A.N. This took me just a bit longer than the others. And no games in this chapter. So, please note the usual: "This is speech" *This is thought*
Dark's P.O.V.
I opened my eyes to see a night sky, and the warm glow of a fire. I started to sit up, and felt no extra weight on my chest, where my breastplate was, so I immediately looked down and panicked. "Dark!" I heard from my side and felt a hug, and remembered what I had done earlier. "Lightning, I..." I started saying, feeling the familiar cloth covering my face. *Whew. At least that's still a secret.* I thought to myself. "I'm sorry, I thought I had lost you. You don't need to say anything. I had to cut off the thing covering it up." She explained, sobbing in between. I looked over to see that the breastplate that I used to wear was laying against a rock, in two pieces. "Your heart stopped. That';s why I had to cut it off. When I pulled it off to try CPR, I saw the brand. You're a Pulse l'Cie." She said. I put my right hand up to the back of her head, and rubbed her back with the other hand, comforting her. "So, now you know." I said to her. "Yes. I also understand what you're going through. Luckily, you have time to complete your Focus, whatever it is." She said, covering up my brand with her hand. I moved my left hand to above my right peck, where her hand was, and gently lifted it off. "I need to take Caius's ultimate attack. That is my Focus." I told her. She threw both of her arms around my neck, trapping me in a large hug, which I gladly returned. "The life of a l'Cie is hard." I told her. "Yeah, it is. But I can help." She said.
We left for the ship the next morning. I decided to strip off all of my armor except for my gauntlets and my boots and their guards. I was left in the various sashes that were bound together around my crotch, and the cloth that was acting as pants. I straightened out the red sash where I had covered up my brand, enabling me to walk without people staring at it. "Dark, why aren't you wearing your armor?" Lightning asked. "I don't need it anymore." I said. "What?" She asked me. "If you are able to accept the fact that I'm cursed, then I don't give a damn about the others. I only need the trust of my friends." I told her. She smiled, then put her Gunblade back in its holster, having stayed out the entire night. We made the short walk back to the village in no time, where we were met by a large bodied guy, with a small, studded ball under his left arm, a Blitzball, if I remember correctly. Under the other arm was something red, and folded over.
"Hello, Dark. I heard about what you did to that golem from Tidus yesterday. My name is Wakka, and I'd like to thank you by giving you this." The man said, holding out the package under his right arm. I took it, and saw that it was a large red overcoat, with black pants underneath it. "It was our friend Auron's. I think that he'd like you to have it, for helping protect the Grand Summoner's kids." Wakka said as I put the coat on, carefully, not wanting to show off my brand. I buttoned it up to about two buttons from my collarbone, my red sash covering up the rest. "A perfect fit." I said, then noticing the belts around the waist, pulling those closed. "Yeah, there was another part of it, but it somehow managed to get separated. Anyway, why are you wearing that cloth over your face, Brudda?" Wakka asked. "I need my identity to remain a secret. But thank you, for the clothes. I'll do my best to keep them in good repair." I told him. "Don't. They're yours now. Well, good luck on your travels!" He said, running off to another tent.
"Ah, good. It seems as if you've actually returned to us." Balthier said as soon as we got back to the airship. "We ran into a bit of trouble." I said, crossing my arms. "I can guess that the kind of trouble involved the destruction of armor." He said, pointing at the new coat I was wearing. "We ran into Caius. Dark took an attack meant for me. That's why we came back so late." Lightning explained. "We told you." Fran said to us, walking back into the ship. Balthier said nothing and followed her. Lightning and I entered the ship, and immediately went to our rooms. Once I got into mine, I hesitated for a moment before locking my door. "Fran and Balthier still can't know of my condition." I said to myself.
Light's P.O.V.
I slid into my hammock, resting my Gunblade up beside the wall. I stared up at my ceiling, and dived into my thoughts again. *I knew that he was a l'Cie. I just hadn't expected the God that branded him be a Pulsian. Now I know exactly what he was going through.* I thought to myself. I stroked my scar again, then thought, *But, if he was branded, then who was the God that branded him? And how does he know his Focus already? This mystery is getting stranger and stranger by the minute. Oh well, at least he has good abs-* I immediately halted my thoughts after that last one. Why was I thinking about THAT in a time like this? I liked Dark, but as a good fighter, and a good Samaritan. *Or, do I like him more?...* I thought again. "No. He's a friend. Nothing more, and nothing less." I said to myself. I twisted my body around in the hammock, enabling me to lay on my side, and quickly fell asleep.
When I woke up, I saw what face Dark showed to the world. I immediately jumped back, startled, before he placed his hand on my shoulder, saying "Woah, girl! I didn't mean to scare you." "How did you get in? I'm a very light sleeper." I told him, sitting up in my hammock. "Well, by the way you were sleeping when I walked in here, I highly doubt that. You were in the fetal position, and I think that I actually saw you smile. I've been waiting here for about eleven minutes." He said to me, sitting back down on the stool he brought in. "Okay, that's not creepy at all. Anyway, why are you in here? I thought that you liked the privacy of your own room." I asked him. "I actually came to tell you about our next stop, which, according to Balthier, will take us the entire night for travel." He replied. "Okay, what do you need to tell me?" I asked him, crossing my legs. "The thing that we are looking for in Edge is a man. If I recall, he has large, spiky hair. He should be in one of two places: The 7th Heaven, a bar opened by a woman by the name of Tifa Lockhart, but I think that she changed her name to Tifa Strife a long time ago. The other place is the Aeris Gainsborough Memorial Church." He said, crossing his arms. "Who the hell are we trying to find?" I asked him. Dark looked at me with is pale, gray eyes, and said, "A great SOLDIER."
We made it there as fast as we could, but it was still relatively dark outside when we landed. Dark and I left the ship, again, and this time, we stopped to see a massive sculpture at the middle of town. "Intriguing." Dark said. "What is it?" I asked him. "It looks like a giant meteor, being pushed back by an unknown force." He said. "We should find 7th Heaven, wherever that is." I told him, pulling him away from the sculpture, which had a scorch mark on it, barely visible. "I don't know why you're freaking out, It's right over there." He said, pointing out the bar, which apparently had a lot of business now. We started walking when we were stopped by a man, hunched over, and wearing a large brown hood over his face.
"I heard you kids are looking for 7th Heaven. I have a hunch you're looking for Cloud." The old man said. "Yeah. You know of him?" Dark asked him. The old man chuckled, then said, "I know him better than anyone. My name's Zack. I'll aid you in getting to Cloud." He then started going in the direction of the bar we were already going to. "Wait, we're seriously going to try to recruit Cloud Strife?" I asked Dark as we were walking behind Zack. "Yes. Why are you so worried?" He asked me. "Well, you have to realize that the guy has to be about sixty years old by now." I told him. "Yes, but he may be more proficient in healing by now. Look, I know what I'm doing, so trust me." He responded, stopping both him and myself. I looked forward to see that Zack had brought us behind 7th Heaven.
"Umm, Zack?" I asked the old man. "Don't worry. This is how to get to Cloud." He responded, knocking three times. The door opened to an aged woman, with a few gray sections in her long, black hair, wearing a leather outfit, and who had brown eyes. She looked at the old man, who said, "Hello, Tifa. These kids need to see Cloud." She looked at him for a second, then at us, then back at him, and then finally said, "Okay. You come in first, kids, and I'll get you something to drink. Now, your friend, on the other hand, can go up to his room, because I'm sure he needs his rest." Dark and I nodded, then followed the old man inside, then moved to where the main bar section of the building was. As soon as we sat ourselves at a table, we were brought a couple of sodas. "Thank you, Mrs. Strife." Dark said as soon as she brought them. "You're welcome. Please, call me Tifa. I'll go check on my husband to see if he'll be able to see you kids." She replied to him, walking away from us and to the same door that Zack had went when we got here. "Something's strange. Why did she give us a soda while everyone else gets alcohol? We're both well over the age." I asked Dark, crossing my arms over my chest as I was waiting for an answer. He closed his eyes, and put his hand to what I believe was his chin, and then said, "I think that it was to prepare us for when we meet Cloud. After all, you don't meet someone you don't know completely drunk off of your ass. It isn't very proper, nor polite." He immediately dropped his hand from his chin, and then moved to grab the glass.
I watched him, carefully, trying to see who he was when he moved his cloth over his face. He started to raise the glass, but then stopped, putting the glass down, and plucking a straw from the cup holding them at the middle of the table, and placed it in his drink. He then moved the whole thing up closer to his face, enabling him to drink his soda while under the concealment of his cloth. I silently cursed in my head, and reluctantly took a sip from my own drink. *Hm. She brought me a diet soda. That's strange." I thought to myself, wishing that there would be more caffeine in the drink. After an hour of watching the drunks fall out, and our drinks go down in volume, Tifa finally came back to us, and said, "Alright, now we can go back." We both stood up, and followed her as she led us along. "I'm sorry for the wait, but you have to understand, Cloud has as many enemies as he does friends. At least, how many are still alive." She explained as we started walking up some stairs. "What happened?" I asked her. "Time. Time happened to most of our friends. Only Vincent and Yuffie are alive nowadays. Well, Barret's daughter is still around, but she mainly hangs around the Church." Tifa explained, turning a corner at the top of the stairs. She walked up to a door, where we stopped, and she instructed us to go in. When we did, we were met with a surprise.
Dark's P.O.V.
"Zack?" I asked when we got into the room. The old man still had his hood up, and was sitting on the bed, polishing a part for a Fusion Sword. He put the sword horizontal across his lap, and put the rag on top of that, freeing both of his hands up. He moved them to the edges of the hood, and pulled it back, revealing a very light blond set of spiky hair, which was almost completely gray, but the bright blue eyes of the Mako energy he was subjected to years ago. "Cloud?" I asked, unsure as to whether or not it was him. "Yeah. I'm him. Why are you two looking for me?" He asked, continuing his polishing. "We're trying to kill Caius, before he destroys the world." Lightning told him. He immediately stopped polishing his blade, and slowly looked at us. "What?" He asked, in shock. "We thought that we could use your help. I've heard about what you did to Sephiroth, and I think that we could use your assistance." I told him. He looked around his room, in thought, then looked back at us, and said, "Fine. I'll go. But we'll need one of my friends to help." "I thought that every one of your friends except for Vincent and Yuffie have died." Lightning asked. "That's all of my old friends. For a while, I was in another world, fighting alongside a bunch of other people for a God. Cosmos was her name. I remember this one guy, I think he's still alive." Cloud explained. "Who is this guy?" I asked him. "Squall Leonhart. He wields a Gunblade." Cloud said.