Chapter 8 Merlin the Great Wizard
As soon as the doors of the bar are thrown open the source of the explosion is apparent. Directly across the square from the bar the large doors under the sign for the 3rd District are cracked and wide open, hanging off their hinges. On the other side, a huge heartless is rampaging around. As the Aqua and Terra spring forward with their keyblades in hand, three young children run out of the blown open doors. They look back at the towering heartless in fear and Tifa yells to them, "Wakka! Take Selphie and Tidus home now!"
"But Marlene..." The little girl whimpers clinging to hand of the older of the two boys while trying to turn back to the doors they had just come out of.
A shrill shriek comes from the 3rd District and all look up alarmed. The little girl cries out and tries to run back towards the large heartless which is just noticing the group with weapons on the other side of the blown out doors. "Selphie no!" Cloud calls out and runs to the little girl scooping her into his arms. She kicks and protests but Cloud ignores her tantrum and runs her back to the two young boys she had been with before. He drops her hastily next to the older of the two boys and the boy immediately grabs her hand again preventing her from running back into danger. "Wakka, get Tidus and Selphie out of here," Cloud says quickly. "Then go to the Hotel and find Aerith. Tell her what's happened and then go home right away. Do you understand?"
Wakka nods solemnly and pulls away the still protesting Selphie with the younger boy who must be Tidus following behind obediently. Tidus looks back at the group of fighters his eyes wide with fear and awe as he watches them prepare to go against the heartless. Cloud hurries back to join the others, coming up beside Terra. They crouch to the side of one of the doors peering in at the heartless almost gleefully destroying the 3rd District.
"Have you ever seen a heartless like this?" Cloud asks Terra. He shakes his head no and looks to Aqua who is crouched next to the other door with Cid and Tifa behind her.
Aqua meets his gaze for a moment and then turns back to keep her eyes trained on the heartless. The thing is massive, about two stories tall. It seems to be made of 5 pieces of purple and black armor that work independently yet in harmony with each other. It's rather small head bobs up and down above a barrel like torso as it's limbs wreak havoc on the small district. The two disembodied feet stomp up and down in a terrifying temper tantrum that leaves craters in the paving stones. At the same time, it's two arms spin so fast they become a blur around the torso piece. Leaving the feet behind, the torso with arms still spinning careens around crashing into the walls and knocking bricks and other debris to the ground.
"Marlene is in there," Tifa says her voice full of worry.
"Just leave her to me," Cid says gruffly. "You just go take care of that son of a bitch and I'll find the kid."
"Alright," Cloud says. "Let's get to it."
He runs in first with Terra right on his heels. "Farewell," Cloud calls threateningly to the heartless which rounds to face the two men as they rush forward. Cloud swings his huge sword in an overhead attack aiming for the torso of the heartless only to be blocked by the swinging fists. He stumbles back as Terra moves forward to strike in a similar way with his summoned keyblade. However, the swinging fists had been halted by Cloud's attack and Terra's attack strikes home knocking the armored heartless back with a loud clatter.
Tifa and Aqua run up next to them and stand on the balls of their feet. The heartless stands across from them, sizing them up with its hands and feet flipping around like it is nervous or angry. Cloud looks to Tifa out of the corner of his eye and in a strained voice says to her, "Tifa, you shouldn't be here. You don't have a weapon."
"Cloud," Tifa replies rolling her eyes slightly, obviously this isn't the first time her ability to join in the fighting has been questioned. "You know I can fight perfectly fine without some clumsy sword."
"Tifa this thing can't be fought with fists," Cloud says warningly.
"Says you," Tifa shoots back a hard edge in her voice. "You've never fought one of these things before."
"Uh guys," Terra jumps in. "I don't think this thing is going to wait for the two of you to finish arguing."
As Terra speaks, the armor makes a loud crashing noise and they all watch it split itself. The arms move to the right and the fists pound together in a menacing way. The legs run to the left and flip over in preparation to fight. The torso and head stay in place and a new visor forms over the blank black eyes of the heartless. Without words, the group of determined fighters easily splits as well taking on the large heartless on separately.
Tifa is the first to pick her target running over to the stomping feet with Cloud following close behind his dismay at her insistence on fighting still etched on his face. Aqua and Terra rush forward together and stand back to back as the two arms and the torso surround them. Terra faces the arms as the fists pound against each other again while Aqua glares at the head and torso bobbing up and down. Their stances are mirror images of each other and without any words or any signal between the two, they leap forward at their respective targets at the exact same time.
Tifa picks up speed as she gets closer to the two stomping feet. When she gets within striking distance, she launches herself at the closest one and flies the short distance with her right arm curled back like a spring. Inches from the armored foot, she punches forward in a split second and with a satisfying crunch Tifa's fist smacks the the ankle of the foot causing it to tumble to the ground.
"Tifa!"
Cloud's voice full of warning makes her turn and leap back away from the second foot that had kicked forward at her while she was distracted by it's counterpart. She is quick but not quick enough as the toe catches her under the chin. She feels her head jerk back painfully fast and pain shoots down her spine. Landing hard on her back she only has a second to catch her breath before the foot comes back into vision having hopped into the air and making to stomp down at her. She ignores the now receding pain and rolls to get out of the way. But the foot never makes it to its target.
Cloud has reached the fight and swings his sword around to catch the foot in mid air sending it crashing back to the ground in the opposite direction of Tifa. Cloud hurries to Tifa and reaches out his hand to help her up. Taking his hand gratefully, she rises to her feet with a small grimace of pain.
"Please-" Cloud tries to say squeezing her hand tight.
"Don't Cloud," Tifa growls back at him cutting him off. "I'm not standing back."
Cloud's face hardens into a scowl that she ignores pulling her hand from his and dropping back into a battle stance as the feet hop back up and shuffle over to each other. Each take a turn doing a flip before jumping up in perfect synchronization slamming back down to create new craters to join the already pockmarked paving stones. They continue to stomp, leaping forward at the couple with each jump into the air. Cloud dashes forward his huge sword swinging expertly in his hands. As the feet launch themselves up to stomp down on him he swings his sword under them and they land on the blade with a screech of metal scratching against metal.
With a roar of effort, Cloud uses both hands on his sword to lift it up high into the air sending the feet into a tumbling freefall as they came back to him. Cloud spun on his heels and whipped his sword in a horizontal slash that caught both feet as they fell and forced them to suddenly change direction in the air. He watched with satisfaction as they crashed down on top of each other twitching slightly.
Behind him, running footsteps move towards him and he immediately knows its Tifa. Knowing what she is going to do, Cloud turns slightly thrusting his hand out to her. Her familiar hand fits perfectly in him and as she jumps over him, he adds his momentum to hers by swing his arm over his head. He lets go at the perfect time and Tifa flies through the air in a controlled flip her legs tucked in tight and her hair splayed out around her head. She lands a couple yards from the heartless feet with her legs bent and smashes her fist into the ground causing a shock wave to ripple away from the impact, headed right for the feet that have just pulled themselves back upright only to be knocked to the ground once more as the shock wave slams into them.
Tifa stands back up with a smug grin looking down at the disembodied feet of the heartless trying and failing to right themselves. Cloud comes up behind her slipping his arm around her waist. "I guess it can be fought with fists," she says with an obviously faked surprised glance at Cloud. Cloud's serious eyes have no spark of humor as he shakes his head in surrender and pulls her a little closer to him.
A little ways away, Terra's eyes dart around as he tries to keep his focus on the hands of the heartless spinning around at a dizzying speed. He waits knowing it is no use to try and attack because anything he would try would just be deflected. The hands get frustrated at his patience and suddenly move towards him still spinning. Terra jumps back to avoid them, but they can move faster then him. Now forced to act, Terra, with incredible hand eye coordination, swings his keyblade in an overhead cut that hits one of the hands straight on and knocks it out of it's dangerous orbit sending it to the ground.
The other hand slows to a stop now unsure what to do without its counterpart. Terra doesn't wait for it to adjust however and charges at it slicing through it once, then again backhand, and then again from over the top in a devastating combo. The heartless' hand slams into the paving stones and lies twitching feebly. With a smirk Terra turns to see where the other hand and gone off to and spots it moving towards him cautiously with it's claw like fingers outstretched.
As Terra takes a step forward to meet it, his leg is suddenly yanked out from under him and with a small cry of surprise he falls with little grace just getting his hands up in time to stop himself from hitting the ground face first. "What the hell?" He growls pushing himself over to see the hand he had taken as out of commission moments ago had dragged itself over to him and is responsible for tripping him. It now hovers only a foot of the ground near his feet swaying back and forth. Terra sits up stabbing it once more and once again it falls the ground twitching.
Now wary of it, he begins to stand slowly not taking his eyes off the hand. But he has forgotten it isn't alone. Out of the corner of his eye he catches it's counterpart rushing at him having snuck up and caught him unawares. With a hasty change of direction Terra spins still only half upright and throws up his keyblade in a block. The screech of metal on metal rings out and Terra looks past his keyblade surprised. It had not been his blade that struck the heartless but Leon's who has appeared with gunblade in hand and raised into a striking position.
"Need a hand?" Leon asks.
"No thanks, I already have two to deal with," Terra says in reply.
Leon blinks and turns to look at him his face portraying no hint of a smile. "Let's just finish this," Terra says hastily and after a pause Leon nods in agreement. During their short exchange, the two heartless hands had pulled themselves together and now hang in the air side by side in front of Terra and Leon. The raised fists move towards them held in a position that reminds Terra of a boxer preparing to fight.
"Get out of my town!" Leon roars and charges with his gunblade. He whips his gunblade around to cut horizontally through the two hands but they evade him by dropping under the weapon. As Leon regains his balance from his miss, Terra leaps into action his bulky keyblade smashing down on the right hand with enough force to send it reeling. Only half a second behind, Leon sends the left hand off in the same way and the two heartless hands lie on the cobblestones defeated.
At the same times, Aqua's eyes narrow as she sizes up her opponent. The torso of the heartless seems defenseless, but its movements seem to indicate it isn't as helpless as it appears without its limbs. Never underestimate your opponent. As always Aqua follows the lessons Master Eraqus' constant teaching had ingrained in her mind. She approaches cautiously looking for signs of aggression from the floating body. Her wariness pays off as the body suddenly lunges at her spinning like a top.
Without a conscious thought, Aqua let's her instincts take over and her keyblade is suddenly held out in front of her face. The spinning torso crashes into her and for a second her extended keyblade is pushed back and she can feel the wind whipping past her face from the torso's motion. Aqua quickly braces herself and pushes back on her keyblade forcing the torso of the heartless to move away. It stops spinning and begins to circle her keeping it's blank eyes, mostly obscured by it's helmet, trained on her. After the third time it made a circle around her, her patience has worn thin and now annoyed she shouts, "Thundaga!"
Out of thin air, a burst of bright lightning appears above the torso and shoots through it before it has even a second to react. The electricity crackles around it for a moment before it vanishes and the slightly smoking metal torso falls out of the air with a crash. Aqua wastes no time in jumping forward. Her slim keyblade cracks down on the head of the heartless over and over. Even as the torso begins to shake as it recovers from the shock it has taken, Aqua continues to keep her keyblade trained on its head. With a final violent shake, the torso and head suddenly jump back into the air forcing Aqua to jump back as well. She settles back into a fighting stance to look for her next opening when a blur flying through the air catches her eye.
The heartless does not notice and is caught by surprise when the large blur hit's it in the side of the head causing it to jerk from the impact. Aqua can see that the now slower moving object is a shuriken and isn't surprised when it is suddenly snatched out of the air by Yuffie as the girl comes running over. "Hey ugly!" Yuffie shouts at the heartless as she skids to a stop next to Aqua. "You wanna play?" With that taunt she throws her shuriken again and it glances off the armored chest of the heartless. Obviously wounded, the torso retreats from the two girls as Yuffie jumps into the air to catch her shuriken that had spun in the air to head back to her.
With fierce concentration, Aqua launches into a complicated attack she calls Wishing Edge. She jumps high into the air and twists her body into a tight spin. As she completes a rotation she lunges at the unprepared torso and uses the momentum she had generated to land a devastating blow to the heartless. Landing back on her feet she smiles slightly as the heartless collapses once more to the paving stones. It tries to rise back up only to fall back once more defeated.
"Yeah! Girl power! Girl power!" Yuffie shrieks running forward and lifting Aqua's hand into the air in victory. Laughing, Aqua looks around to see how Terra and the others have fared. Terra, now accompanied by Leon, looks up standing over the two hands of the heartless. He flashes her a smile and they both turn to see that Tifa and Cloud had also succeeded in their battle leaving the two feet still on the paving stones.
But the heartless hasn't given up. A clamor announces to the fighters that the heartless is not done and to their dismay the torso rises back into the air. From being strewn across the 3rd District all the limbs fly back to their rightful spot forming one giant heartless ready to fight. "Guess that was just round one," Terra says as he comes up beside Aqua.
"Let's end this before it gets to round three," Leon says as he, Cloud, and Tifa join the ranks facing down the single heartless. In response, the heartless suddenly flips contorting itself in a way the fighters have never seen before. Before her eyes, Aqua watches as the heartless completely changes into some kind of cannon. Confused for a moment, Aqua stands still until she sees a light forming deep in the barrel formed by the torso of the heartless.
"Move!" She shouts grabbing Yuffie's hand and diving out of the way with the other girl falling to the ground beside her. A huge boom rings out and from her position on the ground Aqua sees a huge ball of energy fly over her head and collide with the wall. It disappears on impact but leaves a hole nearly a foot deep in the stone. Aqua begins to stand but there is something keeping her down. Turning her head the other way she sees Terra with his arm thrown protectively over her. As he pushes himself onto his knees and retracts his arm and Aqua sits up trying to shake the ringing out of her ears. Yuffie sits up next to her and a few feet away Cloud, Tifa, and Leon are getting up as well. Cloud it the first one to his feet and points his large sword at the cannon like heartless.
"This our town," Cloud says coldly staring down the heartless over his sword. "Get out."
The heartless turns to face him putting him right in the crosshairs of it's barrel. Cloud doesn't waver, holding his ground with a hard expression. Suddenly, an enormous fireball explodes engulfing the heartless entirely. Stunned, Aqua just stares as the large heartless is visible for a moment inside the fireball and then is gone except for the small pink heart rising up from the inferno. As the fire fades out of existence Terra rises to his feet and holds his hand out to Aqua helping her to her feet.
"Good riddance to that infernal thing."
Aqua turns to face the one who had spoken and sees a familiar short old man in a blue robe walking through the blown open doors of the 3rd District carrying a wand in one hand while stroking his long white beard with the other. At once she bows slightly in his direction knowing Terra is doing the same beside her. "Uh..." Yuffie says looking at the two of them confused. "Who's the new guy?"
"Merlin," Terra tells her, "the great wizard."
"Oh thank you my boy," Merlin says with a small laugh. "Don't worry," he says kindly to Yuffie, "I usually just go by Merlin, the 'great wizard' part gets old after awhile believe me."
Leon moves forward a couple steps staring intently at the latest newcomer to his town. "Thank you for the help," he says in a serious voice. "That heartless wasn't going down easy."
"My pleasure," Merlin says good naturedly. "Well now, I couldn't have that monster destroying my new home now could I?"
"Oi!" Cid's shout makes them all spin around to see him looking around the wall by the steps. "Did ya get rid of that thing?"
"Yes," Tifa says rushing towards him. "Did you-" Her sigh of relief cuts her off as Cid walks over to them with a small girl, who could be only four years old, clinging tightly to his neck burying her face in his chest.
"Marlene!" Aerith runs full sprint into the 3rd District with an expression of fear melting into relief. The little girl lifts her head and turns in Cid's arms tucking a loose strand of soft brown hair behind her ear.
"Mommy!" She cries happily reaching out towards Aerith. Cid quickly sets her down, and Marlene runs to her mother with a smile from ear to ear. Aqua smiles happily as mother and daughter embrace each other tight.
As the others move to make sure Marlene is ok, Aqua and Terra turn to Merlin. "Well just look at the two of you," Merlin exclaims looking up at the two of them. "You've each grown so much. Last time I saw you I could look at you eye to eye. You two are making me feel old." He laughs and the two of them join in as well.
"Here is your book back Merlin," Aqua says handing over the blank book. "Master Eraqus said he could only infer that with the pages missing, the book has lost it's magic."
Taking the book from her he nods. "That is the same conclusion I drew as well. Tell Eraqus thank you for his input. If I discover any other curious objects I'll make sure to ask his opinion again."
"Terra, Aqua, Merlin!" Tifa's call makes them turn. "Come on back to the 7th Heaven. I think this victory deserves a party. Cid's buying!"
"Hey missy I never agreed to that!"
Laughing Terra and Aqua with Merlin following curiously behind them follows the others back to the 1st District.
...
"Do you really have to go?" Yuffie whines slightly pouting when her two new friends nod that they do.
"But we'll be back," Terra says with a grin.
"Stop by anytime you are nearby," Leon tells them shaking Terra and then Aqua's hand.
"Thank you for everything," Aerith calls quietly from her seat at the bar where Marlene is curled up fast asleep in her lap.
"If we ever have trouble with the heartless we'll know who to call," Cloud says shaking their hands after Leon.
"Here take this," Tifa says shoving a bag of to go boxes into Terra's hands. When he and Aqua open their mouths to protest she stops them with a raised hand. "Just take it you deserve a reward from us."
Terra looks at the bag curiously. "Grilled cheese?" He asks hopefully.
"Grilled cheese," Tifa replies in conformation.
Laughing at the excited expression on Terra's face, Aqua grabs him by the arm turning him around to leave. "Bye," She calls over her shoulder. "We'll be sure to come back soon and next time we'll try to bring Ven along."
As they reach the door, Cid suddenly shouts, "Wait!" They turn to face him. With a shrewd smile he says, "Ya never told us what the heck is going on between the two of ya."
With cheeks burning from embarrassment, Aqua pushes a stuttering Terra out the door. "Goodbye!" She calls forcefully.
"Wait!" Cid calls again but this time they don't stop.
A thousand apologies! This took so long for me to write compared to the pace I was going at before. But you know life just got in the way this week. School and softball, softball and school. *sigh*
Hope you liked this chapter! It had a lot more action than the others. I know I was like "finally! lets get to the fighting" hope you felt the same way. Next chapter is going to be...well I don't know what it's going to be really. I know how its going to start and I'll just go wherever my imagination takes me. It will probably take about a week for me to finish it like this chapter.
As always reviews would make me super happy! This was the first major battle scene of this story and it would great to hear if you guys thought it came out good or not. I will always take constructive criticism if you noticed something I could improve on.