Hearts of Destiny is four years after the Meteor Crisis(yes AC and DoC have already happened).


FYI: “talking”

‘thinking’

flashback

‘Phone talk’ (the voice of someone on the other end of the phone)

dream

TifaValentine_infinity100

Chapter Eins: Revival
The 7th Heaven was full of customers on a stormy night in May. Tifa rushed about giving and taking orders. Cloud, being home for the first time in months, was helping her as well. Soft music was playing over the talk of the customers and the bartender. It was two in the morning before the last customer stumbled out the door for the night. After flipping the open sign to closed, Tifa plopped into a booth exhausted. Cloud looked at her and smiled.

“there were a lot of customers tonight.” Tifa nodded at this. Too many for her to have served herself.

“It’ll help with the bills and the kids.” Cloud chuckled and went to put the bottles of alcohol away.

“We should be getting to bed…do you want me to watch the kids tomorrow?” Tifa blinked. “so you can rest up…” Tifa nodded to him.

“thanks, that will help.” Cloud laid a hand on her shoulder and then climbed the stairs to his bedroom. Tifa sighed and soon followed and went to hers. She fell asleep before she even hit her pillows.

The rocks in the Northern Crater shook and crumbled as Sephiroth awoke from the Lifestream. He groaned. He had a huge headache from his defeat by Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart, and Vincent Valentine of Avalanche.

“Damn it…that smarts…”The throbbing in his head seemed to give him an illusion, or so he actually thought. There were two people standing before him. A man and a woman. “Who the hell are you?”

The woman leaned against the wall. “such language…” her voice purred. “Not a very nice way to thank us for reviving you.”

“I’m asking again…who the hell are you?” he repeated.

“Gonza Loda,” the man said.

“Ultimecia,” her eyes seemed to glow somewhat.


‘Is she fused with Mako as well?’ he stood and faced the two. “I am Sephiroth.” He didn’t really trust them just yet. “But why should I trust the likes of you?”

“Heh,” Gonza started laughing a harsh laugh. “She is a sorceress from the future, 5000 years, who wanted to take over the world with her powers.” Sephiroth’s eyes darted to her.

“Is that so?” Sephiroth narrowed his mako-green eyes.

“Yes, and to think…I used countless people to help me, but nothing helped agains the SeeD brats that defeated me.” She looked at Gonza. “Still we’d be much more powerful if the three of us combined our strengths to defeat those SeeDs, Avalanche and that devil woman that defeated Gonza.”

“and?” Sephiroth interjected.

“you and I wouldn’t be alive if she had killed him…”

“Fair enough…” Sephiroth looked at the entrance to the crater. It was the first time he had seen the sky in a very long time. Four years.

Vincent sat in Lucrecia’s cave with his eyes closed. The soft sound of water filled the air from the cave’s entrance. The entrance was a waterfall. He jumped slightly whe his phone started vibrating violently. Looking at the caller I.D. he noticed it wasn’t Yuffie or Reeve. It was Tifa.

‘Why would she be calling at a time like this?’ he thought before answering. “Hi Tifa.”


‘Oh, thank Gods you picked up!’ he could tell there was worry in her voice.

“are you all right Tifa?”

‘hmm? I’m fine!’ there was a pause. ‘Actually, have you seen Cloud?’

“Not in the past week…I thought he came home?”

‘He was…he was supposed to watch the kids today. The kids are in the kitchen and he’s nowhere to be found…He’s not in his room. I don’t know if he went traveling or what but he promised. And I--!’

“Tifa…” he interrupted her. “Did you hear the fenrir this morning? Or the phone?” he heard her climb the stairs.

‘hmm…Reno seems to be the last caller…’

“and the time?”

‘4:30 am…”

“Then that’s where he is.”

‘Why didn’t he wake me?’ she received no answer. ‘Vincent?’

“I’m still here…just thinking…”he trailed off in thought. ‘It’s not like Cloud to not tell Tifa that he has to leave--.’

‘I found a note.’ Tifa said, snapping him out of his reverie.

“It took you this long to find it?” an eyebrow rose.

‘shut up, it was under a stack of delivery papers.’

“Why would he put it there?”

‘I dunno…ask him Sherlock!’ he heard her throw something. ‘I’m sick of this! I’m sick of him leaving me like this!’

“Do you want me to come by for a while?”

‘Yes,’ she sighed. ‘I think that’s best, thank you…’

“I will see you this afternoon, then?” he looked at his watch.

‘Eh?! That early?’

“You’d prefer I came at night?” he teased her. She was known for her great hospitality in the group.

‘Well, no! I…’ he chuckled. ‘What’s so funny, Valentine?!’

“I was kidding.”

‘Meanie…’ he could tell she was pouting slightly.

“Bye, Tifa.”

‘Bye, vincent.’ She then added, ‘Denzel can’t wait to see you!’ before hanging up.

He smiled and flipped his phone closed. He stood and looked at Lucrecia, before turning and leaving. He then lat Chaos’ wings out of his back to fly to Edge.


Marlene and Denzel watched Tifa hurry around the house, cleaing and getting ready for her guest to arrive. No sooner had the clock hit 1 ‘o’ clock had Denzel hear a knock at the door. Denzel opened it and saw Vincent standing there. He seemed tired but didn’t show it at all.

“Vincent!” Marlene squealed in delight and ran towards the gunman and giving him a bear hug.

“Hello you two.” He smiled at the two children. “How are you?”

“Good!” Marlene smiled as well. Denzel nodded to him.

“I need to talk to Tifa, where is she?”

“Upstairs I think…” Denzel responded. Vincent nodded and disappeared up the stairs and found Tifa studying her handy work in the guest bedroom. He put his arms around her waist making her squeal in surprise.

“Vincent! Don’t do that!” she glared at him as he let her go.

“Nice to see you too,” he chuckled. And then went serious. “I found something…”

“Hmm?” he held out his claw to her and she gasped. A small battered up black kitten was shivering in his claw. It was soaked with blood. “What happened to it?” she nursed it in her arms and it mewed at her in thanks.

“I found him being attacked in an alleyway by a dog.” He pulled out another potion and let the kitten lick it off his hand. It seemed to perk up slightly. “the potion is healing somewhat…he also has a broken leg.”

“Which one?”

“Back right…”

“Thank you for bringing him to me…” she walked into her room and made a small bed with one hand for it. She laid it down gently and started nursing him again. He mewed at the potion he was being given and licked it down happily.

“You should give it to him twice every three hours.” She nodded and stood.


“sleep, okay little guy?” he looked at her with his yellow eyes and nodded slightly before licking his front paws. “I don’t think we should tell marlene about him for a while. He needs to heal.” Tifa said walking out of her room with Vincent.

“I disagree, she will want to know about him as well as name him.” He told her.

“I know…but he’s badly hurt.” She looked back towards her room with worry.

“She’s old enough to realize that, Tifa.” He told her. He was about to say something else when he heard the fenrir turn off.

“Cloud!” both children said happily. The front door opened and the two adults descended the stairs to see Cloud totally soaked.

“Tifa, Vincent, I need to talk to you two.” They looked at each other and then nodded.

They walked into the living room and Vincent and Tifa sat down on the loveseat. Cloud looked at them and then told them why he had gone to Rufus at quarter to five in the morning.

“why did he call?” she asked him.

“The Turks found something.” He pulled out a small bottled liquid. “This is blood from a Nibel wolf that attacked Rocket Town yesterday.”

“That is not normal wolf blood.” Vincent then realized what it was. “That is Jenova enhanced blood.”

“What?!” Tifa looked totally surprised. “I thought we killed off all of the Jenova enhanced monsters.”

“We did,” Cloud then took his cell from his pocket and went to the last caller’s message. “Listen to this…”

Tifa took the phone from him and played the message.

‘Yo, this is Reno.’ Reno’s voice was light as usual. ‘We found something interesting I think you should see. We found Jenova enhanced monsters all around Neblihem last night and they all seemed to have been guarding something. We need you to come to Healin as soon as you get this message.’ He then took the phone from them and closed it.

“They found someone who had seen Sephiroth as well.” Tifa gasped and Vincent stared at him suspiciously.

“How do you know that it isn’t some prank?” Vincent responded.

“It wasn’t.” he looked out the window for a few moments and then looked at them again. “the Turks and I saw him too.”
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so? anyone like it?

Hmm... interesting.

Personally I think there could be a bit of a confussion between the thinking text and the phone talking text, since it is the same. I had no real difficulty telling the two apart, but when one person is thinking while on phone I can see how it may cause confusion for others, thus I propose that you put the 'thinking' text in (parenthesis) FFVIII style. Also the font seems to be the same for dreams and flashbacks which could cause some confusion. Feel free to utilize some of the forums different font colors or if that's something you don't want to mess with since you post your stuff on fanfiction.net perhaps utilize bold and itallic text or maybe even a different font type. There's also a few gramatical/punctual things I could nitpick, but hey I'm not an english major or minor so I'll shut up on that note.

Other than that I just wasn't feeling some of the characters. For example Sephiroth bluntly saying "who the hell are you" seems out of character for him. Sephiroth has a more cool and educated selection of words, much like Vincent. Blurting out "who the hell are you!?" is something I see a naive, cocky, energetic character like Rufus or Seifer saying. Sephiroth however would have a calmer, less spuratic response. A simple "Who are you?" or "And who might you two be?" would cut. If he wanted go for a more smartass remark he could have said something like "Who are you who wonder so carlessly upon The Chosen One?".
Tifa was a bit iffy too, but I can buy it because you simply interpret her personally and some of the things she'd do/say a little different than I. Vincent was good though, shows some signs of having opened up a bit, which is expected over time, not sure if he'd be daring enough scare Tifa by jabing her in the sides from behind. I see Vincent as scaring people in a more reserved way ie he just pops in the doorway and says "Hello, Tifa" startling her because he entered so silently into the room.

I don't mean for any of that to be too harsh, its just critique and I'm just trying to help you out. I do like the story, it seems interesting and should be a good read. A FF/KH cross-over I take it. I like the idea because I've had plans for several years now to write a bit of FF/KH cross-over, basically to explain how all the FF characters got into KH and are on different missions now and have aparently forgotten thier true worlds. (For example Squall, Yuffie, Aerith and Cid all believe the world Hollow Bastion is thier home.) Anyway it seems like a good read and if you keep updating it here I'll keep reading it...and I'm not just saying that to make you stick around...I have a bit of a personal vendeta against fanfiction.net.