Behold! The finale approaches. Didn't I tell you it would be worth it? Read.

(Beware: Mush/Fluff present, maybe sap as well)

"Beatrix, look behind you!" a soldier called out. Whipping around at amazing speed, she sent the Save the Queen smashing through the skull of someone who had been about to send a clawed fist through her neck. Sending a kick backwards, she nailed someone who had come to close in the gut. With that done, she got back on two feet and barely blocked the swing of a sword at her arm. Staring down the warrior for a moment in the tangled sword position, another soldier came to her aid and sent a sword through his back.

"General, Ma'am, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you. Stay sharp, we aren't clear yet!" Beatrix responded, charging at an oncoming mage. She barely dodged a fireball, and got a slight singe on her outfit.

"I'll teach you to burn me, vermin!" she shouted, and her sword once again found home in Clariyan flesh. The battle continued to rage on above, but below, things weren't quite as unstable. Yet, anyway.

Eiko tapped on the invisible thing she had found. It made an odd echo that she could hear easily, despite the odd tendency of the darkness to suck up noise.

"I sure hope Vivi's okay," she said, trying to figure out what this thing was for. Vivi and Clariya had reached a stare down. As Clariya made her next step towards Vivi, he could wait no longer.

"Meteor!" he shouted, energy swirling out of his palms and into the space above Clariya. She simply smirked, and as the huge piece of rock formed, it bounced right off of her, and went straight for Vivi. However, Vivi had been expecting this. He jumped over to the side, and the Meteor smashed right into the invisible wall. With a huge whining noise, the wall finally gave way, shattering as it did so. Imagine Eiko's surprise when the huge piece of rock seemed to appear out of nothing on the other side!

"Hey! That looks like one of Vivi's spells! Vivi! Are you there?" she called out, rushing towards the gap in the wall. Clariya's fingers were now all fully outstretched, and two balls of energy formed in the palms of her hands. Vivi could just barely her Eiko, and he figured that running towards her would be safer. Rushing out through the gap he had created, he ran right into an embrace with Eiko, and before they could stop themselves their lips had met as well. Clariya could tell; such passion harmed her. It interrupted her thought process, but before she could even figure out what to do next, the energy she had formed in her palms had shot off towards Eiko and Vivi.

As the two mages broke their hold on each other, they turned to see the approaching blasts. They would have no time to do anything, not reflect, not to run, so instead they just stood there, holding each other. Once the energy reached them, however, something happened. It was a neutral kind of energy that Clariya had shot off at them, as her concentration was too broken for her to make it negative in charge. But the love that Eiko and Vivi felt for each other was so great, that it emitted a positive energy field around them. Neutral charges acquire the charge of things that they approach, so as the balls were about to smash into them, they became positive. Eiko and Vivi both got a glimpse at the glowing balls of destruction before the like charges repelled each other. The energy flew back at Clariya.

Before she could even rise up hands to block, she was hit smack-dab in the face, and it knocked her over. The entire place seemed to shake; even Beatrix and the army noticed it. As she finished retracting her blade from the side of a fallen Clariyan, the vibration had reached her, and she almost fell flat on her face.

"What in the Queen's name was that?" one soldier nearby her asked. Shrugging, Beatrix replied. "Don't worry about it! We haven't won yet; here come some more!" she called out, ducking just in time to avoid having her forehead melted off by a blaster weapon. Quite suddenly, however, those blaster-wielding soldiers were knocked down by what was obviously a high-level wind spell. Beatrix did a double take; there weren't any Black Mages up here, were there? When the pointy-hated fighters trotted into view, some still aiming fireballs at wandering Clariyan warriors, her question was answered. Clariya had not had enough time to give an accurate location of transport for each of those floating in the crater; as such, a number of Genomes and Black Mages had appeared in some distant section of the tunnels. Though Beatrix had no idea what was going on, she was glad for the support. She had worked with Black Mages before, and these guys were obviously at a much higher level of magic. It was rather comforting, in fact.

Clariya moaned as she stood up. Those two! How had she been deceived into letting them reach each other? And why were they so powerful? Not even a Reflect spell should have been able to bounce her energy back at her! She would make them pay. Oh, their death would no longer be quick. Even if she was supposed to preserve all life under perfection, those two had lost the privilege of her mercy. She was so furious; she didn't even know what sort of horrible thing she should do to them. She did come up with something for starters, however. First she would make them beg for their lives. Once again sending her reach towards them, she used psychic force to blow then back.

Vivi and Eiko had just been staring into each other's eyes at the time. When the force hit them, they were both caught quite off guard, and went flying a few yards before landing hard on their sides, though still holding on to each other with just one hand. Clariya then appeared towering above them, with an outstretched hand fixed over their position. Without any more warning, the ground seemed to life up from underneath Vivi and Eiko, and a sudden blast of energy, burst out from the bulge, launching the two into the air. Despite the pain that rocked through their bodies, they still held on to each other. Before their descent began, Clariya held a hand out, and they started floating at eye level with the monster.

Vivi and Eiko's hands still clutching each other, they reached a weakened standing position in the float. When they saw Clariya's face, they practically puked, and would have if they weren't so taxed of energy. Her eyes were bloodshot and bugged out, and blood was trickling down from numerous places on her cheeks. It was a shiny, purplish substance, and a portion of her nose seemed to be partially avulsed. Pushing some bedraggled hair out of her face, Clariya cackled in hysteria.

"Now, beg for mercy! Let me hear you grovel before I continue your torture!" she managed to get through her laughing. Eiko fell into Vivi, her knees having buckled, but he stood there and held her. Eiko stared Clariya in the face, then stuck her tongue out.

"Never! You've just a mean old UGLY hag!" she said. Clariya's cackling turned quickly into a choking sound.

"What did you say? Why you insolent brat! I am Mistress Clariya; I am perfection! How DARE you call me ugly! RAAH!"

With her scream, the float spell seemed to vanish, and a blast of force sent them rocketing backwards, so quickly that their descent took a while to begin, and even then was slow.

"Vivi... what are we going to do?" Eiko asked through sobs of pain.

"Just... hold me. At the very least, we'll die in each other's arms. We're husband and wife, right? Though the circumstances aren't exactly right, we're supposed to go in an embrace," Vivi said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Oh... Vivi... you're so sweet."

She too wrapped her arms around him, and she began to cry on his shoulder. Clariya watched in a vicious malice as those two insects plummeted to their death. But, they were holding each other! It made her sick. And quite suddenly, something happened; a bright white light appeared from Vivi and Eiko. It spread out to what seemed to be Clariya's entire chamber, and in an almost blinding flash, Eiko and Vivi were revealed floating. But, they were glowing as well, but it wasn't a white glow; it was rather more like iridescence. Vivi and Eiko floated there, right hand of one in the left of the other, and vice versa, the glow of Trance wrapped around them both.

At this time, Beatrix and the remainder of the army were cleaning out the caverns. It seemed as though they had, for the most part, succeeded. No warriors seemed to be left alive, but a few could still be hiding. And so the search continued. Also continuing was the massive amount of confusion experienced by those in Clariya's chamber.

"Vivi... what is this? It doesn't feel like a normal Trance," Eiko pointed out.

"I know. I think we're sharing each other's Trance power. I can feel more of your energy inside me then ever before," Vivi suggested. At the same time, their heads snapped from looking at each other to the enraged Clariya. Somehow, all of their health was back.

"What are we going to do about her?" Vivi asked, wonderment replaced by seriousness on both of their faces.

"I say we pool both of our magic into a single spell. I bet that the combination of Tranced black and Tranced white will do something worth note!" Eiko suggested. Vivi nodded in agreement.

"Right then. Let's show that freak what togetherness is all about!"

"Yeah!"

The doubled ability of white magic and black magic that Eiko and Vivi now possessed was something spectacular indeed. But, when they sent their energy pulsing into each other's hands, eventually stepping back from each other to allow some space between their hands, the power became almost indefinable. Clariya had been charging up a massive ball of negative energy through this time in her two hands, and was just about ready to rifle it off at the two mages. They both stared in amazement at the pulsing energy forming between them. When they saw the movement of Clariya out of the corner of their eyes, they both turned to look at the oncoming attack. And, quite suddenly, two words entered both of their minds.

"ULTIMA LOVE!" they shouted. With yet another massive flash of light, the energy between them glowed purple, then green, and pushed them back and away, though in a soft way. The negative energy ball collided with the energy the Vivi and Eiko had created, and stopped dead in its tracks. The pulsing energy sucked up the negative attack, and grew in size. With one last massive flash of light, the purple blasts of magic shot out from the energy cloud. One after another, the magic beams smashed into the dumbfounded Clariya. She was knocked back, chunks of her flesh and clothing flying everywhere, until the last two bolts hit her. The first one went straight through her cold, black heart, and the second one pierced through her skull, right between the eyes. As if that wasn't enough, however, the spell was not done.

The energy cloud thinned itself out and slid into the hole made by the second to last blast of energy. Clariya still seemed to be just barely alive, but this would take care of that. Vivi and Eiko stared into each other's eyes, then back at Clariya, and shouted once again. "MEGA FLARE!" Clariya leaned back and seemed to scream at the ceiling, before the massive amounts of Flare energy exploded through her body. She was completely covered in flame, and just as it seemed she would melt into disgusting goo, one last massive blast incinerated every part of Mistress Clariya. The glow of Trance around Eiko and Vivi faded, but instead of falling down, they floated upwards. The entire room seemed to shake violently, but Eiko and Vivi never learned much more, because one more flash of light transported them out.

They landed in the cubical room that O had once used to ask Mistress Clariya for instructions. And, with a quick glance about the room, they noticed everyone from the airships was in the room with them. Zidane quickly spotted and rushed over to Eiko and Vivi.

"Hey! What the heck is going on here? What happened?" he asked. Quina suddenly appeared next to him from the crowd.

"Quina scared! There no munchies... ANYWHERE!"

Everyone gave Quina an odd look, then laughed a little uneasily. Suddenly, they felt a massive vibration.

"Uh oh. I think this place is about to blow! We gotta get out of here!" Eiko shouted. No one else was in a mood to argue, so they all ran out the only exit there was. Mikoto, the last person out, saw at the last moment an explosion sending the pedestal flying. Everyone was running already, so she had no need to tell them to run, but she did so anyway.

"Run!" she shouted. Somehow, they all picked up the pace. Rushing out at top speed, the reached the ruined platform with the fire cloud on their heels. Vivi and Eiko were in front, so they knew to go down the other corridor. As such, Mikoto was the only person to get even slightly burned as she rounded the corner, the explosion killing itself as it shot out into the space of the crater. They all stopped, panting heavily to catch their breath.

"Well, looks like we made it... honey," Vivi said, laughing despite his heaving chest. Eiko burst out in laughter as well, and after they both had returned to normal breathing, they wrapped their arms around each other and kissed. Zidane and Dagger had located each other and were doing much the same. Everyone else was either resting or trying to figure out what the heck happened. Mikoto searched for Beatrix.

As she passed around a corner, she quite suddenly found a sword heading straight for her head. She just barely had time to pull her dagger out and send it away from her face, so when she saw that the person holding the sword was none other then Beatrix, she was rather surprised. Beatrix was even more surprised.

"Mikoto? How are you here? I saw your airship get struck by that energy blast! I though you were dead for sure!"

Mikoto shrugged. "I'm as clueless as you are. I think Vivi and Eiko have a clue of what's going on, though. I suppose we'll figure it out soon enough. Are there any of the freaks left?" she asked. Beatrix shook her head.

"Not likely. We've searched everywhere, and haven't found anything. Our losses were large, unfortunately, but we won! I just... wish that Steiner was here to see such a proud moment for the Knights of Pluto. They decided to join us in the fight, and they did better then I ever thought they could," she said, looking downward. Suddenly, there was a familiar sound of clanking armor, and a humble, formal voice greeted the General.

"Beatrix? Are you all right?" the captain asked. She looked up, and a smile lit across her face.

"Steiner! Is that really you? Please tell me that my imagination is not playing cruel tricks on me!" she called.

"Nay, I am what you see. I'm not quite sure how, but I knew that I needed to get back to you, and I survived."

"Steiner... I'm so happy!"

Beatrix threw down her sword, and the two officers of the Alexandrian army gave each other a hearty hug. Outside, the fog had dispersed to nothing, and the new day's sun shined brightly over the plains of Iifa. All through the caverns were mixed emotions of joy and sorrow, happiness and despair. For while the forces of good had won, and preserved the life and happiness of many, friends and lovers alike had been lost. It was a bittersweet ending to the story of the Clariyans; but something still echoed throughout the halls of the crater. It was Clariya's voice, and it whispered in agony.

"As long as there is life, I will be there to perfect it!" it said. No one really heard it though; they were all far too busy discussing the victory. Eiko and Vivi especially. She whispered something into Vivi's ear, and they both started giggling. Happy times were close in sight.

And now, with that chapter done, I make you wait for the epilogue! HA! Don't worry, the epilogue chapter will be a good one. I already have it planned, I'm just too lazy to write it right now, plus my dad wants me to work. Can you believe that? It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day and he wants me to do school. Oh well. Review please!