Author's Note: Thanks for the input everyone!! Please keep it coming! It really is the biggest encouragement to write more faster. Let me know what you think of this chapter, and happy new year!!

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Chapter Four:

Flames lick across his hazy vision, heat searing his face as he runs and runs, lungs filling with smoke. He stumbles. Over his shoulder he watches as the darkness closes in, taunting, menacing. He knows what's coming but it still doesn't prepare him when in one breath the darkness consumes him, pain coursing through his body and images flashing in stark, painful detail.

Zack charging forward with a battle cry, the rifles clicking louder than the downpour of rain. Aeris kneeling in prayer, a shadow falling across her face. Smoke rising from Nibelheim, an orange glow filling the night sky. Himself, always watching everything happen. Just watching as bullets riddle Zack's chest, the blade sliding through her stomach like butter. The screams choking with smoke as he hears himself screaming too, from behind the unfaltering mako filled eyes that look down on the death and blood, doing nothing.

Zack's blood flows in small rivulets down his face, mingling with the rain smattering his lifeless corpse. Stop. Make it stop. The dull thud of Aeris's body on the tile, red blossoming through the pink fabric. The smell of burning flesh as he runs through a dying town after a fleeting figure with long dark hair. No more. Please, make it stop! He reaches out a hand to halt her from running but then everything dissolves and he's looking at stars twinkling against the black sky.

Whenever I'm in a bind you'll come save me, okay? A little girl smiles at him, swinging her legs as he feels heat flush his young face in the chill night air. His small fists clench by his side as he decides at that moment that he'll join SOLDIER and make her proud of him. I promise. She smiles at him again, making his heart beat faster in his chest.

Faster. He tries to run faster but he's always too slow. Too slow and left to watch in horror as a young woman charges up the stairs, anguish and fury fueling her steps as the figure on the top smiles grimly and the glint of metal and then her chocolate brown eyes widen, her blood splattering on the cement. She's falling. He tries to catch her but he can't because he's watching her collapse from above, the weight of a blade in his hand, her blood dripping from it and he turns his back on her crumpled form that has come to rest at the bottom of the steps. No, Tifa. No! He's screaming, the sound tearing at his throat but he's laughing too. Manically, coldly. He feels brown eyes look up feebly to meet his before they glaze over and see no more.

And then the edges of his vision become hazy because the pain is too much, his heart is crying out and everything blurs and he can't see anything anymore.

Mako eyes shoot open in the darkness.

Cloud sat up, the twisted remains of a thin blanket thrown off and his brow glistening with sweat. His chest heaved with labored breaths. In and out. In and out. The stars twinkled above at him as his hand slowly released their vice-like grip on his other arm.

After a few more moments of catching his breath, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a few numbers, putting the speaker to his ear. He listened in silence for a minute before he flipped it closed and stuck it in his pocket. Laying back down he tried to relax; it was already easier to breathe. It always was after he turned to this small comfort. He closed his eyes and reluctantly let sleep begin to gently overtake him. The darkness was always waiting…

But the pain didn't return that night. The dreams did, but they were familiar yet absent of fire and blood and mako. Instead, cheerful laughter and dark lashes against porcelain skin. Lips flush against his and a warm smile that shone and fought back the dark, keeping it at bay.

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Dear Diary,

Cloud left twenty-seven days ago. I crept into Tifa's room again and she was sitting at the window like last time. She looked like she was in pain, like when I fall down and scrape my knee and it hurts a lot, but she looked as if she hurt differently, as if it hurt all over. And she didn't cry even though it looked like she wanted to. I asked her if she missed him a lot and she was silent for a moment. Then…always, she said. I said I miss him too. When she hugged me tighter I looked up at her biting her lip, eyes closed. I just wanted Tifa to be happy, and I told her so. She smiled at me with her sad smile and didn't say anything for a while, but I didn't mind sitting in her arms, listening to the sounds at night. Then she whispered really softly, so softly and as if she was talking to herself, I want to be happy too. And I was glad and wondered to myself when Cloud would get back to make it come true.

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Dear Diary,

Tifa agreed to go on a date with Mr. Dogbreath. Me and Denzel don't know what to do.

Where is Cloud???

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You have one saved voice message. First voice message.

Hey Cloud, it's me, Tifa. Just wanted to check in and see if you were doing alright. I think this is the longest you've been away.Pause. I guess…I guess I just wanted to let you know that I'm here if you need anything. Or someone. Pause. To talk to or listen I mean. Denzel and Marlene miss you a lot, they send their love, and they have so many things to tell you. A quiet laugh. They've become quite the dramatic storytellers. But they'd rather you come back…or come by sometime…so they can tell you themselves. I miss you too. Another pause. Um…yeah! Be careful out there, okay? I know you can take care of yourself, but I worry about you because I—because I know that…you forget to take care of yourself sometimes. That doesn't really make sense but…oh forget it. Hope everything is going alright…umm…right. Bye, Cloud.

Click.

End of saved voice messages.

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Note:Oh, and thanks to PoutingCutie for pointing out the whole Geostigma inconsistency. I totally missed that while writing initially. Oops. So I'm going to go under the assumption that AC never happened but Cloud is struck by a Geostigma-like disease. So you should too. Hope it doesn't ruin the story or anything!