Chaotic End

[chaos_vessel]

Characters: Vincent Valentine (Chaos), Yuffie Kisaragi, Tifa Lockhart, Shelke Rui.
Progress: In-Progress
Summary: Three of the women of Avalanche journey into Qu’s Marsh to either try and help Vincent gain control over Chaos, or kill him.
Location: Qu’s Marsh
Date: August 1804, shortly after this and this.
Warnings: Violence/death.

The most

Comments

[heartofheaven]

Finding their way through the marsh wasn't easy. It was the last place Chaos had been sighted, but there was a lot of ground to cover and Tifa was very aware that Chaos could easily fly above them. She kept looking up, expecting at any moment for a dark figure to swoop through the Mist.

So when she stumbled across the body, she was taken by surprise. In fact, she actually stepped on the dead hand, and cried out when she realised it was a corpse.

"That's..." Tifa's eyes widened. She recognised that painted face, the clown's outfit. "Kefka..."

She shifted uneasily. She had fought Kefka before, but not alone: it had taken large groups to attack him and they'd never managed to actually kill him. The clown had always escaped. But something had finally defeated him, and Tifa was in no doubt as to what it was. It didn't bode well for their chances. She could only hope that the battle had weakened Chaos somewhat.

[tinymakoaddict]

Shelke was not enjoying the swamp. The deeper came up past her waist, for one thing, and it was just...unpleasant. She'd tucked her pants into her shoes but all that did was make everything feel damper.

Still, there were far more important things to worry about, and when Tifa found the body the girl stepped past her, reaching out to turn the corpse in the water, looking over the injuries. She reached out and traced a finger over the massive gash where the clowns heart had been, along the edges of various scraps and cuts.

"It was Chaos." She confirmed unnecessarily as she straightened back up.

[championofwutai]

Yuffie physically grimaced at the sight of the dead clown in the marsh. Blegh. Great that he was dead, sucked cause now there was dead body stench along with the swamp stench. This was worse than Don Corneo.

"Serves Kefka right. He deserved it." Yuffie took that time to look upwards, eyes scanning the sky for the familiar form of Chaos. She was hoping it wouldn't have to come down to this.

[heartofheaven]

Tifa nodded at Yuffie. "At least one good thing came out of this..." She stepped away, looking up again. "Vincent... Where are you?"

[tinymakoaddict]

Shelke ran the tip of her finger through the murky water to get Kefka's blood off it, and then turned away from the others, surveying the sky alone with them. Part of her almost hoped they did not find him...some small, irrational bit deep down inside that had survived Deepground intact and still believed in happy endings.

She was pretty good at ignoring it, most of the time.

"Do we have anything to light on fire? If he is here, the flame would draw him easily enough."

[chaos_vessel]

There was no need. Shortly after Shelke spoke, Chaos appeared in the sky above them. At first, he was only an outline, barely discernable from the shape of a bird, but slowly, the shape began to descend as Chaos dove toward them. The closer he got, the more obvious it was that the demon approached them with violent intent. Death Penalty was held at the ready in the creature’s hand, and his fangs were bared in an angry snarl. Vincent was clearly not in any control.

[championofwutai]

Oh man. This wasn't going to be good. Yuffie readied her Conformer, jumping back from her current position to spread herself out from the others. If they were in a group, it would get messy fast.

[heartofheaven]

Dammit. Tifa dived out of the way instinctively, moving in the opposite direction to Yuffie to make them more difficult targets. She whirled around, raising her fists. Even if there was nothing of Vincent left in there, she had to try before attacking him.

"Vincent! Vincent, it's us! I know you're in there - Vincent - listen. We've come to help you!"

[tinymakoaddict]

When Yuffie went one way and Tifa went the other, Shelke moved straight up the middle, towards where Chaos was diving down towards them. This might have seemed suicidal, except that seconds before he would have reached her an orange sphere of magical energy burst to life around her. A Shield Spell. And a powerful one, from the looks of it.

And hopefully a target that Vincent would focus on, at least for a moment. "Vincent Valentine, you must control yourself." She spoke calmly, one hand pressed against the inside of the sphere.

[chaos_vessel]

The demon flew directly at Shelke, slamming into her shield forcefully. The demon drew back for only a moment before flying at the shield again, and again, snarling in savage rage. It did not acknowledge Shelke’s words, or Tifa’s shout. He simply continued to struggle against the shield, attempting to attack the three who were inside of it.

[championofwutai]

"Damn it, Vincent! Listen to us! We're your friends!"

Already this wasn't going too good. It was like Chaos had shoved Vincent out completely. Her grip tightened around the Conformer. She backed up more, out of away from Shelke's shield, away from Chaos. She needed a good shot.

[heartofheaven]

There was nothing for it. Shelke's shield would give out eventually. Steeling herself, Tifa slammed into the demon, hoping to bear him down to the ground through sheer force.

[chaos_vessel]

As Tifa slammed into him, the demon snarled, swiping out at her with his clawed hand and pushing her away, to keep her from shoving him over onto the ground and on top of his wings. Chaos finally raised his gun to shoot, not at Tifa, but at Shelke's shield, still doing the best he could to break it.

[tinymakoaddict]

While Shelke's shield was quite powerful, it was already showing signs of cracking beneath Chaos's onslaught. She stood there inside it, watching him. "Vincent Valentine, you've taken control of Chaos before. Do it again!" She actually shouted this last part, stepping closer to the edge of the orange sphere.

Her eyes were narrowed, staring at him, and she couldn't help but frown. It did not seem to be working.

"Please!"

[championofwutai]

Far enough back now, Yuffie let her Conformer fly at Chaos. It was clear that talking wasn't working, and the only thing they could do was knock some sense into the beast.

[heartofheaven]

Tifa was thrown off, and rolled away as Yuffie attacked with her shuriken. Damn, this marsh was a horrible place to fight. She was already covered in mud which burned her skin unpleasantly, especially the cuts that Chaos had left on her arm where he'd clawed her.

Ignoring all that, she charged again, flying into him with fists raised.