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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Fifty - Atlantica

How long the captain and Ibrahim spent negotiating Rinally didn’t know and didn’t care. They had left her in the main room of wherever they were, under guard by several of the captain’s crew and two of Ibrahim’s own men. Those men favored their master in looks and coloring, but they definitely outweighed him by at least three hundred pounds. Their arms were thickly muscled and they casually rested their hands on the hilts of scimitar swords in a way that wasn’t really casual at all. The sailors responded in kind, resting their hands on the hilts of their knives or on the hafts of cudgels, but neither group made a move to attack each other. Rinally was left watching both groups try to prove whose was bigger without actually whipping them out to measure, and she was left to study the room.
It was definitely a warehouse of some sort. The walls were all wood panels. Crates were stacked against them, marked with a strange calligraphic language that Rin couldn’t understand. She saw rolled up tapestries and carpets, statues made of gold and silver and encrusted with gemstones, paintings and pottery, and all sorts of other things a usual merchant would have to sell. She was probably the only true exotic thing in the warehouse. She turned in the water, trying to get a good 360-degree view of the room. She spotted a door at the far end, a wide thing that no doubt the wagon had passed through to get here. There was probably another door in the room where Ibrahim and the captain were right now. It either likely led to the street, or it led to Ibrahim’s shop. Either way, it was a risky endeavor to try to escape right now. There were too many eyes on her, and too many people might be expecting a double-cross. Get the money now, come back later to steal the mermaid. Rin made a face and turned slowly in the water again so she could see her captors and bodyguards. They weren’t paying attention to her. Why would they? It wasn’t like she could escape them, after all.
Oh, they think I’m so helpless, don’t they? Rinally bit her cheek to keep from smiling at their stupidity. They didn’t know she was actually a human, that she was best friends with not one but two Keyblade wielders, and that she was a witch. Any time she wanted, she could cast a spell and get herself out of the tank. But she had to be careful when she chose to act, because she didn’t know if her tail would change back into legs or if she would be fast enough to keep those guards off her long enough for the transformation to take place. It would be easier if she just pretended and bided her time and waited for an opportunity to arise. And one would come, if she was just patient enough.
I wonder what Kaoru and Kai are doing. The last I saw of them, they were chasing me and then... Rin looked toward the ceiling of the warehouse, studying the thick beams and the cobwebs in the corners. I wonder if they made it onto the ship. If they did, they’ll be here to rescue me soon. But what if they didn’t make it? What if I’m on my own? How long do I wait before I decide to act?
She recalled what Kai had said to her when they were in Midgar, how she was the strongest of the three and that how it was her strength that allowed him and Kaoru to keep fighting. Kai and Kaoru fought down on the front lines, in the thick of things, and trusted her to keep them alive and to watch their backs. They also trusted her to watch out for herself and to act as she thought was best. They would always move to protect her, but she would have to move to protect herself first. She looked down at her tail, with its swirls of black and silver, and smiled. She might be in their shadow, but she wasn’t overshadowed by them. Which meant that, even if they were here to attempt to rescue her, she could rescue herself first and meet them halfway.
Rin closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to relax herself enough to be able to center herself. It would be a long time before she even was able to make a move, so she had to control her temper and make sure impatience didn’t get the better of her. She felt her senses reach out, as they sometimes did when she prepared to cast a long and complex spell and needed to find extra energy from the world, and felt something brush against her consciousness. Rinally opened her eyes, staring out through the glass of her tank toward the guards and the sailors, and tried to find that something again. It had felt like Kaoru, but it was too weak, too far away, for her to be sure. She was certain, though, that she was definitely alone here. Something must have happened to her friends to keep them from getting to her.
Her heart fluttered in her chest and she pushed back from the front of the glass to rest against the opposite side. One of her guards glanced at her then, but he didn’t give her more than a cursory once-over. To him, she must’ve just been getting a little restless. Which she was, but not for the reasons he probably thought. Kaoru and Kai were in trouble, and she wasn’t around to help them. Each of them were going to be responsible for themselves, but that didn’t stop Rin from believing she had to reach her friends soon, or something terrible was going to happen.
The captain’s voice soon caught Rin’s attention, and soon he was in her line of sight, followed by a grinning Ibrahim. The captain was carrying a brown cloth sack no doubt filled with gold. The two men shook hands, and then the captain whistled to his men, signaling them to leave the warehouse. With one last look toward Ibrahim’s guards, the sailors slipped out the door, followed by the captain. Rin watched them go, knowing that their next delivery was to the mysterious Lorne. If she wanted to find out what they were going to do with the squid-woman in the ice, and who Lorne was, she was going to have to find a way to escape, and soon.
A tapping on the glass brought her attention to Ibrahim. The man was standing flanked by his two guards, with his hands pressed against the glass of her tank. Feigning fear and trepidation, Rinally slowly moved closer to Ibrahim’s image. She eventually sidled close enough to the surface of the glass where she could see him clearly and gingerly placed her hand on the glass, opposite his. It was a move she did on purpose, hoping to disarm him even more and help perpetuate the illusion that she was merely a scared mer-girl in a strange world, and that if she trusted this stranger, she might be able to go home.
“Aren’t you a beautiful one? Do you understand me, mermaid?” Ibrahim asked, his voice kind and gentle.
Rin debated with herself for a moment about lying, but she had a feeling that the captain had likely told Ibrahim that she understood their language. It was easier to go with the truth, so she nodded but said nothing.
“Excellent.” Ibrahim pushed back from the glass. “I’ve paid a great deal for you, little miss. This is gold you’ll earn back for me. I’m a purveyor of things of mystery and shock and awe for the public, you see. Master Ibrahim’s Collection of Strange Creatures and Magical Beings. Lucky for me the king and queen of this lovely little nation have already been, inspected, found my strange creatures and magical beings to be, well, fake. When they hear I’ve a mermaid in my collection now, they’ll assume the same thing now won’t they? That I’ve acquired a pretty girl to sit in a tank and pretend to be a mermaid. They’ll never suspect that you’re quite the real thing.”
Rinally didn’t react and was proud of herself for it. She knew what being on display meant for her. People would pay good money to see a mermaid, whether they believed she was real or fake. Ibrahim wanted her to dazzle. It was also a warning. If the king and queen - both of whom, if Rin could believe the captain, got quite upset if a mer-person was harmed - thought she was just a normal girl being paid by Ibrahim to wear a fake tail and sit in a tank of water, then they wouldn’t mount a rescue operation. She wasn’t getting out of here. So Ibrahim believed, anyway, and Rin wasn’t going to disillusion him of that fact.
“Don’t worry, though, my fine lady. I will take good care of you. When you’re not performing for me, you’ll be treated like a queen. The finest foods. The finest of jewelry. The finest of water to swim in, and the largest of pools to live in.” Ibrahim smiled widely, proudly. “But you’ll have to wait until tonight to see your new home. In daylight, it’s too risky for me to move you. Everyone pays attention when Ibrahim goes through town, and many will be curious as to what I possess. Plus, I must prepare for your grand entrance! And a good story.”
Rin watched him as he pushed away from her tank and spoke quickly to her guards. The two men saluted their boss and left the warehouse. Ibrahim started for the other door, the one he’d used earlier, then paused and looked back at her. “I will bring you something delicious to eat, pretty one. Behave yourself for now.”
Rin waited until Ibrahim had gone to finally move. She carefully swam up to the top of her tank, to where the lid with the fine mesh grate still sat. With the blanket gone, she could fit her fingers through the little holes in the wire, but she couldn’t reach the lock. She carefully pointed her finger toward the lock and summoned just a little bit of her power. Then a thought came to Rinally. What if this was a trick? What if Ibrahim was waiting for her to try something, and would fall upon her quickly if she tried to escape. He struck her as that kind of person, to be one thing to someone’s face but something else in the shadows. So she held back her power, released the mesh, and turned gracefully downward to the bottom of the tank. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ibrahim’s smiling face in the shadows, briefly illuminated by the light of an opening door. She pretended not to notice him, and continued to swim languidly in her small tank, wondering if he had any other spies in place to warn him of any attempt to escape she might make.
Well, Rin thought to herself, this is going to be harder than I thought. I might actually have to wait until they move me to wherever he wants me to be to try to escape. Except that might make it all the more difficult to actually escape.
She slowly started moving upwards in her tank again and did another backbend to send her back down. When she saw no movement this time, she decided to get a little bolder. The third time she went for the top of the tank, she clung to the metal lid. She held the position, waiting, then sunk back down. No one appeared to reprimand her, and she didn’t see any movement. As much as she wanted to believe it, she couldn’t assure herself that she was alone in the warehouse, but she had to get out of here. She focused on the lock again. The powerful Blizzaga spell, concentrated on such a tiny area of the lock, froze the metal to a brittle state. With just a light push on the grate, the lock snapped off and tumbled to the ground. The lid was quick to follow, though Rin caught its descent with an Float spell to soften its landing and prevent it from making noise. Her fingers curled over the edge of the glass and she pulled herself up as far as she could go. No alarm was raised and no one came to stop her. It was a long way down, but Rin was ready for it. A whispery Aero spell gently lowered Rin to the floor. She sat there for a minute, staring at her tail and waiting for it to change into legs.
Something rattled at the far end of the warehouse.
Rin froze, her staff materializing in her hands. She wasn’t going to get put back in that tank, and so she would blast her way out if she needed to. But the noise wasn’t coming from Ibrahim’s direction, but closer to the door where the guards had gone. Rin didn’t dare to call out, for fear her voice would draw unwanted attention. She looked at her tail, thinking, Come on. Come on! Change already! and then looked toward where the noise was coming from.
A dark head appeared from behind a crate that had been pushed aside. With effort, the owner of that dark head hauled herself into the warehouse and then ducked out of sight. Rinally could see the shadows of people rushing by in the shaft of light that the crate allowed into the warehouse. The girl waited until the shadows stopped moving and the light remained unbroken to move, and when she turned and spotted Rinally sitting there, her blue eyes grew wide and round and her mouth formed a small ‘o’ of surprise.
Rin quickly put her finger to her lips in a sign for silence. The girl, only twelve at the most, quickly nodded her head. It seemed the girl was used to such gestures, or she understood what Rin was trying to do. The girl wore pants and boots and a tunic that looked like it was permanently borrowed from her father’s closet. Clearly, it seemed she was wearing her “adventuring” outfit. Rin’s sister had plenty of those outfits, especially when she found out Rinally was going somewhere “cool” and wanted to tag along. A pang of hurt made Rin’s chest hurt. That girl across from her reminded her strongly of her little sister, aside from the girl’s coloring. Fighting down the emotion, Rin gestured for the girl to come closer but to be as quiet as possible. The girl tip-toed closer, carefully measuring her steps for the utmost stealth.
“Hi,” Rin whispered as soon as the girl crouched beside her.
“Hi,” the girl responded. Her eyes trailed to Rin’s tail, then back up to Rin’s face. “Are you really a mermaid?”
“Not really.” Rin said. “I’m really a human, but magic turned me into a mermaid. I was separated from my friends in the ocean, and I was brought here.”
The girl nodded as if she’d expected Rin’s answer. “Mama didn’t think I was listening, but I was. My grandfather came to visit my mama the other day and told her that some strangers had come to the ocean. He said that they had helped some humans take something that shouldn’t have been found and brought it here.”
Is she talking about the lady in the iceberg? “Do you know what that something is?” Rin asked.
The girl’s lips thinned and her expression became secretive. Rin had seen its like before, when her sister had had a secret that she didn’t want to tell but knew she couldn’t keep it for long. Finally, the girl nodded. “I know.”
“Then you know that that something is a really bad thing.”
The girl looked surprised. “I know. But... how did you know?”
“I was sent here with my two friends to stop something bad from happening. We found that iceberg and happened to be there when the men came to take it away. We tried to stop it. I decided to get myself captured so I could find out what the bad guys want with that iceberg, but...” Rinally looked at her tail, “...it doesn’t seem like this wants to become legs again.”
“It takes a little bit of time for the magic to wear off by itself.” The girl leaned forward and reached to place her hand on where Rin’s knees would be. “But maybe I can...”
Rin felt a small pulse of power come from the girl beside her. It was insignificant compared to with what Rin herself could do, but it was a different kind of power. It was like calling to like. Rin watched in awe as her black and silver scales began to ripple. The scales of her tail began to shiver and shake and smooth into skin as her tail began to separate into two pale legs. Her feet were the last to form, complete with her shoes. Even her skirt had reappeared, as had her tank top and her brown arm cover. All of the decorations she’d had as a mermaid disappeared.
“Amazing!” Rin whispered, touching the smooth skin of her legs. “How did you do that?”
The girl smiled. “Well, because my mama is-“
A crash came from behind them. Rin and the girl looked up, startled, at the sight of Ibrahim standing in a doorway, a silver tray on the ground at his feet. He looked shocked at the sight of the two of them, and then his shock changed to anger. Rin knew then it was time to run.
Without a word to the girl, Rin rolled upright to her feet and pulled the girl with her. At the same time, Ibrahim yelled for his guards and rushed after them himself. The girl ran for the hole she’d used to enter into the warehouse in the first place and started to go through. Rinally knew she wouldn’t make it through in time to stop Ibrahim and his guards from grabbing them, so she planted herself between the girl and their escape route, lifted her staff, pointed it at all three men and shouted, “Blizzara!”
Ice crystals formed in the air around Rinally’s staff and grew thicker as she fed power into the spell. The Blizzara spell crashed into Ibrahim and his guards and flung them across the warehouse into crates and tapestries, knocking the contents over. Rin swept her staff down to her side and then up diagonally across her body, casting another Blizzara spell. This one was designed to delay their pursuit while she and the girl made their escape, and froze the air between them and Ibrahim. That done, Rinally quickly turned to follow the girl through the hole in the warehouse wall, and hand in hand, they ran down the back alley into the street where they disappeared into the crowds.
“This way!” the girl shouted, pulling Rin with her through the packed market street to another and another until they broke free of the market district and ended up somewhere more residential. The girl began to slow then, taking a quick turn that headed down a flight of stairs. Rinally followed her, taking the stairs down two at a time to keep up with the girl.
They finally seemed to reach a place that seemed safe enough to stop. Rin doubled over with her hands on her knees and sucked in deep breaths of air into her burning lungs. The girl was doing much the same.
“Think we lost them?” the girl asked as soon as she was able to speak without gasping.
Rin rose and looked over her shoulder. “Looks that way.”
“I’m Melody.”
Rin turned to find the girl holding out her hand. She smiled and took Melody’s hand in her own. “I’m Rinally.”
“I saw what you did back there. That was magic! Only my grandfather’s trident can do things like that. How can you?”
Rin lifted her hand and summoned her staff. “This is my witch’s staff. It lets me focus my power so I can cast spells.”
Melody stared with wide eyes at Rinally’s staff. Then she smiled widely. “So you’re a good witch?”
“Are there bad witches here?”
Melody’s face went from happy to sad. “There were, once. My mama fought an evil witch before she married my dad, and I fought an evil witch to save my mama and my family. I thought it was over, you know? But then my grandfather showed up, like I said, and I decided that I would stop the witch from being revived.”
“You fought the witch in the ice?”
Melody nodded.
Rin smiled. “You’re a brave girl, standing up to someone like that.”
“I had help.”
“Every hero does.”
Melody seemed to beam at her.
Rinally looked away from the girl up to the town and the castle that loomed over it. It definitely wasn’t safe for her and Melody to be wandering around the town now, because Ibrahim and his men would be looking for them. But Rin didn’t know this place as well as Melody did, and Rin was starting to understand better who Melody was. A twelve year old girl standing up against a monster of a witch on her own wasn’t a normal girl. And the fact that Melody hadn’t been frightened upon seeing Rin the mermaid, and had helped her get her legs back. An old lesson floated to the forefront of Rinally’s mind: those who are familiar with a certain kind of magic are those who are closest to it.
“Melody,” Rin began, “you’re part mermaid, aren’t you?”
Melody’s beaming face suddenly became subdued. She looked away from Rinally, toward the glittering ocean. “Yeah.”
“And you know who’s in that iceberg?”
“Yeah.”
“You fought her before.”
Melody nodded this time, rather than answer.
Rinally took a deep breath and let it out silently. “I wasn’t lying to you when I said my friends and I were brought here to stop something bad from happening. My two friends are still out there in the ocean somewhere. Their names are Kaoru and Kai. They’re Keyblade wielders. I need to find them, because the only way we can stop this bad thing from happening is if we’re together.”
Melody pressed her lips together and continued to stare out at the ocean.
“You said your grandfather came to talk to your mom about the lady in the iceberg and two strangers. I think those two strangers are definitely my friends.”
Melody continued to say nothing.
Rinally sighed, this time louder. “Melody, you saved me and I’m really grateful for that. I don’t know what I’d do without you. But right now, I need you to trust me. Okay?”
Now Melody turned to face Rinally, and in the twelve-year-old’s face, Rin saw the strength of the girl who stood up to a terrifying witch, who had protected her family, who had fought against terrible odds to come out victorious at the end. “Mama has a friend who’s a Keyblade wielder, too.”
Rin smiled. “Is his name Sora?”
Melody’s mouth formed that shocked ‘o’ again before a hesitant smile appeared on her face. “You know Sora?”
“He’s pretty cute, isn’t he?”
Melody blushed. “Yeah, he is.”
Rinally smiled and held out her hand to Melody. “So will you take me to see your mama? I think we’re going to have to work together to find out what’s going on and then put a stop to it.”
Melody grasped Rin’s hand and gave her a fierce and brave smile. Without a word, the little girl pulled Rinally along behind her back through the streets. It was only as they reached the giant bridge that led to the palace that Rinally finally realized the other secret Melody had been keeping.
As the guards started toward both girls, Rinally asked, “Melody, you’re a princess, aren’t you?”
Melody gave a small smile in response before saying, “Not a princess. The princess. My mom is Queen Ariel and my dad is King Eric. She’s human now, but Mama used to be a mermaid. Her father, my grandfather, is king of Atlantica.”
When the guards surrounded them and escorted them toward the palace itself, Rinally caught sight of a beautiful woman with bright red hair standing at the open doors of the castle beside a handsome man with the same black hair and blue eyes as the girl beside Rin. They both stared at Rinally for a long while before looking toward Melody, then back to Rin. She took a deep breath, strapped some steel to her spine, and introduced herself to King Eric and Queen Ariel.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn