Disclaimer: Don't own ff7. Blah de blah blah.
Thanks for the reviews I really appreciated them. Especially the reviews for 'Chaotic Nightmare'! If you enjoy angst poems, go check it out. =) I don't like this chapter… my writer's block came back and I think it's planning to stay for awhile =S…
Déjà vu
"And he looked into her eyes and knew that everything would be alright. Everything worked out in the end." With one hand in her hair, a golden claw was clutched in the frail woman's feeble fist. Still in unbelievable pain, her lifeline nevertheless held strong. Stories were one of the few things Vincent could remember from his mother; he hadn't begun to forget her over the years in the coffin but he had been forced to forget them in his life as a Turk. Their life had to be abolished making it seem like they never existed. His death was acted out and he received a new name. Tyson Brown. They had only managed to stick that name onto him for two months; he refused to lose his unique label. Instead, he only answered to 'Vincent' and since he was the best Turk they had at the time. They had to bend the rules for him.
"T-Then what…?" Shaking him back to reality with her soft voice, tears were visible in Tifa's eyes.
"They… uh… lived happily ever after." Abruptly, the salty droplets leaked from her eye's sides. She used to think that life was that way. An image of Cloud and Aeris, holding each other in perfect serenity within the hands of the Promise Land popped into her mind. Oh yeah, she forgot, some people do get fairy tale endings. So… why couldn't she? Didn't she deserve one? Who ever the hell was up there had ripped her mother from her, then it allowed Sephiroth to slash at her torso, next, oh, never forget the man in the slums; the man with the grungy beard and long greased black hair. She could remember him pressing his form against hers, his nauseous body odor and horrible oral stench. The young girl, only 17 at the time, had never been touched like that. Though she hadn't lost her innocence, it was as if the world had smirked before slapping her with realness. She'd been quite naïve before that incident; she'd been one of those people who constantly believed 'that could never happen to me'. Lucky for her though, that was the day she met Barrett.
Flicking her eyes at Vincent, her mind played games with her eyes. His expression contorted slowly into a desperate one, his porcelain face broke out with black stubble. Faster than she would have liked it, Vincent Valentine had been swallowed by the Planet and the man from the slums had taken his place. Stroking her hair gently.
A shrill shriek sounded through the tunnels. The martial artist's heavy arms swung madly at the ex-Turk. "Let go of me! Let me go!"
A moment later, she was sitting up, coughing out blood. In spite of the fact that Vince had been dumbfounded at her outburst, he lifted her onto his lap as her crimson juices leaked from her fatal wound all over him also. She wasn't asleep but she seemed to be in her right mind once more. Fondling with his ebony locks, she seemed content in what she was doing, Vincent placed his arms around her waist and began to cogitate the entire 'why' questions from before.
"Alright. So the damn book is some where in there?" In the midst of the black, Cid stared at the museum.
"Yes."
"And how the hell are we supposed to get in there?" They both look helplessly at the locked doors. But soon enough, elaborate schemes conjured in their minds.
In the dead of the night, two shadows one human, one animal, crept stealthily to an open window they had spied from before. Up the tree, across the branch and into the window they moved. Enfin inside, they searched for Nguyen's office. Unfamiliar halls sketched their sight, but eventually, they'd found it. The book was heavy as they tried to move it. With butterfingers, Cid dropped it onto Nanaki's unsuspecting back.
Letting out an unusually pained howl, a booming voice yelled at them.
"Is somebody there? Come out!"
"Shit!" Speaking in hushed tones, the two schemers ducked as a flashlight's ray shot through the window on the door. The other puny window across the room was their only chance in getting back to Tifa soon enough. Nanaki fit easily through but almost slipped off the steep slant on the outside of the window but Cid managed to get himself wedged into the small hole.
"Damn it! Help me!" The red creature was having a hard enough time trying to keep himself balanced on the dramatic slope and suppressing his snickers.
"Fu-" Wiggling with anxiety, Cid felt himself slither through the window's mouth and fall towards the rose bushes bellow. "-ck!!"
But, like always, he didn't go alone, one of his arms smacked Nanaki bringing the dog down along with the tumble. In the end, they were not crippled but they had thorns jabbed in their bodies.
They sped to the forsaken temple.
"I've got thorns fucking shoved up my ass…" Much as they complained all the way to the temple, they reached the entrance. The picture was gentle and untainted, Vincent held Tifa in perfect tranquility.
"Hey! Love birds!" Vincent managed to twist his head past Tifa's balls of tousled mane and glare at Cid. "Hey, man, I'm just here to help you."
"Do you have the book?"
"Of course." Flipping through the contents, Nanaki skimmed the context. Vincent waited patiently, he felt like he had a world of time. Odd words and pictures flew out and caught his interest but he refused to be sidetracked, landing on a page full of curses. He scanned his inhuman eyes down the page, which by chance, had gotten hooked on the words 'Temple of Chronos: Curses'. His eyes hunted for answers and one by one he found them.
"By the looks of this book… She's immortal and so are you." Nanaki pulled his nose out the publication to face puzzled and shocked expressions.
"Immortal…?" Vincent signaled for more explanation.
Ahem. "Tifa can't die. Neither can you. You'll live forever and ever in this Temple. Did I say it slow enough?" A toothy grin emerged from the red beast. Glad someone thinks it's funny. Was all that the gunman could regard.
"Isn't there like some crappy voodoo way to break it?" The old pilot's eyes traveled the obscured halls. "There's gotta be some way to break it…"
"There actually two." Forbidden wisdom seemed to ooze from the fiery creature. "One is to return the Dagger."
"…" All eyes landed on Vincent, it was his call. They required it for the resurrection spell but would it be worth the expense of his and Tifa's life in the outside world? "What is the second choice?"
"Blood must be drawn by the dagger."
"And?"
"It needs a bodily amount. It's supposed to be one person giving up their life but if we all give just enough blood so that we're teetering on the edge of death then we'll have broken the curse."
Considering all the pros and cons, Vincent was torn. Was the dagger and Lucretia worth it? Yes, most definitely. So was he supposed to ask his comrades to bleed for him?
"I… cannot return the dagger." With his head hanging low, he couldn't watch their expressions.
"Then… give it here and let's start slicing." Smiling, Cid snatched the dagger and held it against his wrist. "How much?"
"Until you feel dizzy. Then it should have enough from you." Now thoroughly shocked, Vincent watched in awe as the blade bit into his friend's skin. Did I just call him my friend?
The blood didn't trickle to the floor, unusually, it seemed to be absorbed by the Aiya dagger. Slowly, Cid's eyes began to droop, he didn't hear a scream. But everyone else did. It pierced the air and into the ears. The Temple was screaming.
Spooked and shaken, Nanaki grabbed the small knife and sliced into his own flesh, the screeching grew louder. Like a vacuum, the blade sucked his life-blood out from his veins. Once everything began to blur, he handed the knife to Tifa who graciously took it and jabbed it into her wrist. Majority of the pressure that she had been harboring seemed to be released as the blood escaped her body.
Oblivion seemed to be slowly covering her eyes; Tifa didn't even feel the blade being pried from her hands. The screaming was so loud. But sometime between Vincent's cutting and before she blacked out it ended. Déjà vu. The same feelings of dread yet relief rushed into her, just like in the Nibelhiem Reactor.