Red Dawn

Red Dawn: chapter 3

Author: Sweetstarlights (sweetstarlights@hotmail.com)

Site: www.lonelykitten.cjb.net

***

Author’s note: Look!!! Its chapter 3!!! I love the smell of death in the morning!! ...Okay, it’s really not morning here, I’m writing this at night. But I still love killing things!!! Special thanks to my fan in France! Everyone wants to destroy the world once and awhile. On with the story [I can’t think of anything else to say right know]!

***

A marsh land stood before Eve and Sephiroth now. Two full weeks had pasted since Sephiroth killed President Shinra, many people had seen him during their short stay in Kalm. Eve heard the whispers of many people as she went to the local restaurant for food. But that was days ago, now they were somewhere near a chocobo ranch. Eve sat upon the back of a chocobo that refused to go any fast than a trot. Sephiroth smiled down at her, she could only think that it wasn’t fair that he could fly. Sephiroth flew ahead as Eve had problems with the oversized chicken.

“For Christ’s sake, I only weigh a hundred and ten pounds!!! There’s no reason to go that slow!!!!” The bird made no attempt to go any faster than it’s pace. Eve thought for a moment and thought of the perfect thing to say. “If you don’t go faster, I’ll make dinner out of you...” she said with a sweet venomous tone to it. The chocobo squawked and turned its head to look at Eve. “Mmmmm... roasted chocobo over a blazing fire...”

The chocobo squawked loudly and started running at a high speed, Eve let out a thunderous laugh as the chocobo caught up to Sephiroth. But the laugher was short lived. A dark shadow appeared over them as they sped through the marsh. Sephiroth, Eve and the chocobo all turned to look at what was causing the darkness. A huge Midgar Zorlom loomed over them, its forked tongue darting in and out. Eve once had a snake, not one as big as the one following them, and she knew when snakes are about to attack they pull their heads back and the Zorlom wasn’t any different. The chocobo screamed in fear and ran even faster, barely dodging the strike. Eve grabbed onto the bird’s neck and held on as it ran.

Eve turned around and started yelling “BAD SNAKE!!!! Stop now!!!” But the thing continued to chase them. Sephiroth attacked the snake from behind, but the snake only snapped back as if he was a fly. As the chocobo hit the solid land it sharply turned left, throwing Eve from its back. Eve hit the ground with a deafening thud and rolled over many times before stopping. She slowly rose shaking her head, but then she heard the hiss above her. Eve looked up and saw the Zorlom poised above her, its body around a broken tree. Eve drew her daggers as the snake attacked her. But Eve jumped out of the way and drove one of her daggers into one of its eyes. It howled in pain as it pulled its self back upright, its mouth agape. Sephiroth appeared behind the beast; he grabbed hold of its head and shoved it into the broken tree. It twitched only for a few moments before stopping all together, blood dropping onto its body. Sephiroth landed next to Eve and was going to say something but she had just noticed that there was slim on her dagger and hand from the snake. Eve yelled and started shaking her hand to get the slime off. She ran off to find her backpack, leaving Sephiroth alone. He watched Eve find her pack near the marsh and started washing of the gunk.

I don’t understand her. Sometimes she acts like she’s a child, then next moment she’s her own age, and then she seems timeless. But when she fights... it’s like she’s a different person. Confused, Sephiroth walked over to Eve and told her that they needed to leave.

***

Eve was happy to get to Junon, if only for the fact that she wouldn’t have to feed Sephiroth anymore. All that power and he can’t even feed himself... How did he eat before me? she thought as the two of them walked through the small village underneath Junon itself. Eve had to distract the guard in front of the elevator and lead him away from it so that she could knock him out. She ran up to the guard and started telling him that she’d just saw a man in a black cape kill someone. Eve pretended that she was a terrified girl, a role she played well. The guard followed her as she ran to ‘show’ him where it happened, only to bring him to an empty ally.

“Where’s the body?!” he demanded.

Eve strode up behind him and answered, “Right here.” As the guard turned around, Eve hit him in the temple. The guard slammed into the wall unconscious, a bit of blood running down his lip. She didn’t bother to see if he was still alive, Eve really didn’t care to begin with anyway. She made her way back to the elevator where Sephiroth was already waiting for her. Not a word passed between them, neither of them really talked to begin with. They got into the elevator and Sephiroth turned it on.

“Are you afraid of me?” Sephiroth suddenly asked half way up.

Eve stared at him blankly and laughed, “No way. Not in a million years. Why do you ask?”

“Because you act strangely.”

Eve shook her head, “So? I acted that way before now, maybe not while training because I was dead tired half the time, but I still acted that way when I was on Earth.” The rest of the ride up was quiet. Sephiroth was so confusing sometimes; he acted so differently from what the game made him out to be. There had to be logical explanation to it, but she couldn’t think of it now. The elevator opened to the hallway that Eve remembered to have the save point before the Shin-Ra parade. But that was a few days from now; she had so much time to kill till then.

Sephiroth did say anything else to Eve for the rest of the night; she was convinced that it was because she wasn’t afraid of him. Though, his real reasons were far from that.

***

It was the day of the big celebration. Eve had barely see Sephiroth at all in the last few days, though she did hear of him being off killing people. Eve didn’t mind, she decided to catch up on her sleep. But Sephiroth finally showed up that morning, saying something about needing to check out the area so Eve would know were to go. She tried to tell him that she already knew, except by then he was walking out the door of her hotel room. Eve groaned and followed him, not seeing any other choice.

They traveled down an empty ally, only a few garbage cans here and there. The silence suddenly became uncomfortable, like there was a heavy blanket over Eve’s head. Sephiroth slowed down considerately, Eve was now in front of him instead of behind. And then he was at her side, his irregular pace was making Eve a little edgy. Sephiroth grabbed Eve’s wrist, causing her to whip her head around to see what the matter was. Sephiroth looked at Eve in a werrid way, she wasn’t too sure of what it was. He then gently placed his free hand on Eve’s cheek and leaned closer to her. Eve tried to back away, but Sephiroth kept her from moving. The space between them was suddenly gone, Sephiroth's lips connected with Eve’s. Eve had never been kissed by anyone before, she stood there with her eyes open and her body limp. But it didn’t last too long, Sephiroth let go of her and disappeared just as quickly as it happened. Eve nearly fell over as she saw Barret, Tifa, Aeris, Red XIII and Yuffie walk down the ally. She looked down at the opposite end and saw that the parade had already started. Eve bent down and picked up her backpack, which she dropped when Sephiroth ‘attacked’ her. She slung it over her shoulder as the group passed, Aeris looked at her questionably. She listened to them talk as they walked by, “Are you sure that the Turks said that Sephiroth and the woman in red came here?” “Yes, they’ve already been seen together here... but all this doesn’t sound like him. Alone he’d do all this, but why the woman?” “Maybe she’s being held against her will.” “But what about what Palmer said?” “...I don’t know then.” You wish... she thought as they continued passed her.

When they were at the top of the ally Eve noticed that her pack was a little lighter. She looked inside and saw her CD player was missing! Eve looked back up at Cloud’s friends and saw Yuffie slip it into her own backpack. Instantly Eve lost her temper. She ran up the ally and caught Yuffie by the back of her shirt. Eve threw her against the wall.

“Alright you little brat, where the fuck is my CD player?!!”

Yuffie looked up at Eve with a sort of fear in her eyes and tried to say, “W-what? I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

Eve’s eyes narrowed, “Really? ...Then why is it that it was in my backpack when you and your friends walked down the ally, but then it was suddenly lighter?” Eve carefully removed on of her headphones and hold it before her. “And I suppose that I wear this for fun?”

Yuffie sweatdroped. “Yuffie, just give it back,” Tifa demanded.

She sighed in defeat and reached into her pack and pulled out Eve’s CD player. Eve looked at it when Yuffie handed it back to her, but glared at her till she gave the thunder materia back too. Eve put her headphone back in her ear and walked off mumbling about brats. Eve walked towards the dock she thought would have the boat to Costa del Sol, while trying to not be so mad. But that was hard. What gave him thee right to do that! I never said anything or did anything to make him think that I liked him the slightest bit, Eve yelled in her mind. She reached the dock and found only one guard there.

“Hold it. This is a restricted area.”

Eve looked at the man and mustered up the most pathetic face she could and cried, “You’ve gotta let me on this boat! Someone’s after! If I don’t get on I’ll be dead by morning!!!” Eve was even able to bring up some fake tears to seal the deal; the guard rushed her onto the boat and gave her a nice place to hide. When the guard was gone she tried to stop the laughter inside her. Eve wiped her face off the fake tears and whispered, “Men are idiots.”

***

For the most part the ride had been smooth, Sephiroth hadn’t shown up to explain to her what the hell was with what happened earlier. But she didn’t think he would have anyway. So she sat here in her little hiding place listening to her music as the boat moved back and forth, making her a little sick. Eve looked through her pack and wished she had gotten more food before leaving. She suddenly realized that all the movement had stopped. Then there were slow steps down the metal stairway. Of course Eve knew it was Sephiroth, but he was here to kill a few crew members and reveal himself to Cloud and his friends. She heard the people get killed and the alarm go off. The door not to far from her hiding spot opened and closed. Eve didn’t move an inch; she only listened for the footsteps of Cloud. Then they came, Eve stood up and watched Cloud, Yuffie and Barret slam open the door, the bodies of two guards on the ground. They didn’t even close it, they only walked in. Eve sighed and hopped onto the box blocking her way and made her way over to the door, if things got bad she would be able to find her hiding place that wouldn’t be found even by Cloud. The hall was dark; the light had been broken by a stray bullet earlier. So Eve stood in the middle of the doorway as Cloud and his little groupies stared in awe of Sephiroth as he appeared before them. Sephiroth lifted his head and saw Eve standing here, surprised she was even on the boat. But to Cloud it looked like Sephiroth was looking off into space. Then came the dramatic demand of why Sephiroth was here from Cloud. Eve still stood there as Sephiroth told them that he was going to take over the planet.

“Then who is this woman in red!? And what does she have to do with this!?”

Eve was shocked; she didn’t think that they were that puzzled over her. And seeing that they had to bring her into this conversation, Eve called fire to her hand till they were covered in flames. It was still too dark to see her face, even with the flames rising up her arms. Sephiroth laughed lightly and answered Cloud, “Why don’t you ask her?”

All three people turned around and stared in horror at Eve, her face covered in shadows. At least that was what she thought; her glowing grey eyes were all they could see. Barret tried to run at her, but Eve was quick enough to slightly rise her arms from her sides and shot flames at the floor. The fire flew up and covered the opening with a fiery door that Barret didn’t dare to cross. Eve laughed loudly, it sounded like tiny bells echoing through the hall. She walked back to her hiding place and calmly waited for Cloud to beat the Jenova monster, though Eve didn’t want to know how he had carried the thing around till now, and to reach Costa del Sol. Then she’d make Sephiroth tell her what the hell the kiss was for.

***

Eve jumped off the ship as it pulled into port and into the glaring sun, instantly happy that she was in thin clothes. The air was humid; it felt like a summer day back in Tahoe. Eve pulled out her vanilla lip gloss and put it on her dry lips. She smiled and walked over to the bridge and began looking for Sephiroth.

“Eve,” someone called. Eve looked around and saw no one around. “Down here.” Eve looked over the bridge and found Sephiroth underneath it in the shade. Eve rolled her eyes at him and slowly walked over the bridge.

“Alright. Start explaining and it better be good.”

Sephiroth looked at her confused and asked, “Explain what?”

Eve glared at him, he forgot! “You know what, and if you say it was insanity that made you do it I leave now.”

Sephiroth looked at her with a blank expression for a moment, “Oh... that.” Eve looked up at him with a ‘Yeah that’ look on her face, not saying anything. “I found you incredibly attractive that day.”

“And what makes that day any better than any other day?” Eve asked with a venomous tone.

“Nothing.” Eve looked at him with an arrogant confused look, not really understanding what he just said meant.

Moments went by with Sephiroth not saying anything more than that. “And that makes it okay?!” Eve said, trying not to yell.

Sephiroth stared at her, seemingly thinking before he asked, “Why are you so mad?” He moved uncomfortably close to Eve. Placing his arm on the wall behind her as she tried to move out of his way, Sephiroth leading in close to her and kissed her again. Eve tried to back away, but she only backed into the cold wall. Eve felt him put his other hand on her neck, thumb pressed to her red cheek. This kiss was so much longer than the last one, Eve felt like she was going to fall over when Sephiroth let go of her. “You should be happy that I care so much about you. You wouldn’t still be alive if I didn’t.”

Eve stared at him with a blank expression as he had and said, “Son of a bitch.” Sephiroth laughed at her as he always did when she said such thing. He back up and looked over towards the beach, looking at something.

But he turned back to Eve and said, “Come on, the boat should have docked by now. We should leave before they get off it.” Eve followed Sephiroth as he left the town; she didn’t what to be there when Cloud talked to Hojo. Because he had seen the whole conversation between them.

***

There were light everywhere in the Gold Saucer. All the happy people and the laughter was irritating Sephiroth in a major way, but Eve felt the same way. Large crowds made her uneasy, and this place was like Disneyland. Eve slept an entire day when they first got there; Sephiroth had insisted that they keep going until they got there. Now they were looking for Dio, the owner of the place. But so far they weren’t having the best of luck.

“Christ! How hard is it to find this guy!?” Eve yelled as they stood in the Speed Square.

“You already know where the Black Materia is, why must we stay here to find this man?” Sephiroth asked her as she kicked the wall. Then he remembered something that she had told him when he first brought Eve to this planet. “Wait, this has to do with the storyline, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. And it wouldn’t be too good to start changing things.”

“And when would be the best time to change things?”

Eve stopped kicking the wall and thought for a moment. “Hmmm, the temple of the ancients, but the best time to start killing everyone is the moment that Aeris is dead. Everyone will be so upset that they’ll never see it coming.”

Sephiroth smiled, “You might be more evil than me, do you that?”

“Well, I’ve had more time to think about it than you.” Eve looked past Sephiroth and saw Dio walking around the square. “And there he is. He doesn’t know anything about Black Materia, but he’ll mention it to Cloud when he comes here.” Eve walked up to Dio with Sephiroth close behind her. “Excuse me but by any chance do you know about Black Materia?”

“Sorry, can’t say I do.”

Sephiroth turned his head to look at something in the distance, reveling the number one tattoo on his neck. “Too bad. Shall we be on our way to Gongaga now?”

“Yes, there isn’t anything here for us now,” Eve answered. Dio watched them walk over to the nearest tram [author’s not: I’m calling it that because I have no idea what to call it other than a tube] and leave the park.

***

Now long used to all the walking she’d been doing, Eve stood before the rebuilt town of Nibelheim. From Gold Saucer to here took so long she’d lost count of the days it took. She looked over at Sephiroth and saw he was kind-of pissed off.

“I thought I destroyed this place five years ago!!” he yelled.

Opps... I think I forgot to tell him about this... Eve thought. “Ummm... well Shin-Ra rebuilt it after you went nuts to make it look like it never happened. And then Zack and Cloud got Jenova cells injected into them, which is why you can control Cloud.”

“Fine! I’ll just destroy it again!” Sephiroth yelled as he reached for his Fire materia.

Eve sweatdroped and tried to stopped him. “You can’t do that! You can destroy it later! But it needs to stay built right now!!” she said clutching his arm. “Besides, now we can stop running from Cloud and screw with his head some, just wait a little longer after this and you can start killing people!”

Sephiroth glared down at her, but huffed and said, “Fine.”

“I wonder how far they are from here...” Eve thought out loud to herself.

“They just left Cosmo Canyon. They’ll be here in the morning,” Sephiroth answered out of nowhere. Instead of heading to the inn, Sephiroth headed straight for Shinra Mansion. Eve didn’t say anything; there were beds there too to sleep on. The darkness came quick, suddenly the lights came on and the sun was gone. They walked into the dark mansion and looked around. There wasn’t much to in the dark, so Eve called a small flame to her finger. It looked like nothing had been in there for years, dust and cobwebs everywhere. “It looks like nothing has been in here longer than five years...”

“That’s because this was the only building that survived your insanity. Too far away from the other building and the stone wall surrounding this place kept it safe from the flames.” Eve followed Sephiroth up stairs, carefully walking up the decaying stairs. When they reached the room with the hidden door, Eve thought of just stopping here and going to sleep. But she ended up following him down into the basement. There were monsters in the building, but they stayed away from them like all the others. The library was as it had five years ago when Sephiroth read all the books and destroyed the town. Sephiroth didn’t say anything; Eve guessed that he was remembering what happened. She decided to leave him alone and ventured deeper into the library. Eve came across Hojo’s desk, books covered its dingy surface. She jumped over a pile of books and sat down in the chair. Grabbing the nearest book to her, Eve started reading what was in it. To her surprise it was on Cloud and Zack. Suddenly lights flickered on, Eve extinguished her little flame and continued reading.

When Sephiroth finally decided to find Eve, she had fallen asleep in the chair, her legs resting on the desk in front of her. The book lay across her chest, her head tilted downwards as she slept. He walked over and removed the book, replacing it on the desk where she found it. Eve sighed in her sleep and wrapped her arms around herself. Sephiroth tried to see what she was dreaming, but all he saw was blank. He could never read her thoughts when she was asleep, some kind of subconscious defense she had. Sephiroth left the room to read volumes of books that had not been there five years ago, leaving Eve to dream.

***

The next morning Eve woke up still in the library. She stretched and yawned, sleeping in a chair had been a bad idea. Slowly rising from the chair, Eve got up and walked through the piles of books, trying not to fall as she walked. When she came to the main part of the library, she found Sephiroth reading some of the books that Eve hadn’t seen before. She didn’t feel like bothering him, so she decided to open the door that lead to where Vincent Valentine slept.

Eve was almost out the door when Sephiroth looked up from the book in his hands and asked, “Where are you going?”

Eve stopped and answered, “To brake into the room we passed on the way down here.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

She pulled one of her daggers out and held it up. “The thief’s best friend,” was all she said as she walked out the door. So Eve walked down the hall a ways and stood in front of the door. There wasn’t any handle on it, only a lock. So she shoved her dagger into the little hole and turned it. Amazingly it opened and lead Eve into the room filled with coffins and the bodies of dead monsters. Eve walked towards the coffin that contained the long-haired gun man, but stopped abruptly. She could hear footsteps, and not just one set. There where many people coming. It was Cloud! Eve turned around looked for a place to hide. She saw that the door had a handle on the other side of it, she ran over and wedged herself between the wall and the door. Her dagger had made a fair sized hole in the door so that Eve could watch Cloud, Tifa and Red XIII walk into the room. They looked around a bit while Cloud walked over to the coffin with Vincent in it, no one bothered to check behind the door. Cloud went to open the coffin, but the lid opened by itself. Vincent rose out of his coffin. Eve didn’t listen to Cloud talk to him, she was too afraid that they would find her. But then they were suddenly leaving, Vincent refusing to talk to them any longer. When they entered the hall once again Eve crawled out of her hiding place and sighed. Slowly she stood back up and looked over and Vincent’s coffin. Nothing moved. Another sigh escaped her.

So... they’re here... Sephiroth said to her.

I know. I almost ran into them! Now what do I do?

There was a moment of silence. Leave now. I’ll meet you on the other side of Mt. Nibel.

Eve didn’t argue. She ran out the door and up the hall. Fighting monsters as she ran, Eve finally made it out of the mansion. Eve dug threw her pack and found the shirt she slept in when she was able to stay in an inn and slipped in on. But this was just in case that Cloud and his friends were able to catch her before she left. Through the gate and back into the normal part of town, Eve was about to leave when she heard someone call, “Hey you!”

Thinking that someone was calling her, she glanced around and saw that Tifa had called her. The rest of the group had joined Cloud, Tifa and Red XIII by this time. Acting as calm as she could she turned around. “Oh... it’s the brat that tried stealing my CD player and her friends... want do you want?”

“Listen, you walked off before I could say sorry for Yuffie’s actions.”

“That’s okay. I only got mad because it’s the only thing I own. Now if you’ll excuse me...”

Cloud stopped Eve before she could continue leaving. “By any chance have you seen a man in a black cape?”

Eve pretended to think for a moment before answering him. “Yeah I have. Many times infact. Tall guy, long silver hair, carries a really long sword, a woman wearing all red following him?”

“That’s’ him! When was the last time you’ve seen him?”

“Just a second ago.” She was lying, she hadn’t seen Sephiroth leave. “Just went towards that mountain. Which is where I’d like to continue heading to if you don’t mind.”

“It’s dangerous there,” Vincent commented. Eve hadn’t noticed him until just then.

“Please, I can take care of myself.” Eve turned and started walking away.

“Hey wait! You never told us your name!” Tifa called.

“It’s Eve,” she answered as she continued walking. A dark smile creped across her face. She could help but think of the shocked look on their faces when they would find out that she was the person traveling with Sephiroth... and it would be by her hands that some of them would die by.

~To be continued in Chapter four of Red Dawn~