LEFT BEHIND REBUILD 1
June 29 – Medical Centre – 10 PM
"Cloud?"
He heard the familiar voice but didn't want to look up. It was almost too painful to look up. After what he had done …
"Cloud?"
The voice was soft and gentle but he still didn't look up. Hands touched his shoulders but he still didn't want to look at her. He doubted he could even say her name.
"Come on. Look at me," she said and her hand was trying to force his head up. He pulled back but of course the movement he was forced to look at her and he felt like his heart was going to crack.
"Tifa," was all he could whisper. He nearly chocked on his own heart that was threatening to jump out of his throat. He quickly closed his eyes again and turned away from her.
But he had already looked at her. She was kneeling in front of him with her large dark eyes staring at him. She was wearing simple clothes, like she had rushed over here. She must have been sleeping when someone called her. She should be in bed. She shouldn't be running about.
She could no longer hide her belly at eight months.
"It'll be okay," she said.
Was it?
He shook his head and tried to get some words out of his mouth but they wouldn't come. Instead of speaking, he reached down to her and had her stand up. He held her close to him. He opened his eyes and forced himself to look at her face. She didn't deserve his moodiness. He thought he was past this. She didn't deserve to have him dealing with all that was happening again. She didn't deserve to have him leave her because of all the things that happened in the past.
She blinked at him and smiled. "It's okay. Really."
He had to look away from her again but he didn't release her arms.
"I…I…" he stammered. He couldn't talk because words just didn't seem to match his despair that he was feeling and how torn it was to feel like this again. Saying, sorry, seemed like a pretty weak way to apologize right now. She deserved more than a simple 'I'm sorry.' He had told her that enough over the years.
"Don't pull away again," she whispered. "We need you."
He felt her firm belly pressed against his own. He found his hands going to the belly that contained his child. They didn't know if it was a girl or a boy yet, they had not asked the doctors that.
His child.
"I know. I just… I just... I didn't want…" he couldn't say anymore. Man, he was pathetic.
"I know," Tifa said simply.
He sighed and was going to say more, but the movement of the child, his child, against his hand stopped him. Tifa made a grunting sound. "This kid is trying to get out already." She smiled when she said that and it was the softest smile that he was getting used to seeing now. He liked that soft smile.
The kids wiggling and kicking was a common complaint and she made that smile every time that she said it. It made him smile to, even if it was small.
"Tifa," he whispered.
"Hum?"
"I have something to ask you," he said and rubbed the belly. The kid kicked again and caused him to smile more. He focused on the belly. His child that he had never knew he wanted until Tifa told him that she was pregnant.
"What?" Her voice soft and understanding.
He could feel tears leaving his eyes as he spoke. He wasn't if he would be able to get the thoughts out of his mouth. "I know we haven't decided on names yet, but, if it is a boy, can we name him Za.. Zack and if it a girl, Ar…Aerith?" He didn't know what she would think of naming the child after his once best friend (and the man who he still shared memories with) and a girl that had been her rival for his heart and truthfully, still held a large part of it.
Her hands rested on top of his, which rested on her large belly, and he looked at her face now. He hoped that she wasn't mad.
"Of course," she said. "I was waiting for you to ask."
He smiled brightly and leaned in for a kiss.
"Sap."
He pulled back and saw Reno crinkling his nose at them.
He frowned at the Turk. "That is three words I heard from you today, Turk," he said simply but held onto Tifa firmly. "I think you are faking that lack of voice of yours. I do believe you need to get a better vocabulary though. Prick, Shit and Sap are pretty limited for use."
Reno just frowned at him and looked like he was trying to say something but the words did not come out. Cloud chuckled lightly and turned his back on the Turk and escorted Tifa away from the place. She did not need to be here.
REBUILD 2
June 29 – Medical Centre – MidnightTseng watched at the images on the monitor. He knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep so he had stayed in his newly acquired office replaying the images of the day.
They all were horrible images to watch again, but then, he had to remind himself that this was some failure to read the situations that occurred in Bearnin all those years ago.
He knew that Genesis had grown fond of Lore in that period of time and was even aware of the increased correspondence that occurred after that. Looking back through the information he should have seen it but with all the other trouble that Genesis caused, some recruits that turned him down, were not a high priority on his list for observation. Lira was a higher priority than Lore.
Of course Lore now was a nervous ball of energy that had to be sedated. Of course, it was only part of it was the fact that Genesis had just tried to forcefully abduct him off the roof the medical center. It also had to do with the fact that Errow, the cause of all these trouble right now, had sprouted a pair of silvery wings and had discovered who his father was and had demanded a large array of answers from everyone around him.
The boy who had been silently waiting for death to take him was now a demanding child who wanted answers. He was acting more like his father and he didn't even know it.
An un-degraded but nearly dead Genesis lay in a secured room.
A degrading Lira lay at the bottom of detention center going further mad and waiting for her own death.
Reno only able to utter a few curse words.
Cloud nearly loosing his mind at the sight of Genesis.
He was not holding up all that well himself.
Everything had crumbled around him and he felt like he was in the center of it all. Having to further explain his failures to Rufus had been exhausting and emptying. Rufus had just thanked him for the update and told him to leave.
Where was this even going?
All those experiments that he had aided in his own way by following orders were still raising havoc in the world.
He really wished he stopped it.
He laughed at the thought. How could he have stopped it? If he had tried, he most likely would have ended up in a basement somewhere and in a test tube just like Cloud and Zack did.
He clicked on the camera that he was observing Genesis. They had him chained to the bed and had not reawaken from the surgery to fix him up from the hole that Cloud put through him. Tseng knew that those chains wouldn't really hold him once he woke.
Genesis. He was supposed to be dead.
He did agree with Clouds comments about how they never seemed to be dead. It was quite infuriating at times to realize that all those that were experimented on, don't really seemed to die.
Well, only the good ones.
Zack was still dead.
Cloud came back after the remnants.
Why couldn't Zack come back too?
He sighed heavily again.
The image of the angelic Errow; the boy who is the genetic legacy of the world's worse menace, was on the next screen. He was sleeping now with Lore whom he had refused to let leave. Another reminder that Errow was now changed.
He figured that was why Lira did not want to tell him about who is father really was. The change had been immediate.
He changed the picture to the detention center and looked at Lira. She wasn't sleeping. He doubted that she slept much, it was only in fits and spurts and as usual, she was staring at the camera. Very unnerving to see her staring down the camera. The woman that had a bit of Sephiroth's heart. He had just thought they were using each other for sexual amusement. He remembered that first morning that he had watched Lore throw back that tent flap to yell at his lazy sister to get out of bed, only to see the silver and black hair entangled on the cot in the tent. Lore had sputtered and laid the flap back down. Genesis had yelled at Sephiroth for being a damn womanizer. Lira had just shrugged and said, "I will do as I please, thank you. You are not my keepers."
Indeed.
They had quite the tryst over that mission. It was not like Sephiroth's normal tryst's either. The man had been of course known for the fact that he would use and throw away his fan girls like they were used bathwater. He had never slept with one twice, until Lira.
He also remembered, quite clearly that he did not play with his fangirls after being with Lira. He must have been fond of if he was not to go back to his old ways of pouncing on anything that was offered to him.
It was one of the reasons that he wanted her to be a Turk. Who else could have tamed Sephiroth? He wished that he had been more persistent. Pregnant or not, she would have been a great addition to ShinRa.
Things could have been so different.
But he couldn't regret everything that he did in the past.
He couldn't change what he had done with so many things, that he would have loved to have changed.
He typed in a series of numbers and times in the computer. He was curious about the session that Reno had today and wanted to see the notes the doctor made. He was grateful that he was hearing a few words out of his mouth, even if they were curses, and directed at Cloud.
He would have to make sure that they spend more time together to get that normally rapid tongue moving together.
To Be Continued….
