The Yuffie Threshold of Annoyance; Threats and unanswered questions; A haunted house;
When pumpkins attack!; Extremely poor taste in pets; Changes to history
Cloud rested his chin in his palm, propped his elbow on Fenrir's handlebars, and sighed as he watched a gleeful Yuffie lead the red-headed SOLDIER 1st on a merry chase, weaving in and out of the pine forest. Cloud hadn't recognized him when he first landed, but his arrogant behavior had helped Cloud remember. Genesis. He'd been irritated by the man's attitude, but watching the shenanigans before him, he felt some sympathy for the man; Yuffie had a gift for irritating people and then dodging the consequences. Even with enhanced speed and reflexes, catching the ninja had never been easy, and that coupled with her taunting cat-calling and materia thievery usually had the effect of causing her victim to fall into a blind rage, making it even easier for her to avoid the increasingly wild strikes. Between that, AVALANCHE's newly improved stats, and Yuffie's years of experience stealing from enhanced individuals, the young commander stood no chance at all.
An angry shout and a whooshing crash jerked Cloud's attention back to the fight. The intruder had cut down a large fir in his desperate struggle to get at the pint-sized trouble maker. After watching a few more trees crash to the forest floor, Cloud began to wonder whether he should knock the poor man out, before he ended up hurting himself. Before he could make his mind up, a faint whistle of air sent him on high alert.
Whip-quick, he pulled out the base blade of Tsurugi and deftly swatted the dart out of the air. He really hated darts and all the unpleasant possibilities they presented. Scowling, he focused his attention on the unfamiliar, middle-aged, brown-haired Turk whose gun was trained on him. Two troopers flanked the man, rifles at the ready. He cursed himself mentally. He had forgotten about the helicopter and the possibility of reinforcements. He shouldn't have let Yuffie play for so long; things now had the potential to get out of hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tifa dropping into a fighting stance, Denzel imitating her.
The Turk didn't look too bothered by missing. He started right in with the questioning. "Quick reflexes… SOLDIER reflexes. Who gave you your enhancements?"
Right. Like he was going to tell a Turk that he'd got them courtesy of Hojo. Cloud kept his expression blank.
"You summoned Bahamut in Kalm," the man said calmly. It wasn't a question. Cloud merely shrugged, neither confirming or denying. "Are you aware that you interfered with a mission that involved the terrorist 'The Death God on the Battle Field'?" The man let the question hang, clearly waiting for Cloud to enlighten him.
Cloud was puzzled. Who was "Death God on the Battle Field"? The only person he could think of who'd come close to deserving such a title was Sephiroth. And Shinra's poster boy obviously wasn't who the Turk was referring to. All Cloud wanted was to get to Nibelheim and be done with this. With a glare, he retorted, "You were going to bomb a town full of innocent people."
"You and your friends do not strike me as merely concerned citizens." Cloud's lip quirked. Of course they wouldn't; they were too weird a group for that. Eyeing the forest behind the troopers, he considered the best way to get out of this situation. The Turk wasn't done with his questions. "Who do you work for?"
"No one."
"Really?" The man's tone was skeptical. After another attempt to wait out Cloud's blank silence, he tried a different tactic. "What is your agenda?"
Cloud tilted his head in thought, never breaking eye contact with the Turk. What was safe to give away? Was there anything he could tell this Turk that would help them? Not really, not right now anyway. Not until they were ready, so he stayed quiet. The silence stretched on again, punctuated by the uneasy warbles of the chocobos, and crashes, shouts, and taunts from the chase in the woods. The Turk's poker face was excellent, and the trooper's helmets obscured most of their expressions, but their body language still subtly signaled exasperation. Whether it was because of his refusal to answer, the SOLDIER 1st's behavior, or both, he didn't know and didn't care. "It would be in your best interest to answer my questions." The man's cold eyes flicked to Tifa and Denzel and back. He kept his pistol aimed at Cloud, but the troopers swung their rifles towards the martial artist and the boy.
Cloud's muscles tensed so quickly they almost spasmed. "Don't get in our way," he growled. Denzel cast a nervous glance at Cloud, who nodded reassuringly. Despite his fury at the threat, he wasn't seriously worried for the kid. Tifa would look after him, and Cloud could step in if things looked bad. This fight could even be good for him; there weren't many enemies and he needed the practice.
He heard Tifa shift her weight, and he took it as the cue it was. They exploded into motion at the same moment. In one fluid movement Cloud dismounted Fenrir and charged the Turk, moving slow enough for the man to see him coming. The Turk darted back, away from his bodyguards. The two troopers began to turn, aiming at Cloud, but, only a heartbeat behind him, Tifa rushed into the space the Turk had occupied seconds before. She kicked the rifle out of the first trooper's hands, then spun and caught the other man's wrist with one hand while her other grabbed hold of his uniform, pulling him down to her level. Twisting, she flipped the larger man over her, throwing him to the ground. The force of the impact loosened the man's hold on his gun. She snatched the weapon from him and pitched it dozens of yards away, into the ruined forest.
Cloud tried to grab the handgun from the Turk and repeat the trick, but since he was still consciously operating at half-speed, the man saw the motion coming and yanked the gun up, high out of the child-sized Cloud's reach. Cloud switched tactics on the fly, lifting Tsurugi's base blade, still in his right hand, and swatting the Turk's hand with the flat. Instead of dropping the gun, as he'd expected, the man's fingers clutched convulsively tighter, but it at least made him flinch his hand downward, back into the swordsman's reach. He wrapped his fingers around the Turk's wrist, twisting it until the man winced.
All this took only a few seconds. Behind them, the fight with the troopers continued. The first man had recovered quickly. Rather than waste time scrabbling in the pine needles retrieving his gun, he drew his sword and rushed Tifa from behind. Cloud turned to intervene, but was proudly surprised to hear Denzel shout a warning to the brawler and strike at the trooper, Enhance swinging in a choppy arc. The trooper turned and blocked the blow, and Denzel just barely managed to dodge the man's counterstrike. The air rang with their blows, the boy visibly struggling, but not giving any ground. His footwork was solid, and stance properly centered. Tifa knocked out her man, and was ready to step in and help their son, if need be.
Cloud returned his focus to the Turk in front of him. They both knew this wouldn't be much of a fight. The Turk had lost the element of surprise a long time ago, and now he knew that he was outmatched by Cloud. The only hope for Shinra to regain the upper hand was to get Genesis back under control, but with Yuffie providing the perfect distraction, that was unlikely. "Don't get in our way," Cloud repeated, shaking the man's wrist for emphasis. Unable to resist the temptation to start sowing the seeds of doubt, he added, "And don't trust Hojo."
The Turk quirked an eyebrow at that, but before he could ask anything Yuffie dropped from a precariously leaning tree next to them. Cloud released the man's wrist hurriedly as she eeled between them in a rush to vault over the elongated front of Fenrir. Obstacles safely between her and the panting, red-faced SOLDIER fuming after her, she peeled down an eyelid and stuck out her tongue. "Nnyaah, can't get me!"
"Genesis." The Turk's voice was perfectly casual.
The 1st stopped, glaring death at the smallest member of their group. He took a moment to get his breathing under control, likely more from frustration than from the fatigue Yuffie was showing signs of. Once collected, the SOLDIER took in the situation. The trooper Tifa had flattened was still down for the count, and the other looked as though he'd caught on to the fact that he was being used as a teaching implement and was now refusing to participate. Judging by his look of disgust, the amusement of the sight was clearly lost on Genesis.
Cloud was ready to be done with this all this. "I think it's time you left." Cloud's voice was low and quiet but it held an edge.
Genesis's eyes sparked with indignation, but before he could say anything, the Turk cut him off.
"The next time you feel civic duty calling you, think before you act. Death God on the Battle Field is a highly dangerous terrorist. His men have taken hundreds of lives and, thanks to you, he got away. Instead of interfering with Shinra's operations, I suggest that you turn your efforts towards him. I hope we meet again under better circumstances."
The man walked away, probably heading back to wherever they'd left the helicopter. The still-standing trooper cautiously collected his fallen comrade, warily not turning his back on them the entire time. That left only the seething SOLDIER 1st Class. He held out an imperious hand. "My materia. Now."
"Hmm." Yuffie put a finger to her cheek as she considered. "Say please."
Genesis's eye twitched.
Cloud inwardly groaned. He went back to Fenrir and started the bike's ignition. He looked around, trying to find a path that wasn't blocked by a downed tree, because, knowing Yuffie, they would have to leave in a hurry.
The commander was reciting something under his breath, obviously trying to keep his cool. "My friend, the fates are cruel / There are no dreams, no honor remains."
Yuffie's hearing, though not quite at SOLDIER level, was still extremely keen. "That's not what I asked for," she sing-songed. "Come on, it's easy. It's pronounced pl-ēz."
Surprisingly, Genesis actually obeyed. True, it was uttered in less of a 'Please give give me back my materia' tone, and more of a 'Please let me kill you, then burn you, then kill you again' tone, but it was a please. Tifa and Denzel had mounted and, sensibly, were already picking their way through the jumble of logs. Cloud began to roll forward, weaving the bike carefully around obstacles.
"Let's see… Nope! Tough luck, your materia's mine!" The little kleptomaniac vaulted onto Nijoror's back. She urged the bulky male forward into a sprint, sticking out her tongue in one last taunt.
Irritation and exasperation flared in Cloud's mind, but there was no time to take it out on Yuffie. Genesis was yelling, so upset that he couldn't even form coherent words. Cloud gunned Fenrir's engine and made it over the last few trees with a combination of stunt riding and brute force, Yuffie laughing ahead of him.
Once they were well away, he pulled out his PHS to check the time. They'd lost an hour and a half because of Shinra's antics… and Yuffie's. At least it was summer; they would still make it to Nibelheim well before dark fell. He began to listen to the conversation ahead of him. No surprises, Yuffie was gloating.
"Ha ha! You should've seen his face when that flock of needle kisses flew up right in front of him! It was a perfect chance, so I took it and swiped another materia."
"What all did you get?" Denzel had always liked hearing the stories Yuffie told when she stopped by 7th Heaven, and being able to be part of them now obviously had him in high spirits.
The ninja puffed out her chest proudly. "A mastered Firaga; that's what he cast at us. Oh, and a cool Firaga Blade, also mastered; an Assault Twister Plus, mastered; and an MP Up Plus. Of course, they're all Shinra-made but, oh well. Then again, it's kinda sad he only had the four. I was hoping for more. I mean, really? What kinda SOLDIER 1st is he, only carrying four materia?" Her puff turned into a huff.
Cloud just rolled his eyes. The man probably hadn't thought of four kids as a threat and now he, and Shinra, knew better. He remembered the Turk's parting words. "Better circumstances", huh? Either the Turk had been trying to recruit them (fat chance), or he'd been trying to threaten them. If that was the case, who and what would the Turks send after them next? Sephiroth? No matter who they sent, it would interfere with the group's timetable. And who the hell was Death God on the Battle Field? No one had mentioned any such thing back in Banora, when they'd been hashing out objectives. If the terrorist really was such a threat, shouldn't someone in the group have known about it? Maybe the Turk had been lying, trying to send them on a wild chocobo chase. It was a sad commentary on the Company's standard operating procedure that Cloud couldn't dismiss the notion that this 'Death God' was entirely made up, a convenient lie to feed the media to cover Shinra's own actions. He made a note to ask Vincent what he knew about it later. Right now Yuffie was so amped up, she'd probably steal his PHS out of his hand, just to prove she could. He'd call after she settled down.
Denzel twisted in his saddle to look at Cloud. "That was one of the SOLDIERs we're trying to save, right?"
Cloud nodded, too absorbed in his thoughts to give a better answer. It had been Genesis, alright. The man wasn't showing any signs of degradation yet, and if Reeve's memory was correct, wouldn't for a few more years. He couldn't help worrying that some change they made to the timeline might end up triggering it sooner. They were going to Nibelheim after all, near Jenova. If Genesis showed up while they were at the Reactor, would she be able to influence him? The flames of a burning town flickered in his mind's eye. Would Shinra follow them into Nibelheim? Would they try for an ambush outside of town? Would they bring in back-up, their current forces having proved insufficient? Too many questions, with no easy answers. He didn't like it. Thankfully, Tifa seemed to sense his anxious mood.
She reined Nerthius up, to be beside Cloud. "You alright? Don't worry, we can handle it."
Cloud had to look a long way up to meet her eyes. With her tall and straight on chocobo-back, and him crouched on his motorcycle, the height difference was a matter of several feet. He nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
He was lucky to have his friends with him, to watch his back in fights and to depend on while on the road. Tifa had been right when she had called him out, during the crisis of Kadaj's Reunion, on his dislike of being alone. He was a private person, and he didn't like sharing his wounds, but he did like knowing he had people who he could turn to and trust. If he had come back without them, what would he have done, alone in the past?
It was close to four o'clock in the afternoon when they reached the outskirts of the sleepy little town. Denzel wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. Curiosity: it was another place he'd never been, and it was Cloud and Tifa's childhood home. Unease: because Cloud never talked about it and Tifa only rarely. He knew enough of the story to be aware that a lot of seriously bad stuff had happened here. Conflicted: they were supposed to avoid attention from the locals, going so far as to leave Fenrir hidden outside town, but Denzel really wished he could meet kid Cloud and Tifa. Sure, now he knew what they'd looked like at his age, but it wasn't the same. He wanted to know what they'd been like, before they saved the planet, before they became so… parent-y. On top of all that he was sore from riding for days, and hungry for cooked food. They'd mostly been eating in the saddle, and he was starting to hate the sight of any food that came in bars. At least he wasn't cold, even if the breeze blowing down the mountainside carried a chill.
The group made a wide, silent loop around the town. Even the golds, picking their way over the rocks, stayed quiet. Once they were past the village Denzel thought the others might relax a bit, but they didn't. To the side and a little behind him, Yuffie started to fidget. Ahead of him, Tifa was ramrod straight and perfectly still on Nerthius's back. Cloud, who'd taken point on foot when they neared the town, was also straight as a board. They were all tense. Denzel's mouth was dry; he swallowed. These people, who hadn't even batted a eye when that SOLDIER showed up, were nervous about where they were headed.
When the Shinra mansion finally loomed into view, and the building really did loom, he felt a reluctance to approach the place. Not only was the place creepy, like a set from a horror movie, but it was the beginning of the nightmare. This was where Vincent had slept out his penance, where Cloud got his enhancements, where Sephiroth went insane. Suddenly, a part of him wanted nothing more than to stay outside, even if that meant sleeping unsheltered. By the time they finally reached the wrought iron gates, his palms had become sweaty, the leather reins sticking to them.
He dismounted while Yuffie picked the locks, then led an uneasy Freyr into the cobbled courtyard. When the gates clanged shut behind him, he jumped and fumbled for his sword. He turned round, only to find Tifa smiling at him, her hand still on the gate latch. Her smile looked a little strained. "I know this place is creepy, but don't be oversensitive, or you could end up hurting yourself or someone else. I was only shutting the gate so the chocobos can wander around the yard."
"Ah... right." He couldn't help the blush he felt on his cheeks. Right. No need to be jumpy. He took a deep breath and turned back to Freyr, unbuckling the girth and martingale, then pulling the saddle off. Following Cloud's and Yuffie's example he set it to one side, in a pile with the rest of the tack that they had bought in Costa Del Sol. Tifa was walking around the courtyard, dropping piles of greens for the chocobo's dinners. Denzel followed Freyr over to a pile, smoothing down his rumpled feathers. The boy looked up when Tifa called his name. The others were all standing on the front stairs, and he trotted over to join them. Without speaking, Cloud opened what Denzel was privately labeling The Doors To Hell. They walked through a short hallway into a big, high-ceilinged room with a curved staircase and three tall, grimy windows at the far wall. The light that filtered through was dim and greyish. As the others made their way over to the staircase, Denzel took a moment to peer around the large entrance hall. Aside from the spiders spinning cobwebs, there were no signs of life… or so he thought. Something floated out from a barely-open door on the left side of the hallway. Was it a monster? It didn't look dangerous; it looked like a child's craft - a pink bow on a jack o'lantern head, fluttery white ribbons suspended beneath it, moving like jellyfish tentacles, propelling it through the air.
"Um... Cloud!?" His question turned into a shout of alarm as the pumpkin spotted him and started floating towards him with a purpose.
He didn't even see Cloud move - one second he was at the top of the stairs, the next he was five feet away, sword out, the pumpkin already falling to the floor, cut in half. Guess that answered his question whether it was dangerous or not. "What was that?" he asked.
"A dorky face."
"Really? That's its name?"
"It's about ten levels higher in strength than you," Cloud said sternly, casting an assessing glance at him.
"Um. What?" He shifted his weight a little. Why was Cloud looking at him like that?
"Yuffie, you have a Silence, right?" Cloud called over his shoulder to the girl, still standing on the staircase.
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh!" Tifa exclaimed softly. "Good idea, Cloud." She nodded at the ninja, saying, "It's for training, Yuffie. This way, Denzel'll have a handicap." Cloud nodded in confirmation, then turned back to Denzel. When the swordsman locked his eyes back on him, Denzel straightened immediately. Even when Cloud was shorter than him, the man still felt taller.
"Think you can clean out this floor for us?"
Denzel gaped for a second. Cloud wanted him to 'clean out' this floor? Against something ten levels stronger than him?! He collected himself. He had promised that he wouldn't get in the way, and he wasn't about to let Cloud down. "Sure. I can do that." Nervousness and excitement cracked his voice. Get a grip! he chided himself. He'd faced down a shadow stalker, and had tried attacking Bahamut-SIN, and he hadn't been nervous either time. Then again, he'd been pretty mad that time with the summon, and adrenaline had carried him through against the stalker. Plus, this time was in front of Cloud. What if he messed up and made a fool of himself?
"Hey, let's start with that room," Yuffie called from her perch, pointing at the room the small monster had floated out of.
"Denzel." Tifa stepped down the stairs toward him. "Yuffie will cast Silence, so you won't have to worry about their magic, but watch out for their cutter attack. You have Haste, right? Now would be the time to use it. And call us if there's any other types of monster in there."
"Okay." He smiled, partly grateful for the advice, and partly to reassure her. Yuffie jumped down the stairs, and walked with him to the barely-open door. He drew his sword, cast Haste, and nodded at his friend. She threw open the door, revealing two pumpkin-heads bobbing over the dusty carpet. Yuffie leapt inside and cast Silence over the little monsters, so fast that they had no time to react. The floating creatures responded belatedly to the magic, drifting away from the caster, which brought them into Denzel's range. He quickly stepped forward, swiping at the closest. The blow connected, but the impact caused the monster to bob away like a balloon. He should have expected that, since they moved like independent balloons, but it caught him off guard and he overbalanced. The second dorky face rushed at him. What he had thought were ribbons were razor-edged tentacles, and the creature cut an inches-long gash into his upper arm, making him drop his sword as he grabbed at the cut.
"Watch out!"
"Grab your sword!"
The two separate shouts made him lunge for his sword. He hit the ground rolling, grabbing the blade as he went, before coming to rest in a kneeling guard. It was a move Cloud had taught him for just this sort of situation. The monster's follow-up attack missed, and it overshot, ending up on the far side of the room. Denzel charged at his original target, aiming at the slight wound he had made with his first strike. The pain in his arm from his own wound made the strike not as powerful as he would have liked it to be. He also missed the spot he'd been aiming for, instead making a new nick below the previous. Again, that damn second one came spinning in, but he was able to block it. The thing was stronger than it looked, causing a vibration to run down the blade as it ricocheted off.
It was like hitting the piñatas that his parents used to buy for his birthdays. You just kept hitting them until they fell apart, but you had to be careful in case they swung back at you. With that memory in his mind, the fight became less frightening and he got better at hitting them without losing his balance. This whole time, he'd been training against things that resisted his strike, not things that moved with it. His piñata comparison really worked, too, cause as each one faded into the lifestream, it left some gil behind. Finally, the fight was over. Denzel was feeling kind of tired. Those things had a lot of health for their small size!
As he went over to collect the fallen gil, a wave of warm healing energy washed over him, and the cut on his arm closed. He peered over his shoulder to see who had cast the spell. Tifa smiled and nodded at him. He beamed back at her in silent thanks. He grabbed the money and walked back over to the others, trying to assess Cloud's expression. He seemed pleased. "You did well. There's still one more room on this floor. Once you're done with it, we'll head upstairs."
Denzel felt like swelling with pride at the compliment. On the other hand, another room? Groan. Fine, whatever. He could do it.
There were three dorky faces in the new room. Denzel used the same strategy as before, but with the added wrinkle of having to keep track of a third opponent, he spent so much time dodging and blocking that he landed very few hits and was only really succeeding in wearing himself out. In the end, Yuffie cast Freeze as well as Silence to give him some breathing room.
Once the room was clear, they took a breather before making their way up the stairs. The top floor was just as dusty as the bottom, with even more cobwebs. Denzel couldn't help wondering, looking at the dingy grey mats collected in the corners, if the spiders here were poisonous. Somehow, he felt that if they weren't, it would be kind of disappointing. As they made their way through the bedrooms, studies, and a conservatory filled with dead plants, Denzel found that the dorky faces became less and less of a challenge. Sure, they were a higher level than him, but their actions were predictable and now that he was used to them, slow. He was sure he'd gained two, maybe three, levels while fighting them.
"Next we go get Vincent, right?" he asked, downing a potion, reveling in the way his zapped energy was boosted.
"Maybe." Cloud shrugged. "It depends on the safe."
Denzel's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "Safe?" What did a safe have to do with waking up Vincent?
"Look, it's the one over here." Yuffie waved at him from the open doorway of a room they'd already cleared. He peered inside. Sure enough, there was a great big safe along one wall, gunmetal grey with a tarnished gold dial. He'd been so busy with the monsters, he hadn't even noticed it. Yuffie was already fiddling with the dial. Denzel took two steps inside before a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Glancing over, Cloud's mako-bright eyes met his.
"You should wait in the hall. If lost number is in there, this room'll be cramped in the fight." Cloud pushed him gently out the door.
"Huh?" said Denzel, articulately. Lost number? Was that a monster? He stood where Cloud had left him in the open doorway, completely baffled, watching as the others gathered around the safe, ready for a fight. If there was a monster in there, it would have to be pretty small, about Yuffie's height. So why had Cloud said that it might get cramped? Yuffie whooped as the last number of the lock combination clicked into place, then jumped away and pulled Conformer off her back, swaying her weight from foot to foot.
At first, nothing happened. Then the door creaked slowly open a few inches, releasing a foul brownish vapor that made his eyes water and his stomach churn. Yuffie gagged and immediately put her free hand over her nose, Tifa coughed and turned a nauseated green, and Cloud, with his mako-enhanced sense of smell, turned to the side and threw up. A green tentacle curled around the edge of the door, swinging it fully open. Denzel had never seen a real malboro before, but he knew what they looked like, and this looked like it could be the god of malboros. The thing was huge! Its eyestalks brushed the ceiling, its toothy maw could've swallowed Fenrir whole. How had it fit in the safe when it barely even fit in the room?!
Tifa recovered first, casting an Ice spell at the thing's eyes. She leapt to the side to avoid a flailing tentacle, which was severed by a blow from Cloud. The malboro let out a angry, hiccuping roar that was accompanied with another wave of bad breath. This time, it was Denzel's turn to gag. Covering his mouth, he spun and made desperately for the bathroom he'd seen earlier. His hands slapped onto the sink counter, sending up little puffs of dust, and he spent what felt like an eternity retching as his stomach tried to climb out of his body by way of his throat. He washed out his mouth with rusty water, then jerked back as the entire building shook, the floor moving beneath his feet. There was a tremendous noise of cracking wood. He waited frozen for a moment, afraid the floor was going to collapse, but when nothing else happened he carefully made his way back to where the fight had been.
Tifa was crouched in the hall in front of the doorway, using a torn piece of carpet to wipe foul-smelling liquid from her leather gloves. Hearing his footsteps, she looked up. "Feeling better?" she inquired, maternal concern evident in her voice.
"Yeah." He looked down at the floor, feeling his cheeks flare with embarrassment. He'd run away from a fight. It wasn't one he'd been fighting in, but that only made him feel more useless. He'd thrown up.
Tifa stood, peeling off her gloves, and gently took his clenched hand between her own. "The first time I fought a malboro, I nearly passed out. I had to let Barret take the front line while I recovered," she confided. "If we didn't all have Ribbons, this fight would have been a lot harder."
"It was hard enough!" Yuffie's voice sounded odd, as though she was farther away than just inside the next room. "Sense said it had over fifty thousand hp left, and that was after we already chopped off a bunch of tentacles!"
Denzel leaned into the room, coughing at the dust clouds that filled the room. There was barely any floor left - he could look down through the giant, splintered hole to the room below, where the malboro's body was slowly fading. Cloud stood to one side of it, cleaning his swords. Yuffie held a cloth over her nose and mouth while she rummaged around the dissolving corpse.
"Ewww. This thing was someone's pet." She held up a pink collar, nearly three times her height in length. "Carrot," she read off the heart shaped tag.
"Who would keep a malboro as a pet?" Tifa made a disgusted face.
"Someone with no sense of smell," Denzel muttered. That prompted a small laugh and a nod of agreement from Tifa. They watched as Cloud made his way to the fallen safe. It had fallen on its face, and as he picked it up and turned it over, something small and shining red fell out. A materia. He picked it up, rolled it between his palms, then tossed it to Yuffie. Catching it, she yipped in delight and surprise. Cloud turned back to the safe, half crawling into it as he ran his fingers into the dark back corners.
Yuffie held the materia up to a window, frowning. "Hey!" she yelled to the swordsman. "This materia's a dud!"
"I don't think so," Cloud answered, his voice echoing oddly from inside the safe. "It feels like those key materia we picked up back in Banora."
"Guess I'll have to figure out what it goes to. Well, if it leads to any other materia, it's mine and I'm not sharing."
"Fine," Cloud said. He stood up, looking displeased. "The key's not here."
Suddenly, embarrassingly, Denzel's stomach grumbled loudly. Apparently, now that it had been emptied, it wanted to be filled.
Before he could say anything to cover his embarrassment, Yuffie announced, "I agree with Denzel. I'm starving, and besides it's, what, ten o'clock? I say dinner and bed, Vincent can sleep another night. Besides, he's gonna be all depressed and mopey right now. I don't wanna spend all night dealing with his 'I must atone for my sins by sleeping forever." She did a pretty bad imitation of the gunman and bounced out of the room.
"She has a point," Tifa said. "It's late, and we'd be waking him up only for us to go to sleep." In the room below, Cloud looked away unhappily. Tifa stepped forward, crouching at the edge of the hole. "We've got to sleep, Cloud. Sleeping here doesn't appeal to me either, but what option do we have?" Her voice was soft, and Denzel got the uneasy feeling he sometimes had around his adopted parents, that he was intruding on a private conversation.
Cloud shifted uneasily before sighing and shrugging. "Whatever." He followed Yuffie out the door into the entrance hall.
Tifa stood and clapped Denzel on the shoulder with what looked to the boy like false cheer. "Well, let's go get dinner."
Once again, dinner was in bar form. Denzel made a face at it, but none of them felt like chancing the cans in the kitchen. Who knew how old they were? Let alone whether they were safe to eat. After all, Professor Hojo had lived in this house for a while.
When it came time for bed, they decided to sleep in the bedroom across from the room where the safe had been. There were two beds in there, one for the girls and one for the boys. Given the number of monsters that had taken up residence in the abandoned building, they also decided to set up a watch like they did when traveling the wilds. They'd taken out all the enemies they could see, but who knew what else might be lurking? Cloud would go first, followed by Tifa, then Denzel, then Yuffie. Denzel was glad he didn't have first or second watch. He was tired from the days-long ride, the battle with that trooper, then all those fights with the dorky faces. He took off his shoes, lay down on the bare mattress, stripped of its musty top sheets, and was out like a light.
*Notes*
Carrot the Malboro is an elite mark form ff12 and yes someones pet.
Can anyone guess what materia they found in the safe?
Fun Fact - Terry Pratchett is an author I really enjoy, in one of his books "Going Postal" and its sequel "Making Money" he has epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. When I decided on the name of Going Postal for this Fic I decided to also include the same type of epigraphs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
