Chapter 92

The Successor

Selphie had been right all along, Rinoa admitted. Fighting in the air, as majestic as it looked, was no fun at all, even if she had been attuning herself to the skies for the past two decades. Perhaps that was why Selphie never grew wings of her own, instead opting to use rapturous wings to remove tricky opponents from the field. Or maybe Selphie just liked riding too much and could not bear to have her expensive anacondaur-skin boots too far from the ground, and their intended purpose.

Without the ground as a solid base, carefully honed footwork that would ordinarily be essential for good swordplay now counted for nothing, and she and Squall resorted to swinging their gunblades like clubs, reliant on momentum and easily off-balance. That was when they even got close enough to Ultimecia to strike, darting between flying swords, lances, daggers, and ethereal arrows as they were. And the worst part of it was, Angelo could not fight with them! Rinoa had tried casting levitation spells on all three generations of her trusty companion over the years, but a dog with wings was like a cat plunged into water, wholly out of their element and wrought with primordial fear. Alas, Angelo III remained in doggy day care while his humans went to war.

Hurtling between two soaring katanas, Rinoa swung the altered Punishment in a wide arc. The pulsing purple twin-blades cut through one of Ultimecia's hair-horns as she twisted lithely to avoid it. Finally! Rinoa thought, pleased she had at last scored a hit, if it only served to make their nemesis seem misshapen. Or perhaps more, as her frustration showed in that tattooed face.

For years now, Rinoa had trained with the gunblade. She had sparred with her Knight on the shores of the Obel almost daily during their long isolation in Timber, if only to provide Squall with someone to hone his skills against, aside from stray geezards and funguars. Her whole way of fighting had changed, as she had also learned to use Angelwing as a small shield, one that she could launch and return to the perch on her left wrist with her mind. Five years was enough to make a gunbreaker. Rinoa had had eighteen years, and she had been considered good enough to teach the junior classmembers after relocating to Battleship Island.

Ultimecia conjured a mauve sphere around herself, which their gunblades bounced off. Then she flapped her raven wings steadily to maintain her height, glowering at them.

'What's up?' Squall asked. 'Need a timeout?'

'You speak as though you have the advantage,' Ultimecia sneered. 'I assure you, you do not. I know not what happened between my future self and your past selves, but one thing is irrefutable. It took six of Children of Fate to defeat Hyne's Favourite Descendant! Now, only two of you remain!' She paused. 'I have accepted that the Age of Ultimecia I witnessed in Leo's mind has been called into question. Though I will see the two of you destroyed and avenge my mother's death, even at the cost of my own life!'

'Then what are you waiting for?' Squall demanded.

Rinoa's mouth had parted. 'Avenge your mother's death?' she asked. 'Is that really why you hate SeeD so much? Because we defeated Adel in battle?' Rinoa asked. 'Hyne, do you know what Adel did to me? What you both did to me? She junctioned herself to me! Conjoined myself to her torso so she could draw on my power, while I couldn't move a muscle!'

Something flickered within Ultimecia's eyes, as though she had come to an epiphany. The yellowness in them blinked, and when the malicious intent returned to them, it was twofold.

'What rubbish!' she responded. 'You blundered upon Adel's tomb while she was still in cryogen! The Lionheart pierced her breast, and you took her powers for yourself!'

'Those were our orders,' Squall clarified. 'But it didn't happen that way.'

Rinoa shook her head. 'That was just anti-Loire propaganda, and you know it. You can open your sight to the Aether and see if we're lying. Ellone could show you the truth of what happened, but you permanently blocked her out.'

'Out of necessity,' Ultimecia mentioned. 'The Descendant of Unei can put anyone to sleep, at any time.'

'I took your mother's powers only so that she could die peacefully,' Rinoa insisted. 'And as it turned out, I couldn't harbour them. Griever said Hyne's Half has grown more powerful because your future self meddled with time. If you ever do get it all, it will consume you!'

Ultimecia laughed mirthlessly. 'Soon enough, we shall see! I have long since tired of your self-righteous drivel, Children of Fate! The past matters not, nor does the future. It is only the present that matters.' She looked downward. 'Alas, none can stem the tides of time. I realised that when Leo left my side,' she added forlornly.

They are in love, Rinoa realised. Were in love!

High above, they heard Griever trying to reach Eden's mind. 'Eden! Do you heed me, cousin? Does any part of your consciousness still remain?'

'It is no use,' Ultimecia said, for their benefit. 'Odine has had twenty years to perfect the magicite. In entrapping an Elder Guardian Force, I was much impressed with his labour. I had planned to let his cancer ravage him, which is no less than that short-tongued mongrel deserves, but I have reason to keep him alive.'

'And that is?' Squall asked.

For the first time, Ultimecia smiled at them, a sinister contortion of that pale, ink-darkened countenance. There was not a ounce of warmth or kindness in it, and it made Rinoa think of a cruel jester. 'To repeat words your Matron once spoke to me, "You will not know, not until it is too late. You may strike me down on this night, but my legacy will endure." I knew not what Edea meant at the time, but recent developments have made their meaning plain to me.'

Then, Ultimecia made a sudden flick of her talons. The protective sphere disappeared, though a dark star had shot from her palms, forcing Squall and Rinoa to separate. It opened a tiny wormhole in the fabric of the material realm, the same life-siphoning gravity magic she had used against them when possessing Edea, forcing Rinoa to open her sight to the Aether and fold it back in on itself. Just as Edea had taught her.

Eden had suddenly disappeared, darkening the whole battle theatre, and making the moonlight seem pitiful in comparison. Rinoa dared to believe Griever had won, though Eden simply rematerialised a distance away, relighting the whole area. Through their junction, she felt Griever's frustration. I was almost at the core! Looking up at them, she realised all his hard work had been for nothing. As soon as the Winged Lion was finally within blade range, Eden had simply been recalled, then moved. Griever was now back to square one.

'I am merely keeping your pet lion busy!' Ultimecia jeered.

You're not gonna win that way! Rinoa told him. Just attack the rest of him!

As you wish, Celestial One, Griever answered reluctantly.

Purple orbs gathered in Ultimecia's clawed hands, though their launching did not impact on the tenacity of Squall and Rinoa's renewed assault. With a much larger target to go for, Griever did not relent either. His gigantic, tri-coloured blade struck well and true, scoring long and deep gashes to Eden's fortress-like hide; as much devastations as Eden caught wrought in a single attack, he was ill-suited to fighting fast opponents. Rinoa and Squall continually pressed Ultimecia, each hacking and thrusting whenever the other relented, allowing her few windows for counterattacks. The stress was manifested on the weapons she materialised out of thin air; they were becoming very mundane, and many were incomplete, missing handles or two-edges to a blade, more distractions than real threats.

'Looks like you're losing your touch,' Squall noted.

Ultimecia was about to retort, though Squall upthrust through one of her wings in a blaze of blue fire, firing off a pulse round for good measure. Ultimecia screamed, and Rinoa pressed her own attack, running the other wing through and ripping violently down following a dual-trigger pull. With her raven wings effectively clipped, Ultimecia began to fall, seemingly in too much pain to work levitation magic.

Doomtrain was there to catch her, cushioning her fell with his sinewy roof. Ultimecia seemed to sink into him like a cushion, imprinting him with her maimed silhouette, before it slowly rose and hardened. Christophe was there to shield her, his crimson cape billowing behind. As she and Squall landed before them, Rinoa noted that his weapon looked stunted. Doomtrain was now circling the hill with the stone henge on, though a quick look at the rolling landscape gave Rinoa no clue as to what had happened to Nida and Selphie. Nor Akechi.

'Your comrades have fallen,' Christophe said simply.

'Damn you!' Squall cried, running at Christophe, the glowing tip of Lionheart raking Doomtrain's surface.

Rinoa hesitated only long enough to realise that Selphie could not be dead, not without a Successor. She scanned the moving landscape below, more desperately this time, but could not see her. She would have to take her friend's powers back! They could not let Ultimecia take them, at any cost!

Squall and Christophe begun to clash furiously, resuming the duel that had never concluded in Galbadia. Behind them, Ultimecia was getting to her feet, and as she straightened, new wings unfurled behind her. She too was scanning the hill, searching for a prone Selphie. Then her expression changed, and she dropped off Doomtrain's side in a swan dive. Rinoa followed the line of the dive and finally saw Selphie on the ground. She had been looking for the magnolia dress, not realising a mortal wound had reddened it, and Irvine's hat looked to be obscuring her face. One of her legs was bloody, too. She looked to be sleeping. Until her powers were passed on, she would remain in that comatose state, unable to die.

'Oh no, you don't!' Rinoa said.

In a movement she had become long adept at, she depressed Angelwing's trigger with her mind. The flamboyant projectile left her slender wrist, and then she was flying behind it, determined to knock Ultimecia off-course if Angelwing did not do it first.

Tyris had flown for hundreds of miles. By herself, too, as opposed to on Quetzal's back, as she wanted to remain nimble and agile for when she reached Ultimecia. She had held a northern course from the ruined city, following the Obel River as it meandered across burning plains, keeping the Roshfall on her right. While a number of thrustaevises had attempted to follow her, a mental warning from Ramuh had sent them flying in the opposite direction with shrill squawks.

She had sighted Eden before East Academy itself. Although Tyris had only beheld the Elder once before, he was a sight she could never forget, after the Monterosa genocide. He was hovering above the stone circle just outside of the city limits, lighting the plain for miles around with his sheer presence, a quicksilver seen that pulsated intermittently with his frequent energy blasts.

Tyris lowered her course on approach. She could now see that a much larger flying form was circling Eden, with an equally gleaming sword; Griever, the only being who could match him. The horizontal column of Doomtrain was circling a distance below, with two figures clashing, the smaller of which bore the sapphire wings of Bahamut. Below that were Ultimecia and Rinoa, the Sorceresses of the Opposing Wings; while Ultimecia seemed to be trying to reach the ground, Rinoa appeared determined to impede her at every flap.

Look below them! Ramuh instructed.

Tyris did. It was hard to make out at first, but it looked like the body of a small woman, in a ruby dress – no, a bloody dress. When Tyris saw the gunslinger's hat, she knew who it was. Selphie!

Tyris fixed her eyes on Ultimecia. Raikou winked into existence in her hand, with the abruptness of a lightness bolt. She drew her shoulder back, ready to throw it into her back as soon as Rinoa was clear.

Tyris, thank Hyne you're here!

Tyris knew that voice, and it was not Ramuh. She looked downward, at the motionless Selphie below.

Take my body and get far away from here! Take me to East Academy! I'll hold off the Transference until then!

What? Tyris thought, with trepidation. Transference?

She looked above her. The two Sorceresses were circling and switching positions so quickly that throwing Raikou would be just as likely to strike Rinoa than Ultimecia. Tyris knew she would have to get closer and thrust.

'Do what Selphie says, Tyris!' Rinoa shouted, not affording her a glance, shattering a spinning scythe as her gunblade made contact.

'No!' Ultimecia protested fearfully. 'Tyris cannot become a Descendant of Hyne! She is unstable!'

Rinoa scoffed as she brought those twin-blades back in front of her. 'You're a fine one to talk!'

What are you waiting for! Selphie screamed through her mind. Get us out of here!

Tyris wanted to scream herself. While most women would fantasise about becoming a Sorceress their entire lives, she had never wanted it. Ever. Not even after finding out she was Edea's daughter. She did not need to become one! She had worked her utmost to hone her body since childhood, forging it into a weapon, and she had grown powerful enough already! Tyris had never desired an extended lifespan, either; for someone who had endured her life, and had made the decisions she had been forced to make, that would just mean unending suffering.

She willed Raikou to vanish. Swooping to the ground, she landed in a crouch as Selphie's side. Selphie already looked dead. Her breathing was extremely laboured, her legs splayed awkwardly out at differing angles, one of which had a deep cut.

Why can't we just do it here? Tyris asked.

Because you'll go into a coma! Selphie explained. That's what happened when Rinoa first got your mother's powers, and it happened to me and Quistis during the Divide!

Tyris gently lifted her head to straighten Irvine's hat, then scooped her up in a firefighter's carry. She noticed Strangevision sprawled on the grass.

Take it, please. I want Morfydd to have it.

Who? Tyris asked.

Don't worry, Rhodry knows.

Tyris obliged.

Thanks so much, Ty. Now go!

Rinoa remained in front of Ultimecia, to prevent her from following Tyris.

'My conquest has been foretold,' Ultimecia said. 'I will settle for your powers for the time being, Defender of Timber. Your Knight will join you in the Netherworld presently. And when the daughter of Edea takes the helm of SeeD, leading your allies across the ocean, death will greet her as it should have a dozen years ago!'

While she had been talking, Rinoa had been labouring upon a tear in the material realm. Not a wormhole, but a simple opening. It appeared above Ultimecia, and she spun as she sensed it, but not before she was struck by a small meteor shower. Angelwing returned to the harness on Rinoa's wrist, and she reloaded the altered Punishment for a new continuous flurry; a renzokuken, as they called it in Balamb. The conjured space rocks struck Ultimecia hard, forcing her to restore that spherical mana-ward, and then the raven-winged Sorceress sealed the tear with a wave of her own arm. Still, the rocks had hurt her, and she was quivering with pain. With Eden outside of her, she would not be able to heal herself.

Rinoa smote once, then twice, then thrice; overhand, underhand, forehand. Ultimecia's graceful evasion was marginally slower as she back-flapped, weaving and twisting as she did. Angelwing left Rinoa's wrist in the next instant, forcing Ultimecia to spiral to the side, just as Rinoa had hoped. With her fourth strike, Rinoa ran her abdomen through, the twin blades piercing the scarlet gown and embedding several inches; she squeezed the dual triggers in the same instant.

Yes!

Ultimecia screamed in suffering. Rinoa capitalised, raising both knees and placing her boots on her opponent's hips. Her own body swung backwards in the nick of time, as two retaliatory purple orbs sizzled over her head. Squeezing the dual-trigger again, she kicked off Ultimecia's body and ripped the gunblade free in a bid to cause the most grievous wound possible. She straightened following the mid-air somersault, and Ultimecia was doubled over in agony, her arms criss-crossed over her torso.

I'm beating her! Rinoa thought elatedly. One on one!

Still, even cut nigh on in half, Ultimecia was still dangerous. Rinoa readied herself, bracing the altered Punishment in front of her, owl wings beating steadily. Ultimecia's cats' eyes opened. They shone with hatred as they fixed upon her own.

'I can't… disappear… yet!'

Those four words filled Rinoa with a horrible dread. Although she had never heard Ultimecia utter them before, her Knight had, following his greatest mistake.

Rinoa took first pressure on her triggers and subconsciously fired Angelwing again, though it was a fraction too late, as Ultimecia begun down-beating her wings. She was now flying skyward. Rinoa followed after her hurtling projectile, imbuing it with holy in a bid to penetrate that purple defensive sphere, though it only got so far before being launched back out, as though it had failed to penetrate a trampoline's surface. Weighed down with her light armour and gunblade, Rinoa was steadily falling behind. She realised Ultimecia was trying to reach Eden, who was descending with surprising speed, like a gigantic personnel lift.

'I shall junction myself… unto Eden!'

Dear Hyne, no! Rinoa thought desperately.

Was this why Ultimecia had been meditating when they approached her? Had she been pondering upon this last-ditch plan of survival? Rinoa had beheld a similar phenomenon in the future, when a gravely wounded Ultimecia had become one with the false Griever. She did not even want to speculate what Ultimecia would become in conjoining with the real Eden. Rinoa had to stop her. If she did not, then she was certain that all of their victories against Ultimecia, past or future, would be rendered meaningless.

As soon as Angelwing returned to her wrist, Rinoa fired it again, imbuing it with the first element she could grasp. In the same instant, she raised her offhand, summoning three lethal javelins of ice to hover over her shoulder; the first offensive spell Edea had taught her. All three ice shards followed Angelwing after the enshrouded, fluttering Ultimecia, to no avail. The angelic figurine that was Eden's core hung there invitingly, unmoving. Ultimecia spread her arms just before they made contact. Rinoa saw her winged form fly into it, junction unto it, as though it were not corporeal.

There was a long, sonorous hum, followed by a searing flash of Eden's silver and Ultimecia's purple, forcing Rinoa to shield her eyes. When she looked into the Aether, it was equally blinding, a huge disturbance among the elemental plane, like a riptide in a calm lake, or a series of thunderbolts in a clear sky. Where Eden had ordinarily shined like the moon there, now he was becoming dark, his form distorting. The Elder Guardian Force was changing on a fundamental level, forcibly interwoven with a Descendant of Hyne.

Rinoa witnessed the genesis of this new being, as the two avatars melded into one another in the aethereal sea, the rapidly fading light of Eden's presence shrinking and being absorbed into its hanging core, which grew ever darker. The core's wings grew larger and came alive. Its lengthening arms begun to move, ponderously at first, but then with coiled strength, testing the range of its new talons. The needle-like bottom shifted, splitting into long, graceful legs, feet ending in paws as black as a panther's. It grew a slender, prehensile, and blade-tipped tail. The whole obsidian being was laced with Ultimecia's favoured red and purple, and its eyes retained the gleaming yellow of her old ones; now they bored into Rinoa, and the dark visage smiled at her. The final touches were for her old tribal markings to suddenly appear in Eden's silver, albeit over her whole body.

Knowing the transformation was complete, Rinoa closed off her aethereal sight. With Eden gone, this dark shadow hovered before her, the wings unmoving and decorative. It was now lit by the sheen coming from Rinoa's own wings.

We were so close to ending her forever, Rinoa thought defeatedly.

To the side of her, Doomtrain had come to a stop. Squall was flying towards Rinoa, taking his rightful place by her side. Then Doomtrain slowly moved around behind Ultimecia, with Christophe standing on its top; apparently, he and Squall had opted to pause their duel. 'Abomination!' came from Griever, who had dropped down to hover at Rinoa's other side.

The black form raised her arms. An orange light suddenly covered much of the space beneath everyone's feet, as though lit by a miniature sun, and several pentagrams appeared. Rinoa and Squall had seen magic like this before, during their battle with the future Ultimecia's final form, and knew what was coming. There were three great explosions of that amber light. Rinoa reflexively recoiled, drawing her wings and gunblade in protectively around her, but she realised that Griever was shielding them from the worst of the attack.

When the blasts finally abated, they realised that Ultimecia, her Knight and Doomtrain were gone.

In carrying Selphie's dead weight, along with her Strangevision in her free hand, Tyris as exhausted by the time she descended into East Academy's central plaza. Curiously, there was snow all over the city, but it quickly thawing in the moderate spring night. She saw no Esthari, only youths in SeeD and cadet uniforms, and hardy Timber resistance fighters in generic outdoor clothing. Though the imperial standards had been taken down from the municipal buildings, and she knew Esthar had lost the city. Tyris lay the still Selphie onto the wet slabs as gently as she could, before the statue of Arc the Scholar, one of the four Warriors of Light from antiquity and founder of the city. Then, Tyris herself sagged backward in exhaustion.

She looked at her curious spectators for the charcoal uniforms of the nearest SeeDs.

'Sorceress Selphie is dying!' she cried. 'Get me Rhodry Blaen!'

Much had passed between her and Selphie during the flight here, and there was little more to be said. However, Selphie's voice touched her mind one more time.

I'm sorry I never got the chance to know you properly, Ty, she said. Though I'm certain of one thing. Edea and Cid would be immensely proud of you, and there is no better candidate to pass my powers onto.

Sadness threatened to engulf Tyris. She replied with her own mind, as she did not trust her voice to remain unwavering.

Thank you, Selphie, she replied. I'm almost ready. Rhodry should be here soon.

It was not SeeDs that approached them, but two elderly Balambi individuals. A stocky man in samurai armour and an equally stout and headbanded woman in an antiquated medic's uniform. Tyris recognised them both from Battleship Island; Heihachi Aki and Yuna Kadowaki, both among her father's closest friends. They had been with SeeD since the beginning.

'Who did this to her?' Aki demanded.

'It was Christophe,' Tyris responded, then asked, 'Where's Rhodry?'

Kadowaki shook her head sadly. 'He's dead.'

Tyris gasped. Rhodry, dead? 'How?' she asked incredulously.

'The Disavowed,' Aki said simply. 'Squall was foolish to allow them to assist us in battle!'

Tyris looked down, at Selphie's face. She knew not the nature of the bond between her and Rhodry, only that it had been forged many years before.

Hyne, Selphie. I'm so sorry.

It's okay, Selphie answered, after a moment.

'Tell me, Almasy!' Aki demanded. 'What of Nida?'

Now, Tyris shook her own head. 'Selphie doesn't know. Only that he called forth the Ghost.'

It's time, Tyris. Selphie said. I can't hold it back any longer. Are you ready?

Not really, she admitted.

Selphie's entire body began to glow with a magnolia outline. The allure Tyris felt was greater than the strongest of desires; it was more than any person could resist, no matter how benevolent their nature. Once Hyne's power had found a suitable vessel, Tyris quickly accepted it would have taken more than every ounce of human will to resist it, more will than she could ever hope to harbour. With her mental tendrils, Tyris eagerly grasped for it. A great white light passed between them, a hundred times more magnificent than one from any draw point, and the great force emanating from it knocked both Aki and Kadowaki from their feet and blew fragments from the old statue of Arc. Tyris was lifted from her feet, powerless to resist. How could she have ever not desired this power?

Yes! Oh, yes!

More than a thousand blinding white rays entered her, flooding her womb, so that she might become matriarch to a million storms. She was suddenly aware of another presence there, a very young and faint one, before the pall of blackness took her.