Ami's Village, Seven Hours South of the City

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky dropped to her knees and rolled him over lightly. she sat back and covered her mouth.

kamens face was bloody, his hair clingng to it. serious head wounds and burns. bruises ran across his neck and collar bones. he groaned slightly, his arm was bleeding and looked broken. he had puncture wounds and burn marks on exposed skin.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami gasped and came forward. "Somebody get me my bag!" she barked. "This guy needs patching, stat!"

Reno headed down to the car to get Ami's bag from the trunk.

Rude approached the fallen sorcerer. "I doubt a first aid kit will help."

Ami turned to him. "So what do we do?"

"We'll have to see if his neck is broken or if he has a severe concussion. We need to know if we can risk moving him." He bent over the broken Puppeteer. "Can you move your fingers?"

Reno arrived back with the bag, still too shocked to register an opinion about this. Ami grabbed it and yanked out her first aid supplies. "I've got to clean some of these wounds out before they fester."

[*~Nikkole~*]

he tried to move but ended up coughing and wincing. he flexed his fingers weakly and nodded ever so slightly.

nikky stared, shocked. ''what... how could this happen?? you were fine no more than an hour ago.''

he choked slightly. ''its a little thing called lying deary...''

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami paused as she cleaned one of the more shallow wounds, one comprised of two paralell lines formed by fine edges. "The Souba. So he did get a hit in on you."

"Let's get him into the house," Rude prompted. "This kid's in bad shape."

Reno thought about saying no... but it wasn't as if this guy could do much more damage. Reno stiffed as he helped Rude carefully pick him up and get him in, trying really hard to not think about what he was doing. Why the h**l are we wasting our time on this creeper, yo? He wanted to say that so bad, but the look on Nikky's face made him hold it in.

Ami rushed ahead and laid some towels out on a bare cot that stood in an otherwise bare room... a room that had once belong to her brothers. The cot had been the only stick of furniture the family had been unable to get rid of after the boys died...

"Put him here," she directed. "I'm calling the town physician."

She headed out to the kitchen to call the doctor up. "Bad idea," Rude mentioned in passing, carrying the groaning Kamen. "Place the call, and Rufus knows we're still here."

Ami gritted her teeth. "Then I'll just have to go get him personally."

She got on Gunmetal and roared off to fetch him...

"She'll be too late," Rude said, "but I didn't want to be the one to say so. This boy... I don't know how's he's survived this long."

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky paced and chewed her lip.

kamen gasped and whimpered slightly as the pain hit him in a wave. he bit his already split and bleeding lip. he opened his eyes and almost blindly reached for nikky. ''i didn't tell them.... about you.'' he weezed slightly and winced. ''i didn't tell them anything....'' nikky stared at him

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Rude gave Nikky a long look. "All we can do now is... make him comfortable." It's too late to help him.

He some alcohol and towels out of Ami's bathroom (finding the bathroom, the alcohol, and the towels required a few minutes of trial and error) and pulled the gauze out of Ami's bag. He handed over one of the towels to Nikky and kept one for himself. "Help me patch him." And very mechanically, methodically, matter-of-factly, he began to clean and bandage Kamen's wounds. "You wouldn't have dragged yourself here unless you had something important to say... you'd better say it sooner rather than later." Because for you, there won't be a later.

He didn't bother asking Reno for help. Reno had left the room a few moments earlier, knowing he would do something he'd regret if he stayed. But he didn't leave the hallway... He wasn't taking chances that Kamen wasn't as helpless as he looked.

[*~Nikkole~*]

kamen winced and bit his lip. ''i might have put you all in danger... just contacting you... but... i needed to warn you... and tell you that.... i broke free... m\from my master.... he caught me.... and did this to get information... out of me since i... wouldn't talk. i... tried to warn you earlier... they won't give up like i did...'' he winced and suppressed a cry. ''they are not as weak....''

nikky tried not to cry, something in her wanted to do whatever means necsessary for him...but she didn't know why. oh dear lord help him...

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Ami returned with a bespectacled gentleman in tow. "Oh, dear, Miss Amnesty..." he was murmuring. "My, you have changed in these past few months... have you done something to your hair?"

She rolled her eyes. "Another time, Doctor Dermott."

She escorted him into her brothers' old room. "Can you do anything to help him?"

"My lands, is that--"

"No, it isn't," Ami cut him off. "This is Kamen. Remember? The boy I told you about in the office?"

"Oh, yes..."

Ami sighed. Dr. Dermott was a bit senile and eccentric, but professionally he was a miracle worker. "Let's stand back and let the man do his job, yeah?"

Ami ushered Rude out as he got down to work, and pulled Reno in. He started to argue. "Ami--"

"Not one word, Red," she bit back. "Not one. This boy needs Nikky, and Nikky needs you."

She spun on her heel and left.

Reno sighed and avoided looking over at the cot where the ancient healer was was hunched. He slouched against the wall instead and glanced at Nikky. Sheez, she looks like she's ready to cry...

He looked down at the carpet, his mind starting to wander. So this is what a Remnant's room looks like.

The walls were bare, and the bed, as mentioned earlier, was the only furniture. There was nothing else to look at but the hemming, hawing doctor as he balanced Kamen's life in his hands.

Reno reached for Nikky's hand. All right, so she needs me... but what does that mean, exactly? What now?

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky automatically clung to him and took his hand. she stared at the floor.

kamen took a deep breath and held it, eyes closed. he bit his lip and tried not to cry... his ribs stinging his lungs.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Reno held her and tried to soothe her. "It's OK, Nikky. There's a doctor here now, right? It's gonna be fine..." Sheez, I'm getting the same feeling I got when I apologized about Jenova to Ami's brothers. Trying to make her feel BETTER about Kamen coming around... this is too weird, but right now I can't let that show. He looked down at her. What kind of history do these two have together, anyway? Why does she care? He stroked her hair gently. "It's OK..."

****

Ami conferred with Rude in the meantime. "I know Kamen needs you guys right now, so leaving here is out of the question. Which means the alternative I was only considering before is now the only one we have."

"What do you mean?"

"We have to let Tseng catch me."

"What?"

"Look, Rude, did you ever know where the new Shinra Headquarters was?"

"I was never under the impression that there was one. Reno and I were in the employ of Info Central, one of the departments that splintered off from the main corporation... one of the few that was still under Rufus' control after the company collapsed."

"Well, there you go. How are we supposed to find those creeps... and my family... maybe even Squall... unless I take the chance?"

"There has to be another way."

"There isn't, and you know it."

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky nodded slowly and watched. ''he came back.... to warn us. to help us reno... something has changed.'' she seemed confused and scared. but also pissed off... her fists shook with rage not fear.

kamen cried out slightly and whimpered, he begged for painkillers and bit his lip to suppress the next wave of pain from showing.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

"Painkillers? Oh, silly me." The doctor got out a syringe and filled it with a suspicious-looking liquid. "Of course... here we are." He injected it into Kamen's arm. "There now, young man... that ought to help." He got back to the business of getting the young man healed up. Oh, this one has been through some quite interesting things, it would seem... oh yes... hmm... Sword wounds, gunshots, all sorts of those nasty things I saw when I worked in the city... Well, this poultice ought to heal him up just right. From my old mako stockpile... He hummed with satisfaction as he set the boy's broken bones and arranged a crude cast around them. Not what a specialist might do, but this is a small village and we can't afford such fancy things... it'll heal him just as well.

Reno realized Nikky seemed angry. "What...? What did I say?"

****

Ami and Rude were not in accord on this new idea. "If there was any doubt before, there can be none now. You've got to be your template's clone... only a Remnant could suggest something this crazy."

Ami came within a hear's breadth of slapping him. "Stop using my genes against me. It was only fair the first time, but..." She took a deep breath and counted to ten. "Rude, these guys want me. If they get me, they'll leave you guys alone for a least a little while... and they'll get a few nasty surprises... three nasty surprises..."

"I can see where this is going. No, Ami. You can't afford to underestimate them. You're staying here with us."

"I'm not asking for permission, Rude. I'm going to get my family back, Rude, with or without any help."

"Ami, Rufus will take your head and use it for a hood ornament if you go against him alone. You're just a kid--"

"I am not JUST a kid, and I never have been!" Ami shouted. "You know that better than most!"

"Ami, for the second and hopefully final time, no."

Ami got into his face defiantly. "I'd like to see you stop me."

Rude stared her down. "I can and will. This is not an act of desperation. It is a reckless blunder born of impatience. Impatience killed your family-- why don't you learn from them?"

This time, Ami did slap him. Hard and stiff.

Rude could not believe she had actually summoned the guts to do that. He simply looked at her silently. "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

"S***w you!" Ami spat back. She stormed out of the house.

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky sighed. ''it is nothing that you did.... i knew that if we let him go this would happen. how do we know that his master has not found out something?? i have few friends.... but they are easily tracked down. he is not just after me reno.... hes after all of us.''

kamen relaxed and closed his eyes. after a few minutes he slipped off into a sleep... being weakened and tired.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Dr. Dermott stood up, his hands clasped together, grinning like a little schoolboy. "Ah, the fruits of my labor," he burbled happily. "There, now, yes, he ought to be fine now." He chuckled inanely to himself. "Very good. He'll be just perfect when he wakes, you'll see."

Dr. Dermott wandered outside and found Ami stewing on her front porch. "Ah, Miss Amnesty! How you have changed in the past few months..."

Ami groaned quietly. "How much do I owe you, Doctor?"

"Oh, nothing at all, nothing at all," he chuckled. "Lovely job, that one... quite engaging..."

"Yeah, yeah..." Ami agreed half-heartedly. "Let's get you back to your office, Doctor."

She settled him into her sidecar and drove off...

****

Reno looked over at Kamen uneasily. The boy didn't look like he could be a Puppetmaster of anything now. Two of his limbs were in the Doctor's crude casts, and the rest of him was covered in mako poultices. He almost felt sorry for him... almost.

The one he felt worst for was Nikky. I was right. She just can't catch a break at all. "No worries, Nikky. We can all take care of ourselves, and we can take care of each other, too, right?" Kamen's master sounds like one h**l of a bada**, but he coldn't be something we haven't taken on before...

****

Rude got some food out of a cabinet for himself. Sunset, Kidd, and Kamryn were all making themselves comfortable-- they had even turned the TV on. Just as well... they would have gotten in the way a few minutes ago.

That Ami kid... she really worries me. She's too much like certain people were at that age for me to rest easy.

[*~Nikkole~*]

keman stirred slightly but otherwise didn't move... his limp and weakened for showed how young he really was... he looked to be only 16 or 17.... his pale skin was moist with sweat and his hands were relaxed only by sleep.

nikky nodded slowly. ''i guess you are right.... '' she smiled. ''i won't be alone this time....'' she hugged and kissed him lightly.