Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 18:38:18 EDT Subject: [ffml] [MW] Chaos returns. From: A slashing pink light whipped through the air in the underground passageway. Chaos stepped through, his sword drawn out, his gloves powered up and ready, his visor on full blast. He looked around warily. The passageway below was dark... so dark he could see the end of the hallway. Above he heard the other heroes and troops talking in the main hall of the ruined keep. "Where are you!" demanded Chaos. "Show yourself!" "Yes... now I will... old friend." a voice rang through his head, the same as the presence before. A form, human-looking, materialized in front of Chaos, the hall chamber filling up with light. The light all but faded, and left standing there was an average man. He had black hair, with green streaks in it, a long white cloak, and a golden scepter was floating around him, enveloping the man in an odd glow. The man had a head-band with a unicorn horn strapped to it. "Lorak!" gasped Chaos. "It's you!" "Yes, my friend," Lorak answered, his soft voice echoing through the hall. "We must get Bacca to leave here immediately." "Why?" Chaos asked, almost snapping. "Because if he doesn't, a rather... not-so-good fate will befall him, and all the innocents he will drag down with him for his sins against humanity." "Sins? What sins? Bacca's your regular goodie-too-shoes." "He has angered the gods, in what way I do not know, but he has. He will be incinerated, and I have reason to believe it will happen here." "Why are you here, Lorak?" Chaos asked, sheathing his sword, and powering down his gloves and visor. "I was here to merely secure this place from the spirits, and try and make sure it's Mog's army that is here when it get's destroyed... but that will not be. Bacca is here now, and Mog was coming, but learning of Bacca's arrival turned back. Bacca's army, and everyone with it, will die." "How do you know all this?" Chaos demanded. Lorak raised his hand into the air, and Chaos with him. His scepter suddenly shot a pink beam of energy into Chaos's head, which surrounded him. Images of death, destruction, catastrophe, and cataclysm shot through Chaos's mind, so rapidly, it was if time had been pushed to maximum speed and Chaos was witnessing it all. Then, abruptly, it stopped, and Chaos saw himself in a room with 8 other people who's faces he could not fully make out...the Materia Warriors. They were all reading a scroll, and then...a yellow blast of energy. Chaos fell to the damp ground, banging his knees. He was back in the corridor under the ruins of the keep. "What... what does this all mean?" Chaos asked, breathing heavily, exhausted. "What you saw... was the future, Chaos." Lorak answered grimly. "How?" Chaos asked. "How can that be the future? Can it happen?" "Yes," Lorak answered. "You know possess the ultimate knowledge... a power I was granted in my short trip to the afterlife when I went missing. Everyone thought I was gone forever, but once I saw what happened, I gave up being a God forever, and came back to Earth, to try and prevent the apocalypse. So, I was granted this knowledge... and who the other Materia Warriors are. "There were originally 10 of us, not 9 like we'd thought. Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Barrett, Nanaki, Cid, Cait Sith, Yuffie, Vincent... and Sephiroth. The first mortals to ever fully utilize the power of the Ultimate Materia. But Sephiroth went astray, much like the Dark Moogle did. When Sephiroth was killed, Cloud and his friends went to bring back Aeris from the dead. Doing say, they accidently revived Sephiroth. But he had turned around. His ways were good. And he was a Materia Warrior... the lost tenth. "Then Mog came... the Materia Warriors who were not turned into queens were later killed, and Sephiroth never got to pass down his power. Why this didn't affect anything I'm not sure, but the other warriors all gave their power to warriors. When this happened, some of the warriors weren't powerful enough to take in the power, and they lost their memory about all of it, or just portions of it like you and me. Now, Jerad and Ku-Sam have passed their power down. To whom, I don't know. "The second generation of Materia Warriors was you, me, Jerad, Ku-Sam, Dark Lord and a few others. Jerad and Ku-Sam are dead. So now the only guaranteed warriors are you, me, and Dark Lord." "But Dark Lord is dead, too," protested Chaos. "Not quite," Lorak countered. "His body is dead, but his soul is still in our realm, as a watcher. We have little time before it's taken to the next world. We must revive him... but we'll need help." "No one will help us," said Chaos. "They are all to hung up on Bacca's army." "Not as many of them are here because they say they are as you'd think, Chaos. We will get help. "Now, I've narrowed done a few more Materia Warriors. One is here in this building, Seph LaRoche. I didn't know this until moments before we met down here, but it all came to me when my spirit invaded Seph's mind." "Yes, why did you harm him and Kaitlin?" Chaos snapped. "I needed to make sure you'd come get me alone. Anyway, that's not the point. Seph LaRoche is one of the them. That gives us 4. I have gotten up to number 6. The next two are traveling together." "Who are they?" "The first is actually one of the originals. When Cloud past his power on, there was a mistake, and Sephiroth received it." "So then the other is Jaana." "Right! As for the seventh, eighth, ninth, and possible tenth Materia Warriors, I am not sure. I've narrowed it down to a few choices, but I'll keep them private for now." "So what about this place? How long to do we have?" "About three days before it goes up in smoldering flame. Everyone inside will immediately die. The Gods will see to that." "Well then," Chaos said. "We have some work to do." And with that, they both disappeared. ***************************************************************** "What happened?" asked Seph, gripping his head, wandering into the main hall of the ruined keep. "Seph!" said Schala. "It's good to see you're awake, and without Lady Paladin's herbs. How your body did it, I don't know, but... oh well! You're up!" A flash of light suddenly appeared in the center of the room, and there stood Chaos and Lorak. "Heroes and warriors," Chaos started. "Listen well. Bacca is gone. And if he stays away for much longer, he and the Lady Paladin will come back to this place... a soon-to-be steaming hole of fire in the ground with skeleton bodies everywhere." Everyone gasped and begun talking to themselves. "LISTEN!!!" Chaos bellowed throughout the hall. "We must leave here now," Lorak said to everyone. "This place will be destroyed. How Bacca has done it, I don't know, but he has angered the Gods, and to make him feel pain, the will obliterate his army and this fortress. I have used much of my power to isolate where the Gods' blast will hit. Believe me, it wasn't easy. But it's gonna hit here, or within 5 miles of here. And after that, the blast will be 5 miles wide itself. We have three days before the impact." "So," Chaos said. "It is my suggestion that we leave now, and abandon this place." "Not in your dream, Chaos!" General Scotts yelled out. "Bacca left me in charge here, leading his troops, and we aren't leaving. Not without his word." "Do you want to die?" yelled Chaos, drawing his sword. "I have no wish to fight you, Chaos. You could probably beat me, but I don't want to even try. I am just saying... the army stays here." "Fine... your death. The only thing that can save this Earth now is the Ultimate Materia, reborn, and the 9 Materia Warriors, and I was hoping the army would help find them. Some people here may be warriors." "Look," Lorak said. "We don't have time to argue. So this is the plan. Chaos?" "Yes, Lorak. We are leaving. I am getting my army back, and I'm going to try to save the world. By defeating Mog, we will be sealing Earth's fate. Anyone who wishes to leave Bacca's army now, and travel with me and Chaos, step forward. We will be resurrecting the Dark Lord, and tracking down Jaana and Sephiroth, just to tell anyone. If it'll prompt you to go. So... if your in, step forward. If not goodbye." "I'm in." Seph walked forward into the middle of the room with them. "And I suggest you all come with... any of you wishing to leave Bacca's army behind." OOC: Well, anyone else? Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 17:43:52 -1000 From: Lorinan strode forward. "Hold on a second. I happen to have a means of telling whether you are telling the truth. Remember when I told you all about the vision I'd had. Well," Here he held the Orange elfstones out for all to see. "These are the Orange elfstones. I passed the trials to win them, and They will only work for me, A knight of the Word. They can tell friend or foe and whether they mean to harm or help. They also have the ability to reflect any magic whatsoever, so don't try anything, Lorak. I've been warned that a friend will turn traitor, and I will try my hardest to prevent any harm to everyone. So I'll test your story and intentions with the stones. That is, if you're not afraid." Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 01:36:00 -1000 From: Schala Schala frowned after listening to Chaos' speech. She shook her head. She had only heard of Chaos and Lorak, and this was the first time seeing them face-to-face. Their immediate command and supposed closeness with the future made her even more skeptical. They had a kind of arrogance that she personally found highly annoying. Then she sighed. She realized that until this point, she had been merely following along, not really planning out what she was going to do. Of course, she knew of the prophecy. Bacca would lose, so the gods had declared. But she also knew something they did not. She knew there was a force *behind* the gods...something greater than anything that any of them could ever imagine...She had gotten in touch with it during her travels, but had never fully understood it. That was the knowledge she was seeking. That was why she could not quite trust the prophecy. When she had faced the Mystic some time ago, that had been the closest she had ever been to facing that Power... Schala fingered her pendant uneasily. Lately it had been emanating an eerie power, ever since she had seen...She took a deep breath. If she were to learn how to control that power, to summon it when need be, she needed something more. She closed her eyes. So much information was swirling through her brain, and there was no good way to sort through it all. She received hundreds of messages a day from people and places all over the world. What they were saying was the easy part. Figuring out how they fitted into the great cosmos was the hard part. What had the Northern Paladin said before he had disappeared somewhere in space? To follow your heart, that as long as you believed in something, it would be the best way? Schala looked at Chaos and Lorak again. While they were waiting for anyone else to join them, they were talking very closely. Probably making plans, she thought. What should I do? Whom should I follow? Where should I go? There was something wrong with what Chaos had said, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Perhaps it was just her own nervousness and dislike coming into play. So many paths...which was the right one? How could she best help to defeat Mog? At least he hadn't had his horny eye on herself, or else she'd be in big trouble. She suddenly giggled at the thought. Maybe I could somehow PRETEND to be one of his queens, and get the Moogles from the inside...... Nah. Suddenly she looked up resolutely and set her jaw. There was nothing for it. She must stay with Bacca's army. "To hell with prophecies," she muttered. "I don't believe it will come true." There was something...SOMETHING that would tip the scales. And that something would come within the three days' leeway that Lorak had given. Or could she be totally wrong, and perhaps the Great Power was actually siding with the gods and make Bacca lose. In that case, where would she be three days from now? She didn't know, but she felt a loyalty to Bacca. "The one who faithfully serves a wicked lord has the greatest warrior spirit," went the answer to the old bushido riddle. She may be no true warrior, but she had loyalty. Everyone would die if they did not leave, Chaos had said. Let them leave. Let them stay. Let them die. If she died with them... It was her destiny.