Cloud was lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling and generally just being lost in his thoughts when Barret unceremoniously entered the room and dropped the rabbit next to him. "Sorry, Cloud, can't find Teef. Don't wanna hang around that ball of fluff, it just hates me." With that, Barret went out of the room.
The rabbit hopped up on Cloud's belly and glared angrily at him.
"What now?" Cloud said, sighing in frustration.
Rufus looked around the room and found a shred of red cloth. He held it between his teeth and showed it to Cloud.
Cloud stared at it questioningly. "… What?" he asked, not catching his drift.
He could have sworn that the cute bunny rabbit gritted its teeth. Awkwardly, the rabbit draped the cloth over his back.
"You're cold? Huh?" Cloud asked, but Rufus managed to claw his face in frustration. "Oh… claw… you're talking about Vincent?"
The rabbit nodded.
"I don't know where he is! I tried contacting him by PHS, but he wouldn't answer my calls," Cloud answered irritably. "He might have to go to some remote region without a signal. I've sent him a message anyway, so just be patient…"
Rufus gave him a look that meant, "I'm not fond of waiting."
"Live with it, Prez," Cloud answered. Rufus bit his pinky in response. Cloud yelped in pain and agony, but the rabbit won't let go. "AAARGH! Stop it… ow! Rufus ShinRa, let go of my pinky! Ow!!!" he was screaming in panic.
"Cloud! What did you call my Ruffy?!" Tifa exclaimed as she came out from the bathroom.
Cloud froze and he even fell off the bed, almost squishing the rabbit. Tifa was surprised, "Oh, Ruffy! Darling!" she went over to Cloud. He reached out a hand to her in hopes that she would help him up, but she just stooped down and picked up the dizzy rabbit, cradling it in her arms. "Oh, Ruffy… shh… it's alright. Tiffy's here. Aww… What did that monstrous Cloud do to you, huh, darling? Aww… poor Ruffy…" she said with mixed worry, concern and sadness.
Cloud glared unbelievably at the rabbit. He thought he saw Rufus stick out his tongue at him. Cloud sneered and got up on his own. "Ouch… man, Teef! You'd better keep that little rodent away from me! I might turn him into rabbit stew!" he snapped in annoyance before plopping down on the bed.
"What? How could you say that?! It's just a poor innocent little bunny rabbit! If I didn't save him from the evil clutches of Scarlet, he'd be dead by now… I… couldn't let that happen to him." Tifa said before sitting down by the foot of the bed, patting the rabbit's head gently. "Well if you don't like Ruffy, then just stay away from him. I'm not forcing you to take care of him anyway." She mumbled. Cloud could see that the rabbit was already stiffening because she was hugging it too close to her chest. Frowning, he asked, "Honestly, Tifa… why did you name him Ruffy?"
She giggled. "He reminded me of someone. I mean, look at the white fur all over his body and the yellow fur on top of his head. Don't you think he… reminds you of… Rufus?" she asked.
Silence.
"Rufus who?" Cloud asked innocently, pretending not to care or know anything at all.
She rolled her eyes as she giggled ridiculously, "Rufus ShinRa! What's the matter with you? Did you hit your head and cannot remember who wears so much white it's like you're seeing heaven in hell?" she asked playfully.
"Oh… I see…" Cloud nodded with a silly smile on his face, observing and enjoying the reaction that the bunny rabbit had displayed when Tifa was explaining. The bunny rabbit suddenly twitched its ears and wiggled its nose curiously while staring up at her.
"It would be nice if Rufus would be nicer just like this rabbit." Tifa told him before kissing the rabbit.
The rabbit's ears turned scarlet red again, surprising Tifa. "Oh my… here it goes again." She muttered.
Cloud just burst out laughing. She eyed him curiously, "What's wrong with you?" she asked.
He bit his lower lip and just looked up at the ceiling. "Nothing, Teef. I… guess I just had too much sweets for breakfast… like… too much sugar in my cocoa?" he asked.
"Don't be ridiculous, you didn't even eat breakfast!" she told him before she got up. "By the way, where's Vincent?" she asked.
"Why are you looking for him?" he asked.
"Well… nothing. I just didn't see him the whole morning. And Barret's also looking for him." She explained.
Silence.
"Maybe he just went outside to—uh—ski free, or something. Hehe," Cloud said, mentally kicking himself for coming up with such a lame answer.
Tifa blinked, skeptical. "Vincent? Skiing? He shouldn't be taking this long, right? I haven't seen him since last night, actually…"
"The… abominable snowman got him?" Cloud wanted to say out loud, but changed his mind. Instead, he said, "Maybe he decided to do some snowboarding and tour around this place too."
Tifa frowned, but nodded. "Well… as long as he isn't abducted by the enemy, I guess…"
If only she knew…
Shrugging, she headed for the bathroom. Cloud's eyes widened, "Hey, where are you going?" he asked.
"I think my skirt's inverted. I need to fix it… and there's something wrong with my brassiere." She said with an embarrassed look on her face.
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "I… see… and you're taking the rabbit with you?" he asked.
The rabbit tried to squirm away from her grasp, but Tifa held on tighter to it. She nodded cheerfully. "Uh-huh! I'm giving him a bath too! Heehee! Yuffie said that to avoid fungus, I need to give him a bath." She said before entering the bathroom.
Cloud waited for around five seconds before he heard Tifa exclaim, "Oh my goodness! Your nose is bleeding again!"
He sighed heavily. "Oh well…" he muttered before yawning.
Back in the laboratory in Junon, Hojo organized the chemicals that Vincent had toppled over. "That Valentine… Since he didn't want to die, he has to suffer a fate worse than death! Hahahah…" he trailed off when he saw something glow in Vincent's pile of clothes on the floor.
He rummaged through the cape, the clothes, the decapitated metal claw, the undergarments (Hojo cringed, and thought of more blackmailing ideas for Vincent). Finally, he found what he was looking for.
His glasses flashed as he held the PHS unit in his hand. Where are you? Answer the phone. One of the messages from Cloud read. Hurry up. We might leave the inn soon.
This message, however, caused Hojo to cringe even more. Rufus is getting impatient. Are you OK? Call back.
Vincent would have made a face in utter disgust… that is, if he was able to make disgusted faces as a rabbit.
The reason would be the fact that Sephiroth was petting him, squeezing him, making faces and baby noises, and cuddling him as if he were a very cute baby… or a very huggable bunny rabbit, which he is for the moment.
"Ooh, look at you, cutie Vinny baby! Aboochieboochieboochieboochie!" Sephiroth said, petting his brand new pet 'that followed him home'.
Vincent made it a point not to make any more cute actions… he did not want Sephiroth act like a total idiot in front of him when he accidentally yawned (which was a very cute action indeed.). As he thought, his ears twitched.
"Aaaw… your cute little ears twitched again!" Sephiroth said, petting him again. Vincent's still-red eyes widened.
Sephiroth's facial expression suddenly changed. "Muahahah… Soon, Vinny… Since the Black Materia is still with that Cloud Strife, I'm going to get it from him… and we'll both destroy the Planet! Mwahahahahaha!" he explained while laughing victoriously.
Vinny the rabbit's eyes widened even more, eyeing Sephiroth in disbelief. "Oh no… I can't help Cloud… I'll be stuck here… if only I can escape…" his ears drooped and his bunny exterior showed too much grief and sadness that had been easily noticed by his owner.
"Awww. What's wrong, Vinny?" Sephiroth asked, slightly poking Vincent's nose with a gloved hand.
Vinny just turned away from him, crouching and shivering slightly. "Oh Lucrecia! What fate must I go through before I could be with you again!?" he was exclaiming in bunny language.
Sephiroth frowned at him, "Oh so now you hate me? Why?" he asked, stooping down to the rabbit that was on top of a rock.
"Well duh, do you think rabbits can talk?" Vincent thought miserably before turning his head to Sephiroth, gazing up at him with frustrated eyes.
Sephiroth felt his heart sink as he gasped slightly. "What?! You don't want me to destroy the Planet, right?" he asked.
Vincent just turned away, his face looking gloomier than ever.
Sephiroth lifted him off the rock and brought him closer to his face. Vincent just stared blankly at him. Sephiroth smiled gently at him. "Oh Vinny… you know you're my only pet… and I love you… and you must love me too… so for your happiness, I'll change my plans!" he told him.
Vincent's eyes widened at him.
Sephiroth nodded. "Yeah! Everything for you, Vinny!" and he kissed the rabbit's nose before sitting down on the grassy ground, hugging the rabbit rather lovingly, not even noticing that the rabbit was already stiff because it was already starting to suffocate. "But wait… we have to run away… from everything… from everyone! Hmm…" Sephiroth began to think, then his face lit up, "I know! Hojo's got this old house in Costa del Sol! We can both live there… just the two of us! We'll be together forever… we'll be happy forever! Just the two of us. You and I…" he said dreamily.
The more Vincent stiffened. "Nooooo….. Oh Lucrecia… if you're Sephiroth, I'd loooove to go to Costa del Sol and live there… but he's not you… he's just your son… and he's… insane!!! He's so poetic like…" his thoughts trailed off when he recalled Lucrecia telling him, "Oh, Vinny, you're so poetic!"
Silence.
"EEPS! What if this guy's my son?!" Vincent began to panic.
Sephiroth began to cradle the rabbit in his arms while singing happily, "I love my Vinneh, oh yes I do… I love my Vinneh, I realleh doooooooo!!! MWahahahahaha! Even if you are just a rabbit, oh my Vinneh, I love youuuuuuuuuu!!!!! Mwahahahahaha!"
Vincent wanted to faint.
After one week
"No, really, where is Vincent?" Tifa asked stubbornly.
Silence.
The rabbit was already shaking in one corner of the room.
Cloud just remained seated on the bed, staring down at the floor as if he wasn't able to understand the question.
"Ya foo'! Don't tell me ya'll are hidin' sumthin'?!" Barret demanded.
"Huh? You're saying something?" Cloud asked with an innocent look on his face, pretending not to have heard the question.
"You #$%!!!!! Stop playin' dumb like your brain's clouded or something!" Cid snapped impatiently at him.
"Yeah! Where is Vincent?" Yuffie asked, crossing her arms.
Silence.
Cloud turned to the rabbit and pretended to care about it, "Oh, dear! You're scaring the rabbit with your voices!" he said as he got up and went over to it and took it in his arms before going outside, leaving everyone perplexed.
"How come it seems like the #$%%$ rabbit's got something to do with this also?" Cid asked.
"I think Cloud's just finally over the edge. I've heard him arguing with the rabbit before about Hojo and potions, when he thought no-one was listening in," Yuffie said, scratching her head.
"Yo Teef! Isn't Rufus supposed to be your rabbit?" Barret asked, turning to Tifa.
Tifa raised an eyebrow at him, "I beg your pardon?" she asked in awe.
"It's Ruffy, you #$%! Teef named the #$%%$ rodent, Ruffy!" Cid corrected.
Tifa scratched her head in confusion. "I really don't get it… how come almost all of you would think that Ruffy is Rufus?!" she asked.
"Because it was derived from that name, right?" Red XIII asked.
Silence.
"I'll just go to Cloud…" Red mumbled before going outside.
Tifa sighed heavily.
"We've been here in this place for a week already but no one's looking for us! Isn't it strange?" Yuffie asked before sitting down on the bed.
Cid was quiet for a while before announcing, "The President is missing."
All eyes turned to him, "What?" Barret asked.
"It's in the news ever since last week! Don't you guys read the #$%%$ papers?" Cid asked in annoyance.
"Well… I went straight to the section wherein they said that Sephiroth stopped attacking for some bizarre reason," Tifa explained.
Silence.
"What?" Yuffie exclaimed.
"Well… nobody really knows the reason why, but the news said that Sephiroth summoned the Weapons, and then finished them off all by himself! Isn't it strange?! And here's a scoop, he's got a mascot." Tifa explained.
"A mascot?" Barret asked.
"Sources say that it's a… black rabbit." She responded with a silly look on her face.
Silence.
"Maybe you read it in the tabloids, Teef. Hahahahaha!" Cid insulted.
She raised an eyebrow at him, "No, I didn't! It's even in the broadsheets like ShinRa Times and Midgar Times and even the Icicle Inn Insider!" she pointed out.
Yuffie, who was at one corner of the room reading a magazine she got out of nowhere, suddenly giggled. "Heehee! They got a shot here of the bunny! It has pretty red eyes, just like Vincent's! Heehee! I wonder if he's the bunny," she added jokingly.
The people in the room suddenly turned to her with shocked looks on their faces.
"Uh… kidding?!" she said, shrugging.
"Gimme dat!" Barret yelled, snatching the magazine out of her grasp. After scanning the story with the headline: "Sephiroth and his Rabbit: An Exclusive Interview", he broke out into loud guffaws. "HAHAHAH! Well, whaddya know?!"
"What the %&$?!" Cid gritted, annoyed by Barret's laughter.
"Says here dat the dang foo's bunny rabbit's name's Vinny! Hahahah! Cuz he found the damn thing with a red bandanna on it, and it reminded him of Vincent Valentine! HAHAHAHAH!" he explained, throwing the magazine over to Cid so he could read it for himself.
Cid also had the same reaction. "$&#! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
Tifa just eyed them in annoyance.
"What's with those rabbits anyway? It seems like everybody's got rabbits! First it's Tifa, then it's Sephiroth! Maaaaan!!!" Yuffie remarked.
Meanwhile.
Red found Cloud talking to the rabbit as he boarded the elevator. "Hey, Cloud! Wait up!" he said, running over to them. Cloud and the rabbit froze upon seeing Red XIII. "Uh… why?" Cloud asked, absentmindedly pressing the 'Open' button.
Red XIII eyed him curiously. "Well, you were acting strange and I want to know why," he answered.
"Oh." Cloud said. He looked at the rabbit. "Um… we won't need the elevator, then…" he said, walking beyond the doors.
Red narrowed his eyes at him, then said, "Are you alright? You seem a bit dazed."
Before Cloud could say anything, Red picked up an eerily familiar scent. "Uh… well, you know how it is, Red—I'm a bit stressed out, and, uh… things… I'm worried about Vincent missing, because I have got nothing to do with it, you know? Things like that. Heheh," Cloud explained, racking his brain for excuses as he went along. "Uh… what's wrong, Red?" he asked when he noticed that Red XIII began sniffing the air.
"Excuse me, Cloud," he said, sniffing a bit more. "I smell something evil in the atmosphere…"
Cloud and the rabbit's eyes widened. "What? Sephiroth?"
"No. ShinRa," Red XIII said bluntly. "A Turk might have been here…"
Rufus snorted. "Me? The President of ShinRa Inc? Regarded as a lowly Turk? What an incredibly stupid…"
Red's eyes widened. He gasped as he looked at the rabbit. "The rabbit said something, Cloud!" he yelped.
Cloud said, "WHAT?!" and carried the bunny closer to his face, giving him the expression that said, "Watch what you say, he understands animal talk!"
The rabbit's ears twitched. "Well, I felt degraded upon being mistaken as a Turk. Oh well, better than Heidegger, I suppose."
Red XIII snarled. "Let go of the rabbit, Cloud, it's either the Fat President reincarnated into a rabbit or Rufus turned into a rabbit!"
"NO! Anything but that disgusting old man… Please, I'm still more sanitary as a rabbit than he ever was…" the rabbit sniffed.
"IT'S RUFUS!" Red said, lunging at Rufus. Unfortunately, Cloud still was holding the rabbit, so Red tackled him instead and his back hit the floor with a loud "THUD".
"Owowow…" Cloud groaned, rubbing his back. He saw Rufus about to be caught by Red's choppers, and he got him out of Red's reach just in time.
"Cloud! What are you doing? We have to get rid of him! He's spying on us!" Red said, eyeing Rufus angrily.
Rufus snorted. "I could have hired somebody else. I have better things to do than hang out with your eccentric group," he said airily in the rabbit language.
Cloud sighed. "No, Red, he's just a rabbit as of now. He's not dangerous," he said.
"What are you talking about?" Red said, calming down a bit, but still alert.
"Well, let's see… He now hates Hojo and plans his demise. He needs our help, though, because he's a rabbit," Cloud explained, realizing how silly he sounds.
Red blinked. "Why help him?"
"I bribed him into helping me. Besides, Tifa just adores me and Cloud has no choice but to follow my bidding as long as I'm her pet," Rufus explained.
Red looked at Cloud. "You let him bribe you? With what? I don't think he carried Gil with him."
Cloud blinked. "What are you talking about?" he looked at the rabbit with an annoyed face.
Rufus sighed. "Ask him about the revival potion."
"What's the revival potion?" Red asked Cloud.
Cloud looked down. "Oh. That," he sighed with a hesitant look on his face.
As soon as the elevator door opened, Cloud and Rufus jumped up in shock upon seeing Tifa standing there, her hands on her hips, eyeing them with a frown on her face.
"T…T…T…Tifa! H…hi!" Cloud greeted with a hesitant weak smile on his face.
Tifa instantly grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the elevator going to one of the secluded areas of the hotel lobby. "H…how did you get in the lobby before I could?" Cloud asked casually.
"I took the stairs. I figured the elevator's too slow." She pushed him against the wall. The rabbit was hopping after them but by the time it reached them, Tifa was already giving Cloud a sermon about telling the truth about Vincent and then informing him about Sephiroth and the missing President of ShinRa.
Cloud just blinked as he tried to maintain innocent eye-contact with Tifa.
Red XIII was sniffing the rabbit and then mindlessly declared, "Hell, Cloud! This is Rufus! It smells like him!!!"
Tifa instantly turned to Red XIII and the rabbit. The rabbit hid behind Red XIII. She raised an eyebrow. Cloud rushed over to the rabbit. "Tifa, you scared him!" he told her before picking up the rabbit and the patting its head gently before handing it over to Tifa. "Here. Why don't you hold him close to your chest to keep him warm while Red and I are talking outside about how he could sniff Vincent's tracks so that we could find him because for all we know, he could be buried in the snow already. Heheh." He told her with a silly and uncomfortable smile on his face before dashing out of the secluded area, leaving Tifa and Rufus there.
Red XIII was running after Cloud.
"What is the matter with them?" Tifa said out loud in annoyance before walking back to the main lobby and went over to the receptionist. The receptionist was still asleep. She raised an eyebrow. "Uh… excuse me, ma'am," Tifa began.
She had been answered by a snore.
She hesitated for a while before tapping the woman's shoulder to wake her up, "Ma'am," she called out, louder than before, surprising the woman.
The woman instantly woke up and forced a smile at her. "Oh… hi! How may I help you?" she asked.
Tifa just forced a cheerful smile at her, "Oh… I'd like to ask for the newspaper for today?" she asked.
The receptionist thought for a while before grabbing a newspaper from beside her. "Here you go!" she said, handing it to Tifa. "Thank you," Tifa said as she got it and proceeded to the waiting area and sat down on the couch with the rabbit resting on her lap. Finally, the rabbit relaxed from its stiffness, but it was still trembling as it was resting on her bare legs (hey, her skirt's short, remember?)
As she began to read the newspaper, the rabbit also forgot about its present situation and began to read with her too, but he was thinking, "Can't you hurry up a bit? Go to the business section!!!" But she was reading backwards. She started from the last page.
"Nothing much on sports…" she muttered before turning to the previous page. Entertainment section.
Rufus watched as the other sections went by… until she reached the business section where his ears suddenly twitched upon seeing… but she immediately turned the page going to the other news. He wanted to bite her, but he thought twice about it when he saw Cloud approaching with Red XIII.
Cloud was eyeing the front page with a deep frown on his face and he also had this inquiring look in his eyes. "Tifa, is that new?" he asked.
She put down the paper, accidentally covering the rabbit with it. "You mean this one? Yeah." She replied, surprised upon seeing him again.
"Shit…" Cloud muttered as he grabbed the newspaper off Tifa's grasp and began to read the Headlines on the front page.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? I was still reading that?" she asked, getting up and going to him, but he turned away from her, still reading with wide-eyes. She stood on tiptoe and took a look over his shoulder on what he was reading. Her eyes widened upon seeing what it was.
SEPHIROTH QUITS
"What the…" she grabbed the newspaper away from Cloud and began to read out loud for Cloud and Red XIII to hear with a look of awe on her face after a few moments of reading it silently, "…Sephiroth killed all the weapons that he summoned, stopped looking for the Promised Land, disregarded everything… and is now living in Costa del Sol with his beloved pet bunny rabbit?! See picture below…" she lowered her gaze at the said picture. Cloud took a peek over her shoulder and stared at the picture.
It was a colored picture so it was really distinct… and Cloud's jaw dropped and he also gasped when he saw that the bunny rabbit had black fur, a strange left front paw and a red bandanna around its head… and red eyes.
"Oh what a cute rabbit! It looks just like Vincent! Heehee!" Tifa remarked happily.
Cloud instantly got Rufus who was on the floor beside Red XIII and carried him towards Tifa so that he could see the newspaper article and the pictures.
The rabbit froze in his grasp.
Tifa noticed the unusual silence in Cloud and in Red XIII so she turned to look at them, "Is there anything wrong?" she turned to Cloud and noticed him holding the rabbit and showing the news to it. "Cloud, what are you doing?" she asked.
Determined with a bitter look on his face, he told them, "Okay… we're going to Junon to get that potion!"
The rabbit squirmed against his grasp and rushed to the receptionist's desk, where the receptionist was sleeping again. After shoving the receptionist's hand off the keyboard, the bunny rabbit opened the word processor program. Tifa and Red XIII watched in awe as the rabbit began to type:
DON'T YOU THINK WE SHOULD GET VINCENT FIRST?
"Oh my goodness… what the…" Tifa began in awe as she approached the bunny rabbit. She gasped and smiled excitedly, "I knew you were special, Ruffy! You can type and spell correctly for an animal!" she said happily.
"Uhm… Tifa, I think there's something you should know…" Cloud began.
The rabbit turned to Cloud and stared warningly at him. Cloud raised his eyebrows at the rabbit and thought, "Oh I see… you looove the affection you're getting from Tifa, huh?"
Rufus turned to Red XIII and said something in animal language, and Red XIII turned to Cloud and whispered, "If Tifa knows, there will be no more Aerith."
"What?" Cloud demanded.
"That's what Rufus said; I'm just interpreting it." Red XIII muttered.
Tifa turned to Cloud before turning back to the monitor. "Oh Ruffy, what ever do you mean by this? Why would we even get Vincent?" she asked.
Cloud rolled his eyes and showed her the newspaper article and the picture, "Look at the black bunny, Teef." He pointed out. Tifa stared strangely at it. "It looks like Vincent…" she trailed off. Her eyes widened in shock. "Don't you mean that is Vincent?!" she demanded in shock.
Rufus typed again, all eyes turned to the monitor:
YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT, MISS LOCKHEART.
Silence.
"Oh my God!" Tifa gasped.
"I'm getting Aerith back no matter what you say! Tifa must know!" Cloud pointed out before grabbing Tifa's shoulders and made her face him. "Tifa, you must know something very important!" he told her.
She blinked. "Wh…what?" she asked in confusion.
Before Cloud could continue, the rabbit hopped onto his face and bit his nose. "AAARGH! You stupid bunny!!!" Cloud cried out in pain, trying to remove Rufus's bunny chompers off his nose while running around the whole place. Tifa stared curiously at them. "Oh my…" she muttered before she decided to exit the word processor program before the receptionist wakes up. With that, she went back to the couch and sat down, observing Cloud and Ruffy.
Red XIII sat down on the floor by her left leg and began to watch too. "They're getting along pretty well, don't you think?" Tifa asked him. He just stared at the two.
Then, Tifa remembered something, "Wait a moment… about Vincent… and…" she frowned and instantly got up, rushing towards Cloud, pulling him to her and shaking him violently with the rabbit still clutched onto his face. "Will you tell me the truth?! Ruffy typed back there that Vincent is the black rabbit that belongs to Sephiroth, right?!" she demanded frantically.
"Mrhphkdlkhggh pmrhgh…" Cloud said, but the rabbit was muffling his voice because of the thick fur covering his lips. Giving up, the rabbit jumped off from Cloud, going back to Tifa. She caught it in her arms, gently cradling it. Cloud thought he saw the rabbit blushing while sneering at him and giving him a look that told him, "Nyah-nyah!" He just ignored the rabbit and turned back to Tifa. "Yes. It's Vincent."
Tifa stared unbelievably at him. "But… how?!" she asked in shock.
Cloud frowned slightly and eyed the rabbit first before gazing into Tifa's crimson eyes, "I… found out about this revival potion that Hojo had developed… I figured it could bring… Aerith… back to m—us." He explained, feeling restless all of a sudden.
Tifa was still staring in awe at him while gently stroking the rabbit's fur. "But…" she shook her head in disbelief as she bowed her eyes, looking at Ruffy. She smiled bitterly before looking up at Cloud again, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I could have helped you!" she said.
"Well… I was afraid that you might disapprove of the idea because… you and Barret and the others are expecting me to move on and forget about her but the truth is, I can't so…" his hands were already shaking and the faltering of his voice was so obvious already. He took a deep breath before proceeding, eyeing her seriously, "…but before I could get my hands on the potion, I have to get another potion first… a reverse potion. Vincent agreed to get the potion for me…" Cloud trailed off when Tifa held her hand to his face, signaling him to stop talking, "Okay, what is the reverse potion for?" she asked as she put down her hand.
Cloud opened his mouth to explain but he did not know how to begin so no sound came out. "It's for… Vincent…" Red XIII said, saving him.
Cloud and Red thought that they heard the rabbit sigh in relief.
Tifa thought for a while before saying, "So Vincent's been a rabbit before Sephiroth got him?" she asked.
"Yes." Red XIII and Cloud both said in unison.
"I can't believe you're lying!" Rufus told Red XIII in animal language.
"Well that's what you want us to do, right? You wouldn't want to get busted!" Red replied out loud, eyeing Rufus with an annoyed look on his face.
"Huh?" Tifa wondered, turning to Ruffy, then to Red XIII. Sensing that something was really wrong, she frowned and turned to Cloud, hugging the rabbit much closer to her chest. "C…Cloud, what is it with this rabbit?" she asked.
"Uhm…" Cloud began.
"Cloud, tell me the truth. I promise I won't tell Barret or anybody else… and I'll even help you get Aerith back!" she swore with a determined look on her face.
Red XIII and Cloud exchanged blank stares with the rabbit before turning to Tifa again. "Remember the news that Rufus ShinRa had disappeared?" the latter asked.
"Well… yeah. He could've been kidnapped by…" she began, but Cloud interrupted her by saying, "That rabbit is Rufus ShinRa."
Silence.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked softly with a stunned look on her face.
"He's Rufus." Red XIII said.
Tifa slowly looked down at the rabbit, staring into its icy blue eyes. The rabbit twitched its ears at her. She smiled weakly at it before chuckling lightly, "Oh, is that so? Heehee." She said softly as she handed the rabbit to Cloud. "I… think I need to go back to my room… why don't you take care of Ruffy for a while…" she trailed off, turning away from them and then fainting.
"Tifa!" Cloud said, letting go of the rabbit and catching her before she could hit the ground.
Red XIII just plopped down on the floor. "Oh no… this is bad…" he muttered. Rufus hopped going to him. "Why'd you have to tell her? Is she someone we could trust?" he asked him.
"Tifa's good in keeping her word… although I can assure you that if you do something stupid, she might break it." Red explained reassuringly.
Cloud carried Tifa. "Uh… come on, let's go upstairs." He told Rufus and Red XIII before heading towards the elevator.