Final Fantasy IV/Lost Odyssey Fic - Throes of Sympathy
Title: Throes of Sympathy
Fandoms: Final Fantasy IV/Lost Odyssey
Characters: Kain, Kaim, Sarah, passing mentions of Rosa and Cecil.
Pairing: Kaim/Sarah
Rating: PG-13
Warning: I... I killed her. D: ... also a crossover, utter crack, and I am out of practice. -_-
Wordcount: 488
Summary: Kain has an otherworldly encounter on the slopes of Mt. Ordeals.
The scream was that of a woman, shrill with pain, and cut ominously short. The cry that answered was deeper, that of a man beset by deep fear. Kain knew that sound well, for his heart had made it years ago, on another’s behalf. That same fear gripped him suddenly - did Cecil not jest about visiting his aerie should he not return?
He hastened to the commotion, sliding down the rocky slopes of the mountainside with well-practiced grace. A zuu rose in the air before him, challenging a stranger over the body of a fallen woman. It rose high in the air that the man, foolish for a warrior or brave for a knight, turned for his fallen companion. But zuu were never so fickle; the bird of prey stooped with an angry shriek, striking him full in the back and sending him sprawling for having dared come between it and its prey.
The beast rose again, and, seeing his chance, the dragoon leapt to come down upon its vulnerable neck. It crashed to the rocks below, clear of the strangers, while he made certain to land between them.
Setting his spear across the rocks, Kain tended the woman first. There was little he could do - her yellow dress was torn from where the zuu had grabbed her, and her neck was twisted at the wrong angle from the fall, her sightless eyes reflecting the empty sky. Heart sinking, Kain turned towards the man. He, at least, was still breathing, albeit shallowly. His shoulder had been sliced open, and he had taken a dangerous blow to the head, but when Kain rolled him over, he opened his eyes and struggled to focus, looking this way and that for something lost and out of sight.
“Sarah?”
Kain bowed his head. It was difficult to answer, but the answer was deserved. “No.”
To his surprise, the man chuckled; it was a strange sound dangerously strangled in his throat. Finally he noticed the patch of yellow, draped limp across the rocks.
“She was supposed to live forever... we should never have come back,” he fixed his gaze on Kain, and smiled, “So this is mortality?”
“I am afraid not,” Kain replied, somewhat disconcerted by the man’s words, and even further by his clear detachment. “Today, you will live.”
That seemed to be the breaking point, when the dark mirth faded from the man’s eyes. Kain did not want to imagine how it felt. He had already walked a distance of that path, yet any further would destroy him.
“You shall share my shelter for tonight,” Kain told him instead. “You will never reach civilization as you are.”
“No.” The man resisted, with more strength than perhaps he ought to have had. “Leave me.”
“I cannot.” But whether he spoke for a sense of duty reawakened, or for something familiar that he could not turn away from, Kain could not easily say.
Fandoms: Final Fantasy IV/Lost Odyssey
Characters: Kain, Kaim, Sarah, passing mentions of Rosa and Cecil.
Pairing: Kaim/Sarah
Rating: PG-13
Warning: I... I killed her. D: ... also a crossover, utter crack, and I am out of practice. -_-
Wordcount: 488
Summary: Kain has an otherworldly encounter on the slopes of Mt. Ordeals.
The scream was that of a woman, shrill with pain, and cut ominously short. The cry that answered was deeper, that of a man beset by deep fear. Kain knew that sound well, for his heart had made it years ago, on another’s behalf. That same fear gripped him suddenly - did Cecil not jest about visiting his aerie should he not return?
He hastened to the commotion, sliding down the rocky slopes of the mountainside with well-practiced grace. A zuu rose in the air before him, challenging a stranger over the body of a fallen woman. It rose high in the air that the man, foolish for a warrior or brave for a knight, turned for his fallen companion. But zuu were never so fickle; the bird of prey stooped with an angry shriek, striking him full in the back and sending him sprawling for having dared come between it and its prey.
The beast rose again, and, seeing his chance, the dragoon leapt to come down upon its vulnerable neck. It crashed to the rocks below, clear of the strangers, while he made certain to land between them.
Setting his spear across the rocks, Kain tended the woman first. There was little he could do - her yellow dress was torn from where the zuu had grabbed her, and her neck was twisted at the wrong angle from the fall, her sightless eyes reflecting the empty sky. Heart sinking, Kain turned towards the man. He, at least, was still breathing, albeit shallowly. His shoulder had been sliced open, and he had taken a dangerous blow to the head, but when Kain rolled him over, he opened his eyes and struggled to focus, looking this way and that for something lost and out of sight.
“Sarah?”
Kain bowed his head. It was difficult to answer, but the answer was deserved. “No.”
To his surprise, the man chuckled; it was a strange sound dangerously strangled in his throat. Finally he noticed the patch of yellow, draped limp across the rocks.
“She was supposed to live forever... we should never have come back,” he fixed his gaze on Kain, and smiled, “So this is mortality?”
“I am afraid not,” Kain replied, somewhat disconcerted by the man’s words, and even further by his clear detachment. “Today, you will live.”
That seemed to be the breaking point, when the dark mirth faded from the man’s eyes. Kain did not want to imagine how it felt. He had already walked a distance of that path, yet any further would destroy him.
“You shall share my shelter for tonight,” Kain told him instead. “You will never reach civilization as you are.”
“No.” The man resisted, with more strength than perhaps he ought to have had. “Leave me.”
“I cannot.” But whether he spoke for a sense of duty reawakened, or for something familiar that he could not turn away from, Kain could not easily say.