Kite Rowe

Dammit, I can’t stay mad at him when he gets like that. I put away the book and picked up Babs while she was still playing the piano. “I guess you’re coming with us, unless we find a chick-sitter before we leave.” Babs hopped on Nova’s shoulder, and I went upstairs to retrieve the only thing I had brought with me.

“Let’s go,” I said to Smashy as I picked it up. The weight that settled on my shoulder now felt different. Was it because it was now a weapon, and not just a tool? I shrugged and joined the others.

The tension was low for the first time in a long time… at first. Markus and Nova weren’t fighting, and Eden looked serious instead of just pissed. “Everyone here?” she asked. “Good. Ultima’s Representative wants to see us.”

The tension was cranked to eleven at that moment. Alex’s face got as white as the color white could get. Markus quietly gulped, Jin started shaking… and I lost my grip on the sledgehammer for a second. Even I knew that Ultima’s Representative was one of the most important jobs that any human could get, and since that person was representing a god, whatever they said was absolute.

I also knew that we were now beings on a mission to destroy the world we lived in. Not good at all. This person could decide to have us executed for “the good of the people”.

“W-Will we be okay?” Alex asked Eden. “W-We’re not in trouble, are we?”

Nova put a hand on her shoulder. “She just wants to talk.”

He looks too calm. Do I even want to know the reason why?

“If there’s anyone who knows what to do next, it’ll be her,” Eden said.

I reached into my pocket and fingered the note Nova had written for me. You said you wouldn’t let anyone kick me out. What would happen if this person decides to put us all on the chopping block? Not even you can talk us out of that.

Once more, we were walking through Alexandria. I kept my eyes on the back of the person ahead of me to keep from looking at the people we passed. I had to keep assuring myself that no one was staring at me, even though I was sure that at least some of them were. Then we were at our destination, a towering building that stared down at us, as if it was judging us.

We’re guilty. Guilty of trying to protect Ramblum, getting dragged into that dungeon, and letting ourselves get branded by the fal’Cie.

“Leave behind your weapons,” a guard told us as we passed him. Although I was required to abandon my sledgehammer, the Myst siblings were able to keep theirs. I couldn’t help but feel helpless as I was escorted to a waiting room with the rest of the group, and slightly suspicious of Nova’s more relaxed behavior as he talked with the others. I kept quiet, the only sound from me being my foot tapping on the hard floor.

“Nervous?” I jumped at the sound of Nova’s voice. He laughed. “I guess you are.”

“And you’re not?” I grumbled.

He suddenly got quiet for a long moment. When he started talking again, it was as shaky as it should’ve been in the first place. “We’ll be okay.”

“How do you know that?” I whispered, but he had already left. A quick glace around the room told me he wasn’t in the waiting room anymore. He returned a minute later, and we were allowed to leave the waiting room.

Crystal statues lined the long hallway was trudged through, each one of them armed and solemn-looking. I paused to look at one and got a strange sinking in my gut. “These are l’Cie, aren’t they? These guys are the ones who completed their Focus?”

“Yep. This is where these guys’ll sleep until they’re needed again,” Nova told me.

“Nice home.” I rolled my eyes and walked the rest of the way to the next room.

The woman who was there to see us was… regal would probably be the best way to put her. She wore a stoic expression that made me feel six inches tall. So this is Ultima’s Representative. I’m not feeling so good about my future anymore.

Her face quickly softened when Nova stepped up. “Oh Nova…not you too?”

I was confused for a second but it clicked. “I have another sister.”

I clenched my fists in anger. Again? Really? As soon as my body twitched with the intent to clock my lying friend, something bound my wrists together. A slender hand came into my field of vision to cover my mouth. Instincts told me to struggle and break out of the hold but then I heard a familiar voice.

“You need to calm the fuck down, Kite Rowe, or she’ll make me kill you where you stand.” My eyes widened, and my body relaxed. “And you’ll never see Ramblum again. Do you understand?”

I was too shocked to do anything other than nod. The girl slowly let me go. My lips trembled as I tried to find something to say to her.

How could I forget? Where else would she have gone? She even told me the last day we saw each other.

“Yu…ki?” I finally whispered.

Kara Myst, the woman whose name I didn’t even learn until later, spoke to the group before I could say anything more to Yuki. In short, she was kicking us out of Alexandria, banishing us to the far reaches of human civilization, it was for the good of the people, find some scholar while we were there, yadda yadda yadda…

In short, she was as infuriating as her siblings. Duty or not, she made that decision too easily. I was now pissed off at the whole family. So this is it. This is the end of the life of Kite Rowe. How… anticlimactic.

“You got your wish,” I grumbled at Nova. “Your big sis, or rather Ultima, is throwing us all out. We’ll die in some corner of the world, away from everyone’s eyes. I’m trying to understand how this is better than being executed.” He sighed and hung his head. “Can I borrow your phone?”

“That was a little out of the blue,” Nova commented before handing me the phone.

“Cid doesn’t know we’re alive, remember?” I felt a little pang in my heart before I dialed my boss/guardian’s number.

Someone picked up on the first ring. “Nova! Boy, what the hell took ya so long?”

“Actually, it’s me,” I answered.

A loud gasp. “Kite! What have ya done with Nova!? If you’ve done anythin’ to him—“

I rolled my eyes. “I kicked him in the balls. Does that count?”

“You kicked him in the balls?”

“Yes, what didja think… get your head outta the gutter! The point is that we’re both alive!”

“I’d like ta take your word for it but you calling from his phone is kinda suspicious.”

He groaned and held the phone out to Nova. “Tell that geezer that you’re alive and not tied up in some warehouse.”

Nova took the phone. “Hey, Cid. Yes, I’m alive. No, he didn’t kidnap me. Sorry for not returning your calls.” A long pause, and his face got gloomier. “We’ll be back soon, but I don’t know when.”

My heart sank. Oh yeah, even after almost getting killed by Yuki, I still won’t see Ramblum again.

Nova gave the phone back to me. “He wants to talk to you.”

Cid was talking the second I put the phone to my ear. “Your friend Yuki came by. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her about you and Nova.”

“She did, did she?” I glanced at Yuki for a second, still not sure what to say to her.

“Yeah, you should find a way to reach her. I know you’re still sour over what happened but ya can’t find girls like her every day.” I grunted in understanding. “Nova said that ya still had things to do over there. I’ll just keep a place for the two of ya, so just have fun explorin’. But… but I want ya to know that even though it was never legal, you’re still my son.”

My breath hitched in my throat. “What made you say something like that?”

“Because I don’t know when I’ll ever see ya again. I got scared that ya were dead, dammit! I just wanted to tell ya that! And… and you know how I don’t say mushy stuff easy. So just take care of yourself and all that.”

“Bye, Cid.” I hung up and gave the phone back to Nova, and then hid between two crystal statues to cry. After I had cried myself dry, I just sat there in silence until I heard someone approach me.

Yuki.

What was I going to say to the person I had conveniently forgotten? We were almost destined to bump into each other again. Why didn’t she write? No, don’t accuse her right off the bat. Why is she going with us? Isn’t her job to guard that bitch? Note to self, don’t call Kara a bitch out loud. “Hi?” Is “hi” good enough? What would Nova say? Nova seems to always have the right thing to say when it comes to girls.

“You look nice,” I finally said to her.

That’ll do, Kite. That’ll do.

But then I exploded. “This new life must be treating you well. How does it feel to be the one to restore your family’s honor? Is it heavy? Does it keep you too busy to write? Shouldn’t you be here guarding that woman instead of going with us monsters? I’m sure you have better things to do than to escort a bunch of dead men walking to the end of the world.”

…I’m such an idiot. Still, points for not calling Kara a bitch.