Jecht's note:OH HELL YEAH! JECHT TIME! I'm just here to warn that this chapter may cause spontaneous beard growth's, manly chest hair spurts, or muscle development! ALL THIS DUE TO PURE! RAW! JECHTNESS! So if you're a girl, have a copy of Twilight ready to counter it! Or any other girly stuff, because here is MY take on this story! I may or may not have permission to write this… BUT YEAH! JECHT OUT!
PS: I'M JECHT!
A Jechtating Struggle
Chapter Fifty-Three
When in Doubt… Knock Them Out!
Memories:
"Girl… when I first met you, you were so full of hatred." Kayser monologue in his mind, observing the massacre. Landing on top of one of the bats, Tina grabbed him by the skull, crushing it before using him as a throwing weapon to distract the rest of them. "And full of such wonderful power to go with it." Tina blasted through ten of the bats, now being hailed by Zus. All of the massive, eye-less black birds screeched as they savagely wrapped their beaks on the girls shinning skin, their black wings completely eclipsing her from sight.
"You're starting to piss me off!" The girl screamed, a mist oozing from the holes between the birds, congregating in an ice shell that engulfed the Zus, spontaneously combusting in an array of lightning. "Is that your best? Come on!" She shouted, but inside she was a lot more thoughtful. "Zus? Maybe it's a coincidence…"
"She reminds me so much of you… I mean me." Terra pointed out to her esper side. They were now floating in midair with the help of Naminé as they watched the scene unfold.
"Almost too much…" The esper snarled.
"Your wrath against humans made you so easy to manipulate, even with your so called code, when a war broke out, you were going to be attacked either way, you were such a powerful puppet..." He knew that his force was made only to wipe out humans, not one of the five strongest espers in existence. "What changed you? Your brother? No, you never listened to him… That human cub?" His eye then wandered downwards into the now spectating and disgustingly hopeful humans, he had nothing against humans, except that espers were strong, humans… weren't. That simply was a no go on his plan. And then there was Maduin. The shining example of averageness. He was a strong esper, nothing more nothing less. He had no human form and his esper form wasn't impressive, even less compared with Tina's Raijū-like appearance. But what was that? The humans didn't look at him suspiciously, at least some didn't, more so, the cub was apparently trying to relieve the mistrust, and succeeding to the less cynical ones who were thankful. This was a dire sign. First Tina herself made an appearance to save one of their cubs, and now the same cub had instilled trust on the humans? How would be the question, but he had more important things to worry about. "Tina has too much influence on our society… combined with this cities acceptance and Odin's betrayal, a peace-wanting faction is a very real possibility, and a peaceful end wouldn't be much far, considering how the Five Kings were. Leviathan was strictly against the war, Crusader was too logical in his actions, he didn't want a war per say, he wanted the espers to survive, and would do anything for that, Diablos was the only one that harbored hatred for humanity as a whole now that this girl had done an one-eighty. Bahamut… who was he fooling? The moment Tina told Bahamut to change sides he would. Damned dragon was completely lovestruck. He was snapped out of his thought as his servant roared in agony, Tina grabbing Deathgaze's skull and trying to separate it from its body. The monster twisted and turned but it couldn't process what to do as his skull cracked. He needed a clear view of its target, something like that didn't account for it being clinging to its back. Then it hit Kayser… just how to solve the problem once and for all. "Deathgaze! Death on the boy!" He ordered it was a win-win situation: either the girl protected him and died, or better, the boy died and Tina would go berserk, giving him a just cause to employ any course of action against her.
Time slowed for Tina as she found herself unwillingly throwing herself on the monster's line of sight, a cruel yellow spark hitting her square on the chest. "Why did I even do this?" She wondered as her body went numb and felt herself falling into the plains bellow.
Lost Records:
"Shiny girl!" The young boy cried, not knowing just what that spell meant, beginning to run towards the area Tina had fallen into.
"No, wait!" Maduin ordered, grabbing him by the shoulders. "It's too dangerous…" He saw it from the distance, the town was surrounded by… behemoths? "The Zus weren't a coincidence…" He looked around and found no man able to fight. Only teenagers, old men and fragile women and their children had been left behind. He wouldn't be able to hold back an entire horde of monster by himself. He just hoped that that worked.
Memories:
"W-Why are we still here?" Terra asked Naminé, wondering how someone could remember stuff that happened after her death.
"The memories aren't over yet…" Naminé replied. "I know as much about this as you, just wait and see."
They saw a Behemoth King slowly make his way to the crack that Tina made when she fell. The beast smelled the air in search of danger and found none. Kayser was already mentally clapping at the scene, Maduin wouldn't be hard to dispose of, and since Tina took so long to report, one could say she died on the last skirmish between the two factions. Still, all of his planning came to a blunder when the Behemoth tried to inspect the hole with his head. The head never made it out. Instead, what made it out was a VERY angry girl, blue lightning coursing around her body as she eyed him with the glare of the devil himself.
"MONSTERS? KAYSER! ARE WE USING MONSTERS?" Tina roared, the power behind her voice making the lesser behemoths cower in fear.
"I fail to see the problem. They are easy enough to control and they are not humans. In fact, if you look at them, what does REALLY set them apart from espers?" He replied in his smug voice.
"We…" she began, something inside being dangerously close to snapping. Something stopped her, as to why didn't, she could not really put her hand on it. From behind, a very vengeful Humbaba tried to surprise her with a hammering punch to the side but… "are not…" She continued, grabbing Humbaba's hand without even looking.
"Deathgaze, kill the boy!" Kayser ordered, seeing as Tina was in no position to block. He didn't understand how she was still alive, but that would have to be saved for later.
"…MONSTERS!" Tina boomed, in one swing throwing the massive green monster against the bat-like one, stopping the spell on a very imposing way. "Spellfusion: Absolute!" The esper chanted, a single icicle rising from the ground, touching the falling monsters and instantly freezing them. Their momentum didn't stop however, as they both landed on the sea they would be stuck on for about one thousand years. "Kayser… I SWEAR… I'll rip out your blind eyes! Now, who's next?"
"So this is where Ashe wound up." Vaan commented as he appeared inside the realm of the Occuria, on a plane hidden from any airship, high above the city. He wasn't entirely right though, this wasn't the circular platform where Ashe wound up, this was the entrance to a crystalline cathedral. The building was so grand and adorned that it made the castle at Rabanastre feel like a normal house in comparison. But, just like the Occuria, the mist blurred the details, maybe as a metaphor that no mortal eyes could even comprehend the beauty of this masterpiece. Still, Vaan isn't exactly thinking material 90% of the time, so his response was a simple: "Pretty nice place, pity I'm going to have to tear it down." He mused, summoning the Zodiac Spear just in case. He daringly walked up to the door and pressed his hands against it. Not surprisingly it didn't budge. "Gonna be sooner than expected!" He was almost happy to see his way barred. With one swing of the spear the door crumbled. To be fair this was probably the only way for him to get through, but really? The first reaction he had was, "well, let's send this priceless mark of architectural genius to the ground!" people these days, no appreciation for art…. ANYWAY, after waiting for the formerly marvelous door to finish crumbling, this tasteless jackass made his way into the cathedral. Inside, he was greeted by… his brother? "Reks?" He stuttered, reaching out for the figure in front of him, only to completely miss him, passing through the ethereal body. "Should have known…" He groaned as his brother turned into… something. An Occuria is something hard to describe. With no arms, legs or most human features, one could only compare it with a ghost, a ghost whose floating body was covered by armor, if it really was that. Its face was hollow, a black void with two yellow eyes that prodded onto the very soul of the sky pirate.
"Little Sky Pirate. For someone so small and rash very much great dead's you have accomplished. I care not if all has been in a misguided crusade to stop us, but an offer I must make." The god told Vaan in a deceitfully sympathetic tone.
"Oh… Oh this is rich!" The man began tearing himself apart with laughter. "Y-you're actually kissing up to me!" The irony of it was just too much, here they were, the beings that wanted everyone on Ivalice to subject to THEIR will, kissing up to a lowly thief. "I bet you're going to offer me some "great position" if I magically change my mind and side with you." If Occuria could grimace, there would be one big one on this one's face right now. "Well guess what bozo, if I agreed to ANY of your retarded psychologies, or even accepted any part of them without wanting to throw myself of a bridge, I wouldn't have just clobbered one of my closest friends from behind and nearly killed her husband, now would I?" Well, he might have been getting ahead of himself on the offerings, but he was right on pointing out just how desperate the Occuria were becoming. Why? I don't know, or maybe I do, but I'm the Narrator, my contract strictly imposes that I cannot spoil people, and I need the job, I mean, I'm working for this guy for a year now and with two fics to narrate, I'm living it big, I have a yacht a… FINE I'LL CONTINUE… jerky writer. Now! Where were we?"
"Wrong you are, human. I trust you know about our ability to wisp back the souls of the departed." The god replied, the reply he met wasn't exactly friendly.
"NO WAY! Show me pro- Oh, you mean like Rasler? Look, I'm not THAT stupid. Your point is?" He asked bitterly.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to relieve bonds that were taken away from you?" Gerun asked as he implied just what you think he was implying. He didn't expect the burst of laughter though, heck I didn't expect it when I read the scri… Too much fourth wall breaking? Cutting my salary back to the way it was before? Sorry guys, guess it's back to boring old me again…
"That! That is the oldest trick in the book, and let me tell you, you almost nailed it, if you had asked me that four years ago… I would said yes, if you acted right after we defeated Vayne. I would have said yes. But you forgot one thing, humans grow. Hell, I grow. There are certain things that you just don't do. Like dooming the world because you can't deal with death, that's almost like a temper tantrum. Sorry, but you'll have to do better than that." This reply wasn't calculated, Gerun was taken aback by it, something he refused to accept from a "monkey" but the being tried to regain his composure and prey on a more recent longing.
"What if I… made you to be nobility?" The being suggested. "Nay, far better, what if I made you my messenger? Forever to be at the Dynast Queen's side?" Again, this didn't work out the way he intended, it was as if he had just thrown oil onto an already flaming house.
"Oh, you think you're smart, huh? That guy likes that girl, that guy will essentially hand over the world for her-NO! That's retarded. The very reason I'm here is because I didn't get blinded by any emotion, god knows how hard that was. Now, you're probably thinking, "how can I reason with this guy", well, you can't you're a plague that's overstayed it's "welcome"!" He exclaimed, taking heavy steps towards the god.
"HOLD! HOLD I SAY!" Gerun shouted. "A wish! Any wish! I shall grant you any wi-" Vaan watched amazed as the specter's armor became deformed as a single, bare fist came from nowhere and slammed itself into his face.
"BOYAH!" The manly voice shouted, his bare feet touching the floor for more impulse, projecting his body forward so the arm coiled again and then unleashing the newfound strength to complete the most satisfying punch Vaan had ever seen. Whoever this guy was, he liked him already. The Occuria leader was sent flying through four pillars and an altar. Do I really need to say who this guy was? "Ya know, when I woke up today I got that feeling this would be one of those swell days… and by the grace of whoever is awesome enough for me to admire, it is!"
"Noel, what's bothering ya?" Xion asked, dragging Roxas with her so he would stop examining Naminé every five seconds to see if she wasn't feverish or weak.
"Amnesia sucks." Riku told them, appearing from behind the vase. "What? Did you really think he was talking to himself?"´
"Exac-"Xion began.
"NO! My line!" Noel intervened aggressively, taking everyone aback. "Sorry… it just happens sometimes." He said sincerely. "What Riku said was right. I was TRYING to remember stuff. Naminé basically told me that if she even touches my memories I can go comatose, I have to find a "string" for her to follow… that' easier said than done." Or was it?
"Well, want us to do something for you? Can we help?" Xion offered, ticking off both men but Noel due to "personal reasons".
"Well, unless you conjure up pieces from my past, sorry, but nope." He replied, sighing in disappointment.
"I can try! ABRACABRA!" You want to know the funny part? That actually worked! Okay, not REALLY but as soon as Xion chanted the words, yelling and waving her arms in very over-the top way, a man bolted out of a surge of light on her side and tackled Riku by accident. The man then looked around nervously and locked eyes with Noel.
"Noel! Finally found you!" He exclaimed happily.
"It… it worked?" Xion gasped, bouncing up and down in excitement. "I'm going to Hogwarts!"
"If this guy doesn't get off me, I'll slam both of you against the brick wall in the middle of platforms 9 and 10! Let's see how you like platform 9¾!" Riku exclaimed, receiving an apologizing smile from the man and a frightened look from the raven haired "mage".
"Snow?" Noel exclaimed at the sight of the giant man. Dressed in a black trench coat thorn around the edges, matching black pants and a red undershirt, black gloves, his hair was swept back light blond hair that reached almost his shoulders and his eyes were light blue. Most importantly this man was 2 meters tall! That's 6'7 feet! He made everyone, even Riku who was taller than average, feel like gnomes.
"Just after you disappeared when Serah fell dead… I arrived! She's not dead Noel! She's changed NOEL! Hope's afraid of her! a lot of people are changing to be like her! Worshipping fanatically the goddess!" The man was grabbing Noel and shaking him violently, to the point where Noel could barely think. To be fair, neither could Snow, he was completely out of himself.
"Snow! Slow down! I can barely remember stuff. Tell me what happened." Noel replied, trying to break up the iron grip, only succeeding because Snow decided to stop. "I don't remember anything after Caius, and even that's blurry."
"Well, that's normal, you see Noel, that fight, and everything after it… doesn't exist."
Ramza felt the air itself trying to cut him as he dodged the Save the Queen by a hair. The man then swept at Delita's legs with his Chaos Blade, forcing him to jump back instead of upwards, he knew that upwards was a trap. You see, that as the part that Ramza couldn't deny about Delita, when something was in his head, he saw it through. Still, whatever was in his head, it had long been corrupted by jealousy.
"Hallowed Bolt!" Ramza chanted at the same time Delita chanted:
"Divine Ruination!" Delita always tried to go for the most damaging one, even if it could miss easily. And that's what happened, Ramza managed to dodge while Delita was stuck in the middle of lightning and light. Strangely, that didn't faze him as much as Ramza thought it would. "See? It doesn't hurt me!"
"Delita. I'll ask again, why? Just drop the façade, you're not fooling the one who once called you a brother." Ramza could feel it, Delita would never go insane like this.
"So… it didn't work after all, did it?" The man in the yellow armor asked in a more collected, rational tone.
"You haven't the need to hide behind farces for a duel Delita, I owe you such a debt." Ramza told him as they danced with their blades, the clashes exploding in a rain of sparks.
"Aye, but what is there to prove that you have given it your all, against a true enemy, not a former comrade?" Even if he did say that, the manner of speech and even the words they used were going back, back to when they grew up together, back when trivial things like nobility mattered. Delita hadn't realized it yet, but he was beginning to trivialize what he scarred the world for.
"My word." Ramza replied simply, trying to freeze his "enemy" with the crystal coming from his Judgment Blade.
"What value has your word?" Delita replied, breaking the spell with the crimson blade of his Northwain's Strike.
"A whole lot more than yours." Now that threw sympathy out the window.
"True." Delita replied with a chuckle. Friendships can be twisted too. "Then, I trust it, let us go Ramza, the one showdown we never had!"
"How long have I waited…" Ramza replied, both men casting Divine Ruination as the light engulfed them both.
Gerun began slowly… wha- out of my room!
Fuck no! You get outta my fight! I'm narrating this shit!
On whose orders?
My fist's!
Not the face!
Thought so ya crybaby! Now, as he was saying, that floating thing was trying to recover from my manliness filled punch, but I woke him up from his dream with a foot in his face! "Hah, try to put up a fight!" I screamed, unimpressed with the challenge the supposed god was giving me. I began to think I should have just switched places with them. Oh right, prissypants didn't tell ya did he? Headphones kid told me to go on ahead to the cathedral where supposedly the boss of these things was while they held back the monsters the lesser ones summoned. Since I beat the crap out of people alone, I decided to say yeah sure, but now that I think of it, maybe it would have been better if I had stayed outside… nah, who am I kiddin', just after I told him to man up, the O-oc… the white thing began covering himself in mist, at first I was all like, "The hell? Stop hiding ya coward!" But then he was all like:
"Poor battle maddened man, behold, the creature that you living beings once looked on as a god!" I don't know where he got that, Garland was battle maddened, I was just manly. Extremely manly might I add. Still, what I saw was freaking awesome! He turned into a dragon… a FREAKING DRAGON! How badass does "Dragonslayer Jecht" sound? Did I just melt your brains? Sorry! Wait, no I'm not! Master of deception! Well, then the kid tried to say something like.
"Oh Jecht, you're so awesome and manly, I wish I could be like you! Can I have your autograph?" To what I responded.
"Sure Kid, just after I single-handedly blow up this freaking dra-" What?
You know Jecht, I think you're a cool guy, a downright awesome guy at that, and I'm willing to put up with you having a little fun with your battle, but if you by so much TOUCH the dialogue or the plot, I'll make so Gerun uses a once in a lifetime spell that turns a person into a cardboard copy of Edward.
Oh, like that's bad, I like Full Metal Alchemist…
Cullen.
YOU WOULDN'T DARE!
Try me.
Well, as you heard, to avoid turning into a fairy I have to keep inside the limitations. What the kid really said was:
"I don't know who the heck are you, but trust me on this one, this guy can take a BIG beating." The guy trusted me probably because I was so freaking awesome, but the author wrote something about him faintly feeling a melancholy like he had met me. OF COURSE HE DID! WHO FORGETS JECHT? I of course, got excited to meet a new punching bag and I did just that, punched it in the FACE! It... didn't work as expected. What am I saying? I totally expected it to do little to no damage and getting a face full of tail! It was just to test out the waters! Anyway, I got projected backwards but landed on my feet, like a MAN. Lesse here, here's the description of this fu… lly grown dragon? He was strange really, body was ALL covered in armor, wings and horn included. Mostly silver armor with violet marking, maybe that was skin, but whatever. It also had these really weird circles with blue outlining, orange inside and a whole in the middle, on its face, wings and tail. Okay, that's enough following the scrip, when I landed, blonde kid told my magnificent self:
"I told you, Yiazmat can take a beating. You might need some help." He told me, taking off his glove. "You might wanna cover your eyes though!" The impotence, the only thing that stopped was... hic…
How drunk are you Jecht?
This is only the third gourd… of vodka!
I'm going to call the usual narrator back…
Screw you, at least let me narrate myself!
Fine, when the scene changes, you go away.
Kay.
"From above the twelve constellations I summon you! Oh strongest of espers, sealed away by the gods in fear! Oh child of absolute might, come to my aid!" The lad was spouting some nonsense, but the dragon or whatever it wasn't liking it one bit.
"Stop! You do not comprehend the weight of your actions!" The thing yelled, charging at the kid, but yours truly pulled up his sleeves and grabbed its tail.
"Lemme return the…" I spun him right round, like a record I spun him right round… hic… And I threw him against the freaking a-altar! Let me drink a bit more, just… a… bit… more…
Slam.
Finally got my job back! Good riddance. Well then, as he said, he slammed Yiazmat singlehandedly to the altar inside the cathedral, which I have to admit, was pretty impressive, as Vaan finished his chant. By now twelve constellations had surrounded the floor around him as a thirteenth followed on the center.
"OPEN! The gate to Ophiuchus! Zodiark, the Keeper of Percepts!"
"What?" Bahamut shouted as he watched Edge cut the slave crown from Drace.
"My lord?" Rydia asked preoccupied at the gravity of his expression.
"Nothing Rydia, as long as he is not stupid enough to break the seal completely… nothing." These words rang as a mystery to the trio, but there was nothing they could do for they didn't know the way into the crystal. So, they set off to find someone who could, namely Vayne or Illua.
"Absolute madness!" Fafnir exclaimed, for a moment gazing off into the distance. Rasler took this chance to jump on top of one of the skeleton soldiers and carve his sword onto the monstrosities head, ending its life instantly.
"Foolish mortal!" Mist began seething from the body and from it emerged an Occuria. "Do you not see, this very world hangs in the balance because one of you is slowly undoing what we worked for in centuries past!" Rasler didn't care anymore, he had two spears carve on his back and one sword had barely missed his spine. His left eye was losing his vision and the only thing that made him think he could get out of this alive was the fact that he had a person that could heal resting near him… if she woke up in time.
"Good… if he wasn't… then he'd have thrown everything away without a fight…" He gasped, looking around to see the wave of monsters not wavering in number, like they were without end. "Until then… you won't get past me…"
"Shin… you felt it didn't you?" Shinryu asked of his human creation as they jumped down from Deudalaphon, the Benevolent to stab Emet-Selch, Angel of Truth.
"Not the time to worry about that!" He replied as he cut down the giant. "Let's fix this THEN go inside."
"There's not exactly much to fix…" Sora pointed out.
"Holy…!" Silver-Surfer Layle, or whatever you call the crystal infused version of him stood in the middle of the defeated bodies of five of the Scions of Light that were the antitheses to the Espers the Ivalicians could use.
"Crystal does wonders for your health!" Layle joked, flexing.
"Now that that's over with…" Neku was taking this as a usual occurrence, flipping a pin in apathy. "This pin… can seal gods." The pin depicted a golden and silver sword with a ruby on the hilt. "I do need to…" The sword manifested on his hand, this wasn't usual with pins, so the thing must've been really special. "Cut it though. Not a shell he hides in, the real thing."
"Then what the hell are you here for? Let's get inside!" Zack urged, everyone nodding as they ran to the cathedral.
Something sent shivers down Terra's spine, both of them, jolting awake for a few seconds.
"What the…" The esper mumbled.
"I felt it too…" Terra told herself.
"What did you feel?" Naminé asked confused.
"I… don't know. Like something that never should never happen… happened." Terra tried to explain. "But there's nothing I can do… I can't even move my legs. Let's continue." She asked of the girl.
"Alright, you want it, I'll skip to the end of that little skirmish." Understatement of the century.
Memories:
"Shiny…?" The boy called. It had been minutes since the uproar on the outside of the city had ended, the only sound that littered the silence covering the village was the breath of the wind. Many a people had already left, trying to save some of the burning houses, as Humbaba had caused reactor's and fuel to catch on fire, the city wasn't an inferno, but there was a lot of smoke. And then, from the smoke a figure appeared. At first no one could be sure, but after a few seconds. "SHINY!" The kid screamed in excitement as her ran towards the figure. It was almost a miracle, but besides some scratches, bruises and a lot of dirt, Tina was unscathed. Kayser had also retreated by now, so the people of the city joined the kid in cheering for their improbable hero.
"Never thought I'd see the day." Maduin commented, shaking his head in both approval and surprise.
"Bed… noooooooowww…" Tina mumbled, fumbling into the kids arms, taking both to the ground. A small round sphere came rolling from her hand, one that Maduin grabbed, smiled and said:
"Figures…" As he grabbed Tina and asked the mother where the house was.
"Will they never stop?" Rasler deflected a spear from a skeleton but soon felt the horn of a behemoth pierce his leg. He fell to the ground as his only good eye began being covered by the blood from the blow to the head. "Can't do this much longer…" His vision kept getting darker the same behemoth knocked him away, rolling until he finally hit Ashe. "No…" He told himself, clenching his fist as he took a look at the woman who seemed to be in a troubled sleep. "Just…a bit… longer!" He cried out, with only instinct driving the sword right into the charging ring wyrm's brain. He had stood up but between the blood and flaws from his vision he saw… two Humbaba Mistants and a Behemoth King, the last of the army. With a sick and tired smile he limped towards the battle without even a weapon. "Hurry it up…"
It was… a baby snake? All that for a baby snake? A floating one surrounded by a horse-shoe like metal contraption that seemed to bind him, but it was a baby snake snarling that made the God turned dragon take several steps backwards.
"To summon him in our realm, have you any conception of what this may bring?" Gerun stuttered as he stared with his "heart" pumping in fear.
"You down!" Vaan replied with a smirk. "Bring you down."
"The scion we sealed away at its youth and still surpassed gods. Who are you to endanger Ivalice, nay, the living world in this manner, do you think yourself a god?" The being asked, Jecht being surprisingly calm, probably scouting the esper for signs of power.
"Well, no, but you're not one to talk, now are you?" Vaan shot back, clearing his throat and reciting. "God: A being with both omniscience and omnipotence. That's my definition of it. Since you're none of it, you just call yourselves that so you can stroke your ego."
"Such insu-"
"Zodiark, have fun." Vaan interrupted, the very soul of the Occuria, if he had one, freezing as the screech filled the air. Stars formed around the baby, bolting in the dragon's direction and annihilating one of his wings as they severely damaged thee others. And that was just Zodiark's most basic attack.
"Whoa, that guy sure does pack a punch!" Jecht said excitedly.
"HOLD! HOLD I SAY!" Gerun shouted, but a glyph of darkness formed around the baby, exploding in an array of darkness known as Darkja, completely obliterating is shell and leaving only the specter. "You care not for what may happen to your companions?" Gerun was desperate enough to go for a gamble at this point, what was that gamble? Between him and his enemies appeared a glyph, but this one was different, this one showed images.
"No…"
"You're late… Liquid." A man taunted as the clone made his way into a new factory.
"Caius… shut it. Shouldn't you be licking that Valkyrie's boots by now?" The two exchanged an angry glare before Caius replied.
"I am here only to command the troops, do not worry, once Hojo returns with another, I shall leave." It was obvious they didn't like eachother, something must have happened while he was dead.
"Ah yes, Hojo, he is?" He asked, referring as to where the deranged scientist.
"In the living world, visiting some family…" Caius replied with a smile.
A lone throne in the midst of ruins. A woman sitting on it. By her side, another woman and a silver haired man.
"Sephiroth, give your father a hug!" Hojo cackled madly.
Memories:
"Wh-where the hell am I?" Tina wondered as she opened her eyes, looking around to find herself on a bed inside a modest apartment, unknowingly being watched.
"Is this the boy's house?" Terra wondered before she saw the boy race up the stairs with the mother of all breakfasts. Seriously, you know how people complain about bacon, eggs and sausages? Three plates of that!
"Your little brother told me you ate a lot, so we made a lot of food!" He exclaimed happily, laying the table right on her lap.
"Thanks…" She replied with slightly less aggressive tone than normal. She wanted to eat in peace and think about what had just transpired, but nope, not gonna happen.
"Sooooo… what is this?" He showed her the sphere she had dropped. She sighed and decided to entertain the kid.
"This is a Safety bit." She said, grabbing it and pointing it towards the morning sun. "It protects against some nasty spells, it's the reason I'm talking to you today." She explained, handing it back to the kid. "You can play with it until I leave, okay?"
"Hum… Shiny, can you lie down with your face to the pillow?" He requested. Tina just couldn't resist the puppy eyes the kid gave and she had miraculously ate everything by then so she complied. Only when she was lying down did she realize that she was obeying and had actually grown to care for this kid, a human! She pretty much demonized humans, only showing mercy and restraint due to honor and not wanting to become like them, but this kid was… ruffling her hair really bad! "Kid, what are you doing up there?" She asked.
"Relax! Where did you get the sphere anyway? Big Bro has one aswell!" There was just no end to his curiosity, now was there? Tina sighed and actually did reveal.
"My mother gave us both one of those to keep us safe. It's a keepsake." She replied, enduring both the grueling torture to her hair and her dilemma, what had changed?
"Well, so it's just like this!" he exclaimed, confusing Tina. "Get up Shiny!" He asked, pointing at the mirror. Tina didn't care much for appearances, but she was blinded… by herself! The most beautiful pink ribbon she had ever seen now tied her hair into a ponytail that made her the carbon copy to our heroine. We might be used to it, but for her it was a completely different story. "That ribbon is a memento from my grandmother! She says it protects you from anything!"
Wait was this a…"This A RIBBON? The magical ones?" Now that she mentioned it, she felt a strong latent magic in one of the strongest relics in the world. She so happened to have got on her hair one.
"Yupers! And it's yours!" He said as he jumped up and down.
"But… this is priceless!" Why was he being so kind to her? She killed his father for god's sake.
"My dad hit my mom when he drank… I loved him, but I know he did bad things to you and your friends. I don't blame you! You're like my big sister!" He shouted, jumping to her chest.
"B-b-big sister?" She fumbled at the advance, one part trying to shake him off while the other wanted to squeeze him to death… in a good way. "Tsk, damn eight year olds…"She told herself with a smile. She decided before she even needed to think. With the kid still hugging her, she went down the stairs, called Maduin who was bearing a disgusting smile on his face and headed towards the door.
"Where you going?" The child asked when Tina decided to lay him down. It was so sudden.
"Don't worry, I'll keep you safe…" She looked around. "I'll keep everyone who deserves safe… Keep this close to you…" She touched her Safety bit and started walking away, Maduin following her as the whole city watched on silently.
"Isn't this important to you?" He yelled.
"So was the Ribbon, wasn't it? The things that matter to you… are the only presents worth giving." The kid had no way to respond to that, he only grabbed the sphere tightly and nodded.
"Be back soon!" He exclaimed.
"Count on it!" She replied with a hand held up.
"Where are we going?" Maduin asked, already knowing the answer.
"Where else?" She looked upwards. "The Moon, little brother!"
Rasler had no weapon. He struggled to move, managing to dodge one of the Mistant's claymore, it becoming carved into the ground. Now, this man had two spears AND a sword on his back, and still kept going. He even grabbed the claymore three times bigger than himself and used it to slice its owner in half. The other Mistant did his best attempt to ambush him, hut he expected it and with his one good leg he jumped from his claymore to his head, pulling out one of his spears and piercing the creature's brains with it, instantly terminating it. Still, life is not only fairy tales. He got violently heaved upwards from behind by the king.
"DAMNIT!" Vaan yelled against the glyph. "Don't let him eat you!" The monster had opened his mouth, waiting for his prey… it was then that. "ASHE GET UP!"
Rasler had already given up a long ago, even if falling to the LAST monster was just downright sad… Until he opened his eyes and fell on a limp body. Well, half a body to be sure. As if Ashe had heard Vaan, she rose from her slumber, seeing her former husband in danger and cleaved the King with one fell swing of the Treaty Blade.
Happy reunion? Far from it, they didn't even share a word before…
"ASHELIA!" Rasler shouted, jumping towards the queen and putting his body between her and the menace behind her. It did not work.
Vayne's blade went right through the two.
"How fitting, the dog and his bitch skewered together." Vayne snarled as he let go off Gabranth's stiff body.
"A-Ashe…" Vaan cried, his hand wandering to the glyph, seemingly a broken man.
"No way…" Zack gasped, they arrived just in time… for the murder.
The worse was… Vaan's hand went through it. It actually went to the other side of it, it was a PORTAL!
"How do you feel? To know you could have helped them but only watched? To not have guessed when your voice reached here… you are the one at fault here!" Gerun's gamble seemingly paid off, He had broken the man… but little did he know that those were THE most dangerous ones. For everyone.
"Zodiark…"
"CHILD! DON'T!" Bahamut ordered as he appeared out of nowhere, but it was too late.
"I release you from your chains…"
He had just broken the seal, the millennia old seal.
Next Chapter:
"This is beyond a human's imagination."
"You cannot judge me, for I am Justice itself!"
"Never thought I'd have to make an appearance…"
Post-cha…
YOU KILLED ASHE? I SHOULD RIP YOUR EYES OUT! WAIT A MINUTE! I THINK I WIL!
Hey, it was the logical way to…
I DON'T CARE! SHE HAD BOOBS! GODMANIT MAN! SHE HAD BOOBS!
Calm down Jecht! Hey narrator! Help me out here!
Sorry Herald, I also was a fan of her.
Your job is forfeit!
YOUR ASS IS FORFEIT!
WAIT….!
