Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy VII ❯ Chapter 9 Lost in the Flames ( Chapter 9 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

---------Sephiroth's Log-------------
I had to practially destroy the library. Those fools should be dead by now. After I left I burnt the whole city to the ground. I made sure there were no surviors. The chances of those three still being alive are very very slim. Now I am free to revive Jenova and I have enough now. Mother and I will dominate this planet, just like she wanted!




Cloud awoke sometime later in a bedroom at his own house. At first his eyesight was blurred and he could only see shadows. Then his eyes focused and he could see Aeris standing nearby. She held bloody bandages in her arms and wore a concerned look on her face. Slowly the memories of the past events came to Cloud and he remembered the pain he felt through his chest. Then he remembered the two who had accompianed him and wondered if they were ok.
"What happened to Vincent and Reno?" Cloud asked Aeris dizzily.
Aeris shook her head. "They're still out cold," she replied.
"How did we get back here?" he questioned looking at Aeris and watching her expression.
"Tifa and I saw the smoke and we found in the ashes of a manshion," Aeris said.
"Smoke? Ashes?" he wondered out loud.
"Cloud, the city of Hoyt was burnt down," Aeris informed as she looked down. "There were no surivors."
His eyes widened to her statment then he looked down.
"Who could've done such a thing?!" Aeris cried.
"I know who...." Cloud answered pausing to look up, "....Sephiroth."
Aeris covered her mouth with a hand. "He's alive?" she whispered.
Cloud nodded slowly. "And he almost killed us all," he added.
Meanwhile in the room next to Cloud's, Vincent laid on the bed his eyes closed. The slam against the wall had given him a slight concussion and he still hadn't awoken. Vincent wasn't alone in the room though, Yuffie and Cid acompianed him. Cid stood his arms crossed near the door. Yuffie was on her knees at the side of the bed.
"That idoit! That damned idoit! He shouldn't have left us!" Cid said looking at the resting Vincent.
Yuffie looked over her shoulder at Cid. "You shouldn't talk like that! You don't know when Vincent will just wake up!" she scolded.
"I'll talk how ever I want! An' there ain't a damned thing you could do about it!" Cid snapped back.
"If Vincent was awake he'd-----" she started standing and turning to him with her hands on her hips.
"Wh-Where am I?" Vincent's voice asked from behind Yuffie.
Yuffie turned around when she heard Vincent's voice. He had his hand on his head and was looking around confused. Every bone in his body seemed to ache and he knew exactly why. Sephiroth had did this to him, but what hurt the most was his head.
"You're at Cloud's. We found you guys in the ruins of the town, Hoyt," Yuffie said.
"Ruins?" Vincent questioned looking at her with a shocked look.
"Yup, there ain't nothin' left of that town. It was burnt to a crisp," Cid answered.
Vincent was silent for a moment. Then he remembered Cloud getting shot by him on accident. "Is Cloud....?" he asked looking from Cid to Yuffie.
"He's fine," Yuffie said calmly.
"That's good," Vincent sighed in relief.
Tifa was in the third room fixing up Reno's arm and shoulder. The toss into the book case had practically shattered his left arm and fractured his left shoulder. Reno was in the worst shape of them all. In reality it had been two days since they were found. The other two stirred when Cid, Yuffie, Tifa, and Aeris lifted them from the ashes. Reno, however, had not even done that.
"It....was....Sephiroth," Reno said weakly looking at Tifa with his eyes half closed.
"What? Oh! Reno, you're awake!" Tifa exclaimed.
"Yeah...I'm a bit....surprised too," he said still quite weak and opened his eyes all the way. "To be....honest....I thought....I was done for."
"Well don't try to move, you got hurt pretty bad," Tifa said finishing bandaging him.
"I can't believe he's still alive," he said ignoring Tifa's warning.
"Well, I don't know if Sephiroth will ever die...." Tifa sighed in response.
"So, exactly what happened to me? I can't feel my arm," he asked.
"You're left arm is broken and your shoulder fractured. Just don't overdo it, ok?" she explained.
"Heh, you sound like.....you actually care," Reno said with a weak smile.
Tifa turned away from Reno not sure what to say to him. She didn't know how respond to such a statment. Reno was sort of a friend of Cloud's, and any friend of Cloud's was a friend of her's. However something else kept her from answering him, but she didn't know what. Tifa assumed she felt sorry for Reno, because he was basically all alone.
"So....." Reno said getting bored with her silence.
"Reno, did you ever quit the turks?" Tifa asked suddenly turning towards him.
He looked at her funny and then sighed. "I quit the moment I came back here. I went against orders coming here to tell Cloud about the rumors," he admited.
"What were your orders then?" she pressed.
"To find out Sephiroth's awarabouts and report to Tseng, but....I came and told Cloud instead," Reno openly confessed.
"You mean....you disobeied orders to help Cloud?" she questioned.
"Yeah....now the turks are probably on their way here to get rid of me," he said and laughed a little. "Well...at least I lived my life to see Sephiroth myself."
Tifa turned away from him again. Surprised by tears that had sprung to her eyes, she didn't want him to see her cry. Tifa frantically wiped away the tears and sniffed a few times. Reno gave her an odd look. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Tifa was crying over something like his life? He could see if it was Cloud in danger but he didn't think that Tifa even cared if he lived or died.
"Are you crying?" Reno asked.
Tifa was about to say something when the door bell rang. She ignored Reno's question and left the room to answer the door. When she opened it a girl with blonde hair and wearing a black suit stood at the door. Her hands were behind her back and her expression was serious. Tifa wiped the last of the tears from her eyes.
"Can I help you?" Tifa asked.
"My name is Elena and I'm here to see Reno," the blonde haired woman said.
"Oh....um..yeah come in," Tifa said turning and already coming up with a plan. "Wait, here I'll go get him."
Elena stood at the door waiting paitently as Tifa ran up the stairs and stormed into the room where Reno was staying. He was standing and looking out the window. His left arm was in the sling that Tifa had put it in earlier. He sighed a long exhausted sigh when Tifa stormed into the room panting. He slowly turned towards her with an empty smile.
"They're here, right?" he questioned.
Tifa nodded. "You have to get out of here, and fast!" she said frantically.