Start Date: November 18, 2022
Windwillow
The bolded text is Cloud's inner voice. It's just much closer and much louder than it had been up until now...
Final Fantasy VII
Shinra Inc.'s vampyric Mako reactors, continuing to be a threat to the Planet, now were revealed to be powered by the souls of the Planet itself. When those souls dried up, so too would Gaia, and everything - and everyone - on it would perish. The Lifestream, as was called by Bugenhagen, was further threatened by Sephiroth... somehow. There were no real answers as to what he intended to do, but the idea of discovering his motives had led the party to Cloud's home town of Nibelheim. Five years earlier he'd razed it to the ground and murdered everyone living in the village... Right?
Chapter Thirty-Four: Retracing the Nibelheim Incident
Scene One
With their layover journey in Cosmo Canyon at an end, the party's itinerary was to resume their travels to Cloud's home town of Nibelheim. It turned out to be a very productive stop, however, as everyone took some time to shower and bathe, eat a good, hot meal, and study up on their new knowledge of both the Lifestream and their intentions. Further, Cloud, Aerith, and Red XIII all gained new abilities that would surely prove useful in their adventures. Once Yuffie had been restored to sufficient consciousness to travel, her nerves having been shattered by Red XIII and his grandfather's eerie timing, everyone prepared to re-enter the buggy, and they assumed they'd be entering an abyss of misery inside the damned vehicle. However...
The buggy had been upgraded significantly by the technicians of Cosmo Canyon. Most of the gaudy decorations inside the vehicle had been replaced with sleek, black and silver trimmings, and the carpet - Red XIII's most potent enemy short of Aerith - had now become a nice, clean place to lay his head. But then, that was another thing. Cosmo Canyon's mechanics had gone the extra mile and back again, as they widened the two rows of seats and installed a third, rear row that would allow two other people to ride in comfort inside. Or, more importantly for Red XIII, so that he had his own row to sit in, complete with a custom seat belt that was courtesy of Bugenhagen's explicit request.
"Oh, God in heaven, thank you! You delivered big time, Grandpa!" Red XIII celebrated wildly, pulling open the new door with his teeth and slamming it behind him with his tail as he curled into a ball on his own personal row. What Bugenhagen didn't know, was that he had no intention of being belted in, lest Aerith come up with a plan for that as well. "And the carpet won't give me hepatitis anymore!" he laughed. "Not that I need to worry about it back here!"
"Well, I'll be damned to hell 'n back!" chortled Yuffie as she rubbed her hands together mischievously. Finally, after everything she'd been through with the party, she seemed guaranteed to have leg room. "The crazy ol' bat actually did something useful! I call dibs on the front seat, guys!" she cheered. As she watched Aerith's disinterest, Yuffie furiously gave her the finger and clamped her entire body onto the door. "And don't you dare plan anything! The front seat's all mine!"
"Oh, I don't agree with that! It's time Barret got his turn!" Aerith tittered, clapping her hands together with a smile. As she demonstrated after prying Yuffie off the buggy, the new seating arrangements would allow for a new formation. "Barret and you get the front seats, Cloud takes the driver's seat, and the rest of us get the back seats!" she said cheerfully, much to Yuffie's joy. "See? Everyone's happy!"
And I don't get stuck next to Barret again. Win-win situation for everyone.
"So I get to sit next to Barret, huh? Well, ain't that just... awful!" shrieked Yuffie as she folded her arms with a huff. Much to Aerith's confusion, Yuffie pointed at Barret and angrily stomped her foot on the ground. "Even after a bath, he reeks! Not a chance in hell should I have to smell his dirty armpits again, nuh-uh!" she snarled. "I've had enough of his smelly-"
"I took a bath, get over it!" Barret snarled, smacking Yuffie hard over the head and sending her face first into the dirt. She promptly skittered to her feet and flipped him off, and the stand off began. "Yeah, I might've smelled bad before, but I took my turn in the bath house, so shut it!" he growled. As Yuffie continued to fume, Barret returned the finger. "You ain't got the right to-"
"Both of you, shut the hell up!" Cloud yelled as he whacked both of them hard in the back of their heads, dragging them by their collars and pulling them in close to his face. "I'm marching head long into the fifth circle of hell and my worst nightmare, and I do not have the patience to deal with you two bitching at me!" he shouted, silencing both Yuffie and Barret as he opened the front door. "So get in the damn buggy and sit down!"
"Whoa, he's in a bad mood, huh?" whistled Tifa as she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. While the rest of the party entered the buggy, Tifa put a finger to her lips and began to laugh. "Normally, I do that... Guess he's awfully on edge..." she muttered. "Then again, so am I..."
I don't know if I'll find the answer to my question, though...
Scene Two
The new seating arrangements, fortunately, worked out well. While Red XIII cherished the back seat all to himself, Tifa and Aerith found that their new seats also gave them plenty of leg room. Yuffie's complaints about Barret's hygiene proved unfounded, and even if they had been accurate she'd been scared stiff by Cloud's scolding and sat next to Barret in silence, and he returned the quietness. Also thankfully, there were no monster attacks on the road until, finally, they reached a quaint little town in the middle of nowhere that some of them used to call home.
"Hey, hang on a sec! I want to check the chocobo stables!" insisted Tifa as she exited the buggy, this time calmly shutting the door. Sitting next to Aerith in comfort had dulled their antagonism since their last trip together. "Master Duncan used to keep a chocobo named Fujioka here back in the day!" she said eagerly. "He used to give me rides on his back and everything! I want to see if he's still here!"
"I think you're holding out a bit too much hope, Tifa..." sighed Aerith as she patted her on the back. "If Sephiroth burned the rest of the village down, chances are good the poor little chocobo got caught up in it..." she said darkly, much to Tifa's chagrin. As Tifa bowed her head, Aerith put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. "I know it has to be hard, but... Neither of them would want you dwelling on it, right?" she asked softly.
"Y-You're... You're right, Aerith... sorry..." Tifa said sorrowfully, tightening her embrace with the flower girl. She knew that Fujioka had to have been caught up in the conflagration, and if by some chance he had survived, Duncan had no doubt used him to travel to Midgar with her. "I guess I just sort of... Well, whatever..." she sighed, breaking the hug with Aerith. With a smile, she turned to Cloud. "Better get ready, huh? No telling what the town's going to look like after everything went down..." muttered Tifa.
"Hey! I don't know what you guys are yapping about," shouted Yuffie cheerfully as she waddled towards the trio, "but I don't see any problems! The whole place looks like something out of a fairy tale book! You sure Sephiroth did anything? It looks nice to me!" she said cheerfully. Seeing Cloud and Tifa's concern as they dashed into town, Yuffie tilted her head in confusion. "Did I say something funny?" she asked.
Neither Cloud nor Tifa knew what to make of Yuffie's words. Five years earlier, Sephiroth had slaughtered the citizens and burned down Nibelheim. The idea that it looked ideal now, was unthinkable. While Tifa rushed just ahead of Cloud, her thoughts turned back to the night of chaos five years back, and a slim hope awakened that it might really have been a five year long nightmare she might wake up from. Though they didn't know what to expect as they entered Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa never thought they'd lay eyes on what awaited them. The village looked immaculate, clean, perfect in every way, just as if they'd closed their eyes, opened them, and found the same town they'd grown up in fully intact. Everything - the Inn, the materia shop, both their houses - everything was just as they'd remembered before Nibelheim was razed to the ground. And therein lay the rub: they'd seen the bodies, felt the heat of the flames, and both of them had lasting emotional scars from the day Sephiroth went mad.
"The sign on the Inn... the scratches on the town well... Everything's just like it used to be!" gasped Cloud as he stepped into town. No matter where he looked, it was as if Nibelheim had never encountered Sephiroth that day. "But that's what's so suspicious... Everything's exactly like it used to be!" he growled. "This looks too perfect to be a coincidence... Something's wrong if nothing changed in five years!"
"I think you're overthinking this, Cloud..." said Aerith softly. As Cloud turned to meet her eyes, she shrugged and gave a warm smile. "Maybe your memories are wrong about some other stuff, too?" she wondered. "Why don't you and Tifa visit your old houses and see if you can find anything? The rest of us will look around and suss out the situation, so you two just go home!"
On one hand, they wanted to believe Aerith's optimism. But even Cloud's foggiest memories were concrete enough to convince them both that Nibelheim was back to being Nibelheim just a tad too cleanly. If even the tiniest of details was identical, either nothing happened or someone who'd lived there had replicated the town perfectly. Though they were both apprehensive, Cloud and Tifa each departed from the others to visit their old houses.
Scene Three
He had no memory of his father at all. All Cloud knew was that he'd died in an accident several years after he'd been born, and he was raised by his mother Claudia Strife as a single parent. Back when he was growing up, he'd played with toy trains and fought stick figures with wooden swords, but Cloud had never really made any friends other than Tifa. Even she drifted apart from him, so when he made the decision to depart for Midgar he had no one but his mother to anchor him to the village. So, seeing his former home's outside intact, Cloud's thoughts remained muddled. Since the door was open, he entered the house alone. He looked around and tried to find something different in the home, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. All the furniture, the dishes, everything looked as if he'd just arrived back home before Sephiroth killed his mother. So as he wandered around the household, Cloud tried to find some reason to believe that what he was seeing was real. It was only when he looked at the photographs on the walls and the tables that he saw the differences, and when he did his eyes widened like dinner plates.
I don't know any of these people! What's going on?! M-Mom... Where is she?!
"Who are you? What are you doing in my house?" came a voice. An expectant Cloud whirled about to the upstairs level, eyes darting from the floor to the top of the steps. What he found unnerved him: An older, brown-haired woman dressed just like his mother had been stood at the top of the steps. As she descended the stairs, Cloud's mind began to race. "I don't remember inviting you in..." she growled testily.
"I... I'm sorry, ma'am, I... I..." stammered Cloud as he tried to gather his thoughts. As he looked at the woman, he wracked his brains trying to find someone he could remember. Not her face, not her voice, only her dress were all that resembled his mother. Gathering his courage, Cloud bowed politely to the woman. "I didn't mean to interrupt... I used to live here... Did you know Mom... I mean, Claudia Strife?" he asked, with a glimmer of hope.
"This is the first time I've seen you and I've never even heard that name..." snapped the older woman. After taking a few moments to think, she shrugged and threw up her hands. "As far as I know, no one called Claudia Strife ever existed..." she sighed, much to Cloud's building anger. The thought that she denied his mother's existence ignited a white hot flame in the pit of his stomach. "I've been living here my whole life, sonny..." said the strange woman. As she watched Cloud's eye began to twitch, she doubled down and gave a cruel sort of smile, like she was playing her part in a sick joke. "I've never heard of anyone named-"
"You lying old hag! Don't you dare say she never existed! You don't know a damn thing about her, do you?!" screeched Cloud, his fingers convulsing wildly into a fist as he stared at the upstairs bedroom that he used to sleep in. As he watched the woman's disinterest, he slowly stepped back and allowed her to return to the kitchen. His kitchen. While the woman began to wash the dishes that were in the sink, Cloud's breathing began to hasten and he could feel sweat dripping down his face. He was right; something was desperately wrong. Even if his memories had gaps, surely this was too much to accept as bad recollection.
I can't have forgotten everything! I remember my tenth birthday... My mother made me my favorite dish, her best lasagna! The photos there used to have my pictures! When I was six I was scared of the dark... when I wanted to adopt a puppy, she told me she didn't have enough money... Those can't all be mistaken memories! Is this some sort of joke?!
The bastards covered it all up. She existed... Claudia Strife existed...
"Get the hell out of my head!" Cloud shrieked, his rage boiling over as the voice in his head echoed with even greater force than ever. Trembling, he furiously took his arm and swung it, the motion knocking the anonymous photos from where they stood and pushing them onto the floor. Before he could do or think anything else, he felt a hard sting on his cheek as the mysterious woman slapped him and knocked his head back in shock. He turned his eyes to the woman, a mix of confusion and terror pulsing through them. Nothing he was thinking was anything close to being lucid. He could feel his heart beating out of his chest, almost like it was trying to break out.
This isn't right... It isn't right! What the hell is going on?!
"Get. Out. Of. My. House! Now!" the woman screamed, taking Cloud by the scruff of the neck and shoving him back onto the door. She brusquely opened the door and shoved Cloud out before slamming it shut in his face. "You don't belong here!" she snarled. "This is just your stupid delusions playing tricks on you!" growled the woman, turning around in a huff and angrily folding her arms over her chest. She was also confused, though for a different reason.
I thought all the survivors were dead... Did HQ forget one or something? Hmph...
Scene Four
The house had a lot of memories for her to recall. She'd taken her first steps there, crossing that tacky green rug with tiny, unbalanced legs until she'd fallen flat on her face. Before her mother died she'd played games with her, and for several years she'd been tutored on the piano in her upstairs bedroom. Everything was identical: the wood, the panes of glass, all of it! As Tifa stood in front of the bolted door, her own memories seemed to come into question just as much as Cloud's were.
Dad... Mom... What does this all mean?! What kind of a sick prank is this?!
Even the first rap felt familiar, the wood on the door just as thick and knotted as she'd remembered from her childhood. Doubt continued to build inside Tifa's brain, and each successive knock hit with more force than the last. When, finally, the door opened, she was greeted by an unfamiliar face. No matter how hard she delved into her memories, and no matter how many faces she tried to process, this man was wholly unknown to her.
Who is this? This isn't Dad... He's dead... Who is this?!
"Uh... Hi... Sir... Um... Do you know..." stammered Tifa. Much as she tried to read the man's emotions, nothing clicked. It was if she was staring at a breathing mannequin, a puppet wearing a human's face. "Do you know Brian Lockhart?" she wondered softly. "He... He used to live in this house..." Swallowing hard, she felt her arteries harden as the man looked at her with indifference. "What's your name, Sir? Do I know you?" she asked pointedly. Receiving no response, she began to quiver hard enough that, had she been made of glass, she would have long since shattered. Confusion, fear, anger... The heat continued to build until it was ready to burst, her fingers clenched tightly, tight enough to make her knuckles ache...
Answer me, damn it... Who are you?
"I don't know who you are, you little brat!" scolded the man as he wore a scowl on his face. As Tifa's body began to tremble even harder, the man sneered at her with a look of hatred. "Brian Lockhart never existed!" he snarled, causing Tifa's eyes to snap open in rage. "Get lost, you little bitch!" At that he slammed the door in Tifa's face. In so doing, he nearly ended his life, had Tifa's fist reached him in time, but before it connected her knuckle stopped just short of the door. Quaking in rage, shaken to the core, Tifa lifted her fist to break down the door, but her hand never touched the wood. All she did was shed a bitter tear before turning to leave, her anger fighting with her agony, trying to find out whether she wanted answers or just wanted to destroy something. Somehow, all the hate in her heart had begun to alternate with anger and disgust that she'd never anticipated, and for once she honestly had no idea what to think. But it wasn't right. As she left, her memories and emotions bubbled up and multiplied her tears.
God damn it... This is sick...
Scene Five
The town of Nibelheim seemed intact, its people content. And that was precisely the problem... No one in the village said anything about what happened five years earlier. None of the people in Nibelheim would admit that Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart ever existed, and every trace of Sephiroth's work had been thoroughly cleansed as if wiped from the face of Gaia, all routes ending to dead ends. None of them managed to find out anything, but that was at least partially because they scared off half of the populace when a beetle-armed man, a scarred red wolf, and a cat riding an ogre tried to talk to them.
"I, uh... I'm guessing you two got as far as we did..." sighed Barret as a despondent Cloud and Tifa approached the Inn. He could see the pain and confusion on their faces, and it not only enraged him, but it stung at his spirit to see them so depressed when the two of them had always been full of life. "Sorry, guys... I don't have anything good to tell you..." he muttered sadly.
"Aye, nothing on my end, either..." Cait Sith said glumly as he drooped his head atop his moogle. Not having Tifa threatening him was an alien sensation to the cat, and seeing her sorrow stoked his own emotions as well. "I couldn't get anything even remotely useful out of these folks..." he sighed, with a secret tint of anger that none of the others caught on to. Far away, away from any of their eyes, a simmering rage had lit a fire that Reeve didn't expect to see lit. For the first time, he started to doubt his own morality.
This is just... too much. They're toying with their memories and making a mockery of everything they went through. Nothing happened? Bull. I can't forgive AVALANCHE or Shinra right now...
Red XIII's feelings were muddled as well. To see his friends so thoroughly broken by their doubts, the people who'd rescued him and encouraged him even in the face of adversity and Aerith, he didn't know whether he was more angry or depressed. Slowly, though, an idle thought ran through his head...
Where is Yuffie?
"You low down, nasty ass, lying son of a bitch!"
He got his answer as the door to the Inn opened and an indignant Yuffie was hurled out from the establishment. As she lay there quaking in rage, she slowly skittered backwards until she managed to stagger to her feet. Somehow, even when she'd been tormented by Aerith, he'd never seen her so legitimately furious.
"I don't want a lying little punk like you berating my customers! If you're going to try and insult me and my establishment, I don't want you inside this building!" shouted the Innkeeper as he stormed out the door towards a trembling Yuffie. As she slowly and furiously reached for her shuriken, doubtless to strike the Innkeeper, Tifa moved to restrain her and she put her in a lock that kept her from moving any further as her weapon fell limply to the ground.
"Shut up, you jackass! If they're all going to lie, I'm sure as hell going to call them out on it!" Yuffie hissed as she struggled against Tifa's grip. Try as she might, and as shaken as Tifa was, Yuffie was unable to break her restraint. Just before the Innkeeper slammed the door shut, Yuffie stuck out her tongue at him. Finally, she broke Tifa's hold and snatched up her shuriken, returning it to her back with a grunt. "All of them are downright, dirty liars!" she snarled. "Someone ought to do something..."
"What the hell's gotten into you, man?!" Tifa snapped, grabbing Yuffie by the shoulders and shaking her. Though Tifa had her own demons to tangle with, Yuffie's behavior was utterly uncalled for. "You said everyone's lying... What lies did they tell?" she asked.
"Like I need to tell you, lady! I ain't got no reason to explain nothing to ya!" snarled Yuffie, shaking off Tifa's grip. Folding her arms over her chests with a huff, she stuck out her tongue at Tifa. "It's none of your business what I do, got it?" she growled as she stomped her foot. "And stop yelling at me! It's nice to see you're back to your usual violent self, but what the hell, man!" Seeing Tifa's anger build, Yuffie shrugged her shoulders and bowed politely. "Sorry... Just one of those things..." Yuffie sighed. But behind the mask she wore, anger built that she didn't expect to feel; they were making fun of her friends' suffering, and she was not in the mood to accept it.
They say nothing happened?! Nuh-uh, the hell they didn't! They ain't got to see those two pout...
As Aerith approached, Yuffie glared daggers at her, receiving only a scowl in response. "What, someone piss you off, too?!" snarled Yuffie, putting a hand on her hip. "Ain't no one in town that's spreading any cheer. I don't need you pouting, either! You know, uh... Yeah..." she sighed, bowing again. "Sorry... But you look like you saw a ghost!"
"Saw a ghost, huh? You got that right..." sighed Aerith. As she folded her arms over her chest, not with a huff but in thought, she slowly attempted to process what she'd just heard. "I saw someone in a black cloak muttering to himself, so I asked who he was, and..." Aerith took in a deep breath and sighed. "I pulled back his hood, and I saw... something... that I don't even want to try and describe... But more importantly..." she growled, her confused eyes turning to Cloud and Tifa. "All he would say is Sephiroth's name... And there was a tattoo like Red's on his neck, and it said twelve..." Aerith said ominously.
"Sephiroth?! What the devil is going on?!" Red XIII exclaimed with surprise. He attempted to process the information, but kept coming back to one thing: the tattoo. "If that thing has a tattoo like mine, what does that mean?" he wondered quietly. "What on earth did Hojo do to me?"
"Whatever it means," growled Tifa as she clenched her fists and turned a twitching eye to the Shinra Mansion, "the answers are inside that damned mansion over there... And I think it's time we paid it a visit..." she snarled, finally relaxing her knuckles. "Who's coming with us?" asked Tifa with a slight improvement of her mood.
"Count me out! A hundred percent!" yelled Barret. Seeing his friends' confusion, he embarrassingly attempted to concoct a reason other than that he was scared to enter. "It ain't my job to figure that crap out!" he said forcefully. "You guys are the ones who want answers, so you do it!"
"In other words, Barret feels the same way I do: I do not want to go inside that building!" Red XIII said with a sigh. Unlike Barret, he felt no shame in passing on entering the ghost house that Shinra had left to rot. "I know it's childish for me to be afraid, but... something about that place freaks me out..." he said plainly. "And the whole tattoo business is something I... don't know if I want answers to..."
"You said it, Red! I agree: entering a haunted house is outside of my pay grade!" said Cait Sith, trembling in fear atop his moogle. And he meant it: whatever secrets were inside, he was never privy to, and he didn't want to force the issue. After everything that had happened in town, he also didn't believe he could take finding out any more dirt at the moment...
"Hmph! You cowards!" snarled Tifa, punctuating her words with a punch to her left hand. As she cracked her knuckles her three friends began to question their resolve, but Tifa sighed and relented. She didn't want to go in either, but it had to be done. That, and she couldn't blame them for not going in, as frightening as it looked. "Whatever..." she sighed. "Cloud, Yuffie, Aerith... Let's go get some answers!"
"Hey, whoa, whoa, hold the damn phone! Me?!" exclaimed Yuffie, trembling both in anger and terror. She felt she'd done her part by getting angry before, and more than that she didn't see any good reason for her to enter the house of horrors. "What do you mean, me?!" she shrieked. "I am not going inside that place!"
"We might need you... You keep saying you're an amazing thief, so maybe you can help steal some answers?" wondered Cloud with a witty grin. If there was any member of the team that could ferret out hidden passages or secret traps, it had to be Yuffie. "So, we're going, and that's that..." he growled. "Gear up and get ready to head in."
"Oh, the hell you didn't! You big meanies!" screamed Yuffie as she began to shake in terror. As she stuck out her tongue, she indignantly flipped Cloud off. "I ain't no sneak thief, I'm a ninja!" she snapped furiously. "And if you think I'm going in there, then you are..." As Yuffie watched Cloud and Tifa glare at her, and after seeing the fury in their eyes, she slowly shrunk from them in terror. "You, uh... You're right, I guess..." she squeaked.
Oh, come on! I see one ghost and I am so out of there!
Scene Six
The mysteries of the abandoned Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim beckoned, and beckoned ill. All throughout the town, everyone that the team spoke to continually denied the events at Nibelheim five years prior, with some residents having the gall to call Cloud and Tifa liars and even denying their parents' very existence. Now, the team of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie entered the residence in search of answers. The rest of the party refused to enter for various reasons, and though Tifa scolded them, she decided to let it go. Well, other than dragging Yuffie with her. Inside the Mansion, the party found what one would expect of an abandoned house of horrors: cobwebs, dust, and discarded objects strewn all about the rooms. There were several different rooms and two upstairs wings, but there was no sign of a central office or any such rooms where research would have been done. Still, although it seemed abandoned, there was a palpable sense of danger in the air.
"Oh, dear God... God almighty!" Yuffie shrieked as she gripped both shoulders and began to shake uncontrollably. Not only was it freaky, but it was literally bone chillingly cold. "I knew this was a bad idea, you guys! I'm going to get attacked by a damn ghost, or bitten by a freaking vampire!" she screamed, gripping her head in her hands. "If I get turned, I am so making you jerks into my zombies!" yowled Yuffie in panic.
"Get a hold of yourself, already! None of us expected sunshine and rainbows, so just calm down!" scolded Cloud. Still, even though he'd been here before five years earlier, his memories of the place remained foggy, almost like the eyes he'd looked through before weren't the ones looking now. Nothing seemed to have changed, but... Then again, nothing else in town had changed, either.
I don't get it. Why do I feel like I've never been here?!
"You lousy jerk!" yelled Yuffie, punctuating her words by whacking Cloud hard on the head. Though he recoiled, and she realized quickly that she made a very bad mistake when he glared at her, Yuffie decided to double down and grabbed Cloud by the shoulders before shaking him violently. "This place is super, duper bad news! What the hell are you doing bringing an innocent, vulnerable and might I add beautiful young lady deep into the bloody bowels of hell?!" she screamed, shaking him back and forth.
"Okay, that's enough of that! Yuffie!" yelled Tifa as she grabbed Yuffie by the wrist and dragged her away from Cloud, though she was nearly bitten in the process. "None of us wants to be here any more than you do, so rein it in!" she scolded.
"Oh, so you wanna pick a fight with me?! You do not want to start a fight with me, lady!" snarled Yuffie, flailing her arms wildly in the air. Somehow, as if in an alternate reality, she'd acquired unnatural courage. "I never wanted to come here in the first place!" she growled. As she watched Tifa's lack of rage, however, Yuffie began to relent. "Y-You aren't planning on mauling me, you know, like you always threaten to?" she wondered timidly.
"This is... This is hard enough without me making you fear for your life, Yuffie..." Tifa sighed sadly, as she took Yuffie by the shoulders gently and looked deep into her eyes, almost reaching her soul. Something was different than usual. "Please?" she asked. "I promise I won't hurt you, but... Please?"
With these words, Yuffie's mind was utterly blown. In all the time she'd known her, Tifa had always been the dominant half of their relationship, but now she seemed almost... apologetic. Much as she enjoyed not fearing for her life, Yuffie couldn't help but be touched by Tifa's genuine emotions. So, against her better judgment, the ninja slowly nodded her head and quietly began to search the mansion.
God... This is really eating her up. Well, I'm still scared, but now I have to feel bad about it!
The four friends broke up to explore the mansion more thoroughly. While Tifa and Aerith took the bottom half and Cloud and Yuffie the upstairs, it's Yuffie who we'll focus on. She carefully, cautiously entered room after room, half expecting to be attacked by a ghost. But Yuffie never found any spooks or specters, only overturned furniture and scattered papers inside most of the rooms, until she finally discovered a lone, rusted safe. Unable to resist, Yuffie quickly turned the dial and found the right combination, threw it open, and found only a single key inside. As her smile quickly faded into a scowl, she nearly threw it away but decided to keep it just in case and tucked it inside her pocket.
Probably ain't even to a treasure chest... Bah! Nothing here, either...
"Hey, Yuffie! Aerith! Tifa! I want you to come here!" called Cloud from the upstairs' east wing, and when his friends joined him they found an abandoned living room with a bricked-up fireplace at the end of the halls. He'd looked before, but wasn't able to find anything by himself. "Yuffie, do your stuff, okay?" he asked quietly, receiving a scowl in response. "I said, do your stuff!"
"Gawd, you're a freaking slave driver! Fine, whatever!" Yuffie snarled under her breath, her eyes turning to examine the entirety of the room with a fine tooth comb. There were chairs and a table, a few dusty books, and little else. But as she looked closer, her eyes narrowed onto the brick wall at the end of the room. "Oh, well like that isn't suspicious..." she growled as she held her face in her hand. "You guys are making me waste my talents with this stupid thing..."
"So it wasn't just me, then?" Cloud wondered. The more he looked at the wall, the stranger the feeling he had that he'd seen the bricks down when he was there the last time. "But I don't see anywhere for a key to go... And I'm not sure where to find any hidden switches..." he sighed.
"God, you're dense. Who needs a switch when you just do this?" snapped Yuffie as she approached the wall. Taking only a brief moment to examine the wall, she pulled one of the bricks out and the wall folded into a staircase leading downstairs. "They made the brick a different color... Very original, guys, great attempt at acting intelligent... These are supposed to be the smartest people on the Planet, and this is the best security system they could come up with?! Losers!" she sighed indignantly, putting her hand on her hip. "Fine, there you go. Have fun..."
"No, you aren't done yet, Yuffie..." Tifa said darkly, much to the ninja's consternation. As her anger began to build, Yuffie was slowly taken aback as Tifa's face distinctly lacked menace or malice. As Tifa's eyes stared back at her, Yuffie quickly realized that she wasn't in danger. "We might still need you down below. So, please?" she asked quietly.
"I... you... what the... um... okay?" Yuffie stuttered, not certain what to do. Seeing her friend's face, somehow, she sort of felt obligated to join her. Every bit of sense and the lack of courage in her body denied it, but for some reason she found that she couldn't tell Tifa no. Once again, her sense of self preservation was outweighed by some weird sense of friendship. It was an alien feeling...
She ain't just stressed, she's scared, too, even if she won't admit it... Fine. But if we get attacked, you're on your own...
Scene Seven
Once they'd descended the stairs, what awaited them was a large, open area of cavern that was rimmed by artificial lights as if it were an excavation site. The lighting just screamed sinister, and the sight of dark-winged bats that rimmed the tunnel certainly did little to improve the ambience. As the party proceeded through the tunnel, Yuffie remained firmly on edge, eyes darting at every tiny noise, but as they approached one door she noticed another one, one that was locked with a small padlock.
Well, that's probably where the key goes... But I don't want to get bitten by a vampire, so I ain't pushing my luck...
Bypassing the locked door, the only place that remained was behind another door. While none of them wanted to enter, the quartet knew that this had to be the location they were looking for. So, after opening the door they entered a huge, abandoned library decked out with desks, shelves, and an incredible number of books piled from floor to ceiling. All of them were opened, some even bookmarked, and while some had been placed neatly the others lay strewn on the floor chaotically.
"Uh... okay... I think we found what we were looking for..." muttered Aerith as she glanced around the room. The feeling in the room was chilling, not only because of the ventilation but also an innate sense of malice that the room seemed to have accumulated. She could almost feel the hate festering inside the library. "Cloud, have you been here before?" she asked quietly.
"Th-That's just what's bothering me, Aerith... I don't know..." Cloud said darkly as he examined the bookshelves and scattered papers that were strewn all over the room. He'd remembered that he'd confronted Sephiroth here five years earlier, but nothing in the room jogged his memory. "I saw him here... I talked to him here... but..." he muttered with a hint of fright in his voice, "it's like this is the first time I've ever been here..."
"That... That makes no sense, doesn't it? You said you've been here, but you never have?" Aerith wondered. "You were here five years ago, you told us that. Sephiroth brought you to your knees, you said!" she said pointedly. "So how in... How in the world have you never even been here?! That's impossible..."
Before Cloud could even think to respond, he heard a shrill shriek from further down the hall. He and Aerith briefly looked each other in the eyes before rushing down that corridor. What he found was Tifa, on her knees, shaking like a leaf. When he turned his eyes up a bit, Cloud's blood ran cold as he saw Sephiroth seated casually at the desk in the back. Poor Tifa seemed to be filled with terror more than rage, and as beads of sweat ran down her face a thin streak of tears joined them. Aerith quickly ran forward and took Tifa in her arms, carried her away, and left Cloud to confront Sephiroth... alone.
"Back to the scene of the crime, huh? You lousy monster!" Cloud cursed, in an attempt to assuage his own fears. He would never admit it, but the sweat dripping down his face showed that he was both furious and frightened. "Are you going to say my mother never lived, too?!" he snarled. "I'm sick of you toying with our memories!"
"Five years ago, we met here... Or did we?" he asked mockingly. "It's hard for me to remember the details..." sighed Sephiroth, reclining with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. Cloud quickly lifted his hand to his sword, but before his fingers brushed its grip he met Sephiroth's eyes dead on. It was as if an overwhelming force struck him and Cloud quickly dropped to one knee on the ground, held down by an oppressive fear. "I remember quite a few things, but do you?" Sephiroth wondered as he slowly rose from his seat. "You and I talked here, didn't we? Come now, at least try to remember..." Sephiroth said smilingly.
As doubt flooded his mind, Cloud's thoughts raced with the speed of his accelerating heartbeat. His memories, the ones he'd told to the others, now seemed to fragment as if he were trying to piece together a jigsaw puzzle. They twisted, mixed with his own thoughts at that moment, and doubt swelled inside his head. It was as if he was struggling with himself, dueling sword to sword with an unknown foe. Finally, he gathered himself together and snatched up his sword, dashed forward, and swung the Buster Sword at Sephiroth. When it was repelled by an invisible barrier, he quickly found himself blown backwards as if he'd been struck by a cannon, and he dropped to his knees with his sword in his hand.
"I just wanted to determine if you'd decided to accept my invitation to the Reunion..." Sephiroth said darkly, stepping forward one foot at a time, each step pressing down on Cloud's heartbeat as if his own doubts were consuming him. "Do you have the guts to return to the origin of it all... Cloud?" he said coldly, punctuating his final word with a vicious glare into Cloud's soul.
"Whatever you're talking about, just shut up!" Cloud hissed angrily, slowly lifting himself from his knees. Though as he rose, he remained uneasy, and his grip on the Buster Sword wavered slightly. "I want answers, Sephiroth!" he snarled. "What is this Reunion garbage?!"
"Oh, come, now... You really ought to be more courteous to talk to your old friend after five years, hmm?" chuckled Sephiroth. As he continued to approach, Cloud steadily began to regain his confidence. "My mother will be in attendance, you see..." he laughed. "Jenova, the Calamity from the Skies, will be the host to our Reunion..." Sephiroth said grandly, throwing his arms dramatically into the air. "I will act as her master of ceremonies. It'll be a grand occasion..."
"Jenova... Your mother? A Calamity from the Skies?!" growled Cloud. No matter how hard he wracked his brain, all he could think of was the chamber at Nibelheim's reactor and the plate that read her name. Everything he'd been told indicated she was Cetra. "I don't get what you mean! Are you saying she wasn't an Ancient?" he wondered. "Then... then what the hell is she?!" Cloud screamed.
What the hell is he talking about?! Is he messing with me again?!
"Hmph. You're a little punk, more childish than I remember, Cloud..." Sephiroth growled testily. "I'm rescinding my invitation. You're not worthy to attend my mother's ceremony!" he said forcefully. As Cloud finally regained his strength and lunged at him, Sephiroth hit him hard in the gut with his knee, knocking the wind out of him. Before he could fall Sephiroth caught Cloud by his hair and lifted him to face the ex-SOLDIER in the eye. "I'll be heading north, to the Reunion. Follow me if you have the guts. If you don't," he smirked, "then I'll assume you never had it in you in the first place."
After slamming his fist into his gut, Sephiroth took Cloud's shoulders in both hands and hurled him backwards, where his unconscious body was caught by Aerith. She lifted him up on her shoulder, trying to search for a pulse, and found him to be totally out of it. As Sephiroth approached, Aerith noted that Tifa had also passed out, leaving only her and Sephiroth to do whatever it was he was planning.
"If you won't give them any answers, then I want them!" Aerith growled, laying Cloud's body gently on the ground before rising to meet Sephiroth. Though his fearsome aura intimidated her, Aerith refused to allow herself to fall to her knees in his presence. "You killed the President, butchered dozens of people, and now you return to the scene of the crime!" she snapped. "What the devil are you up to?! I want you to tell me, now!" ordered Aerith.
"You won't find any answers here, Aerith..." said Sephiroth coldly, stepping towards her. As he passed by her, he narrowed his eyes and his face twisted into a wicked sneer, though it was one Aerith couldn't see. "Either you summon yours, or I summon mine..." whispered Sephiroth darkly. "It depends on which one of us gets to do the deed first..." he chuckled, sending a chill down Aerith's spine. As he continued to walk past a trembling Aerith, Sephiroth lifted his hand to his face and his sneer drooped into a simple frown. "I've left you a parting gift..." said Sephiroth with a chuckle. "If you survive when it unwraps, meet me at the Temple of the Ancients..."
With that, Sephiroth became coated in darkness, a low quaking noise briefly being heard before the ex-SOLDIER's body dissipated into a strange, black mist. As Aerith stood silently, looking first at Cloud's body and then at Tifa's, the chills she'd felt intensified until it felt like she would freeze into a statue. For a moment it lingered, then she closed her eyes tight, gnashed her teeth and stomped her foot on the ground in fury. As her eyes opened, the look on her face proved her new resolve.
Whatever you meant, you monster... We will stop you. And we'll do it no matter the cost.
Scene Eight
Once she'd seen Aerith pass by her carrying a catatonic Tifa, Yuffie wasted no time in opening the door and slamming it behind her. She desperately looked around, trying to find an avenue of escape, but all she could think of was the locked door. So, she dashed towards it and fumbled the key out from her pocket. Whatever was behind there, it had to be less dangerous than Sephiroth, and so she threw the door open and locked it behind her. As she did so she fell to her seat and skittered back to safety.
"Oh, God... Oh, God... Oh, God! I so did not sign up for this bull! These people really are trying to kill me..." she stammered madly, dropping to her back in fright. "Could be a ghost, could be a vampire, anything is better than having that... that freak Sephiroth slice my head off!" she shrieked.
"Did you say Sephiroth?" asked a dark voice, seemingly from nowhere.
"Hell yeah, I did! What's it to you?!" yelled Yuffie as she dropped her head to the floor and shut her eyes tight. Everything had gone to hell and back and she didn't want any part of it. As she realized what had just happened, Yuffie's bloodshot eyes slowly opened. The idle thought of where the voice came from snapped her back to lucidity and she skittered to her feet. All she could find in the room were cobwebs, dust, and an eerie coffin, whose lid had begun to rattle. "Oh, son of a bitch!" she shrieked. "Now I am going to get eaten by a freaking vampire, aren't I?! Oh, dear God!"
The lid to the coffin slowly opened, and a chill filled the chamber (and Yuffie's heart) as a strange figure rose from inside it. The stranger was covered in black, leather straps and buckles shrouded by a dark red cloak. His long, dark hair was restrained in a large red bandana, and replacing his left arm was a bizarre golden gauntlet with fingers that ended in nasty claws. On his hip was a gun holster, one that was occupied by a triple-barreled black revolver with three cylinders. As he hoisted himself from the coffin and approached a terrified Yuffie, who was nearly foaming at the mouth, he crouched down to meet her and stared deep into her halfway-catatonic eyes.
"You said Sephiroth, correct?" the cloaked figure said darkly, his fingers brushing the sweat from Yuffie's brow. As she continued to tremble, expecting the man was a vampire prepared to suck her blood, the supposed vampire's eyes narrowed and he put a hand on her quaking shoulder. "Calm down, I'm not going to kill you..." he sighed. "But," he said, "if you said the name Sephiroth, I need to know what's going on outside..."
Yuffie's fears had devolved into tears, foam seeping from her mouth as her sweat thickened to the point where no deodorant could mask her terror. The look of the man certainly screamed vampire, and the blood red eyes that stared into her own caused her to fight just to stay conscious, which by and large wasn't working well.
It is a vampire! Oh, Gawd!
Author's Notes
Well, here we are: Vincent Valentine. And so, we meet, again. I've dreaded this day since I started writing this piece, and it took until just a couple days ago before I had any idea how to manage him. I think contrasting a panic stricken Yuffie with the ultimate straight shooter ought to make for some fun dialogue next chapter, and in that same chapter he'll debut his combat mechanic. That combat mechanic isn't something I expected, to be honest, but I hope it'll go over well enough that I don't get hate mail. He'll still transform at some point, but... well... I'll let you guys figure that out next chapter on your own. It relates to his Protomateria in a way. And after some thought I decided to make him start with Cerberus, just to make my life easier instead of redirecting him into a certain out of the way location that I still have no idea how I'd justify him finding. Then again, I might have to BS my way through it in Part Three anyway, which I call "Destruction or Deliverance"... I've already got an idea, and it'll take some work to make it realistic. I'll be using the same rules as with Barret with a difference: he'll still have enough ammo to last through the fic, but unlike Barret he'll need to reload. Just assume it's a hammer space situation like Barret.
A couple chapters back I said I wanted to show Tifa in a different light than the brutish character she seemed to have become, and this is the start of what I meant. When she had the door slammed in her face, the Tifa I've been depicting would have just blown it open and ripped the impostor a new asshole. But that isn't how I wanted to show her. Now, at the site of the worst tragedy of her life, her fears and doubts have started to overwhelm her anger, and I tried to make it show through her interactions with Yuffie. In much the same way, I've tried to depict Barret as a more thoughtful character ever since the Gold Saucer, and also tried a more dramatic angle with Red XIII in the Cosmo Canyon chapters. The same is true for Yuffie, and Cait Sith/Reeve, both here and at the bonfire back in Cosmo Canyon. I hope I was successful... These characters deserve better than to become one-dimensional, and it's my intention to at least attempt to make them full humans. I apologize if it seems that way up until now... But I guess in the moments where you're forced to grow up, that's when real change begins. I'll do my best to balance it out from here on out.