Chapter 29 - The Beast Within




Posted by Sak

Chapter 29 - The Beast Within



-- Is it Anara’s dream? Or a vision of what’s to come? --

The beast known as Anara stood in the center of the Highwind. Everything and everyone was destroyed. The bodies of her friend’s lay scattered around her, all of them either decapitated or missing other vital parts. One body was not lying on the ground though, it was Aurie’s. Aurie’s body lay in both of Anara’s claws, Anara had stabbed her straight through the heart, killing her almost instantly. Anara didn’t feel anything about what she had done. Guilt and sorrow were completely absent from her mind, all that she felt was the THRILL of killing them, the rush that had come over her as their blood covered her claws. The thing that she had feared most had happened : she had lost control over her berserk half and murdered those that she cared about the most. What made it worse was the fact that she ENJOYED doing it. She ENJOYED killing, and nobody could stop her from killing anybody else……

-- Anara’s Room --

Anara woke up from that horrible nightmare gasping for breath. Cold sweat covered her body, and she could not stop panting. That had been one of the worst nightmares she ever had in her life. But was it a nightmare? Or a vision of what’s to come? She looked out the window in her room, and noticed that it was still dark out. “I should try and get some more sleep,” she thought. Try as she might, Anara could not get to sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, the usual darkness greeted her, but unlike always, it wasn’t alone. It was accompanied by the image of blood red eyes, the eyes that belong to her when she goes berserk. No matter what she did, Anara could not get that image out of her mind. She now knew what the dream was : it was a vision of her future if she did not get rid of her berserker half. Anara closed her eyes once again to see the image of those blood red eyes, for now she would have to deal with it, and get some rest.

-- The Next Morning --

Anara woke up to the sun shining brightly. Other than that nightmare, she hadn’t dreamt the entire night. She got up out of her bed, grabbed a change of clothes, and headed off to the showers. Anara was usually the only one up this early, so she knew she wouldn’t have to wait to get cleaned. As she entered the bathroom, Anara looked in the mirror. What she saw was not her reflection, but that of her berserk self. Its blood red eyes seemed to look farther than her outer layer, and into her soul. A jolt of fear crept up her spine. Anara blinked, and no longer saw the reflection of her berserk self, but her own. She sighed with relief, and got into the shower.

-- An hour later --

Anara walked out of the bathroom, nice and clean in her traveling clothes. To her surprise, she found everyone awake and dressed waiting for her at the breakfast table. “Good morning!” she said cheerfully. “Morning,” Eiyuu replied with his mouth full. Several bits of cereal fell out of his mouth while doing so, and Renai elbowed him in the gut. “What’d I do?” he asked with his mouth full again, as more cereal fell out of his mouth. “So the beast has finally woken up,” said Keira. “Shut up!” shouted Anara. “What?” asked Keira, “Are you going to go berserk on me? Or are you too afraid that you might HURT me?” Anara turned around and stomped off to her room, trying to suppress her rage. She couldn’t let herself lose control.

-- Anara’s Room --

Anara was on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She really needed to get this berserker thing sorted out, yet she had no idea how. Little did she know that the answer was the person knocking on her door. “Anara, can I come in?” asked Aurie as she continuously knocked on Anara’s bedroom door. “It’s open,” replied Anara. Aurie opened the door, and entered Anara’s room. “What do ya want?” asked Anara. “I want to know what’s going on with you,” replied Aurie, “Ever since the tournament you’ve been a little hesitant to go berserk.” Anara sat up and said, “I can’t control myself anymore when I go berserk. It’s like there’s something else in me…..like my berserk half is an entirely different person. I’m just afraid that I’ll hurt someone that I care about. I just want my berserker half to disappear.”
“Are you serious about that?”
“Completely.”
“Well I’ve heard of a way you can “purge the berserker out of you”, but once I’ve never actually DONE it.”
“Let’s give it a shot, then.”
Aurie walked to her own room, which was right next to Anara’s, and came back moments later with a very old book. She sat down next to Anara on her bed, and opened the book up. Quickly, she thumbed through the pages, looking for the correct spell. “Not it, not it, not it…..” Aurie said under her breath every time she came across a spell on the dull, yellowed pages of the book. “Here it is!” she said excitedly when she had found it. Aurie scanned the page several times before saying anything to Anara. “Well…?” asked Anara. “It says…..that once we get rid of your berserker half…..we won’t be able to get it back….EVER,” replied Aurie, “And that we should do it in a large, open space. Now where’s a large space on the ship…..?”
“Oh how about that place that we were going to turn into a training room, but never got around to it?”
“I guess that could work….”
Aurie folded the page in the book, got off of Anara’s bed, and walked towards the empty room. Anara followed.

-- The Empty Room --

The two girls entered the room. It was completely devoid of anything except a light hanging from the center of the ceiling, and a few crates of various sizes. Anara dragged a medium sized one over to the center of the room, and then went back for two smaller crates and placed them adjacent to each other, near the larger crate. Aurie sat down on one of the smaller crates, and opened her book. She placed the book on the table, and read it one more time, to be sure she had read everything the last two times. Anara sat down on the crate adjacent to Aurie’s, and waited patiently for her to finish reading. “Okay,” said Aurie, “I’m done. Now are you absolutely sure that you want to do this?” “Positive,” replied Anara. Aurie placed both of her hands on either side of Anara’s forehead, and mumbled strange words, the words of magic. Anara didn’t understand a word of it, but hoped that Aurie was saying the correct words. If she wasn’t then who knows what could happen? Suddenly, Anara began to glow with a pale green light. Aurie continued to mumble the words, then suddenly, she stopped mumbling. She thrust both of her hands into Anara’s chest. Oddly, Anara did not feel any pain. Aurie began to tug at something inside of Anara. Soon, it was completely pulled out, and standing to Aurie’s left. Anara stopped glowing and looked to her right to see what it was Aurie had pulled out. What she saw was her berserk self. Anara shook her head, blinked, and looked again, but the same creature still stared down at her, with a menacing grin, it’s legs set into a fighting stance….

-- The Battle --

Anara got up, grabbed the dagger at her waist, twirled it a few times, and said, “BRING IT ON, UGLY!” The beast next to her roared and brought it’s deadly claws down on her. Anara dodged it just in time and moved in for a strike on it’s stomach. She slashed, and to her dismay, only made a mere scratch on the creature’s belly. Anara then kicked at its stomach, and sent it flying to the other end of the room. “Hey, Aurie,” she said, “You never said I was going to have to fight it!” “Sorry,” replied Aurie, “I guess I forgot to mention that…” The beast got up, and charged at Anara with its claws raised, ready for a fatal attack. It slashed downwards with one of its claws. Anara dodged the attack only to get slashed with the other claw. She screamed in pain. The beast took advantage of this moment, and kneed her in the gut. Anara fell down on her back, ready for death to await her…..

-- The Kitchen --

Keira was the only one left in the kitchen, everyone else had already finished eating and gone into their rooms, as usual. Well, everyone except for Kayne, he was sleeping upside down, RIGHT above the table. She was about to poke him with a broom to see if he would fall off when she heard a scream. She grabbed several shuriken from the pouch on her belt, and ran in the direction of the scream…..

-- Back at Anara’s Battle --

The beast brought down it’s claws on Anara’s chest, only to be miraculously blocked with a dagger, Anara’s dagger. “Did you really think you’d get me that easily?” she asked while still on the ground, holding the beast’s claws at bay. Anara then bent brought both of her knees close to her chest, and kicked the beast off of her. She quickly got up, and ran at it while it was still down. Anara jumped up in the air, and brought down her dagger on the beasts chest. Shockingly, the blades sunk deep into its chest, reaching its heart, or at least where its heart should have been. The beast made an inhuman scream, and began vanishing before Anara’s eyes. Just then, Keira entered the room and said, “Where’s the fight?!? Who got hurt?!?” Then laid her eyes upon the bruised and bloody Anara on top of the vanishing body of her berserk self. “What the heck is going on?!?” asked Keira. “We’ll tell you later,” replied Aurie, “But for right now, let’s just say that Anara isn’t part berserker anymore.” “Oh. Where you scared that you might HURT someone?” asked Keira. Anara got up and said, “I CAN STILL HURT YOU, EVEN WITHOUT MY BERSERKER HALF!”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah really!”
“I’d like to see you try!”
“Oh you’re on!”
“Why do you guys always fight?” Aurie sighed. “It’s fun!” both Anara and Keiri replied in unison, as they continued to fight each other with their fists. “I am so glad I don’t have a rival…” said Aurie…..


-- to be continued --




Posted by Wally The Weird

In retro-spect, I guess I should have given Kayne a room.
Hey, can we make it so that Kayne doesn't have a room because the only one elft is belonged to Vecks, and he kept weird stuff in it, so everyone is afraid to go inside?

But enough about my characters, that was good Sak. What are you gonna do with her now? You brought her onto the team as a berserker, so she's going to have to do something else now, obviously.




Posted by Sak


Quoting Wally The Weird:

But enough about my characters, that was good Sak. What are you gonna do with her now? You brought her onto the team as a berserker, so she's going to have to do something else now, obviously.

Correction : I brought her on as a berserker THIEF. So she's going to be a thief now, with a few new moves that I'm thinking of.



Posted by Wally The Weird

Good thing Kayne is leaving, because his function was kind of a Dragoon theif. When he comes back, and it will be a short absense as Vecks will only be around for a breif time (With memory, but when he comes back again, he'll be a blank) I was thinking of having Kayne undergone training to hone his skills making him more of a Dragon/Samurai. And, in case you weren't familiar with Samurai's from previous Final Fantasy, Auron is the closest thing to a Samurai. Except I plan on him having less health/defence, faster, and about the same strength.

Oh, speaking of FFX, I finally got around to playing. Speaking of which, I am gonna go play it now :)
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Oh, and on a side note, today is my birthday! I am now 17 years old! I got FLCL (only 2 episodes) a transformers shirt, a promise for a bike when I get a new job, and Fuzzy Bunny Slippers.
Seriously




Posted by Arcadios

T'was okay.
I enjoyed Wally's chapter better put it was put into good words.
Nicely done!