Author's Note:

Ahhh... Here we are, at the end of the road... It's been a good one. Thanks for all the encouragement! Really! I have decided to begin writing again, after the great response on this fic. So, thank you all! You're all wonderful!

My apologies for this coming out later than I normally post. The internet in my apartment has been de-evolving into a prehistoric lump of coal.

Disclaimer:

All character belong to whomever they belong to. AND I LOVE THOSE PEOPLE FOR BRINGING FINAL FANTASY TO THE WORLD!! You guys are the reason why I work in video games! OH YOU LOVELY PEOPLE!! :)

Chapter twelve: Letting Go

The wind picked up lightly, tossing his hair lightly into his face. It had been a long time since he had been here and for good reason. This wasn't exactly where he had always dreamt about being. He knelt by the grave, feeling the fresh wet grass through the material of his pants.

"I should have come sooner," he started, wishing the earth below him could hear his words and relay their forgiveness to him. Forgiveness for being helpless to stop everything from falling apart. Forgiveness for having to stand aside and watch people he loved die. Then again, he knew that it wasn't from the dead he needed forgiveness.

"Zack!" Cloud screamed, crashing into the taller man, crushing his body against the other. The gunshot echoed deafeningly in his ears. He felt Zack's body arch violently against his, then a sharp pain on his own chest.

His gloved hand rested momentarily on the headstone, leaving a pair of stained tags on the cold surface. He never managed to get the blood out. Precision cut letters stared out glumly from their surface. Strife, Cloud. Followed by a jumble of cold robotic numbers, their trail violently disrupted by the bullet buried it.

A burning spike of pain erupted through Zack, feeling the bullet shatter the mako that had been surgically implanted to the side of his heart. The splintered fragments exploded into nothing more than harmless dust. He let out a silent scream as one of the larger shards lodged itself into his heart.

Time and pulse slowed.

He glanced downwards to the warm thick blood laced with mako oozing out from where the bullet had ripped out his chest. A thin sliver of blood snaked down the front of Cloud's chest where the impact of the bullet, buried in the tags, lashed against him.

"Lucky tags..."

Cloud felt the warm ragged breaths in his hair coming slower and further apart. His hands drew into tight fists on Zack's shirt, the cold of the rain beginning to take away all the warmth he had tried so hard to find.

A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Yeah... Lucky tags..."

It was a silly thing to say when life was crawling out of you. But Zack was never a stickler for seriousness. Cloud fingered the tarnished band in his pocket. Attempting to remove the bands from the tags proved to be a futile task, one of them permanently fusing with the bullet. But he didn't really need so much protection now anyway.

"Don't cry."

The world swam headily around Zack as he toppled forward. He was plunging into darkness before being caught by gentle, strong arms. He felt safe here. He struggled to keep his heavy eyes open to look just a little longer into those crystal blue eyes he thought he would spend the rest of his life looking into.

Guess he was about to get his wish.

The loud screams of sentences cluttered and spluttered faded slowly into the background. The warmth of the dozen Cure spells Cloud propelled into his chest fizzled into nothing, unable to do anything for the man. The sound of silence was so deafening. The cold of the darkness was so piercing.

Fingers traced the letters on the headstone. He used to ponder when his name would join the one engraved in the stone, welcoming the idea of returning to loving arms. Used to.

The here and now were much more important. There was no point in living in the past, for the past. Time held no significance but an enormous countdown to the last breath anyway.

Seven minutes.

The longest seven minutes of his life. Kneeling in the pouring rain, wishing it would wash away this excruciating pain, wishing it would heal everything, wishing it could take everything back.

But it didn't.

It was just rain.

He pressed his face against the cooling forehead in his lap, words he had meant to say cracking through sobs he couldn't control.

"Come back to me…"

His words fell on deafened ears.

His desperate final kiss left silenced lips.

He rocked back and forth, nursing the agony building in him lathed in the cruel dilution of Zack's blood in the rain. He didn't notice the hand on his shoulder till it had shoved him backwards, several feet away.

He sat unmoving in shock on the muddied pavement for several moments before scrambling to his knees, trying to claw his way back. He just needed to be close. Even though Zack was now impossibly far.

Tifa easily pushed the distraught blonde aside again, deftly dodging all his poorly aimed drunken blows. She violently kicked him square in the chest, spinning him across the street. Just enough time.

Her fingers wrapped around the edge of a bright green shard just peeking out from Zack's chest, then in a quick fluid motion, ripped it out from the lifeless chest, flinging it to the side with a loud clatter.

Next thing she knew, she was knocked from her position hovering over the ex-SOLDIER. Cloud glared at her, unrestrained fury scalding the light blue eyes. He tackled her to the ground, screaming for an explanation.

She never answered, turning to face the dark-haired man on the ground next to her.

Cloud got to his feet. Enough. For now. Indulging in memories was never something he enjoyed doing, regardless of how often he seemed to do it. It was like a drug – implicitly bad for him, yet he could never resist. He needed it to feel. Something. Anything. But he didn't need to anymore.

"I'm living for me now," he said softly, backing away from the headstone.

A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

"Where does that leave me?"

Cloud smiled, turning around to flash the owner of the arms a look of faked irritation before walking back towards Fenrir parked under the tree.

"My mom wouldn't like you doing that in front of her," Cloud said, casting one last look at the Strife family headstone.

Yes. Enough.

Zack's laugh danced carelessly in the air, jogging over to catch up with the blonde to ruffle his hair. "I don't think she wouldn't approve of me," he winked, slipping his hand down and around a slender waist.

"You shouldn't be running," Cloud stated. "Tifa isn't here to close your stitches again."

Zack rubbed his head, glancing down at the thick layer of bandages swathed around his chest. 'Taking it easy' was something a concept he couldn't quite understand. He shrugged, deciding he would probably never understand the concept of human mortality the mako in his blood had once exempted him from, disappearing into the distance from the Nibelheim ruins, knowing it didn't really matter right now anyway.

The End.

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