Chapter 7: Internal Difficulties -------------------------------- Ciara shot fire onto the remains of the Cyborg Vampire until it was nothing more than pieces of blackened metal and smoking ash. She shut the flame blaster off and almost immediately came close to collapsing as the rush of adrenaline wore off. She sat down with her back against the wall and closed her eyes, trying to regain her strength. She slipped into a half-conscious state, and began to dream... She stood in the middle of a grassy plain, her arms outstretched, and the wind rushed by, all around her...the wind... Abruptly she woke up. This was no time for napping! She had to make sure the others were okay. She stood up and felt a slight pain in her left hand. She'd gotten a small cut, probably when she was fighting the Imperials. She went over to where Sabin lay and sat down. She checked his pulse and found that they were both normal. She pulled out the special canteen that she'd designed, the one that kept hot things hot and cold things cold. She'd stored it outside at Narshe, so the water should still be nice and cold. She took the lid off and splashed a few drops on Sabin's face. He stirred and mumbled a bit. "All right, Duncan...I'll drink the orange juice...no need to get mad..." He opened his eyes and came fully awake. "Ciara! So I did hear you just before I got knocked out. Glad that you're all right." "I'm glad that _you're_ all right," she replied. "Anything that happened to me was probably my own fault. Sorry you're stuck with such a rookie." "That's okay. You'll learn in time. Where's Cecil?" "Over there. He's still out." "I guess since he was weakened before the battle, he took it harder than either of us did. I'll check on him." He got up with no visible pain and walked over. Ciara remained where she was, took a tube of ointment and a bandage, and fixed up her left hand. Then she heard something: the unmistakable clanking of approaching Magitek Armor. She got up and practically ran to where Sabin was tending to Cecil. "We have to hide! Magitek coming!" she exclaimed. "Over there!" Sabin pointed at a large grate set into the opposite wall. Ciara used her dagger to pry the grate open while Sabin carried Cecil over. They all got inside and Ciara replaced the grate, hoping that it showed no signs of having been tampered with. Sabin continued to watch over Cecil while Ciara peered out of the cracks in the grate. "Imperials?" Sabin asked. "I don't think so," Ciara whispered back. "There are only four of them, and they don't seem to be following any kind of orders. But since they've got Magitek and we don't anymore, I'm not going to go out and ask them who they really are." Cecil began to wake up. Ciara left her position at the grate and went back to where he was. "Ohh...what hit me? Wait a sec, I remember," Cecil groaned. "That was one nasty...whatever-it-was." He opened his eyes. "Ciara? You're okay?" "Yeah, despite my efforts to the contrary. How are you?" "Hungry, actually." Sabin helped him into a sitting position and Ciara rummaged through the food packs. "Let's see...we have dried meat, dried fruit, and...ketchup? How'd that get there?" She looked over at the others, who only shrugged. She continued. "...not-too-stale bread, and some more dried meat. What'll it be?" "I'll take some dried meat," he replied. Ciara handed him a few strips. "Water?" she offered. He nodded, and she handed him a canteen. She grabbed a few more strips for herself and Sabin, and sat down. "So, Cecil," Sabin began, "once we rest up enough and then decide to get moving again, where are we heading?" Cecil took a sip of water and then answered, "Well, we'll go down to the next level..." He was interrupted by the sound of a loud explosion from below. "Maybe not, then." "What _was_ that?" Ciara asked. "It sounded rather dangerous," Sabin replied. "Looks like we'll have to find an alternate route." "If I remember correctly, there's a whole system of vents like these throughout the entire robot. We could probably even make it to the CPU command through them," cecil stated. "If we can figure out the proper directions to go, we should do just fine." ***** Indeed, a short while later, the group was making its way through the Veins. The passageways of the Veins were all lit fairly well in the same way that the main passageways of the Body were. One problem was that some of the Veins had such low ceilings that they were forced to stoop and even crawl through some areas. The other problems was the hidden Searchers that were relaying their every move to Imperial command headquarters. ***** "Sir!" An Imperial soldier reported to Joga, "We've picked up Returner movement in the Veins of the Stomach area!" Joga followed him to a monitor displaying the current position of the group. "Get me the visual," he ordered. The screen then showed the three crawling through a narrower passage. "They were the ones I sent the Necroborg after. They must have destroyed it somehow." He turned to another Imperial. "Deploy the Iron Hitmen in the Stomach area." The Imperial nodded and pressed several buttons at the control panel. ***** "We're making good progress!" Cecil, who was leading, called back to the other two. "We're nearly in the Lung area by now. The hatchway for that should be up ahead." Sabin, who was rearguard, paused for a moment. "I think I hear something." He turned around and backtrack for a minute, then came back crawling as quickly as he could. "Iron Hitmen!" "Well, we can't fight them here," Ciara said. "We don't even have enough room to stand." "We'll have to get out into the main body of the Giant again," Cecil stated. "Here's the hatchway." He opened it and went down, followed by Ciara and then Sabin, who shut it quickly. There was a vent near the beginning of the Lung passage; Cecil knocked it open and the three climbed out. They heard the Iron Hitmen making their way down the hatch, and so they got ready to fight. "Here they come..." Ciara began.