Sleeping with her Enemy
Locked Within Pain
Catch me as I fall
Say you're here and it's all over now
Speaking to the atmosphere
No one's here and I fall into myself
This truth drives me
Into madness
I know I can stop the pain
If I will it all away
The shackles dug painfully into her delicate wrists and ankles, cutting into the soft flesh, her surroundings did little to ease her sense of discomfort being that the cell in which they held her was bare, there were no windows with which to let the sun shine through and the flouresant lights overhead hurt her eyes and caused her head to ache.
She took no heed of the pain; it was so hard to define among the others, she had been subjected to many things since they had brought her here, had suffered each brutal blow they bestowed upon her, she swallowed and grimaced at the coppery taste that filled her mouth.
Blood, her blood there was enough of it there to taste.
Her head hung dejectedly, she'd lost the energy to lift it proudly as if in defiance, they'd seen to that when they had let loose on her only moments before, she had nothing left to give them now, she had been determined to keep her pride in tact but that too had been taken from her, she had been a person when they had first brought her in…now she was just hollow.
They had broken her she was no more only a dejected shell that had once been vibrant with life and vitality, she had given into the fear that had been simmering on the edge of her consciousness.
What did they want her for?
She'd never really had cause to mix with Shinra, never really got involved with the political side of things, true she had helped the reactors to be destroyed but they knew nothing of that, as far as she was concerned she was as nameless and faceless as the other people who walked the planet when it came to Shinra.
Hearing of how they usually treated their prisoners she had always made sure to cover her tracks when she had helped Barret in his fights against the multi-billion gill corporation, had taken in pride in forming Avalanche right under their snooty noses and helping bring equality to all the people they repressed.
But she was still just a girl, it wasn't like she possessed anything of great value or worth, she could fight and she could talk probably two things that were in her favour but other than that she had nothing more to offer.
What did she have that was so important that would enable them to subject her to this cruelty? Looking down she saw droplets of water hitting the cold hard floor of her cell.
It wasn't until Tifa tasted the salt upon her lips that she realized she was crying.
Cloud looked down at the jagged piece of silken cloth clutched between his gloved hands, he had eventually followed after his friend once he had contemplated her speedy departed only to realize that she was nowhere to be seen, all that remained was the soggy cloth he now held in his palm, someone had taken Tifa, she was gone and he didn't know where.
He'd blamed himself if he'd gone out after her straight away like he had wanted to would he have prevented this?
Questions whirred around in his mind as he drove himself crazy with all those what ifs that he was thinking about, but deep inside he knew that if it had not happened this night then it would only have happened another time when she had been on her own.
He brought the silk to his lips and savored the smell, he frowned Gasoline! The carbon type, purified for a special type of vehicle...Shinra.
He remembered the smell from his years in Soldier; it made his skin crawl at the thought of Tifa being man handled by the miscreants who worked there, although many of them had been decorated as hero's he knew all too well what it had been like working alongside them, remembered the things some of them would do to pretty girls who caught their eyes.
He'd need help bypassing the Shinra security system; the complexity of not only the surroundings but the entire building still had the ability to boggle his mind, all he knew was that he had to get inside and in all his years he knew there had only ever been one man able to leave Shinra by his own will alone.
Sephiroth
Cloud nearly laughed at the irony; his most hated enemy had become his most needed ally the question was where was he?
He had not seen his old comrade in years, and they had hardly parted on the best of terms, Sephiroth had found out about the experiments that had made him what he was and had proceeded to go catatonic, he and Cloud had argued heatedly when it became apparent that the older man was hell bent on revenge, that he wanted people to pay for his pain.
Then he had disappeared off the map completely, but Cloud was no fool, he knew that Shinra had taken him and although it pained him to admit it he felt sorry for what he knew Sephiroth would be put through once in there, but then he doubted that he had remained their captive for long.
He needed to find him and he needed to find him soon.
She heard the rattle of keys in the lock and the clink of the door as it shuddered open, the old woodwork creaking as if in pain.
She didn't look up, she knew it would either be Hojo or Zack to gloat at her dejected form, so she was slightly surprised when she felt cool smooth hands sooth her hair away from her face and a tray of food appear within her line of vision, she looked up.
A woman stood before her, copper/brownish coloured hair, a smile on her face, she was wearing a white lab coat that was too big for her frame and her pale eyes peered out from behind round frames, for some reason it seemed odd that someone so nice looking worked here.
But even Tifa could see that she too had slumpiness about her like her spirit had also been broken.
She reached forward and released the shackles on Tifa's wrists but not her ankles she noticed but then she imagined this woman had her orders to follow, she helped Tifa straighten and pulled a chair up closer to her.
Tifa sank into it gratefully, her restraints weren't long enough to enable her to sit down when she had been chained and the pain in her already bruised legs was beginning to ware at her, but she managed to hide it well so as not to show how much they had made her suffer.
"I'm Lucrecia," the woman said softly handing Tifa the trey of food she had brought in, her voice was like a gently breeze so quiet that you almost missed it, it was a change from the harsh voices of Hojo and Zack which she was constantly subjected to.
"Tifa" she said through the mouthfuls of food she was downing like a person who had been starved.
Lucrecia surveyed her and pulled up another chair, Tifa wondered what she thought of the state she projected, she already knew that her hair hung clotted together by the blood that had flown freely from the wounds inflicted on her head.
Her once peaches and cream complexion pale with the patches of bruises that had now taken up residence on it, her lower lip was blooded and her eyes she knew that one of them was black, she wasn't sure about the other although it was just as sore.
"I'm so sorry about all this Tifa" Lucrecia stated the sincerity and concern in her voice was something that could not have been faked, it made Tifa feel warm to know that there was such a kind person in this hell she was subjected to, that not everyone who worked in this building was as evil as Zack and Hojo.
"To see this happen to a man is pretty bad, but to see a woman subjected to this type of brutal treatment is horrifying." Tifa looked through her half open eyes at the woman in front of her and contemplated what she would say.
"If you think it's so bad you could always help me to escape." Lucrecia gasped in horror as soon as the words were uttered.
"I couldn't they'd kill you for trying it and kill me for helping, there was only ever one person who could escape here undetected" Tifa was intrigued, as far as she could recall there had been nobody to escape the clutches of Shinra, they prided themselves on the impenetrable fortress they called headquarters and had a reputation as being so secure nobody could escape once within their grasp.
"Tell me then who has the almighty power to escape from Shinra without them being able to follow, maybe his shining example can give me hope for my own escape" she looked earnestly at Lucrecia waiting for an answer.
Lucrecia looked down for a minute; her eyes seemed almost luminous in their sadness.
"It was my son, Hojo's and mine although he'll never claim his as his own, all he is to Hojo is another experiment, a life he created to be superior to everyone else., I had to give him up to Hojo though once he was born; you see I was the ship for the prized cargo that Hojo had created, but he was much more to me than cargo much more, everything he was subjected to I felt, Each pain that pierced his body was like my own, then when he was twenty he escaped for a while, but when Hojo started ransacking Niebleham he gave up all to easily, like there was something there that he didn't want Hojo to find."
Tifa swallowed "w…w…what was his name" she asked suddenly finding it difficult to focus or breath.
"Sephiroth" Lucrecia said and gasped in dismay as Tifa crumpled off her chair her still form crumpling to a heap onto the floor.
Red XIII needed to unburden himself, if he thought his knowledge of what he had overheard was relevant then he had to let Cloud know, he couldn't keep it to himself if it had any significance as to why Tifa had been taken or how they could get her back.
But what could he say?
How could he tall Cloud that Tifa was in love with someone who Cloud had hated all his life? How did you put into words that the one woman you cared for more than life itself, who you wanted to spend the rest of your days with would never want you for she was in love with the enemy?
Would it push him away from her? Would it make him loath her? It was a risk a very big risk but Red XIII conceded that he had no other choice so it was a risk he was going to have to take, for her safety he would have to put her friendship with Cloud through the ultimate test.
"Tifa" he whispered, "forgive me but there is just no other way"
His senses were on full alert as he paced his grassy surroundings.
Something had happened to Tifa he knew it he could feel it at the very core of his soul, what if something really bad had happened to her? What if they had finally found out the secret he had been keeping and they had taken her as a means to get him back?
Thoughts of a world where Tifa was not in it for him to love or for her to return his love suddenly seemed the loneliest place in the world.
His thoughts went back to that day, five years ago when they had met, when he'd been unable to feel and when she had claimed his heart without his knowledge of the fact, when she had shown him that there were people in the world who showed kindness rather than cruelty and viciousness.
Flashback
Five years ago
He'd struggled through the forest; his legs slightly numb in the aftermath of the drugs they had pumped into his system.
The sun stung his eyes as he moved making him unable to see properly as blurriness meshed with his vision, he'd stumbled along feeling the undergrowth that he was clawing his way through the brambles harshly digging into his bare torso.
He heard the rip of his pants and felt the pine needles dig into the soft flesh of his feet, he didn't care about any of it, he was free and to him that meant everything, he was able to inhale the scent of the forest and the fresh air rather than the chemical induced smog that constantly surrounded him
He collapsed on the floor close to the Niebleham Lake; it's sparkling beauty beckoning him to sleep on its smooth banks.
His eyes had started to become drowsy; they had begun drooping when a lilting voice singing jerked them open to attention and he sat up abruptly, his eyes scanned about him almost hesitantly, his escape was too new for him to be discovered yet he needed to locate the source of such a beautiful voice
There she was a woman with raven hair and rose coloured lips, a pale blue dress clinging to her small frame molding to her youthful curves.
It looked as though she had been crying.
He would have liked to call out to her, for some reason he wanted to see what she would look like when she smiled or when she laughed, something so beautiful should not cry as she was, but his head had ached so badly and on a startled cry he'd slipped into unconsciousness noting that her gaze turned to register him with shocked eyes before the darkness took him.
End flashback
A noise startled Sephiroth out of his memories leaping high into the trees, hidden amongst the leaves he let his gaze wonder over the opening he had just vacated and watched as two figures walked and stopped beneath him, he recognized them instantly.
"Clouds going to try and rescue her" Yuffie said to Aeris as they stopped to take a breather.
"Do you think that Tifa is safe?" she said looking into Aeris's turquoise eyes. Aeris looked down, her eyes seemed sad and Sephiroth could remember a time when she had always been smiling, he had not known her for very long during her brief courtship with Zack, before he had turned into a monster he had been a pretty decent guy, and he remembered how he had been able to make Aeris smile.
"If soldier have her then god only knows what she's being subjected to Yuffie" she said her voice hollow, it was a sentiment he shared but then again he knew what Soldier were capable of and he'd be damned if he'd leave her to their mercy.
"In fact by the time Cloud finds Sephiroth it may already be too late."
They walked away at a slow pace their heads bowed. Sephiroth frowned so it was true, the Shinra really did have Tifa, but it posed the question as to why they had taken her and whether or not they knew about her place in his heart, then he realized what else they had said and stilled.
Cloud wanted his help?
Clamoring down from his perch he knew what he had to do and set off after the departing women, as much as he and Cloud had a dark history and an even darker past he was willing to put it behind him if it meant he could help Tifa
He made sure to follow them slowly being careful to keep a good distance behind them.
Fallen angels at my feet
Whispered voices at my ear
Death before my eyes
Lying next to me I fear
She beckons me
Shall I give in
Upon my end shall I begin
Forsaking all I've fallen for
I rise to meet the end
Lyrics From Evanescence 'Whisper'
Hope that you liked that sorry it took so long to update. Have another one up soon ok. Thanks also for the reviews
Angel-Wings XxXxXxXxX
