Hey guys! Sorry for leaving you with a cliffhanger right before going on vacation... that wasn't very nice xD
But I'm back now! And I have a brand-shiny-new chapter for you!
Disclaimer: No.
12. Crash.
Sora swore under his breath.
"What are heartless ships of this level doing at the cross between the Coliseum and Land of the Dragons?" Riku asked no one in particular.
Bam.
The heartless ships rammed into the gummi ship, causing the entire structure to shake violently. Kairi was thrown out of the seat and Axel took her place as pilot.
"Let's see if this is anything like the old Organization ships..." he mused, his bright green eyes roaming over the various buttons.
Bam.
"Hmm... nothing like the old ships after all," Axel murmered after a swift consideration. He scratched his head and shrugged, half a smile on his face.
"When in doubt..." he said, raising his hands, "Push 'em all!"
"No!" Riku warned as Axel's hands collided with every single button on the dashboard. An earsplitting alarm sounded and a red light started flashing obnoxiously.
Bam.
"You idiot, there's a self-destruct button!" Riku yelled, falling to the ground due to the fact that the shrill shrieking of the alarm seemed only to anger the heartless ships more. It reminded Kairi of the time when she had knocked a bees' nest to the ground when she was five, unaware that the little structure was full of the enraged insects.
Bam.
Bam.
BAM!
With a shudder of defeat, the roaring engine of the gummi ship suddenly stopped. The ship started falling, picking up speed with every second. Everyone aboard started screaming. Riku's arms locked reflexively around Lifelle as he shifted slighty, using his back as a shield when the windshield broke. Axel and Darran were roughly pushed against the shotgun chair, their heads knocking together with a loud thunk.
"OW!" They shouted in unison. It occured to Kairi that it would have been very funny, were it not for the drop of blood winding it's way down Darran's right cheek.
Kairi was flung under the dashboard, unable to get up. Sora was next to her in an instant, whispering in her ear, though she couldn't quite make out of words. Putting her hand on the back of her head, she felt the telltale dampness and was unsurprised when her fingers came back dark and bloody.
Suddenly, as if time had going into slow motion, Sora had wrapped his arms around her, forming an iron embrace. Sora's face was the last thing Kairi saw before the darkness converged on her, obliterating all her senses.
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Something extremely cold was pressing against her forehead with the lightest of pressures. Kairi opened her eyes to see Darran crouched next to her, his hand on her forehead.
"Where... are we?" She asked with difficulty, taking in the sight before her. She was sitting in a corner, thick walls in front of her to her left and right. Stars shimmered above her and Darran. She watched, open-mouthed as she thought she saw one of them flicker and die.
"Traverse Town, third district," Darran murmered, taking her wrist to check her pulse.
"Traverse Town? And what are you doing?" She asked, watching Darran curiously. He put his hand on her head again, smoothing back some of her hair.
"You're burning up," he clarified.
"No, your hands are just really cold," Kairi muttered, smiling a little, despite the loud and rythmic pounding that originated somewhere in the back of her head. Darran smiled suddenly, the first time Kairi had seen him do so. She realized that he actually looked quite...well, hot, there was no other way to describe it, when he smiled.
"You look nice when you smile," Kairi blurted out, determined not to lose conciousness again as the pounding got louder. Darran laughed.
"Thanks. Now turn your head so I can take a look at that wound. You fell pretty hard."
Kairi obliged, moving as fast as she could without triggering too much pain. She felt Darran's cool hands on the back of her skull. She gasped in pain when his fingers grazed the cut on the back of her head.
"Sorry... here, I'll be able to fix this," Darran assured her. She heard him summon his keyblade.
"Cura," he murmered. Little four-leaf clovers danced above her head for a split second, forming an emerald halo. They vanished as the pounding stopped abruptly. All traces of pain were gone.
"Wow... thanks," she breathed, her thought process much clearer. Darran grinned once again as his keyblade disappeared in a flash of light.
"No problem. I fell just a second after you and cured myself. Then I saw you slumped over here and wanted to make sure you weren't too badly hurt," he explained.
"Thanks," Kairi repeated, "and why are we in Traverse Town? Sora didn't come anywhere near here last time he left," she asked, unableto keep the puzzlement from creeping into her voice.
"That's because it's in a whole other star system now," Darran clarified. Kairi waited for the shock to seep through before letting it show on her face.
"A different system? What worlds are in this system?" She asked in disbelief.
"New ones, born from darkness from the last times. When the heartless left them, people who inhabited Traverse Town last time Sora left went to them in their own gummi ships. I don't believe Sora, Riku, or anyone we know for that matter, has been to them," Darran explained.
"Wait... how do you know all this?" Kairi asked, her eyes opening wide.
"Merlin taught my sister and I all we know about these worlds. He had been doing research to find out what had happened to people in worlds Sora went to the first time he left, but not the second time. When he discovered Traverse Town was in a completely different system, he checked out every world there."
"Oh. Well where-"
Kairi was interrrupted by a loud groaning, coming from a familiar voice. She turned to see Axel stumbling towards them, holding his head with a martyred expression.
"Can one of you two help me?" He asked, his eyes squeezed shut in pain. Darran went over to him and looked at his head briefly.
"You wimp, it's only a cut. Don't you know any Cure magic?" He asked, disapproval coloring his tone.
"My specialty is fire, jackass. Can't you just heal me and get it over with?" Axel asked, a laugh hidden in his voice. Despite the insult, Darran raised his keyblade without another word. Little clovers erupted around Axel's fiery red hair, dancing above his head in a ring.
"Thanks," he said when the little clovers disappeared. Darran nodded and his keyblade vanished in a flash of white.
"Have you seen any of the others?" Kairi asked politely. Axel raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Yeah. Lifelle and Riku are in the hotel in the second district. They both got knocked around pretty bad," he explained. Axel couldn't quite keep the smirk off his face.
"Oh..." Kairi murmered, her heart plummeting in her chest.
What about Sora? She wondered. Almost as if he heard her thoughts (or read it on her face), Axel's grin became more pronounced as he said, "Oh, don't worry. Sora's there too. He cured himself, but the nurses still made him stay there. Apparantly our friend was in a bit of a tizzy."
"A tizzy?" Kairi repeated.
Axel nodded. "He kept trying to leave, even after the nurses told him it would be better to stay with Riku and Lifelle. Eventually Riku knocked him out for arguing so much. He kept saying he wanted to go find someone," Axel clarified slyly.
I wonder who that could be... Namine asked sarcastically.
Do you ever shut up?! Kairi asked her Nobody, in no mood to argue with her.
"Let's go see them," Darran suggested. Kairi nodded and she, Axel, and Darran made their way to the hotel.
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Hope you guys liked it! And by the way, I'm not posting chapter 13 until I get at least 10 more reviews. It doesn't exactly help my self-confidence as a writer to come back from a four-day vacation and see that I've only gotten on review. And nothing pisses a writer off more than seing she has 700+ hits and only 23 reviews. There's something wrong with that. So review! Or no more chapters for you!
Vampire love.