Jenova's Daughter

CHAPTER SIX: Dissent

Kadaj sat for an hour with the cut lock of ReiMei’s blood soaked hair in his hands before releasing his younger brothers from their prison. Loz came for him first, but Kadaj was able to sidestep the blurred form of Loz in his super-fast mode.

“Stop it.” He ordered his middle brother calmly.

“Where’s ReiMei!” Loz exploded, his tone speaking fear for her and anger towards his superior.

“I don’t know.” Kadaj answered.

“What?” Loz asked incredulously. “How can you not know?”

“Why was she screaming, Kadaj?” Yazoo questioned, the color of his Mako eyes closer to the heat of a fire.

“She took my pain away.” Kadaj tried to explain, not wanting to fight his brothers. He loved them too. The lock of ReiMei’s hair was still in his hands.

“I didn’t think I could love her.” He said. “The secrets I’d learned made me hurt inside.”

“We don’t care about you!” Loz shouted. “Where is our sister!?”

Yazoo ground a fist into the shoulder of Loz’s short jacket, keeping him from lunging at Kadaj.

“That’s not true, Kadaj.” Yazoo said in an even tone, even though it was clear he wanted to attack his eldest brother himself. “We do care about you, but the little we saw you do to ReiMei, and having heard those screams…” Yazoo paused.

“We’re very worried about her.” Yazoo finished.

“She took my pain away.” Kadaj repeated. “I can love her now. We completed the Bonding.”

“At what price?” Yazoo asked acidly. “How much blood have you washed in?”

Loz managed to squirm free from Yazoo’s grip, but instead of going after Kadaj, he ran to his older brother’s room, skidding to a stop just inside the door. It seemed that there was blood everywhere. The bed linens were soaked in it. The restraints at the headboard gleamed a sickly red. There was a swath on the carpeting leading to where Loz stood. The cloying smell of it made him want to retch. A deadly Tanto blade was stuck in the wall where a mirror had been. There was glass all over the floor. There were but two words to express Loz’s grief. He threw his head back, his hands balled into fists and raised. Every chord in his neck stood taut and hard as he cried out.

“REIMEI!!!”

“I’m trying to comprehend you.” Yazoo said to Kadaj. “However, until I do, and if I can ever make Loz see, well, I think it’d be best if you stayed away from us for a while.

Yazoo started to walk away. He got far enough to see the ugly mess of Kadaj’s room.

“You should clean that up.” Yazoo suggested harshly.

“Come on, Loz.” Yazoo said to his distraught older brother. “Let’s go find her.”

Loz followed Yazoo to the infirmary, but not before throwing an outraged glare at Kadaj. Together, the younger brothers packed a bag of medical supplies. They did not know ReiMei’s condition, but there was no doubt that it was grave. They went back to the common room, knowing they could follow the trail of their sister’s blood to find her. Kadaj was still standing there, the lock of her hair wound tightly in his fist.

“I hope you find her.” He whispered softly as his younger brother’s set out on their search.


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In the end, it took Yazoo and Loz four days to track ReiMei down. She’d had only an hour’s head start, but had cleverly headed deeper into the rubble of the severely damaged areas of the ShinRa Company’s complex. They came to a place where they could no longer find the blood trail they’d followed, and ended up simply searching blindly until they found her. The sight of their little sister would haunt Loz and Yazoo’s nightmares for a very long time.

She had run away without stopping to clothe her nakedness, and lay shivering, sheltered inside a narrow, dirty concrete pipe near one of the destroyed Mako reactors. There was a broken crutch lying nearby. ReiMei was curled up in a fetal position, her eyes no longer sparkling, but now dull and vacant, in a wide-eyed stare. Her brothers could not see her breathing.

“She’s dead!” Loz shouted. “ReiMei!”

When Yazoo reached inside the pipe, his sister croaked out a ragged scream.

“No, ReiMei,” Yazoo said as if talking to a child. “Don’t be afraid. Please.”

She whimpered pathetically in response. She was so broken now, nothing of the Assassin in her remained.

“Loz, get her the hell out of there!” Yazoo ordered, moving out of the way.

As the middle brother picked his little sister up, he saw more of her wounds. That, coupled with her piteous whimpers was more than enough to bring hot tears to his slitted eyes, but he held them back and willed himself not to break down. ReiMei needed he and Yazoo too much.

She was covered in crusted blood, her once glorious silver hair had turned the color of rust from the dried ichor in it. There was dirt and cobwebs in her hair and on her pale skin. She must have crawled through every nasty place in the complex. Her right eye was swollen shut, and the other side of her face was just a massive blue and purple bruise. A thin wound ran on her left cheek, and seemed to be the only injury that was not infected. Her pallor was grey, and Loz wondered how much of that had to do with the dirt that covered her, rather than loss of blood. One of her hands was balled into a weak fist around a tiny silver key.

“I’m going to kill him.” Loz whispered, turning back toward Yazoo so that he could see the sickening result of their older brother’s sadistic rage.

Yazoo saw that even moving ReiMei this little bit had sent her farther into shock. Her expression had gone numb and the look in her emerald eyes was so vacant that he believed she might never really recover from the horrible abuse she’d suffered. The deep wounds on her chest and torso were scabbed over, but oozed white pus from where the scabs had cracked. Her wrists looked like she had tried to commit suicide a hundred times, not knowing that you had to cut the other way to succeed.

Despite her shivering, she was burning with fever. Yazoo wrapped a blanket around his sweet sister, noting the crooked angle of her foot, and the swollen, bulging ankle above it. If it had been broken for the entire four days, it would have already begun to heal. That meant he’d have to re-break it to set it properly.

Why had she run away instead of coming to he and Loz? Had Kadaj scared her so badly that she no longer loved or trusted any of them? Rage began to well up inside the calm youngest brother, but he quelled it for ReiMei’s sake. There would be time for his rage later. Yazoo didn’t even know if he had skill enough to treat her wounds. That had been Yazoo’s mental training in the birthing chamber. His tech had schooled him extensively in the healing arts, but what he saw before him daunted him. He was afraid that this horrible, bloodied mess that used to by his stunning little sister was beyond what he’d been taught.

It would be a difficult walk back to the infirmary, and would probably take them more than an hour to get there.

“Don’t cry Loz.” Yazoo said absently. “We’ll make her better.”

Loz fixed his tear stained eyes on his brother for a moment.

“Why did Kadaj do this?” Loz asked forlornly. “Why couldn’t he have loved her like we did?”

“Kadaj said that she took his pain away so that he could love her.” Yazoo replied. “I think that meant he had to vent his considerable rage on her. That’s the best answer I have.”

“It’s not a very good one.” Loz shot back.

“Sometimes there isn’t a good answer, Loz.” Yazoo returned. “That’s just the way it is. ReiMei had to Bond with us. Hojo was a lunatic, even if he did create us. How terrible it must have been for her to be forced to love us. Her heart is so big. She would have loved us just as much without his damned programming. I’m sure of it.”

The Brothers would never discover that it had been Gast, Aerith’s father who had been her tech, and who had taken pity on ReiMei by filling her with as much knowledge as he did.

“Let’s get her back to the quarters building.” Yazoo spat. “Anything I try to do for her here will just be wasted. It’s filthy.”

Together, the rescuers made their way back to their home, taking turns carrying their sister, who seemed nothing more than a bag of bones. They stopped often, forcing water past her dried and split lips, but halfway into the journey, ReiMei fell into unconsciousness. They could no longer wake her to make her drink.

Loz and Yazoo were very relieved when they finally made it to the infirmary. ReiMei had not regained consciousness, and in a way, that was best. Yazoo hoped he would be able to tend to her injuries without waking her. Resetting her ankle would be the worst. He hooked up IV bags to ReiMei’s slender, pale arms while Loz did what he could to clean his sister , careful not to disturb her wounds. As he worked, his brother went to collect the supplies and tools that he’d need to begin ReiMei’s surgery.


Loz assisted the extensive work that Yazoo performed on their sister that day, comparing the work to what he had been trained for. He was the Mechanic. He likened ReiMei’s veins and tendons to electrical wiring and hydraulic hoses. He was utterly shocked when Kadaj appeared in the operating room’s viewing window. He gave his elder brother a look of pure hatred, but Kadaj ignored it. His Mako eyes locked on his baby sister.

“Loz.” Yazoo barked impatiently. “I need that next Plazstrip!” Pay attention!”

Loz’s gaze went dumbly to the tray of dwindling supplies before him.

“Sorry, Yazoo.” Loz apologized, giving his brother the suture he had requested. “It’s just that Kadaj is here.”

“I know.” Yazoo nodded, applying the Plazstrip. “It’s good he showed up. I was beginning to worry.”

“I meant what I said before.” Loz avowed. “I will kill him for this.”

“You can’t.” Yazoo said, gesturing for the last suture.

“The hell I can’t.” Loz spat. “I will. I’ll shove the Dual Hound so far up his ass his brain explodes!”

“You can’t.” Yazoo repeated. He gently laid a bloody hand atop of Loz’s. “Kadaj loves her. It doesn’t matter how it came about. If ReiMei were awake, she’d tell you the same thing. She knows the secret that Kadaj revealed to her. She let this happen. Loz. I have to believe there’s a reason.”

Loz lifted his gaze to the brother outside the glass. He studied him in silence as Yazoo swathed their sister in bandages. It took him a while, but his anger cooled when he realized how much Kadaj seemed to care for ReiMei now. Loz could see it in his face. There was a deep sorrow there that spoke his apology to the littlest of them.

“All right.” Loz said at last. “I won’t kill im.” A slight grin cracked his features.

“Can I at least beat him stupid?”

Yazoo looked up, favoring Loz with a gentle, understanding smile.

“Only if I get to help.”

Yazoo was finished with his work on ReiMei. Together, he and his brother lifted her slight form, but Yazoo went away from the infirmary beds.

“Where are you going?” Loz asked at once.

“Hojo had a Mako immersion tank installed here for anyone with extreme injuries.” Yazoo explained. “I think ReiMei qualifies.”

As they readied her for the immersion, Loz lightly traced the thin, newly healed scar on her cheek.

“It’s a pity about the scars.” He remarked sadly.

“No it’s not.” Yazoo contradicted, fixing an Oxymask on ReiMei’s face. To Loz’s questioning look, he replied;

“The Mako treatment won’t leave any scars, except for this one on her face.” Yazoo shrugged. “The Mako’s got a power all it’s own. It might heal everything.”

He and Loz lifted ReiMei into the Mako bath, floating her in the thick, green fluid. Yazoo wanted to linger, but Loz was insistent.

“Come on.” He said, pulling his younger brother with him. “We’re late for a beating.”

Kadaj had retreated to the common room, waiting for his younger brothers to return from the infirmary. He’d gotten a good look at what he’d done and had heard Loz’s unspoken promise as if he had shouted it. His brothers meant to kill him. He wondered if he’d get the chance to fully explain what had driven him to such rage. They had a right to know after all. He didn’t want ReiMei’s impending death to destroy them as an Assassin’s death had done to so many other Soldiers. Kadaj allowed himself a small sigh. Explanation or not, there was no guarantee that either of his siblings would really understand. They had been programmed with different temperaments, different talents, different skills. They had been designed to be the perfect three man team, each complimenting the other, with the Assassin Sister binding them all together.

Kadaj heard his brothers as they emerged from the infirmary. He rose from his chair and turned right into Loz’s fist. He was not at all surprised. The blow knocked him off his feet, but he tucked into a roll, tumbling neatly to regain them. Yazoo was waiting for him, spinning deftly on one leg, kicking high with his other. When his foot connected with the side of Kadaj’s head, he smiled. Kadaj went with the momentum, flipping backwards to hands and then back to his feet. His siblings closed in on him and he took a defensive stance, prepared to meet their ire.

“Did you get a good look?” Loz snarled as he threw blow after blow at his elder brother. “Are you satisfied?” Kadaj’s head rocked back when Loz slipped through his defenses.

“You have this one chance to tell your story.” Yazoo warned, also leveling kick after kick at his brother. “You nearly killed ReiMei and we want to know why!”

So, as Kadaj did his best to defend himself from his enraged brothers, he told them what he had discovered of ReiMei’s fate. Loz and Yazoo paused.

“ReiMei’s going to die?” Los asked, a quaver in his tone.

“In six months?” Yazoo finished for him.

“I don’t know why it happens.” Kadaj said, panting from the near brawl. “Hojo didn’t know either. We all love her, and hopefully we won’t grow jealous of one another, but even if we keep our heads, and manage to prevent ReiMei from suiciding, she’ll still die.”

“No.” Loz denied. “She survived you! She’ll survive. She has to.”

Yazoo’s hands hung at his sides.

“Hojo was a bastard.” He said softly. “He made us all, programmed us like comp chips to love one another like the family we should be. He didn’t finish us, he abandoned all of us as if we meant nothing. We have no orders, and are faced with the knowledge that one of our own will leave us.”

“Why did you have to hurt her?” Loz cried as he lunged at Kadaj. He knocked his elder brother to the floor, his large hands wrapped around Kadaj’s slender neck.

Kadaj couldn’t answer Loz. Yazoo placed a restraining hand on Loz’s shoulder.

“If you had known the truth before she Bonded with you, would you have cried, or gotten angry?” Yazoo asked quietly.

Loz relaxed his choke hold on Kadaj.

“I don’t know.” He said after a long pause. He looked down at his elder brother, his superior. He was confused now.

“You got mad, didn’t you?”

His elder brother nodded.

“ReiMei’s been engineered to Bond, even if it’s violent.” Yazoo said, kneeling down beside his siblings. “I think she knew. She told me that each of us would love her differently.”

Loz put a hand on Kadaj’s cheek. Tears were riding in his slitted jade eyes.

“Promise me you won’t do it again.” Loz said.

“ReiMei is my sister.” Kadaj replied. “I truly love her, as I love both of you. I swear I’ll do anything to save her.”

Loz nodded tiredly.

“I’ll hold you to that, Kadaj.” Loz said, rising to his feet, and offering his hands to his brothers.

Kadaj stood and pulled Loz to him in a desperate hug. He buried his face against his younger brother’s neck.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t understand.” Kadaj whispered. “I was afraid I’d lose you all.”

Loz returned the embrace, and Yazoo folded his body against Kadaj’s back.

“We still love you.” He said, feeling his brother’s body relax in the embrace.

“She’ll be all right, won’t she?” Kadaj asked.

“ReiMei will come out of the Mako bath in two days.” Yazoo replied. “She should be awake and fully healed by then.”

“I’m glad.” Kadaj breathed.