CHAPTER TWELVE: THE MOONFLOW
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Author: Stormforce As the group followed the Moonflow path Willow was hit with a flash as four fiends blocked them from going any further. Two silver bee fiends, a purple hard-shelled fiend, and a bluish flan. [Flash] Name: Bite Bug Name: Bunyip Name: Snow Flan Willow and Faith attacked the Bunyip, Anya cast a Fira spell on the Snow Flan, and Xander hit one of the Bite Bugs with his ball. Willow didn't do much damage with her sword but it was enough to cause the fiend to fall over on its side and allow Giles to finish it off. Xander hit the other Bite Bug knocking it to the ground beside Willow, who split it open with her sword. Anya finished off the Snow Flan with another Fira spell. "Well that was..." Xander started to say but shut up when Anya glared at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know." "Hey, isn't that the two from Luca?" Willow asked looking ahead of the group. Harmony and Hallie were scaring off a man away from them. The group approached the two as the man ran off. "Look! That's one of Faith's friends. Looks just like her don’t it, Hallie?" "What?" Willow asked already mad. "Both follow their Summoners on hands and knees. Honorless, babies!" Harmony said laughing. "Fuck you! What? Did you come here to insult me?" Faith said crossing her arms. "Wrong! We come to warn Honorless Faith!" Hallie said looking Faith over. "Summoners are disappearing, and never being seen again." Harmony spoke grinning. "Yes, and next will be your Summoner!" "Poor little Faith. Lost her honor, and next lose her Summoner!" Harmony said and left with Hallie following. Willow walked over to Faith and stood beside her. "Tell me...do those two by any chance, have something against you?" "No." "You can't be telling me they were just picking on you." "I will take care of those two...when the time comes. So, don't worry about it." "And I'll help!" "No, it's my problem. Not yours." Faith said and walked forward. "What?" Xander put his hand on Willow's shoulder "Like Faith said it's her problem. We can't interfere; it's a rule." "I'm worried." Anya said staring after the two Dragons. "Hey let the Dragons deal with Dragon problems, ya? It's always been that way." "No, Xander. I'm worried about those Summoners disappearing." "Well they are just disappearing into thin air, now are they?" Giles said walking by. Willow looked at his back. "Hey! If we guardians do our jobs, then Tara will be fine!" "Whoa!" Xander stepped back. "Well you're confident." Anya said and smiled. "Damn straight!" The group continues up the road with Willow and Tara behind them holding hands. Tara leans her head on Willow's shoulder as they walk. "Hey Tara, you never did tell me what Aeon you got at the Djose Temple." "Oh, I got Ixion." {Ixion is a male Thunder Aeon. He has a dull silver body and white hair covering the top of his head, tail, and legs. He has a horn in the middle of his head that curves back in a half circle and forward into a sharp point. His overdrive is Thor's Hammer.} The group walks into an area with a mile wide river covered in flowers near the bank. Willow and Tara look at the area in amazement, and kneel looking at the flowers. "This is the Moonflow." Anya said looking over the river. "These are moonlillies! They say that clouds of pyreflies gather here when night falls." Tara said as she touched one of the flowers. "Yes, the entire river glows, like a sea of stars." Anya says looking at Tara. "Really?" Willow straightens up "Hey, I got an idea!" "We're not waiting till nightfall." Giles said with his back turned "Damn! Then, once we beat Sin, we're coming back!" Willow said nodding. Xander looks toward the end of the path "Hey, we better hurry or we'll miss the shoopuf!" "Huh? Shoopuf? What's that? Some kind of boat?" Willow asked and Xander pointed to the direction of a large dock. Willow jumps up and down trying to get a good look. When she didn't see anything she took Tara's hand and ran forward. When they reached the end a giant shadow passed over them as a huge tree trunk of a leg stepped in front of them. Willow looked up and saw a giant gray four-legged creature, with a long trunk and a thick tail. "Whoa, what the...whoa!" Willow says stunned. Grinning Xander stood beside her "That is a shoopuf." "We gonna ride that! Cool! Come on, let's get going!" Willow said excitedly "Don't worry we'll board as soon as we are ready." Xander said and walked over to the shoopuf driver. Willow ran ahead of a giggling Tara and over to a small shop and saw Drusilla, Darla, and William talking to someone she couldn't see. "Noo, I don shink sho. Ish bad idea, yesh." Willow heard and cocked her head to the side. "Please, we beg of you!" Drusilla said "Imposhibibble! Imposhibibble!" "What's wrong?" Willow asked Darla who was standing beside a Chocobo. "Oh, this guy won't let our Chocobo on the shoopuf!" "Ah. I can see why. It is kinda big." Darla stomped her foot. "It's just not fair!" "He does have a point, though." William said walking up. "So, what? Are you saying we just leave him behind?" "Hey now, I didn't say that. Just..." "It is no good. We will have to find another way. We will find a ford where we can cross on foot." Drusilla said mounting the Chocobo. "Yes ma'am, Captain" Darla saluted "Oh man! But...that'll take days!" "Where there's a will, there's a way." Drusilla nudged the Chocobo into a walk "Oh, man..." William groaned “That’s our Captain!” Darla said and left with William following. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Those words stayed with me. I wonder how Captain Drusilla is doing. Willow turned and started to say something to the man that Drusilla was talking to, but stopped and stared in horror at the thing standing in front of her. He was blue with eyes on the top of his head, and long arms with long fingers. Willow took a step back and ran into someone looking back she saw Tara standing behind her. Willow ran behind Tara and peeked over her shoulder making Tara laugh, and look at her. “What is that? It looks like a blue frog!” “Willow, that is a Hypello. He’s harmless, and I don’t think he has any frog in him.” Tara said giggling. “Are you sure? I don’t like frogs…they just wait for you to let your guard down, and then they’ll attack you!” “Yes, I’m sure. So don’t worry. Anyway I’ll protect you…okay?” “Okay.” Willow said and let Tara lead her to the Hypello. The blue Hypello looked up when the two girls approached. "Ride ze shoopuf?" "Yes, we are ready." Tara spoke with Willow still peeking over her shoulder, and the group approaching from behind. "Al aboards!" The Hypello said and climbed into the drivers seat. "Shoopuf launchin'!" Tara took the seat at the back with Faith to her left, Willow was sitting on the right seat and Giles was beside her, Anya was sitting on the seat in front of her, and Xander took the seat right behind the Hypello. As the shoopuf moved toward the north area of the Moonflow, Xander looked to the side then looked at Willow. "Hey, look in the water." He said with his arms behind his head. Willow turned in her seat and looked over. "Whoa!" She saw a huge city under the water. "A sunken city!" "Yeah, a machina city, a thousand years old. The people back then built the city on top of bridges across the river." Xander said and stood. "But the weight of the city caused the bridges to collapse, and the city sank to the bottom." Anya said as she too looked over the side. "That's a good lesson, ya?" Xander asked Willow. "A lesson?" "Yeah, why build a city over a river?" Willow turned and sat down. "Well, it would be convenient, you know...with all that water there." "No, that's not why. They just wanted to prove they could deft the laws of nature!" Xander leaned forward. "I'm not so sure about that." "Yevon has taught us,” Xander said speaking to Willow. "That when humans have power, they seek to use it. And if you don't stop them, they go too far, ya?" "Yeah...but don't you use machina, too." Willow looked at everyone. "Like the stadium and stuff, right?" "Yevon, it decides...which machina we may use, and which we may not." "And just what kind of machina may we use then, Anya?" Willow threw her hands up in the air angrily "Remember Operation Mi'ihen? That kind." Xander said remembering the destruction Sin caused at Djose. "Yes, or war will rage again." "War? Anya what are you talking about?" Willow asked confused. "More than a thousand years ago... Mankind waged war using machina to kill!" Tara said lowering her head. Yeah, they kept building more and more powerful machina." Xander said resting his arms on his knees. Anya then leaned back "They made weapons so powerful... It was thought they would destroy the entire world." Tara looked up at Willow with a frown "The people feared that Spira would be destroyed." "But the war did not stop!" Xander sighed pulling at a loose string on his pants. Willow looked from Xander to Anya and finally Tara "Wh-What happened then?" "Sin came," Tara said gripping her rod. "and it destroyed the cities and their machina." "That ended the war...and our reward...was Sin." Faith spoke and turned her head. "So you see, Sin's our punishment for lettin' things get out of hand, eh?" "Man, that's rough, Xander." "Yeah, it is. But, it's not like the machina are bad. Some machina are good like the stadium you mentioned." "Only as bad as their users." Anya looked down at her mog doll "It's because of people like the Al Bhed screwin' everything up!" Xander said before they felt a shaking in the water. The Hypello was looking from side to side "Whatsh could thatsh be?" he said as another rumble could be felt. Tara was standing with the others looking into the water. "Sit down!" Giles told Tara. "S-Sorry!" Tara started to sit down when someone jumped from the water and grabbed her, and pulled her under with them. "The Al Bhed!" Xander said and he and Willow jumped into the water. "We'll save you, Tara!" Xander said swimming to a giant machina with three legs, three small towers around a giant sphere that Tara was beating against from the inside. It had purple flags surrounding the body, and bigger green and yellow flags floating out from under the sphere. [Flash] Name: Extractor Xander threw his ball at the midsection knowing if he hit the sphere, it could crack and drown Tara. Willow was doing the same thing hitting the midsection with her sword, and something inside her snapped. A blue energy surrounded her, and she hit the machina another six times before swimming back. Two large barrels shot from the machina and floated down toward her and Xander. Willow watched them as Xander threw his ball again. Willow's eyes went wide, and she franticly motioned for Xander to move out of the way, he too looked at the barrels before moving away. The explosion could be seen and heard above water when the barrels exploded. The shockwave sent Willow into large jagged rocks cutting her left leg open, and breaking her left arm. Xander was thrown down on to the river floor, where a piece of metal stabbed him through the stomach. Tara watched all this from inside the sphere, and tried to cast a healing spell on Willow and Xander but found there was an anti-magic field surrounding her. Xander grit his teeth, and swam back up to the machina and threw his ball. Willow had put her arm under the strap of her overalls and swam up behind the machina. She saw a small hatch and opened it and saw a bunch of wires <Oh well I hope this don't kill me!> she thought and thrust her sword into the wiring. A small jolt of electricity shot up the sword and into Willow's body as she pulled the sword away. The sphere opened at the top, and Tara swam out meeting Xander at the top. Willow joined them and they swam to the surface as the machina exploded. Back on the shoopuf Giles helped pull Xander up as Faith and Anya help Willow and Tara. Giles looked over Xander and grabbed the metal sticking out of his stomach. "Tara, you need to cast a healing spell as soon as I pull this out." Giles said and Tara nodded. Xander screamed and a tear ran down his cheek when the metal tore more of his muscle and flesh as Giles jerked it out. "Gaaahhhh! Those...damn...Al Bhed!" Xander screamed when the healing started. "Ish ebullibody okay?" The Hypello asked looking back at the group. "You may get the shoopuf moving again." Giles said throwing the metal back into the water. "Are you hurt?" Anya asked as Tara moved over to Willow. "No, I'm fine." The wound on Willow's leg was pouring out blood, her pant leg was soaked with blood, and her shirt was starting to turn red. Willow stopped Tara before she could cast a healing spell. "No! My arm is broken...it needs to be reset." Faith walked over and unsnapped the latch on Willow's overalls, and gently took Willow's arm in her hands. "This is going to hurt." Faith said and Willow nodded gritting her teeth. Faith snapped the broken bones back into place, and Willow screamed as tears came to her eyes. Tara cast a healing spell over Willow who relaxed with her head laid back on the seat. "How do you feel Xander?" Tara asked as she checked the still healing scar on his stomach. "Better." Xander said giving Tara a boyish grin. Tara smiled back and went to check on Willow. "How are you feeling?" Tara asked helping Willow back into the seat. "A lot better...now." "Damn those Al Bhed! Why are they after Tara? Oh! They're mad cause they lost the tournament. No, wait! They're mad about Operation Mi'ihen!" Xander ranted with a red face. "I wonder...didn't those two Dragons say something about Summoners...disappearing?" "Yeah, Anya. That's what they said." Faith said sitting beside Tara. "Ah-ha! So the Al Bhed are behind that! Those sand-blasted grease monkeys!" Xander stomped the floorboard with his foot, and not seeing Tara hang her head. "Hey, Xander. Don't worry about it, okay? We'll protect Tara from anyone, and anything. It's that easy, right? And that's all I need to know!" Willow said leaning back with her hands behind her head. "Yeah, I guess so." "You're right." Anya said smiling and nodding at Willow. Tara looked over to Willow with a half smile and silently said "Thank you." Willow winked back. When the shoopuf docked Willow was the last one off, looking around she didn't see much. She ran into O'aka and bought a few Potions and Antidotes from him. She walked along the bank as the group looked around, when she saw something laying on the bank. Blinking a few times thinking she was seeing things she ran over. The something turned out to be a girl, a girl that surprised Willow. "You're...not dead?" Willow asked as the girl stood up. She reached behind her and started unzipping the wetsuit she was wearing, as Willow's eyes widened. She threw the suit to the side and slid the headgear off. She shook the water from her hair and looked at Willow. "Whoa! Thought I was done for, back there." She said and fell to her hands and knees "Buffy! You're Buffy! You're okay! How ya been?" Willow asked excitedly "Terrible!" "Yeah...you don't look so good. What happened?" Buffy looked up "You beat me up, remember?" "What? When? Oh! That machina? That was you?" "Yes!" Buffy said, standing up. "That really hurt, you know. You big meanie!" She hit Willow on the arm. "Wait! You attacked us!" "Nuh-uh... It's not exactly what you think." "Hey!" Willow and Buffy turned and saw the group heading toward them. "Friend of yours?" Xander asked looking at Buffy. "Umm...yeah! You could say that." "Pleased to meet you! I'm Buffy." "Tara, Anya...I told you about her, remember? She helped me before I washed up on Besaid. She's and Al Bhe...beh... she an all around cool person!" Willow said as Tara and Anya looked at her puzzled, then realization dawned on them when Xander spoke. "Wow. So you...like owe her your life! What luck meeting here, ya? Praise be to Yevon." Xander said praying then he looked to Buffy. "Uh...Buffy...you, uh...look a little beat up! You okay?" "Damn! Look at the size of that fish!" Willow shouted pointing out to the river. Xander looked at the river looking for the fish Willow had pointed out. "I don't see a big fish. All I see is pieces of that machina we beat up." Xander said making Willow choke on air. "Um… Xander, there's something we need to discuss with Buffy." Anya said when Xander turned around. "Oh, go ahead." "Just us three." Tara said smiling. Anya, Tara, and Buffy walked over beside a tree out of hearing range of the others. "I wonder what they're talking about." Xander asked Willow, who shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know...but if they want us knowing, I'm sure they will tell us, right?" "Yeah, suppose so." "Sir Giles, I would like Buffy to be my guardian." Tara asked when she walked over with Buffy who was hanging her head. Giles stepped over to Buffy "Show me your face. Look at me." "Oh, um...okay." Buffy says as she raises her head with her eyes closed. "Open your eyes." Buffy opens her left eye. "As I thought." Giles says when he sees her eye has a swirl. "Uh...no good?" "Are you sure you want to be Tara's guardian?" "Yes! A hundred percent!" Buffy nods her head furiously. "So, can I?" "If it is Tara's wish." "It is Sir Giles." Tara says standing beside Buffy. "Buffy's a nice girl. She help me out a lot!" "Well, I'm for it! The more, the merrier!" Xander grins at Buffy. "Cool! Then I guess I'll just have to be the merriest." It was strange. Even though Xander had always hated the Al Bhed... He never realized Buffy was one of them. |
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