Assault The Judge
Written By: Sixto Limiac III
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a property of Square Enix. Their characters, monsters -- right down to their creations are sorely theirs. I simply use them to hone my craft! As you can tell from this fic and Born Within, I do have a side story I have created. It revolves around the "Imp Wars." I want to write a short novel of Imps and Moogles warring and a young Queen Remedi arising to power and initiating the birth of the Judges. Not to mention how the races ended in Ivalice, altogether.
"Yesss. The king of the old daysss isss far over. Yet hisss legacy staysss amongssst usss."
"Indeed, Kupo."
"Then all's ssset little moogle?"
"Ku - Kupo, everything falls in place."
"Queen Remedi willsss fear the ssstrength of the massesss. Sssuresss ready?"
"Kupo, Kupo. The mercenary has been hired and my other brother's dagger is drawn."
"Thensss at daybreak we catchssss sssight of the firssst fallen Judge. Clan Borzoi! HAsss-HAsss-Hasss! Comesss little moogle. Dosss not be afraid to laughsss with me. HAsss-HAsss-HAsss!"
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The trading strip would have been bustling in every walk of life. On this day however, the outside decks of Baguba Port lies barren. What is to be a restless traffic of business, bundled with the many faces of the Nu Mou alongside their Moogle counterparts is emptied. No sailor nor vendor prop their head from the streets. The yearly Merchant Hunt has left the entire public in search for merchandise across Ivalice. Though, it is not quite as deserted as one may think. Two parties stare at each other from considerable distance. Battle nears.
Near the docks two moogle thieves and a human hunter ascertain their opposition. All ferocious, blood-lusting Bangaa . One defender who wears the glistening medal of leadership is accompanied with two equally brutal warriors. The leader's snout is up in the air as he checks the docks and begins to recognize his foes. Both clans have waited a few minutes count, their contempt clogging the salty air. Inclination to go at one another's necks pump veins a little faster and it grows until they behold a great power materialize before them.
Blasts of blue erupted, and within it came the Judge on his steel-armed chocobo. His beast screeches loudly, as the Judge leveled his head up to the skies and studied his new surroundings. He has caught the twinge of anger and hatred emanating from the two clans. He has picked out that familiar find as he was trained to do and guard the life so intent to destroy itself. Under the direct orders of utter life preservation, he has arrived to uphold it as best as he possibly can. Armor gleaming ominously with the dull sun, the Judge has teleported from his former place of duty to Baguba Port. He screened his vision to the moogles and the lone human.
"Identify yourself!" His voice toppling everything in its path.
"Hey, we're," the Moogle leader began, "Clan. . .um, Shalo? Yes, Shalo ya dumb koop!"
The Judge grazed hard at the Moogle who wore the clothing of a common thief. He then shifted his sights onto his right in an unrealistic instant.
"Clansss Borzoi!" The defender impatiently cried before the Judge could traditionally ask. The Judge glared at the defender's sword and observed that his warriors too held the same weapon. An icy shaft of eyes spiraled at the bangaa party, but because the Judge's face is shrouded by a grotesque mask, none saw the wrath he veils.
"I, the Judge of the Palace, declare by the strict order of Queen Remedi the forbidden use of Sword," his eyes left the bangaa defender and swarmed onto the thief's, "and Steal! Commence battle!" His voice clapped the air, and like thunder, it crackled the bones.
The defender and thief nodded at one another across the Weapons District.
The mercenary laid no waste in time. He wanted out of this mission as quick as he leapt at it. Yanking an arrow free from his back, he aimed it at the approaching warriors. Keeping his point of aim steady, lining his sights at half mast, he knew where they'll eventually step. He unslung an arrow into the heavens. It whizzed back down to the earth in the form of a thunderous projectile, zipping at the warriors. Both Bangaa leapt in time to evade the brusque attack.
The Moogles strode behind the hunter, the leader leaned close to the hunter's ear.
"Steady, Kupo. Keep aiming for the one on your right, we'll take care of the other one. Kupo?"
"Yes!" The hunter spat and shot a standard attack at the incoming warrior.
He snapped a fleet of missiles into the separate bangaa warrior, but the soaring arrows failed to break through the swiftness of his daring target. The hunter's determination did not wane, and unexpectedly one arrow managed to sear the outer layer of a scaly cheek. Hissing violently, the Bangaa traced his roots of ferocity. The mercenary knew the Bangaa were incredibly fast, but he conjectured that he had just enough time to launch a self-spell and blast a last arrow before he was forced to engage the wild warrior in close combat.
Praying within his spirits, he recited the spell of Boost. His vision sharpened, his concentration expanded into the unknown depths of the human conscious. Another arrow was perfectly lain on his bowstring, and he was ready to impale what the frenzied Bangaa held most beloved, the fighting arm.
Both thieves kept their space from the approaching warrior closing on the hunter's neglected side. The passing warrior shot a glare at them, and both Moogles dumbly waggled away from him.
The Judge questioned why the two thieves backpedaled, and he then considered that the Bangaa flung Charm onto them with his orange, flickering eyes.
A profound bashing sound echoed throughout Baguba Port. The unnoticed warrior hammered a fist at the back of the hunter's skull. Writhing at the eruption of pain, the hunter screamed as his arrow whizzed off his original trajectory. The next Bangaa hurdled his massive body at the human, and threw a barrage of punches at his face. Battering him beyond recognition. Blood arched all over the air. From the hunter's viewpoint, he saw his blood licking the clouds above him. Hot clods of it landed all over his beaten face. Out of desperate defense, he brought his bow up. It was the thinnest shield in the world.
"Help me! Help me, Goddammit!" shrieked the hunter. Humankind never looked so fraught. No compassion would derive from the bloodthirsty Bangaa or the mischievous Moogle.
Like an ocean, the two parties encircled the hunter and hemmed him in. The defender watched behind his assailants with the Moogles following him. He clicked his tongue as perfect as that of a cricket. At the sound, one of his warriors drew out a sword and unhesitatingly slashed at the buried hunter.
Instinctively, the Judge raised his head, and ordered his chocobo to gallop at their direction. Ignoring the rest of the combatants, he drove pass them to stop the criminal before he could strike again. Summoning the red card of a jail sentence, the Judge conjured the words of the Old King's ancient law. Behind him, the defender let out his cricketing signal to his entire party. All of Clan Borzoi focused on the one Judge. They closed in on him immediately, two Moogle and two Bangaa. Simultaneously, they raised their weapons together and slammed them down. They have assaulted the Judge.
Before they could achieve a collective deathblow, the Judge maneuvered his chocobo. All of Clan Borzoi's weapons have missed as one. Shaking off the brief flood of distress, the Judge alerted himself and spoke the spidery words of magic at the criminal Bangaa. Listening to the soothing web of the spell, the warrior could not resist but fall under the spell of Sleep.
"You all must be fools!" the Judge roared. He tugged on his chocobo to close in on them. It didn't respond and quivered. The chocobo must have been as taken back as the Judge. Again, he tugged on his reins and the chocobo did not follow, it began to slide on its leg and sag onto the pavement. Slanting over, the armored entity looked into the frozen eyes of his once dutiful animal. It is dead. He bellowed. All his rage is thrown across Baguba Port and along the seas. Flocks of birds took off in a clatter of wings.
"Criminals, thieves, outlaws - you are the detestable! You want to become the new infamous and treachery of Ivalice? You don't know what Ivalice has been through! You all must be the rebellious Clan Borzoi. Please to meet you! You will not be thrown in prison where your miserable existences belong. Instead, you all shall feel the fury of my forbidden weapon." He had developed a overwhelming temptation to shrill a trail of curses at them. Instead he spoke his daunting words and pulled out a giant weapon. Beams exploded from his ancient scabbard as he brought out his sword into a world it hasn't seen in ages.
The thieves were now panicky, reaching for their daggers and questioningly holding them up. The Bangaa tried to hang onto the nature of unmatched brute. Both Bangaa produced a protective magic on the remaining four. Their leader, the defender, looked straight at the Judge as if unafraid by the peril he will soon know. He still is in charge, he is their leader and he orders the frightened two and one mildly brave to charge at their opponent. This is what they wanted to start, a rebellion against Queen Remedi. Her strength simply cannot be that durable, her line of authority figures will not stampede over the masses. Hell, the commoners outnumber them, a thousand to one. And with their leader's orders, the three ran to meet their hated enemy. It was a nightmare much more than they even thought it would turn out to be.
The three previously saw only the prodigious authority they considered to be conquerable. Now everything has gone suddenly bleak, yet they go head on. The moogles felt a horrible sensation arise from their bowels. They have never felt it before, something has triggered it, an old past, an anciently dangerous enemy.
The warrior rushed ahead to engage the walking Judge. With his blade behind his head, he threw every ounce of muscle into his swing. With inhuman speed, the Judge backed off, and rammed the hilt of his sword at the Bangaa's face. Bangaa blood lashed out on his silver armor as the warrior flew back and crashed through a wooden shop. The Moogles were bewildered at the sheer power of the enemy, they uneasily glanced at each other. No one has ever picked off a brawny Bangaa in a mere second. They were the most violent and strongest creature Ivalice has come to know. Yet here, this Judge has demonstrated an incomprehensible power, and the Moogles helped awakened it. When the Moogles looked back where the Judge attacked, their daggers dropped as they found that he mysteriously vanished.
"Behind yousss mooglesss." the defender warned. "He's behindsss you!"
One last time the moogles were consumed by the dangerous presence. They gulped any last drop of courage and solemnly cried.
"Kupo. . ."
"Ku. . ."
Blackness reached out and pulled them inward.
The defender distrusted his action to challenge the monster he has unleashed. The Judge is beyond any beast he has encountered, just the thought of its speed unnerved him. His wits were fumbling, but his heritage as a Bangaa would not falter, he will fight his challenger as the past have done before him and will after him. There will be no disloyalty to his kind. He hoisted his sword and gingerly walked toward the Judge. His opponent sprinted at him.
It was as terrifying as it was exhilarating. The defender went along the Judge's move and raced to meet him while watching the bulk of silver armor coming at him. The huge sword of the Judge shone brighter than the dying sun as the moon began to replace it. The Judge's shoulder pitched back, the defender automatically ducked, thrust his own blade at the direction of his neck. It had to be enough to penetrate through the armor. Towering over the Bangaa, the Judge watched his challenger, amused.
"Such foolishness!" the Judge uttered morosely. He weaved his neck sideways, dodging the attack. After noticing his hopeless enemy grimace, the armored entity smiled behind his mask and slammed his meaty elbow into the defender's forehead, knocking him out like a rag doll.
The Judge discarded the idea of using his sword on the imbeciles. For it was too risky, another of his own may investigate his way over. However, he promised himself he would use it on this small band of Clan Borzoi. He swore it to himself as he clutched the neck of his chocobo, futilely checking if there were any pulse. Sheathing his sword, he gazed at the bodies lying on the market strip and planned a bitter sweet slaughter. He was entirely sick of the traditions of the Old King, of Queen Remedi herself. He lost his only companion and noticed the twinge of hatred amplifying out of control. He knew what he had to do. He knew what he wanted to make of these. . .these things! This was the beginning of a past's resurrection.
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"Come back hunter. Come to and wake."
"I'm - I'm awake. Ohhh, my head. How did I get here? Judge! What do you want from me? I'm just a mer- mercenary! I don't know what the others planned. I honestly had noth -"
"Fear not. Take your weapons. You have nothing to worry about. I allow you to leave and live. You are not part of this."
"Live? The others?"
"They are no concern. Mind yourself, unless you wish to join them? Recover your bow and your arrows from my hands and remember this. Remember me. Inform those who hire you that no one will ever defy my kind and live with it ever again. Leave now!"
The hunter snatched his bow and quiver of arrows and bolted outside the hot, cramped room. The heat was intense. His footfalls were fast and deliberate. He ran for his life.
The Judge stood upright and walked toward the bangaa lying on the deck. Inspecting him, the Judge softly kicked at him, and he began to stir.
"Get up bangaa. Get up. Your consolation of sleep is over."
"Sss, wheresss am I? Whysss are my handsss and legsss bonded togethersss? The Judgesss."
"Hear me. You believe I am the walking pest of Ivalice? You see me as improper authority? When it is you who should be slain. We are here to protect your lives and you can't bear it? If it weren't for us, you'd all be dead. You want death? Then so be it!"
"Wesss hate the Queen. We need the old waysss of Ivalice, before the Old King. We aresss told that the passst wasss a haven."
"Don't fool yourself, I'll give you your haven!"
"Nosss! Nosss!"
The Judge grabbed the Bangaa with an iron grip and forced him to kneel before him. The Bangaa frantically looked around the room, searching for a weapon of opportunity and use it against his slayer. He saw the other Bangaa warrior sprawled on the ground, headless. A purple puddle beneath his limped form looked as if it were consuming his own body. The piercing and trickling sound of metal filled the room, and the Judge unsheathed his bloodied sword .
"You won't butchersss usss. You are Queen Remedisss ssservant. The sssmell of your blade will ssssummon othersss."
"No, I'm afraid not, warrior. There will be no one within this place who cares for the lowest of the low. No other Judge will trace your passing. Welcome to Jagd Dorsa."
"Nosss!"
A loud, sticky plump seemed to come from the wooden floor. Both Moogles were stashed at the corner of the room and were fixed in a seizure of shivers as if there were stuck in a bucket of ice. Unlike the Bangaa they were blindfolded. They felt a thick, hot liquid splatter across their white fur. The sickly feeling of death were traumatizing them, and they began to wail. One Moogle, not the leader, cringed at a strong hand pulling him where he heard the Bangaa cry. Firm, cold hands forced him on his knees. Out of pure desperation, the Moogle tried to energize his wings.
"Hah, fly little one. Take off and fly away. You really assume that I would hand you the chance to flee? No, you will not escape me. You know what, I am thankful you killed my chocobo. I give each of you my blessing. After all these years I've dreamt to end all of you. Always fighting, always arguing, I wanted to erase everyone and everything roaming Ivalice. You are the nuisance of Ivalice, not I, not the line of Judges, not humankind, and certainly nor were the Imps. My power must arise to exterminate all of Ivalice's useless races and revive a forgotten one. The Bangaa, Nu Mou, Moogle and Viera will face an extinction. In its place another will proliferate and co-exist with humankind as they once did before. Don't you agree?"
"Kupo, yes - yes. Free me now, Kupo? I don't like this, I don't. In the name of Kupo, please. You must be joking -- or drunk. We were joking. He-he. All a Kupo of a joke!"
"You don't even know where 'Kupo' derives from. Kupo is a person. He lived to fight the Imp Wars. A great Moogle hero and I served alongside him."
"Ku. . ."
"And you know nothing of him. Nothing of the past. Am I right, little Mog? No lies."
"No. Kupo Judge my ears heard naught of a Kupo past. I chime the word because all of our kind chime it."
"I know. Ignorance must be bliss."
A rift in the wind ripped as the Moogle's head sprung on the wooden planks. Additional blood showered each nook inside the clammy house. The humidity crept inside of the pores of the last Moogle and he no longer cried, he had lost every deposit of energy. His life was nearing its end and he slightly twitched at the freezing hands reaching for him. The Moogle wanted to shriek at him, call out to magic, but he registered that it was already over. His chance for survival was a fiction. He finally wished he never plotted to take out a Judge.
"End it now, Kupo."
"Oh, we're in debt to death, furry one? Tell me, did you know of Kupo?"
"My great grand Moogles gave light to such a war between our kind and the fabled Imps. Its ridiculous."
"The Imps were the greatest creatures. They were completely disciplined, clever, and we massacred them. Your kind, mine, Ivalice herself did. We butchered them until the remnants of their race were forced to trek into a different world through the black portals. Within the *Going Forest*. Our current Prince Mewt has no awareness of it. I have not forgotten of them as your kind chooses to. Judges are blessed with eternal life because of our great undertaking. But it costs me my own judgment. I had no right to decide the end of a race. I was swayed by the Queen who saved you all. She was young, resilient, and unwavering. Yet the fucking masses still spit on her. Ironic, that I abhor her for all the right reasons. You see little mog, this is only the beginning of a greater future. Disappointingly, its one of the horrors you'll be missing out on."
"You are not humankind. You are something different."
The Judge beheaded the thief. The soft, wooly head skipped up and down as it came to a stop with the other three.
"I know."
Perfect silence consumed the humid room. The Bangaa defender heard all of it, witnessing the uncanny turn of events. A protector of Ivalician souls has lost his sanity.
"Wonder why you Bangaa were not blindfolded?"
"Because wesss Bangaa cherish the ssscent, touchesss, and sssight of blood."
"Indeed, Bangaa. You all lived for it as your kind has during the Imp Wars. Bangaa were called upon for assistance, to help end the Imps. You see Imps and Humankind lived together until the Moogles decided to voyage onto our world. They were parasites, and the Imps decided to terminate them. The Moogles summoned the Bangaa to help purge the Imps.
"I havesss never heard of sssuch a war. . ."
"What do you expect? The Queen has inclusive control over history. She denies all of it. She will never speak of it, so others will never come to know of it. I will reveal it to the world, and when they accept it, I will strike them."
"Yousss are mad Judge."
"Am I? You're the one trying to kill me out of boredom. You think Ivalice is that bad, you haven't seen the half of it. The past was darker than this, darker than you'd ever could imagine. The problem with this age is that everyone lacks an imagination."
"Likesss I sssaid, mad!"
"Its hopeless to compromise with your kind, it always has been. You have no resort but to charge in. Tell those who have died in the Imp Wars that the Imps will return. They will take what is rightfully theirs, because I am here!"
The Judge pulled back his horned helm, revealing a terrifying visage. The bangaa screamed in fear, he never saw anything so horrifying in his lifetime. He felt the mutability of his fighting heart. Everything he fought honed him to the defender he was, yet he was nothing compared to this monstrosity. His last sight was that of an Imp and the sound of massive sword swinging.
"Only the beginning."