Author's Note (from May 6, 2009):
To the readers who have been reading this story, I have found a wonderful beta reader: Alexis4. The first three chapters has been corrected, but you don't have to go back and read them all over again. From now on, the rest of the chapters will be read before putting them up. Although, I made changes in chapter 1... So to my only reviewer, imaginedreams22, I took out about the info on Yuffie because the first chapter is supposed to be about the red Lifestream. The thing about Yuffie was too much in the beginning so I took it out. You'll see it again in chapter 8, with some little changes to it so don't get confuse about it when the time comes. XD
Thanks for your reviews that you have taken the time to write them!
Chapter 4: The Headband
The girl in the black cloak ran out of the forest and tripped after running too much. She breathed heavily for air and sat up. "Man…" she rubbed her forehead, which had hit the ground when she fell.
"Where do you think you're going, Yuffie?" an emotionless voice asked.
Yuffie jumped and quickly stood up. She turned and looked at the disappointed Kiku. "Ah! Chrysanthemum Kiku! Uh… I…" Yuffie played with her fingers, eyes looking away from Kiku's stare.
"Why did you call the Zetsumei for?" Kiku inquired, crossing her arms.
"I couldn't control it," Yuffie protested, removing her hood. Her short hair is white and her eyes are bright pink. She had gray skin, but her right eye had a darker gray mark over it. She was not wearing her headband. "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me. Then when they saw the people in that little village… they couldn't stop coming all at once! I… They wouldn't listen so I… I ran all the way out here!"
Kiku sighed. "I guess I understand, since you're still a rookie."
Yuffie nodded. "Uh-huh, that's right!"
"But you must remember who and what you are," Kiku narrowed her eyes at her. "You're an Undead. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be 'alive' and walking around like you are right now."
She nodded slowly. "I know… but… I saw my friends… Are they dead? Why are they in the Lifestream?"
"That information is not neccessary for someone like you to know," she said, tilting her head to the side, glaring at Yuffie. "From now on, don't leave Devi's side. She will aid you through our plans." She walked past Yuffie, who was silent. "Come on. We have some other important stuff to take care of."
Yuffie bit her lower lip, feeling powerless. She took a deep breath and jumped on Kiku's back. "I'm tired! Will you carry me back, then?" she asked, smiling.
Kiku's vein appeared. The longer Yuffie had her arms around her neck, the more the vein enlarged. She forcefully pulled herself away from Yuffie. "Don't do that again!" she said.
She laughed and pulled her arm. "Aw, come on!"
"No!" Kiku rushed away. Yuffie pouted and followed her. She tripped again. Kiku turned to look at her. "…" she glared at her for being such a klutz. "It's not like we're going to walk all the way back."
Yuffie struggled to get on her feet. Her head started to hurt. Faint memories were coming to her mind but all was too dark to know what they were. She remembered noticing Aerith, but she did not remember Aerith's name. All she knew was that she was Aerith's friend. She remembered seeing Vincent when he was running after her. In her heart, she knew these people were her friends but no names or memories would come to support that instinctive knowledge. She wanted to remember her friends. Her thoughts started to cloud up and she fell back down on the ground.
Kiku walked to her and kneeled down. Yuffie was unconscious. "The past…" Kiku sighed. "…is something you must forget as an Undead… Yuffie Kisaragi."
Pitying her, Kiku touched her right eye. The same red Lifestream glowed out of her eyes and she grasped the little glow in her hand. She held it in front of her and softly blew it over Yuffie's body. The red Lifestream covered over her body and then disappeared.
"That should help you to stop thinking about your past for a long while."
Kiku stood back up and looked back at the forest. "…What's bothering me so much?" she asked herself. She could feel a familiar energy all the way from the Firefly Light Village. It just started calling out to her. Her right eye started to feel very warm and she covered it. "I should go back and check again…"
She looked at Yuffie. She would go back after Yuffie woke up.
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Dinner was over. Tifa and Aerith were doing the dishes as the some of the guys sat in the living-like room. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, and Lazard came in time for dinner and were now outside, doing their own things. The people had gone to sleep after eating, but some helped out with the dishes as well. Sephiroth and Vincent went somewhere else, but no one ask about them.
Theris walked towards the village. She heard the voices of men ahead of her. One asked, "Hey, who are you?"
She looked up and saw the three guys who all had silver hair. She sighed, feeling crappy. Ignoring them, she walked the other way. Then she was stopped as the bigger man with the short hair jumped in front her.
"Want me to blow up your head?" she glared.
"There are a lot of strange things going on around here," Loz grinned. "We asked you kindly already. We're just making sure you're an ally."
"I'm not," she said. She pushed him with her arm, walking away. "Go back to your stupid mom and ask her how to approach people with kinder smiles."
"Hey!" Loz grabbed her shoulder. "Don't talk about my mother like that!"
She moved away from his reach, giving him a death glare. "And learn not to touch a lady!" she angrily said, pissed. "Your stupid mom didn't teach you anything? Huh?!"
Kadaj and Yazoo walked by Loz, irritated by her way of talking. "I won't forgive you if you keep badmouthing our mother," Yazoo returned the glare.
"Oh, three men against one little girl," Theris let out a laugh. She glared at him, her hand glowing and a bomb appeared in her hand. "I'll teach you three something that your dumbass mother didn't."
Kadaj raised his double blade katana to her face but she did not move. "Keep talking and I will kill you," he warned.
Loz was nearly crying but held back his tears. "Yeah, what he said!" he showed her his fist.
Theris felt her temper rising. She had come back from her little business and was depressed and stressed. Now these boys were only piling up her anger. She grinned. "Fine. I'll relieve some my anxiety on you three." A fire was lit on the bomb and she did not throw it.
"H-Hey!!" Loz backed away, as well as the other two. Was she just going to die with the three of them like this? What an insane girl! More importantly, how did she get that bomb?
"Time for a big blast!" she laughed evilly, entertaining her self. The guys were stupid enough to back away so fast because she could keep the bomb from exploding until she wanted it to. She only made it look like she wanted to die with them, but waited until they move away so she could throw it. She eyed Loz and threw it towards him.
A gunshot fired in the air. The bullet had hit the bomb before hitting Loz and not harming any of the foursome. They heard a sigh and turned to it. It was Vincent. His put Cerberus aside and he looked disapprovingly at the hotheaded girl who was throwing her temper around. "This isn't the place for a fight," Vincent said, narrowing his eyes.
Theris spat to her left and glared at Vincent. "You shouldn't butt into fights, spooky cape," she said. She held her hand up and a glow came out of her hand. She was really going to start a fight. All these men were annoying her.
Tifa, Cloud, Zack, and Angeal stepped out of the house. "What are my sons doing?" Zack questioned. If they were going to start a fight in this village, he would not allow it. The people around them were talking loudly after hearing the explosion a minute ago.
"Shut up about that already, you father wannabe!" Kadaj said, waving his katana around as a warning.
Theris calmed a bit after seeing Zack and the glow in her hand disappeared. "They started it…." she said. If she knew the three guys' father was Zack, she would not have just snapped like that. She met Zack when the three boys were not around so of course she did not know. "But I am sorry about throwing a bomb at one of your sons." She paused. Wait… his sons? How old is he? She thought mentally.
Zack smiled and waved at her. "That's quite all right. They'll survive anyway."
She walks up to him. "So, the three them are your children…?" she asked. He nodded. "…You must have been very young when you had them…"
"We're not related to him in any way!" Kadaj said, furiously pointing his katana at Zack. He quickly walks up to Zack but when he saw Aerith, he hid his katana and smiled at his mother.
Aerith smiled at the group. "The night gets pretty cold around here. You all better come inside."
"That is, IF there is enough room," Genesis walked from behind Aerith, grinning. "This building is an inn, a poor one, and there are about six beds in each room."
"I'll share the same room as Zack," Theris raised her hand in the air.
Vincent noticed what Theris is holding. A strip of black and white cloth. "What is that in your hand?" he asked. It looked like Yuffie's headband.
Theris unfold her hand that held the headband. She glanced at Vincent with a calm face, or trying to look natural anyway. "Nothing really," she replied. "Why?"
"Isn't that Yuffie's?" Tifa wondered out loud. She walked up to Theris. "Hey, it is Yuffie's."
"Do you guys know her?" Theris asked, surprised. She looked at them and a few nodded. "Where is she?"
"That's what we want to know," Cloud said. "Where did you get that?"
Theris held it up in to her eye level. "I found it during all that fighting with the monsters. I notice a figure running away and I tried to follow it…" She turned to Vincent. "You were following that person in black too, right? I chased it after you did, but I couldn't keep up with them."
Vincent was not sure. He recalled the gray skin the person had who wore the black cloak. Was Theris saying that person could have been Yuffie? Not that Theris knew about the gray skin. He thought about the girl who called herself Chrysanthemum. Yuffie and Kiku. They had gray skin. Did that mean the two of them are related?
"That could only mean that Yuffie was here," Cloud said.
"But, where is she?" Tifa looked at cloud, sounding concerned. "How did she get here in the first place? The same way as us?"
"I haven't seen Yuffie around here though," Zack said. He remembered her when he first met her in the Wutai Temple. She was an upbeat young girl.
Aerith started to worry. "I haven't seen her around here either, but if she had then she would have come out and see me at least. That's the Yuffie I know." She looks at Cloud and then at Tifa. "What could have happen to her?"
"So… you all are her precious friends…" Theris said, bitterly. "Such loving family she's with."
"How do you know her?" Vincent inquired.
Theris grinned but her face showed she was displeased. "Just a childhood friend that she left behind," she said. "…I'm going to sleep!" She stomped her way inside the building, passing Aerith and Genesis. "Where's Zack's room?"
Sephiroth sat on the roof of the same building but out of sight of the others He heard everyone going inside to get their sleep. It became quiet.
He had heard them talk about Yuffie but did not wonder too much about it. Yuffie's disappearance must have something to do with Kiku though. Then he recalls Kiku's red mark over her right eye. That mark is giving him a bad feeling and bad feelings have a habit of being right.
"Sephiroth!" Zack called from the back door. "Make sure you get some sleep!" Zack chuckled when he heard Sephiroth sighing. Zack felt like he was becoming more like the father of the group. Only if Sephiroth's remnants started calling him 'father' he would totally feel like one. Zack walked back inside the house.
Everyone had already gone to their rooms so he turned off the lights. He walked down the hall and then up the stairs. He entered one of the rooms.
There are three beds on one side of the wall and the other three on the opposite side. Zack's bed was the furthest to the back on the right. On the right side, the middle was Theris and then Aerith. On the left side, across from Zack's bed was Cloud. The middle of the left side was Tifa and the last one was Vincent.
Zack looked at Aerith, who was getting ready to get in bed. Cloud had already lain on his back over the bed and blanket, his arms under his head. Tifa only sat on her bed, looking at Theris with a questioning expression. Vincent also wore the same expression but Theris covered her head with the blanket. Her long pale violet muffler was hanging above her on a little hook.
"Um, Theris, was it?" Tifa smiled.
"I don't want to talk about Yuffie right now," Theris said, pissed again. "That girl never came to see me when I asked her to."
"But she hasn't been heard from for more than a month," Tifa told her.
Theris quickly sat up, uncovering herself. "What, really?" she asked. "More than a month? What happen to her?"
"Wait," Vincent said. "You called her? When was that?"
She looked at Vincent. She thought back. "I don't exactly remember… it was more than a month ago… which would explain why I never saw her when I was waiting. She'd probably gone missing along the way and…"
Zack smiled, "Sounds like we've got a clue about Yuffie, huh?" Everyone looked at him. He was still smiling. They do not really get his point when it was already oblivious. "Just trying to lighten up the mood," he grinned, walking over to his bed.
"What did you call her about?" Vincent questioned Theris.
Theris's hand glowed and that alerted everyone. "Relax," she gave them a flat look. They thought she was going to attack them for no reason. A little bright marble appeared in her hand and she put it between her fingers, showing it to them.
They all leaned forward and sideways to take a better look at the little clear ball.
"Some bad guys were trying to get their hands on these babies," Theris said. "I have collected most of them myself. I planned to go and steal more from them. I knew Yuffie liked these sorts of things, especially when it comes to seeing evil men using them for their own satisfaction. It was one of the only ways to see her again so I called her. We've only talked a few times through text messages before…"
"Mako Energy?" Cloud looked at the little marble.
She slightly nodded. "Maybe. Some call these Image Weapon," she explained. "It's almost like those orbs thingy that you use. You know, those crystal balls that Yuffie likes to hunt for." The bright marble disappeared. "But it doesn't contain anything with the elements. For example, summoning fire as you attack. This Image Weapon… if you think of a weapon, it will appear in your hand. Like making a wish and it actually comes true. It's very convenient in battles."
"So that's how you got that bomb out of no where," Loz came to the door, leaning against it. Yazoo and Kadaj were behind him.
"Why aren't you boys in bed?" Theris glared at the three.
"Do you care about Yuffie?" Vincent asked, not wanting to change the subject. He noticed that Theris looked upset about Yuffie. He also wanted to clarify why she would want to call Yuffie when she could take care of those 'evil' guys herself in first place.
Theris looked at him, silent. "…Kind of. I just miss having her around for a long time, but she got busier after meeting some new friends, which I assume it's you guys," she said. She'd grown to hate Yuffie, but her childhood memories still remained. "I'm just selfish when it comes to friends. Like… I want to be the only one who is loved and the only best friend she will ever need… That's all."
Loz snorted.
Theris summoned a staff and enlarged the length of the weapon. At first, the three boys thought she was going to hit them, but she only used it to close the door on them, slamming it shut right in their faces.
The weapon disappeared and she lay back down. "Let's talk later in the morning," she growled angrily. She covered the blanket over her head again. Closing her eyes to get to sleep, she still held the headband in her hand.