Sapphire Vixen
Chapter 40: Comparisons
It was midnight, and Sapphire stared at the white ceiling, a bored expression on her face. She turned her head to the side, staring at Emerald's empty bed, the covers ruffled, and falling to the floor.
She closed her eyes for moment, feeling the chilly breeze coming from the partly open window. A short scarlet strand wandered to her face, and she pushed it back, feeling salty tears trying to break free and fall.
'Fei took Emerald to cut her hair too… Aquamarine's will be cut once she comes…
I do not think it can get any worse than it already it is.'
As dawn approached, the sky turned into a mix of light violet and blue color and slowly cleared into an orange-red as the sun rose. A figure approached a large piece of land in south Japan at the coast, jumping high, avoiding to attention as people walked by.
A palatial chateau sat high on a cliff, surrounded by tall white walls with Chinese dragons carved into them. Their scales sparkled in metallic silver color.
Aquamarine's ivory-silver hair and long red scarf twirled together as she climbed the tower-tall walls. She crept past the small Chinese tea garden, and crawled through the window. There was nobody in sight.
She walked swiftly towards the back of the giant home, and finally met the long hallway she looked for. The sun did not light the hallway as she opened the door at the end.
No light seeped through the crack as Aquamarine opened the door.
'He is so rich, yet so arrogant that he cannot afford lighting in this cursed hallway…'
The door led down to stairs and that to yet another door. She opened the door, and was relieved when her eyes met light.
She entered the cold laboratory that Fei kept hidden deep under his palace-like home.
The floor was made out of marble, and there were no windows in sight. The walls were white, and the walls made the laboratory feel like a maze. She spotted silver hair whip around the corner at the end of the hallway.
"Hey-!"
Aquamarine raced to where the person disappeared, and turned. The person kept walking, as if they had not heard her. Aquamarine recognized the person's hair as either Sapphire or Emerald's, and grabbed her shoulder. The person stopped, and turned.
She had silver eyes, and a silver crescent moon was visible on her forehead. She wore a black suit that Emerald wore. Her eyes were empty…
Aquamarine felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head to look up at Fei. His smirk made her shiver.
"I see you've met one of my experiments…" Fei said, looking at the girl in front of Aquamarine. Her eyes widened, and he his smirk grew. "She's not a clone… she's pure machine. She's part of my S.E.A. robots." He stared down at Aquamarine for a moment, and encircled his arms around her waist.
He rested his chin on her shoulder. Aquamarine stood still, undecided on what she should do. She simply stared down at the ground, feeling his cold skin meet warm and shivering pale skin of hers.
Fei slowly lowered his head to kiss at her neck, but when she felt his cold breath on her neck, she broke away from him, and ran. His silver eyes lowered.
---
Aquamarine let her legs take her as far away from Fei as she could. She stopped when she could not run any longer.
She felt sick to her stomach.
She tried to ignore the nausea and turned the corner, and came to a door…it was locked.
To her surprise, the doorknob started to turn. The door opened, and the real Sapphire stared back at her, a blanket draped over her shoulders.
"Hey… you're here. Emerald needs to cut your hair," Sapphire said casually, as she opened the door wider.
Inside, three small beds sat at the end of the room, two were neat and the other, which Aquamarine figured was Emeralds', was the only one that was messy. A large television sat on a firm mahogany table, and a large couch was set about five feet away from it at one side of the room.
There was large closet on the other side, filled with the same clothes all three wore. Sapphire poked the curled up ball in what seemed the ribs, and Emerald's head popped out.
"What the hell do you want- oh, you're here." Emerald sat up, and patted a small space near her, motioning for Aquamarine to sit. Aquamarine sat quietly on the space, and turned. Emerald took out the scissors out of the nightstand's drawer next to her bed.
They all sat quietly as they heard snips and Aquamarine's ivory-silver hair fell to Emerald's covers. Aquamarine turned to Sapphire, who was the only one of the three who had scarlet hair and two furry fox ears sticking out of the sides of her head. She wrapped her covers around her shoulders tightly. She stared down as she fumbled with a loose string.
Aquamarine sighed as her hair continued to fall. Emerald turned to Sapphire for a moment. To break the awkward silence between them, she said nervously, "Your hair is growing again, Sapphire."
She then continued to snip away Aquamarine's hair as she glanced at Sapphire a few times. Sapphire nodded silently.
When Emerald finished, she took the long strands and dropped them into the wastebasket next to her nightstand. Aquamarine stood, and quickly walked towards the last bed available. Sapphire sat in Aquamarine's place, still clutching her covers around her tightly.
Emerald grabbed the scissors again, and started to cut Sapphire's scarlet hair as Aquamarine sat quietly, looking down at the vanilla carpet. The only lighting in the room was from the small lamps hanging from the walls. There were no windows at all, and the only exit was the door from which Aquamarine had entered.
Emerald patted Sapphire's shoulder when she finished, and put away the scissors back into the drawer as Sapphire walked back to her bed. They all sat in silence for few minutes as they all sat, cross-legged, on their beds.
Aquamarine fumbled with her hair, Emerald rested her left cheek on her hand, a bored expression on her face, and Sapphire started to pull the loose string on her blanket.
Sapphire looked up. "What now?"
"We wait," was Emerald's response. "We wait until that (the other two ignored this word) gives us orders. We wait, unless we are going to die. WE WAIT UNTIL THE WORLD ENDS!" Emerald fumed, her face red. Aquamarine spotted the remote.
"Why don't we watch television?" Aquamarine suggested, glancing at Sapphire. Sapphire gave a shrug.
Aquamarine pressed the 'on' button, and let the image come into view.
"Hey- this thing has cable!" Sapphire exclaimed, and Emerald fell back into her bed.
"This is stupid," she muttered, loud enough for the other two to hear as she pressed her head against the pillow, and pulling up her covers to her chin. She stared up at the ceiling as she listened to the changing channels on the television.
Aquamarine stopped at a soap opera. Aquamarine and Sapphire stared at the screen.
The characters spoke in fluent Japanese:
"Kazuhiro, please, let me explain-"
"No more lies. I am sick of this. Find someone else that can withstand your lies, because I will not take them anymore. Goodbye, Masami."
The young woman broke down into tears as the door slammed shut.
The scene changed, and the young man that had appeared earlier walked swiftly, searching for someone. He spotted the young woman he searched for, sitting on a bench, her face buried in her hands.
He approached her, feeling sadness in the pit of his stomach as the sound of her sobs reached his ears. He bent down to his knees in front of her, and she gasped softly as she looked up at him with dark teal eyes.
"Mikiko- I'm sorry-"
She buried her face into his coat, and he let his arms wrap around her waist.
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you- I'm sorry I shouted at you," he said, his voice muffled as he rested his head on hers.
"It's okay… you loved her, an-and had all the right t-to b-believe her instead…" she trailed away. He shook his head, and she looked up at him confused.
"I didn't love her… I… I love…you."
Emerald had turned during the scene, to see the show. Aquamarine, Emerald, and Sapphire's faces reddened as the man spoke.
Mikiko let out a small gasp. "No you don't, Kazuhiro-san- don't say that-"
She tried to push him away, but he grabbed her arms.
"I love you, Mikiko. No one else-"
---
Their faces grew to a brighter red.
---
"-I want you, and only you."
"Kazuhiro-san…"
"You looked so beautiful the first time I set my eyes on you- and you don't know how much I've had to suffer inside because you could not be mine. Masami would always hurt you, and I yearned to kiss you, and hold you…"
A slight blush appeared on her cheeks as she looked up at him. "Kazuhiro-san…I…I…I love you too!"
He smiled widely, and inched closer. He looked deep into her teal eyes. "Would you let me kiss you, Mikiko?
"Yes…"
Their lips met, and he let his arms pull her closer to him as the kiss grew more passionate.
---
Sapphire stared with wide eyes. "H-how could they show stuff like this? We don't need to see other people's personal lives!" she exclaimed, her face a deep scarlet.
Aquamarine and Emerald turned to glare at Sapphire, and she stopped talking as the show continued.
---
"I would never lie to you, or hurt you in any way, Kazuhiro…"
"I know… I trust you…completely."
Sapphire felt her eyes water.
Their words echoed repeatedly in her mind, bugging her until she hid under the covers, and curled into a ball.
The other two noticed this, and Aquamarine turned off the television. They all fell asleep in a few hours, feeling only despair while they dreamt.
----
Kai stomped around the room, feeling the possessive self of him grow angry.
The thought of Fei touching her, kissing her, holding her…
His hands balled into fists.
'If you hurt Sapphire in any way…' his thoughts trailed away as he picked up the silk lace she used to tie her hair.
He lifted it up to his nose, and took the familiar scent of hers, one that he could not compare to anything else. He loved the smell, and it was probably the reason he always liked to lean down to kiss at her neck.
A sudden chill snapped him back from his thoughts, just in time to hear a faint knock on the door. Kai allowed them in, and tall men in black suits who had offered earlier to look for Sapphire entered the room.
"Sir, we found no one," the leader of the men, Zen, said flatly. He had a slight British accent.
"We searched the garden, basement, backyard, and we are finishing our search on the second floor," said another man, who stood next to Zen.
"Should we track her down or would you like to involve the police?" asked Zen. Kai shook his head.
"You'll be using dogs to track her down-?"
The men smiled mischievously. "No… we'll be doing it ourselves."
Kai stared at them for a moment, before he understood what he meant.
"We'll put our best men up for it," Zen said, and Kai nodded. Zen held out his hand, and Kai let the lace fall into Zen's open hand before they all bowed low and left the room.
Kai turned to look at the floor.
Where are you, Sapphire?
Kai walked towards the lonely balcony, feeling a slight breeze similar from before. He closed his eyes, in hopes that he fell asleep somewhere with Sapphire, and all of this was part of some stupid dream- or a nightmare.
Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes, he found that it wasn't.
He stared down at hands, then at the maroon carpeting.
Her hands were much more different from his, and he knew hers better than he knew his own: small with small wrists, cut fingernails, and no nail polish or any kind of nail treatment. Her skin pale, and her figure small so that she could barely reached up to his chin.
Her hair was straight, but long- longer than her own body. It was either a dark scarlet or light silver that shined gold in the sun. Dark sapphire-blue eyes around the edges, but they swirled into a lighter blue around her pupils.
Her knees were a slight pink, and so were her small feet. His hands could touch each other's fingertips when he placed his hands around her waist.
They were very different: She was fragile and delicate- he was muscular. She could barely defend herself- he was intimidating. However, when they held hands, or when they would hold each other tightly in an embrace, they would fit perfectly against each other.
Kai sighed as he felt his knees give out. He let out a deep breath as he looked down at the carpet again, as he stood on his hands and knees.
He felt so weak and vulnerable.
What if she was hurt and he could not help her…?
Is she okay now?
One of the questions that bugged him the most:
'Are you thinking about me now like I am?'
Kai sighed as he slowly stood up, and tilted his head backwards as he closed his eyes. He leaned back on the cherry wood of Sapphire's king-sized four-poster bed.
'So this is weakness.
How could I have been so careless? How could I have let my guard down?
Everyone wants her, and she willingly accepted me…
This is my entire fault. I was supposed to protect her… I…I promised…'
---
It was about midday, and since it was Monday, most people had driven early to work. Today was no different.
However, Fei Ciao Xing Night the 5th, a Chinese 15 year old teenager had people to command. He stomped down the empty hall, through the door, up the stairs, and into the dark hall.
Behind him, his army of Sapphire/Emerald/Aquamarine robots followed obediently. They marched in a single file line as he walked into the main hall in front of the hall. They stopped and lined up in front of him, facing straight ahead. Fei let his trademark smirk appear on his face.
"I believe you know what you will do…isn't that right?" Fei said, in a cheery voice.
"...Yes, sir," they all responded at the same time.
"Good…" Fei heard three familiar pairs of footsteps descend the stairs. They had been upstairs in the bathroom to get their mark.
Emerald, Fei's first experiment, appeared at the top of the steps first. Her piercing dark-green eyes almost seemed to burn holes through Fei's silver.
Next, Aquamarine, his second, but most successful experiment, appeared. Her aqua-blue eyes glared at him with the same intensity.
They both reached the bottom of the stairs, and Fei stared expectantly. After a few seconds, he smiled. "Sapphire… we have so much work to do, and Kai has so little time…"
Sapphire peeked from the corner, and gave Fei the original and most fierce glare out of the three. Fei let his smirk appear on his face again.
And so, the original appeared, and descended, gripping the handrail tightly. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she lined up with Aquamarine and Emerald, standing in between them.
Fei lifted a hand to put under Sapphire chin, and he forced her to tilt her head upwards. She glared at him, and he said, "I do hope you remember our talk yesterday, Sapphire. I don't care if your scar is visible to everyone. Let them know that I have done it to you- because you belong to me now."
Sapphire slapped his hand away, and looked down at the floor. "I belong to no one. Especially not to you." She looked up to glare at him.
This earned her a fierce slap from Fei.
She fell to the floor, and the other two moved to help her, but he snapped his fingers, and the S.E.A. robots moved quickly to hold them back. They growled, but they only gained a kick in the back of the knees.
Fei clasped his hands behind his back, and turned around. "You all belong to me now. I'll make sure this is engraved deeply in your brains." He turned around, and received their cold glares, which had no effect on him. He smirked. "I hope you all accept this soon, or you will all bear scars similar to Sapphire's."
He bent down, and looked down at Sapphire, who had sat up. "I'm sure Sapphire can tell you all the details about it."
Fei stood, and started his small journey back to his laboratory. He waved his hand, and the S.E.A. robots released Aquamarine and Emerald.
At the top of the stairs, he turned once again. "For special reasons, Sapphire will be staying with me… We'll be accompanying you and Hiwatari soon."
Sapphire stood, and fixed her scarf and she looked at her clones for a moment, then followed Fei up the stairs, her hand rubbing her cheek.
Emerald sighed and said, "Well… let's get this over with."