Sacrificing yourself is easy.
It is sacrificing someone you love that puts your convictions to the test.
---xX--Xx---
“Little Arya, Daddy is sorry. Daddy couldn’t protect you or Mommy and now Daddy won’t be able to avenge you.”
Gadrael’s words froze Lina in her tracks. Beside her, Kai stopped… momentarily puzzled. The Mad King’s anguished utterance pierced the young woman straight through her heart, more effectively than any blade could have. Although the A.M.R.O.’s eighteenth birthday present to Lina had been the written summary of her parents’ final battle, she’d never read it. That didn’t stop her from seeing her own father, the Frenchman she’d never met, there in the midst of the combat before her. If her mother had died first, and he’d been left behind, this is what he would have become: a stark raving madman, screaming at the heavens and every other Alchemist who lived and breathed, bent only on destroying the parties responsible for his beloved’s death before he succumbed to that icy kiss himself.
It was with no small measure of abject horror that Marcelina saw Gadrael catch her spinning blade. The female Asylum couldn’t stop the gasp that parted her lips, nor the widening of her eyes. She’d seen the sort of damage that cast could do, and for him to stop it effortlessly… she had underestimated her opponent.
To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.
Kai and Lina both knew this. For the powers they each possessed, they had paid with the whole of their lives and everything they were or could be. Their sanity, their future. It was the price all Asylums paid, and an acceptable sacrifice. What Gadrael had just done was to give his right arm in order to obtain the power to destroy them. That sacrifice was forbidden.
The realization of what they were actually dealing with crystallized for the pair at the same moment. As Gadrael went on the warpath, snatching up the gauntlet-wearing woman they would later identify as Vail, Dos Pistolas did what any other team who wished to live in that circumstance would do. Kai released his Power Drain, erasing all trace of himself from the battlefield, and without a word spoken the pair broke and ran.
Lina didn’t want to watch the other Asylums who would have been her new team meet their brutal, bloody deaths. She nearly stepped on a King who had been hiding in the scrubland, veering around him as he rose to join a second attack wave that was starting to rush the battlefield. The pair didn’t stop, didn’t engage him, they just kept running. He was puzzled enough by this to hesitate, and Dos Pistolas were running for their lives… fast enough that the older man knew he wouldn’t catch them. He didn’t give chase.
But moments later, as the pair charged through the dark desert towards the distant but shimmering hope of their Challenger in the parking lot of the M Hotel, someone else did.
Gadrael himself seemed to appear out of thin air before them. His right side was drenched in blood, ugly crimson against the snowy white of his robes. It was still oozing from the wound he’d made with Lina’s own blade. Dos Pistolas skidded to a stop, sending loose gravel skittering in Gadrael's direction.
“And where do you two think you’re going?” he asked, in a low tone filled with both menace and terrible sort of glee.
Kai accepted the fact that he was going to die. This was a rogue who had just begun casting with the despicable power of Forbidden Alchemy. He couldn’t find any regret in his heart for the life he’d led or any of the things he’d done… only a great sense of loss for the things he’d never had a chance to do. That he would never have a chance to go sailing, that he’d never known the taste of Marcelina’s skin, never heard her whisper those three small words he’d longed for her to say… for all these, and more, he found sorrow and regret.
The pair flung their hands out to the sides, preparing to snatch their guns from the holsters on the base of their spines. It had been a promise they’d made when they had first earned the nickname of Dos Pistolas: if they were going to live by the gun, they would die by the gun, and go out shooting. But the two were standing too close together, and something unexpected happened: Lina’s left hand bumped Kai’s right one.
And instead of continuing to reach for her Glock, Lina grabbed Kai’s hand. She was dead, whether or not she could get her gun out and fire a few rounds. Gadrael could stop them, or eat them, or whatever he pleased. Resistance was futile. Holding on to the warm strength of her partner’s hand, Lina looked right into Gadrael’s eyes.
“I truly am sorry for your loss,” the female Asylum said, and she meant it. Alchemy had cost the girl her family, too. She genuinely understood Gadrael’s pain, and really could sympathize.
It made Gadrael hesitate for only a moment, his seal-bearing hand raised at Dos Pistolas, palm aimed right at them. But that moment was enough.
Kai decided that he didn’t want the last thing he ever saw to be a stranger in white robes, drenched in blood and ash, lit by the fires of combat behind them. Since the woman he loved was beside him here in this final battle, the young man was granted one final gift. He could instead choose her beautiful green eyes, her sweet round face, her pouty lower lip as his last look. He turned to Lina and brought his left hand to her cheek, still holding hers with his right.
As Lina turned to meet her partner’s honey-hued gaze, she remembered something. A spell they’d used only once, on their second assignment, the only other time in their career that they were facing down death. And now it would have more power, because she… well…
He knew what she was thinking. He remembered that other moment as well as she did. They drew a breath in unison. The sight of the pair turning to one another and the emotion that was clear between them was just too much for poor, shattered Gadrael. The Mad King had been taken aback by Lina’s comment, but was too far lost to stop now. He howled in pain and anguish over his own lost ladies while the pair spoke what they hoped would not be their last words.
“Proteger a mi corazón y el alma.”¹
It was a simple spell, one Lina cast on Kai at the same moment Kai cast it on her. The phrase ‘protect my heart and soul’ was screamed at the top of their lungs. It was full of the anguish that they each felt at the prospect of witnessing the other’s death, imbued with a lifetime’s worth of fond affection. It brought up a sort of barrier which would have formed around their heads, like a helm, and covered their chests and backs like plates of energy armor.
The barrier was half-formed and still solidifying when a light exploded on Kai’s left side, where Gadrael stood. A wave of pain and anguish so intense it stole his breath raced through his heavy frame as he felt himself being lifted up and away from the Mad King. He heard Lina’s scream, a sound which tore at his soul, and the last thing he actually saw were the cold, distant stars wheeling by overhead.
There can be sacrifice without love,
But not love without sacrifice.
---xX--Xx---
The life of an Asylum never stopped being strange. While a normal person would have taken months, maybe even years to heal from what had happened to Kai and Lina, the A.M.R.O. could bring them back to an unbroken state in a matter of hours. Marceline opened her eyes slowly, and while there was no sharp pain that would indicate an actual wound, every fiber of her being was diffusely sore from the trauma of the intense healing process.
For just a moment, Lina stared up at the ceiling, trying to make something coherent from her few fuzzy memories of the devastating defeat. She could recall casting the Deseo Corazón, staring up into Kai’s amber eyes, and heard Gadrael’s words about his daughter echoing through the back of her brain. There was a flash of memory where her blade tore into his flesh… running hard… had there been a Phoenix above the battleground, maybe?
Rustling paper drew Marcelina’s attention to the left, where a plush blue armchair was situated on the far side of her nightstand. Kai had just put a magazine down next to his glass of iced sweet tea on the small table. The look he gave her was one of relief, happiness and… yes, love.
Lina opened her mouth to make a smartass remark, something along the lines of, ‘Did you think you’d get rid of me that easily?’ Instead, much to her dismay, it was only a sob that escaped, and suddenly there were tears stinging her eyes. She found herself reaching for Kai, fingers outstretched.
As his broad, strong hand caught her smaller, more delicate one, she had a flash of that same thing happening in the firelit throes of battle. Lina remembered what it was like to think she was going to die without having told her partner how much she loved him. She pulled him to the side of the bed, and he almost stopped, but the woman kept up her steady pressure. Kai sat down with his hip next to hers and turned halfway to wrap his tattooed arm around her back. He drew her against the wall of his chest and straightened, pulling Lina into his lap but leaving her legs still tangled in the blankets. She buried her face in his shoulder and gave in to her tears.
Dos Pistolas’ female member wept. Not for herself, never for herself. She wept for her parents, she wept for the fact she’d almost let Kai’s love die unrequited, and she even wept for Gadrael; that he had lost his own wife and little girl.
Kai let his woman cry. He had shed his own tears earlier, alone, while keeping vigil by her bed. The A.M.R.O. medics had always seemed surprised to see him thrashing about in his pod long before most of the others were ready, and even more surprised at his insistence that Lina was done as well and should be moved to a room. This instance had been no different. Something about their natural energy talents accelerated their healing process to a few hours less than average. Although neither of the members of Dos Pistolas knew it yet, the grave nature of their combat injuries had only put them half an hour to forty five minutes ahead of the others.
He’d learned through the years that Lina would always sleep for several minutes to several hours after being removed from the pod. It was as if her own subconscious protected her from the rough awakening, knowing it was more than she could handle. All he could do now was be happy she'd come to, and hold her tight as her pain, grief and fear left her shaking body in the form of tears. The small wet spot it left on his tee shirt was like a badge of her regard rather than any sort of nuisance. When she started hiccupping from the sobs, he started to stroke her soft brown hair.
“Shh, now, my Marcelina. It’s all right, we’re both still here,” Kai soothed gently. He leaned over to grab a tissue from the box on the nightstand, and handed it to Lina as she drew back.
Looking up at Kai, cradled in the safety of his embrace, the woman almost gave in to the unbidden and powerful urge to reach up and kiss him. What stopped her was that when she cried, Lina knew she became a snotty and puffy mess. She was also still hiccupping as she dabbed at her face and nose with the tissue, sniffling in between. The only time they’d ever kissed, Kai had put so much trouble into making sure it was perfect enough to be almost surreal… Lina just couldn’t bear to be a hot mess the first time she kissed him back.
Sensing that she had recovered and wanted her personal space unoccupied, Kai slid out from under Lina and stood, picking his tea up off the table. There was also a small paper cup there, containing a mild narcotic for Lina. She took both items from him gratefully and finally spoke.
“Yes.”
Like all Alchemists who practiced the Vocem style, Lina was a professional at putting everything she felt into a few small words. The strength of that one-word expression made Kai finally smile just a little. He took the empty white cup and glass of tea when his lovely partner offered them back.
He set them on the table and then turned back to her. Kai put a gentle hand on the back of Lina’s head and leaned in to kiss her softly forehead.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll go fix us some coffee while you get dressed.”
Without another word, the big man turned and exited his partner’s room. She almost cried again from the sheer tenderness of the gesture and the overwhelming relief that they were both alive.
We’ve got nothing left to lose
But our bullets and our wounds.
---xX--Xx---
Kai had just finished fixing the second cup of coffee when its intended recipient appeared and took a seat on one of the barstools at the island in the Safe House’s kitchen. He leaned over the counter to hand her the steaming mug.
Lina took a big sip and then breathed out a satisfied sigh.
“Coffee and painkillers? Kai, you know exactly what I like for breakfast,” the woman said in a light and almost flirty tone, smiling at him over the cup’s rim.
She was rewarded with one of her partner’s winning grins. Then her eyes fell.
“So… do you know how many survived?” the woman asked in a softer tone… one not playful at all.
“Amazingly enough, all of them,” he told her, glad that the tidings he had to bear were good.
Her relief was clear on her face. “That’s the second best news I’ve heard all day.”
Kai lifted an eyebrow at his partner. “What was the best news?”
Now her smile returned a little, in a bittersweet sort of fashion. “That we survived.”
The raven-haired man moved around the island towards the smaller woman, smiling at the same time he shook his head.
"You're right... and yet you're wrong fo dat," he said, draping that tattooed arm around her slender shoulders. "I have some more good news for you. There's an awesome breakfast buffet in the next room."
Lina's stomach grumbled loudly in response. Dos Pistolas would be sitting at the only large, round table in the dining room, destroying their plates of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and fruit salad when the other Asylum teams began to arrive.
Kai and Lina's injuries from the battle with Gadrael were massive, and it truly was a miracle they lived to tell the tale. Kai suffered a serious concussion, a lacerated liver, five broken ribs, vertebrae T7 to T9 shattered, and a compound fracture of the right femur that also severed his femoral artery. He nearly bled out before medics found him. Lina had an intracranial hemorrhage, a shattered right humerus and clavicle, three broken ribs -one of which punctured and collapsed her right lung- and an obliterated C3 through C6 vertebra. Unlike Kai, Lina was not breathing when she was discovered and barely had a heartbeat. They suffered nearly complete amnesia in regards to the second half of the battle, including the realization that Gadrael had used Forbidden Alchemy.
...Although they both always felt as if they'd forgotten something important.
