Chapter Tres

A/N: As always, please review!

Chapter Three:

Through her hazy mind and clouded vision, Harper could tell little of her surroundings except that they had a terrible stench, as of things decaying. What light she could see was fragmented as if she was looking through cloth…and she was…blindfolded. She wanted to reach up and pull it off, but her hands were firmly tied behind her back. A tug on her feet told her they were bound too, but differently. A door groaned in opening and closing; footsteps neared.

"Loz, you could do nothing better?" Kadaj. Harper hadn't known for sure whom she was with, but had had a fairly good idea. She had been right. After she remembered her brothers' plan, pretty much all of her Shinra training in self-defense surfaced. But what was Kadaj talking about?

"I couldn't find any more—" Loz protested.

"So you tied her shoelaces together?"

Though Harper couldn't see, she was almost certain Loz gave Kadaj a death-glare before saying, "I'll undo them since apparently it's inadequate."

Kadaj scoffed and tossed something—presumably more rope or chord—and said, "Just fix it." The door was silent, so Kadaj hadn't left.

"'Just fix it,'" Loz mocked. He was close enough then as he reached for Harper's feet.

She could almost laugh at how stupid he was being as she braced her hands on the floor behind her, bringing both heels up and around in a powerful ark toward Loz's jaw. The impact sent an unexpected wave of nausea as pain shot from her ankle to her hip, but she had accomplished what she had meant to: Loz wasn't near her any more.

Kadaj sighed and probably shook his head. "I told you she would be waking up soon."

"I've been up for a while, idiots."

The door opened and closed again. "What's going on?" Yazoo.

"Loz got kicked in the face," Kadaj answered, almost laughing.

"I wasn't expecting it, and especially not so hard," Loz protested, rubbing his jaw.

"You underestimated her, and got a nicely split lip for doing so; if she could see, you'd probably be dead." Yazoo had always been the intelligent one. "And her laces?"

"He was coming to finish," Harper chimed, as if inviting them to try again.

Yazoo was going to try. "Learn," he said sternly, closer…but not within striking range. Just a little closer… Yazoo planted a foot over both her ankles, making her leg hurt again. Harper gasped at that, but that only gave her to use as force as she brought her head up to try to head-but him. He was prepared, and brought his forearm up to block the attack. "You were angry," He said to Loz, "…with Kadaj I'll assume." His job was done, and Harper could barely move her feet, but her circulation wouldn't be cut off… at least Yazoo was considerate, even if she wished him dead…along with her other two 'brothers'. Well, she could still bite.

"Why does my ankle hurt?" Harper asked before she lost the nerve to ask.

It took a moment for an answer to come, and when it did, it was from Yazoo. "It got caught in the door a few hours ago. Loz's fault," he explained. "He's having a bad day."

"Week," Loz corrected.

"Life," Kadaj re-corrected.

"Well if it is, it's your doing," Harper put in her two cents. A silence followed.

"We have to leave soon. Loz…fix your face," Kadaj finally said, then left.

"Don't cry, Loz," Yazoo consoled once Kadaj's footsteps had stopped echoing down the metal corridor. Harper guessed he was inspecting Loz's head. "You got him pretty good, Harper." She smiled. "Oh it's not that bad, you're not going to die, but that's just luck."

"You're both luck I'm tied up and blindfolded," Harper threatened.

"So we are," Yazoo replied, unconcerned.

"Am I in for another 'destination'?"

One of the two left. "No," Yazoo had stayed.

Harper frowned, "We're already there?"

"…You are…"

"Yazoo, just explain," when he didn't answer, she said, "It's not like I can run off and tell anyone."

A moment of thought, then, "We're leaving you here—"

"Where's—"

"I don't want to tell you yet." Harper swallowed her pride and let him go on. "Thank you. Four days ago we took you from Midgar, leaving a note—'We have come to dispose of our sister,' written by Kadaj—semi-explaining what happened. Kadaj meant to kill you as soon as we left Midgar, but Loz and I stepped in."

"…and?"

"And… you'll still die. Assassination just didn't seem right."

"Why? Why kill me? Don't you need me?"

"That plan was faulty; we have a new one, one that doesn't involve you. So, we'll leave you here…" he left the part about her slowly starving, out.

"Assassination didn't seem right? Over what? A slow death by starvation? Is this your idea of mercy?" The fact that Harper was confined to lying on the floor was the only thing that kept her from standing and yelling at him.

"It…I can't explain it. Normally—"

"Oh just shut up, Yazoo." Harper lay back roughly. It hurt her hands, her wrists, but she did it any way. "Go deal with your shortcomings somewhere else. Leave me here to die my slow, 'merciful' death."

She said it all not a moment too soon: Loz opened the door to tell Yazoo it was time to go.

"Ok." He got up and went to the door. "I'm sorry it all ended this way."

"Harper rolled her eyes, even though he couldn't see. "Yazoo, wait." No answer came to tell her he was still there, but she assumed he was. "Where am I?"

"I don't see why it matters."

"It just does. I can't explain it."

"Ah…"

"Well?"

"… At the bottom of the ocean, between the two continents, in the sunken Gelika. There is no way for you to leave."

The bottom of the ocean. She wanted to throw up, but only rolled onto her side and brought her knees as close to her chest as her bonds would allow. Yazoo wasn't gone.

"I loved you as a sister. You were to me…I…"

"Just go."

A moment later, the door protested being moved again, and in moments Harper's morale dropped to meet her in her new home on the bottom of the ocean.

Walking back to Bone Village through the Forgotten Forest, Vincent realized what a peaceful yet melancholy place the forest was. It seemed to contain so many memories; being there made him sleepy, made him want to stop…being a person and simply exist. But he did not want to exist alone, not even in such a … wistful place seemingly untouched by time. Time…Vincent wondered sometimes how old his thirty years of sleep had made him. He had been alive fore fifty-eight years, but his body wasn't aged past twenty-eight.

He shrugged it off wondering why he'd gotten distracted by that, as he entered Bone Village. The dig team was still there. "Planning on staying tonight?" the man at the inn/shop asked.

"No, thank you." Vincent wasn't going to give it much thought: he wanted to move on…probably to Rocket Town.

"I don't know how you do it!"

That stopped him. "What?"

"I'd never be able to sleep down there."

"Sleep? What?" What was the man talking about?

"Sure, you were down there since yesterday afternoon!"