Redemption Frägment

Chapter Twelve: Fight for Life

We come to a stuttering halt before a gaping hole, staring down for a moment. The hole is deep, seemingly never-ending. Seifer unsheathes Hyperion and carefully prods the slanting wall with the blade. I can’t help but jump as Seifer curses, falling back and holding his gunblade out of range of the sharp spikes that suddenly protrude from the wall.

“Well, that was smart,” Zack says dryly, earning a glare from the blonde.

“How are we going to get across?” Riku asks, folding his arms over his chest.

-Piercing yellow eyes, narrowed in anger and hatred.-

-Fearful blue, staring up blankly, encased in ice.-

-Blue-green, shivering and breaking with tears.-

“Jump it seems,” Zack replies to his son, unfurling his white wing. He takes a few steps back, glowing eyes narrowed and calculated in a look that strikes Riku profoundly. He takes off running, pushing off the lip of the hole and soaring weightless through the air to hit the ground on the other side, falling into a tumble to take the impact on his shoulder. He rolls to his feet, brushing dirt off his clothes. “Next!”

Riku pushes me forward and puts a hand on my shoulder to soothe me. I swallow, take a few steps back and let out my breath in a huge sigh. I take off running, leaping, weightless.

-Weightless darkness.-

-“Physical strength is nothing compared to mental.”-

-Suffocating blackness, the only light tiny dots in the far off night sky.-

I hit the other side, tucking my shoulder to roll. I lack the grace Zack has, though, and end up rolling into the wall. Riku jumps over and lands with feline skill, moving over to me to help me stand. We all look to Seifer, who is alone on the first side of the hole. The blonde is snarling, grabbing onto a small furry green creature. Seifer’s cursing, tugging at the creature nibbling on his ear.

Speaking of furry creatures… where’d Emma go?

I can feel the animosity grow in our general area when the trio appears behind Seifer. Seifer can feel it too, stilling as the curses die on his lips. Almost immediately, the blonde’s moving again, Hyperion sheathed as he whirls, reaching out to grab a hold on the blue-grey eyed brunette who looks like he’s about to kill Seifer.

Sora lands in front of us unexpectedly, pushing me out of the way to get at Riku, grabbing the startled boy and refusing to let him go, even to let Riku breathe.

It takes me a moment to realize there’s a presence beside me, the last member of the trio, standing calmly beside Zack. A gloved hand is running over his cheek before the man leans in to kiss him. I feel a blush creeping up my neck as I watch them kiss, disgusted with myself for invading their privacy so and mesmerized at the same time. Their tongues touch and fight for dominance until Zack relents, allowing the other into his mouth.

Riku somehow extracts himself from Sora’s hold and moves to punch the silver-haired man, glaring into glowing cat-like green eyes.

“Stop eating mom for a moment and say ‘hi’ to me.” He says.

The silver-haired man gets an odd look on his face, staring at Riku for the longest time, certain to make anyone uncomfortable. But the man soon reaches out, putting a hand on Riku’s head.

“Hi.”

There’s cursing from behind us from Seifer, and he and his brunette soon join us. I become aware of our little group’s entanglements. The silver-haired man and Zack; Seifer and the brunette; and Sora and Riku. There’s some level of emotional attachment between them all, drawing them close and forcing them to need the other in some way. I look away, unable to keep staring.

-You have no one.-

-You are mine, apprentice. None shall come for you, because I created you.-

-You will fight for me; you will kill them for me.-

I close my eyes tight and force away those strange dreams, the images bubbling up of an old man threatening a younger man, of three armoured warriors glaring death at the young masked man.

I don’t know who they are.

I don’t know what they are.

Who am I then? Why am I remembering this? Is it memories?

I’m drawn back to reality not by the loneliness I feel, but the low sound of the older brunette’s voice, explaining what they’re doing here, and what we’ve just walked into.

A sacrificial game, one my group entered like blind mice and Sora’s group entered to save our collective ass. At one point, we can no longer hear the voices of anyone else in the caves, and wonder if we’re the only ones left now.

Low rate of survival always brings out the best in people.

Edging into the next room, we see one tunnel and near-automatically, we move toward it.

“Wait.” Squall hisses, that single word bringing us to a halt. “Something isn’t right here.”

I listen for a moment, hearing loud rumbling coming from somewhere beneath us. Curses split the air as the earth opens up beneath our feet, sucking us down into it after a sheer second of weightlessness.

My only thought now is that we’re going to die.

Separated.

Alone.