A Lizar scout runs up and says something in his arcane tongue. The Dark Lord
nods and turns to the group.
"It seems that while we've been arguing Mog has besieged the city a Araguay, a
population of 300,000."
"Well let's go then!" yells Jaana.
"Very well.. this might well be the chance we're looking for." he bobs his
head, and the party, plus several humans soldiers and a Lizar guard, are
transported side the moogles."
"Where'd they come from?" yells Mog. "Attack!"
The Moogles charge and there is bloodfest that follows. Moogle slays Man, Man
slays Moogle. Sephiroth tries to get to Mog but is simply forced down by two
Moogleboars who simply hold him there.
A moogle mage, KuWiz, sits there playing chess with a demon. He turns and bobs
his head, then turns back. The human army is besieged with meteors.
"Lady!" yells Bacca as he shoves her out of the way of a meteor, though his
sword meets it's end underneath the rock.
The Dark Lord and his Lizar escort march into the moogle flock in a roman
formation. Once in, however, they give way to bloodthirsting savagery that one
could not bear to watch.
After taking several moogles down, they make a calm retreat back to the main
lines. The Dark Lord notices a shadow forming around him. He looks up.
"Oh shit."
A meteor flattens him.
Suddenly, a dragoon runs between the two armies, begging for peace. The
moogles swarm over him, not giving a chance for him to invoke his valerian
gods.
"AAARRRRRGH!!!" yowls Kain as he disappears into smoke.
Spacecat, and his army of Lance Henriksens, look down at the war with pity..
But then, there is silence. A murmur flows through the crowds...
The meteor that crushed the dark lord starts to move, until it is pushed over,
and a somewhat decomposed Dark Lord crawls out.
"DLE!!!" yells Jaana.
"I'm gonna make loooooooooove, even when I'm dead. My body might get cold, but
it's always hot in bed." sings the decomposed and quite mad dark lord. "Gonna
make looooooove, don't be afraid! Just because my heart ain't beating, doesn't
mean you won't get laid!" he then howls along with several wolves in the
background. "Yee-ha!" He then drops dead.
"Let's get out of here!" yells Lady Paladin.
The human army breaks into total disarray, trying to get back to the dark
lord's keep as fast as they can. The Lizar guard look around, load the dark
lord's body on a pallequin and march off behind them.
And so the Moogles take Araguay with much ease. They released Sephiroth to
follow the humans.
As the moogles try to chase down the routed human army, Bacca
turns and looks about him.
All around, people run for their lives, their faces all in
anguish. Looking at the approaching moogles, Bacca grimaces as he watches
moogles and moogleboars take down the slower retreaters.
"You, come with me," Bacca yelled at a soldier. The soldier
stopped and looked at Bacca. The warrior walked past the soldier towards
the moogles. Understanding Bacca's meaning, the soldier followed.
More soldiers were picked by Bacca until a sizable force was
assembled. Together, the group faced off against the approaching moogles.
"We must hold them off until the rest have a chance to escape!"
yelled Bacca over the din of battle. "Form a line on me and don't retreat
unless you are injured."
Some of the soldiers looked at Bacca with fear in their eyes.
Bacca winked and smiled. "Don't worry. I'll take on the tougher
guys, but we need to give the rest of our army time to escape."
Looking at the moogles, Bacca swore under his breath. "That was
one of my best damned swords. You bastards are going to pay."
As the moogles reached the human rear-guard, Bacca let out a
war cry and begin swinging his long, white sword. Grabbing a pike from a
fallen moogle, Bacca wielded the two weapons with deadly accuracy.
A moogleboar approached at a full charge and Bacca aimed the pike
straight on. The large beast took the point at the base of the neck and as
the momentum carried the creature forward, Bacca sliced off the right front
leg. The moogleboar slid on the ground till it came to a stop.
A moogle ran up and prepared to swing at a man standing next to
Bacca. The warrior stepped over and swung down fast, severing the moogles
hands at the wrist and the moogles sword falling to the ground.
Another moogle, with pike in hand, charged at Bacca.
Side-stepping, Bacca grabbed the pike in one hand and backhand swung
with his sword, cutting right into the face of the moogle. Choking on it's
own blood, the moogle stumbled back with his hands to his face.
Bacca turned the pike around and held it in his left hand,
wielding the weapon with ease.
Several more moogles came up and all were taken down before they
could cross the line of retreat.
Looking behind him, Bacca saw the last of the army making their
way into a forest. Turning to his men, Bacca called out.
"You men on the sides who are un-engaged, fall back a little and
prepare to cover our retreat."
A few soldiers on each end of the line fell back and at a
distance, stopped and faced the moogles. Bacca then called out more men to
fall back and repeated the earlier actions. Soon, only Bacca stood on the
line.
After finishing off another moogle, Bacca turned and ran back to
the first line. Fighting with those soldiers for a bit, Bacca then told
them to retreat. They fell back past the next line.
At this line, Bacca ordered the same thing after a while. This
continued until the last line before the forest.
"All of you retreat into the forest and meet back up with the main
force," ordered Bacca. As the last man entered the forest, Bacca reached
into his pocket and pulled a blue orb.
"This should keep you guys back for a bit."
Bacca squeezed the orb and it began to glow, throwing a few feet
in the direction of the moogles, Bacca then turned and ran into the
forest.
After a moment, the glowing of the orb increased even more. Upon
reaching a white light, the orb exploded. A few moogles near by were
injured, but the rest stopped in time. When the smoke cleared, no sign
could be made of the human army.
Bacca had aided in the escape of fellows. They would live on to
fight another day.
Mog was not pleased.
In anger, Mog had every man, woman and child in Araguay put to death by Kupo.
He then teleported a couple of the bodies to the dark keep.
Jaana: Ewww... he did THIS to CHILDREN?
Meanwhile, down deep below the fortress, an arcane ritual of revival took
place. Blood was mixed with water, and life was rekindled in the dark lord's
lifeless body.
And so he lives for another day
The Dark Lord rose from the cold stone slab. The Lizar priests backed away
from the altar as the Dark Lord looked around.
DL: Damn! I'm hungry! Get me some food.....the bloodier, the better....
Jaana: Your eating habits always did make me sick.
DL: Jaana! (to Priest) What's she doing here?
Jaana: I thought the Lizar resurrection ritual would be a good thing to
learn....you never know when it might come in handy.....
DL: You shouldn't be here.
Jaana: And neither should you. You know the priests had quite a time
reviving you.....they almost didn't succeed....
DL: Yes, I know.
Jaana: Well, it's good to have you back.
The Dark Lord grinned, showing his sharp yellow teeth.
DL: Thanks.
Suddenly, Kaitlin burst through the door.
Kaitlin: Jaana! Sephiroth's come back!
Jaana: Oh crap! I'll see you guys in a bit....
She rushed out the door and bounded up the stairs.
Kaitlin: I see you made it through the ritual okay.
DL: No thanks to Jaana. She shouldn't have been here....she could have
screwed up the whole thing.
Kaitlin: Somehow, I doubt that. She's more powerful than you'd think. Her
presence here might have actually helped you. You know she feels she owes
you.
DL: Yeah, and she does. I saved her and her love machine.
Kaitlin: (chuckles) What's left of our forces are waiting upstairs for you.
They want to know what you propose to do next.
DL: We took a pretty bad beating. If only I could get in touch with
Kharis.....
As the last soldier makes his way into the Dark Lord's Keep, Lady
Paladin waits patiently by the gate, looking out over the plain.
"Where is he?" asked Lady Paladin, her voice tinged with fear.
"Why does he have to be such a bad-ass warrior?"
Then on the horizon, an orange figure emerges. Coming closer, Lady
Paladin realizes that it is a chocobo. As the bird nears, a dark figure
can be seen riding it. After some more time, Lady realizes that it is
Bacca.
Arriving at the gate of the keep, Bacca weakly lifts his head and
looks at the lady. He smiles weakly.
"Lady Paladin, could you do me a favor?" asked Bacca in a soft
tone.
"Yes, anything," said Lady Paladin, concern in her voice.
"Catch me," said Bacca. He fell out of the saddle and onto Lady
Paladin. She barely managed to catch him and settled him to the ground.
"Why do you have to do so much?" asked Lady Paladin.
"Because I am the High Lord of All that Kicks Ass," said Bacca
with another smile.
She dropped the warrior in disgust. Lady then cast Cure3 on the
swordsman.
Bacca opened his eyes and slowly stood up. "Ah, thank you,
m'lady," said the warrior. "Shall we go in and see what the DL has for us
now?"
Lady gave a rueful smile and turned to walk into the keep. Bacca
hobbled after her, leading the chocobo along.
As they entered the courtyard, a page came and took the chocobo. Bacca,
having nothing to lean on, began to fall again. To his surprise, Lady
Paladin ducks under his right arm and holds him up. She circles an arm
around his waist, and turns to look him in the eye. "Lean against me, I
don't bite, you know," she chides gently, walking alongside him into the
fortress.
"I need to see the Dark Lord, now, Lady" says the warrior, dragging his feet
up the stairs. "I need to let him know about the strategies the enemies
used, and how we can counter them best next time. Plus, there is the matter
of how they...wait, stop, Lady Paladin."
She looks at him with wide, innocent brown eyes. "Yes, Bacca?"
He gives her an accusing frown. "I know my way around this fortress.
You're taking me to my quarters, not to DL."
Lady Paladin cocks her head to the side. "Yes, so..? And your point is?"
Bacca leans against the stone wall, and tries to pull away from her. "I
know what you have in mind, my dear Lady, and your concern warms my heart.
But the fact is, I must talk to DL. Now, if you would kindly let me
stand..."
Her arm around his waist is as unmoveable as a two-ton rock. She continues
to pull him down the corridor towards their chambers. "Bacca, you know
quite well that you can barely walk at all. If you think that I, a healer,
am callous enough to let you stumble about and break your neck, you're
wrong. Furthermore, if put up any further argument, I'll cast paralysis and
mute on you, got it?"
To her surprise, Bacca gives her one of his brilliant grins. "You are quite
a lady, you know that?"
Lady Paladin blushes and turns her face away from his. "Here's your room,"
she says, kicking the door open with her steel-toed boot. She pulls him
inside and drops him on his bed. She gazes around the room, and notices the
tub is still filled with bath water. "What lazy servants these Lizar are,"
she mumbles, her face turning red again with the memory of her teleportation
out.
Bacca grunts and closes his eyes. "Lady, your Cure 3 made me feel a great
deal better, but I still feel like hell."
She smiles. "If you think this is hell, just wait until I start applying
salves to your wounds. That'll make how you feel now seem like heaven."
She unfastens the pouches from her belt, and begins setting various bottles
and bandages at the foot of the bed.
Bacca opens one eye and gazes up at her. "Well, I see a white-robed angel,
so this must be heaven."
The healer jerks upright and stares at him. She blinks a couple times, and
then shyly casts her eyes downward again. Behind them, there is a rapid
knocking at the door.
"Come in!" calls Lady Paladin without turning around.
Jaana pokes her head in. "I heard Bacca returned, and I wanted to see that
he was OK," she says, completely out of breath. "Sephiroth's back, and I'm
running to see him, can't stay long. Oh, DL survived being resurrected,
Kaitlin's down there talkin' to him now. Gotta go now to see my Sephy, see
you guys later." The door slams shut, and the two can hear her running on
down the hallway.
"Well! That was quick," comments Lady Paladin with a laugh. She looks down
at her potions with satisfaction and then walks a few feet to the head of
the bed.
"OK, take your armor off." Her voice is quite professional and firm. Bacca
opens his mouth, but she doesn't allow him to speak. "I've already cast a
great deal of spells today, and if I cast any more I could fall into a coma.
I have a full range of potions and salves to apply, and I assure you I am
perfectly capable. If you wish to have another healer tend to you, I can
summon one, but I am more experienced than any of the novices they have
here. So, do you think you can put up with me or should I call for someone
else?" She presses her lips together and awaits his answer.
"Well, one of the things I have learned in life is to never
disobey a woman," said Bacca with a smile.
Sitting up with a groan, Bacca unfastened his cape and threw it
over the side of the bed. He then loosened the straps of his pack and let
it rest on the bed. Lady Paladin settled it to the floor.
Bacca slowly began pulling off his mithril chain mail shirt and
Lady Paladin helped pull his boots off. Bacca then pulled off his cotton
undershirt and greaves and lay back, with his leather pants on. He panted
a little from the exertion.
Lady Paladin then set about healing the poor warrior. Bacca's body
was covered in bruises and a few cuts were visible on his arms, one on his
side above the kidneys.
Mixing the healing salves, Lady Paladin set the cool, acidic
mixture into each wound. Bacca emitted a sigh at each application to his
delicate skin. When all the visible wounds were taken care of, Lady
Paladin then took up some oil and massaged it into his bruises and joints.
After a while, Lady noticed that Bacca was asleep. His face had
relaxed and his mouth was slightly open. His short brown hair was curled
back showing his smooth forehead, his jaw lightly covered in stubble.
Lady Paladin finally took the time to examine Bacca's body. Scars
abounded on the warrior. On his arms were long ragged marks, as if from
claws. A few puncture wounds denoted where he had been stabbed. Three long
lines ran the width of his chest and stomach, like some giant beast and
swung at Bacca.
"He is the High Lord of All That Kicks Ass," said Lady Paladin in
a whisper.
She reached down and gently touched his forehead. Her fingers
caressed his skin and slid down to the side of his face. Bacca turned his
head slightly to meet Lady's touch.
Lady Paladin warmed at this and reached down with her other hand
to hold the other side of Bacca's face. The warrior responded by his own
hands reaching up and clasping her wrists.
Lady stood kneeled on the bed and looked down at the handsome
warrior, taking in his visage. She was shocked when Bacca muttered "Keia"
and twisted her wrists around and held her pinned for a moment.
Breaking free from his grasp, Lady Paladin was ready to strike
Bacca until she noticed how he muttered another word and one of his hands
formed a chopping fist.
Shaking her head, Lady Paladin packed up her supplies and left.
Bacca was able to sleep and continued to dream of his days back in the
dojo.