Chapter Two: Over the river and through the woods...
"You are never, ever, riding my airship again, ya little brat. You can walk back to Wutai, or wherever the hell your going." Cid glowered as they entered Nibelhiem, having just spent thirty minutes cleaning up Yuffie's mess. "I'm never having kids. NEVER." "It's not my fault, you ass." Yuffie shot back. "You where the one who just had to turn on the rockets to get us here in the blink of an eye, even though you knew that I have motion sickness. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't like getting sick? 'No, Yuffie did it deliberately just to $# up my day--'" "Aw, jus shuddap, the both a' ya!" Barret growled. "All ya'll ever do is bicker..."
Cloud tuned everyone else out as they argued, something he had learned to do within minutes of first meeting everyone, and having them all in the same room. He looked around the town. It wasn't the same town he remembered growing up in...but it wasn't blatantly fake like when Shinra had tried to cover up the Nibelhiem incident. It just seemed so odd, seeing all the different people here, instead of the ones he remembered. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't make the place feel like home. Nowhere felt like home to him anymore. So why don't you mope about it? He thought sharply. If you're quite done wallowing in self pity, I think we came here for a reason. His eyes flicked over to the Shinra Mansion, clearly visible on the outskirts of town. But did I really come here because I wanted to? A small voice nagged at the back of his head. You may think you did, but you made the same error in thinking that you where the one chasing down Sephiroth, when in fact he wanted you to follow him all along. Did I really come here to see if Jenova survived...or to help her? What if I'm just going crazy?
Hard to tell the difference, my pet? A voice interrupted his thoughts suddenly. He didn't jump as he had before though, he was getting used to this. He ignored her and turned to the rest of the group, all of which (aside from Red and Vincent of course) where now involved in a heated argument. "I think we should start towards the Mansion now!" He yelled over their squabbling. "Yeah, let's get this crap over and done with. My shows are gonna be on in an hour." Cid agreed, tromping off. "...'Shows'?" Yuffie inquired. Cid ignored her. Cloud motioned for everyone to follow him and started after Cid. "You move pretty fast for someone who should have died ten times over from lung cancer by now." Cloud said as soon as he caught up to him. "Shut the !& up Cloud." Cid spat back. "I can still whoop your sorry ass with one leg and arm hacked off." "...Can you do the same with those guards?" Cloud asked, slowing to a halt as they saw the two men guarding the gate with machine guns.
"Seems like an awful lot of trouble just to guard a science lab." Tifa said, catching up. "You got materia with you?" Cloud asked her. "Of course! I'm not suicidal, you know. Even if I'm a great martial artist, I can't do a thing against machine guns. Or any firearms for that matter, unless I sneak up on the people in question." "Do you think it wise to just barge in there?" Red asked, padding into view, "There could be endless amounts of guards in there, and they probably won't be too happy if we just seriously injured or killed two of their comrades to gain entrance." Everyone was silent for a moment, then Tifa snapped her fingers. "I've got it! Alright, now you guys get as close to the Mansion as possible while still staying out of sight." She said, pulling out a materia. "Tifa, what--" "Go on! Don't worry, it's an idiot proof plan." She said with a smile. "I'll be fine, if I somehow manage to screw this up then I deserve to be shot. Shoo!" And with that she gave Cloud a forceful shove in the direction of the Mansion and started to focus the materia she held in her hand.
Everyone did as she said and got up close to the Mansion, then hid in some bushes where they watched Tifa. The guards hadn't yet noticed her, or the green aura that began to surround her which could only mean one thing: the materia was starting to take effect. Suddenly about fifty feet away a group of bushes caught on fire, and the guards rushed off to try to put it out. Tifa slipped the materia back into her pocket with a smile and ran through the now unguarded gate, the rest of the group following close behind. "Nice one Tifa!" Yuffie whispered. "...What materia is that?" "A mastered fire materia, and no, you can't have it." Tifa answered. Yuffie frowned but kept silent as they quietly pushed open the doors of the Mansion and entered. As soon as they where in the door, it closed behind them for no apparent reason. It didn't startle them. They'd been here before. Cloud took a few cautious steps forward, on the lookout for any of the stray monsters that had started to breed here when it was abandoned, and for guards, but it didn't seem as if anyone was there.
Cloud signaled the all-clear, and they started forward through the darkness. All was still, even the dust that blanketed the floor seemed undisturbed. They continued up one flight of stairs, then another, then went off to the right and entered the first room they saw. Cloud lead the way over to the wall where the secret passage was hidden, and after pushing a few bricks the wall slid open to reveal a rickety old wooden staircase spiraling down into oblivion. "It must have been a major pain in the ass to get all that heavy scientific equipment down those stairs." Yuffie observed. Cloud took a step forward--
--Now is the time. Come free me.
Cloud nearly lost his balance and had to lean on the wall for support after the sudden mental assault. "Cloud? What's wrong?" Tifa whispered from behind him. "Nothing." He replied calmly, getting back to his feet and continuing down the staircase as if nothing had happened. Everyone exchanged glances and followed warily. After a few minutes of walking they reached the bottom of the staircase, and entered a short hallway that ended in an old wooden door. Off to the left was the room where they had first found Vincent sealed away in a coffin. There where small piles of human and animal bones strewn about the floor, but the party ignored them (except for Yuffie, who let out a small yelp when she nearly stepped on a human skull) and continued on to the door at the end. Cloud reached it first and opened it, poking his head in and looking around, then saying "Alright, no body's here. They must have gone home early or something." He opened the door all the way and entered.
Everyone filed in behind him, and looked around at the new equipment that had been brought down to the old laboratory, but Cloud's gaze remained fixed on one point in the room: the tank farthest to the right. Just like in his dream, there was something there...
It's time.
Without even realizing it, Cloud started walking towards the tube. He felt strangely detached from it all, as if he weren't really there, that it wasn't really him who was walking, that he wasn't seeing out of his own eyes. He didn't feel anything either, just a strange aloofness. He finally reached the tube, and as he had in his dream, he rubbed his hand on the window to see through he fog, exposing Jenova's face. He took a step backwards and looked at the glass thoughtfully, then started to slowly unsheathe the Ultima Weapon strapped to his back. One well aimed swing should do the trick.
"Cloud, what are you doing?" Tifa's voice rang out curiously.
"Nothing Tifa." He replied coolly, swinging the sword up over his head to bring it down with enough force to break the glass...but before he could do so, he paused, having heard the distinct 'Click!' of a gun being cocked. He slowly swung his head around to see Vincent standing behind him, the Death Penalty drawn and aimed straight at Cloud's head. "Are you going to kill me Vincent?" He asked innocently, not letting the sword drop. "That depends." Vincent replied. "Do you plan on freeing Jenova?"
Yes.
"Of course." Cloud replied matter-of-factly. "Then I have little choice. Between one life, and the lives of all who live on this planet...but I don't want to kill you, Cloud. So maybe if you could just get away from the tank..." Vincent suggested. "Vincent! Don't!" Tifa exclaimed, tugging on his sleeve. "Y-you can't kill him!" "Of course he can." Cloud said. "After all, killing is second nature to a Turk, and someone harboring Chaos." Vincent's face twitched at the mention of the monster's name. "An Ex-Turk, thank you." Vincent shot back coldly, quickly regaining his composure. "Cloud...remember when you asked us to come with you and help you, to keep you from doing something horrible after you nearly killed Aeris?"
The sword wouldn't have dropped from Cloud's hands faster if it had been a venomous snake. "W-what?" He stuttered. "You remember, don't you? You nearly killed Aeris as she prayed for Holy in the Forgotten Capital, but Tifa and Barret stopped you just in time. Since you couldn't finish the job, Sephiroth disposed of her for you." Vincent said coldly, deliberately trying to sound harsh. Cloud's hands shook. "I couldn't save her...she smiled at me, just before..."
That matters little now. You must free me, that is the only goal here. Do. It. Now.
The last three words struck him more powerfully then anything yet, and in one quick movement he picked up his sword and swung it against the glass as hard as he could. It shattered. In a matter of seconds Jenova was out of the tube and gone from the room, presumably having changed into something small enough to escape unnoticed. Everyone stared at Cloud, and Vincent put the Death Penalty back in his holster with a sigh. In truth, he probably could have killed him before he broke the glass, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not that he'd ever tell anyone. Tifa walked up to Cloud, touching his arm lightly. "...Cloud?" She asked tentatively. He blinked as if just waking up, and looked down at the sword in his hand, then the shattered tube, and his friends staring at him with silently accusing looks. "...What did I do?" He asked, looking up at Tifa pleadingly. "I didn't...did I? She didn't...?"
Tifa took the sword out his his hand (no easy feat, due to it's size) and set it on a nearby desk. "It's alright...we'll take care of it." She looked over at everyone sternly. "Won't we?" Everyone nodded their silent approval. "Here we go again." Yuffie said in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood. Nobody smiled. Cloud remained fixed on the spot. "...She did it again." He said sullenly. "How did she survive?" He began to make his way through the room, stumbling slightly. "Where are you going?" Tifa asked. "Away from here. It reminds me too much of my true purpose." Cloud replied coldly. "An' what the hell would that be?" Barret asked. Cloud turned to look back at him, a crooked smile on his face. "To be a pawn. A puppet. Yes...those where her exact words, after Aeris died...'because you are...a puppet.'" He turned back around and started back up the staircase, laughing in an unsettling way.
"I don't think he should be alone." Vincent whispered to Tifa, who nodded. "Yeah, I know. Can you imagine, though? What it must be like...?" "I'm surprised he's remained sane." Vincent replied shortly. Tifa frowned deeply at this thought, and started up the staircase. It was silent for a moment, then they heard Tifa let out a yelp of surprise, gunfire, then Tifa came bolting through the door and closed it behind her, panting. "Oh shit, we forgot about the guards." Cid spat, tossing away his cigarette (which he had somehow lit in the span of time that Tifa had been gone). He already had the Venus Gospel in his hand, although where it had been before now nobody could say. "There's at least ten of them!" Tifa gasped out. "They must've heard the commotion down here..." Barret cocked his gun arm. "Well? What the hell are we waitin' for? That door ain't gonna keep them out for long, and there ain't another way outta here." Yuffie paled, but nevertheless pulled out her Oritsuru and took a position near the door. Tifa was near the rear with her materia at the ready, Red was next to Yuffie, ready to pounce on anyone coming through the door, and Vincent waited, gun in hand, for the slightest sign of movement.
Silence.
Suddenly a harsh whistling rent the air, followed by a crackling, then all was still again. Tifa slowly moved over to the door and opened it a crack, peeking out. She saw Cloud near the bottom of the stairs, holding the Ultima materia in his hand. "Did I get 'um?" He asked Tifa. She opened the door all the way and looked around, but didn't see anything but ten separate charred spaces on the ground. "Uh...yeah. I think you did." Tifa replied slowly. "Good! Hurry and get out here before--"
Click!
Cloud turned to the side and saw a guard holding a handgun, aiming it at him. Cloud quickly reached behind his back for the Ultima Weapon, and his gloved hands scrambled in the air a moment before he realized that it was still in the lab, on the desk. Wow. I must look really stupid right now. He thought before ducking as a bullet whizzed passed where his head had been just a second ago. He grabbed the man's arm before he could fire again and twisted his wrist, making him drop the gun with a yelp of pain. "Not very experienced, are you?" Cloud asked coolly. The man struggled to get away, but Cloud just held him tighter. "Are there any more mercenaries around?" He questioned. "No, I was the last one!" The man answered, sounding slightly nervous. Cloud's eyes narrowed. "Your lying."
At that moment someone leaped down from the staircase above, landing gracefully one the stairs next to Cloud. He twirled a metal nightstick between his hands with practiced ease, and had just raised it to strike when he suddenly stopped, getting a closer look at who it was. "You have got to be kidding me!" He said loudly, letting the nightstick fall to his side and tossing his red ponytail over his shoulder. "You're the ones who broke in here?" "And you're the ones who were hired to watch the place?" Cloud shot back, equally surprised. Reno smiled and shrugged. "Money's tight, y'know, and the Turks aren't as popular as they used to be." Rude soon appeared behind him after descending the stairs, and Elena was behind him, standing on her tip-toes to try to get a look at the hold up. "Well, can't say this wasn't a cheery reunion an' all, but I've got a job to do." Reno said, flicking a switch on his nightstick. "So, if you'll just toss that guy aside we can get on with this."
"...Hey, Reno..." Rude interrupted quietly. "Why would they be here? Maybe you should give him a chance to talk?" Reno shot a glare over his shoulder, silencing his friend. "I doesn't matter why they're here, that fact is that they are here and our job is to take care of any intruders." He turned back around to find that Cloud had already reached the bottom of the stairs, having left his bewildered prisoner on the stairs behind him. "Hey!" Reno exclaimed, leaping over the railing to catch up with him. Rude wasn't too far behind, and Elena, after taking a look at the drop, decided it would be more safe to go down the stairs the old fashioned way.
Cloud re-entered the laboratory, and ran past his bewildered friends who had been watching the whole thing. He reached the desk and grabbed his sword, turning around to see the Turks entering the room. "Aw crap, everyone is here." Reno said, skidding to a halt as he saw the group. "Usually you only bring two other people with ya." He glanced around the room, then saw the broken test tube. "Dammit! That's gonna come out of our paycheck!" "Do you know what was in there?" Cloud asked them slowly. "It doesn't matter what was in there! All that matters is ya broke it!" Reno said, his temper rising. "It's hard enough to find work when you guys aren't running around screwing up our jobs--" "They had Jenova in there!" Cloud interrupted.
Reno blinked, then roared with laughter. "What! That creepy alien thing? What the hell are you on? Ya killed it a while back!" "Apparently not." Vincent commented. "We saw it ourselves!" Yuffie added, bouncing to get the Turk's attention. "...If this were true," Rude said, crossing his arms. "Then why would you let it out?" Cloud's face darkened. "I'll explain it later. For now you've got to believe us when we say that she's loose, and the world's in danger." Reno rolled his eyes. "Jeez, seems like the world's in danger every other day. Okay, lets say that, just for a moment, I might believe your story, which I don't. We still can't let ya go, we have our orders. And as I said earlier, money's tight." "So your gonna take on the seven of us?" Cid snorted.
Reno looked around the room, taking in the enemy. Barret, with a machine gun arm, Vincent the sharp-shooter who could have probably killed them all by now if he thought it necessary, Cloud with his gigantic sword, Yuffie with her...was that a paper crane? Red...well, he had claws and teeth, and he was good at using them; Tifa was a great martial artist, who was also packing materia should she need it, and of course Cid with his spear. The odds definitely weren't in the Turks favor. Cid had a point. Three enemies where one thing...seven was another.
"...Well...uh..." Reno struggled to find a graceful way to retreat. "Reno. What if they're telling the truth?" Rude asked. Reno frowned. "Aw, it's all bullshit, you know that Rude." "But we can't be sure." Elena piped up for the first time. "I mean, we never did see the Jenova creature here, but that doesn't make their story a lie. Our employers never told us anything." "Your believing this too!" Reno exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air in defeat. "...Well, I guess I'm out voted. Where are you going and what do you guys plan on doing?" "And why should we tell you?" Cloud asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because, if we're gonna let you guys go, we've gotta go somewhere else. If we stay here, we'll get whatever pay we've already received taken away and such. I'm thinkin' we can come with you guys, since your gonna be ruining our careers anyway, as long as you pay for everything."
Cloud hesitated, then said "We don't know yet. We're just going to try to find Jenova."
But why do you want to find her? Is it to stop her, or to--
"Will there be bars on the way?" Reno asked, interrupting Cloud's thoughts.
"...More then likely."
"Alright! It's settled, we're coming with you guys!" Reno said, switching his nightstick off and slipping it into his belt. "...I mean, as long as it's alright with my colleagues here, who've so blindly placed their trust in you." Reno said wryly. "I don't care." Rude said with a shrug, and Elena frowned. "You just want to go so you can leech off of them, Reno! That's not polite, and you don't know what your getting us into--" "Elena." Reno said, placing an arm around her shoulder. "Have I ever gotten us into trouble I couldn't get us out of?" "Well...no..." Elena replied slowly. "It's settled then!" Reno said, letting go of her. "We're going to fight the creepy alien thing!"
"Is this wise?" Vincent asked Cloud quietly. "They can't be any more of a danger to us then I am." Cloud said darkly. Vincent silently agreed. "Let's get the $& out of here already. This place is givin' me the willies." Cid huffed, lighting a cigarette and starting out the door. "Yeah, lets go." Cloud agreed, and everyone exited the lab.