Author’s Note: Okay, so these were just some plot bunnies running around my head that I decided to get down finally. I’m not taking time away from Smile, I just wanted a little side project. This is kind of a different take than I normally do, which is why I wanted to do it. I think we can all admit that this is a slightly more plausible situation.. but still, who can resist adding some spice in life?

I took some creative liberties with the Lunar Ruins, so nobody bitch. You’ve been warned. It’s an AU in-game type thing.

And psst- write more Kain/Rydia stories! We shall convert all those pesky Edge/Rydia fans! Teehee… not that there is anything wrong with them. Just.. squicky.

Libera Me

A strangely quiet air had settled over the Lunar Whale. The occupants were snuggled into the sleeping niches, oblivious to the inky black shadows that pooled on the metal surfaces. The darkness was like a cloak settling over the ship, and keeping its occupants in the dark to everything that moved.

There was one who noticed. There was one that stirred from his mattress and rose, grabbing both his helmet and lance from their place next to his quarters. He liked the feel of his weapon in his fingers again, for it gave him more confidence. And confidence was exactly what he needed when faced with the brisk emptiness that made up the moon’s surface.

His feet crunched on the bits of lunar rock that skittered over the craters and valleys. It was cool, but not necessarily cold, and there was no wind on the harsh, barren moon. The only sign of life as he gazed out over the landscape was the shimmer that reflected off the Lunar Mousse’s backs as they patrolled the surface in search of food. What these strange lunar creatures ate, he was not sure.

He was sorry to leave the safety and security of the Lunar Whale. The big ship had a mystical aura around it that exuded a stability he hadn’t felt in months. But he knew what he had to do, and he was prepared to go through with it.

He began walking, setting out in no particularly direction at all, knowing that the moon itself was small enough that it didn’t take much time to cover the entire surface. To his right, in the distance, were the sparkling spires of the Lunar Palace, which looked eerily violet in the atmosphere. He held his lance trustily in his left hand, prepared to encounter lunar monsters seeking easy prey.

Footsteps sounded behind him, mimicking his crunching noises. He spun, immediately in an aggressive battle stance, lance held outward in front of his body, legs finding firm footing amidst lunar pebbles.

“Are you leaving to betray us again?” came a harsh female voice. Kain let his lance drop down to his side, the tone and accusation in her voice angering him more than a little. Rydia’s hands were on her hips, her entire form a pinnacle of scorn.

Kain decided he didn’t want to merit her shamelessness with an answer, and he simply turned away from her, going back to his journey. Instead of returning to the ship as he had hoped she might, her footsteps sped up rapidly and her hand grabbed his elbow in an uncommonly rough manner.

“I will not let you turn us all in again!” she hissed, using so much force on his arm that he was forced to stop. Kain wretched his elbow away from her grasp.

“I’m not betraying anyone,” he snarled at her, glad that his helmet kept his face shrouded in darkness. There was a grain of hurt in his expression, hurt that this wisp of a mage didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, and knowing that her doubts were well-founded didn’t make it any easier to hear.

“Why Cecil and Rosa trust you, I don’t know,” she spat, “but I don’t trust you at all, and I’m not letting you go out there to destroy us all.”

Kain glared at the young woman, caught in an emotion somewhere between loathing and defensiveness. His honor, while barely there anymore, was on the line.

“What I’m doing is my own business, and you’ll do best to stay out of it,” he growled, wishing the Summoner would go away.

“I could kill you with a chant,” she warned him quietly, and he knew it was true. Perhaps it was wrong to push the girl away, but her blatant dislike for him wasn’t helping his already precarious situation. If Zemus was to be defeated, and Kain was to regain his dignity, he had to find a little outside help.

The Dragoon stiffened and said nothing for a moment. The Mysidian elder had been very clear about the Lunar Ruins possessing the idea of vindication and redemption, and while the elder hadn’t explicitly said that it was to be tackled alone, Kain had naturally figured that his deliverance from his sins was a personal quest.

“I won’t let you go alone,” Rydia’s eyes blazed with hatred. “I’m going with you to make sure you don’t ruin everything we’ve fought for.”

“I’ve fought too, little mage,” Kain told her, almost wearily. “Just not battles you can see.”

“Stop being condescending,” she huffed, but her anger seemed to have toned down a bit. “I’m not a little girl anymore. And tell me where we are going before I wake the others and inform them of your desertion.”

Kain sheathed his lance with a sigh, watching as a few feet in front of him, a Lunar Worm scrambled out of a rock tunnel to look at them. The creature seemed to calculate the odds, and then turned and went in search of an easier dinner. Kain was almost sorry- it would have been a welcome distraction to fight a monster.

“The Elder told me there were Lunar Ruins here,” the Dragoon explained, feeling as if the information had been forced out of him. “I’m seeking them for redemption.”

“Redemption,” Rydia snorted. From the tone of her voice, Kain gathered that she didn’t think a traitor like himself could ever achieve it. But she said no more on the subject, and once Kain started walking again, she followed.

They strode in silence, Rydia a couple of steps back as if watching his movements to anticipate a betrayal. Kain wished he could tell her of his pain and of the misunderstandings, of all the things he harbored in his heart. But he couldn’t even reveal them to his best friend, and sometimes he couldn’t even admit them himself. The pain in his heart over what he had done to those who had once cared for him was the driving force behind his wish to defeat Zemus.

He knew that he was not free of blame on the subject of his mind-control. His heart had enough blackness in it that evil had found him a prime target for manipulation. And that fact alone nearly made him sick.

“You aren’t going to leave them to fight Zemus alone, are you?” the Summoner asked finally, breaking the awkward and uncomfortable moonscape silence. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked as if she felt she had been forced to accompany him for the good of the group, just to make sure.

“It’s my battle too,” Kain frowned, the corners of his mouth tugging downward in thought. “I made a promise to assist Cecil.”

“I didn’t think traitors like you had honor,” she quipped haughtily. Kain felt that any response would only anger her further, and since she had thrust her services on him, and also because he feared being the object of her magical wrath, he bit his tongue.

They walked a bit further in an extended silence, encountering only a few skittering Lunar Mousse creatures, who broke out into a run when the two humans approached them. Any hopes of using a fight to get aggression out was clearly going to have to wait until they encountered the enigmatic Lunar Ruins.

Rydia suddenly gave out a yelp and Kain could hear pebbles crunching as she fell to the surface. Turning around, and contemplating helping her up despite her intense and obvious distrust of him, he found her kneeling and gazing down a darkened hole in the surface.

“I think this might be what you’re looking for,” she said, pointing down to where a small amount of light from an unknown source was lighting up a spiraling staircase. Kain adopted her stance and searched for any sign of a trap.

After studying the staircase for a moment, and feeling Rydia’s somewhat annoyed gaze on him, Kain gave out a sigh and started down the staircase.

“Are you going?” she asked, perhaps thinking that he was faking it and was planning on another turn of colors. Kain stopped and looked up at her, for the first time that night feeling as if he had the upper hand.

“No, I’m just testing to see if its real,” he said, but smiled to soften the sarcasm. He really didn’t want to push the young woman further away. Rydia initially looked angered by his comment, and then finally relented and smiled with him.

“Right, stupid question,” she agreed. “I’ll follow you down.”

“You still doubt my intentions?” he asked, gingerly letting his feet drop down onto the first step, which rumbled and swayed a bit but then steadied. He didn’t think the steps would be the dangerous part of the ruins.

“I’m just looking out for my friends,” she snapped, emphasizing the word friends as if Kain was not included in them. Kain, for his part, simply shook his head, realizing that forgiveness from everyone was probably a long time coming. In all seriousness, he wasn’t even sure he could ever restore the too far gone relationships his betrayals had destroyed.

But for now, the idea of redemption was enough to get him entering strange underground ruins on the moon. And maybe that was enough.

o.0.o.0.o.

Cecil awoke with a start, his mind screaming at him that something was amiss. His first reaction was to glance over at Rosa, whose sleeping form was steadily rising and falling with each breath. She seemed peaceful and serene, golden curls strewn over her pillow.

Having found no harm coming to his love, Cecil decided that it would be a good idea to check the rest of his companions. Edge was snoring softly, stretched out on his back like a cat. Every once in awhile he would mutter something and move a little, then settle back into the pillow and resume his deep breathing.

The Paladin crawled out of bed, but only had to make it halfway to the middle of the room to find that the other two beds were empty. He froze where he was, scanning over both beds as if to find evidence about where the last two had gone.

Kain being gone hurt him, but did not surprise him. The Dragoon’s repeated betrayals had begun to weigh heavily in Cecil’s mind. He was already spinning from the revelation that Golbez was actually his brother, and he was afraid that perhaps he had taken his friend back a little to hastily. Just because the hold on Golbez had been broken, did not mean that Zemus was finished with Kain.

But Rydia being gone posed a different threat. Either she had gone off and Kain had followed, or Kain had left and she had gone with. She could have gone by force, she could have gone by choice, or she could now be being used as a pawn to barter for more power.

Cecil didn’t see any situation being a positive one. He knew the Summoner did not trust Kain after his transgressions, and he worried that perhaps one of the two would snap. He feared that perhaps the evil hold on Kain had not yet been broken.

He stood as he was, wondering if he should wake the others and inform them of what he had found. Both looked so peaceful and rested in their sleep that he hated to be the bearer of bad news.

He turned and quietly crept back into his bed. He had no idea how much of a head start the two had on his discovery of their departure, and he didn’t know where they would have gone. He felt certain that neither was rash enough to attempt to enter the Lunar Palace without the group, but other than that, he didn’t know of anywhere on the surface that would have proven so exciting that they couldn’t wait until the others woke up to visit.

Realizing that there was probably a great deal he didn’t know, and worrying for Rydia’s safety with the Dragoon, Cecil settled himself back down on his pillow. He could only hope for the best and wait until his other companions were rested, and then see if Rosa could do a locating spell.

He closed his eyes, but had a hard time sleeping.

o.0.o.0.o.

“This seems strange,” Rydia commented as the two made their way down the winding staircase. Each step would creak and groan, as if it wanted to cave in on itself and decided against it, and they took the descent carefully and cautiously. Kain went first at Rydia’s insistence, and he had a feeling it was because she thought his life was more expendable than her own.

“It does seem odd,” Kain agreed, wondering not for the first time where the light inside the ruins was coming from. There appeared to be no source for it, and he knew it wasn’t coming from the surface itself. The only explanation seemed to be a magical energy supplying it, but even that seemed hard to believe.

“What else did the Elder tell you about this place?” the Summoner asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Her exhale was an obvious hint that she was glad to be off the steps. Kain walked up to a large arch leading into a long corridor, which seemed to have several rooms jutting off to the sides.

The entire place had an eerie, bluish cast to it, as if a navy veil had been thrown over whatever was casting the light. It was surreal and uneasy feeling.

“Nothing more,” Kain shrugged. “He didn’t know anything else other than the existence of them. He said something about it being in an old legend.”

“You mean the legend about Cecil,” Rydia stated, her tone implying that it was not a question. She was giving him an obvious hint that Cecil was a good and righteous figure, and that Kain himself was nothing more than a traitor to the noble cause. The Dragoon nearly stopped, but decided that letting her sarcastic jabs go unanswered was probably for the best.

Besides, when she wasn’t complaining or insulting him, he enjoyed her company. The ruins were significantly more uncomfortable than he had anticipated.

“Another legend,” Kain finally said in response. “Another about vindication.”

“Other than Mt. Ordeals?” this time the Summoner did ask a question, although by the pitch of her voice it sounded like she was doubting the validity of the statement.

“Yes,” the Dragoon replied. “There is more than one place to receive redemption in this world.”

If Rydia caught the annoyance in his tone, she didn’t make a mention of it. Instead she followed him down the hallway, which seemed to light up as they passed through the sections of it. At the first right he could make Kain looked around the corner, and found himself staring into a large, open room. From the ceiling hung crystals that glistened in the mystical light. Down the center of the room was a narrow pathway, open on each side to a large and sudden drop.

Underneath the pathway ran a river of water. Pieces of white ice were swept along the current, and they bobbed in and out of the water like birds paddling on the surface. All in all the room looked rather dangerous, and not inviting.

Kain shook his head and began to walk forward down the corridor, only to find that he couldn’t.. An invisible barrier was keeping him from continuing his trek down the hallway. He put a hand up to it, baffled, and found that his fingers stopped in midair with nothing to show for it.

Rydia, who was watching him with an amused curiosity, tried herself. Both were stuck behind some kind of force field.

“Is it magic?” Kain asked, dropping his hand and looking at his companion. “Can you break it?”

Rydia frowned, concentrating, and chanted something. The air between her hands shimmered and turned green, but then fizzled into nothing, the embers of the spell trickling to the ground and fading out. She turned her gaze up to him.

“It’s not something I can break,” she explained, then her look turned cloudy and almost mad. “And no, before you ask, it’s not because I’m not talented.”

Kain let out a bark of a laugh at that, which the Summoner took to mean that he was making fun of her. She raised her hand to swat at him, and he was glad that it wasn’t to cast a Bio spell in his direction, and he waved his hands in front of himself in an effort to clarify.

“Why are you laughing at me?” she cried out, clearly upset. Her eyes were flashing again and Kain didn’t much like the idea of spells going off in the strange, magical ruins he was supposed to use to deliver himself from his sins. Somehow, he doubted whatever he was going up against would enjoy the show.

“I would never call you untalented,” the Dragoon stopped his chortling. “I’ve seen you fry the wings off a Zu, the last thing I would ever do is question your power.”

At that her face relaxed, and she actually smiled, smoothed by the praise.

“Oh,” she said, looking suddenly bashful and embarrassed. “Sorry. I just thought that you only saw me as a nuisance.”

Kain, instead of answering that he thought of her as anything but, looked once more into the daunting room with the tide of freezing water. The water looked incredibly blue and clear, which only served to display the chunks of ice hidden within.

“I guess we have to go that way,” Kain said, resigned.

o.0.o.0.o.

Cecil awoke to Edge screaming something nonsensical about Rydia not being in her sleeping niche. It woke up Rosa too, who was up and out of bed faster than Cecil had even had time to process what was going on. She looked over at Kain’s bed, biting her lip.

“Kain’s gone too,” she said softly, her voice soothing to the overreacting Ninja. She and Edge stood side by side, glancing between the two empty niches. Cecil rose more slowly, trying to blink the gathered sleep out of his eyes. He pushed the covers that had somehow traveled with him back onto the mattress, joining the other two.

“They left sometime last night,” he explained. He instantly regretted it, wishing he’d chosen different words, for Edge rounded on him and snarled something terrible.

“You knew about this?” he hissed angrily, pointing at the two empty beds. Cecil shook his head.

“I woke up last night and found them both gone,” he elaborated. “I didn’t want to wake the two of you because I knew there wasn’t anything we could do at less than full strength. I don’t know where they’ve gone, or why.”

Edge fell back, silenced into thought, but Rosa stepped forward, putting her hand on Cecil’s arm and squeezing it in a comforting gesture.

“Do you think Kain…?” she let her voice trail off, but Cecil knew the words that had gone unspoken. He shook his head sadly, staring at his boots.

“I don’t know,” he answered softly. “I don’t know what happened.”

“We can’t go in the Palace without them,” Edge said firmly. “We have to find them.”

“We don’t know where they’ve gone,” Rosa countered in her demure manner. Somehow she had the ability to calm the most chaotic of nerves. Edge, having been countered, looked to Cecil for the plans. The Paladin hated having everything rest on his shoulders almost as much as he enjoyed knowing he had done everything he could. The role of a leader was as much of a hindrance as it was a blessing.

“I think we wait,” he said at first, and then, noticing the way the Ninja bristled instantly, added, “for awhile. Let’s see what happens before we do anything rash.”

Rosa nodded in agreement, and Edge muttered something about having no other choice.

Cecil glanced out the cockpit windows of the ship, surveying the barren and harsh moonscape. The craters dipped into valleys, the Palace shone in the distance. There was no sign of their companions, nor any sign of a struggled with a lunar creature.

They were simply going to have to wait. There really wasn’t much else they could do.

o.0.o.0.o.

Kain surveyed the pathway in front of him, not particularly enjoying the sharp drop that led down to the churning waters. The ice seemed to have multiplied within the river, leading nearly the entire thing to be a deathtrap of white slabs. The Dragoon looked at the young woman next to him.

“We have to cross,” she said, too frightened by the scene to be short with him. Her concern for the situation had clearly overrode her distrust of her comrade.

Kain turned back to the pathway, and put one foot on it hesitantly. He had mentally prepared himself for the entire walkway to go crashing into the waters below the minute pressure was applied to it, and he held his breath, and when nothing happened he wondered if something really was watching out for him after all.

He took another hesitant step, letting out the breath he’d been holding in a rush of relief. The path seemed to be able to support his full weight upon it. Rydia was intently watching his progress, no longer giving off the vibe that she wanted him to perish instead of herself.

He held out one hand to her, motioning for her to follow behind him.

“I hate heights,” she muttered under her breath as she took his hands. Her fingers wrapped very tightly around his, and Kain silently agreed to feeling the same way.

Slowly but surely the two made their way across the narrow pathway, putting one foot after another and testing out each block of walkway before allowing weight to fall upon it. It was agonizingly grim process, but after only a few moments Kain could see that they had made their way fairly far out into the middle of the path. Rydia’s fingers were curled very tightly in his, and to tell the truth, he didn’t rightly mind.

They reached the middle of the path before everything began to go wrong. Rydia’s soft-soled boots, not exactly the best thing for walking across ice-laid paths, slipped on a particularly slippery patch that Kain hadn’t paid much attention to, as his boots sunk deep into the granules and caught hold.

The young woman gave out a small cry before falling forward onto the path. Her hand slipped from Kain in the descent, and the minute her body hit the path she fell to the right side, teetering dangerously over the cliff. Her hands caught a good hold on the side, and she steadied herself on the walkway without needing any help.

The motion and jolt, however, caused the entire pathway to begin shaking in an incredibly disconcerting manner. Kain almost lost footing himself as the ground beneath him, already narrow and icy, heaved violently.

“Kain!” Rydia screeched, doe-eyes wide. Her hair was dancing around her head like Medusa’s curls in the sudden onslaught of cold air that descended upon the two.

A particularly hard rock and Kain fell to his knees, grasping for anything to hold onto. The pathway split directly between the two, bucking up sharply. The pathway they had come from, which Rydia still clung to, looking awfully small against the backdrop, began to sink into the raging current below.

Rydia cried out his name again, but Kain was already in motion. He threw himself over the side of the broken path to latch onto one of her flailing arms. Her fingernails dug painfully into the exposed skin between his arm plate and glove.

For a split second they stayed just like that, Rydia staring up at Kain with the most clear expression of trust that he had ever seen, and then the pathway beneath her fell away entirely, and she was left holding on to him, dangling above the icy waters.

Kain, who felt his body begin to slide towards her and off of what was left of the walkway, struggled as hard as he could to stay where he was. Rydia’s other arm wrapped around his wrist, and he could hear her gasp of anguish.

Her voice stirred him into action, and he heaved up as hard as he could. He and Rydia both went flying backwards along the pathway, both miraculously staying on the icy surface. Kain, who realized that the walkway they were still on could fall at any minute, didn’t even allow either of them to catch their breath. He dragged Rydia up on her feet and began running as fast as he could on the ground towards the other side.

Once they got there, they both collapsed, shaking with fright and exhaustion. Kain stared at the cold, blue crystals of ice amidst the shiny pebbles that littered the ground. His cheeks were stinging from the cold wind, and he suddenly registered that Rydia’s hand was still in his.

And he wanted to keep it that way.

o.0.o.0.o.

Cecil sat on the open doorway of the Lunar Whale, kicking lunar pebbles that rested under his feet and looking out into the distance as if watching long enough would make his comrades re-appear. He let his legs swing back and forth as if he were a child again, sitting on a bridge out in the hill country of Baron, a fishing pole between his hands.

There was a noise behind him, and Rosa appeared at his side.

“No sign of them?” she asked, knowing the answer. Cecil didn’t look at her. He continued to stare out over the expanse of nothingness that was the surface of the moon.

“What if Kain has taken her?” Cecil asked softly, not wishing to alert the brooding ninja. “What if something happens to her because I let him come with us?”

Rosa settled herself next to him, the sweet smell of flowers she always brought with her humming around the Paladin’s head. She was soft, and warm, and she always brought comfort. Only this time, Cecil blamed himself for what was happening around him. It was his blindness and shock over the discovery with Golbez that he had allowed a traitor to simply repeat the betrayals all over again.

“It’s not your fault,” Rosa said gently, reading him. “You want to trust Kain.”

“You don’t,” Cecil stated, finally looking over at her. “Not anymore.”

Rosa bit her lip in thought, intertwining her fingers with his. Cecil knew she was feeling what he was, like suddenly they had all grown up much too fast. Hadn’t it been only yesterday that they had been laughing together in Baron, not a care in the world other than the next time the Red Wings would be deployed? What had happened to his world that had existed so short a time ago?

“I want to trust him, too,” Rosa said finally, shaking her head, curls tumbling over her shoulders. Her flaxen hair stood out against the dark colors of the world around them.

“Oh, Rosa,” Cecil sighed, putting his head in his hands. “I can’t believe what happened to him. He was my best friend. I still don’t know how this came about.”

Rosa stroked his hair, wrapping around him the aura of protection that he desperately needed right now, but Cecil noticed that she didn’t say that she didn’t know how it happened either. Perhaps Rosa had seen the darkness in Kain that Zemus and Golbez had. Perhaps Cecil had simply been blind to the faults of his friend.

Even if that was the case, Cecil had no choice but to accept the truth now.

o.0.o.0.o.

The hallway they were now in was different than the last room. Instead of having a bluish glow, it had a red one. The walls looked as if they were stained with blood, a connection that didn’t really sit well in Kain’s mind. It reminded him too much of the pain and suffering he had caused to his friends, and he tried to focus on the pathway instead of the surroundings.

Rydia was next to him, walking much closer than before, now alert to the possibility of danger around every corner. She had taken a long time to remove her hand from his, and his fingers felt cold without hers in them, even if the temperatures had begun climbing into the extremes.

He was sweating, and he wiped away beads from his forehead. The ruins were more like a winding set of trials than a mystical force that would abolish past sins.

Rydia, too, was glistening in the sudden heat. Her curls had begun to cling to the back of her neck in a sticky fashion, but she seemed too intent on the passage to wipe them away.

“I’m sorry,” Kain said suddenly, the words bursting forth from him like a tidal wave. The Summoner looked up at him, uncomprehending.

“For what?” she asked. “I’m the one that decided to come with you.”

“No,” Kain shook his head. “I’m talking about what happened at Mist.”

She was silent for a long while, staring at the ground just ahead of her feet. Then she gave him a weak but real smile.

“I know,” she said resolutely, seeming to build strength as she spoke. “I know you and Cecil didn’t mean for that to happen.”

There was a silence between them, a pregnant pause. Kain wished that wherever they were going would show itself, for the walk was getting rather uncomfortable. He wanted to take off his armor, just to cool his body down, but he knew that the minute he did they would be attacked, and he would be vulnerable.

“Do you wish that you had killed me that day?” Rydia whispered, as if afraid of the answer. Kain was taken aback by the question.

“No,” he said finally, his voice hoarse. “I never wished that I had killed you. My only regret was volunteering the option at all.”

Rydia didn’t speak again.

“You were just a child,” he said, breaking a little, a wave of repressed emotions washing over him. He felt like he had led a horrible life, full of unrequited love and always being second best. Instead of appreciating the opportunities he had been given, he had always sought to beat Cecil, even when it came to love. The shame of his past brought up a choking sensation in his throat.

Rydia reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it.

“So were you,” she answered, and the meanings behind her words made him feel somewhat better. He didn’t know how she knew what he was thinking about, but it was comforting.

Quite suddenly, the hallway they were walking through opened up into a large chamber, with the harsh red stones that had comprised the pathway making up the walls. Kain immediately stepped in front of the Summoner, almost unconsciously, worrying that something was going to come flying at him faster than either could predict. When nothing happened, he ventured further inside, Rydia following close behind.

Something appeared in the center, in an area where Mist had begun to gather. Both Kain and Rydia shielded their eyes, expecting an attack, but instead Kain recognized the form of Bahamut, the Lord of Summons.

“So, Dragoon,” came the booming voice of the creature, who stretched his wings majestically in an amazing burst of embers. “You come seeking redemption.”

Startled by the directness and truth to it, Kain took a hesitant step forward, still fearful of the great beast in front of him. Rydia hung back, aware that Bahamut was speaking only to Kain.

“You know,” Kain answered, trying to sound confident. “You know what I want.”

“I do,” Bahamut grinned, if that was possible. “And I know what it will cost you.”

“Cost him?” Rydia squeaked from behind. “What do you mean?”

Kain himself was wondering the same question, suddenly quite afraid that he wasn’t going to make it out of these ruins alive. What if the elder didn’t know that death was the only way to regain honor lost like his? What if Bahamut decided that his sins were far too great to allow him to live?

Swallowing hard, and hoping that his restoration didn’t include being burned to a crisp, Kain looked up at the creature.

“What would you be willing to give up in return for redemption?” Bahamut’s voice boomed through the cavern. It was still frightfully hot, and sweat was running down Kain’s forehead in rivets. He hardly even noticed it anymore.

“You have feelings for the mage,” Bahamut said, reading Kain’s thoughts. The Dragoon whipped around to stare at Rydia, who looked at him equally surprised. For some reason, at that moment, she was the only mage that came to mind. She looked genuinely touched and opened her mouth as if to say something, but Bahamut cut her off.

“Will you erase your feelings for the White Mage in return for your redemption?” Bahamut asked. Kain felt silly and nearly laughed at himself. Of course Bahamut had been talking about Rosa. Shouldn’t he have known that?

He gave one last glance at Rydia, who still appeared moved by the proclamation. Then he faced the Lord of Summons once more, standing firm and resolute.

“Yes,” he said, nodding his head once. “I agree.”

“It is done,” Bahamut announced. Kain looked down at his hands, then closed his eyes. He didn’t feel any different. In fact, nothing was changed at all. He was still feeling the same way, holding the same weight in his chest, and he angrily opened his eyes to face the creature once more.

“Nothing is different!” he exclaimed angrily, one hand falling down to his side as if to grab for his lance. “You lie!”

“I do not lie, Dragoon,” Bahamut boomed, spreading his wings once more, this time in a definite show of power. The embers and sparks that flew at the movement rippled through the room as if on wings. Kain covered his face, suddenly fearful again.

“I do not lie,” the Lord of Summons repeated. “You have traveled down here at the risk of your friends believing you to turn traitor again. You have gained the trust of one who did not believe you. You have saved the life of one who would have only days ago turned her back on you. And you have proven to yourself, and to her, that you seek retribution for the sins you have committed.”

Kain stared at him, the thoughts processing slowly in his mind. What Bahamut had said was true, all of it, and slowly the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. The Lord could not offer him his sins wiped away, but he did offer Kain a means to start anew. He gave the Dragoon the opportunity to prove his worth to those that mattered, and that included himself.

“What does this have to do with my feelings for Rosa?” Kain asked very quietly, feeling humbled in the presence of the summon. He had been taught a great and awe-inspiring lesson, and he had taught it to himself. Perhaps, somehow, he had been too hard on himself after everything that had happened.

“They are gone,” Bahamut said easily.

“Just like that?” Kain asked, confused. He knew the Lord could not wipe away emotions like that, and he was unsure as to how he would have done that himself.

“They have been replaced,” the Lord of Summons clarified. Behind him, Rydia let out a soft gasp, as if suddenly realizing what Bahamut was talking about. Kain squeezed his fists together, willing the fuzzy details to become clear.

“Replaced…?” he repeated slowly, as if saying the words would cause him to understand. He didn’t believe what he was hearing.

“With the buds of something new,” Bahamut said almost gently. “In time, what you have gained may become much more than that which you lost.”

Kain turned around then, his movements very slow, and he let his gaze fall on the young woman standing behind him. She had her hand over her mouth, eyes still wide and disbelieving. Suddenly it all became clear why she had woken up when he had left. She was here to give him what he needed, in all senses of the word.

She was his deliverance from his past. Her forgiveness marked the beginning of his future. Her acceptance of him gave him the confidence to move forward with letting go of all the evil thoughts that he held onto.

And she was the reason his unrequited love for Rosa could fall away into the past, becoming nothing more than a memory to be smiled at once or twice in the future.

Kain stared at her, and she stared at him, and together they stayed that way until the heat around them had subsided, and the Lord of Summons had disappeared entirely. The red stone walls faded back into the normal blue color, an eerie cast taking up residence once more.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed there until Rydia dropped her hand from her mouth. Her eyes were sparkling again, but instead of the raw hatred he’d seen earlier, they were shining with tears, tears that threatened to break out and spill over her pale cheeks.

He took a step towards her, aware that everything between them was going to be different from now on, and realizing that it was the most promising thing in his life that he had had for a very long time.

“Rydia,” he said softly. The only response she gave to the mention of her name was that several of the gathering tears trickled out of her eyes and down to her chin, making little wet paths on her face that shone in the strange aqua light.

“We should get back,” she whispered feverishly, still staring at him with her frightened, wide-eyed expression. Kain let his outstretched hand drop, nodding slowly, feeling something inside his heart break a little bit.

“Yes,” he agreed, his voice low. “Let’s get back.”

o.0.o.0.o.

They returned to the Lunar Whale, not speaking, and were greeted by Rosa, who seemed to be the first to know of their arrival. She approached Rydia with outstretched arms, seeming both happy and unsurprised that the young woman was alright and unharmed. She gathered the other woman in a hug, which Rydia returned whole-heartedly, and over Rydia’s shoulder she gave Kain a look that said she understood where they went might not be necessarily said.

Rosa had always been good with things like that.

Cecil greeted Kain hesitantly, then smiled when he saw that nothing foul had been afoot. His worrying had been for nothing, but that didn’t mean he trusted the Dragoon again. The disappearance had caused him to rethink a lot of things.

Edge seemed delighted that Rydia had returned unscathed, but glared at Kain while the Summoner wasn’t looking. He slung his arm over Rydia’s shoulder, and the woman didn’t tell him to move it. However, she returned no such gesture for him, and instead said that she was tired, and that all she really wanted to do was get a good night’s sleep before they entered the Lunar Palace and prepared to fight Zemus.

Cecil readily agreed, mostly just happy to have his little companionship back together and safe again, and the five settled in to get some rest, the inside the Lunar Whale reverting to the same inky black shadowed room it had been before Kain had set out.

The Dragoon lay awake on his mattress, armor disregarded and lying on the floor. He felt different. Everything was different. He knew that nothing would ever be the same.

Somewhere inside himself, he could feel the hatred melting away. The pain and horror that had surrounded his past in the last months began to fall apart, letting his conscience breathe. Everything that he had clung to, his mistakes and his betrayals, he finally realized that they didn’t matter as much as he thought they had.

He had the chance to change things. He had his chance to challenge the force that had held and controlled him. And he would take that chance alongside his friends, who believed in him and trusted him, maybe not whole-heartedly, but enough to build on.

He could be a better man because of all of it.

He turned over, staring out at the shadows that coated the steel interior of the ship. The blankets fell over his legs haphazardly.

Someone stirred, and Kain could hear the motion. He saw, just barely in the shadows, someone rise and walk over to his mattress. He sat up, knowing the minute her hand touched him that it was Rydia. She slowly sat down next to him, and the two stared at each other without really being able to see for a couple of moments.

Then she turned her back to him and laid down on the pillow, curving her body and pulling her legs up close. Kain let out the breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding. Smiling, he grabbed the blankets from the base of the mattress and curled up behind her, letting her legs wrap up around hers.

He made sure both were covered with the thin blanket, and then put his arm around her. It fell under hers, and she took her hand in his, and as he settled his chin in the groove between her neck and her chin, he thought that she smelled sweeter than anything he’d ever encountered before.

And with a smile on his face, he fell into slumber, sleeping well for the first time in a long time.

-fin-