The Heartless that surrounded the rebels had frozen for an instant, and then resumed their inhuman twitches. Their attention had turned from the small group, instead looking around to the end of the alley closest to the rebels. A young Chinese girl had sharply turned the corner, olive eyes burning brightly with her precious staff in hand. Accelerating towards the group, the Heartless that flanked them had begun to hastily charge at her. As the two opposing forces closed in, Lin had brought her staff forward and spun it briskly. The speed of it had already been impressive enough to knock smaller heartless back, but with flames emerging from the two sides it was dissuading more capable Heartless from taking a risk. With a several shadows making contact, they were defeated quickly with one strike. Once Lin was close enough to get to where she intended, she released her flames and brought her staff behind her just before she crouched and leaped into the air. 

From the time she was suspended in the air, she was able to ascertain more of the situation. Knowing very little, two things stood out most to her in spite of seeing three. A heart -- not a real beating one but a heart nonetheless -- in the hand of someone. The most important thing to her now was that Ace was injured, and that a woman was in possession of his blade. Throwing her staff behind Ryoko, the force of her throw had allowed it to lodge itself into the sand just behind her. Emanating intense heat and creating a momentary wall of flame between Ryoko and a route to retreat, Lin had landed back down in front of her, crouched, just in time to catch the blade being swung overhead. Catching it with both hands, Lin’s stare met Ryoko’s. 

[b]“This doesn’t belong to you,”[/b] She whispered, muscles showing no signs of stress in spite of Ryoko’s efforts, [b]“I’ll return it to the rightful owner now.” [/b]

Extreme heat had begun to emit from her palms and travel through Ace’s blade, making it difficult to hold without an incredible resilience to intense, constant pain and heat. Ryoko couldn’t maintain her grasp for long, and recoiled with a bitter swear as she examined her hands. The flesh would be tender for a while, and would have made grasping anything a painful endeavor for quite some time without healing balms or other means. Taking Ace’s blade by the hilt now, Lin absorbed the heat she had channeled through the weapon and quickly cooled it back down. Cocking her head towards Ace, she would toss the blade back towards him. Not a moment after doing so, her staff had returned to her right hand to take the place of Ace’s weapon. 

[b]“Sorry guys, I slept in a little.” [/b]

The heartless that Shizuka and Osa delt with were now effectively cut in half, leaving the rest to begin creeping up behind Lin once again. Although aware of this, she didn’t appear fearful – Lin had changed, somehow.