Cloud
Strife looked up blearily at the sound of an engine. The Highwind was
hovering over the City of Ancients.
"Yo, Cloud!" he saw Barret
Wallace waving from the top deck. Cloud dropped his gaze and spotted
Kinto, their golden chocobo, lying near the bank of the lake. He
whistled and its head perked up instantly. With a wark it ran over to
him.
"Cloud!" Now Cid Highwind was leaning over the side and
calling down to him. Cloud ignored them, clambering onto Kinto's
back, still holding on to Tifa.
"CLOUD!" Cait Sith was
now yelling into his megaphone. "CAN'T YOU HEAR US! WHAT
HAPPENED TO THE OTHERS!"
He kept on ignoring them, urging the
golden bird into a run down the path out of the city.
"CLOUD!"
He
squeezed his eyes shut and called loudly over his shoulder: "Just
leave me alone!"
He dug his heels into Kinto's sides. The
chocobo let out a little shriek–Cloud had kicked a bit too hard–and
shot across the passageways, leaving the city and his comrades
behind.
"What the hell's his problem!" Barret shouted.
Red
XIII and Yuffie looked up when Cait Sith appeared at the top of the
stairs.
"Guys! What happened!"
"Where are the others?"
Vincent asked without glancing in Cait Sith's direction.
"Right
outside! Look, can we know what's going on! Cloud and Tifa
just–"
"Tifa's dead," Yuffie said blankly.
"WHAT!"
the cat-mog screeched. Barret and Cid quickly came running
in.
"What's goin' on!" Barret looked around wildly.
Cid
lost it: "#ing cat! You #ing scared us to death! What are you
#ing screaming like that for!"
"Tifa... Tifa's..."
he gasped, heedless of the anger which came from the older
man.
"Tifa's wit Cloud! So?" Barret cried.
"Tifa's
dead," Red repeated the statement in the same expressionless
manner.
"WHAT!" the two men shouted in disbelief.
"How!"
Cait Sith wailed.
"We don't know," Red shook his head.
"We
found her dead," Yuffie continued.
"Stop sayin' 'dead'!"
Barret tried to cover hie ears.
"Vincent and Yuffie were able to
reach new Limit Breaks because of it," Nanaki explained.
"That
doesn't matter," Vincent stood, starting up the stairs toward the
three in the entranceway. "What does matter is that Cloud's clone
is the only one left alive–"
"Red's too," Cid reminded
softly.
"And we need to figure out a way to kill him, and not
Cloud," Vincent finished.
"Didn't Cloud say that the clones
live off Mako?" Cait Sith wondered aloud.
"I know they do,"
Vincent grumbled, reaching them. The other two started up
slowly.
"So, why don't we lure his clone into a trap!"
Yuffie suddenly cried. The others looked at her. "Or not."
"That
may work," Red analyzed, "but can we guarantee Cloud will be
alright if we kill this clone in any way?"
They thought of this
silently. The quiet was broken by the occasional whimpers from
Barret.
"I...I can't do this now," he moaned, rubbing his
hand across his eyes. "I can't stop thinking
about...Tifa..."
Everyone looked down at the floor.
"Let's
go look for Cloud," Cait Sith meowed. Nanaki and Yuffie reached the
others and nodded.
The door of the darkened house swung
inward. Cloud Strife glanced around the foyer then reached back and
pulled Tifa Lockheart from the chocobo's saddle. It called out
after him as he entered the house and made his way up the stairs. He
reached the second floor, looked into the main bedroom, then turned
and kicked the door on his left. It flew open, slamming into the
opposite wall and he looked down at the body in his arms.
"Tifa..."
his cold blue eyes softened. He carried her body over to her bed by
the window and lay her down atop the woven quilt. He knelt beside the
bed and closed his eyes but the tears kept coming, stinging the back
of his eyelids. He quickly moved his eyes away from her.
"Why
did this have to happen?" Cloud stroked his thumb across the smooth
skin of her hand, lowering his forehead to her shoulder. "This
can't be true... I just wanted to tell you one thing for so long,
and I can't now...there wasn't enough time..."
He suddenly
pounded his fist against the wall beside him and screamed:
"TELL
ME WHY! I HAVE NOTHING LEFT NOW! NOTHING AT ALL! TELL ME
WHY!"
He screamed again, throwing his head back and
letting the tears burn down his cheeks. He leapt quickly to his feet
and turned to the wall. With a hard swing, he sent his right fist
through the plaster and wood: Crunch!
"TIFA!" Cloud wailed,
swinging his other fist into the wall: Crunch! "I won't let it
end like this; I won't! I WON'T!"
SLAM! Crunch! SLAM!
Crunch!
"Cloud..." someone whispered. He turned from the
wall, tears blurring his vision, and saw the figures of his friends
standing in the doorway of Tifa Lockheart's bedroom. He sniffled as
Yuffie Kisaragi stepped forward. She wrapped her arms around his
mid-chest and peered up at him sadly. Cloud looked away, not moving
to embrace her nor pulling away. The others slowly filed into the
room one by one looking Cloud in the eyes, then turning to mourn
Tifa's still figure on the bed.
"Even now, she's
beautiful..." Barret Wallace murmured, and Cloud looked up. The
older man was kneeling beside the bed as Cloud had done, holding one
of her hands and looking into her pale face. Red XIII was up on his
hind legs, his fore-paws resting atop Tifa's head and lining the
curve of her shoulder.
"Tifa..." he whimpered softly. Yuffie
pulled away from Cloud and walked over to Barret's side, placing a
hand on his shoulder. Cait Sith sat at the end of the bed, looking at
her and meowing softly as he cried. Cid Highwind was inspecting the
holes in the wall Cloud had made.
"Kid, you pissed or what!"
he turned to the blond youth, who glared angrily back at him. Cid
held up his hands: "I know, I know...I'm upset too."
Vincent
Valentine walked in from his post by the door and elbowed Cid in the
side. "Not now, you idiot."
"Ow!" the pilot fell against
the piano, rubbing his arm. Vincent stood before Cloud:
"I can't
tell you to get over this...but I can relate to you."
He put a
hand on his shoulder. Cloud shook his head, walking over to the piano
Cid was leaning against. The others turned to look at him as he
moved. He sat on the bench and closed his eyes.
"I used to be
able to play the piano... I played for her," he gulped, "once.
It was this song she used to sing when we were younger..."
He
paused, then tapped the C-note with his finger. The sound rang
clearly through the room, sharp enough to cut the air around them. He
opened his eyes and placed his fingers in the rest position atop the
ivory keys. He began to play. The song was eerily-calm. It wrenched
deep into the hearts of all the people in the room, and made fresh
tears spill down their cheeks. Cloud slowly, softly, began
singing:
"I was all alone...no one to guide me through the
darkness...of my heart... I once reached for you, and your fingers
left mine...I was all alone."
Nanaki suddenly realized something
and shook his tears aside. "That songit sounds so
familiar..."
"Tear my heart open; sift through my memories:
Who am I? Lift all the masks away; come face to face with me: Who am
I?"
"That's the Phoenix's Song!" the red animal
gasped.
Vincent looked down at him: "What?"
"Remember
that song the Phoenix was singing? This is it!"
"How?"
Vincent looked at Cloud's back. The blond mercenary continued to
sing:
"Please, come back to me...I sit as a scared child in the
black...of my soul... Steal through the night and discover, beside
me forever... Who...Am...I...?"
"Cloud," Red stepped
forward, "that song..."
"Yeah," he pulled away from the
piano and stood, "I know." They looked at him and he let his eyes
fall on Tifa's figure. Cloud stared at her for a long time, almost
as if he were waiting for something. He finally blinked away his
tears and turned a hardened gaze back to the others.
"We're
going to hunt Damien like the animal he is. I'll take Kinto and
explore the islands surrounding the continents. Yuffie and Cait Sith,
go search the island of Wutai. Vincent and Barret, Midgar. Cid and
Red XIII will stay here."
They all nodded. Vincent pulled the
Prism Gauntlets out of his belt, then lay them at Tifa's feet. One
by one, their heads bowed, they walked out of the room–Cloud, the
last to leave. He pulled the PhoenixZERO materia from his belt and
placed it in her hand. The orb glowed and then dulled. He backed up
to the doorway and hung there for a moment, then lowered his eyes and
slowly shut the door. He was the only one out in the hallway now. His
chest hitched as a few sobs escaped him.
"Tifa... I love you."
