A/n- This one is a bit random, but one day I saw a picture of Genesis and I was like "When did Rutger get into Final Fantasy?" so I looked him up and thought it would be cool to get a commission of him and Rutger fighting together. Also, I did my best to research Genesis' personality from wikis and cutscenes, but if he's a little off then I apologize. Also, I don't think this is how a fight with these characters would go, Genesis would probably one shot Rutger and Lilina at the same time, so he's holding back the whole time.
The Commission Files- File #a1060 Sparring With the Mirror
Characters: Rutger, Lilina, Genesis (Final Fantasy)
Based on: a commission by VidalRalph on Twitter
"So you're saying it's probably up to me to get us back home?" Lilina asked as her and Rutger sat in a metal clad room. It was quite a culture shock when the two of them accidentally fell through an open Outrealm portal into this new world. There was a lot to be getting used to, but some things were similar, like magic and swords being tools that people used here. They were found and taken in by a group named Shinra and were being watched by a group of soldiers ironically called SOLDIER. Both of them knew something like this was a possibility because of Mark's research into the Outrealms, but Rutger was wishing he had paid more attention so he could know a way to get them back.
"Unfortunately, yeah." Rutger admitted. "I listened to my father talk about all his Outrealm research, but I never really paid that much attention to it."
"Well, maybe the people here will have a way to send us home." Lilina replied with some optimism. "And if not, at least we both came here together."
"That's very true, if I'm to be lost with no way home, I'd at least prefer it to be with you." Rutger admitted. Right after he said that the metal door to the room opened and one of the SOLDIERs stood in the doorway. It was the one named Genesis, which got Rutger to thinking. Genesis looked as if he could be Rutger's brother. Tall, brown hair, similar facial features, both of them wore long red robes and used swords, and a few more small details. So it was hard for Rutger not to compare himself to this new acquaintance.
"Come on you two, we're gonna do some sneaking around." Genesis said to the couple, motioning his hand for them to get up and follow him.
"You really think we should be doing that, you barely know us and we know very little about this realm." Lilina noted. "Won't you get in trouble?"
"Heh, you don't have to worry about me, I'm one of the top dogs around here, destined to be a grand hero." Genesis said smugly. "Besides, I have the feeling one of you will enjoy this idea of mine. And make sure to bring your weapons." Rutger and Lilina just looked at each other and shrugged knowing that they really didn't have much of a choice. So they picked up their swords and tomes and followed Genesis as he walked down the halls of the complex. He led them to an elevator and they went down a couple floors before walking down another hall and into a darkly lit room with a bunch of wires and panels covering the walls.
"Nice place you've got here." Rutger commented, not too impressed with what he had seen so far. "It just seems so, what's the word I'm looking for."
"Sterile?" Lilina offered.
"Yeah, that." Rutger confirmed. "Nothing in this place seems alive in anyway."
"Simpletons." Genesis muttered under his breath before speaking out to the room itself. "Computer, battle simulation, Mako Cannon." And with that the room began to buzz and whir around them, slowly building structures and atmosphere until the three of them were on top of a huge cannon built into a canyon, water a far ways below them. Now for Rutger and Lilina, this was the most impressive thing they've seen so far, no magic in Elibe could change an area so much in such a short amount of time, not even any Dark magic. So they started to wander around the area and stick their heads over the edge of the cannon to see what lurked below.
"Now this is a view." Lilina commented.
"Okay, maybe I take back my comment for this room and this room only." Rutger said standing up and facing Genesis once more. "But you called this a battle simulation, what kind of a battle are you wanting us to participate in?"
"So you caught that little tidbit huh?" Genesis replied in a 'wow aren't you smart' tone. "Well, if me and the guys are going to have to protect you while we find a way to get you back home, I was thinking I might as well see how proficient you are with your weapons to see how much we have to work."
"Fair enough." Rutger said taking out the sword on his left hip, a Killing Edge. "You going to take us both on at once or are we taking turns?"
"Well, I figured I'd be fair to the both of you and let you team up on me sine I can use both a sword and magic while you two are stuck only using one of each." Genesis answered, acting as if he was better than both of them. "Or would that bruise either of your honor too much?"
"Rutger, I'm starting to think this guy is a jerk." Lilina whispered into his ear getting closer. "We should go all out and take him down a peg."
"I was just thinking the same thing." Rutger said out loud before taking out his second sword, the Sol Katti.
"Oh, confident now are we?" Genesis teased. "Just remember, any actual damage done here is real, so if you bite off more than you can chew, you better some Phoenix Downs on you."
"Will you just shut up!" Rutger exclaimed before rushing at Genesis with both swords drawn. Now for the part of his life that Rutger was in, being out of his edgy phase for a few years at this point, it was considerably harder for people to get under his skin, but for some reason Genesis was different, he was pushing all his buttons and not in a good way.
"Anger, should have figured that would be your response." Genesis continued as he easily parried both of Rutger's swords with his own red blade. "But you're going to have to do better than that to land a strike on me."
"Then take this!" Lilina yelled before taking out an Elthunder tome and trying to hit Genesis with any of the bolts. But he was too fast for them and dodged them all with ease.
"Cute, but not cute enough." He teased before trying to close the distance and take Lilina out quickly. Rutger was just fast enough to get in the way and block his blade with his own two crossed in front of himself. "So, you were holding back. Well, so was I!" And with that Genesis started going on the offensive against Rutger.
"You may be fast, but your technique is shit." Rutger commented as he started to find it easier and easier to block and find openings in Genesis' attack patterns. Eventually he found an opening and jabbed his shoulder into his chest, pushing him back to make some room. Lilina took the time to run farther away, but still in her attacking range. "Predictable."
"I'll show you predictable!" Genesis yelled as he rushed Rutger once again, but his bladework was considerably slower this time since he was trying to mix up his style, this gave Rutger a slight edge, but he wasn't going to be able to last against his opponent's pure power forever. So when he saw Lilina starting to cast Elfire out of the corner of his eye he kept blocking until the last second he could before jumping and flipping over Genesis so he would have no time to react to the blast.
"Yeah, direct hit!" Lilina cheered for herself, but the joy didn't last for long before Genesis rose above the smoke looking like he had barely been damaged.
"Impressive, I've sorely underestimated the two of you." He said clapping in a taunting manner. "But no more, now I get serious." And it was with that statement that Rutger finally understood why Genesis was getting under his skin so much, it was as if he was watching a weird reflection of himself, a version of himself that he could have turned out to be if things were different. Genesis was full of himself, he underestimated people, but he was also very intelligent and a decent swordsman. Rutger felt like Genesis was himself if he was raised in a royal family, taught that he was better than everyone and that he didn't always have to try to be the best to be the best, that's why his sword technique was half-assed compared to his own. And it wasn't like Genesis was evil or anything, he talked about wanting to be a hero and helping people like Rutger always wanted to be and do, he just did it in a very 'holier than thou' way, kind of like Clarine but not in a funny way. But Rutger didn't really have much time to focus on that since Genesis was now floating around the canon and imbuing his sword with magic that he was casting towards the both of them.
"It would be really cool if I could learn how to do that." Rutger noted as he and Lilina dodged the bolts of light coming their way. They only got hit by a few of them but before they knew it Genesis called them back from behind them and they had to keep dodging them even more. "Hey, new idea! Use your Elfire to create a wall of fire to stop these things since Anima magic beats Light magic."
"Ooh, smart!" Lilina said before doing just that. With her latent magical power and all that experience she gained from the war, it was an easy task stopping the light bolts in their tracks.
"Now hit him before he starts talking again!" Rutger said knowing that he couldn't reach Genesis from where he stood. Lilina took a gamble and took out her Aircalibur tome and started blasting blades of wind at Genesis, which he laughed at."
"Wind magic, you're going to hit me with wind magic?" He chuckled before he got hit with them. They really hurt, not just because Lilina was so powerful, but because her wind magic retained the ability to do extra damage to enemies that could fly. She hit him with enough that he had to land and then Rutger moved onto the offensive once again.
"Seems your girlfriend has done way more damage to me than you could ever dream of." Genesis still taunted him. "Maybe she should take your swords as well."
"She's my wife, and you are so lucky you're part dragon, otherwise this sword of mine would be cutting through you like a knife through hot butter." Rutger said trying to keep the pressure up.
"But unfortunately for you, I'm not, so I'll be ending this fight now." Genesis said confidently before starting to try and dash around Rutger to flank him, but when he tried he was met with a bolt of lighting.
"Nuh-uh, you're staying right there." Lilina said with her own smugness as she continued to cast Elthunder in quick succession around the area Rutger and Genesis were having their duel. She made it so Genesis couldn't get around Rutger with his speed unless he wanted to get fried by a bolt of lightning. "Rutger, I can't hold this forever, you need to finish this now!"
"Got it!" Rutger said before closing his eyes and channeling his inner focus for just a split second. He opened his eyes and unleashed on Genesis the sword technique his mother Lyn bestowed upon him in his younger years. He began to move so fast that it looked like there were illusory copies of himself all attacking Genesis at the same time, but it reality it was just him moving at a speed that the human eye couldn't easily process. And they weren't random strikes either, he was aiming for Genesis' sword hand to make him drop his sword or at least loosen it's grip so he could snatch it. Eventually the strikes wore his hand down so much he did drop it and that gave Rutger the chance to lower his shoulder and push Genesis into the lightning wall Lilina was making. Genesis let out a yelp as he got shocked, but after that Lilina couldn't hold it much longer so she stopped. Genesis was on his knees and Rutger pointed his swords at his neck.
"Do you concede?" Rutger asked. But before Genesis could answer the whole area started to shake and alarms started blaring around them. "What is this, what did you do?"
"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't do this, I swear." Genesis said looking around to see if something had gone amiss. He looked around and saw some exposed wire towards the base of the canon which seemed to be the culprit. "Seems your girl's attack fried one of the boxes, I got this. Computer, end simulation." Nothing happened. "Computer, I said end simulation!"
Request acknowledged, forming battle strategy. The computer responded.
"Oh, that's not good." Genesis noted before a bunch of drones appeared out of nowhere and started attacking the trio. Lilina was so tired from using so much magic that when the canon shook she couldn't steady herself and fell off the edge.
"Lilina!" Rutger said trying to run over and grab her before it was too late, but he was too far away. Luckily for them though Genesis was still raring to go so he dove down after her and tossed her back onto the canon with his strength before lodging his red blade into the base near the canon to slow his descent. He then leaped back up to the canon himself to think of a plan.
"Nice save huh?" He still said a bit cockily as Rutger made sure Lilina was okay.
"Yeah, sure, maybe you aren't as bad a guy as we think you are, now what are we gonna do about these flying whatever these things are?" Rutger asked.
"They are called drones and the only way to stop them is to fix that fried box over there." Genesis said pointing it out. "Another good shot with that electricity magic should do the trick, so if you could do that again then we could all get out of here."
"Would if I could, but I'm drained." Lilina noted." I'm gonna need about five minutes of rest before I can do anything like that again.
"I think we can hold out for five minutes, don't you?" Rutger asked looking at Genesis.
"Piece of cake." Genesis said confidently. "And since you're so important to this plan I know a place the drones won't shoot at you. Hide right under that stairwell and they won't be able to see you."
"Got it." Lilina said moving to where Genesis pointed out and hiding there.
"As for you, I feel the best way to handle this is to fight back to back, you alright with that?" Genesis asked Rutger.
"As long as you have my back, I'll have yours." Rutger responded. And with that they started to attack the drones head on. But since the computer was glitched it just created more every time they defeated one, though it took each one a while to reach the top of the canon so it was worth it to keep destroying them. But Genesis being curious decided he wanted to keep talking.
"So where does one get a sword that can slay dragons?" He asked Rutger as the continued fighting back to back.
"Well, it was my mother's until she died." Rutger explained. "She got it from a thousand year old sage for the express use of killing a dragon a mad druid summoned to my world."
"You know how made up that sounds right?" Genesis teased him.
"It's the truth though, can't really say much more than that." Rutger noted. "Oh, and while we're at it, thank you for saving Lilina, I don't know what I would do without her."
"Probably would have lost about ten minutes ago honestly." Genesis joked. "But yeah, of course, you may see me as a jerk, but I'm not gonna let someone die on my watch, what kind of hero does that?"
"Fair point, but maybe ease up on the 'I'm better than anyone' attitude. It may be true, but you don't have to act like it." Rutger noted.
"Eh, agree to disagree." Genesis replied simply. "Hey! Has it been five minutes yet?" He called to Lilina.
"Almost, just give me a few more moments." Lilina called back. And that's all she really needed. A few deep breaths and she calmed her mind and body before stepping out of the stairwell and taking out her Elthunder tome again. She started to cast the spell and she aimed each bolt at the sparking electrical box and eventually enough hit to fully fry the system and slowly the room went from the canon in the cliff back to the room full of wires and boxes.
"Well, that was fun." Genesis commented like it was nothing. "And I learned a lot about you two as well, like you two both work way better as a team than one on one. So we probably shouldn't split you up in the future."
"I guess we learned you aren't a complete asshole either." Rutger noted.
"Yeah, still kind of a jerk though." Lilina added.
"Eh, not like I really care. But I do have an idea. If your willing to change that gaudy red crossguard on your sword Rutger, we can probably drill some materia holes into it so you can cast some magic with it to deal with your range issues." Genesis suggested.
"But I'm not good with magic, at least not in our realm." Rutger noted.
"Well, then we'll put some defensive materia in it to make you more bulky." Genesis said simply. "Come on, we have more sneaking around to do."
"Can we eat first, casting all that magic made me hungry." Lilina noted.
"Sure, why not? Maybe we'll even run into Sephiroth on the way there." Genesis replied.
"Why does that name sound sinister to me?" Rutger whispered to Lilina.
"I don't know, but let's hope we don't run into him, like ever."