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Sink to the Bottom With You
Chapter Four
Missing Comrades
"You sent Yuffie to check on a boat? She's probably somewhere in that cave blowing chunks all over the
floor." Reno
Put your head on my
shoulder, baby
Things can't get
any worse
Night is getting
colder sometimes...
Life feels like
it's a curse
I can't carry these
sins on my back
Don't wanna carry any more
I'm gonna carry this train off the track
...Gonna swim to the ocean floor
"Swim"
Madonna
"Hey Tifa, you okay?"
Startled, Tifa Lockheart turned away from
the window of her bar to see the muscular form of Cloud Strife leaning against
the doorframe, his huge Ultima Weapon strapped to his back.
She gave him a weak smile. "I'm alright, Cloud. Did you and Barret find anything in Junon?"
He shook his head and ran a gloved hand
through his wild blond spikes, looking just as troubled as she was
feeling. "Nothing at all," he said
glumly. "I practically interrogated
everyone in town and no one has seen anyone matching the description of either
Reeve or the Running Man." He sighed
and unstrapped the Ultima Weapon, leaving it on a table nearby.
"I really thought I would find some trace of
them in Junon," he said dismally, stretching in such a way that Tifa's
attention was drawn to the way the muscles of his bare shoulders bunched and
flexed. In her opinion, Cloud was the
exemplar of male beauty. Big Mako blue
eyes. Wild yet soft blond hair. Short, cute nose. A mouth that could smile more easily than frown. A body of composed of steel muscles
underneath smooth skin. The man of her
dreams, but that was the kicker. Of
her dreams. If only she could just
work up the courage to say the words, then her dream could become a reality...if
he was willing to meet her halfway.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts
away and found Cloud staring at her strangely.
"You okay, Tif?" he asked, concern evident in his blue eyes.
She nodded quickly. "Yes, of course." He didn't look convinced, but she rushed on. "How did you get back so soon? Junon is quite a ways off. I thought you were going to stay the night?"
Cloud shrugged and walked to stand next to
her at the window, his brown boots thudding loudly against the wooden
floor. "The Turks came by in their
chopper and saw me and Barret traveling so they decided to give us a lift."
Tifa allowed herself a small smile. "I know.
The chopper landed a few minutes ago.
Nearly took down two houses with it, too."
Cloud grinned. "Yeah, Reno was flying it even though I specifically told him to
let Rude do it. But he said that if I
had a problem with it then my ass could walk all the way home."
Tifa laughed softly. "That's our Reno." She looked out the window, her smile fading. "Storm's coming. Good thing you didn't walk home."
Cloud glanced at the beautiful young woman
at his side, wondering what could be bothering her. Her wine-colored eyes were worried and distant. She fiddled nervously with a lock of
chocolate brown hair, the corners of her mouth turned down slightly. It concerned him to see her like this. Tifa was always full of light and laughter,
his one and only hope when all the odds seemed against him and the world was
falling down around his ears. She was
his stable one, his constant, the one thing that he could always hold onto, no
matter what the circumstances. God, how
he loved her. If only he could find the
words to say it...
"Tifa?" he said softly. "What's wrong?"
She carefully avoided his gaze, knowing that
she could easily fall into the depth of those beautiful Mako blue eyes, lakes
she could bare her soul to and drown all her sorrow in. "Nothing's wrong, Cloud," she said
reassuringly, forcing a smile for his sake.
"I'm just worried for Reeve and all..."
Cloud leaned closer to her, trying to get
her to look him in the eye. "I know
there's something else," he said softly.
"I'm not moving from this spot until you tell me what it is." He grinned suddenly. "And you know what a stubborn ass I can be."
Tifa couldn't resist smiling back, as powerless
to his smile as she was to his blue eyes.
But her smile quickly faded as she lowered her head and said quietly, "I
was calling up everyone on the PHS to see how they were doing."
Cloud raised an eyebrow, not
comprehending. "And?" he prompted gently.
"I couldn't raise Vincent or Yuffie," she
whispered, her throat suddenly thick with emotion. "Not a dial tone or anything.
Just utter silence. I have a bad
feeling about this, Cloud. What if
something happened to them?"
He put an arm around her shoulders, peering
into her worried face. "I'm sure
they're fine, Tifa. I sent them to
investigate that ghost ship off the shore of Midgar. They probably fell into the water and their PHS broke. Knowing Yuffie and those yellow sneakers of
hers, she probably slipped and pulled Vincent down with her. That's all.
You know that Vincent and Yuffie are harder to kill than that. Don't be so worrisome, woman, or you'll work
yourself into an early grave."
Tifa smiled at his poor attempt at
humor. "I know, but I just can't shake
the feeling that something's wrong. I'm
afraid they'll just disappear like Reeve..."
Cloud was about to say something comforting
when a loud clap of thunder drowned out his words. He looked at the window just in time to see a torrent of rain
slam against the glass, individual raindrops beating incessantly against the
opaque surface like demons begging to be let inside to work their ghastly
deeds.
"It's really coming down hard," he
commented.
Tifa leaned against his chest and said
softly, "That's another thing I'm thinking about. Vincent and Yuffie alone in that hidden cave with nothing but a
ghost ship to keep them company, watching the ocean outside the entrance,
watching the tall waves slam against the rocks as the rain starts to flood the
cave..."
She's really worried, Cloud realized. It isn't like her to worry this much. Something has to be wrong. She must sense something that the rest of us
don't.
He knew from experience that Tifa had
intuitive instincts to rival Vincent's.
That's probably why she was able to run bars successfully. She was an excellent judge of character and
was able to tell which costumers would cause trouble and which ones
wouldn't. Not just anyone could do
that. It also took a lot to worry his
childhood friend; she usually left the brooding to Cloud, Vincent and Red and
focused on keeping the team's spirit up.
When Tifa got overly preoccupied about something that he wasn't even
considering a problem yet, that was usually Cloud's cue to start worrying too.
He tightened his grip on her shoulders and
said soothingly, "Don't worry about Vincent and Yuffie. As soon as the rain lets up, I'll take the
Tiny Bronco away from Cid and go investigate the cave myself. Everything's going to be okay, Tifa."
She lifted her face and finally met his
eyes, and when Cloud saw the hope fluttering with its fragile wings in those
burgundy orbs, he felt a warmth in a section of his heart that he didn't even
know existed. He leaned down and pressed
a gentle kiss into her hair, breathing in the deep scent of her shampoo as well
as her own personal feminine scent.
Tifa sighed contentedly and pressed her face
against the warm flesh of Cloud's neck, feeling that sense of hope and inner
peace return as she rested in the circle of his arm. God, could he even conceive of how much she loved him? Without him near her, close to her, she
would just...die. She inhaled deeply,
taking in the scent of him that she loved.
For some reason, Cloud always smelled of some sort of candy. Very fresh-smelling. Peppermint, maybe.
Outside, thunder crashed with a horrendous
cry that rivaled the screams of the Planet.
Both Tifa and Cloud jumped slightly, pulling away from each other like
two teenagers caught using the school's broom closet for a make-out room. Lightening flashed erratically outside the
window, illuminating the room with its blinding light. They could see the ocean beyond Kalm
churning almost angrily, waves rising and falling like gypsy dancers. The whole picture made for very
disconcerting scenery, and for some reason almost crushed the fluttering hope
where it struggled to remain aloft.
Finally, Cloud tugged gently on Tifa's arm,
"C'mon. The others are all here. Maybe they've heard something from Yuffie
and Vincent."
Mutely, Tifa nodded and cast one last
fearful glance at the raging storm outside before following him out the door
and into the main room of the bar.
She'd closed down her business temporarily so that it could serve as a
sort of base of operations. They
usually used Reeve's office for such a purpose, but no one felt comfortable
anywhere in the Neo-Shinra building for the time being. Tifa and Cloud had readily volunteered the
Final Heaven bar, letting their friends, old and new, eat their food and drink
as much as they wanted.
When she and Cloud entered the main room
where the others were sitting around idly, Reno, who was in hog heaven with a
beer in his hand and more lined up on the bar waiting for him, immediately
grinned and slung an arm around Tifa's slender shoulders, making a point to
ignore the fierce glare he received from Cloud.
"Hey, babe," he greeted. "Miss me while I was away?"
Tifa was about to open her mouth to snap at
him when Rude said, "Leave her alone, Reno.
You're making Cloud angry."
"Yeah Reno," Elena echoed from her place at
the bar next to Rude where she sat sipping from a Coke can. "Though it would be fun to watch her kick
your ass...again."
Reno scowled as Tifa and Cloud walked away
from him and sat down at one of the tables across from Barret. "Some friends you guys are," the redheaded
Turk grumbled. "Just for that I'm not
going to sit next to you."
Elena rolled her brown eyes. "Oh woe is we. Whatever will we do, Rude?"
"I've got dibs on his beer," Rude commented,
a rare spark of humor in his deep, level voice.
Reno's amazing aquamarine eyes narrowed, but
he kept his mouth smartly shut and plopped down in a nearby chair, taking a
sullen swing from his beer.
The door suddenly burst open and Cid ran in,
his flight jacket soaked to an even deeper shade of blue and his goggles
splattered with raindrops.
"Hot damn!" he exclaimed, shaking his head
like a dog and sending water flying everywhere. "It's rainin' cats and dogs out there!"
"Watch where you shake dat water, foo!"
Barret exclaimed in annoyance, putting one large hand in front of his face to
deflect the shower of flying water droplets.
"You gettin' Tifa's floor all wet and soggy!"
Cid cast a guilty glance at Tifa and shoved
his hands in his pockets. "It was wet
anyways," he grumbled, the "Cid" version of an apology.
Tifa waved her hand dismissively. "That's okay, Cid. Cloud will mop it up later."
Cloud's mouth dropped open in such a comical
expression of indignation that she laughed and poked him in his belly as
snickers spread across the room.
Cid, secretly relieved that he had been
forgiven, strode across the room and flopped into a chair, immediately lighting
up a cigarette and sending a long column of smoke spiraling towards the
ceiling.
"Good lord," he said with relief. "It's a damn good thing these suckers didn't
get wet. Don't know what I would have
done without 'em. Let me tell ya, an
entire day flying the Highwind by yourself with barely any time to scratch much
less take a break to smoke is the worst kind of hell."
"Did you find anything?" Tifa asked
hopefully.
Cid shook his head glumly. "Not a damn thing."
"Not even in Costa del Sol?" Red asked from
his place on the floor at Reno's feet.
The pilot made a mean face at the soon-to-be
Guardian of Cosmo Canyon. "I told ya, I
didn't see shit. I even got off and
asked everyone there if they had seen the Running Man or Cat, but no one had
seen a thing."
"Same thing at Junon," Barret added
grumpily, apparently angry that he and Cloud's long and hard search had come up
with nothing. "I don't see how the
Running Man could have gotten himself and that damn cat across the other
continent without bein' seen in either Junon or Costa del Sol. It just don't make no sense."
"Remember, Barret," Red pointed out calmly,
his one good eye focused on the large man with a keen intelligence. "We are still not certain whether or not the
Running Man took Reeve to the other continent.
He could have disappeared somewhere in the ruins of Midgar for all we
know."
Tifa glanced at Rude with a flutter of hope
in her eyes. "Did you guys find
anything in Midgar?"
Rude looked at her, and though no one could
see his eyes through his dark sunglasses, they all got the impression that he
was reluctant to disappoint Tifa. "No,"
he said after a brief pause.
Tifa's face fell.
"But there's still a lot more area to
search," he said quickly. "There are a
dozen places he could hide. We're not
giving up."
Reno snorted, the effects of the alcohol
already beginning to take its toll.
"Rude, we searched that place high and low. Even our resident bloodhound couldn't find anything."
Red stared up at Reno impassively. "It's true that I could detect no scent
outside of Reeve's office, but I assure you that I am not entirely infallible."
"Is it possible that the Running Man could
have no scent?" Cloud asked.
Red hesitated, his face revealing none of
his inner thoughts, but his flame-tipped tail started to twitch faster, a sign
indicating that he was nervous. "I
suppose it is possible," he said uncertainly.
"However unlikely. Almost
everything has a scent. And if
something doesn't, you can be certain that it is not something that this Planet
meant to be in existence."
"Something out of nature," Reno mused, a
surprisingly deep thought for one so intoxicated and seemingly shallow.
Cloud rubbed his face with his gloved hands
and struggled to gather his thoughts. A
feeling of helplessness and worry for his missing comrades kept getting in the
way, but he asked Tifa, "Did you find out anything at the Chocobo Ranch? Unless the Running Man swam across the
ocean, he had to have taken either a gold chocobo or some kind of boat."
Tifa shook her head, long brown hair
shimmering in the lights. "Nothing,"
she said simply.
"Hey!" Barret suddenly exclaimed. "Cloud, didn't ya send Vincent and Yuffie to
see about some kind of boat?"
Cloud glanced at Tifa, and they exchanged a
fearful look. "Yes," he said
slowly. "There was an abandoned ship in
a hidden cavern in the mountains near Midgar.
I thought it to be a ghost ship, but I sent Vincent and Yuffie to check
just in case they might find something."
"You sent Yuffie to check on a boat?"
Reno asked incredulously. "She's
probably somewhere in that cave blowing chunks all over the floor."
"That's disgusting, Reno!" Elena exclaimed,
her pretty face twisted in revulsion.
"Reno just says things that suit his
nature," Red said flatly.
While Reno pondered dimly over whether or
not the red beast was insulting him, Cid glanced around the bar blankly.
"Hey!" he said. "Where the hell are Vince and the brat? They haven't come back yet?"
Tifa wrung her hands together. "No," she said quietly. "They haven't come back. I can't raise them on the PHS either."
"Maybe due to the storm," Rude said.
Cid snorted, blowing smoke out of his
nose. He shook his cigarette in Rude's
direction, ash drifting onto the tabletop.
"Not with the chips I installed, baldy!
No little shitstorm like this could mess up the reception on any of our
PHS thingies."
"None of you all have heard from them?"
Cloud asked, grabbing Tifa's hand and holding it tightly before she could start
chewing on her fingernails, a childhood habit that she sometimes, but rarely,
regressed to doing when she was nervous or incredibly worried.
Cid and Barret exchanged glances and shook
their heads. Red, Rude and Elena also
made negative gestures. Reno just
burped loudly, and Cloud interpreted that as a "no."
Barret suddenly pounded the table with his
gun arm, upsetting a couple of empty bottles.
"Goddamn!" he cursed. "Now
they're missin'! We gotta go afta
them!"
Cloud shook his head adamantly, sending
Barret a stern glance. "Vincent and
Yuffie are fine," he insisted pointedly, not wanting to make Tifa any
more worried than she already was.
"They're probably just trapped in the cave by the storm."
"And what we gonna do?" Barret demanded, not
getting the message. "Jes leave 'em in
there?! I don't think so, Spike!"
"I think they'll be fine," Rude suddenly
said calmly.
"Yeah," Elena chimed in. "Vincent used to be a Turk."
"And?" Barret snapped. "That somethin' to be proud of?"
Elena scowled at him. "Better a Turk than a terrorist."
"Okay, okay," Cloud interrupted, sensing an
impending fight. "You guys quit
arguing. We're going to check on them
once the storm let's up."
"But they might not be there when the damn
storm lets up!" Barret said angrily.
Cid sent a stream of smoke in his friend's
direction. "Just calm your ass down,"
he snapped. "Vince knows what to do in
all kinds of situations. Don't know
about Yuffie, but I'm sure Vince will be able to take care of her."
"Besides," Elena spoke up, apparently trying
to optimistic, a rare trait in a Turk.
"Can't Vincent just morph Chaos and fly them out of there?"
Reno laughed. "Yuffie gets airsick, too.
I'm sure Vincent doesn't want puke on his lovely purple hide."
"Would you quit it with the stuff about
vomit!" Elena snapped. Reno only
laughed.
"Hey, Cloud," Cid asked curiously. "Why did you stick Vincent and Yuffie
together in the first place? You know
that they both work better by themselves.
Yuffie's probably buggin' the living crap out of Vince as we speak."
"I think they complement each other nicely,"
Cloud responded, a bit testy from having one of his decisions, albeit a
relatively minor one, called into question.
"Vincent keeps Yuffie in line, and Yuffie keeps Vincent from getting a
little too...detached and callous towards the situation." He suddenly grinned. "Besides, guys, admit it, Vincent is the
only one Yuffie can't steal anything from.
He's too watchful to fall for her tricks."
"But shouldn't they be back by now?" Tifa
fretted. "The cave wasn't that far
away. If Cid said that the storm can't
interfere with the PHS, then something must have happened to them."
"Maybe they found what they were looking
for...or it found them," Reno suddenly said, looking into his almost empty beer
bottle thoughtfully as if he could see all the secrets of the world in the
swirling brown liquid.
"The hell you talkin' 'bout, Carrot Top?"
Barret demanded in annoyance.
Reno shrugged. "Maybe they found the Running Man...or the Running Man found them."
Silence fell. The only sounds were the raining beating against the building and
the thunder rolling angrily across the countryside, the dark forces of nature
trying to find a way into the bar.
Smoke from Cid's cigarette was gathered around the ceiling, the overhead
lights mingling with the misty particles and giving the entire room an eerie,
ghostly look. No one dared to speak.
Then Tifa said softly, "I hope they're
alright."
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