The World Of Destiny Island
A/N: Kingdom Hearts is the property of Square-Enix blah, blah blah...
One Way Or Another is by and copyright Blondie, from their album Live By Request.
One Way Or Another
"Again. You're not putting the emphasis on the right word," he said. "The wrong emphasis can throw off everything!"
"Why can't I just buy a flame thrower?" Her brains seemed to be trying to knock a hole through her skull, and her stomach wouldn't stop lurching, even when she ran out of things to throw up. I'll never drink again, she swore.
"Magically induced fire is more versatile and powerful," he answered in his scholarly voice. "A weapon can be lost or out of reach, but magic is always at the tips of our fingers."
"Whom would I want to burn to death?" she asked.
"Lots of people! But we're not going to dwell on that right now."
"But I want to know!" she growled. "Why should I learn how to hurt people?"
"Don't take that tone with me!" he hissed, his tail whipped from side to side like a cat's when it's agitated. "Your sentiments are admirable, but predators– enemies, if you will– are a natural part of life. You must learn to defend yourself. I know you're having a difficult time, but nothing worth doing is going to be easy, young lady, nothing!"
Kairi didn't have anything to say to that, it wasn't as if she could say that he was wrong. She mumbled an apology and some excuse about her hangover.
"Let's take a break," Frega sighed. "I'm hungry. Would you like to hunt some rabbit with me?"
"Do I get to cook it before I eat it?" she asked warily. Amazingly, in spite of her nausea, something within her rose up and demanded fresh, raw meat and blood… mmm, bone marrow… She stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"Seems like a waste of time," he said. "But if you can start a fire– and you know how I mean– I wouldn't stop you."
"Figures."
He trotted into the woods on all fours and noiselessly disappeared into the undergrowth.
"Well, there's always roots and berries," she said, although they weren't nearly as appealing as warm, uncooked fat… "Blech! What am I thinking?" Poking around in the area turned up only a handful of edible berries, but she did snag a nice juicy caterpillar that she enjoyed to her utter horror.
And why couldn't she get a flame thrower? What was the point of all this, and why did he– her kidnapper– want to teach her how to defend herself? What happened to his endless quest to kill her father?
She pondered this while she attempted to wash the taste of caterpillar out of her mouth. Kairi tipped the entire contents of the thermos down her throat, letting a few trickles escape down her chin.
At that moment the ambient noise in the forest died.
It was so sudden that she almost choked on the last mouthful. Worse than the silence, there was someone behind her.
Just a couple of heavy steps, as though this person wanted to alert her to his presence. She turned around and screamed when she saw Garm. He was dressed in forest green, his long, dark hair was tied back and he held his falchion loosely in his hand. The nightmare smiled.
Kairi fell backwards, she slammed into the ground so hard her teeth clicked. She frantically ripped the hat away from her head and looked again.
No one was standing there. My imagination must've formed the image from the scenery, she thought. I'm spooking myself, and it's all because of those dreams.
The worst one was about the giant from the sea. It was the sort of dream that doesn't sound at all scary when you think about during your waking hours; but recalling the images at night gave her the shivers.
I'm standing on the beach, middle of the day, it's bright. No one is around and I see that giant hand reach up out of the sea. It's far away from the island, but I watch the pale body rise out of the sea. It's so far away I can't see any features, but that's okay, I don't want to. I can already tell that its thin arms are much too long.
Stop thinking about it! she commanded herself. Of course, this provoked her imagination into creating all kinds of possible features for that nightmare.
Once I dreamt about a creature in a giant egg. I could see it through the membranous, leathery shell, all kinds of faces pressed against the shell...
"Be rational!" she hit her leg. "What would Dad say?"
Whatever trick her eyes played on her, there was no mistaking the lack of birdcalls in the area.
Okay, too creepy, she thought, I'm outta here.
Wait. I'm no coward, and besides, what would Master say?
Kairi! A new voice within her spoke up. This is your survival instinct calling! Do not listen to reason! I repeat: Do not listen to reason!
This should be good, reason sniffed.
Leave the area! Run! Run to the furthest place away from here! Dumping adrenaline cache into the system... Now...
Good heavens! Is that the best your vaunted "natural instinct" can do? What if Master is merely playing a trick on us? How stupid would we look if we ran screaming through the woods then?
While she was of two minds about this situation, her eyes picked out the pattern of shadows on the forest floor. The slightly darker bars of shadow over the leaves stretched towards the west since the hour was somewhere around mid-morning. She watched the shadows lose their distinction from the rest of the gloom– it was all gloom, the light was leaving– and in her head this information got put together with the missing animal calls to produce a flashing 'Danger' sign
She slowly backed away.
"Where is Master?" she asked herself in a shaky voice. "I'll bet he's fallen into a bear trap or something. I'd better track him down and help him out then..." She picked up their packs and shuffled off in the direction she thought she saw him go.
Frega hadn't tried to hide his trail and there were many telltale marks for her to follow. She walked out of the dark area, and noticed that even the air felt different. Survival instinct and reason called a truce. She focused her attention on looking for the signs of her master.
The sense that something was following her persisted. The only thing that kept her from screaming and dashing off into the woods was the idea that it was too far behind her to know for sure if she was its target.
Once she distinctly heard something heavy fall in the distance behind her. She squeezed the Bucky Ball in her pocket.
Don't look back. Don't look back. If you see it, it sees you. Don't look back.
Frega had made a kill beneath a sapling in a cluster of thick, flowering bushes. Bits of brown bunny fur lay around the area, a few were strewn along the natural path that led around it. Yuck, what a messy eater! She trotted along the path, more sure of herself as she went along.
Don't look back. Don't look back.
The trail led her to a cave with a low ceiling. She nearly passed it, the entrance was so small that the few scrubby bushes around it hid it from view. Perhaps it would provide them with a hiding place.
"Master Frega?" Kairi chanced a call into the gloom. "Footprints," she murmured as she traveled deep into the cave. There was a respite from the... Gloom? What was following her, anyway? And why didn't they tell you there were things like this in the world? The respite didn't last, the familiar presence intruded again, smothering her senses to all else.
Please. Don't let me die alone, a tiny part of her whimpered.
"Sure is cozy in here," Kairi said cheerfully. The gloom didn't register the echo of her voice. She had the feeling it was still creeping along, nose to the ground, figuratively. This realization made her feel a little better, and the pressure around her heart eased a bit.
It was deaf, whatever it was. Maybe it was blind too, but it could smell, which was sometimes a better sense than the other two. She wondered what it could look like, which turned out to be a mistake. A flash of nightmare flitted through her mind and she sensed the thing freeze. A wheezy sigh echoed through the cave and the sound made her blood run cold.
Find Master! she thought as the taste of metal filled her mouth. She put her eyes to the floor and followed the prints studiously. The hissing didn't stop, it was just one long expulsion of air and it came closer.
It can't end like this, she thought in a surprisingly calm manner. It'll kill my parents. And my friends... hello, what's this?
The tracks ended at a circular area drawn in the dust.
"A dead end," she said, and she laughed mirthlessly. The hissing gloom would soon enter this very chamber, she'd certainly see it. Any minute now. Maybe this is what happened to Master?
A loud click surprised her, she squeaked and then screamed when the ground gave way beneath her.
"Well, pardon me for saying so, Miss Sus, but that was in pretty poor taste for a joke," Myrna said, she smirked. "But I've seen worse. The look on Bari-bear's face was precious!" She laughed; laughed so hard that she snorted. When she and Nerd-boy got together and did that he called it the Geek Chorus.
"Yeah," Sus agreed happily since she wasn't going to get into trouble, "He was pretty funny looking." Sus got this strange look on her face, he thought she might be having a seizure.
"That's it exactly!" Myrna shrieked. Goliath looked up at the laughing women from his perch on the kitchen table and started to laugh too.
"What are you laughing at? You don't even know what's going on," Baralai snapped at the little dragon. Goliath scurried into Myrna's dress pocket and peeked out at him with a wary eye. "It wasn't that funny!" he growled at the women.
Myrna sidled up to him.
"I think she likes you," she whispered. "Isn't that great?"
Sus put them up in her attic space, a good place to hide if the soldiers checked in (and with Sus, they often did.) Myrna didn't complain, but he knew it would be hard on her back so he let her have all the extra blankets, even if she didn't deserve them.
The next morning they had a complicated breakfast. Myrna showed off her cooking skills and Sus' full pantry (provided by numerous hopeful soldiers,) enabled her to really shine. Sus brought in the newspaper and checked the local section for the disturbance at the customs office. She didn't bother with the front page anymore, she explained, because Renard told her they stopped reporting real world events months ago to keep the city population under control.
"Who's Renard?" Baralai asked. A new boyfriend would explain Sus' willingness to try and make peace with him.
"Renard is the leader of the Underground Mysidia Movement," she stage whispered.
"Sus," he sighed, "Joking like that could get you thrown in jail."
"Are we in there?" Myrna looked over Sus' shoulder.
"Here. Says the City Guard is looking for two weirdoes who caused a disturbance at the Station and managed to break past the customs officials. '...one albino man and a tall drag queen with a lizard.'"
"I beg your pardon?" the Mayor's jaw clenched.
"It's not like they got a good look at you, and from behind, you do look a little 'mannish'," Baralai said with a cheeky grin. Myrna glared at him. "Erm, this is fortunate, that description of me fits half the men in this city and since you don't really look like a man you're safe as well."
"Should get their friggin' eyes checked…," Myrna muttered.
"Yep, who'd look twice at a couple of women," he said.
"Gee, Baralai, disguises are always a good idea, but I don't think you'd make a very convincing woman," Sus said.
"I think he's saying that he's going to ditch us," Myrna said.
"What? But why?"
"Look you two, my Order's in trouble. It's my duty to lend a hand."
"What? Oh, don't do that!" Sus pouted. "I could have Renard ask around, he has tons of spies."
"What possible use– I mean, what...," Myrna sputtered. "I commend your loyalty, but what about me?"
"You two keep each other safe, stay indoors," he got up before they could work themselves up to a good argument against the risky venture. "I'm counting on you Sus."
"Don't patronize me," Sus said in an uncharacteristic show of antagonism. "U.M.M. can help you."
"Ha-ha, Sus," he said mirthlessly, and shut the door behind him.
They were going to have to take Sus with them when they left the city. If she was hanging around with people who fancied themselves guerilla warriors she could get hurt, and by the end of the day he became convinced if she kept playing resistance spy she'd be killed.
The city was in far worse condition than he initially guessed. The City Guard's numbers were supplemented with soldiers from a foreign army; he hadn't met anyone who knew what country they were from either, as though the identity of the Governor's allies were a grave secret. But the worst part was the mercenaries. Mercenaries! Every City Guard Patrol (up from two real guardsmen to twelve soldiers) had a mercenary in the ranks.
Baralai wondered if the Order had spoken out about this drastic change– they had to have, and maybe that was the reason the Governor had them jailed. Strange, how thorough the Governor had been; by the end of the day the Praetor's search turned up nothing but rumors of arrests and secret executions.
He walked the streets with his head down. The wind picked up, but he didn't mind it, he could smell the clean scent of the early winter storm in the air. It pushed away that dreadful stench of ash and burnt something. He asked a street vendor about it while he purchased a cup of coffee. The woman just smiled wide and pushed her cart away.
"It's good," she said in a fake happy voice. "Everything the Governor does is good!" He looked up at the heavy clouds and frowned.
The Praetor stalked around a corner and nearly ran over a figure in black.
Shadow, he almost forgot that nuisance. He was about to chew Shadow out when he realized that he wasn't facing Shadow at all. The figure ran into a dark alcove and Baralai followed.
"You got my message?" the figure asked in such a low, raspy voice that he was hard to understand.
"What?"
"The book! You found the book?" A match was struck and the figure lit a cigarette and took a slow drag.
Baralai drew his gun.
"What do you want?"
"Easy, guy!" the figure rasped.
"And stop talking like that! It's too hard to understand."
The figure cleared its throat.
"How's this?" he asked in a clearer, and familiar voice.
"Do I know you?"
"Not really in the sense that we've ever met before" the figure said. "You could say I'm your guardian angel."
Now, Baralai had met a number of angels. The Temple register listed hundreds of gods, both living and dead, and they all had their angels. No one really had a clear idea of how they meshed together, but Baralai was inclined to think that they pass around mortal names the way telemarketers pass around phone numbers because he'd been visited by no less then six angels in the past two decades. Three had warned him to change his ways before the next Labor Day; two had tried to give him a makeover, help him impress the cool kids, and get a hot date for the school dance (and since he was in his thirties and married at the time, it had been awkward!); and one tried to kill him. Not one of these pests looked like a, well, an informant from a bad movie.
"Look here, what's your game? Are you with the Order?"
"We don't have a lot of time! I'm here to warn you! It's about the…" the so-called angel mumbled and blew out a cloud of smoke, intent on finishing the cigarette in a hurry.
"The what? This is ridiculous– goodbye."
"The Mayor is in danger," the angel grabbed the back of his jacket, part of the jacket lining ripped. The angel muttered an embarrassed apology.
"Happens all the time," Baralai said darkly. "The Mayor is in danger, from what, specifically?"
"I work for some bad people. They sent me to give you this invitation to Lord Vargas' palace, but I'm throwing in this warning for free."
"Oh, that's nice."
"Lord Vargas has been waiting to meet the Mayor, he needs her to convince her husband to do something."
"Zephram Unne is–"
"Shut up! They'll try to seem like nice guys." The angel drew another long drag and blew the smoke up into the air. "But they'll try to get rid of you, not in any illegal way of course, they don't want to scare her away. You see?"
"Who are you?"
"I told you, your guardian angel," the angel said and threw the spent cigarette to the ground, "I gotta go. Be careful, and don't let her out of your sight!" The angel gave him an envelope with gold embossing and then up the wall the figure climbed, until he disappeared nimbly over the edge of the roof.
Captain's Log
Stardate: ... I don't know!
I'm having serious doubts that we'll be able to rescue Kairi at this point. I can't help but feel that this entire venture is doomed. Our chief engineer has locked himself in the engine room and won't talk to anyone, our two passengers won't stop screaming at each other, we're running out of fuel again, the acting Captain is my sneaky kid brother, I'm recovering from nearly having my organs carved from my still-living body (yikes!), and our medical personnel are a seven year-old girl and her dog. (Although, I have my doubts about his being a dog at all. This could be the drugs talking.) I wonder how the pilot is doing?
Little happened over the next week of their flight. Days passed as near as Wakka could tell without sunrises or sunsets. Stitch turned out to be an adept doctor and Wakka felt almost normal in no time, aside from the itch.
Meanwhile Chappu declared himself acting Captain, which Wakka didn't mind letting him do but he really wished Chappu hadn't found it necessary to celebrate his temporary promotion by leading a conga line through the ship. Wakka got even by super-gluing Chappu's hand to his head while he slept.
Stitch and Lilo spent most of their time redecorating the living area, Locke was stuck with Mog in the engine room most of the time because he couldn't stand Sus, and Sus declared herself "morale officer" and made thousands of cookies with the E-Z Bake oven the DIzzy Company gave them.
This fairly quiet period (compared to what happened later) ended when they coasted into the Jupiter Spacestation's dock. The station orbited around a large gas giant a gemlike green color with a double ring, and they all stopped to stare out the dome over the dock.
"It's beautiful," Sus breathed.
"I'd rather see a boring old sunrise at this point," Wakka said, "yeah, it's somethin' all right."
"I wish I had my camera," Lilo said.
"There might be one in the gift shop," Chappu said. "Which leads us to our next lesson: blackmail."
"What?" Wakka whipped around.
"What?" Chappu asked innocently.
"What did you just say? What are you teaching her?"
"I was just kidding around, gawd!" he waved his arms around. "Just because some girls tried to hollow you out you lost your sense of humor? You act like I'm always up to something or something…"
"You are always up to something!" he put his hand on Lilo's head. "She's just an innocent little girl, I don't want you teaching her how to be a thug! Understand? I've got my eye on you," he warned Chappu and turned on his crew "On all of you."
"Hey, why are you looking at me?" Zidane asked.
"Sure, okay," Locke said.
"You should relax," Sus tossed her head. "You'll irritate your dental injury."
"You're right," Wakka said, touching the tender spot on his back where Mindy had driven the water pik. "I just don't want Lilo to be badly influenced; I don't want to send her home to her family as a thief, ya?"
"I think you should know, since thieves bother you so much," Locke said nastily, "Sus is thief!"
"I'm a bargain hunter!"
"Of the five-finger-discount kind!"
"Locke's the thief!" Sus screamed.
"Treasure hunter!"
"What's wrong with thieves?" Zidane said in a hurt voice.
"I think the only ones who aren't thieves," Mog interrupted before the arguing could escalate. "Are you, me, Lilo and maybe Stitch."
"I will not stand for this indictment on my character, sirs!" Chappu objected, rather unconvincingly at that. Wakka tiredly scratched his head, not knowing what to make of this bizarre development. "I'm more of an idea man," Chappu admitted. "A planning guy, a lieutenant, if you will..."
"So we're like a... gang?" Lilo said.
Chappu broke into a bright smile, "Not exactly. We're..." he gasped and clasped his hands, an expression of pure bliss came over his features, "We're space pirates!"
"We are?" Sus put her hand over her pretty mouth.
"Cool!" Lilo cried. "Yarrrr!"
"Space pirates! Yeah!" Everyone cheered… except for Wakka.
"Pirates? Dad'll kill us," he said to Chappu as the rest of the crew danced around in a circle singing It's A Pirate's Life For Me.
"We have to get new clothes," Sus said.
"And a new paint job for the ship," Zidane added.
"I'll go put some on order," Mog said.
"What's the big frickin' deal?" Wakka asked them. "You wanna be criminals?"
"Think about it, Captain," Zidane slapped him on the back, "We're free men following the winds of fortune; we make our own rules, and then we break our own rules. And everyone knows that pirates get all the chicks!"
Wakka thought about the crusty, filthy, obnoxious pirates back home. Captain Peekay's constant crooning about how he's just a lonely guy, Captain Bikke's creepy habit of skulking in alleys and peeping into bedroom windows...
"According to whom?"
"And pirate ladies get to wear the prettiest clothes," Sus bubbled. "Gems! Gold! Fiscal security!"
"You're all just being... silly," Wakka said. "Chappu, you've seen real pirates! You tell 'em."
"We are gonna be so bad-ass!" Chappu said.
"And another thing," Wakka argued, "We've already got a mission: we're going back to Earth! And we already have a full crew. Sus, don't you have a family to get back to? Locke, don't you have some revolutionary missions to do?"
"What's the problem, Captain," Zidane asked. "Don't you like pirates? I heard your mom was one."
They could practically hear the universe come to a screeching halt.
"What did you say about my mother?" Wakka growled at Zidane, little flames dancing in his eyes. Chappu drew his little pocket knife and got a really nasty look on his face. Everyone backed away.
"Well, Lilo, it appears our associates are freaking out," Mog whispered, "Shall we head to the food court and get some snacks while they kill each other?" The three backed very slowly away from the scene.
"Take me with you," Sus said, but as she hurried past Wakka she gave him a knowing smile and a wink. A shiver ran from the top of his head to the tips of his toes and his anger disappeared. He turned to watch her walk away.
"Uh," Zidane wasn't sure what to do now that he'd been forgotten.
"I told you," Locke said after she was gone. "Succubus."
"You're listening to BRY-FM, playing yesterday's hits for the young-yet-old at heart! And we've finally come the dedications and requests section of our progam…" the radio station boomed over the ambient noise of the food court.
Wakka looked around for Lilo, Stitch, and Mog. He needed to let them know that everything was all right and to apologize for scaring them. How could he lose his cool like that? As the adult (almost) in charge, he had to keep it together.
Must be losing my marbles, he thought. But some very unusual things have happened to me, so I guess you can't blame me for freaking out.
"And today we've got a very strange request from a Captain– and this is underlined three times in red, folks– Seifer Almasy." The annoying deejay went on, but Wakka ignored the radio as he looked for Mog, Stitch and Lilo. For some reason his attention turned back to the soporific voice on the radio near the end of the dedication letter.
"Casey, could you play One Way or Another by Blondie for this young man? His name is Wakka."
"Hey! That's me!" Wakka stopped. "Must be a... It has to be a coincidence."
"I want him and his little brother, Chappu, to know that their days are numbered! Seifer– I'm sorry, Captain Almasy, we'll certainly play your song. Here's One Way or Another by Blondie."
Wakka's jaw hit the floor.
"Did you hear that?" Chappu's voice startled Wakka out of his silent freak-out session. "Somebody wants us dead!"
"What'd we ever do to him? Did you hear the rest of the dedication?" Wakka asked.
"I didn't pay attention 'til I heard my name," Chappu shrugged. "Stupid radio station. How could they entertain that maniac like this? I'll sue!"
Wakka scanned the crowd again. He better warn the crew.
"Oh my god!" Sus scurried up to him, "You poor thing! What's this Captain Almasy look like? I'll teach him a thing or two about harassment!"
"Did you really kill somebody?" Lilo gave him a considering look.
"Who said anything about murder? We never heard of this guy!" Chappu said.
"Why would someone you've never heard of want revenge on you?" she wondered aloud.
"You killed someone?" Zidane joined them. "You?"
"No!" Chappu defended his brother. "What makes you guys think that?"
Wakka got the feeling that someone was watching them.
"The Captain doesn't even give off, you know, murderer vibes," Sus said reasonably, "The guy who wrote that letter is clearly unbalanced."
"Crazy," Lilo agreed.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Wakka scratched his head, it was a nervous gesture.
"Wakka's a little odd, but no way would he kill someone," Chappu explained.
"Odd, how?" Zidane asked.
"Well, he likes to count things, patrolling the town, silly rituals… you know, harmless crazy."
"Not crazy," Wakka mumbled.
"Aww," Sus cooed and patted Wakka's head tenderly. "Who hasn't got problems? We're all friends here, we'll help you watch out for this nut."
"Captain?" Lilo patted Wakka's cheek. "He's in shock!"
"Poor guy," Sus said. "Say! I know just what'll make him forget about his problems for a while!"
To Be Continued