"Checkmate."
The term was apt. All had fallen into place exactly as intended. Everything unfolded in the ways they needed to. Her victory was all but assured. Her victory was assured.
All according to keikaku. …hmm. His proximity must be having some form of resonance effect. Oh well.
It was, however. According to keikaku, that is. Keikaku, meaning 'plan'.
It was a rapidly played one.
As long as Seth existed in the outer realm, she could not truly act. The most she could do, was launch her Gaia Memories to be scattered amongst the worlds, and create things like Skeith.
Unless there was an…interface, in play.
Izanami was the perfect tool. One of five remaining Original Deities born of Humanity. She couldn't mess with the Fates, for their power over Destiny, Time and Causality would have been detrimental to her intentions. As well, they were Three As One. In order to truly manipulate one, you had to manipulate all of them at the same time. Something that was…beyond her power, in this state.
Tiamat was also a terrible choice.
Even if the boy hadn't reconfigured her to be aligned with his world instead of myself, she would have been capable of resisting.
Gaea, was both World Core and Mother Goddess. Much like Jubileus, only far far older. She was the Original World. The First and Third. The First planet of Sentient Life, and the third planet closest to what her inhabitants coined 'the sun', known to many cultures as 'Sol'.
Tiamat, was not a World Core. But she was a Mother Goddess. Performing the same legendary functions as Gaea herself, Tiamat's legend had her becoming the land, air and seas that humanity rest upon. Being that she shared one of two designations with Gaea, any attempt made by Gaea to subvert Tiamat's will with her own, even ever so slightly; would have not only been met with failure, but tipped her hand far too early.
And that was not counting the fact that Seth had disconnected Tiamat from her tie to Gaea, and replaced it unconsciously with a tie to Him, and thus his World.
That left one.
Izanami.
Izanami may have created a body for herself, but it was merely a shell to house her power and consciousness. She didn't reconfigure herself. Not until after. Due to this, Gaea was able to influence her.
The Marble Phantasm is, after all, one of my concepts.
It was a simple task to nudge Izanami into being far more antagonistic than she was originally intending. The possibility of being 'foe' had always been there. And Gaea merely pushed it to its logical conclusion.
While in the end, this meant that Izanami would be forcibly reconfigured and thus, out of Gaea's influence potential; the other side of it, meant that Seth would be pushed further to approach Gaea on his own.
Which is exactly what she wanted.
Seth's existence kept a sort of wall, between Gaea and the outer realms. Her influence was weak at best, only able to truly 'act' through conduits. Otherwise, she was only at best, able to observe. And not even in a way that she could change things.
However…
Things unfolded perfectly.
With Seth's allies preoccupied with the revelation of their origins, Seth would be allowed a moment to slip away, relatively undetected. He would not dare bring any of them along, in fear of Gaea either erasing them outright, or finding some method to control them.
Very few of them, had their connections to her removed. Some were drastically weakened. But Gaea was both World Core and Original Mother Goddess.
Her…options, were quite varied.
The moment he crossed the invisible border between outer realm, and her space, she won.
With him now inside her sphere of influence, and her concept being far greater than his, she could override any attempts to escape, with ease.
As well, she now no longer had any restrictions.
Oh she'd have to pour most of her focus on him. Even when dead, he was still capable of altering reality.
But now…
…Now.
She could finish the job.
Kingdom Hearts Re: Order
Chapter XXXV: Dead Earth Ceremony
Groans.
Two heads snapped up. Naminé herself, quickly trotting over to where Sora and the others were; Lycoris leaning back on the makeshift chair she created from two tables a bunch of drapes and some duct tape she found in a drawer in a side-room.
"Ugh…my head feels like it got trampled on by a Hydra…" Surprisingly not Hercules that said that. But young Sieglinde. The brunette warrior rubbed her forehead, trying to chase away both the headache, and the grogginess that had gripped her.
The many others, scattered along the hall, did similar actions. Some stretching and twisting, pops and cracks of bones settling into place; some just rubbing their eyes and making clicking noises with their tongues as they tried to force their saliva generators to stop being on strike.
"Good morning." Said the World Core. "or rather, as 'good' as the current circumstances can be."
"Uuhhhgg…Lyyyy…co…? Eragh. Blegh. Kuh. Fuck my mouth…" uttered Ino.
"Daddy's not here to do that right now, we already established this yesterday, Ino."
"Gah not what I-wait. YESTERDAY!? KUhoahghoh god that was a ba-kahgh-aaad ideaaa…"
Lycoris merely sighed, rolling her eyes as the other girl coughed and sputtered.
"Yes. Yesterday. You've all been out for just a little over twenty-four hours."
"We think it has to do with you all being still somehow connected to Gaea." Naminé assisted.
"How…so…?" slowly queried Poseidon, sitting up, feeling a ringing in his head.
One that, unknown to him, was matched by every being that held the station of 'God'.
"Only a few people here arent connected to Gaea in some meaningful capacity." Answered Lycoris. "Myself, and Naminé are two of them. Aki's another. But she was knocked out as well. I think that's due to what Gaea must have done though."
"And what…what is it that…she…she did?" Haltingly asked Mickey, rubbing his head, holding his wife's hand.
"I don't know. But whatever it is, we're stuck here."
"Wait what?" questioned Asagi. "What do you mean 'stuck'?"
Lycoris sighed heavily. "I mean stuck. As in incapable of leaving this world."
"Even you?" Came Alicia.
"Yes. Even me. And let me tell you it's been pissing me off."
"How could…but you're not connected to Gaea. Hell Infinitia isn't even in either realm! It's in the Void!" Kairi pushed.
Nobody noticed the violent wince that followed her cries.
"I know. Believe me I know. That's why I'm pissed. The Song seems to have done something extra. It left a damn Noise Wave."
Many mumbles of query. Lycoris sighed again. She was doing that a lot.
"A Noise Wave. It's…ok. Imagine ringing a really big bell. You know the echoed ringing noise that is in your head? That after-effect is what we call 'noise'. Obviously. In terms of…otherworldly powers, 'noise' would be the remnant of whatever spell you used, or whatever intention you wielded." Lycoris began.
"To add to that…" Spoke Tiamat, who had risen and was leaning against a wall. "A Noise Wave is a very powerful force capable of distorting reality. Especially if it comes from Song Magic. The remnant power casts a side or extra effect, along with whatever the initial intention was. Girl. You're saying Gaea left behind a Noise Wave that is blocking you?"
"Not just me. But everything. My world may be in the Void, but I can't commune with it because of the Noise Wave. That's what I think knocked Aki out. Was that the Noise Wave is blocking everything beyond this plane."
"Time out!" called Sora. "Can we get some sort of…clearer picture for this? I got the bell ringing bit but…" he shrugged.
It would be Izanami, answering. "Uuugh. Fine."
They looked to her. "Imagine a pond on a clear day. The waters are calm, everything's gentle. Now throw a pebble into it. The pond, would be the World. The Pebble, the Song. With me? Good. The pebble landing in the pond makes ripples. Over a little while, depending on the size of the stone, the ripples fade. But the water is still disturbed. The ripples from the stone's impact with the water's surface have faded, but the water is still being both displaced by the stone falling to the ground, as well as any echoing ripples created from those initial ripples, bouncing off of objects in the pond, or on the shores."
Lycoris picked up after that. "The ripples may have seemed harmless, but under the right conditions they may end up changing the entire dynamic of the pond's natural ecosystem. Not to mention, if the ripples created were strong enough, they would become mighty cresting waves that could decimate whatever was in their path."
"So what makes it a problem?" Asked Jasmine.
"The Noise, created from the song, would be one thing. But a Noise Wave is a secondary, lingering intent. The difference being that Noise is static, generally harmless, remnant force that will dissipate in time. A Noise Wave, is controlled. It is the act of taking that Noise, and using it to cause an extra effect."
"And this one would be blocking you?"
"Not just me. Everything. I don't know what Gaea's song was meant to do. I know what that particular song was created to do, but I don't know what Gaea did with it. But I do know, that I cannot connect to the Tower. And that is the big problem. The Tower was literally created to be capable of acting as a connecting point to whatever world we seeded. Anywhere I was, is supposed to be able to immediately connect to that Tower. Seed or no seed. If I, who uses connections that aren't the ones forged by the worlds in this realm, am being blocked, then that means something powerful is doing the blocking."
"And since our Tower uses Song Magic to forge those connections, then the only explanation must be that a Noise Wave is blocking her." Naminé concluded. "Because only a Noise Wave, or a Reality Marble, would be able to block a connection to the Void."
"Right…yeah that's a problem. But…I have a big question." Pushed, of all people, Leon.
"Yeah?"
"…why do I remember traveling with a guy with a monkey tail, all of a sudden?"
Lycoris blinked.
"…now that you mention it." Cloud spoke up. "…I remember that too. And a…little kid in red armor…?" His face scrunched in confusion. Tifa thought it looked adorable.
Up until it hit her.
"Oh…oh wow. Ok yeah. I'm remembering him too. And some…oh god."
"What?" Yuffie asked, worried by the sudden stop.
"…a woman who looked like Cloud. Just with…pink hair."
"…Terra…" suddenly uttered Tidus.
"Yeah?"
The sandy blonde stared at the tall brunette in confusion. "What? No. no not you. A girl…with…blonde…no…wait…green hair…?"
It was Lycoris' violent sigh that cut through their questioning memories.
"Right. This is a thing now. Dammit daddy…Ok look. Some of you are apparently beginning to remember a world where you traveled with certain people that weren't the ones you remembered before. …gah damn this Noise Wave I'd be able to better set shit up if it wasn't here…fuck…alright."
She had gotten up off her faux chair and walked over to one of the tables that had housed a viewing crystal. Grasping it in hand, she held it forward, forcing the materialization of one of the 'windows' used to show them their history.
"Ok, so remember how daddy mentioned the series featuring a bunch of you known as 'Final Fantasy'? Well, up till that point, only one or two specific entries had proper sequels of any sort. The rest, were just summons, some weapons, a character name here and there and references.
Until then, it was the Kingdom Hearts series, that had ever really brought together multiple people from the Final Fantasy series, into one game. Some time after Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, Squaresoft, now merged with a different RPG creating company called Enix, created their own, in-house, multi-game crossover. It was called."
Dissidia
~Final Fantasy~
The screen began playing images from what was now being recognized as an 'opening cutscene'.
"Dissidia told an original story featuring primary characters from each Final Fantasy game to date. Brought together under unknown circumstances, protagonists and antagonists alike, were thrown into a world where they were constantly battling one another, under the banner of the Woman in White, Cosmos, and the Demonic Entity, Chaos."
A beautiful blonde haired woman with soft features and wearing a glowing white dress, looking actually very similar to a much older and more endowed Naminé on the left, and a giant dark red demon-man with four arms and equally large wings, surrounded by a hellscape of fire and ash, on the right.
"The story was that Chaos and Cosmos had been in combat for an untold number of years, represented by 'cycles'. Each cycle had its own set of battles and warriors, with plots, alliances, betrayals and teeth-clenched-teamwork throughout. Dissidia told the story of the Thirteenth Cycle. The world was destabilizing due to the constant reality wipes, warriors of both sides had their memories fragmented due to the repeating resets, Cosmos had been recently drastically weakened due to a recent series of events, and Chaos was…well he'd been winning the whole damn time."
The screen shifted to show a series of boxes, each one containing a picture of a person.
"In the first time…basically ever, people could play as either hero or villain representative of each game. Each character had movesets and powers reflecting their game's world, and for each major attack, had their own cut in menu, referencing each game's style."
Quick shifting scenes of various characters. Squall using Fated Circle, Cloud wielding Omnislash version 5, Tidus weaving around during Slice and Dice, Sephiroth summoning Meteor, a Clown man using something called Forsaken Null, a white haired pale fleshed androgynous looking person dropping bombs of Ultima.
"The story unfolded as Cosmos decreed to each of her warriors to find their Crystal. Nobody knew what it was, only that it was part of her power that would supposedly turn the tide of the war in their favor. Their journey had them allying or splitting apart as they would, their personal stories being condensed displays of their character's growth arcs through their personal games. Their Crystals, being culminations of their ultimate states, their truest personalities brought about by each of their individual games' journeys and endings.
On the villanous side, the warriors of Chaos were basically left to their own devices. Their reasons for fighting being all their own. Ultimately they ended up splitting into factions. One faction simply wanted to wipe everything out, including themselves. Another, wanted to subtly 'assist' the warriors of Cosmos in gaining their Crystals through trial and strife, as that would stabilize their own existences as well. And still another, questioned the nature of the war and their existence, and decided that it must be found within battle against their counterpart."
"I was part of that last one." Suddenly spoke Sephiroth.
"You were?!" Aerith blanched.
The silver haired man nodded. "Yes. The memories are…hazy. But it was something to do with discrepancies in our memories of the time, and the reasons we existed. All I knew was that Cloud was the meaning of my existence. And fighting him at his strongest, was what I desired. Exactly why is…lost."
"Gay." Everyone suddenly turned to Johnny Gat. "…what?"
"Dammit Johnny, you beat me to it." Grumbled Asagi.
"I know right?"
"…I am not going to confirm nor deny that statement in any meaningful way." Uttered Sephiroth.
Who was actually starting to wonder if Gat was entirely wrong.
"Also he stabbed Aerith again."
"OH WHAT THE FUCK SEPH?!"
In an extremely surprising sight, Sephiroth jolted suddenly, twitching violently in the process and blinking rapidly.
"I-wha-excuse me?"
"You ran me through AGAIN?! Why don't I remember this? You better not have fucking killed me a second time you dick!" Aerith got in his face, poking his chest angrily.
"To be fair to him…" Began Lycoris, distracting the angry brunette.
"You were a DLC character."
"…I was a what?"
Another sigh.
"You werent part of the story as anything other than a tutorial…text…speaker…whatever. You were a book page reference. SE decided to make you an assist character in the Sprequel."
"…a what in the what?"
"RRRGH! You did not exist in the first game in any capacity! The second game, which was created as a prequel but had the kind of gameplay changes and roster attunements of a sequel, had you as a downloadable, battle assistant that did one of two things, and then fucked off!"
"Where does the part where he stabbed me come in?"
"For some sick and hilarious reason, SE coded that if Aerith is summoned as an assist, while there is an active AI controlled Sephiroth of any nature on the field, he prioritizes Hells Gate downstabbing you over all else."
"FUCKER!" Aerith yelled in Sephiroth's face. Once again causing him to jerk backwards.
"Why are you blaming me?! I stabbed you one time and don't remember any of that at all. Besides according to her you technically didn't even really exist there!"
"Hmph!" She just angrily huffed and turned away from him. Sephiroth just brought a hand to his forehead.
"Literally the last time I was this confused I burned a town down…" he muttered to himself.
For everyone to hear him.
"Dude." Tifa said blankly. He looked over to her.
"Too soon."
He grimaced. It was…after all, her home town.
"Think that's confusing remind me to have Daddy tell you about Sephiroth Goku the Stampede."
"…what."
"Getting back on track." After delivering that…mind fuck, Lycoris pushed forward.
"The game culminated with each of Cosmos' warriors manifesting their Crystal, just in time for Chaos to be convinced to get off his ass – literally he spent the whole game up to that point slouching on a giant throne – and do something. And what he did, was, at her behest, kill Cosmos."
"What they must know…is True Darkness."
"Doing so won the war in his favor, except it didn't. The Cycle didn't begin again, because the Crystals kept things in check. A final push deep into Chaos' realm by the Warriors of Cosmos, each of them squaring off against their Chaos counterpart, ending in fighting against the God of Chaos himself, raging and agonized by his destruction of Cosmos, who was some sort of keystone to his existence, ended with their victory, securing the world, and allegedly, bringing the cycles to an end. The game ended with each of them returning to their own worlds, crystal in hand, supposedly to begin, or maybe return, the lives depicted in their respective games."
"That…would explain why we didn't remember…" Leon concluded.
"But wait, what about…uhh…the girl Cloud?"
"Girl Cloud, or rather, Lightning Farron, came about after."
Dissidia
[duodecim] 012 ~Final Fantasy
"The Sprequel, being a Sequel in gameplay and other such means, and a prequel in terms of story, involved not merely the Thirteenth Cycle, but the one just before that. A cycle that at its conclusion, set in motion the events of the Thirteenth, directly. In this Cycle, there were some extra characters. The 'B Team' made up of Yuna, Tifa, Lightning, Laguna, Vaan and Kain, were split off from what people knew as the 'A Team' the characters from the Thirteenth Cycle.
In Cycle 12, the sides were a little…changed. Tidus, for example, was a warrior of Chaos, brought about from his unaddressed hatred and rage towards his father Jecht, who in cycle 12, was a warrior of Cosmos. Yuna, for some reason, remembered some of the major events of their story together, and during each encounter, was trying to return him to the man she knew. Terra, as well, was under Chaos' banner, brainwashed and controlled by Kefka, where Vaan ended up acting as her driving force to join Cosmos, just before the Cycle ended.
Lightning, or 'girl cloud' as Tifa called her, was a headstrong, no nonsense woman who heavily questioned the whole nature of the war, and the leaders of both sides. Surprisingly enough, the other five not in the previous game, were alright with her ending up their de-facto leader. The events that set up the lead-into the Thirteenth Cycle, was that Kain, working alongside a Chaos Warrior, Golbez, Cosmos Warrior Cecil's brother, had found a way to secure transfer between Cycles. They were losing the war, as a series of artificial crystalline mimicking life-forms known as the 'Mannikins' were literally flooding the world from a gateway to an in-between nothing-dimension known as the Rift."
"I…I remember this." Tifa suddenly said, clutching her head. "We…we went…we went down and…"
"You died." Lycoris said, bluntly. To which Yuffie quickly grabbed the older woman in a tight hug.
"Yes…we knew it was basically futile. That…that we wouldn't go with them. That we were throwing ourselves away…but…"
"But any chance they would have at victory, let alone survival, relied on us sealing that gate." Yuna spoke up from next to Tidus. A hardness to her eyes that he'd only seen once before.
Tifa nodded. "That's right. We were overwhelmed. The others would be sealed, so they could focus on retrieving the Crystals. We…went into that abyss and fought. And fought. And fought."
"It was just the six of us. Against a nearly endless horde." Yuna added. "We all did our best…"
"And at the cost of our lives…we closed the gate. But it was too late…wasn't it?"
Lycoris nodded. "It was. By the time you managed to close the gateway, the Mannikin Horde had breeched Cosmos' stronghold. The reason why the world was so unstable by Cycle Thirteen, was because she expended a fuckton of power, to wipe out as many as she could. The Cycle ended with you six being removed from the battles, returned to whence you came."
"Ok right so this is really, really interesting and all but…" Olette cut in.
"Something's wrong with Kairi."
And now everyone's attention was turned to the redhead Keeper of White.
Who was leaning her head against a wall, gripping at thin air, a very pained grimace on her face.
"Kai?! What's wrong?"
"I…swear…to Tia."
"Oi, leave me out of this, kid."
"…if I didn't…fucking know any better…"
A crackle of pale white energy ripped along her left hand, as it twitched angrily.
"I'd think…I was getting…fucking period cramps in my goddamn skull."
This statement brought many of them up short. Just as many of the females present, happened to say "ouch." At the same time.
Lycoris' eyes narrowed, however. "When did this start?"
"Slowly been…been building since I got up…" another twitch, this time full body, and another discharge of pale energy.
"You're being overloaded."
"No…shit Lyco."
"Do you hear anything?"
Kairi's head shifted enough so she could gaze at Lycoris out of the corner of her left eye. Sora stepped slightly to the right, left hand glowing with the remnants of a Cure spell.
"…yes."
"Your world is speaking to you then. Loudly."
"…yes."
"What is it saying?"
"…it's…a lot of it is…gibberish to me. They sound like words but…languages I've never heard. Maybe one in three noises is a word I understand. And there's this…fucking ringing…"
"I've got the ringing." A few heads turned to Silmeria.
"The same here." Spoke Lachesis. Atropos nodded as well.
Over the next minute, the other gods and 'gods' agreed. They heard the ringing.
"Ok now that you mention it…" mumbled Jasmine, beginning to twitch.
"Jasmine?"
"Oh…oh wow that's loud." Snow White spoke, wobbling on the spot, being steadied by a quickly reacting Ariel.
"Fuck me that hurts. Gah! 's not a ringing at all!" Suddenly Alice twitched, Fred the Waddle Dee putting a…nub? On her leg, trying to comfort her as she stumbled.
"No it's not…it's…ugh…like some high-pitched whine…" Now Cinderella was shivering, Terra placing a steadying hand on her back, looking concerned.
"Kairi!" Lycoris barked, a very…stern look on her face.
It didn't look right.
It actually bothered the hell out of Ino.
"What is the World saying?"
Kairi closed her eyes, trying to hear past the screeching, tinny ringing noise.
"It's…saying…danger…? Something…something…about invasion…sublimation…?"
The World Core's eyes narrowed.
"the…thefted? No…the…the stolen? No that's not the word…the…Absconded?"
Nothing Kairi was saying made sense to anyone.
And then suddenly Lycoris, Tiamat, Izanami, Lachesis and Atropos all reacted at the same time.
"oh fuck me."
"shit on a goddamn scissor!"
"shitfuckingholycockno!"
"…oh dear…"
"that's…"
But before they could say anything further, before anyone could even ask what the hell they were on about. A loud, low, hollow sounding, curling echo of swooping, blowing wind, shuddered through the air.
And a series of loud screams rippled from outside, as low-pitched THOOMs of something rattled the ground.
(BGM: Destiny – The Enemy of my Enemy)
The sudden noises caused everyone to jump.
"Outside. Now!" Yelled Lycoris.
The doors were flung open, falling off their hinges again. "Dammit I thought I fixed those."
They didn't get far.
They didn't have to.
"Oh…oh my…" Muttered Aphrodite, shocked.
They were all shocked.
"What…what are we looking at…?"
"Balls."
Melody's question was immediately answered by Marlene.
And it was apt.
They were balls.
Or rather, orb-shaped rippling spheroids of some kind of strange black-ish matter surrounded by a hazy transparent field.
Hundreds of them.
All of varying sizes. One of the largest being right over the Castle. Most were in the air. Some were jutting out of buildings. Others, out of the ground. But wherever they were, it appeared that gravity was skewed. Piles of water, floating chunks of dirt and stone and concrete, half-broken and twisted pieces of metal…
Many things were suspended in the air nearest to the spheres.
Worse, there was a strange, greyish mist creating a distorted view of everything around. Not to mention the sky being carved in twain by a massive black gash, twinkling lights seen within.
Suddenly, twisting clouds of winding dark and light energies began gathering overhead. Spiraling branches of corrupted power gathered into the cores of what looked like torn patches of air and space and sky. Putrid white and grey and black and off-green beams of light erupted like lances of pus and filth, crashing to the ground but leaving no sign of infection or touch or matter.
Until an impossible to describe sound rippled through the air. The closest approximation that could be made would be a distant crackle of thunder surrounded by the building hissing pressure noise of air filling a balloon magnified a thousand-fold, accompanied by a growing noise of creaking crackling expanding wood heralding a tree falling in a forest.
The strange amalgamation of sounds was caused by a series of ripple-like distortion hazes of space forming nearby. A smokey, wavy, watery flame-like tear in reality built within the ripples, before shrinking violently and discharging a wave of crackling black and white energy. The waves created by the reality distortions left behind almost droplet-like shapes that then formed into strange, twitching, smokey, shadowed beings with brightly glowing appendages, and wherever a 'head' would be, was a glowing white mass that resembled some kind of portal.
"The Taken!"
They were quickly overwhelmed.
Those not trained for combat were quickly shepherded back into the Hall. The doors were hastily propped back up, and the entranceway blocked by a multitude of tables and chairs. Reinforced by a quick blood-cast spell by Hrist, the idea was that none would be able to enter easily.
Except Lycoris was overheard muttering something about 'not being bound by terrestrial constraints'.
Even so, with the non-combatants out of the way, these 'Taken' were formidable foes. Most of the smaller ones holding some kind of shifting ability that Lycoris described as a 'knife shaped like [sideways],' making it difficult to hit them accurately, regardless of range.
There were the dashing, neo-shadow like 'Thralls', the shuddering, splitting ones she labeled 'Psions' which had a habit of splitting into two when they were felled. The current most difficult ones to face were the hulking, cannon holders called 'Knights' that would roar from an unseen maw and spit tongues of flame from their single glowing eyes, as well as the 'Phalanxes', holding a strange, large board with what looked like a gaping hole drilled within it, that they would occasionally blast shockwaves from, knocking attackers away like they weighed nothing.
And according to Lycoris' frantic calls, they werent even the worst of them.
"Fuck this!" called Kairi. "I'm going all out!"
An array of light and the Keeper's driver formed around her waist.
Echoing her intentions, Ino and Alicia formed their own drivers, as Rhea, the Izalith Trio, and Marlene all pulled out their Gaia Memories.
Arms
Corruption
Magma
Heat
Utopia
Cries of 'Henshin!' littered the plaza.
ETERNAL
Lycoris' head snapped up as that one word echoed through the air. A word that did not belong to anyone on their side.
A word, followed by three more.
That spelled…misfortune.
ETERNAL
MAXIMUM DRIVE
What looked like a faded wall of circuitry roared across the planet. The wave of color and will ripped through everyone present, knocking anyone not Taken to the ground. A loud, static nose rang through the air. Sparks of color and power ripped through bodies, lanced across the ground, and took with them, the hope of victory.
For in their hands, the Gaia Memories shuddered, and shattered.
And around their waists, the Drivers, fizzled and crumbled.
Yet that wasn't all. Everyone felt weaker. As if a weight had been applied to their existence. Something unnatural, or perhaps, more accurately, something to be enforced as so natural as to be restrictive.
Holy shit…this…this is what the Noise Wave was about. To block the connection-lines between planets, weakening resonant pulses. To summon the Taken on each world…while their most powerful warriors were away. Denying connection-lines would then cause inability to traverse even our pathways. The Noise Wave blocking the Tower stopping me from being able to draw from home and provide proper battle support.
And now…to create a counter-resonance that eradicated all bonus effects and powers mimicking anything created during Daddy's time…
She…she has us dead to rights.
Taking in the Silence, as even the Taken themselves had ceased their attack for the moment, Lycoris cast her eyes around.
Everyone's been drained. Some less than others but…
This was a siege. She played us all for fools.
They wont give up…but…
Even as she assessed the situation, gunshots rang out once again. Three Psions were blasted apart.
"GET UP AND FIGHT DAMMIT!" cried out Asagi Asagiri, twin pistols in hand, firing away at the reactivated Horde.
At her call, the others began to rise…but they were slower. Heavier. Weapons were swung, spells were charged but…
There was a definite…lack of strength.
Even the Keyblades shone with less brilliance.
They had been trapped at the Plaza. Unable to head to other parts of town to assist the civilians. Their strongest abilities now stripped from them. Keyblades would be launched, but they would be slow to return. Even both Gods and 'gods' were weakened. Zeus' bolts nowhere near as potent. Poseidon's lightning easily being blocked by Phalanx shields where before it would tear through. Tiamat's claws and roars being barely able to carve into a Knight's wispy hide.
This was not so much suppression through Dark. Nor was it blindness by Light. This was something more. This was Void, plain and simple. This was cessation of Connection. The ties that Sora had created through his journeys, the phantom links born from natural pathways that the Heartless used, even the Beacons placed on worlds by the Walkers were blocked.
Though they were together, they had now been made alone.
Even the Laguna Horde wasn't this bad…
Yet still they fought. They bled. They burned.
But all of that meant nothing.
To one, very particular person.
Who had been stuck, kneeling in place, staring at a small object in their hand.
(BGM: DJ Carbunk1e – Final Fantasy 7 Suffering Planet OC remix)
They're gone…
It was made from her. Forged within her body through arcane void-based ritual. Crafted to her specifications. Made, to be her constant battle companion array.
They're Gone…
Created through turning her temporarily into a God-Class smelting device called a Cauldron. The sacrifice of half of her current stock of naturally created eggs, used for reproduction, consumed to represent the passage of time. Half of her possible chances to have children, removed from local timespace in only a few minutes.
They're Gone.
All of those lost futures. All of those discarded paths. Each and every possible life that could have been born within her body at a future time, cut off. Eaten. Devoured.
"Give them back…"
The words were whispered. Inaudible amongst the sounds of battle around her.
"Give them back…"
The pain she felt. There was always a small, miniscule level of guilt in her heart for what her Boss, her friend, her leader, did. The sacrifice of so many possible futures, so many unborn lives, so many unexplored pathways. As a gift.
"Give them back."
Clutching the only thing to remain of the Arms Memory, Marlene held in her young hands, the fragment of World-Core that was freely given by Lycoris, core of Infinitia, Sanctuary in the Void. A building, burning need ripped through her young heart, as she forcibly recalled the method in which the original Memory was created.
Unnoticed by anyone, the girl – frantically muttering "give them back" to herself over and over – reached down, unbuckled her belt, and practically ripped her black jeans off. Her boots were kicked off, socks thrown aside, underwear torn off of herself.
It was only her frantic, wild movements, that caught attention.
"Oi! Marlene what the fuck'd'y think yer doin?!" roared Barret Wallace, eyes drawn to the sight of his little girl ripping her clothes off.
His yell, caught the attention of many, and those not in direct combat turned to see the girl frantically jam the teardrop shaped gem inside the same hole he did.
All while screaming at the top of her lungs, for someone to give her lost children back.
"MARLENE STOP IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT!"
"GivethembackgivethembackgivethembackgivethembackGivethemBackGIVETHEMBACKGIVETHEMBACKGIVETHEMBACK!"
She didn't care. She didn't care. She didn't CARE!
As her body hunched over, the girl shoving her fingers far deeper into herself than she'd ever imagined she would ever wish to, trying as hard as she could to push it deep enough to make something happen, her screams grew louder and even more frenzied. As her father raced to her side, blasting two taken Thralls out of his way…
Something responded.
And he was thrown back, by a wave of force that emerged from the young teenager's body. When two voices echoed from her throat.
"GIVE ME BACK MY BABIES!"
There was a multitude of reasons why, the next series of events occurred the way they did.
One such reason, was that Lycoris was wrong.
Unbeknownst to her, nor anyone truly, Marlene could make things work the way she was trying to.
Just not exactly.
You see, the reason why the Arms Memory was created as it was, was due to the seal array. The seal array created by Selh'teus upon implanting the tear into Marlene as if attempting to artificially inseminate her, acted as both a conversion tool, and a limiter.
The array consumed the halos dropped by the fallen Laguna, to act as a supporting fuel source for the Cauldron that Marlene was turned into. The other thing the array did, was define the parameters of the ritual.
Cauldrons, being Void devices, are immensely powerful. Turning a person into a Cauldron was a simple task. Keeping that person as they were prior to being a Cauldron, was a completely different situation entirely. As he had once explained to many of them, the Void consumes all. How strong your sense of self, how complex your existence, how dense your meaning of being; is what determines how long it takes for the Void to consume you entirely.
What the array did, was act as a secondary Observer, for Marlene. It logged and locked everything she was at that exact moment before the conversion, so when her role as Cauldron was over, she would retain herself completely. Everything that encompassed the concept that was 'Marlene Wallace' was captured, like a picture taken.
What this did, was allow for 'additions' to be placed, without compromising the original concept. Marlene, could be made fully compatible with the Arms Memory, and everything it could do, without losing any part of her, other than the material concept cost of some of her eggs.
The price for her power, was the many futures of some of her as-of-yet-unborn children. Those particular children, would never be born. But rather than horribly changing or disfiguring her, it was written naturally, her body being able to be held in perfect condition, as if she simply never had those eggs to begin with.
A simple rewrite, with no change other than that which was taken. As if they were never there.
Thus now, when Marlene implanted the Seed once again, without an array of any sort to act as limiter, the nature of the Ritual, was allowed to run its course, unhindered.
There was no snapshot taken. There was no existence logging. There was only request.
Another such reason, was that in those last few seconds, Marlene's entire existence mirrored one of a being that had long since been…held in high regard by her 'leader.'
Another girl, much like herself, if only slightly older, who was forced impregnated while unconscious, in the intent by others, to use her as a breeding tool to create soldiers capable of wiping out entire countries. A girl whom had grown up with the powers of a God, but with the price of a Devil.
A girl who was killed by her own father…
But refused to die.
A girl who laid waste to an entire city twice over, in her quest to find her children.
Yes…at that exact moment…one could be forgiven for mistaking the teen for being the Mother of the Apocalypse.
As right then, if one were capable, one would be hard pressed to see a difference between the codes of Marlene Wallace…
And one Alma Wade.
Another reason, was that Marlene was infected. In a similar sense to Melody, Marlene had been, at that moment of the ritual, touched by a World Eater. The Void that Seth carried with him at all times, the mark of one who had been amongst the forces capable to erase a planet, was now seeped into her being. Though only a fragment, it was still more than enough to add a small shift to her nature.
Her code was ever so slightly different, than before.
Because now, it had a very small sliver of his code in it. His code, which cultivates, analyzes, cradles, and grows. His code which is that of Chaos. His code, which bears markers for change and evolution within it.
Thus, when the wave hit.
Were she to be connected to Lycoris' scanning device…
Something…important would have been seen.
Seedbearer
The pulse ripped through her like the raging fist of an angry god.
Her body buckled violently, the girl clutching her stomach as a glob of phlegm and bile ripped from her throat. Everything was burning. Everything was tingling. Everything felt like it was being ripped apart from within.
Her eyes teared. Her limbs shook. Her muscles rippled and shuddered. Her knees almost dropped her from beneath them.
But all anyone could focus on…
Was that her body was lit up by glowing red strands.
"MARLENE!"
Barret made to race for her, when he was tackled by Tifa.
"Barret wait we don't know what's going on!"
"Dat's why I gotta get to her!"
A shrill agonized scream caused them both to freeze.
And stare in horror at was happening to the sweet little girl they both cherished.
A large...slimy root had emerged.
From the little hole, between her legs.
Marlene stared at it in absolute terror. She couldn't think. She could barely breathe. As now, her stomach wanted to rebel. Her body tensed, a pressure unlike anything she'd felt before building. Another root emerged. Both now writhing afore digging into the ground beneath her feet.
Only then, she began coughing. Her eyes widened. Her arms, almost refusing to obey, reached for her throat. Saliva, bile…blood. Bubbling from her mouth. Foaming and frothing, her hands clutched her throat as involuntarily, her head tilted back. The red strands picked up, everyone watching now easily seeing that they were coming from a strange symbol on her pelvis.
The coughing grew violent. Her body vibrating like the rumbling earth. A third root emerged, drilling into the ground.
Her skin bulged. Her arms suddenly grew small rounded, pointed tipped objects. Thorns.
Her legs were lifted off the ground. The roots growing straighter, lifting her a few feet into the air.
The bubbling broke, five wriggling tendrils emerging from the depths of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back into her head. The tendrils reached up, entwining, forming what could only be the bulb of some kind of plant.
The symbol on her pelvis flared an angry red.
*CRACK*
Her arms stopped scrabbling.
Her legs stopped twitching.
Her stomach stopped bulging.
Her body went limp.
As the sound of Marlene's spine breaking, echoed across the battlefield.
A/N: Do you hate me yet?
First Aki's horrible past. now Marlene being...well, having that happen to her. What is it with me and writing terrible fates for young women?
...power comes at a price...after all...
ScourgeofshadowsKarx: You're not wrong. but to be honest i've been sitting on these next ten chapters for almost a year, mentally. i'm constantly playing them in my head but when i go to write it just...doesnt want to come out properly. Their reactions this time around were muted. Effectively there's all of maybe ten minutes between sections: them seeing the reveals of their worlds, them being told the origin of their lives in this world, and then the Saints showing up. Small discussions were had offscreen but nothing huge, because when Seth left, it was maybe ten minutes before the Saints came, and threw everything further off-kilter. and then after that, Jezebel getting terrified by Aki's very existence took up more focus time.
And then immediately after that was resolved, Tia and Marie show up, and then Gaea kicks off the Dead Earth Ceremony.