Welcome back, This week we take a look at the fight from the perspective of Vivi, Balthier, Kain and Gilgamesh. Rekks, Alex, Brandon have disappeared, now the heroes left behind must continue the fight against Martyr. The clock is ticking down, all reality will soon end and only one small band of heroes are left behind to do something about it. Remember if you have any questions, suggestions, concerns, ideas, reviews, etc. Send them to me and let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Frontline

Kain, Vivi, Gilgamesh and Balthier lay on the ground next to the massive black skyscraper. Kain looked up to see Brandon, Rekks and Alex fall from its heights all the way into portals on the ground. All the heroes on the ground watched as their allies disappeared along with Marco, Lee and Rufus. Balthier pushed himself up only to feel the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of his head.

The four heroes on the ground looked up to see themselves surrounded by an army of Mist creatures, weapons pointed right at them. One of the Mist Knights stepped forward pointing his sword at Gilgamesh's heart.

"If I were you four, I'd drop the weapons." The knight warned.

The four heroes reluctantly agreed dropping their weapons to the ground. Mist creatures swarmed in scooping up their weapons and locking the heroes up with nethicite shackles. The four were then marched down the city streets to a jail near the outskirts of the city. They were roughly thrown into a cell with the heavy metal doors shut and locked behind them.

Gilgamesh let out an angry growl as he began thrashing about in the cell trying to break free of his shackles.

"Give it up. These things don't see like their going to break." Advised Kain.

"I will make them with my tremendous strength!" declared Gilgamesh.

Vivi with his arms shackled behind his back attempted to cast a spell, but all his magic seemed to fizzle out.

"These chains drain our powers." Vivi sighed.

Kain laid his head against the cold metal of the cell walls.

"This situation is hardly befitting a leading man. Luckily, a good leading man always has a plan B." Balthier reached into his pocket and pulled out a lock pick.

Kain shook his head in disbelief, Vivi looked on in excitement and Gilgamesh raised an eyebrow.

"I don't intend to spend the last remaining hours of existence here. If I'm going to go out it'll be on my terms." Remarked Balthier.

With a smile Kain forced himself up to a standing position by sliding up the wall.

"Okay we're with you." Kain announced.

Balthier smiled hearing the familiar clicking sound of the shackles' locks. He tossed them aside and rubbed his wrists to get some feeling back in them.

"What do we do once we are out of here?" grumbled Gilgamesh.

Balthier started work on Kain's shackles.

"We find our weapons." Kain answered.

"Then what?" asked Gilgamesh.

"We continue the fight." Added Balthier.

"Do we still have a hope to win? You saw what happened to Rekks, Alex and Brandon." Vivi squeaked.

"We fight little man, until our last breathe!" cried Gilgamesh.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don't think it'll come to that." Chuckled Balthier as he tossed Kain's shackles away.

Gilgamesh eyed Balthier as he approached to undo Gilgamesh's shackles.

"This whole planned has been half assed. It is time to head to battle for glory. By the end of this day many enemies shall fall to my blades." Stated Gilgamesh.

Balthier stopped his work then held up his lock pick in front of Gilgamesh's face with a smirk.

"And what If I left you here?" Balthier asked.

"Then I shall strangle you!!!! I will not die without glory!!" roared Gilgamesh.

"Don't worry, you'll get it. I was only kidding." Replied Balthier.

Gilgamesh grumbled.

"Is glory really worth dying for?" Vivi asked.

Gilgamesh lowered his head.

"It is all I have." Gilgamesh answered.

"Really?" Vivi asked wide eyed.

Balthier finished his work throwing off the last of Gilgamesh's shackles. Balthier then went to work on Vivi's.

"I have been to many worlds, searched all over. I…..am a failure. Not a hero. I have been defeated…many times. I just don't want to be proven weak anymore. I want to have my day of glory, a day when I am looked to with respect." Gilgamesh confessed.

"You'll drive yourself crazy worrying about what others think about you." Remarked Kain.

"It's not others I'm worried about. It's how I see myself. I will not be weak. Once I leave here I will destroy Martyr myself if I have to." Replied Gilgamesh.

"I guess we'll need some of that spirit. Because once we leave this jail it won't be an easy trip to Martyr's house." Remarked Balthier as he finished on Vivi's shackles.

"Especially since we are further away. We need to find where they are keeping our weapons without being caught." Stated Kain.

Balthier finished unlocking Vivi's shackles. The tiny mage rubbed his sore wrists.

"I can take care of it. I'm small and have all my magic skills. I can easily get around unnoticed. I just need a way out of this cell." Vivi suggested.

Balthier smiled reaching into his back pocket to pull out a small leather bound lock pick kit, heading to the door to begin his work.

"I can solve that. We'll stay here to keep suspicion off long enough. Find the room where our weapons are, they hurry back. We'll make our way out from there." Balthier heard the click of the metal door. Smiling he pushed it open.

"I'll do my best." Vivi chirped.

"Hurry, I can't stand another moment in this cell." Grumbled Gilgamesh.

"Don't worry." Vivi nodded.

Vivi hurried out of the cell with Balthier closing the door behind him. Looking around the corner he made his way out into the hallway. He heard the sounds of foot steps approaching. Thinking quick he ducked behind a large crate and watched two Mist knights pass by.

"Must not fail." He whispered to himself.

Vivi poked his head out from around the crate to take a look around. After making sure there was no one around he continued on. Vivi soon located a large metal door, pushing it open he found a room stock pilled with weapons. Vivi headed inside and began searching for their weapons. He soon found them in metal bin toward the back of the room. Reaching he pulled out his wand and held it up in triumph.

"Now to get back to the others." Vivi turned around only to find his path blocked by the same Mist Knight who brought them in.

"You will go no further." The knight drew its blade pointing it directly at Vivi.

Clutching his wand Vivi charged at the knight. The knight swung his sword at the small mage. Vivi jumped into the air, over the sword and shot a blast of Firaga straight into the chest of the knight. The knight stumbled back into the wall then came swinging at Vivi again. Vivi rolled out of the way then raising his wand up he hit the knight with a blast of Thundaga, turning him to shadows. Vivi hurried back to the jail cell then lead the rest back to the weapons room where they started to rearm themselves.

"How are we going to get out, there must be hundreds of guards surrounding this place?" asked Vivi.

Kain mounted his spear on his back then looked around the room before his eyes fell upon a large metal bin. Kain opened the lid of the pin and looked in with a smile.

"I got an idea. Vivi come with me….the rest of you wait for the signal." Chuckled Kain.

"What signal?" spat Gilgamesh.

Kain placed the lid back on the bin and lifted it up into his arms.

"You'll see." he replied.

Vivi and Kain headed to the front on the rail doing their best to remain unnoticed. They soon reached the front door and kneeled down to stay out of sight. Kain peeked out the door to see an army of Mist creatures guarding the way.

"I'll jump over those guys and drop this bin. When it gets down to about their level I want you to blast it with most power flare spell you can muster." Whispered Kain.

"What's in it?" questioned Vivi.

Kain popped open the lid to reveal a cache of explosives.

"These things are small and pack a punch. Blow this bin the middle of that crowd and we'll have an instant opening. They'll be a least a 5 minutes for us to escape in to the city without resistance. Plenty of time." Kain closed the bin again.

"Right." Vivi nodded.

Kain pushed open the front entrance and charged at the crowd. The Mist soldiers turned toward him and instantly opened fired. Kain leapt into the air, avoiding the incoming bullets. He flipped over the heads of the Soldiers dropping the bin around him. Vivi powered up the Flare spell and hit the bin dead on, causing a massive explosion. Kain landed just behind the group, but leapt forward again in order to avoid the brunt of the explosion.

Inside the armory Balthier looked out a window to see the smoke and flames shooting up from the explosion.

"Did you feel that?" Gilgamesh asked referring to the shockwave.

"I think that was the signal. Very subtle." Balthier motioned to Gilgamesh to head out.

Back outside Vivi blinked trying to peer through the dust to see if Kain was okay. Hearing a cough he jumped with excitement as he saw Kain step out from the dust. Gilgamesh and Balthier soon made their way to the front and meet up with Vivi and Kain.

"Let's go." Kain called out to the rest.

The group followed Kain through the still falling dust out in to the city.

Inside his throne room Martyr stood facing his throne. He tossed aside a piece of comucite he was holding in his hands. Behind him a beam of light lit up and began to wildly flicker. Martyr turned around grinding his teeth. He rubbed his temples trying to calm himself. It was no use. He powered up an energy blast and fired it at the beam causing a blast of energy that left a small crater in the middle of the room.

"It doesn't mater what they do. It's over!" Martyr flopped to the ground and leaned his back against his throne.

Martyr then looked down at his own hands.

"I can't take a chance." Martyr pushed himself up and summoned the beam of light once more.

Martyr dipped his hands in and infused the beam of light with his own dark purple energy.

"My body is a conduit for the energy of death. By my hands I shall bring new life to this reality. With the energy I built up over the years I will tear open a new gateway to the nexus and fulfill my duty." Martyr declared.

***

Back in the city the four heroes took cover in an alley way. Kain bounced off the walls of the two buildings and made his way up to the roof top of one of the buildings. He looked out in to the distance to see the streets fill with Mist creatures.

"It's as bad as we thought. But if we approach from the west section there'll be less opposition. It doesn't seem like too many of them are going that way." He called down to them.

"Right. Vivi and Gilgamesh will head up the front and take down most of the enemies in our way with me backing up. Kain you'll be our eyes from above. We'll have to move fast. No doubt the enemy sees this as a chance to go for the kill and solidify their win." Stated Balthier.

Everyone nodded in agreement before heading out. Gilgamesh and Vivi ran ahead with Balthier following closely behind, over head Kain leapt from roof top to roof top keeping an eye out. They soon ran into a group of enemies consisting of four Mist Soldiers and two Ogres.

The soldiers opened fire on the group, but Gilgamesh dashed forward batting away the bullets with the furious swings of his swords. Vivi cast Demi on the soldiers causing them to become crushed under the power of the spell. Balthier fired off a few shots finishing off the soldiers. Gilgamesh leapt through the shadows drove his blades into the hearts of the two Ogre's before they even had a chance to move. A smile spread across Gilgamesh's face as he watched the ogres turn to shadows.

"There's more coming." Kain warned.

Kain jumped off the roof of the building to land on the top of an incoming Soldier tank. He swiped the tip of his spear across the barrel of the tank's cannon, slicing it in half. Dug his spear into the side of the tank and used it to swing around and kick an Ogre in the face.

Meanwhile a pack of Mist hounds came running at the rest of the group. Balthier pulled his trigger repeatedly taking down 3 of the hounds while Gilgamesh and Vivi took down the rest. More knights and Ogre's flooded the area. Gilgamesh charged right in to them and fought each and everyone of them off with his four armed swordplay.

Balthier had trouble shaking off a pack of Mist hounds. Balthier prepared to shoot at them when one of hounds jumped up and dug into Balthier's arm tackling him to the ground. Balthier let out a yelp of pain as he tried to free his arm. Another hound came at him from the opposite direction, he turned to face the hound and snapped his fingers using his Horology technick to hit all of the hounds in the area simultaneously. The hound biting down on him let go and he rolled out of the way to shoot all the hounds to shadows.

"We have to push through. We can't let them hold us here." Kain called out.

"Agreed." Balthier called back clutching his injured arm.

Gilgamesh led the charge, Vivi leapt on to his shoulders charging each one of Gilgamesh's swords with a different magic spell. Gilgamesh swung his blades into the ground sending out a flood of energy and magic into the crowd of enemies. Balthier fired a few percussive slug blasts from his gun knocking some of the mist creatures in to the air. Kain leapt up and slashed each one of the enemies in mid air turning them to dust. The heroes joined together and charged forward, deeper into the city.

***

A mile away from Martyr's throne room was a vast pit in the ground covered by a massive set of steel doors. Deep inside the sound of fierce roaring could be heard. The walls trembled as they were hit by a thunderous force.

Inside the pit contained the beasts known as Yiazmat (FFXII) and Omega Weapon (FFVI). A Mist Ogre descended down a steel staircase to the bottom to meet up with another Ogre who kept watch over the two chained beasts.

"Unchain them." Ordered the descending Ogre.

"You sure that's smart. I mean they maybe not as powerful as they were in life, but dead or not they still pack a punch." Warned the second ogre.

"Bosses orders. He wants to crush the last of them intruders. So he's letting loose his back up plans." Laughed the first Ogre.

"Okay then." The second Ogre approached the two best carefully.

As quickly as he could he unshackled the beasts. They turned their heads up and let out a pair of blood curdling and boisterous roars. Yiazmat leapt up fist followed by Omega. They smashed through the metal gates with easy landing in the middle of the city. With another blood thirsty screech they charged through the streets crashing into building after building, destroying everything in sight, looking for their prey.

***

The four heroes fought through the scores of enemies making their way through the city. Hearing the bloodthirsty screech of Yiazmat and Omega weapon they stopped dead in their tracks.

"That's not a good sound." Kain commented.

Suddenly the building in front of them exploded in a showered of dust and debris. Form the hazed emerged the fearsome creature known as Yiazmat. The massive creature looked down at the heroes, seemingly licking its lips. It charged up a flaming blast of energy in its mouth and fired it right at them. Each of the heroes barely had time to dodge out of the blast.

After dodging Yiazmat's blast another building exploded in a shower of ruble. Omega landed on the ground with a massive thud, rubble falling around him. The heroes looked up in horror watching the two beasts stare at them with evil delight. Gilgamesh took a big gulp all four of his hands still shaking.

"Maybe fighting to the death wasn't such a good idea after all." Gilgamesh stammered.

"Looks like we all might get some glory. We'll Fran…..guess I couldn't make it back. But at least I'm going out the way a good leading man should." Balthier aimed his gun straight at the face of Yiazmat and pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit the creature head on. It let out cry then slammed its head in to the ground attempting to destroy the group. They dodged attack and started running the beasts hot on their heels. Balthier and Vivi kept turning back firing magic blasts and bullets, but none of it seemed to slow them down.

Kain jumped up to slice off a piece of a nearby building with the tip of his spear. Then using his spear knocked the piece of building in to a path aimed directly at Omega's head.

"Vivi infuse it!" Kain called out.

Vivi infused the chunk of rubble with flare magic. It hit Omega dead on causing him to stumble back a bit. Kain double jumped on to another building and began slicing off pieces of it to launch at the monsters while Vivi infused them with magic. Gilgamesh moved backwards ducking behind an alley to watch the fight. Balthier saw this, but turned his attention back to the fight.

Balthier took a deep breathe as he was surrounded by a bright orange aura.

"Shades of black." He cried.

Using the shades of Black Technick he cast a powerful blast of shock magic on Yiazmat.

"That's a good start, but we're going to need more than that." Balthier commented.

Yiazmat came running at him as he charged up another shades of black. This time Balthier summoned a Blizzaga spell and fired it at the ground. The spell created a large sheet of ice under Yiazmat which caused him slip and crash into a building. Balthier sighed in relief when Omega leapt over the fallen Yiazmat and fired its flare star attack at him. Balthier braced for the attack to hit, but to his surprise Gilgamesh jumped in front of him. Gilgamesh held up the Zantetsuken sword and swung it had sending out a large energy tornado that collided with Omega's blast. The backlash from the two attacks colliding sent Omega reeling into another building.

"My hero." Joked Balthier.

"You and your friends beat me once. Today I intend to show you that it was a fluke." Laughed Gilgamesh.

Yiazmat craned up its head and let out another screech.

"If we get through this alive I'll gladly learn that lesson. Now let's go." Balthier shot back.

Kain leapt up on to Yiazmat's back and drove his spear deep into it. Kain held on for dear life as Yiazmat attempted to buck him off. Vivi hit Yiazmat with blast of Firaga to the face. Yiazmat answered back by creating a cyclone of energy and sending it straight fro Vivi. Vivi countered by using stop on the cyclone then blasting it away with Thundaga.

Yiazmat angrily managed to buck Kain off of him sending him flying of and skidding across roof tops. Vivi powered up a meteor spell, but Yiazmat clever replied by using Reflect on himself sending the meteor spell right back at Vivi. In an explosion of fire and rubble Vivi was sent reeling several feet.

Balthier ran up fast emptying 8 bullets in to the side of the creature's head. It took a swipe at him, but Balthier barely managed to dodge it. Balthier used his souleater technick to deal a blow. Balthier felt the tightening in his chest, a side effect of the attack. He looked up to see Yiazmat take another swipe at him. Gilgamesh dove in engaging the beast fending off its swipes with his swords. Yiazmat roared letting out a circular wave of energy that collided with the both of them. All the heroes were down for the moment, Yiazmat made his approach, walking slowly so as to savor the moment.

To the beats surprise Vivi stood up pointing his want at the creature. Yiazmat charged directly at Vivi knowing his reflect spell would protect him from the small mage's attacks. Balthier forced himself up to a seated position, he placed his hand out facing the beast and hit it with a blast of Dispel magic. Vivi followed up by using Meteor which hit Yiazmat dead on and caused it to stumble back. Vivi tried to follow up but found his magic drained. Balthier scooted over to him as fast as he could and used his charge technick to replenish Vivi's Magic.

Kain was back up and made took a jump at Yiazmat ready to drive his spear right between the creature's eyes. The building next to Kain crumbled to pieces; Omega came charging through the debris tackling right into Kain in midair. Kain cried out in pain, but still managed to find the strength to push himself off just in time to avoid being driven into another building.

Gilgamesh jumped up to slash Omega across the face. It answered back with a with an energy blast aimed at the warrior. Gilgamesh spun around in mid air using all four of his swords to fend off the blast.

Omega unleashed a Quake spell causing the entire ground to rumble. Yiazmat followed it up with a blast of stone breath. Thinking quick Balthier used Shell to protect them from the effects of stone breathe.

Vivi was hit by one of the pieces of building dislodged from the quake spell. He dusted himself off when his eyes opened wide. Vivi began to glow brightly, he gaze intensifying on the two creatures.

"TRANCE!!!" cried out the tiny mage.

Vivi ran in between two buildings and bounced in between them to reach the roof top. From this vantage point Vivi began casting a multitude of magic spells on the two creatures. It was almost as if he was conducting some immaculate chorus the wave he moved his arms. Below him the beasts were hit by spell after spell, thrashing about to fight through it.

Omega used its special attack Omega Drive and charged into the building Vivi was standing on. Vivi answered back with by doublecasting Ultima on both Omega and Yiazmat causing massive explosions to spring up.

The dust started to settle seeing Vivi stare down Yiazmat. The monster opened its mouth powering a soon to be devastating energy blast. Omega came running at the glowing Vivi from the side. Luckily Vivi was saved by Kain and Gilgamesh tackling into the beast. Kain went tumbling off to the side with it, but Gilgamesh stayed with Vivi.

Vivi shot a few blasts of magic at Yiazmat, but to his horror found the spells bounced off him. Vivi and Gilgamesh dodged the returning magic spells and looked up to see Yiazmat near the end of charging up his attack.

"He's got Reflect up again. I can't hit him." Vivi grumbled.

"Charge me up then, I'll tackle the best head on." Gilgamesh responded.

"That's crazy you might……."

"Damned if we do damned if we don't. If we lose here we still might die by Martyr's hands. This is my chance to be a hero…..you guys fight on. This one is MINE!!!" Holding up all four of his swords Gilgamesh charged at Yiazmat.

Vivi cast Ultima on all four of Gilgamesh's blades right before his trance ended. Yiazmat fired at massive dark energy blast at Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh became surrounded by a red aura, pumping in his own energy into his attack. He collided right into the Yiazmat's energy blast and slashed his swords sending out his own massive blast of red energy at Yiazmat.

Both swordsman and beast cried out in pain. Gilgamesh swung his Zantetsuken at Yizamat sending a razor sharp wave of energy at the beast. Omega rushed in and fired its Delta Attack at both of them. The explosion that arose was immense. Kain, Balthier and Vivi scrambled for cover, because in a colossal flash of light everything around them was reduced to a smoldering crater.

The three heroes waited a few seconds before taking a look. To their horror all that remained was Omega weapon standing in the midst of the smoking crating. Omega snarled, absorbing the remnants of Yiazmat's energy. Kain scanned the crater for any sign of Gilgamesh, but found nothing. Kain placed a shaking hand on his helmet lowering his head.

"He's gone. That crazy……he did it. He blew one of those creatures back to the lowest depths of the void." Lamented Kain.

"No….he can't be…." Vivi shook his head in disbelief.

Balthier looked down at his torn, dirtied and bloodied shirt. His eyes then moved upward to focus in on Omega weapon.

"Let's not disappoint our fallen comrade. There's still one left to go." Balthier pushed himself up.

Holding his weapon up at his side, Balthier began a confident stride up to the massive creature. He opened fire hitting the creature with some armor piercing shots. Omega looked to him and unleashed a quake spell, sending a torrent of ground at him. Balthier snapped his fingers unleashing his shades of black technick which fired Scathe Magick right through the quake and collided in to Omega.

Omega let out a yelp of pain and answered back with its atomic ray attack. Vivi pushed Balthier out of the way this time as Kain jumped up to swipe the creature across the face with his spear. Omega answered back by head butting Kain, sending him flying. Kain hit the ground hard, but refused to go down.

Balthier pushed himself up and ran toward Omega dodging attack after attack. He then became surrounded in his aura again unleashing a series of devastating Quickenings on Omega. Balthier kept a deadly focus as he chained one Quickening after another. He kept pushing himself trying to keep of his chain of powerful attacks not allowing Omega a second of relief. After a while Balthier fell to his knees and unleashed the final Concurrence.

"BLACK HOLE!" Balthier cried out.

Omega cried out in pain as the Final Concurrence hit its mark. Balthier slumped his shoulders. Panting he looked up and watched Omega stumble around still smoking from the series of devastating attacks.

Omega then turned to Balthier with an angry growl and fired a blast of Flare magic at him. Kain jumped up and with one swing of his spear sliced Flare to pieces. Omega fired out more blasts of dark energy. Kain let out a cry and anger and batted each blast away in an astonishing display of strength and skill.

Vivi came to Balthier's side to check on him. Omega unleashed its devastating Blaster attack. Kain spun his spear around him his hands then swooped around to send out a wave of energy from his spear that collided with Omega's attack and caused a booming explosion. Kain looked up at the howling Omega Weapon with a smile.

"Confident B*stard, aren't you? Makes me laugh……No one on my world will ever know…..that I looked the end in the eyes and vanquished this evil for the good of all reality." Kain double jumped in to the air then bounced off a building heading on a path toward Omega.

Kain became surrounded in a whirling, white aura. He landed on Omega's back then thrust his spear into Omega's spin unleashing a torrent of crushing energy in to the creature's body. Kain furiously growled as he twisted his spear letting loose even more whirling energy in to Omega. Finally the Creature let out its last cry of pain. Kain jumped off the creature to watch with the other two as Omega's body crumbled away into dust and shadows.

The three remaining heroes took a moment to relax and recover from their battle, flopping down besides Balthier. Kain poked his head up to see that Martyr's throne room was in view.

"He's only about a mile or two away." Kain remarked.

Balthier looked down at his gun and smiled.

"Let's finish this." He nodded.

"You sure you two have enough to keep going?" chuckled Vivi.

"We sure do tiny one." Joked Kain.

Explosions rang out overhead. The heroes looked up to see Soldier tanks at the head of an army of Mist creature approaching. Reluctantly then rose to their feet and began running toward their goal.

Even more explosions resounded as they found themselves cut off my more tanks. The heroes dashed for cover as the tanks started up with an unrelenting series of cannon blasts, blowing away everything in sight.

***

10 minutes later Balthier found himself alone, dust covered and bloodstained. He hand lost track of the others in all the fighting, but the sounds of battle he could hear behind him gave him some hope that they were still alive. He leaned against the buildings to keep himself up right as he walked. His head throbbed, his bones ached, and his breathe was ragged.

Coming to a stop, Balthier closed his eyes taking a deep breathe. When his eyes opened they focused in on the structure before him……Martyr's throne room. Groaning Balthier pushed himself off the wall and held up his gun.

"Very well then….let's do this." Balthier took a few steps then fell down to a knee.

He took a few deep breathes then attempted to push himself up. Just then he heard a loud boom. Looking up he witnessed three portals open up on three rooftops overlooking the throne room.

"I hope that's a good sign." Balthier sighed.

To be continued……………………..