"Hey Leon?"
Leon stopped mid-swing, flipping his sword-caster up onto his shoulder as he turned to look at Sora. "Yeah what's up?"
"So you're really going to marry Rinoa?"
"Well I love her, that's good enough reason for me to propose don't you think?"
Sora shifted nervously, blushing, Leon snorted. "Kairi?" Leaning his weapon against the wall he wrapped Sora in a headlock and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry about it, you're still kids."
"You're not much older." Sora protested, squirming in his brother's grasp.
Leon shrugged, releasing him and smirking. "I suppose, but I wouldn't fret over it, you're only fifteen Sora, that's too young to be thinking of anything as involved as marriage; give it a few more years."
"There you are; why are you two down here?"
They turned to see Kairi coming towards them, Leon smirked. "Have a ring?" He whispered. Sora elbowed him in the ribs and Leon chuckled.
"We were just talking." Sora supplied.
"He just needed some brotherly advice. Anyways Zack is probably looking for me. He gets so commanding when we're on actually doing our jobs."
Leon picked up his weapon and holstered it, brushing past Kairi and climbing up the ladder to the next level of the airship, they could hear him walking overhead as his footsteps faded away.
Kairi smiled. "So what were you asking advice about?"
"N-nothing," Sora said a little too quickly.
She giggled and leaned over, kissing his cheek. "Well fine, be like that. You know Riku and the others are all up on the bridge watching the view while you and Leon were down here in dark. You should come up and see it."
"Alright, let's go."
They climbed up the same ladder Leon had, making their way up two more decks before they were on the crew level. Moving forwards through the whirring hull they emerged onto the brightly lit deck, everyone else was already there, Cloud was sitting against the glass of the bridge screen with Tifa sleeping against him, Riku stood with Zack and Leon, holding up one of Merlin's parachutes, Cid was at the helm and Roxas and Namine were looking out at the three dragons as they crisscrossed the airship's path ahead of them.
As Sora and Kairi joined them, Namine smiled. "Where was he?"
"Down in the hold with Leon." Kairi said.
Namine nodded. "Yep, that's Sora, he always did find dark places to explore."
"Hey! I haven't even explored half this ship, I haven't had the chance."
"Well you'd have plenty of time to do that if you'd stop standing up there gawking at the view." Chided Cid from behind them, sniffing he continued. "We still have a few hours before we hit Traverse Town anyways, you've got time."
Namine smiled. "No thanks, I like the view."
Cid snorted, "suit yourself."
Sora looked out at the three dragons, while Maleficent simply cruised along without any wasted movement, Mim darted this way and that playfully as she performed various acrobatics, Merlin was in between the two rising up above the airship and spiraling downwards again in a series of controlled falls.
"She's showing off." Namine said with a fond smile.
"What for?" Sora asked with a frown.
"I don't know the story really, just that she and Maleficent have something that goes back before any of us were born and I mean any of us. It was at least a century ago if not longer. They've been rivals ever since, she and Merlin seem to have a much friendlier relationship though she still enjoys competing against him."
Kairi frowned; Sora put an arm around her. "Are you okay?"
"It's just that, well until now I always thought Grandmother was normal, that we were all normal. And now, well…" She held up her hand and without a word a blue flame appeared in her palm and flickered there hovering in the air.
Sora and Roxas stared dumbstruck before Sora managed. "Wow."
"I don't even have to speak to summon magic, it just happens."
Namine nodded, holding her sister. "It's just a gift Kairi, like my dreams."
"I didn't want any of this to happen though; I didn't want to be anything special. I just," she looked over at Sora. "I just wanted to have my friends and family and live a normal life."
Roxas nodded quietly. "We all did, and look at it this way Kairi, at least you can use magic, I still can't unless I'm with Namine."
Namine smiled, taking his hand and squeezing, a reddish flame similar to Kairi's blue appeared over their joined palms. "You just don't believe in it enough without someone helping. Listen to Grandmother, just believe in something."
Roxas nodded again, sheepishly this time, Sora doubted Roxas would ever come to grips with the whole magic thing; it scared him too much. He was more concerned about Kairi though, he hugged her tightly.
"Everything will be fine Kairi, we'll reseal the heart and then go back to Hollow Bastion and everything will be back to normal."
"Will you and Roxas go back to Twilight?"
He frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."
Kairi couldn't help herself, she started laughing. "Of course not, you're such a goof." She kissed him gently on the lips and he returned the gesture, holding her closely.
Roxas and Namine exchanged a glance before turning their attention back to the view; she looped her arms around his and leaned against him.
"I'll be glad when this is all over, no matter what happens, so long as we're still together."
He nodded in silent agreement, watching the dragons again. He wondered what it would be like to fly under your own power; he would actually like to try it sometime.
"Hold on!" Cid yelled as he twisted the controls and banked the airship harshly on its side. Out of the bridge screen the Heartless that had been trying to ram them sped past with Maleficent spouting green flame in pursuit. Straight ahead Mim tore yet another flying Heartless to pieces, the sky had grown dark despite it being mid-day and it was teeming with angry Heartless.
Zack looked back at Cid. "How much farther till we're over the central plaza?"
"Just about there now," grunted Cid as he righted the airship's path.
"Well that'll have to do I guess if we stay up here any longer I think we'll just be causing trouble, more Heartless keep arriving."
The airship shook and Cid checked his dials, "we just lost another engine, suppose you're right, you'd better go now before she falls out of the air."
Zack nodded and turned to everyone else. "Alright, everyone to the cargo hold, make sure you have everything with you, the parachutes are already down there, move!"
Everyone hurried off the bridge, as Roxas passed by the captain's chair Cid grabbed his arm.
"Kid, I wanted you to know that I'm sorry for throwing you around after Rikku died. I know it wasn't your fault, I was just angry, she meant the world to me."
Roxas opened his mouth wordlessly, and then nodded grimly, Cid winked; it looked all too much like Rikku for Roxas' comfort. "Go kick their asses' kid, give them hell."
Roxas rushed off after everyone else, sliding down flights of ladders until he reached the cargo deck, it was a large space, and it could have easily fit one of the dragons, probably even two. Zack had everyone assembled at the far end of the deck where the large bay doors were located, Roxas hurried over and joined them, taking the chute that Riku handed him and sliding it over his shoulders. Zack was an entirely different person now; there was no humor in his expression as he checked each person's pack over meticulously.
"Alright, I don't know how accurately these things will dump us, but Merlin said we need to wait until we're clear of the downdraft caused by the airship's propellers, it's a like a ship's wake, it'll blow us all over the place if we open too soon. If we get separated during the fall then head towards the clock tower, it's the tallest building in Traverse so it shouldn't be too hard to find."
He reached over and threw a lever and the doors opened, a Heartless came screeching towards them, all teeth and wings, Leon's sword-caster was up and firing before it got close and it fell out of sight in a wailing inferno.
Zack blinked calmly. "Okay, that's that then, out we go."
He jumped first, not even pausing to look as he did so; Riku went next followed by Tifa and Cloud. Roxas looked at Leon, expecting him to go next.
Leon shook his head. "You guys go; I want to see where everyone lands in case I need to come find any of you."
Roxas swallowed, stepping up to the open doors, the wind whipping at his face, he looped over the lip of the edge and felt his head spin. This wasn't what he'd imagined it would be like; he jumped as a hand gripped his. He looked to see Namine smiling at him.
"We'll be fine, let's go."
He nodded, swallowing his fear and closing his eyes, they jumped together and the world seemed to fall away for a moment as they fell. He reached for the chord that controlled the chute and got ready to pull as he plummeted towards the rooftops and streets below.
Sora watched as Roxas fell from view, looking at Kairi with a strong smile before he took a running start and jumped; Kairi right besides him. He thought he heard Leon yell something like 'showoff' at him but he wasn't certain. They fell together for what seemed like a long time before Kairi reached for her chord, Sora took that as his cue and pulled his, the chute deployed and he was yanked upwards violently, Kairi's was deployed too but she was blown away from him and drifting further. He tried swinging towards her but it didn't seem to do anything.
"Kairi!" He called.
"I'm okay Sora, I see Riku, and we'll meet you at the clock!"
He nodded and looked down, the roof of the nearest building was slanted and he was coming in at an angle, he tried to brace himself for the impact but it had very little effect as he collided with the shingles and began rolling towards the edge, trying desperately to grasp something to keep from falling off the roof. He reached the edge and felt his legs and waist slide over the edge, he started to scream as he felt the rest of him following suit and slipping over the chasm, then someone grabbed his hand.
"Gotcha!"
Zack pulled him back up onto the rooftop, smiling jovially. "That was close."
Sora pulled the now useless pack off and panted heavily, he didn't want to do that again, Zack patted him on the back as they sat together on the roof, "you alright?"
Sora nodded, smiling. "Thanks."
"Uh oh, company."
He followed Zack's gaze and saw the Heartless scrambling towards them, he reached out and his keyblade snapped into being.
Zack stood smiling, "nice trick." He reached up behind him and drew the large sword he wore on his back. "Let's see, there are five of them and two of us, they're dead." Then eight more appeared and joined the first five, Zack frowned. "Well that's not fair."
There was a thud and they turned to see Leon landing on the opposite roof, Zack peered over the edge of the building with a curious expression on his face, he looked over at Leon as the Heartless continued to advance.
"Leon!"
Leon looked up, kneeling with his caster already drawn; Zack grabbed Sora by the back of his armor.
"Catch!"
Sora barely had a chance to realize what was going on as Zack threw him across the gap between the buildings, though he did have a chance to cry out in terror as he sailed over the street. Then Leon had him and they rolled together across the roof, Leon picked him off the ground and smirked.
"He threw me!" Sora cried his voice indignant.
"Yes, it was all very exciting, want to go to the zoo next?"
Sora punched Leon in the arm. "We have to help him!"
"He'll be fine, trust me, let's get going."
They got up and started running across the rooftops, occasionally having to jump from one to the other but thankfully nothing like what Zack did. When they reached the clock tower Cloud, Tifa, Roxas and Namine were already there.
"Where's Zack?" Cloud asked.
"He made some new friends, should be here soon enough."
"Did you have much trouble?" Tifa said, looking down at Sora who was breathing heavily.
"Not really, it was pretty quiet aside from Zack's buddies."
"What about Riku and Kairi?" Sora managed as he caught his breath.
"Haven't seen them yet," Cloud said, he sounded a bit on edge.
"Then we'd better go find them."
They turned to see Zack coming around the corner, there was a fresh cut above his left eye though it wasn't bleeding that badly.
"Nice throw." Leon said, smirking.
"Nice catch." Zack returned.
"Don't throw me again!" Sora yelled.
Zack and Leon both started laughing while everyone else looked very confused.
"Alright, let's go get them," Zack said, shouldering his weapon. "I'm sure they know what we're doing by now, and I doubt Riku and Kairi are late intentionally."
There was a flash down an adjoining alley as a brilliant spout of light shot into the darkened sky. Zack considered the sight for a moment before shrugging.
"Well I guess that solves that problem, let's save them."