Author's Note: I'll apologise in advance for this chapter. It's one long battle. And as you know by now, I'm not particularly good when it comes to battle descriptions. So sorry if this chapter seems particularly poor, it seemed it to me. So, please feel free (well, even freer than usual) to give me lots of constructive criticism on this chapter so I can improve both how I write and this chapter itself! If you don't want to, then just enjoy!

PART XXVI

The Light Warriors stood on the deck of the Raven III, watching in disbelief.

"We're too late." Whispered Voldos.

"Lavos has already awoken." Olose said gently.

"The Day of Lavos." Zinkata muttered tearfully. "The end of the world. And I caused it."

"It wasn't your fault Zin." Voldos said plainly. "Nobody blames you."
"Not like they have time to, really." Bootus tried to smirk. Lavos let out another high pitched wail.

"Well, it was fun." Voldos sighed. "Thanks guys."

"Hey!" Vivli suddenly cried. "This isn't over yet!"

"What?" Bootus asked, surprised as the little mithra spoke up.

"Yeah!" Zinkata yelled, grabbing his sword from Voldos's scabbard and flicking down across his body, making sure it was battle ready. "We're the Light Warriors!"

"What does that matter now?" Bootus mumbled.

"It matters because we fight!" He cried. "We fight! No monster is going to take out the world while we're around!"

"You want to fight Lavos?" Bootus asked sceptically. "The Destroyer of Worlds? The prophesised bringer of the apocalypse for a million years?"
"It's what we do best!" Zinkata yelled.

"Count me in!" Voldos cried, reading his bow.

"Like you guys could last two seconds without a white mage!" Vivli announced.

"Oh, I'm going to regret this." Bootus sighed, pulling his scythe from his back.

"Olose! Cid!" Zinkata began to order. "Get clear!"
"What?" Olose cried. "I'm immortal! I can help!"

"Head to the cities as fast as you can!" Zinkata ordered. "Get everybody below ground to shelters!"

"He's right." Vivli said softly. "If we fail, Lavos will rain destruction from the sky and wipe out everything on the surface."

"We'll keep it distracted for as long as possible." Zinkata explained. "But if we fail, we need to keep everybody as safe as possible." Olose nodded grimly.

"I won't let you down." He responded. Vivli slipped out of his jacket.

"Here, take this." She said. "You seem to always wear it. Be shame if you lose it when some little girl dies in it." Olose hugged her.

"You're not going to die, Viv." He told her. "None of you are! You had better win this one!"

"We intend to!" Zinkata smiled.

"Right, we'll get going." Cid decided. "You thought the Raven II was fast when it had to be, you ain't seen nothing yet!" The Light Warriors bolted down the ramp into the now melted snow as the airship took off. The entire front section fell off, as it had done before, huge stabilising wings popped out along with the extra propellers and the airship rocketed off across the air. The front of the ship crashed down in the snow, not far from the heroes.

"Oh, now he puts wings on to stabilise it." Vivli sighed.

"Alright team!" Zinkata yelled. "Let's go save the world!"
"Good to have you back, Zin." Voldos smiled.

The four heroes ran at the gigantic form of Lavos, now clearly out of its lava pit. The charging heroes looked greatly comical, Bootus being in a beaten and torn gi, Zinkata still being in his gold armour and expensive red robe from when he was corrupted, Vivli being in a dress and Voldos being in a green and orange tunic and light leather armour, but they never cared about appearances anyway. This was the day that the world either ended or was saved. They knew what they had to do, but they had no idea how they were going to do it.

Lavos let out another horrific squeal as they closed in. The four Light Warriors suddenly felt incredibly dizzy as everything was reduced to a swirling blue portal around them.

"What's happening?" Cried Voldos.

"Lavos is manipulating our memories!" Vivli replied. "I've read about this. Lavos is timeless. The legends say his very existence weakens the timeline itself. I mean, some people even think that's why Chaos could travel back in time!"

"So what's it doing now?" Zinkata asked.

"It's probing our memories." Vivli explained. "You can never fight Lavos, because you don't just fight the monster. You fight every battle you've ever fought."

"What?" Bootus shot in surprise.

"You'll see." Vivli said, not actually realising she was now hugging Zinkata in fear.

Lavos seemed to fade away for a moment, and all the four heroes could see was a hill top. The hill top. The one they met on outside Bastok. They saw a sheep hiss at them.

"That's…" Zinkata began in disbelief. "That's the sheep that attacked me. The one that lead to us meeting." Lavos's mighty jaw hissed at them as everything seemed to turn back to normal.

"Lavos has taken its form." Vivli explained.

"A sheep?" Bootus laughed. "Should be easy."

"It'll draw on every important battle of our lives." She whimpered. "This is just a start." Voldos drew and fired three arrows at once, every single one hitting the monster. Bootus ran in, slicing down with his scythe, dropping to once knee as Zinkata ran behind him, using Bootus as a step to run up to the top of the beast and drive his sword down on it. It roared, and flung them all back with an unseen magical energy.

"Now what?" Snapped Bootus.

"One down." She muttered. "I think we just killed the sheep." Once again Lavos seemed to fade away, and they saw an alleyway in Bastok, and a dark knight standing there.

"Oh, it's him." Vivli muttered. A lump of flesh seemed to form in front of Lavos, taking on a strange shape.

"That must be his sword." Zinkata guessed as it spun in to attack. He expertly blocked every blow before managing to slice it in half. Zinkata ran in, cutting up and through the gigantic mouth of Lavos. It hissed again.

"This is ridiculous." Bootus laughed. "We can handle this any day. The mighty Lavos isn't all it cracked up to be." There was another flash as Lavos faded from view, replaced by an image of Seblina dock, and a rampaging Sea Horror, ripping it to shreds. When Lavos reappeared, eight clumps of flesh reached out like evil tentacles. "Oh." Bootus commented as Lavos roared. "This looks a lot more difficult."

"I think you should be quiet." Sighed Zinkata as the eight tentacles shot in to attack. Zinkata ran backwards, blocking wildly, before being taken out and slammed to the floor. Vivli quickly healed him as Voldos fired his arrows at the mouth. They were blocked by the tentacles.

"I hate these things." Groaned Voldos.

"Let's see what Carbuncle can do!" Vivli cried as she summoned the small creature. "Carbuncle! Keep those tentacles distracted!" Carbuncle ran in, darting between the tentacles as they slammed down around it.

"Alright!" Zinkata cried. "It's too small to be hit!"
"Attack, now!" Voldos yelled as he fired arrows. Zinkata and Bootus ran in, driving their blades into Lavos's jaw. Lavos roared as the eight tentacles faded from view and the four were flung back again. Vivli released Carbuncle to avoid her draining her own magic energies any more than she had to. Again, Lavos faded from view and the four knew their next challenge was coming.

Zinkata was caught off guard by what he saw, however. Signot was stood there in the orc camp, his double bladed sword in his hands. Zinkata hated that man so much, but thought he would never have to see him again. Once again the flesh in front of Lavos formed into a long bladed form, Signot's blade. Zinkata looked grim. He felt Vivli holding his hand and looking up at him.

"It's just a memory." She said softly.

"I never thought I'd have to face him again." Zinkata muttered. "I thought it was over."

"At least this is one memory you can beat the crap out of." Bootus pointed out. "Now let's take it down!" The flesh sword span in attacking Bootus, as thought Signot was actually wielding it. The mouth of Lavos roared as Bootus blocked wildly with his scythe. Zinkata ran in at the sword, and it spun around to fight him back, twirling and stabbing Bootus with a backstab. Vivli healed the galka as Bootus blasted a fireball at the blade. The blade twirled away and Zinkata jumped to the floor, dodging the fireball. Voldos fired arrows at Lavos's mouth, but a wave of shadow magic obliterated them before they hit.

"I hate Signot." Groaned Voldos.

"I'll distract it, you shoot." Vivli suggested, casting banish on the mouth. It took the hit and roared, and as it did Voldos fired. Meanwhile, Bootus managed to catch the floating blade with his scythe and send it flying back towards Zinkata. Zinkata cut upwards, slicing it in two. It collapsed and the two ran in, stabbing Lavos's mighty jaw. Lavos howled once more, and again it faded from view.

"This is getting repetitive." Sighed Bootus.

"Only if we can face every challenge we've ever fought for a second time can we fight the true Lavos." Vivli explained.

"Fun, isn't it?" Grumbled Zinkata. The four saw a ship; the transportation ferry from Seblina to Mhaura. On it stood Alexandria, the summoning white mage, and Ifrit. When they could see Lavos again, next to the monster flesh had formed a humanoid figure.

"Alexandria?" Vivli whimpered.

"Looks like Lavos as taken Ifrit's form." Voldos guessed. "And that flesh clump must be Alexandria."

"Oh fantastic." Groaned Bootus as Lavos unleashed a mighty fireball into the galka. Voldos fired arrows which thudded into Lavos. The flesh clump healed Lavos, and Voldos cursed.

"We need to take out the bit on the left." He explained.

"Alex." Vivli commented.

"It's not Alex, Viv. It's Lavos imitating her." Zinkata said gently. Lavos roared, beginning to form a gigantic fireball.

"Less talk, more action, perhaps?" Bootus cried, running at the flesh form representing Alexandria. Lavos unleashed its fireball, and it blasted all four of the heroes to the ground in a huge explosion.

"Dammit!" Snapped Voldos. "That was hellfire!"
"Curaga!" Vivli yelled, and all four were engulfed in a white light, their strength being restored. Voldos fired arrows at Lavos while Zinkata and Bootus ran in, hacking down the representation of Alex. Lavos roared, and blasted them both back with a fireball. Vivli managed to heal them as Voldos pounded Lavos with more arrows. It roared, and faded away again.

"Nice shooting, Voldos." Zinkata observed.

"Thanks." Smiled Voldos. The four fell into eerie silence as their next challenge appeared. The depths of the Temple of the Fiends formed around them. Chaos stood there, with a confident sneer across his features.

Lavos roared once more at the party. Voldos opened fire with his arrows, but they bounced off Lavos's form without damaging it, just as they had done with Chaos. Zinkata and Bootus ran in, ripping into the creature. A flesh like tail sprang out of nowhere, hitting them back, like the razor sharp tail of Chaos. Voldos pulled the arrows back further than he had before, unleashing them and watching as they tore through Lavos successfully. He smiled in triumph, not noticing that a new arm had formed from the flesh like substance. It zoomed in, picking up the elvaan and hurling him to the floor. Vivli ran to his side, and cast a cure spell to help him recover. The arm disappeared again just leaving Lavos.

"Got a dose of Ultima up your sleeve, Viv?" Bootus cried sarcastically.

"That was a one off thing!" Vivli protested.

"I think we may be in trouble." Zinkata observed as they saw Lavos open its jaw with a mighty roar.

"It's going to cast Nuke!" Vivli screamed in horror.
"Oh, this is going to hurt." Volds whined.

"There's a way out of this." Zinkata quickly said. "Lavos's outer shell must be indestructible, or close, or else it would never have made it as far as it has." He explained. "We take cover under it!"

"Under it?" Bootus cried. "How?"

"Under the spikes, by the mouth!" Zinkata announced. "It's nuke spell is targeting us. We need cover, and if we're close to the mouth, it'll nuke itself."

"I think we're out of time for talk." Voldos cried.

"Let's move!" Zinkata protectively grabbed Vivli and pulled her with him as the four bolted for Lavos and dove under the heavy spikes sticking out from its gigantic shell. Vivli shrieked and grabbed Zinkata as tightly as she could as they felt the heat from the gigantic explosion tearing through the air. Lavos howled, and a few seconds passed before the Light Warriors scrambled back out, realising that under the shell of their mortal enemy may not be as safe as they first assumed.

The four stood, panting, and feeling slightly nauseous from the swirling blue light that surrounded them. It was odd to see that the nuke spell hadn't damaged the terrain, but there was no terrain to speak of. They were still surrounded by spinning blue light, and couldn't see anything else. There were no signs they were even still in Vana'diel. Lavos roared viciously, but this time there were no images of the past.

"It's giving up!" Vivli cried cheerfully.

"You should know better than that." Bootus said bluntly.

"I think we just passed the test of our past challenges." Zinkata sighed. "Looks like Lavos is getting to fight us properly."

"At least it missed out Carnage and the fiends." Voldos grumbled.

"Don't give it ideas!" Vivli snapped. Lavos howled, and they noticed the spiked shell was beginning to glow. Vivli's eyes went wide. "Look out!" She screamed. "It's going to attack!"
"Really?" Bootus cried sarcastically. "Who'd of thought it?"
"I mean it's going to use its ultimate attack. As written in the old prophesy, 'and Lavos shall rain destruction down from the heavens and start the world afresh'!" Vivli explained.

"We have to stop it!" Zinkata yelled. "If it gets that attack off it'll destroy the whole of Vana'diel!"

"Less talking, more attacking!" Bootus ran in and drove his scythe into Lavos. Lavos roared in retaliation and hundreds of light like energy shots rocketed up into the air. "Oops." The galka commented.

"It's okay!" Vivli explained. "You made it release its attack early."

"Meaning?" Voldos asked.

"Well, it's just going to hit us." She answered with a shrug.

"Oh. Great." Sighed the elvaan.

"Here it comes!" Zinkata yelled. "Take cover!" Hundreds of white missiles made entirely out of light slammed into the ground around them, causing massive explosions and knocking the Light Warriors to the ground as they ran, trying desperately to dodge the falling destruction.

Vivli found herself surrounded in blackness, shaking with fear. It took her a few moments to realise this was because she had shut her eyes as tightly as possible. It took all of her courage just to open them. She had somehow survived, every blast had missed her. She smirked slightly, guessing she did have some luck after all. She looked around. Bootus, Zinkata and Voldos were lying unconscious against the swirling floor. Lavos roared victoriously. She gulped.

"Raise!" She quickly cast on Zinkata. Lavos roared as she cast the spell, but was still recovering from the might of its last attack, and was unable to interfere. Zinkata awoke, and sat up painfully.

"Ow. What happened?" He groaned painfully, his vision was still blurred and he couldn't quite focus.

"You weaklings couldn't take a simple apocalyptic spell." Vivli announced. "So looks like I have to bail you out."

"Fine, I'll keep Lavos distracted." Zinkata sighed. "You heal up Voldos and Bootus." Lavos roared again.

"No!" Vivli cried. "I'll heal the others, but you watch it. We have to be careful!" Vivli began to cast a raise spell as Zinkata simply marched up to the vicious face of Lavos.

"Listen, pal." He smirked at the monstrous visage as it screeched. "You're finished. Your best spell didn't finish us off." It snapped at him, as if trying to tear him apart. "And now, once our party is back, we will kill you." It roared, almost as if the entire shell lurched forwards, trying to crush him. He lunged forwards with his sword, but Lavos snapped at him as he did, forcing him back. There was a bright light behind Zinkata, and Voldos stood up, having recovered.

"Is it coincidence your healing Bootus last?" Zinkata called.

"Not really!" Vivli yelled back. Lavos roared again. "What is it doing?" She asked, trying to regain her magical energies so that she could cast again.

"I think it's recharging. Like you are." Voldos observed. It snapped at the Light Warriors again. Voldos fired arrows at the mouth and it snarled, letting out a mighty roar. Voldos flew backwards as an immense magical force hit him. He felt like an immense drill had just torn through his body.

"You might have been wrong about that one, Vol." Zinkata observed. Voldos groaned on the floor as Lavos hissed again.

"Viv! Hurry up!" Voldos cried. "I think it's getting ready to attack again!"

"We're not going to survive another attack like that!" Vivli yelled. "We need a better plan!"

"Like?" Voldos asked painfully from the floor.

"I can feel the magical energy around us." Vivli explained. "This blue void. This swirling energy. I think it's Lavos's own magical energies. I think I can draw upon it."

"What are you going to do?" Zinkata quickly asked, sounding very concerned. "Be careful! Don't do anything stupid!" Vivli held her hands above her head, and bolts of energy began to shoot to the centre, forming a gigantic ball.

"What the hell is she doing?" Voldos found himself asking.

"I have no idea." Zinkata muttered.

"Neither do I." Vivli admitted nervously.

"Great." Voldos muttered.

"Don't do anything stupid!" Zinkata cried as the yellow energy ball grew in size.

"Let's see if this counts as stupid." Vivli stated. "LUMANAIRE!" She threw down the energy ball and it exploded in a gigantic explosion of burning plasma against Lavos. It howled in pain, screeching and protesting.

"NOW ZIN!" Voldos yelled. "Let's finish it off!" Voldos unleashed his arrows, blasting them into the confused and dazed Lavos. Zinkata ran in, and sliced upwards with a mighty cry. He sliced one of the three sections of Lavos's mouth clean off, and it squealed in agony, reeling as if it was trying to retreat into its shell. It let out a final hiss, and began to glow white.

"Zin! Get back!" Vivli cried in panic. He stumbled away as the jaw of Lavos exploded in a massive white blast of energy. The three collapsed.

Zinkata got up, beaten and panting. Voldos followed. Zinkata helped Vivli up, and the three stared at Lavos. Its mouth was gone. The swirling blue portal had been replaced by the wasteland of what was once the glacier. The shell still stood there, but now there was a mighty hole, leading into darkness.

"Ow." Groaned Bootus, sitting up. "Did I miss anything?"

"Only my most powerful spell ever!" Vivli cried.

"You did another Ultima?" He groaned.

"Lumanaire." She smiled.
"What the hell is a Lumanaire when it's at home?" He muttered, rubbing his head.

"Well, I just kind of came up with the name on the spot." She admitted with a giggle. "But I managed to draw upon the energy swirling around us, and focus it into an attack. It proved enough to destroy Lavos."

"Ahem!" Voldos said in a fake cough.

"Okay, so it weakened Lavos. These two finished it off." She admitted. "Was still pretty cool."

"I don't like to sound pessimistic, but I don't think we've finished it off." Zinkata gulped. "I think we need to go inside." Vivli stared into the pitch black hole and shivered. Zinkata took her in his hands.
"I hate the dark." She whimpered.

"It looks pretty dead to me." Voldos shrugged. "You sure we need to go inside?" Vivli turned to him and nodded sheepishly.
"He's right." She mumbled. "The legends have always spoken of the destroyer being within the shell. I think we just beat the outside of Lavos. The real threat is still to come. The real threat is inside."

"So what you're saying is we've just fought in an epic and dramatic battle the front door?" Bootus asked, groaning in pain.

"Yes." Vivli answered nervously. "Kind of. If we don't destroy what's inside, Lavos could still attack, or even at best, will just wait until it's healed enough to start all over again."

"See? Told you we had to go inside!" Zinkata said triumphantly with a smile, trying to be light-hearted before the inevitable final battle. "I guess we had better get a move on."

"You know, I don't actually have a weapon." Vivli muttered.

"Not like you use one." Taunted Bootus.

"Yeah, I suppose." Vivli shrugged. "It's just, I always thought that if I ever had to fight off the bringer of the apocalypse, I'd be armed. And not in a dress."

"Funny how life works out." Zinkata smiled.

"Could be worse. Could be Bootus in a dress." Voldos laughed.

"I suppose that gi is rather skirt like." Vivli pondered.

"I like my gi!" Bootus cried.

"You guys ready?" Zinkata asked. Voldos and Bootus nodded while Vivli made a whimpering noise, staring into the darkness. Zinkata took the little mithra in his arms, and she hugged him tightly. "Let's go then. Time to save the world again." The four stepped into the darkness for the final confrontation.

Author's Note: I didn't put this at the start because it would spoil how the battle happened. Basically, I wanted to try and justify the way it was written, because it's fairly odd. I actually based this battle off the actual fight with Lavos in Chrono Trigger, where it draws upon every other boss you've fought during the fight. The 'clumps of flesh' represent the strange things Lavos summons to represent parts of the creatures that had more than one target. It was particularly hard to write, and since there was never any explanation as to why Lavos did that, it didn't quite come out right. Hopefully you found it interesting anyway, and the moral here is 'make up your own bad guys'. One day I'll learn to do that!