A Step Onto Chronos Chapter 26
The Fall of Lavos
Shadic the Hedgehog
"SO. YOU MORTALS HAVE RETURNED," Lavos' mental voice was still practically deafening, but said in such a calm way, that we weren't reaching for our heads in agony. "AND WHAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL WIN THIS TIME? SO YOU RAISED A FOREST FROM A DESERT AND REUNITED A FEW FAMILIES. BAH. IT WILL ALL BE DESTROYED EVENTUALLY ANYWAY. WHETHER BY MY POWER, OR YOU KIND'S."
"That's not the point. Your life threatens the life of every living thing on this world. If we allow you to do as you wish, then when your Spawn leave, this world will be no more. And that is something we won't allow," I replied. "As for what makes us believe that we'll win? Those missions weren't about weakening you or strengthening the planet. Not directly, anyway. They were to strengthen us!" On the last word, we all began glowing or in some way manifesting our powers, magical and otherwise. Lavos' eye stayed wide for a moment before continuing it's lazy blinking.
"IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR POWER IS SO GREAT. THEN LET'S SEE YOU DEAL WITH THIS!" Lavos roared on his own last word and I felt a brief sensation of time travel. But it didn't feel quite right. As I found myself, Crono, and Lucca standing on the bridge to the prisons of Guardia Castle, facing down the Dragon Tank once more, I realized why.
"All our old enemies," whispered Lucca. "He's making us fight enemies we faced off against before."
"I wonder if they're as weak as they were before?" asked Crono.
"One way to find out," I replied. We drew our weapons and flew into battle. One swing of the Rainbow removed the Head of the Dragon Tank, while a shot from Lucca's Wondershot blew out the wheels, and the Murasame smashed open the body like a hot knife through butter. Or even a cold knife through butter. I've never had any trouble with using cold knife...
Anyway, after ripping apart the Dragon Tank, we were again cast through the odd time-warp. This time, Marle was with us as we fought the Guardian again, after quickly bringing her up to speed on Lavos' plan. Rather than have us each destroy a piece the same time, Marle decided to just shoot the main robot with her Valkyrie, and we were rewarded with an instant "Breakdown" from the machine.
We were left with this group for the next three battles against the Heckran (dispatched with a single bolt of lightning), Zombor (one hit to each half with just our weapons), and MasaMune (Just one tap from the Murasame took him out). The group finally changed as we reached Nizbel, Crono and Marle being replaced by Robo and Ayla, who were quickly brought up to speed on the situation. Nizbel actually took a bit more work than the other bosses we had fought, but not much more. The combined attack of Robo's Terra Arm and Ayla' Golden Fists dropped him with a couple of blows to the back of the head.
Just before we slid again, I wondered about how the battle with Magus was to play out, considering the fact that Magus was on our side. My suspicions and worries were unfounded, thankfully, as I discovered our group to be Crono, Marle, Lucca, myself, Glenn, and Magus vs Magus. We were rather surprised, but Magus simply declared that, besides the first strike from the Masamune, he wanted to see how he stacked up against his old self.
It was probably the second longest of the battles we had faced and had yet to face. Every barrier that the enemy Magus threw up was instantly beaten down by our Magus. And when the enemy finally dropped all his barriers and started casting Dark Matter, Magus jumped the gun and cast it faster, finishing off his doppelgänger without once drawing the Doom Scythe.
I ended up alone after that one, when I noticed myself standing on an island floating beside a larger one. As I turned around, I drew my sword, just fast enough to block a six-foot long katana version of the Masamune. There stood Sephiroth. While Crono, Ayla, Lucca, Glenn and Marle fought Azala, I had to deal with the One-Winged Angel. As he pulled his sword back, I got into a more ready position. We stared at each other a while before, unlike any other boss on this trip, he spoke.
"Shall we have a rematch?" the words were almost whispered, but I heard them as though he spoke them at a normal tone of voice three feet from me, instead of six. I nodded, and we charged at each other. I knew the secret of this battle, a way to end it quickly, would be to just blow up the island beneath us, but I also knew that that would prove nothing. So we fought, long and hard. Sephiroth was amazingly fast with his otherwise unwieldy sword. Six feet of steel is no small feat to swing around, I assure you, and here he was swinging it like a short sword! My greatest advantage was my magic which I used at every opportunity. I'd throw fireballs, and he'd counter with dark orbs, I'd breathe fire and he'd vanish to somewhere else.
Eventually, I had no idea how long it had been, we both stood across the island from each other. His sword was chipped in several places, and both our clothes seemed to be held together by little more than will, because the threads were likely weakened by the blood that flowed out of the scratches underneath the holes. Several times, particularly after I would get hit with "Descend Heartless Angel," I had felt the power of Barog call to me, tempting me to use it's power to fight him, but I resisted. I now feared the power my divine soul carried. Feared that the next time I used it, I would lose myself in the power so completely, that not even Lucca's love would be able to snap me out of it.
"You fight well, Barog Firestorm," said Sephiroth between breaths.
"That's not my name..." I replied. "I'm Joe McCord, and that's all I want to be."
"Very well then. Let us test the power of 'Joe McCord.'" Sephiroth put his sword by his waist, and I mirrored him. Then we charged, swinging for each other as we met in the middle of the pock-marked island. We stopped and I felt blood erupt from my side, dropping me to one knee. But I knew that I had aimed true, and glanced over my shoulder to see Sephiroth's arm and wing fall off his shoulder, follow soon after by his head. I smiled a little at my victory and, just before I slid to the next fight, I saw a white-ish grey feather float across the field, and a winged, spear-carrying figure step into view.
I then found myself staring down Giga Gaia. Not long after arriving, I drank down an elixir, the damage to my clothes mysteriously gone after my last slide. In any case, Glenn, Lucca, Crono, and I beat down Giga Gaia faster and easier than before, without having to resort to a Tetra Tech. Instead we physically wrecked GG's hand and then pummeled the face till he disintegrated. Then there was one last warp and we were returned to confront Lavos.
"I hope that trip was worth the energy you could have used on us," I smirked. Lavos replied with a wordless scream before raining down his energy bolts. An attack with no name other than "Destruction Rains from the Heavens." We charged as one, a barrage not quite as powerful as the Omega Barrage, but still quite potent drilling into the eye. It survived and Lavos retorted with spines fired from his back. We dodged a lot of them, but unfortunately, not all. Magus was in serious need of an Elixer before continuing, thanks to his magic battle against himself. This item use seemed to piss Lavos off even more as he threw another "Destruction" at us.
Apparently, Ayla had, at some point, been brainstorming with Robo, Magus, or Lucca, because as Crono, Marle, Glenn, and I unleashed some physical attacks on Lavos' eye, they charged up an Omega Flare that, instead of being aimed at Lavos, was pointed at Ayla's outstretched and stone-covered fist. The black flames danced on the magic stone, stretching out like a comet's tail as Ayla flew forward, punching through the eyelid Lavos tried to shield himself with. The attack was accompanied with a cry of "Kage Houou Ken!" and the explosion of black flames was shaped like a bird, even accompanied by a call that sounded like a bird of prey.
The hole in the 'lid made for an excellent target for the next Tetra Tech, which came from the other half of the group. Glenn took point, much like Ayla had for the "Kage Houou Ken," creating a sphere or swirling wind that Crono, Marle, and I added a "Delta Flare" to. The wind took on a sparkling rainbow quality, though the way Glenn held the magic above his head I would almost say it was Goku's Spirit Bomb from DBZ. However, Glenn named it something different as he cast the magic towards Lavos' eye. "Spiraling Prism!" The concentrated magic struck true, and the resulting rainbow explosion broke the lid with the hole in it into multiple shards, revealing the top third of the eye permanently.
With a guaranteed weak spot, We charged up a new level of Barrage, using the pure magic of the elements, rather than the foci of normal spells. Crono's hands held a light bright as a star, counter point to Magus' hand-held black hole. Lucca and Marle held points of burning red energy and cold blue energy, respectively, while Glenn and Ayla were holding swirling yellow and steady green energy. Robo, who had no magic, simply charged a laser that would have completely fried the Rust Tyrano, while I forced most of my magic out into a nimbus of fire that took the shape of Barog, but did not transform me.
That turned out to be the last attack of the battle against the shell, as the Ultimate Barrage basically disintegrated the eye completely, the explosion accompanied by Lavos' wordless scream of pain. We quickly drank down some Turbo Ethers and Hyper Tonics until we were back to full strength and then we jumped into the belly of the beast.
Silently, we followed the breathing sound towards the center of the planet parasite, the cavern large enough to accommodate us in a tw-by-four formation. Entering the chamber of Inner Lavos, the laboured breathing sound became almost deafening. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness, our ears began to tune out the sound in the background. The robotic form of Inner Lavos seemed to slowly fade into view, and once again, he spoke.
"So... You Defeated The Shell..." The voice was subdued, almost a whisper of its former self. "It Seems... I Underestimated Your Power... Come... Face Your Doom..." The arms fell away from the body, pulling open the chest in the initial attack, called the "Doors of Destruction," two sickly-yellow lasers lancing out and scorching the ground beneath us, which would have destroyed us utterly, had we been anyone else.
The group, as it had been divided, started fighting the arms, to make it easier to defeat him, as the arms apparently contained some form of force field generator that shielded the main body from harm at all times. The right arm was the first to go, the strange crescent energy beams the arms fired easily dodged, destroyed by a well placed Dark Napalm combo, but before we could destroy the left arm, it unleashed a series of orbs that entered Magus. Magus waved off any help, and Marle, Crono, and Glenn used Arc Impulse to finish off the arm.
The body then revealed what those orbs did, using Chaos Zone to temporarily confuse Magus. He stood there laughing for a couple seconds before attacking Ayla, who stood beside him, still laughing. Ayla dodged and countered, which she admitted was merely a reflex, but the punch to the face managed to snap Magus out of it, and we turned our attention back to Inner Lavos.
As we turned to attack, the third eye-like hole at the top of the machine released a black, foul smelling gas that weakened us slightly, and caused Magus to retch. We quickly downed a Heal potion each, which only seemed to do Magus any good. We pummeled the body for a while, sometimes attacking in combos, sometimes individually. On occasion, he would retaliate with a small stream of fire that Lucca or I would block and return, and once he fire a single red laser from the mouth-like thing under his main eyes that ignited the black gas that still lingered. Unfortunately, the attack didn't seem to count as a fire attack, so we couldn't do anything about it other than weather the black flames.
Finally, the body was destroyed with an earsplitting screech. As the pieces of Inner Lavos faded away, the Attack Bit of Lavos Core appeared.
"You are worthy life forms, indeed. I was right to choose this planet for harvesting," said Lavos. His "voice" was quiet. "Though I should have destroyed all of you when I had the chance."
"Harvesting?" asked Marle.
"Indeed. My race lives among the stars, seeking out worlds to live within and harvest. Eventually, we will have absorbed the most desirable traits of every race ever to exist on a world, then share the DNA with our children. One of them will return to the Great Mother who birthed us all, while the others seek out their own worlds to devour. Through this process, we will eventually reach perfection, and be liken unto gods."
Robo beeped momentarily, "Already his power seems incalculable compared to everything we've encountered."
"And once you are destroyed, I will add your powers to my children and nothing will be able to withstand the might of our kind."
"Sorry, not gonna happen. You see, I've already briefed the rest of the group on your weaknesses," I replied. "That's one reason you can't kill us. The other reason is that this is our story, and the good guys always win."
Lavos Core chuckled, then threw his hands into the air. The roar of Lavos sounded again, and the bits appeared as the chamber we stood in faded out. When our sight returned to us, we were floating in a vortex of swirling green energy. Unlike the game, the bits and core didn't stand in a perfectly straight line, and even moved about the battle field, ruining the "Falcon Hit" strategy we had planned on using.
As the final battle began, I could hear a strange groaning noise that seemed to rotate around me, and as Robo attacked the "Defense Bit" (as I dubbed the one that originally was to the left of the attack bit) with Uzzi Punch, a staccato almost drum-like noise began to sound from the vortex. As I joined in the destruction of the Defense Bit, I realized I was hearing the boss fight song emanating from all around us. As we destroyed the Defense Bit the first time, after dodging several spells and boulders from the middle "Attack Bit" (but still getting struck by some of them), the strangled cry from the song cried out, at just the right time. As the others kept the Attack Bit busy, I kept watch of the "Life Bit," the one that contained the essence of Lavos Core, until I saw it shine green and release the shield it protected itself with to power up for reviving the Defense Bit.
As one we charged up and attacked, unleashing an Elemental Barrage on it to test its defenses. It shrieked in pain (again, in time with the music), and backed away behind the Attack Bit. We ignored its attempt at hiding itself from us by attacking through the Attack Bit with the stronger Omega Barrage. The Attack Bit disintegrated as the vortex seemed to shift slightly to reveal an area from Ayla's time. Only a few seconds after the temporal shift, the Life Bit revived the other two bits, and I was surprised to discover that they came back stronger, or rather, faster.
While Ayla, Robo, and Crono attempted to take down the Defense Bit as quickly as they possibly could, Magus and I were charging up a Shadow Flare combo, to be unleashed at the destruction of the Defense Bit. Lucca, Glenn, and Marle were keeping the Attack Bit busy, attempting to dodge it's large fists and bolts of lightning from its "Crying Heavens" spell. As soon as we heard the shriek of the Defense Bit dying again, we unleashed our spell, just as the Life Bit restored its defensive shield.
The spell was an area spell, thanks to its spell components being two area spells, so while it didn't do much to the Life Bit, it did deal a significant portion of damage to the Attack Bit, allowing Glenn and Marle to throw a "Frozen Tundra" spell at it. The spell impacted heavily on the giant stone the Attack Bit had summoned, shattering it before it could be used as part of the "Grand Stone" attack. The chips of ice and rock pelted the Bit, but didn't destroy it. Lucca and Robo performing "Fire Tackle," however, did. Once again, the Life Bit released its shield, and we unleashed another Omega Barrage at it. The reason we didn't use the Ultimate Barrage was because it used every drop of magic we had after we used it, and that would leave us horribly vulnerable as we scrambled to heal up.
This time, as the Bits were revived, the scenery shift from Prehistory, to AD 1000. More specifically, it showed Leene's Bell in Leene Square. The Defense and Attack Bits were revealed to be just as fast as they had been last time they were revived, but this time, they seemed a bit tougher, as evidenced when Lucca's Wondershot didn't seem to deal much damage to the Attack Bit. So this time, we had five people working on killing the Defense Bit, while the other three tried to hurt the Life Bit again. Ayla, Robo, Crono, Glenn, and I used as many physical combos as we could on the Defense Bit, when we were blindsided by the Attack Bit... Singing...
The sound that emerged from the Attack Bit could only be loosely referred to as singing, in that it changed pitch several times, but otherwise was akin to "nails on a chalkboard." I use quotes because I've never actually heard the dreaded noise. Anyway, it seemed that the sound had some adverse affects on most of the party: Robo became confused, I was "poisoned" (really, it just made me want to throw up a great deal), Ayla was unconscious, Lucca's glasses cracked badly (luckily, she had a spare pair), and Crono was gripping his head in pain, unable to concentrate.
Thankfully, only a single Heal item was required, as Ayla apparently had learned a mass-status effect cure spell combo with Marle thanks to her new spell-casting ability. We then returned to battle against the Defense Bit, a well placed Cleave from Crono (he decided to rename"Spincut") split the Bit in half. We then decided that it would be too much of a hassle to try and do the same to the Attack Bit as well, and hoped that if it didn't have to be regenerated, it wouldn't get the bonuses from the Time Shifts.
We unleashed another Omega Barrage as the Life Bit lowered its defenses again, followed quickly by our last Megalixir. Ignoring the Attack Bit seemed to be enough of a strategy that we were able to unleash another Omega Barrage before the Defense Bit was revived. And this time, it was revived with an image of Lab 16, from AD 2300, behind it. Once again, the Bit seemed tougher, but it was more that it seemed to defend itself better than being able to last longer. It also seemed to be hitting more often with its rare charges. Unfortunately, the Attack Bit seemed to get the same upgrade, as its attack spells and its physical attack seemed to be able to hit better.
We still continued to ignore the Attack Bit, after Lucca and Magus cast Barrier and Protect spells on us, and Marle, Glenn, and Ayla casting Cure spells on us as we beat on the Defense Bit. The Defense Bit seemed to not care about the damage we were inflicting to it, and instead cast its own kind of "Cure" spell on the Life Bit and Attack Bit at the same time. We continued pummelling the Defense Bit for all we could, without using any magic, which made things tougher, but still doable. The Defense Bit disintegrated again just as the Life Bit restored its shield, causing us to have to wait for a while before we could attack it effectively. We took this opportunity to pass out two Elixirs to everyone, one for each of the probable remaining eras we would have to fight in.
As the Life Bit dropped its barrier, the Attack Bit unleashed a strange attack involving the formation of triangles that I recalled as being named "Dreamreaver, the ultimate magic attack." We screamed in pain, Marle, Glenn, and Ayla quickly casting a mass Full-Cure spell as soon as they recovered from the pain itself. Then we had just enough time to strike the Life Bit with an Omega Barrage before the background changed to show the Mammon Machine and some of the decorations from Zeal, showing that we were now fighting in 12,000 BC. The Age of Magic.
My fears on the Core's new strength was not unfounded, as the Attack Bit pointed a hand at me and I was struck by the lightning of the "Crying Heavens," sending me to my knees. We could not afford to let him cast the Dreamreaver again, considering how much damage it had done to us before, and how much stronger it would likely be if it managed to cast it again. I healed myself with an explosion of flame, which I then redirected at the Life Bit, just as it revived the Defense Bit. We cast another quick Omega Barrage (since the Defense Bit was already at full health, it couldn't get much stronger) and then chugged down one of our Elixirs as the Life Bit reaised its shields. The Omega Barrage had a bonus, though: the Attack Bit had been hit indirectly from enough Omega Barrages that it was destroyed by that one, which guaranteed us to be safe from the Dreamreaver spell until the next revive.
Attacking from as many directions as possible, we cut, punched, and shot the Defense Bit until it was destroyed again, just as the Life Bit released its shield. Nodding to each other, we gathered our magic for another Ultimate Barrage, causing the Life Bit to scream in pain as it... disintegrated! It cried out with the final scream of Lavos as it disappeared. It was wordless, but I could almost hear it crying out "No, this cannot be!"
Once it was gone, and we drank down our final Elixirs, the swirling background began shifting again, taking on the features of each era we had visited, plus AD 600, starting from 65 Million until it reached 2300. And everything then turned white, our victory gained, and we were returned to AD 1000. The world of Chronos had been saved at last, and Lavos would trouble it no longer.
At least, not as Lavos...
"Anything I can do to help?" "Short of dying? No, can't think of a thing."-Morden, Emissary of the Shadows, and Vir Cotto, Centauri Attaché, Babylon 5, Episode 15, Season 3A/N: And here we are, Lavos is dead, and I've left a bit of a "You Should Know This Already" cliffie. There are now only two chapters remaining until the end of this story and then I'll try and find time to write the sequel, which I have decided to call "Crossing Chronos." Originally, it was going to be "Old Friends, New Enemies," but the eponymous character would barely show up in the story, so I scrapped that title. Also, A Step Onto Chronos has it's own page on the TV Tropes Wiki! It's page is a href:/Main/AStepOntoChronos here/a. And if the link didn't show up (experimenting with html code, to see if it works on ff(dot)net), here's the link spelled out: http(colon)(slash)(slash)tvtropes(dot)org(slash)pmwiki(slash)pmwiki(dot)php(slash)Main(slash)AStepOntoChronos. Unfortunately, I need help in figuring out some of the relevant tropers my story has within it, so if my delightful readers could help me out, I'd be very grateful. I'll start work on Epilogue 1 soon!