Stained Souls

Chapter 23: Encountered II

Both Cloud and Kadja stood poised and still with their weapons; waiting for one or the other to flinch for an attack. At last the anticipation rose quickly enough to snap Kadja's patience. The murder kicked off from the ground, defying gravity and thrust his sword at immense speed toward Cloud. But all he got from the blow was air and no flesh.

Cloud sashayed to the side away from the blade and took Kadja's landing a time to aim and shoot. However, the click of his gun was loud enough to pierce the silver man's senses and shield the bullet with his sword.

The blonde ducked from the ricocheting bullet but had to duck again from the coming sword. Kadja didn't stop thrashing his blade at Cloud for a second. Soon Cloud's strategy became just a duck and miss system of being out of harm's way. The soldier used every trick in the book to counter a sword attack and use it against his enemy but Kadja's skill was different then he had ever faced. The exotic youth carried his own way of slicing through the air making it harder each time for Cloud to pull away from. For a second Cloud thought that this boy was the reincarnation of Sephiroth himself.

The blonde was too troubled with his thoughts that Kadja was able to slice his gun in two. The shock of it dazed Cloud a little too long giving the silver haired man to knock him on his feet. Cloud's body was beyond his control while it slid across the desert floor; scrapping his body along with it. A rock, as if planted there for that purpose, collided with his head. The hit took the blonde under a moment of perplexity and slothfulness.

Kadja instantly pinned Cloud down with his own body, pressing a second blade from his boot against the mercenary's throat. Cloud looked up into the eyes of the one who now controlled the fate of his life. The blond waited for his keeper to take it or abandon it.

"You had your chance to live and you fucked it up." This was the first time Cloud heard the youth curse and it made him be the one chuckling.

"That's not true. You wanted to kill me from the very start. That promise was just a way to lure me in. And it failed!" Cloud's words made sure each syllable bit a nasty mark into Kadja. The killer tilted his blade up to his neck, holding back the pressure to break his skin.

"Killing you wasn't what we've wanted." Cloud's eyes knotted in question.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"We three were hoping that our exiled brother would return and take part in the reunion with mother." Kadja was speaking seriously now. His eyes didn't mean that his words were just slides and ladders of turning joke.

"Mother?" Cloud asked in awe. He lifted himself on his shoulders.

"You really don't know do you." A pause of reflection came upon Cloud but soon shattered with the cry of a gun.

Kadja jumped as a speeding bullet flew by his ear and the ex-soldier twisted his head in the other direction to see who shot at Kadja. Tifa was behind the gun and not alone. Yuffie, Barret, Cid, and Vincent were all behind her staring directly at their target. Kadja's green eyes scanned each member without emotion and untroubled. But the face of Vincent familiarized in the youth's mind and Cloud noticed his immediate change of breath. A silent stare was all that Kadja gave Cloud before getting up.

He took his blade away from Cloud's neck and slowly backed away from the mercenary. The group slowly advanced with each of his steps. Before he fled he gave Cloud a sassy wink then jumped over the stone wall and out of anyone's sight. The blonde forgot his companions and ran after the mysterious youth but found not a soul on the other side.

The mercenary stood there until Tifa came running at his side.

To All Readers:

Please forgive and forget my last chapter. It wasn't until one honest reviewer brought me back to my mind and realized how unprepared I was in closing the story. It was to fast paced, taking the emotion away from the writing all for the sake of getting it finished on time. Which is why I'm going to break apart the chapter into subchapters that better captures the meaning of the character's emotion. I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience.

-Writing Muse