Original: Hello peoples! This chapter is rather short I'm afraid and it jumps around everywhere, but it's necessary, believe me. I planned this chapter about 6 different ways, but this one helped the plot line along the best XD

Just as a reminder, XXXOOOXXX means a change of setting and character, OOO means a change of character (from whose third person POV) but in the same scene or setting and XXX means change of scene/setting but following the same character

So enjoy!

Edited: The end of the pre written chapters is upon us, so depending on how many people want this to be continued the updates will be few and far between.

Chapter 14:

Tidus looked up as the motorbike roared to a stop; they were outside Cloud's church.

"I thought we were gonna meet Yuffie and Rikku back at 7th Heaven."

"Oh, I just needed to pick something up first." Cloud muttered as he walked towards the building.

"I'll come help!" Tidus bounded up to Cloud who just looked at him before pushing open the door.

"Did it look like this last time?" The benches of the church were destroyed; a couple of pillars were broken as well.
Cloud merely continued into the church and didn't answer; a second later he let out a gasp.

"What is it!?" Tidus ran towards Cloud who was kneeling in the flowers.

"Tifa! Tifa?" Cloud gently gathered her still body up in his arms, cradling her like a baby.

"You're...late..." She whispered.

"What happened!?" Cloud's voice was panicked and it wasn't a tone Tidus would have associated him with,

"I..." But Tifa didn't get any further as she fell unconscious whispering "Marlene..."

"Tifa!?" Cloud pulled his glove off and pressed his fingers too her neck, giving a sigh of relief when he found her heartbeat. He glanced around the rest of the church. "It's gone...Yuffie's gonna kill me..."

"Huh? What's gone? Is she ok?" Tidus leaned over Cloud's shoulder.

"She should be fine...and my Materia...it's gone..."

"Materia? Oh! Right!"

"We should take her back..." Cloud muttered and Tidus nodded as the older man moved to pick Tifa off of the floor. Cloud flinched as a searing pain blossomed and spread out along his arm, immobilising him, paralysing his chest as he keeled over.

"Hey! Cloud, hey! Damn it!" Tidus rushed over to him. "What happened!?" Cloud had just suddenly collapsed! What was going on?

"Ohhh...Spikey's not dead is he?" A cocky voice sounded behind them from the churche doorway. Tidus spun round, not expecting to see the two men from the complex they had previously visited. They had cleaned up considerably from before although the long haired one had a large bruise blooming on his forehead and the other had white bandages, stained slightly red, wrapped round one hand.

"No, he just collapsed!" Tidus threw his hands up. "I don't know what happened." Reno shrugged, not looking worried or even concerned.

"Eh...Spikey probably just had a date with Geostigma, yo." Tidus furrowed his eyebrows.

"You what?"

"Never mind." Reno sighed and shook his head, hands palm up and spread at his shoulders. "We actually came to talk to him, but I guess..." He shook his head again.

"We should take them back." The other man, Rude, stepped forward, Reno and Tidus nodded.

"Cloud's bike is outside, I can take him back on that...probably." He bit his lip nervously

"We'll take Spikey in the 'copter, you take Tifa, yo."

"Ok..." Reno and Rude came up next to Tidus, Cloud and Tifa and grabbed the shorter man, holding him between them.

"Geez! What has this guy been eating!?" Reno huffed as they shuffled out of the door. Rude smirked slightly.

"It's all the buckles!"

"The guy eats buckles!?" Tidus drowned out their further conversation, kneeling down next to Tifa. He reached out and brought his arms under her knees and rested her back on his other arm and stood up.

She was actually quite light and couldn't weigh much more than Yuna. He walked slowly out of the church and left Tifa slumped on the handle bars as he turned t watch the large, helicopter, he thought, take off and head towards Edge.

"...Why couldn't they take both of them!?" Tidus sighed, but climbed on behind Tifa's limp form and tried to remember how to work Cloud's machi—bike. Crashing on the way back would suck.

XXX

When Tidus arrived back at 7th Heaven Yuffie and Rikku were waiting for him, together they carried Tifa into the bar and up the stairs passing by the two other men, who had arrived back long before Tidus had.

"What happened!?" Yuffie asked as they manoeuvred Tifa into her bed.

"I don't know. She was like this when we, Cloud and I, arrived."

"So what happened to Cloud!?" Rikku gasped, pointing to him as he lay next to Tifa.

"He...he just collapsed." Tidus gulped. Yuffie's eyebrows furrowed and she looked at Cloud worriedly. "One second he was fine...the next..." He gestured to the still figure.

"Did you see Marlene when you found Tifa!?" Yuffie cried suddenly.

"What! No. There for no sign of her."

"Oh no... Denzel's missing as well..." Rikku bit her lip, concerned.

"There's definitely something fishy going on..." Yuffie sighed, hanging her head dejectedly.

"Yunie!" Rikku exclaimed "Did you find her!?" Tidus's heart plummeted further at the thought.

"No..." She was gone when we got there, the place was trashed." Rikku's face fell and Tidus swore that he could see the beginnings of tears pooling in her eyes.

"Definitely something going on." Yuffie muttered again.

They all jumped as a loud knock came from downstairs, no one moved for a while as they heard the sound of a door opening and muffled voices floated up the stairs. Soon the sound of footsteps joined the voices and a bright faced red head appeared round the door.

"Mr. Dark and brooding is here, you go talk to him we'll stay here with these two yp."

"Thanks..." Tidus was confused as to who Reno meant.

They all trudged down the stairs and when they rounded the corner, coming into the bar, Yuffie let out a loud squeal.

"VINNNIIEEE!" and she flung herself at the person there, obstructing Tidus' view of him. The stranger caught her and she hugged him tightly, although the man barely moved.

"Yuffie." He murmured simply. Yuffie pulled back from him and grinned slightly. Now that he had a good view of the newcomer Tidus was reminded of Auron. Except this man looked younger. By a lot.

"He looks like Auron." Tidus whispered to Rikku. She smiled at him

"He brought me here when I first got...here...his name's Vincent."

The man, Vincent, appeared to have heard, he turned slightly to face them. "Rikku." He nodded slightly at her, narrowed his eyes at Tidus and looked back down at Yuffie.

"Is Cloud in?" His low voice was almost a whisper but it made Yuffie freeze.

"Well..." She explained everything very quickly to Vincent whose expression become more and more stony.

"I see..." Vincent retreated to one of the tables and rested a finger on his mouth, deep in thought.
Yuffie ran to the bar and grabbed a few glasses, pouring water into them before bringing them over.

All four of them sat at the table, thinking.

Who knew how long later, Reno poked his head out of the doorway (again).

"Spikey's away. Me and Rude gotta get back, yo. See you round." And he sauntered over to, and out of, the door. Rude following behind silently.

Vincent swept towards and up the stairs without saying a word. Tidus glanced at Rikku, who looked at Yuffie, who shrugged.

"That's Vinnie for ya."

XXXOOOXXX

Vincent leant on the door frame and coughed lightly, catching Cloud's attention.

"Vincent."

"Cloud." The terse greeting didn't seem so in the presence of these two...it seemed perfectly reasonable.

"Did you come for something specific?" Cloud blinked at him.

"I came to tell you something." Vincent stated calmly, the other frowned.

"Go on." So he told him about everything that Tseng had said. About DeepGroud and what they were planning on doing...and more importantly how they were planning on achieving it.

Cloud stared at him and although his face did not show any emotions his eyes gave away the panic he was feeling.

"What can...what can we do?" He murmured brushing his hand gently over Tifa's sleeping face.

"Fight them." Vincent blinked once, slowly and steadily.

"But we-"

"Cloud?" Tifa's voice raspily whispered and she fluttered her eyes open.

"Tifa?" Cloud bent down and stared at her. Vincent sighed.

"I'll...I'll leave you two...but...Cloud. Think about what I've said and...those two, keep an eye on them." Without waiting for an answer from him Vincent swept from the room.

OOO

"What was that about?" Tifa blinked confusedly at Cloud

"He...he just..." Cloud sighed and relayed Vincent's message.

"I see..." Tifa stared at the floor.

"What happened to you?" He turned to face her, eyes bright with worry.

So Tifa told her story.

"So he took Yuna and Marlene..." She whispered finally.

"..." Cloud's frown deepened. "What do they want?"

"It's obvious they're planning something."

"But what" He turned away from her again and faced the window.

"Cloud..." Tifa paused. "If...If they're killing all the Geostigma sufferers will you be safe?" Cloud stiffened visibly, his knuckles turning white as his gripped the window sill.

"I don't..."

"It's just...you're always protecting me...and the others...but what about yourself? We'll be safe this time. Please..."

No answer.

"Are you going to find them?" She asked quietly.

"Who?"

"Marlene! Denzel!"

"..."

"You can do more than one thing at a time you know!" Tifa snapped. "You can keep them safe and keep yourself alive. I know you can! We're a family and that's what families do!" She turned away from him and made her way out the door, "Or do you not believe that?" And downstairs.

XXXOOOXXX (Earlier)

"So both Denzel and Marlene are missing?" Rikku looked uncharacteristically grim.

"Yeah." Yuffie shared the expression.

"They must've taken Marlene when they fought Tifa...and taken Denzel before you two got back..." Tidus mused.

"What actually happened at the church?"
Tidus shrugged.

"It's like I said before. I don't really know. Cloud and I arrived at the church and Tifa was already almost unconscious. We were about to bring her back but Cloud just passed out! Then Reno and Rude appeared. We brought them back here and that's all I know."

Rikku and Yuffie just stared at him.

"Oh and apparently they stole Cloud's Materia or something."

Yuffie scowled.

"Ch. Safe place. Right." She folded her arms and huffed.

"SO basically someone came along. Knocked Tifa out, stole Cloud's Materia and kidnapped Marlene? Why?" Rikku shook her head despairingly. Yuffie said nothing.

"I really don't know..." Tidus sighed.

XXXOOOXXX

"Don't you see? It's perfect!" He giggled. "We tell them a lie, get them to round everyone up and then we kill them in the end when they've done the hard work!" Kadaj threw his hands up

"But they'll kill them..." Yazoo murmured.

"A few less won't make much difference. We don't need that many." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"Sounds like a plan then!" Loz exclaimed.

Marlene whimpered slightly and clutched Yuna's arm tighter.

"Shh...it's ok." She whispered. The leader heard and swung round grinning maniacally.

"Of course it is! Everything will be alright!" His grin turned into a sneer as he approached them. "Everything will be juuuuust fine."

XXXOOOXXX

They all looked up at the sound of rustling.

"Vinnie..." Yuffie said slightly sadly. Vincent didn't look round.

"I have to go..." And he swept from the room.

"Oh what are we to do!?" Rikku cried. Tidus completely agreed.

They sat in silence, agonising over the events of the past few days.

"Tidus, Rikku?" They heard Tifa's voice and turned. She wandered over and joined them at the table. Yuffie jumped up and got her a glass of water,

"I...I saw Yuna."

"WHERE!?" They cried simultaneously.

"She was at the church, but then a strange man came along and took her...and Marlene."

"Yunie..." Rikku whispered, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth.

"I'm sorry..." Tifa hung her head.

"We'll fine her. We will." Tidus stated firmly. "We have to."

XXXOOOXXXX

They stood just outside the new city, preparing themselves to enter.

"It's not much is it?" The first shrugged and turned to the other who tilted his head to one side.

"Eh...I dunno. It's got a certain charm." He laughed. After a few moments the first man joined in.

"Charming enough for you?"

"A few fires here and there might help its case." He mused, tugging the brown cloak further up over his head.

"Don't make me regret coming and getting you." The first man said sternly.

"I'm joking! Oh, will the hero be meeting us anytime soon? I kind of want to apologise..." The hooded man said to his brunette companion. His eyes darkened and his head lowered slightly.

"He's dead..."

The man's eyes widened and he gasped.

"What? Did ShinRa tell you that!?" He asked angrily.

"No. They told me he was dead 7 years ago, but I knew he wasn't. Until I found the proper records..."

"But he was—"

"Which were dated over 4 years later." The man finished grimly.

"I can't believe that." He shook his head.

"I don't want to believe it."

"Well, we must get on then. There's some revenge that needs to be paid don't you think?"

A/N

Original: Ehhhh yeah. Before you bite my head off, remember I am taking certain liberties to make things more interesting =D

The next chapter will be a special extra chapter! It won't be part of the storyline, buuuuut, it is made of alternate endings to this chapter. It's rather amusing so I'd advise you to read it when it does appear!

Edit: I genuinely don't remember what next chapter was going to be so? Sorry about that. Anyway this is the last I have written, the next chapter I have about…300 words written from 2012 still, so I have no idea where my train of thought was going.

Also, looking at the dates for these last few chapters being written around Christmas 2012 I realise that was roughly when I went away for a week and came up with an idea for my own original story which I found much more rewarding to write than fanfiction. I am still writing that story and it is not available online, but if the audience is there I will continue this.

Review if you wish me to continue and I will update ASAP.