Kingdom Hearts:
Another Side, Another Story
Fan Fiction by:
Ben Brigman
[/FONT] Light and dark. The worlds are made up of these two core elements… divided by an ancient, unknown force, the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness have existed separately since beginning of time… and the protectors of the delicate balance of light and dark in the world were warriors wielding weapons of great, and terrible power, able to unlock the power of the light and the dark and bend them to their will… these weapons were known as Keyblades… these blades were a reflection of their masters hearts, taking on unique forms and granting their masters with unimaginable power…
But many of these warriors knew of an even greater power, older than the world itself… Kingdom Hearts… The birthplace of all hearts, where light and darkness co-existed… the place where the world was created… Legend told of the power over all the world Kingdom Hearts would bring to anyone who could claim it as their own… Keyblade bearers from many worlds over flooded to a legendary place where Kingdom Hearts was rumored to be found… and there, the Keyblade Wars began… generations of warriors fought and perished, searching for the legendary Key that could open the doors to the mythical kingdom; some driven by their thirst for power, others seeking to protect the worlds from the chaos it could bring… It’s told that one day, two warriors, one with a heart of pure light, and the other with a heart of pure darkness clashed and the chaos it brought created the great key and it brought on a cataclysmic force that separated the world into fragments…
With the Keyblade bearers said to be extinct, the worlds were at peace, divided and protected by walls of light… time passed and the legend of the mythical Kingdom Hearts faded from history, along with all memory of the time before the fragmentation of the worlds… but one day, the balance of the worlds was broken by a man of great power, who found a way to release the darkness from the dark realm upon the worlds and let it feed on the hearts of many people, until the worlds themselves were consumed and faded into the Realm of darkness… Some say he was a powerful and wise wizard… some say he was a brilliant scientist… and some say he was a great warrior and hero during the Keyblade wars… no one in our world knows for sure who he was or why he would open the door to darkness, but two years ago it reached our world and has been searching for something, destroying everything in its path, and feeding on people’s hearts…
Shadow-like creatures came from the darkness, consuming the hearts of many people, turning them into shadows themselves… our weapons… blades, bullets, bombs… nothing affects or even slows them down… they are incredibly fast, strong, and nearly invincible… hope was lost for our world… but just when we thought the darkness would consume everything, a glimmer of hope appeared… rumor spread of a city to the east that was protected by a pure light that suddenly appeared one year ago… with nothing left to lose, my sister and I decided to journey to this city… that is where our story begins…
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Chapter 1
“I’m sorry! I think I twisted my ankle!”
Me and my sister Saranie… It’s been two months since we left our home and started our long journey… Sara is only fourteen and she had to watch as people from our home town were being consumed by the shadows… they destroyed nearly everything we cared about, friends, family, everything, and when they were done, they vanished as quickly as they came. We somehow got away and once they were gone, we gathered what we could and left. Since then we have just been making shelter wherever we can, restocking in whatever destroyed town we could find, slowly working our way to the rumored City of Light in the east… I prayed to God it was true…
I sighed and ran back to help her. “Stop apologizing… Can you stand?” I pulled her arm over my shoulder and helped her to her feet.
She winced after putting weight on her hurt leg but nodded. “It’s fine. Just a bit sore”
“OK…” I nodded back and handed her bag back to her, being sure to keep an easy pace as we continued on. We were simply headed east. That’s all we know about this rumored city of light that’s supposed to protect anyone within its walls from the darkness… two months have gone by and my sister is the only thing that has kept me going all this time. She’s always smiling, always positive, never letting me look down or get lost in the past. Constantly reminding me of why I can’t quit. I mean if there are such things as angels, she must be the closest thing to them without having wings and a halo. And I swore I’d never let anything to happen to her. She deserved at least that much from me.
“Something on your mind?”
I snapped out of my haze and looked at her, “It’s nothing. Just thinking about home…”
She frowned a bit, and quickly changed to one of her famous smiles. “Ya know what… I can’t wait to get to the city of light! Just the name itself sounds beautiful! I bet the skies are blue, birds are flying, and kids are playing in the park! It’ll be just like home…”
I couldn’t help but grin a little. Her child-like demeanor always gets to me deep down. “No…” I looked at her and smiled back, “it’ll be better”. She smiled and hugged my arm tight.
Since the darkness flooded our world, not only have cities and towns been destroyed, but the very earth itself has seemed to have become sickened by the veritable storm clouds of pure darkness that have dimmed the sky; places that used to be covered in grass were now barren plains. Trees lost their color and leaves, growing dark thorns that twisted and tangled and turned beautiful forests into nightmarish death traps. Even some animals that were caught by the darkness were transformed into hideous shadow-like creatures as well, feeding on hearts just as the shadows had. There’s got to be a way to rid the world of this cancer… its darkness… shadows… that means light should destroy it or at least scare it away right?... obviously we have tried fighting them with everything from flashlights to military search lights, and of course our own weapons… but for some reason it doesn’t affect them… And yet this mythical “city of light” is supposed to be able to force the darkness out?... it’s hard to believe… but over the past year, I’m willing to believe almost anything…
After a week of walking along an old abandoned highway, we came across an intact truck stop station and decided to use it to settle down and restock for the night. We paused and hid out at a distance to do some reconnaissance. I reached into my back pack and pulled out a pair of binoculars. Sara kept her head down while I scouted the area for any shadows. The coast seemed clear, so I handed Sara a walkie-talkie while I worked my way over to get a closer look. I hated leaving her alone, but I knew it was the safest thing for both of us. As I neared the abandoned stop, I would check on Sara with the talkie to make sure she was ok while taking closer looks with the binoculars. Things looked clear, so I took a look inside. The inside was practically pitch-black. I managed to find a keychain light at the checkout desk and inspected the rest of the station. The sound of a dripping shower faucet in the shower room was the only sound that filled the uneasy air.
With the station in the clear, I decided to check out one of the eighteen-wheeler trucks. I’d heard that they contained a space in the back with a small place to sleep. Seemed like the best place to sleep for the night. I looked a couple over, most had deep, beastly claw marks on the doors, broken windows, blood splattered interior... scenes that we’ve unfortunately seen plenty of times since we left home… I managed to find one that was mostly intact and untouched by the carnage and decided to check in on Sara…
“Sara you ok?...”
“Yea I’m fine… how’s it look over there?”
“The store looks like there was a panic but not much damage… I managed to find a truck… we can stock up then use the one I found to rest for the night... I’m on my way back. Don’t move” I explained, feeling a bit uneasy about the atmosphere surrounding this place… it felt too quiet… or maybe I had just watched too many scary movies… still, can’t be too careful…
“Ok…” she responded, her voice a little shaky. I could tell she was starting to get really creeped-out, so I started to hurry back. First, I thought, I had better check behind the store. Wouldn’t want any surprises. The place was screaming “trap”. I peeked around the back. Things seemed fine. I did however see something shiny leaned against the wall. With the little amount of sunlight that made it through the thick clouds starting to fade to night, it was hard to make much out. I flipped on the keychain light and took a closer look. It was an old motorbike. Nothing big or fancy, like a Harley, but it had two seats and could probably get us a good ways. That’s all that we need to make this trip a little easier. I hailed Sara on the talkie, “hey, I just found an old bike in not-bad condition. Should be able to take us a good ways. We can fuel it up in the morning and hit the road…”
“S-sounds good…” she stuttered anxiously.
As night fell and we finished preparing for bed, Sara laid in the small bed in the truck’s cab while I got as comfortable as possible, stretched out across the two front seats, trying to avoid the seat belt buckles protruding from beside the seats, jabbing me in my side. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather sleep back here?...” she whispered softly.
“I’m fine… now get some rest… we have a long ride ahead of us and I don’t want you falling asleep and possibly falling off while I’m driving…”
“Ok… but let me know if you-“
“Sara…”
“Ok… sorry…”
Even though she is my little sister, I knew I talked down to her a good bit… probably more than necessary… I really need to let up on her and stop treating her like she is five, I thought. I let out a silent sigh. “You know… you really shouldn’t push yourself so much…” I commented, referring to her injured ankle that she had been trying to play off as nothing all day. Stubborn girl like her would rather torture herself than let herself seem like some kind of burden.
“…what are you talking about?...” she hesitantly replied.
“I know you are afraid of being a burden or something… but we are in this together, which means we look out for one another… and that means that you can rely on me for anything… you don’t have to be so concerned about slowing me or us down… I know the last thing you would want is for me to push myself if it meant me being in even more pain… and the same goes for you… so next time you try to be all brave just for me… don’t… because I want to help… ok?...”
She didn’t say anything in return, but I felt her hand reach from the back seat and grab mine, squeezing tight and shaking a bit. I could hear her quiet sobs as she tried to hold them in…I squeezed back…
I eventually drifted off, and had this strange dream… one that I’ve had several times since the darkness came to our world, it’s always the same, yet different… I’m falling… or more like sinking… I can feel myself being swallowed by this deep emptiness… I open my eyes, and I can’t see anything around me… Nothing… my decent slows and I land on a large, circular pillar. As soon as my feet touch the platform, the surface begins to shine with a brilliant white light… it feels warm and nostalgic… as if I had been there before… a voice calls out to me… but I can hear them inside me… as if they were speaking to my heart… it warns me about the darkness… and tells me that I will need to keep the light strong… that a test of my heart will present itself soon and I will need to decide what is most important to me… and that I will need to “open the door”… obviously I had no idea what any of it meant… doors, the light, hearts, the darkness… I only knew about one, the darkness… and the other, the light, I only assumed had to do with the city we were headed to…
I woke suddenly to Sara shaking me and softly whispering in a panicked voice for me to wake up.
“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!...” she was kneeled between the seats from the back with her head down
I snapped up in my seat “what? What is i-?!” before I could finish, she shoved my head back down below the window before putting her finger to her lips then pointing out the window. I nodded and turned around to peer outside. I looked and right off the bat I saw five shadows. Three of them were soldier classes and two shades… Shades were the lowest class of shadows; small, jet black bodies with large, yellow glowing eyes. They knelt over as if following the scent of its prey with their curled, twitching antenna. Soldiers however stand upright wearing their trademarked armored helmets, bearing an emblem like a black, stitched up heart on their chest. They are slightly faster and stronger than the shades, but travel in groups of three or more. This was bad… and to make matters worse, Sara pointed up and I noticed a wyvern circling the station, scouting the area. Wyverns are beast class and high ranked among the other shadows, vicious and crazy fast… we would need luck to get past it… I just hoped the bike was fast enough to get us away… the shades had me most worried though… those antenna, always twitching as they search for traces of a scent… fortunately they hadn’t picked up ours yet. The smell of blood from the trucks surrounding us must have been blocking our scent.
With no other choice, I whispered to Sara, “We’ll need to slip out the passenger side door and try to get around to the back…”
“o-ok...” she said, her shoulders shaking. I placed a hand on her cheek and gave her a serious look and told her, “I will never let anything happen to you…” Her shivering calmed and she looked at me and nodded. I glanced out the passenger window to make sure the coast was clear on that side. I pulled the door handle slowly, hoping the latch in the door wouldn’t make too much noise as the door popped open. We slipped through the door and quietly crept around the long hauling container attached to the truck. I peered around the back, toward the store. The soldiers were nowhere to be seen. Probably in the store, I thought. The wyvern was still circling overhead, and one of the shades was still sniffing around the gas pumps… but the second shade was nowhere to be found. This is bad, I thought… I looked at Sara behind me and put my finger to my lips while I peaked under the container. Nothing… this is really bad, I thought. The shade could have been anywhere in the large cluster of trucks around us. I put my lips close to Sara’s ear and whispers softly, “I can’t see the other shade… it’s probably somewhere around all these trucks…” I explained. I heard her gulp nervously. “Do you have any more fireworks?...” I asked, pointing to her backpack. She gently pulled it off and quietly searched its contents. She pulled out a plastic grocery bag and opened it, inside there were three roman candles, a pack of noise makers, and a large bottle rocket with the name “big bertha” in bold letters on the side. I grabbed the noise makers and pulled out my pocket knife to cut a string of noise makers off of the pack, then reached in my bag and pulled out a Zippo lighter.
“I’m going to throw these toward the other side of the road as a distraction… when I say go, you make a run for the back of the store and I’ll be right behind you…” I whispered.
“Ok…” she nodded, and squeezed my hand. I looked one more time to make sure I they weren’t looking and lit the fuse on the string of noise makers. The noise makers left my hand and I opened my mouth to tell Sara to go… but as soon as I felt the word leave my mouth, I felt something land on my back and sharp claws dig into my arm and ribs as I fell to the ground. It was the missing shade. I tried to shake it off, but it was latched on tight and the more I struggled, the more I could feel it digging in. I heard Sara shout my name and felt her trying to beat the shade off of me.
“SARA RUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF HE-“ I was interrupted by a high pitched shriek coming from the shade that was latched onto me. He must have been signaling to the other shadows, because immediately after, I could hear the rattle and clanging of the soldiers helmets drawing closer. “GO SARA! LEAVE ME OR THEY’LL KILL YOU!!!”
“NO I WONT LEAVE YOU!” she shouted back, even though I knew she was scared out of her mind. She continued to beat and pry at the shade latched to me like a tick.
“SARA PLEASE!... YOU CANT STAY HERE, IT’S TOO LATE FOR ME!!”
“SHUT UP! You said we’re here for each other! Don’t break your promise to me!” she screamed, tears pouring down her cheeks. At that moment, the soldiers grabbed Sara, forcing her to the ground and holding her arms and legs down as she screamed and struggled in anger and terror. I could feel myself getting weaker, “is it trying to take my heart?”, I thought to myself as I started to lose consciousness. “No!… Sara… get off her…… freaks……..” the last thing I saw was a shade everything went black…
I found myself sinking… like in my dreams… drifting down an empty void… I opened my eyes and found myself standing on the pillar of light… then, I heard the voice call out to me…
…The Heartless…
…Born from the darkness in people’s hearts…
…they feed on the light within the hearts of others…
…Fear not…
…the light within your heart may be small but it is powerful…
…Those with strong hearts…
…Have the power to control a great and terrible force…
KEYBLADE
…You are not the chosen one…
…But the Keyblade will answer the calls of those with strong will…
…Now you must open the door…
…Face the power that rests within you…
…or lose everything precious to you…
…keep the light strong…
…Or you will be lost to the darkness…
…Here lies the darkness and light that rest in your heart…
As the light and darkness faded, I saw three pillars. On one rested a small, but blindingly bright light. On the other rested a darkness that burned at my soul like a terrifying flame.
…Here, you will forge the power that will test your heart…
…and either protect everything dear to you…
…or destroy everything that stands against you…
…Now reach out and create your Key…
I looked at the dark flame and the intense light and held them both in my hands… in one, I felt the hope of reaching the city of light, the joy of seeing my sister’s smiling face, and the desire to protect the things close to me… but would it be enough?, I thought… in the other, I felt the pain of my home lost, the fear my sister’s safety, and the anger toward the darkness that ravaged our world; but with it, a wild, incredible power, with which I knew I could conquer the darkness and defeat any enemy I faced… but deep down, a strange fear rattled my heart…
“Kale!........” I heard echo through the darkness. “Sara…” I thought. There wasn’t any time left. I had to save her. I looked at the two halves of my heart that rested in my hands. “No point in choosing…” I told myself. I stretched my arms out wide and closed my eyes. With all my strength, I brought my hands together. The darkness and light clashed in my hands. I could feel the chaos of the two opposing forces as they resisted one another. “Kale!... Please!... Wake up!...” I heard once more from somewhere beyond the void. I had to go back and save her. Come on you two… I thought to myself. I felt an enormous energy inside me grow as the two pieces of my heart tangled and twisted between my palms. It burned at my heart and I felt as though I would explode any second. I’d had enough. I wasn’t going to wait any longer. I thought at this rate, the heartless would take my sister for sure. With the last of my strength, I shouted, “I command you… BECOME ONE!”
In that instant, I felt the power within me peak and the chaos disappear. I held out my hand and in it, I saw the light and darkness take shape.
…You have gained control over the light and darkness within your heart…
…And forged your key…
…Its name is…
“Kingdom Divide!”
I opened my eyes and found myself back at the truck stop. I looked around and saw all the heartless were gone.
“Kale! Thank God you’re alright!” I heard Sara shout before wrapping her arms around my neck tight. I smiled weakly and noticed someone else’s shadow on the ground in front of me. I glanced up, my vision a bit blurry, and saw the faint image of someone kneeling in front of me. “Hey kid… you ok?...” I heard the voice say with a man's tone. My vision continued to go dark and my body suddenly lost all of its strength. I felt Sara lay me back and could hear her talking to me, “Kale?...Are you ok?!” she asked repeatedly. The last thing I heard was the man telling Sara to get my shirt off, and everything after was a blur…
I had another strange dream… I was floating… surrounded by light and darkness spinning all around me… as if I were in the eye of a massive tornado… my heart was aching, like I was about to be torn in half… but I wasn’t afraid… then a Blinding light covered me and I felt a huge weight being lifted off of my heart… and I faded into nothing…
I woke up; a bright light was shining down on me. I was lying on my back with my shirt gone, my head rested on something soft… I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in my side and arm kept me from moving. “Kale! Your awake!” I looked up and saw Sara smiling down at me then I realized it was her lap that I was laying on. We were lying underneath a tree in a small clearing next to the truck stop. The branches partially blocked the bright light and I managed to make out something blue… but it couldn’t be…
“Sara…” I began “is that?” I pointed up at the small gap in the clouds of darkness, letting a small amount of sun light and blue sky to be seen. She looked up with me, “Yea that’s the sky. You punched a hole right through the darkness! It was amazing!” she looked back down at me with astonishment. I did that?, I thought to myself.
“Yea kid. I showed up and saw you two were getting your butts handed to you so I swooped in and saved her; but you on the other hand, thought you were a goner” said the voice from before. I sat up slowly and saw a man in his mid twenties walking towards me and Sara. “Then outta nowhere, you stood up, pulled out your keyblade, slammed it into the ground and next thing I know, this massive light shot out and punched a hole right through the thick layer of darkness and fried every inch of darkness within about a hundred yards. You passed back out and we treated your wounds while you were unconscious”
“And… who are you?” I asked, examining his strange appearance. His hair was like a sunset orange with a spiky crew-cut and his eyes were a crazy shade of blue. The most curious thing was a single plate of armor strapped onto his shoulder with a circular emblem in the center.
“Name’s Cain. You could say I’m from up north” He said with an arrogant grin.
“Right… I’m-“
“Kale. I know, kid; your girlfriend here wouldn’t stop sayin your name tryin to get you to wake up” he explained, gesturing to Sara.
“Oh, no she isn’t my girlfriend, she’s my sister” I explained.
He glanced over at her “Good to know” He grinned, giving her a cocky wink. She blushed and looked away.
“Hey watch it-!“
“Whatever” he interrupted. “In any case she nursed you back to health and helped me stitch you up. She wouldn’t leave your side for a minute out here” he explained. I looked at her; she was smiling at me and blushing softly. Always the modest type.
“So hey… you said keyblade a second ago… you know about it?” I asked.
“Of course!” he grinned.
“What’s a keyblade?...” Sara asked.
“Just watch” he said and stood, taking a step back. He closed his eyes and held out his hand. A burst of light stretched from his hand and as the light faded, it took the shape of a keyblade. “Keyblades are ancient, powerful weapons used to fight the darkness; reflections of their master’s heart. Like a heart, each keyblade is unique and only as strong as the heart of its master. This is Twilight’s End” he said, holding out his key with another cocky grin. After watching him, I closed my eyes as well and tried summoning my keyblade. Nothing. I didn’t even understand how he did it.
“Don’t bother, you’re heart’s too weak to summon your keyblade right now. That humongous blast probably drained all your energy” he explained as his keyblade vanished in a burst of light. “Not to worry, I got a look at yours before you zonked out. Impressive looking weapon. Nothing compared to my Twilight’s End though” he gloated.
“Well… I guess we had better get going. We have a long way to go…” I explained as I struggled to stand.
Sara grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me back down. “You’re not going anywhere. You are too hurt”
“She’s right kid. Plus, you seem like a bit of a newbie with that keyblade. You should rest and get your strength back. Then maybe, if you ask pretty please, I’ll teach ya a few tricks and moves with it to keep you outta trouble in case those heartless come back. How bout it?”
I didn’t like it. Something about him didn’t seem very trust worthy, but… I couldn’t take care of Sara in this condition… and if he could actually teach me how to use the keyblade, getting to the city of light might get a lot easier…, I thought. I sighed and looked at Sara. She started giving me the puppy dog eyes and, of course, I caved. “Fine…”
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me” said Cain. He stood and started walking towards the truck stop and stood amongst the gas pumps. His keyblade appeared in his hand and he held it out in front of him, then closed his eyes and released it from his hand. Instead of dropping, it remained stationary in midair, his eyes still closed and hand out. I saw him saying something, then suddenly his Twilight’s End shot high into the hair and split into four pieces, separating in opposite directions. The fragments stopped in a square formation around the station and released beams of light at one another. From each side of the square, a wall of light fell like a curtain from the beams until the entire area around the gas station was contained in a box of light. Then, they vanished. Twilight’s End reformed and returned to Cain, then disappeared. He walked back over and plainly asked, “So, who’s hungry?”
“What was that all about just now?” I asked.
“Yeah it was amazing!” remarked Sara.
“Ya like that?” he grinned. “Just one of those tricks I told ya about. I don’t usually make it that big, so it’s got me a little winded… but we should be safe from being sniffed out or spotted by heartless till morning” he looked at Sara. “So, sweet heart, why don’t you go run inside and grab some dinner for us. thanks.” He gave her another wink and a creepy grin. My blood started to boil looking at his arrogant face.
“Listen ass-wipe-!”
“Kale its fine…” Sara stopped me.
“Wha-? No, Sara, I don’t want this prick talking to you like you’re his servant girl!”
“Yea kid, relax. I’m only foolin around” he looked back at Sara, still grinning “would you like for me to go with you?”
“Don’t even think about it porcupine” I glared at Cain.
“I’ll be back…” Sara said quietly as she walked away.
I sighed and gave Cain an ugly stare. “If you ever talk to Sara like that again I swear to God I will-“
“Control your anger kid” he interrupted and gave me a surprisingly serious look. “Your keyblade is a reflection of your heart… I saw your key and it had a very chaotic power to it… you’ve got a really powerful light, but from what I’ve learned, the brighter a light becomes, the larger the shadow it casts grows… if you let that darkness get out of check, you could put yourself, and your sister, in a lot of danger…”
Shocked and a bit confused, I responded, “…I’ll keep that in mind…” I reached forward and grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled his face close to mine. “Now… I don’t want to see or hear you disrespect Sara like that again… understand?”
He grinned, keeping the serious look in his eyes “I understand… I’ll apologize to her when she gets back. ‘Kay tough guy?”
I let him go and leaned back against the tree behind me, clutching my side from the sudden shock of pain. Breathing too deeply made my ribs ache, so I had to make sure to keep myself relaxed. I picked up a stick and started tracing lines in the ground. “So… when was she adopted?” he asked out of nowhere.
“What?... how did you-?“
“I’m not dumb kid. There’s no way you two are related. Your hair is pitch-black and you have blue eyes. She’s curly blonde with, might I say, gorgeous green eyes, and a seemingly naturally tan complexion. Lastly neither of you have any real similar features. And I assume she is the adopted one because you are so overly protective of her, and she keeps giving you goo-goo eyes whenever you look at her, so that tells me she may not totally see you as her true brother”
I felt my face turn red and cleared my throat “…Yea that’s right… My parents adopted her when I was ten… She was six…”
“Where are your parents?...”
“…gone…” I said plainly, then noticed Sara returning with drinks and food.
“The heartless?...”
“Yea…”
“Sorry kid…”
I didn’t respond… instead I drew a crude picture of a heartless, then jabbed the stick into the dirt where I drew the head. Sara sat down next to me and rested her head on my good shoulder “what about you?...” I responded, “Any family?...”
“Nah… well… I guess you could call them family… my dad was kind of a rich guy and really wanted a son… so he adopted me when I was a little kid and started teaching me the family business… spent my childhood learning to be a big shot… never really had time to make friends or anything… from the time I woke up till the time I went to bed, I was being tutored and trained… The old man who adopted me never even spent any time with me… The only people who showed me any kindness were the help… the maids, the chefs, the grounds keepers, etc… so one day I got tired of it… I ran away and I’ve been on my own ever since…”
“Sounds lonely…” said Sara.
“Heh… you get used to it… basically living on the street when you are a kid teaches you some useful skills…”
“Why don’t you come with us?” she responded.
My head spun around and I gave her a look that said, you must be joking!
“You’ve got nowhere else to go. Why not go with us to the city of light?”
“The what?” asked Cain?
“The city of light. Kale and I heard someone sending out a bulletin on the radio about a safe-haven out to the east called the city of light about two months ago. We have been traveling that way ever since.” She explained.
“City of light huh… heh… guess I’ve got nothing better to do”
“Ugh…” I groaned.
“Come on Kale, he deserves a chance to prove he isn’t really a jerk.”
“hey!” shouted Cain. I laughed.
“Fine, you can come along” I told him. “As long as you teach me some of those tricks you keep bragging about”
“Fair enough.” He agreed, wearing his signature cocky smirk and holding out his hand. “Better pay attention kid cuz you can count on a pop quiz”
“Not a problem” I grabbed his hand and gave him one of his own smug grins “I’m a fast learner”
“Excellent!” he laughed. “We start tomorrow!”
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