Fara had already taken down ten men. But she was tiring. These men were not shabby fighters and it was through strength of will and years of practice that she was able to dispatch of them at all. She hoped that the others were still fighting too. Another one came at her from her left side. She took one sword and blocked the attack and smashed the hilt of her other sword onto his head. He dropped like a fly.

She did not know much more of this she could take, but at that instant it got much worse. She saw Brant lift up a Glyph and call forth Famfrit. The beast sprang out, clutching its chain and large jar. It was huge and terrifying. He was about to call forth another one when Fara saw her father push Brant off balance. He then threw a punch which hit Brant square on the chin.

Fara smiled slightly at the scene. So he was on their side at least that was a positive. This gave her a second wind. She fought with renewed strength and energy. Her immediate area was clear of soldiers, but she saw Famfrit advancing towards Penelo, who was focusing on casting a Fire spell on the soldiers surrounding her. Fara picked up a sword of a nearby fallen soldier and threw it at the advancing beast. It hit him in the back of the head, which did little damage, but was sufficient in taking his attention off of Penelo.

Fara charged at him. She fought hard, but she was tired and knew she could not hold the beast off for long. She saw her father still struggling with Brant still, and knew she could not give up. She watched Famfrit closely as she fought him, trying to figure out a pattern. Finally it clicked, when he raised his right arm and swung his chain, his throat was exposed. Fara watched and dodged the blows from the giant fists, jumping gracefully over one, only to duck instantly to dodge the other. Eventually, Famfrit raised his right arm and begun to swing the chain. She knew she only had a few seconds; she leaped with all her strength and dug both swords into the flesh at the beast's neck. The esper disappeared in an instant. She fell back to ground and landed on her feet.

She took this break to look around. The others were doing fairly well. Fran and Vaan were still fighting hard a group of soldiers around them, and Penelo and Balthier had rushed to their aid. Fara turned her gaze to her father and Brant.

Fara felt the ground rush up at her. She was on her knees. Her father lay on the ground, a knife in his stomach and a pool of blood surrounding him. Brant was calling Esper after Esper. Belias rose up, then exodus, then one Fara did not recognize. They kept coming.

Fara felt a hand on her elbow pulling her up forcefully.

"Fara get up" Balthier called to her. He sounded very far away. He grabbed her and lifted her up. She realized he was carrying her in his arms, away from the espers. She got her sense back and said "Balthier no, we can not give up now." She struggled in his arms and he dropped her on her feet, but kept hold of her shoulders. She tried to turn out of his grasp, but he held on tightly.

"Fara, we have to regroup. Running in there without any sort of sense will only get you killed" Balthier pleaded with her. She stopped trying to get out of his grasp and turned back to him. She felt the tears overflow from her eyes as she looked into his. He reached a hand up and softly wiped them away.

"Now is not the time Fara" Balthier said to her softly. He kissed her on the lips quickly and took her hand. He led her back to the others.

By the time they got there Fara had regained her composure and was ready to do whatever it took to stop the peaks and Brant.

"We do not need to destroy all the espers. All we have to do is destroy the stone" Fara said to the others.

"I haven't seen any stone yet" Penelo replied to Fara looking at everyone.

"I think that might be it" Balthier said pointing back to the table where Brant stood. Brant was holding a dark green stone that had a faint glow to it. The occuria had appeared and given it to him. Each occuria took the stone and held it for a second; the glow became stronger as they did. Eventually all the occuria had touched it and handed it back to Brant. They rose about fifty feet into the air, above the table. They were chanting something that Fara could not make out.

"Ignore the Espers, destroy the stone" Fran said with a tone of finality, and she ran off.

They all charged into the fray. Blows were coming at them from all sides. Fara counted the Espers as she ran. There were twenty two right now. Only the last two and it would be too late. Fara sprinted towards the table. At that moment Brant looked up and saw the five of them charging at him. His face looked afraid, and he dropped one of the glyphs. Fara could see him cursing under his breath as he bent down to pick it up. He straightened up and commanded the espers to come after them. Fara kept running she slid under an esper just as it landed, blocking off the path of both Vaan and Penelo. Vaan yelled for them to keep running.

Fara was only ten feet from Brant now. He bent over and grasped the knife sticking out of her father's stomach. He yanked it out and faced her with a manic grin on his face. Fara felt anger boiling in her stomach. She let out an angry yell and tackled him. He seemed surprised, probably expecting her to take out her swords and face him.

The rage she felt inside her though had blocked out almost all of her rational thought. She punched him once, and tried a second time, but he grabbed her hand and flipped over. He forced both of her hands above her head and she kneed him in the groin. He let out a strangled yell and she pushed him off of her.

He reached a grabbed another glyph, letting out another Esper. Zodiark roared to life above Fara. She ignored it though and went again for Brant. This time, she did pull out her swords and swung them at him with all her might. He leaped out of the way just in time.

At this point she realized all the others were engaged in battle with at least one esper, sometimes more. It was up to her to destroy the stone. She took one last swing at Brant and turned to the table. She grasped the stone and was about to strike it against the table when she felt an enormous pain in her left arm. She looked at saw the knife stuck into her bicep. She gritted her teeth and took the stone in her other hand. Brant took her by the shoulder and wrenched her back. She landed on her left side and yelled out in pain. She had hit her head hard on landing and her vision had grown a little fuzzy. She was trying to desperately to clear her head when Brant grasped the knife and pulled it out. That pain brought her sense back quickly.

She saw Brant raise the knife and bring it down, trying to stick it in her chest. She caught his hands in hers with the knife just inches from her skin.

"It really is a pity" Brant whispered to her "You should have just come upstairs with me. I would have talked you into joining us and maybe you wouldn't be in the situation. I would have talked to you, among other things." He smirked at her with those words.

"You're insane" Fara replied, venom filling her voice.

Brant opened his mouth to say something else, but the words caught in his throat. His eyes grew wide and he toppled off of her. Fara took a deep breath and sat up. Balthier stood with his gun raised thirty feet from her. She smiled at him, and then called out.

"Stop looking over here and pay attention to your own fight."

He nodded to her slightly and turned back to the esper that was currently circling him. Fara quickly stood up and looked over at the table. One of the soldiers was currently calling the last esper. It was one of the espers of light, and it flew out of the glyph and overhead. Fara cried out. The green stone had begun to glow even brighter. She ran and stabbed the solder through the chest. He fell to the ground and lay still. She then ran to the table. The stone had begun to vibrate and it floated a few inches off of the table. Around her, the espers were beginning to change. Parts of them were disappearing and turning into a glittering black dust.

The dust was floating up to where the Occuria were and solidifying into something very large and very terrifying around them. The others had stopped fighting when the espers had and were staring with open mouths. Fara could not let this happen. She ran for the table, she saw all the remaining soldiers coming for her. An arrow zipped by her head, but she kept running.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw her friends going after the soldiers, trying to stop them from stopping her. She was almost to the table now, its jet black stone gleaming in the light. She reached out to the stone and grasped it, feeling the power running through it. Her hand felt like it was on fire, but she did not let go. With all the strength she had left in her she slammed the stone against the table.

It exploded into a million pieces. Above her, the combining had stopped and the pieces of the individual espers were returning. What surprised her most however was the occuria had begun to disappear. It looked as if they were made of sand, and a strong wind was carrying them away. It was only a few seconds before they were gone. That was it? Fara thought to herself. The death of the Gods looked like nothing more then dust on a breeze.

The espers were now fully returned to themselves. For some reason Fara had expected it to be over. The stone was destroyed, the world was saved, but they were not. They still had all of the espers and about twenty extremely pissed off soldiers to contend with. With a sinking heart Fara realized they would not make it out of here alive. But at least they had succeeded with their task. She rushed over to Balthier who was currently trying to fight both Chaos and Zalera. It was all he could do to not be destroyed by them.

Just when Fara had lost all hope, she heard a rumbling coming from the west. She looked up to the sky and saw twenty airships coming at them. Not only that, but out of the forest hundreds of Dalmascan soldiers were running at them. Basch had reached them in time.

Fara let out a laugh and knew they would be okay. The espers turned their attention to the airships and soldiers and left the others to themselves. They regrouped and smiled at each other. Every person had at least one injury, but they were all still alive.

At that moment, Basch rushed over to them.

"Well done" he said to them.

"You too," Vaan replied, "I don't know how much longer we could have held out."

"It was very good timing" Fara continued.

Basch smiled and replied "I think you all have earned your rest, we will be able to take it from here. Ashe is waiting anxiously on that airship." He pointed to a smaller airship that had landed about fifty feet away from them.

"Well, I think that was pretty good for one days work" Balthier said, and they began to walk towards the airship.

As Fara walked she looked around and saw that almost all of the espers had been defeated. A few stragglers were still fighting, but it would not be long before they were captured too. Balthier came up beside her and studied her arm. It was still bleeding a lot and he looked a little worried.

"I'll be fine" she assured him.

He looked at her with one eyebrow raised and she just laughed. He was just as beat up as her, maybe worse. He had a wound on his leg that was causing him to limp and he had a few cuts on his stomach. She took his arm and put it around her shoulder, allowing him to put some of his weight on her unhurt shoulder. He smiled at her ruefully and nodded his thanks.