Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Painful Miracles ❯ Never bow before his blade ( Chapter 13 )

Never bow before his blade

Marcus looked over to the mountain pass and saw Icarus coming toward them. He thought at first that it was a man, but he knew otherwise. Icarus was the only one to survive the mountain massacre and he saw to that.

He reached down and grabbed a fist full of Vincent's hair, raising his head so he could see his daughter coming to greet her fate. "Look at her, so beautiful." Marcus' lips curled into a cruel smile.

Vincent tried to yell out, but a punch to his gut told him to do otherwise. Marcus threw Vincent back into the snow and signaled his men to attack Icarus. He watched with a cruel smile on his thin lips as they attacked and fell savagely to the girls gun. She had managed to take out over thirty men with both her weapons.

"That is enough!" Marcus cried, his voice echoing up the mountain to the village. No one would mind the echoing there and no one would complain.

"Stand down." Marcus commanded. "Now," he began as his men retreated to there designated spots. "Come here my young lady." He smiled to Icarus, motioning for her to come to him.

"Not on your life." She yelled back, the cold breeze blowing her hair into her face.

"It would not be wise to test my patience, my dear." Marcus said through grit teeth, annoyed at the young girl.

Icarus stood quietly, her crimson eyes on Marcus and never wavering. She felt the warmth of her blood as it trickled from her shoulder, down her arm and onto the snow, tainting it the faintest of red. He was the one. The one responsible for all her pain and sadness. He was responsible for that young child's death.

"I will test you if I please. You have taken things from me that cannot be replaced! You shall pay for every life you have taken away from me! Every helpless child you slaughtered!" Icarus screamed, clenching her fists until her nails cut into her palm as she tried to keep the sadness from her voice.

"You mean this life?" Marcus smirked, stepping aside to show Vincent laying in the snow next to a brunette that Icarus had never seen before.

"Father!" Icarus cried as she choked back her tears. She made a start for her father but stopped as Marcus spoke.

"Do what I say, and he lives. Disobey he dies. I would very much love to cut his throat." Marcus looked even more smug than he had been and he smiled at the defeat on Icarus' face.

"Don't listen to him Icarus...." Vincent began slowly, coughing up blood that sprayed over the snow. "He can't kill us...." Vincent let out a yelp as Marcus kicked him hard in the stomach.

"Shut up you!" Marcus yelled, turning to Icarus. "Now, come with me and I will give your father and this raggedy woman when we are through."

Icarus thought for a moment until a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Don't do it... he'll kill you too...."This voice was soft and sweet and came from the brunette. Icarus looked to Marcus, the beast inside her swelling with her anger and animosity for this man.

Marcus saw the anger in the girl's crimson orbs from feet away. "The truth comes out." He smirked. "It's no matter that you know because you're coming with me whether you want to or not."

"I fear you are mistaken. I will never fall to you!" And with that said, she ran towards Marcus, only to be yanked back by a whip that wrapped its self around her neck. She let out a choked scream, but quickly ripped the whip from her neck and rebounding on the whip's owner and killing him easily.

Her next target was Marcus. She wouldn't stop until he was dead. He needed to repent for all those lives he'd taken from her. Everyone she loved and cared for, ripped from her, but their deaths would not be in vain.

She pulled out her gun and fired. The bullet missed by inches as Marcus pulled out his blade. It was large, like a masamune and it was encrusted with blood. Icarus knew she wouldn't be able to battle blade to blade with him. She wasn't very good. Hi-yosha was great practice, but even she could tell he was great. Instead she shot him with four blasts of ultima. That crippled him to the ground in heap and gave Icarus enough time to get to her father and the woman with him.

"Father, are you okay?" She asked, helping him to stand. She already knew the answer when she looked at him. He had lost a lot of blood, his body was badly bruised and he couldn't stop coughing up blood.

Vincent nodded and patted Icarus shoulder. Icarus helped up the woman. She was in a bit better shape, but her faced was badly bruised and her pain went more than skin deep. She had the look in her eyes of deep emotional trauma.

"Thank you, Icarus. I am Aeris. I'm a friend of your fathers." Aeris smiled at Icarus, even through her pain.

Icarus nodded to her and turned back to her father who had stopped coughing. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you. I was to weak." Icarus hung her head.

"No honey, you were not weak. You did your best. My pain and our loved ones' deaths' are not your fault. You cannot help what came to pass."

Aeris nodded. "You did great, just as my own daughter, Sakura is probably doing right now. You are both so brave." Aeris was choking back her tears along with her pain and tried to show her strongest to both Vincent and his daughter.

Before Icarus could say anything she was grabbed from behind and fell to the snow. Two men grabbed Aeris and Vincent and threw them into a wagon. They then took them away.

Icarus stood and began after them, but Marcus grabbed her hair and pulled her back. "You'll see them soon enough!" He was fuming with anger. Steam could have come out of his ears, had this been a wacky "Looney Toons" cartoon. He took another swing at her with his sword and she dodged it with only a deep scratch on her cheek. The blood warmed her cold cheeks as it dripped down them and onto the already bloodstained snow.

"You cannot defeat me!" He cried, jumping at her again.

Icarus could barley contain the rage inside her anymore and threw her trench coat to the ground. "Where have you taken my father!?" She screamed in anger.

"Come with me and you'll see him before I slaughter them both!" Marcus said, swinging at Icarus once again and cutting her shirt and chest beneath.

Icarus could feel the drowsiness of the blood loss, and began to waver, but only before she composed herself again. "Tell me and I grant you a quick death!" She yelled and fired her gun, the bullet striking the shoulder of his dueling arm and Marcus dropped his blade.

Marcus grabbed his shoulder and regained his sword from the snow. "I don't think so. I can use you dead or alive, although I prefer you and the other two alive so I may enjoy you in more depth."

Icarus took only a moment to confer what he was saying and could take the rage no longer. Her inner beast was unleashed once more, shredding her cloths and moving Icarus into the beasts' subconscious as it took total control.

Marcus was in fear of his own safety and began to worry. This girl was indeed Vincent's daughter and was endowed with his strength. But he too had his own powers and secret tricks. He could not become a beast, but he could triple his strength, power, and agility. He smirked as he did so and he and the Icarus beast began to battle one on one.

Neither person could hold their powers for long. Before to long they were both drained of strength and returned to their former person. However, Marcus still had some strength left in his tired physic. He made an advance toward Icarus, who was lying in the snow, trying to pull on her trench coat to cover her slightly nude body. Marcus laughed and kicked her in the side.

"Look at you, so weak....so feeble. How could you have ever beaten me?!" He laughed like a homicidal killer and kicked her again. Icarus squirmed and cough up blood. She looked up towards the mountain and saw a Chocobo tied to a tree. .:I have to make it to the Chocobo:. She thought to herself, feeling blood leak out of her shoulder.

Before Marcus could kick her again, she rolled out of the way and stood, putting on her trench coat. She took a mad dash for the Chocobo and mounted it. She yanked the rains from the tree and rode away as fast as she could.

Marcus couldn't even react. He could only let out a growl of disappointment and got on another chocobo and left.