We are so so so so so sorry for the massive delay that we have had with this story. We are pleased to announce however that the whole story has been thoroughly planned (and any author will know that planning is half the battle) and the rest of the story will uploaded frequently. Enjoy chapter seven!
Chapter 7- The Parasites Instinct
Lessons at College were becoming more and more of a strain for both Alex and Josh. It was true, that much of this could have been avoided if they didn't have to contend with the voices that were going through their heads.
Alex was feeling the strain of this the worst however. She did not have any knowledge that Tifa had temporarily taken complete control, nor did she know that her physical form had actually changed to mimic Tifa's precisely. She did have some suspicions however, as several bruises that Alex had not had before had randomly appeared.
Of course, Alex had questioned Tifa about this, yet she denied any involvement with it. Thinking that she was lying, Alex tried to read Tifa's thoughts, but for some reason this was extremely difficult, as though they were being hidden away from her. At times, she thought she caught glimpses of a dark night, and a flash of scarlet, but at others Alex thought that this was all imagined.
"So for the last time, can you just stop asking me about it!?" Tifa shouted in her head, making it even more difficult for Alex to take in anything that her teacher was saying to the class.
"So how many pictures are to be used in your panoramic photograph, Alex?" Adrian asked. Her teacher had caught her off guard.
"Erm…err…six?" Alex replied. She looked around at the rest of the class who were all staring at her.
"Near enough." Adrian said. Clearly he could not be bothered to point out that she was not listening properly. "Yet five will do fine Ms West." Alex blushed as she always did when her surname was used. "Well if you could all borrow a camera from resources and get this handed in to me by next Monday. That will be all for this lesson."
Everybody packed away their things, Alex still blushing a delicate shade of red, and left the classroom. She had agreed earlier with Josh that they would spend their free period together in the Café. Walking quickly towards it, she stumbled upon none other than Shaun, who was looking greatly distressed.
"Hiya, what's up?" Alex asked as she approached him.
Shaun did not answer at once. Upon closer inspection, Alex saw that he looked very tired. "I just feel Ill…" He replied. He did look rather pale.
"I know the feeling…" Alex said, not looking directly at him, "…anyway…I said I'd meet Josh. See ya around mate." She gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and turned to leave. As she did so, Alex found that she too did not feel so good. Her skin felt like it was crawling back upon itself.
When at last she reached the Café, she found Josh sitting at a table alone. A cup of hot chocolate in one hand, and a piece of what was undoubtedly homework on the table in front of him. He looked very happy about something.
"What's got you in such a good mood?" Alex sat down on a chair opposite Josh and peered over at his homework which was headed 'Improvisation Techniques'. "Fascinating…"
"What?" Josh looked up at her, and then back down at his heading. "Oh…yeah." He picked up his mug of hot chocolate and took a sip, then winced from the heat. Alex laughed.
"In for next lesson no doubt?" Alex commented. This was always the case with Josh, which made his next statement surprise her somewhat.
"No." He replied simply. "We were only just set it actually, thought I would get a head start."
Alex was very glad that she had not gone to get a drink yet, because if she had she would more than likely have spat it out on hearing this. "Did you get hit over the head or something?"
Josh ignored her and started to write his next paragraph. Maybe it was Alex's imagination, but she thought that his writing had changed. It looked neater than normal anyway.
Alex said that she was going to go and get a drink and got up from the table. Sure enough, about a minute later she returned with a steaming mug of cappuccino, her favourite hot drink. "Miss me?" She teased as she sat back down. To her great shock Josh had written considerably more in the short amount of time she had been gone.
It was just as Alex took a sip of her drink that Tifa spoke to her. To her great surprise, she sounded worried. "You need to get to somewhere private right now!" Alex didn't move. "ARE YOU DEAF!? MOVE!!"
The crawling sensation in Alex's skin then returned in full force. Not wasting anymore time, she got up and ran as fast as she could in the direction of the girls toilets. She got there just in time and ran straight into one of the cubicles, slammed the door and locked it.
The sensation which followed this was extremely strange. Her skin, instead of feeling like a crawling sensation, felt like it was folding back on itself. Her head then felt fuzzy, and her legs went completely numb as she fell to the floor of the cubicle.
Alex looked around, or at least, she tried to move her head to look around, however she could not move a single muscle. Her head then suddenly looked down at her hands, without Alex meaning it to. She tried to move a finger, but couldn't, what was going on? All of a sudden, as though of their own accord, her arms pushed her to her feet.
"What the…" Alex said, only her mouth did not move, the sound just echoed around in her head. Then out of no-where, Tifa's voice sounded.
"We've changed, this is the second time it has happened. I didn't want to tell you the first time because I thought it might alarm you, I realise now what a mistake that was…" Alex would very much have liked to have said that Tifa could have warned her, but didn't, she was too taken aback by Tifa suddenly going to open the cubicle door.
"Are you mad!?" Alex shouted, but Tifa did not seem to listen to her. She unbolted the cubicle door and went out.
What happened next was extremely strange. As Tifa looked into the mirror, Alex could suddenly move again. She ran towards the mirror where Tifa was staring at her and started shout loudly, not caring who heard her.
"Change us back right now!" Tifa was deep in thought, not really paying much attention to Alex at all.
"I can't…" Tifa replied, looking sorrowfully at the mirror, "…I have no control over it, we will just have to wait and see…well…just wait."
Alex paced around, it felt very strange to be talking from in a mirror. "Well you can't go outside… don't you think people will find it a bit strange if a game character suddenly appeared in College?"
To Alex's great surprise and annoyance, Tifa simply smiled. "Please…Look at me! I'm still dressed like you, I could easily pass for just another student."
Without the ability to do anything at all to stop her, Tifa walked out the door or the toilet. Alex's vision returned to Tifa's eyes. Fortunately however, nobody seemed to pay Tifa the slightest bit of attention, she walked around the college for what seemed to be hours, evidently looking for something. Without even bothering to ask, Alex looking inside her mind.
"You're telling me that there is another person like me here?" Alex asked. Tifa then turned right around and headed in towards the exit of the College.
"No." She muttered aloud as there was nobody nearby. "They have headed towards town centre, they must have changed form too…"
Tifa continued to walk briskly along the narrow path towards town, Alex continuously asking questions along the way, most of which she got no answer to. Even through reading her mind, Alex did not get any more information that what she already knew.
Eventually they stopped walking. They were now stood by a bench which was covered in water from a recent downpour of rain. Tifa sat down and waited. "Why here?" Alex asked.
Again there was no-one around, so Tifa talked aloud. "This is where I came the other night when we first changed, the other one is heading here…"
Alex now felt nervous yet excited at the same time. Around ten minutes passed, and then from the end of the street trotted a ginger dog. Tifa looked at it for a few moments, then continued to look around expectantly. To both her and Alex's great surprise however, the dog came up to her and dropped a newspaper in her lap, then looked up at her, wagging it's tail.
Tifa considered the dog for a moment, then picked up the newspaper. Before she had chance to read anything however, a voice sounded from what seemed to be the dog. "The phrase is 'thank-you' I believe."
She jumped and looked back down at the dog, which was now giving her an unmistakable stern look. "I thought your host was human?" Tifa asked.
"It is." The dog replied, and then before Tifa's very eyes, the dog's fur changed smoothly from ginger to dark red, and standing in front of her was none other that Red XIII. "But I can disguise myself too, I discovered that about an hour ago." He smiled. "You ought to read that, I think you will find that very interesting…" He nudged the paper with his nose.
Tifa picked up the slightly wet newspaper and read the headline at the top of the front page. Break In at the Tower of London. Intrigued, she read the article underneath.
'In the early hours of the morning Police released shocking information of a break in at the famous 'Tower of London', which is the current safeguard of the prestigious crown jewels. Police assured everyone that nothing was taken, however the thief was not apprehended. Plans to move the Jewels to a more secure location have been discussed, but so far no suitable location has been found. Extra security has been placed at the Tower to guard the Jewels, and Police urge anyone with any information to come forward at once. (Full story Pages 3-5)'.
Tifa read the last few words, then folded up the paper and looked at Red. "Why should I be interested in this?" She asked, slightly annoyed.
"I've just got a feeling…" Red replied, looking up at her with narrowed eyes, "…the thief wasn't caught, and the security around those 'Jewels' is supposed to be impenetrable. What if…" He looked away from her, "…what if it's one of the others?"
She couldn't help but let out a laugh. "That's a bit of a stab in the dark wouldn't you say?"
Red looked back up at her. "I don't think so…I can't explain why, but I just know that it is one of us!" He leapt onto the bench and with difficulty flipped the paper open to page 3. A lot of the page was dedicated to a double spread of a very blurred photo which must have been taken from a security camera. It showed a figure fleeing from a roof. Though it was difficult to tell, Tifa thought it was a woman.
Tifa then had a very strange feeling. It was as though something was telling her where she must go. It seemed so obvious now. Of course this was one of them! Why had she ever doubted Red in the first place?
"We have to go to London!" Tifa said, and so sure of what they needed to do, she got to her feet and headed towards town centre where there was a train station, Red ran to catch up with her, changing back into the ginger dog.
"I've got lessons! You can't just go to London!!" Tifa stopped in her tracks.
"Leave it to the weekend…" Tifa said to Red, turning on the spot to look at him. She suddenly realised how odd it would look if someone to see her talking with a ginger dog, "…we have to show some respect to our host's lives."
Red agreed, and together they headed back towards the College.
-
The weekend came along quicker then Alex would have liked it to. It was Friday now, and Alex was sitting at her desk, working on a very difficult I.C.T assignment, though not being able to concentrate on it at all.
"So who is Red XIII?" She asked, there was no-one else in the house to hear her talking to herself.
"He comes from Cosmo Canyon, I met him a few months ago on our way to..."
"No no!" Alex interrupted, "I mean who is his 'host'."
Tifa did not answer. Alex did not press the matter, and decided to simply read Tifa's mind. She was blocking off that particular piece of information. Trying to redirect her attention to the assignment, Alex ignored Tifa's next words.
"We should get going, Red is going to meet us at Waterloo station at five o clock." It was fortunate that Alex had Friday afternoons off. She did not move. "I don't want this to sound like I am threatening you…but move before I make you, please?" She continued to sit still, staring at her assignment.
Without any warning, Alex got to her feet. "Stop that!" She shouted, but Tifa continued to force her to walk towards the door. "At least let me get my bag!" She stopped forcing her to walk.
Alex moved over to her bed where her shoulder bag was, picked it up, and slung it over her right shoulder. Not wanting to be forced to walk anywhere, she started to walk towards the door.
The journey to London was rather uneventful. Tifa hardly spoke to her all the way there, even when Alex complained constantly about the price of the ticket. Several hours later, Alex was getting off the train at London Waterloo. The first thing she saw and it did not lift her spirits, was the ginger dog. She walked over to it and stroked it a few times, wondering how it managed to get onto the platform.
"Ask him if he has any leads?" Tifa said to Alex. She did so in an undertone, and without warning, the dog began to trot joyfully along, Alex following him at a brisk pace.
London was very different to how Alex imagined it to be. She had never been there before, and had never thought it would be so crowded. People were walking in all directions, many with phones held to their ears, many with briefcases, and many with rucksacks who looked like tourists.
Alex tried very hard to keep the dog in sight through the crowed. It was lucky that it was such a bright and vibrant colour. After a long while, they came to an alleyway which they could speak freely in.
"It's difficult to sense her here…" Red said to her as she knelt down, "…but I do have a general idea of which direction to go in. As far as I can tell, the person we are looking for is about a mile away from where we are now. I'll know who it is when I see her, so will Tifa…"
"Red…" Alex asked, without any indication of what to say from Tifa, "…Can I ask…who is your host?"
Red looked away from her. "I cannot say, even he does not know that he is a host yet. Chances are you will work it out without being told."
"How can he not know!?" Alex asked in shock. "Can't he see what you are doing now?"
The dog shook its head. "He is dormant at the moment, he won't remember any of this. Anyway, shall we get moving?"
Alex nodded, then started to feel that familiar crawling sensation in her skin again, yet she did not think the change was coming just yet. The dog turned and left the alleyway, and she followed.
They walked for around fifteen minutes. On the way there, a hooded youth had tried to steal Alex's shoulder bag, but with reflex's even Alex did not know she possessed, she managed to grab the mans hand at the last second to prevent him taking it. He had run away however, obviously not keen for a fight.
The two of them stopped outside a restaurant called 'Inshoku' which appeared to serve sushi. Red gave her a look which quite clearly said 'She's in there'. Alex approached the door, opened it, and they both walked in.
"No pets allowed." A man who was standing at the door said. "You will have to leave it outside, sorry." The man then stared at the dog as it turned round and walked out by itself. "Aren't you going to attach a lead or something to it?"
"He is very well trained, I can assure you." Alex replied, looking at the ginger dog that had now lain down on the pavement.
The restaurant was rather small. The main attraction of it was a small carousel going round what appeared to be a bar, where all of the diners sat eating their sushi. It was obviously an all you can eat.
"…There!" Tifa exclaimed, and Alex's head snapped in the direction of a woman sitting at the bar. "…well what are you waiting for? Go and sit next to her!"
Alex did as she was told, deciding it was best not to be forced to walk somewhere out in public. She slowly walked over to a vacant stool next to the woman, and sat down next to her. A waiter came over with a menu showing what all the different kind of Sushi's were. Alex thanked the man, ordered a glass of coke, and looked forward at the carousel, which had many different kinds of dishes going round it.
The waiter returned to her several short minutes later with her drink. Alex took a sip from it and looked sideways at the woman sitting next to her. She was few inches taller than Alex, though it was difficult to tell whilst sitting down. Her hair was shoulder length and a deep shade of brown. Alex studied her face, she was wearing a happy expression, and her eyes were a pale blue. Clothes wise, she was wearing what looked like a very expensive black designer coat, a stylish pair of combats and high heeled boots.
"Are you not going to say anything to her?" Tifa prompted. Alex hesitated, not sure how to initiate conversation with a complete stranger.
"H-Hello…" Alex stuttered, so quietly it was a miracle that the woman heard her. She looked up at her however and gave her a quizzical look.
"Can I help you?" The woman replied, a slight grin crossing her face. Her voice was cheerful with a slight accent. She felt extremely awkward.
"Was…was just wondering if you could recommend any of these…" She gestured at the Sushi going round the carousel, "…I've never been to a Sushi bar before."
The woman's smile widened, yet it was friendly, not intimidating. "Well, if this is your first time, then this one…" She pulled a plate with a green coloured something on it, "…would be a good one to start with, just to see if you can handle anything with a more acquired taste. Then you might want to move onto this one…" She pulled a plate with a yellow thing on it which Alex eyed suspiciously, "…but I wouldn't try it if you don't really like the first."
She watched in amusement as Alex tried the dishes that she handed her one after the other. "These are all disgusting…" Tifa said in her head, making Alex grin.
"Like them?" The woman asked.
"They're good actually." Alex replied truthfully, which made Tifa snort. "Alex…" She said holding out her hand.
"Savina." The woman said grasping her hand with a surprisingly firm grip.
"So Savina…" Alex said, yet not meaning to. Tifa had taken control of her voice. "…I hear you made quite a splash at the Tower of London…"
Savina looked very taken aback. "Excuse me?" She replied, eyebrows raised. "Are you implying…"
"Oh spare it…" Alex said, again, Tifa controlling her voice, "…I know it was you, no point denying it."
"Well then…" Savina started, "…where is your backup then? You are obviously here to arrest me…"
Without waiting for an answer, she threw a punch straight at Alex's face. Again with unnatural reflex's, Alex grabbed her wrist. One of the waiters was hurrying over to them. "Take it outside or I'm calling the…" He did not say anymore, Savina had kicked the stool she was sat on a second previous straight at him, knocking him out.
There was panic in the restaurant. People were getting up and running for the exit. In all the confusion, Savina tried to hit Alex again, with no success. Without any control whatsoever, Tifa was making her fight back. Punch after punch was thrown at her, yet Savina seemed to be just as skilled a fighter as Alex and Tifa were.
Savina managed to land a kick straight to Alex's chest which knocked her to the floor. She ran to the door, but out of nowhere came the ginger dog. It pounced at her, knocking her down onto her back. "You're not going anywhere…" Red said to her. Savina's eyes widened in shock, but almost immediately they returned to normal.
"Could that be Red??" She asked in a voice which sounded completely different from the one she had used to talk to Alex earlier. The dog got off her and allowed her to get to her feet.
Savina then looked over at Alex, but instead of Alex standing before her, she saw the all too familiar figure of Tifa Lockhart. "And who are you?" She asked. Savina smiled.
There was the distant sound of sirens. "Not here." She replied, and without warning she ran towards the back door, followed closely by Tifa and Red.
Tifa was not sure how they had managed to avoid capture, but several minutes later she found herself, Red XIII and the mysterious Savina in what appeared to be a run down apartment.
"They won't find us here." Savina said in an assuring tone, "didn't find me after I tried to steal those Jewels anyway!" She smiled.
"So who are you?" Red asked, changing swiftly back into his normal crimson furred self.
"Oh come on!" Savina said in a childish voice. "Don't tell me you've forgotten your friendly neighbourhood Yuffie!"
Authors Notes: Hope you had as much fun reading this as we did writing it. Please leave a review with your thoughts on this chapter, and the next chapter shall be uploaded soon =D.
R&A