Hey, hey, hey. *huggles every single reader* Sorry it took sooooo long! ;_;
We'll try to be better, now. ;_;
This part only features Vit's writing, because I'm kind of busy with evil school. @_@
Thanks all for being so cool about this. ^^ And, remember to go and look back at the revised chapters. ^^
Disclaimer: Blah, blah. We don't own FF9, already! XD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
~Chapter 15~
A few hours of flying and waiting passed by. Everyone was on edge, emotions and adrenalin running high, but they tried to hide it.
Zidane stayed on the observation deck, watching the trees and clouds rush past. Nature had no reason to worry, the animals and plants just lived their lives, they never had to think about war or death or good or evil.
He stood there for a long time, thinking. Why was life so difficult? Was there a god? Why was there good and evil? What was the point of it all?
He finally walked off and went back inside the Highwind. He wanted to know more about the Angel Project. Looking for Viteros, Zidane scoured most of the ship, and then he heard a dull thump.thump.thump.and followed it to the back, where he found Devil Nine.
He was standing in front of a man-shaped target, kicking it hard. Zidane watched for a few minutes, watching Viteros kick, punch, jump, watching his dark eyes target an exact point and strike precisely, and Zidane saw the look on his face, that look of pure rage channeled into the muscles, and he saw the pure hate and unbridled evil swimming within.
"Such is the curse of the Devil Project," grunted Viteros, landing two quick backfists on the target's head, spinning around, and then dropping and kicking out the ankle.
"What?"
Viteros grinned and did three side kicks with his right leg. "You were watching my eyes, Zidane. There is evil in there. My heart and soul is infused with darkness and hate and spite and rage and envy and all of the evil that humanity is capable of."
Zidane looked away for a moment. Then he said, "But.you always seem so carefree."
"I laugh to try to-to hide and escape from this fire in me," replied the Devil, still attacking. "You have no idea what its like. I'm always, always tempted to just give into this force, and let go, and hate and kill everyone, and fall into the pre-Devil state we call Apostasy. You saw all of Terisas' warriors? Those are the Apostates. They hope to one day be able to evolve into a Devil."
"All of them? Why not Angels?"
Viteros glared at the target and suddenly jumped up and spun in the air, landing his heel against the target's head, and then fell back down and punched it hard in the chest, grabbed it's head and drove his knee into its face, and then jumped up again and hit the head one last time with a front kick, knocking its head off.
He dropped and looked up with a grin. "Not again."
He looked back over at Zidane and stood up, mopping his forehead. "They think they want to be Angels, Zidane. But everyone knows that deep inside what they're doing is evil. It's a sad thing, that they're like that, that they deny to themselves that what they're doing is just wrong. But that's what humans are like. I wonder if they're even worth saving sometimes."
Viteros moved his hair back to wipe the sweat off more of his face, and Zidane saw where his left eye had been; now it was just a bloody socket.
Devil Nine saw the look on Zidane's face and quickly moved the hair back. "I should probably invest in an eye patch, eh?" he laughed gamely, trying to be his old self. "I'm a bit of an eyesore."
Zidane allowed himself a small smile. Then he was reminded of his question from before.
"Why aren't you dead?"
"Part of the Devil gene," said Viteros, now looking around in boxes and shelves. "You killed the Devil, not me. But he'll be back-you can't kill a Devil just through physical measures. You need holy power for that. I came back to life after I hit the Highwind."
"Then why isn't your eye back?"
"That's a good question," said Viteros, looking around. "Aha!" He lifted up a small object. It was a metal square, and in the middle it was adorned with a small yellow glass dome.
"I don't have an answer for that," replied Devil Nine, putting the square on the ground. "I really have no clue why. It just is."
He flipped a small switch on the side of the cube, and it lit up, and slowly rays of light activated, flashing above the cube, until finally the coalesced into a flickering, blinking semblance of a person.
Viteros kept working with the cube, and as he turned a dial, the person kept switching appearances. Finally, it turned into a slight man about Viteros' build. Then he turned another knob, and as he did the man switched stances and movements.
"Shaolin.kenpo.jiu-jitsu.capoeira.hate fighting that one.here we go. jeet kune do, let's do it. The style that is not a style."
Viteros stood up in front of the hologram while Zidane watched with interest. He bowed to the man, and the man bowed back, and then stepped back, fists up in a defensive stance. Viteros made the first move, quickly swinging his right foot forward and then hooking it back, catching his opponent's ankle and making him fall, but the man caught himself with his hands and, supporting himself on one hand, spun on the ground and kicked in a circle. Viteros jumped up and tried to kick him in the head, but he stood up and punched Viteros in the foot. The Devil groaned and rubbed his foot. "Now I know why they call it way of the intercepting fist."
Zidane was somewhat amused with this interesting show, but this was no time to watch a martial arts expo. He flipped open the Devil Agenda book and started reading.
~"We have met with considerable success with Devil Nine's learning capability. We had thought that maybe the recklessness and possible dementia (must speak to Durav about those pills, X^t-19B) he would have difficulty understanding new things; however, he picks them up very easily. In the performance tests he performs remarkably well whenever he's interested, however, when the situation is otherwise his performance is very poor.
"Our cybernetic enhancements are going like clockwork, without a hitch. The reinforced skeleton, mechanical optics components, and hidden weaponry are most excellent. For a complete list, see page 236, the schematics page."~
Intrigued, Zidane flipped until he found 236. The page was blue, except for white lines used to make a picture, kind of like Viteros split apart. He wondered what it was for for a few moments, and then remembered that they were actually building parts of him, and therefore this must have been exactly how they knew where and how to put things in. Remarkably brutal and inhumane, Zidane thought.
The weaponry list alone went on and on. Zidane looked and saw Viteros, and thought about how his friend, so light and relaxed, could have such a darkness behind him, and even inside him.
The schematics were terrible. Devil Nine was full of hidden blades, poisonous needles, guns, flames, specialized bullets, all instruments of death. The final part was the worst of all, a chemical that he could release into his bloodstream at will, which would react with the plasma in his blood, sending a noxious gas out of his pores. The chemical would then send a specialized signal to his mechanical components, most specifically a powerful bomb hardwired into his heart and brain so that he could never remove them.
Even from birth, Viteros was destined to kill, and be killed.
Zidane looked up as Devil Nine leapt and spun and then kicked out and hit his target's chest and then gave a brutal punch to the throat. A fire burned in his eyes, the dull rage that called him, that ordered him, that forced him to fight, to kill. In life, Viteros' existence centered around death.
Devil Nine leapt and hit his opponent in the head. The hologram fell to the ground and hit his neck with a crack.
Zidane would have stopped there, but he saw Viteros quickly, mechanically, raise his foot, and the powerful, crushing blow ground the head into the dust.
"Such power," Zidane thought, "such killing rage would have to hide behind that façade of happiness and recklessness.if he didn't have that, he would be a monster."
Viteros switched off his machine, and wiped away the sweat. Then he turned to Zidane, the familiar smile back on his face. "Well.having a good read? Would you recommend that book to anyone else? Do you think the author sends any significant message?"
The joke was lost on the Genome. "Huh?"
Viteros laughed carelessly and waved his hand in the air. "Different world, different thoughts. If you did book reports for a while, you'd get it."
"Book reports?"
Viteros laughed more and walked over to a corner and pulled out a small plastic bag. Inside were small, yellow discs. "Hey, banana chips, remember? I love these things."
He walked over and flopped next to Zidane and began to munch. "Ahh, this is the life, isn't it? Train hard, eat well.well, eat something you like, anyway.heh. Oh come on Zidane, why so glum?"
Zidane grinned slightly and looked down. But when he looked back up, he was sober. "I don't know. I'm usually kinda like you. I don't take stuff too seriously. But.ever since all this started.it's been like one long nightmare. One terrible thing after another. All for what? To beat Terisas. But why should we have to do this anyway? I'm just.bored. Annoyed. This isn't fun. You can't say you enjoy this."
Zidane looked over at Viteros, and he shrugged. "Yeah, this kind of sucks. But what can ya do but fight back? I want to win, no matter what. Even if we lose, even if Terisas blows my spine against the far wall and I die, I'm gonna die fighting, I'm gonna die yelling and shooting in his face. That's what I'm fighting for. For some victory. Maybe. A victory of some kind."
Zidane helped himself to some chips. "What do you mean, a 'victory of some kind'?"
Viteros scowled and looked upwards. "Because, odds are, that we'll all get killed and Terisas will end up controlling the planet."
The other looked at him in shock. "You can't mean that."
"I can and do," said Viteros slowly standing up to activate his sparring machine again. "Most likely we'll all just be slaughtered in one way or another. Sephira will get shot by soldiers, Kuja will get ripped apart by Angel, you'll get thrown out of the airship, and I'll be converted permanently to Devil form."
"You say that like you know it will happen."
Viteros had a dark look in his eyes. "But I do."
This part only features Vit's writing, because I'm kind of busy with evil school. @_@
Thanks all for being so cool about this. ^^ And, remember to go and look back at the revised chapters. ^^
Disclaimer: Blah, blah. We don't own FF9, already! XD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------
~Chapter 15~
A few hours of flying and waiting passed by. Everyone was on edge, emotions and adrenalin running high, but they tried to hide it.
Zidane stayed on the observation deck, watching the trees and clouds rush past. Nature had no reason to worry, the animals and plants just lived their lives, they never had to think about war or death or good or evil.
He stood there for a long time, thinking. Why was life so difficult? Was there a god? Why was there good and evil? What was the point of it all?
He finally walked off and went back inside the Highwind. He wanted to know more about the Angel Project. Looking for Viteros, Zidane scoured most of the ship, and then he heard a dull thump.thump.thump.and followed it to the back, where he found Devil Nine.
He was standing in front of a man-shaped target, kicking it hard. Zidane watched for a few minutes, watching Viteros kick, punch, jump, watching his dark eyes target an exact point and strike precisely, and Zidane saw the look on his face, that look of pure rage channeled into the muscles, and he saw the pure hate and unbridled evil swimming within.
"Such is the curse of the Devil Project," grunted Viteros, landing two quick backfists on the target's head, spinning around, and then dropping and kicking out the ankle.
"What?"
Viteros grinned and did three side kicks with his right leg. "You were watching my eyes, Zidane. There is evil in there. My heart and soul is infused with darkness and hate and spite and rage and envy and all of the evil that humanity is capable of."
Zidane looked away for a moment. Then he said, "But.you always seem so carefree."
"I laugh to try to-to hide and escape from this fire in me," replied the Devil, still attacking. "You have no idea what its like. I'm always, always tempted to just give into this force, and let go, and hate and kill everyone, and fall into the pre-Devil state we call Apostasy. You saw all of Terisas' warriors? Those are the Apostates. They hope to one day be able to evolve into a Devil."
"All of them? Why not Angels?"
Viteros glared at the target and suddenly jumped up and spun in the air, landing his heel against the target's head, and then fell back down and punched it hard in the chest, grabbed it's head and drove his knee into its face, and then jumped up again and hit the head one last time with a front kick, knocking its head off.
He dropped and looked up with a grin. "Not again."
He looked back over at Zidane and stood up, mopping his forehead. "They think they want to be Angels, Zidane. But everyone knows that deep inside what they're doing is evil. It's a sad thing, that they're like that, that they deny to themselves that what they're doing is just wrong. But that's what humans are like. I wonder if they're even worth saving sometimes."
Viteros moved his hair back to wipe the sweat off more of his face, and Zidane saw where his left eye had been; now it was just a bloody socket.
Devil Nine saw the look on Zidane's face and quickly moved the hair back. "I should probably invest in an eye patch, eh?" he laughed gamely, trying to be his old self. "I'm a bit of an eyesore."
Zidane allowed himself a small smile. Then he was reminded of his question from before.
"Why aren't you dead?"
"Part of the Devil gene," said Viteros, now looking around in boxes and shelves. "You killed the Devil, not me. But he'll be back-you can't kill a Devil just through physical measures. You need holy power for that. I came back to life after I hit the Highwind."
"Then why isn't your eye back?"
"That's a good question," said Viteros, looking around. "Aha!" He lifted up a small object. It was a metal square, and in the middle it was adorned with a small yellow glass dome.
"I don't have an answer for that," replied Devil Nine, putting the square on the ground. "I really have no clue why. It just is."
He flipped a small switch on the side of the cube, and it lit up, and slowly rays of light activated, flashing above the cube, until finally the coalesced into a flickering, blinking semblance of a person.
Viteros kept working with the cube, and as he turned a dial, the person kept switching appearances. Finally, it turned into a slight man about Viteros' build. Then he turned another knob, and as he did the man switched stances and movements.
"Shaolin.kenpo.jiu-jitsu.capoeira.hate fighting that one.here we go. jeet kune do, let's do it. The style that is not a style."
Viteros stood up in front of the hologram while Zidane watched with interest. He bowed to the man, and the man bowed back, and then stepped back, fists up in a defensive stance. Viteros made the first move, quickly swinging his right foot forward and then hooking it back, catching his opponent's ankle and making him fall, but the man caught himself with his hands and, supporting himself on one hand, spun on the ground and kicked in a circle. Viteros jumped up and tried to kick him in the head, but he stood up and punched Viteros in the foot. The Devil groaned and rubbed his foot. "Now I know why they call it way of the intercepting fist."
Zidane was somewhat amused with this interesting show, but this was no time to watch a martial arts expo. He flipped open the Devil Agenda book and started reading.
~"We have met with considerable success with Devil Nine's learning capability. We had thought that maybe the recklessness and possible dementia (must speak to Durav about those pills, X^t-19B) he would have difficulty understanding new things; however, he picks them up very easily. In the performance tests he performs remarkably well whenever he's interested, however, when the situation is otherwise his performance is very poor.
"Our cybernetic enhancements are going like clockwork, without a hitch. The reinforced skeleton, mechanical optics components, and hidden weaponry are most excellent. For a complete list, see page 236, the schematics page."~
Intrigued, Zidane flipped until he found 236. The page was blue, except for white lines used to make a picture, kind of like Viteros split apart. He wondered what it was for for a few moments, and then remembered that they were actually building parts of him, and therefore this must have been exactly how they knew where and how to put things in. Remarkably brutal and inhumane, Zidane thought.
The weaponry list alone went on and on. Zidane looked and saw Viteros, and thought about how his friend, so light and relaxed, could have such a darkness behind him, and even inside him.
The schematics were terrible. Devil Nine was full of hidden blades, poisonous needles, guns, flames, specialized bullets, all instruments of death. The final part was the worst of all, a chemical that he could release into his bloodstream at will, which would react with the plasma in his blood, sending a noxious gas out of his pores. The chemical would then send a specialized signal to his mechanical components, most specifically a powerful bomb hardwired into his heart and brain so that he could never remove them.
Even from birth, Viteros was destined to kill, and be killed.
Zidane looked up as Devil Nine leapt and spun and then kicked out and hit his target's chest and then gave a brutal punch to the throat. A fire burned in his eyes, the dull rage that called him, that ordered him, that forced him to fight, to kill. In life, Viteros' existence centered around death.
Devil Nine leapt and hit his opponent in the head. The hologram fell to the ground and hit his neck with a crack.
Zidane would have stopped there, but he saw Viteros quickly, mechanically, raise his foot, and the powerful, crushing blow ground the head into the dust.
"Such power," Zidane thought, "such killing rage would have to hide behind that façade of happiness and recklessness.if he didn't have that, he would be a monster."
Viteros switched off his machine, and wiped away the sweat. Then he turned to Zidane, the familiar smile back on his face. "Well.having a good read? Would you recommend that book to anyone else? Do you think the author sends any significant message?"
The joke was lost on the Genome. "Huh?"
Viteros laughed carelessly and waved his hand in the air. "Different world, different thoughts. If you did book reports for a while, you'd get it."
"Book reports?"
Viteros laughed more and walked over to a corner and pulled out a small plastic bag. Inside were small, yellow discs. "Hey, banana chips, remember? I love these things."
He walked over and flopped next to Zidane and began to munch. "Ahh, this is the life, isn't it? Train hard, eat well.well, eat something you like, anyway.heh. Oh come on Zidane, why so glum?"
Zidane grinned slightly and looked down. But when he looked back up, he was sober. "I don't know. I'm usually kinda like you. I don't take stuff too seriously. But.ever since all this started.it's been like one long nightmare. One terrible thing after another. All for what? To beat Terisas. But why should we have to do this anyway? I'm just.bored. Annoyed. This isn't fun. You can't say you enjoy this."
Zidane looked over at Viteros, and he shrugged. "Yeah, this kind of sucks. But what can ya do but fight back? I want to win, no matter what. Even if we lose, even if Terisas blows my spine against the far wall and I die, I'm gonna die fighting, I'm gonna die yelling and shooting in his face. That's what I'm fighting for. For some victory. Maybe. A victory of some kind."
Zidane helped himself to some chips. "What do you mean, a 'victory of some kind'?"
Viteros scowled and looked upwards. "Because, odds are, that we'll all get killed and Terisas will end up controlling the planet."
The other looked at him in shock. "You can't mean that."
"I can and do," said Viteros slowly standing up to activate his sparring machine again. "Most likely we'll all just be slaughtered in one way or another. Sephira will get shot by soldiers, Kuja will get ripped apart by Angel, you'll get thrown out of the airship, and I'll be converted permanently to Devil form."
"You say that like you know it will happen."
Viteros had a dark look in his eyes. "But I do."