Hey guys sorry about the lateness, no excuses really! Hope you aren't too angry at us! Enjoy the chapter!
-Chapter Nineteen-
Only Mortal
With Elena now revealed as the informant, things were beginning to look a lot better for Tifa and her companions. Having someone inside the Shinra organisation was a valuable asset, and the information which she provided them with was priceless. The looming threat of Sephiroth however was still one which dawned on them.
Alex, Shaun and Charles were all back in England now after staying the night in the Casino and learning as much as they could. Elena had also shown them what materia she had managed to gather, the purple Luck Plus materia, a second yellow Sense materia, and the green poison magic.
"Explains why she kept winning at the table…" Alex said to Shaun for the umpteenth time. The two of them were in town having a bite to eat at a fast food restaurant, "…I don't understand why sense works differently for her though, it must have been how she knew what cards I had…"
"Perhaps…" Shaun began, taking a bite of his burger, "…it works differently for different people? Or it works differently under different situations?"
"Interesting concept." Alex replied, just as her phone began to ring, she took it out of her pocket and looked at it.
"Who is it?" Shaun asked, intrigued.
"Vincent," Alex replied flipping the phone open, "Alex speaking." She had been told to use this greeting every time to avoid confusion as her voice and Tifa's voice weren't easy to distinguish.
There was a short phone conversation during which Shaun strained his ears to try and hear anything that was being said on the other end. He caught words such as 'China' and 'Country' which didn't really give much away at all.
Moments later Alex snapped her phone shut, a smile creeping onto her face. "Well, he says something rather interesting happened moments after we had left which he won't tell us until he sees us in person, and," She took a swig of her drink, "he thinks he may have found another one of the parasites."
"Who?" Shaun asked, amazed.
"Wouldn't say, not sure he even knows himself." She set her drink back down on the table and looked across as Shaun. "Says we are going to have to prepare for another long flight though, don't know about you but this is beginning to mess my body clock up badly…"
"Here here," Shaun agreed, "I don't think I have had a normal nights sleep since we got back from China a week ago."
Alex's phone vibrated;
Josh :)
Hey hey! Gonna be a little late in2 college 2day, sumthin came up so don't w8 up for me, see you soon! xxx
She snapped her phone shut again not seeing the need for a reply. Josh had made a full recovery two days after Alex had visited him in hospital. The doctors however could not work out what was wrong with him, and had therefore just decided to mark it down under stress. This seemed to satisfy his parents, but Alex couldn't help thinking that they were just fobbing him off as a bad egg.
"I might go home for a bit before college, I only have the one lesson today and its ages away." Alex said to Shaun.
"Something wrong?" He asked.
"What? Oh no, nothing's wrong, just thinking of trying to catch up on some sleep…" She finished eating the last of her fries.
"Good, I wanted to speak to you face to face." Tifa said to her.
X
Nobody was home as expected, they were all either working or busy. Alex walked into the front room and collapsed on the sofa, completely forgetting about Tifa's request to talk to her. Within moments she was asleep.
"Well that just makes talking to you all the easier." Alex was standing in a deep black void directly opposite Tifa Lockhart.
"You can't just leave me be for a moment?" Alex joked, knowing full well she would be completely well rested when she woke up.
Tifa couldn't help but laugh. "This is even more convenient than talking to you through a mirror, means we can go wherever we like."
A few moment later the black void they were both standing in materialised into the casino which they were in the previous day, except this time it was completely empty. Alex was a little confused.
"Why pick here of all places?" She asked, walking over to the poker table she had played Elena at.
"I found this building fascinating, nothing like this exists back on Gaia…" She too walked over and took a seat at the table, where there was a deck of cards set stacked where the dealer should stand, "…I'm starting to grow quite fond of this world you know?"
Alex looked at her with sympathetic eyes. She couldn't help but notice that Tifa was extremely homesick, something which came from the thought sharing process. The cards started to deal themselves to the two of them.
"You think Elena can be trusted?" Tifa asked Alex, which was fairly counterproductive considering she could just read her mind for the answer.
"I have my reservations about her, for all we know she could be feeding us rubbish…If only we had had Vincent there he could have sensed whether or not she was being truthful." Alex looked at the two cards she had been dealt and saw a picture of Rufus and Sephiroth on each, she threw the cards face up on the table. "Not an exact art this dreaming business is it?"
Tifa smiled and threw her cards face up as well, each bearing a picture of Alexander and Odin. "I guess not," She agreed, "Say Alex…do you think the same thing that has happened to me could happen to people like you?"
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"You know, you come through to our world instead?" The cards dealt themselves again.
"If Vincent's theory is correct wouldn't it be impossible?" Alex replied.
"I guess you're right…" Tifa looked at her cards, a look of confusion crossed her face. She threw them down face up, both bearing the same picture of several heavily armoured men, roughly six or so on each card, "…that's odd…"
Alex threw her cards down face up and to her bewilderment, they bore Tifa, Red, Vincent, Yuffie, Reeve and a shadowed figure neither of them could make out. "Any idea what this is all about?"
"Well these cards," She pointed at hers, "are…"
Alex woke suddenly to the vibration of her phone which had begun to ring. She looked at it and saw it was Savina.
"Alex speaking." She answered, and to her relief it was Savina.
"Alex we had a slight problem…" She replied.
"What is it? Surely Yuffie has recovered if you have taken over?" Alex sounded worried.
"Yes she is fine now…but the Alexander materia…Alex…It's gone…" There was a long silence between them, even Tifa did not have anything to say.
"What do you mean gone? Destroyed?" Alex asked, panicking slightly due to all the effort it took for them to get it.
"It must be…Perhaps it only lasts as long as the summon itself…" Savina sounded extremely disheartened, "…It can't have been stolen off of me, that's impossible…anyway I have let Reeve know, there is nothing we can do except try and understand what has happened."
They said their goodbyes to each other. Alex looked at the time and saw she should be making her way into college. "This couldn't have come at a worse time…" Tifa groaned.
X
"So what came up?" Alex asked Josh on their afternoon break.
"Oh nothing much, just had to go back into the hospital to sort things out you know, make sure I'm still in tip top condition." He smiled warmly at her, and Alex had no reason to disbelieve him. "I was wondering," He continued, "if you wanted to do something after College, I know we have exams coming up and everything but it has been ages since we spent some time together hanging out."
Alex could see where he was coming from, though she could not tell him the real reason for her lack of contact with him recently. "Well I was supposed to be meeting up with…"
"Shaun…" Josh finished the sentence for her, probably expecting this answer, "…what is it with you two, we have known each other for years and all of a sudden you can't seem to stay away from him? You know I won't be annoyed if you two are…you know…"
"We aren't!" Alex almost shouted back at him, "It's just the photography exam is coming up and we have both been revising a lot, we want to do well in it you know?"
"Yeah sure…revising…" Josh mocked, "Alex you aren't lying to me are you?"
"No!" This of course was not truthful, but what he was accusing her of wasn't the truth either. "Like I said mate, just been studying a lot. Tell you what I will re-arrange tonight and you and I can go see a movie or something ok?" She assured him, this seemed to cheer Josh up somewhat.
He smiled at her. "Sounds cool to me, there is loads of good stuff out at the cinema at the moment."
"We can't waste time with menial things like this…" Sephiroth said to him, "…we are getting closer and closer to the black materia and you want to spend time with this girl?"
"Look," Josh replied, "if I keep being so antisocial people are going to start to suspect something aren't they?"
Sephiroth fell silent, which Josh could only assume meant that he agreed even if he wouldn't admit it. "You remember what happened to your aunt no doubt?"
Josh did not answer immediately, he tried to clear his mind of the event. "Yes, and I know damn well what you are implying, and I will make sure you don't lay a finger on her…"
The time between the funeral and present day had strengthened Josh's resolve somewhat. When he had been forced to murder his favourite relative he was completely unprepared, now however he had thought of several ways in which he could stop Sephiroth, which hopefully he had not spotted in Josh's mind.
"Well then tonight it is her funeral…" Sephiroth replied arrogantly, though this did not scare Josh as Sephiroth had intended.
"That's it…" Josh began, enraged, "…too far now. We aren't looking for the materia anymore, I refuse to help you. You saw them in China, you were running scared, if they had got there first you would have been done for. It's over for you now."
Sephiroth went silent, and Josh could sense he was going to force a takeover. He was prepared for this however. Without another word to Alex he walked briskly in the opposite direction towards his home. He knew everybody would be out at the moment so there was no need to worry about any death threats there.
Resisting the urge to succumb to Sephiroth's will to control was not an easy task, rather like trying to fight off an extreme urge to sleep. At last though Josh walked in his front door, and headed straight for the kitchen. Before doing anything however, he touched a hand to his forearm and made a green orb appear, still fighting the urge to let Sephiroth take over.
He pulled the orb from his skin and tossed it across the room. "What do you think you are doing!" For perhaps the first time ever, Sephiroth sounded frightened.
"Stopping you…" Josh said aloud. He then pulled a sharp knife from the knife block and held it to his wrist, "…like I said you have gone too far…all I need to do is draw this across my wrist and you die with me…"
Josh looked down at the reflection of the knife and saw Sephiroth's panic stricken face in it. "You wouldn't dare, you don't have the nerve…" He did not quite sound convinced of himself.
He looked straight into the evil misty eyes of his parasite, pressed the blade to the main artery, and attempted to cut. Sephiroth however was using what must have been all his might to stop him.
It was a battle of will power, whose resolve was the strongest? Josh fought with all his might to press the blade into his skin, just as Sephiroth fought to prevent it. Eventually however, the cold blade pierced the flesh, and blood began to spew uncontrollably from his arm…
What happened next was not expected. All of the materia in Josh's arm burst from it, shooting in all directions and smashing anything it touched. Sephiroth then suddenly, miraculously, burst forth into being, right in front of Josh's eyes.
His arm was bleeding just as Josh's was, but without wasting time he ran towards the restore materia. Josh, who knew he would do this, tackled him as hard as he could, bringing him down to the floor with a sickening thud. Both of them were now laying in a pool of their own blood, Sephiroth still struggling to get towards the green orb that would save him from death.
"You fool!" He shouted at Josh, throwing an elbow back and breaking his nose with a horrid crack, causing him to roll off of him and release his grasp.
X
Five minutes previously, back at college.
"Well I don't know what was wrong with him, he seemed fine to me…" Alex said to Tifa in the abandoned computer room. All of a sudden however she felt extremely strange.
"Can you feel that?" Tifa asked her, obviously getting the same sensation. "It feels like…"
Suddenly however, the materia in Alex's arm burst from her arm, flying in all directions and smashing computers on impact. Then, to her amazement, Tifa burst forth from her and the two of them for the first time ever in the real world stood face to face. Tifa however seemed to be in agonising pain, whereas Alex felt like she was going to pass out.
"What the hell is happening!" She shouted at Tifa, who had collapsed to the floor, grabbed her head and started writhing in agony.
"I don't know!" She shouted back, then she let out an ear-splitting scream which Alex was sure would alert other people in the building. It was extremely fortunate the room they were in was empty.
Alex ran over to the door, pulled down the blind and locked it. Then hurried back over to Tifa, wishing she had healing magic. Alex grabbed one of the orbs and tried to re-equip it. No luck however, the materia seemed to be repelling itself from her arm.
Seconds later however, Tifa stopped screaming, looked up at Alex, and with the sound of a gunshot and a jet of white light Alex was lifted off of her feet and slammed onto the nearest desk. Tifa had vanished.
"Tifa?" Alex said to the empty room.
"I'm here…" Said a voice in her head, "Get the materia back on then get Reeve on the phone…"
Just as she put the last orb back in her skin however, her phone began to ring and none other than Charles Daniels was calling. She answered immediately.
"Charles! You won't guess…"
"It happened to you too!" He said in disbelief. "Reeve just left my body completely, I thought he was dying…"
"Yes Tifa just…what the hell just happened…it makes no sense!" Alex looked around and the nearly destroyed room, then walked over to the door and made her exit swiftly not wanting to be found at the scene.
"I will call the others, we need to see if this happened to everyone before we start drawing conclusions…" He hung up without another word.
Instantly however Alex got a call from Savina, who had exactly the same story, then from Shaun, and then to her utter surprise from Josh.
"Hey Alex!" He greeted her cheerfully, "So I checked movie times, should be able to catch the eight o clock one, sound good to you?"
"Why the hell did you just run off?" Alex replied, still slightly in shock from what had just happened.
"What? Oh nothing really, don't worry about it…" He sounded slightly down-hearted, "…so meet at the cinema at quarter to?"
"Erm…sure I guess." Alex replied. They then said their goodbye's, leaving Alex walking very quickly away from the computer room.
X
"So I have high hopes for this movie…" Josh said upon greeting her, "…critics are calling it the best film of the year so far!"
"Josh…" Sephiroth began, his tone unreadable, "…I don't know what just happened there, but maybe it is time to agree to disagree…no more death threats from either of us but we work together to get the materia, I think it is our only chance of going our separate ways without killing each other…"
Josh did not reply, he and Alex were buying their tickets.
"We must meet with Reeve as soon as possible, do we really have to see this film?" Tifa asked.
"Yes we can't just cancel now, and he is going to take a couple of hours to get here anyway so what difference does it make?" Alex replied, this seemed to satisfy Tifa.
Alex was sure the movie was probably a good one though she could not pay attention to it. The only movie she could see was the constant replay in her mind of the event which had just taken place. Two long hours later they emerged into the evening, Josh seeming to have taken in just as little as Alex had.
"Well that was a slight disappointment…" He began, "…oh well, at least now I know not to always go on what the critics say…"
"Yeah…" Alex agreed, still not really paying attention to anything, "…oh well though lesson learned."
"Say…" Josh began, "…when are you and I going to have another fencing match against each other? Heard you beat our teacher pretty bad, shame I missed that lesson."
"Well soon I guess. Whenever you decide to show up would be a start!" She teased, making him laugh.
"Still gonna whoop you one day!" He joked, "Nationals girl!" He had been extremely impressed when he had heard she was being put up for them.
"We shall see my friend, we shall see!" They hugged each other goodbye and made their way home.
Alex checked her phone to see she had a text from Charles;
Charles Daniels
It happened to everyone, this is going to take a lot of thinking about. Vincent will be back in the country soon so expect to hear from him. Like I always said, things are constantly changing. I dare say I will see you very soon. Take care of yourself until then Alex. Charles Daniels.
"Yes, I hope we do see him soon…" Tifa agreed as Alex walked in her front door.
A/N- Next chapter on wednesday and this one wont be late we promise! Con crit and reviews appreciated as always. Until wednesday.
R&A