Hello peoples! I worte another chapter yay! ( Pretty fast update considering my usual, eh?) Lots of stuff in this chapter so sit back, relax and have fun! Disclaimer: I do not own ff7. ( I just made a typeo and said ' I do now own ff7...lol.)
Night At The Museum
Tifa fell to the floor as she clutched her left arm, the shot fresh in their ears. " NO!" Cloud's yell echoed in the empty foyer of the museum. He fell to his knees next to her pulling her in to a sitting position as gently as he could. His eyes darted angrily from the bullet hole in the glass then back to Tifa. Blood leaked through her fingers and dribbled down her arm, glistening bright red in the sunlight. " Here, let me see how bad it is." Holding back the angry tears in her eyes Tifa slowly willed her hand to pry itself from her wound. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as he had feared. The bullet had only grazed her upper arm. Still the gash was deep. Enough so that she may need stitches later. Cloud half stood and arched his neck to look out of the window through the holes in the glass. Reno and Rude were walking across the parking lot with their guns at their sides, the sun setting behind them to cast long shadows across the ground. They didn't have much time-if any at all. Hastily Cloud untied his jean jacket from his waist then held the seam connecting the sleeve to the shoulder. With four hard violent jerks the cloth ripped away and he began to tie the cloth around her arm.
" Mmmnnn, God that hurts." She panted, rocking back and fourth restless from the pain.
" I know. And it's about to hurt more. I need to tie this tight to stop the bleeding." She shot him a look that said both ' Don't hurt me!' and ' Are you fucking serious right now?' Cloud held the ends of the cloth together and let out a quick breath through his nose. They needed to get moving. " Are you ready?" Tifa shuddered next to him. Cloud snatched what remianed of his jacket and handed the cloth to her. " Here, bite down on this. It'll help." She could hear the slight panic in his voice. The hurried way he spoke. The assassins were still coming. Tifa took the cloth and wadded it, then bit down in to the cushioned cloth. With one nod from her Cloud pulled the ends tight with a snap of his wrists and Tifa cried out in pain. Her eyes squeezed shut and tears escaped as she whimpered the sounds muffled. Cloud stood up and gently pulled on her arm.
" Now what?" She almost moaned as she wiped her tears away. Cloud looked outside. They were halfway across the lot now.
" We gotta move. C'mon." Using her hands Tifa pushed herself off of the ground. She stumbled and with Cloud's hand on her back guiding her, Tifa stood straight, holding on to her new tourniquet and together they ran. He led her down the hall of the building, dimly noting in the back of his head how cool the structure looked. The whole marble floor was a mosaic of some kind with angels and demons on the floor. The arched doorways and crystal chandeliers every few feet made it pretty impressive. If they weren't running for their lives this might be a neat place to check out. They rounded a corner and in front of them was an elevator. Cloud slammed his hand on the ' Down' button praying the power hadn't been turned off yet. The elevator chimed and the doors opened with a hiss. They ran inside and Tifa pressed the top floor button as the main entrance doors banged open. The large metal doors closed slowly and the ascent to the top began.
" What do we do now?" Tifa looked at Cloud hopefully, holding on to her arm. Cloud sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall.
" Simple. We try to lose those two in this building. We'll take the stairs back down floor by floor and try to throw them off us along the way. Once we do that we run outta here and find someplace to hide out. Then, we'll call Zack and go from there." She nodded, taking all of this in. Basically they had been roped in to a twisted game of hide-and-seek. Loser gets shot. ( Not that she was a loser. Those two just cheated somehow.) But if it was as easy as he was making it sound, then why did he look so worried? Sensing her thoughts he focused his eyes on the numbers above them which lit up as the ascent continued. " The problem is, the're armed. We're not. If we run in to them it could get ugly really fast. And even worse is they might try to split up and find us assuming they catch on to our strategy. They have as much of the building to maneuver as we do."
"...Is that all?" Her voice was soft. Timid. Not like her. Blinking Cloud turned his gaze back to her, confused.
" Yeah. Why?" She fiddled with the hem of her shirt, mindless of the blood stains she created there and bit her lip.
" I was thinking...you might be afraid of going back to prison for this. If we get caught." Cloud let out a humorless dry laugh and rolled his eyes.
" To be honest I hadn't even thought of that until now." Guilt washed over in a great wave and Tifa walked around to stand in front of him. Hesitantly she reached up and placed a gentle hand on his cheek. Giving her the smallest of smiles he reached up and held her hand as blue locked with red.
" I'm sorry." She whispered. Cloud turned her hand so that he could kiss her palm and then with his other hand stroked her hair.
" Don't worry about that now. That can come later. Let's just focus on getting out of here." She nodded firmly.
" Alive."
" Preferably."
Reno looked aound at the building, letting a low whistle of appreciation echo through the room. " Check out these digs, yo." Rude made no comment. He was focused on the floor. A small puddle of blood glistened near the door. Small smears tracked along the floor...and a bloody handprint was smeared among the litter of crimson. So someone had been hit. Rude crouched down carefully avoiding the mess and placed his hand flat next to the print. It was considerably smaller than his own hand. So the Lockheart girl must have been the one shot. A female's hand is always smaller than that of a male. His eyes traveled to a small trail of blood which ended at about the middle of the floor. If he had to assume then he would say Strife and Lockheart had managed to bandage the wound so to stem the bloodflow.
" Reno, look."
" Huh?" The red head looked questioningly to Rude, whom pointed one gloved finger to the floor. Reno followed the line and his brows rose.
" Oh, so we hit one." He noted mildly. Rude grunted in aknowledgement and ran a hand over his head.
" The girl, unfortunately. I was aiming for Strife."
" Ah, shit. Elena's not gonna be thrilled. How would she explain that one away?" Rude stood up and walked around the mess.
" That's not our problem. Right now we must focus on securing Miss Lockheart. With as little damage as possible. Strife can die if he's so determined." He briskly walked across the room, Reno casually strutting along behind him. They rounded the coner and stopped at the elevator. The lights lighting up told him they were on it. Going to the top floor. Reno chuckled and rested his gun on his shoulder.
" So it's a game of cat and mouse, huh? So what does the winner get?" Reno asked. Rude turned around and glared at him from behind his sunglasses.
" The satisfaction of a job well done. I'll take the elevator up after them. You take the main stairwell and cut them off. If you run in to them, do whatever you have to do to Strife, but don't damage the girl any further if you can manage it." Reno sighed dramatically and then shrugged.
" If you say so. Man, I hate jobs that involve girls. I mean, chasing one romantically is fine an' all. But how can I catch a date when I have to kidnapp, y'know? This 'aint flowers and chocolates I'm dishi'n out here." Rude made a disapproving noise in his throat and crossed his arms imposingly.
" Reno..." The young man held up his hands in surrender and began walking backwards.
" Alright I'm going, I'm going."
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open. Cloud and Tifa ran out taking in the sights before them. It was an aquatics exhibit. The ceiling was painted blue, with the reflecting lights of nearby fishtanks weaving patterns over the ceiling. And the fake sharks dangling overhead. She knew they were fake but to Tifa they looked pretty real. Especially the great white with it's jaws open to reveal all of it's teeth. She shuddered next to Cloud and he cast a glance up, then took her hand. " Just don't look up." She determiedly looked away to the tank. Inside were several jellyfish complete with seaweed and a plaque about the creatures. Similar tanks peppered the room complete with seahorses, crabs, turtles, and brightly colored fish. Models and diagrams of seacreatures were displayed on tables throughout the room. Tifa especially liked the dolphin one. The octopus model looked a bit creepier to her. All along the walls were skeletal remains of various fish and pictures of the aqualife. displays of coral and seaglass were displayed around the room and in one glass case, a display of naturally made pearls.
Cloud took all of this in with appreciation and haste. Yeah, it was a cool exhibit but now wasn't the time to go sightseeing! He grabbed her hand and began pulling her along. " C'mon. We gotta go." They ran through the room weaving their way through the displays then ran down a hall. Lining the walls was one big tank filled coral, seaweed, fish and ( Joy) sharks. Tifa shut her eyes as Cloud pulled her through the area to a tunnel which led to another tank. The music of whales made her open her eyes as they jogged through. Three killer whales swam and dove around her, singing. She paused to look and Cloud huffed impatiently. Not now! " Later, Tifa. We have to go now." Groaning with all the impatience and disappointment of a child Tifa allowed him to drag her away and down another hallway. A sign at the end in bold black print against the wall read ' STAIRS' with an arrow pointing diagonally down.
Together they ran down the stairs past one level to get to the fifth floor. He led her through the archway in to a new exhibit. From what he could tell it was an exhibit about the military and past wars of Gaia. Guns of every model and make lined one of the walls. Various officer and SOLDIER uniforms past and present stood at attention around the room on headless mannequins. An old radio and headset sat on one lone stand. To the far right a glass case housed pins and badges awarded to soldiers. Pictures of heroes of war lined the walls each with his or her own plauqe containing names, birthdays, bios, military status and some had dates of death. Large pictures of famous warsites stood around the room with bios of battles and the results of the battles. This time it was Tifa who had to tug on his hand as he took a moment to look around. " I thought you said we had to go." She huffed. He cleared his throat and nodded firmly. They ran through the room then to an archway that led to another section of the exhibit. This room was filled with weapons of war, including an imposing tank which sat in the far left corner. More guns, grenades, knives, bombs, army knives, throwing stars...even mideval weapons and gear lined the walls. More mannequins stood here, each wearing forgein regula. One mannequin donned flamboyant, antique knight armour from Costa De Solo, another mannequin wore the animal skins and tribal marks known to Cosmo canyon. This mannequin was one of the few that came with a head and the warrior's dark eyes shone in the dim light, his black hair straight as a board.
In one corner a mannequin wore decorative samurai gear, a helmet on his head, from Wutai. More pictures of warriors and their stories lined the walls, these of forgein officers, soldeirs and braves who fought in battle. And on the back wall near the elevator was a display of swords of every kind. From broadswords, to samurai swords even claymores shined brightly from behind the display glass. He looked to the elevator. The number seven was lit up. So someone was up there. An idea fromed in his mind and Cloud ran up to the wall, his eyes scanning. Tifa growled and ran over to him grabbing his wrist to pull impatiently. " Hey, if I don't get to see the whales, you don't get to look at toys." Cloud let a corner of his mouth tip upward in a smirk as he looked at the display.
" I'm not sightseeing this time."
" Then what are you doing?!" She whispered harshly. He didn't answer. He looked at the swords examining each one with a brief eye. Something told him to go to the end of the wall so he did. This end housed the biggest sword ( And in his opinion the most badass) in the collection. It was long-almost as tall as him including the handle, and it was designed rectangularly. The top was cropped off diagonally to a fine point at the end. Two holes punctured the bottom of the sword, with intricate carvings at the base and a red handle just long enough to have both hands gripped there. A small plaque told him what this was. He scanned the writing hastily taking it in.
' BUSTER SWORD'
' This sword was designed for devastating destruction. Unlike other swords to the day this sword's blade was made of rare adamantium-the hardest metal to date. A blade that never needed sharpening and who's bold structure proved to double as an effective shield made the bearer less scuceptable to bullets and gave both added protection and aggression on the battlefield. The blade's length, shapness and broadness was all intended for the slaying of multiple enemies. One such wielder once accounted for this, telling how he felled six opposing warriors in one fell swing. Dating back about four hundred years this sword was originally created in Midgar. This sword was given it's name due to the blade's sharp and strong disposition, able to cut through both enemies and obstacles. The sword's way to ' Bust' through anything became the genesis of it's given name.'
A sword that never needed sharpening, was good at cutting and, most importantly, was bulletproof. Nice. Cloud looked down at the velvet rope that kept the public at bay from the display and he picked up one heavy metal post, the chain clanking noisily against the metal as the rope swung. Tifa gasped as she realized what he intended to do. " Seriously what are you doing?!"
" Well, you said it yourself: I might be on my way back to priosn anyways after this. What's one more fellony? Besides they're armed." And with that Cloud swung the pole in to the glass, shattering it. The buglary alarm sounded off loudly in the room as Cloud reached in and took the hilt of the sword. He lifted it from the display noting that it was a bit heavier than he expected. But not unbearably so. Tifa's eyes widened at him as he hefted the sword over his shoulder then turned back to her and smirked. " Now so are we!" He had to shout over the alarm.
" Are you insane?!"
" That coming from you?! I'm improvising!" Cloud ran over to the elevator and slammed his hand on the ' Down' button. The elevator opened and together they ran inside, the alarms fading from their ringing ears as the door closed. Cloud pressed three for the next two levels down and when the doors opened they were met with yet another exhibt. This one was a floor dedictaed to the histories and myths of the Cetra-a race of people thought to have direct spiritual ties to Gaia itself. It was rumored that the colossal ruins hidden deep in the jungle of a far-off continent was their home. Stone tablets with ancient writing he could never understand stood silently around the room. Displays of ancient swords, bows and spears decorated one of the walls. On the other was a display of a human skeleton-it looked ancient. Pictures of ruins and artist impressions of the cetra were all over the place. In various glass cases there were artifacts recovered from the ruins such as vases, jewelry, plates, clothing and other items he had no idea about.
Standing silently next to them was the statue of a beautiful woman clothed in what he considered regal garnments. Her floor-length dress was held together with chords around her hips and criss crossing her ribs. Long sleeves parted at the forearm to spill down to the floor. Her long hair flowed down her back, a thin strand braided at the top in a circlet around her head. Her pose was regal and serene, yet the white marble eyes seemed to hold a kind of inner strength that made them shine. It was a shame he could only glance briefly at the beautiful work of art before turning away. They ran forward past the artifacts, then through the archway that would probably take them through another section of the exhibit, then the stairs. " That's far enough, yo." Reno stepped out from behind the shadow of the arch, gun to his shoulder. Cloud stepped in front of Tifa instantly. Then using both hands lifted the sword and leveled the blade to Reno's chest.
" Get out of our way." He didn't think for one minute he could win against Reno. Hell he'd never even used a sword before. All he knew was that the pointy end should aways be faced to the opposition. But he had a weapon. That might be just enough to buy them time. Reno tapped the gun to his shoulder twice, smiling amusedly at the weapon in his hand as he walked around them. Cloud followed his movement staying in front of Tifa the whole time as he pointed his new sword at him.
" Now what are you planni'n on doi'n with that, hm?" Cloud didn't answer. He gripped the handle tighter and Reno sighed. " Look, just hand her over and no one gets hurt."
" Liar." Tifa spat. " Do you know what they do to people like me in assylums?!" She knew. She remembered. When she first began acting out her parents had taken her there to get better. Nothing was better. The drug treatments-needles biting her skin making her feel sick and disoriented. Shock treatments buzzing electricity as it set fire to her body making her shake so hard her head hurt. Tying her down to a bed as her limbs screamed for release-strap across her chest, can't beathe, can't breathe! She glared hard at him even as she tembled next to Cloud, gripping his arm as if it was the only thing that could anchor her to the earth. " I'll die if I go!" Whether it would be the doctors or reduced to taking her own life rather than spend one more day there...either way she wouldn't survive. He studied her carefully seeming to consider what she said to him
" Tifa, right? Lemme ask you something: Do you know what'll happen if you don't go? No? Then let me break it down for ya, kay? See, we chase you, you got hurt." He pointed to her bandaged arm eyeing her pointedly. Cloud snarled and took an agressive step forward. But that didn't stop him. " Now we have your friend Cloud here, who's-let's see...witheld evidence from law enforcement, mislead an investigation, evaded authorities, kidnapped, breaking and entering, theft, and the latest assault with a deadly weapon. You know he's going to jail for this. Add the fact that he's a convict on parole on top of all of this," Reno shook his head and shrugged somewhat hopelessly. " There's no way he can't. But maybe...maybe, if you come with us and cooperate, Elena can work with you two and make sure no charges are pressed against your hero here."
" And if you need, I personally volunteer to back your defense to make sure you go free, Strife. I mean, I gotta admit it's ballsy a you to stand up for your girl. I admire that, really. But..." Reno let his gunned hand fall to the side and he fixed the two with a serious stare. " If you run, I have to act. And it won't be pretty." Beside them the doors slid open from across the room and Rude stepped out from the elevator, gun poised and aimed at Cloud. " It's your call." Fuck! Cloud looked back from Rude to Reno, then at Tifa. The anger and fear in her eyes were enough to wash away any doubts he had. He couldn't let them take her. He just couldn't. Acting on impulse alone Cloud swung the sword at Reno, who cried out in surprise as he dodged the hit.
Rude fired, and Cloud held the blade flat shielding both Tifa and himself behind it. The bullet ricoched off the metal with a ping followed by a cry of pain. " Rude!" Cloud peeked around the blade. Rude was crouched on the ground holding his left leg, which was dripping with blood. The bullet had hit him instead. Quickly before anyone else could react Cloud flipped the blade over so that now the blunt side was the dominant and he swung at Reno again. The blunt end caught his stomach and he gasped as all the air was forced from his body as he fell. Tifa grabbed his hand and together they ran past the two, down the hall to the stairwell. His heart hammered in his chest as he ran with her neither one daring to look back yet. They ran down the remaining two flights then stumbled to a stop as the wailing of sirens reached their ears. The cops were here. Because of that FUCKING ALARM!
" Son of a Bitch!" Cloud punched the wall angrily. Damn it this was not the time! Tifa looked almost wildly around the area as the sirens came closer. They had to get away or get caught caught dead and buried gotta hide gotta hide..! THERE! RIGHT THERE! The red door at the far west corner of the room, with white bold letters that read: ' IN CASE OF FIRE' and the doorhandle was also painted white. Grabbing his hand she yanked him away from the wall and pointed to the door.
" Cloud! Over there!" His eyes snapped to the side to follow her gaze then without a second thought both bolted through the room. Cloud grabbed the handle and all but tore the door open. The crisp night air breezed over them. And judging by the emptiness beyond them he knew the cops were coming in through the other side of the building at the main entrance. Good. Securing the Buster sword in one hand and Tifa's fingers in the other together they darted out of the museum and ran into the waiting night.
Soooo what do ya think? I was so excited to include the buster sword in this chapter. This one was one of my favorite chapters to write. ( And yes, I am a history/museum nerd. A couple of the exhibist were based off of exhibist I've actually seen. lol.) Oh and as a side note, that cetra statue I added into the exhibit? She's pretty much based off Arwen from Lord Of The Rings so...yeah. And she's made of white marble. So what hapens next? Tune in next time to find out! See you then! And as always please R&R and bless your happy happiness!