Disclaimer : I don't own anything.
Note : The next few chapters will all be labeled something with a 'FMp' afterwards. That's because, on Spira, these last chapters are all about the 'Gullwings' Final Mission'. So, this full chapter Title is 'Finding Marah and Carlos, Final mission part 2'.
I'm breaking it into multichapters the best I can, because if I left it as one, it could stand as a fic on it's own and would be impossibly long. They all take place in the Farplane, and there will likely be two or three dealing with Zhane and Vegnagun.
Hope you like this.
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(Farplane Abyss, Field of Flowers)
A blinding flash surrounded us, and I cried out in surprise as I closed my eyes tightly. Sensing as it faded, I opened them again to find us all standing in the center of the field of flowers, only this time, the sky around us was light and clear.
Looking around, we began to trudge through the amazing land, taking a brief respite and enjoying the relaxing aura of this place.
Then, to my surprise, I noticed three all too familiar figures standing at the edge of the ominous orange glowing portal.
Cassidy and her henchmen.
"Hey!" Dustin cried, getting their attention as we walked over to them.
"Hmph." Cassidy grunted as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You certainly took your sweet time."
Oh, I so didn't want to get into this at the moment! Letting her comment slide, I looked at them in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
Skull sighed. "Because the boss never goes against Lord Carlos' wishes."
"You found him?" Cassie asked, perking up a little.
"As we was headin' in, we found a sphere addressed to the boss." Bulk explained.
Sighing dreamily, Cassidy nodded. "He said, 'Don't follow me. Turn back now and wait for my return'."
Cassie raised an eyebrow at this. "Actually doing what you're told?" Grinning a little, she nodded. "How novel."
"What can I say?" she asked with another dreamy sigh. "One look at Carlos-baby's dashing visage on the sphere, and I was charmed! How can I say no to such a kyootzie-wootzie face?" Suddenly looking worried, she frowned. "What if he-"
"Don't worry." Dustin cut her off with a small smile. "If he knows you're waiting, then he has a reason to come home."
"And wait I shall!" she responded firmly.
"We'll tell him you're waiting like a good girl." He added with a grin.
"You do that, love." She said haughtily. "And don't forget to stress 'good girl'."
Heading through the portal, we entered the Heart of the Farplane. If the scene we saw before was beautiful, the scene was saw now was…well….odd. Everything looked to be made of machina, and an eerie gray sky lay overhead. The smell of stale air and rust floated through the area, and what looked like electric barriers would activate and deactivate in timed intervals.
Even the road we traveled on was machina.
Walking along it, we had to dodge and hide from a strange fiend. It was massive, but not as big as Vegnagun. Having four legs on the ground, and two arms that waved around frantically, it roared as it hobbled on, seemingly not seeing us.
But that wasn't the only kind of fiend there. There were large turtle-like fiends, dark elementals, strange black wolves and more. If I thought the fiends on the path to the Farplane were strong looking, these looked impossible to beat, and I was a little afraid to try.
So we snuck our way through. Coming to the first barrier, we stopped and watched as the two rods on either side of the path rose, and an electrical barrier formed. Then, after a few minutes, they sank back down and it deactivated, but only for a minute.
That meant, we had to time ourselves carefully.
Explaining the plan to the others, we agreed to run through, one at a time, once the barrier was deactivated. We couldn't decide, however, who was going to go first. So, as the others tried to figure out a way to decide fairly, I took it upon myself to sneak away and wait until the barrier was down before running through.
"Tori!"
Turning around with a grin, it faded quickly as I saw a look of terror cross Blake's face, which was quickly mirrored by the others as they turned to see what was going on.
"What? I made it through safely." I said with a confused look at their wide, terrified eyes.
Shaking his head, Blake raised his arm slowly, which I noted was shaking, and pointed to something behind me. "No, you didn't." he said hoarsely.
Feeling my own eyes widen, I slowly turned around and gasped as I saw one of those massive fiends directly behind me. "Oh." Apparently, I'd failed to notice it crossing the path when I ran through the barrier, and I had attracted it's attention. "Hi." I said shakily with a meek wave as the monster roared and glared down at me.
"Tor, run!" Blake screamed from behind me.
Without turning around, I nodded. "K. Bye."
Racing off, I hoped the others would be ok. But I couldn't stand there and try to fight it. With the barrier behind me, only one of them would be able to come through at a time, and that thing looked strong enough to rip me to shreds with one swipe of it's massive arm.
Looking over my shoulder, I watched as it chased me for a bit, but I ran around a corner and quickly jumped down to a lower path, hiding under it, so that I was out of sight of that large monster.
Waiting a few moments, I closed my eyes tightly and opened them after taking a deep breath. Grabbing the bottom edge of the higher path, I slowly pulled myself up and looked around just over the edge. Luckily, there was no sight of the monster, but in it's place, many of the smaller, but still really powerful looking fiends stood in it's wake.
With a silent groan and a roll of my eyes, I looked to the path I was on and noticed that it slowly disappeared around a bend ahead of me, ascending at a slight pace.
"Well, I don't really have a choice." I muttered to myself as I began to walk along the path. Frowning, I wondered if the others were ok, and prayed they were. I realized it was dumb of me to run through the barrier like that, without checking to see if the coast was clear, but… I wondered. If any of the others had done it, even if they had checked, would they have been in the same position?
Walking along the path, I came to another barrier and gulped nervously as I waited for it to deactivate. Once it did, I raced through it, only to bump into a warm surface.
"Whoa!"
Two hands grabbed mine and held me firmly until I got my balance back. Once I did, I looked up and gasped in relief to see Dustin, but then I frowned in worry when I noticed he was alone.
As if seeing my confused and worried look, he shrugged apologetically. "We got separated. After that thing appeared behind you, we decided it was best that once we each got through the barrier, we'd go ahead and meet up later."
Nodding a bit, I offered a small smile. Meanwhile, my heart was clenching painfully in worry as I thought about Blake and Cassie.
We continued along another path, avoiding the fiends that roamed freely, and soon ran into Cassie. She looked a little beat up, but smiled warmly at seeing us. Handing her a hi-potion, I looked around with a worried frown, wondering where Blake was.
Please be safe. I prayed silently.
With a heavy sigh, we continued along the ascending path until we came to a giant barrier that was permanently deactivated. Running through it, I gasped in a mixture of happiness and worry.
There was Blake.
With Marah.
…and Marah looked like she was hurt.
"Marah!" Dustin exclaimed as he ran up to her.
I embraced Blake tightly as he offered her a hi-potion to heal her wounds. "I was so worried." I muttered, only loud enough for him to hear.
Sighing heavily as we pulled apart, Marah offered a pained smile, her wounds not completely healed. "I got…careless." she said with a slight groan and a small smirk.
"Are you all right?" Cassie asked as Marah leaned back against the machina wall.
Laughing a little she nodded. "I could use…a nap."
"Where's Carlos?" I asked worriedly as I looked around and noticed he wasn't there.
Shrugging, she winced and pointed to the long, twisting path that led up to a giant barrier, much larger than any we had seen so far. "He went ahead." She said grimly.
Frowning, I knew that barrier was the last before Vegnagun. I didn't know how, but it was almost like I could sense Zhane's presence on the other side.
"Guess she couldn't stay away." Dustin mumbled looking over his shoulder, back the way we had come.
Frowning, I cocked my head to the side. She? Looking in the same direction, I didn't know whether to smile or frown.
It was Cassidy, with Bulk and Skull.
"I never said where I would wait." she said haughtily as she approached.
"Well…" Nodding to Marah, I looked back at her firmly. "Then please, take care of Marah."
Glaring at me, she huffed angrily. "You dare give me an order?"
Cassie sighed and rolled her eyes before smirking almost evilly. "Look, we'll tell Carlos you're waiting like a 'good girl' and doing your part for the team."
Blinking a moment, I tried to figure out what she was planning. Then, I saw the dreamy look on Cassidy's face and bit back my giggles. That was evil! I thought to myself. Playing on Cassidy's weakness to get her to cooperate.
"All right. I'm in." Cassidy agreed easily with a pleasant smile.
"Hey."
We all turned to Marah as she pulled out a sphere and held it up for Cassie to take. "Dr. C. A gift from Carlos." She said with a small smile.
Taking the sphere slowly, Cassie nodded and lowered her arm.
"Said it was from two years ago. It was still inside the sphere camera."
"I'll watch it later."
Shaking my head, I sighed and smiled. "Hey. You should watch it now." Seeing her confused look, I shrugged. "Think about it. You won't be able to fight your best as long as it's on your mind." I finished softly.
Nodding, she gave a small smile and held up the sphere for us all to see. "You're right." Hitting the button on the top, we all quieted down to watch.
The image was on a boat, gliding softly over the calm waters. Then, the camera turned to view Carlos, Marah and T.J. standing by the rail.
"Whaddaya got in mind for fun?" Marah asked as she turned and looked at the others. Turning to the camera, she shrugged and smirked. "Any ideas, Dr. C?"
"Me?" Cassie's voice asked curiously from behind the camera. Sighing a little, the camera moved to point to the sky. "A ship that glides through the air." The camera turned back down to face Marah. "That thing you mentioned before. If it's for real, I wanna fly it."
T.J. chuckled and bowed his head as he turned to look at me. "You get to be pilot then." he said with a warm smile. Placing a hand on his chin, he seemed to think for a minute. "And maybe I'll try my hand at navigation." he mused out loud.
Marah jumped away from the railing and raised a hand into the air with a grin. "I get to be the engineer!" she called excitedly.
"Carlos?" T.J. questioned, turning to face the man who hobbled along with a cane.
The camera moved a bit, and I guessed that Cassie had shrugged. "Captain." she said easily, making it more of a statement than a question.
"Ah, that's perfect." T.J. agreed with a smile and a nod.
Chuckling a little, Carlos raised an eyebrow at him. "You'd let an amateur be captain?" he questioned almost challengingly.
Marah laughed and shook her head as she walked over to him. Slapping him lightly on the back, she grinned up at his startled face. "Ah, chill out, Carlos. All you gotta do is shut up and look important, and you'll fit the part." She said through her giggles.
"Like a glove." Cassie added as she too began to laugh.
Mock glaring at them, Carlos shook his head and pointed to each of them, one at a time. "I'll work you like dogs!" he threatened jokingly.
Everyone began to laugh and the sphere went blank.
Looking at it almost sadly, Cassie sighed. "What happened to that Cassie, I wonder." she mused out loud.
"She's inside you, sleeping." I said softly, with a fond smile.
Dustin shook his head and raised his arm into the air. "Well wakey, wakey! Time to set sail!" he commanded with a grin.
Nodding, I turned to her and gave her a determined look. "Your captain and your navigator are waiting!"
Once we got Marah to agree to stay behind, where it was safe, we ran over to a small platform and hopped on. We'd planned to try hopping across them, but as soon as I stood on the center of it, it amazingly began to move on it's own, floating over to another platform.
We repeated this process with many of the platforms, before learning that a few went in the wrong direction. Finally managing to make it across to the other side, we ran up to the barrier, and watched in shock as it deactivated before us.
"Well… That was unexpected." I said out loud as I warily walked through.
Blake shrugged and followed me, and we made it to the edge of the long, twisting path that would take us to Vegnagun.
And surprise, surprise. There it was. On the other side of the long path, in the distance, sat a giant machina that strangely, almost resembled a butterfly. The only different was that it had a long tail and a gaping maw.
"I got a hunch, that once we go on ahead, there's no turning back." Dustin said nervously.
"A hunch?" Cassie asked incredulously.
I raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"
Cassie looked to me and Blake before shrugging and sighing. "A hunch it is then."
Running up the path, it was a little worrisome when I noticed there were no other fiends around. I knew we all planned to destroy the machina, and I'm sure it knew too, so why wasn't it running?
That's when I noticed it's tail slither around a large platform and raise into the air. The body shook and the legs moved slightly, seemingly to stabilize it's hold on the said platform.
"It's moving!" I cried. That meant, Carlos must already be there. That, or Zhane was getting ready to use it to destroy Spira.
We kept running up the path, and hopped across many smaller platforms before landing on a large one by Vegnagun's chest, surprisingly, it was also the same one Carlos was on.
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See? If I'd left this as one chapter, it would probably be three times as long as it is now. LOL.
Hope you like it.
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"I don't like your plan. It sucks."
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R+R please.
Thank you everyone.
Tenshi
