Author's Note: So I've noticed that each chapter seems to get longer and longer. I swear that I'll try to keep them shorter, but so far the long chapters seem necessary. I've also been updating more than once a week, but hey, I've had some time on my hands. Why not update? It's been super fun to write, and the plot is happening.
Anyway, please enjoy! Leave a comment or suggestion! Feel free to share as well! I'm glad that you guys are enjoying Daggers and Flowers so far! :)
It had been an hour since the kids had gone to bed, and Lyra had gone to her room as well. Still, Cloud checked her room to be safe. She was fast asleep in her bed. Her hands were still stained green from pulling weeds in the Church.
He backed away when he was sure that she was sleeping and closed the door.
The bar was closed for the night, which was against the normal schedule. Shalua and Shelke leaned against the bar counter, while Vincent lurked in the corner. Yuffie sat in a chair, acting like she was meditating with a glass of soda sitting on her table. Tifa poured a drink for Reeve. Cloud quietly made his way down the stairs and made his way to a bar stool.
"She didn't hear you? Like, at all?" Shalua was asking. Tifa shook her head.
"No. But I don't think she was ignoring us on purpose. She just hummed to herself and seemed…. unfocused." Tifa glanced at the ceiling in the far corner, where the room Lyra was sleeping in was located. "It wasn't really a problem until it was time to leave. The kids and I just thought that she needed time to herself."
"Interesting…." Shalua seemed lost in thought. "You know, after those Turks left, I went over the data from her full body scan. She's almost perfectly healthy, but there were some oddities."
"Like what?" Vincent asked from the corner. He decided to join them at the bar only after Reeve told them that things were getting real interesting with Lyra and that Reno and Rude had asked about the Northern Cave Crater.
"Well, where do I start?" Shalua chuckled dryly and pulled a small notebook out of her lab coat pocket. She flipped it open. It was filled with writing. She noticed Cloud staring at it and grinned.
"It's all data I have about her. And some related research," she said. He took the notebook from her when she offered it.
"What other research?" He asked. He flipped through it, then flipped back to the beginning, but Shalua's handwriting was a mess of scribbles. He couldn't decipher her notes, so he handed the notebook back.
"I went through files from Shinra Electric," Shelke started. "There wasn't much, but I found some things of interest."
"For starters, Hojo visited the Woodlands Area from time to time," Shalua interjected. "He didn't have a lab down there. The labs in that Area were under the jurisdiction of a Dr. Jael Azazel."
Cloud huffed. "Never heard of him."
"No one has. Any files on him and his projects were hidden away," Shelke said. "Not even I could access them."
Tifa poured herself a drink and leaned her elbows on her side of the counter. "But?"
"But when the Turks visited this morning, they left us a present." Shelke lifted a small chip to show everyone.
"It's got oodles of data and images and we aren't even done with the first file," Shalua said with excitement bouncing in her voice. "It's bleak and grim as hell, but given time, we can probably get somewhere. Problem is, a lot of it is restricted."
"Any ideas about where she's from?" Reeve asked, his brows low with concern.
"I bet my gil on test subject!" Yuffie ended her meditation and sipped on her soda.
"Yuffie," Tifa warned. Yuffie shrugged, but there was a flicker of apology across her face.
"Hey, we're all thinking it," she mumbled. The room fell silent except for Yuffie sucking soda through her straw.
"I asked Lyra why she couldn't hear us before she went to bed," Tifa said uncertainly, breaking the silence. "She said at first she heard buzzing, but it turned into voices."
They were silent again, this time looking at Shalua, who was flipping through her notes. She got to the page she was looking for and cleared her throat.
"I wrote down some ideas, just spit balling with Shelke," she started. "At first we were going through missing person's reports, recent ones, then older ones, but there isn't anyone who exactly matches her description. And then Tifa called earlier when she invited us, and I got to thinking."
"Of course," Yuffie said. "Anyone would."
Despite Yuffie's sarcasm, she seemed genuinely interested in the mystery. Everyone did. All eyes on Shalua and her indecipherable notes.
"What if she's a Cetra?"
Yuffie dropped her glass and it shattered. Even that didn't shake the obvious shock of their faces. Cloud's stomach dropped with dread.
No one could forget what happened to the last Cetra.
Lyra found herself in that wasteland again. She marveled at the stars floating around her and admired the swirling galaxies in the dark sky. Then she heard the voice again.
Pull him out. Help him. You can help him. Pull him out.
She frowned and looked around her. Where was that voice coming from?
Lyra! Help him!
The frantic cry spooked her and she turned back to the pit. The hand was still reaching for her, but the face was still unclear. She knelt down and dipped her hand into the tar. She had to lean in farther, but she grasped the hand. The second she touched the hand, a tingling sensation travelled from her fingers down her spine. She gasped and suddenly the hand gripped hers. She pulled.
The tar was as sticky as it looked, and it was hard to pull her own arm out by itself, but the voice praised her.
You're doing it! You've got this! You can help him!
Suddenly, Lyra's stomach dipped and the hand tugged her- no. Something else tugged whoever owned the hand, down, down, down. A different voice filled her ears, coarse and bloody as she slipped farther into the pit of tar. She yelped and strained against it.
NO. HE IS MINE.
Don't listen to it. The pleasant voice said. You can do this. Help him!
She felt hands on her shoulders and under her arms as she pulled, ignoring the harsh voice, feeling fear from the person in the pit as if it was her own. She pulled and tugged and the hands helped her until finally, finally, his upper body was out of the pit.
He gasped for air and hacked up tar, but he held a firm grip on her hand as he clawed out of the pit. He crouched on the ground as he struggled to breathe, and Lyra felt the hands on her shoulders disappear. She looked around, but no one was there except for him.
His shoulder length silver hair reflected the stars floating about. He was wearing a black leather coat and gauntlets. She could see a single wing sewn on the back of his coat. He looked to be tall, taller than her at least. About Cloud-Tall. And his hand was gripping the life out of hers.
"Hey, you okay?" Her voice sounded strange. She was speaking that strange language again, and she felt weird. He looked familiar.
She knew him! He was in her memory for just a split second, conversations that left her mind as soon as she remembered. How annoying.
He seemed to catch his breath and he sat up. He looked at her and they both froze. His eyes were glowing green, and the pupils were shaped like a cat. His pupils dilated as they stared at each other. He opened his mouth as if to say something and-
And she was shaken awake by Marlene and Denzel.
She sat up, groggy and grouchy. What was he going to say? He didn't look much older than her, but it was just a dream, wasn't it?
Right, because people who don't usually have dreams have the same dream two nights in a row.
"Come on, get up!" Marlene shouted with glee. She bounced around until Denzel pulled her out of the room.
Lyra couldn't shake the dream away, even as she got ready for the day, this time wearing the jeans and T-shirt. She wished again that she had her hoodie, but there wasn't much to be done about it.
Lyra ate breakfast with Marlene and Denzel, who seemed to be warming up to her.
"You like flowers too?" Marlene asked, happily checking the ribbon tied in Lyra's ponytail. She had tried to mimic the way Marlene had tied it, but Marlene still redid the bow.
"Yeah. I think there was a garden at home or something." This seemed to pique Tifa's interest.
"Really?" She asked. "What did you grow?"
Lyra thought hard, trying her hardest to focus on the sliver of plant life in her memory. "Vegetables, I think. But I remember a lot of flowers."
"What kind?"
Lyra frowned thoughtfully. "Hm. I think…. Maybe a bit of everything."
Tifa nodded, seeming unsatisfied with this answer, but she didn't pry for another answer. They finished their breakfast, Marlene talking about all the times she'd gone to the Church to tend the garden.
When they were done, Tifa asked them to get ready to go to the WRO. They ran off, and Lyra realized something.
"Hey, where's Cloud?"
Tifa paused, then she smiled, though she looked worried. "He's making deliveries. He goes around the Area and checks on things. Some people are a still too timid to cross Areas."
Tifa gathered the plates and took them to the sink. Lyra gathered the forks and cups and grabbed a dry rag to help dry the dishes as Tifa washed them.
"Why? What's scaring them?" She asked. Tifa glanced at her.
"Y'know that war I was talking about?" She asked. Lyra nodded. "Well, afterwards, monsters were stirred up. They wander around, and not everyone is able to fight them off."
Lyra's brows shot up in surprise. "Monsters?!"
Tifa chuckled. "Don't worry. We'll be fine here."
Tifa pulled the sink plug and wiped her hands dry. "Come on. Let's go."
Lyra watched Tifa leave the kitchen. Tifa was acting weird. She wouldn't meet Lyra's eyes. She took a deep breath and took a moment before following Tifa and the kids out the door, her dream already pushed to the back of her mind to make room for her curiosity.
Tifa resented not telling Lyra the truth. Lyra had been nothing but honest in the short time that she knew her.
Well, Tifa didn't fully lie. Cloud really was making a delivery, only he wasn't going to come home right after. He planned to confront Rufus. Not only was Rufus already on their Trouble Radar for buying land outside of Edge, only to start construction on shiny new buildings that definitely weren't housing or vacation areas or any other helpful thing, but he had sent Reno and Rude to the WRO specifically to ask about what was found in the Northern Cave Crater.
If Shalua was right about Lyra being a Cetra, which Tifa felt was slightly possible, then Lyra was in trouble.
Cloud assured Tifa that he wasn't going to say anything outright about Lyra. He planned on only asking why they wanted to know about the events at the Northern Cave Crater. Hopefully Rufus was just curious and paranoid that the Remnants of Sephiroth were back.
They didn't have to wait long for the bus, and they rode it to the WRO. The air was much more humid than the day before. It was probably going to storm soon.
Shalua was working on Lyra's bloodwork when they arrived, and when Lyra asked, she told her that she hadn't found anything interesting in the blood.
Lie.
Shalua had told them the night before that Lyra had a high amount of mako in her bloodstream, far too much. She didn't appear to be sick, but there was just so much mako that Shalua was admittedly worried. Lyra's bones, organs, and tissue had signs of tampering, as if she had gone under the knife many times throughout her life, though her skin was clear of scars, except in her left forearm. There was a faint scar that had lit up in the images Shalua had brought. And if that wasn't enough, there was a lot of things wrong with her brain.
"At first glance, it looks normal," Shalua had said. Then she went on to explain that the brain waves were tampered with somehow, and that it just looked wrong. She couldn't exactly put it in words. And then there was the problem with Lyra's memory.
"Lyra, sit down," Shalua said, her voice knocking Tifa out of her thoughts. "This might be hard for you to hear."
Lyra's bright smile immediately fell. She sat down, and cold air followed her as she moved past Tifa. The cold and ice had appeared the night before when she asked Lyra about the church. Lyra thought she was in trouble for touching the flowers, but Tifa had assured her that she wasn't, and the cold air had disappeared.
Lyra fidgeted in her chair as Shalua sat in front of her.
"Lyra, I think there is a memory block in your brain," Shalua started. Lyra frowned.
"What's that? I mean, I assume it blocks memories, but-" Lyra started.
"Oh, it does, but I think I know what you mean." Shalua chuckled. She adjusted her prosthetic arm to sit across her lap. "It's not exactly physical. It's more mental than anything, but it's artificial."
Lyra cocked her head to the side and glanced at Tifa. Tifa gave her a reassuring smile and Lyra turned back to Shalua.
"Okay, so I have to think it away," she said. "Then I'll remember things again."
Shalua shook her head. "Not exactly." She shuffled around with her notes. "You see, there used to be this company, Shinra Electric Power Company, and they had a science division that did these horrible things to people."
"An evil utility company? Tifa, you didn't say the Shinra Company was a utility company!" Lyra's disbelief was very obvious, but Shalua did not look amused. She frowned and shook her finger.
"Lyra, this is serious," She said. Lyra nodded.
"I got that," she mumbled, leaning back into her chair. "But it just sounded kinda fishy."
Shalua rolled her blue eye. "Anyway, they had some notes on mind blocks, but they never were able to successfully attempt this."
She gave Lyra a moment as Lyra slowly straightened, and realization seemed to dawn on her. Shalua gave Tifa a look. Tifa shook her head.
No, they had to let Lyra figure this out on her own.
"So, the guy with multicolored eyes," Lyra started.
"Yeah? What about him?" Shalua nervously eyed the frost forming under Lyra's palms on the chair. Lyra was deep in thought.
"He was part of this company, wasn't he?"
Shalua frowned. That wasn't what anyone was hoping Lyra would say. No one had a solid idea where Lyra was from in the first place, but Lyra seemed to be under the impression that she was from a different city, or maybe even a different world altogether, though Shinra had nothing on travelling through different worlds, and Shelke couldn't find anything on it in the DeepGround databases that she could access.
"We can't be sure since he's dead, but that's likely," Shalua finally said. Lyra squirmed, uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"Do, um, mind blocks have any control over dreams?" She asked in a small timid voice.
Shalua leafed through her notes and shrugged. "Maybe. I'll have to go through what I know again, but maybe."
This did not comfort Lyra.
"Is there something on your mind?" Tifa asked. Lyra quickly shook her head, but Tifa knew that there was. What does Lyra have to hide?
Lyra's mind was on the man with multicolored eyes. Was he a really a scientist? She only remembered seeing his eyes and the look on his face when he kidnapped her. He didn't seem professional in that moment.
She pushed a coin into the vending machine's slot and pushed the code for a bag of chips. She was hungry, and she had spent the morning in Shalua's lab. Between the bloodwork, health physical, and Marlene and Denzel wanting to show her around the lab, she was exhausted and hungry.
Lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Lyra glanced out the window as her chips fell out of the coil. It wasn't raining yet, but she could see it in the distance.
A flash of red in the corner of Lyra's eye startled her, and she hardly had time to dodge when a figure slashed a large double-blade at her.
Lyra fell to the side and the end of the blade lodged itself into the tiled floor where she had been standing. She stared at the spot in shock. The blade was coated with blood, and it dripped onto the tiles.
"Hello, little mouse."
Lyra forced her eyes away from the blade. The woman before her had a metal leg, filled with grooves and hollows that had buttons for secret compartments. She had a thick accent, and her right leg was covered by a thigh-high boot and a red stocking. Her left glove had spiky fingertips while the woman's right arm was metal and sharp. Her armor was revealing, just a one-piece that showed her stomach, and a long fuzzy red cape pooled at her feet.
Lyra met the woman's crimson eyes. She was smiling down at her, but the smile was creepy and twisted. She had a black eye and a cut on her cheek. Both were healing.
"What-"
"Did you think you could hide for long?" The woman asked, drawing out her words as she dislodged her weapon and swung it out. Lyra screamed and scrambled around the corner, yelling for help as she heard the woman laughing behind her. She glanced behind her as she ran. The woman was sprinting after her, barely making a sound. And she was quickly catching up.
Lyra was suddenly yanked to the side and thrown into a dark room. Vincent grumbled as he left the room and drew his gun. He faltered and grabbed Lyra's arm.
"Run. Just run," he said, pushing her forward. She didn't stop to make sure he was following, but she heard gunshots. She ran past the elevators, deciding to use common sense to run down the stairwell. The stairs spiraled down many, many stories, as the WRO had underground labs and storage rooms.
Lyra followed the stairs and ran faster. The door opened above her and she heard heavy footsteps. She missed a step and almost fell in her fear as the footsteps caught up to her. She yelped when Vincent grabbed her arm and pulled her after him.
"Can you go any faster?!" He seemed angry, so Lyra stayed quiet. She followed him the best she could until he finally opened a door. They ran into a storage area. Large metal shelves filled with huge wooden crates reached the high concrete ceiling. It was a maze, and Lyra was reluctant to run into it.
Vincent scowled at her, making Lyra flinch. This guy was terrifying, and she still had a bruise where he had shot her before. Her leg was sore from the running.
"I don't want to get lost," she said. He rolled his eyes.
"You won't get lost. Get in there before she-"
Too late.
The door flew off its hinges, slamming to the ground with a large clang that echoed throughout the large room. Sparks flew as it slid. It stopped just feet away from Lyra.
The woman hummed as she entered, twirling her blade as if she had all the time in the world. Vincent shoved his phone in Lyra's hands and pushed her into the maze of shelves.
"Call Reeve. He's upstairs. Tell him we're in the Storage Room B4," he ordered. Lyra nodded her head as she flipped his phone open. She found Reeve in the contacts and ran farther into the maze. He picked up just as the sound of fighting echoed through the room.
"Vincent!" Reeve yelled into the phone. He sounded out of breath and Lyra could hear yelling behind him.
"No, it's Lyra," she whispered. She didn't like the way her voice shook and she was so nervous she felt like she would throw up, but she continued. "We were chased down to a storage room in the basements."
"Which one? Are you alright?"
Lyra nodded, then slapped her forehead. He couldn't see her nodding. "Yeah, I'm okay. But Vincent is fighting this woman. I think he said that we're in Storage Room-"
Lyra almost dropped the phone. The woman suddenly appeared before her, grinning in a malicious way that made Lyra's skin crawl.
"We should finish our game, little mouse," the woman purred. Lyra stared at her with wide eyes.
"Lyra? Are you still there?"
She almost couldn't hear Reeve through the phone. Suddenly Tifa's voice came through.
"Lyra, I want you to stay calm," she said, remaining calm herself. The background noise was suddenly quiet, as if Tifa had walked away from the noise. "Where are you? We're coming to get you."
Lyra managed to squeak, "Storage Room B4," before the woman sliced her metal arm at her. Lyra screamed and dropped the phone to hold her hands in front of her. The woman's arm shaped itself into the shape of a knife at the last second and sliced through the palms of Lyra's hands.
The woman's arm hit the crate behind Lyra, giving her the chance to run. Lyra rounded a corner, then another, and she kept running and turning corners until she hit a dead end. She skid to a stop and whimpered.
"Little mooouuuse?" The woman's voice sang. Lyra could hear her creeping somewhere behind her. There was nowhere to hide, and her hands were bleeding freely, dripping blood onto the ice on the floor.
Ice on the floor. Lyra was hit by an idea.
She didn't have a weapon on her, but she did have the ice. And that fire… maybe she could use it.
She ignored the pain in her hands and held her hands in front of her in a fighting stance. Her hands felt warm, much warmer than they already were with the blood and pain. Flames flickered over her fists and she broke the stance to watch them flicker between her fingers. She was so distracted by the fire, she almost wasn't aware of the pain in her stomach until flew into the crates behind her.
The woman cackled and raised her blade to swing, but then doubled over in her laughter. Lyra wheezed and gagged, but she managed to stand, the fire still coursing through her hands. She yelled out as she ran at the woman, swinging her flaming fists at her stomach.
The woman cried out and stumbled back, a look of fury on her face.
"Really, little mouse?"
Lyra swung again, trying to hit her again, but the woman grabbed her fists and pulled her close, only to slam her into the concrete floor.
Lyra's vision swam with spots and lights. She could feel the woman's hands around her throat, squeezing tight. She couldn't breathe. She kicked out, but the woman only grunted and squeezed harder. Then, just as Lyra was about to black out, the woman was thrown to the side.
Lyra rolled over and gasped for air, watching through her tangled hair and tears as WRO soldiers subdued the woman. A medic knelt in front of Lyra, instructing her to remain calm and breathe slowly. Lyra grinned and gave him a weak thumbs up, trying to tell him that she was breathing again.
He helped her stand and they watched the now unconscious woman as she was carried off through the maze.
"Where is she go-" Lyra's voice croaked, and she almost didn't recognize it. The medic grinned at her.
"You don't have to worry about it. They're just taking her to a special cell," he said. He took her through the maze and they met Vincent at the end. He didn't look hurt, and he actually somewhat grinned when he saw her.
"Look, you survived," he said. Lyra smiled and nodded, too exhausted to say anything back as he continued. "And you didn't get lost. And you actually defended yourself."
She followed Vincent to an elevator. She sat on the floor as they rode up. Vincent stared at her. She blinked back at him.
"How did you do it?"
She frowned and cocked her head to the side. She croaked again. "What do you mean?"
"The fire," he said simply. She squinted.
"Were you watching me?"
He shook his head. "Rosso managed to knock me unconscious. I awoke when help came."
"Rosso?"
He glanced at her again. "Does the name sound familiar?"
Lyra shook her head. He turned away and they were silent. The elevator dinged and slid open. Lyra stood, glad that Vincent helped her. Her legs were shaky as she walked.
The rest of the day was a blur. Her hands were bandaged, and people asked questions. Too many people. Lyra was glad when Tifa took her and the kids home. Marlene and Denzel had been hidden in Shalua's lab during the attack. Thankfully, not many people had died. Rosso seemed distracted, not exactly going for the WRO workers and officials she came across.
Lyra didn't want to think that Rosso had been targeting her specifically, but it sure felt like it.
Lyra immediately went to her bed, collapsing on it without changing into her pajamas. It took only minutes for her to fall asleep. She found herself in the dark, starry wasteland, once again. The same pits of tar surrounded her, but she saw him again, sitting just yards away, staring at her. She blinked the dryness out of her eyes and shook her head to clear it. He smirked and waved at her.
"Hey, Star Eyes. Sleeping soundly?"