Yuffie
dragged Tifa from the room and down the hall. She kicked the third
door from the left open and pulled her inside. Zeo jumped and sat up
quickly.
"What is it! What's happening!"
"One of
those stupid clones came for Tifa," Yuffie lowered her onto the bed
beside him. Tifa groaned, closing her eyes and breathing shallowly.
Zeo looked up at the door, listening to the sounds of the
fight.
Nanaki tackled Ryan. They rolled around on the floor
for a moment and the clone threw the orange-red creature away,
reaching for his gun. Vincent fired his own weapon and sent it
clattering away from the copy's reach. Cloud ran forward, slicing
across his chest. Ryan jumped to his feet, narrowly avoiding the huge
sword. He backed away and glanced down at the shallow gash on his
front.
"That was foolish..." he muttered, casting a spell.
The Trine attack hit them hard, and all fell to the floor. Cloud got
to one knee, clutching a wound in his side.
"Take this!" he
spat, running forward.
Cloud's sword began to glow and he
brought it forward with a hard lunge. Then he sliced upward, across,
down, forward, hitting the clone twenty different times. Cloud
finally jumped high overhead–his Ultima Sword glaring a harsh
white–and threw the blade down, cutting Ryan deeply. He backed
away, panting and Vincent's duplicate fell to one knee, gasping in
pain. They stood back and watched as he slowly got to his feet. He
grunted, then looked up at them all with his eerie green eyes and
began to laugh.
"If you believe that can defeat me, try again!"
he cried. Everyone crouched to attack again, but suddenly it got
dark. They all looked around and something screamed loudly. Ryan
looked up to see BahamutZERO's attack racing toward him. He could
only widen his eyes in shock and then it struck him, making the
entire building tremble. The explosion shattered all the windows and
blew all the doors off their hinges. They all waited for the summon
to die out, then finally looked up at the caster.
"Is everyone
alright?" Zeo called weakly.
"Huh!" Cid blinked.
Red
XIII suddenly yipped: "No, everyone isn't alright!"
The real
Vincent was crouched, hunched over and trembling. Cloud knelt beside
him and looked him over.
"Vincent, are you okay?"
He slowly
looked up at Cloud, and the boy blinked as he peered into Vincent's
ashen face.
"These clones..." the man grunted, getting to
his feet. He choked and a mouthful of blood hit the floor. Cid and
Barret winced, Red flattened his ears back, and Cait Sith meowed
worriedly. Vincent limped toward Zeo. Cloud held out a hand to help
him but the man shook his head and came face to face with the
mysterious boy.
"That's right," Zeo nodded. "These clones
are you. Though you will not die when they do, you will feel
pain."
"For how long?" Cid asked.
"A short while–give
him an hour or so," he replied.
Cloud shook his head, turned,
and left the room. Zeo watched him go.
Yuffie Kisaragi jumped
up the moment he entered the room.
"What happened! Did you get
him!" she cried.
Cloud Strife nodded: "At a price–Vincent's
not doing so well."
"Why not!" Yuffie shrieked.
"Apparently
these clones hold some sort of bond with the originals. When they're
defeated, we feel it, to some extent." "He won't die, will
he!"
Cloud looked over at Tifa who was sitting up and staring
at him with wide, scared eyes.
"I...don't know."
"Vincent!"
the ninja-thief leapt up and raced out of the room. Cloud watched her
go and he felt Tifa take his hand. He looked to her, and her eyes
were filled with tears.
"Zeo will be helping them," Hojo
paced back and forth in front of the stone pillar. His strange mako
eyes flickered over the seven shadows kneeling in the darkness around
the center shrine. "Damien! Arina!"
The Cloud and Tifa-clones
stood, saluting the mad scientist. "Yes, Master."
"I need
you to make sure this city is secure–go patrol the area. Destroy
all that is not necessary."
They bowed and disappeared. Hojo
turned to the others.
"If it would please you, Master," Cid's
clone stood up, "I'll be the next to go capture the woman."
"Yes,
Marione," Hojo looked at him, "perhaps you will succeed where
Ryan failed. But I will not tolerate another failure."
"Forgive
my questioning, Master," Yuffie's double spoke up, "but why is
that woman so important? Why were Arina and Damien created
differently anyway?"
"In due time you shall figure this out,
Katrina," the scientist glanced at her. "For now, Marione, you
and Kenya will go back to the other continent and capture Tifa
Lockheart."
"With all due respect, Master–" the Red
XIII-clone growled.
"You will accompany Marione," Hojo said
softly. "You will both bring Tifa here to the City of Ancients, and
one of you must eliminate that problem."
"Problem?" Barret's
clone looked up.
"Were you not paying attention, Waylon!"
Hojo snapped. "Zeo must be eliminated."
Waylon bowed and said
nothing else. Marione sneered at the dark man, turned and left the
inner city, Kenya following reluctantly at his heels. Hojo giggled
and turned away from the others, clasping his hands. Two pairs of
glowing green slits shone from the darkness of the passageway leading
to the outer city. The sharp sound of metal against glass screeched
loudly through the darkness, as if a sword were being drawn. The eyes
disappeared.
Cloud lay in his bed, staring out the open
window into the night. Too many things were on his mind: the clones,
Tifa, Hojo, Tifa, his friends, Tifa... There was no way he could
possibly get to sleep at this rate. He continued to stare up at the
crescent moon in the dark sky for some time until a noise by the door
made him jump and look over in surprise. Tifa stood in the doorway,
blushing and looking down at the floor.
"Sorry if I startled
you."
"No," he shook his head to clear it, "that's okay.
What is it?"
"I had this really weird dream...and I don't
want to go back to sleep all by myself," she blushed furiously.
Cloud blinked at her for a moment, then threw the quilt off of
himself and climbed out of bed. He made his way over to her and
smiled, taking her hand.
"Then you can stay with me."
She
smiled bashfully at him, but nodded. He led her back over to his bed
and threw himself down onto the mattress. Tifa giggled and lay down
beside him. Cloud turned his body to face her and pulled the sheets
up to cover them. Tifa slipped into his arms, laying her head against
his chest and closing her eyes. He slowly stroked her hair back,
staring into her face for a long time. Her brown eyes slowly drifted
open. She peered up at him and Cloud's breath caught in his throat.
Tifa shook her head and looked away.
"I dreamt about
Aeris."
"Aeris?" Cloud blinked.
"She was in the City of
the Ancients, where we found her right before Sephiroth..."
Cloud
nodded. "Yeah."
"Well," Tifa continued, "just like then,
a figure dropped down from the eaves above us and rammed a sword
through her...a different sword."
"What do you mean?"
"It
wasn't Sephiroth this time," she said. "It was you."
