This is a continuation of Lucas’ past. Hopefully, I’ll wrap up the past in this part. Don’t forget, Lucas is MINE! And Nina’s. But mostly mine. ^_^ Tifa, Cloud, and all them other characters belong to the mighty Square. So do all those places with the funny names.
--fallen
Bad Things Come at Night--Part Three
["Zoey…Zoey was…different. She had a gift, or a curse, depending on how you look at it. She had vivid dreams of…the future, or at least possible outcomes, I guess, that made her thrash and cry out in her sleep. She nearly broke her neck once, when she fell down the stairs in her sleep. Me and mom learned to keep our senses clear, even when we were sleeping. That last night…her last dream…I guess I’m glad I was able to comfort her that one last time."]
A piercing shriek came through the walls one night, three weeks after Josh and Zoey’s breakup. Lucas snapped awake to the sound of Lance’s voice bellowing, "Keep it down, you little twerp, some of us need sleep, freak!"
He ground his teeth anger and took a deep breath to calm himself before running down the stairs to check on Zoey.
She was still asleep, thrashing and mumbling. Suddenly, she shot straight up and screamed, "Lucas! No!"
Rushing to the side of her bed, Lucas grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Zoey! Snap out of it!" he hissed.
She stared at him with a blank gaze, not focusing on anything, seeming to look through him. Her mouth opened, and incoherent fragments of speech came tumbling out. It seemed like she was pleading with someone. "Please…no…father…dad…mom! Lucas don’t! Get out! Lance, you…Lucas! What? I…I don’t…no! NO! Luke! Mom! Bastard…you…I…can’t…no…fight…don’t…"
Lucas shook her frantically. "Zoey!"
Something in her mind seemed to snap into place and she looked at him, clutching his hands as if to keep him there. "Lucas! I saw…you and mom…all…dead, gone…I…I should have told you sooner… I…I found something a couple months ago when I was poking around Shinra’s files. They’re doing something to people, Luke. SOLDIERS, random employees, people off the street. Some sort of…of twisted experiment or something. I…I was afraid to tell you. I didn’t want to get you in trouble for knowing…but…they’ve been following me, Lucas, the last couple of weeks.
"God, I’m scared that they found out that I know Lucas. If they do, they’re going to kill me, Luke. I don’t want to die. They…they might do something to you or mom…don’t join Shinra, Lucas…please. I’m asking you. Leave town, find somewhere else once you’ve graduated…just, please, don’t join them."
Lucas was confused. None of what she was saying was making any sense. Why would Shinra do anything to innocent people? They were there to protect people, after all. Weren’t they? He shook his head. "Shhh…it’s okay, Zo. You just had a really bad dream. They don’t always come true. Come on, quiet down. It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine."
Her visage darkened. She said vehemently, "You don’t believe me. It’s not going to be ‘fine’. People are dying, Lucas, and Shinra isn’t doing anything to help it."
"Zoey, don’t be crazy. Shinra is the people’s company, remember? No one’s done more to help."
"Maybe at first, Lucas, but something happened. Shinra’s grown corrupted through the years."
"Let’s just get some rest, okay? We can talk about it tomorrow. We’re both tired right now."
Zoey sighed. No one was going to believe her. "All right. Sorry I bothered you."
Lucas gave a lopsided grin and punched her lightly on the shoulder. "No prob. I’m your big brother, remember?"
She gave him a small smile. "Yeah. Thanks for coming."
He shrugged it off. "’night."
"G’night."
After he left, she flopped back onto the bed, sighing and blowing her bangs up off of her face. She said to herself quietly, "I’ll show you, Shinra. I’ll prove to the world how vile you are."
****
Lucas gave a tired sigh. "That’s what happened. The next day, when I woke up, she was gone. Mom said that Zoey told her that she had errands to run. I hung around at home, watched a little TV, and talked to a couple people on the phone. A few hours later, we got a phone call, telling us to go down to the station.
"When we got there, they told us that she had hitched a ride with her boyfriend Ben, and that there had been an accident. For some reason, they said, their car had swerved and plunged off the cliff into the sea. None of the divers had had any success in bringing up the bodies because the car kept shifting, going down deeper. A couple things floated to the surface, but nothing important.
"When I talked to my mom, told her that Zoey didn’t have a boyfriend Ben, remember how she was after Josh?, her reaction was odd. She gave me this funny smile, sort of sad and proud at the same time. She said, ‘I know, Luke, I know. But there’s nothing we can do about it.’
"After that, Zoey’s death was sort of a taboo subject. We never talked about it, never discussed it, nothing."
"Yeah, I remember. If anyone tried to talk about it with you at school, you just sort of glared them away. Didn’t you beat up that one guy for him suggesting that she killed herself?"
He snorted. "Yeah. That guy. Evan what’s-his-face. What an asshole."
Curious, Kathleen asked, "So, what kind of stuff did they say floated to the surface?"
"Ah, nothing much. Some car parts, couple files and paper and stuff and a…holy shit!" Lucas’ face conveyed a message of shock. "There was something important. I asked what was on it and if I could see it…they said no, and I asked them why. Next thing I knew, I was standing outside waiting for my mom."
"What was it?" Kat asked excitedly.
"It was a CD-ROM." He answered. "I remember! Those files! I wanted to see them, but they wouldn’t let me. Told me that they were just soggy pieces of crap.
"Maybe…hang on…maybe Zoey went out to get evidence or something against Shinra. She was real good with computers, even better than me, and that’s saying something. If they caught her…she said that someone had been following her recently…I’ll bet that she screwed up. Missed a step and got caught.
"So…if I can find out what was on the disc, maybe I can learn what she was up to!"
Kaz did not quite share his excitement. "Lucas, we’re talking about one CD. It’s been…how long now? How are we supposed to find one stinking CD that might not even exist anymore. I’m as excited as you are that this may be a lead, but, please try to keep your feet on the ground."
He nodded. "I know Kaz, but it’s been so long since I’ve had anything to work with…mind if I set up my laptop in your living room?"
She sighed and waved him on. "Go ahead."
****
Kat stumbled out of her bedroom, glancing at the clock on the wall while doing so. She made her way into the living room, where Lucas was still sitting, hunched over his laptop, on the couch, while all the while mumbling, "Shit! Who the hell put a wall there?"
Lucas glanced up, briefly. "You should be in bed, Kaz." he admonished her as he turned back towards the screen.
She bopped him on the head. "So should you. It’s 5:30 in the morning."
He responded, absently, "Actually, it’s 5:27."
She sighed, blowing her bangs up. "Whatever."
"By the way…"
"Yes?"
"You’re out of soda…" Lucas informed her, casually, while gesturing vaguely to a somewhat large pile of cans.
She looked at the pile. He continued, "and chips…"
She glanced at the crumpled bags. "and, ah….mrphngh…"
She blinked. "What?"
He swallowed. "And now you’re out of muffins, milk, and that one really good kind of cereal…what’s it called?"
Kat stared dumbly at him, and did the only thing she could thing of. She groaned and went back to bed, but not before stumbling over the armchair and a side table, walking into a couple walls, and stubbing her toe a few times.
Lucas looked up. "Huh…I wonder what’s with her?"
Four hours later, Kat stumbled back into the living room. "You still at it?" she queried.
Sighing, he nodded. "Unfortunately. I can’t seem to get past the final level of security for Shinra…I think President Shinra was probably the only one with access to these files. I doubt even Rufus knew about them.
"So, I most likely will need someone who knows Shinra’s computer and security really well, but I don’t know where I’m gonna find someone like that."
Kathleen grimaced. "Whatever. Why don’t we start breakfast now?"
"Okay." Lucas started to rise, groaning at the cracks and pops that came from his joints.
She continued on. "Oh, and I invited Tifa over to eat."
He dropped the laptop on his foot. "Owowowow!"
Kat smirked. Yup, he had it bad.
Lucas happened to look up at that point. "What’re you smirking at?" he growled, though there was a teasing note under it.
"Oh, nothing. Come on, I’ll let you chop the potatoes."
He brightened up. "Cool!"
She sighed. "I still don’t get what you find so fascinating about potatoes."
"Hey! Whaddaya mean by that? Potatoes are awesome!"
Both hands came up to smack her forehead. "I fail to see how you made it to the top of the social ladder in high school."
"Bah. Trade secret. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you."
"Oh, yeah right. What, death by tickleage?"
"Oi! What’s that supposed ta mean?"
"Nothing, nothing at all. Now, come on, let’s get to that breakfast!"
****
Kat was standing at one counter, banging around with her pots and pans, grabbing this and that and adding it in.
Lucas was standing at the other counter, carefully slicing potatoes.
Kat found, that, whenever she let Lucas cut the potatoes, they ended in different sizes and shapes. He apparently, for a reason lost to her, liked to see how thin he could get a slice, or how evenly he could cut, and other stuff like that.
Now, it just so happened that Lucas was cutting very slowly and carefully, inching the knife down through the potato. He had his head down almost at the counter level and was staring very intently at the cut he was making. Unfortunately for him (and his finger, I might add), Kat was stewing something over while cooking with extremely hot substances, turning her thoughts around and around in her brain before letting them surface.
At this moment, Lucas had the knife reasonably close to his finger. Kat, sadly, had a habit of yelling very, very, very loudly when she figured something out.
The end result was this:
"AH HAH! I’VE GOT IT! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"ARGH! F*CKING A! MY F*CKING FINGER! SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!"
*crash, splat, sizzle* There goes the stuff on the stove.
"Yipe! Hothothothothothothothot!" Sizzling sausages don’t feel the best when dropped on one’s foot while saturated with boiling oil.
"Painpainpainpainpainpainanguish ahahahahahahhhhhh!" Apparently, neither do scrambled eggs.
After all this chaos was over, which took awhile, I might add, the pots and pans were overturned, food was scattered all over, oil was just barely extinguished after having caught on fire, and…well, in short, the kitchen was a complete mess.
****
Tifa was on her way to Kat’s house when she heard a stream of cussing that would have made Cid and Barret proud. She heard a female shriek and a male bellow and cleverly deduced that Lucas and Kat had had some sort of accident.
She didn’t know how right she was.
She made her way to the front door and opened it with the spare key Kat had given her. There, a comical scene greeted her. Lucas was hopping on one foot, waving his hand (which happened to be gushing a lot of blood) around, and yelling at Kathleen. Meanwhile, Kat was screaming at Lucas, swearing profusely, and seemed to be doing a sort of dance on one foot.
Tifa cleared her throat. It did absolutely no good. She tried her voice. "Uh…hello?"
Lucas and Kat were yelling at each other. This seemed to happen a lot, but that didn’t make it any less irritating for the both of them. Lucas was going on and on about not screaming every time a thought came into her head, and Kat was saying that it was his fault that the knife had been so close to his finger and that he had startled her into knocking the stuff on the stove over.
Then, something happened to shut both of them up. "WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE HELL UP?!"
Lucas’s jaw snapped shut so quickly in the sudden silence that you could hear his teeth clack. Simultaneously, each pointed at the other and said, "She/he started it!"
Kat and Lucas turned and faced each other. "What do you mean, I started it? You were the one who screamed out!"
"Well you were the one who started cussing!"
"You would, too, if you just got your finger nearly whacked off!"
"Oh, you’ve taken worse knife wounds than that!"
"Yes, but it’s the principle of the thing."
"SHUT UP!" Tifa’s second yell halted their argument. They stuck their tongues out at each other and turned away. "Good. Lucas, let me see your finger."
He held it out obediently. Tifa peered at it carefully with experienced eyes. "This is nothing. A simple cure’ll take care of this."
Kat added, "I’ll go get a materia. These burns are stinging." Tifa had given her a low level cure materia, as Kat was, ah, prone to…accidents.
After everything was healed up, Tifa dragged the unwilling pair into the kitchen to clean up. As it was, she ended up doing much of the work, spending a lot of time separating the arguing friends. When the kitchen was more or less back in working order, she suggested they all go out to get something to eat, as it was lunchtime.
The three of them agreed on a small restaurant that was near the outskirts of town. Settling in a booth, Tifa didn’t see the envious gleam in the waitress’ eyes as she saw Lucas. Figuring he must ‘belong’ to one of the pretty girls sitting across from him, she could do nothing but say, "Hi, I’m Megan, and I’ll be your waitress. Can I get you anything will you’re looking at the menu?"
Kat and Tifa declined, but Lucas requested a soda. She went to get it, and the three of them skimmed through the menu, chatting and laughing.
Seated in a booth near the back of the establishment, none of them saw the petite blond girl who pulled a hood up over her head and disappeared out the door. Her soft, violet eyes shimmered for a moment, and then she was gone.
After they were well into the meal, Tifa slapped herself on the forehead. "Oh! I completely forgot! I was going to ask you guys something. I’m going to visit Cid and Shera today; there are some things I need to pick up in Rocket Town. You wanna come?"
Kat agreed, somewhat hesitant, and Lucas said, "Cid?"
Tifa blinked. "You know, Cid Highwind?"
His jaw dropped open. "The Cid Highwind?"
Kat slumped over and whacked her head on the table. "Here it comes…" she muttered.
Lucas’ eyes were glittering. "The one from AVALANCHE? Who made the rocket? The creator of the world’s only airship? Of course I’ll go!"
Tifa looked to Kat for an explanation. She sighed and picked her head up off the table. "Whenever Cid Highwind is mentioned, all his ‘guy stuff’ comes out. He’s, like, obsessed with Cid’s mechanical stuff."
"You’ve met him?!" Lucas screeched. "And you never told me?"
Tifa laughed. "Well, they didn’t part on the best of terms. It was more an argument than a conversation. Kat kept insisting that cigarettes were bad for your health. She didn’t learn the Talking to Cid Highwind Rule #1: Never insult Cid’s cigs, or it’ll be bad for your health."
Finishing up their meal, they paid the bill and left. Lucas and Kat were bantering back and forth, arguing over Tifa’s head. The three of them headed for where the buggy was parked.
Engrossed in their ‘discussion’, nobody noticed the small figure that followed them, its gaze trained on Lucas.
Note: bah. Stupid Word keeps capitalizing my name. Bah. This was a really, really short chapter-it was only about 7 pages long. Pooh. The next chapter-Cid gains a fan, Lucas obsess over Cid’s work, and just what was Kat’s idea?