Hey everyone! Final chapter is here. Not as quickly as I had hoped hahaha! But thank you so much to everyone who stuck with me this long to see this story finished. It's been a ride for sure. You will recognize some of the content as similar to some content from RtS but I've reworked and reworded it a bit to keep it interesting. So that's it for this story. If you were a reader of "Reclamation" you will know this already, but I've started up a personal website that I will use to post any original work I may produce and decide to share in the near future, which will include a Johnny Six fic that I've been working on. If you're interested in checking it out when I start submitting chapters you can check it out at the link I've put on my user page, though I may be moving over from Wordpress . com to Wordpress . org before I begin posting chapter content. I'll let you know where to find it. Thanks again, everyone, for reading and reviewing!

Chapter XXXI

What should have been a simple mission became much more complicated over the days following the encounter with Genesis at the reactor that Zack had with Sephiroth. He finally found Sephiroth. Searching for confirmation of what Genesis had told him, the general had retreated to the Shinra Manor, where he was able to dig up the old Shinra lead scientist's notes. Zack had no idea what the notes said. All he knew was that by the time he located Sephiroth, the man was already fully immersed in what he'd found and refused to leave the manor. To make matters worse, no one had been able to locate the missing Shinra Army infantrymen. The good thing was, that with such a crappy signal on their phones, he hadn't been able to speak to anyone from the military and had to explain what happened. However, worse than the fact that two young soldiers had gone missing on what was supposed to be his watch, was the fact there were no clues surrounding the disappearance. He had his suspicions of course. It could have been one of the monsters taking refuge near the reactor, but Genesis was also lurking around somewhere.

In the days following that initial traverse to the reactor, Zack didn't know what to do with himself while waiting for the general to finish with whatever it was he had consumed himself with in the manor. It scared him. When he'd confronted Sephiroth at the manor the man had seemed almost possessed. He wasn't eating or sleeping. He never left that old mansion. While waiting for him to snap out of it, Zack found he spent most of his time dodging questions from the townspeople and the mayor about what was really going on and why they were still in town. Cloud, at least, was able to spend some time at home. A few of the nights that week he stayed at his house instead of the inn.

After a week in Nibelheim and with no sign that Sepiroth was ready to leave his retreat, Zack was preparing himself to take his own measures. With or without Sephiroth, he needed to report back to Shinra, to let them know what he'd learned at the malfunctioning reactor. He would need to do something about the missing army troopers and he would also need to report the general as having essentially abandoned active duty. He wasn't looking forward to it in the least. He made the decision to arrange for air transport to come to Nibelheim. It would be a 24 hour wait so he told Cloud in their room at the inn, after he'd arrived from dinner with his mom, that they would be leaving the following evening, with or without Sephiroth.

Cloud didn't question Zack about the decision. He seemed to be taking in the information that they would be leaving soon and processing it. Then, he was getting up and looking like he was readying to leave the room again.

"Where are you going?" Zack asked him as he grabbed his helmet and headed toward the door.

"A walk," Cloud replied. "It's nice out. Really warm. And since we're leaving tomorrow…"

"Isn't it kind of late?" Zack pointed out.

"I guess," Cloud agreed. "But it's not like we have something early to be up for. You said the plane won't be 'round until sometime in the late afternoon right?"

"That's true," Zack said back. "Well, be careful," he added as he looked down at his notebook again.

"Right, thanks, Mom," Cloud responded with a small laugh. He paused before opening the door. "You wanna come?" he asked. Zack looked up at him again. "There's this place I used to go to just forget about things when I used to live here," Cloud explained.

"I dunno..." Zack started to say.

"You just look like you could use some time to not think," his friend commented.

With a smile, Zack gave a nod. "Sure, what the heck," he said, abandoning his notebook and taking Cloud's advice.

The place Cloud led them to was just outside of town, on a ridge of trees overlooking the town down in the valley below. They sat down under what was apparently Cloud's favourite tree. Up there the sounds of the night seemed so clear, the stars seemingly closer and more visible. Something about it really was calming.

"This is nice," Zack said as he lay in the grass, looking up at the sky. "Can see why you like it up here."

After a moment Cloud asked, "The general's not okay, is he?"

Zack sighed. "I dunno," he breathed. "I don't think so…but he has to come out of whatever rut he's gotten himself into," he declared though he didn't sound confident about it. "Is he what you pictured?" he asked Cloud, interested to see what he had to say about his hero now that he'd met him in the flesh.

"Sort of," Cloud confirmed. "He seems sad though. I didn't expect that." Zack nodded. He knew what Cloud was talking about. "Zack?" his friend spoke after a minute of quiet.

"Yeah?"

"I need to say thank you," Cloud said.

"For?"

"Making me come back here," Cloud told him. "I needed it."

Zack smiled, turning his head to look at him. "I know," he replied.

"It's going to be hard to leave…" Cloud commented a little sadly.

"You need to make a mission of it to get home now and then. I know your mom would really appreciate it," Zack suggested. He needed to take that advice himself. It had been a long time since he'd been home.

"Zack?" Cloud spoke again and he hummed in acknowledgement. "Thanks," Cloud said.

Zack chuckled. "You're…welcome?" He wasn't sure if Cloud was still thanking him for bringing him to Nibelheim.

"For taking notice of me at the Academy," Cloud clarified.

"It wasn't hard. It's definitely not something you need to thank me for," Zack pointed out.

Cloud smiled at him a little. "All the times I really needed a friend, you've been there. I wouldn't have made it through the Academy as long as I did, and when Johnny and the others…"

"It's alright, Spike. You've been there for me too. And you did save my life on New Years," Zack said back warmly. "If it weren't or you I'd be a lot flatter right now." Cloud laughed. "You're like family to me," Zack stated truthfully. "Buddies and bros for life," he declared as he sat himself up. Cloud looked up at him, about to say something back. He stopped when he saw the expression on Zack's face.

"What?" he asked, sitting up as well and following Zack's sight line to what he was looking at. Down in the valley, smoke was wafting up from near the edge of the town. "Fire?" he questioned aloud.

"A bonfire maybe," Zack suggested.

"Maybe," Cloud agreed uneasily.

In the following moments there was a thundering boom that echoed out through the valley and a ripple of vibrations that Zack and Cloud could feel under their feet just seconds after flames became visible on one of the town's buildings.

"Oh my god," Cloud exclaimed in shock. "Was that the inn?"

Zack tried to focus on the area of the fire. It was difficult to tell, but Cloud could have been right. He didn't want to believe it because if it were true, that's where he and Cloud would have been if they hadn't decided to go for that walk. He didn't have a chance to say anything before there was another booming sound, quieter than the first, but it was followed by fire, removing any thoughts he or Cloud may have had the inn fire was the result of some horrible accident.

"What's happening?" Zack heard Cloud say next to him but he was too busy trying to make sense of what he was seeing himself. Those two fires seemed like the beginning of a run of dominoes coming down. More buildings were going up in flames faster than they could count the number of. "It's an attack," Cloud said what they both knew before he was running toward the town with Zack following after him.

By the time they reached the edge of town, most of it seemed to be alight. The air was filled with the sounds of the fires as well as screaming and weeping from people who'd made it out of their burning homes only to watch everything they'd known being destroyed in front of them. Zack had his suspicions about who might be behind the attack and they were mostly confirmed when they reached the main street in the town where they witnessed what looked like masked army men shooting down citizens outside their homes. Genesis clones. Genesis had to be behind this. Halting in his tracks, Cloud reached for his rifle, ready to fire. He stopped short of firing, looking like he wasn't sure what to aim at as more of the masked clones were appearing from between buildings. He lowered the rifle again and without hesitation he broke into a run down the street.

"Cloud!" Zack called after him, knowing where he was heading but afraid to have him go alone. He had to take down the clones though. He drew his buster sword and set to work, hoping to take them out quick enough to catch up with his friend.

With almost the entire town ablaze, Cloud didn't allow himself the hope his childhood home had been spared. Still, when he came upon it and found the roof almost entirely engulfed in fire and thick smoke billowing out through the second floor windows he found himself halting fast and staring upon it in shock. He approached the front door and grasped the knob. It wasn't overly warm to the touch. The fire hadn't made it to the first level. The door was locked though, which confirmed his worst fear that his mother was still inside. He took a step back and kicked in the door. He entered his burning homestead without a second thought.

"MOM!" he yelled out the moment he'd entered, before the smoke gathering in the area had made it into his lungs and found him coughing against it immediately. "Mom!" he repeated, quieter as his voice broke away for his coughs. It was so dark in the house, the only reason he was able to see the stairs was because the railing and spindles were on fire. He made his way to the stairs quickly, only pausing a moment to look up at the top where his view was obscured by flames. He began climbing and almost immediately his right hand was coming into contact with the fire burning on the railing. He retracted fast, pivoting, his back hitting the wall behind him. One of the picture frames hanging on the wall came down, narrowly missing him. "MOM!" he called up the stairs again, panic finding its way to his tone, imagining he was too late. His mother was gone.

He heard his name then, from somewhere above and he pushed away from the wall, climbing another few stairs to where he could just make out through the fire ahead of him his mother toward the far end of the hallway, huddled against the wall outside her room. He called out to her again.

"Baby, don't come up here!" she called back to him fearfully. "You need to get out!" Cloud ignored her warning, trying to survey the area to figure out how to get to her. Fire at the top of the stairs was separating them and surrounding his mother. The flames were on the ceiling, reaching out from the bedrooms, the smoke was so dense and the air so hot he felt like his clothes were catching fire on top of him. He took another two steps toward the top of the staircase and on the second step he felt the wood give way under his foot and he struggled not to fall as he retracted his foot. "CLOUD!" his mother yelled out in fear and when he faced her again he could see she had moved herself closer to him, though not much.

Despite the excruciating heat, he reached his right hand out toward her, toward the fire. "Mom, come on! Take my hand," he called to her. He could barely hear her as she said 'I can't.' "PLEASE!" he shouted "Mom!"

He could see her trying to get to him but the fire was too hot, too vicious. The cracking of the structure around him made it almost impossible for him to hear her say "I love you, baby."

He shouted out to her once more as he tried one last time to cross the inferno blocking his way. One of the trusses above came crashing down then, somewhere just ahead of him but at the same time the stairs were breaking away and he found himself falling and landing beneath the stairs on his stomach. It knocked the wind out of him and though he felt he'd lost all strength to move, he tried to pull himself out from under the collapsing stairwell. Choking on the smoke around him and barely able to get a good breath he felt dizzy and disoriented, his body heavy. He'd tried to pull himself across the floor towards the front door but the effort it took exhausted what little strength he felt he had left and he found himself falling unconscious very suddenly.

Zack had been calling Cloud's name as he ran toward his house, hoping that he'd run into him somewhere in the streets but he couldn't shake the feeling he had that Cloud had without a doubt gone into his house after his mother and may not have made it out. He cut his way through the clones in his way towards the center of town. There he found himself frozen instantly by the sight ahead of him. He'd found Sephiroth. The man was standing with his sword drawn and a torch in his other hand. As one of the clones approached him, he didn't take it down. Instead, pointing with Masamune, he directed the clone toward one of the last buildings untouched by fire before setting alight the town monument in the center of the square.

Zack couldn't believe what he was seeing. The general looked at him. There was nothing behind his eyes. They were empty. Cold. He watched the man turn away from the inferno he'd created and head in the direction of the reactor access road.

Zack's thoughts returned to Cloud then. He raced towards Cloud's home, afraid of what he was going to find. When he came upon Cloud's house, the top floor and roof nearly completely engulfed in flames, he felt instantly in his gut that Cloud was inside. He called Cloud's name once as he approached the open front door. When he peered inside at first he saw nothing through the smoky haze. Then he spotted Cloud on the floor just meters away. Some of his clothing was on fire. He took a deep breath to hold as he plunged into the creaking and cracking building that was falling apart all around and took hold of Cloud, dragging him toward the door and outside where he tried to put out the fire on him, rolling his body a few times against the ground to stifle the flames.

"Cloud!" Zack said his name frantically while pushing the hair from his face. He couldn't believe how hot Cloud's body was. He was steaming slightly in the chilly night air. He checked for a pulse and found one but he could tell Cloud wasn't breathing. "Cloud! You need to breathe, Cloud!" Zack urged, taking Cloud's head in his hands as he spoke to him. "Come on, buddy! Breathe for me, alright!" he said as he shook him a little. "Come on, Spikey!" he pleaded anxiously. He lay Cloud's head back down on the ground and prepared to try and resuscitate him. The moment he tilted his head back and got Cloud's mouth fully open his friend finally took in a breath. He was coughing then as Zack sat back with relief. He took hold of Cloud and turned him onto his side as he was still getting rid of all the toxic air that had been trapped in his lungs. "You're alright, buddy. You'll be okay," Zack said as he removed Cloud's armor that was no doubt weighing him down and couldn't be making it any easier to breathe. Cloud groaned a little as he was coming slowly back to consciousness.

Zack looked from him to his burning house and then back to Cloud. "I'm so sorry, Spike," he said as he stroked his friend's hair and rubbed his one arm. He held back his emotions then. There was no time for them right now. "I gotta go. I have to get to the reactor," he said down to Cloud. "Just wait here for me," he said though sure Cloud wasn't listening to a thing he was saying. He left Cloud a moment later to make his way up to the reactor where he suspected Sephiroth would be.

For about 15 minutes, Cloud drifted in and out of consciousness while his head spun. It took him a moment when he was finally able to open his stinging eyes to understand what was going on, why he was lying on the ground alone. He remembered though as the scent of smoke awoke his senses. He pushed himself up onto his knees, and glanced at his discarded armor. He couldn't remember getting himself out of his house. He turned then to look back at where his house was. What was left of it. Nothing but a large pile of burning firewood. The top floor had collapsed at some point, followed by the walls of the ground floor. His tears came fast and he sobbed openly at the destruction before him. His home. His mother. He thought of the anguish his mother must have felt as she was consumed by that fire and it made him physically ill, finding him spilling his stomach contents on the ground below him.

Out there alone, he became aware of an eerie sound around him. The crackling of fire still burning in several of the buildings around him but no human sounds. Was everyone gone? A horrible thought occurred to him that perhaps he was the only one left alive. Then he remembered. Zack had pulled him from his burning house. He'd said something to him. Something about the reactor. Why would he go to the reactor? Cloud wondered. He must have gone after the ones who'd attacked the town.

He didn't know what had happened to his rifle. With no weapon, he wasn't really sure what he could expect to do if he was met with an opponent, but he couldn't just sit there and watch the rest of his town turn to ash. He made his way up to the reactor, feeling partly in a daze, not knowing what he would find when he got up there. He just hoped Zack would be there.

When he reached the main door to the reactor, he found it was locked or blocked by something. He needed to find another way to get in. On his way back down the stairs out front, he thought he heard something. Stopping where he stood, he gripped the railing next to him and peered down to the ground next to the stairs. There, he saw something that sent his adrenaline into a sudden surge. It was Tifa. He couldn't tell if she was alive or dead.

When he reached her at ground level, he could see she was unconscious. The one side of her face was scratched and ash-covered. There was blood on the ground beneath her but he didn't know where it was coming from until he started to turn her over. Then he could see she was bleeding from a deep wound in her stomach.

"Teef!" he called to her in fear, shaking her as he tried to wake her. "Tifa!"

When she wouldn't wake, he took off his uniform jacket. He ripped out the lining of the jacket and used it to bandage the wound the best he could, just trying to slow the bleeding. He reached under her, about to try and lift her from the ground to get her back down into town where hopefully he could find some help but he froze in place when he heard a loud cry coming from inside the reactor. He swore it sounded like Zack. The sound of it…it was like anguish. A sound he'd never heard from Zack before.

He glanced from upwards toward the reactor door to Tifa, feeling a little panicked, not knowing what he should do. He knew he couldn't abandon Zack if he needed help. "Don't worry, Teef," he said to the dying girl in front of him. He draped his jacket over her upper body to help keep her warm. "I'll be back, I promise." He leaned down to kiss her gently on the top of her head, holding her body close to himself. Leaving her out there, knowing the life was draining from her was nearly impossible.

Around the side of the reactor he found a maintenance door that was unlocked. When he finally made it inside the reactor, the only sounds seemed to be coming from the operations going on inside the building. He'd never been inside the reactor before, though it had been there his whole life. There was a hallway directly inside with another door at the end of the hall. Inside the room at the other side of the door he felt he was standing in something that reminded him of a stadium. He was at mid-level inside, with stairs heading both down and up a few feet ahead of him to his left and right. At the top of those stairs to his left is where he spotted Zack's buster sword. As he took a few steps toward it, he was able to see down the stairs to where Zack was lying near the bottom. He was on his back, with blood on the front of his uniform and on the stairs around him.

He raced down the stairs, nearly stumbling and falling as he felt himself getting lightheaded with panic. Dropping to his knees next to Zack he was able to see the wound in his torso, not unlike what Tifa had had, but his was worse, bleeding out much faster. He placed a hand over the wound and felt Zack's blood seeping past his fingers as he breathed. He shouted Zack's name down to him and watched as he opened his eyes slowly, coughing through his next few breaths as he struggled to speak.

"Spike," he uttered painfully. "You gotta get Sephiroth—"

"Sephiroth did this?!" Cloud blurted back at him in shock and disbelief. His mother, his town, Tifa? Sephiroth did this to them? It couldn't be true. He looked around, trying to see where the general was. Towards the very top of the stairs ahead of him was a different room, the word JENOVA etched above it. He could see light coming from inside the room. He could see another short set of stairs inside.

"Finish him off, kid," Zack ordered weakly. "You can do it. Go!" he urged. Cloud felt Zack's hand push at him lightly before Zack looked like he was slipping back into unconsciousness. His fear began to dissipate suddenly as he looked upon Zack lying below him and he started to let himself accept that the general was responsible for all the destruction around him. He grew angry fast as he thought about the fact that Sephiroth, the man he'd idolized, had taken his mother from him. He'd murdered her brutally and cut down Tifa and Zack like they were nothing. His anger was quick to ignite.

He left Zack, climbing the stairs and taking hold of Zack's buster sword on the way. He could see Sephiroth inside the Jenova room, standing in front of what looked like some sort of large glass tank. It was like he was in a trance. He didn't even turn when Cloud charged him. Cloud never hesitated. Never thought twice on what he was about to do and he certainly didn't feel anything resembling guilt as he thrust the blade of Zack's weapon into the general's back. The man seemed frozen, his body rigid and unmoving as he was pinned to the glass in front of him the tip of the blade having pierced it. When he pulled the blade from the man's body, that's when Sephiroth turned to face him, seeming as though the attack had done nothing to impair him. There was rage in his cold eyes. So much so it actually did strike fear into Cloud.

"You," the general spoke, that one word cutting into him sharply. He didn't expect the blow he received. It had him dropping Zack's sword and being thrown from the stairs where he fell to the floor. He tried to make himself move, to get away from the towering man as he heard him coming towards him fast. He looked up at the general just in time to see the thin long blade of the man's own prized weapon coming at him. The cold metal of the blade slid through his body like it was nothing. He heard himself scream and his flesh erupted in pain at the site when he'd been impaled. The pain intensified beyond what he thought he could stand as he felt his body being pulled upwards, away from the ground. He thought he was going to pass out from the pain. His entire weight was being held by that blade. He was sure it was going to slice him in two.

"Pathetic," he heard the general say with disgust. He knew it should make him feel worthless. To feel like the failure he knew he was. That he should just give in to defeat at the hands of a man that was superior to him in so many ways…But he thought instead of his mother. His beautiful mother huddled in their burning house, the heat and flames consuming her. And Tifa…and Zack, the only other people he cared for more than himself. If he was going to die, he wasn't going to let it be like this.

"You're the pathetic one," he replied through clamped teeth. He lifted his arms slowly and planted his hands on the blade in front of him, gripping the steel hard. Using all the strength he had and the self-control he could muster to ignore the pain, he began pulling himself further down the blade, toward the general at the other end. The man looked back at him, surprise setting into his eyes. He didn't know how he did it, but somehow he found himself holding the man above him, their roles nearly reversed.

"Impossible," the man uttered in confusion, his eyes wide.

"I only ever wanted to be like you," Cloud struggled to speak. "And now…I've never been happier I'm not!" With that declaration, he swung the man away from him, watching the general's body slamming into a nearby circuitry board on the wall. There was a burst of sparks and a yell from the man before he was falling down into the depths of the reactor's core.

Carefully, and with much difficulty, Cloud slid the blade out of his body. With it came a gushing of his own blood that almost had him passing out. His adrenaline was still running though and he only had one thought in his head, which was that he needed to check on Zack. It was the same thought in his head when he collapsed only moments later. He never made it to Zack, but he came close, his final resting place somewhere on the stairs before he blacked out. He thought he heard his name but it was like an echo. Then it was nothing but soundless dark.

The vibrations on the stairs as Cloud's body slid downward toward him had dragged Zack back from the brink of his own unconsciousness. He slipped in and out of that overbearing state for however long. The effort he put forth to keep himself somewhere close to the waking world made it feel like decades. He didn't know how he held on. Each time he'd pull himself back toward life and the world around him he'd find his thoughts racing, his heart beating furiously with anxiety. He'd wonder why he couldn't move while his mind had to remind him repeatedly that he was losing more blood than his body could replenish on its own.

Is this it? he would ask to the nothingness around him. Aerith. Am I never going to see her again? My parents…He wanted to open his eyes, to take in as much of what was around him that he could hold onto of that world in his final moments but he couldn't. His eyelids felt like iron. There was so much pain. The pain seemed to have its own voice in his head, screaming amongst his own and those of others. He didn't recognize the other voices. He didn't think they could be real. Not until he felt like the stairs were moving below him and suddenly he was being moved. By then his brain couldn't make sense of what was happening. He thought it was an earthquake that had moved him, or an explosion. Whatever it was, once he was moving, he couldn't tear his thoughts from the pain he felt or how difficult it was to breathe.

The feeling of moving air on his face had him imagining the reactor was breaking apart, the roof splitting open before the building would collapse into the mako spring below. He'd be consumed immediately, too quickly to feel anything. That moment didn't come. When he realized he was no longer moving, he tried again to force his heavy eyes open. With the accomplishment of that effort he was able to make a little sense of what was happening. The movement he'd felt had been the feeling of being carried. Now he lay on the floor of a vehicle, suddenly feeling the cold sensation of the ribbed metal under him. Inches from his own face was the bloodied and ash-coated face of Cloud. If it weren't for the feeling of Cloud's laboured breaths washing over his skin, he would have thought the worst. But those same breaths, with relief brought renewed anxiety.

Where are we going? Zack wondered, wishing to know who had come for them. They're going to help us, he told himself, letting his eyes fall closed with the image of Cloud the last in his head. Cloud, he told his friend, hoping somehow he'd hear his words in whatever dream world he had sunk in to. Hold on, we'll be okay.

Another side of himself lingered on a little longer after he was falling into a deep and painless sleep. Just long enough for him to hear but not comprehend the manifestation of his apprehension that had settled somewhere in his wounded gut.

Two tiny whispered words like wisps of fading smoke in the valley below. They trailed behind his certainty like little tails of doubt.

We'll be okay…Won't we?

000End000