Novelization: Advent Children
Chapter 3
A heavy wooden door swung open, creaking on its hinges. Tifa stood on the other side, gazing into the vast space beyond for a moment as Marlene pushed past her into the old church in Sector 5. Marlene ran down the church’s main aisle, smiling as she approached the patch of yellow and white flowers that grew up from beneath the broken floorboards. She crouched in front of them, inhaling their sweet scent. As she looked around the church, her eyes fell upon an assortment of camping gear. Tifa saw it as well.
“Does Cloud live here?” Marlene asked.
“I guess he does…” said Tifa. The two visitors strolled over to have a closer look. Marlene paused before a large box.
“What’s this?” she asked.
Tifa smiled and shook her head, as if to say that it was nothing for Marlene to concern herself with. Tifa’s gaze traveled to a patch of white on top of a crate that seemed to have been used as a makeshift table. As she moved close, she could see that it was a stained bandage. Marlene, too, approached the table, taking the strip of cloth into her hand.
“It’s just like Denzel…” she said with a note of concern, looking up at Tifa “Is Cloud sick?”
“Why didn’t he say something?” Tifa wondered.
“Did he leave because he’s sick?” asked Marlene.
“He just… wants to fight alone,” Tifa told herself.
“Fight?”
“No…” Tifa said, sadly, more to herself than to Marlene, as the reality sunk in, “I don’t think that he will…”
“Tifa?” Marlene queried, trying to recapture the woman’s attention. Tifa lowered herself down to Marlene’s level.
“Let’s go home, Marlene,” she said, forcing a smile. Marlene stormed away from her.
“We can’t! Cloud’s not here yet!” she shouted. Tifa, considered for a moment, then picked up the bandage from where Marlene had left it.
“I know sweetie,” she replied, walking back toward Marlene, “I miss him, too.”
“Yeah!” Marlene agreed.
“So… Say he comes back…” Tifa said, again crouching down so that she is eye to eye with the little girl.
“We’ll all go home together!” Marlene replied, firmly.
“But not until he gets a lecture,” Tifa declared.
“Agreed!” Marlene cried, happily.
*~*~*~*~*
Back at Healin Lodge, the Turks were on the receiving end of a rather effective beating. Both Reno and Rude lay groaning on the floor, in obvious pain. Rude struggled to get up, but he simply no longer had the strength for it, pushing himself up only briefly before collapsing once again. Reno lay on his side, one arm wrapped around his middle, gasping.
“I hate lairs, you know,” said their attacker as he strolled calmly toward Rufus, who sat in his wheelchair on the far side of the room. It was Kadaj.
“I apologize,” said Rufus, in as calm a voice as he could manage, “This time you’ll get the truth. The object you seek fell from the helicopter while we were running from you. I’m afraid we were careless.”
Until then, Kadaj had had his back to the crippled man, but now he turned ever so slightly toward him, still not entirely looking at Rufus.
“Is that so?” he said in measured tones.
“I swear it,” Rufus replied. Kadaj still did not look at him. Instead, he produced two cards from a hidden pocket.
“Fine. Then swear it on these,” he said, tossing them casually to the floor. They were Shinra staff ID cards… spattered with what could only be blood. The faces imprinted on the cards were all too familiar… Tseng and Elena. Rufus gazed down at them, his mouth set in a grim frown.
“Why did you do this?” he asked after a moment.
“We need Mother’s power,” Kadaj replied, simply, “We have to have it for the Reunion.”
The pupils of his catlike eyes contracted as he finally turned around to face Rufus.
“Reunion…” Rufus repeated, not certain he understood.
“My brother’s and sisters who share Mother’s cells will all assemble and together, we’ll take revenge on the planet,” explained Kadaj, laughing softly, as he raised his arms in a gesture of grandeur, “We’ve already sent out the invitations…”
The Turks still writhed on the floor, Reno now on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Rude had managed to raise himself onto his hands and knees, but only just. He lowered his forehead back down to the floor as if the effort of trying to force himself upright was too much for him.
“But you see,” continued Kadaj, smirking at the two fallen Turks with sadistic glee, “Someone’s hidden the guest of honor.”
“Invitations?” asked Rufus. Despite the danger, he was determined to get as much information out of Kadaj as he could.
“The ‘Stigma?” Kadaj pointed out, turning away from the Turks to look at Rufus again. He gaze fell upon Rufus’ hand, marred with the markings of the disease, and he added, with a sarcastic tone, “But you know all about that, don’t you, sir?”
Rufus said nothing to the baiting comment.
“Mother’s memetic legacy lives on in the Lifestream and makes it happen. She does so much for us,” said Kadaj, “And yet we… We don’t even know to find her!” he added, incredulously, as he began to pace, “But what can we do?”
“We’re just remnants… Merely remnants of Mother’s legacy,” he continued his tone becoming more and more maniacal, “Until we find Mother and receive her cells, we can’t be whole again. Geostigma and a legacy aren’t enough! Not for a true Reunion…”
“… what are you talking about?” asked Rufus, becoming gradually more and more unnerved as Kadaj grew more and more unbalanced. Kadaj smirked.
“Sir… Surely you’ve noticed…” he replied, taking a few steps toward him, before lowering himself to one knee, casting his gaze to the floor. When he looked up again, there was something in his eyes that wasn’t their before… something that Rufus recognized. Kadaj changed, momentarily becoming something entirely different. The partial transformation seemed to stir the planet’s notice as the whole room trembled, and Rufus knew that whatever suspicions he may have formed before now were undoubtedly confirmed.
*~*~*~*~*
Cloud, having returned to the cliff that overlooked the battleground where he’d first fought Yazoo and Loz, restored the sword to it’s former position. It was an old and worn, but familiar sword. One that once belonged to a friend. Cloud stepped back and looked at the blade.
“I said I’d live out both our lives” he said, quietly, “Easy to make that promise.”
In his mind, he relived days long past.
—–
“You wannabe in Soldier? Hang in there!” says a uniformed man with spiky black hair… Zack.
—–
“Hey, you doin’ ok?” Zack asks. He is looking down at Cloud now, concern etched on his features…
—–
And then they are in the bed of a yellow pickup truck. Zack is gazing at the blue sky above them as the truck rumbles along the road. “What are you gonna do when we get to Midgar?” he asks, conversationally, “We’re friends, right?”
—–
Sephiroth disappears into the flames as Nibelhiem burns…
—–
“Cloud, run!” Zack shouts.
—–
A vision of Kadaj at Healin Lodge also flashed before Cloud’s eyes, and Cloud suddenly dropped to his knees as pain assailed him again. He clutched at his arm, gasping at the intensity of it, fingers clawing into the dirt. More visions appeared, alternating between Kadaj and the more fearsome figure of his old enemy, Sephiroth.
*~*~*~*~*
Marlene hummed quietly to herself as she played in the little flower garden at the church. Tifa stood off to one side, watching her.
Without warning, the doors flew open, and both of them turned to look. Marlene rose, assuming that Cloud had returned and and began to run to greet him. But Tifa, sensing that something is not right, quickly stopped her.
A tall figure entered the church and strode down the aisle toward them, coming to a halt beneath a beam of sunlight that shone down through the broken roof.
“Wanna play?” Loz asked, extending his hand toward them. When neither Tifa nor Marlene responded, he sighed and lowered his hand, “I guess that’s a no. Ah well…”
He advanced on them, asking, “Where’s Mother?”
He looked down, finding that he was standing in the middle of the patch of flowers. Loz’s face contorted into a look of disgust as he raised a hand to his nose.
“Ugh… It stinks,” he said, sounding offended, “Where’s Mother?”
“There’s no one here!” Tifa quickly replied, shielding Marlene protectively.
“Fine… Play with me,” Loz said with a cruel grin. Tifa urged Marlene to take cover, and the little girl ran to the safety of a stone pillar. Loz watched her go without much interest.
Tifa pulled a pair of black gloves from her back pocket and put them on, raising her fists in a battle stance. Loz laughed, and mirrored the pose.
“Hmph… This’ll be fun!” he stated.
Tifa rushed forward scoring the first blow, as well as the second, sending Loz reeling back in surprise. She continued with a barrage of punches and kicks, driving the man back, ending with a painful kick to his head.
Loz, realizing he had underestimated his opponent somewhat, resorted to using the weapon mounted on his arm, delivering a shock that sent Tifa flying.
She recovered just in time, landing on her feet and skidding to a halt in the patch of flowers. Loz laughed again and and raised his weapon so she could see it, a smug grin on his face. Tifa flexed her hand as a residual charge from the weapon surged through her fingertips.
She charged forward again and tried to sweep his legs out from under him, but Loz easily avoided her attack. Tifa her second attempt was marginally better, this time slamming Loz into the wall, following it up with a kick to the chest, and finally a backflip that delivered another painful kick to the chin.
Loz recovered quickly, however, and glared at her, but Tifa wasn’t through with him. She aimed a punch at his face, but in one fluid movement, he captured her arm and retaliated with a kick that knocked her back several paces. He attacked with his weapon again, and Tifa had only seconds to duck. The tip of the weapon slammed into the wall, crackling with energy, and Tifa took the opportunity to punch Loz in the stomach. He flew backward as Tifa leapt on top of him, driving her feet hard into his chest, gripping the collar of his shirt with both hands and using her momentum to slam his head into the floor.
Loz grunted in pain, but still managed to catch Tifa by the ankle as she tried to leap away from him, and swung her in a wide arc. Her body made contact with several of the church pews as he did so. At last Loz released his grip, sending Tifa careening towards the far wall.
Tifa however, had no intention of going down so easily. She deftly caught herself, turning her body so that her feet planted themselves firmly on the wall, glowering at Loz, who was looking up at her smiling in amusement. Flower petals from the garden that were sent airborne by Tifa’s unexpected flight descended like snowfall.
Tifa pushed off the wall, catching Loz by the throat and knocking him to the floor. Her momentum carried them both down the church aisle. Loz freed himself and leapt into the air, intending to renew his attack, but Tifa was too fast. She, too, leapt, and caught him again, throwing him to the ground. Loz landed with a thud in a pile of demolished pews. There was no movement from the pile as Tifa dropped to the ground several feet away, believing herself to be victorious.
“Tifa!” Marlene called out, running over to her, smiling.
Suddenly, music rang out… The Victory Fanfare. Tifa and Marlene looked around for the source. The song played a second time, and Loz emerged from the rubble. Tifa watched in dismay. The music sounded a third time, and this time, midway through, Loz pulled out a cell phone and flipped it open.
“She’s not here,” he answered, ignoring Tifa and Marlene for the moment, pausing as the person on the other end of the line responded.
“I’m not crying!” he growled, turning away from Tifa and Marlene, embarrassed. He glanced back at them, scowling as he listened to the caller.
“No, I got it,” he said, “I’ll bring the girl…”
He put the phone away.
“Where were we?” he asked Tifa, sounding almost bored. Tifa resumed her fighting stance, and Loz hurled a broken church pew at her. Marlene cowered behind Tifa as the heavy object flew toward them both, but Tifa easily smashed it to pieces with a single strike. But the attack was just a diversion. Loz was suddenly behind her, having moved faster than Tifa could see, revealing that he possesses a power he had not previously revealed.
He laughed wickedly, as he drove his weapon into Tifa’s back. Marlene watched, here eyes wide in fear as Tifa fell. Loz grabbed her by the front of her shirt and slammed her into a pillar before giving her another shock from the weapon and tossing her into the flower patch. Tifa landed hard, in obvious pain, and Loz strolled over to her calmly and straddled her, snatching her vest and using it to lift her half off the ground so that he could look into her eyes. He raised his weapon again, preparing to deliver a final blow.
Suddenly, a softly glowing green orb struck him in the side of the head with a sharp crack. Loz dropped Tifa to the ground and turned toward the source of the rather pathetic attack, more annoyed than anything else. There, he saw Marlene, standing beside the box she had been so curious about earlier. It stood open now, and inside was a large quantity of materia.
Marlene looked are him defiantly, but with obvious fear in her eyes. Loz then caught sight of the contents of the box and grinned, rising to his feet and moving toward Marlene. He towered over the little girl, and she backed away in terror.
“Cloud…” she called out, futily, clutching Cloud’s bandage in her hands.
“Run!” Tifa cried.
*~*~*~*~*
Denzel was suddenly roused from his stupor. He sat alone, on the steps outside the door of Tifa’s bar. A little girl in pigtails, carrying a moogle toy, wandered down the alley, stopping in front of him.
“You’ve got Geostigma, too, don’t you?” she asked. Denzel didn’t immediately look at her. His gaze lingered on her doll. At last he looked up into her face.
“Come on… He says they’re gonna fix us,” the girl continued, as she took Denzel’s hand and pulled him to his feet, leading him off down the alleyway. Moments later, they reached their destination. A group of children had gathered around an old truck. Some of the older ones had already climbed into the back. Denzel was cautious at first, but eventually his curiosity overpowered him, and he joined the other children.
At the front of the truck, Yazoo stood silently, supervising. Satisfied, he turned and walked away to seek out and collect others afflicted with Geostigma.
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