Author note: Roar! Back with another installment of Abstract Silver. I had one of those moments where my mind goes completely blank and unwilling to think. It's not writer's block because I have so much planned for this story! Anyways, like usual, I'd like to thank those who have kindly reviewed because that is just awesome. Here's another chapter, longer than the previous I made sure of, I hope you enjoy it.
Abstract Silver
Regaining innocence
There was a sense of calm about this place. He remembered it well, but part of his mind certainly adored blocking it out. There was also the fact that the body he was using was trying desperately to break free from the hold he had over it. But he was stronger.
Everything glowed with a soft white fluorescent light, brightening the dark night sky. The trees that snaked up to the sky were the source of this supernatural light, something a stranger could not believe at first unless they visited this place.
Not a breeze could be detected, nor any loud sounds of the wind billowing near by. A quiet barrier seemed to be formed around this place, something he could use to his advantage if he so wanted. The brittle looking branches of the trees remained still in an eerie peace as he rushed past row upon row of the glowing giants.
There wasn't a lot of time remaining before someone came after him. Cloud was on a list of the people that would, causing a cold smirk to form on the pale face of Kadaj, though it was not one of his own. The foolish blond would be easy to take care of, but there was one problem and that could only be the lack of a proper weapon. How he longed for the cold, razor sharp blade of his most prized sword.
No time to worry about such small things as that. He also had to find the perfect place to hide himself away where he planned on building up more strength and trying hard to force Kadaj's body and soul into submission. The child sure was ignorant.
Adjusting his icy eyes to the forest ahead, he could see a small clearing coming up fast. The quick pace he had been able to maintain was reduced to a slow walk as Sephiroth felt an unwanted feeling of tiredness and pain creep into his muscles.
Worthless, worthless body.
He couldn't have possibly imagined that the greatest puppet would be nothing but a weakling. It was truly disgusting. How in the hell was he supposed to function properly in a shell such as this that can't even keep a fair running speed? He was beginning to doubt his actions of trying to come back, but his pride stopped it almost immediately.
The clearing was within ten feet away from Kadaj now, him and the man that had a insane amount of control over his body. Several steps and much complaining from sore leg muscles, the silver haired man set eyes upon a almost hidden rock and after a violent inner battle with himself, Sephiroth decided to rest.
He shouldn't have to lower himself to this. Ever.
The surface of his desired resting place was cold to the touch. It formed goose flesh on his arms, that much he was sure of, but didn't even want to think that such things as that were possible for him. It was another sign of weakness and yet again he was displeased with Kadaj's body.
Things were definitely proving to be rather... complicated. He hadn't completely expected Kadaj to be able to withhold his power, but this was just ridiculous. Perhaps it was the incredibly strong disease eating away at his neck or the fact that Kadaj had given up on everything and let himself be turned into nothing but a rotting piece of flesh. Sephiroth didn't know if it was the real reason, nor did he bother to care.
As the glow of the ancient trees gave him the light to guide his way, Sephiroth constantly darted his eyes from side to side, making sure that nobody dared to interfere with his time of rest. There was nothing to fret over as the seemingly never ending amount of trees that surrounded him, standing tall in silent mockery.
From up in a near by tree, a tall figure silently watched the stranger look around in an almost frantic manner, his leather clad chest heaving up in down with a fast pace. He used whatever shadows there were to his advantage, slowly creeping closer and closer.
He had seen this one before, even talked about him. But there was something wrong about his appearance and the sudden ability he had gained to move about. Surely there was no possible way for the Geostigma to be cured so quickly? Maybe he was mistaken.
Kadaj moved from his spot below, unaware that a pair of eyes watched and studied his every move, taking anything suspicious and embedding it within his mind as to save it for later. He also failed to notice a flash of dark colored fabric moving quickly behind him, up to the point where it now stood behind one of the glowing trees, a mere five feet away.
With silent grace, the figure moved to the higher branches of the tree, keeping his back arched perfectly against the trunk so he could blend in better. His deep eyes seemed to not move at all, but they followed Kadaj as he moved away. Then he sensed something.
Kadaj spun around, eyes narrowing towards the ancient trees. A quick flutter of fabric could be heard amongst the thick silence, forcefully making a heart that was not his own beat twice the speed considered normal. He walked up to the tree where the figure had been only seconds before, icy eyes sweeping over every branch and crook to make sure that nobody was there and that it was only the weak mind of which Kadaj possessed.
Silence greeted him for the second time within an hour or so, something Sephiroth was both grateful and angered towards. As he skimmed over all the other trees briefly, the same shuffling noise from before could be heard.
Click.
Spinning around using Kadaj's body, Sephiroth came face to face with a triple barreled gun. He immediately fought for control over the empty shell which was Kadaj's body and grinned when he felt no more mortal emotions.
Vincent remained calm, his finger never leaving the trigger of his deadly gun. His crimson eyes bore into those of Kadaj, though he knew within seconds that the eyes he looked into did not belong to Kadaj, but someone else.
A cold laugh echoed throughout the ancient forest, effecting the balance of the silence but Vincent showed no signs of emotion, not even bothering to tighten the grip on his gun. He could feel the danger that had risen and quickly formulated a plan within his mind. But there was little time.
Kadaj lashed outwards, a yell ripping from his throat in a voice that was not his own. Vincent blocked the attack using the barrel of his gun, tilting it sideways. The force of bare hands clashing with cold metal was abnormally strong, making the suspicions Vincent had grow. He placed a foot in front of himself, applying force against the gun and successfully pushed Kadaj backwards.
Flipping backwards and landing with perfection upon one of many branches that sprouted from the ancient trees, Vincent immediately began to shoot rapidly at Kadaj, purposely missing for he knew that Kadaj was still in there somewhere. He walked along the length of an abnormally long branch, his metal boots incredibly silent as they moved over it.
The silver haired man easily dodged the first few bullets, but that was the end of it. They now rained down upon him in a zig-zag pattern, but it was hard to catch on to. He narrowly missed one by flipping backwards, then threw himself to the ground as another flew over his head, missing it by mere inches. Suddenly, the bullets stopped.
Sephiroth looked upwards, glaring at the empty branch where Vincent had once walked along. But he had little time to curse the life of the man in the red before more bullets collided with the ground in front of him.
A smirk crept onto his face after a minute or so of watching the way the bullets never actually hit him. That man wasn't trying at all, not one bit. He could use this to his advantage and give the gunslinger a nice little surprise.
Vincent watched closely as bullet casing after bullet casing flew out the sides of his gun whilst Kadaj seemed to catch onto what he was doing. He quickly reloaded his gun with another clip, grateful that it carried more than one usually would. And as that smirk grew on Kadaj's face, Vincent waited for the right moment, then stopped, vanishing once again.
Sephiroth spun himself around using Kadaj's body yet again, waiting for Vincent to appear behind him once more. But it never happened.
After waiting several minutes, the silver haired man grew impatient and began to dart his eyes from tree to tree, cracking knuckles that were not his own in anticipation to break the neck of the disgraceful gunslinger. But there was still no sign of that man anywhere.
There it was again, the flutter of fabric.
Sephiroth turned in the other direction, then back again, his frustration building. He stopped and listened, looking up just in time as Vincent came from above, hitting him in the head using his gun with enough force to knock him out cold.
The temperature in the city was half decent, a mixture between warm and cold. Every so often a breeze would pass by, giving those left outside chills that lasted for only a few moments before they melted away from their body temperature. It was quiet besides the wind and the rare mummer of the slums who talked from within the shelter of alleyways and behind buildings.
There were no lamps to light the streets, but the glow coming from the windows of near by buildings that littered the central part of Midgar. Quite often a shadow could be seen darting across the stone ground and into the shadows of looming buildings. And sadly enough, the quiet laughter of children could be heard as they told stories and tried to keep each other happy. It was hard living without a home, without a family.
A breeze came up once more, rustling the locks of already messed golden chocobo hair. Cloud stood before the ruined center piece of Midgar that Bahamut had ruined when Kadaj summoned it. The center piece was now nothing more than a reduced size of scrap metal and melted plastic, forever destined to be nothing but that.
He turned away, mako eyes catching sight as several small children and a group of slums stood over a burning barrel that was rusted and charred from previous use. A new sword, one he had found before leaving the bar and Tifa with the children, made a clinking noise as it bumped against metal buttons that held the complex sheath together when he began to move away.
Cloud knew Kadaj would not be found near people at all. But he wasn't dealing with Kadaj anymore and the thought bothered him beyond belief. He felt violated to some extent, but more so angered that Sephiroth would dare show himself after being assumed dead and forever forgotten.
But there was still Kadaj somewhere inside of that body, he knew it. Past all the powerful clutches Sephiroth obviously held over him and all the darkness, Kadaj had to be somewhere. He wouldn't be lost forever and he wanted to know how such a thing could have possibly happened, and right under their noses too.
Cloud passed another group of people huddled around a burning barrel and kept his eyes forward, knowing that if he looked at them he would feel nothing but guilt. So, keeping his shoulders pressed forward and purposely letting a large amount of hair cover one side of his face, Cloud pressed on.
He turned a corner that was bordered by a building, then looked upwards when he saw something shift on its low rooftop. Whoever or whatever it was turned around and formed into nothing but shadows. Cloud simply brushed it off and blamed his eyes for seeing things that probably didn't even exist.
His search had turned out to be nothing but one misleading thing to another. It was growing late and his body was becoming extremely exhausted from being pushed over the edge. Especially while his wounds from fighting Kadaj ... Sephiroth hadn't healed at all. Nothing was helping at all and Cloud was about to go back to the bar and check up on everyone when something caught his attention.
Like a owl with silent flight, Vincent appeared out of nowhere, his crimson eyes almost glowing in the night. Cloud let out a small sigh and stopped his walk, facing the direction which Vincent was coming from.
"It seems the runaway has been caught."
The weight that had been boring down upon Cloud's shoulders for quite some time seemed to be lifted by Vincent's quietly spoken words. He gave his friend a small nod and made for the bar with renewed speed.
The darkness was sucked from within him and spit back out into a spinning vortex. It vanished and Kadaj found that he had some control over himself again, more than he had before the most disgusting feeling had over taken him when he promised to help that man.
That liar!
His eyes opened and it felt like experiencing something new for the first time in his life. The world he was surrounded by was still the same, still walls of fog and the feeling of being placed in a small area made him cringe. He hated feeling like a caged animal.
Something from in front of him began to appear, much like Sephiroth had before. However, this time there was no man with silver hair to greet him, nothing at all except for an outline of something truly deformed. Thankfully it was so shrouded by a blue colored mist that Kadaj was unable to see. But he knew who it was as soon as an ear piercing voice ripped through the silence like it had before.
Kadaj!
Failure, failure, failure, FAILURE!
Kadaj took a step forward, amazed that he could actually move this time. He had longed so much to see his mother, to feel like a loved child, that it sounded insane not to approach her and ask her all the questions he had. But life was no bed of roses, as Kadaj soon found out when his feet became the equivalent of twenty pound cement blocks. Frozen, he watched on helplessly.
The mist suddenly surrounded him and he was now seeing multiple forms behind the sheet of blue, confusing him to the point where he closed his eyes and tried to force himself awake.
No use Kadaj!
Give it up Kadaj!
"Mother!" Kadaj yelled out, opening his eyes. "Why are you doing this?" He spun around in a full circle, forgetting about how heavily his feet weighed him down, and waited patiently for an answer. Though the one he got, as well as multiple others, were not the ones he really wanted to hear.
No use Kadaj!
Failure!
Give. It. Up.
Kadaj!
"No," the silver haired rebel argued, "I'm not giving up. I have something more important to do than listen to you. I have to return to my niisan!"
FAIL-
Violent coughing swarmed him like a storm. Kadaj felt his stomach scream in protest as he sat upwards, then felt a warm sensation as an unknown liquid came rushing up his throat. He tried to swallow it down, but it was useless.
From the far corner of the room, Cloud and Tifa were brought out of their heated debate about Kadaj's future when the silver haired rebel himself suddenly sprung awake. Tifa took a fighting pose, ready to defend the children who had just fallen asleep after much coaxing, while Cloud ran to the used mattress without a second thought that Sephiroth might have came back.
Kadaj coughed up his own blood, a small amount thankfully, and began to shake as the coughing that had taken over him from before got worse. Cloud helped him sit up properly as he assured Tifa that everything was fine. The fighter reluctantly lowered her fists and left the room after she told Cloud that Kadaj needed something to drink.
"N-n-niisan," Kadaj choked out, clenching his eyes at the new pain that had swarmed him since awaking.
"What happened?"
The silver haired rebel was thrown into another fit of coughing, unable to answer Cloud's question. He unclenched his eyes and looked up at the blond, though his vision was extremely blurry. All he could make out were two pure mako eyes and the outline of Cloud's hair. But it was better than not seeing anything at all.
Tifa arrived shortly after, a crystal glass in her hand filled three quarters full with shimmering water. She handed it to Cloud, who waited patiently until Kadaj was still enough to hold it, then handed it to him slowly.
The water felt like something truly magical in Kadaj's throat. He eagerly drank the liquid, relishing the crisp sensation that came with it. The glass was shaking badly in his hands now since he hadn't held anything in days and watched as the remaining water splashed from side to side. Some of it managed to splash over the rim and land on his pale hand, which he stared at blankly until Cloud snapped him out of it.
He lightly pried the glass away from Kadaj when he saw that the silver haired rebel was slowly falling back asleep. He helped Kadaj lay back down and took the covers that weren't sprayed with blood and placed them over the tiring body. In a minute or so afterwards, Kadaj had fallen into a light sleep.
"So what now?" Tifa asked, tasking the glass from Cloud and getting ready to put it downstairs.
Cloud looked down at Kadaj, then back at Tifa with a glint of determination in his eyes.
"I'm going to find a cure."