Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

What Won't Fade

As Bahamut led the way into the depths of the Crater, Vincent found himself falling in step with "Dusk", his eyes involuntarily traveling back to the profile of the girl dressed in the uniform of a Turk. She made no attempt to acknowledge his presence, keeping her own eyes fastened to the weaving path Bahamut picked out.

What do I say to her? Vincent thought, biting his lower lip in a rare gesture of the showing of his nerves. "Hi, sorry I never made it back, Hojo did the same thing to me as he did to you"? Or, maybe… His lips twitched into an unseen humorless smile. "My, the weather's been sort of chilly lately, hasn't it?"

"Aya," he abruptly said, almost bringing the girl to a sudden halt as she worked her way down the rocky incline.

"I thought I told you that my name is Dusk," she shot back, resuming her downward movement. "Aya died a long time ago."

"Why, Aya?" Vincent asked, ignoring the chilling look she sent over her shoulder at him. "What…what did Hojo do to you?"

Dusk made a barely perceptible noise of disgust. "Don't ask me. I don't know. All I know is that when I woke up, I looked like this, and…" she glanced back at him again. "You weren't there. No one I knew was there."

"I…" Vincent swallowed, unused to saying what he was about to say. "I'm sorry. Hojo—"

"Don't," Dusk replied, waving a hand back at him. "I know that whatever he did to me…he did to you, too. You don't have to explain anything, Vincent. It's in your eyes."

Vincent leaned over to help Dusk down a short drop, catching sight of a tiny, misshapen charm of some sort that swung into sight on a silver chain hanging around the woman's neck. "What's that?"

"This?" Dusk fingered the item in question absently for a moment before tucking it back into her shirt. "It's some sort of materia, I think. So I didn't have it on me before I was…?"

"No. I can't remember," Vincent responded as he easily took the drop in one smooth jump. He turned around to give Aeris a hand down when he saw Zeno already taking that job, carefully supporting Aeris as she landed lightly onto the ground. Feeling slightly uneasy but unable to pinpoint the reason, he turned away and caught up to Dusk. "It's white. I don't think I've ever seen white battle-type materia before…"

"Yeah. That's why it's so strange." Dusk shrugged. "It was with me when I woke up, though. I've never taken it off since, and I probably never will. I've had it for so long since I escaped that it feels like a part of me somehow."

"A part of you…" Vincent shook his head. "I'm certain that I've never seen it before, though."

"Nevertheless, I'm keeping it." She tilted her head to one side. "What's happened to Shinra, Vincent? Are they still going? What about the Turks? And…is Hojo still alive?"

"Shinra…died five years ago, along with Hojo and most of Midgar. It was taken over by a man named Reeve Sith, one of Cloud's…friends. And the Turks…you know that we weren't exactly the cleanest bunch in the Shinra faction. All of the Turks that are still alive have an alive-or-dead bounty on their heads, including you and most probably me."

"So that's why all of those people were chasing after me," Dusk mused.

"I don't know how Reeve got the information on all of these Turks, though. He only knew four of them—Turks Tseng, Reno, Rude, and Elena. Tseng was killed a long time ago, but the other three are probably still running around out there if they haven't been caught yet. But how he got the information on you, when you were much before his time…and how he knew that you were still alive…that is all beyond my reasoning."

"And…do you have a copy of my bounty?"

"Just a moment. Yuffie," he said, grabbing the collar of the ninja who was conveniently traveling in front of them, muttering about something under her breath.

"Ow! Let go of me, you jerk!" Yuffie yelped angrily, twisting around on Vincent's handhold.

"Does anyone happen to have a copy of Dusk's bounty?"

"Yeah, right here." Yuffie fished around in one of the pockets on her khaki shorts and handed the folded piece of paper over her shoulder to Vincent. "Now let me go, vampire."

Vincent took the paper without a thank-you and released the little ninja, ignoring the venomous glare and impudent displaying of the tongue she presented him before she turned back to the others. "Here." He offered the paper to Dusk without even looking at it.

Dusk skipped over the picture and went straight to the description at the bottom, eyes narrowing. "I didn't do half of these crimes they claim I did. 'Illegal smuggling'? Vincent, the Intelligence sector didn't do anything like that. And…who's President Rufus Shinra? It says that I was the one who murdered him."

"What?" Vincent took the paper back, scanning it over. "You weren't awake in Rufus' time." He frowned and slipped the sheet into the recesses of his cloak. "That's strange. Why would Reeve put down false information like this? What is it about you that he wants eliminated so badly?"

* * *

"So, um…your name's Zeno? That's a pretty neat name," Aeris commented, trying to strike up a conversation between herself and her silent companion for perhaps the tenth time.

Zeno shrugged. "Thank you."

"You got my name, right? I'm Aeris."

He nodded.

Aeris bit her lip in frustration. From the position she and Zeno traveled in at the back of the group, she could see a gray streak that was Bahamut followed by a mass of spiky blonde hair and a long, brown, loosely tied tail. After them was the dirty-blonde hair of Cid Highwind and the short, boyish dark brown haircut of Yuffie Kisaragi. In front of herself and Zeno was her father and the woman called Dusk, both talking to each other with the animation of zombies. She directed her gaze to the walls of the crater as they descended deeper into it, watching the colors shift from gray to grayish-green. Already the sunlight was almost unable to reach them save for a few rods that hit in round, warm golden patches here and there. Aeris turned her eyes to the opening of the crater, catching sight of the downward trip's last bit of clear, beautiful blue sky.

"What was this place called? The North Crater?" Aeris asked.

Zeno nodded again.

"Bahamut said that the Lifestream was the closest to the surface over here. Is that true?"

He nodded yet another time.

"I almost can't see the sky already. I can't wait to see it again, can you?"

A small shrug of his shoulders was his reply this time around.

"Boy, it sure was a beautiful shade of green today, wasn't it?"

"What was? The sky?" Zeno turned and looked at her, his eyes meeting hers for the first time since they had started moving into the Crater.

Aeris smiled. "Gotcha. I was just checking to see if you were actually paying attention to me, or if you were going off into La-La Land."

" 'La-La Land'? What's that?"

"You know, daydreaming. Thinking about your own stuff." Aeris grinned mischievously up at him, twirling a lock of hair around one finger. "I do that a lot. Dad says that it's not a good habit, but the real world is so boring sometimes that I have to do something to keep myself from dying of boredom."

"Hmm." Zeno turned his eyes back to the front.

Not again, Aeris groaned inwardly. For such a cute guy, he's totally deadpan.

Her own comment slightly surprised her. Up until the day Bahamut had arrived, her father was the only member of the other gender that she knew—the only person she did know, in fact. Bahamut had been more like a mentor to her, nothing more than a friend. And here she was, experiencing an emotion she had never encountered before and was just as strange to her as the boy those feelings were directed to.

Maybe I'm finally growing up.

"Need a hand?" Zeno asked, extending his towards Aeris. She blinked, realizing that if he hadn't broken her from her thoughts, she probably would have ended up simply falling into the sudden, but not fatal, drop that occurred in their path. He had already gone through the obstacle so quickly that she hadn't noticed his movement.

"Oh…thank you." Aeris put her hand into Zeno's, feeling a slight tingle move through her spine as skin touched skin. She hopped down, letting Zeno take most of her weight into the support formed by their hands and landing safely beside him.

"You're welcome." He let go once she was safely on the path.

"So, um…is the blonde man your dad or something?" Aeris asked, falling into step with Zeno once more.

"Who, Uncle Cloud?" he responded. "No. He raised me when my mother died. I don't know who my father is."

"Oh." Aeris bit her lip. Bit of a touchy subject to bring up…

"It doesn't really bother me if you ask," Zeno continued, almost as if he could read Aeris' mind. "I never knew my parents anyway, so I quite frankly cannot feel any emotions for them in the slightest."

"But—"

Zeno stopped in his tracks, ears visibly pricking up. "Get down."

"What?" Was Aeris' reply before Zeno forced her to the stony path with a firm hand on her shoulder. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the travelers in front of them whirl around at the sound of her hitting the ground. Through the other side of her eyes, she saw a gleaming dagger appear in Zeno's free hand that somehow seemed to give off a sickly, bloody red glow to her own eyes. A rusty-colored blur that easily reached past Zeno's head launched itself at him, moving so quickly that it remained a blur with no distinguishable characteristics that would identify it.

Before Aeris could blink, Zeno had released her shoulder and the dagger he had held a moment before was buried within the creature's long throat. It let out a gurgling howl of pain as he lunged forward, ripping the weapon out of the wound with a sickening sound of tearing flesh. But that didn't stop the creature; it simply flew back at Zeno, greenish liquid dripping from the wound in its neck and its bright yellow eyes flashing with fury.

Zeno had clearly been taken by surprise this time around. An outstretched claw raked at the young man's shoulder before he had himself fully cleared from the reptile's reach. Now bright red was mixing with the scintillating green of the animal's blood, splashing against each other on the ground in eye-catching contrast. Aeris let out a squeak at the sight of the blood and forced herself to move backwards on the ground, sliding right into her father's arms.

"Aeris! Are you okay?" Vincent demanded as he grabbed his wide-eyed daughter's trembling form.

"I'm fine, dad, really!" she insisted, nevertheless clutching to Vincent's cape.

The man named Cloud Strife came hurrying up to them, managing to squeeze in between Dusk and Vincent despite the narrow space provided by the path that was only haltered by a wall and a drop to the bottom of the Crater. "Is she all right?" he demanded, glancing at Aeris to check.

"She's fine," Vincent returned, helping Aeris to her feet and supporting her as he moved away from the two combatants. "I wouldn't know about your kid, though."

"How the hell did a Kajiha that big manage to follow us from Wutai?" Yuffie yelled as she peered over Cloud's shoulder.

Bahamut appeared in front of both Cloud and Dusk so quickly that they couldn't even wonder how he had gotten there. "Is that what you call them? Kajiha?"

"Where's Zeno?!" Tifa cried, running up with Cid following.

A howl of pain answered her, emitting from the Kajiha as it fell on its side, a new wound dripping green in its side. It glared hatefully at the source of its agony and tormenter while Zeno took the opportunity to grab the claw mark on his shoulder. He squeezed the lips of the wounds together to try and stop the bleeding as best as he could before the Kajiha threw itself at him again.

"This isn't going to work," Bahamut muttered to himself. "Cloud, Dusk, get the others a little further down the path and get yourselves flat on the ground. Whatever you do, don't look up until I say so."

Dusk obeyed without question, grabbing Cloud and herding the other away while muttering her instructions to them. Cloud glanced over his shoulder as the hooded man moved towards the Kajiha, who was busy eyeing Zeno up for another attack.

"What does that crazy old man think he's doing?" Yuffie growled as she threw herself on the ground.

Bahamut put himself between the Kajiha and Zeno, staff held at his side with the flawed crystal facing the Kajiha. It let out a hissing snarl at the new obstacle, gathering itself to leap again. At that, Bahamut snapped the staff forward, concentrating on the power that came surging from his soul.

"Zeno, cover your eyes!" he warned only a moment before the crystal on the staff exploded with a blinding light that filled the entire North Crater. The Kajiha screamed a very human-like cry of sheer terror and pain. Only Bahamut saw what happened to the reptile's writhing form as it disintegrated into the heart of the blast, slowly melting away until nothing remained of it except for the echoes of its scream. The light disappeared with the Kajiha's body, seemingly sucked back into the crystal that had formed it and taking even the Kajiha's scream with it. Bahamut nodded to himself before lifting the staff over his shoulder and turning to the others who still lay facedown.

"It's all right now," he called to them. Bahamut glanced over his shoulder at Zeno, who was staring at him with narrowed black eyes while blood dripped unnoticed from his shoulder.

"Who are you?" Zeno asked softly.

Bahamut smiled toothily, baring his pointed teeth in what was almost a threat.

"Who do I look like I am to you…?"

Aeris' form moving towards Zeno interrupted Bahamut's line of vision. She knelt beside the young man, mouth opening in shock. "Zeno, are you okay?! You're bleeding!"

Zeno shrugged. "I'm fine." He one-handedly ripped the ruined sleeve off of his shoulder, discarding the bloody parts and beginning to wind the rest around his wound.

"Here, let me do that." Aeris took the cloth and deftly finished the job, securing it with a tight knot.

He studied her with his midnight eyes. "Thank you."

Aeris felt a blush coming under the scrutiny of Zeno, so she hid her face quickly with a duck of her head. "Um…you're…you're welcome." Oh, boy…if he caught that

Cloud was at Zeno's other side in a matter of seconds, checking the wrapped shoulder with the brisk efficiency of one who had seen many wounds in his life as a fighter. "Hopefully, the Kajiha didn't have poisonous talons. Can you stand, Zeno?"

Zeno lifted himself to his feet in reply, using his unhurt arm as leverage. "I'm fine," he told Tifa before she said anything as she hurried up to him.

"Are you sure, Zeno?" Tifa asked anxiously. "That Kajiha was much bigger than the first one…"

He shrugged with his good shoulder, a strangely lopsided gesture. "It took me by surprise. I should probably keep my guard up even more now."

"That…mutated dragon was a native to the Crater," Bahamut said softly. "It was just protecting its home." For an instant, Cloud caught a flash of sadness and pain in the man's crimson eyes. Then he straightened up, glancing towards the rest of the group. "We're nearby the heart of the Crater. Everyone, be on your guards—attacks like these will become more frequent as we progress further in."

As the rest of the group turned to follow Bahamut, Aeris glanced up at Zeno once more. "Does your shoulder hurt?"

"I'm fine," he assured her shortly. He nodded ahead at the others. "Let's go."

Aeris remembered nodding and taking one step forward ahead of Zeno when there was the noise of cloth sliding against stone behind her. She whirled around just in time to see Zeno collapse on his side, landing roughly on his wounded shoulder and not noticing in the least.

"Zeno? Zeno?!" she cried out in alarm, dropping to her knees and touching an outstretched hand. She almost drew back immediately in shock, for Zeno's skin, as warm and pulsing full of life as she had remembered it before, was now as cold as the ground underneath her knees. His pulse was lucid but slow, beating so irregularly with such unnatural intervals between each throb that she had almost thought he died before the next pulse came to her searching fingers. All Aeris could think of was the Kajiha and the gash in Zeno's shoulder that was bleeding once more through the cloth of his makeshift bandage.

She was roughly pulled back by her father's hand as he crouched in her place, feeling Zeno's pulse as she had done. "Cloud!" He immediately called over his shoulder. "You'd better come here! This doesn't look too good!"

Although Cloud immediately began recklessly running towards them, it was Bahamut who still managed to reach the unmoving body before him. Bahamut grabbed Zeno's neck, eyes widening distinctly from underneath the confines of his hood.

"What happened?" he demanded, fixing his gaze on Aeris.

"I d-don't know," she stammered, almost on the verge of tears of helplessness. "I…he told me that we should start following you, and th-then…he just f-fell over!"

"Was it the Kajiha?" Cloud shot at Bahamut, icy blue eyes piercing through Bahamut's own red ones.

Bahamut shook his head. "No. That…Kajiha, as you call it, had no poison capabilities. This…is unnatural. I have no idea what would cause such a death-like reaction as this…"

Aeris was pulled away from Zeno as the others rushed in to see what had happened, and she let them do it. Tears began to trickle down her face unchecked as she squeezed herself as small as she could against the side of the Crater.

And Zeno's light devouring eyes, wide open and staring mindlessly into nothing, ceaselessly plagued her thoughts until she let herself fall into oblivion.