- Final Fantasy III - Final Fantasy VII - Breath of Fire III - Megaman X - The Little Mermaid -

Chapter Seven

The Legacy of Dr. Light

Relm and Locke, still completely soaked, lay shivering near a crudely made fire. X felt sorry for them as he finished the makeshift repairs on his foot. Humans fascinated him. Sometimes X regretted that he was so close to being a human, yet so far away... but seeing them shivering like that, so touched by the cold to the brink of pain, he almost pitied them.

X sighed deeply. He would be able to walk again, but his jet thrusters were completely scrapped. Moreover, his auxilary power was due to give out in only a couple days. If he didn't defeat this monster quickly, and begin looking at alternate power sources... then he would "die."

X's own guns wouldn't work. His enemy's mechanical portions obviously had no bearing whatsoever on the overall creature, otherwise such a blast of buster would have reduced it to cinders. No, it would take some extreme firepower to scrap that mountain of monster.

"Alright," said X to himself. "My traditional cannons are nothing against that thing. But the only other things around is snow and trees. Dammit."

X kicked the tree next to him, and a thin layer of snow fell overtop of him. He cursed under his breath and wiped it off. His finger touched upon the gem in his helmet that stored any abilities he absorbed...

...was that the answer?

If X could absorb just one of those powerful lasers, he could analyze it, and with any luck, duplicate it. "It's worth a shot," he said. He glanced at his human companions once more.

"Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters, incapable of any feeling..." X chuckled to himself, quoting a line he remembered from The Little Mermaid. "Maybe we Reploids are the same way...? All we do is fight, fight, and fight some more. Is that... what Dr. Light wanted for me?"

Relm sneezed once in her sleep and rolled over. "Are humans really worth it?"

He stood up and brushed the remaining snow from his metallic form. "Well, X, let's go chop up Sigma's big brother."

X looked out at the ocean from a cliff on one side of the island. The ocean seemed different from the ocean in his own. Maybe it was because the ocean in his world had 200 years of pollution pumped into it. Or perhaps it was the sheer magic he felt in this world.

Zero had played Final Fantasy 6 before. X wasn't very familiar with it, but he vaguely remembered stuff like Espers, magic, and airships.

X fired a shot from his arm cannon into the ocean in an attempt to lure his foe to him. At first it didn't work, but after three shots the thing poked its "head" out of the water. It emitted a low rumble, the vibrations nearly stole X's footing out from under him.

"Alright, bad ass. Let's get this show on the road."

Instantly, the demon fired its laser light show upon X. X opened his arms wide, bracing himself.

The initial impact of the first beam pinned X to a tree... the second he regained control, he scrambled for cover behind a large rock, gasping for air. He sat there, amazed he was still alive, while his internal systems analyzed the laser.

Within 20 seconds the gem on his forehead flashed... his armor shifted color to a prismatic emerald green.

"It's nighty night time. Let's rock and roll!"

X leapt to his feet and blared forward. He catapulted himself from the edge of the cliff into the sea below.

Once underwater, X had a full view of this entity. It was enormous, bigger than anything Sigma had thrown at him. The entire body was a dull green... and it had two enormous looking claws, sharper and meaner than anything X had previously fought.

These claws, X decided, would be his first target. He grappled onto the cliff behind him with his feet and charged his cannon as long as he could stand the intense pressure. He released the beam with a scream of rage and pain. Thousands of needle-thin white rays flew from his cannon, pelting the brute from all sides. With each hit, a new victory, another explosion, another stream of smoke and bubbles. It was a full minute before X stopped the fire, thouroughly exhausted.

He watched in awe as one of these emerald claws detached and fell towards the abyss below. The other one hung by a thin strip of fleshy metal. The beast groaned in pain.

"Time to take out the trash...!"

X charged another shot of this alien beam, holding the charge slightly longer than he thought he was capable of. This time, however, he resorted to an old Reploid technique. He fired a small shot of his normal buster into the fray of needles as well.

A blinding explosion ensued. Each thin ray of light exploded into a screaming river of death, each of which penetrated through its emerald armor. The beast staggered backwards under the intense barrage of laserfire... this assault whipped around the beast like a whirlwind, tearing at its flesh and destroying without malice.

When it was over, the dead monster (now in four large, noticable peices and uncountable smaller ones) sunk sadly to the ocean floor.

"If there are any mermaids down there," X called, "sorry about the litter!"

X crawled back onto the cliff, and sank to the ground, panting. Off in the distance, he fancied he heard the faint whisper of airship propellers.

As his armor shifted back into its normal white shade, X muttered, "Hey, Goloros... wanna play tag?"

A Weretiger's Aching Heart

It was noon the next day. Setzer flew the Falcon (the Falcon's controls were right on the deck) while his friends scanned the chain of islands below them for any sign of X, Locke, or Relm. They were flying low, so as to see the islands, and a flurry of snow blew over the deck.

They flew like this for a few hours, sharing smalltalk and faint hopes of victory. Suddenly, Terra sunk to her feet. "I can hear it."

"What do you mean?" offered Ariel, kneeling next to her friend. A cold sweat covered Terra's face and she felt quite feverish. "The air around us, like a void... Kefka's energy..."

Setzer shook his head. "I'll be damned if he's gonna take Daryl's airship. The son of a bitch alreay got two of mine."

Thunderclaps erupted around them, signifying a large storm. Yet the clouds were white, and nothing but a light layer of snowflakes fell from above.

"It is Kefka," said Terra simply. "This time we have to be ready for him."

"But you're never ready for me, dear little Terra. I always get my way,"

Terra and Ariel spun around to behold Kefka standing in front of them. On either side stood Vincent and Rei.

Vincent held his gun towards Ariel and said, "By the word of our master Goloros, I must execute you."

Vincent pulled back the hammer of his rifle and set his finger on the trigger. Terra tried to move, to cast a spell, to yell a warning, but some barrier held her in her place.

"Rei..." muttered Ariel. Rei's head sunk and he turned his back to the two girls.

"Yo Vinnie!"

Vincent spun around, distracted, giving time for Ariel to grab Terra by the hand and escape. Vincent saw Setzer standing in front of him... and three dice landed by his toes.

"Six, six, six... ain't that yo lucky number, monster man!?"

Suddenly, Vincent dropped his rifle and gripped his stomach in pain. He fell to his knees, screaming hoarsely. He rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes.

"Ooo, I guess not. To bad for you."

Then, Setzer too was wrenched with pain. He looked around him. Celes, Terra, and Strago all fell in the same manner. Rei sat against one of the Falcon's metal pillars, holding his head.

Kefka, who had paralyzed his nemeses, turned his attention to Ariel. "Hah! If Goloros wants this red-headed chick dead, SHE'S GONNA DIE!!" He flung a small, blue ball of force towards Ariel. It hit her directly in the chest, and she fell to the ground, gasping for air. She rolled dangerously near the edge of the Falcon's deck.

Kefka walked up to her. "Pitiful little creature. Isn't it ironic that a former mermaid should die by drowning? Hah!" He set his foot on Ariel's shoulder, ready to roll her over the side. She tried in vain to grab his ankle, to gain her footing, anything...

"Say 'hi' to Gestahl while you're down there, sea-slut!"

Ariel caught a faint glimpse of Rei's knife shattering forward through Kefka's body. The magician screamed in horror at the sight of his own blood, and he fell backwards... impaling the knife further through his chest.

Rei knelt next to Ariel and held his arm around her. "Rei..."

"Sorry 'bout the delay, Princess."

"I can't walk... and we have to help Terra... and the others..."

Rei nodded as he watched Kefka scramble to his feet. "Well, well, well. The weretiger's a traitor." He fondled Rei's knife in his hand.

Somewhere behind Kefka, Celes ragained control of herself. Her runic blade shined as she concentrated her magitek energy into it.

Rei stood in between Kefka and Ariel. "What you got up your sleeves now, Kefka? I'll die before I let you hurt Ariel again. I'll die before you hurt anyone again."

Kefka rolled his eyes. "How heroic of you, you raving lunatic! Prepare to go to tiger heaven, or tiger hell, whichever you prefer."

A crackle of electrical energy surrounded Kefka, and what looked like fierce winds whipped around his loose, tacky robes. "Move out of the way, you miserable animal! Or I shoot through you!"

Celes climbed to her feet. She was a good distance from Kefka... but with a prayer and a little luck...

Rei shook his head. "Brace yourself, Princess..."

Kefka released his bolt of energy. Rei jumped into it, like an interceptor, and took the full brunt of the blast.

Likewise, Celes sent a fiery bolt into the back of Kefka's head. It dazed him to the point where he fell over next to Vincent, unconsious.

As the others were coming around, Celes helped Ariel to her feet. Rei was awake, breathing sparsely... Ariel was taken aback to his condition... his fur was singed and he was bleeding profusely. His knife lay next to him (the other one laying next to Kefka) discarded. "Princess..." he said weakly.

"I'm sorry..."

Ariel's eyes filled with tears. "No, Rei! You can't die! You'll go home, like me and X, and be with your friend Ryu and that princess Nina... you have a life to go back to... please don't throw it away, please!"

Celes set to work in a futile attempt to magically cure Rei's wounds.

Rei shook his head weakly. "Ever since my brothers an' me were beat up nine years ago I been lookin' forward to dyin'... life an' love an' happiness don't care 'bout me. Now I can... rest... don't it just beat all...?"

Rei's eyes slowly closed, and the grip he had on Ariel's hand relaxed. Ariel sobbed loudly.

Celes turned and walked over to Terra, who was examining the still-breathing bodies of Kefka and Vincent. "What now, Terra?"

Terra shook her head. "The hunter can send them back to where they belong," she sighed, and concentrated energy into the stone. The form of their foes dissolved, back from whence they came.

"But we can't help Rei. I guess death is just as real in any world."

Terra set her hand on Ariel's shoulder. "He was in pain. I could feel it. Pain like I've never seen before."

That night, Terra lay awake in her bed. She had seen that pain before. On the ship, 13 years ago, with Locke and Celes and Shadow...

...the look on Leo's face when she asked him about love...

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night

X led Locke and Relm up the ramp into the Falcon.

Setzer had spotted X's laserfire, which he was using as a flare gun, and landed the Falcon instantly.

The two groups exchanged stories, about the giant demon and Rei and the hunter. They were all in solemn moods, but at least the time for a counter attack had come. Once Goloros came into view, it would all be over.

"Here's the Magus specialty egg nog," said Strago, handing all his friends a mug of thick drink. "A special blend of cinnimon and rum for extra kick."

Ariel, Relm, and X weren't used to alcohol, but tipped their glasses in the spirit of the evening. It was Christmas Eve, and there was a lot to talk about.

Even though they now had the means to return home, X and Ariel opted to stay by their friends to the bitter end. Live or die, win or lose, each and every one of them made a promise to stick together, whatever it took.

"Very strong, Strago. Excellent way to take your mind off things," offered Locke, who had a signifigant nog mustache above his lip. Celes chuckled and wiped it off for him.

"Thank you, Locke. It's an old recipe handed down by..."

"In leiu of listening to one of Strago's old boring stories," interrupted Relm, "I would like to propose a toast. To the spirit of Christmas."

"However bad it is!" added Setzer. Eight mugs met over the round table in the meeting room of the Falcon, spilling egg nog over the wooden finish.

"When I was growing up," said Locke, "me and my friends would build snowmen. We made big fat ones, little skinny ones, we used carrots for their noses and shiny rocks for their eyes." he gazed at the falling snow outside of the window. The Falcon was still landed on the island where he, Relm, and X were found. "The day my mom an' dad told me we were moving across the sea to Kohlingen I was halfway into building one. It was the best one I had ever made. But I was so pissed off that i kicked it over and threw a packed snowball at my dad's head. I never forgave him for moving so often as a kid, maybe that's why I'm the way I am now. A rebel, a wanderer."

He chuckled. "I haven't made a snowman in a long time." Ariel, who had always lived in a temperate climate without snow, replied, "I never have made one."

"It's a childhood memory I never had," said Celes. "I had to shoot through my childhood so fast because I was a Magitek Knight. Sometimes I regret that..."

"Weren't you raised by Cid?" asked Relm.

Cid had died from an illness 2 years ago, and Celes had given the uligy at his funeral. "Kind of. But I never knew my real parents and he was always so wrapped up in Gestahl's stuff it was hard to get to him."

"But at least you had someone to look after you, even in the Empire," said Terra. "I was 'raised' by the man who murdered my mother and held my father captive for 16 years."

Strago nodded. "All of us have had pretty bad childhoods, actually. Even little Relm... her mother was killed in an Imperial attack and her father... set off to hunt them. Even today we don't know where he is."

Relm looked solemnly into her half-filled mug.

Strago chuckled. "And I know it was no picnic growing up with an old man like me."

Relm cracked a slight smile. "Yep. Maybe Ariel had better luck with her dad."

Ariel smiled and shook her head. "Not really. Living as a princess is an overwhelming challenge... and my dad is as strict as they come. To the point where he restricted me to what I could dream about..." she sighed and sipped her egg nog. "I love Daddy, of course, but I'd really rather love him from a distance- know what I mean?"

X shook his head. "I ain't got a family to speak of, a bunch of war-torn Reploids. Nothing more. It gets really old. I have a lot of emotions I hardly ever use because of my lacking family life- love, compassion, brotherhood... about the only real emotion I know is lonliness..."

"What about you, Setzer?" asked Locke, wiping a drop of spilt nog off of the table with his sleeve. "We all spilled our hearts out. Your turn."

Setzer sighed. "My mamma was always drunk an' sleepin' around. An' my dad use to beat the hell out of me. I remember one day, my 15th birthday, he was throwin' stuff at me and hollerin' something fierce when I stabbed him with a screwdriver. He had to go to the hospital. But I didn't visit him. I left my mom a note sayin' that I was leaving the two of 'em forever. I walked all the way to Jidoor, where I met Daryl." He closed his eyes and remembered his lost friend. "She got me into gamblin' and black market stuff. Drugs, cloak and dagger. It was a stroke of luck that I won what I did off the Empire... and I took off again. I lft Jidoor on my Blackjack with Daryl at my side. She promised me she would never leave me."

Setzer pulled a shimmering gold ring out of his pocket, with a diamond heart set into it. "I was gonna give her this on the day of the race that killed her. I was gonna ask her to marry me but..."

The room fell silent for a few minutes. Then Locke stood up. "Here's to a bunch of people who've been beaten into the mud and dragged back in for the kill!"

"To us!" X seconded.

Terra laid the magicite shard she wore around her neck on the table. "No matter what happens, guys... don't leave me tomorrow..."

Mad With Power, High on Greed

Goloros scremed at the thought of his four allies being defeated. Kefka, Rei, Vincent, and even the Emerald WEAPON had fallen to this small band of rebels.

"I don't believe it..." Goloros' eyes shifted to a bloody red color... he was enraged. He snatched his staff, leaning against the wall of Nicholi's house in Thamasa.

Nicholi walked downstairs, a dismal look on his face. "By the blood of the Espers, Goloros, we are being defeated."

"We're still in good shape, Nicholi. We can still defeat them."

"How!?"

Nicholi stood over Goloros, breathing heavily. "We simply attack them ourselves. I am still the Esper of Mu, and you are still the son of Alexander."

"That means nothing if those people are strong enough to destroy the Emerald WEAPON. They beat Kefka, who was an omnicsient being! And Vincent, with his colored magic rocks!"

"You must confide in me, Nicholi! Have I ever steered you wrong? We are on the brink of power! Control! After this world, the entire multiverse lays ahead of us!"

"You lie. You have lied to me the whole time- you are just using me, using my heritage! You will succeed then throw me away like dirty laundry."

"I would never betray you, Nicholi." Goloros' eyes melted back into a dull grey. "What would I to gain if I had no followers?"

Nicholi stomped his foot. "You have done nothing! You have let those failures Vincent and Rei control the whole operation! And what have we to show for it? Setzer's dead whore and a wrecked airship!"

"Their airship was their greatest weapon."

"And now they have another one! They will foil us at every turn, Goloros, and you know it. Unless you have a drastically good plan I will betray you as well..."

Goloros sneered. "Time."

Nicholi was taken aback. "Time!? Are you mad?"

The Esper of Mu shook his head. "Terra plans to destroy me with an Esperian weapon called the hunter. After a few weeks they will realize that we won't attack them and come for us. By then we can create another fictional army, using people who won't betray us."

"Time. We wait, then."

"Yes. We wait."

Goloros calmly sat and twiddled his thumbs. Nicholi was messaging his temples, muttering.

"Who would we recruit then?"

"Ariel has a very powerful nemesis named Ursula, whose magic is of an ungodly calibur. And now that Rei is out of the way, I was thinking of summoning the dark goddess Myria. And according to Vincent, the Emerald WEAPON has three counterparts. We can rip this world to shreds with that kind of power."

Nicholi shook his head. "Ursula? Myria? More WEAPONS? Villianry and tyrrany! That won't work!"

"Why not?"

"Don't you know? Ariel, Rei, and Vincent are fictional characters! Their stories all end happily! Haven't you read my books?"

Goloros shook his head.

"Ursula was killed by Ariel's half-witted husband. Myria was destroyed by Ryu's Brood powers. And those WEAPONS were all felled by Vincent's cohorts or their likeness! Our adversaries are much more powerful than you think."

"Have you a better plan?"

Nicholi sneered. "We prematurely destroy the timespace barrier blocking the Esper passage into this world. With the Espers running amuck, the world will be flung into a chaotic battle not unlike the War of the Magi."

"Untill I have the power I yearn for, I am at the control of those Espers. It is no secret I am not a powerful member of Esperkind. Lady Phoenix could well smite me with her wings if she so chose."

"So instead you will summon a sea-bidden sorceress, a protective goddess, and three mindless destroyers? May I remind you of the folly that Ariel and X played. They betrayed us at first glance. Only the madman and the satanic warlock would join us."

"Our game is nothing satanic."

"So prove it- defeat them yourself."

Goloros bowed his head. "I haven't that power. If the fictional death doesn't destroy them, nothing will. If their worst nightmares don't scare them, then we have indeed lost. But untill I am dead and cold it is nothing I worry about. Do you still trust me?"

Goloros held out his hand. Nicholi accepted it. "I never did." Nicholi channeled his Esperian side, the power of the Sacred Esper Alexander, through his body and into Goloros'. The Esper of Nothingness looked into the eyes of his destroyer and mouthed something...

Goloros' energy was sealed behind the timespace barrier and Nicholi was alone in the room. "Okay, old man Strago. I'll kill you myself."

Goloros appeared in the center of the Council of Esperkind. Phoenix looked at him and said, "Goloros, you will now return your power to us and live as a peon."

Goloros sighed deeply. "My liege..."