PART I:
" Don't Wait For Me. Wait For My Soul, Because I Don't Think My Body Will. "
"No!"
The invasion was a failure. The rebels have retaliated. They never knew the rebels would dare do such a thing. The very least they could manage were throwing stones and insults at the soldiers, and that was the only kind of physical and mental attack that they could work up on their nerves.
But now. Now was a different story.
"Maria!" she cried, clutching onto the bloodied body of a woman, who was faintly gasping in pain. "No, no, Maria! Who... who did this to you.. Who did this to you?!"
The fatally injured young redhead panted, winced in pain, closed her eyes. She breathed through her nose; her breathing came out ragged, forced. She was almost at her limit.
"E... Eve..."
The young blonde woman forced back her tears, leaned in closer to the moving lips of her best friend. Listening to her words.
"The key... your... memo-"
Boom.
The ground shook again, this time with chunks of wet flesh and blood flying all over the area. Everybody was running around and screaming.
"The key? What... what key? What are you talking about? Maria-"
"The key.. they sealed it, it's with the key... the key..."
Silence followed. Only the sounds of people screaming and explosions were heard. Tension rose in the air around her environment.
What was she talking about? What it...?
"It's... important... to you... Please... Please, Eve, promise... promise me..."
She leant in closer; Maria pulled her down so she could whisper to her ear.
"Return... your home... is there... no matter what, you have to return... Go back... home..."
Her voice was getting fainter and fainter by every breath she took; yet she struggled with the pocket of her cardigan, fished out a rusted, bronze key, and gave it to her. Her last gift.
"Return... with this key... find your answer... find it, before it's... too late..."
Her breath became shallower now; she was hardly breathing, as if she had forced the air out of her lungs.
"And... promise me... something else..."
She listened attentively now.
"Maria...?"
"Alicia... my baby... my sweetheart... please..."
Her shaking finger pointed to a rubble that had formed a small tent-hole protruding from the ground. They could hear the faint cry of a baby from inside.
"Save... save her... please... for me..."
Her whole arm was shaking now; she was hardly breathing. Eve wiped a tear sliding down her cheek, and nodded.
The dying redhead smiled weakly.
"You're... always... my best... best friend... Eve..."
Her arm dropped to the ground, limp, motionless.
She never moved again.
Eve let out a wailing scream.
"NO!"
"Huh? A-are you awake? Hello? Miss... Miss?!"
She opened her eyes.
"Are you alright, Miss? Miss... Uhh... Tifa! Tifa!"
A young girl's voice. Much different from what she had heard. Possibly her illusion. Or a dream made to fool her, again.
She heard a door being swung open, closed with a thud. She heard the shuffling of footsteps. She heard another female's voice - an adult woman, from a distant place. Probably downstairs, because she heard it from under her pillow.
"-awake? You didn't-"
"Here..."
A set of footsteps that seemed to be climbing up some stairs, shuffling of footsteps again. Door swung open, then slammed shut. A dark-haired woman came into her view with a worried look on her face.
"Are you okay?"
Her voice sounded loud, shallow, deep in her ears, as if she was speaking from another end of a tunnel. Her vision was blurry. The face was hazy to her eyes.
"Alicia... where?"
She didn't hear the sound of a baby crying; the one she had grown fond of, accustomed to, since a year before. She was worried, worried about her safety. Was she alright?
"Alicia- You mean, the baby? Uh... Marlene, can you bring her in... No, no, don't wake her up yet, just bring her in..."
She heard the soft cooes. She heard a small bundle of figure being transferred from arm to arm. She felt a presence near her face. She sniffed.
She knew that smell.
"Give... give her to me..."
The woman obliged, and the small, sleeping bundle was transferred again. Eve held the little baby close to her chest, while she was still laid on a foreign bed. She kissed the baby's forehead; the young child mewled in her sleep, sucked on her thumb. She seemed so peaceful in her own dream.
Eve smiled, feeling a kind of serenity she only felt when Alicia was around.
"She's cute."
Whipping her head to the person who had made that comment, she saw a little girl standing at the doorway, smiling, looking unafraid.
"She never cried while we took care of her. She's a good girl, that Alicia."
Eve nodded, acknowledged the fact.
The woman sat beside her on the bed; she felt bedsprings creaking under her as the weight doubled. She twitched, just slightly.
"You have Geostigma."
She winced. Quickly putting a hand over a small area on her left hip. The woman grimaced.
"You need to be cured. Come with us, we'll help."
Eve swallowed. She couldn't. Not now.
"I'm sorry."
Both females in the room shot her looks. She winced again.
"I can't."
They shot her looks again; this time, disapproval.
"The disease will spread. You need to cure it. It strengthens over time and you won't even know when you'll die."
Eve shook her head. No, not this time.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, mostly to herself than to them. "It's not the time. Not... not now."
She tried to crawl herself out of the bed. A shot of pain coursed through her whole body, and she cried. Alicia was still in her arms.
The older woman quickly fumbled over and put Eve to bed again, quickly covering her with a quilt.
"Rest." Her tone was commanding, pleading even. "You're still hurt. You need rest. Go to sleep. I'll take care of... of Alicia, for you."
Her arms went slack when the woman took Alicia away from her. She obliged however; as her head felt so heavy, all she needed now was sleep.
"Thank you..."
She muttered softly, before her eyes drifted shut; she didn't stir afterwards.
xxx
"You did the right thing, Cloud."
They were watching Yuffie and Marlene playing with Alicia around the bar; they bounced the baby and she giggled happily, excited that she had playmates at last. They tickled her feet and she squealed.
Cloud's face was as stony as ever.
"They would've hurt her if you didn't come. She saved Denzel, too. Debts paid."
They had rebuild the Seventh Heaven bar again, this time in a growing town called Second. Edge was destroyed so badly, people hardly had places to live.
The disease came back, too. Worse situations were doubled.
It seemed as if the world couldn't still bless them.
"Things are not so bad after all," Tifa smiled, wiping the counter with a clean cloth. "She doesn't seem like she has anywhere to live. She could help with the deliveries, too. We could even employ-"
"No."
She stopped wiping, wide-eyed. "What..."
"We can't hire her. We can't let her live here. No. I won't allow it."
Tifa was immensely surprised. "Cloud! She saved Denzel!"
"All the same. I don't trust her."
Silence followed.
Alicia was squealing again; Yuffie had probably tickled her foot with a feather, and now the three of them were laughing heartily.
Tifa reached out to touch Cloud's shoulder.
"Don't be like this. I have a feeling... we could trust her, I know."
He swiped her hand.
"I'm not buying it," he snapped, standing up and taking up a box for a delivery for that day. "After soo much of what she did to everyone, I'm not buying it." He paused, stopping at the open door. "I'm going. Don't wait for me."
He left without another word, or so much as a goodbye. Tifa sighed.
Alicia squealed again and she averted her attention to the girls, smiling.
She didn't know what to do anymore.
xxx
He was picking up a few rusted metals.
Edge had been destroyed, and it was almost two years since the new city had been rebuilt.
He wanted to find a memento his friends had left for him before they left for Second.
But they sky was so dark, he wondered if it would rain today.
"Now, where could it be..."
He dug through a pile of metallic rubble, pushed past a few debris and pieces of clothing. He pulled out a metal plank, dropped it, but found nothing beneath it.
He sighed.
It was then he heard a faint growl.
He turned around, saw the shadow of a humanoid beast perching atop a high metal pillar. It seemed like a cross between a gigantic eagle and a bat for a head... but it was standing, and the bat-like wings on its back flapped and unflapped for a few seconds, before its golden eyes found their way to where he stood.
It growled again, and his eyes widened.
"No..."
He immediately broke into a run.
And, unfortunately for him, the beast followed him, too. Tagged along, jumping from place to place, still following him. Growling all the time, howling at some point.
He was shaking as he ran and ran and ran.
His mind was blank, and he forgot the way to go back home.
He whipped his head behind to see the beast tailing behind. It was so close.
Trip.
He fell on his face, scratched his cheek on the stony ground. His hands bled, his arms bruised blue from the impact. He grimaced a little from the pain, but soon paid no heed to it.
He felt a shadow upon him, and turned around to see a set of teeth - very sharp teeth - right in front of his face.
He felt his throat tightened, his muscles hardened; he could neither scream nor run.
"No..."
He waited for the teeth to sink into his flesh, feel his blood drip, drop by drop, from the caused gash, waiting for death to come over him.
For a split moment, he really thought he was going to die.
He imagined his father, his mother, both who died from an explosion in Sector 7, both who loved him dearly and wanted the best for him, both who wanted him to be safe, both who-
...
Was that the sound of an engine?
Zupp.
...Wait. It's-
Bang, bang. Bang.
...Huh?
He slowly lifted his head from under his arms, the perfect shelter for his fears. He slowly looked up, still shaking from fear.
He saw an extended arm holding something like a gun. And that gun was pointing to the now writhing humanoid beast, which was grunting and bleeding something thick and dark. One of its wings was disengaged, torn from its body.
He turned around, whipped his body three hundred and sixty degrees to see the full view of a finely-sculpted young woman, black goggles over her eyes and her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. Sleeveless shirt with wide collar, black shorts. Something strapped to her right thigh. A pair of fingerless black gloves, the right one longer than the other.
He spotted a motor vehicle, one that looked almost like Cloud's Fenrir; but colored silver with gray runes painted all over. Each front and back wheels were doubled, just like Cloud's.
He wondered if she was a friend of Cloud's.
"Stay back."
He was stunned. He didn't get what she meant at first, but then his eyes widened.
A dozen more of the humanoid beast appeared suddenly, right in front of his eyes, puffed out from little black clouds and emerged with glittering claws and snapping mouths. Their wings flapped viciously, menacingly. He shuddered.
Then, he heard the cry of a baby.
"Here."
Something soft - and light - was shoved to into his arms. He caught it, surprised, mingled with confusion.
The bundle he was holding was actually a live baby. A girl for one, too.
He looked up, saw that his savior was standing in a pose similar to Cloud's when he was going to fight something, but with a different weapon in her hand - a weapon that looked like a cross between a sword and a gun, also painted silver and gray.
"Don't look."
A kind of blue magic circle appeared beneath her feet. She was muttering something foreign that he couldn't comprehend.
Then, suddenly, she dashed forward.
And he blacked out.