timeandtides_backup | Protecting My Devotion

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Protecting My Devotion - Group 3

Characters: Bartz, Fang, and Squall
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Old!Memoria
Location: Memory Place!
Date: March 11, 1805
Warnings: With Bartz, anything's possible!

Gaia was strange, Fang knew. She was getting used to it - again - and getting used to the way that memories from her first visit to the world were trickling into her head. Maybe one day she'd get a great big lump all at once; for now, it was going slowly but steadily.

Still, to suddenly end up in yet another place wasn't what she expected. Especially not when it was a place she recognized.

"You've got to be joking!"

It was Oerba - the territory around Oerba, at least, majestic in its splendor, clearly unforgiving of stupidity but beautiful and rugged. The village itself wasn't visible, but the mountains to the east of it were, rising above the trees that covered the slopes between the village and a very tall tower of strange construction that stabbed the sky like a weapon. The trees were thicker towards the tower side of the plains and slopes, the ground between the trees carpeted in flowers and long, rich grasses, green interspersed with blue, red, and pink - a painter's dream.

And none of it existed anymore. With Anima's temple gone from the village, Oerba had quickly fallen to the monsters and Cie'th, its inhabitants falling into the same curse if they lived at all. The plant life had had the life choked from it with crystal dust, killing all the color and making the landscape around the village sterile. Taejin's Tower had broken in half and collapsed. Fang had seen all this, with her own eyes, much as it rent her heart to think about it - and now, to be back in the village the way it had been before? This was... impossible.

"Fang!" came a cheerful voice from behind her, and the dark-haired woman spun to face it, yanking her spear from the holster at her back at the same time.

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"Squall! Any clue what's going on here?" Bartz yelled, waving. Everyone but him was waving weapons around, he felt a little left out. "Wait. ...Vanille?" He had head the name before but couldn't quite recall who it belonged to. He certainly couldn't see its owner anywhere.

After a second or so of watching Fang act out the memory, he turned back to Squall.

"Is she...okay? Think we should get help?"

Any clue? Why would he have any more idea then Bartz did. Yes, he had been in and out of the world more than once, if what he'd been told was any indication. But none of that mattered. He couldn't remember it even if he'd tried. He didn't really want to try, for that matter. So he simply shrugged at Bartz's question. He hadn't the slightest clue what was going around.

Fang's actions as she acted out her memory didn't help matters either.

"Where would we find any help?"

At least Fang's memory didn't involve her yelling loudly, or running around like crazy or doing any number of other things. If her actions were any indication, it was an experience that any number of people both on and off Gaia were familiar with - outdoor camping, fending for yourself, including locating and taking down your own food. She and Vanille had done this any number of times before they became l'Cie; even after they were, this was frequently how their nights had ended, though with scenes much more tensed and worried. Right now, she was relaxed, more than even Light and Hope had ever seen her, and looked genuinely happy.

Fang set up a pair of small rabbit-like creatures to roast over the fire while Vanille sliced up some of the fruit; they started on that while they waited for the meat to cook. "Hey Fang," Vanille asked suddenly, before she took her first bite. "Do you think one day, maybe... we could take a journey?"

"Hmm? Where d'you want to go?"

"Anywhere!" the redhead responded, smiling. "I want to see everything we can! We have this whole world around us, and now we can go see it since we can take care of ourselves! There must be so much out there." Her tone was almost wistful as she looked up at the sky, hugging her knees to her chest. "So much we can't even imagine. I want to see it all!"

And Fang smiled, muffling a chuckle - when Vanille began acting like this, there was no denying her. And really, she didn't want to. "When we get back to Oerba, we can start planning it out, then."

"Really?!"

"Yeah. Really," she responded with a smile-

-that disappeared suddenly as the memory shattered and released her, leaving her sitting on the ground that was slowly blurring and dissolving around her, out of the familiar area of Oerba to a formless void.

"-That was three years ago!"

"...what was three years ago? You okay? It doesn't look like-" He paused to look around at the vanishing world. "It really doesn't look like there's an easy way back."

...Three years ago? What had been three years ago? More importantly, if it had been all that while ago why had they seen what bits of it they had now. It didn't make sense.

Except with time compression, he realized with what was a distinct sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was really not looking forward to that again.

"There never is."

Edited 2011-03-16 00:55 (UTC)

"...You know something about this, then?" Fang asked Squall, narrowing her eyes at him a little in suspicion. She'd been let down and double-crossed by so many things in her life that it was, somewhat unfortunately, her instinctive reaction to hearing that someone knew something and wasn't precisely forthcoming with information.

"Better get explainin', or we might all be stuck in some prefabrication of scenes from our pasts for eternity."

Bartz turned back to Squall, about to say something when the air was suddenly knocked out of his lungs and he collapsed to the ground. The world reformed around them, the inside of a hollow in a great tree with four crystals in the centre. After the world came people, an old man, a woman with pink hair and a man with long purple hair appeared by Bartz' side, all of them in a similar state. Before them towered an enormous man - no, an enormous presence in blue armour. The crystals pulsed with energy, holding them down and slowly crushing them.

They didn't dare move. The slightest movement would shatter the crystals that were being used to torture them and after losing the crystals of the first world, the second world's were worth more than their lives would ever be.

And so they waited to die.

But then there was another presence and the pain stopped. Bartz tried to push himself up but couldn't summon the energy, only managing to look up at their rescuer, a young girl with an expression that was a mess of terror and bravado.

"...he shouldn't be doing anything for a whi-" The sound of Exdeath's armour moving cut her attempts at reassurance short. A circle of fire surrounded her. "Oh-!"

"Impudent little fool!"

Krile started to say something but was cut off as the flames closed in. The pressure returned, forcing Bartz's head back against the ground but he could still hear the girl's screams and the sound of Exdeath slamming her against the walls.

And Galuf stood.

"Not... this, exactly," Squall answered, mere moments before Bartz crumpled to floor under some unseen weight. "But time being turned into something it shouldn't be, yeah. Only... there's only one person who could do it and she's not here."

Well, technically two, if you counted Ellone, but hadn't she said she could only send people to the pasts of people she knew? Well, that and the fact that from what he could remember, her version of sending people to the past mostly involved putting their physical bodies to sleep.

This? Was far and away from that, at the very least.

Fang would have asked about that one person, but Bartz went down - and her big sister instincts kicked in. With a quick dash, she'd slid to her knees next to his form, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him as if trying to wake him up.

"Hey! Whoever-you-are, what happened?"

"So certain you want to keep moving, Galuf?" Exdeath's voice boomed. "Try to dispel this power and your precious crystals will shatter!"

Galuf didn't respond to Exdeath, attention only on his granddaughter. "Krile!"

Bratz couldn't see the crystal break. But he could feel it, feel the earth itself crying out in pain and dying. The second world's crystals might have been worth more than their own lives but they were nothing compared to Krile's.

With great effort, Bartz forced his head up to see. Krile lay on the ground, sobbing with pain as Galuf intercepted Exdeath's attack, a ring of flames tightening around him. Ignoring it completely, he gave a cry of rage and flung himself at Exdeath, striking the tree with everything he had. All the strength in his body, every spell he could muster.

Exdeath laughed.

"Now I'll show you my true power. Prepare yourself for the afterlife!"

Flare stuck the old man first. Holy next. Then Meteor. And Galuf still stood.

"Why- why won't you die!?" Exdeath almost sounded afraid.

"Takes a lot more than that... for me to kick the bucket." Galuf answered, amost coughing out the words. "I'll destroy you, Exdeath. Even if I have to take you into the afterlife myself!"

"Fool! All the hatred in the world would never be enough to defeat me!"

"This...isn't anger." Galuf said, trying to muster one last spell. "...isn't hatred. It's-"

And then it faded. Exdeath, Galuf, Krile, the tree, the crushing pressure of Exdeath's magic, all of it. Bartz remained still for a few more seconds before realizing he was being shaken and pushing himself up.

"...huh? What just- what?"

"You collapsed," Squall answered simply, as if that alone was enough to answer the question at hand. There'd been more to it then simply that, and at least one of the people he'd seen had been familiar (and there was a small voice in the back of his head that was wondering how he could possibly have seen Exdeath) but it didn't make any sense. How could he have seen action surrounding Bartz but not around the third of their party? Did it mean anything?

And, most importantly, where on earth where they, to even make something like this happen?

"You fell over and looked to be havin' a small torture session or somethin'. You didn't say anything, though." So what if Bartz wasn't that much younger than her (technically), he still looked it and whatever had just happened to him looked to have been more traumatic than her own revisited memory. Fang held out a hand to help him to his feet if he needed it, pushing herself up as well.

"I don't know what's goin' on here, but we'd best be stayin' on our toes or we're gonna regret it."

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Protecting My Devotion - Group 3

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Bartz or Squall next?

I'm good with whichever~

Well you boys will have a confused passenger here XD

...this is going to be a boring memory from the outside. Sorry.

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