478 Lets Walk Together

His skin was stuck to his bones, crumpled like folded, ancient paper.

His flesh had all but gone, dried up in the air of time. His hair had turned white; a color, much lighter and grayish than the one from the years of his youth. Even his eyes had sunken in his skull, giving him a pitiful appearance.

At 140, Kai was much older than he looked.

But there were some things that even the mighty time had failed to snatch away from him.

Scars were still there, covering his naked, wet upper body from neck to waist. Though his eyes had gone deeper into his skull, the hazel pupils were still bright. It was as if two hazel-colored blobs of fire were burning there, flickering from time to time. A sign of life.

The moment Kai opened his eyes, his gaze landed on the bank of the river, water gurgling as it flowed away from the waterfall. There, leaning against a tree, was Cersei, eternally youthful and beautiful. She was dressed in a skin-tight shadow suit from nose to toe, as always, when Kai entered his meditation session.

A tiny earring flashed in the light of the morning sun, tangled in a lock of golden, rippling hair.

Wind played with her face, and the fading fog kissed her cheeks. Her thoughts were deep, her eyes lost.

In her lap, coiled majestically, was Selene, Cersei's hand running down her draconic, white scales, now and then. Selene's blind eyes were open, black and yellow, looking at something unknown. Very far.

On Cersei's left, with his head resting on a mossy stone, was Rintaro. His white lab coat had gone green and brown under the barrage of morning dew, squashed moss, and wet earth. His squared chin still held a light stubble, his eyes faced up toward the sky.

Blue. Indigo. Rosy. Orange. Now a touch of yellow.

Kai looked at the three, and the smile on his thin, dried lips widened.

As if that was a sign, a sign to tell the world that it could let others know of Kai's presence, all three of them snapped their heads toward him.

Cersei's lost gaze found a purpose. Selene's wandering sight quivered, returning to the present, and Rintaro smiled back at him.

Kai stood up, his feet steady on the slippery rocks. A white cloak fluttered in the wind and wrapped around him, becoming a thin, pristine robe. Water gave away where his foot landed. Where the water was deep enough to persist at its position, it bore Kai's weight, failing to stick its wetness on the soles of his feet.

Walking on water, rocks, dirt, and moss, Kai stepped forward toward the three. His steps were slow as if every motion pained him and itched his bones.

But his back was still straight. And, more often than not, that was all that a man needed.

Selene slithered off Cersei's lap as the latter stood up. She approached Kai the fastest, coiled around his naked feet, her forked tongue flicking out. Then she slithered away before Kai could take another step.

Cersei looked at him in silence, neither laughing nor smiling.

Hers was the gaze that stabbed the most, deeper than all.

Rintaro looked at Kai, then at Cersei, and sighed, shaking his head. He walked toward Kai, took his hands out of his pockets, and forced out a laugh. "Mr. Storm," he said, his eyes shifting all around. "… Thank you."

Rintaro indeed looked satisfied as if had achieved something in these over thousand years that he hadn't ever expected to.

Then, he closed his eyes and blurred out of existence. The earring on Cersei's left ear rolled and flashed as the Character returned to it; in its unknown, dark chambers.

A sunny reflection left the earring and fell on the onyx ring on Kai's ring finger before fading away.

Kai looked at the stop where Rintaro had vanished. He closed his eyes and opened them after a pause. A long blink, longer than the usual ones. Nothing else. "Petyr."

Littlefinger walked out from the space in front of him, wearing a black and green doublet with a mockingbird sigil on his chest. He was a boy as well but looked much more mature than anyone else of his age. The beard on his face was still black and sleek, unlike the thick, rough, and white-gray one on Kai's face.

For once, Petyr neither jested nor smirked. He glanced at Cersei. She didn't look away from Kai.

Then Petyr bowed; lower than ever.

"No need." Kai shook his head.

Petyr straightened his back and, like Rintaro, looked up toward the sky. He looked at the sky for long; in absolute silence. The waterfall failed to break the silence, and so did the hushes of wind. A few trees rustled their leaves together but gave up midway.

At last, Petyr drew a deep breath and let the air out, turning around, away from Cersei, Selene, and Kai. Away from all.

He walked away, smiling to himself, and when he crossed the limit of 8 ft from the Book, he too vanished. It was as if he had been trying to walk away from his fate, no matter how impossible it was. For once, Petyr wanted to step according to his own wish, it seemed. And he succeeded; for a length of 8 ft at least.

Only Kai, Cersei, and Selene left, standing near the river, under the chilled shade of the tree.

"Would you walk with me?" Kai asked, his voice aged but strong.

"Hmm," Cersei grunted out a reply.

The destination was far. The path was long, winding, and empty. All the forces had gathered around the Apocalypse Alliance HQ a century ago, deserting the other headquarters. Now they stood together, camped around the Cloudbreak Spire, turning it into an alien fortress.

And now Kai walked toward them, slowly but surely.

The two kept going, step by step, crossing treacherous grounds on their feet. Selene slithered by Kai's side, silent. A drizzle came and went before the afternoon arrived, leaving the fragrance of freshly wet earth.

No one said anything. No one expected anything. Kai walked and walked, Cersei following him a step behind, her eyes on his tall back.

"Remember when we first met?" The familiar, and yet strange, voice jolted Cersei awake. Her vision swam in the past, the memory being too distant. But, yes. She remembered.

"It was in the sewers, under King's Landing," Kai smacked his lips, the noon sun making him look even older in the light. "I'd thought if you were real or not, you did look more alive than a person. But then you smiled, and I forgot."

Cersei said nothing, her steps falling on earth along with Kai's rhythm.

"It turns out," said Kai, smiling, "that what is real and unreal is nothing but a matter of perspective. If I believe you as the real, and all other Cersei in the infinite worlds across the Multiverse as the false, then you are the real one; the one and only."

Cersei still kept silent, but the tall back reflected in her eyes seemed taller than before; a snowy peak stabbing into the sky.

"When did we first kiss?" the same, strange but familiar, voice asked, perhaps smiling. Perhaps not. "Ah, yes. In the room of Leaky Cauldron. I remember. I had threatened you, saying I could do anything to you, as long as I wished to do it."

Kai chuckled, the laugh empty.

"Do it, then," he continued, wind whistling in his ears. "That was your reply, wasn't it? Bold, ambitious, and remarkably beautiful."

Cersei was silent, half lost in the memory of that moment. She could still feel it, as clear as anything, on her lips. The taste was still there; the shock of that sudden kiss still lingered in her heart.

How far had they come?

That moment, and the waterfall they had just left behind in the morning, seemed ages ago, fading in the past.

They kept walking one behind the other, Selene slithering sometimes on Kai's left, sometimes on his right, and sometimes around his shoulders. Ever silent.

Another drizzle. Another mile. And another tale.

Kai repeated those moments, chuckling, smiling, and often with a slight tremble on his lips. But he was alone who did the talking. There were just too many of them. These memories.

From arriving here, training, and then surviving, they had crossed too many impassable chasms. One after another, Kai mentioned them all. It was as though these moments, and those times, had always been on his lips, but only today they dared to come out.

As the evening approached, they arrived on a cliff, a valley running down in front of them, darkening deeper into the womb of the earth. In the distance, the Cloudbreak Spire shone purple against the blazes of the noon sun.

Kai stopped. "I've become old," he commented, his hair tumbling in the strong wind up here. His loose white robe flapped, but his posture held strong.

Cersei paused a step behind him.

"I want you to know…"

Cersei looked up as Kai turned around, his hazel eyes burning the souls.

"I want you to know," he said, putting a hand on Cersei's head, "that I still want you. As strongly, and as passionately, as ever."

Cersei's lips quivered. "Then take me!" she snapped, slapping away Kai's hand. "Why must you…"

Kai's smile vanished. "Cersei…"

"No!"

"… I am sorry."

The three words weighed enough to break her. With a thump, her knees fell on the earth, and she broke out in tears, crying out her lungs.

Kai looked at her, her tears wetting his bare feet; her claws digging into the flesh of his legs. Then he looked at the Cloudbreak Spire over his shoulder, standing high on the cliff.

So this is how it feels, Kai wondered, gazing up toward the sky, to stand on the Peak of Absolute Power.

It was the Peak of Island X, he knew. But a Peak, it was, nonetheless.

None could discard his presence here. None could go against his will. Nor could the wind flow and cloud rain, if he didn't wish so. Not around him.

But… Jack's Task remained unfinished. And the last time he had attempted it, his teacher had told him the number of mistakes in it.

30.

A small number, true. But big enough for the place where it counted the most.

This walk… might be his last. He could feel it. He had been feeling it for decades.

The coming of death.

Kai brought his gaze back and looked down.

"A friend had told me once," he told her, remembering the Sword Spirit, Ayin, the smile returning to his thin lips. "Cry not for what is lost, Cersei. The moment lies in your heart, not in your memories… and we still have people to kill."

Cersei looked up, her eyes bloodshot.

Kai reached out, his bony fingers unfurling, giving her his palm. "Come, my love," he said, "let me take you to kill."

The sky vanished in Cersei's eyes, replaced by that face. She lifted her hand, choking, then burying the tears, and put her hand over his.

Pointed toward the ground, the flickering Onyx ring on Kai's hand went completely unnoticed.

***********

AN: Hmm