I looked at Ansem. His face split into a smirk. “Don’t you dare!” I shouted, shooting a stream of Firaga at him. “How can you smile like that?! You killed Riku!” Another jet of fire. He dodged them both by teleporting, and reappeared behind us, laughing now. “You need to learn to aim,” he sniggered, shooting out a beam of dark purple light that missed Gildas and I by millimetres. “So do you!” Gildas roared. He seemed so aggressive right now; it was like he was a completely different person. He slashed his scythe down through the air, and it made an interesting whistling noise. “Get over here and fight properly!”
Ansem’s nonchalant attitude was annoying me. All of us were one mistake away from death and he was smiling. Laughing, even. Calm down. This was his way of getting to you. Haru shouted once more. “Thundaga!” A whole series of lightning strikes came down, missing him by inches. Then it hit me. A bolt from the blue. Haru struck me, and my god it hurt. As I stood up, shaking myself, dusting myself off, Haru apologised quickly before resuming her skills, and Ansem laughed gleefully as he teleported. Ansem was laughing. But he shouldn’t be, that bolt shocked my memory. I’d used Gaia Rage. I’d used an elemental summon. I thought I lost those. I stopped Haru. “My eyes. What colour are they?” “Gold.” Then she stopped. “Gold… but if you look really closely, the gold is made from seven… no, eight other colours.” I knew it. My elemental powers were back, and I could use them as well as Neo Bahamut’s powers. But that meant… my final skill. I knew it. But I had to wait till the end. It would do nothing if I couldn’t get Ansem still. “Haru. I know you never learned any such spell… but do me a favour. Point at Ansem when he next appears and shout ‘Blizzaja’. “She looked at me quizzically, but nodded. Then Ansem appeared once more.
I wasn’t sure what Gildas was planning, but I trusted him. Ansem appeared in front of us, and I shouted “Blizzaja!” just as Gildas had told me to, pointing at Ansem. A massive beam of ice – bigger than any I had used before – flew out from my outstretched fingers, pushing Ansem backwards with its strength. I knew this magic was stronger than I could ever have dreamed of, but maybe it was too strong for me…I couldn’t stop it, even once I knew Ansem would be frozen solid. I looked round for Gildas in a panic, and saw that he was shaking violently and had turned a mottled blue colour. This ice, it was…so cold. I started to shiver myself, which shocked me; normally when I used ice magic I didn’t feel even slightly chilly. My shivers got worse, and I couldn’t direct the ice properly anymore. I knew that I was at my absolute limit now; my fingers were numb, my head was pounding, my legs were ready to cave. And then it stopped. I had nothing left.
I’d feared this. Haru couldn’t control the pure elements yet, not in their natural, harshest form. That was okay. I grabbed an Elixir out of my pocket (Aww man, my last one) and gave it to her. “Maybe we shouldn’t try that again.” She nodded, giggling slightly. Ansem was frozen, he couldn’t move. This was my chance. “Haru. I’m using my most powerful attack here. I’ll be using up all of my energy. Run. Find L. If he can’t get to me soon, I might die from this.” Haru looked up, anxiously. “Go! Now!” She nodded. Ran. Stopped. “Aero!” She ran again. Much quicker. Thank you Haru, you always were the most bright girl I’ve known…
I looked back to Ansem. Touched the ice encasing him. This was totally permafrost, but if he died like this, he’d just possess me again. I had to totally obliterate him. I turned around. Stepped. Two. Three. Four. Five, stop. Turned round again. I was going to die from this, unless Haru remembered that Holy could cure me. I didn‘t think she would, though, not in the state she was, so finding L would calm her down enough to realise, remember what happened last time.
I gathered up my energy. Every last reserve I had, forced it into my heart, my soul. This would be difficult. Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Leviathan, Typhoon, Titan, Ultima and Diablos… forgive me. Find a better master after this. And Neo Bahamut, thank you. Without you, this would be impossible. I jerked my head up. Gazed deep into Ansem’s frozen eyes. Smiled. I could see his essence quivering. “TETRA FLARE!” I screamed, and forced my hands out. I saw the Giga Flare. I saw it encased in Ice, burning with Fire, shaking, as if it was made of Water, crackling with Electricity, Spinning as fast as Wind, cracking up the Earth, blotting out the Light and eliminating the Darkness as it struck him, and everything went quiet. Well, almost quiet. There was a ringing in my ears. The ice had shattered, exploded, and then disintegrated. Before long I saw the elements merge once more, creating the same effect as Haru’s Flare spell. I breathed in, no oxygen. That didn’t matter anymore. Shiva, Ifrit and the rest stood before me, bowed, flew off in different directions. Neo Bahamut nodded solemnly and blasted off into the atmosphere. I looked up, eyelids dropping. Ansem wasn’t gone. He wasn’t anywhere anymore. He didn’t even exist. I fell to the floor. Haru, forgive me… Zexion… I lo… lov…
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I couldn’t think to do anything other than what Gildas had told me. I ran, helped along by the wind, until I could see Lindblum towering above me, cutting into the clear blue sky. And then I knew it would be useless. How was I supposed to find five – or four – people in a kingdom this vast? But I knew I had to try. We were so close now, I couldn’t give up. I weaved my way through streets and alleyways, looking out for everyone. Several times I thought I spotted them, but it was a false alarm. My heart was sinking further with every step I took. “Sora! L! Namine! Zexion!” I shouted. “Somebody, please! Where are you? Riku!” I had sort of forgotten about Riku, and now remembering was so much worse.
“Riku!” I yelled. I had lost Riku, and now I was going to lose Gildas…Everything was over. Everything had finished. There was nobody left now. “Haru?” Naminé's voice was weak over the sea of people around me, but I heard it. I scanned the crowd for her white blonde hair, and spotted her weaving towards me. I started after her, and we met in the middle. “Namine! Everyone!” I gasped in relief. “Listen, we have to go! Now! L, I need your help! Gildas said that if you don’t come help him then he’ll die!” I practically screamed. Zexion turned white. I noticed Sora was carrying Riku in a sort of fireman’s lift, and almost started crying again, but I had to pull myself together.
I led the group back out of Lindblum, urging everyone to go faster. I couldn’t get to Gildas fast enough. We found him again, lying on the floor, spread-eagled, eyes to the heavens. Zexion fell to his knees with a soft thump. I swallowed. “L. Can you help him?” L looked at Gildas slowly, taking in every detail. He shook his head, and Zexion sobbed. “No!” I shouted. “He said you could help him, he said you would save his life!” L shook his head. “I can’t help him, but you can. You have to use Holy again, Haru,” he said softly. I looked up at him. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t right now…I had nothing left. I had nothing to spare.
I shook my head. “I…I can’t.” I began to cry again. Zexion threw himself at me, punching me and kicking me. I didn’t try to stop him, I wanted to hurt, I wanted everything to hurt so badly that it had to get better. Sora dragged Zexion off me, and I saw that he had laid Riku’s body on the grass. Seeing him laying there, broken and empty, hardened my resolve in a strange way. I knew that I had to save Gildas. I just had to. I pulled the final tears out of my eyes roughly, and knelt down next to Gildas. “Holy,” I whispered, sending all my emotions through my body, focusing all the sadness, all the pain, all the happy memories, into the tips of my fingers. “Holy!” I urged the magic on. Now, there was nothing I could do. I stood up slowly, and turned my back on Gildas. He still hadn’t moved, and I didn’t want to see him, knowing that I should have been able to do something and yet couldn’t. But at the same time, I didn’t really believe he could have died. So I didn’t look at him, just waited for the next events to unfold alone. I went and sat next to Riku’s body, stroking his hair gently.
Flash. White light. “Holy!” Flash. Life. I was alive. She’d done it. I would have smiled, but I just couldn’t. I was so exhausted. I had…nothing left. Let me sleep. Just let me rest a while… So tired…
