Turks
I walked away from the bar, and as I turned to go down the alley where I kept my bike, I caught the eyes of Marlene and Denzel, who were standing at a window, watching me. Denzel narrowed cold eyes, and turned Marlene away, faking a smile.
He was a good kid. He had to grow up to fast.
Memories, of Zack, of Sephiroth, of my home plagued my mind... I fondled the necklaces around my neck.
"Hey, Kairi, can I talk to you for a second...?" My friend Nathaniel asked. I grinned. It was my thirteenth birthday party. I nodded, stepping away from the others, who were to consumed in their conversations to notice. He drew out a small white box with pink tissue paper sticking out of the side.
"Here, it's your birthday present. I've been hiding it this whole time." I took it from him, lifting off the lid. "Careful though, it's a family heirloom."
I opened up the box to see a small golden chain that led to a heart-shaped locket. The locket was lined in gold, the center black opal, and on the opal was a small carving in gold of a guardian angel.
"I thought you might like it since I remembered you telling me a story about how your grandmother had loved guardian angels... and that story about your brother." I smiled.
"I love it." I opened up the locket to see a picture of me and Nathaniel. I could still remember the night. He had rescued me from a bunch of kids at our school who had found me sleeping on the playground. He had brought me back to his house, and his stepmother had made us hot chocolate. "Can you help me put it on?"
"Only if you promise to never take it off."
"I promise.
A year later, Nathaniel had been brutally murdered by a gang that was taking over the city... all of the offenders had been prosecuted, until one day, Nathaniel's family suddenly dropped the charges, and they had walked free.
I never took it off, ever, if only to bath.
It was four days after my seventh birthday, christmas morning. I still cried... after mommy had divorced daddy... though I didn't know I would see him again, at his worst, a year later... I missed my daddy. I opened up a gift, a gift from 'santa' and grabbed the card.
~You told me you had believed in Santa,
So when your mom got this in the mail,
She wouldn't know it's from me.
Merry christmas, Princess.
Daddy~
I wrapped the black-jeweled choker around my neck.
I never took that one off, reminding myself every second of my life the mistake I had made, begging my mother for two years straight, to take me back to my daddy.
"Mommy, why do people think I'm crazy...?" I asked softly, a kindergarten version of me sitting on Shelby's bed. She grinned at me.
"Because they can't see them."
"Why, though? I can't see them either, only in my dreams. I can hear them."
"Because they're dead."
"Oh." I was silent for a moment... "So God lets them see me?" My mother nodded. "Why?"
"Because they're family."
"How? Is Michael my daddy? What about Leroy?"
"No, Mikey... he was a misscarriage, sweetie, and Leroy was your daddy's daddy."
"How come I've never heard of them before? And what's a misscarriage?"
"A misscarriage is a baby that never gets born, because it dies."
"So was Michael my brother...?" My mother nodded.
"Honey, I want you too have something..." She reached across to her nightstand, opened the droor with a key she kept around her neck, and pulled out a beautiful jeweled box. She used a second key from the droor to open the box, and soft music started playing. I recognized it as the tune to 'you are my sunshine'. I smiled. It was my favorite lullaby. She pulled out a beautiful diamond necklace, that had pearl drops that accented my neck.
"This was Leroy's. We were going to give it to Michael, but... we want you to have it."
That was the first time I had ever heard about the two family members who had kept me sane all of those years. It reminded me that guardian angels were dead. Simple as that.
It was the day after my fourteenth birthday 'party' that eXene had planned, and I lay on my couch, skipping school, crushed. Devin had never shone up. I didn't dare tell anybody, but I thought I was in love with the man... the way he held me... talked to me... kissed me...
I had been stupid enough at that age to let him have his way with me. Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. I shot up, fear gripping me, and peeked out the curtains. I breathed a sigh of relief, which was quickly filled with a new kind of fear.
Why wasn't Devin at school? He was a freshman at Highschool now!
I opened the door, anyways though, and gave him my signature grin. He held out a small brown bag.
"Happy birthday. My grandma made it." I grinned up at him, and opened it up. Inside was a small black leather string, and attatched to the bottom of the necklace was a metal-shaped leaf, painted, designed, and glazed over. On the back, a snack was carved into the metal.
"It's beautiful." And Devin kissed me for the first time.
I kept that one around my neck to remind me that I was a fool, and my heart was even more foolish. To never let my emotions control me. To only do things that would better my future, never please another.
I breathed heavily, training with the General was getting more and more intense, every single day. It was getting harder and harder... the materia wouldn't work with my body, so I had to better myself without it. According to him, if I didn't react well with my Mako combatability testing tomorrow, I would be 'removed' from the SOLDIER program... which meant he was building up my endurance, and teaching me to withstand pain better.
Suddenly, he stopped, and approached me. I smiled tiredly up at him.
"Hullo, Sir," I said breathlessly. He shook his head, smiling.
"I have a surprise for you. A goodluck charm, to add to your... collection." His eyes flickered to the necklaces around my neck. "Close your eyes." I obeyed immediately, my heart skipping beats as I felt his cold hands touch my neck, and metal drape around it. "You can open them now." I obeyed, and looked down at my collar bone. A thin silver chain lay there, a small silver pendant with a carving of a baby angel sat there, and on the back, was the carving of a gryffon. I smiled softly.
"I have to pass now, I've got my guardian angel, and a lucky gryffon!"
I kept that around my neck to remind me to never believe another. Never to trust. Never to hope.
Cloud and me sat in the bar, hiding out from Zack, who was rampaging about, singing about celebrating some absurd holiday he had made up. He smiled shyly.
"Hey... um, I got ya something... kind of a... sign of friendship, I guess... partnership...." His voice was small by the time he finished. He had been timid in the first and second year of my SOLDIER training.
I nodded, and he handed me a small jewelry box. I opened it up to see a silver chain. I wrapped it around my neck.
"I love it. Thank you. I promise I'll never take it off." We both smiled at eachother.
I kept that one around my neck to remind myself, of everything, everyone... of memory. Te remind me to remember. It served it's purpose.
I sat in the back of the school, beneath the tree, sobbing. It was raining, and I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I was attempting to stitch together a wound Edward had given me on my side, but I was failing miserably. I heard footsteps squelching in the mud, and looked up in panic. It was Aaron. I breathed a sigh of relief, and watched as the depressed boy crouched beside me, sad eyes taking in my situation. Wordlessly, he took the thread and needle, threaded it perfectly, and pushed up my shirt a little.
"This'll hurt," he said softly through the pounding rain. We both jumped when the second periods bell rang, and I was shivering, my body hurting from the cold. The wound would probably get infected. I nodded, gritting my teeth, and looking away... I was never good with pain then. I'd scream and cry if I got a bloodtest or a a papercut. Something had been up with my nerves, thankfully, a year later, my first trainer had given me a series of shots I had to take once a year that would kill most of my pain receptors.
I silently sobbed and cried as Aaron stitched the wound. He finished, and washed the blood from his hands in a nearby puddle. The gash had taken up my entire side, and was atleast a centimeter deep. He didn't meet my eyes.
"I'm sorry I hurt you..." He whispered. "I hurt everybody. You, Exene..." I smiled up at him, trying not to be sick from the pain my body was in.
"Don't. This was my fault... I was... reckless... on my bike," I lied. Aaron didn't believe it, but he accepted it.
"Kairi, what would you do if I died?"
"I'd die too. You're my best friend. I can't live without you."
"I would too, if you died..." He seemed sad. I wondered if he was crying. In the rain you could never tell.
"Then how about a promise?" He looked at me in confusion. "If you promise you won't kill yourself, I promise I won't. But if I die by my own hand, you die too. If you die by your own hand, I die too. Deal?" Aaron smiled softly, and held out his hand for me to shake.
Suddenly, he got a bright smile, which he only got when he had a really good idea.
"I want you to have something. I got it along time ago from this kid as thanks for helping him..." Aaron pulled out of his pocket, a small necklace that a pair of angel wings was attatched to a cross. He handed it to me. I clipped it on.
"I love it. I won't ever take it off."
"There's an inscription on the back, too. It says 'I would rather spend my life with the birds than wishing I had wings'. I don't know what it means."
"It means that person would rather just be happy, then try and make themselves happy."
"Of course you knew, you know everything."
"I didn't know you were going to give me this necklace."
"Touche."
Aaron was my best friend. He would always be. He was always there for me... but I had never been there for him. All I did was abandon him.
In the world of The Planet, Gaia, it was technically my twentieth birthday. I had been training beneath Zack now for almost five years. Said first class SOLDIER was leading me down a hall, blindfolded.
"You can take it off now," he whispered in my ear, stepping away. When I pulled it off, people jumped from everywhere, screaming 'surprise'. Of course, it was only people I knew, since Zack knew how scared I felt around strangers, but... it felt special. It felt loving.
Tears welled in my eyes, as nightmares of my friends, of all of their curses, of all of the things that had happened to me in my home world flooded over, I turned and fled. I didnt need friends. As I ran, someones hand pulled me to a stop, pulling me into their chest, and warm, safe arms. Zack rested his head in my hair. He was twenty-one now. He breathed in my scent. I was rigid, not moving, not thinking, I just froze. He stepped back.
"I have a present, but you have to swear you'll never take it off, unless I do something so horrible, I deserve the fact that you should abandon everything about me, even my memory." I looked at him, searching for the usual joke, usual laugh in his eyes. He was serious, solemn. I nodded slowly. He pulled out of his pocket something on a silver chain, and showed me the necklace. It was a silver locket with a blood-drop ruby centered in it. He helped me tie it around my neck.
The next day, we were sent off to Nibelheim.
I unclipped the necklace Zack had given me and placed it on the ground.
"You don't deserve this, Zack... but you left me. I have no one. I never should have had anyone. I'm a failure. A mistake. A monster. Call me what you like, but it's time I lose my past."
I got to my feet, and left the necklace on the slab of cement.
Cloud paced nervously in the bar. Kairi had been gone for over twenty-four hours now. It was starting to rain, and all she had been wearing was a pair of pants, a small shirt, and her cloak. She didn't even have shoes. He was worried.
"Why don't we go look for her? She's been gone for a while," Tifa suggested. Reno had left right after Kairi, saying he had to get back to work, claiming he had a real job, unlike some people. Cloud had called Vincent, more for having his friend here than for anything else. The stony, monotone man sat beside Tifa, watching Cloud with careful eyes.
"You like her," he said, speaking for the first time. Cloud just shook his head.
"I don't. Zack does. Zack loved her. She never knew." Vincent nodded, understanding completely how Cloud seemed to be both Zack and himself, but he was also smart enough to realize that the chocobo-like boy had his own emotions for this stranger.
"I'm gonna go look for her. D'ya think Barret and Nanaki would help?" Vincent nodded.
"Barret liked her, well, more of liked her machine skills, than the woman herself."
"Close enough, for Barret," Tifa said. "I'll call them. See if I can get Yuffie and Cid too." Cloud nodded, and without a word, sped out the door, climbing onto his motorcycle.
Vincent followed behind him.
Where are you, Kairi?
I walked up to the infamous Shin-Ra building, my heart beating in my chest. I took a deep breath, and walked inside.
"May I help you?"
"I need to speak to Mr. Shin-Ra," I said. She nodded, looking down, and frowned, apparently seeing an issue with something in the computer.
"I'm sorry, but he's in a meeting right now, can this wait?"
"I'm afraid not. I have..." I quickly improvised. "I have information regarding a rogue SOLDIER." The womans eyes widened, and called down a SOLDIER.
"He'll escort you." I nodded my thanks and waited silently in the elevator.
"You a Turk?" He asked finally. He had been staring at me the entire ride. I shrugged.
"Almost. I used to work here."
"Used?"
"Yeah. Used." I pointedly ignored him the rest of the time until he gestured to a large door.
"He's right through there."
I nodded my silent thanks and without a knock or warning walked right in on Rufus Shin-Ra talking to Tseng, a man I recognized as the leader of the Turks.
"Tseng, please give us some privacy," Rufus requested immediately. I kept myself carefully empty as the Turk obediantly walked out, eyeing me carefully.
"So, my darling ex-SOLDIER, what can I do for you."
"You can tell me about the JENOVA project. What you demons did to Sephiroth." The man nodded, smiling faintly.
"Ah, yes. I remember now. You two were quite a pair, weren't you?"
"Answer me, Shin-Ra, or whatever waits me outside, I'll risk it just to blow a few bloody holes in your chest." The man chuckled.
"Silly girl. I don't know. The only way you could ever get those kinds of answers would be to work with that monster named Hojo."
"Not on your life," I growled. Death was worse than working for that son-of-a-bitch.
"Don't you see? It's your life. Your life rests in your own hands now. Being an ex-SOLDIER, having gone MIA, or Awol, as most prefer it, I should kill you right now. But I'm giving you a choice, Kairi, work for Shin-Ra again, under my control, not my predecessors, and I shall spare you. I shall make you powerful..." He gained a sadistic smile. "I can even make you forget all those awful memories of your home-world. Of Zack. Of Sephiroth."
He waited silently for me to decide.
Cloud rode his bike, following Red XIII who had caught up to him. He had caught her scent, even though it was through the rain, and he was leading him. Suddenly, Nanaki came to a stop, sniffing something silver on the ground. Cloud turned off his bike, letting it fall to its side as he got off. Nanaki moved out of his way as he picked up the silver locket. His eyes went wide in shock.
"What does it mean?" Nanaki asked. "Her scents so deep in that... she must not have taken it off for atleast a few years."
Cloud nodded, fear gripping his heart.
"She once told me... that if she ever took this necklace off... she as as good as dead. Zack gave it to her."
Red XIII nodded solemnly.
"Cloud... I am sorry... but her trail ends here. All I get is polution. She must have gotten on a bike, but I can't follow it now."
A/N: Wow. That was a fun chapter. I'm changing some things around, for one, Advent Children is FOUR years after the original story-line, and right now, this is only TWO, so yeah... and also, I'm changing how many necklaces she has right now. She only has eight, I believe. Also, please do not steal these memories. Most of them are real. Except for the bloody gash, in that... well, the gash was caused differently.
Anywho, I hope you liked this chapter. Advent Children will be coming up soon!