She
By: General Quistis (generalquistis@yahoo.com)
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SIX: Lifeless
Elena marched to the doctor as her frown deepened. "What the hell are you talking about?" she asked in annoyance, feeling confused. "Are you trying to tell me that I just talked to a puppet or a ghost?" she demanded.
The doctor shook her head. "I don't know… but why don't you ask Dr. Hojo? Aren't you from ShinRa?" she asked with a stiff look on her face.
Elena's eyes narrowed. "Hojo is dead. Yes, I am from ShinRa and I am demanding you to explain to me what happened to the girl inside that room!" she commanded angrily.
The doctor was quiet for a while, but she decided to speak up with a solemn tone. "That girl fell inside a well with contaminated water. Nobody uses that well anymore because we all know that that water is dangerous. Dr. Hojo used that water for his experiments: reviving a person. However, the person is alive only physically but that person would not have a soul anymore. You have to fetch the soul manually from the Lifestream."
Elena clenched her fists before she turned away from them. "Lifestream?" she asked. Then, she turned back to the doctor with a fake smile on her face. "Manually? Lifestream? Are you sure? How would you know? You're not even Hojo." She pointed out with a sarcastic tone.
The doctor shook her head. "I just know… I was once his assistant… I know his procedures and styles. To disapprove or cancel his theories, you have to do the impossible." She advised before she turned and walked away.
The nurse left Elena there as he entered Tifa's room.
Elena slowly made her way back to Rufus's room and by the time she arrived there, Reno, Scarlet, Rude and Reeve were already there, seated by Rufus's bed.
The four turned their curious gazes to Elena, and upon noticing her blank look, Reno spoke up with an inquiring look on his face, "Where have you been? Where is Dark Nation?"
Elena staggered to him and placed the picture of Tifa Lockheart on Rufus's hand. "She's with… with Tifa Lockheart." She said softly.
The four were surprised. "You mean she's alive?" Reeve asked in disbelief.
Elena fell on a sitting position on the empty couch beside Reno. "In…In a sense… in a sense, she is alive…" she stammered nervously.
"What do you mean?" Rude asked, finally speaking up.
All eyes turned to him, and Elena spoke up with a sad smile. "Blame it all on Hojo… you know, his blasted experiments resulting in unwanted results… it's a good thing that he's dead now or President Rufus could kill him once he finds out that because of Dr. Hojo's experiments, Tifa Lockheart is already like a zombie! You know that well where she fell in? It has the contaminated water which Hojo used for his experiment! It's supposed to revive a person one that person gets in contact with that water… unfortunately, Tifa was the one who…" she could not continue anymore. She covered her mouth and closed her eyes. "Damn it… I don't even know why I bother. But I pity the poor girl. You should see her hands and her eyes; the way she stares at you…and the way her hair falls in front of her face… and hear the words that she speaks to everyone… it's friggin' scary!" she reasoned in panic.
Everyone was quiet. "Well… what can we do?" Reeve asked with a concerned look on his face.
Elena sighed heavily and put down her hands on her lap. "Her soul's in the Lifestream and how the hell are we supposed to fetch it?" she asked.
"Why would you want to help that bitch?" Reno snapped with a raised eyebrow.
"You should watch your words, Reno. If Rufus hears that, he's gonna shoot your brains out!" Elena snapped angrily.
"Because President Rufus needs her, that's why." Rude argued.
All eyes turned to him. Elena scanned him from head to toe.
"Earth to Rude? Hello? Are we hearing those words from you? You who has a crush on that girl?" Reno said as he approached Rude and began to knock on his bald head.
Rude shoved Reno's hands away from his head and crossed his arms. "There is not time to doubt me; but as a loyal Turk, it is part of my fidelity to ShinRa; I just want President Rufus to be happy." He explained with a slight smile on his face, which was very unusual for him.
They were silent for a while. "You're right… how are we supposed to fetch her soul from that Lifestream?" Scarlet said softly as she eyed the sleeping President carefully with a disappointed look on her face.
They were all silent until Reno spoke up again with a frown on his face. "I'd like to see that girl." He said as he headed for the door, but Elena stopped him. "Wait!" she ran to him. "I'll go with you." She said softly as she caught up with him.
Reno examined the looks on everybody's faces before he opened the door and finally got out with Elena.
After the door had closed behind them, Rufus opened his eyes and he was frowning. From the look on his face, they realized that he heard everything from the start. He turned his gaze slowly to Rude. Rude stiffened upon Rufus's gaze. "H…Hi, Prez. How are you feeling?" he greeted with a shy smile.
Rufus's eyes narrowed at him. "You tell me how I'm feeling. How do you think I'm feeling, hah?" he challenged with a mean look in his eyes before he quickly got up and pulled out all the I.V.'s from his body and which connected his body to a machine. He immediately jumped out of bed before Reeve, Rude and Scarlet could seize him and make him lie down again. He rushed to the door and got his white trench coat from the coat hanger by the door and immediately got out. The three were stunned because of his sudden recovery. "He's…he's okay, I guess…" Rude stated flatly before they finally decided to run after him.
***
As they gazed upon her unusual beauty, they felt very afraid and nervous at the fact that such a person like her exists. She eerily gave out blank stares at them as they continued to stare at her, while Reno gently took her hand and began to feel for any pulse.
He could not feel anything. He pushed the hair away from her face to take a better look at her face and her eyes. "Answer me, do you know who I am?" he asked.
She just stared at him.
Reno gently tapped her cheek with the back of his hand. "Hey, Tifa," he said.
Elena held him back. "Stop it. You're not supposed to force her to answer." She said.
Dark Nation just closed her eyes and turned away from the three.
He sighed and looked at Elena. "There's gotta be a way to find out if she's really infected by Hojo's stupid experiment or not! I mean, her body should be decomposing by now! I don't see maggots crawling out of her nostrils or something. She could still be alive!" he stated with a nervous look on his face.
Elena crossed her arms and sat down on the other couch facing Tifa. "I don't know about you, Reno… but… how could we know?" she asked.
Reno thought for a while. "Maybe she'll remember something once we show her some violence of some sort… you know," he told her with a smile.
Dark Nation growled which made the two Turks jerk and change their minds.
Tifa closed her eyes and clenched her fists. Reno saw the gashes on her knuckles and it made him cringe a little. "Oh man, what's inside that well anyway?" he said aloud as he took her hands and tried to make her to stop clenching them.
"Why don't you go inside there and see for yourself?" Tifa muttered under her breath as she gazed up at him with a cold look on her face.
This surprised the two of them and it made Reno let go of her and move away with a look of awe in his face.
"It's so dark and it's so scary down there… water was all over me… I could feel myself drowning and I couldn't breathe… I thought that somebody placed a lid on top of it because… because I couldn't see anymore… it was so deep and… and… there was water everywhere… and it's so dark and scary… and I was so afraid… and … and… and… and he came…" she slowly smiled as tears fell from her eyes. "…he came…" she told them as she stood up and went to Elena, took her hand in hers and knelt down before her. "He came! He saved me! He's the only reason why I'm still alive… He's the only reason why I'm here… I know that this is madness, but he's my reason for breathing even if the darkness was blinding… and… he saved me… he's the reason why I'm alive… but… then …" her smile faded away. "But… he was gone… and there was light again… and then I could see again… and the madness was gone…" she loosened her grip until she let go of Elena. "…and then I was here…" she said softly.
Reno's mouth was open in awe as he listened to Tifa.
Dark Nation was staring at her.
Elena's eyes were wide in confusion as she began to feel the area just right above Tifa's left breast with a trembling hand. She gasped and withdrew her hand. "Oh my God…" she said. Then, she tried to feel any pulse but she couldn't. "How could this be?" she asked aloud.
"What? What's going on?" Reno asked.
Elena swallowed hard. "Her…her heart is beating… but there's no pulse… how could this be?" she said in confusion.
"WHAT?!" Reno cried out in disbelief.
Tifa bowed down her head, her hair finally covering her face again. She slowly moved backward and stopped when the door opened.
Elena, Reno and Dark Nation were stunned. Their eyes were wide in surprise and confusion.
Tifa slowly turned her head to the door… and there he was, standing there; panting from all the running he did. She moved up her head a little so that she could get a better view of him.
"R…Rufus?" she asked softly.
Rufus eyed her carefully, quite shocked at her appearance. He instantly saw the wounds on her hands and he swallowed hard, trying to fight back the anger for the person who was responsible for this. He thought that if she was still there but she was like a zombie, she would be better off dead… and that would be the same for him. "Maybe we're better off dead…" he thought. But he knew better, so he slowly approached her as she staggered slowly to him, until finally, he caught her in his arms and gave her a tight but loving embrace.
More tears fell from her eyes as she smiled gently and buried her face against his chest.
He ran his fingers through her long hair as he closed his eyes and breathed in her scent. "You're here…" he told her softly.
She closed her eyes. "I am because you are." she replied…
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Author's note: Do you see a symbolism here? ;) If you didn't catch it or you didn't get it or understand it… well, I'll be explaining it within the story later… =)