Title: Church on Time
Rating: T
Warnings: Implied violence, death
Word count: 1,440
Prompt: - Final Fantasy VII, Zack/Cloud: fixit AU – Bullets weren't enough to stop a SOLDIER, no matter how many there were.

Summary: Just when he thought that the end was near, a New Hope breaks through the clouds of his Doom and Gloom. Now he just needs to get to the church on time.

Poke.

Poke...poke.

Poke...poke, poke.

Zack grimaced, opened his eyes, and realized the pokes weren't actual pokes, but rain drops. Well that explains why the pokes are cold, the SOLDIER thought. He felt numb, which was never a good thing when the last thing you remembered was intense combat. The First Class SOLDIER decided it wouldn't hurt to take a deep breath, and then winced when, yes it did hurt very much; enough to bring flashbacks of a basement he was running from. He heard a noise, and, carefully turning his head, Zack saw the best sight on the Planet; Cloud was making his way towards him, albeit on hands and knees, on his own will power.

The blond finally made it to his side and Zack's face lit up. He could feel he didn't have much time left, even though he was a suped-up super SOLDIER with whatever Hojo did. There was only so much the human body could take; even SOLDIERS who had more mako than blood in their veins. Zack sighed out a laugh as there was probably more blood and mako from his wounds on the ground than actually in his body.

Which wasn't a comforting thought.

"Cloud," Zack began. He had to tell the kid.

"Mm," Cloud cut in. Zack's own hazy eyes looked into Cloud's. The green was almost gone; the clear blue of a winter sky was glowing in the rainy afternoon light. "Mmmah'ria?" Cloud finally slurred out.

Mah'ria?

"Cur?" Cloud tried again, screwing his face up in concentration. "Po-shun?"

"Materia?" Zack breathed, oh how it hurt to breathe. "Cure materia and potions?"

Cloud jerkily nodded, almost falling over; steadying himself with a hand on Zack's stomach

Kid's a genius, Zack thought with a smile. Aeris had told him once that if you listened carefully, a person with enough training or mako could hear materia singing. Closing his eyes-it was getting harder to keep them open-he listened. At first, all he heard was Cloud's raspy, uneven breathing. Then he heard it; the lilting melodies of what could only be materia. He hadn't listened for them since before Hojo, and now they were louder, clearer and more crisp than before. He heard a song about storms that could only be a Lightning, one that was a Fire, an All; then, faint and near the butte that Cloud had crawled from, was one that whispered about health and fitness of body: a Heal.

"Cloud," Zack whispered, coughing a little. He pointed. Cloud must have understood, he shakily stumbled to his feet and carefully made his way to the man Zack directed him to. With a sigh, Zack closed his eyes. Cloud would be back soon.

He'd be back soon.

In just a minute.

He wouldn't have to hurt anymore.

Zack exhaled a sigh of relief.

Cloud's vision was slowly clearing from the ever present Green as he made his way to the body Zack had told him. He could hear the singing after Zack pointed it out. Zack hadn't said there were two songs though. Perplexed and confused, finding it hard to focus, Cloud fell to his knees with a jarring thud that would have made him wince if the Green hadn't been so ever present in his thoughts and creeping at the edges of his vision.

The blond found the first song on the guy's wrist. A pretty marble-materia a female voice that was vaguely familiar whispered in his mind-that something told him was very important. There was another one, though. Another song sang softly from the guy's chest pocket. It crooned to him. Cloud took out a pretty orange feather that was soft. Cloud ran it across his chin a few times before a fleeting thought of Zack had him stumbling to his feet again.

He almost missed Zack.

Cloud had been distracted by the view and the rain and lightning and actually tripped over Zack's boots.

Cloud noticed Zack's hitched breath, then a relieved sigh seemed to escape the man and he just went...still.

The feather in his hand crooned.

Not knowing what to do really, the Green, he thought vaguely, was coming back, Cloud set the feather on an open wound and watched it dance and sparkle and...fizz. Transfixed, Cloud watched as the sparks and fizzing dance and encompass Zack completely. The SOLDIER's purple eyes suddenly flew open and he choked, swearing obscenities fit to...fit to...huh?

Cloud glanced down at the whispering, eager marble in his hands. It liked him. It had been so cold and lonely for so long; hadn't been used in years. It had such a story to tell. The blond held it uncertainly against Zack's arm, muttering words under his breath until it lit up and a deep green light encompassed Zack's body.

Cloud didn't even feel it when he fell face first into the mud.

He saw her back and that high ponytail with the pink ribbon; had followed it so many times to be able to dream about it while he was in mako. Dreamed of helping her with that cart he hadn't quite finished. He knew that if he just caught up, grabbed her shoulder, she'd turn around with a smile on her face and eyes so full of laughter. No matter what he did, though, he couldn't catch up. And why was everything white?

She was fading.

He was going to be alone again.

He reached out his hand, sure he was going to be able to grab her shoulder.

"A-"

Pain.

Pain everywhere.

His skin burned, his breath burned. His fucking hair follicles were on Shiva damned fire. He could feel the blood rushing through his veins, in his ears, like molten lava, or raw mako-don't think about the mako thick and cold and so hot sluggishly forcing itself into his blood-so hot it melted and so cold it burned. His eyes snapped open and he saw Cloud watching him with the weirdest expression on his face. He couldn't spare the air to comment though, because as soon as he was done choking and screaming he was swearing his clothes clean. Fucking shit, Hel, Heimdal's Horn, Shiva's frozen tits, Jenova's Head in a Handbasket.

When the burning, itching, freezing sensation finally got to a manageable point, a wash of cool sensation flooded him and he felt almost as shitty as when he actually left Hojo's basement in Nibelheim and whole lot better than he had half an hour ago.

A wet sploch had him flinching and jumping away from the sound before Zack had even identified what it had been. Breathing fast, Zack was met with the unconscious form on Cloud face down in the mud as the rain picked up a notch. Shaking his head, Zack walked over and hoisted the blond out of the mud; unseeing blue eyes once more glazed with the Green; twitching and moving to things only Cloud could see. Zack looked carefully and thought he saw Cloud's eyes track his own before sliding off into whatever the mako wanted him to see.

A sad, soft chuckle escaped him.

"You never cease to amaze me, Spike," Zack said as he hoisted the exTrooper, exSOLDIER now if Zack remembered half of what Hojo muttered during a fraction of the experiments he was conscious enough to remember. He turned to the cliff of the bluff that had so much wasted life. Bullets weren't enough to stop a SOLDIER, no matter how many there were. He glanced fondly down at the mop of blond hair nestled on his shoulder.

Plain stubborn and determination played important parts as well.

Zack couldn't help but laugh. He knew it was the aftereffects of the materia Cloud used; making him feel invincible. He knew that he needed a few potions and probably another Cure or Heal or two, but that didn't matter. He wasn't Vladkoros food. He wasn't going to feed the Zoloms.

The exSOLDIER whooped and jumped off the edge of the cliff to a slim ledge, slowly making his way down an almost sheer cliff to the valley below; laughing all the way.

Now all they had to do was get to the church on time.

posted 18September2016

originally posted 10January2013

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