Divine Being: Divinity Neverending

Diablo! Get off my foot!

I apologize, Oblivion. Little One? Where are you?

Here, Diablo. Where's Destruction?

Trying to block you three out.

So this is our hostess's mind... Shall we explore?

No, let's just wake her up. Reina's probably pissed that we're keeping her waiting.

Who are you?

Us? We are the demons within your mind until we find those whom we seek.

Why me? I was on my way to the Gold Saucer to die! Why couldn't you have picked someone else?

Suicide? Hmm.. I may need to delve deeper into this...

Get. Out. Of. My. Mind!

I apologize, but we cannot until we find the man we are looking for. Please, by all means, awaken. See Reina.

Great. First, Talir leaves me. Then, I get lost. I finally find my awy to the Gold Saucer, where I was NOT going to commit suicide, but participate in the tournament, and demons decide to enter my mind. This is just splendid!

Chapter Four

Kais's dark eyes watched Yuffie with intent curiosity as she twirled and leaped and bounded amongst the people. Another's eyes were upon the ninja, though it was expected. Sephiroth's hazel eyes never left her form as he smiled discreetly at her childish antics to get him and Vincent to run and laugh with her. Surka let a small smile grace her pale lips as she watched the youngest of the group, but refrained from romping around. Kais soon found that the young one's fun was too, well, fun to not partake in. He, too, ran with her, racing to a certain land mark, then laughing with her.

Fox huffed irritably, tired of listening to the divine being laugh with that... that... brat!

"Are you jealous, Fox?" Surka asked softly, but the ghost caught it easily enough.

"No," she snarled. "I'm mad that I can't do that with him instead of that little-"

"Be careful of what you say," Surka reminded her, casting a meaningful glance at Sephiroth and Vincent. "You never did explain how you beame his lover, Fox. Could you explain?"

Fox pondered on this for a momen, then replied, "How 'bout I show you? I can give you my memories as we walk along..."

Surka smiled. "That would be infinitely easier. Besides... It's not like you can take over my body..."

A short woman in the ensemble of a gypsie dancer smiled at the men as she twirled and danced, her tamborine tapping rhythmically with the band behind her. Her long obsidian hair fell in waves that made her already tanned skin seem darker. Strangest of all, her golden eyes shone brith as the stars in the skies. Instead of watching the entire crowd, her gaze kept finding its way back to a man with shoulder-length locks that curled at the ends. His eyes were dark, so dark that they might have frightened anyone else.

Later that night, as she was heading into her tent, she caught sight of the man again. He stood not ten feet away from her, watching her with intent curiosity. "Hello, monsiour... My name is Fox. And you are?"

He grinned a charming grin that made her heart flutter. "I am known by many names, miss... But I most commonly go by Kais."

She instantly fell for him, as cliche as she - and everyone else - knew tht it was. She travelled with him, leaving her family behind. They were together for years before Reina showed herself, babbling about making Fox into a guardian. Kais was unsure, but that night...

Fox was tossing and turning in her bed that night, unable to sleep upon the hard ground. She began to get up, but something sent pain coursing up her shapely leg. She cried out, but before Reina or Kais made it to her tent, she had developed a fever and had started convulsing. Reina pleaded with Kais to turn his lover into a guardian to save her. In the end, he relented.

Something went wrong with the spell...

"Well," Fox said from a short distance away from the Guardian of the Night, "You know the rest."

"Eep!"

Surka turned to see Yuffie on the ground, looking up at Sephiroth while laughing. The silver-haired man's hazel eyes stared at her as if she had lost her mind, but Kais's dark eyes shone with amusement. "What's going on?" Surka asked, curious as to the situation.

"Nothin'!" Yuffie returned, standing and dusting herself off, with Kais's help, Fox noted jealously. The petite ninja stuck her tongue out at Sephiroth before nimbly chucking a small rock at him and hitting him squarely in his forehead. "It's all your fault that I fell," she whined.

A smirk spread over his features and he swept her into his arms, pulling her into a deep kiss. Kais watched for a second, before continuing their journey. Vincent looked away immediately, the pain too much to bare. Surka merely smiled, glad that the two were together but longing to have her own lover with her. She sighed at the memories of the Life Sream. Oh, but memories should not be lived within, but there to remind one of their past - of regrets, desires, and love. Of love, especially.

Yuffie grinned up at the former general before playfully swatting him on the shoulder and prancing away. Yes, she pranced. She pranced to prove that she was a great actress, to prove that she could still act like she was mad at him, to flirt, and just because prancing is such a fun word, she could only describe her actions as prancing. Sephiroth merely chuckled, then followed like an obedient dog, chanting pleas for forgiveness, though they all knew that she had already forgiven him. They were quite the duo. Undoubtedly, the two would be able to make even the martial arts expert Zangan - a man who was well-known for his stoic exterior and gret fighting skills - crack a smile. Between the two of them, they might even be able to handle -

"Reina," a voice that seemed to deep to be Fox's hissed.

Kais looked around in confusion. "What?" he asked, trying to figure out why Fox would suddenly say such a thing.

"She's here..."

Yuffie and Sephiroth grew serious, the flirting and smiles gone, weapons drawn, spells ready. They were nearly to the abandoned MAKO reactor in North Corel, Vincent dully noted. A small path, just wide enough for four people to stand arm's length apart. Easy enough to create a barricade, but too hard to attack hand-to-hand. Yuffie and Vincent could attack long-range, leaving Surka to cast spells, and Sephiroth to attack head-on. But... How strong was the silver-haired menace without his JENOVA and MAKO? Would he not be lower than even Cait Sith - who had only been at level 37 whilst fighting Sephiroth at the bottom of the crater.

Sephiroth shifted uncomfortably, obviously thinking the same thing. Yuffie did her best to ignore him, and succeeded surprisingly well. A young woman appeared at the top of the hill, the light filtering around her. Only her curvacious frame and long locks made it certain that she was, indeed, female.

"Who are you?" Yuffie called out, never lowering her weapon.

"My name is Tael." She surveyed the five people at the bottom of the hill. "Is there a Vincent Valentine with you?" she asked, sounding as if she did not want to ask the question at all.

"Who wants to know and why?" Surka asked slowly, taking her time to take in the situation. Something was off about the young woman. It was more than just her voice and her physical appearance. There was something within her.

The woman looked down at the ground, then wings burst from her back. She cried out in pain, the flesh ripping and tearing to allow the wings to stretch. Vincent watched in amazement as a demon came forth, a red replica of his own Chaos beast, and the woman became part of the demon's mind.

"What is this?" the gunman asked himself, staring at the demon, who stood at the top of the hill where Tael had been. Before any of them could respond, or ask their own questions, the demon swooped upon them. Vincent instantly allowed Chaos to take over. The red demon stopped short, staring at his onyx counter-part.

"Chaos," he said respectively, eyeing the black demon with interest.

"What are you doing, Diablo?"

"Reina said that we could find you! We have come to free you!"

As the demons conversed, Yuffie looked at Sephiroth with a questioning look. He merely shrugged his confusion back at her and looked around for Reina. Surka kept her sword out, daring the evil divine being to challenge one of her own creations. This creation would kick her ass.

"Fool. I cannot truly be freed."

Diablo chuckled his low chuckle. "But you can! She took an unbreakable pact!"

Chaos seemed to think this over, then nodded his consent. "What must we do?"

"Take a potion." Diablo turned back to where Reina appeared. "The potion, witch," he said in rather pleasant tones.

Reina nodded, then produced eight purple potions. She handed one to each of the demons. Nodding to each other, they gulped it down. Their demon forms fell to the ground as their human master and mistress still stood, looking confusedly at their demons. The demons tried to force their way out of Vincent, but he managed to control them. Tael, however, did not have the experience that the gunman had. Oblivion, the Shadow Master, took over. She was but a mere wispy shadow, though she gulped the liquid down quickly. She separated from Tael, becoming more than she had been the previous day. She became the respectable woman that she had once been. Her flowing aqua hair and menacing red eyes in great comparison to her pale skin. She stood tall and willowy with a black satin dress upon her thin frame.

As Destruction took over, her flames making the others wince, Reina disappeared and made her way behind Surka. Her creation, her precious Guardian of the Night, this was why she had not responded to Reina? Because Fox and Kaisinistics had beaten her to the punch? Surely Surka was not called to destroy her maker! She could not... Would not! Surka had been Reina's body, her vessel, if you will. She had no right to help Kais and his merry band of idiots!

A dagger flashed lethally in the short, scrawny woman's hand, black bangs veiling tortured onyx eyes that held hatred, malice, and... something else. Betrayal, perhaps? A hand caught her own before she had the chance to strike. Dark grey eyes, clouded with something other than intense sidlike, glared into her own black.

"You will not harm another." Though the words came from Yuffie's mouth, they were an odd mixture of Yuffie's voice and another's.

"Fox!" Reina exclaimed. "No, you're dead! A ghost! The Guardian of the Dawn, who cannot be, yet still exists!"

Yuffie's face twisted into a smile than she was not known for. It was not the glittering, joyful grin, nor was it a mischievous smirk accompanied by her usual "Nyuk nyuk nyuk" or stifled laughter. It was a twisted, sadistic grin of malice, of revenge, of pure, unfiltered hatred. "I can exist within one who already exists, Reina. You, of all people, should remember how that works.

Sephiroth finally tore his gaze from the pixie-like creature with demon wings, away from the Gallion Beast and Hellmasker, away from the two mortal humans gasping for breath from ridding themselves of demons. He looked around wildly for Yuffie, for Reina, and found them both. Yuffie had Reina by the throat, holding her in the air. The divine being seemed to be surprised by this sudden action, as did Sephiroth.

"Yuffie!"

Dark grey became lilac once more and Reina dropped back to her feet. Onyx met amethyst. "We will meet again, Fox," Reina swore. Her plan had been, to be cliche, foiled. The demons were reunited, their master and mistress still alive, and Fox had returned, in all her gypsy glory, to seek revenge. In the words of so many teenagers of the era, she was royally fucked.

Her vanishing act still came in handy, as she disappeared, leaving a confused Surka, disgruntled Yuffie and Fox, and a surprised Sephiroth. Vincent and Tael were on all-fours, still gasping at the sudden release. The eight demons were standing around, catching up on gossip, in a way. Warm, dark eyes looked at Vincent, taking in his handsome features.

"You... You had demons in your mind, as well?"

He looked at the innocent woman. "Yes."

She nodded, then collapsed into an unconscious heap upon the ground. Sephiroth was too busy trying to figure out Yuffie's situation, but Kais immediately took the woman into his arms.

"Let us find a safe place to rest," he said aloud.

Vincent stood, looking at Surka and nodding. The demons all ceased talking and little Mayhem, once again in pixie form, flitted over to Kais. "We are leaving, Sir Kaisinistics, but you shall be able to find us with but a simple whistle." A devilish smile crept across the tiny demon's face. "And we will find Reina... And when we do, not nice things shall make me smile."

Kais nodded to her. "Farewell, Milady Mayhem. Please, call upon me when you all find Reina. I want to talk with my sister once again."

Chaos and Diablo nodded, but the fire elemental was the one who spoke. "Of course, Kaisinistics. We will, by all means, find Reina. But it is not Mayhem's nature to destroy, as it is mine. I shall call you, as you wish." She nodded toward Tael, in Kais's ams. "Take care of her. She is a pleasant woman, very nice and polite, though a bit naive."

"Of course," Kais replied.

With that, the eight demons disappeared. The five continued to follow the path, Kais with Tael still in his arms. Sephiroth tried to speak to Yuffie, but she shied away from him, almost as if she was afraid to make any sort of contact.

Thus began the next part of their long journey to destroy Reina. Oh, it was not over yet. It would not be over until Reina was, indeed destroyed. The trip was made in silence. They all were tired from the day's ineteresting events. And Sephiroth was heart-broken...

End of Chapter Four

R: It's not over yet! Now there's Ms. Tael to add to the gang. Heh... So, we've got Fox/Yuffie, Sephiroth, Kais, Vincent, and Tael. Hmmm... Gonna have fun with the demon-free Vinnie-kins's strength. Wow... That's two char's I got to royally screw up where their strengths are considered. Heh. Much fun, much fun.One chapter left of this installment!Welp, ciao-ness!