[Invading Alexandria, OPEN]

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Characters: Rinoa, Garnet, OPEN
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Rinoa attacks Alexandria. Garnet cops it. SeeDs and others save the day. Check here for more details. OPEN to anyone who wants to come help defend the city.
Location: Alexandria
Date: 30th-31st August, 1804
Warnings: Violence and death.

The Alexandrians were more resourceful than Rinoa had anticipated. It was such a backwards country that she thought it would be easy: a fun distraction while Ultimecia laid waste to bigger threats elsewhere. But a squadron of airships had found them en route from the ruins of Midgar and proceeded to harry them all the way to the city.

The good thing was that it became easier to convince some of the students that Alexandria ought to be invaded. The rest were bewildered and scared; the entire Garden was in disarray. Rinoa didn't really care at this point. Garden was merely a vehicle.

A small squadron of students had been instructed to attack the city. But that wasn't Rinoa's destination. Under cover of darkness, she flew into the city, moving from rooftop to rooftop and casting fire spells as she went. Very soon, smoke and flames filled the air, along with the screams of panicked citizens. As the city burned and confusion took over, the SeeD students moved in to begin the battle. Rinoa didn't stop to watch them.

She moved on, staying too low for the airships to safely reach her, until the castle walls loomed before her. Here she abandoned stealth and flew straight up, her wings flashing white in the darkness. Shouts of startled guards followed her, but they couldn't chase her into the sky. The first Flare smashed into a turret, killing two soldiers and reducing half the turret to rubble. Rinoa was exhilarated. This was everything Ultimecia had promised her, and more.

There would be more deaths to come.

Comments

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

By the time she'd come to her senses, the attack had already started. Such an attack was hard to avoid, but that didn't stop Dagger from trying; she rolled to one side, more out of panic than necessity, for as the next chunk hurdled straight toward her, it seemed to shrink, shrink, until it was a single point of concentrated energy, sucked directly into her chest. She staggered back in surprise. No, not her chest, exactly, but the chunk of nethecite she'd brought with her.

Gripping the whale-whisker even more tightly, Dagger struggled to regain a solid footing. The balcony was already cracking under her feet, the walls behind her not spared the force of the meteors blows. Still, any that came within range of her, the same occured -- compressed into almost nothing, vanishing inside the void of a stone kept in her corset.

This was her chance. Much as she wanted to call out to the other woman, she knew it was hopeless. The only choice was to take her down.

Closing her eyes, holding the racket in front of her, Dagger prayed. Suddenly, from nowhere at all, there was snow in the middle of summer! a patch of ice formed on the broken floor, and from it burst a woman all in blue. Spinning in the air, waving her arms about, Shiva cast Diamond Dust, the flurry of ice headed straight for the wayward sorceress.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

"Shiva...?" The name came out as a soft, surprised whisper. It had been so long since she had seen her GFs... It rankled Rinoa to see one used against her. Shiva was supposed to be on her side.

Alighting on a battlement, Rinoa drew her wings forward to shield her body, so that they took the brunt of Shiva's attack. She brushed the ice aside as she folded her wings, with no apparent damage done - but although her wings showed no mark, Rinoa felt the cold sting and she didn't feel up to flying again right at that moment.

Instead, she called out to Garnet. "No fair! Shiva should be mine. Come here and let me draw her out of you."

This was a bluff, and probably an obvious one. At any rate, Rinoa followed it straight up with a Flare. Not aimed directly at Garnet, but rather at the balcony itself. Let the Queen try to leap from a collapsing balcony.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Bluff or not, the very words 'draw her out of you' struck a chord. It wouldn't have been the first time that someone had pulled the Eidolons right out of her. But Dagger was stronger now -- much stronger than she had been when, at the age of sixteen, she'd started down the unmapped road of regaining what had been stolen from her.

But Dagger narrowed her eyes at Rinoa, clutching her weapon tightly. She could almost feel the whisper of something in her ear, like snow falling on pavement. Shiva. If only she could have known what the Eidolon was saying.

"Shiva belongs to no one -- it is her choice to answer a summoners call!" Was Rinoa a summoner too?

She had no time to react further though; the floor was cracking, separating. There was light coursing through the crystal sword protruding from the center of the castle. The eye of the invincible boring down over the center of Alexandria, and she was falling-- NO. Not again, not again.

Scrambling backward, Dagger latched into a side wall as the front of the balcony crumbled, the stone crashing to the courtyard in a cloud of dust and destruction, and her throne along with it. The remaining ground was unstable at best. She needed to go higher. Something was touching the back of her mind, coaxing her, whisper like the sound of a fire crackling in the hearth. Determined, she scrambled inside, turned, and headed up the nearest tower.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Rinoa didn't follow her inside the tower. Her strategy was to stay out in the open. With sky around her, she couldn't be trapped; she could fly away in a moment. She looked up as an airship flew past perilously close. Perhaps its pilot wanted to knock her off her perch. Rinoa twisted her mouth.

She would have to take off again. Grimacing, she spread her wings and flew upwards, shooting a fire spell after the airship. In a moment the airship was set alight, flames spreading across it like wildfire. It swerved crazily, almost hitting the tower before plummeting down.

That dealt with, Rinoa guessed the place where Garnet would emerge and alighted just above it, at the very top of the tower. She should be hidden from view at least until Garnet turned and looked up - and with any luck, the Queen would first look out across the horizon to find her foe. Either way, Rinoa was ready to make her next move. She was determined that it would be the one to end the Queen's life.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Dagger's world was a whirl of sound-- her heels clacking sharply against the stairs as she ascended them, the thundering of her heart, blood pulsing in her ears. The sound of explosions, muffled through stone walls, and still, that soft whisper at the back of her mind, like electricity crackling, mixing with that soft crackling of fire. The choices were swarming through her head, which Eidolon to call next. She knew she'd need to decide before she reached the top, because Rinoa was doubtless going to give her no time to reason or think.

Shifting the racket to one hand, she fished into the front of her blouse and withdrew the nethicite. If she could just get close enough, she was sure she could use the stone to subdue the sorceresses powers. If nothign else, if she could maintain a close enough proximity to suck up any magic she dared use...

Almost to the top of the stairs, that sound of a storm in the far distance consuming her mind, and she knew who she was calling next. She closed her eyes, praying, picturing Rinoa in her mind...

And then she emerged from the top of the tower, the cloud overhead already swirling darkly, the lightning crackling across the sky. It was only a matter of moment before Ramuh would appear, descending Judgement Bolt--

-- But where was Rinoa?!

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Looking down as the Queen emerged, Rinoa spotted the nethicite in Garnet's hand. Her eyes narrowed. She hadn't failed to notice the way her magic had been absorbed, so it was easy to guess the nature of the stone.

In a flash, Rinoa leapt off the tower and plummeted down like a stone. She spread her wings only at the last second, just before she would hit Garnet like a stooping falcon. Her intention was to crash into the Queen, either knocking the nethicite out of her hand or grabbing it for herself.

And in the meantime, a storm rumbled, adding to the clamour of the night.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Dagger noticed too late. She glanced up a split second before Rinoa collided with her. With an involuntary cry, she fell to the stone, the nethicite flung from her hand and skipped across the turret's floor. Her chest clenched in panic, her stomach sinking in horror as she reached across the ground, to no avail. Though stunned, it didn't stop the Eidolon from appearing; in a flash of light, the visage of an old man with flowing beard and lightning rod in hand. He raised it, gathering the storm in his staff, before throwing it at the winged sorceress in the form of Judgment Bolt.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Guessing that her foe was winded, Rinoa scrambled to her feet and dashed over to grab the nethicite for herself just as the eidolon struck. She felt the dazzling power of the stone at once. The bolt that would have struck her was sucked straight into the nethicite, leaving Rinoa entirely unharmed.

She smiled.

But she didn't like the feel of the stone. Even holding the nethicite in her hand, already it was seeking to drain the magic from her. Her wings were becoming translucent, ghost-like. This stone had a power that could be used against her as easily as it had protected her.

Making a face, Rinoa tossed the nethicite just behind her, so that she was between Garnet and the stone. It was still within easy reach for her if needed, but she'd rather not.

"I think you lost your toy." Rinoa advanced on the Queen. "Only fair to even things up, right?"

As she spoke, she raised her hand and cast Flare. Point blank range, full force, powerful magic. Rinoa intended this to be the killer blow.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Dagger scrambled up from the ground, only to half-fall again on her backside. How could this woman be the same girl she'd met before -- not the same girl she'd met at Eiko's birthday, or the girl she had invited to her own wedding. Though she stared at the image of Rinoa, it was as though a different person entirely had taken up residence behind those eyes. She'd held back all this time, not wanting to hurt her, and now look where it had gotten her.

"Rinoa, please, listen to me, stop--" she pleaded as she pulled herself to her feet, backing away from Rinoa, whale whisker still gripped in one hand. Her words, however, seemed unheard as the energy pulled together in the sorceresses hands.

There was nowhere for her to go, and the reflect spell never made it past her lips.

For a moment the world was an endless blank; blinding pain, as the flare slammed her against the nearest wall, her body crushed between the force of the blow, and the stone. Bones snapped and flesh tore. She couldn't even scream, for the breathe had been knocked so swiftly and unceremoniously from her body. In place of cool air she felt the burning of fire in her lungs. Whale whisker slipped from her hand, clattering to the stone, drops of blood falling from her fingertips. Soundlessly, the Queen of Alexandria crumpled like a broken doll, her head slamming against the rough and broken bricks. Her vision was blurred shadow as she struggled in vain to pull air into her lungs, unaware of the blood-stain she'd left against the turret wall, and the bright and growing shapes beneath her.

[tantalus-born.livejournal.com]

Zidane felt like it took an eternity to get to the top of the tower. He knew it wasn't, it couldn't have been more than a minute really, but it felt like every step took hours because he knew Dagger was up there. He was nearly there when he heard the familiar crackle of magic...Ramuh? She was already fighting...

A burst of speed carried him up through the last bit of the tower, burst out...just in time to see the Queen engulfed inside a flare spell. "No!" He honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing, really. Rinoa standing there with...wings? Cutting down Garnet like..."Dagger!"

The effect was almost immediate, a light burst forth from the Genome, and when it faded he was glowing, his body a pale and faded pink, his tail lashing out behind him. He let out a shout that was more like a growl, and a wave of white energy burst out of him. It formed together in front of him as a swirling white energy-tornado and shot out towards Rinoa.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Rinoa launched into the air again, though Zidane's energy attack still just caught her. She cried out as blinding white pain threatened to overwhelm her - then she had flown out of it only to settle a few feet away on the wall surrounding the tower.

"Too late, monkey-boy!" she shrieked at him. "You can't save her now!"

Rage fuelled the Sorceress' magic now; she sent a powerful fire spell to consume both of them. If Garnet wasn't already dead, she would be after this.

[tantalus-born.livejournal.com]

Zidane had a terrible suspicion Rinoa was right, and that there wasn't anything that could be done for Dagger. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try. And trying, at the moment, didn't mean fighting Rinoa. Even as the whirlwind had shot out of him towards the Sorceress, Zidane was already running across the stones towards Garnet.

He took a split second to look her over and then grabbed her, arms hooking under her as he hauled her up into the air...and managed to start moving just in time to get out of the area of the fire spell. The shockwave sent him tumbling to the ground though, and he let out a shout of pain as a rock, kicked up by the magic, tore across his cheek, cutting deep.

He did manage to keep a hold of Dagger, though, and started moving again towards the stairs.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Rinoa huffed. Boring. The queen was dead though, she was pretty sure of that. She could wait a little longer to kill the king. Wait until his Trance state had worn off, at least. He wasn't a Sorceress; he couldn't stay like that for long.

A small smile tugged at Rinoa's lips. She looked up, then launched into the air again, to disappear into the darkness.