AN: Woo...last chapter of book three grins

Book Three of the Sorcerer Arc ~ Battle Lines ~ Chapter Thirteen ~ ...in Vain

Kylari had left once more, gloating over her victories. The tower was silent again, seated at the eye of the storm where the air was still. Outside, all around, or so Kylari said, the wind was blowing with unearthly force. It had been the sorceress's only complaint. It was too strong for her to fly against, and even if teleporting would keep her enemies one step behind, that was suddenly too close for comfort.

Rinoa knew Kylari had been confident from the start - and apparently with good reason - but all of a sudden, although she was trying to hide it, the other sorceress was acting worried. Something had spooked her, badly, and Rinoa would have gladly given anything to know what.

[She has suddenly started to consider Squall's motives.] The mental voice startled her.

/Who are you?!/ Askylarian's childish personality demanded, panic separating her and Rinoa's personalities.

[Can you stay separate?] Edea demanded.

Rinoa answered hesitantly. She wailed petulantly, answering her own question as the childish personality merged with her own once more. Edea sighed quietly.

{Adel and Ultemecia...} A mind whispered.

$They left her too open...$ Another mind continued.

}She cannot resist...{ A third spoke up.

\As we have resisted.\ There was a long pause, but no other quiet minds spoke up.

Rinoa, and whomever the childish mind was, had apparently lost interest, humming a nursery rhyme of some sort.

[What is your name?] Edea asked gently. She found herself drawn into a meadow as the combined mind's attention turned towards her. A young girl sat with Rinoa beneath a tall tree, picking daisies to make daisy-chains. Rinoa looked up at the question, her expression slightly bemused.

Edea blinked as a ghostly figure appeared further out in the meadow.

{Inside...} The word was almost a sigh as it reached her, the figure fading, replaced by another. One that Edea recognised.

\Dangerous...\ The Card Queen's voice faded with her image, but the two sorceresses had brought Edea to a conclusion. Somehow she had slipped ~inside~ the combined mind of Rinoa and...a child?

[Yes, I know you Rinoa. I meant, what is your...friend's name?] Edea looked across to the tree, finding the child gone.

/She scares me! Go away!/ The voice came from the branches of the tree and, looking up, Edea could just make out the child's features.

Rinoa called, almost scolding. There was a rustling of leaves and the child dropped to the ground, curiosity clear in her wide eyes.

/Like Aesa?/ She queried. Shock rooted Edea to the spot. Aesa had been...

***

[She was my half-sister...] Even now Edea was saddened by the memory of the news of Aesa's death. True, they had never been particularly close - she had never known that Aesa too had become a sorceress. They might have been closer, if it hadn't been for their father - and hadn't his behaviour been typical of a soldier - but maybe...maybe she shouldn't have gone searching for him after her mother's death.

She could remember, so clearly, the scene as she strode up to him in the pub and cursed him for leaving, using language a young woman should ~not~ have known. He was drunk, otherwise he might have had the sense to deny her heated accusation, what with his other wife behind the bar and suddenly paying close attention. After all, she hadn't been a sorceress then...but, who was to say her reaction wouldn't have been the same as Askylarian's if she had been...

***

$Danger!$ The harsh crackle of flames in the thought snapped Edea back to awareness. She was partially encased in the tree, with Rinoa and the child - Askylarian before becoming a sorceress - watching and singing a nonsense song.

Without quite knowing how she did it, Edea wrenched herself free of the tree, and out of the combined mind. The other personalities crowded around, curious to know what she had experienced, what she had learned. Edea let a tremor of fear ripple through her mind, and the others fled. Only then did she entertain thoughts of her true fears. If she merged with the mind that had nearly consumed her, there was no guarantee that she would be able to sway it to her purposes, and a very real risk that she would be lost without a trace...

***

Evening was just starting to close in as Balamb Garden came into view of FH. It was clear that they were travelling fast, and even clearer that something was seriously wrong, since they appeared to be making no effort to slow down…

The force of the collision sent vibrations through the town and bridge, and even through Galbadia Garden although, as Zell patiently explained to an irate Mayor Dobe, the collision could have been much worse…

***

Balamb Garden had just evacuated the last of the Balamb townsfolk when the winds increased. Like the Fleet offshore, the Garden found itself torn between powerful, and opposing, forces. The worst of it was, only the pilot could do anything. Everyone else had to cross their fingers and pray - or more sensibly, secure themselves against the Garden's violent tossing and pray.

Fortunately the seaward wind prevailed in its bid to snatch the Garden, and they were hurled headlong ~away~ from the Gaulg mountains. Unfortunately the wind and altitude change were too much for the stabilisers, and the subsequent impact with the sea inflicted severe damage on the Garden's lower - and blessedly vacant - engineering levels.

Three of the stabilisers came back to life as the Garden drifted broadside to the wind, but as damage reports began to come in from the different areas, it also became clear that the Garden was effectively crippled.

The human toll was mercifully low. Three presumed dead in the quad - thrown overboard in the initial chaos - and another killed as those in the Training Centre fled. Miraculously no one else had been killed outright, and, having waived the restrictions on magic use, most of the minor injuries were quickly being healed. The tricky part, Zell suspected, would be in minimising casualties when they, literally, hit Fisherman's Horizon.

He straightened from his examination of the diagnostic panel with a rueful sigh. They were losing what little fuel remained at a rapid rate. That could be fixed - and was, the fuel level gauge slowing it's descent and stopping just under half-way as he watched. But they were still missing one entire manoeuvring thruster, with two others flailing broken hoses and wires, and the fourth making ominous fizzing noises…

***

The sheer bulk of Balamb Garden had given it an impressive momentum, and had anyone but Zell been in charge, Fisherman's Horizon would never have survived. However, having grown up in Balamb, Zell knew a lot about boats - and about using the drag of a hull to slow a ship down.

They had used the one thruster still in working order to turn the damaged side of the Garden into the wind, and then they had waited. Whilst they waited, Zell had helped patch up the two damaged thrusters, and Quistis had organised everyone inside Garden - and items that could be moved and secured - to the damaged side, forcing it lower into the water and increasing the drag, despite the stabilisers attempts to keep the shelter level.

Finally, with FH in sight, they had fired the repaired thrusters only, increasing the drag to the point that everyone could ~feel~ the Garden's speed decreasing…

And then one of the thrusters had failed, as they feared, sending the Garden into the start of a slow spin before the pilot's quick reflexes shut the remaining thruster off.

But, Zell pointed out, they ~had~ hit FH doing only 25 knots(1) instead of 50 or more, albeit with additional spin.

***

Adel had been able to override Kylari's conditioning, so it might, Edea reasoned, be possible for her to keep Rinoa and Askylarian separate. She had seen how shock or surprise separated the two - the question was, how to shock them.

}We can do that…{ The voice surprised Edea for a moment.

[How?] She demanded as she put a name to the voice - Jayn, the lightning sorceress of the Galbadian Nomads, not Rinoa/Askylarian spying on her.

}She doesn't know we are here.{

\We are not strong enough.\ The Card Queen protested.

{She may consume us - as she nearly did you.} Belemae, the holy sorceress/priestess of Odin agreed.

$Then we merge and become strong.$ Kirin, the fire sorceress/hermit from Cactuar Island, was the strongest of the four sorceress fragment personalities in Rinoa's mind. There was little doubt who would rule such a merge, as the others instantly protested.

/Who are you? What are you doing here?/ In the panicked confusion Edea silently apologised to everyone, and then slipped seamlessly into the yawning void that Askylarian had vacated.

Rinoa's mind swirled around her, the raven-haired sorceress realising instantly that Edea was not Askylarian.

[Edea, child. It is matron - Edea.] She used the same tone as she had used on the children at the orphanage when they woke from nightmares, uncertain and confused.

Rinoa's mental groan was inescapable, but with its passing Rinoa's mind seemed to become slightly clearer.

[Rinoa?] There was a pause.

With a shock Edea realised that most, if not all, of the time since she had last seen Rinoa was a blur for the young sorceress.

[You've been possessed.] Edea replied bluntly, sensing Askylarian's attention starting to drift from the other personalities back to Rinoa. [We don't have long.]

It suddenly seemed to dawn on Rinoa that they were in her mind.

[We don't have ~time~.] Edea snapped. [I need you to let me take control - just for a while.]

Rinoa repeated, dazed.

[Rinoa - if you love Squall, let me take control!] The invocation of Squall's name, plus the intimation that she would be aiding him, did the trick. Rinoa surrendered control without another word.

***

The first thing Edea was aware of was the cool stone that encased her…Rinoa's body. But where Kylari had intended that stone to be a prison, Edea planned to reverse the flow of power and use the tower as a conduit. Slowly she let Rinoa's powers expand, finding the edges of the stone barrier. Then she followed it down into the island's topsoil, into it's caves, into the bedrock and bones, and, finally, into it's heart.

Weapons weren't difficult to create. Not weapons in the conventional sense, rifles, swords and suchlike, but Weapons. Great beasts created by those with sorcerous powers and imbued with legendary strengths. Weapons such as the Ultima Weapon, created during the war between sorceresses and sorcerers, set to guard an immense source of power that evolved into the Eden GF. Or such as the Omega Weapon, created in a future to defend a sorceress against her mortal foes.

The faintly wondering murmur came from Rinoa, but the younger sorceress was not suspicious, merely stating a fact - curious.

[Yes.] Edea agreed, thoughtful. Both defeated by a sorcerer. The last sorcerer.

But placid thoughts were not what created a Weapon. Only memories of blood and conflict would stir its blood. Only memories of sorrow and loss would command its interest. And only thoughts of revenge would ensure its loyalty.

Such memories Edea had aplenty…

*** FLASHBACK START ***

Nida was fighting a Ruby Dragon off to one side, but she could spare no thought for her knight. Her attention was focussed on beating back Kylari's first fierce attacks on her mind.

Edea had expected the first attacks to be feints, had hoped that she would have time to bolster Nida's defences as well as her own. Kylari, however, apparently had no intention of letting her do that. Of course, both sorceresses could sense each other's strength now, and Kylari had the weaker position. Edea, on the other hand, was fighting on two fronts. If Nida went down, so would she…

***

Anyone watching the first few minutes of the fight would have wondered what was going on. A casual observer, unaware that the two women were sorceresses, might have wondered why they did not flee from the Ruby Dragon whilst the young man held it at bay with lightning-quick strikes.

That same observer might have wondered, when the Ruby Dragon finally succumbed, why the younger woman staggered backwards a step, concentration momentarily broken.

Of course, there would have been no more wondering when the Malboro appeared out of nowhere…

***

The fight changed the instant the Ruby Dragon died. Kylari's attention was distracted for vital seconds as she summoned another creature - vital seconds Edea used to regroup her defences and start an offensive spell…

An offensive spell that caught Kylari completely off-guard.

Edea watched, mouth open slightly in surprise, too stunned to push her advantage as the other sorceress frantically countered the ice spell with a fire spell.

As Kylari quickly recovered, and the air between the two sorceresses became a maelstrom of spells and counter-spells, a small part of Edea's mind wondered why Squall had not already defeated the weaker sorceress…

***

The revelation, when it came, hit her with a force akin to one of the rocks that she had been unable to dodge when Kylari had cast Meteor. For a moment her mind betrayed her - the shock and surprise transmitting itself so intensely to Nida that he believed she had been fatally wounded.

In his moment of hesitation - to run to her, or to finish the Malboro - the Malboro struck, poison-coated tentacles wrapping tightly around Nida's body and hauling it within range of the cavernous, tooth-lined maw.

The last thought of her knight reached her, and then he and the Malboro were gone, torn apart by some sort of SeeD suicide grenade.

Kylari, Edea thought, numb with the death of her knight, was the most surprised. After all, the end had not been brought about by any of the battered and exhausted sorceress's attacks. But Edea knew now that whatever she did, it did not matter. She had been so conceited, thinking that perhaps her actions could make a difference. That if she defeated Kylari the nightmare would end and the world would be at peace again. That if she withheld her aid the future would be this, and if she aided it would be that.

But, she thought, smiling slyly as Kylari readied a final spell, maybe she could help tip the balance at the crucial point. Squall, after all, had to have a ~plan~.

As Kylari hesitated, suddenly uncertain, Edea knew the other sorceress had caught her thoughts. And as the spell struck, catapulting her into oblivion, Edea laughed…

*** FLASHBACK END ***

...the Centra Weapon stirred...

AN: Thus ends book three *grins* Coming soon, book four - Endgame
I'm going back to Uni this weekend, and my house doesn't have a phone line (yet), so expect a break of a month or so before I start posting Endgame :)

(1) knots are the nautical speed measurement, basically 25 knots is approximately 29 mph or 46 kph, and 50 knots is approximately 58 mph or 93 kph

RxR people, RxR!