Dreams. Reality. What difference does it make?
Another massive explosion resounded along the corridors of the O7 bunker as we ran, following Patch. He stopped once to slam a magazine on his gun. He also tossed us our stuff back, but for some reason, my Walkman wasn't there. Damn. That thing was expensive, too.
I stretch, popping a few of my joints. I remember Alex's words: Showing off. This is to test your skills.
Right, then. I just passed SFMA, and I'm a dreamer. I'd better make a friggin' difference; or else I had just wasted 5 years of my life. Let's see what these Imperial guys have got.
An alarm started blaring, along with some nice red lighting effects. Patch swore.
"Damn! They're in the third sector! They must have broken down the gates!"
He passes me a gun, an automatic Ingram Mac-10.
"Can you shoot?"
I rack the slide easily with one hand, remembering the heavy firearms academy training.
"Do you have to ask?" I answer, although the two small green orbs shining in the stock are completely alien to me.
He finds Alex a long knife, which could easily double as a short sword for her, given her size. There are also three more green orbs set in the handle.
Patch leads us out into the open, where hiding behind storage crates I see the occasional glimpse of a head.
f i n a l f a n t a s y : r e a l i t y
FINAL FANTASY REALITY
by chaosrayne
original concept by redshadow
disk 1ne: thr3e: b3tr4y4l
I have never been in an actual battle situation before, not one with hot lead flying everywhere and a gun in your hand. The Ingram feels like a lead paperweight as I jump for cover away from the volley of bullets.
In front of me, taking shelter behind a large steel table, is the medic I saw earlier. She grins at me, reloads her gun, and fires over the top of the table blindly with one hand.
"First battle?" She yells.
"Hell yeah!" I answer.
She grins at me, then tosses me a grenade. I fumble with the pin, pull it out, and throw it over my makeshift barrier in the general direction of the enemy fire.
I turn to her again, but she is gone, body moving sinuously in the cover provided by my grenade. The enemy fire seems to have slowed a little, but the air is still thick with the occasional bullet and some sort of blue energy stuff that burns. It hits the wall behind me and bores a hole right through the reinforced concrete wall.
Yeah. Just a battle, so don't worry. Don't worry about your brains being blown out the back of your head by a stray piece of hot metal.
I run in a crouch and dive for the next stack of crates, but when I arrive, I see a dying trooper - one of the guys I roughed up before. He doesn't look like he'll be magically cured now, not with a hole the size of a welder's tank clean through his body. A horrible smell of scorched flesh comes from him.
He coughs twice. "I'm gunna be okay...?"
I nod silently, shocked. "...Yeah. You're going to be fine."
Even he knows it's an obvious lie. He coughs once more, and bubbles of fresh blood appear around his mouth.
He passes me something that looks like a slim metal bar, with a green orb placed at each end. The whole thing is about three feet long. The cold metal passes into my hand, streaked with blood.
"I done good, didn't I kid? I done real good..." The man speaks. With a great effort, he fumbles in his armor, at last coming up with a picture of him and a family - showing his wife and two children. A generic family. "Tell Maria I done good."
I nod again, and this time I realize there are tears running silently down my face.
"...Take my plasma staff." He coughs again. "I won't need it where I'm going."
He smiles, and takes his last breath.
No. This can't be happening. This is a dream. A dream. Things like this don't happen in dreams. This is a nightmare.
It's a war. People die for what they believe in. That is faith.
I take the picture of the man and his family and pocket it. At least I can pay my respects to him.
Then I look at the staff. There are small silver buttons just under the green orbs... Self-consciously, I touch one.
A bright blade of the blue energy springs to life at the end of the staff. Poking the other button so that the plasma blades are ignited at both ends, I start to fight in a blind rage. It's a war. People live and die. The natural order of things.
Patch swore again as a hail of bullets struck the wall just above his head, ducking. The mobile machinegun turret they were facing spat a steady stream of bullets. He yelled to Alex above the din.
"Where's Rain?"
"I don't know!"
The big man mutters to himself, slamming a fresh clip into his rifle. He notices Alex gently running her finger over the blade of the knife he gave her. So much like Kira... He forced himself to break off that thought and pay attention to the battle. He yelled to her again.
"When that sucker stops to reload, we charge the thing! Okay?"
Alex nods, getting her body into a crouching position.
Then, the chatter of the machinegun stopped.
Patch is up and running, firing as he goes, forcing the two Imperial Guard manning the gun to abandon their search for a fresh chain of ammo and hit the deck. Alex dashes to the gun as if she is still running the 100M back at the track, an all-out sprint. She arrives in seconds, as the first Imperial soldier clothed in crimson battle gear starts and pulls a sidearm from a belt.
She swings at him and manages to cut his right arm, pivoting neatly to slash his throat. His blood erupts in a red mist over the second soldier's face, completely shocked as a few neat round holes emerge in his chest, courtesy of Patch's rifle.
"Nice work." Patch comments. "Where did you learn to use a blade like that?"
"I don't know," Alex replied dismissively, twirling the blade. "Cooking class?"
"You know where your pal is?" Patch grunted, heaving the heavy chain of ammo up, feeding the end into the light artillery weapon.
"Oh. Rain? He's probably off somewhere..."
"That him?" Patch gestured with the stock of his rifle and raised an eyebrow.
"..." Alex supplied.
It was like a smooth, complex dance. Alex followed each movement of Rain's path of destruction through the front lines of the Imperial Guard.
Using some sort of energy weapon he had no doubt picked up from someone deceased, he twirled and somersaulted, the bladed staff whirring around him in glowing blue arcs of destruction. As the two watched, the teenage dreamer split a soldier in two symmetrical halves, spinning round to decapitate another. One raised his rifle to fire, but it was too late, as the energy blades severed his hands at the wrists, no longer having any gun to fire with.
But more troopers were approaching, firing as they ran. Rain deflected a plasma bolt by smacking it back to its source with the staff, but there were a few more loading and locking automatic rifles.
Another O7 trooper collapsed, victim to the bullets that fell like rain. Patch heaved the machine gun to and brought its heavy muzzle to bear.
It sprang to life with the chatter of fresh ammo and ejected death upon the approaching Imperials.
Then a wall came down behind them. Alex noticed, but was too shocked to believe her eyes. "Holy! What is that thing?"
A massive, metallic snaked head protuded from a large, heavy body and stumpy legs - a veritable monster. Wings sprouted from the back of the creature.
Patch turned away from dealing death served in little lead pellets to the enemy and looked at the MEDUSA. "Exit cue, kids. Got to go."
Alex pondered the wiseness of that statement as she gathered up her knife and began to follow, and the MEDUSA roared.
"Wait! Rain! We've got to go!"
But the teenager took no heed and continued to slice his way through another group of red-armored soldiers. The floor around him was already littered with blood and fragments of defeated soldiers, some of which were still steaming at the wounds where the plasma blade had passed cleanly through the flesh.
Patch ran up to him and conked him on the head. "Goodnight Irene." Rain, exhausted and spattered in blood, did not resist as the larger man heaved him over one shoulder in a fireman's carry and ran.
The MEDUSA, however, had not been idle. Missiles swarmed from various ports on its body, streaking into the floor and kicking up many fragments of concrete chips, dangerous enough to hurt. Patch jumped as the floor erupted in a cloud of dust behind him, showering him with debris.
Alex dodged flying shards of rock and pounded ahead, many times faster than Patch was.
"Where the hell do we get out?" She yelled, reaching the steel door and wrenching it open.
"Hangar bay!" Patch replied, over the explosions. "We should be able to pick up a vehicle there!"
"Great! How do we get there?" Alex screamed as the MEDUSA opened up with its shoulder gatling guns, a whirring chain of bullets peppering a path behind her as she frantically dodged.
Stars.
I wonder. How do we really see stars? I mean, look. You get a big ball of gas, condense it, add a few nuclear explosions for good measure, and light 'er up.
But all we see from good old Earth is a tiny prick of light.
How unbearably sad.
I'm dreaming again. I really don't think it helps my psyche much.
Am I insane? I really don't know.
Is life really a dream? You know, like that weird film or whatever. Where you think you're living the life, when the reality is, you're stuck as a battery for some machine somewhere. Ah, yes. The Matrix. Now I remember.
I remember the face of the guy who died. I'll probably never know his name. He died fighting a war for a broken Earth, a war that may or may not have been worth his life. But he knew it was worth fighting for.
Just how many other parallel universes are there? In another universe, I may have been popular. I may not have had these weird dreams all the time.
But I don't know. All I can remember is how that, in a blind rage, I killed at least five people. I could always say that it 'was self-defense'. Quite true, actually. When people with big, heavy guns come after you, you most likely will run or try to fend them off.
There's a saying somewhere... 'Someone's father, someone's son'. Just a reminder that every single one of the men I have seen killed had lives. They had thoughts and hopes and dreams. And they were finished fighting for a wreck of a planet.
Can you awake from a dream inside a dream?
I reach for the familiar blue stone of my pendant, but all there is now is a silver triangle inside a perfect circle.
I cry. I'm so confused.
Alex pounded at warp factor five through the maze of corridors and rooms that was the underground O7 base, followed closely by Patch, who took the honor of shooting back behind them every few seconds to deter any leftover Imperial troops.
Finding a sign hung on the wall with an arrow saying 'Hangar bay - do not run in the corridors' she smiled gently, tossing the sign away. She was feeling in a good mood, for someone who had a whole damn army chasing after her. Well, then again, she was an elite SFMA cadet. Looking back to see Patch hurriedly following, with Rain slung over one shoulder, she sighed - Rain had been completely out of hand back there. She wondered what he had seen to make him so mad.
The door to the hangar bay burst open, courtesy of a strong kick by Alex. She rolled inside and was met with a war zone -smoke and shrapnel flying everywhere, bullets ricocheting off the walls. Her instinct told her to duck and dive, and just in time, an explosion rang out, knocking Patch behind her off his feet, impacting solidly with a wall. He groaned and sank to the floor.
From Alex's point of view, the rebels seemed to be holding up well, but there were so many of the Imperials... how were they supposed to survive, with an entire army fighting them? She crawled over to Patch, seeking guidance, but the big man was knocked out, head lolling uselessly. Instead, she turned to Rain, slapping his face in order to wake him up.
The young boy nudged the hand away from his face. Alex, exasperated, pulled her fist back and slugged him one. This jolted Rain out of his reverie.
"Rain, I don't care what you're thinking, I don't care what you're doing, but we need you here, and you can't just zone out. There are people dying, and we might possibly be next. I don't want to die yet, so help me out here."
"What does it matter? Why do you care? Alex, I killed back there! I KILLED!"
"It was either them or us. This is a battle, Rain, not some stupid childish fantasy. Face it."
Alex grabbed Rain with one hand and dragged him into cover.
"So what do you think we should do? Just sit here and let them kill us?"
The answer didn't come. Alex looked closer and saw that there were tears streaming down his face. He held the strange staff in his hand as if he was going to break it.
"Rain, worry about guilt and sadness and shit like that later. I need your help, and I'm tired of your crap. So let's go."
I wonder why she's so into this battle. Maybe she saw the same thing I did - people dying and falling in front of your eyes, for a cause they do not know. I remember a line from something or other....
'...Not for us to reason why, only just, to do and die...'
-The Charge of the Light Brigade
The oath of the soldier. The valiant. But I am only a boy, although a highly trained SFMA cadet.
I really begin to think the SFMA should be more social instead of encouraging individualism. I am all alone.
And I must do what I can.
Rain ignited his staff at one end and hurled it like a javelin, the blade slicing cleanly through flesh and bone to arrive shining at the other end. Picking it up from the dead body, he grabbed the rifle from the prone form and tossed it to Alex, who caught it and returned fire at the skulking red forms at the other end of the hangar bay. The girl joined a band of Rebel troops behind a hastily erected barricade, pulling the trigger whenever she found a clean shot.
One of the Rebels seemed to be directing the action, raven hair flowing behind his back as he threw another grenade and waited for the explosion. Another trooper nodded to him as they rushed out under cover of the grenade.
"Renaku!!!" Another yelled. "We're nearly out of ammo!"
"Make 'em count!" The lieutenant replied, throwing another charged plasma magazine in the trooper's direction. He gratefully reloaded and set to plugging away again.
Patch crawled to his feet, rubbing his aching head. He still felt moderately weak after being knocked back by a grenade blast. Finding his rifle and injecting the plasma round into the breech, he charged to catch up with the kids.
Rain slashed, whirled and parried, trying frantically to prevent himself from becoming a human sieve. Finding cover just as the Imperials reloaded, he winced as the crate behind him was peppered with bullets. Finding a gun on the floor beside him and a clean path to the enemy, he fired a volley. A red-coated soldier's coat flowered a dark crimson as the plasma rounds tore through his body. Alex slid across the floor to join him.
"How are you holding up?"
"Been better." Rain couldn't resist.
"Glad to see you're up and running."
Rain stared at her with wild eyes. "It's either them or us. This is a war."
Alex looked at him once more before returning to battle.
Renaku nodded. It was all going according to plan. Things just happened so nicely. Behind him, Patch barged in, relieving a few more Imperial shocktroopers of life.
"Lieutenant Renaku! We're losing on all fronts. How did they get past the front gates?"
"That is no concern of yours, Randall. Just prevent them from destroying the few remaining Chaos units we have."
Patch looked suspiciously at the calm Renaku, wondering how the lieutenant could be so chilled under such a desperate situation. But then he noticed the way Renaku was smiling, and the high-security level keycard that the lieutenant was in possession of.
"Permission to speak, SIR!" Patch barked.
"Granted."
"Why do you have the commander's keycard, SIR!"
Renaku only smiled, tapping the stock of his pistol.
"Dammit, Renaku, you let them in, didn't you?"
"I think," The lieutenant mocked, "It's time for you to take a little nap."
And with that, he slammed the hilt of his pistol into Patch's cranium, assuring the traitor that the trooper would not be waking up for a while. Patch sank into unconsciousness for a second time.
"You know too much." Renaku muttered. "And for that, I'll have to kill you..."
Right on cue, Rain scrambled in, calling for Patch.
"Hey, Patch! Hey! Alex wants to see you! We gotta get out of-"
He was cut short by Renaku about to pull the trigger.
Without thinking, Rain stabbed with his plasma blade, aiming for the gun.
Renaku's pistol, cleaved in half, fired.
The gun exploded and left Renaku with a damaged hand.
"What the hell were you doing?" Rain accused. Renaku chose not to reply, instead using a small flare of magic, he healed his broken hand.
"Hey!" Rain lifted his staff, recognising the small bulge at the traitor's waist. "You took my Walkman!"
"Fight me for it." Renaku mocked, drawing a long sword crafted of Orihalcyon, a magic-resistant metal.
Rain charged. "Give it back!"
I charged in a blind rage.
Many people ask why I am so possessive of my Walkman.
I really don't know. It was something I got when I was ten, due to a mail-order mix-up. That has been the only spark in my life for a long time. It was the only constant in my life. That and my pendant, anyway. But the pendant isn't what it seems to be anymore...
He responded, predictably, by a sweeping slash that would cut my legs off as I charged. But I had seen this move far too many times in practice. I jumped over the attack, slicing down as I did so, but hit empty air as the other, moving too fast for me to see, swung in a killing stroke to my neck. I parried easily and dodged the next blow, launching my own offensive by swinging my staff round both ways, but the plasma blades sparked off his sword in small flares of plasma energy.
He counterattacked quickly, though, in a blinding sweep of strikes I only just managed to parry, although the last one got through, scoring a light gash on my left arm. I desperately swung, as blade met staff and clung. We struggled, neither gaining an advantage, until he released the hold he had on his sword. Surprised, I fell back, and was greeted with a vicious kick to the face. With his other foot, he flicked the sword neatly back into the air, and caught it expertly.
"Not bad" I spat something that felt horribly like bloody teeth out of my mouth. "My turn."
I kept my staff perpendicular to the ground, feinting slightly with the lower blade, and as I predicted, he moved to dodge. Acting quickly, I switched focus and the other plasma blade crackled to life, in a stroke designed to decapitate. He blocked it, though. I was expecting this, and pushed my staff forward. As planned, he grabbed my staff, planning to snatch it from my grasp.
Perfect.
I let go, overbalancing him, and then I snapped my body up in a flash roundhouse. My academy issue trek boot impacted solidly with the base end of the staff and slammed it into the strange man who had tried to shoot Patch. He was dazed for a single second, and that was all I needed. His next block was weak, and I forced my way past it easily to slice his chest open. Grunting, he kicked me away.
We circled each other warily, as the sounds of battle resounded behind us. Alex was having a hell of a time. We had both been injured, and for that, we respected each other's strength. He attacked again, feinting and rushing in a two-handed power slash, and I dodged desperately. Fighting in such an unpredictable pattern had put me off my guard.
Slash, parry, parry, slash, parr- no wait, feint, slash, block...
My body responded smoothly to the challenge, faster than I ever thought I could be. The staff flowed easily in my hands, as if it had been meant to be there all along.
I pivoted, allowing his sword stroke to miss me, then I thrust and hit home, the blade finding purchase...
Hey... I had been sure that I hit...
He laughed coldly, a high, cold laugh that chilled me to the bone.
"Just a boy... yet you fight so well..."
Oh great. The general trash-talk banter.
"Many people have said that to me, right before I bashed their faces in." Might as well oblige the asshole.
"Ever heard of the power of illusion?"
Oh, HELL no.
To demonstrate his point, he blurred into two images, his sword seeming to attack from two areas at once. I had no way of telling which was real and which was fake.
I parried wildly, as BOTH the images sank into me; both tearing flesh and ripping it like so much paper. It hurt. A lot.
"You fight well, boy. But not well enough. KUNAI!"
His sword glowed blood-red, as I brought the staff up in a parry.
"You are WEAK!" He yelled, as his strangely glowing blade easily knocked my weakened hold on the plasma staff away, and struck me through-
I heard him talk, as my vision clouded over.
"You have given me a good battle, and for that I will let you live. But don't count on being so lucky next time, boy."
Patch awoke to find Rain lying in a small pool of blood and an innocent, unobtrusive device ticking away in front of him.
"...Oh, fuck."
Alex stumbled in, her hair matted and her face streaked with blood.
"They've retreated for the moment. I think we're..." She trailed off as her eyes fell on the prone form of Rain facedown in a pool of red.
Snarling, Patch gestured to the thing on the floor, which beeped innocently.
"This is why they've gone." The big man cursed silently. "An ion bomb."
"...Powerful?"
Patch didn't answer. "We've got to get out of here." Picking up the bloodied form of Rain and hanging him over his shoulder, he ran.
Somewhere, Renaku nursed his wounded hand gently, pondering the fate of the Rebel base and the boy he had found there. A voice behind him spoke.
"Is it done?"
"Yes, my lord. The Rebels have been eradicated. Their base will be wiped off the face of the earth." Renaku replied.
"Well done. I will leave you now - I must turn my mind to more pressing matters such as that of the Reality Engine branch."
"Yes, my lord."
After the echoes of the footsteps died away, Renaku's hand strayed to the play button of the boy's 'Walkman', as he had called it. Strains of heavy metal rung his ears as he listened and smiled.