A/N: Here it is folks, the final chapter of Under the Sky So Blue! I hope you've had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. Now that the ships of both Vicente and Vyse are stuck together, there's no other option left other than to fight it out on the deck of the Crusader. Can Vyse and friends pull away with the victory and bring peace back to the world?
After this story, be sure to immediately go to the next chapter and check out both the ending songfic and epilogue I have written. My ending author note will be at the end of it and not this. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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Chapter 14: The Fight for Justice

The two sides charged at each other, fully intent on destroying each other. No one held back, not even the captains of either side. This was to be a fight to the finish. All of the Blue Rogues knew this, and knew that they must give it all they had if they were going to win. They only took a small crew with them aboard the Crusader, leaving the rest behind to tend to the Delphinus. As such, they were outnumbered nearly three-to-one. In addition to that, Vicente seemed to be more powerful than even Vyse, and, as Vicente had pointed out, Fina wouldn't dare use any powerful magiks in this close proximity. The odds weren't good, but they had to find someway to win.

The captains of either side did not waste any time. They immediately bypassed everyone else and clashed swords with one another. At this point, no one else mattered to them. Both of them had their own agenda. For Vyse, he had a murdered friend to avenge. For Vicente, he had to remove what seemed to be the final obstacle between him and the retaking and rebuilding of the old Valuan Empire.

Vicente smirked as he tried to out-muscle Vyse. "Give up, pirate. You didn't stand a chance against me last time. What makes you think you can beat me this time?"

Vyse grinned back at his foe. "You're not shooting me."

"Ha!" responded Vicente. "You've obviously never seen my skill with a blade before! Allow me to demonstrate!"

-

Fina wanted so much to be able to help her lover defeat Vicente, but she had her own share of troubles for the time being. The situation seemed similar to the one she encountered on Sailor's Island; surrounded by four bad-guys, all of which were closing in on her and trying to pin her against the railing of the Crusader. However, these guys were being far more cautious than the idiots they had encountered on the island. They had obviously seen what Fina was capable of and, although they knew that she wouldn't use such powerful magiks when she was so close to her other friends, they weren't going to take any chances.

One of the NVA troopers said, "Give it up girl! Surrender to us and we'll take real good care of you, heh heh."

Fina took a deep breath. At this range, she couldn't use any of her magic. She'd have to resort to fighting physically against them, which wasn't exactly one of her strong points. Nevertheless, she had to try.

"Cupilrang!" she yelled as Cupil turned into Fina's latest weapon. Once formed, she immediately swung for the trooper on her right, cracking him right on top of his head and sending him to the ground.

The other troopers pulled back a little, obviously surprised by what Fina had just done. She sure didn't look like a fighter, but then again, looks can be deceiving. "Feh! Don't just stand there you idiots! Get her!"

Fina reared back Cupilrang, ready to let it go should one of these buffoons get to close to her. "Don't touch me you filthy scoundrels!

-

A very heavily armored man marched toward Gilder wielding what appeared to be a giant meat cleaver. Obviously, he didn't plan on taking prisoners. A hollow laugh echoed through his helmet as he said, "Ha! Just try to break through this armor!"

Gilder smirked, twirled both of his guns, and let loose three shots from each one. His jaw dropped when he witnessed every single bullet ricochet of the man's armor harmlessly. "What the! That's bull-crap! How can armor even like that stop magnum-grade bullets!"

The same laugh echoed through the man's armor. "It's made of Velorium. The boss gave it to me for stealing a large amount of the material from a merchant ship. Nothing in the world can penetrate this armor! I'm invincible!"

Gilder opened the cylinders of both his guns and began applying a purple moonstone to the remaining bullets. "Is that so?" he said as he went about this chore. He gave both cylinders a spin and popped them back into the gun. "We'll see about that! Eat this!"

He shot six more times, each one connecting with the frontal torso plate of the armor, leaving small formations of ice around each impact. The man looked down at his torso and then back up at Gilder.

"Eh? What was that all about! That was pretty pointless if you ask me!" Once again, the giant man laughed.

Gilder saw Clara sneaking up behind the man with what appeared to be a large engineer's hammer in her small hands. He grinned. "Oh I don't know about that. By the way, what's that behind you?"

"Eh?" He turned around and could only stare with wide eyes as Clara swung her hammer with all of her might into the man's torso, shattering not only the ice but small pieces of the armor underneath. "What! Impossible!"

Before he could say anything else, Clara took another swing at him. This time, however, she aimed for his head. The impact was enough to give the man a very large headache and lengthy spell of dizziness. Unable to cope with said dizziness, the man allowed himself to fall over, perhaps in an attempt to say, "I've had enough."

Gilder shot the lovely Clara a thumbs-up. "Well done Clara. I can always count on you."

Clara couldn't help but pose with the hammer. "Of course! Don't ever mess with a girl!"

-

To the untrained eye, the fight between Vyse and Vicente still seemed evenly matched. The level of swordplay that was going into this fight was truly magnificent. For each attack that one had, the other had a counter for it. It seemed as if they both had counters for the other's counters. Neither had landed a blow on the other and the fight looked as if it could drag on for days with the same result.

However, to the careful observer, one would notice Vyse was slowly losing the battle. In terms of raw skill, Vicente had the advantage. It was taking every last bit of Vyse's strength just to keep up with this fabulous swordsman, and he was quickly losing all of his stamina. With every minute that passed, he became a split-second slower in both action and reaction time. Vyse needed a plan and he needed it now.

"Damnit!" he said to himself as he deflected yet another of Vicente's furious slash attacks. "At this rate, I'm never going to win. That scumbag hasn't even broken a sweat yet. What should I do?" Another blow was deflected, but this came extremely close to making contact with Vyse.

"I can't call for help. Everyone else is busy with the other pirates." He pondered the thought even further. "Besides, even if I could, it wouldn't be such a good idea. If I can't beat him, then…" Another slash, this one managing to knock a loose button off of his sleeve.

"Aika, I… I don't know if I can win…"

-

Fina swung Cupilrang at another would-be attacker, knocking him to the ground just as easily as the previous two. These fallen troopers all had one thing in common: they underestimated their foe. Two more troopers came to join the last initial trooper that had initially engaged her.

She reared back Cupilrang once more when her eyes shot wide open. "Vyse! He needs my help!" She didn't know how she knew this, but in her heart… she knew. The only problem was figuring out a way to get all of these troopers away from her.

"Enough of this crap!" said the last trooper from the first group. He pointed a gun at her and pulled back the hammer. "Screw this "take the girl alive" crap! Say goodnight, girl!"

Fina closed her eyes. She had no way to defend herself from a bullet.

Suddenly, the man pointing the gun at her howled in pain. Fina opened her eyes to see the man twitching on the ground. The air smelt of burnt organic matter, like an animal that had just been hit by lightning. Behind the fallen man and the other two, Fina could see Lawrence, one hand extended and steaming, the other clutching his fire-red saber on his side.

"Mr. Lawrence!" cried Fina. "You-"

Lawrence drew his saber and waved it back and forth between the two remaining men. "Miss Fina, there's no time! You have to help the captain! I'll hold these barbarians off!"

Fina nodded and ran off. "Thank you Mr. Lawrence!"

"Ahem!" Lawrence said in an attempt to call attention to himself. The two men left standing turned back to him. Watching him as his smile grew. "Gentlemen, if you thought she was tough, wait til you get a load of me."

-

Vyse hit the deck of the Crusader, holding a large cut he had just suffered to his left bicep. "Gah! Damn you Vicente!"

Vicente smirked and tossed his gunblade from side-to-side as he took in the scene. Before him stood Vyse, the now defeated captain of all the Blue Rogues in the world. With him out of the way, there would nobody left that could stand in the way of the NVA… except for that meddlesome Silvite girl. She mattered little though. Without Vyse's protection, she'll be easy pickings.

He pointed his blade down at the seemingly defeated Vyse. "My, how the mighty have fallen. Any last words before you join your little friend?"

"Aika…" he said to himself as he lowered his head. "In the end, I just couldn't win. He's far too powerful. Please forgive me."

Vicente titled his head. "Eh? Last prayers? Well, whatever. You've had your chance to speak. Now it's time for you t-gah!"

Vyse opened eyes to see a large burn mark on Vicente's side. He looked directly to his left to see Fina standing there, her right hand extended and steaming. "Fina!"

"Leave him alone you big jerk!" she cried. She threw Cupilrang with all her might at Vicente.

With one swift movement, Vicente used his own blade to knock Cupilrang away. "Insolent wench!" He pointed his weapon at Fina. "Join your friend in the abyss you little bitch!"

The entire world moved in slow-motion once again. However, Vyse could do nothing as he saw Vicente pull the trigger of his weapon. His eyes widened in horror when he saw the bullet go right through Fina's upper section, letting loose a spray of blood both in front of and behind her. Without a sound, she fell to the deck and into a very small pool of her own blood.

"I'm going to do whatever it takes to help you Vyse."

Vyse could not control the flow of tears as he dropped his weapon and pounded the deck with his fists. "Fina! No! I-I told you not to come"
He let his own head hit the deck as he closed his eyes. "Fina, you were… I was… me and you…" He looked over at her body which lay roughly twenty feet away from him. "…I'm so sorry Fina. As much as I loved you, I couldn't even protect you when it really mattered. I have failed not only as a captain, but as… as the one you trusted most."

"I'll always be at your side Vyse."

Vicente lowered his weapon and smirked. "Heh. She wasn't so tough without her magic. Now where was I… ah yes! You!" He pointed his weapon at Vyse. "I believe it's your turn!"

"I love you Vyse…"

"…kill…kill…" The idea kept running through Vyse's head. He reopened his eyes and, if any of his friends had seen him like this, they would not have recognized him. This was not the cool and calm-eyed Vyse that they knew. To them, he would've looked like some rabid beast intent on killing as many people as possible.

"…with all my heart and soul."

He pointed his Lunarian Cutlass at the opposing captain. "YOU! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME! EVERYTHING! I'LL… I'LL KILL YOU!"

The surprise Vicente felt that was brought about by Vyse's new tone of voice was only surpassed by the amazing speed that Vyse now possessed. Before he could make any sort of movement with his weapon, Vyse cut it in half, leaving only the gun handle and cylinder in Vicente's hand.

Vicente took several steps back as he tried to avoid this new assault. "Impossible! How can he break Velorium!"

He didn't have long to ponder this, for, not longer after his weapon broke, Vyse managed to get a good cut on both of Vicente's thighs, sending him stumbling everywhere and leaving blood in his wake. Vyse's next attack drove his cutlass deep into Vicente's left shoulder, causing to howl in pain. Finally, with his remaining cutlass, gave Vicente a shallow, yet still very painful slice across his abdomen. Vicente fell on his back and Vyse immediately jumped on him, pinning him to the ground.

This was it. Now he had won, but at what cost? All he had to do now was kill Vicente and the day would be theirs. He pulled his other cutlass from his foe's shoulder and raised both blades up high. "AND NOW VICENTE, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!"

"Vyse, please! Whatever you do, don't lose yourself!"

Vyse grabbed his head. "No, leave me alone! This man deserves to die!"

"Vyse, I beg you! I don't want you to change for the worse!"

Vyse began to cry again. "Fina, I… I don't know what to do! There's no point in keeping myself the same if I'm going to live in a world without you!"

"Vyse! Please!"

"Fina…"

"Vyse…"

"Vyse! Vyse!" Vyse turned around to see Gilder and Clara kneeling around Fina's body. "She's okay! Fina's okay!" cried Clara.

Vyse's tears of sadness immediately turned to tears of joy. "Fina!" he tossed both of his blades aside and ran to his friends.

Vicente attempted to take this opportunity to get up and re-arm himself but was immediately pinned back down by a red saber. "And where do you think you're going?" asked Lawrence.

Vyse kneeled down next to Fina who smiled weakly up at him. "S-sorry to worry you Vyse."

Gilder patted Vyse's shoulder. "Bullet just hit her in the shoulder. Clean hit too, bullet went right through. A bandage and a Sacri spell or two should fix her up."

Vyse immediately leaned down and hugged the slightly bloody Fina. "Thank the moons! I thought you were dead Fina!"

She hugged back with her good arm. "I'm sorry Vyse. Something told me that I had to help you and… well…"

Clara's hands glowed green as she began to slowly apply a Sacri spell to Fina's shoulders. "Fina honey, if it wasn't for you, Vyse and perhaps the rest of us might have been killed. That was very brave of you."

Gilder held the hand of her bad arm gently. "Well done Fina. That's twice you've saved us."

Unable to hold back his affection any longer, Vyse leaned down and kissed Fina on the lips. "I love you Fina. I can't even begin to express how happy I am to see that you're okay."

A small tear ran down her soft cheek. "Oh Vyse…"

"Pardon me for interrupting, Captain Vyse," started Lawrence, "but what should we do with the enemy captain?"

Vyse closed his eyes and began to think to himself. "Okay, everyone knows he deserves to die. However, I've got to keep a cool head about this. Besides, death may be too good for him. What to do, what to d-… ah!"

Vyse stood up and looked around at everyone. "I've got an idea."

-

A bandaged and more or less healed Vicente hit the hard surface of one of the many islands within the Dark Rift. Not far above him, the Blue Rogues looked down upon him from the safety of the Crusader.

Vyse put on foot on the railing and smirked down at Vicente. "For the crimes you've committed Vicente, death would be far too good for you. So instead, the Blue Rogues sentence you to life-time imprisonment in the Dark Rift. Since we're nice guys, we'll even give you a means to survive… or kill yourself, whichever you want to do." With that he tossed down a very old and rusty cutlass along with a lantern with a single moonstone in it.

Vicente watched the objects hit his island and he looked up at them. "You can't be serious."

Gilder leaned against the railing now. "Oh but we are. I was wanting to put a bullet in your head, but I like this idea far more."

It was Clara's turn now. "Hope that lantern keeps burning for you honey! Wouldn't want any of the light-hating monsters within the rift to eat you now, would we?"

Vicente threw his arms up in utter frustration. "You can't do this too me!"

"But we have, Mr. Vicente," said Fina in her usual soft-toned voice. "Now you'll never be able to hurt anyone again."

Vyse walked away from the railing as did everyone else. "So long Vicente! May your stay here be long and arduous!"

The Crusader pulled away from the island and flew away, ignoring any cries for help coming from Vicente.

Vyse plopped down in his chair, finally glad that this was all over. Fina pulled a chair from the table and pulled it up next to Vyse. She sat down and held Vyse's hand, who grasped hers firmly back. At the table, Gilder and Clara smiled at the young couple as they held hands themselves.

Lawrence turned back to the two lovers and asked, "Where to now?"

They looked at each other, smiled, and nodded. "Home," they both said at the same time.

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