Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This story is mine, as are McCallister and the Fractured Circle. This is the first chapter of the end of the trilogy! Bwahaha. I was going to space these updates out more consistently, but since readership has picked up, I'm going to try and get it all up and completed by next week. Yay for quicker updates! Also, I don't want Endings Matter Most to have an aneurism XD Enjoy!
..:-X-:..
Chapter Nine: Wrath
The hospital on the main island of Destiny Islands was in total chaos. Doctors and nurses and surgeons were rushing to and fro in a whirlwind of panic and a race against time as victims from the bomb were carried in. Tabaeus helped where she could, but the truth of the matter was that—even with her thin field medical experience—anyone who had been close to the explosion didn't survive long.
Like Kairi.
So Tabaeus found herself outside, standing by the pier along the eastern shore. Smoke was still rising from the downtown area where the woman's house used to be. Strangely, she had seen nor heard any sign from Tanner…There had been no sign of him in the damage zone.
There was so much else on her mind at this moment.
Like…the fact that Kairi was dead.
The Fractured Circle had bombed Destiny Islands.
Sora was en route at the moment, probably in a blind fury.
Kairi's last words…
It's not real…I woke up…None of this is real…
What wasn't real?
Tabaeus looked at the island around her. What had she meant? Not real?
The grass turning blue.
The slurring sound of voices.
The smell of medical plastic.
All of the little…inconsistencies…had been occurring more frequently lately. Maybe—no…No, she was not going to let the chaos of the past six hours make her consider illogical things. Besides, Kairi had been dying…She had been delirious and—and not making sense.
None of this was making sense.
Feeling despair creeping into her shoulder joints, she rolled her neck and pulled out her cell phone. She had already gone so far past the line of right and wrong…Any attempt at trying to fix this situation herself would only blow up in her face…She couldn't handle this, couldn't handle Sora…So she opened her phone and scrolled through the names.
She hit the dialing button before she could talk herself out of it and held the phone to her ear, grimacing the whole way. It rang three agonizing times before the other line picked up.
"McCallister?" Former Brigadier General Lockhart answered Major General Leonhart's phone.
"M-Ma'am?" McCallister faltered slightly. Had she misdialed—
"Leon's flying the ship." Lockhart explained, "What is it, McCallister?"
Tabaeus recovered quickly. "I'm on Destiny Islands. It was just bombed—"
"We know."
She blinked at that response and looked down at her boots. "I think it was the Fractured Circle."
"We know."
Tabaeus closed her eyes, "Kairi's dead."
Silence screamed at her over the line and she lifted a hand to her forehead, her throat constricting now that she had said it out loud.
"She was—" Lockhart started.
"She was the target…Or I was…I don't know—It doesn't matter…She died—in my arms." Tabaeus's voice came out thick and she cleared her throat.
Another long pause. She could almost envision Lockhart and Major General Leonhart exchanging looks that no one else could interpret. For a brief moment, heat burned the back of her eyes, but then the scuffled sounds of a phone changing hands came over the phone.
"Does Sora know?" The Major General said lowly.
Tabaeus's spine shot as straight as it would have if he had been standing in front of her. The potential tears evaporated and she opened her eyes, looking so abruptly toward the ocean that the sun's rays on the horizon cut into her pupils.
"Sir?" She snapped to attention.
"Did you call Sora already? Does he know about Kairi?" He reiterated.
She caught the small growl in the questions. He knew she had been working behind the Alliance—and more importantly, his—back to help Sora. That fact hit her like a bullet and she sagged slightly…but now was not the time for apologies…not that the Major General would listen to them anyway. He didn't forgive traitors.
"I called him right after the explosion." She responded. "But it was before I found Kairi. He knows that Destiny Islands was attacked, but he doesn't know anything specific about Kairi."
"Are you still on Destiny Islands?"
"Yes, sir."
"Stay there."
"Yes, sir."
"Is Sora on his way?"
"Yes, sir. He should be here any minute."
"Do you have confirmation that the Fractured Circle's leader is on the island?"
"Sir—"
"Do you, McCallister?"
Tabaeus started to answer, but suddenly something touched her collar. She brushed it away, thinking it a stray hair or a blown leaf, but then something touched her ear…and then her nose and her elbow. Twitching slightly, she looked down and saw what looked like cotton resting on the touched spots. Her brows knit together as she looked up.
It was raining pieces of…clouds.
The quarter-sized clumps were drifting down like bits of fluff, cool to the skin. Her vocal chords halted as she tried to register what she was seeing. Not only were clouds raining from the sky like cottonballs, but the sand all around her had turned a harsh gold color…and the usually crystal clear blue ocean was suddenly a neon green.
The world around her was like a television with the color knobs gone wrong.
None of it is real…I woke up…
"McCallister." Leonhart snapped.
"S-sir."
"What's going on?" He sounded clipped.
Lightheadedness hit her like a bucket of warm water and nausea swept through her. For a wild second, she actually thought she might throw up, but she planted her feet and narrowed her eyes, trying to will the world to stop being weird so she could just THINK!
Like a snapping rubber band, the sand turned normal toned, the ocean turned crystal clear blue, the clouds stopped falling, and the vertigo passed. She almost lost her balance from the stark transition.
"Dammit, McCallister—"
"Sir—" She stammered, looking around with wide eyes.
Did I—I didn't do that—surely—
"Tifa and I are on our way there now." The Major General was saying, "Stay where you are and when Sora gets there, stall him somehow."
But her mind was elsewhere—She had just made the world change…Could Kairi have been right? Curious and feeling also incredibly ridiculous, she lifted her hand, palm out, concentrating on the sandy patch on the beach in front of her…and thought about the most elaborate sandcastle that she could imagine.
The sand dusted up in the light breeze but otherwise nothing happened. She exhaled, feeling stupid, but when she looked back, a small, lump sandcastle was sitting there. It was from the image she had pictured, but it was a sandcastle…that she had created with her MIND.
"Holy…shit…" She whispered.
"What?" Leon barked.
She had to test this again…Coincidence could only get one so far—She looked toward the still burning fires downtown. Swallowing hard, she shifted the phone against her ear.
"Hold on, sir."
"McCallister—"
She pushed his voice out of her head and stared at the visible flames. Stop, she thought, narrowing her focus. Stop burning. Go out.
In answer, the red and orange flames disappeared in soft wisps of smoke…like an eraser had simply passed over them.
"Sir…you aren't going to believe this…"
..:-X-:..
"You did what?" The vein in Leon's temple was starting to poke out. "McCallister, you're not making sense."
Tifa eyed him steadily, trying to figure out what in the world the soldier was saying that was making that vein stick out. The Gummi that they were flying was clipping through the space traffic at an alarming speed, but Tifa was relieved to note that some of Cid's old flying tricks had rubbed off on Leon as they shot around some of the precipitous asteroids.
"Put her on speaker." She said, taking the phone from the crook of his neck before he could answer.
She flicked the speaker button and set the phone on the control panel. "McCallister, you're on speaker. What's going on over there?"
"I don't think it's real." The private's voice sounded higher pitched than normal. Then again, it had been nearly three months since Tifa had spoken to the woman.
"What's not real?" Tifa lifted an eyebrow.
"…everything…" McCallister breathed. "I just turned off the fires—"
"Fires…from the bombing—"
"If there even was a bombing—"
"Wait, McCallister—" Leon kept his eyes on the windshield. "Destiny Islands was bombed. Kairi is gone. Sora is on his way. Now is not the time to have a psychotic break."
"Sir, I'm sorry, but—before Kairi died, she told me that she…she woke up."
Leon cursed under his breath and Tifa rubbed her eyes. The soldier had flipped her lid.
But then again…
Tifa pursed her lips, watching her fingers individually press against her thumb. God, if it could really be simple enough to think this world wasn't real…But it was. Life was a bitch, and no delusions could make that fact change.
Destiny Islands came into view in the distance through the windshield.
"For the past week," McCallister was going on, "I've noticed things were off…colors changing…hearing things…Things were just wrong."
Tifa paused, but Leon exhaled heavily. "McCallister, you've been through a trauma."
"I'm not traumatized, sir!" Her raised voice made them both look at the phone on the panel. She seemed to collect herself before she spoke again. "I can…I can change things."
Leon's jaw flexed and Tifa knew he was done listening to this. She reached over and picked up the phone, turning off the speaker and holding it to her ear.
"Change what kind of things?" She asked as Leon flew the ship.
"Whatever I want." McCallister sounded breathless. "It's like the Green Lantern…I just imagine it and it happens…Blue grass…make the sun rise sideways…I extinguished all the fires from the bombing just by thinking it."
Tifa's pulse hummed behind her ears and she squinted. "That sounds—"
"Crazy, I know, but I keep testing it and it keeps working…It's like magic."
"Maybe it is magic."
"But I've never been trained in this level of magic. I'm barely covered in basic elemental, much less transfiguration…I'm bending physics over here!" McCallister sounded…excited.
"Where are you going with this?" Tifa pressed.
"If this world isn't real, if we're really—asleep or something—then we need to wake up—"
"How?" Tifa found herself asking, and immediately reprimanded herself for it. She was indulging a sick woman's fantasy that the past Hellish years were a nightmare.
But…oh…if there was a chance…
"I don't know…maybe Kairi woke up."
"Kairi's dead." The words came out harsh and Tifa cleared her throat.
"Maybe that's the trick."
"To die? That's ridiculous."
"This is all ridiculous." Leon interjected, "Destiny Islands coming up."
"McCallister, we're almost there." Tifa reported, "Just…don't do anything stupid—"
"Sora's here—"
"What?" Tifa barked, looking through the windshield and seeing nothing. "I don't see him."
"He just landed. He's—I gotta go—"
"Wait…McCallister!" Tifa snapped into the phone.
"Try to bend reality. It's not real…I'm almost certain of it."
"Soldier—"
"Please, ma'am—I'm sorry, I have to—" The line slipped to dial tone.
Tifa pulled back and stared at the phone. Leon glanced at her and started to guide the ship into the upper atmosphere of Destiny Islands.
"She said Sora just landed." She said. "And she thinks she's in the movie Inception."
Leon exhaled heavily. "Impossible."
Tifa hesitated and she felt him look at her.
"Tifa…There is no 'waking up' from this. We're not in the Matrix. This—" He smacked the steering wheel, "—is all the reality there is."
"McCallister is too grounded to go this insane so fast." Tifa rubbed her forehead.
"Just like she's too grounded to betray the Alliance for Sora." Leon hissed.
Tifa nibbled on a fingernail. "It would explain a lot…Not that she's insane…but the fact that things have—been wrong…She mentioned changing colors and sounds…I think—"
"She's hallucinating."
The Gummi trembled in the turbulence as they lowered through the atmosphere.
"Leon," Tifa said in exasperation, "I know you're pissed at her, and you have a right to be, but McCallister isn't an idiot. She wouldn't talk about…bending physics…if she didn't believe it."
"You're actually believing this?" He looked at her briefly.
Tifa thought back to the past few weeks…seeing things that weren't possible…hearing things that weren't there…and smelling things that she had no business smelling in Thebes…like hospital smells and the sound of doctors talking…
Were alternate realities such a far stretch?
"I…I think it's worth looking into." She said delicately.
Leon brought the ship into a landing, and they were given a full view of the crater where the downtown area used to be, now just burning wood and scorched foliage.
"If there was ever a time for her to be right…" Leon breathed.
..:-X-:..
Destiny Islands was one of the last places in this universe where Sora wanted to be right then. He could smell the burned dirt and blood as soon as he stepped out of the ship and onto the sand. The tide was inching in, and he could see that the fires were out already. McCallister was hurrying toward him from the beach.
"Sora—"
"Where is she?" He demanded.
She pulled up, pale and with eyes wider than the last time he'd seen her. "Wh—"
"Kairi." What the Hell else would he ask about? "Where is she?"
The woman looked paralyzed for a moment, and then she blinked and her shoulders slumped.
"Sora—"
He was losing patience. "What happened to her?"
"The attack…I found her…but it was too late…" McCallister looked down. "I'm sorry…she didn't make it."
Sora's blood turned to ice and he stared at her. "What does that mean?"
The soldier lifted her gaze painfully. "She's dead, Sora."
He froze solid at her words. Kairi…She couldn't be—He looked back toward the epicenter of the attack.
"She was the target…Because I was the target." He breathed, and then glared at McCallister, "Why were you here?"
She blinked, "I was—"
"Why were you on Destiny Islands?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Because I needed a break from YOU, you psycho-bastard!" She suddenly screamed at him, and Sora could have sworn he saw the sky darken a little.
He glared hard at her, "If Kairi's dead, then that's on me. I can't let this go—"
"You never let anything go!" McCallister vented. "This road to revenge is leading you straight to Hell! Why can't you just…"
"Just what?" Sora clenched his fists. "Move on? Everyone I have ever cared about is either my enemy or dead. There is no moving on for me—"
The soldier looked like she was on the verge of screaming something, but then she abruptly looked away and growled out her frustration. Sora frowned and looked toward the smaller island a few miles off the coast of the main isle. The island where he had spent most of his childhood wasting time with his friends. The island where the Door was.
"The leader is still here." He breathed.
"How do you know?" She exhaled.
"This is his final taunt." Sora stepped toward the shoreline. "He has nothing left to take from me. He's too obsessed with this…this sick game…to go into hiding." He gazed toward the island. "He's waiting for my next move."
McCallister remained quiet, a hurt silence that he didn't bother to interpret.
"He's waiting for me." He said under his breath, marching over to the pier, where the boats were all tethered. He was tempted just to fly over the island with his Gummi and bomb it to smithereens just for the bastard breathing Destiny Islands' air…but he had to make sure that the leader of the Fractured Circle died this time.
"I'm coming with you." McCallister said behind him.
"This isn't your battle."
"The Hell it isn't. You've dragged me everywhere for this obsession. I've betrayed my superiors, my colleagues, my peers, my Alliance…all for you…And I want this maniac dead too…So shut up because I'm coming with you. Maybe then we can escape from this place."
The way she said 'this place' made Sora's skin crawl for some reason, but he offered only a twisted smile as they both climbed into the nearest boat. The wind was wane and weak, but there were ways to get—
"We need wind." McCallister spoke his thoughts.
As though obeying her, a gust of wind filled the sails. Sora lifted his eyes as he removed the tether rope and the boat pulled immediately away from the dock.
The sharp wind had come from nowhere, but McCallister looked more enthused than concerned as to where it had come from all of a sudden. Sora looked at her suspiciously. She was a terrible liar. Always had been.
"What aren't you telling me?" He ordered.
McCallister looked at him, "Does it matter?"
"Yes." He straightened as the boat clipped through the water.
She pursed her lips and looked away from him, toward the smaller island. She didn't answer.
"McCallister." He hissed.
"I've done a lot of shit because you told me to, Sora." She said placidly. "I've betrayed a lot of people, told a lot of lies, and I'm at the end of my rope with you." She looked at him. "And if this—" She gestured toward the island, "—ends your crusade, then I'll tell you."
"That's not how this works."
"You can't have your revenge and the truth." She bit back, looking unusually comfortable with herself as she sassed at him. "Even if I told you the truth, you would probably refuse it."
He seethed but looked toward the island. He shouldn't be wasting time shooting the shit with her. The only thing that he should be concerning himself with was the monster waiting for him on the island. The leader would be waiting at the Door…because it was always the Door.
The island drew Darkness like the Heartless themselves.
But today it would end.
The past four years of Hell would end.
And then what?
"What is the truth?" He said, looking to McCallister.
For a long moment, she said nothing. Didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken. Then, when she did answer, it was with a quiet tone. "That it's all a lie."
He looked at her flatly. Then he snorted and looked toward the island again.
"Told you that you would refuse it."
He didn't answer, too focused on the matter at hand: ending the leader of the Fractured Circle.
"And that's why we're going to die here." McCallister murmured matter-of-factly.
..:-X-:..
A/N: I confess most of my inspiration for this Project Stasis has come from The Matrix and Inception. Although those movies are waaaaay more kickass than my humble little stories.
Three more chapters to go!
