**Gomen! Gomengomengomengomen!!!! I'm so sorry peoples, I've just been so busy ::faints::. So! Here's the next chapter (finally), and SilverShadow? Well...just read. ~_^ And always remember, for all the latest "Why in the world ain't she updating?" news, go to my blog-- http://aralai.blogspot.com . Hehe, hope that helps! Here...we...go!**
Yueh began a Firaga spell while Niet scrambled through her book one-handed.
"Ochu--no--" Yueh saw her take a second look at the fiend in front of them. "Great Lord Ochu! Lord Ochu's older...something. Twenty--gyah! Twenty-eight thousand HP! Obvious weakness to fire, and it'll absorb any water attacks!" Niet tossed the book in her usual form back into the wagon with a final addition. "It also has some nasty poison sting attacks, so watch out for the tentacles!"
Yueh grunted assent. I remember this one from the game...I hope we have some antidotes on hand. Yueh let out a loud yell before flinging the ball of fire at the giant, animated plant. 2500 floated up from the fiend and Yueh gave herself a little cheer. She began another spell as Niet did a charge into it.
"Hai....YA!" Niet managed to run up the side of the creature and slash away one of the menacing tentacles, leaving it to writhe on the ground in a particularly frightening way. Arashi winced.
"Ew..."
Yueh turned back to look at Arashi, who didn't see another tentacle aimed right at herself. Yueh forgot the fire spell and ran to tackle the summoner.
A blur of black and red beat Yueh to Arashi, who let out a loud cry of surprise once she was on the ground. The tentacle waved overhead harmlessly with a snap as both the blur, now identifiable as a teenage girl with black hair and a pair of outrageously colored goggles on her face, and Arashi sat up. The girl had some sort of machinery strapped to her back, which, to Yueh, looked rather like a large gun. The teenaged girl unstrapped the machinery and pointed it at the still approaching fiend.
When she pulled the trigger, Yueh had to shield her eyes. The machine was now revealed as a flamethrower, as a huge jet of flame was released from its nozzle and into the belly of the great fiend, getting a good 5000 out of the remaining HP of the Ochu. Yueh looked back at the girl, who was now standing with Arashi by her.
She was introducing herself. "Hiya. I'm Katy, nice to meet you." The rather short girl shook a stunned Arashi's hand and turned to look at the Ochu once more. She was oddly calm. "We've been trying to get rid of this guy for a while, but he just keeps popping back up..." She turned even more and saw Yueh and Niet (who was busy trying to keep the fiend--and its tentacles--at bay). "Oh! I'm Katy!" Katy gave a short bow of her head. "Good to meet you." She ducked calmly, pulling Arashi with her, as another tentacle flew overhead. "We ought to get this thing done with, huh?"
Yueh blinked, and nodded, quite stunned. "Right." She shook her head quickly, regaining her ability to think clearly. "Right! Katy, can you use the flamethrower again?"
Katy's face turned as red as her tank top as she shook her head. "Not right away. It needs to recharge--"
"Incoming!" Niet screamed out. All four girls dropped to the dirt as three tentacles whizzed over their heads. Yueh rolled over to avoid another snapping tentacle and threw a lower level fire spell at what she supposed was the Ochu's head. It writhed as another 1800 HP floated away. It stunned it long enough for all the girls to get back up and just as Arashi was about to attack with her whip, a large group of irate villagers came running from the rear of the group. Yueh turned her head to see them running for either Arashi or Katy, she couldn't quite tell which.
"Get the Al Bhed girl!"
"Get the heathen!"
Okay, that answers that question... The fiend came for another roundhouse attack, which Yueh barely dodged by again falling to the ground. She spit out the dirt and looked back at the coming crowd, which now surrounded Katy and Arashi.
"Protect the summoner!"
"Take the Al Bhed girl! Get her!"
Yueh and Niet exchanged a quick glance before running to try and separate the angry group of people from Arashi and Katy. The Ochu was momentarily forgotten as the two guardians tried to tear the crowd away from the other two girls. This was managed, and Yueh and Niet stood in front of Katy and Arashi as Arashi tried to calm the crowd.
"What's going on? Hey! What's going on here!?" she shouted out. The group wouldn't shut up, so Yueh finally shot a lightning bolt right in front of her feet, immediately silencing both the crowd and Arashi.
Yueh let out a small cough. "Now, what is going on?" She pointed to a rather foul looking woman in the front of the group. "You! What's happening?"
"That girl--" she pointed with a sneer to Katy "--has been making this fiend behind us appear again and again with her machina!" The crowd roared in agreeance, but Yueh raised her hands for silence again.
"I did nothing of the sort! I've been trying to get rid of it as much as you have!" Katy shouted out. "We have a chance now, now that a summoner is here again!"
"Either way, we have more important things at hand!" Yueh shouted out. She pointed to the Ochu still hopping madly in the background. "Let us take care of it, and then--"
"The Al Bhed heathen will harm the summoner! Let us take her!" the foul woman screamed. The crowd cheered in agreeance. Yueh shook her head.
"No, just--"
"LOOK OUT!" Niet screamed. The four girls fell to the ground by habit, but the crowd remained standing and took the brunt of the blow from three tentacles. The people on the outside were thrown across the plain, and the people still standing immediately ran away screaming and shouting, the "Al Bhed heathen" completely forgotten. The four girls looked up from the ground, and Yueh winced. Arashi's going to have some healing to do after this battle...
"They never listen," Katy said sadly. Her tinted goggles had fallen from her face, showing her brown eyes--brown eyes with bright green spirals in them. Yueh gave her a quick look, and Katy pulled the goggles back on her face, the lenses obscuring her eyes from view once more.
"I'm only half Al Bhed," she said quietly. She looked at the people on the ground and gave a glance to the people who were running away. "Not that they care."
The Ochu was jumping around, kicking up dust and grass as it did so. Yueh was now up from the ground and readying another fire spell, this one a high level one.
"Get the fallen people out of the way! The dust's going to aggravate their injuries!" Arashi shouted out, jumping up from the ground and trying to drag away one of the injured people. As the man was probably twice her weight, she was having a hard time of it.
Yueh tossed the Firaga spell, taking away another 2500. The fiend reeled backwards and let out some nasty noise that killed Yueh's ears. "That'll take too long!"
"But if he releases a poison cloud thing, it'll get in their wounds!" Arashi shouted out.
Katy threw a grenade at the Ochu just as Niet did an interesting spinning rapier trick that made her sword into a boomerang. Niet shouted back to Arashi, "It'll be quicker if we just kill the thing!"
"But--" Arashi looked at the person in her hands, then set him gently to the ground. She shoved her three-quarters sleeves even further up her shoulders and brandished her belt. "Okay, girls, watch out--Dante's coming to give a little help." She began to dance around lightly as she twirled her jeweled belt in the air around her. Yueh allowed herself a short grin before turning back to the raging Ochu.
"Watch her back, Niet! I got another fire spell coming..." Yueh pulled out her flute and began to play another wild melody. The flute began to grow hotter in her hands as she played longer, dancing around her own steps to avoid the snapping tentacles around her. Just as the spell was reaching its final stages, Katy shouted out from the right.
"The flamethrower's ready for another attack!" She adjusted it against her shoulder and gave a wild smile. "On three! One, two...THREE!"
Fire from both weapons whirled through the air towards the Ochu, who couldn't have ever moved fast enough to avoid it. The flames engulfed the fiend who let out another ear-splitting noise just before the fire dissipated, taking away an astounding 7000 HP total. Both girls let out a cheer and took a quick look at Arashi and Niet.
"She's almost done!" Niet informed the other two. "Just a couple more seconds--"
As she said that, from the ground burst Dante, the aeon Ifrit, into the air, catapulting Arashi high above them all before she landed on his shoulder and was gently set back down in front of him.
"Everyone, clear out! Dante...OVERDRIVE!" Arashi screamed out. Dante gave a vague nod before shooting out flames and picking up the earth beneath them to send the giant fiend crashing to the ground before them, taking out the maximum damage that it could--9999 HP total. It dissolved into pyreflies, not leaving much else behind.
Yueh turned back to Arashi, who was patting Dante on the back before releasing him to go back to wherever it was aeons went to rest. Yueh, Katy, and Niet let out a cheer, but Arashi was oddly silent. Yueh looked at her, her head cocked to one side.
"Arashi, what...?" The summoner girl walked past the other three and kneeled next to two of the people on the ground. Her hands went to their necks, and she let out a choked sob. Yueh took one step forward. "Arashi--"
"They were dead the moment the Ochu hit them," Arashi said quietly. Yueh froze in her place. "Snapped their necks on the impact...they never expected...were never thinking..." Arashi had an odd, grim look on her face. Yueh realized what it was. She was holding back tears.
"Don't cry...summoners don't cry," Arashi's voice said even quieter. She stood up slowly, and Yueh went to help her friend. Niet did the same, but Arashi waved them both off. Katy stood silently, her face unreadable from this side of the goggles.
"I--I'll send them," Arashi said. She stretched out the jeweled belt once more, the jewels seeming to shine more than they had before in the day's light.
Yueh shook her head. "No, Arashi, they can't all be dead, I--they can't, they--"
"Look at their necks, Yueh," she said solemnly. "They're all at odd angles...if they aren't dead, they're sure as heck paralyzed from the neck down. I'll send them, and if any are left...I'll see what I can do." She began to walk forward, her footsteps not even audible. Yueh thought that odd, but then she saw why.
Arashi was walking in the air again, with gusts of wind that seemed to only affect her as she began a silent dance. The crescent moon charm at the end of her belt swung around without a sound, but glowed brighter and brighter blue as she went on.
Niet, Yueh, and Katy stood by, watching Arashi ten feet in the air above them. The bodies below, every single one, was glowing and disappearing into pyreflies. Yueh tried not to cry, and barely managed to succeed.
More dead...from this stupid thing. Yueh closed her brown eyes. But its not my fault, is it? They ran into it on their own, chasing their own foolish beliefs... She opened her eyes to look at Katy, who had finally taken her goggles off. Tears ran down her cheeks as she let out a small sigh. Using the backs of her hands, she wiped the tears away and saw Yueh looking at her.
"Stupid, isn't it?" she asked. "Throwing away their lives...because I'm not the same as them. Just because I'm different." Katy shook her head, her black hair swishing gently. "People are so...stupid." More tears began to stream down her cheeks.
Niet sat down on the ground, waiting for Arashi to finish the sending. She spoke so softly it was hard to hear her even though there was no other sound around them.
"The sending...souls depart to the Farplane, so they don't become angered, and so their pyreflies won't turn into fiends, right?" Niet looked over at Yueh. "So they don't become sinspawn, right?" She leaned against her knees, and finally the other two girls sat down next to her.
Katy kept on sobbing, Niet continued mumbling to herself, and Yueh stared blankly at the rising pyreflies in front of her.
Everyone of you brought it upon yourselves. You knew the danger, yet you walked blindly into it, just because of a girl who didn't believe what you believed, Yueh thought. The bodies finally disappeared completely, and Arashi began to float back down to the earth.
Despite that...we will kill Sin for all of you, won't we? Everyone of you... Arashi touched the ground and walked over to the other three. If we found a way to bring you back, would you thank us and change, or just go back to your old ways, back to your prejudiced thinking?
"Let's go on, and forget the dead. They are in peace now." Arashi extended a hand to all three girls, managing a small smile.
"We move on, and we live on. We live on to fight, and that's what we're going to do." Yueh looked down at the ground, a determined look now set upon her face.
That's right. We live on, we fight...and we'll kill Sin, even if they don't deserve it. Yueh took Arashi's hand and stood up, her face to the sun. We'll do it. Not for them...for ourselves.