And so we continue. This chapter was pretty fun to write, and I set up a few future story points.

As always, read and review.

Disclaimer: I own nuttin'.


Garland moved forward with a firm grip on the handle of his adaptable weapon. Before him was a woman, her name was Oerba Yun Fang, and she was trying to resist Garland, but she was failing, badly. Her lance had been snapped in two by Garland's sword, and with the front end of the weapon in her arms, her stance made it obvious she had no real experience with a weapon of that size.

Behind Garland, a figure clothed in white and purple garments stood with a staff in hand. He had done nothing during the entire battle, merely shaking his head in exasperation at Fang's pitiful display against Garland. Truly… was this the one he wanted to become Ragnarok?

While he was thinking, Fang charged forward, but with a weapon of unfamiliar size she made only one pitiful slice at him before an armored fist flew straight in her face. She staggered a few steps back from the force to her skull before toppling onto her back, she had fought the knight almost evenly until he had managed to strike her lance right in it's middle, but now… now her chances of victory were nothing. If only she had known about the shape-shifting nature of Garland's weapon beforehand, she was sure she could have won if she had known that.

"Humph… what an unfulfilling battle." Garland loosened his stance as Fang tried, desperately, to get back on her feet, he didn't know how precisely how much pressure he had struck her face with, but it was apparently enough that the pain coursing through her body was distracting her from trying to stand up.

Garland quietly stood in place as the other man with him walked forward until he was right beside the woman so utterly bested by Garland. She had become an almost pitiable construction, in the War of Transgression in their world she had shown herself to have worth, but now…

"I have no use for a flawed l'Cie." The man, Galenth Dysley, or more accurately, the Fal'Cie Barthandelus, scowled and walked past her, a pity, she used to be the tool with the most potential, but now…

His thinking was cut short when he sensed something coming at him from above. Casting a sudden look above him, he saw only the gleam of light reflecting off of metal before he jumped several feet back, narrowly dodging a sword slicing into the floor. With a small moment to catch his breath, he witnessed the identity of the one wielding the blade.

"Zack?" Barthandelus' expression was utter shock, the complete opposite of what Garland felt, a feeling of amusement, and the desire for a true fight to the death.

"Impossible. Yunalesca was supposed to dispose of you." Barthandelus regained the composure in his words, reviewing Zack carefully, probing for any un-guarded sides, yet he could see nothing of the sort, not past his giant sword.

"Oh, that woman? She's off in la-la land now." Zack let a smile of confidence creep across his face as Barthandelus and Garland acknowledged Yunalesca's failure to terminate the reckless youth.

They also acknowledged another person approaching Zack and Fang from behind.

Auron, who had many personal issues with Yunalesca, slowly walked in until he was beside Fang, on the opposite side of her that Zack was on. Casually reaching toward his back, he pulled a lance out and offered the handle to Fang.

"Don't lose it this time." Auron, even through this slightly sarcastic statement, had no smile on him as Fang reached out and curled her fingers around the long handle of the lance. With his grip letting up, Auron instead moved his hand toward his own sword.

Fang immediately jammed the blade of her lance into the ground and began to push down, offering a leverage to get her back on her feet. With backup, and a new lance, Fang was ready for round two.

Barthandelus let out a sigh at the new resistance, just when he thought the war was coming to an end, partaking in these battles was just as meaningless as watching over Cocoon. Raising his head, he saw a familiar owl fluttering in the air above him, and it proceeded to dive-bomb down to him, with empty feelings, Barthandelus raised his staff until a glow appeared off the top of it, the owl flew straight into the glow, igniting a blinding light that covered all of Orphan's Cradle.

"If peace and an ideal future is what you seek, you will not resist!" The light died away, leaving a massive monstrosity behind, the true form of Barthandelus, in this rear area of Orphan's Cradle, it took up the whole back of the room, with Garland casually standing behind Barthandelus.

Slowly walking forward, Garland positioned himself to the side of Barthandelus' face, with weapon in hand he faced his opposition, the Warriors of Cosmos stood at the ready, having a slight numbers advantage, though it seemed negated by Barthandelus massive size.

Hunching down to his familiar battle-stance, Garland had to stifle a laugh, Barthandelus truly believed that this battle had true significance. It was merely a footnote in the eternal cycle of conflicts, all battles and wars for Cosmos and Chaos were done with one reason, to turn Chaos into the ultimate weapon.

Without hesitation, Garland lunged forward as blasts of light soared from Barthandelus as the Warriors of Cosmos responded with equal force…

Garland opened his eyes. He was not in the same area of Orphan's Cradle that that fight had occurred that. It was further in, the place where the decisive battle of the last cycle had taken place at.


The Warriors of Chaos had won that day, though at the end of it all, only Garland was standing, Barthandelus being defeated partway through the battle, it didn't change the fact that all fighters, bar Garland, were cast down to the empty hell where broken warriors battled each other for the right to fight in another cycle. With the exception of Garland, it was fate for all warriors, regardless of their god, to be dropped into that misery, into that unknowing abyss. No one actually knew that they had been tossed aside, no one in that hell knew what was truly going on.

Garland chuckled softly as he recalled how Barthandelus handled the planning and operation of the last cycle. Now, Emperor Mateus was the mastermind behind the offense of the Chaos Warriors. Unlike Barthandelus, Mateus knew of the cycle of conflict, though even he was unaware of the reason it existed, unaware of Cid of the Lufaine.


Gabranth struggled to move, he had been forced to re-connect his two swords together into a double-sided weapon and use it as a crutch. He was thankful to be alone here, at the throne of Chaos. The last thing he needed was to be mocked by his fellow Warriors of Chaos, none of the others had been battered so utterly in a fight against the Warriors of Cosmos, though he could take some comfort in the fact that the Emperor had declared Sephiroth the most dangerous of Cosmos' pawns.

He was slightly confused about Mateus' constant use of the word "pawn", though. He didn't pretend to know what went through that man's head, he made Vayne look simple-minded.

Gabranth was sometimes slightly tense at the Edge of Madness, lava dripped from the clouds above him, it was worrisome that the area he was standing on might have the direct sky above it begin dripping lava. A certain feeling of tension welled up in him, only to disperse when something else caught his eye.

A girl.

He hadn't noticed her at first, but right in front of Chaos' throne, there was a girl, a young woman. She was lying down, unconscious, or simply asleep. Her face was strained, as if she had been in pain recently, yet besides her face she seemed to lay peacefully.

With a small groan of pain, Gabranth used his weapon-turned-crutch to move up to her and then crouch down on his knees, enough to notice a strange ornament on her head. A black strand encircling her upper temple, a head-band of some sort? Gabranth, though his helm, gazed at the band on her hand for a moment before he slowly began to, perhaps without even realizing it, reach out his hand toward the alien ornament, his armored fingers were only a few centimeters away from it before a voice suddenly cried out.

"Don't touch that!"

Gabranth's hand flinched back at the sound of the scream, turning his head, he saw Kefka glaring at him, the glint of the clown's eye was completely murderous, but that was not out of the ordinary for Kefka. Yet the focused glare was more relentless then it usually was, the giant painted smile did not hide the scowl of the clown.

"That's my toy! You can't play with it!" Kefka moved forward, seemingly merely approaching this girl, his "toy", had thoroughly angered him, he had none of his usual bounce of flair in his steps, instead walking in a way more comparable to a normal person. He continued to move until he was right by the girl, then came to a halt.

"My lovely little Esper-girl… you've been napping long enough!" Kefka swiftly kicked the girl in her gut, triggering a sudden gasp out of her as her eyes opened. For a moment her expression was empty and unchanging, until Kefka struck her again. This time his boot went across her face, knocking her over onto her other side, her face came to a halt right on Gabranth's knee.

"What are you waiting for? Transform! We've got some destruction on the to-do list!" Kefka grabbed the girl by her shoulder and hoisted her up, before letting electricity flow through her fingers.

The girl reacted as the electrical energy passed through the clown's hand and into her body, with a scream, a white bubble began to emanate off of her, the bubble expanded until finally it burst open, covering the field of the Edge of Madness, throwing both Kefka and Gabranth away.

Kefka only flew a few feet back before he managed to regain control of himself and stop his movement in mid-air. Gabranth, having no flight control, was sent flying straight into Chaos' throne, his back painfully colliding with the throne's armrest before he was deposited onto the ramped ground in front of the throne.

After reacting to the pain for a moment, Gabranth saw a strange humanoid creature between him and Kefka. The figure was clearly the Esper-girl that Kefka babbled about, Terra. He had a few words to say to Kefka about what just happened, however…

"Was it really necessary, or fair, to beat her like that?" Gabranth couldn't even stand, with his weapon several meters to his left, only managing to pathetically lift himself off the ground with quivering arms. "She's fighting for you, shouldn't you be able to treat a soldier of yours better?"

"Oh, shut up!" Kefka shot a glare at the crippled knight that was complaining about ethnics in regards to how he treated the Esper. "With the slave crown on her, she'll do whatever I tell her to. I can treat her however I want!"

Slave Crown. So that's what it's called… Gabranth managed to raise an arm up onto the armrest of Chaos' throne to pull himself up. To… judge by the name, the only reason she was obedient to Kefka was the band around her head, though it disappeared when she transformed like that.

Terra and Kefka had begun to walk off, making Gabranth briefly wonder if they had received an order to begin a mission. No, that clown was always completely defiant of order and authority, more likely he was trying to antagonize someone from either, or perhaps both sides, purely for the hell of it.

Gabranth's inner-discussion about what Kefka was planning, was cut off as he saw a familiar regally dressed cold figure fade into existence before him…


Exdeath staggered back in response to a blast of Freeze from Shantotto that had struck him when he was focusing on Richard. Thoroughly angered, Exdeath commanded his sword engage Shantotto, flying in her direction, Exdeath only saw the first swing of the weapon before he turned around to restore his focus on Richard… only to not see him anywhere.

Normally he would cast his sight to the left and right when presented with this situation, but with a Dragoon, there was only one place they could be when they were out of sight. Arcing his head up, Exdeath saw Richard bearing down on him with the Blood Spear, but Exdeath had realized what he was trying to do too early. Merely jumping back, Richard's spear uselessly struck the road they were standing on, and his attempt to strike the distracted Exdeath was rewarded with a blast of white energy coming out of Exdeath's palm and into Richard's chest.

Richard flew backwards, away from Exdeath, who glided forward in an attempt to press his advantage, but was stopped by a sudden flurry of lightning passing in front of him. Turning his head back, he saw Shantotto still engaged in a fight against his sword, the electrical frenzy seemed to have been an attack from her that missed it's mark. It had been enough for Richard to regain his bearings. Exdeath turned back to the front just in time to see a spear coming down on him, easily grazing a blow against his chest, but doing no significant damage. The response to the blow was the creation of a tornado around Exdeath, with the sudden movement of the wind, Richard was easily sucked in and his armor began to strain to hold itself together against the violent air.

The tornado existed for only a few moments, but the time must have been agonizingly long for Richard, until finally, with one last force of will, the tornado threw Richard away across from Exdeath.

Exdeath wanted a new tactic to strike Richard with, otherwise risk adopting a predictable style of fighting. Raising his arm up, he closed his hand around the hilt of the sword that had dedicated itself to fighting Shantotto for some time now. He took notice that the middle part of the blade had been thoroughly singed, most likely by a Flare spell.

He didn't start an offense against Richard immediately, however, he knew exactly how Shantotto would respond to the disappearance of the enemy she was engaged to. Moving to the left, Exdeath felt a chill as a sudden blast of icicles flew past him. Exdeath lightly chuckled and fired a blast of white energy back toward Shantotto as he turned his attentions to Richard. Not just the typical energy, of course, that particular blast had a special suprise for the mage...


Sephiroth found himself back at Order's Sanctuary, the unconscious Laguna laid out across the white marble ground of Cosmos' Throne. Laguna no longer had a painful grimace to his face, yet even when Laguna was clearly in pain, albeit unconscious, Sephiroth's mind had been elsewhere.

If you want to learn the truth about this world, and of this war, show your resolve to seek the truth in the coming battles.

A frown appeared on Sephiroth's normally empty features as he reflected upon Mateus' words. Hiding the truth… he wouldn't expect that of Cosmos. It wasn't unheard of in SOLDIER, considering what Shinra tended to be like. He was still feeling uncomfortable, a small feeling building up in his gut…

"Are you troubled, Sephiroth?"

A bright flash of light appeared, and from behind him, Cosmos came into view, electing only a look over the shoulder of Sephiroth. Yet the look on his face must of given Cosmos a general idea of what had happened.

"One of the Warriors of Chaos said something to you?" Cosmos' face remained even and calm, somewhat like Sephiroth's own, though hers had a certain flash of regality that was absent from the SOLDIER.

"On three separate occasions, the Warriors of Chaos have told me that there is more to this conflict then what you've told me." Sephiroth took his eyes off Cosmos, but did manage to see her open her mouth like she wanted to say something, but disengaged from doing so. Once again, Sephiroth felt a slight ting of curiosity, but let it go for the moment.

"Normally I would simply brush it off as an attempt to antagonize me, but the look in the Emperor's eyes leads me to believe that he does, truly, know something I don't."

Cosmos looked away, another thing Sephiroth took note of, the feeling in his gut grew as Cosmos silently gave him reason to consider the words of the Warriors of Chaos…


Jecht, Galuf, and Adel will return in the next chapter.