Chapter 2
The shrill ring of a telephone broke the heavy silence that hung like a shroud over the "Seventh Heaven" bar. A young woman was washing plates and cutlery in a sink downstairs. Her newly cut, shoulder length hair fell around her face as she bowed her head, letting it rest on her chest.
"Cloud isn't here anymore," she said to the phone with a frustrated sigh. It didn't listen. Instead it continued to ring.
"Tifa! Phone!" a girl yelled from upstairs. Tifa let out another sigh and marched up the stairs. If that blasted machine didn't shut up it'd wake Denzel. Hearing a groan from the room on her right, followed by the patter of feet of Marlene rushing to his side, she realised it was too late. Marlene ran past Tifa, giving only a slight nod in her direction to acknowledge her presence.
Bring….
"Where's Cloud?" she heard Denzel say.
Bring….
Tifa squeezed her eyes shut. She hated that question. Her best friend, and she didn't even know his whereabouts.
Bring….
"Alright! Aright! I'm coming you persistent little…" she picked up the phone.
"Strife Delivery Service."
Cloud looked around Sector Seven. This area was one of the first places targeted for reconstruction, and was almost completely restored. If it were up to him, he would have left this place till last as the plate had pretty much destroyed everything, but who was he to decide? Tifa had got her bar back, and a lot of other people had got their homes back too.
He passed Johnny's house. He'd have to visit him some day, but for now, his eyes were set on the Seventh Heaven bar. He had left about two weeks after the dreams had started. Sometimes he'd wake up screaming and the whole house would be awake from him.
He stopped as he got to the wooden stairs leading up to the door. Was he right, coming back here? Why was he even here, what was his reason for coming back? True, he wanted to see Marlene, he missed her, and he was wondering how Denzel was doing too. The poor guy had Geostigma with over a year now. He hadn't heard of anyone who had held on that long. He hadn't even reached the advanced stages of the disease yet. Denzel was fighting so hard. Cloud had to admire the boy's strength of will. Something he had none of….
"Cloud! Cloud, it's three o' clock! Where are you going?" Cloud looked down at one of the orphans. It was a girl, one of the younger ones that had come to live with him and Tifa. He lifted her up and patted her head.
"It's funny when you do that!" she giggled. "It makes my hair all messy, like yours Cloud!" He joined in with her laughter.
"You be a good girl while I'm gone Sinead," he said, setting her down on one of the many tables in the bar.
"Where are you going?" she asked again. Cloud looked at her. Her face held a complete innocent expression, ready to believe anything he gave as an answer. Cloud couldn't possibly lie to a question like that.
"I-" Cloud started. He didn't know where he was going. He just couldn't stay here. He was becoming more of a hindrance than a help recently, and now the dreams…
"Cloudie?" Sinead said, reaching out with her small arms to give him a hug. Cloud accepted gratefully.
"I just need to leave for a while," he whispered in her ear. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He pulled out from her hug and patted her head once more before pushing the door open.
"You'll make Tifa sad."
Cloud froze. He turned around to look at the four year old, now swinging her legs back and forth on the table. Apparently she didn't realise the gravity of what she'd just said. The door slammed back shut, making her jump slightly.
"What?" he asked.
"Tifa will be sad if you go," she repeated, pushing her short brown hair out of her face and fixing the glasses that were sliding down her nose.
Cloud sighed. "Sometimes, you have to make people sad so you can do what's right."
"Are you sad Cloud?"
Again, Cloud found he couldn't answer.
"It's okay," she continued with a smile. "We all get sad. Maybe you're going away so you can find how to be happy."
Cloud returned the smile.
"Maybe. I'll see ya kid." He opened the door again and walked outside into the night.
He wondered how Tifa would react to seeing him. Probably a beat rush limit break to his unsuspecting jaw. It had happened before.
Stop joking yourself. She'll be delighted to see you. Just steel yourself and walk through the damn door!
Cloud couldn't help hesitating. No matter how powerful his strength of reason was, negative thoughts couldn't stop entering his mind, drowning out every ounce of common sense he had left. The "what ifs" were his worst enemies. No, he wasn't ready to go back yet. The way he was feeling now, he'd only cause more unrest in the place than anything.
Cloud's mobile phone started to ring. He took it out and looked at the caller ID.
Tifa!
She had put in her number herself, and added the exclamation mark as her own "touch of individuality."
Can she see me? he thought, wildly looking around. Seeing a brunette coming to one of the windows he darted off, twisting around a corner and sprinting through alleyway after alleyway to get away. Finally he stopped in a particularly dark one and slumped down to catch his breath.
Tifa rang Cloud's number. Reno was offering a pretty good job. Well, the pay was good anyway, so she decided she might as well leave him a message. He hadn't answered his phone to her in the longest time.
A phone started ringing outside. Tifa ignored it for a few seconds before she realised it was the same ringtone as… Cloud! She rushed to the window, just in time to see a figure run round the corner. The black clothes could have been anyone's, but the spiky blonde hair made Tifa believe without a shadow of doubt that it was him.
"What are you doing here Cloud?" she murmured. "Why are you running from me?"
"This is Cloud. I can't reach you right now-"
"More like you can't stand talking to me," she said.
"-so please leave a massage after the tone."
"I hate it when you shut me out like this."
Beep.
"Hi Cloud, Tifa here. Reno has a job for you, it's pretty good pay. All you have to do is take something up to the Healin Lodge. I think you should take it." She paused for a moment, wondering what else to say.
"Anyway, I haven't heard from you. How are you?"
Marlene came running into the room. Tifa didn't see her as she was too busy looking out the window, wondering about Cloud.
"Tifa! Denzel's gotten really sick!" She stopped as she saw her with the phone to her ear.
"Who are you talking to?" she asked.
"Uh, Marlene, didn't see you. Who am I talking to? Um, no one really. Just, checking my voice messages, that's all." She gave Marlene a reassuring smile to which Marlene folded her arms, seeing right through her.
"Let's go take a look at Denzel," Tifa said quickly, snapping the phone shut.
"Okie-dokie!" Marlene replied enthusiastically. "When we're finished doing that, can we go to the church? I want to make sure the flower lady's flowers are okay, nobody's touched them in months I'd say by now!"
"Aeris," she said sadly, playing with the ribbon on her left arm absentmindedly.
"Tifa," she said in a sing-song voice. "Can we go?" She pulled a sad face. "Pleeeeeaze?"
"Not today, but the day after tomorrow. I'm too busy at the moment."
"Not to busy to obsess over Cloud with every passing second!" Marlene jeered, hopping out of the room. "See you in the room, Nurse Tifa!"
Tifa laughed in shock.
"I do not," she protested weakly. Tifa followed Marlene but stopped at the doorframe. Looking back, she gazed outside into the gathering dusk.
"Stay safe Cloud," she whispered.
Cloud knew that sitting in a cold dark alleyway was not a clever place to decide to think about what just happened but he wasn't one for rational thinking these past few days. That had been far too close. A part of him wished he'd stayed, at least then he could have faced her and it would be over with by now. His instinct had just taken over when he heard his phone ring. But why was his instinct to run? He knew Tifa better than anyone on Gaia. If he couldn't talk to her about how he was feeling, how could he talk to anyone? Was he really alone now?
"What are you doing lying in the gutter?"
He looked up. His eyes widened and he felt his breath catch in his throat. It was her, everything he knew about her, her clothes, her hair, her eyes…
She shook her head, and the bangs in front of her eyes danced with her movement.
"You're going to catch a cold if you stay there," she warned. "Or even pneumonia." She looked around. "The place is kinda dirty. You could get worse diseases." She looked back at him and winked. "You starting to understand now?"
"Aeris," Cloud said in disbelief. She reached out her hand.
"Come on, let's go someplace warmer. If you want I'll even help you up." She laughed, the gentle sound carrying through Cloud's ears like wind chimes. "Or are you to macho for me to help you?"
"How?" he asked. "You… died, over two years ago."
"Does it really matter? I'm here now, isn't that what you want? Isn't it what you've always wanted?" Cloud nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
She emphasised her extended arm. "Let's go, Cloud." He smiled and reached his hand up to her.
Another wave of pain was unleashed on his left arm, and he dropped it immediately. He looked up again, but Aeris was nowhere to be seen. Clutching his left arm, he curled into himself. It was pure agony, far worse than earlier. Looking at his arm, he saw skin had split and it was starting to bleed. He could feel his pulse beating out the blood from the wound with each pump. The skin around it was dry, black and flaking, and he really should have noticed it then, but the pain wasn't letting him think of much else. He untied the bow on the ribbon and gripped it tightly in his arm. The bloodstained ribbon was the last thing he saw before he let darkness swallow him.
Author's note: As requested by my lovely kind reviewer, I'm going to put more Advent Children scenes in it, but not all my chapters are going to be structured around the movie like this one, in fact, the next chapter, which I am almost finished, has no Advent Children scenes like this at all. I'm finally getting into it, so hopefully the chapters will be posted faster. Thanks for reading, reviewers are always welcome!
L.C.
Shouts to:
crimson queens: Thanks for the advice! As I said earlier, I'm going to take it and add a few more scenes of AC into it. It's marked for spoilers, so what the hay! Thanks for reviewing!
