Disclaimer: Once again, Everything from Final Fantasy 7 belongs to Squaresoft. The hybrid monsters are my idea, but the originals belonged to Squaresoft of course. All original stuff still belongs to me!
A/N: Hey! Here comes Chapter Two Version 2. whatever. Everything's being changed to an expanded format and of course there are more changes. In our last chapter, we met Daigus and Rhiannon. It's time to meet some more people and watch Rhiannon go on her first journey!
* * * * * * * * * *
Rhiannon woke up with a start and realized that she had fallen asleep while watching the sunrise. She stood up, pulling her pack back on and walked down the path away from the lab. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was and then looked at the map. Daigus had written a 'L' to show where the lab was and Rhiannon scanned the map to figure out what towns she was near.
"Hmmm," mused Rhiannon, looking at the map, "Gongaga Town and Cosmo Canyon. Maybe they know how I can get to Bone Town."
Rhiannon wandered in the direction of Gongaga Town and ran into several creatures along the way. Only having her daggers to defend herself, she had to rely on her other abilities, but the girl was an awkward fighter. She used everything she had to cut down the monsters that got in her path, but had to run when a pair of Grand Horn hybrids attacked her. Words sprang from her mouth as she ran, surprising the girl quite a bit, but common sense told her not to stop running to think.
"Curse these damn things!" Were the words as she ran towards Gongaga. "These weapons suck! I can't fight a whole pack with these daggers! Daigus told me about these creatures, but he didn't give me good enough weapons to fight. The knowledge I have about fighting monsters doesn't cover the new hybrids that have appeared." She sped up as the creatures continued to chase her.
The girl ended up running straight past Gongaga and towards the area where Cosmo Canyon was because one of the creatures blocked her path to the other town. She spent the rest of the day running from the creatures because they just wouldn't stop and continued past Cosmo Canyon, cursing as she went by. Eventually, Rhiannon got to the forest near Nibelheim and clambered up a tree. She threw strange fruit that was in the tree at the creatures and growled.
"Scram!" shrieked Rhiannon, throwing a stick at the nearest one, "Go find something else to eat!" A series of howls made the two monsters stop and look around.
The pair of Grand Horn hybrids seemed to realize something Rhiannon didn't and suddenly took off running, vanishing over the horizon. The girl slid down from the tree, looking around the area, but saw nothing. She was about to continue when she saw several yellow eyes gleaming in the gathering darkness behind her. Rhiannon heard a snarling coming from the shadows and started to back away in the direction of the town. I wonder if I can make it to town, she thought, watching the eyes in front of her, Might as well find out.
Rhiannon turned and started to run like hell, but heard the pounding of paws behind her. Wild howls shattered the silence of the late evening as the sun set in the west, staining the sky blood red. The girl felt something slam into her back and was sent to the ground from the impact. She groaned, looking up to find herself staring a Nibel Wolf in the eyes. Drool was dripping from its toothy jaws and it gazed at the fallen girl with a hungry look in its eyes.
"Um.... Hello," said Rhiannon, smiling nervously and then spotted the rest of the pack. "Oh, I see you brought friends..." She started moving away from the creature. "Um... Bye." She leapt to her feet and ran at breakneck speed towards the town.
Pain engulfed her leg as a sharp jaw of teeth sank into her limb and Rhiannon stumbled before falling over. The wolf let go and leapt backwards as the girl tried to kick it, but it joined the rest of the pack. She looked up to see all the monsters closing in on her, snarling at her with their hackles raised. Her eyes widened when she saw the wolves get ready to pounce and screamed as they leapt forwards at her. In a vain attempt to defend herself, the girl pulled out her daggers and tried to fight them off.
The girl lost her daggers when one of the monsters knocked her over again and she retreated to the tree. Scratched, bitten, and bleeding all over, Rhiannon scrambled up to the highest branch that she could reach. The Nibel Wolves started jumping up, trying to clamp their jaws on to the girl's nearest limb, but she broke off parts of the branches around her and threw them at the beasts. In desperation, she pulled off part of her branch and swung it at the monsters, trying to get them to go away.
Rhiannon heard a crack and looked at the part of the branch behind her where the stick had come from. One of the monsters had clamped its teeth to the branch and hung there, trying to get the branch to break. Damn! thought Rhiannon, staring at the wolf, These things are smarter than I thought! Before the girl could react, the branch broke, and she tumbled down to the trunk. She landed on the ground and pressed herself against the tree, shaking and very tired.
"Damn," said Rhiannon, panting as sweat trickled down her face, "I just got out into the world and now I'm gonna die." She looked at the sky in anger. "Someone up there really hates me! Don't they?"
Rhiannon was surprised to be looking up at a pair of slender, blood red eyes that belonged to a man, who was perched on a branch above the one that had broken. A red bandana was tied around his forehead and his silky black hair hung down to his shoulder blades. He wore a black set of shirt and pants with a collared, red cape draped around his shoulders. Rhiannon saw a gun held in one of his hands, but she noticed with a slight start, that the man had a metal arm that ended with claws.
"Who are you to journey alone in such dangerous places?" he asked in a voice that held a nonchalant tone.
Rhiannon was so shocked that she didn't respond, but continued to stare at the man, unable to tear her eyes from his. A Nibel Wolf leapt at her and she shrieked when she saw it, but there was a shot and the animal fell dead in front of her. The girl looked from the man above her to the dead Nibel Wolf and back, completely speechless. Two more wolves charged at her, but with a flash of steel, the creatures fell dead on top of the first monster. Rhiannon looked to her right to see who the source of the steel was.
A man with blonde, spiky hair was standing there with his blood stained sword drawn and resting on his shoulder. He wore a blue pair of pants with a shirt that had no sleeves, but a piece of armor covered his right shoulder. Brown gloves with metal armor on his hands, but the right one extended to his elbow and ended with a metal elbow pad. His bright blue eyes were glowing in the shadows and were gazing at Rhiannon with a look of mild annoyance
"Are you another weaponless traveler?" asked the blonde haired man, slicing another wolf in half.
More of the wolves were being taken care of by a woman with long, brown hair that had the ends secured by a red band. She wore a leather skirt with a white halter top attached to the skirt by black, leather suspenders. She had red fingerless gloves on her hands with a black section that went up to her elbows, ending with elbow pads. Her brown eyes were narrowed in concentration as she took out more wolves with various martial arts moves.
"She might've been caught off guard, Cloud," said the woman, looking at the blonde haired man, who was slicing more wolves up.
"Or she's a defenseless traveler," said Cloud sourly, "There's been an increasing number of people traveling without weapons these days."
"D... Defenseless?!" sputtered Rhiannon in anger, "I'm not weak!" She gave the swordsman a glare. "And for your information, I do have weapons!" The girl stopped talking, not understanding why she had an outburst like that.
"Then why didn't you fight these things?" asked Cloud, looking over at her, "And where are your weapons?"
"You try fighting a whole pack of those things with two weak daggers!" yelled Rhiannon, her cheeks turning slightly red in anger, "I was chased here by two weird hybrids and then attacked by these things!" She tried to get up, but sunk back to her knees clutching her side, where a deep gash was. "I lost my daggers when I got knocked over by one of those things!"
"Don't strain yourself," said the woman in a gentle voice, walking over to her and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"I'm fine," muttered Rhiannon stubbornly, getting up and steadying herself against the tree, "I've had worse." She frowned when she heard those words come from her mouth and thought. Where the hell did that phrase come from?
"You look oddly familiar," said the woman, gazing at the girl in front of her with thoughtful eyes.
"Well, I've never met you people before," snorted Rhiannon as a feeling of distrust gripped her heart, "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Tifa," replied the woman, holding out her hand, "Tifa Lockheart." She retracted her hand as Rhiannon stared at it in confusion.
"What about you?" asked the girl, looking at Cloud as he put his sword away, "What's your name?"
"Cloud Strife," he replied shortly, giving her a hard look, "How about telling us your name."
"My name's Rhiannon." The girl paused a bit when she saw Cloud's expectant look. "Um... Just Rhiannon... I have no... What did he call it?" She tapped her chin. "Oh, yeah. Family name."
"What who called it?" asked Tifa, blinking in slight surprise at Rhiannon.
"The one who aw.... I mean..." Rhiannon stopped her reply and thought, Daigus might not want me to tell anyone about my mission. "My caretaker." To divert attention from herself, she looked up at the man above her. "What about you, stranger? Do you have a name or shall I make one up?"
"Vincent Valentine," replied the man without changing the nonchalant look in his eyes, "I'm returning to town." He moved into the shadows, vanishing like a specter.
"Did I say something wrong?" asked Rhiannon, looking at the other two with an apologetic expression, "If I did... I really didn't mean to..."
"Oh, it wasn't you," said Tifa, smiling reassuringly, "He just isn't very social with new people. Don't worry about it."
"Well, that's good," sighed Rhiannon, looking relieved, "Say, is there a place I can stay in the town? Like an inn? Because I need to recover from this attack."
"How long are you going to stay here?" asked Tifa.
"As long as it takes to recover and figure out the best route to where I need to go," replied Rhiannon, shrugging a bit, "I don't have enough money to pay for the inn though." She tapped her chin. "I could try to camp or something..."
"You can use my old house," sighed Cloud after Tifa gave him an urging look, "Since Tifa and I live in her house, no one has stayed in it. I don't want it to fall into disrepair, even though that has already happened."
"It needs a little fixing up," said Tifa, nodding at Cloud before looking at the girl, "But it's usable. It would've been fixed up sooner, but instead we did a renovation on my house to add more rooms because our friends tend to drop by every now and then."
"I could fix it," suggested Rhiannon, "I know how to fix a lot of things." Why did I say that? she asked herself, I just woke up from a cryogenic sleep. How would I know how to fix things?
"We'll help out whenever we can," said Tifa, smiling warmly at the girl, "There's still a lot of monsters to clear out of the surrounding area. All these new hybrids have shown up, but they aren't coming from any of the reactors nearby."
"That sucks," said Rhiannon, leaning against the tree, thinking. Daigus had some creatures in his lab... Maybe he's behind the hybrids. "It's getting dark. We should probably get back to the town before even more of these creatures decide to mob us."
The three walked back to the town, but Rhiannon was lagging behind because of her leg and their pace slowed down. They eventually made it back and Cloud reluctantly lead the girl to his old house. The outside was a bit rundown, but the inside was still fairly clean and in good enough shape to use. Rhiannon set her pack down and sat on one of the beds. She looked at a smiling Tifa and Cloud, who was busy staring around the room with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
"Thank you for letting me stay here," said Rhiannon, smiling at the two people in front of her.
"Let me help you with those injuries," said Tifa, "Cloud could you go see if the item shop is still open? She'll need a potion or two and we'll need supplies for tomorrow when we fix the house." Cloud nodded and walked out as Tifa helped Rhiannon clean and dress her wounds before changing into a sleeping outfit.
"Where did you come from?" asked Tifa as Rhiannon pulled on some form fitting, yet slightly loose black pants, "You don't seem to be from around here."
"Nope," replied Rhiannon, pulling on a large, short sleeved shirt that reached just below her hips, "I came from an area near Gongaga, but I can't say where I used to live."
"Why not" asked Tifa, tilting her head a bit, gazing curiously at Rhiannon and thought. She almost looks like Sephiroth when she has her hair down... Except for the white parts of her hair and her eyes are different, but... They have the same glow... I wonder where those scars came from...
"I don't know," replied Rhiannon, sitting on the bed with a sigh, "I only know the route. I don't know the name of the place or the area. I just know that it was near Gongaga." A feeling of sorrow gripped at her heart, which confused her. These emotions make no sense, she thought, I might as well ignore them for now.
"We can talk about it in the morning," said Tifa, standing up, "You should get some sleep. The beds aren't very dusty because of the dust covers we put over them."
"Thank you," said Rhiannon, pulling one off of the bed farthest away from the door, "I guess I'll see you and Cloud in the morning."
"You bet," said Tifa, smiling, "We'll help you find the place you need to go and if you need anything, we're the next house over. Vincent lives up at the old Shin-Ra Mansion if you can't find us. Good night."
Tifa left the house and Rhiannon slipped under the covers, sinking into the soft mattress. She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before snuggling into the blankets and falling into a peaceful sleep. Outside Tifa met up with Cloud, who had returned from the shop with a few potions and supplies to fix the house. Neither noticed someone lurking in the shadows as they walked towards their house, talking quietly.
"Did you notice how similar that girl's appearance is to Sephiroth's?" asked Tifa, finally speaking the question on her mind.
"Yeah," replied Cloud, looking unhappy, "I get the feeling that she's going to cause a lot trouble for us and our friends. I don't trust her." He scowled as he and Tifa went back to their house to sleep, never noticing something slip right into the old house.
* * * * * * * * * *
Yep, Rhiannon's kind of a moody person, but she can't sort out her emotions very well and she doesn't understand all the knowledge that Daigus stuffed in her head. I figured Tifa would be friendly towards a stranger, but Cloud would be a bit more grumpy about it. Vincent seems like the type who wouldn't converse with a new person. I hope I captured their personalities as they are supposed to be.
SNEAK PEEK!: (Whoo!)
** Who's that freakin' mysterious shadow anyway? Someone new? or someone old?
** Jeez... Someone's a twisted, freakish lunatic. Guess who!
** Some boring work to create peace after a scary night of shock. Plus! Rhiannon learns the meaning of nicknames! ^_^
A/N: Hey! Here comes Chapter Two Version 2. whatever. Everything's being changed to an expanded format and of course there are more changes. In our last chapter, we met Daigus and Rhiannon. It's time to meet some more people and watch Rhiannon go on her first journey!
* * * * * * * * * *
Rhiannon woke up with a start and realized that she had fallen asleep while watching the sunrise. She stood up, pulling her pack back on and walked down the path away from the lab. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was and then looked at the map. Daigus had written a 'L' to show where the lab was and Rhiannon scanned the map to figure out what towns she was near.
"Hmmm," mused Rhiannon, looking at the map, "Gongaga Town and Cosmo Canyon. Maybe they know how I can get to Bone Town."
Rhiannon wandered in the direction of Gongaga Town and ran into several creatures along the way. Only having her daggers to defend herself, she had to rely on her other abilities, but the girl was an awkward fighter. She used everything she had to cut down the monsters that got in her path, but had to run when a pair of Grand Horn hybrids attacked her. Words sprang from her mouth as she ran, surprising the girl quite a bit, but common sense told her not to stop running to think.
"Curse these damn things!" Were the words as she ran towards Gongaga. "These weapons suck! I can't fight a whole pack with these daggers! Daigus told me about these creatures, but he didn't give me good enough weapons to fight. The knowledge I have about fighting monsters doesn't cover the new hybrids that have appeared." She sped up as the creatures continued to chase her.
The girl ended up running straight past Gongaga and towards the area where Cosmo Canyon was because one of the creatures blocked her path to the other town. She spent the rest of the day running from the creatures because they just wouldn't stop and continued past Cosmo Canyon, cursing as she went by. Eventually, Rhiannon got to the forest near Nibelheim and clambered up a tree. She threw strange fruit that was in the tree at the creatures and growled.
"Scram!" shrieked Rhiannon, throwing a stick at the nearest one, "Go find something else to eat!" A series of howls made the two monsters stop and look around.
The pair of Grand Horn hybrids seemed to realize something Rhiannon didn't and suddenly took off running, vanishing over the horizon. The girl slid down from the tree, looking around the area, but saw nothing. She was about to continue when she saw several yellow eyes gleaming in the gathering darkness behind her. Rhiannon heard a snarling coming from the shadows and started to back away in the direction of the town. I wonder if I can make it to town, she thought, watching the eyes in front of her, Might as well find out.
Rhiannon turned and started to run like hell, but heard the pounding of paws behind her. Wild howls shattered the silence of the late evening as the sun set in the west, staining the sky blood red. The girl felt something slam into her back and was sent to the ground from the impact. She groaned, looking up to find herself staring a Nibel Wolf in the eyes. Drool was dripping from its toothy jaws and it gazed at the fallen girl with a hungry look in its eyes.
"Um.... Hello," said Rhiannon, smiling nervously and then spotted the rest of the pack. "Oh, I see you brought friends..." She started moving away from the creature. "Um... Bye." She leapt to her feet and ran at breakneck speed towards the town.
Pain engulfed her leg as a sharp jaw of teeth sank into her limb and Rhiannon stumbled before falling over. The wolf let go and leapt backwards as the girl tried to kick it, but it joined the rest of the pack. She looked up to see all the monsters closing in on her, snarling at her with their hackles raised. Her eyes widened when she saw the wolves get ready to pounce and screamed as they leapt forwards at her. In a vain attempt to defend herself, the girl pulled out her daggers and tried to fight them off.
The girl lost her daggers when one of the monsters knocked her over again and she retreated to the tree. Scratched, bitten, and bleeding all over, Rhiannon scrambled up to the highest branch that she could reach. The Nibel Wolves started jumping up, trying to clamp their jaws on to the girl's nearest limb, but she broke off parts of the branches around her and threw them at the beasts. In desperation, she pulled off part of her branch and swung it at the monsters, trying to get them to go away.
Rhiannon heard a crack and looked at the part of the branch behind her where the stick had come from. One of the monsters had clamped its teeth to the branch and hung there, trying to get the branch to break. Damn! thought Rhiannon, staring at the wolf, These things are smarter than I thought! Before the girl could react, the branch broke, and she tumbled down to the trunk. She landed on the ground and pressed herself against the tree, shaking and very tired.
"Damn," said Rhiannon, panting as sweat trickled down her face, "I just got out into the world and now I'm gonna die." She looked at the sky in anger. "Someone up there really hates me! Don't they?"
Rhiannon was surprised to be looking up at a pair of slender, blood red eyes that belonged to a man, who was perched on a branch above the one that had broken. A red bandana was tied around his forehead and his silky black hair hung down to his shoulder blades. He wore a black set of shirt and pants with a collared, red cape draped around his shoulders. Rhiannon saw a gun held in one of his hands, but she noticed with a slight start, that the man had a metal arm that ended with claws.
"Who are you to journey alone in such dangerous places?" he asked in a voice that held a nonchalant tone.
Rhiannon was so shocked that she didn't respond, but continued to stare at the man, unable to tear her eyes from his. A Nibel Wolf leapt at her and she shrieked when she saw it, but there was a shot and the animal fell dead in front of her. The girl looked from the man above her to the dead Nibel Wolf and back, completely speechless. Two more wolves charged at her, but with a flash of steel, the creatures fell dead on top of the first monster. Rhiannon looked to her right to see who the source of the steel was.
A man with blonde, spiky hair was standing there with his blood stained sword drawn and resting on his shoulder. He wore a blue pair of pants with a shirt that had no sleeves, but a piece of armor covered his right shoulder. Brown gloves with metal armor on his hands, but the right one extended to his elbow and ended with a metal elbow pad. His bright blue eyes were glowing in the shadows and were gazing at Rhiannon with a look of mild annoyance
"Are you another weaponless traveler?" asked the blonde haired man, slicing another wolf in half.
More of the wolves were being taken care of by a woman with long, brown hair that had the ends secured by a red band. She wore a leather skirt with a white halter top attached to the skirt by black, leather suspenders. She had red fingerless gloves on her hands with a black section that went up to her elbows, ending with elbow pads. Her brown eyes were narrowed in concentration as she took out more wolves with various martial arts moves.
"She might've been caught off guard, Cloud," said the woman, looking at the blonde haired man, who was slicing more wolves up.
"Or she's a defenseless traveler," said Cloud sourly, "There's been an increasing number of people traveling without weapons these days."
"D... Defenseless?!" sputtered Rhiannon in anger, "I'm not weak!" She gave the swordsman a glare. "And for your information, I do have weapons!" The girl stopped talking, not understanding why she had an outburst like that.
"Then why didn't you fight these things?" asked Cloud, looking over at her, "And where are your weapons?"
"You try fighting a whole pack of those things with two weak daggers!" yelled Rhiannon, her cheeks turning slightly red in anger, "I was chased here by two weird hybrids and then attacked by these things!" She tried to get up, but sunk back to her knees clutching her side, where a deep gash was. "I lost my daggers when I got knocked over by one of those things!"
"Don't strain yourself," said the woman in a gentle voice, walking over to her and placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"I'm fine," muttered Rhiannon stubbornly, getting up and steadying herself against the tree, "I've had worse." She frowned when she heard those words come from her mouth and thought. Where the hell did that phrase come from?
"You look oddly familiar," said the woman, gazing at the girl in front of her with thoughtful eyes.
"Well, I've never met you people before," snorted Rhiannon as a feeling of distrust gripped her heart, "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Tifa," replied the woman, holding out her hand, "Tifa Lockheart." She retracted her hand as Rhiannon stared at it in confusion.
"What about you?" asked the girl, looking at Cloud as he put his sword away, "What's your name?"
"Cloud Strife," he replied shortly, giving her a hard look, "How about telling us your name."
"My name's Rhiannon." The girl paused a bit when she saw Cloud's expectant look. "Um... Just Rhiannon... I have no... What did he call it?" She tapped her chin. "Oh, yeah. Family name."
"What who called it?" asked Tifa, blinking in slight surprise at Rhiannon.
"The one who aw.... I mean..." Rhiannon stopped her reply and thought, Daigus might not want me to tell anyone about my mission. "My caretaker." To divert attention from herself, she looked up at the man above her. "What about you, stranger? Do you have a name or shall I make one up?"
"Vincent Valentine," replied the man without changing the nonchalant look in his eyes, "I'm returning to town." He moved into the shadows, vanishing like a specter.
"Did I say something wrong?" asked Rhiannon, looking at the other two with an apologetic expression, "If I did... I really didn't mean to..."
"Oh, it wasn't you," said Tifa, smiling reassuringly, "He just isn't very social with new people. Don't worry about it."
"Well, that's good," sighed Rhiannon, looking relieved, "Say, is there a place I can stay in the town? Like an inn? Because I need to recover from this attack."
"How long are you going to stay here?" asked Tifa.
"As long as it takes to recover and figure out the best route to where I need to go," replied Rhiannon, shrugging a bit, "I don't have enough money to pay for the inn though." She tapped her chin. "I could try to camp or something..."
"You can use my old house," sighed Cloud after Tifa gave him an urging look, "Since Tifa and I live in her house, no one has stayed in it. I don't want it to fall into disrepair, even though that has already happened."
"It needs a little fixing up," said Tifa, nodding at Cloud before looking at the girl, "But it's usable. It would've been fixed up sooner, but instead we did a renovation on my house to add more rooms because our friends tend to drop by every now and then."
"I could fix it," suggested Rhiannon, "I know how to fix a lot of things." Why did I say that? she asked herself, I just woke up from a cryogenic sleep. How would I know how to fix things?
"We'll help out whenever we can," said Tifa, smiling warmly at the girl, "There's still a lot of monsters to clear out of the surrounding area. All these new hybrids have shown up, but they aren't coming from any of the reactors nearby."
"That sucks," said Rhiannon, leaning against the tree, thinking. Daigus had some creatures in his lab... Maybe he's behind the hybrids. "It's getting dark. We should probably get back to the town before even more of these creatures decide to mob us."
The three walked back to the town, but Rhiannon was lagging behind because of her leg and their pace slowed down. They eventually made it back and Cloud reluctantly lead the girl to his old house. The outside was a bit rundown, but the inside was still fairly clean and in good enough shape to use. Rhiannon set her pack down and sat on one of the beds. She looked at a smiling Tifa and Cloud, who was busy staring around the room with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
"Thank you for letting me stay here," said Rhiannon, smiling at the two people in front of her.
"Let me help you with those injuries," said Tifa, "Cloud could you go see if the item shop is still open? She'll need a potion or two and we'll need supplies for tomorrow when we fix the house." Cloud nodded and walked out as Tifa helped Rhiannon clean and dress her wounds before changing into a sleeping outfit.
"Where did you come from?" asked Tifa as Rhiannon pulled on some form fitting, yet slightly loose black pants, "You don't seem to be from around here."
"Nope," replied Rhiannon, pulling on a large, short sleeved shirt that reached just below her hips, "I came from an area near Gongaga, but I can't say where I used to live."
"Why not" asked Tifa, tilting her head a bit, gazing curiously at Rhiannon and thought. She almost looks like Sephiroth when she has her hair down... Except for the white parts of her hair and her eyes are different, but... They have the same glow... I wonder where those scars came from...
"I don't know," replied Rhiannon, sitting on the bed with a sigh, "I only know the route. I don't know the name of the place or the area. I just know that it was near Gongaga." A feeling of sorrow gripped at her heart, which confused her. These emotions make no sense, she thought, I might as well ignore them for now.
"We can talk about it in the morning," said Tifa, standing up, "You should get some sleep. The beds aren't very dusty because of the dust covers we put over them."
"Thank you," said Rhiannon, pulling one off of the bed farthest away from the door, "I guess I'll see you and Cloud in the morning."
"You bet," said Tifa, smiling, "We'll help you find the place you need to go and if you need anything, we're the next house over. Vincent lives up at the old Shin-Ra Mansion if you can't find us. Good night."
Tifa left the house and Rhiannon slipped under the covers, sinking into the soft mattress. She stared at the ceiling for a few minutes before snuggling into the blankets and falling into a peaceful sleep. Outside Tifa met up with Cloud, who had returned from the shop with a few potions and supplies to fix the house. Neither noticed someone lurking in the shadows as they walked towards their house, talking quietly.
"Did you notice how similar that girl's appearance is to Sephiroth's?" asked Tifa, finally speaking the question on her mind.
"Yeah," replied Cloud, looking unhappy, "I get the feeling that she's going to cause a lot trouble for us and our friends. I don't trust her." He scowled as he and Tifa went back to their house to sleep, never noticing something slip right into the old house.
* * * * * * * * * *
Yep, Rhiannon's kind of a moody person, but she can't sort out her emotions very well and she doesn't understand all the knowledge that Daigus stuffed in her head. I figured Tifa would be friendly towards a stranger, but Cloud would be a bit more grumpy about it. Vincent seems like the type who wouldn't converse with a new person. I hope I captured their personalities as they are supposed to be.
SNEAK PEEK!: (Whoo!)
** Who's that freakin' mysterious shadow anyway? Someone new? or someone old?
** Jeez... Someone's a twisted, freakish lunatic. Guess who!
** Some boring work to create peace after a scary night of shock. Plus! Rhiannon learns the meaning of nicknames! ^_^