Chapter Text
Sunlight filtered through the window, casting bright rainbows across Kain's face. He grimaced, murmuring under his breath and pulling the covers over his head with a groan, burrowing into his pillow. Just as he was sighing, slipping back into sleep, there was a knock on his door. "Go away," he moaned.
"I don't think you want me to do that, love."
"Rosa," he muttered, throwing the covers off and rushing to the door. He yanked it open, vaguely aware that he wasn't the least bit presentable. "You know you don't have to knock," he said, his exhaustion making him more blunt than he usually was with her.
She smiled. "I do, Kain."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not willing to do the same for you yet."
"This isn't a zero-sum game. We're allowed to be in different places."
"Absolutely true. I'm still knocking before I come in."
He huffed, rolling his eyes, a slight smile on his lips. "Very well, have it your way. What is so important that you'd wake me up? You usually insist that I be allowed to sleep. Honestly, it's starting to spoil-"
"Cecil's gone."
It took him a second to process her words, the way her expression had gone solemn. "What?" he asked dumbly, not believing he heard her right.
“Cecil is gone.”
“Where did he go?”
“If I knew that,” she clipped, “I would be going after him, not standing here, trying to wake you up enough to get you to organize a search party!”
“But—he can’t be gone. His coronation is in two days.”
“I think that’s the point, actually.”
Understanding dawned in Kain all at once. He ran a hand down his face, shaking his head. “The asshole ran away,” he muttered, taking a deep breath. Rosa said nothing, simply looking at him, and Kain said, “Alright. Okay. We can handle this.”
“Say the word, and I’ll have the search party-“
“That won’t be necessary,” Kain cut her off stridently, heading back into his room and beginning to get dressed, his mind fully awake and taking control of the situation. “I know where he’s going. Get Rydia and Edge and meet me at Devil’s Road.”
He could feel her gaze on him as he stripped off his pajama bottoms, her silence loaded. But she didn’t comment. As the King’s top captain, it fell to Kain to deal with this, even if Cecil wasn’t the King quite yet. The paladin had appointed him his right-hand man, and the other captains had accepted Kain as their superior already. There was no way Kain would not be obeyed when he issued orders, unless they contradicted Cecil’s own.
And Cecil could guarantee that he’d ordered his subordinates not to follow him, but he’d issued no such edict to Kain, and likely knew Kain would ignore it if he did. Still, that meant that he had to do this himself.
Just as well; he didn’t trust anyone else with Cecil’s wounded heart. He didn’t trust anyone but himself and their three companions.
Edge waited by his door by the time he was dressed and armored up. The King of Eblan was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. “So you still think he’d make a better leader for Baron than you would?”
“I know he will.”
“Looks to me like he’s not gonna do it, no matter what we say.”
“We’ll see about that,” Kain said grimly, as he started down the hallway and Edge fell into step beside him.
“So where are we going?”
“Mount Ordeals.”
“The bastard’s trying to get back to the moon, isn’t he?”
“That’s what I’m assuming.” Kain shook his head, irritated that he had to do this. “We cannot let him. Golbez had no choice, he’d have been lynched, likely, if he remained on Earth. Cecil is being offered a kingdom and he doesn’t get to run from his crimes here. He will answer for them, and do what he can as Baron’s king to make the crimes Baron committed with his help right again.”
“Hear hear,” Edge muttered, as Rydia and Rosa joined them, both of them geared up for combat. How Cecil managed to traverse the Devil’s Road alone was a mystery that was beyond Kain, but he was certain Cecil had done it somehow, and was at Mount Ordeals, waiting for them. Because Kluya wouldn’t allow him to run.
He hoped.
The group made quick work of any monsters that attacked them, working together stoically, so used to each other now that they almost regarded each other as extensions of themselves. They emerged from the Road unscathed but exhausted, but none of them would rest. The mages who greeted them confirmed that Cecil had been there at dawn, only three hours prior. Rydia cursed softly. “Did he take a chocobo?”
“No, miss. We wouldn’t let him. He went on foot.”
“Then we can catch up to him,” Kain said grimly. “I trust we may borrow chocobos.”
“Of course, Master Highwind. This way.”
He rolled his eyes at the honorific. He was General of Baron’s armies, and he would be respected there; but he had no such power anywhere else, and was here as a friend looking for a man who needed assistance, whether that man liked it or not. He commanded no regard right now.
“We’ll need five,” he told the stable master.
“Five, Master-“
“Drop the Master bullshit,” Kain cut him off, his tone harsher than it needed to be, overcome with concern for his friend. “Yes, five. We’re bringing him back.”
“But Ma—Kain-“
“We’re bringing him back,” Rosa repeated firmly.
The elder approached them, kindness in his eyes, but his voice soft and firm. “Perhaps you should allow him to return in his own time.”
“Elder-“ Rydia started softly.
“No, please, hear me out. His soul is utterly tortured by the things he did under Golbez’s lies and Zemus’s control.” The Elder paused, gathering his thoughts. “He wishes to atone for his wrongs. But he’s frightened of himself. Will he be an effective leader when he’s so lost? You’re more than qualified to run Baron-“
“I promise you I’m not,” Kain cut him off bluntly.
The Elder wouldn’t be deterred. “-in the King’s absence. You have the respect of the military, the respect of the people. Does Cecil have either of those things?”
Kain flinched as the Elder struck at the heart of the matter. “No,” he admitted, “but with Rosa and I at his side, supporting him, he will earn it. But he has to be there to do that!”
“No one but the Seneschal knows that he’s missing yet,” Rosa added, “and if we can bring him back before anyone else finds out, no one needs to know he ran.”
“If you ask me,” Edge said firmly, “he’s suicidal. The only reason someone would be stupid enough to attempt Devil’s Road alone is if they have no regard for their own life, and I don’t think he does. We’ve had to save him from himself once before. I don’t want to find him on Mount Ordeals with his sword in his chest again.”
The Elder inhaled deeply at that, and Kain could see him turning Edge’s words over in his head. “Very well,” he said finally, deciding that the possibility that Cecil’s life hung in the balance again too great a risk to prevent them from going. “You may have the chocobos—even the fifth one. But promise that you will not force him to return. Do what you can to convince him, but do not take him prisoner. You’ll only end up in an endless power struggle with him as he tries to escape you.”
Kain nodded solemnly. “You have my word,” he said softly. “I will try to bring him back, but only if he comes willingly. I have no desire to force my will on him.”
“Good man. Good luck.”
The companions rode hard, harder than they’d ever pushed their chocobos before. The animals did not protest, only ran, seeming to sense their urgency. They pulled up to Mount Ordeals as the sun was dipping below the horizon, Cecil just starting up the mountain path. A warm wind blew his silver hair about his face like a halo as he turned to them, hearing their approach. He said nothing, though, simply swallowing thickly and staring at them.
Kain dismounted; none of the others moved. “Let’s go, Cecil,” he said, gentle but firm.
“Kain, I-“
“No, Cecil, listen,” he said. “Your disappearance scared the hell out of Rydia, Edge was terrified we’d find you slaughtered by yourself, Rosa was ready to have me turn the kingdom upside-down to find you. You are loved, Cecil, and we’re not letting you walk away from us.”
Uncomfortably, Cecil murmured, “The things I did… I can’t live with them, Kain. The way I hurt you and Rosa, stabbing you in the back over and again, sacking two kingdoms and a village that just wanted to be left alone-“
“Cecil,” Rydia said softly, delicately, “we’ve forgiven you for that. All of Mist has. We know you weren’t aware of what you were doing to us, and we support your ascension to the Baron throne. You don’t get to tell us we don’t.”
“Edward and Yang are back in Baron,” Edge told him critically, “with their queens. Edward worked hard to rehabilitate himself to be able to attend your coronation. You wouldn’t really snub him like this, would you?”
“Palom and Porom will be there, too,” Rosa added. “They were running late, but they always intended to attend.”
“I need you,” Kain said, his voice blunt and matter-of-fact. “I know how to command the military and that’s it. I have no idea how to govern. That was your training, Cecil, not mine. If you do this, you’re condemning Baron to revolution—and eventually, dissolution. Do you want that?” Cecil regarded him incredulously, and Kain urged, “Do you? I can see you don’t believe me. How much are you willing to gamble on the chance that you’re correct, and I can pull this off without you?”
Cecil met his gaze, searching. He turned his eyes to each of the companions in turn, and Edge, when Cecil’s eyes met his, said, “We’ve been through a lot together. We’ll get through this. I know you don’t think you can handle being the King of Baron, either, but I’d rather work with someone who has an education in diplomacy than him.” He jerked his head at Kain, and ignored Kain’s disgruntled grunt. “I don’t know how to be a king, either,” Edge confessed. “I had the education, of course I did. I just… assumed my parents would be the King and Queen forever.” Cecil’s eyes softened as he murmured Edge’s name, and Edge smiled. “So what say you we learn how to govern together? I’ll have your back if you have mine.”
“You… would trust me that much?…”
“You’ve earned our trust, Cecil,” Rosa said quietly. “If you hadn’t been there, Zeromus would’ve won. There was no way we could have won without you.”
“Only because I’m the lightbringer,” Cecil retorted, his voice sullen.
“No,” Kain contradicted gently, “because you were a critical part of our team. Lightbringer or not… you had a choice at the end. You chose the light. That means something, Cecil.”
Cecil closed his eyes, taking a deep, shaking breath. They could hear the tears in his voice when he spoke last. “I’ve already proven that I can’t withstand mental manipulation. Baron remains the most powerful nation on the planet. What happens when another rises to threaten the world, Kain?”
Cecil’s words brought Zeromus’s last, dark prediction to their minds. I will never die, as long as there is darkness in the hearts of men…
It took a moment for Kain to realize that Cecil had spoken the words aloud. His heart skipped a beat at the darkness in the paladin’s voice. “My heart is full of evil,” he said, looking away. “If another like Zemus rises… I will fall, Kain.”
“You don’t think the rest of us capable of evil?” Rydia snapped. “You don’t think Kain capable of it?”
Before Cecil could answer, Kain added, “I had an interesting conversation with the Elder, the night before we fought Zemus for the last time. He pointed out that it was merely a stroke of luck that I hadn’t been captured by Golbez instead of you. He asked if I was sure that I’d have been able to resist him.” He shook his head. “And the fact is that I couldn’t answer him confidently that I would have. You’re not special, Cecil. You’re human.”
“Well…”
“You know what I meant,” Kain cut him off, rolling his eyes.
Cecil smiled sheepishly. “I did,” he admitted. Then, haltingly, he said, “I… will try. But if I can’t do it… if I start to slip myself-“
“Then I will personally remove you from power,” Kain said gently. “But that won’t be necessary, Cecil. You’re a good man. And you’re going to prove it to yourself, because you’ve proven it to us, whether you believe that or not.”
As Kain spoke, he extended his hand, and Cecil, smiling, took it.
And Kain felt the last of the darkness lift. It was finally over.