Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ A Hearts Second Chance ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Lilly sat on a crate in the hanger watching Cid’s crew load the behemoth of an airship. She had woken about an hour ago feeling a little better, she was still weak, but at least she wasn’t as tired anymore. She had offered to help the crew load the ship but Cid had told her to stay out of the way. Looking up at the gleaming hunk of metal that Cid had called the Highwind, she couldn’t help but snicker, looks like Mr. Highwind wasn’t very original in naming his ship.
Just then a loud squeal made her jump as it echoed off the walls of the hanger. Looking around she saw a small girl with short black hair come running into the building.
“Tifa.” She squealed again.
“Fuck.” Hissed Cid from behind Lilly. She turned to look up at him as the girl slammed into Tifa wrapping her arms around her as they fell to the floor.
“What the hell are you doing here brat?” Cid growled around his cigarette.
“I came to see Shera and she told me what happened so I decided to come with you all.” The girl said.
“Like hell you are.” Cid practically shouted. “Last time you were on my ship it took three days to straighten out the mess ya made.”
She waived him off. “So you must be Lilly.” She said bending over to meet her eye to eye.
“Umm…..yes.” Lilly said leaning back. Didn’t this girl know anything about personal space?
A giant smile crossed the young girls face. “I’m Yuffie it’s nice to meet you.”
Then she danced off followed by a growling Cid. Lilly wondered briefly why Cid seemed to dislike the girl, but she saw a gentleness in his eyes as he watched the young girl, like a bigger brother watching over his sister. Smiling she tried to remember if she had anyone in her life that had felt like that but she couldn’t remember.
Frowning she realized she didn’t remember anything. There was nothing from before she woke in that tank. Then how did she remember her name? Did she even know it or had she just believed it was her name when Lucrecia called her by it?
A headache started to form causing her eyes to blur a little. Reaching up she wrapped her hands around her head hoping it would go away.
“Lilly are you alright?” Looking up she saw Tifa approach, concern in her dark eyes. Even the little hyper girl had stopped prancing around to kneel before her.
“You look a little pale.” Yuffie said raising her hand to touch Lilly’s forehead. “You don’t seem to have a fever. Maybe you should go rest for a moment.”
Lilly slapped the girls hand away, “I’m sick of sleeping.” She barked.
Yuffie looked up at Tifa. Tifa just smiled at Lilly, “We don’t mean for you to sleep. Maybe you could sit in the living room and have a cup of tea. It may help with the headache.”
“Oh.” Lilly said looking away. “Sorry.”
Yuffie jumped to her feet with her hands laced behind her back. “It’s okay. I get yelled at all the time.” She said sticking her tongue out.
Lilly got up off the crate accepting help from Tifa when she wobbled a little. She muttered a thanks as she turned towards the house.
Reaching the living room she sat in an overstuffed chair as Mrs. Strife came in with a cup of tea. “Here sweetie. You shouldn’t be pushing yourself.”
“I’m fine. I really didn’t do anything but sit there and watch everyone else work.” She said taking the cup. She knew she sounded childish but she was annoyed by everyone babying her.
Sipping her tea she watched everyone leave the room to continue the preparations for launch. Lilly turned to look out the window of the house. The little town didn’t seem to have many people living in it, it seemed like a nice place, but not somewhere she wanted to live.



Sephiroth sat at his desk finishing up his reports for the day when his office door burst open and Zack walked it. “Hey. You wanted to see me?” He asked.
“Sit.” Sephiroth ordered. Watching as the raven haired man dropped onto one of the chairs.
“I have been ordered to give you a mission.” Sephiroth said, handing Zack a folder. “There was an incident in one of the labs near Nibelheim. One of the experimental subjects escaped. You are to hunt it down and bring it back, preferably alive.”
Zack opened the folder and flipped through the pages. “There’s nothing in here on what the experimental subject looks like.” Zack said furrowing his brow as he read through the information. “It’s one of Hojo’s?” He added looking up at Sephiroth.
“Yes. I would also like to add that I am uncomfortable with this assignment.” Sephiroth said leaning forward he grabbed a cell phone from one of his desk drawers. “I want you to contact me with any information first, and use this phone. It has been encrypted so no one can listen in on our conversations and the number you will call is programmed.”
“Something doesn’t feel right to you.” Zack stated, sliding the phone into one of the pocket in his pants.
“No.” Sephiroth said.
“When do I leave?” Zack said standing up.
“As soon as you walk out that door.” Sephiroth said pointing at his office door.
Zack stopped in his tracks. “Well that could be a little bit of a problem.” He said looking back at his boss. “I took Cloud to his first Mako treatment about thirty minutes ago. He seemed like he was fine with it, but I remember my first treatment and it really sucked. So I told him I would drop him off and pick him up.”
“What time does he need to be picked up?” Sephiroth asked before Zack could launch into the horrifying story of his first Mako treatment disaster.
“Six tonight, will you be able to do it for me?” Sephiroth just gave him a cold stare. “Guess that’s a yes. Alright then, I’ll call you as soon as I find out anything.” and with that Zack left the office.


She was standing in the middle of some kind of battle. There was a man with long silver hair dressed in a long black leather coat, and a younger man with spiky blonde hair. She couldn’t hear any noise but it looked like the blonde was screaming at the other man.
Her brow furrowed as the scene changed. The silver haired man drove his sword through the chest of a brunette girl causing the blonde a great deal of pain. Then there was another flash as another violent scene appeared, then another one and another. It continued until Lilly started screaming for it to stop, dropping to her knees she covered her eyes.
“I’m sorry Lilly.” Came the quiet female voice that had woken her from her Mako experimental haze.
“Why are you showing this to me?” She asked looking up into the eyes of the woman torturing her.
“It’s a very complicated story, but these two are the reason I have asked for you help.” She said as two men materialized behind her. Lilly looked at the men who had been fighting in each scene that had flashed before her eyes.
“This one,” Lucrecia said waiving her hand toward the silver haired man, “is my son Sephiroth, and this one,” she said waiving the other hand towards the blonde, “is Cloud, Mrs. Strife’s son.”
“I don’t understand.” Lilly said looking from the men to Lucrecia.
“What you witnessed was the reality of another world. A world the young man Cloud lived before his spirit was brought to this one. And a reality that could become our nightmare here in this world. At this moment Cloud is keeping my sons mind stable but I fear one day the violence you witnessed will come to pass and Cloud may not have the willpower to kill my son again.”
Lilly sat there on her knees as Lucrecia told her of everything that had happened to Cloud  in the other world, of all the pain his soul had suffered watching the man he idolized become a psychotic mass murderer, of all the friends he had lost, and finally the pain from taking Sephiroth‘s life. By the end Lilly sat there on the ground crying for both men because it could all have been prevented.
“I am counting on you.” Lucrecia said as she disappeared and the world darkened in her wake.

Vincent stood in the doorway watching Lilly as she slept. He had come to tell her they would be leaving soon, but when he had found her sleeping he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt her rest. He started turning to leave when he saw a single tear roll down her cheek as she whimpered. Seeing another tear follow the first his chest constricted giving him the sudden need to comfort her. Walking over to the chair she sat in, he knelt down as she slowly opened her eyes to look at him. He wanted to ask why she was crying but her blue/green eyes begged him to stay quiet. He started to reach up to smooth her hair away from her face when someone spoke from the doorway
“It’s time to leave.” Tifa said. Lilly nodded and stood swaying slightly but waived off any help as she walked to the hanger. She had seen the concern in Vincent’s scarlet eyes as he knelt before her. She had been so afraid he would try to comfort her, but was grateful he had held himself back. All it would have taken was a single touch from him to send her into a blubbering mess of female emotion, and she didn’t want to appear weak in front of him.
As she entered the hanger Cid waived them over. “Before we leave I want you all to go through the armory since we won’t be coming back anytime soon.”
Yuffie squealed in delight as she ran into the room, picked up a giant shuriken and swung it around like it weighed nothing. Vincent walked into the room and picked up a case of bullets for his gun then turned to Lilly.
Lilly stood at the door and looked at Cid while he leaned on his spear. “Get.” He said nodding his head at the mass of weapons.
Stepping in Lilly looked around, she had no idea what to pick. Hell she wasn’t even sure what half the weapons were. As she walked past a rack of swords and wooden sticks she stopped. Something drew her attention, kneeling she reached to the far back of the sword rack nearly knocking everything over. She pulled out two similar looking weapons.
“Those are supposed to be swords but they seem to have rusted because they will not come out of their….” Click. “Sheaths?” Cid said arching a brow as Lilly pulled the sword from it’s sheath with a distinct sound of metal on metal. “Well I guess their yours now.”
Lilly held the sword high, it felt right somehow. Swinging lightly she tested its balance, then she slid it back into the black, metal sheath.
“Since there’s two you may like these as well.” Cid said reaching into a metal bin beside the door. “But until you’re stronger Vincent should hold onto them.” he said tossing the items at Vincent who caught them easily. He raised a dark brow at the weight of the objects, looking down he inspected what looked like a pair of elbow length gloves, but their weight suggested different. Looking at the captain he silently questioned him.
“They have a lightweight chain mail-like armor sewn into them. Hard as hell but light enough to make it easy to swing a weapon around.” Cid said looking at Lilly as she held the swords up inspecting the harness with a smile on her face. He smiled in response, she was a very beautiful women smiling while holding a dangerous weapon, too bad he had given his heart to someone else or he would have made a pass at her. Turning he looked at the dark man beside him as he watched Lilly with a mixture of emotions in his red eyes. Looks like someone else felt the same way.
“Times up.” Cid said turning and walking from the room towards the airship.
Everyone met on the bridge to watch the launch as Cid started barking orders to his crew. Lilly stood close to one of the windows as the ship slowly rose into the air. Vincent couldn’t help the slight lift of the corner of his mouth when she gasped at the scene before her. Placing her hands on the windows she looked down at the trees as they passed them. She looked so much like a child in that moment, which caused Vincent to frown slightly. Why would Lucrecia want him to train a child to fight?
“Lilly, sweetie, we haven’t shown you your room yet, would you like to see it?” Mrs. Strife asked laying her hand on Lilly’s arm.
“Not yet. I want to look around a bit first. I think it’s my first time being on an airship.” Lilly said feeling a little energized.
“You need your rest, you are still weak.” Vincent said crossing his arms over his chest.
“No.” She barked as she walked up to him. “Besides aren’t you supposed to begin my training like Lucrecia wants.” She watched as he flinched slightly from the mention of that name. Huffing she stormed off the bridge.
It was that moment that her statement registered to Vincent. I think it’s my first time being on an airship. Turning he started after her to ask her what she had meant by that. Cid grabbed his arm, “Let her go. Nothing worse than a pissed off woman.”   
Vincent looked down at the hand holding his arm, then back up to the Captain’s face. Facing the doorway he decided Cid may be right in this matter.