Kagome sighed as she wandered aimlessly through the hotel, forbidden from leaving. It wasn't long until she bumped into Cloud, the bodyguard. She liked him just fine, although she did pity him for working under Rue. "Oh Mr. Strife. How are you?"
Startled, the tall spiky blond male looked back to the boss's fiancé, and instantly bowed lightly to her, "Oh, madam. I'm…alright." He nervously murmured out to her, his sea green eyes looked away from the petite woman.
Kagome smiled softly and since there was nobody in the lobby hall of the hotel, she told him, "Its okay, you know. I know you're trying to help me by tipping off some folks. But really, you don't have to do that."
"…!" Cloud looked up in panic, "H-how did you…"
"Trust me; I'm not that stupid…Which I might be, for falling for Rue's charms… However, I do have a good set of eyes and ears." Kagome then suddenly frowned, "You better get out while you still can. Rue, sooner or later, will find out." She looked at a framed painting on a wall, her hands clasped behind her back, seemingly lost in thoughts. Cloud sighed, looked at the floor, unsure of what to do.
At first, he only came to work for Rue, unaware of what the man did for a living, believing that he was a good and popular businessman, like everyone else thought he was. But over time, he had gained trust of Rue and he was tossed into the dangerous life of the drug supplier unwillingly. Cloud soon grew disgusted with him and also felt guilty for the lives that the drugs had ruined, so it wasn't long until he started working with a pair of oddball PIs named Barret Wallace and Cid Highwind and joined a group. Of course, the kind woman is also a reason for his betrayal of his own boss.
She didn't deserved to be dragged through this.
Sure, Rue had some odd, twisted sense of love for her but Cloud was sure as hell that Kagome, once upon a time, may had loved him, but no longer held any fondness for her fiancé. He knew she wanted out but she couldn't risk it for the sake of her family and friends.
Cloud's lips thinned and looked up with confidence, "Don't worry, miss, we'll get out of this."
Kagome looked away from that painting and looked at him, "You think so?" She gave him a tiny smile, "Must be nice to have a pipe dream, Mr. Strife…" Kagome then said a farewell to him and walk past him. She always made sure to say her farewells because she did not know whether it would be her last day or not.
"But it's not a pipe dream. I promise." Cloud said to himself quietly. "Not if I don't want it to be."
-DKS-
"Bloody shit, man! Are we sure we're going after this shit?" The thick white smoke went out through his clenched teeth. His partner could tell he hadn't bathe and shaved in a few days, from the thick stubbles on his jaw and the grease in his hair, all in due of a case they got.
"Aw, shuddup, Cid-fool! I wanna go after him! After what he did to my family, me, and my best friend, I'm going after him! For my Marlene!" The dark-skinned, large bulky male bellowed out, waving around his metal artificial arm, "We ain't stopping the train if we're on it, my man!"
Cid grunted, used to his antics, even if it had already attracted eyes in the bar they're in. "Aw, shut the fuckin' hell up, Barret." He gulped down his cheap whiskey, the cancer stick burning up to the filter. "'Side, if what Strife said to us is true, Takashi may be the guy we're after."
"If it wasn't bad en'gh, he reckoned that he's going after Jenova, The Heartless Soldier. There's going to be a big hellva war in Gotham City." Barret slammed his real hand onto the table, a noticeable sneer on his dark face, "Going to be a bloody hell for real, man. Not even the Batman could stop it."
Cid agreed with him, "Because it's going to be a big out war in our big, good, old United States of A."
It was good thing that everybody in the bar, the Seventh Heaven, knew enough to keep their mouths shut, because they too are trying to find a way to stop the drug dealing, most especially Sephiroth himself, because of what he had done to everybody.
Cloud Strife was one of the newest members of the group but he was the most important one out of the all, because he carried very valuable information from Rue. Barret was the one who started it, the anti-'drug' group called AVALANCHE. Why he had called it, nobody knows. Not even himself.
The next person who had joined was a strange male named InuYasha Taisho. He was a bit odd looking, what with his hair and all. No one is sure why he had joined; just that a woman who he knew and loved was trapped in a relationship she didn't want, with a 'Big Man' himself. He was just filled with secrecy. Currently, he went out late again, looking for that woman he loved, mostly likely to have a ticket for loitering again by now. But they still kept him because he always got information they needed to keep on going.
Cid, Barret's closest friend, was the next to join. Like him, he used to be in military, the Air Force, to be exact while Barret was in the Navy. Cid had a thing for airplanes and all things flying. He barely remembered that Cid wanted to fly in space when they were kids. Anyway, he's tough little bastard and could be very persistence if he need to be.
"Blah, fuck. So what's our next step, o' buddy?" Barret grunted as he sipped his can of beer, ignoring the small rut he had made into the wood of the table, knowing that the bartender was going to scorn him about it later.
"Eh, that's the problem. We don't know. I guess we'll to keep work at it, the investigation, I mean. Maybe they'll have some boat and we'll go at it like the Boston Tea Party or some'g." Cid grunted as he crushed his finished cigarette into ashtray and draw out the new one from his crushed pack. "You have a light?"
Barret grunted and toss him a lighter from his jacket's pocket. "Well, I guess it's about time to gather up the folks and have a meeting to see what they think. Sometimes, they got one helluva good idea." Cid agreed. They did not want to see their country go up in the flame just from the drug lords' brawl over their position of being the number one. They knew one thing.
-DKS-
"Barbara, what are you doing?" The Batman frowned as Batgirl appeared on the rooftop with him, just as he was keeping an eye on the building Rue was in. Batgirl frowned at his expression, it seemed like he actually did not want her or anyone else even. "Well, you have been acting a little weird lately… So I'm a little worried." She tried to assure him that she just was there to check on him, but Batman definitely was in the bad mood, or at least because of a certain someone was disputing his mission.
She knew one thing; whatever or whoever compelled him to go after a seemly innocuous group that was simply supplying drugs but she forgot one thing as long she had been working with the Bat family. Never, ever judge the book by its cover.Of course she didn't know much of the details, just that he was going after somebody. Alfred, although he knew more, only gave her and Dick vague facts and that it was personal for him and warned them to stay out of his businesses. Dick, of course, heeded the warning but Barbara, being the idiot, love-sick teenaged girl she was, did not and had stubbornly gone after the Batman.
The Dark Knight presently wanted to be left. He just wants to save a certain lovely maiden, was that too much to ask for? But of course, Barbara just had to drop by!
That damned, stupid girl. He should have never accepted her as his sidekick in the first place.
"Go. I prefer to do it by myself. Why don't you take care of some business elsewhere?" He punctured that word with heavy stress, the stern deep within his voice.
Batgirl growled out, "Was this some bitch making you do this?!"
And of course, she just had to make it personal for herself. Batman narrowed his hidden eyes on her and warned her, "Do not make this even worse for yourself, Barbara. You should know that every time you make it your business, it usually does not work out very well in the end. Go."
The Batgirl growled out and stomped her foot childishly, "I don't want to!"
Batman glared at her, "Fine, then you're no longer my partner. You'll be strip of your attires and your weapons by the morning. I'll call your father to pick you up." He was chillingly calm, yet brutally rejected her at the same time and called Dick to take her away from him, making a mental note to call Lieutenant Gordon later. Bruce knew it was a rushed decision but he had been debating about it a lot recently. Barbara had not been doing too good fighting crimes as of late, letting the offenders get away quite a bit. He knew Gordon was not happy with her as well.
"What?! You can't do this to me!" Batgirl wailed out and Batman cursed out, realizing that she'll attract attention.
"Barbara, you're jeopardizing everything! Shut up!" He hissed out through his clenched teeth, his masked face twisted into anger.
Just in time, Dick, as Nightwing, appeared and immediately went after Barbara and clasped her mouth with his hands, "Sorry, boss, I'll take care of her." As much he wanted to help Batman, he knew it was personal and was smart enough to stay out of this unless he asked him to help him. But Barbara, however… It was the last straw for the Dark Knight. He basically fired her, in the better lack of word. As much as Dick was fond of her, he knew they could never be just because she was much too distracted with Batman.
Barbara sobbed, muffled from the hand over her mouth, thick tears running over her cheeks. Dick wanted to empathize with her but realized that she brought it on herself. He then knocked her out cold with a pressure point in her neck and tossed her over his shoulder and quietly left the Batman alone.
Batman took several deep breaths to calm down, now realizing that everything had just happened over the matter of minutes and that some thugs just heard them. Batman quietly left his perch and headed over to a different rooftop.
An hour passed, his mind no longer troubled with Barbara incident and something was happening. He grabbed his binoculars and spotted what he believed was Rue discussing, perhaps business, with a round man and a slender, flashy woman. They looked familiar to him.
"Wait."
"Hello, Mr. Wayne! I would love to make acquaintance with you! My name is Scarlett…"It was that same woman who tried to get into his pants from the day he first met the lovely, gentle woman named Kagome. Of course that woman had that round man with her but he couldn't remember what his name was. He made another mental note to look them up later. But now, Batman was curious of what they were talking about.
He frowned for several seconds but he turned his hearing equipment on and focused them onto the trio, making sure to drown out of all of the usual city noise. The hearing equipment was the newest technology his company just created, first designed to assist those without hearing, but naturally, Batman added them to his attire. But now was the time to test them out.
"- it a go, Mr. Takahashi." The woman stated out, looking at the round man,
"Eh, sounded fun. I'm not very fond of Eastern countries, too damn weird….But boss, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean your fiancé did come from there. If I remember it right, she was a fucking force to be reckoned with." The round man bounced from his foot to another, the amusement was plain to be seen on his fat face. The tall, slender man, who Batman knew it to be Rue, the very man he was going after for the sake of the lovely Kagome, suddenly, in a blink of his eyes, kicked the round man into his stomach.
The fat man then fell back on the floor, rolling around like a ball as he was clenching his stomach. Rue scoffed at the pitiful sight the plump man was making, "I have told you time and time again about using language in my presence. And you are not to mention my Kagome in such laymen terms." The woman took a step back, fanning her red fan nervously all the while keeping her laughter in bay. Dear people above, Terrence is so damn funny when he's rolling around like an overflowed beach ball.
The Batman narrowed his eyes, after his surprise had worn off when Rue had kicked the chubby man's stomach. They said something about the Eastern countries… Wait. Are they going after the Eastern hemisphere as well?
Was this man truly trying to take over the world or something?
"With that aside, I do hope you're completing the arrangements for Sydney's funeral, Scarlett." Rue did not even take a look at the flushed woman-whore as he was lighting up his cigarette and took a deep breath of it. "Oh, yes. I believe it would be beautiful… that is if you approve of it, Mr. Takahashi." She breathed out, trying her best to ignore the scene the chunky man was making from the ground.
"Include the white roses and white roses only. I could care less about where we're burying him, much less tossing his body into a river." He mindlessly commended out as he watched blankly of the swirling of his cigarette's smoke drifted off into the night sky.
"Yes, boss." The hag woman purred out, failing at her latest attempt of seducing him. "So are you doing anything about his suicide? Investigate it at much less?" She mused, as she realized that Sydney's suicide was a bit odd.
Batman did not dwell much on the fact that he had driven a man to committed suicide, but really. It was his choice. But he still remained to see if he could learn more. "It doesn't matter. He made his choice and he was nothing more than a pawn in my game." Rue chillingly told them, ignoring Terrence's noises of his struggles to get up on his feet.
The cigarette burned brightly red as he took another deep breath of his addiction, walking back to the hotel. But as he was about to enter the building, he stopped and glanced briefly back to the duo, "Oh, yes, before I forget, exactly after a week after Sydney's funeral, I'll be marrying my darling Kagome so you best to prepare the wedding arrangements too. That's all." A nimble doorman opened the door for him and he coolly walked in, ignoring his useless pawns' response.
Batman then cursed out internally. So that means he would have to get her out before the wedding started. "Seems like it's only going to get harder before it gets better," he grumbled to himself, not liking the fact that there were so many setbacks he'd have to get through.
He then shifted so to move away from the hotel after he saw the duo had followed. His hearing equipment was not modified yet to hear through the thick wall. But he stopped when he saw someone on the rooftop, smiling at him. He gasped as he realized who it was and grappled his way over there.
Batman's feet made contact on the hotel's rooftop and found their way toward her. But soon, his logic caught up to him and stopped himself so he wouldn't make himself a fool. But she smiled and walked over to him, "Mr. Wayne, how are you?"
The Batman reeled back in surprise, not aware that she already knew his identity. His mouth was open, a show of his surprise.
The woman still smiled and looked up in the starless sky, "I already knew. But don't worry, I won't tell nobody. Why else do you think I told you who's my fiancé was?" Her bright brown eyes dulled, as she remembered who she belonged to was.
"Kagome, When's your wedding?"
"Exactly a week after the funeral, on a Monday." She sighed, her fingers pulled her gray turtleneck up to her lips to occupy herself from that thought. The Batman's lips thinned, unsure of what to do as he looked at the young Asian beauty. "You know-," She gave a dry, humorless chuckle, "-Rue is a pretty good actor. He sure fooled me."
"Kagome, I-"
He blinked as she looked away from the sky and interrupted him, "I have a friend and I think he would help you stop Rue and Sephiroth. Because if we don't… There's going to be wars everywhere in America and soon, it will spend everywhere across the Eastern countries as well as the southern countries. There will be no mercy for those who are neutral and innocent.
It doesn't matter whether if you have superpowers, all that will matter is your ability to cause wars or to stop them. It doesn't matter who wins, there will still be deaths. Mr. Wayne. No, Batman, please stop Rue. Stop Sephiroth… Just stop them." The twin of salty rivers then fell from her watery eyes as she choked back a sob. Batman remained in silence.
"And to think, he'll start a war with Jenova a day after I marry him." It was so quiet; the Batman was straining to hear her.
"Not if I could stop it, Kagome." He reached her cheek and brushed away the tears, noticed that her adorable nose was slightly red.
She gave him a watery smile, "I hope so…"
She passed something into his hand, "This is my instruction of how to get to a place my friend is in. He probably doesn't know how well I know what he had been doing. When you get there, do expect to see some hostility from some people. You may have to protect yourself at the start but try to not attract outside attention. They worked too hard keeping it a secret.
"They're a group called AVALANCHE and they had been following Sephiroth's tracks for some time now and just recently started following Rue's. Everyone in the group has a personal reason for being there so please don't probe them too much unless it is an absolute necessity… I'm not ordering you to do anything, but if you want to stop Rue and Jenova, they're the best people to go to."
He looked at the paper with an address, a few names, and some words on it. "Do you wish to be saved at all?"
"Yes, but I want you to save the people that don't deserve to lose their lives." Kagome sighed and heard someone was coming up and told him, "You better go now."
