The hospital waiting room was stuffed with people. Claire Farron and her dark haired companions didn´t even make it inside but had to queue up infront the entrance gates instead. Too many people had been wounded. Too many dead.
Lightning felt her stomach churn.
Trying to glimpse inside on her tiptoes, hoping to see her sister or maybe even Snow, the pink haired female only marginally perceived Zack and Angeal offering help to the injured people awaiting their turn. Yes. That was probably the reason they had agreed to come in the first place when Lightning had asked Angeal to please come and take a look at Serah. To help the wounded. All of them.
It made the pink haired warrior feel rather useless. There was nothing she could do to help anyone.
It seemed like hours later that the three of them reached the reception, ascended a set of stairs and wandered down white corridors to Serah Villier´s room.
To Lightning´s great relief her sister was alive and conscious. Still, she had seen better days for sure.
Her skin was pale and her forehead sweaty, her usually bright blue eyes looked exhausted, dull, and her lids were drooping tiredly. The tiny hand on top of Snow´s looked limb, looked lifeless.
'Lightning?' the woman in the bed asked somewhat weakly.
Her voice... Her voice was so thin, so fragile. Lightning almost couldn´t bear to hear it.
How could she have let something like this happen? How could she have let Serah get injured while she´d been in the same house? She should have been more careful. Shouldn´t have been so preoccupied with her own problems.
Suddely Lightning felt horrible. Felt guilty really.
'Hey sis...' The pink haired soldier approached slowly, carefully sat down on the edge of the bed.
'How are you doing?'
It was a stupid question to ask really. But Lightning posed it still. She needed to hear Serah´s voice again, needed to make sure she was going to be okay.
Her sister only gave a pained long sigh.
'They cleaned the wound and stitched her up.' Snow provided as an answer.
'It seems to be infected though. They´ve given her some antibiotics and stuff but I don´t know... She´s weak.'
Claire Farron gave him a worried glance before looking back to her little sister.
'Are you hurting?'
The younger woman gave a tired nod.
'Don´t worry. You´re going to be fine. I brought someone for you.' Lightning said as leaning forwards she brushed some sweat off the younger woman´s forehead.
Motioning for Angeal and Zack to move closer, the pink haired first class looked at her burly comrade pleadingly.
Please. Mend her pain.
It was all she asked from him. She knew Angeal couldn´t heal the infection, couldn´t cure the fever. But he could close the wound in her sister´s leg and save her the pain of waiting for the gash to heal.
The burly first class understood.
It was without a word that he went to work. And with success too.
One could rely on Angeal at least.
'Thank you, Angeal.'
They were back in the corridor, back on their way outside, Lightning, Zack and Angeal. None of them had talked much back in Serah´s room and now the latter only shrugged his shoulders.
Zack Fair hadn´t said a thing ever since they´d set foot into the hospital.
'So many injured...' Angeal Hewley murmured.
'I wish we could have done more.'
Zack Fair didn´t break his silence. But the same message was reflected in his sky blue eyes.
Too many injured. Too many dead.
All those people...
Wasn´t it their duty to keep them safe? They were in the guardian corps after all!
'All this fighting. All this killing. I don´t know... Maybe I´m getting too old for this.' The bear of a man suddenly said.
Lightning and Zack exchanging puzzled glances, they quickly followed their comrade down the stairs and over to the entrance hall.
'You have outstanding healing abilities, Angeal.' Lightning remarked, looking at her bigger friend admiringly.
'Have you ever thought about, you know, becoming a doctor?'
Zack Fair only gave a mighty snort.
'A doctor?! Angeal is a fucking healer!'
Claire Farron supposed he was right. Zack Fair himself had tried to learn from the best for years and still. His abilities never even came close. The puppy eyed soldier could heal a cut, that was true. A bruise maybe or a graze. But never would he dream of achieving the kind of miracles Angeal had worked. Like the injury she had received in the wutai infiltration mission. What he had done there... It had been more like bringing her back from the dead than healing a wound really. Never had she heard of someone accomplishing such a thing. Except of course for Sephiroth. The general´s abilities rivaled Angeal Hewley´s, true. But there was a drawback, right? He could only use them on people with Jenova cells. Meaning only her and him.
'I don´t know Lightning. Maybe I´m too old for that kind of stuff too.'
'Well... You could always be a cook, you know. Just do that roast beef thing of your´s again and I´m sure Lebreau will hire you at the clubhouse. I can try and put a good word in for you, you know?' Zack said somewhat playfully.
'It will have to wait for later I fear.' Lightning reminded.
The good mood that had been working itself into Zack Fair again was gone as fast as it had appeared.
'We´ll need Angeal on the team.'
It was true.
They needed him. Just as much as they needed her.
They had her hometown to defend. Their hometown really. Had to protect all those people of Bodhum. All those people Lightning had grown up with, all their neighbours and friends and Serah and Snow...
Suddenly the thought of leaving seemed preposturous, had never seemed more absurd.
How could she ever have considered it?!
She was needed here. Of course she was.
Suddenyly she was on her old mission again.
Her mission to keep Serah safe. And it wasn't only Serah this time. It was all of them. All of Bodhum. Her own homeotwn.
Suddenly her own problems didin't matter. Suddenly they were small and meaningless.
Suddenly she was strong again.
Because pregnant or not. She had to be strong for them. Like the soldier that she was.
One day passed, then another. With the gash in her leg healed and her infection clearing, Serah Farron left her room in the hospital almost as chipper as the morning of the day she had entered.
Almost.
The memories of what had happened etched into her mind, the pink haired young woman as much as everyone else couldn´t help but feel uneasy, couldn´t help but feel on edge.
It was with a terrible queasy feeling in her stomach that she attended the funerals. Funerals of people she´d known all her life. Was with her eyes darting around alertedly that she walked the short path from Snow´s car to the Farron´s front doors. Front doors that now were always locked, sheltering the people inside against the dangers from the woods, hiding them away behind shuttered windows and barred back doors.
It wasn´t a nice feeling. Knowing that those monsters could come back to attack any minute. Could come to decend upon you and your family.
Claire Farron hated to see her sister like that. Hated to see all of Bodhum clutched in fear.
Those attacks of the dogsters and Co, they´d driven all thoughts of leaving from her mind. And permanently so. Bodhum needed her. Serah needed her. And her comrades... They needed her too.
There was duty to fulfill for her again. And she wasn´t one to shy away from duty. No. It lit a spark in her. A spark she hadn´t felt for quite some time now. It was the prospect of danger, the thrill of upcoming battle. The feeling of being of use again, of being needed. Duty. Duty and obligation. Those were things she understood. Things that felt like home. Things that made sense to her. Made her feel safe and secure.
They were going to bring order to Bodhum. Restore it to the peaceful village it once was. She would make sure of that.
And soon.
Yes. They were going to end it soon.
Sephiorth was standing in the middle of the training room, his training katana weighted heavy in his sweaty palms.
His hair had gown past his collarbone and he had braided it into a tight knot in order to keep it out of his face.
He was eleven years old.
His task that day was training, not proving his abilities, but learning new techniques, new skills, new moves. Or at least that was what he had thought before the whole session had turned into an infinite sequence of blows to his legs, his chest, his arms and head, delivered by a set of Shinra combat bots whose only purpose seemed to teach him to endure a hard time.
The damn things moving so incredibly fast that he could barely evade certain death everytime they decided to attack him simultaniously, as if it wasn't enough that he got hit by their steely arms every other time there was always the relentless baton of his trainers that decended on him everytime he failed to score, everytime he made a tiny little mistake, just to drive home the point.
It wasn't even remotely entertaining.
'What is it with you today?' Officer-East asked raising his baton again as once again Sephiroth had stumbled backwards in an atempt to dodge one of the combat bot's razorblade attacks.
He was wearing his usual immaculate nazi unform and his creepy gasmask he never seemed to take off.
Somehow the thing creeped Sephiroth out to no end.
There was a whooshing sound and suddenly the steely combat baton impacted with his temple. Hard.
It made the silver haired boy go down to his knees.
Oh yes.
Officer-East definitely was his least fevourite instructor.
Well. He was still better than professor Hojo of course.
Everyone was better than professor Hojo.
The skin of his head cracking open from the force, it sent tiny rivulets of blood down his forhead and into his eyes.
There were a few minutes of desorientation where the world around him turned a blur and his brain a throbbing useless mass.
Then slowly the world began to righten itself again.
'Again.' Officer-East instructed and it was with deep steadying breaths that Sephiroth managed to stagger back onto his feat.
He needed to concentrate. Needed to get himself together.
He was not a child anymore.
He was a warrior.
And the enemies infront him, they were only bots, machines.
They had no brains, no heart, no thoughts, no instincts.
They had been programmed by a human being. They had software. Surely that meant their actions, they had to follow some kind of algorithm, some kind of pattern.
If only he could destinguish the pattern, could study the sequence of their blows. Surely there would be a way to anticipate their movements the paradigm of their attacks.
Well, there would be no time for this it seemed.
Officer – East swinging his baton menacingly, Sephiroth knew it was either try again or face his wrath once more.
Stepping forwards to face his enemy, he reached up once more to wipe some blood out of his face.
The stupid wound was causing him distraction, was impairing his sight as the blood kept running into his eyes without cease.
It was irritating really.
Still he had no choice.
The combat bots beginning to circle him once more, it was taking a step forward that he brought up his sword.
It was only a moment later that one of them attacked and blocking it's blade last instance, he was much too slow for the razor sharp buzz saw thing attack that came at him from behind.
The cursed thing cutting into the small of his back with vicious relentlessness, it was growling out in pain and surprise that the young boy recoiled forwards, missing to register the steely fist that lunged at him from the side.
He was thrown off balance again, found his already blood strewn cheek smash into the ground and it was only a moment later that Officer-Easts Baton came crashing down on him once more, hitting him at his midsection and knocking all remaining air from him.
'You always react, you idiot boy. You are too slow.' the officer remarked somewhat sternly.
'You have to anticipate their action. Move before they do.'
Well. Sephiroth had already figured that much. But how was he supposed to pull it off?! There was no way for him to study any of their patterns, not when he found himself down on the ground knocked out cold or almost cut down to slieces every other minute.
The confused look on his face, it made the man infront him chuckle.
'You have to forget all your knowledge. Forget what you see. You have to use your instinct instead. They are there, set in place. You have to learn to trust your intuition. Let it be your guide.' his instructor said as he rummaged around in his pockets to finally produce some kind of rag, a blindfold, Sephiroth realized with trepidation.
He threw it at his students feet.
It didn't help to ease the confused look there expressed all over the young man's blood stained face.
'Go on now. Don it. Try again.' Officer-East said not unkindly and it was getting back on his aching legs that Sephiroth obliged.
The blood from the laceration on his forehead was still flowing freely into his eyes, his face. It was joined now by the nasty dampness spreading down his spine. Th elatest addition to his injuries. He didn't wipe that off either. There really was no point.
He simply donned the blindfold instead, made to pull it down his face.
It blocked the light out perfectly, tinged his world in darkness and turned him blind to his surroundings instantly.
Sephiroth did not like it. Did not like it one bit.
He hadn't managed to defeat those bots all day, had barely managed to survive in fact, how was he supposed to do so without his eyesight even?!
Officer-East had to be insane.
Still, there was no use in arguing.
Officer East would always get his way.
The combat bots resuming their deadly dance again around him, the silver haired boy simply stood there in their middle, tried to calm his racing mind.
You have to use your instincts instead. Let them be your guide.
That was what the officer had said. And there had to be some wisdom to it. Officer-East was a rough man, but he was not cruel. Surely he would not send him into this situation with his eyes shut if he didn't have reason to believe that it was useful.
That was something professor Hojo would do. If only for the fun of it.
There had to be a way...
Taking a few deep calming breaths he tried to focus on his hearing, tried to track the movements of the bots around him through some weird itherwordly sense.
His heart beating madly in his chest, ready to be cut to pieces, it was very suddenly that one of the things attacks.
To the side! A voice inside him screamed, but it was before he'd even registered what it meant that his body had darted to the side.
Now behind you! Came the next warning cry. It made him spin around in midair, made him bring up his training katana in what had to be one of his most spectacularly executed parries yet.
There was the earsplitting noise of the steel of the katana meeting the crunching arm of the robot's meet grinder and then there was a stray thought, more like a warning really, telling him to jump and he leaped into the air spectaculaily evading another attack at his legs, the buzz saw like thing grazing the soles of his immaculately polished ocmbat boots.
He took a blow to his shoulder next, but he managed to take off one of the robots' arms before finally he hit the ground again.
It was just an arm.
But it was so much more than he had accomplished all day and that with his eyes closed.
Curling up into a tight small ball on the ground, bracing himself for his instructor's combat baton, the silver haired boy held his breath.
The anticipated punishment never came.
It made him reach up to remove his blindfold surprisedly.
There was Officer-East's face looming from above him now.
'You did well, pet.' he said through the filter of his gas mask.
'We'll continute tomorrow. Make sure you use the night to reflect on what you've learned today.'
It was all he said before he turned to make out of the room. The combat retreating to the sides of the room to slump against the walls, having gone back to sleep.
Reaching up to touch the wound on his forhead Sephiroth gave a tiny pained wince.
Sometimes he wished he had a power off button too. It definitely would make things much easier. Would surely spare him a whole lot of pain.
It was limping slightly that he made out of the rooom and over to the exaination rooms where he found one of the Shin-Ra nurses quickly rushing towards him.
'Oh no... Poor boy, what have they done to you again.' she simpered instantly as she took him by the hand and ushered him onto one of the examination tables.
'How terrible. Surely this must hurt. You are so brave. So brave!' she said as she leaned down to inspect his wound, then turned away to retrieve some pads.
The tiny silver haired boy had a hard time to keep himself from rolling his eyes.
'Don't worry we'll have you stitched up in no time.'
The woman was just doing her job. Sephiroth was aware.
Still. He hated it when they treated him like a child.
He was not a child anymore. He was a warrior. A killer. And he wouldn't cry over a stupid little cut on his forehead. Hadn't done so for the previous few years.
The kind plump woman had returned from her cupboard and had produced some needles and clippers, it was right then that she began gently dabbing at him with a tincture soaked cotton dab.
The tonic on that dab making his wound go numb, it made the throbbing in his head subside.
He hadn't even been aware how much he had been hurting, he realised, not until now that it had stopped.
The realisation was making him relax was making his muscles unclench and his lips sigh in relief.
It was with an air of thanks now that he looked up at the kind plump woman.
She was about to start on closing his wound when suddenly the door opened and professor Hojo entered the scene.
'Ahhhh what do we have here...' the professor said in his sickening high pitched voice as he made his way over from the doorway.
'I heard there was some incident there in the training room.'
He had that wicked smile in place, that terrible smile Sephiroth had come to hate, to fear.
Surely it couldn't mean anything good.
His assumptions were prooven correctly a second later when the man from his nightmares stepped over to the nurse.
'We will not need these, I think.' he said.
Reaching for the instruments inside her hands he quickly pried them away from her, took the dab with the soothing tonic from her too.
'It's alright. You can leave now.' he told the woman in his sickly amused tone, before tuning towards him smiled at him maliciously.
'I will take it from here.'
It made the young boy's stomach twist into knots.
Whatever.. but please not professor Hojo.
Not Hojo!
Please, please, please, not him...
His mental efforts at averting the catastrophee were futile as they always were.
The woman from his side giving a confused nod, it was before Sephiroth even had the time to thank her, that she had left the room.
It was his turn now to be the center of Hojo's attention.
The gaunt bespectacled man moved toward the dustbin by the doorway and threw the dab away, beofre turning back to his little victim on the table he made towards him with a scary big syringe readily drawn up in his hand.
It made the young boy shrink away immediately.
'Don't worry. Nurse Bethany won't bother us anymore.' he informed in his horrible high pitched voice. Kept smiling that creepy malign smile at him.
'She'll be sacked. I'll be looking after you from now on.' Hojo revealed, giving one of his maniac cackles.
It was Sephiroth's worst of nightmares turned into reality.
'Don't worry. We'll have fun together.' the professor cackled.
Stepping up to him, he brought down the syringe to his arm.
'So much fun.'
HAHAHAHHAHHA!