A/N: "Don't argue, Kain"
*facepalm*
0-0-0-0
Here There Be Monsters
Rydia and Rosa crouched in the ship compartment they had learned was reserved for storage. The robotic chocobo rested quietly by the door not being accessed, and several rows of console panels flickered and blinked as information was routed through them.
"I can't believe this," Rosa said quietly, angrily; staring at the door.
Rydia glanced at her, and then at her hands gripping her own knees. "Why does he think this is only about himself?" she agreed, trying to calm her still-piqued emotions. "Did he forget why all of us came in the first place?"
"I told him I would follow him to the ends of the earth, and even beyond that if I had to," Rosa said heatedly. "I survived the moon once, I don't see why he thinks I'm going to be unable to do so again. What is he thinking, leaving his white mage behind?"
"Or his summoner," Rydia added, frowning. "This is more than a 'man's' war," she said, repeating Edge's words and then shaking her head angrily. "Ridiculous!"
"My magic is not what almost got us killed in the giant," Rosa muttered. "The giant almost got us killed all on its own. I learned basic incantations from the Mysidian primers in two weeks; I will master the Lunarian alterations as well."
Rydia looked at Rosa. "It takes some getting used to," she said.
"What does?" Rosa asked, staring back at her archly.
"The Lunarian incantations," Rydia elaborated. "At least yours are simple substitutions, mine are practically new spells altogether."
Rosa studied her shrewdly. "Could you teach me?" she asked.
Rydia was surprised. "Teach you? Rosa, our magics are so different, that I don't think—"
"Rydia, if you can't help me learn these new incantations by the time we leave this ship, I'll be as good as useless. A healer who can't heal is nothing but an extra target."
"You know the words you have to use," Rydia assured her. "You just have to practice their order."
"How did you learn the Lunarian spells so quickly?" Rosa asked suspiciously.
Rydia paused, feeling her heart climb into her throat. "I—well, the truth is…"
"Is what?" Rosa asked curiously.
"I mostly figured them out on luck," she answered, glossing over a few key details.
"Luck," Rosa repeated.
"Magic has always come easily to me," Rydia hedged, knowing it to be only half-true. She had always had an affinity for magic, yes, but her recent spate of power had been given to her by the Lunar Crystals. "I can't exactly explain it."
"Rydia," Rosa said cautiously.
Rydia glanced at her, hoping she wasn't being as transparent as she felt. For the last several days she had felt like a fraud to all of her companions.
"I need some of that luck," Rosa entreated.
Rydia swallowed hard. "I don't know that it's contagious," she told the other woman with a wry, hesitant smile.
"Then help me make my own," Rosa insisted, not accepting no for an answer.
0-0-0-0
"Not that I'm in any position to question your decisions, but you've just sent our only healer off of the ship," Kain said pointedly to Cecil, keeping some distance from the other man as they circled the crystal console.
Cecil had busied himself with the ship's coordinates, only glancing up at Kain to show his acknowledgment.
"Rosa was not our only healer," Cecil said, sounding put-out.
Kain stared at the other man, hoping he wasn't referring to himself. He glanced at Edge, and the ninja looked equally dubious.
"What about Rydia?" Kain went on.
"She's practically part dragon, now," Edge remarked, staring angrily at the place she had exited the ship.
"Part—" Kain paused, glancing between the other two and not knowing how to read the situation.
"Rydia's magic has taken on a life of its own, thanks to FuSoYa," Edge complained.
"Cecil's uncle?" Kain asked.
"He taught her Lunarian spells," Edge supplied.
Cecil glanced at the ninja in surprise. "I thought she had that resolved."
Edge looked back at Cecil, his expression flat.
"Rydia's magic is volatile, and Rosa—you don't want on this mission?" Kain summarized.
"Rosa," Cecil began. "Shouldn't have to endure this again."
"Did you ever consider what she would have wanted?"
"Because of us, she got involved in this," Cecil argued heatedly, looking Kain in the eyes. "Because of us, she was Golbez' prisoner. This is a personal matter and I don't want her involved."
"But the summoner," Kain said. "Do you think it's wise to send away the only person who can command Leviathan?"
Edge made a strangled, exasperated sound. "Don't get me started," he said, walking away from the other two. He unsheathed one of his twin katanas and sat down on the bridge stairs to sharpen it.
"I've missed something," Kain observed.
Cecil kept silent, focusing instead on the ship's controls for launch.
Edge, however, looked up from his sharpening. "That's what happens when you run off to play traitor," he said with a bored expression.
"The crystals on the planet dimmed, and Rosa's magic failed," Cecil finally interjected in a distracted sort of way, taking a moment to glance away from the controls again.
At this, Kain raised his brows with amazement. "Failed?" he asked.
"One moment her magic was fine, the next—gone."
Kain remembered the crystal manifold he had sabotaged in order to sever the tower's connection to the moon.
"I may have had something to do with that," he admitted.
"You did?" Cecil asked, finally getting the Lunar Whale off of the ground.
"I sabotaged them," he elaborated.
"The crystals?" Edge demanded, glaring sideways at the dragoon. "You could have destroyed the entire tower!"
"Would that have been so terrible?" Kain remarked.
"Only for everyone within a few hundred miles of the debris," Edge replied, staring at Kain.
"You would have done the same in my place," Kain argued. "I destroyed the manifold in order to disconnect the tower from the moon's beam. It disrupted communications between the tower and the giant as well. Golbez had no choice but to control the giant manually."
"You're the reason he was onboard," Edge realized, his tone rapidly losing its original venom.
Kain nodded grimly. "I wasn't able to accomplish much before I was caught and apprehended. I'm sorry."
The other two froze, exchanging perplexed looks .
"You're sorry?" Cecil asked, practically laughing.
"Golbez is a lousy pilot. The Giant probably would have caused more damage without him inside making a mess of things," Edge added.
Kain made a puzzled expression. "Golbez being inside the Giant was only a convenient outcome. My true goal was to destroy the beam."
"You succeeded," Cecil said.
"But I've also disrupted the order of magic," Kain protested.
"FuSoYa said the crystals weren't broken," Edge told him, unconcerned.
"But until they function normally again, bringing mages to the moon is an unnecessary risk," Cecil added.
"What about your magic?" Kain asked curiously. "Your magic should have been affected as much as Rosa's. Can we rely on your skill alone?"
Cecil paused, taking a moment to glance at the crystal console. "My magic has always been…I'm not certain I was ever relying upon the earth crystals to begin with," he revealed.
"A gift from your father," Kain supposed.
"So it would seem," Cecil replied, looking again at the other two. "Let's finish this," he said finally, inputting the last of the ship's coordinates to the moon.
0-0-0-0-0
Edge sharpened until the edge of his weapon was sharp enough to split a hair. Kain had ceased asking questions, and the ship had gone quiet aside from the thrumming of its engines.
The dragoon seemed lucid enough, Edge decided. But trusting Kain with his life? Never.
Yet, they were three against a teeming nest of monstrosities. Who knew to what extent Zemus had played god? Edge stared into his mirrored reflection in the hard steel, uncomfortably realizing that these slender weapons were all that stood between himself and death. A life balanced on a blade's edge, so dangerously close to teetering one way or another.
The prince sighed, glancing at the door that led to the ship's domiciles and the chambers beyond.
He'd sensed her magic aboard the moment she'd used it. It was hard to miss—wild as it was. Rydia was another whose fate could teeter one way or another. She was like a ball being passed back and forth. One moment, by the crystals of earth, the next by the more ancient Lunar Crystals. And then there were the Eidolons, whose motives Edge still hadn't ascertained. Everyone wanted something from the Summoner, and Edge felt only slightly guilty in the success of his own manipulation to keep her aboard.
Making her angry always had brought about the opposite response. She was a loose cannon and a pain in the ass, but even with her poor understanding of this new power, he knew she was as invaluable as Rosa.
Edge wondered if she'd have enough time—time enough to pass on her knowledge of the Lunarian incantations to Rosa. They were as good as dead withoutRosa, and Cecil had been an idiot to send her away. Especially after all the work they'd put into getting her back, no less.
Edge glanced at the holographic map that rose from one of the ship's central panels, showing their progress and trajectory. She didn't have much time, but that girl had always shown an adeptness for making miracles out of thin air.
Hopefully that same adeptness didn't get her killed.
0-0-0-0-0
The ship landed on the same plateau that overlooked the Crystal palace, as stark and silent as Edge remembered.
Kain stood to his left, seemingly unable to find his own legs.
"This—" Kain began, only to turn his head one way and another in utter bafflement. "How can we—there have been people living here for thousands of years?"
Edge slapped the dragoon hard across the back and kept walking. "Welcome to hell," he announced cheerily, following their previous footsteps in the dust.
Kain trailed behind more slowly, keeping pace with Cecil. He carried a sword and shield Cecil had no longer been using, and wore a motley of cast-off armaments. Truth be told, they all had been looking strange with their found and patched together gear.
Edge glanced at the Lunar Whale behind them, half-expecting to see a head of brilliant emerald hair and its owner standing in the shadow of the ship. He was met with disappointment, and frowned, wondering what she was waiting for.
Cecil glanced as well, looking at Edge curiously. "What is it?" he asked.
Edge flicked his gaze to Cecil briefly and then turned back around, hopping down the natural stair carved into the plateau's southern face. "Just checking our bearings," he replied, sensing Rydia's presence dim in the back of his mind as they increased their distance from the ship.
They continued down the side of the plateau, into the ravine that ran along its western face. The same ravine where they had first met danger when Rydia's magic failed.
Edge swept his eyes from one side of the ravine to the other, scouring the shadows for signs of movement.
The passage was still—eerily so.
"I don't understand," Kain mentioned cautiously. "I thought you said this place was dangerous."
Edge scoffed, and even Cecil turned to glance at their companion.
"Just wait," Edge assured him, frowning when he thought he had sensed something ahead.
"Anything?" Cecil asked, relying on Edge's training.
Edge's frown deepened, but he kept going. "I'll let you know," he said, purposely straying to the front of the group.
There had been something, Edge realized, but not anything he recognized from their last journey here. The aura felt…off. He carefully planned his footsteps, padding each footfall in the tawny dust. He crept along the wall of the ravine until the path bent and twisted east again.
And there he stopped, unable to do anything but stare at a scene that filled him with irritation and loathing.
"Dammit," he muttered to himself before turning back.
0-0-0-0-0
"What do you mean there's no way around?" Cecil demanded at Edge's report.
"I mean there's no way around," Edge repeated flatly, pointing angrily at where he had already been.
"What is blocking the path?" Cecil insisted.
"A flan larger than any I've ever seen," Edge told him angrily.
"One flan shouldn't be a problem," Cecil said decidedly, glancing at their supply of magical oddments and items.
"You don't seem to be appreciating what I'm telling you," Edge tried again, his expression anything but pleased. "This isn't just a flan. This is the mother of all flans."
"How big could it possibly be?" Cecil said, refusing to be taken for a fool.
"It's composed of at least a dozen, maybe more," Edge elaborated, trying to drive the point home.
Cecil stared back at the ninja, trying to determine whether or not he was joking. "There's no way around?" Cecil repeated.
"This would have been a great time to have a mage," Kain reminded them both.
Edge glanced at Kain, agreeing completely but unable to say so. Cecil was unappreciative altogether.
"We have no choice but to take care of this ourselves," Cecil told them. "We can't always rely on mages, and we may as well learn how to fend for ourselves."
Edge exchanged a look with Kain, conveying his annoyance.
"I can attack at range," Edge reminded Cecil reluctantly, walking beside him. "But I can't guarantee that I'll be able to weaken this fiend enough to matter."
"Do the best you can," Cecil told him. "We'll take care of the rest."
Edge glanced sideways at Kain, who had blanched at the prospect of having to enter a losing battle with no magic to aid them.
Oh yes, this was going to end well, Edge thought grimly, drawing a single katana into his hand.
0-0-0-0-0
Kain knew that in the world there were creatures beyond description and powers beyond his comprehension, but this was just so bizarre that he really had no words to do it justice.
This flan rose to the height of an airship's propellers and its bulk spanned the width of a house. Its color varied anywhere from clear to purple to black in appearance, and its amorphous body glimmered slightly, flecked by the presence of its own magic. Edge hadn't been joking after all. The fiend was enormous.
Cecil raised his shield and Kain did the same, squaring off against the monster as it caught sight of their approach.
The flan screeched loudly when it saw them, sending gobs of goo flying in all directions to deter them. One gob struck Kain's shield and nearly bowled him over with its force, but he deflected the projectile to the side, taking only a glancing blow. Still, the strength behind the attack amazed him.
"Stay on your feet," Cecil advised, ducking under another projectile and then rising to a slow jog.
Madness, Kain thought, watching Cecil run toward the flan with his sword drawn.
"Cover him!" he shouted to Edge who had now taken his position behind them.
The ninja flicked an annoyed glance in his direction and then focused on his target. For a minute the ninja didn't move, and Kain wondered what he was waiting for. Then—suddenly—Edge went into motion, his hands forming signs and a glow spreading out around his fingers. The air above the flan crackled and sizzled as lightning arced out of nothing and into its gelatinous body.
The flan screeched unhappily and shook itself, sending elastic flabs of jelly-like flesh in all directions. Some of the creature's body detached, splattering to the lunar ground only to re-solidify into a smaller version of itself. It was multiplying.
Kain ran forward as well, using his sword as a club against the smaller creature. It twisted and writhed, making a difficult target, and shot pellets of goo at him in forceful gobs.
More of Edge's magic rained down upon the parent fiend from above, but the ninjutsu's effects was not as potent as any of them had hoped. If anything, it enraged the larger fiend more. It shook and wriggled and flattened all of them to the ground with a flurry of tentacular protrusions.
More of the larger fiend's mass separated off into smaller creatures, and it wasn't long before the three of them found themselves outnumbered and outmatched against an army of foes that defied the bite of steel.
Kain was surrounded by four smaller flans; each of them pressing in to crush him between them, when lightning blazed down so white-hot and fast that Kain was momentarily blinded and all the hair on his body rose to attention. When the purplish haze on his vision lifted, he saw that the encircling enemies had been reduced to bubbling puddles. The fiends attacking the others were likewise being dealt with by magic too precise to belong to anyone other than a mage.
Kain turned, catching sight of Rydia at the bend in the ravine, her green hair a welcome sign of life in the bleak lunar landscape. Beside her stood the familiar statuesque figure he knew so well. Rosa's.
He blinked, disbelieving. How had the two of them—what were they—?
"What took you so long?" Edge demanded, filling in Kain's thoughts and striding toward the women.
Rydia marched forward herself, determined to meet the ninja halfway.
"Do you have any idea how much time it took us to figure out how to get off the—wait, what do you mean 'what took you so long'?" Rydia insisted irately, placing her hands on her hips as she stared accusingly at the ninja. "You knew we were onboard?" she cried out. "Why did you go to the trouble of getting me off the ship if you never wanted me to leave in the first place?"
Kain had caught up to the two of them and saw Edge flash the summoner a smug smile. "Did you honestly think I expected you to listen to me?" he asked.
Rydia narrowed her eyes, opened her mouth, shut it again, and looked fiercely at Cecil who had approached from the other side.
"We're coming with you," she declared, gesturing to Rosa who was slowly catching up from behind.
Cecil simply stared at her, uncomprehending, as if he were looking at a ghost. It was Rosa who made him go pale most of all.
"You shouldn't be here," he said to Rosa, more resigned than anything.
"I have nowhere else to be," she answered, stepping close enough for Kain to make out the faint creases around her eyes and the slight frown at the corners of her mouth.
"Why would you follow us here?" Cecil asked.
She looked at him, perplexed. "Who else would heal your wounds?" she asked. "Don't be a fool, Cecil. Even you can't long survive the dangers of this place without my magic."
"Your magic," Cecil began, sounding skeptical.
"Is perfectly fine," Rosa contested, nodding in Rydia's direction. "Our young summoner taught me some of the finer points of Lunarian spellcasting."
"Did she, now?" Cecil asked, surprised.
"There's no winning against this one, Cecil," Kain advised, looking at his former friend.
"Some battles aren't worth fighting," Edge agreed.
Cecil sighed, extending his hand toward Rosa. She stepped forward and accepted.
"Then I'll fight no more," he said resignedly. "Your help is welcome."
Rosa smiled, then, but it was one of grim resolve and not joy.
"And I'm coming, too," Rydia reminded them. "I didn't receive the blessing of the Hallowed Father to sit around and be idle."
"No, I imagine you didn't," Cecil relented.
"Welcome back, Dragon Tamer," Edge teased, earning a dark look from the summoner.
Kain wondered at the nickname, realizing there was even more he had missed in his absence.
"Stop calling me that," Rydia told the ninja under her breath as she rejoined the group.
"Stop giving me reason to," the ninja retorted.
"Shall we?" Rosa asked, gesturing expansively to the ravine ahead of them.
"But how did you learn the Lunarian so quickly?" Cecil was asking Rosa as they walked toward the remains of the decimated giant flan.
"White magic hasn't changed much over the centuries, it seems," Rosa explained quietly.
Kain followed behind the four of them, overhearing snippets of their conversation as they walked. How was it, he wondered, that the four of them had become one group in the few weeks he'd been away? The last he'd seen of them, they were bickering factions pretending to be whole. Now they were four and one—and he again on the outside.
He sheathed his sword and shouldered his shield, keeping silent vigil from behind. So be it, he decided. There were no easy paths to redemption, after all. Some bridges once burned would have to be built again.
0-0-0-0-0
Just as before, it took several hours to arrive at the Crystal Palace. This time there was no one waiting for them in the main foyer. FuSoYa was absent, and the room glimmered with an ominous sort of emptiness.
"There must be a passage my uncle would have used," Cecil reasoned, striding through the foyer and a large door that opened into a room much brighter than the first.
Rydia gasped once they'd stepped past the threshold. They had found themselves in a crystal chamber—with eight crystals seated on daises like their Earthly counterparts.
But this crystal chamber was more ornate than any such chamber Rydia had ever lain eyes on.
"This entire place—" she began, awed, as she gazed at the crystalline ceiling that refracted light into the full visible spectrum of colors. "It's made entirely of crystal."
She was accustomed to the walls being made of mirrors or simple glass, but here the very walls seemed to be alive.
"What is it with the Lunarians and their crystals?" Edge asked, not as impressed.
"The Lunarian technology relies on crystals," Cecil said, relaying what he had learned from FuSoYa as he walked between each dais toward a portal in the center of the room. There was a construct above the portal that looked as though it was meant to channel energy of some kind.
"Yes, but what deems certain crystals more important than others?" Edge wanted to know. "How are they generating energy? Where, for that matter, are they drawing it from?"
"Listen," Rosa interrupted them, tilting her head. "That sound…"
Rydia inclined her head as well, hearing an all-too-familiar refrain. "It's the crystals," she realized.
"The same song you were humming," Edge remarked, crossing his arms as he, too, paid attention to what at first had sounded like random reverberations.
Rydia looked at him strangely. "I still have no idea what you're talking about," she said.
He returned her look with an equally flat one. "You wouldn't."
"There must be some passage in this place," Cecil said, investigating more of the crystal room.
"I don't see any doors or side chambers," Kain pointed out, striking off in a different direction.
Rydia watched the others as they perused the room, glancing at one of the crystals situated snugly in its dais. Its gleam ebbed and flowed, coursing with power, and Rydia found herself climbing the stairs before she realized what she was doing.
She stood before the crystal and felt her hand drift toward the smooth, faceted surface, attempting to make contact.
Barely a centimeter from its face, she felt a spark of awareness that took her aback.
Welcome, humans, the crystal greeted her. It took her a moment to notice by the return of the others, that it hadn't been just herself that the crystal had addressed.
"What did you do?" Cecil demanded, sounding more concerned than angry as he leapt up the crystal dais to stand beside her.
"I—" Rydia stammered, still fixated on the crystal's golden depths. "I reached out to it."
FuSoYa and the man who called himself Golbez have already gone to the core, another voice, a new voice, echoed throughout the chamber.
"They speak?" Edge asked, disturbed.
We are using our powers to contain Zemus' thoughts, but his power is growing and we fear that we will not be able to contain him for long.
"How can we reach them?" Cecil asked, turning toward each crystal, but not sure which one to focus on.
Step onto the portal, another voice chimed with the bright ring of a child's.
Kain pointed to the portal in the middle of the room, and they looked, suddenly understanding its purpose..
We will transport you to the core, the crystals chorused.
The five of them hesitantly descended the dais and walked to where the crystals had indicated.
Go with our blessing, they decreed.
"How will we know where to go once we're inside?" Cecil asked.
The path has but one end, one crystal replied.
Rydia gazed in each direction as the crystals resonated in unison, the light of their summoning filling the room and focusing into the apparatus above them.
The sensation of their combined magic raised the hair on her arms and head, making her dizzy.
Rydia had a sudden and distinct impression of the scope of their being—understanding immediately that they were far more than a simple power source, but too overwhelmed to make any sense of what they truly were. They were one identity and several, a collective but not. Threads of power streaked across her mind's eye, charting paths and nets that intersected and sprang away again. Rydia thought her heart would burst from the pressure, but soon enough, the sensation was replaced by another.
The Crystal energy focused through the apparatus, becoming a beam that activated several intricate panels on the floor; illuminating them in a radial pattern that spread from its center to a circumference of twenty feet. It was very much like a summoning circle, and Rydia felt the very fabric of her existence being unwound and whisked out of the crystal chamber and into a space that resisted their entry with vehement denial.
Zemus' presence, she felt the Crystals supply by way of an answer.
The opposition of their approach was felt like a fiercely crashing wave; but when they did at last arrive—emerging as shafts of light to be given form again within the palace's subterrane—the presence faded to a subdued but simmering hatred.
We will do what we can from here, the Crystals intoned from somewhere far above them before disappearing into the background of the environs.
Rydia glanced at her companions, at their pale, disbelieving faces. Her mind was abuzz by the very nature of the crystals themselves, but there was no time to give thought to that.
They had arrived at last.
This is it, then, she realized. All paths lead to here.
"Too late to turn back, now," Cecil said, taking a moment to gauge the others.
A silent agreement was had between the five of them as they silently stepped away from the portal. In their own ways they each knew they were leaving everything they had known to tread into the depths of this unknown world.
To the den of an unknown foe, Rydia thought again, trying not to be swallowed by the enormity of the idea.
She caught Edge's eye just then, seeing a glint of determination there that bolstered her confidence. He flashed her the faintest of grins before turning away again.
We can do this, she thought determinedly. We have to.
0-0-0-0-0
A/N:
So many POVs! Let's get this show on the road, shall we?
WHY DOES THIS GAME CONTAIN SO MANY THINGS THAT MAKE NO SENSE. Whyyyyyyyy. The crystals themselves…let's not even…good lord.
There is a particularly troublesome line from the DS script (in the thought bubbles) that really spurred this whole plot thread onward.
Rosa LITERALLY thought-speaks: These Crystals—are they vessels for the thoughts of the Lunarians?
BOOM.
And that right there…pretty much sealed it. That, and it annoyed the ever living daylights out of me as to WHY the lunar crystals could TALK TO YOU AT ALL. (cue the reasons behind the last, like…six chapters)
There is also the line: Do Eidolons hail from the moon as well?
Hmm, Rosa, I don't know! Let's find out?
Mmkay, FINALLY I have reached the point of the game where I can play around to my little heart's content ;)
Expect some deviations and some time jumps. Time to have some FUN!
Again, thank you to my readers and reviewers. This is a slightly longer chapter for all of you which I'm sure you'll appreciate, lol.
You all make this story possible—just sayin' ;)
~Myth