Disclaimer: I do not own the Final Fantasy series or any of its characters.
Long ago, the War of the Magi reduced the world to a scorching wasteland, and magic simply ceased to exist.
1,000 years have passed…
Iron, gunpowder, and steam engines have been rediscovered, and high technology reigns…
But there are some who would enslave the world by reviving the dread destructive force known as "magic".
Can it be that those in power are on the verge of repeating a senseless and deadly mistake?
Chapter One- A Few Good Magiteks
Narshe was a quiet little town, nestled into the towering rock faces that formed the southern edge of the Gaiar Mountains. As one moved away, the earthen backdrop appeared to swallow up the ramshackle houses and the network of scaffolding which allowed access to the various mine shafts cut into the mountainside. The town became nothing more than a faint smudge against the mountainside, easily lost in the shadows of the looming Gaiars.
Nearly the entirety of Narshe's modest population earned its living from the harvested ore and minerals of those mines, fortunate provinces indeed as the surrounding terrain was barren and hostile to any form of farming or livestock-breeding. As the northernmost city in the Empire, Narshe was cool even at the height of summer; winter had brought bitter snows and howling winds which turned the vast plains leading up to the town into a daunting trek for any ill-prepared travelers.
From a cliff ledge high above the plains, three sets of eyes surveyed that same trek. Their owners were seated inside large suits of dull green metal armor, twice the height of a grown man. All that could be seen of the armor's operators were the head and shoulders. The arms, torso, and legs were all placed within to operate the corresponding part of the armor. Whenever the suits moved, steam would issue forth from the clusters of pipes rising up behind the riders.
Viewed directly, one would see nothing special about the metal which made up the armor. It was only as the onlooker started to look away that something could be noticed, out of the corner of the eye. There was something less than solid about the armor, something that seemed to shift like a disturbed puddle just as it was leaving one's field of vision.
It was Magitek armor, infused with magical energy that made it more durable and more dangerous than any other material known to man. And it was recognized the world over as the most feared weapon in the arsenal of the armies of Emperor Gestahl.
Two of the Magitek soldiers were standing slightly ahead of their companion. One of them, a Lieutenant Samuel Vicks, guided his armor closer to the edge and nodded out across the frozen plains. "There's the town…" he said.
His comrade, Lieutenant Wedge Anders, gave a low whistle. "Hard to believe an Esper's been found intact there, a thousand years after the War of the Magi…" He stepped toward the edge as well. "Just when you think they're all gone, somebody digs up another one of these relics."
"Think it's still alive?" Vicks wondered.
Wedge shrugged. "Probably, judging from the urgency of our orders."
The word urgency reminded them both of the need for rapid action. The two soldiers turned away from the cliff and walked back to rejoin the third member of their group. Vicks pulled up short, as though he was afraid to go near her. "And this woman, this… sorcerer," he muttered, distaste mixed with fear dripping from his words. "Why's she here? I heard she fried fifty of our Magitek-armored soldiers in under three minutes."
The sorcerer in question had not so much as raised an eyebrow during the course of this entire conversation. She was a young girl, barely eighteen and looking very out of place behind the controls of a deadly war machine. Her hair, an unusual shade of bright green, was pulled back into a loose ponytail, away from her delicate features. Standing out against the pale skin of her forehead was a thin black band, which encircled her head just above the eyes and was attached to two discs on her temples. The muscles in her face were completely slack, devoid of any emotion.
Wedge pulled alongside her and, to Vicks' visible discomfort, reached out to cuff the girl lightly on the jaw with one of his Magitek's pincer-like steel "fingers". Her head tilted to the side before returning to a relaxed upright position, showing no sign of having even felt the blow. Wedge pointed to the black band adorning the girl's head. "Not to worry. This Slave Crown robs her of all conscious thought. She'll follow orders."
With a dull groan of grinding metal and a hiss of steam, he walked away from the girl, back toward the path leading down from the cliff and toward Narshe. Vicks followed after a moment, but not without giving the girl a reasonable berth. He did not share Wedge's casual faith in General Kefka's twisted gadgets.
Surveying the terrain ahead, Wedge raised his voice to address the others. "We'll approach from the east. Move out!"
Five minutes later, the snows were falling on a once-more deserted cliff, slowly burying the deep footprints of the three war machines as they advanced toward unsuspecting Narshe.
- .-. .. .- -..
In one of those widespread fallacies which the Empire did nothing to correct, many people assumed Magitek armor was unstoppable. Strictly speaking, this was not true. Coordinated teams of soldiers with defensible positions, reliable weapons, and adequate preparation had been known to halt whole companies of armored infantry dead in their tracks. Under the right circumstances, it could happen.
Narshe's poorly-organized militia, consisting of off-duty miners armed with rusty swords and dull spears, called from their beds by a warning bell and without even the most basic chain of command, did not stand a chance.
Wedge could hear the cries of alarm over the tolling of the bell as the trio arrived at the archway leading into the village. Several archers had already made it to the top of the wall and were frantically firing toward them. None of the shots even came close. It was hardly worth Wedge's effort to raise one massive steam-powered arm and direct a Fire Beam toward the defenders.
Magitek weaponry was a bastardized form of "true" magic, taking an elemental force of nature and straining it through technology in order to make it cooperate. This distinction probably would not have mattered much to the archers who disappeared screaming amidst the blazing inferno that erupted when Wedge's blast of crimson energy hit the wall around them.
Turning to Vicks, Wedge motioned to the girl. "Let's put her on point. No sense taking any risks." At the other soldier's nod of agreement, Wedge turned to the girl and said, "You are to make your way to the entrance of the mines, killing anyone who tries to get in your way. Understand?"
She nodded once and marched under the archway into the village, her suit lit red by the fire engulfing the wall above. Wedge and Vicks formed up behind her and followed.
Everywhere they looked, people were running around and screaming. Most were smart enough to stay out of the Imperial soldiers' way; the rest were knocked aside by powerful armored limbs.
They made it a good fifteen meters along Narshe's cobbled walkways before they met a second feeble attempt at a defense. Out from a side alley charged a man wearing the thick white cloth garments people seemed to prefer in Narshe; good for providing warmth, pathetic at providing protection.
He was clinging to the leash of a dog that could be more accurately characterized as a small wolf. Wedge recalled from somewhere in the briefing that they were called 'Lobos' and that they were generally bred for service as watchdogs in this part of the world.
Vicks gave him a skeptical glance, as if to say, Dogs? They're actually going to try and stop us with dogs?
Evidently they were, as the guard shouted, "Machine-riding, self-important swine! Take this!" and released the Lobo. The great canine charged toward the Magitek riders, bounded up over several stacked crates, and leaped toward Wedge, fangs bared. He caught it mid-air with his pincers and hurled it away with enough force to send it through the timber of the nearest house's wall.
A Fire Beam from Vicks scorched the street next to the guard and sent him scurrying for cover.
Eight more guards had made a stand up ahead, small scythe-like weapons and shields at the ready. The girl raised both arms of her suit. Electricity crackled around her with such intensity that Vicks and Wedge could feel their hairs standing on end, even at a distance. Webs of lightening shot out from her suit and washed over the enemy position. The screams of the guards died in their throats and they dropped to the ground, smoke rising from the twitching corpses.
Vicks paled and noticed that Wedge looked a little uneasy as well. No way either of us could throw a Bolt Beam that powerful. No way. As they followed her past the bodies, both soldiers held their breath to block out the stomach-turning smell of charred flesh.
Another group of guards, led by two more Lobos, hit them next from the left. "Narshe's freedom depends on us!" Vicks heard one of them call out to the others. He rolled his eyes. As if the Empire actually cared about this crap town of cave crawlers; so far as he was concerned, once they had the Esper they could leave without ever looking back.
"We've got the mutts," Wedge told the girl. "You take care of the guards!"
They both moved up to stand alongside her. Narshe's already chilly air seemed to grow even colder around them as the girl prepared for an Ice Beam.
Wedge fired off a quick Fire Beam of his own, which the Lobo managed to somehow evade. Its powerful leg muscles pushed it off the ground in an impressive leap that covered nearly two-thirds of the distance between them before Wedge caught it point-blank with a second blast of burning energy. The smoldering remains landed in a crumpled pile at his feet.
For his part, Vicks just lifted one arm high and brought it down viciously as soon as the second Lobo came within range. The dogs were bred to be fearless and strong, but clearly intelligence had slipped out of the pedigree a few generations back.
He looked back toward the guards, only to see that the girl had already done her work. Every man of that group was slumped against the wall of the building behind them, pinned in place by numerous shards of gleaming ice; the red stains spreading out around the shards provided a grisly contrast to their white outfits.
The girl was stomping on ahead. Wedge and Vicks hurried after her, the feet of their bulky armor tearing up large sections of the cobblestone streets behind them. Just as they caught up in a narrow throughway between two buildings, still more guards with Lobos appeared before them and to their rear.
"We've got 'em trapped now!" One guard crowed as both groups began to advance toward the three Magitek riders between them.
Vicks carefully turned his less-than-nimble armor to face the group behind them, which consisted of another handful of men and a few dogs. In unison, he and Wedge unleashed streams of lightening into their ranks, killing most and scattering the rest. Turning back, they saw the girl moving forward once more, past the guards who were now writhing on the ground. Some were vomiting and others were clutching their throats as though unable to breathe.
"What the hell kind of Magitek attack was that?" Vicks asked Wedge. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"It's a Bio attack. Poisons the air or something," Wedge said uncertainly. "It's a pretty advanced ability. I've never seen anyone…" He trailed off, noticed Vicks' apprehension, and spoke again with renewed confidence. "She's our sorcerer, remember? The enemy's the only one that has to worry about her."
Vicks shook his head. "I just don't like this."
"They don't pay us to like, they pay us to do. Move out!"
The pair pressed on behind the girl, walking beneath a few of the wooden bridges which connected Narshe's rooftops. The streets were mostly deserted now; people had decided to hunker down in their homes and wait out the attack. It made the job easier, which was good, but the sudden lack of guards was more unsettling to Vicks. Maybe they had finally figured out that scattered attacks by groups of ten or less was a losing strategy and were picking a spot further back to make a more viable stand.
Finally, the buildings began to thin out and the mines of Narshe came into view. A series of large oak platforms connected by wide stairways led up to the main shaft entrance. Entombed somewhere within those mines was the Esper which had brought them here in the first place.
Despite Vicks' doubts, the first stairway was built solidly enough to hold even the weight of multiple Magiteks. Just as he joined the other two on the lowest platform, the wood started to shake beneath them. His first thought was that it was giving way, but then he heard the yell carry down from the platforms above.
"We must defend the mines!"
Two guards came pounding down the next stairway, riding beasts which resembled small elephants with thick coats of shaggy fur, large blunt claws on each foot, and sharp upward-curled tusks.
"What are those things?" Vicks demanded of his partner.
Wedge, as always, had the answer. Probably because he actually paid attention at those mind-numbing briefings Command was so fond of. "They're called Vomammoths. The miners use 'em for hauling heavy loads." He grinned. "They are definitely not fireproof."
The girl's armor had not even broken stride as the two guards bore down on her. As he closed, the guard on the left raised his small scythe high. Suddenly the girl drove her armor forward in a short lunge, caught the startled guard by the throat with her right arm, lifted him from the saddle, and flung his flailing form over the platform's edge.
The second guard made the fatal mistake of turning to see what had happened to his comrade. He was not even looking when Wedge managed to awkwardly twist his armor aside to dodge the Vomammoth and ended him with a brutal steel backhand to the head.
Even without riders, the big animals were tenacious. Claws meant to give traction on mountain slopes dug into oak beams and brought them to abrupt halts. They were turning and preparing for another charge when the Fire Beams caught them broadside, knocking both beasts down the lower stairway in a fiery, roaring avalanche.
Before the beasts had finished their blazing descent, the trio had continued upward, up the second stairway and across the last platform. Standing there, they could see the path ahead went directly into a shaft entrance.
"According to our source, the frozen Esper was found in a new mine shaft," mused Wedge. "…Maybe this one…?"
"Only one way to find out." Vicks looked at the girl and raised one of his suit's arms in an after-you gesture. "Ladies first."
Again, that silent little nod and she obeyed without question. It gave him the creeps, but at least he wouldn't have to be the first one into that dark, damp tunnel.
- .-. .. .-
To the surprise of both soldiers, the tunnel was uneventful. A few vermin of abnormal girth scampered across their path, but a well-placed Bolt Beam could scare them off. The closest thing to an obstacle they had encountered was a wrought-iron gate which had been driven into the ground at the far end of the tunnel.
It lasted perhaps thirty seconds against the full strength of a Magitek war suit.
Tossing the twisted scrap metal aside, Vicks stepped into the opening. Hanging oil lanterns provided the only illumination this far into the mountain, but he thought that off in the distance he could see the light reflecting off something…
His attention was drawn by a solitary guard who stepped into the lamplight just a few meters ahead of him. "We won't hand over the Esper!" he growled.
Vicks had to concede that this guy had balls. Standing alone against three Magitek soldiers who had just waltzed through everything his village had to throw at them was not something a coward could do.
Wedge was less impressed. Coming up next to Vicks, he raised his arm toward the guard. "You've got three seconds to get out of our way," he said evenly.
The man took a few steps backward and shouted, "Whelk! Get them!" before turning and running off into the shadows.
Vicks immediately charged forward in hot pursuit, but stopped short when he saw something very large moving toward him through the darkness ahead. Puzzled, he started to raise his arms defensively…
A bolt of electricity shot out of the darkness and caught him square in the center of his suit. Vicks was hurled backward out past the gates he'd torn down moments earlier. He plowed into the ground and slid several feet through dirt and loose rock before coming to a halt. It took him a moment to recover from the jolt and considerably longer to maneuver his armor back upright. By that time, his attacker had stepped- or, more accurately, oozed into one of the circles of light.
It was an enormous snail, bigger than all three suits of armor combined. Its slimy yellow body extended from a spiked purple shell, feelers waving out around its glowing green eyes.
I'm starting to really hate this town, Vicks thought.
Wedge was already preparing to counter-attack. "I don't care how big it is, there's no way it can survive if we all blast it at once!" he yelled at the girl. "Fire Beams on three! Ready?"
Something clicked in Vicks' mind. "Hold it!" Wedge stopped and looked at him. "Think back to our briefing…"
"Since when do you pay attention during those?" Wedge muttered, his eyes flickering back toward the Whelk, which seemed content to hold its position in front of the opening. "What about it?"
"Do you recall hearing about a monster that eats lightning…?"
"…and stores the energy in its shell!" Wedge finished, catching up.
Vicks nodded. "Right. So whatever you do, don't attack the shell!"
"Alright already!" Wedge snapped, his armored arms glowing in preparation for combat. To the girl, he said, "Spread out and attack it from the left. Don't hit the shell, but go for the head with everything you've got!"
Picking up his cue, Vicks stomped right, unleashing a Bolt Beam at the Whelk as he went. The burst caught a glancing blow on the monster's weaving neck, but it clearly hurt. Moving with surprising speed, the Whelk slid across the ground toward him, moving its head like a bullwhip to strike Vicks' armor. He barely had time to brace himself before the impact and stumbled back a few steps, the gears in his armor's legs fighting to keep him balanced.
The Whelk was moving to attack him again, but Wedge and the girl didn't give it the chance. Their own combined energy beams landed neatly in the center of that vein-covered mass and caused it to recoil. Vicks backed out of striking range, priming his arm cannons for another blast. An instant before he fired, Wedge hit it again with a Bolt Beam of his own and the Whelk pulled its head back into the shell.
It was too late for Vicks to stop and, over Wedge's warning shout, he sent a Fire Beam right into the shell. The violet structure glowed red for a moment before returning to normal. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the air began to hum, much like it had before the girl's powerful Bolt Beam earlier. From the spire atop that purple spell, lightning stabbed out toward Vicks.
He must have blacked out, because suddenly his head hurt, his ears were ringing, his hair was on end, and Wedge was looking about as dazed as him. Also, the Whelk's head had re-emerged from its shell.
A faint part of his mind warned that the Whelk was on the attack again and that defending himself would be a wise idea. Unfortunately, his armor was still recovering from the scrambling effects of such a powerful electric attack and he couldn't raise the arms above waist level.
The Whelk bore down on him again, deadly intent in those luminescent green eyes. In a curiously unemotional way, Vicks registered that it was about to kill him and there wasn't much he could do to stop it. So he closed his eyes.
And waited.
There was the dull roar of a Magitek Beam attack, followed by the smell of something very disgusting burning.
Vicks tentatively opened his eyes and found himself centimeters away from the massive, slime-coated face of the Whelk. But its feelers were limp and the glow was fading from its eyes. Slowly, that long, muscular neck slumped to the ground; as it did, Vicks saw that the back half of its head had been burned cleanly away. He looked up and saw the girl lowering her arm.
"Thanks," he managed hoarsely.
It wasn't an order, so she didn't respond.
Meanwhile, Wedge was moving his suit's arms and taking a few experimental steps, assessing the damage to his armor. "Looks like that slug's attack gummed up some of the limb hydraulics, but they're working all right now. How about yours?"
A quick run through of basic movements showed the Vicks' armor was also coming back to a hundred percent. He gave Wedge a thumbs-up.
"Good. Now," Wedge jerked his head in the direction of the opening, "Let's go find an Esper."
They walked through the opening, the sounds of the Magitek's groaning limbs and hissing steam magnified by the tunnel around them. As they passed briefly into the darkness between the lit areas, Vicks tensed for some kind of attack but none came. The guards had failed, the Lobos had failed, the Vomammoths had failed, and the Whelk had failed.
Maybe the good people of Narshe had finally decided to accept the inevitable.
Flickering lantern light was unmistakably reflecting off something ahead. The tunnel widened around them and they saw it.
For their own reasons, the miners who had cleared this chamber had cut the floor on which the trio was now standing a good deal lower than the stone on which the Esper rested. Atop its elevated stone platform, it made Vicks think of a holy icon in a sacred temple. The resemblance was unsettling.
The Esper was encased in a thick ball of solid ice; light played off the shimmering surface and distorted one's view of the creature within but Vicks could make out wings of brilliant red, green, and blue feathers. They stemmed from a serpentine body that was covered with emerald scales on the back and sides, and gold and red scales along the belly. The wings were pulled in toward the body, making it impossible to guess how wide they might be when spread. Judging by the size of the Esper's body (as thick as the trunk of a rather large tree), Vicks doubted that it could have a wingspan of less than ten meters.
They stood in awed silence for a moment. A three-dimensional work of once-living art was before them and it took even Wedge a little time to remember their mission.
"Right," he managed at last. "We've found it, now we've got to get it out and haul it back to base. I'll unpack the tow lines and Vicks, you set up the sled. With any luck- hey! What's the matter?"
This last was directed at the girl, who was staring at the Esper with her eyes wide and her mouth open. It took Vicks a second to realize that this was the first time he'd ever seen her show emotion. The bad feeling which had been lurking in the back of his mind flared up to the surface, teetering on the edge of full-blown panic.
Wedge was still shouting at the girl. "What's the matter? Do you know something we don't? Hey!"
She continued to ignore him, her gaze fixed on the frozen creature before her. Her eyes, so dull and expressionless due to the Slave Crown, seemed to be almost glowing. Vicks looked back over at the Esper and felt his insides go cold.
"Damn it, I am ordering you to respond-"
"Wedge?" His voice was barely a croak.
"What?! In case you hadn't noticed, we're dealing with a… a…" Wedge trailed off. He saw it, too.
White light was dancing over the ice surrounding the creature, travelling across from one corner to the other before vanishing, only to resume again seconds later. Moving faster and faster, the light also grew in brightness until the two Imperial soldiers had to throw up their hands to protect their eyes. Somehow, its intensity seemed to even block out sound in the cave.
Vicks barely heard Wedge's frantic yell. "Where's that light coming from?!"
In the crack between his fingers, Vicks could make out the silhouette of the girl, guiding her armor forward directly into the bright light.
To his left, Wedge started screaming. The sound wavered for a heartbeat before stopping completely.
The light grew brighter still.
"Wedge… where are you?!" Even screaming at the top of his lungs, Vicks could barely hear his own voice. What's happening?! He thought frantically, trying to activate his armor with one hand. Not to attack, but to run.
Even with his fingers clamped over tightly closed eyes, the light seemed to rip through his flesh and bone like wet paper, daggers of burning bright agony exploding behind his eyelids. He tried to scream.
The light disappeared for a very quick instant.
Vicks saw the green-haired girl, standing placidly in her armor before the frozen Esper.
Then the light returned and blotted out everything else.
- .-. .. .-
She barely registered the change as the second soldier's screams were snuffed out.
Her forehead tickled. A distant part of her mind which still clung to independent consciousness recognized that the black band wanted her to stand still and wait for orders.
But the givers of orders were gone. So what was she supposed to do?
The Esper was calling her. An even deeper part of her mind, one buried so long that she had forgotten it even existed, connected that call with a name.
Tritoch.
Her lips formed the word.
A hazy aura rose up around the icy shell. Gentle tugging sensations over her waist, arms, shoulders, and then head told her that the same aura had encompassed her. It was blue, the rich coral blue of the ocean at noon on a clear summer day. The aura swirled around Tritoch's frozen form, casting a shifting pattern of sapphire glow along the walls of the cave.
Strands of white and blue lightning snaked out from the Esper and played across her body. The tickling in her forehead was shut out by a torrential barrage of new sensations.
A lake's edge, gentle waves continuing their eternal game of push and pull with the sands of the shore.
A warm fire at the end of a long, cold day.
A blanket of orange, violet, and crimson cast across the clouds by a setting sun.
Rain pounding against the limbs of an ancient oak, the next in a line of countless many which the sturdy old tree had endured.
Her head felt like it was swelling up from this sensory maelstrom. The Crown was growing tighter, digging into the flesh of her brow.
The strands of lightning fell away from her.
Her body shook from the force of violent explosions which were suddenly rocking the cave.
She did not look away from Tritoch. The pain in her head was tripling with every passing second.
Chunks of the cave ceiling tore loose and crashed to the ground next to her.
Her head felt seconds away from bursting under the strain of forces within.
Tritoch's aura expanded and enveloped her in white.
Her eyes had been open for so long. She closed them, and the world fell away.
[A/N:] Aaaaand, we're off and running on my first-ever posted work of fanfiction. This will be a mostly faithful novelization of the SNES version of the game, but I'll probably be adding my own touches to the dialogue and action.
Is it bad that I had so much fun writing the Magitek assault on Narshe? Those suits are just such classic steampunk, I couldn't help myself…
Anyway, like it? Hate it? Any reviews will be appreciated, although if you want to criticize my story, I'd appreciate something more specific than "ZOMG! ur story sux so bad!!". I realize that I'm still developing as a writer and there's always room for improvement, so please feel free to suggest ways in which I could do better. Especially if their are any grammar or spelling mistakes which I missed; those drive me insane and I will be quite grateful to anyone who points one out.
Next up: the girl deals with the aftermath of her encounter with the Esper, the villagers are out for revenge, and we get a few flashbacks.
Oh, and there was a very subtle reference to The Princess Bride in this chapter. Can anyone spot it? Hint: it involves synonyms.