Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Celestial Rise ❯ Instrumentality ( Chapter 18 )

The stretcher rolled fast through the twisting corridors, pushed by scientists headed by lab directors. General Cristophe and Kefka trailed them closely. Red lights flashed in the corridors that they took. A few soldiers, General Cristophe's select few, followed lastly.

The lab director communicated orders between the scientists. General Cristophe felt it odd that for such an emergency real medical doctors were not at all present. But it all made sense. Doctors would not be able to do anything to help her. The problem was beyond their expertise. Medical doctors prevented death to the best of their abilities.

But these people? Is it their job to prevent the permanence of death?

"Tayan!" Kefka bellowed. In an instant, a Devout materialized beside him, dispelling the magical barrier of Invisibility.

"I am here, Master."

"Send for Cid and his team. Waste no time, and make sure they don't either!"

"At once, Master," replied Tayan with a bow.

They arrived finally at a large open room. An operating table was situated at the very center. The lights on the high ceiling provided ample light for the people below. General Cristophe found himself a corner to let the scientists do their work. They removed her armor by completely cutting the plates off with a small circular saw. The dagger remained stuck in her belly. Kefka had given the order not to pull it out just yet.

After cutting through Celes's armor, they lifted her up from the stretcher and placed her carefully onto the operating table. The scientists started to strap on odd-looking devices on different parts of her body, particularly her head, chest and wrists. The director then injected her with a vial of blue liquid. Another made sure that her eyes were as wide open as they could possibly be before placing a kind of goggles over them. All the devices were hooked up to the computers located on the walls of the room.

Kefka watched with impatience. "Stand aside! Let us handle this one!" he snarled.

The scientists stopped and stared at him in confusion. Kefka stepped towards Celes's body, pushing aside a scientist who was holding a tray of equipment. The scientist dropped the tray, and the equipment scattered on the floor, some lay broken and permanently useless.

Enraged, General Cristophe stepped in-between Celes and Kefka. He grabbed Kefka by the collar, lifted him off the floor and slammed him against the closest wall. "You are not touching her!" he said fiercely.

At the next second, five Fanatics materialized around both of them with raised arms. Their fingers, glowing blue with magical energy, all pointed towards General Cristophe. In response, General Cristophe's own Elite Guards drew their swords and held them threateningly pointed to the backs of the Fanatics. None moved. It was a stalemate. The scientists moved a safe distance from them, but they did not leave the room. They watched nervously.

"You are making a terrible mistake, Leo!" Kefka hissed. "Unhand me now!"

"The Emperor may have ordered me to take Celes here instead, but that does not mean you are in charge!" General Cristophe replied angrily. "Continue with the recovery process!" he ordered the scientists.

The team hesitated for a few seconds before they started to move again.

"Fool! If you do not let me and my men work, then she will be lost to us forever!" Kefka said as a warning.

General Cristophe simply glared at him and refused to let him go. He ignored the Fanatics, menacingly pointing their bolt-charged fingers at him. He knew that they would not be foolish enough to risk harming their Master. With a command, he could order his men to slay the Fanatics. "Order your men to stand down. Then tell them to leave the room," General Cristophe said through gritted teeth.

"I'd sooner order them to kill you. My Devouts are her only salvation, Leo. They know the magic to bring her back to life!"

"So do these scientists!" General Cristophe argued.

"These scientists rely on obsolete means. We have mastered the spell!"

"Tell your men to stand down!" General Cristophe roared.

General Cristophe would not hear of Kefka's lies, and Kefka knew this. He grudgingly motioned for his followers to stand down. The Fanatics did not hesitate. They moved obediently and without question.

"Tell them to get out of the building," General Cristophe added, still not easing his grip on Kefka's garment.

"Do you really think that I want her to stay dead, Leo? You and I both know that she's of no use to us as a corpse," he reasoned fiercely. "Why did you think the Emperor ordered you to take her here instead?"

General Cristophe thought about what he said but made no betraying reaction. At that moment, Professor Marguez walked in the room after battling through the guards stationed outside. Tayan was behind him.

"Celes!" he cried out in tears. "How is she? Is she all right?"

Celes's lifeless and bloody shell caught his blurry line of sight. The air in his lungs was snatched away by a specter of his past sins. He fell completely silent--as silent as those around him. He choked. He felt nauseous. Taking a step forward, he staggered and almost fell to the ground if it weren't for two of the scientists' rescue. The two supported him up.

Professor Marguez found his strength again. His eyes saw all--the blood, the dagger, and her eyes.

Those eyes! Those same eyes!

Professor Marguez began to sob. His trembling hands held her by the temples. He shifted her head so that her lifeless eyes stared into him--past him and into nothingness. "Oh, Celine!" he wailed. "I have failed you again." His sobs turned into uncontrollable blubber. "I'm sorry!"

General Cristophe and the scientists around were sympathetic. Kefka was disgusted at the undignified display. "Imbeciles! You're all wasting precious seconds! If you're going to try to revive her then do it now. You people make me sick!" Kefka yelled harshly.

Professor Marguez stopped crying and turned to the people around him. "Why aren't you people doing anything?! Help her!"

"Professor," said General Cristophe, "you're in charge of the process!"

"You win, Leo. I'll give Cid a chance. But if he does not bring her back in five minutes, we'll try it our way."

General Cristophe had to agree. He shoved Kefka to the side forcefully. Kefka had his Fanatics to thank for catching him.

Professor Marguez started barking out orders. Though his tears were still there, his sobs were gone. His mind raced and focused on the task at hand. He was now the scientist that everybody had come to rely greatly upon. Professor Marguez knew this. There was simply no room for grieving. It was not the time. There was still hope for Celes.

There was still hope for him.

Tayan shuffled closer to his master, past the scientists at work. "Master, it has been too long. If we let them try this process to the finish there'd be nothing left for us to revive," Tayan said, informatively.

Kefka watched Professor Marguez's team intently. They fiddled with the awkward contraptions strapped on Celes's body. The computers on the wall hummed to life. Idiots! When will they ever learn that to get the full effect of magic it needs to be done by flesh and blood--not machines?!

The contraptions on Celes glowed blue as energy poured from it and into her body. It was magical energy--truly a miracle of technology to many. To Kefka it was not enough. He knew that the magical energy provided by the machines weren't enough. A long time ago, Cid proposed to the emperor the systematic development of the magic-aided recovery process through the heavy use of technology. Kefka proposed the opposite. He proposed to train medical practitioners in the mastery of the Revive magic. Back then, researchers had no luck, at all, in casting such a complex spell. Nobody ever had the success to make it work correctly due to the overwhelming magical energy involved in the process. Hence, the emperor favored the professor's method.

Professor Marguez's method worked better than Kefka's in the past. But it was far from perfect. For years, they were able to bring people back to life, but the conditions were numerous. First of all, it was only possible to bring back people within twenty-four hours after their moment of expiration. Beyond that, it would all be too late. Second of all, recovery past the tenth hour was rare. Thirdly, ninety percent of the subjects successfully brought back to life died within a span of a week. Five percent suffered major psychological disorders. The last five percent encompass the lucky few who truly got a second chance at life. Fourthly, the statistics mentioned, thus far, did not take into account the severity of the subject's expiration. It meant that a person who died due to a cardiac arrest had much better chances of being revived than a person who died due to a severe mortal wound--almost impossible.

Celes's case scenario fit the latter.

Things were not looking up. Professor Marguez and General Cristophe knew it. But Kefka knew something that the others did not. Kefka had continued his proposal to the emperor a long time ago. He trained his own Devouts to learn the complex spell. It was something he was free to do (unlike the Slave Crown Project) since the emperor did not specifically forbid him to discontinue the proposal. In fact, Kefka had his suspicions that the emperor wanted him to continue it.

Kefka had been successful but in secret. Kefka's Devouts were able to bring people back to life to nigh-complete health and with no psychological disorders. The condition, however, was that the spell needed to be cast within the hour to guarantee a complete recovery. It also took several spell casters to do it.

"Master?"

"I know!" he hissed. "But we cannot cast the spell with that ignoramus in the way," Kefka said in a whisper.

"Master, her wound is… very severe. We've never tried the spell on--"

"I am aware of that, Tayan. Which is why we must cast Heal at the right time."

"Simultaneously?" Tayan gasped. "But… it might disrupt the Revive spell."

Kefka stood silent for a few seconds, thinking. "It is a necessary risk."

Tayan bowed, and then waited.

The scientists shouted back numbers from the computer. Professor Marguez coordinated the effort by reciting numbers back. The scientists took those numbers and fed them into the computer, and each time they did it they waited for a response from Celes's lifeless body. "Increase the output by three hundred percent. Remove the shielding," Professor Marguez barked.

"Shield is at zero percent, sir. Output is rising… two hundred… two hundred and twenty…" echoed a scientist.

"Sir, I'm getting a reading!" cried another.

Professor Marguez walked to the person staring at the console. "Pulse?" Professor Marguez asked, excitedly.

"I don't think so, professor, it's far too--"

"Brain waves?"

"No, sir."

Kefka raised a brow. He did not expect them to get this far into the obsolete process. But he was doubtful that it would still succeed.

Professor Marguez looked at the graph on screen. It was erratically spiking up and down. "Wait… that's not--"

The room went dark. Just like that. The lights from the machines blinked out; they were gone with their soft hums of promised solution. The glow on the contraptions was the last to be seen. It faded slowly to join the blackness that had suddenly decided to reign over them. It was uninvited and unneeded. Professor Marguez's racing mind halted. The flooding thoughts were effectively stopped by the new problem. The critical process just reached a newly, unexplored level of criticality.

"What happened?!" Professor Marguez shouted. "What happened to the power?"

"Professor?" the general asked with uncertainty.

Kefka himself had his arms in front of him as he blindly moved closer to the computers. "What is going on, professor?!" Kefka demanded.

"Somebody get the power back on now!" General Cristophe roared.

Professor Marguez clutched at his hair with both hands. It was a sign of frustration and helplessness. Tonight was truly a nightmare. The scientists moved about the room, searching for an emergency lamp. "This isn't happening," Professor Marguez whispered in denial. "We haven't had a power failure in years. Why now?!"

"I smell the stench of a saboteur," the general remarked, hinting at Kefka.

"Move her to a new room!" Professor Marguez shouted.

"No! There's no time!" said Kefka urgently. At that point the light in the room came back, but it was a lot dimmer than before. The computers, too, restarted.

"Backup power has kicked in, Master," Tayan reported.

"Is that enough power to resume the process," asked the general.

Professor Marguez ignored the question. He was busy at a computer screen with his fellow scientists. "Impossible!" Professor Marguez exclaimed. "Primary power's been drained from all reactors!"

"What?!" roared Kefka. He pushed the scientists aside to get a good look at the screen. His eyes widened in disbelief. "The person responsible for this will learn unimaginable pain!"

"What is it, Kefka? Answer me!" General Cristophe asked uneasily.

Kefka turned to him and obligingly answered, "This was no accident, Leo. Ten reactors simply cannot shut down at the same time."

"Which reactors?"

"This lab has its own reactors, general. They're all dead."

"Can we use the reactors outside of the lab?"

Professor Marguez thought for a second. "I would need the authorization access code of--"

Kefka madly punched in cryptic commands into the computer. His fingers made no costly flaws. Kefka had the authorization key that Professor Marguez needed. The screen flashed messages, too fast to see to the untrained eyes. Professor Marguez and Kefka read them all rapidly.

"The saboteur will pay!" Kefka hissed as he continued to punch in commands. The computer didn't seem to be cooperating.

"What are you up to, Kefka?" the general suspiciously asked him.

Kefka didn't answer. Instead, Professor Marguez explained, "It's not looking good, General. Whoever did this did his homework. This laboratory is virtually dead!"

"But we have power," the general reasoned.

"Backup power. It's not enough, General," Tayan explained.

General Cristophe looked at Professor Marguez for confirmation. Professor Marguez nodded his head solemnly.

"Then where can we continue the process?"

"I-I don't know, General. This is the only place that is aptly equipped."

"Then let's move them all to the next building that can provide us with power. Make haste! Somebody hand me a radio!"

"No! There is no time. We must try it our way now, Leo!" Kefka exclaimed almost pleadingly.

"Like hell, I would!"

In a fit of rage, Kefka sent a lightning bolt to the main computer in the room. The surging electricity tore its shielding apart and fried its circuits. Smoke billowed from it and up to the ceiling.

General Cristophe took hold of Kefka as he drew his sword. He held it menacingly above Kefka, who held a stern composure. "You destroyed the only thing that can bring her back to life!"

"And now I am her only salvation. Will you take that away from her as well?" Kefka challenged. "Go ahead, Leo. Kill me and she's gone forever!"

General Cristophe gritted his teeth and glared at Kefka in a primal mask of anger. The sane side of him wrestled with his hatred for the man in front of him. Kefka sensed this. The general was torn deep inside. Kefka found it highly fascinating. Deciding to amuse himself, he wore a toothy grin. Kefka sneered in the general's face, teasing him, daring him to strike him down. He began to laugh. His cackle tormented General Cristophe.

The emergency smoke detectors sensed the smoke and activated the flame retardant devices above. The sprinklers turned on and drenched everybody in the room. Kefka stopped laughing, but held his sneering face still before the general. General Cristophe regained full control over his anger. He shoved Kefka back and then stepped aside.

"Do it," General Cristophe said almost inaudibly.

"Save her please," Professor Marguez begged.

The falling water felt like a natural downpour. Blood mixed with the water, creating a red pool on the floor. Kefka walked dignifiedly towards Celes. His Devouts did the same, surrounding her in a perfect circle. The other people, including General Cristophe and Professor Marguez, stepped back, giving the cult enough room to work their magic. The dim light flickered for a few seconds and then held. Nothing else could be heard but the trickling of water and the siren.

Kefka motioned to his Devouts. Tayan stepped out of the circle formation and stood behind his master as instructed. They raised their hands above Celes's body and closed their eyes in concentration.

The cult recited a web of ancient chants. Their hands glowed with a warm yellow aura like the sun's. Professor Marguez watched intently, prayed to the power that be. He pleaded to the goddesses of magic. Such action coming from a man of science, was highly unusual, to say the least. But there he was, abandoning his principles and logic.

General Cristophe swallowed nervously. The situation has escalated beyond his control. He considered it a failure. He would have to face the emperor with his head hanging in shame. His lordship's plan had barely begun and already, Kefka was in charge… or so he thought.

Kefka was as worried as General Cristophe, if not more. Losing Celes would be disastrous to his plans. He needed her alive and well. The spell that they were casting was difficult to pull off. But he was confident that he could do it. The only real problem was her mortal wound. A second spell needed to be cast immediately after the Revive spell. If the mortal wound remained long after reviving her, then she would most likely die again. That was why he asked Tayan to step out of the circle. He needed him to cast that spell, and the timing would be critical. Too early and the Heal spell would disrupt the Revive spell, possibly producing a disastrous result. If cast too late, then the Revive spell will lose its hold on Celes's anima. There was no room for error.

The cult blocked out the outside world--the siren, the cold water, the people. They proceeded with the spell as they had done before in secret. Magical energy surged in-between Kefka and the Devouts. The circle contained violent magic that was being rapidly calmed by their chants. Kefka felt the power in his entire body. It spoke to him. He spoke to it.

He could feel it communicate with him--argue with him. He willed it to do his bidding. The magic resisted, but Kefka held on tightly. He refused to let the magical energy slip between his fingers. Celes's body acquired a warm, yellow aura. The magic was doing what it was supposed to.

Kefka smiled slightly. It was easy.

Kefka's smile disappeared. It was too easy.

He opened his eyes and saw what nobody else in the room saw, heard what nobody else in the room heard.

In front of him stood an apparition, too bright to discern. It hovered above Celes's body. The apparition spoke in an otherworldly voice. It sounded like three separate voices spoken in unison.

"Behold, mortal! She is the instrument of our fury, and the omen to your fate! Turn away from your foolish quest, and we promise you swift, painless death. Pursue it, and you shall be cast down into the Realm of Eternal Agony."

Kefka's face twisted into a defiant mask. "Never!" Kefka exclaimed.

"You have been fairly warned."

Blinding light coming from inside the circle flooded the entire room. It was an explosion of pure magical energy. The people inside the room were thrown back against the walls from the epicenter which was Celes. The force was such that General Cristophe, who wore a protective armor, blacked out and collapsed to the wet floor. A chilling atmosphere replaced the relative comfort.

And then… silence.

**********

Emperor Gestahl arrived in the building, escorted by his Elite Guards. They marched through the darkened corridors of Magitek Lab Omega, following the red emergency lights that lit the path to the center of the trouble. Soldiers lined the corridors and bowed reverently as he passed by them. The crowd parted upon his arrival. A grinding noise traversed the corridors of the compound. It grew louder every second signifying that they were nearing their destination.

The emperor arrived at the scene. The noise halted and all was silent. "Report!" the emperor commanded.

A soldier in uniform, a captain by rank, stepped forward and faced the emperor boldly. "My lord, ten minutes after the backup power activated we heard an explosion from the inside. The fire alarm was triggered, and all of us stationed outside the room to guard were unable to open the door. It seems to be stuck from the inside. We've lost radio contact from the inside. No word from General Cristophe and Adviser Kefka, my lord. The maintenance crew arrived minutes ago with tools to cut through the metal door. We've almost cut through the thick plating, my lord."

"Is the medical crew here?" the emperor asked calmly.

"They are standing by."

"Then open the door."

"At once, my lord!"

The crew continued their work. The loud, irritating noise of the power tools resumed. The special equipment rapidly cut through the thick metal door. At a signal from one of the soldiers, the maintenance crew stopped and stood back. The captain stood before the slab of metal. All he needed was a kick from his booted foot and the slab would topple inward. He thought over the plan and decided that it would not be wise to do so. Somebody close to the door inside could get crushed. Instead, he took a long prying bar and jammed it into a crack. After setting up good leverage, he gave the bar a push with the help of his subordinates. It took a few more minutes before they made the metal slab to budge. The slab fell outward with a thud that shook the floor.

The doorway was now wide open. Freezing air rushed out, giving the people the chill. The soldiers rushed inside first, followed quickly by the medical team. The room was completely dark. Startled cries from the soldiers who rushed inside were heard.

"Watch out!"

"What in the world?!"

"Oof!"

The emperor stood by the opening. One of his Elite Guards carried with him a lamp to illuminate the room. "Ice!" the emperor gasped.

The interior of the room was indeed covered by a layer of ice. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, the equipment--even the people were covered with frost.

"The general's alive! Over here!" hollered one of the soldiers. A medic slipped and slid his way over to the exact location despite all his efforts to be extremely careful.

"Find General Chere and Kefka," the emperor ordered his personal guards. They moved quickly inside the room.

"We have more survivors over here!" yelled another soldier. "Let's move them outside!"

"My lord, I have found Adviser Palazzo. He is unconscious like the others."

"And General Chere?" the emperor asked, almost nervously.

"Over here, my lord," called out the captain from the center of the room. The emperor's eyes focused on the half-naked figure lying on the operating table. He could not get a good look at her from where he was.

"Is she alive?"

The medic looked at Celes's body. Her eyes were closed, and her face looked calm. However, he doubted very much that she was still alive as he checked for her pulse. She was covered with frost all over. Red crusted over where her wound used to be. The dagger in her belly had been pulled out. There was no trace of the mortal wound. Just frozen blood mixed in ice. And then… a miracle.

"My lord, she lives!" declared the medic.

"Move her and all of the survivors to the Military Infirmary without delay," the emperor commanded. "Guard them with your very lives. I expect no more trouble." He turned towards his Elite Guards and added with a hint of stale humor and disgust, "The most powerful people of Vector, save myself, are incapacitated--three generals, my adviser, and the prime lab director. I wonder how this Empire manages to stay intact with such displays of ineptitude!"

With that the emperor and his Elite Guards left the scene.

The captain saw to the transfer of the survivors. And then he looked after those who did not survive. There were only a few. A soldier, three scientists and two Devouts. They all seemed to have died of either blunt trauma or hypothermia.

All except for one.

A Devout lay face down on the icy floor with a dagger sticking out of his back. It was the exact same dagger that killed Celes. The captain puzzled over this and made sure that he included it in his report.