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year 5, quarter 3
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I TRIED. I TRIED. I'M SO TIRED. BUT IT'S HERE. IT'S FINALLY DONE.
Fading.
Fading …
Sounds were fading from his ears. Logically, his brain screamed, he knew there was fire all around him. Crackling, burning. The house was falling in on itself, wood splintering, wind howling. Yet, all he could hear was the distant sound of fuzz. Above him the colors began to dull, from swirling reds and yellows to brown, to grey. The pain that had been on the edge of his nerves was fading, fading, become more and more numb. No longer did he feel the heat or scratches, bumps or bruises. Instead, he began to feel … lighter. It no longer hurt to breathe.
Although, Zack couldn’t recall the last time his chest moved with breath.
His eyes began to dull, and his fingers stopped uselessly curling on the floor. His mouth was open in false hope of air finding its way down his larynx. He was still, the only movement from his eyes as they desperately searched for any color that wasn’t dark or black. Everything had faded, it was all gone. Leaving him.
Soon, he would be nothing but an ashen corpse, plastered to the ground.
Zack’s chest trembled with an attempt at a cough, his lungs still fighting to pull in fresh air rather than smoke, and to push out all the ash he’d inhaled. Blearily, the Soldier thought he heard something, something high pitched, like a voice. The rest, it was like being in water. He felt like he was floating, as his body was tugged on. Yet, there was no expression to his empty face.
There continued to be an odd blur of sounds, and that feeling of floating. No, for one moment, he thought he was flying. His chest shook with more harsh coughs, but it did nothing for his mental state. Several times, his dull eyes threatened to roll into the back of his head, and thought he was only vaguely aware of it, his mouth was dry and caked with ash. His skin was, thankfully, numb to the pain he was physically experiencing as his bodily functions continued to shut off one by one.
Flying, falling, floating.
And, quite suddenly, things seemed bright.
Everything was returning to him all at once, overwhelming his senses. Zack blinked, groaned, his limbs moving and sliding around, weak and useless. He coughed and sputtered, hacking so hard it seemed like his lung might come forth as well. As the hoarse coughs worked their way through his body, he spit out the oddly solid, foul tasting spit that came forth. As color returned to his vision, that smear of disgusting, mucus-y black, almost like tar, on the street was the first thing that he saw. The next being blone.
Zack sat up with a gasp, glancing around as things slowly settled into place. There was fire, fire everywhere, spreading across everything it could possibly consume. The air was thick and heavy with smoke and smog, much like the inside of that house he’d run into. Finally, feeling returned to him, and his chest ached from his harsh, ragged breaths. Though his body felt somewhat exhausted, as if he’d just woken up from a deep sleep, only his movements were sluggish. His mind was already quickly racing, eyes moving to take in everything quickly. To his right he spied the blonde girl that he’d given a pep talk to what seemed like hours ago. And to his left, no, slightly underneath the lower half of him, was Celes.
And they were both worse for the wear.
The Soldier forced his body up with a hoarse yell, feeling the nearby heat already licking at his skin. The fire was moving too quickly. If they didn’t get out of there and fast, they’d all die. Zack swayed on his feet for a moment, unsteady, off balance without the familiar weight of his sword. He shook his head, reaching into his pocket for his Cure materia, thanking whatever merciful god was out there that he’d equipped that Blizzard materia in it’s place when he’d gone rushing into the burning houses. He didn’t have much strength for the magic, but he urged as much of the spell as he could out of the glowing orb, directing it at both the girls.
However, Zack didn’t give the spells any time to kick in. He heaved in a few breaths, coughing through the smoke, and urged all the strength that he had to come forth. All that talk of being a hero, all those dreams. Things that hardly applied in this new world, but ideals he could use to fuel him nonetheless. With a grunt he scooped Celes off of the ground, and over his now-bare shoulder. He bent down again and picked up Rayne in his left arm, holding her close to his hip.
With his cargo secure, he began to run. His steps were heavy with his burdens, but still he ran as hard as he could. Zack began to heave breaths, as he ran further and further, the air finally began to lighten up. He ran away from the smoke and fire, until his short burst of adrenaline finally began to run out. As his knees and ankles began to ache, his pace slowed, but he did not stop. Zack walked until he was sure he was out of range of the quickly spreading fire, out of its path, before he finally set the girls down.
First was Rayne, who he propped up against a building in the alleyway he’d stopped in. They were less likely to get trampled by a fleeing mob, could get a chance to catch their breath. Next was Celes, who he also set down gently, carefully checking them over. He wasn’t sure what happened, how they got him out of that building … But he was forever in their debt. The Soldier shuddered, as with a clear mind, he could see that he had been in death’s grip once more.
Too exhausted to use another cure spell, and knowing that they were out of harm’s way for the time being, Zack sat down across from the two girls that had saved his life. He was still coughing, still tasting the mixture of ash and blood in his mouth, and he rubbed his dry eyes for a moment, willing moisture to return. As for his sword and pauldrons, he’d just have to dig them out later. They were lost to the fire, and definitely not worth throwing himself back into the depths of hell.
He wished he had enough strength to cast more healing magic on Celes and Rayne. But, he’d used up all he had just getting the three of them out of the way of the literal fire and brimstone.
Finally, his throat cleared enough to speak, Zack spit out what he’d been wanting to say. “Thank you,” his voice was hoarse and weak, but still it was genuine and true, “I owe you two.” Between the mixture of blood and sweat, spit, ash, rubble, and god only knew what else, Zack looked a mess. But even swamped and exhausted, his spirit still recovering from near death, a stubborn determination still flashed in his eyes.
Soon, he would push himself to stand again, and get back to work.
I'd rewrite history, and change my destiny. One last time.
Rayne heaved and heaved, pulling again and again, but Zack had lost consciousness by now, and he wouldn't rise to help himself. Rayne's clothes were now dirtied with the efforts and environment, hair now covered in soot and ash, as the flames began creeping up again, and smoke began to flood into the room once more. And then her ears bled. Metaphorically. "Let me help! You've done enough!" The green blur--or formerly blurry, now quite clearly seen by Rayne's clean vision--screeched at her from behind as she approached. Immediately Rayne scowled at her as she rushed in and took Zack's other hand. "What's wrong with you?" Rayne hissed, "I recovered a bit, but now you're pushing yourself too hard!"
As Rayne barked back at the woman in green, she quickly unwrapped the coat from her right hand, eyes darting between the woman and the man on the ground. Clasped within that previously hidden hand was the secret to saving the heavy-blader's life- The Zodiac Stone of Cancer, which housed the power of gods within it. Rayne was quick to ignore the blonde woman's requests to help her, after all, in a moment, she would be able to do it on her own... Her emerald eyes closed, and in her palm she felt the warmth of the endless power of the stone well up. But unlike before, Rayne felt no pain upon trying to channel the power. Something had changed, she now knew, but she had no idea what, beyond the strange dream she had.
Then again, the light from the stone was rarely ever warm when she called upon it for power. But alas, it seemed unnecessary, as even without her help, the other blonde was able to cut the spiky-haired man free of the weapon. "Help me!" Rayne snapped back to reality, the power still flowing in from the stone. The other woman was now attempting to get the burly man up to haul him out. While Rayne bit back a snap at the woman's bossy attitude, and forced her hands into friendly, open palms instead of harsh, angry fists, she helped push him to his feet, her eyes darting back to the sword that would surely be buried soon. Before they got out of range, Rayne knelt down, and with a quick wave of the crab claw stone in her hand over the hilt of the massive sword, Rayne temporarily reduced the blade's weight, allowing even her to pick it up! And so she did- She grasped the hilt in her left hand, as the right yet held onto the God Stone, and ripped it free to take along, all the while supporting the other two to the best of her ability.
Rayne helped drag Zack along to a clear spot, and once it seemed they were far enough, Rayne stabbed the massive blade into the ground (which returned it to its normal weight, as well), diverting her attention away just long enough for the shrill, bossy blonde insistent on acting tough to fall over. "Get him off me! The fire! It's-!" Rayne groaned, bringing her hand to her own ribs, which still stung with the pain of overexerting herself. taking a moment to cough a few violent times to clear out her lungs. The pain itself wasn't exactly what made her groan, however... Why are the prettiest ones always the most work? After she finished coughing, Rayne sighed, and as she started to bend down, spoke, only to be interrupted by a sudden yell from sweatered man, who awoke to raise himself up weakly, "You need to sh-" Rayne stopped herself from snapping at the other woman and instead quickly motioned to his arm, trying her best to help him to his feet. Her anger with the woman would once again be set aside, at least for a moment. "You're okay!" Rayne sighed in relief, pain flushing through her chest.
His arm was quickly pulled away as he reached into a pocket. Rayne was so close, and curious to boot, that she couldn't help but look at the item he pulled out. Is that a green Ninja bomb? Some earth or wind elemental- Light enveloped Rayne before she could even finish her thought, and before the light could even finish glowing upon her, she was grabbed off of her feet, and her fury was back in full, uncaring about any notion of reasoning behind the large man's actions- She had been touched--taken--clean off of her feet, and in a flash, the Zodiac Stone in her right hand lit up with the ghostly indigo light, and her left hand wriggled around to the right side of her waist, unsnapping the safety button that wrapped around the grip of her soon-to-be-unholstered Blue Queen, and with a further bit of wriggling and finger wiggling, she pulled the mighty Mythril Gun from the leather holster and prepared to fire it. All within a split second, as her muscles acted purely on anger and survival-driven instinct.
She resisted her intense, immediate emotions, trying to break them down, to resist shooting the man who now carried her off against her will to who knows where. But just as she was about to snap, fury bolstered by the irritation of the bumpy ride, they had reached their destination, and she was dropped off against a wall. Rayne glared daggers at the spiky-haired man, her fingers wrapped tightly, twitching, sweating, wrists shaking, around the items they held. The right hand held a stone wielding the powers of gods! The left, her trusty companion, the Blue Queen, with its barrel pointed toward the ground, and her finger safely away from the trigger. She rested against the wall for what seemed like an hour to her, breathing in panicked bursts. Everything about this had turned so foul, and seemed to now turn her mind back to the days where she was thrown around, orders screamed at her, and so viciously beaten, but she knew that these two couldn't possibly be the same as him--she did!--but her mind and body played at the fear that it could be true. "Thank you," the man spoke up, now settled across from Rayne and the other woman, "I owe you two."
Rayne refused to cool the ghostly light of the Stone of Cancer, which even now, seemed to be recovering her strength with its unnatural powers. Another thing to be pondered upon later, when there was time for it. Now, she did her best to steady her breathing and calm the gaze she sent outward. "You..." Rayne stumbled, pressing her tongue to her cheek, struggling with what exactly she wanted to say. The man's gesture hadn't gone unnoticed, but her irrational fear threatened to overpower any human decency she could feel within her heart. "You will never touch me without my permission again! And certainly never pick me up against my will!" Rayne barked at the man, shooting her eyes away, shoulders shaking, the countless cruel scars upon her back burning from the memories. Rayne inhaled, and then exhaled once again, body shivering under the stress of the moment and memories, her knees quaking.
She bore a glare of near fury toward the other blonde woman now- "And you will never again try to order me around!" Her glance was quick, before she buried it at her own feet, her voice shifted from a dominant bark to a slightly more submissive, yet still obviously furious one as she addressed the both of them, "Or I promise you will regret it." Perhaps now, Rayne felt drunk on adrenaline and fear, as well as the anger that still boiled away inside of her chest from the powerlessness she felt throughout the entire incident, saving lives and all, but she felt like now, all she wanted to do was drown herself in the power and darkness now. The light within her right hand grew stronger, and a cocoon of energy overtook Rayne's body, light swirling around her like the web of a spider wrapped around its prey.
The light extended, moving away from the wall, and hovered up further and further, until it was about 10 feet up. Then, as quickly as it came, it vanished, and in its place was a blur of blue and black and orange, disguised by the shifting of air and constant opening of small singularities around it, disrupting all from seeing exactly what it was, with any luck. Zeromus the Condemner made flesh once again, though Rayne had more control than she previously had before. As she willed it, the Lucavi form obeyed, at least for now. With a blurred wave of his bladed left hand, Zeromus called forth an immense amount of power, fueled further by the rage burning in Rayne. His blurry form only became moreso, as it now trembled with power and hatred. An event horizon was opened a ways above the buildings of the district that burned most severely; the one they had only just fled, which encapsulated where they were now, as well. It was enormous, like an almost endless void that threatened to suck up the minds and hearts of those who stared too long. And within, only darkness that blotted out the light from the sun could be seen.
Raising up the large, menacing claw, and snapping it once, Zeromus unleashed a mighty ball of white flame--a Gigaflare--which flew upward, entering the horizon from which nothing could escape- It detonated, and the white light loosed might have been enough to take away one's sight if they could see it; but thankfully the event horizon kept it trapped. Nothing could be seen or heard from the outside, only the blackness from which nothing escaped was there to be witnessed. Instead, the flames exploded and burned so intensely and so quickly inside that it rapidly burned through the supply of oxygen that remained in the air around it, and began pulling more from outside of the event horizon into it, snuffing out a large amount of the fires burning through the surrounding area without any of the explosive force being able to destroy any of the town. Before the results could even be fully witnessed, however, Zeromus vanished in a flash of light, leaving the results to speak for themselves, as the fires were snuffed out and the blackness above inevitably vanished into nothing as well.
There was so much rage yet held within that couldn't possible be sated by saving lives...
Rayne has left the thread.
RIP Rayne's relationships with Celes and Zack. Oops! Click the blue.
Welp, maybe now it becomes slightly clearer why I didn't make this post my top priority. I didn't get terribly detailed at the end for a reason--normally when it comes to the monsters, I try to be at least a bit more detailed than this--but it's MEANT to not be entirely clear and fairly confusing to Zack and Celes, so you know, why drive myself crazy about it?
I doubt either of you will care so much to know wtf just happened that you'll want me to clarify as well anyway, so ALL THE MORE WHY DRIVE MYSELF CRAZY, RIGHT? If you do, it's basically a black hole that sucked up all the fire, but not the buildings or people, and Rayne is now gone. Bam.
Final Fantasy VI
22
YEARS
Female
Complicated
Heterosexual
429 POSTS
Fin
Use your own eyes and see for yourself whose side I'm on!
Use your own eyes, and see for yourself which side I'm on.
Celes did not lose consciousness. She could feel every scrape, every burn, and every scratch as the heat seared closer and smoke filled her lungs. Perhaps if it had been only her weight, Celes might have been able to lift herself past the oxygen deprivation, past the unimaginable heat, and past the magical exhaustion that set heavily on her mind. But that burden was not hers alone. The man she had carried pinned her hips and legs with his unconscious weight. She saw the blonde woman standing beside her. The woman's eyes flashed with something that Celes didn't understand, but she did not move to help. Celes tried to call out to her again, but ended up only coughing.
Coughing. Coughing. Her stomach heaved against it. Her throat felt like knives.
There was movement behind her and then gasping. Celes lifted her head to see that Zack had regained consciousness. Her spells had worked, and now he joined in her struggles to breathe. Slowly, he lifted himself from her, eyes darting from woman to woman and then to the burning wreckage. The fire roared with a voice like a behemoth. Far away, Celes heard a terrified, painful cry. There was sobbing, screams of "No! No! No!" and then nothing. Wooden frames groaned beneath their weight and then collapsed in a great crash like an earthquake. Celes groaned as she slowly lifted herself to her knees. Her head pounded. The air came hot and choked with ash. There was nothing she could have done.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
The man gave a pained shout and somehow jumped to his feet. Celes looked up at him blearily. He looked disoriented, off-balance, and more than a little confused. He was still covered in dusty gray and charcoal black, but beneath it all she saw burns lining his arms, face, and neck. Still, he stood as though he felt nothing. There was more to this man than just good-willed impulse. She watched him move like a shadow in the haze, and in that moment, Celes couldn't think of anyone she respected more.
There was a flash of light, a soft glow, and Celes felt the cool touch of magic. She heard him cough again as the magic seeped beneath her skin and gave her strength. She tried to raise herself, but then something touched her. Celes yelped in surprise, but couldn't move before strong arms had her waist in a deadlock and the ground fell away.
"Ah!" The cry somehow penetrated her dry throat and cracked lips. She struggled weakly as she was hurled over the man's shoulder like a potato sack. The world spun around her -- a flaming whirlwind of lights, heat, and terrible sound. "Let go of me!" Her shout came out more as a groan -- the insistent bleating of a helpless sheep. He was running now with one arm around her to keep her steady. The ground slipped past in a haze of cracked asphalt and pieces of burnt drywall. The man bobbed as he ran, and Celes felt her head jerking with it. Her stomach turned.
'Please let go of me. Oh god, he's touching me! Let go of me, I can take care of myself!'
The thoughts turned into a kind of prayer -- a mantra that kept her from losing consciousness. Yet even as she thought it, she felt the heat fall away, heard the crackling as though from a distance, and closed her eyes to revel in a sudden, smokeless wind. Zack had saved her -- she knew that. Without his quick thinking, she would have weakly crawled from the flames until she lost herself to them. Even as her heart quickened and her veins filled with ice against his touch, Celes knew that she should be thanking him.
That didn't mean that she had to like his methods though. Celes scooted away as soon as she was set down.
Zack had brought them to an abandoned alleyway off the city's main road. The fire's roar came echoed and faint, but would catch up to them soon. Celes let herself slump against the cool support of a brick wall. Beneath her, the concrete came grimy and smeared with something that wasn't ash. Trash had been piled at the base of a nearby dumpster. Celes couldn't smell it over the rancid odor of smoke.
There was a rustle of cloth and then Zack sat beside them. He coughed vigorously and rubbed at his eyes with the back of his glove. Once he'd finished, he cleared his throat and said, "Thank you." His eyes were watery. His voice came weak. Yet even through it all, Celes felt a kind of personal warmth behind his words. He looked almost like a child in his honesty, and Celes felt her anger slip away. "I owe you one."
"No, it's-" Celes started, but the words felt wrong. It was not nothing, after all, and her eyes flashed with a sudden heat. "You shouldn't have gone running in alone! That place was a death-trap! There was nothing you could have-!" But then she was coughing again. Probably for the better. Celes could have lectured him for hours.
"You..." Celes had forgotten about the other woman, but she heard her now and looked over to see her slumped against a wall. The woman was ash-streaked and burned like them all, but she was no longer bleeding as she had been. She held that strange stone in her hand, the one she had used to heal Zack, and its glow set a contrast to the shadows of her face. She too looked at Zack, but there was something in her eyes that Celes had lacked.
This woman was enraged.
"You will never touch me without my permission again! And certainly never pick me up against my will!" The woman's voice pitched to a shriek and then her shoulders were shaking, breathing off-center, eyes darting away. Celes could only stare, dumb-founded at the woman's wrath. Zack had invaded their personal space, yes, and certainly acted in a way that Celes could only find invasive, but he had also saved their lives. Part of Celes wanted to bark back at the woman, ask her what she was talking about, and demand some kind of thanks for the man. The other part, however...
The other part saw how her hands fidgeted, how her eyes seemed to have glazed a little, how her knees trembled, and Celes couldn't help but wonder...
But then the woman's eyes flashed to Celes, and that thought was gone. "And you will never again try to order me around!" Celes felt her mouth drop open.
"Order you...?" Her words came as an echo. Hollow. Thoughtless. There was real fury in the woman's eyes and Celes could only stare in disbelief as her own thoughts caught up to her. 'Order you?!'
"Or I promise you will regret it," the woman added, and that was all Celes heard before something clicked in the back of her mind. She felt her eyebrows furrow, her eyes narrow, and her mouth snarl a little in anger.
"When did I order you into anything?!" Celes tried to recount the haze of panicked events behind her. She'd told the woman not to go running into burning buildings while her eyes were bleeding. She'd asked that the woman hold Zack up so that she could help save his life. She'd requested a bit of support while dragging a load of dead-weight away from a deadly fire. Then she had asked that the woman not leave her to die.
Oh yes. She'd been so demanding.
Celes might have voiced these thoughts had she not been distracted by what had emerged from the woman's right hand. The stone's glow had tripled in intensity now, and light escaped from it in clinging tendrils that caught at the woman's jacket and seemed to wrap around her chest. Celes' eyes widened. "What are you-?" she started, but was overtaken once more by coughing. She grasped blindly for the hilt of her sword. Surely the woman wouldn't attack them after their trip through the flames?
Would she?
Celes couldn't be sure, and as the light grew and then flew above her, Celes' grip tightened on her sword. The light extinguished and in its place came a swirling, darkened mass of magic that descended like a veil. Celes gave a shout of surprise and tried to stand. She pushed against the brick wall, heels scrabbling for purchase on the ground, teeth grit against the pain and the heaviness in her limbs as the magic grew with sparks of red, orange, white around a hazy nothingness that Celes could barely make out. Something moved beyond that veil, and Celes felt a shiver pass through her on a ghostly wind.
Something had changed, and as Celes looked up into the gray-clouded sky, she saw something else there. Black. Darkness. Nothing. It opened in a sphere of antimatter, rushing and pulling and grasping at the air until it sucked at the surrounding city like a cyclone. Celes' eyes widened. "What did you do?!" Her voice came at a shriek now, too panicked by the magnitude of that magic to remember her pain or the choking weakness within her.
The darkness fell upon the city. For a moment, Celes could see nothing -- not the fire, not the sky, not the very people in front of her. Celes held her sword tightly and searched blindly for the woman. She tried to pinpoint the sound of her breaths, but could hear nothing over that roaring, wild power. There was a rumbling and then an almost mechanical whir. Light flashed like a supernova above her, and Celes gave a cry of pain as it seared her eyes. She blinked once, twice, and then the world appeared before her again.
The woman was gone.
"What just-? What was-?" Celes found that she couldn't form the words. In all of her travels and all of her fights, Celes had never seen power like that. She could no longer hear the groaning of flames. The heat was gone, as was the smoke. There were no more cries of fear. There were no more cries at all.
"Who was that woman?" Celes' words caught up to her again, but she could only gape at the empty space before her. "She was..." Her mind searched heavily for the right description. "Insane. Absolutely insane!"
Celes leaned heavily against the brick wall. Her knees were weak beneath her and her ankle threatened to twist from her weight. The streets were quiet -- far too quiet. She didn't like the sound of it. She didn't like what it implied.
"Thank you," she said to the man still with her. "You saved my life. If you hadn't been there-." Coughing. Celes clutched at her stomach as it tightened and her lungs revolted. There was a rattling sound and Celes felt something wet speckle her hand. She pulled it back to see black mucus shining up at her. She wiped it against the wall.
"What you did was reckless," Celes started again. Her eyes felt heavy now. Her head was swimming. "But thank you, Zack."
oops guess we should figure out where to go from here xD
Zack’s chest heaved with maximum effort as he attempted to clear his lungs of the smoke and smog, and finally feel less winded. With each shudder of his chest came another coughing, hacking fit, flecks of black and red spilling from his mouth. He kept his filthy glove over his mouth as he did so, to be as polite as he could, even under such circumstances. Finally, pain was beginning to set into his body. The aching muscles, the scratches, the burns. As he inhaled, he could feel the stretch of burned skin on his neck and face, and as he took a moment to glance down, on his arms as well.
More scars to add to the collection of death and/or near death experiences.
Celes voice, while weak and disrupted by the havoc smoke wrought on her lungs, still managed to hit the Soldier deep. It was a lecture -- something he was very used to getting near daily -- but Zack knew she was right. He furrowed his brows, frowning for a moment, before a weak smile managed to crawl to his lips. It was an ironic one, of course, weak and sad. A glove traced over one of the long, harsh burns on his arms, feeling the blinding sting of pain that washed over him.
“You’re right. I--,” Zack quietly started in agreement, working his way towards an apology for nearly getting them all killed, when the other blonde woman spoke up. He turned his attention to her, his glowing, blue eyes wide with surprise. For a moment, he was too caught off guard by her outburst to respond, or even form a reaction other than utter disbelief. The girl was trembling with fury, at him, for touching her.
It wasn’t like he had done it for fun. He’d only reacted naturally, to get all three of them away from the roaring inferno of flames that was greedily dashing towards them, to kill them. He acted to save their lives. If anything, it had been more of a reflex to collect as many living souls around him before running off as he could.
Before Zack could retort, the blonde girl had turned her fury to Celes. He was willing to take the verbal punishment himself, even if it was somewhat undeserved, but Celes had done nothing but help both of them. She had healed the blonde girl while her eyes were bleeding, and Zack had convinced her to stay out of the fray and recover. That girl would have died in a fiery inferno if it hadn’t been for them.
Fair rose to his feet between the two young women as they bickered, and he put his hands up between them to try and mediate, “Hey, hey, let’s just -- calm down a sec. We all almost died out there. Now’s not the time for fighting.”
But even as the last word left his mouth, Zack felt himself going silent. A bright light had nearly blinded him, and within moments, that stone in Rayne’s hand that was shining had cocooned her. The Soldier could only watch with disbelief, what in the hell was going on, as she drifted skyward. The bright light was replaced by a blur of other colors, and the girl was gone, replaced by some sort of monster. Zack’s hand shot behind him, to grab at his blade, but his hand grasped empty air.
He grit his teeth, suddenly feeling that much more powerless. All he could do was equip whatever materia was on his person and pray he had enough strength to use it if he needed to.
Darkness overtook the sky, and Zack pushed himself back against the wall. Without his sword, he wouldn’t and couldn’t be of much help. The girl was gone, replaced by something else, and there was nothing more that he could do, for now. Not without more strength, not without his sword, not with all the exhaustion and pain. There was an explosion of light in the sky.
And then, there was silence.
Zack stayed rigid against the wall, his worn, tired eyes glancing about. He couldn’t hear any more screams. No more roar or crackle of the fire. There was just nothing now. The ruined city of Torensten stood before them, quiet even from the wind for a moment, before the murmur of activity began anew. The sounds of people, the sounds of wind, the sounds of collapsing wood and the lingering smell of smoke. People shuffled by the opening of the alley, their eyes wide in confusion and wonderment, stuck on the sky.
Celes’s voice rang out and broke the silence. Fair quickly turned his attention back to her -- one of the women that had helped save his life. He watched her, his eyes soft, but his expression sharing her confusion. He probably would have voiced similar complaints and surprise, but he doubled over from an unexpected spasm of his lungs. Leaning forward, Zack coughed violently, watching the black and red drip from his mouth onto the dirty ground. Waiting until his chest was settled, he wiped his forearm across his mouth, and straightened back up to standing tall.
As Celes thanked him, Zack couldn’t help but give her a small, warm smile. After everything they’d been through, and so quickly, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat attached to her. Her voice brought him some form of comfort, and her presence gave off that feel of camaraderie. A brother-in-arms emotion that he hadn’t felt in quite some time.
“Hey, just means we’re even. I know you saved me from burning to death in that building,” the Soldier tried to give a small laugh, but it only triggered another coughing fit that threatened to tear his chest and abdomen in two. Fighting it away, Zack finally choked out a quiet, “Thank you, Celes.”
He turned his attention back towards the way they had come from. There was no more sign of fire, no orange and red glow, no billowing smoke. Nothing. It would be a good opportunity to try and find his sword, Zack knew, and yet he was hesitant. No, it would make more sense for them to simply get out of the way for now. To rest up. There was no guarantee that he could even walk or run that far without collapsing.
Zack pushed himself off of the wall, and turned his body towards the opposite end of the alley, where he’d seen people walking moments before. He turned back to Celes and held out a hand to her, his face a mixture of stubborn determination and a smile. Remembering her strength, her independence, the Soldier thought it best to give himself a disclaimer.
“I know you can push yourself to walk,” Fair began, his voice tender and exhausted, “And you could probably kick my ass while you’re at it. But, we should probably get somewhere safe, and fast.”
He glanced down at his dirty glove, open palmed, and then back to the determined, but clearly exhausted young woman before him.
“Let’s get out of here.”
I'd rewrite history, and change my destiny. One last time.
Use your own eyes, and see for yourself which side I'm on.
Celes had met Zack in a moment of panic. They both were the kind of person who would rather run into danger than away from it and who would throw themselves into fire if it meant getting someone else out. It was funny, they'd barely spoken to each other before rushing into that death trap, but Celes felt that she knew him like a friend. Perhaps it was simply the bond of taking risks together, or perhaps it was only the smoke making her mind feel muddy. Still, as her head hung and she struggled to keep him in focus, Celes couldn't help but feel something for the man. Not anything romantic -- she wasn't that petty -- but a kind of respect, maybe. A trusting fondness.
She liked it when he smiled.
“Hey, just means we’re even. I know you saved me from burning to death in that building." Zack tried to laugh, but the smoke-inhalation quickly caught up to him. He held his stomach and doubled over as the coughs racked his body. When they'd settled, he managed a weak, "Thank you, Celes," between gasps of breath.
Celes watched him, attempting smiles through ash-covered wheezing, and for some reason she found herself laughing.
"We're so pathetic!" she managed before her weak attempts at laughter ended exactly as his had. Her throat burned, her lungs ached, and then she joined him in his coughing fit. It came violently, but the simple hilarity of it all overshadowed the pain. In fact, it made the whole situation even more ridiculous. "Some rescuers we are! This has to have been the worst rescue attempt I've ever-!" The words were stolen by a renewed fit of coughing. It would take days to recover, if not weeks, and she was completely exhausted of magic. And what had it all been for? She'd rescued a dog, saved a man from his own stupidity, and then watched a woman throw herself into a black hole.
It wasn't the strangest series of events Celes had nearly died for, but it had to be close.
Zack struggled to his feet. He was watching the end of their alley, and Celes followed his gaze. The city was moving again -- she heard footsteps now and hushed voices -- but the fire no longer roared and new smoke had not joined the haze above the city. Far away, she heard a sharp crack and then the sound of collapsing wood. Other than that -- nothing.
There were no more screams or cries for help. Those too had been extinguished.
When Zack turned to her and offered her a filthy hand. Celes gave it a wary look before she noticed the set of his eyes. He was smiling. "I know you can push yourself to walk, and you could probably kick my ass while you’re at it. But, we should probably get somewhere safe, and fast.”
Celes gave an appreciative snort of laughter. "Right," she said,"Well, luckily for both of us I don't happen to have a repulsion from life-saving help. Because I'm not insane." Celes grasped his hand firmly and used it to swing herself upright again. The sudden shift in position brought spots to her eyes. She stumbled forward, her body pitched, and she fell into him. She felt her arms meet his chest, her knees collapse against his leg, and her nose hit the exposed flesh of his shoulder. "Ah..." Celes tried to think of a word for what had just happened. None came and her head was still spinning.
Heat rose to her face. "Ah..." Celes grit her teeth and used his arm to right her balance. Once she could properly support her own weight, she quickly stepped back towards the wall. "Sorry," she said, "I'm still light-headed." It wasn't a lie. With the sudden movement, Celes wasn't entirely certain that she could walk at all. Magical exhaustion pounded heavy behind her eyes.
Celes started into the street before she could embarrass herself anymore. As she rounded the corner, she heard renewed muttering and the shifting of feet. She stepped out from the alley, the city opened before her, and the sight froze her where she stood.
A third of the city was gone. Smashed, broken, charred, black. On one side of their alley stood ash-covered people with shaking hands and fear-stricken eyes. On the other side was complete destruction. Crumbled wood frames, cracked earth, choking black fumes that might have covered the bitterness of human flesh. Celes took a step towards it, her eyes wide, the colors mixing.
Her throat seized.
'Just like...' From behind her came a wailing cry. Children. Innocents. 'This is just like...' Her hand was streaked black. Beyond it, scorched earth. The smell of hot ash. Above it all, a strangled sob.
It came from her.
Celes slammed her eyes closed. She grasped at her mouth and nose, trying to shield them. Her other hand found its way into her hair. She could still hear the whispered cries. She could still feel the heat and taste the smoke on her fingers. 'Calm down.' She bit her lip. 'Calm down.'
She told herself that this wasn't the same. She told herself that she was being weak. There was still too much to do and too much danger to do this now. But her heart was pounding and the smell was choking her.
Zack was more than happy that Celes could see the humor in their situation. Maybe it was her reaction to nearly dying, or maybe she just needed something to laugh about, but her reaction to her realization of everything that had transpired so far warmed his heart. Rescuing others had never been his speciality, and when thinking back on it, he’d come to realize that most of his rescue attempts ended in failure, or eventually his own death.
A more realistic man would hang up his hat on trying to save people, trying to be a hero. Fair wasn’t one of them.
… But, damn, they were bad at this. Between both of them nearly dying, Zack being a big enough idiot to run straight into a burning, collapsing building, and then the other blonde girl turning into a monster and flying into a black hole, the day honestly couldn’t get much crazier. Or, so he would think and hope. Realistically, he knew that the entire situation was far from over. Though the fire was gone, though the giant monster had disappeared and the sounds of fighting were over, there was still a lot to be seen, a lot to do. Many lives to be saved.
Celes took his hand, and for the first time in quite a while, the Soldier felt a bit of relief. A little of the tension melted away from his shoulders, just enough to make his smile seem a little brighter underneath the ash and grime. Pulling her to stand was easy enough, while he was exhausted, his enhanced-strength still made her much lighter than half of everything else he’d lifted in the past few hours.
However, her weight shifted quickly, and Zack suddenly felt warmth against his body. He reacted quickly, naturally, bringing his hands up and grabbing her arms to steady her, bending his back to allow her to fully brace herself against him. For a moment they were both still, everything seemed to stand still, and there was nothing but Celes in his arms, the heat of her body against his own. If his mind hadn't been racing to check and see if she was alright, it may have drifted elsewhere, to how nice it was to have another person so close to him. Instead, his eyes scanned her, seeing only that she seemed somewhat dazed and off balance.
She gained some of her strength back, her face red, and as she pulled herself away from him and back towards the wall, Zack found his hands following her until she was secured against it. He offered her the best reassuring smile he could muster, his voice soft and calm, “Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re friends, right? We can help each other out.”
Friends may have been a stretch there, after all, they’d only just met. However, he couldn’t help but feel a pull towards her, a bond. It wasn’t just that she saved his life, but it was everything and more that had pulled him towards her in the first place. Her strength, her fierce independence, her love for others. She was strong, caring, willing to throw herself into the worst of situations to rescue a stranger. If Zack were a more normal man, he’d shake his head, call her crazy and unbelievable. Instead, he smiled, and called her a friend.
Maybe it just took crazy to appreciate crazy.
As Celes felt her way along the wall, Zack followed behind her, unable to stop his hand from hovering near her in case she lost her balance or another sweep of light-headedness overtook her. The end of the alley seemed so close and so far, but as they walked closer, the quiet murmurs of the crowd grew. There were panicked whispers, shocked gasps. The sounds of sobbing. As they stepped out into the open, away from the safety of the close walls of the alleyway, he soon found out why.
The Soldier felt his jaw drop in shock. Spread out before them was the remains of Torensten. Buildings that were collapsed into nothing but smoldering rubble. There was concrete, dirt, and smoke everywhere. Wood snapped like weak twigs. There were bodies buried, crushed, severed and smeared across the landscape. The strong scents of blood and smoke threatened to gag him, the ash and dust that hung in the air tempted to choke him. The people around him were staring in shocked disbelief, themselves covered in soot and bleeding, having barely escaped the wreckage as it was. A child began to cry somewhere nearby.
And next to him, Zack heard a strangled sob.
He snapped out of his horrified daze, quickly whipping his body around to find Celes. She was standing there, nearly shaking, her hand over her mouth, eyes glued shut. If he was anyone else, he’d mistake her for just another bystander -- just as bloodied and caked in ash as the rest of them were. Without hesitation Zack stepped forward, gently placing his dirty hands on her shoulders, quick to open his mouth.
“C’mon … There’s nothing we can do here,” he murmured, stealing another glance back at the wreckage. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he could hear bombs falling. The smell of fire and smoke. Watching everything disappear before his eyes, wiped off of the map entirely in flames and black, billowing smoke. His gaze was steely, frustrated. Sad. Unconsciously he gripped Celes’s shoulders harder, before turning his attention back to her. He couldn’t reassure her that things would be fine -- they wouldn’t be. So many lives were lost, so much destruction had occurred. He wouldn’t dare to lie to her, to baby her.
He blocked the view ahead of her with his body, and urged her to turn around, to begin moving in the opposite direction. Other people were already making their ways away from the rubble and destruction. Strangers dragged now orphaned children away from the crumbling buildings, away from parent’s corpses. Newly made widows screamed behind them. Zack grit his teeth, feeling a familiar burn on his dry eyes, the tears that threatened to escape. His heart was heavy with sorrow and failure, even if he realistically knew there was nothing he could have done to prevent something like this.
His hands moved from her shoulders to her upper arms, and the Soldier steered her down the street along with the others. It was as much for his sake as it was for hers. He stayed close, his breaths coming harder and shaken, his feet feeling heavier with each step. He, too, was light headed and dazed, and his heart beat furiously with panic and sadness. However, he shrugged it off, best he could, to keep them moving forward.
Now, all that they could do was try and do their best, for the living.
“We have to stay strong for these people,” Zack managed to gasp out between hard breaths, motivating himself just as much as he was trying to motivate her, “Stay with me, Celes.”
I'd rewrite history, and change my destiny. One last time.
That's two women who've run away from Zack in about as many minutes. Oops.
Use your own eyes, and see for yourself which side I'm on.
The city had disappeared behind a heavy black veil. Now there was only trembling fingers, wailing cries, and the taste of ash and blood. Celes' teeth grit against the force of her own racing heart. It called for her to scream. It called for her to join the terrified voices and let go of her mind. If she slipped, she would fall once again to the thoughts that waited at the bottom. Thoughts of burning flesh, searing heat, and grim, distorted faces.
'It's happening again. Why couldn't I do anything to stop it?'
Something touched her and she jerked away.
“C’mon … There’s nothing we can do here." Zack. Celes searched his face, but his attention was not on her for long. He instead glanced over his shoulder towards the ruins. He was no longer the same joking, friendly man who had offered her his hand. Gone were the smiles and the softness of his eyes. There was something else in his expression now -- something familiar, quiet, and perhaps a little sad. His grip had slipped from her shoulder to her upper arm. It tightened before he turned her away.
"Zack..."
Zack didn't say anything else. No empty reassurances. No coddling or concern at the weakness she had unwillingly shown him. Zack was not Terra with her wide, searching eyes or her insistence of support. Zack gave her only one suggestion and a single touch. As he looked out upon the ruins, Celes felt something in him change. His lip tightened. His breaths came faster.
He had seen this before.
Zack stepped in front of her and quietly turned her away. It was a gentle motion -- more a suggestion than anything -- yet Celes felt her throat stick at his guidance. He was the one who stood strong. He was the one who could face death without faltering. She had broken in front of him, and that thought grounded her more than anything else. Her heart slowed. The panic ebbed. In its place came shame ebbing in like a tide. Shame, weakness, and frustration. She resented him for the touch of calloused fingers on her arm and his not-quite pitying eyes.
But wouldn't it be nice to fall into those strong shoulders and let him soothe her fears?
The smoke had muddied her mind. That was the only explanation for it.
Celes would have ripped herself from his grip had she felt steady enough on her feet for it. Instead, her knees trembled as he guided her down half-ruined streets. Once, her ankle collapsed and she had to grasp at him for support. Her head was still spinning. Celes had used so much magic in the course of only a few hours that she felt certain that even a single cure spell might send her unconscious. Her limbs felt heavy without the usual buzz of magic through her blood. Her ears rang against the backdrop of wailing laments. She kept her eyes forward, away from those desperate faces, and grit her teeth against the rising pain.
“We have to stay strong for these people." Zack's voice. He sounded winded even as he spoke. As though he might collapse under the weight of the world around them. "Stay with me, Celes.” There was something insistent behind his words. Desperate. Celes looked at his tensed jaw and his hard-blinking eyes.
Then slowly, she nodded. "I will," she said. Then, without thinking added, "I'm sorry. I just..." The words ended as quickly as they'd come. She wanted him to know that she was not weak. She wanted to tell him how the smells burned at her throat, how her mind reeled with them, how those ash-stricken faces and those grieving whispers made her want to shut her eyes and cover her ears until it all passed but that smell. She wanted to tell him of her reality, of the world that she had somehow passed her by, of the meaningless death, of the loneliness of it all, how she had opened her eyes to deadened waste and almost hadn't seen the point in rising. She wanted to tell him these things, but the words wouldn't come.
Celes knew they were all excuses anyway. Despite all of her magic or all of her training or all of her sharpened wit, Celes had broken when the worst had come, and now she continued to break.
Suddenly she was laughing. The force of it burned her throat. It touched like fire in her mouth and nose and lungs. She coughed and then laughed and then coughed again as the combined forces made her eyes water and suddenly her cheeks were streaming. She shook the tangled hair from her eyes and tried not to see the cracked earth beneath her feet or the searing visions that swirled in her mind. Visions of dead-eyed monstrosities rising from rusted metal. Visions of blazing light erupting from the heavens.
Visions of him. His twisted, too-red mouth. His leering eyes mocking her in yellow sunbursts. The blood pouring warm over her hands as blade sank into flesh and he screeched in rage.
She hadn't been able to stop it. She hadn't been able to...
She was no longer laughing. Her shoulders shook against him.
"Why is this happening?" Celes spoke quietly now. Her smoke-damaged lungs wouldn't allow anything more. "Why am I here? Why is...?" For the first time since the attack, she heard the voice of her old fears.
'What if this isn't real?'
'What if my mind's finally broken?'
'What if this is some kind of punishment?'
"I'm sorry." The words came quickly again. Celes pulled herself from Zack's grip and stepped back towards the wall. She leaned against it heavily. "I shouldn't be here. I need to rest. I need..." She forgot what she was going to say. The street was spinning around her. She touched her forehead. "I have to go."
'Before I break again.' Her feet moved at that thought. She kept one hand on the wall and she started blindly away. 'Find somewhere quiet. Find somewhere alone.' She stumbled even as she moved faster. Her eyes ached with tears. She no longer saw the grief-stricken faces -- just colors -- a whirl of gray and black and red and brown. Their words came as biting sounds. 'Don't think. Don't think. Don't think.'
She slipped into the first dark, quiet place she found. She didn't know where -- it didn't matter. As soon as she was away from prying eyes, she let her knees collapse as she sank against the wall. Her hands were shaking, but she didn't feel them. Not really. Celes was somewhere else now -- not in a ruined, burnt out city, not curled against grimy concrete -- but falling. Falling through darkness. Falling through flame. Falling until she felt the cold chill of the sea take her breath away and she struggled as her lungs took in water and her eyes blackened.
It came like a current, engulfing her completely -- and just like with Kefka, just like with this town, and just like every time before, there was nothing she could do to stop it.
All around them, the sounds of horror and sorrow blossomed from the chaos and calamity that had rained down from the heavens on the innocent city. People were crying, shrieking. Structures collapsed from the damage of fire. There was a constant murmur from the crowd that slowly pushed its way away from the more hazardous areas, a low buzz of noise that seemed only light enough to blanket underneath the sounds of terror and rising panic. People walked mindlessly, their bodies numb from overstimulation, from pain and worry, their eyes dulled and staring forward without promise or hope.
Zack and Celes merely blended in.
Every step took as much effort as ten or more. Every time he inhaled it burned down his throat and deep into his lungs. Every time he forced his leg to raise it pained his muscles. Sweat dripped down from his forehead, and his breaths came out ragged and fast. The dry air licked at the exposed burns on his arms and face, and while they weren’t as extensive or serious as they had been when they’d occurred, they still stung, still hurt as his skin was pulled, as the wind whipped at his body. Blood, both caked and fresh, clung to his body as much as the black and grey ash and soot.
The girl he clung to was the same. Beat up, burned, bleeding and abused. Her face was stained with ash and tears. She was trying to apologize, but for what? Zack’s hands gripped her arms weakly, continued to steer her forward, push them both out of the danger zone and to the road of recovery along with everyone else.
He didn’t blame her for her reaction. Not at all. There was no way he could, and if he wasn’t feeling so forcibly numb or hollow, surely he would have felt the same. The panic, the fear, the hopelessness. Zack wasn’t a stranger to it. He’d seen the fields of bodies, both friends and foes, in Wutai during his short stay there. He’d watched as houses were blown to smithereens by bombs, watched as fire consumed an entire town and wiped it off of the map; permanently. People’s livelihoods stripped away in an instant, because the town held too many secrets to be considered worth saving.
His hands were crafted for war. Created to destroy. A den of monsters.
He was made to create this scene.
Zack was ripped from his depressive thoughts as Celes suddenly broke out into weak, mad laughter. It was quickly interrupted by a fit of coughs, but followed up by more laughter. A deep frown edged its way through the ash on his face, and Zack kept his grip on her tight, holding her steady. This was a sign of someone beginning to mentally crumble, he knew. They stopped, while others continued to move around them, and the Soldier waited.
If Celes was losing her grip on reality, nothing he said to her would help to keep her anchored.
All that Zack could manage to do while her shoulders shook, while she questioned things he couldn’t answer, was hold Celes close. She was traumatized and upset -- they both were. The numbness in his heart and mind spoke volumes to that, that he stood there, stoically holding her while she shook in disbelief and panic. He wanted to tell her things would be alright. He wanted to tell her that she was alright. But, he couldn’t manage to lie to her. Celes didn’t deserve to be lied to. Not only that, but she would call him out in an instant, because even as exhausted and mentally stressed as she was, Zack would bet that she was just as sharp.
Celes broke away from him, apologizing. His bright eyes watched her for a moment, thinking maybe she was just needing to breathe. But, as she took off, he was too slow to react.
Eyes widening as she quickly stumbled away, it finally broke through to Zack, through the numbness. His heart beat hard and fast as his mind raced, the implications becoming clear. His breath quickened with panic as he reached out towards someone who was already nearly out of his sight.
“Celes, wait!”
The world was moving strangely around him. Zack dashed forward, his eyes frantically searching and attempting to follow a familiar mop of blonde hair. Terror had seized his heart, choking it in its icy grip, threatening to send him over the edge. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was worried for Celes, or because he didn’t want to be alone in this, either. Perhaps, looking out for her had been what kept him distracted, what had kept him from drowning in exhaustion and despair.
His boots pounded hard against the ground. The Soldier drew ragged breaths, stopping only to cough and hack until he was able to breathe again. “Celes!” he called out again, weakly, desperate. Other people hardly paid him any mind, but their bodies were in the way. He’d lost sight of her. Zack’s steps slowed, his sprint dwindling down to a jog, and then down to a walk, until he was standing still again.
He started to shake.
You can’t be off alone right now, he pleaded in his mind, gritting his teeth, willing his mind to calm down and focus, We can’t be alone right now.
Zack choked down the panic that threatened to take him. He didn’t have much strength left to wield, but he had to try. He had to think.
If it were him that had run off, where would he have gone?
Away.
Zack moved away from the middle of the road, towards the alleys. If he were running, if he needed to get away, he would have gotten away from it all. The sights, the sounds, the people. Somewhere dark and quiet, somewhere he could be alone, get his bearings straight.
He wasn’t sure how long it took to find her. The bright splotch of color collapsed in the dark, quiet alley. The sight of her brought relief, however small, to Zack’s heart. He said a silent prayer of thanks to whatever godforsaken higher power had dragged him from the grave and placed him in another horror story as he walked forward, towards the young woman that had suffered through hell and high water alongside him.
His first thought was to pick Celes up, and keep moving. Move out of the city. Maybe keep walking until he keeled over from exhaustion. But, as he stood there, the Soldier realized he needed the temporary peace. Even if it was just for a moment.
Zack slid down the wall, next to Celes. His movements were quick, despite how is body burned and ached. His arms reached out, fingers wrapped around her arms again, drawing her into his hold, against his chest. He let out a breath, tried to coax away how his arms and shoulders subtly shook. One strong hand rest softly against her head, holding her close, tight. He wasn’t sure when, in this Hell that had been forced upon him, that he’d found her as a lifeline.
But holding her brought him some relief, away from the cruelty of the world. Even though he shook, even though he wasn’t sure when his face had become damp distressed tears, a miniscule part of him was back at peace.
“Come back, Celes,” he willed to her, his voice hoarse, “Please. We have to get out of this.”
Please don’t leave me alone in this.
I'd rewrite history, and change my destiny. One last time.
Yaaay Celes' breakdown! xD I'm going to say she didn't remember much of this because she's kind loopy or else our next thread would have gone VERY differently.
Use your own eyes, and see for yourself which side I'm on.
Once, a long time ago, Celes had thought herself invincible.
Cid had told her that her magic would strengthen her above any one's wildest dreams. The Emperor had told her that she must uphold her duty to her country -- to Vector and the Gestahlian Empire. They had watched in breathless anticipation as she had led her troops into the rebel city of Maranda, had applauded her swift and efficient capture of the enemy army, and had rained praise upon her at the time of her victory. Cid called her a technological marvel. The Emperor called her an invaluable asset. Celes had known even that that she had been raised as a tool, but with the constant stream of affirmation, she hadn't minded. Not really.
What would have become of the world if she had suffered in silence? If she had learned to look upon slaughter with numb eyes, would she now be berating her soldiers, feigning interest in meetings, and weathering the whispered insults that had always followed her -- cold, merciless, and far worse? That life had held no warmth, no risks, and no true meaning, and yet there was no real pain to it. Only dissatisfaction, self-loathing, and guilt.
All it would have taken was a blind eye to murder.
Celes had thought that her sacrifice would mean something. Shackled, humiliated, sentenced to execution. Her mind had reeled from the loss. Yes, this had to be a form of protest. She had thought herself a martyr, dying for what she knew to be right.
She could still feel the sharp edge of those manacles digging into her wrists. She could feel the ache of her stiffened shoulders and knew that she would never see the sunset.
Her breath rose from her in a jagged gasp. She had clasped at her chains the same way that she now clasped at her hair. She pulled in sharp, desperate tugs. Her eyes watered from the pain.
The floating island had roared like something alive. The ground had crumbled beneath her feet. She had scrambled to the airship deck, screamed for Setzer to pull it away, and they'd watched as the sky had clouded to darkness, as the air had grown acrid, as the world shook like something alive. Her knuckles had dug into the railing as she'd watched -- helpless -- while the island fell apart piece by deadly piece. Its tremors rocked the sky and tossed the ship like waves. Setzer gave a cry of terror as the wheel was torn from his grip. There was a hideous crack and the ship tossed forward. The debris shot past her arms and face and eyes. She did not know who she called out to before she was falling.
Falling. Falling. Falling.
Something grabbed her and Celes jerked away, yelling. Strong hands. The scent of ash. She was pulled forward until her head met something solid and warm. She was wrapped in bulging muscle and skin. There was pressure against the back of her head and she was pressed forward tightly against it. She cried out again, but didn't pull away. There was something safe in the arms that held her now. Her head swam with the scent of him.
“Come back, Celes." A hoarse voice. Scratched. Pained. “Please. We have to get out of this.”
'Come back, Celes.'
The words echoed above her. Vague. Meaningless. She reached for them.
'Come back, Celes.'
In her mind's eye, she saw kind, wrinkled eyes. Rough hands had kept her alive even as the world fell to ruin. The earth had dried, the grasses had yellowed, and still she had lived without ever opening her eyes.
'Maybe we're the only people left alive.'
Her breath came sharp and uneven. She clutched at the body that held her, her eyes closed tight. "I'm sorry..." She didn't know why she said it, but she couldn't stop. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
She saw Maranda surrounded by hard-faced soldiers in pressed jackets.
She saw the kingdom of Doma choked in sweet-smelling poison.
She saw Kefka's eyes widening in shock as his blood wetted her hands.
She saw whole continents beneath her, engulfed in fire. It was all her fault. All of it.
"I'm sorry." Her forehead pressed against the stiff collar of his sweater. The hands held her tightly against human warmth. Her boots shifted on concrete. The shoulders trembled -- bare and bulging. She touched them slowly as her breath slowed. His heart drummed next to hers. His lungs struggled for air.
"I'm..." she started, but didn't bother saying that she was alright. She wasn't. She hadn't been for a very long time.
"I'm..." How could she say that she was sorry again? It wouldn't cover her weakness. It wouldn't cover her irrationality. She looked for all the world like some damsel. Her head was still swimming.
"I..." She bit her lip. Her arms felt heavy. Her eyes ached. Her thoughts came slower now and his chest felt like a soft cloud of darkness. Her head sank into him. For all the world, she couldn't think of any reason not to let his arms fold around her, to listen to the rhythm of his breaths, and to let her pain melt away as her ears hummed and she couldn't open her eyes.
"Thank you," she muttered before her mouth fell slack and she felt herself collapse against him.
Sleep came impenetrable as a cloud of smoke. She lost herself to it.
IT'S FINALLY COMPLETE. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE ZACK/CELES SAGA
She was shaking and crying in his arms.
Zack stayed still, his arms wrapped tightly around the mess of a woman against his body. They blended well into the scene, even hidden in the dark alley way, covered in soot and ash and blood, crying from the madness and absurdity of it all. His breaths came short and ragged, and his exhausted gaze stuck to particularly nothing in the distance. Two lost souls, dragged through hell and back, trapped in the aftermath of destruction and death.
All he could bear to focus on was the warmth in his arms, and the sound of her ragged cries.
The Soldier rested his head against the hard concrete wall behind him. Emotions threatened to bubble their way to the surface of his face, but he bit them back with what little determination he had left. Perhaps he was too exhausted to cry. He was too tired to ask any more questions. He couldn’t summon forth the energy to scream at the sky and demand to know why this had happened.
Zack didn’t have the will left to do much more, in the present moment. Instead, he rested a hand against Celes’ head and tried to coax her out of her panic.
“Don’t apologize,” he tried to whisper, his voice cracking as his chest urged him to break up the gunk in his lungs, “You’re alright. You’re okay.”
Celes seemed not to hear him. She was still trying to speak, still trying to apologize. Zack realized it wasn’t entirely meant for him -- if it had been at all. She was somewhere else right now, whether it was back out in the burning rubble that they’d barely escaped or somewhere else entirely. He coughed, trying to keep his body from shaking too much as he did so, to keep from disturbing her. He knew all too well what that was like; to suddenly find yourself lost in an awful memory of another time, another place.
That’s why he’d stopped trying to remember them.
A few moments passed, and Celes seemed to be stilling in his arms. If it weren’t for his heightened sense of hearing, he may not have even heard her small sigh of thanks over the shuffle and cries of a moving crowd nearby. Zack didn’t respond, but held her tightly against his body as he felt the consciousness slip from her, and her body go limp. He managed a small smile; half from relief, and half from jealousy. Finally, Celes could escape the nightmare she was trapped in. However, for the Soldier, it had to then continue.
He sat still in the alley for a short time, letting his aching body rest against the cool wall, with Celes pressed against his front. Zack kept his mind blank, as blank as he could, closing his eyes and trying his hardest to block out the sounds, the smells, if only for this short period of time. Logically, he knew that he needed to get up, get them out of the city and to the outskirts, get them both medical attention -- and much more. Yet, each time he tried to summon forth the motivation to rise, he found the well completely dry.
He buried his head in the young woman’s hair, and again, he fought off the urge to let tears slip forward and let himself give in to the bliss of unconsciousness.
… Why did this seem so familiar?
“Gotta move,” Zack whispered to himself, his voice hoarse and dry, “For … for the both of us. Gotta move.”
The Soldier’s body screamed in protest as he finally forced himself upwards again, like a statue coming to life. The upward motion was quick, thanks to years and years of practicing his squats, but he was unsteady on his feet immediately with the burden in his arms. Zack stumbled for a moment, cursing and coughing, feeling the world already beginning to spin before him in colors of brown, grey, red and black. His back hit the wall, and he was forced to choke back the urge to vomit on top of his coughing.
Zack’s boots half slide across the cobblestone as he finally began to make his way out of the dark safety of the alleyway. Again, he was greeted by the desolate faces of the populace, but he found in his condition, they were all kind of blended together.
Hell, his face probably looked just like theirs. Ashen, bloody, exhausted. The will to live somewhat extinguished in the face of a supernatural disaster.
The Soldier wasn’t sure how long he’d drifted along with the crowd. He kept Celes close to his chest, taking a moment every now and then to glance down at her dirty, restlessly unconscious face. He cradled her as if there were nothing else in this world for him now, as if she were his tether. Maybe she was, in the face of this disaster, what pushed him to keep on moving. After all, what else did he have in this strange world, besides those new connections he made along the day? And this was the first person he’d met that acted so selflessly, so brave, that it was enough to remind him of …
Of what? Home? Of someone lurking in the back of his mind?
And did it matter? No. No, she had warmed his aching heart, and that was what had mattered most.
The sun had mostly set, looking like a blazing fire on the horizon by the time Zack made it to the outskirts of the city. Thankfully, those who had evacuated first had already set up areas for people who were still making their way out of the city. A pair of first responders were quick to rush to the Soldier’s side, and seemed unsurprised that their questions were answered by nothing but a thousand yard stare. Truth be told, he could barely hear them; everything was blending into a dull hum.
Gently, they pried Celes from his grip, assuring him that they would begin care for her immediately. Fair nodded in recognition, and they quickly hurried her away to a nearby tent that was already filled to the brim with the injured and dying. He’d missed the part where they’d said to wait for them to return for him, and Zack turned on heel and began to wander away.
His mind was swimming. The world was beginning to darken with each blink. Each breath came harder, shorter, and less satisfying than the last.
Zack felt like he was floating. The back of his mind was screaming that he was passing out.
Vaguely, he could hear someone yelling for help, along with the dull throb of pain against his chest and his face.
Zack closed his eyes, despite already seeing nothing but black.
Black, intermingled with a splash of blonde.
I'd rewrite history, and change my destiny. One last time.
