Tears Don't Fall Chapter 8
I own nothing. Just playing.
Chapter Eight
The Path I Walk
“Life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all.”
~ William Goldman
I was surprised at how readily Buffy had accepted my subtle suggestion. Any of the others would have flinched away if I had gotten that close to them. But she was also unaware that I was a monster. No man could be the vessel of three demons and still actually be human.
And if that is what I really believed, it made me wonder what it was I considered the woman in front of me. Did I label her as a monster as well? I watched her as we headed towards the Da-chao Mountain. I had thought the place wondrous in my youth and had often spent time there. But I digress…my thoughts were on Buffy.
I had surprised myself by telling her of my father. I had not spoken that candidly since I had been with Lucrecia, and even then, I don’t recall her asking much about my family or heritage in the way that Buffy had. Why was she so curious? Did she sense something kindred, the demons inside me, or did she have some other motive? Truly, she did not seem the type to deceive in that way, but then, I knew nothing about her.
Slightly up the winding trail leading through the carvings on the living rock of the mountain stood the two Turks. Reno and Rude. They didn’t seem surprised to see us.
“You’re finally here,” the redhead said. “We’re gonna split into two groups, yo. You guys do whatever you want, but don’t endanger Elena. And don’t worry. We won’t do anything to that girl, Yuffie. For now…” he said. Then he and Rude proceeded farther up the path.
“They might not need to,” Buffy chuckled as she and I fell in some distance behind our other companions. “Cloud might just kick her ass himself! You guys rely so much on your materia…you’d never make it in my old world, that’s for sure.”
I glanced at her as we jogged. “How so?”
“Magic is different there. Every time it’s used, there are consequences. And they’re usually either dire or irritating, but always unexpected. So you can’t exactly just use it freely.”
We reached a fork in the path. The Turks took one, and we took the other. Our segment led us under one of the ornately carved arms that hung over the trail, like an errant tree branch. We followed the track as it swooped around a large carved head and terminated on one of the hands of the enormous sculpture. And standing at the end, on the very tips of the stone fingers, was Don Corneo.
I drew my gun, aiming at the man’s head over Cloud’s shoulder. There were definite advantages to my height and my choice of weapon, although I was unable to shoot until we knew what had become of the missing girls. But Buffy was not so fortunate. She was unable to draw her sword, for Tifa stood not two feet in front of her. She drew her dagger and bounced up and down on her toes a bit, trying to see over the martial artist’s shoulder. I’m not sure I noticed how tiny she was before that point.
Yuffie could be heard screaming and as we all turned to the left, there she was. At least twenty feet separated us. They, she and Elena, hung suspended against one of the ornately carved faces with a drop beneath them of at least two hundred feet.
Corneo was chortling madly. “Scrumptious! I think I’ve found a new hobby!” he exclaimed. “Which shall it be? Should I go with her?” He stared long and hard at the blonde Turk woman. I suppose she was aesthetically pleasing. Barret and Cid had both loudly mentioned it when the girls of the group were out of earshot. Something about a woman in uniform had been mentioned on many occasions. I did not understand the fascination, but then, I was not exactly a normal man.
“Hey, I’m one of the Turks!” Elena was shouting at him. “Don’t think you can get away with this!”
“Or maybe her?” Don Corneo said, appraising Yuffie as though the blonde woman had never spoken at all.
“Oh God!” Yuffie moaned loudly. “If I knew this was gonna happen, I would’ve taken rope escape classes more seriously!” She struggled violently against her bonds.
“I’ve made my choice,” Corneo shouted with disgusting glee, as though the whole world was waiting with bated breath for his decision. “My companion for the night will be…the cheerful one!”
“Grossness!” Yuffie screamed as she pulled harder on the ropes she was hanging from. “Don’t mess with me, old man! You don’t even have any materia!”
Idiot child.
Corneo leered at her. “Oh, and saucy, too!”
“All right! That’s it!” Cloud finally shouted, the disgust he felt for using one such as Yuffie apparent in his face.
The pathetic and lecherous man at the end of the trail turned and saw the four of us for the first time.
“Let them go!” Tifa screamed at him.
“You can’t get in the way of my search for a bride!” Corneo howled, his pudgy face contorted with rage. “Rapps! Come here!”
A red wyvern swept in from the right, settling itself between Corneo and us.
I heard a feral growl from beside me and looked over just in time to see Buffy sheath her knife, take three steps back, and make a running leap over Tifa’s head. She landed gracefully in a crouch in front of the flying dragon Corneo had called ‘Rapps.’ The monster’s thin and serpentine body towered at least ten feet over the small immortal, but that didn’t stop her from grabbing its tail and tugging hard, causing the wyvern to fall off balance and crash into the ground.
I saw that Cloud was too shocked to offer his assistance, so I leapt easily over the stunned blond man’s head. In my momentary distraction, Buffy had kept hold of the tail and as her enemy moved in to bite her, she looped the tail around its neck.
The wyvern snapped and spit as Buffy slowly strangled it. I leveled my shotgun with one hand and tried to get a clear shot, but the dragon’s head was effectively shielded by the blonde woman in front of it. I would not risk injuring her if I was able to avoid it. I rather enjoyed her presence and therefore needed her to move.
As though she had heard me, she ducked her head, bringing it perilously close to the dripping fangs of the monster. It reared back, as much as it was able, and prepared to strike what it assumed was now a submissive victim.
My three consecutive shots rang out and the flesh between the eyes of the red wyvern exploded into a sticky mass of cherry blood and thicker things. Buffy dropped the lifeless carcass and swept a piece of brain off her forehead with the back of her hand. She grinned at me and I felt my stomach flop in a way I barely recognized and hadn’t felt since…
“Im…impressive shooting,” Corneo stammered as he backed up further.
“Shut up!” our intrepid leader screamed at him, finally regaining his faculties.
“Just listen to me!” the overweight man begged. “It won’t take long. Why do you think a bad guy like me would swallow his pride and beg for his life?”
“Because he’s sure he’s going to win,” I heard Buffy mutter from beside me, the place she had retreated to after the wyvern had fallen from her hands.
Her voice carried over the rocky terrain to the ears of Don Corneo.
“Right!” he exclaimed and he held up a tiny remote control. He gleefully pressed the red button and the young ninja and the lone female Turk rotated on the face of the carved mountain until they hung upside down.
I could hear Tifa and Cloud both gasping in fear and I glanced down at the immortal beside me. Her face held only interest, as though she was wondering about the mechanics holding the girls to the cliff face rather than their actual plight. A sentiment I shared actually. Their deaths, should they happen, would have no bearing in my quest for revenge.
They were all expendable. Every last one of them. But a small part of me was willing to admit that I would be sad to see Buffy go.
“If I push this button, they’ll fall upside down, and we’ll have squashed tomatoes,” the jovial, obese man sang.
“Damn!” Cloud cursed just as Tifa yelled at Don Corneo that he was a coward.
“Now, give me your women too!” he demanded, eyeing the brunette martial artist who, I am forced to admit, was rather gifted in the chest area, and Buffy, who was looking back at the ludicrous villain as though he was the prey and not she. I thought I saw him shudder, but I couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t arousal.
“I guess I’m the one who’s laughing last,” the man was chuckling.
A cool voice came from behind us. “No, that would be us.”
Reno of the Turks walked casually past, sidestepping Cloud, Tifa, Buffy, and myself and coming to a stop just past us, on the thumb of the giant hand we stood upon.
“The Turks,” Corneo whispered.
The redhead sneered at him. “You’ve known this was going to happen ever since you leaked that secret. We’re going to take care of you…personally.” The man’s eyes were alight with a mad gleam. A predatory glow I was sure would be echoed in the eyes of the small, blonde woman at my side.
“Then they’re all going with me!” Corneo threatened, desperately trying to find a way to bargain for his pathetic life.
The bald Turk stepped out of the shadows on an outcropping next to the face on which the girls were imprisoned, drawing a gun and cleanly shooting the remote out of the villain’s hand.
The Don was startled at the sudden movement and jumped back, stumbling and slipping off the hand, only to catch himself on the tip of the stone fingers.
“Good timing, Rude,” Reno chuckled.
“Let’s get to work,” the man said, not even acknowledging his partner’s compliment.
Reno jumped from his perch on the thumb to land in a crouch a few feet in front of Buffy. He spared me a glance and gave her a flirtatious wink before advancing on the dangling kidnapper. He stepped decisively on the fingers of Corneo’s left hand, twisting his heel slightly until at least one of the Don’s bones cracked under the strain.
“Wait!” Cloud cried. “You can’t do that!”
He rushed forward, intent on pushing between Buffy and myself. But the woman held out her arm and Cloud, running into it, sprawled backwards onto the ground. She knelt down next to him, her eyes still fixed on the actions of the Turk.
“That blonde chick up there?” she said quietly. “One of their people. I’m kinda thinking that entitles them to a bit of retribution, don’t you?” She glanced down at the inert swordsman. “And it sounds like they have more reasons too, doesn’t it?”
Reno glanced back at Buffy. She gave him a nod and a small smile. When the man realized he wasn’t about to be interrupted by a spiky-haired SOLDIER, he continued. “All right, Corneo. This’ll be over quick, so listen up. Why do you think we went to all the trouble of teaming up with those guys to get you?”
I’m sure it was supposed to be a rhetorical question, but Corneo decided to answer it anyway. “Uh, because you were sure you would win?” he whimpered.
“All wrong,” Reno said coldly. He began twisting his heel again, deaf to the pleas of his enemy.
Corneo scrambled for purchase for a few moments against the rough stone, but gravity was not on his side.
Buffy and I both stepped forward to watch him tumble though the air.
“The correct answer was…because it’s our job,” Reno muttered.
I watched her watching that bloated body rocketing towards the jagged rocks below. A smile graced her delicate features, a predatory gleam in her eyes, and I was reminded yet again that the petite woman was beside me was not exactly as innocent as she first appeared. Tifa had covered her eyes and turned away, and even Cloud averted his gaze, contenting himself with watching Rude cut the two girls off the rock.
The redheaded Turk, Reno sidled up next to us. “Pretty fancy fighting, yo,” he said as he blatantly appraised the woman’s physical attributes. “You got a name?”
My companion glanced at the man with an amused smile. “Buffy,” she answered.
Reno nodded in acknowledgement, his eyes still raking over her in a way that seemed to make me irrationally angry. I was surprised at my reaction to the man and I filed the strange feeling away for later dissection.
“You know, we could always use another good fighter, yo. How would you feel about joining the Turks?” the redhead asked guilelessly.
“Hang on a minute!” Cloud blustered. “You can’t just…”
“Ease down, hero,” Reno interrupted with a smirk. “I’m just asking the lady a question, yo.”
Buffy gave the Turk a wry smile and I watched her eyes rove over his slender form for a moment as she thought over his proposition.
“I’d have to wear a blue suit?” she asked. “And take orders?”
Reno furrowed his brow. “Well, yeah.”
“Yeah,” she repeated. “I’m gonna have to pass. I’ve never been one to toe the line.”
The Turk laughed heartily as his two compatriots joined him. “Let me know if you change your mind. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again,” he said and then he, Rude, and Elena began the trek back down the mountain, leaving us with the despondent and sullen Yuffie.
The young thief was spared what might have been a spirited dressing down by our fearless leader, as he still gaped at the casual dismissal of the Turks by our newest member. I glanced at Buffy from the corner of my eye and was pleased to note that she was coolly meeting the blond swordsman’s gaze.
Her eyes held nothing. No emotion. No remorse for the man that had splattered on the rocks beneath us. No amusement about the strange job offer she had received.
Nothing.
I wondered momentarily if I looked the same. The Turks were skilled in hiding emotions. They taught us in the Organization, beat it into our naïve skulls. And we were naïve, every one of us, and then thrust into the world of the jaded. Sometimes that ingrained mask of indifference was all I had to keep me from screaming.