She is one of the best friends I've ever had.
Thank you for standing beside me through it all.
¨¨°º©o., Chapter 5: Azure Plague ,.o©º°¨¨
"Who the hell are you?" I asked the nice looking woman driving the car. She sighed softly and glanced over her shoulder at me. Her hair was blowing in the wind as we sped through the streets of the city.
"You can call me a good witch" she said with a grin.
"A sorceress?" I spat my lip curling up in disgust. I forked a hand through my blond hair and shook my head.
"You can say that I am the good witch, where as Rinoa is the bad" the woman said softly glancing at Dorothy.
"Two sorceress? Damn, I'm glad that I am getting paid so well" I said with another shake of my head. Dorothy shook her head fiercely her blond hair whipping across her face.
"It's all about the money to you, isn't it?" she asked looking over and me. I just shrugged softly inside my grey trench coat and nodded thinking of our kiss back on the sidewalk. I could still taste her lingering on my lips, and all I knew was that I wanted more.
She sighed exasperatedly and rolled her eyes, a tear dripping down her cheek. The dirty buildings of Dollet whizzed passed as she mourned. Tear after tear rolling down her pale face. I hated the urge to comfort her, and I hated myself even more for not leaning over and taking her in my arms.
"Hon, where do you want me to drop you off at?" the woman in the drivers seat spoke up softly. Dorothy looked up and rubbed a back of her hand across her eyes.
"Yellow Road, we need to take it to see the Wizard. We'll stop along the way to pick up Tin Man and Lion" she said softly.
"No problem" the lady responded making a sharp left turn. I leaned over suddenly and touched Dorothy's arm softly. Her head snapped around to look at me. The wind was blowing her blond hair across her face. Silence said a thousand words between us. It was all I could bring myself to say. I couldn't get anymore attached to this woman.
"Why does Rinoa Heartily want you, red?" I asked with a half smirk trying to lighten up the situation.
"She is working for Galbadia Garden. They have her programmed against me and all my friends" Dorothy replied looking down at her hands in her lap.
"The chip in Toto's head was from Galbadia Garden" I said pulling the tiny piece of cyberware out of my pocket. I dropped it into her hand. She ran a fingernail over the words on the back with a sigh.
"Hopefully they didn't get to anyone else, yet" she whispered as the car pulled to a screeching halt in front of a big train station.
"Thanks Matron" Dorothy said to the woman in the front seat before hopping out. I nodded and followed her out onto the sidewalk. The woman winked at us both and sped away, leaving a nice tire track on the pavement when she pealed out.
"How do you know her?" I asked as we headed into the train station.
"She took care of me when I was growing up" Dorothy explained purchasing two tickets from the guy at the booth. We stepped on the platform and waited. I looked out the windows of the train station at the great yellow tube spanning off in the horizon. It was a massive structure reaching around the world. The last running train, affectionately called the Yellow Road.
The silver train rolled into the station, glistening in the sun streaming through the glass. People emerged off the train carrying suitcases and bags. Happy families with children, businessmen, and lovers. It was your perfect town like scene. Until one of the ladies fell over in a crowd of people, hacking. She began to throw up Blue liquid her body erupting in spasms.
"She's got the Azure Plague, get away from her!" Someone shouted. The crowd parted as SeeD's rushed in to carry the woman away. Tears stained her young son's eyes as he ran after his hand out stretched.
"Just get on the train" I said to Dorothy taking the tickets from her hand. I led her onto the train giving our tickets to the conductor. Pulling her into our private car I sat her down in one of the bench seats.
She was breathing heavily and fast her, eyes glossed over. She rocked back and forth not even seeing me there, her mind somewhere else.
"Dorothy!" I said loudly taking her by the shoulders. I shook her slightly, trying to break her from the daze. I was confused, it was a normal thing to see an outbreak of Azure Plague on the street. It was a common thing, tons of people had it everywhere. There was no cure for it, so once you had it you were stuck with it for life.
"Hey, snap out of it" I said tapping her cheek slightly. She stopped suddenly and snapped out of it her eyes clearing.
"Seifer" she whispered looking deep into my green eyes. I took a step back, my body going rigid.
"Don't call me that" I said stonily. I always reacted this way when a client used my real name. That was what code names were for, so that in case SeeD was listening they would never know who was really involved.
"Sorry" she muttered lying down on the bench. I walked over and sat across from her tipping my head back to stare at the ceiling. I couldn't shake the familiarity of her. It was eating away at me on the inside.
I closed my eyes finally allowing myself to get some rest as the rocking of the train lulled me to sleep.
¨¨°º©o.,',.o©º°¨¨
"Next stop, Balamb" the conductors voice woke me from my sleep. I was dreaming, but I could remember what about. My past maybe, my parents. I used to wonder a lot about them, but now I was used to the enmity that followed me. No one knew who I was, since I hardly knew myself.
"Let's go" Dorothy said leading the way off the train. She had taken a shower in the train bathroom, and her hair was slightly damp, hanging over her blood-splattered clothing. We were quiet a pair, I had blood on my jacket from the bullet wound in the arm the other night.
"Lead the way" I said to her as she looked up at me. Dorothy nodded and left the train station stepping into the salty sea air of Balamb. It was one of the few places where the ocean wasn't polluted. It was the home of the hardass Balamb SeeDs, supposedly the best there was. The city had grown over the past few years, but still managed to keep its rustic feel.
"We gotta rent a car, he doesn't live in town" she said. The cobblestone was loose under our feet as we walked to the car rental place. The town was so quiet, different from the streets of Dollet and its nuclear sea.
Renting the car didn't take long, and soon we were on the road heading away from the shore.
She stopped the car at the edge of a huge meadow full of bright orange poppies. Beyond the field was a huge white greenhouse. Its roof glistened, contrasting with the flowers.
"So why do you call him Tin Man?" I asked as we started across the field of flowers heading for the white building.
"He was injured, took a bullet to the heart. His heart was replaced with a prototype cyber heart. As was most of his body replaced with metal parts and cyberware" she responded staring at the ground trying to keep her footing. I only nodded squinting against the sun.
The door to the building was thick glass obviously bullet proof. The rest of the greenhouse was bullet proof as well. She stepped inside and the smell of plants and freshness washed over me. Never had I been in one building that held so much life.
Thick greenery grew along the ground, up the walls. Plants and flowers were places with a careful hand, the scene a perfect garden. A man lounged in the grass, his tan duster spread on the ground around him. He raised one gloved finger and smiled softly as a delicate yellow butterfly landed on it.
He stood up, his long brown hair trailing down his back. He turned to looked at us and I couldn't help but noticed the rifle in his hand.
"Dorothy" he said with a smile. I looked him over as she went to hug him. I could easily spot the cyberware body parts he had, their stiffens mocking his movements.
"Scarecrow, Glad you could bring Dorothy here to us" he said looking over at me.
"Us?" Dorothy asked looking up at the tall man.
"Lion is here, he had another outbreak" Tin Man answered. Dorothy gasped rushing past him towards a door into a building inside the huge green house. She pushed her way in and sobbed loud enough for me to hear.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked striding past Tin Man into the room. It was a medical room, with a white bed in the center. A naked man lay there, his eyes closed in sleep.
His bare arms were covered in track marks, all the obvious signs of a drug user. Concentrated magic sold in syringes, people shot it up to get high. It was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard of. The man's lips were tinged a deep Azure blue a sure sign that he had the Azure Plague. My eyes trailed up his face.
My eyes stopped at the bridge of his nose, where a scar stretched between his eyes. I reached up to the bridge of my nose and traced my finger along my own scar. Something I had studied in the mirror for days, wondering where I got it.
His scar was the exact opposite of mine, there was no mistaking that they were somehow related. I looked up at Dorothy, and then over at Tin Man who had just walked in.
"Okay, I think it's time you explain some things" I said looking back at Dorothy my voice level.
A/N: Thanks for reading this, I got my groove back on this fic. Stay tuned for more, soon! :)