[fic] With Dragon's Blood - Chapter Twenty Eight ~Simple Requests~
Title: With Dragon's Blood
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame, PiKame, JunDa, Koki/Maru
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: fantasy
Beta by: my cat. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too... ALSO NOTE that if you steal my land, the language, the names, myths, maps or anything else from it and I find you, I'm sooo gonna be pissed. This world is special to me and I've spent almost 15 years on it.
Summary: Nobody believed an army could cross the mountains. Perhaps that's why nobody was prepared when they did...
Warning: Character death(s). Violence. Maybe more stuff; will modify as needed.
Nifty Banner done by Deshisoraba!!
Author's Note: Well, here's the rest of day three. Day four starts the battle :)
The Master Posts:
On my journal - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the akame_ Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
Chapter Twenty Eight ~Simple Requests~
It took a couple of hours but the men Koki sent to find Catriona finally brought her by. “Where were you?” he asked her, eyebrows furrowed.
“The dungeon,” she said casually.
“We checked the dungeon.”
Laughing, she said, “Not all of it. What? Did you think I’d give up all of my secrets? You and I both know what happens in the empire when you’re no longer useful. You get sidelined and then forgotten.” Eyes narrowing, she added, “I won’t let myself be forgotten. You’d do well to remember.”
Groaning in irritation, Koki snapped, “Why were you even there? You obviously can’t stand the man.”
“Who says I was there for him?” and the woman laughed again. The sound grated on Koki’s nerves, like nails on a chalkboard… maybe worse.
“I’m not an idiot.”
Catriona rolled her eyes and sighed, “I was coming to speak with you anyway.”
“What could we possibly have to discuss?” he asked contemptuously.
“It’s about McAvrie.”
Such a headache… “What about him?”
“I want him,” she said, clicking her tongue.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you sure you’re not an idiot?” but before Koki could reply she continued, “The mission does not say we have to kill him. The mission says to take his blood. It’s theoretically possible to take blood from him a bit at a time until you have enough, leaving him alive. Considering how much I did for the Empire, I think I deserve this."
“You have got to be kidding me… you can’t be serious?” Out of all the things he expected to hear from her, that definitely wasn’t one of them. “You don’t even like the man, do you?”
Frowning at him, she said, “That’s not the point. He’s mine. That’s all that matters.”
Oh, that was rich! Koki burst out laughing. “Yours? Yours? How do you figure that? He belongs to the Empire now. He’s definitely not ‘yours’ at all!”
“You know you’ll regret this decision…” she hissed at him, not bothering to hide her anger. She was about to storm off when Koki realized they hadn’t actually talked about what he wanted to. So he caught her by the wrist as she started to turn away.
“What the hell?”
Glowering, Koki asked her, “Why did you try to kill the girl?”
“Which one?” she smiled sweetly at him. Truth be told, it looked kind of creepy on her…
“The only one that matters. The Mage’s daughter.”
Feigning a look of surprise, Catriona responded with, “Oh, that girl. Why, I don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s on the ship and I’m down here. I couldn’t possibly try to kill her…”
“You deny giving her too much sedative? And don’t tell me that was an accident. I know what kind of training you went through, remember?”
“I didn’t give it to her. Your men did.”
Exasperated, Koki pointed out, “Yeah, but you prepared the syringe. Look, she’s not dead; you failed. She’s not mission-important so much, so I could forgive your petty little tantrum regarding her, but only if you tell me why. Otherwise I’ll report you.”
“I’m allowed to kill whoever I want as long as it doesn’t interfere.”
“I didn’t say I’d report your attempt to kill her. I will report your failure to kill her. Sounds so much better that way and you know how the empire just loves failure.”
Her body visibly stilled. “You wouldn’t dare…”
“I hate you. If I can make you look even slightly bad without lying, why wouldn’t I? Of course, if you tell me what you know, why you wanted to kill her, I won’t say a word about it.” Now it was his turn to give a sweet smile.
They stared at each other, gazes locked, for what seemed like an eternity before finally she spat, “Fine, okay, whatever! I suspect she’s McAvrie’s daughter. I know what he did to her mother and I also know how quickly she turned around and got married. The whole thing was suspicious. Well, to me, anyway, because, regardless of how much you hate me, you know I’m good at my job.”
“If you were good at your job, the girl would be dead, Cat.”
“Catriona, if you don’t mind,” she corrected him.
“I do mind. Well, as for your request on the Magician, consider it officially denied. If you try to go above my head, I will tell the empire all about your little failed assassination. So, fuck off, have an unpleasant day, and don’t disappear again, okay?”
+++
Tomorrow was the day. Tomorrow Junno would lose the one thing he cared about more than anything he ever had before. Because…
Tomorrow the attack began.
What should he do? Should he warn Tatsuya in advance? But the prince would want to know how he knew and Junno didn’t think he could lie face to face to him anymore. He’d lose him before the end of the conversation. But Tatsuya would be safe! Or, as safe as possible, considering he probably wouldn’t just sit on the sidelines but rather would help defend his home.
On the other hand, Junno could just sort of glue himself to Tatsuya’s side. Keep him with him overnight, and follow him everywhere tomorrow, so that if and when soldiers broke through to them, Junno could give Tatsuya the chance to get away. Again, he’d lose Tatsuya. But not just that. He’d probably be taken into custody and put to death for treason.
Was having one more day with Tatsuya worth dying?
He wasn’t sure, but what he did know is that, without Tatsuya, there wasn’t much point to living.
How had he ever allowed himself to feel so deeply for another person? He wasn’t supposed to, damn it!
So be it. One more day and then he’d face his death like a man.
At least he could take comfort in two things: he’d keep Tatsuya safe, and his sister Catriona would be saddled with the shame of his betrayal and it would take years for her to undue that damage. Two birds with one stone, as the saying went.
Putting on his brightest smile, Junno crept to Tatsuya’s room and let himself in so he could congratulate the prince when he got back.
Congratulate him, because his training was over. He was at that very moment taking the Knight’s Oath.
+++
“What are those for?” Kame asked, eying the blades.
“These two,” and Sassi picked up the smaller two as well as the sheaths for them, “are for you.”
Wait, why did he need weapons? He wasn’t going to be fighting, not like that in any event. “Why do I need daggers?”
“Your sister is not going to be on the ship to give you coded whistles, Kame. You’ll need to be armed in case you’re spotted.”
“But, wait!” He didn’t like the direction this was going at all! “I thought the plan… we designed it so that we didn’t have to kill them. What happened to allowing them to flee on the little boats? Otherwise, how would we be any different?” After what he did before, burning that man alive, he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of killing anyone else. Even just that one time was… well, it was awful. He could still remember that panicked feeling when he realized what he had done. He felt like such a monster…
“You’re an idealist like your mother was, Kame. But, frankly, you need to get over it. Yes, we’re trying to do this with minimal enemy casualties. But… minimal, not none. You have to be ready to kill if you get caught. Do you understand?” Sassi’s tone and expression didn’t really allow for an argument. “Please, you know how important you are, all of you. Besides… if you get killed, how will you ever help Marina?”
That… that was a low blow. But the woman was right. Five people to save the whole world - they couldn’t afford to lose anyone. Kame hoped Marina was okay and that the four of them would meet up with her soon.
So Kame took the blades and the sheaths and put them on. Jin got a short sword and a dagger. Yamapi had absolutely no weapon training so he wasn’t going to spend much time on the ground. He’d drop Kame off to do his part and then rejoin the other two on the ground, flying above to monitor the enemy’s position and report it to Jin and his mother.
Sassi strapped on two daggers, a set of throwing knives, a short sword, and then grabbed a quarterstaff. Even Jin was a bit taken aback by it all. “You can that? All of that?” Kame asked her.
“And more. But there’s only so much room.”
Jin, eyes wide, said, “I had no idea…”
“After… well, anyway, I decided that, since I was supposed to hide my magic from the world at all costs, I needed to learn to defend myself, keep myself safe, by other means. I can use these, a spear, a long sword, a sling, a bow, a crossbow… I feel like I’m forgetting some, but it’s not important. Daggers and swords were much easier and quicker to get and they’ll get the job done.”
“Ah…”
+++
They had gone over the plan yet again, probably the last time for that day, and then they had each just gone off on their own for a while. Yamapi was sitting near the fire, watching the stew cook. Kame had gone back upstairs to stare out the window. Jin had sat down at the bar with a half-pint of mead (tomorrow was too important for him to have a hangover, so he was trying to limit himself).
Sassi had disappeared for a while but suddenly she was right next to Jin. “Damn, you scar-”
His mother smacked him upside the back of the head. “Language.”
“Um, right…” and he apologized.
“Hey, Jin…?” she asked, a look of worry on her face.
Concerned, he set the cup down and turned to give her his full attention. “What is it, mother?”
“Will you be okay with this? Everyone has their job to do and will no doubt get blood on their blade… but you and I, we will bear the weight of most of that. Our job is to fight and kill, to protect the castle, until Kame succeeds and then we go to the ship where we’ll kill even more. No sugar-coating it. Killing will be our sole responsibility either way. And you’ve never killed anyone before. You have a good, kind heart. Can you do this? I… I’m scared…” she paused and, closing her eyes, took a deep breath before opening them and continuing, “You’re my son and I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want to lose you. If you freeze, if you hesitate, it just might get you killed.”
Smiling softly at his mother, Jin brought a hand up to her face. “Come on, mother. You’re embarrassing me in front of the guys,” he teased, letting his hand fall back to his side. “I’ll be okay. But what about you? You’ve never-” but the look on her face stopped him cold. “You… when? Why?”
She looked so sad suddenly. “Back when I was younger, before you were born, I was… detained… somewhere. I… well, ‘we’ really, had to fight our way out. But I had sheer desperation to carry me through. I didn’t freak out until we’d gotten away and I realized what I had done.”
“Mother…”
“Just promise me one thing, please.”
Nodding, Jin said, “Anything.”
“If it overwhelms you, teleport away. Don’t worry about me. I will be fine. I may not know my own future the way Marina does, but I do know what I’m capable of and what I’m willing to do. Promise me you’ll teleport away if it gets to be too much death for you to handle!”
Just leave her? He would never be able to do that. But if it made her feel better, maybe a little lie wasn’t such a bad thing. “I promise.”
“Swear it.”
“Wh…what?”
“Swear it to me. Make the Oath.”
Flabbergasted, he said, “Why? Don’t you believe me?”
A small laugh. “No. Not in the slightest. You’re a terrible liar. I appreciate what you were trying to do, but I’m serious. Make the Oath. I can’t fight if I’m worried about you.”
Jin hesitated a moment, but he couldn’t think of any way out of it. And he definitely didn’t want to be the reason his mother wasn’t at her best when she needed to be. Ah, well. Oath it was. How to phrase it…
“I Swear that I will fight as best as I can in defense of the Castle Escarpa, both on ground and in sky, and I further Swear that, should I find myself overwhelmed - either emotionally or combat-wise - I will teleport away until such time as I feel able to return with full faculties.” And the Oath-ripple spread through the room before subsiding.
Sassi put her arms around him. “Thank you. I can fight now, knowing you’ll be okay.” She released him, finally adding, “I’m going to bed. Please, make sure Kame and Yamapi don’t stay up too late. We have an early morning.”
+++
She hit the wall with a loud thud and a startled cry. Angry questions shouted at her. A cruel voice mocking her, telling her to use her magic and save herself if she could. Her own voice, so scratchy and weak, begging for mercy.
Dragged to her feet only to be punched hard, so hard she fell and hit the nightstand with her shoulder.
“I think you really do have magic but you’re having so much fun you aren’t using it. You’re nothing but a common whore, aren’t you… Your highness…”
Hand around her throat. Could still breath but barely.
“Save yourself, if you really want to…” and he was in her and she was screaming again, at least at first. At least, until she passed out.
But, Man’dekael save her… she found no peace in her sleep. All Marina dreamed about was the nightmare she was currently living in the waking world.
Sometimes life just isn’t very fair.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter Twenty Nine ~Battles in the Gardens~
A/N: Okay, in case you're wondering, the 'requests' from the chapter title are Cat's request to get to have McAvrie and Sassi's request that Jin make the Oath.
Maru is much worse when Koki isn't around to keep him in check, apparently. Not that it excuses him, but at least Koki feels guilty. I don't think this Maru does at all. Hopefully Marina will be okay. One more day is done.
LOL Day four will probably be several chapters. The list of stuff that happens takes up a full side of a page, where Day three only had 11 lines of stuff listed.