FicWad

DISCLAIMER: All the main-characters and the non-main characters belong solely to Square-Soft (Square-Enix). All the events that happen in this story are for entertainment ONLY...so don't read this for the other use...that of which I haven't quite figured out yet.

WARNING: This is a yaoi (Male x Male) between Zack and Cloud...you know, if Zack survived (And he did in my heart)...This also contains spoilers of the game, thus, if you dislike spoilers, don't read this fanfiction, and forgive me if anything is a little inaccurate, for it has been a while since I've played.

And one more thing, I hope you guys like it! READ AND REVIEW! For little me! Thanx! In the next chapter, I will do my best to answer all of your questions if you do end up asking me anything...assuming people will review anyway.

THE STORY BEGINS HERE

-1-

Zack glared at the gun pointed at his head; he was not going to die here! There was no way in hell he would leave Cloud, who lay helplessly on the ground in a sickly state. Cloud needed him! No fucking Shinra-SOLDIER was going to stop him. Well, there were three of them, the leader in red, the other two in blue, and Zack was on the ground with a bullet-wound in his left leg, no less. He could hear one soldier preparing his gun, getting ready to fire, and the others doing the same.

"C-Cloud," Zack whispered out, a few coughs came after. His tongue tasted dirt, for his mouth was dry, and the sun was overwhelmingly hot, but he could care less, for the only thing on his mind right now was Cloud's safety. He didn't want anything to happen to Cloud, ever.

"Speak up, traitor," said the red Shinra-SOLDIER. He picked Zack up by the back of his collar, and pushed him closer to the edge of the cliff. Zackary Fair didn't want to be looking down at Midgar, the 'real' traitors. Taking He and Cloud against their will to do bodily experiments, how could a corporation do that? How can those people even sleep at night? The more he stared at the Shinra building, the angrier he became.

Zack felt the cold metal of the gun being pressed on the back of his head. "Talk! What ever you say, it goes to Shinra,"

"Cloud," Zack's voice said again, but louder this time. Saying Cloud's name was the only thing he could think of saying, especially if it was going to be his last word. He hadn't any idea whatsoever as to how he could get out of this predicament. (A/N: Does that sentence seem a little random to you?)

"That freak over there, huh?" said red. He looked over at Cloud, which was a mistake, for the guy should have known Zack had worked for Shinra as a first-class soldier. The ex-SOLDIER ignored all the pain in his leg and knocked the Shinra-ASSHOLE unconscious by elbowing him. The other two baddies attempted to shoot at him with their machine-guns, but they had ran out of bullets quickly and somehow Zack was able to dodge all of them. Now that they hadn't any working weapons, they were going to attempt to fight, and they failed miserably. Zack dodged the first blow to his head by ducking underneath and swinging his leg behind one of the blue soldiers, who fell on his behind comically. Then, as the ex-SOLDIER brought himself back up, he took the second guy by his wrist and flipped him over his shoulders and off the cliff to his death. At this point in time, the other blue guy had gotten up, but didn't expect what came to him next. Cloud had somehow gained consciousness and strangled the guy from behind.

-2-

Cloud put the suffocated man down and rushed over to Zack, who had passed out from exhaustion.

"Zack," Cloud whispered, brushing his fingers through his friend's raven-black hair. This man, Zack, was the only one he trusted now. Zack had rescued them both and brought them this far, though Cloud didn't understand why he went to Midgar where the Shinra HQ was.

"Hnn," Zack muttered, turning over, facing Cloud. The blond lifted Zack into his arms, cradling him. Cloud hoped to God that there weren't going to be anymore Shinra-SOLDIERS around to attack. But just when he began to think all was calm, he could hear more footsteps approaching, and by the sound of it, there were at least four people.

It turned out that they weren't Shinra scum though, just ordinary people...or so Cloud thought. There was a big, black man with a gun-arm, a woman with brown hair tied up in a ponytail, a short chubby guy, and an average Joe with short, brown hair and a red bandana around his forehead. The gun-arm-guy stepped up and pointed his mechanical weapon at Cloud and his downed friend.

"Yo, Shinra-BITCHES!" He began firing at the ground less than two inches away from Zack, and Cloud covered him protectively.

"Barret, that's low," said the female. She stepped in front of Cloud and Barret stopped his shooting, "can't you see they're hurt?"

"But they work for Shinra! Nothing ain't goin' any lower than that," Barret glared at the two ex-SOLDIERS scornfully while he tucked back his gun-arm. The woman just stared at him. "Fine, FINE! Ya happy, see? I put it away,"

"Now, apologize to them!" It amazed Cloud how a woman so small could control a man like Barret.

"Jesse, I-"

"Just do it, Barret. She gets real scary when she's mad," That was the chubby guy.

"Shut yo mouth, Wedge! Want me to blow your head off?"

"I don't need any apologies," Cloud interrupted. Jesse jumped, a little startled, and smiled. She took out a small water bottle and offered it to them. Cloud nodded a thank-you and slowly poured some water onto Zack's head. Zack's eyes began to open slowly, and soon enough, he was awake. "Zack, take some water,"

"C-Cloud," Zack held Cloud's upper-arm area tightly, then sat up and hugged him. "Cloud!"

"Z-Zack, s-stop! People are looking," Zack didn't seem to care, for he held onto Cloud as tightly as he could. "Zack, you should drink this water,"

"Water?" Zack unleashed the blonde and his Mako-coloured eyes darted at the bottle of water. "Oh my god! Water!" He grabbed the bottled out of Cloud's hand and gulped down the liquid. Cloud watched nervously, for he was afraid that Zack may accidentally choke...but he didn't!

"They aren't with Shinra are they?" Asked the man with the red bandana.

"I dunno, Biggs," Jesse replied, her eyes kept on Cloud. "So, are you?"

"N-no," Cloud nervously held his friend. "We...Zack's an ex-SOLDIER, I...escaped with him from...we were..."

"We're going to become mercenaries, aren't we Cloud? Since all of us clearly hate Shinra, Cloud, we can trust these new guys! I have an idea," Zack threw the now-empty water bottle carelessly onto the ground, looking into the blonde's glowing Mako eyes, "we can work for them!" His black hair suddenly wafted itself in Cloud's face as he jerked his head to see the new people. "Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Jesse," she pointed to Barret, "That big guy, he's Barret, that's Wedge, and that's Biggs."

"Nice to meet you, Jesse," Zack smiled, getting up. Or at least, he tried to. The pain from the bullet wound in his leg began to strengthen itself and Zack had to sit right back down.

"Ex-soldier my ass," Barret said, "they onto us, man. They is onto us," He turned around and headed off to god-only-knew-where, stomping angrily.

"Ignore him," Jesse picked up the bottle, "and if you want, you can work with us,"

Zack looked at Cloud with his cheerful smile, and Cloud attempted to smile back. If Zackary wanted to, it couldn't hurt, right? Well, Cloud wasn't necessarily sure about that...Zack wanted to become a SOLDIER, now look at what happened.

"C'mon Cloud," Zack looked for approval in Cloud's eyes, but didn't really find any. "Please?"

"You can..."

"I don't wanna do it without you, Cloud. We are friends, right?" Zack put his hands on Cloud's shoulders and squeezed lightly, showing that he really meant it. Cloud only shrugged.

"At least find out what we're doing first," the blonde looked at Zack, whom's beam widened even more.

"Well, I guess we can tell you once we get to our HQ," Jesse looked back at her other two friends, and they both nodded. "With or without Barret."

-3-

After Jesse was kind enough to fix Zack's leg up with bandages and whatnot, she had brought them to a place known as sector seven. Zack and Cloud didn't really know this part of the town very well, but the people there were friendly. Zack didn't know if it was because they were in the slums or if it was because they were following a group who seemed to intimidate people. In any case, it really didn't matter.

Cloud stayed close to Zack, shying away from all the new faces that stared at him. Was Cloud still ashamed for not making it into SOLDIER? If so, it shouldn't matter, for no one would recognize him, and he was wearing Zack's clothing, which was cute. (A/N: don't ask how that made any sense, okay?)

"Cloud," Zack wrapped his arm around Cloud's arm, "you going to be okay?"

"I...I guess I'm just a little home sick, that's all."...Wherever home was...

"If you say so," Zack wasn't so sure that that was it, but he also knew Cloud wasn't about to give in to Zack and explore his thoughts. Not here anyway.

They finally made it to a bar called the seventh-heaven, and were introduced to a woman named Tifa. Her hair was long and tied up at the end, making the do look somewhat like a dolphin. She looked at Cloud, then at Zack, then back at Cloud.

"C-Cloud?" she put her hands on her hips, tilting her head sideways with a questioning expression.

"T-Tifa,"

"Oh my gosh," Tifa now raised her hands over her mouth, "Cloud! You came back! You...you made it back!" she rushed over to Cloud and hugged him, albeit she didn't receive a hug in return. He was probably really tired. It didn't matter to Zack though, because as long as Cloud was alive, Zack would have a reason to be here. "Cloud, I can't believe my eyes! I thought I'd never see you again."

"Well, I'm just fine," Cloud murmured.

"And who's this?" She looked over at Zack, someone she thought she saw before. It gave her the chills just thinking about the memories...

"I'm Zackary Fair," the black haired man saluted the girl and winked, "Nice to meet you Tifa!"

"Do you think you can explain what happened? Cloud?" She offered them both a seat at the bar-counter and began making them drinks.

They explained how they were held against their will to have biological experiments tested on them with Mako, involving Jenova cells and whatnot. It was a scary story, and Zack told most of it, for Cloud's mind wasn't really at present when this happened; he was more affected by the experimentations than Zack was.

"...and that's about sums it up, quite a ride, huh?"

"Yes, quite," Tifa answered Zack. She looked at the younger man, who was asleep and hadn't touched his drink at all, "Mr. Fair - "

"Please, don't call me by my last name. Zack does just fine,"

"Okay, Zack," Tifa felt weird being informal to someone who worked for Shinra, but she supposed that in this case, it wasn't too bad, considering they no longer really worked for them, "I'll tell the group that you both are trustworthy, and also," she wasn't quite sure how weird this would sound, "thanks for trying to save me, you know, when Sephiroth... I could have died you know."

"Oh, you...you remember me?" Zack blushed, embarrassed. Then he looked at his sleeping friend and wanted to change the subject quickly, "Um, I don't really mean to be rude or anything, but we're kind of tired. Do you think you can, you know, show us a place to sleep?"

Tifa stared at him with a blank face, then after a couple of seconds she jumped, "OH! Oh, of course! Sure! Sorry, I just wasn't thinking...hah. Sorry. You must've both been..." she stopped talking and stood up. "Just follow me please."

T.B.C.