Chapter 24- Killing The Demons
Author- VAMP QUEEN
Third Person Perspective
Well, people, we're almost done. Just this chapter, the next, and then the epilogue left. I know it took a while to get out, but I thought that Zelda was writing it, and then it turned out that I had to. So I hope you enjoy!
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The group of nine appeared moments before they had disappeared; yet they knew that they weren't really there yet. They watched what had happened:
Blinding light shone in the entire room, and the pair was thrown back into a wall. When the light dimmed, they all saw the two lying on the floor, hurt but not defeated. Not in the slightest.
Raven, still struggling against her bonds, finally picked them with an energy key and fell from her place of captivity. She sat up and cried out. She fell back again and yelled, "Enough!"
Squall and Terra were once again in each other's arms, leaning against the wall, yet not hurt. Quistis was standing within fighting distance of the sorceresses along with Zell and Selphie, each standing straight up in full health. Raven, back on the ground and the only one worse off than before, searched for Seifer and Flora. They were nowhere to be found. Panic lit in her chest and she tried to get up. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Seifer standing behind her, holding his little angel. Her tuft of blonde hair shone even in the dim light and her green eyes mirrored Seifer's. They both watched her with those lustrous jade orbs. All she could do was smile.
He knelt down and brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I heard you," he said shortly.
"I know. I hoped that you did." She sighed, realizing that this would be the last time she ever saw either of them. "You have fifteen seconds. Take care of her." Knowing that she wouldn't live to regret it, she leaned forward to kiss him. It wasn't long enough for him to respond, just a brush, but he got the message. She pulled away from his touch and waited for him to leave.
The time was up and the spell started. Raven's head tilted to the side when Seifer didn't disappear. In the corner of her eye, she saw Zell disappear, the light showing where he was shooting through the ceiling, followed by Selphie. Her eyes widened. It wasn't working properly! Irvine left, and she prayed that Quistis would be last.
Murphy's Law kicked in. Quistis left and when Terra disappeared, her light simply hit the wall and pinged back to Squall, knocking him over. All was still. All was silent. Raven, with the help of Seifer, got to her feet. She looked around and saw the two evil witches smiling at her.
"So, Adel, which do you want to kill?" Aris snarled, her blue eyes flashing. She glared at first Terra, then Raven and switched back and forth, waiting for her sister's reply.
"I'm not sure." Adel was not happy. "Now, we can only kill these ones. What did they do? I don't like it when people try to trick us." The two sisters started to gather their energy, preparing to kill the four standing in their midst.
Raven looked at their small, bedraggled group. First, there had been the Dragon, the Phoenix, and the Gorgon. Oh, of course they had been called many things in different cultures. Raven always preferred this explanation.
The lover was the Phoenix, with their fiery passion and the way that each was like the other. They were almost always reborn at the place of their death. Terra had come in to the room where the previous Phoenix had killed herself just in time to witness it. The mother was the Dragon, cool, detached, ancient, and powerful. They were store holders for an immense amount of power, yet could barely tap into it. They held the other two's main supply within their body, mind, and soul. The child could be looked at as a Gorgon, inflicting revenge on those that cross them. Two out of three were always extremely hard to kill. Luna had been the "medusa", the one of three who was killable. That and her hair could be a little crazy in the mornings.
Now, however, the Gorgon was just a child, and the powerful Dragon was weak and handicapped. Only the Phoenix was strong.
"Fine, then." Aris looked at the two sorceresses and made her choice. "I wanted to be the one to kill the Phoenix. Now I'll have that chance. You take the Dragon." She started to advance when Terra pushed Squall away from her and braced herself.
"That's what you think, ghost dog!" she shouted. The brunette created a ball of fire and threw it to the sisters, knocking them over.
Flora began to whimper slightly in her father's arms. Raven's head snapped around and she motioned for Seifer to get back, out of the way. Completely scared for the first time in his life, Seifer could only comply.
The raven-haired girl sighed and turned back to the witch. "Now," she said, pulling out her whip, "time to give you a little training in obedience." With that, the battle lines were set up. The duels started.
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Terra immediately brought out her bow and shouldered her quiver. She notched an arrow and whispered her ice spell. At once, dagger-like icicles formed over the head of the arrow. She aimed for her adversary and let loose her shot. It embedded itself into Aris's stomach, stopping her advancement.
The ghost looked down surprised. "Now how did that happen?" she asked, pulling out the arrow painfully.
Terra smirked. "No one," she stated, notching her second arrow, "messes with the people I care about. Since ice doesn't seem to bother you, how about we warm things up a little?" Her arrow became a blaze as she put a fire spell on it. As she loosed it, however, a wave of magic knocked her down and back onto the floor. The girl looked up, startled. "Ok, it looks like fire doesn't work well, either."
While she was rising, Squall took the opportunity to help his beloved in her fight. He jumped in and, using his gunblade, cut deeply into the ghost's stomach. Aris howled, a bloodcurdling, inhuman sound. She swiped at him with poisonous claws and he was barely able to jump back in time.
The intimidating woman held the gash closed with one hand and made a motion with another. Although the gunblade wielder was quick enough to avoid her physical blow, there was nothing to protect him from her magical one. He was hoisted into the air and thrown forcefully into the wall.
Terra's eyes blazed. "This is between you and me, dog. Leave him out of this!" The simple, pure burst of energy that the witch expelled was enough to greatly diminish Aris's hit points. Within a few blows, she would be dead.
The malicious smirk that graced the Phoenix's face showed that she knew how close her opponent was to her demise. She took half a second to heal her knight and turned to her partner. The smile disappeared. Raven was not doing as well as her. No, not at all.
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Raven was almost on all fours, she was so exhausted. Her rebellious "student" was teaching her a lesson. Adel wore that evil on her like a cloak and her expression showed that she knew she was winning.
The girl cursed. She was a healer, not a fighter. And there was so much on the line. She looked over at the lover and saw that she seemed worried. A half grimace, half smirk came on Raven's face. "Well," she said, "this trip wasn't at all like we thought. Next time, I pick the vacation. Is that alright?" Inside, she cursed yet again. She only joked like that when she was scared, in trouble, or both. And Terra knew that.
She was thrown into that wall again before she could hear Terra's reply. She groaned, got up slightly, and then fell back again. Stars floated in front of her eyes, dancing to the sound of Adel's evil laughter.
She was dimly aware of Squall jumping in and fighting for a while. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that he was not the one who would kill her. Then a little voice told her what to do.
She got to her feet; puppeteer's strings gracefully pulling her to where Raven needed to be. She said to Squall something quietly, something about getting out of the way, and yet it was barely above a whisper, she saw that he heard. She raised her hands and prepared for her limit break.
Now she knew why it was called that.
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Seifer was crouched in a corner of this dank cave holding Flora. He couldn't believe that this was all happening. He could feel Raven's power gathering, despite her weakened state. Oh, goodie, she was going to use her limit break.
She walked as if someone was controlling her, yet she seemed so calm. She got to her place to fight the monster before her. The already dim cave turned pitch black and there was only the sound of chanting. Flora started to fuss and he did what he could to calm her down.
Suddenly, she was quiet, along with the chanting. A silent flash of lighting comes and Raven is illuminated for a second. She seems drenched with blood. The next flash shows her clean, looking to the sky, waiting.
There was a loud, low flap of wings and a red light slowly and softly started to light the dark. Standing behind Raven was a giant bat like demon, slightly like Bahamut. Her whip cracked and the thing nodded. All was dark again. When the lights returned to normal, the demon was gone and Adel's corpse was lying on the ground, shredded.
Her magic came up and split into three equal parts. Each went to one of the adult witches that were there. Aris, having been close to death, was fully healed, as was Raven. Though she had not been as bad off as the other two, Terra was also healed.
And Squall began to attack at full force.
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For a moment, it all seemed so silent. The fighting went on with such a rhythm that it barely made a noise. There was just the sound of the fighting itself, with an occasional grunt or muttered word. No jeers were thrown and no threats made. All were bent on winning.
Then Flora began to cry.
No one could blame her. If you remember, all she had done so far was fuss a little. In fact, it had all been so quiet, all of the players in the act of fighting jumped.
Aris grinned wickedly. "Well, I never had the opportunity to kill someone twice," she said, rolling up her sleeves. "This ought to be fun!" She cast a lightning spell in the form of an orb. She stepped back and relished the looks of horror on Flora's parent's faces. She let loose her horrible blow just moments too late.
Terra smirked as she saw the stupefied look on the spell caster's face. "What?" she asked. "Have you never seen a shield spell? No? Well, too bad."
Flora was raised into the air and was contained in a shimmering pale blue shield of pure magic. She was currently giggling and looking around from her new perch. Despite her newness to the world, she looked around herself with the awareness of someone with a few years to his or her name.
The now solidified ghost let loose an inhuman howl. Terra already suspected that the thing before her was not human and she kept proving that point.
Raven joined Terra and stood beside her. "Let me guess," the Goth said to her shorter counterpart. "If we go out, we're going out together? Like always?"
Looking at her partner, Terra bit back a retort when she saw the wicked, vengeful gleam in her eyes. She smiled slightly. "Yeah, just like old times. Now all we have to do is wait for my brain to kick in and make a plan."
A brief smile flitted across Raven's pale face. "If we do that, then I should stand back and be ready with the healing spells. So what's the plan?"
"Protect that baby." Raven nodded her agreement and shot a tiny energy shield just large enough to stop the spell from hitting the little one.
Infuriated, Aris threw spell after spell. They barely were able to stop them, let alone hurt her. The witch's speed picked up and a few of the energy balls got through their defense.
Up above them, the blue shield was infused with red magic- Flora's magic. She giggled and it grew brighter. Raven nodded. "That's my girl," she whispered.
Suddenly, her barrage stopped. Squall had taken the opening of her attention being distracted to nearly open her stomach. He had taken on a slight blue glow and was standing ready to take another swing.
To his surprise, Aris's hand shot out and clutched his throat in a vice-like grip. He was hoisted in the air. She sneered at his slightly panicked face and his attempts to get out of her grasp. She drew him close to her and then threw the knight across the room, into the wall.
He didn't get up.
Terra was furious. While Raven was taking care of Squall, she turned to the one who inflicted such pain on the one she loved. Her hands crackling, she stepped forward to duel with her. There was one drawback.
Aris's hands too were engulfed in lightning. Smiling, shed said, "My sister and I, we chose to use you and that girl with power over earth and plants because your powers are the same as ours." Her hands still crackling in time with Terra's, she advanced. "So you can't hurt me!" She laughed as she cam to Terra, arms outstretched to strangle her and be the end of her.
'Squall, Raven, where are you?' Terra thought as she prepared to take on something she feared- another of herself.
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Tired, Seifer knelt, leaning on his gunblade. How could she not notice that he was trying to kill her? He had been going back and forth behind her, trying to remove her torso from her legs.
At the most, he ridded her of some lint and a few hit points and perhaps cooled her off a little.
He cursed under his breath. He wasn't doing any good. He couldn't help at all.
'Why am I helping in all of this? Why do I want to help? She won't kill me… she has no reason to and she's not that crazy. So why am I helping?' The same question kept echoing in his head. Was it for himself? No, he just blew that reasoning out of the water. Was it for Flora? He made a face. He hated that name. Hopefully, she would pick a nickname or go by her middle name. That couldn't be true, though. She was probably the most safe out of everyone. If they all died, she would still be fine and someone from the Garden would find her. What was it?
When he looked up to the fight, he saw Raven thrown from the battle. She groaned and tried to get up. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed for the tenth time that day.
Pain suddenly exploded in his heart when he realized that she might be dead. Seifer ran over to her, praying to whatever would hear him that she would be all right. He knelt beside her and whispered "Curaga", waving his hand over her body. She didn't move.
Cursing, he tried again. And again. And a fourth time. Finally, her eyes fluttered open. She smiled slightly at him and he felt a little tug on his heart. He knew that feeling.
He was in love.
As soon as he thought this, he and Raven started to glow with a slight green light. Even the fighting stopped when it picked up a brighter hue. They all turned to see the two on the ground, Seifer holding his beloved and brushing hair out of her face.
Raven snuggled closer to Seifer and whispered, "I love you." Joy engulfed her face when he replied.
"I love you too," he whispered, right before he caught her lips in a gentle and passionate kiss.
The green glow turned into a blinding light as the two kissed. When it finally died down, there was an unusual look about Seifer. It was as if he had finally found his place.
Then there was the fact that he was still glowing green.
He helped Raven up and the pair joined Terra and Squall. Raven smiled at Seifer and looked to the knight and sorceress. "I now have-" she was cut off momentarily by a coughing spell. She quickly tucked her hand away from sight and continued. "I now have my knight. Let's do this thing."
As they assembled together, the girls beside each other with their respectable knights behind them, Aris began to laugh. "What?" she asked. "Do you really think that you can beat me?"
The solidified ghost continued to cackle as Raven leaned her head back to talk to Seifer. "What you'll be doing is lending me your strength. Just envision your power flowing through you and into me. And help me stand, all right?"
"Why did you hide your hand?" She showed him. It was covered in blood. Knowing she wouldn't let him just carry her, he took on as much of her weight as possible.
Terra looked at Raven. "I'll do the first and third lines, ok?"
She nodded. "Fine with me."
Aris's laughter stopped when they started.
"Hear us all witches deceased"
"Lend us your power, let it increase"
"No," Aris said, advancing, hoping to put a stop to this powerful spell.
"Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather before"
"Help us, please, to settle the score"
With a cry and a rush of wind, she started to disappear. Pushing their hands joined with their knights, what was active of the Witches Three repeated their spell in perfect timing, calling on all those who had died before them.
Suddenly, all was quiet. Raven almost fell, but was kept up by Seifer. Smiling, Terra called Flora down to her arms.
Up from where Aris's body lay, there came a ghost, who smiled at the odd group.
Luna said, "Thank you for finishing them off. Now I can rest in peace. And Raven, don't let your daughter make the same mistakes you did. She's so beautiful." The shade smirked. "Of course, it's because she looks like me. Goodbye!" She floated out through the ceiling, only to be seen later. But that's another story.
Peace lasted for only a moment. The cave started to fall in and they made it out only just in time. With that behind them, they remembered one last problem.
"The Garden is 40 miles away," Squall stated. "How are we going to get back?"
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Sorry it took so long! Yell all you want, but I think that this was the hardest for me by far. I just wasn't to take time to say that this chapter is dedicated to all of you who keep reading and specifically to three people-
First, to Zelda tilRednaxelous. You're my co writer and without you, we never would have even started this.
To marsbar27. You have help me out more times than I can count. You also have reviewed the most and your support made a huge difference.
And also to Arkangel. I have the feeling that you're reading this and I hope you know that you are a major inspiration to this story. May God bless you and keep you.
That's it until next time! So just review!
VAMP QUEEN
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