I'm dying tommorow
This house, this street,
I'm dying tommorow
Did I do it right?
Did I remember to sleep in?
Tifa picked herself off from the street floor and felt her head, it was severly bruised and hurt like hell. Cloud lay next to her asleep, he had recieved a similar injury to himself. Cloud however was likely to have sustained a couple of broken ribs and a deep cut to his leading sword arm. After fully coming around Tifa remembered that she had left Liol and Cherrie in a hiding place, not knowing how long she and Cloud had been out of it for; panic took over her.
She ran around to the corner where she had left both of her children,
her breathing rate increased heavily and made her feel even worse than
she had before. Turning around the corner Tifa didn't know what to expect.
Cherrie stood there, as if nothing had ever happened, she suckled on
her thumb and held her cuddly rabbit in the other hand. Tifa ran other
to her and hugged her harder then she had ever done so before.
" Cherrie?"
" Yes mummy?"
" Where's Liol?"
" Liol gone." Replied the three-year old.
" What?"
" He's gone mummy."
Tifa couldn't believe that she could have been so careless and left such young children abandoned, this sort of thing was bound to happen." Why did Liol leave hunny?"
" A man with sparkly hair hurt him with the green magic."
Tifa shead a single tear as she realised what had happened, she held
Cherrie even closer and moaned in agony, she had failed, Sephiroth had
truely won.
*
Barrett had wrapped Tifa in a blanket when he got her home, she was a shivering wreck and Barrett could understand exactly why. Cloud had woken from his severe concussion and sent a distress signal that Barrett had recieved instantly, they were both pretty messed up from the fight with Sephiroth and Barrett suspected that they wouldn't fully recover for a week. The story that Cloud described to him was too confused for Barrett to understand entirely, he did know however, that Sephiroth was back and Liol was gone.
Marlene had helped bandage up Cloud, who now wore a bandage over his head. She also helped to look after Cherrie while Barrett talked to Tifa.
" Look," He started. " I know I'm not always the most considerate or easy going of people, but I want you to know that I'm here for you."
Tifa smiled. " Thanks, Barrett."
" What happened out there Teef?"
Tifa stood up from her chair and began to walk slowly around the dining area, she took a sip of coffee from the mug she carried, she took a deep breath and began.
" Last night there were reports of an odd man that had begun to start a rampage through town, local defences had immense trouble destroying him, everytime they knocked him to the floor, he got back up. Other reports described that the man had a green mist surrounding him that went into other people and possessed them. Cloud thought it best if he investigate these reports, while I meet him with the kids at midnight." Tifa took another sip of her coffee and continued, it pained Barret to see her like this.
" I went to the town square as we had agreed, but Cloud was on the floor.
Sephiroth had beaten him to the ground, I had to do something. I decided
to leave Liol and Cherrie in a corner and told them to stay still. I knocked
Sephiroth to the street floor and attempted to run away from him with Cloud,
he was too fast for us though and threw us to the floor without touching
us."
This time when Tifa stopped; her eyes began to water. She wiped her
eyes with her sleeve and continued once more.
" By the time I woke up Liol was long gone. Cherrie said that Sephiroth had hurt him with the green mist and a soldier's body was on the floor, lying next to Cherrie. And we know what that means!" She shouted.
" What?" Asked Barrett. " What does it mean?"
" It means that the bastard has possessed my son and is in control of
his body. It also means that I, as a mother has failed."
Tifa threw her mug of coffee to the floor in a moment of intense anger,
pieces of china shattered along the kitchen floor. She had worked
up a sweat and her hair was in an awful state, Barrett shook his head in
disbelief and tried to comfort Tifa as best as he could, putting his normal
arm around her.
He did this for an hour or so, waiting to find the right time to ask
the question that he was so desperate to ask.
" What do you want to do now?"
Tifa didn't reply, only stared at the pieces of mug on the floor.
" Listen Tifa, sitting here doing nothing won't help anyone, it certainly won't help Liol. I suggest we get the others together and we try and track down Sephiroth."
Still Tifa didn't reply, the whole house seemed to be completely silent for a minute or two, Barrett was beginning to give up. Barrett was beginning to think that his friend Tifa had been completely destroyed by recent events.
" I think that Barrett's idea sounds like a good start." Whispered Cloud
into Tifa's ear. " Don't you?"
Barret smiled, at least Cloud was still in a decent frame of mind.
Tifa wiped her eyes and reached out for Cloud to give him a hug, he
wrapped his arms around her, promising that everything would be fine. "
Right." Smiled Tifa." Let's find the others."
*
Vincent Valentine walked down the company building into the changing room where he undressed and placed on his blue tie, jacket and trousers. Why did the Turks have to wear such bland clothes? He thought to himself. His return to the Turks had been hard to get used to at first but now he felt as if he fitted in properly,well as properly as he ever would. The Turks were now a completely independent group founded by Reeve, they worked on a hire basis, Vincent seemed to prefer it that way.
Last night proved to be eventful as major disturbances had been reported throughout the town and the Headquarters had been put into high-alert status, meaning Vincent and all the other Turks had been waken to get down to the base as soon as possible. Nothing had actually happened last night and the reports died down very quickly. Vincent hadn't bothered returning home and stayed there all night.
Walking down a Turk Headquarters hallway Vincent bumped into the red-haired Reno, who had only recently returned to Rocket Town after a mission shrouded in mistery. Vincent hadn't dared ask what happened back there but Elena had definitely changed since. Yuffie had almost gotten her head bitten off after mentioning it.
“ Vincent, looking flash my man! I must admit it when I saw you with those other guys I thought you were a bit of a loser. But with that blue suit on you're beginning to look almost as cool as me. ” Reno's immature attitude irritated Vincent and he tried his very best to ignore him.
“ Hello Reno.”
“ Elena wants you to go to the meeting in ten minutes. You better not leave her waiting, you know how she gets.”
“ I’ll be there.” Vincent turned the corner towards the elevator.
“ So, were you like dead in that coffin?”
“ No, just,,,,,, waiting.” He stepped into the lift hoping Reno would walk past, but he didn’t he followed. Vincent pressed for floor 30 with his "good" hand and the doors closed.
“ So, what’s the deal with the claw”
“ I was an experiment.” The lift slowed, then stopped and the door slid open.
“ So, are you gonna keep it?”
“ Probably not, I may choose to get a cybernetic arm fitted.” The two pushed open the meeting room’s door and entered.
“Welcome." Smiled Elena, Vincent and Reno nodded their heads in recognition. " I see you are bonding well.” Elena was now the leader of the Turks and although she had only been with the company for 5 years she was easily the most level-headed of the five strong team. Already sitting in the meeting room were Elena, Rude and the rookie of the team Yuffie. Vincent opted to sit next to Elena, Yuffie could be far too energetic at times.
“ Right, first on the agenda is,,,,,” Started Elena before she was interrupted by the alarm siren.
WARNING!
" Damnation!" Shouted Rude.
INTRUDER ALERT!
“ It’s not another drill is it?” Asked a puzzled Reno.
“ When have we ever had a drill?” Shouted Vincent.
“ Everyone just get out of here! Computer where are the intruders now?”
LEVEL FOUR AND RISING.
“ Vincent, Yuffie you go down to the intruders while the rest of us will stay up here just in case you miss them.” The three Turks ran down the stairs and into the elevator.
“ I’ve missed working with you Vincent, it’s just like old times!” Yipped Yuffie.
“ Yes, it’s great isn’t it?” Vincent replied with a glum look on his face. The elevator stopped and Vincent drew his two automatic pistols from their holsters and pointed them outside.
“ Looks like they’re not on this level, we’d better go back up.” Suggested Yuffie.
“ Wait a minute,” Vincent, intrigued looked around the corner to see a tall brunette, a huge black man with a gun for an arm and another man with long, blonde spiky hair. Vincent smiled, happy to see his old friends; it would last for long.
“ I'm sorry guys but the people downstairs didn't understand and set
off the alarm, look we need your help, you see we got troubles. Big troubles.”
*
Nanaki slept soundly under the Cosmo Canyon stars beside the Cosmo fire, it had been a tough day; he had been working on BugenHagen’s scriptures for weeks. To call it hard work would be an under-estimation especially as the scriptures were written in an Ancient language, and translating it could be hell.
As he settled off to sleep, he heard a soft, soothing voice that could only belong to one person, one person in the world.
“ Nanaki!”
“ Hmm?”
“ It’s time!”
“ What? Bugenhagen, is it you?” The pale green image of BugenHagen floated over and stopped above Nanaki and smiled.
“ It is time,”
“ Time for what?”
“ The planet’s Insurrection has come.” BugenHagen’s ghost slowly disappeared into thin air. The air temperature around Nanaki dropped to below comfortable levels, he shivered.
“ BugenHagen?”
The image of his grandfather had long disappeared before he even began to contemplate what the message meant. But for hours later Nanaki found himself so intrigued by his experience that he didn't come out of the Canyon's libraries for days afterward.