Koinu: I couldn't resist. Just couldn't. -lol-

Well, you guys know the drill. I don't own Advent Children or any of its characters. I only own my origional character, whose name will be revealed shortly.

The Amarimono

Chapter one

Finally… Edge…

After all her searching, all her wasted time, she was finally here. From what she had heard, Big Brother was here as well.

Big Brother… Cloud Strife… I haven't seen him in years…

She chuckled at that thought. She hadn't seen anything in years… Bandages covered her eyes, rendering her sightless, but it was better that way. Without sight she was able to use some of the abilities that had been bestowed to her.

Blond hair blew slightly in the wind that wrapped around her, but the shoulder length strands were not that color naturally. No, and the coloring had been dyed in long ago, now a somewhat different color was showing through, taking control at the roots and even claiming a few locks. Silver. One precious metal was exchanging for another, gold giving way to silver, silver taking the place of gold. And behind those bandages that hid her eyes? Yes, you guessed it, mako green irises lay behind that blindfold.

And these characteristics could belong to no being other than a Remnant.

She frowned, the leather of her attire creaking slightly as she leaned back as far as she could whilst still straddling the body of the motorcycle she had ridden here. Yes, it was possible for her, though blinded, to ride a motorcycle.

She had always looked up to Him, always wanted to grow up to be just like that nightmare of a man, Sephiroth. And so, the dear professor Hojo, oh how the female remnant cursed his name, had made her just like him… or as much like him as he could make a human. But now the professor was dead, or so she had heard, and she was free of ShinRa's grasps.

She sighed, and pulled back the right sleeve of her jacket, wincing slightly as her hand brushed against a spot of her Geostigma. But she ignored the pain, as she had for all these years, and instead ran her fingers lightly over the raised symbols on her wrist.

L…I…Z… The fist three letters, all in capitals. They had once stood for something only Hojo had understood, but had since then become her first name. Liz.

Then the rest. Nothing but a single word, but something that marked her for what she was. Amarimono… The word meant 'remnant' and that was exactly what she was. Together the two engravings had become the name she called herself by- Liz Amarimono.

She had escaped about the same time the ShinRa building had collapsed. And she had survived. It wasn't so remarkable, really. She was a remnant; the physical rules of the normal humans no longer applied to her. Hojo had said she was above them, but was she really?

She sighed, eyes flickering about behind the bandages that kept her sightless. She didn't see things in the normal sense, as in her eyes actually sending visual images to her brain. Instead, she had been made so that she could 'sense' things, feel where they were around her. And auras… she could see the aura's of others, allowing her to identify people, classifying them. If someone had Geostigma, then she could see it in their aura, if they were male, or female, drunk, or sober, happy, or sad. Feelings and health, even a state of mind would affect the aura of a human, or in some cases, a non-human. Once, long ago, she had seen, though briefly, the aura of something that was at one time human, but now had demons residing within it. And now… now she feeling a different type of aura…

One like hers.

Or, three that were like hers. But they were full remnants, not halflings like herself. And yes, there were three of them. Three little remnants of a nightmare, chasing after something Liz had thought was dead long ago…

Her head spun around, and her upper body turned as well, so that her sightless gaze could see more. She put a hand on the handles of her motorcycle, to steady herself. It was them again…

No. It hadn't been the auras of the remnant's that had caused Liz to react so quickly. It was someone else's… It was Cloud's…

"Big Brother…" She had already uttered the words before she had realized that she had spoken. But it had been quiet… had she even heard her own voice?

They knew he was there, she could feel it. But she did nothing. It had been years since she had seen Cloud… would he even recognize her? Or would he see her as a threat, just another remnant that would do anything to find Jenova?

It was true though. Mother's voice was loud in her mind, her pull towards Reunion strong. It took all Liz had to keep from giving in to it. If it was like that for her, a half remnant, then what was it like for them?

Was that why they were so ruthless?

Could they feel her presence? Were they able to tell she was there? Liz doubted that they could actually see her. But she could see them.

She could sense every excruciating detail of the small battle being fought between the two eldest remnants and Cloud; she even winced that the younger of the two was able to get in a shot that clipped Cloud's forehead.

But she was frozen in place, unable to do anything. Her own gun lay at her side, and two dagger like sai rested in their sheaths on her back, but she still did nothing.

We would still be outnumbered… She reasoned with herself. And that's if Cloud accepts my help at all…

But then she became conscious of the fact that she had allowed her mind to stray from the battle. Her head snapping back up, she realized the fight was long over. Cloud had left… but not the remnants. She took a look over her shoulder, and there they were- three remnant auras coming right at her.

So they did notice me… Liz cursed inwardly, and revved her motorcycle to life. It obliged, its wheels spinning uselessly in the loose dirt before taking hold and finally moving forward.

But it was too late. Even as her own bike took off over the edge of the cliff, they were overtaking her. Behind the bandages her eyes were darting about, trying to recognize the ones closest to her. The eldest of them, he was on her left and bit ahead. He would be the one to cut her off. And the second oldest, the middle child among them, he was on her right, but slightly behind. He would box her in, making escape impossible. And the youngest, the leader, he would fill in, take her down if she tried to run, that's why he lagged in such a way.

They thought this out… did I really give them that much time? Or do they just naturally work well together, interpreting what the others are doing and responding in the best possible way?

They were on the flats now, and Liz revved the engine again, trying to pour on the speed. But then that half remnant had an idea. She cut her velocity, and then made a hard left, cutting behind the eldest remnant. Loz… that was his name, now that she was thinking about it she actually remembered. And the middle child was Yazoo, leaving the youngest as Kadaj…

But they reacted too fast. Yazoo had drawn his gun and was firing. She didn't even have to look to tell he was at point blank range, the ringing in her ears told her that. So he had stayed with her after all, was now matching her pace, staying directly to her right.

He maneuvered around her, so he was now on her direct left. And again the bullets came, just barely missing her. Was Yazoo missing on purpose? All Liz knew was that now he was forcing her to swerve back onto the road they had had her on before.

Again Yazoo moved to her left, but she was paying so much attention to him that she didn't sense Loz's presence until it was too late. They were headed right at each other, but he had it all planned out.

Liz tuned her bike sideways to avoid a head-on collision, and it skidded, loosing momentum quickly. And Yazoo and Loz did the same, boxing her in. Upon impact, the engine of her motorcycle promptly died.

Stupid piece of crap…

She had to run, Liz knew that. She could hear their chuckles as Kadaj drew nearer, his own bike stopping as he dismounted. But she couldn't. They way that they had trapped her, Yazoo and Loz had, knowingly or unknowingly, pinned her legs against the body of their motorcycles and hers. She was effectively ensnared.

I could shoot them. The thought came to her suddenly, and she mentally slapped herself for not thinking of it before. But, even as she reached for her firearm, Yazoo saw her movement and snatched it away from her.

"Now, now… don't want you hurting yourself…" Yazoo cooed. Liz could tell he was holding gun right in front of her, but still out of arms reach.

"Yeah, that would be bad." Loz laughed. Footsteps closing in, and the light laughter of a young man announced Kadaj's approach. It was now or never…

She moved fast, probably too fast. Within the timeline of a split second, she had reached behind her, drawn one of her sai from its sheath on her back, and had it pressed against the exposed skin of Loz's neck. But he only chuckled.

All at once she felt a hand on her back, and then a stabbing pain accompanied by a burning jolt of electricity in her chest. The was Loz's weapon… Duel Hound… Liz had nowhere to recoil from the blow, Yazoo's hand on her back was strong enough to keep her in place, so she took the full brunt of it. Her breath was forced out of her, and she could taste some of her own blood on her tongue, the metallic tang blocking everything else out.

But she took that blood, and used it. She concentrated on it, while biting down on her tongue to keep from crying out any further than she already had. Somewhere in her mind she registered the fact that her sai had fallen from her hand, dropping to the ground with clang as it clattered against the rocky soil. She also found that her body had gone completely limp, though she stayed upright.

"Damnit…" Once again she spoke before she realized she had said anything at all. She would have to work on that. But by opening her mouth she had let a trickle of blood escape, and it was now running down her lip. She swallowed, and more blood went down her throat than she had expected. She must have sliced her tongue when she was biting it.

"Well, well, well… what have we got here?" Kadaj's voice sounded amused. She could almost picture him pacing in front of her, and her mental image was probably close to the real one. "Another remnant… someone like us?"

"I'm nothing like you." Liz muttered. The pain was subsiding, and she found her voice was growing in volume and strength. No more words that were barely audible to even herself.

"What…" Kadaj bent down before her, one gloved hand gently moving towards the bandages over her eyes, "don't you want to find mother too?" He grasped the fabric and pulled.

The bandages fell away easily, surprisingly so, in fact. It had taken Kadaj barely any effort to pull them away. As the once blindfold fluttered to the ground to lay uselessly in the dirt, Liz's mako colored eyes reacted violently with the sudden light. Her elongated pupils expanded and contracted at an alarming rate, trying to adjust to the first light they had seen in ages. She hissed in reaction, bringing up a hand to shield them.

Slowly, her vision went from blurred shapes and colors, to fuzzy images, to finally being normal, her restored vision eating up every detail before it, to be stored in her mind until she concluded that the memory was worthless and disposed of in. She brought her hand down, letting it rest limply at her side.

She took it Kadaj was the one directly in front of her. Now she knew why they were called remnants of Sephiroth, they shared many of the same characteristics. Same colored eyes, same colored hair, although Kadaj and his brothers were undoubtedly younger.

All of her observations took only a few seconds, and she noted how each of them were different while she stored the images of their faces in the archives of her mind, never to be forgotten.

Liz almost chuckled, as she looked Kadaj straight in the eye. "Mother is dead." She said it with no emotion at all, none to distort her features, none of alter her tone of voice.

All three of the male remnants growled, as if stricken by her words.

"Don't talk about mother that way." Yazoo snapped.

"Yeah, you big meanie!" She could tell from Loz's trembling voice that he was close to tears.

Liz thought for a second, planning her next verbal strike. Her head turned slightly in Loz's direction, and she peered at him out of the corner of her eye. "Don't cry Loz…" She had heard his brothers use that exact line with him, knew how much he hated it. He knew that the oldest shouldn't cry, that was the job of the youngest, but here he was, the crybaby, while Kadaj was the leader.

Loz immediately shut up, but instead of taking the blow, as he did with his brothers, he quickly backhanded her across the face. But the blow had been expected, Liz had known it was coming even before she chose to speak. How else would Loz react?

"Careful Loz, don't hurt her." Yazoo said evenly. In the background Liz could hear Kadaj agreeing. But she didn't care.

Spinning around, Liz clutched her left hand into a fist, planning on striking Yazoo at least in the chin. But he easily tilted away from the blow, as if it were simple child's play. With a chuckle, he brought up his left hand, which still clutched Velvet Nightmare, and in the span of a second had the barrel of the gun against her neck, angled up so that if he pulled the trigger it would cause the bullet to go straight through her brain. Instant death.

Liz gulped, but laughed. It was a hollow sound, as if forced. "Go ahead, pull the trigger. The Lifestream is probably way better than this hellhole anyway." But she could see it in Yazoo's eyes. He wouldn't pull the trigger, wouldn't end her life just yet. It had been but a reaction, nothing more, nothing less.

Slowly, Yazoo lowered the gun from its deadly position. Out of the corner of her eye, Liz saw Kadaj nod to Loz. A signal.

And then, just as before except for this time it was in her back, she felt the stab of pain, the agonizing shock wave of electricity that momentarily passed though her.

And then… nothing. Consciousness fled her too quickly for her to feel Yazoo's careful arms as he caught her, for her to hear Loz's confused murmurs, to sense Kadaj's slight unease. No. The comforting nothingness of unconscious oblivion claimed her far too swiftly for her to notice anything other than the pain.

Koinu: So there's chapter one. Review please! Thank you!