samaqi: I hope the title brings you both a frown and a chuckle. It's a contrast to Raddie's A Boy in Shiny Armor chapter. And in this chapter we have my male version in a nutshell: Zyma. XD

"From Z to A" is the first part of my trilogy, although I didn't originally intend to write it at all until I introduced Zyma to SoW. In their very first encounter, Zyma threw his red GF breechcloth at Acma for her to cover her short pencil dress in Nida's magic history class. That event started their "enemies" story.

"From Z to A"'s C33 - Zyma the G - has a funny scene related to the breechcloth where he revealed his identity to her for the first time in G-day: /s/14342728/34/From-Z-to-A-A-Balamb-Garden-s-love-story . I've reread that scene many times, giggling at my own jokes and setups for this couple. Check out that spin-off if you're into dry and dark humors in combination with "enemies to lovers" romance.

Anyway, back to our alternative timeline in SOW. At this point, Zyma had sacrificed himself to become Acma's GF, only appearing when her HP is low…

10/14/24: samaki: Sorry for the long author notes, this chapter was meant to have 10 times more actions, but I got stuck in Zyma vs. Wakiyus fighting portion and organizing Halloween parties for kiddo's gang. I'll post what I have so far because don't want to publish less frequently than once a week to keep myself accountable. I tend to go back and edit published chapters multiple times, sometimes growing the number of words by 20% by doing so. If you read this chapter now, you risk reading lots of typos and sentences that don't run as smoothly. I'd say you'd better come back in a week. But of course, if you can't wait to find out what happened next, keep reading!

"Let me go!"

Acma screamed, but to no avail. More hands pinned her to the ground. A large man sat on her stomach, twisting her wrists together. Sweat dripped from her forehead as her heart pounded uncontrollably. It was out of the question that she could knock them down with her magic spells, or, to kill two birds at once, snap Four-Soul fragments from their foreheads with Telekinesis and kill them in the process. Yet, she felt afraid. It wasn't the fear of killing innocent people that overwhelmed her; it was something deeper buried in her subconscious, immobilizing her just as Ethus's simple glance had.

"Let me go! Or I'll kill you!"

She warned them, her tone was more fearful than assertive. She managed to free her right hand from the man's grip, but just as she was about to push herself up with her elbow, one of the Red Warriors appeared and shoved her back down. His red cloak covered her face, blocking her vision. She choked, even though the cloak wasn't particularly heavy. Somehow, she had a strong feeling that she had been in this exact situation before. Déjà vu?

"Lay still, magic bearer whore, or we'll kill your fat boy."

"No… Not here... I don't want him to see... Please... Please…"

Her body froze as the memories flooded back. She was pinned down, threatened with Raddie's life if she resisted, and she had obeyed. They had raped her one by one for days she couldn't count. She was worthless.

The red cloak covering her face lifted as the Red Warrior stood up. Even with his shiny knife held high, ready to plunge into her chest, she showed no intention of resisting.

"Ya…!"

Johoni charged into the crowd, knocking down the Red Warrior without hesitation. He pierced through each villager's legs with his harpoon, deliberately disabling them without taking their lives.

"Lady Acma!"

Johoni was shocked to see the little sorceress usually full of actions now lying motionless on the white snow, her eyes fixed on the gloomy sky.

"Lady Acma! Can you stand? Are you hurt?" he called from afar, struggling with the burly Red Warrior. "Shit!"

He exclaimed as the corpse of Wakiyus seemed to shift. Many villagers walked near it, only to fall as if drawn in by the giant centipede corpse like a magnet.

"Lady Acma!"

After knocking down the Red Warrior, Johoni rushed to sit beside the motionless Acma. Her soulless gaze made him fear for a moment that a Four-Soul fragment had penetrated her had her deep red eyes not yet turned white. However, her skin had turned blue, her pink lips dried as if she were a corpse herself. Hilde's life magic must have left her, leaving her body in the same condition as when she was raped and her stillborn ripped from her womb.

"Are you hurt? Do you need a potion?" he asked, taking Acma's cold, sweaty hands.

She shook her head slightly, enough to let her teary eyes lazily met his.

"Can you fight?" Johoni asked, glancing between Acma and the surrounding villagers, who crawled toward them like zombies. Not far away, Wakiyus's corpse glowed with increasing intensity.

"Lady Acma, I don't know what's wrong with you, but if you don't help us, we're all going to die. Did you call for Hercus' crew? We have to buy time until their powerful GFs help us!"

Sensing Acma did not want to reply, Johoni hastily searched through Acma's gear. "Would any of these help?"

Acma gasped at the sight of what Johoni held: her tranquilizer bottle and Raddie's glowing Triple Triad card. Raddie was still alive, but what if he came back only to be killed by Wakiyus? What was she doing? Lying here and awaiting death? She didn't want to die yet. At the very least, she needed to weaken Wakiyus so Raddie could handle it later. Then, she could die in piece.

Acma tried to sit up, and Johoni quickly assisted her. She snatched the bottle from his hand and quickly chewed the blue pills without counting.

"Grr..."

Wakiyus's charred corpse stirred, its tail pushing against the ground as if trying to lift its upper body.

Johoni didn't know how to feel in that moment. Their resources were depleted—no archers, no fire catapults—just this little sorceress whose HP, without Hilde's HP-J, would drop to zero with a single hit from Wakiyus. The villagers should have had enough time to escape, but with Wakiyus wiping out anyone who could fight, it wouldn't be long before it devoured every single human on this Winter Island.

"Get everyone into the jail and lock them up," Acma instructed Johoni. "Don't let Wakiyus eat them and gain more strength and magic…"

"What about you?" Johoni asked.

"I'll summon my knight," she replied.

Johoni looked confused. She didn't say "GF," but "knight." Based on his limited knowledge of modern English, that word meant a person. How could she, despite being a sorceress, summon a person?

But Johoni kept his questions to himself, assuming this SeeD knew what she was doing. He immediately started dragging villagers he had knocked down onto healthy Chocobos to flee from the village center.

"Hynespeed, Lady Acma!" Johoni said.

"You, too!"

Acma hid inside a small tent and used her siphon to drain just enough blood to summon her long-lost lover.

"Z... Come here, I need you," she whispered.

A green mist appeared before her, completely different from her previous summons of him. Her heart dropped at the sight of the familiar human figure, now with gray hair and a large red cloak instead of his usual dyed black hair and all-green attire. The only piece of clothing he retained was his green bandana, which looked strange against his gray hair.

"Z?"

"Aye aye… Who's bothering you this time, master?" the figure asked with his usual smirk.

Acma felt she should have cried, but perhaps due to the tranquilizers, she couldn't.

"Why are you… in your human form?" she stammered.

"Don't panic. I can turn into Aczyma the beast in no time. I just thought you might want to see me like this once in a while," Zyma said, placing both hands on her shoulders. "I'm here. Everything is gonna be alright."

She immediately hugged him, not forgetting to give him a few punches on his back.

"Do you see how much 'fun' I've had since you left me?" she growled. The tranquilizer pills were so effective at holding back her tears even though she wanted to cry on his shoulder so much.

"I know... I know..."

He hugged her back and gently caressed her tangled red braids. Once he felt her calm down, he pulled her away slightly to cup her sad face in both hands.

"No matter what happens, just know that any love I gave you is yours to keep. Forever. I'm dead but I'm not an illusion. I'll fuck the world with you if you ask me to. Are we clear on that?"

Squeezing his hands to feel the warmth she had missed so much, she nodded repeatedly.

"Speaking of which… Did you and Raddie have fun imagining me fucking monsters in multiple ways?"

She chuckled. "You have quite a few admirers in that department."

"Master, please!" He leaned his forehead against hers and smiled. "I only hope to impress you in that department."

As he made sure her face flush, he quirked his chin toward the centipede lady, whose body had now become even bigger and more grotesque than its first form. "What've you got for me this time?"

"A 17-year-old virgin monster," Acma replied casually.

Zyma hissed and nodded. "What a treat!"

"I hope that's still your type," she mocked, smiling.

"Oh you know me well, master." He looked at her flirtatiously as in the old days and whispered. "I'll make her scream my name louder than you did."

It was her turn to scoff silently at his bravado. She could think of many ways to retort, but Wakiyus's shriek reminded her to save them for later.

"Go. Buy me time while I get magic from the well," she squeezed his hands lightly before letting go. "Don't die!"

"I won't, master."

Zyma smiled at her one last time before pulling out his bandana and dashing toward Wakiyus. His dyed raven-black hair shimmered and transformed into a flowing mane of silvery-white strands, cascading down his broad shoulders. His black eyes widened until they were no longer human. From the sides of his forehead, two horns began to sprout. His figure grew taller and broader, and his light tan Centran skin turned dark red. The former red cloak now wrapped around his thigh. With similar features but twice the size, he was an advanced transformation of Ifrit.

"WHO DISTURBED MY MASTER SHALL FACE HELL'S JUDGMENT."

As Zyma roared, the hill on the east side of the village unearthed, hovering above the still glowing white body of Wakiyus. Zyma leaped high, arching his back as he punched the hill downward.

In an instant, Wakiyus's body stopped glowing, and its skin and armor materialized, revealing a much more grotesque form than before. Its single tail split into four legs, anchoring firmly in the snow. The upper body, still resembling a spider in human flesh though the skin had hardened, was now positioned downward, making it look like an Elastoid. Along its legs, in addition to the sharp blades, protruded the heads of its devoured victims. Each head murmuring something incoherent or gasping for what was certainly not breath, as their life force had long been taken away.

As the hill made of hard rocks covered in snow was about to flatten the creature, Wakiyus quickly balanced on its three legs, using the fourth to grab a tree pillar from Gibaus's tent and swing hard, deflecting the massive rock. When the hill hit the ground, it shattered and damaged all the tents around.

"FLARE!"

The GF lifted the largest pieces of the shattered hill into the air, embedding them with Flare magic before shooting them toward Wakiyus from different angles.

Besides striking the major rocks with its pipe tree, Wakiyus countered the burning debris using the magic-bearing heads that shot out ice magic.

"It can manipulate the magic bearers with different Elements to counter my moves," Zyma communicated with Acma via GF telepathy. "This is no ordinary fiend. It has intelligence."

"Hang on, I'm almost there," Acma replied as she flew to the magic well. "Shit! No. What should I do?" she gasped, murmuring.

"What's wrong?" Zyma asked, dodging the icebergs and thunder bolts spewed out by the magic bearers along Wakiyus's legs, as well as the pipe tree swung at him whenever the close ranged GF tried to get close.

"It destroyed the draw points. I'm afraid I need your help to unearth the underground crystals. I'll draw magic directly from them."

"Be there shortly," he replied. "Hide. One shot and you're a goner."

"I know."

"Don't die, master."

"Help me draw the magic, then I'll show you who the real boss is," she laughed.