Guilt’s Cost: Part LII

Masamune

Cid spent most of the day flying in silence chain smoking. He genuinely was not happy about having to hit New Nibelheim before going back to Costa del Sol. Every once in a while, he would cast a nervous glance back at Jaras, certain that he would do something but he never did.

Jaras sat with his hands folded in his lap, head turned toward the window. Occasionally he would drift off to sleep for a few minutes at a time due to his exhaustion and stress. When he felt Cid’s eyes on him he would pretend not to notice, but when Tifa faced him he would manage a polite smile.

Come afternoon they had landed in New Nibelheim. Cid turned to Tifa as she prepared to exit the plane. "Fifteen minutes. No more than that. If you aren’t back in time I’m coming and dragging you back by your hair."

She smiled back at him. "You know, you keep this up and I might be tempted to steal you from Shera."

"Yeah, I’m shaking in my boots." Cid answered flipping a hand at her. "Hurry the Hell up."

Tifa made her way to the house she and Cloud had shared. A chill went down her spine as she stood in the family room. Although it had only been a few weeks, it seemed like she had been gone much longer. She walked over to the fireplace and looked above the mantle. There she found what she had really wanted to come to Nibelheim for. Tifa reached up and removed Cloud’s proudest trophy from the wall. He had carried Sephiroth’s masamune home from the North Crater and it had rested upon their wall ever since. Tifa examined the sword momentarily before sliding it back into its sheath.

She set the weapon by the front door before running up the stairs to her room. Tifa entered the room and inspected it. There was a large dark stain on the blue carpet where Cloud had laid bleeding after stabbing himself. Tifa covered her mouth with her hands when she saw that the sword he had imbedded into himself was lying on the bed. The fact that his body was still unaccounted for caused her to tremble. She knew he was dead, he had to be after the injury he had sustained, at least that’s what she had thought. Now her certainty was faltering.

Time was running out and she shook herself out of her reverie. She went to her dresser and pulled out several articles of clothing, then stuffing them into a bag she had retrieved from the closet. Once she had all the things she had wanted, she took one more look around the room before going back downstairs.

She grabbed the sword that she had lain by the door and exited the house. Tifa failed to hear the few shouts of her neighbors as she walked back toward the plane. She wanted to get out of New Nibelheim as quickly as possible. There was nothing for her here anymore.

While waiting for Tifa to return to the plane Jaras had pulled a book out of his pack and had started reading. Cid had made one comment about Jaras’s reading glasses, but when he was met by a cold and somewhat frightening gaze from him he backed off. Jaras would tolerate a lot, but not when it came to the fact that he had to wear glasses to read.

Turning back away from Jaras, Cid mumbled. "Yeah, pull the fucking Sephiroth stare, that’s nice."

Jaras sighed and turned his eyes back to his book. "How old are you, Mr. Highwind?"

"Thirty fuckin’ nine." Cid said. "Still managed to get laid on my birthday, thank you very much."

"Congratulations, I guess." Jaras turned the page, quite able to talk and read at the same time. "I wondered how old I was. My hair didn’t help being as that it was obviously silver despite the fact I was not an old man. If my math is correct and I am Sephiroth, that would make me thirty four, would it not?"

Cid shrugged, dropping his last cigarette into the coffee can. "Yeah, so, what’s your point?"

"Just that I find it amusing that you are so willing to make fun of my glasses when it is very likely that you yourself probably need them." Jaras didn’t display the smile he felt.

Cid turned in his seat and faced Jaras. "I’m a God Damned pilot. I have perfect eyesight, always have."

Jaras looked up from the page before him and appeared thoughtful. "Really?"

"Yeah, really." Cid crossed his arms.

Jaras lifted the book from his lap and turned it to face Cid. "Then what does this page say?"

Cid immediately flushed in embarrassment at being called on his claim. No matter how hard he squinted he couldn’t make out the words printed on the paper. "Well shit Seph… Jaras! No one could read that from this far, it’s too damned small!"

"Oh, my mistake." Jaras laid the book back into his lap.

Cid continued to stare even though Jaras simply returned to reading. Apparently Sephiroth’s weird sense of humor was alive and well.

Tifa flung the door to the plane back open and climbed in. She threw her bag of clothes into the pile with her other, and carried the sword with her. Both Cid and Jaras turned to greet her.

"Hi." Tifa walked up to her seat, still clutching the sword in her hands.

"What the Hell is that?" Cid asked, already knowing the answer.

She handed the sword over to Jaras. "I thought you might want this."

He took the sword from her and pulled it half way from the sheath. Jaras’s face flashed with recognition. "This… this is Sephiroth’s masamune isn’t it?"

"Yes." Tifa nodded. "Cloud kept it all these years, but now that he’s gone, I figured you should have it back."

He returned the sword to its sheath with a click and looked up at Tifa with sad eyes. "Cloud is dead?"

"Yes." Tifa sighed quietly. "He killed himself a few weeks ago."

"God, I would have thought I would have heard of that with all the newspapers I read." Jaras turned his sad gaze back to the blade in his hands.

"Well, no one was able to find the body. I don’t know what happened to it, and maybe I don’t want to, but I know he was dead when I left." Tifa gave an insincere smile.

"I’m terribly sorry to hear that, Ms. Lockheart." Jaras had wanted to meet the hero for himself, but now saw that chance disappear.

"It’s okay, Jaras." She turned forward in her seat. "He was unhappy with his life. I can only hope that he has found peace. Oh, and Jaras?"

"Yes Ms. Lockheart?" He replied.

"Just call me Tifa, okay?" She looked back at him quickly.

"You got it." Jaras again became absorbed in his book.

Cid started up the plane and got them headed back to Costa gel Sol. Finally they were back on track, and he was determined to have Tifa back by nightfall if it killed him.