Standard disclaimers apply.
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Chapter six; Add one more
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Tifa twisted her long dark hair back into a loose knot at the nape of her neck. Bored out of her mind in Midgar, she had decided to go visiting her friends... seeing what everyone was doing. But traveling alone wasn't that much fun, so she had decided to visit Yuffie first. She had felt confident that the ninja would jump at the chance to get out and travel.
The only problem with that was Yuffie's recent departure from Wutai. Tifa had arrived just in time to hear that the spunky ninja had just left town with a new friend. No one had really mentioned why, and Tifa had decided against questioning them. For the most part everyone seemed really... stressed. From the murmured conversations, she had gleaned one name... Sephiroth...
She shuddered and pulled the dark jean jacket she had purchased for the trip tighter around her shoulders. Sephiroth was the last name that she wanted to hear.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a guy who sleeps in a coffin," Rikku said with a wide smile stretching across her face. She had been questioning a lot of the passengers and found out that no one really knew anything. Bored and giving up, she had spotted Tifa and decided to ask once more person. The only problem was that her question didn't come off the way she planned.
"Excuse me?" Tifa said with a slightly raised eyebrow.
Rikku shook her head. "His name is Vincent Valentine -"
"I know Vincent!" Tifa interrupted. "He didn't go back to his coffin, did he?" She felt a stab of irritation at the thought of the former Turk creeping back to Nibelhiem and climbing into his coffin.
Rikku shrugged. "How should I know? I thought he slept in a coffin all the time. I was asking if you knew where he was... because, to tell the truth, I don't know."
"What are you looking for him for?" Tifa asked.
"Eh?" Rikku asked. "Friend and me might need a mint of help with something that we're..." her voice trailed off and she paled slightly. "I think I'm going to be sick..." she mumbled.
The familiar cold sensation was back in the pit of her stomach. That had to mean that Sephiroth was close. And she wasn't really equipped to deal with him by herself. She glanced around, looking for someplace to hide, but finding none.
"Is something wrong?" Tifa asked, standing up from the crate she had been sitting on. "Are you okay? You seem pale -" Her words died as the blond girl suddenly vaulted herself over the side of the boat. "Oh my..." she murmured. She shot foreword, hand extended, and leaned over the side.
The blond girl was precariously gripping the side of the boat, struggling to keep a good hold. Her legs were in the water, and it looked like she was about to... Tifa leaned further and caught her by her wrists. "Hold on!" she exclaimed.
Rikku looked up. "Thanks," she said slightly sheepishly. "I'd hate to explain to Yuffie why I had to swim to Rocket Town... actually come to think of it, I don't even know which direction Rocket Town is in..."
"You know Yuffie?" Tifa questioned. Her arms protested the conversation. "Let's get you pulled up -"
"If you don't mind, could you wait a sec?" Rikku asked. "I'm getting a really bad feeling from the deck right now."
********************************************
Sephiroth stopped walking by the crate that Tifa had been sitting on. The deck was empty with the exception of one seasick passenger. He could just see her legs and butt from where she was leaning over the railing.
He sighed and sat down abruptly. He needed to get his materia back. Then he needed to destroy everything quickly. It wasn't right to allow his thoughts to linger on the blond blitzer.
He raised his hands to his lips, fingering them gently. Her mouth had been soft and appealing against his. Their brief kiss kept lingering in his mind. Finding himself zoning out again, he cursed aloud and stood up abruptly.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. It was past time to kill the girl. If he hadn't gotten stupid in the bathroom, the materia would already be his... and Meteor would already be on it's way.
Frustrated at his mishap, he headed back to his cabin.
***********************************************
"Okay, anytime that you're ready!" Rikku exclaimed. "Give me the signal and I'll help pull myself up."
Tifa nodded. "On three then?" she suggested. "One... two... three...and pull!" She shifted her weight back, hauling the blond girl onto the deck. At the same time, Rikku found a purchase with her feet and propelled herself upwards.
They both dropped to the deck wearily. "My arms... hurt!" Rikku exclaimed. "The next time that Sephy shows up... I'm just going to whallop him! That was... phew.. not fun."
Tifa moved to a sitting position. "Yuffie isn't here, is she?"
"Yeah, she's in the cabin being sick," Rikku said. "I'm Rikku bein-Cid... from Spira. I play for the Wutai Ninjas -" she cut herself off with a shake of her head. "I guess you don't really need my profile, do you?"
"Tifa Lockheart -"
"Oh, good!" Rikku chirped. She sprang to her feet, dragging Tifa with her. "We thought that you were in Midgar. Let's go talk to Yuffie."
"Huh?" Tifa asked in confusion. Things didn't look like they were going to stay boring for very long. "Hey, Rikku, right? Slow down a bit, you're pulling my arm out of it's socket!"
Rikku slowed. "Sorry, but we kinda don't want to get caught. I just found out that Sephy is on board. He could be prowling anywhere and we need to get someplace safer quickly." She tilted her head to the side. "That is, Sephiroth is on board. I think that you might know who he is. I'll explain everything that I can when we're in our cabin, okay?"
Tifa nodded silently. Her hand drifted to her small travel bag and pulled out her gloved claw complete with her materia. If Sephiroth was on board, then she needed to be armed.
**********************************************************
Yuffie debated throwing up again. Her stomach was in a foul twist of knots and was sloshing around mercilessly. Her face felt green - which was difficult, since a person couldn't really feel a color. She moaned and cast her dark gaze around the room, searching for something that wasn't rocking.
Her eyes feel on the door. It looked pretty stable... just a hint of rocking around the edges. Then it opened. Her eyes tracked two people come into the room, but watching them made her stomach lurch upward. She felt bilge build at the back of her throat and threw up on a half full pail of barf.
"Uhg...." she moaned.
"Hiya, Yuffie, I found Tifa and Sephiroth.. hereafter referred to as Sephy... is on board too!" Rikku exclaimed. She closed the door and flopped down on the bed, gesturing for Tifa to take a seat.
Tifa sat down. "Are you sure that it's Sephiroth?" she asked immediately. She flexed her hand inside her glove and looked down. "Because I could have swear that we killed him three years ago."
"You did," Rikku said bluntly. "But that didn't mean that his spirit was sent to the Farplane... or rather, as you put it here on the Planet, dispersed into the Lifestream. He's what is called a wandering Unsent."
"Meaning?" Tifa asked, surprising herself with how calm she felt.
"Meaning that he's just like he was when he was alive... only dead. He needs a couple of things to happen to him. First, he needs to be beaten. You can't kill the dead, so from there, we need to Send him while he's too weak to resist. For that, we need a Summoner."
Tifa tilted her head to the side. "Like High Summoner Yuna from Spira?" Unlike Yuffie, she already knew a lot about Spira. Midgar was the city that was visited most often by travelers from Spira. A decent number of the travelers usually ended up sitting in her bar drinking. And one thing about drunks was that they liked to talk... loud and about everything.
"Yeah, I didn't think you knew what a Summener was," Rikku confessed. She sounded put off with the sudden uselessness of her information.
"Well, continue," Tifa prompted. "We need to Send him using a Summoner's help, right? That means that we're traveling to Spira to try and get one of them to help."
"Not... urk... one, Yuna," Yuffie grunted. "S'up, Tifa," she added. She turned her head away from the conversation and went back to her puke bucket.
"The High Summoner?" Tifa asked. "Will she help?"
"You've heard about Yunie, but not about me?" Rikku said with a pouty face. "I was there too, you know! I was one of Yunie's guardians."
"But aren't you an Al Bhed?" Tifa asked with a confused look. "I didn't think that the Al Bhed approved of a summoner's pilgrimage."
"We don't, but..." she shrugged. "Yuna's my cousin, so I wanted to protect her any way that I could." She pushed a strand of hair back and shrugged. "I know that Yunie will help with Sephy..." She sighed, fingering her lips lightly. "Wonder how she'll react when she learns he kissed me..."
Tifa shot to her feet. "Sephiroth kissed you!" she blurted out loudly. "Why? How? Why?!"
Yuffie chuckled meekly from where she was crumpled on the floor. "That's what I... urk..." She abandoned the conversation and went back to looking pale on the floor.
"Hell if I know!" Rikku said, face slightly red. "It kinda bites through... that was my first kiss and I thought I was going to die. I was too scared to really ... feel it." She made a face. "Nasty guy!"
"Nasty guy?" Tifa repeated stupidly.
"Sephy," Rikku clarified. "Anyway, how would you feel if you were kissed by a dead guy and it was your first kiss ever? Not very happy, I'll tell you that!"
Tifa nodded. "So, Sephiroth is alive." She sat back down, deeply lost in thought. "I wonder if he's still trying to Summon Meteor..."
"Probably," Rikku and Yuffie said at the same time. They exchanged a quick look.
"Should we?" Yuffie asked, managing to right her stomach for a moment.
"She's your friend. You decided the trust issue," Rikku objected. "I'll go with you whatever you choose, you know. Friends trust the instincts of other friends."
"Ugh..." Yuffie replied. She stuck her head over the bucket and barfed again.
Silence reigned in the room. Tifa wasn't sure what either of them were talking about, but she had faith that Yuffie would bring her in as soon as her stomach felt better. She was friends with the ninja girl after all.
"Let's not say any - urk - thing," Yuffie groaned from the floor.
Tifa felt a stab of surprise. Yuffie wasn't going to tell her what they were talking about? She didn't trust her enough to reveal some possibly crucial part to the puzzle? Following behind the surprise was a strong feeling of betrayal.
"Tifa?" Rikku called out. "Look."
Tifa turned, determined not to show how much she was hurt. In the palm of the Al Bhed girl's hand was a smooth black stone. "What?" she asked, her eyes telling her that she had seen it before, but her mind refusing to tell her what it was.
Rikku reached out with her other hand and tapped one of Tifa's materia lightly. "We don't want to chance him overhearing that it's here, so don't say it's name."
Tifa nodded slowly, finally recognizing the Black Materia. "So he is," she said, closing her eyes. Mingling with the shock at seeing the Black Materia, she felt relief that Yuffie hadn't decided to keep things a secrete from her. "Sorry, Yuffie," she said, placing one hand on her seasick friend.
"Huh?" Yuffie managed.
"For what?" Rikku finished the older girl's question.
"For not believing that you would trust me," Tifa answered.
Yuffie made a sick face and groaned. "Rikku...." she grunted.
Rikku grinned. "She knew that you'd react that way. She was just tugging on you chain. Will she never grow up?" she put a hint of mock seriousness into her voice.
Tifa frowned playfully. "Yuffie, that isn't very nice."
"OOOOohhhhh!" Rikku exclaimed before the ninja could attempt a response. "Did you bring your PHS... how about Yuffie's unit?" A wide grin stretched across her face. "If you did, then we can call all of your cronies and have a whole ton of help with Sephy!"
"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed springing from the floor and hi-fived Rikku. "We can buzz Cid and have him pick us up, swing by North Corral and snag Barret, call Vinny and see where he is then pick -"
"I left them in Midgar," Tifa said. "Sorry."
"Cid's got PMS!" Yuffie declared. "So the plan still works!" She flopped back to the floor. "Now let me be sick in peace."
Tifa and Rikku glanced at each other. "Is Cid a girl?" Rikku asked carefully.
Tifa silently shook her head, a smile filtering across her face.
"I didn't think so... I've never met a guy who experience 'that' before..." Rikku murmured. She tried to keep a straight face.
Tifa tried to keep a straight face too. Both of them failed and burst out laughing. "Yuffie, you're killing me," Rikku gasped.
"I didn't mean to..." Yuffie managed to say before throwing up again.
Rikku, still grinning, turned to Tifa. "We should probably get some rest before we arrive at shore."
"I'll stand watch first," the dark haired woman responded.
"Okay," Rikku agreed. She climbed into her bunk and was asleep almost instantly. Something about nearly running into Sephiroth was exausting. It made her feel weary and old. It made her scared, which in turn pissed her off. Why was she afraid of him? He was only an Unsent, after all.
*********************************************************************
Author's notes; And here's Tifa's debut to Wutai Ninjas. She going to travel with Yuffie and Rikku from here on out.
Thanks for reading,
Kissa-chan
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Chapter six; Add one more
************************************************************************
Tifa twisted her long dark hair back into a loose knot at the nape of her neck. Bored out of her mind in Midgar, she had decided to go visiting her friends... seeing what everyone was doing. But traveling alone wasn't that much fun, so she had decided to visit Yuffie first. She had felt confident that the ninja would jump at the chance to get out and travel.
The only problem with that was Yuffie's recent departure from Wutai. Tifa had arrived just in time to hear that the spunky ninja had just left town with a new friend. No one had really mentioned why, and Tifa had decided against questioning them. For the most part everyone seemed really... stressed. From the murmured conversations, she had gleaned one name... Sephiroth...
She shuddered and pulled the dark jean jacket she had purchased for the trip tighter around her shoulders. Sephiroth was the last name that she wanted to hear.
"Excuse me, I'm looking for a guy who sleeps in a coffin," Rikku said with a wide smile stretching across her face. She had been questioning a lot of the passengers and found out that no one really knew anything. Bored and giving up, she had spotted Tifa and decided to ask once more person. The only problem was that her question didn't come off the way she planned.
"Excuse me?" Tifa said with a slightly raised eyebrow.
Rikku shook her head. "His name is Vincent Valentine -"
"I know Vincent!" Tifa interrupted. "He didn't go back to his coffin, did he?" She felt a stab of irritation at the thought of the former Turk creeping back to Nibelhiem and climbing into his coffin.
Rikku shrugged. "How should I know? I thought he slept in a coffin all the time. I was asking if you knew where he was... because, to tell the truth, I don't know."
"What are you looking for him for?" Tifa asked.
"Eh?" Rikku asked. "Friend and me might need a mint of help with something that we're..." her voice trailed off and she paled slightly. "I think I'm going to be sick..." she mumbled.
The familiar cold sensation was back in the pit of her stomach. That had to mean that Sephiroth was close. And she wasn't really equipped to deal with him by herself. She glanced around, looking for someplace to hide, but finding none.
"Is something wrong?" Tifa asked, standing up from the crate she had been sitting on. "Are you okay? You seem pale -" Her words died as the blond girl suddenly vaulted herself over the side of the boat. "Oh my..." she murmured. She shot foreword, hand extended, and leaned over the side.
The blond girl was precariously gripping the side of the boat, struggling to keep a good hold. Her legs were in the water, and it looked like she was about to... Tifa leaned further and caught her by her wrists. "Hold on!" she exclaimed.
Rikku looked up. "Thanks," she said slightly sheepishly. "I'd hate to explain to Yuffie why I had to swim to Rocket Town... actually come to think of it, I don't even know which direction Rocket Town is in..."
"You know Yuffie?" Tifa questioned. Her arms protested the conversation. "Let's get you pulled up -"
"If you don't mind, could you wait a sec?" Rikku asked. "I'm getting a really bad feeling from the deck right now."
********************************************
Sephiroth stopped walking by the crate that Tifa had been sitting on. The deck was empty with the exception of one seasick passenger. He could just see her legs and butt from where she was leaning over the railing.
He sighed and sat down abruptly. He needed to get his materia back. Then he needed to destroy everything quickly. It wasn't right to allow his thoughts to linger on the blond blitzer.
He raised his hands to his lips, fingering them gently. Her mouth had been soft and appealing against his. Their brief kiss kept lingering in his mind. Finding himself zoning out again, he cursed aloud and stood up abruptly.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. It was past time to kill the girl. If he hadn't gotten stupid in the bathroom, the materia would already be his... and Meteor would already be on it's way.
Frustrated at his mishap, he headed back to his cabin.
***********************************************
"Okay, anytime that you're ready!" Rikku exclaimed. "Give me the signal and I'll help pull myself up."
Tifa nodded. "On three then?" she suggested. "One... two... three...and pull!" She shifted her weight back, hauling the blond girl onto the deck. At the same time, Rikku found a purchase with her feet and propelled herself upwards.
They both dropped to the deck wearily. "My arms... hurt!" Rikku exclaimed. "The next time that Sephy shows up... I'm just going to whallop him! That was... phew.. not fun."
Tifa moved to a sitting position. "Yuffie isn't here, is she?"
"Yeah, she's in the cabin being sick," Rikku said. "I'm Rikku bein-Cid... from Spira. I play for the Wutai Ninjas -" she cut herself off with a shake of her head. "I guess you don't really need my profile, do you?"
"Tifa Lockheart -"
"Oh, good!" Rikku chirped. She sprang to her feet, dragging Tifa with her. "We thought that you were in Midgar. Let's go talk to Yuffie."
"Huh?" Tifa asked in confusion. Things didn't look like they were going to stay boring for very long. "Hey, Rikku, right? Slow down a bit, you're pulling my arm out of it's socket!"
Rikku slowed. "Sorry, but we kinda don't want to get caught. I just found out that Sephy is on board. He could be prowling anywhere and we need to get someplace safer quickly." She tilted her head to the side. "That is, Sephiroth is on board. I think that you might know who he is. I'll explain everything that I can when we're in our cabin, okay?"
Tifa nodded silently. Her hand drifted to her small travel bag and pulled out her gloved claw complete with her materia. If Sephiroth was on board, then she needed to be armed.
**********************************************************
Yuffie debated throwing up again. Her stomach was in a foul twist of knots and was sloshing around mercilessly. Her face felt green - which was difficult, since a person couldn't really feel a color. She moaned and cast her dark gaze around the room, searching for something that wasn't rocking.
Her eyes feel on the door. It looked pretty stable... just a hint of rocking around the edges. Then it opened. Her eyes tracked two people come into the room, but watching them made her stomach lurch upward. She felt bilge build at the back of her throat and threw up on a half full pail of barf.
"Uhg...." she moaned.
"Hiya, Yuffie, I found Tifa and Sephiroth.. hereafter referred to as Sephy... is on board too!" Rikku exclaimed. She closed the door and flopped down on the bed, gesturing for Tifa to take a seat.
Tifa sat down. "Are you sure that it's Sephiroth?" she asked immediately. She flexed her hand inside her glove and looked down. "Because I could have swear that we killed him three years ago."
"You did," Rikku said bluntly. "But that didn't mean that his spirit was sent to the Farplane... or rather, as you put it here on the Planet, dispersed into the Lifestream. He's what is called a wandering Unsent."
"Meaning?" Tifa asked, surprising herself with how calm she felt.
"Meaning that he's just like he was when he was alive... only dead. He needs a couple of things to happen to him. First, he needs to be beaten. You can't kill the dead, so from there, we need to Send him while he's too weak to resist. For that, we need a Summoner."
Tifa tilted her head to the side. "Like High Summoner Yuna from Spira?" Unlike Yuffie, she already knew a lot about Spira. Midgar was the city that was visited most often by travelers from Spira. A decent number of the travelers usually ended up sitting in her bar drinking. And one thing about drunks was that they liked to talk... loud and about everything.
"Yeah, I didn't think you knew what a Summener was," Rikku confessed. She sounded put off with the sudden uselessness of her information.
"Well, continue," Tifa prompted. "We need to Send him using a Summoner's help, right? That means that we're traveling to Spira to try and get one of them to help."
"Not... urk... one, Yuna," Yuffie grunted. "S'up, Tifa," she added. She turned her head away from the conversation and went back to her puke bucket.
"The High Summoner?" Tifa asked. "Will she help?"
"You've heard about Yunie, but not about me?" Rikku said with a pouty face. "I was there too, you know! I was one of Yunie's guardians."
"But aren't you an Al Bhed?" Tifa asked with a confused look. "I didn't think that the Al Bhed approved of a summoner's pilgrimage."
"We don't, but..." she shrugged. "Yuna's my cousin, so I wanted to protect her any way that I could." She pushed a strand of hair back and shrugged. "I know that Yunie will help with Sephy..." She sighed, fingering her lips lightly. "Wonder how she'll react when she learns he kissed me..."
Tifa shot to her feet. "Sephiroth kissed you!" she blurted out loudly. "Why? How? Why?!"
Yuffie chuckled meekly from where she was crumpled on the floor. "That's what I... urk..." She abandoned the conversation and went back to looking pale on the floor.
"Hell if I know!" Rikku said, face slightly red. "It kinda bites through... that was my first kiss and I thought I was going to die. I was too scared to really ... feel it." She made a face. "Nasty guy!"
"Nasty guy?" Tifa repeated stupidly.
"Sephy," Rikku clarified. "Anyway, how would you feel if you were kissed by a dead guy and it was your first kiss ever? Not very happy, I'll tell you that!"
Tifa nodded. "So, Sephiroth is alive." She sat back down, deeply lost in thought. "I wonder if he's still trying to Summon Meteor..."
"Probably," Rikku and Yuffie said at the same time. They exchanged a quick look.
"Should we?" Yuffie asked, managing to right her stomach for a moment.
"She's your friend. You decided the trust issue," Rikku objected. "I'll go with you whatever you choose, you know. Friends trust the instincts of other friends."
"Ugh..." Yuffie replied. She stuck her head over the bucket and barfed again.
Silence reigned in the room. Tifa wasn't sure what either of them were talking about, but she had faith that Yuffie would bring her in as soon as her stomach felt better. She was friends with the ninja girl after all.
"Let's not say any - urk - thing," Yuffie groaned from the floor.
Tifa felt a stab of surprise. Yuffie wasn't going to tell her what they were talking about? She didn't trust her enough to reveal some possibly crucial part to the puzzle? Following behind the surprise was a strong feeling of betrayal.
"Tifa?" Rikku called out. "Look."
Tifa turned, determined not to show how much she was hurt. In the palm of the Al Bhed girl's hand was a smooth black stone. "What?" she asked, her eyes telling her that she had seen it before, but her mind refusing to tell her what it was.
Rikku reached out with her other hand and tapped one of Tifa's materia lightly. "We don't want to chance him overhearing that it's here, so don't say it's name."
Tifa nodded slowly, finally recognizing the Black Materia. "So he is," she said, closing her eyes. Mingling with the shock at seeing the Black Materia, she felt relief that Yuffie hadn't decided to keep things a secrete from her. "Sorry, Yuffie," she said, placing one hand on her seasick friend.
"Huh?" Yuffie managed.
"For what?" Rikku finished the older girl's question.
"For not believing that you would trust me," Tifa answered.
Yuffie made a sick face and groaned. "Rikku...." she grunted.
Rikku grinned. "She knew that you'd react that way. She was just tugging on you chain. Will she never grow up?" she put a hint of mock seriousness into her voice.
Tifa frowned playfully. "Yuffie, that isn't very nice."
"OOOOohhhhh!" Rikku exclaimed before the ninja could attempt a response. "Did you bring your PHS... how about Yuffie's unit?" A wide grin stretched across her face. "If you did, then we can call all of your cronies and have a whole ton of help with Sephy!"
"Yeah!" Yuffie exclaimed springing from the floor and hi-fived Rikku. "We can buzz Cid and have him pick us up, swing by North Corral and snag Barret, call Vinny and see where he is then pick -"
"I left them in Midgar," Tifa said. "Sorry."
"Cid's got PMS!" Yuffie declared. "So the plan still works!" She flopped back to the floor. "Now let me be sick in peace."
Tifa and Rikku glanced at each other. "Is Cid a girl?" Rikku asked carefully.
Tifa silently shook her head, a smile filtering across her face.
"I didn't think so... I've never met a guy who experience 'that' before..." Rikku murmured. She tried to keep a straight face.
Tifa tried to keep a straight face too. Both of them failed and burst out laughing. "Yuffie, you're killing me," Rikku gasped.
"I didn't mean to..." Yuffie managed to say before throwing up again.
Rikku, still grinning, turned to Tifa. "We should probably get some rest before we arrive at shore."
"I'll stand watch first," the dark haired woman responded.
"Okay," Rikku agreed. She climbed into her bunk and was asleep almost instantly. Something about nearly running into Sephiroth was exausting. It made her feel weary and old. It made her scared, which in turn pissed her off. Why was she afraid of him? He was only an Unsent, after all.
*********************************************************************
Author's notes; And here's Tifa's debut to Wutai Ninjas. She going to travel with Yuffie and Rikku from here on out.
Thanks for reading,
Kissa-chan