Sora, Riku, and Kairi followed Marlene, traveling through the countless buildings, looking for the house that Tifa lived in. The three keyblade wielders knew that this world was in a lot worse condition then they thought it would be in, since they did see that heartless like creature attack Marlene. So they knew that they had to get together with Cloud, Tifa, and the others as soon as possible.
After a few minutes of walking, Marlene came to a stop in front of a building with a sign over the top that read 'Seventh Heaven.' "This is the place," Marlene said, walking up to the door and holding it open for the keyblade wielders. But Riku did go up to the door and held it open instead shortly after, since he knew it would be the polite thing to do.
As Riku held the door open, Sora, Kairi, Marlene, and eventually Riku himself walked into the restaurant, seeing the bar and several tables that were set up first. "Tifa!" Marlene exclaimed, "Some of your old friends are here!"
Shortly after Marlene said that, the three keyblade wielders heard steps coming down stairs, all of them knowing who it was. It was when they saw the young woman with the dark brown hair and wearing the same outfit the three of them saw her wearing last time turn the corner when they all smiled. "Sora, Riku, Kairi!" Tifa said happily as she quickly walked over to the three keyblade masters, first embracing Sora in a hug.
"It's great to see you Tifa!" Sora said as Tifa stopped hugging him and moved on to hug Kairi.
"We are sorry we couldn't have made it here sooner," Kairi said in a low tone as Tifa hugged her, but Tifa quickly stopped hugging her and moved on to hug Riku.
"It looks like this world could use a lot more help than we thought." Riku said as Tifa stopped hugging him and then just stood out in front of the three.
"It's alright, I am glad you could come and help out." Tifa said as they all heard what sounded like a mix between a cry and a groan coming from a higher level from the house. Tifa only sighed at this before she bent down to Marlene's level. "Marlene, would you go check on him please?" Tifa asked the little girl, who only nodded and ran towards where the stairs where.
"Who is he?" Sora asked Tifa.
"Denzel, he is an orphaned boy living with us," Tifa explained, "Right now he is not doing so well."
"Does he have this disease all these children in the streets have?" Riku asked, as Tifa only nodded her head.
"The geostigma," Tifa said, "It is unfortunately a very violent disease, I just hope that he will keep fighting." Tifa then folded her hands together, as if she was about to pray, but then separated her hands.
"Geostigma?" Kairi said, "What caused it? I have never heard of that before."
"We are not sure what caused it, but we do know that there is no cure." Tifa explained. "It's heartbreaking really, I would have thought Denzel would have been the most devastated to find out he had it, but really Cloud was…"
"Where is Cloud anyway? Is he looking after Denzel now?" Sora asked as Tifa's whole expression changed to a worried look.
"Cloud is… gone." Tifa said, which shocked the keyblade wielders. They all came here to help the two of them, and now he was gone, and they didn't know how to react to it.
"Where is he then? Is he alright?" Sora asked worried. He didn't want to have come all this way just to find out that Cloud was gone.
"As far as I know, he is fine, but I think he really just wants to fight alone." Tifa said, "He hasn't answered any of my calls, and I haven't heard from him, but I think that he just needs time to reflect on what has happened in the past few years."
Sora then looked down at the ground slightly upset, but then he brought his head back up. "Well what about Zack, Aerith, and the others? Didn't they come back to this world to help restore it too? Where are they?" Sora asked.
Before Tifa could say anything, she walked behind the bar and waved her hand to the keyblade wielders, guiding them to sit down on the stools, which they did. "You don't need to worry about them, they are just scattered across the world right now, trying to restore other parts of this world first. I believe that Zack and Aerith went to Zack's home town, Cid went to his, Yuffie went to hers, and to be honest I have no clue where Vincent went." Tifa stopped.
The room was then silent, since no one really knew what to say, until Riku broke that silence. "Do you think Cloud would come back if he knew we were here?" Riku said.
Everyone then turned to look at him. "That actually might work, before all this happened, he did seem glad that you three were going to come help out." Tifa said as she dug her hand into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone and shoved it over by Sora. "But you need to call him."
"Me? Why?" Sora asked as he took the phone from Tifa.
"You are one of Cloud's closest friends aren't you? I mean for once he actually didn't act depressed and hugged you when we saved this world from the meteor." Kairi said, crossing her arms.
Sora then sighed. "Alright," Sora then got up out of the room and walked into the hallway so, if Cloud did pick up, he could talk to him without any interruptions.
Sora quickly made it into the hallway and scrolled down the list of names in Tifa's contacts until he found Cloud's name. He then clicked on the name and held the phone to his ear, but unfortunately a few seconds later, it went to his voicemail. Sora only sighed at this, but figured it would be smart to leave him a voicemail. "Hey Cloud," Sora spoke into the phone, "Ah well we just wanted to let you know we are here, you know so we could help restore your world? But the only problem is Zack, Aerith, the others, and you aren't here. So I just wanted to know if we are going to fix your world like I promised." Sora then paused, "Is something wrong? Even for you this doesn't seem right."
Sora the shut the phone and walked out to where Tifa, Riku, and Kairi where. "Did he answer?" Kairi asked, but Sora only shook his head.
Tifa only sighed at this. "I should have known, he hasn't answered his phone since he left." Tifa then lowered her head in defeat, but Sora only looked at her with a determined look on his face.
"Don't worry Tifa," Sora said, "If Cloud won't come to us, then we will just have to go to him."
Everyone then looked at Sora shocked. "What are you trying to say?" Riku asked.
"Well it's pretty obvious Cloud doesn't want to be found, and I don't know why. But we are going to have to find out by finding him." Sora said.
"You mean you would really go through all the trouble to go and look for him?" Tifa asked as Sora nodded, causing Tifa to smile. "If that's the case them I am helping you."
"Don't worry; we will all go look for him." Kairi said, with Sora and Riku nodding in agreement.
"Only problem is I am not sure where we should look." Sora said, lowering his head.
"He couldn't have gone far," Tifa said, "My guess is that he is still around the Midgar ruins, I know for a fact he wouldn't have gone to any of his other friends."
"You mean like the desert surrounding the place?" Riku asked as Tifa nodded, "Well I'll go and look there."
"I'll go with you, you know so we have two sets of eyes on the place." Sora said as Riku smiled, but on the inside, he wished Sora didn't say that. Riku wanted to find out more about this geostigma, because if there was no cure, Riku need to think of something to do.
"And I will go with Tifa to look in other areas," Kairi said turning towards Tifa, "That is if you don't mind."
"Of course, and I think I might know where to look." Tifa said.
"So we will report through keyblade rider if anyone finds something?" Sora said as they all nodded and Sora and Riku headed for the door. "Well we will be back when we find any sight of Cloud!"
…
"Hey Cloud. Ah well we just wanted to let you know we are here, you know so we could help restore your world? But the only problem is Zack, Aerith, the others, and you aren't here. So I just wanted to know if we are going to fix your world like I promised. Is something wrong? Even for you this doesn't seem right."
"You have no new messages." That annoying lady's voice said through the phone as the spiky blond slammed his phone shut and strapped it to his fernier.
"So Sora and the others are here," he said to himself, putting his sun glasses on as he got ready to ride, but a sudden pain in his arm stopped him. Little did anyone know that he was hiding the same secret Riku was hiding, that he had geostigma. He ignored it though and got back to the position he was in on his motorcycle.
"I know I said we would help the planet live out its life, help restore it," Cloud said to himself as he had brief flashbacks of that day. "Easy to make that promise."
I know, it has been far to long since I updated, FAR to long.
I am really sorry but I have been so busy latly. Its just my fav cousins came in and one of them got me hooked on World of Warcraft and then he got me my first FF game ever (its XIII) and I have been playing those non stop. And then on top of that I had school work including a essay on this stupid short story we read so yeah.
So again, I am sorry for not updating, but at least I updated now! But I am sorry it is not the best chapter but the next one will be better! I promise.
So until then, plz R&R and look out for the next chapter!
