The Magic of the Earth and the Sky
by Flare Haynekie
Disclaimer: …………
Warnings: AU, OOC-ness, shonen-ai
Author's note: Sob, sob. The war. Sob. The fic's ending! So little left…. I feel so sad about it. (huggles fic) Sob.
And I just noticed I'm an idiot. Trying to keep up with my plot bunnies not dying while I hadn't updated, I wrote this scene in a notebook where Sora explains that they had different names in their past lives. But, the chapter that I typed instead was far off from what I had originally written, in fact, there are a lot of things that were left out in the "cutting room" kinda thing. It was mostly things I would write during class and such. But anyway, I realized my mistake, so here's a short list on who's who. Present names first, then past.
Sora – Sorae ---------------------- Wakka – Watari
Riku – Rikue ----------------------- Tidus – Tasuke
Yuffie – Yun ----------------------- Sion – Shion
Leon – Squall ----------------------Irvine – Irving
Cloud – Claudius (Cloud) ---------- Roxas – Roxaius
Selphie – Selai --------------------- Axel – Lae
Sorry again! Now on with the chapter!
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Chapter 33: Passion – after the
battle –
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"The earth kingdom's king has just declared war on the heaven kingdom, and King Shion's not backing down!" Selai announced.
"WHAT!" both princes asked horrified.
They looked at each other worriedly. Selai looked around.
"Selai? Selai, where are you?" someone called.
Selai ran off to meet up with Irving, pouncing on him in tears. Wolf, the small wolf cub, whined at her. Behind him, Tasuke, Watari, Squall, Cloud, Yun, even Roxaius and Lae. They all came up to Sorae and Rikue, Roxaius hugging his younger brother.
"We're at war, Sorae." Roxaius said, patting the spiky brown locks. "And you're the crown prince. You should be at the castle in case something happens."
Sorae pushed him away and ran off to Rikue's arms, the earth prince smiling at the act.
"I don't want to." Sorae childishly replied.
A red flare shone in the sky, everyone looking up. Roxaius gave Rikue a nod and took hold of Lae's hand.
"Right. Of course." Roxaius simply said, softly smiling at Lae who stood by his side. "Lae and I will go off then. At least we should see if father needs us." And with that they walked away.
Irving held Selai in his arms, protecting her and patting her as she slept. "I will go see if there's a good shelter of some sort until this is over. I'm taking Selai with me." He declared, walking away as well, Tasuke and Watari running off after him.
"I'll go check if I can convince the king to calm down a bit." Yun stated.
"I'll go with you." Squall announced. As much as he didn't get along with his sister, he wasn't about to just let her go alone. It was dangerous right now. They ran off.
Cloud sighed. "Well, I guess I'll go see dad." He approached them, patting Sorae's back. "You two should hide somewhere. Other than that, good luck. See you later." And he ran off.
Everyone had gone as fast as they had arrived, leaving the princes to think on what to do.
"Let's go hide in my castle. I already have the hideout planned out." Rikue stated, but didn't wait from the brown haired prince to reply before dragging him off in direction of the castle, which was usually never there whenever Sorae looked.
Right across the island they were, was a bigger island, the castle in the center, overlooking the smaller one. They stood by the edge of the water, looking at the larger island.
"I can fly us across…" Sorae stated, Rikue chuckling at him.
"It's okay. There's a path over the water. We made it so the humans couldn't see it."
Rikue grabbed Sorae's hand and ran into the water, Sorae slightly panicking until he noticed they were stepping on something hard. They ran, Sorae looking up every once in a while to notice little lights in the sky. It was a hard battle.
Once back on land, they kept running until they reached the outside of the castle.
"Shit. There're guards everywhere!" Rikue muttered, Sorae squeezing his hand.
They walked around, hiding from the guards until they found the back entrance, Yun and Squall standing there, looking around at any sound. Rikue and Sorae approached them cautiously, Yun smiling relieved when she saw them.
"Come on." She urged. "Everyone's looking for you. For both of you. Hikari came by to tell you father, Rikue, that the heaven king's crown prince was in one of these islands. I thought we could look for you, but Squall said that you were coming to the castle. So we waited. Now, get in here before the guards find you."
She pushed them inside.
"What about you?" Sorae asked her, his blue eyes full of worry.
But Yun just smiled. "It's okay. We're gonna keep an eye here. We were ordered to anyway. You two go and hide, we'll be okay." She ruffled Sorae's brown spike.
Sorae nodded, letting go of Rikue's hand to hug her. Rikue smiled, then ran off when the brunet finished. They ran across the long hallway that led to that door, and ended up in the kitchen. There were two maids there. They smiled when they saw then, and pointed to a small door that led to the storage room. Rikue thanked them and ran into the storage room, closing the door. They sat down, leaning against the stone walls.
"I can't believe Hikari went and told then that!" Sorae exclaimed with a pout.
Rikue sighed, pulling Sorae into his arms, kissing his nose. "It'll be okay."
"You kissed me!"
"It was just the nose. I'm sure those three would allow that at least."
Sorae leaned his head in Rikue's shoulder and sighed. "I supposed so… fuwah?"
Rikue looked down at the brunet puzzled. "Fuwah?"
But Sorae simply stared at something behind Rikue and reached out, petting the silver tail the earth prince had. "A tail?"
"Ah. That. I guess my ears came out too." Rikue chuckled, Sorae quickly looking up to see the silver ears.
"Ears! How cute!" the brunet reached up to pet them. "I didn't know you had these!"
"Every earth kin has them. Except mine are silver, which is the color of the Royal Line."
"So your dad also has this pretty silver hair?"
Rikue nodded. "For some reason, earth kin have wolf genes. I guess it makes us different that way, just like your kin and your wings."
They laughed, but their laughter was cut short when the door opened, one of the maids coming in.
"The heaven kin are invading the castle!" She exclaimed. "It's not safe here anymore!"
Rikue nodded, getting up and pulling the brunet with him. They walked past the flustered maid, and ran out the kitchen. Sorae was getting even more worried by the minute. Roxaius, Lae, and Cloud went back to the castle to see if they could stop the war, but it didn't look like they were doing any progress.
They ran down halls, past rooms, hiding every once in a while from any soldier that passed by, be it earth kin or heaven kin. Finally, they reached the throne room, which was completely empty, except for a glittering crown lying near the throne. Rikue approached the crown, picking it up in his hands as his ears fell.
"What's wrong?" Sorae asked, even more worried.
"My father… he's dead." Rikue stated, clutching the crown in his hands so hard, his knuckles went white.
"What! No! Are you sure?" Sorae asked, but walked around to see if there was anyone else in the room.
"Yes, I'm sure."
Rikue took a deep breath, holding down his sorrow. Sorae stood near, sad, but like Rikue, holding down most of his sorrow.
"Sorae!" a voice called. "Sorae? Sorae! Where are you little brother?"
Sorae looked at the entrance. "It's Cloud!" he ran towards the entrance, pausing midway. "Cloud, over here!"
The blond prince entered the room, running up to hug his little brother. "Oh, thank goodness you're still alive."
"What? What do you mean by that?" Sorae asked as he tried to get out of Cloud's embrace.
Cloud let him go. "Sorae, your older brother, and his lover. They died. It was a casualty, more than anything, but they died."
"What! Ro died!" Blue eyes filled with tears, looked up to Cloud, looking for a sign that it was not true, but Cloud simply looked away. With a gasp, Sorae ran to Rikue, trying to calm himself down, but failing, breaking down to cry.
Rikue held him, sharing the pain of loosing family in a silly war.
"We have to go." Cloud stated, walking up to them.
Sorae, his cries now sobs, looked up startled. "What?"
"We have to go!" Cloud said more forcefully, grabbing the brunet's hand.
But Sorae shook free. "I'm not going."
"But, Sorae!"
"No!" Sorae took a deep breath. "I can't go back home. Not now."
Cloud grabbed his arms. "This is not a request, Sorae, it's an order. Father wants you to be safe. We HAVE to go!"
"NO!" the young prince exclaimed. "Don't you understand? Even if I go, that won't stop the war. There's no way to stop this war! Ro already proved that."
"Sorae, stop being stupid. We have to go. This is no longer about the war. This is about keeping you safe."
"Why? Because I'm the crown prince? Because you two suddenly decided to dump your stupid heir rights on me? Do you even realize that I DON'T WANT TO BE KING!"
Cloud blinked, then grabbed Sorae back into his arms. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never knew you were against it so much." Sorae simply nodded. "I guess it'll be okay now." Cloud let go of him. "I'll take back the heir rights. I'm sorry to have dropped such a burden on you. You didn't deserve that."
"What about dad?"
"He's gone, Sorae. Do you see why it was so important? Dad's gone."
Sorae paused whatever he was going to say and stared at Cloud. Not only did Roxaius died in a casualty, but now their father was gone too.
"Let's go home." Cloud declared.
But Sorae shook his head. "I'm not going. I already told you."
"These are no longer father's orders, these are mine. Let's go."
Rikue cleared his throat, gathering the attention of the two bickering brothers. "It's okay, Fluffy. Go on, I'll be alright."
Sorae ran up to him, grabbing his shirt. "No! I won't leave you alone! I can't. But, can't you come with us?"
But Rikue simply smiled. "It'll be okay. Don't worry. I'll be alright. And I can't leave. This is my castle now. I can't just up and leave. But, you go."
"But you'll die if you stay!"
"No I won't. Besides, it wouldn't matter if I died now."
"Yes it would! You can't just leave me like that!"
Rikue chuckled. "I'm not leaving you, silly. I'm just staying behind for a little while." He brushed the brunet's spikes. "After the war's over, I'll meet you back on the little island where we met. Okay?"
"You promise?"
"Yeah."
Sorae shook his head. "No! No, no, no! I don't want that! I'm afraid, I'm worried about you!"
"I'll be fine!" he smiled.
Cloud sighed, grabbing Sorae up over his shoulder. He looked at Rikue. "I'll guess I'll see you around then."
Rikue nodded, waving at them, Sorae struggling to get off.
"Let me go, Cloud! Let me go!" Sorae stretched his arms trying to grab Rikue who was already far away. "Bunny! Bun- RIKUE!
But Rikue simply smiled, still holding the crown tightly in his hands. That was the last image Sorae saw of him. Once Cloud reached the outside, he ran to the edge of the large island, and flew to the little one, placing Sorae down. Sorae looked around, it was were Rikue had once given him the dress/robe.
"You'll be okay here." Cloud said, flying away.
There was a large explosion, Sora running to see as Rikue's castle burned. He wanted to go look for him. To go save him. But he couldn't move. He was stuck there, scared.
Sorae didn't know, but Cloud was that way too. He was stopping the heaven kin from continuing the attack. There weren't that many of them anyway. And according to one of them, the earth kin had disappeared as well. They believed that the survivors went into hiding with the humans, but nothing was ever confirmed.
And Sorae waited, sitting by the edge, he waited. The castle disappeared a couple of days later, Sorae guessed that it burned down. But he continued waiting. Until finally, exhausted from lack of everything, he fell into the waters. He remembered all the moments he spent with Rikue as he went deeper into the water. He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, it was bright. There was a large golden gate, Rikue sat at the steps. The earth prince smiled, and Sorae ran to him, holding him tightly.
"Hey, there. You came rather quickly." Rikue chuckled.
"Bunny, Bunny, Bunny." Sorae simply said, not believing he was there, afraid he was dreaming.
"Back to nicknames? I thought for sure you got rid of that when you called me by my name. So-ra-e."
Sorae looked up. "I can't believe you're here. I can touch you. It's not a dream."
But Rikue looked at him puzzled. "Of course it's not a dream, silly." He looked behind him at the gates. "These are the gates to be reborn. You brother and the red-head one already passed by. They were sitting here waiting to see if anyone else would come. When they saw me, they smiled and left."
"I see." Sorae smiled. "Are we going too?"
"Sure."
Rikue took Sorae's hand in his, and smiled. They walked towards the gates, these opening for them. And they walked in, holding tightly to each other's hand. Hoping to never let go. To stay with each other for all eternity.
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To Be Continued!
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(Author's rants)
The past is down. Down to the (hopefully) last detail. How
was that? Was it good? Was it bad? Ahh. I like it. Hope everyone does too!
(Things you should know)
Hikari is evil. XD
This is probably the longest chapter up to date. I'm amazed. I didn't want it to end. Heh
(Things I was hearing and/or working on while writing
this chapter)
Hearing the playlist, of course. But that's about it.
(Reviews)
OMG, what happened
with the reviews! (sob)
1. Largo-sensei – wow, that's a lot of songs! Yus, in my media player there are A LOT of songs. I posted the list on LJ, sorry. Really? All the good ones? I feel happy!
2. ShadowShapeshifterAndHerCat – I'm sorry I took so long. I did say I was taking a break for the summer…. But I did finish the whole fic…. POKE!
3. Prozacfairy – yes.
4. Bonnie Mizuhara – …. They do, don't they? I like Clotho the best. She's so hyper-ish! Yus, Hikari is evil….
Really… what happened to everyone? Review! Please?