(Ultimecia's Throne)

Making our way to the center of the room, my eyes wandered over the sparse details and slowly drifted to the ceiling, only to realize, there was no ceiling.

The clouds slowly parted to let the full moon shine down upon the interior of the room and I felt my eyes narrow as they travelled the walls, checking out every corner for any possible surprise attack.

There was nothing but gauzy, crimson curtains hanging against the walls and fluttering in a faint breeze.

Well, that, and the giant stairs leading up in the center of the room, up to a large golden throne with a giant stone gargoyle on the back of it.

A woman with long white hair sat in that throne, staring blankly at us with glowing red eyes. The dress she wore was now more black than anything else, and the tribal markings seemed to glow with barely concealed power. As her gaze travelled over us all, her eyes narrowed and became angry.

"...SeeD... SeeD...SeeD... Seed, SeeD, SeeD!" Her voice was deep and thickly accented as her eyes flared brightly. "Kurse all SeeDs..." she stated with a sneer. "Swarming like lokusts akross generations." She rolled her eyes. "You disgust me."

"Look who's talking." Kapri muttered quietly, rolling her own eyes.

Ultimecia's head shot in her direction, but then turned back to the rest of us. "The world was on the brink of the ever elusive 'Time-Compression'. Insolent fools!" Shooting into a standing position, she snarled at us and grinned evilly. "Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death! I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I shall rule, and you will be my slaves for all eternity!"

Slowly, she began to descend the stairs, and her eyes turned to Kapri. "You." She growled lowly. "I brought you here because you wished it. 'I wish I was anyplace but here!' were your words, I believe." she cooed with a glare. "And yet, you joined my enemy. You would have served as my successor, but now, for your insolence, you shall pay dearly."

Frowning, Kapri shrugged. "Go evil? Been there, done that. Really wasn't worth it." she quipped with a mock thoughtful look before raising her crossbow.

Raising her arms to the sky, black fairy wings spread from Ultimecia's back and she lowered her arms to glare at us. "Whom shall I exterminate first?"

Shrugging, I braced myself and raced forward, slashing at her with my gunblade, but staggering back from a blow I took. Apparently, like sorceress Miko, she could create ice blades.

Dustin was kneeling at my side in a second, handing me a hi-potion as Kapri called Angelo to use Invincible Moon.

Tori used her Bad Breath attack, which she stole from a Malboro, to Blind, Silence and Slow Ultimecia.

Don't laugh. Those attacks can be lethal!

Marah cast Wall on all of us before Triple casting Meltdown on the sorceress, and Dustin raced forward right after to pummel her. As soon as he was done, Hunter was firing his rifle, and Tori snapping her whip.

Notice we were trying to keep her from attacking? I could sense the power within her and I was sure the others could, too. We didn't want to let her get off a full out attack, knowing it would probably kill us with one hit.

Kapri summoned Cerberus to come and cast Double and Triple on us all before sumoning Carbuncle quickly to cast Reflect.

Then Hunter summed Diablos to use his dark attack, which we realized didn't do much damage. Probably because Ultimecia was an evil creature, her powers stemmed from darkness, making her impervious to it.

Racing forward again, I performed the Fire Phoenix, staggering back as my vision swam blurrily from the lack of energy. Quickly using a potion, I shook my head and felt my eyes widen as I jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding more ice blades and a fireball. Damn! I thought with a frown as I quickly cast Haste on myself, Kapri and Tori.

Kapri used her crossbow on Ultimecia before biting her lip and closing her eyes.

She was calling on Angel Wing.

Running forward, I took up a position in front of her, blocking Ultimecia's attempts to stop her, and countering with powerful Meldown spells.

A moment later, I felt a light touch on my shoulder and shivered slightly as I turned and took a step to the side, blinking in surprise when Kapri's glowing blue eyes focused warmly on mine before turning top Ultimecia and hardening. Raising a single eyebrow, she raised both her hands to the sky and a hail of lightning bolts shot down, hitting Ultimecia repeatedly before she threw her hands towards the ground and watching as the sorceress was engulfed in an inferno of fire.

Staggering back from the attack, Ultimecia collapsed to her knees, panting heavily before she turned her head to the side and grinned. "The ultimate GF... Allow me to show you... You will...SUFFER!" Cackling evilly, she raised a hand to her throne. "Griever! Make them bleed!"

There was a loud roar and a giant blue form flew over the back of her throne. Landing in front of us, it turned out to be a giant, blue lion with a blood red mane and eyes and black wings.

Griever...? I thought in shock, my gaze quickly travelling to my finger, which once held my ring, and then to the chain I wore under my red shirt, with a griever designed pendant. Frowning deeply, I grasped my gunblade tightly and raced forward, keeping up the attack.

Marah re-cast Wall on all of us before summoning Carbuncle to re-cast reflect.

Blinking a moment at the giant GF, Tori shook her head and gazed at it uncertainly. Taking a single step forward, she narrowed her eyes and snapped her whip out, hitting it in the chest before casting Electrocute and dodging a powerful swipe of one of it's massive blue claws.

Dustin took about three steps back in shock before sighing as his head fell to his chest and shaking his head with a groan. Raising his fists, he rolled his eyes before racing forward and jumping up onto Griever's claw, running up it's arm and punching it in the head before flipping and kicking it on his way down.

Hunter simply raised an eyebrow before raising his rifle and taking aim, firing multiple explosive shots at Griever's head.

Casting volley after volley of her most powerful spells at the GF, Kapri was clearly getting tired, despite the amount of sheer power she had.

We kept our attacks up continuously, but we were getting tired, and our supply of items was neary completely depleted. Hunter was barely standing, Marah was on her knees, Dustin was unconscious, and Tori was standing shakily.

...And the only one left with an ounce of magical power was Kapri, who was currently leaning on me, because she was so drained.

And me? I wasn't doing good. I had a bad gash on my side, that I refused to allow Kapri to heal, seeing that she needed her magic to fight that thing, and was barely able to breathe, with a sensation of squeezing in my chest.

Laughing evilly, Ultimecia slowly stood up. "You have lost. Time Compression begins in this time. You have no power. Surrender." she cooed with a grin.

I glanced weakly at the others and winced as I noticed them struggling to keep going. No... I won't let it end like this... Searching for any possible way to defeat her, I felt a surge of power within me and glared angrily at the sorceress. Taking a step forward, I shook my head and held my gunblade at my side. "I'll never give up!"

"Never!" Tori hissed angrily, shakily making her way to my side.

Dustin, who'd barely regained consciousness, crawled to our sides before slowly standing up and staring defiantly at her. "I don't think so!" he spat weakly, his eyes blazing with anger.

Closing my eyes, I fed off the power in me and raised my hand towards her, feeling something guide me. "Power of Air!"

"Power of Water!" Tori's voice echoed with a surprising strength.

"Power of Earth!" Dustin followed suit, just as strongly.

Opening my eyes, I watched in shock as three beams of power erupted from our hands and hit the sorceress and her GF head on, engulfing them in a mixed beam of light as the elements attacked them in full force.

I didn't happen to notice, however, Kapri's look of shock as her face paled.

Griever fell to the ground, fading to dust as the lights faded, and Ultimecia staggered weakly. "Time Compression will still begin... All existence, denied." she stated weakly, with an angry glare.

"Reflect on your...childhood... Your sensation... Your words... Your emotions... Time..." Her words almost became mechanical as she staggered backwards. "It will not wait... No matter...how hard you hold on..." Her evil gazed faltered into a pained one. "It escapes you... And..." Collapsing to her knees, she exploded into a large ball of fire, drowning out the last of her words.

I felt darkness overwhelm me as she faded into nothing, and weakly watched as the others collapsed one by one and faded away. The castle turned to blackness and I collapsed, welcoming the darkness...

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Like the reference to ending the battle? It just hit me out of nowhere.

Ok, so I lied. This chapter's not any longer, but I wanted to end it here. There's still one chapter to go, I think, which should be REALLY fun to explain and such. I should, hopefully, be done that chapter this week, as well. I'm already working on it and like where it's going, so far.

Hope you like it.

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"I wanna go there! To where Shane and I promised!"

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R+R please.

Thank you.

Tenshi.