A/N: Sorry! I've been so late with this update, but let's just say I've had a lot on my plate, ranging from my birthday to the Olympics, to stress about school…
Anyway, I am in kinda a low mind state right now (depression), which means that this update is probably pretty crap, but hey, it's a start.
Disclaimer: No-one belongs to me except Yuki & Lee, Faelo to friend, everyone else to Square-Enix.
Chapter 8
Lee
Somebody had freed her. That was the first thing she knew, as her eyes snapped open in the hospital ward. She could see the pitted ceiling, unobscured by greenish liquid or glass. Such harsh light, too bright, too bright... She covered her eyes with a pale green arm and screamed. It emerged out of her throat as a gurgling, animal sound. She gurgled again, feeling the rasp of her cry against her throat. Finally, her weak thrashing subsided. The darkness reached again for her with its black wings, and she surrendered to it.
When she next awoke, her ears suffered, listening to the boom of voices no longer muffled by the bubbling tank. They were so loud that all she could hear was the boom and bellow of them, the essence, as though they were, sails filling up and then flapping with emptiness. She could not understand the words.
The final time, she found that her eyes and ears had adjusted to the light and sound. She stared at the ceiling for some time, amazed at the beauty of the new colour she had found. Grey was everywhere and she adored it. She was still a green creature- the liquid in her tank had dyed her hair, her skin, even the inside of her mouth. She had taken ten years of it.
She often heard voices, but never saw anybody; although beside her bed were a jug of water and a cup. She smashed the cup by accident, as she scrabbled for the healing drink, gulping it down and then laughing hoarsely in delight when the rest of the jug poured unexpectedly onto her bed. It was cold, and pure.
The first person she saw came into her room bearing another jug that same day. She fell in love with him instantly.
His black hair was cropped short, and his chin sprouted a little stubble. His eyes were as dark as her own, a pitch-black nightmare. He looked around thirty, wearing a businesslike suit that tried to hide the experienced muscle the shirt could not help outlining. He said his name was Lee. She never questioned that.
To her, Lee was an amazing new thing, new colours, new sounds, and new smells. She would hold onto his arm and beg him not to leave every time that he came - and his teeth would flash in a small, irritated smile. She was just a ten-year-old girl to him, not particularly interesting, but possibly useful depending on how much mako had been injected into her system- and her dark eyes said none. She held none of that electric-blue power.
Despite that, the blood tests she underwent showed a huge amount of power. Her eyes, it showed, had been dyed with a special pigment- she was designed to hide her power. She did not care about any of it, as long as it pleased Lee. He was happy, and he would come more often now, laughing, joking, and a break from the boring, mute doctors and nurses that normally came to see her. She found she had begun to grow again, slowly. Lee began to teach her how to fight. She would wait, heart pounding, for the moment that his fist connected with her, feeling the admirable force behind the blow, letting him hurt her so that she could touch him.
Her obsession was dangerous. Lee saw her devotion, manipulated it, used it, making sure that nobody else got close to her, treating her specially. She moved out of the hospital, and into a camp where Lee's followers were, plotting against Shinra. It was a place where all the new recruits trained. She was separate from them, Lee's pet, his precious one, his perfect assassin. The green glow began to fade from her skin, and now she could blend in normally, although she never spoke very much to other people.
At the age of twelve, her revenge against Shinra began.
Yuki woke in Faelo's apartment. She stared up at the white wall, and thought, for a single moment, that she was still in the hospital. The phone rang, and her hand automatically flew to answer it.
'Hey, Lee.'
'Yuki, we have a problem.'
'What's up now?'
'Two more targets.' There was a hesitant pause on the other side of the phone. Yuki groaned.
'They aren't in Midgar, are they?'
'No, they are not. Please Yuki, do this for me.'
Part of her adoration stirred again, although she had buried it deep. 'Fine. But afterwards, I'm coming back to Midgar.'
'I will accept that.'
'Where are they?'
'Nibelheim. However, I would appreciate it if you could finish off your last target before you go.'
'Whatever.'
She hung up, and stared for a while back at the ceiling, thinking about Lee's voice. It was the part of him she had loved most, back then.
However, she was not the perfect assassin that he had thought she would be. She had broken down after her first killing- she had seen right through Lee. She had understood him completely for the first time. The adoration she had felt turned to hate.
'Damn you, Lee,' she muttered.
All of a sudden, an apparition floated into her bedroom and let out a noise that may have been something between a whimper and a groan.
'O-oh, Nooo…' Faelo muttered.
'What?'
'The party… it's in an hour…' She whimper/groaned again, expressing an impressive talent for animal noises. Yuki felt herself smile as she returned back to the present. That happiness was quickly replaced by a creeping dread. She would have to go to this party too.
'And Tifa's coming to get us readyyy,' Faelo made a face. 'Yuck.'
Yuki smiled in delight as she swept into the party room. Of course, this may have had something to do with the large, black cape that she had been permitted to wear, disguising the dress completely. Faelo looked equally happy beside her, having found a pair of red boots that let her kick anybody who dared to come close.
'Hi!!' This from Yuffie, who accompanied it with a cannon-ball type hug. 'I wanna introduce to Cid and Red XIII and Cait Sith and Reeve!!'
Yuki tried to nod seriously at them all, but she could not help smiling.
Red XIII was a stunning wolf-like, battle-scarred creature, his good eye glittering with human intelligence and wisdom.
Reeve was a serious businessperson, greeting her with a professional, succinct attitude.
Cait Sith seemed to be a strange, robotic creature, deferring to Reeve before he was allowed to meet her, then chatting to her non-stop.
Cid, his hair cropped short, wore a pair of pilot air goggles, and looked to be around thirty. She laughed when he knocked something and swore the air blue, an incident that she had been warned would happen.
She greeted them absentmindedly, scanning the room for the other faces: Vincent, Barrett, Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Denzel, Marlene, and…
'Faelo, do you know those two guys there?'
'Whaty-what?'
'That guy, with the red hair who looks as though I'm gonna bite his head off, and the one next to him, wearing sunglasses at night-time, who are they?'
'Ah. Could it be that they look that way because you are going to bite their heads off?'
'Why would I do that?'
'Well, um, the red-haired one's called Reno, and the sunglasses guy is called Rude.'
'That doesn't answer my question.'
'They are…Turks.'
Yuki paused, listening for a moment to the quiet chatter of the room. Then, slowly, she frowned.
'I don't feel anything at all.'
Tifa came up beside them, smiling. 'So, you have met everybody now.'
'Yeah, I guess.'
'Did you think it would be bigger? Everybody else- all the sub-members of AVALANCHE- are arriving about an hour later. It will get really packed then!'
Her eyes shone with excitement as Yuki cringed.
She made her way over to the large group, blending in so that she did not have to talk much. She watched Reno quizzically, trying to muster up some form of anger.
A large, strong hand gripped her arm. Tobacco smoke permeated the air around her with its distinctive scent.
'Come here for a bloody second, before you scare both the shit and the piss out of Reno.'
Obediently, Yuki followed Cid until they stood outside in the crisper air, where she was able to sit far enough away that the tobacco would not make her sneeze. Cid puffed on his dented cigarette for a while. Then he flung it on the ground as though it were a personal insult to him, stamping on its flame until it was black, and rotted.
'I hear you had one hell of a problem on yer hands,' he called to her, folding his arms and frowning.
'And who told you that?' she shot back.
'Who d'you think, the bloody man on the moon?'
She relaxed for a moment. 'Cloud told you.'
'He also mentioned that you hate all of those damn Shinra bastards, that right?'
'Yes.' She narrowed her eyes. 'Not to mention their bodyguards.'
Cid coughed a laugh.
The pad of soft paws sounded behind her. She swung to face the battle-scarred Red XIII, hiding her surprise at his quiet approach.
'You say that, but you do not hate Reno or Rude, correct?'
'No.' she whispered the word, afraid to admit it.
'Then maybe, it's about damn time you stopped getting over your ! prejudices and started !# doin' something about it!' Cid muttered, easily enough for her to hear.
Yuki sighed. Tifa had been right- she did like Cid, and his direct manner of speech. He reminded her, just a little, of a Lee who had had a rough upbringing, but who was a much better person because of it. She liked Red too, with his mysterious manner, wisdom, and deep sense of perception.
As she walked back into the party, she looked at them all, the people who she wanted to stay with, who she wanted to know better. They were standing together, laughing, and as she approached, they turned, smiling, to greet her, and enfold her into their lives again.
'Sorry, I have to make a phone call.' She excused herself politely, going back outside, listening to the birdcall and the rustle of the trees in the darkness. Her happiness turned back into numbness as she punched the number she knew so well into her mobile.
'Yuki?'
'I don't hate them anymore, Lee.'
'But-'
'I won't do it anymore.' She heard the crackle of his sigh on the other line. He knew she was serious. She knew what it meant.
'They'll be coming for you. I cannot stop them.'
'I know.'
'I will try though, Yuki.' His voice was breaking on the other line. She knew it was because his dreams for her had failed. She would no longer be there, beside him always, devoted. She had not felt that devotion for nine years, but he had always believed that it would happen again, one day.
'I believe you. But I can face them.'
'Goodbye.'
'Goodbye, Lee.'
She hung up, and wiped her face with one arm. A few tears had fallen, but no more.
The crackle of dry leaves gave away his presence, and she turned to face him. She felt his familiar gaze, now wary. Cloud spoke.
'Who's coming? I need to know everything.'
…
That's all for now, thanks for reading, sorry about the crap writing…