The bandits were surprisingly talented fighters. At least Logos and Ormi had given them enough credit to pick out the best fighters. Cutting one down, Paine wondered how much money Logos and Ormi offered them to fight. Seconds after the fighting began, Kairi found herself face to face, once again, with Ormi. This time, she suspected, he wasn't about to underestimate her. However, without his shield, he was left completely open to attack, and he was a much better ranged fighter than he was at melee. He threw a punch, and Kairi ducked, seizing the opportunity. Within seconds, her claws had cut into both of his legs. He dropped like a stone. Standing up, she had barely seconds to think before a bandit pounced on her. He, too, had apparently lost his weapon, and had jumped on her back, trying to weigh her down. Kairi struggled, knowing that if she fell under him, he could pin her in seconds, so instead she threw all her weight sideways. Both of them went tumbling over, but it was Kairi who landed on top of the bandit. He was stronger than she had suspected, and he wrestled her off fairly easily. She was sent rolling over his head. Kairi was on her feet before he was, and this time it was he who had his back to her. She swung her claws low, hitting the back of his calves. Again, his knees buckled. This time, Kairi took the extra precaution of back handing him in the back of the head as he fell. He went out cold, as was Kairi's intention. She wasn't about to have him jump on her like that again. Spinning, she caught sight of Logos, who was sneaking towards the door. Kairi swerved among all the people, catching up to him without him even noticing. Logos lifted his arm to shoot, and Kairi's claws shot out, raking his side. He yelled, clutching his side and dropping to his knees. She touched her claws to his throat, her eyes cold. Staring him down, she withdrew, thinking that her silent threat had been enough. She turned away, taking stock of what was going on around her. She heard a gun shot. It sounded distant, but her ears were ringing from the blast. Time seemed to slow, and tears welled up in her eyes for no reason that she could find. A cold, numbing sensation swept through her body. She knew what was happening now. This was her body's way of fighting pain, but it was a pain that she could not even feel yet. Perhaps the numbness was enough to ward it off? Seconds later, she knew she was mistaken. Blistering fire burst from her shoulder and thundered through the rest of her body. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, but the pain was so great that it held her silent. Her entire body was so tense that she was shaking from exertion. Her fists were clenched so tightly that it would be no surprise to her if her nails had cut the skin in her palms. The mix of icy numbness and blazing, fiery pain swirled in and around her right shoulder. She couldn't feel much of her torso and all feeling in her right arm was rendered completely useless by the numbing. She clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to make the mistake of looking at her shoulder. She'd been standing there for about two seconds, though it felt eternally longer. She stood prone for another five seconds, which felt like another eternity, before her legs relaxed enough that she could move them. All higher thought was gone. She was operating completely on animal instinct now. Slowly, with her eyes still clenched shut, she turned around to face Logos. She opened her eyes slowly. The half-conscious but satisfied expression on his face angered her. Her eyes still half shut, she walked closer to him, the adrenaline giving her new strength. She blinked, and this time her eyes opened fully. Logos looked up at her, and instantly his expression changed to one of horror. He felt her claws against his throat again, but this time her eyes held no hidden mercy. Then, in a split second, Rikku's voice pulled Kairi out of her trance.
"KAIRI!" The Al Bhed girl cried, the first to notice what had happened. Everyone else turned to look. Logos was pale. Kairi blinked a few times. Logos let out a long slow breath. Those horrific eyes were gone. The girl's strength was virtually gone. She wobbled for a moment; the fact that her knees were locked and her center of gravity was exactly centered was all that held her up. Her loss of balance, however, caused her to tilt, falling slowly forward. It was only the gut reaction of her body that buckled her knees and held out her hands to catch her. She landed on all fours, breathing hard. Shouting in rage, Rikku pounced on Logos, almost instantly knocking him out. She was about to help Kairi, but a bandit decided to seize the opportunity and attacked the girls. With frightening strength, Rikku met him and kept him far from Kairi. Meanwhile, Kairi, fighting to stay conscious, decided she had to do something about binding the wound. Weakly, she ripped the thick cuff off of the unconscious Logos' sleeve. He didn't stir. She wrapped the bond around her hand and started to make her way to her feet, knowing she had to get to find some shelter from the fighting. Once she got to her feet, she found that her mind was starting to be able to deal with the pain and half smiled. She took only two steps before she found that the lack of pain was only because her dizziness overrode it. She tumbled forward. Once again, her body's own reaction was all that caught her; only this time, her left arm jarred when it hit the ground and the seared through her back and down her spin. Darkness ate quickly away at the edges of her vision, eating everything into blackness within seconds. Then, the pain was gone. She knew she was fighting a loosing battle against staying awake. The last thing she heard was two voices calling her name.
Baralai looked around, stepping off the ship.
"Okay, so now what?" He asked, puzzled as to how to get in. Sora pointed.
"Hey! I saw someone!" He called, running toward the water's edge. The dark figure, deep beneath the surface of the water, disappeared into an opening of the stone. Gippal walked up behind him.
"You okay? I mean, there's no one else around here…"
"The Gullwings are here." Nooj said, motioning towards the shadow hovering high over their heads. Sora couldn't see what it was, but the others seemed to recognize it. Sora sighed.
"We going in or not?"
"How do we get in?" Baralai asked, still gazing around, looking for some semblance of a way in. Sora rolled his eyes, and let himself drop backwards off the edge and into the water. It certainly caught the attention of the other three. When he surfaced, he saw the surprised looks on the faces of Gippal, Baralai and Nooj, and he couldn't help but grin.
"So? Are you coming?" He asked, kicking off and gliding towards the wall where he saw the shape disappear. Gippal sighed.
"Come on, Sora, this is serious. No time for playing games and going swimming." He said. Baralai and Nooj looked surprised. That most definitely wasn't a normal thing for Gippal to say. It took them a moment to realize that he just wanted to get to battle before it was over. Sora rolled his eyes again.
"This is the way in! Now hurry up!" Gippal shrugged and dove in. Baralai and Nooj were a bit more hesitant. Sora had turned his attention back to the wall and started searching for signs of an opening. His attention was drawn away, however, when Gippal decided it would be fun to dunk him underwater. Resurfacing, Sora glared at him. Gippal just laughed.
"Okay, genius, now tell us where we're going." He said, looking expectant. Sora returned to staring into the depths of the water at the wall.
"I'm working on it, I'm working on – Hey! There it is!" Immediately, the Keybearer dropped underwater, motioning for the others to follow. Unsure, they did. Swimming blindly after Sora, they didn't see the entrance until they were nearly on top of it: A huge, underwater arch, the edges crumbling as if something large had collided with it. Swimming toward it, Sora didn't have a problem making the underwater distance; after all, he'd spent all his life on an island, not to mention the fact that he spent a little while as a half shark in Atlantis. Gippal didn't have much of a problem either; he played a little blitzball, so this was no problem. Baralai and Nooj weren't struggling, but it wasn't easy; water was not either of their element. Bursting through the surface on the other side, Sora scrambled up the slippery rock until he reached dry stone. Someone else had most definitely been here before them; there were multiple sets of foot prints. Gippal broke the surface next, followed closely by Baralai and Nooj. The others joined him on the ruined stone steps. Ready to continue, Nooj stopped them.
"The Gullwings aren't the only ones who'd been here before us." He said. Gippal looked at him strangely.
"What are you talking about?"
"There's more than three sets of footprints here." Nooj explained. Gippal shrugged.
"So?" He asked, exasperated. Nooj shrugged.
"So watch your back is all I'm saying." They stopped when a pair of voices drifted down the hallway. It was hard to tell what they were saying, but it sounded like they were arguing. Approaching the voices, they became clearer, but the argument seemed to have ended abruptly before they got close enough to hear the words. Instead, they heard a thump and a bit of movement. Still approaching, they heard a few other voices, then a lot of movement from a lot of different people. They reached the entrance, and saw a ring of bandits around a group in the middle that they couldn't see for all the bandits. They heard a voice, though, that any of them (except Sora) would recognize instantly: Logos.
"Alright Gullwings, the tables have turned again. What amazing stunt will you pull this time? Or have we finally actually caught the famous, infamous Gullwings?" There was a pause. "The numbers are on our side now." He spoke triumphantly. Baralai, Nooj and Gippal didn't look the least bit fazed. In fact, Gippal was smirking.
"Then let's even them out a bit, shall we?" He asked, lifting his gun. Baralai and Nooj both had their weapons as well. Sora got the picture he was going to need his Keyblade. Another voice called out over the heads of the bandits.
"Gippal? Geez, what took you guys so long? We thought we were gonna have to squish these guys without you!" She said, half laughing. Gippal laughed.
"Not a chance we were gonna let you guys have all the fun!" He yelled back, aiming his gun. Almost instantly, the fight broke out. Sora frowned. Gippal, Baralai and Nooj were taking on 15 opponents, and they were joking about it? Then, he saw how easily the first of the bandits fell, and decided that these guys were no better then the Heartless he was used to fighting. With that, he jumped in the fray and joined in. He had almost fought his way completely across the room when one of who he assumed was these 'Gullwings', a blonde one, nearly ran into him. Sora stepped out of the way as she stumbled backwards. Another woman, with brown hair, was nearby.
"Rikku! Look out!" The blonde looked up. A bandit was approaching her angrily. Sora wasn't sure whether or not to intervene, but within seconds, she was back on her feet. He swung at her; she ducked and snatched something from his bag.
"Hey!" He growled, swinging at her again. This time, she dropped and kicked her legs out, tripping him. As he dropped, she found he had been standing at the edge of the group, and she could see the wall, and Logos. Suddenly, she froze. She didn't notice a bandit had come up behind her; she seemed to be in a momentary state of shock. Sora, this time, stepped in the bandit's way, holding up his Keyblade. The bandit was proving to be just as easy as all the others. As he brought the bandit down, Rikku standing behind him seemed to regain her senses.
"KAIRI!" She cried. Sora faltered, spinning. What did she say! She was already racing towards a figure standing next to Logos. Without warning, the figure collapsed into a heap on the floor. Sora's view was blocked by a bandit, who decided to take Sora on in his state of surprise. He took the bandit down easily. Slipping out of the battle, he saw Rikku beating on another bandit who'd decided to take advantage of her while she tried to help the injured heap. The heap, who Sora could now see was a girl, about his age, with a huge wound gaping in her left shoulder. She was on all fours, gingerly ripping Logos' sleeve to use as a bandage. Sora started towards her when he felt a sharp point of metal against his back, and a sinister laugh. Spinning, Sora surprised the bandit, who, like all the others was an easy fight; easy fight but this one was lengthy, or lengthier than Sora would have liked. When he turned back to the injured girl, she was on her feet, walking slowly towards the edge of the hall. Shock fell over him once again. Kairi? No way, that's impossible. It looks like her, but… Suddenly, she stopped. She fell forward. Sora started to run to her, but he knew that he'd never get there on time to catch her. She fell to all fours again, but her injured arm gave way and she collapsed with a gasp to the floor. Rikku had seen it too, and both of them were scrambling to get to her. Another bandit had decided to use this new advantage against them, and was running to cut Sora off. Rikku spotted this and, being close enough, she pounced on him. Sora reached Kairi a moment later. Kneeling beside her, he pushed the hair from her face. It couldn't be, could it? Another voice caught his attention. Baralai was shouting to him from the battle.
"Sora! Get her to some shelter! We'll cover you!" He and a woman dressed all in black and red and carrying a menacing sword stepped to the edge of the fighting, blocking any bandits from getting past them to where Sora was. Rikku joined them moments later. Taking once more glance at her, Sora decided that she had to be Kairi. Carefully, he lifted her up and walked slowly towards the edge, searching for some cover. There was a corner, hidden and protected by rubble, that caught his eye and he started towards it. Rikku's started to call out.
"Look out, look out, LOOK OUT!" Her voice was quite frantic. Taking his attention from Kairi for a moment, he glanced up. One of the bandits had managed to slip by the group while they'd been busy with others. Grinning maliciously, he approached Sora triumphantly. Sora let Kairi's feet drop, holding her up with one arm, as he grabbed his Keyblade and pointed it at the bandit. He cackled.
"Must be pretty hard to fight with only one arm, eh?" He asked cruelly. Sora glared at him.
"Probably, but you're not going to live long enough for me to find out." He replied, just as cold. The bandit laughed, but paled when he saw Sora's Keyblade glowing. In a moment, all the energy had gathered at a tip, and began to spit fireballs at him, one after the other. Once the rain of fire stopped, there wasn't anything left of the bandit but ashes. Breathing hard, Sora lifted Kairi again, slowly and carefully, making his way to the sheltered corner. He knew he'd exhausted all his magic, but he hadn't been prepared to risk not bringing that bandit down the first attack. Carefully, he laid Kairi down on her stomach and sat down next to her, carefully pushing her hair away from the wound. Once he got to see it in it's entirety, he cringed. He was about to heal her, but stopped, realizing that he had not magic left. He was reminded of something Areith had said once. They'd all been in Traverse Town, and Yuffie had gotten herself a nice deep gash in the back of her knee. Leon, behaving very strangely in front of everyone else, had carried poor Yuffie all the way back to the Hotel. Once back, Areith had taken one look and refused to heal it. Leon was furious. Calmly, Areith had explained that if someone was ever injured on a major joint and it was healed by magic, they would almost certainly loose most of the use of that joint. Yuffie's knee had been bound and, within a few days, she was healed perfectly. Sora sighed. He couldn't do anything about Kairi's injury now; if he did, she'd never be able to use her arm again. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the strip of cloth wound around Kairi's hand. It was the sleeve she'd taken from Logos. Gently, he unraveled it and grabbed a potion from his pocket. He wasn't about to risk using any potion of higher potency, but he knew that at least a potion might help dull the pain. He started to open the bottle, and Kairi groaned. He put the bottle down and watched her intently. Her eyes open slowly and looked up at him. With a look of slight confusion on her face, she asked,
"Am I dead?"