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Disclaimer:
A Lasting Promise = Imagination of a crazy fan
FFVII characters found in this fic = property of Squaresoft
Don't sue!
~.^
A/N: Sorry it took a while for me to post up the second chapter. For the few who have read the first chapter, thanks for your reviews! As little as it is, I'm grateful to know that it's a least worth something… Anyway, on to the reading!
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Chapter 2
by LadyTifa26
Inside Cloud's home, Tifa stood and wiped the tears from her face. That last entry in Cloud's journal was enough; she couldn't read anymore. She closed it, but she could not bring herself to put it down. Maybe I should just take it with me. Someone else might come in and read it. It'll be safer with me than if it were left here.
She began to look around for any clues that hinted at Cloud's whereabouts. She walked into the kitchen, but only found dirty dishes in the sink and bottles strewn here and there. She went back into the living area; still there was nothing obvious around the studio house. Blank stationary lay on his desk; moth-eaten rags were stuffed into his drawer, and nothing significant was in the cabinets. She walked to his bed, lay on her back, and stared at the ceiling
He must have spent a lot of time looking at this same ceiling… thinking about Aerith. Did I ever enter his mind? Oh Cloud, where could you be? The northern crater caved in, the Tempe of the Ancients is gone… She shifted her hanging feet, which moved something underneath the bed.
"Huh? What could that be?" She sat up, bent down, and reached for the object under the bed. She pulled it out, and studied the thick, black book in her hand. Please don't be another journal, she thought. She flipped the cover open and skimmed through the first few pages. The book contained some sort of theory about lifestream and the Ancients. She riffled through more pages, and discovered that some had been torn out.
Darn, he must have taken the important information! But where did this book come from?
She then turned to the back of the cover. "Professor Gast," she read aloud. Where did Cloud get a book like this? Suddenly she realized where she needed to go.
Tifa approached a building; old and unkempt, it looked as if it had been neglected for years. Walking through the little yard, predicting what lay on the inside of the house was not difficult. The ground was bare of any grass, weeds had grown through the brick wall, and the iron gate in front was rusty and falling apart. The white paint was chipping off the two-story European-style home, and the blue roof tiles were coming loose on top. The many French windows lined from one end to the other could have passed as the walls since there was so much dust piled up that you couldn't see inside. Tifa pushed open the cracked, wooden double-doors of the empty mansion. As she did, the creaking of it echoed throughout the large, open foyer of the Shinra Mansion.
There was no use asking if anyone was there because Tifa knew for a fact that there wasn't. Just saying anything could draw the attention of hidden monsters inside. Although, in the past, she would have walked in arrogantly not caring about making noise, but this time she was alone. She had to be careful. She walked on the right of the split staircase in the center of the home and entered one of the rooms on the right. In this room, you could see a round brick wall in the middle with old furniture stored along the walls. Tifa went up to the brick wall and opened a secret door. The door led to a spiral staircase heading down into the basement.
She walked down the wooden staircase into a dark, stagnant hallway. The walls were rock and dirt held by wooden frames. The only sources of light were small hanging lamps and candles sitting on top of stacked boxes. Lit candles? she thought. Could this be from Cloud? As she walked down the hallway, she could hear the drip of water coming from an unknown source and the flapping wings of bats. There were two door-ways at the end of the hall—one directly at the end and one to the left. She looked to the left to and a memory flashed into her head… her eyes wide, she opened the door. There were empty coffins lining the wall, and one lying in the center. Tifa walked to the center coffin and lifted the lid, expecting to find someone.
"Vincent?" she whispered.
No one was inside. Vincent, one of the members of Avalanche, was a strange man who was first discovered sleeping here in this very coffin. Tifa forgot about the room, and, after remembering, she assumed that he returned to the coffin to sleep again.
Maybe the candles were from him and not Cloud.
She then left the room and headed towards the last door, which was ajar. Pushing it open, she looked around, and saw that it was still the same as before. Jars, beakers, and cylinders of liquid, powder, and specimens were stacked on shelves that lined the walls to the right and across from her. At the far right corner there were two large cylinders of green liquid big enough to fit a person inside. A table was in the center with tiny test tubes filled with colored water and more cylinders and beakers. To the left of Tifa was a wall where books were shelved and a small hallway in the center. This hallway was crowded with books and led to a small library at the end with a desk sitting in the middle. Tifa noticed that there were large stacks of books in disarray on the floor, some books lay opened and leaves of paper were scattered about in areas.
Did Cloud read all of these? Will I get any information from these books? Where should I start?
She walked towards one of the shelves in the small hallway, grabbed a book, and flipped through it. Nothing. Then she took anther book and did the same. She continued with this process for a while, but she could not find anything that would help her.
"Ahem."
As soft as it was, the silence made it seem like a shout. Tifa jumped and dropped her book, frozen and afraid to turn around. But slowly she did…
"Vincent?"
"…" The red cloaked man with long, dark hair stood with arms folded across his chest. Under his cloak, he wore a black shirt and black trousers, along with black pointy boots. He was still the pale, slim, and silent man that Tifa had come to know during her escapade with Cloud and Avalanche.
"Don't ever scare me like that! Sneaking up on me… How long were you standing there?"
"… Not long."
"Hmph."
Tifa and Vincent both stared at each other, and then Vincent looked away and focused on one of the shelves.
"What are you doing here?" asked Tifa.
"… I should be asking you the same thing."
She looked away. "I'm looking for Cloud… He left… to find Aeris."
"…"
"I thought I could find something here that would help me find him… but there's nothing. It seems that he took all the important pages…"
"…"
"What are you doing down here, anyway???"
"… I live here."
"Live here?! Oh… yeah." There was silence for a while. "Did you see Cloud?"
"…Yes."
"What? And do you know where he went? Did he say anything to you?"
"…No. And… no." His eyes were still fixed on one of the shelves.
"So, you saw him here. But you never talked to him?" Tifa was getting frustrated.
"… What he does is none of my business."
"Don't you know that he went to fine Aeris? He's putting himself in danger! We have to help him!!!"
Vincent turned to Tifa. "We?" he questioned, but with an expressionless face.
"Yes! I can't do this all on my own. You're coming with me. Please, Vincent. I need your help."
"Vincent pondered her question… or rather, her demand. Would he go with Tifa? What Cloud did was really none of his business, but the way Tifa sounded was as of Cloud was going to get himself killed. It's true, pursuing a dead girl would lead to nothing… maybe even danger. But it's been so long since Vincent had been on a journey. Maybe he should go, for the heck of it? Perhaps he agreed because he knew how it was to lose a loved one that abandoned you for someone or something else, putting themselves at risk. Of course, he would keep this to himself.
"… I'll go."
Tifa jumped for joy. "Oh thank you so much! First thing, you're going to help me go through the rest of these books."
Vincent looked around the library. "You're not going to find anything."
"What? How do you know?"
"I've read through those books. And you were right that Cloud took the ones that you need."
"I knew it!" she grunted. "So how are we going to find him?"
"… I know a place… that may help us find where he's going."
"Really? Where?"
"It's far from here… on the other continent."
"Where? Where??"
"We can't go there alone."
"WHERE?!?!"
Vincent raised an eyebrow at Tifa and then looked away. "First get the others. Then I will tell you."
"HMPH! Fine, whatever you say. My PHS is in my office. Follow me." And at that, Tifa ran out of Shinra Mansion, not looking behind or waiting to see if Vincent was following.
At Tifa's office…
"Cecile!" Tifa yelled as she barged in and slammed the door.
Cecile sat up from her secretary's desk. "Miss Tifa, what's wrong?"
"I must leave as soon as possible," Tifa told her as she walked into her office and started looking for her PHS.
"Leave where? Why?" Cecile asked as she watched her boss open drawers and throw things around, obviously searching for something.
"Something came up. It's very important. I need you to take care of things for me while I'm gone," Tifa said as she rummaged around her office.
"Does… Does it have something to do with Cloud?"
Tifa stopped and looked up at Cecile. "Yes… he's gone. I have to find him."
"Gone? Maybe he went on vacation, or maybe…"
"No, Cecile. I know he's gone someplace else… and he might end up hurting himself."
Cecile looked down and said nothing.
"AHA! I found it!" Tifa screamed and held up her PHS.
"What? All this mess for that little thing? You could have just asked me where it was an…"
"AAGGGHHH!!! NOOO!!!"
"AAGGHH!!! WHAT?!"
"My PHS… It's not working! I have to call my friends!"
"Umm… how about phones?" suggested Cecile.
"Phones? Oh… I never thought about that. But… we've never exchanged phone numbers."
A bead of sweat appeared on Cecile's brow as Tifa scratched her head in thought.
"Ahem."
"AGH!" screamed Tifa and Cecile in unison. They both turned to see Vincent leaning on the wall next to the door with arms folded, as always. "VINCENT! I told you not to scare me like that!"
Cecile ogled Vincent, staring straight at his crimson eyes, but not because she was scared… she seemed attracted to him.
Vincent looked at Tifa and then to Cecile and then to the floor. He took out a small device from under his cloak and held it out to Tifa.
"OH VINCENT! A PHS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
She grabbed it from his hand and began dialing random numbers. She held it up to her hear, looked at Cecile and Vincent, and then walked outside to talk to the other person on the other end.
"Hey Cid? Yeah, it's Tifa. Listen…" She closed the door.
Silence filled the room as Vincent stayed leaning on the wall, and Cecile stared at Vincent. He then shifted a little, signaling to Cecile that her gaze upon him was making him uncomfortable. Noticing, she immediately looked away and started blushing.
"Ahem! So… Vincent. You must be part of Avalanche I assume." She said, not looking at him.
He gave a short nod, moving his head up once and down once.
"Oh… that's nice. So, where do you live?"
Vincent pointed to the back of the room. Cecile realized he meant the Shinra Mansion.
"OOHH! There? The Shinra Mansion, huh? I always thought that place was abandoned… I mean, no offense…" She started to feel embarrassed again.
"…"
Cecile turned around and noticed the havoc that Tifa had created in her office. She squatted down and started picking up papers from the floor and muttered something about a typhoon and the mess she would have to clean. Vincent merely raised an eyebrow at this, and then closed his eyes as he stayed leaning against the wall.
After a while, the door opened and Tifa reentered.
"It's all set. Cid will be coming here in the morning with the rest of the gang."
"Shall I make arrangements for them at the inn?" asked Cecile.
"Oh yes, good thinking! I'm going home to pack some necessities… And you Vincent?" She turned to him.
"…"
"Hmph. Okay… Well, go do whatever it is that you do. Just make sure you meet us at the inn in the morning. Don't forget, you have to tell us where this place is."
Vincent nodded stood up straight, and walked out.
Tifa shook her head. "That man… I'll never understand him. Then again, all men are hard to understand." She looked to Cecile, who as gaping after Vincent. "Hey!"
"Oh!" Cecile blushed and turned away. "Umm… I'll go make arrangements now." She hurried off to the inn.
"Hmm…" Tifa suspected that Cecile had a crush on Vincent. "That would be an odd pair," she thought aloud, and then thought of Cloud.
"Oh, Cloud. Where are you?" she sighed as she looked up to the sky. Hues of orange, pink, and purple blended in with blue as the sun began to set. A breeze began to blow, and Tifa rubbed her arms after getting a chill. She then walked towards her house to prepare for a sleepless night and what she knew would be a long journey that would start tomorrow.
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Thanks again for reading! And don't forget to review! I don't care what you say, just as long as I get something. I'd be so happy… and more inspiration would add to the little that I have right now. ~_^