I would've updated yesterday, only my computer malfunctioned and we had a thunderstorm. I'm lucky I didn't wipe out everything on here. Replies are at the end of the chapter.
Chrono Cross Switcharoo
Chapter Two: Hope Becomes Despair
"Scree?"
Kid slowly opened her eyes to see the Komodo dragon pup above her. She blinked a few times, dismissed the image as a dream, and rolled over to get away from the sunlight. Any minute now, Wazuki would call her to get up and she'd have to face another day of growing boredom. Until school started up again, there would be nothing to do all summer long.
But as she yawned sleepily, she also took in almost a pint of sand. With a muffled shout, she got up on her hands and knees and spat out as much as she could.
"Oh, thank goodness!" someone said from beside her. "For a moment, I was afraid you were a dead body washed ashore."
Kid stood and looked up at the person, clawing the rest of the sand off her tongue. She recognized the woman as one of the elderly residents of Arni. "Are Leena and Adam around here?" she asked, noting that neither of them seemed around.
"Hm." The woman frowned. "I'm not sure about Adam, but I think Leena is in the village at the pier. Why? Are you a friend of theirs?"
Kid gave her a funny look. "Uh...yeah, I'm a friend," she said finally. 'Must be the Alzheimer's.'
"The village is just past Lizard Rock. Take care not to get yourself hurt," the old woman told her.
Kid watched her go, frowning. The Komodo dragon had paused to look at her for a moment, cocking its head to one side in what seemed like confusion. It was then that Kid noticed the shimmering scale on its chest—a scale in the shape of a raindrop. At least it looked like a raindrop—but before Kid could get a closer look, the dragon hurried along after the woman.
She shrugged. She must be dreaming things. Maybe she never did get up that morning...didn't she and the others have a party out here last night? That seemed right. But she didn't remember any alcohol and her head was throbbing for some reason. But then, there could very well have been, knowing Belcha. Maybe Leena and the scales were all just a dream. Which meant, Kid realized with a sigh, that she would have to bear Adam as they went through that whole procedure.
The journey through Lizard Rock was quick and uneventful, if not for the fact that there seemed to be an unusual amount of other creatures about. But when she stepped into Arni Village, something didn't seem quite the same. Maybe it was the different decorations on Belcha's restaurant, or maybe it was that no one seemed to be wearing the same clothing as that morning, or maybe...maybe it was the way the sea twinkled in the sunlight, seeming almost to harbor a secret all its own.
"Hello, stranger, and welcome to our humble village of Arni," Faron said to her at the entrance. Kid waited for him to focus his eyes and recognize her, but he didn't. "Hope you enjoy your stay," he called after her as she walked away, glancing back at him with a confused frown.
She found Adam seconds later, sitting on a nearby bench with another girl in his arms. Her eyes narrowed. "Adam!" she shouted at him. "I thought I warned you about cheating on Leena!"
Adam stared at her. "What—?"
"Who is this?" the girl beside him demanded harshly. "I told you to keep your eyes on me where they belong!"
"No, no, Kani, I don't know who this is—!"
But Kani was shaking her head. "I'll see you at the restaurant tonight, and you'd better have an explanation!"
Adam looked from Kid to Kani and back to Kid as Kani stalked away. "What'd you do that for?" he demanded of Kid, but he couldn't hide the interested once-over he gave her.
"Keep your eyes on my face, Adam," Kid told him sharply. "Leena must hate it when you do this! You told her and that you would stay faithful!"
"What, Leena? Oh, you must be an old friend of hers." Adam blew out of the side of his mouth, waving a hand dismissively. "We broke up years ago. She decided I was too 'untrustworthy,'" he explained in a slightly derisive tone, curling his fingers into quotes on the last word.
Kid raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. If things weren't getting weird around here, I wouldn't believe you, but I'm going to see what Leena has to say first."
"Knock yourself out," Adam told her simply, heading for Belcha's restaurant.
Leena was, of course, on the pier, watching a group of kids who looked strangely different from the ones that had been there that morning. "Leena?" Kid called to her, for some reason believing that Leena wouldn't recognize her. But she shook her head. Adam was just stupid. Of course Leena would recognize her—they were cousins; they'd grown up together.
"Oh, hi there," Leena replied, smiling. Kid breathed a sigh of relief. "Um...do I know you?" Leena added then, frowning and putting her index finger to her chin the way she always did when she was confused.
"Oh no, not you too...!"
"What?"
Kid seized her by the shoulders. "Why don't you remember me? I'm Kid—I'm your cousin! I live right next door!"
"How do you know about Kid?" Leena demanded suddenly, pushing her away.
"What do you mean 'how do I know'? I AM Kid, Leena!"
"I don't know who you are," Leena said darkly, "but you aren't the Kid I knew! She...she..." Leena quickly wiped away a tear and turned a glare on Kid. "The Kid who was my cousin died ten years ago, okay! And she died because of me! So don't you try and tell me any different!"
"She...died...?" Kid said slowly, sinking to the boards of the pier. "...What...what happened to her...?"
"I..." Leena turned away. "We were playing in the ocean, and we...we got pulled into the undertow. When we realized how far away we were, Adam and I managed to get back...but Kid...Kid couldn't get away. Adam got scared and wanted to get the adults...but I thought she could make it if we both tried to pull her back..." Leena blinked again and held her eyes shut tightly. "Kid drowned ten years ago because I didn't want to get the adults...because I thought nothing could go wrong...I thought she couldn't...couldn't die..." Her eyes seemed to come back into focus, and she laughed brokenly. "Why am I telling you this? I'm sorry, I really am. I shouldn't have blown up like that, but...I've lived with that guilt for ten years, and I don't need people like you to show up and try to act like it never happened."
Kid was slowly shaking her head. "I don't understand...one minute we're all at Opassa Beach, the next, I'm...dead...?"
Leena's temper flared a second time. "You really think you're Kid, don't you? What kind of proof do you need? Go look at her house! Her father died, and no one's lived there for seven years! Go look at Cape Howl, where her grave is...!" Leena's voice broke. "Don't you tell anyone in the village that you're Kid. You'll only upset them. We all know she's dead, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"I..." Kid stood, shaking her head more firmly as tears came to her eyes. "I don't believe you!" she shouted, and ran down the pier. No...how could she be dead? She wasn't a ghost—people could see her—and she couldn't be a reincarnation, or she wouldn't remember any of this. But could she have died...could something have gone wrong...?
Her house was empty, caked over with dust. Toys lay around on the floor—the toy duck that had lost its beak when she was three years old, a rattling canister that was so filled with dust it wouldn't work again, and a teddy bear with only one eye. The kitchen table had collapsed—the kitchen table where Kid and Wazuki had shared breakfast just that morning.
"This can't be happening..." Kid murmured softly, collapsing into a chair and watching the dust that sprang up from the movement. "This can't be happening...this can't be happening...this can't be happening..." she whispered to herself over and over, clutching a half-fallen apart fish plushie—her favorite—as she rocked back and forth, hugging her knees to her chest.
The plushie...she had lost it only a few years after she almost drowned. She looked at it for a few moments, remembering the pretty pebble she had placed inside it, remembering every rip and tear in its silvery skin. Her eyes began to fill with tears, and she felt very much like a very lost little girl.
"Dad..." she said softly, resting her face on her knees and letting the plushie fall to the floor. "Daddy...where are you...?"
-
"Hey," came a voice not too far away. Kid lifted her head, blinking a few times. Had she been sleeping? "Wake up," the voice continued. "It's almost evening, and you need to find a place to stay."
Kid groaned, letting her legs down from the chair and massaging her aching back. Sleeping in that position had not helped her. She blinked again, and brushed some dust off her head. "Leena," she recognized the girl in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing," Leena said to her.
Kid stood up, walking around the room as memory and pain slowly returned to her. She had vaguely realized that something was wrong, but as she looked around the house that had been hers, realization hit her hard.
"No!" she shouted suddenly, slamming a fist against the wall. But then she let the fist fall limply, tearing away the dust—erasing it. She paused to consider that for a moment. Her existence, it seemed, had been erased from the world in the form of a young death. It would be so easy...too easy...to make that disappearance complete. Her hand strayed to her dagger's handle for a moment.
"Was Kid a friend of yours?" Leena asked her, but then sighed. "Don't answer that. I know what you're going to say."
Kid didn't answer, still looking at the wall. She laughed suddenly, a small, almost sad laugh. "I remember this," she said slowly, brushing away the dust on a segment of the wall. There were a few crayon marks in larger and larger curved shapes. "You did this."
"What?" Leena frowned, setting her hands on her hips. "I did not!"
"Yes you did," Kid nodded fondly. "We were building rainbows. Remember?"
Leena looked surprised for a moment and then her hands slid to her sides. "Oh yeah!" she said in a hushed voice. "I remember that! You thought we could build rainbows...so I started drawing that one."
"And I..." Kid stifled a giggle.
"You drew rainbows on all of Belcha's best shirts," Leena remembered, "and then tied them to balloons...so that they all floated away!"
The two of them laughed for a minute or two as they recalled how angry Belcha had looked when he found he had only one best shirt left—and one with a messy rainbow all over it.
But when they stopped, Leena suddenly realized something. "I've been acting like you were Kid..." she said sadly. "But...you really seem like her, you know? You even kind of look like her." She frowned, putting her finger to her chin. "Maybe something happened...maybe her spirit got stuck in your body or something."
Kid nodded. It was enough that Leena believed that. She didn't want to push her luck. "I...I still think I want to see that gravestone, just so I know. I don't want to believe this has happened...so maybe if the gravestone isn't there, well..." She looked at Leena. "Maybe that will change something."
It didn't take them long to get to Cape Howl from Arni, and Kid soon found herself climbing up the path that, not too long ago, had not been obstructed by obnoxious briars. "What's taking you so long?" Leena called to her from near the edge.
"I'll be there in a second." Kid paused and tugged on the briar in her ankle. "Ow...ow..." she muttered, and let out a small yelp as the briar came loose. "Coming!" she called up to Leena, taking care to step over the next briar patch. But one still managed to get stuck in her thigh on the way over.
"You kinda have to get used to those," Leena told her as Kid attacked the briar.
"They weren't here this morning," Kid muttered.
Having finished with the briars, the two made their way to the stone at the top of Cape Howl. Kid tried to calm down, realizing how tense she had become. If she was right, the stone would have the inscription that Leena and Adam had written so many years ago. But if she was wrong...well...she didn't want to have to think about that.
She bent by the stone to read, her heart sinking as she saw the formally aligned writing.
'Our beloved Kid
Died age six
No one can take anything from her
Nor can anyone give anything to her
What came from the sea
Has returned to the sea'
Kid let out a small moan and rested her forehead against the stone, her eyes closing against the tears that threatened to flood. Leena knelt beside her, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"So you must be Kid, the ghost of the girl who died ten years ago."
Leena tensed and stood, and Kid soon followed the motion. "Dragoons?" Leena murmured. "What are you doing here?"
"We're here for the ghost," the central dragoon explained.
"Ghost? I don't see any ghost. Do you?" Kid asked Leena easily. Might as well give these impolite dragoons a hard time.
"Don't play games with us, missy," the lilac-haired dragoon told her sharply. "I think you know very well who the ghost is."
The taller one beside him was frowning in confusion, however. "Are you sure this is the one? I mean, it would seem like there are a massively massive number of ghosts out there."
The first dragoon rolled his eyes. "Solt, do I look like I have time to listen to your ramblings? This is where SHE said we'd find the girl, and this one fits the bill."
"But, Sir Karsh, do we have a shakin' idea what she looks like?" the third dragoon asked.
Karsh sighed. "Fine, I'll humor you." He stepped up to look closer at both Kid and Leena. "Which one of you goes by the name Kid?"
"That would be me," Kid told him, narrowing her eyes.
"Good."
In the next second, Karsh had sent Leena toppling over the side.
"Hey!" Kid shouted, having reached out to try to stop him. "What'd you do that for?"
"Your friends don't much interest us, missy," Karsh told her. "Now you have a choice. You can come with us, or we can hurt you and make you come with us."
Kid glared at him in response.
"Fine." Karsh turned to Solt and Peppor. "Seize her!"
"Hold yer seahorses!"
The group of them looked up at the boy who had spoken. He was standing on a ledge not too far away from them, one blade of his sea swallow resting on the ground. One hand was on his hip, his head cocked to one side so that the wind blew his blue hair out of his eyes. His lips curved into a smirk as he sized up the three dragoons.
"I think I'd like ta have a say in this," he said to them in a cold voice, leaping from his place and landing in front of Kid. He casually began to twirl his sea swallow in a place uncomfortably close to Karsh, and the dragoon backed away towards the others. The boy looked over the edge where Leena had fallen and grimaced sympathetically. "Don't look much like you blokes know how ta treat a lady," he remarked.
"Is there a shakin' thing you're gonna do about it?" the third dragoon asked, taking a would-be menacing step forward.
"Shut up, Peppor."
Peppor stepped back in chagrin. "Sorry, Sir Karsh."
"Listen here, junior," Karsh began, his eyes narrowing. "We have orders to bring in the girl, and if you're gonna get involved you just might get hurt."
"By you?" The boy laughed. "Like hell!"
Karsh let out a growl.
The boy stopped laughing. "If ye're gonna act all tough over it, then why don't ya shut yer blowhole and get on with it?"
"You two get the girl! I'll take care of this idiot!" Karsh barked to Solt and Peppor.
"Yes, sir!"
"At once, sir!"
"Just me and you?" The boy smirked. "Then I'm definitely gonna kick yer arse so hard ya kiss the bloody moons!" He paused a moment. "Hmm...that's a good line."
Nearby them, Kid had taken out her dagger and dealt Solt and Peppor a few side wounds, along with warning facial scratches. The two didn't even have time to attack her before both were in immense pain, and so they were reduced to running about for no purpose. Kid, of course, hadn't wanted to kill them. Warn them not to mess with her, maybe, but not kill them. She wasn't too sure if the boy felt the same way, though. When she looked over at him, he and Karsh were weapon to weapon, both straining to keep the other from striking a fatal blow. It soon became apparent, however, that Karsh was stronger than the boy was. But before Karsh could strike that last blow, the other had released the weapon lock and flipped over him, landing a kick to his back.
"Damn," Karsh muttered, glancing at his Element Grid. "Where are those idiots! Solt must have a Heal—!"
"So you'll take care of the idiot, will ya?" the boy asked him, hoisting the sea swallow up on his shoulder in preparation to throw it. Kid realized in that moment what he was going to do.
"Hey, wait a minute!" she called to him, rushing to his side.
"Sorry, Sir Karsh!" Peppor called back to him as Solt ran screaming down the cape, also letting out unhealthy-sounding groans as he ran into the briar patches. "W-we just want to shake it off and live to fight another day!"
"You come back here!" Karsh shouted at him, running after him. But he stopped before he was too far away and turned to glare at the boy. "This isn't over!"
"Ohhh, scary!" the boy called after him. "Ha! Think I'd lose ta scum like you?" He shook his head. "Losers. So ya didn't want me ta kill him?" he asked Kid, turning to her.
"I—no! Why would you? That's too severe," Kid replied.
"Ye're right. It wasn't worth it," the boy decided. "So yer name's Kid, right? I'm Serge. Nice ta meet ya."
"But, um...thanks for helping me," Kid told him, suddenly feeling strangely shy. Maybe it was because he was a good-looking guy...he reminded her of someone else, someone she thought she'd never meet...oh well. It didn't matter.
"Yeah, well, I couldn't just sit back and watch, ya know?" Serge told her, a slight shade of color coming to his cheeks. "They pissed the bloody hell outta me, and they ain't too polite, neither." He took a few steps closer, his eyes wandering. " 'Sides, ye're awful cute, mate."
Kid very casually took out her dagger and inspected it closely, running her finger suggestively along the wicked curve of the blade. Serge got the hint and backed away, eyebrows raised and his hands up in surrender. He was silent for a moment, looking out over the sea.
"Hey, Kid," he said to her, turning back. "What if we teamed up like, ya know? After all, I'm kinda lost out here in these islands, and ye're just the kinda sweet, vulnerable little girl who might need my help with those blokes."
"I think you'll find out I'm a lot less sweet and vulnerable than you might think," Kid retorted.
"The tougher the merrier," Serge said with a shrug. "If we gotta beat up a bunch of people after ya, it'll be easier if ye're not a wuss."
"Well, I just don't know...about joining up, I mean," Kid said to him. "There's something...that bothers me."
"Somethin' 'bout me?" Serge asked her, checking for body odor.
"It's just...I feel like I might hurt you...I don't know why."
Serge allowed himself a laugh. "Sorry, mate," he apologized when Kid shot him a sharp look. "I just don't go down that easy. Friend of mine used ta think I slept with both eyes open, 'cause..." But Serge didn't finish the sentence, staring at something behind Kid. She turned in alarm, thinking there might be some sort of danger, but then she noticed the gravestone.
"Oh, yeah, about that—"
"Ye're...ye're DEAD, mate?" Serge asked her, bending close to the gravestone to get a better look. Kid chose not to reply, not trusting herself to answer. Serge read through the inscription a few times, then stood, looking at her. "Ya don't mind if I—?"
"Hey, ow!" Kid cried out as he gave her arm a quick pinch.
"Ya seem pretty damn alive ta me," Serge decided. "We'll figure this mess out, don't you worry."
"I guess we'd better head back to Arni for the night, then," Kid remarked.
Serge extended an arm towards the bottom of Cape Howl. "You know the way better than I do."
Kid started forward, but stopped, frowning. "For some reason, it feels like we've forgotten something..."
Serge thought for a moment. "Well, there was the bloke that pushed yer friend off the—"
"Leena! That's right!" Kid turned and rushed down towards the water.
A/N: Enter Serge. Oh, yeah—I only plan to have a few characters included, so I can deepen their emotions and problems more. It would be hard to chase after forty different characters...(what was Squaresoft thinking?)
Review Replies:
A Random Person: I'll explain in time. Don't wanna spoil it. It's pretty simple, though—a complete switch.
Starx: (total agreement) I'm hoping it'll go faster than this...hehehe... ;
Thank you for reviewing, but I'll still need one to continue.
