Hello out there! The Duelist of Dawn returns to give you the second installment of my Final Fantasy 9 story: The Melodies of Life Chronicles!
(applause)
Oh yeah! If you are new to this story, you would best turn to my homepage and read my first Final Fantasy 9 story: Melodies of Life Chronicles: Fate!
So far my first story nearly reached 50 reviews, not a bad start if I do say so myself! Hope to get some more on this one from old and new reviewers!
For this chapter, it'll be a recap of the first story told by my Self-Insert Character's POV, but I plan to create another chapter on the spot!
So without further ado, let me introduce my second installment: Melodies of Life: Sorrow!
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Prologue:
My Fate in Another Realm
My name is Ronald Harris, a 21-year old college student and a fighter of how the Final Fantasy class system puts it, monk style. For awhile, I've been living a normal life: live in a house, with a normal family, going to school and even trained to defend myself by my father since my pre-teen to adult years.
Pretty normal, until I was hit with a twist of fate…
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It started all started when I wanted to replay the game Final Fantasy 9, after some of the game's intro my television and Playstation 2 went haywire, plus a voice came out…
"Huh, what's going on!?" I was shocked and angry at the same time seeing one of my favorite games being fried with electricity.
Suddenly, a voice comes from the television…..
"This is the ultimate game." The voice says in a dark, monotone voice.
"What!?" I questioned, since this wasn't in the game, obviously.
"This is a game of where your life is on the line and death will mean termination of your real self." The voice continues.
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Now, I've read stories on a website where a lot of boys and girls got transported into a Final Fantasy game or another role-playing game and fought alongside the main characters, even struck up romance and friendships with them. But I thought they were only stories. Anyway, my way of getting there was probably the most painful one, physically…
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A syringe filled with red liquid floats out of the television and hovers in front of me, spooking me at the same time.
"If you accept," The voice explained, "You'll be injected with this substance that increases your chances of survival. If not, you'll be stuck in this dream state I have placed you in."
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Of course, I accepted, I mean no one wants to be stuck in a dream state for the rest of your life, it's like being in coma in a hospital bed where the nurses and doctors are counting the moments to pull the plug on you. But like I said, it got painful when I accepted…
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"I'll do it!" I said confidently.
"Are you sure?" The voice asked. "Once you accept the game, there's no…
"Look, you come out into my room and say that I can't go back to my world without playing a video game. You then try to ask me if I'm sure!? There's no way around it, I'm going and that's final!" I angrily interrupted the voice.
"Then the game starts, NOW!" The voice said.
As soon as the mysterious voice finished speaking, the syringe that has been floating in front of me during the conversation, struck me in my left forearm.
I screamed at the top of his lungs as the liquid was injected within me and the veins inside my skin seem to glow bright red.
"Why….is….this….so……pain…ful?" I asked fighting through the pain.
The syringe unhooked itself from me, drained of all the red substance, leaving me passed out on the floor.
As I slipped into unconsciousness, I heard, "Begin."
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After I woke up, I noticed my body went through a major change like Peter Parker in the first Spider-Man movie, except it was that syringe that did it and not a radioactive spider; felt like something I've seen in that game BioShock! Not only that I was inside Alexandria, a kingdom inside the Final Fantasy 9 game! And if you played the game before, guess who I've met first….
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"Uhhh, man I feel like I went 10 rounds against my father." I groaned still laid out on the ground. "Wait, the kid that just shook me, where did he go?"
"I'm still here." The young voice answered.
I turned my head in the direction of the voice, and I saw something unbelievable……the kid that woke me up was wearing a tattered blue coat, a pair of brown pants, a brown hat that has its top flopping downward, brown gloves and a face…well you couldn't see much of his face, just bright yellow eyes from a dark shroud. It was Vivi, the black mage!
"Whoa!" I ended up jumping to my feet in surprise.
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Yup, Vivi who's possibly the youngest black mage in Final Fantasy history, it was enough to realize I was living out the video game. Pretty soon, I'd be fighting stuff that would normally be out of my league even with my training, but that syringe did more than just give me a new look… Vivi and I tried to get into a play inside the castle with the help of a rat kid named Puck by traveling across the rooftops. Now, according to the game Vivi narrowly avoids falling off the plywood but it went a little different from my point of view…
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"You feeling alright, Vivi?" I asked feeling concerned for him.
"Let me guess, fear of heights?" The rat kid teased Vivi. He was already across the roof, still holding the ladder over his head.
I glared at the rat, which sent a chill down his spine.
"H-Hey I was just playing around, heh heh." He stated nervously, and then turned to Vivi and said "Don't worry just pretend you're on the ground."
I nodded an approval at the kid, for being supportive for once.
Vivi approached the plywood, and slowly walked across the wood with no difficulty.
He breathed a slight reprieve afterwards, and then looked to me as I came over to him over plywood no problem either.
But to tell you the truth, I was scared falling as well.
"Okay, let's hurry!" The rat kid told us and then ran off again, we hurried as far as we can to find ourselves in the same predicament that we had a few seconds ago.
"Come on, kid it won't fall, it'll be just like last time!" The rat kid said, somewhat irritated at Vivi's fear of heights. Vivi started to cross again only to have the wood give away. But instead of the game having him jump at the last minute to save himself, he was going to actually fall off the plywood!
"VIVI!" I rushed over with surprisingly incredible speed and grabbed him, while tucking and rolling safely to the other side with our self-proclaimed master.
Both Vivi and I were panting harshly as tried to sink in all that occurred in the last five seconds.
"T-thank…. you, Ron." Vivi said hugging me while catching his breath.
"No…problem" I said patting him on the head, while catching my own breath.
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I was able to be more alert and save Vivi from falling. After that, it was getting more and more stranger for me; during the play, a guy by the name of Zidane who was actor gave me a look that says he recognized me. And after the play, I fought a bunch of knights lead by an overprotective knight named Steiner chasing me and Vivi on stage. That's where another one of my abilities from that syringe became known…
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One of the knights rushes over to strike me down but I dodge every one of the slashes with ease.
'This is like when I saved Vivi from falling of the rooftops!" I thought recognizing my speed. Then I say, "Hey I don't want any trouble!"
"Should've thought about that before trying to steal the princess!" He tries to slice downward but by reflex, I catch the strike by the palms of my hands and stop him from moving.
"W-W-What!?" He stammers after seeing my gaze, I was really pissed off!
"I. Said. I. Don't. Want. TROUBLE! AERIAL DRIVE!" I yelled out in fury before giving him an uppercut which sent him flying, and then I jumped up meeting him in the air and drove my elbow down on his gut sending back down to the stage.
"How dare you strike my knights!?" He yells while still pursing me.
"Hey, you made the first strike!" I yelled back, ignoring the pain.
He tries to come at me before my right starts glowing red; I looked confused before shrugging it off and running towards him. He defended with his sword, which I kicked out of his hands with my left foot and spinning in place yelling "DRAGON KICK!" which had my leg being engulfed in flames as I kicked Steiner.
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And after that, I fell in a heap of trouble after a Bomb Monster came and caused the airship I was on to crash inside Evil Forest. Zidane, Steiner, Vivi and I had to save Garnet from being plant food to an entire forest. When we fought the leader, I was able to do what other characters can do in the game: Trance and like all of the characters, I had a unique ability to use aura!
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Did I just trance?' I thought as I had Garnet carried over my shoulder. 'Maybe I have enhanced strength….' My thoughts were cut short by a feeling I had, like something was coming, something bad and with green aura. 'Wait, I can see?' I sidestepped to the right before that green aura made contact. That's when I figured it out.
"I can see aura!" I whispered to myself, noticing my eyes were still closed. I then looked to everyone noticing they had a wavy aura surrounding them. Steiner and Blank had white aura, Vivi had black aura, I turned to see Garnet had white as well but a bit brighter, but Zidane had dark blue aura. "Huh?" I said but was cut short by the green aura trying to hit me again. I jumped over as it tried to sweep me from my feet, as I landed, I know who's aura was that; the Plant Brain's. It swung its tentacles again, but I backhanded it without ease then, in one quick motion, I raised my hand which was charging up with light blue aura. I pointed my hand at the Plant Brain and shouted: "AURA WAVE!!!!"
"Guys, move it!" Zidane shouted. Everyone dived to the side as I let loose a blast a light-blue energy at the Plant Brain, frying it on contact.
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Afterwards, we all escaped the forest but the expense of Zidane's friend Blank, who was petrified along with the forest. As we traveled to get away from the Mist, we ran into 3 Black mage look-a-likes called the Black Waltz trio. Zidane and I fought the first one and its huge icy pet inside the Ice Cavern, the whole gang fought the second one in Dali Village with me coming out with burns, and the third was fought on a cargo ship to Lindblum but it eventually took itself out by blowing its own airship with its own Thunder magic. At Lindblum, we met Garnet's uncle, Regent Cid who's actually an oglop bug! Plus, me, Zidane, Vivi and a friend of Zidane's named Freya participated in the Festival of the Hunt with Zidane being victorious, but it was short lived…
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"Regent..."
We hear a very exhausted voice from behind us. We turn around to find a heavily wounded rat soldier limping inside the throne room and kneeling down. He wore a tattered purple and blue armor with an emblem similar to Freya's, but the horrible thing about the soldier was that he was bleeding from his body, plus his eyes were gone!
"Oh my!" I hear Dagger gasping.
"God, what did this to him?" I whispered to myself. I turn to Freya who had a worried expression on her face. "Freya is he…?
"Yes." She cut me off. "A soldier from my homeland, Burmecia."
"Please forgive my intrusion..." The Burmecian solider coughed out. "I bring urgent news... from our king."
Regent Cid hopped out of his throne and walked over to the wounded solider. "The king of Burmecia?"
Artania then went over to the Regent and whispered to him, which I was able to hear."(Sire, you must not let him see you like this!)" He warned.
"(Take a good look at him. An injury has blinded him.)" The Regent countered as he looked at the rat soldier's condition, and then turned his attention to him. "Continue."
"Our kingdom is being attacked by some unknown force! We are severely outmatched!" He said in panic. "Please send reinforcements immediately!"
Regent Cid was shocked at the news. "What does the enemy look like?"
"The enemy looks like an army of mages wearing...steeple-crowned hats." The revelation dealt a huge emotional blow to Vivi.
"No…it can't be…" Vivi muttered in fear. All I did was try to console him.
"The king and I are old friends." Cid proclaimed. "We will send reinforcements to Burmecia immediately."
"Thank you, Regent!" The Burmecian gratefully thanked. "The king...and all of Burmecia will be most grateful! I must...return now... ...Ugh." The solider then fell dead.
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Burmecia, Freya's home kingdom, was being attacked by Black Mages being led by Garnet's mother, Queen Brahne! But Garnet wanted to confront her at home, so she took Steiner and left Zidane and the others to go to Burmecia. Once there, we got into a brawl against Alexandria's General, Beatrix. She knocked out Zidane, Freya, Vivi and another traveling companion of ours Quina, leaving me to take her one-on-one. Using my Trance abilities, I was able to keep her down until…
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"We meet again, Project: Eclipse."
"Huh?" I say. "What are you talking about?"
"You can't fool me, Eclipse." Kuja says. "I sense your very soul within this body, where have you been hiding, hmm?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." I say with my anger building up.
"Really, then go away." I feel powerful magic shooting from his body. "Flare Star!" A circle of red orbs spin furiously at me and sends me flying in the king's throne. "How does it feel to not reach your best? Flare!" He shoots a red orb above and causes boulders to fall on top of me, making my world go black...
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Kuja referred to me as 'Project: Eclipse.' I don't know what games he's playing with me but it cost me the evasion I could've made when he blasted me. When I get out, I'll make sure to find these answers to this Project: Eclipse. So Kuja, don't get comfy…
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And so ends my recap! Now I'm set to start on my second story and it'll be quicker than you think. Be sure to Rate & Review.
Next Time: While Ron & the Gang are having problems in Burmecia, Dagger and Steiner run into some old acquaintances, as well as an old foe…
Next Chapter: Return of the 3rd Beat!
