Grabbing the boy, Paine dove to the right and quickly propelled him with a shove into the nearest foliage to hide. She stood to face that which Nooj, Baralai and Gippal had just yelled to warn her from...a...man? He looked like a man anyway...long platinum hair that fell past his waist against black leather, pale skin and purple eyes, a tall, slender frame, and a finely crafted sword in his hand, directed unabashedly at Paine. His feet advanced and Paine answered his movement with a shift to the left---away from the shrub she'd thrown the small boy into. Unarmed, Paine swore blithely in her head at her ignorance as a warrior...not even a warrior, unworthy of the title...a mere fighter. She could barely make out the figures of her three friends a little to the right and behind the strange man in front of her and they all looked worried. None of them were armed either.
The man forced her to move to a point where he was circling her, vulture-like but uncharacteristically handsome with a sinister flare...and Paine scowled at him fiercely, as though she'd like nothing more than for him to melt into a consolidated puddle of existential water to be absorbed by the earth below.
"Just let me have the boy and forget you ever saw either of us Miss," the stranger finally spoke, his voice musical in a dangerous and lofty sort of way that irritated Paine further...if that was possible. Her eyes slitting partially in their accustomed glare, she crossed her arms and focused her weight on her back foot.
"Did you hurt him?" she demanded and the man lowered his sword and leaned on it absently.
"I believe I'm the one asking the questions here Miss," he replied and she gave a short, false laugh.
"Ha, ha...no. How about you leave this place and never come back? This is a peaceful town," she bit out, a mutinous hiss in her words. Baralai, meanwhile, was edging towards the man on one side and Gippal on the other; Nooj stayed behind.
"I am disinclined to agree to that proposition," the man sighed, shaking his head and sheathed his sword. This gesture caught Paine off guard, as the others...what was he doing putting his weapon away? Faster than any of them could see though, he was less than inches away from Paine, her chin in his right hand, and he captured her blood red gaze simultaneously. He seemed to examine her, scrutinizing every aspect of her finely chiseled face and the pout of her lips, the burn in her eyes...turning her head this way and that but never breaking eye contact.
And Paine was stricken to find that she could neither look away nor pull away...it was like he was controlling her...but he wasn't pinning her down or even tying her up...she simply could not move or tear her eyes from his, mesmerized in the most reluctant fashion.
Gippal, Baralai and Nooj attempted to close in on the man but there seemed to be an invisible wall between them and him, and thus, them and Paine...Gippal seethed, eyes never leaving the odd predicament within the invisible barrier. Baralai searched tirelessly for a flaw in it in order to get the bastard away from Paine and Nooj...checked on the boy.
"Come on," he whispered and pulled the boy behind him, obscured from the stranger's vision, leading him away from the shrubbery where Nooj knew the man could find him easily in no time. "Now, do you know why I...why we can't get to our friend?" his eyes regarded the child not as a child, but as an equal...somehow registering the difference in him. The child's eyes analyzed the space between them and Paine and the stranger, and Nooj would have sworn he could see numbers in his eyes...formulas...answers...the child's eyes snapped shut and open again...
"A shield...like the spells for Mighty Guard and Reflect combined...but it's different...he doesn't seem to have cast anything really...it may just be him..." the child reasoned. Nooj quirked a questioning glance at the kid and stifled a short laugh.
"What's your name and how old are you?" Nooj asked.
"I'm seven...my name is Shinra," he supplied, eyes bright regardless of his sustained wounds in various places from before which Nooj only noticed once more now.
"Did he do this?" Nooj gestured and Shinra nodded an affirmative...shuddering.
"He's dangerous...scares me..." Shinra muttered...almost to himself, shaking visibly...
"Who is he?" Baralai's voice joined the semi-private meeting and he bent, hands on his knees to stand face-to-face with Shinra.
"He's..." Shinra began but was interrupted.
"I am no one of your concern; just give me the boy," his voice dripped with unarticulated threat and Gippal decided he didn't like how even though the man was talking to them, he insisted on being so unnaturally near Paine.
"Cut the drama and let Paine go," the Al-Bhed ordered, wishing he'd brought at least one of his guns with him before he had taken off, hell-bent, after Paine into the woods.
"Miss Paine is it?" the man seemed to muse as he traced his thumb and forefinger along her jaw and Paine could barely flinch; it was a similar touch Gippal had given her earlier...but cold...strange...a little frightening even, though she'd hate to admit it.
"Does it matter?" she spat out and the man frowned, displeased clearly but it transformed fast into a smirk.
"No, no it doesn't," he answered lightly and released her, breaking the gaze, causing Paine to try and move but to her horror, she realized he still held her captive...by mental bond perhaps. Still unnamed, the man flicked his wrist in a come-hither motion and Paine's body snapped forward jerkily, propelled through the air towards him by an unseen force.
"Release me." It was a demand, an order, a command...defiant and fiery, on some cliff of anger.
Paine had had enough.
Shinra, meanwhile, had stepped forward...he was an intellectual genius, and having weighed the scenario, he had come to the decision to give himself up...but Baralai set a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder and shook his head. That was not how Paine would want it. Gippal thrust a fist at the invisible wall between him and the two while Baralai began to cast a spell...a high-level dispel that he doubted would have the desired affect but knew no other way. Nooj stood vacant guard over Shinra...smart the boy was, but he was still, just a boy.
"And if I don't?" the man seemed amused.
"You'll regret it," Paine's voice was a disembodied whisper and the three young men, her friends, felt their blood chill just a shade...Paine could be cold, dead-panned even...but this was worse than cold...it was not even namable. The stranger's eyes flickered, as if recognizing something and they widened, throwing him off for the first time in their less than friendly exchange. Gippal shuddered inadvertently; it was the same way her voice was for that singular instant only minutes earlier when she commented on the Summoner's daughter. It was like something was speaking through her...maybe a part of her even she didn't recognize and so, could not control...and it struck a note of fear into all three men who had known her as long as they could remember.
"She's—" Shinra began, eyes dilating, but couldn't finish as suddenly Paine lashed out with a speed that could only be innate, not practiced...delivering a hard kick to this odd person's chest and leaping over him to land behind him, striking his back with her elbow in a martial force. Vulnerable, Paine seemed to regain control of how she acted and vaulted over the taken aback foe to stand beside her comrades not noticing the way Baralai reached out to her or the excessive sigh of relief from Gippal, or the knowing look in Nooj's eyes.
"I'm what?" Paine asked pointedly, staring once more at the child and he shook his head. She brushed it off.
"Impressive Miss Paine," the stranger commented, drawling a bit as he hadn't made any move to leave the ground, sprawled in a comfortable fashion Paine would like to make uncomfortable.
"Just shut up and leave!" she growled and he laughed at her which only served to feed her displeasure.
"That I will Miss Paine, but don't think this is over...my name is Saro. Remember it," his laugh was still in his voice as he waved a hand and in a cloud of sand and smoke, he was gone.
"Bastard," Gippal cursed and Nooj and Baralai nodded their vehement agreement. Paine, for her part, whirled on the child.
"Why does he want you?" she demanded to know, a little bit viciously but this was no time to baby anyone...answers...they needed them and she wanted them...fast.
"He wants my invention, not me," the boy corrected coolly, no note of the fear he'd retained before, and Paine got a quick feeling she wasn't going to be too overly fond of the kid, if only because the intellectual half of her ego knew it was about to receive a severe beating.
"And what is your invention?" Baralai asked, curious as to what the whiz kid could've created.
"I call it the Garment Grid and Dress spheres," Shinra smiled proudly. "They allow any fighter or warrior to change dress in the middle of a battle, anytime, and so use all their abilities to their fullest, gear, attire, spells, or weapons and all!" The three gave him unhidden looks of slight skepticism and the boy shrugged. "Here, I can prove it. Take this," he pressed it into Paine's hand. "Try it, just think you want to use it and it will activate." Paine tried to follow his directions, not entirely believing anything would happen.
Colors and light erupted..."Oh I forgot to say, think either Gun Mage, Black Mage or Lady Luck! Those are the only dress spheres hooked up to that grid right now!" Shinra called and Paine did so...Black Mage suited her just fine. As fire encircled her, Shinra and the other three jumped back a bit and in the end, Paine stood there, staff in hand with a wide-brimmed dark mage hat and an outfit of intricate makings and sexy results.
"Wow," Gippal acknowledged and Shinra nodded.
"Amazing isn't it?" Shinra beamed, referring to his invention, and Baralai whispered internally, referring to the woman in front of them... as no one could hear his thoughts, yeah, she is.
"Interesting," Paine examined herself after an honestly surprised moment of pause...she truly hadn't expected it to work.
Intoxicating you mean, Gippal gaped for a moment and then shook the feeling from him, clearing his thoughts...and if Baralai noticed him staring at Paine, he made no indication.
"Clever," Nooj admitted---the only one besides Shinra who was actually referring to the invention itself and its workings--- and seemed to ponder something for a moment. "Shinra, you're coming with us. We'll leave you in the care of someone in town...we would look after you, but for our training," Nooj explained. Shinra nodded...if somewhat apprehensively...and looked at Paine. Paine shook her head in response.
"No, sorry...but I'm with them," she pointed and quirked a half-smile.
"Say what!?" Gippal nearly choked on air.
"She's coming with us," Baralai transliterated questioningly...what was up with Gippal exactly, he was not certain but a more observant and easily beaten down piece of him whispered that he was protective of her. Unusually so. But like all logic that dealt with his emotions, Baralai brushed it aside, only momentarily he assured himself as always.
"I know what she meant! I just...since when?" Gippal said, crossing his arms in the way he'd picked up from being around her for so long.
"Since now," Paine answered blithely and began to walk away from him and the others, trying to avoid more of...more of this.
Whatever this was.
I don't know what I'm doing, she admitted to herself as she strode through the woods back to the knoll overlooking the town. She didn't know how she felt anymore and she didn't know where this training to be apart of what was called the "Crimson Squad" would entail exactly...but she was going. Of that she was certain. Paine refused to release her only real friends to an unknown fate that did not include her; they had always been together...and if she had it her way, it would stay that way.
Together. A hodgepodge mix to be sure. But together in an uncanny mix of perfect human relation.
Nothing could take that away from her, from them. She had decided those years ago, when she lost the last memories of her dead family. Not even Sin would pull them apart, nor death, nothing. That was in fact, why Paine so strove to be a warrior...she had some one...no...some ones to protect.
Gippal and Nooj rushed past her with Shinra in Gippal's arms, out cold from too much blood loss that had been to discreet to notice until the boy passed out right in front of them. Sending an asking gaze to Paine, Gippal seemed to beseech time and she shook her head. No more. Not tonight...she wasn't even sure that what had already happened could be explained to herself or rationalized...maybe that was even okay...to feel without logic...but at the moment she couldn't fathom it.
Time...she needed it alone...but it was not to be because as someone had once said when that very endless thing began, when it rains, it pours...
A hand rested itself on her shoulder, a warmth spreading through her at the touch contrasting with the coolness of her skin that had been too long exposed to the brisk air of the evening tide. It could not be Gippal though, who is who she first thought of...she had seen him run by with Nooj...so it could only be...
"Are you alright?" he asked and Paine could only nod. "Paine," Baralai paused and looked her in the eyes as if searching even though he knew not what for.
"What?" she responded, her voice a little weaker than she would have liked, the day having suddenly hit her like a wall of fatigue.
"You don't need to hide anything from us...from me," Baralai said in such a soft, loving voice, Paine was thrown off.
"What makes you think I'm hiding at all?" Paine replied, slightly injured that her friends would think her to be untruthful with them. Baralai's eyes widened in realization and he shook his head.
"No, no...I meant...you don't have to be...a warrior...all the time," Baralai finally explained slowly, choosing his words carefully, crystallizing his thoughts.
"I wish to be," Paine said defiantly and Baralai sighed.
"If it is your wish...but still...Paine, before we were partners in this venture we're about to take to be members of this...this squad...just remember...not only for you but for all of us...for me..." he paused, his voice breaking in a layer of undertones just so slightly, but enough for Paine to notice it absently. "Just remember, we are friends before we are fighters, please?"
"Friends," she repeated the cherished word and it was like a rebirth of its meaning to her.
"Yes," Baralai nodded, pleased and took her hands in his without thinking. "We'll make it one way or another," he assured her and noticing his hands holding her own, he softly released them.
"Thank you."
I love you, he thought a little sadly because knew he couldn't say it aloud just yet.
"You're welcome...Paine. And remember...never forget."
"I won't."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
A star shot across the sky and some yards away, an Al-Bhed man watched, subconscious anxieties building within him as he watched, not knowing the nature of the exchange. And his heart wrenched as if it were being pulled in the wrong direction...down.
"Even she doesn't know how she feels...I wouldn't count yourself out just yet," a voice Gippal knew too well sounded behind him.
"Did they heal him Nooj?"
"Just about...one overnight and he's set...more importantly though...are we ready for this? We all have to be ready to die at any moment after all...and sometimes I wonder," Nooj admitted in a soft tone.
"If we're ready?" Gippal queried. Nooj shrugged slightly.
"If every time we think we're close, we're just about to start learning again...things like that...all the circles...we must be careful not to break it...especially from within," Nook warned a little more forcefully than he meant to and Gippal scowled.
"It is something to think about," he conceded as they continued to watch into the night.
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWS! More for next chap please-eth! ^_^
Sorry about the incohesiveness….~_~
-sahros