Lightning's Story

As Lightning travelled through hills and plains with Kain, she could not help wondering if her companions had successfully purged Ultimecia. Things had happened so fast. They were fighting defensively against Zidane, wondering the best way to get his senses back when the Warrior of Light appeared. He swiftly brought Zidane back to his senses with Jecht holding Zidane down. As their other companions rushed to aid Squall, the Warrior of Light had passed Kain a simple message, "Cloud and Terra are on the move. It's your turn. Now go and find ExDeath." And he too, joined in the others in search of Squall, Tifa and Ultimecia.

Without a moment to lose, Kain had turned on his heels and without another second of hesitation, Lightning had followed him. On their way, Kain had consulted a lone moogle which informed them that it has sighted ExDeath at the nearby hills earlier that day. There are plenty of moogles roaming around this world, but most of the time, they are rather elusive, preferring to have as little to do with the war as possible. It was sheer luck which brought them face to face with one when they needed it.

Hoping fervently that ExDeath was still there, Lightning and Kain ran as fast as possible without stopping to catch their breath. When they finally reached the hills the moogle had indicated, the sight of a bulky light-blue figure ironically comforted them.

"Imbeciles…" ExDeath menacingly snarled as he caught sight of them, "Why have you come?"

"Nothing less than to get rid of you," Lightning nonchalantly replied, unsheathing her gunblade as she did so. Kain too readied his lance beside her.

"Hmph," ExDeath snorted his disapproval. "Such arrogance… What makes you think you can do that?" he mockingly sneered.

"Try me." Lightning said and without another warning she had charged forward.

ExDeath found himself at a disadvantage against Lightning's speed. She charged relentlessly at him, sending an unyielding series of slashes and thunderbolts. To make matters worse for him, his defense turned useless as Kain launched his attacks from ExDeath's back.

Lightning and Kain's teamwork was flawless. Both had been perfectly trained and adapted for battle and both could read each other's moves and follow up accordingly. A thunderbolt from Lightning. A pierce of Kain's lance. A series of slashes from Lightning's gunblade. A tornado from Kain. A series of bullets… and on it goes. Before long, ExDeath was so severely weakened that he had to lean on his sword to keep himself from crumbling.

"Lightning!" Kain called out to her, and she understood at once. It was time for the finishing move. As Kain cast a huge tornado, Lightning infused her thunder magic into raging winds. By the time it flew in ExDeath's direction, it was no less than a ferocious storm. The magical entity engulfed ExDeath at once and from within the tempestuous combination of wind and thunder, ExDeath's howls of pain, anguish and rage could be heard… until he shattered into a million tiny splinters. The storm subsided immediately and all that's left was the glowing splinters, blown away by the gentle breeze.

"Kain! Lightning!" A familiar voice can be heard calling out at them. It was Terra, with Cloud following closely behind her.

Lightning smiled at the pair while Kain gave an acknowledging nod before asking, "How did it go?"

"Great!" Cloud replied, "We set Kuja and the Cloud of Darkness against Kefka."

"That's good," Kain said appreciatively, "Now let's pay Kefka a visit."

"Wait," Cloud cut in before Kain began walking away, "There's still Sephiroth and his bizarre manikins. Those manikins are way more aggressive than usual and it's hard to break free of them."

However, Kain simply replied, "You don't have to worry about those manikins. I'll explain later. For now, let's take care of Kefka while he's still facing Kuja and the Cloud of Darkness." And with that, he took off. With a confused look, Lightning, Cloud and Terra followed him.

…

"You puny imbeciles!" Kefka shrieked, "How dare you attack me!?" Frenzied with rage, he fired multiple magic spells successively at the Cloud of Darkness and Kuja.

Kuja blocked them with his own magic powers, but he, like the Cloud of Darkness, was badly worn out from their previous battle with Terra and Cloud. His powers waning, half of the spells managed to pass through his defenses and injure him even more. The Cloud of Darkness too, failed to neither dodge nor block the array of magical assaults and collapsed onto the ground.

"What… were you thinking!?" the silver-haired genome shouted at Kefka, panting wildly as he sent silver balls of light in Kefka's direction, "sending your… puppets at us? You are a traitor!"

"Puppets?" Kefka asked back, his confused look went undetected by neither Kuja nor the Cloud of Darkness. After all, the clown was a violent mixture of lunacy and the unpredictable. Carelessly avoiding Kuja's assaults, he muttered incoherently to himself, "Don't tell me those puppets got out of control? No… Impossible!"

"You are still playing… this game of yours?" the wraith weakly snarled at him.

Her comment brought Kefka's thoughts back on the battlefield. He gave a fanatical laugh before he fired another flurry of magic spells at them, chuckling as he did so, "Whatever your reasons may be… YOU have attacked ME! You deserve nothing less than death and destruction!" Creating a huge blast as its finale, the forms of Kuja and the Cloud of Darkness faded within it as Kefka laughed maniacally.

"You shouldn't even consider fighting against me when you've been so badly injured from your previous battle…" Kefka said, grinning at the spot where his fellow warriors once stood.

"And neither should you!"

Without warning, a violent mixture of fire, water, wind and thunder blasted him away. He fell several feet from his previous position, growling in pain. The colossal ball of raging energy had inflicted massive damage on him. Blood trickled down his head and his left eye, but even through the stream of red, he could make out the figures of Lightning, Kain, Terra and Cloud.

Terra and Cloud… That's right! His puppets had indeed gone out of control. Cursing under his breath, he tried to charge up another magic spell to no avail. His magic was drained from his relentless firing in the previous battle, and his current condition contributed nothing to it.

"I promise I'll make this quick." Kefka could hear Kain say. And a split second later, he felt Kain's lance pierce through his back and emerge from his abdomen. His last view was that of his hands evaporating into a mist of black swirls.