FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_"GERALD!" Flames began to burn as a woman's voice broke through to him. "GERALD WE HAVE TO LEAVE, IT'S GETTING WORSE!" "No." Darkness consumed him within a warm abyss. "WH-WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?!" "It's coming Mary...it's coming...the fire...the fire's burning me...I can't leave this." The scents of a loving memory filled his heart as he began to weep. But he did not know why he weeped. "No, no no no no sweetie you can't do this, y-y-you cannae do this now you have to fight this! You can fight this, YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THIS PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS TO ME NOW!" "I can't." "Why!? Why are you so afraid to run!?" "The fire...it calls me...I've seen this in my dreams...I knew this would happen, always I knew." "IT WAS JUST A DREAM GERALD! A STUPID DREAM, YOU CAN'T LET IT TAKE YOU!" "Pangaea save me...may my ancestors bless me with food and shelter before the storm, before the dust comes and takes the sun away-" "STOP IT! STOP IT IT'S NOT HAPPENING, IF YOU DON'T MAKE IT HAPPEN THEN IT WON'T, YOU CAN DO THIS GERALD! DON'T LET THEM WIN OVER YOU, YOU'RE NOT AFRAID! You're not afraid...please baby...please...t-tell me you're not afraid." "yOuR hEaRt'S dEePeSt mEmOrieS, bOuNd iN bLoOdLiNeS." "Take James and run...just...please...run, I'm sorry Mary...I'm so sorry." "NO! I WON'T LOSE YOU, YOU'RE NOT AFRAID GERALD, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT! WHAT ABOUT OUR SON!?" "The fire's calling me...I've always heard it calling me...everytime I sleep...I have no life beyond this...he'll have a better life with you." "I don't WANT a life with just him I want a life with US! ALL OF US TOGETHER, JUST PLEASE GERALD STOP THIS!" He could not recognise this memory. And yet he knew that it was his, the voices so familiar, a faint hum of a melody that slowly burned towards a cindering crisp. His heart began turning afraid. "i kNoW oF yOuR sOrRoW...bOtH oF yOu...nOw wAtCh...aNd i sHaLL bRiNg bAcK HiS mEmOriEs...eVeN tHe oNeS hE dOeS nOt rEmeMbeR." "I can't leave you Gerald...I don't want to leave you, please don't let them win, don't let it take you Gerald! PLEASE!" "I'm sorry...I'm s-sorry Mary..." "...why? W-why? I thought you were stronger than this." "I was always weak...don't fool yourself. I could never be as strong as you." He fell into the abyss. The abyss of memories past as he felt the Sorrow's tendrils creep into him, wrapping around his mind's existence as he heard his own voice scream calling out to the woman. "No...n-n-no Gerald, Gerald you can't GERALD! GERAAAAAAAAAAAAALD!" "MUUUUMMYYYYYYYYYYYY!" Silenced by the trembling world around him passing through his unconscious state, as his thoughts began fading to oblivion. He saw nothing before him, felt nothing, wishing that he could hear those two voices once more begging from the deepest place of what remained of his soul. But nothing would come. Except by a voice whispering on the winds of existence. Then another voice. Then came five more.

where did we go

why did they leave us

my family is gone

please save us

where have they gone

i miss my son

everything is now so quiet

are we dead

i can see them but

can they even see me

i never even got to tell him about our

new child i can never hold again

did mommy send me away

i wish i could take these words back

i never wanted to die please let me

come back

come back

why won't you come back

why won't you hear me

why won't you remember me

why did you forget my name mommy

my daughter can't even remember my face

i can still feel my tears running down my face

what face do i even have anymore

i don't want to see you upset

please don't cry

please, stop crying

i'll start crying too

i can see you

i can hear you

why can't you see me

i loved you

mother

father

little ones

where will i be

when you grow old and soon pass away

and i remain one

of the thirty-nine who can never be free _

James felt himself slowly begin to rouse as he looked up towards a familiar looking ceiling, the cold stone welcoming him back to Lea Monde's great cathedral as he blinked harshly. The sky was partly overcast, as winter settled in outside the crossguarded windows to his left showing the Rood of Iocus embedded within the frame of the glass, as if sending hope through a god's benevolent light of being. Exhaustion kept him from moving as he sighed deeply, hearing a voice respond to his left. "James?" He could barely move his head to turn seeing a brown scaled snout of crocodilian fearfulness, his left eye covered by a medical patch with blood crusting underneath as James smiled weakly back at him. "Hey." His voice was rather subdued. "Am I dead?" "No...thankfully." "Oh...feels like I am, you sure?" "I'm sure...you feeling okay?" "Just...tired...I can't move." "You took a lot of damage from uh...everyone trying to stop you, I mean-him." "Him? ......oh." "Yeah." He looked away slightly with shame but Kruz put his hand out to bring his gaze back to him. "It's okay...I know it wasn't you." "That doesn't mean I'm not responsible." "What happened to you? I mean um...after that monster, the anomaly took you, you just disappeared, we took ages finding you." "How long?" "Huh?!" "...how long was I away?" "......six months." "Fuck." He wanted to lift his hand to rub his face with exasperation but the little strength he had made it almost impossible a feat. The kremling petted him, stroking on his head to calm him as James nuzzled sweetly into it as he said humbly. "I'm sorry." "Sorry? Yeah you better be." "Huh?" "Worrying me like that, making me pick up all the pieces of yer idiots friends." "Hey, they're not idiots." Kruz looked at him wryly with a look of disbelief, before he grinned and shook his head before he replied: "Okay they're not idiots, but they've got a lot of issues. Seriously, do you make this a hobby or something just picking up the weirdest people? Like you can't even pick somebody normal?" "I'm not normal to begin with," said FG. "No...that's true." "I also picked up you, so that counts as well." "Hey, I'm not weird!" James mimicked Kruz's look back at him before the kremling rolled his eyes chuckling. "Okayyyyy fine, fair enough." "So um...what's...been happening since I was away?" "Only if you tell me what happened to you, seriously...I mean you were gone for six months, that's not sumthin' you can just brush over." "Alright I promise." "In fact, why don't I just tell you what happened yesterday, I think that should cover enough of everything." "Alright, let's hear it."

"How is she?" The remaining clan members along with Kruz, Berniere and madame Mariel stood waiting at the infirmary door, a small quiet room with four beds of which now two had been occuped by recent guests. They all had their wounds, Kruz's eye, Fayne's swollen face and Baldwin's bandaged ribs as the doctor turned to them, a dark-skinned hume simply rubbing his chin with heavy head as he sighed, his robes of white mage briefly swishing across the floor. "She has lost a lot of blood, hysterectomy notwithstanding but your ship surgeon managed to steady the flow and stitch up her wound well enough she might survive this month." "Wh-what do you mean might?!" "We had to make a blood transfusion, just to keep her body going, she has lost consciousness...but it may be a while before she wakes up, her body has taken a great toll from this fight." "Can I donate kupo?" asked Berniere. "If you are the same type, obviously I can only accept moogle blood but we do have some in supply so it will not be necessary." "I still want to give some. She is my friend after all, I am sure she would do the same for me." "If you wish, thank you mister Lavant." "What about James?" asked Kruz. "Mister Campbell is more exhausted than anything else, he has plenty wounds but they have all healed rather drastically. Whatever species he is must have an incredible capacity for healing but I am worried. He looks very sick, I think he may have some sort of infection." "I know what his sickness is," answered Mariel, "let me tell you in confidence doctor." "Is it...contagious?" "No...not virulent of a sort, come with me." She took the doctor out of the infirmary room as the five remaining walked in looking over both patients. James was almost a disease in itself with blotched skin, sickly purple veins and raw skin paling to a crusty dry foetid brown. Navarro was in the bed opposite of the room from him, her face stricken with pain even in her unconscious form with a blinding scar across her shaved abdomen with blood bag hooked into her neatly. Both were covered in comfy sheets of a fine clean thick cotton to help warm their bodies on this winter's eve. She looked somewhat smaller and more fragile than she did before, like a doll with Dahlia sitting onto a chair she took from the side of the room waiting for her to be awake. The others took chairs in turn with Fayne, Kruz and Baldwin seated around FG, whilst Berniere kept Dahlia company as the cleric looked pitifully onto James' wretched form. "He looksszh terrible." "Really," said Kruz, "he must have gone through some hell to get back here." "I only wisszh that he...wouldn't have returned with that demon." "I don't think he knows how to get rid of it yet. I just hope that...that he......he said three months wasn't it?" "Hmm?" asked Fayne. "Three months that demon said, before he could totally consume him." "It may not have been the truth." "Do you want to take that chance?" "...Baldwin?" He turned towards the monk seated next to him. "You have not sszhpoken ever sszhinsszhe we returned, are you..." "......why did you do it?" His fingers wrapped themselves shakily around each other. "Why did you...make that offer to him?" "What do you mean?" "D-d-don't...fuck with me Fayne, you wanted him to kill you. You were begging him to, the fuck isszh wrong with you?" "I almosszht losszht you...y-y-you...you really think I wanted you..." Baldwin put his head into his hands as he started to weep, his brother sullen deep with further guilt. "I'm...I'm sszhorry." "YOU'RE SSZHORRY!?" He stood up fiercely. "YOU think you're sszhorry for breaking me like that?! Firsszht you tell me sszhomething about you I never knew for fifty yearsszh, then you try to kill yoursszhelf?! WHAT ISSZH WRONG WITH YOU?!?!" "I-i-i...I-i didn't-" "Baldwin enough!" said Kruz. "We all make some bad mistakes, we were all emotional that day and none of us were thinking straight." "Don't fucking exszcusszhe him!" cried Baldwin. "He'sszh sszhupposszhed to be your 'lover' and he wasszh begging that demon to kill him, DON'T YOU EVEN CARE?!" "OF COURSE I CARE! But I wanted to do this somewhere private, not argue like this next to my closest friend's body, I have a sense of decorum!" "FUCK DECORUM MY BROTHER ALMOSSZHT COMMITTED SSZHUISSZHIDE!" "SSZHTOP IT!" Fayne shrieked as he clasped his head feverishly. "SSZHTOP IT, I'M SSZHORRY! I'M SSZHORRY I CAN'T DO THISSZH! EVEN WHEN I TRIED TO FREE YOU FROM MY OWN MISSZHERY I KEEP HURTING BOTH OF YOU!" "NO Fayne, don't you dare pull that sszhit on me-" "B-BUT I-" "NO YOU LISSZHTEN!" Baldwin put his hands firmly on the cleric's shoulders. "You...are my brother, alright? I...I know I've sszhaid thingsszh that hurt you, I never knew before but now I do and I do NOT want to losszhe you...I don't care what you are Fayne, I jusszht...I jusszht want you to be sszhafe." Clasping his brother against him a little too tightly by an embrace desperate, the monk shuddered with a deep fear through him as Fayne grimaced from his guilt. "Don't...EVER...do that again. You promisszhe that?" "...how can you even want me back?" "Becausszhe I love you Fayne, wh-why even asszhk-" "You know what I am...I know you desszhpisszhe me." "Th-th-that'sszh not true!" "Listen to him Fayne," said Kruz sighing harshly, "do you honestly think that either of us would want you out of our lives? I thought you were better than this." "I thought sszho too," murmured Fayne. "Are you fucking serious?" The voice that spoke came across the room as Dahlia stood up with a bitter look. "After everything you've just gone through, you are STILL in doubt about those who love you?!" "D-dahlia...I...I though-" "Shut up." She brought a finger up to him pointing with ruthless sneer. "Do you know...how lucky you are to have two, no THREE people that love you like this? You have a brother, you have a boyfriend, you still have a mother who even when she is cursed by darkness brought both of you up to have good and happy life, does SHE know any of this?! You haven't even told her what happened, have you?!" "I-i-i...never-" "We didn't have time," said Baldwin, "we jusszht got back and Navarro-" "DON'T use Navarro as an excuse, you fucking INGRATE!" "Woah." "Two people next to you were willing to give their lives and STILL you have doubts about being worthy of living?! Don't pretend it's kindness Fayne, you're just a coward!" "HEY-EY DON'T-" "You were always afraid of being proven right about Baldwin, but he's still there beside you isn't he?! I heard what happened up on deck, Kruz told me, he almost broke down in tears about it when we were bringing Navarro in!" "D-dahlia," stumbled Fayne, "pleasszhe, I-" "YOU have more people who love you and care about you like this than I do, but you don't see ME wanting to kill myself!" "Wh-...what?!"

Sitting back down in her seat beside Navarro still drifting through unconsciousness, her withering gaze turned towards her feet.. "Do you not think...that other people have suffered too? You're not...the only one that has felt that sort of pain and grief of never being able to tell people, to express yourself the way you want to because of society...because of places you were born into. " "I...I-i-i know that there are othersszho who have sszhuffered like me but-" "No you don't...you only can see your own pain but you can't even look at others with that same sort of...pity." "That'sszh not true!" "Said the one who tried to finish himself and stop thinking about anything." "Stop it," said Kruz, "that's enough! He's gone through plenty I don't need you making it worse for him." "Oh spare me your fucking pity Kruz, you don't even know what he's gone through!" "I was THERE!" "SO WAS I! I WATCHED YOU THREE TEARING AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS AND YOU FAYNE, YOU ONLY EVER THOUGHT OF YOUR OWN SUFFERING, NOT ANYONE ELSE'S, YOU SELFISH CUNT!" "SHUT UP!" Kruz stormed his way towards her with twitching hand of frenzy. "DON'T YOU EVER CALL HIM THAT, YOU FUCKING SHIT HAG! HE'S GONE THROUGH WORSE THAN YOU EVER WILL!" "No he hasn't," said Dahlia coldly, "and do you know why that I know he hasn't? Because he has you." She pointed to Kruz. "And you." She pointed to Baldwin. "And lastly his mother. I...had no one. My family made me become something I was not, they made me try to marry somebody that I never liked, so I could become this wholesome wife and summoner bringing life to the world through both body with children and mind with esper...I despised them for it. I didn't WANT to be either, I couldn't even be one of those options but they refused to listen, they FORCED me to become engaged to a contract and you know what I did?! ...I burned their entire village down, and there was a part of me that enjoyed it, and I HATE that I did. I know I despised my family for forcing me but there were hundreds of people in that village who did not DESERVE what I did, my hatred became their undoing, forcing me to become s-something I was not!" "What do you...wait.....are you?" The nu-mou grabbed for the moogle's hand tensely squeezing it to try and calm herself. "I met someone...who understood, and she helped me escape. And I watched that person slowly become something different, consumed by a prideful arrogance and greed to make it big, to be some master player and everytime it never succeeded I would suffer for it. I couldn't even go to anybody when I was beaten and berated for somebody else's flaws because according to Baldwin people like me DON'T exist, isn't that right... Baldwin?" "Wh-wh-what are you sszhaying?" asked the monk trembling. "I didn't even have anybody to be with, to admit my problems and fears, I could not tell anyone. My family rejected me, my lover assaulted me and threw me to the side like w-worthless garbage so don't YOU ever tell me your problems Fayne! Your brother's already heard all of them, Kruz has heard plenty and I am certain your mother knows what's best for you whereas MY mother didn't, AND YOU KNOW WHAT HURTS?! WHAT HURTS ME THE MOST!?! I HAD EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO TELL SOMEBODY I LOVED THEM AND EVERY TIME I COULDN'T BRING MYSELF TO DO IT BECAUSE I WAS SO AFRAID OF BEING HURT AGAIN! YOU WERE AN INSPIRATION TO ME, BOTH YOU AND KRUZ, I THOUGHT I COULD DO IT, AND YOU WASTED IIIIT!" Screaming down the halls people slowly skirted round to avoid the growing argument as Fayne looked at Dahlia with a whole new realisation. Kruz and Baldwin were a little slow on the uptake as she turned towards the still moogle's face, cupping her by the chin as her tears melted upon Navarro's cheeks. "I'm sorry...I'm s-s-so sorry...I tried to tell you, I even tried to write you a confession but I c-c-couldn't...I wanted to tell you, but I was so afraid of being trapped and hurt once again I thought that F-fayne and Kruz could have helped me and give me that confidence...and all he did was try to throw everything away and completely destroy everything he had wanted to be happy. You..." Her fingers pressed firmly around Navarro's head as she addressed Fayne. "Y-y-you selfish...but since you stopped caring about anything why should I? Why...should any of us even care about this?" Her desperation grew as he pressed her lips to the moogle's, sealing a kiss between shallow breaths and deep gasping tears of a grievous plea as they watched in shock. The tender suckle of love resonated throughout the infirmary, her tongue pressing faintly into the inside of Rocino's lips wanting to taste her just this once, wincing from this shame and grief that burned inside her heart as she felt not a single movement within the moogle's mouth. She closed her eyes hoping for that moment when she opened them to find Navarro looking up at her once again with a smile on her lips. But she would never see it, as her eyes opened to see Navarro still unconscious, ignorant of her needs moving away her head with a long tendril of glistening salival strand that broke bleakly. She stood up not even looking at anyone as she turned to leave but not before Baldwin cried out: "D-dahlia, w-wait!" She stopped only to answer back to him. "...are you happy now Baldwin?" "Wh-what?" "Fayne said that you've been hurting him the last fifty years...I don't even have to put up with that after only a single year of your bigotry." "WAIT, D-DON'T LEAVE, I-" "Why? I don't even exist, like you said. That means you never lost a friend to begin with...did you?" "...no...no, pleasszhe Dahlia wait! DAHLIA!" He tore off after her but she resisted with a warning fist punching him across the face, the surprise of which made him stagger back but he dared not resist as tears came through. "If you ever come near me again...I will make this esper inside me wish that you were dead. What's another fool like you compared to the six-hundred that had to suffer because of me?" "D-dah...Dahlia...I...I'm sszhorry! I'M SSZHORRY! DAHLIA WAIT! D-DAHLIA! DAHLIAAAAAAAAA!"

But she would not listen to him, as she turned to walk away for the last time heading through the corridors of the medicinal wing, the cathedral echoing with his cry of grief and confusion. Slowly he fell onto his knees as the weight of his own ignorance became overwhelming, sobbing gently. "What...wh-wh-what have I done? Wh-what have I d-done?! I didn't mean any of thisszh! I d-didn't wanna hurt anyone! I DIDN'T! I DIDN'T MEAN TO HURT ANYONE I JUSSZHT...ohhhh GODSSZH!" He couldn't even bring himself to move as he bawled his face into the floor, wanting the cold stone to completely consume him and disappear for that instant. But then he felt a hand on his shoulder as he heard Fayne's voice. "I'm sszhorry." Baldwin looked up towards him. "I know...you had feelingsszh for her, but you-" "YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT?!" he screeched. "SSZHE NEVER WANTED ME! I KNEW SSZHE DIDN'T, I JUSSZHT BASSZHICALLY TOLD HER PEOPLE LIKE HER NEVER EXSZHISSZHTED, WHAT ELSSZHE ISSZHE GOING TO FEEL!?" "I never knew sszhe wasszh-" "I losszht my friend, I nearly losszht my brother, my leader'sszh bled nearly to death and my OTHER leader almosszht killed everyone becausszhe of a FUCKING DEMON! I can't take anymore of thisszh Fayne, I jusszht wanted to have a great time and a big adventure and now everything'sszh gone to SSZHIT!" He staggered up with heaving chest with his face tearing up towards the ceiling as if trying to roar against the heavens. But Fayne simply wrapped his arms around him from behind trying to help soothe him yet he resisted. He tore his hands free and pulled away from Fayne. "N-NO!" "What?" "D-DON'T...t-t-touch me." His brother almost choked, gasping as his own hatred came back to him with eyes turning down towards his feet as Fayne began to mumble: "S-sszho...you really...you really do hate me asszh a-" "No. It'sszh...it'sszh not that." "Then what, Baldwin?" "......I don't desszherve a brother like you." He looked up at Baldwin who was also staring at his feet with self-hatred. "I...d-d-don't desszherve, having a brother asszh good asszh you. You did everything for me, you're alwaysszh the sszhmart one, you're alwaysszh the one that people rely on and I wasszh jusszht the dumb musszhle...you became the big sszhelebrity and all thisszh time I thought I wasszh the one protecting you but, you were alsszho protecting me. You KNEW what I felt a-a-and you didn't even sszhay anything I feel sszho SSZHTUPID!" His calloused fists tensed up with harsh fury turning in on himself, wanting to punch a hole through his face but not even mustering the spirit for it as Fayne gently walked towards him. "Do you...sszhtill need a brother, Baldwin?" "...I...I-i-i don't really desszherve-" "No, ansszhwer me. Do you sszhtill want me to be part of your life?" "......I do." He looked up with eyes stinging from tears. " I-i-i alwaysszh do, I can...I can never hate you Fayne. I'm sszhorry. I'm sszhorry, I'm sszhorry for everything I-i-i-i-thisszh fucking retarded bullsszhit, if it makesszh me wanna turn againsszht you then FUCKIT! I DON'T CARE! I don't care anymore what'sszh a disszheasszhe and what isszhn't, I jusszht want you to be with me Fayne, I don't care what you are!" "Did you alwaysszh...care about me like thisszh?" "I-i...if anything DID happen to you, like what I thought would then I alwaysszh thought maybe...I could help keep you living a happy life. I wouldn't have told anyone, I would have...jusszht made thingsszh more easszhy for you, I sszhwear. I jusszht want you to be with me Fayne, I-i-i don't want you to leave me. Don't leave me Fayne. Don't...don't leave me on my own." Fayne put his hand on Baldwin's shoulder smiling gently. "I would never want to leave you...my brother." The two hugged tightly as they wept together as their hearts turned rich with brotherly love mixing their tears together on their cheeks, lips pressing upon them to taste the sweetened salt faintly before they pulled back as Kruz grinned from the doorway. He nodded with respect to Baldwin as the monk gently walked up towards him. "Lisszhten. Um...I jusszht-" "I know," said Kruz, "you just care about your brother and I'm...sorry for not telling you. I tried to encourage him but he really didn't want to, and whatever Fayne wants then I will give that to him. I won't do anything unless he asks me to." "Y-y-you...ever sszhinsszhe um, Jamesszh disszhappeared you were with...my brother?" "Yes." "...sszho...you were the reasszhon my brother wasszh more happy than usszhual?" "I should certainly hope so." "Do you...sszhtill want to keep him happy...and be with him?" "I do. But I also want him to be happy with you, all three of us. I don't want to take him away from you Baldwin, I just want to be with him." "Thank you," said Baldwin with great patience. "I uh...um, s-sszhorry for...everything I did and...sszhaid about you-" "Ohhh please," replied Kruz brushing off, "I've had worse told to my face." "Really? ...I wasszh pretty violent an-" "Let's just shake hands and put it water under the bridge, that sound good?" "...yeah. That'sszh good." The two shook hands as if a business engagement had been sealed, with Fayne smiling excitably before realising not everyone was at peace. His hand went to Baldwin's shoulder once again asking: "Come on, let'sszh go look for Dahlia...we have to tell mother about thisszh alsszho." "Yeah that'sszh um...could you sszhtay with Jamesszh and Navarro?" "Of course," said Kruz, "I've got Berniere with me too." "Great, thanksszh, alright bro! Let'sszh go heal another heart!" "You're not the white mage of thisszh group," replied Fayne as the two walked away. "I could be! I got healing handsszh!" "No you don't." "What?!" "Trusszht me, nobody wantsszh you to touch them with your handsszh." "What you mean?!" "Your callousszhed knucklesszh feel like sszhandpaper on a sszhalt wound...in a desszhert." "Baahhh you're jusszht too sszhensszhitive, no wonder you sszhuch a molly!" Pause between words as Baldwin almost wanted to shut his face completely by a fist from his word that slipped. At least before Fayne replied with earnest smirking: "Better I be a molly than a moron, like you." "PFFFFFT HAH! Good one bro!"

"And now things are better," said Kruz to FG, "at least between them, I'm not sure how Dahlia is doing. I haven't heard from her in a bit but the brothers managed to track her down trying to explain things have all been perked up but she herself is...somewhat distanced I think trying to hope when Navarro wakes up." "So in all this time I've been away," reiterated FG, "I missed you and Fayne having a relationship, Dahlia confessing her love, and-" "Plenty other things but those were the main highlights...at least not-so-horrible ones." "Those aren't really the highlights if they're horrible." "Exactly." "...soooo where's Roy?" Kruz suddenly paled slightly and turned to look away but that was all James would need. He moved his head slightly trying to ask more and meet Kruz's gaze. "Is...he's not...dead, is he?" "...I don't know." "What?" "He fought...that demon inside you to protect us...he did everything he could but he...f-fell off the side of the ship and that monster took his hand for it...I haven't really had time to go look back through the forests but I had some people search, my crew is rather um, well they're not...so available right now." "No...oh god..." Leaning back as the weight of sin creeped up his spine he was fearful of the next question to ask: "God...dammit that f-fucking...did you see him?" "I didn't see him. I haven't heard anything, I don't know-" "How many...did he kill, that demon?" "Thirty-two...and that's not including the entire population of Pordana." "Jesus..." "Michelle, Tennyson, half my navigators an' the gunning crew, all of them...I tried to get away from it but it just somehow managed to...we tried to lure it back to the city, Roy told us that the sound of bells was like a weakness to it, Berniere wuz up in the belfry...but that thing just managed to crawl way up onto the sky and just...infiltrate my ship." "I'm sorry. I-jesus I'm sorry Kruz, I never-" "No. I knew it wuzn't you, even when that thing tried to pretend it wuz you I knew you weren't...I just wished we could have acted sooner." "Where's Berniere now?" "He went out, said he had sumthin' to do. He gave his donation to Navarro, thankfully the same type, khheh...must be one hell of a system to have all these different species with blood types." "Like back in my world...that is a fucking nightmare if your hospital doesn't have the facility for it." "What you mean?" "Well in my world they actually artificially make the blood, because all those different species make it impossible to just find donations and catalogue them, so they just...make a copy, my world's sort of advanced like that. You think after all that technology that society would improve and people would just get along but...turns out society never really advances unless the people do." "Ain't that the truth," said Kruz as he shook his head, "course I never came from a society beyond a bunch of pirates so what the hell do I know?" "Enough to know what's right and wrong." James gave a kind look, his glassy eyes the picture of death. "You always knew what was the best thing to do." "I hope so...I want it to...okay, now you." "Huh?" "What about you, what happened to you?" The raptor nodded with understanding as he blew through his nostrils heavily trying to recall everything. "I was...in a dark place...like some kind of infinite void then I saw this landscape...have you ever been to a golf course?" "No...what's golf?" "Um, n-never mind um, do you know...okay, imagine a sort of bumpy ridge, like sort of a plain with little-OH, remember when we had that race with the chocobos after the whole Brunhart thing?" "Yeah." "Imagine that place, that whole area with all the hills, but it's entirely covered in metal, like sheet steel all cut up into all these rectangles and just going up and down like smoothly. I was in some kind of...glass ball just rolling around like...like some marble I guess, and there was this huge black ball that tried to crush me. I make it to the end...the marble breaks...and then there's no air." "Shit." "I start gasping...I almost feel like I'm going to die struggling to breathe but then I saw someone...I saw...I think I saw Koopin. His hand reached out to me, grasping at me but then I felt f-fucking Scissoraptor pull me away back into the darkness...I thought I was so close...I really thought-" "Hey." James bitterly curled his fingers trying not to weep, the kremling stroking his head with a soft kiss. "It's alright...come on, what else happened?" "Then I...felt everything just flow on by past me, I heard voices...I heard two people, screaming and panicking, one of them wasn't gonna leave and the other wanted to. One was...called Gerald and the other was Mary." "...Mary...huh." "Then something happened...I just fell through...everything, and I heard all these voices, something about...thirty-nine voices weeping, I think they were begging for something, wanting the pain to stop. I think that was the anomaly." "Is it still here?" "Not...here I think. I'm not entirely sure." Kruz rubbed his head slightly as he tried to take it all in as a burning melancholy dwelled further within his heart. He brushed a tear from his eye conditionally trying to form his next words with a sombre tone. "You realise that...you only got three months according to that demon, don't you?" "...I know." "Are you gonna...plan sumthin'?" "I don't...I don't know. I think if I can't find a solution to him in the next three months I'll...have to ask Mariel to...do the ritual." "W-wait, no she...sh-she said your soul would just be completely torn apart!" "It's better that way." "Wh-wh-what about Koopin!? What's he-isn't he waiting for you?!?" "I'll...f-figure something out, maybe I can go back and...leave a note-" "NO YOU CAN'T THAT'S BULLSHIT!" The kremling felt a stinging fierceness rise in him. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU'RE NOT GIVING UP ARE YOU!? ARE YOU!?!?" "I just don't-" "_I SPENT LITERALLY YEARS OF MY LIFE SEARCHING FOR YOU, IF YOU FUCKING GIVE UP NOW I WILL MAKE YOU FUCKING HURT! _" "...Kruz?" "Wh-wh-what?!" "...your eye's bleeding." It was in that moment that Kruz rubbed underneath his left patch shuddering bitterly. He realised something worse was happening and slowly began to force himself back to a calming state of morose sadness. But it was James who asked him: "Are you...is something going on with you?" "H-huh?!" "You've been really...awfully unhinged since we last talked and I'm seeing it again...you also got that eye problem." "I-it...it's just......f-fuck. I can't do this." He broke down softly, hand on his face as he began to weep from both eyes reddening the mist slightly. "I can't f-f-f-fucking do this anymore...I need...you can't give up on me." "Why?" "B-because...because I have sumthin' too. I wanted you to...be the one I always looked up to. Wanted you to be the hero I took...inspiration from." "Wait...what?" "James......I have to tell you something." The kremling gave a deep sigh as his shoulders fell upon him, walking over to the infirmary door and closed it before he walked back to sit down. His hand and stump pressed to his head rubbing back and forth as his breath turned a little strange before building up his words. "I did something...something terrible to find you." "What is that?" "I...I made a deal. And this deal, because of the way that he worded it...might turn out things kind of bad for me by the end of this." "What...kind of deal did you make?" "Remember I told you that the portal you left behind helped me escape my island sinking? I had help. There wuz...someone that came to me, someone very...no, more like something from within the depths of the island." "Some...thing?" asked FG with worried look. "I told you once...before, about a prophecy my captain fell under. All rulers of our island come under this prophecy an' it's always what the mystics say on my island, that 'when blood shall run through the eye of this captain, the madness shall take him...an' if he did not relinquish his title then a great tragedy would befall us'. It wuz meant to be a warning not to hold onto your power, or else sumthin' might...no, WILL happen rather, but the problem is...it doesn't matter what people you rule...what matters is..." Slowly he began to remove his eyepatch, blood wettening upon the bottom lid as he showed his left eye to FG making his heart jump at the reveal. "...is that I am a kremling still."

He could recognise the horrid bloodshot look, the eye slightly popping out with distended nerve that brought Kruz the look of madness to him. The same look he had once seen from K. Rool. "Holy...sh-sh-shit, Kruz that's...no...no it, th-that cannot be-" "It is James. It's exactly like his." "H-h-how long has this...I mean, when did this start-" "Appearing after you left...it's been eight years I've spent in Ivalice. You wanna know what the deal I took was? It was this...'should you not regain the heart of James Campbell within the next ten years I shall take your soul back to the origin of all Kremlinghood...where all of us shall be...forever', and to make sure I wouldn't welch on the deal, he told me 'you are now the captain of this deal and so too shall my gift take you to open your mind out to the infinite otherverse. You alone shall be my vessel'." "Vessel? W-wait...vessel?" "I don't know whut he means by that, jus-" "It said I would be its vessel too," murmured James softly. "Huh?" "That...that sorrow, that thing...it also said I was going to be a vessel I don't know what it...means but I know that's not good for either of us. So who was this...um, thing that you dealt with?" "The first captain of our home, the one who started all this. He was the one to first found a home for us, our ancestral home and he became our first captain, long before I ever existed. During the end of his career as our first captain, he claimed that he saw sumthin', a great veil of reality slowly tearing itself apart and he heard the creators of this world...whispering of reshaping it just a little further. The creators, gods, whatever he called them, had no more plans for him to exist specifically, said that he wouldn't be needed." "W-wait...what?" "Before he disappeared from our memory he claimed he had gained the power of insight to see the world as it truly wuz, but because of that a great madness took him, slowly deteriorating all he wuz and soon we would all forget who he had ever been. But not the prophecy...not that thing that he wrote into our history making sure that his 'gift' would never be forgotten." "But, how do you remember him?" asked James. "He told me what he wuz when I met him. He said he disappeared one day, the world's gods or 'developers' had taken him away from its 'beta existence' as he called it, what our world had once been, an' that he wuz no more to be a part of that wholly finished world. So he made a prophecy come true by writing sumthin'...into our island's 'coding' he called it an' I don't know what that means but I do know that we always thought it wuz just the way things were. Like, we all noticed every new generation our captains would go bloodshot an' insane an' so we made a prophecy warning everyone about it. He told me everythin' fer real before the island started disappearing." The kremling's arms began trembling against each other, his foot tapping rapidly as his eye began to twitch. "This...madness? So wait, it...doesn't kill you?" "It won't. Just slowly turn me insane, he calls it his 'last gift to our people' to remember his legacy, to give them that insight he once had into the world's existence. He said that 'when blood runs through your eye you shall see the truth, that I have seen of our gods. A world uncharted, unexplored but never to be dreamed'. He didn't realise that his gift wuz really just a curse, causing an endless cycle of pain and agony. We always chose our captain as a heavy title, one who we love and shall praise for the next ten years before it takes him fully. Some of our captains were noble, submitted their title and lived in peace but others like K. Rool...once they got a taste for thatt they just never wanted to let it go." "But you're not captain." "That's what I thought! I thought I wuz able to get away from it in the next world...that's why I took the deal, I thought that I was getting an easy deal and some sort of maybe ten-year limit. That...w-wuz why...I wuz upset with you." He pressed his hand to his eyes with deepening shame as tears began to breech. "I th-thought that I had lost my chance of...being able to live, I thought th-that...if you...if gods were smiling on me they would let me have you back an' I wouldn't have to die...now I've not only cursed myself but Fayne is...Fayne's gonna live with a broken heart no matter what he wants. And I've got only two years left on me before I go fully crazy an' I have to...do sumthin' to protect Fayne from it." "Like what?!" "...I don't think I could live with this James. There's no way back once the madness starts takin' in." James felt his face fall, and yet even with the outrage and panic rising up in him, his voice remained exhausted-sounding unable to force the fury back into his throat as he asked trembling: "But...you...n-no. No you can't you...you can just give up being captain can't you?" "NO I CAN'T JAMES, THAT'S NOT THE DEAL, YOU REMEMBER WHAT I SAID?! He said that the deal wuz if I don't have your heart, as in you don't love me by the time this madness takes hold of me, then I'm GONE, no matter what I do with myself, HE INFLICTED THIS!" "But...wh-why, why would he do that, what kind of fucking bullshit is this?!" "To make sure I couldn't get away from him, this eye is like a ticking clock telling me when my time is up thanks to his so-called 'gift of awakening'. And I've still got another two years just waitin' fer the end." "No, that's not gonna happen." "It is James, not unless you love me fully an' I'm not gonna ask you...because I don't love you that way anymore...now...my heart belongs to Fayne." "And it will stay with Fayne, I promise you." James slowly began to force his head up with a struggling effort, gasping as he tried to shift himself out of bed despite Kruz's protests. "J-james, James don't!" "Where's this guy at?" "He...why?!" "I wanna go meet him, I wanna make him an offer." "WHAT?!" "I'm not...letting you suffer like this. This was the deal that you made, well the deal's off." "You can't make an offer to him, this guy is insane, he's also DEAD!" "I just fought that fucking anomaly with thirty-nine voices that scream inside it!" "Thirty-nine?! Sounded like more." "The point is...I've fought worse than some insane spirit. I can take him." He staggered from his bed fully before stumbling forwards, his energy not yet returned to him as he gasped falling to his knees with hands slamming onto the floor with brittle fists. Kruz hurried towards him trying to pick him back up panicking from this. "James, no, look James, don't do this, you can't even move properly!" "I'll get better, I'm not dead yet." "You can't do this, you can't fight this guy!" "You don't tell me what to do, faggot." "NO YOU CAN'T DON'T YOU GET IT, THAT THING IS MY ANCESTOR!" "Fuck your ancestor, he don't get to tell you what to do." "I MADE A DEAL!" "Well I'm here to BREAK it, now let me GO." "NO!" Slowly pushing himself up onto his feet with Kruz's assistance, he shoved the kremling away harshly causing him to fall back against the bed. Bumping his leg hard he forcefully sat down with a trembling gasp as he looked at his body more focused than before. He looked as if he had suffered the plague, wilting with veins showing through his thin crackling scales as his friend pleaded to him. "Please...don't do this to me James, I just wanted to tell you, I just wanted to let you know why I'd been actin' all weird with you...I just wanted to tell you but I-" "Are you going to tell Fayne?" "...I...I wuzn't no." "How are you going to break this to him?" "...m-maybe I can plan some sort of heroic sacrifice, that'll make it look...less terri-" "Bullshit. You really gonna just give up, you're telling me all the effort you've put into helping Fayne is gonna be fucking wasted because you're too cowardly to fight?! What happened to you Kruz? Where..." James managed to stumble back onto his feet with laboured breathing. "Where was that friend I had back with me on the Gangplank Galleon? Where was he, who wanted to go all the way up to give K. Rool a big fat punch in the face, who actually planned to kill our subordinate for being part of K. Rool's little group?" "Th-that wuz eight years ago." "So what? I've gone through worse than you Kruz...I'm gonna go through it for you instead." "James...please, don't do this." "I'm NOT...letting you die." He walked forwards with shakier feet. "I will not...let you...give up everything and just accept life is this. I'm not gonna let you and as soon as I get better I'm gonna make you tell me where this monster is and I will fly there and I will beat the absolute fuck out of him until he begs me to stop." "You...y-y-you have no idea how-" "Save it. Either you're coming with me, or I will make you tell me." "......you really wanna do this? Hmm? Just throw your life away for my sake?" "Better than you just giving in like a bitch." "Khheh...look..." Kruz rubbed his neck nervously as he saw the bitterness of his friend's eyes burning into him, knowing it was pointless. "You really wanna go out to see 'im? Then let's do it." "Good." "But we're gonna do this after you recover, you can hardly stand fer fuck's sake." "I don't care." "No...but I do." He approached James with his arms around him softly, pulling him close into a firm hug. The raptor's skin felt colder than usual. "I don't want to see you walk to your death...I can't do it. But if yer gonna go an' fight this thing, then I want you to be on top form, alright James?" "Alright...sounds fair." "Okay...let's just wait a few days until you're all cleared to go."

James nodded as he slowly went back into bed with pure exhaustion overwhelming him as he dropped off back to sleep. The next two days he found his strength return to him diligently as he spoke with Fayne and Baldwin who came round to visit occasionally. Dahlia would also visit, but always on her own to comfort her dearest's sleeping form. She said nothing to James out of a deep sense of guilt, and he never spoke in turn out of respect for her wishes. Soon the day would come when he was able to stand on his own two feet with confidence as he prepared himself. He also went to see Cadbury, who had become rather subdued and despite his apparent joy at seeing his rider return it also brought back the yoke of responsibility to him. He was not sure on what he preferred to be indebted to by this point and they realised both of them had heavy hearts on other matters. The two gave a mutual distance of empathy from afar before the raptor was ready to leave. With scissors sheathed and his jeans flown in by Kruz from Clan Koridai's homebase after having lost his armour back in Pordana, he braced himself for a journey along with Kruz as they slowly made their way out of the infirmary towards the entrance to the city. Kruz was in his cloak of captain's green along with his black worn kremling's hat, having seated itself on many the crown of madmen in its existence. The only people that went to send them off were Baldwin, Fayne and Berniere at the church's steps after James had explained with great vagueness on the nature of their mission. "Are you...sszhertain that you have to do thisszh?" asked Fayne fretfully. "Yes," said James, "I need to handle this personal favour to Kruz. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything further." "B-but...but you have only jusszht returned, and already you-...Jamesszh, let me come with you, I implore you." "No." "But I want to come, both of usszh do!" "I'm sorry but no, I need someone to man the fort here and look after both Navarro and the chocobos." "Dahlia can do that!" "Fayne." Kruz came forwards with a hand on Fayne's shoulder reassuringly. "I promise...I'm not going to leave you Fayne. I don't ever want to leave you I assure you." "I-i-i...never want you to leave too, I'm...I'm sszhorry...I jusszht...I'm sszhorry for all that'sszh been happening the passzht few-" "Shhhh." He stroked the cleric's cheek kindly before they gazed into each other's eyes for a moment as Kruz whispered: "It's okay." A tender kiss upon Fayne's lips kept his worrying silent as Kruz placed his stump on the back of his head, gasping from the sweet embrace as Kruz's hand slipped into his robe pressing his fingers against Fayne's chest. Baldwin bit his lip rather awkwardly with a nervous rub of his neck but said nothing with a bashful smile as the two lovers parted, never noticing something glint between their hands from Fayne's cloak. "I will come back," said Kruz gently, "I will not leave you...I have this feeling I won't, not ever." "I trusszht you Kruzzh...and you Jamesszh but...pleasszhe. Don't make me wait for love to come again." With one more tight embrace Fayne let go with a knowing nod before Baldwin approached with a firm look in his eyes as the two shook hands impartially, before the monk leaned in murmuring: "If you ever break my brother'sszh heart, I will desszhtroy you until your sszhoul doesszh not exszhisszht...sszho you better come back, you got it?" "Perfectly," murmured Kruz, "I swear on my own life." "Good." They parted amicably before he turned towards the male moogle standing to the side as a thought came to the kremling. "Uh hey, Berniere?" "Yes?" "You got that thing you had to get?" "Hmm? ...oh, yes, I did kupo. Forgive me but I um...have other plans to make I think, someone has found my clan and I must go seek them out before any destruction comes to their next victims." "Fuck," said FG, "I hope you stop them." "I hope you do too." "Wait, what?" Berniere's eyes widened briefly. "Never mind, my mistake kupo. I also have something to tell you before you leave. Roy...wanted me to give you this." He brought out the horseshoe that James almost instantly recognised as the soft scent of horses came adrift from it. To have it in his hands made him realise something much more grave upon the circumstances of his absence. "He said that...the purple lady wanted to give you this, kupo." The moment he clasped hands with FG in offering the horseshoe, something flickered deep through his vision as his gaze slowly turned upwards towards his pale green eyes. Softly the moogle stepped back with his hands shaking fiercely. "No...n-n-n-no...you...h-how could you?" "Wh-what?" "You...did this...no..." "Berniere, wh-what's going on, I don't-" "Of course you don't. You don't know anything don't you kupo?" The sneer of disgust burned across Berniere's face. "All this...for nothing because of that demon." "Berniere, wait! WAIT wha-" But he had already left with deaf ears to them as he stormed his way back inside the cathedral burning with a fierceness in his eyes as James was left confused. "What...is he okay?" "I think," said Baldwin, "he might be pretty upsszhet about um...Navarro." "I don't...well, maybe-" "He's an idiot," said Kruz, "you're not to blame, I don't want you blaming yourself." "I agree," added Fayne, "you are not resszhponsszhible for what that demon did to usszh, I know you are in a consszhtant sszhtruggle with him and you are trying." "Yeah I mean," stammered Baldwin, "like I sszhaid, I trusszht you Jamesszh. I know you'd never wanna hurt usszh." "Thanks," said FG humbly, "you...you really still trust me after all this?" "You sszhaved my brother. No reasszhon for me not to trusszht you." The simplest shrug from the monk gave him assurance as they said their farewells before leaving Lea Monde for their great journey towards an unchartered destination. Due to the damage caused by the demon's invasion, as well as a decimated crew, the Broken Petal was now in repairs as well as mourning for its fallen people. The damage was not severe in terms of physical repairs, the major tear of what had once been the navigation room slowly being redeveloped by Rzepka's wishes as he oversaw the main part of the shipbuilding. Cid was alongside him with his goggles still cracked as he noticed his captain approach. "Lo there cap'n!" "Is my skiff ready?" "All ready an' waitin' for ya! It's just right over there." He pointed towards a flightly-looking vehicle made of incredibly-fine steel no larger than a fishing boat, shielded completely over with a roof and small-scale thrusters along the bottom of it with a small cabin for longer voyages. The wheel at the front was a surprisingly old-school look for such an invention which James appreciated for its simplicity as he asked: "What are these for originally?" "Reconnaissance," said Cid, "the Archadian boys like to use 'em fer monitorin' activities on other nations an' also scout patrols like usual, I had to 'borrow' a few plans from them at least." "Is that legal?" asked Rzepka. "I mean, you have to have permission for that surely." "Uh, when I say 'borrow' I meant AIR QUOTES like this-" "I meant the monitoring, jeez." "Oh, well that's more like semi-legal, it's not really-" "Wait, how is something SEMI-legal, it's either legal or it's not." "Ehhhh cho-koh-bo, cho-kah-bo." "That's not even a thing, no one ever says it like cho-kah-bo." "You never been to the land of the Garif, hehehe." "I'm putting you in charge," said Kruz towards Cid, "we have no one else and out of all the people I have left on the ship, I trust you the most. Yes I know who I'm talking to." "W-...w-woah, you...really?"

For once Cid was lost for words which surprised even the mapmaker smirking at the engineer, managing to shut up briefly before he stumbled on his words. "I-i-i-i mean, jeez cap'n yer really puttin' me on the spot here, I jus-" "Only until I get back," replied Kruz, "you're my most experienced member of the crew at this moment, and so long as you don't go around committing thefts or something we'll all be good." "Heheh, promise captain. Actually uh...take these." He handed Kruz two bottles of a glistening prism texture that captured a faint light of the rainbow from someplace unknown, making the kremling gasp. "W-wait, those...those are elixirs!" "Yeah, so? I mean uh, let's face it, we're all out down in Lea Monde, we got plenty people around to heal us up with." "These are...these weren't part of our inventory, you can't buy these anywhere." "I know...they're mine." The engineer nodded firmly with his hand still extended and the other rubbing his neck cringing with nerves. "Whatever you plan on doin', yer not doin' it alone so jus' take 'em. I mean, not like I'm ever gonna use 'em." "Why's that?" "Because I been hoardin' em fer five years an' I always think 'what if I NEED this fer something' an' even when that demon came down on the ship I STILL never used 'em!" "Wow," said Rzepka, "seriously? We could have used those." "I tried but...there was nobody alive that needed 'em. Here." His face slowly fell, the lens over his eyes dappling with the light as Kruz slowly took the elixirs and put them into the satchel on his tail. Rzepka also came forwards with something from his robe humbly offering. "You should take this too captain I uh...made this for your big journey." The cartographer handed them a scroll carefully as the kremling opened it, the map showing a surprisingly-detailed schematic of the whole area of West Valendia with a circumference of at least ten miles in every direction. He also noticed that there were clouds briefly scuttling across the paper as if alive and breathing as he asked: "Wh-...what is this?" "I didn't want you to get uh...into any trouble with the weather without me so I made this, I kind of made it a long time ago with some of my own magic, it's a map that can forecast the weather in any direction around you, so you can chart out your flight path. But it only works for three days and after that the map just sort of deteriorates, it's kinda packed with magic so eventually it just rots through." "Wow...khheh, that's...really useful thanks! You know, maybe I should make YOU acting captain instead." "Heeeey!" cried Cid. "I'm jokiiiiing...thank you, this'll really help." The kremling smiled as he put the map before bending discreetly towards Rzepka, "Seriously, keep an eye on him for me." "Aye-aye sir." With humble salute they simply nodded as James and Kruz headed off towards their small skiff as they charted out a course towards the far east of the world. The ship was lightweight enough that its thrusters born of magicite power made it shoot far across the sky, blazing like a mosquito across the veldt and with no Jagd in the direction of Kruz's hidden destination they had almost no interruptions during their chartered course. In the Broken Petal it would have taken at least four days to tear across Valendia itself, but on the skiff it took around two. Rzepka's chart was immensely helpful, allowing Kruz and James to make their way around stormy fronts and trembling thunder amidst torrents of rain and gale always managing to skirt past the darkened clouds on the horizon. Some parts however were unavoidable by the huge swathe that crossed before them as they took the least worst front and bravely tore through it. The kremling kept on the wheel firmly as the skiff was buffeted and struck harsh by the lightning storm sending shivering fear through FG's body. But soon they had reached the second day of their voyage as James recognised the forest of Farthing Wood Monastery, wondering how things were getting on as he looked through the windows of the skiff asking: "You should really let me drive." "I'm good," said Kruz. "You've been driving for at least a day straight." "I don't need sleep...not fer this." "...Kruz." The kremling turned, his right eye bloodshot from exhaustion to match his even worse twitching left as he stayed on the wheel. "You're even worse than I am anyway, you look like you got a fuckin' disease." "I can still fight." "You should have rested more in the hospital." "I'm able to walk, I can get on this and not get seasick." "Because we're not on the sea, idiot." "Fuck you." "Fuck you too." Seeing each other's arrogance brought a smile to their snouts as they chuckled fondly realising it was a lost cause to make either of them back down for this as Kruz added: "We're almost there anyway, no need to rest." "Not even for like an hour or two?" "Nah..." "You know your crew's taking this whole um...incident awfully well." "You only saw two of them," replied Kruz, "Cid's gone through enough shit and Rzepka...he has a strong mind, he may not be a fighter but he's strong in other ways." "Why's that?" "Have you SEEN the shit he can do with that mapmaking?! You think that stuff's easy with just a normal mind, that's something you have to train for years to do it good and be able to control it. I mean this map we got here is kind of amazing." "That it is, I mean, for a weather forecast." "And it's on paper and it actually moves." "Yeaaaaah I saw that...sorry." James rubbed the back of his neck rather awkwardly with his voice still morose. "I'm just kind of beyond the point where anything can surprise me." "I know...still, we had the funeral best we could while you were still in the infirmary. Fayne helped out with the whole thing." "I'm sorry," "Don't be." "I still wanna be, I care about your people." "Thanks...you know...everytime I look at you I feel this urge to be near you more than most would...like we're almost from the same family, you ever felt that about someone?" "...sort of. I think that's called just being with your soulmate." "That what we might be?" "I can't think of anyone else I get along with as well as you." "What about Koopin?" "What about Fayne?" "...hm, fair point." "The people we love aren't exact like us, that's why we love them because they're not us. You and me, we just understand each other, I think that's what makes it more real about us." "Would you have fallen in love with me? I mean, let's be real, if I didn't have Fayne and you didn't have Koopin, I just always wanted to ask...did you ever...want to be with me that way? Would you have wanted...to live with me?" James felt a nervous trembling within Kruz's voice as he answered: "I would have, but not because you're a last resort. But because you're the only person that was ever willing to go all the way with me into the depths of hell itself with just as much stupidness like you. Koopin might do the same and I'm sure Fayne would with you but...they're not stupid like we would be, they would be smart. And if I had nobody else, then I would want to be the stupidest faggot that ever walked next to you." "Khheh...khheheh...f-f-fuck...f-fuck dammit James." His hand gripped ruthlessly on the wheel before it started to shake. The raptor walked up and put a hand on his shoulder before the gentle embrace, trying to soothe him. And so it did, the kremling feeling his heart troubled and torn slowly bring itself up with much more confidence as he slowly turned towards a direction on his map. "So I never asked," said Kruz casually, "what's the deal with the name Koridai?" "Huh?" "I never asked any of you what it meant, s'not some word I recognise in Ivalician." "Heh...well it's kind of a dumb name I picked up somewhere, thought it sounded real neat and magical." "Sounds like a brand of beer." "You mean like your surname mister cider-boy?" "Hey I had to think of sumthin'." "Seriously......f-ffhhh..." The raptor noticed some blood was dripping out from his teeth, none of which were loose but the enamel was now worm to a disturbingly brittle-looking point as he gulped back down the ichor with sickening feebleness. Kruz was not aware of it however before asking further: "So um...that purple lady Roy mentioned, do you know about her?" "I think I can guess...who that is." "Well it's just that...she spoke to me too, in my dreams." "Huh?! Wh-when?!" "Around six months before I met you...said I needed to find the Song of Souls and prepare fer when I had to save you from a soul-tearing experience. I thought because of the demon that I had to use it then but turns out, nope, just some world-changing anomaly like always." "Hehehe...man I'm really more trouble than I'm worth." "You're worth everything...trust me." The kremling turned his head halfway with a grin and bloodshot eye of kindness, chuckling as James smiled back. "But I remembered something," added Kruz, "that she told me while you were away after that anomaly hit us. She said...sumthin' to tell you not to forget." "What's that?" asked James. "She said...'remember the sly ruby, hidden in the swamp. When you find a way through, out of this world, remember the sly ruby...she will help you with everything'." "Out of this...world, wait, does she...does she know about where a portal might be?!?" "She didn't say...what IS she?" "Some kind of ghost, I think she's being my guardian angel." "I'm fuckin' sick of ghosts right here." "You and me both Kruz...do you think ghosts have sex?" Kruz turned with a look of disbelief slowly as he cocked one eye. "That's a stupid question Rex. Of course they do." "What?!" "Did you not see those freaks down at Krem Quay? Those assholes try to molest you every damn time you try to go through, if I had a coin every time I got groped and felt SUMTHIN' up my ass down in the bayou I'd be a lot richer." "How much richer?" "Enough to buy me an office."

Smirking foolishly to each other to try and mask their coming fearful apprehension, they soon reached their actual destination upon a lonely island plateau in the midst of the eastern sea. Far to the northeast of the map of Ivalice, there lied a rock that towered above the waves with a flat top carved through with years of erosion by the howling winds as they planted their skiff on the safest point of it. Nailing it down with a fine iron rope digging into the stone like an anchor, they walked slowly towards the middle of the mountain top. Flat and wide by at least a good forty feet, it seemed like the perfect place for a landing point as James noticed something burnt to black upon the very central point of the plateau. There was a storm on the horizon, bellowing across the sea with a rippling echo that sent chills through their bodies as if some worldly other presence was watching them with intrigue. The kremling felt the softest rain as lightning struck fiercely across the horizon as if breaking through the edge of the universe as he murmured: "Lightning. It flashes bright, then fades away. It can't protect. It only destroys." "Hmph," said FG, "sounds familiar." "It does? I read that in a book...wuzn't really my thing." "Yeah...makes me wonder who I can protect truly. I can only protect people by destroying other people, is that really something worth? Can I really just stop...fighting one day and manage to live like, peacefully?" The kremling turned towards his friend with a hand on his shoulder. "You can't always win by playin' nice." "No...but sometimes I wish I could, I-...I just get tired of all this fighting Kruz, when I really think about it, I've done nothing but fight and the only time I ever wasn't fighting was when I was with Koopin and back then I was happy...I felt happy when I was with him when I could stop needing to fight all the time and just live like a normal person could...in a weird happy place with other weird strange people but they were happy, they were...normal in some way. "I know. I'm sorry." "No, Kruz it's-" "No. You're right, you want to be happy, an' I want you to be happy too." "I know...but I want you to live that too, maybe you can one day just stop and live like people should." "Khheh...I will. Now come on, let's go meet this fuckin' dick." A kremling skull with crossbones engraved far deeper than any burn mark would even make as Kruz slowly put down his hat upon it as he motioned James to move back away from it. The hat began to feel the wind whisper across the top of it as it fluttered darkly, the storms encroaching in upon them by a sudden rush. The map had become insane, scribbling feverishly trying to comprehend the atmospheric pressure of the air around them until it simply became blank. Lightning came close enough that James felt his entire body start tingling uncomfortably. A gust of wind blew the captain's hat upwards from its place, whirling as thunderous noise began deafening upon both of them as something emerged between the burnt mark and the hat. A thin strand of darkness, slithering from a void inbetween reality and the spectral plane slowly becoming clearer, as a sharp silver hook crawled its way out from the brim of the hat. Then came the second hook, clasping on before something pushed itself violently out to hit the stone grounding as a foul smoulder burnt across the plateau. It smelt like gunpowder and burning flesh. A voice crept through with a dark reverberance and an accent of the deep seas. "Ahhhhhh...ye have returned to me, my son." "What...the fuck?" asked FG. "The prodigal son returneth to me." A burning coiling smoke came forth from within the captain's hat, pouring through to reveal something both familiar and yet far more terrifying. It somewhat resembled a kremling, the white skull crocodilian growing out of the white mist that wreathed through the black fog like serpents across the lake, its eyes black of an infinite nothingness as its arms ended in a pair of glistening steel hooks. Its body however ended from beneath its ribs, a black cloak fluttering with vile wind from within its remnants ragged. And yet somehow the creature could still smile, like a killer on Christmas Eve as James asked: "Wha-...is THIS him?" "Yes," said Kruz fearfully. "H-h-he...he was in your HAT?!" "No, n-not exactly...more like an essence part of him w-wuz in it, and it's not my hat a-a-anyway. It wuz...his originally." "And so it shall always be mine, dear Kruz." The spirit hovered forwards but made the motion of walking, its body moving closer as thick fearsome clawmarks appeared underneath from out of nowhere, his ribcage shimmering with a bright blue flame. "What a beautiful world this is, an open sea of an infinite expanse, so many little islands...I have felt so many spirits within these seas. Have you come to speak of our arrangement?" "I have," said the kremling, "I-i-i-i-i have brought, s-s-someone to...t-t-to...h-hhhhhh..." "Speak up, my boy...what's wrong? Are ye but afraid of your own racial father?" Moving closer he pressed a hook upon Kruz's cheek, colder than death as he gasped until his breath became clouded noticing the frigid burning light heart-shaped within the banshee's chest. "You know you are part of me bloodline don't you? All kremlings shall be and always will be a part of ME." "H-HHHHhhhh...hhhhh...please...p-p-please let me-" "Hey." The kremling banshee turned slowly towards FG. "What's your name? I wanna know whu-" "When you address a captain, you call him SIR." His hook was suddenly at the raptor's throat within an inch of slicing his larynx wide open. James felt a sense of deja vu horribly creep up from his spine before asking: "What...is your name, sir?" "Better. I have no name, or at least not anymore...but there be one that always does remain for me in my memory and that is...hm...call me Mister X." "......kay, sure. Listen...I'm here to make you an offer." "Really? And who might you be to want such a-...hm? ......aaaahhhhhh." Sweeping across the air with the scent of rotting ships, the phantom clasped its hooks into FG's shoulders as his skull peered over his neck, eyes forever hollow with cracked lines circling around the sockets. "You are but a vessel too, aren't ye? James Campbell, the very soul I have been seeking to meet that so truly captured my kindred's spirit. Strange that be your soul carrying the face of two within but ye are both very much the same...well...but what be this? I feel no love." "H-HUUUUH!" The hook pressed flatly against his chest piercing his heart with an icy frost. "No love burns for you like the passion of which ye spoke of...my dear Kruz. Are ye here to try and convince him?" "H-h-he...he's not, I-i-i-i want to...make a deal with you." "Really?" He was intrigued briefly before pulling his hook away leaving James gasping. "And what sort of deal would you like to make with me?" "I want...to give myself to you in exchange for Kruz." "Wait, WHAT!?" cried Kruz. "JAMES, N-NO!" "Interesting...plenty deals have been made around your dearest friend, what be the reason for this James Campbell?" "Because the original deal is off," said FG, "I don't love him and he don't love me. So that's not going to be happening." "He will honour his part of the deal, that be the way of parley. If he cannot succeed, he shall honour dutifully." "Well then I'll make parley with you. What if, I told you that..." James walked forwards with his arms outspread giving a renewed cocky swagger. "I had a body just waiting for you to use for whatever purpose you want?" "I'm not a possessor my starseeking scrimp. I only want his soul." "Why?" "You would not understand." "Try me. I want to know exactly what kind of person I'm dealing with before I make this deal...sir. And if you must know, I also was a kremling too, technically." "Yes...I know, but you are not of the spirit, you have not the blood of the island." "I've shed plenty of blood on your island, including my former captain. Doesn't that make me entitled to it?" "...yes."

The smile he gave was the look that James had seen on the Scissoraptor a few times before in recordings. He struggled not to flinch trembling at the sight before it grinned breaking into laughter, a sound that would be best described as the drowning screams of a slave ship. "I suppose it is, khhha ha ha ha ha ha, KHHHA HA HA HA! Ohhhhh...very well, I shall entertain ye with a small reprieve of it. My dear descendant is but one of many who is part of my people's history. And so all kremlings must return back to the island one day as is decreed by my kin." "But the island is...gone, right?" "It still remains far beneath the sea and so too are all of his friends and peers now there to see him. I am but the first captain of the Kremlings, and so I shall be the one to reign over them forever. But I need every soul willing to be at hand before me, therefore I need his soul to return back with." "Why? Are you trying to form some kind of...undead army?" "In a manner of speaking...I wish only but to create an ascension by which I can meet the gods themselves...and spit in their face for all they have done to me." "W-w-wait," stammered Kruz, "you...y-y-you...no, n-no no this wasn't, you never told me about that!" "Your deal is now reaching towards an extinction event...I may as well take it for the time ye have left but I am an honourable kremling...I shall allow you to have your two years still to enjoy life." "B-BUT I DON'T WANT IT! I-i-i want...I want to be here, c-c-captain, I have somebody here I love!" "A pity, but it's not James Campbell now is it?" Flourishing with a hook he produced from the ether an old tattered manuscript with Kruz's name signed upon it. He wasn't quite sure what disturbed him most, the fact he saw his friend's name burning inside the paper or the fact that the entire manuscript was written in a language he understood. "Your contract stated very clearly that it was James Campbell's heart that you should capture." "Wait wait, w-why is this in English?" asked FG. "English? Khhha ha ha, manuscripts of the otherworld are translated into whatever tongue ye speak, have ye not learned? Considering your demon within." "Y-you can...see that in me?" "I am but the spirit of the Kremling's home, there are many things that I have seen. I have seen the infinity of our existence, I have seen numbers traverse across our world so many years ago by which it had given me a great gift of insight. But I was to be punished for my ability to see beyond the curtain of reality, and so I heard the gods from above saying to me 'he is not needed in this project, let us take him out of the beta'...and so they did but they could not get rid of me, for I hid within the world's construct." Something clicked within FG's head as his eyes widened sharply. "......can I ask you something?" "Aye?" "...do you know something about an anomaly, or a great thing called the Sorrow?" "You mean that inane whispering from within your eyes?" "What?" He rushed forwards by a trembling gust with hooks planted on James' cheeks as if almost piercing into his eyes frighteningly close, the raptor struggling to feel the hook scrape against his eyelids everytime he blinked. "I can hear them whispering...the sorrow you speak that lies within you...of a strange another verse but I have-...hmmmmm..." The kremling spirit listened intently as his skull reared its "lips" back into an insane grin of feverish excitement. Something about the voices made his eyes widen with shocking revelation as he released James from his grip, asking further on: "This deal that ye are offering, James Campbell...you are wanting to give me your body in exchange for Kruz's?" "Yea-...e-e-exactly. My body and soul in exchange for Kruz." "James...n-no," murmured Kruz, "don't d-d-don't do this! DON'T DO THIS, PLEASE!" "I have a soul, you said yourself it has two faces within now how rare is THAT to have?" "Do you really think I cannot see this blackening heart from within ye? That rancorous demon for starters is befouling." "That's the bonus part of the deal." "Pardon?" "You take my soul, and you get a nice little special pet demon for your use anytime you want. You must be a pretty special guy, Kruz told me a lot about you being the first captain of the Kremling kingdom." "We have no king, no matter what bloated fool might think himself be." "You get my point. But if you wanna have an undead army for yourself then you need to have a pretty special enforcer of some sort, maybe even...somebody beneath you to prowl the realms of the abyss?" "Khhhmhmhmhmhm...you are selling me very intoxicating snake oil, my little beast, don't think I am not so privy to your intentions." "Oh. Oh, I see, I see how it is." He turned with confident wink towards Kruz who looked all the more frightened by this transaction as James spun on his foot back towards the banshee, his voice still barely rising above a standard monotone. "You're not ACTUALLY that powerful are you, is that the problem? Is it because I maybe am so truly powerful with my own pet demon that I might overwhelm you with it?" "Watch your tongue boy, I have slit many a throat for mutiny." "Oh yeah but they were all as mortal as you back when you were actually alive and shit. I bet I can stomp your wispy ass without even USING my demon and if my demon ever got out then oho shit, you would be fucking DEAD, all over again." "Be that a threat for challenging me? I thought you came here to bargain, not lose to me!" "Will I lose to you? Cuz you're making me sound reaaaaaaal confident about kicking your ass out of the spiritual plane. Fuck, you ain't even the first ghost I met and beat, you ever heard of the Pact of Pac? That was me." "...really?" There was a pause of hesitation in the spirit, something that Kruz took the advantage of as he pleaded once more. "James...j-j-just don't, don't do this please, I'll go with him, I don't want you to...you have three months left DON'T WASTE THEM ON ME!" "Yeah," said FG completely ignoring, "I bet you're shaking in your...well, what used to be your boots right? Come on admit it...you're fucking terrified of me and you don't wanna break this deal because you want all the easy shit from Kruz and not ME who's gonna give you a bad time." "Do NOT disrespect me BOY!" "Why? I mean...hhhhmhmhm wha-hat the fuck can you possibly do to me, do you know where I've been? I've been dragged through literally hell in the space between worlds, I have a demon inside of me that has murdered literally hundreds of people, you think I really give a fuck who you are?" "ENOUUUGH!" Thunder resonated by a deep echo that went trembling across their very souls. "You are that willing to give your soul in exchange for my kindred with a death wish then so be it. Let us make a deal. If you can hope to withstand against me, and take me down without ever using your so terrible demon then I will void the contract. But if you dare fall before me completely then I shall take you back to the island in place of Kruz and your demon will become my own..." His hooks began to shimmer with blighted light, like lanterns from the darkness. "As well as your existence." The light from his hooks with a dark silver curse revealing twin sabres of cutlass traditional shape, blood streaking of aged blackened bile. It was as if his body still remembered what it felt even without any fingers, the hooks twisting as if by the wrist of where his hands had once been as the sword handles floated at the edge. But then they felt a great power resonating across the storm as they watched the world slowly plunge into darkness showing nothing beyond the mountain's reach. Then they saw the flames. Circling around the entire plateau wreathing their vision, a dark firey blue prevented them from escaping back towards the skiff should they ever plan to. The lightning storm remained above their heads crackling with a sheer intensity but never came close within the arena. Even the rain and thunder would not dare disrespect the first captain's desire as the raptor gave a cruel grin on his lips, blood coming out from his teeth. "Deal." His blades swung out before plunging their tips into the stone firmly. "Let's play, captain fuckface."

The spirit lunged forwards through a cloud of smoke as James braced for impact, feeling the swords strike fast against him by a cross-striking motion to push him back. His own weapon crossed horizontal to block against both as he pushed forwards with a blazing frenzy from his fingers trickling along the scissors' length. Slashing with a left then right, the tips burned a crimson hue as the phantom swiftly dodged from the fire striking against his blades, sweeping them by a glancing feint. The flames scraped off from one sword as he spun almost diagonally, twisting the remains of his body to deliver a plunging thrust from underneath his arm. James fired up his left hand to a gauntlet of brick, scraping violently against the piercing blade as the dozen-coloured blocks glinted on his hand before dissipating neatly. Conserving his energy, he waited for the next attack ducking under the horizontal sweep of both swords with one from the left and the second from his right before thrusting forwards into the flaming heart. The phantom blocked with a sudden cross of his swords clashing together to deflect the raptor's thrust, pushing himself back and to the right circling around the sickly-looking James who spun fast in a complete circle. Burning fire in a spinning arc, he swung his blades up high in the last minute as he turned cleaving down upon the spirit. His cutlasses raised up but not fast enough to block FG this time as he carved through the spectral form with tearing across his heart. Gasping with a shriek he grinned cruelly before shifting from existence, the raptor on his own for but a few seconds until a ghostly whisper came across his left ear. He saw the white bone to his left and struck instantly, seeing nothing but a puff of white smoke briefly in the shape of a skull before something sliced across his right waist, forcing him to shriek and buckle to the floor. He rolled desperately away from the second strike seeing blood ooze from underneath his right arm, slowly standing back up once again to face the spectre. Kruz watched James in his more lethargic state, not as swift or as cocky as he once was but there was still a sense of determination that kept him willing to stand on his own feet. Staggering his way forwards, James swung his scissors up high to trick the ghostly apparition to strike against before twirling the grip and ducking low underneath, taking the handles with his backhand to plunge ruthlessly, just missing the phantom's heart. Shuddering by an intense pain from the fires still scorching across the blades, the first captain thrust violently sharp back against with both swords as James struggled to dodge back. The moment he did, the spectre disappeared from the edge of his scissors and tore down the raptor's back, ripping bloodied gashes vertically across his shoulderblades. With a stumbling and a feeble scream he felt his vision start to swim worryingly before turning back round, watching the captain's wraith fade slowly back and forth. Shimmering between the spectral and physical plane of existence, it drifted towards the raptor who braced himself still with flaming steel of rusted amber before the spirit came close enough. But it failed to teleport right in front of him and instead had taken a feint to his left slicing across his leg with brutality of both swords, forcing James to fall down on one knee before he dragged himself limping by a short burst of speed. The kremling banshee drifted over towards him, the raptor thrusting out of desperation before it floated straight above him with ragged cloak and entrails now faded to a withering tip before coming down upon his head. Both blades of the phantom plunged deep into the earth as James dodged to the right before swinging with raw effort to carve across the skull, scraping viciously to send sparks aflame upon it as his bones rattled slightly. The look in its hollow eye was both insulting and intriguing as he swung his sword out towards FG. James blocked as he saw the cutlass hurl itself towards him like a throwing axe, striking it harshly towards the sky above him as it left him completely unguarded. The captain was straight behind it to break through and claw screeching with its unarmed hook that tore into James' sternum. Hooking the flesh and subtly twisting, it was only the fact there were no major blood vessels near it that he wasn't dripping profusely as the silver claw shanked fully in and out of his flesh like a needle. The kremling's hook dug in deep, snagging the smooth scale like poorly-made leather as James screamed desperately trying to keep himself standing. "You lose." He said nothing, with one sword against his neck and the other having fallen to strike down into the rock beside him. "Did you really think I had any intention of losing to you? And remember..." The blade pushed deeper with every word he until his blood began to drip freely down his shoulder. "No demon from ye, or else your dear Kruz's soul is forfeit. I already knew of your power James Campbell, I saw the voices whispering from within of that strange fearful anomaly ever since you entered my world existence. I felt it. I could taste that strange power already wanting so much more especially because it FREED me...do ye not understand by now why there are so many wanting that precious ability of ye?" "GH-GHHHAAAAAARGH!" "All I had to do was make a deal with his most dear of friends to want to find him and once he did I would have you brought back to me...and if he decided to abscond with you well...that is what my madness is for, it's but simply a marker in finding out where Kruz is throughout this world of Ivalice. And now...I have ye finally." The hook twisted his skin slightly, sending a ruthlessly tight pain burning above his heart. "Finally I can become free from this existence as a whole new beast, a fearsome deity that can defy the gods themselves transcending through the dark of space! All because of you and that power to tear through existence...break through the very coding every time you open a portal to rip through our world and escape, but now it's my turn. Let me enter you James...let me...penetrate your deepest reason-GH-GHHHRRAAAAAAARGH!"

Pain tore violently throughout the banshee's form as something plunged into his back, feeling what remained of his heart had become torn by a beautiful light he had not seen before. "Guess what?" The voice of Kruz came from behind him before the sharp upwards twist of a dagger tore through his heart's flame, the kremling that was living slowly pulling back to reveal the glistening dagger of Fayne's holy spirit. "Never turn your back on a pirate." "You...y-y-you...youuuuu treacherous SNAKE!" Releasing James from his grip the banshee turned with howling gusts of fury, the wind that had taken a thousand ships to beneath the sea now shrieking from behind him. The pain was agonising from inside of him as the wondrous divine burned deep into his remains as he stared upon his kin's pulsating bloodshot eye. The dagger of Kiltia's blessed light had its handle now reassembled to fit into his stump somehow managing to stay bright even within this wretched battlefield. "You DARE defy me?!" the phantom shrieked. "YOU'RE the snake around here!" shouted Kruz. "You set up this whole deal with me just to get close to James didn't you?! FOR WHAT, POWER?! HE'S THAT IMPORTANT OR SUMTHIN'?!" "KHHAH, finally the boy learns something, didn't ye hear me?! THIS wretched boy that took ye so amorously has the power to tear through existence! It was HIM that brought me out of my veiled prison beneath our reality when I came through whatever tear he made, all I ever wanted was to take him as my own!" "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU FUCKIN' WANT, YOU FUCKIN' BETRAYED ME FIRST!" "How can you even manage to hurt me with that pathetic toy?! You are nothing but a part in this sordid play!" "Because the light of Faram shall protect me...the light of Kiltia from the one I love is in this blade right here and so long as I have it I know that my love will always protect me...even in spirit. I will not let you separate anyone ever AGAIN!" "Your love is but a pitiful fantasy you worthless TRAITOR!" "THEN THAT MAKES YOU EVEN MORE PITIFUL, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE?! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT THE LAST NIGHTMARE I'LL EVER HAVE, YOU'RE MY FINAL FANTASY!" The wraith rushed forwards kremling versus kremling as the first captain brought back his second cutlass in but a blink before striking down upon Kruz's head. With sudden dodge of a dexterous spin to evade both wicked blades, the brown-scaled kremling ducked low onto his knees and strafed powerfully to lunge-stab from the side tearing partially through the spirit's core. "JAMES!" The raptor struggled to stay on his feet before seeing Kruz offer him a bottled elixir as he grabbed it fast in passing, the kremling swiftly grabbing his own cutlass from his belt with his lone hand. "DRINK UP, YER NOT DONE YET!" "Right." The taste he had never felt before, but if there was anything in life that could come close to tasting every single colour of the world in nature then it was this. Enrichening purity from every corner of life itself, the very essence of the world in one gulp as he felt rejuvenation enter through him. His body strengthened, his mind reborn without the fogginess of exhausting his nanos as the most sumptuous and perfect liquid had run through him completely. He grasped his scissors firmly with a smile before firing them up with burning frenzy, the first captain gasping from the holy pain that trembled throughout him as he chanted: "You dare break the rule of this engagement little scrimp?! Your souls I shall render null and VOID to me!" "I don't think he's broken any rule," proclaimed FG, "all you said was I fight you without ever using my demon, you never said anything about not getting help from anybody outside of it!" "Damn right," said Kruz cockily, "an' if there's one thing I learnt that I still kept with me since my days on the galleon, is that crocs of the leather stick together." Both raptor and kremling gave a fistbump of confidence as the dark phantom sneered with distaste at their impudence. His swords began to burn with thickening flames like ice become wroth. "Youuuu would dare to face your ancestral captain like this? So too shall you be taken from existence, you wish to defy me?! YOU DARE TO SPIT ON YOUR ANCESTORS' MEMORY!?" "I'm gonna do a lot worse than that," said Kruz, "I'm gonna bend you over an' fuck you like no tomorrow!" "YEAH!" cried FG with renewed strength. "I ain't afraid of no ghost, especially not some beta BITCH like you!" "INFIDEEEEEEEEEEL!" The first captain grew a fearsome look in his eyesockets, whitened dots piercing as he roared deep with jaw elongating, cracking apart showing more teeth from within where its tongue would be like a monstrous demon shark as he twisted his wrists to spin the cutlasses once. James and Kruz stood ready and waiting, the raptor on offence with his greater weapon whilst Kruz gently circled around pincering the banshee inbetween them. With sword in one hand and the dagger in his stump, he rushed forwards ahead of FG readying himself to guard as the twin cutlasses carved down on his face. Kruz dodged by a graceful slide on his knees despite the rough stone underneath, bounding back up almost instantly to turn and swipe with the slicing dagger but he was blocked fiercely by the spirit. His ancestor struck down ruthlessly upon the stump, clashing steel to vibrate painfully along Kruz's left arm before he blocked the other cutlass with his own. James rushed up from behind with raw flaming scissors as the banshee swung out both cutlasses blocking them from opposite sides as ice-cold flames dripped down to the very tips. The raptor and the kremling nodded to each other before they pulled back to strike once again. With two against one they moved together, the raptor clashing against one cutlass blade whilst Kruz parried against the other. Even by one hand the spirit was fast, with James striking diagonal constantly against the unfeeling blade whilst Kruz sliced horizontal with the occasional stabbing feint to try and get in close for a chance at the spirit's chest which burned an ethereal flame somewhat weaker than usual. Soon they stopped moving, the captain clashing both blades against cutlass and scissors perfectly before his burning fire swung threatening to decapitate both of them. Both raptor and kremling spun simultaneously with their bodies horizontal, aided by the forceful strike of the cutlasses against their blades separately before landing firmly with both feet, dust briefly spreading out from around them. James swiftly began tearing into the phantom with an upwards strike of fire crimson from his nanos whilst Kruz came down from above with a grand jete leap. His powerful jump with a brief running start had him go almost above the captain's head before he suddenly uplifted his spectral presence meeting him face to face in mid-air. His foot planted on the unexposed side of the phantom's ribs, the twin cutlasses came down but Kruz deflected both with a scraping slice with his momentum given strength before he backflipped powerfully off of the decrepit raw bone. Spinning briefly upwards and backwards, the kremling fell to earth at the same moment that James charged his arm with brimming plasma strength focused into a cannon-shape firing at the back of the wraith whilst Kruz kept him distracted. Torn through by intangible energy, the heart suddenly pulsed by a flickering wilt as they watched with anticipation the revenant starting to weaken before it whooshed down to where Kruz now waited to strike. But the raptor was already up and running to counter anything it had up its grisly sleeves as the kremling tried to swipe viciously at the oncoming attack. But the spirit simply faded to wreath its smoke in front of Kruz blotting out his vision briefly, coiling its vapours of darkness to slither around past his cheeks with swords glistening from behind before the raptor shouted: "GET DOWN!"

Kruz dipped down to his knees in perfect ballet crouch giving the perfect shot as James blasted violently forth with his second plasma burst straight past over Kruz's head. But the spirit was faster and had dodged completely making its way towards FG by a sudden frenzy of the stormwinds rushing from behind its ragged cloak with twin cutlasses out like vicious fangs ready to strike upon him. The raptor gripped his blades in his left hand blocking harshly with his cannon-clad right as a temporary shield, feeling the growing exhaustion of his nano-powers draining swiftly to maintain both the flaming scissors and his cannon-arm. But his friend was ready to come from behind as the spirit hacked across James' face, guarded against by both scissors and cannon steel to block each cutlass individually. Overhead swings would send sparks across his blades, piercing thrusts were slammed down by his protected right arm before Kruz impaled the dagger of Kildean light straight into the essence of his ancestor's flames. The heart throbbed feverish around the power of divine will, penetrating the burning wisp until it flickered now smaller. With all its power slowly weakening from the combined purity of light holy and raw energy, the wraith of the kremling captain began faltering as it dropped its cutlasses from its hooks, clanging twice upon the stone before fading into silver smoke. His eyeless sockets began to bleed a hot red as he lowered his spectral form as if falling to his knees. Kruz untwisted the dagger from his arm to leave it burning within his ancestor's form as he gasped with weakening strength: _ "All...I wanted...was to be free......why...why wo uld you betray your ancestry?"_ "Because I won't let you define me," snarled Kruz, "you tricked me, you forced me into being driven almost insane like the one I used to call my father." "I wanted...to give you the gift of reason." "What reason?! You just wanted somebody else to suffer like you did because you couldn't bear the weight of what you'd seen!" "Consider what you will...you will have your ending soon." "Wait, what?!" "I have seen the winds of war come flow from the east to whence you came, far beyond to the city of this dreadful light you so deeply have wounded me with. There will come a great many sacrifices...all of which you shall feel burning deep within yourself." "Who?!" cried FG. "Who are you talking about, are you saying Lea Monde's about to-" "It will exist...if only but barely, for I have seen it...a great burning prison by which you shall know your deepest sorrows of this world unless you come to stop it. Do you wish to remain in this world still, my descendant? Do you so desire to be adrift forever from our kin to see what awaits you in but three days?" "There is no kin," said Kruz firmly, "all you have left is an island down beneath the sea and our remnants scattered across the waves, and I hope to the gods that they find lives better than ones you ever would give. Consider this my resignation, captain." "If...that is so, then so it shall be." The blood flowed from the first captain's skull before viciously lancing like a spear of red towards Kruz's eyesocket. He screeched with a gasping hot pain as he felt something suck deep from within his brain, violently tearing itself free. Blood streamed beautifully like a red dandelion stalk in the breeze, drifting away from Kruz's left eye before slowly receding to within the spirit's self. James smiled with a joy of surprise seeing something new. "K-kruz, your eye!" "What?!" "It...it's not bloodshot anymore." "...really?" "I have taken from you my gift," said the kremling wraith, "since you have so freed me from this pain of existence that the creators could not achieve, so too shall you have your pitiful existence here. You will not return to our ancestral home and should you ever try, I will make certain you are not welcome amongst us anymore...my most dissonant of prodigal sons." "The pleasure is mine," said Kruz as he bowed with sarcasm. "Now I have no more use for you...or your hat, great ancestor." The wraith simply pressed a hook to its captain's hat before the flames slowly began to consume him as his eye glowered bleeding white fire amidst the burning blue. "I only tell ye of an ending you may now achieve, for there will come a war in three days upon your home, burning with blood and greed from iron coffins roaming across this fair land, so too must ye act or else you shall lose everything you have so strived for." "Why tell me all this?" asked Kruz. _"Because...I only envy such a life that you might lead and I can never have, so you may not regret what you have chosen...my dear Kruz. Khhhmhmhmhm ha ha ha ha ha, KHHHHA HA HA HA HA HA HA ha ha ha haaaa..." _ With his last laugh his existence began to fade from within the fires of his infernal remnants, the bone devoured to become dust that simply scattered itself on the winds of an unnatural breeze. The dagger of Fayne simply clattered upon the ground no longer impaled within the fiendish heart of the wight. The darkness swept through spiritng away as the fires stopped burning on the outer rim of the plateau, the storms began dissipating showing a clear blue sea restless eternal. James looked towards the skiff with determined look regained in his glassy eyes. "If what he said was right-" "We have to get back soon anyway," replied Kruz. "But if what he said was right-" "Then we're gonna need some help." "You think he's telling the truth? I mean he did just try to kill us after tricking us?" "I'm not sure...but it's better we don't take the chance and I think that...yeah. I have an idea." "Huh?" "I think both of us need to bring in some backup before we head back to the city, an' I know just where we can find it. But first I have sumthin' fer you." Kruz did not even hesitate as he pressed his arms upon James' shoulders before giving him the deepest kiss he could give in that moment. Gasping hotly from the suddenness as the kremling pushed his tongue thickly into him, there came no sound from between them as their eyes closed softly. At least until Kruz slowly parted to stare deep into James' faded green pupils, his hand brushing his thumb dearly across the raptor's pale skin. "Thank you. You saved me...you saved my life and you also saved Fayne from being broken again. You've done so much more fer me than I could ever ask of you James." "Heheheh," James chuckled smirking, "I just wish my own demon was that fucking easy." "We'll find a way, I know we will. Just can't believe how...you really have changed. It just seems so weird ever since our days when we first met when you were this punkass squirt and now you're all this...this hero to me." "Really?" "Yeah. You're my hero James. I'll never forget this." "Well..." He gripped Kruz's hand tightly with his old enthusiasm slowly returning by a fierce grin. "Let me show you how much a hero I've become, let's go get our friends some backup before this battle starts."

"ENEMY AT THE GATES!" "SUMMON THE GUARDS BACK, WE NEED THEM AT THE FRONT!" "GET THOSE CANNONS UP AND RUNNING LET'S GO, MOVE IT!" In the months that had passed since their previous assault, the city of Lea Monde had managed to fortify itself for any further invasions by a small collection of artillery and patrol ships circling the sky to keep warnings for touble. The moment enemies had been spotted the bells were ringing and so everyone began panicking towards their chosen places. The guards had been assembled, the cannons had been prepped and the streets had been cleared despite the snow that remained almost on every corner piled up in drifts. All that were defenceless or unable to fight were being piled into the great cathedral's many cellars, whilst those still able to fight from young squires to hardened maidens came out ready to protect their city. It wasn't the best fortified city in all of Ivalice but it was a sight more impressive and more impregnable than it had been previously. Slowly there came a rumbling of many armoured carriages rolling into the city at night, the Broken Petal having long since taken itself up towards the skies now monitoring over the city, watching always to protect. The same carriages as before, clearly as well as the same many black cloaked individuals armed with sword and plating underneath as they began ransacking through the city. It was an all-out war, houses blasted left and right, crumbling mortar and torn streets, shattering glass windows and obliterating remnants of family homes where memories would remain buried underneath the now-formed-newly rubble. Some either too afraid to flee or too stubborn to leave were completely destroyed by the blasting tanks in their own doorways, a pale stain showing the last remains of their resistance. The complete desiccation of Lea Monde slowly began encroaching towards the great cathedral as the Broken Petal began advancing upon the tanks that had not yet entered into the city. Making certain of its target the ship turned and began firing a great rain of Firaga-powered cannon shots upon them, crushing quite a few of them to turn deceased in their tracks. The metal coffins in turn created a blockade forcing the tanks to diverge around to try and enter the city by other means as well as blocking those from escaping, not that the stone walls of ancient build could even stop them from doing so. Even more terrible was the fact that from at least two different directions there were tanks pouring in, from the entrance as well as from the north, crunching their way through the stone protective barrier of the city with a slow but inevitable destruction. At the front of it all was Margaret Mitford, the iron lady with cold steel look and her blue sleek robes as she stood firmly atop the middle of the tank brigade, alongside Enoch who looked sternly towards the church, slowly making their way towards the town centre. To the patrol routes above it was more than terrifying to see thirty steel carriages slowly crush the city beneath their cold treads. "Teams One to Seven advance on the church front!" she ordered. "Teams Eight to Thirteen, divert south and completely obliterate the downtown sector, Teams Fourteen to Twenty remain on the northern front to block anyone from coming through! Now, Blue team, come with me, we shall divert around the church to the south sector and head through to the upper rafters! Don't slouch boys!" Striding her way towards her appointed infiltration point, the hume fiercely stepped faster than most of her minions behind her all wearing the same black cloaks and armoured faces rendering them completely faceless and cold beyond relief. Enoch tried to keep pace, but he had a faltering gait not so much out of pain but rather from out of exhaustion as he lagged behind the rest of them. Fires began to burn, and so the people screamed for the city of Lea Monde to be saved by the Light of Kiltia. Inside the church it was almost a scene of chaos, the many civilians bawling and panicking to beseech for their divine protection as the head priests and priestesses guided them down to within the cellars safely. But of course when people were herded into one they became ever more unruly, despite their begging to be saved as there came a push, then shove, then a clamouring fight amidst the most increasingly-stressed and frightened with the sounds of incoming tanks and terrible blows of destruction to their old businesses and homes making it all the worse. Fayne and Baldwin were amidst those to be herding the lost, shepherds to the frightful many as Mariel calmly enticed them to within the safety of the city's closed bowels. Despite the cold and damp that was within which never affected her, she reassured with constant care and the odd look of pure darkened force to push them into the safer rooms. When she was done, she headed towards her two sons asking them: "You know what must be done?" "Yesszh," they replied diligently. "Good. I will protect the artifacts for I cannot show this city my truth, so I must rely on you to assist the garrison. Baldwin, you must let the Light of Kiltia guide your fists to protect the gates for they must never set foot within this cathedral." "Over my dead body," said Baldwin dutifully. "Fayne, guide him with your piety. We have white mages on hand so you must coordinate yourselves with them." "Absszholutely my mother," said Fayne obediently. "Good, make your way to the front hall but do not stand at the doors, I want you both to be the vanguard amongst our elites, is that clear?" "Yesszh mother." "May Faram bless you in His infinite light of wisdom...my children." The black-cloaked army advanced towards the church with the city's few cannon defences bringing thunder down upon their heads, literally even as a mix of fire, lightning and ice magic came down upon the invaders with the iron carriages firing back just as much force in their numbers as soldiers clashed. Blood flew across the cobbled streets amidst snowdrifts and streetlights glinting pale magicite upon those who had fallen both innocent and armoured from both oppositions. The sounds of fire and screaming frenzy rang through the night long beneath the mournful bells of the great cathedral.

In the midst of this chaotic night, three children had disappeared from their arranged housing towards out the back, the fire and smoke rising high above their heads as they gripped their swords tightly in defence. Whether it was brave enthusiasm or foolish naivety that made them not aware of the severity of this battle, it mattered not to the moogle, the nu-mou and the viera who stumbled their way through the streets, their armoured selves dully glistening in the streetlights reflecting against the snow. "This is it," cried Lu, "our time's really come!" "B-b-but," stammered Belle, "th-they said that...we should evacuate back to the cathedral if you can't be able to fight!" "They did, IF you weren't able to fight, whaddaya think we got these swords for?!" "I-i-i can't fight!" "You can!" replied Blum. "You know you can, you fight with yer voice, you give us strength an' keep us focused we can't do this without you!" "A-are you sure?" "Absolutely, I wouldn' wanna be evaporatin' knowin' that thuh three of us can take these people on, ah mean we fought a DRAGON!" "Wyvern," corrected Lu. "STILL, we fought it an' we WON, now is that sumthin' we gonna turn our backs to after all this trainin' we got Belle?! Come on, let's do this, we'll be right with you no matter whut!" "Yeah, cuz we're not crusaders anymore...we're protectors! And we've gotta protect our city, like true heroes do...like Berniere would right girls?!" "YEAH!" The nu-mou in purple robes gently nodded from her pale head, grimacing slightly as she kept a firm grip on her blade before the three slid back towards the rear of a bakery shop, holding their swords high with solemn unity. "We'll protect our city," said the moogle. "We'll save our friends!" cried the viera. "We...w-w-we can't be stopped!" stuttered the nu-mou. "We'll never stop!" "Cupid Mark Protectors, GO!" With swords out and ready, they rushed through the alleyways and byways of Lea Monde with the flames all around them shining across their blades. The ruins freshly made before them of old shops and houses almost became exciting to them, as if exploring a whole new world swiftly altered before their very eyes clambering through the wreckage, dodging through remaining doorways and over fallen dressers filled with clothing. Soon they found themselves upon a broken bedroom floor, directly above a standing guard as Lu pulled back cautiously turning towards her friends. "Remember, they're monsters, so we gotta fight them." "B-but," whimpered Belle, "they're...they're people too, w-w-we can't fight people, th-that's a bad thing!" "They come in our city, they burn our houses down an' there's people out there gettin' slaughtered!" "D-DON'T TELL ME THAT!" "You gotta fight to protect those who need saving! I know you don't like it Belle but we've gotta do this!" "We can take 'em," snarled Blum, "if you can't kill 'em then at least do sumthin' to knock 'em out, lahk this, YAAAAAAAAH!" "BLUM WAIT!" Before they could react, the viera leapt from above before crashing down her whole body on top of the guarding hume's head, slamming his face to the floor with surprising force as his metal facial guard crunched violently, rendering him unconscious. The noise however had another guard soon approach as he turned around the corner. "HEY, you alright?! Are you-WHO'S THAT-G-GOW!" Blum had fired her bow directly at his face, the arrow pinging off with little effort as she ran towards another door with the second guard on her heels with sword out fully. "GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE PUNK, I'M GONNA-" "RAAAAAAAAH!" Lu was up next, the moogle cracking down onto the guard's head to render the second enemy unconscious, groaning feebly as she encouraged Belle to hop down after her. The nu-mou feebly leapt and flumped her bottom hard on the hume's back, making him grunt before she swiftly said: "S-sorry!" "Don't apologise!" cried Lu. "He's attacking our home!" "B-b-but maybe he was just-" "Come on let's go!" The protectors ran forth through the ruined district keeping an eye out for any trouble, Blum substituting her sword with a bow instead feeling less confident with a blade. Belle kept on nervously trying to stay with her friends whilst Lu rushed plentifully ahead seeing a group of six cloaked fiends trying to break down the door of one shopfront using a large battering ram. They crouched themselves down behind the ironmonger's shop which had been picked clean of all weapons and armour possible. "Oh no, the baker's!" cried Belle. "What are they gonna do?!" "They're gonna steal all our bread!" shouted Lu. "Or even the cakes, WHAT IF THEY STEAL ALL THE CAKES?! THAT'S LIKE FORTY CAKES!" "AND THAT'S TERRIBLE!" squawked Blum. "What do we do?! There's lahk six of them an' only three of us!" "We have to distract them...um...i-is there anything in the iron shop?" "Nooooope." They looked around in the smithworks with not a single scrap of anything useful, not even tools to throw at them. Except for something that had been left on the street a few feet behind them in the form of a rather large wagon with a stopper underneath the front wheels and several heavy steel jugs in the back unattended. "Whussat?!" asked Lu. "That's thuh milk wagon!" replied Blum. "Look see thuh jugs?!" "...wait, I got an idea, pull those things out from under the wheels!" "Are we STEALING it?!" panicked Belle. "Nope! I got a better idea fer this thing!" Carefully pulling the stoppers out from under the wheels with their swords as leverage, they tugged them free before all three of them pushed against the wagon front to send it rolling down the street. They watched with excitement as the milk rattled and clattered violently without any sense of direction before hitting the six guards straight on with battering ram gone loose. The log of steel went beneath wheels sending the wagon over almost fully as it careened screeching down the street, the foes crushed beneath its wheels crying out from their legs and heads having cracked on the pavement as the kids whooped with raucous joy. "YEAAAH!" "TAKE THAT YOU!" shouted Belle with forced vigour. "CUPID MARK PROTECTORS WIN AGAIN!" "G-GET THEM!" roared one of the men standing with bruised ribs. "GET THOSE LITTLE SHITS!" But the young charges were too far away and much more energetic than the bruised and crippled enemies that did everything they could to stagger upwards and try to chase them down. But the old city the three knew like the back of their hands as they dodged through the alleys smartly, leaping over boxes to climb over walls and soon they had escaped within two minutes of being seen. But the voices of such ferocity brought a sense of reality to them fearfully. "WHERE'D THEY GO?!?" "THEY MUST BE HIDING SOMEWHERE!" "FIND THEM! NOBODY ESCAPES THIS PLACE, THIS WHOLE CITY'S GETTING BURNED TO THE FUCKING GROUND!" "WHAT DO WE DO IF WE FIND THEM?!" "BURN THEM! I don't wanna even see their FACES left on them after we're done with this fucking city! We're getting paid to wreck this place as much as possible, to teach these Lea Monde sons of bitches what happens if they try to cross us, NOW MOVE!" "YES SIR!" They made their way around the inner streets heading towards the town square whilst avoiding any large groups out of both a fearful trepidation and a well-trained caution in their hearts. The atmosphere of the warzone was getting to them, but they refused to admit it to each other out of respect to their clan honour. Lu was adamantly refusing to let any of it come to her, whilst her other two friends were not as sturdy by their mental standing as the sounds of screams and fires burning all around was like some great fiendish nightmare before Blum mumbled: "W-w-we...should prob'ly find sumbody to git to." "Maybe go to the church?" asked Belle plaintively. "All the grownups went there." "We can't run away," said Lu, "We took down eight people, we've got to do this!" "But Lu, I don't think-" "WE. HAVE TO-AAAAIEE!"

A violent explosion burst through their ears, powerfully shattering through the earth as a taller building had to finally submit not more than thirty-feet away from them. The three-story building society groaning from the sheer weight of its own collapsing demise as a cold dust pulsed through the streets not close enough to have them cough but enough to hear the cries of people that were still in the building almost certainly become wounded. Or worse once the debris had settled after the sound of a ginormous crushing girth decimated across the street. The pitiful sound of whimpers from within made them all the more realise the severity of this day as Blum said: "Look, listen, w-we're doin' good, w-w-we had our best shot but we gotta get down to shelter soon, Mrs. Imrie's gonna be worried! All these people, th-th-this place is not SAFE Lu, we could end up hurt, o-o-or KILLED, OR WORSE!" "We can do better than that!" cried Lu. "We have to save people!" "But the grownups are savin' people too!" "SO CAN WE! Everybody's gotta fight, didntcha hear what they said before we left?! Anyone who's able to fight should, anyone who can't go to shelter, and we can fight!" "Well...a-a-ah guess yer right." "Are you scared Blum?" The first time they asked each other this they knew what they were all feeling finally. There was no hiding once they looked in each other's eyes showing it mirrored their own fears of mortality, somewhat moreso than anything they had faced before. Elsewhere from some nearer distance they heard the sound of some unholy beast shrieking with frenzy as another battle had initiated, the cries of hume screaming back with fierce shock and a far more ruthless conviction. "Ah...a-ah am. There's...th-there's a lotta people g-gettin' hurt an' ah don't...ah wanna jus' go back to bed an' pull thuh sheets over mah head an' hope it goes away." "...me too." Belle said this too rubbing her foot into the dirt. "I...I like having adventures b-but this...this isn't fun. It's scary." "I know it's not fun," said the young moogle, "you think I don't wanna go back and just do sumthin' normal?! But I can't...just leave all these people I have to DO sumthin', you know what I mean?! ...I don't wanna be a coward." "You're not! You're...you're the bravest of us Lu...hey, wh-who's that?!" Staggering out from a nearby street, they saw a woman in blue clothes with torn scraping marks on her body as she stormed furiously towards the cathedral almost a hundred feet away. She was badly limping, but no blood came from her as she used her staff like a cane to push herself onwards. "That's the lady that's with Berniere all the time, maybe she knows where he is!" "Yeah totally we gotta do sumthin' to help her, let's go talk to her!" They tried to catch up but she was surprisingly fast despite a gammy leg, hobbling her way through the streets almost disappearing from their sight. Soon they were at the cathedral no more than four streets away, as they saw the woman discreetly enter through a small servant entrance. It was nearly overgrown from lack of use but she tore down the vines ruthlessly before melting the lock completely through by a y noticed it had been used very recently, judging by the vines someone had torn ruthlessly to one side as they watched her enter almost sneaking in. "Whut's she doin'?" asked Blum. "Going to church?" replied Belle bluntly. "Ah get THAT but...why's she goin' in the cathedral from that way and not thuh front door?!" "What do I look like, her secretary!? Come on, we've got to go after her!" The three chased after her quietly with raised suspicion as she ascended the stairway of the cathedral's side entrance after breaking through the door with fire burnt through the melting lock. With unaccompanied gait she strode ever upwards with a new purpose of a fierce intention as the girls neatly shadowed her every move. The area of the church they now went to had been almost completely deserted, as the upper floors were mostly reserved for the most officious of duties as well as for the actual purpose of benediction of the holy light of Kiltia. The Rood of Iocus was resplendent upon the grand central window of circular indentation, with six points almost perfectly resonating the light of the city now a sea of flames far below. The area they were now in appeared to be some form of main headquarters for the arch magistrate of the region, vacated down to the cellars where he would now hide amongst the regular folk. The woman crossed over the lush reddened carpet amidst various work desks and prayer mats offering the sole point of the rich and beauteous grace of Faram, ignoring them as she walked even higher than before. Soon she neared the steeple, which remained firmly apart from the bells that had ceased their ringing bleakly from within their own highest tower. The sight of the city below them by at least 120 feet was immensely humbling, the three children now stood within a large square observation point around twenty feet in both length and width as Margaret stood against one of the railings peering down upon the city. Her intentions were not made clear until she began to summon something, slowly twirling her hand with one finger in the air upon casting a dark portent over the city's glinting lights. "UM, e-e-excuse me!" "What?!" The woman turned with a great distaste and the look of having no time to deal with as she snarled: "Who the bloody hell are you?!" "W-we're," stammered Blum, "C-cupid Mark Protectors, we're here to save this city!" "Yeah!" shouted Lu. "Yer with Berniere aren't you, right, in Clan Herne?!" "...why yes." The black mage smiled with a cautious serene look that was oddly cold as she nodded. "I am indeed, are you perhaps looking for him dears?" "Um, if you know where he is, s-sure, we have to stop these people from burnin' our whole city!" "Quite...indeed, perhaps I can...help you with your inquiry my little urchins." Her hands slid towards her back slowly with her staff hiding from view, as it began pulsing with a deep and burning crimson light. "But first, let me show you something..."

Far beyond the reach of the cathedral, the stables were in panic as the chocobos were flitting to and fro with fear from the sights and scents of battle slowly wafting to their nostrils. The stablehands tried to take them to safety, pulling them and coaxing them best they could but for those within Clan Koridai's group, they had other plans altogether despite Luke and Rinoa desperately panicking as they ran in circles. "Wh-what's happening?!" cried Rinoa. "It's an attack!" squawked Luke. "What do we do?! WHAT DO WE DO?!" "WHERE'S OUR RIDERS?! WH-WHERE DID THEY GO?!" "THEY ABANDONED US, THEY MUST HAVE RUN!" "NO! THEY WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" "They wouldn't." Cyrus stood firmly in the centre of them before he intercepted Luke with stern eyes to make him forcefully stop with Rinoa doing the same. Their feet became rigid as they scraped the cold firm ground in desperate need to flee as the old veteran of winged steel spoke calmly. "They are simply tending to others that are in need." "BUT WE'RE IN NEED HERE!" shouted Luke. "Did you forget your training young bull? You are a steed of Clan Koridai, you should honour that!" "You're not." From the stable came Lightning with her eyes cold and glinting from the firelight off the distance. "I command this group, you are but a guest." "I'm not here to quarrel Lightning, I am simply giving advice." "Then let me do my duty." "Allow me to perform the same, I can work with you." "You are not officially with us. You obey your own rider, the lone steed that you so deem yourself to be." "I may be a lone wolf but I am not a callous vagrant...which I suspect might have been your deepest wish without this group." He cocked his head disdainfully at her before she approached with fierce pulsating eyes as the pale hen fluffed her wings to intimidate him. Cyrus remained unmoving. "Don't even try to profile me." "I am a knight's steed, that is all. I will not shirk from my duty to protect those in need but I need your help. I beseech you, as leader of this group to let me aid you." "Hm, so you at least respect the chain of command." "More than you ever will...what sordid past have you brought your state from?" "I do not have to tell anything to you." "No." "Are you guys gonna fuck yet, or what?" Hearing this Lightning turned with sudden insult, seeing Cadbury stand at the door to within the stables. "WHAT...did you say?" "Cuz we got plenty of time to fuck around and measure each other's dicks until AFTER we're done breakin' everybody's face." "You don't even speak for almost a week and THIS is what you choose to say? Pathetic." "Fuck you." The black chocobo made a running jump over the fence managing to clear it easily by a hopping stride over the nearby bench as a stepping stone before landing on the streets. Rinoa and Luke rushed over towards him with a panic aflutter in their breasts as the pale-winged hen shouted: "C-C-CADBURY, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" "H-HEY STOP!" cried Luke. "D-DON'T SEPARATE!" "I'm not gonna wait," retorted Cadbury, "not while SHE'S trying to maintain order in her little bitch harem when I got more important stuff to do, like finding some asshole to kill!" "You can't be serious, C-cadbury they have weapons, those THINGS that killed my brother!" "Well I know what not to get in the way of don't I Lukey-boy?! Thanks for the heads-up." "CADBURY WAIT!" The black chocobo raced off without any further comment, running towards the cathedral as the most prominent point of civilian life despite the protests of his group behind him. He wasn't running there to find someone, not that he knew where James was truly or any of his riders earnestly. But he knew that where there was life, there was battle, and he wasn't going to let anything stop him from missing what could be the greatest fight of his entire life. His heart had become sullen over the past few days but with the smoke of fire and the sound of screaming violence, his entire being felt more charged than ever. The black beast focused intently upon the cathedral, through the wild flames of decaying houses and rotting fruits of crumbled stores. Corpses left and right, flying over debris with a rapid flapping leap gaining purchase by a few feet ever higher above the ground. He saw those who had been attacking the city from afar, the black-cloaked fiends of a dark scent and shining faces. Cadbury wasted no time barging into three of them, screeching with vile fury as he slamemd into the first opponent, knocking them down with claws pinning both body and head before driving his beak into the very throat. A ripping shriek from the hume as blood flew across his chest, severing the windpipe with a tightened pinch and twisting crunch as if pulling out a stubborn root. The other two enemies had swords drawn out as the black bull grinned with sadistic glee, waiting for the first thrust to come before snapping shut his beak upon the offending wrist. With violent snap of a beastly strength, he tore the arm from its socket and twisted his neck, wrenching the cloaked fiend down to the earth harshly before slamming his clawed foot upon the throat. The slicing shriek the hume made was female but it mattered not, her neck viciously rendered to a bloodied mulch by his wrenching claws. The third and last managed to score a lucky strike, slashing across Cadbury's left side underneath his wing as he screeched with blind fury before bullcharging into him. Pinning the enemy against a crumbling wall, his feet came up in violent slicing scars with feathers flapping ruthlessly, unrelentingly scarring the enemy until he was a bloodied shrieking mess of torn skin. Leaving him to bleed to death, the chocobo ran further towards the great church with the taste of blood on his lips. Heading down towards one street, he raced like it was almost to the finish with legs burning powerfully, claws pounding viciously upon the snow-stark streets as he saw one of the iron carriages that had taken Luke's brother. Rumbling its way across the intersection almost like a roadblock, he knew that he could not be able to damage it and simply grappled his feet onto a nearby slope of debris, before a flying leap straight over the tank and onwards he went. Heading ever closer, he heard a powerfully fast sound of something coming straight around the corner towards him.

Before he could even stop himself, a wagon careening wildly out of control with heavy jugs of steel almost began to unbalance itself as he charged towards it. He almost did not make it, but managing to dodge the last minute out of its unstable path he pushed through around the corner and veered right past a group of broken-looking people crushed underneath a long steel weighted ram. Charging down the street towards the east, the lone black bull slammed through one lone guard on a small backstreet crushing him underfoot before seeing the route ahead was blocked. Diverting through a house he ran up along the stairs and onto the roofs towards a three-story building as he jumped into one open window. People began panicking all the more shrieking at the sudden black beast howling past, but not as much as the explosion that would rock the entire foundations to its knees finally. The office building, desks and all began crumbling, falling slanted forwards as everyone began falling, humes, nu-mous, bangaas and moogles tumbling towards the open front windows. Cadbury almost panicked hearing the people scream but he barely ever slowed down as he ran from room to room, claws gripping tightly upon the carpet to keep his balance before crashing into another office, through a hallway further upwards of voluminous green wallpaper before he finally found a window as he saw the cathedral up ahead. He only just managed to escape when the second explosion tore through the entire building, diving forwards through the open window and crunching glass underneath his sturdy feet. Fluttering his wings to glide barely across the street far below him, he landed upon a roof as he made his way across ever closer. He found his destination, skirting around the city square where the great fountain stood over all as a frenzied battle had been engaging itself. Humes, nu-mous and moogles of Lea Monde garb battled against the dark cloaks with sword and spear, blood flensing across the cobblestones as Cadbury decided instead not to engage amongst them, but rather leap into the small unit of sixteen men in a smaller plaza that tried to sneak round from the greater battle, a woman in blue noticeably amongst them. "WHO'S READY TO FUCKING DIIIIIIIIIIIE?!" Slamming down upon two of the enemies, his claws dragged violently across their backs as they panicked with a start at the vengeful beast lunging towards one of them to snap his beak at the neck. Dodging back fast, the hume managed to evade as Cadbury set his sights on the woman who swiped at him with a burning blaze across the air borne from her staff of magic as the chocobo charged underneath. He barely managed to tear at the hem of her leg before he was pushed back by a spear violently thrusting itself towards his chest as he strafed harshly. The woman barked something towards them as she made her escape, dragging her heels to the church as Cadbury tried to chase after her. She smelt like a bitch, literally, and her intentions smouldered by the shifting scent that all creatures were sensitive to amongst people as the hume with the spear readily came at him almost charging, lancing thrusts with brandished swords all around him as he waited for the right moment. A long slow three minutes of tension as the odd foe tried to stab Cadbury when near, but he retorted by a vicious back kick before the spear made its move. "OH YOU WANNA DO THIS THE HARD WAY!? WELL FUCK THIS!" Grabbing the spear with his beak he tore it free from the hume's hands before swinging violently around in a circle cracking several across the head before he let go and threw it spinning across the plaza. as the bull felt a sword swing almost near him. But the moment he turned to strike snapping back, something clubbed him ruthlessly across the head knocking him onto the floor. "STUPID!" A boot of steel slammed on his face bruising harshly. "Whose fucking pet is this?!" "I dunno, but we're gonna make it learn some fucking manners, tie him down!" Viciously kicking harder, they brought ropes to pull the beast under and bind his wings whilst the boot stayed on his head, slamming Cadbury until his eye began to swell up. He struggled and bit, he screeched and snarled but it was all turning futile. They tightened the ropes almost painfully digging into his skin, feeling the world fade away slightly as they readied their swords to kill. Four of the men were sent off to chase after the woman as the chief among them simply pressed the speartip against the chocobo's eye with boot planted on his beak to stop him snapping. "If you think you can humilate me you have another thing coming you fucking rat with wings." "Just kill him already," said another guard. "No no no, this bitch is gonna fucking learn in its last moments what happens to those who cross Mitford's people. Whether they're animals or people."

Dahlia had been apart from the group for a good few days wanting to calm herself and focus on Navarro entirely. She had hoped in some small way in the very back of the moogle's consciousness, she had felt that kiss and proclamation but she knew she never could. Her mind's analytical side told her well enough that such states of comatose offered little input from the outside world, except in special cases. But always she could hope that the moogle would be one of them as another four guards were brought in wounded to the cathedral's infirmary. "What's their status?!" she asked the carriers. "Two abdominals, one pierced lung and a cracked skull." "I'll take the lung patient, just put her over there." Slipping easily into the role of medic, Dahlia did all she could to ignore the existence of a fiendish war outside the church walls as her chosen patient was placed onto a spare blanket on the floor. The beds were all taken further down with at least twenty-four people lying on the floor given treatment by the clergy. They had all the skills needed to heal, but not to fight, which would become a losing battle by this rate despite now improving their garrison and defences. The nu-mou carefully opened up the female hume that now laid before her with tanned skin glistening from the blood that streaked down her bare chest, the puncture above her left breast sucking air through the wound. Cautiously, she brought from her medical supplies in her satchel a bottle of anaesthetic and a scalpel, rubbing some with cotton wool before slicing open to find the lung wound fully before she placed a tube carefully inside the wound itself. The other end of the tube had a small suction pump as Dahlia began gently extricating the blood and loose air whilst she spoke soothingly to the shaking soldier. "You're going to be alright," she said soothingly, "just...try to breathe...don't stop breathing and let your lungs keep working." Over a careful five minutes of gentle suction she was soon pleased to find no more blood being taken from within the lung as she brought out a bandage made of a moldable jelly-like liquid to cover three sides of the wound. It let the air escape but not return into the body improperly before she brought up her stiching needle, carefully closing the incision before mumbling a soft spell of Cura over her patient. The magical strength of her healing prowess would help to soothe smaller pains as well as to calm the body into a mental state of relaxation allowing partly to reheal itself, the patient slowly feeling the power of curing enter her body like a fresh morning mist of a cool blissful sweet. "There we go...hhhhh...just relax, I won't be long, I just need to find someone." "Th-th-thank you," mumbled the hume. Smiling from such gratitude, the nu-mou left with a small word to a nearby staff member of where she would be as she rushed down towards the more private rooms for more serious patients. Half of them were grossly severe from either full body burns or rampant brutal amputation with only their blood left to consider existing with. She headed onwards reaching the room she wanted in the middle of the hall to find it strangely empty. She was definitely not mistaken on which room it was for the patient's name was written on it. Navarro Rocino was missing from her bed, as well as her belongings. "Don't. Move." A male voice of someone familiar came up from behind her as she felt cold steel pressed against the back of her neck sharply before she gasped with a twinge of frozen fear. "Don't. Even move one inch, not one iota and this....will all go without incident." Moving into the room she was forced to step forwards as she watched a mirror to her left seeing who it was briefly with eyes widening in shock. An older nu-mou with bristling moustache and a gun pressed firmly against the white mage's back. Enoch Thucydes.