Remembering the Forgotten
By: Ellipsis the Great
DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…although the original idea came from orangediscord's one-shot 'Left Behind.' Also, the idea for the 'relocation' of the Queen's soul comes from a book called 'Golem in the Gears' by Piers Anthony. And the idea for the ritual is some sort of weird merger of my own ideas with ideas from the movies 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Thirteen Ghosts.'
Summary: Sometimes, I thought I was the only person who remembered him…eventual Seiner, other pairings unknown.
Rated: M.
Spoilers: Takes place after Kingdom Hearts II; I dunno how much of the plot will be included.
Warnings: Yaoi and some angst. More warnings later if needed.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Fides Publica (a promise of protection, safe-conduct)
"Now the son's disgraced—he, who knew his father—when he cursed his name, turned, and chased the dollar but it broke his heart, so he stuck his middle finger to the world, to the world, to the world. And you take your time. And you stand in line. Well you'll get what's yours; I got mine…because when I arrive, I bring the fire. Make you come alive—I can take you higher. What is this, forgot? I must now remind you…" –Kevin Rudolph, 'Let it Rock'
I stood up and put on my beanie, gritting my teeth together just a bit as I took one last look at my father's impromptu grave. I nodded at it, like I was acknowledging an old opponent.
Which I was, in a way. I guess. Except usually 'old opponents' weren't actually your dad.
But what the hell? I'd never been normal, so why the fuck should I start then?
"Everybody ready to go?" I asked, fitting Hyperion in a sheath across my back.
"Yeah! Let's do this!" Sora said, as unshakably sure of himself (sure of all of us) as ever.
"Anybody got any last words before we go?" Cid asked, ever his optimistic self.
We all exchanged one long, quiet look. Everyone else's' eyes suddenly zoned in on Hayner, and they looked at each other, a few (Cid and Sora) with tiny smirks, before walking off and leaving the two of us alone again.
Confused, I crossed my arms over my chest. "The fuck's up with them?"
Hayner took a deep breath. "I kissed Sora." He said.
I blinked as the world around me seemed to come to a sudden halt.
"W…what?" I sputtered. Remember how after I had (was forced to have) sex with Sora, I said that 'Sora' and 'sex' didn't belong together? Well, neither did 'Sora' and 'kiss.' Disregarding the creepy-sex factor, Sora had become something of a little brother to me. So…just…ew.
He wrapped his arms around himself, obviously uncomfortable and carefully avoiding my eyes. "I figured I couldn't make a decision on…that…if I'd only ever kissed one guy." He explained, like he really needed to. I mean…it's his life, right? None of my fucking business, right? So I should've just ignored the weird, cinching feeling in my stomach…right?
"Yeah, and?" I asked, feigning a coolness I wasn't feeling in the least.
"And…" Another deep breath. "I don't…think I like boys."
Something in me…broke…
"Alright." I spat out, hiding that suffocating feeling behind irritation. I started to turn away, but his hand on my arm stopped me.
"But I know I don't like girls." He said.
I stared at him.
"And I…I know I…liked kissing you." He blurted. "Or…being kissed by you, or whatever."
It felt like my heart was crawling up my throat.
"So if we…I mean, when we get out of this…when it's all over…can we…try?" He asked.
"Try what?" I asked, my voice breathy and full of far more hope than I wanted it to be.
"Well…" Even his ears were red. "I don't love you yet…but I'm pretty sure I could. So I want to try and…and see what happens."
I tried to suppress the grin that overtook my mouth. Really, I did. But the damn thing wouldn't be suppressed. So instead, I put a hand on Hayner's head and ruffled his hair so that he closed his eyes and didn't see it.
"Okay." I said, not quite trusting myself to express what I was really feeling just then.
He grabbed my hand, looking up at me almost shyly, his grin matching mine.
"If we get out of this." I said, but smirked so he wouldn't think much about it.
His eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, but he smiled back.
"Let's get this show on the fucking road!" Cid yelled gruffly from his seat at the stern of the little boat Taran, Donald, and Goofy had brought. "I'm ready to kick some ass!"
"Alright, battle formations." I said as we all got into the boat. "Sora's at the front with me and René—he'll take out Roxas first, then René can take out Axel. "
"The one with spiky red hair." René said, for confirmation.
I nodded as Sora blanched ever-so-slightly.
"Donald and Goofy," I turned to the two anthro…things (Goofy saluted), "your job is to make sure that Hayner doesn't get anywhere near the Queen. No matter what. I don't care if you have to tie the little son of a bitch down, he doesn't go anywhere near her."
"Hey!" Hayner protested.
"In accordance with that, you guys are going to stay near the back and make sure none of the Heartless try to flank us. Or anyone else, for that matter."
"You got it, a-hyuck!" Goofy said.
"We'll take care of the back." Donald nodded.
"Taran and Cid, I want you guys behind René, Sora, and me." I said. "After they've disrupted the shield spell and, hopefully, knocked the Organization out of it, I want you to get them and the Organization out of there. We don't know how any of this is going to affect them, so it's better if they're as far away from the action as possible. Once they're out of the way, you can come back and help fight—but you have to be absolutely sure that they'll be safe. We can't take any chances that the Queen will abduct them again in case she somehow escapes."
Cid and Taran nodded wordlessly.
"Are you…going to try to take on the Queen by yourself?" Hayner asked, going slightly pale.
"…Something like that." I said.
"What do you mean, something like that? You either are, or you aren't!" Hayner said. "I'm getting really sick and tired of you being so secretive, you damn idiot!"
"I don't have to tell you everything! I know what I'm doing, alright?" I snapped. "I thought you trusted me?"
"But you don't trust me!" He snapped back, jaw clenching tightly.
I stared at him.
"You don't, do you?" He pursed his lips together. "You're always going on about it, but…you don't trust anyone, Seifer."
"I told you I'd take care of it." I said instead of answering.
"I don't want you to take care of it." He said. "I want us to take care of it." He waved a hand at the others. "All of us."
"I'm the only one who can do this, Hayner." I said.
"Why? And for fucks sake, what?" He demanded.
"Because…" I pressed my lips together for a moment, squeezed my eyes shut, and started to answer…to tell him the reason for everything…
But then a strangled, gurgling scream interrupted me. We all turned in the boat to stare at the scene unfolding in front of us:
Riku, the one who had screamed, was fumbling in the water, blood seeping out of the corners of his mouth and several cuts on his face. Diving at him from above were two huge, horrendous creatures, like dragons but somehow more imposing. Their eyes glowed an angry red as water and blood made their scales shimmer gruesomely in the dim light of morning.
"Riku!" Sora yelled, throwing his Keyblade at one of the monsters.
"It's the gwythaints!" Taran said. "They're attacking him!"
The monster screeched shrilly as the Keyblade connected with one of its wings, causing it to fall ungracefully to the water. It struggled for a moment, wings flapping wildly before they finally caught enough air to take off again.
The other monster dove at Riku, picking him up in its claws at tearing at him viciously with its fangs.
"Let him go!" Cid roared, launching his spear at it.
It twisted to get out of the way of the projectile, dropping Riku in the process, and Hayner jumped into the water after him.
"Hayner!" I yelled, then cast a fire spell at one of the gwythaints as it dove toward him. "You stupid fucking…FIRAGA!"
"Just stay on the boat and cover him until he gets Riku back!" Taran said, casting a thunder spell.
"Like hell I will!" I threw off my jacket, jumping onto the (all too small) prow of the boat and then at the gwythaint that was going after Hayner again. I landed roughly, eyes widening at the sharp pain in my groin (goddamn spikes fucking hurt, even if they'd only just grazed me). Forcing myself to recover as the monster twisted its neck to try and attack me, I brought Hyperion down and stabbed the area where its neck met the back of its skull. Well, I stabbed AT the area. Fucking thing's scales deflected most of the attack, though I managed to get in a deep gash along the side of its neck.
It shrieked and somehow grabbed my leg in its maw, tearing me off its back with a vicious jerk of its head. I hit the water with a giant splash, unable to stop myself from gasping at the cold, stinging sensation of it. Choking and fighting to get to the surface (not to mention keeping my hold on Hyperion), I could feel more and more water entering my mouth, my nose, my lungs, and I started seeing spots in front of my eyes.
And then someone had grabbed the back of my jacket and was yanking me back onto the boat, slapping my back roughly as I hacked up all of the water I swallowed.
"No matter how much water you drink, you ain't gonna lower the lake none." Cid's gruff voice stated dryly. "Dumbass."
"Did I at least kill the fucker?" I gasped out when I had finally managed to expel most of the water from my lungs.
"Injured it bad enough—Donald finished it off." Hayner's voice was rather close to my ears, and I blinked as my vision cleared.
We were back on the boat—Hayner had evidently just finished using my jacket to dry off (dammit, I'd taken it off so it wouldn't get wet!) and started using it to dry me off. Sora and Donald were casting cures on Riku, who was getting some color back in his cheeks (not that that was too hard, as pale as he always was). His lips were still a little blue from the cold of the water, though. René was doing the same for Cid, who was giving me that annoyed glare of his that really just meant I'd managed to worry him out of his mind. Which, of course, made me feel bad. A little.
"What about the other one?" I asked.
"Took off after we killed its partner." Cid said, lighting a cigarette angrily. "Hit the fucker with the Venus Gospel and it fucking took off with 'er stuck in its side! How in the fucking hell am I supposed to fight if I don't have my goddamned weapon? Didn't even get any fucking tea this morning, and I've only got three fucking cigarettes left—ain't that the fucking limit! No weapon, no tea, almost no smokes! Bullshit's what it is! Bull. Shit."
I couldn't help but laugh at him, though I tried to stifle it when he glared at me. But then I jolted forward a bit, realizing that I wasn't sure where my weapon was, either.
"Where'd Hyperion go?" I asked.
"It'd serve you right if you'd lost it, you stupid son of a bitch!" Cid said, even as he pointed at where Hyperion was laying a little ways away from me. "Fucking jumping the damn thing! Stupidest shit I've ever seen, and I have seen some really stupid shit. You give Reno a run for his money, and that little mother fucker was batshit insane!"
"Okay, okay, I get it. Damn." I said, putting my hands up in an 'I surrender' gesture.
Cid snorted and muttered darkly under his breath as he rotated his previously injured arm.
"Is everybody alright?" I asked, gaze sweeping over the other occupants of the boat.
"Riku's got the worst of it, of course, but a few cures and we'll all be ready to fight again." Sora said, sitting next to his best friend and looking a bit paler than usual.
"What about you, you stupid shit?" Hayner asked sternly.
"What about me, lamer?" I retorted. "Do I look hurt?"
"Yeah, actually, you do. You're fucking bleeding." He pointed down at the leg the gwythaint had grabbed.
I looked at it, feeling suddenly dizzy as the sight of the torn flesh extinguished all of the adrenaline still left over from the fight.
"Oh, shit." I said.
Hayner huffed a little before putting his hands over my leg and muttering a healing spell.
"Not like you don't deserve it." Cid said, still fixing me with that glare.
I glared back at him for a moment before rolling my eyes. "Whatever, I'm fine now. But if that beast gets back to warn the Queen about us—"
"She already knows we're here, remember?" Hayner asked. "Your dad said so last night."
My jaw clenched at the memory.
"It doesn't matter either way." René said. "She's only got one chance to do this spell, right? Or, at least, it'll be quite a while before she can try again. So all she can do is throw a bunch of Heartless at us and hope they'll slow us down long enough for her to complete it."
"And she has to have Hayner to do it, too." Sora pointed out.
"So her hands are mostly tied." Hayner concluded, doing a very good job of not looking (or pretending not to look) at his own disappeared hand.
"Right." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose with my thumb and middle finger. "Okay, well, we all know what we're supposed to do, so…I guess now all that's left to do is to…do it."
"We…gotta hurry." Riku choked out, struggling to stand up. "She's not…not just using their souls to boost her power. She's hurting them. There was this little boy with her that looked like he was near death—"
"A little boy?" I grabbed his collar and jerked him close to my face. "Looks maybe ten? Black hair?"
"Y-yeah." He said, giving me a startled look (everyone was, and I suppose with good reason). "He's not one of the Organization, though, so I don't know why he's there."
"Of course he's not one of those damn Organization assholes." I snarled, not entirely sure why I was getting so overprotective, Hayner's soul or not. "You said he looked close to death—was he bleeding? Hurt? Fucking answer me, dammit!"
"Let him go, then!" Hayner said, putting a hand on my arm.
I did—probably rougher than I had to, though. "Well?"
"He wasn't hurt as far as I could see." Riku said as he straightened his still-wet clothes. "But he was sitting next to the Queen—on the floor next to her throne thing—and he looked like he could barely keep his eyes open. Pale, too…paler than I've ever seen any kid." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Actually, I think there might have been some bruises on his face. He had on something with long sleeves, so I couldn't see the rest of him…"
"Why's it important?" Sora asked curiously.
"He's the Little Prince." I said, feeling the anger I already felt towards the Queen triple. "He's Hayner's Nobody."
"There's no way." Riku said, eyes widening as everyone else gaped at me in surprise. "He hardly looks half Hayner's age, he can't be—"
"The Nobodies don't age like we do." I said. "Once they're separated from their body…they age only according to what experiences they have. Little Prince told me that he had only aged two years since he was separated from Hayner, and that that was just because of the Queen." I pursed my lips together. "She's at least as bad to him as my father was to me."
"But…you said he was only ten." Sora said. "You mean she…she made Hayner a Heartless when he was…?"
"Eight." I finished for him. "Her own son, and she stole his heart when he was only eight years old."
We all looked at Hayner, whose hands were covering his mouth as he stared at the floor of the boat with tear-filled eyes.
"I…I remember." He said, one hand dropping down to clutch his chest. "She said…she told me my heart couldn't get any older, yet, because older hearts aren't as attached to their parents as young ones are. She…she said it would take a few years for everything to be ready, and…and she couldn't take any chances that I would stop being willing to die for her."
Sora threw his arms around Hayner, and I put a hand on Hayner's arm as he started crying.
"I hate her." He said. "I hate her so much! How could she…I'm her son, and she still…"
"Hayner, if you hate her, and you aren't willing to go through with this spell anymore, then…" I began.
"Don't be stupid!" He said. "Of course I'm still…" He shook his head. "It doesn't matter how much my head says I hate her…my heart says differently. I can't…my heart can't hate her…I want to, but I can't."
"It's okay, Hayner." Sora said determinedly. "No matter what happens, we're gonna take care of it. All of us—I promise."
"Yeah. We won't let the Queen use you anymore." René said.
Hayner looked at me out of the corner of his eye, and I sighed.
"Haven't I said it enough already?" I asked, though I was more amused than anything else. I sat up, grabbing Hyperion and positioning myself on one knee, with Hyperion in front of me. I bowed my head. "You've been my leader this whole time, Hayner—my prince, if you want to put a fine point on it. And I swear on Hyperion that I'll do whatever it takes—whatever it takes, no matter what that entails—to keep you safe and alive and as far out of the Queen's clutches as possible."
"I'd swear on the Venus Gospel, if that fucker hadn't flown off with 'er." Cid said, going onto one knee as well. He was closely followed by everyone else, all murmuring their own pledges (except for Goofy and Donald, who, of course, had already given their pledges to King Mickey).
Flushing, Hayner awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ah…umm…thanks, you guys." He stammered. "You can…stop that…any time now…"
Sora giggled. "Guess that makes us your knights!" His grin turned mischievous. "Isn't that right, Your Highness?"
"Shut up, Sora." Hayner said, his cheeks still stained a bright crimson.
"Ah, man, we have to call him 'Your Majesty' and stuff, now?" René asked teasingly.
"I'll call him 'Your Royal Lameness,' but that's as respectful as I can manage." I said.
"Fuck you guys." Hayner said, bottom lip jutting out. "Assholes."
"Now, now, Your Majesty, that ain't no way to talk." Cid said.
"Not you, too, Cid!" Hayner said. "Come on, you guys, quit it!"
Though I think that even Hayner knew we were only joking like this to keep our minds off of the castle that was looming closer and closer to the ship, and the battle looming farther and farther over our heads, we didn't let up until we had landed on the island.
This was it.
End Chapter Twenty-Two