Messenger of Catastrophe

Weeks passed and the dreary landscape of the inter-world ceased to change. Most of the dark warriors sent to wreak havoc in their worlds were vanquished by a not-so-mysterious Cosmos. Of those who survived, namely Ultimecia and Golbez, one plotted venomously and the other, helmet dented, preferred to drift solo, occasionally muttering to himself. The hulking Golbez seemed to have lost the power of speech but Kuja knew; he paid a hefty price for trying to go against Shinryu's control. Garland went ahead, getting himself killed and the genome sighed, sitting aimlessly on a bed of softly glowing crystal and eyeing the blood orange stars.

"Why am I the only one unable to move?" Sephiroth, lying barely covered on a table, asked and Kuja stared at him listlessly. "The rest of you are given freedom of movement," the man's eyes flashed dangerously, "I'm the only one still strapped on this table." He tapped the crystal gurney with a long finger and craned his neck. Strands of silver hair framed his face and his cheekbones jutted, giving him the appearance of a hollowed ghost.

Keeping a hawk eyed watch on Garland's wayward manikin army, which marched endlessly to the iron throne sitting on the horizon, Exdeath turned, expression guarded at all times. Looking away, Kuja feigned disinterest, he stared at his nails...was that a scratch? And kept his army at bay. The masses of spectral, multicolored Kuja stopped chattering and instead, admired their reflections in the cliffs of crystal.

"Shinryu does not trust you," Exdeath tore his gaze away from Kuja and replied to Sephiroth, voice ricocheting in his armor. "You are a loose cannon, who knows what you will do if given free reign."

The genome snorted and leaned back in his chair. "None of us has 'free reign', Exdeath." He spread his arms melodramatically. "Our thoughts and our actions are all controlled by Shinryu." As if keeping a watch, the great bronze dragon soared over the little party and Kuja shivered when irises of burnished gold pierced him. An uncomfortable prickling sensation ran up his spine and he propped his chin in an open palm. "See? We have no freedom, no identity. Sephiroth can't do anything without Shinryu approving it, you better let him go."

The three stared at each other and Kuja rose, curling his fingers inwards into his palm. Sephiroth rocked into a seated position so fast, his neck cracked. Smiling, he pushed himself off the gurney and swayed on his feet. Exdeath observed the tall man sink into a basin shaped scoop of crystal and a leather trench coat morphed around his body, fitting him perfectly.

An impossibly long sword slid out of its sheath and satisfied with Masamune's bloodthirsty glint, Sephiroth carried the scabbard in a gloved palm, nodded to Kuja and tore open a portal.

He vanished, his jacket tails flapping fashionably in the wind.

"You better not have any funny ideas," Exdeath rumbled, disturbed by the genome's graceful smile. "You are a coward." Kuja turned to him, hair tinting to crimson. "You keep on betraying our cause because you are weak!" A tail grew out of the genome's backside and he irritably glared at it. "Traitor!" Exdeath hissed. "Shinryu should have immobilized you inside of the Cloud of Darkness." The genome grinned nastily, inhumane irises roaming over the armored warrior. "Where are you going?"

Instead of replying, Kuja threw his head back and cackled, the laughter ringing in desert air.

The halfling stared at her with glassy, lifeless irises. Closing them tenderly, she hefted the body closer to her and stroked the bedraggled clumps of hair. Amused by Cosmos' actions, Kefka kicked another body and it slid across the laboratory floor, bumping to a stop near the end of live wires. An electrical storm ensured, the body jerked erratically, eyes rolling in sockets before it became still, mouth open and tongue hanging out. The clown chuckled and shook his head, fingers spasming erratically, he sensed the goddess' gaze on him and hiccupped to a stop.

Wiping a mirthful tear, he flicked it away, smearing his blood red make-up on his cheek. "I never knew you were THIS soft!" He floated, legs twisting into pretzel shapes. "You know what happens to soft people?!" the clown asked, lips drawing downwards into a sad frown. "They go splat, like this!" A fireball exploded next to Cosmos, shattering a row of Plexiglas tubes and raining ragged fragments on burnt corpses. "This must be a joke, they are dead! The dead can do nothing. Haahahaaa!" Floating behind a tube, Kefka pulled funny faces and the curved glass distorted his reflection.

Turning her heel, the goddess marched to the end of the long, rectangular room. A hiss of electrical sparks sprayed her jacket as she gently placed the halfling on the floor.

"Mercy is for wimps!" Kefka screeched behind her and smirked. "I can't believe you; you are too compassionate, making such a fuss for a sub-human? Unheard of..." His high pitched voice suddenly plunged very low and vibrated. He touched the ground and appraised Cosmos like one of his specimens.

She held his gaze unflinchingly. "Yes I am compassionate," she concurred. "You have no love for what you create." Her eyes blazed angrily. "Therefore you can never truly create," her tone echoed like brontide. "I am compassionate; I believe everything has a right to live but you..." Cierr Harmonia glowed like a supernova in her hands. "I shall reap you into dust and scatter your remains in space so they shall serve as a remainder for those who come after you."

Kefka backpedalled when she jumped at him and brought an arm to shield himself. The scythe blade tore through his jester outfit and scored long lines across his ribs, upper arm and shoulders. Quickly scrambling to safety, he grabbed a lifeless halfling from the floor and squeezed behind it. "Despicable!" Cosmos thundered and a fork of lightning jumped from her weapon, shattering the glass. The shrapnel notched cuts on Kefka's face and he shuddered, letting go of his shield.

"I know where your Crystal is!" he squeaked and threw his hands up in surrender. "I know the girl you gave it to." Cosmos paused. "You have no memory of them aaacckkk-STOP THAT!" Cierr Harmonia flew out of her hands and jammed to a stop beneath his bleached white chin. "Please," Kefka continued in a normal, albeit strained voice. "Her name is Terra; she's currently being hunted and lives in the Narshe Outskirts."

Hunted? The unasked question glittered in Cosmos' eyes and her head jerked upwards.

"You tell no lies," she acknowledged and swept her palm sideways. Freezing in terror, he gulped audibly, eyes wide. The scythe did not slash his jugular, but cut the space sideways. Fascinated, Kefka watched Cosmos walk into the void but before the fabric of reality stitched together, a moogle appeared at the goddess shoulder.

The duo glared at him with so much potent hatred, Kefka nearly bit his tongue off.

Hahahahaaaa!

The eerie tone of insane laughter echoed in her ears and Terra tossed on the ground. Frost and a damp mist wreathed the hollow. From the concealed entrance, the sun shone on the icy wastelands of Narshe Outskirts, transforming it into a blinding, treacherous plain of unbroken white. Groaning, her lips moved in an inaudible mumble and she tossed again, clawing the earth angrily.

Hahahaa!

The laughter came again and a face formed from the fog surrounding her. Terra clutched a slim sword, aiming it at the personification of her nightmares. The face leered at her, flitting from one expression to the other. Bright red lips, lips drenched in blood, grinned nastily and ran down the corners of Kefka's mouth. He wiggled his eyebrows, soared to the air and a pair of wings tore from the skin on his back, flecking scarlet everywhere. Long, gaudily tinted fingernails pointed to the ruins around her, half erected walls, creeping with moss and neglect, pitted with scars.

Screams.

Unearthly Esper howls as they growled and crowded around her, scratching, tearing off her skin.

"Let me see!" They wailed collectively and Terra tried to fight the tidal waves of hot bodies burying against her."Let us seeee!" They screeched, high pitched whines throbbing in her ears, shattering rock and crumbling windows smudged with mud. The Espers pulled off her skin and she grasped for it, watching her human form unravel like an intricate tapestry. Her brethren viewed her disgustedly and marched away, leaving her alone with the wicked clown hovering above her like a messenger of catastrophe.

Monster.

A small squad of elite soldiers, wearing Magitek armor, tailed her with hissing guns. Their shouts echoed off the icy plain as they cornered and forced a tube into her mouth. Suddenly, Narshe Outskirts transformed. A tower filled with bits of machinery and banners of the dysfunctional, Gestahlian Empire, loomed before her and the eerie giggles filled the chambers.

Hahahhhaaa!

Gasping awake, Terra clawed her mouth for the tube. The glass container long disintegrated, cutting her tongue but the effects of the foul tasting liquid inside it, became permanent.

Looking at her arms in dismay, she sighed and crawled to a deeper recess of the cave where more young Espers curled up. Halflings like her. The poor creatures fled to the icy wastelands when they were discovered by the army and stayed there, falling into a comatose state. Patting the neon orange and powder blue figures, she hunted around for rations. Staring dismally at the single butter biscuit into her palm, she crushed it between a mixed set of saw-like and human teeth.

She emerged from the cave, her human eye accommodating the harsh brilliance of the plains whilst her Esper eye watered. Flicking the moisture away, she covered half of her face with a fur tipped claw and searched for straggling soldiers. High above, a blimp jugged a streak of black smoke in the cloudless, blue sky and wary of it, she stepped forward, her feet enveloped by snow. Shivering, Terra wrapped her hands around her slim body and trudged through the field. Barely a month ago, she lived in an apartment in the city, with a seemingly normal existence before the source of all her misery arrived. Grunting in frustration, she combed the treeless plains for predatory animals. An arctic fox, two golden eyes fixated on the fuchsia monster trampling through the snow, emitted a warning growl and fled. Terra stopped and eyed the bushes scornfully. Following the fox, a hare burst out of the snow laden undergrowth and her eyes zoomed in on it.

Snarling she lunged for the hare. Dinner. Lunch. Whatever, she needed to eat. Half floating, half stumbling, she speared the prey with a bolt of lightning from her Esper hand and nearly fell on it. Knees cushioned by a blanket of freezing snow, she lifted the limp, blood stained hare and shuddered. Her brain see-sawed.

What have you done?

Groaning, she lifted the hare, tried not to look at its glassy, lifeless irises and retraced her steps back to the damp, albeit warm cave. Should she wake those two young Espers? Terra thought as she loped. They were asleep before she came here and most possibly, for quite a long time. The snow burned her feet and she carried on, thoughts whirling in her head. The previous blimp flew much lower and she stopped for a second to track its flight patterns before continuing to trudge through the numbing snow.

"We found her." A man peered through a pair of binoculars. "Kefka will be pleased."

Her Esper instincts warned her of a danger from above whilst her human side wondered how best to skin the hare and cook it. Still wondering how she hunted the poor animal so carelessly. Callously. Terra only looked up when a faint boom resounded in her ears. A steaming missile cannoned into the ground, sending a spray of slush outwards and melting the snow. The air shimmered. Figures dropped from the too close blimp and she gutturally warned them to stay away. Instead, a net weighed by lead balls descended on her and dropping her hare, she attacked it with claws and teeth.

The soldiers formed a ring around the half Esper. "Ugly," the commander commented, waved the blimp away and trained a bronze accented gun at her. "Can't believe he wants this." He kicked Terra with his boot and hissed in pain when she tore a leather chunk off. "A freaking monster, hey, where are the darts, we need to tranquilize-" The sentence never finished. He gurgled, blood bubbling in his mouth and Terra hissed, jumping off his chest and ploughing into the next trembling soldier. Terrified screams tore the air.

Unheard by anyone.

Knocking the last one out with a vicious club to the head, Terra shook her head and trembled. She swiped her bloodied claws on the snow and wiped the tears staining her furry cheek.

Another presence materialized behind her and she tensed.

Getting up rigidly, she spun around, her human leg throbbing under pressure and aimed for the neck. Her elongated claws hummed through the air and stopped short of tearing through a golden necklace. "Lady Cosmos?" Terra asked bewilderedly and lowered her arm, awkwardly shuffling away from the goddess. "Please don't look at me!" She covered herself, ashamed of her monstrous form. The lady strode towards her fearlessly and Terra screwed her eyes shut.

Warm fingers gently cleaned her cheeks, removing the clots of matted blood in the furry side of her face. Blushing furiously, Terra crossed her arms over her chest and regarded her naked abdomen. Inwardly melting, she kept her head down and Cosmos removed her jacket, resting the gold accented clothing on Terra's scarred shoulders. Grateful, she clutched the jacket like a lifeline and thanked the goddess profusely.

"Do you have my Crystal?" Cosmos asked and Hwit shimmered into view, eyeing her. She looked a bit too cold standing in the snow with a knee length halter dress. Shaking his head, he flapped around; stabbing the soldiers' corpses and watching them degrade into non-existence. "Is there something wrong Hwit? I sense no hostilities."

The moogle jerked upright, his bronze inlaid wings beating frantically. "You need your armor when vanquishing the clown," he curtly stated and pointed to the jacket Terra squeezed so protectively around her. "You will be foolish to war without it."

Already, the ends of Cosmos' untamed hair capped in frost, but to Terra, the goddess seemed to glow. "I am aware of that," she smiled and the moogle snorted, fading from view. Turning to the half esper, she continued. "And who did this to you? My noble Warrior?" The girl mumbled a reply and Cosmos cupped her cheek. The furry one. "Speak up, I cannot hear you. You should not stand for such tyranny."

Terra raised her head. "Kefka." Her voice rang clearly and Cosmos' benevolent features transformed into a stormy wrath. "He wanted me to come back," the girl spat, her fury compounded. "And I escaped his clutches and came here. But he kept on pestering me and last week...the soldiers forced a tube in my mouth and now I'm stuck in this permanent, half Esper form. I cannot transform fully and I can't turn back into a human. The people...the civilians and even the children," Terra broke off and inhaled deeply. "They are so afraid of me. I can't bear to look at what I've become anymore."

I'm a monster.

The words hung between the two of them. Unsaid but clearly heard.

An orange-gold fire flickered in the cavern and the dancing shadows of four individuals lined the dark walls. The young halflings woke from a six month sleep and clambered over Cosmos, one human, the other a powder blue monster. She patted them, drew them both on her lap and they snuggled with her, giggling and talking in high pitched voices.

A cast iron pot, outside blackened into a rich ebony, hung over the fire contained in a ring of sparkling stones and the contents within it bubbled. An aroma of meat and herbs swamped the cave and wrinkling his nose, Hwit vanished, grumbling under his breath.

Looking at the spot he vacated without as much as a warning, Cosmos' eyes dipped. She longed to understand her companion. COMPREHEND him. However he closed like an obstinate clam and prying him apart may destroy him.

"Lady Cosmos," Terra ladled the stew into a bowl and tasted it, immediately reached for salt. "Why is Kefka back again?"

"The worlds are unbalanced," Cosmos replied with another glance at the empty spot. "Hwit told me..." What did he tell her? "That the forces of Chaos are stirring again. They have been brought back by-"

"But we defeated Chaos!" the girl exclaimed and laid a hand over her heart. "Well...not all of us." She scratched her half blonde, half pink hair modestly. "The front line was held by The Warrior of Light, Cloud, Cecil and Firion...I think… The rest of us worked in shifts to bring Chaos down, but we did. I suppose he resurrected again?"

Cosmos did not reply, she smiled reassuringly, her eyes lingering at the air where Hwit vanished.

Could he be...telling lies?

"The Crystal Cosmos," his words kept on reminding her in the empty space.

"The Crystal," the goddess echoed his words. "Do you have it Terra?" The girl nodded and got up; one of the toddlers ran after her as she hunted in a battered, olive green backpack. "Please, I need to have it to defeat Kefka. My powers have been taken away from me," Cosmos said and Terra's eyes widened in alarm and understanding. "And you, my Warriors, hold my remaining powers. It is selfish for me to ask, but I must have them."

An elongated oval of ruby crystal balanced in Terra's human hand. Streaks of midnight black swirled from one end, dripping into the red and creating a marbled effect. In the firelight, her mismatched eyes gleamed in admiration and she bowed, holding the artifact to Cosmos.

"Hold it with both hands," the goddess chided good-naturedly and the half esper shook her head, pointing to the dirt and blood encrusted under her beast claws. Watching, the children held their breath, cheeks pink from excitement. "You are not a monster." Cosmos brought Terra's hands together and held them in her own. "And I think you are beautiful, in whatever form you choose to be."

'Beautiful? Terra's mind shorted. 'Who called a monster beautiful?'

But when the smile reached Cosmos' startlingly blue eyes, Terra couldn't stop blinking away tears.

If only everyone saw her like this.

Saw her for what she was inside.

"Beautiful!" The boy toddler piped up and held a wilted flower in his chubby fingers. The girl bopped her head, shifting back to her powder blue Esper form and prancing around the goddess.

She placed the crystal in the lady's outstretched hands and rose to her full height, briefly touching the coarse fur starting from one half of her hairline and covering her left. "I want to fight with you," Terra stated, flames dancing in her irises. "I'm going with you to Kefka's Tower. There are more Espers there," she explained and the goddess nodded knowingly. "I want to free them...and then," her eyes rested on the children. "We can live without fear."

The fire roared brighter, throwing dancing shadows on the cave walls into sharp relief.

A/N: Terra's story and I wrote in as a story of acceptance. Hopefully this chapter will remind someone, or give courage to someone out there to accept themselves, whoever they are. (Getting all sentimental here). Anyway, happy reading and please review!

At Nonny: First let me thank you a million times for leaving a review, you don't know how much this means to me. May you get a lifetime supply of chocolate. The plot is credited to Bighead98, I'm just the writer but thanks. Cid...Hwit? hehehe, I like how you think ;)