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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Forty-Two - Edge/Midgar

“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill him. When I catch up to him, I’m going to wring his scrawny little neck!” Rinally shouted to the empty street, shaking her staff as though there was something - or someone - she could bludgeon with it. She couldn’t believe, after all they had gone through, Kaoru had just left her behind like that! It was like he’d had some epiphany and decided to be the lone wolf to take care of it. What was she? Chopped liver?
She paused at a street corner and looked down the alley. There was nothing there except shadows and rubble. From somewhere in the distance, she heard an explosion, but she wasn’t sure if it was Kai or Kaoru. It didn’t matter, really. She wasn’t with either of them, so she was slightly better than useless. Was it because she didn’t have a Keyblade? She knew Kaoru and Kai had a thing going with each other, which gave her endless pleasure, but she didn’t know how much of that thing came from them both being Keyblade users and the champions of Light and Dark and how much of it came from real feelings for each other. She also knew the two of them were far stronger than she was simply for the fact they relied upon their own physical strength rather than magical. That wasn’t to say they didn’t have mana, considering all their special moves, but they didn’t seem to rely as heavily upon it as she did.
She leaned against the brick wall and stared at the pale sky above her head. She felt a little jealous of Kai and Kaoru, if she had to admit it. They always seemed to know just what the other needed when they needed it, which was something she couldn’t figure out. As much as she had tried to comfort Kaoru after his encounter with Hiromu, she’d known that she hadn’t had as much of an effect as Kai had. Whatever Kai had said to him had changed Kaoru. And Kai had changed too, because of Kaoru. She’d had no influence on them whatsoever. She was also certain that if she just disappeared, those two would be able to continue on without a care. They would keep moving forward, without a thought tossed her way.
Rinally hugged her staff to her chest and bit her lip, trying not to start crying.
A thunderous explosion nearly knocked her to the ground and a cloud of dust washed over her, obscuring her view of everything around her. She was on her feet in an instant, swinging her staff up and around her to cast an Aero spell to get the dust cloud away from her. She leaped out of the way of a charge, tucking her head close to her chest to roll. She came back to her feet, spun, and snapped out a Firaga spell. The fireball struck the darkness-shrouded beast in the face and flung it back into the slowly-dissipating cloud of dust. She saw something flash left and right and the monster exploded into motes of glowing darkness.
Kai, still in his Black Knight armor, stepped out of the dust cloud and narrowed his eyes at her, as if he couldn’t figure out why she was alone. Sanctuary was held in his usual reverse grip, but with a flick of the wrist, Kai dismissed his Keyblade and his armor burst off him in dark motes. He strode over to her, his eyes traveling from hers to her feet and back up again.
“What?” Rin asked defensively.
“Are you hurt?”
The question shocked her for a minute. She wordlessly shook her head. “Why do you care?”
Now Kai looked shocked. He blinked and canted his head to one side. “Because you’re my friend, idiot. As much as you frustrate me, as much as you irritate me, I still care about you.”
“Because if you don’t, you’ll make Kaoru upset?”
A red eyebrow rose. “The hell is wrong with you, Rin?”
She pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Is it because I’m not as strong as you two? Is it because I can’t keep up with you? Are you protecting me for my sake or for Kaoru’s?”
Kai stared at her with an incredulous look, then folded his arms over his chest and glowered at her. “Where is this coming from?”
“Because you keep telling me to run all the time and then Kaoru goes and leaves me behind and you two seem to have this silent communication going and I know you like him and he likes you and if you’re so in synch with one another, why do you need me?!”
The words came out in a rush before she could stop them. Kai kept his narrow-eyed glower focused on her, which made her tense. Then he blew out a long sigh. “Yeah, I keep telling you to run all the time. Because if you’re standing right there, I can’t go all-out without catching you in my attacks. If you’re not there, I don’t have to worry about checking my strength. As far as Kaoru leaving you behind, there’s gotta be a good reason for it. He’s not the kind of person who just up and leaves you because he feels like it. And as far as the two of us, yeah. We can sense each other. We like each other, as you said. And I kissed him, so what?”
“You kissed him?” Rin asked in a tiny voice.
Kai shrugged. “So what? Rin, there’s a lot of shit you can do that we can’t. Kaoru and me, we have brute strength and the powers of Light and Dark, but that’s all we have going for us. If we’re not down there in the thick of things, we can’t do shit. But you? You can stand at range and see what we can’t. You watch our backs. You heal us so that we can keep fighting. If it weren’t for you, we’d be dead.”
“You kissed Kaoru.”
“Oh, come off it!” Kai snapped. He marched closer to her and jabbed a finger into her shoulder. “The point is, you’re the one who’s the strongest one here. It’s your strength that can keep us fighting. If you disappeared, it would break Kaoru’s heart.”
Rin pushed Kai away from her. “What about you? Would you be upset?”
Kai blew out a sigh and nodded.
She smiled. “So you’re not just saying shit to make me feel better?”
“When the hell have I ever done that?”
Rinally shrugged but silently agreed. Kai didn’t say things that he didn’t mean. Then she looked at him and said, “I’m still going to kill Kaoru when I catch up to him.”
“I was wondering why he wasn’t here.” Kai said, a tinge of a growl in his voice. “What did he do before he ran?”
Rinally recounted the story to Kai, though she was at a loss for its significance. “He just took the rods from me and took off. After he shoved me down. And told me to wait for you.”
Kai frowned deeply. “He didn’t want you following him until I got to you?”
“Well, I guess.”
“He wanted a head start for a reason, then. Something that has to do with those black rods.” Kai met Rinally’s gaze with a wide-eyed one of his own. “Kaoru figured something out. He went ahead to make sure that the two of us could have the element of surprise while he had their attention.”
“Whose attention?”
Sanctuary was back in Kai’s hand and he offered his free one to her. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”
When Rinally took Kai’s hand, she felt a burst of confidence swell inside her. He held tight to her, determined not to lose her. She knew then that, no matter what, Kai and Kaoru would look for her if she disappeared. They would fight to the ends of the earth to find her. She might be in their shadows, but she was far from being overshadowed by them.
They ran through the ruins, slowed only by the constant attacks from the monsters. Kai was a blur of motion, Sanctuary crashing into the monsters’ bodies to send them flying away. Rinally unleashed several Thundara spells to both stun the monsters and help destroy them. She aimed her single-target spells toward the black rods protruding from their bodies and even if she didn’t destroy them, Kai did.
Then, as they ran down a side alley, a rumbling started under their feet that indicated nothing good. Rinally watched in horror as a building in front of them began to collapse. If it fell fully before they could get to the other side of the alley, they would be trapped. They would have to find another way around, which wouldn’t help Kaoru at all. Kai skidded to a halt, pulling Rinally to a stop alongside him. Immediately, he switched direction, running back the way they had come. Rin was about to argue, until she saw a group of monsters racing toward them from the direction they had wanted to go. They were moving rapidly, using their blade-like arms to propel them along. Debris rained down upon them, but they ignored it, closing in on their prey as fast as they could.
The building crashed down with unyielding force, with a terrifying explosion of sound. Both Kai and Rinally were flung off their feet and they tumbled head over heels before coming to a hard landing on their sides. Rinally pushed herself up and reached for her staff, trying not to listen to the scrabbling of metal against stone that was quickly getting louder. Kai was already rolling to his feet, Sanctuary brought to bear against the coming attack. Rin was a little slower in getting up, but she didn’t need to be fully upright to fight. She flung her staff behind her and unleashed a Blizzara spell blindly, feeling an incredible drop in temperature behind her. Kai grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her up, pushing her behind him. She turned around to see the monsters that hadn’t been caught in her spell bearing down on them. Even if they ran, they wouldn’t get away in time.
Kai bared his teeth in a feral snarl and readied Sanctuary for a vicious assault.
He never got the chance to unleash it.
Thunder clapped from above them in quick succession. The monsters in mid-leap were violently thrown backwards in a spray of darkness. When they landed, they twitched, but didn’t get back up. Thunder rolled again twice, then twice more. The source of the thunder revealed itself a second later in the form of a black-haired man in a tattered red cloak. He landed almost noiselessly, bringing to bear a massive three-barreled handgun that barked fire. Rinally watched as three separate bullets impacted the closest monster, driving it back and putting it down. The man wordlessly changed targets with the art of a master marksman, his gun snapping and spitting fire each time. When one monster managed to avoid being shot and closed with the man, a sharp-fingered golden gauntlet caught the monster in the throat and threw it back. Bullets chased it, putting an end to any bright ideas it might have.
Then the area got quiet.
“Who are you?” Kai asked, holding Sanctuary in a defensive position.
The man turned to face them. Crimson eyes studied them from beneath a red cloth bandana. Long dark hair framed a pale but beautiful face which held no emotions whatsoever. He watched both of them for a moment, then holstered his weapon on his thigh. “Vincent Valentine.”
He had a deep voice that was deceptively quiet. Rinally reached to put her hand on Kai’s shoulder to keep him from doing something stupid and asked, “Are you friends with Tifa?”
Vincent’s crimson eyes flicked to Rin and he gave the barest of nods.
“Did she ask you to keep an eye on us?”
Vincent shook his head.
“I’m Rinally, and this is Kai. We’re trying to find our other friend, Kaoru. He ran on ahead, and we think he’s in danger.”
There was a flicker of emotion in Vincent’s eyes then and he nodded. “Tifa told me something of what’s going on. She said you three had been staying with her.”
“Yeah, something like that.” Kai replied. “But if you didn’t come here to babysit us, why are you here?”
Without replying, Vincent stepped between them and started down the alley. Looking at each other, Kai and Rinally hurried to catch up. Vincent led them through another side street, then into a broken building and up the stairs there until they emerged into the open air. They had a good view of the destruction here, but also a clear view of an area to the north of them that seemed out of place compared to the rest of Midgar. Vincent lifted a golden finger and pointed.
Kai and Rinally couldn’t see anything except a tattered church building and dust clouds.
“There have been people skulking about here,” Vincent explained, “people in black coats. They’ve been bringing creatures to that church and releasing them out into the ruins.”
“The monsters.” Rinally said. She looked at Kai. “It’s the Brotherhood.”
Kai scowled. “That must be what Kaoru figured out. The Brotherhood’s been making these monsters and controlling them with the rods.”
“But why?” Rinally asked. “Why would they do such a thing?”
“Well, why don’t we go ask them?”
Vincent looked at both of them with a confused expression. It didn’t take long for Rinally to explain the Brotherhood and their intentions, and when she finished, Vincent wore a dark look that said he’d brushed too closely with similar antics before.
“What’s so special about the church, though?” Kai wondered.
Vincent smiled from beneath his cowl, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s not the building, but what’s inside it.”
“What’s inside it?”
“A pool.”
“...A pool.”
Vincent lifted his shoulders slightly. “You’ll have to see for yourself.”
Kai inhaled sharply and let it out in a sigh that wasn’t quite a growl. He focused on that church ahead of them, feeling a sense of disquiet he didn’t like at all. But beneath that disquiet, Kai could feel that same calling feeling he’d felt since arriving here. It was strong in that direction, pulling on his senses with a subtle siren’s call. Kaoru was also there. He knew that without a doubt.
“Kaoru’s there.” Kai said, looking at Rin. “If Kaoru’s there, the Brotherhood is there.”
“Then that’s where we should be.” Rinally said. She looked at Vincent. “Can you get us there?”
Vincent’s dark head cocked to one side. He seemed to be listening to something the two teenagers couldn’t hear, and Rin thought she caught a glimpse of an earpiece. Ahead, something exploded, sending up a cloud of dust. Kai’s world filtered from color to monochrome, and in that dust cloud he could see a bright, bright light and two other lights, though more muted. He clenched Sanctuary’s hilt hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
Then Vincent said, “This way.”
Kai spun on his heel and closely followed that red cloak, fighting to keep calm. Now wasn’t the time to lose control.
Kaoru was there, fighting on his own, but not for much longer.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn