To the Darkest of Nights We Go

~Dystopian AU ~

Chapter 25

Written By: RinoaDestiny

King of Fighters, Chizuru Kagura, Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Mai Shiranui, Blue Mary, Rock Howard, and Joe Higashi all belong to SNK

"You need to eat something."

"There's not enough." The ration bar was in pieces after going through Shinsaibashi in his pocket and Kyo had opened the package, realizing Iori hadn't touched it at all. "It's yours, Kusanagi. I'm not hungry."

"It's yours, Yagami." He held out the package to the redhead, keeping the broken pieces within its wrapping. "I kept it for you. You'll need it before we head out."

"I'm not –"

"When did you last eat, Yagami?"

Confusion clouded the other's face, knotting his brow. "What day is it?"

"Day six. Day one was the day we were supposed to leave. After…" He left the rest unsaid, unwilling to dredge further guilt – undeserved guilt – which Yagami would take to heart. Not the way he wanted the other man to feel, leaving this place. "Do you know?"

Iori's forehead creased and his eyes deepened in concentration. He picked at his hands, fingers worrying with the bandages and Kyo could almost hear his internal counting as the silence lengthened. Like him, Yagami was probably going through the events, lining them up with the days and trying to figure out the details. With all that had happened to him, Kyo wouldn't be surprised if the broader scope of his torture and the unpleasantness blurred the smaller happenings, since those weren't important. It was easy to forget those, when pain overwhelmed and survival became all that mattered. Because it did, and at that point, what was one missed meal or three?

Did any of that matter when Goenitz and the PMCs put him through hell?

"I think…" He saw Iori struggling, trying to put the pieces together. "I think it was the day we were…"

"The day we were supposed to leave? Yagami, it's been five days."

"I know." His former rival's expression was torn. "We still don't have enough."

Kyo reached out again, proffering the ration bar to the man sitting across from him. "When Kagura-san was with me, I had plenty. This was the last. It's yours. Take it."

"But you –"

"When we leave, I'll find food. Yagami, you haven't eaten for five straight days. You need food. Don't fight me on this. You don't need to –"

"Worry about you? Just me, then?"

"I'm not implying that."

"Of course you're not. But it is about me, isn't it?"

"Yagami, don't." He didn't need his temper ruining things between them and Iori still had a way of pushing his buttons, of ticking him off. "Take it, Yagami."

The other fighter didn't move. Ignored him, in fact. "You think I don't worry about you? About Kagura? About what you did? What..." Iori stopped talking. Looked frustrated, which was a change from his non-expressions lately. "Kusanagi, if you drop…if you fall, then…"

"I can take care of myself, Yagami."

"And I'm the one that needs to be taken care of? Is that it, Kusanagi?"

"I'm not saying you're –"

"You don't need to." Iori's jaw set. "You think that way."

"Yagami, this is pointless. I'm not saying…I'm not implying in any way that you're weak. You know me, Yagami. Would I ever think that of you, knowing what you've been through?"

"You don't even know what –"

"Only because you won't tell me."

"You don't need to know, Kusanagi."

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" Kyo lowered his hand, putting the ration bar down, dividing the space between them. "How can I help you when I don't know?"

"Help me? Kusanagi, you can't even deal with NESTS. Why do you want to know my problems?"

"Oh, I don't know…maybe because it'll be easier for both of us if we –"

"If what? If I tell you all the fucked up things they did to me? Would that help, Kusanagi?"

"Yagami," Kyo said, a headache forming right in between his eyes, "would it help if I told you I was worried you'd die? That I don't want that to happen."

"You weren't listening earlier, Kusanagi. You think it's just you that –"

"So you think the same?"

"Kusanagi, if you fall, if you die…what happens to me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Goenitz…the PMCs…do you think…do you think they'll just kill me?" There was that look in Iori's eyes again – hard to read with so many emotions all at once – and then the other man glanced away, visibly ill at ease. "You didn't think about that, did you?"

"Yagami, I'm sure they have orders to search and destroy."

"What if I'm the exception again?"

"But why?"

A bitter smile twisted the other's lips, horribly accentuated by the forming scar. Yagami didn't look at him, gaze directed downward at the space between his hands. Some of the bandages were loose – Kyo needed to rewrap them later. Drawn out silence, which was broken by the darkest and saddest laugh Kyo had ever heard from the other man. He stared at him, unable to look away, simultaneously horrified and dismayed. The laugh died; the silence melancholy and Iori lifted his head to meet his gaze head-on.

"Why give me a merciful death, Kusanagi? Why not throw me to them again?"

"You can't be –"

"He doesn't have to play nice. The PMCs can do whatever they want to me. Before you and Kagura came, they…" Iori's voice caught. "It was getting worse every night. I think…if you hadn't come…"

"Yagami…"

"I don't want the food. Take it."

Kyo didn't move, didn't respond. There was so much in that conversation he needed to unpack, to figure out but as he sifted through it, certain things became apparent. Yagami saw himself as weak – thought Kyo believed the same and accused him of such – and that along with self-blame was a double hit impacting the other's already broken mentality. Kyo didn't know how to shake those loose from him – might already be too late – without further damaging Yagami's sense of self and he knew how hard it was to slough off the mental baggage that came with trauma. Besides those, Yagami also worried about him and considered his needs. Refused to eat if it meant Kyo had nothing for himself.

All this time, he was looking out for Yagami.

He'd never considered that Yagami was also looking out for him.

But there was a deeper terror behind Yagami's reasoning. If he died, if something happened to him, Yagami was afraid O.R.O.C.H.I. would continue where they left off, would cast him aside to the soldiers and that'd be an ugly and prolonged death. No honor, no glory, no sudden ending. If Kyo himself starved to death or was taken down during a fight, Iori might be left alive again and this time as spoils of war. After all, Nanakase had said Kyo himself was expendable. The same hadn't been said for Yagami, and even if he was now, offering him to the soldiers was a perfect way for O.R.O.C.H.I. to assuage their anger and to give them a target to vent their rage on.

If Iori Yagami died a terrible death, what did it matter to O.R.O.C.H.I.? What did it matter to Goenitz, to whom the death of yet another Sacred Treasure just meant one less obstacle in bringing about humanity's demise? With Yagami gone – Kyo before that – the world was lost. This was what Yagami was afraid of.

Was this what he'd been thinking of since the rescue?

Or was he already thinking about this before that?

Kyo's head hurt. Iori stared down at his hands, his shoulders hunched, so all that Kyo saw was a headful of dull red hair. The ration bar lay between them – the source of all this contention – and Iori had outright rejected it. Had gone five days without eating. Was he trying to kill himself? But that wasn't possible. That wasn't Yagami. Yagami would never, had never considered…

But that was Yagami pre-O.R.O.C.H.I. captivity.

Things, obviously, had changed.

If Kagura-san was around, was alive, she'd have settled this better. Would've found a way to…

What was he to do? They had to leave this place soon, but he didn't want to leave without Yagami eating something. Stamina was required for the journey and that required food. If Yagami went without eating, he wouldn't be able to make the trek. Ikuno was at least three days' walk from Nishi – might be longer with Iori's physical condition – and if Yagami passed out, that'd just delay them. With how urgently Yagami wanted them out, he'd thought the other man would've been more cooperative.

So much for his assumptions.

He looked at the ration bar again. Opened the package, saw the broken pieces and began to move them with his finger. Hit upon the idea as he did so. "Yagami."

That got the other to look at him, as it tended to. "What?"

"You take most of it. I'll take the rest."

"Kusanagi, I don't –"

"You want me to have some, right? Won't that work?"

Iori's expression was indecipherable. "But I told you –"

"You're not hurting me by having some. Yagami, it's just food. You need some."

"You need it more."

"How about we go half, then? Would that work?"

An inner struggle played out in the muscles of Iori's face, in the ever-changing shifts in his eyes, and the way how his hands clenched and unclenched, as though the decision was one of life and death. Kyo supposed with how Yagami voiced his concern about Goenitz and the PMCs – always Goenitz and the PMCs – that to him, it was a weighty decision that needed consideration. To Kyo, it was just a ration bar. To Yagami, their entire existence hinged on it.

He couldn't even fathom the mindset that made a relatively easy choice into such a difficult one. As time went on, as he continued talking to Yagami – at least Yagami spoke to him – Kyo realized that besides the physical abuse he'd suffered, Iori also had mental adjustments made while he was captive. There was only one person he knew capable of that and he'd heard such talk while he was in Shinsaibashi.

Goenitz, with his smooth words and manipulation.

Whatever he'd told Yagami had taken hold, had been reinforced by the brutal abuse, and still, Yagami had told him to fuck off. Yagami had remained loyal to the Sacred Treasures – hadn't allowed O.R.O.C.H.I. to bend him to their will.

So, they broke him instead.

Yagami considered himself weak. Kyo considered otherwise.

But how was he to convey this and would Yagami believe him? Was it even worth mentioning?

"Yagami," he said, his tone gentle. "Would that work?"

Something shattered in the other's expression – a giving way behind his eyes – with Iori casting his gaze swiftly down but not before Kyo caught a glimpse of relief mingled with agony. Iori's hands clenched tight into fists. His entire body was rigid. Kyo didn't move and didn't dare say a word. He sat there and watched, almost disbelieving that something had happened. With Yagami looking down, with his hair covering his face, Kyo could only rely on his body language to read him and what he read was that Yagami was fighting for control. He'd been in control of himself since the day after the fever and Kyo knew he wasn't one to crack.

That was what made this unbelievable.

Silence stretched. Kyo saw Iori's knuckles whiten.

Outside, the sky started darkening. The colors of sunset faded – orange, pink, gold, and purple fading into imminent night. It was time they left.

Kyo didn't move. Iori didn't say a word.

Something, though, had changed.

Finally, after what seemed to be several minutes, Iori spoke. His posture was still unbending, tightly controlled but it was what he said that made the difference. It came out low, the syllable ragged as though the other fought back tears; yet, it was recognizable all the same. "Kyo."

Kyo didn't miss a beat, though his brain did a surprised double-take. "Yagami."

Silence fell, as it often did when they spoke.

He let it go on for a few seconds before he continued. "Yagami…are you…?"

The other man shook his head, as if afraid to say anything else.

Kyo knew why. "I was the same way, you know. After NESTS. I wasn't…okay."

A mirthless laugh.

"So…do you want half? I'll take my portion."

Iori only nodded. Kyo looked at him and realized he was on the verge of breaking down. Was trying not to. Without a word, he took his half of the ration bar and pushed the remainder towards the other fighter. "I can leave, if you want."

"Don't."

That barely made it out. It sounded like Iori forced himself to say it.

Kyo stayed. Watched in silence and ate his half while Iori systematically went through the smaller pieces, eating without raising his head. The bloodstains on his shirt were now black and because his head was lowered, Kyo saw the healing gash on his scalp near where the hair parted. It was ugly, the length about half his palm, cutting a straight path towards the top of Yagami's head. He remembered Yagami kept bleeding because of it, the blood running down the side of his face.

"Yagami, did…" He paused, unsure if he should ask. "Your head wound. Did…"

"It was the soldiers, Kyo." Iori sounded tired. "It was always them."

As if to forestall any additional questions. Kyo took that to mean all physical injuries were the soldiers' doing. He already knew the Riot inducement was Goenitz's, him being the head of the Heavenly Kings and all. Yagami's response meant he didn't want any more questions in the same vein. Just because he now addressed him by his given name didn't give him a free-for-all to start firing questions at him, particularly about a certain subject.

Kyo held back. Yagami was opening up. He didn't want to destroy that.

"When you're done…we need to leave."

Seeing this, remembering how he felt when it was just him and Kagura-san in Nishi (also in Nishi just a few days ago), he couldn't help but reminisce. "Yagami…you remember when we first started? When we had our first food shortage?"

"Kagura…she…she had to…"

"Yeah. We didn't have much. You and me…we couldn't agree on who should eat that day. Kagura-san had to step in, get us to split between three of us."

"I remember."

"What we just did…it made me think about that."

"She's…she's not coming back, is she?"

Iori already knew the answer to that question; Kyo knew this went deeper. He hadn't had time to mourn for Chizuru, not between the fever, the physical affliction, and the general mental state he was in post-Shinsaibashi. Kyo had time – had even cried – but Yagami had been denied all that so far. "No. She's not coming back, Yagami. It's been three days. I don't think we'll be seeing her again."

The mirror in his pocket. He didn't know what to do with it.

Across from him, Iori's hands had closed again – Kyo knew his stress levels had risen – and a sound like that of a cornered animal escaped from him. In all the time he knew Iori Yagami, he'd never known the man to cry. And this wasn't crying – it was whimper turning into anguished howling, because Yagami didn't just cry like how everyone else did. They all had their ways of grieving. Yagami's, strange as it was, was just as legitimate as his.

Cautiously, Kyo closed the distance, wrapped his arm around Yagami's shoulders, and supported the other man against him.

Yagami didn't push him away.

Perhaps it wasn't just Kagura-san he was mourning for. There were other reasons why.

Kyo didn't intend to let him mourn alone.

When they left Parque Utsubo, the sky was ink-black. Yagami was quiet – carried nothing besides his MP3 player in his jeans pocket – but Kyo was fine with that. He needed Yagami to be stealthy (the other fighter specialized in that during his stalker days) and with his health uncertain, Kyo didn't want to weigh him down. The larger gun was worthless for firing, so Kyo designated it as a backup club, which he continued to wear on his back. The handgun was on his hip in its usual spot and he pocketed the remaining razor blades. The liquor he had dumped in the pail of water, which he used to clean himself with – he hadn't felt this clean in days – and even Yagami had washed some grime and blood off.

Whatever else was left that they couldn't use, Kyo torched. Better to travel light.

Nishi ward had changed again and not for the better. This realization hit both of them – Kyo remembered the patrols increasing their numbers just a couple days ago – when they noticed how many patrol units were about. It got a visible reaction from Iori, who shrank against the side of the building they hid behind; his hands clenching and unclenching again and again. It was such a strong reaction that Kyo decided to wait until Iori got himself under control.

"Why," the other man said, voice barely a whisper, "are there so many of them?"

"After what we did in Shinsaibashi," Kyo replied, watching Iori carefully as he mentioned Shinsaibashi (registering how dark the other's eyes became, hollows in his face), "they probably got orders to search and destroy. Kill orders, Yagami."

Iori made a small sound.

"Your hands…why are you –"

"I'm…" Pause. "I'm afraid."

"Of the soldiers? I understand that –"

Next to him, Yagami shook his head. "You don't understand. I…"

"What is it, Yagami?"

"I want…if I let myself go…I might not…"

Was he hearing this right? "You want to attack the soldiers?"

"I want to kill them, Kyo. For what their brothers did to me."

It was his turn to remain silent, processing that. He'd thought after all that trauma that Yagami would want to stay away from the PMCs, have nothing to do with them. Yagami had shown that by shrinking against the wall – was certainly afraid of them in that context. Yet, Yagami was also afraid that if he cut loose, went on a murderous rampage that he mightn't be able to stop? The two were contradictory, so how…?

Kyo looked at Iori. Try as he might, full understanding of Yagami was impossible.

"Yagami…"

"I…it's not easy to explain."

"It just seems…counter. You're afraid of them but you have to approach them to –"

"I know."

Kyo left the discussion dangling there and didn't respond. Besides, they had to move. "Follow me. I did the same with Kagura-san when we were here." He didn't mention Shinsaibashi, realizing how the name of the locale alone traumatized Iori. It hadn't been like that before, but Shinsaibashi used to be fun. It was something else now entirely and unfortunately, Yagami experienced the brutality with enough awareness to remember. To come away changed. Kyo didn't want to jog his memory each time, because it was more vivid for him than NESTS was for himself. The only way to do that was to be mindful of what he said.

Not that it helped much with the soldiers here.

He saw Yagami steel himself, nod, and then Kyo was off.

It wasn't Kagura-san following him this time. He kept his distances short, motioned to Yagami with the non-verbal cues they shared during the first year and waited for the other man to catch up. A few times, patrol units crossed between them – Kyo worrying more about Yagami's reaction than anything else – and each time that happened, his former rival stuck more closely to him afterwards, anxiety levels rising. Kyo saw his hands opening and closing constantly. Together with the expression on his face, it made Kyo uneasy.

Iori was on a knife edge, one step away from death and murder.

The death would be his.

The murder would be for the soldiers.

Once again, Kyo wondered if Yagami was suicidal and simply hadn't realized it yet. He hoped not. He needed Yagami. He didn't want to be alone. They needed to stick together, to face O.R.O.C.H.I. together. Losing Kagura-san was bad enough. If he lost Yagami…

He stopped the thought right there.

But it was becoming more and more obvious that this night trek was too much for the other man. There were always more and more soldiers and Kyo was observant enough to see Iori's nerves fraying as time went by. It meant they weren't getting out of Nishi ward tonight. So Kyo changed plans and started looking for shelter. He finally found one – a small ruin of a building missing a roof – and immediately claimed temporary residence. Yagami fell asleep in one of the corners not too long upon entry and Kyo let him. He spent some time scouting outside, checking for blind spots and if anyone could see them within line of sight. Once he confirmed they were safe, he began preparing himself for the evening's watch. Sleep was for later. Someone had to maintain security here. With how exhausted Iori was, Kyo wasn't going to wake him for watch, yet.

That was for later. Tomorrow night, perhaps, if Yagami's mental state was better.

He didn't prepare a fire. The night was mild.

He also didn't feel safe with one. Not here – not with so many soldiers around.

Sometime in the night, Yagami made a sound. Kyo wasn't sure what it was but it reminded him of when he dreamt about NESTS and it meant the nightmares had started. He left his post, checked on the redhead, made sure he was fine, and then returned to his spot, staring out into the endless night.

Before he ended his watch, Kyo pulled the mirror out of his pocket. Held it, the impressions biting deep into his palm and made a decision. He left the building briefly, came back with a length of wire and using the smallest bit of fire, created a circle of steel that fit perfectly within the mirror's pierced hole. This done, he removed the leather thong he wore around his neck and slid the Yata mirror onto it so that it joined the locket with Yuki's picture.

He put the leather thong back around his neck. Felt it settle against his skin.

He left his post by the door, went to where Yagami slept, and lay down beside him. Looked at the sky – no stars, no moon, no light – and wondered what day seven would bring. If they'd be all right, the both of them.

Kyo kept thinking this way until his eyelids grew heavy. Turned onto his side. Fell asleep.

Dreamt of fire and brightness and an end to all this darkness.

Comments: So I'm going to be on hiatus starting from now until perhaps end of second week of April due to work-related reasons (crunch time). As a result, I want to leave off on a strong chapter and a good number, too (25 feels more solid than 24, heh). Once my hiatus is over, I'll pick up with the South Towners next in their current dilemma and continue this crazy yarn of a story. =)

To my readers: Thank you and I'm glad you enjoy it! =D