When Heart Rules Over Mind
The begining of the end
"Help!" The front door rattled with the desperate bangs from Vincent's sudden visitor.
Vincent, still only dressed in pants, looked up from the sink, rubbing his wet face clear before allowing his senses to become fully alert.
The banging continued, harder.
In a second Vincent was at the door. He cast the thick latch back in it's sheathe and pulled the door open.
A frantic looking stranger was standing in the doorway, breathless in the way he panted physically, and stuttered in between rasping breaths.
"Oh Thank…God, I…knew someone…from AVALANCHE had to be…here…"
He asked silently for a pause, by temporarily holding his hand up while he caught his breath, allowing his head to droop as he gulped in air.
Vincent watched the man cautiously. The flame red hair struck a chord of his memory. He could not remember the fellow's name, yet he remembered him from this place when they came here during their journey.
The stranger raised his head once more.
Johnny"It's my girlfriend –" He paused, shaking his head while he blinked. "I don't care how pathetic that sounds to you, all you need to know is that there is a helpless woman out there," he motioned behind him, to the grassy plains in the distance outside Costa Del Sol's main entrance not far away. "And she needs help."
Vincent did not trust this man at all. Johnny was a name Tifa had trusted, as Vincent recalled. That must give him some credit. And having the knowledge to come here must have meant he knew of AVALANCHE, and Tifa, which proved they knew each other once.
"Don't look at me like that." Johnny started up with, seeing Vincent's cold glare that un-known to him, was how Vincent tended to look at everybody he didn't know or regard. "I know it seems fishy, me coming here, but Tifa's is near the other side of the frickin island. I'm just thankful to God someone is in here. I was hoping for the Cloud guy, but you'll do."
Vincent definitely didn't like this guy now. Was he implying his own defence before he even needed it? That must mean he was hiding something. But then again, AVALANCHE were not exactly quiet in the media's eye. It was common knowledge this villa was AVALANCHE property.
Regardless, Vincent could see the man's desperation was genuine. He was as pathetic as he remembered, and Vincent wouldn't be surprised if the woman in question that he was agonising over, was the one he had been seen with during their first meeting, months back.
"Please…" Johnny said, in one last feeble plea.
Vincent could tell it was painful for the man to admit he was not capable of helping the woman he cared about, and took a lot for him to resort to a seemingly stranger's help. Vincent knew that feeling of helplessness all too well.
"Where is she?"
Tifa smiled as she opened the door to her apartment.
"Cloud? Hello? Where are you hiding yourself then?" She called with the same smile, as she chucked her keys on the side kitchen table once she reached it, dumping a brown paper bag of groceries down next to them.
She pulled open the fridge door and nestled her head inside, until her eyes found what she was looking for.
Bingo.
She grabbed the juice carton and unscrewed the lid with haste. She leaned her head back to allow the last dregs to slip down her throat and gasped in contentment once she had finished.
"Ah…now come on Cloud," She began, as she screwed the lid back on and chucked the carton in the bin, one hand still on the fridge door. "If your lazy ass is still asleep on my couch, there'll be hell to pay". The corner of her mouth twitched into a slight grin at her words, just as she prepared to close the fridge door after she selected a yoghurt.
"And don't make me get the ice out. It'll make a good wake up call-" She stopped, her eyes having just fallen on an empty space amongst the items stuck to her fridge.
He'd found their picture.
She closed her eyes and cursed silently before dumping the yoghurt on the kitchen table and heading out of the room, towards the living room's door-less entrance. "Listen Cloud, don't read too much into that picture, it was just something I kept to humour Marlene every time she came – round." She slowed her speech once she saw he was missing from this room also.
"Uh, Cloud?"
Next was the bathroom. Nobody there.
Then, as one last try, she opened the door to her room – and sighed once she saw it was just the way she had left it.
She closed the door with a slow click.
"Cloud where are you?"
Though she hated herself for it, a wave of nausea swam over her instantly.
"Cloud where are you?" Her mouth almost ached from repeating those words so much over the last months. She had asked the empty air of this apartment that very question so many times she had lost count.
Please not again…She shook her head, as she moved back to the living room area and picked up his small bag. He was not physically here right now, but he was back. That was a fact. He had promised not to leave her, and she was over-reacting.
He would leave soon though, if she kept this nervous act up.
She pinched the fabric of the bag gently with care. She could smell him on it, if barely, but it was enough. She lost herself in quiet thought until the phone rang suddenly, causing her to drop the bag to the floor.
She left it to dash to thephone that hung on the kitchen wall.
"Hello?" She asked once the receiver was to her ear at last. Her small hope of it being Cloud was dashed once Miguel's voice rang into her ear.
"Hey Tifa. Listen, you haven't forgotten about this afternoon have you?"
Tifa raised her eyes to the ceiling momentarily and thought mentally 'yes'.
"No, of course I haven't."
"Well then, get your out-of-gear self over here. Sofy has decided to rush off somewhere, and I don't know if I'm facing lunch alone or not. It's quite a frightening thought for a dysfunctional man who doesn't know how to cook."
Tifa regained her smile as she remembered their earlier meeting this morning. Speaking to Miguel would help right now. She could offload her worries whilst getting a smile dealt to her mouth every time he spoke in response.
She leaned her back against the wall as she replied.
"In that case, I'll have to hurry myself over there. A chance to have your mother's kitchen all to myself is a good enough reason in itself, but to think of leaving you alone in there to blow it up is too scary for my guilt-free conscience to take".
She heard his laughter from the other end. "All right then Ms. Lockheart, I'll see you in ten minutes."
Tifa replaced the receiver and picked up her keys once more, shoving them into the back pocket of her jeans.
After a quick change of top, she left dressed in a more comfortable thin strapped mint green one. It showed off her mid-rift, and her neckline, which had a simple silver cross pendant draped around it. She loved it, because it was a gift from Barrett as a building-bridges-after-Cloud gift on her rather turbulent birthday, it gave her hope. She needed that today, even if she was imagining Cloud had left when he so obviously hadn't.
Having locked up, she trundled down the street behind the main tourist strip, and into rural Costan hills area where Miguel was probably having a crisis already where the kitchen was concerned.
Vincent instantly understood Johnny's panic, once the sight of the woman eventually greeted him.
They were a way out from Costa Del Sol, in the grassy plains South of the port. The pair must have been on an innocent stroll, but by the looks of the two beasts probing a small nestle of thick bracken the woman had been placed in, it had turned into nothing short of a nightmare.
"She's in there!" Johnny pointed out obviously, motioning frantically to the bracken.
"I laid her in there after trying my best to keep those things away from her long enough. I couldn't fend them off properly by myself to give me time to treat her, or even carry her away. So I protected her and ran as fast as I could for help. For you."
Vincent steadied himself. Even if he had been fully equipped (which he hadn't had time to do) dealing with two fully experienced Marlboro's would still have been tough seeing as he was alone.
"See to her, and get her out of here." Vincent commanded. "Once I give you the chance."
Johnny nodded and prepared himself, looking frantically between the woman, with the creatures near her, and Vincent.
Vincent needed his Mastered materia right now more than ever. Damn Yuffie to hell.
He braced himself, as he took out a level three fire materia orb and warmed it in his human hand. Within moments of his glare being fixated in heavy concentration on the beasts, he dealt out a deadly attack of flames the licked their way painfully up the first beast's tentacles.
It screeched in horror and turned upon its new toy, the monster beside it doing the same thing – thought still not fully leaving the woman's side.
Vincent could see energy filling up in both beasts. He wasn't equipped with the remedies to deal with their venomous offences.
Fire being the best component he had with him to deal with such earthy beings, Vincent decided to attempt it a second time, now he had chance to attack, though he didn't want to use 'All' in conjunction with it, in case the bracken encasing the injured woman caught alight. Not that he could anyway, due to lack of slots.
He clasped his smooth palm around the bottom of the orb; not having armour with him to have it equipped to, and cupped his gold clasp around the top.
The glare alone that he gave the beast was enough to stun it, and as a plague of Firaga exploded upon it, it became fully engulfed, tentacles flailing in agony. Vincent watched with precision, maintaining full control until the flames withdrew.
During this, Johnny had dragged his girl away from the fray, and was tending to her fallen body.
At least, it would seem that way from a distance…
The injured beast, now fuelled with anger, turned on Vincent instantly, it's partner closing in the ranks.
Soon enough, Vincent was choking in a violent Cloud of Marlboro breath, and he felt his insides churn as his lungs were filled with grit that exploded into spells. He doubled over coughing before raising his newly bloodshot eyes.
This beast was highly evolved, of a high level that Vincent would be surprised he could handle alone, and unequipped. There was one option open to him he thought, as he felt his energy drain with every thrash the next Marlboro inflicted upon his confused, unstable form. The poison was making his eyes burn, with confusion being a private battle for him to overcome long enough to allow him to…to…to what?
His mind clicked.
Transform.
Cloud was stood on an inhabited part of Costan beach. The same part he had been not long ago.
The night he had returned to Tifa.
As he looked to his left at the sun-bathed rocks, he could still imagine the moonlit form of her, standing there alone. Waiting for him.
He sighed as he ran a hand through his blonde hair, the sea breeze whipping his white unbuttoned shirt about him. He wished he hadn't put on his black tank top underneath, now that it made for an annoying suntrap in the afternoon.
But that was the least he should be worrying about.
Who was that guy?
Cloud felt pathetic for wondering, but he couldn't help it. He felt like a kid again, standing back while Tifa was scooped up by some hot shot. Then again, what could he expect? To be able to walk straight back into her life after ten months where Tifa would have been so kind as to have left the door open with a welcome sign for him?
Bullshit.
He moved back to sit on a smooth ledge in the rocky backdrop.
Watching the sun licking the waves was enough to calm him. If only temporarily. He wished he hadn't given away that ring in his temper. She was still a friend. She still deserved to be spoiled.
Cloud sighed again, as he dropped his head into his hands that were propped up on his knee resting elbows.
His thoughts were soon interrupted however by the blaring of his PHS. He jolted alert and fumbled in his pocket for it. Please don't let it be Tifa… he prayed. He had turned the thing on since he got here for that reason, to be on constant call for her.
"Tifa?" He blurted out before he had chance to even consider it being anybody else.
"Um, no. This isn't Tifa, but it is regarding her that I'm calling."
It was a stranger's voice. Cloud cringed and got to his feet, instantly on edge.
"Who the hell is this? What's happened? Where is she?"
"Hold on a second! Look, It's Miguel. You will have heard Tifa mention me? I was with my sister the day you opened the door and she hit you with that pan of hers, because you raised your arm to strike her."
Cloud remembered that, but instantly went on the defensive. "That'snot true at all,I was blocking my eyes from the sun, and anyway, forget about all that, what's happened? Where's Tifa?"
"Cloud, you need to listen to me before you over-react. Tifa's been attacked. She's at her villa, I've only just got here and found her. I found your number on her list, but I had to use my own phone. She must have put hers somewhere, there was no time to look and –"
Cloud clapped the PHS shut and was running before the phone clasp hardly had time to click.
Dylon clicked his phone shut satisfied. That idiot Cloud didn't know Miguel's voice from anyone, it was almost too easy to pull it off. He leaned back in his chair and caught sight of a yoghurt sitting on the table in front of him, a spoon beside it.
"Waste not, want not." He said to himself, before reaching for it. "Here's to you Tifa'" He declared, raising it momentarily as a toast to her. He smirked as he began to eat in, putting up his feet on her table as he sat there, satisfied.
All he and his men had to do now was wait for the hero to come running in and seemingly save the day.
And they would welcome him with open arms, naturally.
Author's Notes
Everything is set up now, for the next chapter. It will be one kick after another when it rolls around to getting updated, so you guys can keep on edge until then! And before you start badgering me saying 'eh?' yes, Dylon is sat in Tifa's house. Yes he did get in there somehow. You work it out! Lol I don't want to spoon feed, because I feel like I'm insulting you, yet when I read stuff, being spoon-fed helps, so I figured I'd put that into Author's Notes. So don't hate me!
Anyways, this chapter was quick to be up, so I hope you guys like it. The next will be good, here's hoping. All my jolly old subplots will come together to be one main constant storyline for a while which may seem like a weird change, seen as I usually skip from here to there throughout my chapters, so I apologise if you all don't like it. But trust me!
R R please!
Xx Jessie xX