Duck and slash, then turn to keep them from sneaking up behind. Ais let the claymore move nearly on its own, cutting down attackers who dared to get too close. He'd lost track of everyone else by now, movement of the battle pulling them all in different directions. There was a momentary lull, then some fool dared approach him from behind. Ais spun and jumped, ready to bring his weapon down on his attacker's head.
Fortunately for Lily, her Keyblade was strong enough to withstand deflecting a battle-maddened man land on it with a sword. "Hey man, watch it!" Braig said, yanking the girl back. "You don't need to be attacking us."
Ais shook his head to clear it. "Where's Izenu?"
"I'm not sure. We lost track of each other almost immediately," Lily said.
"You mean that other kid with the big key?" Ais nodded, focusing his attention on him. Braig was holding a blood-soaked cloth to one side of his face, but it didn't seem to impair his speech. "Think I saw him fighting up near the train station."
"Wait," Lily said as Ais began to leave. "Do you have a Potion or an Ether or something? His face is sliced up pretty good and I don't have any way of healing it."
"Aw man, you don't have to ask for me. I'm fine, it's just a little cut."
Rolling his eyes, Ais stepped back and grabbed Braig's wrist. "How bad is it?"
Scowling, the other man allowed him to move the cloth away, revealing a deep gash from just below his left eye down to his jaw. "It's fine if you can't do anything, I totally understand-"
"Shut up." He did a perfunctory cure, which stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound enough to prevent infection. "That's probably going to leave a scar, but at least you won't bleed to death."
"Thanks, man." He gingerly wiped away the excess blood, then dropped the cloth on the ground.
Ais didn't bother to reply. He hefted his claymore and headed for the station.
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The smoke was thicker now, bringing it closer to gloom than twilight. The bandits seemed to have left – the survivors, at any rate – and the townsfolk were busy putting out the fires. Ais strode past them, sword over his shoulder, focused on locating a certain armored figure.
Knosis and Izenu found him first, standing by the weapon shop and scowling as he tried to decide which direction to search next.
"Ais!" Izenu called out, hurrying ahead of the commander and skidding to a halt in front of his brother.
"Izenu. You're unhurt?" A glance at Knosis included him in the question.
"Of course. Whatever happened to the Keyblade didn't affect how well it works."
"Not that it's improved your common sense," Knosis interjected. "I found him wandering around with his helmet off, shouting for you," he told Ais.
Ais smiled at the image, then sobered. "We should head to the gummi ship, so we can cut them off before they can get to the next world."
Izenu shook his head. "No, we don't. There's no point to it. We actually should be heading home as quickly as possible."
"You felt it too?" Lily asked as she approached the group, alone and empty-handed for once.
"I was there too," he pointed out. "Of course I felt it."
"Then perhaps you could enlighten the two of us who have no idea what you're talking about?" Knosis suggested.
Glancing at her fellow Keyblade wielder for confirmation as she spoke, Lily said, "When we used the Keyblades at the same time, we were able to lock all of the doors to all of the worlds at once."
"Which means all of the barriers will be going up soon," Izenu added. "So we need to go home before that happens, or we won't be able to."
"Are you staying here, then?" Ais asked Lily.
She shook her head. "I'm going with Cid and Braig to their world. They've got their own gummi ship, and Braig says there's room for me on it. He's gone off to find Cid and get some supplies, and Rufus and Lulu are busy trying to put the town back together, so," she gave them a strained smile, "I thought I'd come see you guys off."
And possibly make sure we don't attempt anything as we leave, Ais thought. Though I'm not sure what she thinks we might do at this point.
They didn't speak much as Lily led them through the Tram Common and into the woods. It wasn't until they reached the parked ships that Izenu tugged off his helmet and faced Lily. "I know we don't get along," he told her. "I'm not sure if it's just that we were on conflicting missions, or that we also have differing philosophies on certain subjects." He gave her a rueful grin, which she returned. "Either way, we're never going to see each other again, so...I don't hate you."
Lily laughed. "That's certainly good to know. I don't hate you either, Izenu. Or either of you," she added, addressing Ais and Knosis.
The teens stood there awkwardly for a moment, before Izenu broke it with, "So, good luck."
"You too. Go on, you probably have a long way to travel."
"Yeah."
Ais could see her from the cockpit, watching them leave, shading her eyes against the blast. Eventually, even the red of her hair vanished into the green of the forest as they moved further away, then out into space. Izenu only stared out at the stars, occasionally drumming his fingers against the helmet in his lap.
"Could worlds still be taken by the darkness?" Ais asked suddenly. His brother had always known about things like that better than he had, and being a Keyblade master could only add to his knowledge.
"No," Izenu answered. "That's why they were locking the doors, remember? To stop the darkness from destroying worlds. I suppose that they could still be taken, if someone were to open the door and make the barrier fall, but only Keyblade masters can do that, and right now that's limited to Lily and myself."
"So once we land, we'll be trapped." Ais frowned as he spoke. Even with a whole world available, he didn't like the idea of not being able to leave if he wanted to.
Izenu gave him a smile. "Don't worry," he said, as if he could read Ais's thoughts. "If it really starts to bother you, I'll open our door. I promise."
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They barely made it in time; the barrier around their world went up the same night the three arrived home. It was an impressive display, if nothing else. Taking advantage of the fairly warm summer night, Ais and Izenu watched it from partway up a moutain, about a mile from their home. They stayed out there late into the night, long after the glow faded from the sky and the stars reappeared.
"It's finished," Ais eventually said.
"Yeah," Izenu replied, dropping his gaze and kicking a rock down the slope.
"Come on, Moonlight." Ais dropped an arm around his shoulders. "Let's go home."
