(Refer to chapter 1 for the disclaimer.)
Chapter
Three: Leaving Town
The sun reflected off the water. Aeris
and Tifa were still sitting on the beach when Cid, Cait Sith, Barret,
and Vincent walked past wearing full battle gear and carrying their
weapons in hand. The two women starred at them curiously. The men
kept on walking as if they hadn't seen them.
"What's going on?" Tifa asked. Barret turned, took a few steps towards them, and kneeled down in the sand next to where they were sitting. The rest of the men kept walking.
"Nothing to worry about, we're just got to break into the Shin-ra and snatch an airship," He said downplaying the serious and potentially suicidal nature of the mission.
"What? Are you guys nuts?" Tifa got to her feet and was looking down at him now, but only barely due to his great size. Barret glanced over his shoulder and motioned the other guys to hold up. Cait Sith walked over to join them.
"It's all quite simple really. We need an airship, so we're going to take one. I haven't told you this, but I know a man on the inside that can help us," Cait Sith proclaimed. He paused for a moment letting what he had said sink in. "Gee, when I come out and say it like that, it does sound a bit wonky."
"But what about the rest of us?" Aeris inquired. Her soft voice contrasted with the harsh tone she spoke in.
"We figured it was prob'ly safer if you people stayed 'ere. Us….well them anyway, all know there way around the place. I'm workin' as backup."
"You've lost your mind. I knew it," Tifa said with a dry disapproving tone. Barret shrugged slightly. He wasn't going to object or disagree.
"Don't give me those sad faces," Cait Sith said jumping down from the stuffed Moogle he controlled. Here, I'll read your fortunes. Both of yours. If that doesn't cheer you up, then I'm not the greatest fortune telling magical cat you've ever met!" He pulled out a strange deck of cards and then had each woman draw five of them. After they had picked their cards, he took Tifa's from her and looked. His cat eyes grew wide. "Um, let's see yours first." He said handing Tifa back her cards and taking Aeris's. "Well this is odd," He muttered.
"What? What does it say."
"Never mind, these are just for fun anyway. Nothing big here."
"Please?" Aeris said giving him her best sad-girl face. Tifa had to turn away to stop from giggling. Sometimes she wished she could turn off and on the look like Aeris could.
"Okay, but remember. This probably doesn't mean anything. Tifa first; It says something like 'a person you never expect to see again will return and bring both pain and joy'. Odd isn't it?" He handed her back her cards and took Aeris's. "Now this, this isn't like anything I have seen before either." He paused, and gave Aeris a huge cheesy smile. "You've got a way of doing that to me, ya' know."
"Um… Sorry?" Aeris said for lack of anything better to say.
"It says you will … well…It says one thing, then it says another thing at the exact same time. It's like your path splits. There's some other stuff, too, but it's even more confusing. …I really have this lightest what this means. Seriously. I must have messed it up. It's like you have two tracks going on at the same time."
" 's crap anyway" Barret says getting up and dusting the sand off his knees.
Vincent, who had never walked over to join the group, spoke to them from where he stood. "If we do not meet again, it was ….pleasant…. knowing all of you."
"There ya' go bein' all morbid and shit again," Cid grumbled at the man before turning back towards the girls. "Hey Aeris, Cloud told me that ya' always wanted to ride one of those babies. Don't figure we can let ya' down. Don't worry 'bout us." After saying that, he turned and began walking towards the Tiny Bronco. The other followed him leaving Aeris and Tifa alone again.
Cloud woke up to the sound of someone banging loudly on his door. On instinct, he reached for his gloves. It took him a few seconds in his drowsy state to realize he was still wearing them. The knocking continued, getting louder and louder as he got up and walked to the door. As he opened it, Tifa jumped right up in his face.
"What do you think you're doing? Why did the guys leave this morning and just when were you going to tell the rest of us?" she yelled at him. Cloud backed up to give her room to rant, but she stepped up every time he stepped back. Eventually he stepped back, tripped over the bed, and fell.
"Listen," Cloud said with as much authority as he could from his awkward position lying on the ground. "Right now we're in a pickle. All we know is that Rufus said he was going after Sephiroth in the Temple of Ancients. That's it. We don't know where the temple is. We don't know what to do when we get there. We don't know anything." Cloud struggled to get off his back and onto his feet. Aeris, whom he hadn't even noticed was in the room, walked over and offered her hand to help him up. Tifa just stood there with her hands planted firmly on her hips.
"If you're trying to make a point, would you just get it over with?" Tifa made a quick motion for Aeris got get back over next to her. She hoped Cloud didn't see it. A quick glance confirmed that he hadn't. He didn't he was too busy looking at where he'd scraped his arm when he fell. Tifa whispered to Aeris "We're supposed to be mad at him. Remember?"
"Sorry, I had to," Aeris whispered. "If he had just kept lying there, I think I would have cracked up."
"It was kinda funny seeing him sprawled out like that," Tifa raised her voice back to it's previous level and focused her glare on Cloud again. "You were saying?"
Cloud use a cure potion to damped a scrap of cloth and placed it on his fresh wound. "Yeah, we figured that we could find the temple quicker if we had a view from the air. It was Cid's idea really."
"That's just great! Now you're getting advice from Cid! Remember what happened last time you listened to him?" She altered her voice to the best imitation of Cid she could. "Aww I fig're if dese damned potions are fuckin' good for ya', why not use 'em in the fuckin' cooking. Cure stew. How duh fuck does dat sound?"
"That I remember. I was sick for days. I didn't think it was possible for a cure potion to make you sick." Both of them look back at Aeris. "I'm not really needed for this conversation, am I?" She said sheepishly. Both her companions turned and with the looks they each gave, she knew to keep quite. That's the problem with being the nice one, Aeris though, everybody expects you to be on their side.
"I probably should have told you all about it before they left. I guess it was kinda' dumb."
"You're damned right it was dumb! They left with the Tiny Bronco! What are the rest of us supposed to do while they're off? And what if they don't come back?" Tifa clenched her fists in anger. She wanted to hit something but didn't know what. Her train of thought was interrupted when Aeris placed her hand on her shoulder.
"Don't say that, Tifa. Don't even think any of us will die." The calm in Aeris voice struck her hard. She looked at Aeris apologetically as she thought back to the dream She and Aeris had been discussing earlier. Then she looked back at Cloud.
"I'm sorry. I just lost my temper there for a while. But the question still stands. Now what?"
Cloud stood there for a moment thinking. "Let the others know and we'll talk about my plan at lunch time. Could you two tell them?"
"Okay," Aeris spoke out before Tifa could respond. "but what are you going to be doing?"
Cloud's lips twisted into a smirk. "I'll be thinking up the plan. Give me a while okay?"
Aeris and Tifa walked out the door to leave Cloud alone with his non-existent plan. The women split up to find Yuffie and Red XIII and tell them the news. Assuming that Cloud or Cid hadn't told them already. Tifa slammed her first against the wall in anger. How could he split them up like this! And not tell her!
Honestly, Tifa wasn't upset about being split up. Nor was she bothered by not being included in the plan. What bothered her was not being involved at all. Part of her missed the old days of AVALANCHE. Back before Cloud, Aeris, and the rest of the new people, there was an intense feeling of teamwork. Everybody was involved in planning things out. These days, it just seemed that they were all being pulled along without any control. It wasn't Cloud fault either. It was like they were playing catch up with Sephiroth. Worse, the were playing catch up with Sephiroth while the Shin-ra played catch up with them.
"Yuffie get out here!" she yelled at the door to Yuffie's room. At least she could count on Yuffie. Yuffie was always a good person to let frustrations out on. It was almost like she expected it. There was no response from inside. She really wasn't sure if she had expected that girl to answer or not. It would be just like her to ignore somebody for no other reason than to make them irate. Tifa drew back to pound on the door and nearly lost her balance when it came open with one hit. Not only was Yuffie was nowhere to be seen, she hadn't even bothered to close her door. "Things just keep getting better and better," she muttered bitterly.
As Tifa started to leave the building to look for her, she was nearly trampled by Yuffie rushing back inside with a huge grin on her face.
"Whoa. What have you gotten yourself into this time?" Tifa spoke after the initial shock of almost being ran over went away. She made a mental note to herself that next time, Aeris would find Yuffie and she would get Red.
No. On second thought, (or what that be third?) Cloud could go get them both.
"Got some juicy news for Cloud." Yuffie practically sang the words.
"Cloud really doesn't need to be disturbed right now. He's kinda' worked himself into a mess. Just go ahead and tell me and I can let him know later."
"Uh-uh. I want to tell him this one. He's going to be dancing for joy when he hear this one." From the look in Yuffie's eyes, Tifa could obviously tell she was planning something. Yuffie just didn't get this excited when other people were happy. There had to be something in it for her.
"Spill it, Yuffie"
"No way! Remember how Aeris said she was able to get Cloud to protect her in for a date. I want to know what I could get out of the guy for this!" Yuffie said in her most taunting voice.
"Cloud doesn't like really like you that way, you know that. Besides you're too young for him."
"Why does everyone say I'm too young all the time? Is it my fault that most of you are getting old?" There was a pause in the conversation. Yuffie wanted a reaction from Tifa but Tifa had already gotten used to her and wasn't falling for it. Instead there was silence until Yuffie chose to end it. "Fine. Be that way. But I'm still not giving this information up without getting something for it. So what'll ya' give me?"
"You're not getting my materia," Yuffie looked at her strangely. Was she that transparent? Quickly she blurted out the next thing that popped into her head Hoping that Tifa believed it was the first idea she had.
"Not that. How about a sparing partner? You're the only other person here that even close to my skill level. If I'm going to stay on top as the world's best female ninja, I have to keep up the training, ya' know and a second rate sparring partner is better than none."
Tifa looked at her with a smile. "You're on!" She hadn't really had much time to train either. Not since Biggs had been killed.
Cloud glanced out the window. From only a short distance way, a large group of people were gathering in a circle. He tried his best not to pay any attention to it and keep working on this plans for the team. So far he'd come up with several ideas but every single one of them was horrible and he knew it. Not to mention, The whooping and hollering from the crowd did little to aid in his concentration.
Finally he gave up and went outside to see the cause of all the commotion. He pushed himself though the crowd the best he could. The last thing He expected to see was a hand to hand fight between Tifa and Yuffie. The two female martial artists circled each other smiling.
Tifa threw a right cross that Yuffie ducked. Quickly, Tifa sidestepped in an attempt to get the advantage again and followed up with an axe kick. A part of Cloud wasn't really surprised. There were two things that would draw this kind of attention hot women and a fight. This was both.
Cloud thought for a moment about stepping in, but decided against it. It looked they the two women were having fun and it was interesting to watch. Yuffie obviously had the speed advantage and she dodged most of Tifa's attacks with ease, ducking under and flipping away from almost all of Tifa's blows. Still from what he saw, most of Yuffie's attacks were light and didn't seems to be slowing Tifa down in the slightest. The few hits Tifa did get in though, seemed to take quite a bit off out of the other girl.
"Come to watch the fight or break it up?" Cloud looked around to both sides before it donned on him to look down. Red XIII was speaking to him.
"What's exactly is going on here anyway?"
"A contest of sorts. I'm not entirely sure myself. I think they're actually fighting over something, but I don't know what that is either. You know, sometimes the behavior of you humans can be so confusing."
"Tell me about it. You wouldn't happen to have any cure materia handy? We might need it after this is over and I only carry attack."
"Some, not much. But we shouldn't been needing much. If they were serious about hurting each other, Yuffie would be using her weap…." Red XIII stopped dead as he watched Yuffie flip into a handstand and from there she kicked with both feet spinning wildly. The move resembled break dancing more than ninjitsu. "Why doesn't she move like that on missions?"
"Who knows? I don't think I'll ever understand her. Listen, I'm going to find Aeris. It looks like we might need her healing abilities. Call it a hunch." Cloud looked over at the fight one more time as he walked away. Tifa flip kicked Yuffie knocking her flat into the sand but not before Yuffie was able to grab her belt and throw her off balance. For a brief moment Tifa seems to hover in the air before landing and as soon as she landed, she dropped to the ground in a howl of pain.
"Back off! Get Back!" Cloud repeated as he pushed through the crowd to get to the girls. Yuffie stood there frozen in both shock and confusion. "Are you alright?" Cloud bent down to ask Tifa. Her teeth were gritted tightly, as if she was fighting back any further outbursts of pain. Yet she still nodded her head that she was fine. She had survived worse than this before. "What is it? What's wrong?" Cloud asked still in a panicked tone of voice. Tifa pointed down towards her feet. "Help me get her shoes off!" Cloud turned to yell at Yuffie.
"What? Oh yeah...sure" Yuffie was both embarrassed that she was still standing there and afraid she was going to get blamed. She ran over to her sparring partner and started to help with the shoes and socks.
Cloud stopped before he even got one of them unlaced. Tifa's ankle was twisted at an unnatural angle. It had already begun to swell and was beginning to turn a purplish shade.
"She must have slipped when she landed" Yuffie offered as an explanation. "Stupid sand," Part of her was hoping that she wouldn't be getting blamed for this, but she still felt rather guilty. "Think we should get hr back to the room?" It was a dumb question and Yuffie knew it as soon as she had said it. Cloud's cold glare confirmed her thoughts.
"Can you walk?" Cloud asked her. Tifa violently shook her head no. Yuffie sighed. She felt much better about her dumb question now.
Cloud lifted Tifa up to her feet and placed one of her arms around his shoulder for support. Yuffie catching the clue went around and got her other arm. The two of them served as Tifa's crutches as they took her back to inside and laid her on an empty bed.
First aid was never something that had never really stuck in Cloud's mind during his training. It just never seemed to interest him for some reason. He was young at the time, and the idea of people getting hurt wasn't a reality for him then. Now, he was regretting not paying attention. He didn't know what he was supposed to do but he knew he should do something.
"Yuffie go get me any cure materia that you can and a cold damp cloth." He really had no clue what the cloth was for, but he remembered hearing something about putting a cloth on swelling somewhere.
Cloud tried to comfort Tifa and assure her it would be okay. He tried his hardest, but really he didn't even know if she was actually listening to his rambling words. When Yuffie returned Cloud placed the wet cloth onto Tifa's injury. He then tried to use the materia to cure the wound. The coloring started to return to a more natural tone. Cloud lifted the cloth slightly to see how it was coming along. As he did, Tifa screamed in pain.
"wh…wh..what…what's happ…happen...happening?" Aeris gasped for breath. Cloud hadn't even noticed that she entered the room. Wherever she had been, she came running.
"Tifa hurt herself in a fight." Cloud didn't want to take his eyes of her and Tifa and started thrashing wildly. Cloud and Aeris both grabbed her to trey to hold her down, but to little effect.
"What's wrong?" Aeris cried out. Cloud wasn't sure whether she was trying to talk to him or to Tifa but he answered anyway.
"I don't know!" Tifa's arm squirmed out of his grasp and nailed him square in the jaw. "Get her arm!"
Suddenly Tifa stopped crying out. It took Cloud several seconds to realize that she had stopped struggling as well.
"And nobody thought of this." Yuffie haughtily smiled tossing a sleep materia up into the air and catching it again. "Aren't you all supposed to be the bright ones? You could have saved your selves quite a bit of trouble. Pffffftt. Old people."
"And you could have saved us quite a bit of trouble by not fighting Tifa to begin with." Cloud looked around and saw Red XII standing in the doorway. Red was able to answer his next question before it was even asked.
"I came in with Aeris. It's jut that I didn't think I'd be much help at the time so I stayed out of the way." Cloud gave Red a thumbs up sign. He was still recovering from the excitement and couldn't find the word to speak.
Aeris walked over and kneeled down beside the sleeping Tifa's swollen ankle. "It looks pretty bad."
"We where hoping you could help out with it." Cloud's voice was kind of low. He wasn't sure why he felt awkward asking her to help Tifa, but he did.
"I'm not a doctor, Cloud." Aeris said. Yuffie gave Cloud a 'told-you-so' look but it ceased when Red growled at her. "But I'll do what I can." Aeris put her hands on Tifa's ankle and pressed slightly. After a moment she got up and walked back over to Cloud. "Did you do anything to her?"
"Ummm. ….yeah. It's kinda' my fault…." the ninja girl kicked the ground as she spoke.
"That's not what I meant. Did you do anything to try to heal her?"
"We used a low level cure materia on her. That's when she started thrashing." Cloud told her.
"That would explain it, I'm afraid. You see, it's broken. You can't heal broken bone without having them set back into place first. That's something I learned that the hard way."
"What?" Yuffie was confused.
"I think I get what she's saying. Grandpa taught me a little bit about medicine and healing. I've just never really had any use for treating humans before," Red ambled over to Tifa and nudged his wet nose against her hand, which was dangling of the bed.
"Let's get to the point here. Is she going to be okay?" Cloud tried to bring them al back to the same page. Aeris had been paying close attention to him the whole time and couldn't tell whether his concern was that of a teammate or of something else.
"I can heal her up but it's going to take a few days for her to fully recover. During that time, she'll need her foot braced most of the day. A couple times a day she'll need the braces taken off and her ankle rotated to keep the bones from healing the wrong way. She'll still limp for a few days. Probably"
"Sounds like you know a lot about this. I thought you said you weren't a doctor," Cloud said running his hand through his hair and wiping the sweat away. He wasn't sure he could remember all of that.
"Trial and error mostly," Aeris explained with a look of shame in her face.
"Meaning you ….oh… Ouch!" It had finally sucked into Yuffie's head what the flower girl had been talking about.
"More or less. Let's just say a few of the people I've tried to help would have been better off without it."
"Yeah. Real reassuring," Yuffie chimed in again.
"Can we not talk about that right now? Just try to help her the best you can," Cloud again going directly for the point. Maybe it was her imagination, but his voice did seem a little bit colder than it should have been.
"After someone puts the bones back, I can." There was some mild hesitation in Aeris's voice. Cloud nodded his head in agreement and Aeris got up and started out the door.
"I'm sorry did I miss something?" Cloud asked as she exited. "Does anyone have any idea what she's talking about this time?" Yuffie shrugged at his question.
"I do. I think." Feel the wound," Red XIII instructed. Cloud was hesitant to do anything that might further aggravate her wound. "okay….and?" he questioned the beast before removing his hand from her ankle.,
"Does it feel broken?" Cloud felt around the wound more. He really ahd no clue what a broken bone should have felt likie, but he was sure this wasn't it. The materia had already started to heal it. "The problem we have here, if I understand Aeris correctly, is that her bones started to heal before they were realigned."
"Yeah, dummy. You should have know that would happen." Yuffie scoffed at Cloud, quick to place the blame elsewhere. She stopped as the two men in the room both glared at her. "What? What'd I say?" She was getting more than tired of getting that look from people.
"So I'm going to have to…" Cloud didn't continue what he was going to say. He gulped hard and looked at Tifa. "Sorry," he whispered to her.
Her bones snapped easily under his mako enhanced strength, so easily that it was scary. Yuffie, Aeris, and Red XIII had seen in battle. Even from the way he carried his sword, it was obvious he was much stronger than a normal human, still, none of them had even considered what that kind of strength could do to a person.
"I guess it's Aeris's show from here," he sighed. It was bad enough that he couldn't do more for her but adding to that, what he had done actually made things worse. That was a bit much for him to handle. "Come here, Yuffie. I want some explanation for what happened." She jumped up from where she was sitting and walked over to him. Together they exited the room leaving Tifa there with Red XIII and Aeris.
When they were outside and out of hearing distance from even Red XIII's animal senses, Cloud turned to Yuffie. The look he gave her said he wasn't playing. "Now what was that all about?"
"Ah…mmm…I found out something that I wanted to tell you but I was teasing Tifa about it and she didn't want me to tell you because she did so I said I'd fight her for it." Yuffie's voice slowed down and she gulped. "and how was I supposed to know she'd slip in the sand and break her foot?" Cloud crossed his arm but he didn't say anything. "okay…sheeesh. Don't be like that. The guy who runs the Golden Saucer, what's his name, you know runs around in his sparkly underwear all day…"
"Dio."
"Yeah him. He recently got a hold of some kind of entrance key thingee to the Temple of Ancients."
"Yuffie?"
"….yeah?"
"You did good," She smiled at his compliment. "except for the whole thing with Tifa." Yuffie and Cloud walked back into the building. Aeris was leaving Tifa's room. She was carrying the still damp cloth Cloud had used earlier. "How is she?" Cloud asked the healer.
"Why don't you go ask her yourself?" Aeris's was enough to tell him that everything was alright.
Inside the room, Tifa's foot was propped up and held in a makeshift brace. "Hi," she greeted them weakly, trying to downplay her condition as much as possible. Yuffie took her lead and ran with it.
"Hey. You're looking good. So how is everything?"
Cloud walked over and knelt down beside Tifa. "Well it feels like my ankle's broke. Otherwise, I'm fine." She gave them all a lop sided grin intended to lift their spirits.
"Yuffie explained everything to me," he told her.
"Guess that gives you the plan you need."
"I guess it does."
"What are you two talking about?' Red XIII enquired.
"I'm with Red," the Cetra said petting the creature. "I have no clue what's going on."
"Okay….I really hate splitting us up anymore than I have to but I need someone to go with me to the Golden Saucer." Cloud started.
"Yuffie says that Dio has gotten some kind of key to get into the Temple of Ancients. We're going to go get it but someone here has to stay with Tifa. Will she need any more," Cloud waved his hands though the air mimicking magical gestures "treatments?" Aeris shook her head no. "So one person stays here with Tifa."
"Makes sense," Yuffie said. He had climbed atop a nearby dresses to set down and was kicking her feet back and forth.
"Glad you think so, Yuffie, since you're the one who's going to be staying." Yuffie stopped kicking her feet as he said this. In fact for a few moments it seemed like she stopped breathing.
"What? Oh come on! That's not fair!" Yuffie exclaimed when she caught her breath.
"I could stay here with her. I don't mind." Aeris stepped forward.
"No. Yuffie caused this so she's going to have to be the one who stays here and watches over Tifa." Cloud said looking back and forth between the flower girl and the ninja.
"You sure she's not going to need anymore umm….healing?" Yuffie asked
"I did all I could. Give her a few days and be thankful you have me instead of trying any conventional healings."
"Could you please all stop talking about me like I'm not here." Tifa spoke out. "It's bad enough I'm laid up like this."
"Sorry" Cloud shrugged.
"Yeah, sorry" Yuffie added herself.
"Listen, I don't want to be left here at all, but if I am, I definitely don't want just Yuffie staying here."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Yuffie jumped to her feet.
"Do you want to take care of an injured woman all by yourself?"
"No," she paused for a moment "but I could!"
"We all know you could Yuffie" Cloud decided to humor the girl.
"So how do you plan on getting to the Golden Saucer?" Red redirected the subject.
"Chocobo, I guess. Since we don't have the Bronco or anything." Cloud shrugged.
"That works. Then I could stay here with Yuffie and Tifa. Me and riding chocobos don't go well together." Red stated. Yuffie fought off the laughter as she thought back at the time they had tried to get him on the back of a chocobo. He was draped over the back of one like a saddle bag. In the end he had ended up running along side while the others rode.
Cloud glanced back over to Aeris. "Well…hmmm...You and me then Aeris. I kinda wish Barret was still here, I was hoping for some more muscle. No offense but you just don't strike me as being the greatest backup in the world."
"Gee you really know how to make a girl feel wanted." Aeris pouted. Before Cloud could reply, a pillow hit him in the back of the head. When he turned around, he saw Tifa leaning forward in her bed.
"Apologize Cloud" He couldn't tell whether she was being serious or not.
"Sorry"
"That's better" Tifa smiled.
"Oh it was okay really. I didn't take it the wrong way or anything." Aeris said. Red tried his best not to be seen during all of this and Yuffie just smiled and sat back to watch the show.
"Whatever ... just … let's go Aeris. Mind catching the chocobos while I finish a few things here first?"
"Okay. Oh and be sure to grab my bag by the door too, please." Aeris said as she walked out. Cloud sighed.
Aeris….of all the people…..it was just going to be him and Aeris.
He wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.
Coming Next Chapter: The Traveler
