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Description

FFVII
Sad Remembering

Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Emotive themes
Setting: 3 years after DoC
Rating: M
Status: WIP
OCs: 25%
Disclaimer: All related Final Fantasy VII names and characters are copyrighted © by Square Enix. However, this story and the OCs are ALL mine. Thank you.

SAD REMEMBERING

They continued tramping through the rock passages, over boulders and always on an upward climb with Deneh leading them. With renewed strength, Cloud pulled ahead of Deneh and leaped onto a layer of flat rocks and up.

Deneh followed him, and Shelke jumped after, bounding up the rocks as if she weighed nothing.

“Do you have to show off?” Denzel grumbled as he climbed up.

Shelke raised her brows and said seriously, “You may wish to practice your agility skills.”

Denzel grabbed hold of the rock and hauled himself up, “Um… yeah… I’ll keep that in mind."

Cloud reached down and gave him a hand up.

“… I guess Nanaki and Veld must be miles ahead…” Denzel puffed out.

Cloud also wondered how Veld and team didn’t hear the combat and come and check on them. “Must be.”

Denzel reached the small plateau. “I’m glad though…” he flushed, “yeah… that’s sounds bad.”

Cloud was thinking the same thing. He hoped none of them would mention what happened to him in the cave. Cait was probably the only one who would let him down. He peered into the shadows of the passage. Where was that cat anyway?

Deneh’s mouth turned up in a type of smile. “Nanaki chose a different tunnel.”

“Huh?” Denzel said with surprise, “But, are we going the right way?”

Cloud looked to the amber wolf-lion in apprehension.

“Yes, we are,” she replied with some indignation, “Although, I don’t believe he has chosen the ‘wrong’ path. I have begun to recognize these caves.”

“Perhaps we shall meet them further up,” Shelke suggested.

“At least the air is becoming clearer,” Cloud studied the walls, more rock was visible than the black ooze.

“Really?” Denzel creased his brow in surprise. “All I smell is that crap.”

“It’s faint, but it’s there.” Cloud turned towards the only opening and walked onwards.

Squinting, Denzel looked back over his shoulder. “Should we wait for Cait?”

Cloud was not waiting around for the robotic cat, and he called from down the corridor. “He’ll come when he comes. We need to move fast.”

“The path is sure.” Deneh leaped after him. “And it’s also getting higher.”

Denzel came behind her. “Guess that’s a good thing, except we’re further from the track.”

Leaving the train track was foremost on Cloud’s mind. It made him feel directionless. But Aeris gave him hope he was heading in the right direction, despite not knowing where that was. Adrenaline surged through his veins invoking in him a profound need to hurry. The Jenova had lessened on the tunnel walls and in the air, but he could still sense its potent toxins. The taint remained in his mind, but unlike before, he could acknowledge its abhorrent presence, and brace himself against the depression. Similar to nausea he could ignore. Could it be, it no longer had an adverse effect on him? Something had changed, but he couldn’t put his finger on what that was exactly. He was about to smile to himself, but he recalled hitting Denzel, and almost killing him. The very thing he always feared – he tried not to dwell on it. He was thankful Veld and his team didn’t witness it. Who knows what they would have done.

Denzel and Shelke were chatting together and getting further behind, while he marched on, a few paces in front of Deneh. The passages were on upward curves, and over piles of rocks, but there appeared no openings on either side. He felt confident the tunnel would lead to one opening only – as if he had walked these caves before as well.

Far behind, Cloud could hear the faint chatter of Denzel and Shelke. His hearing was keen, and most likely better than any normal person.

Faint tones of Denzel’s voice came through the tunnel, “… I don’t know, without the rail track, how can we get anywhere?”

“When we reach the surface, we might be able to ascertain where it would travel to,” Shelke replied.

Denzel grumbled, “You’d think Veld would know more about the train, and the track, if he was Head of the Turks.”

“Not necessarily,” Shelke’s voice was a delicate sound, “I believe Shinra was compartmentalized. Deepground was especially so."

“He seemed to know about Cloud,” Denzel said.

Cloud wasn’t surprised by that, more like, anxiously wary.

Denzel added, “But Cloud didn’t really know him.”

Shelke replied, “Veld is a Turk. If they want to find something out they will. They make it their purpose to know.”

Cloud frowned to himself at the notion. That made it worse.

“So he wanted to know about Cloud?” Denzel queried.

“Perhaps we could assume that,” Shelke said.

“And he also knows about the Purification Program. But he doesn’t seem to have the formula or the data…”

“But, he knows about a ‘key’,” Shelke murmured.

“Which we don’t even know is real…” Denzel groaned, “Or what the hell it is.”

They walked in silence for some moments before Denzel said, “It’s incredible they’ve been able to pollute the life-stream like this. How have they done it so… horrendously well?”

Shelke replied, “I assume they have diverted the life from an exponential amount of people over a long period of time.”

“But – that many people have gone missing?”

“Multitudes of people were sequestered in Deepground,” Shelke explained, “And perhaps after they were defeated there. Over the years, it could be possible.”

“So the stigma could have been a sign something deeper was under the surface…” Denzel’s voice lowered as he mulled it over.

“It would seem so,” Shelke said, “Considering Jenova is referred to as an alien infection we could assume it is operating as a contagion within the life-stream.”

“The germs are spreading…” Denzel gave a dry chortle, “Throughout the ‘body’.”

“Correct.”

Denzel muttered as he tramped along, “Guess we need, or the planet needs a course of treatment, or medicine…”

Cloud, listening to their conversation, understood Denzel’s reasoning. It was commendable, but – he called over his shoulder and down the passage, “The Stigma had no cure.”

“Is he listening to us?” Denzel mumbled to Shelke.

“You shouldn’t forget he’s got really good hearing,” She nodded with a teasing smile.

Cloud smiled to himself and quickened his pace. But if Denzel were a scientist, who knows what he could have been capable of.

“No known cure,” Denzel called back.

“Perhaps there is,” Shelke offered, “However, will anyone be left to discover it?”

Denzel griped, “Then what the heck?! We either live like this – in this?” He gestured around the walls, “Or we die and go into the polluted life-stream?” he grumbled to himself, “What a choice…”

Cloud furrowed his brows at the dismal tone in Denzel’s voice. It wasn’t good whichever way you looked at it. “We’ll do all we can, you know that. As long as we face it together.” He could probably do just about anything if he knew Tifa was safe. Now that he had seen the visible signs of Jenova, here and in the Life-stream, he was stunned at how much of the planet it was consuming.

“The Planet is in dire trouble,” Deneh’s voice rumbled with anger.

Cloud nodded to himself. But, he had to wonder, how did it grow so powerful and under their noses? For the last few years, life was relatively peaceful. He thought it was all done with, now it was returning with a vengeance. He should have known he couldn’t ever escape it. After all it was in him - all the poison he was walking past. In the last couple of months the voice had returned, and he even confided in Vincent about it. Initially he thought it was Sephiroth back to haunt him, but he realized it was something more sinister. It was Jenova itself.

Eventually the cave passage narrowed, but it continued straight and upwards with no other openings. Cloud pushed ahead, and quickened his pace. The faint sense of cleaner air on his skin motivated him, but it wasn’t the thought of getting out of the caves spurring him on – but the far-off broken sounds of… something, he couldn’t work out. He had listened to it without mentioning it to the others, not sure exactly what it was. Perhaps it was Veld?

As he marched up the sloping tunnel, the clamor died away. Instead of calming him, the ensuing silence left him with sudden unease. With some foreboding, and recalling Aeris’ urgency, he sprinted up the passage.

After some moments, fresh air hit his face and he ran out into daylight. He caught himself in time from toppling over the short ridge. Mountainous cliffs and plateaus surrounded him up and down, with deep shadowed valleys below. He recognized it immediately. Cosmo Canyon.

Gloomy haze concealed an upper plateau to his right, but higher still, he glimpsed the top of the observatory. The poisonous stink of Jenova was in the wind, and voices. Something was going on above, on the Plaza.

On a ridge not far below were bodies. Maybe Veld had been through here?

He jumped down to investigate. At the sight of one of the victims, bloody and dead, Cloud froze. His body seized as if he was struck, and all the air drained from his lungs. Breathless, and transfixed with fear, he was transported to another time and place – reliving that same horrible moment. Again. Every feeling of sorrow came back like a stab to his heart. “Zack?!”

Cloud closed his eyes, willing himself to be calm, to reason, to breathe. No, this is… he’s younger… He stared at the boy and attempted to grasp what he was seeing. Despite anything he could come up with, the boy, whoever he was, was dead. The unknown victim grieved him. He might never know who he was.

Screaming startled him from his mournful reverie. Not so much that someone was in trouble, but he knew that voice.

Marlene?

Up above, on the Plaza with the black Jenova poison, Marlene was held by a figure in a long coat. He was hauling her to the edge of the cliff. She pushed against his grip, but could do nothing to save herself.

Rage propelled Cloud to action. Sprinting, he crossed the ridge, and gauging the ledges distances, he leaped up, and then across to the next. In desperation, and fear he wouldn’t get to her in time, he ran hard and caught the lip of a rock crevice with one hand. Within seconds Marlene plummeted down. Her screams echoing around the canyon.

“Shit…” Cloud grunted. With no time to spare, he grabbed hold of her arm with his free hand as she fell by him.

She glanced up at him, a mix of astonishment and grief in her tear soaked face. “Cloud?” her voice was a hoarse whisper of disbelief.

Creasing his brow with fear-filled worry at her precarious position, he held her firm. “Marlene.” She weighed hardly nothing in his hand, and he lifted her up to the ridge. She grabbed hold and scampered up. He climbed up after her.

Her white dress had black stains and blood down her front. He wondered if it was her own. Her hair, usually so neat, was spilling out from her ribbon-tired pony-tail. But it was her tear-stained face that made him really concerned.

“Cloud!” she sobbed loudly, “It’s terrible. Everything— it’s all over—” she grabbed him around the waist and burst out crying.

Fearing the worst, he put his arms around her shuddering body. “Marlene, what happened?”

Through her sobs, she wailed against his shirt, “… I… the materia’s gone… they’re all sick… Belia’s gone… and Ely’s dead…” she wept anew, “and I couldn’t save him, I couldn’t save anyone…”

Baffled, he stared down at her, not comprehending her statement, but disturbed she would have to contend with such guilt. He held her shoulders, and crouched to see her face. Her eyes were dark and red rimmed from heartache. Never in his life had he seen her so upset. “You’ll have to tell me slower.” He looked back over his shoulder and downwards, “And who is that boy down there? I feel I know who he is.”

She wiped away a fresh lot of tears, and tried to breathe evenly. “That’s Ely… he…” Her voice trembled, “They killed him. Ely helped me get the materia. That’s what they wanted, but Weiss came and took it.” She lowered her face and covered her cries.

“Weiss?!” Cloud’s voice dropped with spite. “Here? Where?”

“They were up there.” She pointed up to the Plaza.

He stood with urgency and studied their position on the small outcrop. “Right.” He would have to jump to a further, larger ledge and head up the stair. “Hold onto me.”

“Wait, Cloud!” Fear mingled with her tears and her voice warbled, “You can’t go up. They might be all sick by now. It could be dangerous.”

He frowned at the word ‘sick’, and realization dawned like a jolt of light, “They’re Cetras, aren’t they?”

Her lips quivered and she gave a forlorn whisper, “Yes, they are the ones who wanted me to get the materia…but now, I’m afraid they…”

He understood what she was saying. Staring up at the plateau, he clenched his fist in determination. “We still need to get off this rock. Hold on.” He picked her up, and she put her arms around his neck, with her legs around his waist.

He leaped to another ledge and then onto the plateau with the stair. Deneh, Denzel and Shelke had exited the hole in the rock, and were jumping down to the bodies. Denzel waved and was about to yell out. Cloud put his finger to his lips to silence him and the others, and he followed it with a palm up, indicating for them to stay back. Shelke acknowledged his request with the nod of her head.

So far Marlene hadn’t seen them. She clung to him, like she was a babe. He came to the large rock carved staircase, leading up. It was odd to see her so fragile and vulnerable – he felt out of his depth with her grief, all he knew was he understood how painful it could be. “Marlene, I’m going up, but you stay here.” He let her down.

She stood and clasped his arm. “Be careful.”

“I will. So Ely was your friend?” The sight of the dead youngster was imprinted on his mind. He couldn’t explain it, but he also grieved the loss of the child. Perhaps it was because he was a mirror image of Zack.

She nodded and took a tired breath. “Without him I wouldn’t be here… and Belia too… we got the white materia and now it’s gone too.”

The girl’s name rang a bell from a forgotten conversation. The Cetra child. “You got the white materia?” Wide-eyed with shock, he stared with a mix of astonishment and pride.

She hung her head and her dark fringe hid her eyes. “But it’s nothing now. It’s gone… Ely’s gone…”

Her sorrow was piercing his heart, because he knew how deep sadness could penetrate – and she was too young to feel that. “We’ll talk about it later. Stay here and safe.”

Unsheathing his swords, and preparing them, he walked up the steps.

Description

FFVII
Sad Remembering

Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Emotive themes
Setting: 3 years after DoC
Rating: M
Status: WIP
OCs: 25%
Disclaimer: All related Final Fantasy VII names and characters are copyrighted © by Square Enix. However, this story and the OCs are ALL mine. Thank you.

SAD REMEMBERING

They continued tramping through the rock passages, over boulders and always on an upward climb with Deneh leading them. With renewed strength, Cloud pulled ahead of Deneh and leaped onto a layer of flat rocks and up.

Deneh followed him, and Shelke jumped after, bounding up the rocks as if she weighed nothing.

“Do you have to show off?” Denzel grumbled as he climbed up.

Shelke raised her brows and said seriously, “You may wish to practice your agility skills.”

Denzel grabbed hold of the rock and hauled himself up, “Um… yeah… I’ll keep that in mind."

Cloud reached down and gave him a hand up.

“… I guess Nanaki and Veld must be miles ahead…” Denzel puffed out.

Cloud also wondered how Veld and team didn’t hear the combat and come and check on them. “Must be.”

Denzel reached the small plateau. “I’m glad though…” he flushed, “yeah… that’s sounds bad.”

Cloud was thinking the same thing. He hoped none of them would mention what happened to him in the cave. Cait was probably the only one who would let him down. He peered into the shadows of the passage. Where was that cat anyway?

Deneh’s mouth turned up in a type of smile. “Nanaki chose a different tunnel.”

“Huh?” Denzel said with surprise, “But, are we going the right way?”

Cloud looked to the amber wolf-lion in apprehension.

“Yes, we are,” she replied with some indignation, “Although, I don’t believe he has chosen the ‘wrong’ path. I have begun to recognize these caves.”

“Perhaps we shall meet them further up,” Shelke suggested.

“At least the air is becoming clearer,” Cloud studied the walls, more rock was visible than the black ooze.

“Really?” Denzel creased his brow in surprise. “All I smell is that crap.”

“It’s faint, but it’s there.” Cloud turned towards the only opening and walked onwards.

Squinting, Denzel looked back over his shoulder. “Should we wait for Cait?”

Cloud was not waiting around for the robotic cat, and he called from down the corridor. “He’ll come when he comes. We need to move fast.”

“The path is sure.” Deneh leaped after him. “And it’s also getting higher.”

Denzel came behind her. “Guess that’s a good thing, except we’re further from the track.”

Leaving the train track was foremost on Cloud’s mind. It made him feel directionless. But Aeris gave him hope he was heading in the right direction, despite not knowing where that was. Adrenaline surged through his veins invoking in him a profound need to hurry. The Jenova had lessened on the tunnel walls and in the air, but he could still sense its potent toxins. The taint remained in his mind, but unlike before, he could acknowledge its abhorrent presence, and brace himself against the depression. Similar to nausea he could ignore. Could it be, it no longer had an adverse effect on him? Something had changed, but he couldn’t put his finger on what that was exactly. He was about to smile to himself, but he recalled hitting Denzel, and almost killing him. The very thing he always feared – he tried not to dwell on it. He was thankful Veld and his team didn’t witness it. Who knows what they would have done.

Denzel and Shelke were chatting together and getting further behind, while he marched on, a few paces in front of Deneh. The passages were on upward curves, and over piles of rocks, but there appeared no openings on either side. He felt confident the tunnel would lead to one opening only – as if he had walked these caves before as well.

Far behind, Cloud could hear the faint chatter of Denzel and Shelke. His hearing was keen, and most likely better than any normal person.

Faint tones of Denzel’s voice came through the tunnel, “… I don’t know, without the rail track, how can we get anywhere?”

“When we reach the surface, we might be able to ascertain where it would travel to,” Shelke replied.

Denzel grumbled, “You’d think Veld would know more about the train, and the track, if he was Head of the Turks.”

“Not necessarily,” Shelke’s voice was a delicate sound, “I believe Shinra was compartmentalized. Deepground was especially so."

“He seemed to know about Cloud,” Denzel said.

Cloud wasn’t surprised by that, more like, anxiously wary.

Denzel added, “But Cloud didn’t really know him.”

Shelke replied, “Veld is a Turk. If they want to find something out they will. They make it their purpose to know.”

Cloud frowned to himself at the notion. That made it worse.

“So he wanted to know about Cloud?” Denzel queried.

“Perhaps we could assume that,” Shelke said.

“And he also knows about the Purification Program. But he doesn’t seem to have the formula or the data…”

“But, he knows about a ‘key’,” Shelke murmured.

“Which we don’t even know is real…” Denzel groaned, “Or what the hell it is.”

They walked in silence for some moments before Denzel said, “It’s incredible they’ve been able to pollute the life-stream like this. How have they done it so… horrendously well?”

Shelke replied, “I assume they have diverted the life from an exponential amount of people over a long period of time.”

“But – that many people have gone missing?”

“Multitudes of people were sequestered in Deepground,” Shelke explained, “And perhaps after they were defeated there. Over the years, it could be possible.”

“So the stigma could have been a sign something deeper was under the surface…” Denzel’s voice lowered as he mulled it over.

“It would seem so,” Shelke said, “Considering Jenova is referred to as an alien infection we could assume it is operating as a contagion within the life-stream.”

“The germs are spreading…” Denzel gave a dry chortle, “Throughout the ‘body’.”

“Correct.”

Denzel muttered as he tramped along, “Guess we need, or the planet needs a course of treatment, or medicine…”

Cloud, listening to their conversation, understood Denzel’s reasoning. It was commendable, but – he called over his shoulder and down the passage, “The Stigma had no cure.”

“Is he listening to us?” Denzel mumbled to Shelke.

“You shouldn’t forget he’s got really good hearing,” She nodded with a teasing smile.

Cloud smiled to himself and quickened his pace. But if Denzel were a scientist, who knows what he could have been capable of.

“No known cure,” Denzel called back.

“Perhaps there is,” Shelke offered, “However, will anyone be left to discover it?”

Denzel griped, “Then what the heck?! We either live like this – in this?” He gestured around the walls, “Or we die and go into the polluted life-stream?” he grumbled to himself, “What a choice…”

Cloud furrowed his brows at the dismal tone in Denzel’s voice. It wasn’t good whichever way you looked at it. “We’ll do all we can, you know that. As long as we face it together.” He could probably do just about anything if he knew Tifa was safe. Now that he had seen the visible signs of Jenova, here and in the Life-stream, he was stunned at how much of the planet it was consuming.

“The Planet is in dire trouble,” Deneh’s voice rumbled with anger.

Cloud nodded to himself. But, he had to wonder, how did it grow so powerful and under their noses? For the last few years, life was relatively peaceful. He thought it was all done with, now it was returning with a vengeance. He should have known he couldn’t ever escape it. After all it was in him - all the poison he was walking past. In the last couple of months the voice had returned, and he even confided in Vincent about it. Initially he thought it was Sephiroth back to haunt him, but he realized it was something more sinister. It was Jenova itself.

Eventually the cave passage narrowed, but it continued straight and upwards with no other openings. Cloud pushed ahead, and quickened his pace. The faint sense of cleaner air on his skin motivated him, but it wasn’t the thought of getting out of the caves spurring him on – but the far-off broken sounds of… something, he couldn’t work out. He had listened to it without mentioning it to the others, not sure exactly what it was. Perhaps it was Veld?

As he marched up the sloping tunnel, the clamor died away. Instead of calming him, the ensuing silence left him with sudden unease. With some foreboding, and recalling Aeris’ urgency, he sprinted up the passage.

After some moments, fresh air hit his face and he ran out into daylight. He caught himself in time from toppling over the short ridge. Mountainous cliffs and plateaus surrounded him up and down, with deep shadowed valleys below. He recognized it immediately. Cosmo Canyon.

Gloomy haze concealed an upper plateau to his right, but higher still, he glimpsed the top of the observatory. The poisonous stink of Jenova was in the wind, and voices. Something was going on above, on the Plaza.

On a ridge not far below were bodies. Maybe Veld had been through here?

He jumped down to investigate. At the sight of one of the victims, bloody and dead, Cloud froze. His body seized as if he was struck, and all the air drained from his lungs. Breathless, and transfixed with fear, he was transported to another time and place – reliving that same horrible moment. Again. Every feeling of sorrow came back like a stab to his heart. “Zack?!”

Cloud closed his eyes, willing himself to be calm, to reason, to breathe. No, this is… he’s younger… He stared at the boy and attempted to grasp what he was seeing. Despite anything he could come up with, the boy, whoever he was, was dead. The unknown victim grieved him. He might never know who he was.

Screaming startled him from his mournful reverie. Not so much that someone was in trouble, but he knew that voice.

Marlene?

Up above, on the Plaza with the black Jenova poison, Marlene was held by a figure in a long coat. He was hauling her to the edge of the cliff. She pushed against his grip, but could do nothing to save herself.

Rage propelled Cloud to action. Sprinting, he crossed the ridge, and gauging the ledges distances, he leaped up, and then across to the next. In desperation, and fear he wouldn’t get to her in time, he ran hard and caught the lip of a rock crevice with one hand. Within seconds Marlene plummeted down. Her screams echoing around the canyon.

“Shit…” Cloud grunted. With no time to spare, he grabbed hold of her arm with his free hand as she fell by him.

She glanced up at him, a mix of astonishment and grief in her tear soaked face. “Cloud?” her voice was a hoarse whisper of disbelief.

Creasing his brow with fear-filled worry at her precarious position, he held her firm. “Marlene.” She weighed hardly nothing in his hand, and he lifted her up to the ridge. She grabbed hold and scampered up. He climbed up after her.

Her white dress had black stains and blood down her front. He wondered if it was her own. Her hair, usually so neat, was spilling out from her ribbon-tired pony-tail. But it was her tear-stained face that made him really concerned.

“Cloud!” she sobbed loudly, “It’s terrible. Everything— it’s all over—” she grabbed him around the waist and burst out crying.

Fearing the worst, he put his arms around her shuddering body. “Marlene, what happened?”

Through her sobs, she wailed against his shirt, “… I… the materia’s gone… they’re all sick… Belia’s gone… and Ely’s dead…” she wept anew, “and I couldn’t save him, I couldn’t save anyone…”

Baffled, he stared down at her, not comprehending her statement, but disturbed she would have to contend with such guilt. He held her shoulders, and crouched to see her face. Her eyes were dark and red rimmed from heartache. Never in his life had he seen her so upset. “You’ll have to tell me slower.” He looked back over his shoulder and downwards, “And who is that boy down there? I feel I know who he is.”

She wiped away a fresh lot of tears, and tried to breathe evenly. “That’s Ely… he…” Her voice trembled, “They killed him. Ely helped me get the materia. That’s what they wanted, but Weiss came and took it.” She lowered her face and covered her cries.

“Weiss?!” Cloud’s voice dropped with spite. “Here? Where?”

“They were up there.” She pointed up to the Plaza.

He stood with urgency and studied their position on the small outcrop. “Right.” He would have to jump to a further, larger ledge and head up the stair. “Hold onto me.”

“Wait, Cloud!” Fear mingled with her tears and her voice warbled, “You can’t go up. They might be all sick by now. It could be dangerous.”

He frowned at the word ‘sick’, and realization dawned like a jolt of light, “They’re Cetras, aren’t they?”

Her lips quivered and she gave a forlorn whisper, “Yes, they are the ones who wanted me to get the materia…but now, I’m afraid they…”

He understood what she was saying. Staring up at the plateau, he clenched his fist in determination. “We still need to get off this rock. Hold on.” He picked her up, and she put her arms around his neck, with her legs around his waist.

He leaped to another ledge and then onto the plateau with the stair. Deneh, Denzel and Shelke had exited the hole in the rock, and were jumping down to the bodies. Denzel waved and was about to yell out. Cloud put his finger to his lips to silence him and the others, and he followed it with a palm up, indicating for them to stay back. Shelke acknowledged his request with the nod of her head.

So far Marlene hadn’t seen them. She clung to him, like she was a babe. He came to the large rock carved staircase, leading up. It was odd to see her so fragile and vulnerable – he felt out of his depth with her grief, all he knew was he understood how painful it could be. “Marlene, I’m going up, but you stay here.” He let her down.

She stood and clasped his arm. “Be careful.”

“I will. So Ely was your friend?” The sight of the dead youngster was imprinted on his mind. He couldn’t explain it, but he also grieved the loss of the child. Perhaps it was because he was a mirror image of Zack.

She nodded and took a tired breath. “Without him I wouldn’t be here… and Belia too… we got the white materia and now it’s gone too.”

The girl’s name rang a bell from a forgotten conversation. The Cetra child. “You got the white materia?” Wide-eyed with shock, he stared with a mix of astonishment and pride.

She hung her head and her dark fringe hid her eyes. “But it’s nothing now. It’s gone… Ely’s gone…”

Her sorrow was piercing his heart, because he knew how deep sadness could penetrate – and she was too young to feel that. “We’ll talk about it later. Stay here and safe.”

Unsheathing his swords, and preparing them, he walked up the steps.