Final Fantasy XIII: Slaves of Fate

"Naivete and innocence. Such is the mind of youth."
Leo grinned. "Shut up and fight, you ass," he said as he pushed with all his strength. The moment Belias' staff was no longer touching his blade, Leo spun forward and hit Belias' torso with the flat of his palm and yelled, "Give me all you got!" as his palm glowed yellow. He then spun out of the way and dove at Fenrir before smashing the dull side of his Gunblade, also glowing yellow, against Fenrir's snout. "You're mine, too, you bad dog!" He dove to the side and noticed their eyes flashed yellow. He successfully Challenged them. He let out another smile, hoping he could take them both on and reading his Gunblade. No, I have to take them on. He thought as he prepared for their attack. "I'll get their attention, you focus on taking them down!" He yelled to Grey.

​

As long as I have a want. I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

Cid said nothing before Omega disappeared, but began to glow himself. "That's it. No more games, Omega." He turned to Alice and Linegia and tapped Linegia on the shoulder. "If everything's going according to plan, there should be chaos in Oerba now," he told them wondering if the Calvary has arrived yet. From what Jenova told him, she would have manipulated them into going there after Dahaka attacked it. "Go there, you two, and make everyone think Lightning's little pupils are on our side. Don't hold back. Oerba needs to be destroyed and Lightning's group held responsible. Then, I'll tell you more. Alice, tell Byron his plan is fine by me!" And with that, he disappeared.





Dahaka growled at Omega. The fal'Cie had floated away from Oerba into the mountains so the Calvary wouldn't see it, at least not right away. It knew the plan: Burn down Oerba, blame the l'Cie. Simple as that. If it was seen, then pretend to be on the l'Cie's side. It was hidden by clouds, though Omega found it. The mask on Dahaka's back opened its mouth as a fireball flew out towards the Lindblum III, and another Foul Utterance followed, hitting the tallest building in Oerba, causing the Calvary's ship to lose a wing and the building to collapse in flames. Its eyes, however, stayed on Omega, ready for the challenge.



"Omega, you want a rematch then?" Cid's voice rang out as he appeared in the air in a flash of light, holding his Chain Scythes in each hand. Once again, Cid was in full Crystal form, wings, claw, and everything. He floated between Omega and Dahaka, each of his blades glowing. "Attacking Dahaka is an attack against the Crystal l'Cie and Jenova herself. It's treason!" Unlike Omega, Cid had no problem showing his true emotions. In this case, it was a mixture of anger and desperation. "Your Focus is no longer whatever Pulse gave you! Jenova rewrote it! You know that! So join us, Omega, help the Crystal l'Cie destroy Cocoon and help Jenova bring back the Gods!"

"Snapshot of the future."
​

Jenny's figure quickly moved through the streets of the rebuilt Bodhum, dancing as she did. She hummed, ignoring the stares. Some people smiled, watch the twirling young girl enjoy her perceived youth. With her eyes closed, Jenny twirled into an alley, but not before touching the neck of a man walking by her. Once in the alley, she disappeared into thin air, only to reappear in Palumpolum to continue her dancing.
Back in Bodhum, the man fell to his knees. There was a bright flash of light, and a winged zombie-like creature was in his place. The people watching screamed as the Cieth groaned in sorrow.


​

 

Jaden continued to glare at the man as Mia told him what he wanted.
"Tch... The Crystal L'cie.
You don't even know a little thing about them?
Geez... where do we start?!" he said, but then... he was interrupted...

Linegia nodded at Cid's orders and looked at Alice once he had disappeared.
"I'm going on ahead." and with that, she too vanished.
Reappearing seconds later on the outskirts of Oerba Village.
She strolled in casually ignoring the flames until she saw a small group of the L'cie, surrounded by Cavalry men and talking to a man who seemed to be the one in charge.
She walked up next to them, ignoring the glances of the soldiers and of the confused looks on the faces of the L'cie.
But of course... the sudden appearance of such a young looking girl who was smiling in the face of such a tragic scene was truly confusing and terrifying.
She looked up at the L'cie with a bemused expression. "You did a good job wrecking this place... but don't let these Cavalry fools stop you from going all out." she said with a smirk, at that moment, Tendrils burst forth from her dress impaling the surrounding cavalry soldiers, except for Argent. I best leave the leader alive since he will be the one to play a key part in the following things to come... he'll be the messenger that makes these L'cie the enemy of the people.
The tendrils spread outwards as she tore through debree and destroyed more of the area. She looked at the L'cie again as she did this, "Well... there isn't a problem now is there." she spoke, "Now... let us fulfil your focuses L'cie. Enemies of Cocoon!"

 

"Focus or not, it's hard-coded into my body and mind. That is something that will never change even after billions upon billions of brandings," Omega protested. He felt his bones converting to crystal but after going through this process so many times there was no pain. "I'm not interested in your gods or your plans. They can go rot in the Void along with Cocoon for all I care. As long as the planet continues to dream, I will see to it that it survives until the day it wakes and my final function is fulilled. I don't have time to deal with you, Cid. The fal'Cie will die just like all the others before him."

 

Mya stepped forward. Judgement? Who gave you the orders to execute children? We done no action to deserve such punishment. What you are doing, commander, is a waste of time. You could spend all day shooting us until we all die or you can watch the fal'Cie tear apart your ship and probably Cocoon next. And in my opinion, I like the second opinion a lot better.

 

Ren stepped quickly forward, in front of Jaden, holding both hands raised slightly. "Hold on now, we didn't do this. If we fight now, we're just giving them more fuel to use against us." His reasoning was sound, and most would have to admit it. "But listen, Cavalry guy. We might be L'Cie, but whatever you might think of us, we're not your enemies."


Still hidden, Byron observed what was going on. Linegia's appearance, Dahaka's attack on the Lindblum, he had seen everything. He chose to remain hidden for now, only revealing himself when it would be most advantageous. He was quite aware that it may take a while before that happened.

 

Linegia looked at Ren. "Need I remind you of your focus boy." she said implying the hidden meaning that only he would know.
"Do I need to remind everyone of what their focus is?" she asked.
She kept up a twisted little girl demeanour, it was just an act... but it surprisingly worked and could have other interesting implications and applications later.
She turned and looked at Argent and for a second gave him an innocent cute smile, "Some children are so silly aren't they?" she said, using the word he himself had described the L'cie as.
Of course, none of them would know that she was a Crystal L'cie. She had done nothing to reveal that she was Crystal in particular and nor did she need or intend to.

"What the?!" Jaden exclaimed in shock at everything that had just happened.
"But this isn't even us!" he exclaimed again.
Of course though... having a little girl like this just claim to know them and everything was shockingly scary. And her being so young... he wasn't sure how to get her to stop.
There was no way he'd use force against such a young child, no way in hell. That just didn't sit with him.

 

Ryoi just stared at the destruction of one fo the ships and he was very calm, considering all he lost so far and he gave a direct look at the Commander. "Do you have any proof we destroyed your ship? Even if we were I'Cie, Light and Snow taught us to never take human lives and last i recall, Light firmly drilled that our heads so we're as innocent as a baby Chocobo." He said and looked at the girl.

"And you, who are you to destroy more of our home?" He asked her cautiously, he was trying to be calm of her obivous destruction of more buildings.

 

Mia glared at him, while she heard the others protest. "How 'bout this? I fight you. And the rules will be simples. I won't use any magic, if I win, you will listen to what we have to say. But if I lose, you will take us and we will be held for judgement."

"Oh, please, Mia. You actually think that you and all the rest of the l'Cie are innocent." Alice said, walking behind Ryou. "The way I see it, you destroyed this place to take out your anger about what happened to Snow. I mean, you were the most distressed about Snow becoming crystal and even lost your voice. But I guess I won't know about caring for someone who was taken. So continue on with your fight."

 

Mia took off Snow's bandanna and gave it to Angel. She twirled her spear and stood in a fighting position, then ran forward, swinging her spear at him. Angel watched carefully and hoped Mia would be alright. Looking at Alice, she didn't seem to give a care and yawned.

 

Ryou turned to see ALice and moved back as he heard ARgent's words. "of both Cocoon and Pulse? Okay commander, forgive me for being rude but let me ask you one, no two questions if you may." He said and didn't wait for an answer. "Just who the hell are you?" He asked him as no-one probably knew about the current ranks and so on and Ryou continued. "Because if you kindly forgive us, us in Oerba did live in peace and never really kept up with the times, especially our teachers." He stated as he was thankful his brand was hidden from sight under his shirt.

"And let's say we did surrender peacefully and there being some hope for us, what are your-no the Miltary's intentions and what do they gain from this?" He asked Argent.

 

Linegia looked at Argent innocently. "Smug? Oh my dear Argent.
Yes... I know who you are." She revealed, to perhaps his surprise.
"When the time comes, I'm going to enjoy destroying you...
dog of Cocoon." she turned away.
"For now, I'll leave the destruction of this place up to the other L'cie." she then looked at Alice.
"You wanted to have fun right?
Well... Enjoy." and with that, she vanished. Make sure you destroy the place, well and truly proper. she left as an after thought in Alice's mind.

 

Mia pulled back and walked back to Angel, taking the bandanna and tying it onto her arm. "Fine. Whatever." She said to him, putting her spear on her shoulder. She sighed, with her back to him. Angel smiled and looked toward Ryou and Alice. But Alice was gone, Mia didn't notice though. She looked as though she didn't really care.

Alice had gone off, deeper into Oerba. She looked around and smiled. "Time for some fun!" She said, smiling as she began to destroy more of the village.

 

Feeling a disturbance nearby, Omega quickly turned around and swung Masamune downward, unleashing Ultima in the form of an enormous, bright green blade beam directly at Alice. As it homed in on her, any and all structures that got in its way were severed in half so easily it was as if they were never there. Not forgetting his own situation, he returned back to Cid and Dahaka with a horizontal swing from Blood Sword, releasing that Ultima in a similar manner. As this beam streaked through the air it veered slightly, narrowly missing Cid but still hitting the intentional target: Dahaka's head. Cue the massive ethereal explosion upon contact.

Shinryu regained consciousness. His vision blurred for a bit from the blow to the head, but quickly cleared up. The pain from his wounds in his arms and legs returned, but he's gone through worse. As he got himself up, he saw that he was back with the others. After retrieving his lance from a soldier's body, he glared at Argent coldly for a moment. Omega's attacks in the distance, which clearly stood out from the fires, diverted his attention. So he's here too...

 

Ryou stared calmly at Argent's introduction and objective, it wasn't surprsing he caught Mia's spear with ease as he spoke. "The enemies of Cocoon and Pulse, you namely point that to us and from what I can deduce from that, you aren't exactly planning to make us all hold hands and skip merrily to your ship." He paused for a moment, Argent spoke of three other objectives, he highly doubted Argent would reveal those so simply, if he did, it would be like Taejin's Tower connected to the moon and everyone could go there.

"Under custody... what is it you are exactly planning, let me see I can guess, think of it as a interview to become your apprentice, now let's see." He looked at the other corps and back to Argent. "You gather up the I'Cie and hope for use them for some purpose, from what I can guess, one is working for you to boost morale of the people, the second guess is execution to show the people that no-one needed fear I'Cie, so did I pass your interview?" he asked Argent, Ryou never really spoken like this, he was being perceptive, way too perceptive.

 

Linegia had left... but she hadn't gone far.
That had been intentional. Right now, she appeared as Omega fired his Ultima at Alice.
She held out a hand and the blast collided with it. The energy dispersing on impact with her hand before being deflected at some other part of Oerba causing even more destruction to the village.
Linegia had been sent flying into the ground creating a huge crater, but from the dust of the impact she walked out relatively unscathed, if not slightly dirty.
She looked up at Omega, almost as if she was asking 'Is that the best you can do?

Jaden wasn't one to normally sit around and wait for things to happen, but his head whipped round to Lightning who was close by.
Out of habit, he called her by his nickname for her. "Old lady? Any suggestions?"
he hadn't drawn his weapons yet, but one arm was above his shoulder, and hand clutching the hilt of 'Heaven'.

 

Mya looked up at The Palamecia. So I've heard about her. According to history, you held Sazh and Vanille in there. They escaped of course. What makes you think you can hold in 8 of us? Are going to call in a superpowerful primarch?