Phoenix could not sleep. She could not stop thinking about the unavoidable conversation with her father. Or the fact she was planning on basically running away from home again by leaving Company Eight.
She paced the roof, questioning herself why she wanted to leave when she finally found a place where she belonged. Once again, when she found people who loved and accepted her, she had this inexplicable need to distance herself.
Phoenix ran away from her Aunt and Uncle who had sacrificed so much by taking her into their home and raising her as their own. Then she left her second home, Company Seven, cruelly and selfishly rejecting her family there.
Her sigh of frustration transformed into a growl of anger when she thought about how she allowed Hibana to lure her away with the promise of learning the truth about her mother. However, in her desire to be a big sister as well as Captain, Hibana had kept a lot of the truth from her. Then she shut out the woman who had been like a sibling to her.
Phoenix had used Viktor Licht, manipulating him by using his insatiable desire for knowledge, to know why, against him. Perhaps she was not so different from him after all. That is probably the exact reason he infuriated her so much. She also believed the ends justified the means. With that attitude, someone always gets hurt.
Finally, here she is, ready to bolt again, leaving behind another family.
"Why am I this way?" Phoenix asked herself aloud, stopping to lean on the brick wall surrounding the roof. "Because I'm scared. And I'm a coward. It's hurts to feel. I'm terrified to love. So I run."
"Figured it out all by yourself? You should have these conversations more often with yourself," Shinra said from where he stood hidden in the shadows. He had managed to sneak out onto the roof without the old, rusty hinges of the door groaning to announce his arrival. He had been watching her from the darkness for a while.
Phoenix cried out, whirling around to face him. Her eyes were wide and full of terror as she crouched and pressed her back against the wall. She looked like a frightened and cornered animal.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, but did not move toward her. "I didn't mean to frighten you."
Phoenix pushed out the breath she had been holding. Pressing the heel of her hand to her forehead, she pulled in another deep breath while closing her eyes.
"You should come inside and go to bed," he said, opening the door.
"I can't sleep. And I don't want to just lay there and think," she returned, slowly standing to her feet.
"Isn't that exactly what you're doing up here? Thinking?" he inquired, closing the door and shoving his hands into the pockets of his jumpsuit.
"Yeah," she scoffed, annoyed with herself. "I suppose it is. But..."
"But what?"
"Never mind." She refrained from telling him she was mostly afraid of remembering something, anything, that happened while with the Knights.
"Your father wants you to come to Company One. He already sent the paperwork to Captain Ōbi while you were gone."
"Huh," she mumbled. "He was that confident I would come back alive."
"We all were," Shinra added, taking a few tentative steps toward her. "Are you going to fight it? Are you going to fight to stay with us?"
Phoenix lowered her gaze to the rooftop and shook her head. She hugged herself for comfort.
"No. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of being rebellious. Besides," she said, raising her eyes to look at Shinra. He was looking off to the side and away from her. "He's my father. All he's ever wanted is the best for me. He seemed to know better than I did what I needed. A lot of people have. But I didn't listen."
"Phoenix, there's something I need to tell you," Shinra said, shifting his gaze to his feet while scratching his cheek nervously.
His lips twitched with the beginning of a smile. Phoenix could not bear seeing that big, stiff grin he always wore when excessively anxious. She had the feeling she knew what he was about to say. To help make things easier for him, she said it first.
"I've changed Shinra, and it goes beyond the physical appearance. I'm not sure what I've become...or what they tried to change me into down there," she said in reference to her captivity in the Nether.
"Whatever it is, it seems like they failed," he rejoined almost a little too hopefully.
"I'm not so sure," she mumbled, turning away from him. "Maybe it just hasn't happened yet."
Shinra wanted to grab her, to hug her, but he stood in place without moving a muscle. He wanted her back. He wanted his Phoenix back. This is not the woman he knew and loved.
He heard her inhale a shaky breath. Was she crying? He extended his arm to reach for her then dropped it when she turned to face him with tears in her eyes.
"We should stop...end things right now. Don't you think?" she asked, tears coursing down her cheeks.
If this is a bad dream, Shinra desperately wanted to wake up. Something is terribly wrong here. Phoenix would never give up fighting for something she believed in and that definitely included their relationship.
"I...I don't know. I d-don't know what to th-think," he stammered, staring at her in disbelief.
"I don't want to put you through anymore pain. I've hurt you enough. So I will end it for you. But," she added, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand as her glassy tear filled eyes met his. "Will you do one last thing for me?"
"Sure." His eyes held hers unwaveringly. Despite reflecting the muted light from the street lights below and giving off a brilliant glow, the blue eyes of the stranger before him looked cold and dead.
"Hold me one last time...until I fall asleep."
~\'/~
When Shinra was sure Phoenix was asleep, he carefully slid his arm from under head and unhinged his other arm from around her waist. Scooting down to the end of the bed, he slid off the end and tiptoed to the door as not to disturb her.
Once in the hallway, he carefully closed the door. He leaned against his, closing his eyes and exhaling in a way that sounded as if he had been holding his breath for the hours he had been in her room.
"Shinra."
Shinra immediately snapped to attention, saluting his Captain who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Already on edge, his wildly beating heart hammered his eardrums.
"How is she?" Ōbi asked.
"She's sleeping," he responded flatly, not knowing what else to say. She's odd. She's scary. She's someone else and I don't know who the fuck she is. All of those responses would have been truthful but insolent and inappropriate.
Phoenix was sleeping but fitfully as if demons were chasing her in her sleep. Her body had trembled in his arms despite being feverish and sweaty. She moaned as if in horrible agony. She whimpered in terror. Occasionally she would whisper something, but he could never make out the words.
Shinra wondered if she was replaying something had happened in the Nether. Her reactions would make total sense if that was the case.
Captain Ōbi studied his subordinate's worried and pensive face as he continued to prop himself against the door without moving away. Shinra's facial muscles were drawn tightly under his skin. The beginnings of that fierce devil grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Is there something wrong?" Ōbi asked. "You've been acting strangely since you saw her."
"Sir, can we talk?"
Replying with actions instead of words, Ōbi turned to walk to the kitchen with Shinra following. He filled the kettle and put it on the stove. Judging by Shinra's face and gloomy demeanor, this had the potential for being a long and uncomfortable discussion considering the subject was Phoenix.
Shinra took a seat on one of the stools , placing his hands on the top of the table. His fingers laced together forming one big fist. He squeezed his fingers together until his knuckles turned white.
The Captain waited patiently for him to speak filling the tense silence with the muted sounds of carefully opening and closing cabinet doors to take down a teapot, cups, and tea without waking anyone else in the fire cathedral.
"There is something...odd about Phoenix." Shinra hesitated, struggling to find the right words. "She's not quite right. I feel..." He paused again, allowing himself to be distracted by watching Ōbi spoon the tea leaves into the teapot. "There is something off about her."
"Off?"
"It's her...but it's not her. She's different."
"Well, of course she's different." He flicked off the stove before the kettle could start whistling. "I know she looks different, but she's still Phoenix."
"Is she though? I want to believe that. But...but I don't know if she is the same, Sir," Shinra countered, meeting the man's questioning gaze. "How can she be? We have no idea what she was done to her by the White Clads, and she's acting so strange. Just not right."
"Licht took the vials of her blood from the lab while were there. You know how he is," Ōbi said, waving a dismissive hand.
"He's already processed it?"
"As soon as we returned, he got busy. He was going to talk to Phoenix, tell her what he found, but...well, she did not want to talk to him," he said, pouring water into the teapot. "He found tranquilizers and psychotropic drugs. Lots of mood stabilizers. He thinks most of them were administered to her at the Haijima facility.
"And to keep her under control," Shinra murmured.
"He said they probably kept her heavily sedated at the lab to prevent her from experiencing withdrawal."
"Withdrawal? From what?"
"He found the remnants of hallucinogens and powerful stimulants when used to together would send her on, as he put it, a really bad trip."
"Her being drugged would explain why I couldn't feel the Adolla link with her anymore. Plus I'm sure the Knights wanted to sever our link to gain more influence over her."
"It would. It would also explain why she's acting a little unlike herself. All hell might break loose once the tranquilizers wear off."
Shinra was also positive that mysterious blond woman who had been playing mind games with him also had a lot to do with cutting their connection as well. He could not forget how she had manipulated him into a frenzied, altered state, driving him to almost kill the Captain of Company Four, Sōichirō Hague.
If a voice whispering in his head could do that, what could the Knights so adept at brainwashing accomplish in person? He already knew what they had done to his little brother. It angered him to think they had stolen another person from him.
"How is Captain Hague?" Shinra inquired to bring his attention back to the conversation. His cheeks flushed with red coloration from the memory of attacking the man.
"Despite his obvious, and disturbing," Ōbi added under his breath while pouring the tea into their cups, "masochistic proclivities, he's fine since your little scuffle with him."
Little scuffle?, Shinra thought. While he appreciated his Captain's purposeful understatement, he could not ignore the fact he had tried to murder the Captain of Company Four while under the control of the blonde who had been messing with his mind.
"Viktor warned me it's going to be bad when she starts going through withdrawals. She's going to need us, all of us, to be in her corner fighting with her. Not to mention the possible emotional fall out when she starts remembering and having to deal with what's happened to her," the Captain said, placing a filled teacup in front of Shinra.
"I know all of that. I remember how was awful it was for Lisa. She still has nightmares. But there's something more to it...to her." Shinra wrapped his hands around the cup to warm himself as an inexplicable chill took hold of him. He exhaled in frustration. "I don't know how to explain it."
Ōbi paused with the cup lifted half way to his mouth. "Do the best you can. Just talk. And don't worry about getting the explanation right."
Shinra took a sip of the tea to wet his parched throat. Inhaling deeply, he gazed into the cup as if it held the answers, the words he wanted to speak. Then he began.
"When I say she's different, I don't mean the physical differences in her. Those are apparent to everyone. It's like there's something else...something more...something living inside of her. I have no clue what...or hell, even who it is, but I do know, whatever it is, it scares me."
Shinra exhaled again in frustration with his inability to express himself clearly. He did not know how to explain what he thought, how he felt about Phoenix in her new and changed state. And it was due to a hell of a lot more than her platinum blond hair and eyes as hard and cold as their new icy blue color.
He had not lied to her when he said he had felt something from her, but their connection was different. The link was weak and forced. He could feel her reaching for him, but it was as if her 'signal' was being blocked by something to prevent her from getting to him.
Shinra truly believed there was another entity inside of her despite how insane it sounded even to him. Like when the woman with the long blond hair and blank blue eyes had overtaken him, it was if whatever was inside of Phoenix was slowly taking control over her.
"It's like I'm reaching out for her," Shinra began believing he had finally found the correct metaphor to make his misgivings more clear. He extended his fingers as if to give a visual to enhance the clarity to himself. "I can see her. She's right there, but I can't touch her because she's behind a glass or some invisible barrier. She's locked away by something that allows us to see part of her, to believe she's still there, but..."
He dropped his hand allowing it to lay limply on the table top. Picking up his cup, he took another drink but did not taste anything. His mind was too busy rewinding back to when he saw Phoenix walking into Gureo Haijima's office.
When he first saw her face, she looked furious. He had seen her angry plenty of times, but her face never looked like that. She had worn blatant rage like a mask, and she looked like a demon. Her face had made him wonder if that's what people saw when he put on his so called devil grin.
Then when Phoenix saw him, her face transformed, going slack with relief. For a moment, she seemed to come to herself. Seeing her was like looking at someone else - someone he did not know. He had been unable to go to her, to take her into his arms. When he hesitated, she was gone again.
Shinra wondered if no one else could detect the inherent change in her. Perhaps they did sense something because they had been excessively warm, far too friendly, and overly receptive of her return. He had chalked up their unquestioning acceptance as an to keep her from feeling awkward or flat out rejected.
"We ended things," Shinra announced, refilling his cup and ignoring the way Ōbi stared at him in astonishment.
"What do you mean?" The second time he had asked that question.
"We broke up. We ended our relationship."
"We? So it was mutual?"
"Yes."
"That's definitely not right," Captain Ōbi mumbled into his tea cup, exhaled noisily and making steam puff up from the tea.
Shinra raised his nose in the air, sniffing. Sulfur and hot plastic. Charred wood.
"Do you smell something?" Shinra asked, standing up from his chair to follow the scent.
Apart from the metaphorical bullshit, Ōbi smelled nothing when he sniffed the air. But Shinra had the super sensitive nose.
"No. What do you smell?"
"Fire."
~\'/~
Wake up, little sister.
The sing song female voice called to Phoenix, rousing her from the depths of a dreamless sleep. A face flashed before her eyes of a young girl with porcelain skin. She had long, straight golden blond hair. Her eyes were huge and blue. A little crazy looking. The girl giggled and the image of her face was gone.
"Little sister? What sister? I don't have a sister. Who are you?" Phoenix questioned the dark void surrounding her. Her voice did not echo back to her and seemed to be absorbed by the blackness.
Mother is waiting.
"Mother? But my mother is dead," she argued.
Silly girl!, a second voice yelled at her derisively. That woman was not your mother. She was only a vessel to bring you into this world. She was nothing more than a delicate clay pot to carry you until you could be born. You burned away her flesh to free yourself.
Phoenix recognized that voice as belonging to the Evangelist.
"No! No!" Phoenix screamed wishing she could cover her ears. Not that it would do any good. She would not be able to block out that voice anyway. Once again, the Evangelist was inside her head.
I am your true Mother. It is time to rid yourself of that earthly husk. You have fought the transformation long enough. You can no longer ignore what you are meant to be.
"What I am to meant to be?! Don't you mean who I am meant to be?!" she shouted back, feeling as if she was fighting to hold herself together.
A chuckle, dark and sinister echoed around her. Phoenix could feel fingers touching her, rough as sand paper, encircling her arms and legs. No. Not fingers. She recognized this sensation. They were the binds that held her when the White Clads captured her in the Nether. The searing ropes burned through her skin and into her muscle, holding her prisoner again.
Those ropes are not to bind you but to set you free. They will free you from the prison you refuse to let go of yourself. They will destroy the one thing standing between you and your destiny.
Then the answer to what seemed to be a vague riddle hit her.
"My humanity," Phoenix whispered.
Yes, the Evangelist confirmed. Rise, Phoenix.
"NOOOO!"
The phoenix, the bird like sentient creature inside the woman, spread its wings lifting her body from the bed. The neck extended, bringing the head of the avian creature far above hers like it had so many times before to battle Infernals. However, in this moment, it seemed to be an Infernal itself, fighting to break free from the woman who shared its name.
Phoenix, both the woman and the bird, unleashed an unearthly screech, both in agony from the travails of a second birth. This is what was supposed to happen that day in the Nether. While she was being held captive, the Knights had continued to work with her, trying to induce labor so to speak, but each time they were thwarted by the surprisingly stubborn human.
The Demon Infernal was supposed to overtake her, destroy her, just like all the other Infernals when they consumed their human host. But they burned up and died away. The phoenix, their Avenging Angel, would not.
We got it wrong! We misunderstood!, what was left of her rational mind screamed. The Avenging Angel was a separate entity inside of her the whole damn time, a Demon Infernal waiting to be born.
Phoenix could feel the creature peeling away from her body. It hurt like nothing she had ever experienced in her life. Muscles and skin ripped, torn apart fiber by fiber during the separation of woman and Infernal. Opening her mouth, she screamed in agony until her throat felt raw. The ropes around her tightened, threatening to tear her limb from limb if she did not let go of the beast within.
All this time she had wrongly thought power of the phoenix had been hers to wield. Instead, like her mother, she had only been a host, a shallow vessel for the Infernal to grow and become stronger until the Evangelist called it forth. And to think Gureo Haijima thought he could control these Infernals, these things, for a perpetual source of energy.
Let go. Just let my child go and you will live.
"No, I can't. I won't," Phoenix stubbornly refused.
You have no choice. You have decided your fate. You will die.
Phoenix shrieked in immeasurable pain as the firebird tore itself from her body. Once free, her body dropped to the floor, discarded after serving its purpose. Aside from shaking from uncontrollably due to the pain, she could not move her body. Her eyes were open, blinking slowly as she stared at the white flames in the shape of the mythical bird floating above her.
A blanket of heat rolled over her like a wave from the ocean, the varying degrees of hot and hotter touching her body, searing her skin. As if to tell her good-bye, the bird nuzzled its beak against her neck and cheek as it had many times before. With one last shrill screech, it looked upward, flapped its great wings, and was gone.
Phoenix saw darkness above her with tiny twinkling lights. She realized she was looking at the sky because the bird had punched a hole through her ceiling and the floors above, clear the roof to escape.
She closed her eyes as black swirled around her blocking out the sky. She wanted to cry but could not find the strength or tears to do so. Instead, pitiful little whimpers escaped her while she lay twitching on the burning floor. The acrid stench of charred wired and melting insulation filled her nostrils, searing her lungs and making her cough.
Phoenix had lost a vital part of herself: the part that defined her as a person, a pyrokinetic, a fire soldier, and the reason for her existence. Her power was gone. Something she believed she would always have, would always be, had never been hers at all and was gone from her. But it was also the part that almost killed her to break free; the piece the Knights of the Ashen Flame were willing to kill her to claim.
A pounding filled her ears. At first she thought it was her own heartbeat but it grew louder like the stomping of many feet in heavy boots on hard tile. The doorknob rattled but the door did not open.
"Phoenix! Phoenix! Open the door!" Shinra shouted, beating on the door with his fists.
He sounded so far away. It was if he was calling to her from a really awful nightmare she could not wake from. But she was awake. The unmistakable odor of burning hair and skin, like overheated wires and cooking meat, met her nose making her gag. She tried to move but could not.
Phoenix attempted to cry out but it felt like her throat had been scorched by the fire. Her mouth opened but no sound would come out. Her lips stung and cracked. Her fingers flexed against the floor but the rest of her body refused to cooperate and push forward. The smoke and fire surrounding her pushed in closer, enveloping her in a nightmarish black haze dimming her already compromised and blurred vision.
"Kick down the door!" she heard Captain Ōbi yell.
There was a loud but useless thump on the door.
"I can't, sir!" Shinra hollered back. "it's not locked but the lock has...melted."
"Move!" he ordered him.
Phoenix heard a thunk on the other side of the door. Captain Ōbi must be using his own body as a battering ram to break down the door. There was another loud bang against the door but nothing happened.
The heat of the fire stealthily crawled closer to her across the floor. A slow death by fire. Morbidly she pondered if her mother had endured a gradual, torturous death or if it had been swift. She had never really thought about how long it might have taken for her mother to be consumed by the fire that killed her. Born from the flames to die by the flames. A fitting end.
"Captain, if I may," Arthur interrupted as his Captain prepared to kick the door with a heavily booted foot and super strong leg.
The distinctive buzz and hum of his plasma sword filed the air with a crackle similar to that emitted by electricity. Arthur punched through the wooden doorframe like soft butter and cut through the half melted metal in just a few seconds.
Ōbi kicked in the door, knocking it clear off the hinges. The doorknob embedded itself in the wall it was flung open with such which was the only thing that kept it standing up straight rather than falling to the floor.
"What the hell happened in here?" muttered Vulcan as he turned on his goggles to see through the smoke.
"Vulcan! Where is she?!" bellowed the Captain, searching blindly in the smoke by bending down to pat the floor.
"Right in front of you," he instructed the man as he walked across the room to open the window to allow the smoke to dissipate.
Ōbi shoved his hand forward, touching her head. Her hair felt short, probably burned away by the fire considering the smell. His fingers moved down past her shoulders to grasp her upper arms. Pulling her up to her knees while kneeling in front of her, he hefted her over his brawny shoulder while standing to his feet.
"I'm calling Company Six to send over a transport vehicle," Iris announced, running to the office.
"What the hell happened?" Ōbi asked Phoenix as he exited the room with her.
Phoenix was not exactly sure what happened. She could not believe it herself and did not understand it at all.
"Th-the ph-phoenix is g-gone," she stammered in a hoarse whisper as he held her close to his chest and carried her from the room.
"What are you talking about? You're right here. She's delusional and not making any sense," Ōbi yelled behind him at no one in particular. "Bring some cold wet towels. She's been burned pretty badly."
"But how can she be burned?" Shinra asked dropping onto his knees beside her as the Captain lay her on the cool black and white floor tiles.
"I don't know. I don't get any of this. Dammit," he growled, noticing her short black hair. His thick fingers toyed with the ends that were not charred at all. "It isn't burned? What the hell?"
"The phoenix is gone," she repeated again, her voice raspy from her sore throat. "My power. The manifestation of my ability. It's gone."
"Shhh...be quiet," Ōbi commanded her.
Maki arrived with the damp towels, carefully laying them over her arms and legs. While the cold water felt good, the texture of the towels was like sandpaper against her damaged skin.
"I need you to..." She struggled to sit up but they all pushed her back down.
"Stop moving," Ōbi ordered her, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder on a patch of skin that was red from heat but not burned. "Be still. You don't want to hurt yourself more."
"Look...look at my..." It was damn near impossible to breathe or speak. "My back. Check my back," she wheezed.
Captain Ōbi cautiously sat her up because he thought she might be telling him her back was badly burned despite the fact she had been laying on her belly when he found her.
"Are you burned? Is that the - " The words died on his tongue when he saw only pale pristine unmarked skin on her back. There was no tattoo. No scars. Not even a burn. Nothing. Like she had said, the phoenix was gone. "What the fuck?"
"Damn," she muttered, closing her eyes. Although she wanted to cry, no tears came due to dehydration.
"It is gone," he confirmed in words what she already knew.
His thick calloused fingers glided across her back searching for bumps or raised flesh that indicated the deep scars might still be there or if they had been removed by abrasion. But there was nothing. Only smooth, flawless skin as if it had never been there at all.
"I don't...I don't understand," he mumbled as she let go of the shirt to cover her back.
"I don't either," she admitted.
"There's something else," he said.
She felt his fingers running through her hair as if trying to pick something out of it. He suddenly pulled her hair as if he meant to snatch it out of her scalp.
"Ow! Are you crazy?" Phoenix tried to yell but it came out as a throaty rasp. She rubbed her sore head. Her fingers ran through her hair. It was back to being short. "What the hell?"
She snatched out a single strand herself, holding it in front of her bleary eyes so close they crossed. It was black. She pulled the six inch long black hair through her fingers, then looked at them. Nothing. The black color was not from soot. It did not rub off.
"Look at me," Ōbi ordered her. His big hands pressed to her cheeks as he held her face and stared directly into her unfocused eyes.
"What color are they?" she asked as he continued to stare.
"They're not blue," he answered, letting her go and leaving her to assume they had returned to their original mercury silver color.
"What the fuck," she groaned leaning her head back against his knee as dizziness overwhelmed her.
"Company Six will be here soon to pick her up. Captain Huang is coming with them," Iris said, kneeling beside Phoenix to press a cold washcloth to her forehead.
"Oh, thank you, Iris. You are the real angel," Phoenix murmured, wishing the coolness could penetrate her head to bring down the temperature of her boiling brain.
Meanwhile, in Phoenix's bedroom, the members inside fanned out the last of the smoke through the open windows after making sure there were no residual fires left burning anywhere. The majority of Company Eight stood in the middle of the room looking around for any clue as to what might have happened.
Vulcan glanced up at the ceiling, his eyes holding there as he gasped, "Oh, shit. What the hell is that?"
"What?" Lisa asked, tilting her head back to look up. "Oh, Holy Sol."
"What are you two looking at?" Arthur asked, looking up. "A dragon."
"What the hell are you talking about, Arthur?" Shinra snapped, returning to the room and in no mood for his Knight-King delusional antics.
Raising his eyes to ceiling, Shinra saw the outline of what looked like a gigantic set of wings burned through the ceiling and all the floors above.
"It's the phoenix," he murmured. "Unbelievable."
"But how?" Vulcan asked.
Shinra shrugged. "I don't know. I doubt she does either."
"Does this mean whatever that was had been a totally separate being the whole time? Like a parasite living inside her?" Arthur inquired.
"Fascinating," Viktor mumbled, scratching his chin. "It could be likened to a parasite. I guess all of the Infernals act like parasites in a way. Rather than overtaking her and consuming her all at once like Infernals created by the bugs usually do, this one lived inside of her for years, strengthening itself by feeding off of her, waiting for the right moment to leave the host body and become a totally separate being."
"Okay this is too freaky for me and kind of gross," Maki remarked, leaving the room.
"By that logic, human babies could be considered parasites," Vulcan suggested.
"Vulcan, ew!" exclaimed Lisa, swiftly exiting the room.
"I didn't mean it! Hey, Lisa, wait!" he called after her before running to catch up with her.
"You know," Viktor said pensively, "he's not wrong."
"Stop it, Viktor," Shinra said, walking away from him.
Two members from Company Six rushed in. Rather than pulling Phoenix away from her protective Captain, they waited for the man to lift her and lay on her on the gurney.
"Did you want to ride with her, Sir?" one of them asked him.
Ōbi looked around, searching for Shinra. When he spotted him, he waved him over.
"Did you want to ride with her?" he inquired.
"No, sir. I think you should go. I would like to stay here to investigate to find out what happened," Shinra returned.
"Gentleman," Captain Huang called out from the end of the hall. "We need to go."
"Are you sure?" Ōbi asked Shinra.
"I'm sure, Captain."
"Okay then. I'll go with her."
"Can I come too, Captain Ōbi?" Iris asked.
"Only one person, please," requested the other Company Six member holding on to the gurney.
"Shinra, I want you, Viktor, Vulcan, and Lisa to stay and search around to see what you can find," the Captain ordered them.
"The rest of us will meet you at the hospital," Hinawa offered.
"Fine. Let's go."
~\./~
It seemed like it had not been too long ago they were all waiting and worrying to hear news about Shinra after his own brother stabbed him. Captain Huang appeared which caused everyone to jump to their feet and salute.
"She's going to live," she assured them, the smile on her face wavering.
"But?" Captain Ōbi prodded her to continue.
"She is no longer a pyrokinetic," she said, her smile disappearing completely. "It is my advice that she is no longer allowed to be a fire soldier."
"What do you mean? Why?" Ōbi inquired, confused and a little angry.
"With a little rest and physical therapy, she will be fine," Maki said, receiving no confirmation, not even a nod or an encouraging smile in return from the doctor who had restored Shinra to perfect health. "Right?"
Captain Huang shook her head with a sad smile on her lips. She shrugged and issued a defeated sigh.
"I can't tell you what caused it exactly...I don't know how it is possible...but..." She inhaled a deep breath as she tried to find the right words to explain. "Phoenix no longer has pyrokinetic abilities. She...she lost them somehow."
"That can't be true," Iris gasped, covering her mouth with her gloved hands.
"I have no ignition ability but I'm a fire soldier," Captain Ōbi said. "Viktor isn't a pyrokinetic yet he's a part of Company Eight. There has to be a way she can stay with us."
"Keeping her as a subordinate would be at your discretion and your responsibility, Captain Ōbi. It is my duty to report to you her status. Phoenix's body will heal. She will be able to walk and talk, having suffered only minor physical damage and no brain damage. As far as damage she suffered psychologically...emotionally...well, that I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about that," Captain Huang said matter of factly. "Only time will reveal, and heal, those wounds."
"Dammit," Ōbi muttered, raking his hands through his hair. "Can we see her?"
"Not yet. She's sleeping. She will probably be out for a while. She became hysterical when she awoke during the examination so we had to sedate her," she explained. "Have you called her father to let him know?"
Ōbi exhaled noisily. "Not yet."
"I'll call Captain Burns," Iris volunteered, walking away to go to the phones with Maki following for moral support.
"If there's anything I can do, let me know. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Unfortunately, we have a very unique situation on our hands which is raising too many questions and giving us no answers," Captain Huang said, giving them a sympathetic smile.
"Will you call us as soon as she wakes up?" Ōbi requested.
"Of course."
"Thanks, Doc," he returned.
After the Captain of the Sixth walked away, the members of Company Eight stood around perplexed and wondering what to do.
"What did Captain Burns say?" Lieutenant Hinawa asked Iris when she and Maki rejoined them.
"I told him not to come because Phoenix is asleep. He said he wants to be at her bedside no matter how long it takes her to wake up. He does not want her to be alone."
"Neither do we, but since her father will be here, I guess all we can do is go home and tell everyone else what we know," Ōbi announced, glancing at his subordinates, his family. "We should get some rest and be ready to come back when Phoenix wakes up."
~\'/~
Captain Burns lay on the cot they had brought into his daughter's room for him. Under the circumstances, there was no way he could sleep. To placate the fussy staff, he lay down, closed his eye, and pretended to sleep. He stll clutched his daughter's hand in his with his arm laying on her bed despite the discomfort in his shoulder because of the odd angle at which he had to hold it.
Her fingers squeezed his seconds before she emitted a little moan and began to stir. Letting go of her hand, Leonard Burns stood up so he could see his daughter's face. He brushed his fingers through her short black hair as she writhed and whimpered.
"Daddy," she mumbled, her eyes separating at last. "I'm scared."
"I know baby. I'm here," he said, stroking her cheek with his fingertips.
He stared into her quicksilver eyes before she shut them tight and tears squeezed out of the corners. He wanted to grab her and hug her, crying tears of his own because his little girl was back and whatever that other thing which had hold of her was gone.
"Daddy," she sobbed. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
"What do you mean, sweetheart?" he asked as she rolled onto her side to curl into a fetal position. She pushed the top of her head into his chest as he leaned over her and hugged her.
"I don't have any pyrokinetic ability anymore. When the phoenix left me, she took it all away."
"You're talking as if that was a completely separate entity."
"Because it was. I don't know what else to tell you, Daddy. I feel..." She inhaled a shaky breath. "I feel like I'm losing my mind."
"We'll figure this out. You'll get through this, sweetheart. I'll help you," he promised.
"I don't know if anyone can help me. I wish...I wish it had just killed me."
"Phoenix," Leonard Burns whispered, pulling his daughter into his arms as he sat down on the corner of the bed. "Please don't ever say anything like that again. You have your family at the Eighth too."
"I'm not so sure I do. And I can't say I blame them. I wouldn't want to be near me either," she mumbled, pressing her face into his chest careful to avoid pushing against the prickling burns under the bandages on her cheek.
"They will be there for you," he promised her. "You have people to help you."
A nurse came into the room, her eyes widening in surprise to see Phoenix awake.
"I'll get the doctor," she declared and ran back out.
"See. Help is already coming."
"Dad, stop it. I'm not five years old," Phoenix grumbled, only slightly irritated with his excessive fawning. She held tightly onto the lapels of his jacket as his arms constricted protectively around her.
"I know. I'm aware," he sighed sadly. He never got a chance to see her when she was five years old. He almost missed out on her entire life.
"Captain Burns," Captain Huang greeted him, bowing to him while he nodded in return since he held his daughter. She neared the bed, carefully looking over the injured woman who was mostly covered in bandages from head to toe to cover her extensive burn wounds.
"What's going on, Doctor?" he asked her as a worried father.
Huang inhaled to begin speaking.
"The honest answer is, we don't know. It appears the phoenix was a complete separate entity, the source of her pyrokinetic abilities."
"How can that be? It makes no sense."
The doctor shook her head, extending her arms and spreading her hands helplessly. "Looking back old medical journals, we think it might be a twin. The twin became an infernal when the bug penetrated their mother and it attached itself to your daughter."
"Do you really think it could be something like that?"
She held her chin between her thumb and forefinger while thinking. "It's all guess work and theories at this time. Their have been cases in the past of conjoined twins. There were also instances of 'tumors' containing hair and teeth that have occurred when a twin wasn't completely absorbed in utero after something went wrong."
Phoenix gagged. "Okay that's weird and gross."
"Maybe we should talk somewhere else," Captain Huang suggested. "Are you all right with that Phoenix?"
"Yes, ma'am," she agreed, blinking slowly. "I'm really tired anyway."
"You need all of the sleep you can get so your body will heal. Captain Burns, let's get a cup of coffee and talk," she recommended, pivoting on toe of her high heeled shoe to walk out of the room.
"I'll be back soon," Captain Burns assured his daughter, tenderly kissing her forehead.
Neither Captain spoke as they walked down the deserted hallway. Clicking could be heard from the nurses station as two nurses typed away on their keyboards and a third monitored a screen showing all of the vitals of their present patients in intensive care which were thankfully few.
"What's happening to her, Huang? Why isn't she healing? How does one simply lose pyrokinesis?" Burns demanded in a low voice after they passed the nurse's station.
"Like I said, I don't know. We've never encountered anything like this. I will have to run more tests. Do more research," she said as they entered the lounge reserved for nurses and doctors.
Both Captains poured themselves cups of coffee then took a seat at one of the tables to stare into the black liquid without saying a word.
"I want to keep her here for a while. To monitor her," Captain Huang added as if that would smooth over his ever increasing worry.
"What else is wrong with her besides the burns? What other wounds did she suffer that we don't know about?" he inquired pointedly.
"That's what I intend to find out."
"It seems the Knights of the Ashen Flame accomplished their goal." When the doctor stared at him quizzically, he continued. "They believe there will be an Avenging Angel who will announce the Second Cataclysm and start off the whole thing."
"A what?" the doctor asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"I know it sounds like religious nonsense to most people."
"Because it is, Burns," she interrupted. "What happened to her just a strange anomaly among Infernals we have not yet encountered. That's all."
"Maybe you're right."