and they called it...

P A P E R M A D N E S S

v 5.0 | 3:41 AM

This story or short novel (I can't figure out which it is) belongs to me and my creative mind. However, most of the characters, names, and places mentioned all belong to their respective companies, so don't yell at me for copyright infringements! If it offends you in any manner, sorry, and if it doesn't, then don't complain. Remember, things in italics represent what a person is thinking, or the telling of past events.

Enjoy...
____________

Final Fantasy: A Lasting Impression: Part 3

Chapter 7: One Dead, Another in The Bush

"One thing I realized about the effects of Jenova on a human body was the feeling of being led or talked into going somewhere. Jenova apparently had telepathic abilities before she was nearly killed, a skill that let her communicate with anyone of her choosing. Once she was put into her near-death state of being and locked into that stratum, her telepathic skills couldn't be of any use. However, once Shinra found her and got her out of that stratum, her telepathic abilities were greatly diminished. Where once she could openly talk to any person through their mind, now she could only talk to other telepaths or people the same as herself.

- Hojo, day 5158

The motor truck bounced dangerously over the rough terrain of the Midgar fields, Seraph trying with all her skill to keep the vehicle moving to the mountains. The mountains themselves were still a few kilometers away, and she couldn't waste a second getting there or the dangers of being caught grew. Yuffie was long since dead, her body hardly moving at all even through the harsh bumps and falls in the trip over the land. Considering the motor vehicle was a low class vehicle, it only had three wheels, two in the front and one in the back, and that made it very difficult to stay upright in rough terrain.

Damnation! If I weren't so very incompetent at driving she may still be alive yet! But no, I had to play the leader and order her into a lethal situation.

Suddenly the motor truck leapt off the edge of a small cliff in the field and was airborne for a moment, Seraph holding onto the steering wheel for her life while Yuffie's corpse sailed up and out of the seat. The motor truck slammed into the earth viciously, the entire frame of the vehicle warping under the intense stress of the crash. Seraph was holding onto the steering wheel with white-knuckle grip, but she was thrown out of the motor truck through the front windshield and onto the hard ground below. The truck began smoking as the fuel was catching on fire, and Seraph dashed back to the vehicle to retrieve the huge Materia stash. She pulled the backpack off Yuffie's corpse and put it on her own back under her trenchcoat, and got the Materia orbs in her weapon out and into the back pack as well. She made a run for the mountains, away from the wreckage, which was now smoking and blazing with the fuel in the engine and tank. After a while, Seraph heard an explosion behind her and she knew the truck's fuel had exploded into a fireball, letting the military police know her location. Seraph doubled her pace, praying she made it to the mountains before the military police saw her desperate flight.

*****

The Shinra helicopter started up, the four massive blades spinning and thrumming with the power of the massive engines behind them. Cleric and two SOLDIERs ducked into the Shinra helicopter as it powered up for flight, the massive engine behind the propellers whining up to its full power. Cleric strapped himself in and donned a headset to listen to the military police radio traffic, and the helicopter lifted off and began gliding over the building and into the air above the city. Cleric ordered the pilot to fly the helicopter towards the mountains in order to find the missing Seraph and the thief she apparently was working with.

"How long will it take this helicopter to get to the mountains?" Cleric shouted over the noise in the compartment.

"About seven minutes," The pilot shouted back. "Once there, we will help set up a search grid to look for Seraph and that thief."

"Never you mind about the thief, I plugged the girl with a shot to the head, she won't be going anywhere with such an injury or if she is already dead."

"Alright then."

Suddenly out of the normal radio communications of the police frequency Cleric heard a high priority message override the rest.

"All units, this is command! Unit f-13 has found a fire in the Midgar fields caused by a fuel explosion, all units converge on the coordinates and get ready to extinguish the fire and locate the criminal. Command out."

"You heard the man!" Cleric shouted, "Get us there immediately!"

"Yes sir!" The pilot said. He pushed the control stick ahead and to the right, putting the helicopter into a power turn for the site of the fire. Cleric got out a pair of binoculars and began scanning the horizon for any smoke, the one SOLDIER with him took the radio headset and listened to the military police's reports. After many tense minutes, the helicopter pilot found a small smoke trail in the sky, and he pushed the helicopter to its maximum speed heading for the fire. Cleric ordered the SOLDIERs to stay inside the helicopter, and he opened the sliding door, the winds rushing in with deafening sound and force.

"I'll put the fire out!" Cleric shouted over the noise, "You go and patrol over the mountains nearby, if you find the girl, get out and stop her however necessary, but DO NOT kill her."

"Understood." The two SOLDIERs said in unison.

Cleric grabbed his weapons of choice, his usual handgun and extra clips and shoved them into one of his cargo pockets. He then gathered his new weapon, a three foot fighting rod rumored to be used by the last of the Turks, Reno. Cleric leapt out of the helicopter while it hovered near the wreckage, and he fell twenty feet to the ground and hit it hard, flexing his legs to absorb most of the shock. He waved the helicopter on, and it turned and sped off to the mountains ahead. Cleric turned to face the fire, which was now spreading onto the dry grasses and remaining fuel in the motor truck. He raised up his battle rod and prepared to use one of his Materia inside the rod's handle, one of the Materia given to him by his father as a gift for his sixteenth birthday.

"Aquarake!"

The spell cast, multiple bubbles appeared and exploded on the fire and the motor truck, dousing the fire completely with crystal clear water. Cleric checked the wreckage to make sure the fire was completely extinguished, the vehicle was only a smoking pile of scrap metal now. Inside the vehicle he saw the charred remains of a person sitting calmly on the passenger seat, the smell was unbearable and Cleric stepped back. He then put the battle rod back into its holster on his belt, and he began a run for the mountains in the same direction as the helicopter.

*****

Seraph kept running, even though the slope of the mountains grew higher and steeper as she progressed up the side of the mountain range. Exhaustion wasn't setting in, her body trained and tuned to running many kilometers before needing to rest. She looked around for anything that could provide for shelter from the military police, even though she knew wherever she went, the police could go too. She finally located a small cave set into the stone face of a small cliff in the mountain valley, and she decided that was the best place to rest at. However, once she reached the entrance, she found it to be very small and narrow. Seraph was thin bodied though, if the entrance was large enough, she could crawl into it and rest for a while. Suddenly she heard the sound of wind thrumming, and she looked up to see the faint image of the Shinra Helicopter moving in her general direction. Seraph didn't hesitate, she crawled into the small cave opening and continued to move through the passage until she fell out of it and onto the floor of the cave inside. Once she stood up she was covered in water, the floor covered in a small layer of it, the walls were covered in small, bioluminescent bacteria, giving the cave a dim, green glow. Only the small pillar of light from the cave entrance gave any definite light in the room, but it was mysteriously focused on a odd looking plant. Seraph approached the plant, and she saw a small crystal forming on its delicate leaves like a jewel.

That crystal, it must be a natural-formed Lifestream geyser creating natural Materia! So these walls don't have bioluminescent bacteria, it must be Lifestream energy in the earth coming to the surface! And this water, it could be liquid Lifestream seeping in from the floor, or possibly just water from rains collected in here...

Seraph took out the Materia she got from Yuffie and examined them, one looked green and another looked blue.

These two Materia, they are a 'seal' Materia and an 'all' Materia in their upper levels. Thank you Yuffie...God rest your soul.

Seraph took the 'all' Materia and placed it adjacent to the fire Materia she had in her sword hilt, and she put the 'seal' Materia in the open slot in her hairband. Now she was completely loaded with Materia, she had no more open slots to put any more in. Seraph figured that she would rest in the cave for an hour, then get out and continue her flight to Junon Harbor. Suddenly she heard a voice in her head, one that came without warning and sounded like an angry man shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Where are you Seraph!?"

*****

"Where are you Seraph!?" Cleric shouted to the heavens, but they didn't reply and only looked at him with neutral interest. He let out a heavy sigh and sagged his shoulders, then continued his run through the valleys and hills of the Midgar Mountains.

Chapter 8: Familiar Dreamscape

"I can remember once when the training instructor discovered Seraph stole a Materia orb from the weapons vault and was trying to use it during training. He said that the Materia could cast the spell of berserk, a state of mind that is all combat and nothing else. When Seraph used that spell on herself that day, I don't even want to try and remember the chaos she brought upon the scientist staff, herself, and me."

- Hojo, day 5824

Seraph was still looking at the mysterious natural Lifestream fountain, absorbed by the beauty of the plant and the glimmer of the tiny crystal Materia. However, exhaustion began settling down on her body, and she remembered sitting down, reluctantly, on the watery floor to rest. She looked at the Lifestream fountain until her eyes could no longer stay open, and she drifted into a deep sleep.

"Such memories," an inner voice whispered, "such memories should never be buried..."

*****

Seraph was standing alone in an empty plain, the landscape of dirt and rocks stretching endlessly before her. She looked around for something or someone in the empty plains, but nothing was there, it was alone and silent. Seraph began running for the horizon, desperately seeking something to see beyond the rocks and the dirt, anything that was alive. Suddenly, Seraph saw an image of a little girl standing on a rock. She looked only eight years old, crying and rubbing her eyes. Seraph stopped and looked at the young image of the child. The image stopped weeping and looked at Seraph with her green eyes, sending chills up her spine.

"You..." the child began, "you are me, and I am you, we are the same and completely different all at once, that is why you cannot recognize me."

"Wh-who are you? What are you talking about?" Seraph said, shocked.

"Ha! So ignorant, even at your age."

"Ignorant? Who are you to call ME ignorant?"

"Who are YOU to say you aren't? Just because you are yourself doesn't mean you can know everything about yourself."

"But what is inside me that I don't know about?"

"Follow me and I will help find out, for both our sakes."

The child stepped down from the rock and held out her hand at Seraph with a serious look on her face. Seraph reached forward and gripped the child's outstretched hand, and her vision blacked out.

When she could see again, she was looking at herself during a combat exercise, holding a green Materia orb in her small hands hidden from view. The creature in the battle area was standing still, not attacking right away, but rather studying her with natural curiosity. The young Seraph held up the Materia orb and cast the spells it held onto herself. First she felt confused, like the room was spinning and the world was flipped upside-down, then she felt an uncontrollable desire to fight and to attack, a desire to see everything wither and die. The young Seraph hefted her sword, at that time it was almost as tall as she was, and charged the creature. It only looked at the young Seraph with passing interest, until it felt the sword slash through its body and repeatedly plunge into its dying form. Scientists from the labs opened the doors to the battle area and went to stop Seraph before she did any harm to herself, but she didn't stop there. The young Seraph wielded the blade and attacked the scientists, carving bloody gashes into their necks and bodies, killing them all without any realization of what she was doing.

"What’s gotten into her!?" Hojo shouted at the weapons master inside the control room.

"She isn't herself, look at her, she is acting like a killing machine!"

"Don't stand there, weapons master, go down there and STOP her before she can injure herself or anyone else!" Hojo ordered the weapons master.

"Of course, SOLDIERs, come with me!"

The weapons master and the four members of SOLDIER all exited the control room and headed down to the battle area to stop the young Seraph. Seraph was still inside the battle area, fuming and waving her sword around in anger. The weapons master and the SOLDIERs rushed inside the area and closed the door behind them, Seraph ran to them but was stopped by one of the SOLDIERs. The SOLDIERs all assumed places around Seraph, keeping her from running loose, but away from the dangerous sword she held. The young Seraph didn't stay still for long, the fury inside her pushed her forward to fight them all, and she leapt forwards and caught one SOLDIER off guard. She slashed his thighs and he fell to the floor, gripping the gaping wound with bloody hands when he saw her lift the blade up high. The young Seraph whipped the blade down with all her strength, and the blue-tinted sword cut cleanly through the man's neck, his head rolling across the ground. The other three SOLDIERs advanced to restrain the girl, but she fought them all off with many quick stabs of her sword, leaving the SOLDIERs with multiple cuts streaming blood. Suddenly the weapons master was before her, and as she was about to slash his legs, he gave her a brutal kick to her chest, sending her sprawling across the room to the wall. The young Seraph stood up on her knees and arms, heaving, gasping for air, and shocked out of her battle fury. Once she was moving to stand, a small green orb slid out of her pocket and rolled out from under her. The weapons master walked to the girl and picked up the Materia orb.

"Just as I thought, she got hold of a 'mystify' Materia and accidentally cast berserk and confuse on herself. Now Seraph, why did you take the Materia when I gave commands NEVER to use them without my supervision?"

"I...I wanted to be *gasp* like my brother and *heave* fight with magic too..."

"Foolish child, did you think that you could naturally learn to use Materia correctly?"

"I can learn *gasp* if you teach me..."

Seraph fell to the ground, exhausted and unconscience, so one of the SOLDIERs picked her up and gave her to a doctor waiting outside before she woke up again.

"Weapons master," Hojo said over the speaker system, "she obviously wants to fight with Materia, let this be an example to her, and once she understands her mistake, train her to fight with Materia."

"What? Fighting with magic won't get her anywhere-"

"Weapons Master, do as I say. Don't forget that you can be easily replaced."

"...yes, sir."

The scene faded away with the weapons master walking out of the battle area, and of Hojo wiping his brow with his labcoat and muttering to himself. The scene completely disappeared and again Seraph faced the little child on the stone, the child smiling form ear to ear.

"So, can you recognize me now, Seraph?"

"Yes...you are me when I was a little girl."

"Eight, to be precise. When you got the 'mystify' Materia you didn't know what it could do, so you fought and killed the creature, four scientists, one SOLDIER, and injured the other three. All your teachers were very upset with you, and you became so distraught over the event that your mind put up natural mental blocks so you never could remember that horrific event in your life. The reason that you can remember it now is because of another person wishing you not to have a fragmented life, like the life Cloud Strife once lived."

"Who is this 'other person'?"

"I cannot say, I can only grant you this riddle to help you find out the answer. Divided into many, yet still as one, all of the parts belong to the whole. Sorry that I cannot say anything, it will be for the best for now. Now if I were you, which I am, I would wake up..."

Suddenly the girl faded away from the stone, and soon the stone too disappeared into nothingness. Seraph looked around as the land, sky, and horizon all melted away and faded into darkness. One point of light remained, and it expanded and turned fuzzy and yellow until Seraph saw that it was the Lifestream fountain crystal. Her vision immediately cleared up, and she was back in the cave and sitting in the strange liquid Lifestream.

How creepy, being taught lessons from my past, but why did she want me to know about that incident in my life. What does that riddle mean by 'all of the parts belong to the whole', what parts does she refer to?

Seraph tired to think about an answer to the riddle when she heard voices and saw shadows playing across the beam of light from the cave entrance. She stood up and drew her sword out and walked slowly and quietly next to the cave entrance.

"Hey, do ya' think she coulda' gotten inta' this cave, boss?" Asked a soldier.

"Maybe, she did seem thin enough. Put a grenade into the hole and set it to explode with a five second fuse."

"Yes sir, boss!"

The soldier removed a grenade from his belt of explosives and set the timer on it to the five-second fuse, and he put it in the hole and activated it. The soldier and the other man dashed back just in time to avoid being killed by the massive gout of flame and debris that came out of the explosion. The dust settled quickly, and the once small entrance was now a man-size hole in the wall. The soldier rushed into the entrance, his rifle at his side and ready to fire, against the orders of his superior. The other man outside the hole waited and watched as his foolish subordinate rushed into a potential trap. Suddenly a scream came from inside the hole and the sound of a body falling into water. The other man outside began to run, but stopped himself from running into the trap, also stopping in time to avoid the soldiers body from hitting him as it sailed out the hole and onto the ground below. The man outside looked back as he saw the soldier's body roll over, blood trailing the ground from a grisly wound on his neck, and he looked back to see Seraph standing on the lip of the hole, sword drawn.

"So, Cleric, you followed me all the way out here."

"Yes." He said as he drew out his battle rod, "I followed you all the way out here."

Chapter 9: Separate Pieces Collide

"After the Materia incident, the weapons master was even more adamant about not using Materia as a weapon. He even refused to teach her anything else unless I agreed to not use Materia again. I sent my answer via Seraph, and the weapons master looked quite frightened as she froze his body into an icicle."

- Hojo, day 3077

"Why did you help her, Seraph. She stole valuable Materia from the foundation, Materia that exists only to help humanity." Cleric asked.

"NO! Materia isn't just another commodity for humans to use and throw away once they are through with it. Materia is, no, once was part of the Lifestream, a flowing body of energy from the souls of every living being that passed away. It was the Shinra that first found the original orb of Materia in Midgar, and they soon found out that Materia had great use, for helping or hurting people. Hundreds of souls in the Lifestream are sacrificed to make just ONE Materia orb; do you know how many Materia orbs there are? Think about it, how many souls of people have been erased and forgotten just so one corrupt mega-conglomerate could rule without fear?"

"Seraph, even if all that made sense and for me, and it didn't, that cannot justify your helping that thief escape."

"I'm not looking for justification, I'm looking for Materia enough to generate the greatest magic weapon mankind will even see. When Shinra transported the Junon cannon to Midgar, they changed it to fire Mako energy blasts instead of the normal explosive shells. All eight of the old Midgar Reactors shunted all their power into one blast that killed a WEAPON, and obliterated Sephiroth's shield over the northern crater. With the weapon I'm so close to getting, can you imagine the power it will hold? Such a power may be comparable to that cannon."

"What, your contradicting yourself. First you condemn people for using Materia because it took their souls away, and now you want to use it to fight?"

"I don't argue over the use of Materia, I argue over the creation of new Materia. There is little harm done in using the Materia already present, creating new Materia is just killing more souls from the Lifestream and harming the planet even more."

"What exactly is this 'Lifestream' you are so concerned about? How can it hurt the planet?"

"I have little time to discuss such a matter, if you want to know about it go to Cosmo Canyon and have the elders there teach you. I have a date to meet in Costa del Sol, so goodbye."

Seraph turned and began walking away, but Cleric dashed forwards and grabbed her shoulder harshly and spun her around. He looked into her eyes, which were glaring at him with inhuman anger, but he returned her glare with his own glimpse of hatred.

"You aren't going anywhere, I have orders to take you back, under arrest."

"I don't have time for your laws now, Cleric, stand aside." Seraph whispered menacingly.

"I will not."

"Then you have sealed your own fate." Seraph said as she raised her hand up and put it under his chin and looked at his eyes.

"You know, you share both your mothers and fathers beauty."

"How do yo-"

"Fire!"

Before Cleric could react flames washed over his face and hair and threw him back to the ground. He put his hand on his face and felt the scarred skin under it, but he cast a restore spell on the burns and they faded away. He stood up and found Seraph sprinting away through the mountains, and he immediately ran after her. He raised up his battle rod and chanted out another spell, pointed at her general direction, and a red aura formed around his body.

"Mantra Magic!"

This time instead of a healing spell, dozens of missiles formed alongside his battle rod and shot away at Seraph. She looked back as the missiles reached her, and the explosions tore apart the ground beneath her and sent her through the air to hit the ground roughly.

"Did you think I would come unprepared for this possibility, Seraph?"

Seraph stood up just as even more missiles came over the rise and at her position, filling the air with fire and smoke. Seraph leapt up from the ground into the air, the missile’s explosions erupting below her with intense heat, and while airborne, she cast another fire spell that scorched the ground around Cleric. Seraph landed on the ground nearby and looked at the fire that surrounded Cleric, but she was shocked as it dissipated from his body and didn't do a scratch to him. Cleric grimaced, and she then noticed the shimmering bubble around his body, a magic resistant barrier that saved him at the last second. He raised up the battle rod and again a red aura came over him, and instead of more missiles a golden energy wrapped around Seraph and began shocking her with intense lightning bolts. Seraph tried to remain silent, but the agony of being used as a conductor finally tore a scream from her mouth, one that echoed throughout the mountains like a banshee's wailing. Once the golden energy subsided, Seraph fell to one knee and she desperately sought to heal herself, but Cleric was on top of her before she could cast the spell. He whipped her across the face with his battle rod, and the force of the blow sent her in the air and on her back.

Cleric watched as she moaned and put her hand to her face, wiping the blood off her face and onto her gloved hand. He pulled his pistol out and aimed it at Seraph's leg and fired, the bullet hitting her leg with a sickening pop. Seraph again screamed and held onto the injury. Cleric was about to fire again when his gun was engulfed in flames, the metal glowing red-hot and burning his palm. He threw the gun down and watched as it glowed bright red and smoked on the dirt and tiny plants beneath it. Cleric heard her shuffle her legs, and watched as she stood up, blood trickling out of her mouth and down her face. He silently congratulated her on lasting as long as she did; he never had encountered such a fierce woman warrior besides his mother. Suddenly she raised her arm and chanted a fast spell, and Cleric felt something tingle in his throat. He tried to speak, but his vocal chords refused to work, leaving him mute and unable to cast any more spells. Seraph walked up to him, smiling at his tragedy and seemingly unfazed by he multiple injuries on her body.

"Well, it would seem you can't cast anymore spell, Cleric. Am I right?"

"..."

"Aw, speechless. Don't be angry, I did it so I won't have to kill you right away. For your own safety don't follow me to Junon, it will only lead to your death."

"...!!!!"

"Good thing you’re muted, you probably would be pouring on the insults at me. Ha, farewell!"

Cleric tried to hit Seraph again with his battle rod, but she caught it on her sword guard and flung it away behind his back. Cleric lashed out with his fists and tried to punch her, but Seraph again blocked his attack, and in return snapped his wrist with a forceful hit. He opened his mouth and his lips moved in the words he would shout in such pain, but nothing escaped his mouth but air. Seraph sliced her sword through Cleric's leg, carving a deep gash in it that poured out blood like water in a river, and his eyes bulged out in pain. He grabbed his leg and would have been shouting in pain, but only his mouth betrayed any sense of the pain he was experiencing. Seraph looked at him with a bizarre sense of regret and sadness, but she walked away before he could do anything else to harm her.

It is a shame, I have to kill this boy's parents, and he can't even begin to understand the true extent of my mission, thinking that I'm only an assistant to a thief. Cloud and his allies have been constantly tormenting me, they killed my brother and ended my fathers plans to find the source of Jenova's power. Once he and the rest are out of the way, father can finally begin his search anew and I will finally have put my brother’s tormentors to rest, forever.

Cleric was screaming his lungs out in his head, the pain was so intense yet he couldn’t scream out loud. He tried to hold his leg tight enough to stop the bleeding, but the wound was too deep and the blood was making his leg slick as a fish in water. Cleric took his hands away and blanched as the blood poured out of his wound like a waterfall, but he had an idea to stop it. Cleric stripped his shirt off him and tore it into strips to wad into the wound itself to help stem the blood flow, but the wadding wouldn't stay in place if he walked. Cleric took off his bandana from his sweat-coated forehead and used it to tie the wadding in place, tight enough to cut the blood circulation a bit. Cleric looked at the wound for a minute, watching as the blood slowly seeped out of a corner of the gash. He picked up his bulky radiophone and activated the emergency distress beacon, sending out a signal across all military frequencies and a beacon so they could find him. Cleric looked at the mountains where Seraph had run to, and he saw her distant figure rise to the crest of one peak and fall behind it, gone from his sight. With the bangade firmly in placew, Cleric stood up and slowly walked across the battleground to pick up his battle rod and his half-metled gun, and then he decided to succum to his exaustion. He sat down and leaned back, resting against the dirty rocks, trying to relax his heart from pumping all his blood into the dirt he sat on. However, he became extremely tired from the blood loss, and even after doing everything humanly possible to stay awake, he finally fell into sleep.

*****

"Sir, we have an emergency beacon active on all frequencies!"

"Well, where is it coming from?"

"Its from...two kilometers due southeast. The signal is weak, so it must be in a valley."

"Alright then. Pilot, get us there, now!"

With that command, the Shinra Helicopter lurched left and flew for the mountains.

*****

In Costa Del Sol, the afternoon crowds were beginning to reach their climax, people from all over the region coming to enjoy a day in the sunlight. The shipyards were just as busy, cargo ships from Junon and New Condor crowding the sea-lanes with fresh deliveries of anything conceivable. Both of the bars in Costa Del Sol were filled to their limits with tourists, workers off for a lunch break, or residents looking for some relief from the midday heat. The original bar in Costa Del Sol was always a popular locale for anyone looking for quality drinks and music, but once the new bar only a few dozen yards from the original opened up, business was falling. The new bar, known as the 7th Heaven opened, much of the business from the loading yards and new arrivals from public ferries went there for their drinks. However, the loyalty of most of the population still went to the original bar, so both bars did well even with the competition between each other. Cloud, inside the 7th Heaven, was busy cleaning up the empty tables inside the bar and getting them ready for the afternoon crunch. Tifa was at the bar proper, in her element as she whipped up her fanciful creations for her customers. Cloud looked at Tifa as she served a table with their drinks, smiling and talking idly with the bar tenants as she went back to the bar. Two assistants they hired were busy serving people their drinks and getting bills paid for and seats opened and cleaned. Cloud really was happy, he hadn't seen Tifa as happy as she was since she gave birth to their only child or back at the original 7th Heaven. Cloud pushed the chairs under the table and put all the empty glasses onto a serving plate to get them back to the bar to be washed and set out for use again. Suddenly he felt a terrible power wash across his mind, numbing his body for a moment, causing him to drop the plate to the ground, shattering the glasses on it. Tifa gasped and leapt over the bar top and rushed to Cloud's side, the people inside watching with passing interest.

"My God Cloud, what happened? Are you alright?"

"Its okay Tifa, the numbness has passed me by. Sorry about the glasses and stuff."

"Don't worry about glasses, you worry about yourself! Why did your body give out all of a sudden?"

"Dunno, I just felt a strange energy course through me, making my body go numb for a moment, and I stumbled afterwards."

"Well, you just get up and go rest for a while, I can handle this."

"No, Tifa, I feel fine now."

"Are you sure...doubly sure its okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay. If you’re that concerned over it I'll go to and rest to stop your worrying."

"No, Cloud, sorry about overreacting."

"Tifa, you worry about me too much. I can handle myself."

"Cloud..."

"Don't worry, I'm perfectly okay, I would tell you if it were otherwise."

Cloud stood up from the ground and swept the glass off his black pants, gathering the broken shards on the plate and taking it to the back to be tossed out. Tifa patted his shoulder as he passed by, and he smiled back at her before disposing of the glass.

Last Chapter | Next Chapter