Hey all! We got reviews, though only two. But still! ^^ Oh, and someone
started a website and they wanted to host our story! ^^
^___^ It's not up yet, but yah! They
actually emailed me and asked. ^^ We feel so loved. ^^
Anyway, after this chapter, we run out of our stored parts, so we need to write more, so it may take a little bit. But, don't worry, we'll be back. ^^ Just look in and we'll eventually put more up. Just don't leave us! ^^
Disclaimer: We don't own anything having to do with FF. Square does. We own our own characters though. ^^
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ~Chapter Thirteen~
Sephira glanced up, her eyes dull. "Kuja...?" she murmured, reaching out and shutting her eyes again.
Kuja knelt beside her, gathering her in his arms, holding her close, whispering, "Sephira, I am so sorry. Do not be angry with me. I did not mean to leave you. I never will again..."
"Kuja...." she breathed again. She swallowed and Kuja saw tears in her eyes.
"I am sorry. I will heal you once we get to Cid's airship. I promise. And I will not leave your side," he told her, kissing her forehead.
Looking up at the fighting, Kuja gasped when a man broke free from Zidane and lunged for Kuja. Protecting Sephira with his body, Kuja held up one hand and shot a fireball at the soldier, glancing over and watching the man fall.
Sephira grasped Kuja's hand and tried to sit up. Kuja placed an arm around her, not noticing as the white of his sleeves quickly stained crimson with blood.
"We need Cid to get here soon. You are losing too much blood, my angel," Kuja informed her, placing a hand over the large wound on her back. She hissed in pain and arched back a little, gasping.
"Kuja... Please..." she begged. Kuja removed his hand.
"But we must stop the bleeding or you could die from blood loss," he protested.
"No...I cannot...you cannot...do not place your hand there. I cannot stand the pain..." she murmured, wincing.
"Angel... I am so sorry...." Kuja whispered again, bringing his mouth close to her ear and stroking the side of her head with his other hand.
Hearing his pet name for her and his apologies, tears welled up in her eyes again and she turned a little, burying her face on Kuja's chest and weeping into him. Kuja held her as close as her wound would permit and murmured reassuring words to her.
"Sephira, do not cry. We are here now. You will be all right. I will not let anything happen to you. I know it hurts, but why do you cry?"
"I cannot say..." she sobbed, her voice muffled.
Kuja blinked. "Why not?"
"I...it is Angel..." she muttered, choking on her tears.
-----------------------------------------
Zidane spun around, hurried, shot, and dodged, all in an effort to defeat the soldiers that ringed around him, the seemingly paralyzed Kuja, and the still crying, bleeding Sephira. Viteros was nowhere to be seen.
Then, suddenly, he felt cold, a dark feel that could not be adequately described with mere words. He just felt.cold.
The soldiers, seeing him freeze, backed up and brought their guns to an attention position. Then Terisas walked in.
Zidane had only seen the man once, in a picture in the Devil Agenda book. But he looked different now.a metal mask rimmed with rivets covered the left half of his face, curving to reveal the entirety of his mouth. The man wore a long, dark blue cloak, which seemed to somehow gently drift in a wind no one could feel. He had a worn breastplate and shin guards, and his left hand and arm were covered in metal. Circuitry shone and disappeared on him, coming to be seen with a dim green glow and then vanishing into nothingness.
But somehow, Zidane knew who he was. Terisas. The enemy.
"Bravo, bravo," he said, clapping slowly, sarcastically, each hit of his gloves together making a quiet thud that then echoed down the hallways. "You have done quite well. Just as I expected."
Zidane brought his hands up to his mask and threw it away. "And I suppose you are Master Terisas."
"Very good," replied the man, walking forward, ever closer. "Very good. I knew that my old prodigal Ojikage would never pick inferior allies. And I see that you are a primitive from Gaea, and yet you handle the MG-C6 with skill that is not to be expected by any stretch of imagination."
Zidane looked down at the gun in his hands. "MG-C6? That's what this is called?" He threw it aside and drew his daggers. "I don't need it. I'll beat you anyway."
Terisas laughed, his voice chilling and somehow painful to hear. "Indeed? You favor your knives over the Maschingewehr Caliber 6? It is quite superior over the old model, the Caliber 5, shown by its much better ammo capacity and accuracy, as well as-"
"Are you here to tell me something important, or spout trivia?"
The man smiled thinly. "I see there is no distracting you. To tell the truth, I am actually trying to relish this moment, for soon you will be reunited with your old friend, the Darkness, and have an encounter with Light. And you will be afraid."
Zidane merely glared. "All my life I've believed that Light would never ally itself with evil. Good and evil can't exist together, and I know that they are opposites, and I know that they'll fight forever, and I know I'm on the right side! I'm gonna win, and you can't stop me."
Terisas laughed again. "Your audacity and bravado are quite impressive, little Genome. But be assured, you'll fail. Devil Nine! Appear to me!"
Zidane whirled and twisted in the forbidding dark, desperately looking for a sign of Viteros. Then he saw it.
A halo. A pure white ring of light, framing a black, featureless face, like a pitch black nothing floating there instead of the sharp features and long hair of the one he knew to be Viteros, the real Devil Nine. Below there was gold, silver, ornate metals twisted and forged expertly into armor that covered his chest, shoulders, forearms, shins, and feet. Underneath there seemed to be cloth of the finest silks and linens. But there ended the glory, and began the evil.
The left hand was strange, a normal hand but massive claws, hideously oversized for even the arm, let alone the hand, were in the place of the fingernails. It seemed that they had burst from there, because blood still oozed from where they and the fingers connected.
The right hand was even worse. It was grossly oversized; even the arm was long, the end almost touching the ground. And an end was the only thing to call it. Instead of a hand there hung a huge, curved sickle blade, like a dread pendulum, shining with newness and sharpness.
Zidane couldn't see where they connected, but it seemed that from Viteros' back were six long appendages that were high up and flicked in the air. They were like tentacles, but closer to just thick lines of white light that were apparently feathered as well. These glowing white things ended with slightly curved blades.
Devil Nine walked forward, his feet hovering inches above the ground.
When he spoke, it was like a nightmarish death rattle, penetrating the heart, flat, emotionless, and dead. "What is your wish, Master Terisas."
"Who are these people, Devil Nine?" asked Terisas, clearly relishing Zidane's fear. Kuja looked up for a moment and then gripped Sephira tightly, who lay limp in his arms. But she looked up weakly, and the sadness and fear were evident in her eyes. She spoke almost silently, "Viteros, no."
Viteros didn't respond, merely looked forward with his featureless, blank, flat black face. Terisas' bloodthirsty, sadistic smile was almost as terrible to see.
"Destroy them."
Wordlessly, Viteros floated forward, slowly lifting his arms. Zidane looked around, terrified. He nervously spoke, calling out to his friend.
"Viteros! It's me, Zidane! Please!"
Suddenly, it seemed as if an apparition, like a ghost, appeared before Zidane; it was Viteros, the Viteros he knew. Sorrowful, the phantom said quietly, "I'm sorry, Zidane."
The monster swung its scythe arm, and as Zidane hurried to dodge a tentacle suddenly wrapped itself around his legs, and when he tried to stab it it felt like coiled steel. Another swished through the air and wrapped his arms securely to his body. The blade hung half a foot away from the Genome's face.
All the while the main body hadn't moved. Still slow and terrifyingly majestic, Viteros slowly moved forward, closer and closer, until finally, it seemed like eternities later, he was right in front of his former friend. The dead, harsh voice spoke again. "Look at me."
Trembling with fear, Zidane slowly looked up into the black nothingness. When he did, he saw a thousand nightmares, and it felt like an eternity and a second all at once. He quickly looked away, gasping for breath.
The voice spoke again, this time the deadness was tinged with rage. "Look at me!"
And once again, Zidane had to look up at his face and undergo the same suffering. It felt like epochs passed until finally, Terisas stepped forward.
"That is enough, Devil Nine."
The tentacles unwrapped, and Zidane heavily fell to the ground, where he lay, not trying to get up, a sheen of sweat covering him, his eyes unnaturally massive with terror, his breath ragged and labored. All his muscles were tense; he couldn't move if he had the presence of mind to do so.
Viteros stood there, silent and menacing. Suddenly, Kuja stood up, hands in a triangle in front of him. He shouted, and a beam of icy blue light flashed and Viteros was blasted backwards.
Temporarily incapacitated, the Devil stood there, unmoving. Terisas cried out in rage. "No!"
Then a flash of memory hit Zidane, something he had read in the Devil Agenda. He stood up again, energy back only the way determination can, and he ran forward, knives flashing. "I'm gonna kill him!"
"Zidane, no! What are you-" Kuja cried out, but it was too late.
A white, feathery, bladed tentacle arced forward, and skewered Zidane through the chest. He hung there in the air, eyes blank with death, blood slowly dripping down. Then Kuja despaired, when he heard chanting behind him.
He looked back to see Sephira, not strong enough to stand up but forcing herself to kneel, hands in front of her, struggling to even stay conscious. However, willpower prevailed, and when she coughed, "Revive."
Zidane blinked. Then he looked up with a grin. He once again felt the surge of power tearing through his body, and he leapt backwards, landing perfectly despite the gaping hole in his torso.
Acting on knowledge he had no idea he had, Zidane lifted his arm and shouted, "Gamma Energy!" A burst of green and white light appeared, and blasted down, covering him in light. When it faded, he was whole. Then he turned to the recovering Devil. "Delta Shield!" A tentacle flashed through the air, but landed ineffectually against an invisible barrier that glowed faintly where it was struck.
"And now to finish the trinity," said Zidane, stepping forward. His left hand was in a fist before him, and his right hand was open, the arm straight behind him.
"Alpha." a ball of energy formed in the Genome's right hand, red and glowing. "Omega." he swung the hand around and put it next to the left, which had done the same, glowing with white energy. Electricity crackled through the air.
Zidane steeled himself, and aimed both at the Devil. A ray blasted between them, slamming Devil Nine back into the wall, pinned by a steadily glowing lance of red and white. ".aaahh.Holy Armageddon!"
The energy balls grew and merged, the colors twisting and warping until, finally, the massive, spherical collection of power was fully white. Suddenly, a spinning helix of pure black coursed around and through the main ray, throwing Viteros further into the wall. Zidane closed his eyes, gathered his energy, and then thrust out with everything he had.
The rays grew with incredible speed, and then exploded.
After the white flash faded, Kuja dared look up. Zidane stood there, silent and still. Sephira was still with him. Terisas was nowhere to be seen.
Viteros Ojikage, Devil Nine, lay dead.
Anyway, after this chapter, we run out of our stored parts, so we need to write more, so it may take a little bit. But, don't worry, we'll be back. ^^ Just look in and we'll eventually put more up. Just don't leave us! ^^
Disclaimer: We don't own anything having to do with FF. Square does. We own our own characters though. ^^
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- ~Chapter Thirteen~
Sephira glanced up, her eyes dull. "Kuja...?" she murmured, reaching out and shutting her eyes again.
Kuja knelt beside her, gathering her in his arms, holding her close, whispering, "Sephira, I am so sorry. Do not be angry with me. I did not mean to leave you. I never will again..."
"Kuja...." she breathed again. She swallowed and Kuja saw tears in her eyes.
"I am sorry. I will heal you once we get to Cid's airship. I promise. And I will not leave your side," he told her, kissing her forehead.
Looking up at the fighting, Kuja gasped when a man broke free from Zidane and lunged for Kuja. Protecting Sephira with his body, Kuja held up one hand and shot a fireball at the soldier, glancing over and watching the man fall.
Sephira grasped Kuja's hand and tried to sit up. Kuja placed an arm around her, not noticing as the white of his sleeves quickly stained crimson with blood.
"We need Cid to get here soon. You are losing too much blood, my angel," Kuja informed her, placing a hand over the large wound on her back. She hissed in pain and arched back a little, gasping.
"Kuja... Please..." she begged. Kuja removed his hand.
"But we must stop the bleeding or you could die from blood loss," he protested.
"No...I cannot...you cannot...do not place your hand there. I cannot stand the pain..." she murmured, wincing.
"Angel... I am so sorry...." Kuja whispered again, bringing his mouth close to her ear and stroking the side of her head with his other hand.
Hearing his pet name for her and his apologies, tears welled up in her eyes again and she turned a little, burying her face on Kuja's chest and weeping into him. Kuja held her as close as her wound would permit and murmured reassuring words to her.
"Sephira, do not cry. We are here now. You will be all right. I will not let anything happen to you. I know it hurts, but why do you cry?"
"I cannot say..." she sobbed, her voice muffled.
Kuja blinked. "Why not?"
"I...it is Angel..." she muttered, choking on her tears.
-----------------------------------------
Zidane spun around, hurried, shot, and dodged, all in an effort to defeat the soldiers that ringed around him, the seemingly paralyzed Kuja, and the still crying, bleeding Sephira. Viteros was nowhere to be seen.
Then, suddenly, he felt cold, a dark feel that could not be adequately described with mere words. He just felt.cold.
The soldiers, seeing him freeze, backed up and brought their guns to an attention position. Then Terisas walked in.
Zidane had only seen the man once, in a picture in the Devil Agenda book. But he looked different now.a metal mask rimmed with rivets covered the left half of his face, curving to reveal the entirety of his mouth. The man wore a long, dark blue cloak, which seemed to somehow gently drift in a wind no one could feel. He had a worn breastplate and shin guards, and his left hand and arm were covered in metal. Circuitry shone and disappeared on him, coming to be seen with a dim green glow and then vanishing into nothingness.
But somehow, Zidane knew who he was. Terisas. The enemy.
"Bravo, bravo," he said, clapping slowly, sarcastically, each hit of his gloves together making a quiet thud that then echoed down the hallways. "You have done quite well. Just as I expected."
Zidane brought his hands up to his mask and threw it away. "And I suppose you are Master Terisas."
"Very good," replied the man, walking forward, ever closer. "Very good. I knew that my old prodigal Ojikage would never pick inferior allies. And I see that you are a primitive from Gaea, and yet you handle the MG-C6 with skill that is not to be expected by any stretch of imagination."
Zidane looked down at the gun in his hands. "MG-C6? That's what this is called?" He threw it aside and drew his daggers. "I don't need it. I'll beat you anyway."
Terisas laughed, his voice chilling and somehow painful to hear. "Indeed? You favor your knives over the Maschingewehr Caliber 6? It is quite superior over the old model, the Caliber 5, shown by its much better ammo capacity and accuracy, as well as-"
"Are you here to tell me something important, or spout trivia?"
The man smiled thinly. "I see there is no distracting you. To tell the truth, I am actually trying to relish this moment, for soon you will be reunited with your old friend, the Darkness, and have an encounter with Light. And you will be afraid."
Zidane merely glared. "All my life I've believed that Light would never ally itself with evil. Good and evil can't exist together, and I know that they are opposites, and I know that they'll fight forever, and I know I'm on the right side! I'm gonna win, and you can't stop me."
Terisas laughed again. "Your audacity and bravado are quite impressive, little Genome. But be assured, you'll fail. Devil Nine! Appear to me!"
Zidane whirled and twisted in the forbidding dark, desperately looking for a sign of Viteros. Then he saw it.
A halo. A pure white ring of light, framing a black, featureless face, like a pitch black nothing floating there instead of the sharp features and long hair of the one he knew to be Viteros, the real Devil Nine. Below there was gold, silver, ornate metals twisted and forged expertly into armor that covered his chest, shoulders, forearms, shins, and feet. Underneath there seemed to be cloth of the finest silks and linens. But there ended the glory, and began the evil.
The left hand was strange, a normal hand but massive claws, hideously oversized for even the arm, let alone the hand, were in the place of the fingernails. It seemed that they had burst from there, because blood still oozed from where they and the fingers connected.
The right hand was even worse. It was grossly oversized; even the arm was long, the end almost touching the ground. And an end was the only thing to call it. Instead of a hand there hung a huge, curved sickle blade, like a dread pendulum, shining with newness and sharpness.
Zidane couldn't see where they connected, but it seemed that from Viteros' back were six long appendages that were high up and flicked in the air. They were like tentacles, but closer to just thick lines of white light that were apparently feathered as well. These glowing white things ended with slightly curved blades.
Devil Nine walked forward, his feet hovering inches above the ground.
When he spoke, it was like a nightmarish death rattle, penetrating the heart, flat, emotionless, and dead. "What is your wish, Master Terisas."
"Who are these people, Devil Nine?" asked Terisas, clearly relishing Zidane's fear. Kuja looked up for a moment and then gripped Sephira tightly, who lay limp in his arms. But she looked up weakly, and the sadness and fear were evident in her eyes. She spoke almost silently, "Viteros, no."
Viteros didn't respond, merely looked forward with his featureless, blank, flat black face. Terisas' bloodthirsty, sadistic smile was almost as terrible to see.
"Destroy them."
Wordlessly, Viteros floated forward, slowly lifting his arms. Zidane looked around, terrified. He nervously spoke, calling out to his friend.
"Viteros! It's me, Zidane! Please!"
Suddenly, it seemed as if an apparition, like a ghost, appeared before Zidane; it was Viteros, the Viteros he knew. Sorrowful, the phantom said quietly, "I'm sorry, Zidane."
The monster swung its scythe arm, and as Zidane hurried to dodge a tentacle suddenly wrapped itself around his legs, and when he tried to stab it it felt like coiled steel. Another swished through the air and wrapped his arms securely to his body. The blade hung half a foot away from the Genome's face.
All the while the main body hadn't moved. Still slow and terrifyingly majestic, Viteros slowly moved forward, closer and closer, until finally, it seemed like eternities later, he was right in front of his former friend. The dead, harsh voice spoke again. "Look at me."
Trembling with fear, Zidane slowly looked up into the black nothingness. When he did, he saw a thousand nightmares, and it felt like an eternity and a second all at once. He quickly looked away, gasping for breath.
The voice spoke again, this time the deadness was tinged with rage. "Look at me!"
And once again, Zidane had to look up at his face and undergo the same suffering. It felt like epochs passed until finally, Terisas stepped forward.
"That is enough, Devil Nine."
The tentacles unwrapped, and Zidane heavily fell to the ground, where he lay, not trying to get up, a sheen of sweat covering him, his eyes unnaturally massive with terror, his breath ragged and labored. All his muscles were tense; he couldn't move if he had the presence of mind to do so.
Viteros stood there, silent and menacing. Suddenly, Kuja stood up, hands in a triangle in front of him. He shouted, and a beam of icy blue light flashed and Viteros was blasted backwards.
Temporarily incapacitated, the Devil stood there, unmoving. Terisas cried out in rage. "No!"
Then a flash of memory hit Zidane, something he had read in the Devil Agenda. He stood up again, energy back only the way determination can, and he ran forward, knives flashing. "I'm gonna kill him!"
"Zidane, no! What are you-" Kuja cried out, but it was too late.
A white, feathery, bladed tentacle arced forward, and skewered Zidane through the chest. He hung there in the air, eyes blank with death, blood slowly dripping down. Then Kuja despaired, when he heard chanting behind him.
He looked back to see Sephira, not strong enough to stand up but forcing herself to kneel, hands in front of her, struggling to even stay conscious. However, willpower prevailed, and when she coughed, "Revive."
Zidane blinked. Then he looked up with a grin. He once again felt the surge of power tearing through his body, and he leapt backwards, landing perfectly despite the gaping hole in his torso.
Acting on knowledge he had no idea he had, Zidane lifted his arm and shouted, "Gamma Energy!" A burst of green and white light appeared, and blasted down, covering him in light. When it faded, he was whole. Then he turned to the recovering Devil. "Delta Shield!" A tentacle flashed through the air, but landed ineffectually against an invisible barrier that glowed faintly where it was struck.
"And now to finish the trinity," said Zidane, stepping forward. His left hand was in a fist before him, and his right hand was open, the arm straight behind him.
"Alpha." a ball of energy formed in the Genome's right hand, red and glowing. "Omega." he swung the hand around and put it next to the left, which had done the same, glowing with white energy. Electricity crackled through the air.
Zidane steeled himself, and aimed both at the Devil. A ray blasted between them, slamming Devil Nine back into the wall, pinned by a steadily glowing lance of red and white. ".aaahh.Holy Armageddon!"
The energy balls grew and merged, the colors twisting and warping until, finally, the massive, spherical collection of power was fully white. Suddenly, a spinning helix of pure black coursed around and through the main ray, throwing Viteros further into the wall. Zidane closed his eyes, gathered his energy, and then thrust out with everything he had.
The rays grew with incredible speed, and then exploded.
After the white flash faded, Kuja dared look up. Zidane stood there, silent and still. Sephira was still with him. Terisas was nowhere to be seen.
Viteros Ojikage, Devil Nine, lay dead.