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Chapter Three - An “Exuberant” Reunion

“What happened back there Joanna? C’mon, get yourself usually cheerful self together! One more outburst like that, and you’re out of your job! Just get it together…” I couldn’t sleep that night. I kept wondering where Caroline could have possibly been by now. She was headed towards Midgar again. I would never forgive myself if that little girl died. However, I vaguely recall a small pocket knife gripped tightly in her bloody hands.

The next day, the day I was supposed to come in for work, I heard nothing of the sort from Manager about what happened last night. No reminders, no apology, and most importantly, no news about firing me. But I had to talk about SOMETHING!

“Umm… it’s been a few weeks since I’ve heard anything concerning Midgar.”

“Yeah, praise the Lord,” he said. He even seemed to be in a good mood today. “Oh yeah, some travelers just went into that room up there,” Manager pointed to the stairs smirking, so I decided to check on them. Hey, why not? It’s been long enough!

When I had gotten halfway up the stairs, I couldn’t believe my ears. I heard Tifa’s voice among the travelers. I felt like screaming “TIFA!” but I didn’t want to scare her to death. I was already up the stairs and just about to get Tifa’s attention when I heard one traveler say, “Sephiroth and I were like war buddies.”

“Who is this guy?” I wondered. I hid behind the wall and began to eavesdrop on the conversation, my dark eyes pleading in anticipation. [Please forgive me for not writing down everything that happened in the two hour Sephy flashback, but give Joanna a break!]

From listening in, I found out that he was Cloud ‘the wonderful young man’. Psh. When I heard that he went into Tifa’s room and went through her drawers I wanted to smack him in the face. Hard.

“He said all of this took place five years ago so no wonder I never saw Cloud when I was living in Nibelheim 5 years before that. Then Mom and I returned to Kalm, my hometown, when I was only 13; 9 years ago. My mother’s first husband was Vic (Victor) Geirdt. Then she had me 22 years ago. When I was just barely one year old, she divorced him and married Ken (Kenneth) Lockheart, and had baby Tifa when I was 2 years old. 10 years ago, she divorced Ken and remarried my father. (don’t ask why; money, I guess…) and she moved to Kalm and left him and Tifa in Nibelheim. 5 years ago, Tifa’s dad was murdered by Sephiroth, and Tifa joined AVALANCHE soon after,” I reminded myself, “And, Cloud said that Sephiroth told him that Jenova was the name of his mother. But, Sephiroth told me that Lucretia was the name of his mother! What the heck’s going on?” As I kept listening intently for the next few hours I began to wonder if Cloud would ever shut up! After all, I had Innkeeper duties and I wanted to check up on Mr. Manager, but I didn’t dare stop listening. This was the first time in SO long that someone knew something about Sephiroth! It may have even been the first time. I don’t remember.

As Cloud finished his story they began to leave the room. I felt suddenly flabbergasted and embarrassed that I was just standing there outside the door. I quickly grabbed a broom and began sweeping right when the door opened.

“JOANNA! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!” Tifa ran over to me and almost suffocated me in the famous little sister hug. That, of course, made me drop my boom on a big red/orange cat thing. The cat just bared its teeth and slowly backed away.

“You must be Tifa’s half-sister. I’m her friend, Cloud Strife.” Said the young man with blond hair and dark blue eyes that gave off a glow that kind of reminded me of someone else’s eyes I knew long ago. He gazed at me intently which gave me an uncomfortable feeling inside of me; like I shouldn’t even be here. Like I shouldn’t even exist. I nervously nodded my head.

“I’m Aerith Gainsborough. It’s a pleasure to meet you umm… Joanna.” A woman that I later found out was 22; just like me. Her light brown hair was in braids and her emerald green eyes showed a sign of comfort and kindness.

“I guess we’re all of a sudden introducin’ ourselves to ya. Yo, I’m Barret Wallace.” A gruff young man with dark skin, hair and eyes to match. He looked menacing, but I sensed more to him in his heart--a sort of pain and desertion. I don’t know why.

“Hello. I am sometimes known by Red XIII. I will excuse you for dropping that broom on my forehead.” The orange cat thing came up to me and eyed me closely; like a tiger would to a stranger, but he didn’t eat me.

“AAHH!!! You… you can talk to me!” I exclaimed, “ Red XIII, you’re amazing!”

He seemed pleased, “Thank you.”

I looked into Tifa’s dark red ruby eyes cheerfully, “Wonderful! Simply outstanding! You’re not in jail!” then I looked over to everyone else “And neither are you guys! This deserves a celebration! Happiness and joy!”

Tifa seemed to be getting the point by the guilty look in her eye. “Joanna, I’m sorry for making you so stressed… after all, I only visited you once in all this time. In all the time you were here in Kalm. And… and I wasn’t going to stop by your house!!! I… I didn’t want you to be sad. I mean, I’m only going to be here for an hour!!!” Tifa said in a sympathetic tone. She started to cry.

“Oh? And exactly how many times have you visited here without me knowing?? Huh?”

“ Joanna, please don’t start a meaningless argument right now!” Tifa replied with tears stripping down her face.

“ MEANINGLESS?!!”

“Yes, and we are going to have to save the ‘celebration’. Sephiroth is alive and we have to find him,” Cloud reminded everyone.

I stopped smiling, “Yes, and that’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about, ‘Cloud.’”

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“What? you want to come with us???”

“I’ll be discreet! It’s perfectly normal to want to travel with my little sister, right?” I asked rather impatiently.

“Well I see nothing wrong with taking Joanna along!”

“Thank you, Aerith.”

Cloud was still reluctant about the original option. He paced down the room scowling. “So, does that mean I have to tell the whole thing about Sephiroth and me all over again? You want to know, right?” He looked horrorstricken.

“Um, I sort of h… heard the whole thing f… from outside the room,” I admitted, pointing guiltily at the door.

“Yay!,” everyone said at once.

So that’s how I came to join Cloud and his… unique team. [From this point forward, I’m going to go by what the game of Final Fantasy VII did in that order. I just added a new character is all. I didn’t want to make major changes to the plot, because it’s so superb already. People think it’s getting overrated because of all the games it’s based on, but I never had a chance to do anything with it in 1997. I would be a talking baby!]

“I’ve just got one question,” I called after Cloud, but he seemed to have not heard me. “N…never mind then! I didn’t wanna ask you anything anyway!”

We all went downstairs and Tifa gave us each a PHS. She insisted that we say goodbye to my dad and our mom. So we walked to my house.

“Tifa! Oh, my darling daughter! Just let me look at you. How wonderful it is to know you’re safe! What’s wrong? Are you tired? Here sweetie, let me get you some coffee. Oh, how marvelous it is to see you two together again!” Mother started making coffee when she peered out through the window. She seemed to not care when and how Tifa got here.

“And do your friends want coffee too? Or are they too busy?”

Tifa went outside and invited everyone in. The only ones that insisted on continuing to look for people who know where Sephiroth might be were Cloud and that big red cat thing, umm… Red XIII.

“I’m not really a coffee fanatic,” Red XIII admitted.

Once we were at the table, Tifa blurted out, “Mother, Vic, Joanna and I have something to tell you. We’re going… traveling together.”

“Going… away? When you just got here? (sigh) Tifa, I understand why you must leave. Having a job like AVALANCHE requires a lot of dedication and effort. But…” Mother turned to me, “Joanna has her job of taking care of the Inn. Whatever will the Innkeeper do if you leave? What will your smalltime band, REINCARNATED, do without you? And when Midgar is having so many explosions! I’ve been hearing so many nasty rumors of Midgar! Oh Joanna! Please, sweetie, don’t leave!”

“**** Mom freak-out…” I softly said to myself in a rude tone as Tifa firmly jabbed me with her elbow.

“Mom, Joanna is two years older than me! She’s made up her mind. She wants to get out again and see the world! I mean, no one could ever find a better female fencer on Earth, anyway!”

“Aww, thanks Tifa,” I said, forgetting the argument we just had. “Haha, I’m only that good because Sephiroth taught me fencing when I was 12 of course,” I thought in secret; smiling deviously.

“You must understand, Mom! And Vic too!” Tifa pleaded. She was serious and really wanted me to travel and be happy. Even though she didn’t know my most important reason for traveling with everyone… “Everyone is going to watch out for her and Aerith. Not that they need it, mind you.”

The others ( Barret and Aerith) looked eager and anxious at the argument. Mother looked over at them. They had matching shell-shocked expressions, and it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that they were thinking, “This argument is going on too long.”

“So you want to see the world with your friends again. This is going to be hard for me.”

“I want Joanna to travel. The band will survive without her, and so will the Innkeeper and us,” Father suddenly put in.

“Vic, I trust your judgment, but…”

“Julie, they want to leave!”

I smiled, “Think of the bananas!”

“Quoi?”

“All right. I know I can’t stop you, Joanna. But… please, be careful! I’ll tell the Innkeeper you’re leaving right away.”

“Mom. Thank you!” Tifa and I said together as we hugged her. She started to cry. A silver tear went down her face. She could not hide it any longer.

“Leaving your 60-year-old Mother and your 55-year-old Father to search for me… interesting.”

“Goodbye, Mom! Goodbye, Dad!” I called as we went through Kalm looking for Cloud and Red XIII. It didn’t take long.

“Guys! I just talked with a man and he said he saw a man dressed in black and carrying a large sword heading towards the grassy fields! It must be Sephiroth!” Cloud pointed out excitedly. My heart started beating at a rapid pace.

“Sephiroth versus Zolom. Hmm… Now that’ll be an interesting battle,” I thought to myself as we headed towards the plains.

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The Girl who Dared is copyrighted by Jo-chan and of the Lost Waters.

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