Chapter 4: Picking up the Pace

"Reno, are you positive that your findings are correct?" Reeve asked the red-headed Turk. It was about five minutes ago that he and Nanaki had arrived at 7th Heaven, and it had only taken Reno two of those minutes to explain what he discovered.

"Yo, I'm positive! One of the neighbors heard the commotion over here. I was talkin to her while you guys were havin your conference meeting. She heard a lot of noise, so she set a tape recorder in the window right over there--" Reno pointed to an open window in the bar, which was followed by a window of the neighboring house. It was right there, so it could easily pick up the sounds of the bar.

"I see. And is anything useful on this tape?"

Reno shook his head slightly. "Haven't had time to listen to it. Figured we should take it in for analysis first."

Reeve chuckled. "Reno, you haven't lost your touch. And here I thought Rude was the brain behind you two."

"Rude? Hah! He hardly even opens his mouth, so it's impossible to know if he has a mind."

"You know that's not true," Reeve said seriously. "He's great with explosives, after all."

"Alright, you got me there. But I love him for his witty comments in battle. And his sarcasm. Seriously man, he is a genius when it comes to that stuff."

Meanwhile, Nanaki was sniffing out the bar. The glass was cleaned up, which had infuriated Reno. He had accused them all of polluting the crime scene by cleaning up. However, it didn't make much of a difference now; the tape recorder was an excellent lead.

"Red? What's thamatter?"

Nanaki shook his head slightly. "There is absolutely no trace of anyone else being here. The scents are completely faded. I just...was hoping that once everyone else was gone I could pick up on something."

Reno turned somber. "That's the problem with leather; it holds in a scent really well. Keeps it close to the body and doesn't let it linger too much."

"If only we had a bit of their leather fabric here," Reeve mumbled. "Then latching onto a scent wouldn't be a problem, right Nanaki?"

"That would certainly help, but there are no promises once we hit the road. Edge is far too dirty for me to be able to easily follow the scent by itself. This tape is a much better resource."

Reeve took a peek at his watch, a frown appearing on his face. This wasn't good. Time was passing far too quickly, and the more time they wasted, the further away Marlene got. "We don't have time to take this tape back for analysis. Maybe there's a tape player here we can use."

"Cloud's room is well insulated," Nanaki threw in. The other two looked at him, curious as to how he knew that information and how it was important. "Meaning we can listen to the tape in there with minimum sound interference."

"Ahhh! I see. Alright, I'll check the upstairs for a cassette player. Reeve, you check down here."

Five minutes later, Reno returned to his "friends", a small device in hand.

"Alright boys, let's get down to business here."

Vincent walked down a dark alley, unaffected by the fact that he could hardly see what was in front of him. It was daytime, and yet it was so incredibly dark down there. If there was any place to hide somebody, it was this place. Fortunately for him though, he had trained himself to see in the dark. Somewhat, at least. The scene didn't look pitch black to him, only gray. But he couldn't distinguish details in the gray light.

"Vinnie, I don't wanna go in there!" Yuffie complained from the alley-entrance. Vincent sighed; it was clearly an impatient sigh. The young ninja pouted before shouting out a new response. "Okay, I'm coming in, but if something grabs me, I'm going to blame you for the rest of my life!"

The ex-Turk chuckled. "Or at least until you find something else to be upset about."

Yuffie gasped. "Did you just laugh?! .Stars. It must be the end of the world! Or you've been replaced by a robot. PLEASE tell me it's not the second one, I hate robots!"

Vincent put a hand to his forehead. "Yuffie..."

The girl took the hint, stopping with the jokes. "Alright, I know. We're here for a reason. But how are we supposed to get any searching done here? I can't even see two steps in front of me! Where are you, anyway? I can't see you at all."

"Ahead of you a little bit. Keep walking."

She sighed. That monotone voice got annoying after a while; especially since she was trembling as she walked through that alley. Nobody could ever know that the great ninja Yuffie was actually afraid of the dark. It was a fear she had established when she was working with Vincent a while ago, when he was struggling with Chaos. And...well, she wasn't going into detail with that. Now she was deathly afraid of the dark.

Something reached out and grabbed her ankle. Yuffie screamed.

Vincent, hand on his gun, pulled it out and shot at the being that had latched onto Yuffie's ankle. The thing, whatever it was, released her quickly. The ninja tumbled forward on the ground, on her knees and crying now. The darkness was bad enough, but now that something had grabbed her, had broken her down. She was so, so afraid.

"Yuffie?" Vincent called sharply. He had seen her fall, but he thought that her crying was because of pain.

"I want to get out of here!" Yuffie cried. "I-I can't stand to be in here anymore. Please, please just finish so we can leave."

Vincent approached the girl on the ground, careful not to step on her. He knelt down right in front of her so he could see her face, and she could see his, but not as clearly. "There's no trace of anything back here; we can leave now. That is, if you can stand."

Yuffie swallowed hard, nodding faintly. "R-right." She put one hand on the ground to push herself up, but she felt wobbly both because of fear and a faint pain. Vincent's hand found hers, which was absolutely stunning. But at the same time, it was greatly appreciated. Yuffie didn't care anymore what he thought of her; he had put up with her enough already, so he wasn't going to leave her now. She leaned into him lightly and let him lead her out of the alley.

It was such a relief to see the light coming again. Yuffie nearly jumped for joy when they reached the street again, sunlight pouring over them. But the pain in her ankle stopped her from making any unnecessary movements.

"Yuffie, let me see it." The wound, of course. Yuffie nodded and leaned against the building so she could take the weight off of it. She looked down at it while Vincent inspected it, taking in a sharp breath. It was bloody.

"What...?"

"A snake bite," Vincent muttered. "Must have been hiding in a trash can."

"Why didn't it go for you?"

A small smirk appeared on his lips. "I doubt he'd be much of a match for my shoes." Yuffie laughed, the fear taking a step back. But she was still trembling enough for Vincent to visibly notice it.

"Yuffie," he said seriously. Then he stayed silent, unsure of exactly what to say.

Yuffie laughed awkwardly. "Sorry." She brought up a hand to wipe away a tear while Vincent was busy. However, he noticed the action.

"Does it hurt?"

"No, not too much."

Vincent was quiet again. "Are you trembling because...." he trailed off, hoping Yuffie would fill in the blank. She didn't. "....because of what happened last time you were in the dark?" Yuffie met his eyes, a small glimmer of fear reappearing in hers. His, however, were actually showing a bit of understanding. So Yuffie nodded, making his expression soften a little more.

He refocused on the wound, which was still bleeding a small amount. "There's a medical clinic a block away. Let's go take care of this."

"Hair color?" Cloud inquired, staring down at his notepad. He and Tifa had been at this for nearly an hour, and yet they still hardly had any information that would help. Unfortunately, these men were too good at hiding their identities.

Tifa sighed for the tenth time. "I don't know, Cloud, alright? They had on ski masks. It completely covered their heads."

"There wasn't any hair trailing out the back?"

"No," she said tensely.

Now it was Cloud's turn to sigh. "We should take a break."

"And what? Sit by, drinking coffee while Marlene is scared to death? I don't think so."

"Tifa, we've already taken all the steps we can here. We need a lead before we can get anything done."

"And I'm trying to get you that lead!" she cried angrily. "Keep asking me things; there has to be something we can follow up on. Anything!"

Cloud shook his head. "Tifa, you need to take a breather," he said calmly. "Your emotions are getting the better of you."

Tifa curled her hand into a fist. How dare he come in and say that to her?! She was the one there when Marlene was taken. She was the one who was too weak to stop it from happening. And she was the one who would feel the guilt if Marlene wasn't returned safely.

"You know what? I do need a break. I'm going for a walk." She abruptly rose to her feet, heading toward the doorway. Cloud's chair moved as well; he must have wanted to come with. She stopped at the door, not turning around. "And I'm going alone." The girl exited the conference room, leaving a stunned and confused Cloud behind.

He has some nerve, she thought, steaming on the inside. She kept walking in case he followed. Now that would take nerve. Honestly, she didn't think he had it in him. He may have fought off Sephiroth twice, but he was really a coward. Not when it came to a fight, but when it came to life. He once had the world. Everyone cared for him. Then he pushed them away.

When he was suffering from geostigma, everyone still stood behind him. What did he do? He ran. He ran and didn't turn back. Until now, over a year later.

Tifa slid out a door and hurried over to a park bench along the side of the building. She plopped herself down, not sitting in a lady-like fashion. Too distressed to care, she wrapped her arms around her legs and curled up, tears falling as she reflected on everything.

She had been in the airship, staring down at Cloud as he stood on the top of the building. Thank goodness; he was victorious. Sephiroth was gone at last, as was his geostigma. Tifa didn't know how she knew. Maybe it was just the peace she saw on his face. Whatever the case, she knew it was the truth.

Then the sound of a gunshot rang throughout the air. She blinked and refocused on Cloud, but he was already charging at something. Or two someones. Two men in black. The materia as glowing in their arms, showing their evil intent. Tifa gasped sharply when the whole area was engulfed in fire, Cloud disappearing within the chaos. She screamed his name, then realized the truth. But no...she wasn't willing to accept the truth.

Cid, under her command, lowered the ship so she could get out. She ran over to the debris covered area, only to find Cloud's body. The trembling was so bad when she checked for a heartbeat that she couldn't accurately tell if he had one or not. But the look on his face told her that he didn't. She picked up his body and took it to the airship. Then she ordered Cid to take them to the church. Why, she didn't know. But miracles always seemed to happen there. She knew something great could happen again. Or at least...she hoped so. She desperately hoped so.

And something miraculous did happen. Cloud was brought back to life. She couldn't stop herself from smiling. And it looked as if Cloud smiled at her, but now, looking back, she doubt it was at her. Because the next day, he left on a delivery and never came back. And that was that. He left his cell phone behind. He took all his swords and materia, and of course, Fenrir. Then he was gone.

Over the next year, he never made contact with anyone. Not Barret, not the kids, not her. She eventually stopped hoping he would come home. She moved on with her life, developing a relationship with Rude. But she was still broken. Broken more than anyone could understand.

Why was she broken?

Because she couldn't run to any of her friends with this problem.

Because, though she wouldn't admit it, she wasn't invincible.

Because Marlene, the little girl who stole a part of her heart, was taken and she couldn't do a thing.

Because the man who stole the other half wouldn't give it back. Tifa kept trying to take it back, trying to lose whatever she felt for him. But she couldn't. She could never forget Cloud.

But she couldn't forget what he did to her either. A fight was raging in her mind, making her question her sanity. She cried harder and tuned out the voices, not caring what they had to say at that moment. Nothing mattered but recovering what she had lost.