Breath of Fire II and all characters in this fanfic are copyright and trademark Capcom. But then, you already knew that.

So it's over.

Death Evan is finally dead... for now anyway. But by the time he is reborn again, another generation of heroes will take the role of the saviors of the world.

Katt lay on her bed in her room in Township. She stared at the ceiling, very bored. She missed Wyndia, and the surrounding cities. She missed competing in the arena to the fans, even if that bastard Augus did fix a lot of those fights. Right now she was on a continent that was inhabited by few. Township was used

to seal the entrance to Infinity, the home of Death Evan. As such, it was now a sister city to Gate. Ryu enjoyed living in Gate. After Death Evan's death, everyone came back to their senses. He was happy to live in the town that he called home and that the people he knew remembered him again. Even better

was the fact that his sister Patty, or more correctly, Yua, was reunited with Ryu. Katt remembered how the group spent so much time hunting Yua down, hoping to get her to confess to robbing Trout of Hometown. Ryu had no idea he was hunting down his sister.

Bow, too, was happy to be in Gate. He had grown up here along with Ryu before the two moved to Hometown to become rangers. He aided Ryu in the rebuilding of the surrounding land, hoping to make it more fertile, and to make the forest that surrounded Gate beautiful again.

Katt, however, didn't really care all that much for Gate. Until that day she came to gate with the others with the intention of defeating Habaruku, high priest of St. Eva, she had never even been here. Still, she had nowhere else to go. Ryu told Katt that she could stay in Gate as long as she liked. She didn't have a home, so she took him up on that offer.

Aside from Ryu and Bow, Katt was the only one of the original group that stayed behind. Rand returned to FarmTown and inherited his mother's estate. He normally didn't like the place, but after his mother died, he felt he had a responsibility to her. It was a shame he declined to stay. He would have been an enormous help in rebuilding the forest around Gate.

Nina returned to Wyndia, where she was welcomed back by her family. Nina forgave her mother for exiling her, and lived happily as a Wyndian princess. Katt was happy for her. It was the only thing that Nina ever wanted.

Jean went back home to SimaFort, but only briefly. When he returned, he was expected to succeed the throne of SimaFort. Jean, however, declined, much to the dismay of the people there. Jean may have acted goofy at times, but he knew that he wasn't cut out to be a king. Instead, the throne was given to his sister, Petape. Katt admired the tomboyish princess, and new she would make a good queen. Jean himself was rumored to have left to live with the witch Nimufu, but in the occasions that he visits, he never talks about himself or what he has been doing.

A day after Death Evan's defeat, Bleu mysteriously vanished without a trace. Katt guessed that Bleu went back to Wisdon, but never bothered to find this out.

Spar, too, disappeared suddenly. Katt had no idea where he/she would be. Funny... Katt didn't know whether to call Spar he or she. He was actually both male and female. The grass man left without even saying goodbye.

Sten was the last to leave. He had planned to go back to Highfort and Princess Elforan, but had stalled for several weeks about it. Katt wondered if the highlander was ever going to leave. He kept saying that he would evenutally. She was uncertain whether or not Sten actually had it in him to see Elforan again, but last Thursday, Sten was not in his room. He left a note saying that he was going home.

Katt herself probably would have left too, but her being without another place to call home kept her from leaving.

Katt cursed at that lie to herself. She could go back to Coursair anytime if she wanted. She liked the place better than this one. No, there was another reason why Katt stayed here.

Someone knocked on the door. "Hey Katt, you up?"

"Yeah," she said. "Come on in."

Katt's reason for staying in Gate entered the room.

"Morning, Ryu," Katt muttered.

"Are you going to stay in bed all day? It's noon already."

"Sorry," Katt replied. "Just bored, that's all."

"You've been like this since Sten left," Ryu said, concerned. "What's the matter."

Katt sighed heavily. "It's just that...well, all of our friends have left for better places. I don't have anywhere else."

Ryu understood where she was coming from. After that fateful day he fell asleep in front of the motionless form of his mother 11 years ago, his family was nowhere to be seen. He had lost those who were dear to him. He stayed in Gate for another six years after he was attacked by the daemon Barubary, but Gate

wasn't a place he could call home, as he was looked upon as a thief and an orphaned child by the people.

Even now, Ryu still felt alone. His mother sacrificed her life to allow Ryu and his companions to enter Infinity and defeat Death Evan. His father was still alive, but reduced to vegetable state while giving life to Township. At least he still had his sister, Yua, with him. From Ryu's own pain, he could understand Katt's. Katt quite literally has nothing. She was found abandoned in Coursair by a young woman and raised as her own. Her foster mother died when she was only four, and she was later taken in by Augus, who taught her how to fight. When her skills surpassed that of Augus's finest warriors, he allowed her to fight in the arena. At least until she served his purpose, anyway. Indeed, Katt had been more than Augus could have ever hoped for, as her popularity among the fans earned him a great deal of money. But in the

end, that was all Katt was to Augus--a way to make money.

Ryu sat down next to Katt. "Hey, like I said, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like."

Katt looked into the eyes of Ryu and lost herself in them. "I... thank you... Ryu..." was all she could get out.

"You're welcome," Ryu said. "Think you're up for a fight again today, Katt? I want a rematch."

Katt's heart immediately bruised. "Okay," she muttered. Not for all of the zenny in the world was she going to let Ryu see her frustration with him. Her pride wouldn't allow that.

"Great," Ryu said. "Meet you in the usual place in an hour." With that, Ryu left the room.

Katt forced herself not to cry at Ryu's ignorance, but it was difficult. "He's always going to treat me like one of the guys," she thought to herself. "Doesn't he know how much he means to me?"

She came close to crying again, but her pride held back her tears. Katt's pride was her greatest fault. She knew this to be true. She wanted to say how she felt about Ryu since the day she met him, but it wasn't until the time Ryu was tested by the elders at Dologany when she finally thanked Ryu for saving her life.

She remembered how she met Ryu with a smile. It was the last professional fight she had ever participated in. While she trained in her room, Rand tried to explain how the fight was to be fixed and how her life was in danger. Katt, however, took his warning the wrong way, and sent him away with a staff to the head.

Then, when the fight began, she met her opponent. His name was Babaderu. From the sound of the name, Katt half expected to see a daemonic creature, but what she got was quite the contrary. Babaderu was a handsome young man with blue hair not much older than she was. She looked him over. To the crowd, it looked as though she was sizing up her opponent. Katt, however, was in awe at how handsome the man was. It would have been love at first sight, except for the fact that the man weilded an axe and had every intention of using it.

At least, that's what Katt thought...

"Listen to me, Katt," Babaderu said in a serious tone. "Augus is going to fix the fight. He's going to shoot you with a poisoned dart. You should..."

Any admiration that Katt had for Babaderu ended then and there. "You liar! You're just trying to break my concentration!"

"I'm telling you the truth, Katt. There is..."

"I'm not going to listen to this. Prepare yourself!"

With that Katt made a quick lunge to Babaderu's chest with her staff. Babaderu barely managed to avoid it in time. As angered as she was by Babaderu's attempt to break her concentration, she couldn't help but wonder. "What if he is telling the truth," she wondered. The fights at the arena were usually not to the death, but accidents have happened before. And every time a life was taken, the attendance at the arena tripled.

Katt thrusted repeatedly at Babaderu. He kept parrying the blows with his axe. Katt was not at all impressed by this fighter, as he had considerable difficulty in holding onto his axe. Katt saw the axe and noticed that it was almost as big as Babaderu himself. She wondered how Babaderu could weild the axe, but from the looks of things, he couldn't. She sweeped his legs out from under him and backflipped away as he landed on his butt, then taunted him when he got to his feet.

Just then, however, Babaderu threw his axe into the water below him and drew a sword. Katt was uncertain why he would do that at first. Babaderu then rushed into the attack, slashing overhanded at Katt.

She parried the blow in time, but was startled by Babaderu's skill with the sword. She pushed Babaderu away from her only to see him slash sideways at her. She backed away from the slash, but got a cut across the arm. Eyeing the blood flowing from her wound, and then looking at Babaderu with new respect, Katt realized she had a fight on her hands.

The two kept fighting back and forth, with neither competitor gaining a serious edge. Katt was faster than Babaderu was, and also a bit stronger, but Babaderu seemed to have more skill than she did. She got another cut across the arm for a poorly timed parry, and another across the leg for overextending a thrust.

Suddenly someone yelled. "Baba! Now!"

Katt was startled by who said it, and her carelessness caused her to be spear tackled by Babaderu. She was knocked on her butt. Babaderu was on top of her.

"Get off me you creep," she said beating on Babaderu's back. Baba, however, kept pinning her to the ground. Suddenly Babaderu stopped moving. Katt pulled Babaderu off of her, intent on making him a human punching bag, but when she saw the three darts sticking out of his back, she screamed in terror.

The audience had seen the darts as well. And suddenly their cheers for Katt turned to terrified screams mixed with loud boos. "They must think I was in on this," she thought. There was no time to explain to the crowd now, though. Babaderu was right. The fight was fixed, and had Baba not spear-tackled her and

pinned her to the ground, she would have been dead right now. He had saved her life, and Katt was going to do everything in her power to save his.

She met up with Ray, a priest of St. Eva, halfway out of the arena. She told him the story and Ray immediately set to work healing Baba. It turned out to be unnecessary, however, as Baba was soon stirring without Ray's help. Katt thanked Ray anyway and took him to her room at the inn.

As Babaderu lay on her bed half conscious, she couldn't help but think about him. This man, who didn't even know her, had risked his life to save hers. The feelings that she had for him before the fight started deepened.

"What should I say to him when he comes around," Katt thought to herself. "'I'm sorry', I guess...or 'thank you for saving me'?"

She said neither of those things, though. Her pride wouldn't let her.

After Babaderu came around, Katt introduced herself. After Baba explained how he took antidote to counter the effects of the poison, the two headed back to the arena to have a "talk" with Augus. Afterward, Baba revealed that his real name was Ryu, and that he entered the contest hoping to have found a girl with

dragon's wings competing.

That was almost a year ago, and ever since then, Katt's feelings for Ryu only got deeper. Ryu, however, treated her more like the tomboy that she was, which only frustrated Katt.

Still, there was that one experience that she had not too long ago that was like a ray of hope to her.

Tiga, the resistance leader, had fallen in a bad way for Katt and proposed marriage literally out of the blue. She didn't even know the guy, and had no intention of marrying him. When Tiga's affections began to scare her, she ran to Ryu for protection. Tiga immediately stopped chasing Katt and spoke to Ryu.

"Excuse me," he said to Ryu, "but I need you for a moment."

The two stepped outside, with Katt following. Katt had a very bad feeling about it. Although Katt had not seen another member of her race before, she knew that by law, when a male of her species proposes to a female of her species, the male must defeat all other potential suitors in unarmed combat.

Katt tried to get Tiga to stop. Ryu may have been good with a sword, but there was no way he could beat Tiga in unarmed combat, as the man outweighed Ryu by 200 pounds. "Tiga, you don't have to do this."

"Sorry, Katt, but a law is a law," Tiga replied.

"But Ryu is just a friend!"

Those words came out automatically, and she damned herself before she finished saying them. She realized that the reason why she said that was so that Ryu wouldn't get hurt. Ryu, however, didn't take it the same way, and just stared at Katt in disbelief, looking somewhat hurt.

"Dear god," she muttered to herself. "Why did I say that?"

Tiga didn't hear her (much to Katt's good fortune) and turned his attention to Ryu. "Well?"

"Well what," Ryu replied, sounding somewhat depressed.

"Are you and Katt just friends?"

Ryu said nothing.

"Well?"

"..."

"Answer me, now!"

"..."

"Then I must fight you," Tiga said.

Ryu's response of silence terrified Katt. She had prayed that she didn't hurt him. She had hoped in all of her heart that Ryu would say "no". She even would have settled for his saying "yes". At least then, Ryu wouldn't have gotten hurt, even if he didn't love her. But in saying nothing, he answered nothing.

Nothing that Katt wanted to know, anyway.

The fight lasted longer than Katt expected it to, but its outcome was just as she had feared. Tiga was not only bigger and stronger than Ryu, but more agile as well. Ryu tried desperately to avoid Tiga's berserk onslaught, but to no avail. In the end, Ryu pretty much got his butt whipped.

Katt had never cried before in her life about anything, not even when her foster mother died. She came very close to crying right then. Shortly after the fight, Tiga announced his engagement to Katt to practically everyone. Katt had no intention of marrying Tiga, but was too depressed right now to do anything about it. What hurt her the most was what she said before the fight.

"But Ryu is just a friend!"

That was a lie. Ryu was far more than just a friend to her. She loved him, but he apparently didn't love her back. The hurt look on Ryu's face seemed like a ray of hope to her at first, but she had no doubt that Ryu would not love her now that she had pushed him away. Why did she say that? Why couldn't she have said "But I love Ryu," or "I don't love you, Tiga," or something...anything but that.

When the church to the south of Cotland was invaded, Katt reluctantly went with Tiga. She really didn't have much choice in the matter. After the church was ransacked and the Necromancer was defeated, the group left for Evrai, to put an end to St. Eva's church once and for all. Ryu and Katt were the last two to leave the church.

Ryu was about to step out when she spoke to him. "Ryu?"

Ryu turned back to face Katt. She was half expecting him to berate her, or slap her across the face. Both of these things she deserved, and she knew it, but instead, Ryu only answered, "Yes?"

"I'm sorry for what I said, Ryu. I shouldn't have hurt you like that. I love you."

That was what Katt wanted to say to Ryu, but once again, pride had kept her from doing so. All she could get out of her mouth was, "Are you... upset... that I'm... going with Tiga?"

Ryu was silent for a long time.

Katt closed her eyes. "Don't give me the silent treatment again, please," she muttered to herself.

"A bit," Ryu said finally.

Katt's heart rate immediately hit 0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds. It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but it wasn't what she didn't want to hear, either.

"Really," she asked, her voice sounding hopeful.

"Yeah," Ryu said, puzzled as to what had come over her lately.

"Ryu, listen," she replied. "I'm only going with Tiga because I promised him I would. I don't want to be his wife. After this is all over, I'm coming back to you guys."

"Okay," Ryu replied. "Whatever you want to do."

Katt ran out of the church, happy. Ryu had kept his emotions hidden from Katt for some time. Perhaps this was a good sign

Katt sighed remembering that event. After Death Evan's defeat, she had promised herself that she would tell Ryu how she felt once and for all. She still hadn't told him, and Ryu continued to treat her like one of the guys. Of course, Ryu wasn't helping matters much, as he had inadvertently hurt her on a regular basis.

The hour had passed, and Katt remembered that she had a rematch with Ryu from the other day. Ever since his incident with Tiga, Ryu had taken a strange interest in hand-to-hand fighting. He wanted to learn martial arts, and the only one handy was Katt. Katt had yet to lose to Ryu, as she was far more experienced than he was, but as she kept teaching him new moves, he gradually improved.

The two met in the usual spot. They were in a forest behind Gate. Despite the fact that much of the forest was dead, this place was still alive.

"Was wondering when you'd get here," Ryu said to Katt as she approached.

"I was a little late," she replied. "Let's see, this makes what, our thirteenth time?"

Ryu smiled. "Lucky number."

Katt grinned. "Not for you, it isn't. Now let's make this quick. I'm going shopping with Yua in a few minutes."

"You're getting overconfident again," Ryu said.

"No, I just know you won't beat me. You never have before."

Ryu smirked and got into a battle stance.

Before the fight began, Katt asked, "What gave you the interest to start fighting, anyway?"

Ryu shrugged. "No reason. Now fight."

Katt made the initial attack, a kick to the head. Ryu ducked under it and executed two punches to the stomach. Katt saw them coming and backflipped away, tagging Ryu in the head with her feet as she flipped.

"You're still so slow," Katt said, taunting him.

"I just wasn't paying attention, that's all," Ryu replied.

The two sparred for several minutes, with neither fighter getting a clear edge. Katt kept attacking, but Ryu just kept on blocking and dodging her attacks.

"Why is he holding back," Katt thought to herself. "He'd normally be attacking me by now. Why doesn't he attack?"

Katt attempted another spin kick to the head, but Ryu grabbed her leg in mid kick and executed a takedown. Katt looked up from the ground at Ryu, impressed.

This time it was Ryu taunting Katt. "I thought you were better than this, tomboy."

Something about what he said, and how he said it, caused Katt to go berserk. She quickly leapt to her feet and relentlessly punched and kicked at Ryu in a rage. Ryu was caught completely off guard by the attack and fell to the floor when it had ended.

Ryu was lying on the ground and couldn't stand. "What did you do that for," he asked weakly.

Katt was angered. Ryu wondered what he did to piss her off. It didn't take long to find out.

"Is that all I am to you," Katt said...or rather screamed. "Are you going to keep treating me like just one of the guys? Don't you understand me? Don't you understand what you mean to me? Don't you understand that..."

Katt stopped herself in mid-sentence when she realized what she was saying. Her pride had been sleeping on the job when she said that.

"Understand what?" Ryu asked, not in anger, but in curiosity.

Katt spoke weakly. "That I love you," she muttered.

Ryu said nothing. He could say nothing. What she had said had hit him like a ton of bricks. Katt sat before him with her back turned to him. "So much for pride," she thought to herself.

She felt a pair of hands on her shoulder and a voice at her ear. "Katt?"

Katt summoned all of her courage to face Ryu. She felt too ashamed to show her face to him after what she had just said. She expected the worst. She expected him to run away. She expected him to tell her he didn't love her. She expected him to just say nothing. Indeed, that last one would have been the worst.

Instead, Ryu closed his eyes and kissed her.

Katt's eyes widened. Indeed, this was not what she had expected. She soon closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around him.

The two kissed for a long time, and Katt broke the kiss slowly. She wanted to say so much to him after this, but all she could muster was...

"Why?"

"Because I do love you," Ryu said. "Is that enough?"

Katt embraced Ryu and hugged him tight. Ryu followed suit.

"Katt? Are you crying?"

Katt realized that she was crying. Not out of sadness, but out of joy.

"I'm sorry," Katt said, wiping her tears. "I'm just so happy."

So tell me what you people think of it. Like I said, this may well be the only BoFII fanfic in existence. I always enjoy feedback, so don't hesitate to e-mail me at raven2040@hotmail.com. Comments and criticism are welcome. Flames will be sacrificed to the Lord of the Pit. Oh yeah, this fanfic is copyright me, so don't mess with it, or I'll send a weretiger after you.