Aren't you just dying to know what happens next? Heheh. Enjoy.
The Invincible, back in its day, was a truly remarkable airship. After the incident with Kuja and Necron, however, it had seemed to disappear. But, Regent Cid had seen the marvelous piece of engineering, and would not be satisfied with just leaving it wherever it was. He wanted to study it; he knew there were many things to be learned from the mastery of it. It was one of his pet projects to find the thing, and he had been sending out systematic airship searches all over Gaia to find it; assuming it wasn't lying on the ocean floor. That would require much more time to find; they would need purple chocobos galore, not to mention a huge amount of dead peppers.
Until Cid was certain that the Invincible was not above water, he would not stop his search. And so it was that the Hilda Garde 10, his finest piece of steam-engine technology, flew over the plains that used to be home to the Iifa Tree. That was when the confusion started for the rest of the world.
The pilot saw the fog-like substance down on the plains, and furthermore the crater that used to be the Iifa Tree, and thought they had got off course.
"Captain, Ma'am, this doesn't look right! Seems like there's Mist down there!" he said, beckoning the captain over.
"What? Are you off your block? The Iifa Tree is inert, there can't be any Mist," she said, indignantly.
"B-but I don't think the Iifa Tree made it!"
"Exactly! It's dead!"
"No, I mean it isn't there!"
"What do you mean it isn't there?"
She rushed over to the view-port and practically lost her lunch.
"It isn't there! Sergeant, are you sure that we're in the right place?" she asked, turning to face him.
"Yes, I am, Captain. I wasn't sure at first, but I looked over all of our landmark orientation logs, and they all indicate that we are right over the Iifa Tree."
"But it isn't there."
"That's what it seems like, Ma'am."
That led to a long silence. They kept looking from each other, to the windows.
"What do you think that stuff down there is, Ma'am?"
"I don't know. Take us back to Lindblum, we need to report this to Regent Cid! Full speed ahead!"
"Aye, aye, Ma'am."
With a sudden lurch, the Hilda Garde 10 left its hovering position, and shot off at a speed to rival that of the Invincible. Really, the only reason that Cid wanted it now was to learn more about its fuel. Of course, he had much more to worry about now. All of Gaia did.
"What do you mean your magic is missing? It can't just get up and walk away! Can it?" Eiko shrieked to Vivi.
"I guess so, because I'm plain out! What about you, Eiko?" he asked, concern in his voice.
She held her hands out with the palms up and looked at each one. "No. I can't even feel it."
Mikoto let out a somewhat agitated sigh. "Welcome to reality, you two. Drink some ethers!"
She had prepared before setting off in search of her companions. Knowing they were both mages, and that magic was thusly their best attribute, she decided to bring a few ethers to ensure they could fight, should the need come up. She handed one to both of them, and they both chugged down the bittersweet mixture in seconds.
"There. Now, get ready. Those... things... are coming closer," Mikoto commanded. Vivi and Eiko did just that, but found themselves at a frightening loss. For despite the wonders of the ether mixture, they still couldn't find their magic.
"Miko... the ether didn't help..." Eiko said in a harsh whisper, the people in white drawing ever closer. Most of the dwarves had turned tail and fled by now, hiding in the back of the building. Only a few stood to bar the approach of those in white, holding whatever makeshift weapons they could find. Mikoto had already drawn her dagger, but almost dropped it when she heard Eiko. She looked at her with a shocked expression.
"What do you mean, it didn't help? What else could it be? I mean, you can't just loose your ability to cast magic."
Vivi joined in. "Listen, we can talk about this later. Something tells me that they know a thing or two about all of this. I say we can fight them without magic; they don't look so tough."
Eiko, though a bit reluctantly, nodded. "Right. Time for some serious butt kicking! Right, Miko?"
She nodded. "Right."
Now Mikoto moved up to face the head of the group.
"All right, what do you want?" she asked, impatience present in her voice.
"We are here to take you into perfection. Your minds have already been prepared to accept the knowledge that accompanies it; you will allow us to insert that knowledge into you," he said, in perfect calm. Mikoto spat at his feet.
"No thanks. We don't like solicitors trying to push perfection. You aren't wanted here. So get lost, before it has to get ugly," she sneered at him.
"I see. This is indeed a disappointment. You see; life is a beautiful thing that we wish to preserve. But, if a form of life does not accept perfection, then it is a threat to other life and must be destroyed. May you rest eternally in death, misguided one." He stepped to the side. Behind him was a plethora of armed Clariyans. They had quite a variety of equipment, too. Some of them were obviously mages; others were hand to hand fighters, some of them swords-men, and yet still others who carried some sort of hand-held cannon. Of course, before they could even do anything, Mikoto had grabbed the head of the group by the collar of his robe and stared him in the face.
"Perfection, huh? Well let me tell you something about perfection. I am perfection, buster. I am the result of years of genetic splicing and calculations. I am the perfect angel of death. So, I guess that makes us more enemies then you ever imagined?" Her voice was cool, but with an undertone of such aggression that it made the Clariyan shiver. She threw him to the ground.
"So, who wants some of perfection? I've got plenty of perfect death to do around!" she challenged the assorted warriors. Vivi just stared blankly ahead, and Eiko wore a somewhat horrified look. She had no idea that Mikoto had such a violent inner self. Of course, every word she spoke was true, but neither Eiko nor Vivi had ever heard her talk like that. There was an awkward silence as Mikoto stared down each of the warriors. Vivi and Eiko started edging forward, as did the dwarves. The warriors were unaffected, and stood there, silently, waiting for the other side to make a move. Mikoto decided to go first.
The closest warrior to her was wearing a pair of weapons very similar in nature to Amarant's. She charged towards the female, surprisingly enough, and thrust her dagger at the target's neck. Her claws rose up to block the attack, but it was too little, too late. The blade sunk into her neck, and for good measure, Mikoto twisted it. A gargling sound escaped the throat of the wounded as blood began flowing from the massive gash. The movement was so fast that the others could barely react to it; by the time they charged at Mikoto, she was already assaulting one of the mages. The others tried to close in on her, but were stopped by the vibrant "RALLY-HO" cries that accompanied the assaulting dwarves. Vivi and Eiko were right there beside them.
The double-clawed warrior had been on the left of the column of warriors, and do to the confined space on the root, that meant that there was a person to the right, front, and right front diagonally of Mikoto. The person in front of her was the mage, and had been her next target, so the first two immediate threats were those other two. One carried a massive, barbed sword, and the other a blaster of some sort. The person with the sword was about to lunge at Mikoto, but had been sent back with a well-placed kick on her part. Her dagger had found home straight through the bleeding heart of the mage, and she had suffered a slight burn in the process. The one with the blaster had been about to shoot her, but found himself being assaulted by dwarves with swords, knives, rusty axes, (shovels and rakes), and other implements of destruction. The three other people at the front of the column, a mage, axe-wielder and seemingly unarmed woman, had to deal with a few dwarves, Eiko and Vivi.
Quite to the disgust of the others, a dwarf had been the first to go. As he was about to plant a sword in the axe-wielder, the weapon with such a heavy edge came crashing through his skull, leaving quite a bloody mess spilled all over the roots. Before anything else could be done, however, another dwarf had come to his aid with a large "RALLY-HO!", sending a spiked fist into the warrior's kneecap. With quite the sickening crunch, it broke right there, sending him to his knees, his axe falling down on his companion mage. The mage had already sent a bit of thunder through each of them, but it wasn't enough to stop them, and no more magic would be spilling out of her. Eiko and Vivi closed in on the unarmed one.
They soon found out why she was unarmed; she had no need. For as they were about to smash fists into her face and stomach, she blocked both, grabbing the fists, and then knocked both down with a push. She rushed at them, and prepared to smash their necks with an axe-kick, but the dwarves who had been assaulting the blaster-armed man rushed over to catch her in the back. This was partially out of companionship, but also for the sake of getting out of Mikoto's way. Eiko and Vivi got up slowly, as the dwarves continued their onward push. It seemed their sheer weight of numbers was doing the trick. Eiko and Vivi decided that they would be safer by Mikoto, so they drew closer to her.
After Mikoto had taken out the mage, she had moved on the swords-man, assaulting him with a dagger-wielding punch to the gut. This caused both massive bleeding and severe nausea. Seeing her window of opportunity open, she knocked him backward to trip up the gun-holders in back. They were fixing aims on them, and that would not do them any good in the heat of the battle. More skirmishes came, but Mikoto barely took any damage at all. Her blows were so efficient, that her opponents could get little more then a missed lunge in at her. She was tiring, however, but Vivi and Eiko were there to back her up, sending their best attempts at martial arts towards the enemy.
The three noticed the fact that their dwarfish companions were starting to fall back. It was amazing they had pressed on for so long, really, but now the mages and swords were getting the better of their feeble weaponry. The element of surprise was no longer theirs; and with the exception of Mikoto, all of these warriors were far better in combat. Things were starting to close in on the melee that was Mikoto, Vivi, Eiko, and the Clariyans. More dwarves had picked up arms to join the fight, but they had no room to get in. And, since the dwarves had next to no combat experience, all they could do was fight on over the bodies of the fallen, instead of have the weakened retreat and the fresh fighters take their place.
The number of Clariyans had been reduced from around 25 to around 14, but nearly all of the dwarves were dead or weakening. That left Mikoto in the middle with two mages who's magic was non-existent, a tiring arm and a slippery palm. These warriors were very fast; she had to put out all of her best moves just to keep from being hit. Vivi and Eiko, on the other hand, though they were trying their best, had suffered numerous cuts, scrapes, and burns. Both had lost a fair deal of blood; not a terribly high amount, but they would need to fix the problem soon. But things weren't looking any better. Mikoto, noticing this, decided to take charge.
"Get out of here! I'll handle these guys!" she shouted, barely sending a sword away from her face with a crescent kick to its flat side. She turned around through it, sending a back kick to the person who had held the sword, while at the same time sticking her dagger out to gut a claw-holder. Eiko and Vivi had no intention of arguing with her, and were too weak to do much else. As such, they moved out of the place, and just in time to avoid being hit with a purple swirl of energy. It was coming from Mikoto's body.
"It's Trance! Of course!" Vivi shouted. Still, he backed up. He knew what would come next. Dyne was an ugly thing to witness. Mikoto leaped into the air, doing a somersault of sorts, then landing on someone's head. To avoid being gutted by the swords that were pointing up, she jumped backwards, then held her dagger out and shouted.
"Stellar Circle Five!"
A blast of energy blew the warriors back, and then down upon them came the Stellar Circle. Within moments, the massive amount of energy had pummeled all of them to lifelessness. Mikoto breathed heavily, clutching at her chest, the purple energy of Trance dying down. The dwarves were tending to their own wounded, so Eiko and Vivi rushed over to her side.
"Miko! Are you okay?" Eiko asked, naturally concerned.
Through her heavy breaths, Mikoto managed to get a bit out. "They... really... drained me... I need to... rest..."
And with that, her eyes shut and she fell right asleep. Vivi and Eiko took her back into the building, and tucked her into a comfy bed. As they tended to their own wounds, and eventually got to the inventory of the fallen enemy, other things were happening in the sky. Cid had been cruising about, actually on his way to check out the Iifa Tree himself, when he came across the Hilda Garde 10. After getting the hovering ships within speaking distance of each other, it was related to Cid how the Iifa Tree really wasn't there. As such, he went to see it for himself, and the Hilda Garde 10 headed for Alexandria. Should something nasty be going on, Lindblum's army alone might not be enough.
