One Path, Together

June 2024

I. Tifa

When Tifa had first met Zack, he had been a disappointment. A familiar uniform worn by an unfamiliar man, dashing her childish anticipation. She'd started to warm to him, even so. He'd been so much friendlier than Sephiroth.

In other circumstances, liking him would have been simple.

Tifa twisted her hands in her lap, watching Zack's unconscious form. He looked like he was having a nightmare, and she wondered what she would find in him when he woke.

Cloud had always been the one with episodes, easily attributed to his slow recovery from Mako poisoning. Zack had seemed unaffected. A benefit of his SOLDIER conditioning. Now and again, she'd notice him freeze up, but the two of them had been through so much.

Cloud's eyes were like his now. When Tifa had first seen them, in her gut she'd blamed Zack, just as she'd blamed him for Nibelheim. He'd been an emblem of Shinra in her memory: presenting a friendly face and a helping hand and ripping her life apart.

Zack had been an unwitting part of that. She wanted to think he was an unwitting part of what had happened at the Temple, too.

None of it was his fault, and she'd forgiven him, but what if she shouldn't have?

It was an unkind thought. Petty jealousy, maybe. When Zack and Cloud had first stumbled into Sector 7, the two of them had been inseparable. Tifa had felt instantly drawn to Aeris when they met, only to discover Zack was an old flame of hers, too. They both already had him, someone who was bold and open in his affections.

It was that same boldness and openness that had led him to suggest that they invite Tifa into the relationship, after weeks of watching how they both looked at her, he said. She hadn't known how to respond, bundled together with Cloud and Aeris on that gondola. She loved them both.

What she felt for Zack should have been simple, but it wasn't, and she was scared of bringing something poisonous into what the three of them already had. It was so easy and natural between them, and she wasn't like that.

Zack's eyelids fluttered, and then opened. He stared at the ceiling in a mix of recognition and confusion.

"...hey," she tried, experimentally.

"Tifa? What..." He struggled up to a sitting position. "We're in Gongaga?"

"Yeah," she confirmed. "The inn. We... we weren't sure about you being around your parents until..."

Zack groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "Hell. I fucked up. I don't even know what happened, I... Are they okay? Is Cloud...? And Aeris?"

"Cloud's... okay." For a relative definition of 'okay.' "Aeris healed him up. But she's missing."

Zack froze. "Missing?"

"She was gone when we all got up this morning. Everyone's out looking for her."

He glanced out the window as if just realizing how much time had passed. "Was it--?"

"No," Tifa cut him off, picking up on the rising panic in his voice. "She left on her own. Made her bed and took all her things."

"...but she's still out there by herself."

Tifa couldn't refute that. She was worried, too. "...she can't have gone far," she managed.

Zack looked back at her. "And they just... left you here alone with me?"

"Barret's right outside," she said, nodding to the door. "If anyone finds anything, they'll check in with him."

Zack stared at the door, saying nothing. It was so unlike him to go quiet that it drove home how hard this must have been hitting him.

"We all know..." Tifa began uncertainly. "I mean... It was Sephiroth, wasn't it?"

"And that makes it okay?" He shook his head vehemently. "I can't believe I did that! To Cloud! And now Sephiroth has the Black Materia, and..."

"We still have time to get it back."

"Does that 'we' even include me?" Zack nodded to the door. "I know what Barret'll say. It's my fault. And he's not wrong. I wanna make it right, but I... I don't even know what happened."

"...but you remember it?"

Zack winced, glancing away. Tifa felt something settle over her, watching his expression. She was so afraid of hurting the three of them that she'd wavered in indecision. Zack had had what she wanted, and done what she was scared of, and she didn't envy him the latter, but the realization made her anger dissolve into a strange kind of affinity.

She reached for his hand and settled hers over it. "...I don't really know what happened either," she admitted. "I think... Hojo did more to you both than we know. But...... I want to believe we're stronger than that. All of us."

Maybe she could be, too.

"But I wasn't," he said, looking at her in confusion.

"You were caught off-guard. We know now. So... let's make it right. Okay?"

Zack nodded slowly. "Okay."

 

 

II. Cloud

Ever since the reactor explosion three years prior, Gongaga's chocobos had been skittish and particular, or so the locals said. Even the young ones seemed to learn the behavior from their parents, or maybe it was living with the husk of the reactor looming on the horizon. Whatever it was, the villagers had been open to lending them some birds, but Cloud was the only one who'd been able to get close to them.

So he'd left the others, mounted up, and headed out on his own.

He was okay with that. It would've been typical for him to pair up with Zack, or Aeris, or Tifa. Their absence smarted, but he didn't want to pretend like things were fine, like he could just replace them with someone else.

Or maybe he just didn't want anyone to see if he had a breakdown.

That hadn't been Zack. Zack had gotten them out of Nibelheim, Zack had hauled his ass halfway across the Planet, Zack had nursed him through the worst of his Mako poisoning. All that time, he'd been nothing but dead weight, and Zack had treated him like he was precious anyway.

His hand started to lift towards his face, and he caught himself. There were no scabs or bruises, no black eye, but he still felt an echo of the blows just beneath his skin, in spite of Aeris's healing.

That wasn't Zack.

Didn't Aeris know that, too?

Cait Sith had hung back to ask around the village, in case they'd missed something. Yuffie and Nanaki searched the surrounding jungle in hopes of finding her trail. Vincent and Cid had gone on to where they'd left the Tiny Bronco, as if maybe she'd just gotten sick of waiting around.

Cloud was headed back to the fishing village where they'd stopped to ask about the Temple and been told in no uncertain terms that no one would ferry them there. The place was cursed.

He couldn't argue with that, but he worried where they would be willing to ferry someone. He didn't know how much of a head start Aeris had on them. Everyone had been so exhausted and withdrawn after what had happened that they'd turned in with hardly a word. He thought Aeris had gone to bed. Tifa seemed to think so.

Maybe she'd only waited for the other girls to fall asleep.

Cloud urged the chocobo a little faster.

The fishing village was even smaller than what remained of Gongaga. Zack had mentioned its name, but Cloud only remembered the way Zack had swaggered down the pier, all ready to play the knowledgeable local. Yuffie had beaten him to the punch in asking directions and grinned wide at his exaggerated dismay.

It felt like weeks ago. It had been two days.

He dismounted, gave the chocobo an absent-minded pat, and left it behind as he made his way to the harbor. There weren't many boats docked, but before he could think too hard about ones that might have left earlier, he spotted her: a familiar figure in pink chatting with a woman on the pier. He fumbled out his PHS and sent a text to Barret.

Aeris didn't notice his approach until the other woman did. For an instant, he saw the naked alarm on Aeris's face before she slipped it behind a friendly smile. She said something aside to the woman and stepped forward to meet him.

"Cloud! What are you doing here?"

"Me? What're you doing here? Everyone's worried sick."

"Really? So much fuss over little old me?"

It was the kind of thing that would've flustered him when they first met--the knowing look and the flirtatious tilt of her head--but by now he knew she'd throw that cheer on like armor. "Aeris..."

Her expression softened ruefully. "Sorry. I know you've all got enough on your plates, but I just had to get moving."

"Moving... where?" he wondered.

Aeris glanced north, as if by reflex. "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. So there's something I have to do." She smiled back at him. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

She was keeping him at arm's length, and it stung. After what happened with Zack, it felt like going backwards to a time before either of them, when he'd been written off as some weird loner nobody could count on for anything.

"...you don't trust us to help?"

Aeris shook her head. "Now that I understand what he is and what he means to do-- he was never yours to deal with, he's mine."

"Alone?"

"I can do it. The Planet's guiding me. I don't need to lean on you all anymore."

Cloud shook his head slowly. "That's not fair. We all started this together, and now you're just gonna finish it without us? No way."

Aeris just looked at him for a long moment, and then she grabbed his hand. "Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't we go, just the two of us? You can be my bodyguard, and then we don't have to drag everyone else into it."

Cloud frowned. That was her solution? What was she thinking? "Is this about Zack?" he asked finally.

"No, it's not about Zack." She dropped her gaze, running her thumb over the back of his hand. "Or, it's about Zack as much as it is about all of you," she amended. "This journey's tearing you to pieces. I didn't want to put you through any more of it."

"So... All of us, we're just weaker than you."

"I didn't mean it like that..."

Cloud watched her expression, now that she'd dropped the pretense of a smile. He wasn't good at reading people, but she looked worried. "...I get if you're scared," he said. "I am, too. All the more reason to stick together."

She looked back up at him. "...maybe you're right."

He gave her hand a squeeze that he hoped was comforting. Maybe he should've done more, but he didn't have her or Zack's ease with affection, especially in public. They were always making him turn red. She smiled, though, in a way he thought was genuine this time, and he smiled back.

Her hand in his, he started leading her back to the chocobo. "I let Barret know we're here," he said. "The others oughtta be joining us soon."

"Oh?"

"And then we can take the Tiny Bronco and go wherever it is you need to go," he reasoned.

"Sounds good."

Cloud didn't read people as well as she did, which was why he didn't see it coming when Aeris hooked her staff under his ankles and sent him smacking face-first into the pier. Her footsteps reverberated in the wooden planks beneath him as she ran off.

 

 

III. Zack

The jungle was close and humid, warm enough that he'd already started sweating. It had all the familiarity of a nightmare, where the comforts of a childhood haunt got turned on their head and the thing that was chasing you was faster than you were.

Nothing was chasing him, but Zack could feel Barret's glare boring into the back of his skull, like yesterday had evaporated all of the trust they'd built since Tifa had introduced them. Zack couldn't even blame him.

He didn't know what the fuck had happened. He remembered it. He couldn't wrap his head around it.

He and Cloud and Aeris had climbed down into the pit of the Temple's foundations, leaving the others above to stand watch. They'd found the Black Materia in its center, a huge and heavy thing in Aeris's hands. Zack had exchanged glances with Cloud, something more complicated than relief.

And then he'd heard Sephiroth's voice in his head, calm and commanding: Get him out of the way.

Even when Sephiroth had been his superior officer, he wouldn't have followed an order like that without thinking. This time he had, literally, without a single thought in his head. He could remember all of his actions, but no thought to accompany them, just the movements of his body.

His first punch had sent Cloud staggering, and his second had knocked him to the ground. He'd climbed on top and--

And then he'd stood to face Aeris. He could recognize in retrospect that she'd been guarded around him when they first met. She was wary of Shinra, and he was a SOLDIER. He'd never seen her scared of him. She hadn't given him the Black Materia so much as he'd yanked it out of her hands while she stared.

At some point Sephiroth had appeared in the pit. Zack had walked to him and handed over the Black Materia.

"Well done," Sephiroth had said, and he was gone.

Before Zack could fully come back to himself and realize what he'd done, Barret's gun arm had crashed into the back of his head, and the world went black.

Tifa had said, it wasn't him, and he really felt like he, Zack, hadn't been there in those moments. But if that was true, then where had he gone?

He wanted to stay put, right where he was, to protect them from that emptiness.

He just didn't know how to do it.

Still, when Cloud had sent word, Zack had persuaded Barret he was ready to go along, because he wanted to believe Tifa. He found himself zeroing in on all the sounds around him, as if Sephiroth's voice might be hiding somewhere beneath the birdsong or the babble of water, and if he could just catch it first he'd be okay.

"You okay?" Tifa asked from beside him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just... You know. I'm not getting caught off-guard again."

She nodded and patted his arm, and it meant a lot, honestly, coming from Tifa. Cloud hadn't stuck around at his bedside, and Aeris had run off because of him, but if Tifa could forgive him, then they could, too, right?

They found the chocobo first, grazing outside the little fishing village. It sidled back at their approach, but it let Zack come close. "You know where Cloud got off to?" Zack asked it in a halfhearted attempt at levity. He didn't know if it could smell Cloud on him, the bruises on his knuckles beneath his gloves. He lowered his hand.

"They'll be around somewhere," said Barret. "Place ain't that big."

The three of them split up, though Barret was right that there wasn't too much ground to cover. Zack found Cloud before long, but found him alone--sporting a frown and a faint limp.

Cloud's glance brought him up short, unsure of what to say. 'Sorry I got possessed by your worst nightmare and beat the crap out of you' didn't seem to cut it.

"...you okay?" he ventured instead.

"She tripped me," Cloud said, a curt explanation that Zack nevertheless knew was intended to reassure him that the limp wasn't his doing. "Where's Tifa? She wanna take a swing at me, too?"

Zack flinched, but by Cloud's expression he didn't mean it as a dig, he was just worried. Zack ran a hand through his hair. "We split up to look for you guys," he said. "Aeris ran off again, huh?"

"Yeah... I don't get it."

"What's not to get?"

Cloud shook his head, dismissing Zack's easy conclusion. "She said there was something the Planet needs her to do and she didn't wanna keep dragging us into it. Like it's got nothing to do with the rest of us."

"...guess that's just like her."

"Huh?"

Zack gestured vaguely, trying to find the words for it. He'd been so hung up on his own screw-up that he hadn't really thought about it. "She never told me about any of that Ancient stuff before, you know? When I first found out, I thought, man, didn't she trust me? And maybe she wasn't ready to, but I think it's also, I don't know... She didn't want me to see her that way. She didn't wanna be that way."

"...but she is," Cloud pointed out, confused.

Zack scratched his head. "I know."

Cloud folded his arms, frowning as he puzzled it through. Then he said, "She can't just run off and be an Ancient and then come back like it never happened."

"Look who's talking."

"Hey."

"I'm just saying, you oughtta get it," Zack pointed out. "But me and Aeris and Tifa, we all like you just fine since you've stopped hiding."

"Guess I just thought... she had that stuff figured out. Who she is, and all."

Zack shrugged uneasily. "Stuff creeps up on you, I guess. Throws you off."

Cloud dropped his arms, looking at him steadily even as Zack struggled to hold his gaze. "You're still you," he said.

"Man, I hope so."

"Did... did you hear a voice?" Cloud asked quietly. "Or..."

"...yeah," Zack admitted. "It was like... that was all there was. Just the part of me listening to it."

Cloud nodded. "That's... kind of what it's like. But then it's like I can't do what it wants me to, even if I try. I'm... stuck. Too weak to move."

"...when you have those episodes?"

"Yeah."

Zack took a step closer and then stopped himself. He wanted to reach out but he didn't know if he should. "You never told me it was that bad," he said.

Cloud shook his head. "I felt like I couldn't. Or wasn't supposed to. I don't know."

Had Sephiroth not wanted him to say it? All this time he'd been bearing down on Cloud thinking he'd be the weak link, and Zack had folded in an instant. He'd always thought he was the tough one, that he could look after everybody else... but what if that's what had made it easy? He didn't depend on the others because he didn't think he needed to.

He let out a breath. "Okay. Well... It's like Tifa said. We've got a better idea what we're dealing with, so we'll just look out for each other. ...right?"

"Sounds like a good idea," said Cloud.

"...I'm really sorry, about what happened."

"I know. It's okay." Cloud faltered, his hands fidgeting in a way that made Zack think he wanted to reach out, too. "I'm just... really glad you're still here. I don't wanna do this on my own."

Zack cautiously closed the distance between them, watching Cloud for any sign of tensing up. He kissed him softly on the eyebrow, where he knew he would've left a bruise if not for Aeris's healing. "None of us do," he said. "Even Aeris, whatever she's trying to tell herself."

Cloud's hand lifted to rest on his arm for a moment, keeping him close. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go find her."

 

 

IV. Aeris

Just like that, her simple plan had completely fallen apart. Maybe hiding from Cloud was stupid. The harbor was too small for her to just go and hop on a boat without him noticing, and the others would be here soon.

Maybe she shouldn't have left in the first place, but she'd thought it would be safer for all of them. If they all went together, then Sephiroth would know what she was up to, and he'd try to use them to get to her. Even if Zack could withstand it this time, even if Cloud could keep holding out, she didn't want to be the reason they went through that.

And if they couldn't hold on... It was better to face Sephiroth on her own, so that neither of them had to live with being his instrument. Especially if they were the ones to prevent her from calling Holy.

She couldn't let it happen, any of it. She'd never wanted to be a Cetra, but just this once, she'd accept it, and she'd do her duty as the last of them. And then everything would be all right, and she could leave it behind, and they could put all of this behind them. She just had to do this one thing.

There had to be another way for her to get north. She'd follow the coast, and maybe there'd be another tiny village that wasn't on her map. If she had to, she'd walk all the way to Costa del Sol. She'd honed her magic through their travels, and she was better with her staff than she used to be, and she could make it on her own.

She nodded decisively to herself and slipped out of the storage shed where she'd been hiding. Rounding the corner, she nearly collided with Tifa. She stumbled back. Strong hands found her arms, steadying her.

"There you are," said Tifa, and Aeris found herself at a loss for words. Here she was. Tifa studied her, a faint furrow in her brow. "Aeris... why are you running from us?"

She didn't want to. She just had to. Didn't she?

"I..."

When they were in the Temple, everyone had started to look at her differently, seeing her for the Cetra she was. And for a little while, she hadn't minded. She'd never felt so connected to it all before, there in the middle of this thing her ancestors had built, the remnant voices of those who'd stayed behind there to guide her, happy to see her, happy to see they'd survived. It was a place built to rein in something terrible, but it was still a testament to what they'd been, and she a testament to what they could still be.

But now that Sephiroth had the Black Materia, all that burgeoning possibility was just gone, and there was only one path for her. Only one way for her to be a Cetra. She couldn't stray from it, or if she did, she might be dooming the entire Planet. It was too much, and she didn't want to carry it.

And Tifa was just looking at her like she was Aeris.

Tifa had always made her feel normal, like when they were together, they stepped into another universe where nothing bad had ever happened to them, because nothing bad could touch them. Aeris let herself lean into it, tucking her head under Tifa's chin. If the choice of going on alone was taken from her, would she mind?

"I have to do this," she murmured.

"What do you have to do?" Tifa asked.

"What only I can do. Protect us from Meteor."

Tifa's arms were steady around her. She was quiet for a moment. "...then shouldn't you have your bodyguards?"

Some weight inside her lifted, in spite of everything. Tifa didn't just mean Zack and Cloud, for whom the designation had always meant a little something more. Tifa was the one holding her safe now, and it was a tentative answer to the question they'd posed her at Gold Saucer.

Aeris drew back to look at her. "...does that mean you're accepting the job?"

"If you'll still have me."

Part of her still felt she shouldn't. She'd put them through so much already. But, maybe she shouldn't have thought of it as only her choice. "It'll be dangerous," she said instead. "Are you sure you want to come?"

Tifa quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't that Cloud's line?"

"Oh." A laugh escaped her. "Oh, no. Oh, you're right. Am I really turning into Cloud?"

"It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world," Tifa decided, brushing Aeris's bangs from her face. "But, I like you as Aeris."

Aeris leaned into her again. "Yeah. I think we should all just be us."

After a few minutes, Aeris let Tifa take her hand, and they wound their way through the village streets until they met up with Zack and Cloud. Zack hung back, uneasy, waiting on her judgment. Aeris passed her staff to Tifa and flung her arms around him, stretching up on tip-toe. Maybe the best way to protect him was to believe in him, not to act like there was only one path ahead of him. It wasn't out of his control. It wasn't out of her control.

She kissed him, and then, before he could escape from arm's reach, she kissed Cloud, too. As Zack began to grin at Cloud's blush, she spun to face Tifa, who turned bright red at the realization of what was about to happen. She opened her mouth to protest, but then she didn't. Aeris took her face and kissed her softly.

"Finally, it's not just me," she heard Cloud murmur from behind her, followed by a startled mmph that was definitely Zack's doing.

Aeris took Tifa's hand and tugged her the few steps to join the boys, all of them in easy reach of each other. The ocean breeze wove around them, beckoning her north. She inhaled deep.

"I guess it's settled then," she said. "We're all doing this together."

"Right," said Cloud and Tifa simultaneously, and they exchanged amused, bashful glances.

"We're with you, 'ris," Zack added.

It wasn't what she'd intended, but that was a choice she could make, too. She could be Aeris while she did this, with all of them by her side.

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