~Vincent's POV~
When Cloud eventually gets better, we move back to the Highwind. Thankfully, it was only a three day delay after he finally woke up all the way. Yuffie's finally eating again, though Cid's gonna get in trouble for not making her eat breakfast. I don't get it, but the nurse was bothering us nonstop about that. Trust me, it got annoying after the fourth or fifth time she reminded us. Now we're headed for the Northern Crater, where the leader of Sumter told us Sephiroth would be. Cloud isn't too happy about being left on board, and he nearly got away with throwing a temper tantrum like a six year old. I seriously hope he's all better for the wedding, which is in five days. I hate having to keep pushing it farther away. I just wanna marry Tifa, darn it!
"We'll reach the dang crater in about two hours," Cid announces, leaning against the back wall. Shera scowls at him playfully and pulls the cigarette out of his mouth, stamping it out. The guy's gotta quit sometime, right?
"What are we gonna do when we get there?" Cloud asks, hoping that no one will notice.
"You are gonna stay here," the pilot raises an eyebrow. "The rest of us already came up with a plan." We did? Liar...
"No fair," the younger blonde crosses his arms. He cringes every time he speaks, but I guess the mako in his veins is healing the wound in his throat.
"Too bad, spiky," Yuffie smirks, ruffling his hair.
"You're staying too."
"What?!" She glares at the captain. "Why?!"
"Because you're still weak from the whole Casper ordeal and you need to gain a little more weight before you go or else you'll get thrown around like a rag doll."
"Don't worry, I'll keep you company," Shera grins.
"Great," the ninja grumbles but no one really hears her. That or they don't react.
Everyone is either preparing for the next battle or wandering around aimlessly while we wait. For Cloud's sake, I hope this isn't our last battle with Sephiroth. I know he'll want to take down the silver haired man himself. That and the Casper guy. His cousin, according to Tifa. She says it's a bit harsh for him to kill his own family. I say she wasn't clawed through her Geostigma.
"We have arrived," Barret says in some fake movie voice that makes Tifa grin and Red roll his eye.
"Let's get going then," Cid nods toward the door. Shera sends him a weak smile as he goes, obviously bothered that he's going after the most powerful man on the universe. I follow in silence, my hand on the gun that's holstered on my leg.
"I wonder what he wanted with the rest of the black materia," Tifa says to me quietly. "He already summoned meteor once, does he need to do it again?"
"I have a feeling there's something more," I muse more to myself than her.
"What do you mean?"
"Not sure."
"You've made no sense lately," she shakes her head. "After this, we're taking you to the church to heal that nasty rash of yours."
"Hmm," I hum.
"Hang on," Red stops us. "I sense him. To the left."
We branch off to the left side of the crater and clumsily slide down the ridges of the mountainous terrain. The orange animal leads us, though I can sense the terrible vibes off the evil man as well. Demonic... Evil... Monstrous...
"Mother, I have brought the sacrifice you requested. The prey has denied everything, but I know she was not involved with what had become of Hojo's sanity." The fact that he refers to whatever captive he has as 'prey' is enough to get my nerves going. "But now the circus is here to stop us. Too bad they can't know what we do."
"And what do you know that we don't?" Cid speaks up, arms crossed. Sparkling green cat eyes meet his as Sephiroth smirks.
"You clowns do not know why I am alive. Why am I alive? And what am I doing with the whole black materia? What about the sacrifice? Answer these questions and I may reconsider your brain capacities."
"I can't read minds, moron," Barret scoffs. "Just tells us and get in with it, you ain't no Rufus Shinra."
"Fine," the silver haired man shrugs, looking up at the sky slowly. "For the first question... As long as my cells exist in living beings, I may come back from the land of death."
"But you killed every SOLDIER out there that had any S-cells," Red frowns. Are we seriously having a conversation with this guy? Just kill him! Sephiroth seems to read my thoughts.
"Your leader would not appreciate you being the one to take my life, Valentine." A few pairs of eyes glance my way, but I stare straight forward, my hand remaining on my weapon. "But where was I? Yes, being alive. True, but I only killed all the SOLDIERs so that one man was left to die. He is the only person that can save the world of you nasty creatures called humans." He chuckles darkly. You are a human, Sephiroth. Why can't you see it? I wish I could've saved you from this. But I couldn't.
"Well who is the foo'? Can't we just kill him?" Barret says a little too impatiently. Sephiroth's chuckle breaks into more of a hysterical, insane, and evil laugh. Tifa frowns at Barret, wishing he wouldn't be so heartless sometimes.
"I don't think you'd want to do that..." Our enemy says once he's calmed down. "You're all rather... Close to him."
"If you're talkin about that Shinra guy, we ain't close to the freak at all," Cid raises an eyebrow.
"No, but on the right track. I have a knack for killing blonde haired and blue eyed men," he smirks and my stomach drops. Cloud... He killed everyone else with S-cells so that he would be forced to die so that Sephiroth could be eliminated forever. "I see Valentine has pieced it together," Green eyes pierce mine. He must be observing the horror in my eyes.
"Cloud," Tifa whimpers. "But he can't... I won't let..." She trails off.
"Sadly, it is true," the villain says, not looking one but apologetic. "But now for the sacrifice to atone for the wait, Mother." He looks back up st the sky for a moment before taking long strides toward toward the glittering and smooth walls of the top layer of the Northern Crater. Cid clenches his jaw and holds his spear up.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I've already told you too much."
"You ain't told us nothin!" The pilot yells. Sephiroth freezes and whips around before we can do anything, his long blade piercing through Cid's body.
"I said enough," the villain grits. My gun is pressed to his temple before my mind can react.
"Let him go." I'm in such a bad position... He can yank his sword out and stab through me too. Dang it, Vince. Think next time!
"Alright," he shrugs and roughly yanks his sword from the blonde's impaled body. Cid groans and falls, holding his stomach tightly. Then he swings around and continues down toward the wall.
"Cid!" Tifa cries, kneeling beside him. He furrows his eyebrows and looks up at her, trying to wave off any help.
"Got any materia?" He asks quietly, voice a little strained.
"On it," Barret nods, selecting his Cure 3. "You guys follow the crazy, I've got him."
I nod and end up being the first person to move after our nemesis. All the while, my mind is reeling through the news. Cloud. How did Cloud end up being the ultimate sacrifice? Of course Sephiroth would want to finish this... But if Cloud dies, then we could kill him forever. He could torture Cloud even then, right? In the Lifestream? Sephiroth stops and turns his head back toward me with a wide smirk.
"Ready to see Mother's sacrifice?" Without waiting for my answer, he closes his eyes and pushes a little on the glittering wall,the stone scraping as it turns. On the other side, chains hold a woman to the wall. My eyes widen. No..
"I did not realize you had more than one girlfriend, Vincent," Sephiroth says. Tifa frowns again, but I just hold out my gun.
"Let her go."
"You know it's useless to tell an enemy that, correct?" I remain silent, glaring at him. "But if you insist..."
"Don't touch her," I command, looking over at one of the only friends I had in my Turk life. But where's Derek? Light purple eyes meet mine in a tired look.
"You can't stop me," he raises a silver eyebrow.
It happens too fast. His sword is drawn, my gun is out. Her head is gone and so are my bullets. My vision is rapidly blurring and focusing again as my heart pounds, another life I couldn't save on my hands. I swallow the hurt and jam my empty gun in its holster, moving so fast against the rock that I feel like I'm flying. And maybe I am. But I'm not back out of this one. Sephiroth seems taken aback by the three bullet holes in his body caused by Cerberus. But my claw is already swung at him, cutting his skin where it hits. And he doesn't hesitate to fight back. My sight is still going in and out and it can really only mean one thing. Stay down there, buddy. I'll let you out another time...
This man deserves death. Let me assist you in bringing his soul to the Lifestream, host.
No. He said Cloud... You know.
And? It will at least stop him for a while, while it not?
I cannot. I'm sorry.
Then he disappears, the missing collision making me stumble over the edge of a small ridge in the crater.
Okay, fine. Geeze Chaos, you're so demanding.
I try.
Wings sprout from my back and I fly up to where most of Avalanche is waiting. They know I'll be alright, as long as I've got this stupid demon inside me.
I'm offended, host.
Deal with it. Ow! Did you just slap me with your wing!?
Maybe.
You suck.
Blood? Possibly.
When I land, the dark wings fold against my back and I force myself to look away from Violet. What about her son? What will he do now?
"Who was that chick?" Barret looks at me expectantly. Wasn't he with Cid?
"An old coworker," I glance back at the decapitated body. "From back in my Turk days."
"Wait, what? Wouldn't she be like seventy by now?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Another one of Hojo's projects. He failed to make her a monster, but made her somewhat immortal instead."
"Unless this happened," Red nods toward Violet. I sigh and begin to walk back up to where the pilot now rests.
"Vincent?" Tifa follows behind me. "You alright?" I almost say yes, but I'm in no mood to lie.
"No."
"There was nothing you could've done," she lies. I shake my head.
"She's yet another person I couldn't save, mor blood on my hands. Tell me, why do you stay when there's no way I can protect anyone?" I turn to her, searching for an honest answer in her eyes. All I see is love and determination. A killer combo. Literally.
"Because I love you and I don't need protection. I can save myself if you're not there. I'm not entirely helpless, you know." There's a failed attempt at humor in her voice.
"Tifa, look at your cheek. Look at Violet. There's nothing I can do to help anyone. I'm just... Some beast without a soul," I shake my head and continue to walk. She, on the other hand, has other plans. Gripping my forearm firmly, she yanks me back.
"You know that's not true!"
"Tifa, please," I say through clenched teeth and glance toward all the people watching us with skeptical looks.
"No," she shakes her head. "You're not some beast and you do have a soul! You..."
"Yeah, Chaos's soul," I grit, pulling my arm free and continuing my walk up to the Highwind.
"Little help?" Cid frowns up at me as I start to walk by. I sigh and pull him to his feet by his arm, grimacing when the dark spot on the front of his shirt spreads because of the movement.
"Shoot, that can't be good," he mutters, dragging himself along as I support him. With another confused look down at him, I see that the shirt is now rapidly getting soaked. Crap. Can't let someone else die...
"Lemme help you," Barret gets the other side.
Both of us kind of have to duck to help him walk, Barret especially, who's practically a whole foot taller. We manage to make it to the landed ship, Tifa getting in front to open the door for us. Two chatting people look up, as well as the silent person. Shera's eyes grow wide and she stands quickly, along with Yuffie, to get to Cid.
"Oh my God," she gasps, covering her mouth. Seeing Cloud just makes my gut feel worse, so I busy myself with listening to Yuffie's rambling.
"Just get him to the infirmary. Then I can stitch him up... No, I might have to use Cure too, maybe even... No, that wouldn't work either. Hmm..." Barret releases the pilot and let's me help him into the room on my own.
"Gosh dang hurts," he mumbles, closing his eyes.
"He'll be fine," Tifa is reassuring Shera when I get back out. "Yuffie's good at what she does."
"I know, I just..." She sighs, pushing her brown bangs out of her face. "I don't know. I hate it when he gets hurt like that."
"Don't we all," wine colored eyes meet mine. Great. Now I get lectured. But instead she just hugs me tightly around the waist, leaving me to shrug at the mechanic's confused face.
"Sorry," I say into her ear lowly before she lets go.
"Don't be. I wasn't thinking about how you might've felt about the situation," she shakes her head.
"Oh Tifa," I smile softly. "Always taking the blame." She smiles back and pulls my face down to hers briefly, lips brushing against mine.
"I wouldn't have to if you'd stop getting into trouble," she smirks. I laugh and kiss her.
"Yup, I'm such a trouble maker, Teef."
Somewhere during our embrace, Shera left. Probably to go see Cid. I feel bad for the guy, he didn't deserve that... Okay, maybe he deserved it for picking a fight with Sephiroth, but he should be okay. A lot of us has survived that sword. Me, Tifa, especially Cloud... Cloud. How are we gonna tell him?
'Oh hey Cloud, as it turns out, Sephiroth won't be gone forever until you die because you're the only person left on the planet with freaking S-cells in your body! And by the way, have an amazing day.'
I just don't see that turning out very well. Do you?
"What are we gonna tell Cloud?" I look down at Tifa.
"The truth," she says after a moment. "But I'm not sure how."
"Neither am I," I shake my head. "We should just make Cid do it."
"Wow, how considerate," she scoffs playfully, shoulder bumping me.
"I know, I'm such a great friend," I grin. It almost falls. I let all them die.
"Well let's go eat. I feel bad for being hungry after seeing all that, but I am."
"I'm not," I sigh. "But I'll go with you."
"Good boy," she smiles and pats me head before taking my hand and pulling me behind her to the kitchen. "And remind me to tell Cid that we're going to Midgar for your cure next."
YUP. I KILLED VIOLET. DON'T KNOW WHY. BUT I WONDER WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO DEREK, WHO'S HER SON FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T REMEMBER. THE KID THAT PUNCHED VINCENT IN TIFA'S SELF DEFENSE CLASS(CHAPTER 2 FOR REFERENCE)?
V
O
T
E
⭐♥⭐♥⭐♥⭐♥⭐♥⭐♥⭐♥
PS- YUFFIE REVEALS HER SURPRISE FOR CLOUD NEXT CHAPTER ;) SORRY, WE'RE SKIPPING TIFA'S POV AGAIN.
DID I MENTION THAT I ALWAYS LIKED TIFA AND AERIS LESS THAN SEPHIROTH?
NOW THERE'S A FUN FACT FOR YA.