Chapter 56 - The Group's Newest Members
‘Must you play such a ridiculous thing’ Chaos asks Vincent from the darkest reaches of his mind. Vincent doesn’t reply to Chaos, he just continues to play a soft tune on the guitar he found in Corel. He’s up on the highest part of Cosmos Canyon, the observatory, where no one will be able to hear him play. For some reason, Vincent has felt that something is about to happen, something they won’t be able to stop. Being an ex-Turk he usually gets these sort of premonitions, or gut feelings. It felt as if his mind was being twisted in all sorts of directions for a while. The soft tune of the guitar he’s playing seem to call not only himself but the demons in his head as well. Except for Chaos, the demon seems more annoyed then calm, Vincent doesn’t care though, he considers this payback for all the times the demon has annoyed him to no end.
Just plucking a few of the cords on the guitar brings back memories of when he was younger. When he was a shameless child out to fulfill his wildest dreams. To become a Turk, work for Shin-Ra and make the world a better place. When he was a child his father would tell him stories of the Turks. When Vincent finally fulfilled his dreams in becoming a Turk, he learn those stories where false. The stories he heard made the Turks sound like heroes. Be part of the Turks is the dirtiest job you can get, hiding Shin-Ra’s most darkest little secrets, murdering innocent people, forcing men to join SOLDIER who showed potential. At one time Vincent didn’t care what he was doing, or what he was becoming, he didn’t care that he was turning into a cold blooded murder. Then everything changed when he went to Nibelheim on that fateful day, so many years ago. That time in his life made all his beliefs change. Although in doing so he became a human experiment for the insane scientist, good did come out of it, he learned the most important lesson of all, life is precious.
Vincent sighs as he stops playing the guitar, the memories almost instantly disappear from his mind. He’s been doing this a lot lately, thinking about his past, not just about Lucrecia, he’s been thinking more about his childhood more then anything else for some strange reason. Although he didn’t have the best childhood a child could have, his parents were loving people. Is it perhaps now, after so many years, that he’s beginning to miss his parents? He’s a grown man, he doesn’t need his parents to look after him anymore. Besides, they’re dead, long gone. They died while he slept in that wretched coffin for thirty years. Vincent knows that there’s no use dwelling about the past, what’s past is past, it’ll never come back. Yet he can’t help but think about his entire life up until this point, the good memories are a welcoming, but the bad he’d rather not think about.
Vincent rubs his temples fighting off a headache. ‘What is the cause of these memories? I don’t wish to see them.’ Does this have something to do with his premonition to upcoming danger? What could all of this mean? Perhaps fate is trying to tell him something. Vincent doubts it, he never was a religious man, the words fate and destiny mean nothing to him. What Vincent needs right now is a nice hard drink, something to drown out his nerves. He hasn’t had a drink in a long time. Perhaps it’s time to start enjoying the simple things in life again, like alcohol.
Vincent stands up from his crouched position. the guitar in his right hand. He gazes at the guitar for a moment, his crimson eyes trace the grains of the would on the guitar. Just looking at the guitar makes him recall memories of when he was younger, sitting out on his porch playing the guitar. It’s time to put the memories to rest, he can’t be distracted by them any longer. Placing the guitar on the ground, Vincent turns around and heads over to the ladder, leaving the guitar and his memories behind.
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Feet are dragged against the canyon ground as Cloud wonders aimlessly through the town. As hard as he tried, Cloud just couldn’t get to sleep tonight. So now he’s just walking about as he waits for Jessie to finish modifying is Ultimate Weapon. Luckily the mechanical genesis wasn’t sleeping. He ran into her when he walked out of his room. They sat down in the pub talking for a bit then Jessie offered to modify his weapon. He agreed and left it in her care.
Now all he’s been doing is walking around in boredom, mostly thinking about a few things. Vain, the group, mostly about Yuffie though. He has to admit, everything seems a bit awkward between them now. Maybe its because neither of them have really come out and admitted their feelings for the other. Sure they had kissed in Wutai but they didn’t really tell each other how they felt. Cloud knows exactly why neither of them have either. Both of them are too stubborn. Cloud is the first to admit that he’s stubborn, and prideful. He holds onto pride too much, probably because he never had much pride when he was younger, only shame.
He’ll have to swallow his pride though so he can clear things up between him and Yuffie. No doubt that the materia huntress is probably feeling as awkward as him right now. Perhaps he should clear things up with her now. But that would mean waking her up in the middle of the night, which can be a very dangerous thing. Yuffie hates be woken up from her sleep. A shudder travels down Cloud’s spine at the memory of the last time someone woke her up. As tough as Barret was, Yuffie had him running for his life. She chased him right out of her tent, shuriken raised over her head as she shouted bloody murder at him. It was quite a hilarious sight to see a grown man being chased away by a sixteen year old.
Nevertheless, Cloud can’t take it anymore, he’ll have to wake her up and pray that she won’t chase him across Cosmos Canyon with her Conformer. Of Coarse he could just wait until tomorrow when she’s awake, and not risk injury from the ninja. Cloud stops walking and sighs, his shoulders slouching a bit, ’I can’t believe I’m afraid of a woman.’ Cloud thinks to himself. A light tapping on his right shoulder gets the swordsman’s attention. Cloud straightens up and tuns around to see the object of his thoughts standing behind him, looking rather nervous or shy, Cloud isn’t sure. Cloud gives one of his half grins as a greeting, “Yuffie? What are you doing up so late? Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Cloud teases.
Yuffie keeps her gaze directed to the ground as she twiddles her thumbs in front of her, “Alright look...” Yuffie starts, never lifting her gaze up to meets Cloud’s, “I’m tired of the tension between us. It’s not the same anymore.”
“Yuffie I..” Cloud starts.
“No don’t speak.” Yuffie says quickly. “I don’t want to lose my nerve ok. I need to come clean about something.” Cloud blinks a bit as he waits for the female ninja to finish. Yuffie can feel the heat rising to her cheeks as she tries to voice out her confession, ’GAWD Jus say it stupid!’ She yells at herself. “Cloud.. I l-l..like you.” Yuffie smacks her forehead, “GAWD! That’s so pathetic! I can’t even say it!”
Cloud stares at Yuffie for a moment before he bursts out laughing. Yuffie’s eye twitches as her face turns bright red, she can’t decide if it’s from anger or embarrassment, she decides that it’s a mixture of both. Yuffie places her fists on her hips and glares at the spiky headed swordsman, “What the hell are you laughing at!” She demands.
Cloud takes a couple of quick breath before choking out, “You..” Then he starts laughing again. ’Oh man... I must seem like an ass right now, but I can’t help it. I mean if Yuffie is struggling this hard to come clean with her feelings, I wonder what I would of looked like knocking on her door then stuttering like an idiot. And here I was about to go off and do it too.’
“Great! Jus Great!” Yuffie exclaims throwing her arms up in frustration, “Here I was trying to pour my heart out to you and you go out and laugh at me. Cloud... you’re an ass.”
Cloud keeps laughing, “Yea... well this is the ass you fell in love with!” Cloud says.
Yuffie’s face heats up in embarrassment, her cheeks puff out as she tries to make some sort of comeback, “Yea... so... you feel in love with a brat!” Yuffie exclaims.
“So what if I did?” Cloud asks, finally calming down. He straightens up and grins at Yuffie. His grin drops as they both realize the same thing, ‘Did we just confess our feelings?’ Cloud scratches the back of his head and grins a bit, “Wow...that was easier then I thought it’d be.” Cloud chuckles a bit.
Yuffie surprises Cloud when she jumps over to him and kisses him. The surprise is short lived however before Cloud returns it, wrapping his arms around the ninja’s waist and pulling her closer. Yuffie’s arms snake their way around Cloud’s neck as she tilts her head a bit to the side, deepen the kiss.
“Well this isn’t what I expected to see when we came here.” A cocky male voice says behind them, making the two jump away from each other in surprise.
“Reno.. Quit being an ass.” Elena says walking up to his side at the entrance of Cosmos Canyon. The blonde Turk stifles a giggle at the two red faced warriors.
Reno smirks a bit walking up to Cloud, “Well, well, well Strife. Long time no see.” He turns his head to the side to give a quick look at Yuffie. He turns back to Cloud, his smirk widening, “I see you’ve been busy.” Reno comments before laughing.
Elena sighs a bit shaking her head. She gives the two warriors a friendly smile, “Sorry if we interrupted anything.”
“Damn right you should be sorry!” Yuffie snaps before she can stop herself. Her face turns red in embarrassment when the three turn to look at her, “I mean... hi guys! What are ya doing here?”
“We could ask you the same thing but it’s fairy obvious what you two were going to do?” Reno laughs at his own joke.
Cloud groans a bit getting annoyed by the Turk, “Seriously, what are you guys doing here?” Cloud looks around and notices for the first time that someone is missing in their little merry group, “And where’s Rude?” He asks.
Reno’s face goes stone cold, Yuffie lowers her head remembering what happened to their friend. Reno narrows his turquoise eyes, “Rude’s gone. As for why we are here, we got tired of your slow ass to call us. We figured you’d be here.”
“Huh?” Cloud says in confusion.
“We told Yuffie to have you call us when you found out Vain’s whereabouts so we can fight him for Rude...” Elena says pausing a moment, “After waiting for awhile, we decided to join up with you instead of waiting. We figured this would be the best place to find you.”
Cloud blinks a bit in thought as he takes all this in, “Whoa.. wait a minute... you guys.” He glances back between both of them, “Want to join AVALANCHE?”
“Hell no!” Reno immediately snaps, “Turks are always Turks. We ain’t joining no measly little group of yours. Consider this as us temporarily working for you. This ain’t gonna be no damn permanent thing. We’re just here until we kill that bastard Vain.”
Cloud shrugs a bit, “Ok then.” Cloud grins a bit, “Welcome to AVALANCHE.”
“But we don’t know where Vain is right now.” Yuffie immediately cuts in.
“But I do...” The group turns around to face the newcomer.
“Zack? When did you get here?” Cloud asks surprised.
Zack reaches the top of the stairs, a grin pasted on his face, “Just a few minutes ago. Cloud, gather everyone up, I know where Vain is...”