AN: Tah dah! :) I am still more or less on top of this, which considering how ill I've been recently is a pretty good going xD
I think the next chapter will be slower in pace but probably richer in content where all the loose ends will 'attempt' to ties themselves together ;)
I'd also like to say, there is a phrase in here which Lynn says, that goes: 'c'est la guerre' – I heard this when I made a spurious remark about 'c'est la vie!' to which someone responded with, 'c'est ne pas la vie, c'est la guerre'. Now, APPARANTLY this comes from a poem, which I have singularly failed to locate on the internet so I can't credit it to the one(s) who created it, but it doesn't belong to me! (in English it basically means: 'that's not life, that's war!' rather dry sense of humour…) I thought it was such a good idea but I just don't know who would own the copyrights to this so it's not covered by the disclaimer in my profile…suffice to say I didn't come up with it myself ;)
Onwards ever onwards! :D
The Dragon's Roar
Aqua stood, panting with exertion, unable to believe her eyes when the Heartless just suddenly disappeared, as if evaporating into thin air.
It had been becoming desperate, even when Sora and Riku bowled into the scene with a war cry and set about craving a wide path through the chaos of the market place. They could handle the numbers that were there, no question – only no sooner had one or two Heartless been felled, then two or three more took their place, and the cycle didn't seem to be breaking any time soon. If Leo had been here, he could have taken many more down by himself, but he'd shot off like a dart a while ago now, and Aqua could only assume he was needed else where, other wise he would have made his way back to help.
Even with the structural integrity of the surrounding buildings in question, Aqua had eventually given in and grabbed Bahamut's crystal, before calling him forth and throwing it to Sora to catch. When they had been experimenting and practising with the Scion's summoning crystals, the great dragon had seemed rather partial to Sora, so it was their safest bet for enlisting help without further compromising the structures around them. It didn't take long for Sora to start drifting away, towards the source of the oncoming tide of Heartless, and taking Bahamut with him; they all fought valiantly, and the Scion was more than happy to act as a battering ram when a larger infusion of Heartless appeared, but they still made very little headway.
Aqua had been running to help Cloud after he took a dive and had to hobble aside to avoid getting hit by a Morning Star as it leapt into the air above him. She hefted her Keyblade and stood her ground as it turned to her and began to charge, preferring her over Cloud's near prone figure on the ground.
Expecting to feel the jolt as they collided, she spun on her back leg and threw everything she had into the blow – which never landed.
That was when the Heartless just…disappeared.
Some of them escaped through small portals into the Corridors of Darkness, some of them appeared to dissipate in clouds of upward drifting dark smoke, and others sort of just disintegrated towards the ground in a fine powder that blew away in a nonexistent breeze.
It left her breathing hard from the effort it had cost her to keep pushing against the endless wave that assaulted them. She couldn't believe it at first, but when she turned to check, Donald and Goofy were waving at her from the other side of the market place, as mystified as she was.
Cloud hadn't taken too much damage – a sprained ankle and a badly bruised wrist. That was easily remedied with a few good healing spells, and he left to go check on the others swiftly after he could place weight on his leg again.
"Aqua!" Sora shouted, waving his arm vigorously to catch her attention.
"What is it?" she asked once she caught up with him.
"Cid said they've gone from the town, but they're still in the gorge, and there're those weird…things in the Great Maw." He explained. "I think we'd better go check it out. Yuffie said they can handle things in the town and they'll yell if the Heartless come back here again."
Aqua nodded, and they dashed off towards the gorge, Riku following behind a few paces as he checked through his remaining potions.
The situation was…manageable, in the gorge, and the strange creatures like the ones Rhiannon and Lynn had brought down weren't to be seen anywhere when they arrived. It was going to be another long, hard slog to keep them from getting back into the town, but it was well within their limits of abilities and endurance. Having Bahamut with the freedom to blast his way through the Heartless certainly helped, but he had to rein it in so he didn't accidentally hurt any of their allies – yet another limiting factor on their arsenal. Aqua just hoped that the others would come and help soon, and that whatever was keeping them from do so in the town wasn't too difficult or dangerous.
XOXOX
Terra's blood ran cold in his veins, and his mouth felt incredibly dry, but he gritted his teeth and stood his ground.
He was scared. More than scared. He felt terrified.
No one bandied around with such words in play, and in such a tone of voice.
It was…unnerving to say the very, very least.
Leo was tensed like a coiled spring, and ready to launch himself at the man; Ven was trembling – possibly with rage because his magic spiked rather dangerously; Terra could feel the hostility coming off him in waves. Mel…hadn't appeared to react at all. When he chanced a glance at her, her face was very pale, and her eyes were wide with shock. Lynn was leaning forward on her left leg, displacing her weight in a different direction as if contemplating making a run into the fray and going trigger happy with her arrows. Rhiannon's ominous glare coupled with the shadows cast on her face from the white fire in her hand were almost as bad as the man's demeanour.
Maleficent's look of utter disdain suggested that their working relationship was now at an end. "Very well then," she said coldly. "I'll leave you to clean up this mess, since you chose to show your true hand. I no longer require your services!"
"That's good. I have more time to devote to my other pursuits, in that case. Reconnaissance was never a strong skill of mine. You may go," he made a casual gesture, the sort Aqua might make when she was absentminded and focused on something else, like a gesture of acknowledgement or dismissal.
That would grate on Maleficent's pride…
She drew herself up to her fullest height and glared at him. "Fine! You can sort your own mess out yourself!" she threw her arms wide and high, and disappeared in a flare of green and black flame.
"And take your lackeys with you." The man said pleasantly to the air. "And I most certainly will take care of this mess." He turned to face them, his face so deeply shadowed it was impossible to make out any features. "Dear me, we do seem to have got off on the wrong foot, haven't we?"
"Who are you? What do you want?" Ven spat angrily, shaking with suppressed rage. Leo growled loudly and Mel took a step back to lay a hand on his leg to calm him down, but it did little to help.
"My Name is of little consequence or import. Not any more." He said offhandedly, with a vague gesture of his right hand, clad in a thick leather glove. "Quite simply, I have a vested interest in keeping that Dragon out of the whole loop of destiny the world's have going on. In other words, I'm afraid you'll have to say your goodbyes now, because I must finish what I started."
"What the hell are you on about?" Terra snarled.
The man turned his head towards him, and even though he couldn't tell where the eyes were, Terra felt the full force of his gaze, and it made his skin crawl.
"I don't think you are really in a position to speak to me like that." He said quietly. "As if I am the villain. I do believe much of the damage wrought upon the Light was a direct cause of your own actions."
It was most probably said as an attempt to unsettle him further, which Terra recognised – but that didn't stop it feeling like a blow to his heart. No, he wasn't going to think about that now; too many people in this world were at risk right now, Leo at the top of the list for the moment.
Ven tried to launch himself at the man, but Leo got in there first; he leapt forward so he was planted firmly in between them and roared angrily and defiantly at him. The man stood stock still, as if a juvenile dragon wasn't screaming in his face – when Leo stopped, drawing his head back and snarling loudly, the man lifted his head slightly to look up at him.
"Finished?" he asked politely.
Terra wished he had the strength to stop Leo, but he was far too big for him to control by force. Leo screeched angrily and dived forward while the three of them took cover, and when he looked up he saw Ven's eyes were wide. Turning back to Leo, who had made a faint to the left and dodged around the right instead, slammed his tail down and only missed by mere inches. The man was holding a weapon that looked horribly like a Keyblade, but just not…it just looked all wrong, for a weapon Terra knew to be an instrument of the Light, to look so…sinister.
It may as well have been a torture weapon, with all those wicked looking spikes so dangerously close to Leo.
Terra was about to dash in to help, but Mel grabbed his arm before he could take more than a step.
"But-!"
"Do you really want to get under his feet?" she asked, almost cynically for her, eyebrows raised rather high.
Of course, she was absolutely right; Leo succeeded in trampling the robed man under foot, and dealt him a heavy blow to the chest with his head through the medium of the head butt Sora had taught him – only much much more violently. The man struggled to get up, and Leo raked the ground with his front paws before snarling and stalking off, the way he usually did when someone annoyed him and he wanted the entire world to know his disapproval. Despite the great gravity of the situation, Ven snorted with laughter, and Terra managed a smile.
The man got to his feet quickly once he was able to move swiftly, and the set of his shoulders suggested he was staring Leo down, who turned to face him again sideways on and roared his challenge. The man ran at him, and tried to slip under Leo's guard as he changed his tactics, and yelled in surprise when an arrow embedded itself in the stiff leather padding apparently hidden underneath his robe. One could only assume the dire look Lynn was getting, though it was hard to tell.
In true form Lynn gave him a reckless grin and shrugged dramatically. "C'est la guerre!" she said with a devil may care attitude.
The cool demeanour was wearing off, and he made a dash for Lynn, who dived away from Ansem and clouted him round the head with her bow, making him reel. He lashed back somewhat haphazardly out of anger, and clipped her across her bicep so a trickle of blood stained her white top. Leo charged and got his shoulder in his jaws before wrenching him off his feet and flinging the man across the Postern were he skidded to a halt by Ven's feet.
"You know, you should really pick your fights more carefully," Ven commented, before he intercepted a strike and deflected it with relative ease.
It was rather hard to sustain a fight with him involving all of them at once – they risked injuring each other instead of him, and so most hovered anxiously around Leo, who did his best to beak free and have a go himself on the man who had insulted his family and announced his intentions to kill him. Even in a real fight such as this, Terra knew Leo's mind was thinking: fair game. Rather than lock Keyblades, Mel stood by trying to hold up magic barriers around Ven and then Terra as he ran in to help. Lynn and Rhiannon threw a barrage of projectiles at their enemy, and Ansem went to seek shelter behind Leo with Mel, who seemed to remove himself from the fight in favour of keeping them safe. Whenever the fight seemed to be heading in their direction snarls erupted from his throat, and on several occasions he snapped at a flying limb that strayed too close, succeeding at one point in ripping a glove free and sending it flying. Terra caught a glimpse of a large, strong hand and wrist attached to what promised to be a muscular arm – but it was so pale. Aqua was pretty fair skinned, but she looked healthy with it; the skin on his arm was unnaturally pale, as if the man was sick, but the musculature and the force of the blows he dealt them said otherwise.
Terra saw just before the powerful, devastating blow was dealt, and tried to prepare a defence against it. Ven didn't see it coming at all, and when the blade came arcing down to catch them both heavily across the arms and chest, it kept going towards the ground where it created a shockwave that made nearly everyone collapse. Terra looked up, dazed, and saw Mel had fallen to her knees, panting with the effort of keeping the pallings she had cast in place.
"I've had just about enough of this nonsense," the man said in clipped tones.
"Oh yeah? Well I haven't!" Lynn shouted bravely, making a show of rummaging through her quiver. "And I've got a special arrow right here with your name on it!"
The man chuckled gruffly. "How very amusing," it was to him apparently, but Terra guessed there was something he knew that they didn't that made it humorous. If Lynn had been looking at him like that, he would be running for cover. Luckily, she was on their side, though he still feared catching the fall out if she got too carried away with her magic.
"Yeah, 'ent it just?" she simpered, slipping an arrow out and loading it so fast that by the time they had realised, the arrow was already on its way.
The man made a swing with his arm, but the arrow changed course at the last moment with a flick from Lynn's hand, and it took a nose dive into the paving stones, right before it exploded in a cloud of noxious looking acid green gas. While he gagged, Terra grabbed Ven under the arm and heaved him away so they could regroup. Lynn kissed her bow with an ostentatious gesture and said, "Thank you Kenny, for taking me to that God awful chemistry seminar! What would I do without you?"
"What was that?" Ansem asked, interested in the science despite the situation.
Lynn was rattling off a list of ingredients and spells (it sounded suspiciously more like alchemy than chemistry) when she ducked and spun out of the way of the man's Keyblade.
"Ha!" she ducked and dodged again, hitting him across the hips with the broad side of her bow. "Missed again!" she did a backwards cartwheel to avoid the next one and unsheathed her hunting knife to take a swipe, and succeeded in cutting a swathe of the sleeves of his robe, revealing deathly pale skin but strong, hard and vigorous muscles over steely bone and sinew. "You even tryin'?"
In response, he kicked at her hand as she made a low dive to avoid a strike, and succeeded in relieving her of her knife.
Lynn's eyes grew narrow and angry. "That gets broken dickhead you're paying for a new one!"
With a snarl, the man lashed out at her again, but had to dodge a magic attack from Rhiannon who was running to her friend's aid. He flung an arm out and suddenly she was bowled over and collapsed, struggling for breath while Ven raced to cover her with a grimace.
"Now, where was I?" the man asked, making a brutal lunge for the bow with the intention of snapping it in half, but not moving fast enough.
"I think it was the bit where I destroy you and move on with my life." She said arrogantly, teeth drawn back in a snarl of her own.
After two quick blows, he managed to rip her quiver from her belt, and it scattered arrows in every direction, right before he managed to hit her left arm that was holding the bow and make it drop to the ground with a clatter.
Lynn looked angry, and a little apprehensive. Beyond magic, she had no other weapons.
"Fate hates me." She said blankly, dropping into a rather rusty fighting stance and summoning her Keyblade.
The man had been making a flamboyant show of returning to the ready position as he celebrated disarming his annoying opponent, but when he noticed the Keyblade in her hand he stopped dead in his tracks and simply croaked, "No,"
"Yeah, whatever! Don't sound so surprised, like the Keyblade apparently chose a douche bag like you."
Terra watched time slow down for a moment, and he made a dash for her just as it began to speed up again. He just knew something horrible was about to happen.
"NO!" came the scream, and suddenly Lynn was on the ground under a barrage of violent strikes. "NO! WHY? WHY! HOW DARE YOU-?!"
Terra took advantage of his preoccupation and brought his Keyblade down on his back with a satisfying crack, and gave him a shove as the man reeled in confusion so he fell sideways and hopefully broke a few bones in the process. And then he was charged by a fully enraged dragon, which only made matters for him worse.
Terra had often wondered, as Leo had grown from a fresh hatchling to a boisterous chick, what it would be like to face a grown Dragon of the Keyblade, on the opposing side. Apparently, as he tried to help Lynn up, he was about to find out.
Mel's palling failed, and while she tried to fix a new one, Rhiannon ran to Lynn's side, feeling for a pulse and shaking her almost violently to get her to wake up. Blood trickled from her nose, her arm was at an unnatural angle in its socket, and she was unconscious.
Terra threw himself in the way as a shield to catch stray blow that came their way as Rhiannon tried to repair some of the damage. Leo was really going for it; he sustained a cut above his left eye and blinked rapidly to clear the blood from his vision, but he got in a few cuts and bruises, and even a sprained wrist as well if they were lucky. The man had to back up to recover for a moment, and Leo planted his feet firmly against the ground before doing something Terra had never seen before.
It started like a croaking groan in his throat, which went back deep into his chest, and his body convulsed as if he were trying to regurgitate something. The sound intensified as the man stalked towards him again like a predator sighting its prey at a vulnerable moment.
Suddenly, Terra understood exactly what Leo was doing, and he had only just enough time to warn Rhiannon and don his own armour. He turned to see Mel had already guessed where Leo was heading, and had summoned her armour and set a powerful shield around Ansem, although what good any of it would do was yet to be seen.
After the final precursor, Leo let fly a roar that shook the entire town – maybe even the entire world – having worked it up to an even higher tenor and power after warming his vocal cords to it.
Terra collapsed, and he saw from the corners of his eyes that the others had too, though the man in the tattered robes seemed to be getting the very worst of it. He wondered vaguely as his skull vibrated painfully and his teeth rattled dangerously, who else was feeling the effects.
He didn't know it, but across in the town and the Great Maw, friends and foe alike were falling over and clutching at their heads in agony, unprotected by such strong armour. Sora hit the ground first, and Aqua managed to throw herself over him before she lost her senses to protect him from the attacking Heartless that merely collapsed on top of her in turn before rolling away down the slope; all of them too stunned and in pain to really notice much else. Riku lay in a dazed stupor, blood trickling into his eyes from a cut on his forehead, but he was unable to move to wipe it away as the roaring in his ears continued to reverberate across the canyon. Bahamut was brought to his knees by the barrage, though he didn't quite collapse, and watched as everyone around succumbed to the onslaught, knowing from whence it originated but not the why of its occurrence.
Slowly, when the world had settled again, Terra uncurled himself from the foetal position and looked up, his ears ringing in the sudden, merciful silence. Leo was crouched low, teeth exposed by his drawn lips, hovering near the ground by the man's head, shrouded still in its heavy hood. He was distracted by Rhiannon coming to, and turned to help her unsteadily to her feet, and when he turned to look at Leo again, he saw the man stirring. He sat up very slowly, and then his head twisted sharply to take in the baleful honey coloured eyes that bore into him. Leo made a single, guttural grunt, and he was scrambling for cover, falling over himself, and almost letting his hood slide back to reveal his face, though he caught it just in time and pulled it far forward over his head again.
Leo made one more mini roar (almost a meow in comparison to the terrible din he had just loosed upon them) and made a mock charge that took him forwards only two paces. The man got hastily to his feet and tried to leg it.
"Yeah!" Ven shouted at his retreating form. "You better run!"
Leo snorted in a self-satisfied manner and looked rather pleased with himself before he raised his left foreleg and started grooming his ruffled feathers with a careless air.
"Evie,"
Terra turned to Rhiannon, who was crouching beside her friend and fluttering in agitation. "Is she okay?" he asked, squatting down on her other side and feeling for a pulse. It was extremely slow, but it felt steady and powerful – she must have hit her head pretty hard when she fell, though.
"Eaves. Evie! Pet, wake up!" Rhiannon tried to shake her, but Terra took her firmly by the wrists. "Let go!" she hissed. "Evalyn, get your fat arse up this instant!"
"Um…" Terra looked pointedly at Lynn's arm. "I think her shoulder might be dislocated or something? Throttling her won't do her any good." He glanced over his shoulder and saw Ven heaving Mel to her feet while Leo sauntered up to them, as if he hadn't just seen off a particularly powerful enemy almost single-handed. Though he did look rather smug…
Turning back to Lynn, Terra saw Ansem had come to investigate, and was trying to help revive her. "The shoulder has been dislocated," he concluded, agreeing with Terra's diagnosis.
Lynn stirred and groaned inaudibly, but she didn't wake up. Blood was smeared across her nose and lips, and she had nasty looking bruises developing all over her skin. That man had beaten her up quite badly – but why? It couldn't have been just on the basis of her insults, she hadn't been the only one poking fun…
"What do we do then?" Rhiannon demanded angrily, face rather pale and tight with worry.
"Terra, if you hold her up for me," Ansem showed him how best to support her before he took a strong position himself and took her arm and shoulder in his hands. "It's best to do it now, otherwise when she wakes up she'll be in considerable pain."
While Ansem was getting ready and making sure he would be replacing her arm to the correct location, Lynn sadly chose to wake up. Her eyes were bleary and her teeth instantly gritted, before she turned her glower to Terra, the closest person she could focus on.
"What the hell are you doing?" she hissed angrily in a pained whisper.
"You'll thank me for it later," he assured her, a bit startled by the colour of her eyes; blood red and painfully familiar lamp-like yellow – not the most endearing combination of colours in his books…and the glare she was giving him wasn't exactly comforting either.
"Lynn, I need to put your arm back into place." Ansem informed her.
"What?" she snapped, wincing. "My arm? Hey, why'd dickhead go? Where am I even? What-?"
"Oh shut up!" Rhiannon snapped, preparing to clout her round the back of the head, but probably thinking better of it given the mount of blood being expelled from her nose.
"Your shoulder has been dislocated. This is going to hurt, but it won't be as bad once your arm is back in place. All right?"
"Ow…" Lynn whined, then, "Ow ow ow ow ow!" as he applied pressure to her arm. She fairly screamed, right in Terra's ear, and then Ansem let go and she flopped to the ground in a heap, panting heavily, but no longer screaming in agony. Rhiannon descended with a motherly vengeance to calm and console her. "Oh my God…Oh Christ…that hurt a lot…"
"It's all alright now, flower." Rhiannon said gently. "Your arm looks as freaky as it ever did before,"
"Ouch…" Lynn whimpered, cradling the offending limb close to her body as Ansem unwound his scarf and used it as a make shift sling.
"Hey look!" Ven called, pointing to something on the ground as Mel rushed over to see if she could help. Leo followed with his nose close to the ground, curious to see what he had found.
"Are you all right, Lynn?" Mel asked softly.
"I hurt. I just hurt. The pain…!" she grimaced pitifully and curled into a ball next to Rhiannon, who laid a hand on her head and sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes.
"She's fine, pet. She's got the strength to complain, there's notin' wrong with her."
"Guys!"
"What?" Terra sighed, turning his attention away to look at Ven, waving something at them. "What is it?"
"It's one of those weird black stone things, only it doesn't feel all evil and stuff like the others." He waved his hand and the stone more vigorously.
"In normal human, grown up speech…" Terra sighed, raising a hand to his temple.
There were footsteps on the path, but he didn't bother to look up, and Mel was more concerned with Lynn – until Ven gasped, followed by a few clanging noises as though someone had dropped something. Terra looked up, bemused at first and wondering who it was that had come to check on them after Leo's little 'roar', and felt for what was probably the umpteenth time that day, shocked.
Fair skin, inky black hair, oh so familiar green eyes – Tomasa stood poised on the spot, wide eyed as he tried to regain his balance. He had been coming round the corner so fast he didn't have much time to slow and steady himself before he was noticed. He wore a ragged looking Black Coat that was fraying at the hems and sleeves, and an expression of near horror
Mel leapt from Lynn's side to her feet, shock and desperation in her face. "Tom!"
He stood there for a moment, too stunned to move. Then, when Mel took a single step in his direction, he bolted. Just before he did, Terra thought he caught a glimpse of his own desperation, though from such a distance it was hard to tell.
"No! Wait, Tom please!" she shouted after him, trying to catching up but already flagging. Mel just wasn't physically built to sustain a sprint for very long. "Tom! Come back!"
Terra was on his feet by that point, but he hesitated. Much as he wanted to help Mel, he knew it wasn't his place; it was her family, her decision. Besides, he didn't know what to do even if he did go to help – what could he do?
Ven tensed and spun round to look at something sharply, and Terra followed his gaze automatically.
"MEL-!" They both shouted, but it was too late.
The large, panther like creature with severe purple streaks radiating out from its spine and four long, whip like tails (one looked underdeveloped and distinctly crooked) had been racing along the walls high above silently, and was noticed just before it jumped. Terra and Ven ran to help, but it was too late; preoccupied with chasing her cousin, coupled with the lateness in detecting the danger in the first place, left her pretty much defenceless.
It landed heavily against her back, and with the forward momentum of her run it pitched them both into the ground hard at a skid. There was a horrendous wrenching sound as the armour on her right shoulder took a blow, but as it distorted and bent, it exposed her shoulder and neck, which was taken advantage of. Mel yelped as her armoured shoulder took a blow, and then screamed as it tore into her, trying to fend off her attacked, but it pinned her small body to the ground with a screech and continued to maul her with its teeth and claws.
Terra just happened to look up, and grabbed Ven and thrust them both out of the way just in time, even though Ven resisted almost violently.
Leo thundered past with a roar and bowled the black thing over, and then went straight for the jugular without a second thought or a moment of hesitation. He probably killed it outright, because when he shook it violently and tossed the body into the air, its neck was at an unnatural angle. It landed with a feeble thump against the ground but Leo went for it again with a snarl, ripping and tearing at every inch he could get hold of. He didn't look like the Leo Terra knew; he was like a feral animal. And that, almost more than anything else that had happened so far that day, was the most terrifying.
Finally, he threw the limp form aside and stood his ground over Mel, snarling low and terrible in his throat as if daring the creature to get up and try again. Well, what was left of it at least.
Ven just stared dumbstruck at the scene, as if he couldn't quite believe what he had just seen. He was sat up on the ground where he had fallen when Terra pushed him out of the way, and Terra himself got shakily to his feet. He was scared – nothing was normal, nothing was right, and he'd just seen Leo maul a creature into oblivion. He didn't want to be there, his first reaction was to run away – but Mel needed help, she hadn't moved since her attacker had been removed. It was also entirely possible Leo had trampled her by accident in his rage…
Terra made his way over, raising a placating hand in a gesture of good will, and his heart nearly gave out when Leo turned on him with his eyes closed and roared defiantly, angrily, in his face. He stopped, pulse hammering in his throat, afraid that he would be next, but Leo opened his eyes and his expression instantly turned soft and contrite. He whined long and high in his throat and shifted his front legs to look down at Mel beneath him, making that grating noise deep in his throat. She was lying awkwardly on her font, her head turned to the left; her clothes were ripped and nasty looking gashes were weeping crimson.
Not sure how Leo was going to react, Terra dropped to his knees beside her and felt along her spine and neck – nothing appeared to be broken or out of place. He gently rolled her onto her front, and she didn't respond. Her pulse – when he eventually found it – was very faint and erratic, and her breath was shallow.
"Is she-?"
Terra looked up and was almost as shocked by Ven's demeanour as he was Mel's condition. He had that worryingly glazed look in his eyes, and just an air of being completely lost.
"She's still alive. But she needs help. I don't think a healing spell's going to fix this," he turned back to her, and was startled to find she was growing rather pale – it rather stood out against the bright crimson smeared across her face and neck.
"Let me see," Ansem gently nudged Terra out of the way while Leo groaned and whined with distress, prancing with anxiety. He checked her over, including all the things Terra had done already except he opened her eyelids to check her pupils. He nodded gravely to himself and turned to Terra. "We need to get her inside. She's lost a lot of blood. If you could carry her,"
Terra gently lifted Mel's limp form into his arms – she still didn't respond at all to him.
"Ven," Ansem said gently, and he jumped out of his skin at being addressed. Ansem re-evaluated his question, and said kindly. "If you could keep an eye on Lynn. I think she may have a concussion. Rhiannon?"
"What is it? Is she all right?" the woman demanded, steam rolling up and demanding answers, leaving Lynn behind leaning against a wall with a pained expression.
"I need you to help Terra with the doors. We need to get her to the infirmary quickly, and Lynn will need seeing to as well. Mel needs treatment more urgently, so she and Ven can follow us more slowly." He then gave Leo directions to a balcony that part of the infirmary led out onto, but Leo didn't make any moves in that direction until Mel was indoors; then he spread his wings and launched himself into the air.
By the time Leo was in place and waiting for them, they were only traversing the first flight of stairs. He was whining with agitation when they finally arrived, but no sooner had Terra carefully laid Mel on a clean bed, Ven came dashing into the room ashen faced.
"Terra! We gotta go help the others!"
"What now?" he asked desperately. He felt torn in too many directions.
Ven dragged him to a window and pointed frantically. A few Heartless were zooming through the air towards the gorge, but there was a much larger entity in the Great Maw, and it didn't look promising.
"Oh great!" Rhiannon spat and threw her hands into the air. "Now what do we do?"
Lea slid neatly into the room, and Lynn fell over the threshold, clutching her arm and wincing. "Hate to break up the party, but we've got a situation out in the Maw, and Leon requested every available hand down there now." He looked at Lynn, who grimaced.
"I'm not gonna be much use. And…oh shit!" her head snapped up and she spun dizzily for a moment before Lea grabbed her by the arms and steadied her. "My knife! Where's my knife?"
"Pet, we'll find it later," Rhiannon reasoned with her, but she wouldn't be consoled so easily.
"I can't lose it!" Lynn said through gritted teeth, frustrated with herself. Terra knew the feeling…
"Like now, people! Before the thing blows us all up?" Lea added.
Terra looked at the group around him, trying to make a decision. How did Aqua do it?
"Maybe someone should stay behind here? Just in case?" Lynn pointed out, leaning against the doorframe, panting with the effort.
"You need to sit down," Ansem said, and Lea shunted her to a chair in the corner.
"Guys!" Kairi raced in with Kyo hanging over her shoulder. "They're in real trouble down there!"
"I tink I'll-" Rhiannon began, but Ven interrupted.
"I'll stay and look after them. You guys better get going," he was shaken, as scared as Terra, but he had a hard look in his eyes that usually meant his mind was set and immovable.
"All right. You do that." Terra nodded, taking Rhiannon by the shoulder. "We'll go help,"
"Leo'll get you there faster," Ven pointed out as she shrugged out of Terra's grip.
Leo himself was sat on the balcony with his head and most of his neck pushed through the doors, and he looked angry that they were trying to send him away from Mel; but Ven gently pointed out that Aqua and the others were doomed without them, and the faster they got there, the better for everyone. Leo heaved a sigh, and gave Mel's prone figure one last look before he extricated himself. Terra also gave the room one last look before he followed Lea onto the balcony outside.
Kyo was sat at the bedside staring at his sister while Ansem prepared himself to clean out her wounds, rubbing his hands with disinfectant and asking Kyo to get the bandages out – the directions fell on deaf ears. He looked like he wanted to cry, but just couldn't.
Lynn slumped in her chair, eyes closed, and scowled when Rhiannon rounded on her.
"If I don't find you in this seat when I get back I'm going to kill you!" she snarled before she bustled to the doors and pushed past Terra, saying, "Well? Are we going or what?"
Lynn raised her head long enough to call out, "Well screw you too!" before she wilted again.
Leo pranced nervously like a horse, nostrils flaring. Carefully, they climbed onto his back, Rhiannon giving him a rather dubious look. The fact that Mel's attacker was little more than a tatty pelt clearly hadn't escaped her notice. Terra clambered on, finding himself at the front as Kairi scrabbled up behind Lea, needing a hand to get there.
"'Kay, boy." Terra said gently, rubbing his neck in a way that usually soothed him. "Let's go."
XOXOX
Tomasa took the stone in his hand and hurled it against the wall so it was blasted to pieces. Anger licked his insides, and he wanted to destroy something just to vent it out before it consumed him completely.
Everything, everything that day had just gone wrong. From bad, to much, much worse.
First off, he'd lost the Void Stones he had been using – thanks to that idiot Pete. When he doubled back to find them, he ran head long into Mel. That was something he didn't want to happen, and it had taken everything he had to turn aside from her even though it felt like a knife in his heart.
What could he possibly say to her? She'd never forgive him for this, for betraying her and their grandfather like this, never…
And then he'd heard that awful screech of those…things, and then Mel's own scream, and it had taken everything he had to get back to her – only the man in the robes had grabbed him before he could and thrown him into the Corridors of Darkness, while he shouted and beat his fists uselessly against him, summoning every single spell and curse he could think of – all to no avail.
Not only had he betrayed Mel, he hadn't been able to help her…
So then he had been kicked out of the portal in front of Maleficent's castle, and she stormed out in a rage to demand what that man was doing back here while Tomasa ran for cover from her anger. Even after she saw him off, with many dark flames of green and black, she thundered through the castle in a fury for hours afterwards. Pete ran away like the coward he was, and Tomasa shut himself in his room to avoid her, and to wallow in his own misery.
He was an idiot; he shouldn't have spoken to Mel like that, he should never have left them in the first place, and he should never have gone with Maleficent. What had he been thinking?!
And then, out of desperation and also curiosity to see if he could perform the same spell of far sight that Maleficent often did, he had conjured an image of Mel to check if she was all right.
An unfamiliar man stood over her, carefully threading stitches into her skin; for some bizarre reason there was a hare at the foot of the bed, and a strange woman with red and yellow eyes slumped in a seat beside the bed looking very tired – and Kyo was beside her. He was on his knees, staring at his sister with the same look he'd worn at his mother's funeral, indifferent to the woman's reassuring hand laid on his head. She looked in pain, with a red sling wrapped around her left arm.
But Kyo was there.
Had Maleficent known? Had she chosen not to tell him?
Why?
Why had she lied to him about that? She said she didn't know where Kyo was, and Tomasa knew Mel would never abandon him to fate. Somewhere along the way, she must have found somewhere safe for him to stay. Well, she had thought was safe at the time…
Tomasa was so angry – just at everything that day, so when Maleficent walked into his room he had no sympathy for or fear of her. Just rage.
"It seems we have made a miscalculation." She said coldly, and stopped when she saw his face. "And what is your matter?" she demanded.
Tomasa paused only for a moment, before he exploded. "You knew! You knew my cousin was in Radiant Garden! You promised they wouldn't get hurt! My cousin could've been killed! You promised!"
"Calm yourself, child," she said with disdain, but he wouldn't be placated so easily.
"NO!" he shouted, flinging around stone across the room, watching the trail of silvery dust it left as the impact made it detonate with enough force to shatter part of the wall. "I won't! I'm through with this! I didn't agree with them, that was all! That's not a good enough excuse to let them get killed! My cousin could die! I don't care anymore!" he clenched his teeth and screwed his eyes shut tight as humiliating tears welled up and threatened to rain down. "I just want my family! I don't give a damn about your plans! You lied to me all this time – why the hell should I trust anything you ever said to me?!"
"Enough!" Maleficent said commandingly. "Silence!" she raised her arms, and Tomasa felt a physical force slam into him so he fell back onto his bed, panting with exertion. "Now then," she said more softly, and he bristled against more lies she was undoubtedly about to spin. "I appear to have made a mistake in trusting our dark friend. It would seem rather than acquiring new knowledge, he wanted to destroy the very thing I was after."
Tomasa looked up at her distrustfully.
"My dear, I have no interest in harming your cousins. All I wish is to obtain that dragon. Now I see, it will not be as easy as I first thought. That beast has been trained in a manner unlike the regimes in that book you brought to me. I have under estimated him – a mistake I do no mean to make again. And our friend has decided to leave our services to pursue his own ends, and we must be quick if we are to reach our own before he does."
"What do you mean?" Tomasa tried to sound brave a fearless, but his voice cracked towards the end like he was twelve years old again.
"Well, as long as that dragon is at large, he is in danger. And as long as he is in danger, so are your two cousins. He will stop at nothing to destroy the Keyblade Dragon, and I fear very much that your cousin will use herself as a shield to protect him. That man is not to be trusted. He will stop at nothing, even if it means taking down the dragon's keepers as well."
Tomasa stared at her in horror. That hadn't occurred to him. Now Mel was in danger, if she ever came to after all those stitches. He had to do something! But what?
Maleficent extended a hand to him. "Help me, Tomasa. Together we can protect your family from this new threat."
He glared at her, still not trusting her words. But what else could he do? There was no other way he could see of helping Mel and Kyo.
"How exactly will taking Leo from Mel help? What are you going to do with him anyway?"
"The Keyblade has always been a source of fascination to me." Maleficent said, sweeping aside and walking up to the window to gaze out at the dreary, barren landscape below. "And a dragon that is tied to it…so very fascinating, indeed. It would be a shame to wreak so much collateral damage,"
Not that it's ever stopped you before. Tomasa thought to himself angrily, thinking of all Mel's possessions that the man had destroyed.
"For his own good, that dragon needs to be removed. I fear, I have underestimated our friend as well, and he will not take this blow well. Your cousin could be in grave danger."
"Why? From what? Who is he, anyway?" Tomasa thought that in trying to coax him into cooperating, she might be more forth coming with information.
Maleficent gave him a calculating look before saying slowly, "He has no name, though you may have guessed that already. During our…'discussion', he revealed partly where his true loyalties lie. It sounds as if he is attempting to worm his way into another order like a maggot into a rotten apple," she looked disgusted by the very idea. "I do not know who they are, but I do know that they command another creature of the Dark. Not that I care for such things. All I care about is obtaining that dragon."
Tomasa sat in silence, thinking quick and hard. He still didn't trust her, and he still was planning to take them down from the inside – somehow… But until then, his priority was Mel's safety. And the best thing he could do for now was remove the main source of danger from her life; that dragon.
"And if we get Leo away from them, Mel and Kyo will be safe?" he asked boldly, hoping to keep the bravado up for a while longer.
"Yes, undoubtedly." Maleficent said, gazing out of the window. "She will not be standing in his way when the time comes."
Tomasa took a deep breath. She was going to hate him for this, but she probably already hated him anyway, so what did it matter? As long as they were out of the firing line – that was all that mattered to him.
"What do I have to do?"
He tried to ignore the way she smiled to herself.
Yeah, he thought to himself as she turned to him with a saccharin smile. But I still don't trust you completely. He knew she was using him to achieve her own ends.
Well, two could play at that game.
XOXOX
Aqua carefully slipped around the door and crept into the room. It was dark, but they still hadn't gone home yet, and probably wouldn't for a while yet. After they had laboured against the Malboro that had nearly breached the town's defences, sustaining comparatively low level, but still many numerous injuries, she had discovered why Mel, Ven and Lynn hadn't been present, and why the moment it was all over Leo instantly took off without them.
Sora, Riku and Kairi had collapsed together in a heap, and though Sora argued feebly with Leon about staying to help clear up, he had let Riku drag him back to their ship to go home.
"You need to rest. You'll burn yourself out if you don't. We can take care of it without you. Go home already," Leon had gently scolded him as Sora protested.
The others would have left too, but Mickey insisted they stay to help, and Aqua had hurried along to see Mel while Donald and Goofy started the long and arduous clearing up operation.
Mel was in bad shape – those…whatever the hell they were; one of them had torn into her quite badly, and she'd probably be scarred for life. Aqua had winced when she first saw for herself the stitches that had been darned into her skin – it looked quite nasty and painful. Her right arm was bound up, and a bandage was wrapped around her head where a stray claw had cut a deep wound into her forehead and down the side of her face – missing her eye by just a few millimetres shy of an inch.
Lynn wasn't in good shape either; she was covered in angry, storm coloured bruises, her nose didn't appear to be broken but it kept leaking blood sporadically so she was constantly healing herself with magic, and when she grew too exhausted to continue she begged someone else to help her, not wanting to distract medical attention away from Mel, who clearly needed it more. Aqua took pity on her and kept a steady stream of healing spells going until Lynn fell asleep, and Rhiannon took her back to her own ship for the night, insisting she could take care of her. Lynn's left arm was bound up in a sling, and it seemed she had somehow dislocated her shoulder though it had been promptly put back into place again. She wouldn't be able to use her arm properly for quite a while – Ansem was adamant, and went as far as threatening her if he caught her doing strenuous exercise with it. She may have turned on him in a tirade of curses to dare suggest she was incapable of looking after herself – but she was so tired by that point, she didn't argue, just made a noncommittal groan as Rhiannon steered her towards the door.
Aqua looked around the room as she padded across to Mel's bed. Terra and Ven were sat either side in chairs; the latter was half lying against the pillow, fast asleep while the former was sat up straight, slowly but surely dozing off. Kyo was lying on Mel's left side, where there were fewer bandages, curled up against his sister's body. Hester, his familiar, was sat placidly on Mel's other side, and someone seemed to have placed her hand on the animal's back, because her grip was relaxed, as though she wasn't aware of it. Leo was hunkered down on the balcony outside, the doors wide open to accommodate his head and shoulders, watching with his head propped up on a chair. He crooned softly when Aqua entered before turning back to his vigil.
This alerted Terra, who started and looked up, blinking wearily before seeing it was Aqua and settling back in his chair again with a yawn.
"Any change?" she asked softly, gently sitting down on the edge of the bed and taking Terra's hand.
"No. They gave her pain killers and a sedative I think, so she probably won't come round for a while." He murmured.
It was dark out by this time, and nearly everyone had gone to bed. A few stayed up to keep watch in the town, taking it in shifts, but it was probably a safe hazard that it was all over for now.
Aqua's guts twisted painfully as she gazed at Mel's face. It just didn't seem fair… Thank goodness Leo had sprung upon it when he did, although that seemed to have unhinged Terra and Ven almost as much as the initial attack itself. The carcass had been removed by the time Aqua arrived, so she didn't get to see what was left, but it sounded like Leo hadn't taken any chances.
"It'll be okay." Terra said gently as Ven stirred in his sleep.
"She looks so…" what word was there to describe it? Mel looked weak and vulnerable – the bandages hid the worst of it, but the bruises and the swelling that denoted infection were tell tale signs that she was not okay in any sense of the word.
"I doubt she'll mind." Terra said, somewhat carelessly, and in response to Aqua's hard look, he said, "Well, she doesn't care about her other scars, right? Bet you anything she says something like 'at least I'm marked on the outside and not on the inside where it matters' or something when she comes too."
"Bet she doesn't." Aqua said impulsively to prove him wrong, though the moment the words were out of her mouth she knew Mel would in all likelihood take this view.
Terra's eyes glinted in the dim light and he said playfully, "You lose, you buy me ten ice creams."
"You lose, you're doing all my chores for the next month." Aqua shot back on impulse, knowing in her heart she probably was going to lose. Although if Mel never mentioned it at all…
Ven twitched before lifting his head and blinking wearily up at them. "Huh-wha?" he slurred sleepily.
Aqua reached out and laid a hand on his head, stroking his hair. "Go to sleep Ven. It's all right." Ven dropped obediently and was asleep again almost instantly.
Kyo snuffled in his sleep and rolled over, brushing against Ven who simply moved out of his way without waking up.
"We should probably go to sleep too." Aqua said out loud.
There was a long pause, before Terra said, "I'm not moving from this spot."
"You can't sleep like that all night." Aqua reasoned. "Terra, you're hurt too. And you're exhausted. You need to sleep properly."
"What about Ven? And what about you?" he demanded with narrowed eyes. "I don't see you forcing him to get up and move. I already said, I'm not leaving." He folded his arms stubbornly, and Aqua wished she had Master Eraqus' gift of inspiring obedience with a single, hard look. Not that it would ever work on Terra, even if she could affect such an expression. He had seen her goof up way too many times to ever take her completely seriously…
She cast around, and saw Leo straining to get more of himself inside the room, and it gave her an idea. After a little careful effort from all sides, they managed to get his front legs inside the doors, though his wings defeated them; no matter how carefully he folded them and squeezed, he couldn't get them through. Still, it was something, and Aqua persuaded Terra to leave the bedside and lie down with some spare blankets using Leo as a pillow. He complied happily, glad for the close contact, and Aqua gently woke Ven up and led him over so he could lie down as well; they left Kyo where he was.
Ansem came into the room early the next morning to find the three Keyblade wielders curled up against Leo's side, encircled by his long neck and fast asleep in each other's arms while Kyo lay snuggled up with his sister in the dawn's soft light.
XOXOX
When Mel became aware again, she couldn't feel a thing, and it took a while to realise she was actually conscious at all. Had she been meditating? This felt worryingly like the void that lay between the different realms of the conscious, that had to be traversed in order to transcend from the physical world. What on earth was she doing there? Radiant Garden had been under attack – why had she decided to sit down and meditate?
Then it occurred to her, after a moment of panic as she tried to grope for the energy systems around and within her, only to find nothing. She had been drugged with something that deadened her senses to the point that she couldn't grasp even her own energy system, let alone anyone or anything else's.
As she lay in a dark sea that was neither hot nor cold, or anything at all, she wondered vaguely and detached from emotion what had happened. She must have been injured and pumped with drugs to keep her from feeling the pain. Had she had an operation? This had happened when her appendix was removed – the anaesthetics used had dulled all of her senses to the point that she was rendered completely incapable of anything. It reminded her of just how much she relied on her ability to feel energy and subtle entities; it was so much a part of her that she felt naked without that sensation all around her, as if the entire world had been snuffed out like a candle.
However long she laid there, she didn't know, but eventually sensation did come back to her; first she could feel where her limbs were, and then her organs and blood stream, and eventually the meridians of energy coursing through her – right before the pain set in. Her right arm felt like it was on fire, and there was a nasty aching, hot sensation across her face, especially her right temple in a line that curved down alongside her eye. Streaks of pain laced down the backs of her legs as if she had been cleaved there by something thin and sharp, and her neck felt stiff and hot. She would have cried out if she had the strength, or knew where her voice had gone.
All right, she knew she had definitely been injured, and quite badly by the feel of it – a quick check once she got her bearings revealed no bones had been broken, thank goodness. However, once she started to feel the other entities around her, she became aware of something in her system that shouldn't be there. It felt like a cross between a bacterial infection and a poison, and she could feel her body fighting against it through the drugs still clinging to her system.
Certain felines, especially cave lions where they still existed in certain worlds, had claws that left festering wounds, and you could survive an encounter with one only to drop dead from infection a few days later. So whatever attacked her had left toxins in her body, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been; someone had cleaned her wounds out, and she could smell the antiseptics now that her normal, earthly senses were returning to her.
Mel's mind struggled to take the pieces available to her and string them together in a coherent manner. She needed more time, and perhaps more sleep before she could make herself get up. After a while of dozing in and out of consciousness, she became aware of who was nearby, and it lightened her heart considerably to find Ven close by her. Terra was another steady presence, followed by Aqua flitting in and out. It took a bit longer to locate Kyo, because he was sat firmly in her own aura, but she recognised his distinctive energetic flare, and could hear his voice from a long way away at times. Leo was in the room too, though only partly; he was probably jammed in a doorway, because every so often she felt his seething frustration and felt him squirming around, but he never got any closer to her.
Mustering her strength after she felt she had rested enough, Mel forced herself to wake up, and almost wished she hadn't. Without the drugs blocking her neurones from feeling the pain, it slammed into her all at once with full force, and she reeled from it, but she gritted her teeth and pushed onwards. She'd felt physical agony worse than this – and she had her friends close by, it was no where near as bad, and if she could drag herself up again under worse conditions, there was no good reason to give up here and now.
With great difficulty, Mel forced her eyes open, and blinked at the harsh light that flooded her eyes. She groaned and raised her left hand, her right too painful to move just yet, and tried to shield her eyes from the glare. Her wrist brushed against something, and she lowered her hand again to find Kyo lying beside her.
Oh, he should be in his own bed! This standard hospital bed wasn't built for two. He must be dying to stretch his limbs, it was so cramped.
She stroked his messy copper coloured hair and managed a smile. Mel supposed, really, she shouldn't complain. They wouldn't have been able to drag her away if it had been Kyo who was injured.
Mel turned her head to get a better look at him, and saw Ven with his head cushioned on his arms by her pillow, dozing. He didn't look well rested; dark rings circled the underside of his eyes, and there was a frown on his brow. Sweat beaded his face, and she found that it was very humid indeed – almost to the point that it was unbearable, even indoors and inactive as she was.
When she wondered why there was no wind from the windows, she realised they were the doors that led to a balcony outside, and Leo was stuck in the doorway looking rather bored and fed up, trying to sleep and ignoring the sunlight that warmed his black feathers on top of the humidity.
Mel made a low, crooning noise she used to make when he was a hatchling, not wanting to wake the others up, but Leo's head snapped up instantly and he cooed loudly and happily in response, again struggling to get fully inside and reach her. Ven groaned and shifted before raising his head, eyes closed and yawning widely. When he opened them again, he saw Mel's head was turned his way and she was watching him.
"Mel! You're awake,"
"Sort of," she croaked, and winced. She was very thirsty, she realised, and her throat felt like sand paper. How far had this infection spread…?
"How do you feel?" Ven asked, rearranging the blankets around her and hovering over Kyo, unsure whether to wake him or not.
"Thirsty." She managed to say eventually, and he raced off to get a glass of water.
Leo strained to get closer, making little noises of distress, watching her closely.
"I'm okay," she told him softly, trying to sit up awkwardly. Her right side hurt too much to put weight on it, but Kyo was on her left, and she wanted him to continue sleeping.
Ven came back with a glass, and gently helped her to sit up before assisting her to take a drink. It wasn't demeaning (she had helped many people with simple tasks like this in the past) but she wished she wasn't so incapacitated that she had to take Ven's attention away from other, more important things. When she had satisfied her thirst, she asked what had happened, and he told her the others were helping to clear the town up after the Heartless attack. Ven should have been out there helping the effort, and instead he was here baby-sitting. When she tried to apologise he gave her a hard, bored look before saying, "Don't be so stupid."
Kyo stirred, and whimpered in his sleep then, and Mel automatically raised her good hand to stroke his hair and soothe him.
"But I don't wanna be in the scouts…" he muttered to himself before opening his eyes blearily. "What?" he asked when he saw Ven's grin. He shuffled around and saw Mel was awake, and beamed up at her. "Mel!"
He flung his arms around her and she cried out in pain – every nerve ending protested at the pressure his arms put on her injuries, and Ven heaved him off instantly. When she opened her eyes again, swimming with tears sprung from pain, she saw Kyo's own tearful expression as Ven reprimanded him for being so careless.
"-You could've really hurt her! Mel's in a delicate condition right now. You need to be more careful, otherwise you'll just make her worse-"
Kyo looked down at his hands, turning his back so she couldn't see his tears, but Mel reached for him with her good arm and he looked down at her, sniffing.
"Just be a bit more gentle," she murmured, and he reached for her again, so very delicately this time before he snuggled up against her side, his head on her shoulder, quite content. "Please don't be too harsh on him," she said quietly to Ven when she was sure he had dozed off. "Kyo means well. I just wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic greeting."
Ven didn't look convinced, but he smiled nonetheless. "I was getting worried about you," he admitted, settling back in his chair and stretching his arms. There were sweat patches under his arms – hardly surprising in this heat, and Mel gathered she didn't smell too appealing herself. "Yikes," he grimaced when he noticed for himself.
"It is quite hot. Have you left this room since I came in?"
"Nope." He said unrepentantly.
"The world doesn't revolve around me. Go get cleaned up, I'll be fine."
"Nope." He said again, unashamedly pillowing his head with his hands and leaning back in his chair with a smile.
"Ven, you've got to look after yourself too." She tried to reason, and sighed when he refused.
"After I take care of you. And not before," he waggled a finger in her face with a grin. "You be good now, you hear?"
As if she could go anywhere…Kyo would never let her, not now he was comfortable and sleepy. He could be such a grouch when he didn't get his way and he was really tired.
"I can't exactly disobey you," she pointed out with a smile, looking at Leo, whose head snapped up at the motion. He whined and hummed at a higher pitch than normal, which conveyed his concern, but he decided Ven could take care of her, and he settled down for a nap. There was even less she could do about moving Leo from his obviously uncomfortable position, so she let it be for now.
After a quick doze, or what felt like one, Mel was roused by Terra sweeping into the room and demanding, "Well?"
Ven grinned and poked Mel gently on her good arm and she stirred in response. "She lives!" he said dramatically, and she gave him a long-suffering look.
"Thank God for that! Outta my way," Lynn demanded, pushing Terra side and entering the room.
"How's your arm?" Mel asked as she took the seat on her other side, and failed to understand why she got such a withering look in response. "What? You dislocated your shoulder – are you okay?"
"Yeah, whatever." The woman said flippantly, flicking her right hand disparagingly. "And you?" she demanded, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You got mauled by that bastard – don't you want any sympathy for yourself?"
"She hasn't shut up all day about her poor nose," Terra said teasingly, walking across the room to the foot of her bed and sitting down.
Something jumped up onto the bed beside him, and Mel saw it was Kyo's hare Hester. She loped up to Mel's side quietly and sat watching her while she stroked her fur.
"What happened? I don't remember." Mauled?
"Those weirdo creepy panther like things – oh yeah!" she turned to Terra part way through her sentence. "We did get the data off the memory stick by feeding it into a dummy computer off the network so the virus couldn't replicate or whatever, and the things we were after on the cameras were those freaky creatures that attacked us. So yeah," she turned back to Mel. "Anyway – there was this thing, right? And it sort of mauled you, and then Leo kinda annihilated it, but you were unconscious and bleeding all over the show, so we dragged you back up here – and then shit really went down and this feckin' huge Malboro popped up outta nowhere and tried to eat everyone – and Rhi's still pissed off with me-!"
"Not surprised," Terra said with a grin. "You haven't stopped whining since you woke up."
"Gimme a break!" Lynn whinged, and Kyo and Ven giggled while Terra watched with patronisingly good nature. "I dislocated my arm! That dickhead nearly broke my nose! And Rhi's still blaming me for all that blood at the Postern she had to clean up – and most of it's hers!" she pointed at Mel, and she decided Lynn was doing this for dramatic effect – and to keep Ven and Kyo laughing as the younger boy started to wake up properly. "And do I get any sympathy for my broken bones and displaced limbs? No!"
"Maybe if you hadn't been so insulting he wouldn't've gone for you like that," Ven pointed out with a grin. "You brought it on yourself!"
Lynn sighed dramatically and leaned into her right hand for support, propped up on her knee. There was a support bandage wrapped around her left leg as well. "Can a Nobody get any sympathy round here? I'm in physical pain here, people!"
Kyo chose that moment to lean across Mel for a better look, saying, "Are you okay now?" not noticing Mel's expression. She stifled a yelp, but she obviously didn't hide her pain well enough from the others.
"Err," Lynn as watching her with a calculating expression. "I'm just peachy now Kyo, thanks to your concern. You might want to watch your sis, though." She pointed.
Kyo turned to look at Mel, and blanched. "What's wrong?!"
"That hurts…" she whispered, and sighed with relief when he took the pressure away from her right arm.
The door burst open again and Aqua appeared like a flash, and was instantly by her side when she saw that Mel was awake.
"Are you okay? Does it hurt at all? Should we get any more painkillers in? Speak to me!"
"Give her a chance! God's sake," Lynn rolled her eyes. "She can't answer you – let alone breath. Ouch!" Aqua flicked her ear painfully with an annoyed look. "The hell was that for?!"
"You – shut up." Aqua snapped.
"Aqua," Mel said softly, but Lynn wasn't going down that easily.
"Can't bloody tell me what to do." She sniffed, but quailed under Aqua's glare.
"Oh can't I?"
"Err-"
"If you don't shut up you can just get out – now."
"Oh yeah?" Lynn hedged.
That was a mistake.
"Don't think I won't command you as your High Master," the almost vicious edge to her voice was born from deep concern, though it still made Mel wince.
"Kay, you win." Lynn raised her hands somewhat awkwardly, looking sincerely repentant. "I'll shut up, Master."
"Good." Aqua snapped, and turned her back on Lynn. "Mel – are you all right?"
"I will be." She tried not to grimace. "I can feel an infection in my body. The wounds are festering and there's a toxin floating around that's causing most of the pain…I can probably deal with it myself, but I'm too tired at the moment."
"Lie down and rest. We can take care of everything for now, so don't worry. Concentrate on getting better."
Mel smiled in spite of her discomfort. Aqua would be a wonderful mother one day, she just knew it. She could almost see it – it may even have been a vision, which she sometimes experienced, or it might have been another headache coming on. There was a scratch on her face that festered as much as her arm –it was putting pressure on the muscles around her skull, and promised a full blown tension headache later.
Aqua turned from her to address the room at large. "Leon needs help down in the market to remove some debris. There are a few houses that got damaged that are not safe anymore, so they need to be taken down. He wants us to go help."
Ven gave Mel a sideways look.
"I'll be fine. I can't even get up."
"Exactly," Ven said. "Aqua, I think I should stay and-" he faltered under her expression.
"You've been here long enough and rested up. You're coming with me." She didn't say, whether you like it or not, but it was certainly implied very heavily.
Ven was about to argue, but he caught Terra's eye and gave in. "Fine." He said flatly.
Aqua turned to Terra, who was rubbing Leo's head. "If you two could start in the boroughs, that would be a big help. Cid needs a hand moving the machinery around, and Leo's the only one strong enough."
"We can do that, right?" Terra asked.
Leo snorted and turned his head away, but Mel interjected before Aqua had to get ratty with him too.
"I'm fine Leo, they could use your help. I'll be here when you get back. Please help them,"
Leo conceded, with little grace, and proceeded to sulk as he wrestled himself backwards through the doors with Ven and Terra pushing.
"Kyo, Ansem wanted you to help him in the lab." Aqua went on, and Kyo was about to resist, but Mel spoke up again.
"Same goes for you. You know where I am, and you know I can't run off anywhere. You should go, Ansem needs you too."
"But I don't wanna!" he whined.
Lynn closed her eyes and said nothing. She was probably dying to make a witty comment, but feared Aqua's wrath and rank a bit too much to dare test her luck.
"Kyo, that's an order." Mel said in a poor imitation of their grandfather when he meant business, and he grumbled and moaned but went without further physical protest.
"And you," Aqua rounded on Lynn, making her jump out of her skin. "Watch Mel. She needs anything at all you get it for her or come and find one of us. Got it?"
"Yessir! Err- ma'am." Lynn frowned. "Umm, how d'you address a High Master?"
"With respect?" Ven asked, giving one last push before Leo sprang free of the doorframe so suddenly that he over balanced and fell flat on his face. Terra just stared at him in amazement before poking him in the back to check for signs of life.
"And I don't want anyone breaking anything else!" Aqua said loudly. She was on edge, completely frazzled. Mel thought about asking her to calm down for her own sake, and thought better of it. She was in no position to help or placate anyone, and Aqua would just get even more worked up if she tried.
"Christ." Lynn blinked once everyone had left, scratching Hester's crooked ear absently. "She 'ent half a tyrant when she's busy playing Mother, is she?"
Mel leaned back on the pillows and closed her eyes with a sigh. "It's good to know she cares about us all. Though I wish she didn't take it on quite so deeply to heart. She could make herself sick worrying about us all."
"To be fair, we thought you might die at one point." Lynn said bluntly.
Mel probably needed to hear this, and just turned her head towards her to listen.
"Your heart – I'm sorry! – your thump-thump,"
Mel couldn't help but giggled. "My what?"
"Kyo made the distinction; there's the Heart – all fluffy and spiritual and shizz, and then there's the myocardial organ that fires the blood system; aka, the thump-thump. So, you basically went into cardiac arrest for a bit, but before we could really get to grips with what was happening it started back up of its own accord. That's why Ven hasn't moved from that chair for nearly thirty-six hours."
"What?"
"Yeah, you've been out of it for over a day now. No wonder Aqua's going ballistic. She's wound up tighter than a spring – guess I deserved to get chewed out." She pulled a face. "Sadly, that's how I react to stress – I become obnoxious. I thought she was gonna kill me when I got that look."
"Mmm." Mel could imagine which look she was referring to.
Lynn settled in with a cats cradle to pass the time while Mel drank some more water and settled down to rest. The steady stream of curses as she fumbled her way through with only one really good arm was rather soothing in a way. Mel sent up a silent prayer to the Light for Healing before she allowed herself a nap.
If nothing else, then for the sake of Aqua's sanity – please give me healing.
Before she could drift off to sleep, a few fragments of memory punctuated by sharp painful sensations came floating through her mind, and she suddenly remembered she had been running somewhere before she was set upon, which accounted for the barely formed scabs on her knees where she had hit the ground.
Oh Tom, why hadn't he stopped to listen to her? She wished she knew whether he was safe or not, given all the chaos that had been roiling in the town…and she wished she knew what he had been doing there – was he in league with the man who had threatened Leo? Mel wished she had the strength and assurance in her own abilities to dowse on it – but she was too weak, and too emotionally involved to trust the answers she may receive.
Just please be safe. Please be safe Tom. Wherever you are, just be safe and unharmed.
XOXOX