A.N. Sorry it took this long. I have had this chapter done for a long time, but I was held back by a lack of a title. And I lied. I'm putting this thing up tonight. I won't have time tomorrow, guarantee.

PS: MERRY KNICKERMAS!!!

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"See anything?" Cid barked, shading his eyes with his hand as he peered up at Yuffie, perched on top of the airship and watching the forest closely.

"Nope," she yelled down. "It's pretty quiet."

"Damn," he muttered under his breath, stalking back inside. "You'd think they would be back by now."

"It's a big forest," Tifa reasoned.

"Yeah, that's crawlin' with things that wanna kill them."

Tifa winced, but didn't answer. Leon, not taking his eyes off of the sword he was cleaning, said "They'll be back," in a low voice.

"Yeah. They might not be whole, or even alive, but they'll be back," Cid said sarcastically. Both Cloud and Leon rolled their eyes, while Tifa just looked like she was going to be sick. Roxas just sat there, not moving, doing nothing but staring at the floor blankly.

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"You have to be kidding me, Zexion."

"Why would I be?"

"It's suicide!"

Wandering around here when we could be found at any moment is suicide as well."

Demyx shuddered. "This has to be the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"I wouldn't bet on that."

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"Oh. Whoa…" Sora muttered, surveying the blood-spattered scene before them. "It looks like a frickin' massacre."

"I think more than two people have to die before it can be called a 'massacre,'" Riku said lightly, already moving to Axel's side, checking him over carefully. "And definitely more than one."

Riku inspected the pyro's prone form, and found it highly interesting that the redhead had somehow managed to acquire clothing that was undeniably, though ripped and shredded, one of the Organization's uniforms.

"Now where do you think he got this?" he asked Sora flatly, and Sora managed to tear his eyes away from Xigbar's eviscerated corpse to look.

"What? The coat?"

"Yeah."

The brunette pondered over it for a while. "No clue. Maybe he took it?"

"From who?"

Sora hesitated, then shrugged. "I don't know."

They both regarded the unconscious redhead carefully, doubts about him beginning to assault both of their minds.

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Someone's coming!"

At Yuffie's call, all of them looked up simultaneously. Roxas stood up swiftly, but another call from the kunoichi had everyone joining him.

"It's not them!"

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Zexion and Demyx pressed on forward, though by this time Demyx had to nearly carry his partner. The wound passing through the thin body had befun to bleed again, and blood loss had begun to take effect. The slate-haired lycan's breath was harsh and ragged, blue eyes slowly clouding over. Twice already, they'd had to stop their journey across the golden sand so that Demyx could heal the wound as best as he could and try to stop the bleeding for at least a little while.

The ship was obvious, just sitting on the edge of the beach like a beached whale made of steel and glass, so painfully obvious that one had to wonder just why no one had found it yet.

Zexion staggered, his head lolling forward, and Demyx nearly fell as the weight on him suddenly doubled.

"Hey, are you okay? Zexion!"

"I'm fine," the tactician snapped, forcing his head up again. "I just…got lightheaded for a second.

"All right," Demyx said, carefully and riddled with doubt. "But if you need to stop—"

He halted suddenly, his eyes crossing to focus on the silver swordpoint not two inches from the bridge of his nose.

"You might want to stop and take a break right now," Yuffie said, her shuriken poised to attack.

Zexion smiled, even though Cloud's sword was pressing into his throat. "Quite a welcome party."

"And we still need to find our guests of honor," Tifa said coldly.

"W-we didn't come to fight!" Demyx squeaked, shying away from Leon's petrifying gaze. "Really!"

At that, Cid, Cloud, Yuffie, and Zexion rolled their eyes in unison.

"And why the hell should we trust you?" the blonde pilot growled, his spear pressing into the small of Demyx's back.

"You shouldn't."

"Zexion!"

"What? If you were in their position, would you trust us?"

Demyx recoiled, offended. "Well—"

"On second thought, rare as they may be for me, don't answer that. You trust implicitly, just like you trusted Sephiroth."

At the mention of the name, the Tsuragi pressed into the pale skin hard enough to draw small beads of blood. "What the hell is that supposed to be?"

"He tried to have us killed," Zexion said with a shrug, his eyes beginning to flicker in and out of focus. "I was—am—hurt too badly, and Demyx is useless."

"Would you stop—"

"So he was just going to kill you?" Yuffie asked incredulously.

Cloud growled softly under his breath. "Yeah. Sounds like him."

"He also killed Xigbar. Not…himself, obviously, but he…had it done."

"Why?"

"Because," Zexion said, his voice beginning to falter as his breathing became more and more labored. "He's planning an…attack…soon…" His knees gave out, and he sank to the ground and into unconsciousness simultaneously. Cloud had to yank the sword back to avoid slicing his throat.

"Zexion!" Demyx cried, crouching by the fallen lycan and attempting to roll him over.

Cloud and Leon's eyes met, and they nodded simultaneously. The blonde picked Zexion up, though not all that gently, and set off for the airship with Demyx scurrying along behind, his worry overcoming his terror. They were flanked by Cid and Tifa, as Yuffie bounded on ahead to reestablish her vigilant watch from the top of the ship.

Roxas was outraged when they returned.

"What the fuck are those two doing here?" he snarled.

"They're deserters. We think," Tifa said, trying to console him gently. "And that one said something about an attack that's coming very soon. We need whatever information they can give us."

"Are you joking? They can'tgive us anything, they're just going to lie to save their own skins."

"We won't lie," Demyx said, looking up from where he was attending to the unconscious tactician. "But we can tell you who has been."

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A.N. Hey, sorry this took so long. I've been busy as hell and…well, yeah. Also, sorry for it being so short. It took a while, but it's still puny…I suck! *wails* Anyhoo, love y'all!

~Chris