Disclaimer: we all know I don't own anything from FF7. No characters. No locations. No vehicles. No Chocobo. All I own is myself, and I'm not even sure about that one.
Oh well, at least this story's mine. See, I can see the silver lining to every Cloud ...:-p
Sorry, couldn't help that one :-p
Don't upset the Lifestream... I want to share the fun too. Wait for meeeeeeeeeee!
Part 1: Dark Baptism
He frightened her. Kadaj was so unlike anyone else she had ever met. This, her instincts told her, was not a person to be trusted. They had kidnapped her for a reason.
She had to find a way to escape them.
But it was not easy. It seemed that they knew what she was thinking and the little girl was thereafter closely guarded by the one called Loz. She could just watch as Kadaj did his little brainwashing on the children. And as they came forward, she saw Denzel among them. What was he doing here? How had the men gotten hold of him? He was not really going to drink that strange water, was he?
"Denzel!"
The boy looked unsure for a moment and stood poised with the water cupped in his hands as he looked around him; he had heard Marlene calling out his name, but that would not stop him. It simply hardened his resolve to be cured. He drank.
"Denzel!"
Marlene could not believe it! Denzel had drunk that odious water! That Kadaj man had done something to it, and now, all the children were acting strange… like zombies! Marlene broke free from Loz's hold on her and ran to Denzel. But however she called out his name or shook him, there was no breaking that strange spell that had taken hold of her friend.
Marlene felt like crying, but that would not help them, would it? She had to find a way to get them both out of here…
"Hey, Kadaj, someone's coming"
Yazoo looked over at Kadaj as the latter grinned.
"It seems that our big brother is coming to pay us a visit. How nice. Let's organize a welcoming committee for him!"
Silently, the children climbed up the trees, to lie there in wait of their 'elder brother'.
Marlene squeezed Denzel's arm as he moved to the nearest tree, wordless, with frighteningly changed, empty eyes. A single anguished cry burst in her heart as she followed him up to make sure he didn't hurt himself... or did anything stupid.
'Oh, Denzel!'
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"Cloud!"
Marlene's cry ripped through the silent night, stilling Kadaj's hand as he was about to strike the blond warrior down. That moment was all that Cloud needed to grab Tsurugi and get a chance to fight back.
..Run!...
Marlene tried to pull Denzel with her, but he refused to move.
...Leave him, he can't hear you now. He will be all right. Run! I will take you to a safe place...
Marlene nodded and ran. She was guided by that voice, away from the scene of the battle. Somehow, she trusted it; she had faith that she would meet someone soon, someone who would help her get back to Edge and to Tifa.
She ran.
Author's Notes:
I'm sorry about the long wait. I've been away for a long time, and a lot of things, not all of them good, happened. My muse kinda deserted me in all of this, and 'After the End' kinda slipped away from my attention. Once again, my sincerest apologies.
This story is definitely not dead.
This chapter is a kind of transitionnal one... it fit nowhere in either the chapter preceding it, or the one coming after. I wanted to explain how Marlene found Cloud and Vincent when the brothers could not; i mean, the probability for a kid that size to find two hiding adults who know the terrain are really, really slim.
I'll be changing the summary soon enough; Vincent is still the principal character, but I also want to explain and explore some other things/characters in this. I know i could do it in another series of short stories, but i like the flow. An unbroken chain of related event, like. No ' do-you-remember-what-i wrote-in that-other-story'. So we'll follow the AC storyline for some more but patience, my friends. ;-) Dirge of Cerberus should be hot on its heels and i promise that there will be more Vincent!
Take care
Celeste