Title: Three Years Ago…
Warnings: As the events here are canonical, they won’t make as much sense without prior knowledge. See:
www.dzxproductions.proboards46.com/index.cgi?board=plmain&action=display&thread=41&page=1#241 (weird how I set this up almost 3 years ago…)
Also, Eve is a potty mouth ^_^
“You sure that you’re ready to go?”
“Yes. I’m sure. Stop asking questions.”
“Fine, fine. Ease up.”
Eve pushed past her teammate Rivel in a huff and started climbing the slopes out of Nibelheim. He shrugged his shoulders, looked back at the little city nestled in the valley, and jogged a few steps to catch up with her. He looked at her with wonder as she swept off and away. They had come all this way, devoted all this time, and painstakingly made excuses so that they could come out here for an
hour. A single hour. He had to wonder if it had really been worth it. But she said so more questions. And as he liked to keep his limbs attached and bones unbroken, Rivel stayed quiet.
About halfway up the first slope, the wind began to howl and rip at the Magi. Rivel pulled his cloak in tighter and he saw Eve shiver and do the same. He was about to suggest that they stop for a few minutes when he swore he heard a sniffle over the howling winds. He cocked his head and strode forward to try and catch a glimpse of Eve’s face.
“Eve?” he began as she came into view.
She flashed her angry purple eyes at him, red and puffy from tears. She pulled away and hid her face beneath her violet hair and the hood of her cloak.
“You okay?” Rivel asked.
“What did I say about questions?” she snapped back.
Rivel held his tongue for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. “Maybe we should stop for a minute.”
“I don’t need to stop. I don’t need to rest. I just want to get away from here.”
Rivel shook his head. It was times like this that he wished he had someone else to talk to. Eve could be so damned challenging. Why had Ben gone off and gotten himself killed on their last mission? What a fool. Now they were left hanging in the lurch while the High Council decided who was going join them. That had been three weeks ago. And Eve had been in a bad move ever since.
Of course, he couldn’t really blame her for that part. They had been lovers.
Maybe that was what had driven her to come out here. She must have wanted to see Adam. She hadn’t been serious about anyone since him, and Ben’s death must have shaken her up. She had been so damned secretive about her reasons for coming out here. But that was the only thing that really made sense.
Rivel trudged along, wishing he hadn’t come along after all. An hour passed without a word spoken between him and his partner. They were coming down a bit from the first mountain and the sun had begun to set. The temperature was dropping rapidly and there was little chance of them making it through the pass by nightfall. It had just started to snow a few minutes ago, and the craggy rocks were becoming slick and hard to navigate safely. And to make matters worse, he hadn’t brought any of his inventions along that might be able to help them. And having a single ice materia wouldn’t help things here. Eve hadn’t even chosen a materia yet. If they just had a fire or a teleportation materia, they would be in the clear one way or another. But alas…
Then over the harsh wind came a sound that sent a chill down Rivel’s spine—the howl of a lone wolf cast up at the rising moon. He and Eve stopped dead in their tracks as the owner of the hungry cry came into view at a bend in the path before them.
“Shit,” Rivel spat. “I think there was another path behind us. Let’s backtrack before the wolf gets any ideas.”
He spun around to seek out the other path, but found no retreat. Three hungry wolves stepped out, baring their teeth at the travelers. Rivel turned once again and saw Eve running her fingers along her weapon as she eyed the now four wolves ahead of her. They were surrounded.
This trip kept getting worse by the minute.
“Any bright ideas, Rivel?” Eve called back half sarcastically.
“Working on it,” he responded as he withdrew his two swords from their sheathes at his back. He scanned the pack to try and pick out the alpha male. “If we injure the leader, the others might withdraw.”
Eve nodded. “Makes sense. Pack mentality. So which one is it?”
The first wolf to appear snarled at Eve and leapt at her. Eve unfurled her whip and dodged out of the way of the wolf. It came down between her and Rivel and growled menacingly.
“I’m gonna guess it’s that one,” Rivel indicated. The other six wolves all sprang into action after their leader and the two Magi began to defend against the onslaught.
After a few minutes of defending against the hungry animals, Rivel still saw no way out. He was beginning to grow weary from fighting defensively in these conditions. He looked behind him at Eve, who was having more trouble fighting in these closed conditions due to the nature of her weapon. She looked like she was in a losing battle and declining steadily. He would have to incapacitate the wolves around him and then move to help her. He turned to complete his task and saw one of the wolves leap up at him. He recoiled and sent the beast flying up over his head. It fell with a whimper and a howl down the sheer cliff behind him. Rivel lost his balance and began to tumble down with the wolf.
“Eve!” he shouted with terror in his eyes. She turned and saw her teammate falling and in an impulsive act of desperation leapt off after him and caught him in her arms. Her whip unfurled behind her and wrapped around the rocks above as they flew down the side of the cliff. Eve embraced Rivel with one arm and held on tight to her lifeline with the other.
The whip ran out of slack and the two came to a sudden stop. Eve’s shoulder popped and cracked and she screamed out in pain. Tears began to stream down her face, threatening to freeze on her skin. She held onto Rivel with everything she had, eyeing the long drop waiting for them with trepidation and knowing that she probably wouldn’t be able to maintain this grip for long with a dislocated shoulder. She cursed silently as Rivel regained his bearings from the dizzying fall.
As Rivel came around, he saw the pain wrenched on Eve’s face.
“Shit, are you okay?”
“No fucking questions!” she screamed back. “No, I’m not okay! My shoulder has had it. I don’t think I can hold on much more.” The wind blew and shifted Eve ever so slightly, sending a fresh new wave of pain to her shoulder. She screamed in pain and trembled as her strength faded.
Above them, the wolves had begun to move on, having lost their prey for now. They would inevitably circle down to try and get at their remains. As they left the area, the rocks that supported the Magi began to crack under their weight. The ice had made the stone weak. They were running out of time.
Rivel sheathed one of his swords and held the other out beneath him. The blue-tinted materia on the blade glowed and a gentle slope of ice curled out down to the ground.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got us taken care of,” he said, trying to reassure Eve. She just shivered. Her eyelids were getting low and her lips were turning blue. Rivel cursed. She was in bad shape.
“Let go of the whip, Eve.”
No response.
“Eve?”
“I can’t move my arm. I can’t feel my arm.” Eve’s eyes began to roll back into her head. “It’s so cold…”
Rivel cursed again and raised his sword, preparing to slice through the whip. Just then, the rocks above gave way and they fell onto Rivel’s makeshift escape slide. Unfortunately, his magic was not the best and they crashed through the first few layers of the ice before actual catching the “slide” for the rest of the way down. When they finally slid to a halt in the snow below, they were more than bruised, bewildered, and blusteringly cold. If they didn’t find some place warm to rest soon, they would certainly freeze to death.
All this for an hour trip to a city no one was supposed to know about. Great.
Rivel knew he was in better shape than Eve, so he sheathed his blades, put her whip in his cloak, and scooped her up in his arms to get her out of the cold, wet snow. He turned around in a circle, looking for a cave somewhere. As if by providence, there came into his view a small cabin, nestled secretly here in this snowy valley. Rivel smiled and ran towards the safe haven.
Luckily, the door was unlocked. Rivel pushed inside and shut the door behind him. He looked around and sighed. Well it would protect them from the elements, but it was certainly not well-stocked. No beds, no chairs, no tables. Whoever had stayed here in the past had taken everything when they left. They would have to stay here the night, weather out the storm and try and set out again in the morning.
Rivel set Eve down on the floor carefully and held his fingers to her throat to check for her pulse. It was a little slow, but she wasn’t hypothermic yet. She would be fine while he searched the cabin. She was faint and very cold, but—he could fix that. He hoped…
Rivel took off his soaked cloak and dropped it by the door as he went off around the cabin looking for any amenities that had been left behind. After rifling through all of the closets and drawers, he found only a single item—a warm, thick blanket.
The wind howled outside and blew renewed cold air into the cabinet. Rivel shivered in his wet clothes and carried the blanket over towards Eve.
“You awake over there?”
Eve shivered and nodded. “Y-y-yes. J-just c-c-cold.”
Rivel nodded. “I found a blanket.”
A moment of silence. “O-one?” came the quiet response.
“Mhmm.”
“That’s it?”
“Mhmm.”
“Sh-sh-sh-sssshit.”
Rivel chuckled a little. Eve’s frustration at the situation was a little amusing…and warranted.
“We’re also going to need to get out of these clothes to avoid hypothermia. And I should set your shoulder.”
“R-right.” Eve looked at her arm and trembled from the cold. The movement sent more pain shooting through her. She winced, “F-f-fuck this d-damned c-cold.”
Rivel nodded and knelt down to help her with her shoulder. He took her upper arm in one hand and grabbed her shoulder with the other. “I won’t look. I promise.”
Eve looked at him with her sad, purple eyes and sort of half-smiled. “I know,” she said. “Thanks.”
Rivel bit his lip and wrenched Eve’s shoulder back into place. Her half smile turned into a painful grimace and her screams shook the rafters of the cabin. She fell into Rivel’s arms and writhed there for a moment as she clutched her arm. She stammered her pained curses into his chest and shivered.
“It…hurts…” she managed to squeak out after a few minutes of unintelligibility.
Rivel nodded. “I know. I’ll make you a sling, okay?”
“No questions, you dumbass,” she whispered. “Just do it.”
Rivel sighed and took off his shirt and undershirt. He tossed the wet shirt over with his cloak and tore the undershirt in the back. He wound it up into a makeshift sling and carefully applied it to Eve to immobilize her shoulder. She was still in her wet clothes, though, and her skin was beginning to get too pale. She was becoming hypothermic.
“Eve, we need to get you out of those clothes.”
She nodded, “I know. I…I can do it myself. I don’t think I need any help. Just take care of yourself.”
Rivel sighed and turned his back as he stripped down to his minimal undergarments—the only somewhat dry thing on him. The cold was bitter and biting, but without the wet clothes clinging to his skin he might be able to gain respite soon. In an attempt to respect Eve’s privacy, Rivel closed his eyes and made his way to the blanket. A few moments later, he heard some shuffling and felt movement as Eve shifted herself under the blanket. He felt her cold skin touch his as she maneuvered into the warmth, and they both flinched away suddenly.
A few frigid, silent minutes passed. Rivel stared at the wall, barely able to think about anything but how damnably cold it was and how this blanket was barely doing the trick. He breathed in and lifted his numb hands to his face to try and warm them a little. He could barely even feel the air as it passed over his fingers. He wondered if Eve was having the same problem.
Though the wind howled outside, the sniffling was unmistakable. Rivel opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, getting a glimpse of Eve in his peripheral vision. Her bare back shook as a sob wracked her body. Rivel swallowed and wondered what he ought to do…
“Of course he moved on…”
Rivel turned his head a little more, surprised to hear Eve’s wearied voice rise up above her tears. “Hmm?”
“Fuck…” she spat as she lifted her hand to wipe the cold salt tears from her eyes.
“Eve?”
“Adam…that bastard…I just wanted to…damn it!”
Rivel’s brow furrowed. Did Eve trust him with her feelings? Was it because she was injured? Was it because he just happened to be around? Or…
“Rivel,” she began, her voice a little softer.
“Yes?”
“Why are men such assholes?”
Rivel breathed a light half-chuckle and bit his lip. He wasn’t allowed to ask questions, but she could pose a loaded one like that. That was ironic…
Thankfully, she didn’t give him time to answer the rhetorical question.
“Ben is dead…and Adam is with Claire…and he…shit! Fuck!”
Rivel winced a little as Eve slammed her fist down into the wooden floor.
Eve continued, “I just…wanted to see someone who I knew cared about me in the past. I wanted to see someone who loved me…who I loved. Since Ben died, I just…”
Eve broke into tears. Rivel had never seen this side of her. She had had to be diplomatic about losing her teammate the past 3 weeks. The Order wasn’t particularly kind about romance. He knew that she was in pain, but he had no idea that she was hurting this much.
“I thought that maybe if I saw Adam and he saw me…after two years…maybe things would work again. I thought if he could give me a reason, I could stay with him. Leave the Order and just…live happy for once.”
Was she being serious? Leave the Order? That just didn’t seem possible for her…
She kept going, pouring herself out. “I thought…I thought something might still be there, even after all this time. I thought…”
Eve lifted her hand to her eyes again and pressed on through the years, “But I was wrong. Fuck! Fuck!”
She shuddered and lifted her face towards the ceiling, revealing her tear-stained appearance. “Rivel…you should have seen the way he looked at me when he saw me. He had such revilement in his face. After all of the stares walking through the city and people shouldering weapons as I walked past, that was too much. He saw me and just got this look of disgust…all he said was ‘What are you doing here?’ I…I couldn’t believe it. I know that I…I know I hurt him. But he looked like he wished I was dead.”
“At least he took me up into his house. We talked…shouted. We just got into one of our fights and it never stopped. And when Claire got there, I just lost it. You know the two of us never got along. And I just…I couldn’t take it anymore. I told him…I told him that I wished he had been one of the ones who died in the experiment.”
She became overcome with agonized sobs. She turned her back to Rivel again and silently cursed under her breath between heavy tears.
“Rivel,” she said at last. “Did we make a mistake? Two years ago, in our experiments…were we wrong?”
Rivel breathed deeply and turned his back to Eve as well. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We were following orders. The animal trials had gone okay. The Senate told us to move on with the plan we had written. But they specified the subjects. I don’t think it’s our fault what happened.”
“But we failed. They took us off the project. And we killed so many…and now…FUCK!”
Rivel nodded in understanding, “That’s science. Mistakes happen. You said it yourself.”
“Yeah…I’m not cut out to be a scientist. That’s why I haven’t accepted any research positions since then.”
Rivel had joined the Order specifically for scientific research. Eve had not, so he could understand her reservations. And he could also appreciate her misgivings over failed experiments. That was never easy.
“Did I…did I screw it up?”
Rivel bit his lip. “Only you can decide that.”
Eve sobbed, “Well you’re certainly a big help.”
Rivel shook his head, “Sorry. Never said I had all the answers.”
“Shut up…” she said. “Just shut up.”
Rivel sighed and held his tongue for a moment. “Sorry.”
Silence reigned over the cabin once again, save only for the harsh bitterness of the elements outside. And though the blanket provided an ounce of warmth in this tiny haven, it could scarcely keep the two underneath it from shivering.
“Rivel,” came the soft voice in the midst of the stillness.
“Yes?”
“I’m cold.”
Rivel clicked his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “I know.”
The cabin creaked in the wind, aching against the ice and snow.
“Rivel?”
“Yes?”
“Can you…please hold me?”
Rivel’s breath caught in his throat. He slowly turned around until he came to face Eve. Her face was wretched with sad sincerity—a vulnerable honesty he had never known from her. If this was true—if this was real—he could hold her now.
Rivel slowly slipped his arms around Eve and held her close to him. He felt her icy breath trickling on his neck as she craned her head around his, struggling to come into his warmth. As they embraced, they both felt heat bubbling up from within and radiating out. The cold world outside slowly disappeared and they rode out the night in the security of a warm embrace.
But, a good many are left, so yay!
Or else... Uh... I'll cry! 
But, a good many are left, so yay!
)
