The Only One in My Heart

Chapter 6

As he opened his eyes to a dimly lit room, he heard her soft voice. She was calling for him. She had always called for him.

"Kadaj! Kadaj! Where are you?" he remembered Lana's frantic voice.

"Kadaj, can I hold your hand?" Lana's quivering voice asked him.

"Kadaj, come on!" her happy voice echoed in his ears.

"KADAJ!" she shouted with her arms akimbo.

"Kadaj," Lana murmured in her sleep. Kadaj sat up on his bed and scanned the room. It looked like a hospital room to him except that the room did not have the smell of medicine.

"Kadaj," her soft voice called again. Kadaj looked down at her sleeping form. Lana's head was lying on the side of his bed and her hands pillowed her head. Kadaj lightly touched Lana's head with his left hand. Slowly, he felt Lana began to stir. Lana lifted her head and with her blurry eyes, she saw Kadaj smiled at her.

"Kadaj," Lana whispered, "Kadaj! You're awake!" she exclaimed as she flung her arms around him. Kadaj happily returned her embrace and laughed.

"Hey, Lana," Kadaj said. "Did you realize you have been calling for me in your sleep?" he asked Lana who had buried her face in his chest.

"No," Lana said as she faced Kadaj with tears.

"Hey, I'm still alive. Don't cry," Kadaj said as he brushed away her tears. Lana sniffled and stopped crying after a few deep breaths.

"You're late, brother," Loz voice was heard at the door. Yazoo too stood beside Loz at the door.

"You are all awake," Sephiroth said as he entered the room. "Then I shall explain everything to you. Follow me," he said as he turned to leave the room. "Lana, go to your room and get some sleep," he added. Lana nodded.

The explanation must have had an effect on the three brothers or at least that was what Lana had thought after that night. She noticed that the three brothers had been quiet the next morning and their faces seemed to have hardened a little. After breakfast, Lana approached Kadaj who sat alone in the garden.

"Kadaj," she began as she sat beside him, "What is it?"

"Nothing," was Kadaj's cold reply.

"Tell me," she insisted. Kadaj stared at her with his cat-like green eyes.

"I told you, it was nothing," he repeated, a little angrier than before. Lana was stunned by the harshness of Kadaj's voice that she fell silent. The two childhood friends sat in silence for a long time before Lana stood up and turned to leave.

"I'm sorry," Kadaj said in a calmer voice, "I was harsh."

"Don't worry about it," Lana turned around, "I just remembered that I have something to ask Big Brother." Kadaj did not reply but he watched Lana walked away with longing in his eyes.

"Big Brother," Lana said softly as she entered Sephiroth's room. She spotted Sephiroth sitting behind his desk and approached him. "What happened last night?" she asked.

"I told them the truth that they are now like me," he began, "Stronger than ordinary humans and more powerful. I gave them the choice of becoming a SOLDIER and live to serve humanity or to leave and live a normal life. Why do you ask?"

"They seemed to be troubled," Lana explained. "At anyway, thank you for filling me in, Big Brother," Lana said as she stood up and turned for the door.

Lana trotted down the corridor into her room. 'A SOLDIER life or a normal life?' she thought as she lazed on the bed, 'I don't understand it myself either.' A knock was heard on her door and Lana got up from the bed and answered it.

"Lana," Kadaj said as soon as the door was opened, "I want you to know that everything that my brothers and I will do is for you." With that, he turned to leave but Lana quickly caught his hand.

"What are you talking about?" Lana demanded.

"We're joining SOLDIER," he answered.

"I'm coming too," she said, determined.

"That's impossible!" Kadaj said out loud.

"I'll prove it to you," she said. Lana had no idea why she had said that she would join the SOLDIER with them. It was a hasty decision and yet she knew that she would never regret it as she would not be separated from the ones dearest to her anymore.

"These are for you," Sephiroth said as he handed them their weapons. Kadaj received a double bladed sword, which he called Souba. Yazoo received and gun which was shaped like a gunblade called Velvet Nightmare. Loz received a pile bunker named Dual Hound. Lana fingered her rod, Twilight Star. All of them except Lana received clothes made of leather which fitted them perfectly. Lana stayed in her comfortable blue linen dress.

"I will train each and every one of you personally and of course secretly," Sephiroth told them, "And when you are ready, I will get you to Shinra Corporation to be a real SOLDIER."

Under Sephiroth's guidance, all four of them trained hard everyday and their battling skills were always better than the last time they had practiced. Killing in battles became the three brothers' passion and their hearts and faces seemed to have hardened over time. But Lana's passion was to save and protect people especially the three brothers in battles. In fact it was Lana's cheerful attitude that had kept the three brothers' heart from being completely hardened.

Lana had always found the time to keep their hearts warm. She often persuaded Kadaj and the rest to accompany her for a walk around the town every weekend after they had moved into a comfortable small house in Nibelheim.

"We need a break once in a while, you know?" she always said when they refused to go. Kadaj was always the victim of Lana's. Though he disliked the looks he received from the others, he felt that he had to accompany Lana for an unknown reason. Perhaps he liked to see Lana's exciting and cheerful face when she discovered something in the shops or perhaps he just like to see Lana.

"Aw…come on," Lana persuaded one morning, "We gotta go!" she pouted.

"We're busy," both Yazoo and Loz lied together. "And no pouting. You are fifteen already not five, Lana," Yazoo warned.

"Kadaj's free," Loz said. Kadaj shot him a glare from the corner of the room.

"Yeah, I'm free," Kadaj said. "Come on. The earlier we go out, the more things we can see," he offered his hand; Lana left the two liars on the couch and took Kadaj's hand.

"Kadaj," Lana said as they walked into a silent street in Nibelheim.

"Hm?" Kadaj answered her.

"I know you don't like to go out of the house," she began, "Why did you come?"

"What are you talking about? I need some fresh air too!" he tried his best to lie.

"Okay," Lana accepted the lie and they kept quiet until they reached a busy street. As they walked around the shops, Kadaj glanced at Lana every now and then. He would smile to himself when he saw that Lana's expressions had changed when she found something that caught her eyes.

"Ah…that is a nice piece of necklace, I must say, young lady," the shopkeeper said when he saw that Lana was interested in a silver necklace with a heart shape within a circle. "This heart symbolizes love as you might have known, and the circle symbolizes eternity. In short, this necklace meant eternal love," he explained.

'Eternal love?' Kadaj said to himself. 'Lana,' his mind spoke.

"According to our legend, if someone gives this necklace to the one they love, they would live happily ever after. Would you like to put it on?" the shopkeeper offered. Kadaj looked at Lana, who blushed and pulled him out of the shop.

"Hey, what was that all about?" Kadaj asked.

"Nothing," Lana smiled as her face's colour gradually returned normal.

"Say it already," Kadaj persuaded but Lana ignored him and ran into an accessory shop. Kadaj followed her in and saw her tying her long hair with a long piece of white ribbon.

"How do I look with this ribbon?" she asked. Kadaj looked at the white ribbon that she had tied around her hair at the base of her neck.

"I prefer it if you don't tie your hair," Kadaj answered.

"I need to change my fashion sometimes," Lana said.

"Whatever, as long as you like it," he mumbled. While Lana was busy choosing a ribbon, Kadaj slipped out of the shop and made his way back into the shop where the necklace was.

"Ah, so you have returned," the shopkeeper exclaimed when he saw Kadaj entered his shop. "Would you be interested in that necklace named Eternal Love?" he asked.

"Kadaj, where were you?" Lana asked when she bumped into him outside the accessory shop.

"I was…uh…walking around," he stuttered.

"Around?" she questioned.

"Well, you know, those ribbons…I'm not interested in them," he continued.

"Okay," Lana said.

As they walked back to their house, Kadaj kept his hand in his pocket where a small box was kept. Eternal Love was in that box. Kadaj wanted to give it to Lana but he had no idea how to give it to her. So, he decided to keep quiet until the right time comes but they were already home before he knew it.

"What? Did you forget something?" Lana asked when she heard Kadaj mumbled something under his breath.

"Nothing," Kadaj replied.

"Hey, you guys had a great time?" Loz asked as they came through the door.

"Yeah, we sure did!" Lana exclaimed. Kadaj headed straight for his room. "Kadaj…?" Lana called softly after him.

"This is sooo embarrassing!" Kadaj scolded himself as he kept the box in his drawer, "What was I thinking? Lana wouldn't love a childhood friend, she would never!"

'Perhaps she would,' his own voice answered him.

"Yeah right," he snapped.

"Kadaj? Who are you talking to?" Lana's voice was heard behind his door.

"No, I wasn't talking to anyone," Kadaj said as he opened the door.

"Anyway, what happened? Why did you run straight into your room?" Lana asked.

"I was, uh, never mind," Kadaj stuttered.

"Well, if you don't wanna talk about it, it's okay," Lana told him, "But your brothers have something to talk to us. I don't know what it's about though. It seemed kinda serious."

"Oh, okay. Let's go," was all he said as he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"So, what do you guys want to talk to us about?" Kadaj spoke as Lana and him entered the living room.

"We were thinking," Loz began, "About Big Brother. He hasn't come and visits us for more than a year. And we need to show him that we are much stronger now."

"We should have qualified to join the SOLDIER a long time ago," Yazoo interrupted, "But because Big Brother did not come, we had to wait."

"We can go find him in Midgar!" Lana suggested, "Besides, ShinRa Corp. is there too. It would make things easier!"

"Yeah!" Kadaj agreed.

"It's not that easy," Yazoo said, "Big Brother is always traveling. We don't know if he's in Midgar for sure."

"Besides, we'll get into trouble if we go ahead and look for him," Loz said.

"How come?" Lana asked.

"The news had it some time ago that Big Brother burnt down one part of the city or something," he informed. "So, Big Brother is now a threat to this planet. I think they did mentioned something about JENOVA," he continued.

"You're lying," Lana said, "Big Brother wouldn't do that!"

"It's what the news said," Yazoo said.

"Big Brother isn't a bad guy," Lana said, "He's a kind big brother."

"Lana, let go to Midgar to see things for ourselves," Kadaj suggested.

"NO!" both Yazoo and Loz exclaimed together. "It's dangerous!" Yazoo said.

"But," Lana protested but Kadaj tugged at her sleeve.

"Fine, we'll wait," Kadaj said with a sigh.