A/N (Aroihkin's Notes) / Chapter originally written on 10.09.2004. Re-polished on 01.12.2006 for the arowrites dot net archives.
Review-replies can be found now on arowrites dot net.
Formatting repaired on 04.13.2010 -- thanks, ffnet, for eating all my scene-dividers sometime in the last four years!
(The really stilted bits of dialogue and the really dramatic gestures and such in this chapter are taken/described directly from the game.)
05.02.2010: All scene-dividers have been eaten, again, on all of my stories. I give up. Please just go read this story on arowrites dot net where it hasn't been made incoherent; I am unable to keep up with this site's stupidity.
---- ----: -x- :---- ----
Requiem for the Dream
( entry 08: failing the dream )
The engine to Galcian's ship was amazing. It lit the entire area, making Vyse blink rapidly when they first entered the engine room. Blue light made everything... fuzzy, difficult to see anything in specific besides the tower in the center and the glowing energy.
"Look at the size of that moonstone!" Vyse said, gaping at the top, as Aika looked up automatically.
"Yeah, wow, that thing's bigger than the one we found on Shrine Island!"
"Look at the seals on it!"
"I found the door!" Gilder's voice broke into Vyse and Aika's... verbal... staring. They hurried around the engine, Vyse trying desperately not to gawk anymore, and caught up with the gunslinger and the Silvite.
"There's a ladder down there." Fina pointed down the corridor.
"All right! The bridge has to be close with all this wandering around we've done, let's go!"
"That looks like the bridge... Galcian must be in there." Fina noted.
It had been a long climb, but now the party stood before a large, external door. Clouds flew by overhead, the speed that the massive warship was still traveling at seeming to sink in once more, now that they stood on the outer deck again.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to break that door down, won't we?" Vyse said, stepping forward.
"That will not be necessary."
Twin puffs of smoke erupted from the bottom of the door as it began to shake, lowering like a Yafutoman drawbridge to reveal...
"Galcian!" Aika started as the former Grand Admiral himself strode out of the room beyond, a large, triangular sword clenched in his right hand.
"I did not realize that there were still this many people foolish enough to resist me. And you, Vyse, have caused me more trouble than anyone." the older man could have been speaking of the weather, for all the alarm he showed at finding them at his doorstep.
"Thanks." Vyse replied offhand, closing his eyes with a smug look, "It's an Air Pirate's duty to cause trouble... I feel so accomplished." his eyes re-opened, Vyse lifted one hand, "But there's one more thing I'd like to accomplish..." the Pirate pointed at Galcian, the end of whose sword hovered mere feet from the boy.
"I want to rid the world of you." Vyse finished, letting his arm drop back to his side.
"Heh heh..." Galcian raised his sword over his left shoulder, shutting his eyes now. "Very amusing... but this world shall be mine! It's a pity you won't be around to see it." ice blue eyes shot back open as the Grand Admiral declared--"Now, you shall feel my wrath!"
The massive sword slashed, and the battle began.
So it began, and so it ended... with the slash of a sword.
"How... could... this be! I... I will not... be... defeated..." Lord Galcian, however, found himself kneeling on the deck of his ship in front of his enemies.
"Your reign of terror is over!" Vyse declared, staring him down, fully assured that he'd won the day.
Galcian smirked.
"I don't think so..." and he lurched to his feet, leaving the heavy sword where it lay. "You may have won the battle, but I shall have my revenge!"
A single gesture from the Grand Admiral as he took a few unsteady steps backwards, and the bridge behind him suddenly began to move...
"What! The bridge!" Aika exclaimed, lurching forward.
"Fools, when will you realize that you cannot stop me!" Galcian said. "Now I shall destroy every last one of you."
Within moments, the bridge door had shut and the entire section of the ship separated... sailing upwards. Vyse could only gape for a moment, stupefied, before frustration set in and he grit his teeth, curling his hands into fists.
"I thought he was too arrogant to have an escape pod!" Vyse lifted, and then dropped, his sword arm...
"Vyse, he's getting away! We have to do something!" Aika shouted, pointing straight up with her gloved hand.
"If he gets away," Fina said, lifting one hand to her chest, "he'll retreat back to Soltis and we'll never get a chance to stop him!"
"The other pirates are tied up fighting with the Armada!" teeth clenching tighter yet, Vyse lifted his hand yet again... nearly shaking with frustration.
"...Huh?" Gilder blinked... "Hey..."
Vyse, too, blinked. Something had just built... a moment, something in the air... and released, without result. He had the distinct feeling, for just that second, that something...
...had just gone terribly wrong.
By the time they'd made it back to their ship, Galcian's had been re-admitted into the dome around Soltis through one of the honey-combed-shaped panels, which had dissolved just long enough to let him pass. Clearly this was how the Hydra had come out to attack in the first place.
"Look! Vyse, something bad is happening!" Aika yelled, pointing out of the Delphinus' massive windows at Soltis. The silver-white continent was pulsing, the raised shapes nearest the tower flaring with light.
"What! No! They're going to use the Rains of Destruction again!" Vyse gripped the wheel of the Valuan battleship, feeling helpless.
"There's nothing we can do to stop them!" Aika continued.
"Ramirez... please..." Fina spoke to her clasped hands, her eyes shut.
Suddenly she blinked. Something had just built... a moment, something in the air... and released, without result. She had the distinct feeling, for just that second, that something...
...had just gone terribly wrong.
"We have to retreat, Vyse!" light was swirling up the tower of Soltis, and only a moment later it shot towards the Silver moon...
Ships all around them were spinning, moving to flee. Pirate, the remaining Armada, it didn't matter at this point... everyone was well aware that they were under the Silver moon's domain and that, right now, was a Very Bad place to be.
"Quick, boy!" Drachma bellowed as he and Enrique bolted through the door and onto the bridge, "Get under Soltis!"
"Right!" Vyse didn't pause to think, he only had time to act even as the steel-armed captain shouted a spell to bolster the ship's defenses. The Pirate forced the Delphinus to speed downwards at a red-lining angle, the warship's reinforced hull groaning in protest at the nose-dive even as they swept into the dark expanse of lower sky.
It was just as the blue and silver warship slipped beneath the shielded continent that the Rains reached Arcadia once more.
Vyse jerked, still clutching the wheel, as the mental images of the massive chunks of moon hitting Pirate Isle, Sailor...
"Get a grip on yourself!" someone was pulling him away from the wheel, he was fighting them, they were keeping him from helping--must save--
CRUNCH!
shatter! Something huge impacted with the side of the Delphinus, sending them careening further from the shielded continent and the occupants of the warship flying. The ship veered back immediately, however, heading directly back under the relative safety of the underside of Soltis.
SCREEEEE!
This had been much bigger, but it merely grazed the tail of the proud warship from above, sending the nose upwards to barely avoid a head-on collision with the bottom of the continent. As it was, the top of the Delphinus ground against the unyielding stone with a paralyzing -shriek- as it finally slid into safety. Of a sorts.
Slap!
This time, the impact was with Vyse's face, and he finally re-opened his eyes to find himself sprawled on the floor, face-to-boots with a crouched Enrique.
"Are you yourself again?"
He nodded mutely, half-aware that he'd blanked out for a moment. Gilder was now at the wheel, the ship's Deep Sky shields had been sealed over the windows and the floodlights inside were flickering...
"...half the rear propellers were smashed, port side has been ripped completely open, and most of the navigational systems were ground into scrap on top..." Gilder was informing Drachma, quietly, "...the living quarters, the mess hall, the kitchens... crushed..."
Vyse rolled onto his side, away from Enrique's boots, and heaved.
"...everything past this room isn't even pressurized against lower sky anymore... the engines will probably give out any minute..." Gilder glanced at Vyse, briefly, before continuing even quieter... "...I never thought I'd say this, but..."
/ ...they're all dead... we... we're all dead. /
Vyse made a small noise in the back of his throat, clenching his eyes shut as the unforgiving reality set in.
"I've..." he choked the words out, "I've failed everyone..."
-- --: -x- :-- --
Skies of Arcadia Legends belongs to someone else.
All here that is not found in the canon... is mine.
Never steal if you value your spleen.