"So what's the plan?" Naminé asked.

Kairi shrugged with indifference. "Charge right in and swing like crazy?"

"Yeah, and get sliced and diced like onions on a chopping board," Naminé laughed cynically.

Kairi kept her gaze steady on Xaldin. "You got a better plan?"

"Xaldin's element is wind, right?" Naminé mused. "So, I'm assuming this guy can either fly or hover."

Before they could make a move, Xaldin cried out, "Wind, guard me!" His lances surrounded him, rushing around faster and faster until they formed a protective Aeroga barrier.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Figures. This guy's a floater." She gripped the Keyblade tightly with both hands and charged.

Xaldin raised one his lances and began spinning it vertically. "Wind!" A swirling ball of wind formed itself in front of him which soared through the air toward his oncoming opponent.

Kairi raised her Keyblade above her head. "It's just air, right?" she thought. "How dangerous can it be?" She swung with all of her might. Unfortunately, she misjudged her range and as a result, the projectile slammed itself upside her head.

As Kairi tried to regain her bearings, Naminé groaned. "Quit acting recklessly like Sora and get your head back in the game!" she scolded. "If something as harmless as water can hurt you, don't you think...Look out!"

Xaldin rushed in swinging his lances gracefully like a master. His weapons barely nicked Kairi as she bent backward, jumped over and deflected his swings. She flinched as one of the lances tore a slight gash across her exposed arm. Finally, he finished his combo with his lances spearing close to the ground, jutting outward like needles on a porcupine. The pink princess almost stumbled over from the attack.

She leapt away a safe distance from Xaldin, clutching her arm in pain. "Those things aren't exactly kid-friendly, are they?" she muttered through gritted teeth.

"What? You expected them to tickle?"

Kairi shuddered. "Please don't bring that up again. I'm having a hard time forgetting as it is." Without knowing why, she glanced at her wrist. "Wow. It's only been three minutes into the fight and we're already on the losing end. How pathetic is that?"

"What's more sad is that we don't even wear a watch," Naminé added. Xaldin hovered on the spot, renewing his Aeroga barrier. "You think the Keyblade can pierce that thing?"

Kairi bit her lip. "Only one way to find out!" She charged again, her Keyblade ready to strike. Xaldin wasted no time and reciprocated her blitz. "Have to time this just right..." It was like playing chicken with a bullet train. Three seconds to impact...two...

Before Xaldin knew what was happening, Kairi surprised her opponent by running right past him, only to leap at the bridge's handrail. Using her momentum, she kicked off the bridge's wall to give her enough altitude to thrust the Keyblade straight at Xaldin. Unfortunately, the instant the Keyblade made contact with the wind sphere, Kairi's weapon shot out of her hand and clattered a few feet away.

"Oh no." Kairi scrambled out of Xaldin's range. The lances barely grazed her as she Dodge-Flipped to retrieve her weapon. "How am I supposed to get through that?"

"What's wrong, Princess?" Xaldin scoffed. "Giving up already?"

Kairi and Naminé had the same thought in mind. "Like Hades, we are!"

"Any suggestions?" Kairi asked Naminé privately.

Naminé groaned in frustration. "It's a wind barrier that's been created by his lances surrounding him real fast. I don't see..." Her thought trailed off.

"What? What is it?"

"Kairi, use Blizzaga on his Aeroga shield!" Naminé cried.

Kairi shrugged. "Don't know what you have planned, but if you say so." She aimed her Keyblade at Xaldin. "FREEZE!" A mass of ice crystals shot out of the blade's tip. Xaldin only looked at the oncoming spell curiously.

"Is that the best you've got?" he taunted. The ice spell made contact with his wind barrier. "Your spells are..." Instantly, frost began to spread over the sphere. "What?!" The swirling wind that was protecting Xaldin suddenly became his imprisonment as the air crystallized into ice.

"Now, Kairi!" The pink princess tightened her grip on the Keyblade and blitzed forward. She raised her weapon back like a batter and swung with all her might. The Keyblade flashed as it smashed throught the crystal sphere, connecting with Xaldin's midsection and sending him flying back. "That's my girl!" Naminé cheered.

Xaldin clutched his abdomen, giving Kairi a chilly glare. "Take this..." Before she knew what happened, Xaldin leapt high into the air, disappearing from Kairi's sight.

Her head turned back and forth, confused and unsure. "Where'd he go?"

"Kairi! Above you!" Naminé warned. The Princess of Heart Dodge Flipped just in time as Xaldin's giant lances rained from the sky, crashing into the ground like lightning before retracting back into the air.

"What was..." was all that Kairi managed to say before having to perform another Dodge Flip away from Xaldin's lances. "What? I finally land a hit on you and all you can do now is hide in the sky?" Kairi yelled. "Come back down here and face me!"

Instead of retracting, the lances began to surround her position before fading back into thin air. Kairi sensed what was coming before she even heard it. She quickly back-flipped out of the way as Xaldin's giant lances struck the spot where she had just occupied.

Kairi only stared at Xaldin as he returned to the battlefield, his lances shrinking back to normal size. "Enough! If you wanted to die quicker..." The Whirlwind Lancer bared his teeth. "...all you had to do was ask."

"I wish Cloud would regain consciousness already!" Yuffie complained. "My back's starting to kill me!"

"Didn't your father ever tell you to lift with your legs?" Cid retorted.

"Don't you dare bring my father into this!" Yuffie snapped. After finding Cloud at the Great Maw, Aerith, Yuffie, Tron and Cid were slowly trekking their way to the mineshaft to meet up with the others. Since Cloud was still knocked out, they had no choice but to carry his dead weight along with them. Cid and Yuffie were the lucky "volunteers," grunting underneath each arm. "Why isn't Tron helping again? He's a lot taller than me!"

"He's the one guiding us!" Cid groaned. "Now, quit yapping and lift!"

"How much further, Tron?" Aerith asked calmly.

Tron closed his eyes for a moment. After a few seconds, he opened them again and pointed a few inches forward and to the right. "Our destination's that way. At the current pace we're going, we should arrive there in forty minutes."

"Forty minutes?!" Yuffie got out from underneath Cloud, almost causing Cid to lose his grip. "Forget this! I need a break!" She plopped down on the spot. Cid, seeing no point in trying to persuade her otherwise, carefully laid Cloud onto the ground.

"Damn girl! You could've at least warned me!" He began to reach into his pocket for a lighter, intending to light up a cigarette. "What the...?" Cid frantically patted his pockets down. "Have you seen my..."

Aerith sighed. "Yuffie. Give Cid back his lighter."

Yuffie mumbled as she reluctantly handed it back to Cid. "He should stop smoking, though! He already inhales enough smoke from the airship's engines as it is!"

"You already know it calms my nerves!" Cid began to click his lighter.

"I don't understand..." Tron commented in confusion, but his voice was overshadowed by the other two.

"But you promised Shera you were going to quit!" Yuffie insisted.

Cid stopped clicking. "What she doesn't know, can't..."

"Quiet." Aerith didn't shout, but she said it in her most dangerous tone. Despite Cid and Yuffie's voices being louder than hers, they immediately fell silent. "Do you hear that?" The group strained their ears.

"Hear what? All I hear is..." Yuffie blinked. "...nothing."

"Exactly. It's too quiet." Aerith's face was a picture of worry. "We should be hearing sounds of fighting right now."

"And it's been a bit too easy lately," Cid added. "We should've encountered at least a darn Heartless or Nobody by now."

Suddenly, rapid footsteps broke the silence. The fighters quietly drew their weapons. "Think it's a Heartless?" Yuffie mused.

Tron shook his head. "Not likely. I'm hearing a certain pattern in their footsteps." His eyes narrowed. "It sounds like two figures. One biped and a quadraped."

"And what's that mean in User terms?" Yuffie sighed.

"A human and a canine," Tron clarified.

After a few tense moments, a familiar figure in black dashed out from behind a corner. "It's Tifa!" Yuffie cried. Indeed, Tifa Lockhart had finally rejoined the party. Pattering behind her was Pluto along with Chip, Dale and Jiminy. "Tifa, it's really you!" The Materia hunter leapt forward and gave her a tight squeeze. Tifa returned the embrace.

"Is Cloud okay?" she asked.

"We're fine too," Cid muttered. "Thanks Tifa."

Aerith shushed him with her gentle gaze. "I healed him as best as I could, but he's exhausted."

Tifa knelt by Cloud's side and gently lifted up his head. Pain and worry were etched on her face. "Cloud..."

"All he said was that someone was coming," Aerith continued. "You have any idea what he's talking about?"

Tifa shook her head. "No idea. I almost caught up to him, but after that is a complete blank." She glanced around at the eerily barren landscape. "What's been going on since I've been gone?"

Confirming what Jiminy told her, the group filled Tifa in on the details of what happened and where they were heading.

"So what are we standing around for?" Tifa smacked a gloved hand into her palm. "Let's get to that mineshaft already!"

"But Cloud's too heavy, though!" Yuffie whined.

Tifa raised an eyebrow. "Really?" She positioned her hands underneath Cloud and to everyone's astonishment, she tossed him over her shoulder like an empty rucksack. "He seems pretty light to me."

"Tifa?" Cid shook his head in disbelief. "How in blazes are you able to carry him so easily?!"

"Pfft. Please." Tifa winked at him. "We grew up together. How could I not?"

"Come on!" The sky darkened as Xaldin began his deadly dance. Kairi had no choice, but to run out of his range as fast as possible.

"How in the world is he able to expand those lances?" Kairi huffed.

"They're made of the old bag's wind," Naminé replied. "What'd you expect?"

"Take this!" The lances twirled around him, whirling dangerously like helicopter rotors. He rotated around like a gyroscope, flipping upside down and swinging around his weapons with graceful ease. Kairi kept backing up, her eyes locked onto the mesmerizing choppers. After a few seconds, she felt her body press itself against the wall immediately behind her. She had unknowingly and literally backed herself into a corner.

Xaldin's spears homed in on her position. She could almost make out the "Made in Japan" labels etched on them. The Lancer grinned evilly. "Here!" he cried as he thrust his weapons in Kairi's direction. The Princess of Heart instinctively tightened her leg muscles like coiled springs and pushed off from the ground, Aerial Dodging over Xaldin's head. As she landed safely out of reach, Xaldin suddenly stopped his onslaught and leapt high into the air again.

"Kairi!" The lances began to glow and expand with power. They connected themselves end to end to form what looked like a giant snake. The dragon-like creature slithered through the air and off the side of the bridge. An inexperienced person would've let out a sigh of relief, but Kairi knew better. The dragon's head burst out of the dark abyss, its body still pulsating with energy.

As Xaldin landed on top of his makeshift dragon, Kairi's eyes grew wider as the mouth of the mechanized beast opened up and began charging up. "Oh, now that's messed up," Kairi muttered.

"Beware the face of despair!" A giant wind tunnel burst from the dragon's maw, its head sweeping the entire length of the bridge.

Thinking quickly, Kairi leapt behind one of the statues lining the arena and tucked herself in as the tornado squall passed dangerously close over her head. As soon as the beast expelled its energy, Xaldin re-entered the battlefield, the monster transforming back into regular-sized lances.

"You know at times like these," Naminé began, "I wish we could just summon the Keyblade back to our hand. We'd be able to throw it without having to go back and retrieve it."

"Thanks a lot, Nomura," Kairi grumbled. She aimed the Keyblade at Xaldin and fired off another Blizzaga spell. Unfortunately, she was too far away which gave Xaldin enough time to thrust one of the lances into the ground and swing his entire body out of harm's way.

"You're still too inexperienced for battle, Princess!" he taunted. Xaldin began to rapidly teleport around the field, causing giant air pockets to form and fold upon themselves. Kairi tried to keep tabs on Xaldin's position, but he was teleporting around the arena too quickly for her eyes to keep up.

"Two-to-one odds that he ends up behind us," Naminé said. Kairi twirled her Keyblade and thrust it backwards. She heard a stony crunch as her weapon made contact with a hard object. "That didn't sound natural." Kairi whipped her head around and saw that she had stabbed the statue behind her right between its legs. Before she could say anything, Xaldin finally teleported directly in front of her, his lances already in mid-swing. Kairi felt the wind knocked out of her as the combined mass of all six lances slammed into her stomach, sending her flying across the length of the bridge.

She coughed, her body desperately trying to regain air. After a few seconds, Kairi staggered back to her feet as Xaldin began to form his dragon once again. "Oh no you don't!" she roared. Kairi Aerial Dodged into the air and grabbed hold of the dragon's body.

"What are you doing?" Xaldin yelled from the air. As the dragon slithered over the side of the bridge, it suddenly jerked its body upward, taking her by surprise.

Kairi's heart stopped as she felt herself lose her grip and plummet into the abyss. Her descent seemed to make everything happen in slow motion. She could see the dragon start to shrink from view. Xaldin's face looked sadistically gleeful. Memories she hadn't thought of in a long time flashed before her eyes. She felt her mind becoming overwhelmed by fear and panic. "Not like this!" she thought. "I don't want to die falling into the darkness like this!"

FLASH!

"So Riku's taught you how to Aerial Dodge, huh?" Sora asked her.

"Yeah, but I wish you would teach me how to Glide," she pouted cutely.

"I actually just learned a neat trick recently that I've been meaning to show you."

"Oh really?"

He grinned at her with that mesmerizing smile. "Remember that Magnega spell that I taught you a few days ago?"

"You mean the one that began to pull my dress in?" she asked.

"Do you have to keep bringing that up? I already said that I was sorry!"

"Just get to the point," she sighed impatiently.

"Okay, I was falling, right? I started to panic and automatically summoned the Keyblade. I found out that you can actually chain Magnegas together so they'll be able to pull you upward." She looked at him in confusion. "Like a conveyor belt," he clarified.

"How exactly did you end up falling anyway?" She batted her eyelashes at him. "Were you dreaming that you saw yourself plunging into the ocean again?"

Sora grinned sheepishly. "Actually, I was trying to grab a coconut from that tall palm tree."

"You mean the one that's hanging over the waterfall?" She shook her head in amusement. "Oh, Sora. You're still hopeless."

FLASH!

"GATHER!" The orb of gravity formed directly in front of her. She reached out with her free hand, praying that her plan would work. Fortunately, the Magnega orb sensed the object hurtling away from it and began to pull it to its core. Kairi's body immediately halted its descent and began to orbit around the orb. Before she made contact with the center, Kairi fired off another Magnega orb when she reached the peak of her momentum. She repeated the process, making her way back upward until she was safely back on the bridge.

Xaldin's back was to her as he was looking over the other side of the bridge, his lances hovering lazily behind him. Taking advantage of the situation, Kairi swiftly and silently charged at him. It was only when she was three feet behind him before he noticed her surprise blitz.

Kairi grabbed one of his stationary lances and plunged it straight into the ground. Using her body's momentum, she swung around and slammed a kick into Xaldin's midsection. While he was stunned, Kairi released her grip, grabbed another lance in mid-air while she was flying sideways, pierced the ground and rammed her feet into the middle of his back. She kept both hands on the lance as she slinked downward to the ground, her back rubbing against the lance. She gave a toss of her head to remove the hair that had unceremoniously draped itself over her face.

"Nice pole dancing, girl," Naminé laughed. "Ever think of becoming a stri-"

"Don't even finish that sentence, Naminé," Kairi retorted. Before he could recover, Kairi quickly and swiftly grabbed the remaining lances and used them to pin Xaldin to the ground. His eyes widened as Kairi towered over him, her Keyblade gleaming in the moonlight. She straddled his pinned body with one foot on each side of him and raised her Keyblade.

"TAKE THIS!" she roared as she plunged her weapon dead center into the Lancer's form. She pulled the Keyblade out smoothly and cleanly, data streams beginning to bleed out from the mortal wound.

As Xaldin's form disintergrated, a huge powerful gust exploded from underneath Kairi, causing her dress to blow upward. "EEK!" She desperately pushed down as best as she could, but the unyielding wind kept the fabric suspended that would've given anyone a good look at the color of her underwear. The wind finally died down as soon as Xaldin vanished.

Kairi smoothed down her dress with her hands. "Where'd that wind come from?"

"Someone with a dirty mind, I'd guess," Naminé muttered darkly.

"I thought we were done with the perverted stuff!" Kairi whined.

Naminé sighed. "Kairi? This is the Organization we're talking about. They're made up of a bunch of guys who haven't got any action since they became Nobodies. It's kinda expected."

"I think they weren't successful in dating even BEFORE they became Nobodies," Kairi amended. "And with personalities like that, who would go out with those creeps anyway?"

"Kinda makes you wonder if they're all gay."

Kairi cringed. "Um...ew. Thanks for putting really disturbing images in my mind, Naminé."

Naminé giggled. "It's what I'm here for."