Fears and Confessions
By: Illusion of the Mirror
Emily set the little girl on the dirt ground of the parking lot and then looked around at all those gathered there. She turned back to the new Seventh Heaven just in time to see the roof cave in on one area. She caught a movement next to her and turned to see Vincent was now standing next to her.
"Where is Tifa?" he demanded.
Emily gasped in alarm. "I-I don't know…you haven't seen her?" She began to furiously scan the crowd again. Everyone was there; everyone except Tifa. She whirled back to Vincent with wild eyes. "We were separated sometime while in the bar! She must still be in there!"
In an instant Vincent was off toward the blazing structure once more. Yuffie, who had heard the conversation followed behind with Emily right after her. Sirens could be heard in the distance as the three plunged back into the burning building.
Yuffie and Emily entered through the closest front window while Vincent ran around to the back. "I saw her come out, so she isn't on the other side…she must be in here somewhere," Emily shouted above the sound of the roaring fire and falling debris.
"There!" Yuffie pointed toward a gaping hole in the ceiling where there was a mass of chocolate brown hair hanging over the jagged edge. The two young women surged forward, dashing between the broken furniture pieces and dodging the flames that attempted to lick their calves.
"Tifa!" Yuffie shouted, but they both knew that she must have been unconscious.
Once they were right under her, Emily turned to Yuffie. "Give me a boost; I'll try to get her down. We can't risk the stairs." Yuffie nodded and threaded her fingers together to form a foothold for the petite redhead. With the added height of a still standing table, Emily was able to reach Tifa's limp form.
It was no easy task pulling her down safely, but somehow the two of them were able to do it and emerged from the front window just as the firemen began to blast the tavern with their high-powered hoses.
Emily set Tifa on the grass and crouched down to catch her breath. Yuffie was having trouble keeping upright after the exposure to the smoke. They were grateful when Vincent carried Tifa back away from the blazing inferno for them.
It didn't take long for the firefighters to put out the flames, but by then, there was no salvaging the remains. The roof had completely fallen in, and all that was left was the broken brick outline of a building that was filled up with soaked ash and debris. A caravan of ambulances came to carry away the injured, which the rescuers redirected to avoid the public hospital. They went straight to the Resistance's private clinic.
-- O --
Yuffie, Cid, Barret, and Red sat silently around a table in the Resistance's fortress mess hall. Barret nursed a glass of whiskey while Cid cleaned his favorite modified shotgun. Yuffie stared down into her tea and grimaced. "I wonder if Tifa's awake yet."
"They said they would inform us the minute she was conscious." Red answered slowly as the young ninja glanced up at him.
Yuffie returned her gaze to her tea, and Cid, who was chewing on a toothpick in light of his lack of cigarettes, pushed his chair away from the table, his face grim. "Well, I'm gonna call Shera and let her know what happened. They're gonna need some better protection, I think." He rose and left the table just as Cloud approached. Seeing that Cid was headed towards the phones by the door, he took the pilot's seat.
"They finished patching up Em and Aiden," he reported as he crossed his soot stained arms. "Luckily, they didn't have anything more than minor cuts and bruises, so they should be okay." Yuffie looked up at Cloud expectantly. He immediately caught her drift and responded before she even uttered a word.
"Tifa still hasn't woken up yet. They had to give her some drugs for the wound on her leg that should have her out for a while. They also said that Tifa suffered from a blow to the head." He gestured to the area above his right eye. "Do you suppose she tripped and fell?"
Barret shook his head. "That Emily girl said that Tif was on her back…so she didn't fall on anything."
"Well, maybe she ran into something? I don't know. I'm just spit-balling here." Cloud looked down momentarily with a crestfallen expression, but then immediately snapped his eyes back up. He let out a big yawn and rubbed his eyes. "What I do know is that I really need some sleep. We're lucky that we made it back here. Emily's father told me that we could use the showers and stuff if we wanted."
"A shower does sound nice, I suppose," Yuffie added in with a sigh.
Barret nodded in agreement and then downed the rest of his beverage.
"Whaddya mean you don't know!? Parker, don't you jerk with me!" The attention of the group turned to the coarse pilot who was on one of the phone lines across the room.
"No…are ya sure?...You can't be serious…no…right, well let me know…shit…no, yer not fired, just find 'em, okay?" Cid slammed down the receiver and strung a line of cusses from the phones to the table.
"What's got your panties in a wad, Cid?" Yuffie asked irritably.
"It's Shera and the kids," he said in a near growl. "They never got to Rocket Town."
Barret immediately sprang from his seat, nearly toppling the table over onto Yuffie in the process. "What!? But they should have been there hours ago!"
"I know," Cid added grimly. "And it's not like Evans to be late to anything. He's anal like that."
Now it was Cloud's turn to leap up. "Wait, so you don't think that Darknation…" He stopped there, but everyone else knew what he was thinking.
"Now let's not get hasty," Red stated calmly but his features were etched with worry. "Perhaps they were just detained somewhere for something mundane. Shera is pregnant after all. The car ride can't have been at all comfortable for her. Did Evans have a cell phone?"
"Yeah, but he's not answerin', which makes me think somethin's up. He's anal about that too." Cid pulled the toothpick from his lips, but then seemed to think better of it and shoved it back between his teeth. "That's it; we gotta look for 'em!"
Yuffie slid out of her chair and began to nervously chew on her already short fingernails. "Where do we even begin? There are a million ways to get to Rocket Town."
"I gave him a special route to follow. It follows the back roads that used to be used by a smuggling firm a while back. I figured that it would be easier for Evans to rush if he didn't have to worry about getting' caught by the cops." Cid then picked his shotgun up off the floor where it had fallen and slung it up over his shoulder.
He turned to Barret, who had a very serious, very scary, look on his face. "Since we know which way they went," the towering man cracked his neck with one swift movement. "I vote we set up a search party and get out there as soon as possible."
-- O --
It hadn't taken them long to spot it. After all, it was pretty hard to miss the dark black skid marks that went straight off the side of the road and the broken brush path that led off into the woods. Dean pulled the black van that he was driving over to the side of the road and put the vehicle in park. "I think it's pretty safe to say you guys might wanna look around," he said in his usual slow drawl.
The passengers began to file out of the automobile; Barret first since he was sitting up front, then Cid, Yuffie, Aiden, Cloud, Emily, and Red XIII. Barret stretched and regarded the trail grimly. He looked back to the others. Cid pushed his goggles back on his head and then spat into the dusty shoulder beside the road.
"We should split up," Emily suggested as she pulled the sliding side door of the van shut. "One group should stay with the van, and then the others can investigate this more closely." She looked from Barret to Cid to Yuffie to Red. They all wore expressions of worry and seemed to be itching to search for Shera and the kids.
"I'll stay here with Dean," she offered softly. "Why don't you guys get going."
Cloud frowned, then stepped forward and crossed his arms. "I'll stay too. It'll be safer with three of us here."
With that, the others began their trek into the forest. A chilly wind rustled the leaves on the trees whose branches hung stiflingly low over them. Yuffie paused as she looked up into the canopy of green above her and shivered at the eeriness of it all. Not a single bird was singing.
Suddenly, Barret drew a quick breath and then sped off towards what everyone instantly recognized as a deserted vehicle. But as he grew closer, Barret felt his stomach drop to his toes. The car was completely wrecked. New fear burning at his throat, he skidded to a stop at the driver's side window. He peered in the cracked window, but saw no one. Wait a minute!
Yuffie arrived at the vehicle just in time to see Barret's hulking shoulders pull out of the left rear door. He stood and looked down at the little stuffed tiger in his hands. "Marlene…"
She turned away from the man and noticed Red sniffing an area about ten meters away. He looked off to his right and then looked over his shoulder back to the group. "Cid," he called. "I believe I've found Evans."
Cid looked up from his investigation of the front hood of the vehicle, which was crumpled up from being smashed into the tree it now hugged so tightly. He turned and stalked quickly over to where Red was standing. But as soon as he arrived at the spot he stopped in his tracks, and his usually high held shoulders slumped.
Yuffie cautiously approached to witness for herself what had rendered her belligerent friend speechless. When she reached them, she immediately understood. Evans, the spirited character that she had seen only yesterday, lay in the clearing face-down, his back pumped full of bullet holes.
"Damn it, Evans," Cid mumbled as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist. "You were only doing your job."
Just then, Yuffie heard something rustle in the brush. She figured Red must have heard it because his ears perked up. "Hey, guys," she said in a near whisper. "There could still be someone out here, y'know."
Cid reached up and pulled his shotgun from the sling on his back. "Well, they had better hope I don't get hold of 'em!"
She heard the sound again this time, but now it was loud enough that everyone, even Aiden and Barret who were standing farther away, could hear a rustling and then a twig snap. Cid swung the barrel of his firearm around to the tall brush the sound was continuing to come from, gritting his teeth with anticipation.
Red sniffed the air, and then his eyes widened. "Wait, Cid! Don't shoot!"
Cid dropped his aim with a question resounding on his face when all at once, a figure came darting out of the brush and ran straight into him, wrapping its arms round his abdomen.
"Denzel!" Barret rushed forward and the boy released Cid to embrace his adoptive father.
The boy began to spill out words like his life depended on it but only half of them were intelligible between his sobs and gasps for breath. He clung to Barret until he calmed down enough to speak clearly. Barret then held Denzel out at arms' length and Red stepped forward.
"Denzel," he asked sternly, yet not without kindness. "What happened here? Where are Marlene and Shera?"
"Then men in the black cloaks took them," Denzel sniffed and then rubbed the tears from his face.
"So it was Darknation, then," Aiden growled.
Denzel nodded. "I think that's what I heard Mr. Evans say, that is…before they…" He trailed off and then winced in pain. Both Barret and Red took a step forward.
He shifted his weight back to his left leg and looked from Barret to Red with new tears welling in his eyes. "It's just my ankle…I think…I think I may have broken it." They could all tell that he was trying so hard to be strong.
"C'mere, kid. Let's get you back to the clinic." With that, Barret hoisted Denzel up onto his shoulders with a grunt and started back to the van.
"Yeah," Cid sighed angrily as he and the others followed Barret back. "I 'spose that there's nothin' more we can do here anyway." But then he halted in his steps. Yuffie glanced back to see him staring down at nothing in particular with his hands balled into fists. "Those bastards," he seethed. "They're gonna pay for this."
-- O --
The world was a blur of color, light, faces, darkness, pain, and numbness as Tifa floated in and out of consciousness. She could hear all manner of commotion about her and sirens were wailing but when the pain started up, she decided not to fight the sleep that was trying so desperately to overtake her.
It wasn't until much later that Tifa had her next brush with the conscious world. Her mind faded out of the fog of sleep, but she could tell even through her eyelids that the room was far too bright for her liking. She reached up to cover her eyes with her hand and brushed past a rough material. Curious, she used her fingers to explore her forehead and found it wrapped in a bandage.
The fire…I hit something, no. Someone hit me. I must be in a clinic. That would certainly explain these stupid lights.
Tifa attempted to open her eyes to see where she was, but the light seemed to cut straight through them into her brain and she immediately snapped them shut. Placing her arm back down at her side, she tried to recall what all had happened. It had all happened so fast that her throbbing head was having trouble remembering much of it.
Ugh, I give up. Thinking is just making my head hurt even worse. What I need to do is figure out how to turn these lights off so I can get up and…
But her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a door squeaking open. Tifa's first impulse was to ask who was there and demand that they let her go, but she decided to stay still. Maybe she could find out where she was by listening.
Soft footsteps sounded against the tile floor as whoever had entered drew closer to where Tifa lay. Then they stopped and the room became so silent that she could only hear the sound of her own heart beating in her ears.
She heard a shuffling as her visitor lowered himself into a chair that she assumed was at her bedside. Then everything was silent again. Whoever it was, she could feel their eyes watching her and she had to fight herself to maintain the steady breathing characteristic of someone asleep. Sure, she could have just sat up and announced that she was wide awake, but she had no idea where she was or who she was with. Perhaps being asleep was the better alternative to facing the predicament she was in; whatever it was.
The silence seemed to drag on forever as Tifa willed the other party to do something, anything, which would at least give a hint to where she was. But as she calmed herself, she realized that the silence in and of itself was a hint. Whoever this was, they didn't wish to wake her. And since they hadn't tried to cut her open with a butcher knife or shake her to consciousness, she deduced that this person probably wasn't a foe.
Now at ease that she wasn't in any immediate danger, Tifa found it less difficult to wait in silence. She lay completely still except for the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. She would've thought that her guest had left, if it weren't for the fact that she didn't hear the door reopen.
Then the silence was broken by her company letting out a sigh. She heard the chair groan as the visitor leaned forward. "You did not deserve this."
Tifa instantly recognized the deep baritone voice but remained still. Had he seen through her act?
Vincent paused and drew a slow breath. "This pain, this burden, it should not have been yours to bear." He gazed down at her resting form and let the hand that he was holding to his temple fall to his lap. "Now everything that you had was taken from you."
He looked down at his hand and curled it into a fist. "And I could do nothing to stop it from happening."
Where is he going with this? Tifa wondered. Does he truly not know that I'm awake?
"Yet, even as everything you knew was destroyed, your first thoughts were on the well-fare of others."There was another short pause. "But then, you have always been that way."
He studied from her dormant form. She looked so frail wrapped up in bandages. He could hardly bear it. "Even when you suffered the greatest pain and heart-break, you kept your smile for everyone else. Your kindness; your compassion knows no limits, it seems; nor does your ability to look ahead with hope."
Vincent faltered in his words momentarily, and Tifa wondered at the fact that he was still speaking. Surely this was a dream. "Even in your darkest of days, you have remained strong and never given in to despair."
He shook his head despondently. "I, even after all my years, cannot say the same on any account." Vincent released a miserly chuckle. "And even after the nightmares of my past, even after facing my demons…I had never truly known fear until that moment…until…"
There was a long pause before Vincent could bring himself to finish. "I thought I had lost you. To watch the roof of that hell collapse and know that you were still inside…I have never been so frightened in my entire life." He clenched and unclenched his hands, desperate to fix her, to fix this whole problem, but knowing that there was nothing he could now.
"To think…to think that all of your hopes and dreams had been cut short…to think that I would never again be graced by your radiant smile…to think that I could never again hear your voice saying my name…it was…it was too much to bear."
Tifa listened to his words with disbelief. No, this couldn't be Vincent. He couldn't possibly be saying these things about her; to her. This couldn't be real. Her eyes burned as she tried to hold back the torrent that fought to be released.
Vincent closed his eyes and when he spoke next, it was in a near whisper. "I wish that you could know, Tifa. I wish that you could realize how much you truly mean to all of us…and I wish that I were brave enough to tell you this."
He grimaced contemptuously at himself. "But I have always been such a coward."
It was then when he opened his eyes and returned his gaze to her peaceful face that he saw a single glistening tear slide from the corner of her eye. His breath hitched in his throat as she slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to face him.
Tifa locked eyes with Vincent and then attempted to pull herself into the sitting position despite the fact that her head vehemently disagreed with the movement. But Vincent was up out of his seat in a flash and placed his hand on her shoulder.
He leaned over her and cradled her head in his right palm as she slowly allowed herself to be guided back to her pillow. The expression on his face was clearly one of worry for her well-being. But before he could pull away, Tifa reached out and lightly took hold of the back of his neck, pulling him toward her until their faces were mere centimeters apart.
Tifa smiled weakly and gently placed her forehead against his own. "Thank you," she whispered as she closed her eyes. "Thank you."
She felt Vincent's hand move from the back of her head to her neck, his thumb delicately stroking where her jaw line met her cheek. And then she felt his warm, soft lips brush against hers in the most tender of kisses.
"No," he whispered as he gently touched the tip of his nose to hers. "Thank you."His lips moved down to hers once more and lingered a bit longer this time before he pulled back abruptly as Cloud burst into the room.
"Vincent! Tifa! Shera and the kids have…they've been…um…" He looked from Vincent to Tifa then back again before he took a step back. Then, suddenly remembering what he had come for, he began again, but quieter this time. "Darknation ambushed Shera and the kids. They didn't even make it to Rocket Town. They killed the driver and took off with Shera and Marlene."
"What!?" Tifa shot up into the sitting position, ignoring the screaming pain between her temples. "What about Denzel? He isn't…"
"No," Cloud interrupted before she could finish. "He managed to escape. We found him at the crash site. Hey, wait a minute! You're injured!"
Tifa swung her legs out from under her blankets and shot him a look. "I don't care how much you protest, I'm not going to sit idly by while something like this happens! I don't care if I'm injured, I want to see Denzel!"
Vincent, who had been silent this entire time, moved next to Tifa and placed a protective hand on her shoulder. "Where is Denzel now, Strife?"
Cloud met Vincent's gaze with little expression on his face. "He's with Red, Barret, and Cid in the mess hall. He hadn't eaten since he left Tifa's."
"Very well," Vincent stated with a nod and then turned his eyes to Tifa. "Then we will join you there shortly."
Cloud seemed reluctant to leave, but then he nodded slowly and exited, closing the door halfway behind him.
Tifa looked up at Vincent and cocked her head to one side, trying to suppress the blush that threatened to spread across her face now that the two of them were alone together one again. "You're not going to try to convince me to stay here?"
Vincent arched an eyebrow at her. "No, I doubt that I could if I tried."
Tifa grinned at this and slipped off the bed to her feet. "Yeah, that's true."
-- O --
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