The World Of Destiny Island
A/N: Kingdom Hearts is the property of Square-Enix blah, blah blah...
Kissing A Fool is by and copyright George Michael, from his Faith album. I honestly thought it was some kind of standard– like Mack the Knife or something. shrug
Michael Bublé does a pretty good cover.
Kissing A Fool
"Where am I?" Baralai asked.
"Portico City Memorial Hospital," the doctor told him.
Baralai opened his eyes. He sat up in the bed and realized that he was wearing a hospital gown.
"Where are my clothes?"
Myrna walked into the room carrying a paper bag. Baralai modestly pulled the sheets up to his neck.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm a little confused," he looked around the hospital room.
"Yeah, no wonder! But we fixed you," the Doctor said. "I have to go, Myrna."
"Thank you so much for everything, Greg," Myrna took the doctor's hand. The doctor got much closer than decency allowed.
"And if you ever change your mind…" Doctor Greg said in a husky voice.
"Oh stop!" Myrna playfully slapped his hand away. They both laughed and the doctor left the room.
"Myrna– what the hell?" Baralai said.
"It's a long story," she said, her smile vanished and she dumped the contents of her paper bag all over the bed.
His uniform had seen better days.
"Sweetheart, you're blushing!" she said ruefully. "Don't worry about anything except getting better, okay? Do you remember anything at all?"
An impression of colors and smells faded in and out in his memory. He shook his head.
"Doctor Greg gave you a clean bill of health," Myrna continued. "I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself." She grimaced and put a hand on her lower back. "Me, I could use a new back."
There was a low squeak, and the baby dragon poked his head out of the pile of clothes on the bed and flicked his tongue at the Praetor.
Baralai startled.
"Aww," Myrna picked up the dragon and cuddled it. "Were you playing dress up? Hmm? Were you?" she cooed. The little dragon squeaked and butted his head against her chin affectionately.
"I thought you thought reptiles were disgusting," Baralai warily regarded the little creature.
"Don't be silly, he's sweet. We agreed to a truce during your episode, didn't we?" The dragon nodded.
"Kiii," it squeaked.
"He has something for you," she set him on the bed. The dragon dove into the pile of clothes and came up with a card in its mouth. It shyly presented it to Baralai.
"'I'm sorry I bit you, let's be friends,'" Baralai read the card. There was a picture of those wind-up teeth with feet on the front. He couldn't believe that there was card printed for this kind of thing.
"Such a good child. He can be our baby," she scratched the dragon's belly.
"Kiii!" the little dragon squeaked happily.
"Don't confuse him," Baralai objected, "He has to go back to his own kind. We have to leave him at the Dragoon's temple."
"Shh! You're scaring him. Don't worry, nobody's going to leave you anywhere." She hugged the dragon to her chest and made kissing noises.
"I'll get dressed," Baralai sighed, deciding to drop the subject. The first order of business would be to get away from that leering Doctor Greg.
"Good, we can head to our room at the inn, just in time for dinner. You've been out of it for three days, you know"
"Three days? Really?"
"Before you even ask: Fujin had to leave without us– but that's okay," she said quickly. She took a bit of accordioned paper out of her pocket. "We're taking the train. Much faster. We'll leave tomorrow and get to Zanarkand before she does!"
He looked at her smug smile and at his wrinkled clothes and then at the tiny dragon arranging his shirt into a nest.
"Hurry up and get dressed," she waggled her finger at him. "I've got a surprise for you at the inn."
She picked up the dragon and left the room.
He put his feet on the cold floor and took a shaky step. Other than his ravening hunger he felt pretty good, and he was even relieved that Myrna had gone ahead and arranged the rest of the trip by train.
I should've given her more credit, he thought. Sometimes she could be practical.
They left the hospital together, with the dragon tucked safely in the folds of Myrna's blouse.
Portico City stood on an islet of rock that curled out from the main continent of Gibraltar. The ancient stone city enjoyed warm weather all year round, with a peculiar rise in humidity during the autumn and spring months. Children played in the opulent fountains that decorated the open public areas. Baralai carried his surcoat over one arm, he couldn't have worn it anyway, someone had pulled on the decorative strip of cloth on the back and ripped it off again.
"Confetti?" Baralai asked as he kicked through another pile of the stuff. Confetti and ribbons lay everywhere. A memory of loud music and color flickered through his head, followed by an image that made his gut clench– a wash of red liquid. "Strawberry Daiquiri," he said and his stomach lurched.
What did she do to me? He wondered, the Mayor's face was the picture of harmless innocence.
"Carnival. It ended last night," she said.
She led him through the City to the business section, a place of sedate shops and sober-faced merchants who swept the detritus from their storefronts. They walked all the way to a sturdy two-story building– a mid-priced inn called the Hotel Horchata.
"What should we name our new baby?" Myrna said, catching him off guard.
"Huh? What?"
"I've got it narrowed down to two choices that I like, but he doesn't like them, does he?" she said to her chest. The innkeeper looked at them strangely.
"He probably already has a name," Baralai pointed out. "The Temple might have a record of his parents in its files."
"Just a temporary one, then," she said. "I can't keep calling him "the dragon." What do you think? Does he look like a "Cuthbert" to you?"
"Kii?" the dragon peeked out of the neck of her blouse and gave him a look that said: Please don't let this woman name me Hubert, or Cuthbert, or Algonquin, or any kind of name like that. My name is something like Strago, or Smaug, or even Bruce– yeah, Bruce is nice...
And then he realized he was speaking out loud to himself.
"Ahem," he straightened his shirt nervously. "I like Goliath," Baralai said.
"What kind of name is that?"
"It's mystical. It's the name of a famous giant," he said to the dragon.
"Kii!" the dragon, Goliath, puffed out his chest and tried to spread his wings to make himself look bigger.
"That's it," Myrna said with a triumphant smile, "You named him, now you have to keep him."
She opened the door to their room and he noted that someone was singing in the shower, a man judging by the voice.
"This is the cut scene that never endssss…Yes it goes on and on my friends.
Somebody started playing it not knowing what it was,
And now we have to stay up late, simply just because…"
"Wrong room?" he asked.
"No, that's our new companion."
"You've been alone for three days with some stranger?"
"I didn't have much choice," she said. "The pirates got out of control when they saw all that gold and all Fujin could do for us was drop us off at the harbor. They didn't even want to stick around to get their rowboat back– lousy pirates. I was on my own. I had to 'negotiate' with some dock workers to get some help getting you up on the docks and then I lost track of you. Whew! I don't think I took one breath during all of that, I must've been saving it up."
He nodded guiltily, if he had been more careful she wouldn't have had to go through any of this.
"I was all alone, and you were off gods knew where. I went to the nearest seedy pub for information, and that's where I met him, sitting in a corner, glowering at everyone and looking mysterious. I thought: young guy, looks dangerous, smoldering intensity, dark clothes– he must be one of them rangers!
That settled it– a ranger, my kind of people! I knew he was the one to help us."
"That doesn't sound so bad," Baralai said. Rangers were very honorable people.
"I approached him with the usual offer and he accepted."
"What's the usual offer?"
"Don't look at me like that! You think I hang over every man I meet whenever I need something? The only way that grabby Doctor would even admit you the day I found you–"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he apologized quickly.
"You should be! When I say "the usual offer" I mean the usual offer: three meals a day, an equal share in profits, support in his endeavors– as long as they aren't opposed to our aims or morals. And he's been nothing but professional!"
"I don't think we'll need any help, I'm fine now. I'll be more careful."
"Don't take this so personally," she said, "You can't pull the burden of this trip entirely on yourself."
"You should've consulted me," he said.
The shower shut off.
"It's me," Myrna called through the bathroom door. "He's a little jumpy," she explained. "Oh," she looked guilty, "and there's one other thing."
Before she could explain, a rangy-looking man plodded out the bathroom wearing only the inn's threadbare towel and a mask.
A mask, Baralai smirked. Who wears a mask in the shower? Funny, this guy didn't look like a ranger, more like a... oh no!
The sullen look on the stranger's face (as much as he could see of it) put Baralai in mind of a grouchy old woman who used to sweep at the Temple of St. Kain in Mysidia who used to try and shake him down for his lunch money when he was a novice.
"Baralai, this is Shadow," Myrna introduced him.
"Shadow?"
What the hell kinda name is that?
"Hello, Shadow," Baralai said. Shadow only nodded impatiently.
"Mayor, have you fixed my pants yet?" Shadow asked.
"Of course." She handed him a pair of black trousers that were hanging from the back of the chair. He inspected some spot on them, Baralai couldn't see what he was looking at in all that black. Shadow fixed him with his eerie stare.
"I'll never forget this," he said with all seriousness.
Well, hello to you too, you prick! Baralai thought. He kept his usual composure and said nothing.
"Ah ha ha," Myrna laughed, embarrassed for the man's lack of basic manners, "You led us both on a long chase through the city. It wasn't easy on any of us." She took his surcoat and examined the back. "I can fix this and wash your clothes tonight." She sighed. "We only just found the rest of your uniform this morning. You traded it away to some girls in exchange for some beads, oh, and these." She pulled a pair of rose-colored glasses from her bag.
He took the glasses.
"I ran around the city in my underwear?" he said faintly.
"No, of course not. You picked up a– ahem, lovely pair of shorts somewhere. Bright yellow. Really pulled the look together. I've never seen you so happy– I have pictures."
"How much?" he asked.
"We'll talk about that later," she smiled wickedly.
Shadow retreated back into the bathroom without another word. Goliath growled.
"I can't believe you hired a ninja," Baralai hissed.
"Give him a chance," Myrna said. "He's been a lot of help. If you can't trust a ninja, whom can you trust?"
Baralai's mouth worked while his brain tried to wrap itself around the stupidity of this statement.
"You can't be serious!" he said loudly, not caring if Shadow heard him or not.
"Kii," Goliath squeaked. The little dragon agreed with him.
"Okay, so he's not the friendliest person, but at least he's quiet, I can appreciate that," Myrna said.
"Myrna," Baralai said in his most authoritative voice. "He's got to go."
Myrna smiled.
"We'll see."
Kairi carefully tied off the last knot to the necklace she made for Edward.
He wasn't a bad guy. A coward, to be sure, but what was so bad about that? Most creatures' survival depends upon their superior fleeing abilities– there's nothing smart about fighting when you're clearly outmatched. In any case, he had a few qualities that made up for it.
For one thing, he knew lots of incriminating stories about Dad.
"Puh-lease! He was smoking at twelve, and I can tell you, it wasn't all tobacco, if you know what I mean." He flipped through the stacks of magazines Frega had given him, looking for another quiz to fill out or a perfume sample to open. "Yeah, he started up around the time we–"
"Eddie," Frega interrupted.
Ah, but that was the downside to their little slumber party in Frega's office, Frega himself. They looked up at the little elf who sat on his desk in the middle of a giant paperwork castle.
"What?" Edward said nervously.
"Please behave."
"Oh, all right," Edward wrinkled his nose and turned back to Kairi. "What do you think of this cologne?" He held the sampler from the magazine out for her to smell. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.
Frega stalked around his office. Reports from the rest of the station continued to arrive via the interoffice tube in the corner.
A riotous party made decks ten through fourteen unapproachable. Hundreds of employees were hiding from the KillBots on deck eight and they were worried about running out of food, some were preemptively exploring cannibalism. The theater company was being forced to perform The Pirates of Penzance over and over again and the Star-Lighter Lounge, the instation restaurant, was being held hostage by a couple of beer-swilling Kill-Bots and their android accomplices.
"Fry?" Edward said.
"What?" he stopped and sighed heavily. "What, Eddie?" he said in a calmer voice.
"You're too tense."
"Eddie, I've got a lot to deal with right now."
"But Fry–"
"Don't worry, Eddie. I have everything under control. Okay?" Frega smiled, though his right eyelid kept twitching.
Something large slammed against the office door, Kairi and Edward yelped.
"Don't worry about them," Frega sighed. "I reinforced my office with magical walls– finest to be had." A bloodcurdling scream erupted from the hallway.
"Aren't you going to help your employees?" Kairi asked as she and Edward held each other for comfort.
"Nope," Frega said. "Screw 'em."
"So when can we go home?" Edward said and he turned back to his magazines.
"Not now, Eddie," Frega sighed. "Just keep out of my way, both of you." He climbed onto his desk and arranged his reports.
Every now and then a new noise would frighten them (Kairi and Edward, Frega tuned out everything fairly well) but for the most part Edward managed to keep her busy with the magazine quizzes.
"How did you ever get to be friends with my Dad?" Kairi asked Frega after a long afternoon.
"Fate," Frega said without looking up.
"Fry was a lot more fun," Edward explained, "Back in the day."
"Hey! My Mom says that all the time!"
"Myrna? She married Zeph, right?"
"Showing exceptionally poor judgement," Frega muttered. "As usual."
"What's your problem with my Dad?" Kairi demanded. "He's a wonderful man."
"Wonderful?" Frega snorted.
"He's good... and, and kind..."
"Good and kind?" Frega chuckled. "Good and kind, indeed. I'd heard he'd given up his dreams and grown bitter and that he hides from the world, living as a fugitive in some squatters town on an island in the middle of nowhere. The great genius, Unne, spends his days hiding in his little office translating ancient texts for less gifted archeologists and linguists, while making a little money on the side by practicing medicine without a license! 'Oh! It's hopeless, life sure isn't fair! Boo hoo! I think I'll hide out on this backwater island for the rest of my life!'"
"Shut up!" Kairi stood up, and balled up her fists.
"What a waste! Did you know that he was going to travel the world and provide medical treatment to poor people in foreign countries– some humanitarian group or other. Well, did you?"
She shook her head.
"Ask why he changed his mind, next time you see him," Frega growled.
"Don't listen to a word he says," Edward tried to console her. He shot Frega an evil look. "Someone is overcompensating."
"Sure, Eddie."
"I've started a song that explains it all,"Edward said and picked up his harp.
"No! That's okay, you don't have to–" Kairi and Frega said at once.
Edward launched into an energetic riff of, of something, that could only be described as so god-awful it would literally make your eyes bleed. Perhaps it was the attempt to play a hard rock melody on a harp, or maybe Edward was still trying to get his coordination back after his twenty year coma.
"Eddie! Stop, I don't want to hear this today," Frega interrupted.
"Oh no! I think– Oh no! I'm bleeding– from my eyes!" Kairi said, wiping the little trickle of blood away.
"It's a work in progress," Edward looked wounded. "Sorry."
"No, I'm sorry," Kairi apologized since she didn't find anymore blood leaking out of her eyes. Creepy, she thought. "I don't know anything about music anyway, and I'm sure the finished product will be..."
"Genius," Frega supplied.
"Yes. I'm sorry."
Edward shrugged nonchalantly and grabbed an issue of TeenieMag magazine from the endtable by his head.
"Oooh, now here's a quiz we haven't done! Can I borrow another pen, Fry?" Frega ground his teeth and rolled his eyes, but he quietly handed Edward a pen. "Let's see… Perfect! "Are You A Good Friend?" We can do this quiz for Fry and Zeph!" Edward patted the space on the couch next to him and she sat down.
"Let's not and say we did," Frega snapped.
"Okay, I'll answer for Fry, and you can answer for your dad," Edward said.
"I'm remembering why I put you in guest quarters," Frega said, his ears flattened against his head.
Another capsule shot into the inbox on his desk. As usual, Frega opened it and looked at it, but instead of throwing the report onto the desk he frowned and silently read through it again. He swore prettily in elvish and leaped off the desk.
"You two stay out of trouble while I'm gone," he said over his shoulder. He slammed the door behind him. Kairi was on her feet and headed for the door the instant it closed.
"Locked," she kicked the door. She didn't expect anything else, but wouldn't it have been wild if he forgot to lock it?
"Hey," Edward was already into Frega's cabinets. He held up a large bottle of white wine. "I bet this stuff is really killer, you want some?"
"I'm too young to drink." Edward grinned mischivieously.
"According to whom?" he uncorked the bottle and took a swig.
"Edward, we have to get out of here. Frega's gonna do something to my Dad– if he finds him. And something is going to happen to Destiny Island. I have to put a stop to this!"
"You could kill Fry," Edward suggested, taking another drink.
"Be serious, Edward," Kairi said.
"Really, what would you do if you did escape?" Edward asked. "Do you think anybody'd really believe the old "Aliens want to terra form our planet" story? Believe me, they'll lock you in a crazy house– I remember when I had my shot."
"You escaped?" Kairi looked askance at the scattered man.
"Sure. Anyway, my advice to you: stick close to your enemy. Wait until he finds his prey, and then make your move. It beats wandering around with no clue where to look."
Kairi kept picking at the lock and the hinges, but this action was secondary in her mind.
Terra form? she was thinking. I thought they were building a launchpad. Why would terra forming be necessary on an inhabited planet anyway? Does Edward even know what that word means?
"Come on Kairi," Edward prompted. "As your godfather, I give my permission. Drink with me! We can go to the Star-Lighter Lounge."
"Sure Edward, as soon as we get the door open," Kairi said.
"Oh, pshaw!" Edward said. He marched up to the door. "We just have to rearrange time a little, put things in the right perspective..." he muttered and shut his eyes in concentration.
Poor guy, she thought. She wondered what he was like before he lost his mind.
To her astonishment, he turned the knob of the door and the door swung open.
"Huh. I guess it wasn't really locked," Edward said as he stepped through the door.
The Star-Lighter Lounge. The restaurant was a musty-smelling curiosity, it had an aura of lived in comfort, like a place that was once hip and new and now people held golden anniversary parties there. Behold the lime green carpet! Behold the orange-brown starbursts and formica surfaces!
Kairi looked around the empty– empty save for one man at the bar– restaurant in bewilderment. The restaurant couldn't even be on the same floor as Frega's office. The silence made her footsteps in the thick carpet seem loud.
"How?" she asked Edward. "Magic?"
"How, what?" he asked her, and he looked around in surprise. He wandered off to the stage and inspected the piano.
"Problem sleeping?" Frega slurred. He drank directly from a bottle of Pinot Grigio and waved to her from the bar. "Come sit down," he ordered. "Bout time you showed up."
"Oh-kay," she said quietly.
She slowly made her way to the bar, not taking her eyes from him in case he suddenly turned violent. She had seen enough drunk pirates on the island to know better than to let her guard down. She sat down just out of arm's reach.
"Waitaminute. You're too… too young for all this booze!" he said. He knocked the empty bottles off the bar, they crashed into the bartender's area.
"Uhh, looks like you're having a bad time, I'll come back later!" Kairi backed away from the bar. He got up and blocked her exit.
"Don't go! Please? I'm so lonely," he whined. Kairi didn't make a move one way or the other, nor did she point out that she couldn't get away from him anyway (or could she?) He lowered his head and sniffed. She thought he was going to cry, but he surprised her by singing softly.
He looked so endearing– his drooping ears and his soft, sad little elf voice. She took a chance and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"I didn't used to be a bad guy," he said. "It's not fair!"
"Well if you don't want to be a bad guy," Kairi reasoned, "Then don't."
"Here, have a drink," he trotted to the bar and clumsily pulled a wine glass from the rack above the bar.
"My parents won't let me drink alcohol," she said taking the glass.
"That's their job," he said. "But you're about the right age for a little taste." He took another sip directly from the bottle. She tried the wine and couldn't help pulling a face. "It's an acquired taste," he said, "Now start acquiring! My treat!"
"Thanks." She put the glass down.
"I'd like to make a toast! C'mon, pick up your glass," he urged her. She did so reluctantly. "To Science!" he said and took another drink. Kairi did the same and pulled another face.
"Okay. Now we toast to… progress!" he said.
Another drink. Another face.
The evening passed in this manner, and for Kairi the world ceased to make sense. Her captor was now her bestest singing buddy, her problems were the furthest thing from her mind, and she was learning the layout of the bathroom quite intimately. Very little of what passed would stay with her, but she narrowed down her memories to three things: First, Edward was a very talented pianist; Second, Frega knew way too many country songs; and Third, she could drink a lot of wine."… Dun dunn dunn dunnnn dun dun dunn!" Kairi and Frega hung onto each other and sang very badly while Edward played at the piano.
"You screwed up the words!" Frega howled.
"No, yew shcrewed up the words!" Kairi laughed back.
Edward sighed unhappily.
"Let's toast again!" Kairi shouted. She crawled onto the piano and held her glass out to be refilled. Frega took out his sixth bottle of Pinot Grigio (a new record!) and filled it.
"To… magic!" she stood up, drained her glass in one go and held it out for more. Edward sighed again– loudly.
"To heroes!" Frega cried.
"To talking barnyard animals!"
"To the Light Warriors!" Frega said.
Edward slammed down on the keys, producing a deafening minor chord.
"And this… next…" Kairi went on, obliviously, or she tried to. The room spun too badly for her to keep her balance. She rolled out onto the piano and blacked out.
Kairi had another dream.
"Once upon a time…"
"Mayor?" Kairi's dream voice sounded small and immature.
"What? You already have a problem with the way I'm reading it?" Mom said, not unkindly.
Her vision cleared, but barely. She sat in her mother's lap with the large storybook in her hands. The illustrations were too faint in the bright light to see, and it seemed as if someone was erasing them (a strange thing to think, she couldn't see anyone doing this, but this is what she thought.)
"Go on, please?" Little Kairi asked. She was eight, and she was recovering from a terrible case of influenza. Everybody got influenza when they moved to Destiny. The Mayor (she didn't call her Mom then) had been so nice, she took care of her and read to her all the time.
"That's not what it says," she complained.
"Are you sure?"
Kairi had trouble reading the odd words but she could puzzle out the meaning if she stared at the characters long enough. The way the meanings just filtered out of the alien text fascinated her.
"Then what does it say?"
"The world lies shrouded in darkness... winds die... the seas rage... the earth decays. But the people believe–"
She heard the front door open. Mom shut the book quickly…
… and unsheathed the knife at her waist, her favorite, the Silver Dagger. She lunged at the man in the dark robe, upward, under his defenses and into his stomach.
The man looked down as she ripped the blade from his flesh.
"I've had worse," he said with a faint smile.
Kairi recognized him. Garm.
What was he doing? Why was Mom attacking him?
They weren't in a place she recognized. They stood in a damp alley full of refuse. She could see a fire escape ladder hanging from one of the buildings– too old and rusty to be safe to use.
Mom savagely stabbed the man again and again. Kairi had never seen anything so graphic before, especially for a dream.
Moving at an impressive speed, the man grabbed Mom's knife hand.
"Enough," he said. "Go home. I only want–" he didn't finish. There was a blur of movement over his head and then his entire body turned into a thick, red substance.
Blood, Kairi thought. The stuff splattered everywhere as the mass that was his body fell to the ground. Mom backed away, repulsed. The stuff stained the front of her dress to a dark purple and her shoes were black with it.
"Thank you," she said, and she looked above her. A man swathed in black holding a shining sword nodded. He jumped to the ground and wandered out of Kairi's field of vision. "How is he?" Mom asked.
"He's alive," the man said. "Just a scratch." Mom didn't take her eyes off the dead mage. The raw flesh already slipped from the bones, showing stark white ribs and clean joints, as though the flesh had been boiled from them. She looked down at her clothes.
"I have to find a laundromat," she said.
"Pardon?" the man said.
"He can't know about this," Mom said to the man. "His annoying factor is about a five right now? Well it'll go up to a twelve, I can guarantee that! I'll have to break it to him later...
She looked up at the man.
"Until I say so, this never happened. Right?"
"As you wish," the man said with a shrug.
To Be Continued