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FF7 - Restore - beginning of chapter 3
unbetaed so plz help? sleep has vainquished me so the scene isn't done, woe and misery. but finally!!! i managed to write past this. it only took me three tries and about twenty pages of writing to trash and start again. ~__~
... my aeris and tifa voices really need some work.
Chapter Archive.
All the way home, Cloud had been thinking about who should get to Tifa first -- who would explain things to her, so she wouldn't hurt, wouldn't cry.
He should have thought, he acknowledged wryly, of what he'd do when she failed to stay at the bar like a sitting duck when she knew they had a potential enemy in town. Tifa liked to think the best of people -- she thought the best of every single of her customers, even the creepy drunks. But she still bartended with a shotgun under the sink.
And the narrow street was perfect for an ambush.
A crack of thunder erupted in the street, rattling the windows. Cloud had a barrier up to deflect the blast almost instantly. Not instantly enough; his body seized briefly, electricity crawling over his arms.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Sephiroth dodging to the side -- but the lightning strike caught his leg, throwing him to the ground and making his body arch with the shock. Zack had hit the ground in the other direction, tackling Aeris; Cloud cast a magic-repelling shield over the two of them first, and scanned the roofs wildly to find the assailant.
"Tifa!"
She didn't answer, except in the form of a second blast at Sephiroth. Cloud would have loved nothing more than to let it hit; but he'd all but given his word to protect the man as long as he couldn't protect himself, and he didn't want to test how long Sephiroth's promise not to counterattack would hold in the face of a determined enemy. He jumped in front of the silver-haired man, his sword up in an overhead block, still crackling with electricity.
"Tifa!"
There she was, behind that chimney, looking tense and determined in the fading lights of her spell. She was staring at Sephiroth. From where she was, she couldn't see Zack, and Cloud saw him straighten up and do a hand signal Cloud hadn't seen in years, but that he still remembered. 'Sneak behind the enemy.'
"Zack, no," he snapped, hands still holding up the sword to attract any other lightning attack. Zack was a SOLDIER, yes. He was also weaponless. Tifa was a hand-to-hand specialist who could punch holes through concrete, and she has Materia equipped on top of that. If he pounced on Tifa, even if he just tried to pin her, things would get nasty.
Well, nastier, he amended as he threw up another shield to block a sudden gust of fire that blackened the road all around. Sephiroth had moved to stand barely two feet behind him, and it made his spine crawl.
"Tifa, damn it, stop a minute!"
Once again, she didn't answer. Cloud sighed in frustration.
"I know it looks bad, but --"
"It looks like you got possessed again," she retorted tightly.
Cloud made a show of tilting his blade down toward the ground, away from her. "If I am, I can't tell," he replied honestly. Behind him, Sephiroth snorted, and he resisted the urge to throw him a warning glare.
"He's standing behind you!"
The urgency in her voice actually made Cloud turn around halfway, expecting to see Sephiroth about to skewer him with the Masamune. The man was still standing there, barely two steps behind, but his hands were still empty, and now his arms were crossed as he gave Tifa a narrow-eyed weighing look. Cloud realized she'd probably hoped Sephiroth had messed with his mind so he wouldn't notice him.
"... I know. Tifa--" Cloud fell silent, not knowing what to do. How was he ever going to get her off this roof? Sephiroth had murdered her father, for god's sake, and destroyed their hometown and messed with Cloud's mind until he would have killed all his friends and not even noticed. How was he to get her to trust his word, when the man was standing there, clearly under Cloud's protection?
"... Tifa," Aeris called softly as she stepped away from the wall and looked up at the roof overhead.
Tifa froze; even from the middle of the street, Cloud saw her skin go pale and her eyes go painfully wide. For the longest time, there was silence; and out of sight, Zack sighed and mouthed a 'thank you' to the skies.
"... Aeris...?"
Neck craned to look up, Aeris gave her a gentle, slightly rueful smile. "Yes. Ah... It's a long story. Would you be willing to listen to it? I suppose you won't come down, but I could climb up --"
"Aeris -- if you're really Aeris," Tifa corrected herself, with a voice that barely trembled. "If you're really Aeris, you will go to the bar at the end of the street, and call the first three numbers on the emergency contact list. And then you will hide. I'll stop them."
"Tifa, no!" Aeris protested. Cloud really wasn't so surprised.
"I'll stop them!" she repeated stubbornly, her furious eyes still fixed on Sephiroth's face. Cloud thought they might have been a little too bright, glistening a little too much. "I'll stop them, I won't let him kill you again. I won't. I promise, I promise I'll save you this time so just go and hide already!"
Tifa's chest heaved as she took in a deep, shuddering breath; her clenched fists didn't tremble. She moved to the edge of the roof, spared a quick glance for Zack; she clearly hadn't forgotten his presence, but her main target was still Sephiroth, and Cloud by association. Cloud was kind of proud, in a 'how the hell am I going to keep this from degenerating' way.
And then one of the thick metal blinds on the house she was facing was thrown open so hard it bounced, and Cloud and Sephiroth were getting targeted by a shotgun held by an old, squinting neighbor.
"What the hell is going on! Bandits again?"
Cloud swore, and swirled to place himself and his sword between Sephiroth and the bullets headed their way.
"We done told you we weren't gonna let you get our town!" the old man yelled furiously, shooting again. "You go and fry 'em good, miss Lockhart!"
All around them, drawing courage from the old man's stance -- and from not being the first to peer out -- a few more windows were opening, more voices wondering what was happening in the street in the middle of the night. Damn it, damn it. Cloud knew for a fact that no Midgar's Edge home was complete without a weapon rack or two.
"Mister Zeller!" he called, blocking another bullet with the flat of his sword. "It's Cloud Strife -- damn it!" A strong hand caught his upper arm and jerked him aside as someone else shot a handgun at them; the bullet whizzed past his temple. He shook himself free, glared quickly at Sephiroth, who wasn't even looking at him -- the man stood with his side to Cloud, in a low, ready crouch -- with his long silver hair trailing all over the place, tinted yellow by the lampposts.
Strange clothes and awkward light aside, Cloud was pretty sure there would be some people who would recognize the subject of so many a motivational poster, back around the time of the Wutai war. No more time to dither.
He didn't know who had noticed the old truck parked on the sidewalk some twenty feet away first, he or Sephiroth; but they dashed toward it in unison, Cloud swinging his sword overhead to shield them both. They ducked behind the truck, which shook under an impact. A woman screamed overhead. "My truck! That's it, Zeller, this is war!"
There were more insults, more demands to know what the hell was going on; Tifa tried to get people to go back inside their houses, but they weren't listening. Cloud made himself as small as possible behind the truck, scanning the house in front of them suspiciously. From the angle of the windows, it wasn't totally impossible they'd be shot from above, but it would be difficult.
"Well," Sephiroth commented with biting sarcasm. "This is entertaining."
Cloud threw him an irritated glare. "It's going to be even funnier if they recognize you. Do something with your hair."
Sephiroth arched an eyebrow, but obeyed, tying the mass into a knot at the base of his neck. Cloud didn't even want to know how he managed to keep it looking smooth and well-combed when they were in the middle of a shooting. Though at least the old man had stopped. He was probably reloading, Cloud thought tiredly.
"May I please come out now?" he called; he got a startled shriek and some woman throwing a -- thankfully rather weak -- Ice spell at his head. Sighing, he sat behind the truck again, giving his frosted hair spikes an exhausted look.
"He's your neighbor, you blind old bats!" From behind a dumpster, Zack shook his fist at the people at their windows. "He's Cloud Strife, damn it, do you know anyone else who lugs around huge swords like that?"
Apart from Zack himself? Behind Cloud, Sephiroth snorted quietly, and Cloud felt a second of unease, wondering if they'd had the same thought.
"... Mister Strife? 'zat you?"
"Yes," he called back, and waved from behind the truck's hood. "I'm sorry for the scare; there was a misunderstanding."
Tense, he waited for Tifa's scream of denial; there wasn't one. He pulled himself up and stepped out slowly, looking at his neighbors in turn.
"Sorry for the disturbance. Come by the bar tomorrow and have one on the house."
Aeris and Zack joined him in the middle of the street, and Sephiroth slowly followed, giving the people at the windows long measuring looks. Cloud didn't like it much, a part of him wondering if Sephiroth was memorizing their faces for his next killing spree, but it wasn't like he could order him to keep his eyes on the ground. He nodded politely at the onlookers, wished them goodnight, and started toward the bar before they could ask for details, swinging his sword back in its sheath.
The whole time he kept expecting another thunder strike, but when they reached the bar there was still no sign of Tifa. There hadn't been any since she'd tried to yell the watchers back in their homes, actually. The bar was closed and empty, and when he peered inside he couldn't even see Denzel waiting up. But then if Tifa had had enough foresight to wait for them away from where they thought she was going to be, Cloud was pretty sure she would have sent Denzel to sleep over at some neighbor's where he couldn't be found.
He left the rest of the floor in darkness, only turned on one light by the bar, knowing Tifa would see them through the large windows, if she was still out there. "Seventh Heaven the third," he commented to Zack, who was looking around with interest.
"Nice place. All yours?"
"No, it's Tifa's. I just help out from time to time."
He gave Sephiroth a wary look, but the man seemed content to lean against a pillar and watch his surroundings, arms crossed over his bare chest.
Aeris sighed, and laughed a little, though she didn't seem very amused. "That was unexpected. Poor Tifa, she must have been so shocked."
Cloud remembered the raw intensity, the grim determination in Tifa's promise that she wouldn't let Aeris die again, and didn't feel all that amused either. When she learned that Aeris had brought her murderer back to life and didn't seem to care...
Zack gave Cloud a hopeful look. "Say, do you think she'd mind if..."
"Help yourself," Cloud replied, gingerly perching on one of the stools and turning so he would be able to keep an eye both on the dimly lit room and on the window to the street.
Zack ducked behind the bar and started rooting around. He gave a little "aha!" of triumph when he found the beer cans, and popped up over the counter. "Aeris, you want anything? Cloud? Seph?"
"Just water, please," Aeris replied. Sephiroth just shook his head imperceptibly.
"I'm fine," Cloud said, propping his sword up against the counter.. It was just too hard to still believe that Sephiroth would attack right now. He'd had access to Cloud's back too many times during the fight.
Chapter 3.2
... my aeris and tifa voices really need some work.
Chapter Archive.
All the way home, Cloud had been thinking about who should get to Tifa first -- who would explain things to her, so she wouldn't hurt, wouldn't cry.
He should have thought, he acknowledged wryly, of what he'd do when she failed to stay at the bar like a sitting duck when she knew they had a potential enemy in town. Tifa liked to think the best of people -- she thought the best of every single of her customers, even the creepy drunks. But she still bartended with a shotgun under the sink.
And the narrow street was perfect for an ambush.
A crack of thunder erupted in the street, rattling the windows. Cloud had a barrier up to deflect the blast almost instantly. Not instantly enough; his body seized briefly, electricity crawling over his arms.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Sephiroth dodging to the side -- but the lightning strike caught his leg, throwing him to the ground and making his body arch with the shock. Zack had hit the ground in the other direction, tackling Aeris; Cloud cast a magic-repelling shield over the two of them first, and scanned the roofs wildly to find the assailant.
"Tifa!"
She didn't answer, except in the form of a second blast at Sephiroth. Cloud would have loved nothing more than to let it hit; but he'd all but given his word to protect the man as long as he couldn't protect himself, and he didn't want to test how long Sephiroth's promise not to counterattack would hold in the face of a determined enemy. He jumped in front of the silver-haired man, his sword up in an overhead block, still crackling with electricity.
"Tifa!"
There she was, behind that chimney, looking tense and determined in the fading lights of her spell. She was staring at Sephiroth. From where she was, she couldn't see Zack, and Cloud saw him straighten up and do a hand signal Cloud hadn't seen in years, but that he still remembered. 'Sneak behind the enemy.'
"Zack, no," he snapped, hands still holding up the sword to attract any other lightning attack. Zack was a SOLDIER, yes. He was also weaponless. Tifa was a hand-to-hand specialist who could punch holes through concrete, and she has Materia equipped on top of that. If he pounced on Tifa, even if he just tried to pin her, things would get nasty.
Well, nastier, he amended as he threw up another shield to block a sudden gust of fire that blackened the road all around. Sephiroth had moved to stand barely two feet behind him, and it made his spine crawl.
"Tifa, damn it, stop a minute!"
Once again, she didn't answer. Cloud sighed in frustration.
"I know it looks bad, but --"
"It looks like you got possessed again," she retorted tightly.
Cloud made a show of tilting his blade down toward the ground, away from her. "If I am, I can't tell," he replied honestly. Behind him, Sephiroth snorted, and he resisted the urge to throw him a warning glare.
"He's standing behind you!"
The urgency in her voice actually made Cloud turn around halfway, expecting to see Sephiroth about to skewer him with the Masamune. The man was still standing there, barely two steps behind, but his hands were still empty, and now his arms were crossed as he gave Tifa a narrow-eyed weighing look. Cloud realized she'd probably hoped Sephiroth had messed with his mind so he wouldn't notice him.
"... I know. Tifa--" Cloud fell silent, not knowing what to do. How was he ever going to get her off this roof? Sephiroth had murdered her father, for god's sake, and destroyed their hometown and messed with Cloud's mind until he would have killed all his friends and not even noticed. How was he to get her to trust his word, when the man was standing there, clearly under Cloud's protection?
"... Tifa," Aeris called softly as she stepped away from the wall and looked up at the roof overhead.
Tifa froze; even from the middle of the street, Cloud saw her skin go pale and her eyes go painfully wide. For the longest time, there was silence; and out of sight, Zack sighed and mouthed a 'thank you' to the skies.
"... Aeris...?"
Neck craned to look up, Aeris gave her a gentle, slightly rueful smile. "Yes. Ah... It's a long story. Would you be willing to listen to it? I suppose you won't come down, but I could climb up --"
"Aeris -- if you're really Aeris," Tifa corrected herself, with a voice that barely trembled. "If you're really Aeris, you will go to the bar at the end of the street, and call the first three numbers on the emergency contact list. And then you will hide. I'll stop them."
"Tifa, no!" Aeris protested. Cloud really wasn't so surprised.
"I'll stop them!" she repeated stubbornly, her furious eyes still fixed on Sephiroth's face. Cloud thought they might have been a little too bright, glistening a little too much. "I'll stop them, I won't let him kill you again. I won't. I promise, I promise I'll save you this time so just go and hide already!"
Tifa's chest heaved as she took in a deep, shuddering breath; her clenched fists didn't tremble. She moved to the edge of the roof, spared a quick glance for Zack; she clearly hadn't forgotten his presence, but her main target was still Sephiroth, and Cloud by association. Cloud was kind of proud, in a 'how the hell am I going to keep this from degenerating' way.
And then one of the thick metal blinds on the house she was facing was thrown open so hard it bounced, and Cloud and Sephiroth were getting targeted by a shotgun held by an old, squinting neighbor.
"What the hell is going on! Bandits again?"
Cloud swore, and swirled to place himself and his sword between Sephiroth and the bullets headed their way.
"We done told you we weren't gonna let you get our town!" the old man yelled furiously, shooting again. "You go and fry 'em good, miss Lockhart!"
All around them, drawing courage from the old man's stance -- and from not being the first to peer out -- a few more windows were opening, more voices wondering what was happening in the street in the middle of the night. Damn it, damn it. Cloud knew for a fact that no Midgar's Edge home was complete without a weapon rack or two.
"Mister Zeller!" he called, blocking another bullet with the flat of his sword. "It's Cloud Strife -- damn it!" A strong hand caught his upper arm and jerked him aside as someone else shot a handgun at them; the bullet whizzed past his temple. He shook himself free, glared quickly at Sephiroth, who wasn't even looking at him -- the man stood with his side to Cloud, in a low, ready crouch -- with his long silver hair trailing all over the place, tinted yellow by the lampposts.
Strange clothes and awkward light aside, Cloud was pretty sure there would be some people who would recognize the subject of so many a motivational poster, back around the time of the Wutai war. No more time to dither.
He didn't know who had noticed the old truck parked on the sidewalk some twenty feet away first, he or Sephiroth; but they dashed toward it in unison, Cloud swinging his sword overhead to shield them both. They ducked behind the truck, which shook under an impact. A woman screamed overhead. "My truck! That's it, Zeller, this is war!"
There were more insults, more demands to know what the hell was going on; Tifa tried to get people to go back inside their houses, but they weren't listening. Cloud made himself as small as possible behind the truck, scanning the house in front of them suspiciously. From the angle of the windows, it wasn't totally impossible they'd be shot from above, but it would be difficult.
"Well," Sephiroth commented with biting sarcasm. "This is entertaining."
Cloud threw him an irritated glare. "It's going to be even funnier if they recognize you. Do something with your hair."
Sephiroth arched an eyebrow, but obeyed, tying the mass into a knot at the base of his neck. Cloud didn't even want to know how he managed to keep it looking smooth and well-combed when they were in the middle of a shooting. Though at least the old man had stopped. He was probably reloading, Cloud thought tiredly.
"May I please come out now?" he called; he got a startled shriek and some woman throwing a -- thankfully rather weak -- Ice spell at his head. Sighing, he sat behind the truck again, giving his frosted hair spikes an exhausted look.
"He's your neighbor, you blind old bats!" From behind a dumpster, Zack shook his fist at the people at their windows. "He's Cloud Strife, damn it, do you know anyone else who lugs around huge swords like that?"
Apart from Zack himself? Behind Cloud, Sephiroth snorted quietly, and Cloud felt a second of unease, wondering if they'd had the same thought.
"... Mister Strife? 'zat you?"
"Yes," he called back, and waved from behind the truck's hood. "I'm sorry for the scare; there was a misunderstanding."
Tense, he waited for Tifa's scream of denial; there wasn't one. He pulled himself up and stepped out slowly, looking at his neighbors in turn.
"Sorry for the disturbance. Come by the bar tomorrow and have one on the house."
Aeris and Zack joined him in the middle of the street, and Sephiroth slowly followed, giving the people at the windows long measuring looks. Cloud didn't like it much, a part of him wondering if Sephiroth was memorizing their faces for his next killing spree, but it wasn't like he could order him to keep his eyes on the ground. He nodded politely at the onlookers, wished them goodnight, and started toward the bar before they could ask for details, swinging his sword back in its sheath.
The whole time he kept expecting another thunder strike, but when they reached the bar there was still no sign of Tifa. There hadn't been any since she'd tried to yell the watchers back in their homes, actually. The bar was closed and empty, and when he peered inside he couldn't even see Denzel waiting up. But then if Tifa had had enough foresight to wait for them away from where they thought she was going to be, Cloud was pretty sure she would have sent Denzel to sleep over at some neighbor's where he couldn't be found.
He left the rest of the floor in darkness, only turned on one light by the bar, knowing Tifa would see them through the large windows, if she was still out there. "Seventh Heaven the third," he commented to Zack, who was looking around with interest.
"Nice place. All yours?"
"No, it's Tifa's. I just help out from time to time."
He gave Sephiroth a wary look, but the man seemed content to lean against a pillar and watch his surroundings, arms crossed over his bare chest.
Aeris sighed, and laughed a little, though she didn't seem very amused. "That was unexpected. Poor Tifa, she must have been so shocked."
Cloud remembered the raw intensity, the grim determination in Tifa's promise that she wouldn't let Aeris die again, and didn't feel all that amused either. When she learned that Aeris had brought her murderer back to life and didn't seem to care...
Zack gave Cloud a hopeful look. "Say, do you think she'd mind if..."
"Help yourself," Cloud replied, gingerly perching on one of the stools and turning so he would be able to keep an eye both on the dimly lit room and on the window to the street.
Zack ducked behind the bar and started rooting around. He gave a little "aha!" of triumph when he found the beer cans, and popped up over the counter. "Aeris, you want anything? Cloud? Seph?"
"Just water, please," Aeris replied. Sephiroth just shook his head imperceptibly.
"I'm fine," Cloud said, propping his sword up against the counter.. It was just too hard to still believe that Sephiroth would attack right now. He'd had access to Cloud's back too many times during the fight.
Chapter 3.2
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loved the fact that all the neighbours would help each other out! *thumbs up for them*
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The neighbors were so funny to write. XD;
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The only criticism I have to offer is that Tifa goes pale twice in a rather short amount of time. First she looks pale from because of the spell's lights, and a few lines later she goes pale after seeing Aeris. It just makes you trip up thinking how she could perceivably look any paler than before.
Other than that? Brilliant.
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--OOPS you're right. *fixies fixies* Thank you, dear.
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(Anonymous) 2007-12-03 08:20 am (UTC)(link)Cloud and Tifa sure did choose a nice neighborhood.
-- Guile
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It's a very villagey neighborhood in a way.
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*promises more ... eventually >.<*
...I hate RL. *;_;*
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Also, your rendition of a mini street war made me positively gleeful. I adored it.