Turning





"So, the Northern Crater, Midgar, or Nibelheim. Or, of course, somewhere odd and random which we will never be able to find." Tifa shook her head slowly. "How will we ever find her?"

"C'mon, Teef, cheer up," Cloud said, calling her by her childhood nickname. "She's out there, somewhere. We'll find her."

Tifa raised her grief-stricken brown eyes to Cloud's glowing blue ones. "I can only hope."

Vincent, who had been unusually taciturn since finding the Turks, spoke up. "Well, what's better? Standing around moping, or looking for our goal?"

Tifa looked at him in surprise. "That's the first optimistic thing I've heard you say."

He arched an eyebrow. "Should I not have said anything?"

She shook her head. "No...no. It made me feel better, thank you."

He bowed his head slightly in a gesture of acceptance. Yuffie, who was managing to keep her airsickness under control, asked, "So, where to first?"

Cloud bit his lip, then looked to Cid. "Um, I'd say Nibelheim. It seems pretty likely, I think."

Tifa nodded stiffly. "Yeah." Although no one wanted to go back to that painful place where the people were strangers, if it was needed to help one they loved, they would do it. It was filled with bitter memories, from Cloud's childhood isolation, to Sephiroth's insanity, to Vincent's torture by Hojo. "Yeah. If we must go there, we must." But, the unspoken words in her tone hung in the air. It doesn't mean we'll like it...




Cid frowned in concentration as he worked the controls of the Highwind. Not wanting any of his friends who also worked on the airship to get hurt, he had left them behind on this dangerous mission. Instead, he had recruited Tifa and Rude, who seemed most interested in the ship, to work the positions formerly held by the others from Rocket Town. They had agreed readily and eagerly, and were doing fine.

Flying the ship took great effort, though. The thing was a monster when it came to fuel consumption, and to minimize costs, one had to carefully work the winds so that engines could be kept on lower power. Of course, the fuel tanks were huge, and the fuel very efficient - hydrogen, actually, quite dangerous, but very effective. Under a pilot as skilled as Cid, the ship could last a month without having to be refueled.

The pilot thought about Nibelheim as the ship drew near enough to the town to see a small cluster of buildings. It was known as a sleepy, quaint little town, nestled against the barren peaks of the Nibel Mountains. But a surprising number of horrific things had happened in this little berg, enough to make one knowledgeable on the subject shudder. Several people, two of whom were Cloud and Vincent, had been endlessly tortured by the mad scientist known as Hojo.

Cid shook off his gloomy thoughts about the town, and concentrated on bringing the ship down onto the grassy plains that surrounded Nibelheim, the village in which nightmares happened.




Cloud and Tifa both wore bland expressions as the stepped off the ship, while Vincent's face looked somewhat strained. They were not looking forward to the possible confrontation.

They entered the town, which was curiously silent. Not even a stray dog barked or played around the well. The town's doors were shut tight, and no amount of tugging at the inn's entrance yielded any results. Only at Cloud's former home was the door slightly open. Cloud, who had discovered this, pushed the door open. A yell came from inside the house, and Cloud ran back out, his face white.

"A sickness, of some sort...My god, they're all dead...The bodies are swollen...Oh, my god, my god!" The ex-mercenary talked in confused sentences as the others took an involuntary step back.

"Plague?" Rude's face was a mask of horror. "A plague...We have to leave!"

"Of course," Vincent stated softly. "I should have known. The stench of death is in the air. Rude is right. We do have to go."

Cait Sith stepped forward. "Well, I'm not vulnerable to it, as I don't have to breathe. So, I'll check around while you get on the ship, okay?" Reeve's voice, however, was thick with sorrow and fear.

Reno nodded. "That's a good plan. Now, we have to go!"




As the cat and Mog combination came back onto the ship, it practically danced with dread and anticipation. The cat part crushed to its chest a piece of paper, similar to the one that had been left at their home.

You certainly are determined, it read. But she's not here. If you want her back, you'd better pick up the pace a bit.

The cat shook its head. "No luck. We'll have to try somewhere else. But the bodies of people...They're strewn everywhere. I talked to a lone survivor, burying the dead. She said it starts as a coughing, sneezing sickness, then causes paralysis. Very potent." Reeve's voice showed sorrow. "We can't do anything, beside send help the next time we get to a town. We have to go on."

"Yeah," said Cloud weakly. "Yeah. I guess so. ...Yeah. We have to go."




They stopped at Cosmo Canyon, where they were greeted warmly by Red XIII. "Hello, everyone," he said. "Do you need to stay a night?"

Cloud considered, then nodded. "Yeah. But we have to send help to Nibelheim. Almost everyone's dead from a plague."

The red beast stiffened. "Dead? That's...that's terrible!" He ran to gather the elders. The guard at the gate showed them to their rooms. They slept fitfully, troubled by dreams of the sick people.

And, a tragic thing happened. When they woke up in the morning, Cloud had a severe cough, accompanied by sneezing.

They had lost the most valuable member of the team to the enemy a fighter fears above all else: sickness.




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