For those who wanted a sequel. Thanks for all who reviewed for Game.
Okay. First things first. Why I didn't upload this in Game? Because Game is as beautiful as it is alone. Any more will spoil it much.
Don't like, don't read. :D
Disclaimer applies for all chapters. "I do not own what Square Enix does. But I'd so love to work for them." - K.
Nibelheim. A frosty looking castle loomed audaciously in the snow. It was named after her family, Lockhart.
Upon landing, Tifa pushed herself to the icy floor, not minding to cover up herself albeit the blanket she was now draped with. It was just hung loosely about her shoulders. It really wasn't necessary for the castle was warm.
My Core. Where is it?
It wasn't anywhere she could think of. It wasn't in the hothouse filled with blossoms of all sorts which she adored. It wasn't in the usual place she hid it in because she remembered that she put it in a certain chest in her chamber. Doors upon doors flung open, showing astonished servants and workers candidly, gossiping, messing around, stealing cookies, stashing the royal wine and whatnots. She would deal with them later.
It was still near and she knew that. She could sense it 50 meters radius away from her but she still couldn't pinpoint where; a skill she had yet to master. The vibes were getting stronger now and the headache ceased. A spark lit within her as she passed the research room.
No way…in the research center? What is he doing to it this time?
Hojo was enjoying himself thoroughly. He always found that mass of white in his hand fascinating, though it belonged to Her Highness. He could do anything with that. He scribbled the last statement in the document under Her Highness Tifa Lockhart's medical file. He was the one who was responsible for the discovery of her Core when she was still an infant. His door flew open all of a sudden, making him jump. He hid the Core behind him just in time.
"Professor Hojo," Tifa nodded.
"Your highness!" he said, realizing who that was. "It's good to have you back…so soon. And call me Uncle. Tell me, child, did you bring his Core?"
"No, I failed the mission." Uhh... Uncle?
"On purpose? You never are good with assassinations."
"Assassination? I thought it was 'Extraction of Cloud Strife's Core.' Was it not?" She narrowed her eyes at him.
His hand felt hot and immediately he knew she was angry. Her Core responds to her.
"Ehh… Well, if that was his first time in his age, there's a 50-50 chance he will die." He was perspiring nervously. Tifa calmly pulled the blanket off her and tucked it under her arm. She had suspected it, but a 50 percent chance of survival…
If I had done that…He would have…died. Oh, Shiva.
The Core heated up more and Hojo released it, making it fall to the carpeted floor inaudibly but kept rolling to the point where Tifa saw it. It stopped right in front of her.
"I—" Hojo began.
"You were messing around with it again," Tifa stated. He always found excuses to make her remove hers out. Nothing new, but this time he had managed to obtain it in her room, without permission, too. As she bent down to pick it up, Hojo stopped her.
"Your highness, I might need some more tests on it."
"Later. I'll keep this somewhere else." Maybe in one of the flowers. He'll never get that.
"You can't, actually. The elders requested for that and your presence."
"Very well." Tifa held it firmly. "I'll see you later in the meeting."
"Of course, your highness."
"Professor Hojo, I'll have you know that I won't be extracting mine any sooner after I take it in. It makes me sick and I expected you know that better than anyone else. Is that understood?"
"Clearly."
"Good."
Tifa exited, leaving Hojo cackling to himself about her well-hidden naivety and leniency.
He recalled when Queen Lockhart gave birth to Tifa. The sweet bundle of joy suddenly burst into bubbles of laughter when she was presented to everyone and sunshine, she was. Hojo was appointed as her doctor and while checking her heartbeat, he found the Core accidentally. Naturally, he reported that to the king and his queen. Tifa was indeed blessed with a Core, but that would mean, all forces would target her—greed for power. From what he read, a Core is power and no further explanations were given even if he were to dig the graves of those who discovered about it first.
All the records of Tifa Lockhart's birth were reduced to ashes, apart from everything Hojo had.
The queen volunteered to live in a village with her newborn in secret, along with the other loyal servants. Of course, Hojo would still monitor her from time to time in the guise of the village doctor. He recalled how scared the little girl would be when he came along and asked her to take her Core out. Taking out the core during that time wasn't easy. She would cry, cry, and cry in pain but she got over it in due time.
Such wonder…was not supposed to be kept hidden. He would unveil the secrets of the Core and so far, so good.
-- -- --
Lucrecia waited patiently at the living area.
"Sorry for the tardiness, doctor," Cloud announced himself and sat down, crossing his legs as he propped it on the table in front of him. "One of the 1001 skills I have."
"Cloud, manners," Lucrecia told him. "Or I'll stab you mercilessly with whatever syringe I hold in my hand."
Cloud resigned, raising both his hands. Ruffling his head, Lucrecia proceeded for his weekly health check. She smiled in satisfaction when she finished.
"You're in perfect condition, your Core is alright…"
"My hair's still naturally spiky," he added, grinning.
"Sense of humor intact," Lucrecia finished.
"What's a Core?"
"You asked that before."
"I know and I still don't get it."
"Which part, Core is power?" Cloud nodded. Lucrecia cleared her throat, hoping that Cloud will brace himself for a long lecture.
"For a long time, my clan was chosen as the guardian of your kind. I believe you may be the last one if others were wiped out. You see, a Core is an important substance, for lack of a better word, for you. Just think of it as your soul or heart. It is power for those who can use it with free will. A rare treasure of Gaia. As of what it can do, I'll leave it for you to discover. From what I heard, one can summon a creature from a different world and easily control it and that's just one of the uses. Others are just as bizarre as what you can think of but all of the past people who had it used them for good."
"So I can control mine?" Cloud stood in excitement.
"If you can." Lucrecia laughed at his disappointed face. She let out an involuntary sigh. "He would be around your age by now…maybe older."
"Who?"
"My son. He was shipwrecked when he was three. I never seen him ever since." Lucrecia stood up, piling her papers up and carefully tucking them in her file. Cloud never heard her mention anything about her family.
"I'm sorry." Was all he could say.
"Don't be. I was a terrible mother. I never tried to find him and concentrated on my role…as your guardian."
"You portrayed a good mother to all of us here," he shrugged, stating the truth.
Lucrecia knew he was only trying to make her feel better. Her son was never shipwrecked. She had asked a colleague to take care of her son. The guilt of abandoning her son built up over the years as she saw Cloud grew and she knew it was too late to take back her actions. She never heard from him anymore.
"By the way, doctor…" Cloud started. It was making him itch for the whole day now. No one would believe what he said. Maybe Cid and Barret for they thought all that fighting were their dreams. "Is there anyone else apart from everyone in the premises know about me having a Core?"
"I don't think so," Lucrecia replied.
"There were some intruders earlier…" Cloud scratched the back of his head. "…And was able to obliterate their traces clean."
Really? Lucrecia thought she hadn't heard anything about a breach that day.
"And one was trying to pull out…possibility my Core, out of me."
Lucrecia gasped. Cloud's Core. Was there really someone who knew about it? "He wouldn't…"
"She," he corrected.
And she is as mysterious as the Core itself.
"And this intruder…she let you live?"
"A favor, I guess. For not killing her."
"That's a nice girl. Why didn't you invite her for dinner?"
"She turned me down," he smirked. "Everyone knows how strong I am and she probably ran away fearing that I might overpower her. Besides, she was greatly outnumbered." That part was true. He had seen fear instilled in her eyes when he grabbed her hand by surprise during her little act in his room.
"That's a first from you, letting a foe go that easily." Lucrecia laughed as she exited.
That's because I was the one who was outnumbered during the last moment.
Cloud made his way to his chambers to retreat for the night. As he leaned on the railing of his balcony, he gazed at the night sky. The two horns of the moon were very thin, indicating that it was a new moon.
Absentmindedly playing with the glove he now considered precious, he recalled the events that occurred that day. To him, she was dancing and it irked him slightly that there were no flaws in her blows. All her movements were swift, precise and powerful. Everything about her screamed magnificence. Even when she laid beneath him, never begging for mercy.
Judging from the reactions of the two males who brought her out of her demise, she was of a noble blood for they obeyed her request willingly. The silver-haired man, mostly, for the other never said anything. They went north but what's in the north? There was only a storm of ice and thunder and only a small village was there, sitting just at the edge of it.
One thing he couldn't let go was her beautiful wine orbs with outer rings of ruby. They were a rare color and somewhat familiar.
A trail of thin, white fire shot from the north, distracting him from his thoughts.
A shooting star? That's rare. It looks so near—
The trail exploded after a distance and a huge sphere of fire birthed itself from it. The roaring explosion could be heard seconds after. From the fire, two blazing feathery wings spread out and a white-eyed head of a bird lifted, showing undoubtedly, a phoenix. The sky was tinted slightly orange from it, melding with the night. The fiery image parted its beak and let out an eerie howl, never resembling that of a normal bird. In that short phenomenon, the fire twisted and flickered, dissipating into the dark.
Cloud stared wide-eyed at it. It happened less than five seconds.
What was that?!
-- -- --
In her castle, Hojo had been irritating Tifa since dinner, asking her to touch a strange contraption he created.
To get him off her back, she slammed her fist on the table, agreeing.
"Okay, I get it. But only this time."
Hojo laughed in the weird laugh of his and put it on the table. Tifa stared at it.
For a long time.
And Hojo was getting impatient with her stalling.
It was ovoid, like an egg of some sort and it reminded her of the bulging bellies of pregnant women. It would have looked pretty decent if it wasn't for the algae-green color and the long wormy texture that dug its way around it.
"Is it alive?" Tifa asked in doubt.
"Nay, it is lifeless, your highness." But will live if you touch it.
Oh, good. So it won't just pop out anything freaky— Tifa touched it with a finger and from an end of the egg, out burst a ray of white fire and shot through the window. What she witnessed after that completely shocked her.
"Ooh, a success," Hojo marveled, pushing his spectacles up the bridge of his nose. Tifa snarled at him, and was trying hard to contain her seething anger.
"Professor Hojo," she growled out. "What. Did. You. Make. Me. Do?"
"It's a test. This is made from the remains of a phoenix. With some of my machines and chemicals used, along with a little magic, it absorbed a little power from your Core's leftovers. The power can form a shadow of the phoenix, it seemed," Hojo nodded in acknowledgment.
"Are you crazy?" she hollered at Hojo.
"I take that as a compliment, your highness," he cackled.
"Oogh!" Tifa let out a frustrated groan. "Listen, Professor Hojo, you had just blown our cover—more exactly, showed our position. Land of Nibelheim was supposed to remain a secret since eons ago. Read my lips. Secret. Myth. Never existing to the outside world. Except for the small village."
"Oh. Rest assured. No one will even dare to venture past our defense mechanism."
"I hope you're right but I swear, a fire bird emerging from our icy terrain?"
Grumbling, Tifa made her exit, hoping that she wouldn't get nightmares of fire, chocobos and the very person who had his hairstyle like that. In her room, Tifa clenched and unclenched her right hand repeatedly, gazing at her palm first and then at the bandaged cut.
"He took it." Tifa took the glove she used earlier.
"And now you're just like me; incomplete. I have spares of you but that cannot be the same for my Core." She laughed bitterly. After tossing it onto her drawer, she flipped the lights off and crawled into her bed.
-- -- --
Sighing, Cloud brushed a hand through the right part of his head. "North," he said, "was where she went off." He went to the small village Nibelheim years ago with Zack for their training but he never remembered meeting a dark-haired maiden.
Who are you? How did you learn my name? Where have we met before? Why…do you look empty yet knowing when you let yourself fall?
Brushing his thoughts aside, he resumed staring at his keepsake. He wasn't sure whether he had met her before but he knew he was smitten by her sole being and he smirked when he realized that. Something about her was oddly familiar.
He would surely get sweet dreams for that night.
