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I'm sorry if that offended anyone, I knew I was walking on thin ice with the hooker comment, but I had to get Cloud riled somehow. It did the trick too.
If you're reading this then you know that the story isn't over. Well, we're actually far from being over. Let the story continue! Chapter 7!
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I waited…
And waited…
Was I dead already? Will Aerieth be there to welcome me home? Will Tifa be there too I wonder? I opened my eyes and saw the haze of Tifa directly in front of me. She was surrounded in green. Life stream? She had a face that showed concern, but she also was smiling. I knew I had to be dead. No one's smiling after they get shot…if they're still alive that is. She put her arms around me and I heard someone growl out a word that sounded something like "Restore…"
Huh?
My eyes gradually became clearer. I saw my blood stained jacket and saw the rip in its side. I also saw, or felt is probably a better word, the cut in my side closing and healing. I felt the bullet eject itself from out of its entry wound and then that wound too began to close and heal itself.
I knew this feeling.
I coughed out the last of the drying blood out of my lungs and stood up. My strength returning, I said to no one in particular, "What just happened?"
"I happened," I heard a voice growl. "And you're lucky I've been following you Cloud. You'd be dead if it weren't for me."
"It seems I owe you my life again old friend," I replied. RedXIII lay sitting before me. He scratched his ears, and then sniffed at one of the ten unconscious bodies around me. Ten! I thought there was only six or seven at the most. Jeez. What had I got myself into?
"The smell of hate is never something you humans should have to endure. I have to deal with it all the time. You're really lucky in that respect too Cloud. You and Tifa both." I looked at Tifa and then remembered the gunshot followed by the silence that triggered my new non-sword limit. She spoke first saying, "After you broke free from my grip I fought one of the guys and took him out. (She motions toward a guy in the corner, with a broken arm and dislocated jaw). After that though, everything went black. I'm assuming that that was from the gunshot I received to the chest. If it wasn't for RedXIII, we'd both have died." So that's what the green light was, I thought. The Restore materia at work, not the Life Stream. I turned to RedXIII and said, "I'm sorry RedXIII, I just…I couldn't handle what they were saying." "As well you shouldn't have," he said. "If I had a mate and they were making comments like that I would have had no trouble going for their throat." "Mate?" I said to myself, looking at Tifa. I looked at Tifa, expecting some sort of sarcastic rebuttal that she had always given to such a comment, but I heard none. Instead I saw her gaze up at me. She was waiting for me to say something, to reassure her, to tell her that I agreed with the idea of "mate." But how does someone agree to something like that so suddenly? It was true that Tifa meant more to me then anything else in the world right now, but how long would that last? On the other hand I preferred her to any other girl I knew. Except maybe Aerieth…Oh shut up Cloud. Aerieth is dead! D-E-A-D, DEAD. There's no turning back. And besides, you never really knew her, so how could you really have loved her?
I was saying this all in my head, thinking to myself in the second person, as if to emphasize my thoughts, but after a long silence, I knew I had to respond sometime.
"Yah…I guess you could say that," I said turning Tifa. Her eyes were beginning to fill with tears, and she rushed at me hugging my chest hard. "I thought I had lost you Tifa. I never truly realized the danger I had put you in. I'm sorry." Once again, I never saw the slap come across my face. Girls are so fickle. One minute their hugging you saying "I'm glad you're okay," the next they're slapping up side the face saying "Never do that again!" And that's basically what Tifa said next. "DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN CLOUD!" she said with a tone I had never heard before. She pointed at me as she said, "I was trying to pull you out of there, to pull you inside the store for safety. And what do you do? You go at them like a madman and almost get yourself killed!" "Do you really think a store would have made a world of difference?" I said, angrier then I intended. It must have been the slap that had suddenly put me in a bad mood. It was still throbbing. "They had decided to attack me the moment that one (I motioned to the one amidst the pile of crates) recognized me. Store or no, they would have followed." Tifa was also growing irritated. "Open your eyes Cloud! Where are we?" "The Wall Market," I said sounding stupid. "And where did you sell all of your swords after the war?" "At the…" I looked up and saw the sign that read, 'Marty's weapons, ammo, and army surplus.' "Oh…" I saw her point now. All I needed to do was walk in there and they, knowing the vast amounts of weapons in there, probably wouldn't have followed. And if they had, all I would have had to do was slap down a couple hundred Gil, grabbed one of my old swords that I had sold here, started swinging, and that would have been the end of that fight. "You're so dense Cloud." "But…" I was shocked. I wasn't sure why, but that comment really hurt inside. "But…I just…didn't want you to have to deal with the things they were saying about you. About us. I didn't want you to hear that %$#." I looked away so I could avoid her gaze. I didn't feel like looking at her right then. But I felt her hand touch my cheek and bring my eyes to meet hers anyway. "I know…" she said.
I think we grew to understand each other a little bit more right then.
"Ahem," RedXIII said. I took Tifa's hand in my own and brought it down away from my face. I then turned to RedXIII. "What, may I ask, were you two doing out late at night? And why Cloud, were you without a sword? Not that you didn't handle those guys pretty good without one, but you are much better with a sword." Tifa responded before I could. "Well, Cloud hasn't needed his swords since the end of the war, so to walk around downtown holding one at your side would seem…" "Odd." I chimed in. "Yah, to say the least," she said, "and we were out late because we were looking for you." "Me?" he said, his ears perking up. "Yes you." I said. "We think the planet is trying to tell us something, and since you're the smartest being we know now that Bugenhagen is gone (RedXIII bowed his head at this), we need you to try and decipher it for us."
He looked up. "It?" "Yes, our dreams," I said. "We've both had eerily similar dreams lately. Now there's some variation between them, but it's still too much of a coincidence for there to not be some meaning in it. That's why we went looking for you." There was a pause before RedXIII said anything. "Bugenhagen would have been better at interpreting dreams…" he finally said lowering his head. Tifa leaned down and scratched his ear. "We'd rather talk to you anytime RedXIII," she said. RedXIII smiled, although I wasn't exactly sure if it was because of her words or because she had found a good spot behind his ear.
After a moment, I motioned for Tifa to sit down on a nearby bench and for RedXIII to do the same. "Well, I have yet to hear Tifa's side of the dream, so we can start there." "No Cloud, give him your version first." I looked at her. "Please?" "Alright," I said. She sat next to me, put her arm around mine, interlocked our fingers, and put her head on my shoulder. These gestures of affection were still new to me, and in all honesty I found them bizarre, but intriguing and attractive all the same. Turning to RedXIII who was sitting patiently in front of us, I said, "I guess I'll go first..."