Ten

So I climbed over the deck, we joined in a group hug, Kairi popped up out of nowhere, the bad guys applauded and became good at the sight of our love, Riku kissed me, and we lived happily ever after.

Just kidding.

"Give me a break!" I snapped at Janice, rubbing a towel through my scruffy hair. Her image matched mine exactly, hair cut and all.

And she was not happy about it.

"You honestly thought you could just go with your brother and everything would be sunshine and roses for you? This is a war honey! Open your eyes!" She thrust her hand out over the town ("London" she called it), I stared down at the twinkling lights.

"Ava was your favorite," I whispered. "And you're mad at me because she's dead, and all you've got is me."

With a sigh, she leaned against one of the columns of the clock tower. "I loved her. And you're just pathetic."

"Keep talking like that, see if I help you."

Once again, she sighed bitterly. "I can't believe I have to spend a century with you."

"Maybe I won't go."

"You have to. I'll make you."

For a moment, we glared at each other. Then I slumped back against my column, still weary from my three-hour tread and the soreness in my arm.

After a few minutes, I broke the silence.

"I haven't seen him in…" I tried to count the miserable days. "In…"

"Ten months."

"Yeah," I stared out at the skyline. "I haven't seen him in ten months."

"Which him?"

"Both, I guess." I pulled my knees to my flat chest. "I haven't seen either of them in ten months. It's a strange thought."

"Hey," she shrugged and sat next to me. "You've come a long way."

"It's amazing what ten months of concentrated daily beatings can do for you…"

00 FIVE HOURS AGO 00

"I knew purchasing you was a bad idea," Hook growled while the boys gaped at me (oh, that's right, Riku punched a girl. I wonder how that tastes).

"Wait, you did what?" Sora took a step forward.

His answer was pure metal hook into the back of my hand. I shrieked as the cold steel slid into my flesh, shockwaves of fire vibrated throughout my arm. I let go with that hand, yanking it to safety.

Bad idea. The hook tore through my skin like a hot knife through butter. Spots swam before me, and I could feel tears begin to slide down my cheeks. Pulsating stings shot through my central nervous system like there was no fucking tomorrow.

I looked up at the shadow blocking the moonlight. The only thing I could comprehend was the glinting question mark. A single bead of my blood collected on the point, welling up into a teardrop.

Pluck

I squinted as it hit my cheek, sliding down my pale face peacefully.

"Shit."

Two pairs of hands clamped down on Hook, and he disappeared. I winced at the thud.

"Let me pull her up!"

"No, I'm stronger!"

"She's my sister!"

"I'm stronger!"

"Here's a genius idea," I interrupted dryly. "Why don't you stop your fighting, AND GET ME THE FUCK OFF THIS RAILING?"

Once again, profanity snapped them into reality. Sora grabbed my wrist and tugged me up. Riku spun around.

"Get away from her!"

Ok, so Hook wasn't down for the count. Too bad.

The other pirates were a little busy standing around looking stupid. They hated Hook, and they hated me, and they didn't mind Riku as much. They didn't care about the boy.

"Whatever," they returned to their posts.

Riku slipped his arms under my shoulders, hefting me out of Sora's grasp.

"She's mine. It's not like you'll let her go on your ship anyway," He sneered.

"Don't you dare touch her!"

"Ok, ok, stop with the whole chest-pounding thing and get me a band-aid. Please!"

Sora took my hand (the not shredded one) and yanked me away from Riku pointedly. He removed a weird glowing bottle of green stuff.

"Uh," I pressed my injured hand to my chest protectively. "What is that?"

"It'll help, trust me."

I hesitantly held out my hand.

He uncorked it and dumped it onto my hand.

"Oh, EW!" I yanked my limb back to my chest, "Now you got all this green crap on it!"

I gently blew on the pulsating wound, the weird stuff not helping the pain. It just felt like water, kinda stung, but pretty useless in a 'big picture' sense.

The boys gaped. A weird quack sounded out in the background.

"I think I hear a du…" And then I officially went insane. Standing on the opposite side of the deck was a giant duck and a giant-er dog.

"AH! RADIATION! WE'RE ALL GONNA MUTATE! EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!"

"Relax Sara," Sora yanked on my shoulders before I could run (thank Cthulhu for that, Riku looked like he was about to pounce or something). "That's Donald and Goofy. They're with me."

"They're his new friends." Riku sneered, "He replaced us."

"Maybe he replaced you, but I'll still be his irritating twin."

"Y—your hand! It's still cut!"

"Eh," I shrugged. "It's like a dull throb now."

"That should've healed it."

"You!" Hook was back on his feet again, and he looked pissed.

"Which one, the brat with spiky hair, the rich snob, or the badger?" I pointed at each of us as I listed our titles. Sora and Riku both glared at me for a moment.

I received my answer soon enough when a bunch of those zombies appeared.

"Riku!" Sora motioned toward me violently, "They'll hurt her!"

He lifted his hands in surrender, "It's not me!"

"ZOMBIES!"

Everybody paused for a moment.

"Uh…the politically correct term is 'heartless'."

"They eat humans, right? And when humans are eaten, they become them, right? Thus, they are zombies."

"Whatever."

I grinned, "Ah man, give me a guitar and this'll be just like Left 4 Dead 2!"

"Sara, leave this to us." Riku patted me on the shoulder as he and Sora jumped into the fray.

While they were busy, I looked around for a weapon. Then I realized I was wearing my knapsack.

"Not so fast Sara." Then I was pinned to the railing by Hook's bad arm on my neck, his damn hook slicing up my shoulder.

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm gonna kill you," I managed to rasp before he cut off my air supply.

My knapsack swung about my back, its light weight distributing pointedly. You're armed. USE ME!

I reached…

"Not so fast ya scurvy bitch!" He grabbed my wrist and twisted…

CRACK

I've never broken a bone before.

It really hurts.

In fact, that crack was the last thing I heard before my ears started ringing. The last thing I saw was Hook's greasy face as he shoved me over the railing, into the ocean below…

000

"Where the hell have you been?" Janice hovered above me, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. Her hair was short now too. It actually had a nice feathery affect with the half-curls.

"I went for a swim," I responded. "It's a little difficult to float when your forearm's in two pieces.

"Ah," she rolled her eyes and reached…

Everything went black.

When I woke up, the pain was down to a dull throb. She was using two makeshift driftwood poles and the shredded remains of my only pair of normal pants to make a split. My hand was also pretty much patched up.

"Here," she handed me a pill. "Choke it down with sea water, we got work to do."

I did as I was told, gagging and awkwardly clawing at my throat while Janice tied my arm to my chest.

"That'll take a while to heal. No matter, we gotta get the fuck outta here."

"Why?"

"Well, Captain Bitch-fit there knows what you are. Chances are, he'll tell the League of Extraordinary Evil. We're all sorts of screwed thanks to you."

"Thanks to me? What the fuck did I do?"

"Run away," she rolled her eyes, "Did you honestly think cutting your hair was going to keep me from finding you?"

"I was sold! I didn't run away!"

That stopped her cold. "Sold?"

"The Academy endorses the slave trade." That would make sense. From what little knowledge I gathered, the Academy picks up stray orphans and constructs them into psychotic murderers. Then (judging by what they did with me) they ship them off to the highest bidder.

"Fuck!" She stomped her feet. "Come on, we need to get outta here. We'll go to Big Ben and regroup there."

"Who's Big Ben?" I got to my feet.

"He's a clock tower, moron." She leapt into the air. And stayed there.

"How come you can fly?"

She grinned like the cat that swallowed the canary. "I strangled a fairy. Hey, you want some fairy dust?"

She tossed a handful of fine glitter in my face. I coughed, waving it away.

"Now think pretty thoughts and let's get the hell outta here!"

"Pretty thoughts?"

"Something happy. You fly if you think of something happy."

"Uh, ok."

I imagined my hands around her neck, squeezing until her eyes bulged and the only sound coming out of her mouth was the bubble of foam spit…

"Jeez, that's more effective than mine, and I thought of Ava!"

"Simple, I thought of killing you."

"HEY!"