Quick Warning: There is some torture-stuff towards the end, so if it bothers you, please avoid it. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable, but there has to be some conflict and plot. So if blood and violence and torture isn't for you, please avoid this chapter. Thank you, and please review and favorite if you like the story so far!
"Who- what?" Lyra shook herself loose and backed away, startled and confused. She didn't hear these strange men enter the Church, and the doors were very loud and one of them was warped. "Who the- who are you?"
The blond man wearing the fancy white suit held up a hand and the other two men backed off, standing behind him. They stared holes into her head, and she wasn't comfortable with being alone with them.
Where the hell was Yuffie?!
"It's okay, we aren't going to hurt you," the blond man said. "I thought that I would find you here."
All the blood in Lyra's veins dropped to her feet. She went still, wondering what this man was trying to do. The bald man sighed and whispered something to the blond man. He laughed, which startled Lyra, and he shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he finally managed to say. "That sounded awful."
Lyra eyed the doors behind him. How could she get through them without the other two men stopping her? They were much bigger than her, and she didn't want to ruin the flowers with her fire and ice.
That was silly of her to think, that flowers in a church were worth more than her life, but she felt that they were important. She could still hear the voices there in the buzzing, but it was muted by her fear.
"What do you want with me?" She almost cringed at how small her voice was.
The man smiled, handing her a glossy white business card. Lyra took it, reading the script inlaid on a diamond. "Just wanted to meet you. I've heard so much already."
President Rufus Shinra.
Realization dawned on her, remembering something that Tifa had told her about the Shinra Electric Power Company. She put two and two together and gathered that this man was dangerous just for his affiliation with the evil utility company. She glanced at him, the card still in her hands.
He didn't know that she knew who he was, though he continued to smile at her. His smile seemed plastic and fake the more she looked at it. She wasn't stupid, but she had to act it if she was to get out and find Yuffie.
"Oh. How nice," She tried handing back the card, but he refused to take it back.
"Keep it," he said. "You might need to get in contact someday."
Lyra didn't like how he said that.
"Of course. Well, I'm Lyra."
The man's plastic smile didn't waver, and he swept his hands to the men at his side. "It is very nice to meet you Lyra. These are my Turks, Reno and Rude."
The bald man nodded at her while the redhead smirked and gave her a cocky wave. Lyra frowned at the redhead. Something in his eyes was off and he seemed shocked despite the smirk and wave. Lyra blinked and his shock was gone.
"Right," she said. "What are Turks?"
"Bodyguards," Rufus said. The redhead snickered.
"And hitmen. Assassins. Badasses," the redhead mumbled. The bald man glared at him, adjusting his sunglasses.
"Reno," he warned. The redhead mumbled some more and smirked at her again.
"Sorry," he said. Lyra shook her head and took a deep breath, rubbing the headache from her temples. Of course, they were hitmen and assassins. And of course, they were the president of an evil utility's company bodyguards. Who else would be crazy enough to keep him from harm?
Lyra almost cried when the door to the Church swung open, Yuffie running inside. She skid to a stop in the aisle, staring at the men before Lyra. Her mouth opened and shut like a fish and her hand immediately went to her phone and a glowing orb.
"Yuffie!" Lyra knelt down to get her flower pot, but Reno winked at her and picked it up for her. She backed away, eyeing Yuffie and trying to ask her for help without saying it out loud. Yuffie gladly caught the hint and marched forward.
"Hey guys!" She took the flower pot from Reno. "I'll take that."
"Hey, Yuffie, what's up?" Reno drawled. Yuffie grinned, stepping in front of Lyra and backing into her. Lyra jumped and moved to the doors, aware of Yuffie following her while keeping up a conversation with Rufus and his Turks.
"So you met her, but I don't think you really thought this through," Yuffie was saying, her voice somewhat stressed. "It's kinda creepy to have three dudes pop up and corner an unarmed girl, ya know?"
"We tried to get her attention," Rufus responded. "She didn't seem to hear us. We meant no harm."
Lyra was out of the Church by the time Yuffie answered in a very sarcastic way that he should have found another way or at least he could have gone to the WRO. She paced in a tight circle, taking deep breaths to calm herself as she waited for Yuffie to meet her. The humidity and heat were not helping her. It had been cool inside the church, even with the giant hole in the roof, and it was much easier to breathe inside.
Yuffie finally left the church a minute or two later, and Lyra was still trying not to panic.
"Whoa, you okay?" Yuffie asked. Lyra shot her an exasperated look. Yuffie grimaced. "Yeah, you're not. Stupid question."
Lyra stopped pacing and took the flower pot back with shaking hands. "Let's just go. That scared the crap out of me."
"Yeah, I know." Yuffie pulled Lyra forward. They began their trek back to Edge, where they would find the bus stop.
Lyra turned to her and glared. "Where were you?"
Yuffie frowned at her, confused. "What do you mean?"
Lyra scoffed. "I got done with the flowers, looked up, and you were gone, replaced by the hitmen-assassin-bodyguards and their crappy boss!"
Yuffie was silent. Lyra glanced at her. Yuffie was staring and was still looking confused. Yuffie shook her head and rolled her eyes.
"Wow that place messes you up," she mumbled. She walked ahead until she had enough space to do a cartwheel and continued to jump around like usual. Lyra looked around, hoping that they would bump into Aerith. Was she okay? Did she run into the Turks and Rufus?
"Whatcha lookin' for?"
Lyra's attention snapped back to Yuffie. She blinked. "Hey, when you came in, did you at all see anyone?"
Yuffie stopped jumping around long enough to shake her head. "Nuh-uh. Why?"
Lyra shrugged and jogged to keep up, her arms already becoming sore from carrying the flowerpot. "Never mind. Guess she ninja'd her way past them."
They found their way to the edge of the ruins, where the bus had dropped them off. The actual closest bus stop wasn't far, but whoever was in charge of the bus system must have been told that Cloud and Tifa and everyone were to be dropped off at the ruins.
Lyra and Yuffie sat at the bus stop, just talking and joking around as they waited. It was past noon and they were getting hungry. Lyra at some point told Yuffie about Aerith and how weird but nice she had been, and Yuffie's smile dropped. Her sudden reaction startled Lyra. She turned to Yuffie. Yuffie scrambled for her phone and went to the pictures.
"Did she look like this?" She shoved her phone in Lyra's face. The picture in Yuffie's phone was of another picture, but it was the same woman. Aerith was smiling and Lyra could tell that she was standing near others, though the way Yuffie had taken the picture had cut the other people out. Lyra nodded and began to smile.
"Yeah, you know her?" She stopped smiling when she handed Yuffie's phone back. Yuffie was visibly upset, avoiding making eye contact with Lyra.
"I don't know any other way to put this, but Aerith is kinda…dead."
Lyra stared at her, raising a brow. Then she laughed. "No, she isn't. I just met her."
Yuffie took a breath and narrowed her eyes, cutting off Lyra's laughter. Yuffie was serious. Lyra stammered.
"That's impossible."
Yuffie grunted and sat back on the bench. "You'd be surprised."
"Wait, so if she's dead, how did I-"
"I don't know."
They were silent until the bus came, Lyra trying to process this information and Yuffie seemingly trying not to cry and failing. Lyra caught Yuffie discreetly wiping her eyes a few times, but neither of them said a word. The bus came, and they boarded. The ride was awkward, and they got off at the stop nearest the bar.
The bar was open and Tifa was busy with patrons when they arrived, but Cloud was still there. He took the flowers from Lyra and Yuffie asked to speak to him privately. Lyra made her way up the stairs as they talked in the kitchen. Marlene and Denzel were in their room, reading books. They smiled when she passed and Lyra wasn't prepared for the squealing or for the sudden suffocation when they tackled her from the back, Marlene squeezing her waist and Denzel jumping onto her back and clinging to her shoulders and neck.
She stumbled and fell forward, laughing though they fell with her.
"You're back!" Marlene shouted in her ears. She hugged Lyra again as she sat up. Denzel snickered.
"I told you she would. She wouldn't run away like that," he said.
"Yeah, I don't have anywhere to go," Lyra said through her giggles. "Why do you think that I wouldn't come back?"
Marlene let go. "Well, you and Yuffie left and I thought that you were going to live at the WRO."
"And I told her that it was silly," Denzel said. "And that you weren't going anywhere."
They turned to face Cloud as he came up the stairs, looking disturbed.
"Hey!" Lyra smiled and waved from the floor. Cloud nodded and went to his office, closing the door behind him. Lyra frowned but she couldn't do anything about it. Marlene and Denzel pulled her to their room. Denzel wanted to play a board game and Marlene wanted to braid Lyra's hair.
Her wrists and ankles were strapped to the hard surface. Bright lights blinded her. Her vision was fuzzy and occasionally she blacked out, but not long enough for her to be completely unconscious. Her hearing was warped. She could hear beeping noises from machines that were connected to her arms and voices that were muffled whatever was messing with her senses.
"…scalpel…"
"…semi-conscious…"
"Perfect."
Lyra tried to lift her head, but she was hardly able to lift it to see what was going on around her. Who was talking and what was going on?
"Wha? Hey…" Her voice was hoarse and weak. The effort to speak exhausted her and she blacked out.
Suddenly, her chest exploded in pain. Her eyes flew open for a second and in that second her vision was sharp. In that second she saw a man with harsh yellow eyes and a surgical mask standing over her, cutting into her chest and stomach with a scalpel.
She screamed. The yellow-eyed man ignored her, continuing to cut into her with the scalpel. Through her warped hearing, she could pick up his orders to a nurse that was just out of view, asking for various tools and substances.
Lyra struggled against the ties during the moments she was present for the operation, but she no matter what she did, she couldn't get herself free. No matter how much she screamed and cried, the yellow-eyed man didn't stop cutting into her, cutting into her exposed organs, ordering the nurse.
The pain was excruciating, but the smell was worse. She was surprised to find herself not surprised by the smell of burning hair and iron and chemicals that hurt her nose.
She groaned and screamed some more as the doctor poked and prodded her, talking to the nurse and babbling incoherently. Her vision was blurry and spinning and she was grateful for the moments when she blacked out, even if she only blacked out for a minute.
She screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed.
And the doctor cut and cut and cut and he wouldn't stop gods why won't he stop someone stop him why won't you help me stop him please it hurts-
Lyra sat up in her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs, tears streaming down her face and her pajamas soaked with cold sweat. Her room's window was open, and rain was pouring inside. Lightning forked across the sky and deafening thunder followed.
The bedroom door flew open as a clap of thunder shook the bar. Lyra screamed as the door hit the wall. Tifa stumbled inside. Her hands were clenched into fists in front of her and she wore brass knuckles. She looked fierce despite her pajamas, but the terrifying expression on her face disappeared when she saw Lyra was alone. She yanked the brass knuckles off and threw them on the plain dresser in Lyra's room. She ran to the window and had to push her full weight against the window to close it as the wind pushed against her. She latched it shut and turned back to Lyra.
Lyra was shaking almost uncontrollably and crying and her chest felt tight. She could still feel the scalpel from the yellow-eyed doctor and she felt sick. She couldn't hear Tifa asking her what's wrong and she couldn't feel Tifa when she hugged her. She couldn't stop thinking of that man's yellow eyes, how they seemed to hold no emotion as he cut into her.
"It was just a dream. You have to calm down, take a breath," Tifa was saying. "Try not to hyperventilate."
"Whaz goin' on?" Denzel yawned in her doorway.
"Nothing. Lyra just had a bad dream," Tifa said. Lyra heard footsteps shuffle towards her. Lyra calmed herself enough to stop crying, but she was still shaking. They all jumped as another clap of thunder shook the house. Marlene shrieked down the hall and Cloud opened his office door. Tifa sighed.
"Great night for nightmares, huh Lyra?" She grinned at Lyra and stood, pulling Lyra with her. "Let's all go downstairs."
Tifa laced her arm around Lyra's shoulders and they made their way down the stairs to the kitchen, where she and Cloud made hot cocoa. Lyra sat at the kitchen island, hugging herself to stop her shaking. It was cold in the kitchen and her bed had been warm. She rubbed her chest as Marlene and Denzel joined her.
Cloud and Tifa had handed out the cups of hot cocoa and sat down with their own just in time for the windows to fill with blue-green light as the power flickered out with the loudest clap of thunder Lyra had ever heard. Everyone jumped and made some kind of noise, totally unprepared for what happened.
Cloud swore loudly as he stood. Lyra heard liquid trickling from the island as he mumbled about 'stupid hot chocolate, why'd you jump like that.'
"Well that was exciting," Marlene said in the silence that followed, making Tifa and Denzel nervously laugh. Lyra held her shaking hand in front of her, lighting her fire until Tifa and Denzel gathered candles and flashlights. Lyra lit the candles and Cloud was able to locate a rag to clean his spilled cocoa.
"Guess we'll wait the storm out," Cloud said. "I think the block lost power."
Tifa smiled as she sipped her cocoa. "Thank goodness we have Lyra to light our candles." She directed her grin to Lyra, who stared at the fire in her hand, wiggling her fingers.
Lyra blinked and took a sip from her cup. "Yeah. It's a handy talent."
"Why were you screaming?" Marlene asked. "It was scary."
"I thought someone had broken in," Tifa added. "Are you alright?"
Lyra tried not to cry as the man's yellow eyes flashed in her memory.
She lied when she told Cloud and Tifa that she was okay, that she was fine. She faked a smile and joked with Marlene and Denzel until they finished their hot cocoa. She told them that she was okay with sleeping in her room alone when she really wasn't after having that dream. She pretended that she was just tired when she stumbled and tripped in the hall instead of telling the truth about her massive headache.
Lyra threw up her hot cocoa in the toilet when she realized that that nightmare wasn't a dream. It was a memory.
How the fragile lilies weren't flattened by the wind and rain, Kadaj didn't know. He honestly didn't care. He was just amazed that Aerith was able to get him to focus long enough for him to materialize in the church instead of five different places on the godforsaken planet.
The downside to being brought back to life was that it had been painful. His head hurt and his eyes hurt and his legs and arms and back and he wasn't seventy years old, this was ridiculous. And he didn't realize how light and airy he had felt in the Lifestream. All of a sudden he was sinking in the pond and he could feel how annoyingly heavy a physical body was.
Though Kadaj was in pain, the pond energized him. The damn pond probably had saved him from drowning.
What an accomplishment that would have been. Brought back to life only to drown because he had been tired and in pain and he felt as if he was made of lead.
He managed to crawl out of the pond, pulling himself out by the vines and weeds. The Flower Girl had told him to not touch the flowers. They weren't for him to grab.
Kadaj somehow stood and stumbled forward, annoyed at the hail that pelted him through the hole in the roof. He rolled onto the first dry pew he could find, all the way in the back. He closed his eyes, wishing he had a way to block all the noise. His head was being squeezed by the thunder, or at least that's what it felt like. He took a few calming breaths, going through Flower Girl's words.
"Come back to the Church every once in a while, if you want to find your brothers."
"Behave, try not to kill many people if you can help it if you want the Lifestream to like you."
"Bad times ahead."
"Watch Lyra. That's your punishment. You're her bodyguard."
Yeah. Happy stuff.
The only things he was looking forward to was finding his brothers and watching Lyra. He wasn't sure who's pain it was he was feeling at the moment. It hadn't taken long for the pain of being brought back to fade away after laying down for a moment, but his head still hurt. And he felt uneasy and panicky, though he could tell these feeling were coming from Lyra. He couldn't tell if she was safe, but he was too exhausted to find out at the moment.
He closed his eyes and decided to wait out the storm, already knowing what his next move was. He needed his brothers.