Disclaimer: Again, I have removed the "offending" material, which was some lyrics to a well-known song. Well, not that well-known, but still, I don't think the staff would care about that point.

Song Of The Week: Sunburn – Muse

Thanks for the response to my problems, you lot are so kind! Before anyone else asks me, Zion is from The Matrix and that's where I got the idea from. Okie-dokes! Let's continue!

Chapter 21: The Power Of Trance

"You mustn't allow yourself to be chained to fate." Naomi Hunter, Metal Gear Solid

The night sky was once again ablaze with stars, now that the mist was gone. The moons seemed to stare at me from their high perches, one blood red, one just like ours, a pale white ball of rock floating around in space. A calm, cool breeze was blowing over the top of Lindblum castle. It had been four days since I had escaped the explosion in Alexandria, four long boring days of sunshine and clear skies. I couldn't sleep, I'd been far too uneasy these past four days, it'd been far too quiet. Zidane was still in his coma, I couldn't determine whether Dagger would lose her voice, now that I'd told her. Then there was the increasing problem of where Kuja had run off to. Of course Neil and I knew, Bruce had an inkling and the others had no idea the Desert Palace even existed. So, there I was, standing looking over the battlements at the very top of Lindblum. I started to hum the words to a song I'd heard a very long time ago.

I haven't heard that song in ages, back when I was on Earth, when I didn't have to worry about cross-dressing freaks trying to take over the world, or a race of people that I never knew existed. It seemed so long ago… Suddenly I noticed a flash in the distance. I ran up to the telescope that resided on the top and put my eye to the eyepiece. I twiddled with zoom and focus and gasped. A lone figure was being attacked by mistodons. They must have escaped from Alexandria before it exploded. I couldn't tell who it was, but they looked in serious trouble, I could see blood spattering onto the floor.

"Way ahead of you." Kirjava appeared right next to me in dragon form (that seemed to be her favourite). I jumped on and she took off, flying towards them faster than a ray of light. As we closed in I stood up and prepared to jump off onto a mistodon's back. The scenery was heavily blurred as we shot faster and faster towards the ailing fighter. I took a deep breath and pulled out my bow and looked at the arrowhead as a white light started to glow from it. A holy arrow, that had taken a while for Neil to elementally imbue a few for me. I had to admit he was taking to white magic almost as fast as Dagger was. I released it into the heart of a monster as we shot past. We swung around and I jumped off and rolled to the ground, firing off another arrow into the crowd of enemies. I looked at the fighter and blinked in shock. Melissa had a huge gash torn in her arm and was losing blood rapidly. The smell of blood seemed to drive the fiends made with delight, rearing into the air in madness. Suddenly, out of the crowd, stomped a huge Grand Dragon.

"Oh friggin' hell" I said as I fired off another arrow. The dragon roared in anger, shaking the land around us

"Dammit! I can't use my arm!" Mel said, clutching it in pain. More blood was dripping to the floor constantly. The dragon lunged at me but Kirjava rammed into it at the last minute, sending it sprawling across the floor. I ducked as an icicle soared towards my head. Nova was keeping the mistodons at bay.

"We've gotta get out of here!" I shouted, punching the mistodon that was charging at me with the bow's edge, which was now tipped in a blade that released a deadly neuro-toxin as soon as it penetrated skin. It jerked and dropped dead instantly.

"I wouldn't go into the spirit realm at the moment!" She shouted back, wincing in pain as the grand dragon punched the bear-like Nova in the stomach. He roared in pain and slashed it across the face with razor sharp claws. Kirjava was tearing mistodons apart as a massive serpent of some sort. It looked a lot like the Midgar Zolom from FF7. Blood was flying everywhere as she ripped a mistodon in half and flung its remains into the face of another. I took a look in the spirit realm and quickly realised what Mel was talking about. There were about ten wraiths hanging around waiting for us. One looked straight at me and shrieked to the others in a high pitched voice. It was painful to hear and I quickly switched back to the real world just as one reached out to grab me. I felt a sharp in my legs as I noticed that Kirjava (sorry about having to use the full name all the time, but it's hard to come with a nickname for that!) had had a claw shoved into her lower body. The mistodon soon wished he hadn't as he was ripped into bloody chunks and spread over a hundred metre area.

"Jesus! That fucking hurt!" That's the first time I've ever heard her swear in my life, I think I was starting to rub off on her.

"Tell me about it!" I shouted, clutching my legs in pain. There was nothing I could do though. The pain was purely spiritual and I wasn't bleeding or anything. I just had to grin and bear it. Suddenly, I was surrounded in a bright light as I slowly felt my body changing into something else. It was like watching a speeded up movie of a flower growing. It was weird, I saw things happening to me that would be immensely painful to normal people but for some reason it didn't bother me. First, my clothes changed into a light but strong white armour with deep black motifs that crawled all the way up my arms and legs. I suddenly felt a hell of a lot stronger and faster. Finally the transformation ended and I leapt forward slicing the head off the nearest mistodon. My dagger had the same mechanism of the blades that were on my bow. A deadly neuro-toxin is injected into the bloodstream on the moment of piercing. It immediately travels to the brain and takes out the vital life systems in your body, killing you almost instantly, depending on the defences in your blood and how immunised you are to the toxin. The mistodon didn't have a chance. I brought the blade up into the chin of another monster and ripped it out, stabbing the one behind me in the gut. I looked around at all the dead mistodons. All that remained was the Grand Dragon. I leapt into the air and almost mechanically raised my hands, almost as if I'd been programmed to do this. A massive pinkish purple blast erupted from my hands, blowing the head clean off the dragon. I dropped to the floor, emotionally and physically drained. I'd just cast what looked like Ultima, but on a much smaller scale, and it felt like it was killing me. I couldn't move as I changed out of Trance and back to normal. Kirjava reformed into her dragon form, but I could tell that even she was drained from what I'd done.

"You saved my life…" Mel said, looking at me.

"Wasn't a problem. I just wanna get back to the castle and sleep like there's no tomorrow." I said as we flew back to the castle.

I looked around on the boat, waves lapping at the side in a soothing rhythm. Apparently, I'd slept for five days after the incident. Ultima really kicks the shit out of you in order to perform it. It's such a powerful spell that it almost kills you while casting it. Dagger had lost her voice, Zidane was now awake and we were on our way to Black Mage Village. No-one needed to explain why, I already knew. We'd heard that the mages had rejoined Kuja on empty promises. It just sickened me. Melissa had been pretty silent herself on the way. She just looked at the retreating Mist Continent, while I looked at the approaching Outer Continent and relaxed while listening to the sound of the waves.

"How the heck did you cast Ultima?" Neil asked for the umpteenth time.

"I told you last time, I went into Trance and blew the shit out of a Grand Dragon."

"Hey, I know what it's like to go into Trance. It's so cool, you feel like you can take on the world" Bruce said smiling.

"Well so do I." Neil said

"Huh? When did you go into Trance?" I asked

"In Cleyra, while fighting Beatrix." Neil answered. "It makes you feel like air, light and fluffy."

"Well your both right about something, for once."

"What?" They both said simultaneously.

"It does make you feel light and fluffy, and it does make you feel like you can take on the world." I said, smiling. The others had no idea what I was so happy about…

Black Mage Village was completely silent, not even the birds were singing. It was strange how eerily silent it was. It's like the village was dead, that Kuja had stolen the life out of it. I knew exactly where to look, I lead the others along the silent pathways, as if the happiness here had died long ago. Finally, we reached the cemetery, where there was one solitary mage standing there, looking so forlorn. None of us could possibly have any idea what the black mages had been through. Now Kuja wanted to kill their happiness and will to live, to make them return to his services, with dark, empty promises of prolonged life. It sickened me.

"I can't take this anymore. We're going stop Kuja, right now. We're going to go to his secret underground Desert Palace, and we're going to kick his ass into the next millennium, so I don't have to see people heartbroken anymore. Otherwise, I am going to be extremely angry, so angry in fact, that I'll probably walk in there and kill anything I see." I said firmly. Bruce and Neil know exactly what to do in this situation. When I see red, it's better to take cover before I explode than to run away screaming.

"Finally! Now we can get him back for what he did to Alexandria! That little rat-bastard! No offence Freya." Eiko said happily

"None taken, I'll be happy to see Kuja gone more than anyone else here." She said

"I don't doubt that for a second Freya. For Alexandria, for Burmecia and for Cleyra. They shall be avenged!" Bruce shouted, fiercely.

"For what he's done to the black mages, he will pay dearly! I just wanna take that bastard on right here, right now!" Neil shouted.

"For all that have been lost, we will end this now!" I said, turning towards the others. We all nodded in agreement and turned to leave…

Okay people! That's another chapter successfully completed, but as we all know, this won't be the end! But, does anyone know what Chris was talking about? Hmmm, the plot thickens. See ya next time!