Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, guys. And for all you readers not from the U.S. (which is awesome, by the way, I have international fans!), Thanksgiving is this random holiday where Americans stuff themselves full of food for no apparent reason. :)
Anyway, I know it's been a while, but now the fun begins. I don't own the original Square Enix characters, sad as that is. Enjoy.
Sometimes I feel like I trusted you too well
Sometimes I just feel like screaming at myself
Sometimes I'm in disbelief I didn't know
Somehow I need to be alone
Don't stay
Forget our memories, forget our possibilities
What you were changing me into
Just give me myself back and don't stay
Forget our memories, forget our possibilities
Take all your faithlessness with you
Just give me myself back and don't stay
- Linkin Park, "Don't Stay"
"You LOST him?" Bruixe exploded.
Sora backed away with a panicked look on his face. "He went ahead to try and catch up to you – he told us he'd see us later –"
"I thought you told them to stay home?" Ren pointed out, confused.
"Riku's not exactly the type to sit around and wait," Kairi explained patiently. "Not when the people he cares about are in danger."
"I'm not in danger," Bruixe hissed. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
Sora pointed in the direction of the soldiers outside. "With that out there, don't even try to tell us you weren't in danger."
"Wegot through them just fine," Bruixe began, but a tiny voice in the back of her thoughts reminded her that this wasn't quite true. She coughed slightly. "But what if Riku didn't? He doesn't know the danger –"
"Riku's not dumb," he told her pointedly. "It's not like he's gonna just waltz up to those bucket-heads and strike up a conversation."
Great plan, Riku berated himself. Real smart. Let's just waltz up and strike up a conversation. Oh, yeah, I'm looking for my girlfriend. What? She just so happened to kill your lieutenant? Oh, my bad. Sorry 'bout that.
To his credit, there had been no feasible way into the manor without walking past at least ten of them. And how was hesupposed to know that Bruixe had taken out a few?
One of the two soldiers that were half-dragging him across the ground gave him a rough shove, sending him sprawling into the sand at the feet of someone very important-looking. Yuck, Riku thought as he spat out sand. If I had Soul Eater right now…
But the threat was empty, and Riku knew it. Even if he did summon his Keyblade, it wouldn't do him any good, what with his hands tightly bound behind his back. Besides, there had to be eighty men at least, more than he could defeat without killing them. And if they knew he was a Keybearer, it would make him more valuable to them. If they thought he was just some kid, they'd be more likely to let him go. Yeah, right,Riku thought. They're just gonna let me walk on out of here. Sure.
"Who is this?" asked a loud, brash, voice.
"A prisoner, Lord Rondot," replied one of Riku's captors. "He's in league with two intruders that came through a few hours ago."
"And where are these other intruders?"
"They escaped into the manor, sir," the soldier said apologetically. "They came in through the stream, two of them, youngish. Both girls. A few of ours tried to apprehend them, but one of the girls defeated them. Lieutenant Stenson's dead, sir."
"Why weren't they followed?" Rondot asked coldly.
The soldier shifted uncomfortably. "Sir, you ordered us to stay out of the manor."
Rondot absorbed this, then looked down at Riku. "Who are you, boy?"
Riku said nothing, only returned the man's glare.
"He was following the first intruders, sir," one of the soldiers piped up. "Said he was looking for one of 'em."
"And what am I supposed to tell Lady Isalena?" Rondot demanded. "That you fools were too incompetent to keep out two nosy little girls? She will arrive in a matter of minutes, and I'm to tell her you let two spies into her OWN HOME?"
Riku was confused. This was Councilor Isalena's manor, and Rondot's soldiers were guarding it? If Riku remembered correctly, Rondot was a Councilor, too, but evidently he was under Isalena's command. He's guarding it while she's away? he wondered. From who? What does she have to hide?
"What is all this, Rondot?" came a cold, high voice.
Every pair of eyes in the vicinity turned to look at a stern, imposing woman with steel grey curls and icy blue eyes.
"Lady Isalena," Rondot greeted her. "It's good to see you again."
"All is well, I assume?" Isalena asked.
Rondot shifted his weight nervously. "Not… exactly, Councilor. It seems my men are less competent than I had expected… I have failed you, my lady."
"Well, what happened, Councilor?" demanded Isalena.
"A few hours ago, an intruder – two, actually, together – broke through our perimeter," Rondot admitted. "One of them took out three of my men – and she killed my lieutenant."
Isalena blinked. "You say 'she'? Tell me, what did this intruder look like?"
A soldier stepped forward from the ranks, sporting a broken nose and a black eye. "Tall, ma'am, mayhap as tall as your Ladyship, with black hair. She was fast – faster'n any I've seen – with these terrible, glowing silver eyes."
Under other circumstances, Riku would've found this description immensely funny.
"Bruixe," Isalena breathed, and Riku's amusement imploded. Of course she knows Bruixe, he realized with a sinking feeling. That war-hero thing… and didn't she say Isalena was her old foster-mother or something?
"Tell me, Rondot, is she in the manor now?" Isalena demanded.
Rondot nodded. "We did manage to capture a boy who claims to have been looking for her," he said, indicating Riku.
Isalena fixed her steely gaze on him. "Who…" she began, but then smiled, sending chills down Riku's spine. "Of course… the boyfriend. How cute."
Riku struggled to keep his face from betraying any emotion.
"This may in fact work to our advantage, Rondot," Isalena purred. "We shall see."
"Bruixe, we need to keep looking," Ren reminded her urgently. "The communicator, remember? You said Rondot's setting a trap for Isalena, we need to warn the Council."
"Communicator?" Sora asked.
"It's like a link to the city," Bruixe murmured. "It… it looks like a mirror, kind of, only black. I know it's here somewhere."
Sora seemed to notice her distraction. "I'm sure Riku's fine," he told her gently. "Right now, we've gotta focus."
Bruixe nodded grimly. "We need to split up – check all the rooms. C'mon."
They'd only been searching a few minutes when a blood-curling scream filled the halls. Bruixe burst out of the room she'd been in, Sora and Ren right on her heels, to find Kairi trembling on her knees by a wall, both hands clapped over her mouth.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Sora cried, dropping to his knees beside her.
Tears streaming down her face, Kairi lifted a hand to point at the door she'd just come through.
"It's okay," Sora whispered, wrapping her in his arms. "You're okay."
Bruixe stepped away from them. "Stay here," she told Ren, and pushed the door open, slipping inside.
The breath deserted her lungs.
"Danthus," she whispered.
The Councilor's eyes were closed as if in sleep, but that was the only thing peaceful about the scene. A gleaming sword, slim, rapier-like, was thrust through the old man's heart, pinioning him to the blood-smeared wall; his limbs were splayed about him, held in place by slim daggers through his palms.
Bile rose in Bruixe's throat, but a small, far-off corner of her mind observed that the killing had been done ceremoniously, almost ritualistically. What kind of sick, twisted person could have done this?
The answer was all too clear. It was inconceivable that Isalena could not have known about this – not if it was here, for all to see. But she'd defended the Councilor!
"Councilor Isalena kidnapped my sister," Ren repeated. "I know it sounds dumb, but… I just know it. And she's here, which means she's not in the Eternal Kingdom, and I can look for Hanna… only Terra made me come, even though I told him Isalena did it, because he said I shouldn't be poking around people's homes. And he doesn't believe me anyway."
"No way," Bruixe said skeptically. "Isalena would never pull something like that. She and Danthus have been friends for years. We're talking decades, kiddo. Besides, I know her… knew her. She was like my mom, sort of, you know? She wouldn't do something like that, I know it."
She'd trusted Isalena, defended her, insisted that Ren was wrong. And yet – Danthus, dead, displayed like a prize here on Isalena's wall –
"Hello, Bruixe," said a voice that Bruixe recognized immediately.
She tore her eyes away from the gruesome sight and whirled on the Lady Councilor, face a mask of fury.
Isalena stood flanked by Councilor Rondot – they were together? – and, of all people, Riku, hands bound behind his back. But Bruixe couldn't process all this, not now; she could only think about one thing.
"Did you do this?" she screamed, hands balling into fists. "How could you? I trusted you, Isalena! Danthus trusted you! He was your friend! And this is how you repay him!?"
"Oh, dear," Isalena sighed, sadistically calm. "And here I thought we could be friends."
Bruixe lunged for the older woman, murder in her heart, but then there was a metallic snickfrom Rondot, and blinding pain lanced through her shoulder, and she crashed to the ground.
"Bring her," Isalena's voice commanded, and then Rondot's boot connected with her ribs, and she blacked out.
