//By Wonderful Failure and Julie (yaoifantasy)
//rated R for horror, gore, death, and cussing
// yaoi hints
//Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy 8 (not the characters/world/etc) -- I wish, but it just isn't happening. And the movie "Pitch Black" - don't own that either. Just ~borrowing~ for creative out-lets.
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The survivors were desperate now. Truly desperate. They thrived to survive longer, but they held little hope. Yet they trekked on, prepared to conquer the rest of the journey.
They were in the canyon now. It was dark all around them. Too dark. Nothing but darkness hanging all around them, a mysterious darkness that acted as a curtain to the terrible shadow creatures that soared in the sky not too far above them.
The survivors could all hear a horrid clicking. Battling bone-blades, and mating cries…The rending of flesh and snapping of tendon.
Far below them, the survivors continued onward, with twin flames acting as their light source while they reached the gauntlet.
Some of the predators perched on the canyon walls, watching the survivors out of curiosity…or perhaps something else.
They are but five now. Zell, Squall, Selphie, Quistis, and Nuvy.
They could all hear the night-creatures swirling like omens in the sky. There must be countless predators ahead…
"How many do you see?" Zell inquired.
"One or two," Squall replied.
"Selphie?" Zell called.
"Three full bottles," Selphie stated. "But it's almost time to refill."
"Doesn't seem like enough to turn back on, does it?" Zell asked.
"Only see one way," Squall remarked. "Turn the sled over and drag it like that, girl down low. Light up everything we got. And then run through like dogs on fire."
There was a brief moment of silence before Quistis spoke.
"And use the sled as a shield," she realized, nodding slowly.
"And what about the cells?" Zell questioned.
"I'll take those," Squall declared.
Zell looked at Squall. A hard look…A hard look with piercing blue eyes.
"We're just here to carry your light, aren't we?" he snapped. "We're just the torch bearers, huh."
"Let's drop back an' boot up," Squall suggested.
*******
Back at the boneyard, the survivors were starting up on the power cells. They lashed them together into a great queue. Working amid the gigantic bones, Squall crafted a new harness from the old straps. Close behind him, Quistis muttered in Japanese.
"What're you doin'?" Squall asked.
"Blessing you, just like the others…" Quistis murmured. She felt his cold look rip into her soul. "It's painless."
"And pointless," Squall snapped.
"…I see," Quistis began. "Well, even if you don't believe in Hyne, it doesn't mean He won't be—"
"You don't see," Squall replied.
Squall shrugged into the harness and snug it down.
He continued.
"'Cuz you don't spend half your life in lock-down with a horse-bit in your mouth and not believe. And you surely don't start out in a liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around your neck and not believe. Oh, absolutely I believe in Hyne. And I absolutely hate the fucker."
"He will be with us, nonetheless," Quistis said in a calm voice.
"Give my blessings to the girl," Squall muttered. "She needs a spare."
*******
The survivors were at the gauntlet now. They had their torches maxed out. Burning non-stop, like Phoenix Pinions dancing in the breeze.
Zell and Quistis jogged side-by-side with sleds chained on. They were lapping up O2, hungrily taking in the highly needed source.
Nuvy was clutching a handlight, looking about her surroundings with fear in her dark eyes.
Selphie was rolling under her sled-shield, becoming a turtle in a metal carapace.
Squall had his goggles on. He showed no desire to see what horrors were surrounding them.
There was only one path that they could take - straight through.
"As fast as you can," Squall announced.
"You sure you can keep…" Zell trailed off, not being able to finish his sentence.
"As fast as you can," Squall repeated.
*******
They reached the gauntlet once more. They were ready to conclude the journey. Ready to make it off of this hellish planet. They were ready to be free from the darkness. And out into the light.
Zell and Quistis were on the move, dragging the shield hastily. As fast as they could.
Selphie was speed crawling beneath.
Nuvy tripped along behind the shield, with Squall following after them all, his face already tortured, pulling 200 pounds of stubborn mule cargo…
Yet miraculously, he kept the pace well.
The torch flames were stretched by the wind, flanking them in fire.
The survivors looked up while running, watching in awe and fear as they noticed the demonic predators launching into the air.
First came the hatchlings, streaming right into their faces, then veering away at the last possible second, repulsed by the light. Next came feral sounds overhead.
"Don't look up," Squall ordered.
Thin blue liquid rained onto them. A gooey substance…it had a strange smell.
"Do not look up," Squall echoed.
More of that horrible blue liquid spattered onto them.
Ignoring Squall's orders, Zell looked up, and stumbled when he beheld…A ceiling of predators. At the cusp of light, they dive and weave and dart, slashing each other in a furious desire to sound out the humans below.
Squall was irritated by the slight decrease in pace.
"Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going!" he cried.
His voice whipped them like the Devil's coxswain.
Chastened, Zell kept his blue eyes down and sped up.
More blue blood showered down, followed by entrails dropping out of the sky. Could this be Hell itself?
Quistis muttered a mantra, desperate to calm down the frightened souls around her.
"So dark the clouds around my way I cannot see," she prayed. "But through the darkness I believe Hyne leadeth me…I gladly place my hand in His when all his dim, and, closing my weary eyes, I learn hard on him…"
Now whole corpses crashed down from the sky…falling around them like horrible stars that had fallen from space. They were the dead victims of in fighting.
Zell and Quistis started to slalom through the ghastly mess.
Nuvy passed too close to a corpse, and a blade sliced into her leg, drawing blood. She kept her mouth shut, stifling a pained scream.
The passage was getting narrower and narrower…and was now nothing but a choke-point. Zell saw it first.
"Squall? Squall?" Zell called.
Ahead of them, a clot of dead predators blocked the canyon.
"What?" Selphie inquired. "What is it?"
"It's a fucking staircase!" Squall cried. "Go over it! Go over it!"
Steeling themselves, the survivors started to climb. But Selphie, on all fours, had to discover the corpses with her hands. Then, taking exception at being walked on…one "corpse" snapped at her.
Selphie recoiled sideways and tumbled down the mound of corpses. She was exposed from her hiding place.
The predators all glared at Selphie…ten different predators.
"Selphie!" Zell cried.
Selphie shook out of it and scrambled for the shield just as a predator kamikazed onto the shield, its bone-blades stabbing deep into the strong metal.
They nearly skewered Selphie beneath. She gave out a shriek of terror.
Caught in torchlight, steaming, the predator howled as it tried to rip free of the shield. Beneath, Selphie hung on and took a thrashing. The predator finally tore clear, spinning around and pounced blindly at…Squall, who stood at light's edge.
Stunningly, he caught the beast under its scythe blades, blunting the attack. The shadow-creature clicked madly at him.
The predator could see Squall's calm face through a veil of white…its night vision. It reared its head back, ready to bisect Squall with its skull blade. Switchblade fast, Squall dropped a hand, yanking his shiv, and swept over the belly of the terrible beast.
Howling in pain, the predator fell, disemboweled.
It's entrails fell from the huge wound in its stomach, falling onto the ground below.
Zell and Quistis looked in surprise…and disgust.
"Didn't know who he was fuckin' with!" Squall snapped at the best with a sneer.
The survivors regrouped.
Quistis' head swiveled back and forth.
They were one person short.
"Nuvy!" Quistis cried.
"Get the girl back under," Squall demanded. "Keep going."
"Nuvy!" Quistis repeated.
"Keep going or I will!" Squall shouted.
Suddenly Nuvy reappeared, thrust back into the light by unseen forces. She was still alive…but shouldn't be. She made a feeble attempt to grab onto Quistis, to anyone, but she's gone again before they could even react, jerked out of the light. Out of existence.
Quistis felt tears sting at her eyes, but blinked them away. The last of her Trepies was gone now. Gone forever.
Silencing words of anger, Quistis and the others flailed on, desperately.
And now, finally…finally…the canyon widened, opening up like the great doors to Heaven.
Yet behind them, the worst sounds fell behind…
They all had looks of obvious hope on their faces…The faintest hope that maybe…just maybe they'd survived the Seventh circle of Hell.
But then…the torches spit and sputter.
Selphie heard a pattering noise on the metal shield. New blood fell…and one torch died. Yet it came back to life.
What was going on?
Quistis upturned a hand, checking the liquid for color…but found none. This blood had no hue.
"Oh, no…" Zell murmured. "No, no, no…"
"Rain," Quistis said, feeling the hope slip like sand from her grasp.
Rainwater was running, flowing over the rocks and ground.
Caught in a downpour, the survivors slogged to a stop.
One torch went out…and it wouldn't relight.
Squall was laughing.
"So where the hell's Hyne now, huh?" Squall purred in an amused voice.
Quistis said nothing.
"I'll tell you where he is," Squall continued. "He's right up there, pissing on me!"
"Squall?" Zell began. "Squall, how close?"
Squall shed his goggles to look ahead.
He looked into the darkness, his face expressionless.
What did he see? What was he thinking?
"Tell me the settlement is right there!" Zell cried. "Squall, please!"
"We can't make it," Squall muttered.
Zell felt his face fill with anguish…rendering ethereally in the dying torchlight. Tears swelled within those beautiful blue eyes of his.
They stood there for just a moment.
All of them, standing there.
The rain fell all around them, like water spears being tossed down by angels. From a world of darkness above them.
Yet soon the silence faded, and the terrible sounds returned. Those terrible, terrible sounds…
Far worse than they were before…