Chapter 24: Back on the Trail
For once, and hopefully for the last time, I was driving the buggy slowly. Yeah, real shocker there, but even though the trees were far and few between, I still wasn't risking my safety right now, not when I was aware that the rest of AVALANCHE would wring my neck. It turns out that nearly all of AVALANCHE is secretly chocoholic.
While I was driving, the rest of AVALANCHE was stuffing their faces with chocolate cake. My chocolate cake. Maybe I should just go back to breakneck speeds regardless. It would teach them against eating cake without me.
Well, in all honesty, Yuffie wasn't eating. She'd had a considerable amount of alcohol to drink, and was now extremely, hopelessly hung-over.
She was moaning badly enough that Aeris had cast silence on her to shut out the pleas for attention coming from the brat, though to be fair… she deserved it for drinking so much when she was clearly a lightweight. I'd recommended casting sleep, but apparently that would just be rude. As if casting silence wasn't rude…
I find it amusing that she was still trying to moan, even though no sound was coming out of her mouth. Apparently, you can still hear yourself when silenced, so Yuffie was trying to get us to give her sympathy, not even aware that we couldn't actually hear her.
You want to know why Yuffie is suffering a hangover… Oh and why the rest of AVALANCHE has cake?
The previous evening
We were sat around the Cosmo Candle, staring into the flame. Morning had come and gone, Cloud and I had the chance to tell the rest of AVALANCHE what had happened last night. With the information, came the knowledge that Red had even more of a reason to stay here than before and thus the chances of his joining us were diminished greatly.
And we generally did nothing for most of the day, since we still couldn't leave due to the fact that our buggy was still being repaired.
When evening came, we had all met up at the flame and sat our asses down, for lack of anything better to do, when Barret got a text on his PHS.
"The buggies fixed, so we can go now." Barret finally said.
Cloud nodded absently, before looking at each of us in turn.
"Shall we get going?" He asked.
Everyone nodded, but for the moment made no move to get up.
"So this is it, Red…" Aeris murmured.
"That's just the way it goes." Barret grunted, before looking down and talking as if Red were in front of him. "...You came in handy at times..."
Finally, we all got to our feet and moved towards the exit of Cosmo Canyon, but were stopped by a shout.
"Wait for me!"
Turning, we spotted Red leaping down the stairs to stand before us, panting slightly.
"I'm coming too!" he finally declared.
Cloud gave a sound of confusion, turning to look at Bugenhagen, who floated down to us.
"Please look after Nanaki." Bugen asked of us.
"What happened?" Cloud asked.
"I think I grew up a little, that's what happened!" Red announced.
Well, I'm glad that he's sticking with us. I noticed that Bugen had already floated away, giving his Santa laugh. Once everyone had expressed their happiness that Red was staying with us, we turned to leave.
Once again, we stopped because of somebody yelling for us to 'wait, Shiva damn it!' Turning, we spied Adrian charging towards us. He slid to a halt and glared at each and every one of us before talking.
"Kid." He finally spoke. "There's something you need to see."
"This isn't some lame attempt to prevent me from leaving is it?" I asked, sceptically.
"What? No!" Adrian frowned, looking annoyed at the accusation. "And even if it was, I wouldn't be asking all of your companions to follow us. I'd like to see someone try to tell the entire lot of you not to go anywhere. I'd then very much enjoy seeing what they look like afterwards."
"Right… And what do you have to show me that you couldn't earlier? And how does it involve the entire lot of us?" I asked; arms crossed.
Rolling his eyes, Adrian crossed his own arms.
"I'll carry you there if I have to." He threatened. "Save yourself the embarrassment."
He wouldn't… would he?
I took a good look at him and I sighed.
He would, and he'd be amused by it.
"Fine. Lead the way."
Smirking in victory, Adrian turned a marched off towards our home. Shrugging, I followed after him, aware that the rest of AVALANCHE was following in curiosity. As we walked, I heard the tone that told me that I had received a text, which was accompanied by a slight vibration from the PHS. Flipping open my phone, I read the message quickly.
Did the math.
Enjoy.
Jade.
Slipping my PHS back into my pocket, I frowned in confusion. Did the math for what? What, did Jade finally do that algebra homework that she left for years? That was sarcasm by the way…
The entire group managed to fit into the living room of my home with ease, and I looked at Arian, eyebrow ridge raised.
"So what is it you want me to see?" I asked.
Adrian smirked and pointed to the doorway that led to the kitchen. I looked, and both eyebrow ridges were raised in shock when Xenor exited, holding the biggest damned chocolate cake I've ever seen. I felt Adrian drape his arm over my shoulder.
"Happy birthday, kiddo." He grunted.
"Indeed Young One." Xenor grinned. "As the humans would say: Happy Sweet Sixteen."
So, that was what math Jade had done. She'd counted out how long I'd been here and compared the calendars of Earth and Gaia. I'm… giving a genuine smile… I don't know whether Jade could hear my thoughts, but thank you.
"Ooh!" Yuffie giggled, slinging her arm across my other shoulder, and my smile faded in favour of an annoyed glare. "You didn't tell any of us it was your birthday!"
"I forgot." I explained, slipping into the most natural lie I could think off.
'Or rather, you haven't bothered doing the math yourself, leaving Jade to do it on a whim to find out that it was in fact your birthday.' Spike whispered in my ear. 'Now go get some of that cake.'
In the end, we stayed an extra night here in Cosmo Canyon. No, it wasn't a party, just a hot meal, lots of cake, and beer. Quite a significant amount of beer, as on this continent, 16 is the legal drinking age. Thus Adrian, going behind Xenor's back, went and brought out a couple of crates full of bottles of beer.
And Yuffie proved just how much of a lightweight that she was, by getting completely drunk after her third bottle. I didn't follow her lead, and only had one bottle of the stuff.
Still, Xenor proved that he was as good at baking as he was at cooking, and the cake was proof of that. My god… I'm in heaven, and it's made of chocolate. Thick, dark chocolate. This chocolate cake is heaven, and Xenor is clearly the god of this heaven.
I made this clear when I managed to catch him in a bear-hug, laughing like a madman.
"You are a God amongst us mere mortals!" I declared, loudly.
The Vortigaunt flinched at the volume of my voice.
"Are you drunk already?" He asked, trying and failing to look stern.
"No, haven't touched any beer yet." I shook my head.
Xenor rolled his eyes, untangling himself from my arms.
"And what makes me a divine being?"
"You are the single most awesome chef in the world!"
Again, he flinched at the volume of my voice, and I finally got the hint and lowered it.
"Not only are your meals the greatest meals I've ever eaten, but that cake is…" I trailed off, unable to find words that adequately described my feelings on the cake.
The Vortigaunt chucked, taking a bite from a slice he'd cut for himself.
"It isn't that good." He told me. "This one was rather disappointed with it, but didn't have the time to start anew, and this one refuses to buy the pre-made food… the additives disagree with me…" He sounded a tad embarrassed at the last part, rubbing the back of his neck.
"It tastes infinitely better than any shop bought cake." I grinned. "Unless you've secretly put in some addictive drug?" I joked, jerking my thumb at Cloud who was waiting impatiently while Barret cut himself a slice… painstakingly slowly.
Xenor stared at the two humans, chuckling slightly.
"Never understood why this one's cooking was so popular." Xenor admitted, now looking very embarrassed. "It's not like cooking is a hobby for this one, just a means of having something to eat without the additives that mainstream food insists on having."
"And yet, you make food taste better than those 'additive-riddled messes'."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." The Vortigaunt gave me a mock-stern look. "It's no better than the cake last year or the year before that."
"Stating a fact." I grinned, turning to get myself another slice of the cake. "And if I didn't say this last year or any year before that, then I must have been stupid."
The night had to end eventually, and the next morning, what remained of the cake was divided up between us and stored in our respective storage Materia. Seeing as the moment we climbed into the buggy, the non-hung over members of AVALANCHE were already eating the chocolaty goodness that was my birthday cake, they didn't want to wait for a more appropriate time to eat.
The odd thing was when Adrian pulled me aside. For a moment, I thought it would be to start doing more of his mother hen act, but a look into his eyes prevented any protest I might have, and made me listen.
"Watch yourself, kid." He grunted. "Especially around the blonde. Something about him ain't right."
"Cloud's fine." I defended the swordsman. "We've been working together since Midgar."
"Just watch yourself, Spike… I can't explain it, but I have a bad feeling about Strife."
Rolling my eyes, I nodded, to which he let me go. I felt his eyes watching me as I climbed into the buggy, before he walked off,
Of course, the moment the key was in the ignition, I was already be threatened by my greedy teammates, who promised all sorts of pain and agony if I dared to go too fast. The only reason they say that? Because they want to eat their share of the cake without flying all over the place.
Truthfully, it wasn't because of the threats that I decided I would drive slowly though. No, I drive slowly for Yuffie's sake. She looked kind of pathetic, all hunched over in anguish from her hangover. Even if her moans for sympathy were getting on my nerves, I wasn't about to speed along and make it any worse for her.
"You really are a lightweight." I couldn't help rubbing in her face.
"Shut up." The ninja groaned. "Too damn loud."
"You should have thought about that before getting yourself hung over." Red pointed out.
"That was the first time I've drunk anything alcoholic that wasn't sake." Yuffie defended herself, feebly.
"And you didn't think to restrain yourself. That was strong stuff." Cloud frowned down at the brat.
"Alcohol comes in different strengths?"
"Yea." I nodded, glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. "Even I know that, and I barely touch alcohol."
Yuffie gave a groan, before slamming her eyes shut as the buggy left the shadows I been driving though.
"Too bright." She moaned.
"Not a lot I can do about it." I said, pulling out a hi-potion and holding it out behind me for her to take. "Here, this should at least help."
She took it and gulped down the substance almost greedily, the medicine helping, not just with the pain from the sensitivity to the light, but also the thirst that was a common effect of being hung over. It also had the added benefit of repairing any damage to the liver, I think.
You know, I don't know whether the damage that alcohol does to the liver would count as artificial or not. Is it recognised as damage done through poison?
Bah, let the thinkers think on that.
It was half an hour later that Yuffie began whining again and promptly had silence cast upon her in order to save the rest of us from having to put up with the non-stop whining.
Well, it was simple, and it worked, so why the hell not, ey? As I had said before, I suggested casting sleep on her, but apparently it would be rude to do so, even though it would probably be a mercy for her. That way, she could be sleeping and avoid the pain that came from the hangover.
Due to my slow driving, it was hours before we reached a small town that was perched at the base of some particularly nasty looking mountains. Cloud narrowed his eyes at the sight of the town, forehead creased in thought.
"That place looks familiar." He murmured.
"It could just be one of those towns that happens to look like every other town." I pointed out.
"It's not just the town, the mountains as well."
"Our next stop then?" I asked.
Cloud considered it for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, to that town."
Nodding my own head, I turned the wheel to redirect the buggy. Now that we were looking at the town directly, I could see that there was a narrow pathway leading up the mountain behind the town. And now that Tifa was looking, she frowned in thought as well.
"What town is that?" She asked.
"Dunno; that's why we're going there." I answered. "We'll never know anything unless we try to find out."
I smoothly parked the buggy just outside the town limits and pulled the key from the ignition. Jumping out, I could see that the town was a homely looking place, though for whatever reason, a rusted pickup truck had been dumped at the entrance to the town itself, and left there.
"Impossible." Tifa gasped, looking at the truck.
"Yeah, it should be impossible for people to leave scrap at the entrance to a town. It really puts off the tourism." I muttered. "Nothing impossible about it though."
"Not the truck." Cloud snapped, looking pale. "The town in general. This town is impossible."
The rest of us looked at the two, in various states of confusion. Tifa looked around frantically, running to the town centre, Cloud following at a more casual pace, though he looked tense.
"What was that aboot?" Cait asked, scratching the top of his head.
"You tell me." I muttered.
"What, is it not sensible to go and ask them what's wrong?" Red queried.
Ah, a very good point. The rest of us all followed Cloud and Tifa to the town square, where both looked like they'd seen ghosts.
"What's wrong?" Aeris asked, being the most diplomatic of us.
"This town…" Cloud murmured. "It's Nibelheim."
Everyone blinked, confused.
"This was all supposed to be burnt down, right?" Tifa asked, unsure.
"I thought so." Cloud muttered.
"Then why? My house is still here too…"
"The hell's goin' on!?" Barret bellowed. "This a dream or somethin'?"
"I'm not lying!" Cloud snapped, eyes haunted. "I remember… the intense heat of the flames…"
"Then how is this possible?" Cait asked, accent thickening in confusion.
"Shinra rebuilt the town maybe?" Red suggested.
"But why go to the trouble of rebuilding it exactly as it was. Even the rusted truck back there is the same." Cloud questioned.
"A cover-up maybe?" Yuffie pointed out, quietly, hand pressed against the side of her head. "No evidence of Shinra ever doing anything wrong."
That is a good point, one that had Cloud's eyes narrowing in barely suppressed fury.
"Who are the dark monks of woe?" I asked, pointing at the surprisingly large number of people stumbling around clad in black hooded robes.
"I… have no idea." Cloud frowned, perplexed. "If they're the residents, then why would they wear robes?"
"Well, let's ask one." Aeris suggested, marching towards the closest dark monk of woe. "Excuse me?"
The robed figure turned to look at Aeris, staggering as if he were drunk as he did so. He took a long look at Aeris, before turning away from her.
"Mas…ter…" He ground out, sounding… hollow.
Aeris shook her head, and turned to walk back to the group, but hesitated as something caught her eye.
"He has a number tattooed onto his hand." She mused aloud. "Looks like… Number 16."
At the sound of the number on his hand, the robed figure looked at Aeris, head tilted in expectance. The Cetra shook her head, and the strange man turned away yet again.
"Wasn't there a man with a number tattooed on his hand back in Midgar?" Cloud asked.
"I wouldn't know." I shrugged.
"Yeah, in the pipe." Cloud answered his own question. "Back in Sector Five."
"In the pipe?" I hummed, thinking back. "Ah, when you were in the pipe, I was checking what had drawn a crowd. A small crater and a number of Shinra goons who fell off the walkways before we entered the Reactor."
The swordsman frowned a moment, before nodding as he remembered that I hadn't been with him.
"What caused the crater?" He asked.
"A gil coin. I'd assume that it fell from the same place as the bodies."
I wasn't about to admit that I had flicked it off the railing myself, before we'd even started to battle Shinra security. Nor that, now that I'm actually remembering what happened way back when, that I'd been about to spit over the railings when Tifa had stopped me.
Wow, has it really been that long since we were in Midgar that I need to actually focus on my time there to remember the smaller details?
Apparently so.
"What number was the pipe-dweller then?" I shrugged at last.
"Can't recall. It didn't seem important at the time." Cloud answered after a moment of thinking.
"Se…Roth…" A robed man moaned, grabbing onto my shoulder.
I flinched away from the man, giving a hard shove as his breath insulted my nose.
"Personal bubble, buddy." I hissed, watching the man stumble backwards, before wondering somewhere else.
"Wonder if the residents of the town know anything aboot these people." Cait said at last.
"Or about the history of the town they're currently living in." Tifa added.
"We might as well book into the hotel while we're at it. Yuffie would probably prefer to sleep than suffer through her hangover." I pointed out.
Yuffie gave a moan in agreement.
After some agreement from everyone else, we marched into the hotel and rung the bell to bring the owner to the desk. The owner was a chubby man, who looked far too serious than was healthy. He took a look at all of us before his gaze lingered on Red.
"No pets." He huffed.
Red opened his mouth to protest his new status as a pet, but I beat him to it.
"He's not a pet, sir." I put on my most absent minded tone of voice. "He's my seeing eye guide."
The hotel owner looked bemused, crossing his arms and snorting.
"He's not your seeing eye guide." He grunted. "He's not on a lead."
"That's the new Shinra science at work, sir." I smartly replied. "The way of the future. No need for a lead to have him guide me. He's the result of Shinra research into telepathy. So long as he is near me, he psychically sends me an image of my surroundings."
The owner blinked in surprise, gaping at me as he tried to find a fault with what I'd said.
"I've never heard of Shinra releasing such products." He finally said.
"Well, no sir. This here is the prototype. Gotta find the flaws before releasing them to the general public."
The owner grumbled, before nodding.
"Fine." He finally grunted. "That'll be 500 gil for the whole lot of ya."
After being given the money, he handed Cloud the keys, and after giving me one final look of distrust, went into the back rooms.
"So I've been promoted from guardian of Cosmo Canyon to your 'seeing eye guide' have I?" Red asked, sarcastically.
"How else was I going to get him to let you stay?" I defended myself, smirking. "Now come along seeing eye guide, we must help Yuffie to her room."
Red snorted, turning to follow me and Cloud as we helped Yuffie stumble to her room. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. Cait was volunteered to stay with Yuffie, and the rest of us went out to explore Nibelheim.
Cloud instantly moved around the large water tower towards a small house, eyes narrowed. I followed after him in curiosity. He was moving with a purpose, his eyes fixed onto the one house. It wasn't a large house; in fact, it looked like it was the smallest in the town.
At the door, the blond paused, scanning the wall to the side. After a moment, he began to push aside some of the weeds that were trying to scale the wall.
"It's here." Cloud whispered to himself.
"What is?" I asked, trying to see over his shoulder.
"I scratched this onto the wall when I was a kid." The blond moved aside, letting me see.
There, scratched onto the wall was a cartoony image of a wolf. I suppose from the perspective of a child, it would have looked like it was howling to the moon, but to me, it looked like it was drowning. I said as much to the swordsman, who shrugged.
"I was seven at the time." He admitted. "To me, it was the greatest work of art I'd ever done."
"Shinra did their homework, if they really did rebuild this place." I grunted, staring at the image.
Cloud nodded his head before pushing open the door and walking into the building. Feeling a grin of amusement at Cloud's lack of subtlety tugging at my lips, I followed after him. Inside, Cloud was looking around the place, frown lines marring his forehead.
"Can I help you?" A woman asked, standing at the corner of the building that had all of the kitchen stuff.
"I lived in this house until I was fourteen." Cloud said, walking up to the woman. He began to say something else but changed his mind. "No, but this town was burned down."
The woman stared at Cloud, eyes wide, and then out of nowhere, her hand met his face with a loud smack. The blonde's head twisted around from the force of the woman's slap, and he blinked in shock.
"Are you sick… saying those things?" She snarled. "Get out of here!"
Cloud nodded, numbly, turning around and exiting the building, hand against his cheek.
"That went rather well." I said, sarcastically.
"It could have gone much better." Cloud mumbled.
"So this was your home?"
"It looked exactly the same as I remember it. It even had the same rugs."
On exiting the home, we were confronted by another man in a black robe, this one doing a reasonably good job at sounding like a zombie.
"Must…go…to…Re…uni…on…" He groaned, before stumbling off somewhere.
Cloud managed to catch a glimpse of the man's hand.
Hmm…" He grunted. "Number '6'."
"Who are these guys?" I asked, watching the man stumble into a building with a sign over the door stating that the building was a shop.
"I'll tell you when I find out myself." Cloud frowned, before walking up to a nearby resident, walking his dog.
"This town was supposed to have been burnt down five years ago. What the hell is going on?" The swordsman demanded.
"Sir, you don't have to say such awful things." The man blinked. "I was born and raised in this town. What you say never happened."
Cloud looked like he was about to press the issue, but I pulled him towards the shop, pointing out that we can never have too many potions or hi-potions. It was a lame excuse, but I doubted that Cloud beating up random people would get us anywhere.
Turned out that Barret was already doing the supply shopping; so there was little else to do here. But before we could leave, Cloud spotted another robed man.
"He has a tattoo of the number '12'." Cloud pointed out, easily seeing the number.
"Can…you…hear? The…voice…of…Se…phi…ro…th…."
Cloud's frown became more pronounced at the mention of Sephiroth, but the man continued to babble on, making it clear that we wouldn't get much answers from him. We left shortly after that.
Minutes later, we bumped into Tifa, who was preparing to go into the house that was once hers, before the town was burnt to the ground. She was clearly nervous, so she asked us if we'd go in with her.
Inside, Tifa became lost in her memories, once it was made clear that other than the absence of any family photos, everything was as she remembered it. Including a dent in the wall where she'd accidently kicked it when first learning martial arts.
A loud bang in the kitchen had us rushing in, only to find yet another robed man. The noise was his knocking over a saucepan, which had made a loud bang as it had connected with the varnished floor.
"…Must…..get…it… and bring…to…Se…phi…roth… Then… become…one…with…Se…phi…roth…"
"This guy's number '5'." I said, grabbing the man's hand to actually get it still enough to read the number.
"Want to look upstairs?" Cloud asked Tifa, looking towards the stairs.
The martial artist hesitated, before giving a nod. Slowly, we moved upstairs, and stood on the landing. A shuffling sound came from one of the two rooms, so we entered, already suspecting what we'd find.
Sure enough, inside were two more of the hooded men, lurching around as if they owned the place. Actually, they might do, seeing as we haven't met anybody in this house that could be the owner.
"He has a tattoo of the number '11'." Cloud mumbled, looking at the closest one.
"Must…go…Reun…ion…"
"They keep mentioning that. What Reunion?" I asked, sourly.
"Tell me when you find out."
"Tattoo number '4'" Tifa spoke up, standing next to the other robed man, who looked at her curiously at the mention of his number.
"Where…are…you..? Great…Se…ph…roth…"
"With all these guys lumbering around, I think it's safe to say we're back on Sephiroth's trail." I frowned.
"Maybe." Cloud said, also frowning. "But what do these men have to do with him?"
"The way they're going on, it's like they're dedicated to him." Tifa bowed her head in thought. "Every one of them calls him 'Great' Sephiroth."
"They revere him, and worship the ground he walks on… The main question is what is Reunion? They mention that just as much as they mention Sephiroth." Cloud asked.
"Probably nothing good, if it involves Sephiroth." I pointed out.
"Just another thing to prevent him from doing then." Cloud concluded.
I shook my head, wry grin on my face.
"Have you noticed that nothing seems to go smoothly for us?"
"Yes… I blame you jinxing us." Cloud smirked, before walking into the room that belonged to Tifa.
I shrugged, following Tifa who followed Cloud into her room. Inside, Cloud was staring at the massive piano.
"Wait, I definitely remember playing this piano, so why didn't to get burnt?" He asked, confused.
"If they recreated a scratch and a dent in the walls, you don't think they'll just replace the piano?" I asked, amused.
"He has a point there, Cloud." Tifa shook her head, also amused at the blond moment from the swordsman.
Sighing, Cloud looked out the window. In the background, barely visible, was the Shinra Mansion.
"I wonder if that's the original Shinra Mansion, or if they just rebuilt that, as well." Cloud mused.
"Do you remember whether it caught alight or not?" Tifa asked.
"I don't think so." The blond shook his head. "But with the size of the fire, it wouldn't surprise me if it had managed to spread to the mansion after I followed Sephiroth to the reactor."
The mansion, from what I could see, was a dark and foreboding building, with a gothic look to it. It wouldn't have been out of place if it was placed into the Victorian era.
"We'll have to search it anyway." Cloud finally said. "Might as well go now."
It was a sound plan of action. On the way to the mansion, we encountered Aeris, who joined with us for exploring the old, decrepit building. Or at least, what looked like an old and decrepit building.
At the gates, we encountered another two of the cloaked men, both wailing like banshees.
"Woooooooow…. He's… calling… Sephiroth… is… calling…" One of them shouted, before he fell to the ground, giggling.
The other seemed a bit saner, though only marginally.
"The…Great…Se…Phi…Roth…is…near…. In…side…inside…the Mansion… Urrrrrrgh… the great…..Sephi…roth." He mumbled, head twitching.
We didn't bother to check their numbers, because what the second had just said was enough to over-ride any thoughts we had.
"Sephiroth is in the mansion?" Cloud repeated, tensing.
"Looks like I was right when I said we were back on his trail." I muttered, hand drifting inside my coat, resting on my gunblade.
A grunt came from Cloud's throat, and he began marching towards the entrance to the mansion, pulling the Buster Sword free of its harness and resting it on his shoulder, ready to be used if the need arose. Shaking my head, I followed the swordsman, Aeris and Tifa close behind.
The inside of the mansion was dusty, though it was clear that the building had been used recently, as the dust covered floor had footsteps, leading towards the stairs. Cloud obviously noticed the footprints as well, because he made to follow them, but was held back by Tifa.
"We should explore the rest of the mansion first." Tifa reasoned. "For all we know, those footprints could lead to a trap."
At first, it appeared that Cloud was planning on ignoring her rationality, but he then appeared to deflate and nod.
"Fine." He consented. "Let's split up and look for clues as to where Sephiroth is hiding… footprints not included."
'Let's split up and look for clues'? Gee, that sounds oddly familiar, coming from a blond leader…
"Sure thing, Fred." I muttered, being rewarded by a confused look from the swordsman.
"It would probably be safe to assume that the footprints lead to the secret basement that you told us about, so when we're done, we'll meet up there?" Aeris spoke up.
"Sounds like a plan." Cloud agreed, before picking a direction and marching.
Following Cloud's lead, I picked a random door and moved through it, curious. The room was small, and felt even smaller by the huge piano taking up nearly all of what little space there was. Like the rest of the building, the piano was dusty, making it appear more grey than black. Pressing down on one of the keys, a flat tone was my reward.
Even to my untrained ears, this piano was clearly out of tune.
Shaking my head, I scanned the rest of the room for anything of importance. Nothing except a lot of paper scattered over the floor. The paper was yellow with age, the ink, brown instead of black. Must have been written upon by a cheep biro; unless black ink usually turns brown after how ever long these papers have been here.
Just to appease my curiosity, I scooped up one of the sheets of paper and read the contents aloud.
"Blah blah blah, fools don't understand my genius… blah blah blah, punish those who get in my way… yet more blah blah blah-ing… something about a Turk… blah blah blah… something about a foolish woman. Blah blah blah, locked him away in the basement. Some smeared ink that probably wasn't important and was probably more blah blah blah-ing… Combination to the safe is… smudged beyond all recognition."
I dropped the paper, glaring.
"Well gee, that sure was informative." I muttered to myself, rolling my eyes skywards. "Figures."
Besides being very random, and marking the writer as being very self-obsessed, there was little to nothing worth mentioning about the papers.
My eye caught sight of another sheet of paper hidden under the piano. Mentally preparing myself for yet more torturous ramblings, I grabbed the paper and read it.
"Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling impurity, purging the stream to beckon forth an ultimate fate. Behold mighty Chaos, Omega's squire to the lofty heavens..."
I groaned, scrunching up the paper and tossing it over my shoulder.
"What the hell was that all about?" I grumbled, exiting the room. "Even the self-absorbed rambling made more sense."
And that was saying something.
"Any luck?" I heard a soft voice ask, behind me.
Turning around, finding Aeris exiting a different room, looking at me. I shook my head in reply.
"Not unless you count the self-absorbed writings of a petty man who claims to be an under-appreciated genius."
Aeris giggled at my answer.
"That's more than I found." She said.
That was likely true. Anything of any real value would have been removed or looted if the building had survived the flames, and if it was rebuilt from being burnt down, well, Shinra would hardly place their more valuable stuff in a building that they never use.
I'm assuming the building is never used, but then, I'm basing this educated guess on how much freaking dust there is.
"I'm going to look upstairs." I decided.
The Cetra nodded, and moved into a different room, leaving me to my own devices. Doing as I'd told Aeris I'd do, I trudged up the stairs to take a look at some of the rooms up here.
Let's see what's behind door number one!
I opened the first door I encountered, and was rewarded with… a mostly empty room with a safe. A safe that I didn't have the combination for.
You know, Yuffie's thieving habits could have actually come in handy here, but no, she had to get a hangover the one time we need her skills as a thief. I bet she did this on purpose. She somehow knew that her skills would be needed, but decided to deliberately get a hangover to get out of helping us.
That is so typical.
Ok, I'm being a little unfair. She wouldn't be hung over if it weren't for the fact that Shepard had decided that since sixteen was the legal drinking age he'd provide crates of beer for my birthday... So if I want to blame anybody, blame Shepard.
Resisting the urge to pull out my PHS and call Shepard just to tell him that he's an evil man who went out of his way to make life difficult, I instead decided to do something more useful, like check the next room.
The 'next room' was a bedroom. A master bedroom and it was even en suite, if the other door was anything to go by.
I pulled open the various drawers in the room, trying to find something useful. Anything, even if it was just a scrap of paper with the combination to the safe.
I pulled open the dresser and paused as I came face to face with a lot of SOLDIER uniforms hung up and waiting for someone to wear. Hey, these look like they might fit Cloud, who I'm not sure if he has any spares… Best tell him before we leave.
I wasn't desperate enough to scavenge around in the bathroom. And on exiting the room, Cloud was nosing around the other rooms, so I decided to go back to the safe and see if I can figure out how to crack it.
I mean, if Yuffie can do it, how hard can it be?
Pretty damned hard. It might just be that I don't have a stethoscope, but I can't tell what I'm doing. All I know is that the first number is right to 36, and then left to something. Problem is I don't hear anything different when I go past the number I'm supposed to go on.
It wasn't until the dust caused me to sneeze and I accidently pushed the dial in, clicking the selected number, that I found the number I needed. So far, I know: right to 36 and left to 10. Now I need to go right again.
And I missed the mark, so now I need to over.
Right, left, right, right… Missed again. Damn it, this safe cracking is harder than it looks. Try again, right, left, right… ease it right… THERE, right to 60…
"No!" I cried out in anguish as the safe reset itself.
I could have sworn that was it. So close, yet so far.
Now to retry.
Right, left, right… slowly move right… Well if the sound was different on 57 but it was wrong, then maybe…
"Woohoo!" I cheered, hearing the satisfying click that marked that the number was correct.
Now for the next number…
…
The sounds of the gears or whatever was completely different. On one hand, it marked that it was likely the last number needed. On the other… I now have no idea what I'm supposed to be listening for.
It was many frustrated attempts before I found my lucky break.
"A post-it note?" I exclaimed, staring at the yellow paper stuck on the ceiling.
This entire time, I was working hard at cracking this safe, and I could have looked up at the ceiling and read the entire combination…
It might have hurt my foot, but kicking the safe felt like a very good way of venting my frustrations. Well, it did a good job, but maybe it wasn't worth it.
Still, glaring angrily, I moved the dial in the specified directions, eager to finally open this safe and be done.
"Right to 36, left to 10, right to 59 and last, but not least, right to 97." I muttered to myself, moving the dial in the spoken direction.
The safe gave a very final sounding click, and I pulled the safe open, smirking in victory, proud that I had cracked my first safe. Ok, it wasn't exactly a good job, and I cheated at the end, but I refuse to let such technicalities bother me.
The inside of the safe wasn't very impressive. Three things caught my eye. A shiny red Materia orb, a key, and a sheet of paper.
I grabbed the paper first, curious as to what was important enough to warrant being locked in a safe.
"Blah blah blah… oh for crying out loud, does this guy ever not talk about how he is a genius no one appreciates?" I growled. "Blah blah blah… key to the… something room… in the basement. Well why didn't you just say so from the get go?"
I screwed up the paper and tossed it over my shoulder, ready to take the key and Materia, but paused when I didn't hear the paper ball land. Maybe it just landed on the rug outside the door?
"Cloud, stop drooling on my shoulder…" I muttered, wiping off the wet patch on my shoulder.
Wait…
Slowly, I turned around. I almost immediately wished that I hadn't. There, standing before me, was a large monster, which looked as though it had once been two separate monsters before being crushed together, forming this reject for Monsters Inc. It even had a parody of a friendly smile on its face.
"Oh shit." I cursed.
The monster opened its mouth, and made a grunting sound. It almost looked as if it wanted me to just climb into its mouth and accept my fate.
Swearing, loudly, I hurled a fira at it and did a baseball slide between its legs while it was distracted, before scrambling to my legs, already moving out of the door and to the upstairs landing, where I'd have more room to fight.
"Cloud! Get over here!" I bellowed, pulling out my gunblade and firing at the monster as it turned around to face me.
I heard the sound of running footsteps, but I became a little distracted by the fact that I suddenly had a monster bull rushing me, bellowing a loud roar.
AN::
I've noticed something while writing this chapter. It is a bad idea to fully write out chapters out of chronological order. I had a fully written out chapter based on events after this chapter, before I even began, and as a result, I winded up trying not to overlap events to badly, which is why this chapter seems shorter. Because it IS shorter.
A new lesson for me to learn, write the chapters in CHRONOLOGICAL order. Fair enough if I have a scene written down in advance, but a full chapter seems to hinder me more than help.
Not happy with this chapter, but what can I do? What's done is done. Enjoy.