Hello all my readers, hope your enjoying your holidays so far, if your on them that is, cuz Aussie students are.
Firstly I'm sorry it took a while to get this to you but I have good reasons for why that was so, number one is that I took a week off writing and am still having trouble getting back in the swing of it, number two is that this chapter was a bitch to write, I have never changed a chapter so much after first writing it all the way through, and thirdly my beta was scared that my sister was going to go insane if she didn't give her her chapters back quick enough so she was doing those before mine, even though I sent her mine first, luckily I've got this issue sorted out and she now knows if she pulls something like that again I'll rip her head off (when she gives back all three of my imooto's chaps before just one of mine I get pissed) and lastly my epilepsy's been acting up and I had a minor seizure the other day and reading from then on kind of set me off, but I'm better now.
And referring to the story now, We got some more of Fangs past in this chapter, but most of it's in relation to Serah.
And just to clear it up if it confuses you, in this chapter if it is being written from Serah's point of view she is called topaz but if is from a p.o.v of someone who knows the truth about her she is called Serah.
There was actually a part when I was writing this that I just randomly took the lappy off hibernate and forgot who's p.o.v I was writing from and it threw my mind for a few seconds.
I also realised when I took a moment to think about it, but I don't have a way to describe just how much Fang hates Rosch, I tried but I came up short, would anyone out there be able to help me figure out a way to describe her hatred of him without it sounding to light? it'd be dearly appreciated.
But anyway, on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy XIII, Square Enix does.
Ignorance is Bliss
Slamming the door shut behind her, Fang gripped her stomach and headed directly for her apartment's bathroom. Reaching the toilet she fell to her knees and proceeded to throw up the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl.
When the onslaught came to an end, she sucked in a breath hungrily, and braced herself against the wall. She felt sick; oh Lord how she felt sick. She'd woken up this day feeling fine, but the nauseating feeling that had settled itself in her stomach had crept on her little by little until it was just too much to take. It figures now after so long without it that the illness would return again, just creating one more bad thing for her to deal with.
Failing to fight back another wave of nausea, Fang pushed back off the wall, gripped the rim of the toilet seat and heaved until there was nothing left to vomit up in her stomach except bile. Sucking in breath once more as the vomiting stopped; Fang edged away from the bowl, and attempted to stand. But as she walked across her tiled bathroom floor, Fang found her strength beginning to wane rapidly and soon fell over. Landing by the door, Fang straightened up to sit upright and slid herself over so that she could lean against the wooden doorframe.
Wiping gathering sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, Fang cursed the existence of this illness from her very core. She didn't even know why she had it; she'd started getting it after all that shit that she and Light had been put through when they were sixteen.
Fang shivered at the very thought, it wasn't necessarily something she liked her mind to dwell on, she'd forever bear scares, both physical and mental, because of that incident. With a shake of her head Fang banished the thoughts from her mind, but a single memory persistently clung to its rim.
A blurred memory of a dark dank room, a place that emanated certain danger for anyone trapped within. A place that spoke of great pain, and a history immersed in sorrow.
Biting her lip as that set itself in her mind for a moment before vanishing, Fang attempted once more to lift herself off the floor, this time with better results than the last. Making her gradual way towards her bed, Fang let one more thought course through her mind as she fell onto the bed and let sleep overtake her drastically tiring body.
What happened to her back then, and why couldn't she remember it?
...:...
Tossing about on her bed, Fang sought to expel the nightmares that were casting an ever-ominous shadow over her mind. Sleep had long lost its comfort on her, years of dark deeds and painful experiences had seen to that. Compared to some who loved its sweet oblivion, she ran from it, knowing that that was what she'd never get.
Every time her head it the pillow she'd be reminded of the fire that had torn her home asunder, the murders she had committed under Cocoon orders, the last words of her victims to the look of utter fear when they realised that this would be the last time they saw the light.
But those were nothing compared to what else her twisted mind could throw at her.
They didn't compare to the hazy memories of when Cocoon had held her in that torture chamber for months, where she was constantly exposed to the agonised screams of others suffering just like she was. Where she was abused in every torturous way possible all the while chained to the ground to make fighting back but a dream within a dream. Absent-mindedly, Fang gripped her left leg as she thought of that place; there were some things they took from her there that she could never get back.
No matter how much she longed for them.
And then there was the anguish she'd suffered at the mere thought that she was the only one that had survived that damned mission. Pulse had practically offered them up to Cocoon on a silver platter when it came to that operation, it was no surprise at all that it failed. She had nearly killed herself afterwards; it was beyond her why she didn't.
She held the knife in her hands. What was stopping her from just ending herself with it? Why did she have to stay in the hell-hole that pasted for a world anyway?
But she was too weak, she couldn't make herself do it and knife fell from her hands.
So she lived on, but she never recovered from what had been done to her at Cocoon's hands, and as the months passed by, she found her mind twisting itself to the point that it was foreign even to her. And the person that had existed before was gone, like they had never been there in the first place.
That was when Fang had become addicted to Seohilen; it was a sweet oblivion that sleep could never be, a reprieve from her own mind, a place when life couldn't wound her. But it was a relief that came at a price. Seohilen was a dangerous drug to deal with, almost fatal to stop using and so damn addicting Fang had no doubt that she would kill just to get more of it. She already stole to get money to pay for it.
So, years went by, and people who had once viewed her as a friend began to avoid her, and one by one they disappeared from her life. And she didn't care, she didn't care that she was alone, she didn't care that people began to look up to her with fear in their eyes.
It meant nothing.
But then she'd met Serah. Light's only family, her only connection to one of the people that had the meant the most to her in life. Fang knew from what she'd heard of around the safe houses that Serah had already been an agent for quite a while by the time they had met. Though her story was a very different when compared to the many agents out there.
While she, like Light, had been a legacy, a child born to an agent, Serah hadn't been raised around Pulse; she didn't even have anything to do with them until she was nine. Her mother and her sister had fought to keep her away from this life, at the cost of Serah not even knowing of her family.
But when her mother had died, Light lost what power she had to convince the top dogs to listen to her, something that jeopardised keeping Serah away from them and Pulse as a whole. So she made up for the lost in power by becoming one of Pulses top agents, she put herself hell just for the sake of her sister. But one screw up and she lost the power that she had spent years agonisingly gaining and the top dogs stopped listening to her.
And Serah was welcomed into the inferno that was the world of Pulse's and Cocoon's agents.
But Serah never met her sister, before she even got the chance Light had already been sent on that accursed mission, and all trace of her was lost. All Serah ever knew of her sister was what she heard on the winds, whispers and rumours spread by agents.
When Fang met Serah the girl was only 14 years old, six years her and Light's junior. She became rather protective of her almost absent-mindedly, something she continued to be today, but never friendly. Friendly was no longer something she was.
She felt she owed it to Light to protect the girl she'd spent the better half of her life protecting when she no longer could. But there was nothing she could do to save Serah when the top dogs were involved. She held no power over them to sway their decisions by that point, when Fang came back after that botched mission, they no longer trusted her.
She was considered a loose cannon by many of them, so mentally fucked up that they didn't know what she'd do. So when they took advantage of Serah's exceptional skills, there was nothing Fang could do to stop them. And it was déjà vu, just like her sister before her, Pulse near sacrificed Serah for their own sake. The only difference, she came back alive, but her actions turned Cocoon into a bunch of wolves baying for her blood. She lasted only two months of attempted assassinations before Pulse grew fed up and erased her memory, along with Serah Farron's entire existence.
But Fang's world was one full of people that didn't exist, what was one more of them to Cocoon. The time was coming, the safety that Serah had known as Topaz would soon come to an end, and she'd be left once again to the mercy of two corporations who cared nothing more than the destruction of the other.
...:...
Groggily opening her eyes to the dimming light of sunset that was floating in through her half opened windows, Fang rolled onto her side on the unmade bed she lay on and scanned her eyes across the room. Her sleep hadn't been a nice one; it was the same nightmare packed cage it always was.
The only upside was that it had afforded a brief respite from the stalking sickness that Fang felt tendrils of returning. Wiping a hand across her eyes, Fang attempted to sit up, only for the movement to make her world spin before her eyes in dizziness.
Waiting a moment for the light-headedness to pass, Fang swung her legs over her bed and held the frame tight to stop herself from wobbling in her disorientated state. Looking across her clothes-laden floor and over to bookcase at the end of her bed, Fang let one though encroach her mind.
'There's only one thing I truly want right now.'
...:...
Casually closing the book in her hands, Nataliah laid in her lap, her eyes gradually making their way to stare at her cell phone. Biting her lip, she seriously contemplated calling her. It wasn't the wisest decision she'd ever make, but she was sincerely worried about Fang. She'd only been informed briefly of Fang's physical and mental problems, but it had been enough to make her concerned about her. And the titbits of information she'd picked up since about Fang's current and past life only amplified that worry.
Casting a look to the other side of the room fleetingly, Nataliah noted that Travis was indeed still sitting by the fireplace with the twilight series by the side, ripping out the pages of the first book and throwing them into the lit hearth. She almost felt sorry for the person that owned those books, Paige, the twiheart she is, would miss them dearly.
Turning her head back so that her phone was within her sights, Nataliah's hand hovered over the mobile for a moment in hesitation before she picked it up and dialled a number that had never before been entered on her phone. Bringing the phone up to her ear, she listened to the insistent ringing noises it created and prayed to god that the person would pick up.
Either way, she'd have a lot of explaining to do.
...:...
On a lime green couch in the middle of an immaculate apartment's living room, a girl lay napping in the late hours of the day. Her mind enclosed in the world of sleep, she didn't notice the sound of her phone ringing until it merged itself into her dream in the form of a frog faced man who instead of croaking or talking, made the sounds of a phone's chime.
Snapping her eyes open at the oddity, she sat upright, and was confirmed that the sound hadn't just been a creation of her imagination when a woman with short brown yelled at her from the start of a hallway, "Topaz, pick up your phone before I throw it out the window!"
Flicking her blonde hair out of her eyes, 'Topaz' lifted herself off the couch to find her still-ringing mobile phone, yelling out in apology as the woman walked back into her previously occupied bedroom. "Sorry Anna I was asleep."
Finding the small silver object on top of a pile of paper that were on the pine wood, island table within the kitchen, Topaz stared at it curiously, seeing that the number of the person ringing her was marked unknown. Shrugging, she clicked a small green button on the phone's top left side and answered whoever was calling her with "Hello."
...:...
"Hello" Serah's questioning voice said, obviously wanting to know who was calling her.
About to respond, Nataliah found her voice caught in her throat. Biting her lip as Serah continued to question who she was talking to, Nataliah hopped from one leg to the other in indecision. She was plagued by thoughts of what would happen if someone traced the call, seeing as it would lead to bad consequences for both her and Serah. But her hesitancy only lasted moments before she realised that when it came down to it, she really couldn't care less, not anymore.
Bring the phone back to her ear from where it had fallen to her side she answered just as she heard Serah mumble something about hanging up.
"My name is Nataliah."
...:...
"My name is Nataliah." a woman's voice finally answered.
"Who?" Topaz inquired. She didn't recognise that name, did this person just have wrong number or something.
"Nataliah," the person reiterated.
No recognition of the name coming to her, Topaz questioned the woman again. "Do I know you?"
"No, let's just say I'm a friend of a friend," the woman replied.
"And you're calling me why?"
"Because I need your help."
...:...
Thirty minutes later and Topaz blew out a sigh as she stood out the front of a five story apartment building, its dark feature highlighted by the diminishing light of sunset. That phone call hadn't been the nicest she'd ever received, not by a long shot.
It was though, the catalyst to why she was currently standing in front of an apartment building she never even set her eyes on before.
Walking across the freshly cut grass towards its double doors made of shimmering glass, Topaz pressed a hand to her head as one turbulent thought after the other sought dominance in her mind. That woman, Nataliah, had told her things she impressed upon her that she wasn't to speak a word of to anyone. She'd made it clear that it wasn't for the sake of keeping them a secret, but for the fact that she herself, wasn't meant to know of them.
But why was that so? What she had told her of was regarding her friend, so why wasn't she meant to know?
It confused her to no end.
Nataliah had told her of Atla's secrets. Though she highly doubted that they were all of them, it was enough to both confirm her suspicions of what was up with Atla lately and cause her to worry even more than she already was.
Pushing the apartment complex's doors inward, Topaz stepped inside to the pristine reception area paved with expensive looking white-cream square tiles. To her left was a black wood reception desk with a tall dark haired woman standing behind it, waiting to serve whoever was in need of her service. At the end of the hall was a polished metallic elevator and an entryway to the staircase that accompanied it up the buildings five stories.
Treading closer to the reception desk, Topaz placed her hand upon its wooden surface, repeating the number that Nataliah had told her as a question, "Where exactly is apartment c14?"
"Ah," the woman sounded, looking up at Topaz from where her gaze had fallen to the desk. Scratching her head in thought she replied, "Third floor, and off to the left once you get out of the elevator."
Nodding to show that she got it down, Topaz thanked the woman and headed in the direction of the elevator. Pressing the button for up, Topaz waited the irritatingly long time for it to reach her and open its twin doors. As Topaz walked into the mechanical cage, her mind was assaulted with the revelations about Atla Nataliah had told her of.
The existence of her severe depression caused by means that Nataliah refused to tell her of, dismissing her questions by saying that it was a story for another time. Also of her severe paranoia, something that led her to trust no one, to the point of hiding her true self from the public eye, by any means. Disguises, voice altering and fanatically hiding personal information.
Topaz would have liked it to end there, but it didn't. There was more, more than Nataliah had permitted Topaz to know and more than Nataliah herself knew.
Drugs. Of course there were drugs; it shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did. After all Nataliah had told her it should have been obvious, she guessed she was just denying the clear possibility.
The beep of the elevator doors clinking open woke Topaz from her thoughts and she snapped her head up to face the open doorway. Walking out of the elevator she found herself in a long hallway, carpeted with intricate rugs coloured dark shades of blue, somewhere between midnight and navy. The walls were almost blindingly bright, they weren't white but the colour was still extremely similar.
Peering to the left of the hallway, Topaz spied small decorative chocolate-coloured tables placed along the walls as hall continued on. Walking in that direction, Topaz paced along slowly until she came to apartment number c14. Hesitating in front of the room, topaz bit down on her lip, not knowing at all what to expect.
She now knew that despite having known Atla for the past six months, she didn't know her at all. Not what she really looked like, not her real voice, not who she was. All Topaz knew of the true Atla was the existence of her mental problems, drug addiction and that she bore a scar that ran down her right cheek, something that she always covered with make-up if she had to go out.
It was the one thing Nataliah had told her that she could use to always identify her.
Swallowing over the lump in her throat, Topaz turned the door knob and let herself inside.
...:...
Blinking her eyes up at sudden noises, Fang's drugged mind made a useless attempt at trying to perceive their source. But as dazed as it had become with Seohilen racing through her veins it was useless to even try. So she fell back to nothingness.
The noises didn't stop; they kept on sounding off at irregular intervals, but never the less frequently.
'Was someone talking to her?'
She wouldn't know, even if her eyes had been open, the eyes of someone high on Seohilen were blind the world. And their ears were deaf. Their body numb. And they were left completely unaware of what was around them, what was speaking to them, what was happening. Most of all what they were doing.
Users became nothing more than a being void of emotion, any sense or coherent thoughts. They became nothing. And that's just what Fang was right now. As long as Seohilen existed in her system she would remain that way, hours would pass in a daze, her mind not even registering the minutes ticking by. And nothing anyone did would change that, no matter what they did, no matter what they yelled.
No one could control what she did while high. Least of all herself.
As the time passed somewhere, vaguely, in the back of her mind Fang thought she may have heard a scream, but the daze of Seohilen did its job of dismembering any effort to try and figure out what was causing the sound. Her was mind was long gone, and it'd be a long time till it returned to her.
...:...
The hours of night were slowly eating away when Fang woke from her daze, her body instantly set upon by her stalking illness. She felt exhausted and freezing, with the feeling of nausea settling itself in her stomach. Out of want for warmth Fang wrapped her arms around her body, snuggling further into the surface she was laying on. But as she moved, Fang was surprised to find that the floor was no longer what cushioned her body.
She was on her bed, with the covers brought up to her shoulders.
While she would have been thankful of the warmth it created, if it actually managed to reach her, Fang jolted up in surprise. Crawling back into bed wasn't necessarily something she did while high.
So the only explanation that left was-
"Good to see you're awake," a recognisable, feminine voice that was clearly tainted with a sense of sadness said to her from its creator's position sitting on one of Fang's lounge chairs. If the coldness hadn't already awoken her from the realms of sleep, that did.
Freezing in place, Fang gaped at the woman in front of her in shock. A name sprung to her lips begging to be said, but she quickly halted herself from letting it be said when she found it wasn't the one she was allowed to call her.
She couldn't call her Serah. The women in front of her wasn't Serah, she was Topaz.
"Y-you" she stuttered out at last, not recovering from her shock in the least.
Why was she here, how'd did she even know where to find her, she'd never once given away that information to Serah or any of her friends.
So how come she was here now?
Watching Fang visibly trying to figure out why and how she was here, Serah tilted her head to the side and offered the confused woman with the explanation.
"A friend of yours told me where to find you, they said they were worried about you, but couldn't come here to check up on you their self, so they asked if I could."
A friend? She didn't have any friends, not anymore. But as quickly as the question had arisen the answer came to her.
"Nataliah," she muttered, with a shake of her head, grimacing as the movement brought on a wave of dizziness. She was the only person who would worry about her enough to actually take action and do something. But more than likely she was hampered by Pulse, forbidden to come here or some bullshit like that. So she sent Serah.
Nodding at her realisation, Serah replied "Yeah, it was her."
Lying back down on her bed as she became too tired to keep herself sitting upright, Fang felt a cold shiver run down her body. She pulled her covers closer around her in an attempt to get some of their warmth to seep into her cold body.
As she fought to keep her chilled body warm, she felt Serah sit down upon the bed by her chest, her weight making an indentation on the bedding.
"What's wrong with you Atla?" she then asked.
At least Nataliah didn't mention her real name.
Having no want to give away any more information than she had to, Fang croaked out over her insistent cold shivers,"That depends, how much did Nataliah tell you?"
She'd already surmised that Nataliah had at least informed her of her paranoia, or a question would have already been raised about her appearance. Drug addiction was probably on that list as well, it would explain why she sounded so sad when she first spoke up. It had been a revelation that had had Nataliah furious when she had found out about it.
"Enough to know that you're far from all right, after all that woman told me that's certainly something you can't deny."
Finding the strength to keep herself awake was beginning to fade, Fang tried and failed to keep her eyes open. As her eyes closed Serah continued to stare down at her, earnestly waiting for an answer. Before sleep overtook her Fang managed to tell her sternly, "I don't owe you that answer."
"Why? Why won't you tell me?" Serah exclaimed.
But the words were lost on Fang, as sleep had already taken her from the waking world.
...:...
The dream she found herself in was of a time she wished to forget.
The sound of someone knocking on her door stirred Fang from her less than sound sleep that was full of nought but tormenting nightmarish visions. Opening her eyes to see her dark room that lacked light, she slowly raised herself from her position on her bed to sit upright so she could investigate the sound.
Looking to the side so she could check the time, her eyes found her clock that sat on her bedside table, and she saw that it was only 2 o'clock in the morning.
Perplexed, Fang swung her head around to stare the door, wondering who on earth was knocking on it this late, or early, whatever the hell you'd class it as. Getting up from her bed, Fang walked over to the door and opened it, becoming even more confused when she found Serah standing in her doorway, looking visibly distraught.
As she stared down at the girl, Serah shook her head, the movement causing her long pink hair to sway widely, and lowered it, a teardrop dripping off her chin. Lifting her face upwards once more, Fang was taken aback by the petrified emotion that shone from within her eyes.
God the girl was scared.
Not knowing what else to do, Fang stepped aside and ushered the girl inside to her chaotic mess of a room. Walking past the threshold, Serah walked into the room and came to a stop at the end of Fang's unmade queen sized bed.
She stayed there stationary for a few moments before she turned to face Fang, the petrified emotion not leaving her eyes on the least. Tears were glistening at the rims her eyes, but she fought to keep them from falling, something she was much better at than Fang could ever hope to be.
Sniffling a sob, Serah whispered to Fang so quietly and saturated with fear that it was barely audible, "Fang, I'm scared."
Fang didn't need to be told that twice, the girl in front her of emanated that emotion.
"Why" Fang asked her, not entirely awake yet.
"T-they say that I have to do this mission for them, but Fang, even if I was a brain dead blonde with zero IQ I could tell that it's suicide. But they say I have no choice, that I'm not allowed to go against orders, and that trying to would only end badly for me."
Fang froze at that admittance, she couldn't help it, but something about what Serah said scared her to the core, the kind of fear that Serah herself was feeling right now.
But she'd never let it show.
So with much trouble, she kept herself from stuttering as she asked, "What kind of mission?"
Biting her lip, the fear in her eyes intensifying, Serah answered with much stuttering, "I-infiltration, t-they want me to i-infiltrate Eden's Cocoon HQ. They say it's because of all the agents they thought to use for t-this mission I h-had the best skill set. But they want me to go completely alone, Fang, without any help, and t-that scares me to the core. I mean what if I get caught? I could get k-killed."
As Fang took in all that information Serah lost her fight with keeping her tears down and broke into sobs, leaving Fang's mind with a single thought.
'Fuck you, deja vu.'
Watching Serah continue to sob into her hands, Fang ventured to take a step closer, unsure of herself. Comforting was a long lost forte to her. But nevertheless she placed her hands on Serah shoulder and pulled the crying girl closer into an awkward embrace, cooing into her hair "it's going to be okay, just stop crying"
The comforting falling on deaf ears, Serah continued to sob, choking out over them "I don't care what they think. I'm not my sister, I can't do this."
Tightening her embrace, Fang just continued to hold her, telling her firmly at her past words "I know you're not your sister, so don't think your being compared to her, you never know what you can do unless you try, you'll only fail if you tell yourself you will."
Apart from praying that Serah wouldn't notice that that was her view more than anyone else, Fang also prayed to all the gods within the heavenly realm above that she was right.
...:...
That was an argument she knew she was going to lose even before she initiated it.
The top dogs wouldn't listen to a word she had to say about Serah's mission, they turned a deaf eye to everything she said. That was one thing in particular she hated about how they treated her over the past three years, ever since that fucking suicide mission they themselves had sent her on, they regarded her like she was clinically insane or something like that. It was as if they thought that every possible thing that she said was a twisted sanity-lacking piece of shit.
Blowing out a sigh as she got up from her position on the floor, Fang stretched her limbs and made a mental note to go find Serah, she had to inform her of the bad news. As much as she was loathe to do so, avoiding telling her was a stupid notion; such a thing would prove utterly useless. So finishing stretching out, she headed in the direction of Serah's room, moving through the countless numbers of agents as she made her way through the hallway.
This was one of the things she disliked the most of Pulse's Eden HQ, it always seemed that it was the most packed HQ out of all the HQs agent wise. She much preferred staying in safe houses, both for the fact that they frequently housed less people and that the executives rarely stayed there, so she didn't have to be living under the same roof as them. Weaving through the mass of people Fang eventually found her way to Serah's room where she proceeded to knock hard on the door to notify Serah of her presence.
Waiting for it to be opened, Fang leaned her back against the wall opposite the door until she heard a lock click and saw Serah's head peek out from inside the room. Spotting Fang by the side of the door, she cast a beseeching look over at her to which Fang shook her head, telling her with annoyance clear in her voice.
"Sorry but they don't hold my sanity in high regard, wouldn't listen to a word I said."
Flinching as if she was in pain, Serah backed off from the door and walked back inside her room, mumbling to herself "There's nothing we can do to stop this is there?"
Following her inside the room, Fang grabbed hold of the door and shut it behind her.
Taking firm stance to despairing Serah who had her back to her, twiddling her fingers, Fang told her with all the strength she could muster, "Now just because we can't do anything to stop this mission doesn't mean I'll let you come to harm"
Tilting her head so that she could view Fang, Serah offered a meek "But-"
"No buts" Fang cut her off "I thought I told you when I first met you that I'd go to any length to protect you, and it'll be a cold day in hell before I go back on that promise. I don't care what consequences I may provoke, it doesn't matter as long as you stay safe."
Keeping her eyes trained on Serah as the girl slowly walked over to her bed and sat on it, Fang watched on as the girl bit her lip and lay both hands in her lap.
"What did my sister ever do for you that made you so indebted to her that you'd do this for me?" Serah asked in a low voice. After the words left Serah's mouth the room went silent for a prolonged moment, during which Fang cast a look at over at the girl on the bed for a time, and leaned her back against the door.
"She saved my life," she answered eventually, a solemn expression overtaking her face, "and that's something I'd have to be a real scumbag to take lightly. The fact that if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be standing here today is something that makes me indebted to her more than I can ever say. But now since I can't do anything to help her in return, I vowed to myself that I would protect what mattered most to her."
Pausing, Fang, closed the distance between her and Serah and placed her hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, finishing her sentence. "Family."
Biting her lip again, Serah turned her head away from Fang's gaze and stared downwards, a solitary tear dripping off her chin. While Fang was someone she could never expect friendship from, she knew beyond everything else that no matter what Fang would keep that promise.
She would always protect her.
...:...
She knew it was bound to happen.
One way or another, Serah cover was going to be blown.
Serah's mission, just like it had been planned to, had gotten her closer to the inner core of the Cocoon corporation than any other spy had gotten before.
The same went with the information she was giving to Pulse about the inner working and plots of Cocoon, by the time her mission ended, she had given Pulse mountainous amounts of intel, more than any Pulsian spy that came before her could have hoped to gain after spending ten years in a Cocoon HQ.
But after four months of being undercover in Cocoon's HQ, one of the high ranking Cocoon agents became privy to Serah's status as a Pulsian spy and all hell broke loose. She managed to send a brief distress call back to Pulse HQ notifying them of this, only for the call to drop out abruptly and for the line to go flat.
Pulse took action immediately.
A group traced the call to define Serah's last known location while another contacted the spies they had positioned in the Cocoon Eden HQ. Most had no knowledge of Serah's plight, but they struck gold when they finally found a spy that was close enough to the core to at least be informed of it. He told them sternly that if Serah was to remain in the HQ must longer then the chance of her life being in immediate danger would no longer be a chance.
She would be dead.
Hearing this news, Fang offered to go to Serah's aid straight away. Hesitation had caused her great anguish in the past; she wouldn't make that mistake again.
While Pulse had been initially uncertain of letting her go, her knowledge of Cocoon's HQ and her own skills of concealment would prove to be invaluable to the success of a rescue mission.
So she set off after the girl she'd vowed to protect.
...:...
It was a period of only a few minutes that would remain with her for as long as she lived.
She broke in and began hunting out her target. After she sought out Serah's last known location it took her a minuscule amount of time to find the girl, her memory of the layout of the HQ being so clear in her mind that it was downright bizarre. She had skulked around the halls, avoiding any human contact with the random agent scattered about and made her way through the place so easily that it was laughable.
And soon enough she came upon a room from which she heard a man's gruff voice spewing venomous words of menace at an unknown person. A distant feeling of recognition spawning in her mind at the voice, she decided to tread closer to the room so she could peek inside.
Within, she found exactly what she was looking.
Serah, with no one else but Rosch holding her high against the back wall, dragging her hip length dyed snow white hair along with her. An all too real tremendous hatred burst forth from her very soul at the sight of the man, her lips curled upwards and without even having to think she pulled out her gun and aimed it high so that the barrel was directed at his head.
Taking a step forward, her boots made a distinctive sound on the hard floor, a noise that briefly distracted Rosch away from the girl he was tormenting only for him to hear the sound of Fang cocking her gun before he had set his eyes on her.
"I would let go of her you parasite infested roach," she hissed vehemently.
He dropped her instantly. And twisted around so he could look Fang in the face, wanting to confirm that she was really there and he wasn't just hearing things. To say he looked surprised when his eyes found her would be a colossal understatement, the man looked bat fuck astonished.
Giving, after all that shit that happened to her three years ago, he thought she was dead and six feet under.
"You..." he managed to get out eventually.
"Yeah, who'd think it'd be?" Fang spat malevolently, using the gun in her hands to point fleetingly down to the girl on the floor. "Now I'd just let that girl just there over here, and let us get out of here, you son of a bitch."
Staring only a moment longer, Rosch forcefully composed himself and shook his head. Anger flooding his face as he stared up at the women by the door, he pulled a knife from where it was stowed on his belt, grabbed Serah by the hem of her top and pulled her closer, meaning to press the blade to her neck.
But he never got the chance, Fang let her bullet fly, heading directly for his head.
...:...
Fang woke with a start.
Eyes wide open, she breathed in heavily, gripping tightly at the layers on her bed covers, her hands slick with sweat that dripped from her shaking form.
The dark of night still overwhelmed her small room, casting dark shadows over everything around her but she could not make a guess at the hour.
'Why?' she thought.
Why did she have to relive that? Why did she have to relive memories of what she feared and hated every night? And why did her mind have to be so self-torturing in the first place?
Shaking her head as she lowered it into her hands, Fang felt a tear slide off her head and onto her palm, one that was followed by a flood of more. Quietly she sobbed, wishing with all her heart that these dreams would stop, they scared her like nothing else.
Why was it that she suffered like this? She didn't want to have these memories, she didn't want to live in a world that was an eternal inferno of fucking hell. She didn't want to be a part of this war. She wanted to live in the world that was blessedly unaware of its existence. Why couldn't she live blissfully in ignorance?
The insult parasite infested roach was inspired by the fact that when I write Rosch without a capital in Microsoft word and it gets underlined in red, if I side click it, it gives me the options of changing it to either Rosch or roach.
Also, and I don't know why I'm saying this but the term 'Bat fuck' is one of my all time favourite terms, I got it from uncyclopaedia, the content free encyclopaedia, which I highly suggest you look up as it's funny as hell, especially the kingdom hearts page.
I'm probably going blank on so many things I was going to write here but who really cares.
One of my friends has advised me to tell any Aussies who live in NSW to stay off the road from the 8th of July 2013 and onwards as that is her sixteenth birthday (E.g when she able to get her drivers license) and if your thinking of ignoring that message let me inform you just how dangerous this girl on the roads is, her brother doesn't understands roundabouts a lick and they share similar IQ, and her and a friend have spent half an hour in a year seven maths class room while their both year niners.
oh yeah I'm not kidding, she's an idiot.
Also for the love of all that is good and holy remember to give me a review.
And if there was anything that confused you in this chapter I suggest you do the same and I can explain it for you.
Sayonara for now
~Claire kreiss