easy as falling asleep...
Title: The Last Stand of Kiniarel Mizusei (Part 1)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
A/N: Decided to work on this a bit more tonight.
All for the plan, remember that, Nia...all for the plan...
He brushed wet hair from his eyes. The rains continued to fall heavily on him, and he continued the impatient brushing aside of hair, waiting along with the rest of the Eighth Section at the top of the stairs of the First District. There was fighting going on below; the militia was down in the Third District, attempting to fight off the intruders in the city. But as far as he knew, they were having no luck...no luck against a pair of fighters steadily forcing their way into the city, only one a seasoned warrior. He had seen the man in Sierra's vision: tall, black-haired, and oddly for a mage, wielding a broadsword nearly as tall as he was. The other with him, however...that was the one to watch out for.
She looked like a small girl. Sierra had told him she was sixteen, or possibly seventeen, but she looked, at first glance, younger to him. But then her face had shifted, becoming somehow older, more masculine, almost the way Gabe's friend Haruke looked - androgynous, somehow beautiful and yet wild at the same time. He knew through Kira that the press secretary was a Nishina, a half cat-spirit, and the similarities between him and the girl were striking. But there were so many differences as well... Haruke hid that feral nature apparently with years of practice. The girl reveled in her appearance as something inhuman and animalistic...
The Third District's militia had fallen completely. He could see the two below, charging up the stairs to the Second District where another wave of soldiers waited. They were all backing away as the girl came at them, and for a moment he simply watched as she whirled into their ranks, a tattered black cloak flowing with her as she and her blades - Somenre weapons, he'd been told, modified to work with her unique shadow anima - dealt a swift death to those men who dared to stand in her way.
He could see, from the corner of his eye, the reinforcements he had requested when he'd seen the pair coming his way. Nodding to the Seventh and Ninth Captains as he approached, he motioned the rest of his section ahead, steeling himself and ignoring the fear making his fists shake.
For Kira... I'm doing this for her. The man he had been sleeping with the past month flashed in his head briefly, and he had to smile for a second, wondering if a heroic sacrifice would give him cool points in Gabe's eyes. “Or not,” he murmured out loud. “Probably would go on about being stupid or something...”
All around him, his fellow Specialists were looking grimly at the battle below, checking weapons and steeling themselves for his order. They had been given back their guns, taken away nearly a year previously, and what they had received back had been enhanced quite a bit by the weapon's department; a few people down, he watched Aylien, the Sixth Captain's husband and partner, hefting a rocket launcher onto his shoulder with a look of glee.
For the briefest of moments, as he stood side by side with the people he had grown up with, had fought beside for years, he wished that Kira was there to complete the group. To fight this final battle together...
No, you're fighting so she can stay safe, he reminded himself, raising his hand. Kira's weapon, given to him the day or so before, was in his free hand.
“Militia, fall back!” he roared. The few members who had remained in the face of the girl's assault scattered, leaving her looking up at him with an utterly amused smile on her face. “Einhaender, Kairos?” he asked, glancing from side to side. The Third and Sixth Captains nodded, faces set.
“Ready as I'll ever be,” Kairos murmured. Danae was on his other side, her sidearm replaced by a huge claymore that she balanced on her shoulder. He could have sworn he'd seen that sword used in her multiple attempts to bring her partner to some semblance of productivity at work, and winced slightly, mentally thanking his own partner for only trying to bite him on occasion. To the other side, Einhaender and Aylien's hands touched briefly... A moment later, their faces were set for battle, Aylien's eager and ready for the fight, and Einhaender simply blank.
“Are you going to try and fight me?”
The girl's voice reached his ears somehow, over the pouring rain and the group of people readying weapons and preparing to fight. She spoke conversationally, a smile on her face and a lilt to her voice; she didn't sound any older than she looked.
“Fifty-nine against one?” she continued. The group of Specialists had fallen silent. “Isn't that a little much just to take out one little girl and her boyfriend? And Nia...”
He raised an eyebrow at her, though his heart was pounding. The girl was looking up at him, a childish pout on her face. “Where's Kira? I wanted to see her again... Did you make her stay home? I'm sure a little rain won't hurt her...”
There was a commotion from the east side of the First District. Both Einhaender and Kairos looked up abruptly as more members of the militia came running up in panic, pursued by what looked like a giant summoned dragon of water. The monster only grew as the rain continued to fall.
“Go after it,” Nia ordered the other two Captains quietly. He didn't have seniority in the group, far from it, but the other two nodded and moved to obey, pulling their sections away in a hurry. He and the rest of the Eighth watched them for a moment, the dragon's roar and the explosion from Aylien's rocket launcher heralding the start of the battle. Finally, they turned back to face Kieri and the other man, nineteen against two, and the odds decidedly against them.
“You're sure about this?” he asked the rest of the group softly. There was a murmur of assent behind him, a few clicks of weapons being readied.
“We're all here, let's kick ass,” Alina told them with a grin. Unit 71-B was the smallest of their section; her partner, Keira, towered over her. They carried the same identical guns that they had used a year previously, having fought long and hard to get them back.
“Captain.” He turned to his right, where Kian was bouncing on the balls of his feet as always. The only male speed Specialist in their section, he made up for his lack of strength among the males with a speed rivaling Kira's. His partner was the more laconic Tristan, who as usual was relying only on his fists and prodigious strength for the fight. “This is the girl who hurt Captain Kira, correct?”
Nia only nodded silently, watching hands clench on weapons, eyes narrowing at the girl down below; the group was charged now, all their energies focused on one target with one goal.
“She's at home, protected,” he assured the group quietly, turning back to where Kieri stood, looking around impatiently. “She did her part to protect us from this threat...now let's repay that favor, and stop them right here.”
“A good leader, aren't you? I wonder who they prefer to follow, you or her? Certainly, she's better eye candy, don't you think? Even with that idiotic looking magical one they gave her... I mean, really the girl may have done a pretty good job on the staging and the capturing and the pain-inflicting, but really! No finesse, none at all...” Kieri's voice drifted to his ears once again, but he refused to listen to her ramblings.
He glanced around the section. Keira and Alina, close enough for their hands to touch. Caelann and Kaide, Tristan and Kian, Julian and Naiara, Adara and Calista... There was pause in his train of thought as he came to the place in the roster where he and Kira were. Gavin and Catori, Cameron and Rhiannon, Riley and Nova, and Aila and Raquel. The group of people closest to him...he was about to send them to certain death, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to do what Sierra had foreseen if Kira, and the rest of the city, were to survive.
”You're going to die,” Sierra had told him bluntly, that vacantly pleasant smile never leaving her face. ”For this plan to succeed, you need to be the first to die, Kiniarel. You'll provoke the demon and when she attacks you...”
Matthias was looking at him in concern, and he tried to keep his face...not impassive, that was impossible, but at the very least, free of fear. To tell him he needed to die, just like that? It sounded...at the very least a ridiculous thing to ask; what was she going to do but manipulate things from the sidelines, as always? And the death she described... He remembered the condition Kira had been in when she had been returned, and that only because the demon had apparently healed her somehow before bringing her back...
“...are you going to back down, Nia?”
He looked her in the face. The vacant look was gone, replaced by a determined expression that he hadn't seen on her face since the time she had been the one to nearly kill Kira.
“I thought better of you,” she said softly, her eyes narrowing. “Didn't you nearly tear me to pieces last year because I hurt her? Haven't you stood by her side since you met her? When my father was performing his experiments on her, did you back down because you were afraid of getting hurt?” Nia bristled, his mouth opening though he had nothing to say. “Is this any different? Your Kira's in danger, Nia. Are you going to be her hidden knight in shining armor again? Or have you given up on her just because she didn't choose you?”
“I... I've been there for her! What have you done?”
“If I have to, I'll die for her, Nia,” the girl said with a calm finality. “But if I have to step in for you, the plan's chance of success goes down...significantly, almost to zero. And she will die. Not that you won't yourself, a few minutes later, but do you really want to move on knowing that you could have saved her?”
His fists were clenching and unclenching, along with his jaw, as her words attacked him mercilessly, over and over. She started to turn away from him, looking back to Matthias as if to continue outlining her plan, but her last words to him were soft.
“I thought better of you...”
“Did I say I wouldn't do it? Finish telling me this plan of yours already.”
There was a grin on her face as she turned back to him. He took a long breath, steadying his nerves as the girl started to tell them the details - though carefully skirting the mentions of just how he would die. He knew she knew; every time she looked at him, there was a hesitation before she skipped over the usual descriptive detail she gave everything.
Just as well, he mused. I don't want to know.
“If I could, I would tell you, any of you who wanted to leave, to go,” he said to the group, his eyes on the girl and the warrior as they bickered back and forth playfully. “But we have to do this.”
“As if we'd leave,” Adara snorted. “Come on, Nia, since when've any of us chickened out? We're not gonna let you take all the credit this time!” There was a chorus of agreement behind him, the rest of the unit alternately laughing and expressing disbelief at the notion as he looked each of them in the eye.
“All right, if you wanna try and steal my thunder, sheesh, be my guest,” he said, a grin back on his face. There was the familiar rush of adrenaline as he turned back to Kieri, who had noticed the movement and was standing perfectly still in the center of the Second District's square. This is what you were made for, after all... “You know how to do it. Eighth Section, let's go!”
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
A/N: Decided to work on this a bit more tonight.
All for the plan, remember that, Nia...all for the plan...
He brushed wet hair from his eyes. The rains continued to fall heavily on him, and he continued the impatient brushing aside of hair, waiting along with the rest of the Eighth Section at the top of the stairs of the First District. There was fighting going on below; the militia was down in the Third District, attempting to fight off the intruders in the city. But as far as he knew, they were having no luck...no luck against a pair of fighters steadily forcing their way into the city, only one a seasoned warrior. He had seen the man in Sierra's vision: tall, black-haired, and oddly for a mage, wielding a broadsword nearly as tall as he was. The other with him, however...that was the one to watch out for.
She looked like a small girl. Sierra had told him she was sixteen, or possibly seventeen, but she looked, at first glance, younger to him. But then her face had shifted, becoming somehow older, more masculine, almost the way Gabe's friend Haruke looked - androgynous, somehow beautiful and yet wild at the same time. He knew through Kira that the press secretary was a Nishina, a half cat-spirit, and the similarities between him and the girl were striking. But there were so many differences as well... Haruke hid that feral nature apparently with years of practice. The girl reveled in her appearance as something inhuman and animalistic...
The Third District's militia had fallen completely. He could see the two below, charging up the stairs to the Second District where another wave of soldiers waited. They were all backing away as the girl came at them, and for a moment he simply watched as she whirled into their ranks, a tattered black cloak flowing with her as she and her blades - Somenre weapons, he'd been told, modified to work with her unique shadow anima - dealt a swift death to those men who dared to stand in her way.
He could see, from the corner of his eye, the reinforcements he had requested when he'd seen the pair coming his way. Nodding to the Seventh and Ninth Captains as he approached, he motioned the rest of his section ahead, steeling himself and ignoring the fear making his fists shake.
For Kira... I'm doing this for her. The man he had been sleeping with the past month flashed in his head briefly, and he had to smile for a second, wondering if a heroic sacrifice would give him cool points in Gabe's eyes. “Or not,” he murmured out loud. “Probably would go on about being stupid or something...”
All around him, his fellow Specialists were looking grimly at the battle below, checking weapons and steeling themselves for his order. They had been given back their guns, taken away nearly a year previously, and what they had received back had been enhanced quite a bit by the weapon's department; a few people down, he watched Aylien, the Sixth Captain's husband and partner, hefting a rocket launcher onto his shoulder with a look of glee.
For the briefest of moments, as he stood side by side with the people he had grown up with, had fought beside for years, he wished that Kira was there to complete the group. To fight this final battle together...
No, you're fighting so she can stay safe, he reminded himself, raising his hand. Kira's weapon, given to him the day or so before, was in his free hand.
“Militia, fall back!” he roared. The few members who had remained in the face of the girl's assault scattered, leaving her looking up at him with an utterly amused smile on her face. “Einhaender, Kairos?” he asked, glancing from side to side. The Third and Sixth Captains nodded, faces set.
“Ready as I'll ever be,” Kairos murmured. Danae was on his other side, her sidearm replaced by a huge claymore that she balanced on her shoulder. He could have sworn he'd seen that sword used in her multiple attempts to bring her partner to some semblance of productivity at work, and winced slightly, mentally thanking his own partner for only trying to bite him on occasion. To the other side, Einhaender and Aylien's hands touched briefly... A moment later, their faces were set for battle, Aylien's eager and ready for the fight, and Einhaender simply blank.
“Are you going to try and fight me?”
The girl's voice reached his ears somehow, over the pouring rain and the group of people readying weapons and preparing to fight. She spoke conversationally, a smile on her face and a lilt to her voice; she didn't sound any older than she looked.
“Fifty-nine against one?” she continued. The group of Specialists had fallen silent. “Isn't that a little much just to take out one little girl and her boyfriend? And Nia...”
He raised an eyebrow at her, though his heart was pounding. The girl was looking up at him, a childish pout on her face. “Where's Kira? I wanted to see her again... Did you make her stay home? I'm sure a little rain won't hurt her...”
There was a commotion from the east side of the First District. Both Einhaender and Kairos looked up abruptly as more members of the militia came running up in panic, pursued by what looked like a giant summoned dragon of water. The monster only grew as the rain continued to fall.
“Go after it,” Nia ordered the other two Captains quietly. He didn't have seniority in the group, far from it, but the other two nodded and moved to obey, pulling their sections away in a hurry. He and the rest of the Eighth watched them for a moment, the dragon's roar and the explosion from Aylien's rocket launcher heralding the start of the battle. Finally, they turned back to face Kieri and the other man, nineteen against two, and the odds decidedly against them.
“You're sure about this?” he asked the rest of the group softly. There was a murmur of assent behind him, a few clicks of weapons being readied.
“We're all here, let's kick ass,” Alina told them with a grin. Unit 71-B was the smallest of their section; her partner, Keira, towered over her. They carried the same identical guns that they had used a year previously, having fought long and hard to get them back.
“Captain.” He turned to his right, where Kian was bouncing on the balls of his feet as always. The only male speed Specialist in their section, he made up for his lack of strength among the males with a speed rivaling Kira's. His partner was the more laconic Tristan, who as usual was relying only on his fists and prodigious strength for the fight. “This is the girl who hurt Captain Kira, correct?”
Nia only nodded silently, watching hands clench on weapons, eyes narrowing at the girl down below; the group was charged now, all their energies focused on one target with one goal.
“She's at home, protected,” he assured the group quietly, turning back to where Kieri stood, looking around impatiently. “She did her part to protect us from this threat...now let's repay that favor, and stop them right here.”
“A good leader, aren't you? I wonder who they prefer to follow, you or her? Certainly, she's better eye candy, don't you think? Even with that idiotic looking magical one they gave her... I mean, really the girl may have done a pretty good job on the staging and the capturing and the pain-inflicting, but really! No finesse, none at all...” Kieri's voice drifted to his ears once again, but he refused to listen to her ramblings.
He glanced around the section. Keira and Alina, close enough for their hands to touch. Caelann and Kaide, Tristan and Kian, Julian and Naiara, Adara and Calista... There was pause in his train of thought as he came to the place in the roster where he and Kira were. Gavin and Catori, Cameron and Rhiannon, Riley and Nova, and Aila and Raquel. The group of people closest to him...he was about to send them to certain death, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to do what Sierra had foreseen if Kira, and the rest of the city, were to survive.
”You're going to die,” Sierra had told him bluntly, that vacantly pleasant smile never leaving her face. ”For this plan to succeed, you need to be the first to die, Kiniarel. You'll provoke the demon and when she attacks you...”
Matthias was looking at him in concern, and he tried to keep his face...not impassive, that was impossible, but at the very least, free of fear. To tell him he needed to die, just like that? It sounded...at the very least a ridiculous thing to ask; what was she going to do but manipulate things from the sidelines, as always? And the death she described... He remembered the condition Kira had been in when she had been returned, and that only because the demon had apparently healed her somehow before bringing her back...
“...are you going to back down, Nia?”
He looked her in the face. The vacant look was gone, replaced by a determined expression that he hadn't seen on her face since the time she had been the one to nearly kill Kira.
“I thought better of you,” she said softly, her eyes narrowing. “Didn't you nearly tear me to pieces last year because I hurt her? Haven't you stood by her side since you met her? When my father was performing his experiments on her, did you back down because you were afraid of getting hurt?” Nia bristled, his mouth opening though he had nothing to say. “Is this any different? Your Kira's in danger, Nia. Are you going to be her hidden knight in shining armor again? Or have you given up on her just because she didn't choose you?”
“I... I've been there for her! What have you done?”
“If I have to, I'll die for her, Nia,” the girl said with a calm finality. “But if I have to step in for you, the plan's chance of success goes down...significantly, almost to zero. And she will die. Not that you won't yourself, a few minutes later, but do you really want to move on knowing that you could have saved her?”
His fists were clenching and unclenching, along with his jaw, as her words attacked him mercilessly, over and over. She started to turn away from him, looking back to Matthias as if to continue outlining her plan, but her last words to him were soft.
“I thought better of you...”
“Did I say I wouldn't do it? Finish telling me this plan of yours already.”
There was a grin on her face as she turned back to him. He took a long breath, steadying his nerves as the girl started to tell them the details - though carefully skirting the mentions of just how he would die. He knew she knew; every time she looked at him, there was a hesitation before she skipped over the usual descriptive detail she gave everything.
Just as well, he mused. I don't want to know.
“If I could, I would tell you, any of you who wanted to leave, to go,” he said to the group, his eyes on the girl and the warrior as they bickered back and forth playfully. “But we have to do this.”
“As if we'd leave,” Adara snorted. “Come on, Nia, since when've any of us chickened out? We're not gonna let you take all the credit this time!” There was a chorus of agreement behind him, the rest of the unit alternately laughing and expressing disbelief at the notion as he looked each of them in the eye.
“All right, if you wanna try and steal my thunder, sheesh, be my guest,” he said, a grin back on his face. There was the familiar rush of adrenaline as he turned back to Kieri, who had noticed the movement and was standing perfectly still in the center of the Second District's square. This is what you were made for, after all... “You know how to do it. Eighth Section, let's go!”