Joseph

I looked around the corner, trying to see if the young Nikki and Sanika were around. Seeing no one there, I turned to Nikki who was silent during the exchange.

“Come on, we need to go now,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. I frowned a bit because I could feel Nikki trembling a bit. But after a moment, it passed.

“Yeah. Let’s go before they catch us again,” she replied, shrugging my hand off before moving. I moved ahead a bit to make sure the path was clear. I signaled the others to follow me. We moved deeper into the Cloister, ever watchful for the young Nikki and Sanika. However, the halls seem deserted. That put me on edge even further.

“Maybe they moved in deeper into the Via Infinito,” Mishka said, with a bit of a hopeful tone. I knew that this would not be the case. A sudden scraping sound made us turn around. Behind us was the young Nikki, with an arrow nocked and bow drawn. The arrow was covered in flame. The fact that it took a moment for her to aim gave the group time to move. I grabbed those close to me and pulled them down. A moment later, the young Nikki released her arrow, becoming a massive fireball, which flew straight as us. Most of us were able to get out of the way in time, but the flames caught several of the Al-Bhed.

“RUN!!!” shouted Nikki. Deciding that doing that was probably the best choice, we all literally picked ourselves up before sprinting down the hall as fast as we could. The young Nikki had the advantage of the narrow corridor so it was unwise to fight right then. Our group ran through the corridors until we came across an open cavern. The exit to the cloister was at the other end, but the pyreflies made a barrier in front of it.

“Damnit, now what?” I asked, turning to Nikki. However, something has happened to her. She was sitting on the ground, having brought her knees to her chest and was also shaking quite violently. I knelt next to her, quite concerned about her.

“I can’t….. I just can’t…. We can’t beat them no matter what….” she muttered, shaking in fear. I growled, knowing that having a breakdown at this moment is an extremely bad idea. I turned to the others.

“We’re going to have to take them out if we want to continue. Mishka, Gideon, and Yuki. I want you along with half the Al-Bhed to take on Sanika. Do whatever it takes to kill her. Cyan, Val, Yuubou and I along with the rest of group will take on Nikki. Kyra, see if you can help Nikki here. The sooner she gets over this, the better chance we have,” I ordered. Kyra was about to argue but seeing Nikki in her current state, she thought otherwise. I left her to move Nikki to a safer place while we readied ourselves for the fight.

“Stopped running haven’t you? Good, now you don’t need to die tired,” Sanika said, entering the cavern with young Nikki. I held my hand up, signaling the others to not attack just yet. I waited until they entered the area before lowering my hand, signaling the group to attack. We rushed our targets.

I reached young Nikki just a bit faster than the others, taking the opportunity to attack her. She blocked with her bow before grabbing an arrow and stabbed me in the gut with it. My armor took the hit without any issues, so I pushed her bow aside before trying to slash her. She jumped backwards before nocking an arrow and firing. I blocked it just as the others started attacking her.

It was strange really; the way this young Nikki fights is very similar to the real Nikki only that the younger version was much more aggressive. She never stopped moving, already changing directions while nocking and firing arrows at the group. Occasionally, she would use techniques to try to kill but the others would evade just in time. Cyan and I would try to stop her movements but she would either fire more arrows and spells or evade at the last moment. I took a moment to assess the other group who were fighting Sanika. I could see that the fight was not going well for them. They had already last some of the Al-Bhed to her attacks. I would have sent others to help but we were just able to contain the young Nikki with what we had. I saw that Kyra has no luck with Nikki either.

“Cyan, can you hold her off without me?” I asked.

“I’ll try but I can’t promise anything,” she replied. I nodded and sprinted off towards Nikki. I stopped next of Nikki and Kyra.

“Kyra, move,” I ordered. Kyra did not argue and moved to one side. I roughly grabbed the front of Nikki’s top and pulled her to her feet. ‘Yevon, forgive me,’ I thought before saying one thing to Nikki.

“Nikki. Grit your teeth,” was all I said before punching her on the side of her face. She seemed shocked and dazed at what I did.

“Joseph!!! What that necessary?!?!” Kyra yelled.

“Yes it was. Now listen up Nikki, you said to me that you fear losing someone down here. Now that will become a reality if you don’t stop your little breakdown episode. You fear this Sanika. It’s fine to fear her. My sensei told me that only an amateur would think about not being afraid. A skilled fighter knows the feeling of fear and does it anyways. Besides, you’re not alone in this fight. So snap out of your world and fight already,” I said in the calmest voice I could muster in the situation. The fire in Nikki’s eyes that was not there a moment ago began to reappear. She growled and suddenly drew her arm back and punched me back. I grunted a bit, feeling that pain in my head before turning back to Nikki.

“Now that’s the Nikki I know. You feeling any better?”

“Shut your fucking mouth Joseph. I now have a splitting headache and my jaw hurts like hell,” she cursed. But a small smile appeared on her lips. “But you know what? That’s fine. I almost forgot one important thing in life now.”

“Good. Now can you and Kyra handle your younger self? I need to go support the people fighting Sanika,” I asked. She nodded.

“But of course. That is me they’re fighting. But you better not get killed fighting Sanika because there’s still more for punching me that hard,” Nikki replied. With that sorted out, I ran to Sanika. She seemed to give Mishka and Gideon some problems. Since they were trying to keep close, Sanika was trying to keep her distance while using Psycho Bomb and Mazer Eye attacks to keep harassing the Al-Bhed. I charged straight in, using Hayate to increase my approach speed. I managed to get close enough to attack, but she blocked my attack with ease.

“You’re finally here. Good I was getting bored,” Sanika taunted. I ignored the remark and attacked alongside Gideon and Mishka. However, it seems that she was able to read our movements. She evaded our attacks with ease. I looked to find Al-Bhed firing their guns, only for the bullets to bounce off a shield.

‘Great, Physical Guard. That means she knows Magic Guard as well. So how do we kill her?’ I thought, rushing in to defend the Al-Bhed from a Mazer Eye attack. I then noticed something odd. Sanika was quite powerful, powerful enough to take us on without needing help. She had the skills to defeat us but she isn’t doing that, almost like she’s playing with us. All of a sudden, it made sense why.

‘Of course. It was that simple. Ok, now the hard bit,’ I thought, going in and channeling an Armor Break. Sanika had just landed on the ground. I used that moment to clash with her shield. The shield shattered and I used that moment to punch her in the face with my free fist. That apparently made her very angry.

“Ok that’s it! Now I’m going to kill you, you damn swine!!!” Sanika roared, suddenly disappearing. She teleported to another location before teleporting again. I swung behind me, not hitting her. I could feel that she was building up to finish me. I closed my eyes and calmed my breathing, holding my sword loosely at my side.

“Accepting death now are we? Well then, at least you’re not as stupid as the others trying to fight in inevitable!” I heard. Sanika’s voice seems to be resonating throughout the cavern. I could suddenly feel the winds changing directions and the very faint sounds of something behind me, approaching at high speeds. Within a second, I reversed my grip on my sword and thrust it behind me. A second later, I could feel and hear someone impacting my sword which ran through them. I turned to see that Sanika had impaled herself on my sword, arms held high ready to kill me.

“Arrogance is the downfall of any warrior. Remember that,” I said, pulling my sword out. As Sanika fell to the floor, I suddenly saw a large number of arrows impacting the floor around Sanika. The Thunderga spell in those arrows released, shoving all of us back. I got back up to see that the young Nikki was cradling Sanika, begging her to not leave.

“You must survive young one,” I heard Sanika say in a motherly voice. “You are the stronger one and I will not let them take you from this world.”

With that, Sanika used the last of her magic and teleported the young Nikki. Just then, the others caught up with Sanika. As she faded to pyreflies, she gave one last warning.

“You think you have defeated me. What waits on the surface for you is much worse. You are all fools for not dying here,” Sanika said, before fading completely.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

Mishka.png

“Running. Running. Running is a good plan. Everybody just keep running!”


“I think we heard you the first time.” I said, coming alongside our leader.


“If you did, you wouldn't be fucking making jokes at a time like this!”


“This is unlike you, Nikki. Are these manifestations really so dangerous?” Cyan asked, having caught up to both of us.


“Yes, dangerous! Very...”


“...dangerous! Eek!” The twins shouted out, having narrowly dodged one of the younger Nikki's bolts.


The others had been keeping pace, but as they were behind us, the little girl's two new creations were targeting them. Joseph and Kyra were handling things, but we were all rather tired after so many frustrating cloisters. We couldn't run forever.


“Hey, little one. Want sissy to teach you something?” I said, moving towards Cyan to get her attention.


“Hmm? Teach me something? Ooh, is it fun?” She asked as her fiend steed galloped along.


“Yes, it is! We want to play a game!” Cyan told her, having understood where I was going with this.


“Ooh, I do love games!”


“Thought you might. Thi-”


“Have you two completely lost it? That's Sanika back there and you're talking about a fucking game?!”


I cleared my throat before continuing, “As I was saying, this is a very important lesson for when you play. It's called cheating.”


“But I was taught that cheating is bad. Sissy is teaching me a bad thing.” She whined, the fiend she was riding on growing again with her being upset.


“No, this is the good kind of cheating. It's all in fun, really it is!” Cyan explained, hopefully getting through to her.


“Mm, okay! What do we do?”


“You know how they're chasing us? What game do you suppose they mean to play?”


She thought for a minute, then said, “Ooh, they want to play tag!”


“Right, and we mustn't let them catch us!”


“Yes yes, but they are so fast! We're not going to make it!”


“That's where cheating comes in.” I explained to the girl, simultaneously motioning Nikki and Cyan to the exit down to Cloister 48, “If we just run like this, they're sure to catch us so we need to trick them.”


Nikki finally caught on, seeing the exit a few more steps ahead. She turned her attention to the others who were close to us, though the younger Nikki and Sanika were catching up.


Turning to the little girl, she said, “All of us are going to jump down into this exit. All you need to do is make sure those two go somewhere else when they jump.”

“Ooh, we're going to be naughty! Alright, mummy, I hope we win!”


“I hope so, too.” Nikki mumbled as we fell back into the same cloister.


After we made sure they were nowhere in sight, everybody took a sigh of relief. Nikki was still shaken, but holding steady. However, none of us could feel safe and we knew we had to keep going.


“Come on, we need to go now,” Joseph said to Nikki, patting her shoulder.

“Yeah. Let’s go before they catch us again,”


It was what everybody was thinking in the backs of their minds. Sanika had been the major threat. Nikki was terrified of her, but for the rest of us, I felt we couldn't shake how sinister this younger version of Nikki was. Was this how she used to be?


Taking a cautious peek at the next turn, I chanced a guess and suggested that, “Maybe they moved in deeper into the Via Infinito,”


No such luck. Seconds after I made that statement, we heard the echoes of an arrow tip streaking across the stone floor of the cloister. In the distance, that fake Nikki, eyes completely mad, lifted a blazing arrow at us. The last bolt she fired had barely allowed us time to dodge.

“RUN!!!” Nikki screamed, taking off in the opposite direction.


The lot of us took off behind her, hoping to use the twisting cloister to our advantage again. However, the little girl wasn't with us. We couldn't run for long. Still, getting to the next cloister would give us some time to think. As we rounded another corner, I saw the exit to the next cloister. Unfortunately, it appeared to be blocked. There was a wall of pyreflies before it, dense streams of the creatures so much so that we knew we couldn't pass. It seemed we had no choice but to fight. Joseph took command immediately and separated us into groups, one to face Sanika, one to face the other Nikki, and then he left Kyra to care for our Nikki who had all but given up once she saw the wall.


“Stopped running haven’t you? Good, now you don’t need to die tired,” Sanika mused, stalking towards us with her companion just a few steps behind her.


I readied Blurry Moon, though I had my doubts our band of three would do much against the telepath. I could smell the psi exuding from her form as they warped the path of the pyreflies near her. Gripping my sword tight, I extended my left foot to make a lunge, but Joseph would stop me, raising his hand so that we would go together. Looking to Gideon, Yuki, and the others, I nodded to them and watched closely for Joseph.


As soon as his hand dropped, Gideon and I led the Al Bhed against her. We knew well enough that none of us were going to do a thing to her, but if we were lucky, we could distract her for Yuki to use her own psychic capabilities. No such luck. Sanika was very clever. She teleported the moment we got close and dispatched an unprepared Yuki in one fell swoop. With our team disoriented and our hope of defeating her gone, the Al Bhed all but scattered. Some used their Alchemist cannons to try mixing various chemicals into artillery. Others threw fragment grenades. Still others thought it best to fight her physically. None of these strategies were helping. Sanika simply grasped the grenades in her telekinesis and sent them into the barrels of the Alchemists, effectively stopping their concoctions from being fired while simultaneously detonating the devices. With those Al Bhed unarmed and anything thrown at her remade her own arsenal, they began to panic further. Gideon and I lost all control of the situation and even had to fend some of them off just to hold a position. Coupled with Sanika's reckless whimsy with her abilities, barely any of our Al Bhed survived and Gideon found himself immobilised by her Time Trip. I tried to make the best of the situation and sprung in to strike her with Blurry Moon's own abilities. Unfortunately, she was too swift and saw my attack coming. With a thought, she clutched my neck and I found myself struggling just to breath, never mind opposing her.


Time Trip wore off as Gideon overcame its paralysis and he would come to my aid, attempting to slice Sanika down her length. This move forced her to teleport, which freed me from her touch. Suddenly, Joseph shot out from his end, hoping to strike her with his incredible speed, but this attack along with the following shots fired by his Al Bhed were easily blocked by her telepathic shields.


“You’re finally here. Good I was getting bored,” Sanika purred, taking her attention to Joseph.


I nodded to him, alerting him to our strategic position and the three of us launched separate attacks together. I struck down with Blurry Moon's Deathstrike. Gideon lunged high for her throat and Joseph swooped low to swipe at her middle. Even with this, all it took was for her to channel her energies and catch our weapons before they could make contact. Exhausted, I found myself trembling similar to Nikki previously. Gideon tried to continue the fight, but another Time Trip froze him in his step. Instead, the bout fell on Joseph alone. Somehow, though the battle had caused our spirits to wane, his only burned brighter. His strikes grew stronger and pressed against her telepathic barriers. Eventually, with one powerful blow, he would penetrate them, allowing for an embarrassing punch to Sanika's jaw.


The simple stunt was all it took to unsteady her. She became furious at the humiliating bruise and her attacks turned sloppy. Finally, after mouthing off to feign her waning confidence, she would accidentally drive herself into his sword, causing her own demise.


“Arrogance is the downfall of any warrior. Remember that,”


Not a moment after, bolts of electrically charged arrows struck all about the dying illusion's body, the resulting sparks making it difficult to see. The younger Nikki had come to protect Sanika, but she was too late. With a few words shared between them, Sanika teleported the girl away.


With her purpose seemingly fulfilled, she turned her attention to us and spat a warning with her final breaths, “You think you have defeated me. What waits on the surface for you is much worse. You are all fools for not dying here,”


As the pyreflies cleared from her fading form, I took to Cyan for support in returning to my feet. The twins reunited and Val would prompt us to proceed into the next cloister, the wall of pyreflies having cleared.


Once we all landed safely, the twins pointed out the Cloister 48 was rather straightforward. There was a hall that led to a platform surrounded by metal plates that prevented us from getting to the next cloister. Several platforms poked out from the walls, which we were to use to find a trigger that would move the plates and reveal the exit. With the rest of us exhausted from the previous cloisters and dealing with Nikki and Sanika, the twins took it upon themselves to find the trigger and allow the remainder of us to conserve our energy. Instead of needing to go up themselves, the twins could use their telekinesis and float up to the top, where the trigger was.


“It's never that easy, though, is it?” Joseph grumbled.


“Nope.” Kyra added, taking hold of her gunblade, “But right now, I wouldn't have it any other way.”


Activating the trigger did release the plates and open the way to Cloister 49, however, it also released a Mutanjelly flan-type fiend on us. It was the worst time for the fiend to attack, though, as we had all been frustrated with the cloisters as of late. Kyra seemed to still be upset over the spider fiend while there felt to be tension between Nikki and Joseph standing on either side of her. Truth be told, I knew Cyan was still troubled by my not wanting to deal with Tromell, but I just wanted something to let loose on. Having my confidence returned to me after my time with Cyan and figuring out what had been the matter with me, that an unsent was hitching a ride inside, I wanted to relax. Nothing had been as difficult as I had thought it to be. Taking hold of Blurry Moon, I got into position.


The fiend's attacks, despite its size, were pitiful. Most of it amounted to popping bits of itself at us, each glob of jelly creating a weaker flan that was easily taken care of. With Blurry Moon, I defeated them with a single stroke. Cyan, Gideon, Joseph, and Kyra were all set on targeting them. We left targeting the main fiend to the spellcasters and element users. Nikki poked through the fiend with her arrows, the resulting indents being used to send Val's bullets deeper inside it to cause more damage. The twins also went to work, using their magic to keep the Mutanjelly from doing much else. Paine had changed to Alchemist in order to keep their mana high and Nooj provided her with cover fire. Before long, the fiend dissolved and we were free to pass into the next cloister.


Cloister 49 was tricky. There was no floor to the whole cloister, you see. All we had to walk on were moving beams of metal. We also knew that dropping down wasn't going to lead to any exit as below us appeared a river of black, which seemed to burn the lowest of the beams. What was worse, Lizalfo fiends were traveling the beams ahead, making their way to us.


“Fuck.”


“Couldn't have said it better.” I groaned, unsure of our next move.


“That could help.” Kyra said, pointing to a console on a static platform on the right side of the cloister.


“If we can get to it.” Paine added, noting how many Lizalfos were also making their way to it.


“Don't worry about the fiends. We can cover all of you over here. Just get to the controls.” Nooj ordered, making Nikki visibly grit her teeth.


It was the best plan we had, so despite Nikki's disdain over having Nooj with us, we agreed to the Meyvn's plan and set off. Getting from beam to beam was difficult enough, but with the fiends occupying several we could have made use of, the cloister became worse. Even with the cover fire from Nooj, Val, and the twins, it still didn't stop all the fiends and we found ourselves attacking them just to snag a good beam. However, eventually, we all made it. The console was actually the key. One set of controls opened the bottom of the cloister, emptying the river to reveal the exit. Another set changed the way the beams worked, even stopping them all together. Once we set the beams into a good alignment, the others dropped down to the bottom of the cloister and began making their way to the exit. Once Paine locked the console, we, too, made our way down to Cloister 50.


“Does this look like Cloister 50 to anyone?” Kyra asked, once we landed.


“Nikki?”


“What?”


“Now would have been a better time to use your swear.”


“Fuck...” Cyan mumbled in her place.


What was before us wasn't the Cloister 50 we expected it should have been. Instead, we were looking at the same lava pit that had been Cloister 44. The area appeared exactly right and even bolstered the same crystallised portal to the next cloister on its ceiling and the same elemental fiends.


“It still has to be Cloister 50. I read reports that cloisters only appeared in random series of repeating patterns.” Joseph suggested, arming him with his sword to prepare for the fiends attack.


“I hope you're right.” Kyra said, her voice sounding unsure.

As we all took on the fiends, I was happy to note that, despite its similarity to Cloister 44, one key difference was the Elder Wyrm that we had had to defeat to shatter the crystal in that cloister was not present for this one. Once we had defeated the fiends again, the crystal shattered and we were free to jump to the next cloister. Cloister 51 was strangely just as Cloister 45 had been, a simple track of moving platforms that would take us further along. What was even stranger, Gideon was missing again. Cloister 45 had been the same cloister where we had first realised he had been taken to Sir Auron's winding tunnel. This time, however, the girl would not appear and we would not sink down to find him. We would only find the exit and drop down to 52, which eerily shared a layout with Cloister 46, the maze. Kyra was visibly upset by this as it was this maze that we encountered the spider fiend she hated. The fiend was not present this time, nor were there any other fiends, but Kyra kept brushing at her arms as though the spiders were there. Nikki and Joseph advised us to move quickly and get to the next cloister, seeing as how we already knew our way from our previous visit. The butterflies were also no longer present, but having remembered which doorway we had taken, Joseph led us back to the same area and we reached Cloister 53 easily.


“This doesn't feel right.” Cyan voiced our shared discomfort.


“We only have the one option to keep moving.” Nooj said.


“It still doesn't make sense.”


This cloister was just as Cloister 47 had been, the long passage that we had used to escape from the younger Nikki and Sanika. After that, 54 and 55 were exactly as 48 and 49 had been and after that...


“Un-fucking-believable!”


“We're back here again.”


By this time, we knew we hadn't been traveling down further. This was not Cloister 56. It was still Cloister 44. We had been traveling in a loop, though none of us were sure why. Joseph had said that cloisters could repeat, but nothing like this. Following this cloister, we were again on the simple Cloister 45. Then to 46, and 47, and on and on until we were back, not surprisingly, in the lava pit.


“Joseph, I think you picked the wrong path. That's where all this started to go wrong.” Nikki suddenly said.


“What's that supposed to mean?” Joseph asked of her, walking right up to her.


“It has to be. We were fine until you pulled that stunt and got us lost in this trap!”


“Nikki, what's got into you?” Kyra asked with concern.


Nikki brushed her off, walking a few steps before launching an arrow straight into the heart of one of the approaching fiends, “Nevermind! We have to keep moving. I'm sure of it.”


Leading us back to the maze, she took us to where the room of butterflies had been and pointed out the doorway we had used before. As there were ten of us and six remaining doors, Nikki thought the best solution was to separate us and take every route. Nooj provided us with communicators and off we went. Cyan came with me to the farthest path, the twins stayed together, Nikki marched off on her own and Joseph took off for another, which left Kyra pondering what to do, what with both of them in poor spirits. With a little prodding from Val, she decided to leave it for now, as nothing she could do would help the situation at present. They both took a fifth passage, which left Nooj and Paine to take the sixth.


“Do you think Nikki's correct? Did we choose the wrong doorway?” Cyan asked me as we headed off.


“I think Nikki's furious.”


“That's a calamitous emotion to have for a leader.”


“She's only human. I suppose this place brings calamitous emotions into play.”


“It does seem so.” Cyan said with a sigh.


In the distance, we could see where the path we were on was leading and it wasn't good. Once we were out, I took to leaning against the wall while Cyan began investigating the other doorways, using her communicator to enquire where the others were. However, moments later, we both knew, as did the others. We were back in the same room with the passages, only we had exited out of adjacent doorways to the ones we had entered. Joseph took this opportunity to shoot a look at Nikki who simply growled another swear before taking us back to the same doorway we had originally used.


Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement and turned toward it to find nothing, “Did you see that?” I asked Cyan.


“Did you see something, Mishka?”


“No, I suppose I didn't.”


The next cloisters followed the same pattern and round and round we went. We would stop once in a while on the quieter cloisters; Nikki knew we needed rest even if we were lost. However, none of us really could rest until we found a way out of the loop. The twins began suggesting theories that we were caught by Via Infinito just like Rikku and that was why we couldn't find her. It was the type of thinking that had us all on edge, but Nooj would find a way to keep the calm going.


“Thinking we're trapped won't do anything except leave us that way. We've been going around these cloisters over and over again. That means that's all we have to work with. I'd say we've got to be more keen on our observations from now on.”


“Nooj is right. If we're not getting anywhere by doing the same thing, we've obviously been doing something wrong. I did notice one thing already.” Paine added, getting everyone's attention, “The escape portals are all gone. The first time we came down here, some of the cloisters had exit portals back to the surface. Now, those are all missing from these cloisters. What does that tell you?”


“We're trapped. What else should it tell us?” Val said, holstering his gun.


“Thinking a bit more outside the box here.” Paine retorted.


“You're saying we did choose the wrong door?” Nikki asked, irritating Joseph in the process.


“No, there's more to it.”


Nooj decided to offer another suggestion, “Maybe the right way was the trap. You told me Via Infinito is a labyrinth, right? Baralai told me Via Infinito's original purpose was to keep Yevon's secrets. I suppose if you want a secret kept, you set it into a maze with no right way out.”


“Impossible. The Gullwings successfully investigated the whole of this labyrinth.”

“The Gullwings didn't dig deep enough. They were only after Trema and the sphere he still had on his person.”


“You suggest we've come upon a deeper secret?” Joseph said, inserting himself into the conversation.


“That or, at least, it thinks we have.”


“You say that like you believe this place is alive.” I had heard the scary stories a thousand times.


“Your people believe it is.”


“Don't buy into all the local legends.”


“It's still the best idea I've heard. We'll go with it. Besides, Mishka, your friend Keema believes it, too.” Nikki noted, moving to scan every corner of the present cloister.


“Mishka.” Cyan said, coming up to me and placing her hand on my back.



I did already know it was alive by this point. There were so many happenings that made me a believer, but what could we have possibly seen that would make Via Infinito want us trapped down here? That's when I remembered all that I had seen down here. The quiet screamers, the Blurry Moon that suddenly found me, my odd new abilities, and something down here was still whispering to me. It was just that, at the time, I didn't want to hear it.


While we investigated, I decided it was time to hear those whispers, but what happened instead was that I heard something else. There was something down here with us. Not to alert it to the fact that I was looking for it now, I let the others continue searching Cloister 45. As for me, I stalked about, hoping my ears were drawing me closer to the thing that was making those sounds and perhaps...


“Mishka, I think we might have found something!” The twins said, surprising me.



“You did? Where?” Paine immediately asked, having them lead her.


The disruption lost me my prey. I couldn't hear the sounds anymore and, after Paine identified what the twins found to be the broken rim of a sphere embedded against the lower corner of a wall, we decided to move on. The next cloister would take us the longest to search and Kyra began acting irritable. Joseph tried soothing her by telling her the spider fiend had gone and each time we came to this maze, it hadn't been there. However, Kyra was still worried and kept placing her hand over her arm where the smaller spider had touched. Eventually, by the time we arrived once again in the room with multiple doorways, Nikki set her mind as ease, tapping the spot on her arm with the tip of an arrow she said was an “anti-spider” arrow.


There it was again. “Did someone hear that?”


However, it was different this time. Before, it had sounded like a light tapping, as if someone was knocking on the ground with a finger. This time, I could have almost believed it was laughter, as if something was snickering in the dark.


On the next cloister, I heard it even more distinctly. Something was there. While the others continued the task of searching the walls, I found myself wandering off into the narrow hall. After a few turns, I couldn't even hear the others anymore, but I was beginning to hear the snickering clearer. Finally, slowing my pace and staying close to one of the walls, I managed to peek to the next turn and see what had been following us. There, just a short distance away from me, was a monkey, just sitting by itself laughing. Before I even knew it, it stuck its finger out at me and snickered more. It knew I was tracking it. It wanted me to.


“Alright, you got me. Now what do you want?”


It didn't answer me. Instead, it simply picked up a pebble off the ground and threw it right at my forehead, pointing and laughing some more. I figured it deemed me harmless so I began taking steps towards it. Perhaps, the way out was to catch it. However, as soon as I stood directly in front of it, the small creature took off and I was forced to chase after it.


With such a narrow hall, I could do nothing but go with it, stopping me from making any attempts at catching the thing. It kept going and I hoped I'd catch it before it jumped down into the next cloister, but as it would turn out, the monkey had taken me to somewhere new. Instead of the exit at the end of the hall, I found a door. Just a simple wooden door that you could find in any home on the surface, but this door had most certainly not been there before. On the other side of it, I could hear something and, with the monkey staying put for the moment, I chose to investigate.


I could barely make out what I was hearing, but it was a repeating message. After a bit, I started mouthing the words to myself, though it turned out to be only a nursery rhyme. Looking down at the monkey, I saw that it was staying put.


“Is this where I should go?” I asked it.


Unexpectedly, the small creature began nodding in an enthusiastic manner, happy chirps letting me know I had guessed its meaning correctly. Slowly, and with one hand holding the hilt of Blurry Moon, I opened the door and entered. I found myself back in the room the “bongo bongo” creature had sent me to last, the one where Gideon's mother had said the unsent were trapped in. This time, there was no one to greet me. The room felt colder than last time and, as I would notice, one of the empty pictures had filled up. Before I had a chance to look at it closer, I heard a


“Sissy sissy! You're here!” The little girl shouted, happily bouncing on what I could only assume was her bed.


The room I was in had to be her room. It was littered with dolls and toys, even that same table she had used to “serve tea” to myself and Cyan before. Walking over to her, I could hear her mumbling to herself about the monsters not being scary, that she was not scared of them, and that that had been what her sister had told her to do.


“What's the matter?” I asked her, sitting next to her.


“It's the monsters, sissy! The monsters are hiding in the dark!”


“Where are there monsters?” I said, going along with whatever she was on about this time, “How rude of them to scare you like this.”


“There.” She said, pointing to her closet with a shakey finger, “The monsters, there are so many of them now.”


I stood and went over to the closet, opening the door despite her plea, but nothing came out at me. With that, I turned and showed her the empty closet, “There aren't any monsters here. You see? Only shadows and shadows can't harm you.”


“No, the monsters are hiding there. They come out only when it's dark.”


I took a great big sigh. My friends were all caught in a loop by Via Infinito and she was on about childhood monsters in this fake room in this fake house that she had lured me into twice now. Without a second thought, I walked over to the wall and switched off the light she had on. Strangely, it seemed to have dimmed the faux natural light entering the room from the draped window. Once I had shown her that it was indeed dark in her closet, I threw it open as wide as it could go and, as anyone could see, no monsters.


“See? No monsters, not even when it's dark.” I told her, even stepping inside the closet to prove to her there wasn't a thing in there.


“But... it isn't dark.”


Those words pierced through me and I honestly felt there was truth to her words. Even standing in the dark closet and knowing full well there couldn't have been a thing inside, my heartbeats quickened and I was put unease. Memories of that cloister surged back to the surface, those unvoiced shrieks of pain and despair that had permeated my entire being seemed to be gripping me tighter, though I knew nothing was there. In a start, I turned around to face the closet and found nothing, but my fear wouldn't alleviate.


“Will you stay with me tonight, sissy?” I heard the little girl ask of me.


Her innocent words evoked my courage and I realised how silly I was behaving. Swallowing my fright, I walked over to her and sat back down next to her as I had been earlier. I extended my arm and allowed her to tug it behind her shoulders, her tiny form cuddling close to my side as she let go of a shiver. We stayed like that for quite some time, the little girl never wanting to let me to stray even an inch. What had her so terrified? I found myself wanting to know, wanting to because I wanted to protect her from all the awful things.


“Sissy, why are they trying so hard?” She asked me suddenly.


“Who?”


“All of our other friends. They keep winding it, but do they want Jack to come out of the box?”


I guessed that she meant the others and how we were all still lost in the loop, “We need to see the Jack. If we don't, we'll have to keep winding until it comes out. We will have to wind it for a long time.”


I hoped words like that might set her in the right direction to unveil some secret to getting us out of the loop, but she only said, “Maybe Jack ought to stay inside. Maybe the others really want it to stay inside.”


“What makes you say that?”


“Because they're still winding and it won't come out. It won't come out and they just keep winding.”


“What else is there to do?”


“Stop.”


“If we stopped, then wouldn't the Jack stay in the box for sure?”


“If they stopped, they could find another way to open the box.”


“You think we can?”


“You would have if you really wanted him to come out by now. But you don't want him to come out. When he comes out, it's fast. Too fast. Maybe they won't like the surprise. Sissy, please stay. I'm scared of the monsters. They speak of you. They say that you protect me. Sissy, will you...”


“...stay still! It's bad enough you'd got us all back down here again. I won't have you walking right up to Sir Auron in this state!” Cyan shouted, holding me by the waist on the same side the little girl had been hugging.


“Cyan?”


“Finally! You're back with me, but you've really gotten us into a fix. How did you manage to find the sinkholes anyway?” She grumbled, letting me go.


My eyes scanned the area before realising that we were back in the same tunnel the little girl had trapped Sir Auron in. Looking to find the others, I found Nikki and Kyra kneeling by the same treasure chest that had first led us out of here and into the maze of Cloister 46. I wasn't quite sure what came over me next, but I felt I needed to stop them and dove for the chest just before they could open it.


“Mishka, have you lost your fucking mind? What are you doing?” Nikki roared, grabbing for my hand so that I would release the butterfly from the chest.


“I'm getting us out of here! ... I hope...”
.
With that said, I took hold of Blurry Moon and slammed the hooked tip into the wall where I remembered the butterfly had opened the way to the maze. As luck would have it, that part of the wall was actually a weak spot. Using the hook, I pulled down and crumbled the rock, effectively creating a path out of the tunnel. In another surprise, doing so bypassed the maze completely and we found ourselves back on Cloister 44, finally a change to what had been going on before.


“Winding and winding, the level going around. Jack waits in the dark, he doesn't make a sound. Winding, still winding, won't they let him out? Once they see him, oh they see him, but why do they pout?”


Those words echoed in my head and I took my eyes to all corners of the cloister. I saw my confused and worried friends and the fiends steadily drawing nearer. I recalled the words the little girl had said to me in her room, that perhaps we were trapped in the loop at our own behest, because we didn't really want to continue down this dungeon and I knew it to be true. It was fear. It was fear that this place thrived on. It was fear that it wanted us to have, but we were stronger than it had considered. And I used to break the box to get my Jack to come out.


“Mishka, whatever you're going to do, do it.” Nikki said to me, drawing her bow at the fiends and firing her triple arrow.


I nodded to her and kicked open the treasure chest. The blue butterfly flew out into the scorched environment, its wings glistening against the flames. As they fluttered, I felt the temperature drop and, within moments, the whole of the cloister froze into sheets of ice. The butterfly slowly glazed over, as well, and when it shattered on the ground that used to be a pool of molten ash, so did the cloister, until we found ourselves in a dimly lit space. One by one, glyphs began to alight and we could see that we had been taken to a new cloister.


“Are we...” Cyan whispered.


“Cloister 50. We're here.” Paine finished her sentence for her.


“And we're not alone.” Nooj added, pointing to a figure standing in the distance.


The figure was of a man and he was adorned in armour. He had only recently reclaimed his identity, having hidden it away under a mask and metal plating. However, as we would find, it isn't easy to lose masks.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

Upon entering the 50th cloister, Gideon felt a sharp shiver go up and down his spine, for, which he couldn't identify the reason, although something told him that either the unsent girl had something to do with it, or the Farplane style environment was getting to him.

Looking around, he saw Nikki, Joseph and the rest of the team walking up to him. Letting his mind wander, he found himself thinking about his deceased parents....more importantly, his mother, who was the first to be lost to Via Infinito. He had never forgiven her for working within Via Infinito nor his father, for failing to search properly, and ultimately dying upon exiting the dungeon after fleeing, mortally wounded from a fight with a Tonberry King, which had wiped out the search team.

Just as he brought himself back to “reality”, he saw that everyone had converged on him with weapons drawn. “What's up? I'm not being kicked out again an I?” He asked.

“You’ve been a very naughty boy, naughty naughty.” came a child-like voice from behind him. Then on turning around, he found himself face-to-face with the unsent girl, then she walked straight into him, causing pyreflies to both surround him, and come out of him. Within his mind, he could hear the girl talking to him, “It’ll be fun to play with you.”

As the girl entered his mind, he felt pain as though 10,000 needles were being thrust directly into his head. “Get out of me.” he heard himself say, although he found himself helpless to what she was doing. “Oooh. I like this memory. I'm going to watch it.” he heard her say, as she brought up a particular painful memory. “No! Not that one. Anything but that one.” he pleaded. “You can't stop me from watching it. It should be more entertaining that you are.” she said.

“That’s right little one keep going unleash his rage” an older female voice said.

“This is fun!” the little girl said giggling

The area changed to Bikanel Island: “Mother, can me and Gideon take on that weird plant thing? I can show you how good I have got with fire spells.” asked Kane. “Ok dear, but remember to call us if the fight gets too much for the both of you.” replied Mother. At first the battle went well, the Sandragora was taking a lot of punishment from both Kane's spells, and Gideon's slashes, with Gideon healing his brother as and when needed. Unfortunately, just when they were in grasp of winning, the Sandragora put the confuse status on Kane and Gideon. Before long both lads were very low on health. Sadly, just as Gideon came to his senses, and the worried parents came to aid them, the Sandragora used a Seed Burst on Kane, killing him outright.

After watching his body fall to the ground, Gideon's own anger erupted. Filled with revenge over his fallen brother, he leapt at the fiend, as though berserked, and literally tore it apart.

Outside, the pyreflies that were swirling around him, started moving faster and faster. Within his mind, all Gideon could see, was that the team he was with, was replaced with Sandragora's, and in the middle, he could only see the limp body of Kane. “Get away from him.” he found himself saying, with an angry voice. Then getting up, shadows started appearing from behind him. As they took form, the team saw that each shadow was a copy of Gideon, and that they were being surrounded by each copy. “Get away from my brother now!” he shouted.

“No no no this isn’t good, he’s turned scary!” the little girl said to the team. “Sleep little one,” Gideon couldn't hear the little girl anymore. “Now you are under my control” said the older female voice with a laugh. “DESTROY THEM!” As if a switch had been pressed, both Gideon and his copies entered berzerked status, and attacked the team. While the copies focussed on certain members of the team, Gideon went after the 2 largest “Sandragora's”, which happened to be Nikki and Joseph.

With fire burning over his armour, Gideon released his poisonous wrist-blades and charged straight at Nikki, who was able to fire 2 triple arrows straight at him before he got too close, but these burned up by the fire before they hit the armour. It was only Joseph intervening with his sword that stopped Gideon skewering Nikki into the wall. Being knocked back, Gideon heard himself let out an in-human roar, as he slammed the wrist-blades into the floor, causing a fire quake to rip towards both of them. As they jumped apart, the fire quake exploded, where they had stood making a shock-wave that blew rocks and molten lava everywhere, narrowly missing the core members of the team, but hitting several members of the Al Bhed, killing them outright. Nikki shouted at Gideon “Stop attacking us moron. We aren't your enemies”.

Charging yet again, Gideon set his sights on Nikki. When he was close enough, he jumped at her, with wrist-blades poised like fangs ready to strike..... Then with a “No naughty boy!” the little girl then tumbled out of him and fell down on her bum. She as she stood up and rubbed herself down she said “Owie!” A Behemoth appeared next to her and she climbed on it’s back and they dispersed together.

Looking round at the dispersing clones, Gideon said, “I guess.... I never got over the death of my brother.” Then as he looked back at the team, he said “Fortunately, I found something else to protect and fight with.” Looking at him, Joseph asked, “What did you find?” Smiling, Gideon said “Well, simply put, all of you. And yes, Nikki...... even you. I have learnt, that my strength is the team. And as such, I have got stronger from being with all of you. I consider you as friends.”

With that, everyone dusted themselves down from the fight, grouped back together, and decided what to do next, and Gideon felt a lot stronger from the experience, though he didn't thank the girl for putting him through it.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~


As the little girl possessed Gideon, Nikki got herself ready for battle, “Here we fucking go again” muttered Nikki under her breath. However as she did, the group also heard the older female menacing voice, they heard her a few times before but she seemed to be egging on the unsent girl on and who the fuck knew what she was.

A painful memory of Gideon’s showed, one that showed how he had lost brother while training in Bikanel, Nikki was reminded of Kyra’s memory and how similar it was to this only in this one Gideon went into a fit of rage at the end of it.

“Get away from him.” Shouted Gideon at the team, Nikki gripped her bow as the pryeflies spun angrily around. Shadows rose from the ground.

“No, it’s just a shadow, shadows can’t hurt you see.” The same younger voice entered her head at this point she had grown so used to it being there that she didn’t question it. The shadows then turned into copies of Gideon.

“Get away from my brother now!”

"Oh for fucks sake” thought Nikki.

“No no no this isn’t good, he’s turned scary!” The little girl seemed to be panicking at this point.

“Sleep little one. Now you are under my control, DESTROY THEM!” Nikki didn’t hear a reply from the unsent girl.

“Shit!” was all Nikki could think of in that moment because Gideon cam charging right at her his armor burned in fire which only seemed to strengthen his attacks, Nikki launched two triple arrows but they got burned before they hit, she had hoped to disarm him but that was a no joy. “Fuck” said Nikki as she saw her arrows burn to a crisp. Nikki flipped backwards narrowly missing Gideon’s poison wrist blade attack, that moment of distraction allowed Joseph to intervene. Gideon was knocked back but he let out a roar which sent shivers down Nikki’s spine. “Whatever the fuck is possessing him it’s far worse than just the unsent girl.” Nikki called to Joseph. They then both jumped out the way as a huge attack was sent their way releasing hot lava in a huge crack in the floor, Nikki barely missed it but she saw that some of the flying rocks had killed some of the Albehd. She noticed that Kyra was perfectly safe but the others were having a hard time with the clones, Kyra was facing five on her own and it didn’t look too good for the group. “Stop attacking us moron we aren’t your enemies!” That didn’t seem to do anything though and he seemed to be fixated on Nikki. “Why the fuck is it always me!” thought Nikki as she waited for his next move, but it never came, the little girl had seemed to have woken up and suddenly shouted out.

“No, naughty boy!” The little girl tumbled out of him and then landed awkwardly on the floor. “Owie!” she rubbed herself as a behemoth appeared. She then climbed on it and dispersed.

“How the fuck can unsent feel pain!”

After the battle Nikki began to think on what exactly was happening to her, practically ignoring what Gideon was saying since it was only being egotistical, she had reacted badly to Joseph, she knew that but she was pissed off, really pissed off that she couldn’t quite remember the memory that was about the gang and Sanika, a memory that she had hoped to use her advantage. It wasn’t quite gone it was just blurry, she couldn’t remember details but she did know what had happened to her, she supposed she had told herself so many times and she had lived with it so long that those memories filled the gaps for her. It was only because of that and the fact that she dreamed about it that she knew exactly what had happened to her and how she dealt with it. However the actual memory of it was gone, every time she tried to remember she only hurt her head, it was much like when she tried to remember her parents or the first five years of her life, she couldn’t remember anything and had to live with that. She swore to herself she wouldn’t lose any other memories no matter how terrible they were. However it had happened again and that was the cause of her recent mood change.

She tried to piece together what had happened in her head.

Then the group moved onto the portal and found themselves at the start of Cloister 47, suddenly the pryeflies from the walls of the cloister gathered and flung themselves, screaming into Nikki, she fell to her knees in pain grabbing at her head. “Ahhh!!”“Nikki, no what’s going on, it’s not her is it?”“No the little girl doesn’t appear to be here.” Then as quickly as they went in they drifted out and then proceeded to form to figures in front of them one made everyone gasp it was a younger version of Nikki, her as a 14 year old, in a full black outfit with her bow and arrow loaded, glaring at the group. Next to her an older girl appeared in a long black dress with long black hair that reached her ankles, fear reached into the pit of Nikki’s stomach as she recognised her as Sanika, but as a 17 year old.

Nikki remembered the pain but she also remembered the feeling of losing something, how she tried so hard to keep hold of something in her head but she grew more fearful as it faded until eventually it was gone and she was left in a nervous wreck., with little option left she had shouted at everyone to do as the little girl said. She supposed this was when she had lost that memory but why? And where did it go? These questions confused her, they only pissed her off more as they ran round and round her head to the point where she had lost her temper at Joseph, because not only was her head fucked up but they had gotten lost.

“Joseph, I think you picked the wrong path. That's where all this started to go wrong.” Nikki suddenly said.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Joseph said with a hint of frustration.

“It has to be. We were fine until you pulled that stunt and got us lost in this trap!”“Nikki, what's got into you?” Kyra said worriedly.

Her mind was beginning to calm now she had begun to reflect and calm herself but now begun the next challenge but because of her lack of memory she begun to tremble a bit as she heard the words.

“We think we all deserve a rest” exclaimed the twins, after all that had happened they had probably forgotten what was waiting for them on the surface. However even with Nikki lack of memory she could feel that familiar presence in her mind, letting her know that she was here and was waiting for them.

“Sanika, she’s here, she’s waiting for us.” She started to shake as she remembered the double’s words and how she had reacted to her own double.

Nikki was busy fighting her younger version of herself, the younger version only seemed to have eyes for her and was easily dodging everyone else attacks, but seemed to be fixated on Nikki only, every strike she pulled was intended for an instant kill. By this time Nikki herself was wearing down, with incredible speed the younger Nikki jumped and drew her arrow and was charging an Ultima arrow until suddenly she stopped her attack she instead brought down her leg on Nikki and kicked her in the stomach at full force pushing her away. Painfully Nikki grabbed at her stomach thinking “Bitch” she then heard her younger self cry out.

“NO!” the first vocal words she had said since meeting the group, as Nikki shakily stood up she saw a cloud of electricity from where multiple thundaga arrows had been shot, and when it had cleared she could see her younger self crying cradling the double Sanika in her arms. “Please, please don’t leave me.”

Sanika replied to her, “You must survive young one. You are the stronger one and I will not let them take you from this world.” Using the last of her power she then seemed to teleport the younger Nikki away. Before completely fading she looked right at Nikki and said “You think you have defeated me. What waits on the surface for you is much worse. You are all fools for not dying here,” Sanika said, before fading completely.

But then she remembered Joseph’s words from before when she felt that she was in a pit of despair.

Nikki was rocking back and forth, in a completely state of fear that there was nothing they could do defeat Sanika and what was more frightening was that she had lost the one memory that could have helped to defeat her.

Suddenly she felt herself being pulled up and she heard the words “Nikki grit your teeth” she didn’t take any notice until a fist came flying at her jaw and she stumbled back a bit as she was in a state of shock, the fear slowly slid away as the pain went like a fire to her jaw and soon her voice came back to her as she thought.

“Why the fuck do people keep fucking hitting me, it’s getting bloody tiring being hit all the time!”“Joseph!!! What that necessary?!?!” Kyra yelled.

“Yes it was. Now listen up Nikki, you said to me that you fear losing someone down here. Now that will become a reality if you don’t stop your little breakdown episode. You fear this Sanika. It’s fine to fear her. My sensei told me that only an amateur would think about not being afraid. A skilled fighter knows the feeling of fear and does it anyways. Besides, you’re not alone in this fight. So snap out of your world and fight already,” Pissed at Joseph for punching her she then punched him back at which he just smiled and then replied. “Now that’s the Nikki I know. You feeling any better?” She then yelled at him.

“Shut your fucking mouth Joseph. I now have a splitting headache and my jaw hurts like hell,”

Nikki shook herself out of it she needed to be aware now more than ever, she wasn’t going to accomplish anything now by falling apart, the twins said a simple “Oh!” at the realisation of the next challenge. Nikki turned at the appearance of a bright white light and saw that Paine had already changed in the Psycher dressphere and she was now hovering which kinda unnerved Nikki a little bit.

“We better not keep her waiting then.” Said Val, they were tired, exhausted but that didn’t mean that Nikki wasn’t going down without a fight, this could be their last battle.

“If it’s going to be the last battle it’s going to be a fucking fantastic one.” Nikki looked around at everyone, before turning to Kyra who had put a hand on her shoulder to reassure Nikki, with that they went through the portal that led to the surface.

The surface was warm as Nikiki stepped out everyone was high on guard, it was quiet and peaceful, but Sanika didn’t seem to be there.

“This is strange, wasn’t she meant to attack us by now” said Gideon after a few minutes of silence. Nikki was in a whirl of thoughts, she thought that she had felt her inside her head but now she felt nothing.

The Lady Yuna and Sir Tidus came over to them. “We’ve evacuated all the children from the temple but there haven’t been any reports of anyone spotting Sanika heading this way” The Lady Yuna was also in her Psycher Dressphere. “I’ve tried to trace her magic but I can’t find it.” Nikki was relieved that all the children were out of harm’s way but was worried that Sanika hadn’t attacked yet.

“Nikki is this what she normally does? Wait before she attacks?” asked Kyra, Nikki held her head.

“I’m sorry but I can’t remember...” Suddenly Joseph let out a groan of pain and let out some choking noises, Nikki turned suddenly to see that he had been thrown against the wall and had made an indent with the impact. He was being held there off the ground and with an invisible force chocking him by the neck, with the sound of footsteps she saw Sanika walk towards them her right hand stretched out controlling the magic that was grasped at his neck. Her black hair was at the floor she was much older now she was 22 years old now and looked completely comfortable with her magic and more confident with it. She still wore that same long black dress with high heeled black shoes but her eyes now had changed colour to a light purple.

Nikki could see that Yuki, Yuna and Paine were having great difficulty in trying to push her magic back, and a volley of shots came from the Albehd but a wave of her magic killed all of the Albehd that were left, Nikki shot triple artrow at her but they just bounced off her shield and she said simply without turning to her. “Little Nikki, I told you not to interfere.” Before pushing her so she skidded along the ground. She then turned her attention to Joseph. Ignoring the attacks being aimed at her, each attack was reflected back and it took all three of their psychic mages just to let Joseph breath but still being hung in the air. Nikki heard her say to him. “What a grievous crime you have committed against my father, you taunted him and his word is law, you also are the one responsible for stopping Nikki from coming home. For that I see no other punishment for you but death” she then seemed to take notice of the three mages that were letting him breathe. “I’m sorry but he has to die” she then sent another wave of her power to the mages knocking them off their feet, Sir Tidus ran at her but was flung like a doll at the wall. Nikki found the whole time that Sanika had already sapped all of her energy she hardly had any energy to stand but she did and she slowly tried to load her arrow. After Sanika seemed satisfied with taking care of the psychic mages she then started to choke Joseph again this time teleporting around so Nikki couldn’t target her.

Time was running out Val managed to launch some sort of attack that Nikki hadn’t seen before it penetrated her shield, but she stopped the bullet with her hand and simply said “Clever boy” before launching it back at him, Nikki launched more arrows at her when she paused but she reflected them into a wall, she then suddenly turned her head straight at Nikki. “You don’t remember me like you should.”

“Fuck she noticed.” Thought Nikki, the good thing was though she suddenly released Joseph who fell to the floor gasping for breath, Nikki noticed that Kyra ran to him.

“Joseph are you okay!?”

“She’s just concerned that’s all” thought Nikki even though her fist clenched a bit but this was no time to get jealous she knew this. Sanika waved a hand two people teleported either side of her both clad in black, one was a male and had his mouth covered intro a black material revealing only his blue eyes , one would think he was a ninja, but Nikki knew better even though he had the use of wrist blades he was in fact an experienced red mage, knowing both white and black magic spells. Sanika often called him “Uncle” she had been in the gang for a very long time. The other was a girl she was also clad in black, but her head was uncovered she had brown hair, brown eyes and hair was tied in a high ponytail, she carried a bow and also had a dagger strapped to her for close combat. She was younger and round about Nikki’s age.

“I’m afraid you two must take care of these weaklings, I have much more important matters to take care of.”

“Do not take long Sanika, you know what your father said.”

“Yes Uncle I know.” Sanika waved her arms powering up the two so that the battle was now even, even though the two were outnumbered. Sanika then teleported right in front of Nikki. “Now this may hurt.” Nikki cried out in pain as once again her head seemed to ache in an incredible pain bringing her to her knees. “There, there little Nikki it’s okay just a few more minutes.” She could hear the yells of her comrades. “Oh your memory is completely gone! Now where did it go?” Magic surrounded Nikki and beams of light suddenly shot from her into the entrance of the Via Infinito. “Come, release her stolen memory to me!” Pain leaving Nikki she shakily stood up.

“What the fuck does she mean stolen, I thought it was just lost?” she thought.

“Yes stolen little Nikki please keep up.” Said Sanika. Nikki saw the magic then come out of the Via Infinito making a glyph on the floor suddenly the fourteen year old Nikki appeared looking confused about how she got there, but then spotting Nikki she was about to load an arrow until Sanika waved her arms and sent the fourteen year old flying into a wall. The fourteen year old shakily stood up with her bow and arrow.

“Sanika I thought they killed you” Sanika silently just teleported towards her, Nikki herself however had a spell put on her so her feet or arms couldn’t move Sanika was keeping her back so that she couldn’t help her friends who seemed to get severely beaten but also the other two didn’t look in a too good of a shape either. Sanika just flung the young Nikki again next to the wall.

“How interesting you are so much like her.”

“Why...” croaked out the fourteen year old.

“Why? What a silly question because you have stolen a memory , you are fake.” The fourteen year old Nikki shakily stood up.

“No... She’s the fake one and I can see now that you are too!” She tried to attack her but Sanika stood her still.

“Shame it’ll be so easy to destroy you but little Nikki needs her memories back so back you go.” She flung her back into the entrance of the Via Infinito where she disappeared. Nikki suddenly felt herself able to move again and Sanika teleported to the top of the temple. “Now this will be fun to watch.”

“Sanika stop playing.” Said the red mage.

“Oh I’ll only play for a little while Uncle, you two can have fun while I’ll watch” She waved her hand to heal both of them to full health and Nikki charged back into battle thinking it will take a miracle to survive this.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~


As more confusing events took place in this eerie place, Kyra was getting more and more anxious about getting to the surface. The thing that kept her from doing anything rash was the slightly small fact that Sanika was waiting for them. After their last run in, it was clear that she meant to kill Joseph. This thought alone scared Kyra.

It was weird though. It really does seem that the Via Infinito can pull out one’s greatest fear. This place even pulled out a massive fucking spider. Kyra’s been afraid of spiders since she was little. The way the Via Infinito pointed out her weakness like that kind of scared her. It made the place all the more mysterious at the same time. What other fears did this team have? What more will this team need to fight down here?

Gideon was standing in front of them now. The crew approached him with their weapons drawn. Soon after, he was possessed by the girl. She showed a painful memory of his. “Was this girl really trying to help us? Or was she the one bringing out our greatest fears?” Kyra noticed the memory was pretty close to hers. She just couldn’t relate to the absolute rage that followed immediately after. The other voice came from the girl and showed its true intentions. Clones of Gideon, or in this case Kane, started to rise from the floor. They were all given berserk status. Kyra caught a glimpse of Gideon charging after Nikki and Joseph full of absolute rage. She would have gone to help, but she noticed two of the clones were charging toward her with a berserk status. “Holy fuck...” she thought. She charged her magic and braced herself. They were strong, but still slow. She used this to her advantage and slashed one with a thunder infused blade. It didn’t make much of a dent, which worried her. Three other clones had made their way over to make things interesting. “Change of Plan. What the hell is this guy’s weakness?” She thought as she avoided their attacks.

“Hey, since when do you swear so much?” Aiko noticed Kyra’s thoughts.

“Not now Aiko. I’m busy. “

Kyra stayed on defence with these five clones. She figured using stronger attacks would be better in this case. She charged a Crystallum Nix attack and aimed for the closest clone’s arm. It froze just the arm and shattered the armour that surrounded it. She was shocked to see that the armour was just a hollow shell. She let her guard down and barely missed a swing from one of the clones behind her. “Why are there so many?“. She worked out a water spell before doing a back flip to get away from the five clones. She charged her blade with a thunder spell and got herself ready for the Shockwave attack. The water caught the electricity and she successfully hit all five of them at once, making them disoriented. She did notice she made a huge crack in the floor and wondered if that was from her own attack or someone else’s. One of the clones made a seeming aimless swing and barely missed her head, cutting off a little bit of hair in the process. “Fuck, that was close.”. She got fed up with fighting like this, so she jumped high in the air, and came down hard on one of the clone’s chest, shattering the armour entirely. That was when she heard the little girl’s voice say, “No, Naughty Boy” and she was able to get out of Gideon and disappeared on a behemoth. The rest of the clones disappeared shortly after.

Kyra caught her breath and sheathed her Gunblade. She had a bone to pick with the voice in her head. She was also wondering why someone would say that they appreciate the team as friends, but just moments ago, he was attacking us with a blind rage. It made her think that whatever was controlling him was trying to tear the team apart. Kyra wasn’t sure about it, so she stopped thinking about it. Too much was on her mind at that moment. One thing in particular was Aiko. She gathered that this would be the final chance she would get to speak with this ‘gift’ whether it was real or not. Kyra looked over to Nikki with concern. It looked like she was trying to sort out her own thoughts before heading to the surface. Who knew what was going to happen up there. Maybe they could all die...It was another thought that Kyra didn’t want to think about.

“Hey, Aiko. You have no idea what I went through after your death. To be able to speak to you now is rather confusing to me. I started to swear heavily after your death. Got into some things that I’m not very proud of. Old habits die hard, you know?”

“I see, you did find those letters, right?

“I did. Only really recently though. It doesn’t matter what happened then. All I know is that this is where I belong, and she...” Kyra looked over at Nikki.

“Ooh, that look. I know that look. For all you know, I don’t even exist anymore, but I can still put two and two together. She needs you. You like her. This is what I was telling you about. It looks like I can’t spend much more time with you Kyra. Go get her...” before the sentence was finished, a single pyrefly left from Kyra and disappeared into the depths of the Via Infinito. A single tear fell from Kyra’s eye. She thought of saying a thank you, but it wouldn’t have been heard. Damn this place was confusing.

Next on her mind was the situation she had between Nikki and Joseph. It was more than obvious that they both cared about her. She cared about the both of them as well. The comments they both made when they visited that spider room all those times made that clear. Kyra didn’t know why, but she felt something that wasn’t there. It could have been because the first time she was there, she went into a fight or flight mode and went on an all out spider killing rampage. Such an event can cause recurring thoughts and memories when they return to the place it happened. Joseph tried to soothe Kyra by pointing out the obvious, but that didn’t change what Kyra felt every time she entered that room. Nikki’s attempt to make Kyra feel better was a little more humorous. Although the ‘anti-spider’ arrow was probably the lamest thing on the face of Spira, it was the thought that counts. Kyra even got a smile out of it. The more Nikki changed, the more Kyra might actually start to develop strong feelings for the girl. That doesn’t mean that Kyra doesn’t care about Joseph. He is still a friend after all.

Kyra snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the twins say “Oh!” In realization of what was waiting on the surface.

Paine changed into her Psycher dressphere and hovered slightly off the ground.

“We better not keep her waiting then.” Val said.

Kyra made her way over to Nikki. She was nervous and Kyra could tell. Kyra was a little better at hiding her own fear, but if she had to admit it, she would say that she was fearful of these next events. Kyra put a hand on Nikki’s shoulder for reassurance. Everyone made their way to the portal shortly after.

The temple was quiet. Almost too quiet. The anticipation in the room was almost deadly.

“This is strange, wasn’t she meant to attack us by now?” Gideon asked breaking the silence.

Yuna and Tidus had made their way over to the group. The children had been evacuated, but there was still no sight of Sanika anywhere.

“Nikki, is this what she normally does? Wait before she attacks?” Kyra asked, Nikki held her head.

“I’m sorry but I can’t remember...” Nikki said.

Immediately after Nikki said that, choking noises could be heard from the direction Joseph was standing. In fact, it was Joseph. Before Kyra could react, he’d been thrown against the wall. Kyra looked to the other side of the room and found Sanika. She looked relatively the same as what they encountered in the Via Infinito, but she had a heck of a lot more confidence than before. The mages went in to try to defend Joseph, or at least let him breathe. Since Kyra’s magic was limited, she was a little helpless to their current situation. Sanika made a comment to Nikki after she shot a triple arrow, then sent her back. Kyra wanted to run to Nikki, but she couldn’t move. Why couldn’t she move?

More attempts to make Sanika let Joseph go were made, but none were successful. Val even took a shot at her, but she caught it before any damage was made. The only thing that made her stop was the fact that Sanika seemed to notice something was wrong with Nikki’s memory. She dropped Joseph and set her focus to Nikki. The change in motive scared Kyra even more, but she went to check if Joseph was alright.

“I’m...fine.” He said through gasps of air. Kyra handed him a potion. Two people who were dressed in black were teleported into the battle by Sanika. A male and a female both dressed in complete black. All you could really see was the male’s eyes and the female’s head was uncovered. The male had wrist blades and was proficient in white and black magic. The female was an archer. Kyra could easily take down either one of them.

“I’m afraid you two must take care of these weaklings, I have much more important matters to take care of.” Sanika said.

“Do not take long Sanika, you know what your father said.”

“Yes Uncle I know.” Sanika had powered both of them up in order to take on the crew. Kyra was beginning to detest the magic of this girl. She’s having too much fun with this. Sanika was now preoccupied with Nikki, and left the rest of them to fight. Joseph initiated the attack as always. He and Gideon made their way to the red mage. Kyra decided to take the chance and head for the archer. Val kept his distance and made a few hits to the archer while Kyra had her distracted. Yuki kept her distance as well. Yuubou stayed back and helped Joseph and Gideon. Paine, Yuna and Tidus changed into a warrior dressphere and stayed on the offensive against these two.

Kyra only stopped once when she heard Nikki cry out in pain. She hated that sound. Whatever Sanika was doing to her, Kyra hated it. That was when the archer had made a swift punch to her jaw knocking her back into this battle. “I really need to stop losing concentration.”. Kyra slashed the archer. Although Kyra was quick, the extra power had made the archer a little faster than her. She kept doing back flips and sneaking in a few powerful shots to those attacking her from afar. “This is going nowhere fast...” Kyra said thinking out loud.

“How about you just give up so it makes my job easier, bitch.” The archer said.

“Keep dreaming.” Kyra smirked. She kept charging, but she wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer. She was too quick.

“Sanika, stop playing.” The red mage called out.

“Oh I’ll only play for a little while Uncle, you two can have fun while I’ll watch” She waved her hand to heal both of them to full health.

Some familiar arrows had hit the gang archer in the arm. “Looks like Nikki’s back, but these guys have been healed. Fuck, this is going to be a long battle.” Kyra thought as she pushed herself to keep going in this battle. How much longer did they need to fight like this?