Re: Final Fantasy XIII: Slaves of Fate

With her Heavenly Axis reverting back into its carrying size, Angel followed Ryou. With the silence that surrounded them, Angel sighed and wished she was abandoned with a voice, than it won't feel so awkward walking with Ryou like this. Angel walked beside Ryou, keeping quiet and looked at their surroundings. She looked at Ryou and wondered why he changed his appearance, and guessed it was to hide his l'Cie brand. She smiled and continued to walk with him, then suddenly stopped.



Alice landed in front of them, transforming back, and smiled. "Oh, hello there. You're that mute girl who's trying to be like that weird Vanille, huh? Hmmm. Who's the cutie with you? Not gonna tell me, right? I'll just have to take him than." Alice pulled out her bow and loaded it, firing arrows at Angel and Ryou. She glared at him, "There's something familiar about you, I know. Oh well, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare are expecting guests, so I'll send you two."

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou barely managed to deflect the incomign arrows with quick movement with his sword and stood in a fighting stance. "Never knew there was a party going on." he said before he whipped out his pistol in his left hand, firing bullets at Alice, most liekly knowing she'll avoid them.

"But there's something about you that rubs me the wrong way, so I'll just do what I gotta do, get you out of my way and continue on."

 

"The Mad Hatter and the March Hare have been expecting the l'Cie for a long time!" Alice said, using her bow to block the bullets. "Unfortunately, the mute girl will be headed for the Queen of Heart to be beheaded, because she's not a l'Cie." She laughed and transformed, she used a shadow clone of her demon claw to grab Angel and choke her to death. But the clone was destroyed, Alice pouted, "Hey, cutie, why not leave her? She's not like you and has no voice, I see the reason why she was abandoned here in the first place." She began to laugh again.



Angel held out her rod, and attacked the Crystal l'Cie. She wasn't going to let Alice insult her friendship with the l'Cie or her disability, the hooks barely managed to crack the crystal skin. Angel mouthed at Alice, 'I don't care if I'm mute or my companions are l'Cie! The point is, that we can trust each other with lives and l'Cie are still human! How can you treat them like toys?!' Angel swung her rod again but was blocked by Alice's bow and Alice gave a yawn, then froze her legs in place and shot a arrow at her.

 

"Lightning. It flashes bright, then fades away. It can't protect. It only destroys."

Lightning deflected Bahamut's claws with her blade. "Don't give up just yet Akira. We'll toughen you up."

"Fear is somthing that consumes you. I must try to overcome my own fears."​

Akira grabbed her gunblade from Ren and stood, "Thank you...the both of you. Right...Eidolon's only appear when we're lost. I...I may be lost but I know what I have to do right now! To protect my friends...even from something so much stronger than me...I'll fight! I have to." Akira's knees shook as she stood up to Bahamut with Lightning shifting back, calling off Odin who had taken chase to the retreating Cavalry soldiers. "Even...even if I fall...even...if it's a dream...I'm going to protect my friends because right now...they need me to!"



Bahamut landed, silently accepting her challenge and roared loudly. Swooping down at her with it's red claws scoring the earth, Akira dodged deftly to the side.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou stepped in front of Angel and sliced the arrow, the halves flyign either direction and his eyes moved to Angel. "Don't bother trying to attack her, she's stronger than she looks, I met another like her and he couldn't be taken down, in fact, I almost died being reckless." he said and looked at Alice.

"Why should I bother going with you? last person who offered left immediately, and let you tell you, she wasn't the best company I've had." he said annd stood firm. "But if you are looking for a dance partner..." he ran at her with a smile. "I'll be more than happy to comply!"

 

Watching him, Angel decided to try and free herself from the ice. She sighed and looked at him, hoping he was going to be alright and continued to free herself. Using a spare knife she had found, she picked away at the ice on her legs.



"Well than, handsome, lets dance!" Alice shot a barrage of arrows at him. She smiled and attacked with her demon claw. "I'm super sure I've seen you somewhere before. I can't remember, oh well. I'll make sure the Mad Hatter and March Hare take good care of you when you arrive at their tea party. Maybe you'll be the one who can answer that impossible riddle of theirs. Here's your personal invitation!" Grinning, she sent a gust of wind at him, intending to literally blow him away.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou would quickly move from side to side, the arrows missing him but sadly, making holes in his brown cloak as he brought his sword up at slash at her demon claw, cutting into it, forcing her to retract it and he saw she blown a gust of wind at him and switched to Ravager and firing a Aero at her attack, the two winds colliding before evening out as he brought his sword closely to Alice's body, his sword ignited in flames with a Flamestrike before retreatign to a safe distance, firing a few rounds to force her to defend herself.

"Am I too hot for you?" he would ask her, he wasn't even being too overconfident, that would get him killed for sure, LightNing's training drilled into his head.

 

"Oh, hahahaha! Very funny!" Alice laughed at his joke. "You'd make a great comedian, only if you weren't a l'Cie. But oh well." She shot a trio of arrows at him. "Oh, I know a prefect name for you since I don't know it! How do you like the name Zack? I gave that miserable Mia a new name as well, Twilight." Alice smiled, recalling the memory than slashed at him with her claw.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou fired three shots at the trio of arrows, surprisingly accurate on his aim and heard her giving him a new name. "Call me whatever you want but I know what my name is." He said and moved into a another stance. "How about I call you Nutcase? Seems to fit you well." He said before casting a Fire at Alice and shoot a few rounds into the magic, hetaing up his bullets as they passed through, now Alice had a problem, either block and take teh Fire or take the bullet and block the fire.

 

Alice gasped, defending herself and taking the heat of the fire. "Hey!!!! Change of plans, you're going to the Queen of Hearts with that mute girl for a double beheading!!!!" She flew toward him and attacked with her claw. She slashed at him, intended on finding out who he was.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou immediately brought his sword up to guard against her claw and skidded back slightly, holding his ground rather firmly, seeing Alice's face ticked off beyond words, he was actually making her lose her cool and that in a prolonged fight, can be devastating and he gave a smile under his hood and pointed the fun straight in her face and spoke.

"I like my head where it is, yours however, is another story and I doubt your Queen likes her servant's heads." He said, his finger on the trigger, he was internally grateful for changing his weapon and now saw the advantage of having two different weapons. "Now here's a question for you, where are the other l'Cie?" He asked her.

 

"I never do anything to make the Queen mad!!! I just send bad people to her!!!" Alice shouted. Gasping at his switch and hearing his question, "I don't know where the other l'Cie or am I going to tell you. Sorry!!!" She poked out her tongue in a childish way.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou heard her answer. "Shouldn't expect so much from Nutcase. He said and looked at her. "Tell your master we aren't just puppets to be played with, we will stand and fight against this fate you've given us." He kicked Alice hard in the stomach and kept the gun levelled with her. "As much as I want to kill you, i'd rather you run and pass the messege."

 

With a pout, Alice flew away. She flew toward Jenova, bowing her head, then looked up at her, "Jenova, one of the l'Cie is rebelling against your brilliant plan. He wants you to know that he and others aren't puppets to be played with. They will stand and fight against the fate they had been given. What should we do?"

Angel finished picking away the ice and used a Potion on Ryou. She an up to him and looked at him, with a concerned look on her face.

 

"I prefer fighting fate head-on rather than be controlled by it."

Ryou placed his weapons back where they belonged and noticed Angel use a Potion on him, he didn't suffer any wounds at all but it was considerate of her to do so and he looked at her. "I'm fine, though...she is a Crystal l'Cie yet she was...somehow weaker than the previous one we fought..." He said and thought back when he and the others faced Cid and he taken a point blank Ruinga sword blast and would of died if Light's healing didn't save him in time.

"Let's get going." He said and continued on.

 

Angel nodded, putting her weapon away and following Ryou. She wondered if what Alice said was true, that now Mia was called Twilight and if she was alright. With a sigh, Angel told herself she was alright and continued to follow Ryou. Though she didn't watch the fight against Cid, she had to agree with Ryou. Alice looked like she was more playing with Ryou instead of fighting with him.

 

​

"I'm not letting war tear up my future, look what it did to my past."
Kross looked at the Pulse Lilies again, what was he supposed to do..? He wasn't ready to do..anything. He had no idea when he could draw his weapon and considering the danger that Gran Pulse provided, He was sickeningly aware that he may never have the strength. The sounds of feet shuffling the ground distracted him from his thoughts. His arm was yanked, forcing him up to his feet. He looked in surprise at the soldiers pulling him along."What? Wait, I..I didn't do anything wrong!" He tried his darndest to pull away, but he was never very physically strong. He could only comply, frowning, what did they want with him?

 

Naivete and innocence. Such is the mind of youth.

There was something Leo wanted to say to Lightning; something that had popped into his head earlier, the moment he saw her return...but now wasn't the time. "I'll kill them," he said simply as he jumped away from Lightning. "Just like they're trying to kill us," he whispered to himself as he held his Gunblade tight. Though Jaden could have survived the fall...he went down with so many Calvary soldiers. He swore to himself, after Grey left, that he would protect everyone in Snow's absence...in Lightning's absence...and even in Grey's absence. Was he the strongest after those three? He wasn't sure...to be honest, he doubted it, but there was no time to worry about whether he was the strongest. He was their protector. Their defender. Their Sentinel. As he shifted Paradigms into his default, he swung his Gunblade and started running away from Lightning and Akira and the others...but not directly towards the Calvary either. "Belias! Gestalt change, now!" His Eidolon jumped into the air over him, changing forms into the ram-styled ATV mode it called Gestalt. Leo held his Gunblade tight and pulled back the hammer. As Belias landed in front of him, the ground shook. The l'Cie placed one hand on Belias' helmet as the smaller mask flew, and vaulted himself into the seat. He then drove Heretic into the spot where it belonged, to be used as a gear-shift for Belias' horns. The smaller mask landed on Leo's face and the world turned slightly orange. With his face now covered, Leo could feel the tears stream down, but he ignored them. If they were hidden from the others, they were hidden from him. "Now...I'll protect everyone...somehow." He turned Belias, revving the engine as loud as he could. "Let's get out of here! I'll draw their fire!" He yelled as he drove towards Twilight to help her. Belias' horns enflamed themselves as he drove through the Calvary. The gunshots were almost too much...
​

-------------------

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

​

"Show me! Show me everything you have!" Cid yelled as he grabbed a small Calvary ship with both arms. Though the ship was large enough to carry several men and weapons, probably the size of a small Adamantoise maybe? Regardless, Cid effortless swung the ship in a circle before launching it towards another, the power of a Crystal l'Cie..."Speaking of which," his eyes quickly glanced toward the canyon. "Seems like a new player has entered the board..." He could sense the new Eidolon. "Let's go, twerp! Show everyone what you're made of!" He yelled into the air as the Calvary continued to fire. "More bishops for the queen...erm, pawns? Ah, chess sucks anyway." And with that, he launched a Darkness to the nearest ship.

God Out of the Machine

"Where...?" as eyes opened, an emotionless voice questioned the world around. "When...?" The voice was almost a whisper as the armored man stood up, the cave around him familiar...but strange. Arms -covered in dark, golden plates- raised themselves so the man's eyes could look at them as he asked the most important question: "...Who...?" Suddenly, there was a flash...memories flooded in, and the man remembered everything. He stood there, in what seemed like forever...no, he's experienced "forever" before...this was just a few minutes. How long had he been there...in crystal stasis? Yes, that's where he'd been all this time. He remembered going into it...remembered his endless dreams...the thoughts...he knew what he had to do. "Jen-" he stopped himself, correcting himself, "Jen...ova." Everything seemed clear now. With a hidden smile, the man began to walk towards the cave entrance.
​

 

Lin, I'm bored!
Linegia simply ignored the voice as she continued her annihilation of the cavalry. Numerous dead bodies littered the floor around her, and she didn't have so much as a scratch on her.
Such was the power of a Crystal l'cie. She looked over to the l'cie who were fleeing. Yeah... not even all of them together could handle so much military might. The one who had fallen earlier also had a swarm come after him... How was he faring? all alon-...
Lin Lin! Can you-
Yes. it seemed the boy wasn't alone any more as the powerful presence of an Eidolon appeared. Linegia continued to walk through the carnage as she fired off numerous Ruinjas that all split into Ruingas and killed even more of Argent's prized troops. Tch... you would think that with most of these l'cie having grown up together, that they would know better how to work with each other. Instead of several all splitting from the group trying to play heroes.
What you gonna do Lin Lin?
Lin Lin? What was with the sudden doubling of her shortened name- oh it didn't matter.
She ignored her other voice and walked forwards towards Leo and Twilight's area, unleashing more tendrils and Ruinja's and Darkness attacks on the surrounding cavalry, all the while being careful of not to harm the prized tools they were crafting. She suddenly seemed to vanish and stood on the front tip of Belias between his flaming horns, and she stared at Leo hidden behind his mask, "That's the thing about heroes... They either die or don't exist at all. Snow tried to be a hero, but look at him." she said in her quiet monotone, but loud enough for him to hear. "You can try to deny your fate, but... your tears tell me otherwise. So, what now? Leo Zealot."
Lin... are you trying to hel-
No. I don't have any emotions to even care about myself, let alone others. This brat has already been pushed to breaking point on numerous occasions. How much further can he be pushed? Will he break, or will he go beyond that point and become even more useful?
Linegia knew all about being broken, and better than most, except maybe her others... but they were all her too.

​

Jaden could hear gunshots and explosions from way above him, but at the same time, he was so in the zone that all other sound was being blocked out. He rolled to the side as Ifrit's mighty claw descended down, crushing where he had been moments before. Jaden spun to his feet underneath Ifrit's torso and slashed up in a wide cross arc before moving the hell out of there.
Ifrit sent waves of fire after him to which Jaden responded by running to the nearby cliff wall edge, jumping at it before planting his feet firmly and springing off in a new direction. The fire hit, leaving melted craters on the wall's surface.
Jaden didn't have time to rest as Ifrit prepared a _Meteor Strike_ and sent it full force at Jaden who was still airborne...
Only one thing for it. Jaden fired many _Ruin_ spells at the on coming attack before throwing his pure red sword (_Strike_) at the flaming orb of doom causing it to explode prematurely, the explosion still blasting him back though as he braced himself.
He panted as he landed and caught his thrown sword, Ifrit still staring at him, but him staring defiantly back with a hint of a grin on his face. To think that over a week ago, he had been running from his life (albeit rather enjoying the thrill) from Behemoths, and now he was facing one of the legendary Eidolons, and was in fact putting up a fight even though he was closer to death than he had ever been before in his life.
Jaden did like a good fight, and now he knew more about why he fought, it just made his fighting drive even more important.
He clashed with Ifrit more and more, not having time to shift role into Medic and not daring to shift into Ravager. He only really knew fire magic and that wouldn't help much here...
He found a thought amusing... Snow... his main magic types consisted of Ice and Water, which was obviously related to his Eidolon Shiva. Jaden's main two seemed to be fire and wind... wind, in particular the oxygen in the air being a key component to making fire burn.
"Heh... shall we end this? Ifrit? Forgive me for cutting such an awesome battle short. But I've got things to do here, and being so close to death's door doesn't help matters." he smirked as he charged forwards. He needed a big finish...
A big wave of Firaja passed by Jaden who just kept running forth, not breaking speed. Stopping would mean death, and death would be bad... (duh statement...)
He started blasting _Ruin_ repeatedly into the face of his opponent. The exploding shards causing Ifrit to rear back in rage as he was blinded from the assault. Jaden closed in as Ifrit slashed wildly with a flaming claw of burning fury. Jaden jumped and ignoring his earlier decision, shifted into Ravager and he cast _Aero_ at the burning claw, the wind dispelling the flames and blowing them away. He landed on the claw and kicked off again now in the air above Ifrit. He blasted more _Aero_ spells straight down, for two purposes. One is that it sent Ifrit crashing down into the floor and held him in place, and two... the upstream of the air blasts lifted Jaden higher and higher. He shifted back into Commando and began to fall towards the Earth, using his extra found height to gain speed and attack power. The seemingly forgotten headphones from around his neck (which amazingly hadn't been damaged once in any of Jaden's scuffles) flew off from Jaden's fast descent.
He spun in a flip to give his swing more momentum as he bought his blades down as hard as he could onto Ifrit's neck.
The mighty Eidolon gave a screaming roar. "BOOYA! It's over Ifrit! Come on!"
Jaden's victory and words seemed to invoke a reaction in Ifrit as his body started to morph in a torrent of flames and weird contorting and folding. The huge burning body transforming into it's Gestalt form... Which looked like a three wheeled surf style-buggy (which would look awesome, except Bushy couldn't be bothered to describe what it completely looked like right now). Jaden was balanced victoriously on top and zoomed around in raging circles, literally surfing on the car-uh... buggy? like Eidolon.
His headphones hit the Earth nearby, seemingly turning them on as a single song began to play, echoing conveniently around the canyon.
After a round or two of the intro... The headphones seemingly shut off just as conveniently as the plot had made them play.
Now that the fight was over, a wave of exhaustion took over and Jaden fell forwards.
Ifrit seemed to morph back into it's normal mode and caught Jaden in it's outstretched claw, no longer aiming to hurt the young l'cie.
As Jaden slipped into unconsciousness. The Eidolon gently placed him on the floor and took onto it it's duty and cast _Arise_
Ifrit vanished, but in his absence, a wave of warm healing took hold of Jaden, allowing him a full recovery.
Naturally, if Jaden had fallen unconscious in the state he was in, it would have likely meant death. The fact that Ifrit had been out and tamed by the time Jaden had lost conciousness which was indeed the trigger to Arise, had just saved his life.
Jaden rolled onto his back his back and stared at the bright sky as his brand stopped glowing and he felt a peace come over him.
Further more, he felt like he was stronger than ever...
He had to get moving now. He had things to see and friends to do... No wait... flip that.