Chapter Ten
I didn't move. I didn't flinch. I didn't breathe.
The stranger had only the side off his face towards me for a moment, staring me down with undecipherable eyes. He finally turned fully around, revealing the rest of his costume.
I quickly grabbed my pistol and pointed it at him, my arms shaking violently. My mind was so racked with everything that had just happened in the last 30 minutes, that I couldn't even think. Seeing the dead soldiers that lie on all sides of me, I could only think of one thing as I embraced this setting:
That I was next.
The sound of the man's boots echoed throughout the room as he sauntered towards me now, a glacial look in his eyes. His dragged his sword behind him apathetically, and the blade made clinking sounds as it grazed the floor.
Clip...clop...clip...clop...
I crawled back towards the door, torpid and nervy, but he kept walking.
"Stop moving." I demanded, taking another step towards the door.
The man only came closer.
"I said stop!" I squeaked, placing my finger on the trigger.
He came closer.
"GET AWAY FROM ME! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"
I screamed, spraying random bullets around the room, none of which hit him.
Faster than humanly possible, he dashed over to me whilst I was shooting, snatched up the gun and to my horror, crushed it in his palm. He let the pieces fall like snowflakes onto the ground, while I watched in panic and disbelief.
He dropped his sword. It fell to the ground with a "clang!"
"Now there," He said, his voice eerily calm and collected. His eyes were like cat's pupils. They had an inhuman, unnatural calmness to them that was more mind-wracking than the morbid scene surrounding us both. "There's no need for any of that."
The next thought that entered my mind was to grab my own sword, but I didn't. I didn't even know how to use it. More than that though, this person's stare had a paralyzing effect.
He cocked his head sideways to examine my appearance. Everything about me looked unmilitaristic. From the way my hair was styled to the awkwardly laced boots on my feet. I didn't look like the kind of person who would be carrying a sword with any knowledge of how to use it.
"Are you Rufus Shinra?" I demanded.
The man smirked. "No." He said.
"Are you with Sanctum or Shinra?" I asked again.
"Neither." He replied.
"Are you a prisoner here?" I continued. The man shook his head.
"Then why...are you here...?"
He didn't answer.
The man turned his back to me and walked back towards the capsules, stopping suddenly in the middle of the room.
"Why are you here?" He asked me.
I didn't have an answer for him because I didn't know myself. How I'd gotten to this point where I stood was beyond me.
"Well?" He pressed.
"I don't know!" I blurted out.
"Of course." The man said calmly. "You don't belong here. Coming to this place was a suicide, weilding a sword that you don't know how to use, and a gun that you can not even hold."
"How would he know all that?!" I thought. "Is it that obvious just from looking at me?"
He turned slowly around to face me again."...Do you...Wish to die?"
I defenitely did not wish that.
I took a voluminous step back towards the door, sensing that this lovely chat was about to turn ugly in another minute.
"No sir..." I assured him. "...I just want to leave. You can get back to...whatever you were doing..."
Quickly, I bolted around then and sped towards the door. I hadn't ran more than few feet when the mysterious man suddenly dashed after me, his feet not even touching the ground. With that same inhuman speed, he impeded my way to freedom, and smashed his foot into my ribs, producing an audible "crack."
I flew across the floor and rolled around on the ground until I hit the control panel, denting it inwards and causing a spectacle of sparkles and static as the panel short-circuted,. I struggled to lift myself back up, dragging my limp body into an half-sitting position. I felt a stabbing pain in my ribs and cried out, collapsing face-first back onto the ground. The silver-haired man came up then, and stomped down on my ribs, holding me in place with his foot and putting pressure on the injury. At first, I didn't feel it, but he kept pressing down on it until I couldn't take it anymore!
"AAAAH!" I let out a blood-curdling scream and cringed from the pain. The man held his seven-foot katana in his hand now and was gazing down at me with a glacial and emotionless expression.
"You're the girl from the desert..." He said plainly.
My mind exploded in shock.
"Desert?!" I shrieked in my head. "What's he talking about about?! The Marslands?!"
"...Why are you looking so surprised? Did you forget? Those two rebels found you and took you off to New Braska city? You're still travelling with them, aren't you...? And they're here with you now. Why else would you be here?" He said.
"Who...are you...?" I managed to ask between painful gasps for breath.
"Consider me to be your savior...Without me you do not exist..." He grazed my arm with the katana, cutting an 'X' shape into the skin so quickly that I didn't feel any pain.
"...Winter."
I blinked.
"-She went this way!"
I heard a familiar voice from outside of the door, and both the mysterious man and I looked in its direction.
Suddenly, one of the two bulky doors was sent flying off its hinges. It landed in the center of the room with a loud "KATHUNK!" The second one swung open with such force that it broke past its hinges, collided violently into the wall, and slowly broke off.
The first to appear in the doorframe was Tifa, who had apparently shoulder-rammed the first door down. The second was Snow, and behind them was everyone else joined by the prisoners I'd managed to rescue.
"Sephiroth!" Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, the man with the gun arm and the dog all exclaimed at the same time.
I stared up at the man whose foot was crushing my lungs and repeated his name in my head.
"Sephiroth..."
Cloud charged past the group and towards Sephiroth, his buster sword in his hands. Sephiroth took his foot off me, and the two clashed swords.
I forced myself to roll around on the ground and get out of harms way, and then summoned a god-sent amount of willpower to push myself to stand up. It felt like there was a knife puncturing my lungs. I found support leaning against a pillar, and tried to catch my breath in short amounts, because it was suicide trying to take deep breaths. '
While Cloud and Sephiroth tried to kill each other, The others made their way into the room. Tifa and the dog-beast charged for Sephiroth behind Cloud, while the brown-skinned man and Vincent started to shoot at him.
Kimahri and the two blonds from earlier stood in the middle of the room looking confused, while Lightning, Snow, Yuna, and the accented girl from earlier crossed the floor to reach me. Lightning was the first one over. When she saw me she had a stern yet crazed look in her eye.
"What happened?" She asked.
"Orion..." I began, making words between short pants for air."Chased...pant...Door...pant...soliders...dead...Sephiroth..." Was all I was able to say before my throbbing ribs screamed at me to stop.
"Where are your weapons?!" She continued, obviously not getting the hint. Yuna, Snow, and the melon-haired girl joined Lightning then.
"Are you hurt?!" Snow asked.
"No shit." I thought.
"We need to get out of here, the whole floor's set to collapse!" The melon-haired girl squeaked.
"Where's our rendevouz point?" Snow asked.
"CLOUD!" Lightning yelled to the blond soldier, who was busily ducking Sephiroth's sword. He was being crippled somewhat by the injury in his arm from earlier, I could tell. Sephiroth was doing a good job of dodging bullets, avoiding Tifa and the dog, and attacking Cloud all at the same time. Seeing this made me realize that even if I had known how to use my sword, I would've gotten my ass kicked. "WE NEED TO GO!"
Sephiroth and Cloud jumpped back and away from each other. Cloud skidded against the floor with his feet on the ground, and Sephiroth gracefully leaped to the top of the experiment capsule.
"Until next time, Cloud." He said pleasantly before turning to me, with a grin, as though seeing my broken exterior gave him immeasurable delight. "And you too, Winter."
Tifa, Cloud, Vincent, and well-everybody's eyes shot directly towards me. Sephiroth folded his wing over his body and disappeared in a flutter of ebony feathers. Meanwhile, the floor was beginning to shake violently, signaling the limited amount of escape time we had.
Snow hoisted me onto his back, which killed my ribs. I knew he was trying to help but the pain just made me want to punch him. "LET'S GO!" Tifa yelled, sprinting towards the door. Everyone followed, just as a section of the ground in a corner of the room started to cave in.
We darted left and right throughout the hallways, turning corners and dodging falling debris. Most of the soldiers guarding this floor had already cleared the area, leaving us much more leeway but less space seeing as the random bombs from earlier and the collapsing ceiling had created blockades. Eventually, we all made it back to the window where we first started, and hopped over the glass onto the balcony. Cid's airship was already waiting there when we arrived, and rather than let us in by rope ladder, he had the doors opened already and a ramp attached to the ground. He was standing by the door, beckoning us in with his hands.
The faster people were the first one onboard, followed by the heavier and slower ones trying to keep up. Snow and I were the second-to-last person on the airship followed by the manchine gun-arm guy before Cid slammed the doors shut and ran to the cockpit. The rest of us followed him, not knowing where else to go.
"Hang on!" Cid yelled, jumpping into the the pilot's seat. He thrust a lever forwards and gripped the navigator, causing the airship to shoot forwards with such force that we all skidded backwards towards the wall. Soon however, we were soaring over the storm clouds, and were once again in the clear.
"Phew!" Cid exclaimed, relaxing in his chair. "Ya'll had me worried that that dern building 'as gonna kill ya'll."
"Thanks..." The brown-skinned man began. "...But it took you long enough! The hell you guys been doin' the whole time?!"
"You're welcome Barret." Tifa smiled. "And you too, Red." She turned to the red, lion-dog mixed creature that was sitting on its hind-legs. It nodded at her.
"Yunnie!" The eccentric-haired blond girl threw her arms around Yuna, nearly choking her to death. "I'm so glad you came!"
"I'm glad we weren't too late!" Yuna laughed.
"Group hug!" the spikey haired boy declared, putting his arms around the two girls. He perked up then, and saw Kimahri standing there, watching the heart-warming reunion. "You too buddy!" He said happily, beckoning the blue tiger with his head.
Kimahri shook his head. "Kimahri will pass." He said.
I stared at him, momentarily flabbergasted. "Did he just...talk?!" I thought.
"Lightning, Snow!" The melon-haired girl greeted her two comrades with quick hugs.
"Are you hurt, Vanille?" Lightning asked the girl.
"Nope! I'm just fine!" She said happily. "It'll take more than that to stop me!"
Lightning grinned and nodded.
I couldn't believe it. She grinned.
Vanille turned to me then and smiled. "Hiya!" She chimed, waving at me enthusiastically.
There was something about this Vanille person that was very...refreshing in a word. Although tending to want to hide in a corner when meeting most people, Vanille made me want to smile back and say hello. She wasn't intimidating at all. In fact she reminded me more of a...kid.
"Is there some place we can sit her down?" Snow asked Cid.
"I don't think I have any chairs..." Cid mumbled. "But I'm sure there sumthin 'round her' that you can use."
We found an empty room with a table and single wooden chair after doing some digging around the ship. Snow sat me down on the table. Yuna had followed after us, acting as the nurse of our group. She examined my mid-section, and after a few minutes of careful deduction, she announced that one of my ribs was fractured and seemed to be poking my lungs. Without having to be examined though, I could have told her that.
"Does she need to see a doctor?" Snow asked.
"That won't be needed." Yuna assured him. "All we will need is a potion."
Lightning reached into her pouch and produced for her a vial of red liquid. "Here." She said, handing it off to the brunette.
Yuna placed the vial on the table and nodded at me. "I'm going to do a cure spell on you. Please drink the potion when I'm done, okay?"
I nodded, eager for her to get this show on the road.
Yuna placed her hands on my ribcage and closed her eyes. She stepped back, raised her staff in the air, and pointed it towards me.
"CURA!" She yelled.
A bright light formed around the staff's head. Within a matter of moments, the pain had nearly vanished. I physically felt the fractured rib begin to mend itself back together, like a magical, super pain-killer.
I lightly poked the injured area, and smiled from relief. "Thank you!" I sighed.
Yuna smiled back. "Your rib should be all better by tomorrow morning. Make sure you drink that potion!" She said.
"I will." I promised her.
There was a knock on the wall, and we all turned our heads to see Cloud in the doorframe. He had a blank look on his face.
"Is something wrong?" Yuna asked.
"I need to talk to Winter." He said sternly.
Yuna nodded. "Come on in-"
"Alone." He interupted.
"Oh," The brunette said, somewhat taken aback by his curtness. "Well, I'll be going then. Get better, Winter!" She bowed before leaving the room.
"Good luck, kiddo." Snow said as he and Lightning left, followed by Vanille who waved "goodbye" to me.
Once everyone was gone, Cloud entered the room and closed the door. I watched him with cautious eyes as he walked to a corner and reclined against the wall. He studied me with an unreadable expression. I sat fidgeting in my place, wondering just what I could have possibly done. There was awkward silence in the room.
"...How do you know Sephiroth?" We both asked at the same time.
"Me?" I asked in disbelief. "I don't know him from a hole in the wall."
"He called you by your name." Cloud said flatly. I could see why he would assume that I knew him, but...
"I've really never seen him before." I admitted.
Cloud let out an exasperated sigh.
"Sephiroth's not someone you should be covering for." He said.
"Do you think I'd be covering for someone who broke my rib and sliced my arm open?"
Cloud considered this for a moment, but he didn't look convinced.
"It looks like you and your friends have some kind of vendetta with him." I seized his silence as a chance to say something before he asked another question.
Cloud scratched his head uneasily. "We're enemies." He finally said after some heavy silence. "He's like a nightmare that keeps coming back. Everyone he kills stays dead, but he just keeps...coming...back..."
It was clear the deep hatred that Cloud had for this man. Obviously, he had some kind of baggage that Sephiroth had left him with. I secretly wanted to know, but I didn't want to ask. It was none of my business.
"He said he didn't work for Shinra or Soldier." I said.
"What else did he say." Cloud demanded more than asked.
I thought back to our encounter only about a half an hour or so earlier. He hadn't said much to me, but...what he did say...
"You're the girl from the desert..."
"Do you...wish to die?"
"Consider me to be your savior...Without me you do not exist..."
...was eating away at the back of my mind.
"He knows me...But I don't know him..." I mumbled to the four walls.
"He said that?" Cloud asked.
I shook my head. "He didn't have to..."
"Winter," Cloud walked closer towards the table, stopping when he was only a few feet away. "If you see him again, you need to run away or call someone."
"Because running worked out so well the last time..." I mumbled, still bitter over my rib.
Cloud sighed.
"You need to learn how to fight." He said. "Then, at least if you see him again, you won't get your butt handed to you. If we hadn't showed up, he...Things would've been a lot worse for you."
I nodded my head.
"Cid's going to drop the airship off in Kalm. " Cloud continued, "I don't know about you and your friend, but we're going to lay low there for a while until we get some leads on Shinra."
"You should have enough time to find something to defend yourself with there. You can't be associated with people like us and not be able to fight. They'll kill you."
I nodded slowly, taking his words in. "Okay."
"Good..." The blond soldier turned and walked to the door. He put his hand on the knob before he stopped.
"And If you don't have a phone, you need to get one." He said to me before taking his leave.
I watched him walk down the hallway until he turned a corner and disappeared, leaving me to stare blankly at the place he'd been standing before leaving the room. Eventually my mind drifted back to Sephiroth. The whole thing with the desert seemed to have disturbed me the most, combined with the fact that he knew who I was already, and who I was travelling with.
"...When did he see me in the desert?"
"How did he know I'd been travelling with Lightning and Snow...?"
"...Why did he cut my arm? Why did he attack me in the first place?"
"What the hell was he doing just standing in a strange room surrounded by dead people while the building was collapsing? Waiting for me?..."
"...What would he have done to me if Cloud and the others hadn't showed up?"
I quickly erased that thought from my head, although several horrifying images popped up subliminally from my imagination.
"Until next time Cloud. You too, Winter."
I shivered violently, and hugged myself.
Vanille suddenly poked her head into the room. She looked at the wall, and then looked at the table where I was sitting. I didn't notice her until she'd stepped into the room and said: "Hi!"
I brought myself back into reality, saw Vanille, and grinned back.
"Hi..." I said quietly.
The happy girl skittered over to me, and slammed her hands down on the table. I jumped, looking at her with a surprised and confused expression.
"What's your name?" She asked.
"It's Winter." I replied.
"Winter..." She repeated, with a thoughtful gaze. "It's a lovely name! Mine's Vanille! Nice to meetcha!" She held her hand out to me. I took it hesitantly, a bit wary of her friendliness. We shook hands, and Vanille jumpped onto the table next to me, all smiles. It made me wonder how someone so happy could ever be thrown into a hell-hole like Sector-Zero Prison...
"Something wrong?" She asked.
I blinked and turned my eyes to the ground, letting out a sigh. "This is just too much..." I mumbled.
"What is?"
"This." I said, waving my arms around the room. "This whole fiasco..."
Vanille was quiet for a minute, thinking over my answer. Finally she slid off the table and stood directly in front of me. She was only arm's length away, but I flinched because I thought she was too close.
Vanille put her hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye.
"It is too much, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically.
I stared at my folded hands and nodded.
"If it's too much now," She then said, "Then face it later."
I looked up at her, baffled at the logic. She however, smiled at my expression.
"Sometimes things are easier to process if you look at them from a distance." She said.
"But..." I objected. "Isn't that like...procrastinating...or running away?"
"Not if you're taking time to think! Nothing wrong with a little down time now and then, yeah?"
I smiled at her and nodded. "Yeah."
"Living this kind of life on the run is stressful." Vanille continued. "It's always best to take a break whenever you can to look up at the sky and smile. That way, you won't go crazy!"
I hadn't been doing too much smiling lately. When I realized this, everything suddenly made sense. Being in that "No-Man's-Land" of a Prison, with all the warlike calamity on every corner just hitting me in the face, only enhanced this fact. I wasn't just going to just up and accept this lifestyle, not when I had a family to live for and death was just so possible. However, I would eventually see them again, and that's what I needed to focus on. Destruction, Shinra, Sephiroth-they were only barricades that would go away soon. When I finally did see my parent's faces again, I wanted them to see my smile and know that I'd been thinking of them.
Vanille was right. I would just face it later.
How does Sephiroth know so much about Winter?
This is the "Kalm" before the storm, so stay tuned for the next chapter of "White Snow Dimensia!"
Author's Comments:
**Short Chappie FTW!
**Just warning you now, the next chapter will be like chapter 7, when the points of view went from First to Third-Person Omniscient.
**The main gang's all here for now, so you guys can start suggesting pairings. C= ((I won't do yaoi, or yuri, or crack pairings, so don't try to ask! And be forewarned, I've never written romance...EVER. If you guys suggest a pairing, I will do my best to make it as sincere as possible, but please don't stone me if something goes wrong ;A;))
** Lightningpanda : (1.) Only if you suggest it! Pairings weren't originally in the storyline, but I'm sure I can weave some in there. (2.)Funny you should mention that. Maybe he dooooeesssss~ lol =D
**Thank you all for reading this far. Please R&R Thank you very much!
-Kamikimmy13