Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy Saga ❯ Frozen Queen ( Chapter 8 )

Final Fantasy Saga

Chapter VIII: Frozen Queen

"What are you talking about, Eliza?" Ark asked, in disbelief of the words coming out of her, it was almost like a reflex to her from the look of things. He was beyond confused, but didn't take his eyes from the figure which stood in the snow before them. The figure, shrouded in a cloak, was simply standing there like a statue, but he could tell whoever it was had their eyes on them. It was like he could feel their eyes on him, scanning him, watching him with intensity. It was very unnerving.

Eliza shook her head, rubbing her forehead, "I… I'm not even sure, but it's gone now… I feel a familiar presence in this person."

The lone figure then lifted it's gaze up, allowing them to see their face. It was a woman, her eyes an absolutely mesmerizing shade of bright blue, brighter even than sky blue. Along her face were strange markings, which almost resembled ancient runes, etched along her skin in a dark blue shade. Locks of silver hair trailed down slowly from under the hood, covering parts of her face, and her lips curved up into a strange smile. Her face looked humanoid but not human, as if it were a part of something but at the same time removed from it all. She extended a hand forward towards the group and pointed behind them, wanting them all to look and see what was around them. When Ark looked around, he noticed why it was that nobody else was seeing this woman. Everyone except for them seemed to be encased in ice, frozen.

"Did you do this?" Gren demanded in shock, looking towards the woman with the smile on her face, "Are you the one responsible for all of this?"

Nodding, the woman finally spoke, her voice soft, but with a strange taint clouding it, "I am the one who is responsible. She must die."

Ark looked at Eliza, and then looked back at the woman, "Eliza? You have another thing coming if you expect us to hand her over!" He drew his sword and smiled, holding it at the ready, prepared to face this woman to defend Eliza.

"I will kill them all, they all shall pay for our enslavement," muttered the strange woman, who looked at Ark with a hatred he had never seen, like a stabbing spike in his soul. It brought a deathly chill up Ark's spine.

"No way!" Ark moved between the woman and Eliza, then asking, "Who the hell are you anyways?"

Closing her eyes and pausing for a moment, there was then a horrible silence proceeding after Ark's question. Once some time had passed, the woman opened her eyes once more, her icy glare meeting Ark's determined eyes, and she answered his question, "I am known as Shiva."

"What possible purpose is there behind killing our friend?" Gren inquired, though he did not have a weapon he also seemed to be prepared to defend Eliza.

"Freedom," Shiva's hand had remained raised through the entire conversation, and now it began to glow with a gentle blue light. This light reminded Ark of the one which surrounded someone when they would cast Blizzaga, but it also seemed different. It seemed brighter, more substantial. He was pretty sure the woman was about to cast a spell, and so as he realized this Ark ran towards the woman and began an attempt to attack. The light grew brighter and brighter, and as it grew more it also became more solid. Before Ark knew it, he was running not at Shiva, but at a huge wall of ice, combined with jutting out spikes of frost. He sliced the spikes in half and slammed into the wall, groaning as he fall back, bouncing off of it. He was baffled as to how this woman could have so much power with ice, but he didn't really have time to focus on it. Taking a swing at the wall of ice with his broadsword, putting as much force into the attack as possible, he shattered the ice barrier. Shiva seemed quite astonished at this, and shot out a blast of ice towards Ark, a large ball of ice like a meteor hurdling towards Ark at incredible speeds. It slammed into him and made him fall backwards, unable to get up. It was not long until Ark realized that Shiva had frozen him to the ground, and that he was pinned.

"Ark!" Eliza yelled, looking towards Shiva then, and screaming at her, "What have I ever done to you? When did I ever hurt you?"

"You enslave," Shiva began to advance on Eliza, "You enslave and you do not care about it. As they enslaved as well." With those words, Ark felt himself fall into being unconscious.

* * * * * * *

The two figures looked at the Mana Academy, at the frozen wasteland which used to be a school. Though the rest of the island had been frozen, these two men remained themselves, resisting even Shiva's power. Gilgamesh sighed as he watched the senseless destruction which had been unleashed by Shiva in her rather foolish crusade. Why did she not understand their true purpose here in this place? He found it most displeasing, and he was sure that their master would feel the same way about it all. His companion, Yojimbo, had also once not understood the finer details of what their loyalty should mean, but he found his way to the light in due time. Shiva did not seem as though she would ever understand though, she did not seem as though acceptance was going to claim her of their ultimate destiny.

"Should we intervene and kill her?" Gilgamesh asked, his six arms all ready to swing their swords in battle, eager to taste the blood of an enemy.

Yojimbo, cloaked and wearing a Japanese sombrero, shook his head slowly in disagreement to Gilgamesh's eagerness, "There are four people down there who have not been taken by her spell. Should they fail to break it, and defeat her, then and only then should we reveal ourselves."

"Why wait?" Gilgamesh was baffled to Yojimbo's reasoning, "We were sent by the master to do a mission, what even makes you think four humans can stop her power?"

"There are special qualities to these humans, they have links to the Tribe. I can feel it, sense it near me," responded the samurai warrior, "If we give them a chance, Shiva fill be felled by them in this place."

"They are connected with the Tribe? How many of the four?" Gilgamesh found himself even more baffled than before, having thought that their master was the only one who had descended from the ones of that generation.

"I believe all of them," Yojimbo could be seen smirking, "This will be the hardest of the Crystals for us to obtain, if my suspicions are correct. You and I may not even be enough to claim it, even with the aid of our master."

Gilgamesh was now unable to believe his partners words. Not only were there more from the Tribe, but actually four of them? This was beyond anything he could have comprehended. Their master had gained much power in the service of that dark man, but even she would likely find it difficult to slay four members of the Tribe. "I suppose all we truly can do is wait," reasoned Gilgamesh, though he hoped now that Shiva prevailed, it would make it much easier for them to claim the Crystal.

* * * * * * *

Eliza could only feel anger towards this woman who had hurt Ark. On top of that, she knew that the only reason Ark was injured was because he had been protecting her, and so for that Eliza was also angry at herself. She knew that if she didn't do something, Gren would also likely be about to get hurt trying to defend her, and she wasn't going to sit idly by and watch her friends be harmed trying to save her, she refused to blame herself for the pain suffered from anyone else taking an injury for her sake. She was going to put an end to this here and now, she was going to use the power she had learned to use and use it to stop this woman.

Raising both of her hands to the sky, Eliza began to focus on her own visions of a new world. It was a few moments before anything happened. In those few moments, the dark clouds which had gathered over the school seemed to almost tremble with the force of what was coming. Eliza's hands at first seemed to turn into a very soft, bright green. The brightness in the skin soon became a glow which surrounded her fingertips. That glow moved itself down her hands slowly, caressing her, enshrouding her body slowly. As she became enveloped in this light, Eliza focused all of her energy and all of her will on a single figure. A knight in shining armor which would come to her rescue, even in the darkest of times, whose life had always gone to protecting the innocent around him. She envisioned the warrior of the lance, Odin. Then, the glow vanished, and the summon appeared.

Shiva seemed to take on a very different expression when Odin appeared, looking at Eliza with what had turned from hatred into the purest, most untainted hate Eliza had ever seen in someone's eyes. This surprised Eliza, and when she looked at Odin she became even more surprised by what she saw. Odin was normally much like a blank card, you could never see what he felt behind his unemotional and strong appearance. When Eliza saw him now, she could swear that there was a very deep sadness in his eyes, that he was hurt more than words could describe by what he saw.

"Kalel!" Shiva made a slight hissing noise, as if reverting to an almost animal state, "What in the world are you doing fighting as a slave for this girl?"

"I am not fighting as her slave, I am protecting her as her guardian," Odin responded, moving between Eliza and Shiva, "Please… do not make me do this, Reina." Reina? Kalel? Were those their real names? Eliza kept watching their conversation, not certain as to exactly what was going on anymore. Though she hadn't actually had a grip on the circumstances at all yet.

"So you will not back down?" Shiva lowered her hand, now obviously sharing Odin's sorrow, it being apparent in her voice.

Odin paused for a few moments, and then said in response to Shiva's question, "I wish to at least tell her why you are after her, before a real confrontation comes to pass. Please leave us be."

Also taking time to consider it, Shiva closed her eyes and nodded, "Very well, but I am here with a purpose Kalel, I do not want that purpose to bring us against each other. So… please, don't oppose me when I come back for her." Shiva then vanished, snow flakes parting and vanishing in a blue light, as if she were made of them, her body then decaying back into snow.

When Shiva vanished, however, something else of happened alongside it. Near the center of the school, a giant tower of ice began to form. The snow was swirling around and growing solid to form it's walls. As this began, a blizzard shrouded the place, darkness and fierce winds acting as a barrier, preventing anyone from entering the tower. Eliza assumed that to be where Shiva had gone to, likely a place for her to wait and plan to attack, but still giving Odin the time he had asked for to explain what was going on to her and her friends. Whatever this was, it would not be an easy task to overcome it all, and Eliza feared that this would be the end for them.

* * * * * * *

Rikku wandered around the campus, and was attempting to comprehend who could have possibly done these things. Everyone except for her seemed to be frozen in place, and she had a strange suspicion that there were dangerous people around the school now. She wasn't exactly sure why she thought this, but her body was tingling as it would should a predator be stalking her. Her blond hair trailed down her face and slightly matted locks, cut short in the back and tied into a small ponytail, with slight streaks of darkness among the hair. Her jade eyes sought out life, anywhere among the school, to help her understand what it was that had happened. She wandered the campus wearily, staring at all the people who only stood there, watching the snow as it slowly piled up, and seeing the darkness that filled the sky overhead at all times during this unnatural snowstorm.

Stopping at her room in the dorms, Rikku grabbed a thick black coat and put it on, not wanting to freeze to death as she investigated the current condition of the school. Her eyes could not believe themselves as she saw the various things before her, not even the most powerful of mages in the school were unaffected by whatever had done this. It was unlike anything Rikku had ever seen, and she quite frankly did not want to see it either. But she was here and there was nothing else that Rikku could do about it, so it was up to her to try and help everyone. Getting her tool kit and donning her favorite goggles to shield her eyes from the winds, which grew more and more fierce as time was passing. It would not be much longer before Rikku would be unable to do anything, as it was possible the gales were likely to soon reach a point where she would get picked up by their force.

As she left the dorms, Rikku suddenly heard the sound of people talking in the distance, though it was barely audible through the sound of the wind. She began to make her way towards the voices, trudging as fast as she could through the thick snow. If there really were people left here then it would be much easier for her to stop whatever was going on. Closer and closer, the voices became clearer as she ran, knowing that it would not be much longer until she had made it all of the way to them. Finally arriving, she saw a girl with dark hair and a guy with blond hair, with a giant knight as well. She recognized the guy with blond hair as Gren Ashforn, she'd had something of a crush on him for a while now. The girl must have been Eliza Knight, but the giant warrior clad in thick armor wasn't anyone Rikku knew of.

"Hey!" Rikku called out, noticing as well a person frozen to the ground, but not actually frozen into a deep sleep. That person must have been the now infamous Ark d'Speare who had defeated Cloud's gang.

As the people looked at her, Eliza called out to Rikku, "Hello! I can't believe someone else is okay in all this snow!"

Getting to them, no longer having to shout, Rikku responded happily, "I'm just happy I'm not alone anymore, what the hell is going on here?"

"Odin here was just about to tell us that, actually," Gren responded in that cool, calm voice he always seemed to have, which always made Rikku feel nervous. Nodding, Rikku turned to the giant knight, which she assumed was Odin.

"That woman and I are both the same kind of being, Espers. Beings assigned to a special task, a unique mission, a holy crusade… we are the guardians of the Crystals," Odin looked up to the sky, "Reina, or Shiva as she now calls herself, and I were protecting the Crystal of Love together… we were lovers, as fate would have it."

"What do these Crystals do? Why do they need to be protected?" Gren asked, looking at Odin with interest.

"We were never even told exactly what they did. We just knew that if they were disturbed, if they were moved, it would be the end of the world… Shiva and I were attacked, by a man of ghastly power… we died, and when we died I was bound to Eliza as her warrior, as a servant almost, but she treated me as an equal," Odin smiled and looked around a bit more, "As a friend. Shiva must be here either for the Crystal, for me, or for something I do not even comprehend. Since Eliza was her target, I assume she has come for me."

Rikku was very confused by all of this, but she was pretty sure it meant that there was someone who had caused all this in the giant castle of ice which she now took notice of. "So… what do we do?" the hopeful Rikku asked, looking from face to face.

"Can you defeat her, Odin?" Eliza asked, sighing as she closed her eyes, "She managed to beat Ark so easily… only your power might stand a chance against her."

"No," Odin shook his head, "I will fight any other foe you wish me to, but I… I can't bring myself to hurt Reina. Nor do I wish to watch you fight her. You must find another way."

"Unless we stop her, then this curse on the school won't be broken!" Gren snapped, "I know this is hard for you, Odin, but you have to help us."

After a few moments, moments that seemed to last forever, Odin finally said, "She isn't casting the spell herself. She has a monster creating the massive amounts of ice, and the wind. If you defeat the monster, then the people will be free from the spell, and you will be able to go to her ice fortress."

"What kind of monster?" Gren asked, looking around a bit, "And where might we find this thing?"

Odin paused for a moment, thinking, and then answered, "It's likely in the building closest to the blizzard consuming her fortress. The monster is a Yeti, a brutal ice creature which has a strong affinity towards creating cold."

Rikku looked around a bit for the building closest to the ice shield, and she spotted it finally and pointed. "There!" Rikku called out to the others, "The basketball gymnasium is the closest structure to the ice shield, half of it is frozen by the wall even."

While Rikku spoke, Odin pulled Ark from the ice and cast a healing spell which revived the fallen warrior. Ark looked around a bit and sighed, shaking his head and letting out a cry which resembles a wolves howl almost before he said, "What the hell is up with all of this? Damn that ice queen! I'll kill her! Rip her head off and devour her flesh!" He continued to rant that way for a while, Gren shaking his head and Eliza finding it hard not to giggle. Rikku was just frightened by it.

* * * * * * *

Odin would help them defeat the Yeti, of this Shiva was certain, but in storming her palace she was also certain he would be useless. Sitting upon her throne of ice, looking at the doors, watching and waiting, Shiva felt her memories throbbing within her chest like an aching glow. Their love had been so tender, and then they had been slain so brutally by that man. The man clad in a cloak of shadow, with piercing crimson eyes like the blood of a thousand children. He defeated them with little effort and then forced upon Shiva that feeling. That cold feeling which chilled even the queen of the ice, the death-like pain which filled her from bone to flesh with suffering. He had almost enslaved her, and Shiva could only sympathize with the pain that Odin felt having been successfully enslaved.

Contemplating the fate of the others, the guardians of the other Crystals, Shiva hoped that one of them could manage to defeat the man if he came for them. There were eight Crystals and nine Espers protecting them. Shiva and Odin protected the Crystal of Love, Leviathan protected the Crystal of Ocean, Ramuh protected the Crystal of Wisdom, Ifrit protected the Crystal of Force, Phoenix protected the Crystal of Life, Yojimbo protected the Crystal of Honor, Gilgamesh the Crystal of the Sword, and then there was Alexander who watched over the Crystal of Eternity. These eight Crystals, these nine guardians, were likely to be faced by the man who killed Odin and Shiva. Whoever he was, Shiva did not care, she was going to liberate as many of her fellow Espers which had been captured as she could and then Shiva would destroy the man. That was her ultimate goal in all this, and she wished Odin would join her in her crusade.

* * * * * * *

The others had filled Ark in on what was going on while they walked towards the basketball gym, and he found it more confusing than anything else. It explained where Eliza had gotten Odin, but other than that there was little but puzzles to his mind. All he knew for sure was that he had to fight something called a Yeti to free the school, and that he wanted to fight Shiva again and beat her for the humiliation she had provided him with through beating him so quickly. He wasn't going to be a fly to anyone, something weak which was an annoyance, Ark would always be a wolf, a true threat to his enemies. Shiva was going to find this out, and Ark was going to enjoy defeating her. She wasn't even human, and so he didn't have to worry about fighting a girl and breaking his rule, and even if she were human she was possibly the strongest person Ark had ever seen. She was more than a worthy opponent.

Arriving at the gym, Ark looked to everyone else and said happily, "So this is where the Yeti should be?"

"That's what Odin had said," Eliza answered, having sent Odin back to wherever it was he went when she didn't have him called to her. The group had stopped to get Gren his swords, dual rapiers were what he liked to use while fighting monsters.

"We'd better not waste any time then, the entire school grows harder and harder within this ice shield the longer we wait," Gren readied his swords, Ark doing the same, and the two quickly burst into the gym.

The Yeti was just as ferocious as Ark had expected it to be, and as much as he had hoped it would be. Ark was craving a good fight after being flattened by Shiva, and from the looks of things the monster wasn't going to let him down. The monster stood at the least around ten feet tall, with a body frame which was also very wide. Unlike most wide creatures, which tended to be fat and gross, the Yeti had a very powerful figure layered with massive amounts of muscle. Dark blue skin was covered by a very thin surface of fur, which covered nearly the entire body of the monster. When it inhaled, it seemed like the air around it was stopping in time, and when it exhaled small bits of frost and chilled oxygen surrounded the air like a miniature whirlwind. It's jaw was powerful looking and jagged, with large grayed and yellowed teeth protruding forth and dripping what seemed to be chunks of half-melted ice as if they were saliva.

"This is going to take some work," Gren warned, but it was far too late to stop the young beast that was Ark. Leaping through the air and soaring towards the Yeti, Ark swung his sword at the beast with as much speed and intensity as he could put into it. Growling and leaping back a bit, the Yeti's collision with the ground forced it to shake, knocking Eliza and Rikku off their feet, and disorienting Gren considerably, though Ark remained unaffected. The Yeti glared at Ark and then let out a mighty howl, the walls shaking and the ground trembling under the force of the cry. Falling to the ground and gripping his ears, Ark felt extremely dizzy from the sheer force of this powerful sound wave which now coursed over him and his friends. But if they didn't defeat this thing, then the spell over the school wouldn't be broken, and there would be no way for them to stop its master, Shiva.

Standing up and grinning, the Yeti finally finishing its howl attack, Ark picked up the broadsword he fought with once more. Gripping the handle tight, he began to charge towards the beast, quickly closing the distance between him and the monster. Seeing the threat Ark posed, the monster took a deep breath and used yet again a howling attack, sending a shockwave so powerful out that the floor of the gym exploded into a series of tiny splinters. "Unbeatable!" activating his Limit Break just as the shockwave collided with his body, Ark continued to run through the hurricane-like push created from the howl. Faster and faster he ran until finally colliding with the monster, driving his sword through its chest and sending it flying against the frozen back wall of the gym, an explosive wave of dust and ice flakes shattering throughout the entire area as the snow ceased falling from the sky. They had toppled Shiva's minion, and as such had set free the entire campus. Now all that was left was for Ark and his friends to go and face Shiva herself, and bring an end to all this.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: I once again got over a writers block to write this chapter, and am very happy. I feel a bit rusty, but I'm sure I'll get back into it with a bit more writing! I've just started school and gotten a copy of Soul Caliber 2 (great game, by the way) and so I've been preoccupied. But rejoice, for I shall continue on with this and have all intentions of completing the entire run of Final Fantasy Saga. To answer the question of a reviewer named Kokoo, the plot I have planned spans a total of 55 chapters. So yes, there's still a lot to go. I'm hoping you've enjoyed everything thus far, because there's going to be layers upon layers to this by the end, so you also might want to pay attention to everything and take note of stuff that seems important. Of course, there will also be recaps of what you need to know in future editions of the Author's Notes, so it isn't that big a deal. Anyways, thank you very much for reading this far! I hope you like it enough to keep going.

Next Time: The snow has ceased to fall, the people begin to awaken, and the calm before the storm is faced. Although the Yeti is gone, the threat of Shiva remains, and new powers must gather if she is to be beaten. The time goes past midnight, and Halloween begins. Instead of a flaming Jack-O-Lantern, however, a woman who sheds tears of ice shall grace the night. Get ready for the final chapter of the Shiva Arc, Final Fantasy Saga Chapter 9: Blizzard Halloween.