Krimson- I've got World of Warcraft!
Damien- I'm sorry about him.
Krimson- Whoo! Warcraft!
Damien- He's been like this for a while now.
Krimson- My life has meaning!
Damien- I think he'll be out of it for a while longer.
Krimson- (Running around in circles) Yahoo!
Damien- This is Chapter 8: Now We're Screwed.
----------------
"Great, now I'm all sweaty." Zidane complained. The Black Mage jacket he had to wear was really heavy in the desert heat of the canyon beyond Conde Petie. Zidane was impressed with the Black Mages' determination. The heat didn't slow them down in the least.
It wasn't until they were at the crossroads where he had defeated Hilgigars that Zidane felt that he was far enough away from Conde Petie to take it off. He really didn't want to piss off the guards anymore than he already had.
"Are we nearly there?" one of the Black Mages asked Mikoto as they all marched.
"This is the path that leads us there." Mikoto answered simply. "We'll be there in a few hours."
"We don't have that much time." another Black Mage said. "We must hurry."
"Thirty-two." Kuja whispered to himself.
"What?" Zidane asked, now twirling his hat on his finger.
"That's the thirty-second time one of them has said that there's not much time left. I'm just tired of hearing it."
"They're just worried about each other."
"That may be true, but I'm still tired of hearing it."
"Well, it'll be over in a few hours, so you won't need to deal with it for much longer."
"True."
"But we have to hurry. There isn't much time left."
"Dammit Zidane!"
Hours later
The mist had spread throughout the area, making it look more like a misty harbor than an arid plain.
Kuja approached the edge of mist and held out his cupped hand, measuring the mist's purity. After a minute, he put his hand down and knelt to the soil beneath him and started to draw a symbol in the loose soil.
The Black Mages had clumped together away from the mist, but were close enough to see what Kuja was doing. Zidane was in front of the Black Mage group with Lani and Mikoto, half watching Kuja, half watching for any threats.
When Kuja was done drawing the symbol, he stood up. "This is a rejuvenation circle." he explained. "These patterns channel the energy needed for the spell to work properly."
The rejuvenation circle was mainly a circle with a creative collection of shapes with some writing which Zidane recognized as Terran. It was five feet in diameter and had taken Kuja just as many minutes to complete. It looked very similar to the transportation symbols at the Desert Palace.
"I'll need three volunteers for the next step." Kuja said. The Black Mages looked at each other nervously, untrusting of Kuja, but worried about Mr. 288's ever declining health. Finally, three Black Mages stepped out of the crowd and walked up to Kuja, who proceeded to assign each of them their own place to stand outside the circle. When he was done, each one of them was standing an equal distance away from each other.
"Now for the magic." Kuja said, enjoying his would-be stage time. "You three must cast Blizzard on the same spot at the same time."
The three Black Mages in the circle nodded to each other and began to concentrate on their spells. The Black Mages still in the crowd looked on, ready for whatever was going to happen. If Kuja was going to betray them, this would be the time and they would not be caught off guard.
As the three at the circle began to cast Blizzard, the symbol started to glow a light green. A cold air passed over it and condensed into a ball of ice as the three Blizzard spells were cast at the same time. At the same time the light from the symbol erupted in a vertical beam and overtook the ball of ice. The Black Mages all gasped in fear and surprise.
When the beam dissipated, Kuja approached the symbol and picked up a small cylindrical capsule waiting at its center. "This," he said, "Is the end result." He turned to the crowd. "I believe we already had a volunteer."
Mr. 288 stepped out from the crowd, assisted by two other Black Mages until he came to a stop while resting on his cane. He stretched out his hand. Kuja handed him the capsule. Mr. 288 took a deep breath and swallowed the pill.
The other Black Mages looked on in concern, unsure of what was going to happen
Mr. 288 took another deep breath, waiting. He didn't feel any different. By now, everyone's total concentration was placed on the experiment, awaiting the result.
Suddenly, Mr. 288 started to convulse. He grabbed his chest in pain and fell to his knees coughing. It was just like the Black Mages had feared.
"Kuja! You tricked us!" they cried.
"Traitor!"
"You won't get any more of us!"
The Black Mages all started to prepare their own spells. Kuja looked on in anger.
"Kuja," Zidane said, "What's going on?"
"Stop you fools!" Kuja yelled over the roars of the crowd. "He's replacing a lot of dying tissue rapidly. Did you honestly think it wouldn't hurt at all?"
The Black Mages didn't listen. They continued their cries of protest and let their spells loose at Kuja. He dodged as many as he could, but given the number of spells there were, escape was impossible. Kuja was hit in the chest with a Fira spell and was knocked to the ground. The barrage of spells didn't let up in the slightest. Kuja was getting hit so rapidly he couldn't even get up.
"KUJA!" Zidane ran to his brother's defense, but fell to the ground when he was tackled by Lani. She held onto his legs as tightly as she could.
"Don't be an idiot!" she yelled over the noise of the spells. "If you go out there you'll die too!"
"We can't just let him die!" Zidane was crawling with his hands to Kuja as best he could. "Mikoto make them stop! They're gonna kill him!"
Mikoto calmly walked over to Zidane's side and held his hands down with all of her weight.
"What are you doing?" Zidane yelled.
"I'm sorry Zidane," Mikoto answered softly, "but Lani's right. If you try to stop them, you'll die." It was hard for Zidane to hear her over all of the noise.
Kuja just laid there, motionless as the spells continued to slowly kill him.
"Stop it!" Zidane yelled in vain.
Kuja's blood was gathering in several pools around him.
"Stop it!"
Kuja wasn't even writhing. His wounds were deep and wide. Even if they did stop, blood loss alone would be enough to kill him.
"STOP IT!"
The Black Mages continued their assault.
"STOP!"
This time, the Black Mages held back, stopping whatever spell they had each started to cast.
Mr. 288 stood up with ease and comfort.
"It works." he said.
The Black Mages crowded around their leader in jubilation. They shouted cheers of joy and relief at Mr. 288's recovery.
While the Black Mages were celebrating, Lani and Mikoto let Zidane up, who ran and knelt by Kuja's side. Kuja no longer had any skin on his back. Most of his hair was matted down from all the blood or burned away. Zidane knew that if he moved him, Kuja would probably die of shock.
"Move." Mikoto demanded. Zidane stepped back as Mikoto pulled out an elixir from her pocket. She carefully tilted Kuja's head to the side. She poured as much of the elixir into his mouth as she could. Kuja coughed some of it out, but managed to drink most of it. Within seconds the skin on his back was restored and all his other injuries were gone as well. However, his hair was still burned and matted with blood.
"I told you it would work." Kuja said weakly.
"Lay back and rest." Mikoto ordered.
As they sat, relieved about Kuja's recovery, Mr. 288 approached Kuja, followed by the rest of the Black Mages.
"Thank you for your assistance Kuja." Mr. 288 said.
"Mmm hmm." Kuja replied.
"Although it would have been nice to know that it was going to hurt so much."
"My apologies."
Kuja, who had had enough of lying in the dirt surrounded by mist, tried to get up, but was sent to his knees by a jolt of pain ripping through his side. He gripped his side trying to subside the pain. Zidane took his other arm and, putting it around his shoulder, helped Kuja to his feet.
"So, if we use that same process on the same symbol, we can make as many of those pills as we need, right?" Mr. 288 asked.
"Correct." Kuja answered. "If you give me a minute I can make more to speed up production time."
"We would appreciate it." Kuja and Zidane couldn't see it, but it was obvious that Mr. 288 was smiling.
Mr. 386 stepped out from the crowd. "Kuja," he said. "The others and I would like to apologize for our actions." Mr. 386 was staring down at his feet with guilt. "We jumped to conclusions too quickly and overreacted. We're very sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Kuja said. "In a way I deserved it."
The other Black Mages all seemed to have guilty looks on their faces as well. As Kuja was hanging off of Zidane's shoulder he kept looking around. His gaze finally fell on the symbol he had drawn and his eyes went wide with terror.
"EVERYONE GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" he yelled.
Everyone turned to look at Kuja.
"What's wrong?" Zidane asked.
Kuja pushed Zidane away and, still gripping his side, walked up to the rejuvenation circle and, with his feet, tried to erase it.
"What are you doing?" Mr. 386 asked.
"There's blood on the rejuvenation circle." he answered. "It's been tainted."
Sure enough, some of Kuja's blood had fallen far enough away to reach the rejuvenation circle. It had collected in a small pool no bigger than a small coin, but that was more than needed for Kuja to be this concerned.
"What happens if there's blood on it?" Zidane asked.
An ear-piercing shriek was let out from the direction of the Iifa Tree. A hazy silhouette was seen coming towards them through the mist. As it became clearer, they saw that the shriek came from a dragon. Not a normal one either. This one looked like a Dracozombie, but its skin was in much worse condition. Many of its tendons were drooping far lower than what should have been possible. In many ways it looked like it was made of pinkish spaghetti on a loose skeletal frame. When it landed, they saw that it was also about five times the size of a normal Dracozombie. It let out another roar at its new prey.
"That." Kuja said.
----------------
Krimson- Warcraft!
Damien- Yeah, he's still doing this.
Krimson- Yes!
Damien- I'd stop him, but I worry about getting mauled.
Krimson- HAHA!
Damien- (grumbles) Please Read and Review.
Krimson- (starts juggling chainsaws out of sheer joy)
Damien- Stop that! You're gonna hurt-
Krimson- (Drops chainsaws)
Damien- Oh…dear…god.