Disclaimer: All rights for the Final Fantasy series goes to Square Enix. This story is a fan fiction in this franchise universe, categorized under fan fiction.
This story is obviously fiction. This story will also involve sexual and intimate relationships between two (or more) males, and if this offends you or it is illegal for you to be reading, then please leave. If you are under the age of consent for your community, please leave. And if it does offend you, I honestly don't know why you're even here in the first place. I mean, seriously. Come on.
Final Fantasy: Rosa
V
Heed the Dark
As Tori, Adrienne, and Silver stepped out into the night, a soft glow of darkened moonlight accompanied their trek. They had gone out the window and were now venturing through a peculiarly out-of-the-way series of bridges and alleys that didn't seem to connect to the back of any other house.
Tori, perhaps sensing Silver's apprehension as he held his arm and back in support, clarified. "Certain parts of Calledone got hit bad in the war with the Impirium. Real, real bad. Basically, we're walking along the edge of the part that no one had the guts to even comb through. You see the debris to your right?" Silver followed his gaze. He had thought it was just a wall of garbage, but he realized it was a gargantuanly large row of decaying buildings. "There are thousands dead in there, unnamed, unclaimed. It's bad karma to cut through."
"Buuut-" Adrienne piped up from ahead of them. "-we gotta get out of this dump. Now that we're on the run from the Dostravi." Silver opened his mouth to say something, but Adrienne stifled him. "No, we don't blame you. Besides, we... don't particularly like the Impirium to begin with. Anywho, the point is that we're going to take a detour."
"What do you mean?" Silver asked.
As soon as he had said that, the three of them stopped. Adrienne turned around and put her hands on her hips, her back facing the mouth of a large, dark cave embedded in a steep cliff face. "Calledone's ore mines. We were a mining town a long time ago. They should still lead us out of here."
Tori commenced to lead Silver forward, but Silver suddenly shook himself free from his grip. "I'm okay now. Thank you."
"Are you sure, you-"
"Don't worry about me, I can walk fine on my own."
For some reason, Adrienne looked a little bit mortified upon hearing Silver's voice. She retracted her gaze to the ground, and twiddled her fingers together behind her back. Tori took notice. "What's up?"
"Hm? Oh, oh nothing..."
"No, tell me, I wanna know." Tori insisted. Adrienne looked up at Silver, who was innocent enough, and then motioned Tori over. She whispered in his ear. Tori shook his head. "What? I can't hear you."
Adrienne cleared her throat. Silver raised his eyebrows in anticipation. "Err... I didn't know you were a guy." she said to Silver.
Tori gave a very offended expression, while Silver just looked blank. He straightened his shirt while Adrienne tried very hard to recover. "No, see, I mean, you know, I just, you know, I-I would um, take it as a good thing! You're very pretty!" Silver seemed to find this more audacious, and Adrienne shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! But it's no big deal! Take it as a compliment, you look nicer than this guy."
Tori narrowed his eyes. "Shut the hell up, Addy."
"Don't think too hard for a comeback. It might mess up your face, and that's the only thing you have going for you now..."
"That's all I need." Tori responded with mock arrogance.
"Ha! Tell the Impirium that." Adrienne plunged into the coal mine. Tori ran ahead of her, and Silver trailed at a reasonable pace.
Silver turned around, swearing he felt a breath on the back of his neck. The wind, perhaps? Silver shook it away, catching up with Adrienne before her platinum pink hair escaped his sight.
It didn't take long for Tori to stumble and the little moonlight left to die away. Adrienne clicked with her tongue. She held out her rod and shook it a little, as if it were a broken toy. A very bright spark of pink lightning appeared, obediently levitating above its head like a tiny sprite. The cave immediately glowed rosy with light. Adrienne turned around, and her smile and yellow eyes were evident in the strange glow. "Let the journey begin."
Adrienne had fallen asleep hours ago; the pink spark that she held at her whim somehow stayed alive and illuminated the hard ground they decided to camp out on.
Silver drew his knees to his chest then rested his head on his kneecaps. Tori observed him from afar. He remembered the nasty cuts in his wrists and ankles, and in the dim light Tori could see that he was still shivering despite dry clothes.
Tori got up and walked over, his boots scraping the dirt and causing Silver to look up. He met Tori's gaze with blue puppy-dog eyes that made Tori suddenly feel like melting. Tori cleared his throat and head, though he was barely articulate. "...You good?"
A nod.
"..." Tori couldn't resist anymore. "Sorry. For being a jerk."
"You weren't." Silver said, weakly. "You saved me."
Tori suddenly kneeled down next to Silver and gently took hold of his arm. Tori pulled his wrist towards him. He pointed to his wounds. "Why don't you heal yourself?"
"I have limited Magical Power. I won't waste it on my own flesh."
Very lightly, the tips of Tori's fingers exposed from the cut-off ends of his gloves traced the red edges of Silver's gashes. Silver instinctively drew back, and Tori tightened his grip to prevent him from moving. "Hold still for a sec, will ya?" he whispered commandingly. Silver, confused, complied.
Tori reached into his belt with his other hand and pulled out a small bottle of blue liquid. He flipped the cork with his thumb and poured several droplets on Silver's wrists. It felt cold, and caused Silver to gasp; a refreshing tingling traveled up and down his forearm. The wounds miraculously disappeared.
The look of astonishment on Silver's face was almost as if he felt that he didn't deserve healing, yet was given it anyway in an ultimate act of kindness. Tori recapped the bottle and put it back in his belt, and Silver rubbed his wrists. He didn't say a word, but his eyes shone thankfully. Tori pressed his hands together and rubbed them together while he crouched. "There. Better?"
"Thank you Tori."
"I...err, I..." Tori's blushing seemed so commonplace to Silver now that he barely noticed anymore. "...it's no big deal."
Then there was the issue of temperature. Perhaps Tori had dressed Silver out of his wet clothes, but that would do little to combat the fact that Silver's entire core temperature was probably lowered by the Blizzard spells. "You're cold, aren't you." Tori knew the answer already. He unraveled his red scarf, a difficult task considering its length. When he finally got it off, Silver marveled at how naked Tori looked without it, his strong neck completely exposed.
Tori wrapped the scarf around Silver's arms and shoulders then neck. Silver was so skinny and the cloth so long that it easily acted as a miniature shawl. Silver looked just a little bit ridiculous, but being bundled up was what he needed. "That should do it." Tori said.
"...Why are you doing this?"
"I thought I told you already. I saw something unfair, and I wanted to change it."
"But this is causing you so much trouble." Silver frowned and looked at Adrienne, who was still fast asleep on a slab of stone. "You had to leave your home because of me.You had to become fugitives."
Tori put a hand on his chin in thought. "Look. You're giving yourself too much credit. Me and Adrienne were always looking for some excuse to be a pain in the Impirium's ass. If it wasn't you, it would've been something... and I'd rather be helping rebels. "
As though trying to express something vague and nebulous, Silver opened and closed his mouth in contemplation. But he paused. "What is that?"
"What?"
"That scent. It's... it's so strong." Silver wrinkled his nose and then covered it. "Like roses and rot."
Tori looked around. "I can't smell it." Confused and a little bit frustrated by Silver's diversion, Tori changed the subject. "I'm going to sleep. Wake up Adrienne when you do." Without waiting for a response, Tori lay down on his own slab of rock and dozed off.
The silence grew thicker and the shadows with it. Something striking pierced Silver's heart. He looked over his shoulder. The darkness was otherworldly, unslain by fire. When Silver stared at it, it felt like something stared back into his own eyes, sucking the warmth out of him. Silver pulled Tori's scarf tighter to himself. At least he had something.
Legend had it that a young boy and girl once wandered into the deep caves of Calledone.
In the darkness, they were blind to the lies of the lighted world; together, their minds transcended...
The shadows changed them. The boy's hands grew as big as his body, touching the world, and his brain became rooted to the earth itself. The girl dissolved as her body transformed into smoke and wind, and the whisper of her voice.
So every time little boys and girls wander into the caves, they lose themselves in the darkness, and they meet Hands and Whisper- then disappear without a trace.
"How much further do we have?" Silver asked.
Adrienne turned her head towards him but didn't stop walking. "I haven't been keeping track of time. But we've been going for a while, so I'll just assume we're pretty close to the exit."
"What? You tired or something?" panted Tori. Now that Silver had recovered his normal body temperature, Tori's crimson scarf was replaced around his neck.
"I'm sorry. I can still go on, I was just curious."
Letting Tori take the lead, Adrienne drew back and patted Silver's shoulder. "Hey. Between you and me, you shouldn't say sorry to him. He doesn't deserve your politeness."
"I heard that!"
"Mmhmm."
Their interactions went mostly like that for what seemed like hours: Adrienne and Tori biting each other with sharp tongues, and Silver quiet with reserved cordiality. The routine broke when, while climbing a slight incline, Silver suddenly yelped and fell on his face.
The sound caught Tori and Adrienne's attention. Tori immediately swooped down to his knees and grabbed Silver's shoulders, as though he were still falling. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"I... ugh." Silver rose to his knees as well with Tori's help. He reached behind and rubbed his ankle. "Something caught my foot." he told him with curiosity in his voice.
Adrienne craned her light to focus on the ground behind Silver. She gave a small gasp. Silver had tripped on a hand, rotted to the bone but still with shreds of dead flesh, sticking out of the ground. Its fingers seemed to claw the air in a macabre still life.
Prompted to turn around as well, Tori and Silver caught sight of the hand. Both drew away from it and jumped to their feet.
"What is that?" Silver asked with hushed disgust.
Light still in hand, Adrienne bent down to examine the subject. Her gold eyes carefully probed it. "...There are a lot of stories about this place. Some say quite a few miners died, and I believe it. But it looks like this one was buried alive."
The prospect was unappealing, and the three decided to forget about it with great haste.
But it was hard to forget it when the darkness began to thicken into an underground night, and a certain scent began to permeate their nostrils.
Tori sniffed and then pulled his scarf up to cover the lower part of his face, exposing only his eyes. He turned around and faced Silver. "Is this the smell you were talking about?"
Silver, also covering his nose, shook his head. "No. I know this smell. It's death."
"Sh." Adrienne held up a hand in silence. "Listen."
A strange noise, clear, undefiled, unusually sharp. It started quiet, but as Adrienne, Tori, and Silver crept closer, it slowly crescendoed in volume. When they got close enough it was Tori that identified it. "A violin." he whispered. "What the fuck."
The violin's song was sad and sweet. It flowed rather than fluttered. It was glass not glitter. The path that Adrienne, Tori, and Silver took opened up into a large, circular, and flat venue, almost like a subterranean theatre. It was here the music echoed. But more importantly, it was here they saw the player. A thin, tall figure with its back turned. Its arm moved with passion, the shadows of its fingers flickered in Adrienne's pink light. But they could not see its face, and could not distinguish its features.
Silver spotted the threshold in the wall that led to the next tunnel across the theatre. Ignoring the violinist, he crept along the edge of the wall in silence.
But Tori grabbed his wrist. Silver frowned and turned around, but both Tori and Adrienne were enraptured by the song. "Wait." Tori said to him. "Don't you... Don't you wanna see who's playing it? It's beautiful."
"No. No, Tori-" Silver pulled on Tori's wrist with his free hand, attempting to keep him glued to the wall, but to no avail. Tori let go of Silver and then shook him off. He and Adrienne approached the violinist. Neither felt Silver trying to hold them back, neither heard his soft voice. All that mattered was the music.
They finally got close enough to touch him. Like metal to magnet, Tori's hand reached out to the violinist, followed by Adrienne's. It seemed the violinist, in anticipation, grew more aggressive, the bow flying back and forth, the notes growing harsher and louder, the fingers flying in some flyaway dance. Tori touched the violinist's shoulder. He froze. It was ice cold.
Suddenly, the violinist turned. Adrienne's rod shed light on its face, and she screamed as she drew back. The violinist's face was nothing more than the shell of a head, a disgusting parody of true faces- leathery skin, peeling and grotesquely red, was the canvas. In place of eyes and mouth, three gaping black holes screamed empty as pure shadow, an emotionless wail that froze both Adrienne and Tori in place. Violin and bow still in hand, the thing wrapped its arms around Tori. He was powerless, the stench overcoming him, the terrible face next to his own. Dead flesh and dead eyes looked into his own. A horrifying cry erupted from the thing, and as it did Tori felt strength draining away from his body.
Hearing the thing's voice and seeing it wrapped around Tori's torso, Adrienne recovered her senses. She put the tips of her fingers on the head of her rod, and with deft precision she elongated the pink spark into a crackling whip of lightning. She raised it above her head and slashed it at the thing.
Although the light was glorious and the sound reassuring, the thing merely sputtered in its place, then continued its onslaught as if nothing had happened at all.
Now was the time for panic. "Tori! Tori, no!" Adrienne yelled at the top of her lungs, flailing the thing with her whip, knowing full well it did nothing.
"Daylight, strike beauty into the wicked! Dia!"
A golden portal tore through the darkness above Tori and the violinist's deadly embrace. Light poured forth in shining bright sunbeams. A pure noise like chimes in wind resounded and mixed with a scream from the violinist. Its grip wore thin, and Tori mustered the strength to push it off him onto the ground. Adrienne came to his side and the two looked up at Silver, still across the room. He had conjured his cypress staff, which still shone white with magic. "Let's move!" he said loudly, heading towards the threshold. Neither Tori or Adrienne was used to seeing him so empowered.
But his haste was for a reason. Before Tori or Adrienne could comply, the violinist let loose a heart-wrenching screech from its undead throat. The noise vibrated in their ears, and as it did the ground began to shake.
Silver jumped to Tori and Adrienne, still immobile. He grabbed their wrists, trying to move them. The screech continued. The earth grew softer. A zombified hand burst through, then another and another, all over the room. The sight was a monstrosity. Twenty, thirty bloody hands reached from below, grabbing the air in a plight for solid matter. Tori and Adrienne gulped. Now they started moving.
The hands were unexpected but slow. Silver led the way, followed by Adrienne and Tori, and as they dodged the grip of the dead they made it past the threshold into the tunnel. But hands popped up there too. Seeing nothing else to do, Tori, Silver, and Adrienne ran as fast as they could, dodging and jumping over the palms while leaving the almost endless screeching behind them. The passageway, long and narrow, seemed hopeless at first. Relief sprung full when a bright white light at the very end heralded the exit.
Silver jumped out and over a particularly eager hand first, and when he did he felt grass beneath his feet and a warm sun on his face. Adrienne joined him. Tori, however, felt a hand grab his ankle just before he made it. It pulled him down and tried to take him into the earth: but Silver and Adrienne ducked down in time, grabbing his left hand and pulling as hard as they could. Acting quickly, Tori took a knife from his belt with his right hand and threw it into the ground. With a satisfactory slashing noise, Tori freed himself and jumped to his feet out of the tunnel.
From their place of light, the three gazed down the pit they had just left. The desperate scream grew quiet. The hands, feeling no victim, faded away into shadowy obscurity. When all was silent again, they felt shivers down their spine when the violin restarted, and the slow sweet song slithered from the earth.
Fresh air smelled nice, and white light was a beautiful change of pace from pink. Silver, Adrienne, and Tori exchanged glances. "That was close. Thanks, Silver." Adrienne said to him.
Silver nodded. "Close is right." He responded. He pointed to Tori's foot.
Tori looked down. A severed hand still gripped onto his ankle.
-+-+-+-
To be continued...
"Fun" fact for fans!: A lot of the spells that the mages use are quoted from FF Tactics (the PS1 version). The thing is, not all the spells that I'm so keen on having in this story aren't really in FF Tactics, so... I have to make them up myself. So far Teleport, Warp, Fog, Invis, Poisona, and Dia are all made up spells, and Foxbird, Sleep, Drain, Cure, and Holy are quoted spells. Keep your eyes peeled for more ;)
Hi all,
Oh, such a long wait! Sorry for keeping you all waiting, I've been really really busy lately... that's probably not a very good excuse, but err, sorry anyway :P. The story's moving along nicely in my opinion though, and I'd be glad to hear what you think so far :)
Thanks for reading this far ^^.
Questions? Comments? Recommendations? Fan Mail? Hate Mail, maybe? Wanna just chat? Email me at ThePleiadesCall@gmail.com . Love to hear from you!
If you like FF Rosa, maybe there's the very vague possibility you'll like other stories I've submitted:
Charmed Reborn (Celebrity), Pokemon: Amethyst (Celebrity), Teth (Fantasy), Diana Celes (High School), and Hallow (Sci-Fi/Fantasy).