A/N: Did the penname change throw you guys off? XD Sorry about that. I've been RubyRoseoftheBlackBlood since I joined Fanfiction(dot)net back in 2004, and I felt it was time for a change. Time to... finally fully separate myself from my old fanfics and my bratty fourteen-year-old self.
Anyway. Sorry about the long wait. School's eating up my life. I hope you enjoy the longest Session to date, Session Seven: Cloud!
Pairings: AkuRoku, Riku/Repliku, SoRiku, Zemyx, CLeon
Disclaimer: You know, I think I had a dream once where I owned these characters... and then I woke up.
Dedication: Hmmm... To Finnegan G. Dragon because she's reviewed everything I write, and they always make me smile. To you, dearie!
-x- Cloud -x-
Never in my life have I hated anyone more than I've hated Kairi Osaka.
No... that may be a lie. I have hated someone more than her. But the pure, un-abiding hatred and rage reserved solely for Sephiroth was redirected the moment Kairi lunged at me, sapphire eyes blazing with fury, a hypodermic needle aimed straight for my heart.
Allow me to recount the day's events. Okay, no. Allow me to, instead, recount the events of the evening, starting with my visit with Axel Mihara in the South wing of RGMI.
"Where's Rinoa?" was naturally the first question he asked me. Rinoa Heartilly, his regular nurse, had taken the week off to attend her sister's-in-law wedding, which is the information I relayed to him, practically word for word. He just hummed in the back of his throat, venom green eyes studying me a moment before he stepped aside and allowed me entrance to his cell.
The very first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of pictures depicting the same little blonde kid around the cell. It was frightening and beautiful all at the same time. Frightening, because every inch of the wall beside his bed was covered with these pictures; beautiful, because Axel had drawn every single one. His attention to detail was amazing, his raw talent rivaling that of even Naminé's. Upon closer inspection, I found that every picture was not, in fact, of the blonde kid. There were various pictures of nurses, doctors, and patients from the RGMI staff interspersed throughout the drawings. Among them, there was a picture of Squall and I, facing one another, fingers interlocked between us. My eyes were closed, head bowed ever-so-slightly, but there was a ghost of a smile on my face. Squall's eyes held so much emotion, though, as if he'd never seen anything so beautiful, as if he'd never loved anything more.
I was left speechless.
Axel must have noticed me staring, because he cleared his throat rather loudly, making it a point to get my attention. When I finally tore my eyes away from the drawing, he was scratching the back of his head, looking at the ground, cheeks tinted pink. He was embarrassed.
"You're a wonderful artist," I said, sitting down on his bed, my back facing the wall of pictures. He smiled in appreciation, sitting down next to me, eyes glued to the floor.
"Thanks... I think... It's just... I miss Roxas so much," I watched as the teenager dragged a thin hand through his spiked hair. "Everyday I wish I hadn't hurt him like I did. And everyday, I wonder what I did to deserve someone so wonderful..." I'd read his file. He was furious with himself for raping his best friend; according to the official statement, Roxas was fully consenting.
"I know what you mean," I mumbled after a few seconds of silence. I could see Axel staring at me out of the corner of his eye, silently urging me to continue. "Squa– Leon. Leon and I grew up in the same neighbourhood, but we were never friends until he found me beaten half to death, left behind to rot by someone I idolized," Sephiroth's painfully beautiful face crawled out of the deep recesses of my mind, plaguing my thoughts for a brief minute in time before returning from whence it came.
"Cloud, I don't see how this relates to me," Axel interrupted as I opened my mouth to speak. Instead of words, a strangled laugh escaped my throat.
"You didn't let me finish, Axel," I said, my voice lowered nearly to a whisper. But I would never get to finish.
"We are in a code blue," Aeris' voice suddenly came to life via the intercom system. "I repeat, we are in code blue. All available staff should report to the medical wing. I repeat..." I tuned her out, glancing over at Axel. The redhead merely smiled and waved me from his cell. I just stared at him a moment, mentally stumbling over my words before finally getting out a simple 'thank-you' then sprinting out of the cell and down the hall.
The medical wing was surprisingly empty when I burst through the metal double doors. In the middle of the hallway lay a little blonde girl, her blue eyes just staring at the nondescript grey walls. I knelt by her side, pressing two fingers to the pulse point below her ear, at the junction of her neck and jaw. There was no pulse. The doors flew open as Squall burst into the hallway; he flew to the girl's side and checked her pulse as well, grey eyes boring into mine as he came to the same conclusion.
Something clattered noisily to the ground, startling me. The sound ricocheted noisily off the walls, ringing in my ears when it finally died down. Squall and I just stared at each other in alarm; something flashed out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head just in time to see someone disappear around the corner. I glanced at Squall, watching him perform CPR on the girl for a minute before following the person. When I finally saw who it was, I was completely unsurprised. Kairi Osaka, fleeing from the scene. I kept close to her, trailing her around corner after corner, through a couple sets of metal double doors, until we eventually reached a dead end.
The silence surrounding us was almost suffocating; it was as if everyone else in RGMI had simply... vanished. Her back was facing me, but I could practically see the gears turning in her head. It was she who broke the silence.
"Do you want to kill me?" she asked, voice completely devoid of emotion. The question honestly caught me off-guard. I was expecting, 'Why are you following me?' or 'What do you want?' But definitely not, 'Do you want to kill me?'
"Why... would I want to do that?" I questioned, keeping my voice carefully guarded. I had my suspicions about her – Zexion only changed into Ienzo when he felt threatened. She began to laugh, softly at first, but gradually got louder and louder, until she was shrieking with laughter, her voice sharp, harsh, like nails on a chalkboard.
"Why... why would... Ha!" Her knuckles were ghost white from clenching her fists so tightly; a drop of blood slithered down her finger and fell to the ground, leaving a small dot of crimson on the linoleum. "You don't know? How could you not know? I mean, it was just so obvio–"
"Did you kill that blonde girl back there?" My interruption sent her into silence. Slowly, slowly, ever-so-slowly, she turned to face me. Her head was slightly bowed, raspberry-coloured strands of hair hanging in her face. But her eyes were trained on me, filled with something I couldn't even begin to describe. We stared at each other, unblinking, as disgust and rage began gnawing away at my stomach. Then, she moved. She lunged for me, a hypodermic needle clutched tightly in her right hand. Her first strike missed, but just barely. She spun around, lunging for me once more, and I was able to avoid her in time. Again and again we did this, a repeated pattern of lunge-dodge-lunge-dodge.
And then I fell. My feet caught on one another; I landed hard on my back, my spine cracking in several places, my head slamming against the ground. Pain shot through my skull, the wind knocked out of me. Kairi took immediate advantage of this, straddling my stomach and raising her needle high in the air.
"Ah!" The sudden gasp distracted Kairi just long enough for me to throw her off me and bolt, catching the arm of the blonde boy as I passed and dragging him down the hall with me. Around the first corner, the second, and I could hear Kairi catching up to us. Around another corner and then another, through a set of doors, we ran and ran until we finally burst through the doors near the infirmary, where Squall and the girl were. I let go of the boy and collapsed against the wall, my breath coming in short gasps.
"Cloud? Are you alright?" Sometime during the scuffle with Kairi, Aeris must have arrived to examine the blonde girl. Her green eyes were filled with confusion, glancing back and forth between me and the blonde boy.
"Kairi... attacked me," I gasped out, my head thumping against the wall behind me, sending a fresh wave of pain through my brain. I took a moment to look at the blonde kid, and suddenly, I was back in Axel's cell, staring at all the illustrations beside his bed, marveling at the sheer effort that went into the pictures and pure talent Axel possessed.
"Are you sure it was Kairi?" Aeris asked, melodic voice laced with concern. I nodded in response, sucking in deep breaths of air. I could hear Squall approach, felt his hands as he silently checked to make sure I was alright. He kissed my forehead when he was positive I wasn't injured, merely winded, before touching his lips to mine. The contact lasted only a moment before he pulled away. There was a long silence as Aeris continued her examination; the pain in my head was suddenly subsiding.
"Oh my God!" Roxas cried out, alarming all three of us. "That girl, is she..." Aeris stared at him a moment before nodding.
"Yes, I'm afraid so," I could hear Roxas' neck crack as he turned his head away. "It's terrible. She was so young... Her brother will be devastated." Roxas muttered an unintelligible string of curses, his eyes squeezed shut.
"Ugh... I should have waited until tomorrow..." he muttered. Aeris stood, peeling off her rubber gloves with a snap!.
"I'm going to go call the coroner," she stated, her voice gaining a sharp, commanding tone. "Cloud, Squall, call security. Roxas, follow me." Squall and I watched as the two disappeared into the infirmary, heard Aeris' soft mumble as she informed Demyx of the situation, listened as he began screaming at her. Squall pulled me close, silently reminding me how much he cared for me.
It turned out Kairi had escaped RGMI. As I burst through the doors near the infirmary, she'd taken a few more corners and left the mental institute all-together.
I hope Roxas stays safe.
Foreshadowing much? I'm so evil. Review, please?
Also, I'm looking for a beta. Preferably one that's online frequently and has a messenger service (AIM, MSN, Yahoo...). My usual beta is almost never online anymore, and I'm not good at proofreading my own stuff. PM me if you're interested. Please – be literate.
Thanks.
