The Song of Eternity
Canto 9
Ronin
Verse 2
In an act of friendship,
Saved from darkness,
Thrust into the fire,
With friends who have become strangers.
Elena splashed some water on her face as she stared at her face in one of the bathrooms at the school. As she dried her face, she silently cursed her current situation. She had been diagnosed with a terminal lung disease shortly after the fight with Garland/Sephiroth. Reno and Rude took it upon themselves to ambush her and throw her into suspended animation rather than see her die in the following months. She found a book in the suspended animation chamber when she left. Reno and Rude had apologized for what they had done and wished her luck, hoping they could cure her whenever she was found.
The bell rand loudly and the hallway became flooded with students. She stood up against the closest wall, watching the crowd for danger. She took a deep breath and winced. When Vincent and Chaos had found her and taken her to a doctor for a cure, she had to have part of her lung cut out to remove the cancer. She glanced to her right at a group of football players standing around. "Hey guys, what's going on?" she heard the high pitched voice of Todd Tolansky coming from the general area.
"So what makes you so special Tolansky? What kind of freaky powers do you have?" one of the football players asked as he poked Todd in the chest.
"I don't want to make a scene here guys, why don't you just let me go?" Todd sweated as he got ready to make a break for it. He streaked out from the group, wriggling until he was caught again and slammed against the wall.
"Where do you think you're going? Now we're gonna have to hurt you," one of them laughed.
"Really now…," Elena chuckled from her position behind the boys where she had moved to during the commotion. "Todd, come here," she ordered as the football players dropped him and he rubbed a sore shoulder and went over to Elena. "Get to class," she told him before turning to the bullies. "This is the only warning you will get, leave them alone. Once I leave and the twins are in charge of keeping the peace here, pulling stunts like that will get you put into an infirmary," she finished before walking away.
A couple hours and a couple fights later, Elena was in the lunchroom poking at what they considered food. "Disgusting," she muttered. "Better food back in Turk training camp," she added.
"I have to agree with you there," Vincent said as he joined her at the table. "Half-way done for the day and no one has died yet. So far, so good," he mused as he started to eat.
"Hopefully we can scare the students into not causing incidents when Cole and Murphy take over," Elena added. "Murphy will take it too light and Cole is liable to kill someone," she finished as she watched Cole sitting alone at a table across the room.
"Give him more credit than that, he's already shown great restraint today," Vincent said. "He's resorting to intimidation more than action, he hasn't even touched anyone yet."
"Nothing to serious yet to the kids then," Elena stated as she looked at the four tables of mutants.
"Nothing too bad, maybe a couple bruises, and a lot of verbal abuse," Vincent commented as he kept eating.
"How can you eat that stuff?" Elena asked him.
"Easy, I'm hungry. You were a Turk. Unless they changed the training routine when I was gone, the food was as bad as this," Vincent explained.
"Yeah, but you must have gotten used to good food after that," Elena continued.
"Elena, I was stationed in the Slums, then the ShinRa mansion, then I spent the rest of my time with Cloud before hooking up with Starmore. The people and places were not the most stomach friendly at times," Vincent explained. His eyes shifted up from the meal towards the far side of the room. "Let's see if they can handle this themselves," he whispered as one of the football players Elena dealt with earlier walked towards the mutants.
When he got near the closest table he faked like he was tripping and sprawled forward, sending his food flying at his victims. Fortunately one of the people at the table was Pietro, who grabbed everything and stacked it neatly so that none of it hit anyone. Pietro glared back at the football player who backed away from the table until he bumped into Cole.
"We gonna stop him?" Elena asked.
"Give him a chance," Vincent replied as he watched to see what Cole would do.
Cole stood there, staring at the football player who turned away and left for his table quickly. Once he was seated, Cole returned to his own table and resumed his meal.
"I don't know what's worse, him talking all cryptic-like , or him not talking at all," Elena shivered.
Later that day in the parking lot Elena stopped to talk to Cole, who was getting ready to leave on his motorcycle. "So, what do you think?" she asked him.
"About what?" he replied.
"You think the kids will be okay?" she clarified with a sigh. It's like talking to Vincent with him. All dark and gloomy….
"They are terrified," he said plainly.
"The regular kids are, sure," Elena agreed.
"No, all of them. Everyone," Cole contradicted her. "The mutants fear the humans, the humans fear the mutants, and they all fear us," he explained. "But in answer to your question, they will be fine, this world is good enough to accept them," he finished.
"Interesting theory," Elena replied as she thought it over. "How are you doing?" she asked, changing the situation.
"Ha, nice change of subject…," Cole laughed a little as he fiddled with his bike helmet. "How am I? I am the same as Valentine. Descending into the depths of darkness, falling to the point of no return…,"he trailed off as he looked down at the ground.
"What are you talking about? Vincent said that all of you were dealing well with the current situation and the disappearance of Chaos," Elena probed.
"Dealing well…, interesting choice of words," Cole replied. "We are dying. Imploding. Self-destructing," he said loudly. "The only one keeping that damn house together is Murphy," he explained.
"What?" Elena exclaimed.
"Valentine ain't talking to you either, eh? Doesn't surprise me. He's been retreating into a bottle every damn night," Cole explained.
"He's been drinking?" Elena continues to probe.
"Yes. He's a damn drunk now. Just waiting for the end to come… aren't we all..," his voice trailed off.
"What about you?"
"Me? I am waiting," Cole said calmly.
"For what?" Elena asked.
"The end, hopefully. This place sucks. Once the opportunity presents itself, I will gladly rush headlong to oblivion. But I will not kill myself," he finished as he put on his helmet and rode off.
"Damn you Valentine. I need to talk to Murphy," Elena muttered to herself angrily.