Linky's Fics

Nightmares And Dreams

Kyoka woke up in a horrible sweat, panting as her eyes darted around the room. It felt as if her heart was almost pounding right out of her chest. Her mind raced as her hands gripped her blanket, trembling.

It was yet another nightmare about ten years ago. The pain she endured, all the bodies she saw littered across the academy’s campus, the immense loss that continued to follow her and the very few who did survive what happened. Every moment played back in her dreams with complete clarity. It was as if she traveled back in time.

They did become less frequent over the years, but they were still there. And each nightmare struck with ferocity whenever she least expected it.

Kyoka glanced down to the scar on her forearm. She vividly remembered the feeling of it being etched into her skin. A permanent reminder of what had occurred, always in front of her very eyes. Never able to be out of sight.

She coped with her trauma differently than Minato or Spanner. Kyoka used the games of chess that she played with Spanner to build her own set of armor to protect herself alongside him. To keep a grip on her emotions, and to continue to have control over her thoughts and actions.

But it didn’t do anything about the nightmares. Though she had gradually accepted the possibility that they would continue to follow her for the rest of her life.

Everything that happened that day… Those horrific sights. The stench of death. All those screams— It was impossible to forget.

But Kyoka also refused to forget, as painful as those memories were. Even when the Alchemist Union had their own memories altered, and turned their backs on her and the other survivors when they tried to convince them this wasn’t Fuga’s doing.

Despite everything she wanted to continue to push forward. Even in the most painful of times. Even when the trauma and grief within her was overwhelming. When it would make it hard for her to help Spanner, and even take care of herself. Even when caused an immense sorrow and pain deep in her soul that just couldn’t go away.

Not only because it's what everyone would have wanted for her, but Kyoka also wanted to transmute the memories in her heart of her classmates and everyone else lost that fateful day into something special one day. After all she was an alchemist.

Kyoka wanted to live on and use her skills in the craft to achieve this goal. And she’d make sure she would see that through.

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