Kamikaze Moogle

Chapter Six

Lily watched in horror as her best friend glared furiously at her with anger-steeped brown eyes, then walked out of the door. She did not move, and yet she knew that Thorn was walking out of the front door, away from Seventh Heaven. Away from Lily. Away from AVALANCHE.

---

Her eyes had not even opened yet, and still she felt as though something was terribly wrong. As her brain stirred slowly into real consciousness, Lily did not open them yet, trying to convince herself that his feeling was left over from some dream or another, but to no avail. Something was not right.

Opening gray-tinged azure optics, Lily felt a thrill of horror as she realized very quickly what the problem was. Thorn was lying beside her with her eyes closed, and yet Lily could feel the hidden orbs beneath the eyelids watching her. Veins stood out from Thorn's skin along her temples, throbbing, and when Lily's own eyes widened in fear, Thorn's snapped open, revealing the same poisoned mako eyes she had seen before.

"Thorn!" she gasped, terror she was not used to pumping in her blood. Saying her friend's name was not enough to clear Thorn's eyes this time, and Thorn continued to stare eerily.

"No," she spoke, in a voice filled with cruel amusement and malice, "not quite…" Lily rolled away from this thing that had replaced her friend, thoughts scrabbling to find some way to dispel what was happening.

Maybe it's a dream, she thought, shaking her head.

"Chicken," she said, hoping to jog something with the use of a nickname (that seemed to work in fiction writings and films sometimes) "it's me… Wake up." It worked, and Lily let out a breath of relief. Thorn blinked, looking confused.

"Lil, what's wrong?" she said. Lily knew it was getting worse from the expression on Thorn's face. She didn't even remember at all now, whereas before it had just been blurry. And hadn't she claimed to be 'not quite' Thorn? That was a new and disturbing development.

"Chicken," said Lily, "we have to find a way to stop this. You're getting worse, you know that, don't you?" She could see in Thorn's eyes a flicker of an answer that didn't make it past her lips. Lily knew that Thorn did know.

"I…don't know what happened…" Thorn said, sitting up and rubbing her temples, where the veins had ceased to pop.

"I got that…" grumbled Lily.

"I'm sorry," Thorn replied, truly looking it. She seemed to gather from the way that Lily was behaving that it had happened again. Lily was not very much consoled.

"Thorn, I'm serious. You're not even really thinking about it. I know it's easier that way for you, but it can't go on like that. If you don't think about it and try to make a concerted effort, people are going to get hurt, including you!"

"Now you sound like my guardian or something," Thorn said in an irritated tone.

"I can't help saying what's the truth!" Lily said.

"So you know everything now?"

"No, but you don't seem to be thinking enough to know anything at the moment."

"And how would you know what I'm thinking?"

"So who does, Thorn? Does mother know better than me?" The words had found their way past Lily's lips angrily without her thinking about it. She knew better than to try and take them back, because the look of hurt and outrage that crossed Thorn's features.

---

Lily had not gone after Thorn after she disappeared into the impossibly early morning. No one else was awake yet. She paced the room she had been sharing with Thorn, thoughts racing like wild horses around her mind. What could she do? What should she do?

Lily's brain was going over the sequence of events: the earthquake, arriving in the forest, the incident with Cloud and Thorn, on the airship, everything. The streaming green lights filled Lily's mind again and again, screaming to be examined more closely as a memory.

And it clicked. Streaming green lights? What kind of a fangirl was she not to recognize the very Lifestream from whence all characters came (canonically speaking)? And if they had been in the Lifestream before showing up in the regular reality of Final Fantasy VII, that would certainly explain…

So it was not the spectre of Sephiroth in Thorn, but "Heaven's dark harbinger," Jenova. And she, Lily, had let Thorn go. Urgency pounded against her skull, and Lily was on her feet in an instant. She ran out of her door, crashing along the hallway in her haste. By chance she reached Vincent's door first. Lily pounded against it with her fist, and when it took more than a millisecond for Vincent to appear, Lily moved on, pounding on other doors and forgetting who slept in them.

Several were emerging now, Vincent, Tifa, Cloud, and Nanaki among them (Nanaki bearing Cait Sith on his head.) They all looked rather surprised, and in some cases, annoyed, to be woken or interrupted from whatever it was they were doing in their rooms by the fifteen-year-old.

"What's the problem?" said Cloud groggily, apparently wondering why he was awake at such an early hour.

"Thorn's gone!" Lily said frantically, realizing as she said these words what a fool she had been to watch Thorn go without trying to stop her in any way.

"How'd that happ'n? Aw thought she w's sharin' a room with ya…" said Cid, rubbing his head irritably as he joined the hallway in response to the noise being created. Lily had no response for this, so she changed the subject hastily.

"I figured it out, though! How it all happened, I mean," she said, desperate to let it be known.

"How?" replied Vincent curtly, appearing to comprehend that by "it," Lily meant their appearance in the forest, and the "oddities" (as it were) seen in Thorn.

"There was an earthquake, a big one," explained Lily, "and somehow in the middle of it we were transported directly into the Lifestream." Lily took a brief moment to see how this information went over. The expressions on the faces of the adults didn't really tell her anything, so she went on.

"Anyway, I'm guessing that we got somehow transported through the Lifestream to where we met you four," she looked at Cloud, Yuffie, Vincent, and Tifa, "but I think while we were still in the Lifestream, something went in Thorn. But I was thinking about it, and I don't think it's really Sephiroth—I mean, I think what's really there is—"

"Jenova, the Calamity herself," said Vincent. His voice was even, but his eyes were burning.

"And you're telling us you let her leave?" Cloud chimed in incredulously.

"Cloud, there is nothing more to be said on that matter," said Vincent sharply. "All that can be done is to find the girl."

"Lily, you should stay here," said Tifa. "Barret, will you watch Denzel and Marlene again…? Or should I…?"

"I'm not waiting around here while you two go and look for Thorn!" interrupted Lily, cutting into Tifa's musings. "I'm coming with you!"

"But, you're…" Tifa started vaguely.

"Just a kid? Hey, I'm a year older than Thorn, aren't I?" Lily was growing irritated with Tifa. "You know, I'm not just some sheltered little girl who's only now being put into situations where things are really serious. I'm fifteen, besides. Sixteen in a few months."

"Your weapon?" Vincent inquired.

"Vincen—" Tifa began.

"Quarter staff," Lily said simply, a satisfied expression on her face. The others looked as though they had expected Lily to provide an embarassed expression then mumble something about how she didn't actually know any, and were now rather surprised. Never mind, Lily thought to herself, that she'd probably be owned by anything that came along to fight them without any materia.

"See if you can't find something in there," Cloud pointed to a closet that Lily had previously believed to be filled with coats. "If you can keep up, you can come." Defeated Tifa nodded. Barret looked as though he wanted to 'lift her spirits' as the phrase went.

"I'll stick around with Marlene 'n' Den," he said gruffly. "You g'on and find the kid."

"Okay," said Tifa. At that moment, Lily returned hefting a sturdy quarterstaff in one hand.

"We have consumed enough time," said Vincent, turning on his heel, "let us go."

---

Pain edged her thoughts, making each snippet of articulation jumpy and malformed. She could feel her attentiveness ebbing, control over her own mind slipping, slipping…

Thorn sucked in a breath slowly, feeling the stale air of the cave running along her chapped lips, down her throat and along her dry lungs. Were it not for the fragments of light that found her here, she would have lost count of the days after the first one. However, in the back of her mind, she knew that it had been five days since she had left Seventh Heaven.

Mahogany eyes traveled over the empty hollow in the ground where water had flowed from a crack in the stone wall of the cave for the first three days. When the water had stopped flowing, Thorn had stopped caring, and drinking.

Her tongue ran over peeling lips tentatively, trying to coax some health back into them, but to no avail. Instead she tasted the salty, metallic tang of blood on her mouth, causing her tongue to shrink away. Thorn's fingernails were edged at the cuticles with the rust red of dried ichor, the whites of said nails no longer white for the same gore beneath them.

Will it end? she thought mournfully, desperately. What a fool she had been, to let her emotions get the better of her and drive her away from her only friend in this reality. Here she was alone, surrounded by rock, pain, and thirst. Thorn traced her fingers over the rock floor of the cave where she sat, attempted to raise her arm, and failed miserably. So tired… and yet there was no sleep.

Does mother know better than me? How the words had cut Thorn, as though to create multiple lacerations in her skin. Had she been behaving no differently than a selfish Remnant? Will it end? Her thoughts were blurring, burning, flaming with that familiar yet alien fire. Thorn's eyes shut, dreading the continued suspension from all other life, when she heard a voice.

"Thorn!" The voice called her mind back to the hollow shell of a body it belonged to. "Thoooorn! You in here?" Lily… That was Lily's voice… She wanted to speak, but her tongue was too dry. Thorn was desperate; what if they left without realizing she was there? What if she were abandoned? No, don't leave!

"She's here!" A wave of relief washed over Thorn, a wave that nevertheless did not douse the ever-present ache of her tired body. She felt hands at the base of her head, holding her up more. Her vision wouldn't focus properly… Hands felt her forehead.

"Chicken, it's okay. We're gonna…" the voice faded for a moment or two. "…ll right." Then the voice spoke to someone else.

"I can't carry her. Someone……but be careful…" She felt other hands on her now, strong ones encased in leather that traveled briefly over her arms, then curled around her knees and under her back. The faintest of sounds escaped her as she was lifted and her head fell backward unexpectedly.

"Watch her head," said Lily's voice, sounding annoyed. If Thorn had been thinking straight, or perhaps if her body would have allowed her, she might have smirked at Lily's words. But it was a blur to Thorn, only words clearly distinguishable, if at all…

Water, running across her skin, warm and cleansing…

A chair, soft under her weight, but wood under her fingers. Fingers, trying to grasp.

Scarlet, a vague red shape.

Words…

"Thorn, we must speak to you."

No. She could not be bothered to answer now… She could not hear that it had been foolish to run away. No… She must speak. She must say no…

"I…" her words were grunts, barely English. "haven't slept in…five days…so tired…"

More words, firm, unyeilding…

"No. Listen. Get a hold of yourself."

Different words this time. Lily's words…

"Listen here, vampire-boy! That's my best friend you're talking to. Maybe it's escaped your notice, but the last week and a half have been kinda weird for her, jackass, and after what it looks like she's been through, if she says she needs sleep, she damn well needs sleep."

A pause.

"Very well."

A bed. Blankets. A pillow…

Sleep.

---

Vincent was irritated. Very irritated. But there was nothing he could do but wait, now. The girl youth had been asleep for at least fifteen hours, and Vincent had been sitting there for every minute of them, waiting for Thorn to wake up.

Perhaps he should have done what everyone else had advised. Perhaps he too should be sleeping. But they had very nearly lost the obstinate teenager, all because they were sleeping when she chose to run away. No. He could be obstinate as well. He would not take his eyes off her until this was resolved, for who else was there? Lily had also fallen asleep soon after she had been quite sure that her friend's peace would not be interrupted. Tifa, Cloud, and the others had all taken it in their turn to rest as well. But Vincent remained here, resolute.

He had called into use other methods of distracting himself from the passing time. Vincent had read nearly every book he could get his hands on by this point without straying more than a few paces from the room. Now all he could do was sit and stare.

Vincent had memorized every minor detail of this blasted room. Every tiny crack or indent in the wall, he knew by heart. Every spot on the curtains had been looked over many times, until Vincent could no longer bear to cast a crimson gaze over them. Now, for lack of anything better to do, he had set about memorizing everything he could see of the girl from where he sat.

Her face was more frown than smile, Vincent had observed, even though when awake she had the capability to be inordinately hyper. Nevertheless, there were the faintest of lines on her young face around her eyebrows from frowning, though none around her mouth, even when she was relaxed into such deep sleep, and appeared not to be dreaming.

The girl's hands had surprised Vincent, actually. He had never seen them without the leather fingerless gloves that usually covered her palms, and a little past her knuckles. The gloves made them look stubby and small. They were long-fingered and elegant, really the only elegant part of this teenager. Vincent had always observed that a person's hands could tell you both who someone was born and who they turned out to be. Someone in Thorn's family must have been elegant. But Thorn was not. Vincent could see small, pale scars along the otherwise tanned skin, the folds of skin around her knuckles deep, and faint, tiny lines crisscrossing over them in the millions, indicating that Thorn had not bothered to protect her hands from the elements in the past. Nevertheless, Thorn's hands had been elegant to start with, and they made Vincent wonder just who and where the girl came from.

The door opened unexpectedly, and Vincent turned his head to see Tifa. He waited without saying anything for her to speak.

"Hi, Vincent," she said softly, apparently not wanting to wake Thorn—though in Vincent's opinion, very little would wake her at this point. "I just brought up some fruit. Thought you might be hungry…" She handed the bowl and a knife to Vincent, who took it with a nod and a murmur of thanks.

Before the door closed his eyes were back on Thorn. With one hand he held an apple, and in the other he held the knife with which he cut it, slicing the apple into sections. When this was done, he raised a piece to his mouth, tongue happy at flavor and stomach ready to accept nourishment, which he had otherwise ignored for some time now.

Vincent's face taughtened briefly as he bit down on his own cheek by accident, and he tasted iron against his tongue. At the taste of the metallic fluid, he immediately felt a stirring under his skin. Vincent's good hand shot out in vain to grip a chair arm, which was not present. For lack of anything else, his gloved fingers wrapped around the arm of his claw, grip tight to try and release some of the tension that was gathering in his spine, shooting down through the rest of him. No. Absolutely not.

Will won out over beast, and Vincent pushed the stirring down into the great depths of himself, breathing evening out to its normal pace.

Was the taint of Jenova like a demon? Vincent eyed Thorn's sleeping face. Had Thorn been sitting in that cave for days, 'hanging in the balance,' as it were, with the Calamity eating at her insides? Did Thorn's heart race as his did when her eyes turned poison blue and mako green? Was the only thing that separated the two curses the fact that while Chaos and the others had distinctive forms, Jenova had to make do with a human shape?

Vincent suddenly felt selfish and ruthless, like a one-person Shin-Ra corporation. Within moments he was on his feet, halfway to the door. Why had he been sitting here, waiting impatiently for the tired child to awake? The cloaked man stopped in the doorway, however, when he heard movement behind him. Turning to look at the stirring teenager, Vincent saw her fawn-colored eyes lock onto his. There was a moment where they merely watched each other silently. Then Vincent turned away, and all he said before leaving the room was, "Sleep."