Edit: Telepathy from last chapter has been fixed. If you want to go back and re-read it, feel free.

Kairi... Kairi really needs... something. Just... Something.

Last day to vote is tomorrow! I suggest doing it! No, I'm not uploading on my birthday. The extra update for my birthday has already been accounted for. (Aren't you guys so lucky? My birthday, but YOU are the ones that get the present. :D Because I'm weird like that.)

Okay, enough of me being strange. Enjoy! ...Um... well. If you can. O.o

I was in too much pain to giggle at the sound Asch had made that was not 'Aha! I found you!' but was 'Aha, we're being rained on... by pebbles.' –Kairi

Yes, logic be damned. –Kairi

Chapter 3.7 – Akzeriuth
Part 35

Pain. Fire, and needles, and ice, and pain.

Also, pointy rock poking my back, about where my kidney is, I think.

In other words: more pain!

"Jade?"

"The field created by Tear's hymn broke in two just before we hit the ground. The others should be on the other side of that ridge," I heard Jade reply. But who had spoken first? Was it Luke or Asch? I couldn't tell. "Is he...?"

"He's alright. Broken arm, obviously, broken leg, two broken ribs, but he'll live... maybe... if he doesn't kill himself from the boredom first. Or maybe not, his leg should heal in about a week, it's just a thin fracture. His arm will take a little longer, seeing as how, you know, the bone is sticking out of his skin... Ugh, I hate seeing those. One of his ribs is a little displaced, but it didn't puncture anything, and the other is like his leg, just barely fractured."

Ah. Asch then. Luke doesn't know any healing artes, and especially not one that can give him that kind of a diagnosis.

"Did you see who else fell with us?" Asch asked. Jade took a deep breath.

"Guy and... Kairi. Those two were the only other ones that fell on this side of the ridge."

I heard Asch sucking in a deep breath.

"Don't tell me she fell into the mud..."

"I didn't see. I lost consciousness when we hit the ground, too, after all."

I took a moment to frown. Why did it sound like they were below me?

I shifted a bit, trying to get the pointy rock to stop digging into my back, and succeeded in displacing a number of small rocks.

"Aha!"

I was in too much pain to giggle at the sound Asch had made that was not 'Aha! I found you!' but was 'Aha, we're being rained on... by pebbles.'

"Kairi?" It was a tentative question, voiced by Jade.

I grunted.

"Well... At least she didn't fall into the mud. Did you have to drop the rocks on us, though?" Asch grumbled.

I wriggled a little more, still trying to get the pointy rock out from under me.

"Hey, Dark's got four broken bones, genius. I don't think he'd appreciate the rock rain either."

I let out a whine when I realized that not only was the rock under my kidney still there, I now had another one digging into my left shoulder.

"Kairi?!"

I took a few deep breaths before reaching down with my mind.

*Rocks. Sharp, pointy rocks. And pain. Lots of pain.*

I felt Asch cringing. *Morphine, time?* And then another cringe when he realized Jade could hear, too.

My brother didn't seem that surprised, though, which honestly worried me a bit.

*Um... Something like thirty hours before Luke let off his hyperresonance. I think.*

*That explains a lot.*

*I'll handle the usual pain. But can someone please get me off of these damn rocks?!*

It was quiet for a minute before Asch laughed, and I couldn't help but smile a bit, because it was so damn funny. There I was, with all of the fire and needles pain that comes with the miasma in my body, and I'm complaining about the rocks poking me.

Yes, logic be damned.

I heard a scuffling sound, and then a grunt, and a sigh.

"Where's the bottle?" Asch asked.

*Bag.*

"Throat or chest hurting more than usual?"

*I don't trust myself not to scream right now.*

"Ouch..."

I felt something shifting against my side, and I carefully blinked my eyes open.

I was on a ledge, Asch carefully bent over my torso as he rooted around in my bag for the mini-wing-pack thing that held the morphine, alcohol, sterile swabs, and syringes. I frowned a bit when he pulled it out and got to work.

*You're going to have to toss me over the edge, aren't you?*

Asch flinched. "I was actually planning on seeing what I could do about the rocks and just leaving you up here while I go check Guy. Unless you want to make Jade try to catch you. Good work with his leg, by the way. If you hadn't flushed the wound as thoroughly as you did, it would've gotten infected."

By this point, he'd already prepped everything, and I closed my eyes again as he stuck the needle in my arm. Not where it usually goes in, but oh well. No choice at the moment. It's the only spot he can reach without risking his balance.

I poked at the spot with Energies the moment the needle came out, while Asch put everything away. I opened my eyes again just in time for him to carefully lift my shoulders up.

*Left shoulder, kidney.*

One arm kept my shoulders suspended while the other shifted a rock. I arched my back as best I could when I felt fingers brush up against it, and the second rock was moved.

It was much, much more comfortable laying there without those two rocks poking me in the back, and the morphine was already doing its job.

Asch slipped back down from the ledge and wandered off while I closed my eyes and listened. A muttered fonic verse and a few tense moments later, and he sighed in relief.

"He's fine. Should be coming around any minute now, actually."

Jade's sigh was an echo of the relief Asch had expressed earlier. "Kairi?"

*Yes?*

"Can you spread a telepathic field? See if you can't contact Sync, at least. See if they're all okay."

I took a deep breath and let the small field spread out, mostly focusing on the area to my relative left, since that's where the ridge Jade mentioned earlier was.

Since I was putting more force into it than the usual field, I felt it when I stumbled across the first unconscious mind. Then another, and a third... Aha!

Tear was awake, and just close enough for me to open a connection. It looked like no one else was conscious yet on that side.

I poked at Tear's mind before opening a channel. *Hey...*

*Kairi?! Oh, thank goodness! Dark, Luke, Asch, Guy, Jade, are they with you?*

I frowned. *Everyone but Luke, yes. Jade's got a gash on his leg from before the fall, but that's it. Asch is fine. I'm fine, if in a lot of pain because I went too long without my pain meds. Guy's fine too. Dark has a broken leg and rib that will take about a week to heal, because the breaks are so small, another rib that's broken but not displaced or anything, and... It sounds like his arm's in really bad shape. Asch said something about a bone sticking out... Dark has my pity. You guys?*

Tear sighed, mostly in relief, and partly in worry. *Sync's alright, aside from the injuries he took before the fall... Ion, Anise, Natalia, and I are fine. Mieu is worried about Luke, but otherwise is unharmed, Sorylle has a broken hind leg, Twilight has a broken front leg, and Valkyria...* Tear trailed off. *I'm sorry, Kairi. Valkyria jumped under Sync's body when the field broke. It's a good thing she did, he'd have likely suffered from a fatal concussion if she hadn't, but...*

I took a deep breath. *I see... Thank you, Tear.*

*Where are Reighn and Luke, though?*

I frowned. *Reighn took over up top with the evacuation... If we're lucky, he went with one of the groups and got out in time. If not...* I trailed off, then bit my lip and refused to continue down that trail of thought. Wait...

I drew the connection as thin as I could for a few minutes so I could think without Tear hearing.

Hadn't Van taken Asch away by griffin in the game? And Luke... Oh no.

*Van took Luke.*

*What?!*

*I'll explain when we find you guys. Just see about getting everyone awake,* I said quickly before cutting the connection.

My eyes snapped open. "Move Dark."

Asch let out a surprised grunt, but sighed and, from the sound of the shifting rocks, did it anyway. "Clear."

I wiggled my fingers and toes, then threw one leg over the ledge and let my body roll off.

A good thing it wasn't all that high up, because I stumbled upon landing.

Asch gave me a look. "Tear's awake. She, Sync, Anise, Ion, Natalia and Mieu are alright... We're praying Reighn left with one of the refugee groups. Twilight and Sorylle have a broken leg each. Valkyria's dead for saving Sync from said fate. And Van took off with Luke," I reported, standing up carefully and noting with a morbid fascination how the world was tilting all over the place.

"What?!"

Asch, Jade, and I looked over at the blonde who had spoken. I frowned. "I'll explain once we join up with the others."

"And just how are we going to do that? We try to go up this ridge, we risk Dark getting injured worse," Asch argued. I frowned and looked around, then blinked and started walking off away from them. "Kairi?"

I hopped from one section of earth to another and then stepped around what looked like part of a building. Then I chuckled. "Why don't we take the Tartarus around? Four people can operate her, if needed."

"Barely," Jade muttered, stepping up behind me and crossing his arms at the sight of the landship that was sitting on the mud. He stood there, staring at it like it was the strangest thing he'd ever seen for a number of minutes before he sighed and started walking over to it, hands back in his pockets.

"How the hell did that survive the fall?" Asch asked, more shock in his voice than I'd ever heard before. I just chuckled.

*Oh, I didn't tell you? That's how they got from fallen Akzeriuth to Yulia City in the game.*

Asch reached over and smacked me before turning and heading back to pick up Dark. Guy gave the two of us an odd look, but shook his head and decided that helping Jade would be a better idea than asking questions.

"Urk..."

I blinked and turned before running over to where Asch was leaning over Dark. His left arm was wrapped up tight, as was his right leg.

"Whoa, careful there. You've got a lot of broken bones from that fall."

Bleary, mismatched eyes looked up at us, and then shot open as Dark once again tried to sit up. "Natalia?!"

"She's fine," I said quickly. "Sorylle's got a broken hind leg, but she's fine too."

"Luke?"

"We'll explain that once we've picked up the other group."

Dark frowned, and Asch sighed, carefully picking him up. "We should go. I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to. You're already in bad enough shape," he said looking up at me. Dark looked like he was about to argue about being picked up, but seemed to note the way his leg was wrapped up.

I headed back over to the Tartarus, noting that the ramp was down, now, and turned to wait a moment for Asch and Dark, then continued on ahead, making my way to the bridge. Jade was already there, and Guy returned from checking the engine about the same time Asch and Dark arrived.

"It looks like everything will still run. I'd like to get it checked out in a port, but..."

"At this moment, we don't have that luxury," Jade said. He turned to where Dark was sitting in one of the control seats. "Guy, why don't you sit next to Dark and talk him through the controls? The more people operating the Tartarus, the better."

The blonde nodded, then frowned and looked at me and Asch. "Wait, do they know how to...?" he trailed off. Jade sighed.

"Kairi's been on the Tartarus multiple times before, and she has a habit of hovering around up here," he admitted. I grinned.

"Also, if I have any questions, Asch will probably have the answer. Do please remember I travel with a couple former God-Generals."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "And I'm going to admit to hoping you can say 'three' when we get back above."

Asch blinked. "What? ...Cantabile?"

Jade shrugged. "No, though that would make a nice, even four. No, the Head of the Fon Master Guards is, technically, a God-General, so the phrase 'former God-General' applies to Reighn as well."

I nodded, then looked around, grinned, and hopped over to a seat on the right. Asch watched me go with a sigh, shook his head, and took the front most seat... which put a seat between us, unfortunately. But that's beside the point.

Once Jade got us moving, albeit slowly, things became a bit easier. Of course, stopping the Tartarus again was another story, thank goodness Jade really knew what he was doing. Once we were safely 'docked,' I hopped up and headed out, Asch on my heels. I thought I heard Guy make some comment about checking the rest of the mechanics, but I was already heading for the hatch, so I didn't really care.

"Hey, where'd Zion take you, anyway?"

I frowned. "Up to one of the side tunnels, which he dumped me in for a griffin to pick up. I'm glad Jade found me when he did. That's how he got the gash in his leg. Couldn't see a thing 'cause Zion busted all the lights on his way out." The ramp was lowered, and Asch and I headed down. The group wasn't quite in sight yet.

"I'm surprised he didn't kill Sync."

"Orders from Van, because Arietta wants to use Sync to open up the Daathic Seals instead of Ion."

"Never thought I'd be grateful to the brat."

"Which brat?" Anise asked as we rounded another turn. I looked around. Tear, over by a pool of mud. Sync, sitting in front of Natalia, who was doing a final check on his injuries. Anise, of course, standing next to Ion, who was knelt next to Sync. Twilight, who was keeping his front left paw off the ground. Sorylle, lounged across his back.

Mieu, running over to Asch and letting his ears droop when he realized it wasn't Luke.

"Mieuuuu... Master really isn't with you, is he?"

I sighed and crouched, patting Mieu on the head. "No. But at least we know he's alive. The same can't be said of Reighn."

Sync stood up carefully and walked over to me. "We underestimated Van," he said. I frowned and nodded, while Asch sighed.

"He's been after my hyperresonance since I was a kid. I never thought he'd resort to using Luke's, not with the way he was acting about it," Asch added. I crossed my arms.

"And the passage ring is gone... With Sync now officially adopted by Cantabile, we've only got so much time left," I continued.

Then the dizzy spell hit, and everything went black again.

Fun Fact: I hadn't originally intended to kill off Valkyria. Not in the first version. However, with the addition of Twilight to the party in the second version, it made little sense for Kairi to have a monster and a cat. So yes. Valkyria died. At least in version three, she died for a reason, instead of just not surviving the landing.