This scene comes from one of the later chapters of Echoes of the Past, the Diamond Dust sequel, which hasn’t been uploaded yet and won’t be for a while.
The scene runs as thus:
Due to plot events Quistis, Rikku and a coupla others have went back in time to avoid one of those stupid killd-before-you’re-born-things.
Flying demon spawn attack B-Garden, who were using G-Garden as a portal to get into the world from Hell.
Ultima Weapon and the Ragnarok are dogfighting in the air above it.
Quistis and the big baddie are fighting in mid-air also, due to some plot developments.
Xu is directing artillery on aforementioned army.
Squall, the Gang minus Selphie, and the SAS are fighting inside Garden somewhere.
Rinoa is out of commission for reasons I showed in the closing stages of Diamond Dust.
Siren and the Eden Avatar (something I used in Diamond Dust to involve Eden more as a character, giving her a human puppet to speak through) are battling the traitor GFQuezacotl (thanks for the piccie Noacat. Can’t wait for the finished one!) in her human form on some high-up place, probably the O-Deck.
And without further ado…
Quezacotl ducked as Siren’s claws racked the air behind her and she charged forwards and pushed her square against the wall. The Lightning Guardian threw a leg out behind her and caught Eden’s fist on her stiletto, drawing blood, and the silver-skinned shell hopped backwards. She spun around to face the Avatar, planting her elbow in Siren’s face as she did so. With her free hand she stabbed forwards so that Eden had to dodge and Quezacotl’s fingers missed her eyeballs. Eden turned the dodge into a roll and kicked Siren’s feet out from under her. The pale woman spun around in the air and Eden aimed a kick at her, only to have Quezacotl’s free hand catch it, as the other one slapped the ground and steadied her upside down.
The two stood there motionless, Quezacotl’s jacket falling around her eyes, and then the hand was pushing off from the ground, and Eden was sent whirling like a spinning-top into the wall and onto the ground. She felt air move behind her and turned fast enough to see Siren’s nails tear into her coat. She looked down at the slashed fabric, snarled at Siren and struck out with her fist, as Siren brought up her arm and blocked it, slicing with her other arm at Quezacotl’s neck. She jerked backwards and gasped for air as it connected, sending her reeling backwards into Eden, who grabbed her shoulder and tried to stick her knee into her spine. Quezacotl brought one hand down to grab it as the other went forwards and caught Siren’s fist. She angled body sideways and wrenched the two Guardians sideways with her, but then Siren got hold of several of her braids and pulled sharply. Quezacotl was yanked backwards and fell to the floor in a heap, she rolled along the floor as Siren raised her leg and brought it down in a vicious scissors kick that dented the metal she had just rolled over. She spun and kicked off at the same time, coat obscuring the other two as she literally spun to her feet. She took deep breaths quietly, and waited for the other two to make their move.
She didn’t think. She didn’t even feel. She just responded, whirling through the air inside a massive space of energy she was barely aware of, fending off attacks by Tyler and sending back her own, using parts of her brain she hadn’t even known she’d had.
She saw him sink, ad then pivot and whirl under her, black tentacles ripping through the sky behind him, and she knew he would be coming back up behind her in about three seconds, working out delta-vee and distance vector sums in her head without knowing how she did them, and as he jolted to a stop behind her and his momentum carried his malevolent stalks of dark energy over him and towards her, where a thicker pane of force was already waiting for them, and they were snapped away before they could impact.
At one point her consciousness surfaced long enough to try and look down at herself, but all she saw was a white glow. She raised one arm to her face, but it was so bright she had to close her eyes and lower it down. Then Tyler had attacked again, and her thoughts faded again into a sea of peace and nothingness as she spun away and banked hard, flying past and around him, and testing his own energy-shape with her claws as she flew over him. He snarled and twisted onto his back, throwing his tendrils around like some kind of grotesque firework. They ripped into her Shape and tore livid marks down it, and she felt something tug at her through the fog of tranquillity. She arced upwards gracefully as if she had been born to soar. She looked back down and saw Tyler’s eyes staring at her through his Shape, keeping pace with her lower down, highlighted against the red fire of artillery and swarming creatures. She slowed down slightly and fell, folding her translucent wings around her, and the red eyes opened wider and he dodged quickly, tentacles spinning madly through the air, before she hit him square in the chest, leaving her falling to the ground. She held her arms out and felt her wings do the same, pulling her out of her dive mere metres from the ground. She looked up as something screamed, and an unfortunate creature intersected her flight, and was torn apart by the energy flowing around her. She winced as she felt it die, and then it’s ashes were falling away from her as she climbed back up into the sky, looking down on her home as it was caught between forces it hadn’t known existed until she had introduced them.
She saw something red flash on her peripheral vision, and ducked her head just as the Ragnarok flew over her; engines twin pillars of fire propelling it through the air.
“Watch it!” the co-pilot screamed nervously, as suddenly something massive and glowing appeared as if from nowhere. The Ragnarok just kept going, and the blue apparition went underneath them.
“I see her! Do you want to fly it!” Nida shouted back at his reluctant co-pilot. He cursed under his breath and turned his attention back to the shadow of grey and gunmetal he was chasing across the sky, the third member of the crew whooping uncontrollably as he tried to fix the gunsights on Ultima. The man must be mad.
“Anything?” Nida shouted, never taking his eyes from the view in front of him.
The gunner shook his head, and then shouted when he saw Nida couldn’t look. “No good, he’s changing direction too fast. I can’t get a lock!”
Nida saw the Weapon suddenly vanish up above the viewscreen; and pulled the stick towards him, sending the spaceship into a climb that pushed everyone back into their seats. Ultima suddenly hove back into view, rocketing into the sky, and Nida had to choice but to follow. If they lost it, they would have to find it again before it got behind them, and they were screwed. He heard a yell from behind him, and suddenly bright tracer fire was flying away from under the cockpit and up towards Weapon, who jinked around it and came out of his climb. Nida hissed and cut the engines as Weapon fell past them, and the spacecraft did a one-eighty as it fell out of the sky and Nida reengaged the engines and Weapon, still falling, turned and a massive beam of light actually lanced between the engine spikes, dissipating into the sky above them. Nida took a moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead and put both hands back on the flightstick, yanking it sideways against the drag and pulling the ship into a tight turn as Weapon flipped over in mid-air and sped off, Nida in well-armed hot pursuit. He swerved to avoid a lone creature and gunfire erupted from the craft’s underbelly as the gunner picked it out of the sky and blasted it.
“Over there!” Xu screamed, and the SeeD turned, and then the SeeD leader covered her ears as the SeeD raised the weapon to his shoulder and a missile lanced towards a nearly flying fiend, splashing it across the sky. Xu felt a hand on her shoulder and turned, sword lying up, and stopped it mere inches from Rikku’s face.
Rikku didn’t notice. “Where’s Quistis?” she shouted over the noise and smoke. Xu frowned and pointed. Rikku turned, and as if on cue a blue glow suddenly suffused the area, and Rikku dived below the parapet as Quistis flew overhead, chased by something black and evil.
“Oh.”
Xu turned to see Kirsten standing behind Rikku and staring rapt at the battle. She heard wings flapping, and her eyes went wide as something dark flew in low behind her. She started to shout something, but the Kirsten was pivoting on the balls of her feet, rifle coming up, and the creature found itself staring into the barrel of a gun. It tried to brake in midair, and then flew backwards spraying blood from a gaping whole in it’s head as Kirsten calmly turned back to Xu, who was looking at her open-mouthed.
“What?”
Xu shook her head and turned back to picking out targets for the missiles. She caught movement to one side, and saw something human shaped slide down the side of Garden’s shell. Two white streaks slammed into the wall to either side of it and a hand went up to shield its face before continuing its treacherous slide down the building. Xu grabbed the shoulder of one of the SeeDs and was about to point it out, but then another hand grabbed hers, and she turned to Rikku.
“She’s ours,” the young blond whispered. Xu nodded, and Rikku turned, and changed. Xu looked away as the Al Bhed seemed to lose her form, and looked back when the noise was over, to see Rikku unfold her wings and drop into the sky. Kirsten sighed and ran for the door inside, dashing after the half-Guardian girl.
Xu heard a scream, and whirled around to see the SeeD immediately to her right writhing on a creature’s claws, missile launcher slashed beyond repair and thrown aside. She took one step towards her and her sword moved with her, slicing through flesh and bone, and then one hard kick sent it’s corpse trailing off towards the ground, where it was swallowed up by hundreds more flying up towards her. She cursed. This isn’t good. Grabbing the injured and moaning SeeD, she dragged him away from the ledge and towards the infirmary.
EDIT: Any typos you see, can you point them out? Cheers.
With the entire sequence (it isn’t finished, not by a long shot. Dialogue scenes will come later once the individual rivalries and fights have been set out) I was aiming for a sense of scale, trying to get people to visualise the mass of forces arrayed against Garden. It would help if I showed you the previous chapter’s ending paragraph, but that would be showing faaaar too much.
I always find battle scenes difficult, as I tend to assume people will get bored and go away if they’re too long. Tell me whether that is the case here, and if I could improve on it somehow.
Bonus cookies if you can tell what Star Wars book I stole Nida’s opening line from.:hahaha;
I know the feeling, if not exactly in the same way.