A/N: I am sorry to anyone who feels that this story is too drawn out, or that I am taking too long to advance the plot, the truth is that Journey of the Offworlder is just the first part of a series of stories, all of which will most likely be over 100k words in length. Therefore if the plot seems lost on you, fear not, it will show up eventually. I just ask that you stick with the story, I do everything for a reason; it isn't just random ideas thrown together. Something may seem one way, but it may end up an entirely different way. With that said, here's chapter 25.
Battle of Alexandria
Harry ran toward the city as fast as he could, still invisible to avoid the guards. He figured that he should check the hotel first, since that was the last place he'd seen anyone from his group. The innkeeper raised an eyebrow at the opening door, but paid it no mind. Harry quickly made his way to his room and looked inside. It was empty of course, so he checked Andrea and Ethan's room. What he saw almost made him gasp. There were two people, obviously Ethan and Bastian, dressed in women's clothing, complete with wigs, make-up and it appeared that they'd even shaved their legs.
"What in the name of Merlin…?" started Harry
"Not one word." said Bastian
"This is one of those times where you don't say anything," said Ethan. "It'll be best if we all forget that this happened and never speak of it again, agreed?"
Harry could only nod in affirmative and quickly averted his gaze from the two men-in-drag.
"Good man." said Ethan.
"Glad they didn't catch you," said Bastian. "We were just waiting for you to get back so we could change."
"They almost got me," said Harry. "But I managed to give them the slip."
"You see what we resorted to." said Ethan.
"How'd you know they were coming?" wondered Harry.
"We didn't," said Bastian. "We were gong to sneak into the castle using these disguises, when they burst through the door."
"We need a plan," said Harry. "If we just burst through the front door, we'll be slaughtered."
"You can get in," said Ethan. "Bastian and I will get out of the city and head for the cave that connects to Evil Forest."
"How long do we have until Strife attacks?" asked Harry
"Last time we reported in," said Ethan "We were told that they'd be starting in forty-eight hours."
"How long ago was that?" asked Harry
"Yesterday," said Bastian
"So with your thirty-six hour days, that means we've got less than twelve hours!" exclaimed Harry
"More or less." said Ethan
"We'll need to work quick then." said Harry "They don't believe an attack is coming, so I guess we'll just have to help in any way we can. If I don't get the girls out before it starts, it'll be up to you two to try and hinder them. The soldiers should help, but they'll be caught off guard."
"What about the docks?" asked Bastian
"Once I get the girls, we should be able to handle the force that's coming through there," said Harry. "I'm forming a plan to have the castle guards there to back us up."
"We'll leave it to you then," said Bastian, now changed back into his normal clothing, a black t-shirt, green fingerless gloves and beige pants. Ethan too, was wearing his normal clothing, which was basically his SeeD uniform without the emblems.
They heard a noise in the hallway and knew that the soldiers were searching the place again. Bastian and Ethan jumped out of the window, while Harry shifted invisible and waited for the guards to open the door. Once they did he made his way past them and headed for the castle.
Soldiers were running around the streets, and Harry figured that this was a good thing, even though they weren't prepared for a full scale battle, at least they were alert. This would keep some of them alive a lot longer than otherwise.
His first obstacle came in the form of the castle gate. The drawbridge was raised, so that meant that he had to find a way onto the other side, and then find a way into the castle. The first part wasn't hard. He only had to get a running start and boost his leg strength so that he could jump the distance of the moat. He spied an open window a few meters up the wall, so he started to climb towards it. Inside was what appeared to be a library. It housed a great many tomes, and Harry would have liked to see if there was anything interesting, but he had more pressing matters to attend to.
Outside the library, the hallway split into three different directions. Harry decided to take the path leading straight ahead. He looked around until he found some stairs leading downward since that was the most logical place for a dungeon, or at least it was to Harry. He finally found what he was looking for and headed downward. He passed several rooms, but nothing resembling a dungeon door. After going around many twists and turns, and finding no more stairs leading downward, he found himself lost.
"Which way now?" he thought as he came to another intersection.
"I'm just as lost as you are." said Seth
"A lot of help you are." replied Harry
"I'll remember that next time you need me to save you in a battle." said Seth
"I'm sorry, oh great and might Seth." said Harry sarcastically "If you don't have anything worthwhile to add, then keep quiet."
Harry laughed mentally at Seth's hiss of indignation as he decided on the left hallway. He came to a stairway heading upward and decided to take it. It appeared as though he'd found the main stairway, since there were several flights leading up and doors every two flights. He also saw some stairs heading downward and changed his course to take those. The dungeon had to be down there somewhere.
Once at the bottom of the stairs, he found himself in a long hallway. There were no doors along it, just bare, grey, stone wall. At the other end there was a door, so he headed for it. The door led into a room with a large fountain. The fountain housed a statue of a man holding a double-bladed sword. The statue's face seemed to hold an heir of the utmost confidence, as if this warrior thought he could defeat anyone with the utmost ease. The statue wasn't the only thing in the room though.
"About time you got here Potter." said a velvety male voice from a darkened corner of the room. Kuja stepped out of the corner and looked right at Harry, despite the fact that he was invisible. "You may as well reveal yourself, I can see you."
"I'm fine, thanks." replied Harry "I figured you had something to do with this."
"You should stay away from matters that don't concern you," said Kuja "This is a personal matter I'm attending to."
"I'm not letting you kill all these innocent people." said Harry adamantly
"And what can you do to stop me?" asked Kuja. "Your full power barely equals a fifth of mine. You don't stand a chance against me."
As if to prove his point he gathered a ball of dark energy in his left hand and threw it at the wizard. Harry tried to dodge, but the action was so fast, he barely saw it in time. The ball struck him in the chest and sent him to the ground. He struggled to get to his feet, but Kuja was before him in an instant and delivered a vicious kick to his chest. Harry collapsed back onto the ground and Kuja placed his foot on the younger man's chest. He pointed his palm at Harry's head and gathered a ball of dark fire.
"You see?" he asked mockingly. "You couldn't even last a minute. If I wanted to I could destroy you right now."
"Then why don't you?" asked Harry defiantly. "Don't have the guts to go through with it?"
Kuja simply laughed at him "Oh I have the 'guts' as you put it," informed Kuja "I simply still have a use for you, but if you keep getting in my way, both you and your band of misfits will be destroyed."
Kuja looked down at Harry and his eyes found the necklace around his neck, on it was the Sorceress' crystal as well as the altered Ultima Materia.
"What have we here?" said Kuja reaching for the necklace.
When he let his hand drop to grab the necklace, Harry reacted. He'd been channeling power into both hands, and Kuja, being so arrogant, hadn't noticed the electricity forming into balls in both of his hands. With a cry of rage, Harry slammed both hands into Kuja's chest, catching him off guard and causing a massive surge of electricity to course through the older man's body. Kuja yelled in rage and pain as the energy coursed its way through his body. Harry pushed himself off the floor, causing Kuja to topple over. Next Harry blasted him with the strongest Blizzaga spell he could muster. A huge block of ice formed around Kuja, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
Harry knew that this wouldn't hold him for long, he needed to get out of here, find the girls and hopefully secure the dock and make it out of the castle. All this needed to be done before Strife attacked or Kuja broke free from his icy prison. Harry sprinted back down the hall and up the many flights of stairs. If the dungeon wasn't at the bottom of the castle, the next best place for it was in a high tower.
After Harry had made it a few floors higher, he felt a vibration rock the whole castle. He knew that this meant only one thing, the attack had started. Soldiers rushed around, trying to figure out what had happened. He was hard pressed to dodge the growing number of them and he silently hoped he'd be able to make it to where the girls were being held. He also noticed, as he ran, that the air was starting to get colder. It reminded him of the feeling the Dementors brought on, but he knew that they couldn't possibly be here, or could they?
His question was answered when he started hearing the tell-tale voices of his parents inside his mind.
"Take Harry and go!"
"Avada Kadavra!"
"Not Harry, please."
"Ignore it!" yelled Seth through the growing haze in his mind. "I don't know how they are here either, but I can tell they aren't close enough to you to hurt you, yet."
"Avada Kadavra!"
"Crucio!"
"I'm trying to," said Harry through gritted teeth. "But it keeps getting louder, they must have stronger powers here."
This in and of itself wasn't surprising. His magic had grown a great deal, just by coming into this world. Therefore the Dementors would surely get their powers amplified as well. The question was, how were they here in the first place?
The soldiers were being affected by them as well. They were no longer running at full speed, many had stopped altogether, just standing there and shaking. A few others had totally lost it, so caught up in their worst memories that they couldn't even see reality.
Harry could take a guess as to who was behind the Dementors, Kuja. That man was really going overboard. As if the overwhelming number of soldiers from Strife, as well as their considerable air and naval forces weren't enough. Now he'd summoned the most vile creatures in existence. Harry resolved that it was time for a change of plans. He couldn't possibly protect the whole castle, and get himself and the others out alive. The soldiers needed to pull themselves together before the Dementors got close enough to start giving people The Kiss.
He tried to think up a happy memory, but he couldn't. Most of them were tied to home, and that brought on feelings of sorrow, which were not good for casting a Patronus Charm. It was getting harder to focus as well. He was starting to see flashes of memories, instead of just hearing the voices. Seth was yelling at him to try and snap him out of it, but it wasn't helping too much. What did help was when the castle shook once more from the attack going on outside. This also seemed to rile some of the soldiers around him. They started making their way to the ramparts and front gate. Harry heard an animalistic roar and knew that it was from some of the many fiends in the area.
As he was passing a window, a group of Strife soldiers in jetpacks zoomed into it. They couldn't see Harry since he was still invisible, so he quickly used this to his advantage. His gunblade tore through the thin armor of the first soldier's neck, then he quickly followed with a barrage of Fira spells to the other three. Two of them managed to dodge the spells, but the last wasn't so lucky. Two fireballs impacted his helmet in quick succession. The plastic visor was blasted inward as it melted, totally destroying the man's face behind it.
Harry quickly dodged the gunshots fired at his position. They still couldn't see him, but by seeing where the spells came from, they knew his general position. Harry was about to cast a Thundaga on the remaining soldiers, when a huge fiend suddenly burst through the window and part of the wall. It landed on the soldiers, squishing them flat. The thing looked like some sort of huge lizard man with wings. It stood on its hind legs and sported a long tail and a head that looked like that of a crocodile. Its hands were tipped with serrated claws, and it had three rows of spikes going down its back.
Harry wasted no time in letting loose the Thundaga spell intended for the soldiers. The thing didn't even try to dodge the magic. Instead it appeared to absorb it. It took a deep breath and blew out a stream of electricity from its mouth. Harry saved himself with a hastily conjured shield. The beast wasn't done yet though, immediately following the breath attack, it swiped its huge claws at the young wizard. Harry's gunblade met the attack, but the lizard lashed out with its tail, catching the wizard off guard and making him loose his footing. He turned his stumble into a backwards roll in order to avoid the lizard's foot, which had been aimed at his head. The thing must see magic, since it seemed to know exactly where Harry was, despite his invisibility.
In addition to the lizard, Harry had another problem. The air was growing colder by the minute. That meant that the Dementors must be getting closer. Harry wondered how many of them there were if the effects were this strong. He was desperately trying to quell the images and sounds of his worst memories. Currently he was reliving the night Voldemort was resurrected. All the while trying to fend off an eight foot tall reptile.
The thing lunged for his face with its jaws, but Harry countered the onslaught with a well aimed slash from his gunblade. The lizard halted just in time to avoid decapitation. It sent its tail at Harry once again, but this time he was ready and jumped over the offending appendage. Then he brought his blade down on the tail, cutting it off near the base. The lizard roared in rage and agony. It sent a blow at Harry using its fists. He was sent flying through the air by the powerful blow and went straight through a wall on the far end of the corridor.
"Kill the spare"
"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken."
Harry was seeing the events from the graveyard in Little Hangleton. He didn't see the lizard raising its clawed fist for a finishing blow, he didn't see himself automatically react, but he felt magic surge out of his hand and his eyes opened just in time to see a very dark, green light shoot from his palm. The light struck the lizard in the stomach. It stepped back a few feet and then was blown apart by the powerful spell. The shock of the event snapped Harry out of his traumatic memories.
He took in his surroundings and realized that he'd been knocked into some kind of storage room. There were weapons thrown into a corner, as well as some bangles with materia, and even some junction stones. This had to be the equipment the girls had been carrying. Now that he had these, all he had to do was find them. He shrunk the weapons, all except Andrea's gunblade, equipped the materia he had room for, and pocketed the rest. When he looked at the junction stones, he realized he had yet another problem. He couldn't fit anything else in his pockets without shrinking it first, but he couldn't shrink the stones because of their natures. So he only had one choice.
"What would happen if I junction three GF at once?" he asked Seth.
"You should be able to handle it." said the guardian "Shiva and Quetzacoatl aren't conflicting elements, now if you had Ifrit, or The Brothers…"
"I get it." said Harry picking up the stones.
Shiva's was a pale blue color with a picture of a snowflake on it. Quetzacoatl's was a greenish-yellow with a lightning bolt at its center. Harry touched both stones to the palms of his hand and willed them to join with his magic. He felt two powerful presences enter his mind and take up residence there.
"You are not my last junctioner," said an icy female voice. "Hmm…maybe you will do, for now."
"Interesting." mused Quetzacoatl. "He is the same as Bahaumut."
"What do you mean?" asked Seth.
"Nothing," said the lightning guardian "For the time being you may barrow my strength wizard."
"That went well." thought Harry as he made his way out of the now destroyed room.
He still didn't know what that spell had been, but whatever it was, he was glad he'd cast it. He realized suddenly, that the Dementors weren't effecting him as much now. It was as if there was a block around his memories that kept him from recalling them. He did still feel the cold, but the sounds and images were now no more than a slight murmuring sound at the back of his head.
"That is our doing." said Quetzacoatl. "We take residence where your memories reside, young Seth didn't need to take much room, so you didn't notice the effect, but with so three of us in here, we needed to go somewhere."
"I'm not complaining," said Harry "As long as I don't forget something important."
"That shouldn't be a problem," said Shiva "As long as we don't stay here too long, no long term damage should be done."
"That's good." said Harry "Either of you know where they locked up the girls?"
"No human we do not." said Shiva
"Damn." muttered Harry
Harry cast a Cura on himself to repair the damage done by the lizard. He still had a few more floors to check and couldn't afford to be injured if he needed to fight. He rounded a bend, heading for another flight of stairs when he saw them. Three tall figures in black cloaks. They seemed to glide down the corridor and the light near them seemed to vanish altogether, but somehow you could still make them out, even in the gloom. Harry desperately sought out a happy thought, but none came. The three Dementors were drawing closer and closer, moving with surprising swiftness. If he couldn't use a Patronus, there was little to nothing he could do to fend off the creatures, unless another spell could get the job done.
…
Two hours earlier
…
Andrea sat alone in her prison cell at the top of the north tower. She'd been in there for about eight hours now, and already it was starting to wear on her. Since she was alone she could allow her worries to pass through her mind and not worry about any outward signs of showing it. This was good because she was extremely worried. She had no idea what Kuja's part in all this was, nor did she know how the attack would play out or even when it would begin. The most prevalent thought though was how was she going to get out of the prison?
Staying put wasn't an option, she needed to break out, find the others, retrieve their junctions and go from there. She studied the door once m ore, and again she couldn't find any weakness to exploit within its structure. The walls too offered no solutions. She'd just have to wait for an opportunity, and take it when it came.
Such a time came ten minutes later. A guard opened her cell door to throw in some cold food. The moment the guard made the mistake of turning her back, Andrea pounced. She leapt up from her position on the floor and slammed her elbow into the back of the woman's neck. The guard went down quietly, and Andrea relieved her of her sword and keys. The woman also had a Restore Materia, so Andrea took that too.
She saw several other doors, and knew that at least one other guard was in the area. She would have to work fast and quietly, she just hoped that the others had enough sense to do the same when she found them. She checked the cell immediately across from her, and found only an aged drunk man. Ignoring the drunkard she went to the cells on either side of hers, seeing a skeleton in one and an empty second one. Finally on the next cell over she found Sheyna. The other woman was sitting in the corner of her cell, looking spaced out.
"Sheyna!" hissed Andrea through the slit at the top of the door.
Sheyna didn't seem to hear her, so she tried again, but still received no answer. Growing frustrated she simply opened the cell door. This was a big mistake. The moment she got through the door, the other girl was standing and sending a punch straight for her face. Only SeeD reflexes saved her from being clobbered. She grabbed Sheyna's fist and automatically countered with an arm drag. Sheyna was no slouch though and reversed the arm drag, using its momentum to catch Andrea in a rolling slam. The Seed hastily thrust her hands out in order to keep her head from striking the hard stone floor. Then she used her feet to hit Sheyna with a double kick to the midsection.
"What the hell!" said Andrea heatedly
Sheyna seemed to shake herself and finally realize what was happening.
"Sorry Andrea." she said slowly "I thought you were a guard, something was just telling me that I needed to get out of this cell."
"It's alright." said Andrea. But on the inside she was wondering why Sheyna had that spaced out look on her face. "We need to find Sophia."
"Yeah." said Sheyna
It seemed that their fight had attracted some attention. As soon as they stepped into the hallway, four guards came rushing around the corner.
"Escapees!" they cried. "Get them!"
Three of the guards ran forward, swords drawn. Andrea prepared herself for a fight, but before the guards even got close a blue ball of fire materialized between them. It moved with them for a moment and they didn't seem to notice it. Then, all of a sudden, the ball exploded violently. The soldiers screamed in agony as they were burned by the powerful spell. Andrea looked around to see Sheyna with her hand outstretched, it seemed that she was gaining some control over her strange powers.
"How did you do that?" asked Andrea.
"That's not important." said Sheyna.
Andrea noticed that she sounded kind of distracted, but she contributed it to the use of her powers. Andrea didn't know what they were, but she had a suspicion that they could be Sorceress Powers. The matter could be left for the time being, but she would have to look into it further soon.
They rounded a corner just in time to see Sophia finishing up with a trio of guards. Andrea wasn't surprised, the other woman had been a SeeD, so she knew how to handle these kinds of situation, she was however, surprised at Sophia's aptness with a blade, but then she herself knew at least the basics of most weapons.
"Oh good you're out." said Sophia cheerfully. "I was waiting for them to open the cell so I could get out. Turned out there were four of them waiting for me, they should have had more soldiers."
"Where's the other one?" asked Andrea.
"She's knocked out in the cell." said Sophia. "So what do we do now?"
As if to answer her question, the whole castle seemed to shake. Soon roars of fiends could be heard from outside and gunfire as well.
"It's happening!" said Andrea urgently. "We need to get down to the docks and intercept the force coming from that direction."
"Wouldn't it be better just to get out of here?" asked Sheyna
"As much as we may not like them," said Andrea "We can't just let Strife massacre the Alexandrians.
"If you say so." said Sheyna going over and picking up one of the swords dropped by the guards. She also searched each one of them thoroughly for materia. Andrea saw her take out several green orbs and a few blue and yellow orbs.
"What did they have?" she Asked
"Lightning, Sense, Fire and some Restore," said Sheyna. "Oh, and there's a few All and Elemental Materia here too."
"Let me have one of those Lightning and Elementals." said Andrea.
Sheyna handed her the requested orbs and she and Sophia divided up the rest. Having had her arm bracers taken, she was forced to insert the materia into her weapon. It only had room for three orbs, so she only just managed to fit all her newly acquired materia into it. Once they were all prepared to fight she led them toward the stairway leading downward. She knew that the castle was situated at the very top of the plateau, therefore the docks would have to be at the very bottom of the castle, at its deepest subterranean floor.
Since they didn't have the luxury of invisibility, they had to make their way through the castle very carefully. Currently it was pandemonium in the corridors. Soldiers were running this way and that, screams and fiend cries could be heard from the outside and klaxons were blaring all around. Every now and then they would run into a soldier or five and have to deal with them accordingly. Andrea had to stop Sheyna from outright killing them when they came, it seemed that her powers only had two strength levels, lethal and very lethal.
"Why can't I just kill them?" asked the woman frustrated
"Since when are you so intent on killing people?" asked Sophia "They're only doing their job. You can't just kill them."
"They're trying to kill us." argued Sheyna
"True," said Sophia. "But they're only trying to protect the castle, you can't fault them for that."
"Just try not to kill them." said Andrea
"I'll try." said Sheyna
"What's wrong with her?" wondered Andrea mentally.
They continued downward for another forty minutes or so. They ran into more soldiers, but they weren't too much trouble. The trouble started when the fiends started to break through the walls. Bombs would float through the corridors, exploding or hurling fireballs as they went. Drakes and Chimera's were scaling the walls and breaking in through the windows and there were several other fiends that were of varying flying varieties.
When they reached what Andrea recognized as the ground floor, the air around them started to get cold and for some reason, Andrea started to feel extremely solemn, it appeared the others were feeling it too.
"What's going on?" asked Sophia. "Why do I feel like…like…NO!"
Andrea didn't have time to ponder what Sophia had suddenly screamed about, because she found herself no longer in the castle. She was a place she hoped she'd never see again, her parents' house.
"Such a disgrace!" yelled her father
"I curse the day you were ever conceived." said her mother venomously
"I didn't…it wasn't." Andrea found herself saying, just as she remembered.
"Shut up!" roared her father, backhanding her. "It's your fault, yours and nobody else's."
"You're sister's not coming back and you just let it happen!" shrieked her mother.
"There was nothing I could do!" sobbed Andrea
Her father grunted in frustration and barely restrained rage. "I said shut up!" This time he slapped her so hard that he drew blood and sent her sprawling on the floor. "You are no longer welcome here, if I ever see you again, I will not be held responsible for my actions. As far as Naomi and I are concerned, we have no daughter."
"NO!" cried Andrea, and it seemed as though this brought her back to reality. It was just in time too, because more fiends had found their way to the trio's location. The prospect of a battle pushed all other thoughts from her mind. It was one advantage to being a trained warrior, battle was the first priority. There were three bombs and about four Drakes. The Drakes were all ice-elementals, so this wouldn't bee too hard. She started attacking one of the bombs, with no regard for its highly volatile nature. Ass soon as it started to grow, she smacked it with the flat of her sword, sending it flying into the group of Drakes. The explosion took out three of the Bombs and all of the Drakes, all that remained was a solitary fireball, however this fireball wasn't ordinary. It appeared to glow with a golden flame, instead of the customary orange. She could tell just by looking at it, that this fiend would fry her if she got too close to it, that left sword strikes out of the question. A Blizzaga spell might do some damage, but as she had no Ice Materia and her junctioned magic was useless without a GF, she'd need to find another tactic. She tried using a Thundara spell, but that didn't seem to do anything more than make the Bomb angry. So angry in fact that it started to grow.
It seemed that Sophia and Sheyna were now out of their respective trances. The solemn feeling still hung in the air, but they were both ready to fight. Sophia blasted the bomb with Blizzara spell after Blizzara spell. It was damaging it, but the fiend was still growing. Sheyna too was using Blizzara spells, but still the fiend persevered.
"Run!" said Andrea seeing what was about to happen.
They didn't waste any time reacting and ran full speed in the opposite direction. The corridor resounded with a loud BOOM sound and again the castle's foundation shook. When she looked back behind her, Andrea saw that the corridor had been completely destroyed. This was unfortunate, because she knew that that was the way leading to the basement. There were other stairways leading there, but that was the only one which she was familiar with. Sighing she lead the group to search for another way.
Luck was on their side for a little while. They didn't run into too many fiends, and the soldier encounters were few and far between, on some occasions they managed to get by some soldiers, who were fighting fiends, without being noticed. Their luck ran out when they encountered a group of three Strife Special Forces soldiers. They were easily identified by their all black uniforms and the lettering SSF across their body vests in white letters. They also wore helmets which obscured their faces. These soldiers, unlike regular grunts, were trained to almost the same capacity as a SeeD, the only difference being that they relied heavily on materia, while SeeDs stuck to junctions.
"Well, well, well," said one of the soldiers "Looks like we've got some Alexandrians out of uniform boys."
"No discipline," said another soldier "Typical women."
"Hey, there's one for each of us." said the last soldier "I call the pretty blonde one."
"Go to hell." snapped Andrea
"Oohh, feisty," said the soldier "I like that." He pulled out a pair of scimitars and waved them threateningly.
The other two pulled out a pair of short axes and a double handed bow respectively.
"I wish I had a gun." muttered Sheyna while getting into her attack stance.
"They don't know who their dealing with." said Sophia
"Stay on guard, these aren't you're normal peons." said Andrea
The soldier with the scimitars rushed at her. He brought both blades at her from either side. She jumped backwards and struck at him with her sword when he was recovering from his lunge. She didn't let up on her attacks, thinking it better to keep him on the defensive. He parried most of her blows, but he did receive some minor cuts in the process. Finally growing tired of the standoff, Andrea purposely faltered in her stride, giving him an opening. When he took the bate, she sent a kick right into his groin. He collapsed to the floor gasping for air, but still clutching his scimitars.
"You dirty bitch!" he yelled in a strangled voice.
Andrea responded by bringing her blade down for a finishing blow. The man barely blocked the strike, using both scimitars to hold the sword inches from his face.
"This ends now." said Andrea. She focused on her Elemental and Lightning Materia, willing them to channel their energies into her sword. A bolt of blue lightning arched along her blade and soon became a massive wave of electricity that coursed through her blade and into her opponents. The man screamed in pain as an insane amount of volts racked through his body, utterly destroying his nervous system.
Being done with her opponent, she decided to watch the others. She saw Sheyna duck a strike from the short axe wielder and blast him with a froth of blue flame. The man exploded violently, but his remains quickly turned to ash. All that remained was his weapons belt, which held two pistols. Sheyna bent down and fastened the belt around her waist.
Sophia wasn't having too much trouble with the bow wielder either. She appeared to simply be gauging him and seemed to be disappointed at the lack of challenge. She wasn't much of a fighter, but it was an insult to her SeeD training at the man's lack of skill, especially from a group which was supposed to be almost equal to SeeD. She easily evaded another strike form the man and slashed him across the midsection with her blade. Not being one to watch people suffer, she formed an ice spike in her hand and fired it into the man's temple.
"Well that wasn't so bad." said Sophia
"At least we got something out of it." said Sheyna "Let me scout ahead, I'm faster than you two and with these pistols I can protect myself from a distance."
"I don't think we should split up." said Andrea
Before Sheyna could argue, the air started to go even colder and the feeling of utter despair started to descend upon the three women once again. Around a corner came a group of three black hooded figures. The images of memories past were pounding at the forefront of Andrea's mind. She was seeing her sister die, her parents blame her. Antym and Ethan getting grievously injured during their SeeD exam and many other traumatic events. before she knew what was happening, one of the figures had glided over to her and grabbed her with a skeletal hand. When the hand touched her, she found herself lost in her memories as they pounded her full force. The feeling of despair seemed to flood her every being, and she had no will to fight it. She felt herself drawing into an inky blackness of which she was sure there was no return. She resigned to her fate, knowing that nothing was going to save her.
…
Harry looked at the three Dementors as they grew closer and closer, he'd never cast this spell before, and he wasn't even sure if it would work, but he had to try something. Pulling the magic out of himself, he focused on casting it. Immediately his fingers began drawing runes in the air around him. It was so fast that he barely recognized the movement. The runes began to glow with a silvery-white light and the area was surrounded in a similar color. several balls of blue-white energy surrounded the three creatures. There was a sound like something ethereal shrieking and suddenly the three Dementors were engulfed in a brilliant white light emanating from the orbs of energy. The light formed a pillar around each of the creatures and soon the air was filled with the most horrible sound Harry had ever heard. He could only think of it as the Dementors screaming.
As the light died away, so too did the sound of the Dementors' agony. Nothing remained of the foul creatures, save three scorch marks where they had been standing. He continued up the stairway until he heard the sounds of battle coming from somewhere, he figured it was more Strife soldiers, but he had to be sure. Holding both his and Andrea's gunblades he shifted invisible once more. As he crept down the hallway he could feel the presence of more Dementors, this time images of his last term at Hogwarts plagued his mind, but thanks to the GF's it was only a murmur.
The sounds of battle slowly died down, and in their place was an unnatural silence. The Dementors' effects were getting stronger, so he headed in that direction. What he found made his blood run cold. Three Dementors surrounded three figures. Three figures that he immediately recognized. One of the Dementors grabbed Andrea and lowered its hood. Harry started to act without thinking. He gathered as much magic as he could and channeled it into the two gunblades. Concentrating on the Holy spell he surrounded the blades in a white aura. In an instant he was rushing forward and slashing the sword right through the Dementor holding Andrea.
The thing let go of its prey and staggered back, in seeming shock. It let out the same awful cry as its cohorts had done moments before, then it started to turn into a black mist like substance. In seconds all that was left was its black cloak. The other two Dementors rounded on Harry, intent on avenging their comrade. Harry dispatched them readily and soon he was alone with the three girls. He pulled out his trunk and searched through it until he found what he was looking for. He didn't have much of it left, but it was one of the few items that remained from his home world.
"Eat this." he said handing Andrea a piece of the Honeydukes' Chocolate.
The SeeD wasn't in any shape to argue, so she ate the chocolate and soon her color returned and she stopped shivering. He repeated the process with the other two and soon they were all standing once again.
"I think this belongs to you," said Harry handing Andrea her gunblade. "And this too." he took her hand and felt Quetzacoatl shift from his mind to hers. He also felt a dramatic drop in power, and the successive use of Holy spells was wearing on him without the extra junction.
"Oh and these are yours." he said to Sophia as he dug her crossbow out of his trunk and returned Shiva to her.
"Thanks." said Sophia weakly
"The Materia and guns are in there Sheyna," said Harry tossing her the bag. "Have at it."
The girl caught the bag deftly and nodded at Harry in thanks. "I've got something to check on," she said, turning to go.
"We need to get out of here." protested Harry
"Don't worry about me," said Sheyna "I'll just meet you at the cave."
Before Harry or any of the others could stop her, she was already running down the hall.
"I hope she doesn't run into any Dementors." said Harry.
"So that's what those things are?" asked Andrea. "I've never seen any fiend like them before."
"They aren't fiends," said Harry "They're dark creatures from my world."
"How did they get here then?" asked Sophia.
"I'm not sure," said Harry "But I think Kuja may have summoned them somehow, Voldemort has always had control over them."
"She should be fine." said Andrea "We need to get out of here like you said."
"Right," said Harry "I think I saw a stairway leading down a ways back."
The two girls nodded, and together they started to make their way out of the castle.
…
Outside of the castle, the city was in chaos. Airships flew low over the buildings, shooting anything that wasn't wearing a Strife uniform. Various cannons around the city were firing in an attempt to counter the airship raid. Fiends prowled the streets, preying on the unwary. Soldiers of both armies fought viciously against one another and in the middle of it all was Bastian and Ethan. The two of them had attempted to make it out of the city, but before they could, every exit had been blocked and the guards had been put on full alert. Then the attack had started.
Now the two fighters were right in the thick of things. Alexandrian and Strife soldiers were both attacking the two of them. It seemed that since they were on neither side, they were enemies of both. Currently they were up against seven Alexandrian soldiers on one side and six Strife Soldiers on the other, throw in the random fiends that assaulted anyone other than a Strife soldier and they were severely outnumbered.
"You take the women, I'll take the men." said Ethan
Bastian nodded in response and the SeeD leapt into action. The soldiers were carrying the prototype photon machine guns, and they weren't prepared for a close quarters fight. Ethan nimbly avoided their gunshots and brought his staff down on the first man's head. He followed it up quickly with a wide sweep to hit three more of soldiers. Then he brought the other end back up and struck the first man in the neck, crushing his windpipe and effectively killing him. He hissed in pain as some of the shots from the other soldiers struck him. His junctions prevented them from being lethal, but they still hurt. He used a Thundaga spell on the two soldiers that had shot him and continued to use his bow staff to its fullest on the other three.
He came at them with a flurry of spinning combos and well placed strikes. Soon he had them all on the defensive, and he only needed to wait for an opening to finish them off. He heard the two other soldiers discharge more rounds and leapt into the air to avoid them. The shots hit the soldiers he'd been fighting, killing them instantly. He changed his momentum in the air and started sweeping his staff in an arc, toward the other soldiers' necks. He put as much strength as he could muster into the strike, calling on his junctions to boost it. When the staff struck, he was rewarded by a loud snapping sound and then another. Looking at the soldiers he could see that he'd managed to decapitate them. He shook his head at having to kill the men, but he didn't let it bother him, he was a SeeD after all.
He turned to see how Bastian was faring only to come face to snout with a very large and very angry looking Belhemoth. He barely put his staff up in time to block the horn thrust that the beast had attacked with. The blow was so strong that it sent him flying through the air where he crashed into a nearby building. He felt something give in his abdomen and knew that once again his ribs were broken. The Belhemoth didn't give him time to cast a Cura or Curaga on himself. It charged at him once again, intent on trampling him to death. He blasted it with Blizzaga spells, but the thing didn't even slow down. He waited for the right moment, and when he saw it, he used his staff to vault over the Belhemoth and land behind it. He channeled ice energy into his staff and started to spin it as fast as he could.
A blue ball formed at the center of his staff and soon he had a pale blue disc spinning around his hands. When the Belhemoth turned to face him he threw the ice disc right at its head. The disc sailed cleanly through the Belhemoth and went in an arc through the air. The blue light faded away leaving only a spinning staff. Ethan caught his staff neatly and returned to the battle.
He reached Bastian just in time to see him finishing up with the Alexandrians, he hadn't killed them as they were trying to avoid that if at all possible, but he hadn't left them in good shape either. The soldiers sported nasty cuts and several broken bones and bruises. One even looked to have had all her teeth knocked out.
"Hyne, you really messed them up." said Ethan
"One of them fought dirty," said Bastian "And nobody touches the 'boys' without paying for it, that really hurt."
"Wear a cup from now on then." said Ethan mockingly "How are we going to get out of here?"
"Well…" said Bastian "I haven't quite figured that out yet."
"Cover!" cried Ethan as an airship swept low.
The two of them ducked into an alley just in time to avoid the gunfire from the warship.
"Well now we're stuck here," said Ethan "That thing saw us, so it's going to keep flying sweeps until it can shoot us."
"Carbuncle could block them," said Bastian "But It'd take almost all of his energy to hold it for long enough."
"We've got to try something." said Ethan
"Alright, I'll summon him." said Bastian. He concentrated and the tell-tale green aura surrounded him. He thrust his hands forward and shouted "Diamond Light!" Carbuncle appeared, this time with a diamond instead of a ruby set into its head. It shown a bright blue light onto the two warriors surrounding them in a protective aura. It bowed to Bastian once before disappearing back into the hole it had created.
"We don't have long," said Bastian "Ten minutes tops, and then we're on our own."
"Which way?" asked Ethan
"We're closest to the north entrance, we'll break through it if we have to, but we need to get the hell out of here."
They both took off at a break neck pace, heading toward the north gate of the city. The airship spotted them immediately and began firing. The bullets impacted the powerful Protect spell and bounced harmlessly off. The craft wasn't deterred, however, and kept on firing. They rounded a bend in the street and came into view of another airship. This one too began firing and the barrier around them began to deplete even faster. Ethan still wasn't worried, as he saw the gate they needed to exit through in the distance. Once there they could loose the airships in the forest surrounding the city. His hopes were dashed though when yet two more airships came hovering above them. Now with four heavy powered machine guns, their shields were taking a severe beating, it was only a matter of time before they fell and the two men were ripped to shreds.
Suddenly the four airships were blasted by something and came crashing to the ground. Ethan looked around and saw a whole squadron of airships flying overhead. These weren't Strife though, they bore the crest of the royal military of Limblum.
"This is our chance!" said Bastian urgently "Let's…what in Hyne's name!" He pointed to the castle. The whole thing was glowing with a white-yellow aura and an extreme amount of magic could be felt in the air. Neither of them knew what the aura meant, but they didn't waste anymore time in getting out of the city and heading toward the cave.
…
Kuja was beyond livid. The boy had somehow managed to catch him off guard, and now he was stuck, in of all things, a block of ice. But this was no ordinary ice, weather Harry had realized it or not, he'd somehow combined the ice with an Osmose spell, therefore, every time Kuja tried to break free from the spell by using magic. The ice would absorb the magic and get even thicker! He'd been trying to break it for almost an hour and a half and now he needed to take drastic measures. This was risky, but it had to be done.
"Come to me, my little puppet." said Kuja, mentally commanding his newly acquired servant.
"Go screw yourself." came the reply.
Kuja sighed in exasperation. He should have just used an Imperius Curse or another spell to control someone's actions, but no he'd resorted to a more subtle and versatile measure, a measure that would take some time to fully manifest itself.
"You will do as I command girl!" he shouted while sending a shockwave of pain through the connection.
"Alright!" said the puppet after a few moments.
"Make sure no one follows you and continue to behave as you normally would." ordered Kuja.
"I understand." came the reply.
Some time passed and finally his unwilling rescuer arrived.
"Good Sheyna, now get me out of here." said Kuja
"NO!" yelled Sheyna, but her body did as it was told. She leveled her machine gun at the block of ice and began to fire the plasma rounds into it. Soon the block of ice was reduced to a large puddle and Kuja gracefully floated to the floor.
"You should stop resisting." said Kuja "There is no point, those nanomachines are magically connected to me, they will make you do whatever I tell you to do, and soon you'll think the way I want you to think."
"There is no way I'm going to…" began Sheyna, but Kuja waved his hands and her face took on a vacant expression "What do you require of me master?"
"Follow me," said Kuja "I have something I need to procure from a hidden part of the castle, and I need you to call it for me."
"As you command." said Sheyna offering Kuja a bow.
The mage smirked at his new conquest, even a strong mind such as the Lunarian's couldn't withstand such an assault. The mad their way back through the castle, finally reaching the top of the east tower. Kuja knew that what he was looking for was kept here, and he intended to get it.
"There should be a hidden panel in the wall, find it and put your palm against it." instructed Kuja.
Sheyna searched the wall and finally found a brick that could be depressed. Once done, the wall slid aside to reveal a white panel with a place for someone to put their palm. Kuja waved his hand and Sheyna's right hand was surrounded in a purple aura. She placed it onto the panel and the wall began to glow with the same color aura as the one around her hand. The wall disappeared, revealing a staircase of light heading up into a previously invisible part of the castle. Mage and servant mad their way into the new structure and climbed to several flights of stairs, until they reached an altar at the top. The altar was at the center of a giant rune of some kind, and on either side of the rune were two markings that looked like angel's wings.
"Take this," said Kuja, handing her a silver necklace with a blue stone strung through it. The stone appeared to be only half a stone, but Kuja didn't seem to care. "You aren't a summoner, but this should still work. Say exactly what I tell you and hold the stone over the altar."
Sheyna held the stone over the altar and started to say the incantation Kuja told her mentally "Spirit of the divine guardian, please here my call." There was a flash of light and a blue light started to irradiate from around the rune etched on the floor. "I call upon thee, oh great guardian, lend me your power so that I can protect this your namesake." The light intensified and soon the whole castle was glowing with a white-gold light. "Come forth Alexander and unleash thy fury!"
The light started to pulse and the rate it pulsed started to increase. Kuja had a feral grin plastered on his face, he had waited a long time for this day and now it was finally coming to fruition. The light gave one final pulse and then the area grew so bright that the mage had to shield his eyes. When the light died down he looked up expecting to see the divine guardian. Instead he saw only the twinkling stars in the night sky.
"What!" he yelled in shock. "Impossible, you did everything like I told you, and even though you aren't a summoner, your magical essence is similar enough. What happened!"
"I don't know." said Sheyna
"It was a rhetorical question!" yelled Kuja as his eyes started to glow crimson and become slit like. "Take stone." he hissed "I need the whole thing, but the other half is lost!" he started to pace while continuing to murmur incoherently, finally he snapped his head in Sheyna's direction.
"Be gone from here girl, and take that useless stone with you." said Kuja "It isn't time for Potter to learn of your loyalty to me, go back to him and tell him something believable about your absence."
"Yes master." said Sheyna
"Oh and Sheyna," said Kuja, making the girl stop. "Even though you are under my control, I still do not tolerate failure, Crucio!"
A crimson beam shot from Kuja's hand and connected with Sheyna. She started to scream in pain and dropped to the floor where she began to writhe in agony. Kuja left the curse on for a full five minutes, enjoying the sounds of the young woman's screams. Finally he released it and disapparated from the castle.
…
Harry and the others finally made it out of the castle after a trying ordeal with several fiends and a few scores of various soldiers. They were all very tired, and more than anxious to reach the meeting place with the others. Harry was also concerned with the lack of the Dementors' effects. He'd only killed six of them, but there had felt like hundreds were around, now it felt normal, other than the smell of blood and smoke in the air. And then there was Sheyna. In the brief time he'd seen her again, he could tell that something was different. Andrea had already told him about her using her Lunarian powers again, so he attributed her change in attitude to the effects of her powers, but something told him he was wrong.
As soon as they cleared the threshold, the whole castle started to emit a brilliant white-gold light. Looking at the castle, Harry briefly thought he saw a huge being with immaculate angelic wings, but it was so fast that he barely registered it. Soon the glow faded and the castle returned to its normal grey color.
"What was that?" asked Sophia.
"I have no idea." said Harry.
"I say that was our cue to leave." said Andrea.
"What about Sheyna?" asked Harry. "Are we just leaving her in there?"
"She'll be fine," said Andrea "She probably went back for some materia or something."
"Yeah." said Harry, but he didn't believe it.
Once outside the castle grounds, they saw that the city was a complete wreck. Whole buildings had been demolished and others were damaged so bad, that they looked as if they'd fall any minute. Several airships burned on the ground, completely destroyed. There were both Strife and Limblum aircrafts, but the majority of the crashed ones were from Strife. All in all it looked as though the attack by Strife had been a complete success. They took a few minutes to survey the damage before continuing on. When they reached the north gate Sheyna came running from the direction of the castle, panting heavily. Around her neck was a strange necklace with half of some kind of charm on it.
"That's what you went back to check?" asked Sophia incredulously.
"It looks valuable," protested Sheyna. "And when I saw it, I thought it was some kind of materia."
"Told you." said Andrea to Harry.
"So you did." said Harry. "Please try to refrain from doing that again, we shouldn't be splitting up like that."
"I'll try," said Sheyna "But I can take care of myself Harry."
"If you say so Sheyna." said Harry
They made their way through the gate and headed southwest from the city. Soon they reached the cave where they'd left Evil Forest through. Inside they found Ethan and Bastian, both sporting several new scars and both visibly tired.
"I see you didn't make it out without trouble." said Harry
"Doesn't look like you did either." said Bastian "That's a nasty scar on your chest."
Harry looked down, and sure enough his shirt had been ripped open and there was a long jagged scar along his chest, but it wasn't from this battle; that was from his fight with the deranged knight.
"Looks that way." said Harry, wanting to leave the matter alone.
"Where to now." said Sheyna
"Northeast of here is where the Iafa Tree is supposed to be." said Ethan "Or that's what I gathered around town anyway. It should be just below the Glacia border."
"Well, we head that way in the morning." said Harry "We can make camp here for the night, I for one, am exhausted."
There was no argument about this decision, and after some rummaging, the group had setup six tents inside the cave for everyone to sleep in. They still had a long way to go to reach their destination, but they all had the will and perseverance to endure the trek. The real challenges would come the closer they got to their destination.
…
A/N: Well with this chapter this fic has reached massive length, and it's barely over halfway done, I don't know if that is good or bad, but with 200k words you have to wonder. I hope no one is too confused, a little misinterpretation or misconceptions are fine, but as long as you understand what's generally going on we're good. I'll have the next chapter up by next Saturday, or sooner if I can get enough lead chapters done. I didn't reach the mentioned 20+ reviews for the last chapter, but 15 is still good. I'm still hoping that someday one chapter will see digits with 20 or higher. So drop me a line, I don't care if it is just a one word review, although if you have more to say, even if it is something totally random about the story, go ahead and put it in a review.