melodiesoflife | Event || The Enemy Within

Characters: All characters who signed-up for the event.
Where: In their heads.
When: January 15th.
Summary: The Heroes of Light have a vision-- They are living through a hypothetical future where the Sage share his knowledge with them, and things went horribly wrong as some Heroes of Light became the villains in this timeline. Maybe they'll revise their thoughts on getting all of that knowledge.
Warning: The apocalypse, deaths, tragedies, overall a lot of very bad things.

Mingle Threads: The Antagonists || The Protagonists || The Others || General
Free Open Threads: The Two Years || Other Events

#01 Attempts at Negotiations || Trano Golsaucia
#02 Tactical Espionage Action || Aqures Ixen
#03 Judgmental Glares || Aerilon
#04 The Fight for the Crystallized Bodies || Aqures Tosf
#05 The Dusk of the Heroes || Mysidia
#06 The Fight for the Moon || Lunar Gate
#07 Conflict Above the Stars || Moon Base
#08 The Birth of a God || Crystal Life Tree
#09 The Death of a World || Moon Base
#10 Where Everything Ends || Pandaemonium

Conclusion || The Sage in Mysidia

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Vaan took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Then, I guess I'll pretending with you. But let's see if we can look forward to ending it once and for all. No casualties, right?"

Because it was so much easier to pretend that everything was going to be alright. Like before, even though it was a suicide mission, they looked at it as putting an end to the Conflict. Rather than a goodbye. And there were more of them, not just six. Maybe it wasn't as bleak as it looked.

Her eyes fell to their hands, and as she looked back up at him with a small, but brave smile, she returned the gentle squeeze. "No casualties," she echoed, "as long as we can help it."

Looking out into that terrifying sky, her free hand somehow found its way to her chest, balling into a fist. "Still, I... I can't believe we caused this," they didn't have any of Chaos' warriors to blame, not this time. "All because... we wanted to find a way home," what selfishness had wrought, she thought sadly.

"We wanted to go home and I don't think there's any harm in that," Vaan answered, resting his hand on his hip. "I just don't think anyone realized it would do this. We don't even know how the first one was caused, right?"

At least, he didn't remember. Just that manikins were coming from it and needed to be stopped. But this time, they had an idea how this one was caused. Well, he assumed they knew, right? Vaan certainly didn't know, his technically knowledge went as far as his weapons and airship.

There was a long pause on her part, and finally, a sigh. She was looking for answered where there weren't any -- and where they wouldn't be of any help anyway. "You're right, I -- "

The sound of clinking crystal and crates toppling over cut her off. Relinquishing her grip on his hand, Yuna spun around, the hand of a manikin latching onto the edge, as it pulled itself up with its garbled speech.

The summoner took a step back, looking to Vaan for confirmation, then shockingly back at the crystal. Was that... Lady Ashelia?!

Vaan turned as well, gunblade raised as he saw the crystal and he froze. He didn't share the look with Yuna, his face said it all. It was Ashe! And she had her sword on her, looking just like he remembered her back on Ivalice. His hand shook but before he knew it, he pulled the trigger and the crystal's head shattered. The rest of the body fell back off the crate and on top of its brethren.

He just shot Ashe! No, no, it wasn't her but... he closed his eyes and turned his head away. Why did it feel like it anyway?

It was horrible, to have to watch him shoot at someone that resembled a loved one. Striking manikins, shattering them -- it had never sat right with Yuna, especially when they took on the form of a friend. The odds here in Crystallis, with the multitude of people to replicate... only upped the ante.

She turned, wanting to somehow try and offer comfort to Vaan, but further noises around them made her stop short. Rushing over to the edge, the enemy had begun to get wise, stepping up on top of one another as they made a mountain of crystal bodies.

"More of them! They're coming up!" she looked over towards her comrade, worry starting to furrow her brow.

Vaan had followed her gaze, not needing to be told twice. He should have remembered, they were fast learners. He turned his gaze back to Yuna, worry also etched on his features. "I'm almost out of bullets, Yuna."

It was in a quiet voice when he said this. He could only fight melee for so long like this, with these many manikins. He didn't want a repeat of last time, fighting until he was too injured and exhausted, collapsing because he could no longer move. It had been a horrible feel then, even if unconsciousness saved him from feeling what it was truly like to die.

But he didn't want to die now.

A sound from behind had him turning and he found more had begun coming up from the other side. He pressed his back against Yuna's. "We could try and access our limit breaks, and then make a run for it?"

Still looking around for a solution, the news of his ammunition was running low came at a bad time. Memories of being surrounded by the overwhelming number of manikins tightened in Yuna's chest, her grip doing the same on her staff.

"Vaan... stay close to me," she pressed her back against his, looking just briefly over her shoulder -- then forward again as the creatures closed in. Faces of both friends and strangers starting to claw their way onto the roof.

Closing her eyes, she positioned her weapon in front of her, then spread her arms wide, looking up to the sky. Summoning in this world still wasn't the same as in Spira -- but as she exhaled, her thoughts cleared, drawing in breath, calling -- "Anima!"

From somewhere above, a small patch of clouds darkened, an anchor hurling down from from a place unseen. Phasing through and beneath the roof of the building they stood on, and began to re-ascend, dragging with it the beautifully grotesque aeon... Anima.

Her lower half still left in the unknowable abyss below her, the summon looked down, a trail of blood weeping slowly from that eye. The summoner returned her gaze, lookikg back up at the aeon that she had called, a fist pressed to her chest, Yuna nodded. "Oblivion..."

Anima twitched slightly, her claw like hands jerked, as the chains that bound her back into this world rattled, giving way for her to rise even higher out from the place she was summoned. Her lower half rose into view, raising its hands, more bone than flesh, silently outward to break free from the chains that she had bound herself with. The frightening second head, crowned and decaying, cried out with an unearthly wail as she reached out to pummel the manikins that had made their way up, a blinding energy enveloping her her claws.

All of them, from every direction, some shattered on impact, others were thrown far from the rooftop with the sheer force of the blows. And with a loud, final cry, a glyph appeared all around the area, bursting with light -- which felt more like a warm blast of air to the summoner and hopefully Vaan, too.

Once her eyes had adjusted to the light again, Anima disappeared into a cloud of pyreflies, as Yuna fell to her knees, the palms of her hands catching her just in time.

Edited 2016-02-24 21:16 (UTC)

Vaan did as he was told, even gripping the sleeve of her robes as he watched Anima be pulled from the ground, a terrifying creature that he'd never heard of. Vaan clung tighter as he watched the summon shatter the manikins, one after another. It was something he couldn't look around from until it was all over and he was hurriedly catching Yuna about the waist.

"Yuna! Are you okay?" He asked, dropping his gun to assist. Unlike her, he felt like he'd been put into an oven from all that energy, but he wasn't any worse for wear except feeling a little singed. "Yuna?"

At least the manikins were clear so that they had time to breathe for now. And maybe get some more ammo for his gun.

Event || The Enemy Within

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sorry this is so much tl;dr

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