fic // art // accessories // contact

"No," Rydia said.

"Oh, come on," the man next to her insisted. He ran his hands over the smooth metal to the contraption, almost as one would stroke a chocobo's neck. The machine was considerably smaller than the "cars" she'd been concerned about initially, but that didn't make it any less intimidating, and she could tell that it operated in much the same manner. She surmised that the keys he held in his hand, on the ring he swirled around his finger, operated the device much in the same manner of locked doors. The parallels between the vessel and the Giant of Babil were becoming too large to bear, and she wished nothing to do with something that smelled so strongly of oil and old memories.

Reno looked at her, and then gestured to the contraption, arms spread wide.

"It's just a motorcycle," he said, as if she would inherently know what the word meant.

"And you are just crazy to think I'll get on that," she shot back. "No."

He climbed aboard the machine, straddling it, and it really was just like a chocobo mount would be. When he was not immediately thrown, and nothing seemed to happen, she took a hesitant step closer. The metal seemed smooth and harmless enough, and perhaps, if she told herself that it was just like a new version of a Dwarven tank, and not like a miniature Giant roaming around, she might be able to stand the likeness. She reached out, slowly, fingers barely grazing the front end.

"See?" Reno said, and she disliked the insufferable tone of his voice. "Not gonna hurt you."

"I'll be the judge of that," she huffed, but the tightness in her chest had lessened somewhat. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then swung one leg over the side to mimic him. Her heart was hammering, pounding against her ears, but in all honesty, she was slightly curious to see what exactly the machine could do. The seat under her was hard and unyielding, but not altogether uncomfortable.

"Hold on," he instructed her, and she was confused for a moment because there was no handle anywhere near for her to do such a thing. She settled on wrapping her arms gingerly around his waist, and it seemed to be the correct move, for he leaned forward and twisted the key.

The motorcycle roared to life under her.

She mashed her face into his back, but she was not quite as afraid as she had expected to be– the shivering of the engines beneath her felt an awful lot like being on an airship, only far more condensed, and perhaps, if she could make such a connection, the worlds weren't that different after all. When nothing happened for a second, she looked up, face tangling briefly in his ponytail.

"Ready?" he asked, and she could hear the grin.

"Yes," she said, tightening her arms around his torso. "Go."

She had not been expecting the sudden, heady rush accompanied with the rather jolting burst forward, and after the initial fear had passed over in waves, she was able to lift her head and observe the scenery flashing past them. The wind in her face felt good– felt solid and real, and despite not knowing where they were or what on earth they were passing at such an alarming rate, the ride itself was almost enjoyable. She kept her arms tight, in case she did begin to slip, but the motorcycle was far faster than any chocobo could be, and despite her apprehension, she found herself laughing into the wind.

They moved along the stone streets, streaking by buildings and cars and people walking on the sides, and after a short while, the scenery began to dwindle until there were few structures next to her field of vision, and the land transformed into wide open plains. Whatever she had been expecting, it was not this– they were nothing like the plains outside Baron or the fields by Fabul. They were stark and empty, as if they had been scorched from above, filled with a vast orange color as far as the eye could see. Reno began to slow the motorcycle, and finally it came to a stop, kicking up clouds of dirt from under the tires.

"What–?" Rydia began, and then could only stare. Not even in the deserts of Damcyan had she seen such ruin, such complete lifelessness, and the dirt beneath them was nothing like the fine-grained sands of the desert dunes. It was all dead, all of it, and the land was little more than a decaying corpse. Her voice cracked. "What happened?"

"Mako reactors," Reno said. His voice was oddly flat. "Drained everything."

She slipped from the vehicle, and her soles hitting the ground created another onslaught of rising dust. She could not take her eyes from the scorched land below, and bent down, swiping at it to grasp a handful of the brown granules. It was lifeless, devoid of any energy, whittled away to nothingness in her palm.

"How– why?" she choked. "How could you do this?"

"We didn't know," he said, sounding somewhat offended. "It was for energy, it powered the city, we–"

"Power?" she repeated, effectively cutting him off. "Of course. It's always for power, isn't it?"

Her words were harsher than she meant, but she couldn't stop the anger from bubbling in her chest. The life was gone from the land, and it had been at the hand of those living in the city, and even in the magma-strewn land of the Underworld, she had not seen such devastation. Looking out over the terrain, she could only imagine the destruction could have been caused by the Giant, by those bent on destroying the world, and to have it done for something so small as energy was unthinkable. She whirled on him. There was something in his voice, something edgy that she had learned to pick up on, and she didn't like it.

"How could you do this?" she said again, hands clenched at her sides. In the heat, with the sun bearing down, she felt uncomfortably hot in the suit. "How could you kill the land like this?"

"We– look, I know that we've done some bad things, but hey," he said. His brow was furrowed, eyebrows knit together. "We're trying to–"

"We?" she gasped, and suddenly things began to come together. Her hands went to cover her mouth involuntarily, and it suddenly got very hard to breathe. "Oh, Gods, it was you, wasn't it? It was your group, your organization, oh Gods–"

She stumbled away from him, nearly falling into the dusty dirt, and her sudden movement seemed to spur him into action. When she started to undo the buttons of her jacket, he jumped off the motorcycle and began to follow.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sounding incredulous. Getting out of the jacket was proving harder than she expected, and she shrugged off one sleeve so that it creased and bent around her elbow, clawing at the buttons down her front.

"Taking this off," she spat. He was moving towards her, and she had a sudden, overpowering desire to get away from him, from everything he stood for, for everything he had done to the world. "I want nothing to do with your stupid group if you've done–"

She was cut off by a monstrous roar that shook the pebbles beneath her soles, her fingers still poised over the half row of buttons that she had not yet undone. She thought, for a fleeting second, that it was Bahamut, for it sounded so much like his deep growl, but from the look on Reno's face, she gathered she was far from correct. She had rarely seen him look surprised, especially surprise bordering on panic, and she followed his gaze to see a creature moving towards them over a nearby ridge. It looked decidedly unfriendly, and yet looked oddly familiar– the stance, the gait, the hunched form, she knew all of that from her world, and while it looked different than she remembered, she knew what the creature was.

"Behemoth?" she gasped, jacket forgotten.

"Fuck," Reno hissed. "Fuck! What is it doing here? So close to Midgar?"

The monster was moving unbelievably fast, and she was glad to see that Reno had already summoned his rod to his hand. He looked as if he was about to leap towards it, into its path, and then seemed to change his mind– he reached out and grabbed Rydia's arm, his fingers hard around her skin.

"What–?" she started, and then snapped her jaw shut when he began dragging her, rather forcefully, towards the parked motorcycle. The behemoth gave out another ferocious roar, and Rydia couldn't resist the shiver of fear that went down her spine. She knew the creature, alright, and the parallels between the worlds were nearly identical in the monster. She also remembered fighting them on the moon, and even with her full party of comrades, they had not been easy. Reno jumped on the motorcycle, and she climbed on after him, wrapping her arms around his waist again.

He started it and spun, the vehicle swirling around in a cloud of dust, and then began to move in the direction of the behemoth.

"What are you doing?" Rydia cried, hoping the wind did not completely swallow her words. "You're going towards it!"

"Can't let it attack the city," he answered, and made a sharp turn that nearly dislodged her from her seat. "Throw some spells at it!"

"I–" she started, and then stopped. If she let go of his form with one hand, she might be able to stabilize it enough to start, but she needed both hands to properly execute any spells with high enough potency to damage the hurtling beast. She pointed at the rapidly approaching form with one hand, tightening her thighs around the seat itself in a vain attempt to still her figure. "Keep this thing still, then!"

It gave out another roar and seemed to notice their change in direction, it skidded to a halt and began moving towards them, barreling across the dead plains. Rydia let go with her other hand and chanted as fast as she possibly could through the Bio spell, letting it lose with a barrage of sparks. It hit the behemoth dead on, but he seemed to shrug it off, simply roaring once more.

"Dammit!" she cried, biting back angry tears. "It's gaining!"

Without warning, Reno spun the motorcycle again, and she barely had time to grab a hold of his jacket as the vehicle beneath her almost flung her to the side. She knew he was going around for another pass– and she had to be ready. The wind whipping painfully at her face, she let go and held her palms up again. If the monster was immune to her Bio spell, perhaps he'd enjoy the shock of thunder through his bones.

When the spell let loose from the sky, the creature roared in pain, and Rydia though it was a success; until the behemoth whirled around with its tail. She didn't even have time to shout out a warning before the appendage smashed into the motorcycle and threw them backwards. She lost her grip on Reno's jacket and squeezed her eyes shut as she braced herself for impact. The ground sent a shock of pain through her form when she hit it, and nearly took her breath away. She lay gasping, trying to find air, and she could feel the ground rumbling as the beast rushed towards her.

She rolled out of the way just in time to see one massive paw stomp down where she had just been, and she was glad that the scream caught in her throat. She didn't have time to ready a spell, and she threw her hands over her face in the only form of protection she could think of, and then she heard Reno's shout from her left. The beast stopped and turned, giving her a split second to use to her advantage. She pushed herself up on her feet, staggering painfully as her knee hitched under her weight.

Without looking behind her, she readied a Firaga spell between her hands, the heat from the magic warming her face. When she spun, she let it loose, and then her heel caught on a rock half-submerged in the dirt, and she tumbled to the ground again.

The behemoth roared when the flames hit him in the face, and– clawing at his shoulders– and began to fall. She couldn't roll out of the way in time and one massive paw clipped her in the shoulder hard. She heard a crack, and didn't have time to focus on what it was– she had to roll over to avoid being crushed completely. She wasn't sure which hurt worse; her shoulder, or her knee, and she couldn't think about either. The creature was still alive, and it swung at her as it struggled to push itself upright again. It caught her injured leg and tore through her pants.

She expected it to swipe again, but it was distracted, and she saw only a flash of red before she readied another spell. The Blizzaga hit the beast in the shoulder and fleshy belly region, and it screamed again, and Rydia struggled to push herself up to crawl out of the way. There was an angry smear of red on the dirt behind her.

"Reno!" she shouted, choking as dust coated the inside of her mouth. She heard the behemoth roar, and Reno shouted something she couldn't decipher, and then there were rumblings again underneath her hands, pebbles shaking on the ground. She threw herself to the right, praying that it was the correct direction, and a paw narrowly missed taking her head off. She readied the quickest spell she could– Thunder– and didn't wait to see if it hit the intended target. She crawled as fast as she could, half-dragging herself across the dirt.

"Left!" she heard Reno cry out, and she threw herself to the side without thinking about it. The behemoth's tail crashed down into the dirt next to her, sending bits into her face. The beast cried out, but she couldn't see what was happening due to dust in her eyes, making them sting and water. She rubbed furiously at them, continuing to move with one hand feeling along the ground, until there was a violent thud and a rumble that rippled through the dirt beneath her hands.

It took her a moment to realize that the beast was dead, or at least lying motionless on the ground somewhere behind her, and the pain hit her from all directions once the rush of adrenaline was gone. She choked on a sob, pushing herself up to all fours as best she could, noticing the gashes in her leg and the blood from her shoulder. She was breathing hard, so hard she was wheezing for oxygen, and she rose shakily to her feet, not bothering to brush off the layer of dust that had coated the once pristine suit she wore.

She turned, and Reno was moving towards her. He seemed to be limping a bit, favoring his right leg, and his jacket was nearly in tatters hanging from his shoulder. There was a gash across his cheek, and another across his arm, but he was alive and moving, and she guessed she looked to be in the same condition. Seeing him walk was a shock of relief, and she had to bite back a sob.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sounding strained.

"Yeah," she answered. Her voice shook wildly. "I mean, I'm still here."

"Those aren't– they aren't found around here," he said, glancing back over his shoulder at the still form of the monster behind them. There were splatters of red across the ground near it, and Rydia averted her eyes. "This is bad."

"Yeah," she said again, swallowing hard. Her shoulders were trembling, and she couldn't fight back the rising sobs any longer– the prick of hot tears stung the corners of her eyes, blurring the scene in front of her. Everything hurt. She felt more exhausted than she'd felt in a long time, like the confusion factor from arriving in the strange world was finally catching up with her all at once, slamming into her in full force. She choked again, half-crying, and Reno turned back to look at her.

For a long moment, it felt like the world stopped, and then suddenly he was kissing her, and his hands were on her shoulders and it hurt where the monster's paw had smashed into her and she didn't even care. She wasn't even sure if she was kissing him back or simply crying against his mouth, and it didn't seem to matter since she had so little control over her emotions. He tasted like blood and sand and magic all rolled into one.

When he pulled away, she knew her face was flushed, and he kept his hands on her arms. He looked like he wanted to say something, but she beat him to it, ducking her head.

"We should check if the motorcycle works," she whispered, half to him and half to the ground. There was a moment of silence, and then his hands fell away from her arms.

"Yeah," he said.