Disclaimer: Don't own and never will.
AN: This is set during SCIV where Seong Mi-na leaves Talim to take over things in the Tower of Souls.
Tira's head was throbbing.
She could feel the damage done by the strikes that naginata wielding bitch had done and she should have been dead when her stomach had been sliced open by said bitch, but what was really bothering her was her throbbing head. She tried to move her head and groaned as another wave of pain shot through it.
"You need to be careful," a gentle voice told her. It was the kind of sweet, kind voice that made Tira wince. It was so pure, so innocent, so…
It was basically everything that Tira was not and everything that Tira despised. The strong survived and the weak perished, that was what nature intended, it was the way the world was supposed to work.
She opened her eyes. She was lying on what appeared to be a makeshift bed of some sort, composed of travelling blankets. It wasn't particularly comfortable, but Tira had slept on worse. There were bandages across her stomach where the Naginata Bitch had sliced her open with injuries that should have left her bleeding to death on the floor.
The room was light as the sun shone through the stain-glassed windows and it was clear she was still inside the same room she had been beaten in. Whether that was to reinforce the fact that she had been beaten or simply ease, Tira didn't know. The end result was the same however. It reminded her that she had lost. She didn't like being reminded she lost. It was humiliating.
"You shouldn't move about so much," the gentle voice that Tira had heard earlier said and Tira growled.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" she demanded. She flexed her fingers and tried to carefully reach over to the side of her bed. If she could just reach her weapon, maybe she could find an opportunity to use it and escape. Or at least die trying.
"I wouldn't try reaching for your weapons," the voice said as the owner of the voice came into view. Tira curled her lip in disgust. The girl who it belonged to was dressed in a green top and green vest that revealed her midriff. Her trousers were of a transparent material that showed off her shapely legs and her dark hair was tied into plaits. A small, willowy girl, Tira mentally marked her up as a servant of some kind, not a warrior.
"Who are you? Where are my weapons!?" Tira hissed and the girl gave her a sad look. Instead of answering her questions, she put her hand above Tira's stomach and her face twisted into a frown.
"You're so twisted inside. The cursed blade has taken you and-"
"And made me stronger!" Tira hissed angrily and the other girl recoiled slightly. Tira smiled. "Awww, did I hurt the wittle girl's feelings?"
"If you would let me trea-"
"I don't need treatment little girl! She tries to take him away from us, stop her, stop her!" Tira snapped, cutting the girl off as both her identities rushed in. "We'll kill you, we'll kill you if you try!"
The girl shook her head sadly and a look of pity entered her eyes.
"You use the sword to replace someone you loved and lost," she began and Tira's eyes widened in a mixture of fear and anger. How dare this slip of a girl know that! She growled, but the girl simply continued. "Both sides of your mind worship the sword and yet you could be so much more in the right environment."
"You're so annoying/We could thrive even better with him," Tira said, ending with a smile on her face, before a sudden frown and a look of panic crossed her face. "She's going to destroy him!/How dare she destroy him!/No, no, no, don't let it happen!/We're going to make you regret you're alive!/Let us go!" and with that, she threw herself at the girl. Even in her weakened state, she was sure she could overcome a mere servant with ease and maybe she could save Soul Edge.
The other girl simply stepped aside and guided Tira's arm past her before throwing her like she weighed nothing. As Tira hit the floor, she reassessed the girl. Clearly she was more than just a servant.
"Please stop, you're going to hurt yourself even more if you keep doing that!" the girl said in a reprimanding voice, a voice just like the family that had taken her in. With a cry of rage, she attacked once more, throwing a series of fast moving kicks and punches. The girl merely danced around them before a sudden wave of pain forced Tira to the ground.
"Damnitt/It's not fair!" Tira whined and the girl helped her to her feet with a gentle smile on her face.
"Please, just allow me to help you. I can help you to heal-"
"I DON'T NEED HELP AND I DON'T NEED TO BE HEALED!" Tira screamed, tears running down her eyes. "I need to save him!"
A red wind suddenly blasted through the room and Tira heard Soul Edge's scream. The girl closed her eyes and stumbled back slightly. She gave Tira a kind smile.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Tira cried, thumping her hands against the ground like a spoilt child. "He can't be gone, he can't!"
"I know that it's hard, but this is good for you," the girl said in a gentle, conciliatory with her hands held out. Tira raised her hate filled eyes and growled at the girl. Then she laughed.
"What's your name cutie?" she asked and the girl smiled gently at her.
"My name is Talim. I am a priestess of the winds from the village of-"
"Oooh, that's nice. Now I'll know where to go when I kill you!" Tira said in an upbeat voice, before throwing herself out of a stained glass window to land on the ledge below. "Hope to kill you soon!" she said with a wave.
Talim looked down at Tira's retreating form and sadly shook her head.
"And when you come, I'll be waiting. Maybe then you'll let me heal you," she said and she turned away and walked towards the stairs.