Chapter 16

By Erik Brown

Strange thunderous words filled the air. Kuja let go of Rei's shoulder, and dropped him to the ground, as she whirled all about, striving to see a trace of the speaker of those dreadful words. Panic covered her face, and she began to breathe faster and faster. Like a fanatic she swung at the air with her sword, trying to ward off the voice. Rei covered his ears, seemingly unable to comprehend the words.

Kuja bellowed at the air, "Spirit! This soul belongs to me! Be gone!"

Lightning was poured from the heavens, and it struck Kuja's sword with deadly force. Her body was covered in energy, and glowed with an unearthly fire. Painful, nerve-wracking screams issued forth from her throat.

Rei called out into the air, amidst the screams of pain, "What is going on?" His heart beat faster and faster, as Kuja screamed louder and louder.

Pain, all around him; and there was that dreadful screaming. "I don't understand any of this? Please, make it stop!"

Was this punishment? Was his only crime being the want for a little bit of adventure in his mediocre life? Or was it punishment placed on him, to make him regret for not realizing when he was truly gifted. "Whatever it is I did wrong, please forgive me!"

The agony filled him, and despair permeated his mind. All he could do was roll on the ground, praying that it would soon end. Then, suddenly, as he felt that he could take no more, a hand seemed to touch him on the head. Instantly he felt a calming effect take over, and a relaxing voice filled his ears, "For long I have held the brunt of Beuter's rage and despair. Someday I will explain all of this to you… but for now I must leave you."

"What? I don't understand? Who are you?"

"I am a warrior sent from above, to guard and protect you. So far I have protected you at every step, but now I must take away that protection."

Did this mean that things could have been worse? How could they have been any worse? Was this a trick, or was this really a guardian Angel? "If you leave me, I fear I might die?"

"Have faith, it will all work out in the end…"

Then the calm fluttered away, and when he had thought that before the pain and agony in his mind had been too much, it was multiplied beyond belief. Hatred, anger, destruction! It all flooded his mind, and began to consume his emotions. One by one, and he could feel himself losing control. Felt the torrent push him out of his own body. Something inside of him was ripping him to pieces, and seemed to let those pieces loose, into the wind filled air.

Then there was nothing…

The energy that had held her let go, and she fell to the ground. Her body was burnt black all over, and smoke drifted off of her. She looked at her sword, it was tarnished, and it no longer shone. Kuja looked up at the bird lying on the ground in front of her. "Immortal powers are too much for him to bear… no… can it be?"

A slight sense of fear ran through her, but she brushed it aside. Standing up on shaking feet, she pointed at Rei's body with her sword. "With this blade, I shall still rip you apart!"

With utter calmness, Rei stood up on unshaken legs. He took out his own sword, and cast the sheath aside.

For a long time Kuja had not known fear such as this. She looked into the bird's eyes, and a feeling of coldness ran through her. "No… it can't be!"

Rei's eyes widened, and he shouted at Kuja, "What! Afraid now! I thought you were going to kill me! Then do it! Kill me now, dog!"

Her body shook, and the energy inside of her seemed to grow faint, "How could you?"

Rei gave her a look of condemnation, and began to talk in a mocking voice, "What's the matter Kuja? Have you suddenly grown afraid?" Rei stretched out, flexing his scrawny muscles, "Are you afraid of a thin yellow bird?"

"N-never!" She gritted her teeth, and clutched her sword with both hands.

Rei motioned at her with a free hand, with mad eyes he stared at her, "Come at me then! Strike me down!"

Closing her eyes, she dashed at the bird. She opened her eyes and saw him standing there. He didn't even have his sword ready. He was just… waiting there for her. Was she playing into a trap? What was he doing? She blinked, and when she opened her eyes he was no longer where he had been.

Quick as lightning, he had slashed into her with his sword. She hadn't even had a time to react, and a gash ran through her charred body. Kuja had gone beyond the realm of pain, and the lightning had evaporated her blood in her body, and yet, Rei's sword had seemed to invoke great pain into her.

"Argh…" She fell to the ground, she stammered, "This… this isn't possible!"

"What is it Demon-fox? What is so hard to believe?"

From the ground she turned, and glared at him with her vacant eyes, "Not a Demon… not an Angel! You're…"

Rei reached down, and picked Kuja up off of the ground by her neck. "What am I?"

"Dead… yet… immortal…"

He brought her close to his face, "All spirits are immortal."

"But, souls are not for this world… they must…"

He thrust his sword through her heart, and let her body fall to the ground. A screaming sound filled the night sky, and a blackish haze floated out of Kuja's gaping mouth. Rei kicked at her body. The charred flesh didn't stir, this time Kuja was gone for good.

"They must go to eternity…"

The bird turned, and scanned the roof for a way back into the building.

…

“Palcos, this isn’t going anywhere.” Colleen feebly grasped his arm. He nodded his head in reply.

“I know… I know…” He loaded another clip, and shot around the corner again. “We’d be able to change the world you know, if there weren’t so many people in it.”

"This won’t work, it can't.”

“It will, we just have to fight for what we believe in.”

“No. We were delusional, we could never change the world.”

“We can… just give it a chance.”

"Palcos…"

"We can still do this. Just don't give up hope."

Colleen convulsed, “I’m felling a bit light headed.”

Palcos watched as her head hit the ground, and she blacked out. He shouted at her, “Colleen?” There was no answer. He checked the tourniquet she had tied around her arm. It hadn’t been tied tight enough; she ended up losing a lot of blood. He was relieved to find that she still had a pulse, but it was very weak.

“Poor girl…take care.” He tightened the bandage on her arm, and threw his gun into the hall, “I give up! I'm giving away this hostage of yours."

Then Palcos ran to the window, and ran down the fire escape. “I’ll change the world… but I’ll do it myself.”

…

Cuts covered Aerot's entire body, but none of them were that bad. In fact he felt truly alive, never had he fought so hard before. But still, there had been creatures with guns, and everyone had had a weapon. Yet he alone survived the slaughter, was there something he could attribute to this.

He looked at the dead lying on the ground, blood spilled out, motionless until they turned to dust. “Anyone still here?’

“You’ve done well.”

Aerot didn’t have to look around; he knew that it was that ghost or something again. “Did you help me?”

“I tripped up a few of the warriors, but I was really trying to protect someone else.”

“That bird?”

“Yes.”

“Is he important or something?”

“Very much. In fact… you have to stop him now. He has acquired powers he has no right to have.”

“Where is he? He doesn't seem like much of a fighter at all.”

“He is out on a roof, but he is quickly moving towards the Eclipse Stone.”

Strangely when Aerot heard that, strange images entered his mind. It was like someone had poured out a box of pictures in front of him. He could see little flickers of images, as photos flipped through the air. He thought he saw something like a dragon, and another looked like him. He mouthed the words, “Eclipse Stone?”

“Yes, you understand what it is?”

“Vaguely.”

“Good. Now you must go and stop him.”

“Isn’t there someone with a gun a floor above me?”

A moment of silence ensued, and then the voice began again, “Yes. But there is also a ladder that you can take directly to Zaego’s office. It is in the next room.”

Aerot pointed at a door, “Here?”

“Yes.”

The wolf opened the door and stepped in. It was dark, but his eyes quickly adjusted. It seemed to be a sort of storage room. He looked around, and saw the ladder in a corner, it went from ceiling too floor, it appeared as if it went to the floors above and below it. “That the one?”

“Yes. Now hurry, there is no time to waste!”

Aerot made his way to the ladder, but stopped. The voice sounded worried, and asked him, “What are you waiting for? Go!”

“Wait a danged minute. You’ve been ordering me around all this time, there’s something that you’re trying to get out of all of this, I can tell. But what is it?”

The voice became somber, and it said a single word, “Redemption. Forgiveness for my sins.”

“Tell me, who are you?”

“That is not important now. If you hold this world dear, or if there is anyone that you care for, then you must stop Rei from making this mistake.”

“Something like the end of the world?”

“No, something else. It has happened before, and there was great misery and gnashing of teeth. I saw it with my own eyes, hundreds of years ago. You must go.”

“If I stop him, will you explain everything to me?”

“When this quest is finished, I will explain all.”

Aerot nodded, and set his convictions. He started up the ladder, and made his way to Zaego’s office.

…

Zaego sat behind his desk, as he drained the bottle of alcohol in front of him. He had a headache, a really bad one. Otherwise he was feeling just plain miserable. First there had been the news of Sieve being in his building, and then there were gunshots and a gigantic lightning bolt had struck the building just a moment ago. The world was going down the drain! He almost doubted that he would survive the next couple hours.

“I was gonna be Emperor.” He shook his head in pity for himself. He had called for guards to his office an hour ago. They never showed up, and guards that don't show up can't protect very well. Sieve agents could be on their way, ready to kill him.

“Why?” Picking up the first thing that was glass, he threw it against the wall, and watched the fragments fall to the ground, “After all I did for that miserable group! They think that they’re so high and mighty!”

He staggered over his desk, and landed on the floor in front. He opened the trunk that still sat on the floor in the middle of the room. The shining orb still sat there inside, and he reached out to touch it. “They can’t defeat me, not so long as I have this.”

“This is power, I can see that now. They will all pay! Sieve, and the doubters, and even my father! I’ll see them all suffer in fire! Those idiot, those fools, they could not deny me my sovereignty now!” As he reached out to touch the Eclipse Stone though, a sword was suddenly thrust through the floorboards. It hadn’t cut Zaego, but he recoiled in fear from the sharp blade.

He exclaimed in a shrill voice, “What goes on here?” Had they found him? Were they going to take the power away from him? Would they kill him?

As the sword went again and again through the floor, Zaego drunkenly whimpered, “Please don’t kill me. I didn’t mean to say those things.” The wood soon shattered, and a black clothed wolf emerged from the floor.

He climbed out of the hole he had made, and pointed at it, as he said to Zaego, “Might want to get that fixed.”

Aerot’s blade flashed in front of Zaego, and the bird sobbed, “Don’t kill me!”

“Are you Zaego?”

With tears he said, “Yes.”

“Well, I’m supposed to kill you… but I don’t really feel like it. What do you say to that?”

Zaego held his head in his hands, “I have a headache!”

“Suit yourself.” Aerot looked around, and said to the air, “So where’s Rei? Spirit? Did I get here before him?”

Was the wolf drunk than he was? Zaego didn't understand any of it. He might if he hadn't been so depressed.

The turning of a door handle caught Aerot’s attention, and he turned to see where the sound was coming from. It came from the room’s main door, a thick oaken wall, and the handle was violently being turned up and down. The handle stopped it's moving, and was then a chopping sound, and the door began to shudder more and more under each successive blow.

Aerot asked Zaego, “So is that door pretty thick.”

He only got a sob in reply. Shaking his head he came to his own conclusion, “I guess we’ll find out then.”

A cry of attack was heard from beyond the door, as the flurry of blows kept coming upon the door. Aerot braced himself, readying for whatever came through that door. He also wondered where Palcos and that cat might have gotten off. Taking in for account the firefight above him, the monkey was probably six feet under by now.

Finally whoever was hitting the door began to get somewhere. On Aerot's side the thick oak began to splinter, after a few more blows a sword was struck through the door. "Taking a little while."

Again and again the blows rained against the door. Soon Aerot could see who was striking at the door. A bird with gold feathers poked his head in through the door, and shouted in a shrill cry, "I command you to open this door." His eyes seemed to flash red, and Aerot was quick to turn away.

Bewildered, he called out to the bird, "Rei? Is that you?"

Struggling to reach the door lock with his arm, Rei said to Aerot through grunts of exertion, "I once had a name, but I am a creature beyond such trivial things."

The door was unlocked, and Rei kicked it open. Zaego cried out, as Rei approached the Eclipse Stone, "Back monster! That is mine!"

"Drunken fool!" An invisible force went out and struck Zaego into the wall. "Do not deny me mine property! This object belongth to me, with it I may bring back an age of guilt and pain!"

Aerot slowly walked over, and spread out his arms in front of Rei, blocking the mad bird from the Eclipse Stone. "I was told to stop you."

Rei, or whoever he was now, smiled a wicked smile, "You really think you can stop me?"

"I am only doing what I was told to do."

"You have great loyalty. Just as your ancestors did for me so long ago." His smile grew, "There were some Komosa's that betrayed me, but I made sure to have them dealt with."

Aerot shuddered, as he felt something claw at his mind. "What…" he closed his eyes, and whatever it was took over. "We betrayed you! You betrayed us!" Aerot seemed to float above his body, watching the mouth move, and the words being spoken.

Rei's body laughed, "It is you, I knew it!"

"I'll kill you, you bastard!"

"Such words from your mouth betrayer!"

"You had us defect to Nacon's kingdom, and then you came and killed my parents before my own eyes."

"What had they done for you? They made you the way you are now."

"They wanted to win a war for you, but you stabbed them in the back after all their hard work."

"Enow! I grow tired of this."

Aerot's body smiled now, "Listen to your dialect, you're not even near to having full control of that body."

"Then kill me. What are you waiting for?"

"Leave that body Beuter! We had a deal, remember?"

"I will not, I no longer have any need for one such as you."

"What? You can't be serious!"

"Far to the south of here, they heed my words as long as I hold onto this body. Nacon's spirit has become too weak to sustain control of anyone now. I can easily defeat him now."

"I- I'll…" He took out his sword, and approached Rei.

"You'll what? Isn't this bird your ticket to redemption?"

"I hate you! Always so cocky!"

"I have no feelings for you, you are a worm beneath my feet."

Aerot lunged at Rei, with his sword held above his head. The Eclipse Stone also jumped into the air, and before a feather on Rei could be touched, the orb flung itself into Aerot with great force. It knocked him into the wall, and the spirit that was controlling Aerot was knocked out as well.

The wolf coughed, as he sat on the ground. "What is going on?"

"Great spiritual forces are at work here, it is small wonder that one such as you does not understand."

"Spiritual forces?" Aerot was in a bit of a daze; his body had been pushed to its limits.

As Rei spoke, the Eclipse Stone floated up from the ground, and hovered before his fingertips, "For a millennium, maybe more, there has been a great war that mortal eyes are unable to see."

"You and that other one, the one that was controlling me, you're two of the three. Right?"

"Yes, there are the two Kings; the Western King Nacon, and I, Beuter King of the East. Then there is the spirit of your ancestor, and there is but one more."

"What are you all fighting about?"

"To have complete power. Never has anyone reached such an apex."

"What happens after that?

Rei smiled, "God only knows."

He grasped the orb, and the room was set ablaze with horrible blue fire. Round and round the ghostly energy swirled about the room. Aerot sat on the ground, never before had he felt such negativity flowing through his body. It was the kind of feeling when the days going really great, and all of a sudden a storm rolls in, and drenches you. It was that kind of despair and anger. Then you feel like you had been singled out, and you became a target for abuse by the great universe.

"What is going on?"

"This isn't right… Rei is… not… alone…"

Rei could feel himself rising back to the surface of his being. Like waking up with a hangover, but in this case he woke up with a thing that was tapped into the very universe lying in the palm of his hands.

He was as shocked as anyone, "What is happening?" No one really knew.

Great power surged through his being, but he wasn't ready for anything of that magnitude. Like he could reverse the North World's rotation, or he could turn the color red into green. The very fabric of space and time were his to rearrange as he saw fit. And as his subconscious whipped about, roving his feelings for something that needed change, it came upon the perfect subject.

"I should have never been here."

Strangely the fear wreaked his being. Pessimistic thoughts pointed out his flaws, that inadvertently he had caused so many to be hurt around him. An invisible hand pointed out the problems he had caused, and it focused on anything that was not good, or had never been good.

"I have all the power of the cosmos in my reach. I have no wish to change the makeup of the world. I do not want to be a god! I do not wish to have others bow at my feet. With this power, I can go back, and change the decisions in my life, to promote a general goodness, so that the people I met, will have felt not discomfort from me. They will remember me with gladness, and shall not have felt the pain I may have put upon them.

"Whether I did it or not, I do not want any to remember me with gall in their hearts. The fault with this world you see is that so many can misconstrue everything someone else does. I can change that… now!"

Zaego was the first to cry out. He screamed with such tenor, that it sounded as if he was being torn apart. Aerot looked over at the bird, and saw his body seem to fluxuate (Erik - this might not be the right spelling, sue me). He raked his face with his fingers, as he cried out, "Pain! Make it stop!"

Rei said with all calmness to him, "It shall stop soon enough."

Then Aerot felt it too. The pain was excruciating, it did not make him cry out, but it was intense nonetheless. It was like something was being torn away from him, and something else was being forced into his being.

It went on that way for what seemed like a thousand years. The light spun about the world, and the two creatures there cried out in great pain. Then it suddenly grew quiet, as the pain was lifted from Aerot and Zaego.

The light stopped, and the Eclipse Stone became deadened. Rei let go, and watched it fall to the ground. Meekly he said to it, "No."

Then he fell to the floor in a heap. Aerot ran over quickly to him, and felt his pulse. It felt normal, and he checked his own to make sure he himself wasn't dead. He was about to pick Rei off of the ground, when he spotted the Eclipse Stone not far off. Not that Aerot wanted to reshape anything, but he surely wasn't going to leave it for someone else.

As his fingers just about touched the metal, he heard sounds of a gun loading a bullet into the chamber. He turned, and saw Zaego pointing a gun at his head. "Weren't you drunk?"

"I don't know what any of this is about, and I don't think I want to know." Whatever had happened had apparently made the bird quite sober.

Aerot stretched his fingers, moving them towards the metal orb, "I'm just going to take this."

"I would gladly give it too you, it has brought me nothing but bane this eve, but… I'm not going to let someone like you have it."

"I was thinking the same thing."

"I'd just get out of here if I were you. Nothing good can come from you lingering."

He jerked a thumb towards Rei, "Mind if I take the bird."

Zaego shrugged, "Wouldn't bother me."

As Aerot took Rei by the shoulders, and lifted him onto his back, he thought about how much a fool Zaego was. Hadn't he learned, that if there was any sort of power in that orb, then Rei was the only one alive who could unlock it? Then again, maybe it was best to keep Rei and the Eclipse Stone separated.

The spirit, the one that must be an ancestor of his and that had possessed him before, now whispered into his ear, "It is all downhill from here."