A/N: I really hope that you all like this story and post reviews up (and not flame me.) Again, your feedback means a lot to me. An Immortal Wish has been brought to you by caiko7lovely (me), and here is my disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN FINAL FANTASY VII. Oh, and by the way, the following changes have been made to this chapter/story:

1. The story is written in third person.

2. There are extra details within and at the end of the nightmare.

3. Several characters are introduced a bit early x)

I know there are a couple of trivial errors, but I'm too lazy to seek them out and fix them x) And I'm really sorry about the changes! These changes were added because I was experimenting. If a whole lot of you are confused or just flat out hate the changes, I'll undo it all, but some have to stay. If you're confused about anything at all regarding the story, just message me or add it to your review (if you do), and I'll answer. Promise! (x

An Immortal Wish

By: caiko7lovely

I

PROLOGUE: [NIGHTMARE]

She always had nightmares.

Even if the day was enjoyable, at night, she would always have nightmares. To make it worse, each and every one of her nightmares were tormenting

They strike her silently with sinister rage and ensnare her mind in bone-chilling torture.

She couldn't bear to watch him suffer.

It was too much. The black and purple bruises, the agonizing deep slits all over his body – she knew his limit, and he was well beyond it. He writhed in pain, shaking uncontrollably in his own pool of blood which murkily shone from the luminescent rays of the moon. He arched his back and dug his arms into the dirt, screaming stomach-churning screams that echoed endlessly through the innocent, young woman's mind, but the screams sounded like music to the bystanders around the two. Half of the many bystanders that surrounded the two watched the young man suffer while the other half watched the young woman to make sure she wouldn't escape.

The bystanders kept the two as hostages after finding them on the run from authorities and hunters that desired their downfall. The authorities didn't capture them, the hunters did – the bystanders – but tying them up and keeping them locked away in a cavern wasn't enough to make them joyous.

They desired a public execution which quickly became a horrifying scene. Blood was everywhere, idle on the ground and partially on shoes. Hair-raising screams echoed throughout the sleepless night, rattling minds and compassionate hearts – the screams could be heard all the way in Midgar. As the echoing screams faded into the thin, cold air, as excruciating pain surged through the young man's entire body, the young woman – Tifa Lockhart – cringed sharply, the sound something gurgling filling her ears. The man coughed up his own blood, nearly collapsing immediately after, and his eyes slammed shut in pain.

"Please…" Tifa tried to say his name, but something forbade her from doing so. "Please…!" She couldn't even manage to let part of his name slip through her lips. "Please, don't…!" was all that came out of her maw.

But to no avail.

So she shrieked, "STOP! You can't do this!"

A girl stood next to the young man, slashing at his body with her bloody katana. She was the one who caused the torment, and she was completely emotionless about it – she didn't care about what had been happening or what she'd been doing. All she cared about was completing her task and carrying it out with an impressive display of force and grace. Torture and extermination – that was her job. It didn't matter who her target was. There wasn't the least bit of sympathy in her bones that she could give towards the people she had to face. The young man's blood splattered everywhere. The girl's face remained emotionless as specks of blood dotted all over her cheeks, making it seem like she was born with eerie, red freckles. The amount of ugliness bestowed on her from the splattering blood matched the level of how horrendous it was to watch an innocent, young man being tortured. Every second, he would huff and wheeze while the people around him watched in satisfaction, snickering and cheering as the girl continued to look impassive.

"You can't do this!" Tifa called out to the young man, and the impassive girl's katana smoothly hacked away again.

He gritted his teeth, trying to conceal the pending moans. "T-Ti… Tif… u-unh…"

"No…" She whispered, her heart trying to pound out of her chest. Unable to restrain her grief, she implored with watery eyes, "Please…! Keep talking to me…!"

He gasped into the pool of blood, coughing up hoarsely the crimson liquid that accidentally slipped down his throat. His head practically hung in repentance, blocking the sight of his perfect complexion – the hair that framed his cheeks covered the sides of his face, and the blood plastered on his complexion hid the rest, also masking his anguished expression and the tears which secretly rolled down his cheeks. Tifa tried to reach out to him, but the shackles around her wrists were heavier than the weight of a thousand burdens, barely allowing her arms to move. The only time they moved were when the shackles moved from Tifa's fidgeting in an attempt to escape from her restraints.

She continued her attempts to escape, blocking out the weight of her shackles and the tightness of the rope around her. Her shoulders wriggled up and down, managing to lower the rope to her waist. Furiously, her feet spread apart, tearing the rope hugging her ankles with a strident rip. The sound tipped many of the nameless bystanders off, forcing them to take up arms. They took a couple of steps forward, towards the struggling Tifa. Determined to break free from the enemy's grip and want to let loose with her brute strength, she mustered up the strength to stretch the rope around her, and the sound of ripping could be heard once again. She planted herself onto her feet and backed into the tree behind her, into a branch. The rope continued to rip as she pushed her back into the tree, sliding to the left with the help of the sharp end of a branch she fortunately caught herself on.

Everything went exceptionally well in her escape until she heard the young man rasp with what little energy he had left, "You'll get yourself killed! U-Ugh…!"

"Keep talking to me!" Tifa screamed out to him while leaning against the tree. She paused her escape and uncontrollably watched the young man struggle. More blood spurted from his mouth, and his vision blurred brutally. The glow of Mako transmitting from his eyes dulled suddenly, signaling the imminent end of his life. He had been cruelly afflicted before, both physically and mentally, so any further abuse to his body would result in a shut down of all of his senses.

In other words, death was absolute.

And Tifa knew that.

She wanted him to hear her perfectly; she wanted to drive him. She wanted him to stop things if he could, for it tore her heart in two, reliving a sinister tragedy. Within the dark clouds hovering over everyone, lightning flashed bright and swiftly faded away. Thunder bellowed following the disappearance, shaking the ground in a moderate fashion. Rain droplets fell from the black, night sky, onto everyone's heads and shoulders and their surroundings. The rain barely washed away the blood on the young man's face though it seemed to do a reasonable amount on the impassive girl's. It also hid the falling tears of both the young man's and Tifa's. Maybe even the Impassive's. The impassive girl continued to look expressionless, but her eyes turned a rather pinkish color and moistened quite a bit, hinting a sign of sadness wanting to be expressed through tears.

Tifa didn't think the impassive girl was sad. She thought she was heartless to begin with and repetitively wondered what she would be sad about. Tifa thought the impassive girl's heart had frozen and melted away, causing the emergence of her expressionless face and callous actions. Or maybe her heart was ripped out from her and had been locked away in a place unknown. Many speculations ran through Lockhart's mind, but none seemed to have been proven true. There was a chance that the girl was innocent to begin with.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, referring to both the young man and the impassive girl. "We… made a promise…" She took a step forward, the rope around her finally loosening completely and falling to the ground, but her knees buckled due to the weight of the shackles, and she was back to sitting on the ground. That didn't stop her from screaming again though, "Keep TALKING to me!"

The young man groaned once more, and he collapsed into the pool of blood. Part of his hair was dyed in crimson, making his form look even more ragged and torn up. He rested on his front, his head lying on its side on the jagged ground, and the Mako glow in his eyes dulled even more. The impassive girl came up from behind him and continued to cleave at his body, craving for his death. It was smite after smite from the girl, but the young man's will was so strong, he managed to keep himself alive to the point of which he ended up bathing in his own blood. Tifa watched the young man's weakening unfold, bit by bit. Her stomach began to knot up, and something had started rising up her throat.

Stop.

"T-Tifa… I…"

Please.

"L-Lo… unh…!"

Please!

"I love…"

NO!

She wished for an ending,

so she chose salvation

though choosing salvation was the price to see his life end.

Choosing salvation was her sin.

Tifa writhed in bed, twisting and turning, ruffling the bed sheets under her, entangling the blanket that covered her body. Soft but painful moans escaped from her lips, into the pillow she rested her head on. Her fingers tunneled into the sheets, nails making indents within the coiled-spring mattress. Her head swayed left and right vigorously, and her legs kicked the blanket off her body. Her nightmare was dreadful, and she suffered by helplessly watching the nameless young man though she didn't suffer the exact same way in reality.

From the other side of the building, a young man with spiky, blond locks and sky-blue eyes leaned against the wall shirtless, peering out the window beside him with his arms crossed and a foot pressed against the wall. His eyes gawked at the intricate design of the cement-tile ground outside of the room he was in, trailing in every direction, trying to follow the numerous paths of the design. He seemed to be at peace, but his mind was mired in heavy thoughts.

His thoughts focused on one person and one person only. He cared deeply for them even though she didn't know him.

"Her suffering will dim down," someone beside him spoke. The young man looked in front of him, into the same blue eyes of his friend. His friend, Zack, sat up from his bed and ruffled his hair, pulling an arm across his chest and another to help stretch the aching muscles in that limb. He twisted himself to stretch and crack his back, and he continued to speak, "Though when she falls asleep again, her suffering will repeat itself."

The young man pursed his lips and kept silent.

"A new year of school's gonna start," Zack stood and bent his knees repeatedly to do squats, a motion that became a common mannerism to see from him. "She'll be in your classes too – you'll be able to talk to her. You gonna tell her about her nightmares? I mean, c'mon Cloud, don't make her suffer anymore. She has to know the truth-"

"I can't tell her," the young man interjected. Turning his head away from Zack, he murmured, repeating his own words, "I can't tell her."

"Well, why not?" Zack stopped squatting and looked at his friend reverently but with a slightly perplexed face.

Cloud kept silent again – the sound of his breathing was the only thing Zack got from him.

"I'm sensing some issues here. Don't you think you ought'a do something about 'em?"

"…She'll get mad."

"So? Comfort her later. Hug her or something."

"She doesn't even know me – she'll kill me."

"Well, as of now, you've got a real head-scratcher on your hands that I can't help you deal with. What're you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna wait," Cloud spoke softly, and he slipped his arms into a shirt, closing his eyes, the mysterious glow disappearing for only a moment. "The time's not right, so I'm gonna wait. Even if she suffers through the wait, she'll probably suffer more if I told her. It's… the best thing to do."

A/N: Euhh… is it me or did you guys kind of got a yaoi-feeling when Zack and Cloud started speaking? Just so you know, that feeling was NOT intentional! Still, please review(: