|
|
As the night began to blend to day and the team woke up they soon noted that a
storm had come up over night and had passed. The wet grass had told them this, the two
empty beds though told them that Vincent and Mym though were nowhere to be found.
“Oh no...”Aeris murmered almost to herself although Tifa overheard her.
“Oh no what?” Tifa inquired, tilting her head and looking up from lacing her boots.
“I hope Mym didn’t leave to go after Hojo,”Aeris answered, her green eyes
revealing how upset she was,”I hope she and Vincent didn’t go after Hojo...”
Her voice trailed off and she looked at her hands. It wasn’t until Cloud’s annoyed
sigh and shoes clicking made her look up. There stood Vincent and Mym, Cloud
confronting them about where they’d disappeared to. Aeris got up and walked over,
almost tripping on the carpet as she hadn’t really looked to see the bump in it. Catching
herself as she stumbled Aeris continued on her way over to them.
“You didn’t leave!”
Aeris’s voice sounded glad and her eyes were shining. Mym looked down at her
as she was a bit taller than Aeris.
“I gave my word didn’t I?” Mym queried as she set her sword down on the bed
nearest to her. She then turned and looked at Cloud and Vincent as they stood face to
face, about 2 feet between them. Walking to stand beside Vincent again she looked at
Cloud.
“So when do we leave?”
“We were supposed to leave half an hour ago,”Cloud stated simply, trying not to
let annoyance slip into his voice. He didn’t do quite such a good job as he continued
though.
“But some of us slept in and we couldn’t find you two.”
At the mention of sleeping in Barret grumbled something and tromped off to get
his pack. Mym however nodded her head.
“I see, accept my apologies for not being here this morning.”
As she finished that she turned on her heel, grabbed her sword and went off to
gather her pack, guns and clothes. As she threw the things in the pack Aeris came up to
her and quietly placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you allright?”
A nod was all she received in return as the older woman laced the pack shut and
threw it on her back, holstering her gun that lay on the bed and grabbing her sword. As
she went to leave Aeris pulled her hand away and just watched Mym leave the room. In
her mind and heart she knew Mym wasn’t allright but still, to press it would have only
made things worse so Aeris vowed to herself to at a better time, try to help comfort Mym.
Quickly grabbing her own pack and staff Aeris went to join Mym in the hall.
Meanwhile out in the hall as Mym stood waiting for the others to gather their
travelling gear and posessions and weapons she saw Vincent emerge from the men’s room
and quietly walk over to her. The silence in the hall was defeaning barely broken by his
voice, quiet, as he spoke up.
“How long?”
Knowing he meant how long Hojo had tortured her and kept himself asleep she
answered, her own voice nearly as quiet as his,”About 30 years.”
He nodded and seemed to pull back into himself as he mulled over this new point.
After another few seconds Aeris strode over to them and gave them both a quick glance
and a warm smile to try and lessen the tension in the air. It was then that Aeris realized
the only supplies Vincent carried were his gun and the clothes on his back.
“Oh Vincent...”she began,”You don’t have a bedroll or anything. We’ll have to
stop and get you something before we leave town.”
“That is quite unnecessary, I am not in the least tired and thesupplies would be of
very little use to me,”He stated but before he could finish the word quite, Aeris had run off
in search of Cloud to inform him of this oversight and the need to remedy it. With a quiet
resigned sigh Vincent shook his head slightly at the girl who had run off.
“She’s just being herself, friendly and outgoing,”Mym explained quietly, her eyes
closed as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded.
“I see,”Vincent replied, as he watched Aeris come back over to them, her face lit
up with a bright smile.
“Cloud said we’d stop on the way out, he’s ready to leave now by the way,”she
said cheerfully. As she said that they watched as Cloud and the other members of the
group left their rooms and made their way downstairs to the main lobby of the inn.
Without so much as another word the three of them followed and met up with the others
as Cloud paid for the rooms and chatted quietly with the innkeeper.
“Yes the rooms were acceptable,” Cloud replied to answer the man’s question.
“Oh that’s good, I’m glad you found them acceptable. I might suggest though son
that you stop by the shoppes on the way out just to make sure you’re stocked up on things
if you intend to go over the mountains,”the man chattered on.
“Yes,”Cloud said quietly as he grabbed his pack again,”We plan on doing that.”
After the exchange of goodbyes and ‘have a nice trip, come by again’ the group
headed off. Upon reaching one of the shoppes Aeris and Mym pooled their money to get
him a change of clothes and boots for the road and a backpack as well as some
ammunition. Cloud picked up some climbing gear also just incase they needed it on the
mountains and then they were off.
Cloud and Tifa felt better as soon as they’d left Nibelheim and it was visable on
their faces though their eyes still held haunted images of the Nibelheim they watched burn
and images of this Nibelheim that was twisted somehow by Shin-Ra. Vincent felt better
also at leaving Nibelheim and the site of the Jenova Project. Only Mym seemed slightly on
edge as they left, heading through the mountains toward the reactor. None of the others
could really understand why as she’d told them nothing of her captivity there during the
Jenova Project though Aeris could make a guess at it at least having to do with the reactor
incident that caused Mym’s life as she knew it to end.
After about an hour of walking and having crossed the old rope bridge that had
collapsed before but was now there again, the reactor came into view. Mym immediately
stiffened as she saw it, her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. Aeris and Vincent
noticed this as well as Barret who simply muttered something about weirdoes and moved
off to the front of the party. Aeris and Vincent each gave him a look but then their
attention went back to Mym who was still stopped and just staring at the reactor.
“Mym?”Aeris asked, reaching out to place a hand on her arm until Vincent
stopped her.
“Don’t....” he warned, he knew what might happen and this girl didn’t understand
that Mym might become extremely volatile at any moment.
It was then that it happened and her hands unclenched, her body returning to it’s
normal stance and her face grew to be as emotionless as it had been on missions in the
past. Vincent noted this and motioned for Aeris to step away. Vincent could guess that
something rather unpleasant was going to happen because even when they were Turks he
had never seen this kind of detached involvement in her. Emotionally she was involved
with the reactor as it played a part in the nightmare of her life but now she seemed so
withdrawn from it that he feared the consequences. They all watched as Mym, with
steady, purposeful steps, went down to the reactor and inside without so much as another
word. Cloud shouted for her to stop as she got to the door but it did no good so he
ordered them all to hurry down and follow her.
Inside the reactor she made her way quickly to where her cell had been. The area
was old and unused, cobwebs were all over and there was a thick layer of dust on
everything. In the darkness she had no trouble seeing, thanks to the alterations Hojo had
done.
“How ironic,”she thought,”He gave me these powers and now I’ll use them
against him. Very much the monster turning on it’s would be master.”
She smirked at the thought as she moved to the desk that had first been covered by
papers but now also had inches of dust on it. Under the dust she could see the shapes of
books and pens scattered haphazardly, yellowed papers sticking out over the edges of the
wood. Mym moved over to the desk’s chair, the leather falling to almost nothing and
pushed it away. With a careless sweep of her hand she dusted some of the books and
papers off and among them she found one of Hojo’s journals and the records of some of
the things he’d done to her. Taking them and putting them in her pack she scanned the
desk for anything else useful but found little, then she focused on the drawers and came up
with little save old clipboards, a few old needles and another journal. She took this also
and then moved on through the rest of the rundown area til she passed the old testing
equipment and came upon her old cell.
Hesitantly she stepped inside it, her eyes narrowing in a deep hatred immediately as
she felt the old air settle around her again. It even felt like the same air that had been their
the 30 years prior. She moved over to the crates with the old tarp on them. They once
had been sturdy enough for her to sleep and sit on, now they looked as if they’d crumble
even if a small child touched them. It was as she reached a hand out towards them that
she heard the reactor door creak and scratch open and she fell to her knees again, the
memories of that night flooding back again.
