Understanding Forever
By Athana Soulfire
Notes:
--- there are no real notations on this story other then to be aware this
occurs during the final battle, and the team we are dealing with consists
of Dart, Rose and Albert. (My favs to fight with...) it's also written completely
in first person, something I do very rarely, so sorry if the story seems
a little weird. I really wanted to give insight on the dragoon attacks, feelings,
and all that Kinda stuff while writing this, so I'm gonna try! You also might
be interested to know this is somewhat based upon my first fight with melbu
Frahma. (As in spells/actions.) Hope you enjoy the fanfiction... ;)
***
~Shana... your going to be alright...~
It seemed like an eternity ago that I had whispered this, hunched over the
body of a limp woman that had stolen what was left of my heart. Now those
words seemed distant, futile. As if perhaps I'd never spoken them- or never
cared when I had. This couldn't be the case... I knew it. But then this couldn't
be reality- because I was dying.
A flash...
Yet another spell crackled overhead with impossible intensity, and with a
snap of concern, I heard both Albert and Rose give simultaneous shouts of
pain as the energy passed. Odd I did not feel this- as without a doubt it
had damaged me. Was that blood in my lungs? On my face? Was I now gasping
for breath on the cold, rocky ground that Melbu Frahma had chosen to unleash
his last form?
I don't think I knew. Just as I did not know what it was that hoisted me
to me legs and demanded my sword lift. For Shana? For my friends? For the
world?
We were to close to die. Inches from the goal. In this battlefield of illusion,
power and hate, standing against a giant creature that was bent on our
destruction, all three of us knew and accepted this. May Soa burn in all
teh seven hells!
Her fate was not to be ours!
A sharp, cold tingle of healing ran along my spine- and I glanced once to
see Rose- her arms lowering as the item was released from her grasp. Healing
Rain... I hadn't thought we'd had any left..
Melbu Frahma lowered his mass of gray and black- let the highlights of another
spell run along the surface of his flesh and it's ungodly head. The demon,
the spirit- it howled a furious distaste of mankind and let the upheaval
of a powerful wind-based attack rake our bodies to near blood. Rose fell
back- my skin sang of burn and the body of leaking fluid. Mind spinning-
I knew immediately we would need to recover yet again.
Always an attack- always a plan. Always have another at the ready.
"Hold on!-" And that was Albert. I remembered... and thank god; the wind
elemental wouldn't hurt him. Neither I nor Rose needed to tell our companion
that another of the items would be needed; and again the tingling ice of
life drained the pain from my body and allowed further action. Further
power.
Out came a voice. Mine.
And even then, the commands were not necessary. Rose lunged forwards with
the taste of Demon's Dance laced along her blade. Albert moved back- arms
swung out in a flash of motion as the jade Dragoon Spirit enfolded and
transformed him.
To lay my life with the both of them was a task more easily *done* then said.
They might have been able to read my thoughts with how quickly each reacted.
How smoothly Rose knew to build the essence of spirit within her; how quickly
Albert now worked the nonexistent breeze into the shield that was Rose
Storm.
And all along- Melbu Frahma. His attacks. His magics. His form against the
dark land- challenging each thrust and spell even as the blood began to escape
a frame of black flesh against the black sky.
I might have been standing still in the middle of this with how I seemed
to watch. To notice. And even then I knew I must be mobile, because a crackle
of the Divine Cannon that lay strewn to my arm let it's voice echo around
us. I hadn't even remembered the warm embrace of my dragon spirit- lending
me it's power...
Frahma screamed again. It seemed a good many times, now...
We will not die- we cannot die. The end is drawing near...
Rose- armored. Her form shot into the sky as she summoned the power of the
Dark Dragon; arms and back arched to the energy that gathered about her lethal
frame. An Explosion of power. An impact of gravity and movement. Melbu Frahma
yet again screamed his defiance of death.
Red and black. Gray. The colors around us seemed so very distant...
Wind again- this time not directed into our flesh. Gaspless?
My body coiled. Sprung, blade twisting to the demands of Moon strike.
Rose- the effects of Astral Drain closing our wounds.
And everything seemed so smooth. So willing. We worked as a body of one mind,
using our own attributes as weapons from which others might be found and
devised. Hate. Hell. Horror. All of it a driving factor that defied the
exhaustion I could feel wearing on my limbs; see closing on the movements
of my friends.
I should have seen it coming. The light- the power that signified his last
release.
A light based attack of the strongest sort... it's essence building in the
air around us. Here is where I let my sword lower, sensed the oncoming rush
of power that sought to claim us in one last effort from the Wingly that
would be god. My eyes immediately moved to Rose, her somber features turning
in my direction. Albert- his right hand throwing a partial of the green cape
that adorned him behind one shoulder. Both defiant.
They knew what I had just realized, mentally checking our inventory. And
as much as I wanted to close my eyes against a surge of helpless realization-
I did not- and thought only of Shana.
"We won't die." I heard my voice growl over the spheres above us. The beams
of light. The pure essence of all that was good- aiding the hand of evil.
"Not here. Not now."
Rose smirked with the elegance of a lioness. Albert simply smiled- the kind
and able motion that would have reassured me at any other time.
And the searing energy bore down upon us. Light and beauty and utter, unmatchable
pain.
***
~Shana... you look beautiful.~
And she lowered her head. Blushed.
We made a wish...
***
it seemed as if I had never breathed when the heat died away. When the
overwhelming weakness of a broken body fell to the ground in defeat. If only
my mind could have joined it. If only I weren't so enraged- so filled with
hate- I might have let myself succumb to death.
Rose... Albert... I tossed my head to each side.
The beautiful dark dragoon lay prone over the ground, red tossed over the
patterns of her armor like bloody ribbons. Her eyes were open. Features tense;
fierce as she blinked once and looked at me. With a strength that had defied
millennia, her hands crawled over the ground and pushed upwards. The effort
was futile. She fell, and more blood split from the gashes in her stomach.
"Dart, get up." Came her voice. So ready- as if her wounds were not mortal,
and her life not fading. "Albert-?"
"..Sti..ll with.. you..."
Each muscle screamed as my frame attempted to rise. Again- failure... melbu
Frahma- glaring at us through sightless eyes. Sneering. Gloating. Black and
Red and Gray... it would not end like this- it WOULD NOT end!!!
And even as I thought this, I knew he was preparing the same spell as the
air around us parted for another burst of pure, raw power.
"Albert- Rose storm..." And that was again Rose, now upright- barely standing.
She slapped a stream of blood from her mouth and then dropped to one knee.
"We can heal- guard. But not if we receive the brunt of something like that
again... not..." And words failed her- crushed under a violent coughing.
"I can't..." And I turned my head, barely able to see the king of Serdio
through vision that was beginning to fade. More blood- hardly able to keep
himself upright. Albert steadied himself with one hand upon the ground and
folded the other over his chest. "My magic is exhausted..." And he shook
his head, almost violently, and then forced himself into a standing position
as Rose finally found the strength to inch to her feet.
I gripped my sword. Arched my body into an upright position just as the spheres
of light began to encircle us once more.
~We are free to sever the chains of fate that bind us...~
And I cannot tell you what it is truly like to understand forever- the three
of us- running forwards as if possessed by the very god that sought to undo
our world.
Perhaps we died.
But the demon. The creature. The evil that had been the bane of human existence
since the dawn of legend, fell first.
~fin~