Disclaimer: All characters belong to Square-enix, except for Yuki, who is mine, and Faelo (pronounced Fay-low), who is my friend's.
A/N: OK, I owe KiRiSable a chapter or two or three, so this chapter is dedicated to her, and you should all read her fanfic, because it's really good . Not just because Yuki's in it XD.
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Chapter 6:
Faelo
Yuki's boots pounded the street, Smoke swinging dangerously from its worn strap on her hip. She knew she was tired, but she had to get rid of that damn Shinra bastard before he managed to beef up security any tighter.
People stared at her as she continued to run at top speed, covering full kilometres at a sprint. For once, Hojo had actually helped her, his experiments giving her a body like a motor. As long as the adrenaline kept pumping, she could keep going, no matter how tired she became.
She entered the upper section of Edge, feeling her anxiety grow as she saw the cops that lingered at every street corner, alert for pickpockets, cutpurses and rebels. She wished they had not heard of Lee, but her exploits had pretty much been dragged all over the news, and if they saw her, they would arrest her. Or try to, at least.
Ducking in and out of the shadows, she stopped before a place that was more mansion than house, its extravagant design and huge exterior making her lip curl in derision. The promised guards patrolled the outer garden, with a police squad nearby, joking and playing cards.
She had thought it was going to be harder. Gently, she brushed her fingers against her hip, activating the Scan Materia that nestled in her pocket. The resulting green glow was faint, and a quick glance at the mansion proved that there were no magical defences. Well, that was ridiculous. She had killed this man's brother with magic- how the hell could he have forgotten about that?
Well, if he wanted to make her job easier for her, she would not complain. Abandoning her attempts at blending in, she placed her hand on her wrist, smiling as she felt its promising warmth. A Fire3 Materia. The guards began to scream and run as the fire flared up just before their faces.
Then she felt something, a tug on her magic. It hooked her in like a fish, and she felt herself being reeled towards a point in the mansion, feeling her body disintegrate and then reappear, flickering dangerously, in a room that must have been her target's office, with the man she wanted to kill sitting at his desk, smiling smugly.
'Enemy Skill,' he said, obviously pleased with himself. 'They've discovered a new one called Bring Near, did you know that? It's SO convenient for hooking little annoying magic users.'
Stupid, stupid, idiot, she cursed, letting the despair of her foolishness overwhelm her until she boiled with anger. Of course, he wanted you to use magic. Why would he let you otherwise?
The man kept grinning, even though she was sizing him up, drawing Smoke, and obviously going to kill him. He looked to his left, making a gesturing motion.
'Faelo,' he purred. 'Why don't you come here, and maybe if you kill this little bitch, Rufus might just give you that ear transplant.'
'You know he'll never give me that damn transplant' a voice muttered. It came from the figure that had walked out from among the shadowed side of the room, wearing, oddly enough, a pair of good-quality earphones, her brown hair brushed back into a high ponytail, her green eyes gazing around the room with a wistful look to them. She turned to face Yuki, a little sad, but now sharply focused.
'Just do it, Faelo...' the man sighed, obviously used to this person's antics.
'Oh, fine. Sorry about this.' Businesslike, Faelo levelled a four-barrelled handgun, and before she knew it, Yuki felt pain sprouting at her side. She looked down in shock to see that the bullet had pierced deeply into her abdomen.
'Hey, that's not very nice,' she snapped, keeping a hold of her temper. 'That's just plain dirty. At least give your opponent a damn heads-up.' The part of her that was not feeling light-headed with tiredness or pain blessed Hojo a hundred times over for the experiments that had given her some strange endurance. Wounded, she could still fight this woman.
She faced her opponent, who by now was consumed by the fight; bloodlust blooming on her face like it belonged there. Yuki waited, patiently, for her to start growing fangs.
'You didn't give my brother a heads-up!' whined the Shinra executive, tucked safely behind his desk.
'Shinra dogs don't count!' Yuki yelled, trying to be heard over Faelo's almost inhuman cry of 'Shut up!'
Faelo pointed her gun again at Yuki, but this time she was ready. Smoke was drawn, and the bullet sang harmlessly off the tough steel of her sword. Faelo did not say a word, firing again and again, and Yuki was forced to dodge, deflecting the extra bullets with Smoke.
Only one opening came- Faelo ran out of bullets. As she paused to re-load, Yuki ran in with lightning speed born out of urgency. Smoke bit into Faelo's gun arm, and Yuki dodged back away as Faelo shot back- this time with the left hand. She swore, tossing the gun on the ground and ignoring the extra shot it fired, before pulling out something bigger, better, and much, much nastier.
'You're going to kill us all!' The Shinra dog howled as Faelo fired, cackling. Yuki grabbed an Ice materia, encasing herself in a shield of ice just as the bullet hit the wall and exploded. The ice melted quickly, but at least she was still in one piece, which was more than could be said for her target, who could probably be found in several different places.
Yuki walked over to where Faelo crouched, her earphones blown off with the blast. Faelo's hands where clamped over her ears- or at least, where her ears should have been. There were, instead, two neat holes, magnifying every noise hundreds of times until Faelo was almost crying in pain.
'Don't walk so loud,' she begged. Feeling sorry, Yuki spotted the earphones, miraculously in one piece, and gave them to her. Faelo adjusted them and straightened, the bloodlust gone from her eyes. Instantly the two assumed a position of wary respect. Both recognised they were in the same boat as each other, and they might as well get out of it together.
'How the hell did you survive that?' Yuki asked. Her voice was tinged with awe. Faelo shrugged. It seemed that now her employer was dead, she could talk to Yuki normally. 'Shinra, you know. I don't really want to get into it right now. I know this might be a bad time, but… I'm looking for a guy called Vincent Valentine. Have you, by any chance, seen him?'
'What, that bastard?' Yuki raised her eyebrows, the both of them standing quite calmly in the wreckage of the once-glorious mansion. 'Hmm, yeah, I've seen him. Pity I couldn't whack that female scientist he was with, too. What a pathetic woman.'
'You mean Lucrecia? Faelo looked shocked. 'How old are you? Lucrecia's long gone.'
'You knew her?'
'God no, Vincent just told me about her- but we better get out of here,' Faelo added as the sound of yelling reached Yuki's ears. 'I don't think they're here to congratulate us.'
'Right,' Yuki muttered. She leaned down and picked up a yellow materia that glowed- the Enemy Skill materia. 'Didn't your boss say we could use this, somehow?' She tucked it into her pocket, before turning to face the force of guards and police officers running towards them. 'Only twenty. Not too many.'
Faelo nodded, a slow grin spreading across her face. She loaded her deadly gun, and fired into the crowd. They ran as it exploded, weaving deftly through the press of bodies, until they had ran all the way back to Seventh Heaven.
Yuki turned to Faelo, a little surprised that she had followed. She found the same surprised look on Faelo's face.
'Why did you follow me?' they both asked together. Faelo grinned.
'I knew Vincent sometimes came here,' she explained. 'You?'
'I…live here, I guess. Well, I work the night shift at the bar, anyway. I'm a bit of a drifter.'
'It's to be expected, really, in our line of work.' Faelo grinned again, and Yuki found herself grinning slowly in response. They pushed open the door of Seventh Heaven and walked in.
Tifa stood at the bar, with Barret and Cloud sitting on stools in front of her. Barret was gulping his beer, and when he saw Faelo, he doubled over; bursting out the huge mouthful, he had just taken.
'Barret!' Tifa glared at him, pointing an accusatory finger at the spreading beer stain on the counter and the odd droplets in her hair. Yuki thought she saw a smile flicker across Cloud's face before he stared at Faelo, incredulous.
Barret pointed at Faelo, still gagging.
'You…' Tifa turned towards the door, and gasped at Faelo.
'What's wrong?' Yuki asked, turning towards her.
'I really just came here to talk to Vincent,' Faelo said, a pleading tone in her voice. 'I left because he wanted me to.'
'I'm here,' a husky voice murmured from the doorway. Faelo spun around on her heels to glare at Vincent as Yuki did, only probably for very different reasons.
'You drive me crazy!' she snapped. 'You call me up, outta the blue, tell me to come here, and then a month later you tell me to forget all about it? I'm here now, and you brought me here, so you might as well just come out and say it!'
She stopped only because she was short of breath, but that was enough time for Vincent to have vanished.
'Where did he go?' Yuki asked pleased that Vincent was gone but confused as to how he did it. She wished Vincent could not be around- that way, she might be able to stop thinking about Cloud's voice in her head.
You should forgive him. You don't know what he's been through.
Sometimes the words were twisted around in her head.
I know what you've been through. I forgive you.
Of course, Cloud had not said that. But she wished he had. She had never had anybody to forgive her before.
'Oh, I know where he's gone,' Faelo muttered. 'You're coming with me,' she added, grabbing Yuki's hand and towing her out of the door. 'I tend to embarrass myself when I'm alone with him.'
They walked for a little while in the open air, getting just outside Edge. Greenery began to make its appearance, growing gently on the slopes of hills. Faelo chose one of these with great expertise and walked up it with a posture that seemed like she was walking her death march- tall, proud, and a little defeated. Yuki followed, feeling curious.
Among the innocent flowers and underneath the bright sun, a cave stood. It looked out of place for a cave- a patch of darkness and death among life and happiness. Yuki walked in, hearing the tap of her boots on the stony floor. Faelo was in front of her, still marching determinedly forward.
They entered a chamber, and found themselves surrounded in a beautiful light that gleamed out from many mako crystals embedded into the floor. One of them bounced off a splash of crimson- Vincent, his back to them, sat on the floor, watching the biggest mako crystal of all.
Yuki's eyes followed his gaze. Bile rose in her throat as she saw a woman, trapped inside the crystal, her hands clasped together as though in prayer.
'The scientist,' she heard herself say. 'That's her.'
Vincent rose, gazing first at Faelo and then flicking his glance over to Yuki.
'That's her,' he agreed. Yuki did not know what to say.
'She's beautiful up close,' she eventually choked out. 'She did this to herself, didn't she…?' Yuki could tell, from the peaceful, accepting posture, that Lucrecia had indeed chosen this fate.
'Yes,' Vincent whispered. His eyes were back on Faelo, watching carefully. 'But I don't love her anymore. I've moved on.'
Faelo said nothing, but her lips curved up in a wry smile.
'You bugger,' she said, her voice full of humour. 'You're just lucky I didn't move on.'
'I know,' Vincent said. 'I'm sorry.'
That was the instant when Yuki found she was able to forgive him. He was a better person than she had believed, and she had assumed his life had been easy. She smiled to herself, leaving the cave. Perhaps she should allow Faelo to embarrass herself, this time.
She entered the bar quietly, clicking the door shut behind her. She turned, to see Cloud sitting once again on a chair in the middle of the bar, looking out the window. As she approached, he looked at her.
'I forgave him,' she said instantly. Cloud gave her a small smile, and nodded.
'So…will you forgive me?' she asked, her voice becoming small.
'Forgive you for what?'
'Just…for being me. I judge people too fast and I hurt people on command-'
She stopped, feeling stupid. His eyes made her feel small, and she suddenly wondered why she was blurting out words to somebody who she didn't even know very well.
He seemed to understand.
'It's ok. I forgive you.' He said. 'But will you forgive me?'
'What?' she was startled.
'I never had anybody to forgive me, either.'
A little while later, Yuki wiped down the benches with Tifa, getting ready for the night shift. Tifa talked quite a lot, casting a warm air of friendliness around the bar. Yuki only half-listened, as always.
'What are you going to wear?' Tifa's question broke into her reverie.
'What?'
'To the party! Remember, I told you it was AVALANCHE's party?'
'When's that again?'
'The day after tomorrow! Don't tell me you forgot! Oh no, we have to get you something to wear!'
Yuki sighed. It was going to be a long week.