Final Fantasy XIII: Slaves of Fate

"Because that place is where the crystals of my brother and sister rest," Omega told her, "Is that enough? And if you're going to do something you'd better act fast. The 'Divine Dragon' is about to-"

Frustrated with the stupidity of Jaden's decision, Shinryu swiftly swung his lance full circle to land a crushing blow on a major pressure point in Jaden's neck to knock him out cold, similarly to how Fang did with Snow when she captured him in Lake Bresha but with a lance. Was it the most glamorous thing to do? No. Effective? Absolutely.

"-strike back. I do believe that's your cue," Omega finished.

 

Cid watched everything, grimacing as Snow's crystal form floated towards Jenny. What is this? He had felt excited when his master told him the plan, but actually watching Snow crystallize, watching and hearing everyone's reaction, Cid couldn't help but feel...heartless. "Tsk. It had to be done," he reassured himself as he started walking sternly towards the action. The barrier around him quickly faded, having served no apparent purpose. With each step, his body became more and more crystal as he reentered his battle form.


"Omega! Your defiance shall not be tolerated!" Jenny yelled it as she quickly swiped one arm. In an instant, both of Omega's arms were crystal, same as Snow. However, his Crystallization was confined to his arms. "Your brother and sister, I control their fate as I control yours, l'Cie. Tell me," her voice became distorted once again as her eyes narrowed. Every attack that even neared her would never reach her. Only one thing did: Snow. His crystallized body was now next to hers, cut off from everyone by her invisible barrier, "Shall I turn your beloved siblings into Cieth and toss them to Cocoon? Let the trigger happy army greet them?" Jenny's threat was solid, there was no hesitation in her voice. "Remember your allegiance, l'Cie, or else your fate will be watch their demise!" As she said it, Dahaka roared above her. The serpentine fal'Cie flew down and around the side of the tower, waiting. Dahaka roared one more time and the tower shook...and kept shaking. It was if an earthquake had struck and the tower was beginning to fall apart. Jenny stayed in place, Snow's crystallized form staying beside her.


"You bitc-!" Leo ran forward with his hands on his weapon, but the shaking quickly knocked him down. He stood up, tears in his eyes, but a hand grabbed his collar before he could run.


"Watch yourself," Cid's voice calmly said as he appeared behind Leo in full Crystal l'Cie form. His right hand grabbed Leo's neck and with unmeasurable strength, he threw Leo towards Grey. Once new l'Cie's body hit his comrade, the momentum would send them both over the edge of the apex...and over the edge. Two seconds later, Cid was now in front of Jaden. The boy was on the edge of consciousness from the other boy's attack, but he was standing. A well-placed kick in the chest sent him flying at several miles per hour towards the same edge where Leo and Grey were flying towards. "You're next," his voice was ominous as he grabbed Ryou's leg with one hand, having seemingly teleported there. He picked up the boy and threw him over the edge opposite the others. His wings spread, he flew at lightning speed and grabbed Akira, Mya, and Mia before throwing them over as well. One left, he thought as turned his face to Noah, the boy he had "saved." "Ruin." A single word, a raised palm, and a blast of energy hit Noah in the back, causing him to stumble forward and roll towards the edge. He could catch himself...if the building wasn't shaking. At the back of his mind, Shinryu's presence was still there, but he seemed to be Omega's companion so Cid let him be, neither protecting him from the collapsing tower nor throwing him off it. He looked at Lightning who was still with Omega, "Are you going to let them die?"

"Snow!" Leo yelled it as he flew backwards, his hero's visage getting farther and farther. His back hit something, it felt like a person, but Leo was moving too quick to comprehend what was happening. Suddenly, Snow's appearance was replaced with the sky; Leo was falling from the tower. He started to scream, holding onto his Gunblade as tightly as possible, but his fall was short. He landed on something, heard the sounds of bells, and was flying around the tower. He quickly grabbed white hair to hold on and looked up; he was on top of Dahaka. "What the?" Grey was with him, it must have been him he hit. Dahaka flew around the apex and caught all of his friends, save for Lightning and with the addition of the boy from earlier. "Damn it, you piece of crap!" Leo yelled as he stabbed Dahaka in anger, but his blade didn't even scratch him. Dahaka continued to flying around the tower, waiting for one more person to go over the edge.

OOC: I swear I'm going to stop these long ass posts soon >> Oh and sorry for the bit of powerplaying there, but it had to be done.
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Akira screamed as Cid grabbed her, trying to struggle away but before she could make a move of resistance, he threw her off the edge of the tower. Her mind tried to keep up with the fact that now herself, Mia and Mya were all falling! Her scream split the air just before she hit Dahaka's back with everyone else. Akira frantically grabbed at whatever she could to stop from falling off the large fal'Cie. Her hands touching cloth, she realized she was now holding the back of Grey's shirt in a death grip.

Lighting watched as Cid knocked or tossed off all of her apprentices. Listening to Omega and Cid telling her what to do boiled her blood and yet, she couldn't leave them. "You'd better keep Snow safe or I'll find you and kill you myself!" she growled before taking two steps back and leaping off the side of the shaking tower. Snapping her fingers she activated her nifty little anit-gravity gadget on her fingers, covering herself in a shimmering blue electricity and watched Dahaka fly underneath her. Her feet lightly touched down on Dahaka's back and Light ducked down to steady herself on the flying fal'Cie. "Is everyone alright?"

 

Jaden had been dazed by the blow, but he hadn't lost conciousness.
He had been about to turn and confront Shinryu when he got kicked over the side by Cid.
"Gwah!"
It was through pure willpower he didn't drop the swords that were a memento of his parents.
Suddenly he landed hard on top of Dahaka who had caught him and everyone else... he was still a bit dazed by everything.
But he noticed Leo's anger..
he propped himself up carefully, sheathed his weapons and put a hand on Leo's shoulder in comfort.
He felt the same way... but... well... there was nothing he or any of them could do now...
it was up to Lightning now. He looked up at the Tower..
"...If anyone can do something... it's the old lady." he noticed a slight watering in his eyes... he didn't know if it was from the bang on his head or the build up of emotion.. but...
well that didn't matter right now.
He felt a a wave of dizziness come over him and suddenly found himself using Leo more for support than comforting him.
"Sorry..
I uh...
I just..." he tried to sound more positive like his normal self, but it was hard and he felt his own words failing. "I know we'll get through this... somehow."
He noticed Akira's sudden desperation to grab hold of something and quickly grabbed her wrist.
And Grey for that matter so she wouldn't pull him down either.



OOC EDIT: My post ended up posting the same time as Twi... so, this would have happened before Lightning jumped off and joined them.

 

Ryou felt hsi leg jerked and found hismelf over the edge and he crashed onto the Dahaka's back and he groaned in in pain on his back, his body must of adapted to the I'Cie's endurance and strength and perhaps resistance to pain. "...The...hell..." he thought as he heard Light's question.

"As dandy as a flower..." He sat before sitting up, using his arm to propel himself up and he felt the numbness within it, containing and firing that wind magic must of injured it but he felt feeling back in that arm, he'd guess the I'Cie mark or whatever was inside him, perhaps his crystal or whatever it is was tending to the injury.

 

Mya yelped as Cid grabbed her and tossed her off the tower. She was sure she was gonna hit the ground when she landed on Dahaka, not so softly. She hit on him with a large thud. Ow that hurt! What a punk.

 

Omega chuckled at the threat of becoming Cie'th, not to cover up his emotions but because he found it truly amusing. "Again with the Cie'th threats?" he replied. Suddenly, something came over him. His voice was mixed with the voices of two others, one male and one female and both familiar to him. It was is if the minds of the two forced themselves in and combined with his own.

"Tell us, if something without a soul is branded into a l'Cie, doesn't it mean that it is already a Cie'th? A special case, probably, but Cie'th nonetheless?" he continued lightheartedly. As the tower below him crumbled, he stayed afloat. The brand over his right eye burned back to life, revealing that the central eye had fully opened. "Our brands have long since run their course as have our bodies. What can you possibly do to us? Strip us of souls that we never had from the very moment of our creation? That is what happens when a l'Cie becomes Cie'th, no?" He continued to laugh for a bit. "We are l'Cie, yet we are also Cie'th. Never one or the other, but both."

Shinryu was the last off the of the tower as it crumbled. The last image he saw was Omega acting very strangely, but the strangest of all was that his brand was in the final stage. But if his brand was in its last stage, why wasn't he a Cie'th? Or was he the entire time and he's somehow overcome it or hiding it? He wondered about that as he ran down the side of the tower, using his weapon as a brake whenever he needed to. On the way down, he spotted everyone riding Dahaka below. The fal'Cie wasn't far from him, so he went and leaped forward, landing near Lightning. In response to her question, he nodded.

He soon returned to normal, though his brand was still active. "Besides...who made you the Goddess of Fate? You only control the fates of your l'Cie, not all!" The crystal parts of his body began to resonate with a bright blue light. Omega was prepared to take the form of Omega Weapon: Model X should Cid or Freyja interfere.

 

Noah's world instantly flipped upside down without his incessant questions recieving answers. He landed belly first on the back of something rock hard and and groaned in pain. He felt he was moving so he turned over on his back and grasped at whatever he could to hold on. His entire being was in a haze now but through it he seemed to hear Lightnings voice calling out, he dragged himself up to stare at her and focus wouldnt come. Noah felt conciousness slipping from him again and he held on for dear life as he tryed to ask for help.

"He.....here, I need help, where are we?" He spoke in somewhat scattered breathes.

 

Jaden responded to Lightning's question once she jumped down.
He should'a guessed that even leaving things to her was a long shot... they'd have to have some sort of other plan. Not even the legendary Lightning could handle it all alone he guessed.
"More or less..." He finished helping Akira gain her balance on Dahaka and he also let go of Grey...
he was starting get his bearings more... his dizziness fading. Which... well, was pretty impressive considering what they were riding on.
Then the guy with the lance just jumped onto the Dahaka randomly, like he belonged with them all along. "Hey! What was the big idea?!" he shouted, rubbing the back of his neck from the blow earlier.
He was still rather angry because of the Snow situation as he was sure the rest of them were.

 

Mia was silent, her hand over Snow's bandanna tied onto her right arm. Without Snow, she wasn't sure if she could keep their promise. "I'm fine........................." She tried to speak another word, but still shocked to seeing Snow become crystal (and her shouting), her voice was gone. Tears began to fall down her face, she sighed and wiped them away, imagining that Snow would say heroes don't cry. She looked at the others and looked away.

 

Mya sighed and looked around, noticing Mia crying a bit. She slid closer to her and gave her a hug. Don't worry Mia. We'll get Snow back and everything will be the way it should be.

 

Akira eased her grip on Grey, not fully letting go of the boy, since riding Dahaka was oddly soothing. There was something about the feeling of air rushing past her cheek that comforted her. She nodded numbly to Lightning's question. Turning her focus to Leo, "Leo, stop it. Dahaka's our only way of staying airborne and I don't want to fall to my death!"

Light sighed, sensing everyone was only saying they were fine because of the shock of losing Snow. But to her it mattered more. Her brother-in-law was gone....though she thought him dumb at times, she actually cared for him. Lightning turned to see the boy with the lance land beside her, the thought that she'd seen him somewhere before hit her and she pushed it away, "I suppose you're just as lost as we are. What's your name?" Light couldn't understand where the gentleness in her voice came from, but she would use it to the most, trying to keep everyone calm.

 

Mia felt Mya hug her and hugged her back, letting out her tears. She eyed Snow's bandanna and promised herself to get stronger, to save him and defeat Jenny. She also decided to commit herself to the team now. She looked toward Jaden and smiled, then looked toward Lighting.

 

His name? No one's ever asked him that before. Then again, all the people who knew him died off and a new population took over. Shinryu opens his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Then he gave Jaden a look that seemed to say, "I'm sorry you can't control your emotions."

 

The sound of metal clashing stopped as Leo stopped slashing Dahaka. It was irrelevant that his attack wasn't doing any harm, but he needed to direct his emotions at something. His chest tingled and he attributed it to the situation. "I..I don't...Snow." That was all he said as he straightened and looked down, trembling.

Jenny watched Omega carefully. Omega had been her most...versatile tool in the past. She had considered his uniqueness a matter of will. In the same way that Lightning and the others had beat their Focus so many centuries ago, Omega was thought to have been able to change his power. Jenny was no fool like Barthandelus or Orphan, her supposed "nephew." She knew that humans were strong. After all, they had heart. They had chaos. They had souls. But Omega claims not to. She narrowed her eyes and Omega's crystallization reversed. A sinister smile quickly appeared. "You are interesting. I feel as if I should apologize for taking your for granted, dear Omega, but make no mistake," she quickly raised her right hand and pointed it at Freyja, "I am not the Goddess of Fate, but all l'Cie are my tools if I so wish it. All l'Cie are my l'Cie. I am not the a fal'Cie as you have ever encountered, nor am I a Goddess like the accursed Etro, but," she snapped and Freyja's body crystallized, an impulsive scream cut short, "your fate...is yet to be decided. Your siblings, however," she snapped her fingers and Freyja's entire body cracked, "their fate is in your hands. Souls or no souls, you alone have the power to change that." She whimsically turned her head to the cracked Freyja, "Omega. I give you a new Focus!" As she yelled it, Freyja's body shattered, leaving only crystal shards in her place. "Your new Focus...what do you think it is?" The last words were whispered and followed by a flash of light. Jenny was gone, as were the remains of Freyja.

"How interesting," Cid whispered, grimacing. He had not expected Freyja's demise, but it affected him the same as someone tripping and falling affects a bystander: he was caught off guard, but the thought quickly left his mind. Cid looked around. The tower slowly stopped shaking. The evidence of battle were all around. Freyja's crystal remains were gone, as were Jenny. Snow, however, was still in place. Even more, the crystal around his body seemed to be spreading throughout the apex. Cid, still in full battle form, turned to looked at Omega. "Don't ask me what your Focus is as I haven't the slightest idea, however," he jumped in the air and proceeded to float just as the ground below him became crystal. "You asked me to tell you the truth behind Jenny. If you still want it," he slowly flew backwards, "Follow me!" In an instant, he sped over the edge and straight down. The top of the apex was then encased in full crystal and it was quickly spreading throughout the entire tower, a la Lake Brehsa.

Dahaka reached the canyon grounds, or at least the several yards above it, quickly. He made a disturbing bell-like sound and rolled over, dumping all of the l'Cie onto the ground. With its permanent grin, Dahaka seemed to laugh at them as he flew higher slowly, watching them.
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Ryou was heading for the ground and he thought one thing "Bad day! bad day!" as he crashed not-so-gracefully onto the familar hard ground and he quikcly sat up, seeing the Dahaka leave almost as if laughing with it's grin as it left. "That wasn't what I expected..." he rubbed his hair with his free hand, he knew he couldn't change the subject at hand though, like, what was their Focus? Will they save Snow? Is Snow going to be fine? was probably running through everyone else's mind and he could imagine why.

Everyone thought Light and Snow would easily handle the situation with their experience and havign the strongest members but now, that arrogrance was far-detched now, no-one's impossible to beat and he could feel Light staring at the Cocoon group, as if silently asking the question of why they came back. "We met two enemies who ere like Omega and he told us you guys were in trouble, natually we'd refused to go anywhere untl we heard the Dahaka was still around and the rest is history." He said.

 

Mia took off Snow's bandanna from her arm and held it in her hands. She looked at Lighting and walked over to her, holding out Snow's bandanna. Though she couldn't speak, the way she was holding the only object that belonged to Snow could tell Lighting she wanted her to have it. She knew, after all, Lighting and Snow were related and she didn't want to take away the only reminder of Snow from Lighting. She didn't look at Lighting straight in her eyes as she held Snow's bandanna to her.

 

"Oh, I don't know. Does it involve destroying something or destruction in general? Because I can't exactly heal things or bring things back to life," Omega answered to himself, "New task, same abilities." He followed Cid down the tower to get his answers. But before leaving, he turned to Snow and, giving Omega Weapon full control over his body and mind for a moment, reached out to Snow's mind very briefly and spoke of only one thing to him in voiceless words:

"Open your eyes, Snow Villiers, and become aware of your crystal dream like so many others have before you, lest you be overcome by your own regrets."

Shinryu rolled into the ground, but quickly got back on his feet. He noticed a new rip in his already worn out shirt that was too small for him. He sighed displeasingly. A new set of clothes would be a nice change, but if he recalled correctly the nearest town wasn't for, what, a mile or two on the other side of the tower which itself was oddly crystallizing?

 

Jaden made an effort to smile at Mia too.
"See, a girl is so much cuter when she is able to smile." he joked. That's right... at the end of the day, he was still the joker of the group. He couldn't let that change, they just had to continue on as before...
He found himself glaring at the boy with the lance. "Hey, there is nothing wrong with following your heart.. it's easier than following your head anyway...
Besides who the hell are you? Just suddenly jumping into our group and lectu- woah!"
The Dahaka spun in mid-air causing everyone to fall from it.
Jaden landed flat on his back.
"...Can't they cut us a break? ...Twice now I've been sent flying from that tower...!" he looked up at it and noticed it crystallizing...
"Wh-..."
..Snow...
He stood up brushing himself off and noticed Mia's gesture towards Lightning with Snow's bandanna.
He thought it best to let them two have their moment,
so instead he turned around to check on everyone else. "Everyone else okay?"