Dark on the Waters [Dark Data]

[Blink]

"We should go," Cloud suggested to his comrades. Cole agreed with a nod, his head turned towards the cave path in front of them. The trio of would-be liberators had barely avoided a huge artillery strike (which seemed to be something they were doing a lot of lately) and found brief respite inside a cavern that seemingly led upwards into the mountain's cliff-side.

Blink wearily made her way over to a small rock which would serve as a temporary chair. "Wait," she insisted. She looked like she was blind, holding her arms out in front of her to guide her way as she fondled past Cloud and into the makeshift seat. She flopped down, blinking her eyes several times as they reverted from blurry to clear and back to blurry again. "Can we just take a minute?" She asked, shaking her head clear of cobwebs. "My head is pounding. I can barely focus." She brought one of her slender hands up to her forehead and starting to massage her own temple.

Cloud and Cole exchanged a glance. Blink seemed to have come out of her drunken daze from taking the liquid darkchip earlier. But now she had traded one condition for another. "Are you hungover now?" Cole asked, being the first of the two blondes to figure it out.

"Not so loud," Blink insisted, which only led Cole to look confused, since he hadn't raised his voice at all.

Right at that moment, a loud booming sound came from above them. The entire cavern began to shake, causing some of the dust from the ceiling to crackle and fall. Blink groaned even louder as the high volume of the noise caused her head to practically split open from the inside, sending a searing pain through her recovering brain. "We don't have time to rest," Cloud spoke up, sternly. He looked down at Blink and put his hand out to her. "We need to move." She nodded and took his hand, and then stood up with his assistance. "Try not to slow us down." His words were firm, but she could tell he was speaking more with a brotherly tone then condescending.

"I won't," she promised. In a brief moment of clarity, she made eye contact with the spikey-haired swordsman and nodded her head. She squeezed his hand at the same time. They had been through a lot together in a short amount of time, and it was important for Blink that Cloud could trust her. He returned the nod and released her hand.

Even though she was putting on a strong face, Blink was suffering through a bad hangover. She followed her blonde companions up the steep cave floor towards an opening out into a cliffside. Her head throbbed, but she did her best to focus on just keeping her feet moving, one in front of the other. When they made it to the top, they found themselves staring a group of darklings, all deliberately huddled together in an effort to block the path. On the other side of the path was another opening into a cave which would, presumably, lead further up the mountain.

Another loud booming sound hit their ears as an explosion above them caused the cliff wall to drop debris. "He's bombing us!" Cloud shouted, "We need to cross this cliff fast! Go!"

He led the charge as he sprinted forward. Cole pulled his pistols out from wherever he kept them and gave Blink a reassuring glance. He followed behind the swordsman at a high pace. Blink kept up the rear and began to run straight behind them. It was Cloud who made contact with the enemy first, slicing through a line of them without losing speed. He charged through the defensive line, aided by the firing shots of Cole who provided support. Blink ran along the edge of the cliff so she could hopefully get through the mob without any conflict, but one of the squashbucklers remained in her way.

Cloud and Cole continued to pound through the defensive darklings just as Blink summoned an emerald energy dagger into her hand. Unlike her male counterparts, she only had one man to deal with, but she was in a much more fragile state. The pirate put his sword up in front of himself to block her dagger swing, but she brought her momentum underneath him at just the right time to tackle him backwards. It was at this point that another loud bombing occurred, shaking the cliff wall above them and forcing more of the large debris down on top of them. The ground under them shook, causing Blink to lose footing and sending both her and her enemy off the side.

She panicked and let go of the pirate mid-fall, turning to face upwards as she fell back-first. She teleported back up to the cliff-side they were standing on. Her head pulsed as she tried to summon more energy to blink away again. The cliff above her was still giving way to a rockslide, but her pounding brain was reminding her all too well exactly how much capacity she had.

Blink looked towards the cave entrance where Cloud and Cole had just made it across the path. The enemies they sliced through were either down, injured or about to be trampled by the incoming debris. The boys were just noticing that Blink hadn't made it all the way across.

She summoned as much energy as she could into her little purple fingertips and clapped her palms together. She blinked behind them and fell into a heap onto her butt and back. "Whew!" she exclaimed, causing them to turn around in surprise. "That was close!" As she spoke, the cliffs they were crossing were covered by the boulders caused from the artillery strike. "Are we at the top yet?"

She couldn't tell which one answered, but someone said: "Nope."