I Can Be Your Knight
Reeve jumped into questioning once Marlene was settled between Denzel and Vincent, Barret too guilt ridden to hold her. He blamed himself, everyone knew that much from a single glance.
Tifa sat down to a twitchy Cid, allowing her daughter to make her own choice of where to settle; the girl wish that didn't happen though. Everyone treated her like an adult, but she was simply eight! Even Yuffie got to be treated like a child, pampered and babied as much as she wanted at times.
Softly stroking her swollen elbow, Marlene snuggled under the vampire's cloak, Denzel's hand placed firmly on her knee.
She admitted to lying in her note, there was never an intention to meet up with some girls from school. Denzel should've known better; Marlene wasn't popular amongst their classmates.
The girl recalled how Aeris' flowers were dead, and how the pool of water was blackening to likes of the one dwelling in the Forgotten City. Despite Tifa's protests and Barret slamming down his fist on a tabletop, cracking the poor thing, Reeve pursued her notions further, truly treating it as an interrogation.
Marlene recalled thee nightmares of Sephiroth, how she saw her daddy mangled on a bloody soil, many other soldiers and friends in similar outcomes. Her voice was no more than a squeak now, the brunette playing with Vincent's claw to keep her steady.
Not even Yuffie could make a sound, Cid flying through his cigarettes like never before. He was going to have a baby; he didn't need these visions plaguing him at night.
Oddly enough, Barret's daughter never mentioned of her stroll two nights ago, conveniently forgetting the feather she found and gave to Tseng.
The girl moved on to say how interested "Genesis" was in Cloud's old sword. And how angry he got when she said the previous owner was only known to Cloud, as far as she could tell.
Tifa shifted uncomfortably at this. She had met Zack as his tour guide when he, Cloud and Sephiroth travelled to Nibelheim. The bartender also vaguely knew of Genesis, he was a SOLDIER, First Class, and a friend to the puppy and General. Zack had spoken much on their trek about his mentor, Angeal and their resident poet.
Giving up with the scratched, gold plated claw Vincent bore, Marlene began swinging her legs, toying with the frayed end of her red concealment, the gunslinger paying no heed to her distracting movements. The girl began how he had her bring them to Shin-Ra, flying through the air despite only having one wing.
"I think he's sad too," came her side comment, still refusing to view anyone's face.
From there the incident of Rufus shielding her when Reno and Rude failed to stop the red clad experiment was told, all the way to being tossed out the window shortly after the chair.
Reeve summed the rest up for her, having arrived at that point. Not a single body said anything, Denzel shifting awkwardly under the tension. AVALANCHE had a collective expression, their fears and anger suffocating.
"Daddy, can I go to bed?" Marlene's voice shook her pitch off and raspy. The man in question stood, gently tearing her away from Vincent and settling her beneath her covers upstairs. The trauma was overwhelming her tiny frame, drooping eyes intoxicated by sleep.
While her body collapsed under the events of the day, Marlene's mind began new engravings, Sephiroth painting the cathedral crimson, scarlet rivers feeding Aeris' tulips, pooling around the Buster Sword.
Not only was the General tainting the sanctuary, but he was there, auburn hair billowing gently under the fires departing his rapier. Genesis' trench passed through the flames, cackling and rippling through the magic flames.
Their smirks tore apart her heart, both blades clenched tightly between their right hands, dripping of her friends' lives. How could they be happy with this?
Why did Sephiroth want the world to go away? Didn't he find his friends enough, even though his mother was Jenova. Marlene didn't understand, mindlessly staring at the beasts before her.
She found out that Barret wasn't her dad that Tifa wasn't her mother, but she wasn't upset with her real parents. Her real dad left her, and that hurt when she found out through an eavesdropping adventure. But she didn't hate him, she couldn't. How could Sephiroth hate so many people that he never knew?
In an instant, the faces of the carcasses faded, every feature blurred to her wide eyes. Ebony feathers swirled around her protectively, teasingly. The raven's shade blinded and bound her to a sea of fear. One fell deftly into her palms, burning her frail, smooth hands.
Instead of shrieking, Marlene found another by her nose, initiating a sneeze.
The eight year old shot up, a mute scream of horror unleashed, her entire body drenched in cool sweat. Her sheets pooled around her slim ankles, the mattress with another device just after, a body hunched over a worn book, its pages bristled and yellow.
The figure adorned red and black leather, jingling from his most close ear an emerald drop earring, glinting and dazzling under the moonlight's fingertips.
Her startle diminished, the profile before her familiar, but she couldn't place the name. Marlene couldn't remember why he seemed so daunting. All he was doing was reading a book, turned so that the window above Denzel's slumbering form to her right illuminated the musty pages.
Turning her attention to the snoring ten year old, the brunette frowned. Why was she sharing a room? With a boy no less!
"The wandering soul knows no rest." Marlene gasped, her eyes focusing back to the man before her. He held his hand out, his beautiful, Mako eyes gleaming under the moonlight, shadows dancing across his fair complexion.
Genesis promised sanctuary from her nightmares, he gave hope to her fears.
So with a gulp the young Wallace placed her tender hand onto the leather, no words passed. She couldn't remember her terror, but it didn't matter. The red-brunette offered her sanctuary, and Marlene took it without hesitation.