"How's your leg doing?"
"Huh what," Sora said, jumping as Rinoa spoke; his attention had been fully focused on the forest yet again.
"How is your leg, does it hurt?"
"No," Sora lied with a smile, "its fine."
The truth was that it stung, it didn't exactly hurt, but it was agitated. Rinoa had accelerated the healing process after all, and that was bound to cause some issues without any medication to ease the process along. To be honest though, they'd been walking for over an hour and now and if that hadn't stopped him then there obviously wasn't an issue. The dying light though, might be a bigger problem if they couldn't find any of the others before then.
"Alright, but if it gets too strenuous," she was saying gently, "we'll take a break."
Sora wasn't paying attention; his eyes had lit upon something ahead in the distance, silhouetted against the setting sun. He quickened his pace and clambered over a small outcropping to get a better look at the distant shapes.
"Cloud, Kadaj!" He called, cupping his hands together. The pair of distant figures turned around, both reaching for weapons before Cloud raised his in greeting, the pair walked towards Sora and when the two groups merged Cloud and Rinoa exchanged a brief hug before he put a hand on Sora's shoulder with a smile.
"You are going to tell them right?" Kadaj asked quietly, eying Cloud thoughtfully.
Cloud glared at him, but then sighed and undid part of his armor that covered his arm, Sora noticed that his left arm was hanging limply at his side and that there were puncture marks in the armor; Cloud must have been injured during the attack on the ship. When he had removed the armor from his arm Rinoa let out a gasp. Sora's eyes widened in surprise as they looked at his cousin's arm; from his shoulder downwards his arm was a sickly black color. He removed the armored glove and revealed more of whatever was in his system had extended to his hand and fingers as well.
"What are you doing on your feet you idiot!" Rinoa yelled, she looked around quickly before grabbing Cloud's good arm and dragging him towards the forest and the low grass beneath the boughs of the trees.
"Lay down," she commanded.
"I'm fine Rin—"
"No, you're not; Kadaj if he doesn't lay down you can knock him unconscious!"
Cloud looked over at Kadaj who put his hands up as if to say orders were orders though there was a hint of an amused smile around the edges of his mouth. Cloud lied down in the grass and let Rinoa look over his arm. Sora knelt down besides his cousin and watched the procedure as she moved the arm around and asked the kinds of silly questions that you always got asked at the doctor, strangely in this situation they didn't seem nearly as silly. She continued to examine the arm before finally sighing, looking at Cloud worriedly who didn't look the least bit phased, in fact he seemed almost indifferent, perhaps annoyed even.
"I need to open up your arm," she said, almost apologetically as she looked up at Kadaj. "Just a small cut, above the wrist, we don't want him to bleed to death."
Cloud tensed as Kadaj's double bladed sword hissed out of its sheath, to Kadaj's credit he was very surgical and opened up a cut that didn't even show initially and only started bleeding after a few seconds had passed. Rinoa placed her hands on Cloud's shoulder and closed her eyes as she focused, her hands began to glow and the blackness began to recede down the length of Cloud's arm. Sora's eyes went to the cut, there was black ooze seeping from the wound as Rinoa traveled down the arm. When she reached the cut, she moved on of her hands to his hand, clasping it gently and intertwining her fingers with his, squeezing tightly with her glowing digits. The blackness again receded and more of the ooze issued out of the cut and dripped onto the grass where it seemed to sizzle before vanishing.
"That's not supposed to happen is it?" Kadaj asked curiously, watching the black filth vanish.
Rinoa shook her head, "I've never seen anything like this before…I can't believe it responded to my magic, I thought it was just venom but this is something else entirely."
"Would you mind not talking about my arm as if I'm not lying here? I do not need to hear this while you're treating me."
"Oh, right sorry," Rinoa said a little sheepishly as she continued to ease the ooze from Cloud's arm with her magic.
Sora's attention had turned back to the trees however; the feeling that they were being watched was upon him again and more intensely than before. His hand shifted nervously and he considered calling his keyblade to him, but for what? He couldn't see anything after all in what was quickly becoming night; it just felt like something was watching them and with the sudden proximity to the trees the feeling felt all the more intense. Unable to see anything that would pose a threat, he contented himself with simply watching the darkness between the tress for any telltale movements.
"Hey!"
The sudden shout made all four of them jump, Cloud was on his feet, the black ooze dripping from his fingers now as he reached up for his weapon, Kadaj already had his weapon drawn.
"Easy, it's just us." Leon said, as he came closer, stepping around Kadaj's sword. "We saw the glow from the magic and then heard your voices."
Behind him, Namine, Kairi, Loz, and Yazoo followed. Sora rushed over to Kairi and wrapped his arms around her tightly.
"Sora, I'm fine," she said with a smile.
"I know, I was worried though;" anything further was interrupted when Loz plopped something heave over their heads, Sora pulled it off and smiled up at him. "Thanks Loz!"
The older man looked embarrassed and scratched his cheek distractedly, "yeah well it looked important."
"We brought these too," Yazoo said, throwing a water tight casket nearly as big as he was onto the grass. He gave it a kick and it popped open to reveal their armors, or at least those that weren't already being worn by their owners.
"You held onto a trunk in the middle of all that?" Kadaj asked his brothers dubiously.
Yazoo shrugged and planted himself on the grass, he looked exhausted. "We needed it, those gauntlet blades and staves are in there as well."
"What happened to you," Leon asked, noticing Cloud's arm, it was trembling, as if convulsing from some kind of spasm.
"One of those things on the ship got me." He said, lying back down, he didn't say it, but Sora noticed that he looked very relieved to be back on the ground instead of on his feet.
Rinoa knelt back down next to him, brushing her hair out of her eyes before she resumed her task, slowly forcing all the black liquid out of Cloud's arm.
Leon knelt besides her, "are you okay?"
"I had a few bruises but they're fine now, have you seen any of the others?"
Leon shook his head, looking over at Sora and Kairi, now huddled together under Auron's coat, Namine was with them leaning against Kairi's shoulder.
"No, Kairi and Namine found me, then we found Yazoo and Loz lugging that trunk around the beach shortly after that."
"And then you saw us?"
"Saw your hands," he corrected, reaching down to touch her softly glowing hands gently.
Cloud gave him a friendly scowl, "stop hitting on my doctor."
Leon playfully punched Cloud's leg, "she's my fiancée."
"So we're still missing Tifa, Roxas, Riku, Aerith, and Zack."
"And the entire crew of the ship," Leon reminded him.
"Do you seriously think they're still alive," Kadaj asked quietly.
There was a long silence as they all contemplated the reality. Without any powers or training to speak of, the crew likely wasn't going to be seen again.
"Tomorrow, will take us away, far from home….."
Namine's voice sent shivers down Sora's spine, but after a moment more of silence, she continued. The group remained somberly quiet as she finished the song and gave a final farewell to the brave souls that had brought them to these shores as the night closed around them.
His vision was a blur when he first opened his eyes; a gentle hand stroked his cheek and ran through his hair.
"Namine?"
Tifa laughed, "no, but I'm just as glad that you're awake."
Roxas blinked and looked up at his brother's girlfriend and realized that he was lying in her lap.
"I uh sorry," he muttered with a blush, trying to sit up, his head spun and he sank back down.
"Yeah that's what I thought;" Tifa chided soothingly. "Just stay here until the other's get back."
"Back," Roxas murmured in confusion.
"Riku, Zack, and Aerith; they went out to see if they could find anyone else."
"What abo—" Roxas winced as his head gave another painful tour of the world on carousel.
"We don't know where any of the others are, that's why they're out looking." Tifa said gently, "try not to strain yourself Roxas," she grinned teasingly, "Cloud would kill me if I let his little brother get hurt in my lap."
Roxas blushed again, taking a deep breath and rolling off of Tifa's lap slowly, she frowned but didn't stop him as he slowly got up into a sitting position from all fours. Having righted himself, he was able to give their surroundings a proper once over, they were in a small rock cave with a sandy floor; he could hear water, waves he thought, somewhere nearby.
"Where are we?"
"The Lost Continent, somewhere along the northern coast I assume, we found this cave shortly after we found you lying on the beach."
"He's awake?" They looked up to see Aerith coming around the bend in the cave; she sat down on the sandy floor besides them.
"Did you find anything?"
She shook her head, "nothing, Zack didn't either. He's gone to go find Riku."
"Find him?" Tifa said her tone alarmed.
"He went inland," Aerith said worriedly, "and wasn't back at our agreed meeting place with sunset; we waited for ten minutes before Zack told me to come back here to check on you and Roxas he went into the forest to find Riku."
Tifa frowned, "I hope they're alright in there by themselves."
"So do I, though to be honest I'm more worried about everyone else than I am about those two."
Tifa nodded agreement, Roxas had the mental image of his friends all drowned at sea and shuddered involuntarily at the scene, putting his arms around himself. His head gave a splitting spin and he groaned, leaning forwards slightly.
Aerith frowned and moved over to him, placing the back of her hand against his forehead. "You don't have a fever at least, but…if I didn't know better I would think you had a hangover."
She turned her hand over, flattening her palm against his forehead; a deep soothing coolness worked its way down from his forehead and through the rest of his body. It was like splashing water on his face after just waking up, he felt completely refreshed suddenly and very relieved.
"Thanks," he murmured with a sigh.
"Just don't push yourself; the spell will wear off in a few minutes though the pain shouldn't come back your body will probably still feel fatigued once it does."
"Aerith!"
They all jumped at the shout, a moment later Zack came into the chamber carrying a limp Riku in his arms.
Aerith was on her feet in an instant, "put him down."
Zack did as he was told stepping back and letting Aerith looked over RIku. Roxas got his first good look at Sora's childhood friend and felt his insides twist painfully. Riku's eyes were covered in some kind of crusted foam and his irises, normally a vibrant blue, were a dull gray and were looking around the cave vacantly.
"What happened," she asked urgently.
"An overgrown snake happened," Zack said, leaning back against the cave wall. "Damn thing was following him around as he stumbled through the trees, when I showed up it spat at me; I assume that's what happened to Riku's eyes."
Tifa looked at the opening of the cave sharpy, "where's the snake now?"
"Dead, or at least it better be, I took its head off."
Aerith had torn part of her jacket off at the hem and was wiping away the venom from Riku's eyes, her expression sorrowful and pained.
"What is it?" Zack said, catching the look on her face.
"I can't do anything for him," she sounded helpless, and her eyes stung with tears.
"What's happening," Roxas asked, looking at the adults worriedly.
"The venom was inflaming his throat, I've cleaned it out but…" she looked at Riku closing her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Riku, can you hear me?"
He nodded, trying to speak but only a whisper came out. "Don't try to speak, your throat is still clearing up," she said gently, taking his hand and holding it tenderly.
"Aerith, what is wrong with him," Zack asked impatiently.
She short him a reproachful glare and he retreated slightly, "look at his eyes Zack, he's blind! The venom destroyed his eyes and I can't do anything about it!"
Her voice was controlled, even though she seemed like she wanted to cry; Zack knelt down and wrapped his arms around her. Riku let go of her hand, his expression one of bewilderment and pain. Roxas looked at Tifa, and they both shared the same thought, the hope that the others had faired better than they had.
Author's Note: yes, that was mean, but blame it on Square for making Riku wear that blasted blindfold and giving me the idea! ....besides the blindness thing will come in handy later in a strange way, just watch for the extra(and yes, for once I am PLANNING an extra)!