Penance
©®™ Lt. Commander Richie
((Disclaimer: Ilúvatar created everything. Tolkien created Ilúvatar. Tolkien does not own Final Fantasy, however, and that is the point I am trying to make. READ THE SILMARILLION!))
((This chapter is dedicated to: Jackman-fan. Thanks for being one of my most constructive and constant reviewers!))
Chapter 12
Barret arrived the next day with Marlene; trudging through the marshy soup of hillside from Nibelheim with his daughter on his shoulders, the hulking man cut an impressive figure. Rainwater dripped from leaves and vines on the sides of the muddy path, and looking behind her Marlene could see every one of Barret's footsteps.
"I can't wait to see Denzel again!" The girl crowed, her grin wide as she ducked under the low-hanging branch of a tree. "This'll be so much fun!"
"Now, you can't just go runnin' around everywhere, you know. There's dangerous stuff in that mansion, lotsa monsters that're big enough to eat you in a single bite! You're gonna be careful, right?" Barret asked, and Marlene nodded vigorously.
"Cloud will protect me when you're somewhere else!" She declared, still smiling. With a barely-audible grunt, the large man reached up with his good hand and helped his daughter down onto solid ground, laying the same hand on her head.
"That's right! And if he doesn't, he'll have me to answer to!" Barret declared, making Marlene laugh. But puzzled, the two then looked around the clearing of the front walk to the mansion. Nobody was out, and the only sign of life was a few birds digging for worms.
"Where is everyone?" Marlene asked, looking around. A few of the birds looked up, one with a large worm in its beak, but they paid no more attention to the two people. Barret thought for a moment, before walking towards the slightly off-kilter front doors of the ShinRa Mansion.
"They prob'ly set up camp in here. C'mon, kiddo, I can practically smell breakfast cooking already!" He threw open the doors, Marlene behind him, but there were no tents in the mansion's foyer. Confused, Barret walked forward into the main room, almost tripping himself up over a clump of weeds.
"Hello?" Marlene called out, clutching tightly to her adopted father's human hand with both her smaller ones. No one answered the faint call, and the duo looked around. Marlene was the first to spot the huddled mass of color against a shadowed wall, her large throwing star lodged into the stone above her.
"Yuffie!" The little girl called out, puzzled as to why the Kunoichi was in the mansion. She ran up to the woman, standing beside her. "Yuffie, wake up!" The black and gray-clad woman had slightly dusty trails down her cheeks, and she was propped gently against the stone wall. Around her shoulders was wrapped a large bolt of red, more of the fabric loosely covering the Ninja's exposed thighs. Barret made his way, albeit slowly, across the Foyer, stopping next to Marlene and looking down at Yuffie.
"Kid must've fallen asleep on guard duty. She always did get stuck with Vincent as duty partner." He said, giving a light grin. The Kunoichi was slowly waking up, both eyes opened and blinking slowly to get all the traces of sleep out. She yawned, stretching her arms above her head. Red fabric brushed against her cheek, and she jerked it away like it had bitten her.
"Are you alright?" Marlene asked, watching as the Ninja struggled against the cloak wrapped around her body that had been keeping her warm. With both hands, Barret grabbed her by the shoulders and stood her upright, pulling the red cloak up over Yuffie's head and removing it completely from her person. She stopped struggling immediately, sighing.
"Yeah, kiddo, I'm fine." She said, reaching out and attempting to wrench her giant throwing star from the wall where she had thrown it the night before. The shuriken wouldn't budge, it was buried a good six inches into the stonework.
"Hey, squirt. Where is everyone?" Barret asked, and the Kunoichi shrugged. She then put both hands on the opposite arms of the star and tried pulling it out that way. The throwing star only moved a tiny bit, the weight of the entire mansion pushing down on the flat blade and keeping it in the wall.
"If they're not out in the tents on the left side of the mansion, then I've got nothing." Yuffie said through gritted teeth, now clutching the furthest arm of the star in both hands and trying to pull it over her shoulder out of the wall. She muttered something in Wutainese and pulled again, the star only moving a fraction. "Barret, old buddy, old pal..." The Kunoichi trailed off, stepping away from her stuck Shuriken and blowing on her red palms. "Will you pull that out?" She asked.
"You can do it, daddy!" Marlene cheered, smiling and waving her hands. Barret smiled and took hold of one arm of the star, pulling it free of the wall in a shower of dust and small stones. Yuffie spluttered, spitting out rock dust, and accepted the proffered weapon gladly.
"Well, that's just one more hole in the wall for us to fix, then!" She said, wiping more of the dust from her hair and headband. Together the three made their way from the Foyer of the mansion, carefully stepping over clumps of weeds. Barret still held Vincent's cloak in his human hand, the tattered edge of the cape barely skimming the ground. With a grin, Yuffie and Marlene both ran around the side of the mansion. The two came upon the small encampment of tents, and with glee the Kunoichi began running along the front of the tents with her hands out. He resulting noise was not unlike that of a zipper being undone.
"Yuffie, what're you doing?" Barret asked, chucking the red cloak onto a low-hanging tree branch that dipped even lower under the weight of the cloth.
"Waking everyone else up! C'mon Marlene, it's fun!" Yuffie encouraged, and hesitantly Marlene began knocking on the front of the closest tent, the smallest. All the combined noise was finally waking people up, and a light glow was coming from the third and largest tent. Muttered curses came from a medium-sized tent behind all the others; the tent was more like a tarp held up on one end by a tree branch and backed by bushes, the other end stuck to the inhabitant's spear. A pair of brown boots rested beside the end of a ratty and thick blue sleeping bag, one socked foot barely extending from a hole in one of the bag's seams.
"I see you're happier, Yuffie." Someone said, pulling on the zipper of the largest tent. Nanaki was the first to stalk out, only walking a few feet before he curled up once again on the ground within reach of the smallest tent. Tifa followed, brushing her hair vigorously. When the last knot was removed from her long tresses, she unceremoniously threw the hairbrush back into her tent. Yuffie jumped into a cartwheel, passing Barret and Marlene on her hands.
"And I see you're just as depressed about Spike leaving as you were last night!" She retorted sharply, hinting that the martial artist was treading onto treacherous ground. Tifa narrowed her eyes in annoyance, clenching both un-gloved fists. Marlene's happy face fell, and she looked down towards the ground.
"Cloud's gone again... Why? Tifa, why didn't you stop him?" She asked, close to crying. Barret sunk to one knee next to her, taking his little daughter into a large bear hug.
"Don't be unhappy, Marlene! Cloud will come back, he always does. Right Tifa?" The hulking man asked, and Tifa sighed. She sat herself down on the same hunk of masonry she had knocked Cloud off of the day before, resting her chin on one fist.
"I wish that were true, Barret. But this time, I think he's going to stay gone." She said, adopting a vacant expression as a small and chilly breeze played with a few stray locks of her hair. The smallest tent had begun to unzip, small and unsteadily cold hands pulling on the zipper. Mira untangled herself from the ties of her sleeping bag, kicking a final one away before turning in a full circle and listening hard.
"Marlene!" The six-year-old crowed, running forward and embracing her older friend awkwardly around one of Barret's arms. The force was almost enough to send the two girls sprawling, but with Barret's added support they managed to stay upright. "I missed you!"
"And why is that, Tifa?" Nanaki spoke up, moving his head so that he could see better. "Good morning, Mira." He greeted, upon seeing the girl. With a grin, the six-year-old let go of Marlene and ran to the giant red cat. She settled herself against his stomach, pulling his tail closer and holding her shaking and cold hands closer to the flame at the tip.
"G'mornin' Nan'ki." Mira greeted, turning to the cat's head and smiling even wider. "Sorry 'bout using your tail, but Denzel was mean an' stole my blanket."
"That's quite alright, Mira. There isn't much else one can do with a burning tail except warm people." Nanaki nodded, and then turned his attention back to Tifa. "You were saying?"
"Cloud... Cloud and I had a fight. I told him that if he left again, he could stay gone. I was just so angry at him, always thinking about himself, how things will affect him, but not about anyone else, and I just shouted at him. Looking back now, I didn't mean half the things I said to him." The martial artist said, burying her head in both hands now. Cid emerged from his makeshift tent, reaching down and picking up his boots before moving around to where the main group was.
"Well hell, Tifa, you're in some deep shit now." He muttered, siting down on a relatively dew-free patch of grass and shoving on one of his boots. Yuffie reached over and tried to smack him, only succeeding in clipping his shoulder. Barret covered Marlene's ears, but he wasn't fast enough. Neither was Nanaki in placing his forepaws over Mira's ears.
"Cid! There's kids here!" Yuffie yelled, sticking her tongue out at the pilot in exchange for not hitting him as hard as she had liked to.
"Lay off it, squirt, I know you know how to swear worse than that. Hell, you know 'em all in Wutainese too, I'll bet." Barret had yet to remove his hands from Marlene's ears, and to this she was getting a bit annoyed. A few strands of her hair had managed to get caught in one of the moving parts of her adoptive father's mechanical hand, and it was slowly starting to sting. Mira had yet to mind however, one half of her head pressed against Nanaki's stomach and one of his forepaws holding her other ear. Her hands were still around the flaming end of his tail, and to the six-year-old that was all that mattered.
"Not her, Mira an' my little girl!" Barret protested angrily. Cid's eyes opened wide, as though he was just realizing that they were there. He nodded, miming a zipper across his lips. Hesitantly, Barret removed his hands from Marlene's ears, and she yelped as the moving part in her father's hand finally pulled out the hairs it had caught. Nanaki glared at the pilot through his one good eye, but removed his forepaw from Mira's ear. She perked for a moment, sitting her head up and cocking it to one side as though she heard something, then smiled and laid it back down on the giant red lion's fur. With one hand, she pulled his giant paw back on top of her head.
"Cid's right, though, you know? Cloud was like the glue that pulled us all together, Teef, and you told him to leave." Yuffie said, crossing her legs and laying her hands in her lap. Mira mumbled something, but nobody paid attention.
"Well, if he ever comes back, we'll have to give him a good talking-to!" Marlene said, reiterating what she had said during Cloud's last absence. The agreement was less than chorused.
"What are you so happy about?" Nanaki whispered, turning to Mira and pulling his paw off her head. She sat up, one side of her face sweaty with her hair matted down and the other side just as spiky as ever.
"I know when Cloud's comin' back." The six-year-old whispered gleefully, abandoning the lion's warm tail and climbing up onto his back. Once again, Nanaki had to turn so as to see her with his one eye.
"Let me guess, a secret?" Mira nodded, humming a nursery rhyme as she rocked her head back and forth. Yuffie stood, flexing her fingers and reaching behind her to grab Vincent's cloak from the tree branch Barret had placed it on. The branch snapped up, sending dew flying everywhere. She then turned and began walking away from the camp.
"The hell are you goin', squirt?" Cid asked, much to the chagrin of Barret, Tifa and Nanaki. The red cloak fluttering behind her much like it would for its owner, the Ninja didn't even turn as she answered.
"I'm going to find Spike! We can't do this without him, you know!" She answered, going around the side of the mansion. Several minutes passed in silence, birds singing and the occasional animal call being the only noise beside the steady crackle of Nanki's tail. Yuffie came running back, however, the cape flying out behind her like a pair of wings.
"Forget something?" Tifa asked, gesturing to the throwing star the ninja had left behind. Yuffie shook her head, taking off the cloak and draping it over the excited Mira before laying down on the grass next to her weapon. Mira set to work redoing all the buckles on the cloak, grinning all the while that she had gotten her favorite scrap of clothing back.
"Nope." The Ninja grinned, turning her head to one side to look at Marlene at a funny angle. "Weren't you guys going to give Cloud that talking-to?"
"He's back?" Tifa exclaimed, jumping to her feet. Yuffie nodded, sitting up and bringing her left knee to her chest, her right still extended.
"Was comin' up the hill with a big pile of lumber over each shoulder when I saw him. He should be back by now." The Kunoichi grinned, resting her left arm on her left knee. Tifa shot for the front of the mansion like a bullet from a gun, Marlene following closely behind. Barret trailed after his daughter, cracking his human knuckles. Nanaki stood up, Mira draped over his back much like the cloak that covered her.
"How did you know he was coming?" The lion asked, and Mira scooted up his back until she could entwine her fingers into his bead and feather-filled mane.
"I heard him coming. He slipped on his way up the hill in the mud, and he said something really loudly. It sounded like the stuff Mr. Highwind says when he thinks I can't hear him." Mira said, waving to Cid as her ride passed him. The lion looked back and glared at the pilot, who was lighting up a cigarette. He feigned innocence, taking a drag off the cig. Nanaki walked around the side of the mansion, and he was blocked from view.
"Finally, peace and quiet." He muttered, sitting back against the tree next to him. As he lazily viewed the surrounding area, he realized something; Three of their number were missing from this little get-together. Vincent he could understand, the guy was always missing from everything. If he strained his ears over the muffled yelled greetings from around the corner, he could hear snoring from the smallest tent. That meant Denzel was well and accounted for, but the last question was the killer. The second tent was unzipped, and from what he could see it was completely empty.
"Hey, squirt?" Cid asked, pulling out his cigarette and tapping the ashes off onto the wet grass with a sizzle.
"I was trying to sleep, but what?" Yuffie asked, cracking open one eye and looking over at the pilot.
"The hell's Tuesti?"
The darkness, all-encompassing, was a welcome retreat to Vincent. It was his his rest, his solitude. The musty blackness, surrounded by velvet cushions of a bygone era of comfort for the dead, was his only rest. Even though the dark pressed upon him, enveloping him in its inky blackness, he could still feel her there. The ghost of a touch still lingered, and he could still feel her breath on his face. It was completely intoxicating, the feeling of pressure against him that he hadn't felt for so long. But it was wrong. He knew it had to be. That's why he once again locked himself in his melancholic prison of rosewood and velvet, trying to will himself into the sleep he so longed for.
Thine sleep be over. The whispers of a grating voice only echoed through his head, rebounding as thought across his mind. Let us out.
"I will not leave my prison until I have repented." His voice was low, barely a whisper, and for a moment afterward Vincent even wondered if he had thought the words or spoken them.
Repentance be sought, forgiveness hath been given, but ye shalt not give it in return. O, yea of lackluster faith, have ye given thine ghost on life? This voice was older, louder, the rebounding in his head giving Vincent almost second thoughts with its force. But he resisted, shaking off the influence of demons as he attempted to sleep. But there was always the distracting factor that, thirty years before it had taken nearly a millennium in his mind to shake and now he felt as though it would take even longer; the feeling of a body flush against his, the ghost of a touch he was certain he would never feel again. Before, that had been the truth. But now, it was harder moreso than then to simply shake it off. He knew that if he left his prison, he would eventually come face-to-face with her.
Give her a name, Valentine. If she be so deserving of this fate, be so deserving of thine attention that thou shalt lay 'till eternity ends for her feelings, then speaketh her name. For a moment, he considered spiting the voices in his head, saying Lucrecia's name instead of hers, but the pain he was already in was insufferable.
"Why must I name her to the darkness, simply for your pleasure?" Once again, the words were soft and barely heard, and again he wondered if he had said it or thought it.
The pain doth lessen to speak her name, even if, perchance, thine words address only the darkness that thou doth shroudeth thineself in. The most ancient of the voices quipped, and for a moment Vincent could see the demon's face; it was blue with slanted yellow eyes, red twisting about its visage in a crude semblance of a mask. But the eyes shone with something akin to concern for its host. Doubt, forced upon him by the demon's voice, ran through his mind. But this time, instead of spurning the feeling he embraced it, enveloping the idea as his own. As the forgiving blackness of sleep enveloped him, Vincent spoke what he was certain would be his last words for a very long time.
"I am sorry... Yuffie."
"You had something to report?" Reeve stood next to the Tiny Bronco, practically yelling through the constant static in his phone service caused by the ruins of the old Mako Reactor looming over the city.
A-affirmative, sir. The DNA sample of Mira Leirbach that you sent was, uh, was inconclusive. The WRO member on the other end of the line was female and spoke with a stutter, making the connection worse.
"Did I hear you correctly, Private? Did you say that it was inconclusive? How?" Reeve asked, his free hand over his opposite ear to block out the sound of an arriving airship on Nibelheim's tiny landing strip.
A-according to this, Mr. Tuesti, sir, her, uh, her mother Ariana was a Third Class SOLDIER; father's identity, occupation and otherwise un-unknown.
"If you're making a point, Private Enderliench, do so." The head of the WRO was loosing his patience, not just with the stuttering Private, but with his phone, the reception and weather.
Sir, Mira has more Mako in her system than a Third Class. According to the standards of genetics in humans, we get half our traits from each parent. With a single parent a Third Class in SOLDIER, she would have half the amount norm! That's about as much as a Turk Ace, but you don't see them blowing holes in walls with baseballs, do you? The Private broke her stutter for a moment, taking on a snappish and professional tone.
"How much does she have in her system?" Reeve asked, and for a moment he feared the worst. A First Class child, infused with Jenova cells and ready to unleash the horrors of Reunion and her 'Mother' upon the world. At the thought, he shuddered and returned his attention to his phone.
Um, about as much as a Second Class. Why?
"No reason, Private. Tuesti out."
Yeah yeah, gonna add an Omake, but I won't.
Minor changes, realized that I lay on the accent a bit thicker in later chapters for the demons, but not in this one, so I came back and changed it.
100th review gets a cameo. That is all.