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The Rescue Me Meme

'Cause, sometimes, you just can’t save yourself.

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1. A Bad Date - You get a text, a phone call, or maybe you can just see the other person floundering on what clearly must be the worst date of their life. Time to step in and save the day.

2. Prison - Maybe they've been wrongly convicted, or maybe you're an accomplice. Either way, it's jailbreak. Maybe the guards will fall for the old 'wounded prisoner' technique.

3. Taken Hostage - They're being held at gunpoint, either for money or for fun. Maybe you can talk down their captors, or maybe you are a captor, secretly working to help them.

4. Abuse/Neglect - Your body is damaged, your suffering taken it's toll. You can't save yourself anymore. You're wounded, you're starving, maybe even dying. Someone, help.

5. Addiction - Just one more. Nothing bad will happen if you just get one more. Either way, you can't save yourself from this downward spiral. Someone else is going to have to help.

6. Yourself - One bad choice after another, your self-destructive tendencies are going to get the best of you unless someone steps in, quick, to save the day.

7. Climactic Situation - You're hovering over an active volcano, a pit of sharks, about to fall off a cliff. Whatever it is, you've only got precious seconds of life left.

8. Loneliness - You've been secluded, locked away, and the emptiness is overwhelming. You need company, or you might just drown.

9. Unwanted Social Function - A family reunion, your three o'clock board meeting, whatever it is, you desperately don't want to go. Hopefully your good buddy can come up with a distraction.

10. A Bad Romance - You're trapped in a relationship that's headed south, and you can't seem to get away from the other person. Looks like you need a helping hand, maybe a prince charming.

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The words are barely out of Zack's mouth before Kunsel's moving, leading the way once more, both to make sure the door is open for them and to take point against anything or anyone they might face. Out the room and down the hall, making the turn for the stairs. All the while, he darts glances over his shoulder to make sure that Zack and Cloud are still moving, still keeping up.

For his part, Cloud seems to be managing well enough with Zack's help. Awake and alert again, he's only leaning a little, mostly to keep his footsteps coordinated.

Reassured, Kunsel keeps moving, heading down the stairs. He's faster than the other two, of course, so when he reaches the bottom, he starts checking behind each door, hoping on the off chance for some extra supplies. They're going to need whatever they can get their hands on, because they can't stock up in Nibelheim now.

Even though he's looking, though, he's not expecting what he finds. When he opens one closet, he makes a startled sound.

Because there's the Buster Sword. And another set of SOLDIER clothes, dusty and crusted with old blood along a few cleanly slashed cuts. And a pack like the kind that most SOLDIERs take with them on missions to remote areas, looking like it hasn't been touched in six months. Kunsel blinks. Blinks again.

Then raises his voice.

"Hey, Zack! I think I found your things!" He's already grabbing the pack and the sword.

Oh, they're keeping up. Kunsel is out of sight but not out of earshot within moments, and for a second Zack's heart stops in his chest. He wouldn't leave them behind, would he?

No. Of course he wouldn't. Nor would he betray them. Regretting even having the thought and feeling the proverbial blade swing closer to their necks the longer they linger, Zack tries to pick up the pace. Cloud's doing better, thank Ifrit, but there's more stairs to deal with and Zack groans quietly at the top of them. Stairs stairs stairs--why did no one build this place with an elevator?

He's barely gotten them down two steps when Kunsel's call echoes up the hallway and he blinks. His...stuff? No way. He'd known they'd confiscated the Buster, but if his pack is in there, then...

"Check the pack if it's there! There should be a Thundaga at the bottom!"

His backup, half trained, Thundaga. It's not what he had on the bracer he'd been wearing at the time--he'd love to know where that Curaga ended up--but it's something. If it's there. If they didn't rifle through his supplies and sell off the materia for a pretty gil. The thought makes him grumble, and he gets them moving again.

"Come on, Cloud. We gotta move."

And you are a bit heavier than you looked, spike. Or maybe that's the exhaustion and pain settling into his bones again. Who knows.

Kunsel doesn't answer immediately, following Zack's suggestion to search the pack. The sound of the zipper is loud in the silence of the mansion, far louder than the following rustle of fabric and wrappers as Kunsel digs into the contents of the pack. Ration bars, score. Not that ration bars are anything to get excited for, but Kunsel will take whatever he can get. There's a canteen, too, and an emergency heat blanket.

Bless Zack for his Gongagan background and his general dislike of the cold.

As he gets closer to the bottom, though, Kunsel wrinkles his nose.

"Found your socks and underwear! Warn a guy next time, will ya?!" Not that the underwear looks like it's dirty (thank Shiva), but even after six months apart, banter's still practically habit between them. "Looks like they protected your materia, though. Guess no one made it past the barrier of your socks!"

...socks and underwear? Despite his unsteadiness, despite the mako, despite everything, Cloud still manages a quickly stifled laugh. His eyes dart a glance at Zack.

"You stuffed dirty socks in your pack?"

General dislike? Try general loathing of the cold. If the mission hadn't called for General and Commander, he'd have run the other way. Maybe he should have, anyway. At least it's closer to summer than winter now; that dinky little heat blanket wouldn't help in the depths of Nibelheim winter, especially in their condition.

But despite their condition, Zack still blinks. Warn a guy--hey! He washes his freaking underwear! It's clean! To Kunsel he yells down the stairs, voice carrying his pout.

"Hey! I forgot what else I packed in there, okay?" He's had other things on his mind the past six months...and his memory for little things like that has always been sketchy, but eh. To Cloud, however, he actually pouts. Yeah, yeah, tease the guy carting you down the steps.

"I was gonna wash 'em. Where else was I supposed to put 'em?"

It's not like he intended to not touch the pack for the next six months, but bah. Tease tease tease. Creaky stair wood gives way to creaky even flooring, and he looks up the stairs as if that would let him see back out the window and down the path once more. Can't go out the front. If they try...well. Best not to. As they keep moving, however, he turns that pout on Kunsel.

"I found your dirty socks under our bunk once, remember? How long were those down there?"

Nowhere near this long, but it's the only leg he's got to stand on. Oh, how things don't change.

"Hey, you have no proof that I was even the one who kicked them under there," Kunsel defends himself primly. Too primly. Exaggeratedly so. Clearly he expects Zack to take this argument seriously.

Though considering the hand that Cloud has to lift to his mouth to try to hide the smile creeping across his face, it looks like the kid's cluing in fast. "Do you... have any proof you didn't?"

Kunsel can't help it. He outright laughs. Oh yeah, he's gonna like this kid. "No, but give me five minutes with a PHS and no other worries and I could give you someone else's full text confession!"

Still grinning, he stands up and heads over to Zack, materia in one hand and an empty bracer in the other. "I didn't see any other materia besides the Thundaga," he says, offering a sympathetic shrug, "but at least your bracer was still there, too. Here, hold still a sec." He reaches out to slide the bracer onto Zack's arm before slotting the Thundaga into it.

There. Even with his arms full with keeping Cloud upright, at least he'll have something he can defend himself with.

Returning to the closet, Kunsel unclips his broadsword from its harness, then grabs the Buster sword and slips it into place. Easier to carry his own sword in his hand than that slab of metal that Zack calls a blade. He doesn't want to leave it behind, but he doesn't think Zack can manage both it and carrying Cloud. Not just yet, anyway.

The pack gets slipped on over his shoulder before he straightens up again. "Let's head out the back," he says, coming to the same conclusion as Zack. The front door's too obvious, and too dangerous with people coming up the path.

Under better circumstances, Zack would take the argument seriously. Under better circumstances, they'd have launched into banter until Kunsel inevitably got the upper hand or Zack got lucky and struck the proverbial finishing blow. Whether it would take five minutes or an hour, they'd be at it until it was over. Probably would have been so worth the time with Cloud now in the mix, too. The kid's got a razor wit beneath those soft cheeks. Or not so soft at the moment. Still.

But these are not those better circumstances. If they linger here, they'll be captured. Thrown back in those tanks with freedom just out of reach. Kunsel would be drawn in with them or just plain executed. He's not going to let that happen, and so Zack nods. Thundaga crackles beneath his skin, mako sticky on his back feeling like the second before a lightning strike. The benefits of soaking in mako, at least, consist of stronger magic.

If anyone tries to take Cloud from him, tries to cut Kunsel down, he'll use it. Especially if his friend is going to take another blow and cart the Buster out with them. Blinking away a sudden burning in his eyes--what did he do to deserve such friendship and loyalty--Zack nods firmly.

"Lead the way. I'll cover you."

Their pursuers are still too far off to hear, the front door silent in the afternoon sunlight. They have some time, but not much. Not nearly enough, and they'll be sitting ducks in here. The thought that the back way leads up the mountain, towards the reactor, causes his pulse to race and breath to catch between his ribs even as they keep moving; it's only been six months. Is that monster still there? The inside of his elbow burns, whatever Hojo had been giving him feeling like fire beneath his skin.

There's no choice, but he doesn't like this one bit. What he'd give for more options.

What did Zack do?

He was himself. That's more than enough for Kunsel.

He nods in return, acknowledging the statement and never questioning Zack's capability to back it up. Six months of whatever the hell's been done to him, but he's still SOLDIER, and SOLDIERs can fight. Find ways to fight when no one else thinks it can be done. If there's trouble, Kunsel knows he can count on his friend to have his back, and then some.

Without another word, he heads for the back door, checking only to make sure the way is clear. When he's certain, he gestures for the two men to follow, then leads the way up the trail.

It doesn't take long for Cloud to realize where they're heading, even with the fog that keeps coming and going in his brain. He was born and raised here. Sure, coming this far out might have been heavily discouraged, but that doesn't mean he didn't do it from time to time. He realizes quickly that they're heading back to the reactor.

His breath leaves his lungs sharply when that sinks in.

"K-Kunsel." He struggles with the name for a moment, and tenses when the other man glances back, but this is important. Important enough that it's making his insides churn. "We can't-" He swallows. "We can't go... back up there. There's..." How does he even explain? What can he say? But just thinking about that thing makes his skin start to crawl, and the way Sephiroth talked to it-

His brain quickly shuts that thought off.

The shift from even if creaky wood to uneven rock and dirt is a difficult one, and Zack stumbles for a few steps before he can get his footing. He made this run in the dark once before, fire burning behind him, but in the daylight it seems so much longer than it did then. Steeper.

He stops when Cloud struggles, looking between his charge and his oldest friend. The concern is valid; if Jenova hasn't been moved, if it's still up there, then...who knows what could happen to either of them. That monster already got to Sephiroth of all people, and he was in his prime. The two of them, hurting and tortured? He wants to turn the other way. Run back down the mountain. But they can't. Shifting his grip, he shakes his head.

"We don't have a choice, Cloud."

Behind them, on the edge of his hearing, wood crashes. The manor has been breached, and if they don't keep moving, they're going to get spotted. Turning to look over his shoulder, sun catching on the windows, Zack shakes his head. He hates it, too. If he never stepped foot in another reactor it would be too soon. Explaining this to Kunsel is going to be really fun. Not.

The only consolation is it didn't have a back door. They're going to have to find a way down behind it, but they shouldn't have to through it. Hopefully. Gods, let him be right about that.

"It's up there or back at the manor, spike. Come on. We gotta keep moving."

If he has to drag Cloud, he will. There's no other option here.

Can't...?

Kunsel's eyes flicker up the path, though he can't see the reactor from here. It's the only thing they could be talking about. It's almost on the tip of his tongue to ask why they're so afraid of it.

But all it takes is one look. Just one look at their faces. To see the haunted look in their eyes, to see the worry and fear. And considering it was on the mission to that reactor that they both disappeared...

Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that something happened, and it probably happened up there. Kunsel purses his lips, then quells the urge to ask. Not here. Not now. Some things are more important than his need for information.

"We're not actually going to the reactor," he says, glad to offer at least that much reassurance. "We're just going to swing around it until we can find another path down." He slows his steps just a fraction, until he's right at Zack's side, grimly lowering his voice now that he can hear clear signs of pursuit. "Let me know if you need any help. It's probably going to get pretty rough."

'Rough' is an understatement, if Kunsel's intending to take them off this path. Cloud knows that well enough. He makes a face, already having trouble just putting one foot in front of the other along the steep upgrade without slipping on any of the scree.

But he can't deny being relieved at the news that they won't be going back. Back to the place where everything fell apart, where the worst night of his life climaxed.

"Be careful... about monsters..." he feels like he has to warn. "Wolves. Sometimes dragons." Dammit, why does he have to be so weak? He's just slowing them down.

Someday, Zack will explain to Kunsel what happened here. Will explain fire and loss and a world flipped completely upside down. But that day is not today, and when his boot nearly slips on rough scree he shakes his head. No time for pride. They need to move.

"Take his other arm." Under normal circumstances, Zack wouldn't have an issue here. He'd have enough strength in his legs to trust the ground beneath his feet, to trust where he puts his boots, and not worry about the road giving way and putting him in the stone. But now, legs trembling and Cloud unsteady, he can't trust anything this unstable. Not with the time they don't have closing in on them. To Cloud, however, perhaps as a distraction, he tries for a smile.

"I've got Thundaga, Cloud. No dragons are gonna mess with us."

Well. They may try if the summer hasn't given them enough to eat on, but nothing likes a blast of Thundaga in its face. He's got enough energy for a few casts, and Kunsel's Second Class. They can handle wolves. Dragons...well. If they could aim the dragon at their pursuers instead, that'd be great.

Kunsel doesn't point out that he already knows about the monsters, even encountered a couple wolves on his way up. No reason to make the kid's warning feel redundant. "You've got two SOLDIERs here with you," he says instead as he maneuvers around to Cloud's side. "Don't worry, Cloud. We can handle it." Sure, Zack might not be up to wielding a sword just yet, but SOLDIERs are more than just the blades they bear.

Once he's got Cloud's other arm slung around his shoulder, and his own arm snakes around him to help support his weight, he starts forward again, trying not to think about how slow their progress is. He tells himself that the men coming up the path will naturally search the mansion first, to make sure that they're not still there as well as to look for survivors. That will take time, and by the time they leave, the three of them should be well out of sight and off the path.

Speaking of which...

"Once we're off the path, I'm going to double back for a bit and cover our tracks. We're not making fast enough time that we can outrun them, so we're going to have to lose them. Keep an eye out for any good places to hide."

A good place to hide...

Cloud blinks as his vision swims with green again, sounds dulling and his awareness going hazy, but he latches onto those words, holding onto them while he rides it out. A good place to hide...

"There's... there's a cave." It's a good thing both men have a hold on him just then, because in his struggle to concentrate, to think past the fog, his body starts to sag. He almost misses his next step with his focus on his feet lost, but this is important too. "Used to... go there... t'think..." To hide, to pretend he was too cool to play with the others, that he didn't need to play their childish games. "'S to th'left. Of that tree. Gotta walk a ways."

It's a good thing both men have a grip on Cloud, because when he stumbles Zack almost trips over his own two feet. No amount of caution is going to overpower the burn starting up in his calves, even if he doesn't topple. If they don't stop soon...well. The men following behind won't be behind for long.

They need to stop. Left of the tree, huh? Up this high, what plantlife there is--scrub and hardy thorn bushes--survived the fire six months ago, so the tree sticks out against the stone it's rooted itself in. Maybe sixty feet away, but that distance may as well be sixty miles, the barest shadow of a hole in the stone visible just past it. Hopefully it's big enough to fit the three of them. If it's not..well. They'll just have to keep moving.

"Just don't get spotted," Zack says quietly, energy focused on his feet and not his volume, "Don't go picking any fights."

Zack, please. Remember who you're talking to.

Zack doesn't need to worry about Kunsel hearing him. SOLDIER hearing picks his warning up easily. "I'm not going to pick any fights I don't have to," he says, just as quietly, all too aware of how their voices might drift down the trail. While he doesn't hear anyone in blatant pursuit just yet, there's no reason to take any chances.

Frowning when Cloud stumbles again, Kunsel glances at him, then adjusts the blonde's weight so he's relying more on him than on Zack. Maybe he's already carrying the lion's share of their burden, what with two swords and a duffel bag, too, but he's SOLDIER. He's got the strength to handle it.

And what good is strength if you don't use it?

After what feels like forever, they make it to the tree. He can see the shadowy depression from here, but there's only a thin rabbit trail between it and where they are. This last stretch is going to be tricky, but they'll make it.

"Cloud, when we get to the cave, I'm going to give you one of my materia. I want you try to use it while you wait." He pauses, waiting for a response.

But there isn't one.

"Cloud?"

Cloud's eyes are open, but he's very much not there.

If you have the strength, use it. If you don't, curse everything you know and just try to stay upright. That's what Zack is doing; one foot in front of the other, don't topple. Kunsel's taken enough weight, he doesn't need to take Zack's, too.

But he might. When no response comes, Zack pulls his attention from the road and stares at Cloud's eyes. Though they'd been a pale color before, now they more green than blue, unfocused and staring ahead unseeing. Zack's heart stops for the span of two beats, then thuds painfully in his chest. Dammit he was just fine what happened no no no this cannot be happening--he has to drag in a breath to stop the panic. There's no time for panic.

Eyes wider than they should be, he looks up at the trail. There's no room for the three across method that got them up this far. There's barely room for one. Taking in another deep breath, Zack swallows hard.

"Get him on my back. We'll have to go single file."

There's no time to try and bring him around in the open like this. The pursuit is still too far behind to be heard, but it won't be that way for long. Especially if they wake Hojo.

Kunsel nearly opens his mouth to argue. Zack's in no condition to be carrying Cloud's full weight. He's nearly toppling as it is. It would be better if Kunsel carried the blond.

But.

But he still needs to go back and erase their tracks. They can't found on having time to make it to the cave and then come back. Kunsel meets Zack's eyes, a moment of serious communication passing between them. Then, reluctantly, he nods and starts easing Cloud's arm from around his neck.

"If you can't make it, just hang tight. I'll be back in a minute." If he has to, he'll carry them both to the cave. Somehow.

He'll figure out how later, if it actually comes to that.

Once he has Cloud loaded onto Zack's back, he gives his friend one last searching, concerned look before slipping the Cure into the former-First's pocket. Maybe they'll get lucky and Cloud will come around before Kunsel gets back.

(Hopefully, that's the only reason they'll need it.)

"Good luck," he says, before heading back along the track. Time to make sure ShinRa doesn't find them.

He's in no condition to be carrying even a child's weight, but what choice is there? Kunsel's the only one of them in fighting condition; if somebody's packing a trained M-Barrier back there, Thundaga's barely going to make a dent. But a sword...that could do something.

"Be careful", Zack quietly calls in return as Kunsel heads off. He's got both swords--even if the Buster's not his favorite thing in the world--and all the skills and strength of a SOLDIER; against regular army guys he'll be fine, and he really doubts Hojo would have employed any other SOLDIERs considering what he was doing to their Commander, but at the same time he worries. He worries and he turns to the path, forcing himself to take one step after another.

Standing still with Cloud's weight had been a trial in compensation. Walking with it is an effort in not collapsing. But even if he has to crawl, he'll get them there. And he may have to. The trail is so thin that each step has to be planned, back bowed under Cloud's sack of weight, calves trembling and thighs burning. He's hardly as heavy as Angeal would have been, or even Kunsel, but he may as well be a lead weight.

Six steps down the path, Zack's knee decides that enough is enough and gives way, putting him on the ground. For a heartstopping second one hand slips down towards the ravine below, ungloved palm scraping across the rough terrain. Rock tumbles down the side of the ravine, clattering for way too many seconds. Heart in his throat, Zack manages to pitch their combined weight back to solid ground, then laugh in relief. His pulse pounds in his neck, and he struggles to rise.

"Man," he groans quietly, meant only for Cloud to hear as he gets up on shaking feet, "knew I shouldn't have looked down."

One foot in front of the other. By some miracle, they're going to make it. Just...probably not before Kunsel gets back, considering how slow Zack has to take it now. That was too close.

Edited 2015-08-09 12:22 (UTC)

But Kunsel never made it. ShinRa's army found him first, just as he'd reached the point where they'd branched away from the path. In that moment, when the guns were clicking as safeties were turned off, a choice laid itself out plain and clear.

Run.

Or stand his ground.

Get back to Zack and Cloud and defend them with his last breath.

Or stay and buy them time. Fight and lead ShinRa away. Even if he dies, the fight itself will destroy any evidence of his friends' tracks so thoroughly that ShinRa will never find them. His life, to save his friends.

Kunsel's hand adjusts its grip on his sword.

It isn't a choice.

Gunfire and crashing steel sound like thunder on the mountainside - the sound, the poets say, of the funeral drums for a SOLDER Second Class.

Whether or not Zack and Cloud make it to the cave before Kunsel returns is actually a good question. He makes it back to where they branched off from the trail without much incident, but as he's beginning the start of a false trail leading away from them, he hears a shouted command from the house.

Damn it. Looks like we're about out of time.

With as much haste as he can safely manage, he walks backwards along the tracks he left. Then he bends down, picking up a stray branch still full with dead, brittle leaves. Swiftly now, he sweeps it along the ground as he darts into the rabbit trail to brush away the tracks that the three of them may have left. It's not a perfect job, and he knows it, but there isn't time for anything better. He just has to hope that the troops will be a in too much of a hurry to catch them to look too closely. If not...

Well. That's why he's armed with a sword.

On the trail, he can hear the voices getting closer, along with the sound of boots scraping rock. He drops the branch in his hand, no longer trusting even that soft sound not to betray him, and crouches down as low as he can while creeping backwards, until he's right behind a scraggly bush.

And that's where he freezes, hardly daring the breathe. On the trail, the first of their pursuers come into view. He can't move now. He can't, or they'll spot him easily. The bush doesn't feel sufficient, but he'd be completely exposed on the thin rabbit trail. Zack and Cloud at least seem to have gone around a bend, thank goodness, but it's too late now for him.

Just let them keep going, he silently pleads.

He's talking to both groups of men.

For once, or maybe for the next time in a chain, Zack is lucky. He's managed to get off the trail, around the sharp bend--kid Cloud must have been a mountain goat making this trek!--and towards the cave. Into the shadows they go, the sun's rays just starting to fade as he drags them both, one foot in front of the other, breath rasping out of his chest, into the darkness.

Getting Cloud down is a bit tricky, a tangle of limbs and a head cradled in one hand, shoulder protesting the odd angle with a scream of pain, but soon Cloud is on the ground, sightless blue-green eyes staring at dark stone overhead. Only when he's down, when he's safe, does Zack finally listen to his body and drop like a sack of rocks. And though he collapses flat on his back, every inch of his body aching and protesting that move, he doesn't black out. He stares at the cave ceiling and breathes, waiting for Kunsel to return.

Except he doesn't. The inside of Zack's head rings with imagined gunshots and blood dripping down a familiar face, steel implanted into rock as his imagination and fear go wild, but then...there are no gunshots. No sounds of a battle. It's impossible to miss the utter racket made in the wake of that patrol coming rushing down the path, but the sounds of combat are only in his head as he struggles up to lean on his elbows. Up this high the shadows will hide them both. So long as no one makes a move down the rabbit trail with its drag marks and displaced scree, they'll be fine.

He still watches, heart in his throat and Thundaga pulsing along his arm, ready for a cast if he needs it. If Kunsel comes up with people in pursuit, he'll use it.

Let him get clear, he thinks to himself, scarcely daring to breathe.

He's only thinking about Kunsel.

Edited 2015-08-09 23:16 (UTC)

It feels like it takes an eternity for the search party to make their way up the path - an eternity spent crouched, ready to run while trying to keep his breaths shallow and steady. He highly doubts there's any SOLDIERs here, but even ordinary people can have keen hearing.

Keen vision, too. If even one of them looks in just the right direction at just the right time...

Seconds tick past, tension making sweat trickle down his neck despite the cooling temperatures. He remains in place when the men close the distance, doesn't move when they draw parallel to where he's hidden, doesn't even so much as twitch no matter how his muscles protest the forced paralysis, until...

Until, finally, the men press past with nothing but curses for the escaped specimens who've clearly made it farther than Professor Hojo estimated they'd be capable of moving. Move it, men! Move it! They need to catch these monsters before dark!

Caught between scowling and releasing a breath of relief, Kunsel waits several long minutes after they vanish to make certain they're gone before he finally emerges from his hiding place and makes his way back along the rabbit path. Still cautious, but no longer quite so urgent now.

"Zack," he breathes when he rounds the bend. "It's just me."

No one following behind.

An eternity passes in ten minutes, each breath measured against the fading sounds of too many boots headed north. But head north they do, and with a heaving sigh of relief Zack sags as the last boot pounding fades out.

Well, almost all of them. He raises his head at the scraping-steps of Kunsel's boots, bright blue eyes glowing from the darkness of the cave, but when it's just Kunsel--no one behind, no one beside, no guns--the magic thrumming at his wrist drops away and he falls flat on his back.

"Thank Ifrit that's over," is his only response, heart still pounding in his chest. Cloud's breathing at his side, Kunsel is breathing and unharmed in front...he can take a minute to catch his breath before they have to figure something out about Cloud.

Freedom smells cool and dark, but it's freedom and he'll take it. They can figure out the cost later.

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