Chapter 90

Reckoning

Attack boats burst forth from their mothership, bulleting ashore along the riverside at even intervals. From them came heavy mobility vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and chocobo riders. The rest of Battleship Island's force were on foot, advancing in their twelve platoons. All met scant resistance until they reached the first bridge on their list, and then it the was all-out war they had anticipated. The first bridge fell to Heihachi Aki's force within the hour, and then the other two proceeded in domino fashion.

In all, Aki lost around a hundred cadets, with no Neo-SeeD casualties. While he knew as much as any commander that a hundred lives – a hundred teenaged soldiers no less – was not just a mere scribble on paper, the losses were less than anticipated, and he could recite the names of at least a score of cadets who would be badged as Neo-SeeDs as a result of their valour. The Class of 5021 was shaping up to be the largest ever.

With a firm foothold on land, Neo-SeeD formed the vanguard of Battleship Island's advance towards East Academy, where they expected to meet the brunt of the Ist Legion. The Ist, as the name would suggest, was Esthar's eldest and proudest legion, with its history dating back to the Centran empire. A significant percentage of the Adel Unit had come from there, and with its recent disbandment the survivors had been Returned to Unit. The Ist were now fighting to keep the lions at bay from their Empress, and in ordinary circumstances would not know defeat easily. Yet fifty Neo-SeeDs imbued with moomba tenacity soon prevailed against their heavy Magitek and scant Lunarian numbers, sending their routed force scurrying back to the city. This forced Ultimecia to divert critical defensive placements from the north – exactly as had been anticipated, and not in time to stop Aki's force taking favourable positions.

It was Rhodry and Aki's charge to hold these reinforcements at bay long enough for Squall's party to do what they must.

And so, the four of them rode on chocobo, The Children of Fate and the Autumn Knight. They were heading for the coordinates of a famous stone henge on East Academy's outskirts. Not that they needed to refer to GPS, as Eden was hovering above it, turning in a slow clockwise circle. Willing to save their GF strength for what they believed would be the final battle against Sorceress Ultimecia, they weaved through the combatants, fighting only when their speed was matched. Even then, Nida was the only one who struck. Leading his friends, he used Masamune for its intended purpose, cutting through only what was necessary, whether it be Magitek armour or Lunarian hide; Soyokaze never broke in her stride. Yet these were small game compared to the beast Nida yearned to meet.

In all, the foray reminded Squall of his dash through the front at the Battle of the Gardens. He had seen Xu's battered force was ailing, and every fibre of his being has pulsed to aid her and the others with Diablos, but he had had a much more important charge. SeeD had bought critical time for him to infiltrate Galbadia Garden, and would have all given their lives if necessary, as they would do for the remaining Children of Fate now.

They needed to end Sorceress Ultimecia. With her death, her remaining legions would crumble, and the dystopian world she longed to build would never be.

Leo and Mitsuhide waited, facing downhill.

Behind them, their Empress was seated on the central stone of the prehistoric circle, with the gigantic Eden above her, lighting the surrounding landscape in the colour of pale moonlight. Her bare legs were crossed, and her back was ramrod straight. Both had been motionless for hours. Ultimecia's eyes remained closed, as though she were in deep meditation.

Her close protection was growing increasingly thin. Three hours past, seven Praetorians had been with them, though Alexander Wedge's audacious advances in the north had forced Ultimecia to dispense of her super soldiers. Of which Ialantha was by far the greatest loss. And now reports had reached them that all but Ialantha had been slain, with the Golden Raptor herself caged by the Galbadians. Aside from Reinhardt and Mitsuhide himself, the Praetorian Guard was done for. Still, Ultimecia was not without Eden, who would be back at august power. Not discounting the two greatest swordsman in the Empire.

Scouts were reporting the approach of four chocobos. The identity of three of the riders, Leo knew for sure. He guessed the fourth was the Abadon of Adaryn, what with his closeness to Sorceress Selphie, now become her Knight. Their assumption was that Selphie and her Knight would confront he and Mitsuhide, while the Leonharts would strike at the Empress herself. Their anticipation of the strategy would prove to be correct, but the identity of the fourth rider was not.

Ultimecia still did not stir, even as the four encroaching chocobos came within view of naked eye. Their pace slowed from a sprint to a trot as they ascended the gradual hill. Leo stared at the fourth rider.

'A samurai,' Mitsuhide commented quietly, glancing at Leo.

Leo remained silent, keeping his stare, taking in the contours of the fourth rider's armour. Eden lit the surrounding plane greater than the most potent of full moons.

'You know who it is, Leo,' Mitsuhide stated, glancing at him.

Nida of the Aki clan, he thought resignedly. My reckoning.

The chocobos was reined to a halt a dozen paces away and the four dismounted. The samurai touched the beak of one, who looked significantly older than the other three. It gave a saddened 'Kweh!' before turning on its heels, and at a command from Sorceress Selphie, the other three followed the senior bird back down the hill.

The Children of Fate, famous as they were across two timelines, looked like the same band of misfits they had said to be in adolescence. Sorceress Selphie was the only one dressed suitable for riding, if not for combat, with her boots and high-cut magnolia dress; the gunslinger's hat completed the get-up. The Lionheart resembled a Balamb-rock frontman with his fur-lined leather jacket and matching pants. Sorceress Rinoa was dressed similarly to Leo, with a cloak clasped to form-fitting armour, and the twin-bladed gunblade resting comfortably in her hand also mirrored Leo's Harbinger.

Yet it was not any of those three that held his stare, but the one in the regal samurai armour. This one broke from the quartet, striding confidently. His offhand was resting atop his unusually long katana's handle, and his brown eyes were fixed on Leo's from within his bison-horned helm. He used his thumb to pop the katana from its spartan sheath.

'Do you know who I am?' he asked.

Leo nodded. 'You are the Autumn Knight.'

The six of them were rooted in Eden's ethereal light, neither moving nor speaking for several seconds. Leo chanced a glance over his shoulder. Finally, Ultimecia had stirred. Her gleaming cat's eyes were open, and she glowered down at the new arrivals contemptuously.

'Come and join us, Ulti!' Selphie called, waving up at her and shifting from foot to foot. 'Sitting on that rock can't be doing your ass any good!'

'Impudent SeeDs,' she remarked.

Her raven wings moved a fraction and she leaned a little, but otherwise she remained seated. Nida slowly slid the long katana from its sheath. The very air seemed to distort and shimmer around what was a lengthy, but otherwise mundane single-edged blade. Though it was only at Mitsuhide's sharp inhale that Leo realised they were beholding Murasame's sister sword, Masamune.

Nida spoke again; softly, but with a chilling serenity. 'Gerra claims you were a man of honour in your timeline, Christophe; the Obsidian Harbinger, the Forestaller of Omega. But in this one, you stand as little more than a butcher, a mindless beast blind to all reason. You deserve nothing less than execution, nothing less than the heinous fate you exacted upon my wife and the mother of my child.'

All four of them stared at Leo now. He sighed tiredly when he realised they awaited a response.

'I know what I did to your Azure Sorceress was reprehensible, Knight,' he allowed. 'Know not a day has passed when I have not relived that unforgivable deed, nor a night has gone by when it has not troubled my dreams. All my honour died along with her, and I will answer for it in the Netherworld.'

'And Seifer?' Squall asked suddenly. Leo glanced at him curiously, then realised what he was referring to. 'You may as well as killed him, with the way you cut his spine.'

'He didn't want to go on living,' Rinoa agreed. 'Tyris found him, and he demanded she kill him.'

Leo blinked. This, he had not been aware of. Of what he knew, Tyris Almasy had endured a highly adverse upbringing after her Matron's death. Worse, she had believed Seifer to be her father at the time, as had most others. Euthanising him must have been unbearable, simultaneously adding another to the list of people who longed to see Leo dead.

'Do you have any words for his son?' Selphie asked. 'Or his widow, who you maimed?'

'I intended to kill the Bloodhound outright, not cripple him,' he said regretfully. 'In both cases, I was outnumbered two to one.'

Mitsuhide had drawn his weapon the same way Aki had. The Children of Fate followed suit, as did Leo. Behind him, he could hear the flap of the Empress' wings. She had left her stone perch.

Summoning orbs exploded out of Rinoa without any movement from her; red, white and purple. Leo held his breath, as he had longed his whole life to behold the avatar she would summon.

Above her, Griever took shape in all his majesty. If there was any being on the Planet that Leo would worship, it would be he. The Winged Lion; the very embodiment of pride, the most graceful member of the Triumvirate of eld, the one Leo had named his son for. As a child, especially when enduring his father's beatings, Leo had fantasised of adventuring to locate Griever, of winning the favour of the last free GF, even though legend said it was impossible for mortal to junction with him. It pained Leo greatly that he had ended up on a different side of the conflict to the Griever, that the Winged Lion was his enemy. Though he did not doubt Sorceress Rinoa had earned him. Additionally, recent losses had hardened him more than ever before, and he swiftly came to terms with the turn of events.

The Winged Lion shook the stone circle with his roar, which also shook Leo to the deepest recesses of his being. Griever fashioned a sword of raw energy which pulsed with the colours of his hide, mane and body art. It had a wine-red handle. All he said to Ultimecia was, 'Your reign must needs end, for the sake of all beings on every star,' though Leo had never heard such a regal and resonant voice. Then, with a swish of his white mane, he looked up to the enslaved member of the Triumvirate. flying slowly for the Eden's lower, angelic-like being. Griever roared again as he effortlessly canted around Eden's answering silver beams of destruction, where made deep craters in the ground some distance away.

Then apparitions of wings grew from the backs of the Leonharts. Rinoa's were white and owl-like, shining more potent than even the light of Eden. Squall's were a miniaturised version of Bahamut's; Leo had sprouted similar ones while keeping Tiamat's magicite, though did not have that same ability with Doomtrain. That charcoal gunblade altered in Rinoa's hand, maintaining its shape but becoming a deep, pulsing purple, speaking of a bond with Griever that Ultimecia could never hope to assimilate with the bound Eden.

Squall and Rinoa looked at one another.

'Let's end her,' Squall said.

Rinoa gave a slight smile as she nodded. 'Once and for all!'

As soon as they too took flight, Selphie lunged for Mitsuhide, flailing her shining shinobou. 'Come on, Akechi!' she jeered. 'We'll see if you're all you're cracked up to be!'

Nida adopted the half-squat form Leo remembered was the ishi no katachi, Masamune pointed toward Eden.

So it begins.

Leo took a high guard, remaining planted until Nida smote at him with a crablike step forward. Then again. And again. He shone with an odd orange light that was present in his eyes too, faster than an unjunctioned human should be not as quick as a GF bearer, so Leo drew on Doomtrain only proportionately. Nida's form was impeccable, his balance perfect. His expression of unwavering resolve was at odds with the calm surety Leo had seen when sparring with Mitsu or Ujio.

Nida was here for vengeance, and Leo had never fought a samurai to the death before. It was only Leo's limited experience at fighting samurai that made him border on tentative, and because he had never known a true victory against their ilk, whereas gunbreakers and traditional sword wielders he could face five at a time. He remembered Nero, the albino Praetorian, and the previous wielder of Murasame. Leo had split Harbinger mid-parry to dupe him and cut his neck, and had rationalised that was justified because of the katana he faced and the raw hatred that had been infusing it. Masamune was different. Nakano had gotten it right on her second attempt, and its intended target was Leo himself.

As Nida switched to the kaze no katachi, varying his offense with measured kicks, Leo concluded that the Autumn Knight was a very good samurai, but not great. He was not at Mitsu's level of fluidity. While Mitsu would seamlessly transition from one form to another mid-combo, Nida was more defined. He did not switch forms until he sensed he was nearing a disadvantage, or that his attack strings were becoming predictable, and Leo had yet to make a concerted effort to penetrate his guard. Not nearly.

Soon enough, Leo was caught up in the thrill of battle. He forgot all about his butchery of Sorceress Quistis and the reason her Knight had marked him out to begin with. He even paid little mind to the struggles of his own Sorceress high above. For him, being able to travel to the past and duel with all these famous warriors was nothing short of heavenly. It was something akin to Valhalla, the afterlife of the Trabian highlanders, which was the only religion that held some appeal to Leo, despite him being of Almaj. And when the tsuki no katachi remained notably absent, Leo was sure he would triumph. Before long, Harbinger cut through Nida's leg, the wound made twice as grievous with a trigger pull, forcing Masamune aside in the same moment. On the follow through, it rent his abdomen, the twin blades cutting well beyond the armour, a second trigger pull opening up a section of breastplate.

Leo took half a step back, savouring victory, the length of Harbinger already giving him good range. The twin blades were braced protectively in front of his tall frame. Nida's leg had already failed him, and he fell forward, his offhand held to his mortal wound. Leo raised his shoulders and made ready to bring Harbinger up and over like a spinning blade, a cutting wheel which would serve as a guillotine.

'Nimue!' Nida breathed.

Leo stared at him, unmoving, wondering would he be uttering a name from Trabian legend. Then he realised that was probably his daughter's name. A girl that was about to become an orphan due to Leo's actions.

'This can't happen!' Nida cried.

His curious orange aura turned golden, and he gripped Masamune with both hands, raising it skyward. Limit break, Leo knew, as the same light had once enshrouded him when he fought Omega. Then Nida roared a number of words in Balamb's native language, of which only Leo recognised three, though they filled him with a dread he had never known before: Amaterasu-no-Kuroudo.

First the blade itself rippled, before tendrils of white light and Balambi glyphs surrounded it. Nida's eyes shone with the same whiteness, and a glow from within his helm signified that his hair was shining to, shaded like a lamp bulb. The golden aura became a brilliant-white one. Leo stepped back again as the Autumn Knight got to his feet, narrowing his eyes against the light. The wound in his torso was forgotten, even as blood, gristle and entrails gaped from it. Nida started walking, his leg functioning normally even though it was beset by a similar wound, when by rights he should not even be able to stand. He stopped in the form of stone, Masamune gripped with both hands.

This was not a limit break in the traditional sense, although it had begun as one. Leo knew what this was. The Autumn Knight had invoked the Ghost of Amaterasu, the fallen deity of Sasune. Ujio had told him tales of the Ghost, albeit well out of the Empress' earshot. Though as Leo understood it, it was less of a 'ghost' and more of an insatiable demon, spewed forth from the foulest of hells. Amaterasu might have been benevolent in life, but in death She was heartless, nihilistic and ruinous.

Esthar remembered well, as the Ghost's first invocation had been by Sorceress Nakano herself, and the last had been over four decades previously, when Nida's father Heihachi had been its vessel and it had pre-empted Balamb's last liberation. Eons past, the Ghost could have been summoned by any believer who had successfully broken through the chasm to the Aether. Though Servants of Sasune were taught that the Ghost could only be summoned by one who wielded Masamune, and this collective belief over many centuries had been potent enough to shape it as such on the Aether. Still, Nida of the Aki clan believed, and he had been gifted the infamous katana.

Masamune itself was transforming, becoming broader, the handle becoming longer and reaching down one side of the blade. It was now Mikazuki, or 'Crescent Moon', the katana wielded by Amaterasu Herself; the self-same one which had penetrated Hyne's barrier shift and had wounded Him gravely.

Leo was retreating, for the only time in his life. He split Harbinger so he had a blade in each hand. Nida's first strike cut finely through his right-hand blade as though it were not there, and if he had been any closer, it would have cut Leo himself in twain. Leo felt the power of the blade as its tip brushed but millimetres from his breastplate. A swift improviser, and never one to make the same error twice, Leo evaded. He kept his remaining blade behind him, swivelling and turning to avoid each strike, as he could not block or parry.

The turn of events angered Leo, not least because Mikazuki had ruined his ancestral and supposedly unbreakable weapon. It was because he had met the Autumn Knight in an honest battle and had emerged victorious. Nida had responded by summoning a demon, and had had given over his mortal body to ensure Leo's destruction.

'Where is your honour, Autumn Knight!' Leo demanded.

Nida said nothing. Perhaps he was incapable now. Perhaps he was already dead. Leo continued backing up, now breaking into a run, toward the edifices of the stone circle, as he had no other recourse. He dared not even spare a glance to see if Mitsu or the Empress could aid him.