Penance
©®™ Lt. Commander Richie
Disclaimer: After a brief period of artistic flop, in which I nearly had a heart attack because I was working one chapter ahead of posting, I GOT MY WHEE BACK! Hoyez, I am once more a Writer On Whee, since as I am writing this only up to Eleven has been posted and I have a week until the posting of chapter Twelve. Which I hope you all loved, by the way.
-Spazflail- This is nominated for a Genesis Award! -Dead-
((Dedicated to: My dad, who makes up most if not all of the basis for Cid's personality in this.))
Chapter 15
Ye fail at the concealment of thine petty mind, Valentine. Something pulls at thine heartstrings. A dark hiss of a voice invaded his mind, older than than the Beast and the Masker, but paling in comparison to the eldest of them all.
"Mira." The word was clear in the darkness of the coffin, giving the former Turk no doubts as to whether or not he had said it.
Thine heart grieves for the fate of the babe, then? What malicious intent that we the Black Ones doth have for her subconscious mind? Chaos' grating voice rebounded across his mind, making Vincent inwardly wince. Perhaps it was outwardly as well, but a this point he could hardly tell.
"I only wonder if I should have said goodbye."
Prithee leave the matter for other, later times. If thine wish be to sleep, cast thineself into slumber. This grating decision was met by a raucous noise, all the demons rebelling against the sense of sleep that was so instilled upon their host.
Ye play me a fool, Chaos? We desire not to sleep! Galian was not amused, but still Vincent tried his hardest to simply let go. If not the others, if it be only I, then it be that thou shalt let me free of this prison!
"I will not. Let me sleep." Vincent commanded. His words were finally met with silence, the Chaos demon making his wishes known.
"This is yours." Mira squealed in delight as she was handed the single piece of Materia by Cloud, nearly springing to her feet and dropping her plate of breakfast that Tifa had piled high as a mirror of the swordsman's own.
"What kind of Materia is it?" She asked, turning it over in her hands and peering at it.
"It's a summon Materia." Cloud said, returning to his breakfast. Yuffie, who had made her triumphant return that morning just as everyone was managing to wake up, leaned down next to the six-year-old.
"Can I take a look at it?" She asked, and Tifa shot her a glare across the fire she was stoking underneath her frying pan. "What? I won't steal it! Why would I do that? I just want to see what it summons!"
Mira gently handed the Kunoichi her piece of Materia, and Yuffie peered at it scrupulously. She suddenly gave a yell of surprise, fumbling for it as she nearly dropped it.
"What kind is it?" Mira repeated, looking down at the Materia backwards as she craned her neck to see.
"It's a Mastered Summon the Dead Materia! Cloud, where the heck did you get this?" Yuffie asked, handing the small grayish-black ball back to its rightful owner. Mira smiled and put it in one of her pockets before returning to her meal, digging into her scrambled eggs with gusto.
"We have one in Cosmo Canyon, but it's not Mastered." Nanaki added, twitching his tail back and forth as he paused trying to un-scuff one of his gold bangles.
Cloud paused his chewing, swallowing a mouthful of eggs before speaking. "I got it from the Promised Land." Everyone turned to him, surprised.
"Dih Mish Gainfb'roh give it to youh?" Mira asked around a mouthful of bacon. Tifa gave her a disapproving glance, and Marlene made a face.
"No. A very good friend of mine gave it to me." The swordsman said, loading bacon and eggs onto his solitary piece of toast. "His name was Zack; and I suppose he said that if you are ever in trouble, and none of us are there to help you, to use that Materia there." He pointed to the bulge in Mira's pocket with his fork, and the six-year-old nodded.
"The Lt. General Zack Fair?" Cid asked, and Cloud looked at him, perplexed.
"Yes. How'd you know?" He asked, and the pilot shrugged.
"He and the General came by the hangar once, ShinRa inspection. Guy was nice enough, but ol' tall, dark an' crazy was a bit too quiet fer 'is own good." He said, pointing his fork at the former SOLDIER. "If'n yeh ask me, I'd say that he was never playin' with a full deck to begin with. Guy was weird a'fore he was normal."
There were nods around the fire, and Nanaki growled in assent. "It will be a sad day," the cat began; "if anoyone as twisted as Hojo ever gets their hands on any more of Jenova's remains."
"Oh come on, guys! We're supposed to be talking about good stuff, not the crazy space lady!" Yuffie protested, dropping her fork to her cleaned plate. "Like... Chickobos!" The Ninja's attempts at changing the topic only garnered her funny looks. Mira swallowed her food before speaking this time, and frowned slightly.
"When I was real little mumma had to go away every day, so she left me with a buncha other kids. One girl had a stuffed white Chickobo, an' she told me it was real." Marlene made a face at this, swallowing her food as well.
"Who would carry around a real stuffed Chickobo? That's gross!" She said, sticking her tongue out. Mira nodded in agreement.
"I told her it was fake, an' she hit me with it. I hit her, and she started crying. Mumma had to come get me real early, an' I didn't go back."
"Mira! You can't hit people." Tifa chided, and Yuffie laid a hand on the six-year-old's shoulder.
"Good job, kiddo. I did the same thing once." She nodded, and Mira smiled. Cid sat his plate down and stood up, then Nanaki was next to his feet.
"I'm gonna see what I can do about the gutters. You comin' Spike?" He asked, swiping a thumb across his nose. Cloud nodded, rolling his eyes as he shoveled the last bits of food from his plate into his mouth, springing to his feet.
"I'll get some rope and a ladder. There's gotta be some around here somewhere." He said, heading towards the front of the mansion. Cid followed, and Nanaki kept in stride.
"Who needs 'em? It's only two stories!" Yuffie giggled slightly, picking up the plates around her as she got up. She passed a newer tent on her way to the fire, and kicked the front of it as she went by.
"Rise and shine, Barret! Everyone's working 'cept you and the kids!" She yelled, depositing the plates next to the fire. Tifa nodded, and pulled out a blue ball of Materia. With a few muttered words, a small blast of water came from the orb and washed the plates clean. "Wait... Is Reeve up yet?" the Kunoichi asked, and Tifa pointed to the middle tent. It was slightly open, since Nanaki had slept in there the night before. The head of the WRO, who was clearly out of his element, was visible through the opening.
"If Cait isn't out here, Reeve hasn't gotten up to turn him on yet." Tifa said, accepting plates from Marlene and Denzel. The detrius on the utensils looked like they had scraped what was left onto someone else's plate, and the martial artist looked over at Mira. Sure enough, the six-year-old was digging into a large pile of slightly cold food with gusto.
"We're done." Denzel asserted, laying his dirty fork next to the pile of clean ones on the wet ground.
"Only because you gave your food to Mira. Don't you want to eat?" Tifa asked, and the boy shrugged.
"I'm full. Besides, no matter how good your cooking is, it's not as great as Mr. Valentine's." Behind Denzel, Yuffie stiffened. She put down the handful of utensils she was packing away, and got up. In a few short steps, she had reached her shuriken and her bag, where she then pulled out the long red cloak.
"Alright." Tifa sighed in defeat, taking Marlene's fork and putting it with Denzel's. Yuffie gently sat down next to her things, the cloak in her lap. The two children ran towards the front of the mansion, Marlene straying slightly behind. Mira shoveled her last forkful of eggs into her mouth, wiping her face with a corner of her sleeve before walking over to Tifa and giving her the plate. The martial artist was preoccupied, however, and didn't take the plate. She was busy removing things from her one large pocket on the front of her pants, laying them aside. The shuriken from the night before came out, wrapped in a handkerchief; it was followed by the crumpled piece of paper and then both of her gloves. Mira grabbed the crumpled paper, setting her plate down. With a small amount of aiming, Tifa threw the shuriken she had found at the tree above Yuffie's head. It hit the bark, making the Kunoichi jump.
"That's yours. I found it holding up the clues." She said, and the Ninja nodded. She reached above her head, pulling the rusty throwing star from the tree and stowing it in her weapons pouch.
"C'mon, Mira!" Marlene called, and the six-year-old nodded and ran after her friend. Behind her, Tifa looked at the ground next to her gloves.
"Did you see what happened to the clues?" She asked, and the Kunoichi shook her head. Tifa shrugged, shoving her gloves back into her pocket and picking up Mira's plate.
"Look what I found!" Mira called, showing the torn, battered and crumpled piece of aged paper to Marlene. "It says something, but I can't read."
"Well... It looks okay to me! I can read it, can't you?" Marlene asked, and Mira shook her head. The two stood in the Foyer of the mansion, watching as Cid and Cloud attempted to clean and repair the gutters on the outside of the large stained-glass windows.
"I don't know how." Mira declared, flattening the paper out with both hands on the ground. Marlene sighed, taking the somewhat still crumpled paper from the six-year-old and reading the messy script carefully.
"Move the dial on the safe care..." She paused at a word she didn't know, sounding it out in her head. "Carefully, but quickly. You have twenty seconds. You cannot go past the numbers while turning. The four hints for the numbers are..."
"What are they?" Mira asked, and Marlene sighed.
"I don't know if we should do this." The older girl said, worry evident in her voice. Mira smiled, her large blue Mako eyes crinkling at the edges and cheeks pudging out slightly.
"We can play Junon Jones!" She said, jumping to her feet from the stony floor and waving her hands above her head. Marlene was perplexed, reading over the instructions again and again.
"Who's Junon Jones?" She asked, letting her arms fall to her sides.
"You don't know who Junon Jones is? Mumma said he wasn't real, but he was so cool! He hunted for rare Materia during the Wutai War. He wore a brown hat an' he had a gun like Mr. Vins'nt's and... And I can't remember what else, but he's really cool!" Mira said, pausing to take a breath for a moment. "Please can we go?"
Marlene thought for a moment, sighing finally in defeat. "Fine." She said, pulling the scrap of paper back to face level. "Look for the lid of the box with the most oxygen."
"Let's go treasure hunting!" Mira cried, punching a fist into the air.
Before I go any farther... I am extremely, extravagently sorry, Mr. Lucas, sir, for butchering the great and powerful icon that is Indiana Jones for my own evil purposes. But thing is, I just couldn't help it! I was just having such fun!
It's treasure hunting time for Mira and Marlene, but they're not going to find treasure at the end of this road of clues! Will the key still be in the safe? Find out what happens next week, dudes!
Especially if you know what's good for you.
A note on the the Materia of this story: in Dirge of Cerberus, I had a Fire and a Bolt until my older brother stole my copy. They were red and yellow, respectively. Hence, the Materia in this particular work of fiction is colored as needed. Water is blue, Ice is light blue, Fire red, Bolt yellow, Summon the Dead is black. On another note, Yuffie's Leviathan is seafoam green-ish and Cure Materia is bright green. All and Support are blue. Because Zack superglued those into his sword so they wouldn't come out, even though you can't link Support Materia.
Ah, the wonders of 'The Battle You Never Saw'...