Manifestation
Chapter Five
Tifa sat down on the floor of the home, having found various old papers scattered in a nearby desk. She flipped through them, her brow crinkling at the unfamiliar words. "Great. I bet Red XIII didn't even figure that we don't know how to speak the Cetra language. I wonder if he can..."
Undaunted, she continued to carefully examine the fragile pages. Her stomach felt like it had a large pit stuck inside of it. She couldn't shake off her bad feeling.
She shook her head and stood up to look out the window. Peering at the stars, she suddenly felt a horrible sense of being completely and totally alone. The feeling seemed to pierce its way into her very soul, and she shuddered, setting down the papers and wrapping her arms around herself. "It's just this place getting to me..." she murmured under her breath.
Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a flash of movement down by the edge of the lake. With a gasp, she grasped the end of the window and leaned out a little further to see more clearly.
The water was rippling, as though something had disturbed it.
"Probably just Yuffie, or Red, or...someone...coming to make sure I'm okay," she said to herself. She started down the twisting corridor, knowing that at the end would be the doorway, and, she tried to reassure herself, just one of her friends.
She paused upon coming to the end of the hallway, staring at the empty doorway. There was no one there. She blinked, feeling a little bewildered, and wondering if her eyes had been playing tricks on her. "Is someone there?" she called out meekly, taking a few more cautious steps forward. She reached the doorway and poked her head out to take a look around.
Someone stood by the edge of the lake. Tifa squinted, trying to make out the figure. Mist was draped around the ground like gauze, making it hard to see. "Yuffie? Is that you?"
And then the figure turned around, and Tifa got a good look at it. And began to scream.
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Vincent looked up from his papers, hearing the scream pierce the night air. "What was that...?" he muttered to himself. "Sounded like Tifa..." He sat there for another moment, seeming to contemplate something, and then stood up and strode out the door to head over to where she was.
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Tifa took a few shaky steps backward, her breath catching in her chest. "...A-Aeris?" Or rather, a much decomposed version of the once-lovely woman. Her hair hung in lank, stringy pieces, and her flesh was rotting away. As Tifa stared, open-mouthed, her gray skin seemed to be melting right off of the bone. Her familiar pink dress and red jacket hung in ripped pieces, barely clinging to the rotting flesh. Aeris had no eyes, but instead, two empty eye-sockets, which stared right at Tifa.
Tifa felt a very intense series of shudders start to rip their way through her body, and she sank to her knees in shock. "It can't be, it can't be, no, no, no..." she chanted over and over again, as though that would make the horrible apparition disappear.
But however hard she muttered the same words over and over again, it didn't work. Aeris took halting, shaky steps closer and closer to Tifa, who lay immobile on her knees. "Come here...Tifa..." the figure muttered in a croaky version of Aeris' voice. "I just want...to see you again."
As Aeris come closer, she held out her hands, which sprung deadly- long claws. She began to chuckle deep in her rotting chest, tensing up her arms and watching a long spew of mucous-like liquid ooze from her decaying fingertips. "See? It's a present..."
Tifa sat on her knees, rocking back and forth from fear and shock. Not in all her life had she ever encountered anything so terrifying...and not in the form of someone who used to be a friend. "Don't," she muttered to herself, tears running down her cheeks to slide, wet and salty, into her gaping mouth.
But Aeris didn't listen. She just continued to shuffle nearer until she was right in front of Tifa, her claws preparing to sink themselves into the woman's flesh. "See?" She held up her hands, fingertips tense and ready. "Just a little present-"
FLASH! Suddenly, a blinding light filled the area. Tifa shrieked yet again, throwing her head on the ground and wrapping her arms around it.
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Vincent came into the tiny clearing just as the flash of light surrounded it, and he quickly threw his arm up over his eyes to avoid blinding himself. Once it had faded, he quickly slid his gun out from its holster and took a few steps forward, ready to shoot whatever was in the clearing with him. He suddenly looked confused at the sight before him.
A woman of around twenty years stood in front of Tifa, who lay flat on the ground, protecting her head. The woman held up a long staff, made of wood with purple gemstones set on top of it in a circular pattern, and one sparkling white materia orb set in the middle. In front of the woman stood Aeris...or at least, a decaying human resembling the dead Ancient. Vincent blinked, heavily confused.
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Tifa, after not hearing any noise after the loud flash, slowly uncovered her head and lifted it up. She stared in confusion at the back of a woman standing in front of her. Beyond her was the decaying figure of Aeris, and Tifa watched in shock as the decomposed woman slowly sunk into the soft, muddy earth, until no one but the strange female stood in front of her. "What...."
Her head shot up even further as she saw Vincent enter the clearing, his gun ready in his hand. He stared at the woman with a calm expression on his face, though Tifa thought she could see confusion in his eyes.
The woman slowly set her staff back down on the ground, holding up her free hand. "Don't shoot," she said serenely. Tifa stood up, dusting the dirt off her still-shaking knees. She observed the woman in front of her silently.
She had short, red hair that was pulled up into an almost-perfect bun, with just a few wisps escaping...and the exact same, pointy bangs that Aeris had. She turned to Tifa with a smile, and then Tifa noticed that she had kind, wise green eyes. She was clothed in a simple halter-top dress that clung behind her smooth neck and clutched tightly around her chest before falling softly to the floor. The fabric seemed to be made of silk, and was a shiny, pale-yellow color.
"Who are you?" she suddenly heard Vincent question, still keeping his gun out from the holster.
"I'm Celeyne. The founder of the Cetra."
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Author's Note – Dun dun DUN! Well, in the next chapter, we find out more about this Celeyne character! I hope you all enjoyed this one. Thank you for all the reviews...I look forward to more! =P Expect the next chappy within the next couple of days – I really like how this is going now, and I feel really inspired to write, so the words are just flying.