Chapter Two: Contemplations

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII. The characters and places belong to Square. Gawd, I'm so tired of saying this it's not even funny…

-----

Yuffie had just brought up an ice-pack to Tifa and was now lying on the couch downstairs, right beside the front door. It was now a little bit after three o'clock in the morning and there was still no sign of him. Tired, she closed her eyes and began thinking to herself.

'He just has to take his sweet time…doesn't he? Cloud could be really sick or something. What if he doesn't wake up?' The young woman shivered at the thought of such a thing. 'Maybe Vince stopped off to take a nap in his coffin…argh, he better not have. Naw, I know he didn't. He's too nice for his own good…' A loud knocking sound scared Yuffie so bad that she fell on the ground. Jumping up, she rushed to the door and threw it opened, revealing a somewhat startled Vincent Valentine. It had been a while since she had seen him, almost a year actually. Nothing had changed about him except for the fact that the end of his cloak was even more frayed and tattered from when she had last encountered him. His bangs hung over his crimson eyes that shone in the darkness.

"Well, it took 'ya long enough to get here, Vince!"

"…My apologies. Where is Cloud?"

Yuffie stepped to the side, allowing the man to pass. Putting her hands on her hips, she reminded herself that the dark gunman had a one-track mind.

"He's upstairs with Tifa. He's been 'coughing up chocobos' the whole time. He just stopped like, fifteen minutes ago. I thought you'd never get here…"

The ninja followed the man up the stairs and into the infirmary. Tifa stood up quickly as they walked into the room. Yuffie and Vincent both saw traces of tears on the worried woman's face. She smiled warily out of both happiness to see the man before her and out of surprise that he was even there.

"V—Vincent, thank goodness you came…"

The man nodded curtly and walked over to Cloud's bedside. The room was softly illuminated by two lamps on either side of where the sleeping man lay. Vincent laid his hand on Cloud's forehead; he didn't even need to take off his glove to find out that he had a fever.

"How long has he been like this?"

Tifa crossed her arms and shifted her weight.

"Since about yesterday…Yuffie found him and—,"

Vincent lowered his head, facing away from the door.

"I meant the nightmares."

Tifa closed her eyes, as if remembering something unpleasant and trying to banish it.

"For as long as I can remember…but please! What's wrong with him? We tried all our healing materia, but nothing worked. All that stopped was his coughing…he just won't wake up…" the woman choked out, the last word almost becoming a sob.

Vincent turned to face Tifa and Yuffie.

"I'm afraid I can not do much unless Cloud is conscious. Stress may be causing the nightmares, but unless he's awake, he can not tell me. But of the blood…I do not know."

Tifa held her head in her hands. What could she do now? Would he ever wake up? Perhaps they would have to wait until he did. But what if he didn't? What it was like last time, when he fell into the Life Stream? What if it was stress causing the nightmares and why hadn't she noticed it before?

"I'm sorry for calling you over here at this time of night just for this…"

The dark gunman shook his head.

"No, you were right to call me when you did. There may be something seriously wrong here. Is there anyone we can get in touch with?"

Yuffie was the one who answered this time.

"Hey! How about Nanaki? I'm sure he knows a butt-load about this type of stuff."

Tifa furrowed her brows.

"I'm sure he does Yuffie, but I don't know how we could get in touch with him…"

The shinobi put her hands on her hips and leaned forward.

"Why don't we go get him?"

The bar hostess shifted her gaze to Cloud.

"I…really don't want to leave him like this."

Yuffie smiled.

"Vince and I'll do it! We could take Cloud's bike or we could call up Highwind and take his new Airship and--,"

"But Yuffie, I really don't want to worry the kids…"

"Teef, this is an emergency! What if there is something seriously wrong here!"

Vincent sighed and stepped away from the cot.

"If Nanaki could determine Cloud's condition, he would most probably have to inspect him in person, meaning transporting Cloud to Cosmo Canyon."

Yuffie let one arm hang by her side.

"So that settles it! We'll take the airship to Cosmo…but what about Denzel and Marlene?"

Tifa turned to walk out of the door.

"I guess I'm going to have to arrange for them to stay with Mrs. Elmyra Gainsborough…I'm sure she won't mind. She's been pretty lonely since…"

Everyone bowed their head in solemn remembrance. Tifa walked out of the room to go make a couple of phone calls, leaving Yuffie and Vincent in silence. The shinobi walked over and sat in a chair beside the bed while Vincent stood against the wall and looked out the window.

It was still dark outside and the moon was only half visible from behind dark grey clouds; typical for mid-September. The dark gunman closed his eyes, exhausted from his journey, and contemplated the predicament at hand. From what Yuffie had told him, all he could conclude at the moment was that Cloud was stuck in a nightmare concerning Aeris. There was a connection between his dreams and illness. And somehow, the Cetra was tied in there as well. A never-ending nightmare.

'What have you gotten yourself into this time, Valentine?' he asked himself, almost expecting an answer from a darker part of his mind known as Chaos. None came, but somewhere inside of him, he knew it was almost his responsibility. He scoffed at himself.

'It is my responsibility as what; a human? No, I don't even have the luxury to call myself that. It is my responsibility as a being that is trapped in the same hell as Cloud is currently experiencing, even though in a different sense.'

The man opened his eyes and shifted his gaze to the young woman stroking through the spiky hair of the sleeping man in a motherly fashion. His eyes softened for a moment as he watched her. The way she kept her eyes trained on his closed ones, silently begging him to wake up, allured him. She wasn't the same child he had known. Or, at least he thought.

Yuffie felt his eyes almost boring into her soul. He had always had those eyes; half the time they scared her. She jerked her head up, grey eyes of innocence meeting demon-red eyes seemingly stained with blood. Breaking the awkward silence that seemed to penetrate the room, she jumped up and put her hands on her hips.

"Hey, you seem tired…why don't you get some sleep? I've been staying in the kid's room and Cloud's isn't occupied at the moment. I'll go see if Tifa will get that set up for 'ya, okay?" The girl rambled as she walked out of the door, leaving Vincent to ponder whether she had changed at all…

-----

Author's Note: Hiya, this is Casseh. Thanks to the three people that have reviewed so far. I was kinda hoping that more would review…but I'm sure once I get more chapters up that'll change. So, in the next chapter they're going to set out to Cosmo. Yay! Review!