Sora reflected that while Marluxia's appearance was certainly strange, it didn't account for the way some of the men before them had screamed like little girls exposed to helium. He edged himself between the man and Tifa and watched attentively as Marluxia took a step towards the refugees, arms loose at his sides and a smile on his lips. The refugees took a step back.
"Now, now, no need to be frightened," Marluxia said. "We're all friends here. After all, I've spilled blood making sure the lot of you could get here more or less alive."
"Really? Wow!" Sora found that curiosity was quickly overcoming his wariness. And discharging the tense atmosphere seemed like a good idea. He laughed. "Sorry. Now you have to save my ass, too."
Marluxia shrugged his broad shoulders. "It's no problem. I enjoy meeting new people."
"Yeah, but wouldn't it be nicer over a cup of coffee or something. Oh wait." Sora shot the refugees a look. "The cafeteria is a little bit occupied."
"So it would seem. Hmm." Marluxia opened a door on his right and peered inside. He tilted his head in contemplation, pink hair spilling across his shoulder blades. "This should do."
The image of the dark figure in the corridor the night he met Vexen flashed before Sora's eyes. Fluffy pink hair. Oh. Sora had to bite his tongue to keep from gasping in realisation.
"Please retire to this here storage room," Marluxia said politely. The refugees glared. "It's a bit dusty, but otherwise empty, and I really don't have patience to find proper accommodation for ungrateful, murderous, rioting whoresons who should have just waited half a day to be sent to a much nicer place, rather that disrupt the lives of their saviours and prevent them from resting after weeks of desperate fighting." By the end of his speech, Marluxia's voice was something between a hiss and a growl, and he looked ready to tear into the people before him. Something thorny and blood red coiled around his shoulders and arms. It moved like a time-lapse video.
The refugees meekly entered the room. They wouldn't be able to sit or even scratch their noses, they were squeezed in so tightly. Marluxia shut the door.
He turned to Sora and Tifa with a smile. "Let me accompany you to safety."
Sora's throat felt tight and he was afraid he would squeak, so he just nodded. He didn't know whether Marluxia was going to take them to the control room or murder them in a dark corner somewhere, but he was determined not to let his fear show. Sora nodded at Tifa, and they followed Marluxia's lead.
Riku found Yuffie by following the trail of blood she had left. It was a very obvious trail. Riku had Relic clean it up.
Yuffie was tying a strip of her uniform around her injured arm when he walked up to her. They were hidden among large crates that had been abandoned in the middle of a corridor. Riku wasn't sure what was in them, and he didn't care enough to find out.
"That was embarrassing," Yuffie told him without looking up from her work.
"What was?" Riku crouched beside her and batted her hands away, taking over. She hissed when he prodded at her arm, but he had to know how bad it was. "Shit. This is an open fracture."
"Tell me something I don't know." Yuffie swallowed thickly. She was a bit green around the edges. "It's going to take forever to heal this."
"I think a couple of days in a tank would help you regain psychological balance."
"Har har."
Riku huffed in frustration and stood up. He peeked into the closest crate. "We need a splint, and... Huh."
"What?" When he didn't respond, Yuffie kicked him in the shin. "Riku."
"I think these are dismantled guns."
"Oh. Huh." Yuffie got up with much grumbling and pained grunts. She stood at Riku's side. "Well I'll be damned."
Riku bent over the crate and rummaged inside. He emerged with two long, thin pieces and raised his eyebrows at Yuffie.
She gave it some consideration. "Yeah, okay."
Once the splint was in place and Yuffie's arm was secured to her torso (and Riku's uniform coat had become a waist-long jacket), they were ready to go. Riku took out his tablet to mark their location, just in case.
They heard voices and footsteps, and huddled behind the crates. Riku nudged his surroundings with Relic and found only two refugees. It was pathetic that he and Yuffie had to hide from only two.
Riku's tablet buzzed. It was still in his hand so he got it to quiet down very quickly, but the refugees had heard. They approached the crates, murmuring reassuringly to each other.
We can't let them see the guns, Yuffie sent.
Don't use Relic, you're exhausted. I'll think of something.
Riku slipped the tablet into his pocket and started sneaking towards the refugees, eyes closed. They were men, both bigger than Riku, and likely not as worn out. It was like a puzzle, Riku decided, a game. Find the right order and combination of actions to advance to the next level, or lose your life.
Actual fighting was out of the question – someone would shout. Riku focused Relic into two tendrils and directed them at the refugee's faces. Relic slipped inside with every breath, clogging up the men's airways without touching any surface, so that they wouldn't notice.
They noticed when their breathing became much less effective.
"I feel weird," said one man.
The other fainted instead of answering. The first man was at his side immediately, shaking him.
"Hey!" he called. "Get up!"
Riku panicked. The man choked, scrambled at his throat, and slowly keeled over. It was over in less than a minute.
"You all right there?" called a voice from deep within one of the corridors.
Riku started towards the unconscious men to pull them away, but he retreated at the sound of footsteps. He crawled back to Yuffie. "Fuck," he told her.
"Yes, rather." Yuffie was glaring at the ground. "We can't leave. The crates..."
"They might not be able to put the parts together. It's like, alien technology."
"There was a manual in the crate we looked at."
"Written in the language of Hollow Bastion, no doubt."
"With pictures."
Yuffie glared. Riku glared back with all he was worth, but she had the power of righteousness on her side.
"Fine. We'll take the manuals."
"From every one of the two dozen crates, some of which are sealed?"
More footsteps and agitated shouting. The unconscious refugees had been found, and a small crowd started to form at the intersection.
Riku wanted to punch something. "Okay. Fine. Whatever. I'll stop them."
"Riku..."
"You've had Relic longer than me. Who knows how bad your overload would be." Not as bad as Axel's, definitely, and Yuffie tended to direct Relic inwards, enhancing her own performance rather than affecting others – but there were no rules, only tendencies, with Relic.
Yuffie's glare was almost a physical sensation. "I won't let you overload."
Riku shrugged. The refugees had noticed the crates and were approaching slowly. Riku was already at work, though. The closest two dropped, the arteries in their necks clogged almost entirely. There was some more shouting, but Riku tuned it out, struggling to keep his focus. This kind of precision work wasn't easy. He didn't want to kill the refugees, or damage them permanently.
Sweat trickled down Riku's face. He looked Yuffie in the eyes. "Go. Take my tablet and call Leon."
She shook her head, grinning slowly. "Nope. I'm your backup."
When her time came, Yuffie would laugh and fight ever harder, not to keep death at bay, but because danger had always energised her, Riku thought. He wondered what world she had come from, and how bad it had been. He regretted having never thought to ask.
There was a pile of refugees at the mouth of the corridor. A lull in the shouting, replaced by grunts, signified that those still standing had begun clearing the bodies. Riku's tablet buzzed again.
"You hear that?" said someone.
"Yeah. Fuck this." There was a heavy thump. "Let's go all at once and find out what the fuck is happening."
"But... it might kill us."
"These guys are not dead, if you haven't noticed. They just blacked out. Come on."
Riku cursed whoever was calling him and prepared himself, giving up on feeling out his surroundings too thoroughly. It consumed too much energy. He still felt Yuffie change her breathing pattern and call up a dozen tiny, spinning blades.
"Yuffie," Riku warned.
"Shut up."
The refugees marched on. There were at least twenty of them now. Riku had to take some time on each one. Yuffie's blades were quicker, but did less damage – she could only cut through muscle and minor arteries if she didn't want to kill them. Scratches frightened the refugees, but they were apparently angry enough to keep advancing.
It wasn't going to work, Riku realised. Yuffie was too exhausted to manage this level of precision for long, and the same went for Riku. They were either going to have to kill the refugees, or let the refugees kill them.
Riku felt a disturbance in the air, and the awareness of powerful Relic near by, settling over him like a blanket. He grabbed Yuffie and pushed her to the ground. A wave of heat flared above them. The refugees screamed.
"What's going on here?" said Leon's voice.
Riku pushed himself up, slowly, and looked around. The refugees were fine, though most of them were sprawled on their asses and looking at Leon with wide eyes. Leon, crouching on a crate just to Riku's left, had a grim expression on his face.
"Hello, Riku," he said, without taking his eyes off the refugees.
Riku resisted the urge to lay back down. "Look, I-"
"No," said Leon, quietly. Riku shut up.
Cloud was at Leon's back, rummaging through one of the crates. "Weird looking weapons," he decided. "Are there even bullets in one of these?" He went to open more crates.
Riku admired his nonchalance in the face of Leon's silent wrath. He also felt rather stupid for not checking whether there was any ammunition.
"There should be bullets," Leon said. "But not many. Judging by what's been found upon arrival in Hollow Bastion, the original residents had tried to fight the Dark Ones off with guns. When that didn't work, they got desperate enough to turn the guns on each other. Which is why they had to be dismantled."
Cloud made an amused huff. More like a louder-than-usual exhale, really. "Thank you for the history lesson." Still he added, a moment later, "that means this world has been ravaged."
"Yes. It was the first."
Leon slid off the crate and pretty much prowled towards the refugees. Riku pulled himself further up and peered over the edge of the crate to watch. Cloud perched on the edge of the crate without obscuring Riku's vision.
"He does have a rather nice ass," he murmured. Leon's fingers twitched.
Riku held onto the crate to keep from falling over. He stared at Cloud with huge eyes. "Really? Is this what you think about in the middle of a crisis?"
Cloud shrugged. "Would you like me to postpone it until the end of the apocalypse?"
"Yes!"
"Sorry, but no. I'm not into necrophilia."
Riku decided to ignore him. Yes, that was definitely the best course of action. He watched Leon pull one of the refugees up by the man's collar. Riku could feel the heat radiating off Leon behind his crate. The refugees had to be getting cooked.
"I would like you to gather your friends," Leon said. "Both the conscious and the unconscious, and put them in a room. Can you do this for me?"
The man squeaked in affirmation.
"Good." Leon let him fall onto his ass. "Get to it."
The man turned to the other refugees. There was a flash, like miniature lightning, and he screeched, jumped, and grabbed his behind. Hands thus occupied, he flapped his elbows at the other refugees, urging them to move.
Leon turned to quirk his eyebrows at Cloud.
"Oops?" Cloud offered.
"Yeah, right."
"Fine, fine. I wanted to see if I could do it."
Leon thought about it. "Acceptable," he decided.
Once they had the refugees locked up and Yuffie was sprawled semi-comfortable across Leon's back, they made for the closes infirmary.
"Yuffie. How did the refugees get you?" Leon asked.
"I don't really remember. I was with Cid, and then..." She bit her lip. "Then I was upside-down and there were a lot of shouty voices. My head really fucking hurt, so I slipped away. And then Riku found me."
"That's impressive," Cloud told her. "I'm not sure how you were able to move."
"What about Cid?" Leon asked. "Do you remember where he was taking you? To which infirmary?"
Yuffie rested her forehead on Leon's shoulder, scrunching her face up in thought. Cloud's fingers flexed. Riku noticed, because Cloud had a steady grip on his arm, in case Riku decided to faint without warning.
"We were coming out of the Threshold chamber, so it would have to be somewhere close, and not full of refugees." Yuffie groaned. "Shit, my head. If brains start leaking out of my ears, just kill me."
"Thank you, Yuffie," Leon said, and touched the top of her head. She was out like a light.
"How did you do that?" Cloud asked, looking speculatively at Riku.
Riku sputtered. "Oh, hell no! Practice on the refugees." He found he couldn't get free of Cloud's grip no matter how hard he struggled.
"I tend to meet them in circumstances that require haste, though, and that's never the right environment for practice," Cloud said.
"I won't let you try it on anyone until I'm sure you won't give them brain damage," Leon told him.
They left Yuffie and Riku in the nearest infirmary with a team of medics, and went to search for Cid. They found him in the first infirmary Leon thought to check.
Cloud cringed at the sight of the tank. "Ah. These things creep me out."
He completely ignored the fact that blood covered the tank, most of the floor, the door, and the floor beyond that in a trail going in the opposite direction than the one Leon and Cloud came from.
"Is he even alive?" Cloud asked.
The tank was not lit, and sat there quietly rather than produce the usual hum of delicate machinery. Leon waited until he was sure his voice would be even before replying. "No."
Cloud was quiet for a moment. "Oh. What now?"
Leon walked over to the tank and turned it on. He set it to stasis. "Now we leave him here and seal the room. Touch nothing."
Cloud's hand hovered millimetres over a handheld scanner on the table by the door. "Right."
"The riot takes priority. People might still be in danger." Leon paused, realising something. "Now that I think of it, I had Sora approach the refugees. He was meant to contact me once he got in position, wasn't he?"
"Yeah."
Leon swore.
A/N:
Holy crap, I honestly almost forgot to post this chapter today. And it's a reasonably fun chapter, too! (I hope.)