Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Frayed ( Chapter 16 )

Disclaimer: Thou ownest not the company called Square, nor dost thou owneth the round table and the knights that abode there.

Chapter 16: Frayed

Erik walked a little faster than the rest of the group eager for the day to end. His mind was racing, running through photo-like memories of people he had known, trying to match Kira with the information in his mind. He knew her from somewhere, but couldn't put a finger on it. At the same time, he hoped she wasn't doing the same thing.

The station, the simplest form of a jail, quickly came into his sight. He prayed above all else that Laguna definitely wasn't there. Laguna would be the first to recognize him, and the last thing he wanted was a reunion of any kind.

Yuffie dashed ahead of them and ran up the brief flight of stairs to the white building and held the door open for them. "Come on in, guys!" she said, waiting for them to herd in.

The building was extremely simple, mainly just a small office and a hallway with a brief row of cells. "Man, if you guys are supposed to have such an extreme success rate, where are all the bad guys at?" Sora asked, looking around.

"Oh, we usually just end up transferring all the criminals to other districts, usually the D-district Prison in the west, out in the desert."

"I don't care about your excuses! Get back in your cell, right now!" A voice shouted, followed by one of the rugged bandits from the forest quickly running out of a door and rushing over to a cell door, waiting as an electronic buzz sounded, then scrambling to get into the cell as the door slammed shut again.

Jerdania walked out of the doorway, squealing with delight when she spotted her friends. "Hey guys!" She shouted, bouncing down the hall to meet them.

"Woah, Jerdania! What'd ya do to them?" Erik laughed, noticing how the room quickly hushed as she gave the hallway a quick glance.

"I have my ways." She said, straightening her long crimson braid and sweeping a few loose strands out of her lightly tanned face.

Irvine chuckled and tried to feign terror as she stepped towards him. "Jerdania, you don't need to hurt me too." He cried out, stepping backwards.

"Come on you two, I wanna get our stuff already." Erik said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, alright. Come on, I know where it's at!" Jerdania said, her braid bouncing as she flew down the hall and skidded to a stop in front of an office door. "Come on Yuffie, unlock it for me!"

Yuffie walked down the hall followed by the others, amused by the girl who was jumping up and down in impatience. The short black-haired woman finally produced a set of keys from her pocked and proceeded to unlock the large closet. With a shout, Jerdania leapt into the closet and began to chuck out the assortment of weapons, duffel bags and backpacks, then sliding back out, now once again armed to the teeth with her daggers and cooking ware, a huge grin that could have rivaled Sora's on her face.

Irvine seemed to be the only one who wasn't completely overwhelmed by the grinning whirlwind of energy. In fact, anyone who cared to look closely enough could tell that the cowboy obviously got a rush from being around her, and practically encouraged her to be the maniac that she was.

"All right! Finally, I missed you so much!" Irvine said, cradling the rifle in his arms.

"Hey!" Jerdania said, jumping up in front of him and lightly punching his arm. "What about me?"

"Oh, here." He said, planting a kiss on her forehead.

The rest of the group were frankly annoyed by the constant show of affection, and were grateful when Tidus distracted them. "Well, now that Jerdania isn't beating people up anymore, maybe she can finally sit still long enough to tell us what she learned from the bandits."

Jerdania frowned. "Those stubborn louts won't tell me a thing." She said, stomping the ground.

"Have you tried talking to their leader?" Irvine asked, pushing up his cowboy hat.

"Oh, Skyzer? He refuses to say a single word." She said, folding her arms.

"Maybe we should all try to get him to talk." Riku suggested, folding his arms as well.

"We could try." Jerdania agreed, looking to Yuffie.

The group gathered around the table in the room, staring hard at the man who sat in a chair behind it. Skyzer was leisurely chewing on a toothpick, ignoring all the questions being thrown at him. The group's nerves had frayed, and they all knew it wouldn't be long before Riku finally snapped, given his short and violent temper. "For the last time, tell us; why did you attack us?" Akirame said, leaning forward.

Skyzer finally looked up at the fiery girl and took the toothpick out of his mouth, and a short string of expletives came out of his mouth, causing the girl's face to quickly pale. The group quickly drew back as Riku's nerves snapped, but not before Erik's. Both boys walked over and seemed to tower over the large man. Riku leaned in and grabbed the man's shirt collar, pulling his face close. "You mind repeating that?" he calmly said, the fierce storm in his eyes the only thing giving away the oncoming fury.

Skyzer pumped himself up and repeated the expertly crafted insult, and was completely caught off guard as Riku lifted the man up from his chair and swung him around, pinning him against the wall. "Look buddy, don't even think for one second that you're going to get away with talking about Akirame that way!" Riku growled, his hold on the man's collar tightening as he drew his other hand back, curling it into a fist.

Erik reached out and grabbed Riku's arm with his good hand, stopping the flying fist just inches from Skyzer's face. "Riku, we don't need to kill him. He may be the only one with the answers that we need." Erik calmly said, trying to soothe his friend.

Riku took a deep breath and backed off, letting the man slump against the wall. Skyzer was visibly shaken, his eyes wide and forehead dripping slightly with sweat. Erik stood in front of the man, and lifted up his bandaged hand. "This is part of the reason why I'm here." He said, narrowing his eyes. "The other part is Akirame." He practically whispered, drawing his brows together.

Skyzer looked at the boy's hand for a moment before answering. "I'm glad Gypsy did that to you before you killed her." The man snarled, trying to regain his confidence.

"The wounds your beast gave me will heal. The ones I'll give you if you don't stop being a smart aleck won't." Erik threatened, producing a pocket knife from his jeans.

Skyzer gulped as Erik held the blade up to the man's neck. "Now I am sick and tired of being badgered and bullied, and I am going to get some answers from you right now." The boy barely whispered, his forehead beading with sweat from his quiet rage.

Skyzer sighed. "All right. I give up. It's not worth it. This man met up with me and my gang while we was resting at our camp. He offered us a good deal of money if we would check every single incoming group of people in the forest, and that we were looking for someone with some sort of mark on their hands. The reward would be phenomenal, and we had been having bad luck, so we agreed." Skyzer confessed, his British accent thickening the words.

"And who is this mystery man?" Erik prodded, still wielding the small blade.

"I don't know. He didn't give us a name. All I know is that he has a flair for black leather. He reminded me of those SOLDIERs Shinra used to have. Of course, Shinra's been gone for at least a good hundred years now or so, it couldn't be the guy I was thinking he might be." Skyzer began to rattle on.

"Right, what guy?"

"Uh.....you're gonna think I'm crazy, but the guy looked just like Sephiroth."

Erik sighed and put the pocket knife away, and then dealt a solid blow with his fist to the man's stomach. "That's for what you called Akirame." He said, walking away.

"Sephiroth?" Yuffie asked, looking at the group.

Skyzer had been put away, and Erik was now calmed down, Riku at his side. "That's what Skyzer said, the guy looked like Sephiroth." Erik repeated, crossing his arms.

Yuffie looked up at Tidus, who was just as puzzled. "But...Sephiroth has been dead for like, practically thirty years! Shinra itself died maybe twenty years ago. Maybe it was just some psycho goof-ball running around in the forest." He said, scratching his head.

"No, this has to be Sephiroth." Riku said, looking at the ground. "We've talked with Cloud Strife back in Transverse Town, and he told us that Sephiroth was back."

Tidus and Yuffie looked at each other, their jaws dropping. "Cloud Strife? But.... but he's been dead at least as long as Sephiroth has." Yuffie said.

The information came as a shock to the group. "But...he can't be dead. He sent us here to talk to Laguna and deliver a package." Erik argued.

Yuffie and Tidus looked greatly displeased with where this was going. "Man, the least we can do is let you guys talk with Laguna once he gets here and all. Then we'll let you sort it out with him."

"What time will he be getting here?"

Tidus looked at his watch. "He should get here tomorrow. You guys are gonna have to find a place to stay. There really aren't any hotels in town."

Riku sighed. "Well...we do have camping gear and there is a small field on the edge of town were we could stay without disturbing anyone."

The group shrugged, although they didn't look overwhelmingly thrilled. "Well, sorry guys, but there's nothing more we can do for ya. I guess you can just hang around town, and tomorrow just come back here around noon and Laguna should be here." Yuffie said, feeling sorry for them.

Riku shrugged. "Well, come on guys, let's go."

"Where to? It's only 5 p.m." Sora asked, looking bored already as they left the building.

"Hmm.... I guess we could just have bit of a free day for now, and then meet back here at this building around 8 to start camp."

"Woohoo! Civilization!" Kairi joyfully shouted, grabbing Akirame and Jerdania's hands. "Come on girls, lets go look around this place."

"Uh...bye!" Akira quickly shouted as she was dragged off by the other two.

The boys stared and looked at each other for a while. "Well, the chicks dumped us! Now what?" Sora said, watching the girls quickly running around a small fountain.

"Well, we really need to stock on supplies. Come on Sora, we're going grocery shopping." Riku said, grabbing his younger friend.

"Why me?"

"Because I said so."

"Awww..." Sora groaned, now following the older teen.

Red, Erik and Irvine all looked at each other. "So... go figure. Leave the Balamb boys out, eh?" Irvine said, folding his arms.

"Irvine.... you remembered what I told you about my past?" Erik quietly said, looking up at his tall friend.

"Yeah, you told me everything except for the name of the town." The cowboy drawled.

"Irvine, this is the city where I lived when I was a kid."