All he had to do was break the connection.
Vivi broke through unguarded layers to enter the mind of yet another person who didn't deserve this. She couldn't feel it without prior experience and it wasn't like he would take over without permission.
"Hi," he said to her. "My name is Vivi. That man with the red hair, his name is Amarant. He's my friend and I'm here to try to break him out. But I'm dead, so I need someone's help. Can I borrow your body for a bit?"
Rinoa couldn't take her eyes off the man that struggled with the room of collected powers. "Quistis, didn't you say there was a voice talking to you?"
Quistis stiffened. "Auron. I regretted listening to him."
Vivi felt a sinking dread before Vanille waved her staff. "That was before we came to terms with the council! They should be on our side, now!"
"If you're sure."
"Thanks, Rinoa! Amarant, it's me! Vivi!"
Vanille startled and Gadot covered her position. Amarant cast Vivi a dulled look after slapping Zell away. "I thought the dead figured nothing is worth getting involved in."
"This is the universe at stake!"
Amarant kept fighting, motions dreadful and heavy.
"I know it's hard to understand, but it doesn't matter because we're still friends." Vivi put his—er, Rinoa's foot down. "You helped us save our world and you made that decision on your own. We need that help again!"
Cait Sith caught Amarant by the face and blocked his eyes. Gadot landed a bullet in his foot and Snow tackled him to the ground.
Once they pinned him down, Amarant pulled lazily at his restraints. "I'm not a hero."
"You know better than that, you still saved the world! You can come back to us and we'll fight together again."
"We went our own ways after that and we weren't supposed to see each other again."
Vivi grit his teeth and resorted to Amarant's line of thinking. "This isn't what you want. You're a mercenary, you do things your own way! What about our world? Our home?"
Amarant twitched. Vivi bit back tears. But he didn't want to cry while borrowing Rinoa's eyes because he heard they hurt afterward.
"Alexandria and Lindblum. Burmecia. You know, Zidane is probably wondering why you haven't shown up for another rematch in so long—"
"This…" Amarant gave up struggling. His shards went to Snow. "Suicide. Distraction."
Vivi felt a thrill of hope. "Yes, remember who you are! Come back to us!"
Amarant lapsed into convulsing seizures. Vanille took to his side with white magic.
"You shouldn't be here." Amarant's voice weakened, breathing growing unsteady. The shaking got worse. "He… isn't here."
"Calm down, deep breaths." Vanille knelt beside him, voice soothing, still trying to cast white. His body refused it.
"He?" Snow asked. "Maqui? Or Bhunivelze?"
Amarant twitched. "The Lord… of all Light."
"You know where he is?" Eight asked.
Vanille's motions turned desperate, trying to force the magic into his veins.
Fang knelt beside Amarant, anger in her eyes, and repeated Eight's question. "Where is he?"
Amarant's eyes grew frenzied. He choked out, "Gaia VII."
Vivi felt frozen to the spot. Rinoa's body wouldn't move and he couldn't think enough to do it himself.
"I couldn't see what happened."
Bhunivelze spoke to the small presence that existed in His mind. The little one that He broke centuries before.
Once, He felt rage for the rebellion of beasts. Now, He recognized how little they were. He was unknown to them, due to Etro's interference.
Hope did not reply. Bhunivelze caught the shadow of confusion and uncertainty, two feelings that tainted his own self as disgusting contamination.
"Understood I that human bodies are fragile things, yet I could not recognize that so great was this fragility that my mere presence would unravel them."
Still no response. How… irritating in light of this momentous revelation. Perhaps in His efforts to understand the properties of the soul and bring this wayward piece of one to heel, He caused more damage.
Bhunivelze felt something new, one spurred on by Hope's silence. It was not anger… it was an emptiness, brought about by lack. A curious sensation, maddening though it felt.
"Death is not meant for Gods, yet if I remain within my prepared vessel, it could be my end. Speak. I command you to end this noncompliance."
"… This is an unacceptable outcome."
"Indeed."
Hope's presence… shivered. "You're leaving?"
"This body will not survive the transition."
Hope did not respond. In the end, he was just a vessel.
Vivi dropped control of the body and Rinoa broke through.
Amarant's body gave out and the spirit separated.
Vanille fought to bring him back. Quistis shook her head at the sight and turned away, muttering about all the paperwork.
Deuce and Eight communicated with Valhalla over their mental link, sharing what they learned. Trey said nothing.
Fang still knelt beside Vanille and left a hand on her shoulder. Shook her head and whispered that it was time to give up.
Rinoa looked at Quistis and Zell, confused. They spoke, but the words dulled to Vivi. They sounded tense and unsure.
Amarant laid still. He didn't twitch or blink.
This wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to kill Amarant, he was supposed to save him and guide him back to his world. What went wrong? And… where did his soul go?
Save the body! Vivi cried from Rinoa's mind. She startled and backed away from the others. She whispered apologetic words to Vivi and told him it wasn't his fault.
"I mean it!" He forced himself to the front like he wasn't supposed to. Vanille, Zell, Eight, and Deuce all looked at him.
"Save the body," Vivi repeated. "Vanille, ward off the natural processes that want to break the body down into nutrients. Put the body in a fridge or something, anything—wait. No, Rinoa, freeze it in a pocket of time and keep it there."
Rinoa wavered in the back of his mind. The forcing of his presence before hers shocked the system and he realized her body didn't move like it should
Vivi apologized and left instructions in the back of her mind. She knew time well enough to preserve this one.
"Fang," he said through Rinoa. "Please send whatever help you can from Yeul and Dajh. I'm going to go find his spirit."
Fang nodded and Vivi disconnected from Rinoa. Amarant's soul had to linger around here somewhere, it had to.
He traveled the world through the invisible paths the dead moved along in their journeys.
Irvine expected a loud entrance when he finally met the guy that everyone complained about ruining their lives. He expected blasts of magic and screams of fear. He expected terror and confusion.
Instead, a boy wearing checkers approached him, flanked by Ellone, a fair-colored gunman, and a young mage. Ellone threw an adult mage at his feet, whose trailing braid told him this was Leonora's "Palom." Blood, cuts, bruises, and dirt covered what he could see despite the layers of cloth and Irvine forced himself to look away.
"I don't know this man," Irvine said.
"You don't have to." The checkered boy approached Irvine with a quiet confidence that didn't sit right with the smallness of his body. "I've learned to speak your brutal language, human, and that language is built on pain and suffering. This is a message. A veritable poem by your standards, isn't it?"
"Not mine."
The boy gave him a twitch of the mouth, and leaned in. "I'll continue to prove you wrong in every aspect if you challenge me. But I grow weary of teaching the same lessons over and over again."
"Good." Irvine leaned in to match his distance. They were close enough for Irvine to make out the unsettling black and blue of this kid's eyes. He smelled like hospital linens and something expired. "I'll spare you the lesson-teaching."
The thing narrowed its eyes. Irvine leaned back and pulled his shotgun free. He fired at the sky.
Bhunivelze flinched at the sound and stepped back. "You think that'll scare me?"
Irvine shoved the shotgun away again. He didn't know what to say to stall Bhunivelze, so Irvine kept quiet and hopefully as confident-looking as Seifer would.
Fujin pressed herself to the street and listened to the Lifestream murmur beneath her. The gravel bit into her cheek and the rumble of distant feet made it hard to focus. But she heard the telling hum of curious souls. Though they couldn't speak to the sentient minds here, there laid a well of history and power just beneath them. That and a connection to the beyond she couldn't find anywhere else.
"There's the signal," Seifer said.
Fujin closed her eyes. "Almost."
"We can't sit here forever."
Distant whispers sounded back as a promise.
"Received." Fujin pushed and found herself dizzy. She stood and the ground wavered. "Go."
Seifer went ahead. Fujin's stomach churned and she turned to vomit into the gutter. Her body rejected the dead presence ready to take her, but Fujin wouldn't let her or Seifer fall to this plague.
She forced herself forward despite the unsteadiness of her feet. Her bad eye throbbed, so she tore away the eyepatch. People stared as she struggled to follow Seifer. She could swear this place turned greener since they got here.
It wasn't far between here and Irvine's rendezvous point. And the Lifestream whispered of allies arriving.
Lebreau got there first.
Irvine waited on the bench while Bhunivelze's little toy of a child watched him. She counted herself lucky that he was stupid enough to wait and see what Irvine's shot did.
Lebreau stopped out of their sight and took aim. If she got the boy's head free, she might kill that thing. The thought felt too good to be true.
Something struck her hand and Lebreau fired off-center. She found a bloodied ice spike in the wall behind her and a new cut on her firing hand.
Arc looked her way as what remained of the square-goers ran for cover. Lebreau cursed him and readied her other hand.
Seifer barreled into view and punched out the lady opposite Arc. Leonora joined him with blasts of ice and fire that forced Arc away from the puppet. Palom stirred at Irvine's foot. The blond guy with the pistol barely moved. Like the puppet.
Lebreau fired again. He stopped it with a gesture. She fired again. And again. She kept at it until she finally hit him, and he dropped.
With a sickening thrill, Lebreau wrenched her weapon away. She couldn't hit anyone else.
Paine charged in, deathly silent before she engaged Arc. Ace joined her in a burst of black and red smoke.
It felt like tingling in his fingers. He hated that, but it didn't matter because he wouldn't live much longer.
He wanted that to comfort him. The idea of fading to nothingness should be better than this. Anything should be better than this.
He didn't want to feel the pain of the dying body he was stuck in. Didn't want to see the state of the world, didn't want to risk seeing anyone.
Cold weight against him. Or, no, he pressed against it. Lying on stone?
Prompto touched Hope's shoulder, but he remembered Hope wouldn't know his intent. Bhunivelze wouldn't either because Prompto thought with his heart and not his mind. He moved with emotion and acted on impulse instead of logic.
And now Bhunivelze was ready to give up on humans with their illogical antics. The humans that remained ever elusive in their motivations and strangers still in their ambitions. Bhunivelze could never understand why Prompto did what he did.
Bhunivelze, who just left Hope and dropped into the planet itself in a flash of white light.
Instincts kicked in and Lebreau closed her eyes. This had to be a trap to catch them and kill them while they couldn't even see—
It faded. She forced her eyes open to see light emitting from Bhuni's vessel. He looked up and froze, panic in his eyes. How did he stand after that?
Another burst of light and Bhunivelze vanished with Arc, Palom, and the dark-haired girl.
Seifer screamed profanity and rushed the last guy with Ace, only for an earthquake to rip the ground asunder and send everyone sprawling.
When Lebreau found her feet again, she couldn't find her gun. Where—
Fujin approached them, glowing green and holding out a hand like she controlled the broken ground. Fujin glowered at Bhunivelze's remaining pawn and they shared something in their looks.
Then Fujin threw him into the exposed planet's magic.
Paine jumped back as the cracks expanded, wider and wider until eventually they slowed. Then she screamed and rammed her blade straight into a dirt patch between the crappy, displaced stones that used to make up the road.
She should have moved faster. She shouldn't have doubted.
That damned girl in the lacy dress kneeled on the ground, crying and useless. Seifer cursed and Fujin joined him. Lebreau just looked stunned.
Something in the air changed. Darkened? No, lost color. Like vibrancy just faded, leaving only pure white light.
They missed something.
"Different," Fujin said.
A sickening presence grew about them. Light pain pricked at her heart. Little more than an irritation, but the last nail in a coffin.
"Who're you?" Seifer demanded of Ace, who introduced himself. The others backed him up.
Paine took the arm of the sobbing girl. "We can't stay here."
Leonora looked up at her with swollen eyes.
Paine pulled her to her feet. "You coming or not?"
"And where are you going?" Lebreau asked.
Something about the situation clicked into place, like the possibility of it occurred before. "To find a way to cut souls straight out of the planet." Paine made for the biggest building she saw.
"You'd better start making sense pretty quick." Seifer caught up to her and matched her stride. He could be pretty dimwitted, but he was willing to get down and dirty and they needed that.
"That vessel was empty. Bhunivelze's moved on to the planet."
Leonora's broken voice made her difficult to understand. "We almost just… killed a child?"
"Not for the first time," Ace said, voice low.
They kept talking it out, trying to understand everything that had just happened. Ideas floated about and concepts flipped around. They didn't manage to form a coherent picture before Paine tuned out.
There wouldn't be any leaving this world, but it didn't matter. With Bhunivelze inside the planet, she would keep as close as possible.
Another rumble and the earth broke. Paine shoved Leonora out of the way of a falling pole. Something caught her in the back and knocked her against the street.
Zack watched, stunned, as Bhunivelze vanished from the surface of his home world and just… disappeared.
Mateus appeared in a short burst of light before Ultimecia joined him and he said, "Looks like the God of Light just sped up his schedule."
Zack asked, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that Bhunivelze's moved beyond mere puppets made of flesh and bones and set his eyes on a larger goal."
Aerith moved to stand beside Zack. "You mean the worlds and their eternities."
"You would know, wouldn't you?" Ultimecia said. "How will the Council react to knowing you've been possessed, my dear?"
"What are they saying?" Zack asked of Aerith.
She bowed her head. "It's only a matter of time before Bhunivelze takes over the Lifestream for good. It will take a while, given Eternities aren't exactly easy to learn, but he will manage it if we leave him alone. And in the meantime…"
"Can't exactly trust a spirit that's been eaten by our foe." Mateus stood for the first time that Zack saw him and gestured. "How would you prefer that we discard you, my dear?"
"Not yet." Aerith turned to Zack and took his hands in hers. "I love you."
"I love you, too, but is this really the time to—?"
Something burned inside him, and Zack stumbled back. Aerith still stood and shed a single tear before a green light enveloped her and she vanished. Mateus shook his head.
"A pity," said Ultimecia. "I think she was the only one here that I liked."
Mateus said, "You weren't the only one. That's our problem, after all—this beast knows value when he sees it and I can't imagine how long the Lifestream's fought off his attention."
A stunned silence accompanied them and Lunafreya shortly appeared with grim solemnity to her face.
"Our battle grows the more challenging," she said. "We must prepare against the coming tide if we are to face this together."
Mateus looked out over the cosmos. "For once, I agree."
Zack only remembered Aerith's final words.
