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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-Eight - Esthar

The guards didn’t even give them a passing glance as they headed into the palace. Upon stepping into the main lobby of the building, Kaoru could see why. There were guards everywhere. The strangely-uniformed soldiers stood at nearly every entrance that led deeper into the palace, but the lobby was filled with people. Men and women stood in groups, laughing or talking. Some held folders and binders, others held books, but all were dressed in the same outfit of long robes in varying colors. Kaoru felt very out of place standing there, but no one seemed to mind their presence, so Kaoru led his friends a little further into the lobby where they could find a place to stand that wasn’t in the way, and where they could watch the goings on without seeming too suspicious.
“I think I see an information desk.” Rin said. She pointed across the room to where a large, half-circle desk stood, manned by a young woman with brown-streaked black hair in a long blue sweater and a black jumpsuit. She didn’t look that much older than seventeen, and it was clear she was bored, because she was leaning her chin on her hand and watching the crowd of people in the lobby with a completely disinterested stare.
“Should we go over there?” Kaoru wondered.
“Wouldn’t hurt. Besides, she looks friendly enough.”
“We should still be careful,” Kai warned.
So it was with caution that the three wove their way toward the information desk and the young woman sitting behind it. When she spotted Kaoru, Kai, and Rinally, the young woman perked up a little bit, her eyes a warm honey gold as she studied each of them. She offered them a bright smile and leaned on her elbows.
“Hi!” she said brightly. “Welcome to the Presidential Palace. My name’s Rinoa. What can I do for you?”
Kaoru blinked. A bright light shone from Rinoa, similar to the light he’d seen from Belle and from Tae. But he didn’t get the feeling she was a Princess. Rather, he felt she was something else entirely. “Um, my name’s Kaoru, and this is Kai and Rinally. We’re, um, conducting some research and maybe you can help us.”
Rinoa blinked. “Oh, research, huh? You must be Odine’s new assistants then. He said he’d send some by sooner or later.”
“Who’s Odine?” Rinally asked.
Rinoa raised a brow and some of the warmth left her golden eyes. Kaoru glanced at Kai, and got confirmation about the same thing he had sensed. No, Rinoa wasn’t just some secretary bored at her job; she was a fighter, and she was going on the defensive.
Hoping to diffuse the tension rising, Kaoru said, “No, we’re not here for Odine. We’re doing research on any strange events that have happened in Esthar. Have you noticed anything different or out of the ordinary?”
Rinoa relaxed a little then, curiosity appearing on her face. “Is this for some school project or something?”
Kaoru nodded, not trusting himself to answer verbally. He had never been a very good liar, and since Rin and Kai weren’t chiming in, it was up to him to try and sell their story to Rinoa. “We were walking around the city all day trying to find something worth investigating.”
Rinoa tapped her fingertips against her lips. “Well, nothing interesting has happened. Esthar is protected by the OCS, the Optical Camouflage System, so nothing from the outside can come in. And it’s been pretty peaceful for a long while. There was an incident a while back, but it was kept all very quiet. Only the President and his advisors and a few other people know about it.”
Kaoru canted his head to the side. “I suppose you know about it?”
Rinoa grinned. “Of course. I was there.”
“What happened?”
“Well, a few months ago, the OCS malfunctioned. That isn’t supposed to happen, but it did. Anyway, this little girl appeared out of nowhere, just floating down from the sky. Odine immediately started calling her a sorceress, which around here, is kind of a bad term, but President Loire said that there was no way the girl could be a sorceress as there’s only one around here, and that’s me. But he called me anyway, and I tested the girl, and she’s got about as much magical ability as the rest of us, but nowhere near my level.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Kaoru saw Rinally tense. In response to her reaction, Kaoru straightened a little more himself. He looked into Rinoa’s eyes and asked, “Where is that little girl now?”
The wariness returned to Rinoa’s eyes. “You three are from the outside, aren’t you?” she asked, her voice low. “Don’t deny it. I saw your faces when I mentioned the OCS. Anyone from Esthar already knows what that is. No one would react with blank faces like you did.”
Kaoru looked at Kai and Rinally. Kai lifted his shoulders in a shrug, but turned to keep an eye on the guards. Rinally did the same, but Kaoru knew she was intently listening to Rinoa. He knew she wasn’t about to speak up; the mysterious little girl appearing from the sky might not be her sister Yukari, but she was hoping it was. Rinoa’s eyes flicked to Kai and Rin and Kaoru saw the moment she sized them up and considered her likelihood of victory if she fought them.
Laying his hands flat on the desk, Kaoru leaned closer to Rinoa. “Do you know anything about the Keyblade?”
Rinoa stilled and stared at Kaoru with wide eyes. Then she glanced around the lobby as if she was trying to see if anyone else had heard him. She leaned forward and put a finger to her lips. “Go back outside to the front of the Palace. I’ll meet you there in five minutes. Don’t talk to anyone else and don’t draw attention to yourselves.”
“Wait.” Kai said, turning to face her. “How can we trust you?”
“Because you don’t have any choice.” Rinoa replied, her tone even. “And I haven’t called the guards to arrest you yet. I promise, I’ll meet you outside in five minutes, and I will come alone.”
Kaoru touched Kai’s arm and tilted his head. The redhead glowered at Rinoa for a minute longer, then turned and followed Kaoru and Rin out of the Palace lobby and back into the street. Kai insisted on placing themselves close to an exit where they could easily run - or jump, as Rin pointed out, and she could float them down with an Aero spell - and waited for Rinoa. Five minutes later, as promised, Rinoa came trotting out of the palace, smiling at the guards and giving a little bit of a conversation, raising her hands as if to stop them from following her. She shook her head, gave them a brilliant smile, and then waved at them as she walked with purpose toward Kaoru, Kai, and Rinally. As if to sell whatever story she had told the guards, she embraced each of them in a tight hug, like one would do to a friend.
“Come with me.” Rinoa said. She began to walk down the left hand street, and Kaoru hurried to catch up. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Rinoa said, “So you guys know about the Keyblade?”
“We asked you that question first.” Kai said.
Rinoa nodded. “Yes, well, I wouldn’t say we know the Keyblade Masters personally, but we’ve heard of them. I mean, who hasn’t? But anything more than stories only the President and his advisors know, which makes it very interesting that you guys know about it. That tells me you three aren’t from Esthar, and somehow you were able to get through the OCS without triggering any alarms.”
“We’re Keyblade wielders.” Kaoru said, keeping his voice low. “Me and Kai, anyway. Rinally is-“
“A sorceress.” Rinoa interrupted. “I felt it the moment you entered the Palace.”
Rinally folded her arms over her chest and stared at Rinoa. “How could you? No one else was able to tell.”
“That’s because they don’t know what to look for. And these people have a preconceived notion of what a sorceress is supposed to look like. Now, if you had done something flashy, then yeah, everyone would be screaming and saying you were the cause of whatever problem just happened.”
“Is that why Odine was calling that little girl a sorceress?” Rinally asked. “Because she did something flashy?”
“She just arrived in a flashy way.” Rinoa waved her hand dismissively. “Odine’s the kind of guy to scream ‘fire’ in a crowded theater if it would get him what he wanted. He’s been doing research on sorceresses his entire life, and if I wasn’t under the protection of President Loire himself, I’m sure I’d be Odine’s newest guinea pig. I’m sure if that little girl wasn’t under President Loire’s protection, and always hanging out with his daughter, Odine would attempt to abduct her and study her, too. If he found out you were a sorceress, and you two were Keyblade wielders, he’d be drooling at the chance to “study” you.”
Kaoru shivered despite the warmth in the air. “I suppose we should avoid Odine then.”
“If he tries to lay a hand on me, I’ll rip them off.” Kai growled.
“Don’t you mean-“
“I mean what I say, Kaoru.”
Both Rinoa and Rinally looked a little green, but Rinoa recovered first and said, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry overmuch about Odine. I don’t know what you guys are doing here, but I’m sure it’ll probably be important, so the President won’t let him get at you.”
“So why did you want to meet us alone?” Rinally asked. “Especially if you were going to introduce us to the President?”
“I just wanted to make sure you were what I thought you were, and I didn’t want to get into a fight if it could be avoided. I wasn’t certain if I was going to introduce you at first, either.” Rinoa clasped her hands together and stretched her arms above her head, as if she were loosening up for some kind of strenuous activity. “I have a responsibility to Esthar as its sorceress, and I have a responsibility to protect the President, since he’s protecting me.”
Kai blew out a long sigh. “If you were just going to decide that, we didn’t need to go on this long walk.”
“Oh, yes, we did.” Rinoa replied, her lips twisting into a bright smile. “Come on, keep up now.”
Glancing at each other, Kaoru, Kai, and Rinally decided to be ready for the absolute worst. Rinally readied a spell but held it in check and Kaoru and Kai were ready to call their Keyblades to their hands. They didn’t know what Rinoa was leading them into and they didn’t want to be caught off guard. They followed her wordlessly, glancing about the streets and the people walking or riding floating disks in the skyway. People seemed to recognize Rinoa and some waved at her, smiled at her, and asked her random questions while others quickened their pace, glowered at her, or ignored her completely. Kaoru noticed that the latter reactions made the Light Rinoa shined with dim slightly, as if the reactions hurt her heart.
He matched her stride to come alongside her and asked, “I guess not everyone likes you?”
“It’s the fact I’m a sorceress.” Rinoa said. “See, a long time ago, Esthar city was ruled by a very cruel sorceress named Adel. She kidnapped lots of children in order to find a successor for her powers, but none of them ever came back. She also mistreated her own people to the point that they decided on a revolution. The President was the leader of that revolution, and it was thanks to him and his friends that Adel was defeated at last. They sealed her in a special prison and put her somewhere no one would ever be able to find her. But because of what Adel did, the people of Esthar don’t trust sorceresses. It’s only because they love President Loire, and because I helped protect Esthar from another bad sorceress, Ultimecia, that they tolerate me.”
“Were you born a sorceress?” Rinally asked.
Rinoa shook her head. “No. I inherited my powers from a sorceress named Edea. She was my teacher, and when Ultimecia came to Esthar, Edea fought her to protect us and the city. But the sorceress was too powerful for her alone, and she was badly wounded. Edea transferred her powers to me so that Ultimecia couldn’t take them from her, and I, with the help of the President and his friends, managed to beat Ultimecia so that she could be sealed away, too.”
“What did they do with her?”
“She’s sealed in the Sorceress Memorial. It’s under constant guard, so no one gets any ideas about releasing her. They’d be killed before they even got close. Only the President can go there, and anyone who accompanies him has to get clearance.”
Kaoru exchanged looks with Rinally and Kai. “Rinoa,” Kaoru started, “have you ever heard of an organization called the Brotherhood?”
“Have I heard of-“
Rinoa’s response was cut off as a massive explosion rocked the city. Kaoru threw up his arms to shield his face from the cloud that suddenly engulfed them, and his armor appeared on his arm and hand, glimmering with prismatic light. He went to his hands and knees as the street they were on suddenly shook violently. Cracks appeared in the concrete, and all around him he could hear people screaming. When the dust cloud cleared, Kaoru got to his feet and rushed to the edge of the street, where he could see the entirety of the city. His eyes went wide for a second with recognition, then he pulled himself up onto the edge of the wall and summoned Guardian to his hand.
He half turned to look at Kai and Rinally and shouted to them, “It’s a Heartless! Kai, if we jump, we can get there faster. Rin, stay with Rinoa, and try to get people evacuated! Once you do that, join us, okay?”
“Okay!” Rinally shouted back. “Just be careful!”
“We will!” Kaoru promised. Then he turned his attention back onto the Heartless smashing its way through the city streets, certain he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn’t remember where. He pushed it to the back of his mind, knowing he didn’t have the time to think too heavily about it.
Kai joined him on the railing, his armor gleaming with darkness. Sanctuary appeared in his hand, giving off a diffuse glow from its proximity to Guardian. Guardian, too, began to give off a diffuse glow as if in reaction. Without giving each other a signal, the two Keyblade wielders leaped from the street to the one below, then to the one below that, and the one below that, until they were on the same level as the Heartless. They each took a breath, adjusted their grips on their Keyblades, and started forward at a swift pace, racing toward the giant monster that was slamming its tusks into nearby buildings in its rampage.
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn