Chapter 97: Finding a Way
Tifa blinked at Yuffie's tirade and even Zack paused in the entrance of the cave to turn with Aerith in his arms and look at her.
"You mean he's really – "
"Cloud Strife, one time soldier of Shinra, hero of Wutai, savoir of the White Rose of Wutai, adopted son of Godo of Wutai and a royal prince of the House of Wutai? Hells yeah!" Yuffie was steaming now and Tifa debated if she should try to take the sword with all its sharp pointy edges away from her. "Gawd! I can't believe he's been thinking he wasn't all these years! The idiot could have just said something! It's not like I'd be hanging all off of a total stranger, would I?"
"Then he's – " Tifa searched for the right word. "Not created?"
"Well, I'm sure his mother and father would probably say something about that," Yuffie snorted. "But he's not a test tube baby or anything like Zack is."
Zack shook his head but he looked embarrassed and amused, not insulted.
"She's got worse nicknames for it too, don't encourage her."
Yuffie was still ranting.
"That man is such a – such a goober-snot! Why wouldn't he just say something? I mean, I knew he was screwy when he came back but I didn't know he was that screwy. Just wait until he gets back." She looked as if she might make punching motions if her hands weren't both full in trying to keep the sword balanced over her slender shoulder.
"I've seen his scar," Tifa commented softly and Yuffie pulled out of her rant to make a face.
"Ew! He's my brother. I don't need the details about what you guys do."
Tifa felt her cheeks heat and had the absolutely bizarre urge to laugh.
"Not like that!" she protested. "When we first found him he was sick with a fever and I – "
"La la la la!" Yuffie sang. "Not listening to freaky details."
Tifa looked helpless at Zack and he just shrugged his shoulders, still holding Aerith.
"I've seen it too," he agreed.
"EW! Ew, ew, ew!"
"Yuffie," he tried to interrupt. "We lived in Costa del Sol. It wasn't like we went swimming in shirts."
"It's here and here," Tifa pointed to the familiar spots on herself and blinked. She'd seen the scars before but it had never occurred to him that they marked points where something had actually gone entirely through the man. Yuffie broke off her slash-fic moment and nodded.
"That's right! 'Cause Sephiroth was all 'I'm fruitier than a mixed berry pie and I'm going to kill you for being small' and Cloud zipped in like '…' and so Sephiroth stabbed him instead of me and was like 'look a me being bad ass and lifting you bodily with my sword through you like a kebab over a barbeque' and Cloud was all 'ugghghg' and I was all 'holy shit!' and Sephiroth was like all 'you're next, my pretty, and your little dog too' to me and Cloud was like all 'hugghghghgh' and pulling himself forward on the sword until he got his feet on the ground and Sephiroth was all 'holy shit!' and then Cloud was like 'guh' and using the sword that was still in him to toss Sephiroth into one of the cracks in the floor where the Lifestream was starting to bubble out while Sephiroth was all like 'curses, foiled again. And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids!' and 'blop' into the green goo and Cloud was all 'a-gurk' and fell over and that's when I ran screaming up the stairs to go find my dad."
Again there was a very long pause as both Zack and Tifa stared at her and mentally translated what they'd just heard into their own language. Yuffie waited patiently. Finally, Tifa ventured:
"And then?"
"And then I found my dad and waited until they pulled the wall that had fallen on him off and dragged him back to the underground lab but there were Shinra helicopters and Turks and SOLDIER all over the place and since we were only kinda still at war with them or maybe not and nobody was sure, Dad decided we'd wait somewhere else until it got figured out. So after it all got worked out, Dad made adopting Cloud part of the deal, 'cept Shinra couldn't seem to find him, 'cause first they said he was dead until my dad said no adoption, no go, and then they just said he was in the hospital but they kept switching around the hospital and finally we kinda adopted him on paper but I knew he was still alive 'cause that's what 'a-gurk' means and when he showed up later on when the monsters started coming, I knew it was him and when the girls giggled about how cute he looked at the bath house 'cause they'd peeked they mentioned the scar and so I made sure I tackled him one day when he was just waking up in the morning and sure enough, he had his scar right where it was supposed to be even if he was touchy about me stealing his shirt off of him." Yuffie paused and then shrugged and almost lost her balance with the sword over her shoulder. "But I knew it was him anyway. It's not like five years is going to change the way someone looks enough to be somebody else anyway. I mean, I might have been a little kid but I'm not stupid."
She sounded so like Marlene for just a moment at the end that Tifa finally gave in to the urge and hugged her.
"I look like me. Or the Zack I was made from," Zack pointed out reluctantly and Yuffie wiggled out of Tifa's arms with a grin and shrugged. Tifa caught the sword.
"Sure. But I bet you don't have his scars."
Zack's hand rose to his smooth jaw line briefly and his face relaxed. For a moment, Tifa was worried. It meant he wasn't the same as Cloud and suddenly he was all alone in his situation again. But instead Zack started to grin.
"So Spikey's real?! He's really real and all this time, he's been tearing himself up! That's awesome!" He looked over at Tifa. "Okay. We're definitely getting him back now. I just have to rub this in."
Tifa made a noise and put her hand over her mouth. For a minute, she wasn't sure if she was going to burst into laughter or tears. She settled for hugging everyone again and nodding.
"Yes," she agreed. "Definitely, yes. We get him back."
"Well, duh…" Yuffie offered her opinion.
Despite her worries, the stone 'bridge' was still there leading away from the island and back across the lake, even if they had to circle around the strange foggy shore until they found it. Tifa and Yuffie managed to balance Cloud's heavy sword between them across the slippery rocks and Zack carried Aerith. This time Tifa watched and even watching she couldn't tell at exactly what moment the air around her went from gray and foggy to twilight dark and clear. It was disconcerting. But this whole place seemed intent on being disconcerting. No trails of pale eel light followed them through the water this time as they made their way carefully across.
"I was afraid the stones would disappear," Tifa commented as she finally made it to shore. Not about to voice the thought until she was safely on dry land. Zack made a noise.
"Maybe they stayed for Aerith."
"Maybe," Tifa agreed but she couldn't help but remember that Aerith had seemed to expect them to disappear. And she also hadn't forgotten the way Cloud had been once they'd gotten near the lake.
There was so much she was stuck remembering in retrospect she wished she'd understood sooner.
To distract herself, she lifted her head and looked around.
"How do you think we get out of here?" she asked and Zack, Aerith still in his arms, turned briefly in a circle.
"You still have Aerith's key?" he asked and for a long moment, Tifa could only blink.
"Crap," she managed in a whisper. Zack gave a brief smile and a shake of his head.
"It's okay. I get the feeling getting out of here is going to be a lot easier than getting in. Unwelcome guests being shown the door and all that."
"So… this way?" Tifa gestured in the general direction she thought they'd come from originally and Zack shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as mine. Let's give it a go."
With a nod, Tifa took point. Zack had Aerith and Yuffie had Cloud's sword again. It left her the only one that could react instantly to monsters and so she took the lead. There were no monsters though and Tifa wasn't sure if she was relieved or upset. True to Zack's guess, they cleared the strangely sleeping woods in what seemed a much faster time than it had taken them to come in.
Somehow, to Tifa, coming out of the shadowing trees to find the hints of bright sunlight peppering down through the foliage seemed harder. It should be raining or nighttime. The world shouldn't be bright and breezy and cheerfully full of late afternoon sunlight.
It shouldn't remind her of all those days spent walking carelessly across tall grassy fields with a relaxed, silent blond man at her side. She paused because the hole that memory opened up inside her chest threatened to swallow her whole and she had to lean forward and wheeze, her breath wouldn't come. Zack came to stand near her but his arms full of Aerith he couldn't offer more comfort than his presence. She pulled air in through her nose and nodded her head silently to let him know she was all right even when they both knew it was a lie.
She could force herself to stay sane and calm and stable. Just as long as she stayed distracted and didn't think.
Or feel.
Or remember.
They'd get him back. They would. Somehow. And they'd fix the Jenova taint that was killing him too. Somehow. They would.
Because she wasn't sure what she would do if they didn't. And it scared her. Because this was different from losing her siblings. She wasn't sure why it was and it scared her too badly for her to want to try to figure it out.
"Geez," Yuffie was pretending she was unaware of Tifa's mini-breakdown and had propped Cloud's sword up against a nearby tree so she could rest her hands on her hips and stare upward. In her brother's absence, it seemed she'd taken over the job of being practical.
"Cid's never gonna be able to see us way down here. We need somebody to shimmy up a tree and find some kind of landmark to tell him where we are."
It made Tifa smile weakly.
"I'll do it," she volunteered even though it seemed that was the whole point. Even though her eyes were dry she found herself rubbing the back of her wrist over them anyway and she straightened with an inhale. "I've got a PHS." Cloud's… because Aerith's father still had hers and she'd never gotten another one…. "I'll climb up and see what I can see."
Zack nodded and settled Aerith down at the roots of a nearby tree, propping her up against it. Somehow it was easier seeing her upright like that than lying there. Tifa told herself that her friend's skin had a bit of color to it. Zack caught her look but he didn't say anything. Instead he just found the tallest looking tree and cupped his hands to offer Tifa a first step up. She walked over and put one hand on his shoulder and the other on a lower branch. On impulse, she dropped a kiss on the top of his head. He raised his eyes and gave her a smile but she saw her own pain and worry and fear and anger echoed in his eyes and his smile was more determined than cheerful. She understood and somehow that made things easier. With another nod for him – that they were going to be all right – she let him boost her up and used the momentum to catch the nearby branches and pull herself upward.
