Return of Light
Chappu yelled in pain as the fiend's claw caught him a slash on the arm. He stumbled backward into a building. It was strange here in Kilika. Fiends had suddenly attacked the town. Houses and businesses alike were on fire and there were people running everywhere, women screaming and children crying.
The men were fighting back just as Chappu was. A few ex-Crusaders were struggling with the fiends as well, with guns and swords—basically anything that could do damage.
Chappu growled and jammed his blade into the fiend before gripping his injured arm with his hand, wincing but ignoring the blood that squeezed between his fingers and trailed down the length of his arm. His groaned and slid down the outside wall of the building, praying a fiend didn't suddenly decide to attack him.
"Light, I wish I'd remembered to stock up on Potions," he said gruffly, hardly recognizing his own voice. He shook his head, trying to clear it.
"Here!"
Someone seized the back of his head and tilted something into his mouth. Potion. He swallowed greedily and felt his arm heal instantly. He blinked. The blood was still there, on various parts of his body, but there were no marks.
"Thanks," he muttered, moving to get a look at his rescuer.
But there was no one there. Chappu shook his head again and pushed himself up with the Spirit Keeper. There was still a battle to fight.
And a Shadowfiend at the heart of it, no doubt.
* * *
"See anything, Rikku?" Zeoron asked, walking alongside the blond-haired woman on the road leading into the town of Kilika. Rikku shook her head, blond tresses flying.
"Nothing. But we're almost in Kilika. I'm not giving up yet. I just wish the airship would have been able to get us to the other side without breaking down." Rikku sighed. "Damn machina."
Zeoron giggled. "Easy, Rikku. Walking's not that bad, ne?"
"Oh, be quiet."
Zeoron giggled again.
"Huh?" Rikku stopped and narrowed her eyes. "Is that—?"
"Smoke!" Zeoron shouted, breaking into a dead run, Rikku joining her a second later. The older woman had to push herself to get up with faster—and younger—Black Mage.
They dashed down the hill and burst through the gates of the town, stopping in a moment of shock to stare at the rapidly burning buildings, some the flames reaching nearly 50 feet in the air.
And then there were the fiends. Of every shape and size, and some neither recognized even after dealing with many over the years. Women were screaming and trying to protect their wailing children and the men were desperately trying to fend off the attacking beasts.
Rikku swore under her breath. "You put out the blazes and I'll try to help out with the fiends."
"Right." Zeoron jerked her head and clenched her fist, concentrating. Rikku darted off among the chaos, vanishing within its misery.
Zeoron closed her eyes and then opened them abruptly. "BLIZZAGA!" she roared, sweeping her arm in a wide arc around her body, sending the chilling ice over everything. The flames died down low, but still not completely out. But it would be enough.
She breathed in relief and surged forward.
"Zeo! Look out!"
Zeoron turned and barely managed a scream before a blade cut down the offending fiend that had dove for her, going for the kill. She fell and rolled over, covering her head.
"Zeo! Are you all right?"
Zeoron opened one eyes and looked up at the familiar voice. "Chappu?"
Chappu grinned, but it didn't quite reach his arctic blue eyes. "What are you doing down here in Kilika? I thought you were supposed to be in Home."
"Rikku and I came here to hunt Shadowfiends. We want answers. Wakka and Lulu went to Besaid. We've got to hurry and make this place safe so we can go help them. If my thinking's right—"—she grunted as Chappu hoisted her to her feet—"—Besaid is in the same state."
Chappu nodded and shouldered the Spirit Keeper before using it to point in a direction off to their left. "I thought I glimpsed Rikku over that way. Come on!"
He dashed off, Zeoron close on his heels. The dodged around people and buildings, ducked a few offending fiends, and then stopped, dead, in an open square.
"What the—?" Zeoron gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
"Get me the hell outta here!" Rikku shouted, banging on… well, something.
Towering above them was a monstrous fiend. It looked like an Ochu, but not quite. It black and red with hints of purple here and there. Its mouth was large, with sharp razor-edge teeth. And Rikku looked to be trapped in its midsection where what looked like a cage was, with narrow strips of whatever gruesome things the fiend was made of.
Not to mention the black-clad figure standing next to it.
"Shadowfiend!"
The beast struck out with a tentacle and both Zeoron and Chappu dove out of its path, Zeoron with a loud yell. She rolled over and over before leaping back up to her feet. Chappu spun in flip and landed squarely on his feet, holding the Spirit Keeper securely in front of him with both hands.
"Any ideas, Zeo?" he called, fixing the fiend with his cold blue eyes.
"No!" Zeoron yelled back, ducking another tentacle swipe. She braced herself and then leapt again. "But I'm workin' on it!"
"Until then—take this!" Chappu shouted, swinging the slightly glowing Spirit Keeper and hacking off a tentacle. He spun his body and came around to slice off another.
"My turn! FLARE!" Zeoron yelled, flinging her hand at the beast, a wave of fire shooting out from her open palm. It roared in anger and Rikku tumbled back into the cage.
"Fire!" Rikku shouted, getting to her knees and gripping the shafts in her hands. "Fire works best against these kinds of fiends!"
"Thanks for the tip! Just hang on!" Zeoron called.
"What the hell else am I gonna do?" Rikku muttered, eyeing her prison warily.
"Zeo! Charge up!" Chappu commanded, grunting as a tentacle snapped his wrist. He tried to get the Spirit Keeper up in time but a second tentacle snatched that arm and a third grabbed his ankle. He yelled as the first two released and he was suspended, upside-down, in the air.
"Chappu!"
"Do something!" he growled, sitting up to avoid a swipe from a limb.
"Like what?!"
"Anything!" he roared, falling back and then pulling himself up again to try and free himself.
Zeoron muttered under her breath and raised her hands above her head. "SILENT SCREAM—FIRAGA!"
Channeling all her power, Zeoron focused on her special ability and on the flames now billowing in her mind. Concentrating, she combined the two and when they erupted, blazes shot sky high with dark purple screaming around.
The fiend and, oddly enough, the Shadowfiend, burst into flame and Chappu hit the ground with a sickening crunch—a broken bone, maybe a few, no doubt—and Rikku managed to break free from the cage, rejoining an exhausted Zeoron.
"Chappu! Are you okay?" Rikku called, slinging the young Black Mage's arm over her shoulders and supporting her as they walked somewhat heavily to wear the young man lay.
Chappu groaned and rolled over, lying flat on his back. "I fall 50 feet to land on the ground and you have to balls to ask me if I'm okay?"
Rikku sniffed and rolled her eyes. "Well?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. The nice hard stones broke my—OW!"
Chappu yelped and seized the wrist he had just tried to push himself up with. He winced as he tried to rotate it. "Fuck!"
"Great. Broken. Well, let's try and get to Besaid. Wakka and Lulu might need our help," Zeoron sighed. Rikku nodded and the pair limped ahead, Chappu following behind, cursing and mumbling.
* * *
"Been a while since I been back here, ya know? Doesn't look like much has changed, ya?" Wakka said, walking through the gates into Besaid. He stopped, both hands on his hips and Lulu halted beside him.
"You're right. It doesn't look very different at all," Lulu agreed, looking around with sharp red eyes, searching for something that didn't seem to go with the laid-back appearance of the town.
"Oh well. Means I'll stay in a little trouble instead of a lot," Wakka said, grinning at Lulu. His orange hair wavered in the wind as he looked back, proudly, at the little houses.
Lulu smiled. "Maybe. Knowing you, Wakka, wherever there is trouble, you'll find it."
"Hey!" Wakka held up his hands in protest. "I don't find trouble. It usually finds me!" he said in defense, a smirking appearing on his tanned face.
Lulu shook her head. "Wakka, you are a fool."
"Aw, come on, Lu, you know you love me," Wakka said, his smirk sliding easily back into a grin. He nodded to toward the town and walked down the main street.
Lulu watched him. "You're right; I do."
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