((A/N: Spiritua Masquerade: Gad, going through severe Writers Block at the moment. X.x))
Chapter Twenty-One (Kratos's PoV)
The Disappointed.
It was almost a disappointment when the soft, dark, comfy world faded into a blinding light and a steady ache made itself at home in my muscles. But that was before logic set in. As soon as my mind brought back the memory of my last few moments of consciousness, I was eager to bypass this sluggish awakening process, slowed by whatever had sent me unconscious to begin with, and find out where the hell I was.
The first thing I saw was Yuan standing above me, a grin on his face. He was mumbling something, but either it was too quiet or my mind was still too cloudy to comprehend the meaning to his words. Then I saw the sky above him, un-obscured by trees, telling me we were no longer in the forest.
The ground was rock-hard beneath me. Were we somewhere near a mountain? I moved my arm from where it lay across my stomach, lifting myself slowly from the heap positioning I'd been dumped into. That's probably why I hurt, I realized. That dumb bastard dropped me.
Wait.
Yuan?
"Get away from me, you'll never understand!"
"Yuan..."
"No! I hate you!"
I flinched slightly at the memory, drawing his attention from somewhere off in the distance. Immediately he looked away, however, as if unable to hold my gaze.
"Yuan?"
"So the murderer awakens, undoubtedly plotting his next attempt at my life," the half-elf narrated, as if I hadn't spoken.
"Yuan, I swear on my own life that it wasn't me. I was out hunting all morning."
"Yes, hunting indeed... Renegade season, is it?" His voice dripped with sarcasm, and I growled in frustration.
"I'm serious, Yuan. If you'd quit acting like a disillusioned three-year-old for a moment, you'd realize that I couldn't possibly have been trying to kill you!" I fumed, growing aggravated by his stubbornness.
His lip curled up in the beginnings of a snarl in response to my harsh words, but I gazed back into his blazing eyes unwaveringly.
"Why the hell would I believe you? You who came back with no kill, but only the dagger that had nearly slit my throat minutes before, you who claims you didn't try and kill me, but knows full well that we're the only two intelligent beings on the island-"
"Then I knocked myself out, and dragged myself out to wherever the hell we are, didn't I? Is that what you were about to say?" I shot back, livid.
"Feh," he scoffed, crossing his arms and turning away. I could tell I was getting to him.
"And Yuan, if it was me, you would have caught me in the chase. Whoever outran you had to be very adept at running through the trees in the dark, don't you think?" I continued with my logic, knowing he wasn't ignoring me as thoroughly as he pretended to.
I could see him watching me through the corner of his eye, listening.
"If this was my plan, don't you think I'd have had the sense not to bring the dagger back to camp?"
He seemed indecisive. I could tell I didn't have much more convincing ahead of me.
I softened my voice for my final try. "Yuan, you know you don't want to believe I'm the one who tried to kill you. I can see it in your eyes... It's just your stubbornness keeping you stuck to that theory, nothing more."
He turned his head away even more, so his eyes weren't visible, as a last defense of sorts.
I had won.
I remained silent a few moments, before placing a hand on his shoulder for his attention.
"You are unhurt?"
Two cerulean eyes gazed at me a moment in scrutiny. "I'm fine," he sighed in defeat.
"Good. If you were hurt, I'd have to kill someone."
He gave me the strangest look right then, surprised and slightly troubled. I didn't try and identify the cause, however. My mind was racing in too many directions already to add yet another train of thought.
It was then that I took a good look around me, and my eyes widened slightly. We were less than five feet from the cliff of a canyon of unknown depth, and a random scattering of stone pillar-like formations were standing precariously at various points between the two canyon walls.
And then I saw it.
A flash of light from somewhere to my right attracted my attention, as flashes of light generally do, and my eyes scanned the area for the source of said flash. It wasn't the flash of enemy armor, as my instincts were trained to suspect. That was impossible, and even if it weren't, I saw the object too soon to have time to suspect otherwise anyways.
The key.
I didn't know what the key was supposed to look like; I'd never seen it before in my life. Yet I knew that the final object needed to release us from this wretched island was a key, and there, in Yuan's hand, rested the object of our salvation.
He saw my gaze upon it, and grinned slightly.
"See? I'm not completely useless," he mocked my words of a few days before, though his mockery was good-natured compared to the nature of some of his more recent utterings. I offered a slight grin in return, nodding in agreement.
"Not completely."
"I got the key and dragged your sorry ass away from certain death. That has to count for something," he protested.
"Indeed, it would appear that you're not as useless as you seem." He seemed to battle over accepting or protesting to my words, and leaned toward accepting, until I added, "Usually."
"You'd be dead without me!" He objected, to which I countered:
"Likewise, many times over."
"Just admit it, you need me." Yuan smirked.
I paused, sighing. "I won't deny that accusation."
"So I'm not useless."
"I never said you weren't useless. I just agreed that I need you," I stated simply, leaving him silent for a minute or so trying to figure on what my words truly meant. He'd never figure it out. I knew he wouldn't. He couldn't even begin to comprehend the meaning behind my confession...
But just in case, I interrupted before he could.
"Shouldn't we be heading back to the machine room? Or do we wish to stick around this quaint little deathtrap for a while longer?" I prompted, and he shook himself out of his thoughts, an action that would have at one point sent his hair flying every which way. Now, his matted hair hung limp with dirt and whatever else it had collected along the journey. But, I noted to myself, it didn't faze his style one bit. He had this confidence about him that, even in ripped clothes and a smell that could kill a dragon at a hundred yards off, he still seemed every bit the Renegade leader. Usually. Though every leader has his moments of shame...
"Coming?" It was my turn to shake myself out of my thoughts, to see Yuan already a few paces down the trail, calling back over his shoulder at my stationary self. I nodded, rising to my feet and jogging the few paces to catch up. Then we headed off toward the telltale mountain that marked the center of the island, and our final destination.
"It doesn't work!? What do you mean, it doesn't work?!" Shrieked the half-elf in dismay. I as well was almost consumed in shock and anguish, but I kept a calm face.
We'd walked the entire way to the room that started our adventure, complete with a fall through a hole identical to the first time, only to find that the key and the two stones, the keys to our salvation, didn't work one damned bit.
"Maybe you should kick it. That seemed to work so well last time." The sarcasm was obvious in my tone, but he seemed too upset to notice, as he proceeded to pull back his foot and lay a few good kicks on the metal surface, half in frustration and half in hopes that it may work as I'd suggested. With no response, he kicked it even harder, drawing back his boot once again to lay a final bone-shattering kick. I put my hand on his shoulder before he followed through with said foot thrust, however, drawing his attention. His eyes met mine for a moment, his defiance holding up for only a couple of moments before he crumpled in a miserable heap on the ground, his back against the machine and his knees to his chest.
"I'm sorry, it's just... We've come so far, and this was our final hope, our way off the island... Are we gonna be stuck here now? Forever? We're doomed..." He moaned the last two words with a conviction that affected even me, if only slightly.
I crouched in front of him, planting my hands on his shoulders and shaking him somewhat roughly.
"We aren't doomed, understand? We'll get off this island if I have to swim us all the way to the mainland. So get a hold of yourself! You're the leader of the Renegades, Yuan, now look like it!" I growled the words with a no-nonsense tone, to get my point across loud and clear. He raised his head slightly to meet my gaze with his own almost painfully hopeless eyes, then slowly nodded. I stood up and offered a hand. He took it, and with it he rose to his feet, brushing himself off.
"So what's the plan, Captain?"
"I... I really don't know." I hung my head slightly with this confession. This was extremely unusual, Kratos Aurion at loss for a plan.
"Then I think I do. If you can stop being a know-it-all long enough to give my plan a chance."
"I think I might be able to manage." I offered a half-grin, and he took a deep breath, preparing for a long and no doubt complicated explanation. But suddenly, he stiffened. His eyes narrowed, and he looked about him like the hunted would when the hunter is near.
"What is it?" I softly asked, but he cut me off with a sharp 'shhh!' His eyes flickered to the right, then back at me, then back to the right. After a moment, I caught on, glancing to the right. And there stood the familiar fuzzy little creature that had haunted my companion since the start, half on its hind legs, frozen and gazing at us fixedly, almost mockingly. I barely suppressed a shudder down my spine; the way this rodent looked at us, I couldn't help but sense a greater intelligence than one of its sort would usually possess. An almost human intelligence.
Beside me, Yuan forced himself to relax. Casually, carefully so, he strolled over to the left, the opposite direction from the rodent. He seemed to be heading for the corner off to the left, but for what purpose? I squinted, sorely lamenting the loss of my heightened vision, and saw what he had seen long ago.
There was Swallow, lying nobly on the ground, where it must have fallen when the walls had separated once more. I narrowed my eyes as he had; surely Yuan wasn't intending to forsake his plan and chase down this innocent creature? Though deep in my mind, I didn't exactly protest to the death of this particular unnerving creature. I watched as he picked it up, looked it over with a fondness unseen before, and made his way back to my side. From the corner of my eye, I saw him extend five fingers. A countdown.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
And then he dove at the rodent, a savage war cry ripping from his throat. It was all I could do to keep from cringing, to force myself immediately into action as well, but I managed, planting Spatha in front of the rodent as it raced off away from Yuan. Now it was trapped between us... Yet I could sense no fear. It was playing with us. No, no, now I'm starting to sound like Yuan. I just couldn't sense the fear because my Crystal was out of order, that's all. No big deal.
Nonetheless, my thoughts distracted me slightly. Only slightly, but enough to take a small fraction of my attention from the rodent. Enough that I couldn't react soon enough to stop him when he leapt farther than his short legs seemed able, clinging to a crack in the wall almost too small to see, and scrambling hastily upward.
Immediately I bent to one knee, cupping my hands, and Yuan put one foot in my hands, watching the rodent's retreating form with a determined and somewhat hungry look on his face. In one fluid motion I launched him upward, just as the rodent slipped out a high window. He caught the ledge and hauled himself up...
Which left me with a little dilemma.
How in the hell was I supposed to get up there?
The answer came immediately. I clamped my hand down around Spatha's blade, and felt the blood seep out almost immediately. I hurled Spatha at the ceiling, just above the window, and it lodged firmly into whatever material said ceiling was made up of. Holding out my hand toward it, I braced myself.
"Spatha!" I summoned my sword toward me, but it was lodged too firmly into the ceiling. As was planned. Instead, I felt a horrible jerk pulling at the bleeding hand's arm, almost pulling it from its socket. I found myself soaring through the air, though in an extremely fragile and uncontrolled fashion, until I was hanging by my sword from the ceiling. The window was mere feet in front of me. I swung my hips, once, twice, then on the third time I gave a jerk with my arm, dislodging my sword and sending me toward the window...
And out it.
The momentum carried me out onto the windowsill, and even farther. I attempted to stop my rolling, but I couldn't get a good grip.
Then the platform I was on ended, and I found myself falling. I jammed Spatha into the top of the ledge, holding me from my doom for at least a few moments. Carefully, I swung my leg to catch the ledge and pull myself up, but it only succeeded in loosening my sword's hold. Yuan was nowhere in sight, and nor was the rodent. I strained to keep my muscles tensed, for if I relaxed, the shift in weight would pull the sword from its precarious hold.
For what seemed like forever, I hung there. My entire body was shaking with the effort of holding myself still, ironic as that is, and I could slowly feel trusty Spatha slipping from its hold. But I still held on.
Have you ever strained your body to its limits for so long, you pass out? I have. In fact, that's what I found I was doing, when my vision blurred and the edges went black. My muscles burned with effort. Oh how I wanted to let go, let myself fall. The death would almost be worth the release from the torture that was involved in continuing to hang there. But I knew I couldn't.
Yuan.
I had to make sure he got off the island. I had to. At the time, I didn't know what the incredible force was that drove me to live for that single reason, but all I knew is, I had to stay alive for Yuan. I owed it to him, somehow.
My vision blurred even further, and I struggled to keep my hold on awareness. But as the moments passed, it was harder and harder to hold on. Consciousness was like a handful of sand, slipping through my fingers no matter how tightly I held. And at last, my grip failed.
It was a relief and a failure, both at once. But one thing was for sure; it wasn't what I expected. I expected to feel like I was falling... Perhaps I'd already fallen, I was already dead. All I know is, Yuan was there, his voice crying out my name in what seemed to be anguish, his arm around my chest, pulling me upward, then a great warmth that must have been Yuan pressed up against my side, his arm still around my chest, as I felt a long-awaited feeling of pressure beneath me, something hard holding us upright. And then there was nothing.
((Spiritua: OMG I AM SO SORRY I TOOK SO LONG! Feel free to hurt me or smack me or shoot me or murder me or whatever you want to do because I'm sorry...))