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Part Seven: Shadows and Dust
Fox was traversing the woods of Macalania wasting time. He sensed that the others still had along way to go through the Thunder Plains.
He was over looking a lake when he felt its presense, it was a long way off but it was powerful. Fox sensed it was coming at an
incredible speed so he took off into the woods. He was making his way towards a large clearing he had discovered earlier, it was the best
place for an open battle with something this big.
After a few minutes he had reached the clearing and turned in the direction of the beast the he knew was the shadow. He waited for it while Lucavi spoke in his head.
"HA! THAT IS SOME BEAST ON ITS WAY! THIS IS GOING TO BE A GOOD BATTLE." Lucavi said in excitement. Fox was less optomistic, this shadow had such an overwhelming aura of power that Fox had considered just running for it. He knew that was not an option hhowever, as the beast was faster than he could ever dream of being.
Within a few minutes he heard the sound of trees getting trampled about a half mile away and readied himself. Thirty seconds later a huge beast came crashing into the clearing to face him. It was about twenty five feet tall and at least fifteen feet wide. It had strange symbols on its body. ОНЯКЕДМХИ НПСФХЕ it said, Fox had no idea what it said but he didn't think it really mattered anyway. The huge beast was ordorned with gold and covered top to bottom with meatal armor.
Its huge metal clad hands came down at Fox with amazing speed. Fox was barely able to dodge in time and the shockwave from
the slam threw him into a nearby tree hard. Fox wondered if this is what Snake felt like every time he went up against a Metal Gear.
Fox drew his sword and lunged at the beast. He tried to peirce its armor but it seemed impregnable. Everywhere his sword struck
it bounced off leaving little more than a scratch.
The shadow beast did a sweep with its hands that Grey Fox barely evaded. Fox shot a Lucavi spike at it which bouced off without leaving a mark. The beast opened its mouth and Fox saw energy gathering in its jaws. Fox sensed this energy was incredibly powerful and he knew it would make one hell of an explosion. Fox thought quick and formed a plan.
He knew this beast was too strong for him, there was no way he was going to be able to stop it. He watched as the ball of energy in its mouth grew and grew until finally it came rocketing towards him. This is what Fox was waiting for, he made his strongest Lucavi Barrier and hoped it would be enough. The energy ball crashed into his shield and it was struggling in midair to break it. Fox focused and pushed the ball back a few inches.
Fox summoned all of Lucavi's strength to him and unleashed it on the energy ball, he prayed it would be enough. The massive amount of dark energy did exaclty Fox had planned. It sent the energy ball flying right back at the shadow beast. Fox saw a look of surprise on its face as the ball collided with its chest and exploded violently.
Fox had expended all his energy and could not cast another barrier. He dropped to his knees in exhaustion as he watched. The explosion
was simply massive, almost like a mini nuke. Fox was too tired to even move so he just sat there as the force of the blast overtook him.
The last thing he remembered was a huge wall of fire and smoke rushing at him.
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The others were nearing the inn at the Thunder Plains when they saw it. For off in the distance somewhere in the Macalania Woods they saw a huge explosion. A massive smoke cloud could be seen when they finally heard it.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!
"What was that!?" Rikku said frightened. They were all scared, none of them had ever seen such a large explosion before.
"Was it Sin? It has to be, ya. Only Sin can do somethin like that." Wakka said.
"I'm not so sure." Auron replied.
"What else could it be?" Yuna asked.
"I don't think it's Sin, we'd have seen it by now. I think it's the thing that Fox said was after him. He said he was in the woods and thats where the explosion came from." Auron speculated.
"You mean Fox is fighting something that can do that? He'll never win, he's gonna die! Why couldn't he have just stayed with us?" Rikku said with both anger and sadness in her voice.
"Fox will live." Kimahri said.
"All we can do is wait and hope he contacts us again." Lulu said as they continued towards the inn. Rikku waited until the others had entered the inn and looked at the cloud of smoke that was still visible in the distance.
"Don't die Fox, i never even got to know you." Rikku said to herself. Just then she heard an earspliting howl come from the woods.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
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Fox came to a few minutes later. He looked around and saw the devestation the explosion had left. He was on the edge of a massive
crater and least a hundred yards wide. He couldn't see through all the smoke and dust so he tried to get up so he could look around.
Thats when he felt the pain, his body was racked with it. He had severe burns all over and several twigs and other debrie were
lodged into his skin. Thats when he noticed the worst of it, his left leg now ended slightly above his knee.
Fox was fairly sure he had killed the creature when his near deaf eardrums were nearly shattered for the second time in only a few minutes.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" howled the beast. Fox felt waves of anger coming from the beast. Fox used what little energy he had regained to make himself invisible. He watched as the dust was blown away to reveal the injured beast.
Fox saw the beast's armor was now scorched black. The monster was missing a large chunck of its right sholder and its corresponding arm hung limp. Overall Fox realized it had done very little damage to the shadow beast. He watched as it stalked away, thinking it was victorious.
Fox was stunned at how powerful the creature had been, and it was only a shadow! He wondered how in the hell he was suppose to kill something so unimaginably powerful as he crawled away in pain.
A few hours later Fox was nursing his wounds and wondering what to do about his now non existent leg when Lucavi spoke up.
"I CAN FIX THAT." Lucavi told him.
"How?" Fox questioned the dark force.
"SIMPLE. I'LL USE YOUR ARM TO FORGE A REPLACEMENT." Lucavi said.
"Thats idiotic, then i'm just going to be missing an arm. How would that help?" Fox said sarcastically.
"BECAUSE THEN I COULD GIVE YOU MY ARM." Lucavi said. Fox was hesitant to accept the demons offer.
"Why?" Fox asked the demon.
"I DON'T ENJOY BEING STUCK IN A BODY THAT CAN'T EVEN FIGHT. WHY DO YOU HESITATE? MY ARM WILL GIVE YOU GREAT POWER." Lucavi said. Fox was still unsure but he didn't really have any alternative.
"Fine, you have a deal demon." Fox agreed. Dark aura surrounded him as his leg was remade and his arm was replaced. His burns and cuts were healed as well. Fox looked at his new arm and was taken aback.
It was exactly the same as his old arm except for one major difference, it was pitch black. He flexed it and found that it had much more strength than his old one as well. THats when it happened, he felt Lucavi trying to force its demon will on him. After a few minutes of painful mental battle Fox was victorious.
"HMPH, EVEN WHEN INJURED YOU DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN." Lucavi said scornfully.
Fox picked himself up and continued on his way to Macalania Lake, which was fortunately in the opposite direction than the shadow beast had went.
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The others had arrived just around the time Fox expected they would. They came strolling to the frozen lake after a half day in the woods. After an unexpected attack from a machina and a large berserker beast Fox watched them enter the inn for some rest. He was glad they were able to repel the attacks on thier own as he wasn't sure if him battling would draw the shadow beast back.
He waited a few more hours for them to set off for the temple and he followed them, still invisible. He had scoped out the temple earlier and saw that it was swarming with guados. He had even seen Maester Seymour enter it only hours previously. Fox wondered about the guado maester as he followed the others who were now on snowmobiles.
Fox had not delved deep enough into the maesters mind to see how he could have had the power to recover from a severed head. Fox knew that Seymour was going to be a big porblem for them if he wasn't delt with eventually. He watched as the others entered the temple so Yuna could obtain another aeon. Fox wanted to follow them but he knew that they had a much higher chance of sucess without him. Fox waited eagerly for them to exit the temple and eventually they did, although it was not in the way he had expected. They came running out of it with several guados on thier tail. Fox, still invisible, jumped down to aid them only to be caught off guard when ground seemed to fall away.
Fox was the only one to land on his feet from such a long drop. The drop was far enough to break his leg, however Lucavi mended it within seconds. Fox looked around and saw that they had fallen into some sort of huge trench. After a minute of walking he found the others huddled around a fire in the cold.
"What happened in there?" Fox asked. Only Auron wasn't startled by Fox's sudden appearence.
"Fox! We didn't know if you were okay after that explosion." Rikku said gladly as she ran to hug him. Fox dodged to the side and watched as she fell to the ground after missing fox. Wakka and Yuna laughed thier heads off.
"You heard the explosion?" Fox asked. He didn't think it had been that big.
"Duh! Everyone with a thousand miles saw it. Are you okay though? How did you survive something like that?" Rikku asked as she got to her feet.
"It cost me my arm." Fox told them as he revealed his new limb to the group. They let out gasps as they saw the black skin.
"Whoa! What happened to your arm?" Tidus said shocked.
"My old arm is gone. Lets just say this one is a gift." Fox said as he looked at Auron, as only Auron knew what Fox meant.
"Did you fight that the thing that was after you? Did you defeat it?" Yuna asked.
"I tried to fight it but i wasn't even a threat to it. It charged a massive ball of energy up and fired it at me. I was able to deflect the energy ball back at it and then it exploded, which is what you saw." Fox explained.
"So you killed it, ya?" Wakka said happily.
"No. It was barely even injured at all. It left assuming it had killed me, it could come back anytime." Fox told them grimly.
"Its not dead? But that explosion was massive, it must be really powerful." Lulu said.
"It is, but enough about that. What happened in the temple? Why did the ground fall out?" Fox asked confused.
"We ran into Seymour in the temple. He demanded that Yuna marry him and when she refused we fought him. Apparently the aeon of Macalania is what kept the lake and surrounding area frozen year round. After Seymour's aeon beat Shiva it must have broke the aeons ice powers. So the ice started to disappear." Auron explained.
"Seymour, we need to kill him. Does anyone know how he could have survived my attack on him back in Guadosalam?" Fox asked.
"He's unsent." Replied Yuna quietly. Fox remembered what that meant from Kilika.
"Next time we see him perform the sending Yuna." Fox told her. He realized that Tidus wasn't wwith them and looked around for the kid. Fox spotted him sitting down by an underground lake. Fox noticed Tidus was singing the hymn of the faith.
"Tidus, get over here." Fox called. As soon as Tidus stopped singing Fox noticed something move in the lake, a split second later he knew what it was.
"Sin!" Fox shouted as the massive creature emerged from the water. It seemed to stare at them all for a minute before it opened it's mouth and a blinding white light enveloped them.
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Fox awoke in a very different place than Macalania. Instead of bitter cold it was scorchingly hot and dust blasted his face. He knew immediately that he was in a desert, he had seen plenty of them in Africa and knew this one was vast and unforgiving. He looked around and noticed a small chest.
He waded through the sand and opened it, inside was a couple of odd potions and some Al Bhed writing. Fox was glad he had taken the time to learn the Al Bhed language from the various Al Bhed's they had met. Of course by "learn" Fox meant forcefully extracted the knowledge but it was the same thing to Fox.
He read the paper and it said there was an oasis about a half mile ahead. Fox made the trek in no time at all and came upon Tidus who was passed out face first in the sand. Fox kicked Tidus hard enough for the kid to wake up and then spoke.
"Get up Tidus, we're in the middle of nowhere here." Fox said as he saw Auron coming over a nearby sand dune.
"Auron, where are the others?" Fox asked.
"They must be nearby, lets start searching for them." Auron said. Within a few minutes they had located Kimahri, Lulu, and Wakka. Just when they were about to start looking again Rikku came running over a sand dune shouting.
"There you guys are! I've been looking all over the place for ya! Hey, where's Yunie?" She asked.
"We don't know but shes probably close by." Fox replied.
"I bet i know where she is! She's probably at Home!" Rikku said happily.
"Home? What are you talking about?" Fox asked.
"Oh, thats rioght you don't know about it. It's where the Al Bheds live and it's very close by. C'mon everyone, follow me!" she exclaimed as she tore off in a seemingly random direction. After a few minutes of running Fox heard gunshots. Lucavi's power had given him increased hearing as well and it would be a few minutes before the others heard the gunshots. Sure enough, the next sand dune the reached the top of they saw smoke coming from a structure that Fox assumed was Home.
"Oh no! They're being attacked! We've got to help them!" Rikku cried as they ran towards Home. As soon as they reached the place Fox could see that the AL Bheds had been overwhelmed and outgunned. There were bodies all over the place and most of them were Al Bheds. Fox looked at Rikku and noticed she was horrorstruck. They didn't have time for that, they needed to find Yuna.
Fox walked over to Rikku, grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.
"Rikku! We need to find Yuna, where would she be?" Fox asked her.She didn't answer him, she just kept staring at the bodies.
Thats when Fox felt the Shadow beast's presense again, it was coming for him a second time.
"Everyone get inside Home now!" Fox commanded as he dragged Rikku into the Al Bhed fortress. After he had closed the door he turned to the rest of them and spoke.
"Its that monster again, its coming for me. We need to find Yuna and get out of here now or we're all dead." Fox sadi as he again turned to Rikku. "Rikku, where is Yuna?" he asked her.
"F-follow me." she said with tears in her eyes. They followed her through a maze of submarine like hallways until they finally reached the place Rikku said Yuna would be. However, Yuna was not there, it was just That summoner Donna and another Summoner named Issaru.
"Where is Yuna?" Fox asked, the shadow beast would be here any second.
"They took her to Bevelle." Issaru said. Fox didn't stick around to listen to anything else.
"Rikku, how do we get out of here? We need move fast." Fox asked the young Al Bhed.
"Cid has an airship we might be able to use. Im sure it can out run this shadow beast, follow me." Rikku said. Just then there was a massive crash above them, the shadow beast was trying to get to them. They ran through more hallways as the crashing sounds got louder and louder. When they finally reached the airship Fox darted to the cockpit as fast as he could.
"Take off, now!" Fox shouted as the Al Bheds turned around in suprise.
"Who the hell are you?" said an older man.
"Just take off or we're all gonna die! NOW!" Fox shouted just as Rikku and the others came busting into the cockpit as well.
"Take off! Now!" Yelled Rikku.
"You heard Rikku, take off!" the man Fox now realized was Cid said. Fox looked out the windows and saw the shadow beast's arm come crashing throught the roof of a nearby room.
"What the hell is that thing?" Cid said as they flew away from Home. The monster was half buried in the base from trying to smash it's way down to Fox.
"Hell with it, blow Home and take that thing out too!" Shouted Cid as a massive explosion erupted from Home. Fox was fairly sure after seeing the blast that the shadow beast was dead. The explosion was nothing short of nuclear after all. When they had gotten a good distance away from the desert Cid spoke.
"So Rikku, i take it these are your fellow guardians?" the old man said.
"Uh huh, pops we need to get to Bevelle. Thats where they took Yuna." Rikku told him.
"We know thats where she is Rikku. They just announced that shes going to be married to Seymour later today." Cid informed them.
"We can't let that happen Cid." Auron said.
"We gotta rescue her, ya!" Wakka chimed in.
"A rescue mission eh? Well lets get movin then!" Cid cried as the ship took off in the direction of Bevelle.
------------------------------------------------end of part seven
Bam! We're getting to the good stuff now. The next couple chapters leading up to Zanarkand are gonna start getting AU, but in a good way. Review, review, review! Thats all i have to say.
Thanks alot to eddy-popcorn for the review. I was thinking about discontinuing this story until i read them. Keep reviewing buddy and i'll keep writing.