Written because of a drabble meme and my curiosity with the FF8 fandom. And I always have a weakness for femmeslash. Part of what will be a series of stories in which I break the world open and mess with everyone's minds.
Everything was blue now. A dark unending sea of blue and Xu knew that she'd been born for this. Right here. Clean uniforms and definite orders.
This was the Empire, and even that small tingle of what used to be didn't bother her anymore. It had happened before in history and she knew it would happen again. People wanted unity. People wanted strength. People wanted the security that they provided.
Of course, Xu had been surprised it had been that girl that became Empress. But after having been in her presence once, she could feel it. That power. She didn't doubt after seeing that.
"Xu?" Her radio crackled. No more daydreaming. She unclipped it from her pristine blue uniform and put it to her mouth.
"Copy."
"We've got some reports of possible renegade activity out your way. Be advised."
She looked away from the ocean and studied the beach. Someone had been here. This was the problem with her daydreaming--she missed out on things. Evidence like this should have been obvious to her.
Xu waited, though. Instead of chasing, she would bait them. Most of the renegades couldn't resist a good bait.
---
She hated the sky. She hated the air that she was breathing right now. Her mother used to tell her that a little hate was good, that a little fire in her would keep her alive.
Hadn't worked for her mother or anyone. Fujin hated because that was the only thing she had left to feel.
That was the thing about being a footsoldier. About being a statistic. Fujin wasn't and never would be one of those strong personalities that would go into the history books. She was only the person that would give their life for one of those.
Seifer had been captured first, when Raijin had talked her into fishing. The big lunk had been caught in a crossfire. She'd told him to duck.
She'd told him.
Part of her didn't even care what they sentenced Seifer to now. There was nothing left but the sand and the stupid sky and bitter memories. Fujin was always on the wrong side. A good guy when everyone was bad and a bad guy when everyone was good.
When she saw her, she knew her immediately. Even in that dark blue uniform that they all wore now. Fujin herself had cast aside any kind of uniform. Without the leader there was nothing to keep the renegades together.
Only the knowledge that something was wrong about it all.
Fujin knew then, what she had to do. Xu would be a good example, a good revenge. She'd spit on that pristine visage and maybe she would finally find a good way to die.
If she moved quickly, she would catch her off guard. Honor didn't mean a thing if you were being hunted.
---
Xu had expected Raijin--if it was anyone that she'd known before. She'd never thought that the albino would last this long out here, especially if she heard the news that Seifer was going to be executed.
If she thought about it, they weren't very different. Their loyalty wasn't frail like most.
Neither was Fujin's arm. "I'm not going to kill you, you know!"
No answer. She didn't bother throwing the chakram now, instead trying to bludgeon her with it. Xu, for all her training, had never dealt with this kind of rage. Caged animal rage. Last chance rage.
To think that the misstep saved her.
Xu felt bone in a direction it wasn't meant to and then--then the falling. Rocks and then water. Everything was so blue. Maybe she was drowning, maybe she'd been stabbed and this was crossing over.
Only she'd heard there wasn't this comfortable kind of death for soldiers. That all that awaited was darkness and oblivion, like that one time when the world had almost ended.
What made her surface felt like a storm.
---
Fujin wouldn't let her drown. The crooked Knight honor that Seifer used to go on and on about that captivated her what seemed like lifetimes ago held fast in her mind.
Xu was her example. Xu was her conquest. And Xu wasn't going to die because of a misstep on the rocks. She was going to die gasping and fighting. She was going to die on even ground.
"STAY."
Fujin always hated water.
---
She was in her memory place now. Before the Galbadians had burned the fields. When she was small she knew that she made a poor farmer, but seeing the fields burn never left her mind. Xu had been poisoned while training once and she'd felt that heat the whole time...
Would Quistis be there this time, her hands blissfully cool to the touch?
"AWAKE?"
So that had been the storm. The eye of it was looking over her as she lay a little too close to the fire. The dark indigo-purple sky stood over them as if ready to swallow them in their tiny globe of firelight.
"I still maintain that I wasn't trying to kill you. If you come in quietly, there won't be any problems."
It sounded like a ridiculous thing to say at the moment, even to her.
"RIGHT."
There would be no more fighting that night, they knew. It would take a while for the magic to seep into her twisted ankle and the green glow in her blood was making her drowsy. She reached with her mind to see if she was junctioned--no. Fujin was too clever to let her have that.
Xu dreamed of tempests.
---
Dawn shrouded night and Fujin was thinking. What was the honor in not just letting the sea swallow Xu up? She'd had every intention of killing her before, did it really matter how?
Should give people a chance, ya? That's what Raijin would have said. He would have held her back with that huge paw hand of his and she wouldn't have tried to kill Xu in the first place. Too dumb to be cruel, she would often say to him.
But he was gone, and she was left with Trepe's less stunning friend. A girl that never was outside of a uniform and always managed to get it cleaned after battle. That long time ago when they were on the same side Fujin wouldn't have given Xu a second glance. Now she was the only thing that was human out here.
What a stupid Empire to send Xu out here by herself. Didn't they know what happened to the footsoldiers, the pawns? Fujin found no dishonor in being a pawn and yet...
"Anything you say. I'll do it, just tell me what to do..." Xu muttered in her sleep. The Cura had allowed her ankle to heal, but the grogginess would linger for days. She'd almost broken bone and nearly breathed in water. Things like that, no matter how well the magic fixed them would leave her out of it for a while.
Fujin wouldn't leave any impact here in the wilderness, here on the forgotten shore of some once country. If she wanted to make an example, if she wanted to leave something she would have to get to one of the outposts. Xu would be ready by then and Fujin could--she could be done.
"You won't die a pawn, Xu," she said in that tone of voice that scratched foreign in her throat. She was used to speaking only when it left an impact. Fujin wasn't elegant with words like Seifer was, or kind like Raijin was.
"You will die as something more."
---
When she thought back, back, back to it, Xu wouldn't be here if it weren't for Quistis. It wasn't a malevolent blame as much as truth. It was easy to follow someone like her. She was no Trepie, as she knew Quistis enough to not want to burden her with that kind of empty-headed worship. Loyalty wasn't the same as love. Loyalty was easy with an instructor like her. She smoothed over the edges of those harsh times when Squall was first Commander and she soothed everyone's worries when Rinoa took over the political side, and when she declared herself an Empress.
There had even been a joke that it was really Quistis that commanded the loyalty of the army, and Squall commanded the loyalty of the Emperess. Always someone keeping the other in check.
"Fujin." Xu could have sworn she'd heard Quists talking to her, reassuring to her. Telling her that she wouldn't die a nothing. But that had to have been the Cura talking.
"WHAT."
They were walking now, she'd noticed. Xu's feet could carry her without her mind's bidding. She wanted to ask a lot of things, like why she was alive, or if she was hallucinating it all, but her mouth moved without her bidding too. "Seifer's... he's alive still."
Because Xu knew, she knew from the half glimpses of the girl in the past that Fujin must have--and could still--have a Trepe too. That maybe in that lifetime when they were on the same side Xu had seen her once.
"SO." Her words weren't the same biting hatred, though. They weren't the same rage that Xu had seen earlier. And she knows now why she was kept alive.
"I just wanted you to know."
---
She could see why her mother had always said to keep the fire burning. Fujin had almost let the embers die down this night, and she wanted to shout that loud kind of curse that Raijin used to chide her for because of her foolishness.
Xu was shivering in her sleep, and she angled her head in that way so she could see her whole face. See the breath escaping her lips.
Fujin threw some twigs on to spark the fire again. She had to wait before she could throw a whole log on. Now that Xu was starting to regain her focus again Fujin had to bind her wrists. She had to keep an eye on her. If kept being compliant as she had been, maybe she would take her to fetch firewood for their next campsite.
She had to wonder if Xu knew her plan. She had to wonder why the control. If she were Xu...
Well, it was hard to speak for an Empire pawn anyway.
---
"I can help, you know."
Fujin seemed confused. Xu had figured out where they were going days ago--there was no use fighting her. Once she was in the range of others from the Empire they could take her in. Criminal she might have been, she still deserved a trial.
"WHY." It wasn't a question.
"Do you think I want to freeze at night?" Still not convinced. "Alright, I'll stay in your sight, and if I don't you can kill me. I won't fight back."
"FAIR."
She couldn't help but imagine a different tone of voice other than Fujin's clipped phrases.
---
The midmorning light obscured part of it, but there was no hiding the outpost. Another mile and they would be in range to be picked up any number of Empire minions. Fujin was channeling the wind god in her mind, preparing to blow with in Xu's graceful form like a gale.
The crunch of leaves had been the only sound for the last two miles. Their heads were held prideful high. It had occurred to her that no matter the outcome, neither of them would be forgotten. Someone would see. Someone would remember.
She nearly jumped when Xu placed a hand on her arm, poking at the metaphorical embers.
"WHAT."
"I wanted to say I agree with you. Even if I don't believe in what you do."
Maybe she had been the one to reach out first, to breach the distance. They were going to die and Fujin had always wondered how Xu's cold lips felt at night when she couldn't help but keep watch. It wasn't a betrayal this way. Not when Xu pressed her against a tree, not when curiosity became knowledge.
A mile away from oblivion Fujin was glad that hate wasn't the only thing that she could feel.
---
"Well, that's a shame."
"You know her?"
"Well, that there's Captain Xu, you know, one of General Trepe's. Must of got ambushed by some rebel."
"Must have been quite a struggle, they're both all tangled up."
"Better call in headquarters, give 'em the news. Isn't that one of Seifer's? Could swear she looks familiar."
"The renagades all look the same to me."