Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Akagi Sphere ❯ Chapter 11 : Demon from the abyss: part 3 ( Chapter 12 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: SDI Hypervelocity 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.05.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 145 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 03.05.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.7K | Visits: 145 | Status: Completed
Chapter 11 : Demon from the abyss: part 3
Fiends were pouring out of an hole in the rock wall that used to be the Farplane, blackened by previous flames. All engulfed in a stream Pireflies much more then previously thought existed. The fiends spread out since the city was only so big, taking over the thunder plains and the north bank of the moon flow.
They had to contain the situation, or Macalaina Forest would be next, and if the fiends found away across the Moon flow, the damage would be catastrophic. Luckily for them most of the fiends couldn’t swim.
! - ! - !
“Oh man……Shu, I don’t know what you did, but I’m glad you did it.”
As soon as Tidus was sure he was consciousness and his mind was completely aware, he knew Shuyin had done something to save them. There was no way he could have survived on his own, not after what he had just felt, being incinerated was not a good feeling.
He didn’t know where he was, he didn’t even open his eyes yet. Tidus was barely aware of how weak and pitiful his voice sounded, he couldn’t hear anything past the ringing in his ears and the sound of his heart beat.
As soon as he moved, his muscles were greeted with a throbbing pain, one he easily fought against. He found Shuyin was knelling over him, a hand extended ready to help him up. When the ringing subsided and he was sure he wasn’t deaf, he took Shuyin’s hand “Where are we?”
“The entrance to the Farplane, what’s left of it at least.” Shuyin told him, he reached out and grabbed Tidus by his waist when he saw the boy stumble and almost faultier, still not completely oriented yet
They were in Guadosalam, right in front of the Farplane. Tidus could tell Shuyin did more then just save him, If Shu hadn’t did what ever he did, Spira wouldn’t be here, or at the lest alive.
“Where is---?”
“They’re alright.” Shuyin reassured, pointing out that they were scattered on the ground around him, already awake. The Faythe was still with them also, no longer in Bahamut form.
“Something is wrong here.” Jecht, still on his back, lifted his head just enough to look around. “Why don’t I see any people, or fiends at lest?” What he was seeing could only be descried as like being underwater, everything was blue and wavy as if looking through a Sphere or water distortion.
“We’re not alive, were just out of the Farplane.” Shuyin sighed, there was only so much he could do, and since he was dead his powers had become greatly reduced. He barely did this, even then he had to draw some power from the Faythe. “...!!”
From the former gateway a blue box drifted through, Yu Yevon’s horns sticking out both sides, moving oddly slowly. It was still alive? Yes, of course it was still alive, how could it’s copy, a vane image it created to fight in it’s steed kill it?
“Oh man, we have to stop that thing.” The image of being on the wrong side of Veganagun’s ray was burned into his mind, he didn’t want to be in that position again...Hold on, he just thought of soming. “…..Wait? If were dead, how can we see Yu Yevon? Dose that mean he‘s still dead?”
“Yes, I guess.” Shuyin shrugged...He heard Jecht speaking.
“Hey guys, look at this.” Jecht called everyone over to where and Braska stood, ignoring the Epitaph for the moment. “Where did this come from?” He held out his hand, A sphere recorder he found in a the wreckage of a near by house on the other side of the stone bridge. How did it get here? Something obviously from the living world ended up here. And Speaking of the living world, why where they in Guadosalam? Or at least a place that looked like Guadosalam, a half destroyed Guadosalam at that. “Hmm...“ Jecht lifted the lens to his eye, immediately gasping.... Through the lens he could see what was happening, what was really happening.
Fiends, lots of them running around, People too, they were screaming, trying to get away, rushing over the many bodies of the dead and injured laying scattered across the ground. For the most part the living people were escaping, these were slow Fiends, slow but powerful. Omega weapons, Adamantines, Earth worms, Behemoths, and other strong Fiends. Well, the Behemoths were fast, but they were too busy eating the dead bodies. It was good for the living, a very bad thing for the injured who couldn’t get away.
“We’re dead right, and this thing obviously didn’t die with us.” Jecht drew the device away from his face, looking over each angle of it before he handed it off the Braska for farther inspection. “The only way we can see what’s happening in the real world is from Sphere recorders.”
Braska lifted it to his eye and pointed it toward the gateway where the Epitaph and Yu Yevon were emerging in an eerie manner. He saw a large form materializing, an orb that a near endless stream of Pireflies where being drawn into. It was forming at the rate, something that had to be connected with the other, Yu Yevon was moving. They were in the same position too... Proving that they had made it in to Spira.
“We’ll have to cut this problem off at the source.” Auron said.
“It won’t be that easy.” Shuyin told them, knowing the most about this type of field since he didn’t technically exist. Yu Yevon was obviously trying to get on the other side since it had already destroyed the Farplane, the only barrier holding it back. “We need somebody on the other side to help.” Shuyin told them. Take out Yu Yevon from this side and the form it was taking on the other before it could complete itself, if it did that they were, well, screwed.
“How are we suppose to do that?” Jecht asked. “We’re dead. We can‘t reach those guys out there.”
But where Jecht was at a loss, Auron had an idea. “The Sphere recorder can see in to the physical side of Spira, maybe...”
! - ! - !
“This place is a disaster!” Rikku’s mouth hung open, staring at all of the Fiends and all of the damage.
“They’re coming from the Farplane, what ever is doing this must be there.” Paine pushed and fought through the crowd of panicked escaping people to make her way to Yuna and Rikku who waited at the city‘s entrance. Notably the woods surrounding their current path were raging with flames, this place looked like hell.
“He have to hurry, there is nowhere for these people to run. They’ll be killed.” Gippal pushed through the last of the fleeing people in to the city, knowing all of those people would becoming back this way.
Baralai was right behind him, having an easier time getting to where he was going “Gippal and I will check out the source of this, you three will have to help protect these people until we get back.” Baralai told the girls, hoping the three of them would do better then just he and Gippal would.
“The only safe place is past the Macalaina woods, you think you can get them there?”
Yuna nodded, though clearly unconfident in this task ahead of her. Managing other people and fiends at the same time, a lot of other people.... “Yes.”
They watched as Gippal and Baralai made their way upward in to the city toward their suspected target, but still fighting off a lot of fiends along the way. Still looking ahead toward the east, Yuna called the Ship through the intercom “Alright Brother, You guys will have to clear out the Thunder planes. Think you can handle it?”
Buddy responded, sounding hurried as if he had been doing something with haste for an extended period of time. “Working on it.”
Hoping that it was being taken care, Yuna turned back to an awaiting Rikku and Paine. “We have to go back to the Moon Flow and get those people. We can handle a few fiends right?” Yuna tried to sound optimistic, but the situation looked too bad for her optimism to make an impression.
“If we can take out Veganagun, we can handle some Fiends.” Rikku did a better job, if you looked at it that way then it sounded like they had a better chance of succeeding.
“Let’s get this over with, the faster we do this, the faster I can get back to bed.” Paine changed Dressphere to the Dark Knight, lifting the broadsword over he shoulder and heading for the river.
Making their way to the edge of North Bank in the mist of a considerable amount of fiends, They figured the best way to do this was to start here and gather everyone else as they went. When they arrived, it was massive panic, making the job look a lot tougher. Among the frantic cries and screams that filled the air were frantic people, a lot of whom where trying to jump in the river and swim across or to float on whatever they could. “Your on Yuna.” Paine steeped out of her way, doing so under the excuse that being high summoner people would listen to her.
“Hey Everyone!! Calm down!!! “ Yuna’s voice couldn’t be heard, so she yelled even louder
“HEY!!!!!”
No one responded, they didn’t even know she was there, “....“ She needed a different, more direct approach. With one in mind Yuna raised both of her guns above her head, firing in to the air rapidly and loudly, not stopping until she deemed it had gotten quiet enough and everyone was acknowledging her presence.
“Everyone! Listen to me, we can get you all to safety.” She called out, people where really paying attention now, knowing that the high summoner could save them. “But you’ll have to trust us and listen. Get behind me.” She directed, Rikku and Paine had taken out any fiends residing in the immediate path there, it was safe. Seeing that, Everyone ran behind her, it was a full stampede of quickened paces and worried voices, but some how no one knocked her over.
With Yuna leading the charge and things as organized as they would get, everyone ran forward, and though wanting to get where they were going as fast as possible they very clear on staying behind her.
“Ok!” Feeling more confident in their cause, Yuna directed Rikku standing to her right. “Rikku, your in charge of behind us, if anything tries to sneak up, you’ll have to stop it.”
“You can count on me.” Gave a small nod before running to the back of a long stretch of people, ready to jump in to position if she saw something.
“Paine, You take the sides, the only thing we really have to worry about is Fiends from the Forest, so stay to the right.”
“Got it.” Paine rushed in to position immediately, knowing the threat was more probable then a back attack. And of course Yuna was in front, ready to take down any fiends that got in the way.
Before going any farther with what little time she had, Yuna equipped any thing that raise strength, her goal was to take everything out as fast as possible. Before proceeding she called the ship.
“Hey? Where’s Maroda? “
Buddy answered her, sounding more frantic and hurried then before. “He went to the High Road remember? Rin needed some help there...” There was a small pause and a shifting sound before Buddy returned. “Oh and Shinra wants to talk to you ”
She waited a second while Shinra switched communications over to himself.
“Yuna, I can do radar on anything you miss, the Thunder plane is clear so you don’t have to worry about that. Just tell me when.”
Yuna knew Radar to be a missile Shinra created, it used magic to replicate itself nearly endlessly.
“Thank you.” Yuna move quickly along the edge of the river, the crowd of a few hundred was more then able to keep up. “!!” Yuna stopped so abruptly that she nearly fell when a large fiend landed in front of her hard enough to make the earth shake on land, Omega Weapon. “Stay back!” Using quick trigger she lifted her guns toward it and opened fire on the weapon, It roared loudly and charged at her, throwing it’s claws at her with furious swipes. Yuna jumped back, just narrowly escaping the attack and started firing again, a few more rounds of this and it was quickly defeated.
But around the corner more came their way, a set of three similar weapons. Instead of charging directly into the started crowed they stopped, unrolling a set of ‘wings’ on it’s back. Yuna knew what was coming next, so she got ready to fire, knowing this wouldn’t be good for the crowd, she couldn‘t protect them...“Shinra--”
“I’m on it.”
All three Omega weapons used judgment. Firing a barge of rays in to the air from the holes on the appendages, there had to be hundreds of the beams of light raining down heading for the crowd of people. Yuna did the only thing she thought to do at the moment, raising her guns into the air and began firing with as much precision as she had gained, shooting down as many as she could, but there were to many and they were coming to fast.
Luckily Shinra’s missile arrived in the nick of time, it was more off casing holding the actual missile inside of it, thousands of smaller missiles
“Aiming…..”
“Hurry!̶ 1;
“Firing!”
The casing exploded in a burst of discharged metal and smoke, releasing a rain of small green headed missiles. A few of them separated, the bulk of them going left toward the Fiends while the others took out the rays of the Judgment attack. Yuna watched with her arm over his eyes as a torrent and chain reaction of blast swallowed the weapons, leaving nothing left of them but Pireflies.
“Good job Shinra.”
“Thank you.”
She waved everyone forward and the charge continued, gathering more stay people as they went.
! - ! - !
“What the hell is this!?” Gippal watched the large reflective fill slowly immerging from the Farplane's gate, it was still just forming, still relatively shapeless, gaining more feature with every Pirefly it absorbed.
“I would guess what’s causing all of this.” Baralai said, climbing up the mass of bridges and ledges leading to this spot.
!...!..!
Gippal and Baralai looked back at the sound of gun shots and people, Yuna was passing through the city with a crowd of people. And from the look of the numbers and the amount of fiends it would take a while to get through.
“There’s no way we can fight this thing here.” Gippal looked at the mirror like creature that did seem to notice them yet, he wasn‘t sure what he would to expect but there was no reason to take chances.
“As soon as Yuna gets those people to safety we’ll bait to the Thunder plains and fight it there.” Baralai suggested.
So they had to wait until then.
Taking advantage of the free time, the two of them decided to scout around for anybody that wasn’t with Yuna or was still alive in the weakage that used to be structures, making sure they didn’t perform any actions that might prematurely provoke the creature. By luck, if you could call it that, Baralai walked under a falling Sphere that stuck him rather hard in the head. “Ow! What was that?”
It rolled of his head and in to his hand, and after a bit of rubbing Baralai looked it over. “A sphere? Where did it come from?”
Gippal surveyed the device for himself , it didn’t seem to be damaged from the fall, all in one piece. “We have a little time, wanna watch it? “
Baralai nodded a yes, still rubbing his head.
! - ! - !
!
At first it was just a view around Guadosalam, the same one they had been looking at since they got here.
Baralai noted that. “This was taken recently.” Which rose the question of who had recorded it and why was it falling out of the sky?
The gateway to the Farplane came into view, now just a deep void of darkness, only confirming how recent this was taken. Which is why what happened so next would be so strange... They heard who ever recorded the sphere talking behind the camera.
! - ! - ! “If some one finds this in time---” ! - ! - !
Baralai and Gippal looked at each other, they knew that voice, they couldn’t forget it. At the same time they both realized “It’s Shuyin.”
! - ! - ! “We need help. Somebody has to kill this thing from that side.” The view shifted to a blue box with claws protruding from the sides, oddly it was in the same place as the shapeless mass drawing in Pireflies they were keeping an eye on. “Uh, we should probably tell them who we are…..” ! - ! - !
There was silence for a moment, then a shifting sound while the recorder changed hands. Tidus’s voice came in as the view turned to Yuna, Rikku and Paine leading people out of Guadosalam, this was recently taken.
! - ! - !“Hey! There’s Yuna.” Tidus exclaimed. ! - ! - !
! - ! - ! Jecht could be heard in the background, near Tidus. “Hey, What is Yu Yevon doing?” he sounded nervous.
The recorder shifted to everyone who spoke, Braska’s voice came in next. “It’s changing?”
“No, the Fiend is changing. Yu Yevon is helping.” Auron told them
“We have to get Yu Yevon out of the Epitaph before it dose.” Braska said, he sounded worried.
“Aren’t we forgetting something.” Shuyin’s voice came back and he took the recorder from Tidus, “Somebody has to stop that fiend now, it’s coming out of the Farplane... If it keeps gaining power no one will be able to stop it”
“We can’t wait anymore, we have to fight this thing now!” ! - !- !
“Was that, High Summoner Braska?” Baralai stared at the now blank sphere, there was no doubt he just seen what he had just seen, he was just trying to figure it out. How? How?
“Well, the Farplane was destroyed, it probably was.” Gippal reasoned, anything was possible, and considering the situation it seemed logical. They didn’t have time to figure it out anyway. “In any case they seem to know more about it then we do.” Gippal gave Baralai back the Sphere since it landed on his head. “You think Yuna‘s out of the Thunder planes yet?” Gippal pulled the cannon off of his back, aiming for the forming fiend.
Baralai drew his staff also, holding it before him. “I sure of it.”
Gippal took aim, the hum of machinery coming to life followed. “Ready?”
“Not really, but I’ll mange.”
With that, Gippal fired a volley of three missiles at the whatever was coming out of the Farplane.
The fiend was still but shapeless and clear like a mirror, but they could see a mouth turning toward them like a cloudy reflection when the projectiles struck.
“I think we got it’s attention.” Baralai laid his staff over his shoulder, turning his back to it and running as fast as he could.
! - ! - !
With a sense of accomplishment Yuna had successfully and safely lead scores of people across the Thunder planes in to the Macalaina woods. There were less fiends there, certainly not nearly as powerful, which was always a good thing.
“Should we go to Bevelle or the Calm lands?” Yuna spoke to her teammates using the small earpiece communicators Shinra had created.
“What about going towards Macalaina temple?” Rikku kept a tight guard on the back, watching for any fiends.
“It’s too cold, and now that the a temple fell under the lake, there’s not enough room.” Paine pointed out, still guarding from the side.
“Bevelle is packed, and they trying to hold off fiends coming from under the temple. It’s not safe.” Buddy was working to find someplace else, and judging by the sudden sound of inspiration that traditionally came with Buddy, he had thought of something. “Hey, what about the Calm lands?”
“That could work.” Yuna cleared away another fiend in the way, something easy and weak that only took a few shots.
“I’ll get right on it!” Brother said with his usual energy, even though it was 4 in the morning.
! - ! -!
The Celsius pulled out of the Thunder Planes, heading for the Calm lands.
“Alright! We need to clean out the Calm lands before Yuna gets there. Shinra? You think we enough weapon’s left?” Buddy asked, working diligently at the throttle.
“If we aim right.” Shinra told him, working numbers on the panel he had on the side.
“What do you mean! Why can’t we blow them all up?!” Brother asked in a whining voice.
The numbers didn‘t look good, with a lot of their weapon systems down already from the EMP disruption before, and the fact that they were flying on surge protected auxiliary systems. It made him question why he didn’t put such protections on the main systems. Anyway, the point was that most of the ammunition they had was unfireable. “If we do that, we’ll run out of Ammo.”
“Awwww-- that’s no fun!”
“Just leave the weapon’s to me, you just worry about not getting us blown up.”
“RRRRodger!!!”
The Calm lands had more fiends then expected, they were coming out of the Calm land gorge and about every hole, ditch, or anything deep connected to it. These were the same powerful fiends coming from the Farplane.
To his advantage Brother had plenty of room to maneuver the ship, they needed it.
“Alright, Buddy, you stick with navigation.” Shinra instructed, typing diligently “Brother try not to get hit.”
“Speaking of navigation--” Buddy started “We got magic coming at us from all sides.”
Of course, Brother turned to Shinra for an answer. “Quick! What do we do?”
“Um…I’m just a kid.”
“What!!!!!!”
The ship shook violently from the impact, they only sustained minimal damage though.
Brother flew down low to the ground, sweeping across the uneven plans covered in short grass While Shinra fired off missiles in to the crowd of monsters scattered across the area, pulling up at the wall near Mt. Gagazet.
A few Omega Weapon type fiends scattered around lunched a Judgment attack, sending up thousands of rays shooting upward. It was like a wall was coming right at them, there was nowhere they could go where they wouldn’t be hit.
So Brother went up, driving the ship head first into the air. The Celsius managed to stay ahead, but they couldn’t out run it since the attack seemed to be homing. “You better think fast shorty.” Brother growled back.
“I have it covered.” Shinra fired out two Radar missiles from both sides of the ship, with more precision in the targeting process then previous uses the round shell exploded into smaller missiles that shot toward the gaining rays. Able to take out a section of them large enough to slip through.
“Brother, get me close to the gorge.” Shinra told him.
“Right.”
With a quick free fall toward the ground a sharp turn around, Brother flew the ship the edge of the Calm lands, sweeping over the edge of the rock wall separating the calm lands and the temple. The Machine gun flared on the Celsius’s underside flared to life and volley of missiles lunched. The explosion closed an entrance for the Fiends.
Brother swept past the Calm lands again, flying low enough to smash through anything on the ground. The machine guns roared again and missiles exploded, killing off more of the remaining fiends before they even saw it coming.
“Brother! Huge energy source at 3 ‘O clock.” Buddy called out. Brother pulled the ship to the left to avoid a Supernova attack. The red energy exploded sending out a sharp shock wave that knocked them off course, nearly knocking them to the ground.
“One’s under us!”
Brother struggled to raise the ship in time, expending as much physical strength as he could to draw the throttle back. The ship drew up just barely enough to stay clear of another supernova attack, they did receive a strong impact on the bottom of the ship.
“8 o’clock!”
That caught him off guard with a near direct hit striking the left side of the ship as he tried to dive lower, knocking the ship down. Brother managed to pull it up just before they crashed, barely regaining control of the ship before they took a nose dive. “Any more?”
Shinra shook his head. “No.”
The Celsius hovered in the center of the Calm lands while Brother quickly checked the system for damage. Most of it had already been there from fighting in the Thunder planes, but that near direct supernova didn’t help.
“Are there any other way for fiends to get in to the calm lands?” Shinra directed the question to Buddy.
“No, all we need to do is clear out the rest of these and we’re in the clear.”
Brother looked at him anticipatingly. “So we can blow everything up!??”
“Go ahead, I’ll switch weapons over to you.” Shinra did so, giving weapon control to set triggers in the cockpit.
“Try not to over do it.” Buddy pleaded, thinking it had been a bad idea...
“Are you KIDDING!!!”
The Celsius fired out the Radar missiles out two at a time, lunching them high in the air. The ship started to spin around in a circle, firing bullets and lunching rockets in an insane manner. Brother slowly pulled the ship upward, still firing, while he moved out of the way of the ground.
Seconds later, it was as if the whole Calm lands had blown up. Thousands of explosions swept over the land, one after another, undoubtedly destroying any fiends remaining.
“There’s a word for this.” Buddy sighed.
Shinra promptly took over weapons control again. “Try overkill.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
___________
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Fiends were pouring out of an hole in the rock wall that used to be the Farplane, blackened by previous flames. All engulfed in a stream Pireflies much more then previously thought existed. The fiends spread out since the city was only so big, taking over the thunder plains and the north bank of the moon flow.
They had to contain the situation, or Macalaina Forest would be next, and if the fiends found away across the Moon flow, the damage would be catastrophic. Luckily for them most of the fiends couldn’t swim.
! - ! - !
“Oh man……Shu, I don’t know what you did, but I’m glad you did it.”
As soon as Tidus was sure he was consciousness and his mind was completely aware, he knew Shuyin had done something to save them. There was no way he could have survived on his own, not after what he had just felt, being incinerated was not a good feeling.
He didn’t know where he was, he didn’t even open his eyes yet. Tidus was barely aware of how weak and pitiful his voice sounded, he couldn’t hear anything past the ringing in his ears and the sound of his heart beat.
As soon as he moved, his muscles were greeted with a throbbing pain, one he easily fought against. He found Shuyin was knelling over him, a hand extended ready to help him up. When the ringing subsided and he was sure he wasn’t deaf, he took Shuyin’s hand “Where are we?”
“The entrance to the Farplane, what’s left of it at least.” Shuyin told him, he reached out and grabbed Tidus by his waist when he saw the boy stumble and almost faultier, still not completely oriented yet
They were in Guadosalam, right in front of the Farplane. Tidus could tell Shuyin did more then just save him, If Shu hadn’t did what ever he did, Spira wouldn’t be here, or at the lest alive.
“Where is---?”
“They’re alright.” Shuyin reassured, pointing out that they were scattered on the ground around him, already awake. The Faythe was still with them also, no longer in Bahamut form.
“Something is wrong here.” Jecht, still on his back, lifted his head just enough to look around. “Why don’t I see any people, or fiends at lest?” What he was seeing could only be descried as like being underwater, everything was blue and wavy as if looking through a Sphere or water distortion.
“We’re not alive, were just out of the Farplane.” Shuyin sighed, there was only so much he could do, and since he was dead his powers had become greatly reduced. He barely did this, even then he had to draw some power from the Faythe. “...!!”
From the former gateway a blue box drifted through, Yu Yevon’s horns sticking out both sides, moving oddly slowly. It was still alive? Yes, of course it was still alive, how could it’s copy, a vane image it created to fight in it’s steed kill it?
“Oh man, we have to stop that thing.” The image of being on the wrong side of Veganagun’s ray was burned into his mind, he didn’t want to be in that position again...Hold on, he just thought of soming. “…..Wait? If were dead, how can we see Yu Yevon? Dose that mean he‘s still dead?”
“Yes, I guess.” Shuyin shrugged...He heard Jecht speaking.
“Hey guys, look at this.” Jecht called everyone over to where and Braska stood, ignoring the Epitaph for the moment. “Where did this come from?” He held out his hand, A sphere recorder he found in a the wreckage of a near by house on the other side of the stone bridge. How did it get here? Something obviously from the living world ended up here. And Speaking of the living world, why where they in Guadosalam? Or at least a place that looked like Guadosalam, a half destroyed Guadosalam at that. “Hmm...“ Jecht lifted the lens to his eye, immediately gasping.... Through the lens he could see what was happening, what was really happening.
Fiends, lots of them running around, People too, they were screaming, trying to get away, rushing over the many bodies of the dead and injured laying scattered across the ground. For the most part the living people were escaping, these were slow Fiends, slow but powerful. Omega weapons, Adamantines, Earth worms, Behemoths, and other strong Fiends. Well, the Behemoths were fast, but they were too busy eating the dead bodies. It was good for the living, a very bad thing for the injured who couldn’t get away.
“We’re dead right, and this thing obviously didn’t die with us.” Jecht drew the device away from his face, looking over each angle of it before he handed it off the Braska for farther inspection. “The only way we can see what’s happening in the real world is from Sphere recorders.”
Braska lifted it to his eye and pointed it toward the gateway where the Epitaph and Yu Yevon were emerging in an eerie manner. He saw a large form materializing, an orb that a near endless stream of Pireflies where being drawn into. It was forming at the rate, something that had to be connected with the other, Yu Yevon was moving. They were in the same position too... Proving that they had made it in to Spira.
“We’ll have to cut this problem off at the source.” Auron said.
“It won’t be that easy.” Shuyin told them, knowing the most about this type of field since he didn’t technically exist. Yu Yevon was obviously trying to get on the other side since it had already destroyed the Farplane, the only barrier holding it back. “We need somebody on the other side to help.” Shuyin told them. Take out Yu Yevon from this side and the form it was taking on the other before it could complete itself, if it did that they were, well, screwed.
“How are we suppose to do that?” Jecht asked. “We’re dead. We can‘t reach those guys out there.”
But where Jecht was at a loss, Auron had an idea. “The Sphere recorder can see in to the physical side of Spira, maybe...”
! - ! - !
“This place is a disaster!” Rikku’s mouth hung open, staring at all of the Fiends and all of the damage.
“They’re coming from the Farplane, what ever is doing this must be there.” Paine pushed and fought through the crowd of panicked escaping people to make her way to Yuna and Rikku who waited at the city‘s entrance. Notably the woods surrounding their current path were raging with flames, this place looked like hell.
“He have to hurry, there is nowhere for these people to run. They’ll be killed.” Gippal pushed through the last of the fleeing people in to the city, knowing all of those people would becoming back this way.
Baralai was right behind him, having an easier time getting to where he was going “Gippal and I will check out the source of this, you three will have to help protect these people until we get back.” Baralai told the girls, hoping the three of them would do better then just he and Gippal would.
“The only safe place is past the Macalaina woods, you think you can get them there?”
Yuna nodded, though clearly unconfident in this task ahead of her. Managing other people and fiends at the same time, a lot of other people.... “Yes.”
They watched as Gippal and Baralai made their way upward in to the city toward their suspected target, but still fighting off a lot of fiends along the way. Still looking ahead toward the east, Yuna called the Ship through the intercom “Alright Brother, You guys will have to clear out the Thunder planes. Think you can handle it?”
Buddy responded, sounding hurried as if he had been doing something with haste for an extended period of time. “Working on it.”
Hoping that it was being taken care, Yuna turned back to an awaiting Rikku and Paine. “We have to go back to the Moon Flow and get those people. We can handle a few fiends right?” Yuna tried to sound optimistic, but the situation looked too bad for her optimism to make an impression.
“If we can take out Veganagun, we can handle some Fiends.” Rikku did a better job, if you looked at it that way then it sounded like they had a better chance of succeeding.
“Let’s get this over with, the faster we do this, the faster I can get back to bed.” Paine changed Dressphere to the Dark Knight, lifting the broadsword over he shoulder and heading for the river.
Making their way to the edge of North Bank in the mist of a considerable amount of fiends, They figured the best way to do this was to start here and gather everyone else as they went. When they arrived, it was massive panic, making the job look a lot tougher. Among the frantic cries and screams that filled the air were frantic people, a lot of whom where trying to jump in the river and swim across or to float on whatever they could. “Your on Yuna.” Paine steeped out of her way, doing so under the excuse that being high summoner people would listen to her.
“Hey Everyone!! Calm down!!! “ Yuna’s voice couldn’t be heard, so she yelled even louder
“HEY!!!!!”
No one responded, they didn’t even know she was there, “....“ She needed a different, more direct approach. With one in mind Yuna raised both of her guns above her head, firing in to the air rapidly and loudly, not stopping until she deemed it had gotten quiet enough and everyone was acknowledging her presence.
“Everyone! Listen to me, we can get you all to safety.” She called out, people where really paying attention now, knowing that the high summoner could save them. “But you’ll have to trust us and listen. Get behind me.” She directed, Rikku and Paine had taken out any fiends residing in the immediate path there, it was safe. Seeing that, Everyone ran behind her, it was a full stampede of quickened paces and worried voices, but some how no one knocked her over.
With Yuna leading the charge and things as organized as they would get, everyone ran forward, and though wanting to get where they were going as fast as possible they very clear on staying behind her.
“Ok!” Feeling more confident in their cause, Yuna directed Rikku standing to her right. “Rikku, your in charge of behind us, if anything tries to sneak up, you’ll have to stop it.”
“You can count on me.” Gave a small nod before running to the back of a long stretch of people, ready to jump in to position if she saw something.
“Paine, You take the sides, the only thing we really have to worry about is Fiends from the Forest, so stay to the right.”
“Got it.” Paine rushed in to position immediately, knowing the threat was more probable then a back attack. And of course Yuna was in front, ready to take down any fiends that got in the way.
Before going any farther with what little time she had, Yuna equipped any thing that raise strength, her goal was to take everything out as fast as possible. Before proceeding she called the ship.
“Hey? Where’s Maroda? “
Buddy answered her, sounding more frantic and hurried then before. “He went to the High Road remember? Rin needed some help there...” There was a small pause and a shifting sound before Buddy returned. “Oh and Shinra wants to talk to you ”
She waited a second while Shinra switched communications over to himself.
“Yuna, I can do radar on anything you miss, the Thunder plane is clear so you don’t have to worry about that. Just tell me when.”
Yuna knew Radar to be a missile Shinra created, it used magic to replicate itself nearly endlessly.
“Thank you.” Yuna move quickly along the edge of the river, the crowd of a few hundred was more then able to keep up. “!!” Yuna stopped so abruptly that she nearly fell when a large fiend landed in front of her hard enough to make the earth shake on land, Omega Weapon. “Stay back!” Using quick trigger she lifted her guns toward it and opened fire on the weapon, It roared loudly and charged at her, throwing it’s claws at her with furious swipes. Yuna jumped back, just narrowly escaping the attack and started firing again, a few more rounds of this and it was quickly defeated.
But around the corner more came their way, a set of three similar weapons. Instead of charging directly into the started crowed they stopped, unrolling a set of ‘wings’ on it’s back. Yuna knew what was coming next, so she got ready to fire, knowing this wouldn’t be good for the crowd, she couldn‘t protect them...“Shinra--”
“I’m on it.”
All three Omega weapons used judgment. Firing a barge of rays in to the air from the holes on the appendages, there had to be hundreds of the beams of light raining down heading for the crowd of people. Yuna did the only thing she thought to do at the moment, raising her guns into the air and began firing with as much precision as she had gained, shooting down as many as she could, but there were to many and they were coming to fast.
Luckily Shinra’s missile arrived in the nick of time, it was more off casing holding the actual missile inside of it, thousands of smaller missiles
“Aiming…..”
“Hurry!̶ 1;
“Firing!”
The casing exploded in a burst of discharged metal and smoke, releasing a rain of small green headed missiles. A few of them separated, the bulk of them going left toward the Fiends while the others took out the rays of the Judgment attack. Yuna watched with her arm over his eyes as a torrent and chain reaction of blast swallowed the weapons, leaving nothing left of them but Pireflies.
“Good job Shinra.”
“Thank you.”
She waved everyone forward and the charge continued, gathering more stay people as they went.
! - ! - !
“What the hell is this!?” Gippal watched the large reflective fill slowly immerging from the Farplane's gate, it was still just forming, still relatively shapeless, gaining more feature with every Pirefly it absorbed.
“I would guess what’s causing all of this.” Baralai said, climbing up the mass of bridges and ledges leading to this spot.
!...!..!
Gippal and Baralai looked back at the sound of gun shots and people, Yuna was passing through the city with a crowd of people. And from the look of the numbers and the amount of fiends it would take a while to get through.
“There’s no way we can fight this thing here.” Gippal looked at the mirror like creature that did seem to notice them yet, he wasn‘t sure what he would to expect but there was no reason to take chances.
“As soon as Yuna gets those people to safety we’ll bait to the Thunder plains and fight it there.” Baralai suggested.
So they had to wait until then.
Taking advantage of the free time, the two of them decided to scout around for anybody that wasn’t with Yuna or was still alive in the weakage that used to be structures, making sure they didn’t perform any actions that might prematurely provoke the creature. By luck, if you could call it that, Baralai walked under a falling Sphere that stuck him rather hard in the head. “Ow! What was that?”
It rolled of his head and in to his hand, and after a bit of rubbing Baralai looked it over. “A sphere? Where did it come from?”
Gippal surveyed the device for himself , it didn’t seem to be damaged from the fall, all in one piece. “We have a little time, wanna watch it? “
Baralai nodded a yes, still rubbing his head.
! - ! - !
!
At first it was just a view around Guadosalam, the same one they had been looking at since they got here.
Baralai noted that. “This was taken recently.” Which rose the question of who had recorded it and why was it falling out of the sky?
The gateway to the Farplane came into view, now just a deep void of darkness, only confirming how recent this was taken. Which is why what happened so next would be so strange... They heard who ever recorded the sphere talking behind the camera.
! - ! - ! “If some one finds this in time---” ! - ! - !
Baralai and Gippal looked at each other, they knew that voice, they couldn’t forget it. At the same time they both realized “It’s Shuyin.”
! - ! - ! “We need help. Somebody has to kill this thing from that side.” The view shifted to a blue box with claws protruding from the sides, oddly it was in the same place as the shapeless mass drawing in Pireflies they were keeping an eye on. “Uh, we should probably tell them who we are…..” ! - ! - !
There was silence for a moment, then a shifting sound while the recorder changed hands. Tidus’s voice came in as the view turned to Yuna, Rikku and Paine leading people out of Guadosalam, this was recently taken.
! - ! - !“Hey! There’s Yuna.” Tidus exclaimed. ! - ! - !
! - ! - ! Jecht could be heard in the background, near Tidus. “Hey, What is Yu Yevon doing?” he sounded nervous.
The recorder shifted to everyone who spoke, Braska’s voice came in next. “It’s changing?”
“No, the Fiend is changing. Yu Yevon is helping.” Auron told them
“We have to get Yu Yevon out of the Epitaph before it dose.” Braska said, he sounded worried.
“Aren’t we forgetting something.” Shuyin’s voice came back and he took the recorder from Tidus, “Somebody has to stop that fiend now, it’s coming out of the Farplane... If it keeps gaining power no one will be able to stop it”
“We can’t wait anymore, we have to fight this thing now!” ! - !- !
“Was that, High Summoner Braska?” Baralai stared at the now blank sphere, there was no doubt he just seen what he had just seen, he was just trying to figure it out. How? How?
“Well, the Farplane was destroyed, it probably was.” Gippal reasoned, anything was possible, and considering the situation it seemed logical. They didn’t have time to figure it out anyway. “In any case they seem to know more about it then we do.” Gippal gave Baralai back the Sphere since it landed on his head. “You think Yuna‘s out of the Thunder planes yet?” Gippal pulled the cannon off of his back, aiming for the forming fiend.
Baralai drew his staff also, holding it before him. “I sure of it.”
Gippal took aim, the hum of machinery coming to life followed. “Ready?”
“Not really, but I’ll mange.”
With that, Gippal fired a volley of three missiles at the whatever was coming out of the Farplane.
The fiend was still but shapeless and clear like a mirror, but they could see a mouth turning toward them like a cloudy reflection when the projectiles struck.
“I think we got it’s attention.” Baralai laid his staff over his shoulder, turning his back to it and running as fast as he could.
! - ! - !
With a sense of accomplishment Yuna had successfully and safely lead scores of people across the Thunder planes in to the Macalaina woods. There were less fiends there, certainly not nearly as powerful, which was always a good thing.
“Should we go to Bevelle or the Calm lands?” Yuna spoke to her teammates using the small earpiece communicators Shinra had created.
“What about going towards Macalaina temple?” Rikku kept a tight guard on the back, watching for any fiends.
“It’s too cold, and now that the a temple fell under the lake, there’s not enough room.” Paine pointed out, still guarding from the side.
“Bevelle is packed, and they trying to hold off fiends coming from under the temple. It’s not safe.” Buddy was working to find someplace else, and judging by the sudden sound of inspiration that traditionally came with Buddy, he had thought of something. “Hey, what about the Calm lands?”
“That could work.” Yuna cleared away another fiend in the way, something easy and weak that only took a few shots.
“I’ll get right on it!” Brother said with his usual energy, even though it was 4 in the morning.
! - ! -!
The Celsius pulled out of the Thunder Planes, heading for the Calm lands.
“Alright! We need to clean out the Calm lands before Yuna gets there. Shinra? You think we enough weapon’s left?” Buddy asked, working diligently at the throttle.
“If we aim right.” Shinra told him, working numbers on the panel he had on the side.
“What do you mean! Why can’t we blow them all up?!” Brother asked in a whining voice.
The numbers didn‘t look good, with a lot of their weapon systems down already from the EMP disruption before, and the fact that they were flying on surge protected auxiliary systems. It made him question why he didn’t put such protections on the main systems. Anyway, the point was that most of the ammunition they had was unfireable. “If we do that, we’ll run out of Ammo.”
“Awwww-- that’s no fun!”
“Just leave the weapon’s to me, you just worry about not getting us blown up.”
“RRRRodger!!!”
The Calm lands had more fiends then expected, they were coming out of the Calm land gorge and about every hole, ditch, or anything deep connected to it. These were the same powerful fiends coming from the Farplane.
To his advantage Brother had plenty of room to maneuver the ship, they needed it.
“Alright, Buddy, you stick with navigation.” Shinra instructed, typing diligently “Brother try not to get hit.”
“Speaking of navigation--” Buddy started “We got magic coming at us from all sides.”
Of course, Brother turned to Shinra for an answer. “Quick! What do we do?”
“Um…I’m just a kid.”
“What!!!!!!”
The ship shook violently from the impact, they only sustained minimal damage though.
Brother flew down low to the ground, sweeping across the uneven plans covered in short grass While Shinra fired off missiles in to the crowd of monsters scattered across the area, pulling up at the wall near Mt. Gagazet.
A few Omega Weapon type fiends scattered around lunched a Judgment attack, sending up thousands of rays shooting upward. It was like a wall was coming right at them, there was nowhere they could go where they wouldn’t be hit.
So Brother went up, driving the ship head first into the air. The Celsius managed to stay ahead, but they couldn’t out run it since the attack seemed to be homing. “You better think fast shorty.” Brother growled back.
“I have it covered.” Shinra fired out two Radar missiles from both sides of the ship, with more precision in the targeting process then previous uses the round shell exploded into smaller missiles that shot toward the gaining rays. Able to take out a section of them large enough to slip through.
“Brother, get me close to the gorge.” Shinra told him.
“Right.”
With a quick free fall toward the ground a sharp turn around, Brother flew the ship the edge of the Calm lands, sweeping over the edge of the rock wall separating the calm lands and the temple. The Machine gun flared on the Celsius’s underside flared to life and volley of missiles lunched. The explosion closed an entrance for the Fiends.
Brother swept past the Calm lands again, flying low enough to smash through anything on the ground. The machine guns roared again and missiles exploded, killing off more of the remaining fiends before they even saw it coming.
“Brother! Huge energy source at 3 ‘O clock.” Buddy called out. Brother pulled the ship to the left to avoid a Supernova attack. The red energy exploded sending out a sharp shock wave that knocked them off course, nearly knocking them to the ground.
“One’s under us!”
Brother struggled to raise the ship in time, expending as much physical strength as he could to draw the throttle back. The ship drew up just barely enough to stay clear of another supernova attack, they did receive a strong impact on the bottom of the ship.
“8 o’clock!”
That caught him off guard with a near direct hit striking the left side of the ship as he tried to dive lower, knocking the ship down. Brother managed to pull it up just before they crashed, barely regaining control of the ship before they took a nose dive. “Any more?”
Shinra shook his head. “No.”
The Celsius hovered in the center of the Calm lands while Brother quickly checked the system for damage. Most of it had already been there from fighting in the Thunder planes, but that near direct supernova didn’t help.
“Are there any other way for fiends to get in to the calm lands?” Shinra directed the question to Buddy.
“No, all we need to do is clear out the rest of these and we’re in the clear.”
Brother looked at him anticipatingly. “So we can blow everything up!??”
“Go ahead, I’ll switch weapons over to you.” Shinra did so, giving weapon control to set triggers in the cockpit.
“Try not to over do it.” Buddy pleaded, thinking it had been a bad idea...
“Are you KIDDING!!!”
The Celsius fired out the Radar missiles out two at a time, lunching them high in the air. The ship started to spin around in a circle, firing bullets and lunching rockets in an insane manner. Brother slowly pulled the ship upward, still firing, while he moved out of the way of the ground.
Seconds later, it was as if the whole Calm lands had blown up. Thousands of explosions swept over the land, one after another, undoubtedly destroying any fiends remaining.
“There’s a word for this.” Buddy sighed.
Shinra promptly took over weapons control again. “Try overkill.”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
___________
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