Author Notes: This is my first ficcy… So be nice and offer reviews!This is a little twist of a scene within Advent Children, ENJOY!!!!
P.S: If anyone can figure out where the last lines (the one in italics at the bottom) are from, they get a cookie! They're actually lines from a Japanese song that I love a lot.
Disclaimer : I don't own FF7 or AC or any of it's characters
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As she came to her senses within a dark unlit room with crayon-drawn pictures and photo frames on the walls, she could feel someone else's presence within the room. The bed creaked under her weight as she carefully sat up in the bed that was next to a window where the moonlight shines through, slightly lighting up the room. Blinking a few times to see properly, she turned her head to the right of the bed to look at the window and the person who Denzel, Marlene and herself have been longing to see after many months of separation.
Feeling her wine coloured eyes settle on his back, the blonde swordsman turned swiftly and slowly walked across the wooden floor and before sitting down on the bed parallel to the other one where she sat on, he broke the silence and informed Tifa, "Reno and the others are looking for them now." All the while, Tifa had her eyes locked onto him, all of her attention concentrated on him. As Cloud sat down on the other bed where he had awaken, a loud creak was produced because of his weight like when Tifa had sat up on the bed closer to the window where he was standing and looking out of earlier.
"Those are syndromes of Geostigma… Aren't they?" Tifa asked a tint of worry and hesitation evident in her voice. "'It doesn't matter if I die from it.' Is that what you're thinking?" she continued to question him, this time at a quicker speed. An uncomfortable silence followed after that, as Cloud just sat there with his head looking downwards towards the floorboards and listened to what Tifa was saying to him. After a while, Tifa shifted from her previous position, hugging her legs before sighing and starting again, "Just as I thought…"
Cloud finally made up his mind and replied to her in his cold low-pitched voice, "There's no way to cure it…" Tifa changed her position once again, this time tucking her legs to her right side.
She looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, with the words 'worry' and 'impatience' printed all over her face. "But Denzel is still giving his best! Don't run from it, let's fight together! Let's help each other out, try our best!" She paused for a while, waiting for Cloud's response. When there was no response whatsoever, Tifa turned herself and faced the wall in front of the beds in which they had occupied. "…But we're not a real family… So it's no good?" The last sentence was spoken with that same cheerful voice of hers but instead of that cheerfulness, it was replaced with disappointment. The disappointment she had felt when she realized her childhood friend who had been brave and feared nothing at all in their previous years; had actually ran away from his friends and family because of his unwillingness to let them worry about his health and himself in general.
Slightly lifting up his head, Cloud hesitantly says, "I don't think… That I can save anybody." After saying these words, he paused for a moment before briefly looking down at his left arm where his black sleeve hid the scars that the Geostigma had left. He then continued slowly, "Family… Or friends. Nobody." Neither of them spoke next, only their breathing could be heard if you strained your ears hard enough. Other than that, there was basically nothing except for silence.
"Drag, drag…" Tifa began repeatedly in annoyance. Cloud looked up at her face questioningly, trying to search for an answer on Tifa's moonlit face. "Drag, drag." Somehow understanding the young martial artist's meaning, he thinks to himself about how he's dragging everything from the past to the present, and if he's not going to let go of the guilt, then he's going to drag the past to the future and beyond until his life ends.
"How long are you going to keep dragging it along with you, yo?"
The sudden voice of a certain red haired Turk alerts Cloud and Tifa, making them shift their attention to Reno and Rude who were standing beside the door leading out towards the corridor.
"You can't find them?!" Tifa urgently asks the Turks who had been out looking for Denzel, Marlene and other children who were kidnapped by Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. As Tifa changes her position once again until she was sitting on the edge of Marlene's bed like Cloud was sitting on the edge of Denzel's bed just diagonally across from her.
"Someone saw where they were taken to, yo."
Cloud's cool voice remained calm but inside his stomach gave him small butterflies because he was hoping it wasn't the Forgotten City… The Forgotten City, the place where she had died for the sake of saving the planet from meteor. He never went back to that place unless necessarily. "Where?"
"The Forgotten City. It's their base." Rude replied calmly as well, unlike his partner Reno who usually told people his messages through physical actions or either expresses his feelings through a lot of his speech. How they put up with each other and still have great teamwork was always a mystery…
That was the place he didn't want to go to all this time. No matter what happened, if he went there, the scene where she got killed by Sephiroth repeats itself in his mind. Over and over again, over and over again… But for the sake of the innocent lives of the orphans, he will go. But before that, he would go to talk to Rufus to see if he had better plans than this. Going there by himself would be too risky, 1; because there are the children there. 2; it's 3 against 1.
Tifa lowered her head at the sound of the Forgotten City, knowing Cloud didn't like that place because Aeris had died there. She wanted to go with him to the Forgotten City, but with the injury from her battle with the silver haired man, she wasn't in any shape to be running around and fighting that guy once again. Plus, it'll just make Cloud worry and become a burden if she convinced him she would come along...
Turning his head back towards the window, he continued slowly and softly, "Please." At this, Tifa looked up at his face because of the unexpected response. Standing up, the bed mattress rises after Cloud stood, making a soft squeak in the process, during this, Tifa just kept her mouth shut and watched Cloud's every move.
After he had stood, he turned around and faced the door and the Turks with the same stoic face he has all the time. "I will go and talk to Rufus." He informed the Turks and Tifa.
Almost immediately, Tifa shouted at Cloud's back, "Don't run away!" This made all the men in room face her to listen to what she has to say next. Tifa paused and continued in a softer voice, "I can tell. Even if you find the children, you might not be able to do anything." All Cloud did was stand rooted to the spot while Reno and Rude muttered a conversation between one another, trying to decide on what to do next to avoid Tifa and Cloud arguing, if they did argue at all.
Ignoring the muttering in the background, Tifa continues to scold Cloud in a motherly-fashion,"It might end up being another tragedy. That's what you're afraid of, right?" Cloud had always wondered how on Gaia, could Tifa always nail that weak point in his heart… Unable to see his face let alone his expression, Tifa continued once more, "But you need to accept what's going on right now! Is it a heavy burden for you? Well what can I say? It is!" Pushing her firm hand into the pillow, trying to emphasize what she had just said to Cloud. Once again, Reno and Rude were pushing each other around, they had probably come up with a solution but neither of them were willing to carry out the solution. And then Tifa just sped things up and said to Cloud, "Unless you're planning to live the rest of your life like this, you'll just have to deal with it. You don't like being alone do you? You don't answer the phone, but I don't see you running to throw it out!"
Finally making up their minds, Reno interrupts and says, "You go to their base, yo." Then, the Turks just left the other 2 in silence. Nothing happened for the next several minutes, just plain silence. Breaking the silence, Tifa asks one final question, "Have we lost to our memories?" Looking up at Cloud's back, she was starting to feel guilty for just scolding Cloud as if she was his girlfriend or someone close. She didn't have a right to do that, therefore, she should have thought about it before actually doing it.
Digesting all that Tifa had said to him just then, Cloud slightly looked down at the floor again, deep in thought once again. After a while, Tifa opened her mouth to speak but closed it when she thinks she shouldn't say anything just yet; but perhaps, she should apologize for taking all the pressure out on him.
"I'm sorry I took it all out on you… But everything's been happening all in a sudden… I'm sorry…"
"… It's fine…"
"Although I'm sorry for taking it all out on you, I mean what I said. You should just let go of the past and let it fade away. I am sure Aeris wants you to move on instead of lingering behind and isolating yourself from the rest of the world just because of her death. She wishes everyone to be happy and live on with their lives… She had sacrificed herself in order to save the world; therefore, you cannot blame yourself for what happened."
Silence was Cloud's answer as he stood frozen like he had a while ago. He never was a 'words' person, he didn't speak much and he usually expressed himself in his actions; Somehow slightly similar to Reno but he's still more of a Rude-person... Even though many of his friends told him to move on with life for the sake of them and Aeris, he accepted those words but still blamed himself for her death. He was almost so drenched in guilt like Vincent is, for they both had their close one's killed because of them.
Deciding to also ignore Tifa's persuasion like he had done with the rest, he makes his way slowly to the door, the floor boards squeaking and creaking and making noises as his heavy and dirty boots come in contact with the floor in each step he takes. Without another word in between the pair, the ex-SOLDIER walked out into the corridor of darkness, leaving Tifa behind in Marlene and Denzel's bedroom to rest until she was fit to fight again. Standing next to the window of the same room where he had been not so long ago, she hears the sound of a motor starting up and the sound of a motorbike speeding off down the road. She had actually wanted to say something more, but decided against it because she was sure that with a brain like Cloud's, he's bound to figure it out some day…
…The most important things are always without any shape. It doesn't matter if you have it or lose it, because you'll never notice.