"You really can't save anyone, can you?" Vincent asked Cloud. He got them in a isolated place. Eloise was watching silently the Life Stream.
"Vincent, what's happening?"
"I come here a lot. So I saw Kadaj and his gang here." He took Cloud's arm and stared into his eyes.
"The Geostigma… It seems that the cause is an overloading of the system to remove parasites in the body. There's a flow through the body like the Life Stream. It fights against the invasion of harmful substances."
"Harmful substances…"
"The Sephiroth element, Jenova's cells, call it what you want." Cloud glanced to Elly and sighed. She ended up like that because of him.
"You don't have to stare, Cloud. I have been part of SOLDIER. Of course I got tested on" Her tone was blank. She wasn't sad and she was definitely not sorry for entering SOLDIER. She knew what she was getting herself into.
"You know a lot about it" Cloud turned his attention on Vincent.
"Tseng and Elena. They were carried here on the edge of death. It seemed that they had been put through some hideous torture. I managed to save them, but…well… I'm not sure how well…"
"Torture?"
"You reap what you saw. It seems they came into possession of Jenova's head" Well that explainedthe whole situation. She chuckled, though it was muffled by her knees. She was on the ground, knees close to her chest and head resting on them.
"Why doesn't that surprise me"
"And the Mother that Kadaj's gang is searching for is…"
"That abominable thing which heaven sent." He took a pause.
"Jenova" She mumbled while still staring at the Stream.
"If they want to, they could even remake Sephiroth" He continued and glanced to the younger woman. She looked diferent than how he remembered her. She used to talk a lot but now, she seemed very lonely and depressed.
"The war would begin again" She mumbled again.
"Kadaj…what is he?"
"Humph, I don't want to think about it."
"Those eyes"She started turning to the two guys. "I used to stay and stare at them. I saw them throughout the good and bad times" The men stared at me until they heard movements from the bush/ Cloud grabbed his sword and got on his feet. Eloise was indifferent.
Marlene ran out and straight to Cloud. Elly watched the young girl. She was an innocent victim, tangled into something bigger than her. Elly caught Vincent glance at her.
For a moment in time, she wanted to get over the pain. She wanted to rest her head on someone's shoulder. That happened once and it didn't last more than one week. That person who she tried to be happy with was Vincent. He wasn't asking questions and they both knew they were in the same boat. But, Eloise's heart wasn't broken entirely. She couldn't forget her first love and she couldn't get over it.
"Cloud! Denzel and Tifa, they…!" Marlene's voice got Elly back to the present world.
"Tifa is alright" Cloud finally spoke.
"I want to talk with Tifa!" Marlene ordered. Elly almost gave a small laugh. She used to be like that too. Cloud searched for his phone but he didn't have it. Marlene turned to Vincent."Do you have one?" He took out his cape showing he didn't. Finally she looked at Elly. She didn't have one.
"I can't believe it" She said. That was a curougeous kid.
"Vincent, Elly can you take Marlene back to the store? I'm going to talk to Shinra about this."
Elly got on her feet and scoffed. He was running from his responsabilities.
"I can't approve." Vincent responded. He stared at Elly and his eyes slowly trailed to Cloud.
"But…" Marlene glared at Cloud.
"I don't care about you anymore, Cloud! Why won't you listen to what we're saying?! " She went to Vincent abd hid behind his cloak.
"Marlene. Just wait a little longer. The fight is going to begin now. But we can't just fight. You understand, right?" That was awkward. He was running away from a fight.
"I don't understand" She said.
"Cloud, is this really about the fight?" Cloud stared at the ground, remembering what he said back at the bar.
"Where did they go?"
"The Forgotten Capital" Rude said. He took a dramatic pause and continued. "It's their base." Cloud glanced to Eloise, looking for an answer.
"Take care of it." Everyone looked at him perplexed by his answer. "I'm going to talk to Rufus."
"Don't run! I know you are. Even if you find the children, you might not be able to do anything. They might be somewhere that we can't get them back. You're scared of that, aren't you? But you have to react now, to more of this! A burden? Well there's no helping that, it's a heavy burden!" Reno and Rude were trying to get out of the room, hitting each other for the great escape. Elly couldn't move. Tifa's words got deep into her soul as well.
"Unless you want to live all alone, you have to deal with that! You don't want to be alone, do you? Even though you never answer, you always have your phone with you"
"You go yo." That was all Reno said before he walked out.
"Have we lost to our memories?" Cloud looked back down when he started to drift into a different world.
"But...we just let her die." She heard him mumbling.
"She wasn't the only one" It was the first time she spoke and she got Tifa's attention. The brunette's eyes got wide and for a moment, she looked happy and relieved.
"Elly…" Tifa's eyes reminded Eloise why she didn't want to turn back. It was the guilt.
"Stop already" She heard a female voice that sounded familiar. She glanced around the room but there was no one except her, Cloud and Tifa.
"Hey...why don't you forgive yourself? Why don't you help her forgive herself?" Cloud and Elly stared at each other and, at the same time, looked down. They were ashamed.
"Can sin be forgiven?" Cloud's question got Eloise back from her flashback.
"…I've never tried it" She looked at Vincent and could still see the sorrow behind those red eyes. He was the same heartbroken, mysterious guy. Just gazing into his eyes was enough to know he got through some big shit in his life.
"Tried it? Tried it…" He bent his head and thought about it. When he looked up he first glanced at Elly. He was going to try, and he was going to make her try too.
"Marlene, we're going home!" The little girl came out and nodded. She looked up at Eloise and smiled, taking her hand. The woman looked a little taken back but didn't push her little hand away. She took Cloud's hand too and they started to walk. I
Eloise looked at Vincent over her shoulder and smirked.
"See you soon" Vincent nodded to her.
"I'll let you know how it turns out!" Cloud said giving a small wave.
On their way back to their motorcycles Elly let go of Marlene's hand. She felt the need to go back into the city. right then. Something was going wrong.
"Something's wrong. Meet you in the city" She said and got on her motorcycle.
"Will you leave again?" She stopped dead in her tracks and looked back at Marlene.
"Does it make a difference?" She shook her head.
"I want you to stay with us. I'm sure Denzel would like it too." Elly stared at her. She wanted her to stay? Why would she want that? He didn't even know her that well!
"But"
"Why don't you stop searching reasons? It's time to move on, Eloise" Cloud said. Marlene nodded smiling. Elosie was speechless. Try and become normal again? Was that possible? What about the guilt and the pain?
On the way back to Edge, Eloise had the most important flashback. It was about him. Again.
It was a great day for training. Too bad Elly felt like being lazy. She was on the couch, in silence, looking outside the window.
"Don't you have training?" She looked to the door and saw Sephiroth. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and one eyebrow raised. He didn't look happy.
"Can I take a day off?" He looked like he was contemplating my question. In the end he sighed and nodded. He left right after.
"This is so boring"
A few hours later, training didn't sound like such a bad idea. It was noon and everyone was doing whatever they wanted. The training was over.
"Wait…training's over…this means the training room is free…" She grinned and ran to the training room.
It was exactly as she thought.
"What are you doing here, Eloise?" When she heard the end of the sentence she knew who it was. She rolled her eyes and turned around to face the intruder.
"Why, kind sir, it's me. You're beloved princess" She replied bemusedly. He shook his head smiling. Genesis was the first friend she made in SOLDIERS. Even if they fought and had a lot of arguments he was still special for her.
"What is going through that little head of yours?" She scoffed and watched as he walked, slowly, until he was in front of her.
"I love my life" She started. "I love being here. But I'm worried. My first mission was a failure. I don't want that to happen again" She finished looking at her hands. She felt two fingers touch her chin. He grabbed her face closer and forced her to look into his eyes. They were beautiful, she remarked.
"You have your brother, your friends and even Sephiroth" He chuckled at the end. She smiled looking at him. He always knew how to make her smile and not just that. Whenever she was sneaking on him, she could see how beautiful he actually was. She always had butterflies into her stomach when he was watching her fight or just stand still.
"Why do you read Loveless over and over again? Is it really an obsession?" She was interested, for real.
"I guess I just…" He couldn't finish because she did for him.
"…want to feel loved?" He stared at her for a long time and nodded. She got out from his eyes' trance and changed the room back to normal. The whole conversation took place into a park, like always. They liked to transform the training room into a park.
"Maybe if you look better around you, you'll find someone who loves you" Her words struck something in him and she knew that. She just hoped he would take the initiative soon.