Jade, Wine, and Turk training
By Kimetara
Multi-part
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it, I'm happy just having a PS2 to play it on – but you know what? Squaresoft should redo FFVII for the PS2! ^_^
Chapter 26: I guess not
Tifa ran as quietly as she could through the ship's corridors, pausing every now and then to peer through the doors, looking for something, anything, that could be of use.
Nope.
*What am I doing anyway? How on earth am I supposed to get off this ship? Now if they catch me, they'll watch me closer than ever...* But this had been her only chance of escape. She had to at least try, right? If she could just stay hidden until they docked at Costa del Sol, she'd be home free...
*What about Reno?*
Reno?
*What about him?* she argued with herself. Reno was just a companion, and a last resort one at that. Okay, an impersonal friend, even – and she completely ignored her gut screaming lie! lie! LIE!
At any rate, she wasn't going to risk herself being killed or whatever they were planning to do to her for him. After that incident with Sector Seven...
But hadn't she forgiven him for that?
Tifa paused, checked another door. Nothing.
Yes, she had. But...it was more because she didn't want to deal with the constant anger and remembrance over an actual forgiveness. It was true that she didn't really think she had the right to judge Reno, especially over causing deaths...but that didn't cause her anger and hurt...and the loss...to just disappear.
Knowing she had no right to be angry didn't stop her from feeling anger.
Still...she owed something to Reno. The decency in Tifa – that was it, just her darn morals – protested against simply leaving him.
*Well, I'll just get the gang to help me find him and get him away from these creeps once I get away from here.* Tifa had become a lot more decisive over the past four years. After her mistake of not telling Cloud the truth beforehand, and her strength of will tested by actually leaving Cloud behind, there weren't that many consequences Tifa felt unready to face. And so her fear of making the wrong choice dwindled to a hardly noticeable amount. *Besides, it's not as if he's on board anyway...*
As she ran, a curious feeling rose up in her gut. A definite sense something was off.
Tifa stopped short, and simply listened.
It was too quiet...
She walked on now, senses alert, searching for things she could have missed in her hurry.
Nothing.
The feeling of uneasiness grew ever stronger, and Tifa wanted to simply stop and fade into the shadows. But her common sense argued against it. *Nothing's going to be accomplished by hiding!*
At least not here...in the open, she could hope whatever danger there was passed, but here...she was trapped.
*Trapped...* The word teased her, and Tifa could feel the creeping edges of panic.
But she was a veteran of Sephiroth. She knew how to deal with panic...and the best way for her was to do something about it.
But there was nothing she could do here. She had truly trapped herself... Tifa's uneasiness heightened with each passing second.
*What to do, what to do...*
~~~~~
Jason narrowed his eyes and stepped on the gas.
"Whoa!" Reno felt the gravity pressing him against the chair. "Slow down! What are you trying to do, kill us!"
"Kill him," Jason answered grimly. Reno glanced over at the blond's face, and felt a chill go up his spine. The SOLDIER looked completely set on what he was doing, and there was a strange glint in his eye.
"Oh, hell..." he muttered. No, usually he didn't cuss – old President Shinra had insisted that his personal team refrained from "vulgar language" – but it wasn't as if flying along at over 100 mile per hour with a crazed SOLDIER was an everyday occurrence.
"HOLY SHIT!" However, Reno's training obviously didn't coincide with Jason's.
*That's not Hojo!* The thought flashed through Jason's mind before he quickly spun the wheel, trying to avoid hitting the chocobo.
Too bad inertia isn't kind to trailers.
"Ugh." Reno slowly stood up from the grass and brushed himself off. *Darn...grass stain. Guess I'll have to get a new suit. Good thing that idiot turned to the left though...made it a heck of a lot easier for me to get out.* The Turk checked his sunglasses, then stuck his hands in his pockets and coolly surveyed the damage.
After a few moments of observation, the assassin strode over to one of the two bodies and nudged it with his foot.
"Hey."
Jason groaned and rolled over on his back. "What the hell...? How come you're all fine and dandy?"
Reno smirked, then walked past the crumbled chocobo to stop at the second body, ignoring the SOLDIER's question. "I think this'll interest you..."
Jason limped over, and gaped at the unconscious body of Cloud Strife.
~~~~~
Nanaki's tail swished in an agitated manner, which was worrying him. As odd as it sounded, he trusted his tail's intuition, and it was plainly stating something was the matter.
Plus, he'd been getting an odd feeling of uneasiness on and off. For the most part, the red beast had ignored it, but it was coming back more and more frequently.
Nothing seemed to be out of place. While in the aftermath of the near destruction of the Planet, the cities had learned to pull together, for the sake of everything. And that cooperation had thankfully continued, which Nanaki's guidance and position as the guardian of Cosmo Canyon and member of AVALANCHE had played a large part of.
However... *Grandfather could always sense when something was wrong...what did he do?*
Nanaki had already paid a visit to the conservatory – nothing seemed out of place in the stars. Yet it seemed the miniature of the Planet emitted a troubled vibration, a sense of not quite rightness... But as there was no concrete detail, no pinpoint location, and so there was nothing he could do.
Nothing at all, but to wait.
~~~~~
Tifa ran. Her footsteps resounded through the ship's hallways, bouncing hollowly off the metal walls, echoing her pounding heart.
*Why am I running?* Tifa didn't have any concrete answer, just that something in her gut told her to run. And every truly great martial artist knew to heed the call of intuition – they were, after all, very well in tune with their own bodies.
There.
Tifa caught the slight shuffle of a boot behind her. Immediately, she gave a burst of speed...
...and nearly had a nice introduction with the wall.
*Uh-oh...* She turned and a window caught her eye. The girl started scrambling up the crates filling the storage room she had somehow run into, trying to reach it. Maybe now she was close enough to the water that she could dive...even if she was, what would she do floating in the ocean in the middle of nowhere? Egh, she still had most of her materia, she'd be okay. Somehow.
"Going somewhere?" Tifa whipped her head around at the voice.
Simone stood in the doorway, arms crossed, amused.
"I have to say," he leisurely walked toward her, "you gave us all a merry little goose-chase."
Tifa stopped listening and continued her wild climb. *Almost...* She didn't even bother to climb the last crate, but simply jumped for the window.
Her feet had barely left the box before an arm clamped down on her waist.
*No!* "Let go of me!" Tifa yelled furiously, writhing and twisting in his grasp, her feet kicking in seemingly innocent confusion towards vulnerable areas.
Simone growled, barely avoiding an elbow to the head. "Goddamn woman, hold still!" he snarled, struggling to keep his balance on top of the crate pile. Tifa just twisted harder. Simone fell.
The pair landed on the ground with a heavy *thud* and a loud grunt from Simone, who landed beneath Tifa. Tifa blinked, taking a moment to recover from the shock of hitting the metal floor – not very strong as Simone had taken most of it – before darting up. Simone was up a few seconds later, and grabbed her arm before Tifa could run. She stumbled, unready for the counterbalance.
He was quite pissed off. Tifa could feel the Wutain's man's fingers sinking into her upper arm. *Ay, I'm gonna have a bruise there...*
Before she could think anymore, Simone wrapped his arm around her neck in a headlock and pulled something out of his pocket. She couldn't see what it was, but there was a small 'click' and a whirring sound starting up...obviously some sort of machinery.
To her shock, Tifa felt herself slowly becoming sleepier...
AN: Hello everybody. With Cloud's entrance, this is officially the end to the first half of this story's plot...after this, things are going to be picking up (hopefully) and the personalities of the OCs are probably going to become a bit more in-depth.
Oh yeah, I realize Cloud being captured by being hit with a truck isn't a glorious, heart-rending battle where the hero finally loses to the darker side, but frankly, that was what I was aiming for. It was probably an anticlimax, and certainly not how one would think the great Cloud Strife would fall, but life is filled with anticlimaxes and atypical happenings. At least, I think so. ^_^;;
Well, please review, and I'll see you all in chapter 27!