Final Fantasy Infinite Loops
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: All of the Final Fantasy characters belong to Square Enix. The original idea for the infinite loops comes from Innortal and later was codified by Saphroneth. OathtoOblivion started the Final Fantasy Loops thread and was the first compiler. I think that's everything...Oh yes Spacebattles is who hosts the Infinite Loops threads.
-o-
8.1 [tovath]
"Edgar, what are you doing?" asked Terra, looking at the contraption the Warring Triad's newest Looper was banging on.
"Phoenix Down launcher. It should be able to fire fifty in under two minutes."
"Did you just have a zombie Loop?" She got a nod in return as Edgar went back to concentrating on his launcher, "You know if you just got your magic power up a little bit you could do some sustained casting?"
"No thanks, I've seen how you look after a bout of that."
-o-
8.2 [facepalmist]
The first Bite Bug buzzed in on the attack, Squall standing stock-still as its wings' droning intensified. At the last moment, the SEED candidate (for now) glided to the side, Lion Heart lashing out to slice the monster in half.
He smirked, and that smirk widened as the second and third Bite Bugs fell as the first had. The last giant insect hovered in place, understandably hesitant...
"Flare."
...Not that it did any good. Squall set about collecting the spoils, and checked the time while he was at it.
He would have to leave in a few minutes if he wanted to make it back to Garden in time for the Field Exam deployment. Squall shrugged, returned Lion Heart to his Pocket and re-equipped with his native gunblade for this loop - or rather, its 'Punishment'-upgraded version. (Such was the highest-level mod he could get away with for the moment, as all the items tendered to the Junk Shop in Balamb Town were available through Quezacotl's Card Mod ability and a few games of Triple Triad. It wasn't that he had no adamantite stocks, it was just a question of explaining where he got it.) That done, he turned back toward Garden and started jogging, keeping a sharp eye out for more monsters - and thus continuing his self-appointed training regimen.
It had been a pretty long time ago now, that loop where Awakening as a G-soldier had left him with the ability to draw and cast magic without a GF, and his own burst of inspiration had led him to discover how to cast magic by instead forming it from his own energies. Since then he had visited other worlds, encountered other Loopers and finally got an explanation as to why time was repeating. Learned the Pocket, learned about abilities out there that could be found and cultivated and utilized back home. And over that time, his drive to find ways to function in the field without the GF had not only persisted but strengthened with each sojourn from his home Branch.
It was amazing in retrospect, just how much of a pervasive presence the Guardian Forces were to SEED's combat personnel. Merely training to provide headspace for a GF bestowed access to a massive dimensional repository, an 'inventory' where up to a hundred of each item could be stored and stacked - and for the price of a prepped command slot, some items could be brought forth one-at-a-time from seemingly nowhere in the heat of combat. The GF themselves also automatically bestowed a grab-bag of similar, seemingly indispensable powers: diverse junctions to allot stored spells to massively increase various personal attributes, refinement of stored magics and items, the ability to contact shops from afar and even alter the prices for buying and selling items. And that wasn't taking into account the even more diverse grab-bag of blessings and skills which they could bestow, or be altered to bestow: more direct attribute increases, auto-abilities that had continual effects in or out of combat, an 'S.E.P.' field that caused monsters to skirt around the GF's host, another field that caused proportional damage to those who succeeded in attacking the host.
The hosts of Guardian Forces, with experience and training, could be ridiculously powerful. Six teenagers, with experience and training and the GFs' aid, could destroy the most powerful monsters, strike down the ultimate Sorceress. Really, it was no wonder that NORG had leaped all over the SEED idea when Cid presented it to him - it wasn't as thought HE would have to suffer the inevitable hemorrhaging of memories as a side-effect.
In all honesty, Squall didn't mind the memory loss much anymore. Whatever the GF did to make him lose his memories, it seemed to have no effect whatsoever on his memories as a Looper. Having Loop-memories filled with holes was something he, like Cloud Strife of the Lifestream Loops, had long ago adjusted to; it wasn't like it was anything new to him, after all.
No, the problem he had increasingly seen - and had it rubbed in his face, in his last visit into a Branch not his own - was the fact that GFs were such an easy shortcut that they grew to be relied on for things that people were just as capable of doing themselves, if only they committed themselves to the effort. That the Guardian Forces were not just a pervasive presence, but an all-encompassing crutch.
Squall dashed over to the road and slowed as the gates to Balamb Garden became visible in the near distance. He'd made good time. Now probably safe from attack on the road, he withdrew a notepad and pen from his Pocket, flipped to one of his lists, and added a tick to a certain entry on it.
'Evade & Counter': successfully learned. Without a GF or a Spiran weapon to achieve the feat, no less. All it took was an effort of focus in combat to slip into the mindset of...well, evading and countering. It would take a great deal more practice to truly internalise the results, but for all intents and purposes it was sufficiently mastered to function as a working technique.
Annoying as it had been to fill Kimahri Ronso's role as a Guardian in that last loop spent elsewhere, it had and would continue to pay off in spades. Spiran 'blue magic' was interesting if occasionally painful to experience, and otherwise quite similar to Quistis Trepe's native version - but the magic system there was a wonder to contrast. There were spells, skills and special techniques known there that were thought all but impossible without GF here, and yet they had worked in ways so very similar. And it was a good thing they were so easy, so familiar - because his default set of skills here had been almost completely absent to him in that loop...except the ones that he'd learned to perform without the GF.
Squall glanced down the list, slate-blue gaze roving over the entries.
'Defend': Merely adopting the defensive wait-stances which were so elementary in Spiran combat had imparted a partial effect similar to the Defend Command. Fortunately he'd been lucky enough to pay attention to Tidus and his wait-stance.
'Cover': The Spiran special technique 'Guard' was essentially identical, except that Cover was automatic while Guard was a matter of mental focus for a short time. That one was more difficult to practice without uncomfortable questions being asked, but Squall looked forward to incorporating parts of the 'Sentinel' variant into his work in emulating Defend.
'Absorb': Here, it was a GF Command unique to Pandemona and Doomtrain. In Spira, it was a mid-level black magic spell, counterpart to the magic-targeting 'Osmose' spell. And Kimahri's special 'Lancet' technique had the bonus of also absorbing magical energies of the sort Squall used to power his non-drawn spells. The to-be SEED was planning to see if he could retroengineer a native version, maybe a draw-cast that also leached off some of the target's health.
'Doom': Like Absorb, it was a unique GF command. Unlike Absorb, it was actually a blue magic attack in Spira. It would be comparatively easy to learn to cast that himself, if only as another data-point. 'Kamikaze', like its Spiran equivalent 'Self-Destruct', fit under the same comparison - but that, at least, was something he was in no hurry to test.
'Counter': That one, named 'Counterattack', had been an ability imparted to certain customized weapons in Spira, one of three that Squall had been aware of; 'Evade & Counter' had been the healthier option for learning, seeing as it revolved around not getting hit.
His eyes fell on the other two he had been attempting to train out here.
'Alert': The less effective Spiran version was counter-intuitively known as 'Initiative', and increased the likelihood of ambushing the enemy through means he was...not quite certain about. It would be nice to learn that one, but he wasn't holding his breath.
'Initiative': That one was called 'First Strike' in Spira, and involved being alert and ready to make the first move at all times. That one, he was making steady progress in; much like the Counter technique, it was all about being in the right state of mind: the state of mind that both the GF ability Initiative and the weapon attribute First Strike artificially imposed, could be imbued directly with enough training and effort.
All these abilities, he theorized and hoped, had one thing in common: they could be mastered without the GF. No longer might not having the right Guardian Force or the right items to apply to one's ability-set bar Squall from being able to resort to a specific ability at need. Some of these abilities, like Counter and Initiative, promised to be viable even in Null Loops...and just as importantly, those loops where the GF were unavailable. Like when visiting just about any other Branch under the sun.
Squall's impression of that (Unawake version of) Tidus had been jarringly reminiscent of both Zell and Rinoa. Certainly the halting, supremely awkward romance between Tidus and Yuna had reminded him of himself and Rinoa - each of them stumbling through the cobwebs of their own pasts, reaching out yet held back by their preconceptions and walks of life, ignoring with all their might their Doom on the future's horizon. And as the gates of Balamb Garden drew closer with his footsteps, Squall vowed once more: no longer would his over-specialisation hamstring him and leave him yet again helpless, manipulated by the strings of fate...or 'baseline', as some would have it.
And just in case, he would also have as many words with Ward as necessary; Squall could only imagine that spear techniques differed somewhat between Ronso and humans...
-o-
8.3
[tovath and VS21]
The Mage Storms were over and Queen Selenay, who was Looping fortunately, had said that the next few years should be peaceful. This meant that Ramza and Vaan could relax over a drink and talk about their home loop.
Vaan thought that Ramza choice of milk to drink was a bit silly, but hey, if one can fight as well as Ramza did then they could drink any silly nonalcoholic drink they wanted. Vaan on the other hand was having beer "You think the magic we learned here can be used to control the Mist back home?" he asked after they were both sitting amazingly comfortable chairs.
"I don't know. There is no Mist in my time." said Ramza. He shook his head. "There are also no moogles or Viela. I have to wonder if what almost happened here did happen back home."
"What!" Vaan sat straight up. The Mage Storms had almost set off a Class One apocalypse just as bad, if not worse, than the one Kefka liked to set off in Terra's loop.
Ramza looked Vaan in the eye. "Something bad happened between our time periods. I have not been able to assertion what because the church has covered parts of it up."
"Well, what you do know?" Vaan almost knocked over his drink, not that that mattered much anymore.
Ramza pulled a leather bound book out of his subspace pocket. "This is the Germonik Scriptures. It might be able to tell more. Unfortunately, I can't read the old script, but you might be able to.
"I'll give it a try." Vaan started to read through the book. It was all about spies, plots and experiments done on Mist and Espers. "Whoa, this is heavy stuff! So what happened in the end with the experiments?"
"What experiments? According to the church that text is heretical and does not exist because it treats St Ajora as a hume not a son of god."
The discussion went on for hours as they figured out a plan for changing history.
-x-x-
As soon as Vaan woke up in the Garamsythe Waterway killing rats, he searched his Loop memories for any sign of this being a Variant Loop.
"Hmmm…two years after the death of the king, Reks is dead, Basch in prison and no meetings with anyone out of the ordinary….I think this is it!" Vaan thought and went off to start implementing the plan that he and Ramza had created the last Loop they had together. While they had planned it out several Loops ago, Vaan was unable to get their plans into motion due to the fact of him being involved in a string of Fused Loops prior to this baseline run…
The plan was quite simple, because of the long time gap between Ramza's time period and Vaan's as well as the Cataclysm pretty much taking out many of the distinctive features of Vaan's Ivalice; Vaan needed to leave a big enough impact that Ramza could notice even in his time. It would have been easier if he could take on this Ajora guy directly, but despite Vaan's powers and abilities he only had the Hume lifespan and that wasn't enough to directly influence the events that caused the Cataclysm.
But he had a plan to take of that. First, follow the events of baseline until the fall of Lemures. Then gather in Kytes, Filo, Penelo for Phase 2 of the plan, forming a Sky Pirates Guild that would make a name for themselves in power and notoriety.
Convincing Kytes and Filo was easy. The promise of getting more treasure was enough to draw them in. Getting Penelo in on this was a little more difficult and involved the promise of splitting any money they get with those that needed it.
Vaan agreed to that promise and they got started recruiting more people for the guild, in Balfonheim port they went and managed to bring in young sky pirates who were just starting out, from Rabanastre Vaan brought in many of the older kids who were in Vaan's group of kids when they were younger and they managed to bring in the adventurers, the orphans, and the ones who had an eye and ear for rumors involving treasure.
While the Guild was bringing in money through the treasures they were finding Vaan was still implementing another part of the plan they came up with. It was possible that the Cataclysm was started when Ajora seized the Espers and used them in an experiment of some sort. Vaan knew just where to find the Espers, thanks to the strategy guide Cecil had given him. Finding an excuse that he could go get them was another problem.
However, excuses to go after them turned out to be aplenty. A rumor of treasure in the Barheim Passage led to the Guild taking down Zalera, A search for rare nethicite in the Great Crystal led to taking down Ultima, A commission from a monk at Mt Bur-Omisace to take down Zeromus? No problem! Exodus shooting down sky pirates with meteors? Easiest excuse to take down yet another Esper…
One by one, Vaan needed to get the Espers so that Ajora would not get his hands on them and start the experiment that created the Cataclysm. The problems started when they went to deal with some bandits in the Zertinan Caverns. It was the perfect time for Vaan to not-so- incidentally pick up Adrammelech. The fights went well, but after the fight with Adrommelech, one of the Occuria appeared. "We will not let the reins of history remain in the hands of Man."
-x-x-
Ramza was having an odd loop. Everything was the same except the Lucavi were all different. Cardinal Delacroix had been Nabriales, the Majestic instead of Cuchulainn, the Unpure. Nabriales had been even worse to fight then Cuchulainn. Next Wiegraf merged with Loghrie, not Belias. Ramza had a fairly good idea of why this might be. This was not the kind of effect that Vaan was probably going for, but it did prove that it was possible to make changes.
-o-
8.4 [tovath]
Rydia was down in the Feymarch again. Cecil's plans for this Loop included a fish, a spoon and a rubber chicken, but she had begged off because she had wanted to come down here. She liked how she could talk with so many different Espers. Despite the number of loops she had been through she was still learning new things from them.
Shiva came down the walkway looking both determined and disturbed.. The moment her eyes lighted on Rydia she headed right towards her. Rydia had no idea why for she had not interacted with The Empress of Ice this loop yet.
"Some of the things I have heard about you make me think that you might know the answer to my question." Shiva said as soon as she got close.
"Why...What is the question?" This could be one of two things. The human world -It would not be the first time that an Esper asked something about that. Or...
"I seem to have memories of other times and places as well as the future."
"Can you change into a motorcycle?" asked Rydia
"Oh yes," said Shiva with a relieved smile, "I have been between a man's legs plenty of times because of that. So you do know what is going on?""
Rydia giggled, Snow would be embarrassed to hear Shiva say that. "Yes You see there is this tree...
-o-
8.5 [Flametusk]
Yuna was going through her pocket when she saw that the chocobo farm she set up was empty.
'Well, it has been about ten million years.' She thought.
"Now where did you..." The summoner was interrupted by a rumbling behind her.
Looking towards the source, she could only stare with her mouth open as the mansion-sized four-legged rainbow-hued chocobos were running in the distance.
'Note to self: NEVER leave any farms going for more than a million years without maintenance.'
-o-
8.6 [Tovath]
This was different. Locke had gotten used to ending up back at Narshe when a new loop started, but this time he was in a classroom; A large classroom that had a podium at the front of the room. At the podium was a teacher who was talking about 'Team assignments.' His in-loop memories, at least he thought that is what they were, were telling him he should be excited to be part of a ninja team...Wait ninjas, this did sound interesting.
"Team 7 is Naruto Uzumaki, Locke Cole and Andrew Pike with Kakashi Hatake as the jōnin instructor."
Locke knew that he had heard the name Naruto before, oh yeah, Terra mentioned it while telling him about the Loops. Let's see, he was one of the first loopers. Should be able to learn lots of stuff to help get rid of Kefka next time this Loop.
Once everyone else was gone Naruto turned to look at Locke and the other guy, Andrew something, who was on their team "Are both of you Awake?"
"Yep and feeling Loopy." said Locke.
"I am in need of an Anchor." replied Andrew.
"Great, now if I could get the names of your home loops and what kinds of things you can do we can get started. Whatever everyone else thinks, I will be the one teaching you."
"I believe my loop is called Elemental Masters." said Andrew, "I am both an Earth Master and a Doctor of Medicine."
So he knows knows lots of different versions of the quake spell. That sounds dangerous, but at least he can fix us back up after. "Good thing I know the float spell then. I'm from the Warring Triad Loop.. Can fight pretty good with blades. Can steal a man's clothes off his back. As far as magic goes I'm not as good as the others in my loop, only some healing and up ta level 3 for each element."
Andrew looked incredulously. "How can you do magic from more than one element?"
"Why'd ya decide ta go for such a destructive branch?"
Naruto chuckled "Ok first thing you newbies have to learn is that magic is different in different Loops."
-o-
8.7 [Facepalmist]
Meteor: the fabled, most destructive magic of the Lifestream Branch. A spell which did exactly what it said on the box - namely, the summoning of a magic-impregnated meteor which would impact with a force sufficient to inflict an extinction-level event upon the Planet.
However, it was the nature of the Loops that even such apocalyptic circumstances could be averted, given enough time(s) and planning. And again, it was the nature of the Loops that said courses of salvation would become increasingly ridiculous...
-x-x-
{...Familiar of Zero}
"DISINTEGRATE!"
The tiny, smug pink-haired magician (currently Replacing Aeris) grinned at the gaping AVALANCHE party. High above them, the Meteor was...well, disintegrated.
Meanwhile at the Northern Crater, Sephiroth blinked as the summoned planet-killer was erased from space. "Hmph. I wonder why Louise didn't use that the last time we met..."
-x-x-
{...Naruto}
There was a blur of movement so fast that only Cloud and Vincent's eyes could catch it... and then Meteor was shattered into hundreds of pieces - most of which were flung away from the presumed point of impact with such violence that they escaped the malevolent energies that had been holding the conglomerate together.
"Uhh..." Barret tried to reboot his brain and ask the obvious question.
Tenten didn't bother to wait, tucking the expended weapon-scroll away as she stared with satisfaction into the night sky. "One well-used stress ball, delivered at sufficient velocity."
"Huh," Cloud mused. "Might have to try that one myself some time."
-x-x-
{...Calvin & Hobbes}
PEEEW! "Grr..." PEEEW! PEEEW-PEEEW-PEEEW!
"...You missed," snarked Hobbes XIII.
"Shut up," Calvin Strife snarked back. Turning back around and putting down the Meteor-Destroying Gun, Calvin dug out his trusty texta. A quick additional squiggle later, a little digging in the box, and the visiting Anchor fiddled about with his brand-new Aiming Stand For The Meteor-Destroying Gun. "I'll get it this time..."
PEEEW!
-x-x-
{...Diablo}
'Necromancer' examined the oncoming Meteor with interest as the local hoverbike drove him upwards to meet it. The Lifestream Loop's Anchor had assured the visiting prison of Chaos that while relatively durable, Meteor was not immune to physical damage; it was with this in mind that Xul had agreed to a test of sorts.
The hoverbike slowed to a halt, leaving him floating directly under Meteor's massive bulk. Within seconds, it would strike him. The Diablo Looper grinned.
"Let's see how the Iron Maiden curse holds up against this, shall we?"
-x-x-
{...One-Punch Man}
AVALANCHE watched on as Meteor's pulverised remnants shot back out into the depths of space from whence it came. Most of them found their jaws hanging low at the spectacular demise of the Black Materia's summon.
Most of them.
Cloud shook his head. "Yeah... I honestly don't know why I expected Saitama to do anything else."
Tifa shook herself. "Hm, that might be something for me to aim for."
Falling the long, long way to earth, Saitama sighed. So much for that being a challenge...
-x-x-
{...The Matrix}
Neo landed from his staggeringly high jump as Meteor's pieces were blasted away from the Planet. He straightened and looked over at AVALANCHE, most of whom were picking themselves up from the impact of his landing.
Most of them.
Tifa shook her head. "And that's a fail for originality. Saitama did it that way already. Not to mention Godzilla. And Vincent. And they both did it with more style. Sorry..."
Morpheus, who was replacing Barret, tutted at the hapless visiting Prophesied One. Neo scowled at them.
-x-x-
{...Godzilla}
A titanically powerful blast of fusion-breath drilled into Meteor. By the time the onlookers had blinked away the tears, the blazing meteorite was in three still-massive pieces and a great deal of relatively harmless chips that would mostly burn up in the Planet's atmosphere.
Tifa looked up at the kaiju, forcibly restraining herself from asking if that was it. As it turned out, it wasn't; a harness with a pair of full-sized rocket engines manifested into existence, donned and ready for lift-off. Tifa blanched, pulled the rest of AVALANCHE into her Pocket, and legged it as Godzilla went airborne.
It took about a minute for Godzilla to reach the tripartite Meteor. That was enough time for Tifa to get to safety, pull everyone back out of her Pocket, and sit back to see what happened next.
What happened next turned out to be Godzilla performing an awe-inspiring and surprisingly limber attack as he shot past, which involved the Weapon-sized lizard near-simultaneously spiking two of the largest meteorites with his two forepaws while swatting the third with his tail. Godzilla didn't bother to stop, instead rocketing away into the cosmos as Tifa thanked her lucky stars for having the video-camera set up on a nearby mountain-top beforehand.
It was days later that AVALANCHE discovered that those three meteorites had been shot with great force towards the Planet... Or more accurately, at Diamond and Ultimate WEAPONs and the Northern Crater. ...Oh, and the shield covering the Northern Crater was down, as became apparent when Ruby and Emerald WEAPONs turned up and started battling Sephiroth there. But in the meantime, Midgar and stopping Hojo from shooting at them with Sister Ray beckoned!
-x-x-
{...My Little Pony}
Discord looked up at the looming world-killer. "Well, we can't have that!"
There was a moment of weirdness, and then...
"It's still there," Cloud noted. Though it looked a lot more pinkish-mauve for some reason.
"No, that's an equivalent mass of pelagia noctiluca...in a big ball of water," he hastened to add.
"...What?"
"That's jellyfish for you mundane plebians."
"...What?"
-x-x-
{...Neon Genesis Evangelion}
AVALANCHE stared, certain that this was a joke but uncertain whether to laugh.
Gendo tapped his baseball bat against the sole of his shoe and took a stance. Then he deigned to glance over at Cloud, who was giving him a deadpan look.
He shrugged. "Hey, it worked on Sahaquiel..."
-o-
8.8 [Bardic_Knowledge ]
Squall blinked Awake to find himself in what appeared to be a somewhat ramshackle training ground. As he stood in the crowd of, presumably, cadets, he felt three pings go off near-simultaneously, and was only mildly surprised to find his return ping to be the only response. Later that night, he was found by three others.
"Hi, you must be the visiting Looper," said one, the blond kid. "I'm Armin, these are Eren and Mikasa." He indicated the boy and girl with him, respectively.
"Name's Squall. Looping member of SeeD."
"Seed?" asked Mikasa.
"Mercenary force trained to kill Sorceresses, dangerous embodiments of magic. Some are okay, but most tend to go mad with power."
"Oh, yeah, Eren," said Armin. "I did a headcount before we met up with Squall here. Annie's missing."
Eren blinked in surprise. "She is? Could this be a Variant Loop, then?"
"I don't know, guess we'll find out if she attacks later on."
Squall quirked an eyebrow. "Annie? I take it she's an enemy."
Mikasa nodded. "We don't really know what her motivations are yet, but Annie tends to sabotage a crucial mission a few years from now while attempting to capture Eren."
"And what makes you so special?"
"Wow, aren't you cold?" muttered Armin.
Meanwhile, Eren answered. "I'm what we call a 'Titan Shifter,' which means I can turn into a Titan."
Squall leaned back in his seat and browsed his in-Loop memories. "Funny. According to my memories, so can I."
This was received with a long look between the Anchors.
"Squall," started Armin, cautiously. "This may seem a bit odd, but, what's your family name?"
"Depends on who you ask, my dad or my mom's home village. I prefer to use Leonhart, though." Squall looked thoughtful for a moment. "Huh. Looks like that's my name here, too."
"I thought so. Looks like we won't have to worry about Annie at all this Loop, because you're replacing her. Her full name is Annie Leonhart."
-o-
8.9 [kaleidoscope89]
Noctis learned after a few time-resets that some things didn't stay the same as they originally did. While some events and people changed in circumstances, there were times items changed as well. Like the time every automobile, including the Regalia, was replaced by chocobo-drawn carriages. In hindsight, he should have expected the Royal Arms to change as well.
"What. Is. That." disbelief plainly audible in Noctis.
"The weapon of your ancestors." Cor stoically explained.
"It's a bat." Specifically, a bat with an intricate chocobo design. The Chocobat of the Wise.
"Each of your ancestors has a weapon which encapsulated their entire being, providing the perfect tool for battle. When you have embraced your duty as King, you will manifest your own."
Noctis didn't even want to know what this meant regarding the life of his ancestors. So, began (again) the Prince of Light's journey to collect the royal arms he would need (again).
Battle of Insomnia
It was entirely unfair Ardyn kept the standard weapons while Noctis had this mishmash of items. On the other hand it was very cathartic to wail on Ardyn with a chocobo bat, toy hammer, boxing gloves, his father's walking cane... and even a fork. Not a standard dining fork, but a huge one the size of greatsword. For the last strike, Noctis summoned his own personal weapon which he had a lot of pride in.
"I am Noctis! King of Fishing!"A crystalline fishing rod struck down Ardyn's physical form, which only left the banishment in the astral realm left before time would reset again. He would miss this majestic fishing rod most of all.
-o-
8.10[Flametusk]
Tidus found himself being sucked into Sin after the Blitzball game in Dream Zanarkand when he Awoke. Sending out a ping, he got two in return. A quick check of his loop memories showed that Auron and Jecht were switched for the loop, but otherwise everything was baseline.
Seeing the stylized 'A', Tidus swam down to Auron.
"Old man? This has certainly thrown me for a loop," He said when he reached the central platform.
"If you need an anchor, just look behind you, Tidus."
Tidus turned around just in time for Yuna to run into him.
"Yuna? What are you doing here?"
" I... well... we don't have much time to talk. You'll understand relatively soon. As far as I can tell, we're the only ones Awake so far, and other than a few minor differences, this loop is going baseline," Yuna said.
Auron continued, "I'm taking you to Baaj. Every edition of a story needs to start somewhere, after all."
-x-x-
Tidus was on the beach at Besaid, meeting the Aurochs for this loop. When he mentioned that he had been close to Sin, he noticed that for his survival, they weren't praising Yevon. Instead, they were praising... 'Yuna?'
-o-
8.11 Final Fantasy IX / Digimon Frontier [Opus J]
Part 5 (Or how I learned to Like the Monk)
The morning hadn't been nearly as quiet as the evening before it - but that was to be expected when a pair of assassins raided Madain Sari for Dagger's necklace, and ended up having one of them join the group. Amarant was a muscular beast, with scraggly red hair and skin that had something of a blueish tint to it. He also brooded more than Koji while he worried about his newly discovered twin... And that took some doing.
Still, the trip to the enormous tree was made slightly easier when the newest warrior joined them. And, hilariously, Zidane ambushed him to not only give him a new weapon (another cannon), but he also gave him a number of Phoenix Downs, and informed him just what they did to the zombies ahead. He actually found himself enjoying the job of returning the living dead to their homes.
The trip wasn't something that Tommy would have thought he'd ever had made on his own, and it vaguely reminded him of Sefriotmon, with the inside an enormous construct. The trip to the deepest roots was also psychedelic, riding a giant, rotating leaf. It was weird, even for a kid who had fought angels, knights, and dragons in his own world.
The fact that destroying the odd Zombie Tree would cause other problems didn't stop him. Kuja needed to be stopped.
Upon exiting, the group came across Queen Brahne once more - but this time, she wasn't focused on them. She had her sights set upon her weapon supplier - who now countered her summons of the rampaging Ifrit, the hellfire blaze, with one of his own.
Bahumut.
It was over in a moment.
Watching Dagger and her mother talk was extremely uncomfortable, when all was said and done. She had mass produced an army of golems, destroyed the lives of thousands, and tried to kill her own daughter... yet Dagger still loved her. In a way, it was a shadow of many of his own relationships, before he had changed - even those of him and his brother. It was not a thought that comforted him.
He wanted to be relieved at her passing... But instead he felt sorry - for Dagger, and the Queen.
-x-x-
The destruction of Alexandria was already complete before he knew what had happened. The usual defense had come to life, the group had charged in to battle Kuja... And the city was wrecked by Garland, who refused to be endangered by his own creation. Honestly, the parallels between Vivi and Kuja were a bit frightening, and Zidane wondered if Vivi could have chosen a path that mirrored Kuja's, if he had been driven down other paths.
Now there was a scary thought. Vivi as an emo.
Soon enough, they were on the airship, looking for trouble in the form of a rogue weapons dealer. They found him in the desert palace. Unfortunately, they had landed in his prison, so things went sideways again. Zidane hated that it was so hard to stop Kuja at this point - if only...
He shook his head. Sooner or later, he would figure out how to save him from his own madness.
-x-x-
Tommy did not appreciate being in a prison over boiling magma. He appreciated it even less when the floor started to open up, in a manner reminding him firmly of a comic book villains elaborate death trap. He firmly suppressed the desire to run around madly, screaming ' Kupo kupo kupo ' and put his back against the door. He was disarmed, so he would have to hope one of the others could save the day.
As he watched the floor vanish, he couldn't help but let his mind wander. If this was the end, was this how it was going to go? Afraid, as he so often was? For a moment, he stood watching his life flash before his eyes. "To help with this, Kupo." He said after that, and stepped forward - and the floor snapped shut. After a moment, the door unlocked, causing Tommy to blink. "Huh."
As he walked to the door, Tommy made a decision. He wasn't going to let anything hold him back anymore. Not fear, not fury, not his own weakness. He was going to be his own Moogle - err, man.
-x-x-
Zidane couldn't help but feel a bit smug as he once more dragged Amarant out of Ispen's Castle. He knew that they were nearing the trip to Memoria, towards the end of their journey, but he also knew that it had changed all of his friends for the better. Including his newest friend, Tommy. The boy was much more self assured, and had changed from the uncertain child to the confident gunner he was now. Nearly a year with them, and he was ready to face this, or any other world.
It was time to face Kuja - and watch him break into pieces. It was time to reach Terra.
-o-
8.12 [VS21 ]
"Wow, so that's what happened there?" Vaan asked Ramza who replied with, "Yep" before immediately drinking the chocolate milkshake he ordered. Right now both of them were in a booth in Retroville's Candybar, talking about what happened the last time Vaan tried to change history so that Ramza's Ivalice would be more like Vaan's Ivalice...
Given the Anchor for that Loop was off-planet with the other native Loopers for a while, Vaan and Ramza were quickly getting the details from each other over what happened and both were not liking what they heard from the other...
"So The Occuria are becoming more hostile to your group?" Ramza asked
Vaan replied, "Yeah, The Occuria lead us in Baseline to try to maintain their control over Ivalice but with all of our going off the baseline script, they're becoming more unpredictable and more prone to try to stop us in a Loop..."
"Well, you wound up making some changes in my Ivalice, if that makes you feel better." Ramza said which made Vaan down his milkshake and say, "Still doesn't seem as if we succeeded on that front, at this rate, the only way for you to experience my Ivalice would to be for you to Loop in there..."
"Well I'm sure we'll come up with a good plan sooner or later..." Ramza said and then both went back to deliberating their plans over milkshakes.
-o-
8.13 [Tovath]
One of the soldiers started cussing out someone named Bhunivelze. That soldier wasn't someone that Celes recognized which given that there were very few female soldiers in the Imperial Army and none of them had pink hair meant Looper.
"Sergeant, please come see me in my office."
Celes' office didn't have much more than a desk, stuffed full of papers, and a couple of chairs. The only thing that could be considered an ornament was a map of the world that General Leo had given her.
"Sit down, sergeant." said Celes "Are you feeling a bit Loopy?"
The woman looked confused at the question. "I don't know what you mean, sir." She hadn't fumbled at all with the sir which was a good thing as far as Celes was concerned.
Celes sighed internally. "Let's try this, has time been repeating for you?"
"How...what do you know about that?" The woman grabbed for her sword. Odd grip, she must be used to a different type of blade.
"The same thing is happening to me. What caused this is rather more complicated." She got down to explaining about the Loops, again. How many times was this now? "...Currently there are three, sometimes four Loopers in this world. Terra is the anchor, but since you are also likely an anchor she might not be awake. There is a way to find out how many people are in a loop called Pinging. We will get to how to do that later, but first I have two questions. What is your name?"
"Lightning, sir, but my records might say that it is Claire Farron."
Celes smiled. "Lightning it is then. The other question is more complicated. As you might have noticed, if you looked at your in loop memories we are kind of working for an evil empire and Kefka is going to destroy the world in less than a year. Would you like to help try and stop it?"
-o-
8.14
Final Fantasy Senshi [tovath]
Part 6
This was Alma Beoulve's first loop out of Ivalice and she was loving it. Her brother, Ramza was being over-protective, but he did have a point so she let him get away with it for now. This Loop was so different from her home loop in every way imaginable. Society was much more open here. And the technology; One could do in minutes what would take all day back home.
Not to mention the myriad new forms of entertainment they had here, like this amusement park they were at. She had heard about Dreamland theme park on the TV what a great invention and decided to go. It had been easy enough to convince Ramza to come with. She just told him she was going and he offered to accompany her. If she hadn't already planned for his over-protectiveness, she would be most annoyed You get kidnapped and used to... She was not going to think about that right now.
Alma saw someone in the crowd she recognized "Terra, what are you doing here?"
Terra looked surprised to see her. "Just looking around, I guess."
"You guess, what do you mean by that?" Alma grabbed her arm, "Come look around with us." Terra shrugged off Alma's hand "I'm here with some others actually." She pointed some young men coming though the crowd. One of them was the assistant at Terra's shrine, who she thought was named Bartz; the second was the pale haired boy who had brought his possessed friend to the shrine and the last she didn't recognize at all.
"Are any of them your," What was the proper word? "boyfriend?"
Terra shook her head. "No, just friends. I don't have a boyfriend."
Alma had a sense of approaching dread. It was no where as strong as a Lacavi, but still... She turned to see the park's mascot, the Dream Princess. Then she noticed that not only brother but also Terra and the boys with her were looking in the same direction.
"That is not good." said Ramza
"No isn't, but the fact that you can sense it is interesting." the pale haired boy said with as much authority as their father, Barbaneth, had.
Ramza pulled a rose out and said, "I think we are both fully Awake and have a stake in the matter." The rose was not a normal rose, of course. The guy her brother was Replacing had the ability to pull evil destroying roses out of the ether. She knew that her bother was really hoping that he got to keep this ability after the loop was over.
The pale haired boy raised an eyebrow. "I see we will have to talk later. For now will you keep an eye on that thing while Squall and I go take care of the Candy House."
Her brother nodded, but after they left he turned to Terra, "What is the Candy House?"
"It's where a number of people will soon disappear due to the Dark Kingdom. We are going to stop that before it happens." She looked more serious than Alma had ever seen her before.
The 'Dream Princess' wandered around the park seemingly at random for awhile, before turning into a gap between two plain buildings. When they entered the alleyway it turned into a monster and attacked. If it had hoped to take them by surprise by doing that it was sorely mistaken. Her brother was used to such attacks and had his sword out before the monster was though transforming. Interestingly enough Bartz and Terra had drawn their swords just as fast, but Terra did not move to face the monster. Things were a bit tight in here, but that didn't seem –
CLANK
Terra blocked the sword held a knight in dark blue and black armor and a cape with a lining that seemed blue one moment and red the next.
"You have good senses." he said
"Any ambush has a back attack." Terra replied
I see" he started a complex series of attacks that went so fast that that Alma didn't see how Terra could keep up. Alma knew she wasn't much of a fighter, but she had one thing that would be useful here. "Aegis" That would bestow an array of protective boons on Terra. Now, did her brother need any help? No, he and Bartz had just slayed the monster.
"Well I best take my leave." said the knight. "Tell my brother I said hello." He jumped up and disappeared. What was that all about?
-o-
8.15 [Flametusk]
Ruby Awoke holding an interesting trident, standing on what appeared to an altar surrounded by water in what appeared to be a city that seemed to be based on the hub city of Venice. Seeing how there wasn't any pings, she checked her loop memories. "So, seems my name is Rubyrosa Nox Fleuret this loop, and I'm something called the 'Oracle' and need to awaken something called 'Leviathan' so that my childhood friend Noctis, who turns out to be the King of the country that the country I lived in is at war against, can get its power and be able to end something called the 'Starscourge'." She used her loop memories to awaken Leviathan, and simply followed what her in-loop self would do, trying to follow the baseline as close as she could, since she did want to save this world.
When a man who her memories informed her was Ardyn Izunia, imperial chancellor of Niflheim showed up, Ruby could tell that he was bad news. Part of it was the fact that he tried to stab her. She couldn't have that, so she pocketed the trident for her weapon museum, grabbed Crescent Rose from her pocket and cut the man in two, before checking how Noctis was doing with Leviathan.
-x-x-
Noctis had gone through this point many times before. Most of the time, he traveled back to the start of his journey, before Insomnia fell. This time, he traveled back to the point where he started fighting Leviathan, except... "Wait, Ruby? Who on Eos is that? She's not Luna! If Ardyn wasn't about to kill her, like he has pretty much every other time I've gone through this journey, I'd ask her what she did with Luna." As he was thrown to the ground after telling the Hydraean to give him her power, and looked at where Luna "No, Ruby." would be, so he was surprised to see that she managed to dodge Ardyn's attack, and somehow pulled a red scythe out of nowhere, and had bisected Ardyn, before teleporting to Noctis.
"Hey, you need a hand?" The fake Oracle asked,
"Don't, don't touch me. Tell me where Luna is! What did you do to her?"
Ruby had no idea who Luna was, so she guessed by Noctis' reaction that she was who Ruby was replacing this loop. She also guessed by his reaction that this was his first fused loop.
"Tell me. Has time been repeating for you?"
"What are you talking about? This nightmare that I keep reliving? Having to relive my father and Luna dying over and over? Why? What did I do to deserve this? Why am forced to endure this alone?"
"Why are you repeating time? Well, it has to do with the fact that you are literally the most important person in the universe. I will explain all, and would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me. Actually, how about we go somewhere that I can more easily explain this?"
"Fine. Wait- wherection did everything go? Where are we?" Noctis asked as Ruby took him into her subspace pocket,
"This is my subspace pocket. Welcome to the Multiverse, which is currently broken. The Multiverse is a giant tree, which is also a computer, called Yggdrasil. Each universe is a branch of the tree, and the gods are programmers in charge of fixing the tree, by putting all the branches into time loops to fix them. I'm billions of years old, and will teach you about the loops."
-x-x-
"So, Ruby, you're saying that I'm this "anchor", and that if I die before the loop ends, the loop crashes? Well, I was certainly the wrong choice. At the end of what you call my baseline, I literally sacrifice myself to end the Starscourge. At least it explains why time reset again after I tried to kill Ardyn in my first loop, when he showed up at Galdin Quay."
"I can kind of remember doing the same thing way back in my first loop. Except, in my case I died only a few minutes after. You survived a lot longer in your first loop than I did. Well, At least Cinder, she's the one that killed me, is looping now. She actually woke up from a variant where she was mine and Yang's sister. The looping her isn't evil. It's possible that the same thing may happen to Ardyn. But you were saying how the person I'm replacing his loop dies in baseline?"
"...Can we change the subject? I... don't want to talk about it."
"You really care about her, don't you? Well, the more emotionally attached you are to the person, the more likely they are to start looping. It's so that the anchor doesn't go insane from loneliness. Unfortunately, it's emotionally attached, not only positive emotions. That means that Ardyn could loop as well. Actually, I would say that either Luna or Ardyn will probably be the first person to Awaken in this branch. Either way, you have to remember that many powers from other loops carry over, such as Aura from my home loop. You also have your pocket, which does get bigger over time, yours probably isn't big enough to fit much in it yet. So, once you've gone through a few fused loops, you'll be able to end the Starscourge without dying. Here since you would almost be in the crystal by now, I'll leave, don't touch anything, I'll get to where the crystal is, and then you can leave, and go into the crystal, and then I'll just go killing daemons while I wait. Oh! But first, you need this to enter the crystal, right?"
Ruby gave the ring of the Lucii to Noctis, and then apparated to the crystal, having taken the information from Noctis' mind, and took Noctis out of her pocket with a few last words.
"You should put the ring in your pocket for next loop. I think that this loop isn't going to be worth sticking to baseline, really, so once you get out of the crystal, maybe just wait for the loop to end. Especially since you don't have Leviathan or Shiva's power this loop. Sorry about that by the way."
With that, she went on to explore Eos and expand her weapon museum.
-x-x-
"So, time is repeating, huh? Maybe... Maybe I could fix things. It seems I'll be alone for a while, though. May as well get some practice pinging and pocketing. The Six know I'll need it," Noctis said as he prepared for many lonely loops before his friends started looping.
"Here's to the world tree. Please don't let Ardyn loop."
-o-