Rebirth of a Holy Dragoon

Disclaimer: I don't own shit except my OCs.

Notes: Hello, Notepad. What happened to formatting?

Warnings: All the same warnings apply.

FIC START!

Chapter Sixty-three

Canti lay in a bed, her entire body strapped into a machine that kept her in something of a stasis. Every hour or so, Minwu would unlock the doors to come in and check on her, see that nothing had changed since he had come the last time, and then he would lock it back up the way it was before. He hated how his dream of becoming a true white mage had become stained with Leviathan's legacy like this. Minwu kept up his appearances the way he always had, as well as look after the Eidolon's pet project. Sick people came and went through the halls of the hospital. Nothing about that ever changed, no matter how long he'd been doing this. Eventually when things settled down, he came to just sit in there next to Canti and let out a sigh. He didn't hate her, but he was tired of having to do things revolving around her. It wasn't her fault that Leviathan wanted to have her around for his purposes. She wasn't the one giving the orders to preserve herself out of some sense of vanity. Leviathan was the headmaster, be all-end all authority within Dagurreo. Minwu didn't have a choice about whether or not to follow the commands issued to him. Though, he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have a life that wasn't completely dictated by political bullshit.

"You like the company of the comatose?" Leviathan asked as he stepped in, holding a small package in his right hand.

"Better than the company of many others," Minwu replied flatly. "Did you finish it?"

"I did indeed!" Leviathan was nothing short of giddy about it. He walked over to the control terminal and flipped a few switches. "Release those locks. I would like to test these."

"Test them? I thought they were constructed to perfectly fit her optic nerves," Minwu grunted.

Leviathan glared at him. "That doesn't mean they'll automatically work."

"And if they don't?"

"I might have to go get more crystal shards."

How could he be so nonchalant about this whole thing? Minwu didn't want to deal with Leviathan any longer than he had to. "You barely managed to make it out with any the first time. I don't see anyone letting you have extras."

"Then this better work. Don't you agree?"

Canti's system began to wake up, one process at a time. Her neurons sparked back and forth on the computer monitor, Her breathing was no longer controlled by the system. She was slipping from being comatose to just simply being asleep. Leviathan looked over at Minwu. "Send the notification," he said. "She'll be a lot easier to deal with if she gets to walk through the waking process with her family."

"Sir," Minwu sat down at the Sphere terminal. "Calling the Highwind Manor."

"I'd like to have a poster framed," Kain said, putting the rolled up poster on the counter in front of him. "It's a gift for my cousin."

"Ahh," the framer said, unraveling it. "Cute. I can have it all custom made for this poster by the end of the week, if that's fine with you."

"Truth is, I wanted to have it done as soon as possible," Kain continued, "my cousin's in the hospital, y'know? I don't know when she's gonna be allowed to come home."

"Is two days fine with you?" the framer asked. "I can put you up to the top of the que..."

Kain reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet and slapped down a few hundred gil. "Is this enough?"

"Perfect!" the framer said, taking the poster and the money. "Yes, yes, I can have this ready tomorrow evening."

"Make it happen," Kain said, turning around, crashing into someone else. "E-excuse me-"

"Thought I saw you coming in here," a familiar voice said. "Young master Highwind."

"YOU!" Kain pulled back immediately. "Y-you should be locked up with that traitorous father of yours!"

"...I wasn't even there when it all went down. You can't seriously blame me for what happened." The one who had bumped into him was none other than the son of Senator Palamecia, Mateus. He pushed up the glasses that were hanging around the tip of his nose. "I am truly sorry for what my family has done to yours. I-I couldn't imagine that my own father was planning something so terrible."

"You have no right to even speak to me," Kain growled. "Your father... he slaughtered mine!"

"I'm aware of this, and I apologize on his behalf."

"Your empty apologies are supposed to mean something to me?!"

"No. Even so, we must co-exist whether you like it or not. We live in the same community and attend the same school," Mateus said as calmly as he could manage. "Your anger is justified, however misguided at the moment."

"All of you are guilty as far as I'm concerned..."

"I understand you hold us this way, but-"

"Let me pass!"

"You will stop and listen to what I have to say," Mateus said sternly. "I will not allow you passage until you at least grant me the chance to speak with you plainly. Whether you take heed of my words, I care not."

Kain took in a deep breath and just nodded without saying anything else. Just to make the guy shut up and get the hell out of his way!

"Your cousin was gravely injured," he continued. "The moment I learned of the severity of it, I decided to do the right thing and pay for every treatment and expendeture out of my family's personal accounts. You may not like that. I don't care. I needed to do it. You may think my family's money is dirty. I don't care. Money is money, and it makes the world move when nothing else will. Considering the state your family is in, you should be a little more thankful."

"Is there anything else?" Kain asked, trying not to just lose every bit of temper he had in him.

"There is plenty else, but clearly you do not wish to hear it."

He was thankful that someone would be willing to take care of whatever costs there were to his cousin's care, but that didn't stop him from hating his classmate with a deep seated passion from the very core of his being. "Say what you have to all ready, then."

"I do not mean to put you off," Mateus spoke plainly, inviting Kain to follow him outside. "The last thing I've wanted was a rift between our families. I have always held your father's work in high regard, and you are just as talented as he. You have been training to become the Grand Dragoon as long as I've known you."

"Get to the point."

"You and I are the heirs of two families that are completely devastated by current events, and I wish to propose a truce between the Highwind and Palamecian houses," he said. "I apologize for all of the heinous acts my father has committed against not just your family but the rest of our country. Leading rebellion against Leviathan is treason. Even more, I adore your cousin. The fact that he hurt her so badly makes me hate him as much as you do, if not even more." Mateus put his hand over his heart. "Knowing that poor girl has been hurt by my own blood, I-"

Kain couldn't help but believe that all of this was mere theatrics. "You just want to be close to Canti and the wind crystal. Please don't give me all this bullshit about feeling sorry for her or my family."

"You wound me!" Mateus exclaimed. "I do mean what I say now! I care about her the way I've always cared about you!"

"You don't care about me... You've always meant to exploit and use me to your own ends!"

"Do you really think someone who wished to exploit and use you would have spent that summer with you the way I did? At one point, you even felt something for me."

"What you did, I-"

"I went too fast with you then, and you've kept me at arm's distance ever since... Would you ever consider-"

Kain slapped him away. "I would never!"

"I want nothing more than to have a positive relationship with both you and your cousin. Kain and Canti... and me. With the powers of both of our families together, we could completely change the way this country works!"

"Forget it!" He started to walk off.

"I can't forget what I had with you, and what I want to have with Canti..."

"If you come withing spitting distance of her..."

"Oh, of course. the knight has to protect his lady..." Mateus shrugged, turning away. "...I'm not surprised."

Kain wanted to disembowl Mateus with every ounce of strength within his body. He watched the son of that bastard wander off before deciding that it was time to head back to the manor. He'd been bothered by enough people all ready, People! Everywhere! They all had nonsense to say! No one had anything to say that he wanted to hear. Best not even bother with people if at all possible.

Canti's eyes opened slowly. Leviathan watched every little movement she made transitioning from that near stupor to being fully awake. She didn't have much of an emotional response to what was going on, but he believed that to be a side effect of the medicine being dripped into her IV. Her eyes looked around everywhere, without any focus or centering on one thing. He touched her forehead just a bit to see if she'd react to him. At first, she didn't. But given a few moments, she realized a hand was against her skin.

"Can you hear me?" Leviathan asked gently.

"Headmaster?"

"Yes."

"I'd been... dreaming," she said. It was odd, not hearing her tone shift around.

"What about?"

"I was enrolled at a big university, sort of... like Garden, but much bigger... and it wasn't just a school, but also a home..." she answered. So sleepy. She spoke like she was mid yawn. "I saw you and many other people I know, but the roles were so different. Kain wasn't my cousin, but he was like my knight instead. And Papa Cid, he wasn't really my father, but I called him that anyway. I guess real life will carry over to dreams in one way or another..."

"How interesting," Leviathan said. "How are your eyes now? Can you see any better?"

"Everything's still really blurry."

"I have something that might fix that," he said. "Are you willing to try it?"

"I need my eyes. So. Yes?" Internally, the eidolon was laughing at her deadpan answer.

He prepared the glasses between his hands and slowly slid them onto her face. "How about this?"

She gasped for a moment, trying to move backward, but being in a hospital bed made that impossible. She looked around through the lenses, being able to see more clearly than she ever had before. "How'd you-"

"These glasses are made specifically for you," Leviathan explained. "They are attuned to your optic nerves. I'm sorry to tell you this, but the injury you sustained at the hands of the senator almost destroyed the part of your brain that deals with your ability to see, so. I had these made for you. You will wear them every day and have your eyes checked every month for the rest of your life. Do you understand?"

"Why would you do this for me, headmaster?"

"I have many reasons, but the most important of them is... I like you. I want to see where your path takes you. You being mostly blind makes that quite difficult."

Canti watched as the headmaster pulled the bandages off her arm so he could pull the IV needle from her arm. It stung. She was very glad that she didn't have to be awake for it to have gone in. That would have been impossible. She liked spears, but needles were just too much for her. "Headmaster?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You are very welcome," he said. "While I won't have you checking out of the hospital just yet, the white mages at the front desk have told me that visitors have been waiting for you in the main office for literal hours. I'll tell them to have your visitors sent in. Turns out they snuck in, looking for a way to see you." He wheeled the IV away to the far side of the room. "They're just as obstinate as you are."

"You mean Crystal and Hikari, don't you?"

"You had other visitors, but they are the ones that wait for you now."

"...that's..."

"Very kind of them, yes. I agree. I'll have them sent in. I know you'd rather talk to your friends than to me."

"You say that like I hate you."

"I don't mean it that way, and I'm very sure you don't, either."