried to shout, but if anything actually came out of his mouth he couldn't hear it. He was too disconnected from his body to speak, but he could shape his consciousness into a sort of mental spear and use that to try to communicate. Cloud! Cloud! Damn it, where are you?

The voices gibbered back at him senselessly, eating away at him with every moment that passed. Desperately Zack threw himself outwards, casting about for anything that 'felt' familiar. Cloud! Come back! Follow my voice, come back to me! Cloud!

He 'touched' something, something more solid and coherent than the rest of what surrounded him, and latched onto it fiercely. His subconscious recognized it as something he 'knew', but the 'shape/feel/taste' of it didn't quite make sense. Cloud?

"Not quite." The silky purr wasn't exactly audible, but it was far more articulate than his own attempts at communication and his brain interpreted it as actual speech. The voice was familiar enough to send a shiver down his spine, though he hadn't heard it in the better part of a decade.

Sephiroth! Zack gasped, and with a mental wrench he suddenly found himself standing in a shapeless space that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Before him stood the man he had once worshiped as a hero and a commander, the man who had inspired an entire generation of men and boys to try to become heroes just like him.

Sephiroth looked exactly as Zack remembered him - right down to the condescending smirk that had curved his lips when they'd fought in the reactor. His silver hair and the black leather of his trench coat drifted gently in a non-existent breeze, and he looked real enough to touch.

Automatically Zack groped for his sword, and was surprised when his hand actually met the hilt. He was even more surprised when he pulled it off his back and swung it up into a guard stance, and discovered it was the buster sword rather than the new blade he and Cloud had bought for him.

"You seem startled, Zack," Sephiroth remarked, his voice full of scorn. "Do you actually think this is happening in physical reality? Really, I thought you were more intelligent than this. To think of all the missions I entrusted you with, believing you were competent."

Hands tightening on the familiar hilt until he could feel the crossed pattern of the wrapping even through the leather of his gloves, Zack growled. "I don't know what the hell you're up to, Sephiroth, but it ends here," he informed the other man. Somehow he wasn't surprised when his voice came out sounding real as well. Wherever this was, it wasn't exactly part of the Lifestream as he'd felt it a moment ago.

"You believe you can stop me?" Sephiroth laughed in delight. "You're as stubborn as you ever were. And as foolhardy. Even if you should by some miracle defeat me here, it means nothing. This is all happening only within your mind, made 'real' by your connection to the power of the Lifestream. I am only a representation of myself. You cannot touch my true core, any more than Cloud has ever been able to. That is why I continue to return."

"Oh, yeah?" Zack's eyes narrowed. "If this is all happening in my own mind, then I ought to have control over it. Let's see how you like being trapped in an unbreakable mako tank for a decade or two, huh?"

"Should you be wasting your time attempting to amuse me?" Sephiroth asked, raising an eyebrow. "Weren't you looking for something?"

He lifted his hand, and though Zack would have sworn it had been empty a moment before, now Cloud dangled from it like a broken doll. Sephiroth's hand was fisted in the collar of the blond's shirt, lifting him right off his feet. He looked as he had the last time the three of them had stood together in life, all of sixteen and dressed in his Shinra blues. His arms and legs hung limp in the air, and his face had the vacant expression Zack had come to dread seeing.

Horrified, Zack took an involuntary step towards them. "Cloud! Cloud, wake up!" he begged. "Cloud!"

"He can't hear you, I'm afraid," Sephiroth told him with mocking sympathy. "And he's slipping farther away as we speak. He always did have a terrible weakness to mako poisoning, didn't he? That was why he was rejected as a SOLDIER, as I recall. Another few minutes, and I doubt he'll be salvageable."

"Damn it, haven't you done enough to him?" Zack demanded. "Leave him alone! He never did anything to you but worship you, you bastard. We both did. You betrayed us!" He took another step forward and swung with his sword, but Sephiroth vanished instantly and reappeared a few feet farther back.

"It's not wise for a SOLDIER to lose their temper," Sephiroth told him with another sly smirk. "You might break something. Like Cloud, for instance. What happens here will carry over to your real bodies. Assuming either of you ever manages to escape the hold of the Lifestream."

"What the hell do you want?" Zack asked, frustrated. "Why do you keep doing this? Just die and let yourself rest in peace, already!"

"I will never die," Sephiroth told him, his cat-like eyes glittering with power and madness. "No matter how many times you defeat me, I will always return." Zack took another swipe at him, and this time he reappeared off to the left. Cloud still dangled from his grip like a kitten, unmoving and unresponsive. "There is nothing either of you can do to stop it. All you can do is delay the inevitable. Eventually my mind will prove strongest, and all the world will be helpless before me."

"Not while I still draw breath," Zack snarled. He tossed the sword aside, hardly noticing when it simply dissipated into the ambient energy, and focused everything he had on one thought. Get Cloud.

With a wordless shout he propelled himself forward, moving at a speed only a 1st Class could ever be capable of. Sephiroth vanished again, but this time Zack was watching for the miniscule shift in energy that presaged the older man's reappearance, and changed direction in a lightning fast move to head there instead.

He had the satisfaction of catching Sephiroth slightly off guard, and the former general vanished again when Zack was only inches away. Once more Zack forced his body into an abrupt shift in momentum.

This time he succeeded in anticipating Sephiroth's position well enough that he was able to get a hand on Cloud's arm. Locking his grip tightly enough that he felt bone crunch beneath his fingers, Zack hauled backwards with every bit of strength he possessed. Sephiroth was forced to either let go of the blond or be pulled into striking range as well. Something in Zack's expression must have warned the man that the SOLDIER wasn't going to pull his punches, because he released his hold on Cloud and stepped back.

"The more you fight me, the weaker you grow," Sephiroth murmured as he began to fade into the glow of the mako. "Eventually you will tire, and I will triumph. And then I will have first you, and then the entire world under my power."

Never, Zack swore, clutching Cloud's lifeless body to him. Once again they were falling into the general chaos of the Lifestream as the pocket Sephiroth had created dissolved, and he was terrified that if he lost his grip on the blond he would never find him again.

Of course, hanging on to Cloud wasn't going to do him much good if he couldn't find his own way back to his body. 'Looking' around, Zack felt a stab of panic as he realized how far his mental walls had eroded while he was sniping with Sephiroth. In moments the pressure of the Lifestream would overwhelm him, and he would be as helpless as Cloud.

There was only one thing he could think of that might yet save them. AERITH! he cried, throwing everything he had into a plea for help and a search for her familiar presence. She had to be there somewhere, and he couldn't believe she wouldn't have come to watch over them while they were so close to her.

Sure enough, he felt her warmth and sunny presence enfold him. Strong, supple arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind, and the scent of flowers tickled his nose the way strands of her hair tickled at his neck. I've got you, she murmured in his ear. Just hold onto him, and I'll lead you home.

The light swelled around them, going from mako green to blinding white, before fading into the near-blackness of the caves. With a shudder of relief Zack realized he was looking out of his own, physical eyes, and could feel the rough rock beneath him and Cloud's body warm against his.

When he looked down he found his grip on Cloud had shifted so he now had a hand locked around the blond's arm the same way he had in the mental projection, and they'd both been dragged just out of reach of the pool. The younger man still had a vacant look in his eyes, but his brow was furrowed ever so slightly.

"C'mon, Cloud, snap out of it!" Zack urged him hoarsely, shaking him roughly. Bone grated under his hand, and he grimaced as he realized he'd broken the younger man's arm in real life as well. Maybe the pain would help jar him back to awareness.

Cloud. White light swelled again as Aerith leaned over them both, one hand on Zack's shoulder to steady herself as she pressed her lips to Cloud's forehead. Come back to us.

Vaguely Cloud felt the pressure of someone kissing him, the sensation sharp and immediate even through the haze of mako-induced unawareness. Struggling towards it, he suddenly found his connection to his body and gasped and thrashed. Pain shot out from his arm, pushing him further into consciousness, and strong arms embraced him. Coughing, feeling oddly like he ought to be half drowned even though there was nothing in his lungs, he shuddered.

"Zack?" he croaked, finally managing to focus his eyes and seeing familiar indigo eyes staring down at him in concern. The indigo colour was nearly swallowed by the glow of green, and the shifting light of the Lifestream pool lit the older man's face in odd ways, but it was definitely him.

Zack couldn't remember ever being so glad to hear his name in his life. "Cloud! Thank the gods, you're awake," he breathed, pulling the younger man into a fierce embrace. A little bewildered but more than willing to participate, Cloud tried to wind his arms around Zack in turn and hissed in pain when the movement jarred his broken arm.

"What... what happened?" he asked as Zack pulled away hastily and fumbled for a potion.

"You got pulled into the Lifestream," Zack summed up quickly, finding what he was looking for and breaking the seal on the bottle before handing it to Cloud. The blond drank it all in one gulp, the relief from pain clearly visible in his expression as the magic-laced liquid went to work. "I went after you, and Sephiroth was there. Sorry about your arm; I didn't want to risk losing my grip on you, so I hung on a little too tight."

"That's okay," Cloud assured him, shuddering. "I... I was almost lost even so, I think." He made the mistake of glancing at the Lifestream pool, and found his gaze caught as if he'd been hypnotized. It took a massive effort of will to pull himself away again, and he buried his face in Zack's shoulder with a shiver.

"I'm... I'm not sure I can stop myself from doing it again," he realized in horror. "It's calling to me." He could hear it still, the low murmur of voices in his mind, singing a seductive song to entrap him. They whispered of a release from pain and fear, from sorrow and grief. They promised an end to his struggles, a chance to stop fighting. And over it all, faintly, he thought he could make out the grating sound of Sephiroth's laughter.

"We're getting the hell out of here," Zack decided, grimacing. He'd seen the way Cloud's eyes had been caught, and he didn't like it in the least. Nor was he any more certain of his own ability to resist the effects of the concentrated mako, not when he felt shaky and worn thin like there were holes in his mental perception of himself. "I'm not sure I can get either of us out if it happens again, and I don't think we can count on Aerith to keep rescuing us. There's a limit to her strength, too."

Somehow they made it to their feet, leaning on each other for support and strength. Cloud wrapped his arm over Zack's shoulder and huddled against the older man's side. For his part Zack was unpleasantly reminded of the way he'd carried the blond when they'd been on the run, especially since he'd just been forced to watch Cloud skirt the edge of the same kind of comatose state, but the feel of Cloud working to support him in turn was reassuring.

"Don't let go of me," Zack instructed him, grateful that his voice shook only a little. The thought of what might have happened if he'd let Cloud come here on his own was terrifying; the blond would have been lost forever. "And I won't let go of you. We'll make it out of here together - same way we do everything else."

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