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Chapter TwentyEight Kit made her way through the underbrush swiftly, careful to avoid the dry leaves and twigs that might give her away. Hoffman could be anywhere, and his company weren't new recruits like she was. They had a year or two of experience under their belts, and their only objective was to -
A crackle in the bushes a little ways off attracted her attention, and she clumsily drew her pistol from its holster as she dropped into a defensive crouch. She wasn't used to carrying a gun yet, and it made her a little nervous. She waited, but there was no further noise to the east.
Still, instinct told her to duck, and so she did - a split second before something whipped past her head from behind. Turning to face the enemy, she got off only a single shot before something crashed down on top of her, throwing her to the ground. "Gotcha!" a gleeful voice said.
She'd twisted her leg painfully as she'd fallen, and tears welled up in her eyes as she looked up. Though her vision was blurred, she could easily make out a dozen blue-clad troopers, each pointing a rifle at her.
"Not bad at all, especially for a first time," the cheerful voice continued. "Hoff'll be happy, I'll bet. Well, as happy as he ever is. Whenever he decides to show up."
Kit didn't care. Mara might have thought she'd done well, from her perch atop Kit's back, but Kit knew she hadn't done as well as she could have. And her leg was throbbing now, on top of it all.
"Kit?" Mara inquired. "Why so quiet?"
Remember this?
Kit blinked. Just for an instant, she'd caught a glimpse of a woman behind the troops, but then she was gone.
More crashing from the bushes made her look around. "Well, well." The gruff voice was Hoffman's. "Seven hundred fifty meters, almost exactly. A new record for a first run. Not too shabby."
Kit swallowed hard as Mara got off her back and the troopers put up their guns. So Hoffman was pleased. She should have been pleased as well - Hoffman was never one to give out praise - but the pain in her leg was too sharp. She bit her lip to keep from crying.
"You know what your mistake was?" Hoffman asked. When she didn't answer right away, he bent down to examine her, his icy blue, glowing eyes staring straight into hers. She was new at this SOLDIER thing - she wondered if she'd ever get used to that eerie glow in all the eyes around her. Not to mention every time she looked in the mirror...
"What?" Hoffman bellowed, outraged. "Are you crying? SOLDIERs don't cry! Crying is for cowards and children!"
Not my children.
That voice again... Kit glanced around again, and once more saw a shadow behind the troops. It looked like it might be the same woman...
We do not cry. Humans, they cry. They will cry...
And then the woman was gone.
"Crying will lose you the battle," Hoffman was still yelling. "How are you going to see the enemy if you have water in your eyes? Why are you crying anyway? Did you hurt your poor little self? Wait till you get out on a battlefield, you'll feel real hurt!"
He's already learned to go beyond pain. So can you.
The voice wasn't talking about Hoffman, Kit was sure of it. Abruptly, the woman Kit had seen before was by her side, but still shadowed so that Kit couldn't make her out clearly.
Come, listen to me, and it will all be gone.
The woman's whispers didn't come from her lips, but sounded only within Kit's head. Hoffman was still shouting, as if he hadn't noticed the woman's presence. Maybe he didn't.
You love him, don't you?
Kit stared at the woman's face, trying to make out the indistinct features. As she watched, the face became more clear - a long, sharp nose, narrow lips, slightly slanted eyes with a pale green hue. Suddenly, Kit realized who she was.
He learned that the only way is to accept me. Will you, for his sake? For your child's?
Hoffman's shouting sounded as if he were somewhere far away, for all that he was face to face with her. Kit began to feel a strange tingling all over, even within. "This isn't how it happened," she murmured. The pain in her ankle was fading for some reason. "I remember... almost four years ago..." The tingling was building.
But what if it had?
"Are you listening to me?" Hoffman's words startled Kit with their sudden clarity, and she shook her head, trying to hold on to the reality of what had happened that day. After the lecture, Hoffman had made her bind her own ankle and walk back to the barracks.
You want to see him again... you love him...
"Yes," Kit admitted through gritted teeth.
And your child...
How could she fight something she didn't even understand? "Stop!"
My child embraced me...
"No," Kit whispered, whimpering. How could she fight something inside herself? The feeling of her skin crawling was unbearable, until she felt as if she might burst open. She would do anything to stop it, anything - no, not quite...
Embrace me...
"No!"
Abandon...
Kit tried to deny her again, but choked on the words as the crawling sensation gave way to a shifting, tearing feeling. She struggled to hold on to her sense of self, but it seemed as though she were an outsider looking out of her own eyes through a sheet of glass, unable to do anything as she began to rise slowly into the air. That outsider saw Hoffman's eyes widen, and his mouth open as he shouted orders to his company.
He mistreated you.
"He had a right to discipline me!" Kit gasped. "He was my superior!"
He was a human.
Kit wasn't sure which frightened her more - the feeling that Jenova was forcing her towards something against her will, or the sight of Hoffman's company raising their guns towards her. Was it a dream now, or was it happening again?
Discipline? Why don't you show them what that means?
The struggle for control was unbearable, and all Kit's energy was focused on that single task, until suddenly the sound of gunfire erupted. A startled cry burst from Kit's lips unbidden, and in that instant, her concentration was broken. The gunfire that should have riddled her body never reached it, as a shield of pale blue light flashed around her.
Still, it frightened Kit rather than relieving her. Jenova had her foot in the door now.
More.
"No!"
You are my creature now.
Kit convulsed in agony as Jenova's will seemed to try to push her out of her own body. Through the pain, she looked down to see Mara, her old friend, staring up at her with fearful eyes.
Friends? Isn't he more important?
"Yes!" Kit said fiercely through clenched teeth. "But..."
Then use what I give you, and go to him. Go!
She came awake with a start. For a moment, her surroundings confused her, but it wasn't the same forest she'd been in a moment ago. No trained SOLDIERs had their guns trained on her, or were even present. But that sense of Jenova's will trying to suppress her own was exactly the same.
You said you wanted to save him.
The events that had just transpired came rushing back to her. Sephiroth was in the Temple. Cloud was going to kill him. If Cloud couldn't kill him, he would kill Cloud and the others.
The decision was easy enough. Kit let go a little - as little as she could manage - and let Jenova take over her body. Immediately, she regretted it. The force within was so violent, her skin felt as if it would burst.
We'll all be together at last. Won't it be nice, this Reunion?
Kit looked around in shock as her body began to rise into the air as it had in her vision. "Where are you taking me?"
To the Promised Land.
Kit gasped. That was exactly what she wanted to stop Sephiroth from doing. "That's not fair!" she cried, as Jenova pulled her northwest through the sky, over the ocean.
Isn't it? Jenova seemed amused. Don't you love him?
"That's why I can't let you do this!" Kit exclaimed angrily. "You're controlling him, and now you're trying to control me!"
You mistake a mother's guidance with being controlled. How paranoid you are! the voice laughed. When your son is born, won't you want him to do what is best for himself? Wouldn't you tell him the most prudent path to success, and wish him the best of luck?
"Not when that path involves destroying a planet!" Kit was so outraged that without knowing how, she somehow pulled away from Jenova with such force that she was suddenly jerked in the opposite direction from Jenova's intended destination. Her eyes widened in shock when she realized what she'd done. She was flying, like Sephiroth had, and she had control.
Even Jenova's voice inside her head seemed stunned into silence, and she was able to keep that control. Since the opportunity had presented itself, Kit defiantly directed herself back in the direction of the Temple of the Ancients, savoring the moment. Flying under her own power, complete freedom...
So, you have some backbone after all. The amusement was completely gone from Jenova's voice now, replaced with an iciness that made chills go up Kit's spine. We can't have you ruining our plans...
With that, Jenova jerked back control for an instant, and Kit again resisted. "Our plans? They're your plans - not mine, not his, just yours!"
They are his now as well. I think the next time you see him, he will prove it. He has the Black Materia now, you realize. He will use it to call Meteor.
"I'll stop him! I can resist you, so can he!"
You? You know so little. Do you think you can even use this power without my help? Your only chance for survival is to allow me to use you as I will. Join with me, now...
With the words came a tug that made Kit feel as if she was being torn apart. Thirty feet below her were the waves of the sea, growing blacker as night fell. If Jenova was right, and her will was all that kept her aloft, they would be her grave. But then, Jenova had reminded her of her SOLDIER training, and that gave her an idea.
"I will not be a part of it," Kit said fiercely, summoning up every last reserve of strength just as she had been taught in the Shinra war exercises. SOLDIERs had to be able to stand and fight until the second they dropped dead; That was something else Hoffman had taught her. "I will not be a part of you!"
She threw everything she had into one final attempt to fly the direction she'd chosen, and suddenly she was travelling at such a high speed, she felt as if she'd been thrown like a rag doll. Maybe she had, considering the way Jenova was laughing at her.
Maybe not, but whether you like it or not, I am a part of you, and he is a part of me. I will leave you to your childish wish for freedom, for now, the voice said as she began to fall to the earth. He will make you reconsider, I am certain.
Kit had gone so far, so fast, there was an island below her now, and it looked as if that would be where she would land. That last pull had taken all her strength, and she barely had enough left to hit the ground with a roll the way she'd been trained. Even so, the impact hurt tremendously, but the pain was followed by a thick numb feeling that Kit knew must mean she was going into shock from the injury her fall had caused her.
"Sephiroth..." She rolled painfully onto her back, gazing up at the stars. She'd gotten away. He had to come to her now - she would likely die if he didn't. Her last faint thought before she lost consciousness was a prayer that her unborn son was all right.
To Chapter TwentyNine. To the intro. That means it's mine, not yours! |
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