Chapter 9: The Magician's Assistant
Through her binoculars, Selphie could see a cloud of smoke rising from the distant hills of Dollet. She could trace where it was relative to the town, and determined whatever had happened had taken place near the communication tower.
Ugh. We need to go there?
This thing is organized; cutting off communications everywhere it goes, but what's it trying to accomplish?
Irvine walked up beside her and gestured for the binoculars. When she handed them to him, she pounded her hands on the railing, frustrated she couldn't think of a motive for who, or what, was doing all of this.
"Hm, that's that tower you guys went to, right?" he asked, bringing the binoculars down from his face.
"Yeah. The Dollet Dukedom never decided to dismantle it after the war. I think they use it to communicate via cable with Timber now," she replied.
"The two towns that suffered the most from Galbadia's campaign interact on a frequency no one else can pick up on, huh?"
"That's what Rinoa's friends in The Forest Owls told her. Galbadia might not be a threat anymore, but, even with their pulling out of Timber shortly after the war ended, everyone in the region is still on the fence about them."
There were no two ways about it when it came to Selphie's professionalism. Irvine hadn't kept up with the changing political climate since they'd returned, unless it had something to do with Rinoa. Somewhere in between running almost every committee in Garden, along with keeping tabs on how the repairs were going in Trabia, Selphie found time to catch up on world events.
The two heard heavy footsteps from behind them, and turned to see Griever approaching.
"I see a pattern," he said to the couple. Selphie rolled her eyes at the Knight.
"Well, duh! It's attacking port towns and then disabling their communications systems so they can't call for help. I guess it didn't plan on SeeD intervening, did it?" she touted.
"Maybe…" Griever replied ominously.
Irvine thought to press the Knight further on his response, but there was something else he was curious about instead.
"It's been almost three hours. Where's Ellone?" he asked.
"Fast asleep. From the looks of it, her attempts at stalling Squall are going well."
Selphie sighed, sounding more down than usual.
"Something wrong?" the Knight asked.
"I just hate to think that Squall's become so...unstable. I know Rinoa has a knack for spontaneity, but she never did anything she didn't want to. She still hasn't—everything she's done so far has been because of something else. But, now Squall's...worse?"
Irvine pulled his partner close to him and cradled her side. Griever, on the other hand, had no intention of comforting anyone—not now, at least.
"This is something we can worry about once we reach Balamb. Ellone's handling her brother right now, and there's nothing we can do about Rinoa until we take care of this."
Irvine narrowed his eyes at his client from under the brim of his hat, but Selphie nudged him in the stomach for him to stop.
"You really think whatever this is could cause us more problems?" she asked, her professionalism trumping her worries.
"Any kind of external stress is something to be concerned about. A mimic, something practically out of a fairy tale, shows up and begins rampaging through select cities just as I come into contact with you two? Ellone's powers not working correctly for the past six months, or, since I arrived? It all falls into place a little too well, don't you think?" the Knight replied.
"If Rinoa's powers hadn't started acting up before you arrived, I'd think to blame you for all of this," Irvine bluntly interjected. Selphie threw a much more forceful nudge into his side, but Griever didn't mind his comment.
"When we find this 'mimic,' it'll confirm one of two things." Griever turned to face the couple directly, having grown weary of gazing at the foreboding citiscape they'd soon be docking at.
"Either this is all a result of mine and Ultimecia's meddling with the timeline, and these are just roadblocks to time-space righting itself…"
The Knight seemed to have trouble finishing his statement, but Selphie didn't want to wait.
"Or?!" she exclaimed insistently.
Griever let out a heavy-hearted sigh before responding.
"Or someone's trying to stop us."
Zell hopped out of the car as he pulled into town, already seeing he was too late.
"Damn! This thing moves fast!"
He threw the keys to the woman standing outside the car rental building. Transfixed on the smoke, the keys landed on the ground to no one's dismay. He ran down the main street to the water fountain in the center of town.
Aw come on! I gotta go back there?!
Looking up at the communication tower, he pushed through crowds of people in the streets and stumbled into the town square. There was no sign of damage here, but something had exploded, or was at least set aflame up in the hills leading away from town.
First it messes with the communication systems at Garden, and now here. What the hell is going on?
He turned back to the crowd, who were still mesmerized by the sight.
"Hey!" he yelled. They all snapped out of their trance and turned their attention to him.
"The hell happened here?!"
One man stepped forward from the crowd.
"Some clown thing ran through here from the beach. It flew in, landed, then for some reason, took to the hills through town on foot. Along the way it…"
"It what? What did it do?!"
Zell's impatience had gone from one to ten in seconds. His emotions were already running on high because of the sudden rush for him to leave Balamb after The Mimic attacked it, then to go all the way over to Timber, and finally to Dollet to keep after it. All the while, his friend and Commander, Squall, had just confessed to him that he and Rinoa would eventually take over the world and either enslave, or destroy all of humanity. He'd left that part out while on the phone with Selphie, but it had been in the back of his mind every second since he and Squall had had that talk in his room. He played it off like a SeeD, but it wore on his conscience like it would anybody else.
"It…kept changing shapes. It looked like it was…morphing?"
"Morphing? This thing flew in from the direction of Balamb, right?!"
The man nodded.
"Alright, everyone get back to your homes! SeeD's been called in and we're taking care of this, but we need the streets evacuated in case that thing comes running back down here!"
The crowd chattered loudly amongst themselves, hearing what Zell had said, but not making any effort to heed his warnings.
"Hey!" he yelled, grabbing their attention once more.
"Go home!"
The crowd quickly dispersed as Zell turned his attention back to the hills above him. Memories of running from the X-ATM092 with Squall and Selphie flashed across his mind as he made his way up the very hills he'd thought he was sure to die in, even with his fellow cadets by his side. Slowly, his gait waned as he noticed more and more articles of clothing lying by the sides of the walkway, giving him pause and stopping to inspect them.
Was this thing carrying all of these clothes with it or something?
It seemed strange that a creature that could take the form of anything and anyone, would need garments to change in and out of. Yet, Zell recognized one particular article of clothing along the way and stopped cold. He knelt down and picked up a Balamb Garden student uniform without a name tag.
This thing could've been infiltrating the Garden for who knows how long…but why?
He looked farther ahead and saw a white t-shirt and pair of jeans lying next to each other. They were as generic looking as any other combination of those clothes, but a pile of overlapping belts lay next to the jeans that he recognized all too well.
These are Squall's! He's the only guy that wears these weird belts. Was this thing impersonating him at one point?
That could've meant anything. Someone impersonating the Commander would have every cadet and SeeD under their thumb. The entirety of Garden's military force was at Squall's disposal, and their loyalty to him was to a fault. The Mimic could've gotten them to do just about anything it wanted.
Rinoa…Quistis…the Headmaster and Matron…
Rinoa knew Squall was in Balamb with Zell. Did Quistis? Surely she would've figured out that he carried out his part of their plan when she went to visit Rinoa, right?
That's if she actually went…She said she was going to see the headmaster and Matron first…
Zell looked around quickly to see if any of his other comrades' clothing was lying around, but he didn't see anything that looked like theirs anywhere. While relieved, the consequences of this thing impersonating Squall had too much potential to wind up causing a huge amount of trouble—especially considering Rinoa's current condition.
There came a rustling from the bushes behind him, and Zell quickly turned, his fists up and ready to smash whatever was coming for him. In true anticlimactic fashion, a lowly geezard waddled out from the shrubbery and slithered along the ground.
Oh, nevermind—
Then came a second one, then a third, and another one after that. Soon he heard sounds coming from the side of the hill, and when he looked over, he saw two anacondaur slithering their way up towards him.
Crap, I forgot all about the monsters around here!
Knowing there was little time, the martial artist grabbed Squall's clothes and darted up towards the communication tower. Coming across the ledge from where Squall and Selphie had decided to jump down during their field exam, Zell shook his head and kept walking.
Didn't wanna do it then, don't wanna do it now…
The billowing smoke wasn't far from where he was, and he could see that it wasn't actually coming from anywhere someone could walk to. The Mimic must've thrown a Fire spell at the side of the mountain or something, because that's all there was to see. He tried leaning over to see if maybe it was perched on the mountainside, but it was nowhere to be seen. Not that he had any idea of how this thing behaved anyway, but having no idea what it acted like didn't make him a fool for checking. He pulled back from the edge and turned back around.
Hyne!
The Mimic had appeared behind him without making so much as a sound. It crouched on the ground and stared at him through the tiny slit in its cloak for it to see through. Zell couldn't make out any sign of there being a human under that cloak, and the two circles of white light that shone through the slit were only a further indicator that this thing was supernatural.
"Dincht?" it asked.
It's voice sounded just as it had before it summoned the Quake spells back at the harbor. If his eyes had been closed, Zell would've pictured a thousand men and women saying his name; a thousand men and women who sounded tired and sickly; a thousand men and women who had suffered tremendously, and were forced to live their lives in agony. His eyes were open though, and there was only one person—no, one thing—in front of him. It hadn't moved since saying his name. Even the wind seemed unable to move its clothes in the passing breeze.
"Zell Dincht?" it asked again.
Zell swallowed nervously and slowly rose to his feet. The mimic did exactly as he did, in sync with his every move, right down to his breathing.
"What…are you?" asked Zell, scared to even hear the thing's voice again.
"I am the Mimic," it replied simply.
That voice—no, those voices; how is this even possible?
"Does the sound of my voice frighten you, Zell Dincht?" the Mimic asked.
The martial artist clenched his fists as he couldn't give an answer. He may as well have admitted to crapping his pants, though; from the face he was making, no one would be fooled into thinking he wasn't scared speechless.
The Mimic slowly began to move toward him. Zell quickly edged backwards, and the Mimic did the same.
"What do you want?" asked Zell.
"Want?" echoed the Mimic.
Zell's fears were quickly trumped by his impatience for any kind of mind games this thing might try to pull.
"Don't act like you're confused! You have a reason for being here. What is it?!"
The Mimic turned its head to observe Zell from a different angle. It was taking in its subject from a different perspective; studying it more closely and differently than it had before.
"Your friends take you for a fool. They shouldn't; you're bright."
Zell adjusted his feet and was bracing himself to fight. The Mimic, choosing to forego it's MO, revealed its arms from under its cloak, showing a gunblade as one, and a whip as the other.
"I'll strike you into submission, and then cut you to pieces if you even think about it, Dincht," the Mimic stated bluntly.
Zell reluctantly stood down, and the Mimic drew its arms back in under its cloak.
"So, what do I want, was that the question? That's what you wanted to know, right?" it asked.
Zell felt like he was going to throw up at the sound of its voices. His head was spinning as a result of hearing them; was this some kind of spell it was casting?
"You seem like you need help. Good thing you chose not to fight. It would've been a disaster for you."
"Shut up! Is this your game? Take people by surprise and just screw with them until you've had your fill of fun? What the hell did you do over here? Why'd you blow up a random part of the hillside?"
"I was curious as to whether the SeeDs would come running to a simple smoke signal. More importantly though, you've found your voice! I'm happy for you. If you find your voice, that means I'll be able to use it when I take your form."
Zell shuddered at the sound of that and put up his fists again.
The Mimic sighed a thousand sighs, and drew out the same weapons it'd made its arms appear as before.
"This doesn't bode well for you. Squall and Quistis are masters of their craft. Do you think you could beat either of them one-on-one? If you even had to think about an answer to that, then there's absolutely no way you'd be able to defeat both, Zell."
"I'm not fighting them! I'm fighting you!" he yelled, winding up a duel.
If the Mimic was going to fight like Quistis and/or Squall, it wouldn't be able to imitate his martial arts at the same time, he thought. Being restricted to two very particular ways of fighting would give Zell the advantage of surprise. The Mimic withdrew its weapons into its cloak and its arms reemerged as Zell had seen them before. This time however, it held an oak stave, and was preparing to wield it like Zell would've imagined a wizard would, just like in the fairy tales he'd heard as a child.
"To answer your question from before; as a fitting way to send you off, I am the Mimic. I wish to parody yours and everyone else's existence until I am content. My true purpose has only come to light in recent centuries, but you need not be concerned with that. I'll finish you here, and when your friends arrive, I'll—or 'you'll'—be telling them the Mimic got away. The best part of that is, I, or rather, 'you', won't be lying."
That was one word too many from this thing for Zell. He lunged forward with a Mach Kick. The Mimic cast Protect on itself and took the blow with ease. It swung its staff to its left and quickly cast Thundaga on Zell. Junctioned differently than he was before, Alexander's quadruple elemental defenses allowed him to take very little damage from the spell, and he leapt at the Mimic's torso. He lifted him up in the air above his head, jumped up, then came flying back down into the ground, bouncing the thing off the ground, and watched it land on its back. He'd managed to land a Meteor Strike, but as Zell landed, it quickly stood back up. Despite the fact that it was a weight-based attack and its Protect spell would have no effect on it, the Mimic seemed almost completely unfazed.
"Oh come on! That was dead on!" yelled Zell.
"It was. It hurt. My turn." The Mimic twirled its staff in front of itself and called upon a non-elemental spell. Zell felt intense heat form around him; it was a Flare spell. Knowing he wouldn't be able to absorb it, he channeled his Regen spells into his spirit, and despite being swallowed by the explosion, emerged with only a few minor singes on his clothes and in his hair.
Damn it! I was having a good hair day, too!
"Oh, you fight even better without the others, too. Squall's the hero and yet here you are, cleaning up after his mess from Balamb."
"Don't try to play mind games with me, freak! You're no Seifer!" Zell yelled back.
"…Oh?"
The Mimic snapped its fingers and a blurred assortment of colors dashed to and from the trail of clothes Zell had found leading up the hill. Before him stood a Seifer look-a-like in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, with multiple belts crisscrossing over his hips; not a single article of clothing fit him.
"Ugh, why did he have to be so damn tall?" asked the Mimic in its new form. The faux Seifer looked at Zell, who didn't flinch at its menacing glare.
"Unfettered, I see."
A gunblade resembling the Hyperion appeared in The Mimic's left hand, and it assumed Seifer's combat pose.
"Oh man…BRING IT ON!"
Zell had been waiting to wail on Seifer since the day they'd met, so wailing on a faux Seifer would work all the same for him. The Mimic charged forward and swung the blade side-to-side to cut through Zell. Quickly parrying, Zell came up from underneath and uppercut the Mimic right through the chin. The real Seifer may've been able to prevent that, and if he hadn't, he wouldn't have gone as high in the air as this one did. Zell readied a Dolphin Blow to let loose on him as he fell. Having learned from the last fight that this thing was quite adept at countering moves from the air, when Zell went to lay out the attack, he jumped upwards and back as the faux Seifer swung fast and hard toward the ground beneath him. Doing nothing but scraping the edge of his sword on the rock, Zell finished the attack from the air and directly into the Mimic's face. A wave of water charged out from the impact and sent the creature flying into a nearby wall.
Zell smashed his fist into the ground and began to pump himself up more.
"That all you got, Almasy?"
Was he really pretending to fight Seifer? Maybe this would be the Mimic's fatal mistake.
"So…you pretend to be other things, too?" it asked in its original voice.
Zell shook off the comment and started hopping back and forth.
"Let's go, whatever you are! Wanna talk trash and say I'm cleaning up the mess? Guess that means you're out of here!"
The Mimic snapped its fingers and abruptly changed back to its original form.
"Don't pretend you actually comprehend the gravity of my presence, Dincht!" it shouted.
The voices that came forth now carried a taste for blood. This thing may've just been toying with him during their fights, even with its destroying a harbor and blowing up a mountainside.
"Double!" it shouted. As soon as the purple waves faded from around it, it held up its staff and incanted another spell.
"Stop!"
Zell didn't have a chance to junction his status-defense, and was frozen in place by two stop spells.
"Just in case the first one missed," the Mimic mocked.
It moved slowly toward Zell and gently caressed his face. Zell wanted nothing more than to head-butt this thing as hard as possible, but as it took in every facet of his body, he felt like it was learning everything about him, and was going to follow through on its threat from before.
"Just think, your mother will never even know! You should be thankful, really. I'm going to spare your 'Ma' the horror of having to grieve over a dead child."
The Mimic drew its arms and staff into its cloak, then pulled them back out as two gunblades. They weren't imitating any particular model this time; they didn't need to. It only needed them for one purpose, and that didn't involve tricking anyone into thinking he was someone else this time.
The Mimic stood back and began running the blades over each other as a butcher would over a piece of meat.
"Now, where to begin?"
Shallow waves touched the backs of their boot heels as Irvine, Selphie, and Griever surveyed the city from the Dolletian shore. For a bustling city like Dollet, the deserted beach and streets made for an unsettling quiet.
"I can literally only hear the crackle of fire, and that's coming from all the way over there," said Irvine, pointing where the smoke stack billowed into the skies.
"Zell probably got everyone to go back into their homes," suggested Selphie.
"Did he confirm he'd arrived?" Griever asked.
Selphie shook her head.
"But that's a rental car from Timber if I've ever seen one." She directed their attention to an old beat up station wagon that was made up of parts made from different types of cars. Timber had only been liberated from Galbadian occupation for a year—to say that their economy was having a hard time rebuilding itself was an understatement.
"Well, unless someone else was dying to make the trip, than that's proof enough for me," said Irvine. Griever nodded in agreement, and began walking towards the stairs leading up to the town's business district.
The apartments on top of the various storefronts along the boardwalk all had their lights on, and against the red flushed twilight of dusk, it was clear their various residents had returned home.
"Looks like Selphie's right: he did his job. Are you two junctioned?"
The SeeD and her hired-gun of a boyfriend nodded.
"Right. Let's head out."
"Wait, what about you?" the little warrior asked. Griever shook his head with a confident smile.
"I'll be fine." Before she or Irvine could prompt him any further, there came a loud rumbling from up in the hills. A massive force had just smashed into the ground, one that the two of them were familiar with.
"That's his Meteor Strike," remarked Irvine.
"Oh, good! He's winning!" Selphie cheered.
The Knight held out his hand, gesturing the other two to be quiet. He closed his eyes for a moment, then unsheathed his sword as a menacing scowl came over his face.
"It's toying with him. We need to move, now!"
Without waiting for his proxies, the Knight moved quickly through the streets at a speed that belied his size. If Selphie hadn't yanked Irvine forward to follow, he'd have been left pondering over how Griever could move so quickly, as though his every move was enhanced by Haste.
When the three crossed the bridge over into the Dolletian hills, Griever stopped again, holding out his arm to halt their charge.
"What's that?" he asked. Selphie turned to her left to see a lone Geezard slither down the walkway. Perhaps the least menacing monster on the planet, it let out a low pitched gurgling as opposed to any kind of growl or roar.
"It's a Geezard—literally the weakest monster I've ever fought. Those things make Bite Bugs look like Marlboro's." Griever looked at her with confusion, the reference lost on him.
"I take it we shouldn't be afraid of it, then?"
"We fought Geezards in Ultimecia's Castle, how do you not know what it is?" asked Irvine.
"The key part of that phrase is they were there when you were there," the Knight replied unenthusiastically.
What could've turned into another one of their back-and-forths was quickly interrupted when four more Geezards slithered out from the bushes. When shadows began to loom over them, indicating more monsters were coming, Selphie and Irvine drew out their weapons.
"Looks like we'll have to cut these down before we can—"
"We don't have time for that!" interrupted Griever.
Leaping forward, Griever took in the hoard of various Geezards, Anacondaurs—and now Funguars and Buels as well—that were awaiting them on the road ahead. A pale green light shot up around him, and Griever began incanting a spell.
"Magic? I thought he wasn't junctioned?" asked Irvine.
"Seifer could use magic without junctions when he became Matron's Knight, right? Maybe Griever can—"
He spread his legs beneath him and held his sword out in front of him.
"Ultima!"
From the center of the swarming beasts, a combination of green, yellow, and orange light swirled within a black vortex. It pulled in on itself for a brief second before exploding outwards, eviscerating every last monster that stood before them. When the smoke cleared from the powerful, albeit strangely focused and controlled explosion, Irvine and Selphie could only look on in disbelief.
He had complete control over the spell. The cobblestone isn't even marred by the explosion…
The sharpshooter stepped forward to ask what the hell he'd just seen, until Selphie thought better on letting him act on anything he was thinking at that moment.
"It's just...it's just something he can do," she whispered.
"You're not even a little curious?" Irvine whispered back.
"I mean, he did it with the Water spell, remember? Asking more questions about his powers might make him upset!"
Irvine had a difficult time hanging onto the idea that this was a person they were with, and not some freak experiment spawned from the mind of a demented Sorceress. He relented in his curiosity, as what Selphie was really saying was: "We need to move."
The Knight turned back to the young couple and waved them forward.
"Get ready to fire the minute we get up there; Zell's in trouble." The Knight wasted no time and hurried back up the road. Selphie ran after him, leaving Irvine to slowly follow while trying to load Exeter.
"Wait! Should I use Pulse Ammo or—"
Both warriors were too far ahead to hear him, let alone respond.
"Ugh. Fine, Normal Ammo. A bullet's a bullet."
The Mimic looked up from it's soon-to-be victim when the sound of a massive explosion rang out throughout the hills.
"Hmmmm...If I didn't know better, I'd say your friends are here—and they brought an old acquaintance of mine with them."
Zell couldn't respond, his entire body still frozen solid from the casting of Stop.
"He'll know it's me should I take your form. I guess your 'Ma' will grieve her child's death after all."
The Mimic ran the blades over each other one last time. It lifted up its right arm and went to bring it down on Zell, when a bullet pierced the space right between its eyes and came out the other side.
"Bullseye!" yelled Irvine from afar.
An Esuna spell washed over Zell, and he was free to move. Wasting no time between his recovering and almost being slaughtered like a pig, he lunged forward and began using Duel after Duel on the Mimic's ever-weakening body. A Booya, followed by a Mach Kick, followed by a Heel Drop; he had no intention of letting up after what this monster had tried to do to him. Knowing it had tried to impersonate his friends, and even infiltrate their home and possibly ruin their lives, made every hit land all the more succinctly. The Mimic was putty in his hands to be mashed and molded by his fists. He prepared to finish it off with a Final Heaven, before someone quickly grabbed him, and pulled him back.
"No!"
Zell unleashed the attack on the ground beneath him and the pavement caved under the impact.
Unharmed, but furious that someone had stopped him from taking the Mimic out once and for all, he emerged from the pit and walked up to the person who'd grabbed him.
"Hey, what the frickin' hell?! I was just about done with this guy!"
"It has Return Damage junctioned. Look at your hands, Zell," said the man who'd grabbed him.
"Huh?" Zell looked down and saw his knuckles were mashed and bloodied worse than he'd ever seen. It looked like someone had taken serrated blades right to his hands and hacked away at them, almost to the bone. He would've screamed, but his adrenaline gave out and he passed out on the spot.
Griever caught him just before he hit the ground and handed him off to Selphie.
"Get him back to the ship, now! Hurry!" he ordered.
The little warrior ran back down the hill while Irvine kept his rifle locked on The Mimic, who still lay motionless on the ground.
"Had your fill?" Griever asked it.
The Mimic slowly turned its head up to see the beast of a man staring back at him. It oozed an insidious laugh and slowly rose to its feet, completely unharmed.
"Long time, Griever," it mocked.
"I wanted to believe you were dead—or at the very least, trapped in a time warp. But, seems you got lucky. Did you follow me here?" The Mimic leapt up to the top of the hill and bellowed a laugh that echoed for miles, before continuing.
"Oh, the mighty Knight remains as stalwart as ever. Valiant, even. You know, I would never concede this to one of them, but you're actually going to make things difficult for me. Think you'll be able to bear your burden and stop me?"
Griever narrowed his eyes and transfixed his glare on the creature
"What is it you want?" Griever asked, a low growl emitting with each breath.
"Your memory still eludes you, doesn't it? The years when you were just a human in love with a Sorceress; you still can't remember those days, can you?"
Griever withdrew his sword and held it out.
"I can impale you where you stand! Say one more word about my past and…"
The Mimic shook its head and held out its hands to the Knight.
"Oh, Griever, I don't know the details. But, I always found it curious you couldn't recall them. Neither could the Sorceress, may she rest in peace…"
Irvine cocked his gun and moved his finger over the trigger. Griever held out his hand telling him to hold off.
"…What do you want?" he asked again, his voice growing uneasy. The Mimic looked across the way to where Irvine stood, with his rifle focused on him.
"I want so, so much, Griever." It leapt down from the cliff, off to the side of where it once lay.
"But, there's only so much you can all give me, isn't there?" The Mimic began to slowly walk away from the Knight.
"You're not leaving without answering me!" shouted Griever, his voice reverberating around them for miles. Irvine actually had to flick his ears to check if his hearing had been damaged. How the hell could they project their voices like that?
The Mimic turned back to him and sighed.
"One thing I want very much, is for you to recall your early life; all of it. I don't know exactly how that'll come about, if at all." The Mimic brought out its right hand and aimed its open palm at Griever. The Knight readied his sword and held it out in front of him, prepared to draw.
"This isn't magic, Griever."
The Knight grew still, not wanting to break his concentration, but unsure if the Mimic was preparing a physical attack instead. That would be a fool's endeavor, especially on someone like Griever, from something as frail as the Mimic.
"But, I fear it will hurt nonetheless." A bright yellow light shot out from its palm and directly into Griever's eyes. Irvine fired multiple shots, but even though they pierced the creature's cloak, they caused no damage to its body underneath. It snapped its fingers and vanished before Irvine could make it down to them.
Griever was on his knees, his hands over his eyes, screaming out in agony. It was the first time Irvine had seen the Knight bested, and to see a man like him in such a vulnerable state was unsettling to say the least.
"Griever, what is it? What's happening?!" yelled Irvine.
Unbeknownst to Irvine, the Mimic had forced the Knight into the link with its spell. Unable to stop the speed of which his conscience was rushed through space and time, Griever was sent somewhere he did not recognize, and therefore could not trust.
His past.
A/N
Thanks to LaylaEvercrest, h34rt1lly, lecretic, yadda wadda baddaboom, and Rasivel for your reviews on the last update!
And thanks to yadda wadda baddaboom and borntup for following and favoriting the story, not to mention reading it in it's entirety lol.
My fight chapters seem to be shorter than my expository chapters. I don't know, maybe it's because when things come to blows, the time words is over :p
Hope you all enjoy Zell's 1v1 with the Mimic. There's two more chapters after this before the crew is reunited, so strap in. S #$ is about to get real...er.