towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Tifa, and you
Setting: Random Encounter (your choice)
Format: Prose
Summary: Tifa is in the Tower!
Warnings: Freaking out over her missing Cloud.

Dorm

Something pinged in her head, and Tifa sat up, placing hands on either side of herself. What was that? Was she just paralyzed? She remembered she couldn't move for what seemed like a long time, and then-

Where was she? This was not Kalm, she could tell because that town didn't have any buildings like this in it. Slowly, she shifted off the bed and discovered she was wearing an odd white suit.

What in the world...

About twenty minutes later, and after discovering her own clothing packed away in a trunk, she stared at the offerings it had. Her old SOLDIER uniform. The last thing she remembered, she had been wearing it.

It was a reminder of Shinra, of another time and definitely another life. Anger surged even as she pushed it underneath everything else, burying it. Instead, she chose a miniskirt and one of the tank tops she favored in off duty times.

Finally, feeling a little bit better and not quite so odd in that white suit, she spotted the little letter addressed to her.

Wandering the Tower

Waking up in a strange white suit was nothing compared to the oddness of the letter, and that honestly didn't worry her so much as the matter weighing on her mind right now.

The shock of ending up in a strange place that claimed your planet had died was nothing to the fact that no matter where she went in this place, Cloud, Barret and the others weren't around. Where was she, exactly? Midgar? Had they been captured? Was this some sort of experiment? She had just escaped from one, and without explanation she now found herself in an entirely different one. That didn't even matter so much as that Cloud wasn't there.

Either way, a deeply unsettled feeling grew along with her panic. Soon enough she was running through the hallways and staircases, looking everywhere she could.

She had to find him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cloud shaking his head makes Zack frown; he can understand wanting to keep her calm considering how hard she can kick and just how hard it is to calm down a panicking SOLDIER without sedatives, but if she runs off again and charges into one of them...

"Cloud, she's gonna find out eventually. Don't you think it's better we tell her instead of Hojo or somebody else who's not gonna care?"

Because he has no doubts they'll run into each other eventually. This place is big but not that big. And so he glances at Cloud again, then takes a deep break and looks at Tifa. If Cloud doesn't tell her, he will. She needs all the facts, and she's a SOLDIER. A SOLDIER off the rails is a problem they can't afford.

"Who is Yuffie? Or Loz? Are they friends of yours?" Suddenly, the lingering panic and skittishness was replaced with calm, but not a happy calm- a dangerous, focused look and set to her shoulders. "Hojo is here?"

It wasn't time for her to be worried- she had found Cloud, he was all right and that had been her main worry; so was Zack for that matter. Just calm down, focus. It's been a long time since Nibelheim. Her training kicked in and took the edge off her raw nerves and the shock of waking up in a different place.

"What else should I know?" It was said in her quiet voice, trying to prove to them she wasn't going to run off again. "Start at the beginning, and don't leave anything out. I'm fine now."

"Yuffie is our friend we met after leaving Midgar. Loz isn't a friend but there's no reason to be his enemy when there's worse things out there."

He shifted from one foot to the other, glancing over at Zack for a moment or two before mentally throwing up his hands. There was a lot of information he knew that just didn't seem to match up with what she seemed to think had happened. Cloud didn't know if the information he had would sent her off or make bother her and Zack to act like he was insane.

"Loz is an imperfect copy of Sephiroth - he has his cruelty and strength but not his intelligence. Without his younger brothers, he's just a big scared kid looking for a family to be with."

At least he hoped so. He also hoped that Hojo didn't get his hands on the poor Remnant. As much pain he had by their hands, he did not wish that madman on any of them. He huffed and rubbed at the back of his head.

"Zack, there's a reason why 'Rusty' did not want me to talk about Nibelheim. It's big, it's nasty and it nearly cost us the whole world." If it hadn't been Zack's sacrifice, if it hadn't been for a clueless little trooper by the name of Cloud, there wouldn't have been a world left.

"Hojo is here." He looked at Tifa, worry and hope a strange mix in his eyes. "As is Sephiroth from before going up to the Reactor."

And there it was, the elephant in the room. Zack hadn't been talking about Nibelheim; how could he, when he still didn't have all the details himself? But he had meant letting Tifa know their full roster if only to be sure they could keep this contained. If someone else told her about Sephiroth or Hojo, someone who didn't care, or if she ran into them with no warning...Zack didn't want to think about it. Especially with what she'd told him on the lower floors.

"Tifa, remember what you told me? Remember what you made me promise? Well, I also promise that General Sephiroth hasn't done what you lived through, and that he's not going to. You have to believe me on that."

The Sephiroth he knows would never do a thing like that, ever. He's not that kind of man. Zack just needs Tifa to believe that before something can go wrong.

Tifa listened to them calmly, face dark, but she didn't react except to take a large breath in and ask quietly, "What do we do? I... Sephiroth hurt a lot of people, and... I just can't let that go."

There was so much confusing her right now, from the way Cloud acted (not her Cloud!!) to Zack not remembering Nibelheim, to this place, and it was getting too much.

"I think I need to sit down for a while."

"Just don't confront him about it. Rant and yell at me all you want, but don't press the issue with someone that hadn't been there, Tifa."

Cloud understood, he truly did, but he was over the anger. He understood what Sephiroth might had gone through, he had come to realize that the General didn't have what Cloud had and that probably was what had broke him. That and the insistent voice of JENOVA.

"The lounge is a good place to relax. We can go there if you want."

Tifa is understandably confused, Cloud is probably on his last leg when it comes to keeping his cool, and Zack is torn; on the one hand, he wants to stay with these two so he's sure of what kind of information he has. On the other, he needs to warn Sephiroth about this but he can't actually do that. Not without the right information, so he shakes his head like a dog coming out of water and sighs.

"It's a lot more comfortable than sitting on the floor, too. Can't say it's close by, though."

Because Shiva knows how many flights of stairs he had to bolt up to catch up with Tifa, and he has no clue where they are now. No clue at all and Angeal would cuff him over the head for losing track of his surroundings like this.

Tifa nodded briefly, in acknowledgement. She was still a trained SOLDIER, when a decision was to be made it was usually made swiftly. "Sounds like a good place to talk... I won't say anything until then."

It wasn't a promise made lightly, as hearing a lot of this made her fume, at least in regards to Sephiroth, but she kept a lid on it. How could she ignore someone that had wrought such destruction. "Where do we go?"

Cloud didn't care if she ignored him or not just so long as she understood that there was a difference. Yes, he caused all sorts of destruction, he had killed off most of their village and rampaged across the Planet. Yes, he had poisoned the Lifestream. But. Cloud understood. Sephiroth was as much as a victim as all of them.

He just didn't think that this Tifa would realize it yet.

"We've got a couple more floors up," he said, turning and heading for the stairs.

When Cloud turns, Zack turns, gesturing with his head for Tifa to follow. It's best if they stay together until this is all cleared up, if only so they can avoid trouble. Not that SOLDIER has ever had much luck in avoiding trouble; it follows them around like ants to honey.

"Only a couple floors? Geez...Sometimes I wish the elevator stopped at every floor."

It's an attempt at lightening the mood even if he doesn't really feel up to it, because Gods know they need a cheerier attitude. Well. That and Zack is never one to let things sit in moping attitudes. It's never sit right with him.