Adult-FanFiction.org : Games

Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3169 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 48
- 49
- 50
Forty-Nine - Atlantica

Whatever Rinally had been expecting the people on board the ship to do, it certainly hadn’t been to grab her and stuff her into a tank.
Figuring that the people she was about to encounter wouldn’t quite appreciate her trying to destroy their chain, Rin had dismissed her witch’s staff and had pretended that she had tangled her wrist in the ropes binding the iceberg to the hook and chain being used to drag it out of the water. As soon as the iceberg touched down on the deck, Rin began shouting at the top of her lungs, which drew the attention of several of the men working the pulley system that had been used to hoist the iceberg up. Since untying the iceberg had been their intention anyway, they had “freed” Rinally, but instead of saying anything to her, they had just stared at her until she was certain she was happy to have a tail right now instead of legs, and then they had grabbed her - two men seizing her arms and another her tail - and all but tossed her into a cargo hold that had a deep tank in it.
Rin cautiously swam around the edges of the tank, feeling cold hard steel against her fingers as she brushed them against the walls. It felt odd, considering the outside of the ship was pure wood, but it wasn’t too disconcerting. If the technology of this world was starting to advance away from purely wood ships to metal ships, it made sense that at least a giant vessel such as this had metal parts. Yet, Rinally didn’t dare let her guard down. The appearance of the Heartless before they had changed into their Heartless forms was definitely a sign of advance planning, and definitely had the Brotherhood written all over it. She hadn’t noticed if the jelly-pus Heartless had possessed any black rods, but she doubted it. Nobodies could pose as human beings after all, and if they could do it, why not Heartless? If the Brotherhood was as advanced in their scientific research as they claimed to be, it wasn’t so far-fetched that maybe these jelly-pus Heartless were just artificial Heartless that hadn’t quite made the cut for the Brotherhood’s special army.
She was quite aware that she could destroy the cage she was in right now, along with the hull of the ship, and sink the entire damn thing. But she didn’t know if all the crew were those Heartless puppets, or if there were real humans on board. And if there were, how could she justify killing people who were just trying to make a living? Playing devil’s advocate, it was entirely possible that the humans on board were just guys doing a job, paid to look the other way, and paid to keep their mouths shut.
Or, Rinally thought to herself, they were paid upfront for this job, and whoever’s really behind this is going to silence them all upon delivery.
She folded her arms over her chest and frowned. Would the Brotherhood sanction that sort of thing? If they wanted to be seen as heroes after the coming war, then they couldn’t afford to piss off the people whose support they wanted. But accidents happened, said a tiny little voice in the back of her mind. So sorry, so sad. It was just an accident.
Rinally shook her head and dropped her arms to grip the hem of her coat. Well, Kaoru’s coat. She fingered the material, finding comfort in the gesture. She really hoped his clothes had gained some sort of waterproofing ability, otherwise he wasn’t going to have anything to wear when they left this world. Despite that pessimistic thought, Rinally was actually happy that she had something of her friend’s that she could claim as her own, at least for the time being. There was a sense of comfort, of safety, in that, and just knowing Kaoru was with her in some way gave her strength. She knew that her two best friends were going to move heaven and earth to find her and get her back, but until they could reach her, she had to do what she needed to do. Which was, first of all, escape somehow, and then figure out how to keep that iceberg frozen, and then figure out who - or what - was behind the iceberg-napping in the first place.
Rinally stopped swimming as she heard chains being dragged along the wood above her head. She focused on that sound, her head angled back as she watched shadows play through the scant light that came through the boards. Then the hatch that covered the tank’s opening was pulled back, spilling more sunlight into the tank. Rin threw her hands up over her face to keep herself from being blinded by the sudden light, but she wasn’t fast enough to keep her eyes from stinging. Once she was certain she could see again without any impairments, she turned her attention to the open hatch, but didn’t move any closer to it. She could see several figures standing above her, all in shadow since their backs were to the sun. She couldn’t tell if they were talking or not, but it was clear to her that she was being shown off.
Then the hatch was slammed shut again, and the chains were once more dragged across it. Only then did Rinally approach the hatch, pressing her ear to the wood to see if she could hear anything.
“What do we do with that one?” a man asked. He sounded grumpy, or maybe a little irritated.
“She’s one of the merfolk, right? The Queen ain’t gonna be happy if we show up with her in our hold.”
“Forget the Queen. The King ain’t gonna be happy.”
“Look, our orders were to just grab the witch in the ice. We did that, right? So what if we got something extra? I’m sure we could sell her and get away before the King and Queen even know what’s happened.”
There was soft muttering that Rinally couldn’t make out, but she was sure it was nothing good. She frowned, certainly not liking the idea of being sold like she was some sort of commodity. But the idea of this mysterious King and Queen intrigued her. Who were these two people that got upset if one of the merfolk, as the man had called her, were captured? Her gut told her they were allies, and if she could reach them, then she could count on their help to not only get her out of this mess, but maybe even aid her in finding Kaoru and Kai, and then helping all three of them put the squid-woman back where she belonged. But in order to meet the King and Queen, Rin would have to behave herself and not try to blow the ship to smithereens to escape. Which also meant that she had to let the iceberg reach its final destination.
“Our employer said-“
“I know what our employer said!” snapped the grumpy voice. “The bastard gave the captain only half of what was promised to fund this little voyage out here, but he didn’t tell us that the merfolk be watching that iceberg! When they find out we got one of theirs in our hold, they’s gonna come after us.”
“If, not when,” replied a newer voice, this one also male, but deep with a hint of an accent Rinally couldn’t place. “There are places in the kingdom we can put to shore and offload our pretty little miss without none being the wiser. Can’t dock at the castle anyways.”
“Mister Lorne said we were to meet him in town at the docks. He’d take our ice princess from there, as well as give the captain the other half of the pay. I’m sure we could find a buyer for the mermaid there, too.”
Lorne? Rinally filed the name away for later contemplation. She wondered if it was the name of the Brotherhood member that was on this world. In Midgar, they’d met two Brotherhood members, but had only learned one name: Haiku. She had been killed by Kaoru and Kai when she’d attacked them, but her companion had escaped. Besides Ennio, the Brotherhood’s leader, Haiku was the only other name they had learned. She didn’t know how big the organization was, nor how many people were actually involved. So far, she could count its members on one hand and not run out of fingers.
“Yeah, but who’d buy the mermaid and keep their yap shut?”
Silence followed that question as the men thought about it for a long while. Then there was a snap, and Rinally imagined one of the men had used their fingers to produce the sound, as sort of a semi-silent ‘Aha!’. “He’d buy her.”
The way the pronoun was said made Rinally shiver, but she didn’t push away from the boards just yet. There were sounds of agreement coming from all the men standing over her watery cage.
“He keeps all sorts of fantastical things and puts them on display for the public eye. The King and Queen wouldn’t have a reason to think the mermaid he’s got is a real one, considering most of the stuff he touts is pure poppycock.”
“Question is, how much will he pay for a real mermaid?”
“Guess we can make an offer of her and find out.”
Rinally pushed away from the boards then and allowed her body to sink to the bottom of the cage. She didn’t like what the men were discussing, but if she wanted to get information, she had to go along with it. And it wasn’t like she couldn’t break out when she decided it was time to go. The only thing she wasn’t sure of was if her tail would become her legs if she was out of the water for a certain length of time. After all, this world had changed her body to allow her to survive in the ocean, but what if it hadn’t intended for her to suddenly find herself on land? She supposed if she had to, she could cast a number of spells on herself that would allow her to survive until she reached the water again, but if she had to do that, she really hoped Kai and Kaoru were nearby, because she didn’t know how far she would be able to go without help.
Since there was nothing for her to really do while she was imprisoned, and since the men had obviously moved off to do their work, Rinally tried to amuse herself by making as many plans as she could to deal with any situation she happened to find herself in. She couldn’t tell if the ship was moving or not, but she could tell the day was beginning to end as the sun’s light began to fade from between the slats of wood covering her watery prison. She didn’t know how long she would be trapped down here, but at least she wasn’t going to go hungry. One of the pouches on her seashell belt contained what looked like shredded seaweed. One of her favorite foods was seaweed salad, so Rin didn’t mind the snack. She ate her supply sparingly, though, because she didn’t know how long the trip would be, and she didn’t know if her cruise came with complementary meals.
It seemed too soon before the door covering her cage was thrown open and a thickly-bearded man in a tricorn hat leaned over the surface of the water. Cautiously, Rinally swam toward the surface, allowing her head and shoulders to break the water, but coming no closer to the man. Surrounding him were his crew, and she recognized a few of the faces as belonging to the men who’d tossed her down here in the first place. Behind them all, the dark blue crystalline iceberg rose, its captive still within the ice. Rinally shivered as she gazed upon the squid-woman, certain that her eyes were tracking from left to right, and certain that her eyes eventually focused on Rinally herself. Forcing herself to look away from the iceberg, Rinally focused on the man in the tricorn hat, deciding that he was this captain the men had been talking about.
“Easy now, pretty thing.” the captain spoke, his voice soothing but greasy, as if he was making an effort to be nice to her. “We be almost to shore now. I expect you to cooperate and behave your little self. If you do, you’ll find yourself a decent existence. Understand me?”
Deciding that pretending to be what they thought she was - a denizen of the ocean, frightened of humans and ignorant of their ways - was more beneficial to her right now, Rinally gave the tiniest of nods, doing her best to look afraid.
“Good lass. Don’t worry your pretty little head now. Just do what me boys tell you, and you’ll be just fine.” The captain nodded and turned to his men. “Get her out of there and make sure she’s kept nice and comfortable. We don’t want her getting scared and hurting herself, now do we?”
Rinally resisted the urge to roll her eyes. The only way she’d hurt herself was if she started a fight she couldn’t win anyway. And starting something like that was completely against what she wanted to do right now. So she pretended she trusted these men, just like some poor displaced mermaid might, especially after they had been so nice to her. She let them pull her out of the hold and let them ease her up into a glass tank on a wheeled cart. As soon as she was inside that tank, the men slid a wire mesh grate over the top, making Rinally feel as if she were in a fishbowl, only without the pretty decorations. Then over the whole tank went a thick blanket, which blocked out the light save for a tiny sliver at the bottom of the tank. Rinally could barely see anything through that crack, but she could make out shadows of the men moving around and making the ship ready for docking at port. She dived down closer to the crack, trying to peer beneath the curtain.
She could see the glimmer of the iceberg, but couldn’t make out anything more than that. It looked like the iceberg had been loaded onto a wheeled cart as well, and tied down with rope. She didn’t know if it had been covered by a blanket like her tank had been, but she was certain that it had to be disguised in some way to prevent people from recognizing what it was.
Rin swam to the top of her cage and ran her fingers along the mesh. It was thin wire but tightly bound, such that she would have to use some drastic force to blow it open. The lock was on the outside of the lid where she couldn’t reach it, after all. She settled back in the middle of her tank, just floating and listening and waiting.
She heard the sounds of port even before the men began to cry their warnings. Then it became a mad dash to prepare the ship for its landfall, and Rin found her heart beginning to pound. She wasn’t sure if it was with nerves or fear or anticipation, probably a combination of all three. The ship rocked and swayed as the waves slapped against its hull, fighting against the current and the wakes of other ships as it tried to ease into an available dock. Rin knew the next part of her journey was starting when ropes were tied around the outside of her cage, and she was jerked backwards by the sudden forward motion. The water sloshed out of the top of the mesh covering, soaking the blanket somewhat. Rinally pressed a hand against the glass to steady herself, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves.
She could tell changes in motion and elevation by the way her cage rocked and sloped. She counted in slow seconds how long she was in motion and stopped counting when the cage stopped moving. She figured out by the sounds made by the wheels of the cart when she left the docks and entered the town proper, because the sound the wheels made on wood was different from the sound the wheels made on stone. The only time the motion stopped significantly was when it seemed they had reached their destination. At least, she hoped they had reached their destination, and weren’t asking for directions or had stopped for a pint at the local pub. Rin floated in the dimly-lit dark water, trying to avoid making noise. She didn’t want her captors to know she was listening for their voices, and she didn’t want them to know that she was planning her escape before she even had a chance to try.
Then the wagon started moving again, and the light glowing from the bottom of her watery cage suddenly went dark. Rin fought to keep from panicking, clenching her fists in the material of Kaoru’s shirt to keep from freaking out. The wagon continued a few more paces before it finally stopped. Only then did a faint light return beneath the blanket covering her tank, allowing her to see mostly shadows. She didn’t hear any voices, but she could hear people moving around her. She heard men grunting and cursing to themselves or each other, but she couldn’t see what they were doing. Then, suddenly, her tank lurched and Rinally couldn’t help the little cry of shock that escaped her. She pressed her hands against the glass as if that could stabilize her, and she felt her world tilt one way for a handful of minutes before it came back down to rest on its base again. The water sloshed from side to side above her head, soaking the blanket that was keeping her immersed in darkness.
They removed the wagon. Rinally thought to herself. We’re wherever they wanted me to be.
Silence filled the space between the last sound and the next, leaving Rinally wondering if she was alone. She pushed away from the glass and swam carefully from one end of the tank to the other, trying to see if there was anything to see.
“What’s this then?”
Rin froze, then swam back to the center of the tank and tried to make herself look as terrified and fragile as she could possibly do. It wasn’t that hard, considering her heart was hammering in her chest from anticipation and maybe a little fear. The voice had been rough and deep, with the hint of an accent that made him say his ‘th’ sounds as d’s. Definitely male.
“It’s somethin’ we be believin’ you have an interest in.”
That was the captain. Rin made a face.
“Oh, really?” A corner of the blanket covering Rin’s tank began to lift, as if the owner of the strangely accented voice was trying to sneak a peek. “What do you have for me this time, Captain?”
“A mermaid.”
The cloth dropped quickly. There was a beat of quiet before the man spoke again. “A mermaid? A real one?”
“As real as the air we breathe.”
“How did you, ah, acquire her?”
“I’ll go into details once we have an accord and I get me money. Me boys put in a lot of effort of keepin’ her nice and safe, and they want to be rewarded for their effort.”
“I see, I see. Perhaps we can come to an agreement then, Captain. May I?” The corner of the blanket lifted again, this time in askance.
“Go ahead.”
Rin braced herself for the sudden shock of light and tried to keep her expression of utter terror on her face and make herself seem as fragile and as weak as she possibly could. She opened her eyes to see the captain of the ship standing there with a few of the strongest of his crew, including the men who had wrangled her in the first place. The only new face was a dark-skinned man standing beside the captain. He had a gold ring piercing his left ear which was attached to a chain that ended in a stud on the man’s nose. Thick ringlets of jet black hair were piled upon his head and held in place by a crimson scarf. His eyes were lined with thick black eyeliner, bringing out the color of his sea-glass green eyes. His jaw and chin were dusted with the stubble of a beard shaved a day or so ago. His clothes were incredibly exotic as well, all sashes and voluminous pants that showed off half of a well-muscled chest and bulging biceps. He wore thin reed sandals that clashed with the dark tone of his skin, and his ankles were decorated with silver rings. He wasn’t what Rin considered pretty for a man, but he was handsome, and probably did make panties spontaneously combust when he actively tried to make them combust.
“By the gods, she is beautiful!” The man gasped upon beholding Rinally. His hand pressed against the glass, as if he could reach through it and touch her directly. His head snapped around to look at the captain. “How did you get her past the king’s guards at the docks?”
The captain smiled, a lazy and greedy thing. “Told ‘em we had a special delivery of fish, an’ they could take it up with the king an’ queen if they delayed us.”
“I see.” The man looked back toward Rin then, and his tongue darted out from between his lips to wet the skin. “Look at her hair! I’ve never seen hair like hers. She must be an extraordinary specimen from the deep oceans. I must have her.”
The captain approached then and put his hand beside the man’s as he leaned on the tank to get into the man’s line of sight. “Then I suggest we start negotiating the price for the pretty lass, eh, Master Ibrahim?”
Ibrahim couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Rinally long enough to look at the captain, but his lips curled into a smile that actually did frighten Rin, and he said, “Indeed, captain. Indeed.”
- 48
- 49
- 50
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn