FINAL FANTASY: INQUISITION
By Thomas Knapp
Act Three- Scene Four
"Damn…" Creed said almost sheepishly once Trigger had finished his recollection, "And I thought I had it rough…"
Yura said sadly, "Oh my… I'm so sorry, Trig… I mean…"
"Young lady, the man named Hijo died when he cast aside his words to pick up a sword once again. He tried to use his voice to change the world, and he failed. Thus, I was born to do what he could not. Until the day that all who would commit atrocities against their own are cast away, Trigger, I shall remain."
Tamara slowly crept up to Trigger, looking into the face that she had remembered from so long ago. "Here I was thinking about whatever happened to my…" She began, a smile creeping to her face as she remembered what Trigger used to be, "…Uncle Hijo… and all this time…"
Trigger brushed a stray hair from Tamara's forehead, "My dear… I have watched you blossom from a lanky, impertinent young girl into a strong, impertinent young woman. If your father could appreciate what you've become, I'm sure he would be proud. Maybe for a while… I thought I could get at Gregor through you…"
Further condolences were interrupted by the sound of clanking metal approaching their position rapidly. Soon the crashing sound was so loud to be deafening, and then with a jump that caused part of the ledge to collapse, a gigantic metal object landed on the hardened mud floor with a thud that caused the earth to tremble.
The object was vaguely humanoid, with thick metal beams intercrossed with tubes pumping fluids and wires supplying energy serving as arms and legs. On the end of each metal arm were long fingers, topped with knife-like edges, sharpened to the point that light refracted off it.
In the torso, was a metal cage, housing a man pulling levers and pressing buttons. The man's face glared with hatred and sanity that was rapidly slipping. It was the face of Gregorian.
However, Harmon seemed more taken aback by the machine itself, "By Alexander… that is a… a… Titan! What have you done to it?"
"Harmon!" Gregorian laughed, "I never anticipated you being a magic-user! How ironic that your 'tool of rebuilding' be used to send you and your devil friends to the hells you belong to!" Gregorian pushed another button, and an ear-piercing wail rippled through the air, causing the assembled group to collapse in pain.
"THAT is what you get for defying MY AGE OF REASON!" Gregorian laughed maniacally, "Now, come here my daughter…" With one metal hand he grabbed Tamara, holding her firmly about the waist, easily resisting her struggles to free herself. "I hear that you left Sabol waiting at the altar. Needless to say, I don't like his willingness to let you go. But I will take care of him in time."
Gregorian looked down at Midas, who was just starting to regain his bearings. The metal behemoth caught Midas around the neck, holding him over the thick pool of mud. "But first, I think I shall have to deal with the one who dared defile you, Tamara. This wretched monster shall pester me NO MORE!"
However, as Gregorian prepared the drop, a well placed shuriken struck the tube supplying hydraulic power to the arm. The fingers loosened just slightly, allowing Midas to squirm out of the death-grip, and using the metallic appendage as a support, cleared himself of harm's way, then pried Tamara from the stunned Rationalist's grasp.
In the seconds it took for the Titan unit to reroute it's fluids and power to other undamaged tubing, Gregorian stared upon the source of the precise attack. "HIJO!" Gregorian growled in fury, "You dare DEFY ME AGAIN?"
"I will defy you, and your sick ambition, to my dying breath. Your desire for revenge has clouded the reason you supposedly hold so dear. Allow me the privilege of rectifying your errors."
The fury that Trigger was experiencing began to manifest in a glowing white aura. Midas and Tamara instantly recognized what was happening, and thus held back the rest of their group. "Let's leave Trigger alone to settle this one people." Midas warned, "It ain't gonna be pretty…" for by that time, Trigger had entered a Battle Trance.
Gregorian attack first, swinging out with the Titan's bladed hands. Trigger quickly ducked underneath, sending his katana blade through the mesh cage surrounding Gregorian, missing severing the Rationalist's trachea by less than a centimeter.
Gregorian stepped back after the near miss, and that gave Trigger room to attack again. Pulling out another silver shuriken, Trigger threw the weapon with such force that it actually cut the air with a whistle, imbedding itself into the beam of the Titan's left arm, cutting halfway through the steel.
At this point, Gregorian was completely on the defensive, unsure as to how to counteract the raging power channeling through the ninja. Once again going to his katana blade, Trigger's sword hand began to tremble so quickly, that the blade itself began to hum. Trigger then attacked the Titan's damaged arm again, the vibrating blade striking the steel as if it was hitting a hundred times in the span of a second. With the sound of straining steel, and the crackle of sparks, the now severed arm crashed to the ground.
The sparks from the wiring caught the oil used to keep the Titan's joints moving, spreading fire through the tubing. Reacting quickly, Gregorian pulled open the cage, jumping out of the machine as it erupted into a ball of flame.
Unfortunately, Gregorian looked up to see that he had jumped out right in front of the fury-enhanced Trigger. He slowly crawled away, slipped, and scrambled on his back as fast as he could from the ninja, trying to regain his feet.
Before the Rationalist could however, Trigger's blade escorted Gregorian back down to the hardened mud. Trigger prepared for the killing blow that would end his suffering, when he found himself looking back towards his allies. His Trance aura dispelled, and with a hesitant sigh, sheathed his sword.
"Get out of my sight, Gregor. We shall have to settle this another time."
Gregorian didn't need a second warning. Hopping to his feet, and bidding a hasty retreat to Hamil. Midas rushed up to Trigger, and said, "You had him! Why did you let him go?"
Trigger walked back over to where he had dropped his shroud, and as he pulled the articles back on, said softly to Midas, "As much as Tamara claims to hate her father, one cannot abandon such love at a whim. I could not force her to witness Gregor's murder with a clear conscience. One day, I will meet him again when Tamara is not present. Then, and only then, will I allow myself the pleasure of ending Gregor's existence."
Midas shrugged flippantly, and said, "I just don't want to regret your lack of action later."
Trigger said nothing more, but Midas wasn't sure whether that was because he had nothing to say, or simply because he didn't want to say it. It occurred to him that the greater the personal baggage, the less inclined they were to talk about it. This was certainly true in Trigger's case.
Midas decided to pull the group back on track, "All right people, we have some mud to cross. Let's hurry it up before Gregorian decides that once isn't enough."
Six of the adventurers followed Midas's example, as he placed himself back in the chocobo's saddle. The last one, Harmon, continued to stand before the smoldering wreckage of the Titan.
"I… must return to Artica with all due haste." Harmon explained. "This… could bode terrible ill for our continued success. I must ascertain if what Gregorian implied… was true."
"What do you mean?" Midas asked, "We'll be heading to Artica soon enough."
"SOON ENOUGH WON'T BE SOON ENOUGH!" Harmon shouted with a vehemence he had not displayed in Midas's company, "You saw how dangerous ONE of these devices were. If my assumption is correct… we will soon have HUNDREDS to deal with."
Harmon looked to the north, where the highlands of Artica began. "I must go now… and stop the production of the Titans."
Creed jumped off his chocobo, and patted Harmon on the back, "Hell, no sense going alone. I'll head north with you. Heaven knows you can't handle it all by yourself."
"Are you certain you wish to do this?"
Creed chuckled, and replied, "Why not? Someone has to keep that skull of yours as intact as possible."
Yura smirked, and said, "I have a great idea! We can split up into two groups, and when he have dealt with the Titans, I can go with Creed and Harmon to the summoner's cavern there while the others get the one in North Landing!"
"That would cut our time on the North continent considerably." Midas agreed.
Tamara interrupted, "But… I thought only summoners could get the crystals…"
Yura looked somewhat surprised, then said, "You didn't know? Midas can get the crystals too!"
Tamara eyes narrowed, and glared so fiercely that Trigger reared his chocobo a step back, drawing uncomfortable similarities to another certain person in her family. She then almost accused, "You can… huh?"
For the first time that anyone could remember, Midas was visibly embarrassed. Biting his lower lip, he muttered, "It appears that there was a summoner somewhere in my family line… I can access the labyrinths like Yura can… It's to be expected that I can handle the crystals as well…"
Tamara pursed her lips in thought, and said, "I see… you don't know who the summoner in your family was though?"
Midas shot her a pained look, and he said softly, "We've been over this…" He didn't want to continue any farther with everyone else in earshot.
The Knight seemed to accept the half-explanation, but her eyes told Midas that he could guarantee talking more in depth about this discovery later. Meanwhile, Fredros stepped into the lull in the conversation, and said, "Since Midas will be here, it does not make sense for all our healers to be in one place. Therefore, I shall fill out the group to Artica."
Midas nodded, but he appeared much more preoccupied trying to diffuse the angry glare Tamara continued to give him. Not waiting for any parting words, Harmon jumped onto his chocobo, and led his group back up the ledge, and north towards Artica.
Midas then started the preparations to sprint his chocobo across the Mud Sea, when Tamara impeded his path. "Borz, Trigger… can you spare the two of us some time alone?"
Borz seemed reluctant to do so; thus Trigger grabbed the Black Mage, and tucked the small being under his arm. Once out of immediate earshot, Tamara accused, "When were you going to tell me this?"
"I was just told of this myself." Midas replied defensively, "That's what Yura and I were talking about on the boat ride to Orland's Point. She seemed convinced that there were summoners somewhere in my family. The only time that it came to the top of my head after that was when you were explaining what happened to you, and it didn't seem like a good time to reveal it then."
"You didn't answer my question."
"I don't know… it doesn't seem like such a big deal to me."
"It does to me." Tamara answered, "You know how I feel about summoners, what they did to me, and what they did to my family…"
Midas covered her clenched fist with his hand, and said, "I am not your enemy anymore, Tamara. I don't want to be your enemy anymore. You, Borz, Trigger, Yura, Fredros, Harmon… hell, even CREED, have become something invaluable to me. I don't want the mere possibility that I may have some summoner blood to destroy that."
"You honestly think you do?"
"That's the point, Tamara, I have NO idea. The only person that I KNOW about in my family is my father, and people tend to be rather reluctant to talk about him. All I have of my mother is a vague dream… I think Cid and Karma knew her, but they refuse to talk about her, as if she wasn't worth mentioning."
Midas took a deep breath to try and regain his composure. "At least you KNEW your family, if only for a few years. I've been the ward of Cid all my life, a child of the Outlaws, but never belonging to any part of them. Now… I feel like I have that… camaraderie, that… closeness, even if it is only for however long this adventure takes."
Finally he grabbed Tamara by the shoulders, peering into her eyes. "I will deny to my dying breath that I ever had ANY summoner in my family if you want me to. Just… don't be mad at me for things I can't control."
"It's not THAT so much Midas… it's that you didn't tell me…" She paused, and examined the Red Mage more closely, "Are you crying?"
Midas sniffed, and smiled ever so slightly, "I'm trying NOT to. Borz is still watching, and I'd never hear the end of it…" He turned serious, and replied, "I am sorry for not telling you sooner… it's just by the time I thought to tell you…"
"You figured it would probably be a bad idea." Tamara finished. "And it probably would have been. I guess I shouldn't blame you for that… Anyway, we better get our acts together. We still have a crystal to secure, do we not?"
"That we do." Midas replied, slowly gathering himself into the Midas he showed the world.
"Then I suggest that we focus on completing this venture. When we are able, we can discuss this further." Tamara concluded.
"Agreed." Midas then motioned for Borz and Trigger, both of whom had been watching in the hopes of gleaning something from the exchange, to rejoin the group, preparing himself once again to cross the Mud Sea in the process.
Meanwhile, Tamara cursed herself. She had the perfect opportunity to express herself, and she had chickened out yet again. 'Why is it that I can stand before a giant without so much as a tremble, yet I can't even utter ten words or less to a comrade?' Frustrated with herself, Tamara suppressed her discouragement in herself, for she was correct in one regard; they still had a crystal to secure.
End Scene 4