(Untitled)

[lockeandshock]

Characters: Locke and YOU!
Date/Time: FORWARD DATED to September 16th, late evening
Location: Blank Wilderness
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Locke dispenses important information to the people of Edensphere. As said in the in the OOC community please be aware that FOURTH WALL BREAKING INFORMATION will be given here.

( Revolution! )

Comments

[starstruckstray]

It had been difficult for Kiba to stay quiet through Locke's speech, but Kazahana's hand clamped around his wrist, a silent warning not to speak. And she was right (she usually was); they needed to hear him out, no matter how much Kiba wanted to punch him in the face.

Created? By Fugue? What the fuck ever.

He and Kazahana stood on the edges of the crowd, close enough to hear, but still able to keep an eye on most of the people gathered. Unable to stay silent any longer, he spoke up, his rough voice unintentionally cutting through the murmur of the crowd.

"That guy's fulla shit," he growled, his hand tight around the hilt of his zanpakutou. "Fugue's a moron. He couldn't have made us up. No way."

Kiba's drive to succeed, his love for Kazahana, his loyalty to his friends...he's just supposed to believe they were all made up by that fucking creeper? No way in hell; Kiba was real, everything that made him up was real, and so Locke was just some crazy old man looking to rile people up for no reason.

Asshole.

They'd get home. They had to. And if they had to go through Fugue, then that's what they'd do.

[snowburned]

"Calm yourself," Kazahana murmured, her grip relaxing not one iota even after Locke took his exit. In truth, the words were meant for herself as well as for him.

Created by Fugue. Part of him? The idea was repulsive. She'd long known he was responsible for much of went on in the sphere-Fugue did it-but this?

No. It couldn't be true. She had memories, scattered as they were, she had Kiba and Toushi and Kagerou and a life. It was real.

"I agree," she said quietly, once she managed to swallow the lump in her throat. "He's a moron, and Locke is misinformed at best." She shook her head. "But the rest-it matches up with what we know, doesn't it? The pieces we've tried to put together."

[starstruckstray]

He sobered, calming somewhat at her question. While the bit about them being figments of Fugue's imagination had jumped out at him, it wasn't the only information shared today.

"Yeah," he muttered. "I can buy him creating this place. It always protects him, he's always been around, as long as anybody can remember." And it was the only way an idiot like him could have been put in charge of anything as important as greeting new arrivals.

His expression darkened further. "You think the rest is true, though? Think he really killed his sister for arguing with him?" His opinion of Fugue was low enough, but if that was true...it was just one more reason to take the bastard down.

[snowburned]

"Nothing goes back farther than he does." She shook her head. "I've seen the medical records, the journals. I know."

All that work she and Edgeworth had put in, gathering what information they could from them-had it all led to this?

"I don't know," she said. "But it could be. The tree protects itself violently. If it's protecting him because of his own will, even on some subconscious level, that says something about his nature, doesn't it?"

[starstruckstray]

Kiba thought about all the ways people had been killed for getting too close to Sphere secrets, brutal and gruesome and seemingly calculated to cause as much pain to as many people as possible.

The sight of Toushi's body impaled on spikes flashed through his mind and he barely held back a flinch; the sound of his friend's scream had given him nightmares for days afterwards.

"Yeah," he grunted. "He don't give a shit about nobody but himself. And will do anything to keep from facing what he did." Gods knew Kiba had fucked up enough in his life, but the idea of going to this extent to hide from it was completely alien to him.

[snowburned]

Kazahana breathed in slowly, then let it out in a huff. Too many thoughts were swirling on the surface of her mind, and she wouldn't be surprised if Kiba shared quite a few of them.

"So what now?" she asked, subconsciously leaning closer to him. "I'm not inclined to go along the way we have, letting him rule over this place whether he knows he's doing it or not. But this..."

To tear everything down. To lose everything, definitively.

She shook her head. "I can't accept that this is our only option."

[starstruckstray]

Zabimaru's hilt was starting to dig into his palm; with a scowl, he forced himself to slowly loosen his grip.

"We fight," he replied, looking down at her. "Either make him send us home or take him out so he can't stop us from leaving." Destroying everything felt too much like giving up, and hell if he was going to do that.

"He's getting weaker. We talked about it--you can see it everywhere." Things were falling apart, faster and faster, to where even the little bit of stability they'd gotten used to was eroding by the second. "There's gotta be a way to take him down."

[snowburned]

"Nothing's all powerful," she said. "But there has to be a right way to fight him. Even if he's weakening, he's not helpless."

And what came after that?"

"I don't know what I feel about going home," she admitted quietly. "There are people I want to see, things I know I need to do, but there are people here who feel like home, even if this place doesn't." She tilted her head to look up at the sky. "I wish I knew what would happen here if he were no longer in control."

[starstruckstray]

Kiba deflated a bit as her words reined him in. "Yeah," he muttered, frowning. "Know it ain't gonna be easy. Still, though--I want to try."

Unlike Kazahana, he definitely wanted to go home; yeah, he'd miss his friends and he was proud of what he'd managed to do as captain. But he'd had a goal at home, something that drove him so strongly that even amnesia couldn't totally wipe it out.

But he wasn't going anywhere without her; if she wanted to stay, then that's what they'd do. "Maybe all the crazy shit would stop. And people'd get to decide if they want to stay or not." That might be overly optimistic of him, but it didn't make sense to go into a fight thinking you'd lose.

[snowburned]

"And I'll be with you when you do. So will Toushi."

All of them together-they'd arrived here separately, one at a time, but whatever happened, they'd see this through together. She knew that as surely as she knew herself, and despite the uncertainty and fear gnawing at her heart, she knew how lucky she was to have these people in her life. Wherever that life would be.

"Kiba." She leaned in closer once more, her voice lowered, though what she had to say was no secret and she wasn't embarrassed by it. "I love you. Whatever happens. Don't forget that."

[starstruckstray]

Kiba suspected that he'd never get tired of hearing that from her, even as part of him insisted he didn't deserve to hear it at all. But it never failed to warm him, and his frown relaxed to something much less severe; a faint smile tugged at his lips and he no longer looked like thunderclouds were building over his brow.

"He couldn't make me forget you. Hell if I'll forget that." He thought he should probably say it back or something, but they were in public and shit. "I never will."

Hell, showing her how much he loved her was always so much easier than saying it.

[snowburned]

The smile on his face was a relief and prompted an answering one on her own. Funny, how something so small could do so much to restore her spirits, even if it wasn't fully. There was plenty of worry and uncertainty left, but that wasn't all.

"That goes both ways." And if she had her way, he'd never have to question it. "Come on. Let's go home."