Meia's body was slowly growing cold up here in the atmosphere but Jayson could no longer feel it. Inside he was cold and immune to the freezing breeze that cut into his flesh as his dark eyes looked to the continent in the east, the shimmering of the land that showed the shield that protected Esthar but it wouldn't take much for him to tear it away, it would melt away like an ant under the magnifying glass pin-pointed ray of sunlight of rage that burned deep inside the frozen cage of his corrupted soul.
All he wanted was to destroy Odine, if Esthar got in the way then that was their problem, he would have no mercy for any of them, it would be their own foolish fault for protecting such a worthless creature.
Odine was less than human, just like he was now. This was what they wanted from him, a killing machine consumed by a single goal, and now that was what they had.
He looked back at Balamb, to the life and memories he had cast off, and could see the sea churned by the small sea vessels that Garden used to transport SeeDs. They were chasing him, the idiots, did they deem themselves so worthless that they didn't matter more than that insect Odine? He didn't want them to die needlessly, but if they chose to do so who was he to deny them that wish?
Back on the horizon Jayson could see something rise into the air above Esthar. It looked dragonesque and familiar, surely they weren't planning to send a Ragnarok type airship to meet him? Deter him?
Jayson growled to himself and swung his legs slowly alerting Orion who started to swoop towards the coast of the continent.
The airship shot towards them, a few thousand feet above, unable to keep up with Orion's twisted flight, a flick of his wings causing him to spiral down to the ground, the tall buildings of Esthar getting closer and more detailed whilst the airship rose up in an attempt to bank and turn round.
There were no weapons on the Ragnarok type aircraft so why was it sent? No doubt Squall had given Laguna the heads up on his coming but that sculpture of metal was no match for the feather and muscle of Orion.
Jayson jumped off Orion's back, clutching Meia tightly to him still. He would need to find a way to keep her with him but free his hands, no doubt the Esthar military would be upon him soon. He turned and grinned at Orion who gave a shrill cry of delight, flapping his wings and hovering up into the air, the dust spraying onto Jayson's clothes as he rose further, gaining speed and headed up for the airship.
Jayson stood there looking up, watching as Orion looped around the airship, making it shudder as the pilots struggled to control it in their nervousness and the maelstrom of Orion's flight.
Orion rose higher above it, the airship stabilising and slowly rising up to catch him. When he was but a speck to Jayson, Orion stopped his rise and hovered, his eyes pin-pointing the airship and he screeched in fury, diving down at the rising airship, his claws unsheathed, his body gaining momentum as it plummeted, his paws slamming into the top of the airship, claws puncturing the metal plates and bearing the airship down towards the sea at a frantic rate.
As Orion and the airship plummeted metal plates tore from the frame of it, the glass cockpit shattered and the pilots were from it, the pressure causing them to implode in a cloud of flesh and blood. As Orion neared the water's surface, he dropped the airship, which sizzled as it hit the water, plumes of white, frothy water rising into the air as the ruptured frame sank in a huge mass of seething bubbles.
Orion flapped his wings, circling rapidly as he screeched in pleasure, heading back to Jayson once more.
Jayson leapt onto his back, cradling Meia as Orion rose again, flying low over the barren plains towards the iridescent mirage of Esthar. There was a shimmer in the air as they flew through the shield, which offered as much resistance to their passage as a fine breeze. Jayson dropped off Orion's back onto one of the many blue glasslike walkways that crisscrossed Esthar. The people scattered in fear but not before Jayson was able to grab one of the cowering citizens and tear their robes, using the strips of fabric to fashion a sling in which he held Meia's body to his chest, his arms now free to wreak havoc on Odine and whoever stood in his way.
Screams of terror filled his ears as the people ran, escaping the dark cloud that was Jayson as he made his way to Odine's lab. He was away of the patter of footsteps behind him, the soft metallic clank of the Esthar soldier's boots as they approached. He ignored them all, pressing on intent only on seeing Odine's body drained of life in his hands.
The soldiers followed him cautiously, aware enough of what he had done recently to engage him in combat yet unable to run away like the civilians.
Jayson came to the laboratory and blasted the doors with a fiery fist, the metal plates melting under his blows. Inside there was the soft whirr of machinery, the buzz of electricity and the silence of a recently vacated room.
He snarled and turned to the soldiers. 'Where is Odine?' he demanded in a growl.
The soldiers back away in terrified silence.
'Tell me!' Jayson snapped, his black eyes flashing red with the reflected light as his fist erupted in flame.
Still silence but he could see the fear that held them even if he couldn't see their faces behind those bulging masks. Not knowing what they looked like, that they were human, had families made what he was about to do so much easier.
He punched the nearest solider, his fist moving in a red blur straight through his body and out the back, leaving a huge gaping hole as he withdrew his fist.
'Now where is he?' he demanded his fist now red with dripping blood.
The soldiers stood there in mute horror for a moment and then fled.
'Fine then if you won't give him up then the whole city shall perish!' he snarled.
He was weary of being fooled around, didn't have the time to go round seeking the mad doctor and would destroy the whole city to speed up his end even if it meant he would not be able to witness it personally.
Jayson whistled shrilly and Orion swooped down from above once more, allowing Jayson to slip onto his back and grip his feathers tightly as Orion's body blurred, Jayson's will implanting him with new desire, new techniques.
Orion rose slowly above the city, hovering above it as mayhem continued below, the helpless fire of machine guns falling far from them as the Presidential Palace became shielded in plates of metal.
'Cursed' Jayson whispered as Orion's beak opened and a roiling black flame erupted from it, hitting the Presidential Palace and melting it like ice, the molten metal splashing down onto the city below burning through people and buildings alike like concentrated acid.
The flame grew as Orion circled the city, burning and blasting the architecture of the city apart with pressurised and heated gasses so heavy they were solid. The screams of the populace below were cut short as their souls were torn from their bodies, leaving them hollow dolls. Soon Esthar was burning rubble and the screams had stopped, Orion flying low over it as nothing below moved.
Jayson scanned the ruins and seemed satisfied that nothing survived when he felt dizzy, a soft whispering in his head distracting him momentarily.
There was a sound of gunfire and Orion screamed in pain as a large metal slug tore through his wing, black feathers billowing into the sky as dark blood trickled into his wing from the wound, matting the remaining feathers.
Jayson turned to the direction of gunfire and saw that the SeeD gun ships had finally beached on the coast of Esthar, a number of people issuing from them in small squads, many of them in the dark blue uniforms of cadets.
Jayson gently stroked Orion's head, soothing his pain enough for him to hover over to the amassing warriors before Jayson dropped of his back and Orion faded, retreating back to within Jayson's tortured mind.
'Fools! Why did you come here?' Jayson bellowed as he saw the pale faces of unready cadets gathering around him.
Squall and Seifer broke through the crowd, Quistis and Rinoa following behind.
'You've gone too far, you've taken all those innocent lives for on man, for vengeance!' Squall replied drawing Lionheart.
'And you want to risk even more?' Jayson snorted. 'Have you forgotten what happened last time? When I was weaker?' he taunted.
There was a murmuring amongst the ranks and they started to move back a little as Jayson drew Fixxer, his eyes on Squall.
There was a battle of wills between Squall and Jayson, their gazes locked on each other's forcing the other to back down, but Jayson was aware that the crowds parted further behind Squall as if expecting him to do something, to see whether they would be needed or to their relief that they were superfluous. The withdrawing crowd exposed Nida, Irvine, Selphie and Xu as they drew closer trying to see what was happening.
There was a groan of disappointment when Squall broke eye contact first, the eerie darkness of Jayson's eyes too much for him.
'Don't make us do this…' Seifer said softly.
'You're the ones intent on a bloodbath, all you have to do is leave.' Jayson replied, not looking at Seifer. Wouldn't it be weird to take the life he had not long saved?
'We can't do that, we're worried what you might do next.' Quistis told him softly.
'Like start a war against Garden? Looks like that's too late…' Jayson said sarcastically.
'Think of Meia…' Rinoa said imploringly, edging towards Squall, her projectile weapon loaded and cocked.
'Yes, think of me…' Meia's voice said softly in his head.
Jayson blinked, stunned at the voice and shook his head, the others aware of this lapse in concentration and starting to move.
Jayson quickly came to and noticed this. 'Meia's dead damn it! What does it matter what she thinks? She can't anymore!' he roared and his body flashed golden in his rage, his knees bending slightly before he leapt into the air in a flash of light.
'Darkness!' he yelled and held Fixxer pointing downwards as he dropped to the ground, the blade plunging into the ground causing the earth to rumble and spilt, shaking the crowd and the SeeDs. The cracks grew rapidly, the crowds parting further as the ground opened under then suddenly without warning.
Nameless cadets were sucked into the cracks, as were Nida, a fellow shadow as he used to be, and as a scream from Selphie told him, so was that flirtatious cowboy Irvine.
'Do I need to give you anymore warnings?' Jayson said panting as the crowds tried to compose themselves, Selphie's wailing cut short as anger suffused her features, her nunchaku now whirring in his hands.
'You feel it now don't you? The hatred? The anger and pain of loss? Multiply that by infinity and you may get close to how I feel.' Jayson told her as she rushed over to him.
'Do you really want others to suffer like you have and are? This can't be you' Meia's voice rang inside his head once more.
Jayson's swayed momentarily but instinctively reached out his hand in a daze, grapping one end of the nunchaku as Selphie swung it at him and tugged it from her, bringing her towards him. Only Seifer's quick move at grabbing Selphie round the waist and pulling her back, causing her to let go of the nunchaku saved her from the swipe that Jayson dreamily aimed at where she would have been with Fixxer.
'It's over Jayson, let it rest now, they can't torment you anymore.' Her voice came again.
Was it really her voice or was it his own guilt now? No neither could be true, he had no soul now and she was dead, all he felt was rage and pain. It had to be them, they were tricking him, trying to calm him down so they could kill or imprison him.
No way would they do that!
'Stop it!' he snarled loudly, his blurry eyes fixing on Squall and Rinoa, and he remembered Rinoa's voice, the giggles, the spoilt tone just because she was with Squall. And there was Squall himself, who should understand that he should be left alone but he just wanted to prove to himself that he was better than him, especially after Spore.
Jayson seethed as he gazed at the two of them, the anger building up again as his blood boiled, his body still glowing in the Aura state, he could feel it opening up inside his mind, just what he had to do.
'NOOO!' Meia's voice screamed at him as his body was enveloped in dark light.
'Prisoner!' he roared, ignoring it. His body shimmering as it faded away, causing Squall and the others to look around quickly for him.
Jayson reappeared behind Rinoa, driving his blade into her side and vanished again, reappearing and punching Squall in the face an instant later as Rinoa cupped her gushing wound. Jayson vanished and reappeared again and again, landing blows and slashes on both Squall and Rinoa before it stopped and he reappeared back in the spot where he originally was, the others looking on in horror as Squall and Rinoa stood, bleeding profusely from their wounds, their bodies covering in livid red marks where they hadn't been cut, the two of them silently falling to the ground in the shocked hush of the crowd.
'Come back to me please.. before it's too late!' Meia's voice cried inside his head.
It was still there… yet they were dead… surely it would have stopped if it had been their trick unless…
Jayson blinked again, his eyes slowly becoming blue once more, the darkness drawing back from the whites of his eyes.
He looked around at the assembled SeeDs and cadets, his gaze lingering on a pale Seifer and incandescent Selphie, crossing over Quistis' tearful eyes and onto the torn corpses of Squall and Rinoa. He remembered what he had done now all too late, a single tear forming in his eyes as the waves of guilt and sorrow arrived.
He couldn't stay in this world now, not with the pain he had caused. All the pain inside of him had been washed over them all, creating a festering hatred, which would only continue to grow if he remained. He couldn't die, even if he wanted to, his body would heal and revive even if he wished against it now.
That would be his punishment, to let them tear at him forever but then how would they be able to move on? They would be no better than he was.
No one could speak, not even him, any words he would say would be hollow. Instead he nodded silently to Seifer.
He waved his hands as his lips moved in silence, the words coming from deep within. They all drew back as the black crackling light grew behind him, a dark hole opening within it and he stepped into it as it collapsed down on him and he vanished from existence.