Necromancy For Fun And Profit.
An Epic Quest sequel.
A/N: Yay! The not-so-long awaited sequel!
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate SG-1 nor Atlantis, I also do not own Final Fantasy Ten or Ten-Two. Oh, I also do not own any of the other series that may have cameos within this fic.
I do however, own all the characters you do not recognize. I would name them, but there are far too many of them. Also, Xander, Tara, Skye, Souron, Kayden, Becca, Batalax and Nysa are based off of real people, but I do not own them, except for Nysa, who is me.
Chapter Ten.
The end of a tragedy
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Appearing to be completely flippant, Nysa leaned over in Rikku's direction and whispered loudly, "He looks really familiar, wasn't he that guy off of Spiran Idol?"
Rikku let out a startled laugh, but unlike Nysa, she couldn't fake being relaxed. Her hands were gripping her claws so tightly that her knuckles were white. She wanted to change into a Dressphere, but was too scared to move.
Nysa continued speaking in the same flippant tone, as Seymour actually walked into view, "I'm pretty sure he was kicked off because he sucked. And because... wow, he's joined the Heartless. What a loser! I didn't vote for him, that's for sure. I mean, really. Blue hair? Who does that? And that outfit, can you say out of fashion? Was it ever actually in fashion?"
Rikku still hadn't moved a muscle, but her eyes were wide, and she had no idea what Nysa was talking about, other than the fact that she was very obviously pissing off someone who could easily tear an Aeon apart with his BARE HANDS!
Sora, sweet, naïve, Sora, seemed to dislike the tension in the room, so he jumped forward, "Who're you?" He demanded.
"Didn't you hear me?" Nysa asked, somewhat hysterically, "He's a loser! And-- and... Seriously, how many times do we have to kill you before you'll get the hint... nobody likes you!"
"Such Spirit..." Seymour said in his cool monotone voice. "I shall enjoy crushing it." His eyes glinted with madness, "Or, Lady Nysa, would you prefer I... buried it?"
Nysa's face went pale and she took a half step back before stopping herself. She closed her eyes and breathed out deeply before opening them again. She raised a hand and pointed at him, "This time, Lord Seymour... I will send you."
Rikku's hands were twitching with the need to throw something highly explosive, and she would have, if she could get her fingers to obey and release their tight hold on her claws.
"Who is he?" Donald asked.
"He's a bastard who orders innocent people to be killed." Akail... Nysa shook herself, "He's also dead. He's what we call an unsent, a spirit who has yet to pass on, because they feel like they are still needed, or they are unable to enter the Farplane. This... thing, wants to destroy the world."
"And that child made it so simple..." Seymour agreed. "I just had to hint that one of the precious princesses were on this planet... and he did the rest of the work for me."
Nysa shot a dark look at Riku, but forced herself not to lay all the blame on him. Seymour was known for being able to sweet talk people. She had had the upper hand with him, in knowing what he was like before even meeting him.
"Spira is not your nesting grounds anymore. By decree of law 238, Seymour Guado, is to be sent to the Farplane." Nysa said, making up a law on the spot, and knowing that Batalax would agree with it.
Seymour laughed darkly, "Nothing can stop me now!"
"Oh yeah?" Sora said from behind him.
Nysa smirked as Sora's keyblade was stabbed through the unsuspecting Unsents chest. The unsent had been far to easy to distract. He was still staring down at the blade in his chest with a look of confusion.
"I'm sorry that you were treated so horribly because of being a crossbreed, I really am. But what you have done... is unforgivable. Seymour Guado... Goodbye." Nysa raised her hands, one to just above her chest, and the other to above her head, and then she began to dance.
Seymour started to struggle, but the keyblade through his chest kept him in place. "No!" He cursed, as his body began to turn to pireflies, "First... my own mother stripping me of everything... and now this? I was going to save Spira! I was going to end the pain! We could have ended the pain together..."
"We already did." Rikku spoke softly, still not moving, even though he was barely visible. "And we did it in a way that didn't end all life! Your plan sucked! I wasn't going to let Yunie die!"
Seymour said nothing more, as he finally was sent to the Farplane, where he would hopefully, stay for good. Nysa stopped dancing and swayed slightly, it had been a little over a year since she had had to dance the sending. Rikku was at her side instantly, to steady her. Falling into the roll of guardian easily. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah..." Nysa said tiredly, she stood up and moved away from Rikku's steadying hold, "It's been a while since I had to do that. I had forgotten how tiring it was." She was still swaying slightly, so Rikku made sure to stand close so she could catch her should she fall.
"I'm sorry." Riku said suddenly. "He tricked me." he looked at her, his eyes begging her to believe him, "He tricked me!"
"He does that." Nysa said softly. She was a little disappointed. She had hoped that the kid was actually going to change his ways, but she could tell that he wasn't. He wasn't saying sorry because he had sentenced a world to it's possible doom, he was saying sorry because he had sent the wrong world, to it's possible doom. "Come on, the keyhole should be in the next room."
Sora was looking between Rikku, Nysa and Riku, as if he really wanted to say something, but was holding back, afraid that he would get snapped at. Nysa reminded him of a less nice version of Leon, and Rikku reminded him of a quieter version of Yuffie. Something about Nysa seemed... wrong to him though, so he was being very careful what he said around her. He was mostly just wary because the keyblade was having a strange reaction to her presence. "Okay." he said finally. He ignored the confused looks of Donald and Goofy, and followed the two girls along with Riku into the chamber.
Along with the rest of this Zanarkand place, the room was in complete destruction. It was just ruins that were falling apart. He stayed silent as Nysa led them across the floor, but he couldn't quite stop his laugh when he heard Nysa mutter something to Rikku, "Who uses an attack called Mega Death anyway?"
"Scantily clad bimbo's who like to trick people into helping her eternal summon of a Father?" Rikku asked with a hint of a smile.
"Yeah. I hate that." Nysa replied back.
They continued walking till they were at the end of the chamber, and Nysa pointed down a flight of stairs that Rikku was sure hadn't been there a year and a couple months previously. Once they got to the bottom, Sora walked ahead so that he was next to Nysa. "You were right."
"I see that." she replied back quietly as they examined the Keyhole. "When you lock this, The Heartless will stop coming to this world, right?"
"Uhh.." Sora scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He hadn't really gone back to any of the worlds he had locked up, besides Traverse town, and it most definitely wasn't Heartless free. But it was also a world where the walls seperating it from other worlds were very thin.
"Yeah." Riku replied, when it appeared Sora wasn't going to. "I will make sure of it."
"Good."
There was a flash of light and a small click sound as the key hole was locked.
"It will probably take a while before they clear out completely." Riku said.
"Not if I kill them all." Nysa said with a dark smile. Seeing Seymour made it so that she was just itching for a fight.
"We'll help!" Sora offered.
"But Sora!" Donald argued, "We have to find the King!"
"You'll find him eventually." Nysa told them honestly. "It may take a while, but you will find him. Don't give up hope, and take every lead you can find. I'm sure he's out there waiting for you, somewhere."
Sora and his two companions, along with Riku, looked startled. It was the first nice thing she had said to them that they could tell she was being honest about.
Rikku was looking at her for an entirely different reason, as she knew that Nysa wasn't just talking about their King, but about Akail and Tidus as well.
"Let's get back to Bevelle." Nysa murmured. She had to get to Batalax, soon.
---
Batalax was startled to see that she was glowing. She was even more startled to see that in her reflection in the water that went along the Bevelle highway, she no longer looked like herself. Her reflection was that of a giant, skeletal, unicorn. Ixion. She looked at her hands quickly, but they were the hands of a normal human.
She looked around warily, all of the Heartless seemed to be gone, and she was sure she had something to do with it, but she wasn't sure what. For a second, when she had completely released that power, she knew things. She knew everything, but as soon as she had lost control of the power, the knowledge was gone, and for some reason, that left her feeling empty. She felt as if she had just been given an amazing gift, something that belonged to her, and then a second later, it was taken away.
"You're not ready." her reflection said.
"I know." She agreed automatically, without even questioning it. "Everything is out of order, and we are currently helpless to fix it."
"Soon." Her reflection replied.
And then exhaustion took her. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground. She heard a crack and felt a sharp pain as her head hit the ground, but she was helpless to stop it, and then everything went black.
---
"Guhhh..."
"Yevon! She's awake!" there was a sound of someone getting up and a door opening, "Sui! Get the Chiryooshakage and the Koorikage in here!" The door was closed a second later and she felt a cool hand on her forehead, along with a tingling sensation from her head to her toes. She recognized the feeling of a medical scan, different from the spell scan, in that it told the person using it where the person was hurt, instead of how to hurt the person.
Batalax opened her eyes blurredly and attempted to move her head, only to stop due to a severe pain. "What happened?" she demanded in a raspy tone.
"I was hoping you could tell me." Nysa said from the doorway, she was holding a vase of purple wildflowers that Batalax recognized, they grew on the road under the Highroad. "You've been unconscious for two weeks."
"Two weeks?" Batalax's eyes went wide, and she repeated the words a couple times as if to make sense of them. "I released the power. It was rash, I know, but.... there was nothing else... I had to."
Nysa's eyes widened. She knew exactly what Batalax meant by 'the power'. She herself, had barely touched on what that power was able to do, but unlike Batalax, she had actively been trying to improve her control over it since she had gotten it... but to release it? Nysa could feel that a good portion of her body wanted to release the power, but there was just... so much of it, she was afraid of what would happen. As the Kage that dealt in the protection of the people, she couldn't exactly endanger them just to see what she could do.
"It was reckless." Nysa hissed, "You could have killed yourself! ..You could have killed everyone! You weren't ready! We're not ready."
"I'm sorry." Batalax said simply. "Were there any casualties from my actions?"
"No." Yuna said before Nysa could open her mouth. "Actually, throughout the entire invasion, as far as we can tell, there were only fifteen deaths. Twelve civilians from the Calm Lands, two Chunnin, and--"
"I get to tell her!" Nysa blurted in excitement. "The last death wasn't so much of a death, as a sending. We sent Seymour to the Farplane!"
"I had wondered when he was going to show up again..." Batalax said tiredly, she yawned and shook her head, how could she be tired after sleeping for two weeks?
"B, we'll talk later, okay? Right now there's someone who really, really wants to see you."
Batalax gave a tired nod and watched at her two friends left the room only to be replaced with a sexy redhead.
"Hey," she said softly.
Luzzu sat down on the chair beside her bedside and moved it so that it was closer to her bed. He then took her hand in his and smiled down at her, "Hey yourself. Are you okay?"
Batalax was startled to realize that he was the first person to ask her that. Nysa had been more angry at her than anything, and Yuna had just calmly told her that she hadn't caused the deaths of hundreds like she had feared. This made her more upset than she would ever admit. She looked past Luzzu and took in the room for the first time. It was the Bevelle Hospital. She recognized the style, as each hospital had the symbol of the temple it had in the city. The room had a window, but it looked as if it was night, and raining. The room didn't have much for furniture, just the bed she was on, the chair Luzzu was on, a side table with a small machina light, and a table by the window that was covered in cards and flowers from well wishers.
"Ophelia?"
Batalax opened her mouth to tell him she was fine, but the words wouldn't come out. She was not fine. She was terrified. Something had changed that night, and she wasn't sure what it was. She just knew that it was really important. She could still feel the power of Ixion, and the wall that had been holding it back was no longer there, meaning she would have to continue to use the power, or it would build up and overflow. "No." she said, her voice little more than a whisper, "I don't know if I am."
"Do you want me to get a healer?"
"No." Batalax said quickly. Nysa's words were ringing in her ears.
You could have killed yourself! ..You could have killed everyone!
She closed her eyes as if would help block out Nysa's accusing voice.
You weren't ready! We're not ready.
"I didn't think... I just had to do... something."
"It's okay." And suddenly Luzzu was there, holding her closely.
"I don't think it is..." Batalax whispered.
---
"Hey pops. It's Rikku." she swallowed and closed her eyes to fight off tears, "The healers... they say there's a good chance you wont wake up. But I don't believe it. You're too stubborn to stay asleep, you hear me?" she gently pulled his lifeless hand into her own, "Brother was here earlier, but he was kicked out, cause apparently his shouting was bothering the other patients."
"...The Healers said that in another week, we can take you back to Home. You'd probably be more comfortable there; I know you hate hospitals."
"Rikku?"
"Oh, hey Yunie." Rikku looked away from her pops, "Is it time to go?" Yuna was standing in the slightly open doorway with a gentle smile on her pretty face.
"Yeah. We got some good news though; Ophelia's awake."
"That's great!" Rikku said with very little enthusiasm.
"The Healers said she'll be released at the end of the week, but she's to be on bed rest for another two weeks."
"She'll last a day at most." Rikku said with a quiet laugh. She placed her pops hand down and bent over to give him a kiss on the forehead, "I love you Pops."
She smiled tearfully at Yuna, and they left the room. Rikku was helping the Youth League repair the damage caused by the Heartless. There wasn't too much damage from the Heartless themselves, as from the people who had panicked during the invasion. The Youth League, along with a good many of the Genin, were extremely busy fixing what had been destroyed.
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"Really. I'm fine. Heart's here and everything."
"So sayeth you."
"Hey! It's not my fault."
"Someone needs to take the blame."
"I am your BOSS!"
"...Sorry Bob."
"That's what I thought." Rebecca Croft replied.
Nysa stood in the doorway of the hospital room watching her sister and...her sisters... Nobody? Apparently, The Heartless had broken into her shop, stole her heart, been so horrified that he gave it back, and then Rebecca had woken up next to her Nobody Xobb, in the Bevelle Hospital a week later. Now, Nysa had seen a lot of strange things in her twenty years, but this took the cake. "Uhh, Becca, Xobb?"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah?"
They both asked in exactly the same annoyed and condescending tone of voice. Nysa winced and took a step back, incredibly unnerved by the whole thing. "Dr. Kamsor said that the... uh, two of you, can go any time. There's a Hover lot at the other end of the city, I'm sure you can get someone to take you back to your shop."
"Thanks."
"Thanks."
Nysa smiled and slowly backed out of the room, "I, uh... I'm glad you're...both, okay. I have a lot to do, so we'll have to talk later. Do you mind if I drop by your shop next Friday?"
"See you then," Becca confirmed.
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"Koorikage, Yo."
"Hello Gippal."
"Squads one through ninety five, along with the Seed, and Civilians who helped during the invasion, have put their reports on your desk. There are also around eighty mission scrolls, so far."
"Thank you." Nysa replied with a smile that said she wanted nothing more than to go to sleep for a week. Since the invasion, she had been leading patrols throughout Spira, with Sora. Donald and Goofy, had been leading their own patrols, as she figured they were experts on the Heartless compared to her FORCE. Riku, had fallen to Yuna's charms, and had volunteered to help her get everything back in order, as a lot had been damaged during the invasion. Nysa had also been attempting to get her troupes all back into order, along with keeping up with their missions. That wasn't counting the countless hours she had spent in the different hospitals checking up on the members of FORCE who had been hurt. The first three days she had spent beside Ophelia's bedside, not moving, until Luzzu had kicked her out and told her she had a military to run.
Gippal seemed to sense that she was tired, and grabbed her arm as she moved past him, "Koorikage... Nysa, when was the last time you slept?"
She couldn't remember. "Last night. Don't worry." She answered him with a half smile,
"Okay..." He replied, even if he didn't seem to believe her.
"Anyhow, I'm going to take a Hover to Djose. It sounds as if I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on." she gave him a fake smile and began to walk away before once again, he grabbed her arm,
"Wait, why don't you just use a warp?"
"..." Nysa blinked, Yevon, she must be a lot more tired than she had thought she was. Warps had been set up at key locations in Spira, months ago. They were basically the exact same things as was at the bottom of Gagazet mountain, just slightly more advanced. They took a lot of energy to run, so most of the time they were turned off save for emergencies. There were only eight in existence. One at all three schools, one in Bevelle, one on Kilika, one on Besaid, and the older ones in Zanarkand City and Gagazet. "It completely slipped my mind."
"Figured." Gippal replied with a cocky smile. He watched as she started to walk away again before he spoke, "Hey, Celebrity-Chick!" He called her by the name he had given her all those months ago when he had met her working in Home. "I want you to remember somethin, you may be the Kage in charge of keeping peace... but you're also just a human girl, too. Let some of us help ya with your workload, or you'll burn yourself out."
Nysa shot him a small smile over her shoulder, "Thanks for the advice, Gip."
---
"You're back!"
"Hey Yuffie." Sora replied with a half smile. He looked tired, and his eyes were sad. Riku had dropped him off in the first district, and before he could even say anything, had disappeared into his portal of darkness. Sora hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him much during the last two weeks as he had helped fight of Heartless fiends. Apparently, whatever the Majokage Batalax had done, had destroyed all the Heartless in Spira, except for those that had merged with fiends. He had been working with Koorikage Nysa, and a squad of Jonin. Goofy had been leading another group of Jonin, as had Donald. Riku hadn't been around much, as he had apparently been helping the Chiryooshakage with something.
"Who was that?" Leon asked suspiciously.
"Nysa." Sora replied quietly. Even after working by her side for two weeks, something about that girl unnerved him. He was also annoyed that she constantly called him kid, when she looked around his age. The Keyblade had continued to act up in her presence, and he still didn't know why. "I don't know how she knew I was the Keyblade master, but she seemed to know a lot of things..."
"Are you alright?" Aerith asked in her soothing tone.
"Riku went away again." Sora said sadly.
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"We need to talk."
Nysa looked up from her paperwork, she had been at it so long she had forgotten the rest of the world. She hadn't even heard Ophelia come into the room. She looked over the mage discreetly and was pleased to see that in the month since getting out of the hospital, she had regained a lot of her color, and wasn't looking half as sickly. They hadn't talked since the day Ophelia had woken up, as Nysa had been incredibly buried in her work, and Batalax hadn't been allowed to leave her home in Besaid on doctors orders. "Yeah. I suppose we do..." Nysa replied blandly.
"What's happened to us?" Batalax blurted out. "We used to be so close... and happy. I had thought coming to Spira was good for you, for us. It was as if this was the life we should have had all along... but you're not happy."
Nysa signed her name at the bottom of the mission scroll she was filling out, and stood to put it in a pile with the other completed missions. "I am happy." She whispered, "But..."
"It's not enough anymore." Batalax finished. "It's like, your a puzzle, and your missing the main pieces that you need in order to be finished."
Nysa looked up, startled, "How--"
"I feel the same. I have for some time now." Batalax admitted. She moved further into the room and closed the door behind her. "We're not normal people. Not in this world... or any world. Nysa, we have a purpose, and it's so much bigger than this, than Spira. When I released the block on the Power... I knew everything. As soon as I lost control, that knowledge was gone." Batalax sat down on the chair across from Nysa, "But it left it's mark. There is so much we don't know. So much we need to know."
"I don't want to be unhappy here, B. I love Spira. I love the people... I'd do anything for the people, even if it killed me, or destroyed me... if it would protect the people here, I'd do it in a heartbeat." Nysa admitted softly.
"I know. But staying as we are... is destroying us. I don't know if we're meant to stay in one place. I don't know if we can. I feel like there is so much I'm supposed to do... but I don't know what."
"Maybe we need to take a break?" Nysa suggested, "We've been running this world as it's Kage since February, and it's the middle of September. That's like eight months of running an entire planet. Maybe we're just over worked, and over stressed. Gippal's been on my back to take a break for over a month now, but I've just continued to work anyway."
"But I have been off for the last month Nysa, and it hasn't helped. I think it's time. I think we need to start looking for him."
Nysa suddenly sat up straighter, "Are you sure? I thought we were going to give Bahamut a year to give us a sign, before we did anything drastic?"
"I don't know... I just, I think it's time to start looking. It's just... a feeling I've had for the last while."
"Since the invasion?"
"Yeah. Since I..."
"Look, Batalax---"
"I'm sorry."
Nysa blinked, "I was just gonna say the same thing."
"It was stupid of me to release the power." Batalax admitted, "But it was my only choice, or it seemed like it. Priest Halmers was going to sacrifice himself to protect the temple, I couldn't allow him to do that. The people of Spira are precious to me. I feel as if they're... mine, and I have to do what I can to help them. Make their world a better place."
"I feel the same." Nysa murmured.
"I'm learning to control the Power now though." Batalax added, "It's hard though, as unlike you, electricity isn't solid."
"It can be." Nysa replied. "I've been working on creating ice weapons. I'll show you how I do it, and maybe you'll be able to do the same with your electricity. You should also spend a lot of time in the Thunder Plains, being in your element seems to help, a lot. Personally, I hang out by Temper whenever I have some time off."
They were both silent for a couple minutes, lost in their thoughts. Suddenly, Batalax got up, moved around the desk, and gave Nysa a big hug from behind. "Luzzu told me you wouldn't leave my side at the Hospital until he forced you to get back to work. Thank you. That means a lot to me."
Nysa smiled, but it was brittle. "I thought I had lost you." She turned in her chair and wrapped her arms around Batalax in a deathly tight grip, "You were so cold when I found you. I... I froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. It was Sora who carried you to the hospital. Rikku had to drag me behind her, because I couldn't move." Nysa looked down, "You were dead, B. You had no pulse. And then suddenly, like a spark of electricity, you started to breath again. None of the healers could even touch you for the first week, or they would get electrocuted."
"I'm sorry..." Batalax repeated.
"I missed you." Nysa said so softly Batalax had to strain to hear her. "The last year... I've missed you."
"I've missed you too." Batalax replied just as softly.
"We need to figure out what's going on with us. This Power... it isn't from Ixion or Shiva, not anymore. It's almost as if we're turning into Ixion and Shiva... as if we are them."
Batalax was silent for a moment, and she moved away from Nysa to look out the window to the left of the thief's desk, "When I released the Power, I saw my reflection. I wasn't me anymore. I was Ixion. My reflection told me that I wasn't ready."
"I don't even know if it's that anymore." Nysa said softly in reply. "I think it's that we don't want to be ready. Whatever is happening to us... It's big. I know that much. I'm terrified, to be truthful."
"Me too."
"So what are we gonna do now?" Nysa asked quietly, like a child asking what's going to happen to them after their parents have died.
"I... I don't know Nysa. I don't know."
"We'll work it out." Nysa said softly, with a confidence she didn't feel. "Together."
"Okay."
"Good."
When had they become such fragile, broken, things?
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