Seeing for the First Time
normal pov
Green eyes scanned up and down the exterior of the old wreckage of a factory, the building abandoned decades or more before, the owner of the green eyes, a young man with dusty blond hair and pale skin, shrugged,
"I don't see why it's a bad idea to try it. Do you guys?" he said, looking back at his group of companions, one was a petite girl with blue eyes and long, dark brown hair that was tied into a ponytail with a thick ribbon, she gave a nod.
"I don't see why not." she said, walking over to stand at the blond's side. The next to join them was another brown haired girl, she had brown eyes, her hair was short and slightly wavy with blond highlights. The next was also a girl with cobalt blue eyes, her long brown hair with faint red highlights to it was pulled into a loose ponytail, she agreed whole heartedly, jabbing at a slightly tanned, dark blond haired girl next to her, muttering to her that she should come too, which she finally consented to doing, glaring at her friend with one flame blue eye, her right eye missing, a scar going down her face over where her eye once was. The final member, a slim boy with eyes that were an odd shade of green in color and had slitted pupils, similar to a snake's, his wild, dark blond hair pulled into a ponytail to keep it out of the way. He grinned broadly, which showed off the fangs in his mouth in place of eye-teeth, he had a large scythe slung over his shoulder and a rather enigmatic air about him, and he was all for a challenge, even one so small as this. The girl with the short brown hair shook her head, muttering about how pathetic the boy was, earning her a short string of curses from the boy she'd insulted, she ignored them and adjusted the gloves she wore, said gloves having metal knuckles, the boots she wore were steel toed. Her weapon was her own strength, which had been proven very successful in battle. The girl with the brown and red hair hoisted a large boomerang up onto her back as though it were a satchel, shooing the pair along. The miffed blond haired girl growling under her breath, flexing her fingers and hands, her sharpened nails and enhanced speed and abilities made her a wicked opponent to go up against. The smaller girl had no weapon, she only needed to use magic, which came from her own skill anyway, no tools necessary. The boy who'd started the whole situation shook his head slowly,
"How the hell did I get myself mixed up in this lot?" he muttered to himself, adjusting the long-bladed katana that awaited use in a sheath on his back, the set up similar to the boomerang's. then he followed the rest of his group inside the factory.
"They say," the girl with the boomerang started to say, "that this isn't the first building to be put here. Not by a long shot. There's been houses, apartments, offices, then it was abandoned for a long while, after that, they tried more houses, and warehouses and finally factories. "
"and that would be relevant to anything...how?" the girl with the short brown hair asked, she was then belted on the back of her head, "ow! Just asking!"
"Well, Miko did sort of touch a good question, how old is this factory?" the boy with the katana asked, the girl with the boomerang looked around a bit, then shrugged,
"off of just a glance, I'd say it's a good seventy years old. They must have kept this one in use for quite some time." she said, the boy blanched,
"seventy years? And there was a whole bunch of other stuff built here over time?" he said, the girl nodded,
"hell, I'd say the history of buildings that were built here starts out back in the early 2000's." she said, laughing at the look her friend now had on his face.
"y'don't say..." the boy with the scythe said, half interested in that, half engrossed in his surroundings. Then he let out a loud yelp followed by a short scream, then a thud and a string of curses.
"Zykan, are you ok!" the petit brown haired girl called down the hole her friend had fallen through.
"Peachy. Get either me the hell out of here, or your asses down here! Now!" he snapped back up at them, the blond haired girl gave a derisive snort,
"with an attitude like that, we should make you climb out by yourself, imp!" she called down to him,
"oh, that is really fuckin' funny, Skayr! Really funny! Get me outta here, damn you!" was the only response the girl got. The girl with the iron knuckled gloves, who had been earlier called Miko, knelt down and looked into the hole,
"I can see him. He didn't fall that far down." she said, sitting back on her haunches, "we should be able to get him out easily enough." she said, "Damien? Well?" she said, looking at the 'above ground' boy. He looked thoughtful,
"How do we get him up here without ending out down there?" he said, the girls shrugged in unison.
"Hell if I know." The girl with the boomerang said.
"Hell if I care." the blond said, arms crossed over her chest as she examined her surroundings. It was only when the floor cracked and gave way under her feet that she realized she was about to join her friend on the lower level of the factory. She landed several yards away from the boy earlier dubbed Zykan, who gave her a flat look.
"Hi." he said, the girl growled angrily and glared at him, he ignored her, "uh, Damien? Guys? Any day now would be nice! Huh?" he stopped snapping at the group above him and looked off to the side, "hey, screw getting us out, get down here! I found something!" he said, crawling over to his scythe and snatching it off the ground before he stood up and held his hand up, palm up, a small flame appeared above his hand and he held it out in front of him more, using it as a light. "Hey, Skayr, see if you can find a light switch or something. This thing won't be enough for all of you." he said, looking at the girl, who raised an eyebrow,
"all of us? And what of you?"
"Uh, this..." his pupils dilated, and he smirked, "I can see in the dark. You can't. That's what I mean by 'you all'."
"You little son of a-"
"guys!" the girl with the boomerang called from above them, "what's up? What'd Zykan find?"
"Hell if I know! The little bastard's taking his sweet time playing around down here. Get down here so he'll stop the tricks!" the blond growled, she couldn't help it, she had no patience with the trickster. He made it so hard for her to not kill him.
"Well, we'll be down just as soon as we can!" the little brown haired girl said. Then she came up with the obvious idea, she jumped down the hole, the blond, Skayr, caught her. "See? I told you."
"Yeah, yeah, funny." Skayr muttered, setting the girl aside. The others were down the hole shortly after, "thank god! Now you can deal with him!"
"Where is he?" Damien asked, looking around, then the lights came on around them. "Holy shit!" he yelped in surprise at the sudden change, then the group waited for their trickster friend to rejoin them "ok, Zykan, what'd you find?"
"This way." Zykan said, pointing to his left with his scythe. He led the way across the large room full of everything from tools and machinery to boxes and dresser drawers.
"This must be the basement." the girl with the boomerang said,
"gee, ya think?" Skayr said, shortly after, she was nursing a large bruise on her head as the other girl straightened out her boomerang, still sporting a miffed look.
"Bobby! Skayr! Cut it out, you two." Damien said, the girls fell silent and continued on, then they all stopped at Zykan's discovery.
"It's a door." Miko said flatly, the shorter brown haired girl stifled a giggle. Zykan glared at her,
"I can see that." he said, "but, with everything Bobby was saying earlier, do you think it's a door to something that one of the previous buildings left behind?"
"Or, since this is a factory, maybe it's a broom closet." Miko suggested half sarcastically. Zykan pointed at her with his scythe,
"hey! You are always beating down my ideas! I swear it, you were sent here just to annoy me!" he snapped, Miko was laughing hystericly at him,
"I...can't breath! Oh, god! Oh, man! You are just amazingly weird!" then she doubled over, "oh, god! I can't breath!" she managed between giggles. He started kicking at her,
"good!" he snapped. Finally, Damien managed to shut both of them up, "she started it." Zykan said, pointing to Miko, glared at him. Damien was practically ripping at his hair,
"I don't care who started it! Cut it out and don't do it again, both of you!" he snapped, they both nodded their understanding. Damien took several deep breaths, then walked back over by the trio that still stood by the door. "Ok, we'll try this again. Who votes we open it?" he said, Skayr raised her hand, "I expected that one." She gave him a dirty look, which he ignored, "ok, that's one, anyone else? Well, Zykan, of course you, you found the damn thing. So that's two...Bobby makes three...Miko...and...?" he looked down at the dark brown haired girl, who shrugged,
"I guess I agree, if everyone else wants to go in, then why not?" she said, Damien nodded, then opened the door, all of them falling back onto the ground when a huge group of bats flew out of the darkness that they were now looking into in hopes of seeing something else.
"Well? Anybody got a light?" Bobby said,
"I can take care of that." the dark brown haired girl said, chanting a few words, then she held a sphere out in front of her that was about the same size as a softball, a radiant light was shining off of it and everyone just grinned,
"Go, Annakhin." Miko said. The girl just smiled.
"Now, let's see what's in there." Damien said, watching his smaller friend walk over to the doorway and hold the light out as far as she could. The group then found themselves confused, there was a stairwell behind the door in the basement.
"I thought we were already in the basement." Bobby said, "so, Zykan was right and there is something weird here." she added.
"Yeah, so, let's leave it alone and go find some place else to explore." Miko said, though she knew it was a waste of breath, the group was already going down the stairs, "here we go, another thrilling joy ride..." she sighed and ran after her friends.
"Ah, great! Not only do we find a staircase, we find a hallway, this is too much walking! I'm goin' back up!" Zykan said, Damien grabbed him by the back of the long black robe he was wearing, black boots, a black tunic, and several belts of varying sizes and tightness were the rest of his outfit, and dragged him all the way down the hall.
"Doors." Bobby said,
"two of them." Miko said,
"no fuckin' duh, guys." Zykan said irritably, he was still being held in place by Damien.
"Which one should we go in first?" Annakhin said, Miko walked to the beginning of the group and stood next to Annakhin,
"we could split off. Zykan can make light too, three of us will go in one room, three of us in the other, then we'll trade rooms. What's say?" she said,
"Sounds easy enough." Bobby said, "I want the right door."
"As do I." Skayr said, only following Bobby, that and she knew Damien would have to keep Zykan in check, thus making two out of three in one group. Miko sighed loudly as she watched Annakhin follow Bobby and Skayr into the room on the right.
"I get stuck with the nutter. Perfect." she mumbled, "open the door, Damien, let's get this over with." she said, Zykan made a softball sized ball of light appear above them, his light was different from the light Annakhin had made, her light was pure and warm, his was slightly darker and gave of no heat or cold. They both did the trick though.
"Thank you, Zykan." Damien said off handedly as he tried to turn the handle. "Hey! It's locked!" then he glared at Zykan, "if I let you go, you stay here, or you lose a few limbs. You got it?" he said threateningly, Zykan nodded, not apt for disagreeing at this point. Damien had dropped his hold on Zykan, who backed away several steps to get out of the way, and was now yanking at the door handle with both hands, "dammit!" he sighed and stopped pulling, "locked. Better than I thought."
"Maybe it pushes open." Zykan suggested. That idea was then shot down when Damien attempted to push the door open and failed.
"Damn! What's this thing made of that it can withstand all this? It looks like wood." Damien remarked
"That sure as hell isn't wood." Zykan said, but Miko brought them back to the task a hand.
"Oh, it pushes open. Trust me." that was the only thing the pair needed to hear as they ran away from the door, just in time to avoid getting a fist to the face. The door came crashing down, she'd knocked off its hinges with the power of her punch. She was now standing on the door, staring down at it, "uhh...oops, I didn't mean to do that."
"Accidents happen, it's not like we need to pay property damage or anything." Zykan said with a shrug, leaning his scythe against the wall outside of the room Miko had opened the door to, Damien doing the same with his katana, then they followed Miko, who had stopped after about a yard's worth of space into the room and was now staring wide eyed, her face had lost some color as well. The pair stared at her in confusion, then looked around the room, yelping at the decor.
"What the hell is this! A morgue!" Damien cried, looking around frantically. Zykan was looking around calmly,
"it's a crypt, blockhead." he said, then he walked around the room, looking at all sorts of strange skeletons and broken coffins, "looks like most of these guys were buried alive...whatever they were..."
"What exactly did you mean by that?" Damien asked, giving the room a quick once over.
"Not many of these guys look human...some how altered humans, but still not human." Zykan said, then he stopped walking, turning to face the middle of the room, "hey," he pointed to a lone coffin that seemed perfectly intact and untouched, even by the rooting surroundings. "That one's still closed." he said. Damien and Miko, who was finally back among the living, nodded, walking over to the coffin, Zykan meeting them there.
"It looks either new, or well kept." Damien commented. Zykan grinned,
"let's open it." he said, his two friends stared at him in disbelief.
"Don't you have any respect for the dead?" Miko said, sounding slightly disgusted. Zykan only shrugged.
"Sure I do. But, sometimes, I'd rather join them." He said, leaning against the coffin, Miko gave a small laugh,
"well, I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later." she said
"guys! What did I tell you two earlier? I said 'no more' didn't I?" Damien said, then he looked at the coffin, "though, it does seem odd that this thing looks brand new and the others are rotted and falling apart."
"Come on, Damien, admit it, you're curious." Zykan said, smirking, Damien finally put his hands up in mock defeat,
"ok, I give. If I don't find out what's being so well cared for in that box, it'll just haunt me until I do. Let's open it." he grabbed hold of one side of the lid, Zykan had the other, and they picked the lid up and backed down the coffin, then off to the side, leaving it leaning against the side of the coffin, "that was heavier than I thought it'd be."
"Well, here's why, you grave robbers, it's got a few technical modifications. Looks like a mini support system of some kind. Whoever's in that coffin, someone wanted them to stay the way they looked when they were buried. This is damned good work here too." Miko said crouching by the lid, Damien and Zykan were at her side a second later, watching her point out different things, finally, Damien stood up and backed away from the pair still messing with the lid.
"So, if I've followed your techno talk properly, that lid had the right stuff in it to keep you looking how you did when you were buried for 'x' amount of time?" he said, Miko nodded,
"yes. But, this one's a little outdated. It was made a really long time ago, I'll tell you that right now. It looks like someone wanted this person to stay asleep, and I don't mean dead. I mean whoever's in there...they're still alive." she said, Zykan jumped away from her a bit,
"what? Buried alive?" he said, "cool." Miko gave him a look,
"you're sick."
"Yup and proud of it." Zykan said with a smirk, again, Damien intervened,
"hey, shut up. Come on over here, look at this." he was looking down into the coffin. The pair stopped their bickering for a second, standing on either side of Damien,
"whoa." Zykan said, his eyes widened for a second, then he just watched the body in the coffin as if it might do a trick. Miko's eyes went wide, then back to normal, she looked at Damien,
"who do you think she is?" she asked, Damien shrugged,
"I don't know. Nor do I know how long she's been down here, how old she was when she was buried, her name, who buried her or why she was buried." he said, Zykan was poking the metal left arm on the girl while Damien spoke, then he tilted his head to the side a bit,
"well, she ain't all human. That's for sure." he said, Damien hit him,
"leave it alone! Quit poking the dead girl." he said, Miko shook her head,
"No, not dead, she in stasis." she corrected.
"Cryogenic sleep?" Damien said, "now this is interesting."
The click of the safety on a gun being removed made them turn around to face the coffin, Zykan had a gun aimed at him, only inches away from his face.
"What the-!" Miko started, but she bolted out of the room as opposed to finishing her sentence, coming back in with Damien and Zykan's weapons. She threw Damien his katana and thought it best to keep Zykan unarmed, in case the girl in the coffin decided that him having a weapon wasn't a good thing, followed by shooting him in the face. Damien stuck his katana's blade straight down into the coffin, when the girl's hand dropped, Miko was afraid he'd killed her. She ran over to the coffin and saw the he'd landed it right next to her head, she was staring up at them blankly. Then she put the safety back on her gun and put it away, closing her eyes,
"touche." she said in an emotionless voice, Damien and Miko only stared, that was it? She was giving up that easily? Suddenly, she spoke up again, "I will shoot you if you cut any of my hair off. And I will also shoot you if you don't put the lid back on this box, right now."
"Um...I don't think I got your hair, and why do you want to be stuck in a box?"
"I deem that information private. Now put the lid back on." she said, Damien pulled his katana out of the coffin, stepping back a bit, Miko following suit.
"At least tell us your name." he said, silence followed, "how about we tell you our names first, then you tell us yours." then he jumped a bit when she flipped up out of the coffin, balancing on the side of it, looking them over. This was their first clear look at her as well, dark outfit, a cape, held on her by several buckles, the collar high enough to hide most of her face, a sloppily tied bandana of some kind, a gun, long, mahogany colored hair, victimized by the bandana, piercing and cold strangely colored eyes, and the part of her that got them the most, her left arm had been replaced by a metal arm and claw-like hand. All in all, she was quite the sight to try to figure out. She crouched down on the edge of the coffin, watching them closely.
"Well...?" she said, she'd been waiting the entire time they were gawking.
"Damien Cain."
"Miko Hoshii."
"Zykan. Just Zykan."
"And you?" Damien said, watching the girl, she then asked another question,
"Would you step closer to me a bit?" she sounded curious. The trio looked amongst themselves, shrugging. They walked back over by the side of the coffin, having freaked out and ran a short ways away from the girl when she'd made her sudden entrance. She was looking them over, Miko was just about to snap at her, Zykan was ready to walk away and Damien was about to ask what the hell she was doing when they noticed she'd stopped looking them over and was now just staring wide eyed.
"Are you ok?" Damien asked, contemplating whether or not he should reach out to her or not, she answered that for him, leaning forward, getting a good hold on the lid to her coffin, which had been leaning against the side of the coffin, and jumped backwards into the coffin, taking the lid with her and closing herself back up
"leave!" was all she said. Miko glared angrily at the coffin,
"what! That's cheap! Get back out here you little-" she started, but she was interrupted,
"Leave!" the girl snapped, sounding slightly more annoyed, Miko was probably going to annoy her into coming out of her coffin, even though she'd probably get shot.
"Miko, let's just leave her alone. We did interrupt her sleep in the first place, remember?" Damien said, Miko growled angrily stomping out of the room, Damien went on some kind of hunch and looked down at the coffin, "I have three more friends with me. If you're interested in meeting them, they'll be in here soon." he said, then he walked out of the room, Zykan following, telling him that he was too damned sentimental.
me pov
was that another nightmare? It felt so real. And that blade did leave a good sized hole next to my head here. They couldn't have been real though. They were another trick. Another trick of the mind that I came up with out of grief. Another nightmare. That's all it was...they're dead by now. They're a nightmare by now. What the! I can hear more voices coming. Girls, all of them...what's going to haunt me next?
normal pov
"He said she might still be awake. Who knows how stasis works." Skayr said, Bobby raised her hand, then rested it gently on the lid,
"The Cryogenic state can last way far after the machines and scientists that put some one into a state of sleep are gone. It tends to vary in length and severity though." she said, neither of her friends knew what she meant in the least.
"What do you mean?" Annakhin asked, the ball of light she'd made earlier was now floating above them, casting more light around the dark room.
"I mean sometimes, rarely but it has happened, someone will wake from their state of sleep and be brought back to the world around them. But, there's also length of sleep as well. After 'x' amount of time, the stasis, without a core unit, will begin to weaken, so, even if they're stuck in comatose sleep, they'll no longer be in suspended animation and they'll age, and inevitably starve to death if no one notices they're not in stasis in time." she explained, then she rested her other hand on the lid, "but, according to Miko, this thing, the coffin lid, had a sort of 'central unit' to it, keeping the sleep and suspended animation state strong for quite some time, she said this thing had a really old system, but it was still on task and working perfectly. Oh, and, another thing that Zykan mentioned, don't annoy her in any way, don't touch her, and if you want to try keeping a conversation going, don't step any closer to the coffin than probably a good two-and-a-half yards or so. Keep the light above the coffin like a spotlight sort of thing so she can't see you very well, and try to coax her goddam name out of her."
"Zykan said all that?" Annakhn said, letting the light float over the coffin and send down a beam like a spotlight over it.
"Pretty much. Miko said she'd just be kinda weird." Bobby said, then she shrugged, "but, that's Miko's opinion. I prefer to make my own. Skayr, come over her and stand next to me. Now on the count of three we flip the lid off of this thing and deal with this chick." Skayr nodded, then grabbed hold of the lid. "One...two...three!" they flipped the lid off of the coffin, then backed up fast, they would follow their friends' advice on all accounts, something in the back of Bobby's mind kept saying "don't leave her here. She'll want to come. Don't leave without her." once they were back next to Annakhin, a good three yards away from the coffin, it seemed like a Jack-In-the-Box reaction, the girl sat bolt upright and went after her coffin lid, that forced them to come close, Bobby dove into the coffin to hold the girl down as she tried to get at Skayr, who was carrying the lid of the coffin across the room and dumping it there. "Not this time, Vampire Girl!" Bobby said, the girl stopped struggling completely right after the last word left Bobby's mouth. "What the...?" now she didn't know what to do, the girl she'd trapped inside a coffin was staring unblinkingly at her, tears streaming from her eyes and the color slowly draining from her face. "What did I–? Skayr, help. She's scaring me." the instant Skayr looked down at her, their new 'friend' started struggling again,
"who else is there!" she shrieked, Damien and company could be heard entering the room, Damien demanding an explanation to what he was seeing.
"We're getting information out of this little bitch whether she likes it or not." Skayr said, Zykan was watching Bobby's near failing attempts to subdue the girl.
"'Or not' apparently." he said, Damien moved over next to the coffin,
"if you calm down, we can work all this out and we'll leave." he assured her, no dice apparently, she just kept struggling, finally, she won.
"OW! Fuck!" Bobby cried, leaning away from the girl, nursing a wound on her arm, "dammit, where the hell did that come from!"
"You never got a good look at her apparently." Zykan said, "she has a gun and a metal left arm. So, though it's a little late to say so, watch out for her left hook." Bobby glared at him,
"very funny. The instant I get my boomerang back into my hands, I'm gonna-"
"Save it!" Damien interrupted. "We have other problems-whoa, no, no, no!" his turn to dive into the coffin, this time to wrestle a gun away from her. He chucked the gun to Bobby, "here. Play." then he noticed the wound she'd been nursing, caused by the same claw-like hand that he was some how managing to hold down without being stabbed or cut. "Annakhin, can you help Bobby with her arm?" he said.
"Ok." the petit girl said, walking over by Bobby to take a look at the damage, seeing her face, the last member of the group, made the girl in the coffin close her eyes tightly and lay perfectly still, breathing raggedly, finally, she calmed down, but kept her gaze away from the group above her, she decided the side of the coffin was more interesting to look at.
"What do you want?" she asked, sounding somewhat defeated. Now none of them knew what to do. They'd wrestled her out of a state of sleep that had lasted for an unknown amount of time. Damien sighed, then he got up out of the coffin,
"we want to know a couple things. And with your close placement to the room next-door, maybe you can give us some answers."
"What answers are you looking for?" the girl asked, now perched on the edge of her coffin, crouched down, possibly to gain a more comfortable position. "I only know so much about this place. I didn't spend much conscious time here." she said, suddenly jumping forward off of her coffin. She was now standing in front of Bobby watching her expectantly. "May I have my gun back? If you don't mind that is." she said, the other girl just held the item out to her, she took it away from Bobby rather quickly, putting it away and walking away from Bobby, perching on her coffin again, "now, what did you want?" she was looking from one group member to the next, repeatedly. Skayr narrowed her eye as she gave the girl a suspicious glance,
"why are you scrutinizing us so much? We're not items on show." she snapped. The girl closed her eyes and shook her head sadly,
"if you knew, you'd understand." she said, then she fixed her gaze on Damien, he'd started this mess, she hoped he'd be able to make this quick and then leave her to her nightmares. "What did you want to know?"
"Well, the room next-door, it's some kind of laboratory, right? I mean, you knew there was a room next-door, didn't you?" he said, sounding slightly nervous, still under the girl's intense stare. She let out a small laugh.
"That hell-hole made it through all of the years I must have been asleep? Amazing!" she's getting too damned accurate with this game. She knows that reality and video games are different from each other, right?
"um...yes?" Damien tried, the girl cocked her head to the side a bit,
"yes, before I was trapped here in stasis, there was a lab next to this room. The last I saw of it, there were books, jars of who knows what, broken containment tubes, and a lab table." she was going off of a hunch, and if it was wrong, they'd probably assume it had changed its equipment over the years. But she wasn't surprised when the group looked stunned, Damien nodded.
"You remember all that?" he said, then he shook head, "of course you do, you still remember everything from the time you were originally from. Right?"
"Some things I wish could be forgotten, but yes. I remember." she answered, they're gonna ask me something about what all went on here, aren't they? Then they'll ask about Nikki, I'll find out what they're doing here, what they want to know, then leave them guessing and shut myself in my box again. I know how Vincent felt now...I know what kind of pain is coming. Should I just eliminate the middle man and shut the box? Oy! He's talking!
"well, whose lab was that? And, better yet, how long have you been down here?" Damien asked, the girl gave him a flat look.
"I don't know how long I've been down here. I didn't keep a calendar." she said, several of the girls laughed, then, Zykan pointed to the lid, which still sat across the room,
"maybe that thing has some sort of record log on it." he said,
"worth a try." Bobby said, she walked across the room and started tinkering with the lid. While she was working on that, Damien was talking to the girl from the coffin.
"Well, why were you locked up?" he asked, he'd tried several other questions in hopes of getting something out of the girl, but she wasn't cooperating.
"What information did you want? The lab's history? I can only tell you my part. It was a genetic mutations lab. A scientist that loved to play God added and removed parts on a human, experimented with the entire DNA system. The result was a monster." she said.
"You're talking about yourself, aren't you?" Damien said, she closed her eyes, straightening up.
"How human do I look?" she asked, "my body is warped, as are my genetic and DNA codes. What, in any of that, sounds human to you?" there was silence after that for several minutes. Then she lowered herself into her crouched position again, "do you understand what I meant, now?" she said, her voice had remained perfectly steady and she was completely null-and-void of any emotion.
"But, that still doesn't make you a monster. The kind of creature you're talking about would have attacked us by now, right?" Annakhin said, the girl was looking at her curiously, "you haven't done a thing to make you seem like a monster. You're still human at heart."
"That is something I wish could be removed." the girl said, "humans ache, they mourn, they remember. I want to forget." she looked back at Damien, "anything else?" they were interrupted by Bobby.
"Holy shit!" she cried from across the room, the group ran over by her, the girl stayed near her coffin, standing at the head of it, watching the group, remembering when that was real to her, one-hundred percent real. But the conversation she could hear made everything around her far more real than it had been since she'd woken up,
"What? What is it?" Miko said, Bobby pointed to the screen she found,
"look at this girl's stats. Name: Azuril Noir Raine, Age When Frozen: 27..."
27? That bitch found a way to change my age! Oh wait, that's right. Vincent's 27. I forgot. the girl thought, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity on that one.
"...Known to have slightly psychotic tendencies, a fast temper and a razor sharp tongue." Bobby continued, "but, here's the best part. Birth Date: August 29, 1988."
"Holy shit!" Zykan and Damien both cried at the same time, Miko was just staring, Skayr was counting something on her fingers, and Annakhin was shaking her head a bit,
"that's not possible. This thing can't be that old. There's no possible way." she said. Bobby shrugged a bit,
"I guess it can happen and it has." she said,
"the 19 hundreds, whoa!" Zykan said, "we should put her in a museum."
"She's not an antique, fool. She's alive. Though, that age does frighten me slightly as well." Skayr said. She finished whatever it was she was counting on her fingers, then looked at Bobby, "tell me if I've gotten this right. If she was twenty seven when she was first put into stasis, and those dates and times are all correct, then that would make her about 1027 years old?" Bobby looked thoughtful for a second, Zykan and Miko were looking over their shoulders at the girl across the room form them, whose eyes had widened considerably, she looked stuck stiff from shock,
"um, guys," Zykan said, poking at Damien,
"cut it out." Damien said, swatting at Zykan's hand,
"no, you should-guys..." Miko said, the girl was teetering a bit, "uh-oh."
"Yeah, that should be right." Bobby said, "1027 or in that area somewhere."
"Timber!" Zykan said, he and Miko had been watching as the girl teetered more and more, and finally fallen over with Bobby's confirming Skayr's math. The entire group was now staring across the room, the girl had been standing there a second ago, where was she now? Zykan smacked Damien on the head, "I tried to get your attention, dammit, and this is why!" Miko had pulled a similar stunt on Bobby and Skayr, snapping at them for not even stealing a glance back where she was frantically pointing to. Annakhin gave a small bow,
"sorry. We'll listen next time." she said, Miko huffed, Zykan was up on the ceiling, avoiding Damien.
"Damn you, ya little freak, get down here!" Damien snapped, Zykan shook his head.
"What the hell kind of idiot do you take me for, Damien! Like hell I'll come down!" he shot back, "oh, yeah, and our creepy new friend passed out when she heard her age. She's in the coffin, out cold." Damien stopped moving, then he looked over at the coffin, walking up to it and looking down at the girl, who had, in fact, fainted.
"Oops." Bobby said. Zykan landed on his feet next to her, making her jump a bit.
"Now I know why they say 'never ask a woman her age'. Hearing it might make her faint." he said, Bobby glared,
"ha, ha, cool boy." she said, he stuck his tongue out at her, for that, she gave him the bird, this let to the pair trying to one up each other in a swearing match. The entire thing ended, this time not with Damien's intervention, but by Miko's hand. She walked over to the pair, got a good grip on their heads and knocked them together. She then stepped back a bit, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the pair as they rubbed there poor abused heads, glaring at her.
"If you two are finished acting like little kids, we can go." she said, Bobby, still rubbing her head, looked at the coffin,
"what about her? After all that, should we just leave her?" she asked, remembering the strange thought from earlier. don't leave without her, huh? Well, I'll full-fill that goal whether Damien stays uninjured or not. she thought, going outside the room for a second, coming back in with her boomerang, she might need it. Zykan went to get his scythe, just out of sudden paranoia of it being taken. There seemed to be something special about that scythe that he dragged everywhere, no one else even thought of touching it, they hadn't made out their Wills properly yet. There was also something about a bracelet that Annakhin wore, Zykan didn't like it much, oddly enough, if ever she got up the resolve to tell or ask him to do something, whether grudgingly or otherwise in attitude about it, he'd do it. No one asked questions, they couldn't figure out any to ask either of them. Skayr grabbed Damien's katana and tossed it to him.
"I really hope you're not expecting me to use this." he said, giving the girl a skeptical look, she smacked herself on the forehead,
"oh, boy...no. I was just giving it to you now because you know damn well that you'll forget it and we'll have to pick it up for you." she said, Damien looked around the room as though he had no idea what she was talking about.
"What about the girl?" Miko said, getting them back on track. "Bobby's right, after everything we just put her through, is it right to leave her here?"
"I think we should bring her with." Annakhin said, Bobby and Miko nodded their agreement. Zykan shrugged,
"I don't care either way, but, if we bring her with, tell her she can't try to shoot me anymore." he said, pointing down at the girl as he said the last part.
"No guarantees. Skayr, what do you think?" Damien said, looking at the blond in question, she crossed her arms over her chest,
"do what you want." she said, Damien grinned, he knew she'd say yes, she was getting easier for him to read. He'd only met her several weeks ago and she was a difficult one to figure out. But he was getting there.
"Alright. It's unanimous, one of you do some quick thinking as to what we tell her when she wakes up." he said, they all put their brains to work. "Well, she practically told us she wanted revenge. But, we don't know who she wants to go after, or why she wants them dead." Damien said after a while. Bobby spoke up next,
"I'm guessing she wants the persons who experimented on her dead for doing so." she said, Skayr looked at Bobby,
"But, remember what she said earlier, about if we knew why she kept staring at us we'd understand?" she said, "maybe it's not just herself she wants revenge for."
"You're absolutely right." the girl said suddenly, everyone jumped back a bit from the sudden surprise, then went back to their original spots, looking down at the girl, who looked like she'd fallen unconscious again, but proving that wrong by speaking up again, "that's all exactly right." she said, then she looked around the group, eyes resting on the trio that had spoken up earlier, the three of them standing next to each other. "All of you were right. I want my revenge on the woman that did this to me. I want revenge for what she did to my body, my humanity, and for what she took away from me that hurts the most."
"She took someone special away from you, whoever she was, that's what happened, right?" Annakhin said, sounding sad already. The girl gave a short laugh, full of self loathing,
"Yes. She took someone special from me, only to trap me and turn me into this..." she faltered for a second, hate was the only thing that was slipping from behind her mask of indifference. "But, she didn't just take one person from me, though she hurt that person the most, she took everyone and everything that I had ever cared for or loved away from me. All of it. My life, my loved ones, and my humanity. So, yes. You are right. I wish for revenge. But, this was one thousand years ago, and it's impossible to go back to that time and kill her." she said, closing her eyes again, now, there was nothing again, her emotions were gone from her features, and her eyes when she opened them again. She looked at Damien, "what about you? Why are you wandering? What is your reason?" she asked. Damien's eyes darkened some in anger,
"I want revenge as well. My closest friends were killed right in front of my face, and I couldn't do a thing to stop it, so was my whole town. The worst part is, I thought the woman who had killed them loved me. But, I guess I was an idiot for thinking that. And I should have seen it. I should have listened when they told me to let go...I can't let her get away from me after what she did. So, no matter what, I'm going to find her, and kill her."
"A noble cause indeed." the girl said, none of them could tell whether that was sarcasm or seriousness. Miko stepped up,
"I want revenge too. On the same woman that Damien's after. She killed my best friend, all of my friends, and the entire town Damien and I grew up in. She can't get away with that. I won't let her." she said, the girl nodded, showing that she'd heard and understood the girl.
"My family was taken from me by that same damned woman." Skayr said, "no one does something like that and lives. I plan on finding her and killing her, as slowly and painfully as possible."
"Again, very admirable and noble, all of you." the girl said, then she sat up, looking at Bobby, Zykan and Annakhin, "and you three? What keeps you with them?" she said, waiting to hear more about revenge, but her brain started doing some processing, oh, no! Anna's Aeris! Why didn't I see all this before! That bitch planned ahead! She knew all of this would happen! Anna's Aeris, Lizz is Tifa, Jessi's Cid, Genevieve, if it can be called her, is Cloud, I'm Vincent and Lisa's either Barret or Nanaki, the latter seems more appropriate...then, that must be Noah, but, what character is he? Well, I'll have plenty of time to figure it out. After all, Vincent joins the crew in the end.
"I just thought it might be fun. Dangerous, I know, but I'm still having a lot of fun." Annakhin said.
that's what I was afraid you'd say...Aeris said that same thing too.
"I just kinda felt like it. I'll do what ever I god damn please." Zykan said. The girl rolled her eyes,
Yuffie.
"it sounded like a good time. What else can I say? Plus if Skayr goes, me too, I promised to help her." Booby said, confused when the girl seemed to falter again for a second.
"Who is this woman that you're so hell-bent on killing?" their nameless friend asked,
"her name is Angela." Damien said, taking a step back when the girl shot to her feet,
"anything else to her name?" she pressed.
"Seraf. Her last name's Seraf."
"And that is the woman that you are all after?"
"She experimented on my family, and me." Skayr said,
"she killed my best friend, destroyed my hometown with her screwed up experiments." Miko said,
"and you heard my story. And we know yours. Could you tell us your name?" Damien said, Zykan tilted his head to the side a bit,
"uh, dude, it was on the coffin lid, remember?" he said, Damien waved him off,
"I want to hear it from her. It'll at least make me feel a little more secure." he said, then he looked at the girl in question, "well?" she hesitated, then finally,
"Azuril. Azuril Noir Raine." she said, deciding to leave 'Katie Fiore' buried in her long-since-deserved grave. She wasn't the spastic, sarcastic, irritable, and fun loving girl she'd been one-thousand years ago. Now, she was 'Vincent Valentine'. And she'd act out her part. She took on last glace behind her as she left the basement, following the group that had found her, 'Hojo's lab' and the crypt that had held 'Vincent' were staying right there. And she'd leave those two places buried in their graves as well.
"I
tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is that I care
too much
And my scars remind me that the past is real
I tear my
heart open just to feel
Drunk and I'm feeling down
And I
just wanna be alone
I'm pissed cause you came around
Why don't
you just go home
Cause you channel all your pain
And I can't
help you fix yourself
You're making me insane
All I can say
is
I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is
that I care too much
And our scars remind us that the past is
real
I tear my heart open just to feel
I tried to help you
once
Against my own advice
I saw you going down
But you
never realized
That you're drowning in the water
So I offered
you my hand
Compassion's in my nature
Tonight is our last
stand
I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness
is that I care too much
And our scars remind us that the past is
real
I tear my heart open just to feel
I'm
drunk and I'm feeling down
And I just wanna be alone
You
shouldn't ever come aroundWhy don't you just go home?
Cause you're
drowning in the water
And I tried to grab your hand
And I left
my heart open
But you didn't understand
But you didn't
understand
Go fix yourself
I can't help you fix
yourself
But at least I can say I tried
I'm sorry but I gotta
move on with my own life
I can't help you fix yourself
But at
least I can say I tried
I'm sorry but I gotta move on with my own
life
I tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is
that I care too much
And our scars remind us that the past is
real
I tear my heart open just to feel
I
tear my heart open, I sew myself shut
My weakness is that I care
too much
And our scars remind us that the past is real
I tear
my heart open just to feel"
---
Papa Roach; Scars; Getting Away With Murder
