A/N: The 2 brief snippets of dialogue used in this story are straight out of the game script. I trimmed a couple lines out to fit my purposes. Ah well.
Prompt: Hit
Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Characters: Cecil, Kain
Word Count: 365
He hadn't believed it. Not at first. Not until the first blow fell. He'd hardly had it in himself to fight back. Not against Kain. Maybe that's why he'd been so easily defeated. Maybe that's why he hadn't fought back when Kain and Golbez left, kidnapping Rosa.
Why had Kain betrayed him? Cecil had no answers, except perhaps, karma. Was this punishment for what he had done in Mist, unwitting or not? There was blood on his hands, innocent blood.
Perhaps this was Fate's way of punishing him for following a King clearly gone down the wrong path. That betrayal he should have seen coming and deep down, were he honest with himself, he had known what he was doing on his King's orders was wrong. Yet still he'd blindly followed the commands of a tyrant, justifying it behind flimsy excuses and blind denial.
Granted the King of Baron had rescued him, an abandoned baby left in the forest, and raised him as his own son. But the King was no longer that man. Hadn't been for quite some time.
Perhaps this was what he deserved for being a Dark Knight. Selling his soul to protect his King and Kingdom. First he lost his Father. Now his best friend and the woman he loved.
He'd never before felt so hopeless.
"What's wrong with you? They took Rosa, but they didn't hurt her. We just need to rescue her! And the Crystal - we can take it back, too!" a young voice shouted, breaking into his bleak musings. Rydia, the young summoner. One of the few survivors of Mist. She glared at Cecil fiercely, determination etched on to her face. She'd lost her Mother, by Cecil's own actions no less, and here she was trying to help him. Trying to encourage him. Treating him as a friend. A small smile quirked his mouth.
And here he was, wallowing in self pity, when there was still a chance to save Rosa and get answers from Kain. The blow of this realization hit harder than even Kain's lance and Cecil felt that small spark of hope, almost snuffed to ashes, slowly rekindle.
"Yes," he said softly, "thank you."
