One's Love, One's Pity





By: Bishojo Beauty





Chapter 9





Tifa made her way back into the kitchen only to find it empty, empty of life. It held only the dirty dishes in the sink, and some still on the table.



"Rufus?" Tifa called out. A hint of worry present in her voice.



She continued down the hall to the living room where it too, laid lifeless. Now, as the tautness grew, her senses began to become stronger. She could hear the dripping of the kitchen faucet, the creak of the floorboards beneath her footsteps, the howling of the wind. Calling Rufus name again and again as she made her way around the house. Her body tense, prepared to attack at any moment. Suddenly, she felt a hand clasp over her mouth, and an arm rap around her body keeping her arms at her side. Disabling her of any attacks. Tifa struggled hard against her the person who held her captive. She attempted to open her mouth, her plan being to bite down upon the man's hand.



"Stop. It's just me," a voice whispered in her ear. Rufus.



As he slowly released her, Tifa turned around quickly, hoping to find the reason for the disappearing act he had just pulled along with the others.



"What's going on? Is this some kind of joke?" Tifa questioned.



With each word that left her lips, her voice pitched higher and higher. It's been a while since Tifa felt the rush, the fear, the feelings of battle. She could feel her knees weakening underneath her. Reflexes acted before her mind as her hands moved to cling on to Rufus as he stood, unusually stiff.



"This is no joke. Something's going on. Cloud and Barret thought they saw something outside. They haven't come back yet. Something's up," Rufus whispered in Tifa's ear. Footsteps were now heard from the floor below. Two pairs. Could it Cloud and Barret? Tifa felt a wave of relief as she heard the voices of Cloud and Barret calling her name. But not Rufus' for obvious reasons. She glanced at Rufus quickly only to see his brows creased together in a worrisome manner. Quickly, Tifa gave him a wink as to reassure him that she was safe and then made her way down the stairs to meet Cloud and Barret. As she made her way down, she quickly realized that Rufus didn't follow her. Hm...strange. But she quickly chased that thought away, being more intent to find out exactly what was going on.



"Tifa! Thank the Planet, you're alright. Barret and I were worried that whoever was here were just luring us out leaving you helpless. So we came back," Cloud said. Tifa gave him a disappointed look.



"I'm not that helpless. You should know Cloud. And plus I have Rufus here with me," Tifa said smiling sweetly. Cloud could tell that Tifa was finally happy, but not Barret. He was too arrogant to look past his anger and see that. Just as if it could get any worse. Rufus chose that exact moment to rush into the room. Tifa could practically sense the anger from Barret.



"Something is going to happen, I can feel it," Rufus said before Barret could say anything rude first. But that didn't stop Barret from doing anything rude though, as he snorted as loud as he possibly could. Rufus shot him a look before he continued to speak.



"I don't know how I know, but it's just a gut feeling. It's like someone is trying warn me of danger," Tifa watched as Rufus paced the room, placing a hand on his chin and tapping his finger against his lips as he thought. A quiet rumbling could be heard from the distance as this happened.



"Just what we need, a thunderstorm," Cloud remarked out loud. He took a seat on the couch of the living room. The rumbling continued never stopping since it started.



"Does the rumbling sound for that long? I don't think this is a thunderstorm at all. It's something bigger," Rufus said, pulling the curtains to the nearest window apart. The sky was an eerie red. It wasn't like the red of a sunset, rather the red of blood, spilt across the sky.



"Holy shit! Something tells me that's not good," Barret yelled over the continuous rumbling as it grew louder. In the distance smoke grew. Rufus squinted to try to see what was causing it. The few buildings and houses were collapsing to the ground. Rufus and everyone felt as the ground below them began to shake. Cloud yelled something as he ran for cover, but was unheard over the loud rumbling. Rufus grabbed Tifa by the arm as he ran out of the house, knowing that the house would eventually collapse on them. Cloud and Barret followed, Cloud being worried for the life of Tifa, and Barret for Tifa and his hate for the Ex-president of Shinra. Rufus just kept on running along with Tifa. He didn't care where he was going, knowing only that he had to get out and away from whatever was going on. A small nagging voice kept telling him it had something to do with his betrayal to the lifestream. Betrayal my ass. Rufus thought back to himself. Suddenly Rufus felt something, rather someone, tackle him from behind. He fell hard onto the ground, the gravel coming up in a spray around them. Rufus flipped the assailant over. Or at least tried to. The assailant being Barret made that task quite hard for the smaller man as they struggled against each other. Barret landed a few hefty punches on Rufus while Rufus could only struggle helplessly against pure muscles. Tifa ran quickly over, grabbing Barret by the arms and pulling him back with the use of he strength and weight.



"Get off of him!" Tifa screamed only to be drowned out by the loud rumbling around them. Cloud soon joined in on pulling Barret off Rufus. Finally they were successful. But the ex-president of Shinra was obviously not to happy about the fact that Barret had jumped him and beat him with his punches and so as soon as Rufus got up onto his feet he swung forward with a closed fist, landing a punch right on Barret's jaw. Barret fluently swore as he wiped the blood off his split lip. As the small brawl continued the three men were oblivious to their surroundings until Tifa spoke out loud.



"Stop guys! Listen, the rumbling's gone!" She yelled, cheering happily. Cloud, Barret, and Rufus froze where they were, heads shooting up.



"Yeah, and so is the rest of Kalm," Cloud pointed out. Everybody then realized, they were the only survivors. The sky was back to it's normal smoggy way. The only difference was that there was no longer anyone to notice besides the few members of AVALANCHE and the ex-president of Shinra.







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Okay, Yeah...I must apologize AGAIN for taking so long. Now this was VERY long. After I looked at my last chapter. I felt really sorry cause it was so short. So I finished this chapter. I hope it's okay. Well, yeah, a turn of events to start something.........MUhahahahah