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As always, thanks to all my readers for your kind words of encouragement and support thus far. I know the plot hasn't been the easiest to follow up to this point, but I promise everything will work out in the end.
On with the show!
Chapter XXXVI: Over the Horizon
Riku
The rooftop is freezing.
It's windy and cold, and the torrential rain isn't helping at all.
"I don't see anything..." Yuffie passes me back the binoculars, wiping futilely at her eyes with the back of her hand against the sheeting rain. She stomps he feet and rubs her arms through her rain slicker, trying to keep warm.
I'm half tempted to do the same, but I grit my teeth and force myself to focus on finding the source of the distress call, rather than the utterly miserable conditions outside.
"Keep looking," I tell her, as I take a turn peering through the high-tech ocular device. I'm just about to give up looking and suggest that we move to a different rooftop, when the sound of distant gunfire draws my attention.
I sweep the binoculars toward the noise, just in time to catch Vanitas' face in the backlight from the second muzzle-flash. A thin, languorous drift of smoke curls up into his face and then he disappears from my narrowed field of vision. through the window into the mayor's office. I can't make out very much through the small glass pane—especially not from this far away, but the red spray of gore, the fleeting glimpse of raven hair and the flash of a Keyblade paints a grisly picture; I have to fight not to be sick when Mayor Eraqus' head tumbles from his shoulders.
A pang of grief stabs at me.
Although I haven't known the mayor for very long, he's been more than helpful in aiding our efforts to clean up the Heartless around here—Destiny Islands has just lost one of the few people willing to fight back against the creatures who caused so much carnage two years ago...
"Dammit," I mutter, passing the binoculars back to Yuffie. "We're too late again. They got the mayor."
"Shit," Yuffie grumbles. "Well, what are we sitting around here for? Let's go get them!"
I shake my head. I only have one good arm, and I'm not about to go in there after Vanitas and his new sidekick one-handed. I'm better rested now than I was during our first encounter, but I just don't feel comfortable trying to take on two formidable opponents with one hand tied behind my back.
And, despite her ever-present bravado, I can tell that Yuffie's not exactly at a hundred-percent either.
"We can't. Not in the shape we're in—it's too risky."
Yuffie's all-but pouting at this point, but she nods. "You're right...Hold on," she says, passing me the binoculars. "Do you see that?"
I look through the lenses again.
Shit.
There's a little girl wandering up the steps into City Hall, hunched against the rain; she pauses to recoil at the sight of the corpse on the mezzanine.
"Riku..." Yuffie's tone has lost any hint of petulance, and her dark eyes bore into mine. "Riku we have to do something! That little girl is going to die if we don't." her breath steams in the frigid air between us.
I sigh and stand up, rubbing my hands together to try and get the blood flowing again. "I know,"
As foolish as it is to try and go after Vanitas in our current state, I can't have that child's blood on my hands.
"Let's go."
***DMS***
Itami
"Nice job, Itami," Vanitas comments, stuffing the last of the bodies into the mayor's expansive closet. "I really wish you hadn't made such a mess though..." he gestures to the ruined interior.
"Hey," I place my hands on my hips, staring him down. "It's not all my fault. They're the one's who decided to shoot the place up with their fucking submachine guns." I jerk my thumb toward the closet's now-closed door. My stomach churns with guilt as my eyes skip over the closet door—blood is already seeping through the crack at the bottom.
Vanitas just chuckles and kisses me. "You know, you're kind of sexy when you're assertive, you know that?"
I kiss him back, pressing more firmly against him when my guilt gives way to other emotions. "Damn straight."
The sound of gunfire is deafening, and I my hair ripples with the near-miss of a bullet.
Operating purely on instinct, I throw myself into a roll, hand flashing out to unleash a compact-but-deadly fireball.
My aim is off; the magical projectile catches him in the shoulder, and he spins away, slapping frantically at the burning fabric on his arm.
It doesn't take him nearly as long to put out the flames as I would like, and he surges into the room with a surprising amount of speed, though his attempt to club me across the face with his heavy flashlight fails miserably.
He overextends, leaving a perfect opening for me to drive my knee into his chest.
The guard stumbles back under the blow, tossing aside his flashlight in favor of his gun.
"No! Stop!" A young, determined voice rings out over the sound of the guard's ragged panting, and then Xion hurtles into the room, plowing into the guard.
I stare for a moment, disbelieving.
How...
The two of them are wrestling for control of the gun—the guard has his size and strength to his advantage and he manages to pin her—but only for a second.
Xion drives her knee up into the man's groin with enough force to stagger him; his anguished groan is clearly audible.
The guard wheezes and topples off of her, rolling onto his back like an overturned turtle.
Xion wastes no time with her follow-up, straddling him and pressing the blade of a small knife to his throat.
I admire her tenacity—Vanitas has obviously showed her a thing or two about combat—her blue eyes are blazing and fierce, but her inexperience hinders her, makes her hesitate, and that's all the opening the man needs.
He scrambles for the flashlight, just inches from his outstretched hand. His grip closes around it, and Xion blocks his first blow with her arm; her face contorts in a grimace, and I find myself praying that she isn't seriously injured.
She isn't quite fast enough to dodge the second blow, and the blunt end of the flashlight drives into her chest.
Xion's face crumples in a rictus of pain and she lets out a choked squeal before toppling back, gasping for air. The sound of her labored gasping is awful, I can hear the rattle of air struggling to pass through her windpipe from here; maybe if she's lucky, her ribs are just bruised, and not broken from the blow.
I lunge forward, driving into the man with my shoulder, suddenly thankful for the armor plating on my shoulders.
The impact is tremendous, the sound like a freight train; both of us go sprawling to the ground.
A dizzying blow catches me in the side of the head; white stars explode in front of me, and I can taste blood in my mouth.
I barely manage to bring my Keyblade up to parry the next blow, and then Vanitas is there, heaving the guard off of me and into the wall.
In this instant, time thickens.
The impact is a dull thump; the guard slumps, stunned.
Xion wheezes and clambers to her knees, watching the spectacle unfold with horrified fascination.
One look at Xion's horrified expression is all it takes for me to step in, because I can tell by the look on her face that she isn't ready for this.
"Don't!" I shout, but it's too late—Vanitas is already moving, and I don't have time to cover Xion's eyes before Vanitas runs the man through, pinning him to the wall like a butterfly in a collection. The sound is positively hideous, like an orange being crushed inside a paper bag.
Xion lets out a terrified yelp at the sound, curling into me, trembling.
At that moment, she looks so much younger than her fourteen years, and it hits me then: despite her tough exterior, despite her coarse language and her bottomless bravado, she's still just a kid.
I pull her close and rock her gently, stroking her hair. "Shh, shh. It's okay. You're safe."
Xion just whimpers and clings to me.
Vanitas jerks his Keyblade out of the corpse and lets the body fall to the floor. He drags a weary hand across his face and then inches closer to us. "Shit." he murmurs. "I'm sorry you had to see that, kiddo."
Xion looks up at him, and the anguish in her eyes is almost tangible. "Y-you...you...you killed him." she accuses in a small voice.
"I only did it to protect you—what are you doing here anyway? You're supposed to be at home with Aqua."
"I...I didn't want to be left behind again...I think I'm going to throw up." Xion answers miserably.
To his credit, Vanitas is quick to grab the waste basket from under the mayor's desk and hold it out to Xion.
Xion retches into the wastecan, her small body trembling with the force of her heaves.
I move to hold her hair back, but it's too short for that to be necessary, so I just settle for rubbing her back gently until she's finished. I really feel bad for her—I was in the same position twenty minutes ago, and it was one of the most unpleasant things I've every had to experience in my life—and I've been in more than my fair share of shitty situations...
Xion wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and curls into my chest, looking up at me—although after a moment, I realize that she isn't really looking at me, her eyes are just aimed in my direction.
Xion's eyes are glazed and unfocused, and although my medical expertise is limited to the basic stuff, I know enough to recognize the symptoms of shock.
"Sweetheart, can you hear me?" I stroke her cheek, feeling more than a little useless.
Xion just whimpers.
"It's okay, baby girl, you're safe." I stroke her cheek again, hoping to calm her, hoping to make any sort of progress bringing her out of her catatonic state.
After a few moments, Vanitas comes to kneel beside us. "Why did you follow us? I told you to stay put." he says, his voice gentle but firm.
"I was scared." Xion says quietly, her voice hollow and empty.
"Scared of what, sweetie?" I coax, giving Vanitas a look over her head. Now isn't the time. You can have your inquisition later.
Xion's trembling now, and I'm angry and terrified at the same time; I don't like the fact that anything could scare her this badly, could drive her to follow us into what is clearly a life-threatening situation...But for what?
"I...I'm afraid that...you're going to die. I love you both so much and I don't want to be alone." she admits, almost like she ashamed of having said it.
"Oh, baby. Nothing's going to happen to us." I soothe, realizing as I try to comfort her that I've begun rocking her gently, like my mom used to do for me when I was little.
"How do you know?" Xion counters.
I lean down to kiss her forehead. "I just do. You've had a pretty rough day, kiddo. What do you say we go home and get you cleaned up."
Xion clenches the front of my jacket with a desperate, primal strength. "No," her voice quivers, and worry curdles in my guts. "Don't leave my by myself." her voice is so young and fragile; I can't say no to her.
Not now.
Not like this.
I can tell by the set of Vanitas' jaw that he isn't happy about this whole affair, but there will be plenty of time to discipline her later.
Right now, Xion just needs to feel safe, and loved.
"I won't baby girl, I won't." I turn to Vanitas. "Will you be okay here?"
He nods. "I've got it covered. I'll call you if anything comes up." he leans forwards to peck me on the lips, and then he reaches down to ruffle Xion's hair.
"Be good," he admonishes.
I turn for the door, and no sooner have I taken a step toward the door, than Riku and Yuffie appear in the doorway.
Just what I needed.
I set Xion down and push her gently behind me. "Don't worry, love. I'll protect you."
I step forward to meet them, Keyblade at the ready.
***DMS***
Riku
We're too late.
That's my first thought.
After traversing an eerily empty hallway, Yuffie and I arrive at the entrance to what I assume was once the mayor's office; judging by the bloodstains on, well, everything .
Vanitas' sidekick is holding the little girl we'd spotted earlier, and, from what I can see, the poor kid looks pretty shaken up.
The young woman sighs, and there's something distantly familiar about the sound, almost like I've heard it before...
"I really don't have time for this." she says. "I'd really prefer not to have to kill you, so if you could just get out of the way, that'd be great." her tone is exasperated, and she casts an almost-worried glance at the kid over her shoulder.
"I can't do that." I tell her; no way am I letting her out of here, least of all with an innocent kid in tow.
"You will do it, whether by your own volition or by force, although I'd prefer the former; this poor little girl's been through enough today. I really don't want to fight in front of her again." the young woman admits.
"Why don't you just come quietly then, save us all the trouble?" Yuffie jumps in then, and I'm grateful for her attempt to defuse the situation.
"Don't be ridiculous," the young woman scoffs. "You have no real power here; you Wielders are nothing but a bunch a vigilantes. Why don't you put your toys away and leave the peacekeeping to the people who can handle it." The girl's response is acerbic, and I can literally feel Yuffie bristling beside me.
I put out a hand as she steps forward—as much as I hate to admit it, there's not a whole lot we can do in this situation, especially not if we want to avoid hurting the kid...
"What do you suggest?" I ask her. This feels wrong, bargaining with her.
"You're going to step aside and let me walk out of here." she cocks her head sideways, she knows she has the upper hand here.
"The fuck we are!" Yuffie steps forward, eyes blazing, teeth bared in an angry snarl.
The girl rolls her shoulders and sighs, readying her wickedly curved Keyblade. "If you insist."
Everything happens at once:
The girl surges forward, blade angling for Yuffie's midsection.
Yuffie nimbly evades the blow, and then slam's our assailant's head into the wall.
The impact resonates through the hallway, a heavy, painful-sounding thud.
"Kairi!" The little girl is staring at the spectacle, hands clapped over her mouth. She looks absolutely terrified.
The name shifts my focus from the fight to her and my attempt to capitalize on the opening ia met with a swift, sharp elbow to the face. The impact is a blast of white fire, and there's a burst of in my mouth.
Kairi steps back, settling into a fighting stance, and even though I hate it, even though it kills me to notice the subtle nuances in her fighting style that define her, even though the burning amber color of her eyes is nothing like their original indigo shade, I recognize her.
She's changed, that much is clear.
The way she carries herself now is smooth, and confident and commanding, nothing like her quiet, submissive behavior at the start of her training as a Wielder.
Her movements are fast and sure and just as deadly as Vanitas' if not more dangerous because she's fought us all before, and she knows our go-to moves.
And then I realize:
This is really happening.
My worst fears have come to life at this moment—because now that I know it's her, now that I know what she's capable of, I realize that there's little chance of her seeing the light and changing her ways.
And then I think of Sora, lying broken and defeated in his hospital bed.
Can you do it? My conscience stabs at me.
Can you be the one to end her, to take her life and then bring the news to Sora that his beloved has been taken from him by none other than his best friend?
No.
I can't.
I won't.
I know it's foolish and naïve to entertain any sort of notion that she'll come back to the light, but I also realize that I can't be the one to kill her.
I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
I barely recover in time to parry a series of lighting-fast slashes from the Kairi's Keyblade, our blades sparking and clanging as she drives me back the corridor.
I throw myself into a roll to avoid a cut at my neck, driving my own elbow into her calf.
Kairi snarls something and stumbles forward—right into Yuffie's spinning heel kick.
The blow connects with a solid thump, driving the girl back to the ground.
Yuffie doesn't give her a chance to recover, her foot stomping toward Kairi's throat.
Kairi reacts impossibly fast, dodging and countering by drawing the edge of her Keyblade across Yuffie's thigh, but the wound is only superficial, too shallow to do any real damage.
Yuffie attempts to retaliate with her oversized shuriken, but misses. She growls and stumbles forward, right into Kairi's fist, but the blow doesn't seem to faze her—she's already arcing into a back-handspring, the toe of her boot catching Kairi solidly on the underside of the chin.
Kairi staggers back a few steps, but before she can counter, Vanitas is there, hammering away at Yuffie's defenses with a furious onslaught of blows.
Yuffie's battle prowess doesn't fail her here, she knocks Vanitas back with a heavy kick, capitalizing on the opening by driving a small knife into his hip.
Vanitas falls to a knee, and Yuffie catches him under the chin with her own knee.
I can hear his teeth snap together on impact as he flops onto his back, but I don't have time to celebrate Yuffie's victory, because Kairi's returned to the fray now, slamming the pommel of her Keyblade into Yuffie's back.
I leap after her, blade angled to cleave her open from shoulder to hip across her spine—the knowledge, the reality, the cold, hard truth of the matter: I'm really about to do this to her settles like a ball of lead in my guts, and I feel sick.
The memory of Sora lying broken and battered in the lobby of that burning hotel, left for dead and abandoned by the person who was supposed to care about him the most—that's what gives me the strength to carry through.
At this point, I'd almost be glad to land the blow, if only to repay her for the pain and suffering she's caused to all of us since her defection.
But her weapon flashes between us and knocks mine away. I slip her elbow strike with my good arm, slipping around her defense to drive my other fist into the healing stab wound on her left shoulder. The impact sends a flare of pain up my arm and into my shoulder as my broken arm jostles, like a thousand molten knives, but it's worth it.
Kairi screams and her left arm drops limply to her side. "Bastard," she growls, wiping blood from her split lip with the back of her hand. "You think you can stop me?"
I shrug. "I'm not sure. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try...You could always come quietly though, avoid all this unnecessary bloodshed."
Kairi just stares at me, a maelstrom of rage pulsing in her eyes. "Fuck you."
A small part of my brain, the part that still hangs on to the shred of hope that she'll come to her senses, wants to come back with You wish, but I know she won't laugh or smile—she's become a completely different person now. I clamp town on my emotions before they can oberwhelm me, and I settle into a fighting stance.
"If you insist," I lunge after her again, feinting low, attacking high.
Kairi nimbly evades the strike, pushing me back with a powerful overhand chop; pain from the impact-shock lances up my arm and into my shoulder and neck like lightning. My fingers are numb, my grip slackening, and I wonder just how long I can keep this up...
Her eyes burn with murderous anger, and I can tell she's in her element now, hammering away at my defenses with a series of heavy blows.
As powerful as she is, she's also arrogant and predictable.
I meet her next blow with the pommel of my weapon, and although I can feel the vibrations all the way up into my teeth, it's worth it, because she loses her grip on her Keyblade.
"Neat trick," Kairi quips, pulling a long knife from a sheathe inside her boot. "Too bad it won't save you."
"We'll see about that."
Yuffie lunges at Kairi's exposed back, I can tell by the flash in her eyes that she's been expecting this all along.
" Yuffie don't!" My warning is too late, but Yuffie seems to have been counting on Kairi's surprise attack.
Yuffie flips over Kairi's head, driving her heel into Kairi's gut in a brutal back-kick.
Kairi wheezes as the breath explodes out of her, retaliating with a vicious counter-cut that is obviously meant to take Yuffie's head from her shoulders.
Yuffie grits her teeth against the force required to parry the blow, and then sends Kairir reeling with a savage backhand the splits both of Kairi's lips.
Kairi takes the blow in stride, whirling in a slash that almost opens me up from hip to hip, I just barely have time to throw myself out of the way.
However she doesn't have time to block another kick from Yuffie—this one catches her squarely in the face as she completes her rotation and she topples backwards, unconscious.
I don't even have time to celebrate Yuffie's victory—the faintest whisper of movement from behind me is the only thing to warn me that Vanitas' isn't out of the fight yet.
I whirl, just in time to knock his blade away as he attempts to run me through.
It's immediately clear that he's more experienced than Kairi. His attacks are powerful and precise, where Kairi just tried to beat down my defenses with brute force.
Vanitas' first salvo of blows has me on my heels, blade wheeling and flashing as I struggle to keep up with him.
I respond in kind when he falters, landing a few shallow cuts along his ribs, but nothing serious enough to end the fight.
Even though it's difficult to keep up with him, it's not impossible, I can see Yuffie positioning herself behind him.
I turn aside his next swing and cut him open across the chest, and he staggers back into Yuffie's chokehold, as blood begins to seep through his shirt. Vanitas struggles, but he's out matched—he lasts maybe a minute before slumping into unconsciousness.
With both of them out of commission, my gaze immediately returns to the little girl in the doorway.
Yuffie and I approach her cautiously—she's no doubt wary of us after witnessing the confrontation we just had, and there's no telling what kind of tricks she might have up her sleeve.
"You're not going to hurt me, are you?"
I kneel down in front of her, taking her gently by the shoulders, to show her that she can trust me.
"No, of course not."
Yuffie gently nudges me out of the way and pulls the smaller girl into a hug. "Don't worry," she says, scooping up the child. "You're safe."
Kairi begins to stir, and I don't even pause to consider the consequences of taking the kid with us—time is a luxury I don't have at the moment, so I make an executive decision:
Anywhere's better than here; we can work out the details later.
And then, despite the fact that the sensible side of me is screaming that this is a mistake, I'm taking Yuffie's hand, and she's holding he kid and then we're pelting back through the corridors, toward freedom and daylight.
Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Criticism? Review!
See you next chapter!
~Script