Final Fantasy VI-2: Clyde's Journey
Chapter XXXIV – Balance to Ruin
Sand flew up everywhere as Terrato thrashed about wildly, and in the darkness of the night it became much more difficult for the heroes to see what things they could potentially be running into. Casting blindly, Strago hit the esper right in the face with Aqua Breath, barely deterring it from shaking the ground with powerful quakes. Umaro and Gau then tried to wrestle its restless tail, only succeeding in being repeatedly slammed roughly into the sand. None of them really saw much hope in this battle, seeing as how they only engaged Terrato to distract it from the ship. Despite this, they kept the beast confused by running around like maniacs in the dark, striking its long body randomly so that it would not know who to crush first. Still, Relm felt a little left out, because she could barely carry the weight of Celes' sword without the proper accessories, which they obviously did not have.
"Damn sword! Come on!" she growled, tugging the heavy weapon behind her.
"I feel like we've done this one too many times!" Strago wheezed, struggling to keep up.
Inside the castle above, Clyde and company had been victorious in exiting the deteriorating basement chamber, just barely able to stand and trudge their way towards the steps to the throne room.
"We can do it!" Clyde huffed, helping Terra move along she latched onto his arm.
"Clyde! I would like to take these moments and apologize for-" Cyan began.
"Not necessary," Clyde said quickly.
"If I could just get more ethers," Terra whimpered as she leaned on Clyde for support.
Then, behind them came a loud, windy sound and the familiar whine of an engine. Turning around with hopeful expressions, they all beamed when Setzer's smirking face became visible through the massive hole to the outside, the airship hovering right next to the crumbling ground. He ran to the edge of the ship and gave them a friendly wave.
"Need a lift?" he called.
"Oh, Setzer!" Daryl cried, feeling a sudden burst of strength as she ran for the ship.
They all abandoned the plan of entering the throne room and pushed themselves towards the awaiting vessel by the half-basement, which seemed to become yet another timely situation that had saved them from utter defeat. Daryl was the first aboard, sharing a hasty embrace with her lover before she assisted Cyan, and then Siegfried. Terra had just begun to climb the ladder up when Clyde noticed movement in the corner of his eye. His glance shot up to the stairs where Thomas Geeda had appeared with his evil smile, along with his glowing blue sword and the Crystal Tear still equipped to his other hand. It was here that Clyde completely forgot his hopes of running to safety, and made a forceful step in the direction of his archenemy.
"What the… Clyde NO!" Sabin exclaimed, trying to grab his friend by the shoulders and pull him back.
"Back off Sabin!" Clyde growled.
"Oh! Miss Terra! I located this on the ship!" Sir Owzer hollered, juggling an ether vial in his trembling hands.
Terra dropped back to the floor of the basement with an incredible soreness in her body that she could only suppress by staying knelt on the ground. She struggled to grab the ether as Owzer passed it down, but was able to swallow the entire silver liquid in nearly one gulp. She then looked on in fright as the Figaro brothers were attempting to coax Clyde away from Thomas, who waited patiently at the top of the stairs. All three of them were considerably weak, so Clyde could not push them away, nor could they stop his advance, and she could see the increasing hunger in Geeda's eyes as they approached.
"Yes! Come and fight me Clyde! I've caused you so much trouble… you must want to take rightful vengeance! FLARE!"
"Reflect!" Terra screamed only a second before.
A bright white shield flashed across the trio, a blue glow outlining their bodies after. They looked at themselves with visible surprise when Tom's enhanced Flare magic, which was a very deep red instead of its normal orange and had a considerably larger explosion radius, left them completely unscathed and suddenly rebounded back to the caster after a flash of green came over them. Geeda let out a startled yell as he was blown back by his own magic, the walls blasting open from the effects.
"Dispel! Curaga!" she called.
Her heart gave a great leap when both spells worked perfectly, the Dispel removing all three Reflects and the Curaga shining brightly across them and rejuvenating them to nearly full health. Then, she fell over on the floor and collapsed into unconsciousness, never before using magic so aptly. Clyde was about to rush to her aid when Siegfried took the honor of bringing her to the safety of the airship.
"You guys go heal up! We'll take care of Thomas now!" Edgar called.
"You cannot face him alone while he possesses that evil crystal!" Cyan replied.
"We couldn't face him alone even if he didn't have the crystal, but that doesn't matter anymore. If we all get on that airship, he'll target everyone at once. This way, you can get yourself some help!" Clyde called back.
"Yeah! We're going to try! Come back for us when you fix yourselves up!" said Sabin, popping his knuckles.
With an incredible reluctance, Setzer obliged their stubborn request and began to fly away from the castle. But, a blue glow from above the stairs signified something very bad about to happen.
"Perhaps this fortress is in need of some redecoration! Maybe your friend's airship can take some of the burden! QUAKE!" Geeda yelled.
The Ancient Castle gave an incredible shake and suddenly began to collapse around the three of them, the floor falling into the mountainside and the walls shattering to pieces in mid-air. A bookshelf from the room ahead came tumbling down the stairs, almost pushing Edgar off the stone ground and into the abyss of the world below. The three of them waited for the shelf to fall away before making a panicked run up the stairs as everything fell apart. Looking back at the open sky and ground beneath them, Clyde could see the turrets of the structure splashing into the ocean, some even crashing into the sand below where Terrato was barely visible in the moonlight. Then, a loud wooshing noise came right over their heads when Thomas had fired his nonverbal Shockwave spell. Amplified by the crystal, this shockwave tore through the walls of the Ancient Castle and sent massive chunks of debris flying through the air, the entire structure breaking apart from the magical forces. The three heroes had barely jumped onto the safety of the rocky mountaintop when the floor gave away with the rest of the castle.
"Oh shit," said Sabin as he watched the pieces of the castle fly through the air.
This incident was as if the entire castle had literally exploded, and entire sections of wall were now falling down from the sky, right over the airship as it tried to escape. Geeda was giggling like a child as sections of the ramparts and towers rained down upon the flying vessel, and Setzer was nearly tearing the control stick free of the helm as he evaded through the debris. Large stones banged against the engines and came flying across the deck as he swooped and swerved. He resorted to blasting some of the airborne masses with the lasers, which only made the pieces small and that much more capable of crushing someone on board.
"You guys might want to hide below deck for this!" he shouted over the howling wind of his acceleration and the crashing of material all around them.
None of them needed telling twice, except for Daryl of course, who refused to leave his side and frustrated him greatly.
"Daryl, get to safety!" he shouted.
"No! I was separated from you for far too long, and I'm not about to put even more distance between us when we're both in danger!" she retorted.
"But if something happens up here-"
"It will happen to us together!"
This seemed to lift Setzer's spirits. He put his piloting skills to the ultimate test here when heavy pieces continued to descend from above and he maneuvered around in ways he never thought possible. Even through suffering some damage on the top of the ship, things turned out well when the remnants of the Ancient Castle finally splashed into the ocean or rocketed into the ground below.
"Yeah! I did- SHIT!" Setzer cried as Bahamut and Tritoch came flying from above.
On the mountain, Geeda smirked as his espers chased after the airship, finding the repetition of this scenario to be mildly amusing in his moment of triumph now. He was hardly broken of his optimism even when Clyde came charging after him and they clashed swords. What Clyde realized all too late what a mistake this was after Thomas dealt a single strike with his glowing blade. The power of the blow sent Clyde reeling backwards until he stumbled over his own feet and rolled right up to the edge of the flat mountaintop, only inches away from falling to his doom.
"Your insignificant weapons cannot challenge me!" Tom Geeda taunted.
Edgar challenged this notion by prodding at him with his spear, Thomas nearly breaking it in half when he slashed at the thing. The king quickly replaced it with his powerful Chainsaw and locked metal with the villain for a moment before the blue glow in Thomas' sword disappeared. Edgar was subsequently thrown to the ground with an enhanced Fira spell, and Tom quickly scraped the blade across the crystal again, returning it to its glowing, empowered status. He had no time to recover, however, when Sabin came leaping at him with his Bum Rush Blitz, wailing his fists into Geeda's torso. Tom stumbled backwards with a violent cough as he turned his body away from Sabin, then he swung back around and hammered the hero in his shoulder with the sword. The hit created a deep gash in his flesh and knocked him clear over the edge that was yards away.
"NO!" Edgar shouted, sprinting over and peering down to see his brother clinging to a large cleft for dear life, his right shoulder bleeding profusely.
"Ah damn! I can't hold on much longer!" he yelped.
"FIGA!" Thomas shouted, directing the crystal at Edgar.
It was like a giant hole tore through the night sky and a bright ray of golden sunlight had shone down on Edgar's position. The intense beam exploded into that edge of the mountain and sent earth and rock flying everywhere, along with both Figaro brothers as they were launched down the side of the great mountain. The bright light disappeared instantaneously and darkness was restored to the land as disoriented madness ensued. Clyde sat still by the mountain edge, watching bright flashes from the ground battle with Terrato, and every now and then he saw the airship whiz by with the two flying espers shooting their attacks after it, Setzer's loud cursing echoing across the sky. Concerned about Edgar and Sabin, he tried to scan the rest of the mountain, but had a very limited view of it, and continued to attempt to develop some sort of plan… with nothing coming to mind.
"Now, with less distractions… I can continue my work!" said Tom as he began waving his sword in the air.
As the electric blue light swayed in the darkness, a heavy wind developed, and wispy contours began to surround the mountain. It gradually increased into a great storm, where rain began to fall and lightning streaked out from the night sky. Sand and the sea blew everywhere in the harsh tempest, making the ground assault on Terrato impossible. Setzer was having a difficult time controlling the airship against the wind, and the espers seemed to loose their flying agility also. This gave Sabin the perfect chance to hit Bahamut in the tail with Aura Bolt as he stood on a wide ledge of the mountain, his sibling waiting beside him. Bahamut quickly pulled away from its chase and rammed head first into the mountain, nearly crushing the two vulnerable men. While Tritoch chased Setzer alone, Edgar and Sabin fled as quickly as they could, climbing down the thin shelves of rock as the dragon clawed at them madly.
"This wind is going to throw us off!" said Sabin as he winced from the pain in his shoulder.
"Just hold on as tight as you can!" Edgar replied.
"That's a little difficult when we have to evade this big bastard!"
Bahamut dug its claws deeply into the mountainside as it crawled along, lumbering after the two heroes with a Mega Flare waiting to fire. It halted for a moment when the mountain gave a quick shake from a tremor from Terrato down below. Thomas Geeda chuckled as he looked over the edge of the mountain, observing the continuing carnage while the storm and rain swirled around them, spreading slowly across the world with the extensive power of the crystal. Little did he realize that Clyde had just flung his sword at him, and whirled around at the last minute to the noise of the whistling weapon. He quickly covered himself with his own sword, letting Clyde's ricochet off his blade right in the nick of time, as things so often seemed to happen with his evil luck. Clyde gave a strained, nervous gulp when he saw his sword point stick in the ground, set right next to Geeda.
"Very well Clyde… I can see you are a difficult man to discourage," Thomas said calmly, formulating an idea when his sword stopped glowing again.
"How about… we fight like true gentlemen: sword to sword. No magic, and no dirty tricks… just natural, cold steel. Mine," he said as he pointed his blade tip at Clyde, "and yours," he finished, gesturing to Clyde's sword only feet away while storing the Crystal Tear in a pocket on his uniform.
Clyde had no idea what to take from this, and he proceeded forward with great caution as the wind hissed around them and the torrential rain never ceased. Tom took a few steps away from the sword, giving Clyde the chance to carefully tug it from the ground and prepare himself for a moment. The two men then began to square off, circling each other on the dirt without breaking eye contact for a second. Clyde was feeling very nervous right now, as he had never formally dueled anyone, and had a feeling that Geeda would be taking this very seriously. Who was supposed to make the first move? Would he hold to his 'no magic and no tricks' policy? Would Clyde even be able to beat such a seasoned swordsman? He quickly threw these questions out of his mind when Thomas made the first lunge, aiming a low swipe at his legs.
"Engarde!" he said with delight.
Clyde jumped backwards to avoid the attack and made his own advance, aiming high on Thomas so that he would force him to raise his sword up. The wicked duel began, and tiny sparks began to fly as metal brutally struck metal. They traveled all over the place, assaulting each other madly. Thomas' strikes were driven by strength while Clyde preferred the use of his speed, and despite his own agility, he found himself being overpowered by Thomas in the early stage of the duel. He shuffled his feet quickly and could only hope that his grace and dexterity would eventually prove useful, and Tom simply grinned the entire time. The battle raged on with neither man showing a sign of fatigue even after several minutes had passed. Clyde had gained the upper hand in several situations, which led to Geeda putting forth more effort than usual, showing an obvious strain in dueling someone so proficient with the sword now. Clyde began to gain confidence as Geeda showed more hesitation, and Tom was not expecting this steady comeback.
"You seem to have improved your swordplay, sir!" said Tom, blocking Clyde's low strikes.
"It becomes a lot easier when you don't cheapen it with magic!" Clyde snapped.
On the ground, Terrato was becoming an even further impossibility. With sand and surf blowing in their faces, the earthbound heroes could not continue their random assault tactic and found no other choice but to simply dodge Terrato as it raged about in the storm.
"Come on grandpa! Don't give up now!" said Relm as she pulled Strago along with Interceptor barking like mad, having discarded the burden of Celes' sword.
"Oh, just… too tired… dear," Strago coughed.
"Sand bad! No see!" said Gau as he sneezed out a load of sand from his nose.
"We keep running kupo! Keep monster confused!" Mog exclaimed, having the most trouble moving about due to his small size.
Meanwhile, the airship continued to have its own difficulty with fireballs, icicles, and lighting bolts scuffing the side of it and nearly burning through the hull. Setzer desperately sought out an escape to this, but had already burned enough fuel in his earlier flight against the group of six. There was no way the booster would carry the ship far enough to escape from Tritoch's chase.
"Terra and Celes are starting to feel a little better now!" said Cyan as he came on deck.
"Well, maybe they can magic up some sort of miracle to get us out of this!" Setzer shouted as rain whipped his face.
On the mountain, Bahamut began blasting out giant holes in the rock as Sabin and Edgar made a crazed run down a small path that was closer to the base of the mountain in the ocean. The dragon roared in contempt as they proved ever elusive to its repeated Mega Flare, squinting its eyes as the stinging rain blew in its face.
It was a turbulent scene that could hardly match to the combined troubled they had suffered that day. With fleeing across the sky from several espers on many occasions, to battling hordes of soldiers in a city, a cave system, and across a large castle, and even discovering some disturbing but eventually emotionally-bonding secrets. Everyone had their mission now, and that was to survive this great struggle long enough to find some way of escape. For now, Thomas Geeda was the victor, and they knew not how to organize their efforts enough to battle him, almost to the point of their defeat… but they wouldn't let that happen even if he ended up destroying the world somehow, which seemed incredibly unlikely to them. Kefka may have done so before, but Thomas did not have the power of gods at his disposal.
"Where is the anger you used to fight with, Clyde? What happened to your protective, romantic streak that made you so aggressive?! Trying to play the ruthless mercenary card again?" Tom taunted as they fought fiercely.
"Shut up!" Clyde barked, stabbing at Geeda.
The two danced across the muddy peak of the mountain, becoming even more relentless as the storm raged on. Thomas was now genuinely surprised by Clyde's swordsmanship, and he found him to be on rather equal terms as far as pure skill went. He even nearly forgot what his entire plan was from getting so into the fight, sincerely wanting Clyde to be cut down by his sword. The espers, the crystal he had stowed away, the magic-accumulating storm, all of it was overshadowed by his desire to kill this man. This was brought to a sudden stop when a massive lightning bolt shot down from the sky and impacted right into the mountain, narrowly missing Bahamut.
"Oh my… time's up!" said Thomas as he forced Clyde backwards with a parry.
Thomas then turned away from his opponent, withdrew the Crystal Tear from his pocket, and recharged his sword. As Clyde rushed him from behind, he spun around gracefully and jabbed his sword point at the hero. The blue sword struck Clyde's own and threw him over the edge of the mountain as he yelled out. At this moment, Tritoch had zapped the airship thrusters with lightning, Bahamut had dislodged a massive piece of the mountain with Mega Flare, and Terrato was breaking apart the landscape below with its most powerful quake. A great blue light formed right at the center of the storm and directly above Thomas Geeda. He laughed victoriously as he held his sword up high, small lightning strikes connecting with the blade while Clyde watched in terror as he fell through the air.
"Dammit! I've lost control!" cried Setzer.
"Oh no! There's Clyde!" Daryl shrieked, pointing at Clyde's falling form only feet away from them.
"And the Figaro brothers!" Owzer said as he saw Sabin and Edgar overcome with the collapsing mountainside.
Everything fell apart here. Strago had collapsed from exhaustion and was being carried away from the battle by his friends, while Terrato hunted them down voraciously, still destroying the desert. The airship began to fly around uncontrollably, and those below deck were being thrown around by the force. Edgar and Sabin jumped from the mountain to avoid the crushing rocks and plunged into the stormy waters, and Clyde had come across great fortune as he wrapped his arms around a piece of stone jutting out from the mountain, hanging helplessly in the ferocious wind. Above them all, Tom Geeda gave an embellishing swing of his sword, still laughing like a lunatic.
"And now the cycle is complete! I possess the ultimate power, the will of the espers, and total control of this world! I have succeeded in outdoing Kefka, the fool! The Apocalypse will be a mere memory today! And for my next trick!" he shouted through the wind, rain, and thunder.
He rotated the empowered sword to where the point faced the ground. Then, with a final scream of amusement, he plunged the shining blade into the mountain. A low, sonorous hum sounded as an electric blue beam fired down from the sky right over Thomas. This was followed by a giant tremor surging through the earthen tower, and then a great, booming noise. All along its conical structure, rings of dirt and rock exploded downward as if bombs had been placed straight down the core of the mountain. Clyde was caught fully by one of the rings and thrown through the air yet again, feeling a surge of harsh pain, while Sabin and Edgar swam away frantically to avoid the further falling debris. The mountain crumbled apart and the entire ground trembled severely. Even Terrato became bewildered at this point.
"What the hell is going on?!" said Locke, looking around in confusion.
Huge rifts tore through the ground, and water began shooting out of the earth, flooding the entire landscape at a frightening rate. Large, crashing storm surges splashed everywhere and the ocean rose to meet the flood, covering the whole desert. As the mountain collapsed into the water, waves grew even bigger in the chaos and overwhelmed Locke and his friends on the ground. Terrato let out a mad hiss before it was pulled into the sea where it sank like a rock, never to be seen again. The worldwide flood intensified further, and the towns like South Figaro, Jidoor, and Kohlingen became covered by this cataclysm. The airship broke in half mid-flight, reminding Setzer of the very incident that turned the World of Balance into the World of Ruin. He wrapped his arms around Daryl and shut his eyes tightly as they fell through the storm, diving straight for the overflow of the ocean. He could hear the frightened screams of his friends as the great ship shattered apart completely when Tritoch slammed into its remains, not seeing the heroes falling to their imminent doom. Clyde could see nothing in the fading moonlight as he dropped from the mountain, and the only thing he could think about was his friends… would they live to see him again? Would he live to see him again? Was this the end, and had Thomas truly won? These ideas became too much to bear, and he closed his eyes before being dunked in the chilly water.
"And now it begins... a world torn apart by disaster will soon become vulnerable to the likes of another, and I will consume both for everything they are worth when the time comes," Thomas Geeda mused as he observed the insanity unfolding while he stood atop the hovering Bahamut.
The team had been unwillingly torn apart by this catastrophe and many of them blacked out as they were carried away by the tide. History had repeated itself. Locke swam through the torrents of wetness with a panicked search for Celes, not daring to give up on his friends even in this disaster. His search proved to be in vain, however, because all of them were swept off to separate parts of the world with no control over their destination… and Geeda smiled to himself and assumed them doomed from the start. No one could have predicted this turn of events, and the citizens around the world were caught completely by surprise when an abundance of ocean wrecked their homes. Only the Legion of the People was prepared for this, and they smiled as their master did, secured in the safety of the elevated Narshe region, feeling that this was the true cleansing of the world's tyranny, their blank, closed minds not understanding the dark severity of their master's actions. It was a horrible day for many. Soldiers had lost their lives, families had lost their loved ones, and the largest and most courageous group of friends that was the only hope for the world had lost each other to the hand of a madman. Through the world's losses came Thomas' gains, and he set out to restore his own flooded city where he would eventually create his own, all-powerful empire of the seas, the Crystal Tear glowing ominously in his hand.
Later
She woke up to the sound of surf and the sight of the shining sun. Her memory still hazy, she looked around to see an empty, barren land with water as far as the eye could see. Slowly, the memories of yesterday came back… and she recalled the horrible start of the morning to the even worse end of the night. They had been defeated, and the world was ruined further than it had ever been. None of her friends were around, she was soaking wet, and not a single establishment was nearby. Her recollections grew more vivid and she staggered up to her feet on the beach, finally finding the strength to stand. She was lost and alone now, and had no idea what was in store for their world… only that she was hopeless and unable to help anymore.
"Oh… Shad- Clyde," Terra whispered, holding her hands together tightly and closing her eyes in the cool morning breeze.
She could not help but cry now. She wept heavily at the idea of their defeat and the possible demise of her best friends. This was just when she wasn't feeling alone anymore for her heritage, despite the esper part of her most likely no longer existing. No one could save her now, and she had nowhere to run to in the ruined land. This seemed like the end of the line... and all she could do was cry. She had no one to lean on, no one to protect, no one to love. She had no hope. Then, there was a soft thud in the sand beside her when a pigeon landed on the ground. Upon closer inspection, she noticed a message attached to the bird. With a desperate curiosity, she removed the message and opened it to read:
To whoever finds this note… or whomever this note finds: Don't give up. The world may be gone, but the nobility of the just is not. Find resolve to continue your life and fight back against the evil that plagues this great ocean now. Take care of yourself and don't let yourself be defeated. And my friends that fought along with me for so long, if this is any of you… you know we all still have a job to do, and Thomas Geeda has not won. We will find each other eventually. – King Edgar Roni Figaro
Her tears came even harder now as she clutched the paper, picturing the valiant and noble faces of her friends as they recollected themselves after the disaster. There was hope, and at least one comrade was still out there with a belief in their cause. Maybe the end was not here, and maybe this was just another break in the journey… just like before. With renewed vigor and confidence, Terra folded the note and put it in a pocket, looking up to the sky with her teary eyes. There was hope yet.
"Yes, we will find each other eventually," she repeated.
To Be Continued
Author's Note: Well, there it is… the end of Clyde's Journey! Never fear though, the adventure is far from over, and you can expect Clyde's Odyssey to arrive sometime in the near future. (Now, I'm not going to publish it in just a few days, but maybe give it a month or two's time and you will find your satisfaction in the continuation of the epic.) Now, some of you might consider this a little 'open ended', and I'm sorry to say that is how a 'To Be Continued cliffhanger' should be. I hope you have enjoyed the story so far though! Just have patience and await the fantastic conclusion to Clyde's lengthy excursion!