Stockholm Syndrome

Author: Mask of Mirage

Rating: M

Comments: Is it the end already? I think my timing is pretty good considering I’m finishing this up a couple weeks before school lets out for summer. Which excites me cause I can devote myself to some things I’ve been wanting to do and wanting to write but too stressed and bogged down with school work to do.

I may even get off my lazy ass and get a job…

Mood Song: Farewell by Apocalyptica or Stockholm Syndrome by Muse. :D

Disclaimer: For the final time, I do not own Advent Children.

Chapter Eight: Finale

The weather is unusual when I wake in the morning and a strange feeling settles in my body, to keep company with the sharp hunger pangs that were already present. Untangling myself from Kadaj’s body, I wander barefoot out into the front yard.

The sky is overcast with a wicked violet hue splashed across the horizon, the wind blowing mercilessly. It’s almost as if nature is trying to get my attention and tell me something important and I just needed to stop and listen to it.

The screen door slams up at the house and I turn around to see Kadaj stalking towards me in an angry manner. I can see Yazoo and Loz standing up on the porch watching us. Kadaj grabs my hand and pulls me out of earshot where it would be impossible to eavesdrop from the distance.

“They think we don’t have anything between us, that’s what I told them. And they think I hate your guts as always.”

“Is your brother still pissed off?” I question, glancing back at Yazoo. He was leaning over the railing, a frown set deep on his face. Almost as if he was contemplating killing me himself.

“He’ll get over it, like he always does,” Kadaj answers, sitting and pulling me down next to him. He runs his finger through mine and lays back in the field, throwing an arm over his eyes. I crouch down next to him, enjoying the rare peace that had overtaken us.

“Sky ‘s gonna be on fire soon.” I smile softly at him, wondering where he came up with this stuff.

It wasn’t like him to be this quiet and calm near me, as he was usually either yelling at me, threatening me, or shoving his tongue down my throat. I kept thinking to myself that I could die right now and not really give two shits. But all good things must come to an end sometime.

The peacefulness of the field is suddenly interrupted by the loud roar of a machine and the sound of heavy blades chopping at the air. Kadaj and I look up at the very same time and I know we both see it and it’s not just an illusion conjured forth from my mind to haunt me.

My helicopter is hovering, inches above the ground, and I can see Tseng behind the controls, a determined glare set on his features. Elena is hanging out the cockpit door, her hand extended in my direction. They’re finally here to rescue me!

I give one last squeeze to the fingers interlaced with my own and stand, dropping Kadaj’s hand back to his lap. “Reno.” His voice causes me to look back and his face is pained. “Don’t. I don’t want to kill you. They’re expecting me to kill you if you run.” His voice is so sweet and pleading that I almost consider sitting back down.

“It’s been fun,” I reply momentarily, allowing my fingers to brush over his bangs, and set off at a jog across the field. I hear a low oath behind me and I begin to sprint, leaping over rocks that might trip me.

“Reno, hurry!” Elena’s voice is frantic and I see her fingers head south for the holster at her side. I crane my head over my shoulder and see Kadaj gaining one me fast, the double blades of Souba glinting dangerously in the sun. Yazoo and Loz have noticed my escape as well for they were heading this way fast.

I turn back just in time to see Elena aim her automatic pistol at a spot behind me and fire off three rounds. My stomach drops and my feet skid to an immediate halt. Elena is a perfect marksman and has never missed a moving target.

I turn slowly and notice a flash of silver hidden amongst the golden wheat. My feet are on auto-pilot as I feel bile rise in my throat. Oh god. My knees hit the dirt next to Kadaj with a heavy thud and I pull his head into my lap. His breathing is harsh and unsteady and three perfect bullet holes mar his body. Was this really happening? And why the fuck did I still care?!

His fingers are bloody, a sharp contrast to his pale skin, where he clutched at a wound over his chest. I feel my eyes well up with tears and I bend low to press my lips to his forehead. A strong breeze ripples across the tops of the wheat and entangles red and silver together; the way it’s supposed to be.

“There’s so many things I want to say right now but I can’t find the best words to tell you,” I murmur against his head.

“Then…just settle for I…love you,” he gasps out, moaning a bit in pain.

I smile sadly and tilt his chin, forcing him to look back at me. “I don’t love you, Kadaj.” My lips descend on his and the tears come faster now that I can feel him gasp for air around my mouth, but still return my slow, tender kiss. It seems a cruel thing to say to a dying man but, even now, I couldn’t allow him to see me weak at the end. He would have wanted it that way and I know, inside, he knows that I never meant a word of that and everything I felt with him was more than enough. I brush the hair away from his face when I feel an arm literally haul me away and begin dragging me to the chopper.

“What the hell, Reno, we’ve got to get you out of here!” Elena yells in my ear. I barely pay heed to her words as I stretch out my arm and feel my fingers just barely brush against his. I’m fighting her every step of the way and I hear her curse angrily as she shoves me into the cockpit and clambers in after me.

I haul myself up from the floor and race to the front, where I can see Yazoo and Loz bending over their brother. It’s only until Tseng has us high in the sky and heading back home that I collapse into the copilot seat and stare unseeingly out the glass, lukewarm tears flowing gently from my eyes.

The sky is alit with brilliant oranges and reds and it looks as every bit on fire that Kadaj claimed it to be.

Kadaj’s POV

Thinking about him is the only thing keeping my mind from the pain. Loz is bawling like the great baby he is a few feet from me and Yazoo just kneels over me, frowning solemnly. My mind is quiet, surprisingly so; filled with images and memories of Reno.

His last words ring in my ears and I knew from the moment they spilled out of his mouth, they were lies. I knew he was only saying he didn’t love me to bring himself back up and I allow him that. I had hurt him too much all along.

It surprises me, even now, that through all that -what was it, a week?- that I actually felt something towards Reno. I wouldn’t allow myself to say I loved him back because I’m just not that way but he made me think about a lot of things and I maybe would have even tried turning my life around at one time. But it’s all for nothing now.

So this is my great end? Poor mother, her prodigy Sephiroth never got his time to shine again. And like the curtains at the closing of a play, my eyes drift shut and my world suddenly becomes very dark.

‘Mother, I think I’ve finally found someone who rivals you in my heart.’

-This is the last time I’ll abandon you

And this is the last time I’ll forget you

I wish I could-

--Muse

Author’s Note: So, it didn’t end happily and if any of you really expected that, well shame on you. Haha, just kidding. It seems more realistic this way I think. So, there’s the finale. I’ve discovered a lot of things while writing this and that is it is not as easy to rekindle the drive to write as it was in the beginning of the story. And I also need to seriously stay on top of replying to my reviewers. Oops, my good.

Mask of Mirage