3rd Chapter, I'd like to see some more reviews! Thanks!
I'd like to announce that starting with Chapter 4 I will be getting this story beta-read by The Chosen Pessimist. This is for accidental grammar errors (I tend to miss some things) and to clean up fight scenes (AKA Less confusion). Thank you for choosing to beta my story!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Final Fantasy characters mentioned in this chapter
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Chapter 3: Tyrants
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The marble staircase did go on forever, it seemed. The only thing that could be heard in The Void at the time were the sounds of the footsteps of the four. Suicune was leading the way, and they all had to trust that he would stop at the right place.
It was a peculiar feeling, going down this staircase. First off, besides it going to nowhere, it wasn't supported by anything; it seemed to float steadily in The Void as the four descended the pure white steps. Not only this, but the whole atmosphere felt empty. Something was off, but that was to be expected. The Void is not like the human world, nothing is the same.
Sean was the most unnerved by the feeling of emptiness. He was always afraid of the concept of going into space, and this had the same effect. He didn't like the idea of space being a never-ending vacuum of no air and death; he felt The Void was the same. The only difference here was that he could breathe and wasn't being sucked in by any kind of vacuum. He rather felt that a vacuum would randomly open and doom him into the torment The Void so openly promised.
After many hours of walking, Suicune spoke up, there's something you all must know about this dimension.
"That is?" Jo asked.
It is ruled by Tyrants, there are twelve of them. You see, throughout time the world has seen many purely evil people, so we Pokemon had decided to seal them off in The Void when the time came, and wiped the memories of them from the people's minds. The problem was, as we soon found out, that these evil people used the power of The Void to strengthen themselves into unimaginable forms and granted them powers unlike that we have seen before. I'm sure you've heard of them.
"Who are they?" Julie asked.
I will name them in the order they were sealed, Garland, The Emperor, The Cloud of Darkness, Golbez, Exdeath, Kefka, Sephiroth, Ultimecia, Kuja, Jecht, Vayne, and Orphan.
"Wait!" yelled Sean, stopping in his tracks, "Those are all of the main villains from 12 Final Fantasy games! What's going on?"
You see, Suicune began, the same man who discovered the Pokemon discovered the existence of these wretched people. As you know, the Final Fantasy and Pokemon series all had their roots in Nintendo. This is how the head of Squaresoft at the time met the head of GameFreak. Thus began project ideas, and so did creative licensing. The head of GameFreak decided to sell the ideas of these Tyrants to Squaresoft as his own. Squaresoft bought them and made games based off of them.
"This is all very interesting, but…" Julie began, "What are the chances we'll meet these Tyrants?"
They all know we're here now. My guess is that we'll meet one as soon as we get off of the staircase.
"WHAT?" Sean yelled, his voice cracking, "We have to fight THOSE guys? That's crazy! They're hard enough in the games, but what this is for REAL. The Cloud of Darkness' particle beam, Sephiroth's Supernova, Orphan's Retribution…" Sean continued to list the devastating attacks of Kefka and Golbez before Suicune interrupted the nervous teenager.
Look! We have no choice but to fight them, and you've played against them in video games! You know exactly what to expect and how to handle and counter all of it, correct?
"Well," Jo said, "Some of them we do, but there are some final bosses that were too hard to beat normally, like the Cloud of Darkness…"
"Don't remind me." Sean said, "That particle beam…"
The how would you beat them? Suicune asked.
"Cheats. I used an Action Replay to max out my character's levels in Final Fantasy III." Sean said casually, "Seriously, that Particle Beam was a BITCH!"
…do humans cheat on everything?
"I don't." Jordan said, "I beat Final Fantasy IV without cheat codes. It was hard, but I did it."
Cheating or not, you do know what to expect, correct?
"I guess…" Sean said, rubbing his arms nervously.
We'll just have to give it our all. We can't turn back, and you all know what's at stake here.
The four nodded with painful expressions on their faces.
Good. Now, we're getting close to the point of no return, so get ready.
"I thought the point of no return was around five-thousand steps ago…" Jordan mumbled.
They continued, thoughts of the Tyrants racing through their minds. Nobody was as worried as Sean, though. All of them had played a Final Fantasy game, but they weren't Jordan's cup of tea, Julie doesn't play games much, and Jo had only played Final Fantasy X and III. He had played most of the games and only beat three of them without cheat codes. This was the reason that he was nervous, if he couldn't beat them in a game, how could he beat them for real? This was a problem that tore at him the whole way down the steps until Julie stopped in front of him, causing Sean to stop abruptly.
"I know you're worried." She whispered, making sure nobody could hear her except Sean. "Which one are you most worried about?"
Sean took a second to give his answer, what if the Tyrants were listening right now? Could they possibly be looking to send out the one he fears most?
"Sephiroth." He responded, his voice shaking.
Julie continued after she got her answer. She said no more.
A confused Sean stumbled after Julie down the staircase. Why in the world did she ask him that and not give a response? Something was up.
They continued walking forward until Suicune came to a complete halt. This startled Jordan and Jo, causing them to stumble a bit on the narrow steps. Sean held his breath for a split second before they got their balance back.
We're here.
At that moment, Julie let out a loud sigh of an unbeknownst nature and fell forward, right into Jo's back, who then fell into Jordan, who then fell into Suicune, who at that point knew that the three were falling like dominos and caught them all on his back sturdily.
Sean quickly got down to the pile up and pulled off the unconscious Julie, Jordan and Jo were then freed and got onto separate steps as Sean tended to his unconscious girlfriend.
"Julie!" He yelled, "Are you alright?" He started to sweat nervously as he tried to shake her awake. He received no response.
"What just happened?" Jo asked quickly, the words almost being lost in her fast manner of nervous-speak.
Suicune thought for a moment, I don't know everything about The Void, but my guess is something happened that her body couldn't handle and caused her to collapse.
Sean checked her pulse, it was normal. He let out sigh of relief. "Still, this was very sudden. Wouldn't the body give signs to the victim before collapsing?"
"Actually," Jordan said, "Sometimes people can randomly black out before they know it. A lot of seizures are like that, people just fall to the ground and the next thing they know they're in the hospital surrounded by flowers and a family member. They're given medication and are perfectly fine afterwards."
"He's got a point," Jo said, "Did Julie ever tell you of a pre-existing medical condition? Maybe that could be the cause of it."
"No." Sean said plainly, "I think she would've told all of us if she had one."
I don't think seizures need pre-existing conditions to happen. They just happen sometimes.
"Whatever," Sean said, "The important thing here is that we keep her safe."
Right. We're where we need to be, anyway. I need you all to follow me.
"Where?" Jordan asked, "The staircase still only goes in one direction, and I don't see anything indicating a path to get off here.
You're right. The staircase still goes downward, and there isn't a path to get off of here. Just follow me.
"Okay…" Sean said nervously, "Why do I have a feeling that this isn't going to be easy?" Jo gulped.
It's not hard; you just have to trust me. Suicune said,he turned to face the three and smiled deviously, ready to take a leap of faith?
"I don't like how that sounds…" Jordan said. At that instant Jo let out a piercing scream as Suicune launched himself off of the staircase, jumping to their right and plummeting into the abyss below.
"Suicune!" Jo shrieked, "He's gone! We're lost! We're doomed!"
Sean was left in shock, his face locked in a blank expression. Jordan shrugged and took Julie from a zoned-out Sean. He held her legs in his right hand and her head in his left.
"See ya!" Jordan yelled as he jumped after Suicune, his body being swallowed by darkness as he fell.
"JORDAN!" Jo screamed, "What's happening? How in the world will we continue without Julie and Jordan now?" She looked at Sean, who had woken up from his shock and was now wearing a panicked expression.
"I think we just have to follow them…" Sean said.
"WHAT?" Jo screamed. She ran to Sean's step above her, "Are you CRAZY? We can't just jump into The Void! We have no idea what's down there! We could die as soon as we get off the stair-"
"JO!" Sean yelled, grabbing her shoulders, "Get a hold of yourself! I'm going to jump, you have to decided if you're coming with me or not NOW."
Jo broke free from his grasp and crossed her arms, "I'm not going."
Sean sighed, "I guess I have to make the decision for you, then." He took a deep breath and looked Jo in the eyes. She began to back up.
"Sean, what are you plan-" The rest of her sentence was lost in a scream as she was tackled off of the staircase, Sean holding onto her in a death grip as they plummeted into The Void after Jordan, Julie, and Suicune.
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Sorry for the delay AND the short chapter. You see, school started and so did my clubs and such.
The shortness of the chapter was mostly due to the ending of the last sequence, it just seemed right.
Next Chapter: Wishmaster