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FFVI Fanfic: The spinning wheel of fate

Posted: 17th May 2008 02:16

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Chocobo Knight
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Joined: 27/5/2006

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WOW!, it has been a LOOOOONG-AAASSSSS time! since I posted anything, and I'd like to say to you all who've been fans of my fanfic for this long THANK YOU! without you guys I wouldn't still be writing smile.gif.

Now, where to begin, where to begin...I trudged my way through a semester at college battling with the depression from my recent breakup, I didn't really have much time or inclination to write but over that four month period I was working on this chapter off and on and finally after having completed my semester built up the presence of mind and inspiration to finally finish it...so I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long but I'm hoping this was worth the wait...soooo, without further adieu...


Chapter eleven-Quiet before the storm

I was sitting alone in a dark secluded part of the airship, Relm had locked herself away in a room to be by herself…which I can understand given the knowledge that her father is dead, but right now I can’t be bothering myself with such thoughts…I need to concentrate. Terra said the answers to this mystery of my past lay hidden deep within my subconscious and I have every intention to pursue those very answers. I inhaled the smoke from the slightly intoxicating incense I was burning and finished off the tea I had brewed, it was made with various herbs I had with me in my pouch…herbs which I knew to be mildly hallucinogenic in nature. Sabin once told me that Duncan always had his pupils drink a similarly brewed tea before meditation as it’s supposed to help you face your inner self by breaking down the barriers that your conscious mind constructs around the subconscious portion.

I sat there in a kneeling position with my hands folded, clearing my mind of any outside thought and focusing entirely on that most elusive of questions, who am I? I sat for what seemed like hours surrounded by blackness with absolutely nothing out of the ordinary assailing my mind, but I was not to be deterred. Longer and longer still I sat with no luck…until I heard a faint harp melody, the melody grew louder and was joined by what sounded like mandolins then fiddles and flutes…it all sounded somehow familiar. I suddenly began feeling woozy but this failed to deter my focus in the slightest and I continued meditating until a hazy vision began taking shape before me…it was a lush green field. The melody grew louder and more pronounced as did the vision and I could begin to see figures which looked like happy people dancing and frolicking in this lush field, the vision pushed past the happy men and women to two figures in particular. The first was of a nude muscular man wearing but a cape and a loose tarp about his lower waist which fell just beyond his crotch to conceal his genitalia, he had gentle almost feminine facial features save for his full cherry red beard chopped to a short length, and his hair of the same color was long reaching past his shoulders and curled gently, beside him stood a shining boar and in his hand he grasped a beautifully decorated sword, in fact…it looked just like…the Illumina?!

Before I could contemplate the resemblance of his blade to the once awesomely powerful sword Terra wielded my vision shifted to the second figure…a beautiful woman who stood beside the man. She was tall, only slightly shorter then the man and her physique was toned and strong yet still curvaceous and quite feminine, she wore but a cloak of feathers and a simple white gown that was practically see through and her luscious long hair was the same color as the man beside her. Around her neck she wore a necklace that instantly caught my eye, its beauty was fetching and carved into it were impossibly intricate designs and set in the middle was the most beautiful stone of amber I had ever seen.

And just as quickly as they arrived the song and visions were gone, vanished away followed by an audible whisper “…Vanaheimr…” it said followed by “…Gauileth…”

I slumped backwards into a leaning position against the wall and began to ponder the meaning of what it was I just saw…



“YEEEEY! ICE CREAM!” Umaro shouted with glee as Setzer laughed, Setzer had retrieved a large box of ice cream from one of the coolers on the Falcon along with condiments such as hot fudge, whipped cream and sprinkles and proceeded to prepare an ice cream feast for the excitable Yeti.

“Yey ice cream!” Umaro repeated as Setzer slid the large bowl down the table in front of him “ice cream, ice cream, ice cream…” Umaro sang with a big stupid grin on his face before digging into the bowl with a large spoon, normally I’d be at least slightly annoyed by his wanton stupidity…but I had wine.

It was Narshen Icewine too, my favorite, of course being a moogle I’m at least somewhat bias, it’s delicious though…sweet but possessing as much depth and character as any ‘dry’ wine. The trick is in the climate and the grape we use, it’s a hardy little bastard of a grape that just won’t die even when it freezes, what we do is we let the grape rot somewhat so it gets this kind of mold that increases the sugar content of the grape as it eats away the skin, then, the Narshen winter comes in, the mold dies, the grape freezes concentrating the sugars and then we begin fermentation. The end result is a grape with extremely high fructose content that remains sweet even after significant portions of its sugars are turned into alcohol and can be fermented for quite a long time and still remain sweet while building up more depth and character of flavor…its simply unparalleled in taste. I suppose I’m a bit of a connoisseur on wines, the only guy in the party who even came close to rivaling my knowledge on wine was Shadow…I’m kinda bummed that he died since now I’m not going to have anyone to argue with over whether Narshen or Thamasan wine is better or bitch about how Jidorian wine is overrated since no one else really gives a wererat’s ass.

“Seems you’ve learned to keep at least a half-way decent stock of wine eh Setzer?” I asked aloud

“Only to satisfy your ‘oh so refined’ palette master Moogle” Setzer replied with a sly half grin followed by a laugh to which I frowned

I sighed…so here I was on this blasted airship again with an idiot yeti guzzling ice cream attempting to make some sort of conversation with a gambling hedonist whom I shared nothing in common with. Relm ran off crying and locked herself in a room somewhere, Terra went to go lay down or something as I really wasn’t paying attention to what she said and I’m pretty sure Gau’s somewhere getting high, I think he has the right idea.



“Have a seat Clyde” said Hod as he motioned for me to sit down in a chair in front of his appropriately oversized desk. “Lets see here, lets see here…”Hod opened up his book and fingered through the pages “born Clyde Ferdinand Arrowny to mother Francesca De’farla and father Gasgard Arrowny in the Doma territories, is this correct?” the being asked and I nodded, that book must have contained everything about me as I’d never told a soul my middle name or that I was a Doman. I watched Hod continue to thumb through the book when I noticed he wasn’t actually ‘looking’ at the pages merely feeling through them, I began to wonder if he was…

“Yes Clyde, I am blind” Hod answered my question before I even had the chance to finish formulating it in my own mind “I was born blind but have learned to ‘see’ through my hands so to speak, I have no need of eyes to read from the book of life” Hod elaborated “now let us begin with your early life…” Hod began and I sighed…this was going to be a very long day, or night, or whatever passes for the passage of time in the afterlife if indeed there still ‘is’ such a thing as time here.



I had locked myself in one of Setzer’s many private rooms to be alone and there I flung myself onto the bed face-first and hugged the mattress then I wept, and wept and wept and wept. All the events of the past few hours were finally beginning to sink in, my father was dead, dead before we had the chance to reconcile properly…I felt blame, hate and intense guilt, Gau wanted to stay behind, Gau wanted to keep looking, Gau thought there was something strange about his disappearance…but not me. It was my decision to leave for the Veldt so quickly, it was me who assured Gau that Clyde was alright, it was me who wanted to leave everything behind…it was me who was being selfish. I clawed the sides of the mattresses as streams of guilt and pain shot through my very being to pour out from my eyes like blood dripping from my veins, every muscle in my body clenched together and my face formed a snarl.

“…I swear revenge” I whispered then continued, my voice steadily rising “by the blood of my father and the name Arrowny, by all the lives lost at Figaro…” I paused briefly then screamed “I SWEAR REVENGE!” my heart filled with rage and hate.

Suddenly I heard a light knock on the door

“Go away!” I shouted through sobs

“Relm…It’s Terra, please let me in” I heard Terra say from behind the door

I wiped the tears from my face smearing my mascara, and stifling sniffles I walked over to the door and opened it a crack

“What is it?” I asked with more then a hint of annoyance to my voice

“I just wanted to talk to you…” she began

“Well! That’s too bad seeing as I ‘don’t’ want to talk to anyone right now, Terra!” I snapped at her and she sighed

“Relm, I know what you must be going through…”

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW TERRA?!” I screamed with tears in my eyes

“Well for starters I think I may have been in ‘love’ with your father!” Terra replied, raising her voice

Suddenly I stopped and pondered a moment, “…really?” I asked and Terra nodded

“May I come in?” Terra asked and I nodded opening the door…



I remained seated in the dark room alone as the room filled with the intoxicating incense, I breathed deep, I had broken down my conscious walls and peered into my subconscious but was left with more questions then I had began with…I had to peer deeper, I had to keep focusing. I remained seated with my legs crossed and my hands folded like I had been for the past hour or so after my first vision when suddenly ‘something’ hit me like a brick wall…it was as though I was paralyzed and incapable of opening my eyes, my muscles began feeling limp. At first it was as though blackness surrounded me but then slowly but surely something began taking form, it was as if it was all around me, as if it was everywhere at once.

The first thing I saw was a tree, and I’m not even sure if ‘saw’ was the right word to use…it was more like I was perceiving it, like I was ‘seeing’ in all directions at once, as if I was omniscient. This tree was massive, unbelievably so as it easily dwarfed our planet and as I began focusing in on its finer details I realized what this was this was the ‘world tree’ Terra spoke of earlier…yet, at the same time it was not, I knew this tree somehow…its name was Yggdrasil, how I knew this I knew not. Its boughs, branches, sticks and leaves reached into the planes and linked them together and its roots sunk deep into the very basic fabrics and building blocks that comprise all existence. Yet, this tree was not much longer for this world, it had naught but rotten pulp inside and was unwell…something was sucking from its roots, feeding from their source and its boughs were tired and feeble.

My attention was drawn away from the tree and to its peak where sat highest of all worlds…Asgard It was called and there in Asgard was a set of golden gates known as Gladheim which rested in front of the golden hall Valhalla where all the greatest warriors and heroes of past ages rested, waited and trained for this day…they were known as the Einherjer. Gladheim opened up and warriors upon warriors dressed in all manners marshaled out from Valhalla’s halls, some bore swords while others axes or spears, some wore coats of shining mail others full suits of plated armor and others still naught but animal hides, some rode strange four legged beasts known as ‘steeds’ which were not unlike chocobos in that they served as mounts but other then that bore little resemblance. Leading the Einherjer were three huge men, no…not men, they were gods, gods of a long past age…an age which is somehow integral to my past and who I am, they were known as the Aesir.

At the front was an old and grizzled god atop a massive eight legged steed who was missing an eye and possessed a face that was grizzled with age as was his hair faded to a shade of gray, he wore mail, a breastplate and a helm all golden and radiant, in both hands he grasped a great spear known as Gungnir and strapped to his arm was a massive shield, atop each of his shoulders was a raven and beside him where two massive wolves, his name was Odin and he was chief of the gods. Beside him to his right stood a god so massive he was shoulder and head above Odin and was not atop a steed but standing and wore naught but animal hides, a red cape and a pair of gauntlets; In both his hands he grasped a warhammer of enormous size which was so immense in weight that none but he were strong enough to lift it. His hair was long and wild nearly reaching his waist and was the color of blood, his face was the most youthful of those standing, he was Thor, mightiest of the gods and the son of Odin. To Odin’s left stood another god even older then himself a god from an even earlier age from when he himself was chief of the gods, this god was adorned simply with undecorated steely mail and breastplate and to his left arm was strapped a simple round shield which he did not grasp as he had no left hand. His face was stern and fixed ahead; his eyes were grey as steel and his shoulder length hair pure white and at his side rested a blade sheathed away in its scabbard, he was Tyr most just, honest and brave of all gods, uncle of Odin and former chief of the gods.

These three gods formed a vanguard before all the gathered Einherjer as if waiting for something when suddenly my attention was once again drawn elsewhere to the lands beneath Asgard where marshaled another great force lead by another ancient god…Loki was his name, and he was a god of malice, trickery and insanity…his essence reminded me much of Kefka’s. He was tall and scraggly in appearance wearing blackened mail with gray corpselike skin a long unkempt black beard and long similarly colored hair which appeared unclean and unhealthy; he possessed no weapons and instead relied on his command of the element of fire, it was not a magical command but a natural one, fire was somehow intrinsic to his nature and he could manipulate and command it as if it were a natural extension of himself, and plastered to his face was a perpetually manic grin…much like Kefka again. Behind him stood his legions comprised largely of the evil dead, oath breakers, sadists, sociopaths and the like now in the form of twisted, skeletal or zombified undead filled with hate for all life. In addition to the evil dead he commanded legions of Jotun, beings of protoplasmic chaos formed at the beginning of existence most where cruel, malevolent, destructive and stupid but a small few were wise and gentle and they resided with the gods or in isolated pockets in Jotunheimr, their homeland, their forms were chaotic and showed little continuity but most took the form of huge ugly men, often with multiple heads.

Beside Loki stood his wife Angrboda whom was a Jotun and she was tall, wiry and thin with long icy blue-white hair reaching to the backs of her heels; her face was shrew-like and her bluish white eyes burned with hate, she wore a breastplate and was armed with a mace-like scepter and a massive tower shield. Beside them were their Half-Jotun children; Fenrir whom was a wolf so massive that Thor could of fit in his maw and Jormungandr a venomous serpent so long he could wrap around a planet multiple times; and beside Fenrir were his two children Hati and Skoll whom were also wolves of great size if not quite that of Fenrir, also leading this force was Garmr the hound of Helheim, a wolf-like being of comparable size to Fenrir, blood red in color with the ability to breathe fire. They gazed up towards Asgard which connected to the realms below through a great bridge made of rainbows and the Aesir gazed down at them, Loki let forth a great bellow and Angrbroda a terrible screech as they charged upward towards Asgard, Odin let forth a warcry of his own and led his force down the bridge to meet them, yet, as the forces collided my attention was again taken elsewhere…



Celes sternly knocked on the door to the room I had locked myself in

“Is the whore gone?” I asked in a defiant, slightly self-righteous tone

“Yes Locke, your mother ran out the door crying, barely managing to cover her tears with her arm” Celes replied in a tone that suggested anger and annoyance

I rose then unlocked the door with Rachel trailing timidly behind, “Rachel, go to your room” Celes declared sternly to which Rachel hastily obliged, closing the door behind her. “Well Locke good-fucking-job!” Celes shouted at me “in less then ten seconds you managed to reduce your own mother to a crying mess, I hope you’re proud of yourself!” She continued.

“Good!” I replied, my own voice raising “it’s nothing less then she deserves, and don’t even ‘pretend’ to know what I’m feeling right now Celes, you just don’t, you have ‘NOT’ gone through the kinds of things I have, you never…”

“I’M NOT CLAIMING TO!” Celes interrupted, practically screaming “yes Locke I get it, your life was fucked up, you practically raised yourself from the time you were six years old, you’ve never really known a home or a sanctuary of any kind, you never had anyone to depend on but yourself for as long as you can remember, you never had any real kind of guidance, everyone in your life you ever deeply cared about either left you or died up until you met me, and while my life was far from ideal at least I had a permanent roof over my head and was more or less guaranteed three meals a day, I-fucking-get-it!” She continued, emphasizing those last four words heavily.

I was about to open my mouth to speak when Celes interrupted me again “BUT!” she shouted over me “that doesn’t give you the right to hold on to this hate, she’s the only family you have aside from me, Rachel and Cid…”

“SHE IS ‘NOT’ MY FAMILY!” I interrupted this time, shouting quite loudly “don’t you, ever, EVER use her and ‘family’ in the same fucking sentence, she’s garbage!” I continued, ranting, pointing with my finger to emphasize each use of the word ‘ever’

“She’s your mother!” Celes retorted

“Unfortunately, yes, if only by the merit of me falling out of her stinkhole, definitely not in any other sense of the term” I responded callously “she’s a pathetic wreck, the shambled leftovers of a drug addled brain and absolutely ‘nothing’ good can come of her being involved with any aspect of my, no, ‘our’ life Celes” I concluded crossing my arms, I was dead adamant about this…I wasn’t about to let that fucking whore fuck shit up again, let alone for the people I care most about.

“Locke, how can you say that for sure? How do you know nothing good could come of her?” Celes asked insistently, continuing to press this issue and I sighed

“Celes, she’s scum, you don’t know her, you never knew her so you’ll just have to take my word on that” I responded not yielding an inch on this

“You only knew her for the first six years of your life Locke, and it’s been how many years since?” Celes replied to which I quirked a brow “my point is that people change” she elaborated

“Celes, I’m done talking about this!” I stated emphatically “I am not going to budge an inch on this, this discussion is pointless” I finished, ending the discussion as far as I was concerned

“Fine!” Celes snapped back with irritation and began making for the door

“Where are you going?” I asked in a demanding tone

“Out!” Celes snapped again and slammed the door behind her, I collapsed into the couch holding my head in my hands and let out a deeply exasperated sigh…



My vision was taken to another world separate from the current conflict, the world of Vanaheimr in which dwelt another race of Gods separate from the Aesir…suddenly I recognized this place, this was the place from my earlier vision and the Gods who dwelt here were known as the Vanir, I sensed that what was about to take place here was far more integral to the answers I seek then what was taking place in Asgard. The sky above Vanaheimr suddenly erupted in flames and from them came a colossal ship the size of which was so immense I cannot find the words to describe it and aboard were legions upon legion of Jotun lead by their warlord Surtr…a towering red being of gargantuan stature wielding a massive great-sword that seemed to be made of the stuff of chaos and destruction itself, it appeared to blaze as a fire but with every destructive element one could possibly imagine. The Jotun landed from the sky upon Vanaheimr and sallied out from their warship but the Vanir where there to meet them and they wielded…magic?

Yes, Yes! It was magic I was sure of it, their incantations and movements were identical to those used in Esper magic and wielding these forces they held the Jotun at bay…but it was merely a temporary reprise. The Jotun through sheer force of arms and strength of numbers muscled their way through to the Vanir gods and slew them in droves, and I noticed in their attacks something familiar...rages?

Yes! The Jotun where using rages, those same attacks I learned by observing monster behavior and channeling the primal fury within myself to manifest as pure force…the Jotun were using rages, and using them to carve through the magic wielding Vanir like wheat…it was definitely not going well for them, when suddenly I could see something coming from over the horizon…Elves?, Yes it was definitely them as I could see them clearly now armored in gleaming mail bearing swords and great war bows and some were riding upon what appeared to be chocobo sized wolves. From the sky descended winged women not unlike the Angel in the snow whom I remembered mothering me as an infant, they’ve had many names...to the Vanir they where known as the Deva, to the Aesir they were known as the Valkyrie and mortals have in time past known them as Angels, and wearing breastplates, bearing spears and shields they swooped down upon the Jotun like hawks.

The battle raged on and on as I an omniscient observer looked on, it was…awe inspiring…



“You were in love with Clyde?” Relm asked, still somewhat teary eyed and looking up at me sitting beside her on the bed

I looked down and sighed “yes, yes I was...and he refused my advances on numerous occasions, it was his way to keep people at arm’s length” I replied

Relm wiped away some sniffles from her face “when did you start having feelings for him?” She asked with legitimate interest

I took a deep breath and began, “Well, it began before the collapse when we were on the boat to Thamasa, it happened right before we met you and Strago actually, he came to me and gave me some advice…he told me that there are many people in the world who have killed their emotions like him and that I would do well to remember that…yet, that was in and of itself a contradiction as if he had truly killed his emotions then he wouldn’t of cared to advise me in the first place…the more I thought about that, the more interested in him I became” I paused and looked to see if Relm was still listening, she was, intently and I continued. “The feelings got stronger on the floating continent when he joined us and fought side by side with us through Kefka and Ghestahl’s hordes of monsters and eventually Atma, then later when he saved our lives and I in turn saved his the feeling got stronger, and with time those feelings only got even more strong. Since the fall of Kefka and the gradual restoration of balance I approached him several times and he always turned me away, yet before turning me away he would always seem to waver for a moment and gaze into my eyes, sometimes he would even tell me they were lovely or beautiful and once or twice he even touched my face...”, I sighed “but in the end, he would always turn me away” I finished.

‘And now he’s dead’ I thought silently to myself as Relm looked up at me, I had a feeling we had that exact same thought at that exact same moment and she started crying, and then ‘I’ began to cry.

Relm hugged me tightly, clenching onto my slightly furred Esper form “I miss my daddy!” she yelled as if for this moment in time she was that same sad little girl she was oh so many years ago when her father left her.

I hugged her back, resting my head on her shoulder “I miss him too, I miss him too…” I whispered between tears as we wept together, tightly clenched to one another’s forms.

...

The battle raged on and on the Vanir with the aid of the Elves and the Deva were battling back against the Jotun horde, and although their aid offered the Vanir a temporary respite the Jotun were once again steadily gaining the upper hand…when suddenly my vision was dead focused upon three figures in the thick of battle calling out to one another. All of them were familiar…the elf from my dream and the man and woman from my earlier vision, and suddenly my consciousness was given their names, the Elf was Alfrigg king of the Elves, the man was the God Frey king of the Vanir and the woman was his sister Goddess Freyja queen of the Vanir.

“Alfrigg!” Frey cried, as he parried a blow from a Jotun while mounted atop his giant golden boar “this battle is lost!, you must retreat!” he continued

“NO!” Alfrigg cried back, arrows whizzing over his head as he threw himself into the thick of the melee wielding twin swords

“The link between Vanaheimr and Alfenheimr will be severed soon, Yggdrasil is moments from sundering…if you flee now the Jotun will be unable to follow you and your people will be safe, we will cover your retreat!” Freya cried out between spellcasts

“I cannot, nay,* WILL NOT* ABANDON ANY ALLY OF THE ELVEN PEOPLE!” Alfrigg declared stubbornly

“You must think of your people Alfrigg, this battle is lost one way or the other…if you leave at least your people have a chance of surviving into the next age, the Vanir are doomed my friend, but do not allow our sacrifice to be in vain for our legacy can live on in defending what’s left to defend, but only if you fall back to Alfenheimr and allow us to cover your retreat!” Frig shouted over the chaos of the battle as his blade found a Jotun’s throat

Alfrigg sighed deeply and with a hint of resignation and a great deal of pain let out a cry “ELVES! FALL BACK!, TO ALFENHEIMR!” and with tears in his eyes added “…farewell my friends” as he turned his giant wolf around and rode off from the battle, leading the Elven retreat

Frey let out a defiant roar and sneered “VANIR! HOLD FIRM!”

The battle raged on and the Jotun were close to overwhelming the outnumbered Vanir, and as the Elves crossed to border to Alfenheimr there was a great rumble throughout all the planes and the Deva as if knowing exactly what was to come flew off into the sky, disappearing into the horizon off to lands unknown when suddenly my vision was forcibly ripped to another plane, to the land of Jotunheimr where those few peaceful and gentle Jotun still resided, refusing to take part in this battle. The land was a land of endless rugged earth and thick hills with little green or plant life to be seen and the land shifted, twisted and turned at impossible, seemingly random angles sloping down into sudden sharp cliffs and twisting upward into impossibly high ridges and mountains, eventually and suddenly my focus stopped on this vast seemingly out of place lake, it was small around but somehow I sensed that its interior dimensions where somehow infinitely greater then its outside ones, and there I espied to figures one female and Elf one male and Jotun, and the elf carried what appeared to be…a child?

The Jotun was tall and old, *very*, old he resonated with an aura of infinite wisdom and impossibly old age, his face was dour and his expression somber, his face covered with the wrinkles of age, the Elf for her part was like all of her kind youthful and beautiful with long elegant black hair and skin so fair it was like the melting snow, her green eyes shined like emeralds and her tearing face revealed deep inner sorrow.

“Esmerelda” the Jotun began in a voice so deep and bass he sounded like the rumbling of the very earth itself “this is the only place he will be safe, I have foreseen it” he finished, and the Elf cried

“But Mimir!” she pleaded through tears “can’t we go with him? I don’t want to part with our only child!, if we are doomed here can we not escape doom with him?!” she cried and Mimir sighed

“…only the sacrament can navigate his way through the well of knowledge, you know this Esmerelda, we would drown in its infinity and perish” Mimir said somberly

“BUT WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY?!” Esmerelda cried hysterically, clutching the child in her arms

“I wish I knew Esmerelda, but that I do not…all I do know is things ‘are’ this way, but, if we do this…then I can guarantee you, Gauileth will be safe, I know not how but I nonetheless know he will” Mimir stated

Letting out a gentle sigh, and holding back sniffles Esmerelda slowly approached the well and kneeling before it held out their child, the half-elf half-Jotun Gauileth “goodbye, my little Gau…” she said between sniffles and placed a kiss on the infant’s cheek before lowering him into the lake to be submerged. Suddenly my vision was ripped back to the great world tree Yggdrasil, another great tremor shot out throughout the planes and the tree was heaved up from its roots, its boughs broke, its trunk twisted and cracked open it toppled over and was sundered into nothing, stars exploded, planets drowned, worlds were ripped apart as Surtr and his Jotun plunged all they touched into darkness and flames and trillions screamed out in terror in unison and were then suddenly silent, this was Ragnarok, it was the end of the old world and the pre-beginning of the new and suddenly it all made sense…I am Gauileth, I am the sacrament, I am the new world’s tie to the old, I was born from the ancient, infinite, chaotic blood of Jotun and the elegant, ordered and youthful blood of Elf, held in incubation in the infinite well of knowledge until my time had come.

Suddenly my vision ended and I was violently ‘thrown’ back into my conscious mind, the echoes of my vision reflecting away into my eyes, I slowly rose from my seat barely conscious of the world around me and I must have looked like a wreck or a madman…my eyes must have been extremely dilated and glazed over, and my mouth was hung open in a sort of stupefied smile. I exited my room and with me came a cloud of smoke making it no secret what I was up to in there and I loudly decreed in a voice loud enough for the entire airship, and perhaps the entire town of South Figaro to hear “I KNOW WHO I AM!”, and with that I collapsed forward, losing consciousness and falling flat on my face.


Edit- corrected some typos I noticed when reading this over

Also, I would like to point out that yes I am aware there was an 'Odin' summon in FFVI and I thought it was implied in my writing but some people have questioned me about it and 'no' the esper Odin is not the same as the god Odin and the reason behind the same names will be explained in a future installment, don't worry I have a reasoning behind everything =p.

This post has been edited by Manoftyr on 17th May 2008 21:54

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Post #167015
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Posted: 17th May 2008 04:22

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Treasure Hunter
Posts: 60

Joined: 30/9/2007

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
wow... Gau is Gauilith, a half-Jotun, half elf... Nice use of Norse Mythology in your story, Manoftyr, although technically, during Ragnorak, the Gods and the Giants destroy each other... Or rather, the Vanir and the Jotun destroy each other... And what is sucking at the roots, draining Yggdrasill's life force away?

Hope you're feeling better now after that break-up.

I like where this is going. Keep it up!
Post #167017
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Posted: 20th October 2008 23:41

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Chocobo Knight
Posts: 99

Joined: 27/5/2006

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
Well, it's been forever I know and I guess this post let's everyone know that, no, I'm not dead and , no, neither is the Spinning Wheel...it's been a rough year for me, with some ups and a whole lotta down and the urge to write as well as creative inspiration have been elusive...but nevertheless, here it is...the next chapter in the Spinning Wheel, thank you 'EVERYONE' who's been reading and supporting my work and don't you worry...I'll be around to entertain for a loooong time.

Chapter twelve-A legacy revealed pt. 1

“Well then Clyde, let’s start with your early life…tell me about your birth and your early life, your childhood and young adulthood”

I quirked a brow up at Hod “…if you can see my entire life written out before you in that little book why do you need to ask any questions?” I asked, somewhat confused

“Your personal introspection on your life is an important part of the overview process, in order to ascertain that I need to hear you explain yourself and your life in your ‘own’ words, and by the way…” Hod thumps the book in his hand “don’t lie or leave anything out, I have it all right here” Hod explained, and I nodded

“Well, I don’t really have much to say about it, I was pretty much born fucked as the illegitimate bastard son of a Doman samurai and a stable maid, I never knew my father as he denied the relationship he had with my mother and denied I was his son, and who was going to believe a stable maid anyway?. My mother and her family clothed and fed me then put me to work in the stables when I was old enough…it was pretty shitty work both metaphorically and literally as my primary responsibility consisted of shoveling chocobo feces. My life there didn’t last very long anyway, bandits attacked when I was around five years old setting fire to our village and taking me and my mother as hostages…bandit attacks weren’t all that uncommon in the old Doman territories, at least out on the fringes.”

“I’m still kinda hazy about that, I remember the smoke and the flames and the people screaming and then being knocked on the head, then I wake up in the middle of this camp in the pitch black of night tied to a tree with my mother with this big ugly looking bloke staring down at us with this big toothless grin. He reached down to my mother and grabbed her breasts, fondling them roughly and his expression betrayed his intent to rape her and then…well, I guess you could say my natural born killer instinct took over when I noticed his knife sheathed at his belt. I acted as though I was possessed by another force, as I swiftly and without the slightest hesitation shot my hand out from between the ropes around me, which had been haphazardly tied, unsheathed his knife and stabbed him in the jugular. His blood gushed out over my hand and he looked down at me with this look of complete and utter surprise for a few moments before he fell to his knees and collapsed into death.”

I couldn’t help but appreciate the certain irony of this all, for the longest time my past…the entirety of it at least, was the one thing I intended to keep to my grave, to never reveal even upon my death…but now, now that death has taken me I find myself in a situation where I ‘must’ reveal all to pass into the afterlife, I let out a hearty laugh at this thought before I continued my tale.

“The other bandits heard the commotion and gathered around in something of awe, apparently they I had just killed was one of their better killers, soon they were talking amongst themselves”

‘Did you see that kid?!, he…he just killed Frank!, he was one of our best!’

‘I saw it!, I saw the whole thing…he, he moved so quick, so fluidly it…he…he moved like a shadow!, just like a shadow!’

“Like a shadow…that comment would stick out in my mind forever, anyway, it wasn’t long before their chief heard the commotion and came over…he was a short man, squat, broad and bald with beady little dark brown eyes, almost black. The chief knelt in front of me and looked into my eyes, I was trembling, my arm still outstretched covered in blood as I hadn’t moved even an inch since stabbing the man, we kept staring into my eyes, as if searching for something before he finally spoke”

‘Woman?, is this your son?’

‘y-yes that’s my son…C-Clyde’

‘I’ll tell ya what, if you agree to let us keep the boy and give me your word you’ll never come back for him…you can go’

‘That’s fine!’

“They untied my mother at his order and she ran, she ran without looking back, I wasn’t even a thought in her mind as she continued to run into the night until she was out of sight…and I never saw her again, from that day forward I had no family, the only family I knew had just abandoned me without so much as a second thought, without even looking back, without even the slightest of protest and from that point on…I had no family.”

‘ya got the eye of a killer in ya boy’ “The man said to me, grinning”

“And so began my training…”



“He’s alright, just a little drained” Mog said with a sly half-smirk as he gave the now obviously passed out and loudly snoring Gau a slight kick on the shoulder.

Terra sighed “we should at least get him onto a bed” she said as she hoisted my boyfriend who was easily two or three times her size up and over her shoulder with minimal difficulty…I sure would kill to have Esper strength like that. “Any idea what he was up to in there?” Terra asked me inquisitively as she turned to face my direction.

“No idea” I replied, “although he was on this whole ‘finding himself’ kick before you showed up earlier, the recent events may have exacerbated it some, so…he might have been…”

“Tripping balls?” Setzer interrupted me grinning, and followed up with a chuckle.

I rolled my eyes “yes Setzer, only I was going to put it a little more eloquently”

“You mean boringly” Setzer retorted with another laugh and took a sip from his glass of scotch, drunken asshole picks the absolute worst times to crack out the booze. Terra, apparently ignoring both of us, had swiftly taken Gau to one of the many rooms aboard the Falcon to lay him in a bed…actually I may step in to lay a little ‘TLC’ on him in a few, he probably needs it. Suddenly, as if on cue to interrupt my girlish sexual fantasies, I heard the loud slam of a door coming from down the hall in the direction of the Falcon’s entrance corridor. I peered down the hall there was Celes tromping through the Falcon like a woman on a mission with a pissed look in her eyes, she walked right past me, Setzer, Mog and Umaro making a beeline for Terra whom was facing in the opposite direction and then somewhat aggressively and rudely poked her on the shoulder.

Terra turned around and gave Celes a rather blank look “do you need something?” she asked, half-seriously.

“Does it make you feel good?” Celes asked with a tone of anger to her voice

“I beg your pardon?” Terra replied with slight confusion

“You know, being a bitch to my granddad” Celes explained snottily

Terra half-snorted and gave Celes a snide stare “you just don’t get it” she said

“Get what?!” Celes practically shouted, her anger rising

“If you understood anything about people like Locke and me, you wouldn’t be trying to make him talk to his mother” Terra explained plainly, and with a slight air of haughtiness

“How the hell do you know about that?!” Celes demanded, and Terra laughed lightly

“I could hear you across the damned town you were shouting so loud” Terra indicated to her now pointed ears “Esper senses, remember?” she added in a tone that suggested she was speaking to a child

“Well, so what if I am!, What business is it of yours? And furthermore what the hell do you mean I don’t understand people like you and my own damned husband?, What could you possibly know that I don’t in that regard?!” Celes’ anger was plainly growing

“If you really loved Locke you wouldn’t be putting him through the hell you’re putting him through right now” Terra replied bitterly, not at all addressing Celes’ questions and accusations

“Love…LOVE?! I love Locke more then anyone ever could!, I understand him and feel for him in ways that you will ’never’ know…and what the *hell* do you know about love anyway Terra, you’ve never truly ‘loved’ any man in your life! except ‘mine‘ and I got to him first so tough shit for you!” Celes replied with equal bitterness

“I LOVED CLYDE!” Terra shouted, now becoming the one losing her composure

“Oh that figures!, the lost little girl falling for the dark and brooding sociopath, you really are such a chi-”

Celes’ words were cut off as Terra grabbed her by the throat and lifted her clear off the ground then floated into the air a few feet, Terra’s expression had dead changed she was looking into Celes with the coldest most bitter eyes I have ever seen with such intensity and focus it was as though she was peering ’through’ her more so then at her. “Celes, listen very closely to me because I’m going to tell you ‘exactly’ why you don’t nor ever will understand people like me, Cyan, Clyde or even your own husband” Terra spoke slowly, plainly and coldly “You simply don’t know what *pain* is you really don’t have a -FUCKING- clue” Terra shouted taking us all aback, as it was extraordinarily rare for her to use the word ‘fuck’ in any context whatsoever. Terra continued bitterly with a seething hiss of a tone to her voice, it was as though a well of emotions, of inner turmoil, darkness, sadness and pain that had been closely guarded for close to a decade had suddenly erupted, “you don’t even know the meaning of the word, you can’t even begin to fathom the kind of pain people like me or Cyan or Locke go through on a ‘daily’ basis, or the kind of pain Clyde went through while still living”, Terra’s tone grew even darker and more bitter as she glared into Celes’ shocked eyes. “Do you know what it’s like to witness your own mother murdered in front of your very eyes as an infant, to have your father the only family you had left ‘RIPPED’ from you and murdered in cold blood?, Do you know what it’s like to have your entire childhood robbed from you?, To be made into a murderer, to be completely powerless even unto yourself for nigh on eighteen years? Do you have any clue as to the kind of void that leaves in someone?!, To be suddenly thrust into a cold, cruel and unforgiving world with nothing to guide you?!. No, no you don’t Celes and you ‘never’ will, that’s why you don’t get it, I understand Locke’s pain and I understood Clyde‘s pain, I *know* what it’s like to go through hell…you however…you, you don’t even know what hell *is*” Terra hissed as she glared at Celes with pure bitterness in her eyes, we were all paralyzed with shock, staring aghast at this spectacle, this completely out of character explosion of repressed anger on Terra’s part had taken us all completely by surprise.

Terra suddenly smiled a wicked smile “…maybe I should teach you what hell is” and grazed the edges of Celes’ throat with her long claw-like nails when suddenly another voice yelled out “Terra, let her go”.

I looked to the direction of the voice, it was Cid, and where he came from I had no idea “Terra I’m the one you’re really angry with, I’m the one these unresolved issues truly lie with, my granddaughter has done nothing to you, leave her out of this…I’m the one you want to show hell to” Cid reasoned somberly, his voiced tinged with sadness, sadness and guilt.

Terra slowly descended and lowered Celes to the ground then rather unceremoniously dropped her, Celes didn’t move or even say a word, she just sat where Terra dropped her, a strange look on her face, a look of shock mixed with defeat and doubt, and maybe even a little guilt of her own. Terra glared at Cid and a scowl formed over her face, she stood with her hands clenched into fists, her blazing emerald eyes lit like embers, embers gazing directly into Cid.

Cid spoke somberly, “Terra…I can’t live with it anymore, this guilt, this wretched black hole eating away at me” Cid sighed “the knowledge that I have caused you such anguish, such inner turmoil, pain so unspeakable that it can bear no name…that I have created a void in you, a swirling, twisting emptiness that can in truth…never be completely filled. I have robbed from you that which can never be given back and for such a crime there simply are no apologies that can be given, no words that can be spoken or any penance paid that can atone, no punishment to be inflicted that would be sufficient…and thus, I am here to give you an opportunity that is your right, an opportunity I should have given you long ago.”

Cid tilted his head back, exposing his neck “I am offering you the opportunity to kill me” he said plainly and if we weren’t all so shocked by this rapidly progressing chain of events I’m sure we would have gasped at this. “After all I have done to you it is your right to end my life should you see fit to do so” Cid stated plainly “it is your right to decide if the nature of my crimes against you demand an eye for an eye” Cid elaborated

Terra’s eyes fixed on Cid’s exposed throat, her mouth formed a snarl and she slowly began approaching him, her right arm outstretched.

“I killed your father” Cid continued speaking as Terra approached him “I was the head imperial scientist, it was I who devised magi-tech, it was I who performed the experiments on him and his esper kin and he suffered greatly at my hand. My surgical probing and prodding drained his strength and inflicted upon him much pain as I slowly drained his life from him without much in the way of second thoughts, I ‘am’ your father’s murderer Terra and no one else can make that claim” Cid spoke almost as if in a trance, as if this had been pre-rehearsed.

Terra continued moving towards Cid with murder in her eyes and suddenly an aura of power surrounded her and I could see her mumbling something, balls of flame began forming around her hand and then it hit me, she was mumbling the incantations for a flare spell.

Cid continued speaking as Terra chanted “I robbed your innocence from you, I devised the slave crown as a tool to turn you into a mindless killing machine and it was from you as an infant that I devised the base concepts behind magi-tech and the science of magical infusion. You were nothing more then an animal to me, a mere test subject, something to manipulate to further the goals of the Empire without a care as to your own feelings, your own life…I ‘stole’ your childhood from you, I ‘am’ the reason you suffer, I am the physical manifestation of your pain incarnate…kill me and end it, once and for all” Cid continued somberly, his eyes betrayed immense guilt, sadness and a sense of longing…did he actually ‘want’ Terra to kill him?

Terra’s scowl grew fiercer and the balls of flame extended from her hand to dance around Cid, preparing to implode upon him and immolate him.

“DO IT!” Cid shouted “IT IS YOUR RIGHT! IT IS NO LESS THEN I DESERVE!” he continued, I was sure of it now…he truthfully wanted Terra to kill him

The flames began to swirl around Cid more rapidly “KILL ME!” he shouted and Terra’s scowl became a fierce expression of murderous intent when suddenly the flames dispersed and Terra ceased chanting, she had aborted the flare spell.

“No…” Terra growled as she approached closer to Cid and gazed into his surprised face “that’s what you want, isn’t it?, you want me to provide you with the easy way out” she continued. Terra grabbed Cid roughly by his yellow lab coat and pulled him so that her face was directly beside his ear “you want me to end this ‘for’ you, to make everything you’ve done okay by playing along with this little scenario you‘ve devised. You want me to clear your conscience by allowing you to allow me to take this so called ‘right’ so I may avenge myself and make ’okay’ your crimes via the pursuit of natural justice, eye for an eye as you put it”. Terra spat and hissed with pure venom in her voice “but I’m not going to do that for you Cid, if the guilt of your crimes is too much for you to bear then you will have to take your ‘own’ life as I am not about to make this any easier for you or validate your conscience through some silly notion of poetic justice” Terra continued with a hiss and grabbed Cid by the face pulling his ear directly next to her mouth “to put it simply, Cid, you’re not even worth killing” Terra hissed then swiftly released Cid, and turned her back to him.

Terra’s expression suddenly changed back to her more familiar loving, motherly one once Cid was gone from her line of sight “Relm” she said, looking at me “you should probably go keep an eye on Gau for now, I’m going to go take another lye down” she finished as she slowly walked past us all without paying even a second glance in Cid or Celes’ respective directions before she closed the door to her room on the airship behind her. I looked over towards Celes as she slowly rose from her sitting position with a blank expression on her face as she walked out of the Falcon with Cid who bore a similar expression, when suddenly the silence broke.

“Awwe damn it, I was hoping for Terra to light that geezer up” Mog whined

Setzer looked over to Mog bemusedly “how can you even say that?” he inquired and Mog shrugged

“I just don’t like him” Mog replied simply “watching Terra roast his ass would of amused me” he continued smugly “buuut, then again…” Mog interjected to himself “I don’t’ really like much of anybody these days so I guess it could’ve been anyone, I was just psyched to see Terra blow some shit up I suppose” he concluded, still grinning smugly

Setzer tsked “you’re an ass” he said, and Mog laughed

“Plft, the only reason you even care is because you still whack it to Celes before you go to bed every night and then cry yourself to sleep because she’s getting boned by Locke” Mog retorted, still smug, and took a sip from his glass of wine

Setzer grumbled, turned abruptly and stomped off to his captains quarters, probably because he didn’t have a comeback for that, and Mog laughed some more. I began to walk towards the room where Terra had deposited Gau, I needed to escape this situation, the last thing I needed was ’more’ stress when suddenly Mog turned in my direction and spoke aloud “gonna go see your boy toy, eh?, be sure to fuck him real good…nothing like sex when you’re high, damn, boy do I ever miss sex, it wouldn’t be such a damn problem if I didn’t find human females so repugnant, I mean, where’s the fur?, Ya need it to hold onto!, haha…I remember this one time…” Mog continued rambling on as I closed the door to Gau’s room as quickly as I could seeing since listening to Mog ramble about sex with other moogles features pretty highly on my ‘to don’t’ list.

I looked down at Gau sprawled out over the bed diagonally, his legs split and calves dangling over the corner edges, his long, lean torso with rippled musculature was exposed as always, shit, I didn’t know whether I wanted to fuck him, or draw him. I knew I probably shouldn’t be thinking like this, after all, he sure did look like he needed the sleep, but…mmmn…damn it!, I wanted him so badly right now, I needed to be with someone, to clear my head. I slowly approached his sleeping form and lightly grazed my hand across his muscular abs to see if I provoked any kind of reaction, but nope, he was zonked out, but then I thought to myself ‘I know what’ll get a reaction’, and giggled to myself. I knelt down in front of the bed where Gau’s legs were split and started pulling down his trousers “looks like someone’s gonna be waking up to a pleasant surprise” I mused to myself…



“The next ten or so years flew by in what seemed like a day, every morning I woke up, ate, trained, ate again, trained some more and went to bed…I was like an empty, soulless husk with no name to speak of other then Clyde Arrowny, a name with nothing attached to it, no family, no meaning, no anything…everyone just called me ‘boy’ anyway, I suppose it was part of the dehumanization process I was being put through, the process of turning me into a killing machine. By the age of eleven they had me going out on bandit runs with the rest of the gang and by the time I was thirteen I was leading expeditions and it was then when I really started to get my ‘taste’ for blood. Killing came natural to me, ‘too’ natural, it was all so easy for me, the arts of sneaking, stealth, ambush, slitting throats, stabbing through hearts, daggers thrown into the eye were all like a second nature…as if my training was simply bringing out that which was already there.

We mostly did petty thievery, attacking merchants and the like, or sometimes we’d raid a farm or small town…we lived on the move throughout the Doma countryside, staying far enough away from the largely populated areas to evade the central authority, sometimes the local authorities would come after us but we moved too quickly to be pinned down, and when we did have to deal with them we always made sure we had the jump on em. We had pretty good scouts and information gathering connections, just had to make sure you were bribing the right people and had the right eyes looking in the right places as the western feudal frontiers of Doma were pretty damned lawless, I won’t lie, it was always fun lying in wait for a group of poorly trained militiamen lead maybe by one or two trained professional ’actual’ samurai, watching them tromp through the forests or hedges or wherever we were hiding, letting them get tired and discouraged, waiting for their morale to start weakening…and then suddenly rushing out from the darkness to kill.
They usually would break and run pretty fast but there were a few times they stayed and fought, never did them much good though…the casualty ratios were usually something like one of us for every dozen or so of them and we never stayed in one place long enough to make it worth anyone’s time to send any kind of ‘real’ force after us. Business went like that for a number of years, staying on the move, killing and looting, evading real authority, bribing corrupt local authorities etcetera…I didn’t really get to know anyone else in the gang, they were all, well, kinda scared of me…scared of what the boss saw in me, scared of what I might truly be capable of when push came to shove. I guess they saw me as some kind of autonomic killing machine, something with no real feelings or any capability of expressing itself beyond killing, indeed, I demonstrated a certain kind of remorselessness that was absent in the others save for me and the boss…I really had no respect for human life, but then again I had never really been taught to have any, in fact, for most of my young life I was instructed to the contrary so it’s not terribly surprising really.

Around the time I was sixteen, however, things were changing…


“Daddy, why’s mommy mad?” Rachel looked up at me with the questioning eyes of a child, I sighed

“Because daddy can be a real immature jerk sometimes sweety” I said and Rachel as if understanding nodded her head

Rachel folded her hands together and slumped her shoulders forward childishly “Then why don’t we go find mommy and tell her you’re sorry and you can kiss and make up and you won’t be sad no more” Rachel reasoned with the kind of logic only a three year old was capable of

I shrugged ‘guess it couldn’t possibly do any more harm’ I mused to myself but grimaced at the thought of possibly running into my ‘mother’ and I truly do hate using that word, hopefully she caught the hint and left town and won’t bother me ever again, “alright Rachel, let’s go find your mommy” I said as I scooped her up by the back of her knees and hoisted her up to my shoulder and headed out the door…



“There was talk of a new gang” I continued my tale to the intently listening and nodding Hod “lead by some former ninja who was disgraced from his clan, apparently hw was some human dynamo, so fast that no one could touch him or so they said, and they were cutting in on our territory. It wasn’t much of a problem at first, a couple of incidents were we each planned to hit the same spot, rob the same joint etcetera, you know…typical gangland bullshit, but, there was one incident that exploded way out of proportion. It began when we were lounging at our usual spot in one of the more ‘lawless’ Doman frontier towns, the kind of place criminals and associated scum would hang out, you know, a shithole. So anyway, we were sitting at our usual saloon ‘cause no one fucked with us there, we were the muscle in town and everyone knew it, people kept out of our way and their mouths shut unless they wanted to end up dead so we were obviously feeling pretty safe and confidant, relaxed even…when suddenly we were attacked.

Everyone around us suddenly drew weapons and charged, it didn’t take us long to realize it was the other gang, the town and particularly the bartender must’ve been in on it, looking back on it, it wasn’t a bad strategy on the town’s part to get rid of us. One of them came running straight for me wielding a longsword after bisecting one of my teammates, poor fool, with lightning speed I threw a concealed shuriken directly at his hand making him drop the longsword, then sprung up from my seat nailing him right under the bridge of his nose with my palm and as he recoiled backwards I slit his throat with a ninjato. Another came at me from behind with a spear, why someone would use a spear indoors is beyond me but nevertheless, he jabbed forward at me and I sidestepped grabbing the neck of his spear then yanking it forward to jam it into the wall in front of me, quickly, I spun around and caught him on the temple with a back heel kick and as he spun through the air I retrieved the spear I disarmed from him and threw it directly through his heart in midair with enough force to pin him to the wall.

My eyes quickly darted around to examine the situation, the rival gang had killed more of us then we had of them in the initial ambush but we had reacted quickly and the fight was beginning to even out, at least…that’s how it seemed for a little while until their boss showed up. Their boss kicked through the saloon door wielding a ninjato in each hand and quickly dashed forward towards our boss and acting on instinct I dashed to intercept his strike, parrying it with my own to which I received a shocked expression and a chorus of gasps and mutterings of “did you see that?”, Their boss grinned past me directly at my boss when suddenly he exclaimed angrily “Baram! You sonofabitch!” prompting him to grin wider.

“Hey James, ya miss me?” Baram said wickedly, still grinning past me directly into the boss’ eyes and the fighting around us froze to a standstill as both gangs looked onward towards the confrontation going on in the middle of the saloon

“I see they finally kicked you out of the Hyoto clan” Boss seethed bitterly from behind me and Baram laughed

“They didn’t kick me out, I fucking ‘left’” Baram retorted with cocky arrogance

“I doesn’t matter anyway you sack of shit!” Boss raged from behind me “you’re dead anyway, dead!, you’re looking directly at my new secret weapon…my Shadow he continued in hissing bitterness

“Shadow eh?, got a nice ring to it…” Baram said as he quickly disengaged and struck with his off-hand which I parried with my hidden dagger, flicking it into my hand from under my sleeve to which Baram’s eyes again opened in shock “damn!, slick moves kid…you’re good, looks like this calls for a slight change in plans” Baram began then shouted “HEY! BOYS! GUT THE PIG!” Baram indicated towards my boss before staring directly into my eyes and finishing with “…the kid’s mine”.

Baram pushed forward with his blades and knocked me backwards but I quickly recovered with a backflip onto the table behind us but Baram was right on top of me hopping up onto the table. Baram thrust with his main ninjato and I dodged to the side, he tried to catch me with his offhand blade but I parried with my dagger and made a quick slash towards his throat with my own ninjato which he dodged, leaping back and to the side off the table.

Baram ran his finger across the side of his neck revealing a trickle of blood “damn kid, you actually managed to nick me…a second quicker and you would’ve had me” he mused and I glowered.

I leapt off the table towards him throwing a screen of shurikens ahead which he deflected with his own shuriken screen and leapt into the air towards me and there our blades met. Both of us attempted a lunging thrust and both of us parried the other’s attempts in midair as we fell to the ground in unison, our blades still locked.

Baram grinned “kid you’re something else, ya know that?, you could go fa…” he said

“…what do you mean?” I asked, which may have been my first words spoken all day…I’ve always been a man of few words even as a boy it would seem, and Baram motioned with his eyes and a slight nod of his head for me to look around, and what I saw was…carnage.

Everyone was dead, bodies literally littering the entire saloon…they had all killed each other…except the Boss, who was sitting under a flipped over table clutching a deep and bleeding wound in his chest. “You’re like me kid” Baram said “a cut above the rest…faster, stronger, smarter, more ruthless, more vicious” he continued “we could go far together, real far…this gangland bullshit, it’s all small potatoes…these weak little shits can’t hang with us…”

“SHUT UP BARAM!” Boss screamed “KID! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING AROUND FOR?! KILL HIM! THAT’S AN ORDER!”

It was at that moment something in my just ‘snapped’ I turned around to face the Boss “…order?” I said coldly “…no one ‘orders’ me”

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING YOU LITTLE SHIT?!, YOU’RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME! I MADE YOU! I *OWN* YOU I…” I darted across the room and jammed my blade directly into his wound and looking him right in the eye as he died I twisted my blade ever so slightly just to cause rings of pain to writhe throughout his body

“You’re nothing” I said coldly and stabbed him through the heart prompting a final blood gurgling “urhk!” before he fell limp and dead

Baram put his hand on my shoulder “…you and I are gonna go far kid, gonna go far”

And so began the portion of my life where I was one half of the most infamous criminal duo of all time who single-handedly terrorized Doma for years…




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Post #172770
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Posted: 14th May 2009 12:16

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Chocobo Knight
Posts: 99

Joined: 27/5/2006

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
Hey, just letting everyone know that I'm not dead and this fic isn't dead, just haven't had the time to do much writing for it lately; a lot of things happened over on my end over the past few months that have diverted my attention elsewhere. Not getting into specifics as a lot of it is very personal and some of it medical related; it also lead to me needing to take a medical withdraw from college.

Sorry for disappearing and not keeping any of you Spinning Wheel readers updated on the developments, but, the upshot is that I'm back now and feeling better; not sure when I'll be coming back to this fic but it'll be some time in the not too distant future; somewhere in the neighborhood of a few weeks or maybe a month.

Just dropping in to let it be known I haven't abandoned the fic, and that I haven't vanished or anything; and I look forward to continuing to entertain all of you whom have come to enjoy my writing here.

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Post #177397
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Posted: 4th June 2009 20:02

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Chocobo Knight
Posts: 99

Joined: 27/5/2006

Awards:
Member of more than ten years. Member of more than five years. 
The latest chapter is *finally* done and I have to say, it's my favorite chapter I've ever written thus far; thanks to everyone who's been reading my fic, without the response and words of encouragement I would not have the motivation to keep working on this.

Anyway, here it is

*Warning* cursing and violence ahead *Warning*

Chapter 13: A legacy revealed pt. II/Counterattack

“So that’s it then?” Sabin commented and I nodded back grimly

“yeah” I replied.

It had been a few days since Kefka kicked me out of my own damned castle but I’ll be *damned* if I wasn’t going to take it the hell back; he caught us with our pants down but now we were going to come back down on him with everything we had.

“According to the reconnaissance from both Setzer and Terra they’re porting in more of those monstrosities you and Cyan fought earlier as well as Dragons of all kinds, Behemoths ranging from hatchlings to elders, Dark Force spirits, Dueller and Fortis cyborgs, Oscars and all other manner of foul creatures that were thought gone with the collapse of Kefka’s tower. Also, new reports indicate that in addition to these monsters of old new and even fouler creatures have been seen coming out of the portals, they seem to be one of a kind and acting independent of Kefka’s direct control.”

“As of now they seem to be organizing the monsters into battalions and the battalions into an army, how this is possible we have yet to discover and their intent still remains a mystery. Unfortunately no one has been able to probe too far beyond the edges of the great desert; not even Terra could do so safely and she’s more or less our trump card since, in a grand twist of irony, we are once again in a situation where no one can use magic other than her; and Kefka as well as his cultists have their ‘bizarre’ new powers. All of the plethora of magical weapons we once wielded have remained as magicless as they became the day we toppled Kefka’s tower with the notable exception of the Illumina which once again, for reasons we do not yet understand, radiates with magic.”

“Most escaped the surprise attack on Figaro Castle and as such most of our armed forces remained intact after the retreat and have now been bolstered by the Figaro militia of South Figaro; Kohlingen and Nikeah have pledged troops and their reinforcements have arrived, ready to be deployed. Tzen and Albrook have also pledged troops but it will still be weeks before they arrive and we cannot wait any longer; how they are to be used will depend largely on the outcome of the coming battle; Jidoor has however declined to pledge reinforcements of any kind. Marital law has been declared and all weapon and armor dealers within the associated areas have been relieved of their goods temporarily, we’ll worry about compensating them later; all of our men have at least mithril equipment and we’ve outfitted as many as we can with crystal and diamond and our super elites with all the sets of Genji equipment that could be mustered.”

“Cyan!”

“Yes my liege?”

“As you know your Samurai corps comprise our elite of the elite ‘and’ they have experience fighting these vile things from the incident in the catacombs; your men will form the first attack as we have discussed. There is ‘just’ enough room for you and your troops aboard the Falcon as well as the rest of the company whom will consist of Sabin as the two of you work best together in addition to Umaro and Mog as Umaro’s value as a shock troop in the thick of the fray is unquestionable, as is his bravery; but only Mog understands how to direct the leviathan. They’ve already been briefed and Mog has agreed, Terra will also accompany you flying aside the Falcon and along with Setzer provide you with the needed air support to clear a beachhead making a safe deployment feasible on the eastern edge of the great desert; after you have landed Setzer will drop a payload of explosives behind the enemy lines to promote confusion before returning here while Terra will remain to provide constant support from the air.”

“Your goal is to burrow straight into the heart of the enemy pushing past the beachhead thus creating a ‘bulge’ right in their middle that they will be forced to divert their attention and resources towards; your success in this is critical to the attack plan as a whole. While the bulk of their forces swarm around and pour into the bulge the bulk of our army will be marching around the cape of the South Figaro peninsula and fishhook into the desert from the south; I will be leading that force personally while Setzer backs us up from the air aboard the Falcon. We will encompass the main attack and use the element of surprise garnished from the diversionary bulge your forces will create to its fullest advantage; ultimately we intend to outflank the enemy as much as possible.”

“While all this is transpiring Narshe will be sending forces by boat that will land on the northern beaches and make their way down to support the attack; they should hit the northern shore after roughly two or three hours into the fighting forcing the enemy to either divert their forces and open a second front or be utterly outflanked.” I looked around at everyone presently sitting in the war room; Sabin, Cyan, Celes, Terra, Locke, Minister Erickson and Chancellor Ruben, we had all concocted this plan after days of meticulous planning and preparations “…are there any questions?” not a one spoke up “we move out in exactly one hour, make your final preparations; and may The Gods be with us.”



“Eat crow and kiss the ground ladies and gents, acquiesce t’ our demands and nobody has t’ get hurt but try anything funny and you’ll be takin’ a dirtnap afore ya even hit the dirt; for yer the first victims of the soon t’ be famous indomitable bandit duo of Baram and Clyde m’ friends” Baram declared with a laugh; he always had a taste for grand displays and the theatrics, I of course contrasted sharply against this with my dead silence and cold glare.

The caravan master took one look at the two of us and laughed “is this some kind of joke?, there’s but two of you!; and one’s a kid for the Gods’ sake, you two have definitely picked the ‘wrong’ merchant to try this act on; Guards!” and with that a half dozen of hired caravan guards circled us.

Baram just smiled and folded his arms “tell ya what lads, in the interest of sport and t’ make this something resembling a fair fight; I’m’ a sit this one out” one of the guards tsked angrily and gritted his teeth.

“You arrogant, thieving; SCUM!” he shouted, drew his sword and charged. Faster than he could have possibly perceived with his eyes I rose from my crouching position behind Baram, darted forward, and slashed the man’s throat out with my hidden dirk after sliding it out from the inside of my sleeve to fall into my palm. The other who charged with him stopped in pure shock at how quickly his comrade had been slain and that second of hesitation was all the time I needed to ready a throwing dagger and plant it right in his left eye piercing the brain and killing him instantly.

Another, sword and shield readied, charged me and came at me with a vertical slash of his blade but I backed up and he missed; he pushed forward and slashed twice more horizontally first in a left to right arc and then in an opposite arc as I continued letting him miss while waiting for an opening. He made a short lunge with his shield arm first and swiped at me with it before trying again with his sword; this time I stepped to the side, and let him connect with the comrade of his who was trying to flank me from behind. He ‘thought’ he was sneaking up on me but in truth I had detected him long ago and had planned this out from the time I had dodged his fellow’s first strike; and while his sword was lodged in his partner’s head I took the liberty of slashing his throat out with my ninjato.

The other two looked at each other, looked at me, dropped their weapons and started running like hell, quickly, I readied shurikens in each of my hands and tossed them; aimed square at the backs of their heads they split their helms right down the middle and sliced right through the skull killing them both. I locked eyes with the terrified merchant and resumed my crouching stance “awe, ya see?, now ya had t’ go and get Clyde all mad” Baram lectured “ya see, when Clyde gets mad he gets a little killy and about the only thing that’ll calm ‘m down is gold” Baram continued as I maintained my locking glare.

“T-t-take everything, just don’t kill me!” the merchant trembled as he emptied his pockets and unlocked the chest of goods loaded onto the back of his wagon.

“Ya see?” Baram continued his mock lecturing “if ya were that agreeable t’ begin with then we could’a avoided all this unpleasantness; now unhitch yer wagon, get on yer chocobo and get on outta here afore Clyde decides to get ‘mad’ again.”

The terrified merchant did exactly as Baram said and took off on his chocobo at full gallop without looking back “arright!, let’s see what kinda haul we’ve made off with eh?, and our training’s definitely been paying off; not a one a those clowns stood a chance” he continued as he looked through what were formerly that merchant’s belongings. We had ambushed him and his entourage near the mountain ranges that dominated the Doma territory; this was before the empire had set up bases and destabilized the region, as such, pretty much the entire continent west of the Veldt could be considered Doma territory. It was spacious and sparsely populated being largely agrarian, as such, merchants had to make pretty long caravan treks to reach a market for their goods; and for bandits such as ourselves this kind of an environment was ideal.

It was a pretty good haul that day; almost a thousand gold pieces and a few precious gems, enough to live on for a few days at one of the lawless fringe towns of the old Doman territories; it was in fact with Baram after that day I discovered my love for drink. I had a shot of whiskey for the first time in my life, now, they say liquor is an acquired taste well let me tell you; I acquired it *IMMEDIATELY* and after four or five shots I was completely trashed; also bagged some chick who had a thing for ‘dangerous’ guys and lost my virginity. I got addicted to the ‘outlaw’ lifestyle with Baram pretty damn quick and it wasn’t long before the two of us were ‘very’ wanted men; the law had even given us nicknames; they called Baram Deathgrin due to his ever present smirk and I was apparently known as The Scarback Kid due to the distinct scar I have along my back, guess it got caught sight of a few times and word spread about it as an identifying characteristic.

It wasn’t uncommon for us to find wanted posters of ourselves with exorbitant rewards being offered, but no one ever came after us; being just two men we could move quick and our reputation as ruthless and very skilled killers was a mile wide; Baram was an ex Ninja after all and I was more or less his adopted protégée. For weeks, months, years even we stalked the expanses of the Doman territories raiding caravans, robbing merchants and blowing our money on booze and cheap thrills but that was the lifestyle of an old school Doman outlaw. During that time I had grown from a boy into a man but times were changing, Baram was almost forty by then and felt he was nearing the age when one is ‘too old’ for this kind of living but he wanted to go out with a bang, he wanted to pull off a heist that would have us set for life before finally calling it quits.



“Been awhile, eh guys?” Mog said, leaning up against the side of the Falcon’s rec-room apparently trying to make idle conversation. These past few days had seen some interesting development in Mog; when he got word of his involvement in this mission it was as though he felt he had purpose again. He had clipped his hair to a short ‘battle friendly’ length like in the old days but the signs of aging were clear as day; his limbs were missing patches of fur and he had a gnarled, sinewy look about him, his expression was also a tad more, well, for lack of a better word ‘grizzled’. He had something of a hump in his back but it didn’t seem to be bothering him much though he showed a certain rigidity of movement that betrayed the pain his joints and ligaments caused him.

“Yeah…” I responded grimly as I sharpened my claws, the scene was honestly pretty dank and dreary right now; no one was saying anything, Cyan and his elites had all just finished their mass meditation/reflection session; they were all in total silence.

“Shadows dead, Kefkas ‘back’ from the dead, Terras an Esper again and Figaro just got sacked…” Mog listed aimlessly as I tensed in anger at his end statement, he laughed, “and now we’re all probably going to die; just like old times, remember?” he continued and I half snarled half snorted in anger,

“…yeah” I responded after a short pause.

“We gunna beat up da baddies!” Umaro shouted, beat his chest and pounded his fist into his hand comically, Mog laughed again and looked up at the enormous Yeti,

“yes Umaro, yes we are” he continued; funny, seems like battle tends to bring out the best in everyone else, not me though.

Odd thing for the world’s greatest living expert of martial arts to say I know, but it’s true, I don’t like what fighting brings out of me, I don’t like the barbarism and bloodlust it creates in me; as a result, I’m always at least a little nervous before battle of any kind; I’m actually something of a pacifist at heart, I strongly prefer to ‘not’ fight. Don’t get me wrong; I’m always the first to fight to protect someone or fight for the greater good or fight something threatening those I care about, but damn, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fundamentally wish things didn’t work like this and violence wasn’t necessary, but I don’t live in a fantasy world. Seems to be the opposite for everyone else though; Mog hasn’t been in higher spirits in years and Locke, wow, outside of battle and hardships he’s something of a wreck and all over the place but the very ‘instant’ you put him into a situation where it’s kill or be killed he honestly becomes ‘the’ ‘most’ focused and controlled person I know.

Had a talk with him before we took off all of us kind of had a ‘talk’ before we began planning really planning for this mission; cleared all the bullshit, there’s still a weird kind of ‘air’ of tension surrounding a few things but none of it matters now. Locke also made me swear a pact with him, in his own words: ‘either I return ‘with’ Celes and you ‘with’ Terra or we don’t return at all’ I agreed to it readily but to be honest I was already prepared to lay down my own life in protection of hers in the event it comes down to that, maybe that’s why he chose me of all people to swear it with come to think of it.



I was flying the Falcon low to the ground, slow and as quiet as she could manage as there was a thick fog on the water that extended well beyond the beachhead I was taking advantage of; lady luck does certainly tend to favor me, and the rest of us too for that matter. Not exactly possible to go ‘terribly’ fast carrying all these barrels and crates of explosives as well as all these passengers; I’m literally filled to the brim here, but it should all make a very nice ‘boom’ when I drop the payload; damn, how I’ve ever missed the thrill of this. When you’re an adrenaline junkie like myself there isn’t quite anything like failure meaning certain death to give you that rush you’re looking for; sex, booze, drugs none of it even comes close to the possibility of a blazing, fiery, crashing death from even the slightest of missteps, damn, the thought practically gives me a boner.

Am I nuts?, fuck yeah I’m nuts!; I’m itching with anticipation for this and I can’t wait to try out some of the new ‘toys’ I’ve installed on the Falcon over the past half decade or so, in a weird and sick kind of way I’m actually ‘glad’ shits decided to get crazy. This world had gotten boring for me; dead boring, after the thrill of risking your life and almost dying however many times the old lifestyle of gambling, boozing, partying and opera appreciation was found by myself to be severely lacking; now things are interesting again. On some level I guess that’s pretty selfish seeing as a bunch of innocents were just brutally killed in Figaro and I’m pretty much cherishing the insanity of it all but I’ve never been anything less than one hundred percent honest with myself about how I feel or what I think or with anyone else with that matter so I ain’t about to deny it.

The beachhead is just beginning to come into sight through the thick of the fog, my heart is practically erupting from my chest as we speak.



I’m pretty sure we’ve evaded detection, so that’s good at least, being forced to remain in Esper form for these past few days has been having some undesirable effects on me; particularly in the realm of being able to control my emotions, as though I didn’t have enough difficulty with that already. On top of this, Clyde is dead, merely those three words alone invoke such emotion in me, such turmoil, such pain, such anger; he was a man who knew true solitude, true suffering, true emptiness, true pain…I wanted to heal him ‘so’ much. I guess that’s the reason I on some level find myself resenting Celes; ultimately she got have everything I wanted, she opened up Locke’s heart and healed a wound that no one or no ‘thing’ other than herself could have healed and in return has his unwavering devotion. There’s a spiteful side of myself that felt she didn’t deserve it and wanted to sabotage it which essentially caused the thought process that lead up to me kissing Locke, not justifying that or anything just pointing out the rationale but I’ve been in such a strange ‘strange’ place mentally and emotionally as of late.

At heart I am and always have been a motherly, healer type; I see things that need to be fixed and I innately want to fix them. That’s the main reason for me returning to Mobliz and personally seeing over its reconstruction as well as reuniting each and every orphan that still had family with their loved ones and ensuring that those who didn’t have family or loved ones were cared for and would still have a place to be when they grew up; it’s just who I am. Most people have their entire lives to figure themselves out, I’ve only had eight and I’m almost thirty; I’m still ‘just’ figuring things out while my biological clock is ticking away screaming ‘HEY!, TERRA!; BECOME A MOTHER ALREADY!’, it’s enough to be maddening at times. I’m finding though that because of my aforementioned nature I’m drawn to dysfunctional things and people like a magnet; the more something appears to be in need of ‘fixing’ the stronger the attraction is, I’m told this isn’t entirely atypical though.

Nevertheless I had been rather removed from the rest of the group after the fall of the tower working my ass off in Mobliz being everything from the de-facto governess to the village doctor; it was only after the four year mark that, that town was truly ‘functional’ at all. Nevertheless once functionality was reached, all the original orphans were accounted for, the town was beginning to prosper again and things returned to ‘business as usual’ I could not help but start to feel depressed; at first it was a small depression but as time went by it became crippling. As the town prospered and grew I was needed less and less and so grew likewise my depression; without rundown construction to rebuild, orphans to take care of, refugees to provide with homes or Gau to watch after I honestly felt purposeless, there was nothing left to ‘fix’.

Before I had come to Strago’s funeral I had never seen Clyde without his ninja getup on nor had I ever seen his eyes except for behind a veil and it was those eyes which made an instantaneous impression on me that day. Such sad, sad, lonely and guarded eyes which I could picture and imagine lurking behind the veiled guise that so long ago in a brief conversation said to me exactly what I needed to hear back on that boat to Thamasa; these gorgeous, cloudy gray eyes belonged to Shadow? I thought to myself at the time. Agh, I can’t be thinking about crap like this right now; I’m the lynchpin in a critical surprise attack on a force that is growing exponentially apparently lead by an undead Kefka, there are far more important things that need to be occupying my mind.

Still, I hope that wherever Clyde is now he’s finding some form of peace of mind…and of course that we all come back alive from this mission; both on our front and the main invasion front. I guess it’s time for me to do the ‘one’ thing that comes completely naturally to me, the ‘one’ thing I’m really good at…fighting.



“…you sure we can pull this off?” I asked Baram with a hint of skepticism.

“Def’ Clyde, def’” he replied, his voice full of confidence.

It had been many years since we had formed our duo in the wake of the massacre of our gangs and we were very wanted men, each with 10,000gil bounties; dead or alive, we had attracted ‘A LOT’ of attention but due to the loose, feudal nature of Doma it was hard to track us down. Interestingly enough this lead to a lot of the Doman merchants backing the rising Empire of the south and encouraging the idea of Imperial takeover; in the end they got their wish, but regretted it. In any event, the really wealthy international merchants mostly shipped their goods by train, trains with official Doman Samurai as well as dozens upon dozens of hired guards protecting the cargo; no one had dared try and rob one, until now that is.

Before the Imperial invasion the Doman railroad was absolutely huge; given the huge expanses of territory spanning through plains, forests and thick mountain ranges all swarming with bandits and ninja it’s not really much of a surprise, merchants needed some kind of guarantee for their goods and the wealthy ones were willing to pay. Trade in Doma was very lucrative as it was a rather isolated nation with wealthy feudal lords who had money to blow on whatever due to the wealth they extorted from the backs of their indentured serf workforce, they had the cash to spend. Merchants from Nikeah, South Figaro, Tzen and occasionally even as far away as Narshe and Jidoor often came by boat to Doma Castle with tons of goods, organized it all into one big heavily guarded caravan and send it along on the six or eight hour trip to the train and the goods would be loaded up.

While the merchants themselves stayed nice and safe behind Doma castle’s huge walls their hired guards as well as the Doma Samurai assigned to protecting the train would guard their goods and their hired caravan masters would take care of distribution and business at each stop. By the time all the goods were sold or the train had run to the end of the line the cash would be transferred over to an adjacent train headed in the opposite direction, the train owner and the caravan masters would take their respective ‘cuts’ and the rest was shipped on back to the merchants waiting in Doma; it was a pretty functional system. However; this time there was a bit of a hiccup as the goods were all sold ahead of time and the train was carrying a massive haul, but, it had broken down in the Doma woods also known as the Phantom Forest and was waiting on the opposite line to make it there for the transfer which was going to take three or four days since the other train was down for maintenance.

Essentially we had a huge, heavily guarded sitting duck packed with hundreds of thousands of gil and a four day window to hit it, grab the cash and get the fuck out; Baram was confidant we could do it. Looking back on it robbing that train is what began the whole chain of events that turned me from Clyde into Shadow; the chain of events it begot sent me careening down the path I inevitably ended up choosing for myself, it was possibly the biggest mistake of my life to rob that train.

“How long have we been at this Clyde m’ man?” Baram asked,

I shrugged “four, maybe five years now?” I answered as I took a swig off of my vodka bottle,

“yer a young bloke Clyde, inching in on twenty three, not even twenty five yet; but I’m closin’ in on forty m’self, gettin’ too old for this” Baram spoke before stroking his beard for a moment. “…and y’ got yer whole life ahead a ya, I mean y’ don’t wanna be doin’ this shit fer’ ever d’ya?” he concluded and I shrugged again,

“…can’t really see myself doing much of anything else to be honest” I replied blankly after a short pause.

“Well, if we pull this off m’ man y’ won’t have t’ be worrying ‘bout doin’ anythin’; set fer life m’ boy, set fer life” I stared into the fire of our camp site as I slugged down more vodka,

“…I guess I could just take the money, disappear somewhere and drink myself to death; die doing what I love” I theorized out loud after a few minutes.

Baram shrugged “y’ could do that I s’pose, I wanna try an clean m’ self up though, give a shot at havin’ a normal life; find a girl, marry ‘er, have a kid or two an’ forget about all this, I’ve had enough excitement fer my lifetime” he responded.

“…alright, what’s the plan for the heist?” I asked after a long pause and Baram cracked a grin,

“’knew ya’d come around t’ the idea.”

We went over the plan and it was pretty damned simple to be honest; we were going to spend a full day scoping out the train ahead of time, get to know the guards from afar, their patterns, the beats they walked, when they switched off shifts etc. We’d make our move when the largest number of guards were on their off shifts and sleeping, kill the lookouts quickly and quietly, slip in and stealthily make our way to where the money was kept, grab it and get the hell out; the quicker we pull it off the less likely we’ll run afoul of any trouble. The fact that the train was more or less ‘stuck’ in the middle of some pretty thick woods made this normally implausible plan into one that was not only plausible but a very sensible way to go about robbing it.

Of course, neither me or Baram counted on the ‘aftermath’ such a grand heist would generate.



“All clear” I called back to Locke from over my shoulder as he nodded and made a notch on the nearby tree with his dirk so to let the others know which way to follow as we proceeded along; we were scouting ahead of the main force to do some early reconnaissance and to find the fastest, easily travelable route that still provided some degree of cover.

“We should probably stake out and keep watch here, too risky to head out any further Gau” Locke pointed out,

“agreed” I replied “think they’ll have any trouble following the trail you left?” I asked and Locke shook his head,

“nah, talked over what to look for with Edgar beforehand; they’ll follow us no problem” I nodded.

“If alls going well Setzer should be about ready to make the drop on the edge of the beach; if all continues to go well he should be dropping off our heavy hitters, then blasting away a hole in the enemy’s defenses along with Terra for them to rush momentarily and be back within the hour. Once he returns he’ll scoop up the others, namely; Celes and Relm, then provide the main force with air reconnaissance as they begin their march to our position and upon their arrival we will begin the main assault” Locke recapped out loud as I sighed. Locke smirked at me and emitted a low ‘heh’ “…couldn’t talk her out of it either eh?” he asked and I sighed a second time.

“…nah, Relms out for revenge ‘out for blood’ in her own words; nothings keeping her away from this” I replied.

Locke sighed in response “can she still fight?, she was mostly a caster back then and that’s moot now” he inquired and I took a short breath before replying.

“…yeah, she can fight she has a lot of her father’s talents, specifically; she’s good with dirks, has some inhumanly fast hand-eye coordination and is pretty proficient with evading enemy strikes. Learned all that about her in the veldt taking her hunting one day, figured I was gonna teach her how only to discover she already knew and was damn good at it; took down a speeding gazelle with a single throwing dagger. Whenever we’ve ‘sparred’ playfully she’s demonstrated pretty advanced dodging and defensive ability; I even managed to teach her some of the basic wild and animalistic movements I use in battle, she’s far from defenseless if that’s what you’re concerned about. Relm hasn’t gotten rusty at all, if anything the lack of magic has just caused her to tap into a reservoir of talents she had been ignoring; she’s more than compensated” I elaborated and Locke nodded,

“that’s good she won't be a sitting duck then. I tried to talk Celes out of coming myself but she wasn’t hearing it either, I didn’t want her to on account of Rachel; but the woman was damned adamant about it; if I was going, she was going” Locke continued and I nodded but to be honest; I didn’t feel like talking much. The visions I had were weighing heavily on my mind, so I’m not human?, I guess that doesn’t come as ‘much’ surprise given my rather supra-natural physical capabilities but still; it’s been a lot to take in all at once. On that note I have a strong feeling this entire situation is even more than meets the eye; something big is going on, something that’s bigger than this planet, this galaxy, this entire dimension, all that planar stuff Terra was telling us about and now these visions, it all synchs up too perfectly and it’s freaking me the hell out.

“Protect her Gau” Locke said seemingly out of nowhere and I piqued a brow at him “Relm, protect her; it’s your obligation” he stated and I blinked in moderate surprise,

“was that ever in question?” I replied and Locke nodded approvingly

“…you’re alright Gau” he concluded after a short pause.



“…looks like we’re in luck; the beachhead is completely unguarded” Mog mused quietly as we unloaded down to the ground from the Falcon but I had a strange feeling “…I don’t like this” I said after something of a pause and Cyan gave me a knowing look followed by a nod “methinks the same Sir Sabin.”



“Now’s the time Clyde” Baram said and I nodded back as we stealthily made our way through the woods to the heavily guarded stranded train; right now about half the guards were on their sleeping shifts which was the maximum there ever were so it was the best time to strike. The two Doman Samurai outside looked a little bored, they were young and less experienced than most and probably saw this as grunt work for newbies; they were in no way expecting to see any action, it was perfect. Silently we each crept up behind our mark, gave a quick glance and nod to one another and in unison slit their throats while covering their mouths with a cloth to muffle their final death rattles. Quickly we snuck our way into the train, no one was patrolling the entrance hallway at the time but in such a confined area it was only a matter of time before we would be discovered, speed was key.

Baram looked over to me and I to him “on the count of three” I said lowly “one” I began,

“two” Baram said in response, I took a deep breath and on the mark of ‘three’ we both bolted through from the entrance hallway leading down towards the front of the train where the gil was kept.

The room was filled with guards and Samurai whom all turned to us in unison with shock, we threw smoke bombs to the ground as we darted past them quicker than they could react. “It’s them!” one cried,

“Deathgrin and Scarback, they’re here!” yelled another,

“AFTER THEM!” another roared and they were quickly in hot pursuit behind us, we had a good head start though thanks to the element of surprise and those smoke bombs. The alarm was ringing throughout the train and guards were leaping out of their beds and rushing out into the main corridor from all around but surprise and momentum were on our side as we dashed past the groggy soldiers, either dispatching or incapacitating them in some way as we passed.

As we dashed forward I espied a platoon of soldiers charging towards us from ahead, however, they were not hired guards or Doman Samurai; they were wearing heavy and rather distinct bulky brown armor and helms while wielding mithril long swords and bearing heavy iron shields. Me and Baram threw a screen of shuriken ahead but they quickly and adeptly raised their shields to block and a few knocked the shuriken aside with their swords and continued their advance in a methodical and disciplined fashion; they were on par with experienced or at least adequate Doman Samurai.

“Well what’d ya know about that, eh Clyde?; fuckin’ Imperials!” Baram declared,

“so these are what Imperial troopers look like” I commented out loud as I had never seen one before,

“Tzen is a protectorate of the Empire; our presence should be of no surprise, Emperor Gestahl protects his assets” a trooper, presumably their commander, answered.

“They went this way!” we heard echo from down the hallway behind followed by distant footsteps,

“damn it!” I growled “Baram!, take the rear and slow them down” I threw him a stern glance and commanded before I turned to face the Imperial troopers and lock my killer glare with their leader “…I’ll take care of them.”

Baram gave a nod “already got somethin’ in mind” he hinted as he took off.

The Imperials tried to chase him but I planted myself firmly in the middle of the corridor, ninjato and dirk in hand. One tried to bulrush past me but a swift kick to his raised shield knocked him back onto his ass, I leapt up onto his prone form with my dirk prepped to stab him right through the eyes but his comrades rushed to his aid before I had the chance.

One brought his sword down overhead in a vertical ark but I parried and pulled him forward off balance causing him to topple forward onto his still grounded comrade as I nimbly hopped backwards and off his shield, throwing another smoke bomb to the ground. The Imperials fumbled about, coughing, knocking into each other, stumbling over their grounded comrades, struggling to get back to their feet, backing into each other and just generally giving away their positions, they were clearly out of their element. Slowly and silently, I crept up behind their leader, raised from my crouching stance and with one arm pulled him backwards by wrapping it around his throat and yanking and with the other plunged my ninjato straight through the heart from behind.

The felled Imperial let out a shriek as he collapsed into death, the others turned to face the sound of the scream but saw only smoke as I was gone, retreating back into the hazy shadows I called home; this was ‘my’ game, the art of stealth killing. Their horrified expressions said it all, luckily since this corridor was rather narrow and the roof was low the whole room had filled with thick smoke very quickly and would take a while to dissipate, not too long but enough for me to dispatch them with little trouble. From behind them I readied my ninja stars, one in between each finger, and tossed ahead a screen of them directly into the backs of two imperials; the bigger, heavier ninja stars ripped clear through their armor shredding into their flesh and vital organs; they fell dead.

The two from before were still struggling to get up and now stricken with pure panic they clawed and scrambled like wild animals pulling each other down atop one another and fumbling over themselves as their comrade desperately tried to help them up.

“We have to get out of this room or we’re done!” he shouted to them and I, almost in response to that, popped up right in front of him and knocked his blade right out of his hand,

“…too late” I uttered grimly and slashed out his throat in a quick and snappy left to right vertical ark with my ninjato.

“HYAAARGH!” I heard from behind as one of the others finally managed to get back to his feet and clutching his sword in both hands delivered a vertical slice with all his weight behind it; fortunately for myself I sidestepped and he connected with naught but air.

With the back of his neck now prone I delivered a powerful slice of my own only I had chosen a time to make such an attack when the opponent was in a position where he ‘couldn’t’ dodge; my blade cut through his neck vertebrae like a hot knife through snow. His head fell to the ground almost in unison with the body and rolled down the corridor to smack gently against his grounded comrade’s cheek; he turned, saw the severed head and his face went ghostly pale immediately “AAHHHHHHHH!!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs and scrambled backwards on his ass. He looked up and the last thing he saw was me lining up a throwing dagger with his face and throwing it; it hit his right eye dead center and pierced right through to his brain and I breathed a light, barely audible sigh.

Suddenly, as if on cue, Baram rushed back toward me shouting “MOVE! MOVE!” at the tops of his lungs and grabbed my sleeve as he rushed past me.

“Baram, wha-”,

“NO TIME! RUN!” he interrupted me as we bolted as fast as we could ahead through the train compartments towards the front.

A loud ‘BOOM’ echoed forward from behind and the train carts behind us were blown to pieces, Baram threw a glance at me, grinned and said “alls clear” I blinked back,

“what the he-”,

“fire rods; a whole dozen of em” Baram interrupted in explanation,

“where in the hell did you get that many?” I asked in slight shock,

“little town t’ the far east called Thamasa, they make an sell ‘em there.”

I shrugged “in any event, let’s get the cash and get the hell out” I said to which Baram gave a nod back,

“damn straight” he replied.

Not much else to tell about the robbery itself really; we got to the front of the train, beat up the conductor, took the key, grabbed the massive chest filled with gil and got the hell out; we had ‘no’ idea how much we just planted ourselves square in the middle of shit creak.



I was taping down and securing my breasts as to not get in the way when I fought before I slipped on my dark gear armor and hood; identical to my father’s old set. Tucked away in all the little compartments and secured to knobs along the vest were shuriken, ninja stars and even a few tack stars I managed to scrounge up. In the scabbard at my side there was a crystal blade and tucked away in the left sleeve of the vest was my father’s old stunner, it wasn’t magical anymore but it was a very well designed ninjato; sharp as all hell, very streamlined and just an all round very well made weapon, I was ready to fight, ready to kill. Gau wanted me to stay behind but screw that, Kefka and his cult killed my father and I don’t care what it takes to beat him back; either we win this fight today or I’m joining Clyde and Strago in the afterlife, no either or, no in between.

I took a look at myself in the mirror; I looked like a ninja, I looked as much like my father as I could manage ‘good’ I thought to myself. I wanted them to remember, I wanted them to know who I was, I wanted them to know I was out for blood; out for revenge.



Sir Setzer and Madam Terra have spirited off ahead as per the plan while’st mine men establish a perimeter; things seem to be proceeding smoothly which is’t most fortunate as if we are to fail here then the entire plan would’st be compromised severely.

“Cyan! Sir!, there is something approaching from the distance!” Commander Christoff did’st so declare and point towards said implied direction,

“may haps I hast spoke’eth too soon” I commented with a sigh as I turned towards the aforementioned direction. T’was misty and difficult to see but nary the less I could scant perceive a shadowy visage through the mist slowly advancing upon us, although t’was still too hazy to distinguish features of any sort let alone identify it to any meaningful degree.

Had it been possible I would’st order an immediate withdrawal as our remaining undetected is’t key, but, pinned against the beach as we were that was’t impossible “I’ll check it out” Sir Sabin declared and before any was’t given a suitable opportunity of interjection Sir Sabin hastily advanced through the mists, I silently prayed to my ancestors he wasn’t making a grave error.



“Setzer!, up ahead; enemy flyers!” Terra shouted as a swarm of these odd little ‘creatures’ burst out from the mists. They were small and compact with little bodies and tails about half their length which ended in triangular points, their skin was a dusty gray, each of their comparatively speaking ‘long’ limbs ended in talons and their faces were disturbingly humanlike; only very wrinkled and squinty.

As they soared past they tried to rip open the balloon of the Falcon but met with no luck ‘fat chance’ I thought to myself sarcastically; that balloon is made of multiple layers of thick dragon hide, need something a lot sharper than natural claws to so much as scratch the very edge.

There were dozens, no, more; maybe ‘hundred’s of the things swirling around us “alright then you little shits, let’s dance!” I shouted and gave the steering wheel a sharp turn.



We split the money 50/50 and were living it up; I was drinking expensive liquor every day and becoming something of a conisseur on all things alcoholic, I also developed something of a rather expensive drug habit. Baram was getting out of the criminal game, cleaning himself up and trying to open up his own business; if well enough was left alone then life could have gone on simply and placidly for Baram and I could go drink myself to death like we planned. Things were not the be like that however, in fact we had unwittingly fucked ourselves royally; the Empire was looking to expand into Doma for years now, they just needed an excuse, and this attack on a merchant’s profit shipment was exactly what they needed. Most of the gil we stole was supposed to be going to the merchant from Tzen and a propaganda campaign was launched on the southern continent that turned out to be maddeningly effective; it depicted Doma as a land ruled by a corrupt, tyrannical and incompetent despot that needed to be saved from itself in order to protect Imperial interests.

On the other side of the coin all the wealthy merchants, and even some of the Daimyo, were actually supportive of the Empire and welcomed them; they believed they would finally establish some well needed ‘order’ in the Doman frontier which they inevitably did, but at the cost of everyone’s freedom and human rights. Apparently that merchant had a pretty long memory and held a pretty deep grudge, I don’t entirely blame him to be honest; we nearly bankrupted him, and he pulled some strings and pestered Vector to do something about all the banditry and ‘specifically’ do something about us. When the first Imperial troopers landed they were greeted with open arms by the local Daimyo whom had supported them in their invasion and planned ‘overthrowing of an incompetent despot’ as he put it; this attracted all the wealthy merchants to his territory, it was really a win-win situation for him to support the Empire.

They did ‘not’ waste any time searching for us; it wasn’t long before a freakin ‘army’ showed up with magitek troops at the vanguard and without even asking questions attacked the town we were staying at, arresting everyone there for ‘harboring fugitives’ and killing everyone who resisted in the least. Most of the town actually ‘did’ end up resisting but they were all annihilated pretty much immediately; me and Baram got the hell out of there the instant we caught sight of the magitek troopers, but they were hot on our trails. We had heard that the things were slow and useless for pursuit, we found out that was untrue almost immediately as they were hot on our heels practically the instant we bolted, they fired tek-lazers at us; I dodged, Baram got tagged by a bolt beam though that rattled him pretty good.

We ditched them in the nearby woods which proved to be a good tactic since they were too cumbersome to maneuver between the trees and blasting their way through the trees took time; but their infantry support rushed into the woods after us, and their were dozens of them. We had a good head start but Baram could barely move, his nervous system was totally fucked by that electrical attack and it was honestly amazing that he was still alive, nevertheless, he couldn’t keep up with me and carrying him along was slowing me down. “Clyde…put me down” Baram said and I complied, laying him up against a tree “I’m done for Clyde, kill me” he asked and I blinked “they’re Imperials, if they catch me alive it’ll be ‘much’ worse than if you just do it nice and quick right here.”

I thought for a brief moment, if I killed Baram they’d definitely keep coming after me, however, if they took Baram alive there was a good chance they’d just torture and execute him as an example and just leave it at that; killing him would be putting myself at unnecessary risk. Yeah, I was a complete and utter bastard but I’m not denying that.

“…I can’t” I said after a pause and Baram glared at me,

“’the fuck you just say?”,

“I said I can’t”,

“…you son of a bitch, yer planning on lettin’ em take me an running fer it on yer own ain’t’cha?!” Baram shouted with a glare.

“I’m sorry” I said once again and turned my back,

“Clyde, Clyde don’t you turn yer back on me!”,

“I’M SORRY!” I shouted one final time and ran,

“CLYDE, HOW DARE YOU!!!” Baram shouted one last time as I ran out of earshot.

My analysis turned out to be correct, they were satisfied with catching one half of us and I managed to slip out of Doma with the money; blew it all really damned fast too, first thing I did was head to Jidoor. I spent around a year in Jidoor just drinking, doing every drug I could get my hands on, fucking expensive whores; and a few cheap ones, killing brain cells, trying to forget shit…not much to tell, I was pretty much just a pathetic junkie. Everything became about getting my ‘fix’ and I’d fucking ‘kill’ if anyone held out on me, in fact, that’s pretty much why I left; my dealer was holding out on me so I slit his throat and took off. I headed for that place Baram told me about, that little out of the way village barely anyone knew about; Thamasa, and that’s where… suddenly I trailed off, my eyes went wide at the sudden realization “…Melinda” I muttered.

I leapt up from my seat to stand directly on Hod’s desk “WHERE IS SHE?!” I demanded and Hod sighed,

“…Clyde, it would be best if-”,

“WHERE THE *FUCK* IS SHE?!” I repeated,

“…beyond us, beyond you; beyond our reach” Hod explained after a pause.

“ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION!” I roared and Hod sighed again,

“*it* has her” he explained.

“What is *it*?” I asked, half demanding and Hod paused for a moment before he answered,

“…normally this is a matter unspoken to mortal souls; but in this rather ‘unique’ case an explanation seems appropriate…”

Edit-fixed some grammar and syntax/redundancy issues I noticed on a second read through

Oh, and if you're wondering about the disjambled nature of the paragraphing and ideas during Terra's perspective it's intentional as to represent the psychological effect remaining in Esper form is having on her psyche.

This post has been edited by Manoftyr on 5th June 2009 02:47

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Post #178043
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Posted: 3rd December 2009 23:43

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Chocobo Knight
Posts: 99

Joined: 27/5/2006

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Hey, just giving a post to let people know the next chapter is on its way...I've just been running into a few problems in my personal life.

Basically, my house is getting foreclosed upon and...everything has been in a state of chaos for the past few months.

Also, looking through a bunch of my chapters it appears as though the formatting got screwed up on a bunch of them...not sure how it happened or if this is unique to my browser since I recently switched from Mozilla to Google Chrome.

Is anyone else seeing the quotations as random hyphened characters and percent and TM signs?, or is this unique to me?

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Post #182653
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Posted: 1st January 2010 21:48

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Cactuar
Posts: 252

Joined: 25/6/2009

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I'm seeing it too and in a few other areas as well

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Post #183059
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Posted: 28th January 2010 03:30

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Black Mage
Posts: 206

Joined: 14/2/2009

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Sorry for being really late, but...I'm using Firefox and have the same problem, it's mainly the older posts.

Oh and, I'm enjoying your fic Manoftyr, glad you haven't dropped it... I think.

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"Love, and do what you will" Saint Augustine
Post #183477
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Posted: 28th January 2010 11:53

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Totes Adorbs
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Second place in the CoN World Cup soccer competition, 2018. First place in CoNCAA, 2018. Celebrated the CoN 20th Anniversary at the forums. Vital involvement in the Final Fantasy IX section of CoN. 
First place in the CoN Euro Cup soccer competition, 2016. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2015. Voted for all the fanart in the CoNvent Calendar 2014. Third place in the CoN World Cup fantasy game for 2014. 
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I believe I did introduce a small measure of database corruption a while back that impacted certain characters (probably non-SGML characters - are the quotes that are messed up just basic " characters, or are they the more angled Microsoft Word-style quotes?). I'll get around to fixing them eventually, though doing so is a bit of a delicate task to avoid damaging anything else.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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