Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Blood and Honor

" 'Lady Death'?!" Cloud and Yuffie squawked simultaneously, managing to make a fairly good impression of the chocobos they had just been riding.

Cid nodded. "Yup. The wanted flyer Midgar sent out said that she's wanted for the murder of President Rufus Shinra and his father, the ex-President Shinra."

"But wasn't Shinra killed by Sephiroth?" Tifa wanted to know, managing to keep her head on despite Cloud and Yuffie's reactions.

"That's what you guys said, and that's what I thought. Which is why I let the girl stay in Rocket Town under a different name and working for me. See, I don't even know her real name. Just her nickname and the name she's going under right now. But I do know that she used to work for Shinra as a Turk a long, long time ago, probably around when Vincent was still working for them, too. I mean, she's not that old. Probably, oh, say…twenty-four?"

"That's the same age as Zeno!" Yuffie commented instantly.

"If she worked for the Turks, then that means that she was no pansy of a fighter and she had a brain, too," Cloud mused. "She probably specialized in sneak attacks and assassin tricks, seeing as that's what most of the Turks did—carry out the dirty work for Shinra. And…murdering Rufus? I would've said that he died when Diamond Weapon hit the Shinra Headquarters with that last blast. We know for sure that Sephiroth killed Shinra, at least. Who issued this wanted note, anyway?"

"Reeve, believe it or not," Cid replied grimly. "Here." He fished around in one of his pockets and withdrew a tattered piece of paper, handing it to Cloud.

Pasted there was a picture with a very young girl in its center with short black hair and dark brown eyes that fairly shone with cheerfulness, despite the stillness of the faded color picture. She was waving at the camera in her Turks business uniform, mouth open in a carefree grin. To one side stood another man in the selfsame Turks uniform, face the epitome of seriousness and hands held behind his back. His hair was a short black as well, and his eyes were a matching inky black shade. On the other side of the girl, almost cut out of the picture, was another man wearing the immaculately white lab coat of a scientist, too-short black hair framing a pale, thin face topped by glasses that hid staring yellow eyes.

Tifa drew in a breath as she stared down at the picture. "Cloud, isn't that the Icicle Area in the background?"

Cloud recognized the permanently snow-covered place as well, memories flashing back to him. Layers of snow were spread around the people in the picture with a clear image of one of the many mountains located in the cold region that made snowboarding so popular there.

Yuffie gave a low whistle. "Wow. Would you read that description? Reeve makes it sound like she's a walking Death machine!"

Cloud moved his eyes down to the summary below, feeling his own glowing sapphire eyes widening in disbelief.

Everything Cid had told them was there, right from the girl being an ex-member of the Turks to her reward for her dead-or-alive defeat. Her crimes were almost anything a criminal became a criminal for, and her reward was astonishing.

"Does Reeve even have that much gil?" Cloud breathed in astonishment. "I know that he's been working on Midgar, but…"

Yuffie grabbed the flyer out of Cloud's hands, squinting as she looked down at it. " 'Lady Death,' all right. Hey, those guys in the picture with her…don't they look familiar?"

Cloud leaned the picture towards him and into the light. "That guy in the lab coat…Tifa, does he remind you of Hojo?"

"That is Hojo!" Tifa exclaimed as she caught a glimpse of the man. "Well, in his younger days, anyway."

"Then who's the other Turk?" Cid tapped the unidentified man's face.

"No idea," Yuffie muttered. She frowned and leaned closer to the picture. "Although he does look a little like…"

"Cid?"

The group bounced away from each other as Shera entered the room, carrying a tray of tea. Behind her was a young woman and Zeno.

"Hi, Dusk," Cid announced, giving a quick glance to Cloud. "How's the mechanics room coming along?"

The girl nodded. "I'll be back on it soon. There's two more to go."

Once more, Cloud was stunned. If Cid hadn't identified her, he would have never guessed that this ice lady was the Turk in the picture. Her eyes were no longer dark brown; instead, they were a threateningly glowing red, reminding Cloud of newly spilled blood. Her complexion had lost the warmth in the picture; now it seemed as though her skin belonged to a corpse's.

Yuffie quickly squirreled the wanted flyer away into one of the pockets on her khaki shorts. "You're Dusk? Cid's told us a lot about you!"

Dusk turned her eyes onto Yuffie; eyes that uncannily reminded the ninja of a bird of prey eyeing up its next meal. "And you are…?"

"Um, I'm Yuffie Kisaragi. This is Cloud Strife, and that's Tifa Lockheart. We're sort of…Zeno's family."

Dusk shrugged. "I'm Dusk Hart. I work for the Captain."

Cloud raised an eyebrow at that. She hadn't even twitched an eyelash at the mention of their names, and her eyes, the most expressive part about her, remained quiescent. Most people had heard of the saviors of the Planet before and had ended up quite tongue-tied when introduced to them.

Dusk turned back to Shera. "If you'll excuse me, I should be going back to work now." She nodded politely to Zeno and left the cockpit, heading back to wherever she came from.

"Excuse her attitude," Shera apologized. "She's usually like that, even to people she knows." She set the tray down on a nearby console. "Zeno, come on. There's still more to show you."

Zeno turned to Cloud. "Am I privy to what you were discussing?" he inquired.

Cloud shook his head casually. "Sorry, kid. Adult stuff."

"Ah." Zeno left with Shera.

Cid waited until the door slid shut before letting out a loud breath of air. "And he's supposed to be four and a half years old?" he asked incredulously.

"Um, yes. But I told you that he has the mentality of a twenty-four year old," Cloud explained. "And he reads a lot, too, so he picks up on vocabulary."

"And that's the girl who was in that picture?" Yuffie demanded, barely waiting for Cloud to finish his reasoning. "That icicle that just left is the Turk girl?! No wonder she's called Lady Death! Yeesh! What an attitude! It's even worse than Vincent's, if that's possible!"

Now it was Cid's turn to explain. "Well, you see…I think she's sort of been through a lot. She was chased all the way from Midgar to here by who knows what, and she arrived with a long sword in one hand that was completely covered with blood, both fresh and old. Dusk also collapsed as soon as she arrived. I didn't really want to press her for details."

"Long sword?" Cloud asked, unconsciously stiffening his spine. The memory of his most hated enemy and the destruction that man had caused with his weapon, which had happened to be a long sword, surfaced once more in his mind.

Cid shook his head. "Not Masamune, Cloud."

Cloud relaxed a slight bit. "Hmm. Hey, weren't we supposed to check in with the Shanghai Inn? What time is it?"

Cid glanced down at the watch he wore over one wrist. "Uh, five minutes 'til seven."

"Damn. Well, we've got to check in with the guy in five minutes. Are you coming, Cid?" Cloud asked.

"Um…let's talk again tomorrow. I'm not ready to close up yet. Oh, and I'll send Zeno over once he and Shera are done touring the Highwind. So don't worry about the kid, okay?"

"Thanks!" Cloud grinned at his friend and stepped out of the room. "See ya tomorrow!"

* * *

Dusk rose from her flat-on-the-ground work position, rubbing the back of her neck and stretching. With audible cracks, she proceeded to pop her stiffened vertebrae one by one from the bottom to the top of her spinal column.

Ahh…well, Motor Eleven is done, at least. I guess I'll get Twelve done tomorrow.

She sighed, slipping out of her coverall and hanging it back up on its hook. Moving over to the doorway, she deftly turned the power switch off and shut the door behind her, locking it securely. As Dusk padded down the rickety stairs that led deeper into the Highwind, she slipped the key over her neck on its chain next to another necklace that already lay there. It was a charm made from a deformed crystal of materia, no bigger than her thumbnail and the color of snow. She had found it long ago and had had it for as long as she could remember…

…Which wasn't very far back.

Dusk opened the door to her little room within the depths of the Highwind, which accommodated her resting place. The Captain had provided it for her when she had adamantly refused to set foot outside of the Highwind, where a suspicious town that she had never visited before awaited. She didn't know why, but she got a distinctly uneasy feeling whenever she saw that place—as if she could still sense Shinra moving about.

She closed the sliding door behind her and collapsed onto her pallet, kicking her boots off and lying completely on top of it. After a moment of complete silence, she rose again and scooted to a corner that held a small chest and had a long, wrapped object lying against a side of a wall. Dusk sat down and opened the chest, staring at the contents.

She fingered the pile of clothing, then slowly pushed them aside until she reached the very bottom. Carefully folded and shielded from the faint light emitting from a flickering lamp was a navy blue business outfit. She picked it up and shook the top out, smoothing down the buttons and touching the blouse underneath.

Memory hit her like a punch, both painful and strong. Just two months ago, this same outfit was completely covered with splashes of blood. It was almost hanging off of her, too, due to a large sword swipe that had not only scored on her but on this article as well. She had barely managed to crawl into the nearest shelter she could find, dragging herself through thick grass and leaving a trail of her own blood mixed with other's behind. Scared and shaking with the loss of blood, she had fallen unconscious only to awaken with two people bending over her. One was a woman, the other a man, both faces unknown to her.

…I couldn't find him…But…he promised that he would be there for me when I woke up…

Dusk abruptly shoved the old uniform back into the chest, covering it with layers of her donated clothes and closing the lid. She leaned against the wall, staring at the slender object covered in swathes of cloth that leaned in sympathy with her. She searched her memory, trying to go further back, to before she fell asleep and woke up alone. But she couldn't do it—all she remembered was her lifelong friend's face staring down at hers as she sunk into a watery fluid, mouth moving in a soundless promise that she could still make out before her eyes closed.

"Don't worry…I'll be waiting for you, right here, when you wake up."

"…I promise…"

Tears, the first that Dusk had experienced in a long time, trickled down the sides of her face, running along the edge of her jaw before meeting at the tip of her chin and dripping into her clasped hands.

You promised…But where are you…?

Am I…all alone…now?