"I've never seen anything of the sort," one of the crew remarked.

Roxas could believe it; even Sora who everyone seemed to have designated the resident naturalist, seemed shocked at what they were looking at as it flopped against the side of the ship. The armored fish had a near perfect circle shot through its flank, as if someone had taken a caster and fired an orb through it. What was frightening in Roxas' mind was that, according to Sora, the point at which the armor had been pierced was at least a foot of solid reinforced bone. Not just anything could do that. They'd been on the sea now for over three weeks, nearly a full month had passed and they were only about a dozen or so miles from the Lost Continent according to the sea charts aboard ship. If they continued on this heading, they'd be able to see the shoreline on the horizon by evening, or at least that's what the crew and Captain were saying.

"Whatever did that wasn't very hungry." Remarked Kadaj quietly as he eyed the uneaten carcass.

"It might still be around then," Loz responded, suddenly looking everywhere that everyone else wasn't a little nervously. "We could have scared it off."

Yazoo snorted and looked at his brother dubiously, "It's already scared you off."

"Has not," Loz said sulkily.

"Quiet both of you," Zack said; he was the ranking officer, so they listened.

He was eying the dead fish carefully, "the edges are charred, the bone is fused to the skin too; whatever did that wasn't natural and had a lot of energy."

"A person then," Cloud said quietly.

"Do you know a spell that does that?" Kadaj asked, pointing to the dead fish.

"Something like oblivion maybe, but it wouldn't be that precise." Leon supplied.

Captain Orion harrumphed loudly, bringing everyone's attention to him. "If ye've all finished examin' the dead carp, we're almost where ye need to be. I don' want to sit around in these waters fer too long if ye wouldn't mind."

Cloud, Leon, and Zack all exchanged glances before they nodded agreement, the Captain nodded in turn and began calling out orders for the engines to be brought to bear again and for the sails to be hoisted. Soon the dead fish was far behind them, though no one was ready to forget the implications of what they'd all seen.

Roxas was standing with Namine on the side of the ship, looking out over the water quietly.

"Sora's been acting a little strange lately," Roxas said almost absently as he watched the waves.

Namine shrugged slightly, "he's unsure of what's going to happen."

Roxas frowned and his gaze turned to her face, "did you tell him something?"

She shook her head, "not really."

He sighed and turned to face her fully, putting a hand around her back. "Namine, you can trust me, remember what you're Grandmother said? I'm here for you."

It was strange; she almost seemed to quiver at his words, even as she nodded agreement with what he was saying. Was she saying one thing while believing another? He suspected that was the case actually.

"Namine, what is it?"

She wasn't paying attention to him, she was looking out at the ocean with a grim face, "Roxas, you need to remember."

"Huh?"

"You need to remember right now," she turned to him her face showing real terror. "Remember the dream Loyalty, remember your gift."

Roxas' head split with a painful agony and he collapsed to the deck gripping his head. Namine wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm so sorry, I know it hurts, I know, but you need to do this, follow me just follow my heart Roxas, please."

What she said made no sense to his senses, but his heart seemed to know what it was doing and after another moment of piercing pain it all came back to him, the dream, the orbs, the shards of crystal in his palm, the blue veins spreading through his body and the shining light piercing his eyes. All of it came rushing back in one painful instant; his hand moved to his heart, there was a blue glow in his palm as he panted heavily and pressed it to his chest automatically without thinking. There was a flash and another burst of pain, then the light flowed out from his chest almost like water and covered him, when he finally stood, he was encased in matte blue plate armor, Namine was standing besides him, similarly adorned though hers was a deep green.

She reached an armored hand out and touched his face gently with a sad smile, "please don't hate me, I didn't want to hurt you before it was necessary."

He had no answer for her, she nodded silently as if in acceptance before looking out at the ocean again, this time he saw what she was looking at, there was a ripple approaching the ship, and it was quickly turning into a full wave and there was an eerie green-blue glow coming from beneath the surface. Namine closed her eyes, and there was a tremor in Roxas' mind and he felt three more presences touch his heart and realized that she was reaching out for the others. All of you, Compassion, Power, Bravery, awake. He gritted his teeth as their pain was shared with him; he gave them what strength he could even as the pain pierced his mind. Then, as if summoned by the shared agony, the other three appeared besides him on the deck, Riku in crimson armor, Kairi in orange, and Sora in gold, none of them had helmets and all looked confused, blinking in as their minds recovered from the pain.

"Are all of you ready?" Namine asked quietly, sounding dejected.

"You knew about that all along didn't you," Riku said quietly, his voice sounded dangerous, "Wisdom."

"Not right now Riku…Power," Kairi said a gentle smile on her face as she stood by her sister. "You remember the dream too; the heart said this would happen."

"I'm getting sick of the heart screwing with us," Riku said, his expression dark.

"That is a big scorpion," Sora said blankly.

They stopped in their conversation and stared at him as if he'd gone mad. Then Riku's eyes widened and he whispered a quiet oath.

Roxas turned and felt his heart seize up, he noticed for the first time all the screaming and shouting on the ship then as the creature loomed over the clipper above them, it looked like a sea scorpion, but orange, blue, and green light shimmered out from its almost skeletal body. The eyes in its head glowed a blood thirsty orange and it opened its mandibles wide, a white-blue glow appeared and then it spat a beam of coherent energy at them, instinctively all of them leapt into the air, Roxas was shocked at how far they leapt, the creature was at least four stories tall as it loomed over them and they easily jumped above it. A helmet had snapped into place over his head, covering his face, at first he felt claustrophobic, there were no opening slits like in the plate armor he'd seen before, but then it was like he could see through the helm and his senses calmed.

The clipper was listing heavily with a gaping, and burning, hole in its flank as the leviathan loomed over it, the hole was identical to that had been borne by the armored fish from before. He saw Riku land on the monster's back and realized that it wasn't just the armor that had become evidenced, Riku's keyblade had changed as well it was larger, heavier and looked all the more deadly for it. It was as if it had resized specifically to accommodate the armor. The leviathan reared and threw Riku from its back as he stabbed between one of the glowing plates that made up its body. Letting out a roar it turned to face the airborne armored opponents that it was now facing, but not before dozens of smaller scorpion-like creations poured from its abdomen and onto the deck of the ship where a terrified crew, and the other members of the expedition were left to deal with them.

His own keyblade snapped into existence as the leviathan's mandibles parted once more, and the beam of energy fired at him, he brought his keyblade down instinctively even as his mind told him that there was no way he could deflect the blast. His keyblade collided with the beam and it sundered around the blade and around him, washing over him in a warm wave.

"Use your second blade," a voice commanded in his mind.

He obeyed without thought and his second blade appeared, he held it above his head and the energy flowed over and around his armor into the blade. It shook with energy and it felt like it might explode, he cast the blade towards the leviathan and the gathered energy roared out like Cid's cannon from a year earlier, tearing into the leviathan which staggered under the blow but remained standing, bellowing in fury at its attacker. A massive claw rose up and swung at Roxas, the gold armor of Sora met it with his blade though, and then rapid fire bursts of energy began peppering it, Roxas looked to see the bursts coming from Kairi and Namine, circling it in the air. He couldn't believe that their armor allowed them to levitate like this but he wasn't going to complain. Riku returned to the fight, his keyblade glowing with power as he slashed at the claw assault Sora, severing it from its limb. The monster howled and eyed its attackers for a moment before it dove beneath the waves.

"Is it over?" Kairi called, she sounded terrified.

"I thi—" Riku began, but he never finished as the monster rose again, this time beneath the ship, shattering the clipper's spine and sending the smaller scorpions, crew, and their friends sailing into the air and eventually into the water. It dove down again as they watched in horror as a massive wave rose up and hurled the flailing survivors towards the shoreline violently, then the sky went dark as an even more massive wave rose up and engulfed the five armored bearers, throwing them like rag dolls in the turbulent current. Roxas was surprised to find that he could breathe, even if he couldn't move in the iron grip of the wave. It felt like something in the water itself was attacking him in his armor, keeping him pinned as if in a vice. Then something struck him hard in the back of his head and he lost consciousness.

"Wake up," came a whispered voice, Sora tried to move his body, but felt a great weight around him. "Leon needs your help Sora, so do the others;" the voice said gently, it sounded familiar. A second voice joined the first, this one much gruffer. "Come on son, get on your feet, you can do it."

"Be gentle," chided the first voice, "he's injured."

"No worse than any I've had, get up Sora, you can do it."

Sora's mind cleared and he recognized both the voices, "Mom…Dad" He whispered weakly, everything hurt, like he'd been pummeled by dozens of stones.

"Get up Sora," his mother's voice whispered again, "open your eyes."

He did, and the light shining in his eyes was almost blinding, he looked around, half expecting to see the giant scorpion looming over him, instead he found himself on a rocky beach, there were triblatytes scuttling this way and that across the rocks in search of food as the waves washed against the stony shore. Achingly he got to his feet, crying out in pain as he put weight on his left leg and sinking to his hands and knees. He forced himself to stand after breathing for a time, and then began moving down the beach with no clear destination, his mother had said that Leon needed him, but where was Leon? For that matter, where was everyone? He seemed alone on the beach, there was no sign of wreckage from the ship, no bodies not even any of the creatures that had infested the ship in its last moments were to be seen. Though he did see several actual sea scorpions chasing down the helpless triblatytes and was careful to avoid the meter long arthropods. They might not be venomous like their land bound cousins, but they could easily take a limb off with their serrated claws and barbed pincers and the large barb at the tip of their tail was nothing to sneeze at either.

He looked inland at the forbidding tree line, he felt like he was being watched by something in the shadows of the trees, something he couldn't see. That he heard no bird calls from the trees was equally disturbing. His head buzzed and he wondered if that was because of the armor, it felt like someone had took a hammer to his skull and started playing it like a drum. He went over the battle in his mind, the leviathan, the pain when he'd remembered the dream that somehow had been blocked. Riku's pervading annoyance at Namine and the heart both, and finally the feeling of helplessness as the ship had been shattered. His thoughts were broken by a groan and he looked over the rocky ground, at first he didn't see anything, but as he continued to move along the beach; he heard the groan again and went towards the sound, ignoring the resurging pain in his leg as he quickened his pace.

"Rinoa, he exclaimed as he spotted her sprawled in a rocky basin, the waves washing over her body. Her face was clenched in pain as she lay against the rocks.

He looped his arms around her chest, oblivious to the fact that he was holding things that he really shouldn't be as he pulled her out of the pool of water and onto the dryer rocks beyond. With a ragged breath she opened her eyes and looked up at him, smiling despite the look of pain on her face.

"Don't worry Sora, I won't tell Leon."

Sora blushed as he realized what she was talking about and jerked his hands back; she winced, clutching at her side. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Its okay, it was my fault I guess," her hand began to glow as she pressed it against her ribs after a moment the look of pain on her face passed and she began to breath easier. She sat up gingerly, testing her body's reaction to the motion; looking at Sora standing besides her she noticed his favored leg. "Sit down, let me see."

Sora did as he was told, trying not to look anywhere but at her, her soaked clothes clung to her body very fittingly and he felt the color returning to his face as he thought of it.

She removed his boot and pushed him his pant leg, examining the twisted limb beneath. "Alright, here goes." She pressed her hand to his leg and began pressing, Sora gasped as his leg gave an unpleasant pop, Rinoa's palm began glowing again and the pain eased.

"There, that should do it, you're lucky it wasn't broken."

"Rinoa, what happened" he asked quietly.

"I was hoping you could tell me Sora," she said with a smile as they both stood. "You and the other bearers were the ones flying around the ship like birds."

"I don't really understand what's going on at all." His voice was apologetic; he wished Namine was here, since she actually seemed to know more than any of them after all.

She nodded understanding, taking his hand as they began walking further down the beach. "Come on; let's see if we can find anyone else."

Sora couldn't shake the feeling that they were still being watched and shadowed by something beyond the trees, and as they walked, he kept one eye on the trees, his hand held out and at the ready. He didn't want to use the armor again just yet, he still had a splitting headache, but his keyblade didn't require anything so strenuous.

Author's Note: Okay, time to answer the inevitable question: what does the armor look like? It looks akin to the armor from the special ending of KH II (you can find it on youtube if you have no idea what I'm talking about) without the big ears (bloody infernal ears) and cape. Very heavily built but allows its user to move very fluidly despite the protection it offers. As Roxas realized, the helmet does not have any openings, but the user can see out through it nonetheless. To get an idea of the powers it imparts, compare the bearer armor to Sora's different Forms in KH II. It gives them a massive power-up to their abilities and yes, it allows a form of flight. Using it has the effect of making you feel like you've just had a bit of a hangover. Also, I realize this chapter doesn't flow very well, but I needed to get things moving again or the story was going to stagnate, so I'm sorry for the rush, but I didn't want to let things wallow. I'll get things back under control in the next few chapters.