Abandoned...
Disclaimer: I do not in any way own s-CRY-ed and its characters
Warning: moderate to extreme OOCness. If you are Scheris haters, do stay away or please try to be open-minded.
Time and setting: pre-anime. In the beginning when Scheris had recently joined HOLY. 'Course I made all the situation up.
This is part one of the two, so it doesn't really make sense much. Sorry about that. I just got inspired by watching the episode 23...
When I woke up again, I woke to the sound of strong, steady beating of a heart and slow, rhythmic breathing of a life.
"This is a..."
"Leave him alone! You don't understand! People like you can't understand anything!"
"Wait! Where are you go---"
I felt numb and, without having to try, I already knew I couldn't move a muscle. It was a hard fall, after all. And quite a miracle already that I was here, in this world, still. Alive and breathing.
But I couldn't help but wished that they had left me alone to die with him. In that god forsaken place, where we would - should not be found ever again.
It hurt. Because it hurt so much.
"Hey... hang in there, all right? I know it hurt but just a little more. You want to see your friends again, don't you? So, wait just a bit more. We're almost there now..."
"You do know it's not going to last that long."
"At least he can die with more dignity. The cursed dignity of being altered and an alter user."
In the silence of the room, I could hear the strong, steady beating of his heart and the slow, rhythmic breathing of his life.
I could feel the warmth from his fingers around mine.
Why did you save me?
"He cares," said a voice from the door way. "Whether you know it or not, he cares very much about you. If it wasn't for the fact that he was in a hurry to go and save you, I would have been properly diced and sliced to pieces by that Zetsuei of his."
"We're so different," I said, my voice a bare thread of a whisper. "We come from too different a world..."
"But you both are still human," he said gently. "As all of us are."
The curtain fluttered. The first sleepy chirping woke the other reluctant occupants on the trees and they murmured of their plans for another day.
It's almost dawn.
"Scheris..." wayward strands got tucked away behind my ear, quiet tears were brushed away from my eyes. "Scheris, you understand..."
"That it's a way of life and it can't be helped," I murmured. "I know."
He sighed.
"Thank you. And sorry for getting you into trouble. Cougar."
I couldn't see but I could tell that he shrugged. "I just did what I wanted," he said in that flippant way of his, then, uncharacteristically, his tone softened. "And I know. I understand."
I didn't doubt for a second that he did. He, too, was a former Inner. The like recognized the like, something like that, I guessed.
"Anyway. The prince is about to wake up, so it's best that I leave now, lest something might happen and you have to be moved to somewhere else."
The moment the last word was voiced, the door was softly closed shut. He's gone. Just like that. Just like Cougar.
A ghost of a smile touched my lips at the thought, and died the same moment his fingers tightened and loosened around mine.
"...Scheris?" he called, somewhat sleepily.
I turned, with some difficulty. I couldn't see him, though. Not when it was this dark, not when falling tears were blinding me so.
"Scheris?" he called, again, sounding almost unsure but sleep had left him completely now.
"Ryuhou," I responded, weakly, tiredly. I didn't realize it would tire me out so much, that little talk with Cougar.
His hand left mine and I felt my heart dropped. To be picked up again when his fingers gently, so very gently that it's almost painful, brushing my tears away.
"Are you...all right? Does it hurt so much still?" he asked.
And I couldn't help but smiled at the faintest note of timidity in his voice. Although we came from very different worlds, we were still humans, as Cougar said, and we, both of us, did have a fair share of pain and loss in our lives.
To be abandoned and rejected because of something we couldn't help.
"It hurts," I replied. "But not so much anymore."
The softest of sigh escaped his lips, the tension in his hand slowly dissolved to relief.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry that I'm not sorry for what I have done. I couldn't let him die that way, Ryuhou."
Pale light danced in the far side of the room. I couldn't quite see his eyes but I could feel something there. It's almost as though he understood. It's almost as though he could feel the same pain and despair that we, the Rejected, felt. It's almost as though... as though...
"I know," he said. "I know, Scheris. You did the right thing."
I wished I could hold back these tears. I wished I didn't cry so much in front of him. I wished...
"Ryuhou, will you... will you stay with me a bit...longer?"
A wayward strand was tucked behind my ear. His hand left my face and I heard the soft scraping sound of the chair being pulled closer. Warm hand closed around my numb cold one once more.
I smiled. Whether it was because he had taken me in and felt a certain responsibility for me, or merely because I asked him to and was in such a state that he couldn't refuse, to have him here with me, holding my hand, seeming as though he really cared, was enough and I was grateful for it.
I wondered if he would be here, though, when I woke up again.
"I will," said Ryuhou and I was surprised. "Rest now. You'll see me here, when you wake up. I promise."
Too tired to ask how he knew what I was thinking, I obediently closed my eyes and let sleep take me to wherever it pleased her, in that dark far-away realm of dream.
Before I was completely whisked away from the waking world, though, I thought I said something to him, to Ryuhou. But I couldn't remember anymore.
---
Soft, weak beating of a heart. Faint, erratic breathing of a life.
"It's all right. You'll be all right now. See, everyone's here. They're all here and waiting for you."
The small animal in her arms shivered, whimpering and coughing. More red blood stained her uniform but she didn't care and she held the creature closer.
"Shh... It's okay. I'll be here. I'll be here with you till the end. Shh..."
The gasping and panting slowed, the weak beating of the heart was more steady and the faint breathing had become more rhythmic.
In the far distance, someone was calling desperately against the roar of thunders. Calling, struggling against the harsh, angry storm to...
A sad, sad smile came to her face. Cold rain mingled with warm tears and fell down, down to the once parched earth.
"...I'm sorry," she whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the small head. "Goodbye."
"Scheris!"
The wind howled as lightning flashed across the sky above and thunder shook the earth below.
The heart was still, the life had gone.
They, ones like the creature in her arms and herself, were only but a cruel joke of Fate. Perhaps it was their destiny to be born as some kind of twisted entertainment of the world. Freaks and monsters as they said. Freaks and monsters as they were.
Gently she put the limp body down. Gently she smoothed back the wet fur, brushing at the closed eyes. Then, with her bare, blood-stained hands, she started to dig at the soft earth.
The rain kept falling down, to the brown leaves of the trees, to the dry dust and sand, and to the bodies of animals and people surrounding her.
"Scheris...?"
She placed the body, gently, in the hole and proceeded to bury it.
"Scher---"
"Freak. Monster. Sometimes they even say I'm worse than altered animals. Because of my blue hair and my alter ability. Because of something I can't help, something I can't choose for myself." Her hands were shaking. Her whole body was trembling with effort, trying to finish the task. "Just like this animal. He didn't choose to be born this way, didn't choose to be rejected by his own species, didn't choose to have this alter..." things were getting out of focus and she swayed dangerously. "...ability."
Hands caught her shoulders, steadying her.
She couldn't tell anymore if it was her tears or the rain that kept running down her face. Everything seemed so hazy and her body felt so heavy. But she had to bury him, properly, in his home. Where he belonged.
She really shouldn't have overused her alter ability. She couldn't quite see or feel anything anymore.
"Damnit..." she muttered and swatted the hands away. Her hands, shaking so terribly as they were, scooped up some more dirt and mud. "...attacked by...own friends...they thought it...fun to hurt others... don't understand anything, people behind the wall... don't know... don't...anything...hurt...much...die...die...alone..."
Black darkness was all she could remember after that. Of course, she didn't know how she was caught by those same hands again, or how those same hands dug into dirt and mud and finished the self-appointed task for her. She didn't realized, nor care to then, that he heard her. Every word that she said.
"But we don't want to die... I don't want to die..."
---
"...be sad and alone...anymore."
The last of tears fell and were wiped away by his hands. It could have been all a dream, though, because, it was so unlike him to say such things. Especially to me.
"I will be here. I promise."