Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Painful Miracles ❯ Nightmares and Heroes ( Chapter 7 )

Nightmares and Heroes

Sakura walked through the deep forest on a worn and beaten path to the old Mako reactor that still provided power to the small town of Rocket Town. Her sword was in hand as the woods were filled with vicious monster and not to mention criminals of every sort. The tail of her twisted braid tickled the back of her legs as she continued on her way until she came to an old, rusted, iron building. The building itself was at least 3 stories high and was only attended by low class minorities.

Her attention went fully to an unregistered van parked out side. She sheathed her blade and walked up the old rickety stars to the iron door and pulled it open. The lights were down and the hallways were silhouetted in darkness. A few lights flickered in and out of work as she started to descend into the hall. The iron floor creaked under her shoes as she stopped at a sudden noise. It was the sound of male voices under her feet. Sakura, one to be very curious in her silence, kneeled down to listen through the slits in a heat vent.

"The girl is in this village somewhere and Rufus' son is here as well." Came a gruff, male voice.

"That is very good news, Jack, Thank you." Came another voice which was light and polite sounding. He had to be the leader. He had long silver hair like her fathers and his eyes were so strong and a compelling blue...so wise...

Sakura saw the man named Jack bow in respect, and walk from the room. Sakura continued to watch and listen as the leader and another person began to talk, unaware of a person making it's way to her.

The young man smirked as he made his way to the lithe form of the brunette kneeling in front of the heating vent. He tapped her on the shoulder, startling her from her voyeurism.

"You shouldn't be snooping around her, girly." He said harshly, easily back handing her in the face. Sakura held her cheek and placed her other hand on the hilt of her sword.

"I'd advise you not to do that." Came a voice from behind her. Sakura turned to see a group of men dressed in ShinRa uniforms.

"I was not snooping. I work here." Sakura snapped, standing up and smoothing out her mothers old pink dress.

"Really, and why would a innocent girl want to work in a shit-hole like this?" The boy in front of her laughed.

"My business, not yours." Sakura snapped back harshly. The boy was furious at this and punched her hard in the face.

"You are useless! Don't speak with me in that tone!" He yelled, kicking her in the stomach.

"That is quite enough! Leave the girl. We have more business to attend to." Said a fat man in a dark blue suit that hugged his huge body in all the wrong places and mad his massive weight stand out. The boys stopped, leaving Sakura winded and unconscious on the steel floor and walked away with their boss.

"One last thing. This place is dry of Mako now, so burn it and the village, and don't forget to find the Gainsburough girl and Rufus' sons!" Ordered the fat boss. The men nodded, and one set fire to some papers, unaware of a watchful set of blue eyes up in the rafters.

The fire quickly caught some oil on fire, surrounding the unconscious Sakura in a fiery ring as the ShinRa employees left the reactor. The owner of the watchful blue eyes jumped from the rafters to Sakura's side. He kneeled down and shook her.

"Hey! Girl! Wake up!" He yelled into her ear, feeling his body heat up as the fire encircled them. .:Dammit! If She doesn't wake up we're both going to die!:. He screamed through his mind. The fire was practically on top of them and in a rush for both the girl's life, and his very own, the blue eyed man gathered Sakura's lifeless body into his strong arms and began to walk through the fire. He winced slightly as the hot tendrils licked at his pale skin and left their kiss upon his arms and face. His lungs were scorched by the smoke, but would soon breath fresh air as the man kicked a few things from his path and walked out into the fresh afternoon air.

He inhaled deeply, taking in as much fresh air as he could as he carried Sakura's unconscious body to a small creek a few feet from the Mako reactor and set her down. He gathered a bit of water in his hands and tilted Sakura's head so he could help her drink the water. He put his hand to her pink lips and let the cool spring water trickle into her mouth to ease the burns in her lungs and throat. The man watched as Sakura's chest rose and fell in inhaling and exhaling as he helped her drink. He smiled at the young woman in his arms. Her features were that of an other worldly beauty. Her hair was a light chestnut, fading into deep brown and tied back into a twisted braid. Her bangs were silver in color and hung in her closed eyes. She certainly was a vision of beauty at it's finest.

A small whimper escaped her pale pinkish lips and the young man wondered what was going on in her head in her unconscious state. If he only knew....

***********

Sakura was having yet another one of her dreams. Except this time the dream....er... nightmare was very vivid. She was on a battle field with 6 people she had never seen in her life, and she could only clearly make out two. Both figures were female, and were very talented with a blade and one with a gun which she fired with deadly accuracy. The girl with the Gun-Blade like sword was a brunette with golden bangs that hung in her eyes. She seemed very spirited but easily angered. The other girl had black hair and had an aim that was deadly and she seemed very calm and collected. It seemed to Sakura the girl was quite trigger-happy.

But, then the scenery became utter chaos and massacre as an opposing force stormed the battlefield, turning it into a crimson sea. The new fighters killed everything in their path, determined to get their target, Sakura and the 5 strange figures with her. The demonic, amoral men grabbed her, their hands leaving siring marks of their hands burnt into her flesh. She screamed out in pain and soon she was in a lab, her body encased in a glass tube, her cloths gone leaving her nude. She pressed her hands to the glass and pushed on the cold surface, trying to break it, but she found that her strength had left her. As she pushed as thick, green, gooey substance filled the tube she was in. She had no time to take a breath and the fluid spilled into her mouth, choking her. Her lungs were void of air now and begged for a life giving breath. But her lungs were soon rewarded as a tube plunged down her throat and began to supply air to her pain filled lungs.

Her wounds burned as the green fluid seeped into the cuts, and she kicked against the glass. When she was sure she could take no more the tube drained, leaving her nude to all eyes in the room and covered in the green goo. Her chest heaven up and down as the tube was removed, and when it left her throat, she leaned over and threw up.

A tap on the glass made her turn her tired eyes to stare into the empty sockets of the corpse-like man, the epitome of death. He smiled at her revealing to her the worms that crawled in and out of his rotting cheeks, and his deep yellow teeth. She would have screamed, but her body was racked with pain and her throat was sore.

"So, I've finally found you." He said, pressing his rotted face closer to the glass. Sakura backed up as far as she could in the small area provided to her, but fell to the floor as the glass disappeared. She was about to get to her feet when men grabbed her and locked her arms behind her back. The fact that she was naked had little effect on her as her anger got the best of her. The corpse like man made is way over to her and put a rotting hand on her life-filled cheek.

"Your parents were stupid to think that you would be safe. And you were foolish to think that we wouldn't find you. You were also foolish to believe that you could save the worthless beings you call friends. They perished at my hand, trying to save you as a mater of fact." He smiled his corpse like smile as if he was happy about the sins he had committed and the lives he had took.

"What did you do to them?" She found herself speaking. Her dream self seemed to know what she was doing and what he was talking about. He laughed and smiled at her, putting his hands over her ears and making her stare into the darkness of his sockets where is eyes should be. In the ebony darkness a picture came into view. It was the battle she had just fought with the 5 strangers.

Just before she had blacked out and found herself in the lab was where the picture stopped. It began to play as if the corpse was a very ugly TV. The scene was of the men that stormed the battle field. She saw herself pass out as one grabbed her and shot her with a sleeping dart, as if to keep her in an unconscious state. The black haired, gun toting terror in hot pants came over and shot the guy right through his cold black heart that was corrupted by ShinRa and their demonic ways. He fell down dead and the black haired girl stood by Sakura and the other 4 joined her there in a ring around Sakura, weapons drawn, ready to fight for her. But they were bested by these new breed of ShinRa soldiers, and the brunette and the trigger happy girl were captured. The other 3 fighters, which were all male, laid there in their own blood, on stabbed through the chest with a sword, the next shot through the head 4 times, and the last decapitated.

Sakura snapped back to the lab, tears in her eyes and breathing in the rancid smell of the corpse. He smiled at her, revealing those damned worms. "

Where are is Icarus and Dante! Tell me now!!" Sakura's dream self yelled into the corpse's face, knowing exactly who these two people were, as the real Sakura was clueless. The corpse said nothing as he turned around and pressing a button. The button triggered two doors to part from each other, revealing the mangled bodies of the trigger happy girl, and the cocky brunette.

Both girls were on crosses, tied to their graves with sharp metal wire. Both girls seemed to be alive, and their eyes held fear.

"Sakura....." The brunette whispered, blood trickling from her mouth.

"We tried...." Finished the raven haired girl. Sakura felt more tears splash down her cheeks and onto the blood encrusted floor. She couldn't muster a response. She felt an over whelming feeling that she had failed them too.... The looks on the girls' faces held pride, stubbornness, and arrogance, but one thing cut through their hard core act. Sadness and pain shown through like light during a darkened storm. Sakura knew they were suffering and it was her fault.

The corpse caught on to Sakura's feelings and he turned to smile at her.

"Fear not, Young one, for their suffering ends here. We have gotten what we needed from them and now we cannot let them live." With a snap of his rotted fingers the wires tying the two brave warriors to their crosses and death beds tightened, severing every limb off the both girls bodies and splattering blood everywhere.

Sakura watched in pure horror and disgust as the wires pierced torsos, wrists, and ankles. She felt her stomach turn over and over as both girl's heads fell to the bloody floor with soft thuds. She couldn't take it and she screamed.

***********

Outside Sakura's wicked nightmare she thrashed in the arms of her savior and screamed such a scream that would have made even god plug his ears. The man grabbed her thrashing arms and shook the girl and smiled as she woke up. Sadness, sickness and a look of being wronged clouded her beautiful features.

"Welcome back...."The man said, not knowing of anything else to say.

Sakura looked up at him, relieved the boy wasn't the horrid corpse.

"Who are you?" She asked, looking up into his cobalt orbs.

"I'm Hiro, I saved you after those ShinRa employees set the reactor on fire." He smiled down at her. "And you are?"

"I'm Sakura Gainsburough." She answered, standing up and dusting off her dress lightly. There wasn't much left of her dress as it had only came to her knees, but now it was burnt to rest above her knees. She blushed, noticing Hiro's gaze.

"Sorry." He blushed to and stood up as well. Sakura looked over at him. He was cute, tall and lean with a muscular sense to him. He had unruly tumbleweed brown hair, that no brush could tame and the softest blue eyes. He seemed friendly enough to Sakura. In no way did he give off the sense that he was a homicidal killer, at least, she hoped he wasn't...

The smell of heavy smoke and sulfur reached her nose. Not only was there smoke hovering over the reactor, but smoke came from Rocket Town too.

"Oh no! My home!!!" She yelled, taking off at a run, leaving Hiro to stand bewildered at her speed. He to began to run towards Rocket Town as well, afraid that Sakura would get herself in trouble again. There was no doubt that she could take care of herself, but still...

Sakura stopped on the large hill that led to down to Rocket Town and starred down at the orange tendrils that licked the blackish-blue sky. Her eyes burned with tears that she would shed later as she took off again, Hiro not to far behind her. She entered the village and starred at the burnt bodies of people that littered the streets. Not all died in the fire, many had swords through them and gunshot wounds. It was a massacre that the village had no chance in surviving.

Hiro stopped beside her and gasped. Sakura ran to the church, stopping at the gate that lead to the yard to see the children that had played there happily not even an hour ago, hanging from a tree, ropes around their small necks, and their parents laid on the blood stained grass, stuck there with swords through them that had pierce even the ground.

"DAMNIT!!!!!" She screamed, running to her own home.

As she entered the smoldering building that was once so beautiful and full of life, she noticed her fathers sword was plunged into the wall, a note attached to it. Also on the sword there hung a necklace which had a locket on the end of the gold chain. The locket engraved with -Love Sephiroth and Aeris- engraved on the back was open, revealing a picture on one side of Sephiroth and on the other side a picture of Sakura and Aeris. Both pictures were bloodied and the glass cracked.

Sakura pulled the sword from the wall and took the note and necklace. Placing the locket around her neck, she began to read the note. It read:

-Sakura, if you want your mother alive, which is more than we can state for your father, come to the ShinRa building in Neiblaham.

Sincerely,

Your killer and president of ShinRa,

Marcus Silver.

Just as Sakura finished the note when something swung down from the rafters and stopped inches from her face. She looked up to see the horribly mangled body of her father. His silver hair now stained with his own blood, his well toned body wrapped in barbed wire and hung from the rafters. She looked up to his face and screamed, burying her face in Hiro's muscular chest as he stood just behind her, horrified at ShinRa's acts and sins. How ShinRa could kill children, and most likely laugh about it, was just sick!

He looked up to the ex-soldiers face, knowing who he was as Sephiroth was famous, and he too wanted to scream. The man's proud face had a horrid gunshot wound in the forehead, the blood that had leaked from it now dried, and the worst thing was the daggers that were logged in place of Sephiroth's sparkling Mako eyes.

Hiro wrapped his arms tighter around the trembling form in his arms and let her cry onto his shirt, not caring that he had only met her a few minutes ago. He vowed then that he would stop ShinRa, not only for his own reasons, but for Sakura's to. He was sure they had gotten to his own family in Midgar.

He would make ShinRa repent for every sin, every life taken, and he would make them pay for every child they slaughtered. He felt a tear leak down his own cheek, and he knew then that he would never forget the things he had seen this day, as they were now engrained into his brain forever. ShinRa would pay.........