Disclaimer:
Yeah...still don't own it...
Author's Note:
Hello all! Here's another chapter for ya'll! Sorry it took me so long! Hopefully I'll be able to get the next one up faster!
Anyhoo, this is a message to all who read this, there's a loverly little button on the bottom of this page that feels rather lonely and unloved and would feel a whole heck of a lot better if you loverly readers would press him and leave a wonderful little message for the writer. If everyone who read this left a review I'd be swimming in them. So pretty pretty please with a cherry on top leave a review once you finish reading! :D
Enough of my babble though. Carry on!
Chapter VII:
Ransom
I had no idea where I was. A small window, used to let in sunlight and fresh air, was my only clue to what the outside world looked like and, right now, the 'outside world' was a vast expanse of trees as far as the eye could see. I must have sat in front of that window for hours trying to find something, anything that would tell me where I was, but nothing was even slightly familiar. I wasn't given a chance to see the rest of the cabin either. Whenever I had to go to the bathroom, Ronin blindfolded me and led me there.
He feeds me three meals a day and even provided me with meager entertainment like books, magazines, puzzles, cross word puzzles, word searches, coloring books – he even threw in markers, colored pencils and crayons – a deck of cards and an assortment of other things. He never lets his guard down though; he continues to carry that hand gun around with him where ever he goes. He hasn't brandished it at me since the first time I met him, which was a week ago. He even told me he wouldn't point it at me with the intent to use it unless he had to.
I thought this unusually kind behavior was just a ruse to lull me into a false sense of security and catch me off guard when I was least expecting it. One side of me wanted to believe that he finally realized what he was getting himself into and was rethinking his actions, but the other side of me wasn't so confident. His behavior toward me was totally unexpected. I thought that all he was going to feed me was bread and water then leave me alone in my room with nothing to do but count the days I spent in captivity on the wall, which I had already started doing.
So, after he brought me my lunch, I decided to ask him all the questions that had been fermenting in my mind.
I reached out and grabbed Ronin's wrist after he turned to leave, hoping I wasn't crossing some invisible line. As soon as my hand wrapped around his wrist he jerked it away and whirled around with the gun in his hand. I jumped away and threw my hands up into the air to let him know that I wasn't going to give him a reason to use that gun.
"What?" He asked, putting as much venom in his voice as he could.
I swallowed the lump that was blocking my throat and put my hands behind my back, preparing myself to speak. "Well...why are you being so nice to me? I thought you wanted to kill me."
He face appeared thoughtful for a few moments before he lowered the gun back to his side. "I thought about it," he said, lowering his eyes to the floor. "I thought I could take a life and not feel any qualms about it. But...but I didn't expect you to be pregnant."
"So being pregnant saved my life?"
He nodded. "I guess it did." He paused and cleared his throat. "Anyways, I'm going to record a ransom tape and send it to your Avalanche friends. You and your group are going to pay me back for what you did." having said his piece, Ronin turned and quickly walked to the door to prevent me from stopping him a second time. Before he disappeared through the door he glanced back at me. "Oh, they're looking for you, you know."
Later that night, after I had finished my dinner, I was sitting next to the window before going to bed, gazing at the stars, when all of a sudden I remembered how I made Cloud promise me to be my knight in shining armor whenever I was in trouble. Tears welled up behind my eyes at how much I missed him. It's been almost two years; I thought I was finished mourning over his death. I had thought I had put it all behind me.
I have, I thought. The memories are the only thing that hurts anymore.
I laid my hands over my stomach as I felt my twins moving around inside me. They were totally oblivious to the danger they were in and I hoped I would never have to tell them about this. Everyday I spend here in this place is a day closer to my due date and every time that thought enters my head the fear of where I will deliver these babies gets bigger and the more frightened I become that I won't be rescued in time to save them if they come early.
Please, Vincent, wherever you are, please hurry.
"Vincent! Wake up, dammit!"
I slowly opened my eyes and groaned as a blast of sunlight burned holes in my retinas. I slapped my hand over my face and furiously rubbed at my eyes. Once my eyes stopped burning and the tiny stars disappeared, I was able to see who woke me up.
"Good morning to you as well, Barret," I grumbled, sitting up against my pillows. "Do you have any news?"
"I do actually," he said, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
"Do we know where she is?" I asked, ready to jump out of bed and fly out the door that very second.
"We found an eye witness that says they saw someone sneak out the back door of the banquet hall carryin' a pregnant female. He got on the back of a gold chocobo and ran off. They don't know which way they went."
I sighed and hung my head. "A gold chocobo. So they could be anywhere right now."
"And we don't even know what the bastard looks like. The eye witness couldn't get a good look at 'im 'cause of how dark it was outside. The only thing we can do now is get word out through the media. That is, if it's alright with you."
I frowned slightly and was a little surprised that Barret had actually asked my permission to do something. I nodded – not like I was gonna turn him down – and watched him leave the room. He hadn't even had to ask my permission to get word of Tifa's kidnapping out to the public. This would be the sort of thing were permission is implied. I exhaled the breath that I was holding in and flopped back onto the bed.
What the hell is wrong with you, Valentine? Are you seriously that attached to her? Chaos said, the ever perpetual sneer in his voice.
I wouldn't expect you to even begin to comprehend something like love, demon. How can you understand it when you're incapable of loving anything?
Oh come on, Valentine, you should know better than that. You know that I love you, don't you, Vincent?
Don't try to fool me, Chaos. You love me about as much as you love your next meal.
Now that was below the belt. That one hurt, he said, feigning sadness.
Enough, Chaos. Leave me alone.
Chaos snorted in disgust. Give me a break, Valentine. The only reason why you're so touchy is because you're letting everyone else do the work. We both know that if you get your whiny ass out there and track the bastard yourself there's a better chance that you'll find him before anyone else gets close.
I sat up and carefully pondered his words for a few moments before pushing myself out from under the warm covers, my mind made up. I trudged over to my bag and pulled out my old, tattered cloak, slowly running my fingers over the fabric before collecting rest of my clothing. I'm not even sure why I carry the thing with me even though I swore to myself that I would never put the damned thing on again after Tifa and I were married. I guess it's more for sentimental value than anything.
I slid the Cerberus into my leg holster and glided down the stairs. Reeve, Yuffie and Shera were assigned the duty of contacting all the dignitaries in each city and giving them all the information about Tifa that they could so a missing person poster could be distributed to everyone. Cid was helping Barret out in any way that he could, saying something about feeling like a bump on a log for not contributing. Barret was offering a hefty amount of gil to anyone that could provide concrete information about where she was or who took her.
Yuffie had made the posters for Corel and had already handed a few of them out to local businesses. I leaned over and picked one off of the coffee table. All three people sitting around it were so preoccupied with their phone calls that they didn't even notice my presence until they had finished their conversation.
"Oh, hello, Vincent," Reeve said, smiling pleasantly at me. "I didn't see you walk up."
"I noticed," I mumbled. I was much too busy gazing at the picture Yuffie had found for the poster. Somehow, while sifting through all the pictures on Barret's computer, she had found some of our wedding photos and had picked one out where Tifa was posing alone. She had cropped the photo so that only her face was on the paper.
She had looked...so radiant that day. While Cid was escorting her down the aisle she looked like an angel. She had refused to let me see her dress before the wedding day because of an old myth or something, but when I saw her in her dress for the first time I was glad that she hadn't shown it to me. I was so captivated by her that I could barely repeat the words the priest was saying. I closed my eyes and looked away from the picture, feeling the sting of tears at the thought that I may never see her again. I took a deep breath and quickly blinked them away, setting the poster back amongst the others.
I cleared my throat and looked at the expectant faces of Reeve, Shera and Yuffie. "I'm leaving."
Shera frowned. "Leaving? Vincent, what do you mean?"
"I'm going to look for Tifa myself. My tracking skills might be good enough to find her, wherever she is." I paused and drew in a deep breath. "I haven't been myself lately and I apologize for that – "
"Vincent," Yuffie interrupted. "stop apologizing for shit that isn't your fault! Your wife was abducted right from under all of our noses! And if you think that her being kidnapped is your fault then you better think again!" By now Yuffie was standing in front of me shouting loud enough for everyone in the entire house to hear. "You may have those friggin creepy demons inside you but you can't predict the future! We are coming together as a team to find Tifa and if you going out to see if you can track the bastard that took her down then go do it! But don't you dare think that you're alone in this."
I was shocked into silence when the young ninja had started yelling at me. As long as I had known her I had never heard her yell at anyone like she had just yelled at me. I didn't even think she had it in her. I nodded and walked towards the door, still too thunderstruck to offer a retort. I found my voice when I reached the door.
"I stand thoroughly corrected," was all I said before disappearing out the door in a flurry of red, tattered cloak.
Early that morning I heard Ronin mumbling and moving things about in the other room. I moved over the the door and pressed my ear up against it in hopes of finding out what he was doing. A chair scraped across the floor, setting my teeth on edge. Ronin's soft mumbling could once again be heard and a dull scratching sound, that I presumed was him writing something on a piece of paper, joined his voice. I bit my lip as I realized he was probably writing down what he was going to say for the ransom tape.
I sighed and backed a few steps away from the door before quickly knocking on it. "Ronin?"
"Yes?"
"I need to go to the bathroom."
I heard the chair scrape back across the floor, followed by his footsteps. He thrust the blindfold under the door and I, knowing the routine, scooped it up off the floor and tied it around my eyes.
"Okay."
Ronin quickly inspected my blindfold job and, being satisfied with it, led me to the bathroom so I could take care of my business. Once I was securely back in my room he brought me my breakfast. I was almost finished when Ronin barged into my room, carrying a backpack in one hand and a small white cloth in the other. Before I had time to even think about reacting he rushed towards me and slammed the cloth over my nose and mouth. I realized then that was how he had kidnapped me in the first place so I tried to pry his hands away from me so I could get rid of the cloth but my attempt was once again futile. I slipped in unconsciousness without even putting up a fight.
When I woke up it was pitch black all around me. I lifted my hands to my face to check if there was a blindfold over my eyes, but there wasn't. The surface I was lying on was extremely hard and bumpy, making my back cry out in protest with every breath I took in. The air was musty and old, similar to the atmosphere of an ancient tomb left unopened for centuries. I licked my parched lips and scanned the dark emptiness around me, trying to make something of my surroundings out. Every sound I made seemed to echo endlessly off into the distance and I could hear a faint dripping of water somewhere, indicating to me that Ronin had brought me to a cave.
He was smarter than I thought. He was going to keep moving me around so Vincent or anyone else for that matter would have no chance of finding me until he was ready. I knew then that he was serious about procuring ransom money from my friends. The only thought that would be running through my head for days to come was the fear that he wouldn't give me back once the ransom money was given to him.
I jumped when a soft click resonated through the cavern, followed by a bright beam of light pointed directly at me. I snapped my eyes shut and covered them with my hands to shield them so I wouldn't be blinded.
"You know," Ronin began, taking the beam away from my face. "it really is quite difficult to find suitable hideouts when your Avalanche groupies have everyone on the damn planet on the look out for you."
"Well then maybe you shouldn't have kidnapped me," I snapped, slowly sitting up. "Where did you bring me anyways?"
"Look around you," he said, shining his flashlight around the immense rock cavern.
I rolled my eyes. "Do you know how many caves there are on this planet?"
He chuckled. "Exactly. Why would I want to tell you, my captive, where we are? That would defeat the whole purpose of abducting you. If I told you were I've brought you, be near a city or what have you, you'll try to escape and I won't put up with that." He patted the handgun that was tucked into his pants.
I sighed and wrapped my hands around my cold feet. I would have killed for a warm pair of wool socks right about now. It was always warm in the cabin so I walked around without my high heels all the time, not worrying about my feet getting cold. I presumed they were still in the cabin. My pants and shirt were dirty and stinky from being worn constantly; it wouldn't have killed him to get me some extra clothes.
"How far along are you?" He asked, breaking the silence.
"A few days over eight months."
"Well, then I hope your friends get the ransom money together quickly. I would hate for your baby not to be born in a hospital."
"Yeah," I said, putting as much hate in my voice as I could. "that would just break your heart, wouldn't it?"
He chuckled but said nothing more. He dug the pad of paper that he had begun scribbling the ransom note on out of his pack and continued to write. After about an hour he finally stopped writing and began rummaging through his old backpack. He pulled out a small tape recorder then got up and disappeared into the darkness. It seemed like hours had passed before he returned carrying a large bundle of wood, hopefully to make a fire.
He laid it down on the ground and stood them up against each other so the pieces of wood resembled a tee pee before striking a match and tossing it into the middle of it. The wood kindled quickly and I scooted closer to it so my feel could warm up. Ronin turned to me and tossed me a packet of jerky, a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water then before walking off once more.
I greedily dug into the jerky and chips, scarfing it down like I hadn't eaten in days. I crossed my legs and took a sip of my water, wondering exactly how deep this cave system was and how far away I was from the exit. The thought of creeping off and seeing if I could discover the exit popped into my head but I quickly pushed that thought from my mind and hugged my belly. Caves were dangerous things, the tunnels spanned underground for miles and some paths even led to sharp drop offs of fifty feet or more. I shuddered at the thought, promising my twins that I would never think such a ludicrous thought again.
It was many hours before Ronin returned with more fire wood. By the time he got back the fire was almost out so I smiled as the fire sprang back to life once he added the extra wood. I was getting ready to speak when Ronin decided to say something.
"Get some rest. I brought enough wood to keep us warm until morning. I've already recorded the tape and sent it off so your friends should be getting it soon. We'll be relocating again in the morning so be prepared."
With that said, Ronin pulled some thin blankets out of his pack and passed a couple of them to me. He settled under his own blanket and used his back pack as a pillow. I scooted closer to the fire and stared at my two blankets, figuring that I was supposed to use one as pillow. Sighing I folded one of them up until it was thick enough to suffice and curled up under the other one. I covered my face with a corner of the blanket and silently wept.
Three days after I had begun my search, I received a call from Barret on my cell phone that I needed to get back to his house ASAP. Before I could even ask him why he had hung up. I was in the mountains by Junon and, with a little help from Chaos, made it back to Barret's home in Corel in record time. I flew in the front door, startling everyone else.
"Where's Barret?" I asked, urgency written all over my face.
Shera walked up to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "He's not here yet. He should be here soon. Come and sit down. You look exhausted."
I let Shera sit me down in a chair in front of the dining room table. A few seconds later she pushed a mug of tea into my hands. "Thanks you," I said, smiling at her.
"Now you drink all of that," she said, with a soft commanding tone. "It'll make you feel better I promise."
And drink all of it I did. Barret came flying in the door just as I was placing my empty mug into his sink. Once I joined everyone in the living room I saw that he had a tape in his hand.
"Okay, everyone, gather 'round! This is it! This is it!"
Yuffie, who had jumped off the couch when he barged in, ran over from her place in front of the television. "What's it, Barret? What is that?"
"This," he began, showing everyone the tape. "was delivered to my office this morning." Barret looked over at me and took a deep breath. "It's a ransom tape."
I forced myself to swallow the lump that had settled in my throat. "Let's listen to it," I mumbled.
Barret nodded and walked out of the room, reappearing moments later with Marlene's white cassette player. He set it down on the dining room table and carefully placed the ransom tape inside it. He set his hands over the top of his daughter's tape player and stared at everyone in turn before speaking.
"Okay guys," he said, his voice voice quivering. "Whatever's on this tape determines whether we can get Tifa back safely or not. The person that took her knows how wealthy we are and is gonna want a hefty some of gil. All of us have to agree right now to give the bastard what he wants. Tifa is more precious ta us and ta Vincent that none of us should have a reason to say the amount this person is askin' is too much. Right?"
My stomach clenched as I looked at everyone's face, wondering if Tifa really did mean that much to them. I found it a sickening trend that people living in this era found it extremely hard to part with their gil. Some even guarded their millions with their lives like those shiny coins and those stacks of colored paper were living things. People, young and old, at their wit's end, stole it, the rich greedily hoarded it and the poor clung to it like it alone could save them. The gil that I had collected as a mercenary was for Tifa and our unborn twins. As soon as she is safe and back home with me I'm giving her every single penny.
I sighed as everyone in the room nodded their heads enthusiastically, whole-heartedly agreeing. Barret looked over at me then pressed the play button, turning up the volume.
Hello Avalanche. I suppose you've been running yourselves ragged trying to find your missing member. I've seen the posters, they're everywhere I go. Don't worry. I never bring Tifa anywhere with me. Whenever I leave I keep her locked up nice and tight. She's being well taken care of, you can rest assured about that. Well, at least she'll say that way unless you agree to my terms. I'm asking for two million gil be delivered to me for her safe return. I'll give you all one week to agree to my terms or disagree with them. When your week is up I'll contact you again. Oh, and in the mean time, don't bother trying to look for her. You have an entire planet to search if you'd like to try though. Oh and one more thing, Tifa is awfully close to her due date. Don't make the wrong decision.
No one spoke once the recording had stopped. The silence around me was so heavy I thought it would crush me. Two million... Is he really that desperate?
Then, like someone had flicked a switch, everyone erupted in shouts and yells all at once. I tuned them out, neither knowing or caring what they were talking about. Eventually the nose that was being created by their screaming became too much for me to handle.
"Shut up!" I bellowed, effectively silencing everyone. They all looked at me in shock, surprised that I had yelled so loudly. "Sorry," I mumbled, before walking out of the kitchen and through the front door.
I had just stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street when I heard Barret's clomping footsteps approaching me. I sighed heavily and turned around, waiting for him to catch up with me.
"Vincent, what was that about?"
"I'm sorry, Barret. I don't know what came over me."
"It's alright, man," Barret replied, laying a large hand on my shoulder. "We're all unda stress ovea all this bullshit."
"Yeah," I replied, nodding my head. "I just want my wife back, Barret. The day after she was Seto told me that she's pregnant with twins."
"How can he know that?" Barret asked incredulously.
"I don't know," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. I took in a deep, shaky breath and let it out slowly. "At least I know that she's alive."
"So how far along is she now?"
"She should be a little over eight months."
"Then we still got a lot of time then right?" The large mayor asked, hopefulness in his voice.
"I"m not sure. I've read that twins usually come earlier than single births. Sometimes women carrying twins don't make it to full term."
"Well then that bastard had better keep up his end of the bargain. Come on, let's get back inside."
Barret put his hand on my back on my shoulder and led me back into his home even though I wanted nothing more than to turn right around and continue looking for Tifa.
