Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy: The chronicles of Four! ❯ Hazy days and a new, unexpected ally! ( Chapter 17 )

So many reviews... Time for another chapter! Tears of Light, thank you, but please STOP telling me what happens in game. I've already beaten the game as well, so I know what happens. And I'm not sure how to feel about your story, how similar it is to mine. And if you already know plot twists, please keep them to yourself because you may ruin it for other readers who haven't played the game yet. Anyway, I don't own FF or 8-bit.

 

---

 

After hours of Fighter's disappearance with no signs of ever coming back, Black Belt decided to start rebuilding the town and recruiting the new members his own way. He paced through the small line of people still left from last registration.

 

“Okay, with the exception of Cloud, we all have managed to stay here. That's a good thing.” Black Belt said, “Now we must start working! We'll be working hard, long, and occasionally without breaks! Are there any questions before we begin?” A blue-armored man in a dragon's helmet raised his hand.

 

“Yeah, when do I get to stab stuff with my spear? As a dragoon, I HAVE to use my spear.” Kain said, making a few heads turn to stare at him. Black Belt sighed.

 

“Great... I leave Fighter in charge and he brings me a pack of idiots...” Black Belt mumbled, “Fine, all right. What's your name?”

 

“Kain.” Kain said, smiling with pride.

 

“Well, you're going to be in charge of food. By food, I mean you start stabbing the water mercilessly until you catch a few fish. Understood?” Black Belt asked. Kain nodded happily and ran off towards the river. Black Belt turned back to the rest of the group. “You other guys are going to help Sabin chop wood and make tiles. Now get moving!” Black Belt barked.

 

“But none of us had breakfast yet! Don't you realize how early we had to get up!?” Cecil asked, knitting his brow. Black Belt slapped his forehead, groaned, and turned back towards the river.

 

“Kain, hurry up with those fish! We'll never get anything started if you don't!” Black Belt called. Unfortunately, Kain was so excited about using his shiny spear that he tripped on a twig and fell into the river, only to be eaten by Killer Fish.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, the heroes were very slowly making their way through the first few yards of the volcano. By making their way through, I mean Thief was tiptoeing towards something, touched it lightly, yelped, and fled back to his friends.

 

“What is the problem this time!?” Black Mage asked, rolling his eyes, “We've done nothing but watch you do this for over twenty minutes!” Thief blew on his hand defensively.

 

“But there's lava over that way!” he cried, as Red Mage cast an Ice spell on his hand. Black Mage snickered.

 

“We're in a volcano, you dolt. There's lava everywhere.” Black Mage sneered, putting his hands on his hips. White Mage looked around, trying to find any path that may not have been lava-ridden. She pointed to her left, towards a far-off door.

 

“What if we tried that door?” she asked, “Maybe it'll lead to Kary.” Black Mage heaved a heavy sigh and kicked a small rock into a puddle of lava.

 

“That'll bring us back to the problem that there's lava everywhere we go.” Black Mage argued, “Okay, let's relay our situation. We're in a volcano, where there's bound to be lava. Every few steps brings us to the fiery death of which we hate so much. But how do we get past it?” Everyone began to think of a logical solution to their obvious problem. Finally, it was Red Mage who no doubt held an idea.

 

“What if we continuously cast Ice2 on everything?” he asked, “As we've learned, Fire and Ice don't mix, so we should be able to counteract the heat.” Unfortunately, only Thief was really into the idea.

 

“Well, we could do that, but there are three problems.” White Mage said slowly.

 

“Do elaborate.” Red Mage coaxed.

 

“Well, for one, only you and Black Mage can actually use Ice2. That brings us to our MP. You only have 3 MP, Black Mage has 4. And as BM clearly stated, we're in a volcano. The overabundance of Fire over Ice will quickly make any ice spells we cast evaporate into nothing, even if you continuously cast spells. By which, you'd run out of MP before we even lowered the temperature by 2 degrees.” White Mage explained. Red Mage seemed to consider her explanation carefully as Black Mage picked at a speck of dried lava.

 

“Well, what other option do we have?” Red Mage asked, “Wooden bridges will burn, and metal will melt in this heat.” Both White and Red Mage seemed to refuse to give up their ideas. Black Mage couldn't take the battle and stepped in.

 

“I have a genius idea! Why don't we use one of us as a human raft to safely take us to the other side of the lava lake?” he suggested with an evil smirk, “I personally vote for either Red Mage or Thief to be the raft.” Thief knelt down, looking a little nervous.

 

“I'm not sure, BM. According to RM's guide, I have a pretty crappy Magic Block stat.” Thief said, circling his finger around a pebble. This, however, only made Black Mage smile more.

 

“All the more better.” he said darkly, then cheerily added, “After all, it's for the good of the team!” Red Mage started to pace around, with so many options buzzing in his head. Finally, he managed to bump into something.

 

“OW! What the...” Red Mage looked to see what he bumped into, “Oh... OH! Guys, I found some treasure! Come here!” The other three ran towards him, and looked at what appeared to be a good-sized chest.

 

“Think it'll have anything to help us?” Thief asked, tilting his head.

 

“The only way to know is to open it.” White Mage replied, and Red Mage flipped the top open. Inside was a large metal suit, painted entirely red with a fire symbol on it. Black Mage disgustedly picked it up.

 

“What the hell is this!?” he asked, and tried it on, “The stupid thing won't even fit me! RM, find out what it is!” He threw the suit at Red Mage, who immediately took out his Brady Games guide and flipped through its pages. He stopped at a page, nodded, looked at the armor, and nodded again.

 

“Well? We haven't got all day!” Black Mage snapped.

 

“It appears to be a Flame Mail.” Red Mage said, “It protects against Fire attacks, but there's a problem. Only Fighter can wear it.” Black Mage kicked at the dirt furiously.

 

“Perfect. Just when we need the little retard, and he's off in LaLaLand.” Black Mage said angrily, “Now what?! We have a stupid piece of metal that none of us can even use!” Red Mage put the guide away and looked at the armor, then the chest. He dumped the armor into the lava and set the box into the lava, receiving stares as he did so...

 

Fifteen minutes later, our heroes were floating along the lava in the treasure chest, using Red Mage's sword as an ore. Black Mage spat into the lava irritably.

 

“I can't believe this is your idea of “traversing through the volcano.” Black Mage sighed, “Did it ever occur to you that there may be problems with this idea?” Red Mage handed his sword to Thief and turned to face Black Mage. Uncharacteristically, he looked really mad.

 

“Well, at least we can pass through the lava! What problems are you talking about!?” Red Mage yelled back. Black Mage gave a harsh cackle and pointed to the outside of the chest.

 

“What I mean, moron, is that this toothpick joint is made of wood, so it's eventually gonna burn. And when it does, what do you think is going to happen to us?” Black Mage asked. Red Mage was about to argue when he looked over the sea of lava, and then at the box, which was slowly being devoured by the flames.

 

“At least I kept us from dying right away.” he said quietly. However, that comforted no one as everyone began to scream their lungs out, trying to roe quickly back to the crater shore.

 

“What do we do now!?” White Mage cried as Thief began to throw the rocks of lava Black Mage was in the process of freezing over. Red Mage was steering quickly as a spurt of lava blew his sword out of his hands.

 

“I guess we can scream now.” Black Mage replied, although that wasn't much help, “I just ran out of MP.” Everyone immediately began screaming again as the box began to break apart into tiny little pieces of wood. Thief pulled Red Mage onto a piece and tried his best to find Black and White Mage, but the smoke was too thick. Soon, everything went black for our heroes...

 

Red Mage woke up with a start and looked around. He was in a nice, warm room that smelled surprisingly like Oust. He blinked a few times, trying to get his eyes adjusted to the dark again. When they did, he saw that Thief was next to him, and White Mage wasn't too far away either. Black Mage was sleeping against a large boulder. Red Mage shook Thief lightly.

 

“Thief... wake up.” he whispered, “Come on, wake up. We need to find out where we are!” Thief stirred a little, and opened his eyes slowly. He sat up and shook his head.

 

“RM, where are we?” he asked. Red Mage sighed.

 

“I don't know... we need to wake up WM and BM.” Red Mage told him, “We might be safe from the lava, but we're still in the volcano, I think.” Thief nodded and stood up. He walked over to White Mage and began to wake her up. Red Mage walked over to Black Mage.

 

“BM, get up.” he said flatly.

 

“What's wrong now?” Black Mage mumbled. He sluggishly sat up and rubbed his eyes, realizing they were no longer in the lava lake. His voice trembled slightly when he asked what happened again. White Mage and Thief walked over to hear what Red Mage had to say, but sadly, there wasn't much he could explain.

 

“So then how did we end up here?” White Mage asked curiously, taking a second good look around the room. Now that she mentioned it, the room seemed to be trying to resemble a bedroom, for there were large rocks that were shaped as beds, and a few small candles to light the room, but they had been blown out. Red Mage cast a Fire spell on one and held it towards what he hoped was a door. To his relief, it led out into a hallway. He turned to his friends.

 

“I'm ashamed of my lack of knowledge, but I bet we'll find something if we go outside. At the very least, we might find a monster who might spare us the mercy of telling us where we are before it kills us.” Red Mage said. He turned around again and walked into the hallway, the other three following. The hallway was even dimmer than the room, and much warmer. But to no one's surprise, the strong smell of brimstone still lingered in the air.

 

“Safe to assume we're still in the volcano.” Thief whispered, and a warm hand grasped his shoulder. He spun around and slashed instinctively with his dagger, only to pull his hand sharply away in pain.

 

“Whoa! Settle down there, kind sir!” a large human-shaped fire said, “We didn't expect you four to be up for quite a while!” Behind the first Fire were a few more Fires, and they all gave cheery waves and warm smiles.

 

“Um... not that we're scared, but who are you guys?” White Mage asked, trying her best to keep her skepticism off her face. The first Fire offered his hand for a shake, but for obvious reasons, he quickly withdrew it.

 

“How rude of me! We are the Gurgu Welcoming Committee.” he boomed happily, and the Fires behind him nodded and murmured with agreement, “We were patrolling the top floor when we found you all unconscious aboard some pieces of quickly burning wood. So, we called out the Bulls living here to help get you to a room so you could recover.” If ever a time for eye-popping was appropriate, it was now. The four heroes stood there, eyes widened, at the story. Finally, Black Mage managed to get some words out of his mouth.

 

“And why would you help us?” he asked, “You're monsters! You're supposed to kill us!”

 

“Well, yeah, maybe 100 years ago, but Kary's changed! Living in a volcano for centuries is bound to make anyone reconsider joining the side of evil.” the Fire replied.

 

“Wait, Kary's HERE!?” Thief asked, “But... but...” The Fire nodded.

 

“Yup. She's one floor down though. We asked her what to do if you woke up, but she didn't say. Anyway, you should probably go talk to her. She does own this place.” the Fire told them. Thief was about to protest when Black Mage covered his mouth, an evil grin growing on his face.

 

“Of course we should. After all, we have to thank that Kary.” Black Mage said through a false grin and even falser cheerfulness. Quickly, he dragged the other three around the corner, out of earshot for the Fires.

 

“BM, are you insane!? We can't fight her yet! She'll fry us!” Thief cried, pulling on his own hair. Black Mage, however, was undaunted with such a threat. He merely chuckled.

 

“Listen. They didn't expect us to be awake, meaning Kary doesn't expect us to be awake. If we go in quickly, we might just ambush her!” Black Mage replied gleefully, “Therefore reawakening the Crystal and relighting our Orb quickly so we can do away with this trash heap.” White Mage tapped her foot.

 

“There's a slight problem. Where are the stairs? If we can't find them quickly, we'll have to waste time looking for them, giving Kary enough time to prepare for our battle.” White Mage argued calmly.

 

“Maybe she doesn't want to fight.” Red Mage suggested, “She DID allow us to recover. Why would our enemy do that for us?” Black Mage gave another evil smirk.

 

“She was trying to trick us, you idiot. She's attempting to fill us with hope so it'll only be more pleasant when she crushes us to pieces.” he told Red Mage. Just then, a Fire appeared, walking towards them good-naturedly.

 

“What are you doing here? The stairs are the other way! Come on.” The Fire said, and led the heroes towards the staircase. He urged them to go down, and with a fear of being seared, they did. Down below was somehow cooler than the other floors, and surprisingly lava-free. But now the heroes had a bigger problem. There were about seven different paths they could take to reach Kary.

 

“Well, this is great.” Black Mage muttered angrily, “How do we know which one to take!?” Thief began pointing and playing Eeny-meeny-miny-moe, but everyone ignored him. Red Mage looked at each pathway, sniffing each one contently.

 

“RM, what's wrong?” White Mage asked, trying to figure out what Red Mage was doing.

 

“I'm smelling for anything that might lead us to Kary. This path smells strongly of some kind of perfume, so I think we should go down there.” Red Mage replied thoughtfully. Black Mage walked next to him and sniffed as well. Indeed there was a strong scent of perfume coming from the southwest corridor.

 

“For once, I agree with you.” Black Mage mumbled, “But you're going in first.” Red Mage agreed, and they set off down the short hallway, where a large door stood. Red Mage walked ahead and knocked gently.

 

“You may enter.” A deep female voice echoed, and the door opened. Red Mage walked in as the others waited patiently. A few minutes passed, and Red Mage still hadn't come out. Black Mage was getting slightly annoyed.

 

“What's taking that idiot so long!?” Black Mage asked furiously, “Do I have to do this myself!?” He walked up to the door and pounded it angrily. Red Mage answered.

 

“Guys, is something wrong?” he asked.

 

“Yeah. What the hell is keeping you!?” Black Mage asked. Red Mage walked out of the way to let his friends in. He turned to Kary.

 

“These are the buddies I was telling you about.” he told her, “We wanted to thank you for rescuing us.” Kary smiled.

 

“It wasn't any problem. After being secluded for centuries, I know how it feels to be burned. I felt that I might be able to have a word with you four if I helped you out.” Kary said, “I do realize you are the Light Warriors.” Black Mage cackled.

 

“Yeah, and unfortunately for you, we came to kill you.” Black Mage replied, brandishing his staff. Kary's eyes widened as if she were about to cry.

 

“Kill me? But without me, you won't get the Fire Crystal!” she cried, as Red Mage patted her shoulder comfortingly.

 

“Then you should start talking.” White Mage said.

 

“Well, I meant to get rid of that Crystal years ago, but I didn't know who to give it to. But when you came along, I knew it was time.” Kary said, “But the reason you need me is because the Crystal is doused in flames, and as the fiend of Fire, I can withstand the heat.”

 

“Then why not get it now?” Thief asked.

 

“I was about to until you threatened me. Hold on.” Kary said, and left for a back room. Within a minute, she came back holding the Crystal. She set it down carefully and urged Red Mage to relight it. He did so, and the warmth of the volcano slowly died.

 

“Kary, thank you.” White Mage said genuinely, “But why did you help us?” Kary sighed and sat down.

 

“Well, I need your help. I want to find my old friends. I found a document from an unknown author and he plans to do away with us. We fiends were tricked. So, I figured that our enemy is the same. I was hoping that I'd be able to reason with the other three fiends to stop Chaos.” Kary explained. Red Mage looked down sadly.

 

“Well, we already killed Lich...” he said. Kary looked hurt, but then smiled.

 

“I see... Well, there are still two left. I'm sure they'd help if they understood. Please let me at least come with you until you relight the other two orbs.” Kary pleaded. The four looked at each other and whispered some things, then they turned to Kary.

 

“All right, you can come.” Red Mage said, “It wouldn't hurt to have you along, but you can't cause us trouble.” Kary nodded gratefully.

 

“Just don't double-cross us either!” Black Mage added. Kary nodded silently again, and slithered towards the door.

 

“I assure you I won't. Now we must hurry. Chaos is gaining power even as we speak!”

 

---

 

Wow, what a twist! Our heroes have Kary on their side now! But can she be trusted? Will they be able to persuade the other fiends? Is Chaos gaining that much power? And is Cherry Town going to be rebuilt? Find out the answer to these questions next chapter, so click that Review button!