Shades of Wings: Chapter 13 – Black Wings Part II

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"Hey," Adrian motioned to Tai who looked up from his kneeled position. Adrian joined him, kneeling down and offering a silent prayer.

"Uhh…hi Adrian," Tai gulped. "Whatcha doing here?"

"Can't a summoner pray with her guardian without being questioned?" Adrian snapped and Tai reddened, returning to his prayers. "I thought so. Who are you talking to?"

"My Great-Grandpa. He died when I was four."

"I see," Adrian smiled. "That him?" she pointed to a man with gray hair and a bright smiled. Surprisingly, he actually looked slightly like Tai due to blotchy freckles on his face.

"Y-yeah…that's him." Tai smiled up at the man and the man smiled back. "Hey Adrian, what about you?"

"What do you mean 'what about me'?" Adrian asked.

"Who are you praying to?" Tai asked and Adrian shrugged.

"No one. My dead ones aren't exactly loved."

"What about your family?" Tai asked. "You do have a family right?"

"The term 'family' is relative," reminded Adrian. "What would you consider a 'family'?"

Tai looked a little taken aback by the question. "Uhh…I guess a group of people that love each other and look after one another."

"Hmm…well, by your definition, I have no family," Adrian told him.

"What about your parents?"

Adrian gave a short bitter laugh. "My parents? Don't make me laugh!"

"They're probably not dead but-"

"They're dead."

Tai's eyes widened. "Wh-what? When did they die?"

"A few years ago," Adrian told him. A long elegant finger pointed up and Tai gasped to see two people, a man and a woman standing in front of them. The woman, shorter then the man, had long elegant flowing chestnut brown hair and black eyes. She wore heavy makeup and a long red dress with no sleeves. Next to her was a man with short blonde slicked back hair (like Draco all you HP fans! ) that was glowering at the two. He wore an elegant outfit made up of long pants and a heavy black top. "Those are my parents. Or at least how they looked when they died."

"How old were you?" Tai asked, offering a soft prayer to the two.

"Fifteen, and don't pray to those spawns of hell." Tai looked up at Adrian to see her eyes narrowed at the two. "They wouldn't recognize me now."

"You look like your father…" Tai offered. "Your hair and your face I mean. You've got your mother's eyes."

"I would rather have looked like Sin," Adrian snarled.

"You really hate them that much?" Tai asked, looking slightly hurt. "I can't imagine hating my dad that much…"

"My parents…" Adrian murmured. "Were not loving people by any means."

"Mother…Father…" a small Adrian, about seven walked into a room lavished with an expensive carpet and plush armchairs. Her parents were sitting together, drinking expensive alcohol. They turned with annoyance towards their daughter.

"What do you want?" her mother snapped.

"Adrian, we specifically told you not to bother us when we're in the parlor," her father drawled.

"I've finished unpacking my things…"

"I don't see why you bother," her mother sighed, draining her glass. "You're going back to the temple in a few weeks. You only come home once a year. And in my opinion that's still too much."

"Now, dear, don't be so harsh," Adrian's father smirked, obviously not upset with his wife at all. "Adrian, leave us. Go and play with your toys. Your mother just bought you a new set of dolls."

"Yes, father…" Adrian closed the door behind them, not looking back.

"They gave me whatever I wanted," Adrian said to Tai. "Except for love that is. I had a room full of dolls, toys, whatever I asked for. They thought that it would distract me from actually spending time with them.

"I moved to live in the temple when I was four and only went home once a year. It was still too much," Adrian sighed. "I'm sorry, I've bored you." She stood up and eyed Spiler out of the corner of her eye. "I'm going to see Spiler, see you."

Tai looked after her, not knowing whether to call out anything to her or not.

"Hello," Adrian nodded to Spiler who backed off a little seeing his morbid summoner pop up behind him. "Your prayers are well I hope?"

"I-I guess," Spiler shrugged. "Just praying to a distant uncle. Died last month; never got to the funeral."

"Do you mind?" Adrian asked and Spiler nodded. She stepped next to him and offered a prayer to the farplane.

"You got any dead on your hands?" Spiler asked and Adrian sighed.

"You don't want to know."

"I'm bored."

"Not bored enough," Adrian narrowed her eyes and a terse old woman appeared before the two. She had her silver hair gathered in a bun, and her eyes were narrow. "That's my witch of a grandmother."

"Bad story?" Spiler asked and she nodded.

"You really want to hear it?"

"I got time."

"Not enough time for this."

"Seriously Yaira!" Adrian's grandmother commented to Adrian's mother as she paced the living room. "Getting pregnant like that! What are you supposed to do with…with that thing?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Adrian's mother sighed, rolling her eyes, obviously not liking the nagging she was receiving from her mother.

"And now that the thing is born what are you going to do with her?" she asked. "Put her up for adoption?"

"I wish," Adrian's mother sighed. "Think of the disgrace to the family. Unplanned child birth and adoption? No, we'll have to keep her."

"What did you name her?" Adrian's grandmother asked.

"Adrian…"

"My middle name? I'm disgraced," her grandmother spat into a nearby trashbin. "Just kill the dumb thing!"

"Mother, I never asked for your opinion…" Adrian's mother drawled, popping open a bottle of wine and drinking it. "So if you would please mind your own damn business."

"Fine! But just wait, that little worm will only bring ruin!"

"My grandmother told me everything she had said…" Adrian spoke slowly. "Maybe she liked to see me squirm. I never showed any form of emotion though. But deep down I really loathed her."

"Woah…" Spiler spoke, a look of shock on his face. "Th-that's horrible."

"That's just the beginning," Adrian sighed, shaking her head. "My grandmother only popped by to criticize me or my mother. That's one thing my mother and I had in common. We both hated my grandmother."

"But you're named after her," Spiler reminded.

"So?" Adrian asked. "My parents were just being lazy, that's all."

"She sounds like a bitch…"

"She was," Adrian sighed. "End of subject. I'm moving on."

"B-bye Adrian," Spiler waved after her as she walked off. "Man…"

"Got time?" Adrian asked Briu, who jumped out of his prayer. Briu welcomed her next to him and she obliged him.

"I was just saying hi to Lord Jyscal…" Briu chewed his lip. "But I can't find his spirit. Think he's restless?"

"Perhaps," said Adrian. "Spirits can grow restless, even in the Farplane."

"It seems odd though," Briu commented and Adrian nodded. There was a silence, as if the conversation had halted due to lack of things to say. Briu shifted his feet awkwardly, not looking Adrian in the eye. "So…uhh…yeah."

"That's all you can come up with?" Adrian asked, an amused smirk decorating her face.

"Well, it's awkward when you just walk over here and don't say anything," Briu pointed out. Adrian threw her head back in a low laugh.

"I guess you're right. I like your choice of words. 'Awkward'…"

"So, who are you praying for?"

"Your conversation skills."

"Ha, ha, very funny."

"Actually, you remind me of someone," Adrian smiled, rest her head on her hand.

"Really? Who?"

"Her." Adrian pointed up and Briu followed her finger to see the image of a tall woman with auburn hair cut short wearing a long blue skirt and short-sleeved canvas top. She was smiling at Adrian, her white teeth showing. "My aunt."

"Your aunt? She looks so young…" Briu said sympathetically. "Did Sin get her? Or was it an accident?"

"Sin," Adrian nodded to Briu. "Doesn't everyone lose a relative or a loved one to Sin? But, really, Sin may have killed her physically, but her spirit died long before that."

"What happened?" he asked, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, it's none of my business."

"Now that you've asked it is," Adrian reminded him and he blushed a light pink. "Once you butt your nose into someone's life, it officially becomes your business."

"So…does that mean I have the right to ask?"

"I suppose."

"What…what happened?"

"My aunt," Adrian explained. "Was most likely, my only blood family member who ever loved me. She was my mother's younger sister; you can probably tell because they have the same structure and face. But my mother was nothing like my aunt. My aunt immediately broke off from the Lexingtons the second she had the chance."

"Why?" Briu asked.

"Not only did she not like my grandmother or my mother very much," Adrian sighed, "but she went against the family wishes."

"A Crusader?" Adrian's mother spat in disgust as Adrian's Aunt stood in front of the door in the large elaborate room, looking at her sister straight in the eyes. "You're actually going to marry a Crusader?"

"Yes…we met last year in Besaid," she explained to her sister. "He asked me to marry him, and I plan to say yes."

"He'll never amount to anything!" Adrian's mother snapped cruelly. Adrian's grandmother stood in the back, looking out the window silently. "And he'll most likely just be killed by Sin! What's the point?"

"The point is that I love him!" Adrian's Aunt cried to her sister. "And we're getting married…two weeks from now. I didn't come here for your abuse…I hoped you would give us your blessing…"

"Take this as my 'blessing'!" Adrian's mother threw her glass of liquid in her sister's face, and Adrian's Aunt did not flinch as the red wine dripped slowly down her hair and face. "Get out of my sight!"

Adrian's Aunt turned to open the door, only to be cut off by the shrill voice of her mother from the window. "You're pregnant, aren't you?"

She stopped, her eyes wide as she turned back to her mother. Adrian's grandmother had now turned around and was looking at her younger daughter with complete contempt. "You're pregnant with his child."

"What!" Adrian's mother roared, throwing herself to her feet. "I see! You hooked up with this loser; you're pregnant, and now you fell you've got to marry him!"

"NO!" She cried, tears now pooling in her eyes. "You don't understand! We're not getting married because of the baby! He proposed to me before he knew!"

"You slutty bitch!" Adrian's mother's hand made a sharp crack across her younger sister's face, sending her to the ground. "You're having a child with that filth!"

"Stop it!" her Aunt cried. "Stop saying these things! You're my sister!"

"You are no sister of mine," Adrian's mother snarled, turning her back on Adrian's Aunt. "Get out of my sight."

"Mother!"

"I am no longer your mother." Adrian's Aunt's eyes grew wide as her mother turned her back to her to face the window again. "You are now nothing to me. Just a scrap of dust in the wind. Leave this house at once."

Adrian's Aunt's lip quivered, then, she turned, opened the door, and shut it quietly behind her.

"They did get married," Adrian told Briu. "And that's what gave me hope for the future. She was able to resist my horrible family; even after all they had done to her. My Aunt always loved me; whenever she came over, before the incident that is, she would always play with me and hug me." Adrian's eyes grew foggy, as if she was remembering those times.

"But, five months later," she explained. "Sin attacked, and she, her husband, and her unborn baby were all killed."

"That's horrible…" Briu whispered.

"Yes, it was," Adrian nodded. "Horribly unfair."

"I…I don't know what to say…"

"Then don't say anything. Usually those that don't know how to use their words end up misusing them." Adrian looked over her shoulder to see Kevi standing by himself, staring at the empty Farplane ahead of him. "Thanks for the talk. See you later."

With that, she turned on her heel and walked away from Briu, leaving him completely dumbstruck on what to say.

"You seem kind of lonely," Adrian spoke and Kevi's head turned to face her. He shrugged. "Man, you are a lone wolf, aren't you?"

"…The same could be said of you."

"You remind me of a character from a story I once read," Adrian tapped her lips, as if trying to think of it. "Square…Squalsh…nah, I can't remember. Anyway, what are you up to?"

"Nothing really," Kevi shrugged. "I finished praying. I don't really have any tragic deaths in my family."

"Consider yourself lucky," Adrian sighed, standing next to Kevi before he could object.

"…Whatever…" There was a pause. "So, who are you praying to?" Kevi asked, as if more to break the silence then the fact that he was genuinely interested.

"No one…man, that must the number one question for me today."

"Painful memories?"

"Although I must admit, you are a little sharper then the rest when it comes to picking up on the uptake."

"I thought so…people don't get like you are without plenty of painful memories."

"Oh? And how am I?" Adrian asked, quirking an eyebrow, a smirk on her face.

"Dark, depressed, and all around taciturn."

"I see… good observation," Adrian sighed. "Oh great…now the painful memory thing has gotten me thinking."

Kevi wondered what she meant, and she nodded her head upwards. Both looked up to see a small boy, about ten or eleven years old, looking at them with shallow eyes. He had darkish brown hair and was wearing heavy set clothes. "Who is he? Brother?"

"No…cousin," Adrian sighed. "It's a long story, you don't want to hear it."

"Let me be the judge of that."

"Fine, fine, but you asked for it," Adrian shook her head, as if regretting ever opening her mouth. "I was nine, and it was a family trip to Zanarkand."

"To pray?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Pray at the holiest of sanctuaries…Zanarkand. The entire family went. But…during the night…" Adrian looked at her shoes and shook her head.

"Hey! Hey worm! Get up!" Adrian winced as she felt a sharp kick in her stomach, waking her up from her sleep in her tent. She looked up to see a boy with blonde hair staring down at her. "Hey, we're going exploring Gagazet! Come on!"

"I don't want to go."

"You have to go! We can't carry all the food by ourselves!" The boy grabbed Adrian's wrist forcefully and pulled her out of the tent. "C'mon!"

Adrian snapped her wrist back and followed the boy. He led her to a group of boys, two, obviously twins, had brown shaggy hair and blue eyes. The other one was the one that had appeared in Adrian's Farplane vision. "Hatt, Matt, Iico. Adrian's gonna carry the stuff while we read the map and do the cool stuff."

"I-I don't know Quenix…" Hatt muttered lightly, shivering in the frosty air. "Mommy and Daddy told us not to go in the Mountains by ourselves. The nasty lion men will get us!"

"That's exactly why we're going!" Quenix snapped. "To see the Lion Men!"

"They're called Ronso you idiots," Adrian murmured under her breath.

"Now, if you're all too scared to come…" Quenix stressed the word "scared" as though it were a sin. "Then I'll go by myself and bring back a Lion Man skin for my Mom!"

"Woah! We're gonna skin a lion man?" Matt asked, adjusting his heavy hat across his ears. "Cool!"

"Adrian, grab that bag," Quenix pointed to a large sack, and Adrian picked it up on her back, despite its huge weight. "Hatt, Matt, you guys hold this map I made," he handed the two a crudely drawn map. "And Iico, you carry our weapons." He handed Iico a sword and a dagger, most likely stolen from the adults on the trip. "Now we're ready! Come on!"

"Quenix!" Matt called through the blowing snow and wind that was starting to pick up violently. Each boy was shivering, and Adrian had dug her cheeks into her jacket. "It's too cold! I want to go back!"

"Shut up!" Quenix shouted, his teeth chattering. "We're almost there, I can feel it!" The boys and Adrian finally arrived at a steep precipice, thick with heavy snow. "See!" He pointed up a path. "That should take us to their secret caves!"

"This is dumb!" Adrian called. "Let's go back!"

"Shut up Adrian!" Quenix snapped. "No one likes you anyway, so who cares what you think?"

"Hey Iico, what's wrong?" Quenix and Adrian turned their heads and gasped as Iico backed off from the group, a look of terror on his face. Hatt and Matt looked confused as Iico started to run towards the edge of the precipice.

"The cold is making him hallucinate!" Adrian cried. "Iico, STOP!"

"M-M-MONSTER!" Iico screamed, sprinting for the edge of the cliff. Quenix ran as fast as he could, ripped off his glove, and reached out to grab Iico. Quenix's hand, now soft and sticky due to the sweat inside his glove, caught Iico's hood firmly just as Iico leapt off the edge.

"Iico!" Quenix shouted to the boy, then screamed as Iico's teeth bit into his hand. He dropped Iico, blood flowing from his thumb, and Iico fell from the cliff until he could no longer be seen under the wind and snow…

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Matt screamed, shivering loudly. "He's gone! He's really gone! Iico's dead!"

"There's no guarantee of that!" Quenix shouted, wrapping his bleeding hand in a bit of cloth ripped from his shirt. "He may be down there!"

"There's no way we'll be able to get to him…" Adrian said quietly, and all three boys turned to her. "The snow is too violent, and Gagazet's mountains are huge. There's no way we'll be able to make it all the way down there. Either from freezing, starvation, or the impact of the fall, Iico is dead."

"What are we going to do!" Hatt cried loudly, and Matt followed him. "Our Moms and Dads are going to kill us!"

"We walked down the mountains back to the camp to tell everyone what had happened to Iico," Adrian told a slightly shocked Kevi. "When we got there…Quenix did everything he could to cover his ass."

"What did he do?"

"He used me as a scapegoat."

"Adrian forced us to go!" Quenix pointed accusingly to Adrian, and the adults in the group looked, amazed at the small girl. "She wanted to go exploring, and she forced us! Iico fell off because of her!"

Adrian didn't say anything, she just looked at Quenix, who refused to look her in the eye. He stepped past her, and Adrian thought she heard him whisper a soft, "You don't have anything to lose anyway…"

"Of course, everyone in the family hated me after that," Adrian sighed. "A few days later, a rescue party found Iico's dead body in the mountains. He was sent to the Farplane that very day."

"I'm surprised you weren't murdered in your bed," Kevi quirked an eyebrow. "And I'm equally surprised you didn't kill that louse Quenix."

"Quenix wasn't a bad person," Adrian shook her head. "He did his best to save Iico, remember? In fact, of all the people in my family, he was the one who treated me like an equal. His only great fault was that he was a horrible coward who couldn't handle consequences or reality."

"Where is he now?"

"Horribly successful," Adrian smirked. "He's a writer and a full-fledged billionaire. Hatt and Matt really didn't do much with their lives except spend their parent's money. But then again, they're only eighteen, they may well surprise me."

"You're awfully kind to them after what they did to you," said Kevi.

"No use dwindling on a dieing subject," Adrian shrugged, then turned away from Kevi. "We'll be leaving in about ten minutes. Enjoy the rest of your time."

"Man…man…WORK!" Juka screamed loudly, only to have a few prayers next to her shoot her odd looks. She blushed scarlet, then cleared her throat and stared straight ahead. "I don't get it…no one's showing up."

"What in Spira are you doing?" a voice from behind Juka asked, and she turned to see Adrian staring at her, a frown on her face. "You're disrupting the prayers."

"S-sorry!" Juka stammered. "But, no one's showing up."

"Who are you thinking of?"

"Huh? What do you mean, think of someone?"

"Idiot! You have to think of someone for them to show up!" Adrian gave Juka a sharp hit over the head and Juka winced. "Now, think of a dead person in your family."

"All right," Juka nodded, and closed her eyes in deep concentration. Adrian watched the spot in front of Juka, but, to her surprise, it remained blank.

"What's wrong?"

"Umm…something's wrong," Juka bit her lip in fear. "I…I…"

"Wh-what is it?"

"I can't think of anyone!"

Adrian fell over, obviously completely flabbergasted that Juka could not think of one person in her knowing that was dead. "Are you joking me?"

"Well…all of my dead ones are resting now," Juka told Adrian. "I don't want to wake them up."

"You're so dumb," Adrian shook her head. "We're leaving now, so get your stuff together."

"Hey, you talked with the guys a lot longer!" Juka snapped and Adrian turned to her. "And all these people showed up! Don't I get a person?"

"So…you were watching me?"

"N-no! I was just curious, that's all!"

"Yeah right…stalker."

"HEY!"

"Anyway, I'm afraid I'm out of painful memories…" Adrian eyed Juka warily. "And you seem to be enjoying yourself so much, I wouldn't want to ruin your mood."

"Fine, fine, I get the picture, I'm coming," Juka sighed and picked up her sword. She followed Adrian wearily to the middle of the Farplane, and Ashnigh, Kevi, Spiler, Briu, and Tai all gathered around the two girls, all looking warily at Adrian.

"All right everyone, did you enjoy your stay?" The group nodded or shrugged, or smiled in answer.

"It stunk," Juka spoke up and Adrian sighed, as if expecting something like this. "I spent almost all my time trying to make it work!"

"That's because you're too much of an idiot to figure it out yourself," Adrian snapped and Ashnigh giggled at her, winking at Juka. "Anyway, let's go outside and meet Tiffa and Luna, shall we?"

The entire group filed out of the Farplane gate, Juka staying last, looking back towards the garden. "Man…" she shook her head and then smiled widely. "I just thought of someone!" She closed her eyes, walked up to a spot, opened them, and saw none other then the High Summoner Lord Braska in front of her. "You cheated me out of a Guardian position…" she frowned at the image. "So that's why I'm waking you up, got that? Because of you, I'm stuck with Miss Morbid."

She turned around, as if to follow the rest of the group who had already left, but stopped and turned around again. "And…and I'm also mad at you…because you didn't beat Sin completely. I thought you were everything…but you still couldn't beat it. Why?"

Lord Braska didn't respond. Spirits couldn't respond of course, but it still angered Juka how he just stood there, standing serenely in the Farplane. "It's…not fair…"

"HEY BUBBLE-BRAIN! Get out here!" Adrian shouted and Juka was thrown out of her trance.

"C-coming! And don't call me Bubble brain!" Juka shouted, running out of the Farplane. Behind her, Lord Braska's image slowly faded. But before it did, a small flicker of sadness went through the spirit's eyes as it stared after the sprinting girl. In another moment, it was completely gone.

Wahah! The End! I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm afraid I'm not the best atAngst writing; in fact, I suck. I can't write all this "my life is horrible and the world hates me" crud I'm afraid. (sigh) Tell me to write a story about child abuse and I'll give you a story about a kid who wasn't allowed to eat ice cream. Man…

Anyway! Get ready for the next chapter, cause it's on the way!

Next Chapter: Orange Wings Part II