AN: Okay, This is just a combination of a bunch of different things I had running through my head, I only spent maybe 45 min on it. Some parts probably won't make sense so don't think about it too hard.
I watch Karu as she sits on a stone on the cliff I asked her to meet me at. Her silver locks blow lightly in the breeze, and the light of the setting sun dances in her grey eyes. She is truly beautiful. An angel put on this planet to torture me. For as much as I wanted her, I could not have her.
Our group had meet Karu a few months ago when we were fighting a large group of 23 fiends that had ambushed us. The Avalanche members fought hard, but we were losing slowly. If it weren't for Karu, I have no doubt we would have died.
~Flashback~
Yuffie hits the ground unconscious with a large wound bleeding on her leg and I curse, pulling her over to the unconscious Barret. The fiend had hit him first before any of us had a chance to flinch.
I check everyone else. Cloud was holding his own, but I could see he was tired, thankfully the mako in his veins helped his fatigue as he cut though the fiends.
Tifa was pretty banged up and tired. She had used nearly all her energy casting cures on us early on, and she took the hit for it. She had gashes on her arms and back, and her knuckles were bleeding heavily, she had resorted to leaning on a tree, barely able to attack the fiends that now came her way.
Nanaki and Cait were fighting alongside Cloud, also weakening from spell usage.
Cid was swearing, but not with the usual vigor, a sure sign of his fatigue, he had taken to guarding Tifa who the fiends were beginning to target in her weakened state. He had several arm lacerations as well.
A growl to my side causes me to spin Cerberus around a rater overgrown fiend, calmly I pull the trigger.
Click.
The fiend tackles me to the ground and lifts a clawed hand, slashing me across the ribs, and more fiends circle smelling the fresh blood. I vaguely hear my comrades shout for me, but I know I'm done for.
A blinding light fills the air, and the fiends screech, being sensitive to light. A massive fireball screams through the air, obliterating the fiend entrapping me, and at the same time a green light surrounds me healing my wounds.
I drag myself up, and watch as black devices fly though the air and explode amongst the frazzled fiends.
The fiends however hold their ground, leaving us still surrounded by 10 monsters. A black blur streaks behind the monsters, and a second later, the fiends fall apart, dead.
We stand shock still, staring at the fiend corpses as a green light envelops the entire group, healing all our wounds.
"Ok. What. The. Fuck." Cid curses wide eyed at the massacre.
"Hey!" Cloud calls out into the dark Forrest. "Who are you?"
"Aug! Why are you yelling?" Yuffie groans, regaining consciousness.
"Someone or something killed the feinds." I state blandly. Cid pulls out a cigarette.
"Yeah, and used some fucking enormous magic too." Yuffie perks up at the mention of magic.
"Really? I wonder what kind of materia they use?" I ignore her and scan the dark woods, a glint of metal catches my eye high up in a tree, and I motion to Cloud. He follows my gaze and nods to me. I slowly approach the tree.
"Come down, I've already seen you" I say up into the branches, what surprises me is the person appearing in front of me, melting out of the shadows soundlessly.
They wear a hooded black trench coat with a hood, and a dark blue scarf around the lower half of their head. Long black leather gloves and boots cover the rest of the person. Twin katanas rest on their back and a crossbow on their hip. The only feature visible on them is their eyes which are a steel grey and a long silver wiry tattoo going over their left eye.
We stand in scilence, neither willing to say a word. A groan sounds behind me.
"Damm Vincent! Pull the rod out of your ass and talk to um!" Cid's gruff rebuke slices through the silence, and humor enters the strangers eyes.
"I am Karu." The stranger finally speaks, and the feminen tone makes it clear it is a woman, Cloud steps forward.
"Thanks for your help, we'd be toast without you." Karu nearly nods, and Yuffie hops forward.
"Hi! I'm Yuffie! Do you have any materia?" I almost grin. Yuffie could be so deadpan.
Karu shakes her head no. and we all give her a confused look. "But didn't you cast the spells?" Tifa asks, and Karu nods.
"Yes, I don't need materia though. For you see, I am the materia."
~End Flashback~
We convinced Karu to come back to the bar with us, there she revealed her dark origins.
~Flashback~
"I was an experiment of Shinras." She says without a hint of emotion.
"I was born into the lab, though I have little recollection of those dark days." She says mildly, and I cring slightly at her coldness. It reminded me too much of myself.
"Materia runs through my blood, as does mako. At 14 I was injected with stagnant life stream that made me able to meld with the shadows, this also causes me great pain, and made me immortal."
"Why did you help us?" I find myself asking, and Karu regards me coldly.
"Because you needed it."
~End flashback~
Karu remained with us, and slowly came out of her shell. Deep inside, past the icy shield, she was a warm, loving being. I began to fall in love with her.
I didn't mean for it to happen, but I couldn't stop myself. It was like swimming against the current without a shore to reach out to. Eventually I would have to let the river carry me.
She was gentle and kind to all that she knew. She never asked about my dark past, nor my claw. She would talk to me when I wanted it, and leave when I didn't. When I asked her why she wasn't questioning me she simply said it didn't matter.
That was the night I first kissed her.
Finally, I felt as though I could open my heart, demolish the wall I had painstakingly built around it. We were lovers, and I was happy. But it didn't last.
The process that made Karu able to meld with the shadows around her, created a link between her and my demons since they were both born of stagnate life stream. My demons hurt her and I could do nothing to stop it.
Whatever injury they gave her in her dreams she received in life if she didn't keep constant control over the link.
The breaking point was the night after we first slept together….
~Flashback~
I am awakened by Karu's thrashing. Sweat beads on her forehead, and a cut blossoms on her cheek.
"Karu! Karu!" I grasp her shoulders and shake her, but she wont awaken. A massive gash forms on her stomach in the shape of Gailen beasts claws…
Dozens more slices form on her skin, and the sheets turn deep burgundy…..
And I cant do a thing.
~End flashback~
"I'm leavening" I deadpan as soon as the sun sets, but Karu doesn't look up.
"Ok, when are you coming back?" She asks, and I cringe. This is the darkest sin I will ever commit.
"I'm not coming back." I bite out, and Karu looks at me shocked, before narrowing her eyes.
"Why?" I take a deep breath and close my eyes.
"I cant live a lie anymore." Karu furrows her brow in confusion.
"What lie? Your not making sense." She finishes with a sound of annoyance. I bit back my self hatred.
"The lie that I love you. I don't want you." With those last four words, all the color drains out of Karu's face, and here eyes turn glassy. She spins on her heel, putting her back to me.
"You'll forget me with time." I whisper, and Karu finally turns to look at me with teary eyes.
"How?" She asks. "Do I mean nothing to you?" She demands as she takes a step towards me.
"Am I a machine without feelings? Do you think because I am cold, obscure, scarred, and little that I am soulless and heartless?" She asks, her silver hair quivering from her agitation.
"Well I have just as much soul and heart as you, and if I had been blessed with warmth an beauty I would make it as hard for you to leave me as it as for I to leave you." She whispers before turning her back on me again.
I am struck dumb by her words. Can't she see how much it pains me to be torn from her? Is she so blind as to think I don't care for her? Curse my demons, I do all that I am to protect her.
"I will leave you. As much as it pains me I would not tie you to myself in anyway if you were unwilling. I will sooner die than put you through one moment of discomfort." Her voice quivers but her expression does not falter.
"I…" I try to speak, but the words die in my throat, and Karu's eyes soften.
"Even if you care nothing for me I love you." Tears start to fall down her face. "I have died every day waiting for you Vincent, and time will stand still when your gone. I will love you for the next thousand years of my immortal life, and then I'll love you for a thousand more." Karu ends in a whisper.
We stand in scilence for a moment. Karu walks forward, and places something into my human hand, looking down, I see its her necklace.
I shake my head, "I cant take this." Karu just smiles weakly, tears streaking her face.
"Its mine to give to you, just like my heart." She leans forward and places a kiss on my cheek, and I feel her tears touch my skin. Every part of me aches to wrap her in my arms and never move again, but I'm rooted to this spot and cannot move or risk everything I have.
Karu steps back towards the cliff, and lifts her hands to her sides. "I'll be waiting Vincent, I love you." And with that, she dissolves into the shadows, disappearing into the night.
I stand motionless, until with a shaking hand I put Karu's necklace around my neck.
"I'll love you for a thousand more…my angel of the night."
AN: I had a couple inspirations. Christina Perri's song "A Thousand Years", The 2011 version of Jane Eyre, and the LOTR. A good combo in my opinion.