Korelia’s lungs burned. Her body stung from the rain. Every inch of her was sore. But, she couldn't stop running. Her senses, however dull they had become from the lack of sleep or rest, told her which way to turn, how high to jump, how fast to go, and the pain never stopped.
She kept seeing those broken, undistinguishable bodied strewn around her. She couldn’t block out the screams of her beloved sister. She couldn't stop running.
The fear was too great, too potent. Her body had no choice but to adhere to the primitive emotion that wouldn't turn loose. Her lips were chapped and cracked. Her eyes couldn't focus on anything for more than a moment without the pain searing through her mind. And all this time, she blamed herself for not being able to help avenge Jill.
* * * * * * * * *
Korelia was sitting in the Quad at Balamb Garden, doing what she could to ignore the idiotic imbeciles that milled around her. She hated this place. She hated the fact that she was forced to be here. She hated the people who had put her here.
Amelia, a particularly irritating Aristo brat, who was constantly accusing Kore of trying to steal her blubbering dog of a boyfriend, flounced out to where Kore was trying to be unobtrusive. Kore, raised an eyebrow minutely and went back to ignoring the so called 'sentient beings' buzzing like Bite Bugs everywhere.
Amelia smirked and crossed her arms. "So, it looks like they were all too scared shitless to tell you." Kore continued looking flatly at the charcoal picture she was smudging to oblivion.
Amelia snorted. "Well, it served your bitch sister right. Though, how anyone would be able to get through that thick neck of hers."
“What?" Kore said, her voice a dangerous soft thunder. No one noticed how the newsprint in her hands was curling as the fire licked out from it’s pages.
Amelia smiled smugly. "You know, being beheaded. She really WAS stupid to fall into such an obvious trap and-"
Amelia wasn't able to finish. Kore's left hand was too tight around her throat. She could here things in the girls neck grinding together before there was a sweet popping sound. Kore's face had gone dangerously blank and fire was trailing up her arm from underneath her blouse. She watched as Amelia tried to scream as the fire danced over her jaw and made her dishwater hair burn and shrivel. The skin on her face was bubbling and steaming blood was slipping out of her mouth. Kore gave a final look of disgust and threw the girl across the Quad, through the stage floor.
Kore turned on her heel and walked out of the Quad. The eyes of those around her followed her progress. They were too frightened by the blood on her hands to notice that the grass she stepped on turned to ash.
* * * * * * *
Korelia walked into Cid Kramer's Office. The paint on the metal walls was blistering and falling away to show blackened paneling. That was, of course, before she saw who was sitting at the edge of Cid's desk in what was normally considered a less than appropriate style. As her eyes latched onto the back of his head and her nostrils were filled with the foul cologne he wore, she growled maliciously and the windows and metal in the room frosted over making them all impossible to touch.
Cid stood quickly and made as to move over to her and stopped with a glance to the man. "Lerintes." Cid said after a moment. Good. He was making things slow. Smart move. Having the asshole here wasn't.
The man half turned from Cid to her and he made a show of clasping his hand and giving her a sympathetic smile. The windows froze all the way through and the small cactus Cid had on his desk withered and turned brown. "Miss Lerintes.” He said in a sinuous bedroom whisper. "I was so sad to hear of your loss." he flashed his teeth at her again. He was very lucky that his groin was faced away from her.
"Go fuck yourself, Martine, you murdering sack of shit." Ice started to make crystals on the walls and in the corners. She turned to Cid. "WHY WASN'T I TOLD?!!!" She screamed shattering one of the windows with sheer force. Her skin had turned the odd blue-white color of fine china and her left arm was trembling. Cid was holding his hands up in submission.
"Korelia, I didn't find out until just now. No one knows how Amelia found out."
"Like hell!! She's his little lap dog!!!" She shuddered pointing her icy anger at Martine. "You filthy fuck! You got her to tell me!!! You didn't even have enough courage to do it yourself, you sniveling coward!!!"
Martine raised a delicately manicured eyebrow. And why should I have told you myself. Do you even realize what you did the Miss Feint's face?" He asked, still in that voice that promised some lascivious things that had nearly gotten him killed on more than a few occasions by Kore alone.
That brought a slight smirk to her face. She had found out from the head physician that she had not only crushed the right side of Amelia Feint's jaw, but had caused third and second degree burns all over that half of the girls face. Not only would she have to live with the scars for the rest of her life, no matter what surgeries she had, but she would never be able to speak or eat properly again, see out of her right eye, or be able to grow hair back on that side. Just a small reminder of what happens to people who don't fear tigers standing in the shadows. That, and what happens to you when you staple a bloody hind quarter to your body in front of them.
"Yes. I do know what I did. I enjoyed it, too." Kore said in a soft voice and half lidded eyes. "Do you like my handy-work, Martine? I could give you a more personal demonstration, hm? Isn't that what you've wanted since you took me prisoner when I was what? Twelve? Thirteen?" She had been slowly slipping towards the desk. Martine's eyes had a starved look to them and his lips curled in a perverted grin as if he didn't even remember what they had been saying or what would happen to him if he agreed. Cid, smart man as he was, had been carefully sliding away from Martine. Wouldn't want any blood to get on his nice tan cardigan.
Kore pressed the top of her thighs into the desk and lent towards Martine. her right hand was braced on the metal of the table. Martine swayed in her direction. Kore lifted her left hand and brushed a stray lock of hair off of Martine's face. He froze. Korelia's titanium Talon that no one had seemed to notice was brushing through his silvered hair that stank of his disgusting pomade. She traced the line of his jaw lightly leaving a red mark from where the sharp and freezing metal had torn away the skin.
He started to shake as Kore's fingers slid down to the pulse in his neck and stayed for a moment. His eyes no longer looked empty. They were filled with fear as sharp and biting as the Dragon Gauntlet that circled her forearm. Kore threw a glance at Martine's loins and the softest smile shifted her face to a cruel, sweet mask. Martine started to make small high-pitched sounds.
Kore lifted his chin with her clawed hand and kissed his forehead leaving a frozen, blue patch that was starting to turn a frosty white. "What's the mater, Baby? Isn't this all you imagined as you broke into the young girls at Garden? Aren't my words what you wanted to hear in place of their screams?"
Martine whimpered as torrents of tears splashed messily down his face and froze as the hit his lapels. Kore bared her teeth and snarled at him and he screamed and tried desperately to get away from her. However, his hands and clothes had been frozen to the desk for some time now and his palms bled onto the frosty metal as he ripped the skin open while trying to get away.
Kore smiled cruelly and stepped away. She picked up her hand without any problem and in its place was a spiky ice crystal. She walked to the elevator and turned to Cid. "Let me go. I want to leave all Gardens, no strings attached. The deal was that I would stay with Garden, I would work with said faction, and escape prosecution." She looked at Martine who was biting through his own lip. "You've gotten more than any of you deserved. If you try to chain me up, for any reason, ever, I will bring civilization down around you. If you think I can't, your wrong. You all should have monitored who I stayed in contact with more clearly. I have enough friends with enough power to end everything for all of you."
She faced Cid again. "Don't send anyone after me. I like you, but I won't hesitate to end everything."
Cid nodded. "You do what you have to, Korelia. I'm willing to agree with all terms. So is Martine." He said slashing a look at this man who had so much fear that the office stank even with the missing window.
Kore nodded as well. "Very good, Head Master." She turned and entered the elevator. "You may want to get him cleaned before anyone comes up to make sure your not dead or dying. Martine has wet himself. Though, I’m sure he'll have no qualms about replacing your desk." The doors swished closed and she headed down to the ground floor and out the front without even stopping to get any of her stuff from her dorm. It was more than well locked and she would send someone for everything in it later. Much later.
* * *
Kore woke, startled to an elderly man leaning over her. Her thoughts jumped around like jack rabbits (No pun intended) as she searched for some sort of memory of what had happened. The Mayor of Fisherman's Horizon, was trying desperately to calm her down. She finally looked at his face and stopped struggling.
“Dobe?" She asked in a hoarse rasp. "Dobe, what am I doing here?"
Mayor Dobe straightened at her question, looking a bit shocked. "Don't you remember, dear? You came here almost a day ago. Got off one of the trains and walked over to me in a daze. You collapsed right outside the door. Said something about revenge." Kore closed her eyes as her head started to throb.
“You weren't talking about anyone here, dear, were you?" He asked with deep concern in his voice.
“No," She answered quickly, placing her hand on his arm reassuringly. "No, I wasn't talking about anyone here."
Dobe smiled at her, perfectly mollified. He glanced at his watch then turned his gaze towards the door. Huffing slightly, he took a washcloth out of a bowl of water, squeezed it almost dry, and placed it carefully on Kore's brow.
She smiled. "Waiting for Flo to get back?" She asked.
He looked at her in surprise. "How did you know about that?"
“I have my own sources."
“It's that puttering old man that uses the shack by the water as a Junk Shop, isn't it?" He asked suspiciously.
Kore laughed for a second before groaning and covering her eyes again. "I do come here occasionally, you know."
“Yes, yes. To drop off another one of your 'marks' that are just TOO nice to kill."
“Hey! You were ONE of those marks, if you don't remember. So was Flo.
“Well, of course I remember." He said hotly. "I just get a bit tired of some frightened looking waif or pompous-"
Kore stifled a giggle. Dobe ignored her and continued. "pompous priest or dignitary walking up to my door at half past two in the morning, saying that some strange woman with purple streaks and a star on her forehead said that I would help them." He took a big gulp of air.
She propped herself up on one elbow and narrowed her eyes, grinning just slightly. "And, you are definitely one to talk, aren't you, Senator."
He blushed slightly and looked down. "I'm just saying I'd like to sleep longer than four hours every once in a while. Once they've arrived, I have to set everything up before the sun rises so that anyone passing through won't think that anything's suspicious. After that, I have to start working and don't have TIME to sleep."
“Well, that's why your Mayor, honey." Flo said as she breezed into the room with a clay pot in her hand. "You do such a wonderful job of all of it."
“That, and no one else wants that job." Kore commented. Both she and Flo nodded their heads sagely. Flo then kissed her flustered husband on the cheek and shooed him from the room. They both barley kept from laughing as he went mumbling out the door.
Korelia's eyes flicked to the pot Flo had in her hand and she recognized the green mush that was filling it. She winced and looked hopefully at the woman that was still staring at the door.
“So, how are you yourself, Flo." She asked after clearing her throat.
Flo squinted at her before shaking her head and sitting down. "Oh no, child. your not going to get out of treatment." She said before pulling the wool blanket away from Kore to reveal her bare upper body. There was a large cut running from her right breast to the opposite hip. It was just above spilling her intestines and Kore was scared that she hadn't felt it earlier.
Flo saw this and patted her shoulder. "Don't you worry about a thing, darling. Your still in shock. Of what, I've no idea. It'll wear off soon and you'll hurt like hell after that."
Kore looked at her and raised an eye brow.
“I know. You said something very similar to me when we first met. If you don’t remember, you also used this stuff on me at the time." She said pulling out a hand full of the Seaweed Poultice that was in the jar.
Kore squirmed slightly. "I remember, Flo. But, it did heal that gash on your arm, didn't it?" She smiled feebly.
“Yes, it did." Flo smiled back kindly before letting the seaweed fall onto the exposed wound.
Kore’s eyes grew wide with the sudden pain and she wasn't able to keep her body from arching in response. Flo frowned and spread the rest of the mashed plant across the open flesh and used the moments when Kore's back was lifted to wrap white, cotton bandages around her, covering everything from chest to hip in a few moments.
Korelia glared at Flo. "You're evil, you know."
Flo turned her beaming face to Kore's and nodded. "Yes. I realize this.”
(TBC...)