Empathy Chapter FOur: A Mother's Touch
Empathy: Chapter Four
A Mother’s Touch
A Final Fantasy 7 Fanfic by Hika-chan
Ralena was annoyed to find herself waking up in a ShinRa cell once again, she had hoped that the incident which led to her walking out of the Gold Saucer with two of the Turks was just a dream. But waking up to the cold concrete ceiling shattered that possibility. She sat up and looked around, this wasn't the same cell she had last time, as though it mattered much. The same memory she heard she heard when Rude had approached her replayed in her mind. She knew people at the Gold Saucer had seen her leave with them, though no one was in the stables to witness the conversation that took place before to know that she did not exactly leave voluntarily. How long would it be till the others found out she was missing? Would they think that she left willingly, that she was working with the ShinRa? Would they help her?
Ralena smiled, they would, but the question was how long would it take them? She knew that stopping the WEAPONS was a very high priority and they could more than likely do it without her. She thought through her situation, no doubt they had kidnapped her in an attempt to slow down the others.
The door slid open and she looked up to see Hojo with a two ShinRa guards behind him. She wasn't the least bit surprised when the only emotions she got off him were, greed, desire, and mild curiosity. "My, my, my, you certainly have grown since I last saw you haven't you?"
"What do you want with me?"
"I should think it obvious," the scientist grinned.
"Which one?"
He looked at her from over his glasses, "So you are smart as well. True the ShinRa hold more than one use for you, as do I." She took a moment to back up to the wall defensively. Hojo chuckled and shook his head, "Nothing like that I assure you. I am interested in a few things only you can tell me. For instance how exactly the treatment affected you." She narrowed her eyes at him and gritted her teeth. "And just what you and your friends said to get that wretched creature to leave his coffin." Her expression changed to one of confusion, and she did her best to block her emotions from coming out, should it somehow clue him in to her abilities. "And I'm sure there are a few things you would like to know."
"What could I possibly want to know from you?"
He walked up to her and whispered in her ear, "Your brother."
Her eyes went wide as he walked out and closed the door. She ran to the door, "Wait! Hojo!"
"When your ready to tell me what I want to know, I might tell you."
As he turned the corner she yelled for him to stop, "Hojo! Hojo! Come back here you heartless bastard!" As he dissapeared out of sight she slumped down against the door, and that same voice once again echoed in her memory "If they had any clue or indication of where you were they would hunt you down, and they would find you."
Rude looked up from his cards when he heard the woman they had picked up at the Gold Saucer. "Gee," Elena said putting some chips in the middle, "She really knows how to project. I wonder what Hojo wanted her for."
"Who?" Reno asked picking up two more cards.
"That woman he had us take from the Gold Saucer, aside from other things she's one of Cloud's friends."
"Why should that matter to him?"
Elena shrugged, "Hell if I know, maybe he did some experiments on her or something. From what I hear she's somehow related to the ancients."
"-hmph- Sure and I'm Sephiroth. Full house."
Elena threw her cards on the table, "Dammit!"
Rude put down his cards next, "Straight Flush."
"Where the f&^# is that woman? She was supposed to be down here and in the Highwind a f&^#ing hour ago!" Cid cursed.
Yuffie rolled her eyes before yawning, "Maybe she slept in, come on let's go look for her."
"What the-? Why should we go up there."
Yuffie sighed and walked into the trolly, who was shortly followed by Cloud, Tifa, and a colorfully cursing Cid. When they got around to checking Speed Square they found Haretia still in one of the stables being tended to by the Black Chocobo rider. "Oh hey there. Ya fella's you come ta git your friend’s chocobo?"
"umm... yeah, speaking of Ralena, have you seen her around?"
"Well I recall seein' her leave this here square the other day with two people in suits, I gotta say she didn' seem to happy about it."
"People.. in suits?" Yuffie asked.
The rider nodded, "Uh-huh, one was a little blonde thing, a girl, and the other was a man with sunglasses and no hair on 'is head. If ya go ask Dio I'm sure 'e can bring up some surveillance tapes to look at."
Taking his advice, Cloud, Cid and Tifa went to find Dio while Yuffie took Haretia back to the Highwind. What they feared had indeed happened, Ralena was taken by the Turks. "Great now what the f&^# are we supposed to do? We got WEAPONs up the ass, meteor ready to fall from the sky, Sephiroth sitting up in a f&^#ing crater, and she goes traipsing off with the goddamn ShinRa!"
Cloud brought his hand up in thought, "I hate to say this but, I'm not sure we have time to look for her."
"Cloud what are you saying?"
"Meteor is dangerously close, and we have to find a way to get to Sephiroth befor-"
Barret burst in the door and interrupted, "Cloud!"
"What is it?"
"The Diamond WEAPON was spotted it seems to be headed for Midgar."
"Well whatta ya know we just may be able to kill two birds with one stone."
Ralena sat in a large glass tube, when she woke up there she found her weapons beside her, it was so she could fight the abomination that now lay at her feet. The reason for this was so Hojo could test her strength, to see if the experiment had any effects on her skills. She coldly looked off to her left where Hojo stood in an observation booth, looking at several panels. Some bandages came up the elevator in the middle of the room and she crawled over so she could tend to her wounds.
"We're receiving some interesting readings," Hojo said heading towards her, "Tell me what's causing them."
She quickly blocked off her emotions, "I don't know."
"Professor, the readings have returned to normal."
Hojo thought about this for a moment, then looked back to Ralena, "Oh well on to other research, how is your health?"
"I'm bleeding what do you think?"
"It tells me you don't regenerate, tell me more."
"I don't know until I know about my brother," she said matter-of-factly.
"At last report he was still in the city."
"And when was that?"
"How's your health?"
She thought a moment not wanting to give him too much yet. "I've only gotten a major cold once since my escape."
"Hmm... possibly a heightened immune system," he muttered. "He was here yesterday. Tell me more."
"I have great endurance, especially in running."
"He works for the ShinRa."
"-heh- that could be anyone, he could be a janitor or a news broadcaster by that description. He could even be some stinkin' pervert on your 'unofficial' payroll." Hojo shrugged and waited for more information. "As you probably know, I'm very fast, but not that strong."
"He is officially employed by the ShinRa. I want to test your endurance."
"Not right now," she winced standing up, "In case you couldn't tell I'm a little wounded."
"Tell me how you found Vincent and you can go back to your cell to rest, If you tell me enough I might even send your brother to see you."
As she thought about it, she heard the elevator open, "Professor Hojo, the Diamond WEAPON has been spotted, President Rufus requests that you immediately return to the completion of the Mako Cannon."
"I will tend to it shortly." He turned back to Ralena, "Well?"
"I went to check out the mansion in Nibelheim because I heard it was haunted. I don't know why stuff like that intrigues me. Anyway I found the code to the safe, opened it, fought that little pet you left inside, which was very nasty by the way. Then I tried the key on the one locked door in the building, and that happened to be where Vincent was."
"And you were able to get him to leave."
"It wasn't easy, it took me at least a half an hour to con him into leaving, Of course one mention of your name and he jumped at the chance to put a bullet between your eyes."
Hojo put a hand up to his chin, "Hmmm. I have other things to attend to," He pointed to one of his assistants, "You, put the specimen back in her cell and have someone clean up the mess she made." She was about to yell that she indeed had a name, but before she could, she passed out from the gas that was already being pumped into the small chamber. Hojo looked at a vial of Jenova cells on his way out the door and grinned, "and give her a shot of this, I'd love to see how her body reacts to it."
The entire group most commonly referred to as AVALANCHE just landed in Midgar, literally. They had to parachute into the city. The group had split up into two teams, Cloud, Yuffie and Vincent were to go stop the Mako Cannon, and the others were to search for Ralena and Reeve, Cait's "controller."
During most of the fights Vincent had trouble concentrating, he had gone back to Lucretia's cave, only to find that she had left to confront her son. He was equally worried about Ralena, if Hojo had returned here and knew who and what she was, there was no doubt in his mind that she would be in danger. He began to think he should have gone in the other group to go look for her. If she was in danger he wanted to protect her, and if Hojo was here he wanted to be by her side all the more. Soon his thoughts were cut off by the appearance of the Turks.
Ralena woke up in her cell once again, Aeris and Ilfana were in the dream she just woke from, the others were in Midgar. Having nothing else to do she decided to try something new, hardly believing it would work. She closed her eyes and concentrated on a few people, trying to somehow draw them to her. She choose Yuffie, Vincent, Cait, and younger images of her brother. After about five minutes she stopped, she had trouble keeping her mind from wandering, and the attempt to send an aura out that far was giving her a headache. And for some unknown reason she felt sick to her stomach. Ralena put her legs over the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands, thinking.
After some time, she wasn't really sure how long, she heard the door open and looked up, the light from the hall and the darkness of the cell made it so that she could only see his outline. She stood up as the man entered slowly followed by two others, there was a cigarette in his mouth. As he went to relight the cigarette Ralena sighed, "Cid, you scared me."
"I ain't that bad lookin' am I?"
Ralena shook her head, and looked to Tifa and Barret, "Where're the others?"
"Cait and Red are with Reeve taking him out of the building, Cloud, Yuffie and Vincent went to stop Hojo before he finished the Mako Cannon."
"Mako Cannon? Hojo?" Suddenly she remembered something.
"Ralena what is it?"
"I... I can't leave yet."
"What? Diamond WEAPON is on it's way here girl we got ta get goin'."
"NO! Hojo said he would send my brother here!"
"Brother?!"
Tifa reached to her side and handed Ralena's weapons to her, "At least we should give you these."
"You mean we're gonna leave her here?" Barret yelled.
Ralena turned to him her eyes flashing green, "Look, my brother works for the ShinRa and if he shows up here, seeing three members of AVALANCHE sitting here he might attack. And I'm not leaving without him. Please you guys he's all I have left of my past."
"But what if-"
"I'm not leaving without him."
"Well If you're gonna be that f*&%ing stubborn then we better give you one o' these," Barret reached into his pocket and handed her something, it was a warp stone. "Now if he's not here when the place starts crumblin' around you he's probably already left and I want you to use that y 'hear?"
"Thanks Barret, now if what you said is true you guys better get going." When the others left she sat back down on the bed, rearrangeing her materia. It wasn't long before the door opened again. A man walked in, sporting a few bandages and a blue suit.
"Hojo left a memo for me, who are you and why should I care?"
"My name is Ralena," she said smiling.
"Ralena? Why is that so familiar?"
She stepped up to him, her hand clasped around her charm, "That's because I'm your sister, Reno."
Tifa's group met up with Cloud's and Red's just outside the ShinRa Tower. "Where's Ralena?" was the first thing out of Vincent's mouth.
"She's up on the prison level , she said she wasn't going to leave without her brother."
"Hold on a sec, what brother?" Yuffie interrupted.
"I don't know, but she was dead set on staying and waiting for him."
Vincent checked his ammo and headed towards the back stairway, "I'm going to get her-"
Cloud grabbed his arm, "But Diamond WEAPON is coming! We have to get out of here!"
"I know," he responded solemnly, "but I've got to do this, I owe her." He cast haste on himself and started up the stairs.
Reno was just getting to believe Ralena when several alarms started going off, "What's going on?" He pulled out what looked like a beeper and grabbed her arm, leading her towards the stairs. "What is it?"
"Diamond WEAPON has fired on us, we've got incoming." The two redheads ran down the stairs as best they could since both were still injured to some degree. In their haste Ralena completely for got about the warp stone in her pocket. They had just gotten to the 54th floor when a blast shot through the 53rd.
When the rail she had been holding onto pulled away from the side Ralena lost her balance and fell off the stairway. Reno rushed to the side. Ralena had grabbed onto a steel pipe, and begn to try to pull herself up. The two siblings reached for each others hands, but another blast shook the building and the bar slipped further down. All the shaking and jarring had caused the green charm to come loose from the folds of her shirt. "RENO!"
"Ralena hold on!"All the shaking and jarring had caused the green charm to come loose from the folds of her shirt. and in the second it caught his eye Reno knew what she said to be true.
"I can't! The bar is giving!"
Reno removed his coat, wrapping one sleeve around his hand, "Grab on to this!" Ralena reached for the coat.
"Dammit.. I knew I should have gone to the Gym more often...."
"Come on sis you can do this."
A weak smile made it's way to her face, "You remember huh?"
He nodded, "I'm not gonna let you fall Ralena, this isn't like climbing that tree in the backyard." She grabbed the coat sleeve and she felt herself being lifted up. "Don't worry," Reno grunted, "I got ya." He noticed something in her eyes then. An odd kind of recognition "What?"
"It's ripping." It was taking both of his hands to pull her up, he strained to pull her up faster, only to fall back against the wall after hearing the tear of the sleeve. He reached over the side. His eyes widened in disbelief. "RAL!"
Vincent just knew Ralena was in danger, and not just due to her stubborn nature, He grunted as anpther blast went through the building and rained rubble down upon him. Then he heard a shout. Blasting out what was left of the outer wall he went to the edge and looked up. Ralena was falling, she was a good thirty stories above him but that would not last long. He had to find a way to catch her! Then he remembered, his new limit. He pulled out his gun and aimed for his leg...
Ralena didn't scream as she watched her brother grow more distant but the sound of a gunshot below her somehow frightened her to the core. She shut her eyes and waited for the enevitable, whatever it would be. Next thing she knew Her decent slowed and she opened her eyes, looking into the black face and red eyes of a demon. Her eyes went green, calming it somewhat, "Up please."
Reno's expression changed to that of horror as he saw his sister come back up towards the landing which she had fallen from. A large winged demon had her in its arms, he backed away and it landed at the end of the steps, oddly Ralena did not look worried.
The creature made a move to attack Reno, and Reno did the same, but the empath stepped in the way, "NO! this is my brother!" Both looked at her confused. She took a moment to look over to the beast, "Can you give us a lift?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa... sis are we seriously gonna..." at a loss for words he simply gestured toward the demon.
"Yeah he's a friend."
He walked cautiously towards it, "Damn, what have you been doing all these years?"
"Just get over here."
Ralena sat at the table in the Highwind looking over some notes she had written concerning the events she witnessed at the ShinRa mansion, most involving Sephiroth. She looked up when Yuffie walked in. "Ralena, how are you?"
"Oh hey Yuffie, I'm ok. I'm a little tired and I got this headache, but otherwise I'm fine. How long till we get to the Northern Crater?"
The ninja shrugged, "I dunno. We're gonna take a little time to get some supplies and rest up first..... How's your bro?"
"He's a little worried about the other Turks."
"Where does this put you anyway?"
Ralena looked a little confused at the question, "What do you mean?"
"Well your brother works for the ShinRa and all...."
She shrugged, "Well I guess it doesn't change anything for me, besides right now the main enemies are the WEAPONs and Sephiroth. I hardly think that my brother's place of employment matters right now." Yuffie sat down on the table and the two talked a little longer before Reno wandered in with Cid close behind.
"Come back here you lousy ShinRa flunkie!"
"Hey Ral can you get this guy off my case? And who are you callin' a 'flunkie'?"
The girl's did their best to repress their laughter before Ralena responded, "I'm sorry but Cid doesn't listen to me much. Come to think of it he doesn't think listen to much of anyone."
"Damn straight, especially since this is MY airship buddy."
Reno rolled his eyes, "For the love of- Leave me alone!" The girls continued laughing as the two made their way out of the room. They stopped when they looked up to see Vincent in the doorway.
Yuffie cleared her throat, "I'm gonna go see if we can stop by Wutai," and walked out the door pass Vincent.
"Hey..." she said slowly.
He walked in towards the back so that he was standing next to Ralena. "How are you feeling?"
She shrugged, "I'm fine."
"I know Hojo was there."
She wrapped her arms around herself and looked away, "Yes, he was. But I found my brother."
"Are you sure you are ok? Did he... do anything to you?"
She shook her head, "Not that I know of, he mostly just asked me a few questions, and I had to fight some of his horrid creations, but that's about it." She thought a moment longer as an uneasiness set in. She looked up to Vincent, "How did you know Hojo was there?"
"We fought him. He's gone Ralena, we won't have to worry about him ever again."
She smiled weakly and nodded, "That's good."
"Ralena?"
"Yes?"
"When I caught you... at the tower, why weren't you scared?"
A look of uncertainty crossed her features. She looked up to him once again, her voice was low and very calm. "I... I don't know. Somehow, I just knew it was you. And when I was hanging off the side of the building I just knew I was going to be alright." She smiled again still looking at him, "It's strange but, I never felt... safer."
Oddly enough Vincent found this unnerving, and he was almost more worried than he was when he first came in the room. "Ralena..."
"Vincent, thank you," She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the check, "for always being there." She smiled again and looked at him waiting for something, then she just stood and headed for the door.
"Ralena?"
She stopped, turning back to face him expectantly. "Yes?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to change his mind, "Nothing."
She had almost a pained smile on her face, and she nodded walking out the door. The Airship turned towards Nibelhiem at Ralena's request, she had wanted to go back to the mansion to see if she could get more information to use to help Sephiroth regain his sanity. She realized how much of a long shot it was, but if it worked it would be well worth it.
Vincent sat in the grass not far from the town's inn looking up at the night sky, thinking. There was more to the letter than just saying that Lucretia had gone to face her son. She had said that the time for them had passed, that he had to move on. He pondered the implications of that and what had happened earlier with Ralena.
"A gil for your thoughts."
He turned to see Red sitting behind him on his haunches. "I didn't hear you come up."
"What keeps you out here so late my friend?"
"A choice."
"What choice?"
"One between two stars."
The cat nodded, though not truly knowing what he meant, "It sounds like a difficult one to make, so many stars look alike from way down here."
"These two are very different."
"If you say so, I don't know what stars you are speaking of." The beast walked up to his side and looked up. "Well the best way to choose is to look at them closely. Study them and find out what they mean to you. For that is all that matters."
Vincent cast a glance at Red then down at the grass and nodded. He stood, "Thank you."
"No need Vincent." He watched the cloaked man walk back to the town, just after he disappeared into the inn he said, "I hope you choose the right one for you."
As at most inn's the group had rented a three person rooms. Vincent quietly opened the door and walked into the room Reno, Ralena, Red, and he were sharing, actually surprised to find that the two siblings were done "catching up" for the night and had actually gone to sleep. He stood between his bed and hers, she lay on her side, her back facing him. He looked at her with a very near blank look. His expression softened slightly as he reached down and moved a piece of hair from her face without hardly touching her. A small sound escaped her lips as she turned over, now facing him. He sat down on his bed then, realizing that this choice was not going to be easy.
He had loved Lucretia with all his mortal heart, but in the end that had done them no good. And now she was gone, disappeared to find her son, if she even survived that long. She herself had told him to move on, knowing that he would not be willing too. But had he truly loved her still? It had been over twenty years since he was locked away, as penance for his sins, and Lucretia was not here.
But Ralena was.
Ralena had been here through it all, or at least knew it, and understood. He had been in her mind, and she knew his. "Ralena..." he whispered, not sure if he was trying to wake her up or not. "Ralena," barely louder.
Her eyes opened to little more than slits and her said her name again. "Hey Vincent... what time is it?"
"I don't know... can I talk to you?"
She yawned and sat up, "Sure... but you want to take this in the hall? I don't want to wake up Reno." He nodded and they went out into the hall, Ralena took the bed sheet with her having it wrapped about her shoulders, more for the sake of having it than to keep her warm. She yawned again, to tired to try and think what this was about. "So what's on your mind?"
"I've had not much to do recently but think and..." He looked out the window and tried to think of how to say what he wanted to. She looked at him curiously, his face looked so pale and smooth in the moonlight, but she quickly turned away tearing her mind from such thoughts. He turned to her, she was so beautiful he began to feel that even if he knew the words he could not say them. "Read how I feel," he said suddenly.
"What?" she asked, slightly more awake.
"I can't find the words to explain it, it's actually confusing to me. So just... read how I feel."
She angled herself better to look in his eyes, "Oh... Ok." She took a deep breath and yawned again. "Sorry, I don't usually do this when I'm tired and it's not often requested." She felt it then, the anxiety, the confusion, the need to get this over with, that same aching feeling in the pit of her stomach. He felt very much the same as she, but he was so torn between her and Lucretia he didn't know what to do. She pulled back a second, wide eyed, happy and scared at the same time. He could feel it, she was too tired to block it off. As he caught wind of the fear he began to back off, misinterpreting its source. A surge of panic came through her and she reached out a hand, grabbing the shoulder of his cloak to stop him. "Wait," she whispered, "I... feel the same way." She smiled up at him nervously as he slowly turned back to her.
"Ralena..." He smiled faintly and she looked at him in shock, he never smiled before. He brushed some of her hair away from her face. As his hand trailed down her face he leaned in closer, his soft lips touching hers. She closed her eyes and took in a shaky breath as he pulled away, beginning to think it a dream. She opened her eyes and he was still there looking intently into her hazel eyes. He kissed her again and the sheet fell about her bare feet, her arms falling limp at her sides. She was wearing boxers and her legs were exposed to the chill air in the hall, but somehow she had failed to notice. He pulled her closer, his arms around her waist. Ralena's hands ran up his arms and under his cloak as the kiss grew deeper.
Her grip tightened on his shoulders and her eyes went wide. He pulled back as she seemed to be frozen in shock. "Ralena?" Her arms wrapped about herself and she fell to her knees when she let go, no longer having his support. He kneeled beside her and put his claw on her back, it looked as though she was trying to scream, or breathe, or both. "Ralena what's wrong?" The fear and panic radiating off her terrified him, 'No,' he thought, 'this can't happen again, not her too!'
Ralena's mind raced, she could feel her body shutting down. Something was very wrong, had Hojo done something to her while she was knocked out? What did he do? Why was this happening now? The Jenova and Cetra cells in her body were fighting, the Jenova cells in her brain were vying for control. They had multiplied rapidly over the brief time spent in her body. "Vin...cent," tears began to trail down her cheeks.
Not knowing what else to do he picked her up and brought her back into the room laying her on the bed. "Reno wake up!" The Turk rolled over and groaned in his sleep. "RENO!"
"mmmm.. What?" he managed in a less than friendly tone.
"Something's wrong with Ralena." Reno sat up and turned on the light, temporarily blinding himself and Vincent. Ralena seemed unaffected, now curled up in a tight ball on the bed. Her back arched so sharply it almost seemed unreal as she managed a scream her hands clutching her head. "RALENA!"
She could here it now, a voice in her head, when it heard her it responded. "I know you... you were with the Cetra." The voice found great humor in this, "Amusing how I am now a part of you. Come to me girl, come to me now or die." Her mind throbbed
Reno asked, "What happened!?"
"I don't know we were talking when-"
He was cut off as she screamed again. Her arms began to thrash and Vincent moved to hold her down. "Come to me girl... come to me and you will live," the voice said, then with an amused twist it added, "my daughter." Ralena was in too much pain to think about the source of the voice, was it... mother? Was it really her mother? The pain eased ever so little as she thought that. "Come to me..."
People were beginning to peek in through the door wondering what was disturbing their sleep. Reno yelled at one of them, "Don't just stand there get a doctor dammit!"
'Not now,' Ralena told the voice, 'I can't go now.'
"Come here..."
'Where? Lifstream?'
The voice lost its patience and screamed, "Come to me!" The force of the mental blast tore through her mind like ridged blade. She screamed again and her eyes rolled back in her head and her body went limp.
"Ralena?" Vincent's panic rose but it didn't show, "Ralena!" he turned her face towards him, "Wake up!" She didn't respond. Her body was like a broken marionette in his arms. He reached over to her neck to feel her pulse, which was weak, but present.
Red, who had somehow gotten in the room without notice, spoke up, "She's not breathing."
"No... don't leave." Vincent put his lips down to hers and breathed into her mouth, he saw her chest rise and fall several times but she refused to breathe for herself. He tried for several minutes and was still doing so when the doctor arrived. The doctor went over to Vincent. "She's gone."
Vincent took enough time to give the man a look that would have stopped a WEAPON in its tracks and gave her another breath. "Dammit Ralena, Breath!" He breathed into her mouth again and when he pulled back this time she began to cough, her breath was shallow and weak, but she was alive. Vincent let go a sigh of relief as the doctor moved over to examine her.
Sephiroth heard laughter in his mind. "What's so funny mother?"
The alien creature known as Jenova smiled at her "son's" curiosity. "Thanks to that fool Hojo, you have a sister."
"A sister?" Sephiroth was confused, why would Hojo be responsible for that? "Do you want me to fetch her?"
"No."
"Why not? Is she weak, like the clone?"
"Hardly," Jenova responded. 'After all she's still alive,' she thought before continuing. "But I spoke to her mind and went through it. She'll soon come to us, a wolf in a pack of sheep."
Sephiroth grinned.
Ralena's head hurt, her eyes began to flutter open and she immediately shut them as the light seemed to bright for her. She lay still trying to remember what happened, but her mind was fuzzy and it made her head hurt more. She cleared her mind and realized her hand felt cold. She turned her head and slowly opened her eyes. There was a lump at the edge of the bed, mostly black with some red and gold. As her vision focused she realized it was Vincent, he had fallen asleep with his head on the edge of the bed, head laying on crossed arms. His claw was between his other arm and her hand. She smiled slightly as she remembered a little of the previous night. "Vincent," she whispered, her throat was dry and it hurt. She moved her hand weakly to see if that would waken him. He stirred slightly and she spoke his name again.
A rush of relief hit him when he saw her looking at him. "You're awake."
She nodded and smiled, "What's wrong? Why are you so relieved?"
He looked at her confused, "Don't you remember what happened last night?"
"I remember some," she said bringing her hand to his face, "But my mind is fuzzy, I can't seem to concentrate."
"Then you'd better stay here while the rest of us head to the crater."
She was quick to respond, "No."
"What?"
"I want to... I need to go, someone has to try and talk to Sephiroth."
"But will you even be able to make it? After what happened I don't think you should be fighting so soon."
"What happened?"
He shook his head, "You just collapsed, for no reason, I brought you back in here, and you began to scream. You seemed to be clutching your head in pain," he took her hand in his, “You even stopped breathing.”
Ralena sat up, "My head?" A brief moment of recollection passed through her brain. Come to me. "Was someone... calling me?" She looked at Vincent again, he looked extremely concerned.
The door opened and Yuffie walked in, her face lit when she saw Ralena sitting up in bed. She ran over and threw her arms around the girl. "You're ok!"
Ralena smiled, "Yes... I'm fine."
The ninja pulled back and gave her a stern look, "You have got to stop doing that! Passing out on us, the nerve. Once more I mean ONE MORE TIME and I'll kick you butt."
"I'll do my best not to. I promise."
Vincent looked doubtful, "Ralena..."
"Yes?"
"Are you sure Hojo didn't do anything to you?"
Ralena shook her head, "They gassed me a couple of times when they went to move me from one place to another, I suppose they could have done anything those times. I don't even know how long I was out, or how long I was there."
"It was only a day, day-and-a-half. Not much time to do anything," Yuffie said optimistically.
"That's true, but Hojo has always been an opportunistic creature."
Ralena rolled her eyes, "I'll be fine, now let's get going before it's too late."
"Very well, Yuffie, will you leave us a moment?"
"Huh? uhhh sure."
Vincent sat down on the edge of the bed and took Ralena's hands in his own. "Vincent? What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry."
She didn't understand, "For what?"
"I didn't keep my promise." He couldn't bring himself to look at her. "I said Hojo would never hurt you again. I failed."
She smiled and put her arms around him, "Don't worry, I forgive you."
Jenova grinned, her "daughter" was on her way with AVALANCHE. 'Soon,' she thought, 'Soon the clone and his friends will be destroyed, and soon the world will be mine!'
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Chapter Five