A.N. Okay, this is me trying out a new writing style. I hope you guys like it. Anyway, you know the drill. "This is speech" *This is Thought* Also, this entire chapter is Lightning's P.O.V. So no questions about it.
I walked back with Dark to the Airship, everyone else having beat us. "Well, did you guys get what you needed?" Balthier asked us when we got back.
"Yeah. Tell Fran to head to Tycoon. We're going to chase him from there." Dark said. He then started walking off in the direction of his room. I tried to follow him, but Squall stopped me.
"Hey, Do you think we could Spar sometime? I think that we should be ready for anything that Caius may have in store for us, so I wanted to try and prepare for anything and everything." He asked me. I scoffed, pulled out my Gunblade in Gun mode, and pointed it to his nose. "I get it. Another time then." He said, walking away. I lowered my weapon, but kept it out. I ran down the corridor, trying to get to Dark as fast as possible. As soon as I got to his door though, it was closed, and most likely locked.
*Dammit. I need to talk to him, and try to figure out when the brand grew. That way, we can at least try to establish a time limit that he has.* I thought to myself, before I heard some tiny tappings. I looked to my left, then my right, then down, to see that it was water hitting the ground. I raised my hand to my face, and I could feel the wetness from my tear trail.
"What?" I silently asked myself. *Why am I crying? Why do I feel the need to cry? This is too strange. I need to get into my room, fast.* I thought, dashing away from his room and into mine. As soon as the door locked behind me, I collapsed against it, my back to the door, my Gunblade being dropped on the floor. I put my head in my hands and started to cry silently, so that no one would ever know. After a while, I heard a strange noise between my silent sobs. I looked around to see nothing but a purple sash, out of place in the room. Knowing who left the sash, I quickly got out of my room and ran. After a while, I stopped, confident that I had gotten away from my room. I looked at my hand to see that my Gunblade was not in it, nor was it in my holster. *Great, now I'll have to go back. But not right away.* I thought. I exhaled, then looked up, and saw a sign. I moved to better see the sign to see the writing on it say "Ladies showers." *Good. Something to take my mind off this whole thing.* I thought to myself, grabbing a towel that was inside.
I stepped into the shower, and turned the water on, not needing for it to adjust to the right temperature, since it already was at warm. I let the millions of droplets hit my body, buffeting the dirt and grime that had manifested on my body. I started running my fingers into my hair, my elbows covering up the front of my breasts. *Ah... This is extremely soothing...* I thought as I started washing my stomach. After a while, I noticed the condensation on the pane of glass that separated me from the bench that held both my towel and all of my clothes. *Why does Dark keep so much bottled up? Why, does he not tell me what's happening to him, when I've gone through the same?* I thought, moving both of my hands to the glass, resting them both on the smooth, wet surface.
After toweling off and putting my clothes back on, I walked back to my room, stopping outside of my door. I sighed, and thought, *So, how am I going to get it out?* I opened the door wide enough for my arm to go in, and I slid it in. I started fumbling around for a few seconds before I felt the trigger of my Gunblade. I reached over to the handle and quickly grabbed it, and pulled it out of my room, before slamming the door back into its normal closed position. "Yes!" I said to myself, putting my Gunblade back into the holster, and proceeded to walk down to the cockpit. Upon getting there, I sat down behind Fran, who looked at me and said, "We'll be landing in Tycoon soon. Better strap in."
"Alright." I said to her, putting the lock on on the seat that I was sitting in.
After landing in Tycoon, we went to the castle, which had a massive statue of a man with a red blade in his hand. "Well, at least we know what happened to Bartz." Squall said out loud. We all walked around to different parts of town, trying to figure out where Caius may be. I got a few leads, but after remembering that the places that they told me were long destroyed, I ignored them. I went back to Rendezvous with the others, when Dark accidentally bumped into me.
"Sorry." He said.
"It's alright." I said,, standing back up.
"So, have to heard anything about Caius?" He asked.
"Lots, but nothing useful." I said.
"Ah. I haven't heard anything either." He said, just as Cloud came back. "Cloud. Have you found any information?" Dark asked him.
"Nope." He responded.
"Damn. We're getting nowhere fast." I said, crossing my arms. Terra came back, with her head down, and said, "I'm sorry. I had no leads. Maybe Squall has something."
I walked over to her, put my arm around her, and said, "It's alright, Terra. We'll get something by the end of the day."
Around that time, Squall came running up to us, and said, "Guys! Caius is at the top of the castle. Hurry!" I burst out in a sprint towards the building, followed by Dark, Squall, Cloud, and Terra.
We quickly scaled the wall of the castle and got to the top, where Caius was busy observing the town. "Caius! Prepare to die!" Dark yelled out.
Caius turned, and said, "Well, I thought that you would have heeded my warning, but it seems that it isn't the case. No need then, it is you who shall die." He summoned his wicked blade, and pointed it at me. Dark thrust himself between me and the sword, and held up his Gunblade against Caius. Cloud fell in beside me, his Fusion Sword having two other pieces onto it. Squall ran up beside him, and moved his Gunblade onto his shoulder. Terra walked over to beside me, and I could feel the magic flowing through her veins. Caius laughed, and said, "A ragtag group focused on killing me. Well guess what kiddies! I'M IMMORTAL!"
"That still doesn't mean we won't beat the shit out of you." Cloud said.
"Amen to that." Squall said in agreement.
"Well then, it seems that you have all chosen your fates." Caius said to us.
He started off with a backward swing, which Terra stopped with her Tornado spell. I fired a barrage of bullets at him, while Cloud and Squall moved to cut him in an "X" fashion. I then saw Dark drag his Gunblade along the ground, cutting through the stone, and raised it once he got to Caius, cleaving him through the stomach. As soon as we all got back together, we took another look at Caius, who appeared not to have a single scratch on him. "My turn." He said to us, raising his sword above his head. As he was bringing it down, an arrow hit his sword hand, we all looked over to see who had fired the thing, to see Fran with a massive, curved bow with half circles at the end of the strings. Balthier walked up beside her, a large gun in his hands, and asked, "Did we miss anything?"
"About damn time you guys show up!" Dark said to them as they jumped down and ran over to us.
"Yes, well we did have to park the airship. Either way, we're here now." Balthier said to him, raising his gun. We all nodded to each other, then looked back at Caius.
"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got Gods and Goddesses to kill. Goodbye!" He said, jumping off of the building, and disappearing into a smoke cloud. I went over to the edge to see him traveling in a northern direction.
`"Come on, everyone! We need to follow him." Fran yelled out to us, jumping off of the southern side of the castle's top. A few seconds after that, the Airship began to rise. We all hopped in, Balthier going first to help us all in, and then he closed the door, making the entire ship pressurized. We all ran into the cockpit, where Fran yelled, "He's going to head to the Town of Baron! We need to go now!" We all nodded, then strapped in.
We followed him to The Town of Baron, where he quickly flew off into another direction after decimating the town. We followed him across multiple fields that Chocobos roamed, until we got to another place, the Castle Sasune, where he blew a massive hole in the side of it. We quickly stopped here, refueling for a bit, and started on again, going towards the thin smoke trails that he was leaving behind. The next decimated place was the Town of Altair, where there was a large crater where the town once stood. "Shit." Cloud said, before getting a slap from Terra.
"You know I don't like that language!" She said to him.
"Sorry." He said, putting his swords together.
"Everyone, Shut up. I need to concentrate." Fran said, moving us to follow the last few wisps of the smoke trail, until we eventually lost it. "Shit. Well, anybody got a bright idea?" Fran asked us. I looked around to everyone, but the only one who looked like he had an idea in his head was Dark.
"Fran, can you do a scan around the area to see what towns are here?" He asked her. Fran flipped a few switches and waited for a second.
"One. The City of Cornelia. Everybody strap in." She said to us, headed in the direction for the aging city. We stopped down beside the exterior wall of the city, and we all proceeded to get out of the airship. We walked all around town, traveling as a group this time, and heard that the only people who could tell us where Caius may be was the King and his daughter, but then they told us of how the daughter had just been kidnapped. We left the town to go into the castle, where we were asked by the king to travel to the Chaos Shrine, where the Princess was being held. "Sure, We'll do it." Dark assured the man.
"Oh, thank the Crystals! Please bring me back my daughter safe!" Begged the King. We all nodded, then left. We hopped back into the airship, where we went north of the city, where the Chaos Shrine existed. As soon as we found enough room on the flat ground, we jumped out of the airship, and started to go in before Dark stopped us all. He turned to us, and said, "Guys, I want to thank you all for being with me, in a time that I need my friends most. The eye of the brand has increased in size multiple times over the past few days of traveling from continent to continent. It is almost to the point that I am a Cie'th. I want to know, before we actually go in and fight, Are you all prepared for anything?"
"Don't even say that. We'll be perfectly fine, even if we have to kick your monstery ass." I told him. He nodded, then turned around, going into the Chaos Shrine. We all quickly followed, and immediately noticed the large abundance of bats. After a long trek down the hall, we encountered a large room with a throne in it, where Caius sat, the Princess bound and gagged beside him. I raised my Gunblade, in sword mode, at him, and he simply laughed. "Well, I'm glad that you all have made it, to the place where the final battle must be fought. And the place where you all die." He boasted, standing up and summoning his sword. The rest of the group brought out their weapons, save for Terra, who simply raised her hands.
"No, Caius. This is the time that YOU die!" Dark yelled, firing three bullets at Caius. He quickly dodged them, and launched a massive fireball at me. The fireball was relatively fast, and it looked exactly like the one that he shot at me a week ago.
"The ultimate attack..." I said to myself, not wanting to have to die.
"NOOOOO!" I heard coming from my side. I opened my eyes to see Dark, running in front of me, and taking the entire blast, without even bothering to try and block it. As soon as the light died around him, Dark fell to the ground.
"Dark! Are you alright?" I asked him, running to his side and pulling his head into my lap, trying to keep him awake.
"I've...completed it...my true...Focus...To...protect you...from the ultimate...attack..." Dark managed to choke out from quick breaths.
"You...stubborn bastard. You knew that if I knew what your real Focus was, I would never let you go through with it. Damn the gods." I said, putting my head into his chest and actually crying in front of the others. I felt a hand pat me on my head, with metal gloves on.
"Don't worry, Claire, I'll be back before you know it." He said. I then saw his feet be covered in crystals, and watched as they slowly crept up his body, until they completely encompassed him. I grabbed his Gunblade, intent on keeping at least one thing from him, but the weapon turned back into electric sparks at my touch. The crystals continued to grow around him, until he was in the middle of a large, crystal field of wheat. "No..." I said, dropping to my knees. I dropped my Gunblade, and continued to cry.
"Ah, how sad. He actually managed to make it into crystal stasis. No matter, I'll just wait for him to be reawakened, and then kill him. After I show him your corpses, that is." Caius boasted. I stopped crying, rage filling my craw, and picked up my Gunblade. I started to yell a battle cry, and started charging at Caius. I swung multiple times, but all of these he blocked or dodged. He then grabbed the front of my vest and threw me at the others. I stood back up, and entered a sword lock with him, my fury being able to withstand the strength he was putting out. After a minute of this, we both heard something like Glass breaking, and we turned to the giant Crystal that Dark had made. I could visibly see a crack where the side of the gray wheat was, before it got smashed, from the inside. The fist moved away from our view, and I saw an actual, full face pop out, what I knew was Dark's face.
"God mode, Activated."