Chapter One:
It Begins in the Future
"Let's get the hell out of here!"
Among the outskirts of the Centra Ruins ran a most unlikely pair: a gunblade-wielding ex-SeeD mercenary and a former member of the Galbadian army.
"Why should we run?" cried the ex-SeeD, a tall, blond young man, to his companion, who seemed to be concentrating on getting away from the ruins as fast as he could. "They have what we came for! There's only three of them, after all!"
Both men came to a halt. The ex-SeeD's mouth twisted into a smile of satisfaction.
"What the hell are you smiling about?" said the Galbadian, a dark man who was even taller than his companion. "We've got bigger problems to worry about!"
It was at about that moment that the three unidentifiable figures who were chasing the two caught up to them. Each of the three was approximately the same height, and each wore an all-encompassing black robe held tightly to their body with a heavy black belt. Though they were armed with nothing but what appeared to be steel quarterstaffs, the three seemed to radiate an aura of fear and intimidation. The single fact that the two mercenary companions knew in regards to the robed figures was that they belonged to a mysterious organization about which practically nothing was known. However, this lack of knowledge had not stopped the mercenaries from taking a well-paying job involving the retrieval of a small crystal-like object from the small group of robed individuals stationed at the Centra Ruins.
The ex-SeeD quickly drew his gunblade from the holster at his side and switched its safety into the off position. "What say we get us a crystal, Luts?" he said, obviously not worried about the impending battle in the least.
"Sounds like a plan to me, Clest," replied the Galbadian named Luts. "Now let's get this over with so we can get paid!"
Judging from his posture and demeanor, one would be assured that Clest was quite comfortable with battle. He had been the most skilled gunblade wielder at Balamb Garden for two years after the departure of Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy, despite his young age. However, due to reasons that he preferred not to discuss, Clest had been expelled from the Garden, and had served as a mercenary for the past two years. It was in the streets of Balamb that he had gained his actual combat experience and familiarity with combat.
Luts, on the other hand, took a more wild and unpredictable approach to combat, as did all Galbadian soldiers. One could tell that he had been trained in the difficult art of Galbadian swordsmanship by the way he held his sword: his right hand was placed upside-down upon the hilt of the cleaver-like weapon, allowing him to deliver very effective chopping blows to his opponents. However, his mobility was vastly increased from that of the average Galbadian soldier; he wore none of the bulky Galbadian battle armor, therefore increasing his speed, dexterity, and visibility.
Though the two individuals had quite different approaches to combat, both were comfortable fighting alongside one another, as they had been doing so for nearly as long as Clest had been a mercenary. The two had been childhood friends with similar interests, but had been separated due to their alternate military paths. It is therefore not surprising that Clest sought out his old comrade Luts upon being expelled from Balamb Garden, as he had heard the young recruit had quit his training when Sorceress Edea took power in Galbadia.
Unfortunately for the mercenary duo, they had more to worry about than their pasts at the moment, though the robed individuals did not seem overly eager to begin the battle.
A man who seemed to be the leader of the group stepped forward and lowered the hood on his robe, revealing him to be a bald, seemingly middle-aged male. His piercing black eyes seemed to bore into the mercenaries as if they were transparent. "Why do you wish to fight?" he said, his voice calm and unwavering. "You must realize that it is futile."
"We're after your crystal," Clest said impatiently. "Hand it over and we won't have to hurt you people."
The bald leader laughed slightly. "You could not harm us, boy. You have no idea what you are dealing with, and it would be to your advantage if you would give up your hopeless quest. The Fire Shard is not an item to be taken lightly. Who has sent you after the Shard?" he added as an afterthought.
"That's none of your damn business," Luts retorted. "Our employer said you stole the crystal from him."
"That may be true," said the leader, "But we have much more use for it than its 'owner' did." He put an odd emphasis on the word 'owner.'
"Where we come from, stealing is a crime," Clest said casually. "Unfortunately for you three, our employer chose to come to us instead of turning to the local police. Now, if we're going to fight, we'd better get this over with."
The leader regarded Clest amusedly. "Very well then. However, I want no interference. You and I will fight alone."
After glancing quickly at the downtrodden Luts, Clest agreed to the one-on-one battle. "Well then, enough talking. It's time for you to hand over what we came for."
The leader simply smiled. He drew forth the item he had referred to as the Fire Shard, revealing it to be a six-inch-long piece of a crystal of some sort that was likely larger than a person's body. A fierce red glow emanated from the center of shard, and enveloped the leader's hand. "You have no idea what the Fire Shard can do, boy," the leader muttered. "Regardless, you seem not to value your life to any great extent. Your attitude makes my job quite easy."
Clest had quickly become tired of the drawn-out conversation. He rushed at the leader and delivered two swift slashes to his midsection, each of which were blocked by the leader's staff. He then spun around and made a wild slash at his opponent's head, followed by a potentially devastating thrust at the man's stomach. Both of these attacks were deftly dodged. Angrily, Clest aimed several powerful cleaving slashes at his opponent's exposed head, but was not able to avoid being parried by the leader's quarterstaff, which, Clest noted with surprise, he wielded in a single hand. Again and again Clest attacked, and again and again his attacks were dodged or blocked by his almost inhumanly fast opponent. After quite a few failed attempts to decapitate, impale, and otherwise maim his opponent, Clest tiredly leapt back and took a defensive position.
The robed leader was hardly idle; he seemed to have tired very little, if at all, and took full advantage of Clest's weakened state. He sprung forward and swung his staff at Clest wildly, causing the mercenary to focus his full attention on dodging and parrying his opponent's blows. Clest could barely avoid being hit by his opponent in his tired state, but he could feel his defenses deteriorating with every blocked blow. Finally, Clest was caught by surprise when the staff flew into his stomach through an unseen hole in his defenses, unexpectedly tossing him to the ground due to the inhuman force of the blow.
Realizing that he could not simply allow his friend to be beaten to a bruised and bloody mass, Luts leapt at the robed leader, taking him by surprise with the force of his blow. Though the attack was blocked, the leader was thrown off guard, giving Luts the opportunity to attempt yet another attack. However, the blow never hit its mark, as the mysterious leader of the robed ones easily dodged it.
"What are you people?" Luts said, leaping back into a defensive position. He glanced over at Clest and, realizing that his companion needed a moment to catch his breath, began to stall for time. "How are you so fast?"
The leader sneered. "No human can face our power. Since I am going to kill you anyway, I suppose there is no harm in revealing to you what we are. We are the-"
"It begins!"
The leader suddenly spun around to face the robed one who had spoken, finding the individual staring intently toward the Centra Ruins. From the very center of the ruins came a fierce white light, so bright as to be difficult to look directly into. "It..." the leader stammered, "It certainly does...Come! We have no time for these pathetic humans! They will meet their doom soon enough!"
At that command, the robed individuals ran toward the ruins.
"What in hell..." Clest slowly rose to his feet. "What's going on? Hey! Where do you people think you're going?"
As an afterthought, the robed leader spun around and raised his hand that held the Fire Shard. He whisperingly chanted several odd syllables, which seemed to cause the crystalline object to glow more fiercely than ever. Clest realized what the man was in the process of doing just in time to take the full force of a small explosion on his gunblade. Though unharmed, Clest was thrown backwards into one of many piles of debris that littered the ground around the ruins. Luts was better prepared when he was forced to contend with his own Fire spell, and managed to dodge the attack altogether. Before even looking back to see the results of his spells, the robed leader ran after his two companions, who had nearly reached the entrance to the ruins.
Clest leapt up and clutched his stomach. "What's going on? I figured this would be a routine job."
Luts simply shook his head. "Beats the hell out of me, but that," he said, pointing at the ever-enlarging glow that had surrounded the primary tower in the center of the ruins, "Looks like magic to me."
"Really. How long did it take you to figure that out?" Clest badgered.
"We don't have time for this," Luts retorted. "We don't have the slightest idea what that is, so I figure we'd better get out of here."
"Without that crystal? There's no way in hell."
Luts sighed in exasperation. "There are more important things than money. You know, like living long enough to make up for the money we didn't make in this job."
Clest shrugged. "It's a matter of dignity. Anyway, I suppose you're r-...what the hell? This keeps getting more and more strange."
A helicopter bearing the blue SeeD insignia of Balamb Garden flew by overhead. It seemed to be circling the ruins as if looking for a suitable place to land.
"Who told SeeD about this?" Luts said "Unless they can see it from Dollet..."
"Satellite surveillance," Clest muttered. They had still been perfecting the system when he had left the Garden. "This certainly complicates things. Not only do we have those black-robed people running around somewhere; we have a SeeD strike team who will most likely interrogate us as soon as they find us to deal with, as well."
"Wonderful," Luts muttered. "Now, can we get the hell out of here?"
* * * * *
"In the name of all things sacred, what is that?"
Elite SeeD squad leader Quistis Trepe peered intently out the window of her helicopter at the Centra Ruins as she gently turned the aircraft to the north. She had never seen anything comparable to the mysterious glow, save the effects of magic, and she knew that there was nothing left in the ruins that could produce such an effect; she had helped to clear out the god-forsaken place years ago, after all.
"I don't know," responded another elite SeeD, a woman with short black hair and the only other person in the helicopter, "But it's your move."
Quistis sighed impatiently. "Come on, Xu. Don't you ever think about anything other than Triple Triad?"
Xu smiled. "You know you're going to lose."
It was an obvious fact. Between the pilot and copilot's seats in the helicopter was an empty space upon which was set up a most one-sided match of Triple Triad. Xu had captured all of the cards on the table save one, a singular card trapped in the upper left corner of the field.
Quistis shrugged. "What rules are we playing with again? Same Wall?"
"Don't even try it," Xu said. "I'm a high-ranking member of the most elite Triple Triad organization in the world. You can't fool me that easily."
Quistis seemed distracted. "Look over there. There are two people on the ground running around the perimeter of the ruins. Almost seems like they're looking for something."
"I would say s-...Quistis!"
Quistis was forced to roughly jerk the helicopter to the right as a single beam of light shot up from the ever-increasing glow of the ruins. This effectively ruined the setup of the Triple Triad game.
"Our game!" Xu wailed mournfully. "I was looking forward to taking that Cerberus of your hands."
"Hey! There was no trade rule!"
Xu smiled mischievously. "There's always a trade rule, Quistis. We just didn't set one at the beginning."
"Will you forget about that? We were almost killed because your damn game was distracting me."
"Hey, it's not my fault we were...almost skewered by an out-of-the-ordinary discharge of energy? What's going on here?"
Quistis sighed in exasperation. Xu was a good soldier, Quistis had to admit, but she was the most absent-minded SeeD in all of Balamb Garden, albeit one of the most skilled and experienced.
Xu shrugged. "Was it something I...I...I think we have a problem."
* * * * *
Clest ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but not necessarily away from the ruins as his friend Luts would certainly have appreciated. "Damn SeeD! Showing up at a time like this...they'll probably take the crystal themselves."
"Look at that!" Luts yelled over the ever-increasing howl of the wind.
A single beam of light shot up from the very center of the ruins, reaching far enough into the air that its end was not visible, assuming it had a conceivable end. It ceased abruptly shortly after it began, though it nearly vaporized the SeeD helicopter that had crossed its path for a split second. The fool of a pilot who flew the craft simply spun around and began to head for the center of the ruins once more.
Clest stopped running, causing Luts to nearly trip as he halted abruptly to keep near his companion. "Those SeeDs never learn."
"You're telling me," Luts said wryly. "I have to deal with an ex-SeeD every day, and he's worse than they are."
"Not funny," Clest muttered, his eyes fixed upon the ruins, which were now practically exploding with power. "Did those robed guys go into the ruins?"
"If so, I think we lost our prize."
Clest kicked a small pile of rubble, causing it to scatter across the hard ground. "Damn it, why would they run into something like that? Unless..." The scheming young man's mouth slowly twisted into a smile. "Unless they were absolutely sure there would be no danger to themselves or their 'Fire Shard' or whatever they called it. I say we go after them."
"I say you're out of your mind!"
"Suit yourself," Clest said with a shrug. "That two thousand gil will sure go a long way..." At that, Clest began to walk toward the massive, blinding energy field that still widened around the ruins.
Luts gave an unsatisfactory grunt, and cursed his idiot of a friend before calling, "Wait for me!"
As he ran, Clest continually looked up toward the SeeD helicopter in the sky. He cursed as he noticed it was coming gradually closer to he and Luts. "Luts!" he cried. "Hurry it up! Those SeeDs are probably coming to stop us!"
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing!" Luts replied.
Clest spun around to face his friend. "Come on, be a little optimistic-...what are you looking at?"
Clest followed his friend's line of sight, finding that Luts had been staring at the SeeD helicopter in the distance. Noticing that the helicopter was no longer moving forward, Clest spun around and gave his full attention to the most unusual spectacle before him. The helicopter seemed to be frozen completely; not only was it not moving, but its blades had stopped spinning as well. It seemed to be utterly frozen in time for several seconds, then was surrounded by an odd white aura that soon grew to be an all-encompassing ball of blinding energy. The energy shrunk and closed in upon itself until it had reduced to nothing.
The helicopter was gone.
"W...what...what the hell..." Clest stammered. "What the hell did that?"
Luts could barely speak. "It was...hit with one of those...those beams from...the ruins!"
"All right, you win," Clest said quickly. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
"Gladly."
And so, after much trouble on their part to retrieve a piece of an item crucial to a being whose very existence was yet unknown to anyone other than his closest servants, the mercenaries ran. They had finally come to the realization that what their black-robed targets had said was true: they had no idea what they were dealing with. In fact, there were few who did, or had the knowledge to figure out the significance of the Fire Shard to the fate of existence. Clest and Luts cared little for the fate of all who had ever lived, however; they simply ran. They ran faster than they had ever run throughout the course of their lives, for they had never felt such a sense of fear and foreboding as they did when the energy welling forth from the Centra Ruins began to approach them as if it were chasing the two comrades.
If only they had known what then they did not.
Luts was the first to be caught by the energy. Unlike the SeeD helicopter, his body was simply dragged away into the white nothingness that was the energy. Clest, watching on in horror, followed closely behind his friend, but to where and when he did not know.
He would know soon enough.
It Begins in the Future
"Let's get the hell out of here!"
Among the outskirts of the Centra Ruins ran a most unlikely pair: a gunblade-wielding ex-SeeD mercenary and a former member of the Galbadian army.
"Why should we run?" cried the ex-SeeD, a tall, blond young man, to his companion, who seemed to be concentrating on getting away from the ruins as fast as he could. "They have what we came for! There's only three of them, after all!"
Both men came to a halt. The ex-SeeD's mouth twisted into a smile of satisfaction.
"What the hell are you smiling about?" said the Galbadian, a dark man who was even taller than his companion. "We've got bigger problems to worry about!"
It was at about that moment that the three unidentifiable figures who were chasing the two caught up to them. Each of the three was approximately the same height, and each wore an all-encompassing black robe held tightly to their body with a heavy black belt. Though they were armed with nothing but what appeared to be steel quarterstaffs, the three seemed to radiate an aura of fear and intimidation. The single fact that the two mercenary companions knew in regards to the robed figures was that they belonged to a mysterious organization about which practically nothing was known. However, this lack of knowledge had not stopped the mercenaries from taking a well-paying job involving the retrieval of a small crystal-like object from the small group of robed individuals stationed at the Centra Ruins.
The ex-SeeD quickly drew his gunblade from the holster at his side and switched its safety into the off position. "What say we get us a crystal, Luts?" he said, obviously not worried about the impending battle in the least.
"Sounds like a plan to me, Clest," replied the Galbadian named Luts. "Now let's get this over with so we can get paid!"
Judging from his posture and demeanor, one would be assured that Clest was quite comfortable with battle. He had been the most skilled gunblade wielder at Balamb Garden for two years after the departure of Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy, despite his young age. However, due to reasons that he preferred not to discuss, Clest had been expelled from the Garden, and had served as a mercenary for the past two years. It was in the streets of Balamb that he had gained his actual combat experience and familiarity with combat.
Luts, on the other hand, took a more wild and unpredictable approach to combat, as did all Galbadian soldiers. One could tell that he had been trained in the difficult art of Galbadian swordsmanship by the way he held his sword: his right hand was placed upside-down upon the hilt of the cleaver-like weapon, allowing him to deliver very effective chopping blows to his opponents. However, his mobility was vastly increased from that of the average Galbadian soldier; he wore none of the bulky Galbadian battle armor, therefore increasing his speed, dexterity, and visibility.
Though the two individuals had quite different approaches to combat, both were comfortable fighting alongside one another, as they had been doing so for nearly as long as Clest had been a mercenary. The two had been childhood friends with similar interests, but had been separated due to their alternate military paths. It is therefore not surprising that Clest sought out his old comrade Luts upon being expelled from Balamb Garden, as he had heard the young recruit had quit his training when Sorceress Edea took power in Galbadia.
Unfortunately for the mercenary duo, they had more to worry about than their pasts at the moment, though the robed individuals did not seem overly eager to begin the battle.
A man who seemed to be the leader of the group stepped forward and lowered the hood on his robe, revealing him to be a bald, seemingly middle-aged male. His piercing black eyes seemed to bore into the mercenaries as if they were transparent. "Why do you wish to fight?" he said, his voice calm and unwavering. "You must realize that it is futile."
"We're after your crystal," Clest said impatiently. "Hand it over and we won't have to hurt you people."
The bald leader laughed slightly. "You could not harm us, boy. You have no idea what you are dealing with, and it would be to your advantage if you would give up your hopeless quest. The Fire Shard is not an item to be taken lightly. Who has sent you after the Shard?" he added as an afterthought.
"That's none of your damn business," Luts retorted. "Our employer said you stole the crystal from him."
"That may be true," said the leader, "But we have much more use for it than its 'owner' did." He put an odd emphasis on the word 'owner.'
"Where we come from, stealing is a crime," Clest said casually. "Unfortunately for you three, our employer chose to come to us instead of turning to the local police. Now, if we're going to fight, we'd better get this over with."
The leader regarded Clest amusedly. "Very well then. However, I want no interference. You and I will fight alone."
After glancing quickly at the downtrodden Luts, Clest agreed to the one-on-one battle. "Well then, enough talking. It's time for you to hand over what we came for."
The leader simply smiled. He drew forth the item he had referred to as the Fire Shard, revealing it to be a six-inch-long piece of a crystal of some sort that was likely larger than a person's body. A fierce red glow emanated from the center of shard, and enveloped the leader's hand. "You have no idea what the Fire Shard can do, boy," the leader muttered. "Regardless, you seem not to value your life to any great extent. Your attitude makes my job quite easy."
Clest had quickly become tired of the drawn-out conversation. He rushed at the leader and delivered two swift slashes to his midsection, each of which were blocked by the leader's staff. He then spun around and made a wild slash at his opponent's head, followed by a potentially devastating thrust at the man's stomach. Both of these attacks were deftly dodged. Angrily, Clest aimed several powerful cleaving slashes at his opponent's exposed head, but was not able to avoid being parried by the leader's quarterstaff, which, Clest noted with surprise, he wielded in a single hand. Again and again Clest attacked, and again and again his attacks were dodged or blocked by his almost inhumanly fast opponent. After quite a few failed attempts to decapitate, impale, and otherwise maim his opponent, Clest tiredly leapt back and took a defensive position.
The robed leader was hardly idle; he seemed to have tired very little, if at all, and took full advantage of Clest's weakened state. He sprung forward and swung his staff at Clest wildly, causing the mercenary to focus his full attention on dodging and parrying his opponent's blows. Clest could barely avoid being hit by his opponent in his tired state, but he could feel his defenses deteriorating with every blocked blow. Finally, Clest was caught by surprise when the staff flew into his stomach through an unseen hole in his defenses, unexpectedly tossing him to the ground due to the inhuman force of the blow.
Realizing that he could not simply allow his friend to be beaten to a bruised and bloody mass, Luts leapt at the robed leader, taking him by surprise with the force of his blow. Though the attack was blocked, the leader was thrown off guard, giving Luts the opportunity to attempt yet another attack. However, the blow never hit its mark, as the mysterious leader of the robed ones easily dodged it.
"What are you people?" Luts said, leaping back into a defensive position. He glanced over at Clest and, realizing that his companion needed a moment to catch his breath, began to stall for time. "How are you so fast?"
The leader sneered. "No human can face our power. Since I am going to kill you anyway, I suppose there is no harm in revealing to you what we are. We are the-"
"It begins!"
The leader suddenly spun around to face the robed one who had spoken, finding the individual staring intently toward the Centra Ruins. From the very center of the ruins came a fierce white light, so bright as to be difficult to look directly into. "It..." the leader stammered, "It certainly does...Come! We have no time for these pathetic humans! They will meet their doom soon enough!"
At that command, the robed individuals ran toward the ruins.
"What in hell..." Clest slowly rose to his feet. "What's going on? Hey! Where do you people think you're going?"
As an afterthought, the robed leader spun around and raised his hand that held the Fire Shard. He whisperingly chanted several odd syllables, which seemed to cause the crystalline object to glow more fiercely than ever. Clest realized what the man was in the process of doing just in time to take the full force of a small explosion on his gunblade. Though unharmed, Clest was thrown backwards into one of many piles of debris that littered the ground around the ruins. Luts was better prepared when he was forced to contend with his own Fire spell, and managed to dodge the attack altogether. Before even looking back to see the results of his spells, the robed leader ran after his two companions, who had nearly reached the entrance to the ruins.
Clest leapt up and clutched his stomach. "What's going on? I figured this would be a routine job."
Luts simply shook his head. "Beats the hell out of me, but that," he said, pointing at the ever-enlarging glow that had surrounded the primary tower in the center of the ruins, "Looks like magic to me."
"Really. How long did it take you to figure that out?" Clest badgered.
"We don't have time for this," Luts retorted. "We don't have the slightest idea what that is, so I figure we'd better get out of here."
"Without that crystal? There's no way in hell."
Luts sighed in exasperation. "There are more important things than money. You know, like living long enough to make up for the money we didn't make in this job."
Clest shrugged. "It's a matter of dignity. Anyway, I suppose you're r-...what the hell? This keeps getting more and more strange."
A helicopter bearing the blue SeeD insignia of Balamb Garden flew by overhead. It seemed to be circling the ruins as if looking for a suitable place to land.
"Who told SeeD about this?" Luts said "Unless they can see it from Dollet..."
"Satellite surveillance," Clest muttered. They had still been perfecting the system when he had left the Garden. "This certainly complicates things. Not only do we have those black-robed people running around somewhere; we have a SeeD strike team who will most likely interrogate us as soon as they find us to deal with, as well."
"Wonderful," Luts muttered. "Now, can we get the hell out of here?"
* * * * *
"In the name of all things sacred, what is that?"
Elite SeeD squad leader Quistis Trepe peered intently out the window of her helicopter at the Centra Ruins as she gently turned the aircraft to the north. She had never seen anything comparable to the mysterious glow, save the effects of magic, and she knew that there was nothing left in the ruins that could produce such an effect; she had helped to clear out the god-forsaken place years ago, after all.
"I don't know," responded another elite SeeD, a woman with short black hair and the only other person in the helicopter, "But it's your move."
Quistis sighed impatiently. "Come on, Xu. Don't you ever think about anything other than Triple Triad?"
Xu smiled. "You know you're going to lose."
It was an obvious fact. Between the pilot and copilot's seats in the helicopter was an empty space upon which was set up a most one-sided match of Triple Triad. Xu had captured all of the cards on the table save one, a singular card trapped in the upper left corner of the field.
Quistis shrugged. "What rules are we playing with again? Same Wall?"
"Don't even try it," Xu said. "I'm a high-ranking member of the most elite Triple Triad organization in the world. You can't fool me that easily."
Quistis seemed distracted. "Look over there. There are two people on the ground running around the perimeter of the ruins. Almost seems like they're looking for something."
"I would say s-...Quistis!"
Quistis was forced to roughly jerk the helicopter to the right as a single beam of light shot up from the ever-increasing glow of the ruins. This effectively ruined the setup of the Triple Triad game.
"Our game!" Xu wailed mournfully. "I was looking forward to taking that Cerberus of your hands."
"Hey! There was no trade rule!"
Xu smiled mischievously. "There's always a trade rule, Quistis. We just didn't set one at the beginning."
"Will you forget about that? We were almost killed because your damn game was distracting me."
"Hey, it's not my fault we were...almost skewered by an out-of-the-ordinary discharge of energy? What's going on here?"
Quistis sighed in exasperation. Xu was a good soldier, Quistis had to admit, but she was the most absent-minded SeeD in all of Balamb Garden, albeit one of the most skilled and experienced.
Xu shrugged. "Was it something I...I...I think we have a problem."
* * * * *
Clest ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but not necessarily away from the ruins as his friend Luts would certainly have appreciated. "Damn SeeD! Showing up at a time like this...they'll probably take the crystal themselves."
"Look at that!" Luts yelled over the ever-increasing howl of the wind.
A single beam of light shot up from the very center of the ruins, reaching far enough into the air that its end was not visible, assuming it had a conceivable end. It ceased abruptly shortly after it began, though it nearly vaporized the SeeD helicopter that had crossed its path for a split second. The fool of a pilot who flew the craft simply spun around and began to head for the center of the ruins once more.
Clest stopped running, causing Luts to nearly trip as he halted abruptly to keep near his companion. "Those SeeDs never learn."
"You're telling me," Luts said wryly. "I have to deal with an ex-SeeD every day, and he's worse than they are."
"Not funny," Clest muttered, his eyes fixed upon the ruins, which were now practically exploding with power. "Did those robed guys go into the ruins?"
"If so, I think we lost our prize."
Clest kicked a small pile of rubble, causing it to scatter across the hard ground. "Damn it, why would they run into something like that? Unless..." The scheming young man's mouth slowly twisted into a smile. "Unless they were absolutely sure there would be no danger to themselves or their 'Fire Shard' or whatever they called it. I say we go after them."
"I say you're out of your mind!"
"Suit yourself," Clest said with a shrug. "That two thousand gil will sure go a long way..." At that, Clest began to walk toward the massive, blinding energy field that still widened around the ruins.
Luts gave an unsatisfactory grunt, and cursed his idiot of a friend before calling, "Wait for me!"
As he ran, Clest continually looked up toward the SeeD helicopter in the sky. He cursed as he noticed it was coming gradually closer to he and Luts. "Luts!" he cried. "Hurry it up! Those SeeDs are probably coming to stop us!"
"Maybe that's not such a bad thing!" Luts replied.
Clest spun around to face his friend. "Come on, be a little optimistic-...what are you looking at?"
Clest followed his friend's line of sight, finding that Luts had been staring at the SeeD helicopter in the distance. Noticing that the helicopter was no longer moving forward, Clest spun around and gave his full attention to the most unusual spectacle before him. The helicopter seemed to be frozen completely; not only was it not moving, but its blades had stopped spinning as well. It seemed to be utterly frozen in time for several seconds, then was surrounded by an odd white aura that soon grew to be an all-encompassing ball of blinding energy. The energy shrunk and closed in upon itself until it had reduced to nothing.
The helicopter was gone.
"W...what...what the hell..." Clest stammered. "What the hell did that?"
Luts could barely speak. "It was...hit with one of those...those beams from...the ruins!"
"All right, you win," Clest said quickly. "Let's get the hell out of here!"
"Gladly."
And so, after much trouble on their part to retrieve a piece of an item crucial to a being whose very existence was yet unknown to anyone other than his closest servants, the mercenaries ran. They had finally come to the realization that what their black-robed targets had said was true: they had no idea what they were dealing with. In fact, there were few who did, or had the knowledge to figure out the significance of the Fire Shard to the fate of existence. Clest and Luts cared little for the fate of all who had ever lived, however; they simply ran. They ran faster than they had ever run throughout the course of their lives, for they had never felt such a sense of fear and foreboding as they did when the energy welling forth from the Centra Ruins began to approach them as if it were chasing the two comrades.
If only they had known what then they did not.
Luts was the first to be caught by the energy. Unlike the SeeD helicopter, his body was simply dragged away into the white nothingness that was the energy. Clest, watching on in horror, followed closely behind his friend, but to where and when he did not know.
He would know soon enough.