Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as are the various filler OCs that snuck in here.
Mhmrmfgh…mixed feelings about how I wrote this chapter. Most of it was written while my brain was a puddle of post-test goo in my skull. But, if this chapter is messy, the good news is that the home stretch is almost upon us! Things start to get real juicy next chapter, so stick around!
As always, constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated!
..:-X-:..
Chapter Fourteen: Replay
The rest of the week didn't get much easier.
A plume of purple haze burst out of the Heartless as Tifa kicked through it. The creature died with a screech and dissolved into the air. Tearing her leg out of the purple smoke, she spun around just as two more of the beasts launched themselves at her. Ducking and rolling out of the way, she signaled to her recruit, Michael Hanson, who immediately doubled back around to take the large bodied, green-armored Heartless from the side.
Tifa spun into a tight roundhouse kick, sending both of the charging Heartless back against the wall. Two more of her subordinates, Clancy and Burns, finished them off. An explosion behind her made Tifa stagger to regain her balance, and she turned just in time to catch a face-full of Heartless remains. The creature had been disemboweled by a well placed Fire Spell. The purple innards smelled like burned fat and oil.
Blinking it out of her eyes, she glared at the spellcaster. Private Connor gave her a sheepishly apologetic look before darting off to aid more soldiers against the Heartless. It was the most notable uprising of Heartless since before the Campaign left for MX9. The Heartless had spat out a number of grunts and small-fry creatures across the Ravine Trail. It was far enough away from the main town for the civilians not to be alarmed, but it was violent enough for the Alliance to deploy a small squad to squash it.
Since Tifa had barely seen any field action since her mission with Yuffie over a month earlier, she had quickly volunteered to head the squad. Beating the Hell out of Heartless made her feel incrementally more useful and accomplished.
And watching Heartless die was always a satisfying pastime.
Wiping the splatter from her eyes, Tifa spat some it out of her mouth before giving chase after a group of Dancer Nobodies who had infiltrated the Crystal Fissure. The rest of the Ravine Trail had been canvassed by her interns: they could handle themselves while she took care of the Dancers.
The swishing creatures were swaying to and fro across the Crystal Fissure, moving around the reflections that came off the jade crystals that jutted out of the rock walls. As soon as they spotted Tifa, however, their movements became more volatile as they charged at her. She sidestepped to avoid the first one that reached her. The Nobody changed direction at the last second and dragged its javelin-like forearm across her arm.
Grunting, Tifa spun and punched the thing in the neck, slinging it away from her. Swirls of nothingness from more of the creatures forked around her, singing at her skin as she wriggled away from the attacks.
They swarmed at her from all sides, relatively undeterred by her kicks and punches. They knicked and bit at her as they shot past her. Getting irritated at not landing a killing blow, Tifa shot one hand forward and grabbed the neck of the nearest Dancer.
"Thundaga!" She called out.
The lightning spell flowed down her body and into the Dancer in her grip. The force of it blasted from the first Dancer to the others that it was touching, spreading in a web of electrocution, zapping and dazing the creatures long enough for her to manually do away with them.
Finally, the bodies dissolved away and she was left standing in the Crystal Fissure, covered in Heartless guts and mild burns from nothingness, sweat and dirt. Pushing her hair from her eyes, she huffed and marched out of the fissure and back toward town.
The rest of her interns had cleared out the Ravine Trail and were also reporting back, and she noted that there were no serious injuries beyond a bruise there, a dislocated joint there. That was encouraging. Maybe her greenhorn recruits weren't such newbs after all. These small skirmishes had been helping them to hone their skills better than bi-monthly training missions.
The Headquarter Building was several blocks farther away than Merlin's house, so Tifa opted to stop by the cottage and clean up there before heading back to her office. Only Aerith was in the house when Tifa dragged herself in. Ever since Tifa had sort of snapped on Aerith two weeks prior for prying, Aerith had given her more space…not as far as avoiding her or being awkward. It was more of a friendly 'I won't ask anymore' acknowledgement, which Tifa appreciated.
Aerith looked up when Tifa walked in. Her eyes widened at her appearance. "You look like you've seen some action today."
"Something like that." Tifa remarked, peeling off her fighting gloves, which were caked with Heartless remains. "Some Heartless were causing trouble at the Ravine Trail."
"Bad?" Aerith asked, straightening some of the books on the shelves.
Tifa shrugged. "Deployed a squad to deal with it."
Aerith fidgeted with her hair slightly. "Oh. Good."
Before Tifa could inquire about that awkward gesture, the door opened again and Cloud walked in, looking just as disheveled as Tifa. He must have found his own snakepit of Heartless. Tifa gave him an empathetic nod in greeting. He started to smirk in return, but then looked at Aerith.
Aerith straightened, setting aside what she had been fiddling with. "I have to go." She abruptly crossed over to the door. "See you later, Tifa."
Tifa blinked, watching the door close after the flowergirl. A beat passed and Tifa turned to look back at Cloud.
"What did you do this time?" She asked flatly.
Cloud just shook his head and started to clean his broad sword, which was just as covered in Heartless guts as he was. "Are you all moved into the new house yet?"
It was a blatant attempt to change the subject, and Tifa was too tired to push him.
"No. It's been put on hold for now." She said, walking over toward the entrance to the back room of the house. "I'm going to clean myself up…and then you're going to tell me why Aerith is being weird."
"Thanks for the warning." He muttered after her.
Tifa started toward the shower room, but light in the kitchen got her attention and distracted her. Rubbing at some of the drying mud on her arm, she walked into the kitchen to investigate.
"—and the floats are coming along nicely. Yuffie keeps talking about an all-chocolate float for the parade, but I'll believe that when I see it."
That was definitely Rinoa's voice. It sounded like she was on the phone. She kept talking.
"Everybody has been really nice. I was worried that it would be weird…I mean…but it's not…Not really. It's getting better actually."
Tifa hesitated. She shouldn't be eavesdropping like this, if Rinoa was on the phone having a private conversation, but Tifa had already stepped deep into the kitchen. There would be no backtracking now without giving herself away.
Rinoa was sitting in the kitchen talking to…a video recorder. The lens stared over Rinoa's shoulder at Tifa, who blinked at the device in surprise. The other woman was sitting forward, hands on her knees, looking upbeat in her seat as she chattered on to the camera.
"So…anyway, I know you're busy, but…just thought I'd let you know what all's been going on back home…Stay safe, and—"
Some kind of sixth sense must have kicked in, because Rinoa stopped mid-sentence and turned around to catch Tifa in the act of eavesdropping. Rinoa didn't look the least bit offended or bothered by this, however.
"Oh, hi, Tifa." She greeted jovially. "Wow, what happened to you?"
Tifa tilted her head at the camera, "What is that?"
"I'm making a video message." Rinoa explained. "I'm going to record a message, download it to the computer, and e-mail it to Squ—Leon on MX9. I can talk faster than I type, so I figured this would be better than writing." She chirped.
Tifa looked from the camera, to Rinoa, and back to the camera. "Oh."
Rinoa paused. "Are you okay? I mean…you don't mind, do you?" She fidgeted.
Tifa lifted a hand, "No, it's fine…I just…didn't think—"
Quick as a flash, Rinoa stood and started unhooking the camera from the stand. "You want to say something? It's still recording."
The red light above the lens told Tifa as much.
"Er—" Tifa went dumb. "Uh…hi." She waved a hand pathetically at the camera.
"Oh…you can do better than that." Rinoa got behind the camera. "It's almost been a whole month. He's gotta be going stir crazy in that forest fighting Heartless."
Clearly, you don't know Leon very well, Tifa inwardly replied.
Instead, she found herself unsure what to say. She couldn't even compose one simple e-mail to him, much less record herself—while she looked like a banshee no less.
"Um…hey…Things are going fine here…but I guess Rinoa already told you that…" Tifa ran a hand through her hair…well, until she hit a clump of Heartless remains and cringed. "Duke is fine…I'm—" missing you like crazy. "—fine."
She shifted from foot to foot.
"So…hurry back and…I'll see you." She gave another awkward little wave.
There was more she wanted to say, but with Rinoa hovering there, she didn't want to get into it. But she also feared that if she didn't say something, it would send the wrong message.
She exhaled and looked into the lens. "I miss you, you idiot. So hurry up and beat those Heartless so you can come back home to me."
Rinoa looked at her funny at that, but Tifa didn't care.
Tifa straightened and looked at Rinoa. "Now I'm going to take a shower, because I look like I crawled out of a grave."
She paused when she saw that the camera was still running in Rinoa's hands. She gave the lens a wink and walked out of the kitchen, heading for the shower room in earnest now. It felt like a weight had been lifted slightly. After however long trying to find a way to communicate with Leon…Rinoa of all people had been the one to help her.
"Tifa." Rinoa's voice called after her.
Tifa stood in the doorway to the shower room, bag in hand, and she tiredly swiveled back to look at her. "What?"
"Are you…I mean—this isn't really my place but—are you two okay?" She asked.
Tifa gave her a flat look. "Depends…How many of these videos have you sent him?"
"This is the first one." Rinoa hastily explained. "I only just got the idea yesterday."
"And your clothes stayed on the whole time you were recording?" Tifa asked jokingly.
Rinoa's eyes widened in horror. "Of course! What kind of woman do you think I am?"
Tifa regarded her flatly for a moment. "You're right…Lemme see that camera."
Rinoa paused. "Why?"
"Because I'm the kind of woman I think I am." She nodded toward the shower.
Rinoa looked horrified.
Tifa laughed. "I'm just kidding." She walked into the shower room and closed the door.
"Mostly." She mumbled to herself as she set her bag down.
It took two hot showers to get all of the gunk off and another shower just to relax. Eventually, the hot water ran out and Tifa dried off, got dressed, and returned to the front room of Merlin's house. Cloud was still cleaning his sword. Rinoa was just leaving. An idea occurred to Tifa.
"Rinoa," She asked. "What ever happened with Jake?"
The other woman paused, looking at her in puzzlement. "Hm? Oh the guy from the floats…Um…not much. We talked about the parade and the weather and…then we got back to work."
Tifa blinked. "Really? You shot him down that fast huh?" She smirked. "Good girl."
Rinoa squinted one eye. "He…never hit on me."
Even Cloud snorted at that. Both women looked at him.
"What?" Cloud lifted his shoulders. "Alms hits on everything."
"Oh…" Tifa reprimanded lightly. "Not everything."
"Made a pass at me once." Cloud muttered with a shudder. "I think he was confused."
"What?" Tifa prompted.
"I don't wanna talk about it." Cloud took his sword and left.
The two women exchanged a look.
"Seriously?" Tifa went on. "Was his flirting so bad that you didn't even think he was flirting?"
"No…he wasn't flirting." Rinoa shrugged, "He seemed a little…uncomfortable…asked me if I knew when some soldier friend of his was coming back."
Tifa tilted her head, "Not McCallister?"
"Yeah…Is he a friend of his?"
"SHE is, sort of."
Rinoa nodded knowingly. "Ah, I see." She looked away and then back, "What you said last week…Did you really hate me?"
Tifa cringed. "No…I'm sorry…I shouldn't have said that…It's just…" She ran a hand through her damp hair. "Leon was messed up over you…for YEARS…and…I couldn't bear the thought of being second choice again."
"Again?"
Tifa lifted a hand to avoid going down that road. "I overreacted and I'm sorry. I don't hate you. I just don't particularly like you."
"Oh, well that's better." Rinoa replied flatly.
"You kissed him!" Tifa said sarcastically.
"He said you were his roommate." Rinoa lifted her shoulders.
They both looked at each other for a beat and then chuckled to themselves.
"We're all messed up, aren't we?" Rinoa offered.
Tifa put her hands on her hips. "It could be worse."
Rinoa looked at her for a follow-up.
Tifa shrugged. "Jake could have hit on you."
..:-X-:..
Hey Tifa…
Ugh. Erase that.
Dear—no.
Hello Tifa…
"Greetings!" Lieutenant Walker sauntered up to the makeshift table where Leon had been attempting to write an e-mail to Tifa for the past twenty minutes.
Exasperated, Leon closed the laptop and looked at the tactician. "What?"
"Nothing, nothing, it's just a lovely day and I wanted to—"
Walker was interrupted as Major Banks approached the table. "Tall, dark, and purple and his cohorts are here."
Both Leon and Walker followed her gesture to where Governor Radcliffe was being led into the neutral zone of the forest. By Smith. Leon frowned and stood, facing the nearing group of settlers. Radcliffe was flanked by four other men: two of which Leon recognized as the two who had marched him to their fort just a few weeks earlier. His frown deepened, and he noted that Smith didn't look particularly thrilled either.
"Good work, Smith." The purple turkey of a man said, but there was no warmth in the compliment. "I knew these people couldn't hide forever."
"Who's fucking hiding?" Banks folded her arms.
Leon shot her a look. All of the settlers looked at her as well in shock…Seeing as there were no women among their band of brothers, Leon assumed that their society was less than equivalent in their mentality about women. They were looking at Banks like she was an alien…which she technically was as far as MX9 was concerned.
Radcliffe cleared his throat first. "Where is your camp?" He demanded.
"And who are you?" Walker answered with a question.
"The Governor of this land and the founder of Jamestown." The man replied pompously. "My men and I own this land and all of the gold that is hidden here. And you," He pointed at the trio of Allies in general, "Are trespassers and liars…Spanish recon, do you think me a fool?"
Leon folded his arms. "Well, it did take you nearly two weeks to figure it out."
Smith lifted a hand to his mouth to cover the smirk, but Radcliffe didn't look amused.
"Silence!" He boomed. "Where is my gold?"
Walker's eyebrows shot up.
"We don't want your damn gold, fat ass." Banks snorted.
Radcliffe seethed and glared at Leon, "Get control of your wench."
Banks took a menacing step toward the governor. "You did NOT just—"
"Take a walk, Major." Leon said calmly.
Banks huffed, pointed at Radcliffe threateningly, and stalked off into the woods. As she disappeared, Smith let out a low whistle.
"Are all your women so…sassy?" He looked amused.
"And they all shoot pretty straight too." Walker added.
The other men behind Radcliffe and Smith shifted uncomfortably.
"We don't want any of the alleged gold around here." Leon said plainly, getting back to the matter at hand. "We're here to fight the Heartless…The shadow monsters."
The other men's reactions told Leon all he needed to know. They knew. Beyond simple superstition and the eyes playing tricks, they were aware of the physical presence of the darkness here in Jamestown. They also looked uneasy admitting it. And by Radcliffe's lax expression, this idiot was playing skeptic.
"You're trying to distract us with your lies…Well it won't work." He made a fist. "If you won't tell us where the gold is, it can only mean that you are working with those savages to hoard it all for yourselves!"
Smith twitched; Leon noticed.
"That's preposterous." Walker stepped forward.
"And if those savages are stealing what is rightfully ours, then we will have to take it by force!" Radcliffe addressed his men now. "This is our land, and thus our gold!"
"Weren't the Indians here first?" Walker pointed out.
"Assemble the men!" Radcliffe talked over Walker. "We must eliminate these savages, once and for all!"
"I mean, they have been here for many generations…You have been here for a grand total of two months." Walker went on.
Leon ground his molars. "The natives here don't have any of the gold either. Has it crossed your pea-sized brain that there IS no gold?"
That stopped Radcliffe short for a moment, but he quickly recovered.
"And I supposed those red skinned devils told you those lies? Of course they have the gold; we've searched everywhere else!" He barked.
"We've scouted their camps." Smith interjected, "If they had the gold, we would have seen it."
"Then they're hiding it!"
"Why would they hide all of it?" One of the other men said. "I'd be building me house pure out of the stuff if this place was as rich as you say."
"Because they're animals! It's what they know!" Radcliffe screeched. "That settles it! Tonight, we will gather the men and the weapons. Ready the guns! Tomorrow we attack those beasts and get rid of them!"
"No!" Smith and Leon both snapped.
The settlers looked more alarmed at Smith than at Leon.
"Smith, what's all this about?" One of the men asked.
While they started to bicker amongst themselves, Leon looked to Walker. They exchanged irritated looks. This whole situation was spiraling out of control. The Allied Campaign was barely keeping the Heartless attacks at bay, much less preventing this ridiculous war. And this hatred that was bubbling between the settlers and the Indians was only breeding more of the darkness, and thus more Heartless.
Basically, this nimrod and his followers were half of the problem that was keeping the Alliance here. Keeping Leon here. When he would rather be elsewhere…Like home…at Radiant Garden…with Tifa, at the house they bought, with Duke, and real coffee. He inwardly groaned and glared at the bickering group.
He was so sick of this. All of this hate and violence and darkness for something as mundane as gold? After so long battling Heartless for his home, his friends, and his right to breathe, the whole concept of fighting other human beings for greed was just…a waste of life and resources.
"Enough!" He finally snapped, stepping toward the fray. "There is no gold. Get it through your thick heads while you still have heads."
Radcliffe turned on him. "Is that a threat?"
"No, it's a kind reminder that you are not the only big players on this chess board." Leon gave his bowling-ball-physique a onceover. "Though you are up there."
Radcliffe snarled, but Smith grabbed his elbow. "Why don't you lead the men back to the fort?" Smith suggested. "I'm sure once you look at this with a clearer head, you'll see that there's no reason to go to war with the Indians."
"Smith?" One of the man looked confused at his comrades' words.
Radcliffe, however, just snarled. "This is not over." He glared at Leon.
Leon returned a stern look and Radcliffe turned in a huff, marching his men back the way they had come. Smith lingered, waiting until the settlers had walked out of earshot before turning back to Leon and Walker.
"What is really going on?" He asked firmly.
"We told you." Walker tried to explain. "There's no gold. We're only here to fight the darkness."
"Well, where is it coming from?" Smith asked, clipped. "How can I show Radcliffe and the men that the monsters are real, and that they're the bigger threat here?"
Walker quirked an eyebrow, so Leon took over.
"It's the nature of the Heartless—as we call the 'monsters'—to seek out strong hearts to…consume." He squinted one eye. "But they're created out of the darkness of people's hearts, and they feed on it until they take over the entire world."
Smith's eyes widened slightly. "You mean—"
"The Heartless are world killers." Walker explained. "They sneak in and eat it from the inside out, like termites, until the world just collapses in on itself and disappears."
"You're not serious." Smith looked like he was mentally backpedalling.
"It's already happened to hundreds of worlds." Leon went on. "Thousands of people have died or had their hearts taken by these things. And unless this animosity and hatred between your two peoples simmers down, it's going to happen here too."
Smith blanched at the idea, "That might not be possible."
Leon growled slightly.
Smith lifted his hands, "You saw Radcliffe, what he's like. And the natives here are justifiably unhappy that we're here. Look what we've done to the place." He gestured to the hacked off tree trunks and random holes that plagued the once grassy and lush landscape. "The Indians want war just as much as the rest of my men do. We've tried to stop it, but—"
"We?" Walker interjected.
Smith paused, "I've met one of them."
"The Indians, you mean." Leon clarified.
Smith nodded, "She told me that there was no gold. I had to explain to her what gold even was. She doesn't want anybody to get hurt any more than I do, but once the two sides decided they wanted to fight…nothing can stop them."
Walker blinked, "But you've made an alliance with a native. The two of you could provide a medium through which your two peoples may communicate amiably."
Leon eyed Smith. This was a new development: one that he had suspected for a while, but now this was full confirmation. "Pocahontas?"
Smith looked sharply at Leon. Walker looked confused.
"Is 'she' called Pocahontas? The chief's daughter?" Leon reiterated.
"How do you know—"
"I met her when we contacted the natives." He answered. "What's your excuse?"
Smith lifted his shoulders, "I…was just off on my own, scouting the terrain. She followed me; it was the first few weeks we were here. Her people didn't know much about us, or we them." He rubbed his neck, "I…couldn't shoot her. We started talking and…I realized that I may have been wrong all these years in my way of thinking." He looked to Leon and Walker. "They aren't savages." He glanced around the massacred forest, "And I can't blame the Indians for thinking WE're the savages."
"She changed your mind." Walker pointed out. "That's something. If one can change, they all can change."
That was more optimistic than Leon could stretch at the moment. Besides, Smith's words were bouncing around in his head. As much as it bothered him to admit, he recognized that shift in the man's manners. He cared about the chief's daughter, more than just as a fellow human being, or even as a friend might.
And the way things were going, that was only going to breed disaster.
"Keep holding your men at bay." Leon remarked, cutting back into the conversation. "Keep talking to Pocahontas. Her people seem a little more reasonable than yours at the moment. We're on lukewarm terms with the Indians; we'll try talking to them to."
"I don't think I could hold Radcliffe back for long." Smith replied. "You saw him. He's got a way of getting into the men's heads, convincing them that this battle is the only way to end this madness."
"Then get creative." Leon said, picking up his laptop and preparing to leave the area. "If things cool off between you guys and the Indians, then the Heartless activity should cool off too…Or at least it won't get worse. Then we can all maybe think about this properly."
"We may not have that kind of time." Walker commented.
Smith ran a hand through his hair, "I'll see what I can do."
As they parted, Leon could tell Walker wasn't satisfied by the conversation just by his body language. But Leon was too drained to prompt him. If things kept snowballing out of control and this campaign couldn't contain it, then the Alliance was going to have to intervene, possibly invade, just to maintain the peace and kept the Heartless from tearing the place apart.
That was a media shitstorm waiting to happen. Half of the Alliance was in favor of invading and fixing the problem by force. The other half strongly opposed that kind of overthrow and argued that the inhabitants should fix things themselves. Neither was completely right nor wrong, but the gray area was proving to be complex.
Upon returning to the Allied camp, Walker went off to…do whatever Walker did, and Leon ducked into one of the ships to try and get some privacy. Unfortunately, said privacy was shattered because Major Simon was sitting in the ship, nursing a bloody nose.
"Was there another attack?" Leon asked, his tone conveying his displeasure at not being alone here.
Honestly, was it too much to ask to have one damn hour alone so he could try to get in touch with Tifa? It had been over a month, and he was about to lose it. Tifa Withdrawal was the worst kind of affliction, and since it didn't appear like she was going to make first contact, Leon figured he would just have to take it into his own hands. The image of her standing in the hangar, hair whipping around and her face more open than it had been in weeks…It was haunting him.
"Yeah, and its name was Valerie." Simon mumbled thickly.
Leon quirked an eyebrow. Simon took that as a prompt.
"I didn't even do anything. I offered to help her carry the ammo to the other tent, and she punched me in the face! Told me she was a…'freaking'…woman who could…'freaking'…handle her…'darn'…self. Then she called me something nasty and walked off." Simon moaned.
Leon sighed and turned to leave the ship. Maybe his own tent would just have to do. Being pestered by his squad was better than listening to Simon complain. Simon looked woeful, but didn't stop him. So Leon made his hasty way out of there.
Escaping, Leon walked back to his tent, passing Banks, who had painted a big purple stick figure with a goofy face on an old crate and was using it as…'freaking'…target practice.