Chapter 91

The End

Selphie knew this was going to be the toughest test of her life. She could cast magic at will, but conjuring would take time she could not afford, and she considered herself a warrior Sorceress first and foremost. Norg's magicite would not help her here, either. An Ultima spell would devastate the surrounding area and take even longer to prepare, what with the sheer volatility of its element. If she flew away, Akechi would just ascend with her, and fighting in the air was not as fun as it seemed; she did not envy Squall and Rinoa there.

Oft lamented to be the greatest samurai in the World, Akechi stood with an absolute stillness that spoke of his serenity, like an azure sky on a cloudless morning. If facing a Sorceress fazed him, he did not betray a hint of it.

'I can afford you no quarter, Guardian of Trabia,' Akechi told her plainly. As he spoke, pearl osprey wings sprouted from his back, casting an intimidating shadow of his horn-helmed, armoured form over her. 'And know that your Rapture technique won't work on me.'

'That's okay,' Selphie returned. 'Whenever I close my eyes, if I don't see Irvine's murder, I see thousands of Galbadian soldiers falling to their deaths. By my own making. After the Great Plains, I could never bring myself to use Rapture again. If it comes to that, Akechi, I have a different end planned for you!'

Before he could blink, Selphie pranced forward, striking with a form both as graceful as a ballroom dancer and deadly as an anacondaur. Akechi answered Selphie's assault with a few blows of his own, then shot out of her range with an abrupt jumping, twisting manoeuvre – the evasive kaze no katachi, which she had seen Nida use with aplomb. Except Akechi had not realised Strangevision's chain was of a robust but elasticated material, and she dented a shoulder shield. A mere glancing blow, and an error he would not be repeating. Although it had grown in popularity since the Second Sorceress War, in no small part thanks to Selphie herself, the shinobou was still an unorthodox weapon. Strangevision's springiness allowed her to stay well out of Murasame's range, and Akechi could only counterstrike once to Selphie's half-dozen raining blows.

Selphie bounced from foot to foot, never still, moving away whenever Akechi closed the distance. She was both a small and nimble target, seeking the destroy the magicite within his large gauntlet rather than deal a wounding blow, yet Akechi was always able to turn said gauntlet aside at the last second, resuming an unrelenting offense. Surviving him for more than a few minutes was a notable accomplishment. His transitions from parry to cut were seamless, he was quickly getting the measure of her, the frequency of his offense increasing.

She knew her luck would desert her soon. It was time to change things up. Selphie erected a solid wall of earth to forcefully separate them. It soon came crashing down with a demonstration of Murasame's power, but it had given Selphie the precious seconds she needed. Two phantasmal avatars of herself appeared, surrounding the samurai in a triangle and staying his advance. Then they whisked around him so fast that they formed an opaque circle, slowing to halt in different positions from where they had started, befuddling him as was its intent.

Akechi just grunted. 'The renowned Guardian of Trabia resorts to magician's tricks?' he said with disdain.

'To hell with honour and glory!' she shot back. 'What chance did you guys give Irvine?'

'A despicable act, I agree,' Akechi said credibly. 'Though I had naught to do with it.'

'Oh, well!'

Akechi changed his stance to one Selphie had only witnessed once before, Murasame now pointed at the moon over his right shoulder. The tsuki no katachi. It inevitably made Selphie think of Thalassa's late mother, Adira. When Zell had got with Adira, the librarian had become a part of Squall's close-knit circle for a time. One morning after coffee, Selphie had suggested they visit the Training Centre, if only she could see how such a shy and bookish samurai fared in battle, and it had been the form of the moon that toppled an adult t-rexaur. Adira had been so humble, she had never spoken of that feat, even though it would have vastly altered common opinions of her; Selphie, on the other hand, had not been able to contain herself.

Outnumbered three to one, Akechi now kept on the back foot lest he be surrounded, always making the three Selphies come to him. His offhand was held with his palm towards the ground, making the magicite untargetable. Akechi was an extraordinary improviser, and every time they attempted to reach either side he simply backed up again, keeping them within a one-eighty field of vision. When they opted to keep out of sword range, he begun launching white orbs at them, forcing them to close distance.

The fake Strangevisions passed around his blade and armour like liquid, revealing their falsehood; one sure strike to their wielder's body would make them disappear, but Selphie had them weave around each other so frequently is was difficult for Akechi to follow them. He had no window to counterattack regardless, nor use Alexander's magic. That was, until one of the copies inadvertently leapt upon Murasame, vanishing in a blink, and then the handicap was reduced to two. This allowed Selphie and her remaining copy to up their intensity. Not that it made a difference, as it was now easier for Akechi to pinpoint the real Selphie, and then he simply ignored the doppelganger unless she had them stop and reshuffle around him again.

At long last, Murasame raked across the real Selphie's thigh, though the innate power the blade barely contained made the wound twice as bad as an ordinary sword cut, immobilising her. She stood there, favouring her blood-drenched leg as her copy went on the offensive, trying to compartmentalise the pain. Knowing it was unable to cause him damage, Akechi cut through it with a crosswise slash, and the copy vanished.

Selphie still had her magic, though she had ignored the call of the aethereal sea up until now. Now, she grasped three of the eight elements, their familiarity warming her. First she conjured a engorging fireball, then a barrage of thunderbolts, then javelins of ice. Except Akechi was shielded by Alexander of the holy element, the most powerful of the standard eight, and he came to no harm. The Ninth would make short work of those barriers, but there was not enough time to conjure, not nearly, and Akechi was almost back within blade range.

It's no use, Selphie thought. He's just too good. Norg, looks like you're up!

The abrupt appearance of black summoning orbs made Akechi halt, and he reflexively darted back as a dark monstrosity appeared before him.

'A kami?' he questioned with dismay.

'That's right!' Selphie called. 'Meet Norg, the Shadow Moomba!'

Through their magicite bond, Selphie just thought, Attack!, and Norg immediately obliged. Akechi ducked under a claw swipe that would have decapitated him. Then he was fighting for his life, using those osprey wings to heighten his evasion. Absent what little humanity he had in his life as a shumi, Norg was swiping at him like a rabid beast, quick as a coeurl and as ferocious as a behemoth. Alexander, she knew, was too slow in corporeal form; Akechi would not be summoning him so that he could divert to finish her off. He would have to defeat Norg through infusions of his holy power, which would give Selphie time to do what she needed.

She looked for her dear friend and second Knight. Further up the incline, she saw the stone circle toppling, the edifices crashing down one after the other. Nida's armoured figure was glowing a ghastly white, and she could see the larger, crimson-caped form of Christophe darting amidst the ruined henge. So, Nida had called upon Amaterasu after all, and she knew that meant he had lost a traditional duel, forgoing his honour to see Christophe eliminated. From the beginning, she had been realistic about Nida's chances of besting Christophe, and it was only with her sorcery and Strangevision she had fared marginally better against Akechi.

Above, the winged Squall and Rinoa were hounding Ultimecia like raptors ravaging a raven. The fight was far from over, but Selphie could see Ultimecia was losing, barely able to get in any offense between the onslaught of not one, but two gunblades. Even higher above, Griever soared gracefully between multiple silver beams that were only partially successful at abating him, all in an effort to get to that seraphical humanoid which was Eden's core. Of course, Griever would know his fellow Elder's weakness, and as the seconds crawled by his circles and figure of eights inched him ever closer. One strike of his awesome sword to that core would be enough.

But Mitsuhide Akechi was Selphie's problem.

She concentrated on the tips of Strangevision. After the Divide, Selphie and Quistis had both spent months at the orphanage so as to better utilise their newfound powers, as Rinoa had done following the Second Sorceress War. Irvine and Nida had stayed with them. It was there that they had both learned how they were best suited to draw upon the Aether. While Rinoa had been proficient with white magic, she and Quistis were much better with offensive spells, as Edea herself had been. Having a tutor was something a Sorceress rarely received throughout history, so in that respect, the new generation of witches had been highly fortunate.

The spell was a variation of Quistis' Degenerator, though the wormhole was veiled by a sprawling faerie tale setting. While a hapless monster might allow itself to be drawn in by Quistis' more upfront version, a human being with GF-drawn wings such as Akechi would have the means to evade. Though he would not seek to escape something he could not see. When the black hole itself was ready, it would pull in anyone caught nearby. The victims would find themselves in the X-Zone, as Gilgamesh once had, which could be a fate worse than eradication, though most Voidsent were not in a position to tell.

Verdant grass grew from where Selphie stood, blanketing the sloped plain on which they fought, no ordinary blades but the colour of emerald. Gleaming lilies grew from it intermittently, taken straight from Selphie's memories of the prairie outside Edea's House, as they had glittered the landscape when she had been of four summers. Back then, they had stood almost as high as her and Irvine.

T-H

The first two letters appeared over her head. She did not necessarily have to end the spell this way, but she just liked to, and Matron had said it was better for her focus, to give her a clear point as to when to stop expanding the illusion and when to pull the curtain on it.

Selphie's own addition to the memory scape was the sprouting of magnolia trees, with flowers the same colour as her dress. Unseen birds chirruped. The largening setting expanded until it spread beyond the furious struggle between Akechi and Norg. The hidden wormhole slowly expanded beneath the unspoilt emerald ground, kept in check by a vacuum caused by her manipulation of air, close to where the two fought. If Selphie allowed it to become potent enough, it would swallow everyone in the surrounding area – Eden and Griever included, but Akechi was her intended target.

How Akechi would fare in the X-Zone, she did not know, though she hastily contained the guilt at such an action behind a wall in her mind. She and the others had secured a path to the Rift in getting Diablos. Perhaps they could lead a mission to retrieve him when the war was over.

T-H-E E-

The dreamlike prairie was no longer growing. The spell was almost ready, the cut-off black hole hungry for lifeforms. Another few seconds now, she would recall Norg, and Akechi would be completely removed from the board.

The Abadon led.

Ever since the Battle of the Gardens, this had been Rhodry's boyhood dream, to be a warrior of great renown chosen to lead SeeD into battle. Squall had saved him from the Galbadian exo-suits that day. Whenever he saw one of the Children of Fate after that pivotal battle, passing them on his laps around Balamb Garden, he would tell them, 'Gotta take the pain! One more!' He had only been seven years younger than Squall or Selphie, after all, and had wanted to be ready to face a malevolent Sorceress himself by his middle teens. He was a SeeD by the time of Trabia Garden's fall, though had never faced a Sorceress until he was forced to fight Selphie herself, his rescue of her marking him as the Hero of the Great Plains.

Now, none would doubt Rhodry had the credentials to be mentioned in the same breath as Xu or the Children of Fate. He had yearned his whole life to be counted as one of their number, and if not for circumstance, he would be riding with them now as Selphie's Knight. Neo-SeeD looked up to him in their Commander's absence, wanting to match his heroism. His name was now well known to the enemy, and the Ist Legion feared the Abadon of Adaryn.

Rhodry knew he would not be crossing paths with Selena Vlahos. Not here, anyway, as she was reported to be leading the legions in the south. Though he accepted his stance toward her had begrudging changed, at long last. It had been hard to let to go of sheer animosity born of deep grief, though Rhodry had seen things for what they were since Trabia. Vlahos was both an honest warrior and a venerable commander, like her forebears, and Glyn had been killed in single combat. During her Trabian campaign, she had given he and Owaen every chance to surrender. In Gerra's timeline, he had died there, and she had made sure his name had been remembered long after Trabia became uninhabitable. To set a better example to the younger generation of SeeD, a purpose as single-minded as vengeance needed to be beneath the Abadon. Moreover, Glyn and Anwen would not have wanted him to harbour hatred for the rest of his life.

Still, Rhodry had never loved another as he had Glyn, and he knew he would never do so again. After the war, his devotion would be to his homeland. He and Selphie would see the fragmented settlements of the northerners united as a country, and Trabia Garden would be rebuilt yet again to birth the first generation of its army.

The Ist Legion's counterthrust had failed despite them receiving reinforcements from the west, in no small part due to the bolster of Instructor Aki's cadets, being driven back to East Academy's city limits. With the spirit of Esthar's eldest legion wavering, Rhodry readied the charge to infiltrate the city itself, Icefall held over his head like a crystal beacon. From within him, Shiva conjured the most bitter of unseasonal blizzards to cover their charge. Within it, fifty Neo-SeeDs shone with their moomba-infusions like warming fires in a snowstorm, unaffected by the blighting cold that was not intended for them.

Led by Aki, five hundred cadets marched openly, a century on chocobo and four hundred on foot. Locked in a stalemate with the IInd and IIIrd Legions to the west, Cassandra Elderwood had been able to spare a similar number of Forest fighters, joining them east of the Obel River by way of their own captured bridges. The Silver Vixen led them herself, leaving her main force in the capable hands of her sons Gareth and Rickard.

'It's good to see you again, General Elderwood,' Rhodry told her, when she approached he and Instructor Aki. The former head of Timber's army was silver-haired, with a round face not quite yet marred to harshness with pronounced lines, stoutly built in middle-age but not run to fat. While the leader of a defeated army would typically lay down their arms in shame, never to rise up again, the fight had never died in this cunning vixen. Cassandra carried herself with the same energy she had shown as a callused-fingered, pinny-wearing homemaker during the Galbadian occupation, bravely confronting the secret police for frightening her children, and telling them barefaced lies while sheltering the Children of Fate in her own living room.

'Likewise, SeeD Blaen,' she responded, before respectfully bowing to Aki. 'It's past time we removed these albino, ceruleum-swelling beetles from the Forested Plains!'

Their main objective was to take the eastern sector of the city; should Ultimecia be defeated, they did not want the Legatus of the Ist able to fortify the city and prepare for a protracted siege. With this frost-knuckled iron fist, they would punch through half-hearted resistance and what few cyborgs and Magitek the Ist still had remaining, all the way to the inner-city bridge leading to East Academy's central district.

Two iron giants had been posted on the main avenue in, their silhouettes like two misshapen watchtowers before they came into sight. The Lunarians had been immobilised by the incessant snowfall, and any human units posted with them had either frozen or abandoned their posts. Unable to pivot, the iron giants swung those massive swords clumsily, and as the frontal Neo-SeeDs pounced for them, the iron giants were soon absent their tiny, diademed heads. They reached the fortified bridge in short order, and it was here that the Ist made a desperate stand. The last of their heavy weaponry was sent to Rhodry's position in one major offensive, the unmistakable canter of Magitek units wading through the swiftly building snow.

'This is where they fall!' Rhodry cried. 'Let's crush them! For the Children of Fate! For the Autumn Knight!'

Neo-SeeD answered him with a battle cry. Icefall gleamed in his hands, its magical properties slicing through war machine and armour both, still shining fiercely despite the swirling snow. Shiva's blizzard increased further in intensity, limiting his field of vision, though he and the other SeeDs remained physically unaffected, and their sword and shield hands remained warm and limber. The Ist Legion would taste its first real defeat since the First Sorceress War, a defeat Instructor Aki himself had witnessed; that he too was present boded very ill for them. One more Magitek sagged before him, as Rhodry withdrew Icefall from its encased operator.

Shiva's brisk warning to him, his name sharply whispered upon the howling winds like an ice shard, was the only warning he got. Rhodry found himself surrounded by eight robed figures, the burgundy of their cowls highlighting them in the snow and marking them as the Disavowed. Sixteen large, yellow hands opened towards him – itself a sacrilege to their race, as showing one's palm to another was reserved as the greatest sign of respect among the shumi.

'You're one of Cid's followers, aren't you?' they accused in unison. 'Die!'

All at once, Rhodry realised he and Squall had been careless. Yes, the Disavowed had been permitted to draw on curative magic. But that stemmed from the holy element, and the most skilled of white mages could use that element offensively. They had assumed such formerly incompetent beast tamers would not be learned enough to do so, or that they would not act against the ones who held Norg's magicite. Furthermore, once the battling had gotten underway, there would have been nothing stopping them drawing para-magic from fallen Esthari and SeeD cadets in all the confusion, shuffling and trading magic amongst themselves.

Encircled, Rhodry was hit by no fewer than eight fire spells. A miscalculation on the shumis' part, as they assumed he would be weak against Shiva's opposite. Rhodry was almost as skilled with fire as he was with ice, and was fully stocked, so the fire plumes were as harmless as the swirling blizzard around them, giving Rhodry critical time to act. As he moved for the tallest among them, Razgoth, Icefall shone more fiercely. An ice javelin came from its tip and struck the stoutest one, Glem, full on in the chest. A second swiftly followed as Rhodry moved with super speed, impaling one whose name he had forgotten and his cut viciously through Razgoth's robes. He discovered shumi bled a dark green.

For a mercy, Instructor Aki had been within earshot. He had heard that oft-repeated accusatory sentence of the shumi during Norg's Uprising. It doubtless stirred memories of his nephew, Kojiro, killed by the Disavowed's poorly controlled beasts. Aki's mounted, armoured form materialised through the snowfall, and with quick flashes of his clan katana, the aged samurai felled two of the Disavowed in a single pass, his chocobos feet trampling a third.

Which left two remaining. Though they had had the common sense to move farther away as their tight circle had been shattered, and the green light at their long hands signified their next attack was almost ready. Rhodry did not think, charging the rightmost one as Icefall was pointed at the one on the left. Aki turned his chocobo and charged for them too, preparing a spell of his own. But he was too far away, and the shumi were ready to cast.

Shiva could gift Rhodry no protection against holy spells, which wholly bypassed his elemental defences. There were none alive who could best him at the sword. Rhodry had always known if he was going to die in battle, it would be by the hand of a spellcaster, as had been the case in Gerra's timeline. Rhodry heard Shiva's anguished cry through their mental bond as he was hit in full by two light pillars. Then, the Abadon of Adaryn thought no more.

Panting, Leo stood amidst the split stones and deep ravages in the ground. Above, his Empress still fared stalwartly against the Leonharts, weaving between their gunblades before gliding gracefully away, gaining critical distance before their next onslaught. Witnessing her younger self holding off both Squall and Rinoa only increased Leo's admiration for the one he served. In the future, the Knight of the Empress was a largely ceremonial title. Ultimecia had never needed a Knight, and she needed her Praetorian Guard even less. While Leo might have forestalled Omega, it had been Ultimecia who had overpowered and imprisoned that demon in the end.

A whole different scene had caught his eye. That of an otherworldly and unnatural prairie, unfolding upon the sloping plain away from the henge. Sorceress Selphie stood in the middle of it, looking to be in deep concentration. Just farther down, Mitsuhide fought desperately against what looked like a giant, black moomba.

Leo started towards them, picking his way over the toppled stones and deep cuts in the ground. He eyes went from the motionless Selphie to the black moomba again as he reached the outer borders of the henge, starting downward. Was it a Guardian Force, or a dark force she had conjured to keep Mitsu busy? Either way, Leo could only assume the faerie tale setting surrounding them must be to buy time for something. As he reached the edge of the emerald grass, it was akin to stepping into a different world.

A letter appeared in the air over Selphie's head, a capital T, followed by an H, filling him with alarm. Surely the venerable Guardian of Trabia was not resorting to a children's storybook ending to do away with her foe? That would be nothing short of cowardice, and most unjust a fate for the Pearl Osprey! Leo's run increased to a sprint, readying Harbinger's left half, knowing he needed to reach Selphie before the final letter appeared. He did not want to speculate what would happen to Mitsu when those two words completed themselves. Would he disappear? Would he explode? Would he keel over and die? Neither would surprise Leo. A Sorceress was capable of a great many things. She seemed oblivious to the death of her second Knight, and she was treating her share of Hyne's power as a plaything.

Leo resolved that if he was to slay another Sorceress, he would do so honestly. He would do the Guardian of Trabia the decency of looking her in the eyes as he did so, not despicably striking from behind as he had with the Azure Sorceress. He would also give Selphie the opportunity to break off her spell and defend herself.

T-H-E E-N-D

He feared he was too late. Crossing his obsidian blade over his chest, Leo stepped in front of her and commanded, 'Stop!'

Selphie opened her eyes, and he was struck that their colour matched the otherworldly grass at their feet. Alarm only registered in them for a split-second, the shock of Nida's inferred demise replaced by a steely determination. She just answered with, 'Fuck you!'

THE END!

As it happened, Leo could have stopped it as he had with Quistis' pulsar, but his chivalry cost him and Mitsu dearly. Three things happened. First, the black moomba was recalled; a swirling, narrowing black cloud being pulled back to something within one of Selphie's utility pouches. Second, Mitsuhide himself distorted in much the same manner, sucked into some unseen vortex beneath the lilies, emitting a terrified cry Leo had never heard from him before, and supposed he would never do so again. Third, the storybook setting simply vanished, as though the book it had sprawled from had been snapped closed, and Leo's feet were back on the more mundane plain.

The only friend he had in this timeline was simply… gone.

Leo swung at Selphie. She had her Strangevision held in front of her, but the strength behind the strike forced it aside. It was a horrific backhand, and he squeezed the trigger as the obsidian blade passed through the centre of her chest. Selphie hit the ground hard, and as she did, her gunslinger's hat tipped forward to veil her empty eyes. A crimson patch spread rapidly from the awful wound, darkening the magnolia fabric of her dress. Although she would not be able to die until her powers were passed on, she lay very still, as though in a deep sleep; she would no longer be a factor in this battle.

The Sorceress Slayer.

There was no time for introspection now, or even to speculate what had happened to Mitsu. Leo knelt and opened the utility pouch he had seen the dark moomba's essence flow into, taking out what was unmistakeably magicite, the same potent dark colour as his gunblade. Wiping Selphie's blood from the remaining half of his weapon, Leo again summoned Doomtrain, so that he might be lifted to the soaring heights of his Empress.