Tseng
was now sleeping in the bedroom and Rude was "keeping watch" on
Elena and Reno. The noise coming from Rude was overwhelming from the
lack of noise which was coming from Tseng sleeping in the bedroom. He
had fallen asleep whilst watching them both and now no one was
watching if they could move once again. He thought nothing would be
possible for them to regain their ability to move, and he was tired,
so he gradually fell asleep whilst leaning on a surface. This was not
such a good idea as he thought because he was now slipping on the
surface and was going to land face-first onto the floor.
True
enough, he did, and awoke with a horrible shock. Screaming in pain,
he raised himself from the floor and rushed to the bathroom where he
would be able to clean it and but a white stitch-strip on his broken
nose.
Tseng awoke because of the racket and opened the bedroom
door where he found a little splash of blood on the floor somewhere
in front of him. He also saw that there was movement from Reno and
Elena. For the first time in twelve hours at the most, they were able
to move!
"RENO! ELENA! You can move!" Tseng was overwhelmed
with the prospect and went up to them both to help them in any way he
could. He stood in front of Elena who shouted "charge" and caught
her in his arms.
"Careful, you." He told her and laid her on
the couch standing at the other end of the room. He watched over
Elena and called for Rude to watch for Reno. He came stumbling out of
the bathroom and stood in front of him where Reno then went back to
is last action he was about to do before being stopped by Dr. Herman;
he smacked Rude in the face with his Shinra Baton, and then stumbled
to the floor alongside Rude.
"What's goin' on?" Reno asked
as he attempted to rise from the floor, staring at Rude who also
stared back with the same amount of curiosity.
"You can move
again after Dr. Herman stopped us all from movement." Tseng told
him.
"Oh, yeah." Reno said in monotone.
"Cloud was
supposed to come, but Tseng said he wouldn't."
"Did he now?"
Elena put in, staring at Tseng. He just frowned back and folded his
arms.
"Are you disagreeing with my judgement?" Elena
smiled.
"Well, you just always seem to get everything right."
She told him. Tseng was about to add another comment when Reno
interrupted him.
"What are we going to do? Where's Rufus?
Shouldn't we go and rescue him?" Rude shook his head. Elena and
Tseng then joined him in saying:
"Have you forgotten the plan?"
Reno looked at them all as if he was in a dreaming state. He just
stared, and when it all sank in, he suddenly realised what they had
said.
"Oh, the plan . . . when should we start it?" Tseng
perambulated as he spoke.
"Ideally, we should have gone when
they had come for Rufus, so we need to buy for lost time."
"How
can we do that?" Rude asked as he walked past once more. He thought
for a moment, sucking the tip of his thumb.
"What have we got?
Cars - not fast enough, motorbikes - slightly faster and more
agile."
"We could call their pilot, what was his name."
"Cid,"
Reno told them. "He has an airship." Everyone nodded but Tseng,
his eyes bulging.
"Or we could use our own." Elena looked at
him, shocked.
"But you know the condition of that thing, it's
ancient!"
"Shinra technology at its finest," Rude
speculated.
"What are we waiting for?" Reno asked, getting up
and brushing himself down.
"Where did we keep it, again?" Reno
asked them.
"Near here," Tseng told him. "Remember? We were
going to use it whenever Rufus needed an escape."
"Like this
time?" Elena added. Tseng sighed.
"Has everyone
forgotten the plan, but me?" with that said, Tseng walked out of
the room.
"We should follow." Rude told them both and they
nodded.
Progressing outside, they found Tseng behind the lodge,
not far from where Dr. Herman had landed her precious Yereci. He was
searching for something of one of the rocks close at hand. As Reno,
Rude and Elena came to join them, he carried on, ignoring them. And
as he suspected, they all soon began to help him find something which
he was looking for.
"I don't remember there being anything on
the rocks." Reno said. He sat back and leaned on one of them and
watched the rest scramble and search in vain. This was beginning to
get boring, and he wanted to get everything over with pretty
soon.
"Come on, guys." Reno said, after ten minutes. He waved
an arm forwards and fell over because he was still unused to his
movement. He fell backwards and a rock clicked underneath his foot.
As he hit the ground, he presumed that he had found how to get to
their airship, and soon enough, the ground started to rumble and
moved away, slowly to reveal, in time, a ship-shaped silhouette,
which started to rise out of the ground as Reno clicked another
rock-switch, scrambling upwards.
Different parts revealed
themselves at different times. First there were spiky bits which took
the light of the sun and were sticking out of the airship. Other
parts which followed seemed to not make sense, but that didn't
matter. So long as they knew how to pilot it, that would be fine.
The
body of the airship started to reveal itself now, rising further from
the void and catching the rays of the sun. Curves were revealed and a
huge exterior was beginning to show, until it suddenly stopped. There
wasn't a massive interior - the outside told that much - but it was
old, and surprisingly shabby.
"It'll do," Tseng told
them.
"Yeah, for us small-fry!" Reno joked. Tseng was trying
too move everybody on.
"Come on, everybody in."
When
Rufus had come round, he found that he could hear various sounds, but
not see so clearly. It felt as if he was still in Yereci, but maybe
he was wrong. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard Dr. Herman
speak.
"Ah, Rufus," she said. An extremely blurred image
appeared in front of him, but he couldn't actually see if it was
really Dr. Herman. "Can you see alright?" she asked,
patronisingly. Rufus felt for speech, and he found, to effect, that
he could speak. His voice was gravelly, unlike normal, but at least
he could speak.
"W-wha-t have . . . you do . . . ne to - me?"
Herman must have found this funny because Rufus could vaguely see her
doubling over, silently cackling.
"Well, at least it didn't
kill you. That's what it was supposed to." She cackled once more,
only louder this time.
"W-where . . . are w-we?" Herman looked
around her and walked away. Maybe to a window, he presumed. When she
came back, she stood in her place once again and smiled. Rufus'
vision was getting slightly better by the minute. He could now make
out part of Herman's figure.
"We're just passing over some
more mountains. We should be at my 'base' in around
half-an-hour." Rufus smiled as best he could. "Don't make that
face at me!" Herman protested.
"To-ge . . . ther ag-gain."
Rufus managed. Herman now frowned.
"Get that idea out of your
head, Rufus! Nothing is going to happen. Not something good for you,
anyway." Rufus could see a bit clearer, and speak slightly better
than before, but the overall progress was going o be slow - hours,
maybe even a whole day!
"Why di-di . . . dn't y-you k-"
Herman cut him off.
"Kill you? My dear, Rufus, why would I kill
you? I was only stretching the truth. Sometimes there is no choice
but to do so." She paused for some time. "But why would I kill an
employee, anyway?" she laughed, as apposed to cackling and turned
away to walk off to her duties. Rufus sighed, at least he thought he
did, and moved into a more comfortable positioning in his wheelchair.
This was going to take absolutely ages, so he thought he might as
well get some rest.
"Rufus," he heard, a long time later.
"Rufus!" he was being shaken. His eyes opened slightly and saw
Herman waking him. He could see a lot more clearly and now he felt as
if he could speak a lot better as well.
"Yes?" he asked.
Herman shifted from one foot to the other.
"We're almost ready
to land. Not that you need to prepare or anything. I was just letting
you know. Be ready to work when we take you inside." She said,
walking off as she finished her sentence.
Rufus sighed. He
realised just how big Yereci was on the interior. He could see just
how many of her minions were standing on the inside around the edge.
He shivered as he felt uncomfortable and closed his eyes for a
moment. He hoped he could just fall asleep there and then, but he
wasn't feeling as tired as he did before he had slept. He had
fulfilled his sleepy-duties, and so would remain awake for the rest
of the day. He was right - sleep wouldn't take him - so he opened
his eyes once again. Nothing had changed, besides the fact that
Yereci had slowed down somewhat, but Herman was still in the same
standing spot as before and her minions lining the edges were still
there, like icing around a cake, but the icing had to move soon
because Yereci was coming to a halt.
Rufus chuckled as he thought
of something. He lifted his arms up and stretched, silently, and then
attempted to move his wheelchair forward. He presumed Dr. Herman
would have put a brake on or something, but this wasn't the case,
so he wheeled himself forward to sit next to Herman's standing
figure.
"Are we ready then?" he asked, acting as though he was
eager to work.
"What are you doing, Rufus?" Herman asked him.
He smiled under his cover and replied coolly.
"I'm eager to
work, that's all." Herman frowned.
"I thought you were the
one who warned me about playing with the planet's energy. I'm
sure you didn't want to work for me."
"I've had a change
of heart." Rufus added. Herman didn't do anything, but then, to
Rufus' surprise, nodded her head in belief.
"Alright," she
said "I'll go with that."
A little after their discussion,
Yereci shook violently, but stopped much sooner than they expected;
they had reached land. The hatch in front of where they were standing
started to open and a strong wind licked its way inside and thrashed
around. Putting a hand on her head to calm her hair, Dr. Herman
shouted an order of some sort out to the minions and started to wheel
Rufus outside.
A few minions were going forward, ahead of Dr.
Herman. Rufus' heart leapt a beat as he realised that they were
carrying the box in which he wanted Reno and Rude to collect. He knew
it wasn't the Materia one because he knew they had that one back in
his lodge in Healin.
Inside that box was something which Herman
could use, he knew it. He knew that because he had been one of the
few who had funded and even helped Tifa get her item. If Rufus could
play his cards right, he might be able to get it and the plan might
even be evaded.
As Rufus was wheeled outside the airship, after
the minions, his impression of the place was far greater than he had
expected. He presumed it would look something like Shinra, but it
looked nothing like it. If anything, it looked better than anything
Shinra could do. They had landed inside a vast courtyard which lay in
the middle of it all. There was the building lining the edges of the
courtyard and the building was right at every square edge of it.
Towers stood at, what seemed, random points on the buildings, but
there were also huge satellites and radio transmitters. Rufus could
also see, even from the ground, a much bigger wall standing just
behind the building somewhere. It looked so solid that nothing could
possibly damage it in any way. Barbed wire grew on top of it as well
which didn't help for intruders, but Rufus doubted Dr. Herman
couldn't handle intruders. He was sure there were many more traps
which would put a stop to their break-in attempt, at least he hoped
it was to keep people out.
Wind here wasn't really a problem
because of the large wall and the shape of the buildings inside. The
green grass of the courtyard looked so bright that Rufus was
beginning to wonder how far up in the sky you would have to go up for
it to be out of sight. He looked around the courtyard once more and
saw a collection of vehicles at one point. Airships, cars, motorbikes
and what looked like-
"Tanks," Dr. Herman assured him, as she
looked in the direction he was. Rufus was beginning to doubt these
vehicles had even been used. Why would you need any tanks in a
well-guarded fortress anyway? Rufus looked around the courtyard,
carefully, again and decided there was absolutely no way in which the
vehicles could get out. It was only after he thought this that Dr.
Herman had reached into her shirt pocket behind her lab coat and
retrieved a small device which resembled a large broach. She clasped
it firmly in her hand and her finger pressed down on some sort of
button. Rufus frowned as nothing happened, and Herman replaced the
gadget into her shirt pocket, by her breast.
"Safe and sound."
She said with a smile. Rufus continued to stare at her for a while as
the effect of her gadget wasn't visible.
"Whoa," he cried
out as he suddenly realised what was happening; the ground by Yereci
was moving downwards taking them and the airship safely into an
underground hangar of some sort.
Actually, Rufus thought
to himself, almost aloud, this is kind of interesting, maybe even
fun. He kept looking around at all that was going on. He was
like a small child in a way which he was so interested in everything
else. As the lift went down, carrying the minions as well, the lights
turned on below them and to the side. This revealed many of the cogs
and sprockets and machinery which was operating to the side, on the
wall. Rufus presumed it was operating the lift which they were
currently on. He stared at the complex lot of machinery and wondered
how on earth that could possibly work. He knew about machinery and
everything, but he didn't actually know how to do any of it
himself. He was always interested in it as a small child, but later,
he discovered he was more into science and the planet's energy. He
didn't become a scientist himself, per ce,
he just found a lot of the things he worked with fascinating.
As
the lift went down for longer and longer, Dr. Herman began walking to
the edge, taking Rufus with her. She must have known they were near
the bottom level because the lift stopped moving not long after. She
ordered the minions and as they marched forwards, and out of their
way, Herman started wheeling Rufus along once more. This was going to
be interesting at the very least. Rufus decided he might actually see
where this was going first, just in case he liked it. This was
dangerous thinking, but he was doing it anyway.
The
roar of wind was really quite loud as Fenrir sped along carrying
Cloud and Tifa upon its back. Their speed was so great that all they
could see at their sides were blurred visions of scenery. People had
started to come out from their houses because it was the morning and
various children were playing joyfully around, like they usually did.
They were always so intent with their games as if they could ignore
everything else, but naturally, you couldn't just ignore a speeding
motorbike zooming through town. Tifa would always cry out if there
were children who were quite close to Fenrir who would almost get
knocked down by the sheer force they were moving with. Her eyes would
always close and her grip would always tighten on Cloud's
waist.
After travelling for so long since setting off, Cloud
decided to slow down near Seventh Heaven so they could take a look at
the damage that had occurred. It was such a horrific thing to happen
- to blow up their home, but maybe it wasn't all that bad. Maybe
there was major damage to most of it, but perhaps a lot of what they
wanted to keep had stayed safe from the fires and the explosion.
Yeah, if you think the impossible. Cloud thought to himself,
sarcastically.
As Fenrir sighed with ease and into silence as they
pulled over, cooling the engines in rapid succession. Cloud
dismounted and started to stretch and Tifa frowned at him.
"Cloud,
what are we doing here? Aren't we supposed to be outside Midgar?"
she then dismounted as well and gave a short stretch. "Hey, isn't
this-" her question was answered by the dim silence which followed.
She was then too upset to say anything. She walked along, closely to
Cloud and started to cry, bit by bit. Cloud had walked ahead, but had
stopped now. He made sure Tifa caught up with him and then decided to
break the silence.
"Cid should be coming into Midgar for fuel. I
just thought it'd be nice to have a break from driving for a bit."
Tifa nodded at him, but the destruction of their home couldn't be
ignored for long.
Seventh Heaven used to be such a nice place. Now
all that remained of it was a small standing wall which led to a
corner. Many of the bricks from it were missing, but that's all
that remained of the bar. If only it were more! Tifa
thought.
Black bits of rubble and all else were gathered on the
floor and resembled how much damage had occurred. Everything was
burned because of the bomb, and everything destroyed. Great mounds of
ash were gathering here and there, maybe the roof had fallen in last
of all and had burned for so long with the rest of it that the pile
of ash was what remained of it.
Cloud put his hand towards bits
here and there, testing to see if they were still warm or not.
Everything was cold with sadness, remorse, and because of the
memories being exorcised from them. At least the fire had finished
its destructive wave of vicious death.
So
many memories had been there in Seventh Heaven, but now those
memories had been destroyed, along with everything else. What was the
point in staying here and longer? Perhaps they could search the
rubble for objects which they could remember things about. The now
alien building looked so out of place in its position, but
thankfully, the explosion in Seventh Heaven had only been caught
inside. No other building was burned or destroyed in some way.
"What
should we do, Cloud?" Tifa asked through choked back tears. Cloud
came along and hugged Tifa, not intending to let go.
"We could
stay here and wait for Cid to come to us. This would be the first
place he would look. If we were to look for him, where would we
start?" Tifa agreed, but had no idea what to say to that. She knew
he was right, however. They continued to search the rubble for
objects resembling memories in some way. This continued for minutes
until they were interrupted by a visitor.
An old man hobbled his
way along to where the front entrance of the bar would be and then
realised what had happened. He gasped and looked up, into Cloud and
Tifa's eyes who stared back with the same amount of disappointment.
He wore a grey top which seemed to be very thin, and a pair of black
trousers which seemed to make his white wispy hair on top of his head
shine with luminescence. As he started making his way towards Tifa's
very familiar face, as he was a customer and knew her well, he almost
fell over and started speaking to them both.
"W-wha-at's
happ-pene-d?" The old man started, but Tifa left Cloud to his
searching as she walked over to the old man. She threw the piece of
rubble away from her hand back onto the floor and wiped her hands on
her leathery skirt. She then extended her hand for the old man to
shake and as he reluctantly did so, she started to speak.
"I'm
Tifa, the owner of this bar. Well, I was until it was destroyed."
The old man had a look of amazement on his face.
"How was this
bar d-des . . . troyed?" It was almost as if he was afraid to ask
the question. Tifa smiled at him to reassure him nothing too bad had
happened, so she decided to lie to him; giving him the truth might
scare him entirely.
"Children these days are terrible. I'm
sure they were from the slums. They must have had something against
Seventh Heaven." For a lie, it wasn't half bad. Tifa watched as
the man started to believe her.
"Children indeed," he said.
"Listen, do you know how much this will take to be rebuilt?"
"Oh, upon estimation, about twenty-million Gil, maybe even
more." Then Tifa realized why he had asked. She gasped. "You're
not going to give me money?" The old man nodded and
explained.
"This was my favourite bar and has always been ever
since I had seen it. It makes a change from the poor ones on the
other side of town. A nice change. It's the only way in which I can
get out of the house and away from the wife for a while. But if it's
rebuilt, I promise I will bring her with me when I go." Tifa smiled
as he talked about the memories and then a single tear flowed down
her cheek. With a finger, she wiped it off and returned her attention
to a response.
"Thank you, but you don't realise how much this
meant to us - it was our home!" The old man nodded.
"Yes, yes,
of course." He fumbled into his coat pocket for something. A moment
later, he pulled out large, brown wallet. He opened the top and
started collecting coins in his hands. "How does twenty-thousand
Gil sound?" Tifa gasped. She couldn't believe it.
"Sir, are
you completely sure you want to give us so much money to help us
rebuild our bar?"
"What have I just told you about it?" Tifa
nodded, but said the same thing again. "Take it," the old man
said, pushing his closed hands forward towards her. "I want you to
use it all. For me." He finished and Tifa cupped her hands in order
to accept the Gil and smiled greatly as another tear poured down her
cheek, this time from happiness.
"Thank you," Tifa said.
"Thank you!" she repeated. She felt overjoyed that someone would
do such a thing for her to make sure their home was restored, and so
the bar would be rebuilt for the benefit of others as well.
"I'll
get back to the wife now." The old man said as he turned away and
started hobbling back from whence he came. Tifa watched as she
thought how sweet that was. Wouldn't it be nice if Cloud and Tifa
got married and grew old together, never leaving one another for too
long? Wouldn't it be sweet if they would always love and care for
one another without hesitation or discomfort. At least, that's how
Tifa pictured it in her mind. For so very long now she had been
thinking thoughts based upon Cloud and herself like this, but only
now had she had another moment to revisit them.
Tifa turned back
around herself and was surprised to find Cloud standing there behind
her, staring with those gorgeous blue eyes. A moan of absolute
pleasure almost escaped her, but as she covered her mouth with her
hand, it was ceased. Cloud smiled at her for doing such a thing, but
he was also curious to why she did that. As Tifa didn't say
anything afterwards, he decided to lead the conversation.
"So,"
he said. "What did that man want?" Tifa removed her hand and took
a big breath to calm herself. She then lifted up her hand holding the
Gil and showed it to Cloud.
"He gave us twenty-thousand Gil to
go towards the payment to pay for the bar." She started to weep,
there and then. If it weren't for Cloud, she would have collapsed
onto the floor. Cloud caught her and lifting her up, embraced her in
one of his hugs which always felt full of love and felt as if he
would never let go. He felt so thrilled that he was doing something
which he would never usually do because he felt like a child;
overjoyed with the fact of playing with someone like this.
Cloud
started to laugh with happiness. It was slow, right until he started
to swinging Tifa around while still hugging her. Tifa felt quite
thrilled as well and stopped weeping, realising how happy Cloud felt.
She opened her eyes and saw him below swinging with extreme joy and
she joined him in laughing. It felt as if their troubles were now
forgotten. They felt as if everything would be alright from this
moment onwards.
This continued for a few minutes, until a sudden
rush of, what seemed, an invisible force, pushed Cloud over and he
landed on his back. Tifa was on top of him and remained unharmed from
the fall. A huge wave of emotions swept over them both. Tifa could
remember thinking of a situation like this before. She had been
waiting for a moment like this for what seemed like eternity. At
last, fate was on her side. She stared into Cloud's gorgeous blue
eyes for another moment, making sure Cloud understood the situation
too. Their passionate faces were only inches apart. Eventually, they
would have to get up, but neither wanted to do so straight away. Tifa
started to lean in, and as she got closer, Cloud didn't hesitate.
He moved his head upwards and closed the final gap.
As their lips
met, Tifa started to put her hands on Cloud's head, just as he had
done with her. They kept the kiss as it continued, overpoweringly. At
last, Tifa wasn't afraid that Cloud no longer felt differently
towards her. She kept kissing him and kissing him, until they both
felt like they had fulfilled their need within them. As they moved
their heads back, the look in one another's faces was completely
different. Now they couldn't hide anything towards each
other.
"Wow," they both said in unison. And chuckled after
doing so.
"That was amazing!" Tifa told him. Cloud blushed and
nodded his head. They both started to get up and stood, looking in
one another's eyes, their hands holding the other's. They kept
staring into the eyes of the other and lost themselves in complete
joy and amazement. This was it. This was how they felt. This was what
they wanted to do for the rest of their lives; be with one another.
That much was certain. What wasn't certain was the bad times that
they might have in the future, but now wasn't a time to be thinking
like that. Now was the time for happy thoughts.
Cloud leant
forward and kissed her once more, this time on the cheek. Tifa turned
a deep scarlet. Cloud followed suit. They smiled and had another hug,
before finally resuming their search for important items in the
rubble.
"I think we should - " Tifa said.
"Yeah . . ."
Cloud returned. Their hands were released and their bodies were
missed as they started searching into the rubble once more.
For
some unknown reason, Tseng, Elena, Rude and Reno had managed to get
into the airship, start the hidden engine, raise the airship from the
ground, start it flying and even speed it up towards the direction of
Rocket Town. It had been quite a hassle to start everything and to
get the airship in motion. It had been all worth it, however, because
how else would they have been able to get there to help Rufus and to
initiate the plan? How else would they know Rufus would be okay? And
how else would they be able to make sure the box was
obtained?
Speeding along at an unknown speed, but they were sure
it was faster than anything moving normally, they cut through clouds,
whizzed through flocks of birds and even shot past very tall standing
rocks. The only missed them by pure luck as they didn't know how to
control the airship yet.
"So, any idea how to direct this
thing?" Reno asked as they all sat in the cockpit, searching for a
way to manoeuvre the thing. Tseng had been
quiet for a long time, but now he spoke.
"I believe it's
something to do with this," he leaned over to a few buttons and
pressed one. A mechanism whirred and opened up, revealing a
controlling device of some sort. "And this." He finished,
pressing yet another button which revealed another, similar looking
device.
"Wow," Elena said as she gingerly put a hand on one of
the controls. The whole thing didn't move, but she felt at ease
when she found that she could do something about the airship, if
needs be.
"I'll be the co-pilot!" Reno shouted, running to
the second pair of controls. He sat down in a nearby chair and
dragged it towards the controls. It was on wheels, so it didn't
matter too much, but everyone else sighed at him when he did this.
He
lightly touched the controls and the whole airship lurched.
"ARGH!"
They screamed in fright as Reno turned the controllers this way and
that, trying to correct his mistake. The whole force of the lurching
and the tumbling of everyone inside created a whole sense of fear
which destroyed their hope of escape and of pulling off any such plan
which they had conceived before.
"REEENNNOOOO!" Tseng shouted
as they were all spun around like laundry in a washing machine.
"I'm
TRYING!" he returned as he fiddled with the controls for longer and
longer. It seemed like an age before finally, Reno managed to stop
the airship from spinning and he let go of the controls.
"Gee.
That wasn't so bad." He said, almost to himself. He looked behind
him and found everyone in a heap on the floor. Arms were sticking out
and legs were in odd places, but nothing out of the ordinary.
"Do
you want some help?" Reno asked as they clambered, labourously, up
to their feet. They all seemed to then walk towards him with an evil
look in their eyes.
"What?" he asked. They kept walking
closer, this time with their hands outstretched in front of them,
wanting to grab as soon as possible. "What do you want?" They
kept coming forward until their hands all had a purchase on Reno.
They lifted him up and dragged him out of the room. "Hey, what
the-"
As they slammed the door and silenced Reno's speech,
they locked it to prevent him from re-entering and making something
go wrong again.
"What a relief!" Tseng sighed. They could
possibly continue their journey in peace. Without the addition of
Reno, mistakes seemed like an impossibility. It was almost as if a
giant weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
"Tseng, you'd
better check this." Elena called him over. She was looking at a
screen which showed the airship's positioning. As Tseng stood by
her side and looked into the screen, Elena pointed a finger to
it.
"It seems like we're a lot closer to where we should be.
We couldn't have sped up that quickly. Do you think Reno managed to
speed us up somehow?" Tseng frowned.
"It's a
possibility."
"Then shouldn't we let him back in so we can
get there a lot quicker?" Tseng didn't hesitate to respond to
this.
"If you really want us all to be killed, then you called
always let Reno have his way, but if you want us all to live, then I
suggest you leave Reno where he is." Elena sighed. She saw the
logic in Tseng's words, but she also saw sense in her own. She
looked over at Rude, wishing they could both persuade Tseng
otherwise, but she decided it was better to stay silent, so she
did.
"Now, continue with the piloting of this thing. You still
remember where the base is?" Elena nodded. She couldn't be
bothered to speak any more; her words weren't of any dramatic
effect.
Tseng started to perambulate the mid-sized room and
continued this for some time. He kept passing Rude who was sitting
down in a chair, looking rather comfortable.
This all stopped when
a miniature grinding noise could be heard from within the very
airship. It sounded as though things were doing as they weren't
supposed to. A moment later, in addition to the grinding noises, the
whole ship lurched. It felt as though something was very wrong with
it indeed. The lurching didn't subside, it continued and carried on
until it was a wave of uncontrollable havoc. It was only after Tseng
regained his balance that he realised what had happened.
"Reno,"
he muttered. Elena moaned as she tried to keep the airship steady,
but as the movement had increased, she was finding it
difficult.
"Wait," Elena commanded as Tseng was about to exit
the room and deal with Reno. He stopped, door unlocked and open and
turned to see what Elena had to say.
"The ship's going faster,
much faster. I think Reno's only trying to help. Look, we're
moving to the base quicker. We should be there in about twenty -
fifteen minutes. We should really be thanking him."
Tseng
thought for a while before deciding and left the room, closing the
door behind him. Elena sighed and slammed her fist onto a control pad
which resounded instantly. Why can't he just listen to me?!
She continued piloting, but couldn't help sulking at the same time.
If things weren't so stressful in the Turks, she would probably be
the problem within it. But because they had Tseng, he had the job
instead.
"What do you think he'll do?" Rude asked as he
jumped up from his chair. This sign of movement was slightly strange
for Rude, but he was favourable to physical attacks, and he did move
quite a bit in action.
"Who?" Elena asked him.
"Tseng,"
Rude started pacing the room like Tseng would usually do, imitating
him. Elena laughed.
"I think he'll probably give him a good
talking to; you know what he's like!"
"Mr.
Degree-In-Talking!" Rude started laughing as well. After a moment,
they couldn't think of anything else to say and quietened down.
There was a seriousness in the air, but it wasn't quite
understood.
"Do you know what we're doing when we get there?"
Rude asked.
"We fight," Elena suggested. "Or we look for
Rufus."
"Do you think Cloud will be there?"
"Hmm,
maybe. I'm not sure because I don't know where he is."
"Will
he be bringing any back-up?"
"I don't know, Rude! What do
you think I am? Answer to all answers?" She laughed slightly. Rude
didn't.
"I'm nervous, Elena." He told her. "In all
honestly, I'm not even sure if we can do this. Maybe something will
happen that we can't un-happen. Maybe nothing will go right . . ."
Elena stopped him with a light cough.
"What kind of talk is
that?! You're a Turk! Turk's aren't supposed to talk like that!
Of course we will pull it off! What has ever gone wrong in the past
that's our fault?"
"Well, there was the time where we
accidentally got you captured by that large man near Wutai, and there
was the time -"
"Okay, stop! I get the picture." Elena
sighed. "What I'm trying to say, Rude, is that we can do this.
How hard can it be to actually pull this off?" Rude was about to
answer, but Elena stopped him. "On second thoughts, don't answer
that." Elena smiled, but when Rude didn't, she tried to make him.
"Come on, cheer up. I'll promise you it will be alright. I mean,
just remember the plan and we'll be fine." She reached out a hand
to him, and eventually, Rude took it and smiled, feeling slightly
better.
He let go of the hand as soon as the door burst open
behind them. As the metallic door banged onto the inside of the room,
Reno stormed in, followed by Tseng.
"Now behave yourself, Reno!"
Tseng told him, watching, sternly as he closed the large door.
"Yeah,
yeah!" Reno whinged, making Elena laugh
lightly and Rude smile. At least the last push of their journey would
be interesting, maybe even fun. But as Tseng started another
conversation, they realised the seriousness of the situation.
"What
do you think is in that box? It has to be something of vital
importance, otherwise why would Rufus want to get his hands on it, or
why would Dr. Herman want to get her hands on it? Do you think it's
something to do with the planet's energy? Something which can
destroy life on earth? If that's so, why was it in a box belonging
to Tifa?"
No-one spoke as they realised everything could go
horribly wrong if they arrived too late.
