Chapter 15

Two days later, after all of the adrenaline had ran its course and Cloud finally got a good night's sleep in what seemed like ages, everyone converged at 7th Heaven for a celebration. Inside the main room of Tifa's bar, everyone from Avalanche was happily talking and laughing together, slapping each other on the back and recounting their own perspective of what had happened two days before.

Cid's laughter echoed throughout the bar as Barret told him about a not so fortunate Returner who took a full on attack from his Pile Bunker to the groin. As Barret described the Returner's face, Marlene sat on his knee and scrunched up her face at her Father's description. Barret reached for his mug of beer and took a long gulp, while Cid took a long hard pull from his whiskey on ice. After Cid placed the empty glass on the table, he put a cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it, but Shera took it out of his mouth and pocketed it.

"Damn it, woman, why'd you take that away from me!?!"

"Because there's children present," Shera said calmly as she sipped her hot tea. Cid angrily shook his head but didn't argue any further with his wife. Marlene looked up at her Father's face and asked a question.

"Did you fight a lot of bad guys?"

"You know it. I had to put those fools back in their place." Marlene smiled widely with pride and hugged Barret strongly.

"That's my Papa!" Barret smiled widely, but also blushed a bit as Cid shook his head. As far as Cid was concerned, he would never be cut out for having a child.

Sitting at the bar on stools were Tifa and Yuffie, who were busily talking about matters that mattered to them. Tifa smiled as Yuffie told her about all the WRO soldier boys that constantly asked her out, but naturally she had to turn them down because she had a job to do. Tifa took a sip of her tea as Yuffie described one particular guy that she might have considered dating if he didn't constantly stutter when he tried to talk to her. Finally Yuffie stopped talking enough to take a sip of her energy drink (now with more caffeine!) and asked Tifa about her and Cloud.

Tifa wasn't expecting that question, but she lightly shrugged and looked over at Cloud, who was using his hands in elaborate recreations of the fight to Denzel. She obviously was deeply in love with him, and though he only told her in private, and even then it was always with deep red blushing cheeks, she knew he loved her back. Tifa looked back at Yuffie and smiled.

"We're doing pretty good. Cloud's getting better all the time, and he keeps his promises for the most part."

"For the most part?" Yuffie asked with renewed interest; the possibility for gossip fueled her with a new energy.

"Well, sometimes something comes up that he has to deal with. Like Reeve's original call about the Returners." Yuffie nodded disappointingly and moved their conversation into yet another discussion about herself, loosing interest once the possibility for gossip melted away.

Far in the corner booth next to the window, Vincent Valentine spoke with Shelke, who was both interested in hearing his recounts of their battle with the Returners, and just simply speaking with Vincent. Shelke never took her eyes off of Vincent as he described the underwater reactor, and because of this she had to make her best guess at the location of her straw for her lemonade (she had finally chosen lemonade as her favorite beverage.) When Vincent was finished explaining, he lightly shrugged and said that that was that. Shelke sat up straight and lightly smiled.

"Very fascinating," Shelke said. Vincent nodded and took a drink from his own glass of lemonade, which was recommended to him by Shelke. "Were you ever able to discover the origins of Arvin and his two comrades?" Vincent placed his glass back on the table and shook his head.

"No, but Reeve thinks that there may be a possibility that other records exist concerning Project X." Shelke nodded silently, but then narrowed her brow as she thought about the facts.

"Even if they find records of their origin, it really does not matter, does it? They are defeated after all." Vincent looked deeply into Shelke's ocean blue eyes and nodded. Reeve might have been concerned with learning exactly what Arvin and his comrades were, but Vincent was in full agreement with Shelke; it really didn't matter anymore. Vincent lightly smiled at Shelke and then he began to ask her about her progress on a new global computer networking system that she was developing for the WRO. Shelke smiled at Vincent's obvious interest and began to tell him about it.

Denzel sat at the table next to Cloud, and listened with his full wide-eyed attention as Cloud described the fight he had with Arvin. Cloud described it accurately enough, but when he got to the gory parts, he glossed them over to not make them seem as graphic.

"Wow! And then what happened, Cloud?" Denzel asked. Cloud shrugged and then began to explain their escape.

"With all the fighting, we forgot that the reactor was about to blow, and when the entire building began to shake, we had to make a run for it. The walls were falling in on us, and the glass tunnel started to shatter as we ran back to the elevator. When we jumped on, it started to take us up." Cloud paused to take a drink of his ice water, but Denzel was so anxious to hear what happened, he looked down at the ground where Nanaki was lazily lying after drinking an entire goblet of Corel wine. Nanaki looked at Denzel with his one good eye and finished where Cloud left off.

"We made it to the elevator, but just as it began to rise, a sudden exploding sound came from beneath us. Instantly we knew that it was the tunnel that had given way, and the rushing ocean water propelled the platform up as if we were in a geyser. Barret acted quickly enough and blasted the ceiling moments before we would have been pulverized." Denzel nearly fell off of his chair as he listened to every word. When Nanaki was finished telling that particular part of the story, Denzel snapped his head around to Cloud and asked if that was what really happened. Cloud smiled and nodded his head saying that it was all true. Denzel took in a deep breath and was purely amazed at what they had all done.

Just then, the bell above the door jingled as a familiar man wearing a blue suit in the Wutai style entered, followed by a mechanical cat that answered to the name of Cait Sith. Marlene jumped up from Barret's knee and ran forward to grab Cait in a deep hug. Though she knew that he was a robot, she loved him none the less. Reeve laughed and patted Marlene gently on the back and then nodded to everyone else in the bar.

"Hey, 'bout time you showed up!" Barret called from the table where he sat.

"What kept you, official business of the state or some such shit?" Cid said, quickly followed by an arm punch from his wife for using profanity in front of the kids. Cid gave her an angry look and shrugged his shoulders to tell her that he didn't see anything wrong with the way he talked.

Vincent and Shelke gave Reeve a welcoming nod, and then returned to their own conversation. Tifa and Yuffie both waved, but before Tifa could say hello, Yuffie went on about this other guy that she would date if he only could wear a belt that matched with his shoes.

Reeve took a seat at Cloud's table and Cloud told Denzel to fetch Reeve a drink.

"I'll have whatever you're drinking," Reeve said as Denzel ran behind the bar. Reeve then turned to Cloud and smiled widely.

"Well, you certainly took care of Arvin. I don't know how we would have faired if we had to go up against him and an entire army of his SOLDIERs." Cloud nodded, and then motioned towards the Cait Sith that Marlene was holding.

"You were the one who acted quickly enough to take out those Mako pods. If they would have opened, I doubt we could have won that fight." Reeve gave Cloud a slightly confused look, but it was soon followed by a mischievous smile.

"I had nothing to do with that, Cloud. That was all Cait's doing." Cloud lightly laughed and asked Reeve the question that had been bugging him for years now.

"Reeve, just how do you control that robot?" Denzel returned and gave Reeve the glass filled with pineapple-orange juice. Reeve thanked him and then gave Cloud a simple wink.

"That's a company secret, Cloud. Now I could tell you, but you'd have to become a full-time employee of the WRO first." Cloud lightly laughed and shook his head.

"Me work for you? I don't think I could take the stress." Both Reeve and Cloud shared a good laugh before Cloud asked him another question. "What were those possibilities for other files on Project X you mentioned before?" Reeve took a sip of the juice, and after giving it his approval, he shrugged and looked at Cloud.

"Oh, it's probably nothing more than a wild goose chase, but I've got a team looking into it right now. If it turns anything up, I'll let you know." Cloud shrugged and looked across the bar and caught Tifa looking lovingly at him while Yuffie continued to talk her ear off. Cloud smiled as he lost himself in her deep warm eyes, and he returned the same affection when she looked into his. At that moment, Cloud could care less what an investigation team might or might not turn up.

A/N: And there you have it, the fifteenth chapter of Return of Darkness. However, I'd be lying if I said this was the last chapter of the story... After all, it is a Final Fantasy story.