A/N: Wow, I'm so glad everyone likes my story so much. Makes me happy to know my fics are appreciated. : ) Yeah, bleh, work. I'd rather take Lexi's place, lol. No school work, no adults to listen to you. Just a fantasy world and a bunch of hot guys. Lol. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Violence!!
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Chapter Six "Falling Apart"
Her head spinning from that afternoon's events, Lexi sat up in the tower room, gazing out the window. She supposed that things could have gone worse at Edge, a lot worse, but it also made her remember all the things Kadaj had done. And was capable of doing. Those facts had conveniently slipped from her mind, until now. Shaking her head slowly, she ran a hand through her now dry and very wind tousled blonde hair. Standing, she stretched her arms over her head. Leaning her forehead against the glass, she watched the sun sinking below the trees, alighting them momentarily gold instead of their usual pure white. She heard footsteps behind her and started to turn, but a pair of arms slid around her waist. She frowned a little, but the frown faded as a light kiss was laid to the side of her neck. She assumed it was Kadaj. Until he spoke.
"I like your new style," he purred in his velvet voice.
"Yazoo!" she exclaimed, pulling away and turning.
"Who did you think it was?" he teased.
She took a step back, but bumped into the window, having forgotten it was so close. "I…" she started, but the rest of her words died in her throat.
"I was hoping you would forgive me for yesterday. I didn't mean to upset you," he said, brushing a stray lock of her hair back from her face.
She tried again to speak, but failed; how was she supposed to tell him about…? She shook her head slowly.
"You can't stay mad forever," he said, bowing his head until he was gazing at her through a veil of silver hair.
Any other time that look would have melted her into a series of mindless babbling, but not now. Now, she wanted to tell him; how did he know that? He didn't know her, she didn't know him! She'd only been here for three days. Only that long? To her it felt like much longer.
"Y-Yazoo," she managed, averting her eyes, "It's…not you." She slipped away and walked to the opposite side of the room.
With a puzzled sigh, he turned. "Than what is it?" he asked.
"I…It's…" she stopped, blinking at the wall for a moment before turning to him. She knew that something bad was going to come of this, but it would be even worse if she didn't tell him. "…Kadaj…"
For a moment, he frowned, than he realized what she meant. "Him? Him…" he repeated, "Over me?"
She took a step back, "Please…understand," she started. The anger starting in his eyes scared her.
"You are alone with him for a few hours and he…" the rest of his words faded off into a growl as he swept from the room, taking the stairs two at a time.
"Yazoo!" she called after him, starting down the stairs as well.
He didn't even pause, and she had to struggle to keep up.
"Yazoo, please!" she said again, trying but failing to match his stride.
Outside, Kadaj was by the spring, absently tossing in small pebbles.
"How dare you, brother," Yazoo said angrily.
Startled, Kadaj looked up, standing. "What are you talking about?" he asked with a frown. His gaze flickered to Lexi, and perhaps he saw her expression, or how pale she was.
"You knew how I felt and still you…" Yazoo shook his head, stopping a few yards from his brother.
Kadaj finally seemed to understand, "This is about-" he looked to Lexi again, who had warily stopped even farther away from them, "You made no claims to her-" he began.
"But you knew; it was obvious," Yazoo interrupted.
"Of course it was obvious," Kadaj snapped, a hint of jealousy in his tone, "The way you kept standing up for her? The way you looked at her? Why do you think I left her to you?"
"Than why?" Yazoo demanded.
"You had your chance," his younger brother said, "Now she's mine."
Lexi stood watching them with wide eyes, a little hurt, along with being afraid. They were talking about her almost as if she were some inanimate object for one to own, not a living, thinking person. She'd had never imagined that she'd be standing here, watching this scene unfold before her. Had never wanted to think that this could possibly be happening.
"But I had her first," Yazoo said quietly. His tone was oddly calm, and that somehow made it worse. He drew Velvet Nightmare from his side and leveled it at his brother, "Can't you understand that?"
Kadaj appeared genuinely surprised. "Yazoo…" he started.
"I had her first," he said again, "And you had no right to take her."
And then he fired. Lexi jumped as if she had been shot, her heart racing faster than it seemed humanly possible. She watched with fearful eyes as Kadaj easily dodged to the side. Even from this distance, she could see his hurt expression, as if he couldn't believe that his own brother had just shot at him-with the intention to wound him if not worse. But in a second, that had faded to anger, and he drew Souba. Yazoo shot at him again, and again he dodged, starting towards him now.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Lexi shouted at them, but they paid her no attention.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Loz emerge from around the side of the Capital, saw his eyes widen at the sight of his brothers fighting each other. He started towards them, hesitating for a second, possibly because he didn't want to get shot accidentally. But than he jumped between them, or tried to, to separate them. It was a failed attempt, but he tried again.
"Stop it!" She shouted again, tears pricking her eyes and threatening to fall. "I'm not either of yours!" her voice rose till it was almost a scream.
She hoped to catch their attention, make them stop, something, anything. Nothing came of her words; it was as if she were invisible standing there. She saw one of Yazoo's shots graze Kadaj's cheek, drawing blood, and saw the latter's eyes widen slightly at this in surprise. She took a step back, almost tripping, and shook her head, tears blurring her vision. She couldn't stand it any more, unable to do anything, just watching them all fight. She just couldn't. She turned, started blindly off into the Forest. She didn't know where she was going; she just…couldn't watch them anymore.
Everything was falling apart, going to hell. Just when things had been getting better. Behind her, she could hear Loz shouting at them to stop, but from the sounds of things, they weren't listening to him either. With a cry of rage and sorrow she spun, slamming her fist into one of the pearly white tree trunks. Pain shot up her arm and the bark tore the skin on her knuckles. Stumbling, she still continued walking, not really feeling the pain at all. She knew she would later though, and would regret it, but now she didn't care. It had made her feel a little better at least. Only a little, not enough. She didn't know how deep into the woods she went, or in what direction, she just knew that she continued until she couldn't hear the gunfire or their shouting any more.
She had never had any one fight over her before, had never even seen a fight before. It seemed that a lot of things she'd never experienced before were happening now. Unfair, cruel world that it was-and it wasn't even her world! Back home guys would just have fist fights; they didn't have swords or guns. But she wasn't back home, she told herself bitterly, this was her reality now and she was going to have to deal with it. Eventually, she stopped. Half because she was utterly out of breath and half because her legs were shaking so bad she didn't think she could continue. She leaned against a tree, raising a shaking hand to wipe away the tears that had made silent tracks down her face. As she did this, she happened to glance at the back of her hand and saw that it was streaked with blood from her torn knuckles. She could feel it stinging now.
Suddenly, she became aware of footsteps heading towards her, twigs snapping under foot and brush being shoved aside. Some one who, like her, wasn't bothering to be quiet. This some one turned out to be Kadaj, and as she watched him approaching, she thought that he seemed exhausted. He was limping slightly, there was blood in his silver hair, along with dried blood streaked down the side of his face, and there was a bruise darkening over his other cheek.
"There you are," he said, and if she'd thought he'd be glad to find her, she was wrong. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" he growled. He grabbed her by the shoulders and roughly pushed her back against the tree.
She winced a little. "I…after everything…" she started, voice trembling.
Before she could finish, he back handed her across the face. Her head rocked back, and she thought she could almost feel her teeth rattle as a metallic tang filled her mouth. He had released her, and she slid sideways, falling to the ground. Pushing herself up on one hand, she raised the other to her face, where both her cheek and lip had split and were now bleeding. When she touched the cuts, pain throbbed and she grimaced a little. She half raised her gaze to him, stunned by the blow, and found that she couldn't meet his eyes.
"You can never leave," he snapped, "You're mine, I won't let you leave."
His eyes were wild with anger, and she had to admit to herself that right now she was terrified of him.
"K-Kadaj?" she said, tears blurring her vision once more.
"What?" he said mockingly, "Are you going to cry now? You're pathetic."
"I can't believe you!" Lexi burst, stung by his words, "How can…how can you act like this?"
He didn't reply as he continued to gaze down at her for a moment more. Than with a growl he spun and started off through the woods again.
"You're just…" she started, gazing after him from where she lay, "Just going to leave me?"
He didn't stop.
"Fine!" she said angrily through her tears, trying to get to her feet, "Fuck you." The words were out of her mouth before she even realized it.
At this he turned again, stalked back over to her. In an instant, he reached down, grabbed her by the neck, and dragged her to her feet. "What did you say?" he demanded, slamming her back against the tree.
"I…I didn't mean…" she managed.
"Don't you dare ever speak to me that way again," he said.
"Kadaj," she whimpered, pulling at his hand. She couldn't breathe; he was choking her.
But then he suddenly let her go, and she slid to the ground, gasping in air. She kept her head bent, gazing at the forest floor, as she heard him turn and walk away. Fresh tears came to her eyes again as she scrambled unsteadily to her feet. She turned back to the direction she'd been headed and kept going. If he expected her to come back now, he was wrong. She'd thought that he… And now everything was falling apart. Her foot caught on a vine, twisting her ankle, and she fell. Somewhat ignoring the throbbing that said she'd possibly sprained her ankle, she drew her knees up to her chest, lowered her head to her hands, and cried.