Promise by Aridea Moons

Chapter 1

The sun rises from its slumber and shines bright through the windows. Tifa wakes up from the table and finds empty beer bottles scattered around the area. She accidentally fell asleep on one of the tables while she was cleaning. As she gets up from her chair, she realizes that cloud wasn't home yet. Of course she knew this because Cloud carried a specific scent to him. She starts cleaning quickly but then stops when she hears Marlene walking down the stairs. She looks up to see Marlene rubbing her eyes, it was easy to tell that she just woke up.
Marlene: "Tifa? Why are you cleaning? Have you been cleaning all night?"
Tifa: "oh I fell asleep while on the job, they had a party last night"
Marlene: "oh"
Marlene rubbed her eyes but quickly replaced her sleepy face with a determined one.
"Ill help you clean! Since Cloud isn't home yet maybe we can visit the church" she smiled childishly.
Tifa: "I'll take you to the church on one condition"
Marlene: "whats that?"
Tifa: "We have to stop by the store and make sure you'll wake denzel up before we leave deal?"
"Alright" she smiled the happiest smile
Outside of midgar
The sound of an engine roaring and a motorcycle speeding fast in the desert, moving towards Midgar. Cloud looks over and sees Zacks sword slightly tilted. He stops his bike near it and gets off the vehicle. He stands infront of the sword and takes in the new details on it. Flowers, vines covered the bottom of the sword. He had only realized how long its been since the last time he fought Sephiroth.
Cloud: "Its been a while...I wonder how your doing up there". He stares at the sword, a image of a smiling Zack came into his head, remembering the joy he always brought in any situation. He smiles at the memory and positioned his sword correctly.
Market
Denzel walks around the store and sees children begging their mother to buy them some candy. "Oh please mom! I promise I wont bother you for a whole week?"
"Ya mom can u please?"
Denzel looks down and feels Tifas hand on his shoulder, letting him know he's not alone anymore. They both smile at each other and Marlene is picking out nice apples.
Tifa: "Why are you picking apples?"
Marlene: "Its for cloud, I wanna bake him an apple pie"
Denzel: "oh can I help?!"
Tifa: "alright how many are we baking?"
Marlene: "No its okay me and Denzel will bake it ourselves, I really want to surprise him when he gets home"
Tifa smiles at her generous thoughts towards Cloud. Randomly a dark shadow appears hiding in the corner of soup ile, Tifa looks over and is cautious of her surroundings but then cools off as she pays for the groceries.
As tifa and the children exit the store with groceries, the figure followed within a long distance but not directly from the ground. The figure was cloaked in black and was watching them from above.
Midgar- Sector 5
Marlene bursts through the church and attends the flowers that were standing while Denzel followed and touched the holy water that cured the geostigma a long time ago. Tifa watched as their faces showed joy but for some reason she was feeling strange. She was starting to feel an immense power, something dangerous.
Tifa: "We should get home if we want to bake the pie on time for Cloud"
The children followed Tifa out of the Church to 7th heaven.
Cloud was wondering around Midgar and stops by the Church, only to see Aeriths spirit again for a few seconds. Cloud feeling a little lighter than before still feels that the burden he set free a long time ago was some how still lingering inside him. As he looked down, he hears a piece of wood fall from the ceiling within the Church. He walks inside and looks up from where it fell. He saw a piece of black cloth but then thought it was a crow. Suddenly, his head started hurting, he grabbed his head with his hands as he kneeled down wincing in pain like before. He sees an image of Tifa lying on the flower bed. He was confused but shook it off and got on his bike heading towards the bar 7th heaven.
Seventh heaven
Marlene: "Oh its almost ready! Yay!"
Denzel: "I hope Cloud will enjoy it"
Tifa: "Of course he will"
...
The door opens and Cloud walks in to find Marlene and Denzel with worried and confused faces.
Cloud: "Everything okay?"
Marlene: "Tifa! Shes gone!"
Marlene ran to Cloud and shoved her face in his torso as she hugged him. Denzel was sweeping the shattered glass on the floor and Cloud saw a broken chair. He quickly turned his worried eyes to Marlene and kneels to her level.
Cloud: "Marlene what happened?"
Denzel: "There was a guy who came in, we thought he was a customer until we couldn't find Tifa and the man was gone too.."
He looks at Denzel who had responded instead and he could tell he felt guilty and upset.
Cloud looks down in guilt as if he did something completely wrong. He looked over at Denzel and asked if he said anything else. Denzel with a concerned look in his eyes says, "Me and Marlene heard a ruckus down stairs..." Cloud puts his hand on his shoulder and kneels down to face him.
"Its alright, I'll find her but I need to know that you two will be safe until Barret comes"
Denzel: "You're calling him? Why?"
"I need to make sure you two stay safe"
"No way! We should go out there and look for her together!"
Cloud: "Denzel...its too dangerous, I need you to stay here with Barret and make sure your safe. We don't know what that guy wants alright?"
Denzel nods in agreement and stays behind with Marlene. They both watch Cloud leave without a single word or hand gesture.
Denzel: "You think she's okay?"
Marlene: "Its Tifa...Shes strong and brave"
D: "but you think its something we should worry about?"
M: "I dont think so, I believe Cloud will bring her back."
D: "Ya...should we still leave the bar open?"
M: "Of course! We can't afford them to be behind rent while they are gone besides Barret will help us"
D: "Alright then..hey are we even allowed to serve drinks?"
M: "...Well..Im twelve and you're thirteen so..No but we will have Barret with us under super vision"
Marlene smiles at Denzel
~
Cloud looks up at the poster board in town and sees reports of people missing. He opens his phone and dials a number.
"Heeeeyy long time no call, what can I do for ya?"
"I need to talk to the president"
"Ooh whys that?"
"Its important"
"If its so important why not meet us at the old hide out then?"
Cloud ends the phone call and walks inside the building.
Reno: "well that was quick, if you were outside why didn't you just barge in like the last time aye?"
Cloud: "Trying something new"
Cloud smirks at Reno
Cloud: "I came here to talk with Rufus"
Rude: "What do you want to talk about with the president?"
Cloud: "none of your business"
Reno: "woaw there, we're all friends here right?"
Rude nods and says, "the president isn't available right now whatever you wish to discuss we can take care of it"
Cloud: "...the posters of missing people who is it thats taking them?"
Rude: "why?"
"Cuz someone took a comrade of mine without reason and I don't know who he is or what he wants" Cloud looks at them with direct eye contact and a cautious face.
Reno: "you think we hired him?"
Rude: "I assure you we dont have you're comrade as prisoner"
Reno: "ya we don't have your girlfriend"
Cloud arches an eyebrow in confusion from his response.
Cloud: "what do you know about their disappearing?"
Rude: "Well currently there are people from other countries randomly disappearing and it is possible that your comrade could be one of them if they were part of an experiment"
Cloud: "Do you know who they are and why they need people as pawns?"
Reno sits down on the couch and pours himself a drink
Reno: "I haven't gotten the guy yet ok?"
Cloud: "why?"
Rude: "well we had a mission that went south"
Cloud: "I see"
Reno starts drinking a cup of alcohol
Reno: "Looks like your out of luck"
Cloud turns away annoyed and walks out the door.
Reno: "Hey! Not even a drink?"
The door closes on both of them and Cloud left on his bike
Reno: "He never gets a break does he?"
Rude shrugs in response President Rufus appears from his studies in his gentlemen like attire.
Rufus: "I heard someone come in, was it a fellow comrade?"
Rude: "No it was an old EX SOLDIER friend"
Rufus: "hmph" he chuckles "What did he need?"
Reno: "He's apparently looking for one of his comrades and we don't know where they are so..not our problem right?"
Rufus: "hmm ya its not our problem unless we shared the same enemy then it would also be our problem, Rude look into it and call Tseng file a report"
Rude nods and makes a call outside
~
Cloud stopped on his tracks and called his friends for support.
Barret: "Hey spikey! You haven't called in a while-"
Cloud: "-Tifa's missing, I need someone to take care of the kids"
Barret: "wha-? Um ahem alright Ill take the kids somewhere safe while we meet at the bar like before that cool?"
Cloud: "ya call the others, I might need some help"
Barret: "Hah! Too hard for you to find someone?"
C: "heh..no I just think we might need help with our special talents at playing detective"
B: "Hah Glad to have you back then"