He Tells All

by: Bishojo Beauty

Chapter 3

Tifa was frozen in place, her head turned towards the now closing door of the café, her brows creased with lines of worry. She turned over to the aged man before her, and noted his gentle smile, and she wondered whether he had seen Vincent's abrupt retreat at all.

"I think it's best I leave now. I'm sorry for my friend's behaviour," Tifa spoke politely, dropping some gil onto the table. The man noticed that it was more than necessary, and shook his head.

"No need to be sorry, young lady. You should not feel the need to apologize for what he chooses to do. He is not your responsibility," Chester stated as he slowly got up, picking through the gil and handing the extra amount back to Tifa.

"There is also no need for you to pay for me," he said, pressing the gil into Tifa's hands, squeezing her hand gently closed as he made his way for the exit of the café. She noticed then that he walked with a cane, his right leg seemingly quite unstable.

Everything seemed to burn from within. Vincent stumbled a couple of times as he sprinted through town, hiding in the shadows, pumping his arms as legs, hoping to the higher powers that he would make it out of the town in time. He always did, and always in the nick of time, and yet the instabilities of his transformations had him doubt himself every single time.

Vincent concentrated as much as he could on meeting with the large rock that stood at the first corner of the mountains, but his concentration was divided unevenly as Chaos swarmed into his mind, coaxing Vincent to relinquish his control and let the barbarous beast take it's form. Just as Vincent made it past the first twist in the Nibel mountains his legs gave out from under him, no longer able to withstand the weight of his upper body.

His body had already began to alter to better accommodate the beast, Vincent feeling the routine sickness and dizziness that overcame his body before the beast within him begins to take form. He felt the wings of Chaos begin to form and attempt to tear through his back, one scratch at a time.

They came as waves of pain, the demon inside working at a beating pace that grew more frantic and intense as Vincent lost more and more control. Which was something of Vincent's that seemed to be continuously growing smaller by the days, perhaps even the hours. He transformed more often by the week, and sometimes for reasons he did not know of. But he transformed nonetheless. Now, he had lost control. In one hot searing white flash of pain, Vincent was Chaos.

And for once in his life since waking from his coffin, he was terrified.

Tifa exited the café, stopping at the café steps in attempt to gather her thoughts and decide what her next choice of action was to be. She scanned her eyes left and right, down and up for any signs of Vincent. Even the old man seemed to have disappeared despite his handicap slowing him down.

"He won't be found if doesn't want to be," Tifa spun around to face the speaker, already knowing it was Chester by the familiarity of his scratchy voice. He was leaning against the café wall next to the exit. I must have missed seeing him on my way out, Tifa thought, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Tifa nodded in agreement to Chester's statement, hanging her head low to the ground in defeat. She knew she was not going to find him tonight, she's been looking for three years, and tonight was going to be no different.

"You must be cold. I have some of my daughter's old clothes still left at my place. Come, an old man like me could use the company," Chester smiled up at Tifa as he walked unsteadily down the steps, supporting his right leg. Tifa, on impulse, grabbed for the elderly man's left arm, helping him down the steps. He spoke his thanks on his way down, and continued to blab on about his daughter having left home for a job in another city as they made their way to his home.

Tifa wasn't sure why she followed him, she had her own clothes, and her own warm house to return to. But the true reason to her uncertainty was because she didn't want to believe what her true intentions were telling her. This man knew Vincent, a Vincent that was unknown to Tifa. And Tifa was curious.

By the time they reached Chester's house, Tifa was chilled from her head to her toes, her teeth chattering, but she held her jaw tense so the elderly man would not hear or notice. He opened the door with clumsy hands, and ushered her in from behind. He led her to his living room and motioned for her to sit down.

"You wait right here, I'll go grab something warmer for you to wear, and perhaps something warm for you to drink also!" Chester exclaimed, flicking his hand with his index finger out in an excited gesture. As he left the room, Tifa took in her surroundings. It was a rather small home, she noted, the living room felt quite congested with two sofas, and an ottoman, but it still felt welcoming. There was a television set in the corner of the room, and a fireplace, seemingly unused, on the wall next to it. Atop the fire place held many pictures. Tifa always loved pictures.

Curiosity killed the cat. A little voice in the back of Tifa's head told her. She smothered this voice with little trouble and got up from her spot on the sofa to examine the pictures. The largest was a picture of who Tifa figured was Chester's daughter. She was a beautiful blond, and looked to be quite a well-rounded person as there was a framed certificate next to her picture claiming excellence in some sort of field in science. Moving on, she noticed many more family photos, but one photo in particular grabbed her immediate attention. It was a picture of four men, all in blue suits.

Tifa gasped in surprise at her discovery, and leaned forward towards to the picture in hopes that she would get a glimpse of Vincent from his years as a Turk in this picture, a smile playing upon her lips in anticipation. The men in the picture however, held no resemblance to Vincent at all. Chester was in the picture, though, she noticed, with an awkward expression on his face. He was smiling, but it looked out of place, they all wore the same expression, standing a distance away from each other.

Tifa looked closer at the picture, which was slightly crooked, and noticed that there was another picture behind it. At first glace, one would think that there was the only one picture in the frame as the second one seemed to be have been taken from the same place, but different time of the day. Tifa took a quick glace around the room to make sure Chester hadn't returned yet, and identified the creaking of floorboards to be coming from the floor above. So she cautiously took hold of the tiny frame, and pulled it out from behind the rest of the pictures where it lay half hidden being careful not to knock over the rest of the picture, which would create quite an unnecessary scene. Dropping back comfortably into her previous spot on the couch, she started her simple task of opening the frame to see what lay hidden underneath that first picture.

Her hands began to tremble in excitement as she pulled off the backing of the frame. Reaching in, she pulled out the hidden picture. There were five figures now, and they were huddled happily together, smiling towards the camera man. One man even seemed to be trying to say something, and was captured by the camera, his mouth wide open. They all looked happy.

Tifa examined the fifth character who stood in the middle, with his arms around the necks of two of the men. He had dark hair, and well defined features. He looked awfully like the Vincent she knew today, but there was something different, but she couldn't exactly put her finger on it, the picture unfortunately wasn't the best of quality. Tifa started as she heard the clinking of china from the kitchen behind her. She fumbled with the picture as she attempted to place it back into the frame, but she heard footsteps approaching before she even had a chance to lift the frame, so she improvised, shoving the picture and it's frame under the nearest cushion on the sofa.

Smiling her thanks as Chester made it over to the living room handing her a cup of hot cocoa and some warm clothing, she accepted her cup and sat in uncomfortable silence, sipping her cocoa before she pulled on the white turtleneck sweater. She traced the designs on the knitted shirt, and was about to comment on how large of a fortune this sweater must have cost, but had no chance.

"And I thought I was nosy," Chester laughed, pointing towards the seat cushion where the corner of the frame that Tifa attempted to hide peeked out from underneath. Tifa didn't know what to say, so she just ducked her head down, tucking her hair back behind her ears as they fell forward with the motion of her head. Sighing, she set the cup down and reached over to pull it out from underneath the cushion, apologizing as she put the picture back into the frame.

"No need to apologize! I can sympathize with you, I was always the curious one, getting the rest of the group in trouble," he laughed again. Tifa couldn't help but laugh also, finding that the elderly man was very easy to get along with. He had not a single worry, and nothing seemed to change that no matter what came his way.

"I don't believe I have many pictures of your friend. He wasn't with us long you know," Chester said, standing and searching around underneath the ottoman, pulling out a few select photo albums.

"He was quite elusive towards the camera man, I'll have you know," he stated looking up at Tifa laughing with his eyes.

"There's this one isn't there?" Tifa asked, pointing at the frame she held in her hands. Chester leaned forward to study the picture atop the second one and shook his head smiling a toothy smile.

"Oh, no, no no. That's not Vincent," he paused letting out a hearty laugh, "that's his brother."

Thanks for reading everybody, and thanks for all of the encouraging reviews! I write for those who review, you guys keep me going! I like how my story's going so far too. I hope you guys do too!

Well....actually, to tell you all the truth, this chapter would have came out MUCH sooner, but...

I was worried with Vincent's transformation...I didn't want to write in too much detail, and like totally freak people out...so it was hard

And then, I just plainly wasn't quite satisfied with how it may effect the rest of the chapters....but I think I have it worked out...hehe, just gonna take it one chapter at a time...

Bishojo Beauty.