To Antimusicman: Thanks for the suggestion, I was kind of wondering what had suddenly gone missing out of my writing! I'll try to add some, but I think the problem lies in that I haven't played LoM in like a billion years, so it's not like the details are entirely that fresh in my mind… but I will try nonetheless! I think I'm also kind of pushing the fic to finish, because I'm so looking forward to starting the sequel :P
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Sierra led the group desisively out of the forest and to the Tombstone. The clouds were twisting angrily above them. Kairi frowned.
"It's going to storm, I think." She noted. Sierra stared at her.
"What are you talking about? It hasn't rained here since…who knows when! It's not going to storm. That's why everything here is so dead." She answered, not even bothering to look up. Almost as if it was on queue, a rain drop landed squarely on the dragoon's nose. She stared at it. Kairi giggled helplessly as Sierra went cross-eyed looking in surprise at the rain drop. The dragoon shook her head vigorously and looked up. Now she saw the clouds, and the sheet of rain that was starting to fall towards them. She sighed.
"I don't know whether this is a good sign or a bad one." She admitted. "In any case, let's get moving." At that, she touched the tombstone and disappeared, melting into the stone. Yuna followed suit, then Tidus, Sora, Kairi, Paine, Baralai, Rikku and Gippal. One by one, they dropped to the ground in the Underworld, cringing as they hit the stone floor.
"Damn, why does Drakonis have to make that hurt so much?" Gippal muttered, standing up. Sierra rolled her eyes, thinking that was a rather stupid question, but smiling nonetheless. They walked carefully down the staircase, making their way to the door that they knew led into the deeper underworld. Sierra watched them approaching it, confused.
"Where are you going? There's just wall there." She noted. Paine crossed her arms.
"She's not baptized. Now what?" She asked, exasperated by the slow progress they were making. Yuna walked up to Sierra and grabbed her by the hand.
"Now she trusts us." The exsummoner answered, her comment sounding like a command. Sierra let herself be lead forward, until she realized that they were going to walk into the wall. Once she started to resist, Kairi stepped in and grabbed her other wrist, pulling as well.
"Sierra! Just trust us!" She pleaded, puffing as she pulled the dragoon ever so slowly towards the hidden door. Sierra still resisted.
"You're going to run me into a wall!" She insisted angrily. Sighing, Baralai stepped behind her and pushed hard. Sierra fell off balance and stumbled forward. She braced herself to hit the wall, but to her surprise, she just kept stumbling until she caught her balance. Straightening up, she turned around and saw the others coming through the door that she could now see. Paine glared at her. Yuna smiled exasperatedly.
"Next time, just trust us. We're not crazy, really." She said kindly. Sierra nodded, offering her a smile back. There was a crunch behind them, and the entire group spun. Three creatures veiled in shadow shoved everyone else aside and rushed Sierra, who was standing a distance away from everyone else. Before anyone could do much of anything, she cut them all down, kicking one into the other and slashing at the third. The first two tripped over each other and fell to the ground. In one swift move, Sierra threw one of her knives at them, driving it through both of them and into the ground. Dead, their shadowy bodies seemed to just fade away. Baralai watched, surprised, as Sierra wrenched her knife from the ground.
"What were those?" He asked. Sierra pulled her knife out of the ground and spoke.
"Darkstalkers. They're Drakonis' favourite monster minion. I don't know why he favours them, they're weak." She said, almost disgusted at having to speak of them. Saying nothing more, she started down the hallway, glancing about, looking for a sign of Larc or his master. Walking almost accidentally into a random room, they discovered one thing that they were very lucky to find. It looked like a ghost, but a ghost that had covered himself in a striped sheet. Its head looked almost like an ice cream cone. They stared at it, surprised to see such a spontaneously happy looking creature in the underworld. It bounced through the air toward them.
"Hello hellooooo! I am a Shadole! Help you need?" it asked, spinning around to amuse itself as it spoke. Yuna blinked.
"Umm, we need to get to the Pulpit of Eternal Flame as quickly as possible." she answered slowly. The Shadole winked and bounced around the room some more.
"No problem-O!" It announced, throwing its arms into the air, if you could even call them arms. They were just the corners of the so-called candy-stripe sheet. Sierra glared at it.
"Should we be trusting this thi-." She began to speak, but before she finished, the Shadole began to bounce again, and as it hit the ground, there was a loud pop, and Sierra disappeared completely. Even before anyone else could react from their surprise, the Shadole landed again, and this time Tidus was gone. Yuna let out a shout, slapping her hand over her mouth. Moments later, she disappeared with a pop as well, in time with the Shadole's bouncing. In the panicked confusion, the Shadole giggled, bouncing happily around the room and making them disappear, one by one. And again, one by one, they reappeared in a darkened Shrine of the Silent Faces. An arched doorway stood on the other side of the room, where voices could be heard. One by one, they regained their composure after the shock of the Shadole's spastic means of transportation, and one by one, they made their way to the doorway, peeking inside from the shadows of the Shrine. Larc was standing proudly in front of Drakonis, who held the mana stones in his hand. Laughing manically, he crushed the stones in his hand. The short, unimposing man began to glow, and suddenly became very much imposing. He had once been half the size of Larc's seven or so feet, but was now a little taller than even Larc, and very intimidating.
"Bow before your new master, my dragoon!" He commanded victoriously. Larc glared at him, unmoving. Drakonis' smile faded. "Bow, fool!" He shouted, attempting to kick Larc and trip him. Larc stepped out of the way.
"No. Drakonis, this has gone far enough. I will not allow you to return to the land of the living. This is my oath, on pain of death." He answered savagely. Drakonis narrowed his eyes.
"Then death you shall have." There was a short scuffle, hidden mostly by the flames and shadows. Sierra burst out of the Shrine, racing towards Drakonis and Larc, with the others on her heels. She skidded to a stop, prepared to aid her brother, only to see Larc slump to the ground at Drakonis' feet. Tears burned Sierra's eyes. Drakonis smirked.
"Ah, poor Sierra. You can't save the world of the living. You couldn't even save your own brother from my wrath. You're a failure, dragoon." He spat, watching Sierra smugly. He gasped and went stiff, in sudden pain. Kairi was standing behind him, her own tears of rage running down her cheeks, both her claws stabbed deep into Drakonis' back. She pulled them out, expecting to see him fall to her feet. He didn't. Instead, he hobbled away from her, glaring.
"You'll pay for that." He hissed. With that, he disappeared into the flames. Sierra was kneeling next to Larc. He propped himself up on his elbows, gasping in pain as he did so.
"Sierra, I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."
"No, you tried, that's what matters. I should have been here to help you, so I'm sorry." She answered, hiccupping. Larc smiled slightly and let out his final breath, his body fading into nothingness. Kairi blinked, and found herself, along with everyone else, next to the tombstone with the rain pouring down on them. Sierra was still kneeling on the ground, right next to the tombstone. There was silence, except for the thunderous sound of the rain hitting the soaking wet earth. Suddenly, Sierra began to shout, making everyone jump at the sudden sound, a string of nasty, colourful words flying from her lips, only to be drowned in the rain.
"I'm going to have Drakonis die at my feet, I'll teach him what the pain and humiliation he put Larc through feels like!" She vowed. With that, she punched the tombstone, expecting her fist to melt into it and draw her back into the Underworld so that she could hunt down her brother's killer. Only, her fist hit hard stone. She hit the tombstone again. After a long moment, she let out a scream of frustration. They couldn't get back in.
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I'm sorry, I know I promised that I'd make this chappie really long, but now I'm splitting it into two so I can fit another one in between. More chappies mean more ficcy mean better, right? Well, review please! Almost there! I'm so excited! PS: YAY! WE HIT 40 CHAPPIES! THAT'S EXCITING!