.

7. Lea

If he had known that sneaking into the royal ball would end up with him running for his life, Lea was pretty sure he would have stayed home. That wasn't even counting how he and Isa had gotten lost in the labyrinthine servants' corridors, nearly had their hearts pulled out by shadow monsters, and, when they finally did get outside, the serious ick factor involved when he had grabbed the gunblade off a dead guy so he could save some random girl. The girl wasn't even a hottie – based on what he could tell under those voluminous pink robes, that is. He was pretty sure she was under his age range, at any rate.

Weird, the turns your brain took when concentrating on the danger you were facing meant possibly turning into a gibbering wreck.

"Get back!" Isa was suddenly in front of them, halting their progress. He swung his own stolen blade at one of two monsters Lea hadn't even seen. Fresh gouts of black dust hit Isa in the face, making him cough. He swung again, blindly, but missed the second one.

Lea moved without thinking, much as he had when he heard the girl scream. It was like when he challenged people to Frisbee matches; his body slipped from move to move without any conscious direction from him.

The gunblade wasn't as easy to manoeuvre as a Frisbee. He preferred projectiles, or at least things he could turn into projectiles. Give him a CD to throw and he could snuff out a candle flame at twenty paces, but a sword was cumbersome and heavy. Still, adrenaline made up for any lack of actual skill. He liked to think the creature looked surprised when its head separated from its body. He also liked to think it hurt the little bastard.

"Lea? Lea!" Someone was shaking him. He blinked rapidly. He had completely zoned out while watching the monster disintegrate. "Lea, we've got to move!"

"Huh?"

"Lea! Quit spacing out on me." Isa shook him harder.

Lea stared at him. "What are they?"

"Does it matter?"

"They don't die, Isa. They just … fall apart. But people have died. A lot of people." Lea's volume rose of its own accord. "Everyone is freaking dead! They're just … lying there, all … dead!" He looked down at the gunblade, the tip of which rested between his feet, like it knew he didn't know how to use it and was embarrassed to be seen with him. "I took this off a dead guy. Right out of his hands!"

Isa's expression didn't change, but his voice loosened a notch. "Don't freak out on me now, dude." His eyes flicked to the healer girl. "I need you. You think I got this far on my own? You already saved my bacon a bunch of times tonight."

Lea swallowed. His throat felt even drier than the fiery air warranted. "Glad you finally realise you need me."

Something rather like a smile twitched at the corner of Isa's mouth. "That was the part where you were supposed to say how I'd saved your bacon too, moron."

"Um …" The healer girl looked from Isa to Lea and back again. "I'm glad you guys are bonding and having a moment, but the longer we stay still, the more chance there is we'll die or those people will leave without us."

"You think they're leaving?" Isa asked.

"The storage barns have all kinds of things in them, including old vehicles. I can't think why else they'd head there at a time like this."

"Old vehicles? How old?"

"Too dangerous to drive around Radiant Garden in anymore."

"Brilliant."

Lea clapped Isa on that back, forcing down his panic under his trademark mask of bravado. "Don't worry. I'll be there to save you again. After all, you admitted that you need me."

"Why you –"

"Nu-uh! No take-backsies!" Lea dashed off, pretending he was used to carrying big-ass weapons.

Isa shook his head. "Good grief. C'mon, uh, Aeris?"

"It's Aerith," she corrected. "And he's going the wrong way."