Life On My Own Chapter 12: 12 Mad Wolrd, a street fighter fanfic

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, Going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, No expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, No tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
These dreams in which I'm dying, Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very…
Mad World, Mad World

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And they feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, Sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, No one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, Look right through me

Enlargen your world…

Mad World

Gary Jules --"Mad World"

Cammy could hear his voice buzzing through his chest as it vibrated against her ear. His arms enveloped her, rocking her gently back and forth to the rhythm of "LondonBridge is Falling Down". She twisted tendrils of his long, golden blonde hair between her fingers as the last of her sobs erupted from her throat. Vega spoke to her as he continued to rock her.

"Do you understand what I was saying now? Camilla, you break everything you touch. Julian dared to love you, even more so dared to tell you he did; and look what happened. He is dead."

After a pause he spoke again.

"You loved him?"

"Yes, I did."

Vega's hair pulled out from her fingers as he shook his head 'no'.

"It is a shame then."

Cammy pulled away from him, meeting his ice blue eyes as she spoke frantically.

"I didn't mean for this to happen. All I did was care about him. That's all I did!"

Tears were welling back into her eyes as she spoke, but she continued on.

"If I would have known…I don't know! I'd take it all back, everything. I just wish he was still alive. I didn't mean to hurt him."

"But you did. Just like you will eventually hurt and destroy Cranky."

"No, no, no, no, I couldn't do that to Cranky. He's helped me, I helped him!"

"But do you care about him?"

"I think I do."

"Well there it is then, and I hate you both! You cannot begin to love him, because if you do, it will lead to his destruction."

"Then who can I ever love without killing them?"

Vega pulled Cammy back into his arms and into the same gentle rocking motion.

"You already killed me; now you can love me."

He began to hum again, slowly and softly, his voice deep and soothing. This time it was the tune, "The Itsy-bitsy Spider".

Cammy woke, having to wipe fresh tears from her eyes. She didn't remember falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was being in the kitchen with Cranky and crying. Now she was in her bed and it was morning. She got up and went into the living room only to find Cranky asleep on the couch. His body was too big for it. One leg was practically all the way on the floor and an arm dangled over the back of the couch. A blanket covered his torso and face, but Cammy could hear his steady breathing from underneath the cloth. Did she care enough about Cranky to eventually love him? Was it possible to feel this way about someone you just met, no matter the intimacy? He was rude, insulting, crude and irrational. But at the same time he'd proven himself to be caring and compassionate. Standing in the doorway, Cammy realized that none of that mattered now. All the emotional angst could be alleviated, because now she had her proof. Even if she did love him, he could never know. If it was even possible for someone to fall for her anymore, she couldn't let him, or anyone do it. She couldn't be responsible for another ruined life. She was like a poison. As if one cue, Cranky's voice snapped Cammy out of her deep thoughts.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you had a crush on me the way you were staring. You're not a stalker are you?"

Cammy snapped her head away as she answered.

"Hardly."

He stood wiping sleep from his eyes and followed Cammy into the kitchen. He grabbed her around the waist just as she reached for some orange juice. It made her jump allowing him to pull her against his chest. He kissed the top of her head and spoke.

"Can I have a glass of that?"

Cammy pulled away and grabbed two glasses as she answered.

"Sure."

That was too domestic for her. In fact, all of this was. All Cranky needed was a business suit, a briefcase and the morning paper and Cammy would be June Cleaver, pearls and all. Cranky sat at the table in silence with her for a few moments before he broke it.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just don't do mornings."

"I'm talking about last night and you know it."

"I'm fine. I'll be fine."

"Can I ask what it was about?"

Right there Cammy could have lied, he'd have believed anything she said, but she didn't for some reason.

"A…friend of mine died."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

He grabbed her hand, rubbing his course thumb over her knuckles. She pulled away quickly.

"I'm okay now, really. It was just unexpected and with everything else going on right now I just broke down. Thank you for being there."

"No problem. So…What are you going to cook me for breakfast?"

Cammy cast a death glare Cranky's way before answering.

"One, I don't eat breakfast. Two, I don't cook. And three, I don't cook for you."

"What? You don't eat breakfast? It's—"

"I know, 'the most important meal of the day', blah, blah, blah."

"Well it is."

Cammy held up her glass and finished off the orange juice.

"I drink it."

"You've just never had a real breakfast."

"Maybe not, but there is no time today anyway. We've got to get to MI-6 as soon a possible."

The mirror fogged with slight condensation from her breath. Juli held her face close to it, studying herself. My eyes; these are my eyes. But the rest of me…I'm not the same. She ran her hands down her face and body. It was a body she didn't remember. But she was herself; she knew that much from being told. She had to be told everything. She was 22 years old. Her last memory was shortly after her 14th birthday, and that matched up to when she'd been told she'd been abducted. She had been kidnapped and brainwashed to be a killer. It was unbelievable but it had to be true. She was healing from a gunshot wound. She had breasts for God's sake, a woman's body! She was a woman. Eight years of her life had occurred in what felt like a blink of an eye to her. The same man who had spoken to her before, Wolfman, entered her hospital room. She met his eyes, her lip quivering. His hazel eyes were soft as he spoke, forcing his voice professional.

"Juli, you should be in the bed."

"I just don't get this."

"I know it's hard. But it's going to be. We have a psychologist here who can help you. You've lost so much time, but what happened is there somewhere. He'll help you adjust."

"I just want to go back. I want to wake up from this bad dream."

"I wish it was a bad dream. But this is going to take some time. And I promise to bring who did this to you to justice."

A voice came from behind Wolfman.

"He says that to all the girls. Next he's going to ask you to join Delta Red."

Wolfman turned to find a woman in the doorway behind him. He was enraged. He turned back to Juli, his expression ready for an apology, but she didn't notice, she could only notice the woman in the doorway. She'd seen her before.

Wolfman stood quickly, pushing a protesting Cammy from the doorway as he spoke.

"No, no, no…we can't do this now. Not yet."

Juli screamed behind him.

"I know her! I know her! Don't take her away! Please, let me talk to her. PLEASE!"

Attendants rushed to calm the frantic ex-assassin as she ran towards the doorway. Wolfman was angrier at Cammy than he'd ever been before as he listened to Juli's pleas softening as the drug she'd probably been given took effect. Cammy hadn't moved since he pushed her from the room and against the opposite wall. She looked behind him at Juli with a shocked expression. He yelled.

"Yeah, you'd damn well better be shocked. Eight years; eight years can come rushing back to her in one instant. It would destroy her mentally!"

Cammy's voice was soft; barely a whisper and she spoke as her head shook slowly side to side.

"No, that's not it."

"What?"

"I remember her now."