Ever since the beginning of time, science had been working, in all universes, to destroy the power of religion. Belief in the omnipotent died out as the origin of humanity and sentient life was replaced by the nihilistic view that we were all sort of cosmic accident, a kink in the dubious theory of evolution that had grown into the most prominent species on the planet despite our lack of attributes needed for survival. We bred like rodents as well, every so often creating a few particular individuals who have the power to change the course of our race as a whole...
Sentiency. Intelligence. This is our gift. This is our curse.
And look what we've done with it.
You know, I'm not overly superstitious. Things tend to just happen to me, and I take what happens as it comes. There are some things I can't explain, and I know that. But I won't go out of my way to say that whatever gods are out there are out to get me.
Angels, you say? Do I believe in angels?
Well... I don't know. I don't believe in magic, I don't believe in portals with the power to displace people from one universe and stick them in another with no way of going home. What the hell is this? Some sort of interdimensional Robinson Crusoe? So who am I to question the existence of angels?
Oh, angels. You mean in the big wings flappy flappy love joy and peace soldiers of heaven does it exist and whatnot.
I don't think they exist. But they might. Because what I think can be wrong. Well, maybe there are angels. But not the ones with huge wings and a nifty rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. Just a few selfless people that watch over us all, making sure we do the right thing, helping us on the way, and hoping that we do it for the best.
Although those selfless people are far too rare in our modern world.
> > > > > > > > > > > >
14 4745Y >3417Y
f i n a l f a n t a s y : r e a l i t y
an angelhawk studios production
original concept by redshadow
written by chaosrayne
disk 2wo: nin9: r3turn t0 th3 w1red
> > > > > > > > > > > >
For the fourth or so time since her fight began, Tara fell to the ground.
And only just rolled to the side as Renaku came down from the apex of his jump and pierced the ground with his katana. Handspringingup, she called on what little remained on her power...
She had never channeled this much before. It hurt... ohh it hurt. Her body was already feeling the extreme effects of fatigue from casting so many augmentative spells and defensive spells in tandem.
"You're starting to feel it, aren't you." Renaku sneered. "As I grow stronger... you grow weaker. You can't defeat me."
Tara lunged down and up, leaping under Renaku's guard, drawing three vertical cuts across his chest. He merely shrugged as the wounds almost immediately began to close, his body held together with strands of True Magick. She breathed heavily, she was close to defeat... what was that noise? The noise of...
...yelling?
"...KYAAAA!"
Then a glowing blue plasmic blade carved into Renaku's side, following up with a backflip kick off his face, heel slamming painfully into the jaw, as Rain joined the fray.
Tara saw him, bursting from the flames and wreckage of her Ryukin hometown, a shadow of death, ashandarei swinging from over his shoulder like a scythe tinged blue, ready to reap forth stabbity justice. Her heart soared with the realization that he was still alive. He appeared not to have seen her at all, going toe-to-toe with Renaku.
For his flurry of blows, each more ferocious than the last trailing with blue plasma, Renaku seemed more angry than hurt. "You..." He spat. "I see you did not perish in the ion blast as I had intended..." He was cut off as Rain finally landed a blow that hurt - a knee to the groin.
Growling, Renaku gave a flap of his dusky wings and raised a hand. A ball of shadow began to form in his palm, intending on blasting Rain to the ninth level of hell, or maybe just one; either would do just fine. Rain didn't seem perturbed; as Renaku let loose the blast, he dived.
The space behind the SFMA cadet went nova as dark energies slagged the ground behind him until it was the consistency of runny syrup. Jumping and kicking off a wall that crumbled at the impact, wood and tile weakened by intense heat, he dived down, and the ronin was forced to block with his katana. That was, until a wave of pure magical energies pushed the air outward, and Rain was blown backward like a leaf.
Riding the breeze and focusing on his opponent, Rain screamed out. "MARCOOO!"
Several yards away, hidden securely in the torched remains of a pagoda, Alex lined up the sights of her semiautomatic plasma rifle and racked the slide. "Polo, bitch."
A concentrated burst of plasma-tipped FMJ rounds tore into Renaku's body at high speed, breaking his concentration and knocking him back as the hissing plasma ate holes in his tattered remains of BlackOp gear.
The redheaded mage, albeit downed, took her chance. "Howling breath of winter, freeze the blood! Di-ICE!"
-
I watched her as she raised one hand and let off the ice spell.
Her.
Same red hair. Same gaze. But... she had changed somehow... she seemed... less sure of herself. Less arrogant.
...Well, maybe that had to do with the fact that she was fighting that bastard that had wounded me last time and left me for dead in front of a ticking ion bomb. Said bastard had somehow managed to grow a pair of wings in my absence.
Yes, wings, you heard me. The big flappy flappy love joy angel wings. Except these were a dark, viscous black.
And said bastard was now enclosed in a large, pristine block of ice, wings and all.
I walked up to the large ice block and tapped it experimentally with one finger. Solid. Whatever was in there wasn't getting out for a long, long time.
Then a pair of arms wrapped me in a large hug.
I was surprised for a second, then I broke away. "You... you were going to sell us out. What happened to that?"
It sounded really unneccessarily cruel, even to my own ears. And then I saw the change, a carefully, practiced mask slip into place behind the initial outburst of emotion that Tara had shown. The old Tara was back, sarcastic, sure of herself. But I was almost certain that for a second there, she had almost seemed like she cared...
She didn't have an answer for my question, so I continued. "Did you fake the kiss as well? Or did you just enjoy playing with my emotions so you could take us and sell us out to Frosty here?" I tapped the ice cube for emphasis. "Please don't tell me you're angsting over it - I told you it wasn't your fault. I just can't believe you kissed me to gain our trust..." I paused. "...It was fake... wasn't it?"
Tara lunged forward, and before I knew what was happening, her lips were on mine.
Whoa.
This was unlike the earlier kiss she had given me while naked atop me in the sadly lost DA-000001A. That was more a kiss of ... possession, of taking something she wanted. This was... how do I say this? ...More gentle. More like an acceptance of something and living with it.
Before I knew it, it was over.
"...Consider that repayment." She turned around, and began to walk away...
...before she spoiled the effect completely by falling to one knee, cursing. "Damn... must have used more than I thought..." I heard her mutter, and I was at her side, helping her up... only to have her ignore the preoffered hand up. She struggled to her feet on her own.
Kyrina sauntered up, ripped costume and all, and looked at the winged popsicle. "What the hell is that? Where the hell are we?"
I poked Tara. She explained with her usual aplomb. "That was... a ronin. One of us who left and chose to dishonour our way by falling in with the Imperial Empire. This is the Ryukin Peninsula... my homeland. And it's burning because my sister-" Here she spat, and I saw blood in her spittle. "-sold me out to the Imperials and told them I was here."
Kyrina shook her head again. "Like I said, what the hell is that? Where the hell are we?"
I sighed. Explanations would have to wait for later. "Where's Patch?" I pointed at Kyrina. "That's the person he wanted us to bring back."
-
Alex watched coldly and kicked aside a random piece of charred rubble (or was that a body part?) as Tara kissed Rain. Not the first kiss she had seen them share. She couldn't care less.
Liar, she told herself. Why did it hurt so much then?
Tara was the betrayer of their little group. She had said she was with them. She was the one that had kissed Rain just to gain his trust. Yet here he was, making out with her? Sheesh.
Lost in thought, she so engrossed in internal monologue that she literally fell into an Imperial BlackOp.
"What... the... fuck! Hey! There are still survivors over here!" The helmeted BlackOp crackled into his headgear, being part of the "death squads" assigned to kill until some inkling of the three fugitives was eked out of the Ryukin people.
Alex fixed him with a glare.
The fact that she held that long knife like she knew how to use it was scary enough. The way that she stood there without fear even as he leveled his own plasma rifle (a far superior weapon, even by his own standards) at her was disheartening enough. But the pure hate and anger, righteous fury brimming on tears of rage; that was what caused the poor Imperial BlackOp to nearly wet his pants.
There were a rapid series of slashes, a scream that turned into a sort of gurgle halfway through as the man began choking on his own blood, his lungs filling with the red of his life, and a thump of a body falling to the floor.
"Nice move. But rather visceral, don't you think?" A smooth, lightly accented voice from behind her spoke. Alex knew that voice-
"Yes. You got away from me last time, rebel scum. But this is-"
Doctor Catherine Shaw throughly expected the girl, weak with emotional pain, to drop the knife. What she did not expect was the girl to spin neatly on one heel to plant the other into her hand, so that her aim went off, the bullet shot into the heavens, and the Magnum was knocked flying... right up...
Both girls jumped for the gun; Alex was the one successful, and they both landed, lying down, the barrel of the handcannon at the doctor's temple, and the edge of one of Catherine's throwing knives against a throbbing vein in Alex's neck.
"Had fun in the other reality?" Catherine asked, as if she was discussing what to have for breakfast.
"What would you like to have for breakfast?" Alex asked, as if she was discussing how much fun she had in the other reality. "Although I don't think it matters much; it's death for breakfast, with the mood I'm in."
And that was when the squad of BlackOps decided to appear around the edges of the clearing brandished locked, loaded, and charging plasma rifles.
Both Alex and Catherine broke away from each other and rolled as the top marksmen in the BlackOp squad of eight tried their very best to make their targets resemble meaty pieces of swiss cheese. They were not nearly as good shots as the worst in the Imperial Dragoons, but hey, you can't miss much at that sort of range with an automatic weapon.
Unless your target happens to be pissed off and coming out of the roll behind you to use you as a swiftly deteriorating human shield while shooting your squadmates with a .357 handcannon or your target happens to know that the weakness in the BlackOp armor is neck (at the junction between helmet and body armor), armpits, and groin, and is busy throwing knives at those weak spots in question while doing bullet-dodge stunts that someone in a cheesy action movie would be proud of.
Alex dropped her 'human shield' still twitching with plasma scoring and pumped a bullet into his helmet out of mercy. The lead slug flattened out in his brain and killed him instantly. The slide on the gun slammed straight backward with recoil so heavy it felt like it almost broke her wrist. "Reload!" She yelled, and ejected the spent mag out of the Magnum before spinkicking it into another BlackOp, shattering the supposedly shatterproof glass of the opaque helmet with bone-jarring force.
Catherine slit another BlackOp's throat, while throwing a magazine at Alex with her other hand; she didn't have to look, she knew the younger girl would catch it. Alex leapt to intercept it in midair, as the remaining two BlackOps still shooting decided to set up a crossfire, she reloaded and was firing the gun out between her legs even before she hit the ground.
"Bolt!" The former Imperial scientist intoned, and watched with satisfaction as the last BlackOp twitched and shuddered, dropping his chunky plasma rifle. Catherine scooped it up, jammed it into the junction between helmet and body armor, and squeezed the trigger. The man went limp.
And then turned to level the plasma rifle at Alex, who was by now already holding the Magnum at herself.
"Deja vu?" Catherine couldn't resist a smile, blood-spattered and singed yet highly satisfied.
"I told you it was death for breakfast." Alex's mind rebelled at the thought. What the hell was I thinking? That was so cheesy... But she had to admit; it somehow fit the situation.
Then Patch walked in, carrying Harumi like a large meat sack slung over one shoulder. He noted the spent shells, the gutted and bullet-ridden BlackOp corpses, and appeared almost scandalized that the two women hadn't saved him any.
His eyes lit up on sight of Alex. "Alex! You're back! Did you manage to-"
"Yes, Patch." Alex said tiredly. "We found your girlfriend."
Patch wasn't really a religious man. He would much rather have a cigar than say a prayer before the battle. But right then and there, he felt like kissing the dirt and thanking whatever gods were out there that someone had given Kira another chance.
"And Rain? Is he-"
Alex fumed inwardly. "Yes, the big dumb selfish savior is still with us. Apparently he's the Key to the Reality Engine or something like that."
The big man looked puzzled as the wording of the sentence flew a mile and a half over his head. "...Uh.. whoa."
Only then did Patch notice that Alex and Catherine were still pointing weapons at each other with extreme intent to kill, and only then did he realize that he hadn't explained anything yet.
"Whoa, whoa, Alex, drop it! She's with us now!"
Alex didn't drop the Magnum. It would take too much to forget the semi-psychotic bitch who had tried to gun them down as they were leaving this reality and had almost killed them as they lay immobile against the floor. It was eventually Catherine who folded, her long, materia-studded knife sliding back into its sheath and the open throwing blade in her left hand disappearing into her black robes. The plasma rifle she dropped distastefully on the ground.
"Why do you trust her?" Alex hissed. Today had been a bad day and it wasn't getting any better. "She's an Imperial scientist; you saw her, we all saw her. What's her reason to help us?"
"Survival." Catherine stated, as if it were merely a fact of life. "The man back there... Renaku... he wants me dead because I failed to kill you." Then she added, "Also, this Rebel here saved my life. I owe him a debt."
Patch grunted. "Can you two ladies quit bitchfighting? You're obviously very much in need of boyfriends."
Alex and Catherine both turned 100-megawatt glares on the large man. Although they were both shorter than he was, he felt very intimidated by the fact that they both looked ready to draw and quarter him.
Then, there was a large explosion. Not the first one of the night, but this one was accompanied by a bloodcurdling scream of fury.
"KIRA!" Patch yelled, and took off like a shot, leaving the other two trailing in his wake, still rather scandalized by the O7 trooper's parting shot.
-
Rain had his back to the large ice cube when the explosion happened.
So suffice to say he was not prepared when the ice cube exploded, literally steaming waves of power. It wasn't aimed at him, but even so, he felt a shudder run through his entire body. Tara was knocked to the floor and stayed down. Kyrina in comparison fared much better, gritting her teeth as they rang at multiple low frequencies.
Renaku stood, almost fully naked, his BlackOp gear having been blasted off him, along with the ice cube and around four meters of the surrounding area. It simply just... disappeared. It didn't sag, crater, slag, melt... it was just there one second and the next it wasn't. As if it had been carved from reality itself. His hair hung loose, around his face, matted and bloody in some areas, but he was standing, his katana held in a loose, low grip.
And he laughed. This wasn't the laugh of a man who knew he had the situation well in control, this was the laugh of the deranged and the very much insane. The laugh of madness.
Rain struggled to stand, and as he leapt to attack, the powered-up ronin simply raised one hand, halting the teenager's plasmic blade feet before the blow ever connected. The hand tensed, and Rain was thrown backward into a flimsy wall that crumpled on impact.
Tara tried to get up, and then her eyes widened as swirling magical energy of a purplish hue formed around her.
"...Demi." Renaku intoned, and the redheaded thief screamed in pain as the natural forces of gravity increased, once, twice, a hundredfold. Her body complained loudly as the pressure on it grew; her very spine felt like it was going to crumble to dust from the very effort required to support her body. And pain was all she knew before she blacked out.
Kyrina turned to run, but an invisible grip closed around her neck, and she was lifted into the air, gasping for breath and trying to get a hold on the nonexistent limb around her neck, even as the currents of air controlled by magical energy around her throat constricted.
Patch dashed in, and he was firing even before he came within range, the two heavy plasma rifles he had requisitioned set to overcharge mode, one in each hand blasting away. Over two hundred rounds were fired in a time period of around seven seconds, the weapons rapidly overheating...
...only to have a shield of crystalline green; Renaku's True Magicked form of the Barrier spell, deflect each and every one ever so slightly... as plasma left glowing blue streaks in the air around his form. Not one of those shots managed to even touch the ronin.
Patch growled, and without breaking into a run, he dashed forward, dropping both the guns, hoping to dish it out close and personal. He never reached his goal, as Renaku made a pushing motion with his hand. The sturdy 200lb or so trooper was sent flying straight backward, and as he dug in, he gouged long trenches in the dirt with his feet, until he hit a wall and disappeared from view.
Still laughing, the ronin spread his wings fully, revealing an almost seven-foot wingspan. "Do you pathetic people not understand? You cannot defeat me! The power of True Magick is unsurpassed!"
Unseen, crouched around the corner of a burning building, Alex watched in awe. Catherine was also there, but viewing the scene with a much more professional eye. The way she saw it, the Demi spell would hold the Ryukin girl prone and in pain for a while longer, and she was already weak, having gone two rounds already with Renaku. The other girl hanging in midair choking for air... she wouldn't last much longer either. If she didn't get some oxygen soon she would be well on her way to irreparable brain damage. Rain was probably out of commission... and Patch?
"You stole a box when you disappeared through the Reality Engine." The dark mage said. "Do you still have it?"
Alex nodded silently and passed her the box of summon materia, the gems of power glowing a deep ruby red in anticipation of being used. Catherine rummaged around in it before coming up with one. "...Yes... this is the one. Can you buy me some time?"
The younger girl turned. "Are you crazy? You saw what he did to the others..."
"And if you don't hurry up, some of them are going to die." Catherine said matter-of-factly.
Alex got ready to attack. "What proof do I have that when my back is turned you won't just leave us all to die, now that you have the summon materia?"
Catherine smiled. It was not a nice smile. "You'll just have to trust me."
-
Renaku watched as another figure leapt to the attack. He smirked. Pitiful. Insects, all of them. They could not hurt him. Why not humor himself?
He dashed forward to counterattack. Despite himself, he was surprised when the slip of a girl managed to evade his main attack and roll to one side, thin blade biting into his side.
Snarling in fury, he turned...
A trap! A distraction!
Sensing the buildup of magical energies close by... He knocked the annoyance of a girl away and focused on the true threat... the dark mage. Who was at that moment holding her knife guard up, the shining, crystalline summon materia turning from a dark red to a fierce, shimmering mix of red, yellow, and blue.
Too late.
He charged up another orb of magic. His target could not dodge. She was too focused on the materia; the spell had begun now, and she had to follow it through.
Catherine screamed as the dark energies tore into her body. Smoking, she landed a crumpled heap.
Satisfied, the ronin cackled, bordering on insanity. Nobody could stand before his power...
Then he noticed the girl who was supposed to be choking in midair wasn't really choking in midair anymore.
From thy eternal slumber I call to thee...
She had one hand around her neck, sure, and she was still hanging there, but she was smiling. A painful smile, almost a grimace, but a smile. Her other hand held a plasma pistol with a long knife clipped to the underbelly of the weapon. And more importantly, perhaps, the missing summon materia, now glowing a bright white. There was a snap-click as the materia locked into the breech of the plasma pistol, a short charge period, and then the one known as Kyrina looked into Renaku's eyes.
Avatar of the elements, I summon thee...
He realized ... he knew her. Although she looked different... she was in the O7. Or used to be. Until he destroyed their haven.
...Awaken, Tritoch! Awaken, Herald of the Three!
This one was reputed to be one of the O7's most powerful mages.
And in that stare, Renaku could see why. His arrogance and his attitude crumpled like a tent in a hurricane as she choked out a single phrase.
By storm, by flame, and by frost, let all behold your infinite power! Tri-Dazer!
"...You... be fucked." She gasped out, her finger tightening on the trigger.
And then they all faded, as Renaku gazed about him in consternation.
-
"Where... where am I...?" Kyrina gasped for breath. She seemed to be standing on the edge of a lake, the shimmering materia in her plasmacaster still a brilliant white. "I have to get back... get back to the fight-"
Remember whom you are.
The girl turned, ignoring the pain in her right leg as she did so. "Wha..."
Everything was silent for a moment, then a brilliant bolt of lightning flashed down from above, not fading but continuing to dance on the water of the lake. Where it touched down, a cyclone of pure fire began to arise, surrounding the lightning with a crimson whirlwind and following its every movement. Then, from within the cyclone, a blue light was sparked and began to expand, quickly surrounding the entire display in crystal clear ice. Which then shattered. The creature that stood in place of the crystal was both terrible and beautiful to behold. It had the body and head of a dragon, with shimmering scales and sapphire eyes, yet also sported a huge pair of birdlike wings, and its feathers shone as if carved from purest opal. It was surrounded by multicolored sparks, remnants of the shattered ice, that swirled around it lovingly. Stretching its wings out as if grateful for its release, Tritoch tilted back its head and roared, an almost musical sound that rose to the heavens.
Kyrina braced herself. She didn't want to fight in the shape she was in, but-
I am yours to command, Summoner Kira. Use me as you did in times past. I am your strength, I am your will. I am flame and frost and light in one. I am Tritoch.
"Mine... mine to command..." Her mind locked. "My name is Kyrina. I am not your 'summoner Kira'."
You refuse to accept whom you are?
"I know who I am, and I am Kyrina, scavenger of Tribe Omega-"
This is not true. Your smell... your taste... Here she gasped as Tritoch extended a snaky tongue, testing the air; ...is the same.
"...Whatever." Kyrina sighed. "...I'd much appreciate it if you just kicked some ass already so that I'd get to sorting things out. Please?"
Yes, mistress.
-
Renaku's eyes bulged in shock. "SHELL! BARRIER!"
Tritoch looked down at the traitor, and seemed to sneer - it knew of this creature, and was glad that its release was to face such a worthy foe. But there was little time to waste.
You... you are the one who makes a mockery of our True Magick? You. Will. Pay.
As the Sleeper began a slow intake of breath, its aura was drawn in toward its mouth, the particles aligning and swirling in a three-colored pattern... then the energy was released in a single titanic blast, fire and ice and lightning merging together to form a cone of unstoppable power.
Renaku was caught in the full center of the attack, and within moments was utterly destroyed by the elemental onslaught. ...or perhaps not. Though intensely damaged, the winged one was obviously still alive. It was also, however, intelligent enough to know when to quit - as the Omni-Dazer speared off the combined Shell and Barrier spells, he took to flight, skittering across the sky weaving drunkenly as first one, then two wings were shorn off by the pure power of Tritoch's assault.
-
Author's Notes: Damn. DAMN DAMN DAMN. Someone please tell me how long it's been. HOW LONG?
(sigh) I wanted to junk FFR, I really did. I've got too much other stuff to do. But this story sank its claws into me all over again. Sorry to all my (lack of) fans.