A/N: Biggest challenge right now is filling in the blanks between the notes I have… the gap was a lot wider than I had originally expected. Are these author's notes basically me talking to myself at this point? Yes, yes they are.
Final Fantasy VII – Remembrance
Chapter 15 – Hero Complex
Tifa felt uneasy.
Her conversation with Lucrecia had left her with more questions than answers. Answers which she suspected lay within the unread pages of Vincent's journal. And while the scientist had not revealed anything of importance, Tifa had the distinct impression what lay ahead in her reading, and for the future of AVALANCHE, was not particularly encouraging. Even as she dialed a number to get in contact with the Highwind, she continued to ponder over the older woman's words.
"Sorry Miss Lockhart," the main pilot of the Highwind apologized over the PHS. "The others only left the ship maybe fifteen minutes ago. If things go well, they should be back within the hour? I believe their only resistance should be Shinra troops."
"I see…"
Tifa spoke idly while sneaking a glance back at Vincent and Lucrecia. She clearly felt that twisting sense of jealousy in the pit of her stomach this time. There was just something about how familiar the two were with each other that made Tifa wish the reclusive man would be more open with her. The first time he acted recklessly was probably his first encounter with Sephiroth while he was trying to save Aerith. She had not thought about his actions much during that time, but in retrospect, even the slightest bit more communication between herself and the gunslinger might have prevented him from getting as injured as he did. His second instance of running off and trying to shoulder the burden of precognition by himself had ended badly and he had very nearly lost his life. Tifa wished he would trust her to help him more, especially since he was the only person in the fight against Sephiroth that had an inkling of what was to come.
"We'll make our way back to where you dropped us off and wait for you I suppose?" Tifa suggested.
"Sounds good, Miss," the pilot replied. "We'll let you know when Mister Strife and the others get back."
Tifa hung up and found that Vincent was still speaking with Lucrecia. A small frown marred the scientist's face, making Tifa think back on their brief conversation again. Why had the woman seemed so resigned to the events around the world? Just what exactly did she know that Tifa remained ignorant of? She watched as the two embraced, Lucrecia still looking fairly concerned. As Vincent broke away, Tifa turned so as not to be caught eavesdropping. For now, she would wait and continue helping Vincent as best as she could. Hopefully, since he had opened up briefly back on the Highwind, he might be willing to share more in the near future. She could wait.
After all, she was used to waiting.
"Ready?" She asked lightly as the man approached.
Vincent nodded once before closing his eyes and transforming back into Chaos. Tifa glanced back at Lucrecia one last time as she let Chaos pick her up. The older scientist gave her a wave and a small smile. Even at that distance, Tifa could tell that whatever Vincent had spoken to her about had worried her. But whatever the case was, their goals remained unchanged. The fighter braced herself as they took to the skies once again. Her stomach lurched as the ground fell away again and they broke through the low hanging clouds above. They gradually made their way over the mountains that formed the caldera Lucrecia had taken refuge in. However, this time, the beast slowed early and the pair landed on a ledge just past the mountain top. Tifa looked curiously at the sudden stop.
"What's going on?" She asked curiously.
Chaos pointed one clawed finger to the distance. Following the gesture, Tifa looked out towards the horizon and let out a small gasp. In the distance, she could make out the thin, but distinct shape of the Rocket Town rocket taking off towards the sky. A faint roar echoed over the Nibel Mountains and across the grassy plains outside of Nibelheim.
"They… They failed?" She asked nervously.
Chaos shook his head, thought the beast seemed a bit uncertain. Almost at the same time, Tifa's PHS rang again. Seeing that it was the Highwind, Tifa immediately answered.
"What's going on?" She asked worriedly.
There was a faint rumbling in the background as the noise from the rocket leaked through the Highwind's windows.
"Sorry, Miss," the pilot called out. "Mister Strife said they're handling the rocket and Huge Materia. The Captain insisted he went along as well. They took that stuffed toy with them to reduce the weight. The others are heading back to the ship. The Captain and the other two will be taking the escape pod on the rocket once they retrieve the Huge Materia. We're going to be chasing down that pod as soon as we see it on the off chance that something fails and they need rescuing. You and Mister Valentine will have to wait a bit longer."
Tifa let out a small sigh of relief.
"That's fine," she said gratefully. "Thanks for keeping us updated. We'll head for… Nibelheim I suppose… and wait for you there."
"Roger that, Miss," the pilot replied before hanging up.
As she put her PHS away, she glanced up at Chaos who was looking at her with expectation in his eyes.
"It looks like we'll be waiting on the others to escape the rocket with the Huge Materia."
The beast nodded in response, seemingly mollified by that response.
"Let's get down to the ground and head for Nibelheim? No sense waiting around in a grassy field."
Chaos gave another nod before gesturing for her to get in close again. They took off and glided down towards the ground below. As they did, Chaos held his wings out a bit further, tilting them in a way that allowed the two to glide further along the grassy plains, shortening the distance they would need to walk to get to Nibelheim. They touched down about half a mile outside the mountain town and Vincent transformed back.
"Everything is going to plan then?" Tifa asked as they made their way towards the main gate of the town.
Vincent nodded as he caught his breath while following the fighter. A short walk later and they entered the reconstructed Nibelheim once again.
"We've now come full circle, haven't we?" Tifa joked lightly.
The gunslinger merely grunted. Unsurprisingly, there weren't many people out and about. After all, the people living in the town were primarily Shinra employees or unknowing recruits. And now with the end of the world imminent and Shinra completely focused on Meteor, those on Shinra's payroll originally hired to pretend nothing had happened in the mountain town had realized they had more important things to do than pretend to be residents of a place they had no ties to. In fact, the only people likely left were those who legitimately moved to Nibelheim in recent years and knew nothing about the tragedy that occurred here. Feeling a bit uneasy, Tifa rubbed her arms nervously.
"Well… at least no one's pretending this place didn't burn down anymore?" She said questioningly.
Vincent frowned as he looked around town.
"I think short of replacing all the buildings, this will never stop being a strange sight to those who know what happened," he replied with shrug.
"I guess," the young woman sighed before stepping towards the recreation of her house. "Let's wait here for now, I guess."
Vincent glanced at the doorway momentarily.
"Are you sure about this?" He asked before joining her.
Tifa didn't reply as she stepped inside looking around. She ran her hands across a few of the paintings hanging on the wall before wandering into the kitchen.
"You know, we didn't spend a lot of time looking around Nibelheim the first time we were here," she said slowly as her eyes trailed over every surface. "But it's really scary how accurate the recreation is. Even the little burn mark on the kitchen counter from when I tried to make dinner as a kid is there…"
The ex-Turk let out a sigh as he sat down at the dinner table.
"I heard rumors when I was in the Turks that this town was primarily designed to be a test space for Shinra," he said tentatively.
Tifa turned sharply at this.
"What do you mean?" She demanded urgently.
The gunslinger sighed as he closed his eyes.
"Did you ever wonder why there was a lab integrated into the basement of the mansion? There were rumors from the other specialized groups that this entire town was initially set up so that they could secretly run experiments on those who lived in the town. One black ops group even had a rumor that the entire population of the town was replaced some twenty years before I was even born and it was simply chalked up to a horrific monster attack. After, they would simply entice more people to settle down. If you recall, my last job as a Turk was to provide security for the scientists who were running experiments in the manor on pieces of Jenova…" his shoulders slumped at the memory. "So it's not out of the question that Shinra would run experiments on the townspeople themselves. My guess is they had regular surveys of the town so that if they ever needed to rebuild it, they could do so quickly."
Tifa was silent for a long while after that explanation.
"I see," she said quietly.
She walked shakily to the doorway out of the kitchen area.
"I-I'll be in my… room…" she stuttered. "I just need a moment to myself."
Vincent nodded and allowed her to leave, not meeting her eyes. Perhaps he regretted telling her that rumor, but in that moment Tifa didn't want to contemplate it. Just like in Mideel, there was an uneasy feeling building within her chest. Her instincts warned her something was amiss, though about what she could not tell. With every step she took up the familiar steps of her recreated house, it grew. No matter how good Shinra's surveillance was, there were small things that she could pick out that confirmed this house was definitely not the one she grew up in. The second stair from the bottom did not squeak like it did when she would run down for breakfast as a child, the periodic bumps and whorls on the handrail felt different, even if they were in the right spots. She found herself standing in front of her bedroom door, perfectly recreated like everything else in the town. Her heart beat just a bit faster as she gripped the handle.
Then she stepped inside.
Tifa stood there for a moment, simply staring in wonder at her room. It was simultaneously her room and not her room. She took a step inside, her eyes wandering across the windows of the room, wondering just when Shinra had gotten such a highly detailed view of the room. Realizing they could have been watching her at any time, the young woman shuddered lightly and rubbed her arms uncomfortably. She could feel repressed memories about the Nibelheim fire pushing at the edge of her consciousness, wanting to be recalled. Thinking back on that event, she realized how little she knew of the world and what it truly meant to go up against Sephiroth.
In that small moment, she paused, a thought coming to mind.
Was she not doing exactly the same as her younger self now? Weren't they all charging headlong towards Sephiroth, an enemy whose strength AVALANCHE still had no real grasp on? Except for Vincent, of course – he knew what was to come but was being stubbornly quiet about it all. Tifa clutched her chest painfully as her heart rate increased. Her breath quickened and her vision narrowed as she wondered once again if they were remotely prepared to face a Sephiroth who had been gathering energy for several years at this point.
Dropping her bag, she sat down hard on her recreated bed, resting her face in her hands. For several minutes, she simply breathed deeply, pretending she actually was in her old room. Her efforts to block out the knowledge that everything was a highly elaborate fake resulted in some relief as she began to gather her thoughts. She thought back on what she had read in Vincent's journal and compared it to what they had been through. While some events had seemed similar, the timeline had definitely been accelerated. And while some of it had been due to unpredictable behavior on Shinra's part, a large factor in the rapid progression of events had been Vincent's guidance. The team did not waste days trying to figure out how to get into the Temple of the Ancients, nor had they spent additional time looking for Cloud when he fell into Lifestream.
'Maybe… by doing things quicker, we can prevent Sephiroth from absorbing more power from Lifestream?' She reasoned to herself as she lay back on surprisingly clean sheets.
She lay there for a while, her eyes closed as she found a bit of comfort in the replica of her home. When she had calmed down, she sat up and pulled out Vincent's notebook and began to play catch-up with recent events, even going forward a bit to read about what was to come. Much of what was written, Vincent had already told her. With some luck, Cloud and the others would be successful in retrieving the last Huge Materia. And while the rocket would not have the same deadly payload, it would still serve to buy the Planet some much needed time since Meteor would need to repair itself. Once Midgar had set up, AVALANCHE would be prepared to stop the Sister Ray after gaining access to North Crater. All it would require were some simple questions to have Cait Sith look into Shinra's activity and they would easily be directed towards Midgar.
'But…'
Tifa placed a palm on the page leading to future events, feeling the old paper as it rustled under her touch. Initially, Vincent had been reluctant to let her read further for fear of drastically altering events. And in spite of that, unexpected events had still occurred. Vincent had hinted that they were close to the end of their journey, which was likely the reason he had been willing to reveal the group's ideal direction and future events in Midgar. AVALANCHE was in no position to interfere with things happening in Midgar at any rate.
'What's the harm in knowing more then?'
Ever since that first conversation in the valley within the Nibel Mountains, she had promised to refrain from reading ahead. The one time she peeked, it was on a fairly benign event. She knew that this would not be the case anymore, not this close to the end. But as she sat there in that replica of her room, she came to a simple realization. They either won or they lost, there was no middle ground possible at this point. And as she stared down at the book, a singular thought wormed its way into her mind.
'If it keeps everyone safe, I don't care what eventually happens in Vincent's vision. I want to know more about what we're going up against.'
Feeling a small thrill of excitement and suspense, she turned the page.
…
Vincent had been dozing in the kitchen downstairs, tired from the flight to and from Lucrecia's cavern. With little else to do but wait for the Highwind, he had looked over his rifle one last time before closing his eyes to rest. However, it was hardly a restful break as his mind went over his most recent conversation with Tifa. A small part of him felt guilty for mentioning the rumors surrounding Nibelheim to Tifa, but at the time it had simply slipped out as a part of the conversation. It had been the only reasonable conclusion based on what he had heard about the town, yet he still felt bad for bringing it up. And so he simply sat there with his eyes closed, allowing his body to recover while his mind continued to ponder over the current situation.
'You should believe in that Cetra girl,' Chaos chided from the depths of Vincent's mind.
The gunslinger did not reply for a while. The demon grumbled at this, knowing he could not sway his host on the matter.
'How are the others?' He asked instead.
The purple demon rumbled as he checked in on his roommates.
'They appear better,' he finally concluded. 'None of us are fit for combat, mind you. Just flying over that mountain was hard enough. It'll be a few days before I can even fight efficiently. I don't know about them.'
Vincent sighed internally.
'Since AVALANCHE has forced Shinra's hand quicker than in that vision, I suspect they'll have already started moving the Sister Ray,' Vincent reasoned. 'We should have a few days to recover and prepare to intercept Shinra.'
'We'll face Hojo again,' Chaos reminded the man.
Vincent stayed silent. Eventually, the demon faded from his thoughts, leaving the man alone in that small kitchen. A little over an hour later, he opened his eyes as he heard Tifa's PHS ring. With a sigh, he stood from the table. Most likely the Highwind had finally picked up Cloud and the others from their escape pod after its reentry and subsequent cool down period. He frowned when the tone continued to ring out, confused that the fighter had not answered. He ascended the stairs just as the tone stopped. Pausing at her door, he noticed there was no sound inside just before her PHS rang again.
"Tifa?" He called out. "Are you awake?"
There was a light shuffling sound and the PHS was answered.
"Sorry," came a muffled voice. "I… I must've dozed off."
Vincent nodded idly as he waited for Tifa to finish the phone call. When she had hung up, there were a few more shuffling sounds before the door opened.
"Are they ready for us?" Vincent asked in a conversational tone.
"Yeah."
He looked down curiously. There was something in the young woman's voice that seemed different than before, but he could not place it.
"Are you feeling alright?" He asked in concern.
"Yeah," came the same dull response.
The fighter began to descend the stairs. Vincent followed a few steps behind her.
"Sorry about… the Nibelheim rumors," he spoke up when it seemed that something was bothering Tifa. "It was just something I heard when I worked for the Turks. I should have kept it to myself, but it made almost too much sense after what happened with Sephiroth."
Tifa paused at the door to her recreated home.
"It's fine," she replied simply. "It was just a bit much to take in."
They left the house in silence. Despite his apology, Vincent could not shake the feeling something was wrong. Tifa looked fine, if a bit tired, but her responses had seemed more subdued than usual. He continued pondering this change as they watched the Highwind land in the fields outside Nibelheim. Tifa boarded ahead of him, likely going to find Cloud to see if anyone had been injured during their impromptu space flight. Shaking his head slightly, he followed her aboard.
'She seemed shaken,' Chaos commented idly, watching the world through his host's eyes.
'The idea that one's hometown may have been completely artificial is a hard one to swallow,' Vincent responded as he made his way to the main cockpit.
He entered the spacious room and glanced around. Noticing someone missing, he turned Cait Sith who was standing near the doorway.
"Where's Cid?" He asked, a bit concerned by the pilot's lack of presence.
The toy bounced, looking genuinely happy to see Vincent.
"Oh, he's just in his room resting," the cat chirped. "Broke his leg pretty badly on that old rocket. We fixed it up with a Cure, but he's still limping a bit. Good thing Shera was there, otherwise we might've blown something up trying to help him!"
"Say that again?" Vincent asked, not quite remembering that bit of danger.
The cat nodded eagerly.
"Cid took a while to remember the password in the hold area and when we were getting out, one of the oxygen tanks exploded! It hit Cid pretty hard and trapped him underneath. The two of us couldn't lift it without hurting Cid further, so Cloud wanted to use our Enemy Skill Materia to attack the tank and quickly knock it off Cid. Lucky for us, Shera had sneaked onto the rocket to do maintenance when she heard Shinra was going to use it and stopped us from attacking the tank. She said if we had, we could've caused the tank to burst and potentially damage the rest of the tanks, which would've caused the rocket to explode!"
The robot was surprisingly chipper while talking about their near death experience. Vincent felt the same bit of worry that had been plaguing his thoughts worm its way back into his mind. He hated the feeling, both the uncertainty of the Cetra and the unpredictability of their impending battle. Originally Cid had been trapped under scrap metal when the oxygen tank had failed, pushing the tank's protective casing outwards. It seemed like this time around the entire tank had fallen out of its holder, trapping Cid under a much heavier piece of equipment. This was yet another deviation that could have derailed their entire mission. He found himself wondering if the Cetra had been watching that particular event.
"Lucky Shera was there, then," Vincent chose instead to say, pushing his worries down for the time being. "What about Meteor?"
The robot drooped a bit at this.
"It was damaged badly thanks to the rocket, but without a payload the impact was drastically reduced," he reported. "The rocket managed to break off maybe an eighth of the total mass, which Meteor immediately started to draw back onto itself."
At this point, Cloud strode over after finishing up with Tifa.
"Speaking of the Meteor," the swordsman interrupted. "Any word from Shinra? Are they monitoring it?"
Cait Sith nodded a bit at this.
"The scientists estimated that we managed to buy an extra week based on how slow the repair is proceeding," he recited. "They've also come to the additional conclusion that Sephiroth is continuously channeling power through the Black Materia in order to keep Meteor from breaking into smaller chunks. He's likely distracted by all the activity and Shinra thinks this is a prime time to attack him."
Vincent let out an internal sigh as Cloud huffed in relief.
"Good," he said with a firm nod. "We'll need all the help we can get, even if it's going to be the unwitting help of Shinra."
He then turned to the gunslinger, glancing at the new rifle slung across the man's back..
"How are you doing, Vincent?" He asked worriedly as his eyes traveled to the wrapped stump of Vincent's left hand. "Is that gun sufficient? Can you shoot with one hand?"
"It has significant firepower," the gunslinger replied simply. "I've figured out a way to fire it."
He demonstrated by propping the stock of the rifle against his left bicep and right shoulder, showing the man that he could still aim and cock the heavy hammer back with one hand. He performed a dry fire, letting the unique revolver barrel of the rifle rotate with a click before slinging the gun across his back again.
"I should be fine for now. The arm will have to wait," he concluded.
Cait Sith hopped up and down as he inserted himself back into the conversation.
"I sent Reeve an image of the arm when it was destroyed. He thinks he might have found something compatible! If we can find a way to sneak into Shinra, then he could get you patched up!"
Vincent looked down at the robot, a thoughtful expression on his face as he considered this new information. It would certainly derail things, but the benefits likely outweighed any potential risks involved.
"It might be a good way to gather intel as well," Vincent muse. "Cloud, do we have any definitive plans now that we have the Huge Materia?"
The man shook his head.
"Red mentioned that we could store them in his grandfather's observatory, we were going to go and get his opinion on things as well. We could set a course so that we passed through Midgar first instead."
He paused for a moment.
"You two will need to remain incognito though," he added thoughtfully. "Our faces are well known to Shinra at this point and you'd be infiltrating their base by yourselves. Even if Cait Sith could get you into the building you'd still need to be cautious."
Vincent agreed to this.
"Please let me know when we arrive then," he requested as he turned to leave the main deck.
"Ah, one second," Cloud called out as he followed Vincent outside the room.
He waited as the sliding door closed behind them. Vincent looked curiously at his leader, wondering what the blonde wanted to talk about in private.
"Did something happen during your trip?" He asked worriedly. "Tifa sounds a bit… down."
The ex-Turk sighed briefly before filling Cloud in on his suspicion. As he expected, the swordsman looked just as disturbed as Tifa did when he mentioned his theory about why Nibelheim was created.
"Personally, I might've been happier never knowing that," the blonde admitted after a moment. "But to be honest, after seeing the town recreated like that, I had already guessed something fishy was going on involving Shinra. That amount of detail isn't just done on a whim, you know?"
Vincent nodded solemnly as Cloud shrugged.
"Well, thanks for telling me anyway," he said as moved back towards the door. "Everyone's pretty exhausted from recent events, myself included, so I'll let the pilots and the others know about our current plans."
With that, Cloud left, allowing Vincent to return to his room. After dropping his bag at his desk and removing his cloak, Vincent sat down on his bed with a sigh.
'You lucked out with that arm fix. You know as well as I do that missing an arm would only hinder you against Sephiroth,' Chaos pointed out idly.
'Hopefully getting the arm from Reeve won't be too difficult. Everyone could use a small break,' Vincent added.
He leaned back and was just beginning to fall asleep when there was a light knock on the door. Opening his eyes and looking over at the door curiously, he pushed himself up with a groan and strode over. In the doorway was Tifa. Her head was slightly lowered and she had a troubled look on her face.
"Is something the matter?" He asked concernedly.
"Can… can we talk for a moment?" She asked quietly.
Wondering what this was about, Vincent gestured for the girl to enter the room. She sat down by the desk but did not speak. Instead, she chewed her lip and looked anywhere but at Vincent.
"Is this about Nibelheim?" Vincent finally asked when it was apparent the girl was hesitating.
She shook her head. With a sigh, Vincent sat down at the bed and waited. A moment later, she finally spoke.
"Were you ever going to tell me?"
The gunslinger tilted his head in confusion.
"About Nibelheim…?" He started uncertainly.
"That I died."
The silence that ensued was almost palpable.
"Why?" He finally asked.
Tifa's head jerked up as she glared at him angrily. There were small tears in her eyes.
"What do you mean, why? We're about to go up against Sephiroth! Didn't you think I might want to know everything possible about the fight?" She growled in frustration. "You said it yourself, very little will likely change with regards to Shinra at this point! Why wouldn't I try to prepare for the final confrontation?"
She glared at him, her eyes demanding an answer. Internally, Vincent heard Chaos sigh as he tried to put his worries into words.
"I… I didn't want that knowledge to cloud your judgment about this fight…" he replied hesitantly.
"Like it's done to you?" Tifa immediately sniped back.
Vincent remained silent. Deep down he knew she was right.
"Was this why you didn't want me reading ahead?" She asked after composing herself a bit.
"Partially," was all he could say.
The room descended into silence once more.
"So I'm going to die at the end of this road?" Tifa tried again in a deceptively casual tone.
Vincent's head snapped up at this.
"No," he said firmly. "According to the Cetra Elders, that was an absolute worst case future that I was shown. I didn't see the end of the vision, but we took too long and the combination of Holy and Lifestream wasn't enough to slow Meteor down. With the changes that have occurred to this point, we should be able to beat Sephiroth well before Meteor falling is an issue."
"Worst case…" the woman muttered to herself before addressing Vincent again. "That means even the Cetra don't know how late we were in stopping Sephiroth in that vision, right?"
The gunslinger paused before nodded hesitatingly after considering her point.
"Do you think you've done enough to shift the schedule forward?" Tifa asked in a forced calm.
Vincent did not reply for a while.
"Aerith believes we have," he replied.
"But you don't."
The gunslinger remained silent. Tifa stared accusingly at him.
"I don't know," he finally answered. "But I don't want delays potentially putting us back on track for that scenario."
This was apparently the wrong response as a fire ignited in Tifa's eyes.
"You don't think that you nearly getting yourself killed would've been a little detrimental to our mission? For gods' sake Vincent, you went up against Sephiroth on your own!"
And just like that, Vincent's paranoia about the projected future spilled forward.
"Sephiroth threatened to kill Cloud and Yuffie back in Mideel!" He bit out in frustration. "You saw how Yuffie was when we found Cloud, she was in no shape to fight whatsoever! He knocked you out, but he could've just as easily killed you! I had to protect them! What else was I supposed to do?"
Clenching her fists in her lap, Tifa stood her ground.
"Anything but going it alone!" She countered. "Why didn't you get help? Anyone could've given you support!"
"Or they would've gotten killed. If I screw something up and someone dies, Sephiroth becomes practically impossible to stop! We need everyone in this!" Vincent protested.
The look Tifa gave him was one of complete pity.
"Vincent…" she started with an incredulous tone in her voice. "You're part of that same group… don't you think we'd be just as hard pressed to beat Sephiroth without you?"
The man did not respond. With a disgusted huff, Tifa stood and stomped over to the door in a temper.
"You're just one man, Vincent," she said from the doorway. "There's no way you can change the future by yourself. Maybe you don't want to tell people about those visions because of some contrived reasons, but you're also not going to succeed by shouldering everything and keeping people in the dark."
She gave him one last angry glare.
"Get your shit together, Vincent. We can't do this without you."
And then she left, slamming the door behind her. Vincent was left alone in his room, the soft hum of the engines the only sound that remained. He exhaled harshly in frustration and threw himself back onto his bunk. Why could she not see that everything he did was for the survival of the team? He was merely an accessory to the necessary defeat of Sephiroth. Their success depended on the health and survival of the other members. His efforts were minimalistic at best in the vision, after all.
'Do you really think them to be a group of people who would simply sit back and let someone do all the work?' Chaos asked shrewdly.
In his irritation, Vincent chose to ignore the demon. It persisted without waiting for a response.
'You and I both know how much things have changed in this timeline compared to the worst case scenario. You haven't been ignored by your teammates this time around. If anything, they trust you almost as much as they trust Cloud at this point. Do you really think you're as expendable as you might have been in that vision?'
Again, Vincent did not respond. Instead he turned towards the wall and forced himself to sleep. Grumbling in discontent, the demon let him be.
…
"So in summary, we bought ourselves a bit more time by hitting Meteor with the rocket, even if there was no payload aboard," Cloud explained to the gathered people.
The man noticed both Tifa and Vincent were not present, but chose not to comment on it. He knew they had gone over some heavy things in their little detour and he had conveniently already told them the basics of the meeting earlier.
"We'll be dropping Vincent and Cait Sith off at Midgar so they can perform some intelligence gathering while fixing Vincent's arm," he continued. "Then we'll be heading to Cosmo Canyon to store the Huge Materia and speak with Bugenhagen about our current goals. If anyone has any suggestions on training or where to find stronger Materia, now would be a great time to get some extra stuff done."
Barret raised his hand.
"It might be tough, but I think we should hunt down that WEAPON that attacked Mideel when you were out of commission," the man suggested. "It's too dangerous to leave flyin' around. And Shinra sure ain't gonna hunt it down."
Cloud nodded at this.
"From what you guys told me, it was tough but skittish. Perhaps we can chase it down with the Highwind?" He asked looking over to Cid.
The old pilot snorted in derision.
"There's nothing this old girl can't catch," he boasted.
"Detour to Wutai if we have time?" Yuffie asked meekly.
This caused a few raised eyebrows. Seeing Cid about to comment on this decision, Cloud cut off any protests prematurely.
"Of course, I promised we'd do that if we had a break. Now is as good of a time as any. Let's see if we can do it after hunting down that WEAPON?" He suggested.
The others looked curiously at the man. He was clearly referring to something the two of them had talked about while inside Lifestream so no one asked any further questions.
"If that's all, try to grab some rest, we'll be reaching Midgar soon and after that we'll likely be in for a rough fight with the WEAPON."
The group dispersed and Cloud approached the young girl who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
"Hey," he greeted a bit awkwardly.
Yuffie looked up in surprise as a bit of a flush bloomed across her face.
"Uh… hey," she replied. "I didn't get a chance to say this before we ran off to Rocket Town but… uh… thanks for… uh… everything, I guess."
The man grinned at this.
"We helped each other out," he reminded her.
"R-Right…" the girl stammered in return.
She fidgeted nervously in that silence.
"A-And thanks for agreeing to stop by Wutai… I think the others found it weird…" she said suddenly.
Cloud could not help but smile at the girl's current behavior.
"A promise is a promise," he shrugged. "Take care of yourself during the fight, okay? Your old man doesn't need to be wondering why you're severely injured when you show up in Wutai."
The girl scowled slightly.
"Not like he'll care," she muttered.
Cloud sighed and folded his arms.
"Nevertheless, he's your father, remember?" He chided.
Yuffie looked away, recalling Leviathan's warnings.
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled.
The blonde took a seat next to the smaller girl and placed a hand over one of hers.
"I'll be with you so you just focus on telling your father what you want, okay?" He asked.
"It's not that simple," Yuffie groused. "I want to challenge the Pagoda. It's the only way I can prove to him that I'm not the same spoiled brat I was before."
Cloud gave a small laugh.
"You'll do just fine."
The girl looked sadly at her hands.
"How do you know that," she asked miserably.
The man reached over and turned her head towards his. When she reluctantly looked at him, he leaned in and gave her a light peck on the lips, enjoying how her eyes immediately widened and her face quickly flushed.
"Because you're you, of course," he said with a smirk.
Then he stood and left the room just as the girl unfroze and let out an undignified squawk behind him.
…
A few hours later the Highwind touched down on the outskirts of Kalm. It was as close to Midgar as the pilot was willing to go for fear of drawing unwanted attention from any troops that might be on the lookout for AVALANCHE. Cait Sith bounced off the ship and began making his way towards the gated wall in the distance, dressed in a familiar large overcoat, sunglasses, and hat. Vincent might have questioned the decision run off ahead, but he was still rather distracted from his earlier conversation. He only noticed something amiss when the Highwind left and he heard a second pair of footsteps behind him. Turning around, he could only stare wide-eyed in shock when he found Tifa trailing behind him. She stared back, a challenging look in her eyes.
"Why?" Vincent finally eked out having nothing better to say.
Tifa scowled at this. She marched up to him and poked him hard in the chest.
"You listen here, mister," she growled. "You're not the only person who cares about the Planet! You let me know about these visions so it's about damn time you trusted me to help you!"
With a huff, she whirled and marched off towards the city in the distance. Vincent was left behind standing still in the rocky field.
'She's right you know?' Chaos muttered softly.
Vincent could not muster up the will to retort as he followed after the fighter.
…
A/N: Shorter chapter, but thanks for reading anyway.
…
Omake 15:
Cid groaned as he blinked stars out of his eyes. As he tried to move, a sharp pain lanced through his leg, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Cid!" came Cloud's concerned voice. "Don't move, we'll get that off you!"
Looking around with blurry eyes, the old pilot found his leg trapped under a massive oxygen tank. It was one of the final pieces of equipment that was originally installed on the rocket that Shera had not gotten around to performing a check on. He groaned at his luck, guessing that Shinra had probably sent faulty tanks in their rush to reach space. Nearby, Cloud and Cait Sith were struggling to lift the tank.
"Gah!" Cloud panted. "How heavy is this thing?!"
"Well, these tanks were designed to provide air for an extensive space survey…" Cait Sith replied with a shrug.
"Maybe we can try rolling it?" The blonde suggested.
Cid gave a sudden cry of pain as the pressure on his leg shifted and he felt something crack.
"Stop that you moron!" He bit out. "Argh… shit this hurts…"
Cait Sith was bouncing in an agitated manner.
"What do we do…" the cat whined.
"We're not leaving you behind," Cloud stated dramatically. "Stand back, I'll try to blast it off with a spell."
The robot shifted behind Cloud as he prepared to fire off some unknown magic in that enclosed space. Warning bells went off in Cid's head but he was in too much pain to say much. Fortunately, a hand smacked Cloud across the back of the head and he turned in surprise.
"Quit that, you idiot," a familiar voice scolded. "You want to kill us all?"
Standing there was his roommate and technician.
"Shera…" Cid moaned. "Thank god you're here… Help them move this damn thing already…"
The woman strode over, a bit too casually for Cid's liking. She peered down at him, a glint of an indiscernible emotion in her eyes.
"Well, this is a fine pickle you've gotten yourself into," she said with a small smile on her face.
"Shera…" Cid started in a warning tone.
"What was it you said?" Shera wondered aloud in a mocking tone. "Oh right. 'Quit being such a control freak, Shera! Shinra put a shit-ton of money into this project! There's nothing left to check!'"
She stared down at the man with one eyebrow raised.
"And look where we are now," she said with a thin smile. "I wonder if this happened because they skimped on the steel quality. It's amazing this thing made it into space at all."
Cid groaned in both annoyance and pain.
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Just help them get this off me so we can get out of here already."
Shera cocked her head to one side, an innocent look on her face.
"Yes, I could do that," she mused. "But isn't there something you want to say to me first?"
The pilot could only gape.
"After all, you put me through all these years of stress and abuse for basically saving your life…" she trailed off with one finger on her cheek in a thoughtful manner.
"Woman, we are literally going to die if you don't get a move on!" Cid shouted.
Shera shrugged.
"Well, you might. Blondie and the stuffed animal are welcome to join me in the escape pod."
Cloud looked uncomfortable at being put on the spot. Cait Sith's head swiveled between the two nervously.
"Alright! Alright!" Cid relented as the pain in his leg throbbed again. "I'm sorry! I was wrong, dammit!"
The small, kind looking woman gave a bright smile.
"Now was that so hard?" She asked.
The next thing he knew, the others had lifted the oxygen tank enough for him to drag his ruined leg out from underneath. Task finished, Shera turned back to the members of AVALANCHE.
"Now get your asses over to the escape pod. I've already checked it over," she ordered as she strode off.
The three AVALANCHE members were left in the oxygen room, too stunned by the turn of events to move.
"I think I'm in love," Cid finally croaked out.
He only got weird looks from the other two in return.