[Fic] "Two Guys and a Girl" part 4 -- Final Fantasy 7 (Mercverse AU)

[edenfalling]

This story is part of icedark_elf's mercverse FF7 AU. It's set about ten years before the main canon, insofar as the Mercverse can be said to have any canon. :-) So. "Two Guys and a Girl," in which I bend, staple, and otherwise mutilate normal game canon involving trips to Nibelheim, because seriously, what's the point of crack AUs if you can't play around like this?

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Two Guys and a Girl: Part 4
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Tifa hung onto Zack's hand for at least ten seconds longer than she'd meant to. Then she remembered why she'd started this conversation. "Um. About that PHS...? I really do need to tell my dad where I am, so he doesn't get paranoid and send people to look for me."

"No problem," Cloud said, and pulled a small handheld unit from his pocket. "It's a Midgar area code, so you'll have to dial long distance. Don't worry about the charges."

If Cloud was Shinra (even if he didn't use the name), and if he owned this mansion and could afford to ignore it for decades, there was no way Tifa was going to worry about running up his phone bill. Besides, his PHS was cool -- all sleek and high tech -- and she bet it didn't get static the way most mobile units did in the mountains.

She walked into the entry hall and dialed home. Her father picked up on the second ring. "Lockheart," he snapped.

"Hi, Dad," Tifa said. "I wanted to tell you that I'm at a friend's house, and I'll be staying for dinner, so don't--"

"Tifa! Where have you been? You ran away from our conversation this morning, and I heard you were walking around town with a stranger -- with a young man! What were you thinking? Who is he? Where are you?"

Tifa scowled; she'd been hoping to talk fast enough so she could hang up in good conscience before her father pulled himself together enough to start interrogating her. "I didn't run away. I just didn't feel like fighting, so I went for a walk. And my friend's name is Zack Strife; he's visiting Nibelheim with his... brother. I was showing him around. I'm fine. Don't worry."

"Don't worry? I'm your father -- I'll worry all I want to. Tifa, where are you?"

Here came the argument. "The Shinra mansion."

Her father was silent for several seconds; Tifa could almost see him pinching his nose and taking deep breaths so he wouldn't start screaming incoherently. "Tifa Lockheart. I understand that you're growing up. I understand that you want a bit of independence. It's normal for teenagers to push the boundaries. But there are limits! Going off with strangers, to that place, is not reasonable. It's not safe. Anyone staying there has connections to the Shinra, and while normally I'd be happy for you to make influential friends, the people they rent that house to shouldn't be let within ten miles of decent people, let alone children!"

He took another deep breath; the PHS crackled with static. "Tifa, come home."

"No." Tifa clutched Cloud's PHS and kicked the wall. "I won't! Zack and Cloud aren't like that -- they're nice -- and I'm not stupid like you think I am. You don't really care about me anyway -- if you cared, you would've paid attention to Mom, and you wouldn't have given up when I fell off the bridge. You stopped looking! You're just acting nice now so people think you're a good father and forget that you gave up! I'm spending the night here. If you try to stop me, I swear I'll really run away."

She stabbed the 'end' button with her finger and shut the PHS with a sharp click.

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"You fell off a bridge?"

Tifa spun around, her face burning. Zack leaned in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed, looking a bit sheepish but mostly fascinated.

"Um. Yes. But it's none of your business."

Zack pouted. "Come on, Tifa -- I thought friends were supposed to share their secrets. Besides, you already know mine..."

"She knows one of yours," Cloud corrected, joining Zack in the doorway. "Don't bother Tifa. Friends or not, everyone has the right to keep some things private, and families are touchy subjects." He smiled wryly.

Tifa smiled back, weakly. She'd forgotten to keep her voice down, and she really didn't want to think about her father right now. Thinking about ghosts, dead demons, mad scientists, and evil Shinra was quite enough.

Although... her father had said something about the people who'd been renting this house -- that they shouldn't be let anywhere near children. Was that just resentment talking, or did he know something?

She didn't want to think about it.

"So, what are we going to do about the demons?" she asked. "If you're not going to tell anyone -- and I guess I see why, even if it's horrible that the murderers got away with it -- then we shouldn't just leave them in that room."

"I am going to tell someone," Cloud said. "I'm going to tell the king, I'm going to tell the priests who keep the family vaults, and I'm going to tell the victims' families. Rosa and Vert kept their victims' names; there's a plaque on each stand." He gave Tifa and Zack a long, considering look, and then sighed. "Grab your flashlights and something to write with. We're going to copy the names and a description of each person, and then we're going to burn the bodies. I've already taken one out back."

A grim expression settled on his face. "While you two keep an eye on the fire, I'll... take care of the basement. I'd like to get that done before dark."

"We could help!" Zack said earnestly. "It'd go faster with three people..."

"No."

"But--"

"No." Cloud stepped out of the doorway into the entry hall, a flashlight already swinging from his wrist. "Tifa, grab the flashlights. Zack, get a notebook and a pen from my bags and meet us at the trophy room."

Zack hurried to obey. Tifa hesitated. "Is it enough to tell their families and the priests? What good is that, really? And shouldn't people know?"

Cloud sighed. "Ideally, yes, people should know. Unfortunately, my family has done an excellent job of making sure all power in the country flows through their hands, and squelching any non-government organizations that try to outgrow the village level. If the Shinra fall, everything falls apart with them."

Tifa thought about the electric and water companies (owned by the Shinra), the roads (paid for by the Shinra), the mines (owned by the Shinra), and the guard patrols that hunted bandits and dangerous animals (paid for and captained by Shinra soldiers), and made a face.

"Besides," Cloud continued, "I prefer to avoid revolutions; they're messy, painful, and often the people who win power are worse than the rulers they wanted to replace. So I'll remind them that I could tell their secrets, I'll make sure Rosa and Vert's crimes are carved on their sepulchers for posterity, and I'll give closure to the victims' families. It's better than nothing."

"It's still not right," Tifa said.

"No, it isn't," Cloud agreed. "If you want to change things, I'd be willing to help, but that would take decades. It would also be very dangerous, to your family and friends as well as to you."

"I don't care about my dad," Tifa said, "and Master Zangan can take care of himself. And you and Zack are safe, right?"

"More or less. So you want to call the Shinra to account?"

"Yes. Maybe not now, but someday."

Cloud smiled.

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Much though she hated to admit it, both Zack and Cloud were stronger than Tifa -- "Okay, not stronger, just better at lifting things!" Zack amended quickly -- so she wrote names and descriptions while they carried the bodies down the corridors and out to the bare ground near the generator. She finished well before they did, of course, and pointedly hauled two canvas-wrapped bodies outside to lay on top of the other corpses.

The sun shone sideways through the tips of the trees, coloring the mountains gold, when Cloud carried the last body out and stepped back from the pile. "My fire spells have a tendency to get a little out of hand," he warned, raising his hands.

"He's totally not kidding about that," Zack said, grabbing Tifa's hand and hurrying toward the mansion. Cloud was casting toward the fence, so they had less chance of getting caught in any overflow if they stood behind him. "But it's really cool to watch."

Half the yard exploded.

'A little out of hand,' Tifa thought nearly a minute later, when she'd regained her ability to do more than gape in shock, was the worst understatement she'd ever heard.

Cloud stared at his hands. "...I think my anger complicated things," he murmured.

"No shit," Zack said, whapping Cloud on the back of his head. "You're seriously lucky you didn't set fire to the forest, too!"

The forest surrounded Nibelheim. The mansion was less than two miles from the town. The trees were tinder-dry in late summer. Images of wildfire -- flame-crowned trees, the spray of heated oil as pines cracked from the heat, collapsing houses, the stench of roasting meat -- raced through Tifa's mind.

She slapped Cloud before she could stop herself. "You idiot! If you knew this might happen, why didn't you set a firebreak first!"

Cloud touched the back of his head, looked out toward the forest and the flying sparks from the pyre, and winced. "You're right. I grew up here; I should have known better. Anger is no excuse for not thinking straight." He smiled, soft and rueful.

Tifa melted. "Well, if I'd just found this in my house, I'd be distracted too..."

"Still." Cloud stared blankly at the fire for a long moment. Then he shrugged and clapped his hands. "Right. Zack, Tifa, I want you to pull up the grass along the fence, to make a firebreak, while I take care of the basement. Then we'll head into town for dinner, since I didn't get enough sandwiches to hold us over." He strode back into the mansion.

Zack and Tifa exchanged measuring looks.

"He's still off balance, isn't he?" Tifa said.

"Totally," agreed Zack. "But he's right, isn't he? Come on, show me about firebreaks -- we don't need them in Midgar, because we have firefighters. They cast the coolest spells," he continued as he walked toward the fence, "huge water spells, like tidal waves, and they crash down on burning buildings and then you get smoke and steam and it makes the sun go all hard and orange if you look through the clouds. Anyway, they usually keep the fires from spreading, even if they always come late to the lower city -- they work for the Shinra, you know, and the king doesn't give a shit about the slums. I think if Cloud didn't keep an eye on him, he'd burn half the city down just so he could rebuild it cleaner."

Zack touched the fence, his hand clenching like he wanted to tear it down, and then he looked up at Tifa and grinned. "So, firebreaks!"

Tifa swallowed. "Zack, I've decided that I'm going to fix things so nothing like this mansion ever happens again. Would you like to help?"

Zack blinked. "Seriously? That's not going to be easy."

"I know. That's why I need help. But somebody needs to do something."

"Yeah. Somebody does. Okay, count me in." Zack smiled; it was less blinding than his usual grins, but something deep in his eyes made it shine ten times brighter. Tifa swallowed again. Then Zack reached out and tugged on her ponytail. "Enough of that. Come on, Mini Zangan, show me about firebreaks."

Tifa kicked him.

Then she started explaining about firebreaks.

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End of Part 4

Back to Part 3

Continue to Part 5

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