Chapter 32: The turning of
the tide
“What the hell is that?” muttered Jara, as we flew high over the Forgotten continent, I stopped staring at the sandy valleys and followed her outstretched arm. Out on the plains there were five tall pillars with coils wrapped around the top of each one, they seemed so alien and yet so familiar.
“I’ve seen something like that before.” I admitted
Jara slowly nodded
“Yes, me too…and I have a horrible feeling I know what Yissan is going to do with it. Is there any way we can stop this?” she asked, but not to me.
The dragon thought it over and roared.
Jara nodded again.
There were several minutes of silence while Jara and the dragon, well, I presume they conversed but I didn’t hear any of the conversation.
“Very well.” Concluded Jara, sitting back with a smile that faded rapidly as she saw something on the horizon. Her mouth dropped open and she swore in Terran as a large black mass appeared on the horizon, as we drew nearer we could see that it was a massive army, larger in size than any army I’d ever seen.
“My god Yissan, it’s bigger than my army…it’s…”
“Bigger than any army…ever.” I concluded.
Jara nodded and the dragon turned slightly to the left to avoid the army and the thousands of eyes that would be scanning the skies and might spot us. We climbed a little higher until we were safe from their weaponry, it left me feeling a little breathless but Jara assured me it was only a temporary measure.
The command centre, as Fury had called it, was in a large covered and armoured cart pulled by six Chocobos. Inside was a wealth of Terran technology which Fury claimed should enable him to keep in contact with his army, so long as the cart was nearby.
“All this planning of mine has paid off.” Muttered Lawrence quietly, but I heard him and shot him a strange look, he only returned a smile to me.
“Now approaching the gate sir.” Reported a nameless Magic Vice, I raised an eyebrow, not ever having met a Magic Vice that could talk before.
Fury nodded.
“Bring us ahead of the army, we’re gonna have to turn this thing on, but we’ll be the last one through, we have to make sure everyone gets in safely.”
As we drew nearer to the five poles, I could see a slight shimmer of power surrounding them, I didn’t know what they were but they felt dangerous…powerful.
“Begin the power-up sequence.” Ordered Lawrence.
Fury nodded and punched a series of buttons on a control board on the back of the room, a whole bunch of instrument displays lit up and a low hum joined the cacophony of electrical noise in the small room.
“Bringing stage one emitters on line in five, four, three, two, one….now.” reported Fury.
In front of us, the coils on the pillars began to glow with electrical energy, sparking and arcing over the long distance between pillars.
“The Flux capacitor is at 100%. Readings are good, what I can understand…” said Fury, Lawrence moved over to him and looking over his shoulder, nodded.
“It’s looking good, proceed with stage two.”
Fury nodded again, and slowly moved a slider up towards its maximum limit, before flicking five switches one after another.
“Stage two online, in five, four, three, two, one…now.”
The whole pillar began to glow now, many electrical sparks flashing between them and down the pillars towards the ground.
I broke my eyes away from the spectacle in front of us and looked around the command centre, Kitiara sat towards the back with her mouth open and her fangs showing, she seemed captivated by what was unfolding, and so did the rest of the room. Only Yugami didn’t seem that interested, she seemed to be watching Kitiara surreptitiously, as if eyeing her up as an opponent.
“I’m reading some power spikes but they’re within limits. We’re ready to proceed with the final stage.”
“Do it.” Said Lawrence, I quirked my eyebrow, it was almost as though he was in charge this time, unusual for the unlikely pairing of Fury and Lawrence.
“Very well, initialising stage three in five, four, three, two, one…now.”
A small ball of light appeared between each pillar, four balls in total, the ball could only be six meters in radius, which in comparison to the tall pillars either side of it, wasn’t that much.
“We have a stable gate.” Said Fury with a large smile.
“I knew it would work…even at this size.” Said Lawrence rubbing his hands with undisguised glee.
“Shall I open it?” asked Fury, turning to look at Lawrence.
Lawrence nodded and took a seat to one side of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said “You are witnessing perhaps the biggest portal ever created in the history of this solar system. It won’t take us too far, just to the plains outside Lindblum, but it will take all of us with one burst. And, if I may say so, it’s one of my best creations so far.” He looked pointedly at Yugami when he said the last sentence.
“Opening the portal horizon now, a link is being established with the terminal zone, receiving positive feedback. They won’t even see this coming.” Reported Fury.
The ball of light suddenly grew into a massive sheet of light which covered the gap between the pillars. Fury smiled and hit a button placing him in contact with each divisional commander in his army.
“Proceed forward into the light, don’t be afraid…when you arrive on the other side, form up and proceed to Lindblum, I will join you shortly.”
The army began to slowly and slightly uncertainly move forward into the portal.
The old airship was buffeted by a strong crosswind that had appeared between Alexandria and Lindblum, I stood on the bridge of the Red Rose next to Snikity and Beatrix. Mikoto stood a few meters behind me.
The meeting we had had with Beatrix and Cid, had shocked us considerably to learn that our Discworld colleague, Kitiara was now working for the enemy and had participated in the kidnapping of Queen Garnet.
What of Nagy and Xola, have they defected too? I wondered, and from the look on Snikitys face, I could tell she was thinking the same thing.
“We’ll be at Oeilvert within the hour.” Said Beatrix as she watched the Vigilance travelling alongside us, I turned my head and looked at the fleet behind us.
“If we can surprise him, attack his fleet on the ground, then we’ll win hands down.” Cid had said. One of his warships, the Ocelot had successfully tracked Fury to his base on the Forgotten continent, because of this success Cid had ordered the two fleets of Lindblum and Alexandria to unite and destroy Fury’s fleet and army before they could get mobilised. We were now passing by Lindblum to pick up more of their airships before heading straight for this Oeilvert.
“What’s that?!” shouted Mikoto from the starboard side of the bridge, she was pointing to something nearby below us. We walked over and joined her, there were four white balls of light hanging in the air.
“What the…?” I heard Beatrix mutter.
Then the monsters began to pour through, coming in their dozens, white flashes surrounding them as they appeared from nowhere, I could see that the first wave was composed of mainly genomes.
“Damn!!” shouted Mikoto, I was slightly surprised at the emotion in her voice but I could understand her situation, right in front of her were genomes that were being misled again and there was nothing she could do against it.
“It’s Furys army…the invasion has begun.” Said Beatrix in a horrified whisper.
“What do we do? Can we bomb them?” asked Snikity
No-one answered, we just stood watching the horror unfold below us. Watched as the freedom of the Mist Continent faded as each new wave of Furys army appeared.
This was perfect, already a full quarter of my army had gone through the teleporter and were on the Mist Continent, ready to attack. Within the day Lindblum would fall, no matter what they did and then Alexandria and Burmecia would feel the boots of my army marching over them.
My plan was now in the final stages of being realised, the most heavily populated area on this planet was about to fall under my control, and there was nothing the puny Gaians could do about it.
Those were the thoughts running through my head when shadows fell across the army and a loud explosion rent the air, the next thing I saw in front of us was the top of one of the towers falling to the ground, the teleporter field it was operating winking out of existence just as several monsters were stepping through, as the field cut out it sliced them clean in two. I looked up, trying to find the source of the attack.
Silver Dragons?!!
There were hundreds of them, swarming around the teleporter towers and attacking them with purple blasts of energy. Another tower exploded and fell, and we were down to two teleporter fields.
For a moment I hesitated with the order to open fire on the dragons, caught up in guilt at firing at my own kin, but then my steely resolve overtook me and I stabbed the divisional communications button.
“All sections, open fire, take down those dragons before they ruin everything!!”
I didn’t know why the Silver dragons were attacking, only that they had to be stopped.
Snikitys POV
A deadly silence had fallen over the Red Rose as more of Furys army appeared,
the silence broken only by the occasional sigh and sob from the crew. Mikoto
had turned away, unable to look at it and I felt a sudden urge to do so too, a
sickening feeling developing in my stomach.
“This is it,” said Beatrix “The end…you heard Cid, Furys army is unstoppable, once they’ve all teleported here then that’ll be it…”
Suddenly a sheet of teleporter light winked out, killing several monsters stepping through it.
“Huh?” I muttered “One’s gone down.”
“What?” Beatrix clambered past me to get a better look, a smile crossed her face when she saw I was indeed right.
“It may just be a temporary set back, but it’s what we need.”
As she said that, another teleporter beam disappeared, causing chaos within the invading army, some of them tried to return through the teleporter but were killed.
“Pity it isn’t two way,” said Mizrah “It’d save us the journey.”
Beatrix shook her head.
“Too risky anyway, we’d materialise right on the rest of his army.”
One of the teleporter portals shimmered slightly but faded in intensity.
“I don’t know what’s happening the other end, but I hope it keeps on happening.” Said Beatrix.
We landed outside Oeilvert rather eventfully and not very smoothly. It seemed Fury had some anti-air capability but since we were not using a machine to enter his airspace, the particle cannon shots went wide.
“We’ve got to disable them.” I said as the first few shots whizzed past us.
Jara nodded and leaned forward. A moment later our dragon destroyed the particle cannons which had opened fire on us with well aimed energy blasts.
Smiling I patted Jara on the shoulder and gave her a tight squeeze around her waist.
“Nice one!”
She smiled and ruffled my hair.
“Come on, we’ve got a lot to do…are you sure you want to go through with this?” she asked me
I nodded
“Yeah, if I can help you, and if I can help Domino, then I will.”
Jara nodded and pointed towards a point outside the research centre.
“That’s where we’ll land.”
Kitiara’s POV
I couldn’t help but feel a slight hint of satisfaction at seeing Furys plan go
completely awry. Only one portal was working now, the others knocked out by the
silver dragons, and as I watched that portal was destroyed too.
“No…dammit no! We were so close…within the grasp of victory…noooooo.” Fury wailed, smashing the control board until the monitors on it cracked and there were sizzles of electricity inside it.
I looked away from Fury and became aware of Yugami watching me.
“What do you want?” I asked with more than a hint of contempt.
“I watching you Kitiara,” she said “I’ve seen the way you look at him…I’ve seen the way you act around him, and I’m not happy.”
I shrugged.
“What are you going to do about it genome?”
She growled lowly.
“Don’t tempt me…she-na ha’vert.”
I blinked, not understanding what the hell she was talking about, but not really caring.
I remembered the effect I had had on Fury, I was nearly there…within his grasp, and while he had been sulking on top of the tower at Oeilvert, I had entered his room and discovered the source of his power.
It was all so laughably simple really, one medium sized crystal, glowing slightly…almost an anti-climax, but then I had touched it, and felt the power within discharge itself into me. I had then spent the next half an hour experimenting with new found powers.
Soon, Fury, soon I shall be powerful enough to challenge you and win, and then we shall see who is the dominant one. I thought to myself with a smile.
Little did he know I now had the crystal, hidden away in my room. Safe from him, for my use only. This was it, my winning card, nothing would stop me now.
Soon I would be more powerful than my wildest dreams.
Soon…
Days and nights had merged together to form one long agonising hell. Somehow we had survived on what Fury had given us, even now it was mouldy now. But the thing that surprised me the most was how well we got on. Anyone who knows the relationship between myself and Team Rocket would know that it was a hate/hate thing. After all, they spent most of their time trying to capture my Pikachu, a small tear trickled down my face as I thought of my little Pokemon, hoping he was safe.
“You ok Ash?” asked James, wiping some of the dirt from around his face.
“Yeah…just missing Pikachu…and freedom.”
James nodded quietly, even Jesse, the usually loud and emotional one out of the two, had quietened down, in fact I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard her say something.
“At least he hasn’t tortured us.” Said James after a while.
“He doesn’t have to…we’re already defeated.” Muttered Jesse from where she lay in the corner of the dimly lit cell.
Suddenly I heard footsteps outside the cell, I tensed up, waiting for Furys mocking voice to come, but it didn’t, instead there was an uncertain male voice.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
I stood up and half-walked, half-fell towards the cell door and pulled myself up to the bars.
Outside the room there was a genome standing, examining the torture equipment scattered around the room with a look of disgust on his face. Brushing his silver hair behind his ears and rubbing his delicate chin.
He reminded me of someone…but I couldn’t remember who.
“Hello?” I tried.
He turned and looked at me, walking over to the door and examining it.
“Stand back.” He said, I moved away from the door and a few moments later it fell inwards off its hinges. Before I could register what was happening I was knocked off my feet by a familiar little yellow thing.
“Hi guys, we’re baaaack!” yelled a feline voice.
Sam’s POV
We could hear voices echoing up the stone spiral staircase, I had drawn my
dagger and Jara had her staff to bear.
When we reached the bottom of the staircase she jumped out ahead of us, her staff in front of her.
“Huh?” was all I heard as I jumped out.
What I saw caught me completely by surprise. We had jumped out into a torture chamber of horrific proportions. All around us lay used weapons of a barbaric nature. Blood lay stained on the stone floor, and an open trapdoor led down into a deep pit of water where I swore I saw a floating body, but in the dim light I couldn’t be sure.
Jara was standing with her staff pointing at a very familiar silver genome.
“Kuja?”
He looked at us closely.
“You know me but I don’t know you.”
I chuckled and nodded my head.
“I would have thought we would know you, Project zero-one-three…we helped make you!”
It seemed this revelation was a little too much for Kuja who passed out, collapsing to the floor with a dull thump. Another surprise came when I looked inside the cell Kuja had opened.
“Jesse? James? Ash? Meowth? Pikachu?”
They looked positively awful, and as I looked around I saw more genomes with shabby clothing and rib bones showing. A couple of them had died from hunger and their bodies lay in various stages of decay.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“A question I could echo myself.” Said a voice behind us.
I turned and my heart sank, for the owner of the voice was Fury.