Under the Guiltless Sun


Volume II of the 'Sun' series






Tifa's Dairy

September 13, 2005

Dear Diary,

Cloud talked to Barret today. And I talked to Johnny again. Me and Johnny talked about the Vincent thing. He said that was weird, exciting, and really really cool. I asked, "How's that?" He said that it was something from a movie; a beautiful girl with a mysterious past and everything. Murder, suicide, money, the whole nine yards, he said. And a long-lost half-brother, oh, boy. Then, he asked me how me and Cloud were doing. I guess we have been ok.
You know, people who haven't been in a serious relationship wouldn't really ever understand. I guess you have to be in love to really know, but, when you get together with someone, it isn't remotely like it is in the story books. You still are who you are inside. If you go into a serious relationship feeling lonely- that loneliness just doesn't get sucked away into the real hole of a nothingness that you feel- it stays there. You wouldn't think it would, but it does. Nothing ever changes inside unless you make it go away.

But I don't know how.

Is everyone this lonely when they are in love?

I don't know, diary, I don't know. People say when you meet, 'the one,' you just know. But, what if another 'one' comes along? Are there two? What if there was no such thing as 'the one' in the first place? Or maybe, only some people were destined to have soul-mates, and not everybody. Like Barret. He's getting on in age, has a daughter, doesn't expect to fall in love ever again. Maybe Marlene is his soul-mate. Do soul-mates have to be lovers or can they be children or best-friends?

I think I LOVE Johnny, Diary, that's why I'm crying again.
But I don't know HOW I love him, too. I love Barret. And Cloud. Just... not me.

Johnny said the smartest thing to me the other day. And I started to cry when he said it. It... just was to true, it touched me. Ok. Here goes. This is what Johnny told me, and, I think it will help you, too.

"All the love you have been giving, was all really meant for you."

That's all. Good night, Dairy.
Yours truly,

Tifa (Isabell Valentine) Lockheart


~

"Let me introduce you two. Vincent, this is Tori. Tori, Vincent Valentine." Stygian said pleasantly. Vincent took the woman's hand, and kissed her soft palm.

"Oh. What a gentleman! Are you a resident, here, Mr. Valentine?" Tori asked.

"No." Vincent glanced to the black vampire. "Not yet, anyway."

"Oh. I hope you do enjoy your stay. Have you seen Dr. Stygian's lab yet? He's on the brink of some exciting new research." Tori asked. She was a pleasant-human-looking woman in a red dress.

"No, Tori, he hasn't we were about to head over there after I gave him the tour of the office. But Vincent has barely seen the city yet! Tori, since your off work now, why don't you give him the grand tour of the city, and you can save the tour of my lab for last. I've barely got any work done at all in the past two days since... Since Eve has gone missing. I hope though, that this isn't super-imposing." Stygian passed a knowing glance to Vincent.
Tori smiled, exceedingly pleased to have the honor of showing Vincent about.

"Sure! No one knows the city better than me, anyway! No, this isn't super-imposing, really." Tori replied, placing her hand on Vincent's shoulder while kindly smiling.

"Well, good. I will see you both later." Stygian walked off without a further explanation or long-drawn-out-formal goodbye.

Vincent saw it as rather rude and abrupt to be shoved off on someone else's shoulder's so quickly. Tori, however, seemed delighted.

Tori was a vampire, however, she seemed to be of a different sort than Stygian. She, unlike him, would have perfectly blended in with human society by her outward appearance. Her strait hair slid down in hooked, brunette ringlets onto her shoulders. Her arms slid out of her red dress sleeves in gentle, blue-ish white curves. Her neck was much like a swan's, with a soft, sliding form that delicately lead up to a porcelain, china-doll face.
She painted her lips the color of the liquid she lived upon.
A thick, muddy blood red.

Her eyes, thought Vincent. 'They give it away that she doesn't breathe.'

"Shall we?" She asked politely.
Vincent nodded and followed her out of Stygian's office building.

They walked out into the street by stepping down a small flight of concrete stairs.
Tori raised her hand as if she were a tour guide following procedure.
"Well, this is your first time in our fair city, isn't it?"
Vincent nodded.
Tori smiled. Her thick red lips shimmered under the soft, blue glow of the street lights.
"Welcome to New Gomorra, the city under the snow." Tori tossed her chestnut brown terraces of hair over her shoulder. Vincent followed her as she began to walk.
Her heels clicked rhythmically against the sidewalk that glittered- as if everything were made of diamonds.

"Did Dr. Stygian tell you how the city was founded? It's actually a really interesting story." Tori asked as Vincent walked around in wonderment.

"No. Not really." He said as he stared at buildings they passed by. All the buildings looked as alive as their residences; some of them looked like gigantic, Cetra-like buildings. They were shaped like giant sea-shells, their opal insides carved out and lived in. Others looked like organic, rock faced living beings, with irregular shapes and textures with oval windows.
Some were piled onto each other and cramped and jammed into skyscraper like structures, others were spaced out and made into shopping stores.

The oddest, and one of the tallest buildings, was one that looked as if it were made entirely out of bones. On it's corners, was something that looked like a spine; for it's windows it was as if it were made out of tusks and teeth to make it's frame. It loomed over Vincent as they walked by, casting odd skeletal shadows over him.

The whole city had a moon-light, dreamy glow to it, for on every corner was a tall street lamp. The street lamps were a sort of plant, posting long, gnarled roots into the glittering concrete. Trees, and 'people' lined the streets. Vegetation lived along side the people of New Gomorra; vines and ivy snaked up all the buildings.
Trees made themselves at home as the people.
Several of them had taken root right in the middle of the streets and had been doing so for what seemed like thousands of years. Some of the trees looked ancient and gigantic. Cars simply went around them.

The people that passed Vincent and Tori paid them little mind.
Gorgons, trolls, dragons, and some things that Vincent had no idea what to call them walked and talked with each other casually- living out their lives.
Some were beautifully colored and in the latest and greatest fashion. Others reminded him of the ordinary folk back in the World Above.

A woman with butterfly wings on her back even smiled and winked at Vincent.
He tried to smile back.

"...Dr. Stygian is actually one of the oldest residents here. He was created by the founder of the city, an old, wise, vampire named- hey, Vincent! Are you listening to me?" Tori nudged him in the ribs as she stopped herself from talking.

"Huh? Oh, forgive me, I was just captivated... The city here, it's... actually so beautiful, so alive, so unique. Even the AIR here, is so clean and fresh compared to home." Vincent remarked as he glanced over his shoulder to a street performer.

The street performer looked something like a French harlequin. It was thin, tall, and lively, dancing and creating the gentlest moves and music. People who passed it by tossed coins into a felt black top hat that sat on the sidewalk near it.

"Yes," Tori remarked proudly. She walked like a peacock strutting it's feathers. "We are very proud of our city. Come on, do you want to go have some... fun?"

"Huh?" Vincent looked at Tori as she took his clawed arm. "I asked, 'Do you want to go have some fun?' Stop touring. There's so much to see, but, you HAVE to go to one of the nightclubs here. They really are the best in the world."

"I don't know. Aren't there any parks or something? I'm really not in the mood to- I don't like crowded places anyway." Vincent defensively added, trying to distance himself from her. She only clutched his metallic arm tighter.

"Stop being such a party-pooper. Come on, Vincent! It'll be fun! Me, you, and the dance floor. Come on. Us, 'monsters,' really know how to have fun, you know?"

Before Vincent could rightly protest, he found himself being pulled and lead to a sort of public transportation station, where, soon enough, he was placed side by side with Tori on some sort of mass transit system.

The battery operated machine took Tori, he, and nearly a hundred others to a darker area of the city; clearly it was 'the-other-side-of-the-tracks.' This darker area of the city looked older, dilapidated, and even dangerous.

The mass transit machine looked somewhat like a train, only it traveled on rails that were up in the air, twisting and turning around the city and the skyscrapers smoothly. It stopped sporadically, letting on and off passengers.

The deeper it went to the dark areas, the brighter it's front headlight turned. Them, before Vincent realized where he was, he and Tori were the only two left on the train.

The train stopped. Vincent looked out the window. The train was in-front of a shack-like building. It's front was falling over a neon sign that read in flickering-pink-and-blue-letters, 'The 9th Babel.'

"This is our stop." Tori said getting out of her seat and walking up the aisle in loud clicks.
Vincent followed her.
He made a decision. Never trust vampire women.

Tori thanked the mass-transit driver with a wink. Vincent glanced at the driver as he walked down the dirty train steps; it was an older man with long, sharp red ears. He looked something like a troll.

As the train's door closed with a hiss, he thought the driver said something to him (in a cackling, bloody laugh,) about 'having fun.' And, 'being careful out 'ere.' But, Vincent didn't quite catch what he said, exactly. He shuddered.

"Come on, Vincent. It's not safe out here. This is what we call, 'the badlands' of the city. It's actually zoned off and illegal to be here. That was the only train that goes to and from here. It's not supposed to, but, the company that owns the mass-transit systems has been receiving bribes by the black market to go here at least twice a night." Tori took his arm and tried leading him into the tiered, sagging shack.
Vincent wouldn't budge.
"Why is this area of the city deserted and illegal?" As he spoke, a flock of bats flew by. They leapt from one part of the cavern ceiling to another in ear-splitting screeches and flutters.

"Because! A couple years ago, the city got into a civil war. This was the war zone. There are a... a lot of... ghosts here. Come on, this place gives me the creeps. Everyone knows from this area, to area X, is haunted. Let's go inside. This is the only building here with life in it. It's a nightclub."

Vincent was reluctantly lead from the dusty, black, dead cavern that smelt weakly of gunpowder and death, to the broken down shack.



Tori smiled like a cat as she pushed open the unlocked door. Vincent, then, saw a set of fangs nested in-between two solid, thick lines of red lipstick.

Meanwhile, deep in the basement of his lab at the youngest hours of the morning, Dr. Stygian was having success in making his Aeris/Jenova creation.
The young babe, born out of a test tube, was growing rapidly due to the Jenova cells.
She, like Sephiroth, would have mako injections to slow her growth rate when she becomes of age.
She has bright green eyes, and long, brown hair.
She smiles, much like Aeris.
The reflections in her malachite emerald eyes flicker like Sephiroth.
She looks to be about ten months old, now. In a day, she will be standing.

Stygian is pleased, but worried. Who will she be most like?
Hopefully, nurture will take it's course.
She will be raised by Stygian himself.

~


"So, pray tell where are we going to find, this, Ray, Tseng?" Reno asked as Rude drove in silence.

"I told you, by following the odd assortment of lighting. Look, it's moving North, now, looks like it's going to the Northern continent."

"Anybody bring a jacket?" Elena asked.

"I don't think it's even real lighting. I think that they are living beings from the Planet." Tseng sighed as they drove along the long, country road.
Reno was counting the cows they passed. 2,765. He loathed the smell the made. He hated the country.

"That's a theory. You know, Tseng, maybe your right. It sure doesn't act like a thunder storm. I hope were going in the right direction." Elena commented.

"When we get to Juneon, we are going to get a boat and keep following the lighting. There is a city there, on the Northern continent, bet a billion gil that's where Ray is. Or in Juneon, doing what we are doing and following the lighting." Tseng glanced back into the back seat at Elena.

Reno rolled his eyes once he saw Elena blush.

Reno sighed, and leaned his arm out the window. He didn't care when he noticed his arm turn slightly red from the sunlight's exposure.
As Elena and Tseng carried on about their theories, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and the crazy mission that they were on... to... find... what, exactly?
Reno didn't know. Or care.
He thought about the days as the Turks. How things have... changed?
Tseng's back.
Great, so what?
Elena. His ex-girlfriend. His ex-co-worker... flirting with his ex-boss. Who used to go out with his ex-girlfriend.

Reno lit a cigarette.
Just going with the flow of life, eh, Reno?-He thought to himself.
Where will life take you now? Looks like it's taking you BACK a bit.
Sort of like Rude, there. Looks like he's taking it all well. Wonder what that ass-hole psycho is thinking, anyway.
They used to be great pals, him and Reno.

Reno thought back when Rude bought his first car on the Shin-Ra pay role. He spent everything on it. It was a silver Kinutse, the best sports car on the market. He remembered it had black leather seats, tinted windows, special-made sleek rims, a racing steering wheel, a spoiler, and a motor that hummed and flared so loudly, it made the heart palpitate. It went zero to sixty in under four seconds flat.
God, it was a beautiful car.
Then, Rude popped the trunk.

It was filled to the gills was heavy armory. Guns, and lots of them.
The look on Rude's face was priceless when Reno said, "Jesus fucking Christ, Rude, you're a PSYCHO!"

Those were the days, thought Reno.
Now, look at him. Rude is driving a Taxi. He goes by the name of Mohammed Al Bazaar.
He wears a fez when he drives a Taxi, and still keeps his sunglasses on.

What about himself? Reno lives in Midgar, the lower end of Section three. He owns a run-down bachelor apartment, a rusted bicycle, a static-filled radio, and a can of half-eaten refried beans and a jar of mustard.
That's something to be proud of. Not really.
Where did the good times go?
Oh.
That's right.
They all went down hill after Cloud Strife and his friends defeated Sephiroth and killed president Rufus.
Yeah, it was cool and all that he saved the world, but, he lost his job and his life-style because of it. At least Rude was employed somewhere.
Reno wasn't.

Reno wonders, as Rude drives on, and as Tseng and Elena keep yaking, where his father is now.
Reno doesn't remember his mother, he assumed that she was dead, or divorced, or something. (Most likely divorced, he thought. Dad never talked about her.) He and dad always got along. Dad paid for college, and his first car. Dad was proud when he worked for Shin-Ra.
Then, he sent dad that letter.

Dear Dad,

Hey, it's me. I'm not good at writing letters, so, bare with me here. I got that job at Shin-Ra. As a Turk. Remember what we talked about on the phone last week? I can't contact you anymore from this point on. I love you, dad.
But, like you said, this is my life, and it's for the better.
I'm sorry it has to be this way, but, it's Turk policy. No friends. No family.
I don't even have a Social Security number anymore.
I'll take care of myself. The company is a whole new life for me with great opportunities, if I can, I'll write. (But, I probably can't.)
I love you dad, and I know you will always love me and be proud of me. Say hi- and bye- to Jared for me.

With love, your son,

Riguel Reno Mezzenger


He never spoke to, or wrote- to dad after he became a Turk. No one was aloud to have contact with their family. They got used to being lonely. Reno blames the Turks for not being able to keep a stable relationship.
Perhaps that was why they often date someone in the company. That was ok.
He knew that Rude, Tseng, and Elena sent their families similar typed out letters.
It was their un-spoken bond.

Reno wonders if they speak to their families, now.

'Real names,' Reno thought as he counted another twelve cows. 'Tseng Yang Fong, Elena Marie Young, and Rude... Rude? It was something like, Ruben... Ruben Hiesman. Something like that. Everyone always called him just, 'Rude.'

Reno missed his father, and his younger brother.
Maybe when he gets home, he'll call.

~

"...So when Nanko told me, I came out as soon as I could. I figured if I followed the lightening long enough, I'd find you, Cid. I... I was worried, about a friend, a collage. I'm just glad that you are safe." Red 13 said as he sat down.

Cid nodded. Actually, he was a little touched.
"Well, thanks, Red. I'ma... I'ma wonderin'-"
"Yeah?" Red asked as he glanced at the silent, (for once,) Yuffie.

"How the %$^%!^% do ya' get out of this god-for-saken' swamp!?" Cid exploded in a eruption of frustration.

"Oh, here, I'll lead you guys out. I know the way I came in." Red 13 offered helpfully. A look of melting relief fell across Cid's dirty features.
Yuffie shook her head. Although she was exhausted and lost, something deep inside of her chest, moved.
"No! We can't leave just yet! We have to, we HAVE to, follow the lighting. I KNOW that it's going to bring something bad!"

"Yuffie..." Cid started.
"No. I know. Yuffie, I too, believe that it's a bad omen. But, be sensible. We are stuck in a swamp doing nothing. We must get out of here. I believe that it's heading North. But, the way out of here is East. We will leave here, get to an INN, and think of what to do from there." Red 13 stood and smiled.

"Count me out of it. I want NUTHIN do do with ANYTHING! I just want to get out of here, and go HOME!" Cid snapped as he began to walk.
Red 13 and Yuffie followed him.

"Cid, I... have a question for you." Red looked up and asked as they headed East.
"Look, I appreciate you comin' and helpin' me, Red, that was real decent of ya, but, I ain't getting' mixed up in no weird @$$ situations again, ok? I'm THROUGH with weird @$$ situations!"

"No! Cid! That's not what I was going to ask! I was just wondering if you kept the black box on your Tiny Bronco." Yuffie looked down at Red as she was following his train of thought.

"Well, sure, but, she's dead, you know, if we weren't in a swamp I'd give her a proper burial. She's over there." Cid pointed off towards the left.

Red 13 dashed into the bushes, eager to hear what exactly went on as Cid was hit by the mysterious lighting creatures that accidentally escaped from Dr. Stygian's lab, deep in the Earth, several weeks ago.