Erased - Chapter 34

Sora managed to catch her, much to his relief. He wasn't sure why he was invested in this girl. All he knew was that someone had asked for his help, and he had given it. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough flying power to catch her midair- as soon as he caught her, instead of the suave and daring rescue that he'd intended, he ended up with both of them plummeting towards the earth, even if Sora's wingspan managed to lower the rate of descent a bit.

"This didn't work as well as I'd hoped!" he shouted.

"Aaarrrgggghhhhahhaarhhh!" she screamed, horrified. Sora felt a very intense pain in his left temple, almost as if her fear was boring into him. He tried to beat his wings, but they were stuck in place. His chest and shoulders were burning from the effort of keeping them open at all. They were slowing down, he could sort of tell, but not nearly fast enough.

"It's good! We're good!" he shouted at the girl who was clinging to his middle of her own accord, now, and whose name he still didn't even know. The whole situation was kind of odd.

The ground was getting closer. Thank God she'd been more than ten stories off the ground. The fall took barely a minute, but it felt longer, maybe because he was used to flying through the air and it didn't faze him much. In any case, he realized, sort of academically, that they were not slowing down nearly enough for a clean landing. He spun, tried to beat his wings again, and aimed to land on his legs, since having one of those broken wouldn't be as big a deal.

That was when he saw Riku.

Oh well. He'd take what he could get.

Sora crashed into his only friend, knocking him clean off his feet. Riku let out a shriek of pain and surprise, more noise than he'd even made after being shot in the back. Sora was next, and he oof'ed as his body absorbed the weight of the girl he'd rescued. They collapsed in a heap, a mess of legs and arms and wings, entangled beyond recognition, while Vaan looked on in bemusement. The way Sora had landed, his face was stuck barely a foot from Vaan's knee, and looking up- that was how he knew.

The girl, of course, was completely unscathed, and immediately began struggling to stand up, much to the discomfort of the two boys beneath her. Sora felt a very pointy elbow, or maybe it was a knee, the girl was unnaturally skinny, jab into his back before the weight was finally lifted. He'd planned on just lying there in misery for a few minutes. Unfortunately, his rescue-ee had other plans.

"Hey! You! Wing kid!" Sora did not like being addressed as 'wing kid.' He liked it even less when Falling Girl grabbed one of his hands and dragged him off of Riku and upright. She was disturbingly strong- well, no, she was an Other.

"Take me back up there," she said urgently, not so much a demand as a desperate, life-and-death need. She was digging her fingernails into Sora's arm. I want to take her back up there, he thought, just as she said it. The coincidence didn't strike him as odd at all.

"What!? Are you crazy!?" shouted Vaan. Riku croaked something in agreement from the pavement. No one had bothered to help him up.

"Take me up," she said again, only looking at Sora. He found himself completely unable to look away. She was very odd, this girl who had fallen from the sky, with her wild eyes and gaunt face, and he found himself wanting to help her. He nodded.

"Ok," he said. Vaan muttered something vulgar and grabbed onto Sora's other arm.

"Absolutely not!" he seethed at the girl. "No fucking way! Did you miss the people who were shooting at you? Who the hell are you?"

"It doesn't matter!" the girl shouted back. Sora broke out of his trance. Her veil of calm, such as it was, was beginning to slip. Her hands were shaking and there were tears gathering in her eyes. Well, it made sense- she had just fallen out of a ten-plus story window.

"Please," she whispered. "My brother's up there." Sora knew what it was like to lose a brother, even if his own loss was only temporary. "I promise that none of you will be hurt. But please- I need to get my brother." Sora tugged his arm out of Vaan's grip.

"It's fine," he said. "I'll take you up. Vaan, you just take care of Riku." Riku wheezed a feeble thanks. Vaan looked less than thrilled with the idea, but finally, he relented.

"Fine," Vaan sighed. "But we're not staying here. Come meet up with us at the corner of 38th and 9th, ok? I know a guy who owns a restaurant there. It's just called the City Diner." He paused to roll his eyes. "The guy's not big on imagination."

"City Diner, 38th and 9th. Got it." Like he'd done not two days before, Sora got down on his hands and knees and motioned for the girl to climb on his back.

"Uh," she said. "Really?"

"It's easiest this way," he assured her, and once she was secure, he took off, scrambling up the scaffolding of a smaller building across the street. Going back up was much more difficult than coming down, but this girl was much lighter than Riku was, and the distance wasn't as far. His body ached from the fall, but he didn't mind it. The most important thing in his mind, to the exclusion of all else, was getting this girl to where she needed to go.

"What's your name?" he asked, conversationally, when they were about fifty feet off the ground. She stiffened. He felt something tighten inside his head, too.

"Kairi," she said after a long moment.

"That's a pretty name," said Sora. If she heard the compliment, she didn't acknowledge it. "Mine's Sora." She said nothing.

The Shinra Building was a model of classic, stream-lined architecture, all straight lines and windows. The kind of building that reflected the sky on sunny days, or so Sora had seen in old pictures. As it was, the black windows reflected barely any light at all, especially at night, resulting in an imposing, obelisk-like appearance, visible from nearly everywhere in the city. The scaffolding ended, and Sora flew over to a fire escape to continue the climb. After they reached the correct height, he turned to launch himself across to the Shinra Building, completely unnerved by the fact that he couldn't see his reflection in the glass. Their target was a gaping, jagged hole, even more black than the windows.

Going there suddenly seemed like a very bad idea.

"Are you ready? Hold on," he told Kairi. She tightened her grip very slightly, and with that, Sora sprung off of the fire escape. He'd gone a couple of floors too high, just in case Kairi's extra weight would make them too much altitude, but it didn't turn out to be a problem. He used the extra space to lower himself slowly, circling to make sure that no one was going to shoot at them again. Sora's wings had many fine qualities, but discretion was not one of them.

Satisfied that they weren't going to get shot out of the air, Sora turned towards the broken window. He'd have to pull back his wings and dive to make it through without hurting himself. Since that would probably freak the pee out of Kairi, for simplicity's sake he decided not to tell her it was going to happen.

He pulled his wings back and dove.

Kairi, to her credit, didn't scream or raise her voice at all. The only indications that she'd been surprised was a sudden tightening of her legs around his waist, and her fingernails dug slightly deeper into Sora's shoulders. The dive was over as soon as it had started. Sora cleared the window easily, only to find himself only a few feet from a solid wall. He managed to bank left, but he still hit the wall on his right side before stumbling onto the floor. The wing was sore, but it didn't break. Kairi fell off his back and appeared unhurt.

Sora had never been inside of an office building before. His father had been some kind of weird combination of salesperson-slash-repairer of large electronics, a job he hadn't gotten a chance to ask about before the man got sick and died. His mom worked from home. Freshman year of high school they'd had a 'Career Exploration' day, but he'd opted to go to a vet's office, since he liked dogs. Really, it wasn't too weird that he'd never been inside an office building considering that he was only eighteen years old, it was just weird that his first time involved flying in through a broken window in the dead of night.

The Shinra Building was both dark and quiet. This hallway was much wider than the halls at Sora's school. The only signs of a struggle were the broken glass, of course, and the shells littering the carpet.

"Is this it?" he asked Kairi, whispering even though no one was in sight. She shushed him anyway. She seemed to be looking for something.

"Zeke," she finally said, even more quietly than he had. "Zekey. Zexion." Sora was unsure whether those were all the same person, or if they were looking for a crowd. He realized sort of belatedly that he probably should have asked more questions before coming up here. Kairi wandered through the hallway, swinging her arms in an apparently random pattern.

Enclosed spaces weren't something that Sora especially enjoyed. He stayed close to the broken window, staring longingly out at the gray-yellow nighttime sky, while Kairi went on her little journey. She got far enough down the hall that Sora could barely even see her before she stopped.

"Zeke," she said again. She leaned forward with a hand out, an awkward posture that Sora watched curiously. "Zeke, it's ok. Come on, he's with me." Sora had no idea who she was talking to. Suddenly, the air underneath her hand shimmered.

A person. There was a person there.

He came into view slowly, obviously reluctant to show himself, curled in a corner where no one would accidentally crash into him. Kairi pulled him to his feet. Sora was wondering why he hadn't seen him before when he realized that there wasn't one person, but two- the one whom Kairi was apparently looking for was clutching the body of someone else, who appeared to be unconscious. Kairi coaxed him forward towards the broken window.

"Ok," she said. "We need to get out of here."

"Hi," said Sora awkwardly. "I'm Sora. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah," Kairi said, anxious, but following along with the formalities. "This is my brother, Z-"

"Zexion," he supplied coldly. She startled- apparently they weren't quite in agreement over what his name was- but she nodded. Sora looked at Zexion more closely. He was obviously related to Kairi by blood, so she hadn't been lying that he was her brother. His hair was a rich purple color in the same family as Kairi's red, and he had a similar stature and small-ish size, though a male version of course. The biggest similarity, however, was their faces- the same heart shape, the same angles, the same sunken blue eyes. Kairi's had an anger within them, though. Zexion's just looked defeated and dead. He hadn't let go of the body he was holding.

"I don't think I can carry all three of you at once," he finally said, looking around the group. They were all Others, but something was wrong with Zexion and the unconscious one's signatures. Kairi had a definite presence, but the other two were limp and unfocused. It made Sora uncomfortable, but he knew he had to get these people out of the Shinra Building.

"It's just the two of us," Kairi said firmly. "He's staying." 'He' indicated the unconscious man in Zexion's arms.

"No he's not," Zexion shot back. Something was off with the way he spoke, too. After a long moment, Sora realized that what bothered him was the tonelessness of it. It was too mechanical. Flat, like his eyes.

"Zeke- Zexion, we can't," Kairi hissed. "He's not even the person you think you knew-"

"I'm not leaving without Demyx." Maybe it was the flatness of the words, but in any case, Sora could tell that Zexion was not even close to joking. He would not have been surprised if Zexion had sat back down right where he stood, held this person- Demyx- in his arms, and waited emotionlessly there for the Shinra staff to find him and kill him. For he had no doubts about the fact that their lives were on the line. His heart rate was starting to pick up.

"Ok- we'll just bring him too, but can we please get out of here?" he squeaked.

"What are we going to do with him if he comes with us!?" Kairi asked, throwing her arms in the air. Her voice was very nearly silent, but there was no mistaking the intensity.

"I'm not leaving without Demyx."

"Zexion-"

"I'm not leaving without Demyx."

"Fine! We bring Demyx! Let's just go," Sora shrieked. His wings snapped partly open, the right one still sore, and his feathers fluffed up wildly. Kairi was unfazed, but Zexion's eyes widened, and he withdrew into the shadows. It was becoming abundantly clear that nothing was going to get done unless Sora himself, the vehicle of transportation, took some kind of charge. The responsibility made him a bit dizzy and flushed and his feathers twitched a bit, but he formulated a plan.

"How? How are we supposed to bring him?" Kairi snapped at him.

"Easy," Sora said, though it didn't feel easy. "I take you out one at a time, to the roof of another building, and then from there to the ground. It'll be quick if I'm just flying on my own. We'll need to open up this window a little more, though. Now, who wants to go first?"

"I'm not leaving without Demyx," Zexion said again.

"God, we know," Kairi muttered. She looked frazzled. Her temper was getting shorter. "And I'm not leaving without my brother." The problem was easily solved, of course. He just had to grab the one that wasn't able to give a contrary opinion.

"Fine! Demyx goes first." Kairi and Zexion looked at each other, then back at him. The solution seemed satisfactory to everyone. Kairi couldn't care less what happened to this Demyx's unconscious body, and Zexion just wanted to make sure he got out of the building. Everybody won.

The only remaining obstacle was Sora's own wingspan. Somehow, he had to bust open the window, or none of them were going anywhere. He found the nearest blunt object, which just so happened to be a fake plant, and immediately went to work on the windows, already cracked and damaged from the bullets. The work was loud. Very loud. He could imagine Riku freaking out about the shattering glass down below, but soon they'd see his wings, and they'd know he was ok.

"Are you fucking nuts!?" Kairi shouted. Sora felt a sharp pain through his brain and dropped the plant. The window was opened up enough, though, so his work was done.

"Well, I have to be able to get out the window," he shrugged, acting casual to hide how scared he was. That window breaking had been louder than he'd expected. Zexion had retreated even farther into the dark, frightened by the loud noise, and he was clutching Demyx even more tightly. Right now, he needed to help these people.

"Let's do this," he said. He went to pick up his first passenger. For a moment, he was worried that Zexion wasn't going to give Demyx up. But then, Zexion slowly, very slowly, each moment lasted for hours, released his grip, and Sora was able to scoop Demyx into an awkward holding position. Flying wouldn't be easy like this, but he didn't have to go very far.

"Hurry," Kairi whispered.

"It's cool," he said, with a smile, though he wasn't really feeling it. "I'll be right back." He stretched open his wings, beat twice to get off the ground, and flew out the window, for the first time of three.

Clutching Demyx the way he was threw him off-balance, and he found himself losing altitude fast. The best place to land was the very fire escape he'd shuffled up with Kairi not ten minutes before, though it felt like ages had gone by. He landed and gently laid the unconscious body on the stairs. This Demyx person was rather cute, he thought, with his messy brown hair. He looked kind of familiar. He didn't have any time to dwell on it, however, because he still had two more trips to make. Satisfied that Demyx wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, he turned and flew back into the Shinra Building.

"What took so long?" Kairi hissed at him. Or rather, that's what he thought she did- the sensation was funny, like he knew that's what she said, but he couldn't remember actually hearing it. He chalked it up to absent-mindedness.

"Uh," he said. "Where are you guys?" He could feel Zexion and Kairi, but he couldn't see them.

"Shh!" He definitely heard it that time. Suddenly, something he couldn't see was shoving him against the wall. He remembered what he'd seen of Zexion's abilities just as he heard voices.

"Someone said they heard a noise up here," a man was saying. "You know, by where that chick fell." Sora caught a spot of light out of the corner of his eye- these men had flashlights.

"Have they found a body yet?" Sora couldn't see who the voices belonged to, since his face was pushed against the wall. These men weren't Others, he could tell that much. Nothing but low-level security guards.

"Not as far as I know," replied the first man. They were close now, uncomfortably so. They wouldn't be able to tell that someone had broken the window, would they? No- no- he hadn't thought this through. What he heard next, however, made him feel even worse.

"They're setting up teams check the whole block," he continued.

Riku.

What if they found Riku and Vaan!? What if they hadn't made it to the meet-up point yet? He tensed up, and he suddenly felt a hand grab onto his, clasping it, trying to calm him down, keep him quiet. The urgency was tangible. He was afraid to breathe.

"I just don't know why they're making such a big deal of it," the second man sighed. His voice was slightly higher-pitched, and nasal. "Why'd they open fire on her in the first place? I mean, she's just some girl, right?"

"Dude," said the other man. "I heard she was- well, you know- one of them." He paused for effect. Sora knew exactly what 'one of them' referred to. Others. Like himself. Kairi's hand tightened around his.

"What? You mean- shit. Shit. Really?" He sounded about as frightened as Sora felt. At least it was mutual. "The other guys they're looking for, too?" There was a pause that indicated that the first man was probably nodding. "What would they be doing here?"

"I dunno, but as far as the higher-ups are concerned, if there's no body, she's still alive."

"Shit." A long silence ensued. Sora heard loud, shuffling footsteps. The two men were walking around the hallway, without the slightest clue that the very people they were so afraid of were barely feet away. Finally, they stopped.

"Dude, all that happened up here is that the window glass broke a little more," the first man laughed nervously. "Look. They got all freaked out about that? Come on, let's go. They'll need us to help search."

"Ugh, I'm not so sure about this…" The two men walked away, taking their flashlights with them. Once again, the hallway was silent. The three of them silently counted to sixty before breaking the silence. Sora released a huge breath.

"Where did you take Demyx?" Zexion asked first, sharply, with more emotion than Sora had heard from him.

"Take Zexion next," Kairi said, almost at the same time.

"Uh," said Sora. His knees were shaking. This was more, much more, than he'd wanted to get involved in when he'd agreed to help. But he was too far in, now. He couldn't leave these people here. They clearly weren't capable of making it out alone. "Uh, ok. Come on, Zexion." With Kairi's help, he managed to get Zexion onto his back, though the strange man dug his fingernails a little too hard into Sora's collarbone and ruffled his feathers.

Sora took off much more easily this time, and looped down towards the fire escape. He was too visible, that had always been his problem. He was too bright, too indiscreet. He took up too much space. Down below, once the search started, if even one Shinra guard thought to look up, they were toast.

No! Positive thoughts, he thought. Demyx was exactly where he'd been left, that was good. Sora carefully deposited Zexion, who went directly into clutching Demyx's unconscious body, making sure he was all right, just like he'd been doing when Sora had met him.

The only one left was Kairi.

Sora flew back up to the window as fast as his wings could carry him. Kairi was still standing there, not bothering to hide at all, since it would be impossible to hide in an empty hallway anyway. She looked at him evenly.

"Ok," said Sora, out of breath from all the exercise. "They're safe. You're the last one. Let's go."

"Oh, thank God," Kairi whispered. She didn't sound at all thankful so much as relieved. No, relieved wasn't a strong enough word. She looked exhausted, completely spent, almost as if she had absolutely nothing left inside. Sora might have asked her about it, were he not interrupted.

First came the scream.

The scream was followed by shouting, a frenzied combination of what the hell is that and oh my God it's got feathers.

Apparently, a security team had been sent to this location as back-up, and Sora realized quite quickly that they were talking about him. Oh, what he wouldn't give to have people not react that way when they saw his wings. He watched the squad, at least six people but they all looked the same in their uniforms, move into a defensive position, as if he were going to attack them or something. He didn't dare move a single feather, lest they think he was aggressive.

But then, just as suddenly as it had come, the noise stopped.

It started with a smaller guy on the end. He looked confused for a moment, then as if he were in pain, and then, with no warning whatsoever, he keeled over, unconscious. From there the row went down like dominoes, each one hitting the ground more gloriously than the last. Sora watched, mesmerized, as the last one collapsed with a soft, dead thwump.

As soon as it was over, Kairi fell against him, shaking and sweating. He felt something warm and wet on his arm. Her nose was bleeding. Sora didn't know whether to ask or not, and after a long moment, he decided on asking.

"Uh, are you ok?" She was weakened. She could barely stand up.

"Gotta stop doing that," she whispered finally, when the tremors had lessened somewhat. "Please, just- please- get out. Let's get out." Sora did not need to be told twice. Kairi was too weak to hold onto him herself, so he scooped her up like he'd done with Demyx, though she was much lighter, and he flew out the window.

If anyone down below noticed them, he wasn't aware of it. He hit the fire escape a little too hard, jolting Zexion out of a sort of dosey sleep. Demyx was still unconscious. Kairi was slowly recovering, though Zexion eyed his ill sister warily. Something big was up with that sibling relationship. For at least five minutes, everyone sat in silence. Sora was incredibly uncomfortable.

"Ta-da!" he cheered, finally speaking at normal volume, just to break the ice. The siblings glared at him. "What? We made it," he said, with slightly less enthusiasm. "You know, go team." The team didn't appear to appreciate the pep talk.

"Where do we go now?" Kairi asked out loud.

"I'm not leaving without Demyx," Zexion said firmly, repeating his favorite phrase. Kairi gritted her teeth.

"Dammit, Zekey! I know." Zexion flinched away from both the strange name and the angry tone. Yes, something was definitely up with that sibling relationship. But Sora was too tired to think about what it might have been. They were too far up and away to hear if there was any commotion at Shinra, so there they stayed, the four of them, hovering off the edge of an office building. Suddenly, Sora remembered his friends.

Riku. He had to get to Riku, and make sure he was safe.

"Hey, Kairi," he said lowly. "Riku and Vaan are still waiting for us at 38th and 9th. Let's go there." That was where he was going regardless, and he was sure Riku and Vaan wouldn't mind an extra person or three. Heck, Vaan was already an extra person.

"And where do we go from 38th and 9th?" Kairi asked bitterly.

"It's not that many blocks from there to where I live," Sora explained. "You can all come there." He was sure Leon wouldn't mind an extra person or four. Heck, Riku was already an extra person. He began to see the holes in his logic. But Leon would have to understand after he explained. He couldn't just leave these people out here to die.

"Ok, fine," Kairi sighed. "But how do we get there?"

"Same way as how we got here," Sora grinned. "I'm rested enough now- I can fly everybody."

And so he did.

They went one at a time, hopping from building to building. Sora had to stop to take breaks often, and the going was painfully slow. The moon had already gotten high in the sky, and now, it was beginning to descend. Even though he'd all but grown up there, every time Sora went out into New York City, it just seemed to get bigger and bigger, almost to the point where it terrified him.

After about two hours, Sora reached the appropriate intersection, desperate to see Riku. He dropped to the ground, muscles screaming, only to discover Vaan and Riku sitting together on a curb, both smoking cigarettes and peacefully waiting for him, apparently untouched by the commotion at Shinra, rendering his panic null. All four corners of the street had stores that were completely boarded up.

"I guess he's been out of business for a while," Vaan shrugged as an explanation. "What took you so long? Did you finish up whatever you were doing with that chick?"

"Uh, not exactly." Sora launched into a rambly explanation of what had happened, muddled by his exhausted brain. "So her brother was up there, but he had this friend or something, and they had nowhere to go so I brought them all with me."

"What!?" asked Vaan.

"How!?" asked Riku.

"I carried them here," whimpered Sora. His wings drooped. He barely had the strength to hold them up anymore. Despite his massive wingspan, his body was actually quite delicate- he just wasn't built to haul crowds of people through the sky. Riku saw his precarious lean, and jumped up to stop him from collapsing. Sora slumped against him gratefully, and found himself thinking ever so briefly that he had never loved anyone more in his entire life.

"Well, I guess we're stuck, then," Vaan sighed. "Where are they now?"

The six of them walked the rest of the way to Leon's church in absolute silence. Sora was too tired to speak, and Riku was busy holding him up as he walked. Vaan was twitchy and irritated. Kairi was too proud to say anything, chin held high as she helped Zexion carry Demyx. The moon was getting ready to drop behind the horizon, and they made quite a spectacle, especially with Sora's wings. Fortunately, no one was out on the streets, except for one woman who stepped out of her apartment building, saw them, and immediately rushed back inside. It would take a mob of people to actually harm them.

They reached Leon's church just as the sun came up. Sora was unable even to fly up to the roof to enter his usual way- he'd have to use the front door, like a normal person. Since he was the only person who actually, officially lived there, he went first. He hobbled up to the door, was barely able to turn the knob, and leaned against it to push it open.

Sora would never forget that moment, not for the rest of his life. In the future, he'd laugh about how oh, at the time, he'd thought it was just an odd dream. But right then, exhausted and delirious, his mind churned and spit out the only word he could think to say.

"Cloud…?"

OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD IT IS ERASED'S 1-YEAR BIRTHDAY. WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT A WHOLE YEAR!

Like, I think back on what my life was like when I started writing this. I had just withdrawn from college, I was depressed, I had major insomnia problems and started writing fanfiction to help myself fall asleep. Now, I just finished my first quarter back at school, I am not depressed, I no longer have major insomnia problems but I still write fanfiction to help myself fall asleep. LOL.

But seriously, isn't this fic like, totally effing crazy? And it's nowhere near done! Like, it amazes me how ambitious this crap his for someone who's never really written anything before... but 34 chapters in a year... that's almost 3 chapters a month. Not too bad, eh? :)

And the people! Ahhhh! Many thanks to Pantharya again for beta-reading (GO READ HIS FIC I CANNOT TELL YOU ENOUGH TIMES SERIOUSLY), even though he's super-busy and has never actually read all of Erased, because I met him when he reviewed Really Bad Clothes, which was a gift-fic to the lovely LiteraryMirage (GO READ HER FIC I CANNOT TELL YOU ENOUGH TIMES SERIOUSLY) for having the 107th review on Erased. LOL. And then LiteraryMirage took me cosplaying! Seriously, my life is so different now that I'm a Fanfic Writer. I mean, not super different in the day-to-day sense. But I'm a Fanfic Writer! Pretty much all of my high school friends are amazed at what a huge mega-dork I am, but I've always been this way, I just used to keep it a secret. LOL.

Oh, and happy St. Paddy's day! If you're anything like me, you have a raging hangover right now. I mean, uh, what? I'm a good influence! Yeah!