Chapter 3: A Story Long Forgotten

[ani]

Vanesse took in what Polaris's words. It appealed to her more than anything. The race didn't have to be visible to be assumed immortal. They must have been transformed into something else--"something that wouldn't die".

/If they're not visible...then, maybe they're transparent./ Paridge kidded at a time like this.

Vanesse's forehead wrinkled. She was so close in unjunctioning him when another thought touched her mind. Actually, Paridge's outburst just gave her another idea.

"I think you're right." Vanesse said. "Judging from the way the statues warned us and from the story, there is something ominous about the Ruby and the statues are trying to cover it up to avoid disaster." She placed a hand on her waist. She was going to mention about the race being some kind of ghosts when someone cut her.

"Are you sure it's just the Ruby?" Stardust spoke up. Everyone knew that the gems were useless by themselves. The three gems were needed to slay Adel, therefore, they had to be used together. Even so, if what she was thinking were the case, they weren't allowed to backdown. "What if the statues were warning us about reuniting the three gems? That would make a lot of sense now, would it?"

"Sure, but that's still doesn't lead us to where the race is." Hadrian told her. The opinions of everyone definitely put some oil into his dry brain and it got him thinking. "My two cents," he said. "I didn't know if I heard this correctly, but did daughters state that they created the three gems bearing the ancient race's spirit? Just think of it as a backup data in case your harddrive crashed."

"Their spirits," Vanesse blurted out. "Yeah, I was going to say spirits..." She looked to side and scratched her cheek. This was all so confusing now. Too much speculation, not enough evidences. She let out a grunt.

"Can't you just give us more clues?!" she asked the statues. "You didn't tell the whole story, mind you." And they were going to die if they messed up? Talk about...messed up.

"My my, giving up already? Amusing, I presume you know very well the answer to this one..."

The green statue giggled, enjoying the way the SeeDs struggle.

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris stared into the space in front of her, her mind working furiously, absently taking in Hadrian's and Stardust's words and converting it to useful information to add to her theory. A moment after the statue asked the question, Polaris murmured, "The sword."

Sho blinked at her, and a small smile lit Polaris's features. She turned to Hadrian. "That part, where you said about the backup data...if that were true..." Her amber eyes were bright, "Then it means that the ancient race was transformed into the three gems, and the sister who reside with them...couldn't it be the sword itself? The sword is the computer and it needs the gems---the backup data---to restart."

Sho spoke. "Aa, excuse me...but what the HELL are you on about?" He looked positively bewildered.

Polaris grinned. "Technotalk," she supplied, and Sho blinked, but nodded. "So, if we put together Hadrian's theory and Stardust's theory along with my own...the ancient race resides in the gems, while the sisters make up the sword...and the ancient evil will be unleashed when the sword and the gems come together." Polaris nodded at Stardust. "It makes sense, you know. The gems have the power to grant wishes. We so obviously wish for the destruction of Adel, and so we must pay an equal price...the evil we'll unleash to use the sword that can kill a sorceress."

[Diego Stanton]

Deo was amazed by these people who called themselves seeD. With absolutely no useful information thrown at them, they had been able to solve the puzzle within a matter of minutes. He now understood why they were called the 'elite.' However, the speculation made by Polaris had bothered him.

"What's the point of even trying to kill Adel with the gems?" Deo said to the seeDs, "If destroying her will release an evil just as great, what's the point of slaying her using that sword?"

[Polaris Lyn]

"Just because the evil will be as great, doesn't mean it'll be invincible...I think." Polaris chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, pushing a stray curl behind her ear. "It's a necessary thing...the sword is the only thing that can defeat Adel now."

"You're sure?" Sho's voice was neutral enough, but the words were doubtful.

[ani]

"We've come this far now, we certainly can't back down," Stardust added, glancing at Deo like he just said something crazy. Great evil or not, she didn't care, Stardust just wanted to see the downfall of Adel. If that would make her be branded as an insane, then so be it. "This is the only thing we can do."

Hadrian nodded. "All right." He changed the subject. "It makes a lot of sense now. Of course, the race is inside the three gems...." He glanced at everyone.

"I think so too." Vanesse nodded, despite the fact that the evil they were talking about had made her feel apprehended. She guessed she couldn't blame the SeeDs for what they believed in. She too could relate. "What do you all think?"

[waterlily43]

"Well if we don't get rid of Adel we're doomed. There's no other way to defeat her. We have to take the risk of unleashing this evil because who knows, maybe we can defeat it. And if we don't take it we'll never know, would we? " Jun said in her calm manner that she knew was the most effective in trying to persuade people. "And this evil? We'll defeat it one step at a time."


"They're kinda right." Rayden nodded, scratching the back of his head which was usually a sign that he was thinking hard. "The fear of something is usually greater when it's unknown. You know once you've gone through Adel, anything would be easy-peasy by comparison." He grinned with more confidence than he had.

[ST]

"Is that really it?"

The green statue spoke once again, amused by Rayden's words. Seconds later, the room began to shake.

"However, it does not matter. Now you know the truth."

The statue of the three daughters started to move. As if being pulled by an unknown force, their niche were moved to the side, revealing an opening on the ground. In it was an old staircase, made of marble, that seemed to spiral downward to the darkness.

"Once the last gem has been awakened, everything will begin once again..."

With that, a cold wind blew upon the SeeDs and the glow in the statues had dissipated, leaving the spacious lobby in dead silence.

[Ash]

hah.. so that's why we couldn't open the doors surrounding the room Deo thought. He was almost knocked down when someone rushed past him into the stairwell.

"Hurry up!!" Blaze yelled, typically rushing into things without a care. The sound of her footsteps could be heard getting fainter.

---

The stairwell seemed to be neverending. None of you could see the bottom of it. It looked like it spiraled down into nothing.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

With a creased forehead, Hadrian's eyes trailed down the spiral staircase that seemed to extend deeper underground. Whoever guessed that the right door was underneath those statues all along. They sure had him fooled. However, the question was, what exactly was down there. The ruby? Sure. But they still had to make sure.

Bringing up the scanner to his face, he pushed the sensor and tried to walk closer to the stairs to check for any heat source coming from any monsters below when Blaze quickly lunged for the stairs, taking the lead.

"Wait! I still haven't--" he called out but it was too late. She seemed to have trekked downstairs already. Man, she reminds me of a bull. Blaze just charged towards the dark underground without thinking. He wondered if Balamb SeeDs were all trained to be this rash....Rhetoric. Heaving a groan, he looked at the others. Forget the sensor, he thought to himself, briskly following Blaze's lead. He placed his scanner back to his pocket and took out his flashlight in return.

"In case you have night vision, here's our trusty flashlight." he muttered, descending down the spiral steps.

[waterlily43]

Jun followed Blaze who took a blazing headstart and Hadrian down the spiralling staircase cautiously. Not forgetting her duties as the team's self-appointed nagger, she called out after them.

"Be careful you guys. I'm eighty percent sure that there's still something guarding the Ruby. Best to be prepared and all."

"Don't you ever get tired of dispensing advice nobody heeds?" She heard an annoying voice behind her. Her frown deepened when she saw Rayden standing at the start of the steps.

"Hey just saying it as it is." Rayden shrugged, a deliberate grin spread across his lips. "Take a break, chicas or you'll be having those wrinkles before you're past your twenties." He finished with a wink and turned, a meaningful look thrown back at Polaris and Stardust before descending the stairs as well.

Jaime stared at the SeeDs and wondered if this was normal. She scooted closer to Van and whispered softly into her friend's ear, making sure that only Van could hear what she was saying.

"Van...do you think they always fight like this? Maybe we can make use of this..."

[miyavi]

Polaris caught Rayden's glance and blinked. <Huh?>

<He likes you, ohhhh he likes you!> Obsidian had gone into some sort of crazy fangirl---err, fanboy---fanGF mode. <Blonde guys always seem to like you, that's sooooo cute!! Don'tcha think he's sooooo hot, Pollywantsacracker?!> He was in raptures at the newest blackmail ammo he had received.

<...> Polaris sighed irritably. The day had been going pretty well---as good as it got with people trying to kill them, and baaaaad family reunions, and performing operations on brothers who wanted to kill her, anyway---until her Guardian Force had decided to appoint itself matchmaker-slash-group-jackass. <I think he said something about wrinkles.>

<OooOOOOoooOoOooh..what are those?>

Polaris silently huffed. What she wouldn't give for some sort of magical gun so she could blow Obsidian a new one---

<BUT YOU COULDN'T DO THAT, YOU LOVE MEEEEEE!!!!!>

<Like I love a canker sore.>

Blaze was at the lead, her heavy running footsteps echoing as she blindly went on, and Polaris groaned softly, pinching the bridge of her nose.

It was going to be a long trip.

Something flew by her right then, and she turned her head to see Sho walk past her, chucking bright orange flares down the stairwell. He was pulling them out of random pockets in his jacket. "I have like...thirty," he told her, catching her wide-eyed look. "Or fifty. Somewhere around there."

She said nothing and he shrugged, heading down the stairs, still throwing flares down the staircase to light the way. "Aa, don't trip and fall, Blaze!" he shouted into the semidarkness. "You might break your neck...wait, that'd be really cool if I got a picture of you falling down the stairs!" Sho stopped throwing flares and rummaged through his pockets yet again, managing to come up with a digital camera. After turning it on, he pressed a button, and the flash stayed on like a white luminous sun, bathing the staircase in bright light.

"Holy crap, the flash on this thing is bright---shit!"

Polaris was beginning to make her way down the stairs when she heard a loud curse, then some tumbling, and then Sho swore loudly as he rolled down the stairs, and crashed straight into Blaze. From the sudden shouting that ensued at the bottom, Polaris believed that it was most likely Blaze had realized Sho had fallen on top of her.

Sighing, Polaris turned to share an exasperated glance at Jun. "So much for being careful," the curly-haired woman said ruefully, before descending into the dimly-lit darkness.

---

*dies laughing* I think Sho is officially the clumsiest SeeD in this mission.

[vanesse]

Vanesse waited till Stardust had descended down the stairs to answer Jaime.

"You know what? I think this feud between them happens on a daily basis too," she said, chucking the team a knowing glance. "Who knows? Maybe Hyne will smile at us and they'll all beat each other up while we make our grand escape." She laughed. "Heh, bad joke."

Tugging Jaime's shirt, she gestured for them to follow as well. "Atleast they promised us the ruby, right?"

[stardust]

Stardust started descending down the steps to follow her teammates. The look of the place below was enough to give her bad vibes.

/Afraid?/ Diwata teased. That word alone could make her laugh. As long as the Ruby would be found down there, it didn't matter what the circumstance was. They were almost there. Adel's days were numbered.

She looked ahead to where her teammates were. The flicker of the flashlight and glow sticks couldn't be missed. The steps seemed to spiral down forever. Catching up to the group, she saw Sho fall over Blaze like a bowling ball to a duckpin.

Stupid. She exhaled gruffly and stepped past the two of them. She could hear Diwata laughing nonstop.

Moments later, Stardust stepped on solid ground. They finally reached the deepest level.


ST POST!!
------------------------------------

The place was dim and you had no idea how spacious the area was. Walking a further, the ground shook malevolently and a high concentrated beam shot past all of you.

A figure of a giant creature started to take form before you. It had ten heads jointed to one body, its pitched fork tongues slithered out of its mouth between its fangs. With a deafening roar, it started towards all of you and attacked. All of you retaliated with full force but physical attacks couldn't do damage. Magic worked, however, it wasn't that effective. Everytime the magic did damage, one of the heads would cast white Magic and Curaga almost instantly.

Something seem to shimmer at the forehead of the head in the middle. There was no mistaking it, it was the ruby itself.

[waterlily43]

Jun gripped her sword, staring disbelievingly at the Ruby Guardian. This was the first time she had ever encountered an enemy that she couldn't hurt with Tien Nu.

"What kind of creature is this?" She half-yelled, her face grim and sweaty from her exertion. "Physical attacks can't do jack shit! Magical attacks are just as useless, what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"Well stating the obvious certainly doesn't help." Rayden retorted. He tried spearing the creature with his giant fork again, but somehow even before the tip touched its skin, the fork was repelled by some mysterious force. "Slow!" He cast his status magic on it. Jaime, catching up on his idea, started casting Pain as well.

To their dismay the creature seemed to be immune to status abnormalties as well.

"Damn it do you have to be so dammed impenetratable?" Rayden growled at the creature.

It swiped at him in reply.

[Bun]

Sho hastily stowed his digital camera into a random pocket of his jacket and dived out of the way, rolling to his feet as one of the monster's many heads shot another beam of energy towards him. He ducked, then uttered a sharp "ki-yaa!" as he aimed a punch to the body. A mysterious, invisible barrier blocked his attack, however, and sent Sho stumbling back a step, just as a claw came coming up to meet him. Sho fell on his back, the attack missing him by mere inches, and rolled backwards into a crouching defensive stance.

<Shit.> The monster's increased defense against physical attacks rendered Sho nearly useless---his magic attack strength was way too weak for him to do damage with offensive magic. He heard someone move behind him and a familiar female voice commanded, "Cast."

Sho blinked, but obeyed, then jumped out of the way of a Thundaga attack. Polaris, infused with Triple magic once more, began casting at top speed, Triple Auras cast multiple times followed by Regen spells. It took mere minutes for the entire party, large as it was, to be glowing with the Aura-Regen cocktail that Polaris had created. It was taxing, the sudden casting, and Polaris winced, one hand flying to her chest as her heart squeezed in her chest, beating much too quickly to supply fresh oxygenated blood to her tired arms and suffocating brain.

If she kept casting at this speed and rate, her body would collapse from exhaustion. Polaris grit her teeth, pulling her war axe from its sheath, and ran.

One of the monster's multiple heads caught a glimpse of her, and shrieked its displeasure to the high ceiling, speeding towards her with its fangs bared. Polaris met it head on, carrying her axe low, the blade nearly scraping the ground. The head was only a foot from the floor, jaws open nearly wide enough to swallow her. It full-on roared, the blast nearly knocking her backwards, but Polaris shouted back, just as angry.

"MASTER HEPHAESTUS!!" She shifted her footing, nearly sliding to a stop a fooot from the monster's open jaw, and raised her blade with insane speed and swung it down, the blade coming down onto the monster's lower jaw and splitting it in two. The moment her axe met the stone ground the meteors began to fall, pummeling the Guardian, which writhed in anger.

While it was true that physical attacks might be useless against the Guardian's immense defense, Limit Break attacks were categorized as power attacks, neither physical nor magical. And while it looked like Polaris's Limit Break didn't exactly take out half the monster's health, she managed to HIT it, and that was what mattered.

The monster raised its head, the split lower jaw keeping its mouth open in a peculiar way, as if it were laughing, the wound dripping sticky, dark blood onto the floor in large spatters. It roared, summoning forth a concentrated energy to hit her. She turned to run away, but the monster was fast---a claw came from nowhere, colliding with her body, the sharp nails digging through skin, slicing muscle, and she screamed as it tore an open, horizontal gash across her back. It knocked her back powerfully, picking her off her feet and sending her flying to her left, straight into a stone pillar, effectively cracking one of her lower ribs. She slid down the pillar and lay on the ground, her axe forgotten, and Polaris swore silently as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

<Son of a bitch.>

Sho ducked, then spun, then ran backwards as the monster continued casting and shooting energy beams, hearing the sounds of battle around him but more focused on his own survival. He managed to narrowly avoid a Blizzard spell, then moved into an offensive stance, summoning forth his only offensive spell.

"Tornado!" He exhaled quickly and shaped the power between his palms before it gathered speed, transforming into a powerful cyclone headed for the monster.

He had seen Jaime, the model-blonde, casting Pain, and saw that it wasn't making a dent. Maybe Stat-Mag didn't work, but what about Element-Mag...?

---

Pol's such a weenie. She's almost as useless in this battle as Hadrian!! XD

Pol: >( I hate you.