Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ mayou ( Chapter 20 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: awwaw 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.20.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 178 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.20.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 178 | Status: Completed
Standard disclaimers apply.
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
mayou
"Rinoa! " Squall could not stop himself from yelling down the dark corridor. "RINOA??!" He ignored the shearing pain that was beginning to build up in his chest by shouting while running too fast. It all didn't seem to matter at that moment in time. All he wanted to do was to get a response from Rinoa - wherever she was in the centre.
Soon he found the entrance to the training centre. At that he quickly stopped to catch his breath, letting his eyes adjust to the gloomy darkness that was around him. With one hand on the entranceway he peered into the centre, letting his senses tell him where he last heard the voice drift from. This was it, he thought to himself, the only link I have right now that could lead me back to where I really belong...
At that there was laughter.
The voice was cold, and it numbed Squall's senses. When the voice laughed again he found a few beads of sweat rolling down his cheek, even though the centre was nowhere near stuffy. Forcing himself to calm down, and pushing the shrill warnings of danger his body was screaming at him, he took a few bold steps forward.
He tensed, but kept moving. The room had gotten considerably hotter. There was a wringing feeling on his neck he didn't quite understand. Every step he took continued to slow into a drag. But he could almost hear the giggles - he could almost taste the smile. All this while he had travelled in hope of this eventuality. He wanted to reunite with the ones who mattered to him. And now, just a few steps more could bring him to a conclusion. What was he waiting for? Why did his body refuse to obey his commands?
The darkness shimmered in a way he could not describe, accompanied by the soft, ringing sound of a laughter which resembled tinker bells. Before he could react a piercing light flashed from the bowels of the dark, leaving him no choice but to throw his arms over his eyes to protect them. In the midst of the chaos he felt a strong force grab his shoulders and pull him backwards, back from where he walked from, backwards from where he was walking to. He landed on his backside, and instinctively used his hands to cushion the fall. The light was no longer there, and neither was there the uncomfortable darkness.
What he saw was a creature of immense proportions, waving it's uncountable tentacles around with ease and perfection. Squall allowed a gasp to escape from his mouth - had he walked but two steps further he would have been swallowed whole by the hideous plant monster. He turned his head and saw Cloud beside him, sword drawn and readied.
"What do you think you're doing?!" The mercenary offered the teenager a curt glare - the best he could manage before the creature slammed one of it's tentacles down on the duo. A loud bang resulted and the impact shook the entire building, filling it with fearsome tremors. It was a mild advantage that it didn't appear to be mobile, so Cloud summoned the strongest blizzard spell in his arsenal, effectively sealing the monster's motions before turning around, intending to run while the creature was still in shock. He stopped when he noticed Squall's phased out look. "Squall!!" He practically screamed for attention.
The dark-haired teen continued to mope, his thoughts on a plane higher than the physical dimension. Cloud's forehead vessel glowed a bright red. He fished the first thing he had in his pocket - a random piece of fishbone (!??!) - and smacked it upside Squall's head.
The SeeD's head tilted to one side for a brief second, before he spun around and quite vehemently glared at the person who had just stuck a fishbone in his head. "........... ?!?!?!?"
"Thank you!" Cloud smiled inanely, obviously trying to mask his anger. "Now look in front of you, peanuts for brains!" He pointed at the front, half in exasperation.
At that precise moment in time the creature broke out of the ice prism and started wobbling around, as if trying to warm up. It let out a strong whiff of poisonous fumes from it's upturned flower mouth, hoping it would express it's indignance well enough. Unfortunately for the thing both mercenaries were well equipped with anti-poison accessories. The greenish fog only served to camouflauge the duo even better than the darkness had.
A moment of still silence proceeded to hang. The only noises was the silent purring of the creature who could not sense the presence of the others.
Without warning a shrill slicing sound burst from the creature's left, effectively severing a considerable amount of it's arms. In response the creature collected it's other arms and twisted it into a singular attack at whatever had struck it. It never had the chance, for another attack from the right rendered it limbless. A flash of blue was ahead of it. There was nothing more it could do as the tip of the ultima weapon dived into the core of it's existence.
Cloud breathed, wondering if he should remove the blade before the blue stuff oozing out of the creature wore down the ultima weapon somehow. In a moment, the creature slumped to the ground motionless, giving him the cue to retreat, which he did. Squall emerged from the darkness he had blended in with to sneak-attack the creature, gunblade poised regally on his right shoulder, as he examined the damage. Both of them silently pondered their predicament.
Light suddenly filled the training centre - an ancient building being given life after all the time it stood alone in the wilderness.
And dark feathers; the colour of midnight, streamed steadily down from an unknown source. It was a mesmerizing sight, to say the least. Yet it communicated nothing but fear, sorrow, and an unsatiable despair.
The creature dissolved into a puddle of crystal clear blue. From it's midst arose a figure garbed in red.
The first glint of recognition flashed in Squall's eyes. "You!!" He managed to gasp, while pointing at the figure.
While his companion turned to look at the both of them, back and forth, before finally nodding at the figure in red. "Yeah... you."
Ignoring Cloud's unintelligent attempt to imitate him, Squall positioned his gunblade at the stranger and spat, "What are you doing here, Ultimecia?! What do you want now?"
The lady remained emotionless for a heartbeat, before melting into a charming, dangerous smile. "Time..." She mouthed, "... time is eternal... and so we will be should we compress it..."
"I don't know what you're talking abo-"
The dark-haired teenager was cut short with the spreading of Ultimecia's dark wings - as if the sorceress had not heard him, and if she had she did not care for his opinion. Her intense mood could be felt, and it thickened the atmosphere. Angrily she glanced at the duo in front of her. "Why... ?" She demanded, "... Why do you fight your destiny... and why do you fight mine?"
Carefully bringing her hands up to shield her face, as if protecting them was all she was left with to do now, the powerful sorceress shook her head gently.
"... so cold... so cold... so lifeless... lifeless... you left... you said you wouldn't... you left... why... ? Please come back... don't leave me behind... was it something I did... ?
"... Squall?"
Incredulously the SeeD stared at the evil sorceress. Did she just say his name?! He instinctively stepped forward to confront the person, but upon touching the blue goo that the defeated creature had melted into, he sank into a pit of oblivion faster than he thought was possible. Letting out a yelp of surprise, he struggled with the undercurrents of the swirl of nothingness he was falling slowly but surely into, at the same time noticing that Ultimecia was fading away, her hands still shielding her face.
Then, had Cloud not caught onto his hand while steadying himself with the ultima weapon stabbed deeply into the ground, Squall would have lost himself in time without knowing when he could possibly get out.
"What's wrong with you today?!" Cloud found himself asking despite knowing fairly well that he would not receive a coherent reply. "This is the second time you're walking wide-eyed into an obvious trap!"
"........................................" was Squall's retort, "... can you pull me up?" he asked, ignoring Cloud's outburst.
"I'm trying, as if it wasn't already so blatantly obvious!" The blond rolled his eyes. "Can you cast a float on yourself? It might help... the thing is sucking you in like quicksand."
Squall closed his eyes and tried. He opened them soon and shook his head with a straight face. "My junctions aren't working. I'm not sure what's happened. I think it's this void thing that's making magic fail."
"Well..." Cloud blinked and was currently looking at his feet. "... I would love to try to cast a float on you now but..."
Squall looked at what Cloud was looking at. He blinked as well.
The darkness had expanded to trap one of Cloud's foot in it. From an aerial point of view Squall would have swore this patch of intimidating nothingness was stretching out wider even as the both of them looked on.
Quietly, they turned to stare at one another.
Until a voice broke them out of their thoughts.
"Hey, both of you!"
It was Zidane, in his bright, perky, sunshine-inducing voice. Another set of footsteps was behind him, presumably Kuja - like who else was there in the building, right? They ran at top speed towards where their other two companions were, but were stopped short but a weak fire spell.
"Stand there! Don't move!" Cloud almost cursed at himself. There was something about this darkness that was threatening to swallow him that could seal up his magical abilities, and since it seemed to be widening out to include the entire training centre in general, might be a good idea to stop the two monkeys from falling into it as well. Pulling the ultima weapon out from the ground, which resulted in some residue of the thick black he was standing in to be dislodged too, Cloud frowned. He was really, at a total loss of what to do.
"What is this?" Kuja backed away from the thing that was spreading further and further, from where Cloud and Squall were.
"I wish I knew..." Squall was trying to shake his head free. "... I don't think I can hang on-"
Before he finished his words, he submerged whole into the ground.
There was silence.
Cloud looked at the other two who were looking at him with the same expression of wonder on his face, before sighing.
"Look, I don't think I'll be able to get out of this, so I'll just make my exit quick and go after the morose teen." He pointed resolutedly at the others still in the room. "You guys stay! Don't even think of stepping into this... this thing!" He wriggled around uncomfortably in the dark pool of goo. A few more seconds of staring later, he took a huge breath and made himself dive into the ground. The last of his spiky blond hair disappeared in a split second. The room was quiet once more.
Kuja rubbed his eyes in disbelief. What in the world?! It was true that diving into the darkness would be tantamount to suicide, but what good would it be to leave two behind while the two others went ahead and... died?!
He tried to walk forward, but was stopped by an abnormally strong force being laid upon his shoulder.
"Stop. Stand there. Don't be so eager to court death."
The voice was sombre, but familiar. As the load from his shoulder lifted he turned around with great dread locked in his heart.
He found himself staring into the undead eyes of the eternal darkness.
The expressionless face - the souless eyes... the dark shadow that hung over Zidane's very embodiment... Kuja thought he would never see it so close to him again, but now here it was... looking at him, looking into him - looking right through him.
"What about the truth behind your birth?" The person smiled cunningly, just for a split second. "Are you not interested in that?"
At a loss for words, Kuja could only stare as Zidane slowly regained his normal pigment and stared at the silver-haired man questioningly.
"What's with that look on your face?" The monkey boy raised an eyebrow at the other, noticing after a while that attention had been shifted to a spot somewhere beyond his shoulders.
A man stood where Kuja was looking at. A tall, white-haired old gentleman all clad in spacesuit black. The ruby red core at the center of his body glowered and faded consistently to indicate his presence. He had his attention focused on the Terran duo.
"Terra... I smell Terra... Such a long time since something alive smelt Terran..."
The soft glow of the corridor lent to making the features of the old man gentler than what Kuja had perceived him to be.
"Garland..." he whispered, half in disbelief, half in denial.
-------------------------------
mayotta
11/6/ 2002
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
mayou
"Rinoa! " Squall could not stop himself from yelling down the dark corridor. "RINOA??!" He ignored the shearing pain that was beginning to build up in his chest by shouting while running too fast. It all didn't seem to matter at that moment in time. All he wanted to do was to get a response from Rinoa - wherever she was in the centre.
Soon he found the entrance to the training centre. At that he quickly stopped to catch his breath, letting his eyes adjust to the gloomy darkness that was around him. With one hand on the entranceway he peered into the centre, letting his senses tell him where he last heard the voice drift from. This was it, he thought to himself, the only link I have right now that could lead me back to where I really belong...
At that there was laughter.
The voice was cold, and it numbed Squall's senses. When the voice laughed again he found a few beads of sweat rolling down his cheek, even though the centre was nowhere near stuffy. Forcing himself to calm down, and pushing the shrill warnings of danger his body was screaming at him, he took a few bold steps forward.
He tensed, but kept moving. The room had gotten considerably hotter. There was a wringing feeling on his neck he didn't quite understand. Every step he took continued to slow into a drag. But he could almost hear the giggles - he could almost taste the smile. All this while he had travelled in hope of this eventuality. He wanted to reunite with the ones who mattered to him. And now, just a few steps more could bring him to a conclusion. What was he waiting for? Why did his body refuse to obey his commands?
The darkness shimmered in a way he could not describe, accompanied by the soft, ringing sound of a laughter which resembled tinker bells. Before he could react a piercing light flashed from the bowels of the dark, leaving him no choice but to throw his arms over his eyes to protect them. In the midst of the chaos he felt a strong force grab his shoulders and pull him backwards, back from where he walked from, backwards from where he was walking to. He landed on his backside, and instinctively used his hands to cushion the fall. The light was no longer there, and neither was there the uncomfortable darkness.
What he saw was a creature of immense proportions, waving it's uncountable tentacles around with ease and perfection. Squall allowed a gasp to escape from his mouth - had he walked but two steps further he would have been swallowed whole by the hideous plant monster. He turned his head and saw Cloud beside him, sword drawn and readied.
"What do you think you're doing?!" The mercenary offered the teenager a curt glare - the best he could manage before the creature slammed one of it's tentacles down on the duo. A loud bang resulted and the impact shook the entire building, filling it with fearsome tremors. It was a mild advantage that it didn't appear to be mobile, so Cloud summoned the strongest blizzard spell in his arsenal, effectively sealing the monster's motions before turning around, intending to run while the creature was still in shock. He stopped when he noticed Squall's phased out look. "Squall!!" He practically screamed for attention.
The dark-haired teen continued to mope, his thoughts on a plane higher than the physical dimension. Cloud's forehead vessel glowed a bright red. He fished the first thing he had in his pocket - a random piece of fishbone (!??!) - and smacked it upside Squall's head.
The SeeD's head tilted to one side for a brief second, before he spun around and quite vehemently glared at the person who had just stuck a fishbone in his head. "........... ?!?!?!?"
"Thank you!" Cloud smiled inanely, obviously trying to mask his anger. "Now look in front of you, peanuts for brains!" He pointed at the front, half in exasperation.
At that precise moment in time the creature broke out of the ice prism and started wobbling around, as if trying to warm up. It let out a strong whiff of poisonous fumes from it's upturned flower mouth, hoping it would express it's indignance well enough. Unfortunately for the thing both mercenaries were well equipped with anti-poison accessories. The greenish fog only served to camouflauge the duo even better than the darkness had.
A moment of still silence proceeded to hang. The only noises was the silent purring of the creature who could not sense the presence of the others.
Without warning a shrill slicing sound burst from the creature's left, effectively severing a considerable amount of it's arms. In response the creature collected it's other arms and twisted it into a singular attack at whatever had struck it. It never had the chance, for another attack from the right rendered it limbless. A flash of blue was ahead of it. There was nothing more it could do as the tip of the ultima weapon dived into the core of it's existence.
Cloud breathed, wondering if he should remove the blade before the blue stuff oozing out of the creature wore down the ultima weapon somehow. In a moment, the creature slumped to the ground motionless, giving him the cue to retreat, which he did. Squall emerged from the darkness he had blended in with to sneak-attack the creature, gunblade poised regally on his right shoulder, as he examined the damage. Both of them silently pondered their predicament.
Light suddenly filled the training centre - an ancient building being given life after all the time it stood alone in the wilderness.
And dark feathers; the colour of midnight, streamed steadily down from an unknown source. It was a mesmerizing sight, to say the least. Yet it communicated nothing but fear, sorrow, and an unsatiable despair.
The creature dissolved into a puddle of crystal clear blue. From it's midst arose a figure garbed in red.
The first glint of recognition flashed in Squall's eyes. "You!!" He managed to gasp, while pointing at the figure.
While his companion turned to look at the both of them, back and forth, before finally nodding at the figure in red. "Yeah... you."
Ignoring Cloud's unintelligent attempt to imitate him, Squall positioned his gunblade at the stranger and spat, "What are you doing here, Ultimecia?! What do you want now?"
The lady remained emotionless for a heartbeat, before melting into a charming, dangerous smile. "Time..." She mouthed, "... time is eternal... and so we will be should we compress it..."
"I don't know what you're talking abo-"
The dark-haired teenager was cut short with the spreading of Ultimecia's dark wings - as if the sorceress had not heard him, and if she had she did not care for his opinion. Her intense mood could be felt, and it thickened the atmosphere. Angrily she glanced at the duo in front of her. "Why... ?" She demanded, "... Why do you fight your destiny... and why do you fight mine?"
Carefully bringing her hands up to shield her face, as if protecting them was all she was left with to do now, the powerful sorceress shook her head gently.
"... so cold... so cold... so lifeless... lifeless... you left... you said you wouldn't... you left... why... ? Please come back... don't leave me behind... was it something I did... ?
"... Squall?"
Incredulously the SeeD stared at the evil sorceress. Did she just say his name?! He instinctively stepped forward to confront the person, but upon touching the blue goo that the defeated creature had melted into, he sank into a pit of oblivion faster than he thought was possible. Letting out a yelp of surprise, he struggled with the undercurrents of the swirl of nothingness he was falling slowly but surely into, at the same time noticing that Ultimecia was fading away, her hands still shielding her face.
Then, had Cloud not caught onto his hand while steadying himself with the ultima weapon stabbed deeply into the ground, Squall would have lost himself in time without knowing when he could possibly get out.
"What's wrong with you today?!" Cloud found himself asking despite knowing fairly well that he would not receive a coherent reply. "This is the second time you're walking wide-eyed into an obvious trap!"
"........................................" was Squall's retort, "... can you pull me up?" he asked, ignoring Cloud's outburst.
"I'm trying, as if it wasn't already so blatantly obvious!" The blond rolled his eyes. "Can you cast a float on yourself? It might help... the thing is sucking you in like quicksand."
Squall closed his eyes and tried. He opened them soon and shook his head with a straight face. "My junctions aren't working. I'm not sure what's happened. I think it's this void thing that's making magic fail."
"Well..." Cloud blinked and was currently looking at his feet. "... I would love to try to cast a float on you now but..."
Squall looked at what Cloud was looking at. He blinked as well.
The darkness had expanded to trap one of Cloud's foot in it. From an aerial point of view Squall would have swore this patch of intimidating nothingness was stretching out wider even as the both of them looked on.
Quietly, they turned to stare at one another.
Until a voice broke them out of their thoughts.
"Hey, both of you!"
It was Zidane, in his bright, perky, sunshine-inducing voice. Another set of footsteps was behind him, presumably Kuja - like who else was there in the building, right? They ran at top speed towards where their other two companions were, but were stopped short but a weak fire spell.
"Stand there! Don't move!" Cloud almost cursed at himself. There was something about this darkness that was threatening to swallow him that could seal up his magical abilities, and since it seemed to be widening out to include the entire training centre in general, might be a good idea to stop the two monkeys from falling into it as well. Pulling the ultima weapon out from the ground, which resulted in some residue of the thick black he was standing in to be dislodged too, Cloud frowned. He was really, at a total loss of what to do.
"What is this?" Kuja backed away from the thing that was spreading further and further, from where Cloud and Squall were.
"I wish I knew..." Squall was trying to shake his head free. "... I don't think I can hang on-"
Before he finished his words, he submerged whole into the ground.
There was silence.
Cloud looked at the other two who were looking at him with the same expression of wonder on his face, before sighing.
"Look, I don't think I'll be able to get out of this, so I'll just make my exit quick and go after the morose teen." He pointed resolutedly at the others still in the room. "You guys stay! Don't even think of stepping into this... this thing!" He wriggled around uncomfortably in the dark pool of goo. A few more seconds of staring later, he took a huge breath and made himself dive into the ground. The last of his spiky blond hair disappeared in a split second. The room was quiet once more.
Kuja rubbed his eyes in disbelief. What in the world?! It was true that diving into the darkness would be tantamount to suicide, but what good would it be to leave two behind while the two others went ahead and... died?!
He tried to walk forward, but was stopped by an abnormally strong force being laid upon his shoulder.
"Stop. Stand there. Don't be so eager to court death."
The voice was sombre, but familiar. As the load from his shoulder lifted he turned around with great dread locked in his heart.
He found himself staring into the undead eyes of the eternal darkness.
The expressionless face - the souless eyes... the dark shadow that hung over Zidane's very embodiment... Kuja thought he would never see it so close to him again, but now here it was... looking at him, looking into him - looking right through him.
"What about the truth behind your birth?" The person smiled cunningly, just for a split second. "Are you not interested in that?"
At a loss for words, Kuja could only stare as Zidane slowly regained his normal pigment and stared at the silver-haired man questioningly.
"What's with that look on your face?" The monkey boy raised an eyebrow at the other, noticing after a while that attention had been shifted to a spot somewhere beyond his shoulders.
A man stood where Kuja was looking at. A tall, white-haired old gentleman all clad in spacesuit black. The ruby red core at the center of his body glowered and faded consistently to indicate his presence. He had his attention focused on the Terran duo.
"Terra... I smell Terra... Such a long time since something alive smelt Terran..."
The soft glow of the corridor lent to making the features of the old man gentler than what Kuja had perceived him to be.
"Garland..." he whispered, half in disbelief, half in denial.
-------------------------------
mayotta
11/6/ 2002