The Last Stand

Larsa and Vayne were standing waiting for us when we left the elevator. Larsa looked very worried, he must have been trying to convince his brother to stop the war. He did not want his brother to do this, especially when there was a way to prevent war and bring peace to the nations. That was something Vayne did not believe, it seemed.

"Welcome to my Sky Fortress, the Bahamut," He greeted calmly. He seemed to be speaking to Ashe more than anyone else. "Forgive me for my delay in welcoming you upon my ship," It fell silent. Why weren't we attacking him? "Permit me to ask: Who are you?" Who are we? What did he mean by that? "Are you an angel of vengeance? Or perchance a saint of salvation?" Were they not one and the same?

"I am simply myself," Ashe answered. "No more and no less. And all I want... is to be free." Vayne seemed satisfied with her answer.

"Such a woman is not fit to bear the burden of rule," He decided. "Weep for Dalmasca for she is lost," Not without a fight, she wasn't. "Observe well Larsa. Watch and mark you the suffering of one who must rule, yet lacks power." We took out our weapons and prepared to fight, then I noticed the young boy draw his own sword, aiming at his brother.

"No," He said firmly. "No brother. I will not. Though I lack your power, I will still persist."

"Bold words, child."

Lucifer opened up by darting to Larsa and taking the blow of a kick Vayne was aiming to deliver to his brother. I pulled back and fired an arrow that he dodged and Ashe went straight in for the attack. Vayne was unnaturally fast, dodging most of our attacks and shrugging off Janos and Balthier's bullets. There was no doubt in my mind that he had Manufacted Nethicite.

Vayne went for the ranged attackers and knocked Fran back into the wall and broke her bow. He dodged Penelo's attack and she got out of the way in the nick of time. Grace swept in, dropping to the ground and sliding across it to take Vayne off his feet. Both got up quickly and were at one another, with Grace blocking and parrying Vayne's moves and dodging him, getting out of the way quick enough for me to fire an arrow into his back. With that stunning him, Ashe took her blade and plunged it through Vayne's chest. As she backed away the Emperor fell to the floor.

"Lord brother!" Larsa called out, running to Vayne. He was blasted back by that Occuria Venat. Mist started to surround Vayne and he began to absorb it, becoming larger and more powerful.

"Manufacted Nethicite!" Ashe exclaimed. Even with the Sun-Cryst destroyed those stones still worked.

"Behold the power of our fallen friend!" Vayne bellowed, Mist blasting us all back. I could heard the sound of clinking armour. Gabranth was there and he looked at the unconscious Larsa. "Gabranth, you will defend my brother. He will have much need for it in the Hell to follow." He was going to kill Larsa? That bastard.

"I will defend Lord Larsa!" I though Gabranth would draw his blade on us but instead he was pointing it at Vayne.

"The hound strays. Treason bears a price," Vayne sneered.

"One I will gladly pay!" Ashe and Balthier joined Gabranth in charging at Vayne. We all went for him and avoided his attacks, Mist blasting out of him. The Nethicite within him was incredibly strong, possibly absorbing the Mist the Bahamut was absorbing.

Lucifer ran in, white fire on his hands that burned through the Mist, scorching Vayne until he gained enough distance. Vaan, Ashe, Gabranth and Basch attacked Vayne from the front while Penelo, Grace and Lucifer attacked from behind. Fran had started working on healing duties while Janos, Balthier and I struck at long range. Vayne's Nethicite fuelled strength was weakening us a little but this was something we were able to cope with.

Vayne was becoming overwhelmed by the strength of the Nethcitie, the Bahamut being blasted to pieces around us. Debris crashed down where we were fighting, narrowly missing Vaan. I noticed Grace hovering over her pouch for a moment as she backed away from Vayne. I had an arrow poised, aiming for Vayne's back as he threw Gabranth across the room, blood spilling from the armour. He then started charging for a spell and created a huge shockwave that would have heavily injured us if not for the Manufacted Nethicite that Larsa had. It still caused us to go into defensive states and when we looked Vayne had gone to the outer part of the Fortress. We started to follow him, seeing a huge blast of Mist, Airships and pieces of the Fortress falling apart and surrounding Vayne.

"What is he doing?" Janos asked.

"Venat has joined with him. He has the power of the Occuria inside him now," Balthier deduced.

"Then how do we stop him?" Ashe asked.

"Come on, Ashe," Grace said. "If we've learned anything by now it's that anything dies if we beat it enough." She ran in, getting hit head on by a flare. I kept further back, firing arrows that only burned in the heat of the Mist. I flashed a light in my hand to try blind Vayne or turn his attention to me but to no avail. Vaan and Penelo were getting injured badly so I ordered them to stand back with me and use Magic. Fran was getting overwhelmed by the Mist and stumbled about, causing Balthier to help her.

"How do you suggest we tackle this?" Janos asked, firing his gun and stopping to reload. Penelo was casting White Magic around us all as none of our attacks, physical or Magical, were doing nothing against Vayne. All we could do was survive until his paling fell and even then we didn't know if we could damage him.

"Don't look at me, I don't know!" I snapped back at him, firing another arrow. It was then I noticed Grace's pouch glowing. The Manifacted Nethicite she had taken from Draklor. I ran to her but was hit in the shoulder by one of Vayne's flares. I dropped my bow, hitting the ground and grasping my shoulder. "Grace! Grace get up!" I shouted, hoping she'd hear me.

Lucifer and Basch had ran to Ashe and were shielding her from the flares, Lucifer taking most of the force to prevent Vayne from killing the Princess. Fran was nearly unconscious and Vayne was now targeting Vaan, Janos and Penelo. Grace was starting to get up and stared at Vayne before grabbing the item from her pouch. It was in the form of a bullet.

"Balthier!" She yelled over the noise. The Pirate looked at her when she got his attention. "Give me your gun!" He was straining to hear her over the battle and she tried again. "Just give me your gun! Trust me! Give me your gun! I know what I'm doing!" He eventually accepted her request, throwing the gun across the floor as it slid towards her. Vayne noticed this and aimed at her. Grace grabbed the gun and rolled to the side, unloading the weapon and placing her own bullet inside. She turned to Vayne and aimed. I saw her speaking to herself, as if remembering advice.

Then she fired. A great blast of Mist that was similar to the blast from the Dawn Shard and the Midlight Shard. It hit Vayne and swallowed him whole, sucking a great amount of Mist around us, absorbing almost everything it could before hitting us with a blast of Mist and air, killing Vayne.

We all stood when the air cleared, looking around at what we had done. We had killed Vayne. The war would be over now. Now everyone would be at peace.

"Look!" Penelo called out, pointing to a Resistance ship that was shot out of the sky. We looked to Ashe for our next move.

"We must speak to Ondore. We must stop them before this goes on any further," She said. Nodding along we all turned and started to run back to the Strahl.

"Hey! Where's Grace?" Vaan asked. We turned and noticed that she wasn't with us. She wasn't there at all. We all paused and stared at where she used to be. Not a trace of her. Then another ship was shot down.

"We've not got time to look for her," Balthier said. "We need to go. Now." It was sad but he was right. There was something more important going on, we had no time to look for her.