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

Chapter Eight

It All Burns Up in the End

Rei was laying on a bed in the bowels of the Falcon. Locke and Celes stood over the tiger, talking about the day's anticipated attack.

"Had Kefka not done him in, Rei woulda fought with us..." said Locke. "Kefka killed him to prevent his betrayal. Just like General Leo."

Celes nodded. "Too bad. He was kinda cute."

Locke shot Celes a sarcastic glance. Celes chuckled and continued, "For a tiger that is."

Terra had long since healed Rei's wounds... but his life remained depleted. Celes shook her head. "This isn't right. Parallel universes and such nonsense. It might be catastrophic... it might lead to our deaths..."

"Correction- will lead to our deaths," Locke said, putting his arms around Celes. "Unless we do something. Terra is willing to die to destroy Goloros. What about you? And me?"

Celes shook her head. "I'm scared. I'll admit that. I believe that if something costs my life than I paid to high a price."

"Yeah... I feel the same way. To cling to life, to embrace every moment. That is human nature, isn't it..."

Locke took Celes up into his arms and kissed her. She whispered, "They don't know yet, do they? That we plan to be married?"

"I don't want Terra to die knowing she will miss that. It is better to leave that unsaid..."

"Perhaps you're right, Locke. But if you ain't..."

Celes broke free of Locke's embrace and left the room. Locke's head drooped and he uttered a prayer. He turned his attention to Rei's daggers, laying on the small table by the bed. He picked them up and sheathed them in his belt loops. "I'll take your share, Rei. Don't worry."

Celes emerged on the deck of the Falcon where the rest of the troop were already standing. Setzer, who had been dozing off by the wheel, perked up and said, "All set? Once we get to Thamasa there ain't no turnin' back."

Celes nodded once. "Let's do this."

Setzer fired up the Falcon's engines and the gigantic blimp lifted itself into the air. Locke crawled up onto the deck and nodded towards Terra.

Terra looked very solemn. She rolled the hunter around and around in her hand, as if she was having second thoughts about it all. Humans had this world, Espers had that. Half-breeds had nowhere. That's how it was. That's how it would always be. Her death would mean peace to millions of people all around the globe. Her life would mean another War of the Magi.

As Thamasa came into view, Nicholi's house, everyone's heart dropped. Locke said another somber prayer. Celes drew her sword. Terra placed the hunter in a fold of her long cape. X shifted into "Emerald Mode" as he called it, with the power of the Emerald WEAPON. Setzer kissed his lucky Ace, which he always did before a major battle.

Relm and Strago exchanged a kind word.

The Falcon landed in a grassy field outside of the city. The eight exchanged glances and final fears, then proceded to the city itself. On the way, Terra stopped to put a rose on General Leo's grave...

The city was quiet. The large tree in the center of town was decorated with colorful ornaments, a tradition the chilren of the town did every year to celebrate Christmas.

They approached Nicholi's house. Ariel, still wearing her somewhat tattered dress, shivered in the cold. X mouthed the word "ready" to his comrades.

Seven nods.

X turned to the oaken door of the house and pounded it in. What they beheld surprised them.

There were no walls. No furniture. No fireplace. Nothing. A void, where galaxies, star systems, and other cosmic objects could be seen off into infinity. X tapped the "ground" in front of him with his foot. "It's solid," he said, and led his companions inside.

A minute passed in dull silence. The door seemed to have disappeared behind them; just another infinite direction of space. "Come out, Goloros," braved Terra, readying her hunter."

"Goloros is gone," a voice came from everywhere and nowhere and within them and above them and...

Terra's head hurt so badly she collapsed to the ground. "Terra..!" Setzer knelt next to her and held her hand. She was crying.

"Terra are you okay?" her friends crowded around Terra to see what was wrong. "Nicholi. Has killed Goloros... and he now has merged the power of the Sacred Esper and the Mu Esper into one... his energy is a complete paradox- the protection and defense of all that isn't."

Locke shook his head. "Terra, what does that mean?"

"It means this place doesn't exist. And neither do we. And neither does he. I'm not sure what it all means. But the hunter will do us no good..."

The second Terra spoke that the hunter vanished from her hand with a small smokey explosion and a popping sound.

"This isn't funny, Nicholi!" yelled Strago in his aged, greying voice. "Please cease this at once!"

"I tire of your words old man," and they were no more. When Strago tried to retort, he found himself silenced. "Strago!" exclaimed Relm. The old man gripped his throat. It was as though Nicholi had stolen his voice.

X charged up his buster. Or did he? There was no charge, no energy to absorb. Not even a normal shot could be fired. "What the hell!?" he yelled, enraged.

Nicholi's form materialized in front of the team. He was dressed much like he was, but his eyes were a deep glowing blue. "Do you really need all those companions, Terra? You and I are the same. Half of us is an Esper, the other half a human."

Nicholi snapped his fingers. In a flash of light, he and Terra were alone. The darkness seemed to scream out to her, to pull at her very existance.

"Where are my friends, Nicholi?"

"But you and I are different, Terra. You enjoy the human world. To be imperfect."

"Espers are just as imperfect."

"I, on the other hand, adore power. Power unabridged and unbridled."

"Nicholi you're talking crazy."

"Why? Because I love this power? Because it suits me so nicely?"

"There is no power. It's all an illusion. This world, this place. It is nothing because Goloros was nothing."

"How do you say that?"

"Goloros WAS nothing. He was the Esper of Nothingness, of non-existance. So this world is nothing, it was created by his power, your power."

"And it was with that power he was going to rule this world!"

Terra was taken aback. "What do you plan to do?"

"To destroy the timespace barrier, of course. And reinact the War of the Magi. I'll take this pitiful little planet apart and reshape it to my own needs and wishes."

Terra shook her head. "That's what Kefka tried to do! You aren't any more powerful than he was! You have no power over this place, you just have the illusion that you do!"

Nicholi chuckled.

To prove her point, Terra concentrated on the non-being of this place and drew into existance a sword... she picked it up and held it out in front of her.

"It was this same power, the Mu that Goloros controlled, that allowed him to create real people from fictional books. It was this power that created the illusion of the fictional death."

"Is it an illusion? Did you not feel Kefka's spell, or the pain when X talked so calmly about Leo? Did you not see Rei's dead body, and the tears in Ariel's eyes as she beheld it? Did you not feel the water forced upon you by the Emerald WEAPON?"

Terra shook her head. "That's the illusion. To them, this world is all a lie, a fairy tale. To X we're just characters in a video game."

"You are only lying to yourself, Terra. There are no illusions of power or death. There is only reality."

"I have as much power over this realm as you do, even if I am sane. If we fight we cannot destroy one another."

Nicholi did just that. In an instant, the two were standing on a battlefield surrounded by soldiers of a medeival army, donning swords and axes, and some with bows. "Really, Terra? Then beat this!"

Terra looked around her. One of the soldiers cried out, "Death to the girl!"

With that, every soldier began crying out the same thing. These four simple words fell into a demonic chant that echoed through Terra's ears. She looked at Nicholi, fear filling her eyes. "You see, Terra? This is the true power of Mu. The ability to breath life into anything and create anything, to be, Terra. To be."

"Mu isn't, it doesn't exist! That is its sole purpose, to not exist! It has no form, no life, therefore can be used in any form, in any life. And if you don't believe in Mu, it cannot hurt you!"

"Tell it to them!" Nicholi cackled, as the war around them raged across the grass towards them. Thousands of warriors flew into them... they ignored Nicholi but had one common enemy.

Swords clashed through the air, arrows peppered down from the sky. Magicks flew back and forth like a ping pong game. But nothing hit Terra- the blows all fell onto the combatants themselves.

And when it was over, the field was turned into a vast pool of blood and corpses. Terra and Nicholi stood amongst them, unhurt. "How..." stammered Nicholi.

Terra shook her head. "I have the same power over them. I created into there minds a different foe- each other. So they fought until they were all dead."

"Then how does it feel! To cost the lives of thousands of soldiers!!"

"They weren't real, Nicholi. None of it is real. This blood, those bodies, you and I. Nothing here exists- and that is the essense of Mu!"

Nicholi growled as Terra continued. "The real life is out there. If you succeed in destroying the timespace barrier, and the War of the Magi reccurs, then you will be responsible for many lives lost. Maybe Goloros would have lived with that, the Esper of Nothingness, but not your father. Not the Esper of Truth and Knighthood."

Nicholi fell to his knees, gasping. "Fa...ther?"

Terra turned her head. Standing among the bodies of five fallen archers was Alexander. He held out his hand, armed with a pearly gauntlet, and said, "You have done well, Terra. Better than I expected I admit."

Terra sighed. "Nicholi was used by Goloros. He tried to use me too- to get at the only people on Earth who were half Esper."

Alexander nodded as his son wept. "But it is over now. Magic is starting to dissipate now that Goloros has been sealed in our realm, and soon you and Nicholi will face the consequences."

Terra nodded, understanding her fate. "It shall be so."

Alexander drew his sword and thrusted it into the ground ahead of him. What sounded like an explosion erupted off in the distance. The grass and blood and weapons and corpses fell away, and once again Terra was standing in Nicholi's house in Thamasa. She looked around. Her rival was laying still on the couch in front of her. And her friends gathered around her with looks of awe.

"Terra, are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"Is it over?"

She nodded weakly. In her hand was the hunter...

Outside, for the first time in over fifty years, snow fell over Thamasa. All over the city, little children were playing in it. "C'mon, Strago," said Relm, throwing her arms around her grandfather's neck. "Let's go build a snowman."

Locke handed Ariel Rei's knives. "I'm kinda glad I didn't have to use these. Something didn't feel right." Ariel nodded. The knives looked gigantic in her tiny hands.

Locke, Celes, Relm, and Strago left the house. X took hold of Terra'a hand, the one with the hunter... he felt the cool gem against his 'flesh.'

"Terra, it's about that time."

Terra nodded and shot Setzer a smile. He smiled too. Maybe it was the first time in a while either of them were able to smile. X turned to Ariel and said, "Princess, let's go home."

Terra took a step towards Setzer. For the first time since he knew Setzer, she saw a gentleness in his eyes... something she wasn't sure existed. "Setzer, I will accompany X and Ariel back home. If this hunter remains here then the means of shattering the timespace barrier would be accessable by another war-driven human."

Setzer nodded once. "An' dontcha think that Rei's buddy should know about his death? Rei died like a war hero..."

Ariel agreed, "Rei's done so much for me, here, that it would be disrespectful to let him die without his best friend... his brother... knowing."

Terra nodded. "Okay."

Setzer kissed Terra's forehead. "See you in a bit. I'm gonna go help with that snowman."

Terra smiled as the hunter took her and her friends off to another realm...

Setzer sighed deeply and looked outside. Strago and Relm had the buildings of a great snowman in the works. Celes and Locke were enthralled by a heartlifting snowball fight. Setzer rolled his trusty dice around in his hands. As he left Nicholi to rest, he threw his lucky Ace into the snow building up by the front stairs.

He no longer needed it.

Tears of the Brood

Nina tried to comfort her friend Ryu by rubbing his shoulders and speaking consoling words. It had been four days since Rei disappeared in that silver light.

As the rain thickened outside, Nina noticed a flash of light on the horizon. "Ryu! Look!"

Ryu spun around to see the light approaching them. He reached for his sword, but opted instead to shield his eyes from the burning light.

When he opened them, three strange people stood in front of him. First instinct- to draw his sword and insist combat. But he sensed a gentleness behind their wartorn bodies.

"Are you Ryu?" a girl with long, red hair spoke. Ryu and Nina exchanged glances once. "Yeah," said Ryu, not knowing what to expect.

"And you must be Princess Nina, with the wings."

Nina nodded as well. "Who are you?"

"I'm afraid I have bad news for both of you... my name is Ariel. And yesterday your friend- Rei- gave his life so that my friends and I could live and save a world from a terrible war..."

Ryu gasped. "You lie! I don't even know you!"

A silent tear trickled down Ariel's face as she produces Rei's knives. "He was being manipulated by an evil magician. But at the last minute he helped us instead. He said... he said that he was in a lot of pain, and died honorably and peacefully."

Ryu picked up the knives in disbelief. "They do look like the knives Rei would use."

He turned to Nina for reassurement, but found nothing but tears.

"Brother... Rei, no..."

Ariel wanted to explain, but Terra shook her head. "I have to go now, time is short... but don't blame yourselves or Rei... he did what he felt he had to do."

Ryu wanted to thank her, but by the time he wiped the mist away from his eyes the strangers were gone. He felt his knees weaken, and fell into Nina's arms.

"Rest in peace, brother..."

The storm quieted down and the rain stopped falling. The sun poked its fiery rays over the horizon. And Ryu felt, truely now, that he was alone.

Final Fantasy VII

X's world was very different from what Ariel and Terra had ever seen. Both girls would have been very content to stay and explore this realm, and to meet X's friends, but he insisted he could find his own way home.

X walked through the door of his bedroom and came together with his bed like two drops of water. The room was filled with the sounds of video game music that he had come to loathe- Zero and his friends were up till all hours playing those stupid games!

"Zero! Aren't you even going to say hi to me?"

"Oh, sorry, X. Didn't see ya come in." Zero didn't even flinch, completely enthralled in his game.

"Well, I've been gone for four days!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

X was enfuriated. "Lemme guess. You've been playing this game the whole time. Which one is this?"

"Final Fantasy 7."

X rolled his eyes. "Indeed."

"Yep. I'm up against a million hit point monster called the Emerald WEAPON and I can't be disturbed."

Something shot through X like a bee sting. "Did you say... Emerald WEAPON?"

"Yep."

Suddenly X became very interested in the game. The combatants of the battle were nothing less than funny- a human with spikey blonde hair, a giant white blob with a grey cat stuck on its head, and a man with long black hair and a red cape...

"Vincent Valentine!?" X exclaimed. Zero nodded. "He's my favorite character! Watch this...!"

The words Vincent LIMIT BREAK appeared in a thin pink box along the top of the TV screen, and Vincent began to morph into a gigantic beast. "Chaos rules! X, I really think you'd like this game."

X laughed. "Doesn't this just beat all?"

Espers of Another World

It was the fourth day that Ariel had been gone. Triton sighed to himself, waiting on the beach for Eric to arrive.

Eric knelt next to his father-in-law and shook his head sadly. "No sign of her, anywhere. It's almost like... magic."

Triton nodded. "I'll bet. But I won't stop, not until I get to the bottom of this." Triton noticed a suddenly frightened look on Eric's face. "Is, is something wrong?"

Eric pointed out into the ocean, where a blinding silver light was flying towards them. "It's the same magic that descended onto my ship four days ago...!"

Eric and Triton had to shield their eyes from the light, seething through the sky with a crackling sound.

He didn't open them again until he heard a familiar voice behind him say, "Oof! That was a lot bumpier than the landing into X's world..."

"Ariel!?"

Eric ran up to his lost wife and threw his arms around her. Terra brushed the sand off of her arms and smiled. "Well, that's that."

Eric and Ariel gazed into each other's eyes for a minute, then Ariel felt that introductions were in order. "Eric, Daddy, this is my friend Terra... she helped me get home."

Terra blushed a little, not used to this kind of family attention.

"Er... hi," said Eric strangely. Ariel noticed an odd look on the faces of her husband and father and retorted, "Well that are you staring at?"

Terra knew.

"Well, Ariel... it's just that Terra has green hair. That's odd, even for a human. You aren't into that dying business, are you young lady?"

Terra shook her head. "No... it's just that I'm not human, not exactly."

She felt obligated to explain the story to them, but knew that her time was running out. Even now she felt her energy depleting. She saw Triton was about to ask her something, so she interrupted. "You really are amazing... Ariel. Exactly like my father. You see something in humans you aren't supposed to, something I'm not sure I see myself."

Ariel smiled.

"It's wrong, for races so different to clash like this. But I hope the merfolk and humans of this world have a better go at it than the Espers and humans in mine."

Terra slipped the hunter into Ariel's hand. "Use this on me. Then get rid of it- somewhere no one will ever find it."

"Don't worry, Terra. I know just the place."

Terra hugged her new friend. "Let's try to keep the interdimensional barriers in place for a while."

It was harder than Ariel expected, but the hunter reacted to her thoughts. And Terra's form dissolved from in front of them...

Lucrecia's Wish Remains Ungranted

Vincent sat hugging his legs on the cliff of a crater peering into the last remaining Lifestream well on the planet. Once again, his stack of sins grew. He had been unable to bring honor to Lucrecia and Sephiroth...

The snow blew relentlessly around the mountainpeak, chilling Vincent straight to the bone. His tears froze to his face. He didn't know how to make it right.

"I have failed you again."

Vincent took the unholy emblem he wore around his neck and threw it into the pool. His quote-unquote friends were off somewhere in the world, chasing destinies they would never achieve.

Vincent looked into the Lifestream and fancied he saw Lucrecia in the tides, beckoning towards him...

Vincent stood up tall, opened his arms, and closed his eyes, and fell forward into the Lifestream. He felt strange as his form melted into the liquid. "Lucrecia..."

The End

Terra appeared weakly in front of Setzer, who sat alone in her small house in Thamasa. He leapt to his feet and fell to her side. "Terra! I've been waiting all day for you!"

Terra tried to open her eyes, but couldn't. "Setzer..."

Setzer suddenly remembered what Terra had told him would happen after magic left the planet. "My God, Terra..."

Terra lay there wheezing weakly, her chest rising and falling slightly. She had passed out, and Setzer tearfully lifted her up and set her on her bed on the second floor of the house.

Setzer fell asleep holding her hand...

Once, Terra had thought she heard her father's voice. It was years ago, as she and her friends were leaving Kefka's tower... she heard him say something about being so attached to something or someone in the human world that she could survive there herself...

...late that night, in her sleep, Terra's hair drained its color, leaving it a thin, pale shade of blonde...

The End.