A lot of physical pain, a few bits of fluff, add a pinch of Energy work, mix well with an explanation, and then add a dash of something relevant to the spin-off, and we have this chapter.

*Were all the adjectives really necessary?* -Jade

Chapter 11.6 – Dances With Death
Part 95

The problem with active Energy backlashes is... well...

"Hng..."

"Kairi?"

I groaned again and finally forced my eyes open, groaning at the pain that brought. "Asch...?" Ow, ow, ow...

"I'm here. I'm here... What happened?"

I switched to using telepathy. My everything hurt way too much for this... *Star cut my stabilizer loose... I told you I started a forest fire before.*

Asch chuckled. "Yeah, we saw that fire from the southern edge of the continent. At first, I thought it was just Zion getting a bit fire-happy... Then Evena came running in. Twilight and Sorylle took off without so much as a glance at Dark or any of us. Illeka... didn't make it out. She was too busy getting one of her packmates out of the snow. He didn't make it either... You got lucky. Twilight was able to find you and get you out before the lack of oxygen or the intense heat got to you."

I swallowed, painful as it was. *Valon wasn't so lucky.*

"The other Ion replica?"

*He's dead. Ryndor's throwing knife in the gut, Zion's Mystic Arte, and then one of Star's puppets was sacrificed to make sure the job was done just before I unleashed that inferno. He was dead even before the fire reached him.*

Asch gave me a sympathetic look, but didn't reach out to hug me or anything. Good thing, since I could feel all the burns from where the initial fires had jumped from my skin to the world around me.

I glanced around. Blue, blue... candles, it was dark outside... This place looked familiar, though it was all blurry. *Where are we?*

"Grand Chokmah. You've... been unconscious for two weeks."

I grunted. *Not surprised. Nephry? The citizens of Keterburg?*

"Anyone that had family elsewhere has been relocated to the city their family lives in. Those who only had family in Keterburg are staying with Nephry at the Curtiss manor. Jade's basically moved into the palace to give them a little more space," Asch explained.

*What time is it?*

Asch bit his lip. Then he sighed. "Two-thirty in the morning... or thereabouts."

I frowned. *How long have you been sitting there?*

Asch looked reluctant. "Most of the last four days. Most of your burns got infected... We almost lost you a few days ago, more than once. And... You kept muttering something a divide, and snow, and ash... It almost sounded like a song or poem a few times, but then it'd get so disjointed I couldn't understand a word you were saying."

I took a deep breath. *New Divide... Funny. I was thinking it was oddly appropriate as Evena and I were headed out to face Zion.*

"Kairi..."

*He's not gonna give up, Asch. I need to figure out what he's up to... before he can cause problems I can't fix,* I said. *Keterburg... It's going to take years to rebuild, at least...*

Asch sighed. "I know. And... I know you feel responsible. But everyone's alive. Minor burns... aside from yours... and they can rebuild. But for now... You need to rest."

I gave him a look, well, as much as I could with how little I wanted to move. *So do you.* Asch looked uncomfortable, and I sighed, the motion bringing my attention to the burns across my torso. *You know, the bed's big enough to fit both of us without you having to be pressed right up against me.* He sighed, but stood and headed around to the other side anyway.

"Only if you promise not to tell anyone." My eyes were already drooping, so I just hummed something that didn't mean anything in particular and let them close.

I think I fell asleep before Asch even laid down.

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

"Now I know I didn't leave him there."

I was pulled up out of sleep again, this time by Jade's voice.

"Take it from someone who's sat at someone's bedside for extended periods of time. It gets really uncomfortable. I can't blame him for taking a nap." This was Peony.

Someone sighed. "One, she's covered in burns. I'm not even sure how the entire top layers of her skin got seared off, and I don't think I want to know. Asch wouldn't normally risk her wounds getting aggravated." Jade again. "Two... He was raised a noble. It's not exactly proper."

*Why don't you lower your voices a bit? He wasn't gonna leave with me like this, so I basically ordered him to get some sleep,* I said, connecting both of them. *And as the blonde man already said, sleeping in a chair can get really uncomfortable.*

*How long have you been awake?* Jade asked.

*Um... I heard your comment about not leaving Asch in the bed?* I paused. *What time is it?*

*About seven in the morning,* Peony said.

*When did you wake up that you told Asch to get some rest?* Jade asked, apparently correcting himself.

*Erm... Two-ish? Asch wasn't really looking for a clock, and I'm sore all over, eyes included. My vision's not great right now.*

*What happened up on the mountain with Zion? We saw the fire from the bay, and Evena said it had been a three-on-three fight, but I was only aware of you, her, Zion, and Ryndor being in the area,* Jade said. I sighed.

*You know what? I'll tell you later. So I can tell everyone at once and not have to repeat myself a million times over.*

*Good idea,* Peony agreed. *I'll go see who's awake, and have them on standby to bring the others once they're awake. In the meantime, I'll leave Jade here to check over you. Seth, Reighn, Natalia, and Tear all ganged up on him and Flick and ordered them to at least learn a couple basic healing artes, what with all the refugees and the burns and everything.*

I twitched my lips, then winced at the pain, and tried not to wince at that pain. *I'm surprised Asch didn't jump on that bandwagon.*

*He was a little more concerned about you at the time,* Jade replied.

And, cue the guilt. *Right... Hey, do me a favor?* A pause. *Don't tell anyone about Asch falling asleep like this.*

Jade chuckled. *For fear of it getting back to the duke? Don't worry. My lips are sealed.*

I sensed Peony leaving and cut the connection with him. A moment later, a soft, familiar warmth brushed over the intensely painful burns on my torso. Scan.

*It looks like most of the infection is gone now. Your fever's gone entirely, though I'm a little concerned...*

*The burns aren't healing, are they?*

*No. Not at all over the two weeks since you received them.*

I sighed mentally, then pulled myself out of my body. *Alright... Looks like I've got to do this the hard way—oh, ow. Did I look this bad last time?*

*Last time?!*

I chuckled. *Ah, yeah... This isn't my first violent, aggressive-active Energy backlash.*

*Were all the adjectives really necessary?*

*Yes. I'll explain in full later.*

Jade just kinda nodded once and went back to what he was doing, pointing out the worst of the burns, which were, I noted, centered around my right hip. Interesting. They'd been focused higher, last time.

It took me about two hours to get rid of the Energies blocking the healing process. I then unleashed water and earth Energies on my burns and promptly slipped back into my body and fell asleep again.

When I woke up, Asch was nowhere to be found, and I had a rather pressing problem.

I threw the blankets off and made a beeline for the bathroom.

"Huh... Well, she appears to be up and about, now," I heard someone say after a moment. Business done, I stepped back out of the bathroom, my lingering burns coming back to bite me in the ass.

"It's called a bathroom run," I grumbled, sitting down again. "Ah... Fuck, I hurt."

Peony grimaced. "Yeah, that looks painful, though it at least looks better than it did yesterday."

I hummed. "Where's Asch?"

"Sync was turning into something of a pest, so Asch dragged him out into the gardens to knock a little patience into his head," Cantabile retorted. I glanced around. Peony, Jade, Cantabile, Seth, and Luke.

"So... Did you guys get sent ahead to see if I was ready to talk, or was this just kinda random?"

A number of glances danced around. Hm. The former, then.

"Go round everyone up, and I'll try to find something a bit more socially decent than this nightgown," I said, standing up and immediately shifting my weight to my left leg. Damn, it hurt to stand on the right one.

"Are you going to be able to walk alright?" Seth asked, glancing at my hip. "Your hip was pretty badly burnt..."

I huffed. "I've already got a limp in that leg from my knee," I grumbled. "I'll—fuck!" I tucked and rolled a bit, careful to keep my right hip from hitting the floor too hard. "Speaking of my knee..."

"You keep taking damage to that leg and you're never going to walk straight again," Cantabile noted before walking out with three of the others. I shot a scowl at her before drawing in Energies and unleashing them upon myself once again.

"Tell me something I don't know. Really. I would absolutely love to learn something new," I grumbled. Then I paused, feeling around myself. That was weird...

I adjusted my seating position, closed my eyes, and slipped out of my body. Then I turned around and started an odd sort of meditation.

It didn't take me long to find what had drawn my attention, and I snapped back to my body with an amused smirk on my lips.

"What?"

I glanced up at Jade. "Oh, I've picked up another spirit Energy... and a secondary Talent to go with it."

And given what had happened on the mountain...

I knew Luke and Asch had a habit of using their fonslots to contact each other—practice made for a much less painful conversation, apparently—so I guessed that Asch and Sync would be among the first to show up.

So I settled in to wait for a few minutes, blanket draped over my bare legs for lack of a better option.

Just as I decided I'd done enough to numb the pain using Energies, something... twinged. Like that little voice in the back of your head that tells you when not to do something.

I smirked and focused on it. "Six, five, four..." I muttered out loud before looking up at the door. Jade looked absolutely baffled as it opened, Asch running in just as I would have hit 'zero', had I kept counting.

"How did you do that...?" Jade murmured.

"Secondary Talent," I answered easily, noting that Asch was now looking a bit weirded out.

"Why am I being stared at?"

I smirked. "I was poking around with something." A slight hiss as I shifted.

"We weren't giving you the morphine because of all the antibiotics we had you on for a while there, but if you'd like it now..." Asch started.

"No, I'll be fine. I'd rather be aware of what I'm saying, at least."

"Right, explanation time..." Sync muttered, sitting on the floor next to the couch I was settled upon. Asch sat down next to me, and Jade kept up his hovering... at least, until I pointed to a chair and fixed a rather irritated glare on him. Then he sat down.

It didn't take long for everyone to arrive. Reighn was the one to speak up and ask the question on all their minds.

"What happened up on Mt. Roneal?"

"Star was waiting for Zion and Ryndor. She had the other Ion replica, Valon, with her."

"Valon was helping the Council?" Ion sounded distressed.

"No, no... Star's got a grudge against the Ion replicas. She wanted to kill him. Ryndor and Zion were going to trade him for me," I said quickly. "He was pretty slippery, though... managed to avoid getting speared by Star's puppet when they realized I wouldn't cooperate, then helped me and Evena fight them."

"And the fire?" Asch asked.

"Star got in a lucky shot to my arm with one of her puppets... without my stabilizer, and with as angry as I was... I completely lost control of the Energies that were flocking around me." I paused and bit my lip, glancing over at Sorylle. Twilight had his head laid across her back in a comforting gesture. I didn't try this often, but... I growled softly.

Sorylle's ear twitched, and she shook her head, growling back, her tone one of open rebuke. I didn't really understand her, but I got the point. She didn't blame me for what had happened to her mother.

"So, now what? I'm guessing Valon didn't make it out..." Sync said, trailing off and looking over at Tear and Ion.

"No, but even if I hadn't unleashed that inferno, I don't think Valon would have gotten away. Star was downright murderous, to the point of sacrificing one of her puppets to that inferno just to insure that he was dead," I admitted. "Zion wasn't expecting me to lose control, either."

"Which means we still hold a lot of cards where Energies are concerned," Asch noted. I nodded.

"Yeah." I yawned, then scowled. "I hate Energy backlashes..."

Asch and Sync just kinda chuckled at me, and I tossed a pillow at Sync's head, since he was easier to hit than Asch. That would have taken some twisting that I just didn't want to do right then.

"Well, we've gotten the refugees taken care of for the most part," Jade said, bringing us back around to a more important topic. "I think the next thing we need to worry about is getting at least half of the God-Generals back to Daath."

I glanced around.

"Kairi and I are staying here until she's healed," Asch said, tone making it quite clear that it wasn't up for debate. I was a bit too tired to argue, anyway, so I just sorta hummed and let my head roll over to rest against the back of the couch.

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

The prairie grasses were blue and violet, with white, green, yellow, and orange spots of color here and there where wildflowers poked up. I looked around in confusion. This wasn't our usual choice of stargazing place. Assuming I was correct, and I was actually on the third plane.

"Daddy? Daddy, where are you?!"

I looked around, almost frantic now. The child, where was that child?

There! I spotted the brown hair sticking up out of the tall grasses and ran over toward him quickly. He screamed when I grabbed him.

"Shh, shh, I'm not gonna hurt you... Shh..."

The boy twisted around to look up at me with wide, red-rimmed brown eyes. "Where's my daddy?"

I held the boy close. "Shh... It's okay. You're just dreaming, okay? Shh..."

The boy fell asleep, and then faded away.

Fun Fact: This little blurb at the bottom bears importance for two reasons. First... that little boy. That little boy is very important to Dante. Or will be, at least. (Yes, Dante. As in Dante Daemione.) Second... Well, you'll find out the second one in the last few parts of Re:AST.