Well, this is rather later than I wanted it to be. I don't have an excuse or a reason for its lateness, I just suck. Well, to be fair I have been very busy and also away quite a lot and I have exams and blaaaaaaah, but its mostly because I suck. Sorry.
Anywhoo, I changed this chapter quite a lot... mainly because as I read through the old one, all I could think of was it sucking. Plus, it needed to be changed to be more consistent with the changes in the first chapter. eh. fun. ooh, Disclaimer, me no own, you no sue, me no get angry and sad and unable to spend copious amounts of money on presents for people and Japanese music ... they ... they take aaaaaaall my money ...
Silver-Haired Saviours
Her heart was pounding in her head, each pulse bringing a fresh wave of pain. The left side of her face felt hot and sticky, and something somewhere seemed to be bleeding. The air was heavy with dust, which coated her tongue as she tried to breathe. She couldn't feel her right leg properly. It had gone numb from the knee down, and her thigh felt as though it was burning. How odd, she thought. Then she stopped thinking. Thinking seemed to cause her even more pain.
"What the fuck was that?"
"Shh!"
The words rattled around her brain, stirring something deep within the muddled darkness of her sluggish mind. The voices ... she knew those voices ... didn't she? Voices ...
She forced her eyes to open, just for a moment. Everything was fuzzy, and she tried her best to focus on the shiny thing just a few inches away from her face. Slowly, the fuzziness began to clear, and she realised she was looking at the tip of something long, silver, and very very sharp. Her eyes snapped back shut. Her head hurt. A lot.
"It's a girl."
"How can you be sure about anything like that when we have Yazoo for a brother? Or the fact that you insist that you're male, for that matter?"
"She has boobs."
"Modern miracles of surgery and all that ..."
"Loz, why the hell are we discussing this?"
"Just saying. Also, why haven't you got at me for basically saying you and Yazoo look like/are girls?"
"I'm saving it."
Enya whimpered. There was a strange creaking sound. Someone poked her in the stomach.
"What's she doing here anyway?"
"How should I know?"
She opened her eyes a small amount and twitched her fingers. Slowly, she was coming back to her senses. Unfortunately, that also meant that the pain increased somewhat.
Eventually, She managed to open her eyes once more and looked up. Someone was leaning over her, and regarding her with beautiful green eyes, his head tilted to one side, like a curious cat. She gazed up at him, blankly. She should know him ... why didn't she know him?
"Oh shit ..." she muttered, so quietly that it was barely a whisper.
"Now, now, there's no need to be rude," said the leather-clad figure above her. She ignored him, concentrating on lifting her head to observe the damage done to her. The painful pounding intensified, and sickly dizziness was crowding her senses. Slowly, the dizziness faded, and she became dimly aware of the fact that half the wall and a very large filing cabinet from the floor above had fallen on top of the lower half of her body, trapping and probably crushing her leg. She stared for a moment, trying to make sense of it.
She let her head fall back with a groan, then wished she hadn't as her head hit the hard surface beneath her. Her breathing became fast, desperate, as the strange, pain-laced emptiness was swiftly replaced by those wonderful emotions known as panic and fear. She was trapped. She lay at the mercy of these people, these voices, those curious, oddly familiar glowing eyes with a sharp shiny sword. Unless they helped her, she'd die.
The dying thing seemed to be the most likely outcome.
"Come on Kadaj, lets find Yazoo and go. I'm bored." Kadaj ... yes, she knew that name, knew those eyes ... Kadaj ...
"What if she knows something?"
"She'll be dead soon enough. Not much point in asking her anything, she'll be gone soon."
"True. But I figure we can't take any chances. We know too little about it all, and she must be here for a reason" There was another creak as he leaned in closer, his silver hair swinging forward, a small frown on his slightly childish face. "Who are you?" he asked softly. His voice seemed to prod her feeble, battered brain into working slightly.
She took a deep breath, trying to recall the ability to construct a proper sentence. She was struggling to remember her own name. "Enya," she whispered chokingly. The word felt like it left scratches in her dry, dusty throat, as though the very syllables had sharp edges that grated and scraped.
His frown deepened slightly, his brow crinkled, and he thought for a moment. Then, smiling slightly, he leaned in even closer, and spoke in a hushed voice. It was as if he was a child about to include her in a big secret. "Do you know where Mother is?"
She just stared at him for a moment, before shaking her head the smallest amount possible. What is he talking about? she thought. She had no idea.
He drew back, looking disappointed. Sighing, he stood up, and turned to go.
"No!" she murmured quickly, finding her voice as the desperate will to live finally kicked in. He looked back at her questioningly. "Please," she said, slightly ashamed as tears burnt in her eyes, though she wasn't really sure why. If any time was a good time to cry, now was probably it. "Please ... don't leave me alone." He shrugged and walked away. "No! Please Kadaj! Please!" she sobbed, crying fully now as the pain and hopelessness took over.
He stopped. "You know me?" he asked without turning.
"Y-yes," she stammered, finding it impossible to keep her voice steady."I w-was there, r-remember? When you w-w-woke up ..." She trailed off.
"What's she talking about Kadaj? We've never seen her before! She wasn't there!" said the other, Loz, angrily.
"P-Please Kadaj!" she implored. "You saw me. I know you did. You- you saw me ..." She closed her eyes, feeling sick, her strength almost gone. She didn't see him as he silently came back towards her, staring intently at her limp, pathetic, doomed body as she lay broken amongst the rubble. There was no pity in his gaze, only a confused look of half recognition.
"Why were you there, Enya?"
"He told me to wait ..." came the feeble reply.
"Who?" he asked urgently, although he had a very good idea as to whom this he was. But he needed conformation, he needed to know.
"Sephiroth ..."
There was a silence broken only by Enya's harsh breathing. The pain was becoming unbearable. She didn't know how much longer she could hold on. Every breath took immense effort, the dusty air grating at her throat, her head pounding with each fluttering heart beat, the agony increasing with every long second that passed. She knew that these moments of excruciating pain were likely to be the last few seconds of her life. It was not, she felt, a good way to go.
"Move that thing Loz."
"What?!"
"Move it!" commanded Kadaj.
Loz shook his head at his younger brother, slightly perplexed, but knew better than to argue with his youngest brother when he was using that tone of voice. And so Loz picked his way over the wreckage and cleared some of the smaller pieces of debris from around Enya's legs, muttering under his breath the entire time.
Enya opened her eyes, vaguely feeling movement around her. Kadaj bent down beside her once more and slipped his arms underneath her, causing her to gasp and bite her lip. Loz then grasped the huge filing cabinet in both arms, tensing himself against its weight. Kadaj nodded, and he pulled it away with ease, as Kadaj lifted her out of the rubble. It was too much. The pain was too much. Her leg seared, her side burned and her head throbbed with this debilitating, mind-numbing pain. And then everything faded again, and there was nothing.
The next thing she knew was that she was outside. She could feel grass beneath her and there were birds singing. And there was no pain. She didn't feel ... anything much, just a strange tingling that ran through her entire body. Am I dead? she thought to herself.
"No," came a voice. "But you almost were."
She didn't think she had said anything out loud. She reached up and rubbed her eyes. Wow, she thought, I can move! She opened her eyes and looked around. The sky was blue above her, a few large clouds dotted across it like giant lost sheep. She blinked, the tingling increasing. Then there was a different feeling, a much less pleasant one. She rolled onto her side, convulsed, and vomited into the grass.
"Lovely," said the voice.
Coughing and spitting, Enya sat up and glanced around. She was outside the old lab, on the overgrown patch of rough grass that separated the forest from the building. There was someone sitting next to her, watching her through green eyes framed with silver. Not Kadaj though, nor Loz.
"Yazoo?" she croaked. He nodded, looking at her with an inquisitive expression on his feminine face. She looked down at her side, where something had ripped a hole in her shirt. She moved the ragged, stained material aside, and saw a thin, bright pink line about five inches long on her skin. A scar.
"We found the materia," he said, answering the question before she could ask it. "In your bag," he added. "Your leg will take longer to heal though."
She ran her hands through her hair, feeling very odd and very confused. One of her fingers got stuck in a tangled matted mass of hair and dried blood. She tugged it out, wincing as it pulled on the hair.
"Find anything?" Yazoo asked someone behind her.
"Nothing," said Kadaj as he came out of the lab with Loz. "If there was anything, it's lost now."
"What about her?" asked Loz, nodding towards Enya. "Why did you save her?"
"She might know something. She has something to do with this building, why else would she be here?"
Loz shrugged. "I dunno," he said.
"Of course you don't," said Yazoo haughtily. "You don't know anything."
"Oh don't you start," grumbled Loz sulkily.
"Aww, is Lozzikins gonna cry?" Yazoo teased.
Kadaj had gone over to Enya. He glanced at the puddle of sick next to her, but decided not to comment. They stared at each other in silence while Yazoo and Loz bickered.
"I saw you," he blurted, almost angrily. It was an odd thought, that she had been there at what was essentially his birth. He didn't like it. It felt ... wrong, almost perverted.
"Yes."
"You knew him?"
She didn't need to ask which him he was referring to. "Yes," she answered simply.
"You ... you knew Sephiroth?"
"Yes," she repeated. "I knew him. Or at least, I thought that I did." She drew her left knee up, and hugged it, staring at the ground. She still couldn't move her right leg.
Kadaj knelt down by her feet, trying to get her to look him in the eye. He put a gloved hand on her knee and tilted her head so she was looking at him with the other. She found herself caught in his eyes, just like that time in the basement. They were so beautiful ... so extraordinary ...
"Do you know of the Quest?" he asked, his voice hushed and secretive again. She nodded. Then she noticed it had gone quiet. Yazoo and Loz had stopped arguing and were now listening to the exchange intently. "You know what we are trying to do?"
"I think so," she whispered.
For a minute, nobody moved. Then Kadaj stood up and looked at his brothers. "We'll take her with us," he said.
"What?" cried Enya and Loz. Yazoo simply frowned.
"We'll take her with us," Kadaj repeated.
"She'll slow us down," Yazoo pointed out. "She can't walk yet. She might never be able to walk properly."
Enya snapped her head round to look at Yazoo, her eyes wide with shock. Now he tells me, she thought. I figured it was only temporary ...
"She knew him," Kadaj was saying. "We didn't. She might know things that we don't."
"How do you know she's telling the truth?" asked Loz, glaring at her.
"Because she was there Loz, I saw her. I remember."
Loz opened his mouth to retaliate, when Yazoo said softly, "The voice ..."
"What?"
"Remember? Sometimes someone was talking, someone who wasn't Mother." He nodded towards Enya. "It could have been her."
"See?" said Kadaj triumphantly. "She was there."
"Okay, so if she is telling the truth and she knows stuff, why don't we just get it out of her now?"
"She's suffered some serious head wounds. She won't be able to remember an awful lot for a while."
"We could make her remember though. With some ... persuasion ..."
"Loz, I don't think she wants to sleep with you."
"Wha- NO! I didn't mean that kind of persuasion! Pervert! No, I meant, you know, the persuasion with thumbscrews and torture and pain ..."
"Why Loz, I didn't realise you were into such kinky things," chuckled Yazoo. Kadaj rolled his eyes.
"Adding more pain won't help," said Kadaj, and Enya breathed a sigh of relief. Torture was not on her list of favourite pastimes. Then again, neither was being crushed by a filing cabinet and being 'rescued' by Sephiroth's younger brothers with their huge and somewhat terrifying Oedipal-type complexes.
"Fine. But I'm not going to do anything to help you lug her around," said Loz sulkily.
"What if I don't want to come with you?" asked Enya, trying to hide any trace of fear that might be in her voice. She failed miserably.
Kadaj blatantly ignored her. "She's not exactly big. It'll be easy."
"Um, excuse me ...?"
"She's bigger than you!"
"Loz, most people are bigger than Kadaj ..."
"Must you find fault with everything I say?"
"Yeah, pretty much. It's one of my great callings in life."
"You ... you suck, Yazoo!"
"Ooh, good comeback."
"So it's settled then," said Kadaj, interrupting angrily and glaring round at his bickering brothers. "We take her with us."
"Whatever," shrugged Yazoo. Loz just grumbled unintelligibly.
"But ... I don't want to go with you! I want to go home!" she managed weakly.
Kadaj frowned at her, looking at her as if she was stupid. "Since when did your opinion matter?" he asked coldly. "You're coming with us because I say so. You have no choice."
"And how did you plan on getting home anyways?" asked a peeved Loz. "Or have you forgotten that you can't walk?"
Enya opened her mouth, then shut it. She buried her face in her hands and groaned.
Footsteps approached her, and she was roughly lifted up, and made to stand on her feet. She retched again as the strange tingling intensified, but there was nothing left to come up. She wobbled unsteadily, and almost fell back. Even though there was no pain, she couldn't put any weight on her right leg, or control it at all. It just sort of flopped uselessly after her and made balancing almost impossible.
"Oh come on," said Kadaj's impatient voice. Irritably, he half lifted, half dragged her out from the clearing, and towards three large, filthy motorbikes, one of which she was unceremoniously dumped on to.
"Stay there," ordered Kadaj.
"Yeah, like she's going anywhere else, Kadaj."
Kadaj glared. Loz shut up.
Quickly, Kadaj climbed onto the bike in front of her, his brothers following suit and mounting their own bikes. She looked around uncertainly.
"Hold on," said Kadaj over his shoulder. She nervously complied, tentatively taking hold of his waist, as he started up the engine and they sped off.
Dammit! Why is this happening to me? Have I done something to piss someone up there off? Well, have I? The bike lurched, and she found herself clinging desperately to Kadaj, terrified she was about to be thrown off, burying her face into his leather-encased back. He's so damn slim ... he's thinner than I am! How is that fair? She shook herself. What silly thoughts. She must still be out of it.
Her head did indeed still feel sort of fuzzy, and the wind howling in her ears wasn't helping her current blurry state. It brought tears to her eyes and whipped at her face, stinging her skin. She wondered how long this journey would last.
"Where are we going?" she shouted over the roaring of the wind, unsure whether he heard her or not, and not really expecting an answer from him anyway.
But Kadaj surprised her. A one word answer, unaccompanied by sarcasm or scathingly witty remark.
"Ajit."
Also been edited again. I am never happy with anything. God damn my perfectionism.