"They're trying to fly past us, ma'am!" Flynn exclaimed.
"They didn't take the bait... they must be after Zidane! But how did they know..?!" Eiko panicked. "Errol, reinforce our shields and fly us straight at those assholes! Don't let 'em get away!"
"Are you planning to crash into them, ma'am?!" Major Dionne squawked.
"Nope. I'm not underestimating them again, that's all," the princess explained as she picked up the intercom microphone. "Biggs, Wedge! Is the Bahamut ready to fire?"
"Fully charged and standing by, ma'am!" the duo answered in tandem over the PA system.
"Good! Padlock on that bandit and wait for my order!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
SPAK-SPAK-SPAK!
"Contact!" Flynn shouted; a volley of enemy gunfire had harmlessly bounced off the Madeen's force barrier like raindrops on an umbrella.
"Phht, for all their bullshit gadgets, they sure are lacking in the heat department," Eiko stated and then began playing a summoning spellsong.
"Even after all these years, you still can't play the flute..." a telepathic voice rang in the princess' mind.
"Everyone's a critic nowadays," she psychically retorted with a smirk. "Thanks for answering my call, buddy... how's Maddie doing?"
"She didn't exactly take what happened in stride, but she'll be fine," the Eidolon replied, much to the summoner's relief. "So, how shall we avenge her honor?"
"Remember that run-in with the Sto'varathan raiders last year?" Eiko asked. "Do you think we could repeat that?"
"Of course! It'd be my pleasure," the spirit gleefully agreed.
"Cool. Wait for my signal," the summoner ordered. "Alright, guys, let's dance!"
"We're not even scratching them, boss!" the mercenary pilot yelled.
"Told you this would happen..." Horik sighed.
"Just shut up and drive, Frank! They're not the target!" Lani barked, taking her eyes off the Madeen just long enough to miss its huge magitek cannon coming out through a gun port.
"C-Captain!" the gunner stuttered, pointing at the enemy ship with a quivering finger.
"Yeah?"
"Looook!"
Lani's jaw slackened as she stared at the Bahamut's blazing maw in awe.
"Oh, fuck! Jink, jink!" she frantically ordered.
The Madeen took aim and fired a projectile about half the size of the Trenoite vessel. Franklin realized that he was about to fly right into the incoming energy beam and he dodged it by the skin of his teeth, screaming the whole time.
"Ha-haaa! Adios, motherfuckers!" Lani guffawed.
"Eidolon at our nine!" Horik exclaimed, having just noticed another portal appearing near their position. Carbuncle emerged from it, mockingly waved at them and then magically redirected the Bahamut's beam right at the mercenary ship.
KRA-KOOOOOOM!
"Hrrrgh!" the cyborg uttered, clinging to the pilot's seat as the ship shook violently from side to side.
"Engine two's bent! We've lost a wing too!" Franklin screamed, struggling to stabilize their doomed aircraft. All sorts of alarms started ringing simultaneously, indicating the catastrophic damage the vessel had suffered.
"We need to leave!" Horik shouted, grabbing Lani by the shoulder, but she shook him off.
"Deploy the lifeboat and take Soren back to 'Mecia!" she barked back, pushing Franklin out of his seat and taking his place. "I'm not done here yet!"
"... Have it your way, Red. I'm outta here," the albino exasperatedly answered.
"Boom! Right up their tailpipe!" Major Dionne cheered.
"Not quite..." Eiko replied, activating the intercom. "Biggs, reload the Bahamut! Wedge, hit them with everything we've got! Don't stop 'til they splash!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the duo answered.
"Look! There's a smaller vessel coming out of the target!" the pilot observed. "They're heading back, should we chase them?"
"Negative! Focus on the main ship!" the princess ordered and then retreated deep into her psychic link with Carbuncle. "Ready for round two, buddy?"
"I'll blast 'em in the face this time!" the Eidolon replied, irate at Lani's tenacity.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit..." Lani repeated like a mantra as wave after wave of enemy gunfire tore her ship to shreds. With her barrier generators destroyed, she was essentially flying a huge, depressurized coffin strapped to a turbine; however, the monstrous afterburner had proven a formidable ally in her hunt, and she was so close to Mikoto's ship that she could almost touch it.
SPAK!
"Yaaaagh!" she screamed as she bumped her head against the instrument panel; an energy bullet had found its way into the flight deck, perforated her right lung and exited the vessel through the wind shield.
"WARNING! MAJOR TRAUMA DETECTED!" a synthetic voice in her helmet exclaimed. "SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!"
"Fuck... so... close..." she wheezed, lying in a pool of her own blood as a deathly drowsiness began to seep into her brain.
"VITAL SIGNS FALTERING! PHOENIX PROTOCOL ENGAGED!" the voice declared as her suit automatically pumped her bloodstream full of Elixir and then sealed the gaping hole in her chest with a sticky, rapidly solidifying agent. "SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!"
As the powerful healing cocktail took hold, she drew a sharp, quivering breath. Her senses were numb and her body felt like a bag of bricks, but she began to slowly rise to her feet.
CLANG! the roof hatch went as the bounty hunter tore it off its hinges with a single punch. Mach one winds welcomed her back to the battered surface of her airship, and she thanked the gods for having brought enough spare parts to fix her anti-exposure helmet beforehand.
"Alright... this is it... everything or nothing!" she thought, bracing herself for the most dangerous jump of her life; the Gaia One was only a few yards away, but beneath her feet a cold, watery grave awaited.
WHOOOM!
"What the..?" Lani muttered, realizing not only that the Bahamut had been fired again, but also that Carbuncle was floating nearby, ready to intercept the beam.
"This is for Maddie, you piece of junk," the imp Eidolon said before deflecting the massive energy bolt with a Reflect spell.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Lani sputtered as she leaped off her ship; then Carbuncle's projectile hit the vessel, causing it to explode in a spectacular blast.
KRA-KOOOOM!
The bounty hunter screamed as the shockwave propelled her even further, causing her to land flat on her stomach upon the Gaia One. She rolled and tumbled sideways, pushed by the brutal winds, until she managed to sink one of her claws in the aluminum fuselage. Blood came out of her mouth and the voice in her helmet urged her once again to seek medical attention, but she planted her other claw with unyielding determination and began dragging herself toward the front of the ship.
"Sweet mother of..." Mikoto muttered, watching Lani's slow but determined advance through a security camera. "Isn't that..?"
"Lani..." Freya said through gritted teeth.
Lub-dub...
"Nggh..!" the dragoon groaned, grabbing her chest; a sharp, throbbing pain in her heart warned her about the Beast's awakening.
Lub-dub...
"Freya..?" the genome hesitatingly asked.
Lub-dub... lub-dub...
"Not now... not... now!" Freya stammered, feeling her grasp on reality quickly ebb away. "Breathe, Freya, breathe..."
"Fear not... I'm on your side this time..." the monster in the back of her mind whispered.
"Crawl back into your pit... creature!" she answered as firmly as she could, realizing that she was trembling uncontrollably.
"You know you can't fight her without magic..."
"I... don't need you..!"
"... Without my power, you and your friends are doomed..."
"You're a threat... to everyone's safety!" Freya mumbled, reflexively curling up into a ball. "I... will never let you loose again!"
"You're in no shape to refuse me now, sister..." the Beast hissed like a rattlesnake, forcing her to relive her darkest memories over and over.
"No! Stop! Rrrrrrrgh!" the knight grunted, pulling her hair in desperation.
"To think I respected you once..."
"Yaaaaaargh!"
Lub-dub-lub-dub-lub-dub-lub-dub!
"I am you, and you are me. One and the same..."
"No!"
"ONE AND THE SAME!"
"NOOOO!" the knight shrieked, and her body burst into a shifting mass of steel and flames.
"Agh!" Mikoto squeaked, accidentally steering the Gaia One off-course. The sharp turn, combined with Freya's fiery aura disintegrating her seat belt, caused her to fall and tumble sideways. "Oh, Freya! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
The Burmecian growled like a panther and quickly regained her footing. Two blazing eyes glared at the scientist as she began to levitate, the full extent of her power unleashed by the transformation.
"Airlock... Now..." the fiery knight ordered, her voice no longer recognizable. She then blasted a hole in the flight deck's door and left through it.
"I-I hope you know what you're doing..." Mikoto stuttered, remotely opening the airlock for her.
"Just... a little... further..." Lani muttered to herself, still clinging to the vessel despite her wounds and Mikoto's brutal maneuver. However, the genome had also deployed the air brakes for reasons she didn't yet understand, making it much easier for her to stay on its surface.
"WARNING! MAJOR TRAUMA DETECTED! SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!" the voice in her helmet wouldn't stop repeating, and she would have gladly tossed the damn thing away if it hadn't been wired to her head.
"Huh..?" she uttered, a strange, crackling buzz suddenly drawing her attention. She looked behind her, only to see what looked like a white fireball coming directly at her. "Oh, shi-!"
"DIE!"
"Waaaaagh!" the cyborg screamed as Freya grabbed her by the neck and used her tremendous momentum to drag her across the fuselage, producing a huge shower of sparks.
RAKKKKKK!
"CAUTION! BACKPLATE INTEGRITY AT FIFTY PERCENT!" the helmet's AI announced.
"Shut... the fuck..." Lani growled, overloading her suit's powerstones to unleash a defensive energy pulse. "... UP!"
BOOOM!
"Nrrgh!" the Burmecian grunted, in pain but still refusing to let go of her prey. "Is that all you've got?!"
"B-But how..?!"
"My turn!"
With a psychotic grin on her face, Freya sank her claws into the mercenary's gorget until she drew blood, leaped upward and then slammed her head-first into the ship's hull with enough force to bend the metal inwards.
WHAM!
"WARNING! MAJOR TRAUMA DETECTED!" the critical injury alarm rang, much to the dragoon's delight.
"I'll take that as a compliment!" the knight exclaimed, punching the cyborg so hard that her faceplate cracked and blood splattered her fractured visor. "Come on, impostor! Put up a fight if you really are Amarant!"
"Fuck you!" Lani barked, launching a clawed uppercut at her opponent, but she caught her wrist in her hand and crushed it mercilessly until the mercenary screamed in pain.
"Yaaaaaaagh!"
"Louder! I want all of Alexandria to hear you!" the Burmecian cackled as the Beast rapidly encroached on her sanity.
Lani immediately aimed her other palm at Freya's face, intent on blasting her point-blank with her magic, but the dragoon proved once again faster on the draw.
STAB!
The mercenary howled in pure agony; her opponent had swiftly impaled her right arm with an energy javelin, pinning it to the ship.
"Come on, bitch! I don't have all day! Fight me!" the frenzied knight demanded, letting go of Lani's left wrist to punch her in the face, shattering her helmet like glass and revealing her terrified, bloodshot eyes.
"Agh! I... I give up..!"
"Wrong answer!"
CRACK!
Warm blood splashed Freya's knuckles, helmet and breastplate, evaporating on contact with her aura. With a nightmarish grin, she raised her fist once again.
"Nnrrgh..! No, please! Nooo!" the bounty hunter begged.
"Fight me!"
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
"... please..!" Lani whimpered almost by reflex, barely aware of her surroundings.
"I said FIGHT ME!"
CRACK!
"VITAL SIGNS FALTERING! SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY!"
CRACK!
"..."
CRACK!
CRACK!
CRACK!
SQUELCH!
...
...
...
"What have you done..?" the last remnants of Freya's sanity whispered from the back of her mind.
The Beast relaxed its grip on her soul, just so she could witness the aftermath of her rampage.
"Huh..?" the knight mumbled, suddenly coming to her senses. "Oh, no... no, no, no, no!"
"A truly wonderful job, sister..." the Beast sadistically complimented her. "I couldn't have done it better myself..."
Freya grabbed her head, struggling to think clearly.
"She was being controlled, for Reis' sake!" she hissed through gritted teeth. "We didn't have to... we didn't have to kill her!"
"Then why didn't you stop?" the voice in her head taunted her. "I'll tell you why: she deserved it, and you enjoyed it."
Freya staggered back, surprised and hurt about being unable to draw a clear line between the Beast's bloodlust and her own desires. The damn thing was right, taking all her pent-up rage and frustration out on Lani had been extremely cathartic... but pummeling a tortured, mind-controlled soul to death was anything but justice.
Suddenly, she had an idea.
"Mother Reis... hear my plea in this time of-! Nnngh!"
"Oh, no, you won't!" the Beast psychically yanked her chain, forcing the rest of the prayer back into her throat. "A mass murderer like her isn't worthy of the Lady's mercy!"
"That's not... for you... to decide..!" the Burmecian grunted, putting every ounce of her willpower into reaching out to the Cleyran goddess. "Mother Reis... please..!"
KRA-KOOOM!
Freya gasped, taken aback by the sudden, deafening thunderclap. Startled, she looked up and noticed a monstrous storm front that wasn't there mere seconds ago, coming straight at them with unnatural speed. Mikoto futilely tried to maneuver out of the ominous clouds' path, but they devoured the ship nonetheless.
"What in the name of..?!" the Burmecian thought, witnessing in awe the swirling bowels of the tempest; otherworldly auroras danced around the vessel as lightning set the sky ablaze at random intervals. She realized that gravity seemed to have lost its pull, as she started to levitate without meaning to.
A floating orb of light appeared in front of the Gaia One, tiny at first, but rapidly growing in size. Its glow increased exponentially as well, forcing Freya to cover her eyes.
"W-What is this?!" she yelled, utterly terrified. The last thing she did before falling unconscious was screaming in terror as the radiance engulfed her.
Author's note:
Before you kill me in my sleep, consider reading Brayden12021's fics! He's a fellow Freya fan who's written some pretty damn cool stories! Go check 'em out! Also, don't miss Paladin777's "When thorns prick inwards", which is a moving and really well written retelling of the attack on Alexandria from Beatrix's point of view! Happy reading and stay safe!