-Two: Looking Back-

            Finally, they were far from Midgar. The moment that they were already twenty meters away from the chaotic city, a very strong explosion occurred, and from where they are, the ground shook and even caused them to go off-balance for a few moments.

Tifa held on to Red's arm for support but he just stared down coldly at her.

"Oh no…I hope Cloud and the others are not there…" she said out loud with a worried look on her face.

Seth just stared at the smoke coming from Midgar before turning to Tifa. "Why are you waiting for them anyway?" he asked.

"Because they just asked me to… they said that we are going to go on a quest to find… to find an old friend… or at least that's what Cloud's letter had said to me and Vincent way back in Nibelheim," she explained with a hesitant look on her face, not knowing whether she should really trust those four strangers.

Crecia's eyes widened upon hearing the name Vincent… at least for some reason. Tifa noticed it and so she asked, "Anything wrong, Miss Crecia?"

"Well… I… nothing." Crecia replied with a sad look on her face.

Tifa did not notice that she was still holding on to Red until he pulled his arm away from her with a cold look on his face. She blushed slightly as she smiled sheepishly at him. "Oh… sorry," and turned back to Midgar again. She took a few steps towards the direction going to it, but Eris stopped her by touching her shoulder. "No. You mustn't. It's too dangerous." She said.

Tifa turned back to Eris. "Why?" she asked.

"What she means is that it's too dangerous for you to go back in there. Midgar is not a City for young women your age." Crecia pointed out.

"But I can defend myself," Tifa reasoned out.

"It's not whether you can defend yourself or not. It's about fulfilling your task. If you go there and you cannot complete your task because of an accident, then you will become a wanderer forever… just like us." Seth pointed out with a serious look on his face.

Tifa could not really understand what that meant. "So you're really wanderers?" she asked mindlessly with a stiff tone.

"You could put it that way if your mind still cannot comprehend it." Red told her with a rather arrogant manner of speaking as he raked his fingers through his hair and turned away from her.

Tifa frowned at him. "Are you trying to tell me that I'm stupid?" she demanded.

Red smiled slyly before he turned back to her. "You're the one who supposed that." He told her.

"Don't start, Red," Eris warned.

"I am just defending my side." Red replied before he motioned for them to keep on moving. "Let's go. We can't stay in this place for too long. We have to reach the next town from here." He told them.

"Where are we heading for anyway?" Seth asked him.

"I don't know." Red replied mindlessly.

Seth followed after him, same with Crecia.

Tifa just stared unbelievably at Red. "Who the hell does he think he is?" she thought out loud.

"Just bear with him. He's got problems of his own… we all do, right?" Eris asked gently with a wink as she took Tifa's hand and led the way. "You were saying that you are going to meet a person named Cloud?" she asked.

Tifa was surprised by the question, but she nodded anyway.

Eris smiled. "Is he a boyfriend?" she asked.

Tifa's eyes widened because of the question. "No!" she replied as she shook her head frantically in disagreement.

"But he became your boyfriend?" Eris asked.

"No, of course not." Tifa replied.

"Why not?"

"Because he doesn't love me." Tifa replied simply with a calm smile on her face. Finally, she realized that she had really accepted the fact that Cloud isn't really for her but for someone else… someone else like Aerith…

If only she is here now, she would tell her how Cloud loves her very much and that she should come back to him.

But she's dead.

"That's so sad," Eris said with a disappointed look on her face.

"No, it isn't." Tifa pointed out. Eris looked up at her with a perplexed expression on her face. Tifa smiled gently. "Cloud loves somebody else. I think he deserves her more than he deserves me. Besides, he's only just a friend even from the start." She said.

"Oh? Who is she?" Eris asked.

"I wish I could refer to her as my best friend… she died two years ago. Some guy named Sephiroth killed her." Tifa replied with a frustrated look on her face.

Crecia and Seth both looked back at Eris and Tifa upon hearing the name Sephiroth.

Crecia just shrugged and looked ahead again, but Seth smiled slightly before he turned back to Red.

"She said Sephiroth." Seth told him.

"I know. I'm not deaf." Red muttered with a glum look on his face.

"Oh yeah… I've heard about Sephiroth…" Eris pointed out to Tifa.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Tifa muttered.

They all fell silent.

"So, Tifa, where are you from again?" Crecia asked.

"I'm actually from Nibelheim. I was born and raised there… but then I had to go to Midgar before because my hometown had supposedly… burned down… it's hard to explain… and besides, I became an orphan at age 15 because my father died." Tifa explained.

"Oh my… how did he die?" Crecia asked with a concerned tone as she joined Tifa and Eris.

"He was… killed. In one of the Mako Reactors of ShinRa." Tifa explained with a weak smile on her face.

Red's gaze drifted to his side, where he could see Tifa from his peripheral vision walking just behind him.

They all fell silent. Tifa thought that they must have not been able to understand what she had mentioned, so she just said, "I'm sure you've all heard about ShinRa, right? It's a very famous Electric Power Company owned by a very rich family…"

"Yes, we all know ShinRa." Red cut her off.

"Yeah, and you even sound like you came from them too," Tifa wanted to say out loud, but she just shut up so that she wouldn't start a fight with them. "Hang on in there, Tifa. Don't lose your patience with this guy… he's not worth your time. If I start a fight with any of them, I will only make myself miserable. Besides, I must be thankful that I have companions now! Now if only I could find a way to send a message to Cloud and the others to let them know that I'm okay… but how?" she was scolding herself silently until she realized that they had finally reached the next town.

Kalm.

"Where are we going to stay here?" Crecia asked.

"We could rent rooms in an inn or something." Seth suggested.

"Inns are too expensive," Eris remarked with a frown on her face.

"Not to worry. I can handle it." Red told them with a reassuring tone as he walked towards an inn.

"Again?" Eris asked in disbelief.

"It's one of my reasons for breathing: spending." Red told them in a joking manner with a wink.

"Oh so that's why he said that he knows ShinRa… he's rich. And that explains his arrogance too," Tifa realized silently as she stared in awe at him.

They all followed after Red to the inn. Upon entering, there was basically no one in sight but the receptionist who was already beginning to fall asleep on his desk.

Red leaned against the desk and pounded on the table, meaning to wake up the sleepy receptionist. "GOOD EVENING, SIR!" Red greeted with a loud voice and a silly smile on his face, surprising the receptionist and also causing him to fall off from his seat.

The receptionist got up quickly while rubbing his hip. "Oh… heheheh… sorry. Good evening, sirs and ma'ams… heheheh…" he said sheepishly.

"Two rooms please." Red told him.

"Oh… okay…" the receptionist said before getting the keys. "100 Gil per room… that's 200." He pointed out.

Red brought out his wallet and grabbed a credit card. Tifa took a quick glimpse at the card, but wasn't able to really read the name fully… but she saw that his first name was two letters longer than his name being used to refer to him. "Oh well, maybe Red is just a nickname…" she thought silently.

The receptionist did not look at the card anymore; he just swiped it through the credit card machine and handed it back to Red together with the keys. "Second floor. Rooms 201 and 203. To the left from the stairs." He told him.

Red nodded his head in gratitude as he took the keys and handed one of those to Crecia. "Seth and I will stay together." He told her.

"That'd be fine. Besides, you wouldn't want to scare our new companion here, right?" Crecia joked, referring to Tifa.

Tifa raised an eyebrow upon hearing that.

"Very funny," Red told her as Seth laughed before heading upstairs.

"Let's go?" Crecia asked, turning to Eris and Tifa.

Eris nodded happily but Tifa hesitated for a while.

Crecia smiled kindly at Tifa and took her hand. "Let's go. You can't just leave us. Be thankful that at least you have a place to stay and a few people to keep you company." She told her reassuringly, as if able to read Tifa's mind.

"I… I don't understand…" Tifa began, surprised at what Crecia had told her.

"I've been alive for a long time… but I just stayed in one place for too long without anyone I love beside me. Life can be so cruel and I've been a victim already. Let's just start a good friendship with one another, shall we? So that even if we all go on our separate ways, we can all have good memories." Crecia pointed out.

Tifa stared at her unbelievably as she nodded her head in agreement; but honestly, she still could not understand what the woman was saying. With that, they went upstairs to their room.