MacLeod: Reforged: Storming Heart

There were a few students in the training room tonight, after dinner, especially since the school ended the week before. The sounds of the clanging of steel and the thwump of arrowheads was practically nonexistent as a particular young man who enjoyed new things was training a new skill.

Revan threw his fourth knife into the training target, striking three inches from the center, from a distance of ten yards, better than his last three attempts. As he took another knife and prepared to throw another, a soft and familiar hand stopped him.

"Revaaaan," the voice of Kirina Hart began to say as she pushed his elbow closer to his body. "Straight elbow. You'll never hit anything properly if you keep flailing about. Imagine one of those really mean guys -- 'Grimm... Kids' -- standing there about to shoot you. "

With the mental imagery of a Children on Grimm henchman crouching, holding an assault rifle pointed in his direction, Revan struck the target three times, quickly, finding the center, top, and in between, where he imagined the henchman's heart, head and throat, all with the sudden adrenalin from his angrier self.

That helps, the Áinfean stated.

"Yay!" Kirina yelled as she jumped on Revan's back, locking her arms around his neck. "Now pay up!"

Revan made a gagging noise as he tapped on his side four times. "And how'm I supposed to do that if yer strangling me?"

She let go with a jump, on bare tiptoes, and held one hand behind her back and the other held out. Her trousers jingled with the metal fittings on them.

Revan smiled at his lovely acrobatic friend, in her red jumper with too-long sleeves, and put both hands in his training trouser pockets. He held his hands out, closed, in front of her.

"Pick one," he said simply.

"Hmmm..." she looked at his hands with some scrutiny, unsure of which one to choose.

"I'll give you a hint: Both of 'em have something sweet."

Kirina smiled and tapped on his right hand. Immediately, Revan kissed his index finger, and tapped Kirina's lips.

"Hey!" Kirina shouted, expecting some other sweet thing. "Other hand."

Revan responded with the same kiss of his index finger on his left hand and tapped her nose with it.

"You meanie!" she accused arms crossed. "You promised sweets if I helped you learn how to throw squidgies!"

"And I gave 'em to you, didn't I?"

"Hmmph!" Kirina turned her back to him with arms crossed. "I'm going to the dorm!"

Before she could move, Revan hugged her from behind, and large cherry-chocolate bar in his hand slipped out of his sleeve.

"Before you go, share a sweetie with me?"

Kirina smiled widely, snatched the fruity chocolate from his hand, and turned to hug and kiss him quickly before taking his hand to drag him to a bench to sit on.

The couple smiling, they tore away the wrapping and started breaking pieces of chocolate and shared it.

"Mmmm..." Kirina hummed as she leaned on Revan's shoulder, mouth full of cherry filled chocolate. "I take it back. You're not a meanie."

Without warning, Revan's hand found itself gripping Kirina's arm and pushing her away, to her and Revan's surprise. Immediately, Revan's other hand gripped the other's wrist and forced it to release her.

Say that again, girl, the Áinfean said.

"Áinfean!" Revan yelled as he lowered pushed against the strength of his Áinfean-controlled arm. "Stop it!"

Kirina did not move for several seconds, with a hurt look on her face, rubbing her arm.

"R-Revan?" She stuttered worryingly. "Come on! Beat him! Bongos!"

She stood on top of the bench and knocked on his head in intervals of four, gradually making the Áinfean's control slip from the arm.

As Proper Revan forced his offending hand to his side, he stood up and looked at his companion and, with hints of regret and sadness, said: "I...I'm sorry..."

Without another word, Revan walked away into the restroom as Kirina sat back on the bench to finish the chocolate.

When he entered the restroom, Revan closed his eyes, turned the faucet on, and splashed water on his face. When he looked up at the mirror, he saw his face pale, with a sinister scowl.

Surprise on his face, Revan backed away from the mirror, only for it to face away into darkness as the pale image of him stepped through it. Proper Revan stepped away as the restroom around him evaporated, replaced by a dark void. His Mind Void.

Revan looked angrily at his pale, tuxedo clad counterpart.

"Cross, are we?" Áinfean taunted.

"Aye."

"Well maybe you wouldn't be if you would stop fooling around and train!"

"'Oh Revan!'" Proper Revan began imitating. "'Stop foolin' 'round! Stop makin' friends. Stop lovin' a lovely girl! Stop living a better life than I want you to."

"Remember," the Áinfean began as he pointed a pale finger at Revan. "Ye'd be a rottin' corpse if it wasn't fer me. I'm the one that got us out of that room. I'm the one who figured it out."

"But it's still my Semblance in the end."

"Sure. The one I made manifest."

"Back on the first topic..."

"Do go on."

"How?"

"How did I take control of your arm so easily? The grip of Uncle Nolen's little trick is slipping. So stay away from the girl or it'll happen again."

"You can't stop me."

"No. But I can stop her from liking you."

The Áinfean's words held true. The Áinfean could possibly harm Kirina further, and not with just bruised arms. Kirina's mind was still young and seemingly easy to influence. Would she continue to care for Revan at the rate of the Áinfean's future abuses?

The thought made Revan all the more sad and frustrated. He loved Kirina; in her kindness and childlike love, to her beauty in heart and body, her odd humor, her strength, many aspects that he loves. But how long would he be able to protect her from himself?

"Think about that, MacLeod," The Áinfean parted, the restroom fading back into view. The next time you think about holding her again.

Revan said and did nothing as he let the water running for several seconds. What could he do? What could he do? His own inner rage would be the end of his happiness. End her if his needs be.

Nothing, Revan thought to himself. Uncle Nolen's trick wouldn't last for long he told me.

And he's dead right.

MacLeod dried off his face with his sleeve and walked back out to the scene of Kirina pulling out her mismatched knives from the practice target and returning them to her pockets. She looked him in the eye and Revan braced himself for what was to come.

"I'm hungry," she said simply, which threw Revan off guard.

"You're what?" Not surprising, but seriously? "The kitchen's closed. Supper was an hour ago."

"Yeah, but I'm hungry!" she whined. "The fish and chips weren't enough."

Revan took this into consideration and pondered. "Well... they moved their stuff out of the dorm, but... I think we have some instant ramen packs."

"Okay!" the girl agreed on it.