Revenge-Seeking Renegade (A Jumpchain renegade story, Currently in DC comics)

[boyboy180]

Darkness.

He woke up to a dark room. The only light he could see was coming in through a window. It must be late. He was lying on a bed in some room he didn't know.

A splitting headache took him and he groaned, clutching his head. What had happened?

Trying to remember made the pain worse and he must have passed out and woken up a few times as eventually dawn light could be seen through the window.

Where was he? Who was he?

His memories were shattered to pieces.

There was also something indefinably wrong. He… there was something indescribable within him. Something he couldn't describe.

He turned, standing up from his bed and walking over to the window. He looked out over the snow-covered city.

He heard a creek and turned to see his door open. A woman with blond hair and a strict expression looked into the room at him. He didn't know her. Well, he didn't know anyone.

"You're up." Her voice was as cold as her demeanour seemed to be.

She led him out to a living room but didn't tell him anything. Instead he just looked around and out the window.

He was empty, devoid of anything that could be called a "self."

The woman was going around and checking on others, leading them back to the living room too.

They weren't amnesiacs though, they seemed to be aware of what was going on and some of them even seemed angry at him.

A man dressed in strange armour and carrying a single-edged sword yelled at him, but the woman returned with a man dressed in finary who shut him up. Explaining to the man and to the amnesiac about what had happened.

"He was wearing a slave crown," the man who had introduced himself to the amnesiac as King Edgar explained "This goes for Terra as well, but neither of them had any control over their own actions. Additionally the crown would have broken his mind in a way. The man before us now would know nothing of any crimes, nor would he know anything about himself."

The King closed his eyes but opened them again and looked towards the door as the icey woman returned with a mangy child.

"Celes, do you happen to know what his name was?"

The woman, Celes, looked between him and the amnesiac.

"Joshua."

That… was right. That fragment of memory was still there at least.

Joshua nodded and Edgar smiled.

"Good, your mind should recover in time. The important question is what would you want to do while it does recover?"

"...I don't know." Joshua admitted "I have nothing I can remember, nothing I would want to do."

The king nodded and looked towards Celes again "Why did the empire take him, can he use magic?"

Celes shook her head.

"He was the result of an experiment to reach through the boundaries of the World to reach the home of the Espers. He had somehow been outside the walls and he fell into the trap the Empire had to capture Espers that came through."

The king stroked his chin at that "Interesting, but you said he wasn't magical?"

Celes nodded "All he could use was a knife that could somehow cut through anything put in front of it. He can apparently recall it to his hand at any time he wishes."

"I see." Edgar nodded "And he's at least passable in a fight…"

He then turned back to Joshua "How about this, we're on a mission to help people. Would you be willing to help us?"

Joshua just nodded at that. There was the chance that they could be lying for all he knew, but he had nothing else to hold onto at the moment.

The others recovered as the day went on. Apparently something had happened after a battle the previous day when the slave crown had been removed. One of their allies had turned into an Esper and had flown away.

However, since it was likely that "The Empire" would come and attack them again, the men and women that had found him decided to split up.

Since Joshua was still weak, it was decided he'd be part of the team that was staying here. It would give him a chance to practise.

The search team had been decided as Edgar, Locke and Celes meaning that Joshua was left with Sabin, Cyan and Gau. None of him could help him learn- well, relearn, how to fight properly.

His instincts were gone but Joshua was still sure that he had practised before.

Sabin managed to find the Adventuring School and introduced Joshua to it though. There were knife instructors there as apparently it was a very common weapon to learn.

After about a week, the team heard that the scouts had made it to Figaro castle and had set off to the north east of the continent.

During that week and on while he was training, Joshua remembered bits and pieces. Some of it was while he was awake, some of it only came to him in dreams.

The memories were still fuzzy, but he remembered being powerless to stop horrible things. His heart couldn't feel any rage for the things he had seen, and yet it still burned him inside.

He couldn't be happy, he couldn't be proud of his achievements in training. That wasn't to say he was very good, in fact he was painfully average. He was at exactly the level you'd expect someone to be after a week of training with a weapon.

He had managed to discover something though. While he had been training, he had performed a bit of magic. A bolt of lightning had flown from his hand.

That didn't really make his workload any easier though. He had to train not only to learn the knife but also this magic that made the town feel awe when they saw him.

It was disconcerting. Or at least it probably should have been. He felt nothing when their awe-struck features looked at him as he trained in the Adventuring School.

The weather was warming up as the year moved on, it still snowed semi-regularly but Joshua wasn't worrying about dropping his knife due to shivering hands anymore.

It was sometime around two weeks after the search team had departed that Cyan thought of mentioning something to Joshua.

"During the battle, you had control over a group of Monsters. Do you think they'd help you if you found them?"

Joshua honestly had no idea about the monsters, he hadn't recovered any real memories of them. Only short snippets, if that. But Cyan agreed to help him look for them anyway.

They wrapped themselves up warm and headed up the mountains to search. Around here, you wouldn't even consider the fact that spring had come with how cold it was. A chill wind carried snow right into Joshua's coat as they looked around.

They fought some monsters together while exploring and even checked on what Cyan called "The frozen Esper."

Honestly, Joshua thought it just looked like a very angry bird that was frozen, not any sort of magical creature. But considering the monsters they'd fought up until this point, he wouldn't suggest it was weak.

Monsters were dangerous. He would have probably already been killed if Cyan wasn't with him.

Finally they turned back. None of the monsters had apparently been suited to a cold environment so it was likely they either went into the cave system or headed somewhere outside of Narshe where it was easier for them to survive.

To test the former theory, they then headed into the Narshe mines to have a look around. The monsters were restless but wererats were easier to defeat than most of the monsters on the mountainside.

As they got deeper, they ran into these strange creatures. They looked like cats with wings and they had these little… What would be the word, antennae? They had antennae coming out of their head with a little fluffy ball at the end that bounced around. They said Kupo a lot and could even talk.

The strange creatures introduced themselves as Moogles. Apparently some monsters had been causing trouble to the tribe recently. Joshua and Cyan agreed to look into it.

The pair of them were accompanied by a Moogle named Mog as they slowly crept down the tunnel. Apparently the cave at the end had been a storage room for the moogles before the Monsters overran it a short time ago.

Bursting in with weapons drawn, Cyan quickly stopped as if he recognised them. The first monster that Joshua saw looked like a yellow demon holding… spoons? The next one was a fox with nine tails. Lastly was a shadow monster that flitted across the walls. The three of them lept at Joshua who pulled out his knife to drive them back.

Cyan called out to stop him though "Wait, they're your monsters!"

Joshua hesitated, the knife dropping as the monsters rushed in.

What had he done to these monsters to make them listen to him? Did he need to give some special command? Or had they broken free of his commands and so were coming to kill him in revenge.

They reached him suddenly and he was caught up in them. The fox rubbed itself against his legs like a cat, the demon stood beside him with an approving look and the shadow creature emerged beside him too.

It seemed they were all happy to see him. So then, did he control them through loyalty?

The three monsters showed him how to use the spheres he'd woken up with to contain them and send them out later.

And so the quest was completed. The monsters were gone from the Moogle's Larder and Joshua had his monsters back.

A bit less than a week later, they got news from the scout team. They'd found Terra and a lot more beside. They had met an Esper who had told them about the experiments going on in the Empire. How the magical power was extracted from Espers to be used in the Magitech.

Edgar had apparently been horrified when he'd found out.

The Esper had provided them with something called Magicite that could be used to Harness the power of a dead Esper. Using it, anyone could learn magic.

The scouting team intended to head towards the Empire to free the Espers; they requested another member from Narshe to come to them. It would be a difficult Journey but a message had already been sent to Figaro castle and they could buy Chocobo to help them get there faster.

The defence of Narshe still had to be seen to but now the Moogles were willing to help defend the town too so they didn't need to be as careful.

That said, the choice of who to send was difficult.

Joshua raised his hand "I'll go, if Espers were tortured to give me this magic of mine, I want to help free them."

Celes had explained in a letter that he had gone through the same process so it made sense. He couldn't go alone though, he knew nothing of the world and was still quite unskilled. Sabin volunteered to come with him.

It would stretch the remaining defenders thin but they were planning to go into the heart of the empire so they'd need to be ready.

Sabin and Joshua set out that very day on the backs of Chocobo.

…Joshua fell off his Chocobo a lot at first until he finally got the hang of it.

The creature's feet beat as they raced towards their allies. A town called Jidoor was the meeting place.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Joshua's training arc and the start of the rebuilding of his mind.
While Joshua does know he isn't a local to this world from what Celes had said to him, he doesn't currently remember he's a Jumper or any of his Pokemon he wasn't told about.
Unfortunately, he won't remember everything for quite a while.
A smaller notes: While this chapter might prove otherwise, it feels strange to me that all of the chapters so far have been on a single page of SV.
Edit: Yep, it was proven otherwise. Page 2 time.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

It took three days to reach Figaro castle, two days for it to finish drilling through the ground to its alternate position to the south east of Kohlingen and then roughly five days to reach Jidoor by Chocobo.

Winter had faded into spring as they travelled. Now that it was mid-April, the city of Jidoor was decorated in blooming flowers. This was the first place other than Narshe that Joshua could remember visiting. While it was quite likely he'd travelled around a lot before, this was something wonderful for him.

The first goal for Joshua and Sabin was to locate the search team. They had probably gotten back from Zozo by now afterall. The plan had been for them to ask the rich and powerful, so the two of them could do the same.

They went to visit the museum but had problems getting in, apparently Sabin's outfit "wasn't proper" to wear into a "museum of high arts."

…Joshua was quietly happy that the travelling robes he had were somehow fine. Maybe it was only fine in comparison though?

That said, the museum was also someone's home. Owzer, the richest man in Jidoor and a prolific art collector, as might be expected. It made sense in a way that the fact it was a house could also be part of the reason for the refusal, Sabin was dressed for combat after all.

They still managed to talk to some people though. Apparently their friends had been seen entering and later leaving the mansion. Were they trying to arrange passage with Owzer?

Following the rumours, they heard how the team had apparently gone south. The only thing down there was the Opera house.

"It's a bit strange though." Sabin noted as they looked out the south gate "They said they'd wait for us."

As far as they could tell, the search team had made it to Jidoor about four days earlier. They should have waited for their requested backup to arrive. Instead though, they ran off?

"It was probably something important." Joshua theorised "Maybe they were asked to do something time-sensitive."

Sabin gave a shrug at that "Maybe. Think we should go after them?"

Joshua nodded and they set off on Chocobo back. Apparently their allies had left the same way so catching up to them might be hard.

They settled down and rested after the first day of travel south. The stretch of land down here wasn't that wide, maybe only six miles? It was very long though and dotted with thin areas of woodland. It was in one of those wooded sections that they'd started a fire.

They did have to drive off some monsters though, and it gave Joshua a chance to practise.

"Thunder!"

The bolt of lightning crashed down on the weird purple wasps that had decided to attack us. Sabin jumped in, suplexing a wasp to instantly break its exoskeleton.

As another wasp fell to Joshua's lightning magic, Sabin quickly flexed and unleashed a torrent of fire to take out the remaining wasps.

The glade then fell quiet for a bit as they set up their camping supplies.

As they were making dinner, Joshua looked up at Sabin from the roasting rabbit that had been caught.

"Hey, that fire you used earlier. How did you do that without magic?"

Sabin had never been through any kind of Magitek training after all so Joshua found it strange.

"Well…" Sabin looked towards the setting sun "I was taught martial arts by a man called Duncan, Rising Phoenix is just one of the techniques I learned. I haven't used it in battle much though, it's something I didn't have the experience to use safely until recently."

"I get your martial arts being useful when fighting hand to hand," Joshua commented, poking the fire with a stick "But really, shooting fire? Isn't that the sort of thing that can only be done with magic."

Sabin shook his head "It's a spiritual fire, released from within."

"Define 'spiritual'." Joshua requested.

Sabin shook his head and tapped his chest "It comes from in here, my heart, my soul, my life itself. Magic was something that was implanted in all of you right? Well your life force was always there, it wasn't something that needed to be added. I think Cyan's sword skills are the same sort of thing actually."

It was certainly odd.

The night passed without any incident and they set off quickly for the Opera house again, reaching it in the late hours. Apparently one of their more famous Operas would be starting soon.

As they entered, Sabin pointed to someone standing in the lobby, glancing back towards the seating area. It was Edgar.

Edgar was happy to see his brother again and gave the two of them a recap of what had happened.

One of the stars of the Opera, Maria, was the target of a kidnapper. A kidnapper who happened to own an airship that the team could use to get to Vector.

Celes happened to look quite like Maria, enough to fool people who weren't paying attention. Thus she was standing in for Maria and making herself a target for the sake of luring out the kidnapper.

She'd been learning her lines for the entire day and the performance was only minutes away. Edgar arranged free tickets for both of them from the owner of the Opera house.

With a smile, he led them up to the seats "Welcome, to the entertainment of the nobility."

Edgar had been speaking to both of them but the words felt more focused on Sabin. Nevertheless they all found their seating.

As the Opera began, Locke joined them along with the owner of the opera house.

Edgar handed out leaflets that detailed each stage of the performance, these had to be handmade!

He pointed out when Celes would be on and encouraged Locke to give her a pep talk. Locke left his seat and the rest of them watched on.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwHrQdC02FY&ab_channel=elhobberino

They watched as Celes, dressed in an ornate outfit, entered onto the set and began to sing.

After that scene though, Locke came rushing back to the rest of them. He'd found a letter from someone else! There was someone else who was trying to mess up the Opera, apparently someone the returners knew called Ultros.

The opera house's owner wondered how he was planning to disrupt the Opera but Locke pointed at the answer.

…Apparently Ultros was an octopus. Joshua could see it pushing a four ton weight from the area above the stage. He was struggling, which gave them time to stop him.

Locke led the team to a stagehand at the owner's instructions. Behind him was a way up to the catwalks.

The four of them needed to fight through some rats before making it to Ultros.

"Rats!"

Okay, apparently the octopus could talk too? He slammed forward quickly and knocked Locke and Edgar off at the cost of throwing himself down too.

Sabin quickly dived after them to deal with Ultros on the stage but Joshua was nowhere near that physically adept, he just watched from above.
Locke decided to have fun with the fact they were disrupting the opera though and claimed Celes' hand for his own. The opera director, clearly a bit exhausted by all this, just called for music as the battle began.

From above the stage, Joshua threw down lightning spells which seemed to be wearing the monster down. Well, it was probably a monster. It was the first monster that Joshua knew of that could talk though.

Celes, meanwhile, was keeping her act up. She couldn't join in the fight because there was still someone else to lure out.

Finally, they managed to drive Ultros away and Locke gave a cheer.

The kidnapper then took that moment to declare himself.

"Hold it right there. My compliments on a most impressive performance!"

The lights above the stage went out as the man talked, Joshua could barely make out the sounds of someone running quickly around the catwalks with him.

"Thunder!"

Joshua called the spell to light up the area and the man who had been hidden in darkness jumped away.

"Really?" He called back "You won't allow me even a bit of theatrics. Ah well."

With that, it looked like the man leaped off the catwalk towards the stage below, was he going to break his legs? No! He was holding a rope in his other hand. His fall broke and he landed right besides Celes, who was still doing her best 'helpless damsel' act.

He grabbed her and tied her up as the director called his name.

"Setzer!"

"I'm a man of my word, Impresario. I'm taking Maria!" Setzer called back, wagging a finger as if at a naughty child.

Still holding onto the rope from before, he swung out of the opera hall. He was making a break for the entrance.

Joshua quickly ran back the way he came as the director was yelling out to try and keep the audience entertained and thinking this was all part of the show.

He met up with the others in time to see Setzer's airship rising off the ground.

"How long has that been there?"

"About five minutes." Edgar noted as he jogged up "He landed about the same time that Locke came to tell us about Ultros' threat."

As they watched, a rope fell out of a hole in the bottom of the airship. Locke smiled at that.

"Anyone want to make a bet with me that is the rope he used to tie her up?"

"No bet." Sabin agreed "She's giving us a way in, let's go."

The rope had enough slack that even Joshua was able to grab on before the Airship finished climbing.

To a normal person, dangling by a really long rope from an aircraft might be terrifying. This was possibly the only time that Joshua's lack of emotions was a benefit though.

All of them climbed up into the room that Celes had been taken to. Joshua got in just as Locke was complimenting Celes' skills.

When Setzer re-entered, it looked like he'd refuse to help them. He seemed more annoyed that he'd been tricked by Celes then that they'd actually stowed away. He was prepared to just dump them but the rest of the team worked together.

"I've heard this is the finest vessel in the world." Celes called.

Setzer looked back as he was walking away to comment "It is."

Locke then stepped up "And that you were the world's greatest gambler!"

"Which I am." Setzer nodded "But if you want to gamble for the ship, you'll need a big ante."

Edgar smiled at that "As the king of Figaro, I can probably pay that Ante."

Setzer considered the three of them as Sabin and Joshua stood back. Finally he sighed.

"Come with me. I haven't agreed to help you yet though."

He led them to a… blackjack table? Well, if he was a gambler, he would outfit his airship with something like this.

Setzer turned, musing that the empire had slowed his business. Everyone tried to push him on that. If they all hated the empire together then surely he could help them.

Setzer was focused on Celes though. He watched her as she raged against the empire and he smiled.

"I think you might be even more beautiful than Maria."

That got Celes to react. He focused on her as he gave his demands "I think I'll help you, if Celes became my wife. Otherwise…"

Celes' face grew red and Locke yelled in anger. But Celes forced herself to calm down.

"Fine, on one condition."

Setzer smiled as Locke looked aghast. Before explaining herself though, she went to Edgar and whispered something.

"Your coin."

He handed her a gil and she turned back to Setzer.

"I want to gamble with you, Setzer. Regardless of the flip, you'll help us. If it's heads, I won't need to give myself to you. On tails you get me as planned."

"No." he said quickly "Those terms are unbalanced. I'm forced to pay a cost in both and you only pay on tails."

"Are they?" She raised an eyebrow.

He nodded "I'll only help your group on heads. If it's tails, I get you and don't need to help your friends."

Locke was filled with anger still but Celes now looked perfectly calm. A poker face in other words.

"Fine." She agreed "Well then, Mr. Gambler?"

He nodded "The deal is set, well?"

She put the coin on her hand and flipped it into the air with her thumb. The coin danced through the air until it eventually hit the floor in front of the gambler.

The coin on the floor was heads up.

"Heads." Celes declared "I win, now it's time for you to hold up your end of the bargain."

Setzer frowned but nodded, bending over to pick up the coin.

"A valuable trinket indeed. I've never seen a double-headed coin before."

She cheated?

Sabin wasn't paying attention to Celes though, his eyes were just on his brother. There was a strange emotion in his eyes. It might be worth asking about all of that a bit later.

Celes needed to keep the momentum though. If Setzer called foul…

"I'm afraid you've been hustled Mr gambler. But that's part of the game now, isn't it?"

Setzer looked at the coin again and turned away, a chuckle in his voice.

"How low can you stoop?"

He then threw his head back in a laugh.

"I love it! All right, I'll help you. Gambling against the Empire with nothing to lose except my life? I haven't felt this excited in years!"

He flipped the coin again, sending it back at Celes.

"My life's a chip in your pile, ante up!"

…Did the search team even need the help? It seems that they would have been able to do this on their own.

Ah well, next stop: the southern continent and Vector!

Spoiler: Author Notes

Hey look, I put music in a non-final chapter, isn't that breaking the rules? Well, yes. But the Opera scene is so Iconic that I couldn't not add it.
While Joshua didn't have much to do in this chapter (Because this entire arc is something that I, as the writer, didn't want to change), it did at least have Joshua using magic properly for the first time and the discussion about soul energy in final fantasy.
Also, it's hard to tell but Joshua has now been in the world of FF6 longer than he was in the world of Pokemon, and this is only the (roughly) 1/3rd mark for the story.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

The airship flew through the sky as the Returners followed Setzer onto the deck.

Locke admitted that he found it strange that it could even fly and Joshua agreed but wasn't sure of his own reasons. Something in his missing memories perhaps?

Setzer wasn't worried though, he had a strange outlook on the problem.

"When things fall, they fall. Life's a game of chance, you play your cards and fate plays hers."

Or in other words, they simply needed to bet that the airship wouldn't fall.

They flew towards Vector, though Locke pointed out they should probably land a safe distance away to prevent getting shot down.

It had been around eleven in the evening when they'd set off, at least according to the airship's clock which Setzer claimed was currently set to the time at Jidoor and the only sources of light they could see were the moon, some lanterns that Setzer had handed out from storage and the searchlights pointing up into the sky from Vector.

Eventually Sabin started to yawn. Midnight had passed and they'd probably all need some rest before tomorrow. Setzer pointed them towards the spare rooms.

"We should still be in the air for a while. I'm aiming to land at Albrook. That should be safe but it's quite the way away."

Celes nodded to him again, "Thank you. Will you be okay?"

Smirking, Setzer nodded "I actually slept around noon yesterday, I'm basically nocturnal right now."

Well… then it was probably safe to leave him on watch.

Everyone headed to their rooms and went to bed. Joshua was lulled to sleep by the airships rocking as the wind buffeted it.

They awoke hours later and went up to the deck. Setzer was still standing by the wheel but now there was ground below them instead of sea. To the left of the ship was a mountain range.

"We're about an hour out from landing." Setzer noted.

The clock on the wall said it was nine in the morning now. This ship really was fast.

Joshua had experienced the speed of travel and this same sort of distance would have taken multiple days even with a fast sailing ship.

When the airship landed, Setzer promised to stay with the ship to ensure it could act like a base for them all. Plus it would give him a chance for some shut-eye after the night of piloting he just did.

Setzer actually had some people who worked on his airship who could help find supplies and the like so it would be a good place to meet up and plan.

They'd be walking cross country to Vector to sneak into the Esper… Prison? Workshop? Whatever you'd want to call it.

Before they would set out, the search team handed out the Magicite they'd been given.

Celes had Ramuh, Edgar had Siren and Locke had Kirin. They also had Cait Sith who, due to the fact that Sabin already had his Chi, went to Joshua.

They set off northeast. There was a mountain path between Albrook and Vector they'd need to take. Any other path was blocked by mountains.

On the way, they were attacked by monsters. Feral war dogs and flying reptiles. They looked like small wyverns.

During the journey, Joshua practised with his innate magic in other ways. While he had been practising in the adventurer's school, he'd figured out how to slow a target's movements in time. It wasn't massively effective though, just a way to give him an edge with his knife.

He cast slow on a war dog and rushed in with his knife. When the battle was over though, he'd realised there was another way he could use his magic.

Holding his hand to himself, he chanted softly.

"Regen."

Slowly, more slowly than Celes' healing spells, his wounds from the dog's fangs closed. Hmm. That probably wouldn't be that useful in battle unfortunately. Maybe as something preventative?

It took them two days in total to reach the city. They put on some robes as disguises and snuck past the guards at the entrance to the city. After that they needed to climb up a wide path that spun around the city clockwise. The city was mountainous and this was the only way to reach the main area of the city and the research laboratory.

Near the research lab, they met with a Returner agent that Edgar knew. He promised to help distract the guards. They would then need to make their way in through a "secret" route.

Said route was just over the guards' heads.

The agent nodded that it was time to begin and pulled out a bottle of alcohol. Taking a massive drink, he put the bottle down and sighed before "stumbling" over towards the guards in front of the lab.

While he was making a fool of himself, the five of them climbed onto the steel beams that ran like a skeleton through Vector. There was a route the agent had mapped out that would take them safely past the guards.

They all made it through and on to the laboratory grounds. Well, it was also apparently a factory for Magitek. It made twisted sense. If you're going to extract the magic from them, why take that magic somewhere else before putting it to use?

As they rushed through, some guards inside the magitek factory noticed them. They were already far enough in that their only option was to defeat them quickly. The workshop was loud though so the sounds of fighting were covered up.

As they made their way through, they always did try and sneak past guards if they could. The prototype Magitek armours that were used to guard the place were quite strong. Luckily Joshua's thunder spell helped take care of them.

At one point, Locke raised his hand. That was the signal that someone was coming. Joshua hid with everyone else behind a box as some…strange clown walked out from ahead of them?

Seeing him, Joshua felt a headache coming on.

The man was walking around and talking, a tone of madness in his voice was clear even if you missed the fact he wasn't talking to anyone else.

"I'm a god! I'm all powerful!" He laughed as he spoke and continued "I'll collect more Espers, I'll extract their magic, and then…" He paused dramatically before continuing "I'll revive the Warring Triad!"

After another few laughs, he walked back the way he came. He walked behind a machine and spoke to… something.

"I've already drained all your powers! You're useless to me now!" After a moment he continued "You too, take a hike!"

Celes silently pointed. Something was coming down a belt near them. A pair of creatures. A demon and a woman with blue skin.

Celes mouthed "Espers." to the rest of them and they all nodded. They'd need to try and rescue them. Even if that clown thought they were useless, if they could be saved then they should be.

Once the clown left, they ran ahead and rode the belt to where it led, some sort of dumping ground. Was this a mass grave or something like that?

The Espers lay wounded, near dead. Edgar went to help the demon-looking one only for a blast of fire to shoot out. It wasn't dead yet and it was angry.

"Blizzard!" Celes called and the demon flinched back as the others jumped in to help.

"Thunder!" Joshua tried but the demon didn't react at all to his electrical spell. The demon responded with a blast of fire that knocked Joshua back.

The demon looked to the side as it attacked again. Joshua recovered and cast regen on himself before getting back in the battle.

As they fought, the demon spoke.

"I sense a kindred spirit…"

From behind them, the woman with blue skin was standing. No, she was levitating into the air, frigid winds blowing from her.

"Who… are you?" The woman wasn't speaking to the demon, no she seemed to be talking to them.

The demon continued, "You have Ramuh's power?" He was focusing on Celes "Wait… we're… espers."

They both stood down after that. The battle was over.

They explained that they'd been experimented on and that they were Ramuh's siblings. Since Ramuh trusted them enough to leave them his power, these two saw no problem in doing the same.

Joshua watched as they became more magicite.

Sabin ended up taking the demon, Ifrit, while the woman, Shiva, was just kept in the bag for now. They'd find her a partner when they met up with the others.

As they finished up, a group of slimy creatures came to attack them. Joshua realised something as he fought. Cait Sith had something to teach him.

"Confuse!"

The flan he had hit with the spell turned and began randomly lashing out against its allies.

They made their way out of the room after dealing with the flans and ran into a guard. It wasn't easy to tell if it was a human or a robot with all the modifications made to it but it came at them with great force.

It put up a barrier that made it vulnerable to Celes's ice magic but Joshua was able to break it with a thunder spell. Then the barrier shifted.

Celes reacted quickly.

"Libra!" After a pause she followed it with "Blizzard!"

That broke its new barrier but after that it changed again. Neither ice nor lightning would work now. It slashed at them with its twin swords as Celes cast Libra again before turning to Sabin.

"Sabin, your esper!"

Sabin nodded and held the magicite shard up. With a burst of power, Ifrit emerged. Well, Ifrit's spirit at least. It unleashed a blast of hellfire that broke the last barrier. Apparently the guardian hadn't been ready for someone coming at it with all three elements as its system crashed after that.

Beyond it was a storage room full of tanks. Within each was an Esper.

Edgar quickly headed forwards, deeper into the room. He'd seen a switch that could be used to release the Espers. As he reached it though, the espers spoke out.

The Espers apologised. They knew they didn't have long to live. They followed Ifrit's example and became magicite. Before they could collect any of it though, a scientist entered and yelled, asking what all of them were doing there.

Well. Was he a scientist? He was wearing what looked like a bright yellow, full body sock.

He saw as the Magicite smashed out of the containers, he was mumbling to himself. Celes opened the bag and collected the shards. There was probably enough for all of the Returners now. The main group at least.

Celes walked over to the scientist.

"Professor Cid."

"General Celes?" He looked at her in surprise "Who are these shady characters, your underlings?"

Celes shook her head "No, it's…"

And then Cid dropped a bomb.

"Is it true you worked your way in amongst these rebels as a spy?"

Locke was shocked and he walked over to look at Celes. He needed to know if he was lying.

For his part, Joshua didn't really care? He couldn't care. He had no memories or emotions after all. Celes was an ally to him though, even if she was a spy.

Then that same laugh from earlier could be heard again as the clown entered the room.

"Oh, I see! Magicite? Excellent work Cid."

He then turned and looked at Celes.

"And General Celes, We needn't keep up the charade any longer. Bring me those Magicite crystals."

"Celes, you tricked us?" Locke was aghast. Joshua spoke up against it though.

"It's not likely. From what I've heard, and the little I remember, the clown tried to frame her. He's just playing with you."

Celes looked over at Joshua, a sparkle of hope in her eyes that pulled her from the despair and contradictions she'd been falling into. She turned back to Locke, a determined look on her face.

"Of course not! Please, trust me."

The clown, Kefka, continued to laugh "The sweet taste of betrayal-"

"You're a liar." Joshua interrupted him "You lied before to make her a criminal and now you're lying again to make her friends turn on her."

Kefka froze. His head turned slowly to look at Joshua.

"You…!" Anger burned in the clown's expression. He then raised his hand "NOW!"

Two Magitek Armours marched into the room and Kefka pointed "Kill them all!"

As they began shooting out magic, Celes used her ability to absorb it and used the resulting magic to release a wild blast of magic with the Espers in her bag. The result of which blasted Kefka and the Armours… somewhere else? It wasn't entirely clear. Celes was still here though.

She turned to Locke "Please, trust me."

Locke closed his eyes. It was a struggle for him. He'd never doubted her before but the idea it could have all been a lie haunted him. For now though, he nodded.

"Okay."

The lab began to shake though. Celes turned to Cid.

"What's happening?"

Cid shook his head, looking worried "The blast reversed the energy flow to the capsules, we need to get out of here!"

He led them all to an escape elevator and boarded it with them. They then began the descent towards wherever this lab's emergency exit was. Hopefully.

Spoiler: Author Notes

I would have included the escape from the lab this time but I felt the chapter was long enough. We have our first major change from the plot too. Celes has stayed with the returners.
…Logically to teleport Kefka away in the base game, she must have channelled the Teleport spell from Carbuncle who they just obtained. I'm just allowing her a little slack here since she's not trying to perform a sacrifice to assure Locke she's not a traitor. Plus, it's nice to change the plot a little bit. It's a stretch but not too much of one. It's an esper they just obtained after all and she's overcharging the spell. Of course she won't get it perfectly right.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

All of them rode down the elevator. As they descended, the sounds of explosions and crashes above them, Cid turned to Celes.

"What… what have we scientists done to you and they?"

"What you were told." Celes assured him "You followed orders, ignorant of the evil contained within. It would be a different matter if you knew they were still aware but-"

"No." Cid objected "There's no excuse for it, I was threatened into it by Kefka and I went along with it…"

Celes paused before asking "You knew?"

He looked away as he explained "Draining the life energy away from Espers to make humans stronger, I had thought of it like… like trained beasts. Like chocobos pulling carriages. Even if they could feel it, they weren't really aware… I'm sorry Celes."

"There's nothing you need to apologise to me for." Celes assured him "I am thankful in fact, while it was obtained through cruel means, without this power I wouldn't still be here."

He shook his head "I have come to a decision now; I'm going to talk to the emperor, make him realise how foolish this all is. We have enough power as is. This entire war should just be called off."

The elevator reached the bottom of the shaft and Cid pointed to a gap in the building to the left of the lift.

Then they all heard a familiar laugh. Joshua's hands tensed as he glanced to the side. Kefka's forces were nearly there.

Cid pointed them to the minecart next to the bottomless pit "Go! Before Kefka gets here!"

They actually needed two carts to fit all of them but they all began riding down the tracks. If Cid was right, they should get them to safety.

As they rode, monsters appeared along the tracks with them. Celes' cart (in the front) took one on while Joshua's cart (in the back) took on the other.

The monsters were strange purple… demons? Something like that. Some smaller red ones came along later too and finally a massive purple demon with two lethally sharp claws.

They fought the massive purple monster together and after beating it, they burst out into the light. They could see the sky above themselves.

Edgar, looking ahead on the tracks, called out "Armour!" There was indeed a Magitek armour that the front cart slammed into knocking it down.

They all quickly climbed, or fell, out of their carts and ran for the exit of Vector. On the way, they ran into Setzer who said that they'd been taking a while and he'd come to help them. Thankful for his help, and now having a team of 6 they ran for the gates.

Setzer's airship was right outside the city and they began to take off the moment they were all in. As they tried to escape though, something grabbed at the ship, anchoring it and causing it to tip over to one side and threaten to drop them all into Vector from a height that wasn't survivable.

Setzer ran to the wheel to stabilise the craft as another arm reached over the side. It took some quick fighting to free the airship from the claws. Spells were thrown, the spirits of Espers were called and Sabin tried, and failed, to suplex the crane.

"It worked on the train!" he complained. No one was really sure what he meant by that though.

When they broke free, Setzer put the Airship at full speed and they flew away from Vector.

Everyone then took a few hours to calm down and recover from what had happened.

Joshua was in the living room with Edgar when Celes came in to check on them. Edgar had figured out that Joshua had already known the rules to blackjack, a version of it at least, and was trying to see if he could prompt some of Joshua's memories to recover. Setzer was watching over the game but hadn't joined in yet. This was a game with a purpose other than money so he wasn't enthusiastic about sticking himself in.

"Hit." Joshua said, quietly. Edgar handed him a card, as the king remained passively with his own cards. Had he got something or…?

"I'm fine with this." Joshua admitted.

He had an ace and an eight. The king had two kings.

Joshua frowned and Edgar noticed it "Are you feeling frustrated?"

Pausing, Joshua took the time to examine the feeling. It had been then that Celes had come in.

She'd heard rumours of some Espers being in Jidoor so they set out to visit it.

Night had fallen by the time they got there so they just sent a scout party to the auction. If anyone had bought espers, they'd probably need to either buy them off them or steal the espers from them.

Setzer went with that group, as did Celes, Edgar and Sabin. Joshua and Locke were left on the ship to keep an eye on it.

Joshua found Locke on the deck of the airship, looking at the lights of Jidoor on the horizon… No, he was looking slightly away from Jidoor, further north.

"What are you looking at?" he asked.

Locke shook his head "I'm worried about Terra."

Joshua had never met Terra, not since becoming conscious in Narshe at least.

"What's she like?"

Locke smiled "Very much like you, though I suspect that's due to the slave crowns more than your actual personalities. You're both quiet, yet willing to help."

Well, Joshua really didn't have anywhere else to belong. If he wasn't with the returners, he didn't know where he would go.

They sparred for a while before the scouts returned. The Espers were apparently going on sale tomorrow. To buy them, Setzer had to open his wallet. He grumbled about it but was ready to pay the funds to get the Espers. He did however pull everyone aside in the morning for a lesson on bidding.

"These Espers," He commented, studying the Magicite he'd been given from the bag "While they look like precious stones, I doubt the people at the auction will know their real value. Thus it's important to not overbid on them, lest you clue others in to their value. I've been to this auction before they start at 1000 gil but don't expect it to stay there… I'd estimate magicite will probably go for… 10k gil? Maybe. What's important is you call out your bid if the auctioneer ever looks like he's going to end the bidding. When this happens you don't want to increase the price by any more than 2000 unless…"

He continued on for a while and provided the team with fifty thousand gil, just in case something went wrong.

Joshua didn't go to the auction though. Sabin stayed behind with him this time. Locke had gone with the team just in case they needed to steal the magicite.

As they sparred Joshua figured out some more magic. Cait Sith taught him to cast Imp, a spell that turned Sabin into a little… Kappa? Sabin called it an Imp too when he changed back so Joshua didn't know where the word Kappa had come from. He also figured out how to cast Haste, which sped up a target's movements. The reverse of slow. While Sabin was the better fighter, if he was hastened while Sabin was slowed, Joshua could actually land some good hits with the training knife he was using.

The buying party returned with two new Magicite and 30k gil lighter.

With that done… Well. They went to Zozo to check on Terra.

The town was grungy and dirty… not that much different that Vector really.

Locke led them all to the room that Terra was staying in. Looking down at her pale, inhuman body, Joshua felt… pity? Was that pity? Was that an emotion? Or was he merely imagining it?

He was, to the best of his understanding, human. Though he had been stripped of his memories, at least he could look in a mirror and know himself. From what Locke had told him, she'd looked human. He couldn't imagine how it'd feel to have that thing, his humanity, ripped from him.

Locke held out the magicite they'd found to her. One of them started to glow.

"The magicite?"

At the same time, Terra's body began to pulse too. It was like they were resonating.

Slowly, Terra's eyes cracked open and she spoke in a shaky voice.

"Father?" She paused, blinked a few more times and spoke more clearly, gazing at the glowing magicite "I remember now. I was raised in the Esper World."

She told them the story of her birth, how she was the child of an Esper and a human, of how the Empire attacked and invaded her home. How the emperor had captured her and her father and slayed her mother.

As she spoke, her form shifted. Her white skin darkened to a human colour as her white hair dyed itself green starting from the roots. Her entire body shifting, retreating back into itself like a snail hiding in a shell. All that was left in the end was the woman Locke had described.

When she was done, she took her father's magicite in her hands.

"I'm fine now, I should be able to control the power now for short bursts."

Everyone stepped back as she climbed out of bed and looked around.

Edgar was thinking on all that she'd said though "Gestahl already knew about the secret of the esper's power back then?"

Locke nodded "The espers in the research facilities must have been the ones grabbed on that day."

"They were used to infuse Celes and myself?" Joshua noted, holding his hand to his head.

Sabin frowned "The empire won't get away with this. I'll hit them with a blitz or two…"

"How are things in Narshe?"

Celes shook her head, she didn't seem to want to make eye contact with Terra right now but she answered anyway.

"We're going there next."

Setzer nodded, "The airship is ready to go."

And so Terra led the group out of the room. Setzer did eventually take over to guide them to the airship though.

After that they headed to Narshe. On the way, Terra introduced herself properly to Joshua.

"I've heard that you're like me, the empire used a slave crown on you?"

"Yes." He agreed, "But I'm fairly sure I'm not half-esper." She nodded at that.

"I've heard about what happened to you. I don't know that much about Esper world but I think you're from an even more distant place."

Hmm. Probably.

"Don't worry." She assured him "My memories have been coming back, yours will too."

"What do you mean 'worry'?" He asked, "We can't feel."

…"I don't know?" She commented after a pause "But I think we can still feel, it's just muted."

He… might be able to feel that.

Landing in Narshe, they were quickly welcomed in by the guards. They met with Banon who told them the people of Narshe were ready to defend themselves. He asked about Vector and the group realised they hadn't enough strength to stand against the entire empire, even with their resources and the technology of Figaro.

"We need to open the sealed gate." Banon announced.

Terra stepped forwards, a frown on her face "The gate to the Esper world?"

Banon's assistant nodded "We'll never be able to beat the empire without their help."

With a nod, Banon continued "It lies to the east of the empire, When it's opened, the espers can attack from there while we invade from the north. First though, we must reestablish the bond of trust that once existed between humans and espers. The Espers must be made to understand, and there is only one among us who can make them understand."

Everyone looked at Terra and her head fell. After a moment though, she looked up.

"I'll do it. I'm the only one who can."

Spoiler: Author Notes

This chapter was originally labelled as "Sidequests" in my notes but I didn't get to any more than the Auction house. I'm skipping the letter sidequest but Mog… I wanted to do Mog's sidequest here. It would take a while though.
…I'll probably just do it in the next chapter.
We're almost at the half-way point of this jump.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.
…I say that every time and so rarely get people with any response. Writers like feedback, it gives us dark power- I mean it helps keep up our enthusiasm to write. Definitely not arcane secrets and shadowy sorcery.

 

[Domar7431]

I think this is the first fic I've seen that goes to ff6, since I love the game you gain automatic points for that. Interesting that you had him under control of the slave crown, being Kefka's subordinate is a terrible experience.

 

[boyboy180]

I think this is the first fic I've seen that goes to ff6, since I love the game you gain automatic points for that. Interesting that you had him under control of the slave crown, being Kefka's subordinate is a terrible experience.

Click to shrink...

I love FF6 too. While I prefer FF5, 6 holds a special place for being my first final fantasy game.

The FF6 Jumpchain really doesn't have a lot of good drawbacks. I was forced to go the Slave Crown route because it was the easiest way to earn a lot of CP. Because there were a lot of perks he needs to get from this jump.
That said, even the original jump doesn't have a drawback for continued use of a slave crown. The only drawback that mentions it is basically "It was put on you for an instant then quickly taken off, it damages your memories and emotions which won't fully recover till the end of the jump."
I had to take that an add on a few more drawbacks to make this work. One of the drawbacks from the base supplement this entire chain is based on forces you to work for the villains for some of the jump, I just combined that in there and it kind of works.

 

[boyboy180]

After Terra's declaration, everyone set off to gather supplies. They'd all be going on the airship this time and they weren't leaving anyone behind.

As Joshua and Setzer went to find some equipment though, they found someone had already gotten to it first.

"Gah! Caught in the act!"

It was… a wolf?

"Who are you?" Setzer asked casually, eyes roaming the humanoid wolf, taking note of the bag that was likely full of stolen goods.

The wolf gave a tooth-filled grin "I'm Lone Wolf, a thief. This treasure's mine now!"

…Seriously? The name he was using was 'Lone wolf'? Well, it was enough of a calling card for him as he fled the building. Setzer and Joshua ran after him, calling some others for help as he fled up into the mountains.

They needed to run through the cave system after him and while they were doing that, they heard a commotion and saw that Wolf was now dragging a Moogle as hostage behind him.

Finally they cornered him up on a cliff and the wolf put a blade to the moogle's neck.

"That's far enough! Come one step closer and the moogle gets it!"

They all stopped, trying to figure out a way to deal with this. The moogle was faster though and after it recovered, it tackled Lone Wolf.

The tackle sent them both stumbling though and they each caught hold of the cliff as they fell.

Since they'd all come up here, they were easily able to pull the moogle to safety and capture the thief (In the process, reclaiming the piece of equipment he had stolen, a hairpin that reduced the strain from spellcasting.)

In the process, they learned- No, it would be more fair to say the scout team learned- that the moogle could talk. What was news though was that it had been Ramuh who'd taught them.

Regardless, the moogle's name was Mog and he wished to join them all on their adventures.

Well, there wasn't a real reason to turn him down.

When everyone got back to town, they kept gathering supplies. Once everything was in hand, they boarded the airship.

Mog told them he was learning dances that he could use in battle. As there was no short deadline (Any attack by the empire could be reacted to quickly due to the airship) the crew agreed to help show him around quickly so he could learn some more techniques.

The entire round-the-world trip took three days, during which Mog learned a lot of dances, Gau was allowed to run free in the plains to pick up some new skills and Joshua got to see the wonders of the world.

As he couldn't remember his time before joining the returners, this was his first time seeing many of these landscapes. The Veldt, for example. An endless-seeming plain wandered by all kinds of monsters.

Eventually they stopped in Tzen where intelligence suggested another Magicite was. A thief had stolen it from the labs and was offering to sell it. The price was actually reasonable compared to the auction house's prices so they did actually buy it.

Joshua had finished learning all he could from Cait Sith during the days spent looking for Mog's dances but he didn't ask for the newly obtained Seraph Magicite. He took the Zona Seeker Magicite instead. Celes had been showing off the Osmose spell in battle and he thought it could be useful.

Draining mana from a target to empower yourself, Celes used it to pay for healing spells which allowed the party to keep fighting for much longer than they should be able to during the training on the Veldt.

They had set down in Tzen for another reason though. It was the last chance they had to get supplies before they headed for the Sealed Gate.

Once they had stocked up, it only took a few hours of flying to reach the gate.

On the way over, Joshua spoke to Sabin.

"Do you think it'll work?" He asked the martial artist "Do you think the Espers will help us?"

Sabin shrugged "I can hope they will. There are really only two ways this can go though. Either they're afraid of humans in general after what happened in the past, or they're afraid of the empire after what happened."

Joshua nodded, allow Sabin to continue explaining.

"If they're afraid of all humans, they'll refuse to help. Even if Terra can get through to them, they probably won't march to our defence. In the worst case, they might even attack us to try and defend themselves."

"But didn't you say they were afraid?" Joshua asked "Fear means running away right?"

He had paused after saying that though. No, he couldn't remember clearly but it didn't work like that.

Sabin agreed with that latter thought "It's a fight or flight response. They've locked themselves into the esper realm, when we come in- if we can come in- we'll have pushed them into a position where they cannot flee. They'd have to strike back against us to live."

On the other hand, if they fear or hate the empire more, then they might be able to listen to Terra. That made sense.

Setting down, it was late in the day but the search team was still going out to reach the gate. Terra was leading it of course and Edgar, Sabin and Cyan were going in with her. Celes had refused to come on principle.

"They'd hate me." Was the main explanation she'd given when Joshua asked. He decided to push a bit into that though.

"You haven't wronged them though, and you've forgiven the scientists who made you into a Magitek knight. Where is the blame?"

Celes shook her head "That's all from my perspective. From their perspective: I must be a horror. Imagine if while we were training, we had encountered a monster that wore human skin and carried around our weapons. That's what I am to them."

"I don't think so, didn't you say Ramuh reacted well to you? And Ifrit and Shiva reacted well to Ramuh's power within you too. Maybe it's not wearing their flesh but holding up their banner. You could be honouring them. They did all become Magicite for our sakes after all."

Celes held her hand out to the side "Then look at the reverse, Kefka. Let's assume that for whatever reason they don't hear what he's saying but they just see what he does with the stolen magic. How could they look at that and see their power being used responsibly."

"You're not Kefka?"

That made her pause for a moment as Joshua continued.

"Why did you even think of it that way? You're nothing like Kefka. You use your magic for good purposes."

"I burned a city."

The admission was sudden.

Locke walked over, he'd apparently been listening in.

"Maranda, right?"

"Right." She confirmed Locke's thoughts, looking over the side of the ship in the direction of the town in question. "This was about two years ago. I had just become a general and I was ordered to take Maranda."

She was lost in the memory.

"It had been a jewel of the empire, taken during the first campaign in nearly perfect condition and it produced many rich products for the empire as a whole. They had gone into rebellion though and they needed to be stopped before they struck back at Vector."

You had seen Maranda from above during the world trip. You could imagine Celes standing on one of the nearby hills, an army at her back.

"They wouldn't give up though." Celes noted "No matter how hard I pressed them, they'd strike back and more lives would be lost. I knew at that rate, the siege would cause immense death."

"So?" Joshua asked, already knowing the answer.

Celes' eyes closed.

"I did what I had to do. I ordered in the Magitek armours with orders to torch the town. To kill as many as they had to in order to ensure that they stood down."

Locke had been quiet throughout the story. Finally he spoke.

"And you regret it?"

Celes paused.

"Do I regret the death? Of course I do. I wish there had been another way. But if you're asking me if I regret the choice I made- No, Locke. I did what I saw was best to end the conflict with as few deaths of my allies as possible. That is how a general fights."

Locke shook his head.

"If you didn't regret it at all… You condemned Kefka's plan as horrific. You must regret your own actions."

"When Kefka poisoned Doma," Celes reminded him "They had citizens from the empire captive. They were treating them well. By Poisoning Doma, Kefka killed those men too. Purposefully."

"And yet…" Joshua looked off in the same direction she was "You compared yourself to Kefka before."

"Because I know how it must look from an outside perspective." Celes offered, "They'll see me, a Magitek Knight who torched a town. They'll see Kefka, a monster who poisoned a castle. And after that, they'll think that we're the same. Magitek knights drunk on their power and madened."

A moment of silence passed on the deck. Finally though, Locke spoke.

"If the old you, the one who torched Maranda, saw you now. What would she think of you? You're looking back on her actions as if you're the same person now as you were back then. But I think that if the imperial general saw the… well. You as you are now. The one who turned on the empire due to their evil. I think if she'd seen you, the old you would deny any connection. She'd say that she was nothing like you. She's loyal after all."

Celes snorted "So, turning traitor erases my crimes. Maybe we should tell that to Kefka. He'd jump right to our side."

"No he wouldn't." Joshua suggested "He has too much fun being a monster. He wouldn't want his crimes forgiven."

It was just a feeling he had.

Celes still wasn't satisfied. There had been something wrong. Locke had said the Celes of the past would hate her, but what if she still felt the emotions that would be the cause of that hate?

Above their heads, thunder rumbled. A storm had gathered above the sealed gate.

As they watched, they saw flashes of light, not just lighting but…

"Magic." Joshua breathed.

Those were Espers up there. Joshua could feel his dagger grow warmer and glow slightly as he stared at the unnatural and yet wonderful creatures that called the Esper World home.

"Yay?" Locke muttered, something didn't feel right about this though. The feeling of wrongness grew as Setzer swaggered onto the deck and looked at the imperial observation post with a spyglass.

"It's empty? They're all fleeing!"

Indeed. The soldiers that had been guarding the area were fleeing.

About thirty minutes later, the search team got back and explained what had happened. Kefka had ambushed them and the Espers had escaped the Esper world, sealing the gate with boulders as they left. There was no way to reach any of them that were still on the other side.

All of the Espers seemed to be going to Vector though. Were they planning to attack all on their own?

It was dark as the Blackjack took to the skies again. They needed to reach Vector quickly.

As they flew though, Terra felt that something was wrong. A great black dragon Esper could be seen off to the side. It was angry.

With a beat of its wings, it knocked the Blackjack to the side. Other Espers then came too and knocked the airship. Edgar, who was piloting at the time, lost control of the airship.

It was a close thing, but Setzer was able to guide the airship down to the east of Maranda.

The news that they weren't all about to die in a crashing airship did some good for the crew's mental health. It didn't help the fact that they'd now need to travel to Vector on foot.

Or by Chocobo, if they could find a stable.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here's the half-way point. Joshua has also just picked up a new perk. He can now learn Blue magic! Actually he can now learn all magic by observation but the short term benefit is he's now a blue mage. And he can learn magic off of other users instead of just Magicite.
Anyway, a Celes discussion makes up a large chunk of the chapter and I am not sorry. The alternative would be for me to not have all chapters be at least 2k words. Now we've gotten to the second half of this jump, I was actually thinking about it.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

To travel to Vector as quickly as possible, a team of four was needed again. This time Joshua had volunteered to go. With him was Terra (For the esper's sake), Celes (For the empire's) and Locke (For the sake of the rest of the people in the team).

Even so, the trip took four days on chocobo back. When Vector came into sight, black smoke was rising from the buildings. Not the smoke that came out of the factories, this was a murky colour. The colour of fires that weren't meant to be burning.

The front gates of the city were thrown open and members of the militias that had joined forces with the Returners were milling around. No one really knew what happened. These were the forces that were meant to pincer the empire with help from the Espers but there hadn't been any fighting.

Indeed, as they headed into the city, a group of imperial guards found them and told them that the emperor wished to see them.

There they got the rest of the story. The Espers had come here in search of their missing friends and family. When they'd learned that none still lived, they'd gone into a fury and destroyed the city. Now everyone was working to rebuild. The Emperor had declared the current war at an end- there was no point in fighting in their current state anyway.

Cid actually told them most of that. For Gestahl, it had turned his awe and desire for the Esper's power to fear. He claimed to fear them now. He was scared of what they might do to the world.

There was likely some self-interest there. If the Espers were to attempt to destroy humanity, it was assured that the Emperor would be right at the top of their list.

He invited the group to dinner to talk over the problem. First though they were used as messengers.

-The war was over, the empire had lost. That was the message they were meant to represent as they talked to the soldiers over the next few hours before it was time for dinner.

Through talking with them, Joshua learned that the Emperor had even imprisoned Kefka after hearing everything he'd done while out in the world.

Good.

Something in Joshua wasn't fully satisfied though. A part of him that wanted to see Kefka bleed and die. It wasn't right though. In fact as he was recovering his memories and emotions… he didn't really like hurting people that much.

If Kefka was imprisoned and would never see the light of day again… Either that or he'd be executed as he tried to do to Celes. That might be another satisfying way this could end.

There were some soldiers that didn't want to see the end of the empire. They tried to attack the Returners. Magic was an effective way to defeat them though. It made it clear to onlookers that the war wouldn't be won by the empire. At least that's how Joshua saw it.

Eventually Dinner came. They sat with Cid, the Emperor and a few of his advisors and other generals.

The point of this was peace, so diplomacy was key. Celes and Locke took the lead and at the Emperor's offered toast, they all toasted to their respective homelands.

On the subject of Kefka…

"Death." Locke was the one willing to say it first "He's done far too much."

The emperor hummed at that, "Well then, we'll have to leave him in his cell until an opportune time comes for an execution."

While sooner rather than later would be better, Joshua understood that it would take some time with the city in this state.

The poisoning of Doma was inexcusable and the Emperor promised they were already working to clean up the poison in the river. It may be possible to fix the damage, but bringing back the dead wasn't something that anyone knew how to do, even with magic.

Locke seemed unhappy at that but the conversation moved on. The Emperor turned to Celes.

"Miss Chere, I apologise for all the trouble you've gone through thanks to Kefka's schemes."

She gave a small nod and the emperor continued, looking at the rest of them "I think I should make this clear just in case but she wasn't a spy. She was just the wisest of us, as you may know."

Locke nodded, "She was always one of us."

They ate as they continued to talk. The Emperor had come to his senses when he realised just how dangerous the espers were to the world. Or rather, the empire he ruled. He couldn't rule ash after all.

The Emperor asked for help in quelling the rage of the Espers but Terra pointed out that, while they may have gone too far, it was his fault in the first place.

He just shook his head at that "Maybe so, but I feel that this all needs to end now. My Empire would die to the Espers and there are innocents that live here."

There was a break in the meal between courses. The Returners stood up and wandered around. Again there were some fights with some soldiers who hadn't gotten over the war but everyone came back to the table refreshed.

To get their help, Gestahl promised that the war was over. No more blood would be spilled.

Okay then. He seemed to be being genuine in this. Not that he was any kind of good person but just that he wanted the war to be over as the Espers were threatening him. That could be understood.

The Emperor filled them in on where the Espers were. He asked Terra, and the returners in general, if they'd go there to broker peace. He had a ship ready and would be sending General Leo with them.

Everyone discussed what had happened in private and came up with a plan. Locke smelled a trap so he wanted everyone else to wait here. He and Terra could go alone while everyone else tried to figure out the plan.

"Do you think the emperor plans to go against his word?" Joshua asked.

Locke paused but shook his head "I don't think so- at least not blatantly."

Celes agreed "Even if he was planning a doublecross, the empire needs time to repair the damage done in the attack. If he tried to push for the war anyway, General Leo would take command of the soldiers and they'd likely dethrone Gestahl."

So there was something deeper here.

Terra and Locke set off for the port while the rest of them just kind of hung around Vector.

Celes sent a pigeon to Maranda, Setzer should have some people keeping an eye on the post office to hear news from them. Cid also departed to go help the repairs on the Airship. Apparently in addition to being a scientist he was a mechanic. Who knew?

Three days later, they got news that Terra and Locke had reached the island in question. They'd be going on from there. They'd also met with someone called Shadow on the way that Sabin and Cyan apparently knew. They told Joshua about him the next day when they arrived. The rest of the Returners had too. The only ones left at the airship were Setzer, some of his crew and Cid who they learned had arrived by mail that very day.

Over the next few days, there wasn't much to do. Well, that wasn't strictly true. Joshua sparred with some soldiers, talked with his friends and learned from his Magicite.

He finished studying with Zona seeker but Locke had taken the Magicite bag with them in case it was needed to help bargain with the espers so he couldn't swap it out for a new one.

Not that it was a massive problem as he'd figured something out. As he watched some magic that Cyan used, he figured out that he'd probably be able to cast it too. Asking for the old Samurai's help with the project wasn't hard.

They trained together, Joshua watched the spell being cast and after a while he'd figured out how to replicate it.

He spent days like that, learning each spell that his allies had learned. It actually made him a more accomplished spellcaster than Celes.

"How are you doing it?" Celes wondered as she taught him Blizzara.

Joshua shrugged "I'm not really sure. I'm just kind of getting it when we spar.

She nodded curiously.

"When you were first captured, you had no potential for magic in you." She noted "But it seemed that even without potential, you didn't lack talent."

Joshua gave a tiny smile at that. One that dissolved after a moment as he looked to the side. This was something new. He hadn't been able to do it before. It was also limited to Magic, Sabin had tried showing off some of his more magical Blitz techniques but Joshua hadn't really gotten much from it. Maybe it might have given him a few tricks he could use to replicate some of them but he wasn't learning the Blitzes themselves.

Nine days after the team had arrived, they got a letter from Terra again. The Espers had agreed to a ceasefire. It seemed the Espers were just as horrified about what they had done. They hadn't had any control when they burst free. With that in mind a delegation would be sent to them.

While the Emperor began planning the delegation, he invited the Returners to have a feast to celebrate the war's end.

Edgar though had managed to find the trap. The food was meant to be poisoned!

He led them out quietly. All the time Cyan's anger was burning.

"He lied! Why did he lie?"

They were out of the city and taking some Chocobos back towards the airship. They could only hope to reach the Espers before the empire did. They'd had a message saying the airship was fixed by now.

They rode for four days to reach the airship. They prayed that the delegation would still be at sea. It had only taken Locke and Terra's ship three days though… Hopefully the empire would be slowed by the weather?

Night fell as the Airship flew through the sky as fast as it could.

What could the emperor be thinking? As Celes had said, the Empire wasn't ready for a war! He must be mad.

It was the early afternoon when they finally reached Thamasa. They found it in ruins.

Locke and Terra gave them the explanation about what had happened:

Kefka had shown up with empire forces only a few hours before the airship had arrived. They had killed and made Magicites out of all of the Espers that had come to agree to the ceasefire.

General Leo had tried to stop it, but he'd been killed by Kefka, disguised as the Emperor with an illusion. Kefka was so powerful now. It was like he could hold a piece of Magicite for only a moment before gaining all of its power.

It was the reverse of Joshua's new gift, instead of learning from others, he hoarded power for himself.

They also introduced two new members of the team. Strago, an old man who had been born with magic and his granddaughter Relm who was the same. The people of Thamasa were apparently descendants of Magi of old.

"Just to clarify:" Joshua asked "What is a Magi?"

The war of the Magi was explained to him. 1000 years ago, people with powers like the Returners had fought Espers and one another for power.

In a way, the Returners were Magi too, just Magi of a new generation. Their Magicite was apparently the same sort of thing used by those ancient Magi.

Everyone returned to the airship. There was now a single goal: Find and defeat the Emperor and Kefka. They had gone far too far.

Setzer noted that he'd heard the soldiers talk about the sealed gate while the Airship had been under repairs. It was likely the Emperor was going to do something there now that his servant had gained so much power.

As the airship flew, they saw the peninsula that the sealed gate was undergoing a massive earthquake. Then, slowly, it began breaking away from the earth. Atop the mountain was a shining beacon.

Strago was the one to recognise what it was.

"The source of all magic in this world: The Warring Triad. They're said to have turned themselves to stone facing one another. That way, each one's power would be neutralised by the other two. If the three were ever moved out of their perfect alignment, the resulting power would destroy the world as we know it!"

"What?!" Came calls from all over the ship.

Setzer frowned, turning the airship in the direction of the floating continent.

"Let's go then. I don't intend to see this world end. How about any of you?"

Roars came from the people on the ship as the ship's speed increased.

Joshua didn't know who he was but he liked to think he knew this world now. He'd spent months here and only scratched the surface with how much travelling around they'd needed to do.

And yet he was willing to fight to protect it. Willing to put his life on the line.

He may not like killing humans, but he was prepared to end the lives of those that threatened this place.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here is the penultimate world of balance chapter.
Because of the way I split the chapters up, I'm amused by the fact that the Emperor's promise and breaking it were only separated by 700~ words.
Pity that general Leo couldn't be saved but the lack of memories means that Joshua has no reason to try and join Terra and Locke's mission.
On the other hand, Joshua's Lore perk has now allowed him to learn all the magic that the party's Espers knew. Other than Seraph and Maduin which Locke and Terra took with them to Thamasa. It's so powerful and he hasn't even started learning blue magic yet!

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Setzer flew the Blackjack straight at the floating continent, the wind rushed past the deck as everyone held onto something.

"All right!" He called, "I'm going to find a way onto it! Everyone not ready to assist with the landing should go below deck to prepare."

Locke, Edgar and Celes helped him while everyone went below to check on their equipment. Joshua hadn't really thought to mention it before but they were all using quality equipment. Just looking at what everyone had helped Joshua get was immense.

While he still carried his impossibly sharp knife in one hand, the other hand he carried a shield made of Mythril that he could protect himself with if he was going in close to stab an enemy. He wore a fancy hat that provided him with more energy to cast spells and under his normal clothes was a vest made of mithril. On his left hand he wore a golden ring with a purple gemstone in it that the others had told him would protect against mental effects, a welcome gift for a man damaged by the slave crown.

It should also be noted that he was one of the least equipped. Everyone else wore similar types of armour and carried their own mystical weapons. Celes for example carried an empty golden hilt that shot out a blue sword when she was in combat. Something about that tickled his memory but he couldn't place it. She was on deck though so he couldn't see it right now.

They heard sounds of fighting from above but they stayed patient As the sounds continued, Joshua was able to hear a very loud sigh from the deck.

Finally though they heard a call from above "Some reinforcements would be nice!"

Joshua, Terra and Relm were the first up there and they found the team left on deck were fighting that Octopus from before. Ultros was his name, right? He was fighting alongside a strange monster though. A monster with a purple and smoky body.

As they engaged though, the monster snorted and the force of the wind picked up and pulled Joshua and the others off their feet. Joshua blinked and grabbed for the ship's railing but he missed it and along with the other six on the deck they fell to the world below.

"Float!" Joshua cast. He cast it quickly, once for each of them. As they fell softly down, the wind carried them towards the floating continent.

"Not how I planned to do this." Setzer remarked "I hope someone back up there learned how to pilot the ship to rescue us after this."

"Sabin did." Edgar promised "It took some coaching but he knows how to fly in an emergency."

Before the levity of the situation got to them though, they were intercepted by an Imperial Airship called the "Air force."

To prevent it from destroying the Blackjack, the team worked together to disable its weapons before jumping off and having the teams' mages cast Float a few more times to get everyone down all the way to the floating continent.

Celes looked up towards the top of the continent. They were standing on what had once been the mountains around the sealed gate, the highest point wouldn't be that long of a journey.

"Kefka, Gestahl...and the Statues are just ahead." She noted.

Locke nodded "Let's go give them a piece of our minds."

"Not literally." Joshua noted "I sincerely hope they didn't bring anything that could do that at least."

Terra shook her head "Even if they didn't Kefka has learned Illusion magic, let's progress carefully."

They began heading east along the mountain pass. Before too long they encountered someone though.

"Hey look, it's Mr Shadow." Relm pointed out "And Interceptor!" She sounded more happy about the dog than what appeared to be a Ninja. Oh yeah, the others had mentioned him before.

"Urgh." Shadow groaned as they helped him off the ground. He was badly wounded and Relm took the time to cast some healing spells on him and his dog.

Finally he recovered enough to talk.

"Well, that's the last time I trust the empire." He noted "Once I outlived my usefulness, they tried to have me killed."

He glanced to the side where Relm was still treating his dog.

"Is Interceptor all right?"

"Right as can be." Relm remarked "He only had some bruises."

Shadow paused, glancing down at Relm as he stood.

"You shouldn't be here."

"So what?" Relm challenged "Everyone else is helping save the world, why can't I be one of them?"

"You're still a child." He pointed out, "No one else here is."

Relm pouted and pointed at him, a spark of magic dancing around her finger "I'm going to help, this is what descendants of the Magi should be doing now anyway."

At that, he shut up. After a moment though, he looked up at everyone else.

"Normally I'd ask you to leave me here, but may you let me accompany you for a time?"

Celes nodded "You may, you have as much of a reason to fight the empire as the rest of us if they did just try to kill you."

So Shadow followed along with the rest of them.

On the way around the mountain path, they fought powerful monsters that Celes theorised had come here because of the powerful mana in the area. Joshua helped to slay a Dragon and several demonic-looking monsters.

They also fought some more Ninjas like Shadow who still served the Empire. Shadow showed them that they weren't really all that.

As they continued across the precarious paths, they eventually spotted the airship below them. They considered heading down there to restock but time was of the essence. They needed to stop Kefka and the Emperor as soon as possible.

They carried on before coming to a set of stairs guarded by a powerful monster. As they prepared to fight it to make their way to the peak of the continent, they were surprised when it spoke.

"My name is Ultima... I am power, both ancient and unrivalled... I do not bleed, for I am but strength given form... Feeble creatures of flesh... Your time is nigh!"

Joshua frowned, readying his dagger.

"Be careful!" Relm called "I've heard of these things from Grandfather's stories. Be ready for an onslaught of magic!"

"Not a problem!" Celes called, invoking Runic to absorb the first spell shot their way, a spell the monster called "Flare!"

Absorbing it, everyone went on the offensive. Celes kept up the defence against its magic while Edgar and Locke got in close to cut it down. Relm, Terra and Joshua timed their spells to strike after Celes' runic fell to prevent her from absorbing them too.

The Ultima weapon roared, switching from its fire focused phase to an attack where it bombarded the team with mental attacks. Luckily they had accessories that prevented that attack from doing too much.

Everyone quickly broke it down again as it continued to shift from spell to spell. Finally though they were able to defeat it.

They had to rest for a bit after that. They had just fought with a weapon used in the War of the Magi and they knew they weren't peers with those ancient spellcasters in ability yet.

As they rested, Shadow stood up.

"I have no right to fight with you. You fight the empire for your own reasons. Some of you worked for them out of loyalty, some of you were forced to work for them. I worked for coin alone."

"Hold it!" Relm called but as she spoke, he was already leaving.

There was a pause after that.

"While not strictly incorrect," Celes noted "He still would be able to fight with us. The idea that you have no right to fight against tyranny…"

Locke agreed "It's wrong fundamentally."

Relm was still watching the way he had left.

"Let's make sure we get him before we leave." She commented quietly.

Finally though they recovered and they headed up the steps to the peak of the world.

Those that remained were Setzer, Locke, Edgar, Celes, Terra and Relm. And Joshua of course.

He had a premonition that something was going to go wrong as they climbed to the top and found the statues. They were at the edge of a cliff, setting them like a memorial. Which they were in a way.

Kefka and the Emperor stood admiring them and seemingly trying to deduce the best way to use them.

Gestahl was the first to notice them.

"Well, well… Look who's here. The Returners and General- no, you're an Ex-general again Celes."

The woman in question's grip tightened on her weapon "We've come to stop you."

The emperor laughed "Then you're just in time to perish. Behold! The Statues!"

The statues glowed and the magical power seemed to flow out of them in droplets of magic. Droplets that gathered in Gestahl's hand.

"What power!" He marvelled, "I've got goosebumps."

Celes stepped forward, raising her sword "Emperor Gestahl, stop this madness!"

"No."

With that one word he unleashed the power on them. It was so sudden, Joshua had no time to cast anything. Celes was knocked to the side and the rest of them were sealed in shells of light.

Joshua banged against the wall and then remembered his blade.

…No, he couldn't use it yet. If he singled himself out and that power was used all at once, he wouldn't stand a chance. He needed to wait for an opening.

He couldn't hear what was being said by the emperor and Celes as the latter climbed back to her feet, but the look of disgust on Celes' face made it so that he didn't really want to know.

Even so, she took a sword from Kefka and approached the others. Terra's shining cell specifically. She raised the sword and paused. Joshua saw her lips move.

Kefka looked to be enjoying himself right up until Celes spun on him. She charged at him with the sword and ran him through.

While no one outside would be able to hear, Joshua let loose a cheer of happiness at seeing that. The first thing he could truly and assuredly say was an emotion for him. Blood trickled down Kefka's coat as he staggered back, screaming out what were likely obscenities.

Yes, this would be a good opening though. As Kefka and the emperor were distracted, Joshua cut himself free of the pod and began working on the others.

As he worked, he continued listening in to what the others were doing.

The sounds of Kefka collapsing to the ground while still cursing at Celes really was music to his ears.

That emotion quickly changed as he heard Kefka spin to his feet from the ground.

"Gods! You were born to fight!" He heard Kefka yell to the statues, "I implore you...show me your power!"

As he tried to run between the statues though, he was thrown back by a wave of power.

Joshua's work sped up as he continued cutting the others free. He couldn't risk casting Dispel, not with so many mages nearby to notice his casting.

Finally Kefka worked himself between the triad

"Now listen to me! No more playing games! I command you, show me your power!"

The emperor, who had until now just been watching, ran up to Kefka.

"Kefka, stop it! Revive those statues, and you'll destroy the very world we're trying to possess!"

"Shut up!" Kefka yelled.

Gestahl looked at him with anger "Have you gone mad?"

"Mad?" Kefka asked "Why Gestahl, this is the perfect chance to show them the power of the warring triad!"

…Honestly this was Gestahl's mistake, if Kefka had ever been sane it was a long time ago.

"Oh Kefka." Gestahl sighed "You poor, hopeless thing! I'm afraid you leave me no choice! No hard feelings, I'm just going to use this power you've unleashed to… 'Put you to sleep'."

…The Emperor had just absorbed the power but something didn't feel right. That feeling was confirmed when the Emperor's magic failed to have any effect on Kekfa.

"How?" He asked, his body flagging from the wasted energy.

Kefka struck him and smiled "How you ask? Simple! I'm standing within the field of the Statues! Their strong field absorbs all magic sent their way! Or didn't you notice?"

It was like a divine version of Celes' runic and it meant that all of the Emperor's energy had been stolen.

"Triad!" Kefka called "Your first victim has stepped forward! Show this useless old man your real power!"

The statues struck with bolts of power and while the Emperor dodged some of them, he couldn't dodge them all.

"Oh well, what a worthless excuse of an Emperor!" Kefka laughed as his body crumpled.

As he passed on, his last words were quiet but a show of just how far he'd fallen too.

"There'll be no one to worship us…"

Kefka then threw him off the floating continent. By this time, Joshua had gotten everyone free. Celes had noticed but was more interested in stopping Kefka as he tried to break the balance between the triad. Everyone rushed forward to help her but Kefka didn't even need a spell. Magic lashed out, sending them all flying. It was pure luck that none of them fell off the continent.

Shadow then dropped in and began helping them out before going to struggle with Kefka. As everyone rushed to help him, he called out.

"Don't worry about me! Run! I can't stop this chain reaction! I'll see you again. Count on it!"

Relm shook her head "No, we'll help!"

"Go Relm!" He yelled "I promise I'll get back to you all."

"You can't escape me!" Kefka cried at him as they continued to struggle over one of the triad statues.

They all had to run. Edgar picked up Relm to force her to come, else she would have stayed. Shadow sent Interceptor with them to keep her safe.

As they reached the Blackjack, Setzer began to start it but Relm held up a hand.

"No! If we leave without him, I'll never forgive you all."

Strago ran over and embraced her but she struggled free, focusing on him "Grandfather help me make them wait for Shadow!"

"Shadow?" The old man asked, then it seemed to hit him and he nodded "Right, okay."

Agreeing with his daughter, he demanded everyone wait. Luckily they were rewarded when Shadow ran along the edge of the continent and leaped onto the Blackjack. His outfit was ripped to pieces and blood was falling.

The moment he was with them though, Setzer instantly took the ship off and tried to pull it away from the continent.

They looked as the magic was shot out from the island to the world below. Beams cutting the land apart.

"Is there no way to stop it?" Sabin asked. Strago just shook his head sadly "It's all over now. There's nothing we could do…"

Then some of the beams angled towards the ship. Setzer's eyes went wide.

"Hang on! We'll need some Float spells everyone!"

At that moment, the beam sliced the ship in half. The Blackjack began to fall.

Joshua began to cast Float as fast as he could. He didn't just need to worry about his allies but the Blackjack's crew as well.

Eventually, the exhaustion of so many spells made him pass out.

In the darkness, there was only one thought in his head.

On this day, the world will change forever.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we are. The world of balance is over, it's time for the world of ruin. Who's excited for that!
The Shadow and Relm interactions should be understandable if you know Shadow's backstory. I was always disapointed more wasn't done with it in FF6.
Prepare for thousands of words dedicated to sidequests. Good sidequests, granted. But sidequests nonetheless.
Additionally, how do you all think I did with the world of balance?

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

*Four months later*

Joshua's recovery was slow, but at least he was glad that he hadn't gotten any more amnesia.

After he passed out from overtaxing his magic, he had apparently fallen into the sea. Luckily he'd been close enough to land that a fishing ship that had been out at sea during the cataclysm to pick him up.

He had ended up being taken to Albrook. His clothes had marked him out as a wealthy man- or a wealthy traveller in his case- and so they'd seen to helping him recover.

Even so, they had started to worry when it looked like he'd been seriously hurt hitting the water. While his speed had been reduced by float, it had apparently worn off a bit after he passed out.

It had taken a month for him to wake up for the first time, two months for him to be awake for more than a few minutes a day. A fever had taken him during that time and it was only with the help of his tamed monsters that he was safe when a wave of new monsters had attacked the city.

At three months he was able to walk again, though slowly, and from there he had gone around town to learn what had happened.

Kefka had destroyed the world. His "Light of Judgement" had cut the world to pieces and reformed it as he wished. It had released ancient monsters that had been sealed away during the War of the Magi. Now Kefka used it to smite those who failed to worship him as the god of magic.

That last bit apparently wasn't very important. If you keep your disloyalty quiet, you'd be fine. It simply forced settlements to obey him out of fear.

The Returners had been scattered. No one had heard of any of Joshua's allies when he asked about them. Well, they'd seen some of them before the Cataclysm but there was no news from them since then.

Joshua recovered his strength over the last month, his monsters by his side helping with his physical therapy.

He also had gained vague memories and dreams of two more creatures during his recovery. A monstrous flower and a Dragon, much like the ones unleashed by Kefka's madness. Maybe if he found them, he'd have a clue to what was going on. Plus, he could look for his allies as he searched.

He needed gil for travelling supplies though. The town square had a bounty board for the new monsters unleashed by Kefka and those local monsters that had still continued being a problem. They'd pay him if he brought them proof of dead monsters. Maybe that pay would be enough to fund his travels.

And so that explained where he was now, a day or so outside Albrook hunting for the monster that had been named "Fafnir."

Without hearing the description, something in him had thought they'd look like wolves. With the description though it seemed he was looking for a reptilian creature with four claws and a long neck. They would also apparently run away if someone was hunting for them specifically so Joshua had to be careful in his search for them.

As he searched, he glanced north at the tower that had apparently been created in the days after the cataclysm. It was called Kefka's Tower… an example of his divine narcissism or merely a lazy name? Joshua wasn't sure.

He also had to fight off various other monsters while making his way around. His magic was still powerful, even if all the Magicite was elsewhere. He was fairly sure Celes had been holding it when the ship went down, right?

After hunting for a few days he found the pack that had been causing trouble and wiped them out with a few casts of Blizzara.

His monsters helped bring a few of their frozen corpses back for verification purposes. With that done and travel supplies bought, he set off once again.

He had friends to find, both humans and monsters.

There was no real map of the world that Kefka had taken control of, any map made would likely be out of date within a month or so anyway. Joshua just had to navigate based on his knowledge of the old world map.

Kefka's tower would be roughly where Vector used to be. There had also been merchants from Tzen who had arrived so they knew that it was part of the same landmass at least. It might be worth going up there to see what had happened and if any of his friends were there.

That trip took six days. He had to go the long way around the island to avoid Kefka's tower. While he was travelling, he visited the spot that the floating continent had used to be attached to. Now what was left of it was above Kefka's tower as a crown of sorts.

It was much the same in Tzen than it had been in Albrook. People were broken by the end of the world and yet they still kept pushing on. They still kept trying. Even in the face of the end of the world, humans wouldn't give up. It just wasn't in their nature. Groups of people would hold together to survive.

That said, there wasn't any news about his friends so he moved on.

He heard about a land bridge that had formed in the east so he headed there next. It took around four days to reach it and he crossed it into unknown lands. Well. Surely this was somewhere he had likely seen before from the Blackjack but nothing came to mind as he looked at the destroyed landscape.

There came a point where he had to decide between going north or east. He took out one of the coins from his supplies and, after checking it wasn't a double-headed coin, flipped it.

…Tails. East it was.

About a week and a half passed as Joshua continued east and then north. Still, nothing was coming to mind about where he was. He had been here before, right?

He ended up seeing a settlement up ahead and investigated it. There was no one there though. Not as far as he could see. The town was empty.

"Hello?"

There was a shaking sound from nearby and Joshua pulled out his knife and pointed it as children burst out from behind cover.

"You're gonna have to fight your way in here chump!"
"Hold on." Joshua tried to de-escalate. He didn't want to fight children. That said he didn't drop his blade "I only want to talk."

That didn't make the children step back though. They still carried spears and swords though they didn't look to be in the best state of repair.

Joshua continued "Where am I? I don't recognise it."

"You're in, and should soon leave, Mobliz."

Ah, Mobliz. He had only visited once before during Gau's training on the Veldt.

"What happened here though?" Joshua asked "...Where are your parents?"

"Dead." One of the boys said "Killed by that horrible light."

Kefka's Light of destruction…

"I'll leave." Joshua promised "But don't you have anyone to look after you?"

The boy from before spoke again "We can look after ourselves. We'll keep fighting!"

Sighing, Joshua nods and turns. Before he goes though, he asks another question.

"I don't suppose you've seen any of my friends? They would have fallen from the sky."

"Fallen from the sky?" Another child, one of the girls, asked "We do but…"

Joshua spun on her "You do? Who? What do they look like?"

The boy stepped forward though, pushing his sword toward Joshua. He wasn't that good with it though.

"Hey, stop bothering her!" The boy ordered. Joshua raised a hand but kept his eyes on the girl. She hesitated and explained.

"A girl with green hair fell nearby, she's still unconscious though."

Green hair? That had to be Terra.

"May I see her?" Joshua asked, "I might have some medicine for her."

Or magic, as the case may be. It was better not to talk about magic when a self-proclaimed god of magic had destroyed the world.

They showed him to Terra and a casting of Raise was enough to wake her up for a short talk. She wasn't nearly strong enough for travel though so she said she'd stay here until she was healed.

Joshua could meet back up with her later. It was good to know at least one other person had definitely survived though.

He managed to arrange getting some more travel supplies from the children before setting off south to check the other way.

A few days travel north of the spot he had flipped the coin at, he passed a massive mountain range. It was so sudden it looked to have been made artificially, a mountainous wall to protect something within. It might be worth looking into that later.

Continuing around the mountains and through a desert in the north, he eventually reached another settlement. This one looked to be full of activity though. Trading, fishing, farming. It seemed to be doing the same kinds of things that would have likely been done before the collapse.

It was called Nikeah, a town that Joshua had actually never visited before. It seemed to be doing well though and it apparently was still trading with South Figaro. Good.

His dreams had shown him that one of his monsters had gone missing near Figaro Castle, if there was anywhere good to start that search, it would be there.

However, while waiting for a ship, he encountered a familiar face in the town's inn.

"I'm fairly sure a man of your age shouldn't be drinking so much, don't you think Strago?"

The old Magi looked up from a cup of cheap wine, his eyes bleary.

"Who…? Relm?"

"Sorry." Joshua apologised as he sat at the table "I've been looking for her though along with everyone else."

"You have?" For a moment, the old man's eyes light up. His expression darkened again when Joshua shook his head.

"I've found Terra so far, but other than you, no one else."

Strago's head fell and he moaned softly "Why, why did I agree with her? Why did I have us wait for Clyde?"

"Clyde?" Joshua asked.

Strago, drunk and loose lipped, explained "The man you call Shadow. He's Relm's father."

…Ah. Well that explained some of what Joshua had experienced on the floating island at least.

"I don't think it was a mistake." Joshua noted "Besides, Relm was one of the best of us at spellcasting. I have no doubt she landed safely somewhere."

"She could have landed in the middle of the sea." Strago objected with a sad gurgle in his voice "Even if she did that softly, she still would have drowned."

…

"Do you want to come with me as I search?" Joshua asked "That way, you'll be able to see her the same time I find her."

Plus, it would keep the old man from doing something drastic.

Strago held back a sob but nodded.

"Okay. But if I decide to leave…"

"You can." Joshua promised him "I won't stop you."

Now all that was needed was a boat willing to accept passengers. They'd also need to pay for passage so the two of them fought local monsters for a while to claim their bounties. Joshua picked up a bit of Strago's spellcasting as they fought together.

His spells were interesting. He could learn the magic of monsters but not all of it. Maybe those were the spells used by ancient Espers? Regardless, Joshua picked them up just as quickly.

Really, how he learned spells in general and how Strago learned his "Lores" seemed very similar.

In one way it was strange, in another way it wasn't strange at all.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we have our first proper change. Strago was saved from becoming a cultist. Sure, he could have been rescued but this just felt kinder to the old man. I'm imagining that Joshua got there just in time. Had another few days passed, someone from the cult would have convinced him to join up to get rid of the emotional pain he was feeling thinking Relm had died. Oh, and Joshua gets to learn the connection between Shadow and Relm.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

It took two weeks for a ship willing to accept their money for passage to South Figaro. During that time, Strago and Joshua kept their ear to the ground, listening for information on their allies.

They heard that Locke and Sabin were out wandering the world and trying to do good, but all the stories were from weeks ago and they'd have likely moved on to somewhere else by now.

When they were finally able to get on a ship, they made their way to South Figaro and listened out there too. They actually were able to find information on an old friend doing that though.

King Edgar had apparently been seen in the port a few times, but he'd been missing for a while. He'd been looking into Figaro castle. Apparently it had been submerged during the cataclysm and he wanted to find a way down into it to rescue anyone trapped down there.

…Apparently there was enough food and water stockpiled in the castle for over a year. That sounded unrealistic to Joshua but it's supposedly what he'd told people.

Ports were really the best places to listen for rumours though. They had actually picked up news about Relm in South Figaro. Not exactly where she was though. Owzer, that guy with the art museum in Jidoor had apparently been looking for her to paint something.

…The only way he could have heard of her, due to the sequence of events of meeting Relm before the cataclysm denying any chance that news of her spread in those hours between when Joshua met her and the floating continent, was if she was still active in this ruined world.

That buoyed Strago's spirits significantly. So the plan changed to making their way to Jidoor and asking him about Relm's last known location.

That said, it took two months to arrange a ship for Jidoor. It was amazing how much slower travel felt without the Blackjack.

As they waited, the year turned over. Celes had once mentioned to Joshua that he had been captured and enslaved at the start of the year. That meant he'd now been in this world for a full year.

That said, he knew nothing of his homeworld due to the amnesia. Well, he knew little. He occasionally had instincts and urges that must have come from who he was before.

His growing dislike of killing, his friendship with his monsters, that sort of thing.

While waiting for the ship, he did look into what had slowed down sea travel this much. It was an Esper's fault as it happened. Some of them had managed to survive Kefka's purge and draining of their kind.

Its name was Leviathan and it was making a mess of shipping. It would attack boats at random and sink them. Maybe the reason Kefka hadn't devoured it was because it was just making life harder for humanity and Kefka found it funny.

It was a shame though that Joshua seemed to have the worst luck in the world.

Once they set off on their boat journey to Jidoor, they followed the coast at first. There was no reason for the captain to take this trading vessel out into open waters for longer than necessary.

But then, two days into the journey, during the only period of open water crossing in this entire trip, the waves had begun to grow stronger and the water crashed against the hull. In the distance, the water was pushed up into a geyser as a massive blue serpent broke free from the endless blue.

…Leviathan, Esper of the waves, had come to greet them.

They had to drive him away from the ship before he sank it.

It wasn't going well.

Walls of water slammed against the ship as Strago and Joshua cast spells against the serpent. Their attacks didn't seem to be doing anything though! Leviathan looked like it was just ignoring their spells.

It was immensely powerful, it swam around the ship, breaking it apart as the crew scrambled to make emergency repairs and get the water out.

The gunpowder was soaked so none of the ship's cannons were working, so Joshua and Strago weren't able to rely on the ship for any help.

Fear gripped Joshua. They couldn't win this fight. Not as they were. None of their spells were powerful enough, they were missing vital pieces. Additionally, Leviathan was too far away for Joshua to use his knife on.

With a great sound of splintering wood, one of Leviathan's attacks broke the ship's mast. The large wooden post fell, crashing into and slightly past the deck, the rigging and sails making it hard to move around on deck.

Finally, with a great roar, Leviathan brought its tail down on the ship, cratering the hull. The ship rolled over to the side and threw Strago and Joshua into the water. They only survived because of some quick magic to allow them to shield themselves. They tried to make their way to members of the crew and passengers but there was only so much they could do.

Strago passed out first from running out of mana as Leviathan retreated from the sinking ship, a whirlpool pulling everyone down with the ship.

Eventually things calmed down though and multiple magically created frozen shells bobbed to the surface, everyone shivering and low on oxygen.

Wood from the sunken ship was still drifting around so all the survivors brought bits together, to create a makeshift raft. To prevent hypothermia, Joshua used small amounts of fire magic to warm bodies and dry clothes. It did use up a lot of wood though, as controlling the fire was hard.

The raft drifted for a few days at that point. One of the surviving sailors was a navigation specialist so they were able to tell everyone they were moving back towards Figaro on the current.

Their little raft eventually came close enough to an island, a blasted wasteland without any food, about two days after the attack from Leviathan.

There was no food here and people were starving. A factoid came to Joshua's mind though, humans can survive three-ish weeks without food. There was plenty of water here though from the rain so they would last more than a few days at least. If someone was able to make their way to South Figaro and arrange a rescue party, they might reach the survivors in time. Not everyone could go, most wouldn't have the energy for the journey. In the end, Strago and Joshua were the ones who had to go.

They crossed from one island to another, making their way back towards South Figaro.

It took them four days in the end to reach South Figaro. The greater problem was ensuring that help would come. Convincing people to come help was difficult work. After a few more days though, you'd managed to convince enough people to help.

With a rescue ship full of rations and water setting out, they quickly made their way back to the island that people had been shipwrecked on. That said, sailing around the broken continent had taken two more days.

People had survived though, all of them. It had been unlikely but they'd all held out hope for rescue.

Even Strago smiled at that. He hadn't lost hope.

Now they were all back in South Figaro though, the question became if they'd just make the attempt again. Leviathan probably wouldn't attack the same straight twice right? Right?

But people were even more cautious now.

All that work, and nothing to show for it. It ended up taking another month for someone to say they were willing to try sailing to Jidoor. Joshua could only hope that it was enough and that this journey would be safer.

It should be noted that even with how little he'd done. Joshua had now spent more time in the ruined world than the balanced world. That was kind of depressing in a way.

The new boat journey followed the coast for even longer in an attempt to get to the shortest crossing between the local islands and the continent Jidoor was on.

Luckily, Leviathan didn't attack them this time. They sailed south until they reached Jidoor in the evening of the 24th of February.

They checked in to see what had happened in Owzer's search for the great artist.

He greeted them… semi-warmly. Warm enough. He was excited to hear that Strago was Relm's Grandfather, he agreed to add that to the invitations he was sending… well. Wherever Relm probably was.

"I first heard of her in Miranda." He noted "A few months ago, probably around the time that you said that you'd heard of my search for her. She took a boat somewhere though so I'm sending my messages via ports. Hopefully one of them finds her. Do you want to wait here for her?"

…

"Yes." Strago agreed. "I would."

Joshua nodded "I don't mind waiting. It gives us a chance to look for information on our other friends too."

Owzer also showed them the Magicite he'd found after the cataclysm: Lakshmi. He had wanted Relm to come paint the Esper for him and in return, he'd promised the Magicite as payment. If they'd be willing to let Relm stay and paint it when she was found, he was willing to lend it to them early when Joshua asked.

And so that was what they did. Strago carried Lakshmi and Joshua learned both from him and the local Monsters. They taught the two of them some interesting Lores: Discord, Rippler and White Wind.

All they had to do was wait for Relm to get there.

Spoiler: Author Notes

A shorter chapter than normal, but I have no doubt I'll make up for that later in the final chapters.
Discord, Rippler and White Wind are all lores that can be learned from enemies around Jidoor. I would have also let them learn Tsunami from Leviathan but since they didn't win that battle, it could have been seen as cheating to let them earn it. They'll get another chance later.
I like FF6, but I must admit I'm getting a little tired of it.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

Three months passed as Joshua and Strago waited for Relm.

One day though, a runner came to the mansion.

"Owzer, a girl with the description matching the artist has arrived in town!"

Owzer and Strago, who had been playing cards at the time, looked up in shock. Strago jumped to his feet.

"Where? I have to see her!"

"She's on her way here." The runner reported quickly.

Without another word, Strago ran out of the door. Joshua quickly followed after him. The two of them ran until they found the surprised girl.

Relm had grown. Not much, to be sure but she had grown. It had been a whole year after all.

"Grandpa…?"

Strago, with the energy of a much younger man, pulled Relm into a hug, her bag full of art supplies dropping to the floor. She embraced him back though.

"You're still standing, you old fool." Relm's voice was quiet as she poked fun

Joshua coughed, looking around to the gawking townspeople around them.

"Perhaps we should talk about this inside?"

They agreed and headed back to Owzer's mansion. There the two of them caught up on what had happened over the last year. Joshua told Relm about Terra.

Relm told them about her own adventures. She'd been wandering the new world and looking for places that were still beautiful. She'd found precious few, yet she had found some. She'd also learned cartography as selling artistic maps apparently made a lot of money which helped with her travel expenses.

The idea that an eleven-year old girl was able to do so well was just a testament to her ability really.

"You missed my birthday grandpa." She pointed out, acting grumpy while a smirk played on her face. Strago laughed "Indeed? Well we'll have to celebrate it twice as hard this year."

Her birthday was only four months away it seemed.

Eventually, Owzer took over. He had called her over for her talent after all. Joshua handed over Lakshmi to Relm to let her examine it. Just by touching a piece of Magicite, one could get an idea of what the Esper looked like but Relm noted that it wouldn't be enough.

"This snapshot… no. I'll need to summon her a few times to figure out how to paint her properly."

And so the three of you and Owzer headed out of town.

Strago took Lakshmi and at Relm's direction, summoned her.

As the feminine Esper appeared, Relm pulled out her drawing pad and began sketching. She changed from one colour of pencil to another with lightning-quick fingers. She flipped over pages as she walked around the Esper, taking down its details from different angles.

After a few minutes, she declared she'd captured enough of the detail for now. Indeed, when Joshua looked at her pad, she had a near perfect recreation of the esper, just like a photograph.

…Not that he could really remember what a photograph was.

They all returned to the mansion and Relm got to work with her concepts. One of the rooms in the back of the mansion was filled with her sketches before the day was done. Each sketch was a quick interpretation of what the finished painting would look like for Owzer to judge.

Days passed and she just created more pictures.

Finally, Owzer settled on one picture and Relm began her work.

He'd chosen an image of Lakshmi lying atop a misty lake, the water like a solid surface for the goddess who was looking up and towards the viewer. Anyone who saw the piece would be able to see the goddess' peaceful expression.

A massive canvas was being used for the painting and Relm filled it with charcoal lines, detailing the structure of the work.

Even with just this structure, whenever any of them visited the room she was working in, they could already see Lakshmi on the lake. Even without colour or details, it was already possible to see a piece of art.

Joshua had seen her ability to sketch back on the floating continent. There, Relm had been able to draw monsters to such a lifelike level that her drawings could actually attack. Such was a master's skill mixed with the magic her heritage brought her.

She worked through the summer, only leaving the room to eat and drink.

After two weeks of work, the lake itself was done, the background of the piece had taken that long to finish, though it apparently didn't have all the details yet. That said, the water looked wet to the touch and some thorny vines wrapping around the edge of the piece looked like they might draw blood if you touched them.

…Had they been part of the original plan? Owzer had it somewhere around the mansion didn't he?

Yes, here it was. In his office.

…The vines weren't there in this sketch. Why had Relm added them? Artistic flare? Well, he could ask Relm about it at dinner tonight.

When prompted, Relm shrugged and admitted "I didn't."

…

"What?" You asked, "Then how are they there at all?"

She shook her head "It's like when I sketch monsters, some of the details get added on their own. Apparently, those vines are crucial to the painting."

Well. Did that mean a bit of magic was going into the painting? Lakshmi had healing powers, so a painting that healed the viewer might be something amazing. Relm's sketches normally only worked once though, she needed to draw a new picture to create the same effect again.

Maybe the rules were different with painting, or maybe the painting would just wait until injured people looked at it. There were lots of ways this could work.

As July began though, they all started to notice strange things. Sometimes the lights wouldn't work. Sometimes it felt like the other paintings were looking at them.

Relm had gotten started on Lakshmi herself though she seemed grumpy after each painting session.

Relm sighed and explained it a week or so in.

"Something's gotten… stuck."

"Which means?" Joshua asked.

"Some sort of demon or monster, it probably first noticed us when I was taking the sketches of Lakshmi outside of town. It's trying to possess the painting and changing it. I have to fight it to stop it from stealing the painting for itself. Every morning I wake up and go to the studio to find that it's made some major change or another. For some reason it keeps removing Lakshmi's robe and that just feels uncomfortable so I have to paint it back on each day. I'm running out of blue paint actually."

Strago looked at her seriously "A demon, should we get rid of it?"

"No, there's too much risk of damaging the painting. Unless… I could keep working on the painting while you two fight the demon?" Relm finally came to a conclusion.

And so it was. The demon tried to manipulate the paintings around the mansion to keep Strago and Joshua away but they kept up with Relm as they got to the studio.

Relm grabbed her painting equipment.

"Ready?"

"Ready." Strago and Joshua confirmed, getting ready to cast.

Relm nodded and stepped up to the painting.

"Let's go."

Her paintbrush touched the painting and the room went dark as an evil voice yelled.

"No, you think you can force me out? Never! This painting is the best one in a while. No one is denying me this treat!"

"Show yourself!" Strago yelled as the mist from the painting began flowing out into the room

The voice laughed, both in a demonic and feminine voice. Two separate voices in perfect unison.

"Very well. I am Chadarnook!"

The goddess… the corrupted painting of Lakshmi, stepped out of the frame.

They couldn't attack the painting, it was a shield the demon was using. They needed to wait for it to reveal its true form.

"The girl in this picture is mine!" The dual-natured voice yelled. The feminine half came from the goddess while the demonic half seemed to come from the frame "I won't give her up without a fight!"

Strago and Joshua were on the defensive as the goddess lunged at them with an outstretched hand. They dodged and blocked as they looked for their opening.

With each second that passed, Relm's painting called back a little more of the painting, the goddess having left the frame. With Lakshmi being painted back in, the demon couldn't use her for cover.

The skeletal fiend, Chadarnook was revealed as Relm finished her quick recreation of Lakshmi and the men began to chant.

"Fira!"

"Flamethrower!"

The painting demon roared as the dark magic and lores burned it. It struck with thunderous fury though. The sound of thunder's roar could be heard through the window as Chadarnook tossed power greater than Thundara at them.

Joshua and Strago staggered. That blow was strong. They weren't really equipped to handle this fight alone.

The demon shifted back to the form of the goddess, ripping Relm's work away from the picture frame and forcing her to begin again. In the meantime, Joshua and Strago healed up.

This was a battle of attrition and they didn't think they could win.

Even so they continued for a few more rounds. Relm was running low on paint though, the next time would be the last.

And then six more people rushed into the room.

Celes, Sabin, Edgar, Setzer, Gau and Cyan.

Relm opened up the demon to attack and everyone struck with everything they had.

With that, everyone was able to relax and react to the fact that their friends were here.

As everyone greeted each other happily, it having been a bit less than a year since they'd all last met after all, Relm turned from the picture, a passable but not high quality version of Lakshmi having been drawn in quickly to open up that last window.

"Right, everyone can relax now. That monster's not going to be possessing any more paintings."

The other returners asked about the monster and the story switched between Joshua, Relm and Strago to try and explain. When all was said and done though, Owzer made a suggestion.

With Lakshmi's Magicite having served its purpose, the sketches were already done after all and Relm could work off those if need be, Owzer offered the Magicite to the returners immediately.

Better to have it with them then attracting more trouble to his house.

Relm also apologised to Owzer.

"We'll have to go now, sorry I couldn't finish the painting. When we're done, I'll be back. Don't you worry."

Owzer sighed "Very well, I'll keep the sketches ready for when you get back."

So everyone filed out as Celes filled everyone in on what had happened. She'd woken up, as it turned out, a few days after Relm had started painting. You only got that from a quick comparison of dates though. She'd then spent the next two months trekking around the same sort of route Joshua had been following, recruiting the friends she'd come across.

Except Terra. Terra had asked to stay there to care for the children even now she'd recovered. She was apparently acting parental towards them. Well. Good for her. Joshua had already started getting his emotions and personality back so she should be too. It was good to hear.

They'd then helped Edgar dig up Figaro castle through the tunnels. That's how he'd gotten there.

As they got to Setzer's part of the story, they turned around a path out of town and Joshua saw an airship. A new one.

"She's amazing isn't she?" Setzer offered "She's called the Falcon, she's even a bit faster than the Blackjack was."

It seems they'd dug it up from where it had been hidden years ago when Setzer's old teacher and partner had died. He'd managed to recover it with the others' help.

Then came Gau and Cyan. They'd found Gau on the Veldt.

"We found Shadow and Interceptor out there too." Sabin pointed out "He'd been hurt and was recovering."

"Really?" Relm asked, perking up "Why aren't they with you then?"

"They wandered off somewhere else." Edgar noted "We then found Cyan writing letters on a mountain top."

"Context?" Joshua asked.

But Cyan shook his head. "No, it's not important."

"…Well, okay then?"

But it was good to have everyone back together at least.

"So, where are we going next?" Relm asked Setzer and Celes, who had apparently become the team's leaders really quickly.

Celes hesitated and nodded "I want to have another go at getting Terra to come with us. I'm sure we could convince her."

So, that was the plan. They all boarded the Falcon. The destination was to be Mobliz.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we are, back on schedule. There are only five more chapters after this. Most of them will be taken up with sidequests which means I'm having to pick and choose which sidequests get shown. Some of them will have to be skipped to make room for Kefka's tower and the ending. Chapter 20 is probably going to be really long. Probably. I hope not though. I hope I can get it all into 2000 words.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

As the Falcon soared through the skies, the team discussed the new Magicite they'd collected.

Not just Lakshmi but one called Fenrir they'd found when they'd first Visited Terra.

Kefka's cataclysm had awakened many ancient demons, Humbaba was one such demon and had attacked Mobliz. Terra had tried hard to defeat it but wasn't strong enough. Apparently she'd lost access to her Esper form. The team had to drive back Humbaba and they'd gotten the Fenrir Magicite from its necklace as it fled.

Humbaba was part of the reason they were worried for Terra, who knew when it was going to return. Best to deal with it. Even if she didn't want to come, it would be good to know that the demon wasn't a threat to her anymore.

The flight to Mobliz took most of the day so it was generally time to catch up with… well, The one year apart. This wasn't about what everyone had done, this was about… well. Life.

Everyone was pleased to see that Joshua was more emotional now, just as Terra was apparently.

They also talked about those who were missing now. Celes told of a time she had encountered a bird that had Locke's bandana wrapped around it to help an apparent injury. Locke had been heard in all corners of the world. The thief, no, the treasure hunter was acting like a true hero. It was said that he was looking for something that could bring the dead back to life.

Edgar shook his head "He's been looking for something like that for a while. I expect he's primarily doing that and just doing good as he passes through an area looking for rumours."

Then there was Shadow and Mog.

Relm and Strago were hopeful that they might track down where Shadow went into hiding at some point but not much had been heard about from him.

Mog… Mog never made an impact. It was probably just worth going to find him in Narshe once they talked to Terra again. If he wasn't there, there weren't really any good leads to track him down.

Finally the Falcon made it to Mobliz and the team broke in half, just like old times. Joshua went with Celes, Edgar and Sabin to check on Terra while the others stayed behind.

The young guards seemed to recognise them this time- well, they recognised Sabin and Joshua. Because of that, they allowed them in to see Terra. She was apparently talking with one of the oldest children in the medical room.

Well, sure. If a child gets hurt, none of them would have the skill to heal so best leave it to a white mage. That bit wasn't just from his memories, the team was referring to healing and supporting magic as white magic after all.

They found Terra in the sectioned off building with a young woman, the woman was crying softly as Terra comforted her.

"What's wrong?" Sabin asked.

Terra looked up and offered them all a smile.

"You're back! Hello everyone, it's nothing problematic. Katarin here just learned she's going to have a baby."

…Life finds a way? Well, she didn't look too young? Again, she was probably a young adult and this was a harsh world but… Well. the world probably wouldn't get much worse. Not with them working to fix things. She'd probably be fine.

Everyone congratulated the emotional girl as Terra helped her sit down.

"It's just-" Katarin tears weren't that of sadness "I'm so happy. But when I told my… my partner, he got cold all of a sudden."

They had actually passed said partner. He was in a sideroom of the medical building. He looked to be worrying.

"He's just worried about you." Joshua suggested.

"That's it." Said Partner took the chance to enter and join his… well. They weren't officially married but calling her something other than wife felt weak with the expression he had for her.

"Katarin, I'm sorry. I just didn't know how to handle this. I acted like an idiot."

As Katarin turned around, the ground shook. It was like a small earthquake.

A younger child burst into the room, yelling.

"It's Humbaba! Humbaba is heading this way!"

Leaving no time for words, the team rushed ahead of Terra. She wasn't able to fight right now so this was their job. They'd take him out, here and now!

Humbaba was a fat green creature, skinny legs somehow supported his body and the two great horns sticking from his head. His arms were thin too but they struck with great force.

This was a Demon. One likely stronger than Chadarnook was.

"Everyone!" Celes called after casting a quick Libra spell "It's weak to poison but his body will reject it. Use Bio!"

Not everyone knew it of course, not everyone had trained with Catoblepas. That said, Sabin struck out with strong Blitz techniques and Edgar brought out some sort of poison gas sprayer.

Humbaba struck back with thunder magic and rough and brutal attacks. Sabin was able to hold off the latter but the former forced Celes to switch to fulfilling a healer role while Joshua continued bombarding the monster with calls of "Bio!"

Bio was a nasty spell. The caster released a cloud of vile green gas that ate away at a target and inflicted them with a flesh-eating sickness. It was a spell that Joshua promised himself he'd never use on a human

Against this demon though, it seemed to be doing the trick.

As they fought though, Humbaba snorted out powerful blasts of wind that knocked Joshua and Edgar away, sending them sprawling across the ground. The impact had been hard and Joshua struggled to stand.

As he struggled though, Terra burst out of the medical house.

"No!"

She yelled, her form burning with light. To protect her friends and the children she had grown fond of, she claimed her birthright once more. Her human form vanished and in its place was the living half-esper.

Terra, her magical power amplified by her trance form, released great bursts of Bio gas that burned Humbaba on contact. She flew into the sky as the magic ripped the demon apart piece by piece until finally it fell.

As Humbaba collapsed and vanished into ashes, children rushed out of the houses around them. They surrounded the heroes who'd saved them until Terra descended.

They'd never seen this form of her before so they were afraid and they scattered to hide behind things. They didn't know if this was just another demon or not.

Terra's head fell when she realised that she was now the cause of these children's fear. But then one lone girl stepped forward. She approached Terra and took her hand.

"Mama? It's you, isn't it?"

Terra turned to her and smiled down as the others approached and called out to her too.

They crowded around her and she took in the sight of all of them. These children who were forced to live in a mad god's world.

As Celes stepped forward, Terra turned to her.

"I'll fight." She declared.

Her head looked down again "I think I've finally understood it. The feeling that's been growing inside me. It must be love."

Love towards those she cares for. The Children, her fellow returners, the Espers who had sacrificed themselves for her sake. For every human being in the world if you wanted to stretch a little.

"I have to fight. To protect the people I love and to make this world a safe place for new lives."

She floated up into the air again and spoke to all of the children whom she had protected in person up until this point.

"Duane, Keep Katarin and your baby safe."

Closing her eyes she continued.

"Children, Mama has to go away for a while to make the world a safer place for you to live! But I promise I'll be back as soon as I can!"

They gathered below her and made promises. That they'd been fine and that they wouldn't cry while waiting for her. The kind of promises that they really only would need to keep until she was out of sight. They loved her as their mother, of course they'd cry. Nevertheless they'd tell her those things and send her off warmly.

They knew she loved them. They knew she at least would keep her word.

"Thank you all." She said to them "You've all helped me understand what it means to love."

Then she ascended and flew off to the south. She'd probably seen the airship from the sky.

…They hadn't ever really had the chance to fill her in on it but maybe she just guessed? Regardless. Terra was back with the team.

They had a proper reunion when they got back to the Falcon.

The next destination was Narshe of course. That flight gave them time to bring Terra up to speed with everything that had happened.

Joshua sat on deck with Setzer as they all partied.

"You don't want to be down with them?" Setzer asked.

Joshua shook his head "No, I was just thinking about something. I wanted to do it without the interruption."

"Oh?" Setzer pushed "A gil for your thoughts?"

"Terra regained her emotions by remembering what it was like to love and be loved." Joshua pointed out "I remembered my emotions due to the hate I felt for Kefka."

"Yeah?" Setzer nodded, not seeing the issue.

"Love vs Hate." Joshua simplified "Does that make her a good person and me a bad one?"

Setzer snorted "Celes doesn't talk like that anymore and you thought you needed to take over or something like that? Hating something doesn't make you evil. A lot of the returners hated the empire and you wouldn't argue that they're good people."

"They didn't have it as their one link back to emotions." Joshua grumbled.

Setzer shook his head "Here's how I see it. You came to this world and had no real attachments to it. You were then mistreated horribly, by the empire in general and by Kefka specifically. If that hatred was what connected you back to yourself then so be it. You just didn't have the chance to feel anything else. None of that makes you evil. Unless you claim that ignorance is evil, that is. I wouldn't agree with that though. Some fairy tales may even suggest the opposite."

"You read fairy tales?" Joshua had been distracted out of his brooding.

Setzer shrugged "Sure? I didn't always pass my time with gambling. I was a child once."

Hmm.

They got to Narshe and found Mog just where Terra supposedly first met him. The Moogle caves right at the back of the Narshe mines. The same place Joshua's monsters had been found.

He also brought another guest with him too. A Yeti called Umaro.

Now they were only missing Locke and Shadow. With no real leads on their locations though, the best thing to do was just search around for them. While that was going on, Joshua and Strago had things they wanted to do.

Joshua had remembered more monsters. The three he had now weren't the only ones he'd had. There had been two more, a plant and a dragon. He wanted to search for them, to see if they were still around.

Strago wanted to find a friend of his. It hadn't been as important as any of their allies so he hadn't brought it up until now. The man's name was Gungho and he should, in theory, be in Thamasa.

There were many other things to do too while looking for clues though, so the group got to it.

First stop, the Figaro desert. That's where the team had said they'd encountered that Dragon monster that belonged to Joshua, it was a good place to start searching.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Yes, another quick chapter. We are now basically on sidequest cleanup now. I hope everyone's looking forward to the finale of FF6 in… IDK. Sometime this month? No, probably early November unless I'm able to just belt out these chapters.
Also, just to remind you, the below "Feel free to comment" thing is because feedback is the fuel that helps writers write.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

It was night time when they got to the Figaro desert so they waited for dawn to begin searching properly.

"Which way did she go?" Joshua asked at daybreak, looking across the desert from the deck of the Falcon.

Edgar pointed "That way, West-North-West. Into the large mountain range that used to be between Narshe and Zozo."

Said mountain range had largely sunk to the bottom of the sea during the cataclysm. Joshua didn't believe that his monster would be killed that easily though.

They got out one of Relm's maps and drew a line marking where the old mountain range was. That revealed one real area of interest. South of Kohlingen there was a bit of the old mountain range. It had endured and could be playing host to the dragon.

It was a quick two hour flight to reach the mountains and Joshua sent out his monsters. Finding the Dragon would take all of them.

The dragon could fly, that meant it would probably make a nest somewhere that could be easily accessible from the air but hard to reach from the ground.

The airship slowed down but didn't land. Setzer got out a speaker apparatus and discussed the plan.

"Your monsters obey you, right? If you call to it, it will come."

"What about, all the other monsters living in the mountains, won't they come too?" Sabin asked. Setzer laughed at him though.

"And take on the Falcon? No monster is that dumb."

Well then…

Joshua stood in front of the opening of the ship's loudspeaker and breathed in.

"Dragon, come home!"

…The fact that he couldn't remember if the dragon had a specific name caused more than a little problem.

The first problem was that a Golden dragon lived there. It certainly wasn't Joshua's dragon but they managed to kill it anyway.

Apparently, the crew had been finding these dragons for a while. An Ice Dragon was encountered by some of the party after they'd broken up to find Mog and a Storm Dragon had lived in the Zozo mountains. This Gold Dragon was then the third.

"The eight legendary dragons." Celes mused "I had heard they had been released by the cataclysm."

Well, they'd need to be defeated too, if only to help make the world safer.

They tried again, this time encountering a flying demon. Another of the monsters Kefka had unleashed. This one was called Deathgaze.

…That fight had ended with almost everyone being knocked out. Death magic was serious stuff. Sure, it didn't kill you immediately but if you weren't revived by magic or a phoenix feather, you'd die in minutes.

Oh, they hadn't beaten Deathgaze. It had just retreated after a quick skirmish.

Finally, Joshua called for a third time and a serpentine dragon emerged from the mountains.

"Does it look… different?" Terra wondered "Did it always have that hair at the front of its head?"

No, Joshua suspected it hadn't. The long blue dragon had a tuft of shimmering fur around its head.

Not that he understood what had happened, but the narrator will explain. Dragonair had undergone a change, the Pokemon had evolved in a mana-rich environment and that had changed it. Maybe you could call this a "Fantasy Dragonair"? It was a Dragon/Fairy type now, just for context.

It happily came to Joshua and whirled around him. Joshua held up one of the empty storage balls he had and brought it back.

That was one monster found at least.

Cyan actually asked for a detour after that though, he wanted to check out Doma castle. Joshua and Strago didn't mind a short delay but they didn't come with his expedition into the castle.

They spent the night there and when they came out, Cyan looked to be more at peace. Good for him.

Now it was time for some more strategy. The plant monster had left somewhere around the old imperial camp. That meant it should be somewhere around Doma in theory.

It probably wouldn't have gone to the Veldt so they could look on the northern island. As they flew over it, they saw a lone house below them. Sabin mentioned he'd visited this house before the cataclysm and wanted to see if the old man was still okay.

He, Cyan and Gau descended and the crew promised they'd be back for them in a few hours.

They flew through the sky, encountered Deathgaze again and almost got wiped out. By this time Strago and Joshua had figured out some of his spells though. That could hopefully give them an edge?

From above, they spotted what was left of the Phantom forest.

"No," Celes corrected "The phantom forest was nearer the Veldt. I had heard of a forest here though, it's where the camp got its lumber from."

Well, okay then?

Somewhere full of nature was probably a good place to look for a plant monster. They went back to check on the team who was going to the house and found them sadly sitting around a fire a ways away from the old man's house.

There, they told the tragic story of Gau and his father. The old man had gone mad but Gau had confirmed him to be his father. They'd tried to get him to recognise Gau but he was too far gone.

After that though, the team slept. They'd have a lot of exploring to do in the morning. The forest would probably be thick with monsters and finding the right one would be hard. Sabin mentioned it had been a giant red flower and that was the main clue that all of them would be working off.

With the sun's rise, they began exploring the forest. They'd brought lamps from the Falcon in case it got extremely dark.

While they did encounter some tumbleweed-like monsters, that was really the only problem they encountered in the forest. As they made their way through though, they did indeed find a large red flower.

"Um…" Joshua spoke "Can you wake up?"

The flower shifted, pushing out of the ground and revealing a deep blue body underneath. It could apparently walk around on its own.

It waddled over to Joshua, clearly happy to see him and after greeting it, Joshua returned it to its ball too.

That was it then, his full team of monsters was back in his hands.

A quick side note from the narrator here, as Vileplume was fully evolved, it didn't mutate like Dragonair had. On that note, Dragonair is considered fully evolved now and if this was the games, it would have stats on par with fully evolved pseudo-legendaries.

What Vileplume did get though was some new fairy type moves. And no, as far as this narrator can see, the only reason both gained fairy elements is that the fairy is the "magic" type. Effectively at least.

With everything done though, Joshua and the team returned to the airship. It was now time to hunt down Strago's friend!

…After a short detour to the opera hall to deal with a rampaging dragon there.

NOW, it was time to look for Strago's friend.

…After fighting Deathgaze along the way.

Why was that demon being so persistent? They still survived at least and they managed to reach Thamasa.

Joshua, Terra, Relm and Strago disembarked. It probably would have been nice if shadow would have come too but there was still no news on his location (Though they had heard a clue about Locke in the opera hall.)

Relm joyously ran to their old home to check if it was okay. It was, but she brought bad news as she ran back. Well, mixed news.

Good news: Strago's old friend was here. Bad news: He was badly hurt.

They all rushed to Gungho's side and used healing magic to help stabilise his wounds and jumpstart the healing process. He was quite far gone though so it was a struggle.

When Strago asked who had hurt him, Gungho answered it was a monster called Hidon. One they'd fought in their youths before Ebot's Rock, its territory, had sunk into the sea. Now that the cataclysm had brought it up, Hidon had returned too.

Strago took on the mission of defeating Hidon and led the team back to the airship.

The island was only a short ways north of Thamasa and it was a strange maze. Space distorted within the rock and the chests talked. They were some kind of monster but Strago told them that they weren't hostile. By feeding the chest coral from around the cave, they were able to progress deeper and deeper into the cave until finally they reached the depths.

There, Hidon awaited. It was surrounded by four floating…demons?

"They are called Erebus!" Strago called as he prepared to begin fighting "Target them first!"

They each broke off and fought one of the monsters as Hidon began lashing out at them all. A bio cloud washed over them from Hidon's mouth and Joshua resisted screaming. Opening his mouth would only make the pain worse.

Through the pain, he slashed with his knife at the Erebus before throwing out a spell, or rather a summon.

When they'd recruited Mog's Yeti friend, they'd also gained some Magicite.

"Midgardsormr!"

The giant earth snake… dragon… worm… whatever Midgardsormr was, it shot through the cave walls before crushing the Erebus with the power of earth.

In that time, the others had quickly dealt with the other Erebus in the same way.

Hidon was now the only target left.

That said, a rotten stench poured from it as it roared.

The warping of space increased, tearing at the world itself. And them for that matter, wounds tore open in all of them.

"This is it!" Strago yelled "Joshua, watch closely. This is Grand Delta! Hidon's ultimate technique."

In his youth, he hadn't the strength or wisdom to master the ultimate lore. That had changed now. Strago stared at the spell and understood how it worked.

"Now everyone, let's finish it off." Strago called, leading the final charge "Let's send this zombie back to the underworld- Raise!"

"Raise!" Terra called as Joshua understood. Healing techniques kill the undead so-

""Raise!"" Relm and Joshua cast as one.

Four revival spells. Spells that could bring the near-dead back to a battlefield-ready condition. All of them struck Hidon and tore the zombie apart!

And Joshua understood Grand Delta too now.

They'd done it. Strago's friend had been avenged!

…He wasn't dead. Just in case you thought otherwise. But you don't need to die to be avenged.

Regardless, they all left the rock. It had felt like a long day.

They returned to Thamasa and told Gungho the story.

Strago actually stayed the night in the town with Relm too, telling the story in greater detail over drinks.

For everyone else though, a party on the Falcon and a discussion of their next destination:

Phoenix cave. They'd heard a rumour that Locke had been seen in the area.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Three uploads in succession? It's almost like the few other times I've done that. It's not special but it is useful.
And Dragonair is back as a new regional form, though in this case it could probably be called a worldly form? Or something like that. Oh, and Vileplume is here too.
I worry this chapter might feel a bit short, the next one probably just is going to be short, no feelings about it. But this is all in service to getting to chapter 20 and if that one isn't 3-5k on its own, I didn't try hard enough.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

"So, just for context;" Joshua began as they flew towards Phoenix Cave "What is this cave actually meant to be?"

"The Emperor actually had one more Magicite that he didn't put in the laboratory." Celes explained "It was one of the empire's most precious treasures."

"And Locke would be there because…?"

Edgar snorted "If it really is the Phoenix cave, I'm amazed it took him a year to find it. It makes sense that it's a magicite really, but all we knew were the rumours that somewhere in the mountains on the southern continent lay a treasure that could revive the dead. And Locke has always desired it."

…Makes sense.

When they reached the star-shaped mountain range the rumours had spoken of, they saw a hole in the top.

"It looks volcanic." Joshua noted.

Terra nodded "Probably just another effect of the cataclysm. We'd probably need two teams to explore, just to be safe."

"I'll stay with the ship." Setzer spoke instantly "I'll need to escape in case of an eruption, I'll wait for all of you as long as I can though."

"It doesn't look that active though?" Sabin noted, looking over the side of the Falcon.

Setzer shrugged "Then I'll make sure there's a hot meal waiting for you when you get back. I've got a wooden ship, I can't land it right next to a volcano, no matter how good its fireproofing is."

Celes shrugged "Fair enough. Let's get the ropes then.

Slowly, the team descended to a lip of the mountain just outside the crater, it was the safest entry point that they could find.

The teams were:
Joshua, Strago, Relm and Cyan
Celes, Terra, Edgar and Sabin

They nodded to each other and set off in different directions as they climbed down towards lower levels of the trapped volcano.

Luckily, many of the traps were already broken, either by the end of the world or… maybe Locke had already been through here.

Relm complained a bit as her paper started catching and she had to dump the supply she'd brought with her.

"This is such a great view though!"

…Admittedly, she was right. You had reached a point that looked like the point between the sky and the fire below. Lava bubbled a few feet below you and the blue shined from the sky above.

…As a note: The only reason it was safe enough to be this close to the lava was because they were all wearing enchanted armour that stayed cool regardless of outside temperature. Otherwise they'd probably be burned to a crisp.

The two teams worked together to move some equipment around. This place had been excavated and some of the equipment was still left here.

"These are probably from when the emperor first hid the magicite!" Celes yelled across a gap as Joshua's team pulled on a gear to get it to spin.

Getting down to some of the lower levels, they found some of the infrastructure had been flooded by the lava.

…If Locke was here, he wouldn't have gone down that way, there would have been no way for him to get through there either.

They found a path on one of the walls, a crack that opened into another cave. There, another path existed for them to climb down.

They were now beneath the lava level which was… worrying.

This cave was also infested with monsters, Dragons, snakes and weird fiery octopi.

The teams split up again to follow two different paths down. They continued helping one another until they reached the deepest level.

There, they found Locke. He was wearing similar armour to them and looking over a pool of lava, probably trying to think of a way through.

"Locke!" Celes called out to him. He looked around in surprise as he found the two groups approaching him.

"Celes, Terra, everyone! You're all okay!"

"Touching reunion later," Joshua commented "When we get back to the ship and aren't in danger of our enchantments giving up from the extreme temperature."

Celes had assured us that wouldn't happen but wouldn't wasn't the same thing as couldn't.

Locke nodded and looked over the lake.

"I'm so close. See that over there?"

He pointed and you all saw it, a pedestal sitting in the lava and atop it was a chest made of solid stone.

"It's there, I'm sure of it." He noted "But I can't think of a way to get it."

There was actually a way to do it though, he explained the mechanism he had investigated. There was a gate that could be moved that would drain the lava down to a deeper cave. The problem he'd been having was it required multiple people in multiple locations to work the mechanism.

Not that the problem would matter now. Locke joined Celes' team and they split up again to activate both of the switches at the same time. They were a bit distant from each other but they could call to each other so they matched timing.

"Okay, everyone!" Locke called when everyone had confirmed they were in position "On the count of three!"

"3!"

"2!"

Joshua's hands round the lever twitch.

"1!"

He began to push just as he heard the last call.

"Now!"

As the switch was pushed, the clanking of mechanisms designed to withstand the heat of the planet began to turn. Everyone rushed back to the central room in time to see the lava draining.

But they saw something else as well, a red dragon! It had made its home in the depths of the cave to rest in lava.

Defeating it wasn't easy but their equipment could stand up to its fire just as it could withstand the superheated environment.

Finally, Locke made his way to the chest. Throwing it open he found a single piece of Magicite inside, taking it and holding it close, he nodded to everyone else.

"Let's go now."

The trip back up the volcano took over an hour but eventually they were lifted up to the Falcon's deck again with ropes. There everyone threw off their heat resistant armour as the Falcon lifted up into the sky.

There, Locke explained his quest. His… fiancée, a woman named Rachel, was badly hurt on a treasure hunting mission. She'd suffered amnesia and rejected him after that. A while later, her town had been attacked by the empire and she'd been killed.

Locke had never forgiven himself after that, he'd hunted for this treasure since before he joined the Returners.

Now he made one more selfish request. He wanted to try Phoenix's power on Rachel, he wanted to try and fulfil an oath he'd made.

No one argued.

When they got to Kohlingen, he departed the airship. He'd gone alone at first but Terra, Celes and Setzer had followed after him. The first two for Locke's sake, the last simply to see if it would work.

They returned two hours later.

…It hadn't worked. At least it hadn't worked well.

Rachel had temporarily returned to life apparently, with all of her memories of Locke. She'd told Locke to let go of his guilt for her death.

They'd returned with the revitalised Phoenix Magicite. They'd have one more weapon for defeating Kefka.

They'd also gotten another piece of news in town. Shadow had been heard from, specifically he was fighting in the Colosseum to the north of Kohlingen.

A quick trip to the colosseum later, another problem came up. He was hiding from them. As they searched the arena for him, he continued to evade them. Even Strago and Relm couldn't make him come out.

…They found Interceptor though and Relm cuddled the dog as they continued to search.

Eventually, the baffled staff of the colosseum offered an option. They could bait him out. There was a sword that they knew he was looking for. In fact, it's the sword he'd gone to the Veldt to get and it was a sword that Celes' team had found when they saved him.

And so the staff announced a special exhibition match, the winner would get the "Ichigeki" the sword in question. Strago and Relm would be waiting outside the arena, ready to get him after the battle if he was beaten. But that required someone to actually beat him on the field.

"I'll do it." Cyan offered "In single combat, I'm likely the most experienced. He shouldn't have much magic to throw around, neither will I."

Rather, Cyan was bad at magic and this was a way to close the gap.

Everyone agreed and Cyan strolled into the arena and fought off a few other challengers who wanted the sword.

Finally, Shadow appeared. He said nothing as he attacked Cyan. Daggers clashed with swords while Cyan tried to find an opening.

Blood dripped onto the arena until Cyan finally dealt a decisive blow, a sword strike to Shadow's side that made the ninja topple.

As they evacuated him, his family jumped him and asked him to rejoin their team. Cyan also offered him the Ichigeki he'd just re-obtained from the staff.

Shadow accepted with a sigh.

Finally, finally, they were all back together again. The saviours of the world were reunited in full.

Now all they had to do was actually save the world. Before going to Kefka though, there were many tasks that still needed to be completed.

Terra asked the team to fly over to Narshe, he'd found something there while he travelled in the past year but he'd left it there since he couldn't take full advantage of it. In a backroom, he showed them another piece of Magicite that belonged to an Esper called Ragnarok.

Upon returning to the Falcon, everyone laid out the remaining things they wanted to do.

Deathgaze.
The remaining of the legendary dragons (Skull, Holy and Blue hadn't been defeated)
Dealing with Kefka's cult at their tower.
Defeating Leviathan.
Edgar's contacts had said that something unusual had been detected by Figaro Castle

With all of that in mind, there was still much to do.

They started quickly, hunting down Deathgaze.

Well, while I did say quickly, that actually took them a week. They had to scour the skies for him back and forth.

Finally though they managed to defeat it and they got a powerful Magicite as a result: Bahamut, a teacher of incredibly powerful attack magic.

Leviathan was quicker at least. They all equipped water-resistant accessories and spent a few days in Leviathan's favourite sea routes. When he appeared, they bombarded him with the high level magic they'd learned.

The serpentine Esper roared and did its best to fend them off but when there was a full team of Magi fighting it, even a powerful Esper couldn't do much.

Strago and Joshua figured out how to create tidal waves with magic from watching Levithan and they got his magicite. Another problem done quickly.

Relm even made a joke about all of these simple missions. They were trying to save the world before her birthday came. Strago even agreed and insisted that everyone would come.

"Everyone." He insisted, looking at Shadow.

So with that, the next destination decided on would be the cultist's tower. The place that Strago was close to falling into a few months ago. Now he was going to be part of the team to take it with style.

It was time for Kefka to lose his religion. He was no true god after all.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Deathgaze and Leviathan were originally going to be a part of next chapter (Which in my notes is actually written as "Misc Sidequests." But I decided to do them here as I had plenty of space. The pacing feels a little off though.
Due to the multi-chapter week last time, I think we might actually be done before Halloween. That would be fun.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

The Falcon circled the Fanatic's tower from a distance, gliding around the mountains that made the tower difficult to access from ground level.

"You know?" Terra murmured "It looks like one of Zozo's buildings. The tall ones I mean."

Setzer nodded, stepping over from the wheel so he could take his own look.

"Indeed. Only much thicker at the base. That said, those towers are built expertly and even they couldn't reach as high as this one."

Terra nodded, thoughtfully.

As they discussed, Strago approached.

"I heard something, while I was still considering heading there. That there's some sort of spell on the tower itself that means you can't attack anyone while on the premises, you just freeze up when you try to swing a weapon."

"That could be a problem." Edgar noted.

After a pause, Terra found an answer though "It doesn't prevent magic though, right?"

Strago nodded "Based on what I've heard, yes."

"So we'll need to send a party full of skilled Magi?" Cyan noted "Then I'm out."

"Here's a thought." Relm noted aloud while they'd all broken down into a discussion on who would go "Wouldn't the cultists know that magic was their weakness? Wouldn't they do whatever they could to close that gap."

Celes nodded after a moment.

"We should be ready to fight enemies trying to silence us or who are using reflect."

Luckily, the Ragnarok Esper taught a spell called Ultima. Terra and Joshua had been able to learn it so far and Terra was currently working on it. That meant that they were confirmed for the team at least. After them came Strago and Relm who wanted to be a part of this too.

To deal with enemy magic users, Setzer also directed them to a supply of accessories he'd gotten. A set of four reflect rings. Rings that automatically helped reflect enemy magic.

"...Four." Joshua noted as he looked at the cluster of rings "That means one of us needs to go without."

"I'll do it." Celes volunteered "I have my runic skills, I can redirect magic in my own way."

And so the five of them climbed down to the base of the towers with ropes. They needed to start from the bottom to try and avoid missing any important things the cultists wouldn't want someone to mess with.

There were a large crowd of cultists around the tower but they did nothing to stop the five heroes as they made their way into and around the outside of the tower. The staircase spun around and around the tower.

As the group made full rotation after full rotation, monsters attacked them. The first group looked like humans in dancer outfits but were actually a type of magical spirit. They flung ice magic at the heroes which reflected harmlessly thanks to their rings and a quick casting of reflect from Celes.

The fight was over quickly after the most powerful mages among the heroes unleashed some of their third tier spells, learned from a variety of espers, upon the spirits.

After four full rotations, they came to a door and entered it to find a storage room. There they found a chest containing a small silver ball that whizzed around Terra's hand.

Just before they left though, Relm bumped into the wall and opened a hidden compartment. Inside they found a strange mechanical device that hopefully Edgar could figure out.

After that it was back to climbing. They fought two more spirits, each looking like a wizened humanoid. That fight resulted in much the same outcome as the first, reflect made the enemies defeat themselves and the magic of the heroes just helped it happen faster.

Up a bit further they found another storage area. Was this tower just storage areas. Joshua had expected more ritual chambers and prisons. This tower was just feeling like a warehouse right now. Regardless, they found a shield there that could be useful later.

Then a trio of monsters fell upon them, two jesters and what looked like a human corpse possessed by a spirit. Joshua wondered if this was some sort of progression that allowed those strange spirits from before to gain bodies of their own.

That fight was only a little harder, one of the jesters tried to osmose away Celes' mana but they just worked hard and defeated it quickly. The rest were still dumb enough to defeat themselves.

…Did they just not anticipate this? It felt too easy.
Nope, they certainly anticipated this. They found another type of spirit, this one demonic looking. Relm quickly discovered that it reflected magic innately.

So this was a problem. Its helpers were dealt with quickly but Celes was forced to cast ultima to beat the demon. She'd now need to recharge a bit before she could do it again.

Climbing yet further revealed what they'd first guessed was another storage room. While it wasn't, it could easily be seen how they made the mistake, the cultists had been storing something in there.

"Dragon!"

Specifically as Strago called it out, he meant the holy dragon. The dragon thrashed about and shook the tower. Joshua was worried about it collapsing. Celes cast Libra quickly and called out.

"It can be silenced, quickly!"

"Silence!" was called a few times before they finally managed to put the holy dragon down, that meant there were two left.

Everyone was getting quite tired at this point so they ate some rations in the storage room as they searched it. They found a small blade that Shadow could have and stored it away for when they returned to the Falcon.

After a short while spent relaxing, they continued up the tower and encountered a new spirit. This one looked like a human again but a spiritual fire was arising from a smoking pipe she carried.

Also, the monsters were finally getting wise about the reflect barriers. The spirit bounced healing spells off the party and onto all of their allies. Later they encountered some of those spirits with the demons from before who could innately reflect spells and bounced damaging magic off them.

Apparently the reflect spell couldn't reflect spells that had already been reflected. Celes had needed to catch that spell with a runic to prevent anyone getting too badly hurt though.

The idea was sound though and Joshua proceeded to bounce a spell off Celes (once she'd pulled up a reflect barrier) while Relm did the same with her grandfather. That allowed them to penetrate the demon spirit's reflect without using ultima.

Another storage room, another piece of the cultists' equipment stolen. This time it was a piece of armour that they'd need to have examined later.

They encountered one last type of spirit as they neared the top of the tower. This one was very flighty and used high level magic, some of which couldn't be reflected or absorbed with runic. That blast almost knocked Relm off the tower but Strago leaped to catch her and Joshua to catch him. Celes and Terra fought the spirit alone while they got Relm back to safety.

Finally, the reached the top of the tower and… felt disappointed.

"There was nothing we could wreck to get the cult to disband." Relm pouted "No altars or anything like that."

Strago nodded "This might be more complicated than expected.

There was actually something special on the roof. A small room. There wasn't much special in there though, it looked like just another storage room. Sure, there were suits of armour here but they weren't even enchanted to come alive.

In one chest though, Strago found something important.

"This…!"

An orb of clear glass with a sparkle of magic in the center.

"What is it?" Joshua asked.

Strago took a few seconds to answer "It's the Soul of Thamasa, a legendary treasure of Thamasa, one I thought was still in the village."

…Well, at minimum, they were taking this.

"What does it do?" Terra asked before stepping back in surprise as she was given the gem.

Strago nodded sagely, stroking his beard "It allows the use of Dualcasting to one who hasn't learned it. It's a lost art, one that allows you to channel two spells at once. You'd likely be the best to use it considering your innate strength."

Terra held the orb gingerly before putting in her storage bag.

She nodded to Strago and promised she'd take care of it.

As they prepared to leave the room though, they heard a commotion outside.

The cultists from below had gathered here on the highest floor. Ready to stop them.

As they blocked the heroes' escape, a spirit flew towards them from below. It looked somewhat like an Esper. A humanoid spirit that carried two swords. Something told the heroes though that this was no Esper.

"Return Lord Kefka's Treasure." It demanded of them in a monotone voice.

Strago grunted "It's not Kefka's. It belongs to the people of Thamasa!"

"What Lord Kefka says is Truth," The spirit insisted, raising a sword "And he told us you were thieves after his treasure. Return it and offer up your souls or…"

The master of the magic spirits rushed at them all and they prepared to defend themselves. The battle began quickly. Celes and Terra moved to block each sword

Joshua stepped in with the two of them as Relm and Strago began to cast. He cut the Magic Master's sword and dove for his heart. These spirits didn't truly have hearts though so it shrugged the blow off and backed off to cast magic. Magic that was harmlessly reflected off everyone's barriers.

…Not that it helped when Relm and Strago's spells flew and bounced off the spirit's reflect barrier. After quickly healing, the team fell into the old trick of bouncing off their own reflects to break through the master of magic. Terra was even Dualcasting spells to do so.

If this truly was the master of the spirits, it explained why they were all so dumb. They believed Kefka after all.

Finally the enemy looked weakened and he went for one more spell.

"ULTIMA!"

Shit, in this location there was no way to avoid it and no way to reflect it. It would be a direct hit and leave them open to the cultists.

Joshua winced and grabbed Relm.

"Everyone, Jump!"

Just in time, everyone leaped off the tower as it exploded behind them… actually, that would probably kill most of the cultists, wouldn't it?

"Rings off!" You yelled in freefall before doing the same and gesturing to yourself "Float!"

Everyone did the same, though Celes needed to have her reflect dispelled first, and they all landed safely back on the ground.

"Mission complete?" Joshua noted.

Celes sighed "Sure, why not? We've cleared them out at least."

They returned to the airship and handed out the treasures they'd collected. Then they quickly flew off to their next destination: Figaro castle.

Edgar and Sabin took the lead this time. Joshua just relaxed back at the Falcon as he lead his team into Castle Figaro.

After a few minutes, the castle submerged and began its journey to the spot where they had found something wrong.

The castle's digging took a few days though so Joshua just waited back at the airship and trained a little.

After a few days, the castle reemerged in the desert again and the team returned.

They'd found a new Magicite named Odin and had apparently defeated the blue legendary dragon. That meant there was only one left and they'd heard rumours of it flying around north of Albrook. That likely meant it lived in Kefka's tower.

…It was almost time to end this then.

They spent a few days doing one last search around the world.

Sabin learned a secret technique from his old master. Celes accidentally rescued a mime on triangle island and he'd volunteered to go with them to defeat Kefka because it's what all of them were doing and he'd be a poor mime if he couldn't mimic. They left Gau on the Veldt for a while so he could learn from the monsters that had moved there from all over the world.

Celes went to the island she'd woken up at after the Calamity but didn't explain what she did when she got back to the ship, only claiming it was something she should have done months ago. She then needed to take a long hot shower on the Falcon as they set off again. Locke went to talk to her about it and that night they drank together in the bar with Setzer.

They picked Gau up after a few days and then got ready with the best equipment they had. It was time to take on Kefka's tower.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Yes, I cut the ancient castle. The fanatic's tower dragged on longer than I had thought it would and I didn't want to write two long dungeon explorations in one chapter. Sorry.
Either way, here we are right at the end. Next chapter is going to be longer by necessity. I agree with my earlier guess that it's going to be 3k words at minimum.
Also, if any of you have thoughts on what the next world should be, feel free to speak up and discuss it. I'll be open to suggestions properly next time, but for now I'm thinking about Harry Potter to get a backpack that can store any amount of stuff in it.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

It was the fourteenth of August when they finally set off for Kefka's tower. The Falcon was fast but this flight was still taking hours.

During this time, Setzer broke out all of the rare items they'd gathered from around the world. Everything had been in preparation for this day.

All of the magic users, including Joshua, were handed a small circlet each. These had been bought a while ago as they amplified the wearer's magic while also providing decent defence against shots to the head.

Joshua was also given a diamond-studded vest that would protect him from harm and a stud earing that would amplify his magic. Lastly they gave him a small shield with a lightning symbol on the front, meant to protect against a variety of elements.

After everyone was equipped, a variety of consumable items were passed around. X-Potions were common but the mages also got several varieties of Ethers. Everyone also carried Phoenix downs, even though almost everyone knew revival spells at this point. Echo Herbs and similar status cures were then handed out where needed. The herbs would be very important as Casters could heal most afflictions if they weren't silent.

With all that set up, everyone just rested. The final battle was coming after all.

Attacking the tower from the ground wasn't reasonable so instead they planned to fly the Falcon in and land on the side of the tower where there was an opening.

As the Falcon flew into place Edgar called out to rally everyone.

"It's time to break into Kefka's domain!"

Celes nodded but looked distracted so Setzer glanced back towards her and asked "What's wrong?"

Celes was silent for a moment before answering.

"Correct me if I'm mistaken, but the statues- which we will need to destroy to stop Kefka- are also what gives the Espers the magical energy they need to survive?"

Edgar paused too and looked at her "Well?"

"I'm not sure, but…"

Strago answered for her though "The Espers, and likely magic too, will disappear from this world."

Locke looked back at Terra. She seemed not to be listening but she must have heard.

Joshua nodded slowly. Terra was half-esper after all. It's possible that doing this would kill her. At the very least it would kill any Esper that had managed to survive this long.

"I'm fine." Terra said, looking back at them all, "This is for a peaceful world after all."

…She was content with it. Content with the fact she may have to die and break the promise she made to the children in order to create a peaceful world for them.

Setzer looked at the tower as they approached.

"There are three entry points, we should send teams into all three of them to ensure at least one of them gets to Kefka."

Celes agreed and they began planning.

Team one was Edgar, Celes, Mog, Umaro (the yeti) and Setzer

Team two was Sabin, Terra, Locke, Gogo (the mime) and Gau

Team three was Cyan, Relm, Strago, Shadow and Joshua.

While Setzer was part of Team one, he needed to deploy last so the airship could keep its pilot. Thus, team two was the first one to get started exploring Kefka's tower.

They prayed for their safety. Terra had even gone in first, hopefully she'd get through this all alive.

Setzer dropped team three off at the east opening and they began their climb from there.

Cyan and Shadow led the way through the meandering tunnels and the ruins of Vector. This tower had been made out of the area around that city after all.

They saw familiar chunks of the Magitech factory from when they'd infiltrated it.They even saw a familiar monster, a massive hulking beast that looked like what they'd fought when they had escaped the factory.

Well, "They", Josha was the only member of this team that had been there.

"Joshua, with me!" Strago yelled

""Grand Delta!""

As they cast, they blasted the monster away. It took a few more spells to defeat it but they were victorious in the end.

They took a small break after that to recover their strength.

"Shadow- no, Clyde-" Strago began. Shadow shook his head forcefully though.

"That isn't my name, not anymore."

"F…" Relm hesitated "Father. I heard you left because you wanted us to be safe."

Shadow hesitated before finally nodding "I did. There was always a chance my past would catch up with me if I stayed. I refused to put you through that after your mother had died."

Strago snorted at that "You left a girl who had just lost her mother, leaving her an orphan if not for the other villagers and I."

Shadow took a moment and then nodded "I did, it's why even if the threats from my past were destroyed in the cataclysm, I still wouldn't deserve the name Clyde anymore."

Relm clenched her teeth.

"But… if you vanished again after you came back, it would just hurt all over again."

Shadow just looked away after that.

The team finished resting and continued to explore. They found a staircase down and followed it into another ruined section of the Magitech factory. As they followed it though, they broke back out to the exterior of the tower. They were much higher up now after their wanderings.

As they climbed, they even caught sight of team one.

"Celes!"

She turned and saw them before nodding. They were all safe so far, it seemed to say.

When they eventually found another opening, it led into what looked like the Vector palace. Joshua remembered this place too.

He remembered the Emperor's tricks. How he claimed to want peace while he was just looking for an opening to steal the power of the remaining Espers.

Within one of the rooms they found a dragon's nest. As they stepped inside though, they heard a roar as the Skull Dragon flew in through a small hole in the wall and stood ready to protect its horde.

The final of the eight legendary dragons stood before them. It was skeletal but its wings still apparently gave it the ability to fly. It could also tunnel through the surface of the tower as the team began casting spells at it.

"Holy!" Relm and Joshua called as Cyan rushed in with his sword.

The strange thing was the skeletal dragon wasn't actually undead. Joshua tested it with a quick cast of Cure. It was a magical dragon, not something that has returned from the grave.

Or at least, it didn't return from the grave. When they defeated it, mana rushed in from the surrounding area and the Dragon lurched back up. As long as it had the mana to regenerate, this battle couldn't end.

Everyone switched over to spells that damaged the target's mana.

"Rasp!"
"Osmose!"

The small that drained a target's MP was useless against undead but again, this dragon wasn't undead. Maybe that was why he looked like this? He was trying to trick people into thinking it wasn't worth it to drain away his mana.

After a few minutes more, the dragon collapsed.

Before them, something strange manifested. A stone tablet and a piece of magicite.

"I am Crusader." It spoke in their minds "I was long ago sealed with the Legendary Dragons. With their defeat, use me as you will to protect this world."

Relm took possession of the magicite and they continued on up the tower. They must surely be at least at the halfway point by now, right?

As they walked through a room taken from the factory, they saw team two on another catwalk.

"Hey Everyone!" Sabin called when he saw them "How's it going?"

"Good!" Cyan called back.

Joshua nodded "We've beaten the last of the legendary dragons and freed another Magicite!"

Terra smiled "Good. That means there's only one more threat."

Both teams continued down their separate paths but the paths were close to each other. They were standing on what used to be the outside of Vector palace now. Team one showed up as well and together they made there way through a tricky puzzle involving switches before each branching off to fight another challenge themselves.

These challenges were the warring Triad themselves, before Joshua's team was one of the three statues. The Demon's grimace worsened as it broke free from its stone prison and the fight began.

Holy spells flew around and Strago clapped his hands together "Mighty Guard!"

Joshua was surprised for a moment as he cast another Holy.

"Where were you hiding that old man?"

Strago grinned "I found it during the last few days. One of the monsters on the Veldt knew it when we split up to look for Gau."

Joshua made a mental note of its spell formula as the fight with the demon continued. It unleashed powerful ice magic that Strago worked hard to protect them from as Joshua and Relm cast Holy repeatedly.

Finally the fiend roared and started glowing. Joshua knew what that sort of shine looked like by now.

"It's got a reflect!"

Shadow jumped in to attack the fiend directly but his attacks went straight through the monster. It was also projecting its illusion around to mislead them all.

Joshua and Relm worked together to use Ultima but it was tiring to cast it so many times. Cyan though stood back, closed his eyes and seemed to be meditating.

"Cyan?!" Joshua asked worriedly. The man didn't respond so Joshua was worried this was some attack of the fiends.

He kept casting though as Strago unleashed a White wind to keep everyone healthy.

Finally, Cyan was ready. His eyes opened with a snap as he raised his katana overhead.

"Oblivion!"

One perfect slice. It hit through the illusion and struck at the heart of the already weakened fiend.

The fiend collapsed and the statue that it had been born from was destroyed. An ancient god- no. The mightiest of Espers, one of those that magic flowed from to fuel this world, fell.

It brought something back to Joshua. He remembered that he'd fought a godlike being before along with his monsters.

…No, they were called Pokemon.

They'd felled a god before.

They were near the very top of the tower. They reunited with the rest of the team just before the pinnacle.

All fifteen of them, the fifteen heroes who would save the world.

The warring triad had fallen but Kefka still remained. He had taken the power of the gods and was currently the source of all mana in the world.

Killing him would bring an end to this long journey at last. Joshua's anger burned bright. The once crystalline flame, tempered by weeks forced to watch Kefka's human cruelty had been refined from this long journey into a perfectly clear motivation.

"It's time."

Celes nodded at Joshua's words.

Terra smiled at those around her "Come on then, let's end this now."

They headed up to the pinnacle.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yqdYCmpF_I

Kefka awaited them there. He was still in human form but all of them could sense the mana rippling off his body. It wasn't unlimited, his supply from the triad had been severed. Given a few decades it would run out.

The world didn't have decades though, Kefka would destroy the world entirely long before he lost his power.

That meant they had to kill him, here and now.

"I knew you'd make it here so I've prepared some suitable entertainment for you!" He called to them. "I've tapped into ultimate power- observe!"

With a flick of his wrist he levitated all of the heroes into the air and flew them around.

"Such magnificent power, you're all insects to me! I will exterminate everyone! Everything!"

He crashed all of them to the ground but as they staggered up to their feet, Celes spoke.

"No matter what, people will keep rebuilding the things you take from them!"

Kefka turned away to look over the world before noting "Then I'll destroy those too? Why do people rebuild things they know are going to be destroyed? Why do people cling to life when they know they can't live forever?"

As he was looking away, the heroes advanced, climbing up the stone around him ready to fight.

"It's not the result of one's life that's important!" Terra noted when she was in position "It's the day-to-day concerns, the personal victories, the celebration of life and love!"

Kefka sent her flying at that but Locke caught her and Celes caught him, the three of them recovered and got everyone safe again.

Strago spoke next "It's simply enough if people can experience the joy that each day can bring!"

Kefka looked over them all, arranged and ready to fight him.

"And have you found this 'joy' anywhere in this nearly dead world of ours?"

"YES!" Everyone yelled at once.

"I've learned what love is!" Terra continued.

"I've learned to celebrate life and living!" Lock added

Cyan held his fist to his heart "My family lives on inside me!"

"I know what friendship and family are." Shadow noted quietly.

Strago and Relm nodded.

"I have a special granddaughter!"

"And I have a brave grandpa who'll stand by me through all of this. And I have my father who's returned at last!"

Edgar and Sabin then took over.

"I can still build my kingdom that guarantees freedom and dignity!"

"I have come to experience anew the love of my brother!"

Setzer nodded "I have my friend's airship and the love she left me!"

Mog joined in "No matter what, I'll still have the friends around me now, kupo." and Umaro roared in agreement.

Gau and Gogo spoke at once "My friends here! I care for them!"

Joshua looked up "I don't remember them clearly, but I know I have my monsters and the people around here to rely on. I'm not alone!"

Celes was the last "I've met someone who can accept me for what I am."

And then… Kefka chuckled.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxe71i8Hegg

"You're all sickening. You sound like chapters from a self-help book. Friends and hope. Family and stupid love. All of it! It's pointless! Prepare yourselves! For my next trick: I'll make all of you disappear!"

He raised his hands and the light of judgement shot across the ruined world below!

"Kefka, stop!" Celes called out "You don't know what you're doing!"

"No, I simply don't care what I'm doing." Kefka corrected in a sickeningly sweet voice before he grew serious again "I command the greatest power in the universe! You are all helpless before me!"

The pinnacle rose higher, carrying Kefka with it. At the same time though, the tower rose up in other ways, lifting the heroes to his height too.

"I will destroy everything... I will create a monument to non-existence!" Kefka yelled.

Terra yelled out "Life will go on! There will always be people, and dreams!"

"No! I will hunt them down. I will destroy it all! Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!" Kefka yelled madly, laughing all the same.

Locke continued for Terra "We will not allow you to harm another living thing."

"Hee, hee, hee!! But what fun is destruction if no 'precious' lives are lost!" Kefka continued in his mocking tone.

"It's over Kefka!" Joshua demanded, pointing his sparkblade at Kefka's heart "It's time for your judgement!"


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ9uBpJd_RQ

Kefka yelled and the tower shifted. Magic taking the form of monsters from his own mind- Kefka's nightmares manafest.

"Then judge me if you can, I'll see you all turned to dust on the wind!"

The nightmares were a new form of the warring triad, Kefka's divinity made real. And that meant they could attack it!

"Team one!" Edgar called "With me, we'll defeat this first fiend!"

First was a demonic being. Team one brought their best against it.

As Mog danced water rushed across the battlefield. Umaro roared and attacked the face of the demon.

Celes was standing back a bit, casting Libra to analyse the enemy.

Setzer cast Death and managed to instantly destroy one of the arms while Edgar began hacking away at the demons face with a chainsaw alongside Umaro.

As the demon burned and was breaking apart, it got in one more lucky hit and knocked Mog away. Team one rallied to keep the little moogle safe while team two moved on to fight the next tier of Kefka's divine tower.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdCONwKC2vA

There were four targets on this tier and team two split them between themselves.

Terra and Gogo targeted part of the statue that casted magic. They silenced it and then repeatedly cast Ultima. Rather Terra cast Ultima in her Esper form and Gogo mimicked her.

Sabin took on the blue statue that was punching and lashing about rapidly. His Raging Fist matched the statues 10-hit combo blow for blow. He was exhausted at the end of it though.

Gau fought the tiger head statue. He drove himself into a frenzy like a stray cat and rushed at the head as it tried to cast high level magic. The tiger bit him at a strange necromantic pathogen was put into his body that meant healing hurt him. Gau managed a finishing blow on the tiger head before retreating with Sabin.

Locke was the last and he took on the machinery around and between the statues. He cut into it with his knife and tried to sever important things. Locke then had an idea and found that the machinery was vulnerable to doom.

The collection of statues, a monument to Kefka's vanity and his disrespect for all things, crumbled apart as Gau and Sabin got healing from the first team. It was time for the third team to move in though.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkyb-DqcLzE

This phase just had two statues. A maiden and a wounded messiah. Kefka's god complex made real and solid.

The messiah was casting dangerous magic so it was the first target. Not that it was enough as the lady released white wind that was mending the wounds of the wounded messiah.

Joshua rushed in with Relm.

"Ultima!" With the two of them together, they blasted the statue away and turned their attention to the messiah.

Cyan hacked away at it with his bushido techniques, Strago cast Grand Delta and Shadow threw a collection of weapons at the statue. Relm and Joshua joined in too and assisted taking it down with non-elemental magic. Or in Joshua's case just stabbing the statue multiple times with his sparkblade.

When it fell though, a great blast of magic came out of it It looked to be aiming for Relm so basically everyone jumped in the way to try and intercept it. Cyan and Shadow were the ones to actually catch the attack though.

Their hearts stopped. Brain activity ceased instantly.

"Damn it!" Joshua yelled, falling back with the rest of team one "Arise!"

They would recover from this, the brain wasn't damaged by weeks passing. Even instant death could be cured as long as no time was wasted. The power of phoenix burned and revived the Only mostly dead while teams one and two stepped forward.

Dancing Mad (Part 4) - Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994) OST - Transcription of Final Boss Battle Music

Though it's technically one piece of music divided into four movements, the game uses five SPC files for the final battle theme. This one does not loop. Comp...

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From the sky Kefka descended in a divine form.

This was his everything. The god called Kefka. No, the man called Kefka.

He really was just a man. He was like those magical spirits back in his cult's tower. Raw power investing a living host. He was in a way even less of a god than the warring triad had been.

That said, he was stronger than that unknown god that Joshua had faced before.

"Life." Kefka noted "Dreams, Hope. Where'd they come from? And where are they headed...?"

The man reflected on his mad journey for a moment. For that one crystal moment, he saw his entire life flash before his eyes.

From his start in the army, to his experiments to make him a magitek knight, to his deeds to become a god.

"These things... I am going to destroy!"

Dancing Mad (Part 5) - Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994) OST - Transcription of Final Boss Battle Music

Though it's technically one piece of music divided into four movements, the game uses five SPC files for the final battle theme. This one does not loop. Comp...

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"Heartless Angel!"

Kefka's ultimate spell washed across the party, blasting them to near-death in a single blow.

Locke was ready though. He had used Phoenix long enough. Not just phoenix, he had trained with every healing Magicite the team had obtained in those few short days.

"Curaga!"

That single spell washed across them all, healing the damage from Heartless Angel.

The fight began in earnest, everyone taking their best shots at Kefka.

Celes unleashed an Ultima that was quickly mimicked by Gogo, it destroyed some of Kefka's cloak.

That wasn't as minor a wound as it looked. Kefka's being was all one thing now, destroying his cape was the same as destroying his body in a way.

Kefka unleashed more spells to silence the two of them but as they used Echo Herbs, Terra took over. She returned to her Esper form and dualcasted Ultima and Flare. The wave of power struck Kefka and for what might be the first time since he became a god, Kefka began to worry.

"The end draws near." he murmured before lifting his hand. He was preparing to use a supremely powerful attack.

Setzer threw up a shell barrier to reduce the damage as Kefka pointed at them.

"Forsaken!"

Power washed over all of them again, Setzer's barrier being the only reason they lived.

Umaro struck at Kefka but the Godlike being replied in turn with an incredibly fast blitz of physical attack that knocked the Yeti out of the fight.

Edgar threw out all of his tools. He attacked with a maelstrom of attacks during a window when Kefka was distracted charging Forsaken again.

Said spell washed over them again and Locke continued to heal everyone as team three returned to the fight.

Shadow and Cyan would live.

Relm and Kefka clashed, Ultima against Ultima and Strago destroyed a meteor Kefka threw with Grand Delta.

And then came the final blow.

Joshua sprinted along the ground and leaped from pillar to pillar. His sparkblade shone in the sunlight and traced the single path.

It was the same ability that Locke had, so long ago now, used to free him from the slave crown.

Billions of possibilities collapsed. The branches where Kefka escaped were cut, the branches where this attack didn't inflict mortal wounds were cut.

All of it.

Joshua lit a metaphysical beacon with his power for this one small moment.

And with the offered opening, he cut into Kefka and struck what could have been called his "Heart."

Kefka didn't react. He didn't make any sort of dramatic speeches. He just… died.

Esper World | FFVI OST

FINAL FANTASY VI OST

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Kefka's tower began breaking up without its master holding it together.

"There's no time to lose!" Setzer yelled "The airship is just ahead of us!"

Celes nodded and turned to leave "Come on everyone! We'll have to work together for this!"

She paused when she saw Terra collapsed on the ground in her Esper form. She rushed over to Terra's side. As she did so though, the Magicite everyone was carrying was whisked into the air by an unseen force.

"The magicite!" Edgar realised "Magic is disappearing from this world!"

Above them, the magicite shattered into thousands of fragments.

"The espers no longer exist in this world!" Edgar continued.

Celes turned back to Terra who still wasn't moving.

"You mean Terra too?"

As she spoke, Terra forced herself up.

"Come on." She pleaded "I can lead you out… with the last of my strength."

Balance is Restored / Ending Theme (Part 1) - Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994) OST - Transcription

This is first part of the "end of game" music, commonly known as "Balance is Restored." Composed by Nobuo UematsuTranscribed by Gregg RossettiThis is for stu...

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The next few minutes didn't feel quite real to Joshua. They helped everyone up and rushed after Terra down the tower.

The machinery was starting to break down and everyone had to work together to figure out the right way to go. Sabin had recovered enough to stop the fall of a large piece of the tower and throw it aside before it would have crushed them.

Umaro forced open a sealed door and Mog pulled switches out of the reach of the rest of them.

When two switches needed to be pressed at the same time, Celes and Gogo were able to act perfectly together due to Gogo's mimicry. Gau with his beast-like moves was able to find a shortcut down the outside of the tower.

Locke saved Celes' life and outright promised to keep her safe. Ah. That had been what Celes had mentioned earlier.

As they ran, they came upon the ruined esper testing facility. There had actually been one Magicite that hadn't left yet: Maduin, Terra's father. He managed to say a few words to her before he vanished. He told her that her human side could survive if she was strongly attached to someone or something.

She smiled sadly and told him that yes, she had something like that. In response, Maduin only said one thing.

"I'm proud of all you've done."

The magicite stuck around just a bit longer, its glow slowly fading as they continued.

Strago's cape got stuck in some machinery after that. Relm and Shadow cut him free quickly and continued to carry him.

As they got near the end, it looked like Shadow was going to leave but he stopped when Relm looked at him. With a sigh, he followed along behind her. Joshua heard him talking under his breath.

"Baram. I'm going to stop running. I'm going to begin all over again…"

Finally they all got to the airship. Working together, everyone was able to get a rope as the tower fell away beneath them.

Balance is Restored / Ending Theme (Part 2) - Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994) OST - Transcription

This is second part of the "end of game" music, commonly known as "Balance is Restored." Composed by Nobuo UematsuTranscribed by Gregg RossettiThis is for st...

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On the ship, Terra took off and began leading the airship away from the tower. She was looking for a path to avoid being crushed by bits of the falling tower.

How did she still have the power to fly? Her father's light was flickering out, he was using the last of his strength to keep her going.

Finally it flickered out though and Terra was pulled back to the airship just before she reverted to human form.

Terra thanked Setzer for making sure she got caught and Setzer smiled.

"Didn't I say this was the world's fastest ship? Of course it could catch you."

Joshua shrugged with a sigh "I'll be honest, I thought this ship was Magitek so I expected it to fall when this was all done."

Setzer laughed "No, good old steam. Sure, there was a Magitek boiler for the water but the steam we have will last until we land. Then I can just get a new boiler."

And so they flew across the waves. The world was saved.

Joshua's memory started clearing up as the Falcon flew.

They dropped Terra off in Mobliz before immediately turning the airship around to go to Nikeah to get a new Boiler for the Falcon.

No one there really believed the world was saved yet. Not really. They had lived under Kefka for a year after all.

Instead of continuing to follow them though, Gogo left here.

"Thanks for allowing me to come with you." They said "But now you're done saving the world, I have to find some new people to mimic."

Once the boiler had been replaced, they flew to Thamasa. The locals there had already noticed the loss of magic. None of them minded though. Not really. The war was over at long last.

Magic being gone also meant that monsters wouldn't have magic anymore. The world was safer now because of that.

Relm, Shadow and Strago got off here as the airship flew up again. Everyone had promised to come to Relm's birthday so it likely wouldn't be too much longer before they saw one another again.

Gau was the next to be dropped off in Narshe. He was far more in-tune with humanity these days so he actually said goodbye fairly normally.

Locke and Celes decided that they wanted to be dropped off in South Figaro, it was where they'd met after all. It was as good a place to start their new adventure together.

Sabin and Edgar left at the same time, they'd make the rest of the trip to Figaro Castle on foot.

As the friends he made left, Joshua's memories began to return fully. He remembered his home and his journey in the world of Pokemon.

As Mog and Umaro were dropped off at Narshe, he remembered the day his world had ended.

Other than Setzer, Joshua was the last on the ship. They'd dropped Cyan off in Jidoor and now was just a question of what Joshua wanted to do now.

This trip around the world to drop everyone off had taken a few days and in that time, Joshua had considered. He'd also given back most of his equipment. It did belong to Setzer after all.

"So," Setzer asked "Where do you want to go?"


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi_xzAu7wJI

"Albrook."

Joshua was dropped off in the late evening. This had been the town where he'd awoken in this World of Ruin. That said, calling it that wasn't really fair anymore. This was the World Rebuilding. Given them a few centuries and everything would be back to normal.

Until then though…

On the morning of the 20th of August, Joshua made his way north out of town. He probably should have found a way to apologise.

He wouldn't be going to Relm's birthday party after all.

Joshua's memories were entirely back by the point he got to the ruins of Kefka's tower. There was just one thing he needed to get and it would likely have been kept in Vector before the cataclysm.

He found it after a day's search.

His lunchbox. That magical box that creates food for him every day. Leaving this world without reclaiming this would have been a mistake.

And yes, he was leaving. No choice really.

He may have done something good in saving this world but in return it had been a year where he'd done next to nothing to help his own world. He needed to make up for lost time.

He had magic now, though he couldn't use it in this world without mana. That gave him another source of power at least. What did he need now?

A method to allow him to carry more things. Something like the bags from Harry Potter that could contain an endless amount of stuff. It would ensure he wouldn't lose his things anymore. His Pokemon would be safe from interference and you couldn't separate him from his Lunchbox.

He had a backpack with a similar effect that he found in the world of Pokemon, but it wasn't enough. He wanted endless storage, not just a small amount extra. Besides, that bag was full of emergency food for his Pokemon.

There were other places you could get things like that though. He considered the concept as he stuck his sparkblade into a notch in the air. Through the hole he cut, the endless infinities of the world between shone madly.

…Well then.

"Goodbye."

As he said that, he stepped through the gap and sealed it behind him.

Spoiler: Author Notes

And there we go. Yes, I did just write the last chapter the day after. I expected to wait longer but then I finished a long JRPG I'd been playing (Not FF6, just to clarify) and I decided I might as well finish this Jump.

As this is the end of a world, I'm really encouraging people to chat about it. What was good, what was bad? What should I keep in mind going forward? And yes, what jump do you want to see next?

 

[Ame]

Definitely was an interesting arc. I'm glad I had let this build up a buffer before reading it, as I was able to read most of this arc in one go.
I don't have much in the way of writing criticism to give. It seemed to look decent enough on my end.
And as for where to go next? Earthbound / Mother 2. There are psychic powers available, as well as super-science. And I don't think I've seen a jump chain or similar world hopper story go there.

 

[boyboy180]

And as for where to go next? Earthbound / Mother 2. There are psychic powers available, as well as super-science. And I don't think I've seen a jump chain or similar world hopper story go there.

Click to shrink...

Interesting concept, but it doesn't really fill the current "goal."

That said, because I don't get to chose the exact jump (As I brought up in author notes before) I can quite easily add it to the list of jumps i'll pull from if he misses his target.

Well, it might work by accident, the Escargot Express is a storage perk, even if it does have a small fee. It would actually work even better than the Harry Potter one. But it isn't one that Joshua would think of (He doesn't get to read the docs).

...That said, I can see how the jump would go. It would be Joshua playing chaperone to the party. It could certainly be fun.

 

[boyboy180]

I should note: I'm accepting suggestions until I want to write the next chapter.
Next Monday, probably.

If you back a setting with motive, an answer to "Why would he want to go there inside of Harry Potter?" It might very well get picked.

 

[boyboy180]

Just had to change the music in part 20, copyright had taken down some of the old videos that were supplying the music. Hopefully it won't happen again.

 

[boyboy180]

Well, I'll roll for the Jump now. Last time I put the details in the first chapter of the final fantasy jump but now I'll do it in a preceding post, just keeping the exact worlds vague.

So then,
Target Cluster: Harry Potter.
The roll to try and hit the Cluster:

1d100 result: 95

Click to shrink...

Oh... missing that cluster.

Lets try the "Backup cluster", Ame asked for a Jump to Earthbound. I created a "Psychic Cluster" for that purpose.

1d100 result: 68

Click to shrink...

...That one missed too. Okay, this is going to be an entirely random Jump. Fun.

Okay, let's collect the worlds in this Cluster...

Fairy Tail
Devil Survivor
Paper Mario
Space Station 13
Psycho-Pass
Pro Forma Ars Magica Bellum (A mixed Jump setting, Imagine Youjo Senki + Fullmetal Alchemist)
Akame ga Kill
Fate/Grand Order

Click to shrink...

...That's quite the list. And I'll need to pick one at random.

For now, I'll keep the selected one a secret, at least until I've written the first chapter.

But what do people think of the next Jump? I'll admit I'm a little disapointed that the Harry Potter and Psychic clusters missed but this random Cluster... It has potential.

 

[boyboy180]

Once more unto the breach.

The endless void expanded around Joshua as he departed from Final Fantasy.

With the goal being Harry Potter, he searched for nearby constellations.

It was eerily silent here. He could feel a kind of wind that pushed him along as he fell through the void but there was no sound of rushing air.

With nothing better to do than follow the wind while looking for the right Cluster, he drifted.

He wondered if time passed here. If he was to return to Final Fantasy already, what would he find? Would a day have passed? Only a few hours? Years?

The wind was formed by currents of those golden particles he'd seen before. They pushed him along until he finally spotted it.

A Cluster which he could tell contained "The boy who lived." Turning himself in midair, he swam-fell towards it. The wind currents picked up as he swam and dragged him away from the cluster though.

It dragged him around the worlds as if orbiting them before spitting him out. He was carried along a powerful current away from his target.

"No!" He called out into the void, trying to swim the other way against a force greater than his own.

He then froze though, something had noticed his yell.

Sizes seemed strange in the void. A constellation of many worlds looked like a tapestry from a distance but when you got close they seemed to blow up to enormous sizes far too quickly.

Space seemed to squish as you moved towards and away from things.

The thing that had noticed his yell didn't look that big. It looked like some sort of octopus really. It was entirely black with yellow lines running down its tentacles.

Freezing up and wondering what on earth the thing was, Joshua turned and swam with the current to get away from whatever eldritch monster he had seen.

As he left it behind, he started to wonder about that. He'd guessed it was something lovecraftian but then again, it had looked perfectly normal. Was he going mad already? Or did it have some sort of safe form while out in the void?

…If the latter, it made him examine his own nature for a moment. Arceus had called him out on being a danger to worlds. Was he that very same type of eldritch monster that he was worried about?

The current was growing stronger again and his eyes looked around for a Cluster he could rest at. He saw one that gave the feeling of "Psychic" and swam towards it as hard as he could in the void. He tried falling to speed up his movement, directions seeming to shift as that Cluster became "Down" relative to him.

Before he got there though, he was ripped away again, The currents were twisting together and he turned to look at it.

A whirlpool was forming. A current that pulled all in range down. But what was down from its perspective.

This space held more than three spatial dimensions. Its version of "Down" was a direction that Joshua wasn't currently observing. It might becalled "Into" or "Out of" the spiralling particles.

He couldn't resist the pull though and he felt it ripping him apart as he fell through the turning winds and was spat down and down. He fell towards the "depths." Colours continued to shift but the shades differed as he finally slowed down. He had no idea where he was now.

He was near a Cluster though, he swam towards it madly. He needed to rest and relax.

The worlds looked much like the previous worlds at first, but the world he was aiming for had something off about it.

Each world was like a glass sphere with fog inside. In the heart of the world, where previously he had seen a single bead of pure gold or two spheres with their own gold connected by a bridge of light, was a pair of golden beads.

The beads circled and bounced against each other. One world with two cores.

Well, he hadn't the time to be picky. Joshua's Sparkblade touched the edge of the glass and slit through it to create a rip. He then slipped inside, sealing the entrance behind him as he fell.

Around him existence shifted. He moved through dimensions until he stabilised in a normal set of 3+1 dimensions.

Colours became darkness and then warmth and light - true light. Sunlight.

Voices yelled about news from the front as old fashion cars drove along the road to his side. Joshua was standing in an alleyway in what appeared to be a big city. He leaned against a wall and breathed to calm his nerves after his trip through the void.

It was probably best not to head out again for a while, he needed to give the world a chance to heal. If he left right now, who knows what could get in through the scar tissue.

Now, where was he? Those people he could hear calling out news were speaking english. That didn't specifically mean anything though as the people of Final Fantasy 6 had spoken English.

He didn't have any money to his name. Nor did he have any documentation. He had nothing to prove that he was a citizen, depending on the time period he'd found himself in, that might be bad.

…Said lack of money also meant he couldn't just buy a newspaper. He'd need to find one that had been thrown away..

It should be noted that he was still wearing the clothes he had worn on Setzer's airship. He was therefore dressed like a noble from the renaissance. That at least gave him something to sell.

He took off the overcoat and wrapped it up to hide the embroidery as he moved around.

Finding a newspaper in the rubbish wasn't really that hard, though it would likely be a few days old.

It was dated the 22nd of March, 1918.

Nineteen eighteen…? That sounded familiar… Oh, the last year of the first world war!

The newspaper looked to be about that.

"German Demons Launch New assault!"

The article discussed a new attack that Germany was launching against the western front. It also talked about the brave soldiers fighting back against them and their demons…

What?

Okay. The newspaper described some sort of German supersoldiers being referred to as the demons. It described how they looked deformed and like monsters. How much of that was propaganda and how much of it was truth?

Supersoldiers though…

Holding the slightly mouldy newspaper, Joshua walked to try and find somewhere better to read.

It had taken him some time to figure out where he was, but as he walked by the river it was impossible to deny it. He was in London. Specifically, at this moment he was standing where the London eye would be built in… eighty years? Something like that. By reflex alone he was able to walk to St. James' park, the very park he'd gone to before leaving his home world.

He sat on a bench in shock.

He was home, but he wasn't home at all. This wasn't his London, no matter how similar it seemed.

He must have sat there for an hour. Just looking around. Finally though, he turned back to the newspaper.

There was a war on. It seemed to have demons of some sort involved in it. If this was a world of magic, then maybe…

Quietly, he raised a hand.

"Shell."

…Nothing happened. He'd chosen the spell as it shouldn't really have any visible effect on him. Shell was designed to protect against magic after all. But…

"Cure."

It wasn't working. Not even the most basic healing spell. Joshua tried going the other way, what about a really powerful spell!

"Holy."

…He was robbed of his magic. The year spent in the world of Ruin was all for nothing. He had no power to show for it, no new abilities.

His hand tightened into a fist.

If it was all for nothing, then what was even the point? His world was gone and there wasn't a damn thing he could do. He didn't even know how to get back to his home anymore. Not after the whirlpool had spat him out here, to who knows where

As he pondered, his sparkblade appeared in his hand.

"À mon seul désir." My only desire. He'd first read those words before starting his adventure. His only desire was to save his world. And it might not even be possible.

Well… he needed somewhere to live while the world healed. It should only take him a few months. Maybe he could just watch the rest of the war from the sidelines. While he did… he might as well come to terms with what he did in Final Fantasy 6.

He'd killed many people. Most of it was against his wishes. Really the only person he'd been happy to kill was Kefka. Everyone else, every last soldier of the empire or cultist, they hadn't needed to die. He could of found ways to knock them out. He had known magic to inflict sleep.

…No matter what, he didn't want to kill again. He made an oath to himself to that effect. He would never kill. Except, perhaps, in the last defence of his life.

So, finding a home. For now he could just eat, he had his lunch box after all and that would refill when he needed it. One square meal a day, but it was healthy. He probably wouldn't be able to let his Pokemon out much, they might get mistaken for monsters or demons.

So, first step was to sell his overcoat. That wouldn't give a ton of money though.

Maybe he could get room and board somewhere? He'd need to visit a job office regardless.

Actually, maybe the newspaper had more job offers?

Joshua opened the paper again and flipped through pages. The most notable one was to join the army but that would be a bit stupid. He was a pacifist now, a pacifist soldier wouldn't be worth much. Besides, he didn't really want to fight.

There were a lot of job offers though, it reminded him of the argument that "war was good because it created jobs."

Yeah, having your workers die left and right was a surefire way to ensure a constant need for new workers. I'm sure the owners of coal mines and other dangerous jobs care about their workers' health in any way except than to fire them if they become too sick.

…But that bit of proselytising to no one in particular didn't remove how many jobs were on offer. It was a farming job that stood out to Joshua, it was safer than working in a factory and no less essential. People must eat after all.

He finally went to sell his coat before looking for a phone. He would have expected phone boxes to exist (He was looking forward to seeing a TARDIS in its natural environment) but no, there were none to be seen. Had they not been invented yet?

Well then, he didn't really have any way to accept the job than to go down to the farm. This would probably be a long journey. Hopefully the one meal per day was enough for him.

The journey south hurt but eventually he made it to the farm, there he spoke to the landowner and asked if he could have some temporary work with him.

The man sniffed.

"Have you ever worked at a farm?"

"No." Joshua shook his head "But it seems a better option than working at a factory, safer too."

"I can't pay much." The man warned.

"I don't mind if you'd help pay in room and board."

…The farmer paused at that.

"Really lad?"

"Really." Joshua confirmed "I don't really have anywhere else to stay, if I could work for a roof over my head, I'd be happy to work."

Finally the man nodded "Very well, I'll take you on for a short time. How long do you expect to stay?"

They went inside to arrange the details of the employment. Once everything was sorted, the farmer began showing Joshua the ropes. They'd get up early in the morning to tend to the animals then work with the fields. Back and forth, back and forth.

His documents were given over to the proper authorities to show he was employed and he'd thought that was that.

"At least," Joshua thought "It's better than going to war."

Spoiler: Author Notes

And here we go with the third jump, as you probably guessed from the chapter, the world selected in the previous post was Pro Forma Ars Magica Bellum. A world that's a mix between FMA and Tanya the evil.
Let's watch as our pacifist Jumper needs to deal with a world at war.
Joshua may believe that what he did in FF6 was for nothing, but he did gain perks. The magic system may not be fiat-backed but his ability to use magic was.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

If it hadn't already been said, Joshua had never done farm work before.

He wasn't the only one helping though, there were a good collection of women from a group called the "Women's Land Army" who were also helping. The land owner, the actual person running the farm that Joshua had talked to in order to get the job, was too old to fight in the war. He'd had other farm workers but they had all been called to the front.

There were questions from the other workers about that.

"Why aren't you fighting?"

"Are you a coward?"

Things like that.

Joshua only had one real answer for them.

"I won't kill. If I were to be drafted, I'd be worse than useless."

To that, they normally didn't offer any reply at first. They'd normally come back after a few days though. Generally they argued about a few things.

"What if you could make the difference?"

"I'm one man." Joshua had replied.

"You're a coward, there are brave men out there staining their hands to protect us!"

"It's my principle that stops me from fighting, not cowardice."

"Don't you want to fight and find glory in war?"

"There isn't any glory in war."

It was the lesson that people had only learned after the first world war in his original world. It's just killing and dying.

They had given him a collection of white feathers anyway. Amused by this, Joshua had bought some crafting supplies and created a feathered hat to wear on the farm. It was basically a bowler hat with a plume of feathers on the side.

A bit ahead of its time (About 10 years early), and a bit feminine (though not too much, he was trying to design it after a military-style for the joke), but it amused him. It also prevented more people from giving feathers to him as he showed just how little he cared for their disrespect.

He still tended the fields though and helped out at the orchards. The food crisis wasn't as bad as it would likely get if there was a second world war but it was still important that England was fed.

Joshua continued to read the newspaper. The German offensive was being pushed by these new demons that he'd heard about and they were trying to pressure people to enlist. Joshua snorted at that and put the paper away.

As the weeks passed, it seemed that someone had noticed his hat. Either that or someone had checked the records office and found a man that could be fighting on the front was working at a farm.

The recruiter came about a month after Joshua began working at the farm. He came with two pieces of information. First was that Joshua was a criminal. The Military Service Act of 1916 meant he had to sign up to be on the conscription list. Joshua hadn't. The man also claimed that the government wouldn't have any issue if he came now though.

Joshua rebuked him though. He was a conscientious objector, he didn't want to fight in the war as he didn't want to kill. He was fairly sure that the act allowed an exception in that case.

The army shouldn't want anyone that wouldn't fight.

The recruiter had paused at that, but they'd made a note of pointing something out. There was an exception to that exception. Because of course there was.

The exception wasn't clearly explained but Joshua would need to get a medical check-up. Depending on the results of that, he might be allowed to avoid conscription.

Four days later, he went to a clinic in town that was set up to do that medical test. They tested all the normal things first. A blood test, a eyesight test, a strength test. All that sort of thing. But then they brought something strange out. A helmet attached to some computers. Some kind of brainwave reader? Joshua felt that those probably hadn't been invented yet.

Either way, he submitted to whatever the test was. Joshua put the helmet on and the doctor checked the computer. As he tapped on it though, Joshua noticed a light coming from the helmet. There had been a set of lights on the front that were now lighting up.

Eventually, the test was over and the doctor revealed the results.

"You have magical ability."

…What? Joshua did of course, he'd learned a lot of magic in Final Fantasy but he couldn't use it. Was it something to do with the magical injection he'd been given to make him a Magitek knight? Damn it.

The recruiter entered through a side door as that was announced, a smile on his face.

"Well then, even as a conscientious objector, mages are too important to let go right now. You're not escaping conscription I'm afraid."

Anger boiled in Joshua. There had to be something wrong with this. The same idea from before was still true. An army wouldn't want a soldier that wouldn't kill.

He stood from the chair he had been sitting on and walked up to the recruiter, a flare of rage in his eyes.

"No." He said plainly "There's no way it would work like that. I won't kill-"

"You wouldn't have to kill." The man said "There are many paths a mage could follow. Thus, you have no basis for objection."

There had to be something wrong with that!

But he wasn't strictly wrong.

Joshua sighed and the man handed over a pamphlet.

It basically detailed a specific center he was to report to in London. From there he'd be taken to the academy that would act as his magic boot camp.

He was to report there next monday. They'd pay for his train so he could head there in the morning of monday instead of just travelling there over the coming weekend.

As Joshua returned to the farm to pack up his things after that, he looked at his hat.

He could be a coward if he wanted. He could just cut himself a new gate and flee to some other world. It was possible that it'd be fine. It had been a whole month since he'd come here after all.

…No. It was still risky. He didn't want to leave for a while just to ensure that it was properly healed before he opened the wound again.

Then could he do what the hat represented? Could he be a coward and flee the war? Just run around England to escape conscription?

As night fell, he stood in the farm's field, his sparkblade in his tight grip. He moved it forwards, opening a tiny rip. Not out into the void though. He opened a small tear just as he'd once done in the world of Pokemon.

Inside was a tiny storage space. He quickly tossed in his possessions. The things in this world that were his had no other home if he was going to war. The last thing to be thrown in was the hat.

He'd accepted it. He'd undergo training at least. Maybe he'd have a chance to make a break for it after learning how to use this world's version of magic. He could learn something new and take it with him to other worlds.

That was how Joshua rationalised this decision at least.

He sealed the gap and set off for the train station.

He got to London in the late night and found a hotel willing to put him up for the weekend. They were very empty with the war on.

The recruitment center was open on the weekend too. Of course it was.

Joshua entered and signed up as directed. As he waited for transport to the magic boot camp, he took the time to read a brochure about it.

The academy dated back a few decades. It had been made by Alchemists of the Royal Society for the study of their art but it had been expanding to cover other fields of magic.

The mention of Alchemy made him laugh slightly. He remembered stories from his own world about Issac Newton driving himself to madness with toxic chemicals. Was it that type of alchemy then?

Magic was involved though, maybe it actually worked in this world? Had anyone created a philosopher's stone? Those kinds of questions were interesting but it didn't sound like that was the field he'd be studying. He had some kind of innate magic apparently. Maybe he'd be given a wand and told to wave it around.

When he'd first arrived in this world, he'd read about German demons. Previously he'd just suspected them to be some kind of supersoldier but if there was actual magic, maybe there were actual demons too.

Hopefully his talent with magic from Final Fantasy would be applicable here. He really hoped that carried over. If it did, he might be able to compare and contrast the native magic with the magic he knew and figure out how to make the spells learned from Espers work here.

Finally his transport arrived. It was a car, a fairly normal one for the time period. At their invitation, Joshua slipped inside and looked around. He mentally noted how strange it felt. It had been roughly two years since he'd gotten into a car.

Also in the car were what looked like plainclothes soldiers. Something like that at least. A quick look had shown that they were both carrying pistols.

The driver, a third soldier, started the car and began driving. The Academy was on the outskirts of London so the drive shouldn't be that long. Even so, Joshua felt the time pass slowly.

He was currently doing the opposite of what he'd intended to do at the start of this all. He'd wanted to avoid war. To avoid the fighting and bloodshed. He'd been forced to kill by the slave crown and by desperation and now he was going to be on the battlefield again by choice?

In his heart, he knew now that he'd have to leave before the first battle. No matter what happened, the fact that he was objecting should mean something.

Right?

The car arrived at the academy and he got out, followed by one of the soldiers. They followed him as he headed towards the front door.

There he stood, looking at the door. After a moment he pushed it and went inside.

He spoke with the administration desk and they arranged his room and gave him a timetable. The plan was to try to drive in as much magical learning as they could get into him in eight weeks.

Well then…

It was time to begin.

Spoiler: Author Notes

Yeah, there was no way he was getting out of this. I actually took a drawback to that effect. I was amused by the idea of trying to do 2k words of just farming for multiple chapters but I basically ran out of ideas after the feather thing. That was a real movement BTW. Giving feathers to men who hadn't gone to war in an effort to call them cowards for not fighting. Also the Women's Land Army was a group that did help with farming during the first world war.
I know next-to-nothing about how the military works so I'm actually a bit worried that the rest of the chapters in this arc will just end up completely unrealistic. Hopefully it ends up okay.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.

 

[boyboy180]

"In the late 19th century," The teacher explained, drawing on his blackboard "The first concept of the spell engine was designed."

He held up a small machine with what looked like a large gemstone at the top.

"Instead of spellcasters needing to use dusty grimoires and mouldy staves, they could now make use of modern technology."

This wasn't his first lesson, this was just the first going into the history of the Spell Engine. Joshua had gone through multiple lessons already and he was starting to get an idea about this world's magic. It was all about one's ability to understand how the world worked.

In a previous class, a teacher had demonstrated the "old method" of spellcasting. A combination of a sheet of paper with various types of information written on it and a small stick, he had lit a candle.

The piece of paper wasn't really an old scroll though, it was a scientific document. It went over combustion as a concept. It wasn't just to the level that any old school child was taught. No, this went into the full detail of how the thing called "fire" worked.

Magic was a form of applied science. There was a need for people to have some form of internal supply of power though, generally it was referred to as mana.

Mana allowed the bending of the world in accordance with natural laws. To create a fire you needed heat, fuel and oxygen. The candle provided two of those so all the magic did was create an intense burst of heat to spark the ignition.

Since the education was meant to be only eight weeks long, they worked fast. It was like taking science classes all over again.

At the end of the first week of schooling, they handed out Spell Engines and taught the students how to use them. They were much closer to typewriters than computers. Or maybe you could describe it as a really early calculator? It stored the variables a mage would need to know. Most notably were the variables used in flight.

Joshua didn't understand where they got the information from at first, but they provided the variables required to lift a person up and hold them at a designated height.

Once he was experimenting with it over the weekend though, he figured it out. The magic functioned like an upgraded version of the float spell he knew. Reduce a target's weight and give a push upwards to slow the fall.

This spell went a little further though. It didn't just slow the fall, it reduced velocity to zero and then allowed the user to direct their flight about. Managing this sort of thing mentally would be incredibly difficult, so the Spell Engine was helpful.

At least, he should be clear that he didn't know exactly how Float or any other of his spells worked. He got the just of it well enough to replicate it but… okay. Let's explain it like this. The cure line of spells cured injuries, knitting flesh and bone until the person was healed. Joshua had no clue how he'd make that work like this though. He didn't know enough biology to make that work. The final fantasy spells were blackboxed in a way. He knew that using spell A would result in outcome A, but the method was unknown to him.

He couldn't really engineer his own spells. Or rather, his attempts to re-engineer the spells he'd had access to before was very slow because of that lack of understanding about how they worked. The orb's systems were tricky to use quickly. Maybe if he had a week or two to dedicate just to a single spell with understandable basis, he could code it into the Spell Engine but right now? He was basically limited to the spells they were teaching him about.

As Joshua was in the library though, he found some texts on alchemy. His face lit up when he realised what it was. Alchemic circles, just like in Full Metal Alchemist. At least, as far as the book described them, they looked to be the same thing.

If this was FMA Alchemy… he needed to learn it. It was incredibly versatile.

On Sunday evening, he took some chalk and headed to an empty practice room. When he checked he really was alone, he pulled some gravel out of his pocket. It had been outside in the garden and it would be perfect for practising.

He carefully opened the alchemy textbook he'd brought with him and got to the right page. Making gravel into a stone.

First things first, analyse. He looked at the stones and tried to figure out what they were made of. His lessons in magic had gone into it actually just in case they'd need to perform Geomancy.

Oxygen and silicon were the two most basic building blocks of stones. Silica was the name of the compound.

The goal of this transmutation was to break down the Silica and recombine it. He searched through the book and found the right circle.

First, a circle to help channel the power of the earth. Alchemy didn't need the spark that mages had, anyone could learn to perform it. The power was external. Though Joshua did wonder if he could power a transmutation off of his own mana.

The circle didn't have to be very big, not much of the earth's energy would be needed apparently. On this small circle he placed the collection of gravel. Now he was ready.

Putting his hands on either side of the circle, he focused. This part was much like magic in a way, only no mana flowed from him. Lightning jumped out from the center of the circle though in a quick flash.

After the flash, all that was left in the circle was a grey lump and under it there was a pile of powders of various colours. Probably the impurities that had been in the gravel. There was no real gain or loss. Equivalent exchange.

That said, as he began to tidy up the experiment, Joshua pondered Alchemy some more.

The circle hadn't needed to be that big because this wasn't an expensive transmutation, but he was breaking down the intermolecular bonds. That couldn't be cheap energy wise. On top of that, it wasn't technically true to say that there was no gain or loss in that transmutation. Entropy doesn't work that way. A bigger rock is a more stable state than a collection of smaller rocks.

Curious in a way.

It wasn't really the topic he was here at the academy to learn though, so he'd need to limit it to after lessons were over for the day.

Lessons ran long though. From eight in the morning to lunch, then an hour break before the second section of lessons that ran from one in the afternoon until seven when it started to get dark. After that was dinner and a few short hours that Joshua could use to research Alchemy.

There were other distractions too, notably his classmates.

"Come on Joshua!" William had requested. He was the one that sat next to Joshua in classes. He was the charitable sort. Over dinner, he'd help others work through what they'd been taught that day.

Joshua suspected he wanted Joshua to join those sessions as Joshua had been able to pick up some of the more difficult options without help.

Of course, no one knew that Joshua was running off years of normal schooling in these sorts of subjects. That learning was multiple years old though and he would have forgotten much of it. It all came back to him during lessons though, each random fact he'd learned by watching scientific channels on the internet returned to him as he worked through the systems of science and magic.

William wasn't the only friend he'd made though. There was a John whose mind was flexible and able to take in new concepts easily and there was Mary. Women may not have been allowed to fight normally but mages were an exception.

Hooray for gender equality?

Mary seemed to take offence to the fact that she'd only been allowed to go to war because of her magic though and she tried to outdo others in lessons. Joshua largely considered her annoying but there were moments when she shone through and he knew why he saw her as a friend.

They managed to drag Joshua away from his alchemy research so he could study with the rest of them over dinner.

Occasionally though, the conversation would drift from their studies to the war and other small talk.

"Have you heard about that American soldier?" John asked "The one who went rogue because he wanted to fight Jerry so much?"

Jerry in this case is slang for Germany.

"No." Joshua admitted freely "Did he get court-martialed?"

"On the contrary." John held his fork up in the air "He's pulling America into the war faster. People love him, call him the 'God of War.' He's thought to be one of the reasons that Jerry is rolling out their demons so fast. They need people who can stand up to him even a little bit."

That just felt weird. Someone who was in the military went to fight a war on his own which could of broken diplomatic ties and that sort of thing. He went there and people loved it? Instead of denying his actions, the nation was supporting him?

Was he like some version of Captain america?

Joshua smiled. It was a bit early for that. The first action comics hadn't come out yet. Superman wouldn't exist for another decade or so. Even Phantom hadn't started printing yet.

For a moment, Joshua wondered how superhero comics would develop in this world. They already have people who can fly and use magic after all. Maybe Superman will have the power of flight in the first issue instead of just super jumping.

"Well then." Mary sniffed "Let's improve ourselves so we're like that too. The four of us could become a team of expert mages that could drive off an army of demons just by ourselves."

When Joshua did manage to escape from his friends, he made his way back to the library where he devoured tomes on Alchemy. His memory had always been good when it came to subjects that interested him.

From his research, he actually found there were many circles with some of the same bases. Most Alchemic circles that controlled the earth in some way had a triangle drawn between three points of the circle with a line splitting it apart horizontally. A symbol he vaguely remembered learning back home was the Alchemical symbol for earth.

Of course, then each type of transmutation would build on that circle. It never was just that symbol alone.

Now… if only he was in china. That thought crossed his mind while studying. The reason was he also wanted to study what FMA had called Alkahestry. Mostly he wanted to study it just because it would allow him to use Alchemy to heal.

If he'd have to be on a battlefield, he'd rather be there to heal people than there to hurt them. The only problem with that right now was that Alchemy didn't really study how the human body worked. He couldn't find any circles that could be used to mend bones. The only thing of note he could find was on how human transmutation was illegal. Apparently people treated that rule like it applied to all fields of alchemy that dealt with human bodies so they'd never studied healing.

Frustrating, that was what Joshua thought of the whole mess.

It meant he'd probably need to start his research from first basis. Now, if only he could find a medical textbook and a biology textbook. How hard would it really be to make blood that was fit for transfusions?

Spoiler: Author Notes

Joshua is really leaning into alchemy, even if it's magic that got him into this academy in the first place. I took time to look up how Youjo Senki's magic worked but there really weren't that many details. I just had to guess in some places to fill gaps.
Also, Joshua is not an alchemic prodigy (not yet at least), he's in the process of memorising an entire library and he has a decent grasp on how it works but that's his limit.

Feel free to comment (Or ask questions) if you want.