Kids
Six
"Come on, Mister Reno, you don't have to point that electric rod at us! We won't try to escape!" Sora told Reno, finding it ridiculous that the Turk was still trying to restrain them even as they were already inside the hospital-like place. "Just want to make sure you kids are not a bunch of nutcases who escaped an asylum!" Reno told them.
"Hey we're 14! We're harmless!" Kairi pointed out.
Reno grunted. "Hmf… the last time I heard that, I almost got killed." He muttered miserably, remembering one of their old missions several years back.
"Are you taking us to Uncle Rufus?" Sora asked cheerfully.
Reno was surprised at the question. "How the hell did you know!" he demanded in shock.
"You see, we can prove to you that Kairi and I really come from the future if you would just listen and get that nasty rod away from us before it can electrocute us."
"You kids are spies, aren't you? No one else is supposed to know just yet that the President is alive! …and you called him Uncle!" Reno demanded in shock.
"Well… yeah. He's very close friends with our parents in the future so he's like an uncle to us… and we're even friends with his kids! Heh heh." Sora said proudly.
Reno stared unbelievably at them. "Are you kids crazy! You came from the future?" he demanded in shock.
"Yes." The two replied.
"But how did you get in here?" Reno demanded in confusion.
"Blame it on the President's daughter." Sora responded rather vaguely with a shrug.
"President's daughter?" Reno exclaimed in utmost shock. If he could remember his facts very well, Rufus has a clean record when it comes to women. The guy never had any girlfriend since birth… and now these kids are telling him that Rufus has a daughter? "You kids are really spies!" he told them before he went ahead of them and made them stop walking. They were finally relieved that he has withdrawn the rod from them. He knelt down before them and patted their shoulders, "Tell you what, children, spill out every little secret you have about the President now so that I and my partner Rude will know how to prevent the media from discovering them." He instructed in a whispery tone.
"We're not children, we're like, 14?" Kairi protested with a frown on her face.
"Yes, whatever. Now tell me." Reno said, rolling his eyes.
Kairi and Sora exchanged glances with each other before turning back to Reno, "There are no secrets that we know of, Mister Reno. Besides, Uncle Rufus's daughter is in the future and not in the present." The former explained.
"Future? What the… I'm confused! You keep on telling me about the future… you kids come from the future?" Reno demanded, clutching her shoulders and shaking her rather violently.
Kairi nodded with a smile on her face as if she doesn't mind getting shaken violently. "Yes and we can prove it to you if you want to." She said before showing him the Bahamut Materia. "You see, this belongs to my mommy. There is only one Bahamut Materia in the whole Planet! And she gave this to me as a gift. At this point in time, you can check on the younger Yuffie Kisaragi and she still has the Bahamut Materia now." She explained with a happy smile on her face.
"Oh… and look at this one," Sora brought out his wallet and showed him an I.D. "It says Sora Strife." Sora told him.
Reno stared at the I.D. and took it out of the wallet, examining it, reading the details out loud, "Kingdom Hearts cast member. Sora Strife. Age 14… Father's name: Cloud Strife… Mother's name…" Reno trailed off. "THIS GIRL IS DEAD!" He exclaimed in disbelief.
"But she's not in the future where I come from! Isn't that great? Heheh," Sora got his I.D. back and put it inside his wallet again. "Oh yeah and look at our group picture. Those are my friends!" Sora brought out a wallet-sized photo of himself with his friends. Reno stared unbelievably at the kids on the picture. Kairi peeked over his shoulder while Sora named the faces for Reno: "That one's me and that's Kairi, and over there is Samara, then there's Lavinia and then Theodore and then Riku and then Relena ...and that's my sister Aerial…" Sora pointed back at the girl with red hair and blue eyes wearing her school's yellow sweater and a blue plaid skirt whom he had referred to as Relena. "She's going to be your daughter." He said proudly.
Reno wanted to faint. "WHAT?" he demanded.
Kairi giggled, "She gets drunk if you give her milk. Weird, huh?" she asked.
Reno was just quiet and during that long moment of silence, Sora cleared his throat and put back the picture inside his wallet again and returned it inside his pocket. "I think he had a little too much of information overload…" he muttered.
Kairi stared at Reno's mortified blank stare. "Hmm… you're right. He looks like he just saw Samara come out of the television." She said skeptically.
"Reno, who are those kids?" they heard Rude ask from the doorway of a room.
Kairi and Sora turned to look at him. "Oh hello Mister Rude!" they greeted happily. Rude was dumbfounded. He doesn't know those kids but they know him?
Reno slowly got up, his knees shaking. "Urrr….. Rude, could you… take these kids to the President? … I'll just… be in my room… I need to… rest…" he stammered as he walked away.
Kairi and Sora ran over to Rude with happy looks on their faces, "Gee, he never changed, did he?" Sora asked Kairi.
"Yeah. He's still bald." Kairi replied.
Rude did not say anything though he completely heard what the two had been talking about. He just led the two inside the room where he had been staying ever since that morning to guard the person confined inside it. Rude stepped aside from the door to let the two inside. The moment they entered, a figure covered in white came into view and he was seated on a wheelchair by the window.
"...Uncle Rufus?" Sora began with an unsure look on his face.
The figure instantly turned to them, seemingly surprised. "…I beg your pardon?" he asked.
Sora and Kairi smiled, "It's you, Uncle Rufus!" the latter exclaimed joyfully as they both ran to him and hugged him happily.
"Oh no… careful, children!" Rude warned as he immediately ran to the President to get the two away from him.
Rufus just stiffened, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief underneath the blanket that was covering his head even as Rude was pulling the two away from him.
"Are you alright, President Rufus?" Rude asked with an unsure look on his face.
Rufus slowly turned his head to the side to take a good look at the two. "…Did you just call me Uncle?" he asked. He couldn't recall having any living cousins with children… and he definitely doesn't have a single sibling… "The last time I checked, I'm an only child… unless Old Man didn't tell me anything about me having siblings?" he was thinking in confusion.
"I wonder why his face is hidden." Kairi thought out loud.
"Silly, Kairi. He has Geostigma and he just survived the Diamond Weapon thing!" Sora told her. "Oh I remember now! Daddy told me about it!" she responded happily.
Rufus was speechless, so was Rude.
Sora and Kairi exchanged looks. "You do the explaining this time, Kairi. I'll back you up if need it." The former urged the latter.
Kairi nodded. "Okay." She said before turning to Rufus with a sweet smile on her face. "My name is Kairi Knightblade and this is my friend, Sora Strife. We come from the future!" she began…
X-x-X-x-X
"Yep, I was right—this is the Healin Lodge." Riku announced with a slight frown on his face.
"How did you know?" Tifa asked skeptically.
"Of course I know, silly." He responded, rolling his eyes before leading the way to the front entrance; however, a guard was standing there.
"Hold it right there, little fellow, where are you heading?" he demanded from Riku.
Riku felt offended. "Hey, I know I'm quite short for my age but you don't have to rub it in!" he snapped angrily.
The guard just shrugged. "Fine. Just show me a valid I.D. then." He told them. Cloud brought out his driver's license. The guard shook his head. "Nope."
Riku snorted and brought out an I.D. from his wallet. "Is this the type of I.D. that you're looking for?" he asked. Tifa, Cloud and Red XIII were surprised to see Riku's I.D because it has the ShinRa logo on it…
And it was authentic.
The guard examined the I.D. and shrugged. "Okay, you may come inside." He said as he gave way.
Riku led the way inside, but before he could go to the stairs, Cloud and Tifa grabbed him by the shoulders. "Alright, Riku, is there something you're not telling us about?" the latter demanded.
"Nothing more, I believe… unless it's regarding your future family, I will never tell you." Riku replied confidently as he squirmed off from their grip on his shoulders. He turned around to face them with a mean smile on his face, "Oh I know what you're thinking—that I'm a spy sent by ShinRa now right?" he asked playfully.
"Gee… he is Sephiroth's brother." Cloud thought, observing the way Riku was acting.
Tifa gasped. "Well are you?" she asked Riku, her eyes widening at him.
Riku just laughed dryly… and then he stopped, glaring ridiculously at them. "Of course not. I told you I come from the future so don't expect me to become a spy for Rufus ShinRa in the present." He told them before proceeding upstairs.
Tifa shrugged. "Oh well… he's got a point. Besides, ShinRa is gone already, right?" she asked brightly as she followed.
"Auntie Tifa, if ShinRa is gone, how come I still have their I.D. in the future?" Riku asked airily.
Tifa froze. "I'm confused… you mean to say their leader is alive!" she asked in disbelief.
"You are very bright, Auntie Tifa." He responded with a sarcastic air. Tifa just raised her eyebrow upon hearing that, proceeding after him.
Cloud was left downstairs with Red XIII, looking puzzled.
"I don't know if I should really listen to Riku, Sora and Kairi…" Cloud muttered, suddenly doubting them. "For all we know they could be spies." He continued.
Red XIII turned to him, "Cloud, don't let what happened in the past affect how you would deal with these young people." He explained. "At least through them, especially through Sora, we know that Aerith will be coming back." He continued, eyeing Cloud with a keen look on his face. Cloud just stared blankly at Red, bowing down his head. "I don't know, Red…" he said, feeling hopeless.
"All you need to do is to have a little faith, Cloud." Red XIII told him before realizing that Tifa and Riku had gone already. "Shall we follow after them?" he asked.
Cloud just looked at the staircase before shaking his head in dismay, turning around. "Why won't they tell me how to get her back?" he blurted out in frustration.
Red XIII was surprised at him. "You heard them, Cloud, they are trying to preserve what's in the future as much as possible!" he told him.
Cloud was quiet, contemplating on why things were happening that way. "I'm going home…" he just said with a frustrated look on his face before marching out of the Healin Lodge.
Red XIII remained on the same spot for a few moments, watching Cloud leave. When he couldn't see Cloud anymore, he just bowed down his head, wagging his tail sadly before deciding to just follow Cloud home.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X
"So there!" Kairi finally ended the explanation.
"I don't believe this." Rufus said exasperatingly after a few moments of silence. "We can prove to you that we come from the future!" Sora said.
"But how the bloody hell did you get here!" he demanded.
Rude was beginning to get worried about the President's condition. The doctor advised that too much excitement and stress is bad for him in the meantime because his body is still very weak… and from what Rude could observe from the conversation with Sora and Kairi, Rufus is beginning to get very confused and upset, putting his stress levels at risk.
"We told you, Uncle Rufus, through your future daughter. She's got strange abilities, you know." Sora said. "Like what?" Rufus demanded in confusion.
"Oh you know… she can read minds, she can do telepathy, she can burn images in film from her mind, she can go through TV screens and she can will people dead! Isn't that great?" Sora replied proudly.
"It's good if you form a party and you get her to join but her limit gauge is very slow… but her ultimate attack is really the ULTIMATE! I mean, it can kill even Uncle Sephiroth!" Kairi explained.
"Sounds like a freak of nature…" Rufus muttered.
"Freak of nature? She's your daughter!" Sora pointed out.
They were interrupted when the door opened again and there was Riku. "Oh, I knew I'd find you here…" he said with a sly smile on his face.
"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, glad that his best friend arrived to back them up, but his mouth dropped open when he saw Tifa following after him.
Tifa stepped inside, stunned to see a man on a wheelchair covered with blankets. "Oh my… are we in the right room?" she asked in confusion, thinking that it could be a room for quarantined patients because the condition of the wheelchaired-man looks dangerous.
"Depends on what room you are looking for, ma'am." Rude told her quite timidly.
Tifa turned to Rude and was surprised upon recognizing him. "You're ShinRa!" she exclaimed in shock… and then turned back to Riku. "I knew it! You took us here as a trap!" she cried out at him.
Riku rolled his eyes and glared unbelievably at her, "Hey, lady, I'm telling you, I am not a spy!" he protested in annoyance.
"Well I'm here to pick up these kids." Tifa told Rude before grabbing Riku's arm. "Come now, Sora and Kairi. We wouldn't want to bother them." She said nervously.
"What's the rush? These kids still owe me an explanation about a lot of things," Rufus told her.
The room was quiet for a few seconds before Tifa let go of Riku and marched up to Rufus, kneeling down before him to look at his face, "And you are?" she asked, curious upon his identity. To their horror, she pulled off the hood.
"Oh no!" Rude thought as he rushed to the scene so that he could cover the President's face again.
Tifa was stunned, feeling that the whole room just spun around her. "Rufus ShinRa!" she cried out in shock.
"Bloody hell! Who gave you permission to do that! Rude, call the guards! I want these lowlifes out of my sight!" Rufus snapped angrily.
"Yessir!" Rude began to call the front desk.
Sora, Riku and Kairi gaped at Rufus in disbelief. "Uncle Rufus… why!" Sora asked in protest.
"Stop calling me Uncle! I don't even know you!" Rufus growled impatiently.
"You're not taking us to prison, are you? If you do that you will be endangering even your own life!" Riku warned with an angry look on his face.
"My life is already endangered to be begin with, what more could happen?" Rufus answered airily. Soon, the guards arrived. There were 12 of them all armed and equipped. One of the guards that arrived was the one guarding the front door. He recognized Riku and greeted him gleefully. "You know this boy?" Rude asked him.
"Yeah. He's got a ShinRa I.D." the guard replied as the rest of his colleagues grabbed Sora, Kairi and Tifa.
"Hey, let us go!" Kairi wailed.
"No fair! How come Riku gets to stay?" Sora asked.
"Because he has an I.D." Rude told them as Riku handed him his I.D.
"Look, could you just let us go? We need to find Samara's pendant so that we could go back to the future before the 7th day arrives!" Sora demanded from Rufus.
"Lock them up downstairs and don't free them until I say so." Rufus commanded rather coldly.
"But we have ShinRa I.D.'s too! Can't you at least give us a chance to show them?" Sora asked in protest. Rufus just ignored them, looking away.
"President Rufus, please just let the kids go and you can keep me here in place of them!" Tifa pleaded.
Rufus turned to look at her with a cold look on his face, "No." was all he said before wheeling himself away from them. "Take them away. The silver-haired boy will stay here and give me an explanation why he has an I.D. and what your agenda really is." He decided with a low but threatening tone.
X-x-X-x-X
"Grrr… let us out of here!" Tifa pounded angrily on the door of the room where they were locked in. Kairi was checking on the windows and realized that they were shatter-proof. "I guess we're stuck here for a while…" she said sadly.
"But we have to get out of here! We're running out of time!" Sora said in worry.
"I know… but… we don't even know where the pendant is!" Kairi said.
"Look, I know this is hard to do but maybe we could trust Riku to free us." Tifa told them with a hopeful look on her face while pondering on where Cloud and Red XIII are. "Maybe they left or something…" she thought miserably before plopping down on the steel bed and sighing heavily. "So much for seeing Rufus alive again. He looks rather… nasty with those burns…" she said.
"Oh, that will heal in time. Believe me." Sora told her. Kairi smiled sweetly at Tifa, "Yeah, he'll look as handsome and youthful as he is from the very first time you met him! Hee!" she giggled.
Tifa just rolled her eyes. "Well he is handsome… even more handsome and cuter than Cloud. The problem is, he is too stuck-up and he's… too… snotty. I can't take it. And he's a ShinRa for crying out loud!" she protested as she got up again and kicked the door, but it wouldn't even budge. "Bloody hell!" she cried out impatiently before turning away from the door. "I give up!" she walked towards the window.
Sora shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe Uncle Rufus is doing this to his wife…" he said softly to Kairi.
"Yeah…" Kairi agreed sadly.
"What did you say?" Tifa asked, turning back to them.
Realizing what they had just said, they shook their heads, "Nothing. We were just saying that there's more than what meets the eye." Kairi fibbed.
Tifa blinked. "Oh… and why do you say so?" she asked curiously as she leaned against the wall.
"Well… Uncle Rufus isn't really that mean in the future." Kairi began.
"In fact, he's my favorite Uncle. He's even best pals with my dad." Sora continued.
Tifa frowned at them, "I find that hard to believe. Maybe because he married a saint, that's why." She laughed.
The two were just silent, exchanging funny looks. Tifa became suspicious. "What?" she demanded.
The two looked back at her. "Shall we tell her?" Sora asked Kairi.
Kairi just shrugged. "Well actually you're the one he married." She pointed out to Tifa.
X-x-X-x-X
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"
Rufus, Riku and Rude cringed when they heard the ear-piercing screech of Tifa Lockheart from downstairs.
"That was quite loud…" Rufus muttered.
Riku grunted. "Nah. She must've found out something beautiful about her future. Heheh." He murmured with an evil smile on his face before turning back to the President to proceed with his explanation about how they got there from the future and how they could come back.
"Is there a way that the pendant can be replaced?" Rufus asked.
"No. It's one of a kind. It's silver and it's heart-shaped." Riku explained.
Rufus frowned. "Silver and heart-shaped? I don't even wear silver jewelry. Why would I even give my future daughter silver?" he asked with a disgusted look on his face.
"It's for the honor of your future wife who likes hearts and wears silver jewelry, Uncle Rufus. Besides, your sons are the ones who wear this gold-chain necklace with their names engraved on it." Riku said with a slight smile on his face.
"Why won't you tell me who my future wife will be?" Rufus asked with an annoyed tone.
"Because you might kill me now if I do and call me a liar." Riku explained. "Anyway, as I was saying, it's silver and heart-shaped, and it has the ShinRa logo engraved in the front. At the back, there's a barcode and from what I've heard from my dad, underneath that barcode is a microchip. If scanned or inserted inside a device, all vital information regarding your kids will be revealed—that is the reason why you and your future wife would always be reminding your children to take care of their necklaces…" he continued.
"What kind of vital information?" Rufus asked, wanting Riku to be specific.
"Medical records, what foods they have allergy on, what sicknesses they had in the past, what kind of special abilities do they have, their blood type, when they were born and the time of birth, their weight from babyhood, how their fetuses developed... you know, stuff like that. It's actually from the laboratory taken care of my mom." Riku pointed out before taking a deep breath. "Samara's pendant is the most important and it has more sensitive data compared to the others because of her special abilities. Once an unworthy person possesses that the whole Planet could be put to danger… even much worse than Sephiroth summoning Meteor or simply causing havoc." He continued.
Rufus and Rude were stunned. "She is a freak of nature." Rufus blurted out in disbelief.
"Well she is your daughter. Now, would you be nice enough to let me and my friends go and find the pendant before the 7th day comes?" Riku asked politely, crossing his arms.