Turning
Elena looked up wearily as Vincent entered the hotel. "Any luck?"
He shook his head. "None. Two weeks of fruitless searching. Perhaps we should return to Midgar. Maybe we would have luck there."
Elena nodded. "Yeah...I saw, as we were coming in, a chocobo stable. Maybe we could borrow one to ride to the shore and catch a ride back."
"What about Reno and Rude?"
"We'll come back for them within a month. Or at least I will. No matter what."
Vincent nodded slowly. "It sounds like a good plan."
"Well, now, sir, you're in luck!" the stablekeeper grinned. "No need to catch a boat at all. We have a fine gold chocobo right here, highly trained!"
"But how much would it cost?" asked Vincent.
"Oh, not much, not much." The middle-aged man looked at the rafters. "Merely your word that you'll bring 'im back, and five thousand gil."
Vincent inwardly winced, but it was a good price. He pulled out his wallet and payed the man the money.
"Ah, thank you," the man sighed, then went into the back to lead out a gold chocobo. Vincent grabbed its rein and pulled it after him.
Elena rubbed her arms. "Are we ready to go?"
"Yeah."
Vincent glanced back over his shoulder to see how Elena was faring. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
"Do you mind if I make a stop at this one place? It'll only be for a while."
"Fine."
They rode past Nibelheim, the ghost village haunting in the background. Vincent urged the chocobo up the mountain slopes near it. It warked in protest, the ambled up the slope.
Once over the peaks, Vincent dismounted the bird.
"What's here?" Elena glanced around her. "It looks like just a waterfall."
"Please stay here," Vincent requested. The Turk shrugged, then started pulling up some greens for the chocobo.
"Any news, Re- Er, Nanaki?"
"I'm sorry, Tifa," Red said. "We're still working on it."
"That's all right." She heard the sound of Red padding away, then leaned over Cloud to force some liquid down his throat. She smoothed his spiky hair away from his face.
"Cloud...do you remember when you first cut your hair to look like that?" She smiled at the memory. "I couldn't even recognize you at first. You looked so different. Everyone asked you where you had gotten all the hair gel from. And you answered that it wasn't gel, it was glue. Everyone laughed so hard. It was your one day of popularity." She shook her head and sniffed. "Cloud, I was so horrible to you when we were children! I always ignored you. I want you to know that I'm...I'm so sorry!" And Tifa wept.
"Lucrecia?" Vincent hazarded as he stepped into the hidden cave. All that answered him were the echoes of his voice.
He sighed, the walked slowly around the cave. He stared at the ground, looking rather depressed. He turned and leaned his forehead against the wall.
Vincent's brow furrowed as he took a closer look at the section he was leaning against. He could only see a faint outline of himself, very unlike the mirrored surfaces of the other parts of the cave. He tapped on it and it resounded with a hollow sound.
He felt with his human hand across the polished stone until he felt a hairline crack. He took his claw and dug the fingers in, pulling out the section of the wall. He looked beyond it.
A tunnel.
A thin wailing came up. He could faintly hear the words, "Papa! Tifa!"
"Marlene," he whispered.
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