Legend of the Seven Swords Chapter 4
“Who am I?”
By Ybrik Metaknight
Lucca awoke with the worst case of vertigo that she had ever had in her life. The world was spinning around her; it began to make her sick. However, it did not last long.
When she could focus once more, she found herself face-to-face with the most handsome man she had ever seen. His blond hair was tied behind him in a short ponytail. His bright yellow shirt and bold blue pants somehow appealed to her fashion sense. The belt that held his pants up to his waist (when he was standing; he was currently laying stomach-down, as was Lucca) had attached to it a holster, which held a very unique looking gun. In fact, Lucca could now see that the young man had two more guns on his person. Wow, I could really go for this guy. Fashion, looks, and good taste in weapons: who could ask for anything more?
Then she noticed that he was staring at her just as she had been at him.
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When Mustadio regained consciousness, his head throbbed as if it had been pounded with ten thousand tiny hammers from all directions. The pain nearly made his eyes well up with tears. However, this agony soon abated.
When he could once again see straight, he noticed a very striking young woman right in front of him. She had the strangest hair, a bright purplish-pink, that he somehow knew was actually natural. Even stranger still, the orange work suit (and matching cap) she wore seemed to fit with her hair. The dress was somewhat modest, although still form-flattering (and what a form she had!), and showed off the young woman’s lovely pair of legs. Mustadio also noticed that the belt around her waist had two holsters attached to it, and in those holsters were two unique looking guns, perhaps even more powerful than his own elemental guns. Her most striking feature, though, was the thick pair of spectacles which rested on her face. The thick glasses, although somewhat goofy-looking, made Mustadio think that she was quite intelligent, and perhaps as interested in science as he was. Damn, she’s hot! Maybe even intellectual, as well. Can’t argue with her choice of projectile armament either. I feel like I could spend all day with her.
Then he noticed that they had been staring at each other, even checking one another out, for quite some time. Both jumped up.
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As Red XIII returned to the world of consciousness, he felt the sun on his crimson hide and the wind running through his scarlet fur. He hadn’t felt like that in decades. This, along with the cool mist that seemed to be everywhere, instantly told him that he was nowhere near Midgar, or any other place that he knew, as Shinra’s activities had polluted his entire world. Looking around, he saw a tiny farming village off in the distance, along with a tall lighthouse and what appeared to be a landing strip for airships. Then, closing his eyes, he allowed the aromas of fresh air and other things to pervade his nostrils…and nearly choked from the surprise he got. No, it can’t be. How could we have found him already, especially in a place like this, that I have never seen even once in all of my travels? Before he could think anymore about it, his leonine ears picked up the sounds of two women, one of them his “ally” Yuffie, arguing vehemently.
“What were you trying to do to me, you little bitch!?” a woman dressed in green robes demanded of Yuffie. Red could see that the woman had a spear pointed at his ninja companion, and a crossbow hanging from her belt. The large scabbard on the other side of her waist was empty, though. “Were you trying to fondle me? Or maybe take my weapons, armor, or anything else you could find?”
“Sorry, I just thought you were, uh, dead, and I figured that a dead person wouldn’t need any of that equipment anyway,” Yuffie replied. Then, under her breath, she added, “Yeah…that’s it…”
“That’s bullshit!” the jade-clad lady warrior said, poking at the thief she’d caught red-handed. “You knew I was not dead, just asleep, and you thought you would ‘relieve’ me of my possessions. Well guess what? No one takes advantage of Meliadoul Tingel like that!!!”
The woman began to make further advances on Yuffie, a battle-hardened glare in her eyes. By this time, Red XIII was close enough to intervene, but he wasn’t sure that he should. After all, Yuffie certainly needed to be taught a lesson. However, before he could decide on a course of action, another woman, this one blond and barely dressed, entered the fray.
“Oooooh! Ayla like fights!” the woman said, her primitive tongue betraying her lack of sophistication. “Ayla want fight, too!” The woman, apparently “Ayla,” then pounced on Yuffie, much as Red would have himself done to an opponent. Ayla then turned around and swiftly knocked the spear from Meliadoul’s hands, her speed surprising both of the other two women. Yuffie and Meliadoul reacted instinctively. Yuffie rolled to the side and threw two shurikens, one at Ayla and the other at Meliadoul. Meliadoul deflected the star thrown at her, and drew a crossbow, unsure of which woman to shoot first. Ayla simply dodged the projectile thrown at her, and then grinned with the pure joy of battle, apparently ready for any challenge that came her way. Before any of the three women could do anything, a number of other people intervened to stop the brewing brawl.
“Yuffie, stop!” Red XIII scolded his young companion, running in front of her.
“Ayla, please stop fighting these people, at least long enough for us to find out what happened,” coaxed a young man with spiky red hair with a beautiful young blond woman at his side.
“Calm down, Meliadoul,” urged another blond young woman, this one in a simple dress obviously ravaged by the fury of a previous battle. “You shouldn’t be taxing yourself so, with your injuries being as they are.”
Then, another young man, this one with spiky blond hair, got in front of the entire group.
“Please, everyone, if we just calm down, I’m sure we can figure out what’s going on easily,” the young man with the huge empty scabbard said.
“Cloud?!?” Yuffie burst out upon seeing the soldier before her. “Cloud Strife?!? Where have you been all this time and what are you doing here now?!?”
“For that matter, where is ‘here?’ And do you even remember who you are, Cloud?” Red asked the soldier.
“Yes, my name is Cloud Strife, but that is all I remember of my past. Do you people know anything about me?” Cloud answered the red cat-like creature before him.
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“Crono, what do you think is going on?” Marle asked her betrothed.
“I don’t really know,” Crono replied. “I think that we must have gone to a distant time period or something. You know, like a time so far off that nothing recognizable exists.”
“Ayla hungry, go look for food in forest over there,” the cave woman told her friends before running off in her primitive, cat-like manner.
“Hmmm…food…sounds like a good idea. I’ll go get some food too,” Red XIII said in response to Ayla’s actions. Then, turning to Yuffie, he added, “That is, if I can trust you not to try to steal from anyone again.”
“Don’t worry, no more stealing for me,” Yuffie answered sheepishly. “At least not for the next few hours,” she added under her breath, but still loud enough for Red XIII to hear. If the great beast heard, however, he simply did not acknowledge her comment, as he soon followed Ayla into the forest, running in his own graceful cat-like manner.
As everyone began to soak in the revelation about Cloud, a striking red horse burst through the small crowd, carrying an equally striking red-haired woman on its back. The horse was apparently spooked, as one might expect, and the woman equally terrified and hanging on for her life as the horse turned and halted and started again violently. Then, another person, a blond man about the same age as Crono, Marle, and Lucca, came running up behind the horse, his sword banging against the side of his legs.
“Malon! Hang on tight! I’ll try to do something to stop Epona!” the man, who was dressed in a green tunic and had a shield on his back, called out to the woman on the horse. The red-head looked back at him with more than a tinge of fear and gulped, apparently unable to gain any modicum of control over the beast between her legs. Crono ran up to the other young man to offer his assistance.
“Need some help?” Crono asked. “I’ve had lots of experience taking down mad animals.”
“NO!” the other exclaimed in protest. “You can’t kill Epona. She’s too good of a horse to just get rid of.”
“Whoa, okay, sorry I asked,” Crono replied defensively. Jerk-off, he thought as the blonde looked around frantically for…something. Then Crono heard a surprisingly pleasant sound, one which caused the strange elfin knight to whip his head around instantly.
“Hey Crono,” Marle began, changing the subject, “what happened to Lucca?”
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“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be staring at you,” Lucca said, although she had never really stopped ogling at the handsome blond man before her. “I, um, am just a bit disoriented.”
“Oh, that’s quite alright,” said the man. “I’m a bit disoriented myself. By the way, I’m Mustadio,” he added, smiling and extending his hand to be shaken.
“Oh, yeah,” Lucca said, shaking his hand vigorously. “Nice to meetcha. I’m Lucca,” she replied, this introduction melting away her nerves. “Hey, can I see some of those guns you have?”
“Why, certainly,” Mustadio said, handing two of them to Lucca. “All three of these guns are magical. This one shoots ice and this one shoots fire. For some reason, the names on the two guns are somewhat backwards. The fire one is called ‘Glacier’ and the ice one is called ‘Blaze’.”
“Magical guns? How intriguing,” Lucca said, allowing her scientific curiosity to take control of her actions. “And this third one,” she began, pointing to the gun still in its holster at Mustadio’s side, “does it shoot lightning?”
“Yes, it does,” Mustadio answered, handing over the third gun. “It’s called ‘Blast’. And your gun, there, it also looks interesting,” he added, implying that he wanted to examine her gun. Catching the hint, Lucca handed over her own pistol.
“That’s called the Wondershot,” she explained. “I made it from a special, ancient material called a ‘Sunstone’. You can’t find the stuff just anywhere. Or, should I say, anywhen.”
This caught Mustadio’s attention, for he asked, “Lucca, are you implying that you can travel through time?”
“No,” she replied, “I’m directly stating it.” Lucca proceeded to tell Mustadio about the adventures she and her friends had had over the past few months as the two of them began to wander around.
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“I don’t know what happened to Lucca,” Crono said. “Or, for that matter, Glenn or Magus, but I’m sure they’ll all show up somewhere around here eventually.”
“I just hope they’re not too far off. The possibility of losing friends always worries me,” the princess of Guardia told her fiancée. “Oh, well. I need to find some ice cream. I’m really, really hungry.”
As his love began to walk off to the nearby town, Crono looked around for the source of the pleasant musical notes being played, the tune (or lack thereof, for the notes hardly comprised any discernable melody) that had just captured the attention of the strange elfin warrior. Turning toward the forest to his left, he saw a pair of…clowns…pestering a very familiar brown-cloaked man who was playing a musical instrument that Crono recognized as an ocarina. That man…who is he? Crono wondered at the sight of the man concealed by the long brown over garment. As he began to slowly recognize the man, shock and anger welled up inside of him. Dalton!? I thought Marle killed him! So what the hell’s he doing here? Then, much to his surprise, the elfin knight walked up to Dalton and tried to take the ocarina from him. Oh boy, this could be trouble, Crono thought as he drew his sword and began running towards what he was certain would escalate into a fierce conflict.
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“Hey, give me back my ocarina,” Link said to the man before him that was playing on his magical musical instrument. “I need that, and besides, it’s mine.”
“No, you shan’t get this ocarina, not now, not ever,” the blue clown taunted him.
“And if you try to take it, your hand we will sever,” the red clown rhymed.
“I will get to play your instrument next,” the blue jester continued.
“No, it’s my turn! Don’t look so perplexed,” the red jester snapped at his twin.
“Oh, shut up you two,” Dalton said. Then, turning to the red clown, he said, “Now Zorn, Thorn, I’ll give Link back his ocarina if he wants it. After all, I have no real use for it, beyond playing music for my own enjoyment, that is.”
Snatching the Ocarina of Time from Dalton’s outstretched hands, Link said, “I don’t have time to ask how you know who I am, so I’ll just be taking this, thank you!” And with that, he played a simple song, a melodious etude that he had played many a time before, which he called Epona’s Song. Off in the distance, one could hear a horse whinny, then gallop towards the source of the pleasant melody. Link turned away from the odd trio to see the red-haired man that had earlier offered him assistance running toward him with his sword drawn.
“Dude, look out behind you!!!!!” the towheaded man said, as he prepared to jump over and past Link. Instinctively, Link turned around just in time to see Dalton prepare to bring a broadsword down upon his head, giving him a chance to duck out of the way. As he did so, the man with the spiky hair connected to Dalton’s face with his foot, propelling Dalton backwards and stopping the other’s forward momentum. Mere moments later, Dalton got up, recovered from the attack but obviously angered.
“Crono!” Dalton said. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this!” With this Crono slashed at Dalton, who met the katana with his own sword, causing sparks to fly. Then, something happened that truly surprised Link. Crono began to glow, then sent more sparks traveling through his sword, through Dalton’s blade, and into Dalton’s body, sending the older man rocketing into a nearby tree, dazed. Crono advanced toward Dalton and prepared for another round of combat. Turning away from the fight, Link saw the two odd jesters, Zorn and Thorn touch each other, palm to palm, and begin glowing. When this glow receded, Link saw that the two had combined into one indescribably strange, horrifically ugly monstrosity. Gulping, Link simply drew his Master Sword and charged toward the monster.
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Meanwhile, deeper in the forest, Red XIII and Ayla had teamed up to hunt a creature closely resembling a boar. The two were about to pounce upon the creature when an odd blue creature wearing an apron and a chef’s hat beat them to it. This new creature impaled the boar with a large fork and then proceeded to consume it whole.
“Mmmm. Quina like Zaghnols. They other white meat,” the strange creature said before noticing Red XIII and Ayla. Then, the creature, apparently ‘Quina,’ looked at Red XIII hungrily. “Ooh, red thing look tasty too.”
“No, don’t eat me!” Red XIII said, running away. Ayla followed him out of the forest, allowing Quina to chase both of them with nothing on its mind but eating.
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“What do you mean, you’ve never heard of ice cream?” Marle asked the owner of the only restaurant in Dali Village. “Ice cream is only the best food ever made!”
“I’m sorry ma’am,” the man behind the counter told her, “but I ain’t never heard of no food called ‘eyes cream.’ Sounds pretty gross to me.”
“I’ve heard of ice cream,” a scary looking man sitting at the bar spoke up. “The larger towns like Alexandria and Lindblum have some, but you won’t find any of it anywhere near here.”
Turning to the bulky man with bluish skin and red dreadlocks, Marle asked, “Well, how do I get to those places?”
Groaning, the man said, “Hold on, let me finish my drink and I’ll point you in the right direction.” Finishing his brew and laying a couple of coins on the bar, the hulking man led Marle outside. “All right,” he said, pointing to the southeast. “If you go to that cable car station, you can get to either city. Now, go away and leave me alone.” Before Marle could thank the decidedly rude man, another man rode up to the two of them on a large yellow bird and stopped in front of them.
“You there! You’re the Flaming Amarant, right?” the rider asked.
“…Yes, that’s me. What’s it to you?” the bulky man answered.
“There’s a fight going on outside the forest near the Ice Cavern, and your strength and experience could be a great help in ending the fight and keeping things ‘round here real peaceful-like,” the rider stated.
“Hmmm…I need a good fight,” Amarant said, pulling a claw from his belt. Then, pushing the rider off of the bird, he finished, “Give me that chocobo.”
“Wait! I’m going with you!” Marle yelled. But it was too late. Amarant had already ridden off into the distance. “Dammit! Why do I always get left behind?! Where can I get one of those bird thingies?” she asked the dismounted rider.
“What, you mean a chocobo?” the rider asked Marle with a look that told her that she should already know what they were called. “Go to that there store and rent one.”
Deciding that it would be quicker to simply run back to that forest where a battle was now being waged, Marle cast a Haste spell on herself and took off in the direction Amarant had gone.
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Link moved to dodge a tentacle from the monstrosity that the two jesters had combined into, only to be thrown forward violently by a blast of incredible heat, then thrown backwards just as brutally by a blast of terrible cold. Then, he heard the cackling. He looked up in horrific remembrance to see two hags he’d defeated long ago (or was it only yesterday?): Koume and Kotake, the Sorceress Sisters Twinrova. “No,” he said, “it can’t be.”
“Ah, but it is, young Link,” Koume, the fire witch, said.
“Yes, we have come to give you a test,” Kotake, the ice hag elaborated. “Or, rather, a taste of what’s to come.” With that, she shot a blast of ice at Link. However, her target was a bit too quick for her, as he blocked the shot with his shield, reflecting the ice back to Koume, sending her reeling in pain.
“Aaaaggghhh!” Koume screamed. “That may have worked on us once, but not this time!” With that, she immediately merged with Kotake, much as Zorn and Thorn had done, to form one much larger witch. As they did this, Link was struck down by a sharp lashing from the jester monster.
Dammit! I forgot about them! Link cursed his own memory, or lack thereof. I can’t take on two monsters at once! Especially when each of them is actually two smaller opponents. However, he did not have to worry for long, as the female knight he had heard earlier referred to as “Meliadoul” came crashing down from the heavens holding a spear, and promptly began fighting the creature before her.
“Go! Fight the witch…es, whatever,” Meliadoul commanded. “I’ll hold this one off,” she finished, as the one identified as Cloud came running up to help her.
Not one to refuse help when fighting an enemy, Link turned back to Twinrova, her synthesis now complete.
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Before she knew it, Yuffie was face-to-face with a man dressed in exquisite green robes and a horn hanging from his neck. Her thoughts immediately turned to how she could relieve this man of any valuable possessions he was currently carrying. However, before she had the chance to do anything, the man grabbed her by the wrist, twisted her arm slightly, crouched down, and flipped her over himself.
“Ow!” Yuffie cried out as she hit the ground with a thud. “What the hell didja do that for?”
“Because I can,” the man told her. As she began to get up, rubbing her arm where he had twisted it, he continued. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jerome Solock, master mage and summoner of all manner of beasts, but you can just call me Jerry, or Jerome if you must.”
“Well, Jerry, why did you attack me?” Yuffie asked, confused.
“That’s not as important right now as the fact that you’re about to die,” Jerome said, thrusting his arms into the air. As he did this, he began to chant in an indiscernible language, and the horn around his neck began to glow, while Yuffie only watched in awe. When his incantation was done, the sky ripped open into a dark vortex, from which a large goat-like creature emerged, followed by an enormous spider. “Meet Sontas and Monteg, your opponents.”
“Well, damn,” Yuffie said, as she used her powerful legs to propel her body backwards, throwing some extra gil at her two opponents while she flipped. When she landed a few feet behind where she once was, she saw that her coin toss had only made the monsters madder. She knew she couldn’t take on both of them at the same time, at least not by herself.
“Magic Barrier!” Yuffie heard a voice yell, and suddenly felt a wash of warmth, as a pleasant blue light flooded over her. She suddenly felt lighter, stronger, and healthier, and glanced in the direction of the spellcaster to see the young woman earlier identified as Alma gearing up for another spell. She then turned back to the matter at hand and cart wheeled toward the giant spider, slashing one of its legs as she passed.
Yuffie grinned as the spider squealed in pain, but her satisfaction was cut short as the goat rammed her in the back and propelled forward, crashing into a tree. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the satisfied smile on the summoner’s face, and a similar look on the face of the red cat-like thing that ran right into him.
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Red XIII’s crimson lips curled up into a sneer as he lunged at the spell caster that seemed to have injured his ally. However, he realized, he and the cave woman had not yet escaped the strange blue “Quina” thing. Not that it mattered right now anyway, as a trio of new opponents materialized behind the unconscious form of the summoner he had just head-butted. The three figures, one clad in green, one in white, one in black, but all apparently knights, looked ready to harm something. And that’s just what they’ll do if I don’t get some help, Red thought. His worrisome thoughts did not go unanswered. The cave woman pounced out of the trees and onto the green knight, while the strange blue thing, which seemed to have forgotten about eating Red, pulled its gigantic fork out of its apron and began to poke at the white knight. Taking their lead, Red XIII turned to the black knight, sighed, and bore his teeth.
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Malon, as she rode Epona as fast as she could in the direction of her husband’s ocarina song, saw two very peculiar things on the road ahead of her. First, an exceptionally large man with hair more strikingly red than her own and almost bluish skin was riding a very large yellow bird, which was traveling as fast as Epona, if not faster. Second, and much stranger, was the slender blond woman running after the man, and nearly catching him! She ignored both of these, however, as she noticed a feeling in her gut that her newlywed husband was in some sort of trouble.
As she came closer to the area she had fled from earlier, she began to hear sounds of battle, or at least what she assumed were sounds of battle. She checked to make sure Link’s bow, arrows, and boomerang, and her own staff, were still safely at Epona’s side, where they had been put before they left the temple of time a few minutes (minutes!? is that all!?) ago.
When Malon looked up, she saw the large man jump off of the bird with a flip, landing at the feet of a large, yellow…metal creature, and saw the blonde slow to a halt and gasp, either due to being out of breath or out of some surprise. Malon slowed Epona to a gallop, then a trot, then a complete stop. Grabbing the staff, the boomerang, and the bow and arrows, she hopped off of the horse and ran up next to the other two.
“I, I can’t believe it!” the blonde choked out. “It’s a, it’s a golem.”
“A what?” Malon asked, running up next to her, bow ready in one hand, arrow in the other.
The blond girl looked in her direction, as if revived from a trance, and answered, “It’s a creature I fought long, long ago.” Then turning back to the golem, she drew a crossbow, fitted it with an arrow of her own, and prepared to fire after the hulking man finished his almost feral attack on the golem. Before she could, however, two young men came in their direction, one flying over the monster’s head, and the other being hurled from the side of the metallic beast. Both landed in the trees just behind Malon and the other woman.
“Link!” Malon cried in anguish.
“Crono!” the blond yelled simultaneously. Both women ran towards the men. As they got to where the two had hit the treetops, Link and the other man jumped down. “Are you all right, honey?” the blonde asked the red haired man, apparently Crono.
“Yes, I’m okay, Marle,” he told her. “Is Link all right?” Crono asked, looking in Malon’s direction.
“Yes,” Malon replied, “but how do you know my husband?”
“You two are married?” Crono asked. Then, without waiting for an answer, he said, “That doesn’t matter right now.”
“That’s right, Malon,” Link said, getting up from where he was crouched on the ground. “Nayru’s Love!” he yelled. Malon, still somewhat experienced with the magic he had taught her, pumped some extra power into his familiar spell, extending a magical shield around all four of them, just as a man in a brown cloak and a large witch approached the group.
“Now, Crono, what is that thing?” Link asked, waiting for a response as the witch and the man began to pound the shield with spells.
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Mustadio and Lucca heard sounds of battle and took off running in the direction the sounds were coming from, and stopped at the edge of a cliff. The sight they saw was a truly spectacular one to behold.
A red cat-thing was fighting a dark knight, Lucca’s friend Ayla was exchanging blows with a green knight, and a blue…thing was fighting (or maybe trying to eat?) a white knight. Mustadio thought he recognized all three knights, but he was too far away to be sure. Not far from that skirmish, Mustadio’s ally Alma was kneeling next to an unconscious woman in short clothing and an unconscious man in elaborate robes. Mustadio saw his allies Meliadoul and Cloud fighting a very ugly monster. He also felt a strange sensation and looked up.
Lucca was quite surprised to see a bulky man hitting a golem with his fists. Just behind him, she saw an enormous flying hag and a familiar man in a brown cloak hitting on a purple energy shield. As the tow assailants paused their volley of attacks, the shield dissipated, and her friend Crono rushed toward the man in brown, whom she now recognized as Dalton, while another man ran towards the witch, his own sword drawn them. Behind them, Lucca’s friend Marle readied her crossbow with an ice arrow while a red haired woman aimed a fire arrow with her long bow straight at the witch. The huge hag screamed as the two elemental arrows hit her simultaneously, leaving her open to a sword attack from the blond man.
“Lucca, look up there!” Mustadio yelled, snapping Lucca from her fixation with the battle going on below her. She followed his pointing finger to see an old man in a brown suit of armor and a brown cape hovering above the forest, surveying all the action below his feet. He had apparently not noticed the two scientists.
“Sense!” a deep voice behind them shouted. Lucca and Mustadio whipped their heads around to see a tall, thin man with long brown hair and a brick-red cloak and matching pants clutching a small, translucent, yellow orb. As he held this orb to the sky, a ray of white light shot from it at the angle between him and the man floating in the sky. This ray split into a circle and closed in on the man in the sky, then shot back into the forehead of the man who seemed to have cast the apparent spell. Both parties were completely unharmed, but this caused the floating man to notice the three figures and soar towards them with astonishing speed.
Seeing this, Mustadio pulled out one of his guns, reached into his pocket, and grabbed a magical bullet marked “Arm Aim.” He loaded this into the canister of the gun, aimed, and shot it at the enraged man. The bullet hit the man, and magic sprung forth from the “wound” rather than blood, wrapping around his arms and mouth so that he could neither use weapons nor cast spells. Lucca and the other man were surprised by the quickness of Mustadio’s reflexes.
“Nice move, and great aim,” the tall, dark stranger complimented Mustadio, seeing that their adversary was temporarily incapacitated, momentarily baffled, slightly stunned and very angry. “Now, that ability that I just used told me that taking him down will indirectly end all those battles down there. It also told me that we might beat him by hitting him hard and steadily with fire, lightning and ice. I can hit him with any one of those elements, but only for a moment and only one at a time. Any suggestions?”
Although Lucca wanted to ask how the stranger found this out (among other things, like who the hell he was), she replied, “I can hit him steadily with powerful fire.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Mustadio said. “Are you any good with guns?” he asked the stranger. When he got his answer in the form of a simple but assertive nod, he continued. “Lucca, you take my Glacier Gun. You should be able to feed your fire magic directly into it. You, do those green orbs you have supply magic?” The stranger gave another nod, this one more hesitant and confused than the last. “Good. Give me two of them, one for lightning and the other for ice.” When the stranger did so, Mustadio hooked one up to the back of his Blaze Gun and the other to the back of his Blast Gun. He handed the Blast Gun to the stranger and the Glacier Gun to Lucca, keeping the Blaze Gun for himself. “Now, just hold down the trigger for a steady stream of magic.”
All three aimed their guns at the man floating above and fired, their elements mixing and merging, hitting him as one stream of magic. He screamed in agony and fell to the ground in front of them, as their magic power gave out.
“You, you, you fools,” the weakened man stuttered. “You’ll be sorry for this. Mustadio Bunanza, Lucca Ashtear, and Vincent Valentine, you are hereby all marked for my personal vengeance.” Then, getting up, the bonds that restricted his actions broken by the magical assault, he cast a spell to greatly amplify his voice, he bellowed out over the battlefield, “WE HAVE LOST THIS BATTLE! AGENTS OF THE DARK CRYSTAL, RETREAT!” Next, he opened a portal and jumped through it, closing it behind him before Mustadio, Lucca and the stranger, Vincent, could react.
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Upon hearing the announcement, Gaff Gafgarion kicked at the red cat as hard as he could, catapulting the beast backwards a few feet. “Wiegraf, Rofel, let’s go!” he yelled at his uneasy companions. Rofel sliced at the cavewoman’s belly, causing her to fall back, and ran towards his fallen ally, Jerome Solock. Wiegraf simply cast Stasis Sword on the blue thing and ran in the same direction, alongside Gafgarion. Meltigemini, the strange thing that Cloud and Meliadoul had been fighting, split back into Thorn and Zorn.
“Now we must flee…” started Thorn, as he began to open a portal.
“…if to survive are we,” finished Zorn, as he completed the portal-opening process.
“Just shut up, you two, and get in there!” Gafgarion grunted, shoving the two clowns into the portal. “And you two, hurry up! Grab Solock and get in here quickly!” he yelled to Rofel and Wiegraf before jumping into the portal himself.
Rofel and Wiegraf ran to their downed comrade, nearly knocking over both Meliadoul and Cloud in the process. “Hi Meliadoul. Long time no see,” Rofel said as he and Wiegraf grabbed Jerome and dragged him through the portal, which closed behind them.
Meliadoul simply stared, dumbfounded, and said, “Rofel? And Wiegraf? What are you doing here?”
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When Twinrova heard the retreat order, she split back up into Koume and Kotake.
“We’ll meet again, young Link,” Koume cackled as she opened a portal for herself, and then flew into it, closing it behind her.
“And you too, Bride of the Hero,” Kotake screeched at Malon, before following her sister’s lead.
“Damn!” Dalton said. “We’ll have to finish this later, Crono.”
“All right,” Crono responded as he backed away from Dalton, actually very relieved to not have to fight anymore right now.
“Golem! Come!” Dalton yelled at the battered golem. Then he opened up a portal for both himself and his metal beast. When he went through, everyone present, save Amarant, breathed a sigh of relief, as all opponents were now gone.
“Crono! Marle!” Lucca called, climbing down from the top of the cliff. “Was that really Dalton just now?”
“Yeah, I don’t understand it either,” Crono answered her, as Lucca, Mustadio, and Vincent approached the group. Behind him, Meliadoul, Cloud, Red XIII, Ayla, and Quina walked up to everyone, while Alma helped Yuffie limp to the area.
After the remaining introductions were made, everyone began talking amongst their own little cliques.
“Amarant! Quina not see you in long time!” Quina said to its companion.
“Damn,” Amarant replied, nonchalantly. “What a cryin’ shame.”
“Was that Rofel, Wiegraf, and Gafgarion I saw over there?” Mustadio asked Meliadoul and Alma.
“Yes, but I’m just as confused as you are,” Meliadoul answered.
“I don’t have any idea why they were here either,” Alma said. Then, after thinking for a moment, she added, “Or how, for that matter. Aren’t they all supposed to be dead?”
“So Malon,” Marle began, “you and Link just got married?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Malon responded. “Just earlier today.”
“Wow, congratulations,” Crono said. “Marle and I got engaged earlier this month.”
“Well then, congratulations to you, too,” Link said with a soft smile.
“Lucca, where been?” Ayla asked her inventor friend.
“I was talking to that Mustadio guy,” Lucca said, pointing to her new friend. “Isn’t he dreamy?”
“Look alright,” Ayla replied. “But Ayla like Kino better.”
“Where are we? And where’s the Highwind?” Red XIII asked.
“Who cares?” Yuffie began. “I’m just glad to be offa that puke machine.”
Ignoring Yuffie, Vincent answered, “I don’t know. I’ve spent some time investigating the surrounding area, and I don’t recognize any of it.”
“And Cloud,” Red mentioned, gesturing in the area of their blond comrade. “Why is he here of all pla—”
“Umm, excuse me,” Cloud interrupted, walking up to the three members of AVALANCHE. “You all seem to know me, so can you please tell me who I am?”
.
“Damn it…who the hell am I? Who!?”
--Delita