Hello my friends! This is entirely my own writing through the POV of my character Scura. You don't find out much of what she looks like until later, but if you want to guess go right on ahead. Reviews are appreciated but flames are not. If you have something about my fiction you dislike, please just say it kindly. No need to yell at me. Contrary to popular beleif, I take to heart what my reviewers say to me. With love- Daemonai.
S-S-S-S-S-S
It's been so many years since I last heard from Jerino, my twin, another monster child like me. Even longer from the parents I've never met. Bubbles rise from my nose and tickle my face. Soon, however, I can feel a presence, one that comforts me yet scars me. Though I fear for my eyes, I open them and peer through the mako the bastard scientists have put me in.
There, on the other side of the glass, is a man cloaked but looking at me curiously. I closed my eyes to hide the fear and confusion.
In this place, it's always best to just close your eyes and will yourself away. However, thoughts of what the people always said about me when they saw me came to mind. She looks just like her father! I used to be flattered, I'd heard the stories of him, but then, hate and fear took pride's place.
Because he did nothing to get my brother and I back. I realize that I will be marred with this face, this hair, these eyes, for the rest of my life. I would forever be stuck looking like him.
I would forever look like my father.
Through my hateful thoughts I failed to notice he had his fist pulled back until the glass around me broke, shards flying into my skin and making blood and mako mix, burning. It didn't last long because I jerked back the mask once the cursed liquid was low enough and stared at him. His eyes looked so gentle...
I wanted to cry. Had he finally come for me? But I couldn't forgive him. My vision grew hazy and I heard him speak briefly and saw him drop something onto the table before I blacked out.
When I woke, glass was covering my skin and the remains of the mako make my skin glow eerily. With a groan, I push myself up, hissing as shards bite into my flesh. What should I do...? I wondered meekly as I allowed my hair to cover my chest as I stood, then crawled out of the hole. I raised my nose into the air and sniffed. No danger yet. Hurriedly, I moved to the table. There were clothes, but most importantly-
A katana. Defense and offence. I could leave, I hoped. I moved the blade to the side and picked at the clothes. There was nothing there in the way of underwear but a pair of boxers. Joy.
I slipped them on anyway and tossed on the shirt and pants. The shirt was a black turtleneck with the sleeves hacked off and the pants were baggy and appeared to be from a soldier uniform. A pair of boots were there and I attempted to squeeze into them, they were too small, so I just left them. I clipped the sword to my side and started walking, when I noticed something else, it was by the pool of mako, partially wet, but it was there, a cloak. I greedily snatched it up and put it around me, covering my hair and face.
As soon as that was on, I was gone, the room that had been my hell for so long, I hoped I would never see again. Up ahead, battle cries reached my ears and I hesitated, grabbing my katana. Then I lunged forward, drawing the blade and slicing the monster ahead of me in half. A man with a sword as big as his whole body stood in front of me, holding the sword at ready, both glaring at me in distrust and surprise.
"Who are you?" He demanded. I blinked in surprise and lifted the hood enough to see him.
"I am Scura." My voice is raspy from disuse and I reach up to rub it. "Who are you?" After hesitation, he replied.
"Cloud." I bowed my head. "Why are you here?" His stance stayed defensive.
"Experiment, I used to be, I refuse to be now." I coughed hard, the words hard to utter. His stance finally relaxed and he replaced the sword on his back. I put my own Katana away. The man turned and ran and I followed. He only glanced at me in annoyance but kept running. A few floors down, a woman awaited. The woman with black hair looked at Cloud in relief, hardly glancing at me.
"Where's Rufus?" Wow, what a great greeting. I glanced at the busty woman. I was one to speak though.
"I couldn't finish 'em. Looks like this is gunna get complicated." She finally looked at me.
"Who are you?"
"My name's Scura." I said wearily. She just nodded and Cloud took the opportunity to start running downstairs. The woman started running after him.
"I'm Tifa- come on!" I was surprised, but I followed quietly and quickly. Many flights of stairs later, Cloud broke from us with a small explanation to the woman I just met. More flights down there were more people and I hesitated, stalling in confusion. I sensed no danger from them, but on the other side of the exit.
"Barret!" Tifa called. The group looked at us. I got a strange look and I pulled the cloak over my face more.
"Tifa! Where's Cloud?" The black man, Barret, asked. She just ignored him.
"Everyone, over here!" As the group ran over, Barret looked confused. I followed quietly.
"Huh? What's up? Where's Cloud?"
"I'll tell you later! Hurry, hurry!" There was a truck nearby and she jumped in and hotwired it, getting everyone inside. The woman in pink got in front with Tifa while I, the cat and Barret got in back. Cloud came bursting out a moment later on a motorcycle and lead Tifa out. Gunfire followed us and I drew my Katana and tried to block as many blows as I could. Cloud was doing the same as Barret fired at oncoming soldiers, only to have his gun short circuit briefly.
"Shit man!" He knocked at it a few times and got it working again. We managed to fight them off, only to have them draw back.
"Hell yeah!" Barret cheered. I raised my nose to the air and hunkered back briefly.
"Don't celebrate yet." I warned.
"Whatchu mean? We beat their sorry asses!" The cat, however, lifted its nose and got defensive. Cloud pulled close just then.
"She's right." I looked at him in surprise, but the others weren't fazed.
"How you know it's a she?" Barret asked. "Sounds like a guy to me." I froze and glared at him.
"I am a girl-" I took a raspy, angry breath. "I'm fifteen and have been an experiment-" I drew another shaky breath. "For fourteen years." They looked at me funny.
"What's with your voice then?"
"Haven't spoken in... five years. Since I last saw... Jerino, my twin." I started coughing and rubbed my throat and looked up as shots fired and the road ahead of us blew up. Tifa slammed on the breaks, knocking us all back. Cloud swerved and fell off his bike with a grunt. I pushed myself up and jumped in front of the Pink Lady, taking a blow to the back instead of her. I hissed and turned, still clutching my katana to see a metal ball come at us, firing and attacking. Barret jumped up and started firing and Tifa jumped out of the car to help fight. Cloud pushed himself up and grasped his sword. Soon, even the cat and Pink Lady were ready to fight. Well, the cat was- the Pink Lady was healing wounds.
The thing fired before any of us could attack and the only one that wasn't able to dodge was me, of course. I grumble and jump forward and try to slice through the metal. It didn't work too well, hardly made a dent.
Of course I get left a freaking defective sword.
Cloud's attack, however, did a lot of damage, as did Barret's, but not Tifa's or the Cat's. I attack in the same place that Cloud had since it was weaker and managed to cut through and expose the wires. Someone cast thunder as I landed, I wasn't sure who, and the machine started locking up but fired, this time hitting us all. I grunted as I felt some of the bullets pass through my stomach, the others getting hit in the arm or leg. The cat attacked and ripped out a main wire and the thing went down. This time, I smelled no more danger and put my katana away before falling to my knees, grasping my stomach. The Pink Lady finished healing the others, but I could tell she was out of magic and had no ethers on her.
"I have some bandages." she offered but I waved her off.
"I'll be fine." I stood up and pulled the shirt up a bit and thrust my fingers in to pull out a bullet. She looked horrified and turned away. After a moments digging, I got it out and nearly hurled from pain. The wounds then glowed green and healed. "See? I'm all better." I smiled, but she couldn't see it so I let it quickly drop.
"Why don't you take off your hood?" She asked, reaching to do so. I jerked back and made sure it hid my whole face.
"I just... don't want to." She left it at that.
"I'm Aerith, this is Barret." I knew that one. "That's Cloud." She pointed at the blond then to Tifa. "That's Tifa, and this is Red XIII." She looked at the cat who nodded. I pulled back the sleeve of my cloak to reveal the numerals for two burned into my skin.
"I'm Scura." The cat's eyes narrowed a bit. He was an experiment and after a moment, I recognized him. "You! You and I... used to be in the same cell holding..." He nodded and I would have paled if I could have.
"I remember you too." It was a kind voice. He had been nice to me, I remembered briefly.
He just turned away. Was he not going to tell? Then they looked ahead at the broken freeway. Well, it had already been broken for some time, the robot just made it worse. There were signs blinking in warning. Barret's gruff voice broke the silence.
"Well, what do we do now?"
"Sephiroth is alive. I... I have to settle the score." We all looked at Cloud. The larger man frowned.
"And that will save the Planet?" There was a pause.
"Seems like it."
"Awlright, I'm going."
"I'll go too... I have many things that I want to find out."
"About the ancients?" I looked at Aerith, surprised. An ancient? Could this gentle lady really be one of them? It certainly seemed impossible.
"Many things." She finally said.
"I'll go too." I said quietly. "My reasons are that of Cloud's. Cloud looked at me, confused, but said nothing about it.
"I guess this is goodbye, Midgar." Soon, Barret found a rope for us to climb down. Red huffed and jumped on and off the rubble to reach the bottom since he had no hands. I let the others go before me, though I didn't want them to. I was sure they could see my face, so I just stared forward and glanced down. No one was looking up, they were waiting, but they looked ready to go, so I just let go and landed beside them. Red spoke before I could.
"I'm going back to my hometown. I'll go with you as far as that."
"I guess this is the start of our journey." I wasn't really paying attention to them. I was looking around in awe. This was the first time I had ever seen such an open, green space. It was so beautiful and for once, my senses weren't clouded with discussing air and I could breathe, really breathe.
"It's nice, isn't it?" I looked down at the fire-tailed beast.
"Yes... I've never... seen anything like this." I looked around, so amazed. "I've been locked up so long. Caged beast released." I smiled lightly, so thrilled.
"It is wonderful. I had almost forgotten what it was like to be free myself." There was a loud commotion behind us and we looked back, almost in despair, at the broken peace.
"'Sides, we can't have six people strolling down the fields. Split us into two parties." I thought he looked like my little brother when he lost- so very pouty. He was even sitting to sulk. It was funny and I couldn't help but chuckle. He glared at me and I shut up.
Cloud thought briefly and looked over us.
"Aerith, Scura- you're with me." Barret frowned.
"Thought you might do somethin' like that. Later, at Kalm." Everyone went with their groups and went their separate ways. I frowned, looking at Cloud. He noted my bemused expression.
"I don't trust you." He said, monotone. I was taken aback. Before I had a chance to ask why, he replied. "There's something about you. Not only that, but why don't you show your face? What do you have to settle with Sephiroth?" I bit my retort back and thought.
"My face is horrid after all the experiments I was put through. Sephiroth... He took my parents away from me." It wasn't all true, of course. Parts were, yes, but not all. He frowned.
"What did-" The pink lady cut him off.
"Where did you live before they took you away?" Cloud frowned at her but I silently thanked her as a savior.
"I hardly know." I closed my eyes. "I was only a year old, but... I remember living in a place where my brother and I got... lost in all the time and we made it a point to do so our parents... would play with us. We loved to play, but my mother always... always won." I smiled softly. She looked confused.
"How do you remember that? Children don't start remembering things until they turn three." She mused. I looked at her and my hood lifted slightly in the breeze. She looked eager to see, though Cloud couldn't see what happened. I snatched it and kept my face covered.
"I'm not a normal girl; shall we leave it at that?" Because it was so easy to explain that your mother was a monster that loved death and was part of a small race that people feared. It was really easy to tell people you hardly know about some of your deepest secrets, defiantly. What was I supposed to say? Uh, yeah, well- about that. My mother's a monster in a human form known as a Demon and my father's an asshole of a human so that means I'm a Hellfling and my memories actually start at the age of seven months old?
Yeah, right.
"You said you had a brother?" Cloud's voice this time.
"Yeah, Jerino. He's my twin, but he's younger then me."
"Where is he?" Pink Lady again.
"He's... probably still back at ShinRa... We were separated. I think... they took him to a different base." I bowed my head. Thankfully my speech was improving. My voice was no longer raspy but it was different from the last time I talked. It sounded more... seductive. Yuck! I think I prefer it to be raspy! I so don't want a guy when I'm only fifteen! I made sure the cloak hid my hair as we kept walking. Only a second later, we were surrounded by five fiends. Instantly, we all had our weapons. I was the only one facing the two that were behind us. Aerith and Cloud had the front two. Great. Two on one. It's not really a problem for me.
Except for the fact that they were cats.
You know, it really sucks to have to kill a creature that's a distant cousin of yours. I made a warning yowl and they looked at each other, confused. Behind me, I could hear rumbling of machines and the two attacking. Aerith sucked, I can tell you that easily. One was down already thanks to Cloud. Ick. Way to add ego to the male mind. I was willing to let the Kalm Fangs get the hell out of there, but then they decided they wanted to go after Cloud and Aerith. With a sigh, I drag out my Katana and rip open the belly of one, cut off its head (getting covered in blood at the same time) and stopped the other. I gave it a dark look and it whined, saw its dead friend and attacked me.
Well, one swipe had it down, cut in half and dying. I killed it in a final blow, pitying it.
Cloud finished off the second one on his own and Aerith finally managed to kill her own. Surprise of surprises. Something caught my eye and I went to look at the corpses. How they got all this stuff around, I'll never know. But they had a hundred and eighty-four Gil and a hi-potion. Not each, but combined. I pocketed the items and looked as Cloud did the same.
The brunet, however, looked sickened at the thought. Cloud glanced behind to make sure I had finished the two and then started walking. I grumbled and walked beside the other female. She looked pale and got better once we were away from the bodies.
"First real kill?" I asked her. She nodded.
"What about you?"
"No... I've killed before. They would make a lot of fiends attack me and I killed them all..." I sigh. "The scientists..." I just shut up there. They don't need to hear my sob-story. Thankfully, they just stayed quiet. We got attacked by a few more monsters before it was night and time to set up camp. Which consisted of us sitting in a circle of low-grass. I lifted my head and sniffed. Somehow, Aerith heard.
"Why do you keep doing that?" She asked. Cloud looked over.
"Doing what?" He asked.
"She's sniffing. She keeps doing it."
"Oh..."
"I'm trying to find danger. I can smell if there are any dangerous creatures near. There's none right now..." Cloud frowned.
"What exactly are you?"
"Cloud... I don't want to talk about it." I frown at him. "It's not easy to talk about to someone you hardly know."
"Well, lets get to know each other!" Pink Lady's voice is getting on my nerves now... "I'm Aerith Gainsborough." So we're learning last names.
"I'm Scura. I'm afraid I don't really know what my last name is, so I just call myself Scura. I think my last name was something along the lines of Night..." I lied with a shrug. We looked at Cloud who folded his arms.
"Cloud Strife." He said, shrugging. "I'm twenty one."
"Fifteen, almost sixteen." I said, shrugging.
"Twenty two." Cloud almost looked sulky.
"What? Too young or too old for you?" I teased him. Oh, I hate my voice because now Cloud looked at me, amused.
"I don't really care." Cloud snorted.
"Really? Then were you sulking because this pretty lady is older then you?" He glared and we giggled.
"I guess she's right!" Pink Lady said cheerfully. The spiked blonde boy just grumbled. Well, he was a man, but so what? He didn't act like any man I knew. Which was limited to Hojo, Tseng, Reno, Rufus, Hedigar and the president, but I didn't know his name since no one said it around me. Unless it was 'Bastard' but I doubted that. I'll tell you what; Tseng, Reno and Rufus were the only guys I could really stand. Everyone else was just an ass, looking at me in disgusting pride or perverse wanting. Again, a reason I didn't want to have a boyfriend.
And they were talking to me.
"-End up there?" Well, the only place I could think of that they could be talking about was the lab, but-
"Huh?" Smooth, huh?
"I said," Broody-pants started again- annoyed. "How did you escape and end up there?"
"Um, I got released by some guy that went around destroying cages and tubes." I shrugged. It wasn't really a lie.
"It was Sephiroth." Cloud said, looking at me sharply. I almost reached for my hood, fearing it had fallen but I kept my hands still.
"Why was he doing that though...?" I asked, honestly bemused.
"Jenova was there, he was going after her." I merely nodded.
"Why were you there?" They glanced at each other and I raised a brow.
"We were rescuing Aerith." He said finally.
"Why-"
"The Turks, Tseng actually, had captured me."
"The Cetra thing, right?" She nodded.
"What about you?" I was silent, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. It took me a minute to reply.
"I don't really know." Lie. "But a lot of bad shit happened to me." They looked at each other and then back at me. "I'm not going into it now." I said before they could ask. It was silent for a while. "Where are you from?" I asked finally.
"Midgar,"
"Nibelheim," They replied at the same time, so it came out sounding something like "Mnibgalheim." Or something like that. I just snorted.
"I have heard stories about both places."
"What kind of stories?"
"Good ones, bad ones." I shrug. More silence until Aerith yawned. "Sleep," I offer. "I'll take first watch." Cloud frowned.
"No- I will." I frowned back and opened my mouth. "I still don't trust you." I sigh and nod, thinking its fair and lay back, though I doubt I'll sleep. I felt Aerith lay beside me and sighed. We'd need to get camping gear. Honestly.
I was right when I said I wouldn't sleep. But at the same time, I was wrong. I slept briefly, curled like a cat, but nightmares woke me. I sat up quickly and raised my nose to the air. There was something nearby. Cloud was looking at me, well, more like at the hair that was exposed by my cloak. I panicked briefly, before I remembered that my bangs were black- unlike the rest of my hair.
"What's wrong?" He asked as I stood, reaching for my Katana.
"Something's nearby. Watch Aerith- I'll go check it out." He frowned and grabbed hold of his hilt. I knew he would object, so I left before he had the chance. I was right when I said that there was something nearby. There were three of them. Huge, ugly red men. Manholes. I knew they were supposed to be hard to beat. They were kinda huge, so I didn't doubt it. I glanced at my katana and tossed it to the side, removing my hood as well. It spotted me and snarled and went to attack. I sneered and threw my head back in a howl. It drew back; stunned as the voice from my throat was a mixture of horrid sounds.
The howl of a wolf, hiss of a cat and dying scream of a woman.
That's what it sounds like; at least that's what I'm told. The next instant though, I could feel my body shifting. Bones cracking, skin stretching and covering with fur or scales. Fingers gained sharper claws and turn into paws. Tail and spikes growing from my body. Tell you what, hurts like hell but to see the terror on the thing's face, it was priceless. I was now much, much bigger then them now. I grinned at them as they tried to hide, screaming. I opened my mouth wide, since the fangs would get in the way otherwise, and shredded them. I felt myself grow a little stronger and shivered and shook out my tail and body, looking at the corpses, finding all the extra Gil. There was three, nine-thousand Gil.
I gave a howl and slowly, painfully slowly, started turning back into my human form, shivering as I reached my goal. Of course everything gets painful, transforming to and from the demonic form. Bones grow, bend and become brittle for a few moments until they become harder then steel. Skin rips and stretches becoming covered with fur. Beautiful fur that gleamed in the pale moonlight.
Then there were the extra appendixes. The tail, for one, hurt like hell to grow. But it was so fun- the scaled thing was as long as a large home lengthwise and not even Barret would be able to wrap his arms around my tail and touch his hand to his gun arm. Then came the spikes. Painful things made of bone with little hooks naturally in them. Fun to spear things on, I muse. They never can figure out how to get off.
That and they could carry things, like luggage and what not. So they had many uses. My nose and eyes stayed the same- to a point. The sense of smell stayed, though the nose itself became perched on a long, cat-like muzzle. This was so cute, apparently. Eyes got bigger, nothing more. Stayed the same color. Like my fur stays the color of my hair. The head part stays black.
After that comes the claw.
Yeah, claws. Big, long things that could retract like a normal cat's. Did I mention that each one was about the size of a buster-blade?
Only a little bit shorter. Just a little.
Lastly, of course, are the teeth. All become razor sharp and my fangs get much bigger. I mean, I already start off with large ones, but the fangs when I'm transformed are three feet longer then my chin. Which naturally means I'm a big beast to hold up such a heavy load, right?
Thing is, I'm really light- only a hundred pounds more then my original one-hundred thirty pound body to begin with. For a beast the size of a small ship, that's pretty damn skinny!
Again, I love being able to become my true beast. Though at the lab, I was unable to do it much because either the rooms were too small, or I was not alone. With a sigh, I turned to glance about. I couldn't smell anyone near enough yet. But it was best to hurry- I could tell I had woken Aerith and Cloud was on edge. The howl was loud…
In only a few moments, I had my katana on my hip and cloak back over my shoulders and face. I was lucky I had done so. Just as I was picking up the Gil, Cloud and Aerith were right behind me.
"What was that?" He demanded.
"These Manholes. I found them just as they started attacking each other. I just took out the survivor." I tried to say it like it was scary or something, something to make Cloud leave me alone. Like that would happen, it turned out.
"I do know they are territorial, but I don't think they'd attack each other." He eyed me. I almost wondered about how he would react if he saw my other form.
I had to stop from snickering.
"We should just be glad she's okay." Who knew the Pink Lady would come to my defense all the time? But I could tell she doubted as well. She kept glancing at me. Cloud grumbled and I realized that he had been holding his buster blade as he went to put it back on his back.
I really should pay more attention. As my thoughts drift off, they talk about who should take next shift.
"-were sleeping, she looks wide-"
"-rude, I can handle it, Cloud!"
"So can she, you're still-"Were the only things I really made out.
"I'll do it." I had no problem with it. After all, I had been sleeping in a freaking tube for four days. No more sleepy time for me, thank you. Especially since now I was having nightmares.
At least in the mako I didn't dream.
"-sure?" It was Aerith and I had been ignoring them again.
I gotta stop doing that!
"Yeah, I'm sure." I nod. "Shall we go back…?" We had left the majority of our stuff there. Which included Aerith's rod.
Actually, I think that was pretty much it.
They laid down and sleep quickly took them. I wondered what it was like to sleep so well, so undisturbed by dreams. It almost made me angry that they wouldn't have the same nightmares I had always had. All memories of what happened at the lab. I would live with them and the only one who would share that pain would be Jerino. My shoulders sag as I think of my 'lost' brother. For all I knew, he was dead. For all I knew, they had him in a permanent coma. I had no idea what had happened to him and that hurt worse then anything else. I drew my knees to my chest and cried silently. With my face burrowed into them, even the deep, quick breaths were silenced.
I didn't stop crying until the sun rose the next morning.