A/N: And thusly thou shalt recieveth thy first unorthodox TIME LAPSE! I hate doing that, but there's no getting around it. Dammit all. Normally, I save time lapses for between fics, but that obviously isn't working. Correction: I TRY to save time lapses for between fics. I think I've been doing pretty good about avoiding in-fic jumps up till now. And in case you all forgot, Mizu hasn't slept in ages, so that's why Sora makes the remark he does. Enjoy this chapter in all its complete sucky-ness!
"There you are, Sora," said a voice from right behind him. Sora nearly jumped out of his skin and turned to find Leon standing there, arms crossed over his chest.
"Leon!" Sora exclaimed. "Don't do that! You scared me half to death!"
"Whatever," Leon muttered. "Mizu's waiting for you. Follow me."
"Mizu?" Sora asked. Leon just gave Sora a look over his shoulder. "You mean she's here? What about Riku and Kairi?"
"I don't know," Leon admitted, annoyance creaping into his voice. "All I know is that she needs to talk to you before she heads back out. She's been waiting for two days, so you'd better hurry up."
"All right," Sora agreed, hurrying after Leon and ignoring Donald and Goofy's (mostly Donald's) protests. Leon led him through town down to the secret waterway, where not only was Mizu waiting, but Cloud as well and a blonde-haired girl Sora didn't know.
"Found him," Leon said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder in Sora's direction.
"Mizu!" Sora exclaimed when he saw her, noticing something that struck him as completely wrong about her appearance. "You look like crap!"
"Thank you for that assessment, Sora," Mizu said, opening one eye to glare at him, but keeping her head resting on Cloud's shoulder. "Only everyone in the whole town has told me that, I was not aware of the fact. Park it and zip it, kid, I'm on the clock. Leon, where're Yuffie and Aerith?"
"They're on their way," Leon told her, leaning up against a convenient wall and looking at her with an odd expression that was probably the closest thing to concern his face could get.
"Thank you, bro," she sighed, then pushed herself up into a more erect position, though she had to lean forward on her arms in order to avoid falling over. "Do you know if they've found anything yet?"
"I doubt they would," Leon admitted. "Most of the research didn't make it out with us. Sora's the only one with the reports."
"I thought Aerith had one?" Mizu asked, confusion plainly evident on her face. Sora was slightly startled by this, because normally he couldn't tell what emotions or thoughts were going through her head no matter how hard he tried. Apparently she was so exhausted that she was mainly concentrating on staying awake and aware enough for whatever she had in mind for this meating.
"She does, but it's pretty useless without the others."
"Well, crap," Mizu groaned. "Sora, about how many of Ansem's reports have you collected?"
"I dunno," Sora admitted, then turned to look at the cricket standing on his shoulder. "Jimminy?"
Jimminy leafed through his journal and produced the reports.
"Ah, here they are," he said in triumph, then hopped over to Mizu to hand them to her. "Here you go, Mizu. That's all we have."
"Thank you," she said in all sincerity. She scanned them, then handed them over to Leon. "These look genuine to you? I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time focusing right now."
"I understand," Leon said in a somewhat gentle tone as he accepted the documents. He scanned them a little more intently than Mizu had, then nodded. "Yeah, these are genuine alright. I don't know why you'd think they wouldn't be, though."
"'Expect the worst, but hope for the best,'" Mizu quoted, though who or what she quoted Sora didn't know. "Anyway, Sora, I asked Leon--"
Leon snorted.
"Fine. I threatened Leon with castration to--"
Leon choked.
"Leon, you're being rediculous," Mizu snapped. "It was a request, you know. My time's limited, remember?"
"Right," Leon said, snickering at her behind his hand. "Go ahead."
"And here I thought I was the one who was getting silly," Mizu muttered, then turned her attention back to Sora. "Okay, ignoring the hysterical wonder over there, I need a favor from you, Sora."
"What is it?" Sora asked, knowing from her tone that she was dead serious about this.
"I need a distraction for the Heartless while Cloud, Serenity and I try to sneak into Hollow Bastion."
Leon's choke was sincere this time.
"Are you out of your mind?" he demanded.
"Need I remind you of how much sleep I've had lately?" Mizu retorted. "At this point I'm not even sure I have a mind to be out of. Now shut up, would you?"
"Not if you're planning on going to Hollow Bastion!" Leon exclaimed. "Don't you remember? We've set up so many defenses on that town that nothing could possibly get past!"
"We left a few places safe," Mizu pointed out.
"No," Leon stated, offering Mizu no options. "You're not going. Any of you."
"I can protect her just fine if that's what you're worried about," Cloud said, siding with Mizu.
"And I'll watch Cloud's back," Serenety piped in, sounding just a bit like Yuffie in that moment.
"You're all insane!" Leon snapped. "Cloud, you of all people should know how--"
"I do know, Squall," Cloud retorted. "That's why I'm going with her."
"Going with who?" asked a soft voice from the entrance to the waterway.
"They're going to Hollow Bastion," Leon said before anyone got a chance to answer.
"You are?" Aerith asked, looking at Cloud, Serenity, and Mizu in surprise. Mizu glared back as though she expected Aerith to try and dissuade her.
"I'm going," she stated flatly. "Whether anyone likes it or not. Riku's there, and there's no way in hell I'm going to leave him there."
"I understand," Aerith said with a nod, and Mizu was quite obviously taken aback by this. "I do. Go, it's okay. But be careful, alright?"
"I'll look out for her," Cloud pointed out again, though a bit less forcefully than he had with Leon.
"Then I'm not worried at all," Aerith conceded with a smile his way.
"Will you guys be needing Materia?" Yuffie asked, walking up behind Aerith. "I have plenty you can use."
"What do you think?" Mizu asked, looking to Cloud for advice. "You're the Materia dictator."
"Very funny," Cloud retorted, then grew serious again. "I think we have more than enough."
"That clinches it," Mizu said, then smiled at Yuffie. "Thanks for the offer, though."
"Oh, no problem," Yuffie said dismissively. "If it's for you guys, then I'm more than happy to help."
"Cool. Oh, hey, you wouldn't happen to have any of my old throwing knives, would you? Currently my only long-range offense is spells."
Yuffie thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah, I do have some. I've kept them pretty sharp, too, so they shouldn't be in too bad a shape for you."
"You rock, thief," Mizu told her with a grin.
"What do you need me to do?" Sora asked.
"You're not going along with this?" Leon asked.
"Why not?" Aerith retorted. "I think he's proven that he can take care of himself. And he'll have Donald and Goofy with him. He'll be fine, and so will Mizu. You worry too much, Leon."
"Sometimes I wonder if I worry enough," Leon muttered, but everyone heard him.
"Oh, God, I really need to get some sleep," Mizu groaned, pressing her face into her hands. "I almost said something I know could never be forgiven."
"At least you caught yourself," Aerith said. "That's a good sign."
"I guess. Anyway, Sora, I need you to go through the front door," Mizu said, lifting her face from her hands to stare Sora in the eye. "I know of a port for gummi's around back, but I need you to draw the attention of the defenses so we can get in. Can you do that?"
"No problem!" Sora assured her, sounding supremely confident. Mizu smiled at him.
"Cool. And, if you see Riku, occupy him until we get there. Otherwise, meet us in the Library. I kind of expect you to get there ahead of us. The route there from where I plan to land is a little long, and yours is shorter. You'll know where the Library is when you get to it."
"Big room, a lot of books," Cloud described to Sora, who glared at him.
"I know what a library is!" the boy protested.
"Good, because I can't plan with you much longer," Mizu said, punctuating the sentance with a yawn. "I'm about to drop off, and to hell with the nightmares." She somehow managed to struggle to her feet, and even managed to stay there, then turned to look at Cloud. "I'm headed back to the hotel. Wake me at dawn, okay?"
"Are you sure?" Cloud asked.
"I've wasted enough time already," Mizu admitted, running her hand through her hair. "I want to get there yesterday, to be honest. Sora, thanks for listening and agreeing to this."
"You're welcome," Sora said, then watched with slight concern as she walked shakily away. Yuffie ran up to her and supported her on the way out, then presumably all the way to the hotel.
"This has to be the most rediculous--" Leon started to say, but stopped when he noticed the contemptuous way Aerith was looking at him.
"We already knew she as reckless," Cloud pointed out. "She's always been like that. I don't know what you're worried about."
"Mizu survived on her own for nine years, Leon," Aerith added. "Doesn't that tell you something?"
"She's not thinking straight--"
"When has she ever?" Cloud asked.
"But..." Leon protested half-heartedly. "How can you not be worried about her?"
Aerith laughed out loud, and Cloud smiled at Leon with a deffinite air of "I know something you don't" about him.
"You stop worrying about her after the fifth time she pulls herself out of an impossible situation," Aerith said. "She's really lucky, Leon. And if that luck doesn't protect her this time--"
"Then I will," Cloud finished. "You have nothing to worry about."
"It's... not her physical safety I'm worried about," Leon admitted. "I think her heart has gotten tangled in something that could destroy her. I don't want to see that happen."
"I don't either," Cloud said. "But that's also why I'm going with her. If anything happens to her heart, I think I can do something to heal it. Or at least help."
"What are you so worried about?" Sora asked. Everyone else looked at him as though they were surprised at the question.