Soundtrack: For Randolph and Illarra, I'm recommending "The Raven", a Castlevania 2 remix by Goat on OCRemix. For Squall and Rinoa'sinitial battle with Illarra, "J-E-N-O-V-A" off the Advent Children soundtrack. Once Squall loses it, "Bloody Hell", another Castlevania remix from OCRemix is suggested. And for the battles against Hyne, I'd suggest "Intense Color", a Mario Paint remix (yes. Mario Paint. Listen to it, you'll be amazed.) by Sephire and SGX, once again, from OCRemix. Additionally, my forums now sport a topic with direct links to all the OCRemix tracks I've suggested thus far. Go there if you want to get the inside track on the tracks I've suggested!
Chapter 10: The Chimera
I think we've been waiting a bit too long to do this again, don't you agree?
Damn straight, Griever. But if you think I'm going to let you take over again, you're dead wrong.
Indeed. I understand the lengths by which you would go to protect your family. And while I cannot understand that, I can respect your will power. Besides, I find things far more interesting when I simply observe. And regardless, the control system you wear won't let me do anything . . . overt.
I remember what you did to Rinoa. Don't try that again, or I'll amp up the control system and blot you out completely.
And conversely deny yourself much of my power.
If that's how it has to be.
So be it, Commander. Perhaps we can talk later, when the rest of the universe isn't hanging in the balance and relying on our mutual cooperation?
"The Chimera?" she asked. "You?" Illarra let out a fit of mocking laughter. "Not possible. I should know, as I descended from him."
"You descended from the results of his experiments," Randolph replied calmly, staring into her shielded, gouged eyes. "Nothing but a shadow of weakened, diluted genes. I hate to break it to you, but you're nothing but garbage resulting from an ancient experiment."
She glared at him beneath the black shades of her glasses, and walked forward.
"If so," she answered, "then prove it. Prove you are who you say you are."
"Gladly."
The rifle burst, belching flame and steel, and she shot to the left, skipping out of the rifle's line of fire. Randolph tracked her, firing controlled bursts as she skittered across the plaza and leapt atop an intact humvee and dropping behind it. He trained his weapon on the vehicle, and waited patiently.
After a moment, there was a flicker of motion between two of the vehicles, and he turned, tracking her as she ducked behind another armored vehicle. A couple of heartbeats passed, and he stood there, rifle gripped at the ready, sighting his enemy's cover-
A bolt of motion shot over the top of the vehicle and flew toward Randolph. He loosed a single burst, causing her to shift direction slightly, and then Randolph spun the rifle over into a conventional close-quarters grip, and the butt lanced out at her as she closed in. Illarra let out a grunt of pain as the rifle smashed into her forehead, and Randolph chopped across with the bayonet. Illarra blurred backward just as quickly as she had attacked, hopping away from the striking blade, and shot back in again, claws stabbing toward Randolph's chest. The rifle whipped about, the bayonet catching one of her claws and driving it down, while his left hand shot out and caught her right arm, holding it fast . . . for an instant. His arm began to quiver under her raw physical strength as she pushed forward.
"Chimera, huh?" she hissed with a satisfied grin. "Even with the Chimera genes, you've got nothing on me."
"I don't have your raw strength," answered Randolph calmly. "But strength isn't everything."
An instant later, everything blurred as his left arm fully extended, driving her claw away, and shot up into an uppercut against her jaw, while his left leg rose, curled up against his chest, and shot out, slamming her in the breastplate and launching her backward. She skidded along the pavement, armored boots screeching over the cobblestones, and steadied herself in time to twist aside as Randolph's rifle came up and sighted her.
A half-dozen rounds deflected off her chitinous armored plating, tearing through the trenchcoat she wore. Snarling, she shot ahead, sweeping her claws out wide and chopping them together as she came in. the blades flashed together at his chest, but then they only cut through air as he ducked and spun away, bringing his rifle to bear against her again and plugging another burst into her chest from a crouching position. Even as the bullets slammed into hr armor, he shot up out of the crouch with a high rising side kick that impacted solidly against her jaw and sent her spinning away.
"Experience counts just as much as physical power," he added as she rubbed her jaw. An animal growl escaped from her lips as she spat on the pavement, and smirked.
"You really think so?" she asked, and then pounced toward him once again. He snapped up the rifle to fire, but she skittered aside. Randolph spun to track her, only to see her shift directions instantly, juking back toward him and leaping in with her claws extended. He hopped back a step, readying to counter, only to have her cut short the attack and instead skitter aside once more, almost too fast for him to track. She continued rushing about, circling him as he tracked her, waiting for her to strike.
Then, without warning, her claws lanced out. He snapped up the rifle to parry, only to see the blades dropping short, not striking at his body, but instead snapping over the weapon in his hands. Before he could retract his rifle, the blades snared the weapon. With a twist and a flex of her inhuman physical strength, Illarra whirled and tore the rifle from his hands.
Without missing a beat, Randolph fell back another step and drew his heavy knife, sliding into an alternate defensive stance. He wasn't a moment too late, as Illarra wasted no time exploiting the weakness by coming in with a vicious series of jabs and slashes. The knife snapped up and down, metal ringing on metal as he anticipated and picked off her attacks with shocking clarity and speed for someone without junctions or Elemental enhancements.
A claw stabbed in at his face, and he was almost not able to catch it and spin aside, the flat of his knife almost brushing against his skin as the claw cut past. He ducked and lashed out with a foot, slamming her in the chest and forcing her back, and then rushed ahead, launching an aggressive attack that no man in their right mind would initiate with such a disadvantage. But Randolph knew that his defensive stance would not be able to stop her once she got the advantage in this battle, and he pressed the attack, chopping and stabbing aggressively.
Illarra fell- back, claws weaving before her in a defensive stance as Randolph attacked, blades clashing a dozen times in a couple of seconds as he took on the full offensive, surprising her. His knife cut in close, and several times scratched across her armor, seeking any opening to plunge home before she could realign her defenses. But as she set her feet and readied herself, she deflected a stab and saw, an instant before it began, and spinning slash aimed toward her stomach.
The knife came in, and her claws slapped down atop it, knocking it down as her left leg flew across, rocking Randolph in the chin and forcing him back a step. He hopped back immediately, aligning his body to intercept her next strikes, but she was already there, inside his defenses, howling with glee.
Sudden pain flew through his chest, and Randolph was lifted off the ground as Illarra sank both of her claws into his torso and raised him into the air. He stared down at her, open shock on his face at the speed of her attack, and she grinned, raising him up higher as his blood ran down her arms.
"Perhaps you are the Chimera," she hissed. "No normal human could have fought me for that long and that well. For that, I salute you. But now, dear little soldier, its time for you to lay down and die."
Randolph gritted his teeth as his knife fell to the pavement. He managed a wheezing laugh.
"A soldier doesn't just lay down and die," he whispered, and Illarra laughed.
"What can you do now? You're dead, you just haven't realized it yet."
"And that's a good thing, too," whispered the Chimera, and he grinned. His hands suddenly rose, and behind her sunglasses, Illarra's eyebrows rose in surprise.
The pins for a half dozen grenades on Randolph's belt were wrapped around those fingers.
The entire plaza shook a moment later.
All too often battles are prefaced with commentary and words between the participants, but in this case, there were no words, no declarations, nothing. Irvine told Echo-299 to kill Selphie if he died fighting her, and then they opened up.
Echo's response had barely cut through his ears when he was diving aside, icicles cutting past his body, slashing through his trenchcoat. The Valiant barked, and Selphie skittered aside, evading the bullets he fired her way, and dove behind the van. Blades of frigid cold gathered over her as she moved, and lanced toward Irvine as he ran across the street, circling around the totaled van. His drew a grenade round and a flame shot round as he circled around the van and rapidly loaded them. He pumped the rifle's action and fired the grenade over the top of the van.
Predictably, Selphie dove aside, out from behind cover as the grenade detonated, blasting part of the van to slag. She spun on Irvine, gesturing toward him and sending out a stream of icicle blades toward him. His flame shot was her answer, and the bolt of napalm that burst forth from his rifle destroyed the icy counter-attack.
She rushed in, loosing more icy projectiles at Irvine, blades and spears raining down from above, and he hopped and skittered as rapidly as he could, looking up as often as he looked at her, even as he sighted her and fired. Selphie ducked and dove aside, evading the rounds. Icy barriers formed in the air between her and Irvine, shattering as he fired into them. Things began to blur together, a raging dance of gunfire, evasion, and icy projectiles stabbing in at him from nearly every angle.
The Valiant's rotating magazine ran empty, and he discarded it, drawing two pistols as Selphie pressed the attack. He ducked for cover behind a parked car, and ice slashed through it, puncturing the engine block and shattering glass, sending shards of intermixed glass and frozen water raining down around him. Moving fast, Irvine rolled around the side of the car, and opened fire with both handguns. Icy barriers intercepted the assault, but Selphie had to focus momentarily on defense rather than offense.
Irvine ran ahead, firing both weapons as he did so, exhausting their magazines, but as he charged in, he leapt up into the air toward Selphie. He smashed through her icy barriers, closed in, and planted a flying kick directly to her face that launched the tiny Elemental backward, sending her rolling over the pavement.
She stood up quickly, new blades and shards of ice gathering around her, rotating and spinning, and solid, flat barriers of frozen water vapor formed up before her. She readied her nunchaku, and Irvine reached into his coat, drawing a pair of MP5Ks, and readied for the next round.
Alucard had fought Hyne's Death Fans before, but what happened next was something even he wasn't ready for. She fell back a few feet, and suddenly brought both her fans forward, loosing a simultaneous stream of destruction and non-existence at the guardian before her. He responded with a rapid teleport, flashing out of existence above the wave of annihilation, even as the ground and air around him was rent apart. He reappeared before her, slashing down on her with his rapier, only to find the Void fan slapping the slender blade aside. The Destruction fan jabbed ahead, tapping his wrist, and a pulse of destruction flew through the Guardian, rattling his teeth and tearing at the very essence that made up his avatar. Alucard fell back, letting out a rare cry of agony, and Hyne rushed in.
Or rather, she started to, but Nash proved the stubbornness of the Leonhart line by bolting in and planting a flaming shoulder block across her face and hurling her back. Hyne was sent through the air, but righted herself in mid-flight and shot straight ahead toward the duo. The Elemental roared once more, crying his unending hatred as he loosed flames behind his body, launching himself at her. Alucard, much more quietly and precisely, teleported, flashing into existence beside Hyne and stabbing in. Her fans snapped across, slapping his rapier away, but he faded away before she could counter. Nash, meanwhile, bore in, the ground beneath him becoming semi-molten at the ends of his raging flames. He hurtled toward Hyne, and she turned on him, sending the Void fan flying across. The negative energies sapped the power of his fires for an instant, and she shot toward him and intercepted his attack with a single, brutal slap of the Destruction fan.
Stone shattered, blood erupted from Nash's skin, and he was sent bouncing along the floor away from Hyne.
Alucard reappeared behind her, and she turned on him, countering a burst of existence energy with her Void fan, and meeting his rapier thrust full on, metal fan and slender sword connecting solidly. The tiny girl and the elderly man struggled, pressing their indomitable and supernatural wills against one another for a moment, their opposing forces battling for supremacy. Existence and The End met, and their forces, always equal before, seemed evenly matched now.
But then, slowly but surely, the rapier began to retreat backwards.
"Impossible," Alucard whispered, gritting his teeth and clenching his pipe tightly between his molars. Hyne's insane giggle responded to his denial.
"Temporal mechanics are so interesting," Hyne replied, and then suddenly broke away, disengaging her fan from his blade, and sliding to the side. Overbalanced, Alucard tipped forward for a moment, and started to recover, but then both the Void and Destruction fan slammed into him on opposite sides, and he felt the full weight of the Guardian of The End's insurmountable power coursing through his body.
No more than a dozen meters away, Phoenix struck out at Hades, who melted away, barely evading the beam of holy fire, and Quistis' eye laser technique. He emerged from the ground behind Quistis, scythe chopping down, but she dove forward, beneath the curving blade, and came around with her whip snapping up. The blade buried into his chest, and Hades winced. He melted away again, the blade freeing itself from his incorporeal self.
"This two-on-one action is a lot less cool than I thought it would be," he muttered as he reformed a step ahead of where he had been, now clutching the chain for Quistis' whip in his left hand. He gave a vicious tug with his left arm as his right jabbed at Serra, launching a beam of darkness at her to keep her on the defensive. Diablos manifested to defend against the attack as Quistis was yanked toward Hades, even her strength not able to deny his unearthly power. Rather than fight it, however, Quistis let herself be pulled toward Hades.
His scythe lashed down at her, and she released the whip. The blade descended, and she clapped her hands together over the edge, stopping it cold. Hades blinked as Quistis deflected and stopped his attack, and then stared into her piercing blue eyes.
Beneath her uniform, her taut, toned muscles and the inner power Alucard had granted her pulsed and flexed, and she twisted her hands subtly, exercising a specialized defensive technique that only SeeDs, and a scant few of them, could pull off with their improved physical strength.
Subtle changes of pressure went through the scythe, and as Hades watched, it shattered in Quistis' hands. He blinked as the pieces of his scythe fell to the ground, and looked down at them.
"Well, don't that just beat all," he remarked. Then, with a shrug, he transformed into shadow for an instant, and the shards of his scythe vanished as well. A moment later, he reappeared, his blade totally repaired and intact, and smirked.
"Clever move, honey, but you're dealing with the incarnation of Death here." He brandished the remade scythe. "It'll take more than one ripped-off blade-grasp move to disarm me."
Quistis readied her whip, and Serra held her staff out in a defensive stance, but then Alucard's cry of agony caught Quistis' ears. She turned, looking toward him as he cried out, and then found herself doubling over, her stomach sending rippling waves of pain outward, almost paralyzing her with their intensity.
Hades' satisfied cackle filled her ears, and she heard Serra scream her name.
The Guardian of Death pulled his scythe's blade out of Quistis' stomach, and she fell to the floor, going very still and very cold.
The motorcycle rumbled to a stop at the edge of the ruined command center. Squall grimaced as he saw the corpses strewn about, several in piles of their own blood. He noted the ripping injuries within the bodies of a trio of the fallen Dollet soldiers, and knew that Illarra had come this way.
"You ready?" he asked Rinoa, and she nodded. He brought the motorcycle to a complete stop and lowered the kickstand, and they dismounted. Rinoa quietly drew her gunblade as Squall put a hand on his sword. They edged around the ruined perimeter, eyes wary.
The center of the plaza was pockmarked with the shrapnel of multiple grenade detonations, and a fine mist of red filled the air as torn olive green fabric floated through the air. Something drifted past Squall's face, a patch from a uniform, and he reached up, catching it. His blood-red eyes ran over the patch, a rank marker for a general and name insignia.
Randolph.
Squall closed his eyes, shaking his head. He paused for a moment in reverent silence for the dead, but he knew he had no time to mourn.
"Was that . . . The General's . . . ?" Rinoa asked, and Squall nodded. He glanced back at her, and saw her gripping her gunblade more tightly, face locked in angry indignation. He nodded at her expression, his face telling her in no uncertain terms that they would get revenge.
"Where is Illarra?" Rinoa asked, and Squall shrugged, looking back out over the plaza. He began to say something, but his question was answered as he saw a figure clad in the tatters of a gray trenchcoat limp around the side of the central fountain. He narrowed his eyes as he saw her bleeding, red blood tracing out between the plates of her armor. Her sunglasses were shattered, leaving her gouged eyes visible.
Without a word, Rinoa and Squall stepped forward, splitting apart to flank her as Illarra regarded them with animal hatred. Her claws slid out once more, and she straightened herself, ignoring the obvious injuries that she was suffering. Squall noted a piece of shrapnel from the grenades was imbedded in her lower jaw, and her face was scratched and scarred from the detonation.
"You again," Illarra hissed, and Squall nodded. She still didn't know who he was.
"You aren't the Chimera," she declared. Squall matched his eyes with her nonexistent ones. "Randolph told me, before he died. He blew himself up when he couldn't win. Told me that he couldn't surrender or give up. So, he took his own life. There must be some kind of meaning buried in there somewhere, but whatever it is, I've got no clue, and I don't really care. All I know is that you're a lie."
"That's right, Illarra," Squall answered, walking toward her. "I'm not the Chimera." He spared a quick glance to Rinoa, who looked back and nodded, indicating her readiness.
"Then, if you aren't him, whoa re you?" she asked, and Squall chuckled. He reached up to his hat with his left hand and drew it off, shaking his head as he did so to make his hair fall back and fully illuminate his face.
Silence cut across the plaza, marked only by the burning fires of the destroyed vehicles and the distant gunfire throughout the city.
"Do you understand now?" Rinoa asked suddenly as Illarra stared into his exposed face. "You reacted to Squall's name when I mentioned it. Now you remember why, don't you?"
Illarra slowly looked between them as the final memories of her old life flooded back into her consciousness. She slowly nodded, neither smiling nor frowning, as she recognized the truth.
"I should have known," she whispered. "You were Squall the whole time. So . . . Why are you here?"
"Aside from you committing genocide against humanity?" Squall asked, and he chuckled to himself darkly. "You should have stayed dead when I killed you. You deserved that rest. Now, you're nothing but a corpse revived by perverted technology, with perverted aims. This isn't you, Illarra, and I'm going to return you to that grave and that death you deserved."
"Me? Put me back in my grave?" Illarra smiled, mockingly. "Oh, certainly! You can certainly send me back to death and eternal slumber, if you want." She shrugged, sliding her claws back into their sheaths. "but . . . ."
Then she was there, attacking Squall, claws drawn and stabbing toward his face.
"You'll have to kill me first!"
The claymore snapped out, and two solid parries rang in the smoky air as Squall punched out straight ahead, launching her backward. He boots slid over the plaza stonework, and she bolted toward him again, howling with animal fury. Squall raised his blade into a two handed grip at his side, and shot ahead at Illarra. Behind him, Rinoa circled around, flanking Illarra as her claws stabbed toward Squall. His sword whipped across, rapidly parrying her jabs and slashing down in a quick cut at her feet. She jumped back, and whipped around as Rinoa cleaved at her backside with the Revolver. A claw intercepted the slash, ringing solidly in the air, and then Illarra gave ground as Squall spun his sword over his head in a wide, flashing, quick chop at her head.
She leapt backward, hissing, and bolted toward one of the intact humvees. Her claws punched through the armored windshield and driver-side window, and she gripped the support holding up the vehicle's roof. Illarra looked toward Squall, smiled, and her arm whipped forward, and the humvee leapt off the ground and flew toward Squall, a fifteen-ton missile hurtling at him end over end.
The claymore fell back into its sheath even as she was grabbing the humvee, and the vehicle flew in, and then flew apart. Squall's sword was extended as it flashed past him, skipping over the stone and pavement and smashing through the walls of a building behind him.
Or rather, one part of the humvee flew past, and his left hand had shot out and grabbed the second part, the rear half, as it had passed him, and he spun with the vehicle's momentum, coming around and loosing the severed humvee portion at Illarra like a baseball pitcher launching a fastball.
Illarra sprang aside, and the sliced humvee flew past her, deflected off the burning hulk of another vehicle, and smashed into the second story of another building. She bolted forward, and then metal rounded started ricocheting off her armor. Rinoa poured a series of controlled bursts into Illarra, and she snarled before retreating, diving behind another intact humvee.
A flick of Squall's left hand told Rinoa to flank her, and he dashed around the right side of the vehicle, sheathing his blade. As he neared, she jumped over the top of the humvee, screaming like a banshee, and dove toward his position. Squall sidestepped, snapping his sword out of its sheath again as she passed, but she sprang over the attack and ran on, toward the center of the plaza. She leapt atop the statue at the center of the main fountain and hissed as she drove her claws into the stone. An instant later, she spun, reaching up and grabbing the top of the statue. With a vicious pull, she tore it free and launched it at Squall. A rapid sheathing and slashing chopped the statue apart, but as Squall was cutting through it, Illarra dove in, slamming into Squall with a flying kick that launched him a dozen feet backward to crash into the burning wreck of another humvee. He had barely hit when he went into a flip, backwards over the vehicle, using the momentum of his flight to send him to the other side of the destroyed humvee.
She dove through the flames after him, hissing viciously, blades extended.
Sword and claws slammed together, and his hat was blasted off his head. An instant later, his head lurched forward, smashing into Illarra's forehead, and she was sent flying backward over the burning vehicle. He leapt after her.
Illarra hit the ground in a roll and came up to see a gunblade diving for her. She stepped back, claws flashing before her in warding defense, and the Revolver met them, ringing against the blades. Rinoa pressed on, coming out of the cleave with another vicious right to left slash. Illarra ducked beneath the cut and started to rush ahead in a low pair of stabs, but Rinoa's knee was already rising up, intercepting her face and launching Illarra backward.
Squall came in, charging toward her, and Illarra fell back, dashing across the plaza and leaping over a humvee. She stomped down on the hood as she passed it, crumpling it inward and forcing the rear end up in the air, and then whirled, kicking it at Squall.
Without missing a beat, and without even slowing down, Squall sliced the humvee in half, sending it flying to either side, and kept going toward her.
But at that moment, Illarra bolted to the side, circling around Squall even as he had cut through the humvee, and shot toward Rinoa, who was also in pursuit. Rinoa hastily realigned her defenses, coming to a dead stop as Illarra stabbed both blades at her. The Revolver snapped up and across in two rapid-fire parries, and Illarra ducked low, lashing out with a foot. Rinoa leapt back over the attack, and hopped back another step as Illarra came in with another low stab. She followed up with two more vicious cuts, forcing Rinoa back, and came in with a blurring barrage of stabs from multiple angles. The Revolver flashed about brilliantly, ringing repeatedly against Illarra's stabs and cuts, Rinoa parrying with near perfect precision.
But near-perfect wasn't enough.
Rinoa suddenly felt an icy pain cut through her stomach, and she fell back a step as Illarra came in, cackling wildly. The wound wasn't too deep - certainly survivable for a SeeD - but the effect of it on Rinoa gave Illarra the upper hand. She had a new advantage, and she moved to press it as quickly as she could.
Unfortunately, Illarra was aware, academically, of Squall and Rinoa's connection. If she had realized just how close they were, however, she would have known in that instant that hurting Rinoa within Squall's line of sight was the worst tactical blunder she could have ever possibly made.
He saw Rinoa's blood, and the calm, rational man Squall Leonhart was ended up being replaced by the desperate, near-psychotic man he had become when Rinoa had nearly died in space.
"RINOA!"
His roar of outrage sent shudders through the stone pavement beneath their feet, and Illarra stopped in mid-strike and whirled, to see Squall reach up and pull down the bandana around his forehead, covering his eyes.
"Rinoa, get back," he declared, with all the gentle kindness of a pissed off hurricane on fire. Rinoa fell away a step, and Squall bolted toward Illarra, no longer a controlled warrior, but a man who had just seen the only woman he had loved bleeding at the hands of his worst enemy. Squall charged after her in a roaring rampage, and it was then that Illarra understood the gravity of the situation.
She was up against a Griever-driven Elemental armed with Zanshin, SeeD training, Chimera genes, a very large sword, and a brand-new, psychotic raging boner of absolute hatred straight out of the depths of hell screaming for her blood.
His sword slammed into Illarra's claws, and the ferocity from the impact launched her across the plaza, her boots digging furrows in the stone as she skidded along. She didn't even stay connected to the ground, not even the friction of her boots on stone keeping her from flying up into the air and slamming through the front window of one of the hotels lining the plaza.
Squall dove after her, with mercy and compassion as the last things on his mind at that moment.
After all, one does not fuck with a lion's family.
Zell dropped back a step, ducking beneath Malachi's blade. The soldier backed off, circling around Zell, twirling his blade in his hand and chuckling to himself. Zell stared at Malachi for a moment, meeting his eyes, and bolted forward, sliding into a scissor kick that snared the soldier's legs. Malachi let out a yelp of surprise and fell over, but untangled his legs in an instant and rolled away. Zell rose up in pursuit, chasing Malachi with a flying kick that slammed against his forearm. Growling, Malachi stabbed his knife at Zell as he retreated, scoring a slight burst of blood off the brawler's chest.
Zell paid the cut no mind, instead charging ahead at Malachi, letting out a roar as he advanced. Malachi settled back on his legs, knife at the ready, and hopped back, twisting his body aside as Zell went into an aggressive series of high kicks. His feet swished past Malachi two, three, then four times, and then Zell broke the routine, spinning around low and sweeping at Malachi's feet. The Elemental hopped over the striking leg, and Zell came out of the sweep with a yell and a flying left cross that caught the jumping soldier's in his chest in mid-air. Malachi was launched backward, slamming into the door of a storefront and battering it down.
The soldier's entire body snapped as he kipped up, leaping up to his feet as Zell charged straight through the entrance, leading with another flying kick. Malachi spun aside, left hand flying out and catching Zell's ankle, while his knife cut up, stabbing into the back of Zell's thigh. The brawler roared in pain as Malachi spun around, flexing his muscles and flinging Zell through the store's window, shattering the glass and sending him skittering along the street outside.
"Still sloppy as always," Malachi muttered as he moved back outside. Zell rose, shaking his head, as the soldier advanced, his skin almost completely healed. "And this time you don't have a wrecked jeep to save you, either. Wish I had my sniper rifle, so I could put another bullet into you."
"So," Zell said, touching his chest where he'd been shot. "That was you who shot me?"
"Didn't get as much of you as I'd prefer, but, well, I can make do with cutting you up here and now." Zell chuckled as Malachi closed in, and then turned and bolted down the street. Malachi blinked in surprise at the odd move for the brawler, and moved to pursue, only to stop as Zell neared a lamppost. Barely slowing, Zell sent a spinning kick into its base, and then wrapped his hands around the post. With a powerful heave, the concrete around the base of the metal pole cracked and shattered.
The brawler spun around, raising the post up over his head, and hurled it at Malachi like a spear. Malachi's eyes widened as the metal pole hurtled at him, and he dove aside, barely evading the impromptu projectile.
Zell was right behind the lamppost as it flew past Malachi, and spun into a low kick at the soldier's leg as he rolled aside. Boot met skin and bone, and Malachi let out a pained shout as his thigh cracked and twisted at an unnatural angle. He whipped about on his good leg, slashing across with his knife, but Zell was already springing away, toward the remains of the destroyed van.
Malachi couldn't immediately pursue due to his ravaged leg, but the Elemental treatments started to kick in a moment later, causing the leg to, painfully, snap and twist back into place. He kept his eyes on Zell for the precious few moments he needed to regain his mobility, but Zell didn't return to press the enormous advantage. Malachi was confused by this, until he saw Zell scoop something up from the ground and whirl toward the soldier.
If Zell shouted some triumphant, corny victory line, it was drowned out by the rocket launcher's whoomph! as it fired its remaining rocket, directly at Malachi. The soldier watched the missile close in, but with his destroyed leg, he couldn't evade the rocket. He could only stare helplessly as it flew toward him, crossing the distance between the pair in the blink of an eye.
It impacted just above his upper lip, and while the missile hadn't flown far enough for the warhead to activate, the missile had enough power and force behind it to punch straight through Malachi's face, shatter his skull, and liquefy his entire upper body, before pressing on, striking a parked car, and detonating in a brilliant golden fireball that immolated Malachi's decapitated body.
She took the offensive at that moment, even as Irvine was readying his MP5Ks. Blades of ice flicked out at Irvine, and he dove aside as they stabbed into the pavement behind him. His weapons fired, the sub-machineguns sending streams of bullets at Selphie, but her icy barriers intercepted the attacks as more spears and blades whipped toward him. The sharpshooter fell back, ducking and weaving, evading the blades with the practiced experience of someone who had done the same in the face of intense gunfire.
But the Selphie threw a curve ball at Irvine, and suddenly the ground beneath him became slicked over with ice. His boots could not find purchase on the glass-smooth ice beneath his feet, and he found himself unbalanced. He dropped onto his side even as Selphie renewed the ice storm assault, a hail of blades and spears raining down around him. Frigid pain cut through his left arm as a blade penetrated his bicep.
The MP5Ks stuttered return fire, chipping away at the icy barriers, and Irvine saw a flash of blood and heard a squeal of pain from Selphie. He rolled back onto solid, un-frozen pavement as the ice storm abated momentarily, and the sharpshooter saw Selphie clutching her right shoulder, red blood oozing from it. She cast him a look of absolute venom - something she never would have shown if she was in her right mind - and the air around her began to swirl with raging icy power. The air around her became a white cyclone of frozen air and water vapor, a solid barrier of ice that his rounds couldn't penetrate.
Then, in a single roaring motion, a wall of cold erupted from that whirlwind and slammed into Irvine. His entire body went numb, despite the defensive junctions he possessed, and he went rolling down the street. He came to a stop a few moments later, and looked up, trying to move hi numb, unresponsive body, and saw Selphie towering over him, despite her tiny stature. He looked up into those icy blue eyes, and into her daunting, impassive face.
Wordlessly, Selphie raised the nunchaku in her hand, and spun it over her head, ready to strike.
Squall's left hook came screaming out of hell with the weight of a thousand furies behind it, and crunched into her jaw with force enough to shatter stone into dusty vapor. Illarra flew backward, through the other side of the hotel, and crashed through the wall and back out into the street. Squall was right behind her, snarling as he pursued, claymore whipping about as he dove through the hole she had left in the wall.
She came in as he burst out of the passage, claws stabbing viciously. His Zanshin sight revealed every path her strikes would take, however, and Squall's sword intercepted her attacks with ruthless precision. The claws rang against the long blade, and he countered with a wide chop. She had to raise both of her blades to intercept,s top,a nd hold the long, slender claymore, and Squall bulled her backwar,d both hands gripping the sword as he used all of his rage-fueled might to overcome Illarra's resistance. She was forced to give ground, rotating around him in the street, and he suddenly broke away, retracting his blade.
Illarra didn't have time to realign her defenses when Squall headbutted her in the chest and sent her flying backward, armored plating crumpling beneath the mighty blow. She was sent bouncing down the street, and the enraged Elemental pursued. By the time Illarra managed to regain her footing and recover, he was right on top of her, sword rising up into the air and coming down in a massive cleave better-suited for a much larger blade. She rolled aside and dove past Squall as the blade slashed into the street like a scalding chainsaw through butter. He tore the blade free with hardly any visible effort and spun on her, scowling behind his silvery bandana. She came around as he chopped across again in a wide cut, dropping beneath his slash. He spun the blade over and used the momentum of the horizontal swing to bring the sword down toward her.
In that moment, Illarra saw an opening. Her claws snapped up, crashing against and over the blade as it fell, stopping it in place and trapping it between her weapons. With a single sudden motion, she snapped her claws in opposite directions, twisting the sword viciously in Squall's hands. Without any warning, it flew out of his grasp and spun into the air.
She dove ahead, but Squall did so as well, not even pausing to look at his sword as it arced into the air. Her claws stabbed toward him, but Squall's arms flew out wide, catching her wrists and stopping the stabs. His left leg roe up and slammed into her chest, shoving her backward, and, in a single motion, he reached up and unstrapped the sword sheath from his chest and pulled it off his back. Illarra bolted toward him again before he could begin to recover the flying blade as it reached the apex of its flight and began to descend.
Her blades dove for his torso, but his gauntleted left hand intercepted the first stab as his right spun the sheath over, looping the strap. He shot ahead, kneeing her in the gut as she made for another vicious stab, and Illarra doubled over for an instant. That instant was all Squall needed to roll around behind her and bring the looped sheath's strap around her neck. He tugged, the strap went taut, and closed over Illarra's windpipe.
She gagged for an instant as the strap of the sheath choked her, but Illarra brought her claws up, slashing the leather cords. They snapped, and she broke free, then whirled on Squall-
-to see him catch the falling sword as it arced down into his palm, and then, in a motion faster than even her Zanshin could follow and anticipate, he sheathed the blade and drew it again, slashing across her chest before she could defend herself.
If she had eyes, Illarra would have blinked. There was no pain, only a sudden and inexplicable weakness in her entire body. She stared at Squall for a moment, and then toppled forward, onto her knees, as she felt the strength leak out of her body.
Something crackled inside of her, and the hatred and rage she had been feeling, the inexplicable urge to kill and murder, began to fade away. She stared up at Squall as he drew the bandana off of his eyes, and turned his crimson gaze down toward her. The animosity and near-psychotic fervor he had shown moments before was gone, replaced by a new look, one of pity and regretful remorse.
She understood. She remembered his expression as she had died the first time, and remembered the serenity she had felt when he had killed her, ending her madness. Now, here, she was once again at that moment of peace, that instance where clarity had finally reached her, and she no longer had to fight and kill.
" . . . Squall . . . ." she began to whisper, but he shook his head.
"This is who you should have been, Illarra," he explained. "But unfortunately, you'll never be able to live as you are now. The Requiem armor is disabled, and its primary systems are destroyed. Yo can't survive without it. I . . . I'm sorry it had to be this way."
"no, Squall," she answered, shaking her head. As he watched, he saw her face light up slightly, and the corners of her mouth tugged into a smile. Not one of malice or sadism, but an honest, serene smile. "I . . . Never got to thank you last time. When you . . . Killed me, I finally knew what peace really was. In those last moments . . . I was happy. You saved me by killing me, Squall. That's all I needed."
She started to tremble as the last strength left her body.
"Squall . . . I . . . You did so much for me . . . ."
He looked down to her corpse, the revived remnants of a tortured, bloody woman, her restored lifeblood running down the vile armor she wore, seeming to purify the machinery, and he closed his eyes.
"You don't need to say anything," he answered.
"Just . . . don't let me . . . become this mon . . . agai . . . ."
Silently, Squall nodded. He sheathed his sword, gripped the handle tightly, and focused.
A poignant stillness filled the empty street, and there was a single motion that split the air.
The clank of the Requiem armor hitting the pavement followed the light, dull thump of Illarra's head, and Squall let out a long, profound sigh of . . . Relief? Exhaustion? Sadness? He couldn't say.
He opened his eyes, looked down at Illarra's brutalized corpse, and then slid his weapon back into its sheath.
"Rest in peace," he said to the still air, and then turned and walked away, letting those words drift in the air to be carried away by the wind.
The cascading forces of destruction and nothingness ripped apart Alucard from the core of his being, and Hyne enjoyed every second of it. She watched him writhe under the combined power of her Death Fans, his avatar blasted and torn and shredded as existence fought to hold its sway over his body. Glimmering white light burst from his skin, silvery vapors burning into the air, the life-force that drove the Guardian's form released and dissipating.
As Alucard was being reduced to nothingness, Serra stared at Quistis' limp body, and then turned on Hades. She clenched her teeth as a blinding white-hot rage shot through her. The guardian of Death turned to size her up, and he paused as he witnessed the yellow light, the precursor for a Limit technique, began to surge up around her.
"Oh, that can't be good," he muttered. "Yo! Hyne! You might wanna, y'know, stop fucking up Grandpa over there and have a look at this!"
Hyne took her attention away from Alucard for a moment to size up Serra's changing condition, and the little girl's eyes widened. While she hadn't seen the effects first hand, she knew exactly what Serra's limit was capable of, and as the white light of her rage surged around her, she moved to take action.
Besides, Alucard's finished; he can't maintain his corporeal form for much longer after eating that much destruction.
"Shut her up before she ruins everything!" Hyne ordered, releasing Alucard from the assault. The Guardian of Existence's cries of agony faded as he dropped to the floor, limp and unmoving.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Stop the god-killing dimensional time bomb before it carves us up like steaks, on it." Hades pointed a hand at Serra as her power continued to build, and sent a stream of life-sapping energy toward her, even as Hyne raised her Void fan and gestured with it, loosing its powerful waves upon Serra.
Shadow and non-existence swept over Serra's white-hot rage, even as she extended her wings and prepared to release her power. For a moment, the blazing power resisted the insidious power of death and void, but even that potent barrier of power began to crumble beneath the steady assault of power Hyne and Hades poured onto Serra.
She screamed, trying to maintain that animal-like level of anger, and maintain her Limit, but she didn't have the training SeeDs had in manipulating their emotions. The instinctive fury was rapidly becoming subsumed by Hyne and Hades' powers, draining her emotions and replacing her anger and rage with exhaustion. Her body began to feel weaker and weaker, and Serra stumbled back, her Limit fading completely under the combined assault of magic from both Guardians.
"Wow, that was kinda . . . Easy," Hades remarked. "Went down without much trouble. Kinda disappointing, y'know?"
"That's the way I'd prefer it," answered Hyne, stalking toward Serra, who tried to fight off the waves of weakness flowing through her as Hades continued his assault. "Hold her in place. This won't take long."
"Easy enough," Hades replied, settling back and continuing his attack, though now with much more boredom and disregard for Serra, only maintaining enough power to keep her weakened and vulnerable.
"Get . . . . Back . . . ." Serra muttered as Hyne closed in, but the guardian of The End didn't even listen to her words. Serra stumbled forward, trying to strike at Hyne with her staff, but a single gesture from the Destruction fan sent a pulse of unmaking through the staff, and it shattered and fell apart in Serra's hands. She stared down at her broken staff blankly, and Hyne floated up in the air before the girl's face.
"Relax, dear Serra," Hyne whispered, edging closer, drawing so near Serra that their faces nearly touched. The Guardian reached out, holding the sides of Serra's face in her hands, and smiled.
"That lovely power you've been hoarding for the last four years is now mine, Serra," Hyne said. "Unfortunately, I cannot merely rip it from you like I could my own powers. So, to that end, I'll need not just your power . . . but you."
Serra's eyes widened drowsily, and she started to raise her hands to fend off the coming Guardian, but Hyne's hand pulsed with white light, and her entire body began to glow, a shimmering white force of energy that pulsed and flowed, breaking down and pouring over Serra's body. Hades, realizing that the moment had come, released his life-draining attack, and watched with a malevolent smile as Hyne went about her work, flowing into Serra's body and systematically uprooting her mind and pushing it away, seizing control of her victim.
The white light engulfing Serra steadily faded away, and when it ended, the black-haired girl stood there, shaking for a moment. Hades watched her, and then smiled as she looked up, and a smile that should never have been on Serra's face etched across her features. With a flick of her wrists, the girl manifested the silver and black fans that were Hyne's trademarks.
"Come on, Hades," Serra's mouth moved, but Hyne's voice emerged. "Let's rip the universe a new one."
-
Oh noes!
Up next, yes, we have the FINAL CHAPTER. The FINAL BATTLE. Zomg. I'm squealing with joy at the idea of writing it, too!
Until next chapter...