The Final Run

[Atticus the Fallen]

Now, it is a fact that Atticus is a black-hearted monster and a manipulating, twisted, murderous psychopath... but he did have a heart. So, when MeadowSong sounded so defeated, even he felt a tinge bad for her. Using those wings of his, he lifted upward to come right behind her, and warpped those arms that had killed without mercy and torn hearts from their forms without remoarse.

"My dear, sweet MeadowSong... you give me too much credit..." he whispered to her, trying to comfort her. "You call me 'king', but you've forgotten... I'm only a caretaker. It is my place strictly to ensure the safety and well-being of our kind. I've had to take the role of a schemer and a general for the express purpose of carving out a future for us... and look..."

He lifted a claw to her chin, tilting her head to look out the impressive windows which observed the dying Kingdom Hearts, with those thick black tendrils choking the life from it. "We're nearly there... And while I know of the schemes you've put into play, I know my dear dark faerie well. You've done well, and it serves us better than you might think. They're coming here, the so-called heroes of this story, as one force. All of the light in the universe gathered in one place for their swift and complete end. Thanks to you..."

He gave her a light squeeze, a strange congratulatory gesture on his part. "As I said... the children will idolize you. The adults will sing your name as a hero. You don't have to scratch and claw your way for acceptance any more... You're here. The only thing left..."

Here, Atticus stretched an arm out to touch the hot metal of the machine, lightly repairing a small dent for her. "...is to ensure that they either turn or die when they get here. I have faith in you, and I know you will do your best. When this is all over, we will finally have our peace. Perhaps then... when the distractions of a war for our survival are finally behind us... there can be something more?"

With that, Atticus let her go and floated backward a bit. He'd let her have her say, then look into other matters. He didn't want to leave her with negativity. He wanted her confident, bold, impulsive, and above all else, ready to put it all on the line for their cause.

After all, should she fall in battle, that meant one less threat to their security afterwards. One less "ambitious" heartless looking for more than their fair share...

[MeadowSong]

I have faith in you, and I know you will do your best. When this is all over, we will finally have our peace. Perhaps then... when the distractions of a war for our survival are finally behind us... there can be something more?"

[glow=purple,2,300]The touch...

It was breath-taking, to say the least. His way with women--seduction in general--was trademark for masters of darkness, and MeadowSong knew this well...but she felt sincerity, and wished more than anything--oddly enough--to melt in those arms which, yes, were meant for merciless slaughter. Perhaps the fey in her wished to come out a bit more.

She turned when the Fallen would descend and gave him a warm, narrow-eyed smile.

"I will ensure the peace, for I am the Mistress of Darkness!" she said at last, and followed Atticus to the marble floor.

"Perhaps then. Tomorrow in Darkness," she whispered to him between womanly giggles, and patted his chest.

"Perhaps then, indeed, my love."[/glow]

[Atticus the Fallen]

Atticus bowed lightly by way of dismissing himself, but not before scooping MeadowSong's hand into his own and lifting it underneith that steepled hat of his to place a gentle kiss upon the back of those fingers. A gentleman's gesture. He stepped back, allowing her hand to fall free of his before turning to leave.

"I will be keeping an eye on affairs. You will know where to find me if you wish..." he said simply, then spread his wings and lifted skyward, phasing through the ceiling to land at the altar of naught once more, overlooking the grand scheme of things.

Everything was in its place. All that was left was for the heroes to make their final run...

[Cloud]

Cloud had finally made it to the Castle. He had remained out of sight and out of trouble the whole way. However, when he finally arrived at the main entrance, he did not expect to find what he did.

"Abigail?" he whispered to himself, wondering how in the world she got here ahead of him, and what kind of trouble she'd gotten herself into! Something big and nasty was closing in on her, spilling black goo everywhere. Looks like this was the thing that's been having its way with the city.

He obviously couldn't let Abby face this thing alone, so he took action. Throwing his Buster Sword as hard as he could, Cloud implanted the massive piece of metal deep into the creature's back. He then ran forward and jumped on the hilt of the blade, using it as a springboard to launch himself up and over the beast, carrying the sword itself behind.

Landing next to Abigail, Cloud threw an arm out to protect her as he pointed the blade at the monster's face.

The Blot would be surprised by the sudden attack to its back, but otherwise seemed unphased even as the blade sunk deep into its body. The sounds had to be a clue as the blade was ripped back out with a sickening squish. It didn't feel pain. Not like most things that lived, anyway. The monster turned slowly to look behind, then back to face the blade with little care for it being pointed right at it.

"Heh heh heh heh..." the monster gargled, lifting a hand to touch the metal. "Foolish human..." Ink would begin to pour down the blade of Cloud's sword, threatening to overtake him.

Cloud's only option was to pull the blade away and slam it down, sending energy through it to burn off the ink before taking a step back toward the Castle with Abigail in tow. "Great..." the spikey-haired warrior muttered.

What had he gotten himself into...

[Abigail Crescentlight]

Before her target had arrived, a monster had shown up. Now, before when Abigail was not under control, she would have reacted pretty strongly to a skeleton in an ink robe. However, with the slave crown on, the Blot was not important and therefore she didn't even blink when it arrived. It was as though he wasn't even there to her, even if within her mind she was practically screaming to get her staff into position.

Those thick, black, inky tendrils of his were getting closer, and still she ignored him. One even touched her cheek, but nothing in her eyes indicated that she recognized a threat. Just then, her real objective came jumping in like the hero he was, landing in front of her with blade at the ready.

They had some dialouge, Cloud and the Blot, but she was not interested in that. As they began to back up, Abigail lifted her staff and pointed it right at the man's back. "Holy II..." she muttered, and unleashed a blast of white-hot magic onto Cloud's exposed backside.

Now, there was no thousand-foot-drop this time, and Cloud was wearing armor and had his defenses up for battle, so chances are likely she didn't KILL him. Maybe hurt him pretty bad, seeing as this was point-blank range, but inwardly she was holding back. She couldn't stop herself from casting damaging spells on Cloud, but she could command to what degree she was attacking. Magic is at least part mental, after all. It wasn't the most powerful Holy attack she could have mustered.

Still, that didn't stop her from keeping her Keystaff pointed, eyes focused on Cloud as she walked forward, ready to attack again...

"Holy II..."

[Cloud]

Unable to predict the attack, Cloud took the white-hot blast of holy into his back and stumbled forward somewhat. He was not thousands of feet up, so he did not die instantly as Edgar did, but he was injured. Spinning around, he got another look at Abigail. Her eyes! Damn his rushing in. This was a trick!

Jumping backward, Cloud put some distance between himself and the two other participants of the battle. He kept his sword raised, but more as a shield as he considered the situation.

He knew what it meant to be controlled. He'd dealt with it before. It's not as easy as mind-over-matter or one's soul versus another. He knew that when you're taken over completely and utterly, so much that no matter what you do you can't stop your body from acting on its own, all you could do was say 'sorry' later. This had to be the boat the white mage was in.

He knew she would never attack him. He had known of her since MeteorFall, when she established a church in Aerith's old home and began offering hope to the hopeless. Hers was a bright light that refused to be dimmed in the darkest of circumstances, never once thinking of herself or personal gain. She'd sacrificed for others, given her own home to help those that needed. She would NEVER raise a hand to a friend. This was something else.

And that was worth reporting. While defending himself from oncoming attacks, Cloud reached into his pocket and produced a cell phone, which had the transmitter on Fenrir on speed dial. He would broadcast his message directly to the Rose, and let them know they were in some deep sludge.

"Rose! This is Cloud! I've got the Blot wreaking havoc in the city and... they've got Abigail. She's under-"

The transmission was cut off. An expert throw of ink from the Blot splattered over the phone and threw it from Cloud's hand. The acidic darkness began to eat into the metal structure until it was nothing more than a smoldering puddle of muck on the ground.

"Tck!" Cloud grunted, holding his sword once more and hoping that mess didn't interfere with the special metal alloy the enhanced Buster was made of. After a few adventures, you learn which metals are immune to acidic effects. "Great, now what do I do?" he muttered, considering escape back into the city...

[kefka]

[glow=yellow,2,300]"Well, Spikey-poo, looks like now's the time to tell you what I'll do!"

From the plumed bush nearby the dancing madman hopped out with an exaggerated gusto and sense of victory; he pranced about, circling the white mage thrall several times before abruptly stopping, turning lightning fast and pointing a bony finger foward.

"And YOU!" he bellowed darkly to the Phantom Blot. "Keep your grubby sludge off the girl; she's joined up with us." He grinned, and tilted his head back to Cloud. "Yup, yup, yup. Apparently she was too broke to continue crawling down the path of light. I mean, you DID help blow up that pretty little trash heap you called your world. If I'm not mistaken, it was your backlash attempt what made the chaos ever so much more sweet."

Kefka chuckled happily and hovered over to the Soldier, his fingers twitching while he reached out.

"Pity, I was going to return there some day and make you part of the landscape...but I suppose right here wouldn't be so bad. Lemme see that pretty sword of yours, won't you?"[/glow]

[Cloud]

Cloud grunted lightly when the clown came into play. He was currently busy using his sword as a shield against Abby's blasts of holy magic, secretly thanking the insight of the Buster Sword's designer for its wide blade.

Kefka went off about Midgar and other such nonsense. Cloud knew that their battle was really nothing big. It hadn't even done sufficient damage to really generate a huge amount of lifestream (and Cloud knew what a huge amount of lifestream was). Frankly, that place was on its last leg anyway, and Kefka had done the most damage himself before Cloud even got there. If anything, Cloud at least protected what little dignity that place even had left.

As he defended from Abby's onslaught and rolled his eyes a bit at Kefka's ranting, Cloud reached up and detatched a bit of the breakaway section of the blade, effectively arming himself with sword and shield. Holding the Buster up with one arm and weilding the smaller breakaway section in the other, he was able to advance on Kefka first.

"As you WISH!!" he yelled out, swiping at the clown with tremendous, JENOVA-bolstered celular strength. He was fast, tough, and strong. A hard combination to beat, but to be fair he was outnumbered three-to-one and one of his opponents WAS an ally.

He had to split his attention. The Blot was easy enough to avoid, seeing as he was pretty much telegraphing his attacks. The Blot had redirected its aggression once it was set straight regarding Abigail, and was now lashing at Cloud with tendrils of ink. Despite being skilled at dodging, Cloud did receive a nasty smack to the upper arm, which would leave a black, heart-shaped, permenant mark.

"Heeheheheehehehee!!" the blot gargled, turning the ends of its tendrils to bladed points. "This one will not last... This is just a matter of time and patience..."

It looked to Kefka, a dark glint in its eyes that was more primal, dark, and deep than mere insanity. This thing was wicked delight personified. "How will it go? Burned to death by holy fire? Exploded into steaming bits by a mad clown? Or can I dissolve the hero's essence into nothing? Or... maybe all three? What say you, cackling one?" it laughed...

[kefka]

Cloud...was fast. Faster than he seemed to have been back on Midgar. 'Such power!' But now was not the time to be worrying about the porcupine's new powers; it was time to kill.

"Ee-yah!" he yelped, each time he had to dodge out of the way. He maintained a concentration on his thrall so that she wouldn't grow complacent, all while keeping to his own safety.

"Alice, use something POWERFUL enough to knock your friend back to life as a green ooze, won't you!?" he demanded, at one point flying back so far away from Cloud's blade he had to duck behind the Blot.

"Sounds about right, Sludge-face," he said, agreeing with the creature. Letting out a demonic chuckle, Kefka rose to face the Soldier once more, this time with the familiar sense of destruction. In between his two open hands the mad clown juggled three dancing orbs of the elemental variety.

"Zippity-Zag!" And once he let the yellow sphere loose it enlarged, began crackling and transformed into a chained bolt of electricity. As he let them fly, each bolt would cut off and head for Cloud, some missing him completely and crashing into the ground with a loud thunder crack in its wake. Others went towards the man, but Kefka was too busy preparing his red sphere now to notice if anything would hit.

[Abigail Crescentlight]

"Alice, use something POWERFUL enough to knock your friend back to life as a green ooze, won't you!?"

Abigail nodded in her stupor, hearing the demand and responding despite "Alice" not being her name. The holder of the reigns called for something powerful, so she would oblige.

Taking a great leap, Abigail flipped backward and out of the direct area of battle. She had plenty of space, and would need plenty of time to build the power for this. She had used this technique once before, against the Harbinger. She was about to use it again on Cloud.

Reaching into her pouch, she produced a bit of chaulk and began to draw out her summoning circle. It didn't take her long, her motions much like a dancer as she spun in place to draw out the power of the cosmos. Here, it would take a little bit longer due to being so close to the darkness, but it was obvious as the markings erupted into holy light that it was pulling power from the universe.

With KeyStaff in hand, Abigail closed her eyes and focused energy at the point, building an extremely powerful ball of holy energy. Powerful enough to destroy Cloud...

Powerful enough to eradicate anyone within range.

[Cloud]

Cloud felt he was doing well. He had Kefka and Abigail both on the run (from his point of view), and had plenty of energy to spare. He was about to turn his attention to the blot when things started getting more complicated.

What he thought was a retreat was nothing more than a shuffling of position. Abigail was preparing something big and powerful while Kefka was casting something Cloud was intimately familiar with. Lightning. A light curse under his breath bemoaned the fact that he didn't carry his 50% lightning damage materials any more and that he wore a lot of metal. That was going to make things tough.

The attacks came and Cloud had to employ some fancy footwork to avoid most of it. He could dodge past some, but there were too many all at once, and he did get slammed by one of the lightning balls, getting thrown backward harshly by the impact and taking severe damage due to personal weakness. He hit the pavement hard and slid back, using the Buster Sword to try and anchor himself to a stop as he did.

"Damn..." he muttered, getting up shakily from the pain, only to receive a smack in the face from a large, sludgelike, black ink arm. The Blot had capitalized on the opening and had advanced on Cloud while he was down, getting ready to overwhelm him in ink, keep him in place, and stop him from moving.

However, Cloud wasn't out. With the damage he had taken he was ready to unleash something powerful. With a loud yell, he threw out his sword and powered it downward into a strong strike, creating a bluish shockwave which travelled along the ground.

It split the blot in two, and powered toward Kefka. The Blot would spill into two piles, and seem down for the time, but they were slowly moving toward one another, re-forming. Another turn or two and the Blot would be good as new...

[kefka]

[glow=yellow,2,300]Thankfully Kefka remained airborne throughout this whole ordeal; he highly doubted that, unless the spiky-headed pinhead used ranged spells, he would make no progress.

"Alice!" he bellowed, releasing the gathered energy from his corrupt fireball and launching it forward and downward, where it would strike and explode on impact, shredding apart--not to mention immolating--everything in its path.

"KILL THAT MAN, ALICE!"

And lo and behold, the beam tearing through the city streets was actually high enough to make contact with a dangling clown foot, and when it struck, Kefka roared with anger, and began tossing various weaker versions of the previous fireball spell at Cloud.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!"[/glow]

[Abigail Crescentlight]

As the events unfolded between Kefka, the Blot, and Cloud, Abigail had been steadily building Holy power within herself. By now she literally radiated with light, enough to sear any dark being that came too close. Holding her darkened KeyStaff outward, the energy built at the tip, forming a blindingly bright ball of power. When it had formed into a properly sized attack, she pulled the staff back as though it were a baseball bat.

"HOLYYY...." she cried out, the world around her quaking in reaction to the attack, as though the dark turf itself were trying to flee. Pebbles lifted up toward her and were discintegrated within the sphere of radiance in which she resided. "TWO!!!" she screamed out, then swung the staff hard in order to throw the ball of light.

The attack tore through the air like compact lightning. The air split and the loud rumbling of thunder could be heard as the molecules slapped back together in its wake. It wasn't the most accurate attack, and would land several yards off from where Cloud was, but it didn't need to be a dead-on strike. Upon its impact, the ball burned into the ground and began to rapidly expand outward, literally atomizing anything in its path. The force of its power was so strong that it created a small vacuum inside itself where there no longer was anything. It drew in anything that wasn't nailed down.

The attack waved outward in a perfect circle, ripping and tearing and rending and destroying. It would last all of twenty seconds, but those twenty seconds would seem to last an eternity. It kept growing until it overtook the edge of the city, sucking in the tops of buildings that had their bottoms destroyed by its force. The bridge leading into the castle completely vanished, leaving only a small portion at the far end to imply that anything had existed there.

When the ball reached its maximum size, it suddenly and swiftly collapsed back in on itself, ending its life with a tremendous IMplosion which generated a shockwave that took out what was left of the entire city block that Abigail had already severely damaged.

Woe be anyone inside that blast. It was doubtful if anything could have survived. Only Abigail, who was the wellspring of the attack's power, stood within its force and emerged unscathed, looking like a demon of light, radiant and horrifying...

[Cloud]

It's strange, how blessings can come in disguise. When Cloud made his attack and left himself wide open to another shot, he thought for sure this would be the end of it. He thought that he had made the biggest mistake of his life and he was about to get a hot faceful of fire for it. And yes, while he did get the hot faceful of fire for his trouble, it was NOT the biggest mistake of his life.

The force of Kefka's fireball sent him flying backward amongst the buildings, holding where he was injured and burned. Thankfully, there wouldn't be any bleeding because the wound was cauterized, but he certainly would be thinking twice before playing with fire again. He slowly lifted himself up, struggling to gain footing before a hundred more blasts started pouring down around him.

Kefka was enraged, and his accuracy was poor. The power of these fireballs was almost laughable in comparison to the first and it was child's play to either dodge or block them. In so doing, he fell further back into the claustophobic closeness of the tall buildings. And THAT would prove to be the blessing Kefka had granted him.

Ahead, the Blot was almost fully formed, cackling through its skull as though the very idea of being split apart was nothing to it. "Pitiful fool!" it hissed, lifting its arms as two massive, whiplike tenticles. "Now you-eh?"

It turned all too late. Abigail's Holy attack slammed into the ground and grew outward, catching the Blot within its light. It threw its head backward and let out a terrible scream of pain as the energy tore away at the ink that made its form, instantly turning it into a thick, fetid cloud of smoke which was itself quickly swept up within the vacuum of the attack.

Seeing this, Cloud knew better than to tempt fate and get any closer. The blessing was this: Kefka had unknowingly given him a head start! Taking to a swift run, Cloud made a break for it. He knew the attack was faster than himself, could feel the ground below him trembling and giving way as the blast continued to create its perfect crater, but he willed his legs to pump faster, to give him some extra speed from the "gift" of his JENOVA cells.

Cloud jumped behind a building and quickly tore away the mess he had used to hide Fenrir from sight. Mounting it, he kicked the spacebike into a cold start and took to the air.

The blast was right behind him. He didn't look back, but he could feel the edge of the blast gaining ever closer. To make matters worse, he had to fight against the force of the vacuum pulling him back (or rather, the wind pushing him toward it). "Come on!!!" he yelled, opening up all the stops in the engine and cranking up the boosters to maximum burn. Still, he didn't gain much ground.

Suddenly, the attack collapsed in on itself, and the power of Fenrir was enough to rocket Cloud away from the blast at the failure of the sucking force. Within a few seconds, Cloud was clear on the other side of the city, spinning Fenrir around to take a look at what he had avoided.

"Oh man..." he muttered.

There was a massive hole where a city block and been, and the only access into the Castle was gone.

[Atticus the Fallen]

The Dark one watched on as the drama unfolded.

In his arms, a small Shadow with a diamond scar rested, cooing lightly to the stroke of Atticus' sharpened claws trailing lightly over its head and back. Those hellish yellow eyes which had seen the mechanations of this grand master play observed as one does when observing a chess match.

One of his knights had been taken. This was not something he was too thrilled about. Kefka's mad desire for destruction had disregarded the safety of those around him. He had his toy, a member of the LIGHT, but it was like giving a three year old a lighter and some fireworks. He was irresponsible and dangerous.

But Atticus knew how close the end was, and how this would all play out. Even if he was pleasantly suprised, and the unforeseen did happen, he had other plans for the all-too-enthusiastic Kefka.

After all... Why else would Kefka's Nobody still be alive?