Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ A Tale Of Tifa ❯ The Journey ( Chapter 15 )

* Aloha! Sorry that I have left you readers starving for some new chapters to this story! ^-^ I got a very nice chapter here for you all to munch on! ^-^*

Chapter 15

The Journey

Vincent Valentine sat in his chocobo's saddle thinking. That's all he did ever since he and his um…son went on the journey to recover the Ancients Book. Sephiroth was and is his son, Lucrecia, didn't tell him, and now Tifa is Sephiroth's lover? Oh boy wait till Cloud finds out about his best friend was dating his enemy! Vincent chuckled at the thought and looked at Sephiroth who was a few feet behind him. He looked worried; something Vincent never dreamt of seeing in his face. His silver hair was growing back at the roots and he didn't wear any black clothes, but blue jeans and a red shirt. Masamune was still there strapped to his back, waiting to be used again. Yet his trench coat was folded away with the travel goods.

He turned his eyes back onto the path when Sephiroth glanced up at him.

"Is something wrong…pops?" Sephiroth teased.

"Don't call me pops." Vincent said.

"Whatever you say old man." Sephiroth muttered. Vincent was a bout to retaliate but shut his mouth. He might look young now, but he was indeed old.

"Hey, how about we fly to the temple ruins? Wouldn't it be much faster?" Sephiroth asked.

"Your right. Let's go." Vincent said.

* * *

Dreams and flashes were all she had left right now. She couldn't feel her body, because she was far away from it. Her bonds were brittle and getting weaker every time she kept moving through the life stream. Her wanderings were getting dangerous by the second, but when at last she felt that she would never soar back to her frail form, a force of gentleness guided her back.

: Tifa, do not wonder so. You may get lost and then what will the world do without you? : The gentle voice had always asked her.

: But why does the world need me? : She would always ask.

: Tifa, the time will come when the veiled truth shall be revealed to you. : The voice would always say and then once again she would be near her body. Yet temptations always got the best of her and she flew on angel's wings again.

* * *

Sephiroth and his father landed on the small island that once contained the grand Temple of the Ancients. But now it was all rubble and a humongous low ditch of ashes and dirt. Sephiroth frowned at the sight of the rubble. He felt so guilty to have caused this kind of destruction, and yet again he cursed that wicked Jenova. She had manipulated his mind and had tried to reach her goal through him. He suddenly felt dirty and longed for a nice hot bath, but Vincent was already walking ahead. They crossed the rickety old bridge and slid down the ditch.

"Well, let's start looking." Vincent ordered. For the whole entire afternoon, both men searched through the rubble and had to fight small monsters that had started to dwell there. Sephiroth walked over to a half standing wall with writings upon it.

"Hey Dad, I think I found something." Sephiroth said. Vincent scrambled over and looked over the Ancient's writings.

"Do you understand it?" Seph asked.

"Not much. When I worked for Shinra, I protected Professor Gast and I learned as much as I could from him." Vincent replied. The dark haired man scanned over the letters and silently mumbled, trying to fit the pieces together.

"It says, something about the black materia, but nothing about any book. Except they also say something about the oracles." Vincent said after several quiet minutes.

"Oracles?" Seph asked.

"I really don't know anything about that, but it says that it is a key to the world's knowledge."

"They must me talking about the book. Mother said that that book contained all the events written by a Cetran Mage from the dawn of time." Sephiroth explained.

"What is the Cetran Mage?" Vince asked.

"Mother said, that she was a seer and a very powerful one. Only every thousand years does her spirit come back to the living, only to tell what would happen in the next thousand years. The last time she was ever seen, was when the Calamity of the Skies hit the planet and wiped out the Cetra's."

"But that was eons ago! How would she be able to write the future if she had died from the impact?"

"I really don't know. All I do know is that we have to find this Oracle Key." Sephiroth answered. Vincent nodded and they both climbed back up to their tied up chocobo's.

* * *

Cloud ran out of the Highwind when they had landed outside the waterfall. Cid, Shera, and Arlene followed him as they tried to catch up with him. Cloud stepped into the pure blue pool and called out Lucrecia's name.

"LUCRECIA!" he yelled out. The pool rippled angrily and he noticed a green entombed oval at the bottom of the pool. He dived under but was repelled away from it. Something grabbed his hair and he was dragged to the surface. There stood Cid swearing away and they fell silent when Lucrecia appeared. Everyone could notice the anger in her face.

"Where's Tifa and that bastard!?" Cloud demanded.

"Watch your mouth!" Lucrecia reprimanded. Her eyes blazed a new and she then calmed down, you will not speak of my son that way."

"I don't care…" But a smooth hand slapped over his mouth causing him to shut up. He looked up to see Arlene angry and staring at him with her icy green eyes. Arlene looked pack at the spirit and smiled.

"Excuse him, my dear lady. But we are worried about Tifa." She said calmly. Lucrecia frowned and looked down at the lifestream hiding Tifa's body. Cloud knew that she knew the whereabouts of his friend.

"Where is she?" he asked trying to sound sane as possible.

"She is with me and I will not tell you where my son is, for you shall truly try to kill him." She said.

"So?! He tried to destroy the planet and he killed my angel!" he spit back.

"IF!" Lucrecia yelled, "If you weren't such a blonde, you would also understand that it was not his fault but Jenova's." Cloud fell silent and stared at the lifestream in the pools surface.

"What's in there?" he asked quietly.

"Tifa."

"What?! Why?" he questioned.

"She was dying and so I am trying to keep her alive as long as possible. I still await my lover and son, for they hold the key to her very existence." Lucrecia explained.

"Then there must be something we can do to help!" Arlene said suddenly.

"Yeah, I agree with her." Cid muttered as he stared at the lifestream below. Cloud knelt into the shallow pool and didn't say anything for several long and agonizing minutes.

"Where are they?" he asked.

"At the Temple of the Ancients. They are looking for a book that will help save Tifa and another danger that has yet to come." The spirit explained again, "I must go back to the stream, for Tifa's soul is too far away from her body." Then Lucrecia disappeared. Cloud stood up and turned toward his group.

"Then if the only way to save Tifa is to Help Vincent and…Sephiroth, then so be it." Cloud said quietly. The group nodded and then walked back to Highwind.

* * *

Vincent and Sephiroth made camp outside the ruined temple. It was no use traveling on tired chocobo's. The fire was built and Sephiroth was preparing the food. Vincent had just come back with a pile of wood and dropped them near the fire.

"I didn't know you knew how to cook." Vince said trying to start a conversation.

"I was taught a lot of things when I was training in SOLDIER. Cooking wasn't my favorite subject though." Sephiroth explained.

"Hmmm…so you're my son and I'm your father. How ironic." Vince muttered, "Of course where would you get your good looks from? I doubt that you got them from Hojo! It's impossible." Vince joked.

"True." Sephiroth laughed. Suddenly both men heard a sound of machine nearby. They both looked at each other and shrugged. Whoever was coming didn't bother them, they were ready and equipped just in case trouble bound to happen.

It was several minutes later when four people came out of the forest. Vincent recognized them instantly except for the woman with red hair.

"Oh boy, here comes Cloud." Vincent muttered and Sephiroth groaned. Cloud and his group came to the fire and said hi, yet when Cloud turned to his enemy, Sephiroth instinctively grabbed his blades handle.

* Mwahahahahhahaaaaaaa! I left you here!! I really don't know if it's a cliffhanger but I have no time now, co please write those reviews and I'll upload three chapters more in the next couple of days! Lol *snickers* ^-^*