“He looks dead.”

“He’s not dead, Ariba stop freaking out ok?”

“I’m not freaking out look at the holes in his neck! And where exactly do you think all this blood came from? Josh he’s dead, I know he is!”

Fred could hear the voices. It was Ariba and Josh, awake. They’d managed to find him, not that Mikah had made it particularly hard for them. She’d managed to level the city around them, making it now into a field, a very vast field. There was one little hut a way in the distance, but other than that it was pretty much just grass, flanked by tall cliffs either side. Ariba told them where they were, based on the fact that she’d heard Mikah go on about it so much. They were in the middle of Final Fantasy X, in the Calm Lands. Mikah had also taken the liberty of making huge neon arrows pointing at him, with chaser lights flashing extremely brightly. It was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes. He was alright. He smiled as he quickly realised that he wasn’t dead or dying. He smiled even more when Ariba turned to him and hugged him.

“What the hell happened?

“I… don’t know” Fred lied. Mikah had after all, not killed him or hurt the other two, she’d also woke them up and made sure all three of them were together, and safe. Josh looked a little lost, as did Fred. The blood stains disappeared and left the grassy plains, leaving just Fred.

“Uh… where’s Mikah?” Josh looked around.

“You haven’t seen her?” Fred asked, unsure of what to expect. He too looked around, not seeing any sign of her. Other than those neon arrows of course. He wished they would go away, which they did. He smiled. Mikah had obviously given up. But where was she? He needn’t have worried. She had sensed that they were all there and intact, and appeared the other side of the plains, only just visible. She spoke to Fred only, through telepathy.

“I know you can hear me. Now that they’re awake, this has to end. But I can’t simply let you go, no. We eill fight, to the death.”

“To the death?”

“Yes.”

“But-”

“No buts. Only one of us can go back.”

“We could get along”

“We tried that. It failed. So one of us has to be removed from the situation. Me or you.”

Mikah teleported in front of the group. Ariba and Josh looked suitably shocked and confused; when had she learned to do that? Ariba could sense that something wasn’t right, the tension wasn’t natural. Josh however, embraced Mikah and held her tightly. She briefly smiled at him then looked at Fred. It was game on, and everyone knew it.

Suddenly they were all taken to a racetrack… well a sort of racetrack… alright, to a city where the roads had been marked off where the racers would zoom around the tracks in excess of 180mph. In the normal traffic. Two cars sat side by side, their engines purring softly. In one car, a red rally style, sat Fred, wondering what he had agreed to. In the other, a black rally style car with electric blue flames painted on the side, sat Mikah, smiling. She knew what she would have to do to win this; all she had to do was survive.

The race began, with Josh and Ariba waiting in the crowds by the start line. Whoever survived this race would make it back to that point. Mikah let everyone know what was at stake by sending the thoughts to them, not thinking about the looks of horror and distress on those waiting in the crowd. This one was all or nothing. Fred stepped out of his car and started banging on Mikah’s door.

“No, you can’t make me do this, I wont kill you.”

“Stupid moron. Have you not figured it out? Three times I could have killed you, in theory. Certainly the last time you should have died. Didn’t you realise why you didn’t die?”

“No, I don’t understand it”

“Then we’ll do this. Believe me you’ll understand when this is over, but it’s the only way I can show you. Explaining it would be…”

“Too easy?”

“Yeah. Get in the car.” Mikah turned to face him and took her helmet off, looking him dead in the eye.

“It’ll be ok. Everything will be ok. I don’t want you dead. And I don’t want to die. So no worries. Just race.”

“But you made it clear it was to the death, you told us all that”

“Oh it is…”

“But…”

“Just race.” she said, pulling her helmet on and winding up her window. She began to rev up her engine waiting for Fred to get in his car. Once he had, the lights started up.

Red.

Red.

Red.

Green.

Mikah roared off, taking the early lead on Fred, who did well to keep up. He watched as Mikah charged into the oncoming traffic and nearly hit a few cars. Then he observed something unusual. After a minute or so of this Mikah’s car leaped out of the oncoming traffic and into the correct lane. Flames appeared from her twin exhaust, sending shooting into the distance. There were only to be two laps to this and already he was behind by quite a bit.

Mikah hurtled around a corner, slamming her car into the wall and dragging it along, scratching the side badly. Fred, now copying her tactics, had learned how to make his car boost as well, and was catching up on her. She pushed the accelerator as down as far as it would go, pushing her car to go just that little bit faster. Fred did the same. They flew through the start point with Mikah just in the lead.

Not far into the second lap Fred caught up with Mikah, keeping side by side with her. This she found infuriating, she wanted to win this. If it was going to end, it would do so in her favour. She jerked her steering wheel to the left and rammed her car into his. As soon as he realised what she was doing he did the same, sending her further to the right than she had started. Taking this as a challenge, Mikah dropped back a bit and began ramming into the corner of his car. She was trying to make him spin, and it would have worked if he hadn’t slowed down to match her speed. She wasn’t going to win this, not if he could help it. He didn’t want her to die, but if that’s how it was going to be, he would rather himself live.

Again Mikah sped up, almost leaving him trailing. Fred, showing unusual ruthlessness, dropped away and waited for her to take the corner again. He knew full well she would slam into that wall, and he was going to take advantage. As her car began to turn into it, Fred slammed into the corner of her car, making it spin out of control. Inside, Mikah screamed, now terrified. She hadn’t counted on this. Her car hit the wall head on, stopping dead. Not far away, Fred’s car stopped , and Fred ran back to the corner, joined by Ariba and Josh who had seen everything.

“Shit…”

“Fred what did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to… shit!”

“Mikah!” Josh cried, running to the car and dragging her out of it. He lay her on the road, her battered and bloodied body barely moving to breathe. Everyone knelt around her.

“You do have some guts after all. I’m impressed.” Mikah managed to smile. Confused and in shock, Fred looked at her. She knew what he wanted. The answer to her riddle. Oh boy was he going to get it, and pretty soon. She could feel the change sweeping over her, slowly at first, speeding up as death took it’s final grip on her. Just before she closed her eyes she managed to whisper one thing.

“Death is only the beginning for those who truly embrace it…”

Distressed, the group of three remained by the racetrack for hours. They couldn’t figure out how to get out of this cartoon world, and it was beginning to frighten them. Then something happened which truly terrified them. Mikah’s body began to levitate by itself, floating up to about 10 feet in the air. Then it disappeared in a quick burst of light. Immediately the three were teleported back to the Calm Lands, where it was unnaturally dark. They heard a piercing scream and turned around to find out what was causing such a racket.

In the distance they could see an eerie turquoise glow, with a small winged figure in the middle of it. The figure grew much bigger as it drew closer, almost hovering above the grass. Fred knew immediately who it was. Mikah had been resurrected, but she wasn’t the Mikah she was before. Another scream confirmed this to the rest of the group as they were drawn to looking at her. She stopped not far from them, and allowed them a minute to see who she was.

She looked much different to anything they had seen her as before, even in this strange cartoon world. Her mousy hair was now jet black and reached down quite a way, almost to her knees. The blue eyes she once had were now nothing but black holes, and her pale skin was now just white. Her new wings looked like they had been there an age already; they were like huge dragon wings, but torn and weathered, a dull black. She smiled cruelly, raising her hand, a staff materialising in it. A similar staff appeared in Fred’s hand. Mikah nodded to him, and he understood. This was the real battle, the final one. All or nothing. Though he didn’t understand what had happened to her, he knew that for certain, this would be the end of one of them.

Mikah clicked her fingers and transported Ariba and Josh to the hut near the northern side of the Calm Lands, at the same time sending herself and Fred to the centre. Mikah did one last thing for Fred: she gave him the ability and the knowledge to summon Aeons. They were going to battle to the death using creatures entwined with their very souls. The loser would not only lose their body but their soul too. They would be wiped from existence. Exactly what Mikah wanted.

Nervous but determined not to show it, Fred stepped forward taking a standard stance. Mikah opened her wings out fully, revealing them to be much larger than they seemed at first. She nodded, gesturing for him to go first. He summoned his beast quickly, choosing the Aeon Valefor. Mikah simply laughed at his choice. She knew what she was going to go for, and he should have expected it. A final fantasy nut back in the real world, she’d always had one favourite who had always been in the games. One she always used whenever she could, just to show him off. She slid back, holding her arms in the air, grinning as a giant mana circle appeared underneath her, it’s complex design rotating. The same circle appeared in the sky a few times in a column, though each one had it’s own distinct markings in the centre. The clouds grew thick and heavy , a hole forming in then just above the columns. From that hole a shape appeared and went right through the centre of the column headfirst, stopping only yards before the ground to right itself and land with a heavy thud which shook the ground and made Fred fall backwards.

It was Dark Bahamut, the darker more sinister version of the usually proud Aeon. Darkness had cursed it, transforming it’s rainbow-feathered wings to shades of dull purple and grey, the gold that lined his chest now a faded black like the rest of him. He was much bigger than the usual Aeon though, and proved this by stretching his own wings out fully, taking up a stance opposite the colourful Valefor. Without words the two Aeons flew at each other, Valefor spiralling round to claw at Dark Bahamut, who shot upwards into the air. Valefor shot after him, biting and reaching for him. Bahamut stopped dead and plummeted down to the soaring beast, effectively using his body to shoulder Valefor in the gut, winding him and stopping him in his tracks.

Fred felt everything, and fell to his knees, unable to breathe. This didn’t stop Mikah. She wouldn’t relent. Something inside her had snapped, twisting her thoughts into the destruction of Fred. He wouldn’t give up though. For his own survival he couldn’t. He didn’t want this, but it was beyond clear that Mikah would do whatever it took to win, and he knew he had to do the same.

“Forgive me” he whispered as he closed his eyes. He focussed his strength and Valefor’s eyes snapped open, a defiant glint in them. Dark Bahamut, not scared by this, released his prey and landed not far from Mikah. He stood on all fours, the massive dirty gold wheel spinning with increasing velocity as he powered up his strongest attack. Valefor, knowing what was coming, began a charge. If he could catch Dark Bahamut before the attack began, it would throw him off and release his attack in another direction. Unfortunately, despite being one of the fastest, Valefor wasn’t able to reach Dark Bahamut in time, feeling the full force of the Mega Flare attack unleashed on him. Fred felt the burning, searing pain and screamed along with his Aeon. Bahamut stood, glaring over the pitiful sight whilst Mikah did the same to Fred.

“It is over” Mikah’s voice, deeper and more powerful, boomed. She raised her staff as Dark Bahamut raised his arms, this time standing on two legs as his well charged up. As Mikah’s staff glowed and crackled, Dark Bahamut took to the sky once more, hovering over the near dead Valefor.

From somewhere Fred found a huge surge of energy. Defianlty he grinned at Mikah. He wasn’t done just yet. Whilst he was still breathing he would fight. Filled with renewed faith, he again focussed his energy into his flailing Aeon. Valefor, filled with this energy, sprang from the grassy plains and also took flight, underneath and facing Bahamut. Fred dragged himself up to the severe annoyance of Mikah. Quickly he concentrated and his own staff began to crackle a brilliant yellow in contrast to the electric blue of Mikah’s staff. Valefor powered up his attack.

Then both beasts unleashed their greatest and most powerful attacks. Everything around them turned a brilliant white for just a second as the massive energy clashed and dispersed.

Once the whiteness had faded it could be seen that the Aeons had disappeared, both of them. There was a massive scorch mark where they had met. Two bodies lay still. Ariba and Josh ran to them, praying.

A twitch.

The flutter of eyelids.

A gasp for air.

Fred woke, painfully dragging himself up, leaning on Ariba for support. Josh went over to the black winged body that lay not too far from them. It didn’t move. Wasn’t breathing. As he touched her cold face, the wings and darkness melted away like washing watercolour paints from a palette. Bruised and bloodied, she hadn’t survived. The ultimate battle between them had been one. Crying, Josh broke the news to the other two. Amidst mixed feelings of grief and guilt, none of them realised that they had somehow transported back to the real world.

The End