He Tells All

by: Bishojo Beauty

Chapter 11

All hell broke loose upon the identification of the body. The sounds of bullets reverberated in Tifa's skull as shots were fired. However, the bullets that she expected never came. Instead, the same long white dart that Tifa found earlier in Vincent that came flying in their direction. Tifa felt Vincent tackle her by the waist and pretty much carry her to safety in to the depths of small recess in the mountain side. She watched as Vincent made short and swift had signals to Kael, who was crouched opposite of them behind a large rock. Despite the great danger they were facing, Tifa felt secure and protected. She discovered the source of her feelings. Vincent had his arm around her shoulders in a protective gesture holding her tightly against his chest. Unconsciously, he had held her close to him, no longer in fear of physical contact. Only his basic instincts came into play and it screamed for survival and protection of Tifa.

Huddling closer, Tifa could hear his heart pacing quickly in his chest, and feel the rise and fall of his breaths which were both accelerated by adrenaline now running through his blood. He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered their plan. His hot breath tickled her cold cheeks, giving them a break from the crisp cold air of Nibelheim.

Their plan was simple: Run. They were all unarmed. There was no way that they were going to be able to defend themselves. For now they had to rely solely on luck to escape the clutches of death unharmed.

"On three," Vincent whispered in a low voice that rumbled in his chest. Tifa watched in amazement as the two ex-Turks communicated with each other without words. And before she knew it, she was being lifted and carried down Nibelheim mountain. When she heard Vincent's simple plan, she was expecting to be running herself and definitely not to be carried. In a way, she was thankful that she was being carried as Vincent and Kael ran at abnormal speeds down the mountain and towards the Chester's house. They both burst through the door with a forceful kick and Tifa found herself thrown behind a wall and abandoned. She spotted Vincent gathering his Death Penalty from across the room. The Death Penalty was a gun that Tifa found to be unnecessarily large and very menacing. No sooner did Vincent leave Tifa, was he back by her side.

"Hold this," he ordered curtly. He seemed to be in Turk mode. Tifa looked down to the object that she was now holding. To her surprise, it was one of the darts that was being fired at them. Vincent must have been able to obtain one on his way down the mountain somehow. With this, she felt herself being pressed up against the wall by Vincent's claw arm. It's coldness seeped through Tifa's shirt. Vincent's head was turned away from her, and all she could see was a mane of black on top of more black. His body seemed much more frail then it did with the cloak on if it was even possible. Vincent was a thin man. Tifa noted to herself to feed him as soon as whatever the hell was going on ended. Tifa was pulled out of her thoughts as shots rang out from the other side of the room and shards of wood flew in every direction. She wanted to help Vincent and Kael, but her close-combat skills were not needed in this gun battle. She felt Vincent shift slightly and then the familiar loud bang of Dealth Penalty sounded three consecutive times followed by grunts and thuds. Tifa guessed that Vincent must have hit his mark. Silence ensued. For the longest time, no one moved, and nothing sounded. Their ears were greeted by silence after each rise and fall of their heavy breaths.

The battle seemed almost too easy. But then again, how many men could really have waited for them to show themselves in the mountain top. Not many without being at a disadvantage somewhere else. Vincent and Kael signaled once, and both moved out of their hideouts.

"We need to talk," Kael stated. His expression spoke of nothing but seriousness. And talk they did. It turned out that Kael had been in close encounters with these men before and it was obvious that this had something to do with the Valentine's past. He was able to obtain some information off of one of the men hen he held him up at point-blank range. From there, he followed men back to some underground hideout and then finally to Nibelheim.

"I've been following a pack of them, and it's led me here," he finally finished. It was clear that Kael's lead was pretty much lost as they were all dead.

"So, what now? There's clearly something up. Otherwise why would they be shooting at you, Vincent?" Unknowingly, Tifa stated something that played more importance than she had initially thought.

"She's right. They were only shooting at you," Kael asserted. With that statement, Tifa held up the dart that Vincent handed her earlier. And from there, they devised a plan. They were to leave as soon as possible and head for Cosmo Canyon where they would see Nanaki and find out if he would be able to identify the substance in the dart. It was clear to Vincent that the substance was not a mere tranquilizer. When shot earlier, Vincent felt immediately, Chaos pushing against Vincent's conscious. Vincent however, did not mention this to the others.

They packed quickly, and soon after, they were set off on foot heading for Cosmo Canyon. Tifa had contacted Nanaki earlier and notified him of their plans and to expect them within the next couple of days. And their journey began...

Silently.

No one spoke a word for what seemed like miles and Vincent trailed further and further behind Kael and Tifa. Tifa couldn't help but glace back worriedly at Vincent. After a while, she couldn't take it anymore, and slowed her pace down to that of Vincent's. She offered a small smile and a quiet 'hey' in her greeting and in return she got barely even a glance. Tifa was about to go on and try to make conversation further, but stopped when she felt Vincent's hand around her wrist. His human fingers were icy cold against her warm skin. They've been travelling for a quite a while, and they were already out of the chilly weather of Nibelheim and onto much nicer and warmer temperatures. The sun was out and blazing and yet Vincent's fingers were chillingly cold, despite his nearly all black attire. He had lost his cape back when he discarded it in the snow fight, and now Tifa could see that something was really bothering him. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were pulled into a taught line. He turned his head up as if listening for something.

"What is it?" Tifa asked. She tried to listen as well, but she heard nothing out of the ordinary.

"Nothing," Vincent finally said in his quiet rich baritone voice. Vincent then suddenly let go of Tifa's wrist and apologized. Turning quickly, Vincent picked up his pace to catch up with Kael who walked up ahead, completely oblivious to them. Tifa ran a couple of steps and then fell into step with Vincent not before catching a glimpse of something that she had never really seen in full view before. Vincent's back and all that came with it. The brunette couldn't help but smile, knowing that she was lucky enough to be granted such a view and also at her childish feelings. Anything out of the ordinary with Vincent was like a one in a lifetime chance type of thing. It was very rare. And Tifa chose to enjoy these moments.

Tifa felt a pair of eyes on her and she turned to meet them. With the wind blowing most of Vincent's hair out of his face, the sunlight glinted off Vincent's eyes giving them an even stronger glowing effect. They glistened under the attention of the sun, and Tifa could have sworn that she even spotted gold specks somewhere within the red abyss of his eyes. Vincent's questioning look only served to widen Tifa's smile, which eventually turned into a giggle.

Vincent abruptly turned away from Tifa and adverted his eyes towards the horizon. He refused to allow himself to revel in Tifa's beauty that had attracted him to her lately. It was distracting and it had thrown him off his daily schedule since day one. And before he knew it, he was out of Nibelheim and walking to Cosmo Canyon. For the rest of the walk until night fall, he denied himself the right to even glance over in her direction. Little did he know, this hurt Tifa.

Tifa felt complete rejection as she continuously tried to get Vincent to just even glance at her. She tried everything but contact, and perhaps that might have been the one thing that worked. She wouldn't ever know as it was now dark out and they were already setting up camp. Unloading their bags off their backs, the Valentine brothers began pitching the tents in which they would sleep in for the night

"I'm going to keep watch for tonight. The last thing we need are those bastards coming for us again," Kael declared. He objected any protests from Vincent and told him to get the rest that he needed. After all, it was just last night that he fainted out of nowhere in Kael's eyes. After they were finished with the one tent, Vincent went over to set up the second.

"Wait, we don't need that one. The less things we set up, the less we need to pack. You and Tifa can share one, this tent is large enough to fit three," Kael stated, taking the other tent out of Vincent's hands. Vincent could not find his voice to oppose Kael's suggestion and finally submitted with a sigh. Vincent sauntered over to the fire where he found Tifa and Kael talking and laughing. In a way, he felt jealous that Kael could make her laugh. Vincent doubted that he had ever made her laugh the way his brother was making her laugh right now even though he knew her for much longer than his brother. Vincent mentally squashed his feeling of jealousy. He didn't think he could really be jealous. Perhaps more like envious he told himself. Cursing himself, he joined the two on the ground.

"So is it okay if you guys rest together in the one tent?" Kael asked. Tifa hesitated in reply and glanced behind her at the tent. Mistakenly, Vincent took this for resent at him.

"Yeah, the thing's big enough for more than two of us," Tifa said with a smile. But in reality, she was on edge. She had never been so close with Vincent before. It was awkward in a way. For a couple of more minutes, the threesome sat up with the fire, but eventually, Tifa and Vincent gave into exhaustion and headed for the tent, leaving Kael as their watch for the night. Politely, Vincent held up the tent flap for Tifa to enter first, and she thanked him generously. He merely nodded in reply. Vincent followed in shortly after and took up the other half of the tent. Meticulously as usual, he removed his boots and deposited them outside of the tent and Tifa followed suit. Soon, Tifa found herself facing Vincent's back as he laid down to rest. But not before unholstering Death Penalty and laying it by his side. Tifa told herself that it was only for safety that he kept it so near him. Still she felt nervous around it.

"Good night, Vincent," Tifa called out before laying down herself. Half of her expected nothing in reply, the other half hoped for one.

"Good night, Tifa," Vincent replied. A smile spread across her lips. There was something about the way he said her name. It was different in a way. Softer, he made it sound softer. Sighing in content, she closed her eyes and let herself drift off into a peaceful sleep.

It was early morning and the sun was just rising when Tifa found herself awakening to a loud grunt. Opening her eyes, she blinked away her sleepy confusion and was greeted by the sight of Vincent battling against his pillow. He was laying on his stomach with his claw was dug deep into his pillow, causing it to nearly tear, his hair laid in a disheveled mess around his face and one of his legs shot up over on to Tifa's side.

So much for being a gentleman. Tifa thought. Tifa could hear Vincent mumbling into his pillow, clearly in the midst of a nightmare.

"Vincent," Tifa called out, her voice just a bit above a whisper. She received no reaction from Vincent. She tried again, and this time she reached out touched him on the forearm. Unexpectantly, Vincent's eyes flew open and within a matter of seconds, Tifa found herself on her back, and Vincent on top of her. His eyes were mad, and his claw rested tightly around Tifa's neck while his other hand held Death Penalty to her temple.

I hope this ending isn't too abrupt. I had to find an ending to what was originally about 9 pages long. I decided to cut it into two chapters, since I haven't finished the ending of it yet. I'm so far at my third ending for this chapter. And hopefully my last. I think I'm pleased with it now though. Just need to end it, and then proof read!

And i believe one review i received was speaking of typos? If you find one, point it out! I'll correct it! I hate spelling errors too, and yes, they are distracting, so yeah, I try hard to catch them all, but, i guess I'm not doing a good enough job...TT

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! The next chapter will be coming soon! And so far I like it. If you didn't like this chapter, I think the next one will definitely make up for it! Or at least i think so!

Bishojo Beauty