A Thousand Words
A wall of machina ambled forward, their machine components whirring as their metallic appendages clanked against the roads of Zanarkand. The weapons had been deployed to destroy the city, the city of the summoners. This was the end, the end of the war, supposedly. The machines biting bullets and massacring missiles had decimated the ranks of the summoners. The machina were obviously the better army, but the summoners would not back down. They could not give up their city, their way of life, their home.
As the machine advanced, a line of summoners took up a chant, "Magical might protect us from this physical spite." Faceted fortifications of iridescent miraculous energies sprang into being in the van of the summoner defense force. A single summoner stood out, she was clad in a blue garment of silks and satins, ruffled chiffon falling from her thigh-hugging skirt. She took up a song, a melody infused with the reinforcing potency of steel. Her voice wavered for a moment and the song stopped; the magic woven. She swept her caramel locks behind her delicate shoulders, beaded earrings falling over the front of her shoulders. This was Lenne, the strongest of the remaining summoners.
The machina stopped, the whirring ceased, and only the fluctuating hum of the magical ramparts could be heard. Lenne looked around, her green eyes of shining crystalline exquisiteness gleaming in the light. She saw a man on top of a great machina; he pointed to her and yelled, "You there, call off your troops. We will destroy the city whether or not you resist, but if you leave we might spare you."
Lenne raised her hand to the sky, the air turning frigid, the breath of the summoners now seen, she answered back with a single word, "Die…." She slammed her hand to the ground and three glacial shards of hoarfrost sprouted from the road, the rippling spirit of a seductive woman residing inside. She opened her eyes as she materialized. Wrapped about her shoulders was a silken cloak of azure and grey. In a graceful arc of the arm, she threw off the cloak, destroying her prison of rime. Her sapphire hair was woven into locks, bound with straps of cloth, each lock tipped with a bladed ring of cold steel.
The icy woman was clad in a top, which was half ice, half-navy silks. Her azure skin gleamed in the pale moonlight. The woman smiled as she eyed the machine army in a manner that could have forced a man to his knees. The soldiers in the ranks of the machines faltered in their concentration at the sight of this angelic creature. In a crystalline voice, remnant to the tinkling of shimmering ice, the aeon spoke "Hell is far from hot, my dears. It is just so cold it burns." In a wave of frigid wind, the woman twirled after she kissed her first and second fingers, creating a looping line of energy. A thick layer of glacial frost encased the feet and tripod appendages of the men and machines. The ice goddess looked back and winked at the victims of her icy oblivion. She turned and raised her hands to the sky, invoking the quintessential elemental forces of ice into her palm. She flung her hand behind her and in a flick of her wrist released the icy wave of chilly termination towards the army. The already knee-thick layer of ice thickened and completely encased all but the most behemoth machina in a tomb of solidified torment. The woman looked at her handiwork and looked back at Lenne who merely nodded. At the signal the woman, who was still looking at Lenne, extended her hand and snapped her slender fingers. In a rumbling, trembling earth-shaking crack, the icy terra firma shattered in an array of bludgeoning and slashing shards of ice that either smashed the bodies into a writhing pulp of gore and blood or ribbons of viscera and blood-drenched shreds. A good portion of the army fell to the freezing charms of the icy temptress and even more fell when she started to release barrage upon barrage of chilling winds.
Ranks of machina stepped up to take the place of the decimated lines. Panels on joints slid out of place and mounted weapons were released. Gattling guns, missile launchers, flamethrowers, and laser-equipped appendages were all armed and ready to be fired. The whirring of the machines grew in magnitude until finally a storming hail of metal and fire ripped through the defenses that the summoners had placed. Several score of summoners fell to the deadly sting of the machina. Even though the front ranks of the summoners were killed, Lenne was unscathed. The ice goddess had placed herself in front of the summoner and had protected her with her body.
"Thank you, Shiva…you must heal yourself." said Lenne as Shiva stood up, mortally wounded.
Shiva nodded and sent twirling winds of icy frigidness coalescing around her. Her wounds froze over and the ice slowly dissolved into the air, her body healed from all harm. She looked back to look at the army, her eyes filled with cold malice. Her crystalline voice whispered an incantation and shards of razor hoarfrost ejected themselves from the ground throughout the ranks of the armed forces, riddling them with holes and oil-gushing gashes.
In an ethereal shriek of agony, Shiva was impaled on a harpoon. The thin shaft easily pierced her heart, sending a stream of pyreflies spiraling into the air. Slowly, Shiva disappeared, her form turning into a milky spirit before completely wafting away into the breeze. Lenne closed her eyes as she felt the blazing hot energies of the white magics streak past her. The light orbs of the Holy spell spun into a ring of white-hot magic, destroying machinated component in the battalions that started to charge.
Lenne waved her hand in a circle, creating a dark emblem on the ground beneath her. With feminine agility she somersaulted off of the symbol and pointed to the crest, her eyes closed. She stepped back as the emblem darkened into nothing and a cloud of bats converged on that spot, bringing into existence a dark, devilish being. It spread its black wings, its masculine body tinged with red as was his wings. His face was contorted into an unnerving grin and his demonic visage was infernal. He chuckled evilly, his voice the damnation of thousands, the hissing breath of his fetid lungs the bladed winds of Tartarus. He stretched wide his arms and cracked his joints before he raised his hands to conjure.
Lenne stepped back, giving the dark creature of hell enough room to cast his black spells. She smiled as she watched him unleash his fury. The creature, Diabolus, spoke in a besmirched language of demons, conjuring his dark energies into physical corporeality. His lifted hand was doused in viscous dark liquid, trails of the caustic shadow running down his arm as more and more of the substance took form and created a black sphere of the purest evil, the darkest foul magic, and the malignant poison of hatred. He laughed again, his jagged fangs dripping acidic bile, his crimson and ebony wings flapping in the now gloomily mist-covered landscape. He flew up in a helix, the dark fluid taking the spiraling shape with it as it went, creating a gyrating and twisting mass of darkness.
Lenne looked up at the demon and spoke, "Finish it, let them feel the power of the summoners."
Diabolus nodded and grinned an evil, toothy grin that unnerved the human soldiers in the machina army. He swung his arms downward as the galaxy of deadly power twisted and swirled, the disc of darkness whizzing through the air with a silent breath of death drifting on its whirling arms of doubtless slaughter. Diabolus howled with ecstasy as he heard the countless screams and sputtering whirrings of the machines and humans, their existences being snuffed by a spinning disc of deadly torment and absolute evil. Their lives were snuffed as a candle is snuffed, in a single instant the flame of their beings died in the icy breath of death that blew on the back of their necks. Diabolus floated back down to the symbol from which he was summoned and slowly sunk back into it, his black and blood visage slowly being swallowed by the stone road of Zanarkand.
Lenne shuddered and took up another order, "Let us show those the beauty of the sea's temptresses who have never seen how treacherous the ocean can truly be, let them see that power that we summoners can harness. We shall show them the Sirens, the fatal voices of quintessential songstress skills."
From all over the ranks of the summoners, glittering particles were expelled from their bodies that floated about listlessly as the form of something took shape over each of them. Lenne muttered the incantation to summon the Aeon that she desired, a feminine shape coming into being above her. The azure clad summoner looked up into the sky as countless Sirens flapped their wing-like locks of hair, taking the into the night sky. The forms were beautiful, matched only by the icy queen, Shiva. Their naked bodies were barely covered by dark feathers of yellow, indigo blue, and deep violet hues. Their hair was blonde, but as it tapered down, turned into feathered wings of the same hues as their bodily feathers that covered their voluptuous bodies. Each of these deadly women carried with them a lyre, a shimmering harp that they strummed in beat with their enticing voices to ensnare those who dared listen to their indomitable song.
Lenne called out another order, "Now, machina, feel the power that Yevon has given us, fell the wrath of the god of Spira." At that, Lenne gave out a magical command using her innate abilities as the summoner that she was. The Sirens acknowledged her power and soared through the air, their eyes glowing red and their voices lifting high a deafening song that rattled the very rivets of the robotic battalions. Lenne and the other summoners braced themselves as some of the machina that survived the sonic attacks of the Sirens charged, Lenne herself holding out her hand to summon out a bottomless microphone stand. She swung her hips to the side once in a sultry pop of her figure and let her shapely form release rippling waves of magic that seemed to take tangible existence in the air, slowing the movements of the machine drastically, giving the Sirens enough time to circle back around and strafe the battlefield with their deadly songs of rending sound that made human's ears bleed and metal components rattle with vibrations.
Lenne danced as long as she could. She danced until the machina got so close that she had to order the Sirens to use their magical skills to push them back, but to no avail. The machina charged into the ranks of the Summoners and their Guardians who, with the passion of their occupation, hacked at the machina in a passionate fury of flourishing strikes and sweeping blows. Many of the Guardians and Summoners were felled in moments by spikes and blades that cut through their flesh, sending blood splattering over the surviving Summoners. The Sirens that were given life by the felled Summoners faded out of being, causing the numbers of the seductive army to dwindle.
Lenne twirled her improvisational staff in her hands, her attacking skills derived from a harmless looking bauble around her neck. She stepped up to one of the machina and smashed off its navigational apparatus with a deft swing of the microphone. She gave out another arcane order, the Sirens picking up a new song, this one a soothing calm melody, the effects obvious. Time itself seemed to slow down as the Sirens activated a spell similar to the White Magic, Slowga. Lenne easily avoided the sluggish attacks of the Machina and the affected humans. She ran through the ranks of the Summoner army towards a shimmering blue sphere that floated above the ground. She knelt down and touched it, the sphere rippling as if it were made of water. She saw her destination in its reflective, surging surface, Bevelle.
Lenne closed her eyes and activated the sphere, feeling a tug behind her navel. When she opened up her eyes, she found herself in the streets of Bevelle. No one was there, the elegant streets were barren and the night air was cold and forlorn. She walked into the main building, the political seat of the city. She looked in several of the branching rooms, finding the elevator controls that she sought. After activating the
lowering mechanism she went back to the center room. As she went to step on the elevator, scores of gun-wielding guards stepped out from several alcoves.
"Stop now or else we will open fire on you." said one of the guards.
Lenne sneered and scoffed, "Guardian of Hell's Gates, augment my power with your own infernal skill."
The air itself darkened as an image of twisted iron gates burst open to reveal six glimmering eyes of hell-red. Fiery wind was expelled from saliva-dripping fangs. A three-headed bestial hound of demonic nature was standing before them, his blood-caked fur licked by fire. His serpentine tail lashed at the air as the fur on his neck bristled. Each head turned to look at a group of the guards that were awed by the power that this angelic woman before them. The canine demon, Cerberus, howled with a shriek that was matched only by the macabre laughter of Diabolus, sending three beams of radiant energy tracing a helix into the air.
The devil's rain spiraled around Lenne, causing her shapely form to split thrice. Each body took a position in front of each canine head as the summon was dismissed. The hell-red eyes that once belonged to the Guardian of Hell's Gates now were in possession of the triple-threat summoner. The layered voice of Lenne spoke, "Let my celestial embrace of divine power hold dear your last breath." At the last echoed mutterings of this farewell, each figment of Lenne cast a powerful white spell.
Spherical orbs of light embodied twisted through the air, dismissing the shadows from the unlit room. Beams of light shined from celestial gateways that released massive amounts of divine power, supplementing the spell. The three Lennes gathered all of this energy into an ivory nova of the purest power. The very flesh of the guards was melted away in the white fiery heat of the purifying light. The only things that remained after the holiest spells had finished their deadly activation were the charred, smoking husks of brittle bones, accented by melted armors that had welded themselves into the very bones of the bodies.
The three images converged into one, Lenne returning to her normal capabilities. She turned to the elevator and stepped onto the levitating platform. It slowly descended through a permeable haze of mist and fog, the cool wet air causing Lenne's skin to tremble from the chilling vapor that drifted listlessly through the air. She felt the platform descend slowly until something went wrong. The mechanical and arcane enchantments that allowed this contraption to function ceased to operate. The platform tilted in the air and started to plunge into the hazy depths of Bevelle. Lenne held onto the rails as the dais plummeted down farther into the city. Lenne jumped into the air, summoning one of her numerous Aeons that she had at her disposal.
In a flutter of wings and the sweet scent of flowers and the sandy shore, a Siren had swooped down from nowhere and plucked Lenne out of the sky. The multi-hued wings of her blonde locks flapped gracefully, taking Lenne to land next to a ruined rostrum that had crashed in a heap of whirring gears that still sparked with the energy that had once allowed it to function. She nodded to the Siren and dismissed her, the soothing scent slowly scattering. Lenne smiled, thanking Yevon that she had dismissed the Siren during the slaughter in Zanarkand rather than let her fight until forcibly dismissed by a temporary death. She walked forward, her boots snapping against the stone and steel floor. She turned any corner she saw with a high level of wariness. She stopped when she heard the sounds of footsteps following her. She turned to see several guards walk up, small blades protruding from their gauntlets. They smiled as they looked her body over.
Lenne sneered and scoffed, her eyes rolling as she thought of which skill to invoke. She swayed her hips to the side and back again, her form rolling to a song that she was hearing in her mind. She shook her body to the melody that played in her head allowing her to keep a perfect rhythm in sync with her undulating body. A seeming miasma of darkness swept over the guards, hiding the seductive dancer from their sight. Swirling purple clouds of shadow obstructed their vista. All they heard was, "Remember boys, keep your eyes on me."
Lenne spun her quarterstaff/microphone stand in a sweeping arc, the staff cracking the skull of one of the guards. She stepped over his limp body to send another guard sprawling on the ground as she smashed him in the head with her stand. She invoked another skill, this one enhancing the power of her attacks to the power indomitable by any defense. She spun her form in a circle, her hips smashing into the last guard's side, shattering his hips and legs with a pure blunt force. She watched the man crumble to the ground, whimpering pitifully in agony. Lenne stopped her dance and walked forward, her path obvious.
Lenne proceeded into the depths of Bevelle. She walked through numerous corridors until she came to a great dome and saw a general of the army ahead of her. In his hand he held a chain that led to a great, magically tamed creature of immense size, a behemoth. The creature was rippled with muscle and it's lion-like head crowned by two twirling horns. It roared, the enchantments holding. The general released the chain, the behemoth pounding forward through the great corridor.
Lenne smashed her hand to the floor, a great fiery rift cracking through the enormous corridor allowing a massive sinuous dragon of black and violet to snake her way out of Tartarus's scorching nadir. Her draconic head was crowned with hornlet-bristled brows of black and silver. Her smoldering eyes of red stared daggers through the behemoth as she spread her great wings of ebony and violet. Deadly, black flame licked from her fangs, acidic saliva eating small holes in the floor. The dragoness hissed and screeched as she flapped her gracefully dark wings in the open area. She took to the air, her thin, whip-like tail lashing the walls, sending snaking cracks meandering their way across the stone and steel. The dragon looked at the behemoth as the great lion-creature reared up.
"Tiamat, show these fools no mercy, do not let them stand in my way!" said Lenne as the dragoness narrowed her serpentine eyes at the behemoth.
Tiamat folded her wings against her body and clutched onto the walls, crawling onto the zenith of the dome, her tail whipping around her body in graceful snaps and spins. The dragoness fell from the dome, her claws of razor steel extended, as were the wicked wings of violet iron-flesh. Tiamat's claws ripped through the skin of the dark purple behemoth, blood surging across the dragoness's dark hued scales. The crimson lifeblood sprayed across the floor in a gory pool. Tiamat hissed as she clamped down on the behemoth's muscle-bound throat, thin fangs piercing vital veins and arteries.
The behemoth took an open shot and pounded its fist onto the top of Tiamat's horn-crowned head. The wide-girthed hand connected solidly with the dragoness's skull, shaking her away from its throat, blood streaming from the numerous puncture wounds in its gullet. It raised its hands, summoning an innate arcane smattering that it possessed. A portal of swirling stars and void space opened in the ceiling, raining down spiraling fragments of earth covered in the momentum of meteorites.
Tiamat snaked her thin, svelte body through the room, her four small legs propelling her around the raining meteors. As her luck last ran out, Tiamat let loose and dark orb of energy from her claws, tracing out a weaving path of murkiness and oblivion. A meteor crashed onto the bottom half of her body, crushing her wings, mangling them into shredded shadows of skin. Tiamat howled at the agony that shot through her body but through it off, continuing her attack.
The murkiness that had come into tangibility had spread, weaving a web of black strands. The behemoth, caught in the webs, thrashed at the bindings that held it fast. Tiamat took to the air again, exhaling deleterious, terminal billows of deadly flame, the licking tongues of void eating away at the behemoth as one great flare of oblivion struck the thing in the heart, rotting through its entire being. The mixed hues of black, purple, and crimson swirling in a single cylindrical form of death and energy bored through the behemoth until nothing was left except a slimy form of blood, viscera and blood-spattered bones.
Lenne turned away as the general that had somehow tamed the behemoth was ripped apart by Tiamat's merciless tail, talons, and teeth. She heard his screams in her ears and felt the echo of his wailing in her soul and heart. A single tear fell from her eyes, why did such violence and hatred have to continue, she thought. Why must two single factions rip Spira apart, she pondered. Lenne shook her head and dismissed Tiamat but cringed as she realized Tiamat had not finished eating the army commander as what was left of his mangled body hit the floor in a sickening splat.
She walked on, her boots making the familiar tapping against the ground. She walked into a great arena, a mechanical creation of wires, flesh, and genius put forth into a single destructive, saving form…..Vegnagun….the weapon that she sought. In addition, she sought and found the very seeker of this great creation of macabre make and style, Shuyin. He was atop a great pedestal typing in coordinates into a great panel. Vegnagun stirred with life, the input causing a stir to occur. Shuyin brushed back a stray lock of dusty blond hair. His crystal blue eyes stared intently at the panel in front of him, madly typing.
"SHUYIN!!!" screamed Lenne.
Shuyin looked up quickly and smiled as he saw her standing there. He jumped down from the platform that he had been standing on. In a few fast strides he had made his way to his love, the beautiful Lenne. He ran his fingers through her silky brunette hair. He smiled as he looked into her eyes, "Lenne, what are you doing here?"
Lenne rolled her eyes, and sighed, "I came to end this war, Zanarkand has nearly been destroyed and this is the only way to end this." Lenne stepped towards the platform but Shuyin stopped her with his broad arm.
"No, you are not going to destroy Vegnagun; I am using it to liberate us from this war and all of this violence….." said Shuyin. His rugged voice trailed off as the rumble of boots against the ground could be heard echoing through the corridors. He stepped in front of Lenne, shielding her with his body.
A multitude of guards rushed in, all brandishing guns tipped with a bayonet of shining steel. They all glared at Shuyin and his consort, "Step away from the summoner, she is under arrest for murder and treason. You, Shuyin, are under arrest for conspiracy to annihilate the capital. Drop any and all weapons you may have and come with us."
Lenne muttered under her breath, even through the warning that Shuyin was silently giving her. A tear hit the ground that fell from her eyes, a repeating ripple radiated outward from the impact point. The increasing amount of water started to boil until it completely evaporated. A point of fire split, tracing an intricate pattern of feathered wings and three spiraling tail feathers. The fire consumed the area within that traced form, causing the section of earth to melt from the intense holy fire. The liquid earth took shape into the fiery creature of resurrecting conflagration, the Phoenix. The crimson creature of flapping feathers erected a fiery rampart of seething inferno. The bird swooped down from the sky, scorching all that stood before it as it soared through the wall that it had created. The bird, however, was shot from the sky as it flew towards its target, the deadly bullets of a great machina mowing it down from its lofty throne.
Lenne cursed to herself as the fiery wall slowly collapsed in on itself. She stepped out from behind Shuyin and stared into his eyes before she looked to the ground. Shuyin slid a finger under her chin and tilted her head to a level position with his. His lips met hers for a brief moment before he spoke four magical words, "I love you, Lenne."
Another tear fell from Lenne's eyes as she opened her lips to the kiss and listened to the words. She smiled and started to speak. The words never left her mouth as the stinging pain of bullets tearing through her body wracked her with agony, sending her to the ground. Shuyin also struck the floor, his hand slowly sliding towards hers. She cried silently as she tried to speak, her world started to grow dark, her eyes clouded by the creeping death that was beginning to embrace her…Shuyin smiled, hoping to hear the response, though none ever came, Lenne died, her eyes closing for the last time, her chest swelling with breath one last time….
Yuna's voice surged with the passionate emotion that was portrayed in the scene that was playing in the sphere screen, "Oh a thousand words, have never been spoken."
At that, the image of Lenne that everyone had seen, emerged from Yuna's body, taking up the song as well, her voice supporting Yuna's, "A thousand words."
"They'll fly to you, they'll carry you home." Yuna closed her eyes and let the song that was spinning in her soul expel from her lips in an array of words and emotions all at once.
Lenne stood back to back with Yuna, her own angelic voice harmonizing and leading the backup vocals to the song, "Carry you home, and back into my arms."
Yuna, still standing with Lenne, took the last few lines of the song from the melody that she was singing into a tangible emotion of sorrow and love. She sent this emotion out into the three factions that stood before the Celsius, "Suspended on silver wings. 'Cause a thousand words, call out through the ages."
Lenne's voice rang out in a rippling vocalization matching Yuna's words. "Call through the ages, oh yeah."…the image faded…
Yuna opened her eyes, her songstress dress rippling in the breeze as she stood atop the Celsius, everyone looking up at her, she finally had the song that would unite all of Spira, "Believe with me, even though we are torn apart, our feelings will unite us…..that…..is what this song is about."…and the song began…her thoughts replaying into a reality
The End