I knooooooooooooooooooooow, long time no update. My apologies. But things are hectic here as you all already know and yadda yadda yadda. I'm going to try and get the next chapter up a little quicker. Maybe even by this week if my muse decides to be nice. That's it for now. Enjoy.
"Explain that again?" Cid was staring at Cloud with a bemused expression. "And this time, say it a little slower."
After Cloud had calmed down and I was sure that I wasn't going to have a relapse of…whatever had happened, he had immediately wanted to leave the forest and return to town to tell Cid what had happened. Sure, I also wanted to tell Cid what happened but Cloud was practically leaping out of his skin to get back. Although he didn't say as much, his main reason was probably to get me back so Yuna could look me over.
We had been slightly delayed because we'd stopped at our room so Cloud could get dressed. Obviously because he was a wolf and I wasn't carrying any spare clothes for him. Hell, the Buster sword was enough weight. And he complained that I had to carry it. He had offered to carry it as a human, but I doubted many people would have appreciated the display. I would have, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one I guess. And it would have been kind of bad to mentally scar people…
Cloud took a deep breath and sighed before opening his mouth to talk again. But he didn't get a chance to because Tifa, Yuffie and Yuna burst through the door. "Squall!" Yuffie squealed before pouncing on me and throwing her arms around my neck. "You're not dead!" Yes, thanks, I noticed. I pushed the squealing "Ninja" off of me. Honestly, Ninjas were supposed to be quiet and gothic, not happy and bubbly, right?
"Cloud, Leon, what happened?" Tifa stood next to Cid, looking matronly with one hand on her hip.
Yuna came to my side and without her asking I tore open my pants over the bite wound. The leather was already ruined so it didn't matter much.
Cloud was about to talk and explain, but he was again cut off. This time it was Cid. "Cloud was going to explain before we were rudely interrupted." He glared at Yuffie who rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Jumping at the sudden lull of conversation, Cloud launched into his telling of what happened. He rewrote some it however, when it came to the aftermath but that was fine with me.
While Cloud was talking, Yuna saw to me. She touched her forehead and then put her hand over the wound as said hand began to glow. Hovering over my leg for a moment, she traveled it up over my heart, to my head, and then to my leg again where the bite mark healed instantly. She smiled gently and then looked at Cloud who was finishing up his retelling of the story.
"That sounds pretty bad," Yuffie murmered.
"No really?" Cid grunted, but the sarcasm wasn't as sharp as it would normally have been. He was furiously working the cigarette in his mouth. "Well now, this adds to our problems. Considering they didn't find the missing people." He looked from Cloud to me. "Did you guys happen to notice anything about them while you were out?" Me and Cloud both shook our heads. Cloud looked about ready to shoot back some snippy comment but held it in. Disgruntled, Cid turned to Yuna. "What's wrong with him?"
She shrugged and said, "Give me a moment." Walking to Cloud she put a glowing hand over his heart and then his head and back to his heart. Turning she looked at us and said, "Fine, as far as I can see. Though," she paused and I balled my hand into a fist. It didn't sound like whatever she had to say would be something good. "They both have a kind of darkness in their hearts. It's obviously not from the Heartless, because Cloud has it too. But, it might be because you are both werewolves. The good thing though, is that it seemed to have protected you from anything that the Heartless was trying to do to you." I released my hand. Okay, not as bad as it could have been. But Cloud looked suddenly so forlorn that I realized that maybe this was going to get pretty bad.
"Well," Tifa said in an attempt to draw our attention away from this nice bit of news. "You two go get something to eat. We'll be looking for those missing people tomorrow, so we'll be getting up early." I stood up and Yuna gave Cloud a little push to get him going.
"Thanks Yuna," I said gruffly. She smiled and went over to Tifa and Cid, who had motioned her over.
I grabbed Cloud's arm before anything else could happen and dragged him out of the room. Yuffie followed. "Well, I'll see you guys later." She sounded a bit belated, as if Cloud's sudden somber mood at gotten into her. The Ninja still managed to dance/run/hop away down the hall though.
I started to walk down the hall in the opposite direction towards food and Cloud followed. "Squall, I'm – "
"No, Cloud, don't say you're sorry."
A pause and then, "But I did that – "
I took the stairs down to the eating hall two at a time. At the bottom I turned around and said, "You didn't do anything. It was a decision made on both of our parts. You didn't force me to do anything."
The hall was empty and we quickly got food and sat down at a table. Cloud seemed to be thinking of another way he could pin all this on himself. Sometimes he seemed so intent on avoiding blame and not apologizing and other times he was just as persistent in taking the blame.
"If anything," I began, "You saved me back there. Who knows what would have happened if I wasn't a werewolf and I had gotten bitten." Cloud shrugged and nodded his head.
And then he smiled. "I think anything I'd have to say on the matter seems kind of stupid now. Or, at least so outlandish it's ridiculous."
I nodded. "Good. Now stops sulking."
The rest of the meal was eaten in contended silence. It was one of those times when it didn't matter that anything was or wasn't said because you were just happy being with your lover. I guess near death experiences can have that effect on people.
Our current expedition through the forest was somewhat reminiscent of yesterday's little excursion except that this time, it wasn't just me and Cloud. Tidus had joined us. But, that didn't mean I was particularly happy to have him with us. He talked a lot. I don't know if it was just because he had nothing better to do – like being alert for Heartless or some other frivolous task like that – or that he just…liked to talk.
"Are you and Cloud gay?" I stopped midswing with my Gunblade, aimed at a low tree branch. Tidus jumped over a log and looked at me, waiting. Cloud barked somewhere up ahead and I heard him circling back to see why we had stopped.
Shaking my head, I said, "You're not joking, are you." Tidus shook his head as Cloud bounded out of the underbrush with a growl, telling us to get going. Turning I followed Cloud's lead and heard Tidus scramble to follow.
"Well," Tidus said behind me, "are you?"
"Tidus, honestly." Releasing an exasperated sigh, I said, "Yes, Tidus, we are gay." Cloud looked back at me and then continued on. Maybe it was because it was so early in the morning, but I just didn't feel like dealing with Tidus and his questions. Maybe it was just that he was annoying.
In any case, my answer had shut Tidus up for the time being. Walking along in relative silence, sunlight started to filter through the trees. That made it easier to see things, but it also created more shadows, more places for the Heartless to hide.
"Cloud!" Startled, it took me a moment to realize that it was Yuffie shrieking up ahead. "Oh, you look so cute as a wolf! Just adorable!" The Ninja had picked up Cloud's forelegs and was now hugging an irate looking wolf around the neck.
With a snarl, Cloud wiggled out of her grasp and bounded over to me and Tidus, where he went behind my legs and glared at Yuffie. "I don't think he likes that," Tidus said, his eyes slipping to Cloud for a brief moment.
"No, I don't think so either," I followed up gruffly. "What are you doing here anyway Yuffie? You're supposed to be in town."
She grinned and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly. "Well now, wouldn't you like to know." She giggled and looked at me.
"Yuffie," Cloud snapped behind me. Tidus uttered a soft, "Wow," at Cloud's transformation but that went largely unnoticed. "We're on a damn mission. Stop screwing around and tell us what's going on."
Leaning back, Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "You guys are no fun. I feel bad for Tidus." I feel bad for us. "Anyway, we think the people are actually in town. In the deserted part of town, with all the big scary buildings." She shuddered.
"Oh what a great Ninja you are Yuffie," Cloud said sarcastically.
Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Cloud who was changing back. "Let's just go back," Tidus said. So maybe he wasn't special all the time.
So, taking Tidus' well thought out advice, we went back to town.
POV
"Soooooo, where exactly is this place?" Sora looked around at the empty buildings around us and shuddered. "Yuffie was right. This place is creepy."
Yuffie turned and grinned triumphantly at me. "See! I'm not the only one creeped out by this place." She then smothered Sora in a hug.
"What an accomplishment Yuffie," Squall said next to me. "You've lowered yourself to Sora's mentality."
Dropping Sora, Yuffie glared at Squall and then turned around a huff to keep walking. "Come on children," Cid said, chewing on his cigarette. "Let's all get along and concentrate on what we're doing here." We fell into relative silence, though Yuffie refused to look back at us and Sora was sulking next to Riku who was whispering something to him.
I looked up at the buildings surrounding us, realizing that I had never been to this part of the town before. It was a really old, abandoned industrial district. Perfect for murderers and rapists and other evil things. Like Heartless. Guess we should have checked this area first, considering the gloomy and creepy atmosphere that attracted such scum. But missing people were usually found running around in the forest having gotten lost or something like that. But we'd only found Heartless in the forest and they had made matters a little more complicated.
From what Cid had told us, one of the people in town had seen some black shapes running out of this area. Most likely Heartless, but we weren't telling anyone what had happened until we actually knew that the Heartless were in the town. Everyone was pretty freaked out as it was, since people were missing and hadn't shown up.
"That's the building up there," Tifa spoke softly and pointed at a building that looked just as dingy and broken down as all the other buildings. We didn't question her, since it had been Tifa and Yuna who had found out where this building was. "There's a big door on the side that the guy said he saw them come out of." Cid stopped and motioned for the rest of us to follow suit.
"Alright," Cid began, "I don't think I have to tell you guys to be ready for anything. We have an idea of what's in there already. But don't get bitten, at all costs. We don't know what we're dealin' with in that respect." Squall's little encounter with death had obviously cycled among us and everyone was concerned. Except… "Except for Cloud and Leon. You guys can get bitten as much as you want."
"Thanks Cid," I growled sarcastically. "Your concern is touching."
Cid grinned and shrugged, holding up his hands, palm up. "I do what I can."
We started walking again, following Tifa's lead. Once we were within one hundred feet of the building, we stopped again for another pep talk. I wondered why they didn't just tell us everything at once, but I hoped that there was some kind of method to their madness that I just didn't understand. "Leon and Cloud, you guys go in first." Oh sure, we're the sacrificial lambs. "The rest of us will follow if everything is quiet inside. You'll have to come back out and tell us if it is. But," she continued seriously, "If there is trouble we're going to have to leave it to you."
We'd be alone for obvious reasons, but Tifa still looked frustrated for a moment. Before anyone else could fill in the vacuum of silence, Tifa continued talking. "If you get overwhelmed – and I hope you don't – we'll jump in and do what we can. Don't be afraid to ask for help though." Tifa emphasized those words and stared at us meaningfully.
Sure, me and Squall had big egos and didn't know when to ask for help… Wait, that's right, we don't know when to ask for help. I guess we'd have to sacrifice pride and ego this time if things totally went to hell. But hopefully that wouldn't happen.
"Yeah, if you die then we're all kind of screwed," Cid said seriously. Thanks, it's nice to know we're loved and needed. If only for grunt work and such.
Sora stepped forward slightly and said glumly, "If Leon and Cloud are doing everything, then why are we here?"
"For backup and to take of anything else that might be inside that Leon and Cloud don't normally deal with." Riku supplied this answer quickly so that none of us had the opportunity to make Sora look stupid. Damn, take all the fun out of life why don't ya?
Cid nodded to me and Squall and we walked forward towards the building. Obviously not waltzing down the street like we were going to Grandma's or something, but there wasn't much cover to use. So we stuck to the sides of the buildings until we got to an – obviously – deserted street that we darted across and then we were standing up against the wall of the building. Squall took the lead from there and drew his Gunblade and nudged the closed door with his boot. It didn't move so he put his hand on the door handle and I pulled out my Buster sword.
He turned the handle slowly, and pushed the door slowly but it still made noise. I winced slightly but Squall grew all the more determined and I saw his knuckles whiten as he tightened his grip on the door. It screeched and then squeaked loudly one last time before it was fully open. Squall stood there for a moment, alert to everything, before stepping into the dark building.
And when I say dark, I mean really dark. The opening of the door cut a sharp outline into the blackness of the room. Looking ahead, even my enhanced night vision had a hard time distinguishing between things. We had seen windows from the outside, so it shouldn't be this dark. Unless someone had purposely covered up the windows.
"Is there a light switch somewhere?" My voice came out as barely a whisper, but it sounded loud. Squall didn't answer, but swept his Gunblade into the darkness ahead of him before stepping into it. I guess he was going to go find out.
With my own sword, I swept in front of me and stepped into the shadows. In a big place like this, you'd think that they'd have the light switch right next to the door so employees wouldn't have to wander around looking for one. Glancing up, I confirmed that there were indeed lights that looked like they had light bulbs in them. That was a plus, as long as the bulbs weren't burned out.
Stepping towards a wall, I felt around for a light switch or a box of switches or anything really. But my wall was smooth except for a bunch of shelves with tools on them. As I walked around them, I heard something snap and the lights blazed on overhead.
"Ahhh, my eyes, they burn!" I covered my eyes with my arm and then squinted out from underneath it at Squall's approaching feet. Slowly lowering my arm, I scowled at him.
"Please, it's not that bad Cloud." Squall regarded me with an amused expression.
"You were prepared for the bright lights, I was not. You could have warned me." I turned around, now that my eyes were used to the light and saw…
Nothing. Just a big empty room that had several doors leading off into what were probably other rooms. And the room that we were in was considerably smaller than I had thought it would be.
"This is probably just a type of reception room. Or was, before it was abandoned." Squall looked around again.
"Should we check out the other rooms or get the others?" There were various implications for each one of those choices but getting the others would probably be the best. Get them in here where we were less likely to be surprised.
"Get the others," Squall nodded. He turned and strode out of the building, his Gunblade casually leaning on his shoulder. While he went to get everyone, I wandered around in the small room looking for anything weird or out of place. But everything seemed to be in order. Whatever this building had been before, there wasn't much evidence as to what it had been. Pretty much everything was gone – or had never been there in the first place – except for a couple of standing shelves and some tools on the shelves. I wondered if anyone knew what this building had been.
I heard the tramp of everyone's feet outside and turned around to face the door as they came in.
"It's not that big," Yuna commented quietly. As everyone stood around, the room suddenly did seem a lot smaller. It wasn't really that small of a room, but fitting nine people into the room was starting to push it.
Yuffie was jumping up and down and asking excitedly, "What room are we going into first?" She dragged out the syllables of most of the words in an irritating yet cute kind of way.
"Leon, Sora, Riku, that room," Cid pointed to the door on the far side. "Cloud, Tidus and Tifa, that room," he pointed to the door on the other side of the room. "Yuffie, Yuna and I will take that one." He pointed at the last door. Without discussion we went off to our designated rooms. Believe me, I wasn't thrilled about being separated from Squall, but at least I was with Tifa. And I don't think Tidus had said much since Squall had told him we were gay, so, that was another plus.
The room we went into was dark like the other one had been originally. Only difference was that the light switch to this room was much easier to find. Flicking it on, we saw…nothing. Or, at least nothing of interest. Rows of immaculate, shiny metal tables and metal boxes underneath them went down the full length and width of the room which was probably about twice the size of the room we had just been in. Maybe this place had been some kind of hospital before? Though, it was odd how the tables were so clean when everything else seemed to be so old.
From one of the other rooms, someone screamed and we looked at one another. The scream was still echoing off all of the emptiness in this place but there weren't any sounds of fighting. "Should we go?" Tidus looked from the open door to Tifa.
Tifa nodded, saying, "Yeah, I think so. Just to make sure everything's okay. There isn't much in here anyway." I figured I'd point out the cleanliness of this particular room later, after we figured out who had been screaming.
Coming out of the room, we saw Cid and Riku attempting to quiet Yuffie who was freaking out. Squall was kneeling in front of a crying Yuna and Sora looked as though he was about to flip out and cry as well. Without waiting another second, Tidus took off and went to Yuna, embracing her and asking her what was wrong. Squall grabbed Sora by the shoulders and started to talk to him.
Looking at Tifa, who shrugged, we approached the chaotic group. "Yuffie! Calm the hell down!" Cid was shouting at Yuffie while Riku tried to grab her hand. Seeing as Yuna was quite calm and everyone seemed to be doing something besides me, I went to go and help with Yuffie.
"Yuffie," I said, standing a little ways away from her frantic jumping and shouting. "Come on, stop." She looked at me before leaping at me, throwing her arms around my neck and bursting into sobs. Holding her I looked to Cid for an explanation.
Cid shook his head and said quietly, "You'd have to see it to believe it."
As Yuffie quieted, I gave her a hard hug before saying to Cid, "All right, let's go."
Yay! Cliffhanger! Hehe, alright, I promise I'll work real hard to get the next chapter up ASAP as time/school/everything else provides for. Woooooooooo.
-Todpirscher
