Chapter 9 – Jewel Tears, Stone and Crystal

Of all the things I've believed in.

I just want to get it over with.

Tears form before my eyes, but I do not cry.

Counting the days that've past me by.

I've been searching deep down in my soul.

Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old.

Feels like I'm starting all over again.

And the last three years were just pretend.

And I've said:

Goodbye to you.

Goodbye to everything that I knew.

You were the one I loved,

The one thing that I've tried to hold on to.

"Goodbye to you." –Michelle Branch

You never sang my songs.

On this stage of my own.

You never said my words,

Wishing they would be heard.

I saw you smiling at me.

Was it real or just my fantasy…?

"Eyes on me" –FF8/Faye Wong

Sephiroth sighed into the darkness of the cell, his voice riquotteing off the walls. It was strange to hear the sound of his own voice again. He'd forgotten it a while ago.

He strained his ears at a sudden sound and found that it was only the footsteps of one of the shapeshifters. He said nothing, and did nothing, half wishing they would leave and half wishing they would come, so he could show them again and again why it was he was so carefully guarded.

And then, through a small hole in the metal door of his cell, he saw a large group of figures passing. One was the shapeshifter with the hair that vaguely resembled his and the violet eyes. The person who followed sent a shiver of bestial rage through him. He snarled and struggled against the shackles that held him.

The figure's head turned, and Sephiroth glared into sapphire eyes. For a moment, there was a staring competition, and then he saw Cloud Strife's gaze slowly bawk. He grinned and another sound of anger erupted from his lips, this one soft, low and dangerous.

They both spoke each other's names, Sephiroth with a deadly hiss and Cloud with a gasp of fear and uncertainty.

"What? Come on!"

The violet-eyed one pulled Sephiroths enemy away, and he glared at the door as Cloud's little companions passed. Each one watched him with fear.

"Come back Strife! Get back here!"

Yes, he recognized them all, and each face burned into his mind, further scaring his sanity. There was that girl from Nibel, with the ebony blasted cat following, and then the pilot and the dark-skinned person with the gun arm. Following them was a woman he didn't recognize, a tall girl with fiery hair and thin red lips pursed in a frown.

"Canyon girl…" He purred, the madness taking him over. "Hello Canyon Girl…."

She looked at him, and her hand strayed to a scimitar on her back.

"You don't need that…" He said, ignoring a silver lock of hair falling into his emerald eyes.

And then they all passed. Slowly his seething mind calmed, and he leaned back against the wall, his thoughts fully on Cloud. How could he have gotten here? Perhaps the Mistress got him, though he couldn't tell who she might be. He'd heard somewhere her name was Aklojha.

Dark Oracle.

Deep in his Cetra blood, the words translated in mysterious clarity; Aklojha meant Dark Oracle. Perhaps it was coincidence?

No. There was no coincidence anymore.

Only pain.

Tifa felt her chest and throat stinging as she finally regained the air in her battered lungs, and she felt slightly light-headed. Putting a hand to her head, she looked up at Rude and Yuffie, her eyebrows rising in concern.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Us?" Yuffie asked with a laugh. "Yeah, we're great. Peachy!"

Shocking forest-coloured eyes gazed her over with a rare look of concern as the normally stoic Turk demanded, "Are you alright Tifa?"

"Yeah I'm – fine…" She replied distractedly.

"Uh – guys? If I could break the mood by commenting?" Yuffie piped up.

"Mood?"

"There's no mood!"

Tifa felt her cheeks burning at the comment, and hoped they couldn't see. Especially Rude, she would just die if he caught her blushing.

Ugh, this was so not the time!

"Right right, sorry. But – um – where are the others?"

Tifa looked above them at the altar, the stone demon soaked with so much blood that held so much pain, and felt her heart and soul slowly sinking in her gut. "They're gone!"

"It must have been that Falcon guy, he said he was taking them somewhere." Yuffie thought aloud. "Where though? Jesus, if he had a teleportation meteria, he could be practically anywhere!"

"He didn't use meteria." Rude said dryly.

Yuffie half-closed her eyes, and her auburn eyebrows rose in an almost comical, cynical look. "How do you know?"

"There was speech involved. Besides, it – felt different."

Tifa shook her head. People couldn't do magic without meteria. Though the man didn't seem exactly human…

"Well then, how do we know where to go?" Yuffie sounded truly worried now.

"I don't know."

Tifa decided to be logical about it, looking above again at the altar. She just wished she wasn't here.

"We have to go up there. They might still be there!"

Rude and Yuffie nodded, and as they ran, Tifa spoke quietly as if to reassure herself.

"I mean, the Falcon guy missed us, didn't he? Maybe other people are still here. Or – there's some sign of where they went, or something. There has to be!"

They ran around and up a hill to a long cobble pathway, and carefully climbed the stone steps to the altar. The reaction to the sight was immediate.

One of the men with the guns was laying half-off the platform with a huge, gory wound across his neck. He had died before he knew what happened.

And, about ten feet away, Vincent leaned against a pillar with his head back and his garnet eyes closed. It almost looked as if he was basking in the mocking sunlight, shining down on his ashen face.

"Vincent!" The cry that freed itself from Yuffie's lips was a surprisingly tortured one, as if her whole being had been taken away at the sight of the man, sitting there in the sunbeams. For that single moment, the russet-haired ninja seemed more mature and more powerful to Tifa than she ever had before.

The pale, thin face turned slightly and dark eyes looked up at Yuffie, who had dropped down beside him. It almost looked as if his fearsome optics were bleeding. Of course, it was the deep cut on his face and deep into his chest that bled.

"Hnn?" He said simply.

"It's okay…you'll be alright…" Yuffie said warmly. Beside Tifa, Rude closed his eyes and looked at the ground piteously, as if Yuffie's sudden courage was going to hurt her.

No, he couldn't think that Vincent wasn't going to make it. Did he?

Vincent didn't say anything, but the briefest of shivers pulsed through him brutally. Tifa's breath caught.

"Omigod…" She said simply.

Yuffie's mind was crying tears of blood as rage bubbled within her. No, he couldn't be – dying. But, that cut was pretty deep…

No! No, it couldn't be! No no no no NO!

"What happened? How did you escape that Falcon guy?" Her mind hurt, and her heart hurt. She hurt so badly, her voice was not her own.

Vincent shrugged, damn him, and muttered. "Didn' see me."

She made the mistake of looking down at the wound, and gasped, a gurgly, tortured gasp. "Jesus! No – you're gonna be okay…"

Surprisingly, the man's thin lips turned in a small, half-hearted smile. "That's what I said."

"What?"

His eyes shut tightly in agony, and he shook his head. And for the first time, he was talking straight to her like an old friend, actually explaining something to her.

"Lucresia – it doesn't really matter. Just – when she died – that's what I said."

"Vincent!"

His hand rose up and he brushed back a lock of her hair in an almost fatherly way. "Don't worry about it Yuffie."

"What? No, don't do this! C'mon, you ass! Stoppit!"

But she realized with a start that his eyes were closed.

"Goddamnit…" She murmured, and stood up. A bit of moisture hung in her eyes, and she closed them tight, which only started the tears. "God – GODDAMN IT ALL!"

She turned around and saw Tifa watching her, biting her lip weakly and watching her with her chocolate-amber eyes. "I - "

"I'm sorry." Rude said to her, and at the same time that it made her feel slightly better, it overflowed the rage that had been simmering in her.

Wow, lookit that! Mister I'm-so-hung-up-on-Tifa-Lockheart is talking to me! Hurr-ay! Alert the damn press!

She said nothing, just walked past them. For the second time, she'd lost someone in this place, thanks to stupid, bloodthirsty idiots. First Sephiroth, now this damn idiot bird-boy?

She'd kill him. She'd tear him apart with her fingernails if she had too.

"Yuffie, come back! Please!"

She ignored Tifa and kept walking. She reached the edge of the altar and stood there, staring at the pathetically beautiful water. She could feel the water dripping onto her soaked shirt and onto the ground, and she felt two pairs of eyes watching her back. She didn't care.

She noticed herself absently clenching her fist, and looked down at it. Her hands were soaked in blood, some her own, some from Rude and some…

"SON OF A BITCH!" She screamed at the water, followed by more colourful swear words, some she'd heard from Cid, and some she'd improvised on her own, right there.

Memories of her fight against Sephiroth flooded her mind as she looked into the water. She remembered the day in the Shinra Mansion when she thought that something was going to jump out at her from every corner. She remembered the night in the cavern by the falls, where, under the moonlight, the man that now lay dead only twenty feet away, had told her about the deepest, most secret part of his past.

She remembered it was then that he began to intrigue her. At first, he'd seemed so evil, dark, and just plain creepy. Like an uncaring mass of human disfunction. But on that one night, she'd seen into his spirit and realized what he was. One confused, screwed-up man, looking for something to rely on.

At first, it had just been a childish little crush, but after awhile, she began to hunger for time around him, just to hear his limited words and to try and make herself noticed, like an attention-starved two year old. They'd hardly talked, but eventually he began to notice her – just a little. They spoke briefly every once in awhile, until they actually became sort of half-fought friends, in a strange, deformed sort of way.

Ironically enough, he became the closest person to her in AVALANCHE, though it was little known and, she had to admit, laughable.

So now what? Your only friend, if he can even be called that, is dead. Everything you know is suddenly gone – taken away by that bastard. All you have left is the woman you barely know, and the friggin Turk! Great, just great.

She hardly noticed as she began to cry, angst-ridden tears of defeat and bittersweet memories lost in the blood that would forever linger in the long forgotten city of the ancients.

Reno's feet hurt from walking, but he hardly noticed as he walked on towards Feliyui, towards freedom from this place. In front of him, Aeris led the way, with Reeve at her side and Nanaki following closely. The three were talking currently about the times of Sephiroth, apparently about good memories that the fiery Turk had no part of.

He stayed especially close to Elena, feeling almost as if she was his last tie to reality. Even Reeve, his own boss and friend, seemed far away.

"How do you think Rude is?" Elena asked suddenly.

"I'm sure he's fine." Reno said, trying to sound comforting. He hoped he did.

Elena sighed. "I hope you're right."

"I'm always right."

Her big eyes met his, and he was surprised by the melancholia in them. Feeling suddenly nervous, he added, "Don't worry. Rude can take care of himself."

"How can you be sure?" She demanded. The suddenness of this shocked Reno, and he had to struggle to hide it.

"What?"

"How can you be so sure that he's alright? He could be anywhere, he could be dead! And would you care? No, of course not!"

Aeris, Reeve and Nanaki looked back at him, and though Nanaki and Aeris quickly looked away, Reeve held his gaze worriedly on them for a while. Finally, he looked away.

Reno brilliant eyes narrowed into a strong glare and he growled, "Don't say that."

"Why not? It's true, you wouldn't even care! You didn't care about Tseng, didja? You don't care about anything!"

"Elena, chill out."

But Elena was now yelling, her voice full of a rage that Reno had never seen coming. Like a hurricane.

"Don't 'Elena' me! You always act like I'm just some stupid blond! Have you ever once told me how good of a job I'm doing? Huh?"

"Elena, stoppit."

"And what about you mom? And Ceres? When do you ever see them?"

"Shuttap!"

She shook her head, a lethal smirk on it. The grin of someone midway through a mental breakdown. "No, you know that I'm right. You don't care about anything but your next paycheck. Did you care when you killed those people in Midgar?

"SHUTTAP ELENA!"

That was it, that was tearing it! The cool sneer left his thin face as it was replaced by a snarl that spoke words. Elena glared back a moment, then suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulders. He just stood there, totally in shock. And then he carefully brought a hand up and rubbed her back between her shoulder blades, almost edgily, as if she could explode at any time.

"I'm sorry…" She sighed, her voice surprisingly close to his ear. "I just – hate this…so much…"

"Shh…" He said, feeling like a dumbass, and unable to think of anything to say. "Your aloud to be upset, alright?"

"Hn?" She gasped.

He was nervous at finding himself in this spot, and just starting blurting things out. "Just because you're a Turk doesn't mean you can't have feelings. God, forget the Turks, the hell does it matter? What's wrong Ellie?"

Though he knew she despised the nickname, he forgot not to say it in the moment. He felt like an idiot. But at the same time, he felt kind of amazed that she was relying on him. Finally, after all these years, she was coming to him in need of advice. He was surprised, for the seeming thousandth time today, to find himself glad to simply be around her.

"I – don't know, Reno. I just want to be home. I hate this place."

She began to play with a lock of his hair absently, and there was a sudden shock of warmth as her hand met the skin of his neck. He started noticeably, and hoped she didn't notice.

Reeve smiled to himself. Reno and Elena were two of his closest friends, and he always worried about them, like an anxious parent. But for once, he felt that they knew what they were doing.

"Come on." He looked at Aeris and Nanaki with a small smile. "They can catch up, let's leave them alone."

Aeris looked at him. "What are you thinking, Reeve?"

He shook his head with an amused smile ever-present. He had only known the girl through Cait Sith and only for a very short time, and she had never met him, the real him, but they had became much closer than their short, limited 'relationship' in the last little while.

Nanaki growled, but it too was amused. "I don't understand humans."

The three of them began to walk away from the tall, aquamarine eyed Turk and his blond companion, their thoughts roaming in many directions.

Elena was shocked by how close she was to Reno all of a sudden. Of course, she was shocked by a lot of things. Shocked that she had yelled at him, shocked that she was in this god-forsaken place, shocked at the emotions in her head, shocked by the warmth and comfort of being in one of her only friend's embrace. She'd never came so close to hugging the redhead before. There really was a first time for everything.

You're such a ditz. Her mind said. She ignored it, feeling weary, sorrowful and comforted at the same time. It was weird.

But she was feeling better each moment. She vaguely saw Reeve, Aeris and Nanaki beginning away, but was too preoccupied by the feel of Reno's skin against hers.

Hmm…a ditz and a whore…

She once again ignored that nagging voice in her head. She didn't care what it called her. Getting past all the sadness and anger that haunted her in the world of the lifestream, she was suddenly very content.

"Are you okay?" The fluent, passionate voice murmured in her ear. The way Reno was speaking made her curious; he didn't often talk to her without the wicked, sarcastic twinge to it.

This really didn't make sense. This was Reno right? The slimy, disgusting pain in the ass he'd always been, right?

Right then, he really didn't feel like that to her.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm sorry."

There was a pause, then, "Don't worry about it, Lena."

His hand, covered in the black, fingerless leather gloves, reached up from her back and gently touched the back of her head, pulling her even closer in a tight embrace. Every second was heavenly to her.

And then, he released her and backed away slightly, seeming unaffected. But she could see, deep in his eyes, something hidden away that warmed her heart.

She realized that he was looking at her and said the only thing that came to mind.

"Thank you."

"Yep." He muttered. Then, seeming to consider it, added, "If you got a problem, I'm here, okay? Believe or not, I worry 'bout ya."

She thought of a few nasty comebacks, but forced them from her mind and said simply. "Mmm hmmm."

"Lena." The look in Reno's eyes was perfectly serious. "I'm not kidding. You're my friend."

"T-thank you. Just…thanks."

"No problem."

A sudden thought came into her head. "Oh, Reno?"

"Yeah?"

"I won't tell Rude."

As soon as she said it, she regretted it. If he hadn't been mad at her before, he'd have to be now.

But, he just smiled, then laughed gently. "Sure, Lena. Thanks for ruining the moment."

Elena shook her head and tilted her head towards were Reeve and his friends had gone. "They're getting away."

"Yeah, let's go."

Authors note: Wow, I had that done in like an hour. Whoo! Hehe, as you can tell, I prefer characterization to fighting and plot and that other crap, hehehe. Oh well, you action dudes, if you don't like it, you aren't reading this.

(Looks over her work) Awwww! Wow, lots of emotion switches. Dangerous insanity to angsty sadness to – um…friend-to-friend moments? Hehehehe, sorry. Anyway, if you have a comment, c'mon, tell MEEEE!! I'll be your friend! ^__^

Ps: AHHHHH!! ITALICS AREN'T WORKING!! STUPID SITE!! (kills it)