I don't own the characters they belong to Square-Enix, except Jewel and Ashe, but I know people by those names so they aren't really mine either.

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Child of the Sword- Chapter 2

Jewel dreamed, over and over, the same thing; hearing the gunshot, running up the stairs, seeing her mother, then the pain in her shoulder. It was an endless nightmare she couldn't escape from. The man standing over her mother, then mysteriously cut in two. The whole scene just kept haunting her.

The dream shifted suddenly, and Jewel saw her mother when Jewel was young. Ashe loved her daughter at one time, when Jewel was very, very, young. Before Ashe started to drink. In the dream Jewel was sitting with her mother in the living room of their house, Ashe loved Jewel's hair, and as a small child Jewel would sit in her mother's lap while her mother brushed her shoulder length hair. They did this every night until Jewel was around four, that's when Ashe took up drinking.

The dream changed again, this time Jewel was sharing a rare moment with her mother not too long ago, one of the rare moments they got along. Jewel was sitting in the living room reading a book, and Ashe was in the kitchen doing dishes. Ashe put the plate she was washing down and walked over to her daughter, she pulled out a necklace shaped like a heart with a tiny rose in the middle, her mother said, if anything happened, Jewel was supposed to take the necklace and run away.

A tall man stood over the unconscious girl, he looked over to the dead man, then finally to the woman. The man standing over the girl was tall, with long silver hair, which fell nearly to his knees. He wore nothing but black leather, and had bright green eyes, which matched Jewel's perfectly. The man looked back at the girl lying unconscious at his feet, she had a gunshot wound to her shoulder, which was bleeding freely. With surprising gentleness, he picked the girl up and carried her out of the house. There was no reason for her to see the gruesome sight again.

He carried the girl to a small house on the edge of the new city near Midgar called Edge. The man picked this house because there was nothing to distinguish it from the other houses in the area. They were all small and hastily thrown together, many of them looked deserted. No one ever saw the strange man enter the house. No one had seen him walk through the city with the unconscious girl. No one knew this man was alive. Sephiroth was as good as dead to the rest of the world.

Jewel woke from her dreams to pitch blackness, she thought for a minute she must be dreaming still, but she was in too much pain to be dreaming. Her right shoulder throbbed, and she felt sick. Jewel knew immediately she wasn't at home, nothing seemed familiar. She was lying on a small bed, not under any covers; the bed was made with almost military neatness. The room was too dark to be her room; nothing seemed familiar about this place. Trying to sit up brought on a whole new wave of pain, Jewel collapsed back down before she was able to get in a sitting position. Falling on her wounded shoulder, which brought on yet another wave of pain. Giving up Jewel fell back into unconsciousness.

Jewel dreamed again. This time it was of one of her mother's drunken rages. Ashe accused Jewel of stealing money again; Jewel had taken some to buy groceries like milk, and bread. Jewel was stuck dodging beer bottles, as she was chased around the house. Ashe finally passed out after what seemed like hours to Jewel. Jewel went to get a pillow and blankets for her mother, she always took care of her mother, no matter how bad she got.

The next dream was about the man who beat her. Her mother told the man a bruise she got was because Jewel hit her. The man came bursting into the room in the middle of the night, woke Jewel up threw her in a corner and started hitting and kicking her. Ashe just stood in the doorway and watched, Jewel hated her mom for that, but Ashe was so drunk she didn't remember any part of the incident, and Jewel hid the bruises.

The next dream was the one that kept haunting her, the gunshot, running up the stairs, seeing her mother dead, and seeing the man mysteriously cut in two. It repeated over and over, haunting Jewel.

This time when Jewel woke up there was a soft light coming in through the window on the other side of the room. Sunlight. The pain in her shoulder had lessened somewhat, so Jewel decided to try to get up again. This time she was met with dizziness, but after a moment it lessened, so Jewel tried to stand. It was painful, and therefore difficult, but she managed to stand up. The room was small and plain, with a door to her right, and a window in front of her, other than the bed, the room was unfurnished. Her shoulder throbbed a little, and Jewel noticed she wasn't wearing the t-shirt she had been wearing the day she was shot, this one was loose and black, Jewel vaguely remembered wearing a tighter blue t-shirt.

Gathering her nerve, Jewel opened the door half expecting the owner of the house to be standing on the other side waiting to attack her. There was no one, a short hallway led to what looked like a living room, Jewel saw as she stuck her head out the doorway. Walking further into the hall towards the living room Jewel saw a small kitchen, with a table. On that table Jewel saw the longest sword she would ever see, a katana nearly seven feet long. A note sat next to the sword, it read, "Take the sword and leave." Nothing else. The handwriting was a lot different that the note in the basket, this handwriting was simpler, the other note had some flourishes to some of the letters, nothing that would make it fancy, just small flourishes. There was a bag on the floor, Jewel picked it up with her left hand, so she didn't hurt her shoulder, the pain was becoming easier to ignore. She set it on the table and looked inside, in it was some gil, a few pairs of clothes from her house, and a little food. Not much, but it was better than having nothing. Jewel looked back at the sword. She doubted she could lift the thing; she knew she couldn't carry it anywhere, at least not one handed.

Looking around she spotted her shoes by what looked like a front door. She wondered if she had even taken them off before the man shot her. The living room was simply furnished too, just a couch, and a table. The kitchen didn't have much either. Jewel looked back at the sword and note, Take the sword and leave, there was nothing written on the other side of the note, and there was no note in the bag. All she had was, Take the sword and leave.

Jewel got her shoes, and somehow, managed to put them on left-handed. She grabbed the bag next, and slung it over her good shoulder. Then she turned to the sword. It was enormous, and heavy, Jewel managed to lift it, barely, with her left hand, there was no way she would be able to carry it any distance.

Walking through the back streets of Edge with the sword resting on her good shoulder Jewel tried to avoid all people, she didn't want to be seen with this thing, people might think she was Sephiroth himself. Jewel knew where she wanted to go, she wanted to go home, but she didn't know if she had the courage to face that again. Turning a corner Jewel saw a man sitting on the ground. Not wanting to be seen she ducked back around the corner, and took a longer route to where her house was.

Walking down a back alley Jewel glanced in one of the buildings that had an open door, a man was sitting on a couch watching a little boy cry who was tied by the ankle to a heater in the corner. She wanted to do something for the kid, but didn't know what. Just then ten police officers burst into the room with their guns out. The man jumped behind the couch and pulled out his own gun. The officers and the man shot at each other until the man was hit. He died instantly. The officers turned to the now silent kid. He had be caught in the cross fire and was dead. Jewel heard sirens in the distance getting louder, backup to help the officers. Not wanting to be seen Jewel ran. She wished this violence never happened. An innocent boy had been killed for no reason.

When Jewel stopped running, and looked up, she was at her front door. She set the heavy sword on the ground and looked at the door, nothing looked different. But Jewel knew that when she opened the door, nothing would be how it used to be.

Gathering her courage Jewel opened the door. It was unlocked. She half dragged the sword in the house, tired of carrying the thing; she set it down just inside the door. Nothing downstairs had been touched, and she was too afraid to go upstairs. She walked into the kitchen, and went to set the bag down, but something caught in her hair. It was the necklace, after untangling the bag, necklace, and her hair, Jewel looked at the necklace, the small rose sat perfectly in the middle of the heart. Jewel wondered how the necklace got around her neck, but got distracted when she saw something on the counter, a note from her mother. It said,

Jewel,

The necklace is yours, you deserve better than this. Take the necklace and start your own life. You have taken care of me far too often, when I should have taken care of you. You won't have to worry about me much longer.

Ashe

Jewel was in shock, she didn't realize until after she had slid to the floor that she was crying. How could her mother have known that she would die? Did her mother have that man come over here to kill just to have him kill her? She wouldn't have done that Jewel decided. But why would she say something like that in her letter. Was Ashe planning to kill herself? Or was there something else, a disease possibly? Ashe did drink a lot. Jewel just sat there in the kitchen crying over the letter for hours. When she stopped and looked up the sky was dark. Jewel glanced toward the doorway, and saw the hilt of the sword. Getting up she walked to the sword and picked it up with her left hand. She would learn to use it. It was all she had.

The sword had no proper sheath; therefore, she couldn't figure out a way to carry the thing. After searching the house for materials, which it was poorly lacking, to make a sheath, Jewel sat at the kitchen table with a cardboard box and a roll of duct tape. She was cutting the box into thick strips she could fold around the blade of the sword, and wrap the cardboard in duct tape. It was a rough sheath, but when she was done, the sword fit into its makeshift sheath, and she could make a strap out of an old belt she found so she could carry the sword across her back. After she was finished Jewel left the house with her bag, and the sword. In the bag were a few more pairs of clothes, the food, gil, and the two notes. The sword was strapped across her back. Jewel locked the door behind her, and vowed she wouldn't come back, as she disappeared into the darkness.

Author notes- (1.) I'm Alaskan, the duct tape had to find it's way in here somehow. (2.) I don't think I like this chapter as much as the first one. I'll try to make the next one better, but I don't think the next chapter will be ready until next week, sorry, I have a Statistics mid term, and a speech in public speaking due this week not to mention an English essay, but it will be on as soon as possible. I promise. (3.) I wanted Jewel to end up with the sword somehow in this chapter, I just wasn't sure how, I hope this way works. (4.) Yeah and I do suck at grammar and punctuation, it drives my English instructor crazy. (5.) The part about the shootout is true, it happened here last night it was crazy, cops everywhere, who would have thought, in our little town. Creeps me out just thinking about it.