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Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil
Chapter 7: Venturing Back into the Mouth of Danger
"I'M TELLIN' YOUSE GUYS IT WAS THE WEIRDEST DREAM!" Ormi blared, seemingly still as distressed and sick to his stomach as he had been that morning, "SHE JUST KEPT SCREAMING AT ME! SHE SAID-"
"Oh enough already!" Logos finally screamed himself, and was violent enough in both face and in gesture, slamming his hands down from where they had been clamped around his ears, that Ormi snapped his mouth shut. "Who cares about your damn dream?"
Logos had awoken with this kind of hopeless feeling inside, and his vision was as black as ever, putting him in an even more dismal mood. Leblanc, although she didn't voice it, had much of the same feeling. However, they shook off the sensations, not remembering the cause for them, and continued on into the ruins once more.
Ormi, however, had awoken with quite a clear memory and was fairly upset by what he had dreamed. He kept recounting perfectly horrible things, such as the screams of anguish he heard while fighting off some ghoulish spirit, much like a banshee. He had looked worse for wear upon awakening as well, and dark bags hung underneath his eyes.
Yuna put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and offered a small smile to the disappointed shield-bearer. In truth, even the Gullwings, who volunteered (by Yuna's lead, of course) to tag-along on this dangerous mission, were tired of hearing the loud volume of Ormi's descriptions.
Ormi seemed to regain some of his bravery at the pretty girl's smile, and didn't voice anymore complaints as they delved downwards into old Zanarkand. The group traveled mostly in single file, as the path narrowed, with the Al Bhed Gullwing in the lead, followed by Leblanc, then Yuna. The rest followed in a somewhat chaotic order, although Ormi was often in the rear. Logos's face drew increasingly discomforted as his toes kept stepping accidently into open air, only to be grabbed by Paine back onto solid ground.
"Where are we anyways?" Logos asked after about the third misstep, "I don't recall having to transverse some open chasm at any point in our journey last time."
"Short cut!" Rikku shouted back as she continued forward, "That's how we got to the sphere before you guys did!"
Except you didn't get to it, which is why we're in this mess, Leblanc thought to herself rather miserably. The leader gave one short glance over her shoulder back at her blind gunner. It was a rather long fall on either side of them, and Logos's cloudy eyes were staring up towards the ceiling now, ears prickling at the sound of their echoing footsteps. Each twitch of his head, following the sound of a loose pebble tumbling downwards, made her heart clench. This was not a good place for him to be, but he had insisted.
"I suppose you mean for me to stay here and out of the way, is that it?!" Logos's head had trouble pointing towards Rikku without the use of his eyes, but he gave her a rather mean look despite that.
"I only meant-"Rikku started rather sheepishly, where earlier she had been fairly chipper. Over a quick breakfast, Ormi ranting about his dream all the while to Leblanc, Rikku mentioned that it might be good if Logos helped 'guard' the Celsius with the rest of the Gullwing crew.
"As much good as I would be to them." Logos rolled his blind eyes towards the general location of the airship, "Watching a ship might be a little hard when you've lost the ability to watch anything!"
"Exactly," Paine's dark red eyes bore holes into the gunner from across the morning fire, "You can't even watch where you're going."
Logos's mouth hung open for a brief moment, before he took a hard swallow that visibly moved down his throat. His jaw tightened and he huffed through his nose, before grabbing his helmet and tight hood that hung down his back, held by the chin strap against his collarbone, and putting it back into place atop his head. Afterwards, he spent time trying to blindly feel for where he had set his revolvers aside. Paine watched him unblinkingly, her mouth a tight line and her brows furrowing as his attempts to find the weapons proved in vain.
"To your left..." Paine eventually said, as Logos's reach moved farther away from the twin revolvers resting not two feet away. Logos stopped moving his hands over the dirt for a moment to glare towards the voice that directed him, before swiping his hand to the left.
"More left, now down, too far down, now a bit more to the right," Paine continued in her dull even voice, before Logos finally snapped.
"Damn you and damn this!" He stood up sharply and gave a sharp kick at the ground, his toe catching part of the fire and sending some sparks to lick up the side of is pant leg. He hissed in mild pain before staggering back away from the burning logs. His heels found his revolvers, causing him to stumble. Ormi stood and set him straight before forcing him to sit down again as his heated expression just became more agitated.
"Look I'm not helpless just yet!" Logos jerked his elbow away from his friend and waved a wide sweeping hand at Paine. "Just give me my weapons and we can be on our way!"
"How do you plan to use them?" Paine asked calmly, before Yuna made an effort to step in with a soft murmur of the warrior's name, but she just brushed it off and instead took a step forward. "You'll just end up hurting yourself or someone else."
Logos lifted his chin, and his eyes widened ever so slightly. "Then I'll leave them here, but I'm not going to just wait for someone to come cure this curse for me."
"Face it, you're not in a position to help yourself." Paine said firmly, "You're going to have to realize that you are going to have to wait. You can't do it, alone or otherwise. Rikku is right, you'd be more help if you stayed with Brother-"
"Oh yes," Logos leaned back, his voice rolling over the sounds smoothly to take on a mocking tone, "I'm sure I'd be lots of help to him. Maybe he'd have me pilot the ship in his place, seeing as it would make very little difference either way, now would it?"
"Hey!" Brother's shrill voice lifted an octave as he took a step forward with a fist raised up into the air. Buddy stopped him by grabbing his bare shoulder and pulling him a half step back from where he started marching towards the gunner.
"Yeah!" Rikku, however, had no one to stop her, "That's my brother you're talking about mister! Would you stop being a meanie, and listen to us?" She waltzed two easy paces up to Logos, who shuffled back at the sound of her approach but had no way to anticipate nor avoid her grabbing him by his right shoulder and heaving into him with all her might. He was pushed into the ground with a slight puff of air escaping his lungs.
Logos picked himself up with all the dignity he had left from falling or otherwise meeting with the ground since the removal of his vision. He stared hatefully downwards and grimaced, not saying anything more for some time. He tried to get back to putting himself together, finding the gloves he had set aside with more ease this time than his other items and putting them on. Then, once ready, he stood rather deliberately in his typical waiting fashion, with one foot kicked out and his arms crossed over his chest.
"You forgot your wraps."
"What?" Logos broke his silence and moodily barked at the Al Bhed girl again. Although this time she was having none of it, and set her voice to a harsher tone.
"The wraps that go around your arms, they're on the ground." Rikku stomped her foot to indicate what she was talking about, the edge of her boot coming down on the white strip of cloth that Logos had pulled off blindly sometime before they laid down for bed last night.
Ormi, reading the situation, although not catching their words, stepped in to help. He grabbed Logos's forearm and swooped down to pick up the wraps in his other, with a-"HERE! Let me get that for youse, buddy. It might be a little hard to get's that by yourself."
He even tried to lower his tone, which seemed to be appreciated as Logos patiently held out his arm for Ormi to wrap in the fashion that the Goons routinely did.
"Look," Paine's voice took a softer edge, which almost seemingly took the fight out of him as the gunner 'looked' towards the sound, "You're just making this harder for yourself…"
Before she could finish, Leblanc stepped forward and between the Gullwing and the Syndicate goon. She gave a pointed look, and crossed the space between herself and her operative with a brisk walk that seemed to confuse him for a moment, as he stiffened as if he was going to get pushed again. She looked him straight into his unseeing eyes, which the gunner seemed to sense as he didn't move to look in any other direction. Logos swallowed a second time before finally saying quietly, "Boss, please…"
Leblanc looked to the left and stretched out a hand towards his revolvers. She lifted up one, looked down at it silently for a moment, and then took his hand with her other to clasp them together with a firm clap. She shoved her hands away forcefully, leaving Logos's hand dipping down with the sudden motion.
Logos stood there dumbly as Ormi moved to wrap his other arm, which was held dead-weight in his beefy grasp. The shield-warrior then picked up the other revolver and placed it in his friend's gloved hand once the wrapping was done, giving him a slap on the back that lurched him forward.
"Don't Youse Worry Logos! We're a Team! We Won't Leave Youse Behind!"
Logos had trouble watching his tongue since that morning, but the group fell into a somewhat agreeable march as they followed Rikku. She seemed to know where she was going, although she didn't seem to take much care about choosing the route carefully, especially in consideration of the disabled members of their party. Leblanc made due without her voice, but without eyesight or hearing she was sure that the fiend riddled ruins wasn't making her employees very comfortable.
Ormi seemed to adjust by scanning the rear more often than anyone else did, while Logos stopped complaining, at least, about being steered away from precarious edges.
The trip seemed to be going well, although no clues were being found. That is up until the point where the party tried to cross some water that had pooled inside an old auditorium of sorts. The shallow water was mostly in the center, following some ancient cross beams that had only partially submerged. Logos accepted being dragged along rather roughly by Paine, although the sound of feet sloshing through the water disorientated him quite a bit, as it was harder to place the sound of steps, and thus where to next place his feet, ahead of him.
"Does anyone else hear a noise?" Logos said aloud, although no one really acknowledged him as he also tripped and caught himself in that same moment in the water. It was nearly up to his waist now, and quite a bit farther on the others, where before it had been approximately knee level. Underneath the sound of their bodies pushing through the still water, however, was a drippy noise that seemed like something lifting out of the pool.
It stopped, but now Logos caught something akin to skittering.
"Boss?"
He purposefully stopped in his tracks, pulling Paine to a halt beside him. He felt for his revolvers, although he was clearly hesitant to withdraw them from their holsters.
"Logos? Is something-?" Yuna half-turned, bringing the rest of the party to the attention of the rear, before there was a fiendish cry and then a deep roaring sound.
Yuna gasped and the whirled around in the water to see a group of Sahagin fiends, about five in number, dive into the water from the walls they held onto and head straight towards them. Closer to the ceiling, lying in wait, was a fiend she had never seen before but was frightening nonetheless to behold.
"What's-?" Logos let out the smallest sound then as he was slammed in the chest by the aquatic fiend and dragged underneath the water. Paine pulled out her sword and attempted to follow after him when another jumped from the water in front of her and sprayed a gush of water from its mouth into her eyes.
The other four Sahagin continued to leap in turn over the ambushed party, shooting darts of water from between their long needle-like teeth, and letting loose a terrible hissing sound.
Leblanc wished nothing more than to have her words then, to let loose a bombardment of lightning spells, but she settled with slamming one in the head with her metal fan when it dared get too close.
There was the sound of a gasp of air, and a confused yelp of pain, and Ormi, with a loud splash, jumped out into the deeper water to fetch back the gunner who had somehow worked himself free. However, just as he struck out into the water, and called out towards the gunner, the roaring renewed and the large fiend let itself drop from the ceiling into the water with a gigantic wave that swallowed the two easily, and swept the rest of the team into the deeper water.
Logos was separated from Ormi when the same Sahagin bumped into his solar plexus with its flat fish-like head. A bubble of air escaped his mouth before it turned into a series of bubbles as the fish-fiend flipped around in the water and threw its clawed fins into his shoulders. Gritting his teeth, Logos grabbed at the fins, before ripping a single claw loose from the thin membrane and bone structure of the monster. It pulled away from the gunner before ripping into his back as the gunner attempted to turn in the water.
Ormi launched his shield into the skulls of two Sahagins, crushing them instantly and dispersing them in a display of pyreflies. He then forcefully yanked the one attacking Logos free, before destroying it in much of the same matter. Logos recovered his wits quickly and joined Ormi into returning to the surface of the water to regroup with the rest.
As soon as their heads broke the surface, they heard Paine call out:
"We're at a disadvantage!" This much seemed true, Logos had gathered as much when discerning that they were fighting aquatic fiends of some sort, but he found he wasn't worried as the hush of pyreflies and the lack of growling seemed to indicate that the battle was drawing to a close. As the last two Sahagins were killed off by Yuna and Leblanc, and Rikku respectively, Ormi and Logos felt the water push them towards the group. A wave was displaced away from the large dark fiend that swam ominously through the water, and it was heading straight for the two heads bobbing still against the surface.
"Hurry!" Rikku called out to them and they gladly complied.
The water levels rose, so that even higher, and still dry, crossbeams could be reached. The Gullwings were quick to pull themselves up onto these beams, and turn around to lend a hand towards the Syndicate that wrestled against the new waves that pressed them against the hard stone.
Logos spat the ancient foul tasting water to the side before standing up fully and pulling out his weapons from his sides. He blindly searched around, before feeling his back press safely against that of Ormi's and Leblanc's side. The Gullwings were joined in much the same way on either side of them so that they formed a complete circle on the pedestal above the water that they stood upon.
"Where's it at now?!" Rikku asked, somewhat panicked by the surprise attack, and the unfamiliar monster that loomed underneath the surface of the black glassy water. It had looked quite a bit bigger than any dragon or sphere guardian they had ever faced before, but still, probably not the scariest thing since Sin and Vegnagun, so Rikku was ever so slightly relieved.
It breached the surface, and any relief she was feeling dipped down her throat and settled rock-hard in her chest. The beast was a large hulk of mottled flesh, and bulging muscle where eyes should have properly been. Its mouth, open to let loose a gurgling roar once more, was displaying a ghastly flailing thing in the back of its throat that might have once been a tongue. As it rushed towards the group, Rikku let out a small scream that was interrupted by the loud crack of a gun.
Yuna pulled the trigger on her weapons several more times, rapidly blasting into the monster as it continued to quickly make headway through the water. One bullet sunk into the soft mounds where it eye should've been right before it crashed into the beam they were balanced on. It caused a tremor that ran through the entirety of the building, and sent many of the party on their knees as the beast ducked underneath and swam back around to butt at the beam again.
Logos fell forward, and felt the edge of his helmet knock into a central column that supported the crossbeam. He slipped down to one knee and withdrew the revolver from his side, trying to make sense of the noise that chaotically swarmed around him. He could hear his allies some distance away, fighting some force (that which he assumed to be a fiend of some kind), but couldn't understand why the ground suddenly became unstable beneath him as he tried to stand.
The reason was plain enough to the rest of the party as the monster again swam swiftly through the ancient water and circled back towards the majority of them and head-butted the beam, sending them inching down the crossbeam to avoid being tossed headlong into the water, where its gigantic mouth would surely swallow them up.
Logos heard a girl scream, one of the Gullwings, and felt his fingers twitch on the trigger of his weapon.
"Logos! Watch out!" Rikku yelled her warning, but it didn't do him any good. He lurched to the right, staying close to the column to make use of the ledge circling around it, but couldn't see that the problem was the beast churning through the water towards him. He found out, however, when he heard and smelled its stinking breath brush over him as it opened its mouth.
Logos lifted his weapon towards the roaring mouth and fired once, and then twice, before dropping his gun from his hand when he heard a very human grunt of pain.
