Fearful Symmetry

Chapter 10: Twin Dragon Germ

Willy didn't even flinch as the gun went off, shattering the café window with an impressive crash. The initial explosion was followed by several exclamations—mostly curses—as a general panic enveloped the main room. Several men ran from the shop, swearing, disappearing into the alleys for fear of being caught in a problem that wasn't theirs. But then, she knew it would only take the remaining customers a few minutes to regain their composure and return to their drinks. She'd seen it too often before. One dead Shinra made no difference.

As she'd expected, by the time Tyser joined her and they entered the bar, no one gave them much notice. They merely turned their heads toward their drinks and shuffled their feet. She didn't blame them. Most likely, they had their own problems to worry about.

Kem Arvon was slumped to the side of his chair, his head cocked at a grotesque angle. Blood stained the tiles around his table and sunk into their cracks, mixed with bits of scalp and bone. Willy approached swiftly, undaunted by the sight, as she'd similar bodies dozens of times before. It had been a good shot, which made her job that much easier. But when she was only a few steps away she heard a sharp cough. The sound was thick and wet, and Kem's body moved a bit. Willy paused for only a moment. It was someone at the bar, she told herself.

Though it was against her better judgment, Willy moved to see his face. A good portion of his skull had been blown apart by the bullet, and yet most of his features were in tact. She could still recognize the long, firm jaw and deep-set eyes. Eyes now blank and hollow. She sighed, expelling the tension so as to not get bogged down in emotion.

His left eye blinked.

At first she thought she'd hallucinated, or that his muscles were simply contracting as a response to his brain being ripped apart, but when the brightly glowing iris turned upward, she froze. Weak breath hissed through Kem's slack lips, causing blood to flow lazily over her chin and pool on the tile. She only stared, shocked, as the man coughed again.

Beside her, Tyser gawked. "Holy f—king flush," he stuttered. "The bastard's still alive."

Kem blinked slowly, his blood-washed glare mocking them. He put his hand on the table. The Turks could only gaze in astonishment as he attempted to stand. But then, just as he'd regained some balance, he pitched forward, overturning the table and scattering dishes in a cacophony of breaking glass and ceramic plates. His body shuddered, face down on the floor, until Tyser fired three more times into the man's skull.

Willy reminded herself to take another breath, overcoming her confusion. Naturally she knew that the first shot didn't always kill the target, but to see him stand after Tyser's perfect aim….

She shook the image from her mind. "Raile's waiting," she said, glancing about the bar. No one was watching. Then she looked through the shattered window frame at Korben, just to check.

But Korben wasn't where Raile had ordered him to stay. He was moving toward the bar with unsteady, hesitant strides. His gun hung in a lazy grip. His eyes, wide and filled with a strange, wild emotion, slithered across the tile to stare at the body. "Dear God, it isn't dead," he whispered, trembling a bit.

"What? Hell, he looks dead." Tyser nudged Kem's shoulder with his toe; it rolled back without response. "Calm down, Duce. He's folded."

Korben shook his head slowly, transferring his sharp gaze to the door, which read, "Mindy's Room." Slowly, his visage was tainted with a look of horror that Willy recalled from earlier that evening. He was attempting to contain the sudden instinctual fear; it took all of his strength to keep from fleeing, or screaming like a madman. "No," he murmured, as if witnessing a predator as it stalked its victim. His hand, a pale, shaking limb, stretched out as if to halt some illusion that played across the screen of his mind. "No, don't. No—"

From the back room came the sound of an explosion. It wasn't the kind of booming, echoing percussion of thunder that Willy was used to hearing; it was subdued, and accompanied by a wet sound not unlike that of a mallet brought down on a watermelon. Dampened shrapnel splattered loudly against the door, followed by silence. The men at the bar lifted their heads, as if detecting somehow the rise of power from within the back room. Then, faintly of the sound of shuffling feet and setting glasses, could be heard the screaming voice of a woman.

Korben had stopped breathing, and Willy realized after a moment that she was also holding her breath. She shook herself, not allowing her eyes to meet Korben's for fear of losing reality in the raging, raw emotion of his depthless stare. Unconsciously she checked her gun and headed for the door to Mindy's Room.

"Wait!" Korben cried, her movement startling him from his panic. "Willy, don't go in there."

"Raile's in there. I have to." Her hand closed around the knob, but before she could open it, someone began to twist it from the inside. She stepped back and readied her weapon as the door swung open into the room.

Gavin stepped out of the room, dressed only in his khaki pants with white shirt draped over his arm. He was chuckling to himself. For a moment when the door was opened Mindy's terrified wail emptied into and filled the bar, stirring some of the customers to abandon their seats. The interior of the room was dark, but Willy could see almost black stains covering the far wall, and a slumped shape too small to be a man. The smell, a sickening odor that raised bile in her throat, assaulted her nostrils and choked her throat with it intensity. It smelled of gore and death.

The door snapped shut, startling her. "Oh, Willy," Gavin greeted heartily despite the look on her face. He slipped his arms into his shirt sleeves; the material was marred with crimson spots. "I didn't know you were here."

Willy gulped back any hesitation as she raised her gun, aiming at the man's heart. She couldn't bear to look him in the face. "Hold it right there," she instructed. "What did you do to Raile?"

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." He buttoned his shirt and tucked it in his khakis. "It's rather unpleasant."

"Tyser, watch him," she called over her shoulder, defiance in her gaze as she finally looked at Gavin. He was brushing bits of something out of his hair with his fingers. Preparing herself, she opened the door once more. The stench washed over her again, and Willy covered her mouth with her hand to keep from becoming sick.

Mindy was sitting in bed, naked and blood-stained. She'd stopped screaming and only stared at the intruder with gaping eyes and opened mouth. The entire room was splattered with dripping gore—not one of the bar owner's possessions had been spared. The walls were colored gruesomely, as if bleeding from stab wounds in the wood created by shattered bone fragments. Bits of navy suit fabric stuck to them, pathetic bandages against the flow of life fluid. The slumped shape against the far wall was a pair of human legs and nothing more, destroyed down to the knees, covered in dark slacks and black dress shoes.

Willy closed her eyes, but it was too late; the image before her was forever imprinted upon her brain. She nearly fainted as dozens of questions and images attacked her: Did Gavin done this? How? Why? She dropped to her knees and vomited, overcome with the awful scene. Her eyes burned with tears that wouldn't fall. Oh God, Raile…this can't be happening….

"Willy? What's going on in there?" Tyser's call and Mindy's loud, gasping breath forced the woman Turk to retain her composure. You couldn't have done anything. But it's not over. The woman's probably in shock. You have to help her. "Tyser, stay there and watch him. I'll be right there." Willy shoved her gun in her belt and removed her suit jacket, focusing on this task to keep from the sight of her leader's remains. Swiftly, so that she could complete this part of her mission quickly, she strode into the room. She only gave only one sign of discomfort—a quiet sob when her heel crushed loudly on a piece of splintered bone. She bit her lip and approached the woman in bed.

"Mindy, I'm here to help you," Willy said, retrieving a cloth from the woman's bedside drawer to wipe her face. "You're okay; you're not hurt. I'm going to take care of you."

Mindy only stared, pale, trembling, and uncomprehending. The Turk managed to put the jacket on her and buttoned it halfway. "I'm taking you outside. We're going to find a friend of yours—Cindy is a waitress, right? And Fillip. You'll be okay." She hooked her arm around the woman's waist and hauled her off the bed. Fortunately Mindy had enough of her own mind left to stumble along on her own feet to the door. They were met outside by several of the bar's waiters. "Get her to a doctor," Willy instructed firmly.

"Well done." She started at the sound of Gavin's voice. "Caring for a whore."

Willy bit her lip hard, so that the pain would keep her in focus. Anger and injustice gradually began to replace her shock, and her hope. Her hand curled around the grip of her weapon, and she leveled it at the SOLDIER member. She moved deliberately to put her and Tyser at a ninety-degree angle with Gavin as the target. Korben stayed out of range. "Don't move," she commanded in a clipped voice, her emotions tightly leashed. Her voice rose as she spoke to the men in the bar. "Everyone else, get out. Bar's closed for tonight." And when only a few obeyed, she snapped, "If you stay, you'll end up like the guy in Mindy's room."

The door to Mindy's Room was wide open now, and those that could see inside quickly covered their mouths and fled from the shop. The others were compelled to escape simply from the smell. Soon only the three Turks and Gavin remained.

"What happened in there?" Tyser asked quietly, the seriousness in his voice somewhat eerie. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Willy closed her eyes only briefly. "Yes. There's…not much left." She turned her heated gaze on Gavin. "How could you?" she hissed. "He was your friend."

"And now he's sludge," he replied coldly. "His own damn fault for interrupting." He gave a short bark of laughter. "Now who outranks who, eh?"

"Bastard." She held her gun in both hands tightly to keep them from shaking. "What did they do to you?"

Gavin shrugged carelessly. "Explaining it won't help—you wouldn't understand. I'm better than all of you now, which is all you need to know." He grinned wickedly, causing them all to cringe. "It only took a minute to kill Raile, which means in less than ten I could take out all three of you. Hell, less than five! Not bad for First Class, huh?"

"There's no use talking," Korben murmured, moving to stand behind Tyser as if in hope of protection. "That's not Gavin Frekes anymore."

"What happened to him?" Tyser asked. "Do you know?"

"I…I'm not sure."

The man in question laughed mockingly, satisfied as Korben shrank back. "What a joke. What makes you think you know anything? You're just a f—ked up junky."

As Tyser was the highest ranking Turk, it was up to him to make the call. "Ace," he said slowly, "we don't want to do this. But we're taking you in, and if you resist us, we'll kill you." The quiet, tightly restrained anger beneath his usually casual voice was unsettling. Willy couldn't remember hearing Tyser ever talk that way. He meant what he said. "I don't care if you're yourself or not. I won't forgive you for what you did to Raile."

Raile. He called him Raile, and not King. Willy's hands shifted over her handle. This is it. But…isn't there another way? There has to be….

Gavin's lip curled. He spread his arms out in an inviting gesture. "Well, it looks like you guys're gonna earn your pay for once. I intend to resist."

Tyser's finger drew the trigger back, but by then the SOLDIER was already in motion. The bullet struck Gavin's open palm as he charged, penetrating his flesh, but not passing entirely through his hand as it should have. He hopped, kicking out with his right leg; his knee knocked the gun's aim vertical to avoid another shot, and an instant later his book struck Tyser in the chest. The Turk was thrown brutally into the table behind him, tumbling it and sending the dishes crashing. Korben barely managed to dodge out of the way. Tyser landed among the strewn utensils, gasping and moaning.

Willy fired, her actions a result of trained reflexes, each of three shots burying in Gavin's upper back. His body jerked forward, unbalanced, but he didn't fall. She was still overcoming her horror at having shot him when he righted himself. He turned toward her with a grin. "At least your aim is improving."

"How…." She stared, dumbstruck. She'd heard the stinging impact of the bullets, and could see the blood soaking into the back of his white shirt, and yet he stood without falter and had the audacity to mock his attacker. "A monster…" she murmured, the image of the demon Chaos resurfacing in her mind. "They made you into a demon."

"I always was a demon," he laughed. "You just didn't know me better."

Willy shook her head in fierce denial. "No, that's not true and you know it."

Gavin was suddenly in front of her, one hand grabbing her belt and the other her collar. He lifted her into the air with ease, the gun falling from her hand. She had no time to think; there was only the motion, being tossed into the air like a limp doll. Gravity betrayed her, and reality was no more than a smudge of horizontal gray. For several suspended moments she flew, sickened and paralyzed, until the earth rushed back to claim her. Her left arm landed first. Then she rolled, still crying out from the first contact, scraping her back and arms. She finally halted on her back in the street. Her head was pounding, and her lips tasted of blood.

Willy groaned. When she opened her eyes she saw only a dark, clouded canopy of heaven and blurs of iron and fluorescent light. The recognition that she was outside came to her slowly, as if she were viewing the landscape of some dream. The pain probed this theory otherwise. Her skull was throbbing, and her left arm and shoulder felt like they'd been set aflame. Dislocated a tiny voice of logic in her brain stated. Some part of her was still willing to reason. Left shoulder dislocated, wrist broken, bruised like hell. Maybe there was still more, but the pain had enveloped most of her body, making it difficult to locate anything else.

Laughter, and footsteps—those were the first sounds to reach her from above her own breath and quickened pulse. Then her own name, spoken in urgency from a distance. But then the booted steps blocked that out, and the laughter filled her ears. "Willy, Willy, Willy," the chuckle formed into words. "Poor, poor Willy. Such a shame."

"Ga…." To speak, to move was too much of a burden; she wondered vaguely how far she'd been thrown. It had felt like a great distance.

"But then, if you didn't eat so many damn salads, you probably wouldn't have sailed so far. Weight loss has an ugly side."

Willy forced herself to sit up, relying entirely on her right arm to support her. The muscles all along her back complained with the movement. Still, she managed to remain somewhat upright. The more difficult action was lifting her gaze to Gavin's face. Though she hadn't expected to see any sympathy, the look of passive indifference in his eyes was painful to see. Her voice failed her.

"Frekes!" She recognized the voice as Korben's, and was relieved by the force in his tone—he was regaining the courage that had for three years kept him alive through the worst missions. But she was still staring at Gavin, who had at the calling of his name betrayed his cool exterior with a look of panic. He didn't turn immediately; his hands trembled a bit, which seemed to surprise him even more, and he curled them into fists. Slowly, he turned.

Willy's mind began to race. Gavin hadn't acted like that toward Korben before—what had happened? Where had that glint of fear come from?

The two men were in a stare-down now. Korben had abandoned the shop—she could see Tyser through the broken store window behind him—and stood against his opponent unarmed. Though his bravery was there, guiding him, he still appeared unsure and nearly terrified. Anyone could have seen that, and still the SOLDIER's tightly clenched fists clearly spoke of his own insecurity.

"Korben, don't give up!" Willy shouted desperately. "He's just as scared of you as you are of him!"

Both men started visibly, and Gavin turned on her angrily. "Shut up! I'm not afraid of anything, let alone a piece of shit like him!"

Korben straightened at her words, and though he didn't believe her completely, he trusted her enough to look for himself. He stared directly into Gavin's bright amber eyes, searching for a hint of an advantage for him. He breathed slowly and focused on that tiny spark within the man's gaze; the luminescence pulled him deeper, dared him to view what secrets lay behind those twin mirrors. He reached out, further, and there discovered an understanding.

"Willy," he said, wondering at the source of this man's power. "I can save him."

Gavin's face twisted in a look of absolute rage, but now the fear had been raised from his mind, and it shone in his countenance. The blaze in his eyes grew, spilling rays of brilliance over his features. "You stupid son of a bitch! I'll kill you all! I'm better than all of you!"

"I see now." Korben licked his lips and stood his ground. "I see what you are."

The SOLDIER member scowled. He clasped his hands together; they began to glow a dull green, and the eerie light was accompanied by a swelling of power that all of them clearly felt. It was as if a cool wind had begun to blow, prickling goosebumps along their flesh. Willy shivered, finally realizing what it was inside her past lover that caused Korben so much anguish. As the tension increased her insides began to stir, playing upon her instincts to flee this awful place. She remembered the room of blood, and the pair of suited legs.

"Gavin, no!" Willy pounced on his hands, gripping them in fumbling, weak fingers. "Gavin, please!" she cried, even as the heat of his magic burned her skin. "For my sake, don't do this!"

He did stop, to her surprise and elation. He gazed down at her as if for the first time with new eyes, and the anger melted from his transformed expression. The peace, however, was short-lived. Tyser took full advantage of the SOLDIER's hesitation, bringing a metal table leg down on the man's head. The cracking of metal on bone was sickening. Willy shrieked as Gavin's legs folded beneath him and he fell to his hands and knees, blood seeping through his hair. Another stoke to the back of his neck felled him.

Willy was about to panic when Korben knelt down beside her. "Calm down, Will. I can do this." He surveyed their friend's condition. "I think."

"I believe you." She grimaced, the pause in their confrontation allowing her to remember her pain. "Tyser, can you help? My shoulder…"

"Dislocated? Broken?" Tyser prodded the limb tentatively. "You popped it pretty good. Hold on." He set his hands on her shoulder, and with a forceful shove fit the bone back into place. Willy bit her lip and managed not to cry out. "Your hand doesn't look so good, either."

Willy shook her head. "Don't worry about that. How's…how's Gavin?"

"Out. But he'll pull himself out eventually." A frown creased his mouth and brow. "But after that…."

Korben stare a moment more at the body, then shook his head as if making up his mind. "Alright, I think I can do this. I'll try. Turn him on his back."

"But he's been shot," Willy reminded, feeling taints of unreasonable guilt. "The bullets…." She broke off when she saw Gavin's back; she could see the holes her bullets had cut, but beneath them lay no wounds. She ran her hand over his skin to be sure, then checked the back of his head—his blood was already clotting. "I knew SOLDIER members healed fast, but…."

"We need to do this now," Korben insisted anxiously. "I'll need your help."

Tyser and Korben rolled the unconscious SOLDIER onto his back while Willy tied her wrist to Tyser's empty ammunition clip to keep it steady. "Unbutton his shirt," Korben instructed, pulling his card deck out of his suit. He began to flip through the cards. "It was so long ago." He removed Gaea from the others and tucked them away. "I think this was it."

Tyser hurried to obey his friend's orders, startled by the sudden change in his courage. "What are you going to do?"

"Remember how I said I need these cards to use Cetra magic? As amplifiers?" He stained the card with Gavin's blood, where the woman's arms came together, as if she were to embrace his impurity. "Up until now I've only been able to tell the future, but…I should try." He placed the card face down over Gavin's heart and covered it with his hand. The other he set over Gavin's forehead. "Tsyer, hold his legs and Willy, sit on his arms or something."

They did, confused and nervous but open for any solution. Gavin was silent as Korben closed his eyes, concentrating on this seemingly impossible task. "Mother Earth," he whispered almost as a chant. "All I can ask for is the redemption fate promised this man."

At fist it didn't seem as if anything was happening. Korben's brow furrowed, and his frown deepened, but Gavin continued to breathe normally. Willy shifted, uncomfortable with the silence. She was about to speak—just for the sake of speaking—when Korben suddenly drew in a quick breath.

Gavin's eyelids flicked open. His gaze was cast upward blindly, and the light in his eyes appeared to have dulled. His mouth slowly opened, and it was not his voice which emptied out. "What are you doing?"

The Turk didn't reply. Instead he addressed his two comrades. "Get ready."

"Ready?" Tyser repeated. "For what?"

The answer was in the form of Gavin's abrupt, agonized cry, and the sudden animation of his limbs. Willy was almost thrown by the brute force. She struggled to keep his arms pinned, grimacing as her wrist flared in pain. Tears were running down her face; for her or her friend, she didn't know. Gavin bellowed and cursed like a beast, shuddering beneath their holds. He thrashed back and forth but found no escape from Korben's treatment. Soon he was screaming not in anger, but in terror and anguish. Frustration edged his wails as he suffered violently, all the while Korben remaining still.

The fit lasted half a minute. Gavin's voice became hoarse and drained into a soft whimpering, his eyes wide and full of horrors. Their shine had been considerably diminished, but still they were brighter than a normal man's. Soon the SOLDIER member fell unconscious. His eyes remained open.

A moment later Korben's eyes opened as well. He shook his head several times as if to drive some image from his sight, the heaved a sigh of relief.

"Well?" Willy quickly wiped her tears away. "What did you do? Is he all right? What happened?"

"Let's get him back to the apartment." He began to unlace his boot, and with their help used the lace to tie the Gaea card to Gavin's torso. "I…think I can explain some things."

"What about Raile?" asked Tyser. Though retrieving the body was not an option, leaving the bar as it was would raise many unwanted questions. "And his family…."

"Oh God, his family," Willy whispered, her throat constricting at the thought of his two young sons. "Diest and Tseng…what are you going to tell Lila?"

"And Shinra."

Korben immediately responded, "No, we can't let Shinra have Gavin. They'll do worse to him than he did to Raile, if I'm right." Whatever he'd been able to do to the man, it had raised his confidence and clarity to normal. "Tyser and I will take Gavin back to the apartment while Wily puts the report in." He continued before she could protest. "Right now we'll say Gavin got away—they'll understand after they see the mess. Then I can watch him while…Tyser tells Raile's family."

Tyser nodded slowly, not pleased with his assignment but accepting. If anything, he'd known Raile's wife, Lila, the longest.

"I want to stay with Gavin," Willy insisted. "Is he going to be okay?"

Korben set a hand on her good shoulder. "He'll be okay, trust me. But we have to report something, and you're injured anyway. Now go on—we'll take care of him."

"All right. I'm counting on you guys." She glanced down at Gavin, disturbed that his eyes were still open. They continued to gape blindly at the blackened night sky.