Chapter Text
The Phoenix
‘The magical fire bird represents the eternal cycle of life and existence, symbolizing endings and beginnings, with the added aspect of starting each rebirth as an improved form, learned from their previous life experience.
It also symbolizes that sins of the past have been shed and that the awfulness of the past can be forgotten.’
………………….
Clive returned to his body, from the fake and fleeting plane his battle with Ultima had been fought, to the dim and unearthly zone his body resided. Though only split seconds had passed, his heart now thundered and his blood rushed with the power of the Gods. The return of awareness, of the sticky coppery mess layering the front of his armour and chest, and still glistening on his gauntlets, banished thoughts of Ultima’s demise from his attention instantly. His only concern quickly returning to the body of his brother, still laying only paces away from him.
Walking slowly, the horrific gaping hole in Joshua’s chest, its very presence meant for the single purpose of protecting Clive, falls further into focus with each step.
The short-lived distraction of his final assault on Ultima no longer concerning, Clive’s heart begins to shatter once more.
Blood, Joshua’s blood, viscous… cloying… everywhere. How… how can there be so very much of it.
Stopping at his brother, he kneels beginning to weep quietly in resignation. Tenderly holding him one last time as he allows the pain to take hold of him completely for just for a moment longer. Choosing to feel this heartache to its apex and remember what they had shared… and to regret what they had not been permitted. The opportunity to experience life together as bothers, as Archduke and First Shield, and as friends.
A life denied to them.
He had failed to protect Joshua, there is but one final act he can perform now for his brother.
Raising his fist, he wills beautiful red and blue flames to flare into form about it. The Phoenix’s Flames of Rebirth, Joshua’s last gift to him… A gift he did not ask for. They were gentle and warm and pulsed with life and vitality in his palm. He would heal the unsightly pit marring his brother’s body and, perhaps, if he was most fortunate, his chest may yet rise again with one more breath. Though hope in vain, could beget great pain. Maybe, maybe he was not again too late.
And after the blinding light recedes, though Joshua’s body is once more, clean and whole.
His chest, does not rise.
Clive gains his feet slowly, gaze fixed and forlorn, on his still burning palm… resigned and heartsore, before turning his attention to the Nexus. The crystal a parasitic leech that had bled Valisthea almost dry of its life blood. His eyes began to burn with fury and hatred, his body tensing once again in preparation for attack.
……………………….
While unknown to Clive the shredded vestiges of a distressed and vastly weakened Phoenix, coiling desperately around the still fading mind of her beloved dominant, raised her head in recognition of the vibrant touch of her own power. Though her momentary excitement was quickly dashed, and she trilled quietly to herself in despair. It was not enough.
More, she needed more.
……………………….
Clenching his fist tightly closed Clive took several controlled steps towards the Nexus, intent to crush the crystal to dust clear in his thoughts. However, something was flawed. The power of the Gods seemed to be pushing against him from the inside. The pressure building quickly, becoming painful and merciless, and Clive realised, that this vessel, was never meant to contain such incomprehensible energy for long, without the will of God to control it.
His path ever onwards, now becomes clear.
“Oh…
It seems Ultima’s power was too great for this vessel all along….
But while I have it…
Perhaps I can use it to set things right…
and see Ultima’s legacy…
Bearers, Dominants, crystals, magick, consigned to the flames.”
He is devastated… He is exhausted… He is grief-stricken, so much so he is concerned no longer if he should survive this ordeal or perish in the fire. There is but one last task for him to execute.
“Even if it means the end of me.”
He will provide the world its salvation. Before he leaves this world, he can gift it this one chance.
“These… These are our terms.”
And Clive was burning… He welcomed it… Bade the flames hotter, brighter. Use him, his body, every fibre of his energy and aether and the Gods abhorrent power he contained, to set ablaze an inferno so intense it would sear magick and Eikons from the very fabric of the world.
His last thought as a great column of light explodes from the tip of origin…
‘Please, let this be the end.’
………………….
The Phoenix, helplessly clinging to the fading light of her chosen, and frantic with fear is suddenly blinded by radiant power, like none she had felt since her creation centuries ago. Power, Godly in strength and terrifying in nature, it had the capability to make and un-make her at its wielders whim, and she feared it so.
Had the time finally come to pass? The promised event of her un-making, her power and soul returned to Him?
But no, it did not feel like Him. He was detached, dispassionate and rigidly controlled.
This person was in pain, angry and close to breaking. He fought with the magick, and unable to guide it, was trying exhaustedly to force it to his desires. But there was too much, a torrent of overspill lashing out in great uncontrolled whips of beautiful red and blue flame and sparking power in all directions without intent or purpose, fleeting and incorporeal, before dispersing into nothing…. Wasted.
An elegant head tilted and metaphorical feathers ruffled in excitement, this false God’s tenuous control over its stolen power, was providing for her exactly what she needed to save them. As she schemed, the flames exploded in a deluge and became a wall of raging fire and untameable power rushing towards them, but she is the Phoenix, she does not fear the fire.
She welcomes it.
A hurricane of flames and power, burning so fiercely the tendrils turn white hot with potency engulf them, and she confirms with relief, of their unlimited potential. More than enough to rejuvenate her rent apart pieces into a whole being once more…
More than enough, to heal her chosen completely, before he leaves her forever.
The barrage of flame and power licks at her chosen’s prone body, but until the point his light leaves it, he has her protection, and he will not burn. She will cradle his light close, he will not leave. She has always kept him safe from the flames, and now she can continue to keep him safe.
She lets the power surge into her, and though it is wild, it is cut from the same cloth and familiar. She welcomes it, and it gentles to her will like a relieved feral cat finally finding its way to safety and home. Once hers, she lets it smooth torn edges and fill the breaches in her fragmented being. Even once again complete, she takes more and more. The fount seemingly unending and her thirst unquenchable. Until her being feels so immense, toppling a mountain with a single swipe of her great wing would be childs play. Until unable to contain a shred more, she threw her head back, beating shimmering wings and shrieking out in euphoria, high on potent magick.
‘Now! Now it is time.’
She begins pulling her talent towards a single focus, intent to craft the most potent Flames of Rebirth she has ever cast. Enough to repair the bond between his body and flagging mind, to jolt her dominant back to awareness. But as the spell builds, she becomes aware of the intent of this false God and the magick is strangled in her grasp. Confused, she examines what is occurring around her. The magick is not being used for a spell, it is being burnt away. This power engulfing them has a purpose, to rid this world of magick. But she is a creature born of magick, she cannot survive without it.
‘No!... No! this cannot be!’
This not spell! What is the fake God doing? No, he wants her gone from this world. He wants them all gone from this world. He is erasing the very existence of her kind, Eikons and magick. She will not survive in the world he is creating as she is now, as a being of energy and magick and will. It is impossible, has the situation truly become so dire for her and brethren. She now wields such vast power, is there naught she can do?
So reckless and desperate, she thinks only to save her chosen, if the new world cannot support her then, she may yet still be able to save her dominant. But he has forever been sickly, and without her constantly healing him, the malady of his lungs and heart that plagues him would take him. Likely sooner than later. Would she really be saving him? Or simply sentencing him to a slow and torturous death.
Forcing calm to her thoughts, the answer becomes startlingly clear, and one she has never before had to resort to. Due to her chosen over the years becoming her new vessel on the event of the previous ones death, her lifecycle has been un-natural to her. She is the Phoenix, and she is blessed with the unique talents of healing and rebirth. And if they cannot exist together as they are, then using this limitless well of energy to fuel her, she will use her natural ability and rebirth them anew, as one, from -ash- as dictates her basest nature.
She must work quickly, her dominant fades further every second she tarrys. She coos gently at him as she would a chick, breaking him from the instinctive tether to his physical form and pulling the glowing consciousness to her feathered breast. Further, further, deeper until she feels him resting companionably next to her core. He is unable, in this form to feel fear or apprehension or joy, simply an unaware mind without the body to utilise it, but even though, his kindness is a beacon. He had always cared for others more than he needed to, more than was good for him. So free and generous with her gifts, with no hesitation of compromising his own well-being to aid others, and she loved him so for it.
‘Do not be afraid, I will save us.’
She softens the edges of her core making it permeable and with gentle coaxing Joshua’s light began to blend with her own. It was seamless and painless, his light now drawing of her ample energy and expanding warmly out into her soul, re-invigorated. Its weakening pulse quickly recovering to rhythmic throb that beat pleasantly against her own. She marvelled at him, surely theirs had been a blessed partnership, two beings of one purpose and mind.
She takes a moment to enjoy his returned vitality before turning her attention to his now truly empty vessel. Without his light within it, his physical body can have only one use. With some reluctance, she withdraws her protection from the flames. Lacking a body of her own, Joshua’s will become their ash and the pathway to their Rebirth.
As leather and skin begin to singe, she returns her attention inwards. Joshua’s body could rebirth Joshua, if he was a Phoenix, which he was not. To save them there was one last step to take. They could only achieve this together. The power she had been pooling to cast Flames or Rebirth re-routed to a new purpose. With an ear shattering screech she took everything she had rolling the power inwards, and their individual beating consciousness stuttered and wavered under the onslaught, and with a shockwave of light fused, and became one single throbbing pulse. In an instant two doomed souls become one survivor, as the ash collected around it forming a new body from the physical memory of the old one, and from the single core of Joshua and the Phoenix.
………………………….
Clive’s mind was at peace as his body began to weaken. Vessel of limitless power indeed. He could feel his aether pathways begin to petrify from the toxic flood he was channelling. The curse would take him, but not until he was done. He was so close. Around him crystal walls screamed as they were reaped of their aether, and soon Origin would crumble around him.
‘Good, let the last detestable stain of God’s infernal Blessing be gone from this world.’
One more push, and the power was used, the final trickles of magick burnt away and he collapsed to his knees on the floor completely spent. Heaving painfully, he fell forwards catching himself on his hands for a moment, recovering slowly.
Above and around him as all the others had, the crystal walls of Origin shattered almost instantly into barely nothing, small sparkles carried away by the wind, and though Origins platform, made of fallen material and earth was more robust, it would not remain in the sky without magick.
He felt the first warning tremors of the disintegrating floor, he needed to leave now. Instinctively he swivelled his head towards Joshua’s body with the irrational need to retrieve him, not to leave him here alone. Only for a hammer of pain to slam into his chest. Joshua was nothing but ash. Of course, without the Phoenix he was just another body, but he had not thought… He had never thought he would burn!
The ground gave another stomach clenching lurch and, in the distance, he could see the edges of the platform falling away. Steeling himself and carefully not looking towards the pile of ash that had been his bothers body, lest he choose to simply wait beside it and meet his own demise by the falling rock, he weakly failed to push himself to a standing position twice, before succeeding with a wrenching groan on the third attempt.
Now he just needed to choose a direction, preferably towards the closest shore, and not stop moving until he fell off the edge.
……………………..
‘Gods, it was so loud, why was it so very loud?!’
His ears and his head felt as sensitive as a new born chocobo! Where was he?! Founder, who was he?! A clashing barrage of recent memory streamed behind his eyelids as he cradled his face tightly in his cupped hands giving his head a short sharp shake. A battle, burning red and green feathers whipped past, flames coiled, a bleak cold orb embedded in a blond man’s chest destructively broke free.
Confusion ebbing quickly with remembered urgency, Joshua sat up eyes casting wildly around him, still too muddled to truly take stock of his surroundings or even himself. Clive, he had sacrificed the Phoenix’s power to Clive to save him, causing his death in the process. And the Phoenix unable see any other path had given herself to save them. He was Joshua, and he was the Phoenix.
And the fucking floor beneath him gave an almighty crack, and he was free falling.
………………………..
The Phoenix felt the brisk sensation of the wind rushing past his face. Familiar, but different, no longer dulled by nerveless beak or insulating feathers. Instinctively he threw out his wings and spread his tail to catch and steady himself on the wind.
And magnificent red and green wings unfurled out to either side of him and beat once…. twice… and….
Joshua stiffened in shock, losing control and plunging through the sky once more. Panicking he caught sight -for the first time- of his wings, and the trailing ornamental feathers of his tail, and he remembered the numerous occasions he had used the Phoenix’s wings. These were positioned differently, attached on his back not replacing his arms, but now he was aware of them, he could feel them clearly.
‘Again, let them be mine again.’ Flight muscles twitched, and the feel of them opening, flexing, beating a rhythm against the air to his will, was nothing less than breath taking.
First, he carefully found his balance, before he fought to gain altitude and move away from the tide of falling rocks, but his mind grasped a stray thought. Dion was in the direction that the shrinking platform was converging on. If he could get to him before the floor collapsed, well, he could at least bring his friend home. Decision made he veered around towards the location he had left the fallen prince, then folded his wings to gain speed and swooped down.
……………..
Getting to Dion had been difficult. He was imprisoned by fallen debris from their destructive battle with Ultima, and Joshua had to time it perfectly waiting for the worst of it to fall away, before he caught Dion tightly in his grasp as he too began to fall.
And Founder, Dion was heavy!
He immediately sunk from the additional weight and reflexively beat his wings faster as he began the arduous trek for the shoreline, muttering to himself about the folly of wearing armor and chain mail instead of favouring nimbler and lighter linens and leather. He could not be blamed for not seeing beneath him, as a glazed eye on the undamaged side of Dion’s face slitted open and slid closed.
Crashing to the shore after what seemed like an age and relieving himself of his heavy burden was heavenly, but short lived. Joshua followed him down, kneeling next to Dion in the sand and quickly checking for pulse and breath. With his new atunement to life around him, he felt it. Weak but present, the softest of beat and shallowest of breath. Allayed of the guilt he had been feeling and before he could think that they would not come, he quickly and instinctively called for his healing flames. So, it was not until he had pressed a hasty curaga to his friend’s chest, ensuring he would survive until Joshua’s return, that surprise at his own actions registered in his mind.
That… That should not have been possible…
No, he did not have time for this…
Pushing it to the back of his thoughts for now he rose, eyes fixed on the starlit skies where Origin had floated. It was gone completely, where was his brother? Apprehension climbing, he ran down the coast wings spreading out and beating powerfully until his feet left the shore once more.
……………………………….
It was not the end for Clive, not quite yet at least. He wakes face down on a beach, sand under his face and the cold the tide lapping gently at his heels. The coast blurs into focus, he had expected the water or a falling rock to force his last breath from him. He had not been prepared to wake. Painstakingly he gathers himself and heaves over, rolling onto his back. It took everything he had, he has nothing left to give.
But, did it work? Once more, so that he can rest assured.
His arm trembles as it slowly raises and he calls forth one last time, the blessing of the Phoenix. Unlike Ifrit this power has always come to him eagerly. The last of the aether stored in his body lights the fire but he can channel no more and without fuel or magick the warm flame is quickly extinguished by the wind.
God’s Gift now erased from humanity.
His strength depleted, his arm falls to his side, the curse begins to creep up his fingers, his palm. He wishes he was numb to the pain of it, but with the speed it is spreading he is certain the agony will not last long. He gazes at a sky devoid of Origin, the stars and the moon prominent in her veil.
At Metia.
“Can you see it too, Jill?” Clive closes his eyes.
He does not see for his eyelids are too heavy to open once again, but he thinks he hears a creature, screeching overhead, and maybe… maybe he hears one word echo in the night.
“BROTHER!!”
…………………………
In the skies about the fallen ruins of Origin, an agitated bird searches the murky crystal and rock churned water and the debris strewn coastline. Each pass and turn becoming more frantic than the last as it continues its hunt for its second target. The first had been much easier to find in the gloomy night due to his white garments, blond hair, and glittering armor.
The second target with his black leathers and black hair, and even black sword, is proving more difficult, and as minutes pass it seems more and more that despair will be the only outcome of this search. He feels a cold lump developing in his chest as dread and panic spiral tighter and tighter around his heart. He feels the childish urge to weep, but he will not blind his vision with tears until he has exhausted himself to the point, he can no longer either fly nor walk. He prays to any who will listen.
‘Please let me find him.’
He has to, he surely has to! They won. Are they not owed peace after all their sacrifices.
Then in the distance, so far, he could not focus the figure only the light, the smallest briefest weakest glimmer.
Of red and blue fire...
The Blessing of the Phoenix…
The pitiful flame flickers and dies…
“CLIVE!” He yells.
His body tenses, adrenaline pumping and fight response activated. Angling himself in the right direction he beat powerful wings until he thought muscle and tendon would rip apart, but he would not stop until he reached his destination. As he closed in on his target vocal chords he did not yet know he had, woke and stretched and he let loose an ear splitting screech. The Phoenix cried out into the night.
‘Hold on Clive, wait for me, I am coming for you.’
A moment later a more human voice screamed out.
“BROTHER!”
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