Chapter 12: Phoenix Fire

Voices pulled Skye from her sleep. She gradually became aware that she was lying on a bed, covered in blankets. The rocking sensations told her that she was on a ship at sea. She tried to open her eyes and sit up, but her body didn't really want to listen to her.

"Everybody on deck!" Ace's voice came from somewhere to her right. Ace? Riku found Ace? Were Lodi and Jade and the twins with them? Jade's voice from somewhere in front of her answered part of her question.

"I need to stay until she's awake. She needs rest and medicine." She said.

"I can't leave her." Riku added firmly from somewhere above her. It was then that she became aware that she was lying with her head in his lap. Ace walked into the room; Skye could hear his footsteps approaching.

"It's bad enough that Jade's not coming, but she has a reason. You can't do anything for Skye here, you'd do more on deck making sure that those Heartless don't reach her!" He answered angrily.

"Heartless?" Riku asked, surprised. Skye knew Dax controlled Heartless, but what she didn't understand is why he was using them so sparingly. Why hadn't he just used them to make sure she hadn't escaped in the first place? Riku hesitated, and then moved Skye so that her head rested on a pillow, and followed Ace out. Jade paced.

"They sound like they really need help…" She said softly. Skye stirred, finally able to will her body into movement. Jade's attention turned to her. "Oh! You're awake! Good. You need rest. Here, take this medicine, I need to go up and help out as much as I can."

"Well then I'm coming too." Skye stated, downing the cup full of some mysterious syrup with a grimace. Jade pushed her gently back down onto the bed.

"No, you need rest! Stay here and sleep."

"But I'm fine!" Skye insisted, but it was too late. Jade was already gone. Skye pouted and stood up. "Just because you tell me no, don't think I won't anyways." She stated, knowing that she'd get no argument in return. "Besides," she said to herself, looking down and deciding that she need something other than a singed-to-the-point-of-falling-off-her-body white dress, "the only reason I passed out was because I was regaining my memories and I couldn't make any new ones while I was sorting them out." She stopped talking, realizing that she was talking to herself. She looked around. This wasn't a ship she recognized. She'd been sleeping on a canopied bed that sat in the middle of the left-hand wall. The door was behind her. There was a long table in front of her, with a window that covered most of the wall beyond that; this was the captain's quarters, as it was at the back of the ship. Judging from the lighting outside, night had just fallen. To her right, there were a few shelves and a closet. She rummaged hurriedly through the closet, impatient to join the fight on deck. She could hear the dull thudding and shouts above her. She pulled on a large white shirt, a pair of pants, a bandana to keep her hair out of her face, and a belt to keep her too-big pants up. And plus the belt had a pair of daggers attached. Satisfied, she ran out the door and emerged into a hallway. There was a staircase at the far end of the hall, which she ran towards. The sounds of battle grew louder as she approached, and then suddenly stopped. She reached the top of the stairs and looked out onto the deck, confused. There was a group of twelve Heartless scattered across the deck, three for each crew member: Ace, Jade, Lodi and Riku. They were all staring out into the ocean, ally and enemy alike. Skye had to wait for her eyes to adjust to see what they were all staring at. The three Shadow Heartless sunk into the wooden deck before disappearing. The other Heartless, all aquatic types, suddenly made for the handrails that ran around outside of the deck, and dove over them and into the water. Skye looked back up towards where the four people were staring. She could see it now. A massive tidal wave, bigger than any she had seen before was sweeping towards them. It was tall, but it wasn't very wide, in fact, it was only about twice the width of the ship, and it was on a crash course straight for them. Lodi was the first to regain his senses. He was a relatively tall man, taller than Riku by about two inches, with a bald head and a white beard.

"Get those sails up and tie down anything and everything you can, including yourself! Let's go, this is gonna be nasty!" He shouted. Jade took a few steps forward, scrutinizing the wave. She was a round lady, wearing the white habit of a healer and the gold embroidery on her sleeves showed that she was a master, with long brown hair streaked silvery grey.

"It's magic, and not very good either. Whoever's conjured this is using brute magical force to force this wave on us, and they aren't going to stop until this ship's at the bottom of the sea! We have to get out of here!" She said, looking at Lodi.

"Dax!" Riku and Ace said at the same time. They were all at a loss for what to do. They couldn't outrun it, it was moving much too fast, and they couldn't survive it… then, a small fire the size of a candle flame appeared in mid air between the ship and the wave. It spread horizontally first, making a wavering string-like blaze, and then grew vertically, forming a wall shaped exactly to the wave. Heat and light flowed from it, making everyone shield their eyes. Lodi twisted around to look at Skye.

"Phoenix! You're awake!" The wave crashed into it with resounding force, and with a little hissing and a lot of steam, the wave disappeared, though it took the fire wall with it. Jade wheeled around, glaring at Skye as she triumphantly stepped through the door, balancing a blue flame on her fingertip.

"I thought I told you to rest!" She scolding. Skye blew the flame out and put her hands on her hips.

"And where would we be if I'd listened?" She asked, sounding amused. Jade paused and simply glowered at her. Skye shrugged. "Besides, I don't need any more rest. It's not like I was sick or anything. I just needed to reorganize my memories." She said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The rest of them blinked at her. Then Riku let out a sharp gasp.

"Wait, you remember!" He asked, walking over. She nodded, and then pointed.

"We talk later. Heartless." She said, her hands going to the daggers at her belt. More Heartless were climbing over the railing and onto the deck. She and Ace stepped forward, standing back to back.

"I hope you're not rusty, I'm not slowing down for you." He stated coldly, shaking his blonde hair out of his face. Skye scowled.

"Right. Make sure you can keep up." She answered. Riku took a step forward but Lodi put a hand on his arm.

"They might hate each other, but no enemy could stand up to those two." He said. The Heartless had encircled the pair and they all leapt into action at the same time. With a flash of metal, Ace and Skye stepped away from each other. Ace was holding a long rapier in each hand, while Skye wielded one of her daggers in her left hand, and her fire in her right. A pair of Heartless jumped her, and she knocked one off with her blade, sending the two pieces of it off in different directions, and throwing the other back with a flaming fist, setting fire to it and the three other Heartless that it landed on top of. Ace crossed his arms and cut down one with each hand before bringing the blades together and catching a third across the throat. One jumped at his back, seizing the opportunity. Skye seemed already to know that this would happen, and she spun, throwing fire at it. The only thing that hit Ace were the ashes. He spun, stabbing out beside her at one that had tried to take advantage of her turned back.

"Watch your fire." He said. She spun back around.

"I suppose you would have preferred me stab it and let the body fall on you." She growled back. They were standing back to back again, and dealing with four each. Ace brought them down in a flurry of blades. Skye threw both of her daggers into the Heartless directly in front of her, before burning the other two to a crisp. Meanwhile, one Heartless Shadow was left, and it tried to jump into the gap between them, where it could take both of them with their backs turned, but Riku stepped it and cut it out of mid air. Skye crossed her arms and surveyed the damage: the rail was broken in a few places, there were scratch marks in the deck and her daggers were stuck in a crate and the mast.

"Good thing Riku was here." She commented, shooting a smile at him. Ace glared at her.

"I didn't see you going after it either!" He stated. She returned his glare.

"I wasn't accusing you, but now that you mention it…"

"How about we don't fight and we do figure out what's happened to Phoenix since Dax captured her?" Lodi suggested, interrupting her. Riku looped his arm around Skye.

"Why does he keep calling you that?" He asked. Skye shrugged.

"We all have nicknames. I'm Phoenix, Lodi is Genesis, Jade is Nana, Torne is Ace, Soren is Mars and Avani is Venus. Lodi's and Jade's nicknames didn't really stick though…" She said thoughtfully. Then she looked up at him, her eyes demanding and explanation. "Wanna tell me exactly what happened? I was stuck in the Fortress and Dax was plotting to burn me alive while you were…" She said, motioning for him to continue where she left off. He paused.

"Tell me about what you remember!" He said instead. Jade looked from Riku to Skye to Riku to Skye and then smiled indulgently.

"I see a lot has happened while you were gone." She noted, her tone denoting that she wanted to hear everything. Skye grinned.

"Riku, I asked you first." She stated. He nodded.

"I left the castle and went down to the docks. Dax had just captured a ship, and the crew was being held below decks by a group of guards, but they left the ship to go hunting for you and me. When I got there, the crew was about to make their escape. I just barely made it aboard before they left. I wanted them to wait and come help me get you, but they said there was no way they were going back to the Fortress. I was kind of at a loss for what to do next, but once we were out of sight of the Fortress, the rest of the crew loosened up a little and they told me that there was a resistance group that might be willing to help. Night rolled around and we met another ship traveling the other way. They stopped us, and it turned out that it was these guys." He said, motioning to Lodi, Jade and Ace.

"We had heard rumors of you being at the Fortress, so we were coming to see what we could find out, and maybe rescue you." Lodi said. "Riku told us that you saved him, but you were being held at the castle until Dax could find a way to make you commit suicide, so he came aboard our ship and returned to the Fortress with us. Ace broke us in through a back door, as it were." He continued, his eyes twinkling. From the look on Ace's face, it meant that he performed some roguish feat that he was rather proud of.

"That's when we headed up the tower and found you." Riku said. "Jade told me about you being a part of the resistance, but that's all I know." He finished, hinting at her to tell him about her past. Ace spoke next.

"Hang on, we want to know what happened after you were captured!" He said. She told him about waiting for months in the dungeon, and then about Dax trying to hang her, and then about her daring escape and her using water to escape to the Islands.

"How come you used water? You're a Fire User." Lodi said, confused. Skye bit her lip.

"Dax is a Water User." She said slowly. They didn't know that he was her brother. She hadn't known until he told her. Her mother had never told her the names of her brother and father. The others looked rather confused at her explanation.

"Right, Dax is a Water User, but what does that have to do with you?" Ace demanded, his voice cutting as it always was with her. "He open the portal for you?" He asked sarcastically. Skye narrowed her eyes at him.

"Shut up and let me finish. See, you know I can use fire to transport myself. Well, Magic Users can always use their own element to transport themselves. Sometimes, a magic user can use another element to transport themselves, though if they do, they have no control over where they end up. That doesn't happen very often, and it only ever happens with water because fire, air and earth need to be manipulated before they can be used to transport." She paused. She was stalling. Jade blinked, confused. She was the only other one there who had learned at the Shrine, so she knew something of what Skye was talking about.

"Right, but that only ever happens between sibl…Oh! You…your mother…your brother…the orphan in the palace…but…Ansem!" She spoke gibberish to everyone else, her voice nearing a shout towards the end as she stare at Skye in surprise. Skye cringed. She hadn't expected them to make that connection. No one else followed what she'd said.

"What about Ansem?" Riku asked uncomfortably. Jade looked saddened.

"Is it true?" She asked quietly. Skye nodded.

"Dax is my brother." She said. Jade held her breath.

"And Ansem…?"

"Yes. He took Dax in as an orphan in the palace." Skye said slowly. Jade shook her head.

"You poor child. And you never knew…" She murmured consolingly. Ace scowled.

"Dax is your brother? And he was raised by Ansem!" He asked angrily. "That at least explains why Ansem would allow such a moron to be his apprentice." He stated, even though everyone knew that Dax really wasn't a moron. It did kind of make Ace feel better to say it though. Skye sighed, biting her lip. Riku looked lost.

"But why would Ansem take in an orphan? Unless it was for his power with water… but, with your fire, how come he didn't take you too?" He asked. Skye sighed.

"Because my mother wouldn't let him have me. And Dax wasn't an orphan. Ansem just said he was because…" She paused, clearing her throat. "Because he didn't want people to know that his prized pupil was his illegitimate son…I…I didn't know. Dax told me, just before you rescued me…" She looked up at Riku with pleading eyes. He knew more than anyone else how terrible a man Ansem had been, which meant that he had more of a right than anyone else to push her away in disgust, but at the same time, he was the last one she wanted to lose. There was a long silence and Skye couldn't decide if it meant that it was taking them a long time to make the connection between Dax being Ansem's son and her being Dax's brother, or whether they were shocked into silence. Ace spoke first, which made Skye cringe. She knew he was the one who would be most unforgiving about her heritage.

"You remember the first time we met?" He asked. Skye nodded slowly. He shrugged. "You were an orphan then, and you always will be in my eyes. I could care less what Dax has to say about it." With that, he turned on his heel and disappeared below decks. Skye stared as he disappeared. That was kind of weird… okay, maybe it wasn't. Even if we did act like we hated each other, it's like I thought, we have some demented brother-sister thing going…she decided. Then, she returned her attention to Riku. He, in turn, was watching Lodi for his reaction.

"Meh. You're a damn good lookout and it's not like you haven't proved your loyalty to us a million times over." The captain said offhandedly, waving his hand at her and walking over to the wheel, checking his compass and muttering. Jade went after him, smiling earnestly at Skye, who was once again looking to Riku. He saw the apprehension in her eyes and smiled slightly at her.

"I remember once I told a girl that I cared very much about that I gave into the darkness. I also seem to remember how readily forgave me for it, saying that it wasn't even an issue, while I was worried that she'd hate me forever for it." He said quietly, smiling slightly as he tilted her chin up and kissed her gently. "I suppose it's only right for me to return the favour…"

-------------------------------------------

Riku and Skye were sitting on the bed in the captain's chambers. Apparently, the twins, Earth Users, had accompanied the group to the port when they went looking for Skye, and they beached a slave ship, forcing the crew to give the craft up to Lodi. They then accompanied the slaves back to the Rebel City, while Lodi, Jade and Ace went looking for Skye. That explained the riches on the ship. Riku was sitting at the head of the bed, leaning against the wall, while Skye sat on his lap, telling him everything about her life and where she came from. She left nothing out. When she was finished, he told her everything about him. She'd heard most of it in bits and pieces, but no one had ever told her the whole story from start to finish. Skye tilted her head to the side, resting her head on his shoulder and brushing her lips against his neck. His arms tightened around her, one hand playing with the top most button on her shirt. She smiled, and the door slammed open.

"He---Ugh! Get a room!" Ace cried, standing in the doorway. Skye scowled at him.

"We are in a room, Einstein. You were the one who burst in without knocking." She answered sharply. Ace opened his mouth to reply, and then closed it again, choosing instead to just glare at her before he finally managed to speak.

"I need the maps on the table." He said.

"Then go get them a leave up alone!" She commanded, obviously frustrated by his presence. Riku chuckled. Ace's cold gaze turned on him.

"Don't laugh at me." He said angrily, gathering up rolls of paper from the table. Riku shrugged.

"I'm not." He answered. Ace looked unimpressed and stomped out. Once he was gone, Riku looked back at Skye thoughtfully.

"I wonder why you ended up on the Destiny Islands...?" He asked after a moment. She smirked.

"Do you have to ask? I mean, they're called the Destiny Islands…" She answered. Then a thought smacked her across the face. "OH!" She cried suddenly, tumbling out of Riku's arms and off the bed. She landed with a thump on the floor. He stared at her, wide eyed.

"What? What's wrong?" He asked urgently. She sat up, rubbing her head with a pout.

"Sora and Kairi! They must be SO worried about us! I mean, the last thing they saw was me being dragged away and then you coming after me…" She said. Riku looked concerned.

"But what can we do? I mean, how do we get back to the Islands?" He asked. She grinned.

"Same way I got there in the first place. Sort of. This time we'll take the fire. It's nice to know where we'll end up." She answered. He blinked.

"I'll get burned…" he said tentatively. She shook her head.

"Not if I tell it not to burn you. It takes a lot out of me to go such a long distance though, so we should wait until we get to the Rebel City. That way, when I get back, I have a safe place to rest." She said slowly, thinking the plan out as she spoke. Riku nodded.

"Sounds like a plan." At that moment, Lodi's voice rang down the hall.

"PHOENIX! I NEED MY LOOKOUT!" He shouted. Skye stood up and held out a hand to Riku.

"Come on, we can do crow's nest duty together." She said with a smile. Riku nodded in reply. They walked up to the deck, and Lodi looked at them.

"Alright, he can go with you, but don't get distracted." He warned. She saluted him and then walked up to the rail, climbing the rope ladder up to the top of the first sail. From there, she climbed up the mast to the second sail, and then swung herself into the crow's nest. Riku arrive a few minutes later, exhausted, speaking between pants.

"So…that's why…you're such…a monkey…"