06 - The Next Day

[Shadow Phoenix]

The rays of the early morning sun beat down on the desert sands and on the backs of all those traveling through it. Even though it was still early, the temperature had risen to torrid levels. Normally, Bax wouldn’t have minded this. After all, just a couple of hours before, the rising sun had felt wonderful on his face. But suddenly he found himself cognizant of the drastic rise in temperature and the smothering aridity of the desert. Was this heat what people always complained about? Was this what had tired Zack out those months ago when they were traipsing across the desert? Was this what his most recent human companions had groaned about in the mid-afternoon as they sweat miserably and rationed their water? Certainly, Bax had been tired from his lack of energy, but he hadn’t even noticed the sweltering heat. Now, it blistered all around him. And this wasn’t even the hottest part of the day! This damned bracelet would be the death of him.

“Can I have something to cover me and keep me from the sun, please?” he asked finally.
“Oh?” Teras said, looking back over his shoulder. “You’re hot?”
Bax wondered if he had said too much. Maybe Rivel didn’t know that the anti-materia would affect him this way as well. He didn’t know if it would advantage him to keep this information to himself in case it would help him later or if he should let his captors know so that he could get a little comfort and avoid passing out.

He concealed the whole truth, just in case. “No, but the light is bothering my eyes. You hit me too hard and I have yet to get rid of this headache in my condition.”
Eve laughed a little up front, “Wow, you really are in bad shape. Here, Teras, give this to him. Can’t have him dying on us before we get to HQ.” She tossed a bundle towards Teras, who caught it and lowered it to Bax.
“Here,” he said. “Any more complaints, your majesty?” That last part was spoken with a little acrimonious weight.
Bax detected the bitter sarcasm and rolled his eyes. “No, thank you.” He didn’t feel in the mood for a snappy comeback, so he left it at that. Teras lapsed back into silence as he dropped the bundle behind him into Bax’s waiting arms.

It was a spare Magi cloak. Bax felt a little unclean touching and found it difficult to think about using it to help himself, but it couldn’t be helped. And they had actually, in a small way, helped him. He unraveled the cloak and slipped it over his head, covering his head and arms in shadow and relieving himself a little bit. It was still hot, but this protected him from the worst of it.

Bax dozed off for a bit as he waited inside the hood with nothing to do but bounce up and down helplessly on Teras’ shoulder. One thought gripped his mind as his faded to semi-consciousness: how had he not known about Hodia for all these years? After everything they had been through and how close he had been to her, how had he never once suspected that she was in league with such a dark power? His inherent blindness made him question many other things, too. He wasn’t sure exactly what to believe anymore. After all, if you couldn’t trust your best friend, who could you trust?

Bax was awakened by the low vibrations of Teras’ speech.
“We should pick up the pace. We have been moving too slow.”
“Agreed,” Eve said. “I’d like to finally get back to HQ. We’ve been out on missions for two and a half weeks now. It’s about damn time.”
Rivel chuckled, “What, you don’t like taking a leisurely stroll through the desert.”
“We’re on a mission, dumbass,” Eve spat back. “And no, I don’t usually like leisurely strolling through the hot, sweltering heat.”
“Ease up, Eve,” Rivel gave in. Then he muttered under his breath, though Bax heard it, “God, someone’s bitchy today.”
Teras boomed again, “Let’s just go.”
“Fine, let’s move.” Rivel said, resigned. “Teras, can you keep up even with Bax on your back?”
“He’s not heavy,” the giant responded.

Suddenly, Bax could tell that they were moving much faster. He couldn’t tell how fast, but they were no longer simply walking. They weren’t flying either, but they definitely had a higher than average running velocity. Was this one of their abilities?

“How long until we get to your headquarters?” Bax asked.
“At this rate,” Eve spoke, her voice floating on the wind, “We’ll be there before nightfall.”

Well, Bax could give them one thing. Even though he didn’t know exactly where their headquarters were, he imagined that they were somewhat closer to Zion than they were to Midgar. They were crossing more than half the continent in under a day. That was certainly one way to travel.

Once Bax grew accustomed to the new movement, he dozed off again. This bracelet! Because of his new aversion to the heat and the fact that he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since last night, he was even weaker. He was miserable.

A couple of hours passed, and Bax was awakened again. But this time, it wasn’t by anything nearly as gentle as a low vocal rumble.

“SSSSSHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTT!” Rivel screamed.
Bax’s eyes bolted open in response to the screams and then he was rattled as the group came to a sudden stop. Teras slammed into the ground and dropped Bax down to his side, where he held him at his hip. Teras dropped Bax’s swords on the ground and brought out his katana with his free hand. Bax looked forward and saw a huge cloud of dust. Eve was running forward and drawing her katana.
“Shit, Rivel!” she shouted. “What the hell, man?”
“What’s going on?” Bax asked.
“I don’t know,” Teras admitted, his voice low and guarded. He was surprised as well. “We were moving and then Rivel was hit by some sort of attack.”

Attacked? By whom? Had someone found him and come to save him? Who was it? Bax couldn’t tell with his senses dulled from lack of energy. Zack? Jack? Sephiroth X? Black Spider? Lynx? Prodigi, even? Were they close enough to Nibelheim that the survivors might try to protect their city? Bax kept his excitement down as he waited for the Magi to regroup.

Bax saw Rivel storming back towards Teras through the dust cloud with Eve hot on his heels. He looked pissed. His cloaked had been torn and singed, and but except for a little dust and a minor scrape on his cheek, he didn’t look any worse for the wear.
“Someone made a big mistake,” he spit. “Son of a bitch.”
“See anything Teras?” Eve asked. She looked serious, too.
Teras lifted his head skyward and scanned the horizon. At last, his eyes widened. “Shit,” he cursed, curt and low. “Move.”
“Huh?” Rivel asked, before looking up in the direction of Teras’ gaze. Bax looked up, too, and his eyes widened, too. A humongous blast of lightning was headed straight for them, set to annihilate them.

All three Magi leapt into the air and dodged cleanly out of the way of the blast. Bax’s mind swarmed. Who did he know he was able to manipulate the power of lightning? Could it be Zack? He remembered that Zack had used lightning in the hospital that one time when he was trying to help Bax. And he had used it in other battles, too. But that wasn’t his style—he wouldn’t send a huge blast at an enemy. He would strike tactically, and he would certainly try to avoid hitting Bax as long as he knew he was there. And he would probably not use a sneak attack unless there was no other way. He was an honorable fighter to be certain, even with the most deceitful enemies. So who then?

Teras landed and Bax looked up again. He saw three figures suspended in mid-air, staring down at the four of them.
“Those bastards,” Teras seethed angrily.
“By the Ancients,” Bax swore.

“Marco!” Rivel screamed from about 30 feet to Teras’s right. “What is the meaning of this?”
From far above, the silver-haired Magi that Bax had fought in Nibelheim and then in the Super City shouted back. “You have our target and we want him.”
“You idiots,” Eve screamed from about 40 feet to Teras’s left, “You don’t have to attack us! We’re on the same side, dumbasses! Let’s just take him in together.”
Kerlin laughed maniacally, “But what’s the fun in that? Besides, you had your chance already, and you failed. So they gave your mission to us, and we haven’t reported back in yet.”
Teras spoke out now his low voice echoing loudly and effortlessly into the sky, “And yet you have now spent over a month chasing after him without reporting back in. Even if you do bring him in now, you will be disgraced.”
Daito completed the circle, “But we will have succeeded where you initially failed.”

Bax began to curse rapidly, whispering vehemently into the air. Were these two groups seriously going to fight? Bax hadn’t seen Rivel, Eve and Teras really in action in their new forms, but he was sure that they were even more ferocious than they had been months ago. And he had seen Kerlin, Daito, and Marco even more recently, and they were more than deadly. Bax had been in his peak condition when he had beaten them, and he had also had a lot of luck on his side. They were cocky and they had given him an opening. If these six fought now, the consequences could be deadly. And Bax was extremely weak right now—a stray blast could kill him.

Teras lowered Bax to the ground, though he kept his eyes up the whole time.
“Phoeniyan,” he said, obviously addressing Bax, “Get out of the way.”
Bax stood up and stepped back from Teras, looking up at him curiously.
“But if you run,” the giant added, “I will find you.” He turned his head and looked directly at Bax with an icy glare, “And I will kill you.”
Bax nodded as his blood ran cold. Teras began to turn his head to face his enemies, but instead was surprised with an iron kick to the chest from Marco, who had sped from his suspended place in the sky to catch Teras while he wasn’t looking. Bax stepped back even further as Marco sent Teras flying and careening through a dune behind him. Marco shouted at his opponent, “Never take your eyes off of your opponent, Teras. Wasn’t it you who told me that once?”

Bax looked around and saw that Kerlin had descended to fight with Rivel and that Daito had shot down to take on Eve. It was really happening! Ancients, he was screwed!

Marco turned his head to the side and looked at Bax. “We told you this wasn’t over, didn’t we? Don’t worry; we’ll get to you after we crush them.”

Bax stepped back again, knowing that there was nothing he could do. Suddenly, the ground about him began to shake violently. Bax lost his balance and stumbled to the ground. Marco looked down around his feet and began to sway as the ground knocked him off balance. Suddenly, the sand beneath his feet erupted and began to push Marco up into the sky on what appeared to be a solid platform. Marco continued to sway and looked around him with wide eyes. The sand shot up faster and faster and began to form into a hand around Marco, unfurled and waiting to close into a fist.

“And you still haven’t learned, Marco!” Teras’s voice boomed from the top of a dune, where he had his arms stretched out. “Never let your guard down!”
He closed his fist and the fingers shook and then snapped together down over Marco. Marco saw it coming and enclosed himself in the iron-plating as quickly as he could, jutting his hands out to keep the immense amounts of sand from crushing him. The sand closed in and he stood hard and fast against the powerful weight, though Bax could see him buckling as Teras snarled and continued to mold the Earth from afar with his hands. Was this his true power?

Marco and Teras both screamed and the sand-hand collapsed in on Marco, locking him in a coffin. Teras swung his arms down and the sand-cocoon slammed into the ground and sunk into the Earth. Teras continued to squeeze his hands tightly, but began to maneuver to redraw his katana and put a giant claw on his left hand. It was apparent that though he had sought to annihilate Marco with that attack, he knew it wasn’t over yet.

This power…Bax was impressed. These Magi obviously knew each other’s strength and were not going to hold back if they could help it. They would kill each other if they had to. And this battle was just getting started.

Sure enough, Bax felt the air above where Marco had been thrashed heat up and he leapt out of the way as dozens of bolts of lightning rocketed up from the sands, crystallizing much of the area with the superheat. As much as he hated to turn tail and hide like a coward, he had no choice. He dodged behind a rock and peaked over to watch the action. As electricity riddled the area, Marco rose out of the depths of the sands, now in his transformed form, horns and all, wielding his war hammer. Teras smiled from his dune, pleased that he had already forced his opponent to pull out all the stops.
“All right, then, Teras!” Marco growled. “Let’s begin!”

[Shadow Phoenix]

Eve held her katana in front of her and waited for Daito to descend. He shot down towards her at the same time as the other two soared towards their opponents. The moment she saw the vampiric Magi choose her as an opponent, she didn’t take her eyes off of him. She had never sparred against him in her training, but she knew that he was much older than he looked, and thus had decades of experience, and was that much deadlier. All three of these psychos had undergone severe bodily alterations. And they also had further augmented their powers with lots of heavy materia. They had gone every route to seek power. They were loose cannons, and everyone knew it. But she was still confident that she would be able to handle him.

Daito’s katana clashed into Eve’s and she felt his intense power billowing towards her. Her heels dug into the sand and she clenched her teeth as she braced against the blow. This initial blow was ever harder than she had expected it to be.
“Daito, why are you all doing this? Have you lost your head?”
Daito spoke with his usual stoic face, “No. That might actually kill me.”
Eve narrowed her eyes to slits. “Come on! You don’t have to fight us to bring Bax in.”
“Though it makes our chase worthwhile. I don’t think you realize, Eve—the three of us have fought Bax twice now, and been beaten by him twice. That makes him very lucrative prey. And since we have orders not to kill him, we’ve become agitated. We’ve killed plenty of people in Nibelheim and the Super City, along with some drifters on the way here, but we’re still not satisfied with those pushovers. So your deaths will serve in place of Bax’s. That is, until we’re done with Bax and can kill him ourselves.”

Eve narrowed her eyes and began to summon her inner strength. The whites around her green mako eyes flashed purple for a moment, then began to pulsate purple rapidly.
“I won’t give you your satisfaction today, vampire.”
Daito smirked briefly and flashed his fangs.

The winds around them suddenly whipped up in a cyclone. Eve’s purple hair and Daito’s black hair spun in the winds as the sand around them rose up in a column and closed them off from everyone else.
“I’ve got you,” Eve said.
Daito said nothing, but suddenly disappeared from view. Eve stumbled forward and knew that he had launched into his famed speed. There were rumors among the Magi of how Daito had achieved legendary speed. It may have been his materia, but it was not the genetic engineering he had undergone to create the vampiric qualities he possessed. Some said that he had made a direct deal with the Fallen Phoenix to imbue him with sacred powers. Some said that he had used dark arts to channel the spirits of ancient warriors. Others said that somehow those vampiric qualities had enabled him to drain more than the blood of his victims. Whatever the case was, he claimed to be faster than any other Magi in the Holy Order. Since this claim had so far not been challenged, he had earned the nickname of the Invisible Assassin. And now Eve had to deal with it.

She extended her sixth sense in a full scatter around her. Suddenly, she could feel any alteration in the wind around her. Since undergoing this experiment, she had hardly had a chance to test the full extent of her abilities. There had been that fight against Sephiroth X, but that had been about it. This new power—it was no wonder they had all had such a hard time with Sephiroth before.

Eve felt a very fast disturbance above and behind her to the left. She whirled around and swung her katana in a tight arc in that direction, meeting Daito’s strike and deflecting him away. She shifted her blade to her left hand and wrenched her spike-chain from her hip with her right hand. She closed her eyes and sensed Daito swung around her, stalking her. She cracked the chain and then began to spin it around her head before sending it spiraling up towards Daito. The winds stopped moving in a cyclone and began to toss the chain about through the sky, directing the spike quickly wherever Eve felt Daito. Unfortunately, no matter how fast she wrenched the spike around, Daito managed to avoid it every time. But if she kept going like this, maybe…just maybe…

Eve sheathed her katana and began to lead Daito in a circle. If he reacted like she hoped, then…

Suddenly, Daito dove down through the center of the chain loop. Eve grinned.
“I’ve got you know.”
Daito opened his mouth and shrieked as he rocketed towards her, ready to skewer her. Eve cracked her chain downward and raised her left hand towards Daito, expectantly. All of her gusting winds suddenly spun directly up towards Daito. The vampire was caught in mid-air, slowed significantly by the force of the gusts. The chains fell around him and then suddenly collapsed in, restraining him in the crushing links. Eve continued to push up with her wind-blasts. She wrenched the chain one more time and spun him so that the approaching spike would stab him in the chest. She loosed her hold on the chain and let them unravel just as the spike passed through and tore through his chest. He screeched at the wound. Eve knew she probably wasn’t lucky enough to have caught him in the heart, but she hoped that this would at least slow him down a bit.

But now that she thought about it, he probably shouldn’t have gotten caught by such an attack. If he was as experience as he was said to be, then he should have seen that maneuver coming. So had she gotten lucky? Or…

The spike passed through Daito and buried into the ground. Daito came flashing down after it and landed on his feet, slicing his sword through the air. Eve barely had time to dodge the initial swipe. Daito kept on after Eve despite the chain through his chest, tearing his blade through the air and jabbing it viciously towards her. Eve didn’t even have time to draw her katana again as she stepped backwards and dodged the attacks. Daito flicked his sword around and cut her left wrist. She let go of her spike-chain’s handle as an initial reaction and cursed. Now she had to get her katana or else she would be in major trouble.

Right before Daito ran into the moment of tension with the chain, he reached up with his left hand and yanked it out through his chest. Though he bled freely, he simply smirked and launched at Eve with renewed vigor. He continued to make nicks all over Eve, hitting her shoulders and arms. With each cut, she felt strength drain out of her. And from the looks of it, the nasty wound through Daito’s chest improved with each attack. Was his sword draining her power?

Eve saw Daito’s eyes flicker for a moment and she stopped moving back so quickly and focused on drawing her sword. He launched his blade straight at her heart, but her quick draw deflected it up and to the side, and it instead lodged into her left shoulder. She grimaced, but then raised her left arm and clamped her hand around Daito’s neck. He looked a little surprised for a moment, and then she lodged her own katana in Daito’s shoulder, exactly where he had jammed his. He grunted, too, and then Eve plunged her open palm into Daito’s abdomen, unleashing a powerful gust of wind into his stomach. A cyclone spun out from her hand and carried Daito away, withdrawing both of their swords from their respective deep wounds. Eve jammed her katana in the sand as Daito spun away. She clamped her hand on her shoulder and growled.
“Bastard. He’s sneakier than I am,” she cursed angrily.

Eve reached down and sliced a long, thin piece of her cloak off with her katana. She tied it around her shoulder and knotted it right around her wound. Then, she reached into her pocket and removed a small vial of green liquid. She uncorked it and drank it down, suddenly feeling a little bit better. It appeared that she had underestimated Daito. Perhaps, though, he had underestimated her as well.

Eve raised her katana and waited. Suddenly, she saw Daito soar through a dust cloud. Now, though, he resembled a large bat with muscular red wings and a hideous face. So, this was his famed transformation. Eve steeled herself as she awaited her opponent. She waved her hand around her katana and then slashed it forward, launching a razor sharp wind blast towards Daito. He denied the arching wind by reaching his hand forward and suddenly erecting a barrier. It was barely visible, but it flashed purple as her wind hit it. Eve saw this and began slashing her sword in a frenzy, sending even more razor gusts towards Daito. He drew closer and closer, but his barrier continued to fend off the winds that she tossed at him. At last, he poured on a burst of speed and narrowed the gap. Eve, too, crouched down, and launched herself at him with a similar boost. They clashed blades and began to fight a narrow battle in close quarters, spinning about and not giving an inch. Now that Eve was actually able to counter him with her katana, she wouldn’t let him get in such a deep wound as he had done before. She knew she had only been fighting with this weapon for a brief time, but she still knew her way around the blade. She would slay this vampire!

Across the battlefield, a wild red bolt from Kerlin’s Reaper scythe arched towards the rock Bax was hiding behind, and he scrambled to get out of the way. Were they trying to kill him?!

Eve and Daito had been going at it near a sand-cyclone probably created by Eve’s power. Daito and Marco had transformed, though it didn’t seem like Kerlin had yet. If they kept going on like this, they would completely destroy this area—and Bax with it!

Bax ran to another rock and continued to watch the battle. If he could at least get his swords, he might stand a chance of defending himself if worse came to worst. He eyed them lying perched near where Marco had electrified the desert in the first place. Now he just had to figure out how to get to them…

Ignorant of how he had almost just killed Bax, Kerlin brought his scythe down hard on Rivel, who blocked it with his two swords in an X fashion. He had chosen to keep his katana on reserve for now and fight with his more familiar weapons. That way, he would be able to use his talents for fire and ice to their full potential. Certainly, he had mastered the fire and ice materia, but he had chosen to junction more to his swords to increase his power. He wanted to size up his opponent before bringing out the katana, anyway.

Sure enough, the “Reaper” lived up to his name. Rivel noticed two different materia on his weapon, and saw a red glow indicative of another whenever Rivel managed to cut him. Even though he knew the dangers of using so much materia that you hadn’t mastered, Rivel did enjoy seeing that Kerlin had gone to such lengths to modify his power. It would make fighting him that much more interesting.

Kerlin stepped back and twirled his scythe through the air.
“Is this all you’ve got, Rivel? After all your research?”
Rivel smirked, “Now, I’m just researching you right now.”
Kerlin narrowed his gaze, “Hope you find me interesting.”
“Oh, very…”

Kerlin spun his scythe around one more time and tossed it in a deadly spin towards Rivel. Rivel began to run backwards and raised his swords again. One glowed blue and began to trickle with ice. The other glowed orange and burst into flames. He stopped his backwards run and surged forward, slamming his swords into the blade and spinning it off to the side. He ran towards Kerlin and waved his ice blade at him diagonally. A column of ice flew out from the sword and struck Kerlin directly. It began to encircle his torso, creeping around and encasing him in ice. Rivel raised his fire blade and swung it towards the ice. The blade sliced like a hot knife through butter, wrenching into Kerlin.

But suddenly the blade stopped and Rivel looked to see that Kerlin had latched onto his arm and stopped his attack halfway. But he didn’t look like he was in any pain. Instead, he smiled at Rivel.
“Ah ah ah,” he said, “Not so fast.”
Rivel tried to push the sword further in to no avail. Then he tried to wrench it out with the same results. Why was Kerlin just holding him here? Rivel swung his ice blade around and stabbed it into Kerlin’s chest. Kerlin grunted a little, but then shook his head. He grabbed Rivel’s other arm, too, and held him there.

Then Rivel knew. He didn’t even have to see it. He could sense Kerlin’s scythe coming back around. It would bite into him at any moment. Rivel looked directly into Kerlin’s eyes and glared. Kerlin smiled. Rivel leaned his head back and slammed it into Kerlin’s forehead. Kerlin cursed and reeled back at the sudden head-butt. His grip loosened just enough and Rivel let go of his swords for a moment and vengefully launched his hands forward. He clenched his right hand around Kerlin’s throat and slammed his left hand towards his face. He slammed the heel of his hand into Kerlin’s nose and wrapped his fingers around the top of his head. He closed his eyes and concentrated, then sent a mind-blast through and viciously attacked Kerlin’s mind. Kerlin screamed as he fell backwards. Rivel felt the scythe whiz right above him. At the last moment, though, the very edge of the scythe turned down and clipped his left shoulder. Rivel felt the poison bite into his shoulder. Kerlin reached his hands up and slammed them open-palmed into Rivel’s chest. His hands glimmered with red lightning and he blasted Rivel up into the air.

Rivel soared into the air and did a back flip as he came back down to the ground. He clutched his left shoulder with his right hand and pitched down on one knee. That last attack—what the hell had that been?

Twenty feet away, Kerlin stood up and grasped his scythe. With his free hand, he clutched his head. His face betrayed his anger and frustration at what had just happened. He moved his hand from his head and yanked both blades from his chest, and then tossed them to the ground. His wounds began to mend immediately.
“You bastard! Who said you could get in my head like that?”
Rivel spit out a little blood and breathed heavily. “I don’t need your permission.”
Kerlin sneered. “Fine, then. All’s fair.”

Kerlin jammed the handle of his scythe into his chest and screamed as two black wings burst from his back in a torrent of blood. Rivel took a step back and stood up a little taller as he witnessed the transformation.
“Fascinating,” he murmured. “He has actually changed his body in such a way to allow him to transform like this…”
Rivel grinned a little. He wanted to study Kerlin now…if he could just subdue the Archangel before him and incapacitate him enough, would the Order let him conduct a few experiments as punishment for his insurrections? Rivel hoped so.

Kerlin flapped his new wings and lifted up into the air. “Come on, Rivel, don’t just stand there gawking! Come and fight me!”
He flapped his wings again and rocketed towards Rivel. Rivel dodged out of the way and unsheathed his katana. He didn’t need a second invitation. Rivel took off running after Kerlin as he flew close to the floor of the desert.

In the mean time, Bax continued to maneuver around the scattered rocks and dunes of the area, trying to get closer to his swords. All the while, he looked around him and saw the six Magi in ferocious battles. Kerlin had finally transformed as well. They were really pulling out all of the stops. And there was nothing that Bax could do.

Bax drew close to his swords and looked around to be sure he was safe enough. He felt like he could make a run for it and manage, so he leapt out from his hiding place and sped towards the swords with all his might. Suddenly, he felt the air around him race. A foul lightning blast from Marco’s battle with Teras raged towards him. Bax’s eyes widened and he skidded around trying to dodge the blast. Suddenly, the ground below him shook and he was propelled into the air by a sudden burst of sand. Bax looked over and saw Teras looking in his general direction. As he flew through the air, he wondered in awe—had Teras actually just saved him?

Marco savagely slammed his war hammer into Teras’s jaw. Teras spun around and went down, but then retaliated by wrenching his giant claw towards Marco’s leg. Somehow, he managed to throw the iron-clad warrior off balance with the blow, and Marco went down as well. Teras spun his katana around in his right hand and leapt over Marco. He raised the sword in the air, bracing it with his left hand-claw, and then plunged it down towards Marco. He found a kink in Marco’s armor and wrenched the blade down and into his chest. Marco screamed from the sudden intrusion, and Teras responded by savagely twisting the blade.

Marco raised his war hammer and it rippled with electricity. He brought it down towards Teras’s head, but the claw-wielding warrior raised his left hand and blocked the main force of the blow. The additive element sent shocks running through the metal of the claw and into Teras, acting like a lightning rod, but Teras just grimaced and bore the pain. The ground beneath them shook and they both launched into the air on a sand-platform. Teras continued to turn the katana with his right hand and Marco growled at the pain, bearing it like the wizened warrior he was. He put his free hand between them and mustered a ball of lightning which he exploded towards Teras. Teras went flying away, taking the lodged sword with him, in a brilliant flash of light. The column of sand collapsed and Marco began to plummet back to the Earth.

“Teras!” Eve screamed from her battle. She delivered a swift kick between Daito’s legs and the vampire’s eyes crossed as he went down for a moment. An unfair move to be sure—but effective. She sheathed her katana quickly, then turned and waved her hands in the air towards Teras. Teras suddenly slowed in the air as he was cradled by the molded winds. Eve lowered him to the ground, and then called out.
“You okay?”
“Never mind me,” Teras responded. He raised his claw and katana as another lightning blast arched across the desert towards him. He pointed behind Eve and just nodded.

Eve spun around as Daito came back up. He looked pissed now.
“Bitch,” he seethed. Daito flapped his wings and clasped Eve around the neck with his claws. They took off into the air and Daito tried to choke her. She supposed that maybe she deserved this a little after kicking him in the balls.

Eve withdrew her blade and sliced it across Daito’s chest. The vampire shrieked and tightened his grip on her neck. Eve’s vision began to fade and she reached her other hand up to the sky. The clouds above began to spin and what looked like a tornado began to form and spiral down towards them. The tip reached Daito and began to tear into his back. She had honed even these tornado winds to razor sharp peaks at their edges. Daito let go of her and then began to fly around in the tornado she had just created, whipped about and spinning. Eve stabilized herself and drifted to the center of the windstorm. She held up her katana and waited for the right moment to rush forward and cut off his head.

Suddenly, Eve saw a bright flash of red light and looked down to see destructive red lightning coursing up towards her. She tried to dodge out of the way, but was caught in the wave of annihilation. She shook in pain as the energy wrenched through every muscle and nearly fried her. The winds dissipated and she plummeted to the ground, still barely holding onto her katana.

Daito descended moments after her and screamed out towards Kerlin.
“I can handle my battle myself, idiot!”
Kerlin snickered from his battle, “I know, but I was bored!”
Kerlin savagely swung his scythe around and tore a gash in Rivel’s chest. “Besides, I’ve nearly got this one down for the count.”
Rivel seethed in anger. Sure, he had been cut plenty of times, but he was still by no means done fighting. He had plenty left in him. If it weren’t for Kerlin’s mastery of healing, he would have killed him long ago—he had cut off Kerlin’s arm in the battle and nearly cleaved him in half, along with numerous other fatal wounds. Kerlin was too reckless—it was as though he would let Rivel get in too close, wait to be hit, and then deliver his own blow after the fact. If it weren’t for his strong healing ability, he would probably not be able to take on very many high-powered opponents. He had very little tactical finesse. What he did have, though, was an insane killing intent and will to fight. That made him a lot more dangerous.

Suddenly, though, Rivel’s eyes crossed and he felt electrical shocks course throughout his body. Not painful, just…it was like he lost control for a moment.

“You noticed, eh?” Kerlin said. “I told you—you’re mine.”
Rivel raised his sword towards Kerlin and shouted, “Shut up and fight me, Kerlin!”
Kerlin made the motions of yawning. “No, I don’t feel like it anymore. I think I’ll just let you finish things yourself.” He waved his fingers towards Rivel and the Reaper in his hands glowed red.

Much to Rivel’s surprise, his katana moved back around and pointed towards him—and his hands moved it. Suddenly, he noticed the wound on his left shoulder smoking and glowing red. Was this…the poison from his blade?

Rivel plunged the katana into his stomach, as though in ritual sacrifice. He screamed at the sudden intrusion.
“What the hell?” he screamed. He then started turning the blade, ripping through more skin. Kerlin began laughing maniacally. Was he controlling him?

Rivel closed his eyes and began breathing heavily. He couldn’t let himself go down like this. As his hands began to drag the blade him towards his chest, his whole body began to shake. He would just have to re-exert control over his body with his mind.

“That’s it, Rivel—kill yourself like an honorable warrior. It doesn’t suit you, but it’ll have to do.”
“Shut up, asshole,” Rivel screamed with his mind. He continued to shake, and then the air around him began to ripple. Out of nowhere, fire and ice formed, intermingling, and shot out towards Kerlin’s scythe, knocking it out of his hands. Rivel felt control return momentarily to his body and he removed the katana from his abdomen. He began bleeding quickly from both ends. He pitched down to the ground and threw up blood. He tore his clothes open and put his hands on his stomach and screamed as he cauterized the wound on both sides. If that bastard wanted to fight with such cheap tactics, Rivel would give him his money’s worth. He picked up his katana and stood up.

Kerlin had also retrieved his scythe, and now stretched it forward. It glowed red and Rivel felt his body began to give way.
“I won’t be so nice this time, Rivel! This time, it’ll be your head!”
Rivel’s arm shook and began to raise the katana towards his neck. Kerlin’s angry face raged darkly and he reached his scythe out more, trying to exert more power.

Rivel raised the blade closer and closer to his neck as his arm continued to shake. He eyed the blade and Kerlin with antipathy and gritted his teeth. Then suddenly, the shaking stopped. Rivel closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked at Kerlin.
“No, Kerlin. It’ll be your head.”
Rivel launched forward and slashed his katana through Kerlin’s throat, biting about halfway through. Kerlin watched the events with wide eyes and slowly fell backwards. He gurgled as the blood began gushing from his neck. His mouth gasped for air that it couldn’t receive and he looked at Rivel with wild eyes, while mouthing ‘how.’

Rivel knelt down below Kerlin and held the katana close to his body. Damn. He had hoped to slice through his whole neck, not just half of it. Obviously, he still wasn’t completely in control of his body, or Kerlin had staved off part of the attack. No matter. Now, he knew that he might be able to combat Kerlin’s puppetry.

Rivel coughed up some more blood and pitched to the ground. That is, he would be able to combat the puppetry if he didn’t fall out from that last wound he had inflicted on himself because of it. Rivel willed himself up and stood to survey Kerlin gurgling on the ground.

The neck wound slowly mended to the point where Kerlin could talk again and he rasped.
“You bastard!”

Rivel sheathed his katana and held his hands out towards Kerlin. He took a deep breath and fire began to curl around his hands. Kerlin shook his head with a look of worry stretching on his face. Rivel screamed and shot a column of fire from his hands, bathing Kerlin in the flames. Kerlin howled in pain.

“Rivel,” called out another voice. “Catch.”
Rivel turned and saw an unconscious Eve hurtling towards him. He didn’t have enough time to react and was knocked over by Eve. The flames dissipated and he reached up to catch her. They hit the ground and rolled in the sand for a moment, and Rivel turned up to see Daito stalking over towards Kerlin.

“Stop helping me with my fight when you can’t even handle your own, Kerlin.”
A weak, charred Kerlin stared up at Daito. “I can handle it,” he spit.
“So I can see.”
“You finished Eve?”
“No. I just didn’t feel like killing her when she was unconscious from your blast. That would be cheap.”
Kerlin smirked. “Honorable now, eh?”
Daito’s face twitched, “Perhaps. I want to see the look on her face when I taste her blood.”
Kerlin coughed, sputtered, and laughed. “Fine, then.”
“I’ll go clean up your mess now.”

Daito disappeared in a purple haze and reappeared behind Rivel instantaneously. Rivel spun around with wide eyes as Daito raked his claws across his chest. The blow just barely missed Eve where she lay in his arms.
“Shit,” he cursed. He looked down at Eve, whose eyes flickered open.
“Damn,” she said. “I feel like I got hit by a truck.” She looked over and saw Daito standing there, scraping his talons together. She cursed again and hollered at Rivel, “Let me down, dumbass!”

Rivel dropped her as she requested and drew his katana. Daito charged forward again and Rivel barely fended off his first blow. Daito pushed him backwards with a seemingly endless barrage of blows and Rivel just barely managed to stay ahead of each slice.

Eve stood up and shook herself out. She still tingled from that last attack. She couldn’t believe she had let herself get knocked out like that. And now she had no weapon. She looked around and saw her spike chain where she had left it—just beyond where Daito was pushing Rivel. Her katana lay near the charred body of who she assumed was Kerlin. Which should she go for to rearm herself?

Then, off to the side, she saw Bax dodge out of the way of another blast of lightning. Damn, was Marco trying to kill him? If their quarry died before they got him to headquarters, it would be all six of their heads! Instead of going for her weapons, Eve ran towards Bax. She saw another lightning blast and waved her hands towards that area to thin the atmosphere between the lightning and Bax. The lightning slowed and Eve poured on the speed, catching up with Bax and carrying him out of the way of the blast.

“Damn it, Bax! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” she said at last. “Stay the hell out of the way. You’re no good to any of us dead.”
Eve saw Bax’s sword sitting on the ground near her, and she picked them up and slammed them into his chest.
“You wanna try and play hero, do it after we’re out of here. We have a battle going on here, and you can’t do much. So get out of the way!”
Bax fumbled with the swords, and then felt his feet leave the ground. With a sudden powerful gust, Eve propelled him far out of the way, not caring much where he landed so long as he was out of the way. He struggled to maintain his position and landed on a rock.

Did they really care about his life, or were they just using him as a means to an end? With the way that Eve and Teras had really tried to save him and gone out of their way, he questioned his initial thoughts about the first group of Magi. They were still savage, and they were still his enemies, but…maybe they weren’t completely bad.

No—Bax shook the thoughts from his head. He couldn’t afford to trust these people, not even for a moment. It would only get him in more trouble. Bax strapped the swords to his back and continued to survey the battle from afar.

Eve went to retrieve her spike-chain first. She couldn’t afford to approach the katana where Kerlin was without a weapon. If he managed to get up, she wouldn’t face him unarmed.

Meanwhile, Teras continued to battle with Marco. He had managed to knock a few metal plates from the warrior’s armor, but he had in turn suffered plenty of damage. First, his claws had been dented to the point where they were useless, so he had discarded them in the sands. Then, a nasty blow had broken Teras’s left shoulder, so he had to fight with his right arm using only the katana. He had kept Marco occupied with some sand-traps for a while, during which time he had tried to set his shoulder, but he was still feeling the pain from the broken shoulder. If he wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t be able to manage against Marco for much longer.

Teras surged forward and slammed his katana into Marco’s war hammer. Marco instantly electrified the weapon and Teras grunted. He opened his left palm down towards the ground, which rumbled for a moment. A small column of sand shot up from the ground and pummeled Marco in the stomach. Though the warrior didn’t feel it because of his armor, it carried him up into the air at about a 45 degree angle. Teras watched him for a moment as he caught his breath, and then stepped onto the column. He began to run up it, scaling it faster than it rose.

Try as he might, Marco couldn’t dislodge himself from the rising sand, and he was rising too quickly for his repeated war hammer blows to do much to disrupt the column. He looked up and saw Teras rising. Marco raised his hammer to block Teras, but the geomancer leapt up into the air and stabbed his sword backwards into another chink in Marco’s armor. He leapt up into the air again and spun around over Marco’s head. He kicked the column of sand, which cracked at the bottom and began to plummet to the ground, carrying Marco.

As he descended, Marco suddenly felt sand began to flow through all of the chinks Teras had managed to knock into his armor. He struggled against this, but everything suddenly stopped moving as he plunged downward. Teras had packed the sand between every joint and jammed his movement. He crashed into the ground and was crushed by the column of sand. He felt Teras land on top of him. Though the column of sand and the impact had done nothing but jar him, he could tell that Teras had a plan. And since Marco couldn’t move in this position, he was bound to this plan.

Teras opened his mouth and began to screech with his specially engineered second vocal folds. The pitch and frequency changed rapidly, going up and down an inhuman spectrum as he searched for the right resonance frequency of Marco’s armor. At one point, Marco felt his armor shake. Teras saw it too, and he stayed on that frequency, increasing the intensity immensely. Marco felt his armor begin to crack and he cursed. He hadn’t thought of this before—he would have to find a way to combat this in the future. But for now…

Marco’s armor shattered and he was left covered only by sand. Teras stabbed his katana down into Marco as Marco felt himself suddenly relieved of his paralysis and wrenched…the handle of his war hammer towards Teras. As it had been made of the same exact material, it had shattered, too.

The katana passed viciously into Marco’s chest and he screamed. He couldn’t rely on his armor anymore. Now he would really have to get creative. As Teras lifted his blade up again and began to close in for a deadlier blow, Marco lifted his hands and blasted him with ball lightning. Teras went flying into the air once again.

Marco stood up and withdrew his secondary weapon—a great sword. He would shatter that damn katana and then slaughter Teras. He was a worthy opponent, but he would not be leaving this battlefield alive.

Behind the rock, Bax cowered, covering his ears. Sure enough, even though he had lost almost all of his strength, his hearing was just as sensitive as it had always been. Blood trickled from his ears and he cursed his plight.

He had never felt so helpless in all his life. No matter what the situation, he had always been able to do something to get out. It might have taken a long time or nearly gotten him killed, but he had been able to do something. Here he was in a lose-lose situation. No matter who won this battle, he would be going to the Holy Order of the Magi to play in their grand schemes. And that was only if they didn’t kill him first. What was wrong with them?

Bax heard a whoosh of wind-slicing air and he ducked further down just as the rock exploded. Daito came crashing through and slammed into another rock opposite Bax. Blood trickled from his mouth—but more telling was his missing left arm. Rivel had sliced off his arm at the elbow. Bax looked up at Daito in surprise, and Daito looked down at him—and smiled.

Before he knew it, Daito had leaned down and picked Bax up with his good arm, foregoing his katana for a moment. They disappeared in a purple flash and rematerialized in the middle of the battlefield. Now he held Bax by the throat with his katana resting diagonally across Bax’s chest.

“I’ve got him now, Rivel!” he cried out in his morphed bat-voice. “And I can take him away at any time. So get down here before I decide to do something more drastic.”

Rivel stood atop the rock that Daito had just slammed into, and he cursed. He looked over and saw Marco and Teras struggling against each other, neither giving an inch. Across the battlefield, Eve was precariously strangling Kerlin with the chain of her primary weapon while he kept pumping his red lightning into her. They were fighting each other to a stalemate. They had each delivered so many deadly blows that it was a wonder any of them were still standing. This had gone from pointless to frivolous.

Rivel wondered for a moment if Bax would be able to handle the flames. Certainly, he could no longer produce it much on his own thanks to the anti-materia, but would it harm him now? For all of their sakes, Rivel hoped he would be able to weather it. It was the only way Rivel could think of to get him out of Daito’s grasp.

Rivel began to walk towards Daito with his hands glowing. He would incinerate the bastard and be done with this fight.
“Still want to fight?” Daito said. “Fine then. I’ll just—”

Daito stopped speaking suddenly. Instead, a mass of blood just poured from his mouth. His top half fell harmlessly to the ground. His bottom half had been incinerated—and Bax hadn’t been touched.

Rivel looked with shock at the spectacle. He hadn’t done that! So then, who…?

A black winged figure looking somewhat like Daito swooped down towards Bax and picked him up off of the ground. Rivel blinked his eyes and watched as the pair swooped up into the sky. Everyone else stopped their battles and looked up as well.

Bax looked over at his savior and saw that it was Black Spider. Thank the Ancients! Someone had finally come!
“Damn it, Bax, I had no clue you were here! What the hell, man? I just felt all these other six powers raging and came to figure out what was going on.”
“That is a long story, friend. Thank you for saving me.”
Bax knew it was true, then—his energy was totally gone, or at least too weak to sense.

Black Spider turned around and stopped high in the air. True to form, none of these Magi wanted him to leave. Black Spider saw red lightning, fire, ice, yellow lightning, and a ferocious wind encircling them all arch up towards him from all sides of this battlefield. He clutched Bax in his left arm and spun his right arm in a wide arc below him. The air crackled with black and purple energy, which absorbed all of the energy blasts and then shot them right back down. Each firer of the blasts dodged them and looked up angrily. All inter-fighting had stopped.
“Give up your pursuit!” Black Spider shouted. “Bax is with me now!”

With that, Black Spider turned and flew off into the sky with extraordinary speed.

Daito writhed down on the ground. That damned gargoyle had just taken their prey! And whatever his attack was, it had torn him to pieces! Damn him.

Rivel sighed. They were finally on their way to complete this damned mission, and these three idiots just had to pick a fight. Their energies all went flying off the charts, making them noticeable to anyone with half a brain. And now none of them had Bax. He walked over to Daito and knelt down next to him.
“Happy now?” he seethed.
The vampire spit in his face, “It’s not my fault.”
Rivel made a fist and clocked the vampire in the face. Daito went limp from the exhaustion.

Since Eve had let Kerlin go for a moment while she tried to stop Bax from escaping, Kerlin now wheeled around to attack her again. Eve was too frustrated by the situation, so she wound up and kicked Kerlin between the legs as she had done with Daito earlier. He went down, too, and she jumped on top of him and began to punch him endlessly in the face. Between each blow, Kerlin called her some nasty name, which only furthered her anger.
“You dumbasses! Now we lost him again!” she screamed.

Teras and Marco stood with the swords rattling against each other. Though Marco’s great sword was much larger than Teras’s katana and Teras was only holding Marco with one arm, he didn’t budge in the slightest.
“Your comrades have gone down, and we have all lost our target. Cease your attack, Marco.”
Marco growled. With a final burst of strength, he pushed forward and knocked Teras’s katana out of his hands. It went flying and lodged into the sand several feet away. Teras leapt back and quickly put on his right claw. To his surprise, Marco didn’t come forward anymore.
“It seems that we are at a draw.”

Teras smirked a little at the audacity of Marco’s statement. Certainly, all six of them were injured, but Rivel and Eve would certainly be able to help him subdue Marco if he fought anymore. Perhaps this was the cocky old warrior’s way of giving up.

Still, Marco lowered his sword and began to walk towards his fallen comrades. “I’m done.”
Teras quaked with some slight anger. “You’re done. You three started this, and now that your original goal is lost, you’re just going to act like nothing happened?”
Marco looked over his shoulder as he walked and grunted. “That’s right.”
Teras shook a little, but took off his claw and went to go retrieve his katana. It was all right for now. Marco would receive his due punishment when he finally returned to headquarters. And it wasn’t up to him anymore—he would be going to headquarters.

Rivel opened a small compartment on Daito’s armor and removed what appeared to be, from his research, a time and space manipulating materia known colloquially as the Teleportation materia. This way, none of them would be able to escape.
“Marco,” he called out as he saw him approaching. “You all are coming back to headquarters now, right?”
Marco nodded, “Do we have a choice?”
“No. Promise me that your comrades won’t try anything funny.”
Marco laughed a little. “Like kill you? Understand me, Rivel—we could have done that already if we had really wanted to. But I promise—Kerlin and Daito will not disturb us anymore.”
Rivel sneered at Marco’s cocky attitude. He just didn’t want to admit that his team had been beaten—whether it was a few moments of luck or the untimely incursion of that gargoyle creature that took Bax.
“We will report to the Order as quickly as possible. Your report is long overdue, old man. Let’s just get going.”

“Eve,” Rivel called out. “Stop punching Kerlin. We’re heading back to HQ.”
Eve nodded, and then punched Kerlin one more time. “Get up, ya moron.”

Teras swung the half of Daito that remained onto his shoulder and began walking in the direction of their headquarters. Rivel, Marco, and Eve joined him. Kerlin hobbled up and cursed Eve one last time for her last attack, and then began to scrape behind them. As much as he hated to admit it, there was nothing left for them to do but head back. But once things settled down, he would probably kill these three. They had irritated him…

The dust in the sand that had been kicked up from the battle finally began to settle as the six magi left the battlefield. In the sky, the clouds began to turn black and cluster in ominous circles. It looked like rain…

[Shadow Phoenix]

Black Spider finally landed with Bax about 2 miles away from the battle. He settled on a plateau and set Bax down. Bax stood to his feet and dusted himself off. He smiled and turned to face his friend.
“Thanks for sav—”
“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” Black Spider screamed at him, his face a mix of anger, resentment, and worry. His voice echoed voluminously all around the plateau.
Bax winced and took a step back. “I…”
“No, seriously, Bax!” Black Spider continued. “I am so damned confused right now! I was flying around Midgar trying to save people while you did who knows what when I ran into your ex-girlfriend Hodia, who fought me, beat me, and then knocked me out of the city! One, I thought she was dead, and two, I never thought she could hit that hard! Next, I woke up and saw that Midgar was still in dire straits. I couldn’t really sense anyone at that point, but then I started looking for people once I got over my headache from your ex hitting me so hard. I was just trying to make sure people were okay at first—I could tell that Zack and Seph were somewhere. I never could tell where Jack was, but that’s probably cuz his suit just doesn’t do much. But I couldn’t find you! I still can’t sense you worth a damn. So I was freakin out, tryin to find your ass when these other six humongous powers just pop up out of nowhere and start clashing! I flew over as fast as I could and see you standing in the middle of a war-zone, captured by that damn vampire Daito without an arm! Still couldn’t sense you! I rescued you cuz you couldn’t rescue yourself, and you’re still helpless! So tell me, Bax—WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”

Bax winced again…it was true. He was helpless, and had nothing left in him. He was no good to anyone in this condition. At the very least…Black Spider had been so worried about him. If he wasn’t worried, he wouldn’t be this pissed.

Tears began to stream from Bax’s eyes. Just a small trickle at first. He started to explain things to Black Spider.
“I fought my way through Midgar and then encountered Valtiel. But he wasn’t alone—Hodia was there with him. They’re in league, Fashalt…Hodia is a Child of the Shadows. And so were Drax and my mother. And uncle Relois. I trust them all so much over the years, and all along they were working against me…”
Black Spider’s face registered the shock, but the angry worry still predominated. That made sense why she had called him a spawn…and why he had always felt a little awkward around here any time that he met her. That was a big shock in and of itself.
“I fought Hodia, but she and Valtiel beat me and left me to die. Then these six humans found me and helped me get out of the city. After a few hours, Rivel, Eve and Teras ambushed us and captured me. I couldn’t do much because I was still so weak from the fight in Midgar, plus they were threatening the humans. And then…”

Bax held up his arm and looked at the bracelet still wrapped around his wrist. The red crystal glimmered in the afternoon sunlight. “Then this happened.”
Black Spider looked at Bax and the bracelet. “What is that?”
Bax gritted his teeth and held his palm up. His whole arm shook. He concentrated as hard as he could, but nothing happened. At last, a few sparks appeared above his hand, though they died almost instantly. Finally, a very slight wisp of a flame appeared flickering in Bax’s hand. Bax coughed and sputtered and then pitched to the ground, gasping for breath. He slammed his hands into the ground in anger and frustration, and his tears singed against the ground.

Black Spider took a step back and watched with wide eyes. Bax couldn’t create flames anymore? But that was his race’s hallmark! That was just what they did! Even when they were absolutely exhausted, they could still create some flames without much effort. How in the world had he lost so much energy?

“Damn it all!” Bax screamed into the ground. He punched his fist into the ground. His skin peeled a little with each punch, until he was leaving a red streak on the ground and his hand was bleeding freely. He finally stopped and collapsed to his palms.
“I am no better than a damn match!” he said.

Black Spider knelt down next to Bax and put his arm around his comrade.
“I’m sorry, Bax…what happened?”
Bax face twisted in anger and he pointed to the bracelet. “Rivel put this thing on me after Teras knocked me out. It is called anti-materia, and it sealed my abilities with fire. I can probably barely even keep my dracatena lit with the energy I have got left. I’m useless, Black Spider!”
Black Spider looked down at the ground. “And you can’t take it off?”
Bax shook his head. “I tried while Rivel, Eve, and Teras were fighting Kerlin, Daito, and Marco…in between making sure that I did not get killed by their battle. No luck.”
Black Spider was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry, Bax…this…really sucks.”

Bax punched his hand into the ground again, “Damn it.”
After a moment, Black Spider cleared his throat and got in front of Bax, trying to look him in the face. “But don’t worry, Bax—we’ll figure out how to get that thing off. I promise.”
Bax nodded and blinked his eyes. The tears of anguish stopped. “Thank you, old friend…but I do not know if that will even be possible. Rivel is probably the only one who knows how, and I do not want to go into the headquarters of the Holy Order of the Magi to find out if I can help it.”
Black Spider smiled a little. “Don’t worry…even if you don’t—I still might go. If you want.”
Bax smiled at his friend. “Thank you…”

Black Spider’s nose twitched and he looked up in the sky.
“It smells and looks like rain. Wait out here in the desert…odd. Well, even if your fire is mostly sealed, I’m sure that rain water will still hurt you. Let’s get you somewhere where the rain won’t get you.”

Black Spider helped his friend up and then walked down the side of the plateau to a small cave where Black Spider knew they could wait out the rain. Inside, Bax lay down and drifted off to sleep. Black Spider looked at his friend sleeping and cursed the Magi. They would pay for what they had done…

Black Spider sighed as he looked out the cave opening and saw the rain begin to fall. The enemies kept popping up all over the place, didn’t they? At first, Black Spider had only been concerned about Valtiel and Necrostiana—how to draw out the Apocalypse and finally destroy him. But now the Holy Order was interfering even more. And with Hodia having finally revealed herself as one, alive, and two, on the other side, she was also going to be a problem. Valtiel was probably creating an army. And who knew if the Senate would continue posing a problem? And Black Spider didn’t even know about that one whom Sephiroth X had been fighting in Midgar—but he would also probably cause problems.

And who did they have on their side? Not many…and Bax had just been taken out and lost his powers. Black Spider put his head in his hand and cursed their situation even more. They would have to plan their next move carefully.

[ZaCloud]

For a while, Zack was grinning and strutting. He had a great new style, and had interacted with a pretty woman. It was awesome, and he was supposed to exude awesome, and so he did to the best of his ability.

Supposed to...

His jaunty steps slowed, and he made his way to the outskirts of the camp-town where there were less people. His head progressively lowered. Was it really a chore, an obligation, to act the way he did? He didn't think so, but he felt so, somehow. It was bothering him. Then it wasn't. Then it was again.

He sighed and sat down next to a leafless, brittle tree, claiming what scanty shade the trunk offered.

Jeez, I said such stupid, stupid crap! Ugh!

Nah, that's just the way it goes sometimes.

He shook his head at himself. Something felt at-odds. He looked up at the sky. There were more clouds than usual, and his scalp tingled with increased atmospheric pressure. Rain? Out here? Looks like it might... That'd be a rare blessing, just hope the tents can take it if it does come down for those who wouldn't like it. But it most likely will pass by...

One of the clouds looked a bit like an extended hand, and a small wisp floated slightly away from it. Zack immediately thought it looked like a fireball being blasted outward. And of course, thought of Bax. His face grew wistful and worried.

Bax... Jeez, you'd better be ok... All you've been through, all that ugly hell you were heading through in Midgar... What kind of friend am I to let you get in danger yet again? If something happened again I'm gonna puke! And Jack, jeez, just after I found you again... And what if Sephy can't handle what he's trying to do...

Quit worryin' about 'em, you're makin' yourself sick. They're probably just fine—[/i]
[/color]
"Shut up!"

A few people passing by looked at Zack with apprehension or curiosity. He ignored them and lowered his head to his upcurled knees, muttering, "You always say that... But it's normal to worry about my friends, ok? Normal! So just... shut up..."

[ZaCloud]

(OOC: So me n Waffles started RPing, then Sephy comes knockin' n says "HAY GUYZ! WATZ GOIN ON?!" n he joined in, n we all three made some awesome! ^_^ Enjoy!)

---

A certain spiky-haired blond teen hung around near the main entrance of Libertas, pacing slowly, occasionally kicking up a little dust. Every now and then, he’d raise his head and smile, greeting passer-bys, trying to ease what tension around him he could. It was difficult to keep waiting, but waiting was all he could do. He kept gazing out once in a while, as if expecting (at least certainly hoping) to see some particular people arriving. Not that it was likely at all, but he could not help but hope nonetheless.

A rumble wafted up on the wind from the distance, something coming in from the direction of Midgar. Still a ways away, but growing louder.

People in the camp began to stir, clustering in the direction the sound was coming from, several raising binoculars. Zack looked around at them tensely, seeing if any of them would indicate what was approaching. Several designated groups gathered and scooped up their weapons, preparing to either escort the visitors in, or destroy them if need be.

Zack began to step forward, but several gestured him away, one man saying, "I still don't trust ya, what if you've got contacts comin' in? You stay put." He sighed and complied, watching the group beginning to head out, anxious.

Suddenly a large vehicle tore over a dune. A six wheeled APC blasted through the desert toward the camp. All military markings destroyed, the only identifying logo being a sloppily painted white skull on the side. It careened toward the camp at high speeds.
As it got closer, it started blaring it's horn at the people gathering in the front

A grizzled but tough-looking older man in the barely-embarked group squinted over his rifle. "That's a Midgar model," he announced.
“Refugees?” A woman to his right wondered.
“Whoever they are,” a young man yelled, “We better get outta the way!”

They parted down the center, their weapons trained on the intruding vehicle, knowing none of their weapons could properly do anything at this point. Meanwhile, several around Zack were running for heavier weaponry, or to report the incoming vehicle to their superiors. The teen looked around, then stood to the side of the entrance, watching closely, eyes narrowed.

At near point blank range, the APC took a hard turn and spun itself sideways just outside the entrance, power-sliding its way in. A large dust cloud promptly followed after it. It rocked to a total stop and idled. The people recovered from it's entrance and stared at it, weapons ready. Just as they took a step to move in closer, the engine died off and the rear gate dropped open. The refugees near the back immediately pointed their weapons at the door.

Near the center of the Libertas, Sephiroth X heard the distant rumble of what ended up being the powersliding APC. Although his focus was directly on his new discoveries and apparent power, whatever was going on near the border had his attention for some reason. Promptly X grabbed the Masamune and proceeded out of his tent and towards the source of the commotion.

A handful of very dazed and wobbly Midgar survivors stumbled out of the back of the vehicle, a couple falling to their knees in relief to be out of the city and the truck.
A hatch on top of the truck popped open and a white haired man hoisted himself out. He stood tall, put his hands on his waist with a big smile. "Got room in here for a few more poor souls?"

After a moment of surprise, the people of Libertas began to follow procedure, some remaining with their weapons trained from a distance, others stepping forward to assist the people. One man answered, "Most likely, but we'll check all of you in with one of our leaders."

As the formalities went on, Zack kept his eyes on the white-haired man, head slightly cocked. He looked familiar somehow... Where had he seen him? A wanted poster? Just on the street? He didn't know him, but he wasn't a stranger either.

Meanwhile, a man of some standing approached, his shoulder-length brown hair waving loosely, sporting a short beard. "Welcome to Libertas. I'm one of the deputies here, Chet Stroeger. If you all check out, you will be free to mingle, we have guest tents in the northeast corner. Any wounded or elderly can be brought there now." As the citizens saw to interviewing and aiding, he then turned to the outspoken white-haired one, pointing and asking, "And who are you?"

The man hopped down off his perch, landing with a grunt more fitting for the moment after chugging some alcoholic beverage than physical exertion, smirk still on his face. "The name's Dante..."

He was a man with a muscular build. He had bright blue eyes, and the faintest hint of stubble. His hair was cropped to a medium length; it would look totally average with the exception being it was as white as snow. His clothes, made primarily of red leather, were quite stylish considering his present location and profession. It consisted of a slim pair of red pants, the legs of which covered a pair of red leather western-styled boots. A black t-shirt, over which was placed a red leather vest. And on top of it all, a long red trench-coat, sleeves rolled up to elbow height.

In addition to his outfit, were his very obviously carried weapons. A set of leather holsters on his back house two large looking handguns, one a darker than obsidian black, and the other a polished silver. They looked ornate, but not useless. Across the whole of his back is a large double edged broadsword. Its hilt was made of a dark steel, molded to look like an arrangement of bones, ribs and skulls. The blade was not overly ornate, but a couple grooves near the tip add a bit of intimidation to it's simple construction.

He knocked on the driver side door. "And this here's my partner."
The door opened up and a frightening looking man stepped out. "...Onikage..." He closed the door, crossed his arms, and leaned up against the truck.

His skin was pale and his eyes were dark. He had black tattoos around his eyes, mouth, and wrists, giving him a very evil presence. Long black stringy hair framed his already frightening features. His clothes added to that feeling, black foreign-looking cloths obviously made to see fighting.

Baggy pants that were wrapped off at the shin by bandages allowed for freedom of movement without getting in the way. His feet were covered with a simple black shoe with split toes. His body was covered with an equally unrestricting robe. The front was held closed by the sash around his waist, the flowing sleeves ending just below his elbow. Oddly enough, he carried no weapons.

Zack blinked. Now he remembered. There was no way he could forget a face like Onikage's, even if it had been just a photo and brief file. He jogged forward, right hand raised in a cross between a hail and a wave, stopping a bit closer than Chet but still a distance off. "Hey! You guys work for Edos Lee too, right? I'm Zack Strife, one o' you guys! Glad to see some o' you guys made it out! That was a kickass slide, by the way!" By now, his arms were starting to wave around. "I mean like, VMMMM!!! That was awesome! An' you guys saved so many people, thanks! That's great! I thought a lot more were doomed! Do ya know if any other E.L. folks got out too? Know anything about a guy with fire for hair? How long ya think you'll be here?"

Onikage chuckled and looked to Dante. "You can handle that one."

Dante's grin widened and looked to Zack. "Nice we got the same boss, Kid. But I haven't seen you're hot-headed friend, doesn’t sound like he's be hard to miss either. You should try slowin down, you might have yourself a little heart attack."

A new voice suddenly interrupted the conversation. “Dante, huh?” The voice came from behind the APC and caught the attention of Zack, Dante and the others as Sephiroth X walked out into visibility. “Well I must say, you make quite an entrance.”

Zack blinked in surprise at suddenly seeing his friend and mentor out here. It gave way to a huge grin. "Sephiroth! Good to see you out already!"

Dante wheeled around to the new face. "Gotta make a good first impression, ya know?" He paused and looked at Sephiroth, then bent over and laughed. "Ha ha..I see we go to the same barber!" He tugged at one of his own locks of hair. He immediately spun back around to his partner and gave him a snide glare. "See, I told ya the cool people do it."

Seph raised an eyebrow in response to Dante's comments. Then as Dante spun towards Onikage, Seph caught a glimpse of Dante's dual handguns and sighed. "Ugh.. guns."

Dante didn't even lose momentum in the spin and ended facing X yet again. "And just what's wrong with my babies?" He quickly slid them out of their holsters and spun them around his fingers. "They get the job done and look damn good while doing it." He ended in an exaggerated action pose, arms overlapping, guns pointed at nothing in particular. He peeked over his guns at the other silver haired man's weapon and raised an eyebrow. He released his pose and spun the guns back into their homes. "And what's your deal? Scared to get too close or just compensating for something?"

X unsheathed the Masamune and twirled it once in his hand before pointing the tip down into the dirt towards Dante. "This just lets me deal with people like you, and the bullets you spray everywhere." Seph looked over Dante's shoulder to see the hilt of his sword, "And if you know how to use one of these, a pair of those wont do much good. Though I do hope you know how to use that big thing you have strapped to your back, or is that just part of the show?"

Zack stepped forward a bit, and wordlessly drew Fjalar from his back, twirling the massive slab of metal effortlessly before stabbing it into the ground. He then drew Fenrir from the rear hip holster, twirled it as well, and his hands flew over it as he disassembled the multiple blades, tossing them into the ground as well, finishing by plunging the large main frame down the loudest. He then brushed off his hands and smirked. "We've all got our own toys... Let's play nice."

Dante brought a thumb and forefinger up to his chin as he inspected Zack's blades. "I gotta get me one-o-those."
Onikage sighed from the sidelines. "You kids and your toys." He pushed himself upright and walked over to the deputy. "Let's just get this over with." He turned to Chet. "You had some questions for me? My friend here seems to be preoccupied with himself at the moment." He walked past them all and headed for a shaded tent to get out of the sun.

Dante followed behind a ways, slowing to size up Sephiroth. "Things are gettin' real interesting around here, Mr. Warrior of Prosperity." He folded his arms back behind his head and followed them to the tent.

Seph frowned slightly as Dante referred to him with that title. X sheathed the Masamune again and promptly followed behind Dante, catching up with every step. Before the group reached the tent that Chet was leading them to, Seph grabbed Dante by the shoulder and spun him around. "Those people you brought came from Midgar. Did you see a girl with about shoulder length dark hair? Slight blond streaks in it?"

He turned and faced the man, he could tell this wasn't part of the game. "....No, sorry. Just barely got out myself. Picked up these people scattered out in the desert. It was luck that I found this place too." He turned back toward the tent. "I'm guessing she's someone special, I hope you finder her." He continued and entered he shade.

Seph just didn’t find the answer satisfactory and he frowned again, this time his skin turning slightly whiter. "I don’t believe you. People much stronger than you couldn’t get outta that damn city, you couldn’t have gotten out without relative help. Damnit where is she!" As Seph's frustration started to build up, suddenly something else abruptly got his attention. His sixth sense spiked as he sensed a large surge of power that wasn’t coming from Midgar.

X quickly turned towards the desert towards the source of what he felt. "What the hell is that?." Seph tried to focus his power and scan whatever he was sensing. "Its not one single source of energy its... more than one..." He closed his eyes as he focused harder. "Six of them... a couple of them are familiar... Magi..."

Sephiroth X stepped out towards the desert a few steps. "That feels like Rivel and his goons... But there's something else out there... a different one a little ways from them all, I haven’t sensed something like this before."

"Its gotta be someone else... and they have to be of some importance if they have six Magi priests suddenly spike in power close to them..." Seph looked over towards Dante and Zack for a few moments, this really wasn’t the time for X to venture off especially with survivors from Midgar now in Libertas. But... something just begged Seph to run off and investigate things...

Seph clenched a fist as his skin grew pale white and the green around his eyes became a thick oil like black, he then spoke to himself. "I can test this power... show them all how strong I am now..." An almost eerie smirk grew on X's face. The punk can wait... I wanna unleash this power... it'll feel good.

Before anyone else could say anything, X bent his knees slightly and rocketed off into the deserts horizon and quickly out of sight. But not before Zack could catch a glimpse of his abrupt but subtle change.

Zack had started to run toward Sephiroth, his hand out, but he slipped away before he could be reached. He watched him go, eyes wide. Something was not right at all; he had begun to think so, then gradually knew so. His eyes... Zack felt a chill. "That's not normal of him... What could he want to do all of a sudden? With that kind of attitude... Something's wrong with him!" He then looked at Dante, still apparently shocked. "Sorry he got rough there, I dunno what's goin' on..." He lowered his head, eyes narrowed. "...I hope it's not what I think it is..."

Cid came jogging around from behind one of the tents in a tight tank-top and some standard military pants. Apparently she was trying to catch a nap when Dante and the others decided to show up in Libertas. "What the hell is going on over here?"

Dante immediately turned around on one heel and approached Cid, arms still behind his head. "Well, hey there babe. When did you get here?" He talked as he strutted around her.

Cid blinked and said nothing for a moment, then, "Guessing you're the dumbass who ruined my beauty sleep?" She looked over towards the dust covered APC. "What’s your name, hot shot?"

He dropped his hands down to his hips and struck his best manly pose. "The name's Dante, and babe, you don't need anymore beauty sleep." He shot her a quick wink and a smile. "And who might you be?"

She couldn’t help but crack a small grin. "Well my name's Cid... its short for Cynthia"

Dante shifted his posture a bit. "Well Cid, I'm glad I found this place. I was beginning to think I'd be stuck out in the desert with HIM as company." He points to the stoic Onikage further up in the tent, he then leaned in toward Cid and put a hand up to the side of his face like he was telling a secret, but not being very quiet about it "That guy's no fun, so I gotta make up for it. So if you're lookin’ for something to do, come and find me and we'll figure something out."

Cid blushed for a split second before gently pushing his hand away. "You got the moves, and the looks I'll give you that... But nuh-uh, I'm.... waiting on someone."

Dante resumed a more regular speaking distance with a shrug. "Alright alright, but don't wait too long." He headed back toward the tent and a very impatient man. "Not sure what kinda guy would keep a girl like you waiting, seems kinda flakey to me....later, babe." He threw a quick two fingered wave behind him as he left.

Cid shrugged slightly thinking about what he said before she slowly started walking towards her tent. She'd get an update on things from Locke later after she finishes her nap.

Having watched the exchange from outside the tent's entrance, Zack scratched his head. So... That can work with some women?
Only if you do it [/i]right.[/color]
...Shut up.

Zack then looked in the direction Sephiroth X had launched himself once more, his face as full of worry as he himself was. "Damn it, Sephy... What are you up to?"

*****

A few minutes passed as the pair explained themselves to the man in charge. After everything checked out, they headed back toward their vehicle. it wasn't exactly convenient to have it lodged sideways in the entrance.

Zack turned his head at their approach, and stepped a bit out of their way though still before them. "Uh, you guys aren't leaving are you?"

They both stopped and faced the boy. The pale man spoke first, raising an eyebrow. "We don't have a whole lot to go back to."
Dante shrugged and interjected. "As far as I'm concerned, this truck is my home. We won't be goin anywhere untill we have something to do."

Zack smiled slightly, though sadly. "I see... " Then his face lifted and his eyes widened, sparkling. "Well, you guys are really cool! Seems like nothing ever ruffles you, Mr. Dante! An' you use guns AND a sword? That's really cool! I had a buddy who did that too, no idea where he is, but you're like, sooo coooool!" His eyes were squeezed shut and his arms flopping.

Dante played along. "Ha! You know it kid! You should see me when I'm actually tryin'!" He proceeded to make cool poses with his guns and sword, Onikage just shaking his head at the both of them. "You're gonna bust something if you don't calm down. We've gotta get our things in order and make a plan." Dante, obviously not listening, retorted. "Yeah, the plan is to kill the bad guys and we can all go home happy. Planning done."

Onikage sighed, hopped into the driver seat, and parked it off to the side. The rear door popped open and he exited out with a bundle of canvas and poles. He set up a shaded area at the door, almost looking like mobile armored house. The inside reflected that mentality perfectly. Miniaturized and streamlined daily living supplies, and to each their own assortment of personal belongings. They traveled in protection AND comfort.

Zack's wide gaze now turned to their tent. "Oh man! Awesome digs! That's like, the best tent ever! You guys really know how to set up!" He then whirled to Onikage. "An' you're the strong silent type eh? You have hidden weapons? Or wait, don't answer that or they ain't so hidden, eh? Or do ya just crush opponents with your bare hands?" He simulated the motion, gritting his teeth.

Dante smirked and threw a fist sized rock at Onikage, just barely missing the top of Zack's head. Onikage pulled a reverse roundhouse kick out of sheer reflex, striking the rock with his heel. It exploded into dust and sand right above the boy's head. The remnants sprinkled harmlessly down to his scalp. "Yeah, pretty much."

The Strife boy stood there with wide eyes, frozen in place for several moments, the dust slowly settling in his gold hair. Then his eyes closed tightly, his fists curling near his face, quivering a bit. Was he about to cry?

Then his eyes snapped wide open and he shook his fists up and down away from his sides, squealing, "That was SOOOOO COOOOOL!!!! You guys are both so badass! Holy crap! Do ya guys eat barbed wire for breakfast? Do ya use razors to cream your coffee? How'd ya meet each other anyway? How do ya look so creepy-cool, Mr. Onikage?"

Onikage plopped a palm down on top the Zack's head. "Calm.....down....And as much as prettyboy over there would like you to believe, we do not have a plan of action yet." Dante shrugged and smiled as he walked by to the truck. "Now if you don't mind, I have some ACTUAL WORK TO DO." The last part he directed at Dante with a glare.

The white haired man reappeared with a folding chair and a magazine. He pulled it open, slouched down in it. "Hey, I do my job just fine....but Creeps is right, Kid. No reason to get so worked up when there's nothin’ to do anyways." He opened the magazine and plopped it down on his face, it was apparently nap time.
Onikage, obviously used to the nicknames, crawled inside the APC and started shuffling through maps and papers.

Zack blinked, looking between them, before poking his fingertips together. "Umm... Can I help with anything?" he asked meekly.

Dante waved Zack down without even removing the magazine. "Don't worry, he's not much for getting help, being one 'o them dark loner types. Best to just leave him be. Now...if I had my way, I'd be going back to Midgar right now to give those freaks a few extra holes. But if I was in charge of the planning, I'd probably be dead by now." He crosses his arms behind his head and readjusted his position.

"Although I think we could do it no sweat with more help. If that Sephiroth guy is really all that the news makes him out to be, we'd be in business." Dante peeked out form under the magazine. "You seem to know him pretty well, know any other tough guys we could recruit?"

Zack looked focused and serious, nodding vigorously once, squaring his stance. "Yeah. In fact we've been planning to work on that Valtiel for quite a while. That's who's causing all that trouble over there. We've dealt with him before, though obviously not with the means to take him down. But yeah, there's Sephiroth X, and Bax Firago, the fire-haired guy I'm looking for. He's extremely powerful. I've got a buddy named Jack Golizze too, with a really strong high-tech suit. Last I saw them, they were in Midgar too. Hoping to band back together with them so we can take that freak down."

A smile crept across Dante's face. He lifted the magazine away form his mouth and turned toward the truck. "Hey Creepy, we got a plan!" Onikage peeked out with a raised eyebrow out of both disbelief and curiosity.

[Shadow Phoenix]

OoC: Okay, so I feel inferior after the awesomeness of the previous post. Waffle-san, are these new characters your creations? I cannot wait for Bax to meet them

IC:

Rain poured out over a stretch of the Desert of the Dead, quenching the dry, parched sands. Some of the creatures that dwelled in the area crept out of hiding for a few moments to enjoy the brief respite from the burning heat. Others scattered away and searched for any place to get out of the rain that would accommodate them. But the rain brought more life to the desert than it typically saw.

A small hare hopped rapidly across the cooling sands, its eyes ever watchful for a potential meal to be forced out of hiding. But its eyes were not equally watchful for predators. A sharp blade came whizzing down and pinned it to the ground. It squealed and struggled for a moment before its eyes glazed over.

Kerlin brought his scythe back to him and examined his catch. It was small and miserable (like most things in this infernal desert), but it would work for now. He withdrew a dagger from his belt and began to skin the creature. As he did, he raised his eyes and carefully watched the five Magi gathered before him around a rock on which Rivel was maintaining a fire for them to warm their hands by. Daito, as miserable as he was while healing his immense wounds, focused on shielding them all from the rain with a barrier. Marco held his hands by the fire, looking at Daito from time to time to check on his healing. Teras cradled his mangled claw weapon, examining it to see if he could repair it here or if he would have to wait until he returned to HQ. And Eve stared menacingly at Kerlin, making sure he didn’t make any other sudden moves.

They had stopped shortly after it started to rain. It would have required too much effort of them all to slosh through this mess, so they agreed to put their return to headquarters on hold until the rain let up. Daito had erected a shield and Rivel had started a fire. And although it had been at least half an hour, the rain showed no signs of abating.

“So what is your plan?” Marco asked, breaking the monotonous sound of the falling rain. He looked at Rivel, who swung his head for a moment to look at Eve, and then Teras, before closing his eyes and shrugging.
“We will take you back to headquarters, and present a full report of what has gone on here. We have other missions to report on as well. Unlike you.”
Marco narrowed his eyes at the last comment, looked at the ground, and shook his head. “I mean your plan regarding Bax. Are you simply going to give up now?”
Rivel sighed, “We are not giving up. We have standing orders to bring Bax into the Order. But our specific mission was to merely investigate the disturbance in the direction of Midgar. It was mere happenstance that we ran into Bax. And then you made a mess of things.”
Marco chuckled a little bit. “It is not my fault that Black Spider showed up.”
Rivel rolled his eyes, but took this new information in with interest. The being who had saved Bax was called Black Spider. Rivel wondered what kind of abilities he had. He was already intrigued by the way that he had dealt so swiftly and cleanly with Daito. He could potentially make another interesting research subject…if he didn’t get in the way.

Eve saw Rivel’s eyes go out of focus (probably thinking about research again, she imagined), and she addressed Marco instead.
“You may not have expected him to show up, but you should know better than to interfere with another Magi’s mission. You will deserve whatever punishment the Council gives you.”
Marco glared at Eve. “You seem confident that we will be punished.”
“Your conduct makes it obvious. Besides, you threatened us with death for no apparent reason other than your own satisfaction. Threatening a comrade will not be taken lightly, Marco. Especially from you.”
Marco shook his head. She was probably referring to how Marco’s last two teams before Kerlin and Daito were killed on missions, supposedly after others heard him threatening them for their recklessness and stupidity. “Never mind, that, Eve.”
Rivel glared at Marco, too, though. “You did attack us directly. And it is because of you that we were unable to complete our secondary objectives. That is a violation.”

Daito spoke up, rasping. “Perhaps there is a way to put this behind us.”
Kerlin raised his eyes from the half-skinned hare and looked at Daito. What did the vampire have in mind now?
Rivel sneered, “I think that will be difficult.”
Kerlin shot back at Rivel, “Just shut up and hear him out.”
Rivel glared angrily at Kerlin, but remained silent as Daito drew in a shallow, gasping breath. “Black Spider is strong…but I believe he lacks true recuperative power. He demonstrated an ability to reorganize his matter, but I believe that this requires a great deal of energy. If we were to attack him at full power—all six of us—I believe that we would be able to kill him.”
Teras spoke up, “But we are all drained from that foolish battle you engaged us in. How can we think about attacking him in this condition? Especially you.”
Daito grinned weakly for a moment, flashing his fangs. “Eve, do you have any more of that serum you used while fighting me?”

Eve’s eyes widened. He had seen her? She shrugged and responded by removing a few more vials of liquid from her belt. “Quite a bit.”
Daito laughed, though it sounded more like a coughing fit. “I believe that Kerlin and I can augment the effects of that serum with our healing materia. We should be able to restore ourselves to peak condition by the time that this storm is over.”
Kerlin smiled at the thought. “I’ve wanted to kill that bastard since he made a fool of me in Nibelheim. We can definitely beat him if we play our cards right. And then the only problem would be…finding him.”

Eve cocked her head to the side. Now that Kerlin mentioned it, she hadn’t felt anyone approaching right before Black Spider suddenly appeared. It was as though her sixth sense just didn’t gather his energy. Even with Kerlin, Daito, and Marco, she had felt a fluctuation before they attacked. She just hadn’t known what to make of it.
“So what, then? It’s pointless if we can’t find him.”
Rivel, who had been fairly quiet up until this point, glowed with a smile on his face. “We may not be able to find him…but we can find Bax.”
Teras looked at Rivel with intrigue. “I cannot sense the Phoeniyan anymore. How can we find him?”
Rivel giggled with slight glee. “I forgot about it until now, but this is perfect. I attach tracking devices to all of my inventions. I don’t like it when they get into the wrong hands, so I like to be able to track down thieves so I can take my toys back and kill them. I was able to recover a few items that way after the Senate broke into our headquarters in Zion and stole some of my work. But this will work perfectly, too.”

Kerlin smiled as well. “So then. All we have left to do is heal ourselves. And then we can turn back around and find Bax.”
Marco nodded. “He will not have gotten far in this rain. Our reports all say that water and cold temperatures are lethal to his race. We should heal quickly. That is, if we are all agreed on this plan.”
Naturally, Kerlin and Daito liked it. Rivel folded his fingers together and nodded, obviously giddy at the chance to use his inventions even more. Teras lowered his head and consented. Eve silently sighed and looked at Marco as he met the gaze of Kerlin and Daito separately. She spoke her agreement, even though she knew deep down that she could not really trust these three. They might agree to work together for now, but they would probably turn on them the moment Black Spider had been slain. Still, she said “sure” confidently to avoid suspicion. She would keep her guard up, though. All three of these maniacs were backstabbers.
Daito rasped once more, “And naturally, we will share the credit when we return to headquarters. And we can leave out the part about our little skirmish.”
All agreed.

“Eve,” Rivel said, “let them have the serum. I think I know how to make this work.”
Eve nodded and handed over her vials of healing potion. As much as she relished the thought of fighting Black Spider and getting Bax back, she couldn’t enjoy it too much. Not when she knew she couldn’t trust half of the people she would be fighting alongside.

They went to work healing themselves, trying to beat out the rain so that they could ambush Black Spider. Rivel calibrated his tracking device and noted that Bax was only a few miles away. Once it was ready, everyone restored their strength and healed their wounds with the revamped serum.

As the rain began to let up, Daito stood up and stretched his newly reformed legs. Everyone breathed easily as their wounds showed no signs of having ever been wrought. They all felt like new. The six Magi set a heading and began to travel rapidly towards the plateau where Bax slept, guarded by Black Spider. It would only be a matter of minutes now.

[Shadow Phoenix]

As Bax lay in the cold floor of the cave, Black Spider watched the rain falling outside. With cold eyes, he gazed at the cool liquid and remembered…

How many people had he killed in rain like this? Countless thousands. The rain provided a fantastic cover for someone who was trying to sneak around. All that it required was deft control over one’s personal faculties, and you could do almost anything.

There was a time, a few years ago, when Black Spider was one of the most feared names throughout this corner of the galaxy. Actually, even though he had been largely absent for a few years, he held confidence that the mention of his name would still strike fear in the hearts and minds of crime bosses and other dirty figures on dozens of planets. And though many had forgotten about it, there was another name that appeared about a hundred years ago that had struck the same kind of fear into the hearts of anyone who had a reason to fear death: Thanatos. What most people didn’t realize, though, was that Thanatos and Black Spider were the same person.

Black Spider mused at the thought for a moment. He had probably had the longest career of anyone in his field. Even though he had worked under two names, he had still been an active mercenary and assassin for over 100 years. Most assassins he knew barely made it past their 30s, much less to 120. Of course, Black Spider had had a little bit of extra help.

He could still remember the events that got him dragged into this whole mess like they were yesterday. He was born into a clan of shape shifter assassins and christened Fashalt: the Fated One. He was raised early to believe that he had to rely on himself if he wanted to survive. He was made to fight his brother, Hisk, on a regular basis. Hisk was 5 years his senior, but that didn’t matter to the elders. They would regularly beat each other to bloody pulps and be praised for it. In fact, Fashalt recalled that they had originally had at least two other brothers who all died of injuries during these early training days. It was a brutal life, but Fashalt was determined to survive. They were slowly trained in the ways of thievery, stealth, and murder. Fashalt stole his first coin-purse when he was two and a half. He made his first kill when he was four. And he had never looked back.

Hisk was probably the only person that Fashalt really trusted at a young age. He believed in everyone else and accepted their training and wisdom with gratitude, but he would stick to his brother like glue. It was a rare sort of bond that few of the shape shifter assassins had ever seen before. Most of them simply accepted each other, staying together out of a sense of clan loyalty more than love. Even those who bore children didn’t really seem to love each other as much as they just enjoyed the privilege of creating more strong warriors. But Fashalt and Hisk truly cared for each other.

The brothers dreamt of breaking free of the clan and getting off of their wretched planet. They were recognized as determined geniuses, often bringing in more money than seasoned veterans 20 years their senior. But every time they expressed interest in leaving the clan to start their own business, they were swiftly beaten down by their superiors and scolded for their ill sense of loyalty.

So they stayed well into their teens. They were taught the true nature of the art of shape shifting, and how to augment their bodies using dark, ancient alchemical practices. They learned how to use their unarmed bodies as the ultimate weapons, and then were given training with swords, knives, guns, staves, and whatever weapons their clan came upon. They were taught tactical analysis and given instruction in a variety of languages. They learned how to heal their wounds in many fashions, from directly controlling their growing power to finding the proper herbs and creating splints. Their pace of learning was incredible—they absorbed what they were taught faster than anyone had seen in any of the other trainees. Their parents would have been proud—had they not been killed a month after Fashalt had been born.

They were never told directly, but they were the best in the clan. Even though their powers were undeveloped and they were young, they showed extreme promise. The rest of the clan actually feared them a little—that was why the beat them regularly when they talked of leaving. For starters, they knew that they would continue to grow in power and bring in lots of money and recognition for the clan. But at the same time, they feared that they would become overconfident and believe that they could leave the clan by killing everyone. And the truth was—they probably could have.

It was a rainy night when Fashalt was 14 and Hisk was 19. They had just returned from a mission on the other side of the planet where they had been tasked to kill a high-ranking general and set fire to his estate. Unfortunately they had been seen and recognized, and then followed. In the middle of the night, a veritable army overran the clan and began to kill the shape shifters before they had a chance to fight back. It was the first time that the clan’s hideout had ever been discovered—and it would be the last. The unprepared assassins were mercilessly slaughtered. Only a handful escaped the carnage. But Fashalt and Hisk chose not to escape. They chose to stay and fight. And though they sustained horrible injuries, they defended their camp with vigor and valor. They killed every soldier that had the misfortune of running into them. And then they walked away from the burning camp, soaked with the blood of hundreds of men and drenched by the cold rain—finally free.

They worked for the next couple of years to earn enough money to buy a ship, and then they left the planet for good. Fashalt began to call himself Thanatos to distance himself from his life with the clan, and Hisk began to call himself the Red Dragon. Under these names, they established a reputation throughout their solar system of being trustworthy, capable, powerful mercenaries. They took on jobs together for a long time, but when Fashalt finally turned 18, he told his brother that he wanted to start up his solo missions again. Hisk understood, and left his younger brother to do as he pleased. They would not see each other again for over a decade.

Fashalt established a strong reputation by himself. He bloodied his hands as an artful assassin—a winged god of death. He never asked questions when he was given a contract. He simply studied the target and killed them. He never missed—not once. He occasionally saw news of his brother as well. The Red Dragon had also made a prominent name for himself in the pantheon of death-dealers. They had been trained well—and they only continued to improve.

Black Spider chuckled a little at his stroll down memory lane. He had been such a diamond in the rough then. He was strong, but he was uncontrollable. He often got himself way in over his head, and he didn’t know how he had come out alive half of the time. He had come a long way in the last hundred years. And while he was still one hell of an impulsive son of a bitch, he had honed his powers even more. Part of it was his vast amount of experience. Part of it was his possession by Ragnarok for 67 years. And part of it was out of necessity. Either way, he had come this far. And now he would use his power to first help Bax out of a jam, and then…to kill Apocalypse once and for all.

---

Outside the cave, the six Magi gathered around the plateau, standing in the rain and waiting for an indication of when to attack. Sure enough, they had found Bax through the tracking device in the anti-materia. And they were certain that Black Spider was here, too. And with any luck, he was tired from whatever had gone on in Midgar and would not be up to full capacity. They had him cornered—and now he would die.

---

Black Spider’s eyes suddenly flashed open wide and gazed out the cave. Somehow, they had followed. He stood up slowly and looked at Bax.
“I’ll be back after I take care of them…so just stay asleep, king.”
He spread his wings and stepped out of the cave, flying to the top of the plateau and surveying those who had followed him. He didn’t know how they had found him with his ability to completely mask his presence, but he didn’t care either. He had spared them before—and now they were as good as dead.

[Shadow Phoenix]

Moments before in this desert, the rain seemed like it might be letting up, but now it fell even harder as lightning crackled overhead. Black Spider slowly settled on the higher ground and surveyed his six opponents spaced equally around him. They all wore their classic Magi cloaks and had their weapons at the ready. He had fought three of them back in Nibelheim, and had sort of forced them into a draw with the help of Bax and Keldira. They were tough opponents due primarily to their tricks. But if they had expended all of their tricks before, then they shouldn’t prove to be any problem. Black Spider knew that Bax had run into the other three before, from their brief conversations. He didn’t know exactly what they had in store, but he felt energy relatively similar to Sephiroth X’s powers (even though, as the Warrior of Prosperity, he was on a completely different level). Black Spider flexed his wings and clenched his fists.

“Come to get your asses kicked?” he screamed out over a rumble of lightning.

Kerlin jeered back, “No, Black Spider, we’ve come to take your head. And then to reacquire our target.”

Black Spider grinned. “I told you before. Bax is with me now. You won’t get him back again as long as I am with him.”

Rivel pointed one of his swords towards Black Spider and called out, “Then we’ll just have to make sure that you’re not with him.

Black Spider felt a sudden fluctuation and saw Daito disappear below. He cursed and spun around, extending his claws quickly to prepare to defend himself. But Daito did not attack him from the back, like he had prepared from. Instead, he jumped one move ahead of him, and kept coming towards where Black Spider had been facing (thereby, attacking from the back after all). Black Spider heard the katana whiz through the air and he set about the process of changing his anatomy and physiology as quickly as he could. Daito’s blade struck Black Spider’s back just as his wings spread out and were replaced with a hard, boney orange-red exoskeleton. Black Spider clapped Daito with his quickly shrinking wings, now covered with the hard exoskeleton even as they receded into his body. Daito was knocked to the side and Black Spider whirled around as he continued his transformation into a Tovaa.

The shape shifter’s wings folded and creaked as they dissolved into his exoskeleton. His head elongated and his eyes shifted to either side. His horns receded into his head and reformed as sharp, narrow ridges that rippled across his head and continued on down the rest of his body. A third eye slowly formed from a cavernous hole in his forehead. The black hair all over his body receded, reforming as the needed strong protein fibers that made up his exoskeleton. His nose inverted inside his head and was replaced by a single nasal canal. His teeth sharpened and his tongue receded to be replaced by a pair of pincers normally reserved for gathering food. His claws no longer appeared as sharp, but were still strong enough.

Black Spider had run into the Tovaa a couple of times, even if it had only been in the last 10 years. They lived on the planet Ritmatov, a planet in the Erhan system. That system was adjacent to the Jerredis system, where Bax’s planet of Auralis was. The only unfortunate part which made communication and travel difficult between the two systems was the gigantic asteroid belt which separated the two systems: the Memna Belt. Traveling through this treacherous belt was a feat for even the most experienced pilots, but it was made even more difficult by the race of vicious killers that made their home in the Memna Belt: the Memna.

Black Spider had been one of the few idiot mercenaries who had made their way through the Memna Belt in an attempt to chase after stolen technology. He had also been one of the few idiot mercenaries who had survived the trip through and gone after that technology. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to capture it for his employer, who was none too pleased, and put a price out on his head. That was when he had gone flying through space to avoid his assassins, and met Bax on Auralis. Bax had gotten him out of trouble with his former employer, and Black Spider owed him dearly for it.

Unfortunately, the price still remained high on Black Spider’s head, so he had to go into hiding. And that had brought him here, to Earth, where no one was allowed to follow him due to laws of technological developmental sanctity. It was noted as a sanctuary of sorts. And even his employer, Vong, overlord of Drundak, would not risk breaching those laws.

Black Spider stood up in his new Tovaa form and cracked his exoskeleton all over. He had forgotten how strange this form felt—his organs were not nearly as stable, although they were cushioned from deadly blows in the viscous jelly which flowed freely through him. While the actual Tovaa had long ago forsaken what they understood as magic for highly advanced technology, Black Spider still knew how to use their abilities. They used to worship four gods that represented the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. He would use this form until he ran out of tricks.

Black Spider closed his two side eyes and was suddenly aware of everything in a 360 degree sphere. This was another of the Tovaa’s lovely abilities. Their third eye gave them incredible vision, even if they couldn’t use it for very long. With this third eye, he saw Daito slowly standing up and beginning his own transformation of sorts. The other five Magi were ascending to fight Black Spider. So they were all coming to fight at the same time. So be it. They would get their fight!

Though Daito was closest, the only female in the group, Eve, would get to Black Spider first with her spike-chain weapon, which she was spinning around rapidly in the air above her. Black Spider opened his eyes and turned to face Eve. His stomach began to rumble and he clicked the pincers in his mouth, activating a flint. He suddenly belched out a fireball in Eve’s direction. She looked surprised, but raised her free hand and blasted it aside with a gust of wind. Black Spider recognized her abilities with the air and made a quick mental note of it before turning back towards Daito and leaping over towards him. He wrapped his arms around his neck and met his gaze with his third eye. He quickly initiated another of the Tovaa’s abilities on Daito.

Daito’s vision blurred and he suddenly found himself standing in a hall in the Holy Order’s old headquarters. It resembled one of his dreams…no, one of his nightmares…in which he was forced to fight every one of the priests in the Order in single, swords-only combat. It was when he was still young and inexperienced, and he was mercilessly beaten each time. He raised his sword fearfully as one of the priests charged at him with a large naginata.

From an onlooker’s perspective, though, Daito just suddenly stood up and took a glazed look on his face, and then began to swing his sword around. Somehow, Black Spider had caused Daito to go into a sword of waking dream—an illusion of sorts. To break out of it, he would either have to come to the realization that it was nothing but a dream or illusion, and then jolt his consciousness awake. Black Spider didn’t care, though—it was just one less opponent to focus on for now. He would get back to him later.

Black Spider was now much closer to Marco, who raised his newly reformed war hammer with vigor and determination and swung it through the air towards Black Spider. Black Spider figured that his exoskeleton would be able to withstand the blow, so he raised his hands and braced himself for the hammer fall. The bone-shattering blow came and he looked in horror and surprise as his exoskeleton cracked from his hands down to his wrists. Black Spider bent back around almost 180 degrees at his hips, stretching the exoskeleton at his abdominal region to its limit. He snapped back up quickly, kicking Marco in the chin with both feet. He pounded his right fist into the ground, summoning another one of the Tovaa’s abilities. Unfortunately, this cracked the exoskeleton further, threatening to splinter around his hand.

The ground beneath Marco suddenly shook and the plateau crumbled as the earth literally separated and turned into sand. It was not that Black Spider had hit it hard enough, but rather that he had extended a portion of his energy into the ground to resonate with the earth and transform the hard rock into sand. Earth magic, the Tovaa would have called it. Black Spider preferred to call it a neat trick. But he didn’t expect the Magi to continue to have neat tricks of their own.

Teras reached his hands forward from the other side of the plateau, and the ground the crumbled beneath Marco’s feet resolidified into a mere cushion instead of a crumbling pit of quicksand. Teras continued to run towards Black Spider, but Kerlin reached him first. The Reaper swung his scythe back and slammed it vengefully into Black Spider as he landed back on his feet. The blow cracked the exoskeleton around his torso and he went flying away from the plateau.

Black Spider cursed as he flew through the air. Obviously, the Tovaa form was not working as well as he thought. He wasn’t sure if Daito’s trance would disappear if he transformed, but he knew that he couldn’t stay in this form. He had already expended enough energy simply fending off attacks. He had to choose a more efficient form or else he would be finished.

Black Spider prepared to transform again, but suddenly bashed into an invisible wall behind him. Eve swirled her hands around again and Black Spider felt a powerful gust of wind send him plummeting to the ground. He slammed into the sand and cursed. He really had to pick up the pace! His mind cycled through over two dozen races, each with different abilities, and he finally picked one. His hands shook with energy, and he blasted it forward as he raised a cloud of sand to protect himself from their view. They would not be able to detect him, so he just had to get out of sight. He knew that his exoskeleton was weak around his hands, but he upended himself and burrowed down into the ground anyway. He would hide out underground for the few seconds it took to finish his next transformation.

As he took his place underground, Black Spider noticed that he was already beginning to feel a little fatigued. He had not expected to fight six opponents of such powerful caliber at the same time. He hadn’t even fully recovered from the events at Midgar. He had just healed himself enough to go looking for the others, and had expended plenty of energy flying around at top speeds. This was starting to look like a bad idea.

But as he thought about it, he figured out that he had an ace. It would be difficult to fight these Magi using only a race’s natural abilities and no weapons. After all, they were fighting with both weapons and materia-borne magic. So Black Spider would have to fight them on their level. Unfortunately, all of the species that he knew well enough to transform into only had natural weaponry that extended out far enough for hand-to-hand melee combat. Nothing long enough to go head to head with a sword (or a scythe, a war hammer, or spike chain for that matter). So he would just have to make one for himself, and then choose the best able form. The sword wouldn’t be perfect, but it would have to do.

Black Spider began to murmur some words deep under the sand. His aura compressed the sand around him so that he was in a small underground cave. The ground above shook and the six Magi (as Daito had recovered from his trance when Black Spider dropped his attention from him) scurried around in the dust cloud, wondering where Black Spider was. Black Spider reached forward and began to draw diagrams in the sand. He continued to murmur the ancient words, and then he reached to the side and began to attract as much of the iron and other metals in the surrounding sand to himself as possible. He sifted out the best of it, and then turned his head, clicked his mouth-pincers, and spewed a hot flame towards where his hand was gathering. The gigantic, rough sword forged in a few moments, and Black Spider nodded at his handiwork, and then began to transform into the large, centaur-like Malevolin. As he transformed, he absorbed a lot of the rest of the sand around him, trying to augment it into his body. If he was going to do this transformation properly, he would not a lot more mass and a lot of energy. And then he would have to finish this body quickly. He wasn’t supposed to transform quite this much in the middle of a battle. But it couldn’t be helped.

Black Spider grasped the sword in his hands and his body stretched and contorted as he grew four powerful muscular arms and four equally powerful hoofed legs. He was covered with dark brown hair all around. His body lengthened so that he became as a powerful steed. A tail sprang from his backside, standing tall and proud with its mane. And a mane very much like the one in his base gargoyle-like form sprouted from his head and spindled down to his strong, broad shoulders. As if from his body, a quiver of arrows took place on his back and a bow formed deftly in his upper left hand. His lower right hand grasped his newly formed sword. He would reserve his upper right hand for grasping arrows and drawing them to fire. His lower left hand, he would use for energy blasts. This form would definitely be the best for dealing with multiple targets.

Black Spider roared and sprung up through the ground, immediately flashing his sword through the air at his nearest opponent. Though Rivel was strong, he was thrown off-balance by the sudden attack and tossed to the side (though unharmed). Black Spider simultaneously drew an arrow and thread it into the bow. He took quick aim and sent a single arrow flying towards the first opponent he laid eyes on—Teras. Teras tossed the arrow to the side with his claw and began to charge towards Black Spider. Black Spider prepared another arrow as Kerlin neared him and raised his scythe. Black Spider charged towards him and raised his powerful unarmed left arm, slamming it forcefully into his gut. Kerlin dropped his scythe in surprise at the sudden attack and rose into the air. Black Spider began to gallop, but had just enough time to slam Kerlin in the back and sending him down to eat his dust.

He galloped off and sent another arrow flying back towards Teras. The giant once again deflected it, but had to skid to a stop and change direction as Black Spider galloped off. The newly-transformed centaur readied another arrow and fired. This one flew true and caught Teras in the back as he continued to turn. The giant cried out in pain and pitched to his knees as he reached up to dislodge the arrow. So far, so good.

Black Spider’s legs rippled as he continued to gallop across the rain-laden desert sands. Marco, Eve, and Daito led the charge against Black Spider as Rivel, Kerlin, and Teras recovered from their quick beat-down. Black Spider turned tail and began to charge towards them as well. As he came, he let off a few arrows towards the front line. Marco instantly began his transformation into the iron-clad warrior. Eve swung her spike-chain through the air with one hand and waved her other hand forward, blowing the arrows harmlessly away from her. Daito merely raised his hand and a hazy shield flashed before him, such that any arrows that came too close to him were turned to ash. Black Spider realized that his long-range attacks had finally been rendered useless, and he smirked as he clutched the bow and reabsorbed it into his body. The quiver of arrows likewise sunk back into his body and he twirled his sword through the air.

“Come on!” he cried out as he raised his sword in a high arc and wrenched it down towards the three. Marco, as the closest, raised his war hammer and blocked the blow. But Black Spider tensed his arm and gritted his teeth as he pushed Marco further over and knocked him into Eve. The female Magi squealed as the heavy armored man disturbed her momentum and sent her flying. Daito spread his wings and dodged out of the way. He flashed his katana through the air and Black Spider raised his hand just in time to grab the flying vampire. Unfortunately, the length of the katana surprised Black Spider and he felt the blade bite into his shoulder. He tossed Daito hard towards the plateau and grunted as he raised his hand to the bloody wound. He couldn’t pay attention to it for now. He had to keep fighting before he ran out of energy.

As Daito smashed concussively into the rock of the plateau, Eve struggled to push Marco off of her. Meanwhile, Kerlin, Teras, and Rivel gained on Black Spider. The shape shifter examined his situation and reached forward, wrenching Marco and Eve off of the ground with his rather large hands. Eve struggled in his hand, but Marco seemed dazed. Black Spider swung them through the air and tossed them like fastballs towards his approaching enemies. Eve went flying towards Kerlin, who stuck his scythe out in front of him and deflected her with the staff, sending her flying harmlessly off to the side. Marco slammed into Teras, who tried to catch him, but was knocked over. They ricocheted off of the desert floor. Rivel and Kerlin, however, continued unhindered.

Black Spider breathed heavily. He would be okay if he kept them more or less split up. If he could focus on just one or two at a time, he felt like he would be able to wear them down without expending too much energy. In his preferred situation, he would have snuck up on them (instead of being ambushed), and then numbers wouldn’t have been an issue. Unfortunately, though, he was low on energy and didn’t have any actual weapons to augment his abilities. Even a simple gun or knife would have helped at this point.

And then he got an idea…

Black Spider fended off Rivel and Kerlin with his single shabby sword while the other four Magi regained their bearings. Inside the cave, Bax stirred to the sound of clashing metal and lurched up. He looked around frantically in the darkness and realized quickly that Black Spider must have been fighting with someone outside. He scrambled towards his swords and drew the Valermos and Diroxauralis from their cross sheath. Without a second thought, he ran out from the cave and into the blinding rain. He quickly saw that the six Magi had somehow followed them and were now fighting Black Spider. He saw Daito between him and his friend and began to chase him down with his swords held high, bellowing a ferocious war cry.

Black Spider saw Bax as he emerged from the cave and cursed. It was still raining and he knew from experience that that was bad for Phoeniyans.
“Bax,” he yelled, “What are you doing?”
Black Spider’s eyes flashed and he twirled his sword around, slamming it into Kerlin’s abdomen. The archangel’s eyes went white and he fell to the ground. Black Spider took Rivel in two of his remaining hands and bound his arms to his side. He brought his other two arms him and swiveled his auxiliary blades from their places at his sides, claiming them for his own. As Rivel squirmed in the iron grip, Black Spider glared at him and head-butted him. The Magi grunted and slammed into the ground. Black Spider spun his stolen swords through the air and began to gallop at full speed towards Bax and Daito. He just hoped he would get there in time.

Daito turned around and looked at Bax with annoyance as he got right close. Bax’s eyes were bright red with blind rage and he wailed his swords down towards Daito. Daito simply raised his katana in his right hand and blocked the double blow with ease. Bax screamed louder and Daito rolled his eyes.
“You’re annoying, Bax. Go sit down and shut up.”
Daito twitched his left hand and his claws lengthened. Black Spider screamed as Daito plunged the claw into Bax’s stomach. Bax’s eyes crossed and then rolled back into his head. His hands became limp and the blades clattered to the ground. Daito lifted his foot and kicked Bax off of his hand. Bax collapsed to the ground, convulsing slightly as the rain hit him and penetrated into his gaping wound.
“You must learn your place, Bax. And it is no longer on the field of battle.”

Black Spider screamed bloody murder as he narrowed in on Daito.
“You bastard!”
Daito calmly turned around and raised his hideous, transformed brow. “You’re both too angry.”
Daito flapped his wings and flashed towards Black Spider. Black Spider raised the fire blade in a defensive blow and blasted Daito’s katana away with sheer force. Daito looked a little surprised, but Black Spider gave him no time to register the defense. He raised the ice blade and stabbed it through Daito’s chest, tearing into his wing. The shape shifter wrenched the blade through and sliced his wing half off before slugging the vampire in the head with one hand and dashing him to the ground with the other. He continued to gallop towards Bax. Though he was in the middle of battle, he shifted out of his Malevolin form and slide over Bax in his base gargoyle form. He dropped the swords on either side of Bax and got over him, clenching his hands around his shoulders.
“Shit, Bax, you dumbass! Rain hurts you and you’re in no condition to fight! What is wrong with you?’

Bax trembled, but did not respond. His lips were starting to turn blue and his wound was bleeding freely. Daito’s attack had been too deep and Bax no longer had any way of healing his wounds. The rain had only made things worse by the second—the liquid had begun to seep into Bax’s blood and was beginning to act like a lethal poison. Bax was dying. And Black Spider had no way of healing him, especially not in the middle of a fight.

Black Spider cursed again and scooped Bax up in his arms. He soared upwards and deposited Bax in the cave.
“Don’t you die, Bax!” he seethed. “Ya dumbass. Now I gotta kill em in shorter time than I expected.”
He turned around and began to head back towards the mouth of the cave.
“Oh, and I’m gonna use your swords. Hope you don’t mind.”

Black Spider flew out of the cave and quickly shifted to his Malevolin form. He galloped down to where he had dropped Rivel’s swords and retrieved them, along with Bax’s blades. He wouldn’t be able to use their special abilities, but he knew that he would be able to handle them enough to defend himself against these Magi…and then to kill them.

As Black Spider reached down and equipped himself with four blades, Rivel reached Daito and punched him hard.
“You idiot!” he seethed. “You’re not supposed to hurt Bax! Dumbass.”
Daito rolled his eyes and wiped a streak of blood from his maw. “He irritates me.”
Kerlin was also annoyed with his teammate. “Think before you do stupid things. If he dies, I’ll have your head.”

All six Magi gathered there, a few feet from Black Spider, and bared their weapons. Black Spider growled and held his four swords high and menacingly. He kicked his hooves and awaited their approach. Suddenly, they all launched at him in a vicious pincer attack. He raised his weapons and the metal clashed, lighting the area with sparks as lightning flashed above.

---

Bax shivered on the cold, wet, hard floor of the cave. Outside, he knew that Black Spider was giving everything he had to defend him. And here he lay, gravely injured and unable to do anything about it. His life was quickly slipping from him. He couldn’t let this be it, though. He had to stay alive.

“Idiot. Look at you. I swear, I ought to kick your ass.”

Bax licked his lips and cringed. “Shut up,” he rasped.

Bax’s view faded to darkness and he cursed as he slumped out of consciousness…

As Bax’s vision cleared up again, he found himself sitting in the cave with him across the way. It was almost like looking in a mirror. The figure sitting across from Bax had slightly darker skin, and wisps of black fire curled in his otherwise crimson mane. His eyes were completely red, with a dark blood-red pupil and black cracks splitting the red. He looked a little stronger, a little more buff, but it might have just been his strong confident exterior which exuded powerful charisma. Outside, the rain fell, but it fell slowly and almost looked like…blood…in the low light.

He was what had tormented him in Nibelheim before taking over when Bax was at his worst. He was what had slaughtered countless Zionite soldiers before Bax finally reexerted control. He was what Rivel had encountered when he had tried to enter his mind, and probably a piece of what Sephiroth X had uncovered when Bax had first come here. He was something that every Firago had had to deal with. Bax didn’t fully understand what exactly he was, but he just knew from his experiences dealing with his own head for the last 12 years that this inner demon was just something that the Firago line had to deal with in exchange for their innate powers. And if they didn’t keep themselves in check, then their demons would take over. It had happened to Bax’s ancestor, Revelle, which had led the Phoeniyans to their darkest period since the Great War…

Bax had first purposefully dealt with his inner demon twelve years ago after his coronation had gone wrong. He had proven himself to be a malicious, sadistic force. Slowly, Bax had figured out how he might be able to tap into the wellspring of his dark power, but it had cost him control a few times. Thankfully, none of his people had seen it (even though he had caused great damage with each loss of control). But this most recent loss of control—the dark Bax had caused plenty of horrors.

“Long time no see, virka gradaldo,” the dark Bax said with a half-sincere smile.
Bax sneered. That pejoratively meant crybaby. It was a term Bax thought of a lot when his life was falling apart years ago. He would retreat to his room to escape all of the well-wishers and mourners as the royal family collapsed and left him all alone. It was how the dark Bax had greeted him the first time they “spoke.” Bax’s deep inner consciousness was his domain. And Bax supposed that that was where he had brought them.

“What do you want now?” Bax growled.
“We’re dying. I don’t approve.”
Bax rolled his eyes, “And you think I do?”
The dark Bax twitched his hand in the air, “You sure as hell got weak, Bax. I’ve sat here and watched you get your ass handed to you by how many people over the last couple weeks? Ancients, you are one pitiful son of a bitch.”
Bax clenched his fists together. “You think you could have done better?”
“If it were up to me, Valtiel would be dead already.”
Bax lowered his head in anger and his face twisted. Cocky bastard. “I doubt that. You don’t get it.”
“No, you don’t get it, Bax!” The darker one stood and pointed a finger at Bax, his face contorting in seething anger, enhanced by his dark eyes. “It’s your damned fault that you ran out the cave in the rain and got yourself seriously wounded, and it’s your damned fault for letting your brief reunion with your ex-lover ruin the best chance you had at killing Valtiel! And now look! Powerless! We have to let that stupid shape shifter pawn son of a bitch take care of our battles! Do ya have a clue how pissed off I am?”

Bax also stood up and took a step towards his darker self. “First off, Black Spider is a valiant warrior and a good friend, and he’s gotten my ass out of a bind several times! Second, leave Hodia out of this. And third, I doubt you would have the constitution to do half of what I do outside of battle, much less in when I’m trying to make sure the people around me that I’m trying to protect don’t die, so don’t even talk!”

The Dark Bax shook his head with a slight smile, “Watch yourself, Bax. You’re starting to get in touch with your darkness. If you’re not careful, I will take over.”
Bax seethed and stood there with his fists clenched. It had to be lies…

As Bax stood there, he suddenly felt weak. He looked down and saw blood pouring from his stomach with Daito had stabbed him. Blood began to seep from the corners of his mouth and he pitched to he knees as he eyes rolled back in his head again.

“Don’t forget, Bax…I’ll be waiting here…waiting for you to give in and accept that you can’t handle this anymore…”

And then things went dark again…

---

Down below, Black Spider knelt down on one knee, breathing heavily. He still held his swords high, but he was covered in all sorts of scars from battling the six Magi. He had knocked them back many times, but they kept coming back stronger than ever while he kept losing energy. He didn’t know how they kept getting up after he knocked them down. But somehow they had an endless wellspring of energy.

Black Spider clashed the Valermos against Kerlin’s Reaper and slammed Rivel’s ice blade into his chest, knocking him to the side. He caught Teras’s claw in the Diroxauralis and pushed him back again before slicing him across the chest with the Valermos, which he brought over with momentum from the blow against the Reaper. Eve got back up from where Black Spider had knocked her a few moments before, and she wrenched her spike chain through the air. She tossed it towards Black Spider as Rivel and Daito spun their katanas towards him. Black Spider caught the men’s blows with his lower two swords and then leapt up on his hind legs and kicked them away with savage blows. His right leg nearly gave out as a result, but he took the pain and lowered the Diroxauralis just in time to stop the advance of Eve’s weapon. The chain began to coil around the blade, and Black Spider yanked vengefully on it just as it reached maximum tension, sending Eve flying towards him as she hung on for dear life. As she passed over his head, she withdrew her katana and moved to decapitate him, but Black Spider swung Rivel’s ice brand over his head and met her blow. He loosed his blade from in between Eve’s chains and dealt her a clean slice to the stomach before knocking her away.

Suddenly, Black Spider’s ankle burned and he grunted as the leg really gave out. Marco swooped in for a deadly blow and was able to smash in his other leg. Black Spider pitched forward and raised his blades to smash Marco away. Marco’s war hammer clamored against Rivel’s ice blade and Black Spider felt the reverberations shake through his arm. Black Spider bit down and bore the pain, and then lurched towards Marco, smashing him with his shoulder and following up with a double strike from his right swords. Marco went flying off and Black Spider collapsed to the ground. He had to switch to a lower energy form and sacrifice some of this mass or else he would be toast.

Black Spider braced himself and sliced cleanly through his broken legs with Rivel’s blades before tossing them off and lodging them in the plateau rock. They turned to sand before Black Spider’s eyes as he began to shift back to his gargoyle form. His Malevolin form had obviously not been strong enough—Black Spider could feel his poorly absorbed mass aching to leak out. If he wasn’t careful, he might lose another limb—one of his own, actual limbs. This was not going well at all! He didn’t even have time to heal himself!

Black Spider stood unsteadily and raised Bax’s swords. “Come on! That all you got?”

Kerlin, as the first one knocked out that round, got up first and raised his scythe towards Black Spider. “I’ve got a score to settle with you. You’re the first one whose blood my blade tasted who got away. He wants more now. So let’s go.”

Black Spider charged forward and clashed Bax’s swords into Kerlin’s scythe. He sliced one along the blade and pushed forward onto the pole with the other. Kerlin jammed the scythe into the sand and lashed his foot out, jabbing towards Black Spider’s knee. The shape shifter stuck his leg out, catching the blow without losing his balance. He bounced his sword off of the scythe’s sharp edge and sliced it through the air towards Kerlin. Kerlin raised one hand off of his weapon and caught the blade in his hand. The blade tore into his skin and ripped his hand to shreds, but he stopped the advance and then reached his scythe back and stabbed the blade into Black Spider’s chest. Black Spider screamed as the poison coursed into his body. He wrenched the sword from Kerlin’s hand, tossed the blade up into the air, and gathered energy into his free hand. Kerlin licked his lips and reared back from another strike. Black energy crackled in the shape shifter’s hand and he shot his hand forward towards Kerlin, unleashing a spell much like the one he had used on Daito just hours before. He burned a hole through Kerlin’s chest and slammed the flat of his blade against Kerlin’s scythe, knocking him backwards.

Black Spider clutched his chest around the wound and closed his eyes in pain as he raised his hand to his chest and scorched the same black energy into his own chest to burn out the poison. He screamed and gritted his teeth, then opened his eyes and looked up to see Kerlin flying towards him, completely ignoring the gaping hole in his chest. Kerlin shrieked and spun his scythe towards Black Spider. The blade caught Black Spider in the neck and he felt warm blood began to spurt out. Black Spider clapped his hand to his neck and cursed, but wrenched his other arm through the air, cleaving through Kerlin’s wing and sending him crashing into the ground. Black Spider breathed heavily and whirled around as his vision began to cross. He had to take them all out at once or else he would be screwed. Bolts of black lightning began to crack and spin around Black Spider’s body and he knelt down into a defensive state, looking around him with a single raised sword to defend any potential attack.

Black Spider was about to release a wave of annihilation in all directions around him when he felt the ground shaking beneath him. He cursed, but kept his concentration even as the sands beneath him turned to quicksand and began to suck him down. He felt a dangerous bolt of lightning raise the hairs on his head and he gritted his teeth as a powerful electric bolt pierced into his body. As the sands continued to suck him down, Black Spider diverted a little bit of his attention to try and get himself out of the muck, but he felt a sudden wind push him down from above. They were doing everything they could to stop him for executing this last ditch attack.

Black Spider screamed and raised his hands high, preparing to unleash everything in one last ditch attack. A wave of ice soared over the area and stopped Black Spider in his tracks. He broke free of the ice and clapped his hands together. The destructive energy collapsed inward for a brief moment before suddenly expanding outwards. Black Spider felt about ready to collapse, but he had finally unleashed it and they were all toast. Black Spider closed his eyes and let loose a light smile, knowing that he had won!

After a few moments, though, Black Spider felt that something was wrong. The death-rattle cracks of energy were still resounding around him. By now, he should have only heard the sound of the falling rain. Everything around him for a considerable radius should have been vaporized. But he couldn’t hear the rain over the energy. Black Spider opened his eyes and saw the sphere of destructive energy buckling against some sort of shield. His eyes widened as he realized that Daito had trapped him within an orb of his own destruction, protecting everyone else from the inevitable destruction. Black Spider felt drained—he barely had anything left, and he was sure he hadn’t caused enough damage to any of them to make a difference. He had failed.

And to make matters worse, the dark energy around him was growing more unstable by the moment. If it couldn’t be released somehow, then it would explode and probably vaporize him. Black Spider used most of the last bits of his energy and shifted to his Darian form. The Darians were a highly telepathic race from Auralis. Black Spider’s skin turned red with blue stripes and his mouth completely disappeared. His eyes turned a vibrant green and his horns were replaced with a complex array of vertical cranial ridges that the Darians used to focus their telepathic abilities. His wings remained about the same, despite the change in color. Black spider quickly formed a powerful telepathic shield all around him, and he crouched down to the ground to take the impending explosion.

The black hole of destruction finally cracked and came crashing inwards. Black Spider felt the intense power crush him into the icy slurry of the ground as he was nearly ripped apart to atoms. The telepathic barrier barely held, and Black Spider felt his mind screaming in intense agony. Blood began to seep from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and he hoped that the energy would dissipate soon before he passed out and was destroyed.

Black Spider’s cranial ridges began to crack under the pressure of the telepathic output, and he screamed in agony. The moments stretched on like an eternity, but the explosion finally subsided and Black Spider let his telepathic shield down. He struggled up and shifted back to his original form one last time and clutched Bax’s swords in his hands. As though he had anything left in him…

A bolt of red lightning soared through the dust that had been kicked up from that last attack and ripped through Black Spider’s chest, scorching out the other side. He grunted and fell to one knee. Kerlin appeared before him with a wild grin on his face, and held the scythe tightly to Black Spider’s throat. Black Spider felt the edge of the blade press into his throat as he took a deep breath. The poison from the blade worked its way further into his neck, and he felt his throat burning. How had it gone this wrong?

“Any last words, Black Spider?” Kerlin asked.
Black Spider looked up at Kerlin with angry eyes and spit blood in his face. Kerlin chuckled maliciously and licked his lips.
“I guess not. I suppose I can kill you now.”
Black Spider tried unsuccessfully to summon the strength to swipe his sword through Kerlin, but he had nothing left in him. Unless Kerlin somehow missed him, this looked like it was it.

But suddenly, Black Spider felt some kind of wild, out of control power flash through the area and he looked up to see a black boot smash into the side of Kerlin’s head. His jaw dropped and he watched as Kerlin went smashing the sands of the desert, slamming up and down over the dunes before coming to a stop hundred of yards away. Black Spider followed the boot and looked on the form of his unexpected rescuer. He was dressed a little like Rivel, Eve, and Teras, with the black leather and cloak, but he had additional armor and had long, flowing silver hair. It looked kind of, from the description Bax had given him, like Sephiroth X: the Warrior of Prosperity. Sephiroth X had come to save him!

[Sephiroth X]

*Sephiroth X held his mid air pose as Kerlin skipped across the desert sands. Rain continued to fall, but otherwise everything seemed still while the boom of X’s thunderous kick echoed. Slowly, Sephiroth X let his feet touch the ground below him and stood like a statue facing the Magi. Everybody, Black Spider included, had their eyes fixed on the newcomer and his emphatic entrance. X slowly gripped the Masamune tighter in his hand and broke the silence.

Sephiroth X – So… this is what was going on here.

*Seph turned his head slightly to look over his shoulder towards Black Spider.

Sephiroth X – You’re lucky I could sense you… otherwise I wouldn’t have made too big a deal out of a bunch of Magi.

*Black Spider’s eyes widened in amazement and thoughts immediately shot through his mind. He could sense me!? How!? I can mask my presence from anybody and this guy wasn’t even close by! He… he really must be the man with the Element…

Black Spider – You must be Sephiroth X... Bax’s friend.

Sephiroth X – …And you are?

Black Spider – I’m Black Spider.

*Sephiroth X directed his glare back towards the Magi.

Sephiroth X – Take Bax and get away from here.

*Rivel began chuckling a little before speaking up.

Rivel – Like it would matter… We can track the Phoeniyan.

*Rivel reached into his robe and pulled out a small device roughly the size of a portable phone.

Rivel – How’d you think we got to you so fast, Black Spider?

*Black Spider frowned slightly realizing the truth, the anti-materia they strapped onto Bax wasn’t only draining his power but it must have had a tracking device implaneted into it as well. Before Rivel or Spider could say anything, X barked out.

Sephiroth X – Just get Bax and beat it!

Black Spider – But what about-

Sephiroth X – NOW! Take him and find his friend Zack! I’m not telling you again!

*X’s skin began to turn slightly more pale as his eyes darkened a little more, the green around his eyes became surrounded with a thick black ink-like line. Black Spider staggered to his feet quickly and proceeded to grab Bax quickly.

Daito – So you wouldn’t have come just because of a bunch of Magi huh…? Pretty tough talk I must say, even from you.

*Eve spoke up this time, drawing her katana in the process.

Eve – Last time we fought, just three of us could hold our own against you. Do you seriously think you can defend against six of the Magi’s best?

Sephiroth X – Who said anything about defending against you… I was planning on which way I was going to force you into submission.

*All of the Magi scuffed at him in an arrogant disbelief while Black Spider came back out of the cave helping Bax walk. Bax raised his head a little to catch a glimpse at their apparent savior.

Bax – Seph… Heh, long time no see.

Sephiroth X – Black Spider is going to take you to find Zack. Go.

*Bax blinked for a second, X’s tone was a surprisingly cold one. Then Bax let his eyes focus a little more and saw the slight changes in Seph’s appearance, the skin, and a glimpse of the eyes.

Bax – Are you… ok?

*X said nothing as his glare focused only on the Magi.

Black Spider – We should get going.

*Bax gave another passing look at Sephiroth X before Black Spider took flight away from the Magi and X. Kerlin came back towards the rest of the Magi with his scythe at the ready, his other hand rubbing his jaw.

Kerlin – And who said we would even let them leave?

*Kerlin watched as Black Spider and Bax flew further away.

Sephiroth X - …Me.

*Kerlin glared at X.

Kerlin – Ah yes… the fabled Warrior of Prosperity.

*Kerlin’s eyes looked towards Rivel, Eve, and Teras for a moment.

Kerlin- Nice to see you three have another unfinished job… But you are an intelligent man Sephiroth X. You are not going to be able to fight all of us at once and manage to allow those two to escape, even for you this is a futile effort.

*Sephiroth X’s eyes focused directly on Kerlin with a fierce and hateful glare. Each of the Magi who didn’t have their weapons ready had them now as there was a moment of eerie silence.

Sephiroth X – This is where you should run.

Marco – He’s joking, right?

Teras – He’s delusional… Perhaps Midgar shook him up more than we thought. He’s suicidal.

*X continued his cold glare, unfazed by their comments. Kerlin’s peeked over Sephiroth X to catch a glimpse of Black Spider and Bax, who were becoming smaller and smaller to his eyes as they flew further away.

Kerlin – Teras! We’re going to be the ones deciding who goes where, intercept Bax and Black Spider.

*Teras nodded and accepted the duty as he leapt into the air to pursue the two aliens. X’s body remained stoic while his eyes quickly followed Teras, causing his frown to become even more pronounced. As Teras flew a few yards away from the rest of the Magi a could wind quickly blew as there was a sharp high pitched ‘whooshing’ sound, and before Teras could continue forward Sephiroth X suddenly flew right in front of him. Teras’ eyes widened as X appeared with his cold gaze bearing down on him.

Teras – What the-

*In an instant a thunderous punch from Sephiroth X slammed into the chest of Teras sending him flying towards the rest of the Magi with an emphatic crash into the sand. The other Magi quickly went to attend to Teras and within an instant Sephiroth X flew back towards them all with blurring speed.

Sephiroth X – No more warnings.

Rivel – How… could you move that fast?

*Sephiroth X said nothing as his dark stare continued. Teras coughed up a little blood as he attempted to stand up.

Teras – He’s… not that fast… he can’t be.

Daito – Well it appears he is.

Rivel – It’s just for show… He hasn’t gotten that much better then the first time we fought him, it’s not possible.

Sephiroth X – There’s a lot you need to learn then… I’ve discovered a new level of my strength. And it’s thanks to the likes of you and the others…

*X snarled slightly at the Magi, revealing his teeth as his grip on his sword grew tighter and his other hand curled into a tight fist. Seph’s eyes grew a vivid bright again for a moment followed by the black around his eyes becoming even more pronounced, his skin became even more pale while a soft gush of wind flew around him making his cloak flare ominously. X appeared to be enraged by the mere presence of the Magi as he shouted out to them.

Sephiroth X – Dark and hateful souls like you have made me learn that in order to defeat darkness you need to fight it with another kind of darkness! And it’s because of this, because of you, that I’ve lost far too much! And so I’ve discovered what I need to do.

*Seph let out a hellacious yell as the wind picked up around him.

Sephiroth X- AND NOW YOU WILL KNOW THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR OF PROSPERITY!

*The eyes of the Magi widened a little at this new side of X, something they hadn’t seen before in any previous encounters with him.

Rivel – He’s delusional…

Kerlin – He’s lost his mind!

*Kerlin snarled a little.

Kerlin – He must be out of his mind if he can think he can take on the best of the Holy Order of the Magi! DESTROY HIM!

*Kerlin and Daito immediately dashed at X with their weapons ready. Kerlin swung his scythe downwards towards the enraged X, who in retaliation swung the Masamune straight upwards into the scythe. Seph put so much effort behind his initial swing that it jarred Kerlin’s scythe out of his hands and sent it spinning straight into the air. Kerlin’s head looked upward towards his own weapon and immediately felt Seph’s knee get driven into his chin. As X was descending down from the flying knee attack Daito attacked with a series of crisscrossing horizontal katana slashes. Seph blocked each slash with minimal movement before he finally parried Daito’s attack and punched Daito right in the side of the head. The punch sent Daito straight to the ground, upon hitting the dirt Seph drove his shin into the side of Daito’s chest and repeatedly kicked Daito until he felt Daito’s ribs giving way. After a moment of astonishment by how easily X seemed to dispatch Kerlin and Daito, Teras and Marco dashed towards X in order to save Daito before X could do any more harm. Sephiroth X looked up to see the two new attackers approaching and he quickly kicked Daito again, sending Daito’s body airborne and quickly slamming into Teras. X quickly sidestepped as Marco’s war hammer came crashing into the desert sand, and as Marco rose his weapon again he quickly swung it horizontally at X. Instead of simply blocking Marco’s attack X jumped upwards just before the hammer would have collided with him. As Marco went through the follow-through motion of his attack X landed right on the hammer portion of his war hammer facing Marco. Small bolts of electricity bounced off of both the hammer and X’s feet as the electricity of Marco’s hammer seemingly had little effect on X.

Marco – What!

*X snarled as he balanced on Marco’s weapon. Seph then dashed down the staff of Marco’s weapon and bent his right leg backwards a little and emphatically flung it forward, kicking Marco square in the face sending Marco flying away and putting X into a back flip. While X continued his flip he looked and could see Rivel, Eve, and Teras all dashing towards him with their katanas drawn. Just as Seph’s feet touched the ground again he was greeted by a flurry of slashes from the three remaining Magi. X promptly parried and blocked as necessary to the point where he even caused their own katanas to clash against each other. Eve stabbed towards X and as he parried the attack Eve connected with a powerful kick to the side of X’s chest. Seph cringed for a split second as a result of the kick and in retaliation he kicked at one of Eve’s legs, tripping her up and sending her down to the ground. Seph twirled the Masamune once and swung it down towards Eve who managed to block the attack at the last second with her own katana. X had more then enough strength to force her own katana down onto her but Teras and Rivel quickly came to her aid forcing X off of her. Seph spun and slashed at the two of them and went on an aggressive offensive, forcing both Rivel and Teras backwards while they struggled to keep up with X’s speed. After a few more slashes at the two of them X exerted a more powerful slash directly at Teras’ katana, sending him staggering and falling onto the ground momentarily leaving Seph alone to fight Rivel. Sephiroth X constantly slashed at Rivel before seeing an opening and driving a powerful punch right into Rivel’s stomach. As Rivel gasped for air X’s moved so fast that he appeared a blur to Rivel, and in a split second X dashed behind Rivel and drove his boot into Rivel’s back. Teras jumped back off the ground towards X again only to have his katana jarred from his hands by the force of an attack from the Masamune. While Teras’ katana flew away from its master X wound up and slammed an emphatic punch into Teras’ forehead knocking him unconscious. A few yards away Eve watched in astonishment as she couldn’t will herself to rejoin the battle, and saw Rivel trying to crawl away from X.

Rivel – Im.. impossible… how?

*X turned away from Teras and saw a small device fall out of Rivel's robe. It was the tracking device the Magi used to track Bax. X approached and looked down at the crawling Rivel before kicking the tracking device so hard that it shattered against the side of Rivel's head. The look of hatred on Seph’s face grew even fiercer as he slowly raised the Masamune, drove it down through Rivel’s thigh, and twisted it slowly. Rivel let out a bone rattling scream of pain as X pulled the Masamune out from his leg. Rivel desperately tried to keep crawling away, even slower now that one of his legs had been injured. Eve continued to look on with a stunned look while Teras and Daito remained unconscious and Marco and Kerlin staggered back to their feet. Sephiroth X slowly rose up his right foot and drove it down into Rivel’s back, causing another loud scream of pain from Rivel.

Eve – Such… dark power…

*Eve saw another distinct change in X’s appearance. Sephiroth X’s face grew more intense and full of hatred as the fight went on, and as he seemed to channel more of his newly found power something began to happen to X’s face. Small black trails ran from X’s eyes almost like veins or cracks in his skin while darker circles began to form around his eyes as well creating an extremely eerie appearance when coupled with X’s darker eyes and pale skin. Sephiroth X was not aware of these new changes that were occurring to him, he was too busy looking down at Rivel with absolutely no pity or sympathy in his thoughts.

Sephiroth X – Now… you see the power you tried to command for yourselves… The power that will… destroy Valtiel… Crono… and the rest of those who stand in my path…

*X wedged his foot under Rivel’s chest and flipped him onto his back. The Masamune slowly lowered down towards Rivel’s neck.

Sephiroth X – And maybe… that should start with you Magi.

*Before Seph inflicted the killing blow on Rivel, something in the blade’s reflection caught his eye. Specifically something in the blade’s reflection of himself. X pulled the Masamune away from Rivel for a moment and angled it so that he could see a more precise reflection of himself in the blade. He quickly saw the changes to his face that had resulted from apparently tapping further into his power and his disliking of the Magi. Seph’s eyes widened a little, stunned by the rather drastic changes. Seph lowered the Masamune and saw Eve a few yards away and he saw the look on her face. X could see that she too was looking directly at him, at his face, his eyes, and in her eyes Seph could see that she genuinely was afraid of him. Seph looked down at Rivel again and saw that he was beaten beyond the point of being a threat for quite a while now, and that what X was doing now was like toying with prey. X shook his head a few times and blinked while he tried to regain his composure.

Sephiroth X – This… isn’t something I would normally do…

*Seph looked around to see that none of the remaining conscious Magi were making any kind of threatening maneuvers towards him, each of them were beaten to the point were they knew they couldn’t win.

Sephiroth X – My face… was it because of this power? So… sudden, so drastic. No, this isn’t like me… I…

*Before he would even let himself finish his own thoughts X let out a frustrated yell into the sky. His skin slowly returned to its normal pigmentation and suddenly his face and eyes returned to normal again. Seph bent his knees slightly and leapt into the air, flying as far away from the Magi as he could. Sephiroth X needed to sort out his thoughts and figure a few things out really fast. Something wasn’t right.

[Shadow Phoenix]

OoC: Mucho awesomes to Sephy for the previous post. It’s fantastic to see the single line of darkness being blurred so vividly…

IC:

Black Spider cradled the weakened Bax in his arms and shielded him from the rain as he flew over the desert. He flapped his wings strongly, but flew carefully so that the amount of rain that hit Bax was minimized. Thankfully, the rain was finally starting to let up (and they were moving in the opposite direction of the storm), but they weren’t out of the woods yet. Behind him, Black Spider felt a horrendous fight raging. All seven powers were practically going out of control as they battled it out. In his arms, he could barely feel the severely weakened and dying Bax. He was flying at top speed towards Zack, just as Sephiroth X had told him to. There was other strong powers around Zack, too, but Black Spider couldn’t quite tell who they were. But what he really cared about was that there didn’t seem to be any conflict where he was headed. All he hoped was that he or someone would be able to help Bax once he got there…

As Black Spider flew, he wondered about this new Warrior of Prosperity, Sephiroth X. He knew that Bax and Zack had known him for a few months now, before he gained all this power. He had come under the Senate’s control for a short time, but then broke free and gained the power of the Element. But what Black Spider had just felt back in the midst of the Magi was not what he had expected. For one, Sephiroth X’s power fluctuated violently. At its lowest, it was almost like a regular human. But at its highest…Black Spider knew that the power surpassed any that he had felt in a long time. It was quite possible that it even surpassed his power at his height decades ago when Ragnarok had possessed him. And this power—it wasn’t the mighty, protective kind of power that he expected of the Warrior of Prosperity. It was dark and ferocious—Black Spider wasn’t sure if he would describe it as malicious, but it felt like it could tip that way at any moment. What was this Sephiroth X?

And how had he sensed him? Part of the training of all shape shifters who hoped to retain any kind of stealth was that they learned to eliminate all traces of their power. Though their spiritual energies were unique, they could suppress them so that they would not be detected by those with attuned sixth senses. He had gone for over a century without being detected. Even in battle, he managed to keep his presence so negligible that no one knew where he was. And now Black Spider recalled Jack’s suit, the Earth Breaker, which had not sensed an aura from him at all. For all intents and purposes, Black Spider was invisible! So how in the world had Sephiroth X sensed him?

Black Spider tried to shake the silver-haired warrior from his thoughts even as the battle raged behind him. Instead, he focused on the fading fiery-haired warrior in his arms. As much as Black Spider had been trained, he hadn’t figured out quite how to heal deadly wounds on other people, at least not without the proper supplies. Normally, Black Spider knew that flames would have fixed Bax right up, but he wasn’t so sure now because of the anti-materia. If Bax’s power had been rendered so that he was like a typical human, then anything but the flame on his head might hurt him more than help him. To make matters worse, Bax had been effectively poisoned by the over-intake of water. Even if he could heal Bax of his deep wound, that might make things worse because he wouldn’t be able to get the poison out properly.

Phoeniyans didn’t need much water to maintain proper metabolism, so too much water caused severe havoc with their whole physiology. Since Black Spider had taken on the Phoeniyan form on many occasions, he had learned the ins and outs of their anatomy and physiology almost as well as Phoeniyan doctors. Water caused their cells to burst, quenched the acids that made their bodies tick, and totally altered the gases that combusted to form their natural flames. That was why Bax’s head-flame was weakening more and more by the second and why his lips and skin had taken on a bluish tinge. That was why Black Spider was so worried—every moment that Bax had an abundance of water in his system, his body was killing itself. What kept most races alive was literally destroying Bax.

Bax was also freezing cold, but sweating bullets. His body was trying to rid itself of the excess water, but it was making him even colder. It was a lose-lose situation. Black Spider didn’t have much extra energy, but he expelled what he could as warmth directly onto Bax. Black Spider would probably collapse by the time he reached Zack, but he had to make sure that Bax survived the journey. With another flap of his wings, the shape shifter soared with all his might against the wind and the rain.

---

In a makeshift watchtower at Libertas, a drifter-guard was dozing off. A pair of binoculars from Zion’s forces hung around his neck, now speckled with a myriad of carved insignias that the guard had decided to use to customize his lucky find. He leaned in his chair against a wall, shouldering a large sniper rifle. Every few moments, his eyes would flicker open and he would survey the horizon, looking for any signs of approach. He wasn’t too worried—there were other guards as well, so he didn’t have to be watching constantly. So he let himself drift in and out.

He didn’t catch when he actually nodded off, but he was suddenly jarred awake by a scream in his headphones.
“Aw shit, UFO approaching! You see that, Red?”
‘Red’ jumped at the aural disturbance and stared straight ahead. He saw a speck in the sky before him and quickly raised his binoculars to try to get a better look. It looked like…something with wings? It was moving so fast and so erratically that he could barely focus enough to catch any details. But the creature, or whatever it was, was flapping its black and red wings and flying directly towards them. It also looked like it had something in its arms…something that was on fire.

Red cursed and raised his rifle, crouching down and stabilizing the gun on the ledge of a window. He looked through the sight and then lowered the mic of his headset to his mouth.
“Yeah, I see it. What is it?”
“We’re not sure.”
Red rubbed his eyes and slapped his face, trying to rouse himself fully. He looked through the sight again and saw what looked distinctly like a face. And the fact didn’t look happy.
“I think it’s a person…or a creature…and it looks like it has something that’s on fire. Should I shoot to kill, fire a warning shot, what do you think?”
The other end of the conversation crackled with static for a moment before a response came.
“…Locke says to fire a warning shot and see what happens.”
“Roger that.”
Red got a clear view of the incoming flying…thing…and aimed his gun slightly to the right of it. This would hopefully get its attention. Then he would await further instructions.

The drifter cradled his finger on the trigger, braced himself for the sound and the recoil, and fired.

---

Black Spider couldn’t believe his eyes. Stretched before him was a seemingly thriving city, just sitting in the Desert of the Dead. The only other town he knew of comparable size to this was Nibelheim. How had a place like this escaped detection? It didn’t look immaculate by any stretch of the imagination, but it was obviously functional. Black Spider would have to find out the answers to his questions later, though.

Bax groggily acknowledged the city, rousing to half-consciousness. He mumbled something in Phoeniyan that Black Spider didn’t quite catch, but it sounded like a phrase that roughly translated to “sanctuary.” He then passed out again. Black Spider nodded. Hopefully Bax was right and this was some place that could offer them rest and safety.

Suddenly, Black Spider heard a crack and his eyes went wide. He barely saw a bullet careening towards him, waving in the wind. Normally, such a trivial thing wouldn’t have proven a problem for him, but these were special circumstances. He was severely weakened and carrying a nearly dad man in his arms. So while he would have normally just barrel rolled out of the way of the projectile, he could do nothing but watch as the wind carried it flickering into his wing. Black Spider cursed as the bullet tore through his muscular wing, ripping a large hole due to the nature of the bullet. He started to fall out.

“Shit!” he screamed, doing everything that he could to stay in the air and make sure he didn’t drop Bax.

---

Red looked through the sight and saw the target falter in midair. Not as though he had dodged the bullet, but rather that it had hit him. The drifter suddenly remembered something he had forgotten to account for—the wind. He hadn’t compensated enough to make it a warning shot and had actually hit the thing. He spoke with trepidation into the microphone.
“Um…I think I accidentally shot it.”

In the distance, the flying creature labored heavily on one of its wings, dropping closer to the ground every second.

“Yeah,” Red said, wincing, “I shot it.”

On the other end of the comm-line, the guard heard a huge ruckus as orders were sent around to mobilize and go meet the target just outside the city walls. Red collapsed to a sitting position and watched as the flying creature finally gave out and pitched down to the sands. He cursed his bad luck. Seriously, the citizens of Libertas were having too much excitement for one day…bad things were bound to happen.

---

Black Spider plunged down into the sand, eating a mouthful of the desert for seemingly the hundredth time in these last couple of days. He cradled Bax delicately in his arms, protecting Bax from the entire impact. Black Spider bounced up and continued to careen through the landscape towards the city. With every impact, he felt his weakened bones bending and threatening to shatter, but he steeled himself and made sure with everything in him that Bax was not harmed anymore.

At last, they came to a stop, and Black Spider collapsed supine, letting his arms flop out. Bax shifted a little, groaning.
“Shit,” the shape shifter cursed. “That hurt. What a way to welcome us…”
Bax didn’t respond, but Black Spider didn’t expect him to.
“I guess they’re not as friendly as I had hoped. But if Zack is here, then…maybe.”
Black Spider rolled his neck painfully and surveyed several drifters wielding guns traveling towards them.
“And here comes the cavalry…”

Black Spider closed his eyes and heard the multitude of drifter guards surround him.
“Halt! Stay right where you are!” one shouted.
Black Spider opened his eyes and looked at the person with ice-cold irritation. “Does it look like I’m going anywhere? You already shot me.”
The guard looked bewildered for a moment, and looked around at his companions.
“He has a point,” someone else said.
“Shut up!” the first guard shouted. “All right, why were you flying towards us? What are you doing here?”

Black Spider looked at all of the guns trained on him and his mind instantly ran over a dozen scenarios of ways out of this. He hated acting so passively in a situation like this. Ten years ago or more, he probably would have killed them all by now. But now he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself for being so irresponsible. It couldn’t be helped. He had to think of Bax now. By comparison, Black Spider was barely injured. He ached all over and had plenty of cuts, but it would just take some rest for him to be back in form. It would take a lot more for Bax.

“My friend is gravely injured. We were attacked by priests from the Holy Order of the Magi. I came here seeking a young, blonde man named Zack on the recommendation of the Warrior of Prosperity, Sephiroth X.”
The entire group suddenly burst into whispers and chatter. Mentions of the Order, Zack, and X spun all around Black Spider. They all lowered their guns, now wondering if they were overreacting. Apparently these drifters knew Zack and Sephiroth X—that meant Zack was here and Sephiroth probably had been. That was good at least.
“Okay,” the first guard spoke up at last after corroborating with a few of his compatriots. “Say that we were to believe you. Who are you and who is your friend?”
Black Spider got a little more irritated. “Does it matter?! Can’t you see that he’s dying? Please just stop with these formalities until his life is no longer hanging in the balance.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I have to follow these proceedings.”

Black Spider clicked his claws and swung himself up to a standing position, leaving Bax on the desert floor. Instantly, all of the soldiers lifted their guns again and trained them on the shape shifter. He winced for a moment as he was reminded of the large gaping hole in his wing, but then his face twisted into a snarl as he clenched his claws into fists. He was so tempted to disarm them all, but he subdued his growing rage. But he wasn’t sure how much longer he could take this before he snapped.
“Damn it all, you dumbasses, Bax is going to die! I don’t care if you take me into the city, just please help him! Find Zack! Do something other than point your stupid guns at me!”

On the ground, Bax opened his eyes weakly and looked up at Black Spider. He quivered and groaned. Black Spider shifted his gaze downward and knelt down to his friend, a look of concern wiping away his anger.
“Damn it, Bax, hang on!”
Bax nodded his head, then pursed his lips. “I’m sorry,” he whispered weakly. His eyes rolled back in his head and his shaking became more violent. Black Spider cursed and tried to cradle Bax’s head in his arms. The shape shifter raised his head again and whirled it around, looking at all of the drifters with anguish. “For the love of all that is good and holy, please do something!”

[ZaCloud]

OOC: RPed between myself and ShadowPhoenix over multiple sessions.

---

From his place near the edge of the camp, the anxious Zack watched the reaction team in Libertas rushing out to tend to yet another unknown arrival. He squinted toward where they were heading, trying to make out what was causing the ruckus. He had not been on the right side of the camp to see what had transpired in the air, but he knew something was definitely up. After a few moments, he jogged toward the lookout at the best viewable angle toward the departed team's destination. "Hey, what's goin' on? Is Sephiroth X back? Or is it something else?"

"We can't go blabbing our entire business to newcomers," the man answered, gazing through his binoculars at the scene.

Zack lowered his head for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and looked back up. He snatched the binoculars amidst an angry protest, and managed to train them momentarily on the mass of gathering. His eyes widened when he saw two familiar sets of color against the desert sands... though one did not look right at all. His breath caught.

The lookout, meanwhile, snatched his binoculars back, while a man nearby started drawing his pistol. "What the hell are you doin'?!" he yelled at the boy.

Zack looked squarely at the now armed man. "I HAVE to get over there. Come with me, you can shoot me if I act suspicious, how's that?" He began to jog a few steps out into the desert, then paused to see if the guy was following. He was only aiming. "Come on! It's an emergency! You'd feel safer if you could aim at me right, wouldn't you?!" The man looked at the lookout, puzzled, then shrugged and began running with Zack. Though he had a hard time keeping up as the blonde accelerated to a shocking speed.

The boy's feet pounded hard over the ground, which he couldn't even feel. He just had to close the distance, and it seemed to go on forever. The closer he got, the more he realized something was very wrong; the way people were standing. How Black Spider was kneeling and Bax was lying down. How transparent Bax's presence felt. How blue he was tinted.

"Bax!" he screamed as he rushed headlong between the members of the Libertas crowd. "Bax! Oh my God, what happened?!" People trained their guns on him, but the pistol-wielding attendant waved them off and they made some space as Zack slid to a stop by the Phoeniyan's side, looking him over, then looking desperately up at Black Spider. "What happened?! What can we do?!"

Black Spider saw Zack approaching and took a deep sigh of relief as he slid down across from him. "Glad to see a familiar face finally...it's a long story, though. I'll give you more details later, but we were attacked by six priests of the Holy Order of the Magi and Bax got hurt really bad while it was raining. I held the Magi off as long as I could until Sephiroth X appeared out of nowhere and helped us get away. He's poisoned, Zack. Too much water intake. And he can't heal himself because of this thing on his wrist."

Black Spider pointed to the anti-materia on Bax's wrist and shook his head, "They really messed him up bad. And I don't have the supplies to fix him up. We have to hurry."

Zack glared at the foul bracelet on Bax's wrist, then reached toward his swords for a moment (intending to remove them) before stopping and glancing back at the Libertas team. He lowered his noticeably shaking hands again. "Get my weapons off of me. I'm taking him back to the camp. Some of you, get..." He looked at Black Spider, both determined and frightened. "What can help get rid of water? They usually say don't drink salt water, right? Would that work in this case? Can he not have fire to help him heal anymore?" Meanwhile, three men struggled to pull the Buster Swords off of Zack's back, having more success with the sheathed and sleeker Fenrir than the cumbersome Fjalar.

Black Spider carefully lifted Bax up into his arms, being careful not to restrain him as he was caught in a seizure. "Definitely don't give him anything to drink. That would make things worse. But we do need to restore his...shit, what do they call it here...electrolytes! Some kind of tonically modified saline solution. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, anything! And diuretics. Anything to get rid of the water and restore his body chemistry. And we need to warm him up, get him to sweat the water out. And we have to hurry!"

The drifters around Black Spider all looked at him dumbfounded as he began to spout off medical and chemical terminology like a doctor. He looked at them incredulously. "Come on, that can't be too hard! Please, find something!"

Zack braced himself, trying to keep his balance against Bax's throes. It was extremely distressing to see him in such a condition, so feeling it was ten times worse. But he still forced himself to add to the request, "Also bring blankets, and lots of dry towels! And fire! We can meet in-between if that's quicker than reaching camp!" He began the trek, his steps awkward and widely spaced. While he was strong enough to carry Bax, the difference in their sizes made it difficult. But he managed to gradually swing into a decent jog. There was no way he could expect Black Spider to keep carrying the Phoeniyan; he'd noticed him quite wounded as well. Tears began to waver at the edges of his eyes, but he squeezed them shut and forced them back. The last thing Bax needed was more water on his wound.

"Hang on, Bax," he said somewhere between firmly and weakly, "Just hang on, we'll get you helped, just a few steps at a time. We're getting closer. Jeez just keep breathing..."

Black Spider tucked his wings away and began jogging behind Zack. "And IV needles! Please tell me you have someone here who knows something about medicine! Damn it!"

One of the soldiers moved to stop Black Spider from advancing further, "We still don't have permission to let you in."

With a snarl, the shape shifter glared at the man and answered, "You wanna shoot me again, go ahead. But I'm coming in with my friends and that's final." The soldier abandoned his prevention and fell back in line with the other drifters as they scattered to find supplies.

By the time enough supplies slowly seeped toward them, they were already near the edge of the camp, but still a bit outside of it. Zack decided this was good enough; the sandy soil was darker in this area, thus warmer. It would aid in the desert's natural warmth reaching Bax and help his sweat evaporate. With the teen belting out instructions in a thin but quick tone, things were organized into piles as Zack wrapped Bax in one of the first blankets, all but his head, for a minute. "This'll soak it up, an' warm you some, then we'll let the sun bring more out. Will hafta see if wrapping or sun will warm you the best. Play it by ear. Is the medical stuff or electrothings here yet?"

He snatched a towel and began to swab Bax's face with it as he awaited the answer, to get the sweat out of the way, making way for more, and preventing evaporation from making Bax still colder.

Black Spider snatched a package of saline solution from an incoming drifter, glad at least that the drifters had managed to get some medical supply along with their weaponry. He examined the label and thanked the soldier. He raised a talon and made a quick slice in the top of the bag. A little bit of the saline leaked out, but Black Spider held it carefully to minimize loss, and began to seep energy directly into the solution, heating it up and making some of the water evaporate as steam. He approximated the electrolyte level to match what Bax needed and then looked around for someone with IV needles.

"I need that needle," he barked at a scared-looking drifter a little ways off. "The rest of you, see if you can do with the saline bags what I just did. But make sure not to melt the plastic."

The shape shifter deftly knelt over Bax's body and set up the saline apparatus as best as he could. He seared the plastic bag shut with a quick wave of his finger and prepared to jab the needle into Bax's arm. Unfortunately, he was still convulsing.

"Zack," Black Spider said, looking at Bax carefully and observing him with the utmost attention, "Please hold Bax's arm still. I don't want to make any unnecessary punctures."

Zack nodded, drawing his lips inward and setting the towel aside, quickly moving his arms to hold Bax's still above and below the joint of his elbow. It was difficult; the movements were sudden and varied, but he gripped hard and did his best. This lull gave him a moment for all of this to sink in, however... Bax was in utterly horrible shape. He was very likely to die at any moment. Zack knew they were all doing their best, and this needle was very important to stop that from happening. But it was still a horrible, sinking moment of realization. A small whimper escaped his throat.

Black Spider took a deep breath and eyed his target. Then he heard the noise escape from Zack, and he raised his eyes. He furrowed his brow and spoke evenly, "It's okay, Zack. We won't let him die. I promise."

And with that, he plunged the needle into Bax's arm and held the saline bag up just enough for the proper pressure. He felt down Bax's arteries and sighed as he felt a slight increase in the pressure. He had gotten it right after all. That was a relief.

"We got any diuretics around here?" he shouted. Another drifter who wasn't fumbling around with the saline bags trotted forward and handed him a shot of liquid.

"Is this it?" he asked, holding it out to Black Spider.
The shape shifter looked at it quickly and nodded. "Zack, could you please stick that into the saline bag? I've got my hands full."

After he said this, he looked at all of the other drifters failing their task, and called for them all to stop. "Okay, okay, I'll do it. One of you come over here and hold this bag. Damn it, aren't there any doctors around here?"

“Most or all of them are aiding a group of survivors that came from Midgar just a bit ago,” one of the drifters answered, handing his bag to Black Spider and taking a hold of the one suspended over Bax’s arm, “I sent Barry over to fetch any available, but they’re on the other side. It might be a while.”

Black Spider cursed, but set to the task of properly pre-treating the saline bags being brought to him. With the differences in Bax’s physiology from typical humans, all was being done for him that currently could be done anyway, at least to his knowledge. Still, a second opinion would be nice.

Meanwhile, Zack was looking between the liquid he had been handed, and the held-up saline bag. His hands were shaking too hard. He couldn’t afford to spill this…

Let me handle this. I won’t screw up.

…But… I’ve got to be here for him… I can do it.

No, you could get him killed. It’s for his own good.

But…

Only for a second.

The next thing Zack knew, the bag had been edged open just enough, and he was watching the fluid drift and disperse through the saline solution. He sighed as he helped the man holding it up roll the opening closed again for now, with hands that were steady for a few more seconds before they resumed shaking again.

Only for a second… but he still felt guilty. He alone needed to be here for Bax in his hour of need, not him, or him, or him… whoever they were. But, at least it was another step toward saving Bax. That was the most important thing right now. Zack concentrated on that, eyes closed for a moment. Then they opened with renewed determination, though still wrought with worry, and he used available scissors to cut Bax’s tunic away, while muttering to him, “Sorry, we can sew it up later, it’s soaked right now, can’t have you getting cold from it.” He nodded gratefully as the fire being built nearby finally bloomed enough to give off dry heat, which would further help warm Bax as needed. Whether it could help him directly or would cause harm if applied, it was too risky to venture, but at least the heat would do his friend some good.

“Heh, remember when we could just shove you into something like that without it being a gamble? I wish we knew now…”

Zack then wadded a clean dry cloth over Bax’s wound, to help keep sweat or dirt from entering the exposed innards… and to absorb what water he could from inside the gaping hole. “Jeez… Even this… It’s so deep…” Then he resumed the task of absorbing Bax’s sweat away with towels and cloths, then setting the soaked items aside, opened, to dry in the heat for another round as another set took their places.

As he worked, he thought of something, and looked up at Black Spider. His tone was hesitant, wary, as he asked, “Uh… Might uh… I hope not, but…” He shook his head hard with wrung-shut eyes then spit out the awful question, “Might putting dry salt directly into the wound help any?”

Black Spider thought for a brief moment and then shook his head. “No, that’s too risky. Rubbing salt in the wound is probably as bad for Bax as it is for anyone else. No, it needs to be in solution. We just need to kick his metabolism into extra high gear and try to get these extra fluids out to restore proper tonicity. I’m hoping we don’t have to use a…damn it, I don’t know the medical terminology of this planet well enough. What’s the thing that helps facilitate the passage of urine?”

As if responding to the discomfiting thought of what Black Spider was talking about, the quivering Bax suddenly lurched and started to throw up.
“Damn it,” Black Spider cursed. He abandoned his work on the saline bag and turned Bax over on his side to let the fluids flow from his mouth without choking him.
“Well, that’s one way to get the fluids out.” Then, Black Spider suddenly remembered the term he was trying to think of. “Ahh, right, it’s called a catheter.”

Bax lurched again and hurled some more of his stomach contents onto the ground. Black Spider patted his back, almost in a humorous fashion, but then his face grew serious again and he looked Zack dead in the eye.
“This is a sign that his body is fighting back, but it’s also destroying itself. So while it’s good to know that he’s not giving up, he doesn’t have much longer. We might have to take some desperate measures.”

Zack smiled nervously at Bax's timing, though he too grew grim at the seriousness of the whole situation. He looked at Black Spider with both determination and apprehension. "What do we have to do?"

---

"So yeah, I guess folks don't always know how good they have things when they have 'em all the time. Pizza's at least fifty times better than anyone else might claim. You're gonna try some, ya know, soon as we can find some." Zack shifted his hand to pat Bax's, letting a little air flow, since vapor was making both their skin surfaces muggy as his hand had seldom left his friend's. The teen was sitting in a chair next to a bed Bax was on, the drab brown of a tent's ceiling and walls around them. A small light-box lit the room dimly from the table nearby. A doctor was replacing the empty IV bag with another, and making a few notes from the beeping instruments connected to Bax by wires and electrodes.

Zack looked warily at the IV. "The same stuff's in that?" he asked, his eyes a bit suspicious and nervous.

The doctor nodded, rolling his eyes at this repeated inquiry, "Yes yes, same as all times before. Calm down." He checked off a few more things, then walked back out with his clipboard.

Zack leaned up a bit, sniffing the base of the bag, arm stretched to remain contacting Bax, before he was satisfied and settled back into his seat. He sighed, curling his legs up and resting his head on his knees. "I don't like needles... I bet you're gonna be sick of 'em too by now..."

Bax simply lay there, unmoving, as he had been for nearly the past two hours. His chest rose and fell in slow rhythm now, but he showed no other distinct signs of life. He was still sweating profusely, adding to the moisture from the miserable vapor heat. It appeared that he was out of the worst of it, but he hadn't stirred yet.

A few tents away, Black Spider was making a commotion about how he refused to receive treatment, but wanted to know what was going on with Bax. He was being stubborn and the medics trying to deal with him were getting nowhere fast. But they wouldn't let him leave to check on Bax, so he was stuck for now.

Zack pulled another dry washcloth from the pile the nurse had recently replenished, and began swabbing Bax with it as he had been doing countless times. "I wonder what Sephy's up to. I bet he kicked those guy's butts nicely at least. Would serve 'em right. Jeez, you wouldn't wanna see me get ahold of 'em Bax, that's for sure." He sighed, turning the cloth over to use the other side against Bax's neck and face. "I hope we can visit a pet store again. Maybe you need a cat. Maybe we should get one sometime."

He looked at the soaked washcloth, and sighed again; there was still very little let-up, if any. He had hoped to see more improvement by now. He sighed again, deeply, squeezing Bax's hand a bit more and leaning his head on the mattress next to him. "Damn it, Bax... Too bad we lost track of that umbrella. We'll hafta get you another one, yeah? You should have been more... I should have..." He closed his eyes tightly, holding back impending tears for at least the fifteenth time now.

Bax stirred a little. His forehead furrowed and an expression of pain came over his face. His arm twitched a little and his whole body quivered. But then,. just as suddenly, he lapsed back into his disquieting quiet. The machines he was hooked up to slowed a slight change in all of his activity, but it was not enough to rouse him from his deathly condition. At the very least, his skin was not tinged with blue anymore. His head flame was still weak, but he looked a little more like Bax again.

Another medic came in and stood opposite Bax. "I need to check the stitching on his abdomen for any signs of improvement...or infection. Can you please move a little?"

Zack hesitated, the nodded slowly, moving up to stand by Bax's head, and trading the hand on Bax's hand, for his other on the Phoeniyan's shoulder. He chuckled sadly and quietly said near Bax's ear, "Your hand's probably getting pruned anyway." He then anxiously watched the doctor's examination.

The medic peeled the sheet away and moved Bax's makeshift sterile gown to the side, revealing a nasty scar where the medics had finally sown him up. Black Spider had supervised them through the operation, stumbling with his terminology now and then, but showing an expert knowledge of the Phoeniyan anatomy and physiology. The abdominal injury had been horrendous and might hinder Bax for a while, but it had been closed off to the elements now.

"Good, it's not showing any signs of further infection. Your, uh, other friend was worried. Started spouting off more foreign terminology, saying we needed to put something on the stitches to speed the process. But none of us have ever heard of it, and he can't seem to remember how to make it. So this is the best we can do for now."

The medic moved around the bed and lifted the flap of the tent to leave, but turned around a looked at Zack. "Do you need anything, by the way?"

Zack blinked. As if to answer for him, his stomach growled a bit. He also realized he was extremely thirsty, having been in the open heat and by the fire for quite a while and consuming nothing this whole time. He just hadn't paid attention, so focused had he been on his friend. Now having been made aware, he knew he should at least have a drink. But water seemed terribly unappealing since it was currently still trying to kill his friend. Plus he had never been waited on before, and it bothered him to think that someone would go get him something at his request.

But he knew from experience that it was not good to get too thirsty, or else it would be more difficult to recover, so he asked in a very tiny voice while helplessly waving his free arm around, "Um, uh... I do need some water, just uh, but, I mean, I'd get it myself but, I need to be here and... I'm mad at water right now, but uh, I mean, I'll be really really careful not to spill it! But you're not a servant or anything so uh, I mean, I don't wanna be trouble an' stuff, but but..."

The medic came fully back into the tent and raised his arms to quiet Zack down. "No trouble, really. I asked because I want something else to do for a minute. Seriously, your other friend is a handful. It's no trouble for me to go get a little canteen. And I'll get you a little food, too. One of the groups that makes up Libertas snagged a shipment of mostly beef jerky before we were all called together, so we're trying to get through some of it."

He turned to leave, and shook his head with a light chuckle. "You're different from any other Strife I've met. Take it easy, okay?"

Zack smiled a bit with relief that he wasn't a burden, while cocking his head at the last comment. He did hear that a lot. He scratched the back of his head, still grinning, feeling quite happy for a moment. Then he looked back at Bax. "So, Black Spider's a handful, eh? Heh, guess that about sums him up. I wonder how he knows so much medical stuff... I guess since he splatters so many people's guts, he knows where they're supposed to go." He chuckled a bit at the thought. It was quiet for a bit. He was running out of small-talk. So to fill the silence he started humming a few tunes, first upbeat, then more melancholy.

"I like the first tune better," Bax said suddenly. "Can you hum that one again?" His eyes opened slowly and he looked at Zack with a weak smile.

Zack's voice stream stopped abruptly, his eyes popping open. He sat staring for a moment, his heart pounding. His first instinct would have been to shout and glomp his friend. He was awake! He would be ok! His exuberance showed almost like a visible glow around him. But he did not want to cause Bax further injury in his delicate state... So with a wide smile he began to hum the upbeat tune again, though his voice faltered a ways in and tears finally spilled down his cheeks, though safely over the floor. His hold on Bax's shoulder was only loose enough to not be painful and quivered a bit.

Bax coughed and spit up a little blood, but held his hand up to keep Zack from worrying. "You look like you are worried, Zack. Thank you. I do feel like I was run over by a hovercraft and mauled by a Folloboran." He chuckled a little, but then laid back down and closed his eyes. He winced.

The boy tensed, then laughed a bit too loudly due to it mingling with a sob, as he wiped his eyes with his free forearm, though the tears instantly replaced themselves over and over. "Worried?! I dunno if there's a better word for it! Really really REALLY worried! I thought you were gonna die! Or you'd sleep forever or not be the same anymore..." He couldn't help himself and fell to his knees on the floor, resting his head between Bax's shoulder and chest, his hands on his shoulders, continuing to laugh and cry in indistinguishable waves.

Bax licked his lips and slowly shifted his arm around Zack's shoulder, careful not to disturb the IVs that were hooked up to him. Through intense discomfort, he tried to pat Zack's shoulder and comfort him a little. He lightly hushed him as he breathed heavily.
"I know...I'm sorry..."

Zack shook his head, difficult as that was in his position. "Don't be sorry... *sniffle* Just get better. You've hurt enough, you don't need to feel worse." He leaned back up slowly, to mitigate any further damage to his friend, still swiping away tears. "Over and over, so many things keep happening to you... *sob* I couldn't be there, I couldn't stop it... *sniff* But I'm here now, and as long as you need me I won't leave you."

"I know, Zack...thank you..."
Bax didn't know what else to say to his sobbing friend. He wanted to try to have hope and believe that everything would be okay, but he was beginning to despair. Zack didn't know half of what Bax knew...he wondered if he should tell him. About Hodia. About the anti-materia. About everything else that had happened. Zack was right...he kept getting injured and running into all kinds of trouble. He wondered if he was actually the right person for this job. He wondered if it would be worth it to continue to place those around him in jeopardy. Bax was convinced that the only reason that Zack wasn't in worse shape was because Bax had separated himself from his friend on the worst occasions. He trusted in Zack's abilities and strength, but felt only chaos surrounding him.

Bax opened his eyes and stared above at the shabby tent with glassy eyes. He felt so weak and so tired...he almost wanted to drift back to slumber, but could not bring himself to close his eyes and leave Zack alone again...

It dawned on Zack that Bax probably didn't know what had gone on since his unconsciousness, so he got focused and began to explain the situation... although with surprisingly none of the control he was usually capable of popping into. It was like his sudden light-switch was no longer clicking. "Oh, you're in one of the guest tents in Libertas. It's a community of drifters but they *sniff* are organized and don't like Zion." He wiped his eyes, which managed to slow down their spouting as he continued, still sounding shaken but relieved. "They've got some good doctors here. But Black Spider did awesome, he knew what to do. If it weren't for him..." He shook his head, then continued again, "But yeah, what they've got in that IV is like, salt water but more salt or something, an' stuff to help you get the water out, so don't worry, it's not something bad, I made sure as much as I could." He wiped off his face one more time, blinking hard and sighing, finally defeating his tears for now. He then asked tiredly, "Uh, is there anything else we can do? Would fire help or hurt you with that stupid bracelet thing? Was too afraid to try. An' I figure you know most about yourself so... Any other way we can help you out?"
Bax was glad to hear that they had put so much effort into saving him, but he frowned at the last part of Zack's statement. So Black Spider had mentioned the effects of the bracelet.

"I don't know, Zack...and I wish I did. I wish I knew more about this. All I know is that I...I can't use my flames anymore."

Bax raised his hand to demonstrate. He furrowed his brow and focused, grunting as he tried to summon even a spark. As sweat dripped from every pore, his skin seemed suddenly to steam. Bax's skin turned reddish and the flame atop his head, weak though it was, raged angrily. At last, a tiny spark leapt from Bax's head and he collapsed back onto his bad, completely drenched and exhausted. He was breathing heavily and cursing raggedly in Phoeniyan between each labored breath. His whole body twitched from the exhaustion, and he rolled about a little, trying to keep his muscles from spasming.

Zack gasped and he laid his hands on Bax's shoulders again. "Easy, easy! Don't go straining yourself!" He then sighed and looked at the ornate shackle, eyes narrowing. "We'll get that damned thing offa you somehow. There's gotta be some way. If I gotta find an' chop up all those Magi creeps, I will!" He started poking and prodding the bracelet, looking for any gaps that could potentially be pried at.

In a rare irritated moment, Bax put his other hand on Zack's shoulder and shook his head. "Please, Zack...I appreciate your enthusiasm, but i have tried that with the bracelet already. I am sorry...I am still so tired..."

Zack looked at Bax with a moment of surprise, then nodded with agreement. "Yeah. You still need to recover. You should get more rest." He started to raise his hand to scratch his head as usual, but then he stopped, looking at it a moment before letting it drop back to his side. "Um... Want me to stay or leave?"

Bax looked with sorrow at his friend. "You can stay. I just..."
The exertion of his demonstration took its toll all at once and Bax's eyes closed. His head flopped to the side and he started snoring lightly.

Zack smiled a bit, and sat back down on the chair nearby. He watched Bax breathing for a moment, feeling the relief of knowing that motion would keep on going now, instead of tensely dreading it stopping. Bax was still in pain, and would likely not feel well for quite some time... But at least he was going to live, and was still himself.

The boy sighed again, with relief, and leaned halfway onto the mattress again, closing his own eyes for a brief nap. He was feeling rather drained too... and would need his own strength intact to help Bax through whatever kept hunting and haunting him.

[Shadow Phoenix]

The doors of the new Holy Order of the Magi headquarters opened and six sullen figures dragged themselves in. A bloody and bruised Kerlin stumbled in with a sour expression, favoring his right foot as he dragged his scythe screeching behind him. Teras walked next to him, holding his head down in shame and disgust as he clutched his mangled claws in one hand. Daito dragged behind the rest of the group, clutching his chest as he wheezed, trying not to let his broken ribs cause any more damage. Marco walked at a fairly quick, irritated clip, trying not to catch the gaze of anyone as he made his way to make his part of the report. And Eve supported Rivel as he dragged a bloody leg behind him. Rivel winced in pain with each step, and Eve just looked like she was trying to shut the whole experience out. All six of them were beaten, bruised, and bewildered. Not only had they lost Bax (again), but they had been savagely bested by an opponent they thought they knew. It was not a happy homecoming.
They made their way through dimly lit, winding corridors directly to the meeting room where the High Priests were awaiting their return. To be sure, the Council had been informed of the arrival of all six of them, and had probably already assembled to hear their reports. For Rivel, Eve, and Teras, it had not been too long since they had given their last report. But for Kerlin, Daito, and Marco, it had been since Nibelheim—in fact, this was their first time at the new headquarters, so they followed their fellow Magi. Things had not gone as planned for any of them—not by a long shot.

They finally emerged into a chamber adorned with torches and symbols etched into the walls of glass, metal, and stone. Construction still was not finished at these new headquarters, but the Council met here anyway. Revan sat on a high pedestal chair, as did the other High Priests. He sat there expressionless, but raised his head from his fist as the six Magi entered the chamber. Silent, ominous tension filled the room, but the general mood was unclear. How would the Council react?

The six Magi knelt down as they came to the center of the room, bowing their heads low. They maintained this position for what seemed like an eternity until Revan raised his hand and spoke to them.
“Rise, brethren. And welcome back.”
Rivel took a sigh of relief and raised his head. He had half expected to be slain upon reentry, but it appeared that the Council had decided to maintain a measure of clemency. At least until they were informed of what had occurred in the desert…

The six Magi rose to their feet (some with considerable difficulty), and waited for their orders. They knew that they would have to give their reports, but it would be up to the Council when and how. They waited with bated breath as Revan rose to his feet.
“It is surprising to see the six of you returning together. Brothers Rivel and Teras, and Sister Eve…we dispatched you shortly after your return from your last encounter with Sephiroth X to gather reconnaissance. Brothers Kerlin, Daito, and Marco—we have not seen you since you accompanied the Senate’s force to Nibelheim. We expect that you have much to tell us. It would appear that you all have had considerable difficulty.”

The Magi on the floor nodded, but remained silent. Eve wanted to scream out about how the other three off of her team had completely messed everything up, but she restrained herself and resigned to clenching her fists in quiet rage.

“Retire to your quarters and prepare your reports. We will take them in one hour and then debrief you on your missions and any subsequent…activities.”

The Magi bowed and filed out of the room. Again, Eve supported Rivel, though she dragged him along a little bit faster as she left the room. She wanted to get as far away from Kerlin, Daito, and Marco as possible. She didn’t think that they would try anything here at headquarters, but she still didn’t trust them. And she was still pissed at them for the bullshit they had pulled. She hoped that Revan and the Council would see through any lies to the truth of what had happened…and punish those three scumbags to the fullest extent.

“Going so soon?” Daito wheezed as he pulled up behind her.

Eve ignored him and continued to walk. Rivel winced a little as the foot on his trashed leg bumped over an out of place brick in the floor. Eve slowed for a moment and apologized, then turned her head to Daito.
“Don’t talk to me, vampire.”
The raven-haired Magi flashed his fangs and shook his head, “Still angry? Come, let’s put it all behind us. Remember where we are.”
Eve sneered, “And I’ll ask you to remember your place. I hope Revan recognizes your crimes and punishes all three of you.”
Marco came between Daito and Eve and put his hand in front of Daito to stop him.
“My apologies, Sister Eve,” he said, almost sickeningly sweet. “We should all retire. See you in about an hour.”

Eve turned and supported Rivel a little more, then took off. Marco gave her a wide enough berth without the rest of his team following. Teras, though, pulled up beside her.
“Try to calm down, Eve,” he said. “Give your report with a clear head.”
Eve’s face twisted in darkness. “Sorry, Teras. You know I can’t stand those three…and it doesn’t help that we lost to Sephiroth X again. That assault…it was unlike him.”
Rivel groaned as he looked down at his mangled leg, “You’re telling me.”
Teras nodded, “I understand, Eve. But it will not do any of us any good if you lose yourself at this time. Remember why you’re doing this. Remember why you became a priestess of the Holy Order of the Magi.”
Eve nodded, but did not respond. Instead, she changed the subject.

“Are you heading back to your room right away, or are you going to go get your claws fixed?”
Teras held his favored weapons up and raised his brow. “I will take these back to weapon development briefly, but then I will retire to my quarters.”
Eve forced a smile and flashed a thumbs up, “Great.”

They walked to the end of the hall and parted ways. Eve helped Rivel to his quarters and he stumbled over to his bed. He began to unbuckle his armor and ripped the pant leg off so that he could inspect his wound. It was still seeping blood and looked miserable.
“That bastard,” Rivel winced. “When did he get so strong?”
Eve shuddered and shook her head, “He’s always been strong. What he was just now wasn’t just strong…it was something more…something darker.”
Rivel rolled his eyes, “Darker my ass. I think he’s just pissed. He caught us when we were already a little weakened. We’ll have him next time.”
Eve looked outside the room and nodded, “I hope so.”
Rivel looked at Eve in confusion. “Something wrong?”
Eve withdrew into herself, crossing her arms and shivering a little. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Rivel shrugged. “Suit yourself. Try and rest a little, okay?”
Eve nodded. “Yeah, you too.”
She left the room and Rivel sighed and collapsed back onto his bed. He never understood when she got in these moods. He supposed it might just be that time, but he wasn’t going broach that subject. He tried to clear his mind, and then reached to the communication board next to his bed to summon a medical team to inspect his wounds.

Eve unsteadily walked the rest of the way down the hall to her quarters. She entered her room, closed the door and immediately collapsed just inside the entrance. She shook and burst into tears. She was completely overwhelmed by all that had happened. She was furious with Kerlin, Daito, and Marco for their irresponsible idiocy. She was angry at her own team for going along with them in their futile attempt to get Bax back again. She was livid at herself for not being strong enough to deal with everything. And she was now actually scared of Sephiroth X…what she had seen in his eyes. She had not truly been scared of anything in years, but that man shook her to her core. It was all too much…so she let go and sobbed, quivering where no one could see her.

---

“So I am to understand that you laid waste to Nibelheim along with the contingent from the Senate’s army, but then abandoned your primary task of apprehending Bax Firago when a phoenix appeared.”
Marco nodded and responded to Revan’s statement, “That is correct. But we regrouped and continued to pursue Bax.”
“Why did you not return to Zion?”
“My team thought that it would be an insult to yourself and the rest of the Council if we returned as failures. We have been taught that failure is not an option.”
“And so you have, but you were deployed for a short mission and nothing more. We could have used your strength when the Senator made his movies.”
Marco lowered his head and knelt down, “Yes sir.”
“But continue. I am interested in your activities since then.”
Marco took a deep breath. Kerlin and Daito had already given their report, as had Rivel and Teras. If their stories did not corroborate, it could spell trouble. He did not know how the other four had woven the tale, nor did he know how Eve would next. He had to paint himself in a good light, but knew that it was likely that they had all been truthful. So he spoke up again.

“We followed Bax to the Super City, based on footage from the battle for the Element of Prosperity.”
“Yes, we are aware,” another one of the high priests, known as Penados said. “We saw the footage of the news crew on the one helicopter that you did not destroy.”
Another high priest on the other side of Revan, known as Griswald, spoke up angrily, “And you are aware as well as the rest of us that we have no jurisdiction on the Beta continent. Your actions put our operations here in jeopardy. You were far too visible. Any operations that we have undertaken in the Super City have gone unnoticed.”
Marco kept his eyes low and his breath caught in his throat. He knew that his team had undertaken some rash actions. But…they were just trying to complete their mission.

“We thought that we were supposed to bring Bax in at all costs.”
“And yet you did not.”
“No,” Marco replied. “We chased him through the city, but were unable to apprehend him. Bax was with friends again. One of them had stolen Senate technology. The other was a Strife. Bax caught us by surprise, and then they escaped again.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Revan smiled lightly. “Well? Continue with your report, Brother Marco.”
Marco nodded and opened his eyes, a little unsettled. “We were traveling through the Desert of the Dead when we saw Rivel, Eve, and Teras traveling with Bax. I will be honest with the Council—I do not personally trust those three with an issue of such high importance. So my team made a decision to attack them and take Bax in ourselves.”
The Council responded with unsettled silence. “Go on,” Revan said at last.

“So,” Marco began, “We attacked them with the intention of subduing them and bringing Bax in ourselves, believing that they would, if left to their own devices, fail you again. Unfortunately, while we tried to separate them from Bax, the shape shifter that we ran into in Nibelheim, known as Black Spider, appeared and took Bax before we could follow. Thankfully, Rivel had attached a tracking device on Bax, so we agreed to work together and attack Black Spider and Bax again. And we would have succeeded…but near the end of the battle, the Warrior of Prosperity appeared and beat us while Bax and the shape shifter escaped.”

Penados nodded, “I am particularly interested in this latest encounter with Sephiroth X. Please tell us more about this.”
Marco spoke directly to Penados, “He displayed remarkable powers—more than we have seen from him ever before. He dispatched the six of us very easily, and then took a…sadistic bent. He particularly roughed up Rivel and Daito. I was aware from previous reports that he was an honorable warrior, but he showed many uncharacteristic traits. He appeared to undergo a sort of appearance-altering transformation—not as dramatic as Kerlin’s, Daito’s, or my own, but nothing that could have been caused by the X experiment. Nor could it have been caused, to my understanding of history, by the Element of Prosperity. It was his eyes mostly…he was simply dark.”

After another moment of silence, a few of the High Priests spoke with those adjacent to them. At last, Revan spoke up again, “Thank you, Brother Marco. Do you have anything further to add to your report?”
“No, sir,” Marco responded simply.
“Very well, then. Send Sister Eve in to give her report.”
“As you wish.”

Marco left quietly, feeling like he had dodged a bullet. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but that was surprisingly easier than he had anticipated. He saw Eve standing outside the chamber, staring at him with an icy glare.
“They’re ready for you,” he said.

Eve sighed and lifted herself from the wall, striding forward.
“Keep your head,” Teras called out. Eve raised her hand to wave him off, and entered the chamber.

Within a minute, the mood of the chamber had obviously escalated from a simple report to heated tension to bitter screaming. Outside, the other five Magi exchanged glances as Eve’s words reached them with cutting rage. Though they had thick walls and doors between them, her words rang out, completely clear.

Barbarians. Psychotics. Monsters. Traitors. And after that, it quickly became obscene.

After a few loud and tense minutes, the doors slammed open (nearly blown off their hinges), and Eve stormed out. She threw dagger-glares at Kerlin, Daito, and Marco, and then turned to Rivel and Teras to speak.
“Few minutes,” she growled between gritted teeth. “Deliberating.”
She turned once again to the other team of Magi and spit on the floor. “Not that they need much time for scumbags like you.”
Eve huffed and leaned heavily against a while. Rivel and Teras looked at each other and quickly encircled Eve to try and calm her down. Kerlin and Daito raised their brows in bewildered confusion, and Marco shrugged his shoulders.
“I think she’s pissed,” the senior of the group mused. “No matter. Now we wait.”

They didn’t have to wait long. One of the guards came out and summoned them all to come back in after less than 5 minutes. No one knew what kind of news awaited them, though they all had hopes and expectations.

As the six Magi gathered in the inner chamber, Revan stood to greet them.
“We in the Council have discussed the events of your missions and subsequent activities and reached decisions.”
Nervousness filled the room as the priests on the floor waited for the next words to spill from the High Priest’s mouth.
“Rivel, Eve, and Teras: please step forward.”
The three looked at each other, and then stepped lightly ahead of the other three. They looked directly up at Revan as he addressed them.
“You have assembled good data for us. Not only did you provide the proper reconnaissance data that we sent you to gather around Midgar, but you tested new technology and engaged the Warrior of Prosperity in combat. We will continue to analyze the results of your mission so that we can plan our next moves carefully. You will no doubt be instrumental in what happens with our next phase of operations.”
Eve and Teras bowed quickly and began to step back, but Rivel remained forward.
“And what of our encounter with Bax?”
Revan chuckled and nodded. “Yes, of course. I should have expected that you would ask that. This was an unexpected side event to your mission, and we are rather pleased with what has occurred.”
The six Magi on the floor all gasped as shock spread over their faces. Pleased? With that nightmarish mess that had occurred over the past several hours?

“Allow me to explain,” Griswald said, also standing. “Until the tracking device was destroyed a few hours ago, we were able to gather more data on the Phoeniyan: especially the effects of the anti-materia on his physiology. Rivel, I am sure that this will serve you especially well in your further research. We will also attempt to gather information on the Phoeniyans’ trajectory after he left with the Shape Shifter known as Black Spider and discern where he may have gone.”

Penados spoke from his seated position, “This chance encounter also allowed for further testing of the effects of the X experiment with regards to direct X-X combat, which we have had very little of thus far. We are also continuing to gather data on the new force that appeared, Black Spider. We may not know very much about him yet, but these small fragments of information will inevitably play in our favor.”

Revan rounded out the discussion, “So we do not mind that Bax has once again evaded our grasp, as we did not expect to capture him at this time. Instead, we are simply glad to have further information. We consider the entirety of your mission a success.”

A light smile spread across Rivel’s face, though he suppressed it.
“Thank you, High Council.” He bowed and joined as teammates as they stepped back into line.

“And now,” Revan continued, his voice a little lower, “Kerlin, Daito, and Marco: please step forward.”
Kerlin licked his lips and suppressed a lump in his throat, and they all three strode forward in an attempt to maintain their confidence.
“You did not report in after several failed attempts at capturing Bax, but you too have provided instrumental data as a result of these encounters. We would like to present you with a welcoming-back gift as a result of your long absence. Use these wisely and continue to do well.”

Kerlin, Daito, and Marco’s eyes widened as three more Magi entered from a side door with three ornate black boxes. One came before each of the long-awaited Magi and knelt down as they opened the boxes. Bright light surged from the containers and the Magi all gasped as they realized what was in store for them. Inside each of the boxes was a fresh batch of materia.

All three smiled with wide, bright grins. Even the typically emotionless Daito cracked a bright, fang-filled smile. He looked up at the Council as the light from the materia lit up his eyes.
“What may we take?”
Revan looked at his fellow council members and the smiled at the vampire. “Take as much as you want.”

The three Magi began to run their fingers over each of the materia, whispering things to themselves as they tried to figure out what each materia and then what they wanted. Behind them, Rivel, Eve, and Teras stood dumbfounded by what was going on before them. They wrestled in their minds at what was going through the minds of the Council members. Surely, Rivel, Eve, and Teras had gained a great deal of power from the X experiment…but were they not worthy of a little extra power? Certainly, they deserved it more than these who had failed so much…who had tried to kill them to cover up their own failures!

Kerlin, who possessed three materia, showed a surprising degree of restraint as he looked at the materia stretched out before him. He considered the Cure materia he had mastered which was a hallmark of his attack style, and also thought of the Poison and Manipulation materia junctioned to his scythe. What would best enable him to kill his enemies at their next encounter? He carefully picked two materia out of the box: a Wind materia and a Water materia. Direct elemental attack materia would surely give him the upper edge.

Marco, who also had three materia, did not even hesitate as he plucked two materia from the box. To his collection of an Armor-inducing materia, a Bolt materia allowing control of electricity, and a Sense materia, he added a Gravity materia and a rare and powerful materia that he had been eyeing for quite some time: a Summon materia. He tucked the last one into his cloak quickly so that no one else saw it. This was all that he needed for now—he did not need anything else to crush his enemies.

Daito, who already had four materia in his possession, looked especially greedily at the box before him. What more could he take on now? He ran his fingers deftly over the shining spheres, feeling the power coursing through his veins. He already had a Drain materia on his katana, and he had Teleport and Cure materia junctioned to his armor. And his specialty materia, which he had fully mastered and taken into himself, was his Barrier materia. And now he had over a dozen other materia freely offered to him. He almost wanted to take the entire box, but he calmed his quivering hands and plucked three more materia from the box.

He clutched a Fire materia in one hand, grinning at the prospect of direct elemental attack. He grabbed a blue materia that offered control of Time to augment his control of space with his teleportation. He grabbed a brown-red materia that would further increase his speed. He began to reach for another materia, but looked to either side and saw both Kerlin and Marco closing their boxes. His fingers twitched over the box and he toyed with the idea of grabbing even more materia, but finally decided that what he had would suffice for now. He closed the box and held the three shining orbs up to his eyes, grinning from ear to ear.

The Magi with the boxes disappeared as Kerlin, Daito, and Marco stepped back in line with Rivel, Eve, and Teras. The latter three still stood there shocked by what they had seen. No one moved as Revan stood again and addressed them for a final time.
“That is all. We will contact you again when we need your services. You are dismissed.”

Kerlin, Daito, and Marco all bowed and turned to leave. Rivel, Eve and Teras remained frozen in position, totally stunned. The first three were nearly out of the room when Rivel and Teras falteringly turned to leave. Eve shook where she stood, and slowly lifted her eyes to Rivel. Had they not heard a single word she had said? Did they not understand that they had just rewarded the scum of the Magi? Were they deaf and stupid?

“Eve, is there something else that you want to say? Our meeting has finished and we dismissed you.”
Eve continued to stand there clenching her fists. She gritted her teeth as her eyes began to tear up in further frustration. But she didn’t say anything.
“Eve?” Rivel asked again.
She exploded. “Are you all out of your fucking minds?!”
Rivel and Teras turned in horror as Eve spoke.
“Eve!” Teras scolded sharply. “Come quietly before you cause a ruckus!”
Eve whirled around, her green eyes flashing vividly. “I’m going to cause a ruckus, Teras, and I’m ashamed that the two of you aren’t.”

She spun again and faced the Council, splaying her arms out to either side. “All of you in this room know that I have not questioned the will of the Council in all the time that I have been here in the Holy Order. Even when my fiancé left me and abandoned Zion’s army after the experiments we conducted on him and the rest of his platoon, I stood by the Holy Order’s decisions, believing that what you said was best for all of us! I told the man I loved that I had to stay with you even though he was leaving, probably never to be seen again, because I believed in your mission. I have assassinated people I did not know and leveled villages out in the Desert of the Dead without wondering why. Even when you slew me and the rest of my team months ago, I accepted it because I trusted your judgment. I have never questioned the will of this Council until today! And now I must raise protest because it seems to me that you all have finally gone insane! Those three attacked us when we were on a valid mission and expressly told us that they wanted to kill us because they couldn’t kill Bax and were bored! And then you just tell us good job while you reward those monsters with prized materia? Months ago when we failed a single mission, you killed us, Revan! And now they come back, not only having failed their mission several times, but having interfered with our mission as well, and you reward them handsomely! I implore the Council to look inward and ask if they believe that they are truly fit to lead this organization when they make such backwards decisions!”

Teras and Rivel appeared on either side of Eve and took her arms, dragging her backwards. “That’s enough,” Rivel rasped acidly. “If you stop now, maybe they won’t punish you too harshly. But you have to keep your tongue before you lose it! They know what they’re doing.”
Eve looked at her teammates with wild, raging eyes. “You still trust them blindly?! You think they know what they’re doing?! You’re all insane!”
Penados stood with an angry snarl, but Revan stood up as well and quieted him with a raise of his hand. “I understand that you are upset Eve. But I ask you to continue to believe in us. Our ways are not your ways. Calm yourself and remember your place as a prized warrior against Sephiroth X. You hold a special place in these halls.”

Eve’s chest heaved up and down and she looked up at Revan with dark eyes, saying nothing. She clenched her fists again, growled, and then flung Rivel and Teras away from her with surprising strength, twisting them out of her way with quickly summoned winds.
“Damn you all,” she cursed under her breath as she turned and stormed out of the hall.

Rivel and Teras looked at each other from opposite sides of the room, and then looked at the members of the High Council.
“Forgive her, please,” Rivel stammered. “She’s, uh…”
Teras interjected with a head bow, a little more frantic than usual, “Sick. We’ll take care of her.”
The two bowed deeply and ran out of the room, trailing Eve.

Unfortunately, by the time they got out into the hall, she was nowhere to be seen. Teras and Rivel looked at each other again and cursed.
“She is going to do something stupid,” Teras said simply, his voice heavy.
Rivel sighed, “Damn her. She doesn’t get it, does she?”
Teras shook his head. Rivel sighed again. He knew he didn’t often show it, but he really did care about Eve. And he didn’t want to see her do something she would regret…they were a team after all.

“Come on,” Rivel said to Teras, “We need to find her before she does that something stupid you mentioned.”
Teras nodded and they took off down either fork of the hall, hoping to catch Eve.

---

Kerlin, Daito, and Marco stood in the front foyer of the Magi headquarters, admiring their new materia.
“You only took one, Marco?” Daito asked.
Marco smiled, “Maybe. You’ll see.”
Daito chuckled, “I took three. I almost took another, but I don’t need anything else to crush Sephiroth X and Black Spider.”
Kerlin shook his head, “Watch out, Daito. That takes you to seven, doesn’t it? I don’t know of many Magi who have been able to handle that many.”
“Come on,” Daito rasped with a quick flash of his fangs, “You know I can manage.”
Marco shook his head, “Just be careful.”

They heard footsteps from down the hall and turned to see Eve enter the room. She clutched her spike-chain in her right hand and looked at the trio with intense anger.
“Dirt bags,” she spit, “What do you think you’re doing out here?”
Daito looked straight at Eve and clicked his tongue. “Thinking of how we’re going to kill you when you’re not looking.”
Eve uncoiled her weapon and screamed, “You bastard!”
Without warning, she flung the spike of her chain directly towards Daito with deadly speed.
“Oh?” Daito said, raising his eyebrow. “She’s challenging me with that and her single materia? Silly girl.”
Daito stepped to the side and unsheathed his katana. “I’ll show you the difference between us. And then I’ll kill you mercifully so that you don’t have to live with the shame anymore.”

Eve yanked her chain to the right and the spike on the end began traveling back towards Daito. He swung his katana up backwards and deflected the weapon with little problem. Eve withdrew her weapon and began to twirl it above her head to build momentum.

“You think a little additional force and speed will do anything?” the vampire called out, unwavering in his position. “Bring it on!”
Eve suddenly launched into the air, pushed up by a gust of wind, and threw her spike-chain from a higher position. Daito held his katana up again and blocked the blow with his blade. The force of the strike surprised him, though, and he stepped back. Eve began to manipulate the chain with quick gusts of wind and hammered the spike into Daito’s blade again and again. Daito’s face registered a little surprise. Even though he blocked each viper strike, he took several steps back as he fended off the offensive.

Daito raised his katana again to block an expected strike, but found none. Instead, Eve swiped her hand horizontally. A sudden gust of wind swept Daito off his feet and he began to flail as he fell towards the ground. Eve still hung in the air, suspended by her control over the winds. She swung her chain up and then whipped it down, sending the spike viciously down to impale Daito. Daito cursed and then wiped his hand over his left arm. He disappeared in a purple flash and Eve’s spike slammed into the floor, lodging in and splitting the marble. Eve narrowed her gaze, wondering where the vampire had teleported. She sensed him and whirled around just in time to see him rematerialize behind her, swinging his katana horizontally towards her. She whipped her own katana out of its sheath and blocked Daito’s blow. She screamed and humongous gusts of wind whipped up behind her and blew Daito further back into the air. He held his arm in front of his eyes to try and maintain a little vision, but could not stop his upward ascent.

Eve wrenched her spike from the floor with a quick flick of her wrist, and she spun it in a wide arc through the air towards Daito. The chain hit Daito’s neck and began to coil around in a choke hold. Daito seemed surprised as he was unable to stop the quick coiling. At last, the spike hooked around in a makeshift knot and Eve wrenched her face in anger as she spun Daito with all her might through the air. She swung the chain up in an arc and smashed him into the ceiling, then wrenched him to the side and dragged him brutally through two of the many marble columns that supported this room. She spun him through the air again for several revolutions, and then sent him flying down to the ground. As the vampire slammed into the ground, a huge cloud of dust concealed him as the marble gave way. Eve slowly fluttered to the ground and she waited for the dust to clear so that she could finish him off.

She noticed Marco and Kerlin standing off to the side, and she pointed a finger towards them. “Don’t worry,” she said, narrowing her eyes, “I’ll kill you next.”

The dust cleared and Eve looked confidently through it. But her face fell as she saw Daito standing there with his katana, seemingly unhurt. The chain was still wrapped around his neck, but his feet were standing not on shattered ground, but on a barrier that had cushioned his impact and protected him from the worst of the damage.
“Is that all?” he asked. He raised his katana and jammed his new Fire Materia into a hole on the hilt. “Because if that’s your best, I can kill you now!”

Eve snarled and wrenched her chain towards her, intending to knock Daito off balance as she dragged him towards her. But Daito reached forward with his unarmed hand and activated his new Time materia instinctively. The rippling of the chain suddenly slowed down so that everyone in the room could see the individual links grinding slowly. Eve looked at the phenomenon with wonder and irritation, and tried to drag her chain faster through the warp to no avail. It was stuck.

Daito uncoiled the chain from his neck and laughed as he poured on the speed and reached Eve in next to no time. He moved so fast that it was almost as if he had teleported. Eve looked in surprise as Daito stared her in the eye. His katana erupted in flames and he slashed at her. She dropped her chain and lifted her katana. The force of Daito’s fiery blow tossed her into the air and she felt the flames lick her clothes. She flipped away and retreated to a safer distance as Daito licked his lips and eyed her.

Eve waved her hand over her katana and it became covered with fast-moving, razor-sharp winds. If Daito was going to fight with an enhanced blade, so would she.

Daito laughed and launched himself through the air towards Eve. She raised her sword and crouched down in preparation from the blow. At the last moment, she pushed herself forward, the wind at her heels. Their blades clashed and they gritted their teeth as they pushed with all their might against each other. Razor sharp winds sliced from Eve’s blade and whipped towards Daito, causing rivulets of blood to trickle all over his body. He seemed unphased though, as he sent powerful flames towards Eve. Eve’s winds kept most of the flames at bay, but a few scorching tongues of fire etched out past her blade and singed her. She and Daito both screamed as the blades ground into each other. On either side of them, the wind and flames mixed and began to tear the room apart, slicing through the marble and threatening to cause the area to collapse. Marco and Kerlin actually looked above them and appeared a little worried. They wondered if they should move, or if they should intervene and stop the fight before they caused irreparable damage to the headquarters.

But they didn’t have to decide. The ground suddenly shook and both warriors faltered and fell to their knees. Eve and Daito stared at each other with anger and immediately leapt up again to strike each other down. But Teras and Rivel suddenly appeared between them. Teras ducked beneath Daito’s blade and clasped a mighty fist around his throat. He tossed him like a fly towards Kerlin and Marco, where he landed with a sneer and rubbed his throat. Rivel raised both of his blades up and blocked Eve’s falling katana. He looked at her with frantic eyes.

“Enough, Eve! You’ve caused enough trouble already!”
Eve growled and blew Rivel a few feet away with a gust of wind. He stopped his backwards momentum by digging his swords into the ground. His ground scars barely compared to the havoc which had overtaken the rest of the room, which now lay in shambles.
“Eve!” Rivel screamed. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”
Eve reached her hand out and summoned up a gust of wind to return her spike-chain to her side. She sheathed her katana and began to walk towards the large front doors of the headquarters.

Teras did not turn his head, but followed Eve with his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked. Eve continued on at a furious walking pace. Each step she took resounded with her rage in the demolished hall.
“Come on!” Rivel screamed. “What the hell, Eve?!”
Eve lifted her foot and kicked the door. It bounced on its hinges and slowly opened towards her from the opposite force she had poured into it. She turned her head and faced her comrades.
“I’m sick of all this bullshit. I need to go cool my heels. Don’t try to follow me.”

With that, Eve left the headquarters and wandered off into the Desert of the Dead. Rivel, Teras, Kerlin, Daito, and Marco stood in the ruins of the front foyer, shocked that Eve had actually just left. Without too many words, they vacated the space and left the other Magi to clean up. No doubt they would be called on for some sort of report on what had just happened. But one thing was for sure—Eve wasn’t coming back for a while. That is…if she ever came back at all…

[Sephiroth X]

*While all of the commotion in Libertas was focused on the arrival of Black Spider and Bax, in a desolate area of the city a quiet whistling noise quickly became louder and more booming. A black clad figure flew in and landed on the ground with an emphatic “whoosh” that sent dust into the air from the high winds, and as the dust settled Sephiroth X knelt at the epicenter of it all. As Sephiroth X slowly rose to his feet the dark lines extending out from his eyes faded slightly into dark circles around his eyes, yet his skin remained pale. Seph looked around and noticed his entrance did not garner any attention, he figured this was good since it was probably a sign that Black Spider made it to the Super City with Bax. X then balled up his fist and stared at it, metaphorically using his fist as a symbol for his newfound strength, thinking about the encounter he just had the with Magi. He swatted each one of them away like flies, it was not even a few days ago that three of them together warranted him breaking a good sweat against them. But now he even toyed with them… sadistically toyed with them, X then remembered the look on Eve’s face… the shocked look.

Sephiroth X – That was so unlike me… What gave me the urge to want to torture Rivel? Just out of character for me… But…

*A dark smirk creeped onto X’s face.

Sephiroth X – I like it…

*X began walking through some of the small passages between tents making his way towards the public and to where his friends are. But before he got far at all a voice came barking out from one of the tents in frustration. X looked over his shoulder to see Cid storm out of her tent rubbing her eyes.

Cid – First that cocky APC punk and now some idiots making a big commotion out here! WHAT DOES A WOMAN HAVE TO DO TO GET SOME GODDAMN SLE-…. Seph?

Sephiroth X – Why hi, Cid.

Cid – That you causing that dust and wind?

Sephiroth X – Maybe.

*Cid sighed.

Cid – You were always one for being flashy and making entrances.

*Cid was standing outside of what apparently was her tent in some standard military pants and a tight tank-top.

Cid – I heard you flew off someplace, now everyone’s making a big shit storm about the two new guys who showed up here not long after you took off.

*X’s smirk grew a little more pronounced, Cid chuckled slightly in response.

Cid – You had something to do with those two showing up, didn’t ya?

Sephiroth X – One of them is a friend of mine, he was the more beat up of the two… Bax.

Cid – Oooh… you mean him? Yeah he’s really beat up, we didn’t think he was gonna make it. He’s off in the medical station with that Black Spider guy and the blonde haired kid if you’re looking for them.

Sephiroth X – You look kind of worse for the wear yourself girl.

*Cid shrugged.

Cid – Been trying to get sleep for the last half the day. God I’m sorry, I probably look terrible.

*Cid tried to fix up her hair a little. Seph chuckled slightly and tried to compliment her.

Sephiroth X – You were always the type who looked great regardless. So don’t worry you can definitely catch a few curious eyes.

*Cid smiled and rested her hands on her hips.

Cid – Well I’m glad to know you’re still lookin’ at me.

Sephiroth X – And I’m glad to know you’re even better to look at since I last saw you.

*Cid’s eyes widened a little bit.

Cid – My oh my, aren’t we quite the little smooth talker today.

*X slicked some of his hair back behind his ears and calmly walked closer to her.

Sephiroth X – Well I do remember I had to be a pretty good sweet talker to woo over a babe like you back in our youth.

Cid – Oh I won’t be humble, you had yourself a babe.

Sephiroth X – Yeah… and one could argue neither you nor I was in our physical ‘prime’ either. Boy I’ll tell ya, it’s a shame our old love life didn’t get to experience our primes.

*As X stepped closer to Cid, she couldn’t help but feel herself get pulled closer to him. She started to wonder to herself, Is… he trying to seduce me…? I haven’t seen this side of him in so long... I’ve missed it. Her heart raced a little bit, she was always comfortable when he was with her and she knew in her heart that she was still waiting for him. All she could do was try to top Seph’s own level of flirtatiousness.

Cid – Mmhmm… I won’t lie to ya Sephy, I am a lot more physically fit then I was when we dated. All this moving around has kept me pretty lean…

Sephiroth X – I find that hard to believe… Only one way to find out, ya know.

*Cid then took notice of the dark circles around Seph’s face, and his pale skin.

Cid – You look tired… you alright?

Sephiroth X – I wont lie, you’d probably look tired too if you were trying to keep getting stronger and tougher.

*Cid giggled a little and ran a finger of hers down his chest.

Cid – So what about you mister military and hero guy, I gotta believe you buffed up a bunch since our days together.

*The two of them casually stepped even closer to each other, a thick tension kept building.

Sephiroth X – Like I said, only one way to find out…

*Seph was acting out of pure impulse at this point. Both he and Cid were locked in an intense stare for a few long moments. Cid’s heart continued to race, she could feel herself giving in to her own innate desire with every closing moment, she knew this was what she wanted and wanted badly. Seph leaned towards her a little bit as Cid pressed her body firmly against his as the two engaged in what was a lustful kiss. The two kept their lips pressed against each other while Seph wrapped an arm around Cid and held her. After a few moments they finally broke their kiss and softly rubbed their faces against each other, catching their breath. Cid spoke in a soft exhausted sound.

Cid – Oh my god I’ve missed that kiss…

*X remained silent while both of their minds blocked off the outside world and focused on the here and now. The two kissed each other again and then Cid looked into Seph’s eyes with a seductive look he hadn’t seen in years. Then with a firm tug Cid pulled Seph back into her tent with him. Seph stepped into her domain willingly and Cid fell backwards onto her bed and with another firm tug she pulled Seph down on top of her. X could feel Cid wrap one of her legs around him as the two continued to deeply kiss, and in response one of X’s hands began to rub against her body and drift to wherever she allowed. She let out a soft moan before starting to giggle to herself, Cid couldn’t believe this was finally happening again. Cid kissed him deeply a few more times before she attempted to start removing his overcoat. As she managed to unbuckle his coat and slide it a little ways off of Seph returned to one of the old turn-on’s she loved, he began to kiss her neck. Cid immediately gasped in pleasure and her breathing became heavier as a result. After a few more moments she reached down and pulled her tank-top up over her head revealing a black bra underneath. The two of them continued to delve into their lustful nature for a few more minutes as they stepped even closer to a point of no return in regards to their sexual desires. After another lustful kiss between the two, they locked eyes deeply again. When X looked into her eyes he felt a quick sense of curiosity and anxiety rush through him.

Cid – Hmm? What is it babe?

*As Seph continued to look at her, his mind flashed an image of a completely different woman beneath him and he blinked a few times to try and regain his composure.

Cid – Seph?

*Within a few quick moments Seph questioned what he was doing and why he even thought of doing such things. He definitely knew he still had a strong urge to be with Cid but… he began to question why he so willingly gave into his own temptation like that… it wasn’t like him. X blinked again and finally staggered out a few words to her.

Sephiroth X – I… I can’t…

Cid – What?! Why…?

*Cid felt her heart sink a little as she wondered if she did something wrong.

Sephiroth X – This isn’t right... it just doesn’t feel right at all right now.

*Seph lifted himself off of her and began to refasten his coat. He quickly stood up and rubbed his head, almost like something was irritating him.

Cid – What did I do? Please! Tell me!

Sephiroth X – It’s not you Cid, trust me it’s far from you.

*Cid’s heart began to sink a little more. The Seph she remembered never did anything like this. She quickly got off of her bed and turned Seph towards her.

Cid – What is it, Seph?

*She looked into Seph’s eyes with a longing for an answer. When Cid looked into his eyes she could tell that something, or someone, was on his mind in some way. And she could also see that he was extremely worried and puzzled.

Cid - …Her…isn’t it….

Sephiroth X - …I’m sorry Cid… I…

*He was struggling to find the right words. X felt like two sides of his moral structure were tugging at each other.

Sephiroth X – Something just isn’t right with me right now… I can’t explain what it is because I… simply don’t know.

*X saw the saddening on Cid’s face and it left a terrible feeling in his stomach. He softly wrapped an arm around her soft skin and kissed her gently.

Sephiroth X – I’m sorry Cid, I really am… Believe me when I say that a part of me still waits for you too… I just…

*Cid pressed a finger up against Seph’s lips.

Cid – Shh… It’s ok… just go…

*Seph and Cid looked at each other a few more moments before Seph slowly turned around to leave. The two former lovers exchanged a parting glance again before Sephiroth X left her tent. Cid stepped backwards and sat at the edge of her bed staring at the entrance to her tent, quietly wishing he’d walk back in.

- - - - - - - - - -

*Sephiroth X walked towards the medical center making haste as he wondered about how bad Bax was as well as straighten out his own mind as well.

Sephiroth X – What’s going on? First the Magi incident and now Cid both times acting surprisingly aggressive at very different kinds of opportunities.

*After a few more minutes of walking through Libertas, Seph found some of the more sophisticated buildings of the city. X got the attention of one of the patrolmen and quickly asked him where the medical stations were. The patrolman gave some basic instructions on where to go in order to reach the main entrance to the medical area. X thanked the patrolman and quickly made his way towards the medical center, quickly finding of one of the field doctors.

Sephiroth X – Hey, I’m looking for Bax. The alien guy who just came in from the desert? Probably with a blonde haired kid?

Field Doc – Yeah, I know where he is. Do you have security clearance—

*The doctor did a quick double-take and realized who he was talking to.

Field Doc – Oh, it’s you. Yeah I think you’re clear to enter. He’s down the hallway in the room to the far left. He’s probably asleep right now and I’m not sure if he’ll wake, just as a heads up.

Sephiroth X – Thank you.

*In the medical room Zack sat next to Bax, both of whom were sound asleep. Zack was slid halfway down the chair in a deep sleep with his head leaning backwards over the edge of the chair. Bax meanwhile looked like he was in a comfy sleep of his own. There was silence in the room, with the exception of the medical hardware everywhere, until X’s voice broke the silence.

Sephiroth X – How is he?

*The sudden new voice sprang Zack out of his sleep and upon seeing who it was that joined him, it brought Zack clear out of his chair.

Zack – Seph! He’s doing alright for now. Looking a lot better then he did when we got him here.

Sephiroth X – I heard he almost didn’t make it.

Zack – If it wasn’t for some quick thinking by Black Spider and a little help from myself, who knows… I’m just glad he’s alright.

*Zack looked to Bax for a moment and then back to X.

Zack – Say, where did you go anyway?

Sephiroth X – Basically out to find him… If it wasn’t for some… um… quick action on my part those two wouldn’t have made it here. The Magi were after him… Six of them.

*Zack’s eyes widened a little.

Zack – Six of them?! Whoa…

Sephiroth X – Yeah, I got there and tried to buy Black Spider and Bax the time they needed to escape.

Zack – Wait… so you held off six Magi?

*X nodded.

Zack – No way, that’s just freakin’ impossible. You don’t even look like you’re scuffed up!

*The weak voice of Bax joined into the conversation.

Bax – He did it… I saw the start of it when Spider was getting me out of there. It was stunning.

*Bax looked to Seph and gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

Sephiroth X – Glad to see you’re doing alright, Bax.

*Zack blinked a few more times, and then a few things started to fall together in his mind.

Zack – You did it, didn’t you Seph? That inner power you and Locke were talking about! You got it!?

*Seph didn’t really give a yes or no to Zack’s statement. He tried to let his demeanor simply be Zack’s answer, this new power was quite something alright but X didn’t know the depth at which this power had. Saying that ‘he found new strength’ could be truth or Seph may have only tapped a small portion of it so either answer he may give Zack could be a lie.

Zack – Wow… Seriously you fought SIX Magi and WON!

*Zack energetically made a few karate chop motions.

Zack – There’s no telling who you can take on now!

Bax – Heh, easy Zack.

*Sephiroth X stood there in the hospital room thinking to himself, contemplating various scenarios.

Sephiroth X – I’ve become… stronger Zack. The inner power Locke discussed was there… and it made me stronger then even I expected. I’m confident I can take on Valtiel now, but not alone… I need someone else of relatively similar strength to come with me… fight along side me. Someone to come with me and stop Valtiel now before he can become even stronger. But who…

*Seph’s eyes panned back to Zack and the bedridden Bax, talking out loud to himself.

Sephiroth X – Black Spider is too beat up from the Magi… Bax is out of commission for a while now… and Zack, you’re just not ready yet.

*X went through more scenarios before something ultimately dawned in his head. A gamble he shouldn’t be considering.

Sephiroth X – But… there may be one person who can.

Zack – Who?

*X’s face grew into a deeper intensity as his eyes slowly panned around the room looking for something that was not there.

Sephiroth X – …I know you’re here, Crono.

[AltruisticCrono]

*A voice spoke from a corner of the room behind X, fittingly the one area of the room he knew nobody was looking towards. Dark Crono calmly faded in from thin air with his arms wrapped behind his back.

Dark Crono – ...the only reasonable ally against the deity itself... But, as the truth becomes light... the answer relies only upon you alone.

*X turned towards Crono as his eyes narrowed slightly.

Sephiroth X - The truth being that you and I have a common foe. One who's rise to power is as much your fault as mine.

Dark Crono - Correct. In your descent into darkness, it became not of the feared. However...

*He briefly glanced at Zack*

Dark Crono - ...If you alone face the void itself, remember that fear is best not forgotten. As it be, your conclusion that ended this night was decided long before your tortuous mind considered our alignment.

Sephiroth X – Perhaps you’re right… My efforts against him were far too late and the reason for that is nobodies fault but my own… But maybe my conclusion was decided when you struck down Valtiel and left him frail and weak in Midgar, when you coerced Azriel into sacrificing himself and releasing Fallen. Those chains of events led to two weak entities combining into a godlike force, and coincidently the first links in the chain begin with you.

*X spoke back to Crono with a firm tone X would not have used in the past.

Sephiroth X – The decision was made when you decided to make the puzzle more complex.

*Dark Crono openly grinned at his conclusion*

Dark Crono - Correct again ...but, as to my innate intention of chance and Fate, you cannot grasp what lies at chain's end.

*Dark Crono turned from X's glare and slowly paced the room in thought*

Dark Crono - Despise me as you will, it was I that guided the mortal realm's true desire.

Sephiroth X – And that’s why I’m…

*Seph’s gut churned at having to say his next words.

Sephiroth X - …why I’m asking for your help. I need you in order to stop Valtiel, and you know that without me or anyone else here you will not be able to stop him either. I’m willing to throw aside personal hatred and despise because now there are lives at stake that extend far beyond what our battles could reach.

*Zack and Bax remained silent, perhaps in fear or awe of what was happening in front of them. Crono’s pace stopped to view the reaction from the on-lookers*

Dark Crono - Your unbridled showmanship is befitting in your colleague’s presence, but hardly necessary. Passing of futile existence is only the beginning of this potential stage... and it would be wise to prepare yourself.

*Seph kept a careful eye on his cloaked nemesis.

Sephiroth X - So... I've made my decision. What is yours?

*Dark Crono shook his head and held back a laugh*

Dark Crono – Explicit to your terms, I will ally.

*Sephiroth X nodded to Dark Crono, almost as if acknowledging a small bit of honor.

Sephiroth X – So… To Midgar?

Dark Crono – Yes... to remove its existence...

*X smirked.

Sephiroth X - Never thought I'd want to hear you say that.

*Sephiroth X looked towards Zack and Bax.

Sephiroth X - You two be safe...

*Sephiroth X then turned back to Dark Crono

Sephiroth X - And I'll see you...

*As he turned, Crono was already gone.

Sephiroth X - Just outside Midgar.

*X looked back to Zack and Bax, giving them both a parting nod as he made his way out the door. The two of them just stayed where they were with silent looks on their faces, unsure of they just made a powerful new ally or just witness a deal with the devil.

--END OF CHAPTER--