Disclaimer: Just read the other disclaimers for now, if you have any questions involving the ownership of some of the items in this fic, just e-mail me at Right, I've decided to use third person for the other two groups in this fic, since it would be foolish to leave them out of this.
I've been getting really into writing at the moment, and I've already had a request from one of my work mates (who's an English student at university) for a printed copy of the first installment of the trilogy, which makes me happy. Obviously, it'll have a huge disclaimer at the beginning, so he can't use it for any coursework, and I won't be making any money off it. Anyway, I'll get started then.
Chapter 9: Scattered
Chris's Group
We fought our way through the buffeting crowds of refugees, clutching whatever they could carry. There were sad weary women, their children stumbling and streaked with tears, their men bitter and angry. On the first day, we met a platoon of wounded soldiers, their vehicles wrecked and smoking.
"What's happened?" I asked one of them.
"They wiped us out...hundreds dead...maybe thousands..." He breathed, his eyes filled with disbelief. "They attacked us with giant machines, they just brushed us aside as if we were mere leaves in a storm. We were wiped out..." He repeated the same phrase over and over, trying to understand his own words, as the platoon moved on, heading north with the other refugees.
"This is terrible..." Melissa whispered, watching as wounded civilians trudged past, heading to the faint safety of the Scottish Highlands. We also heard that the battle was still raging in London, so we quickened our pace. We would have caught a lift, but everyone was heading the exact opposite direction to us, desperately attempting to escape the carnage behind them. I took another look at the Uplink, staring blankly at the images on the screen until they became nothing but a blur.
The Titan was currently wandering around, demolishing entire buildings in a single movement. But now it was not alone, as I could see the faint specks charging around, bright flashes in the dusk, and what seemed like smaller versions of the Titan walking around on four legs instead of six. We had to move quickly, but even now the sun was slowly dying on the horizon, taking it's last breaths before crawling under the lands, plunging the world into darkness. Tired and footsore, we took shelter in an abandoned inn, it's owners had packed and fled with the other refugees.
It was only a small inn, out in the countryside, it's ancient crumbling stone walls slowly being strangled by thin leafy tendrils of ivy, it's thatched roof highlighted in the dying sunlight, with cosy net curtains in front of the thick red fabric of the curtains behind. Reluctantly, I forced the front door open, as if the owners were still inside, shocked at the fact there were three weary travelers were breaking and entering. Of course, the inn was abandoned, so nothing of the sort happened.
Inside, the cosy feel multiplied, the reception was furnished with flowery wallpaper, comfortable red velvet chairs for weary customers to sit on, pictures of lambs frolicking in a field were hung up on the wall. We headed upstairs, each giving the other a silent nod of acknowledgment before turning in for the night.
I looked around the little room, before removing my dagger and putting it silently on the bedside table, so it was in easy reach if anything unexpected was to happen. I took off my boots, before climbing into bed, still fully clothed. It was a relief to be in a comfy bed for once, and I stared at the ceiling, watching the faint light patterns swirl from outside.
It must have been about an hour before I heard faint movement, and suddenly noticed Melissa leaning over the bed, looking directly down at my face.
"Sorry, I couldn't sleep." She explained.
"How'd you get in so quietly?" I sat up while she sat down on the bed, her silhouette outlined by the faint light from outside. She smiled.
"I've been doing this kinda stuff for a while. You get good at it." She paused. "Did you see your parents?" She asked, her eyes twinkling in the moonlight.
"Nah, they were out." She giggled softly.
"Same here. I guess after all these years I've kinda grown used to them not being around." She looked down, a faint smile on her face. I understood where she was coming from though. We'd all grown up a lot over the years, and matured considerably. I looked out of the window into the moonlight, hoping that the others were safe.
Neil's Group
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Neil shouted, falling over the rubble that filled the portal room in the Desert Palace. The whole room had been smashed to pieces when the Titan had attacked, yet by some miracle, the gate which they had escaped through had survived. It was a bit charred, but it still worked, which is what counts.
"Great, now what?" Bruce muttered.
"Now we head to Alexandria!" Neil pointed heroically out of the shattered ceiling, only to slip again and tumble down the pile of rubble, cursing loudly every step of the way.
"Please remind me how I got stuck with you two again?" Calum shook his head.
"Hey, you chose to follow us, we didn't ask you to."
"Where else was I supposed to go?"
"...Good point."
"Also, just how do you plan on crossing the ocean?"
"Er...I don't know! I just said that for dramatic effect!"
"So what are we actually going to do?" Bruce asked.
"Probably head for Black Mage Village, see what they can do to get us to Alexandria." The others nodded and got up, climbing over the rubble onto the blazing hot sands of the desert.
"That's strange, the Titan's gone." Neil commented. Suddenly, on the very horizon, there was a tremendous explosion, shaking the very ground itself.
"What's the odds that it's over there, blowing stuff up?" Calum noted, resting his naginata across his shoulder.
Samantha's Group
Manchester Airport was abandoned, the only movement was from the odd rustling bag of rubbish, and from an immense flock of birds flying away from the city centre, dots of black and white massing together in the sky to form a colossal wave of life, fleeing an unknown enemy. Kuja looked up to hear more thundering explosions towards the city, the sky igniting with flares of light, easily visible against the smoke from numerous fires that turned the dusk sky a deep coal black.
"Perhaps we should move." He noted, watching as a much smaller version of a Titan, this one mounted on four legs instead of it's bigger sibling's towering six legs, started to move towards their position.
"There should be a spare plane hanging around somewhere around here." Joachim noted, moving into the darkened airport, closely followed by the others.
Inside, the massive building that was once such a place of life lay as silent as a graveyard. The large screens that usually showed the arrivals and departures were blank and lifeless, along with any other piece of electrical equipment in the area. The thudding outside was getting louder, thrumming like a steady heartbeat. They made their way through the airport, charging straight through customs and running full speed out onto the airfield.
Massive jets stood silently, completely abandoned in the mad rush to escape from the terrible enemies. In between these silent behemoths sat a small propeller-powered plane. Just then, a massive metal foot crashed down through the terminal opposite, closely followed by the clanking monstrosity that had been approaching before.
"Ahhhhhh! Run!" Sam screamed, charging headlong towards the small aircraft, it's wings tinted light blue, marked with all sorts of random letters and numbers. The machine stood there watching them intently. Slowly, something started to emerge from it's belly. Sam didn't dare look, instead crouching underneath one of the seats in the plane. Kuja was next to reach the aircraft, jumping into the passenger seat next to Joachim, who dived into the pilot's seat.
"Everyone alright?" He asked, turning around to look at Sam lying down in the back, hiding her head.
"Just go already, before that thing gets us!" She shouted, refusing to move. Joachim hit the ignition, and the propeller out front slowly span into life. Kuja looked out of the window at the lethal-looking gun slowly lowering out of the belly of the machine.
"It might be a good idea to move right about now." He commented. Joachim kicked the controls in frustration.
"C'mon!" He shouted. Finally, the plane had started to move, slowly backing out into the open. The gun on the machine had slowly started to train itself on them, so Kuja decided to fight back by concentrating a stop spell on the machine. It worked, but it was taking a lot out of him, his breathing becoming more and more strained. Joachim growled as he put the plane onto the runway and accelerated wildly. At that moment, Kuja lost all concentration, falling against the old battered seat gasping for breath. The machine looked as if it was confused for a second, looking in every direction in disorientation, before looking at the speedy plane and unleashing it's weapon. It fired a small projectile, which left a shockwave in the air behind it as it shot towards them at top speed. Luckily, it missed, blowing a hole in the runway mere feet away. Joachim pulled back on the control stick, and the plane lurched sickeningly into the air, slowly gaining height. The machine behind them hadn't given up though, and lumbered down the runway after them, firing every few seconds, more near invisible projectiles scraping past them in plenty of near misses.
Finally, the little plane was out of range, and Joachim breathed out, closing his eyes in relief for a second, before continuing to fly the plane towards the misty horizon. Kuja crawled into the back of the plane, exhausted from the strenuous spell he had just cast. He was asleep almost instantly, and Sam carefully crawled up from under the seat, lying sleepily on the seat, with her head resting in his lap. Soon she was asleep too, and Joachim turned to see the sight of a young Earth girl asleep snuggled up to an ex-Angel of Death. He smiled warmly, before going back to concentrating on flying.
Neil's Group
The Titan that was wandering around the Desert Palace earlier had now decided to head towards Black Mage Village, stomping slowly towards the tiny village. Of course, it wasn't taking any shit either, blowing up anything that looked even remotely hostile, including a small hill, and a Trick Sparrow. The Trick Sparrow never saw it coming, frolicking delightfully near a patch of flowers, before being completely vaporised in a burning fiery inferno.
"That thing looks really pissed off." Calum commented, looking at it drawing closer and closer to Black Mage Village.
"If it gets to the village, I doubt anyone will survive." Neil added. "We'd better get down there."
Suddenly, the Titan erupted into flame, as the combination of over a thousand spells collided with every visible point of it's armour. The resulting explosion caused the ground to heave, blowing thick, choking clouds of dust across the land. After climbing back to their feet, the trio headed down the hill they had been standing on and charged towards the village, weapons out and ready.
---
When they arrived at the village, it was a scene of complete chaos. Imaginary Numbers were stalking around all over the place, firing shot after shot at the usually peaceful occupants of the village, who were steadfastly defending one another against this terrifying threat. The once imposing Titan now lay on the floor, it's legs sprawled out across the forest, smoldering brightly in the dying sunlight. Right in the middle of it was Mikoto, clutching a staff made out of delicately carved oak, smashing it into the face of any clone that happened by her. She looked across at the newly arrived trio.
"Neil! What are you doing here!" She shouted, diving to the floor as a clone opened fire a few feet away. Neil rapidly dispatched him with a Holy blast straight to the chest, before helping the lithe genome to her feet. Bruce charged into the nearest group of clones, swinging his obsidian-coated blade left, right and centre, roaring all the way. Calum stood by the Mikoto and Neil, elegantly swinging his naginata between two clones that were charging towards them, sending sprays of blood all over his deep black and red armour.
"We're on our way to Alexandria, they have to warned about all this." Neil explained to the panting genome, before swinging the machete into the legs of a clone creeping up behind her, and slicing up it's body, killing it in instantly.
"Agreed. But we could do with a bit of help here first." She replied, and threw a fire spell into another enemy, setting it alight like a roman candle. A Black Mage stumbled past, before dropping to the floor and turning still.
Bruce was in the thick of it, severing limbs and other body parts with every wide swing of the deadly sword. Suddenly, he felt a sudden chill in the air, and looked to see one of the figures that had attacked them in the Desert Palace, his ornate arm-blade glittering in the sunlight, a dark smile on his face.
"My master wishes to see you." He drawled.
"Yeah? We'll he's gonna have to queue up like everyone else. The clones stood back, almost as if they had been invisibly ordered too. The man drew the blade up by his face, admiring the way the sunset flickered off it.
"He does not take kindly to being asked to wait." He growled, before nimbly running towards Bruce, who brought up his sword to block the incoming attack. He quickly countered with a side-step, swiping sideways with the huge weapon, but the enemy was too fast for him, leaping up and actually landing on the blade, forcing it down into the ground, bringing the arm-blade down across Bruce's face, causing a deep gash that ran from his forehead down to his upper lip, spilling crimson over the floor, staining the thick cover of dying leaves. He yelled out in pain, before dropping to the floor, clutching his face in agony. The man deftly hopped off the blade, grabbing him roughly by his long mussed brown hair. "Like I said, my master wishes to see you." He whispered, before they both vanished into thin air.
"Neil, they've got Bruce!" Calum shouted, trying not to get killed by the five clones approaching from all sides.
"What? How!" He replied over the deafening sound of gunfire and magic explosions. However, Calum didn't have chance to reply, as a clone had leapt onto his back, and was now trying to stab through his armour. Neil looked around at the devastation. Black Mages and Genomes were running around all over the place, mostly getting shot or stabbed to death. He turned to look at the Imaginary Numbers approaching from his front, his body enveloped in a bright white light, before a huge shadow appeared in the sky. It looked like a bird, but from each part of it's body hung assorted golden rings, and it's leathery wings were beautifully multicoloured and hue. It hung there for a few seconds, surveying the battlefield with a watchful eye, before diving down and clawing several Imaginary Numbers to pieces. It wasn't long before most of the enemy was dead, or dying.
Neil fell to the floor, exhausted from summoning, the light now gone from his body. He looked at the spot where Bruce had vanished.
"Well this isn't good." Calum muttered, wiping clone blood off his face.
"We really need to get Alexandria, and fast, before any more of us happen to perish." He explained, breathing heavily.
Samantha's Group
The road was filled with flaming debris, cars thrown into tree trunks, buildings smashed to pieces, the smoke of hundreds of fires turning the sky a deep black. Sam ran up the road ahead towards her house, which miraculously was still in one piece. Kuja and Joachim hung around outside, watching cautiously for any signs of life. She burst in through the front door, only to find that the house was completely abandoned, with no signs of life whatsoever. Dejected, she turned to walk out of the door, only to see that both Kuja and Joachim had vanished, leaving the street completely empty.
"What the hell?" She stepped forward, only to see Joachim hanging limply out of a tree, and Kuja leaning against another tree, covered with cuts, looking in shock at the man standing over him, rapier ready to strike a finishing blow. Without even thinking, Sam drew out the katana from it's sheath, running at full speed towards this merciless warrior. With a clang, her blade met his, without him even bothering to look.
"Get the hell away from him." She growled.
"So we meet again..." He muttered, turning around to face her. She recognised him as the man who had attacked her in the Desert Palace, his long-ish silver hair glowing dully in the smoky light. She kept her blade perfectly aligned with his, praying that she could fight properly. "Still haven't learnt your lesson?" He swept his rapier up suddenly, knocking her off balance, and before she could react, he had thrust it painfully into her abdomen, prompting a yell of pain and a soft whimper. "You humans are pathetic." He twisted it the left, causing her to gasp. "You can't even protect yourself, let alone the ones you love." He twisted it again, this time to the far right. Blood dripped across the dirt strewn floor, splattering the fine layer of dust that had settled there.
Her mind simply began to shut down, trying desperately to stop the pain. It was at that moment she heard a soft female voice from deep down in her subconscious.
"Let us handle this."
"Who are you?" She thought, wincing as he twisted the blade currently buried in her body.
"Our name is Ebony, and we can help you if you let us." She thought about her options at this moment. Either she could continue to get skewered by this man, or she could let a disembodied voice she'd known for barely fifteen seconds control her. She began to shudder. "Just relax." The voice said, as she felt the distantly familiar feeling of power flow through her body. She looked up into the eyes of the enemy, her head slightly twisted to left, a manic grin plastered across her face. An instant later the transformation began, her clothing being replaced with dirtied, bloody bandages, her skin becoming an extreme pale, her face becoming drawn and gaunt, her eyes becoming nothing but dark endless pits of black. Her hair swept back, changing into thin tendrils of black, and the transformation was complete.
"We're going to rip out your guts and feast on your entrails." She said, before throwing him backwards and pulling the blade out of her body, throwing it aside. Lethal black claws slid out of her fingers, clicking together in anticipation. Suddenly, she was flung into the wall by a well-aimed thunder spell that collided with her chest. She leapt to an inhuman height, before landing right behind him and launching her claws into his back. Her ran forwards, pulling her claws out in the momentum with a horrific squishing sound. He landed on the floor quite heavily, but grabbed his weapon and jumped back up, spinning and ramming the blade down towards her.
Ebony/Samantha let out a incredible inhuman shriek as the blade went into her body through her right shoulder, down through the flesh and vital organs, and tore out of her back, barely missing her spine. Everything paused for a second, before she began to transform back into her human form, falling into unconsciousness, straight into the man's waiting arms. His face bore a horrifying smile.
"I think I'll have my fun." He whispered, right before he heard two well-defined clicks behind his head. He turned to see down the barrels of two handguns, both of them Joachim's, while one had been borrowed and now rested in Kuja's hand.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you." Kuja growled, weak from all the wounds in his body, yet with a fierce fire burning deep in his soul. He wasn't about to let this sick monster defile the woman under his protection.
Joachim, on the other hand, had a dark grin on his face.
"Hey Styx, remember me?" He asked. Styx looked at his face.
"Hmmm, I usually have a good memory for faces. I must say I've never met you before." He looked a little puzzled.
"Pity. Regardless, the party's over."
"On the contrary, I think it's just--"
Bang. Bang.
His body toppled over backwards, hitting the blood-covered dusty road with a thud.
"That's for defiling Eve, bastard." Joachim muttered. Kuja leant down next to Samantha's prone body. He slowly removed the blade, grabbing the handle and pulling it out, accompanied by a slurp as air filled the gap left by the rapier. He tried to concentrate on healing her, but was just too wounded to cast any magic at all. Joachim joined him, closing his eyes in concentration, and Kuja watched amazed as the wounds slowly closed up, leaving barely a mark.
"I didn't know you were a white mage." He commented. Joachim smiled faintly.
"There's a lot you don't know about me." He replied mysteriously. "White magic won't be able to heal some of these wounds. Her spirit is too drained from transforming."
"Well what can we can do?"
"I have an idea, I think it will appeal to her too." He leant forwards and whispered the idea into Kuja's ear. He looked a little shocked for a second.
"You must be joking." He replied instinctively. Joachim shook his head.
"No, it's the best way you can help her at the moment." He paused, looking blankly at the floor. "I know because someone did it to me." Kuja looked down at her prone body. "If you don't, she's going to die. She'll simply cease to exist." Kuja looked down at Joachim, but was a little shocked to see him almost flicker for a second, as if he wasn't fully there. He sighed dejectedly. He was never going to be able to live this down.
Reluctantly, he leaned forwards, kissing her. He suddenly began to feel weak all over, as if his very being was draining from his body.
"It's working, just carry on." Joachim encouraged him. His mind began to blank out slightly, but even he could see that she was becoming stronger every second. He carried on kissing her until he couldn't take any more, falling over to the side in exhaustion.
"Couldn't you have done that instead?" Kuja panted at Joachim.
"Nope, it had to be you. I have my reasons."
"And why is that exactly?"
"Because she was awake through the whole thing." He hid a snigger. Kuja looked at Samantha, who was staring at him in shock, her cheeks the same colour of a tomato.
"Oh you bastard." Kuja muttered at Joachim.
"You two make the perfect couple." He chuckled. "You're both as scared of each other as those other two."
"Which other two?" He sighed.
"Never mind." He pulled them both to their feet, and they were both surprised to see that he was also wearing leather gloves. He noticed their stares. "I suffer the same curse she does. That's why I couldn't help her." He looked into the sky, noticing stars twinkling through the thick smoke that masked the sky. "C'mon, we'd better get some rest for the night." He led them into Samantha's house, and they followed wearily behind him. Kuja couldn't help but feel that Joachim had some ulterior motives, but he dismissed these thoughts as mild paranoia.
Right, that's it for now. What's going to happen to Bruce? what are Joachim's ulterior motives? Will Chris and the others make it to London in time? Why am I asking you lot? I'm the one writing it!
See ya later
Chris