FFIV/FFVIII: From the Mouths of Monsters (PG-13)

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

From the Mouths of Monsters (1)
Canon: FFIV / FFVIII Crossover
Rating: PG-13, for now
Characters: Quistis, Rydia

Notes: KATY. JANA. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT. ALL. I BLAME YOU BOTH BLATANTLY.

This is complete crack. And should definitely not be read as self-insert first_seventhe/katmillia porn.

Seriously, take with grain of salt and sense of humor.

[Edit]: Wow, this could really use a good edit. Haha. I suck. Ignore the horrible writing, people!

- - -

"Move in." The order was a quick snap, hiding all the anxiety currently bubbling away in Quistis' stomach. Her troops - all two of them, SeeD cadets hoping to use a good mission report to boost their grades in Xu's class - moved in, remembering this time to scan the perimeter before advancing deeper into the rocky crevice. Once they'd given her the hand signal, Quistis moved in, GFs alert in her head and every nerve on edge. So far she was doing an excellent job of hiding her worries from her team; they were inexperienced enough, and didn't really need to add their commanding officer's fears into the mix.

Magic. It whispered at her, even as far away as they were. Blue Magic.

"Clear," the first cadet said as she approached. They were in full uniform, armed with extra bullet-proof vests; Odine bands sparkled around their arms. Squall hadn't taken any chances with this magic anomaly, even with Quistis' repeated admonitions that the magic felt familiar and Rinoa's vague mumblings about how it 'felt friendly'. Now, this much closer to the source, Quistis was reasonably glad that Squall had been so cautious. She could feel the pull of the magic in the back of her mind, in that section of her brain where she kept the more wild spells; they were clamoring at the attention.

"Any idea what's down there?" The second cadet was looking at her, Quistis realized; looking for answers. It was no secret that she'd been chosen to lead this mission because of her affinity with Blue Magic, but she'd at least expected the cadets to be able to feel a tiny bit of the pull.

Quistis shook her head, to clear it. "Probably a specimen of some kind."

"What kind of specimen?" The first cadet turned to look at her.

"Remains," Quistis said shortly. "Probably something turned up by the earthquake."

The second cadet winced, disgusted. "Remains? What would that have to do with anything?"

Quistis bit her lip; these cadets had obviously never attended her Magical Configurations and their Use in Battle lecture. "In Blue types of magic, the power of the spell is transferred through an actual physical talisman - normally some part of the creature from which the magic was born. The Blue caster has to internalize this power before the spell can be used."

The second cadet's jaw dropped. "You're going to eat it?"

"I'm going to do nothing," Quistis corrected her, briskly. "We are going to collect the sample and bring it into Balamb Garden for evaluation." One look at the cadets' faces told Quistis that she should probably not mention the fact that, if the sample were deemed to be both safe and useful, she probably would eat it.

"Forward," she said instead. The map in her hand had been made out of a bunch of scans taken from the Ragnarok, and while it was probably not entirely accurate, it was better than nothing. "This should split into two trails; we want the left one."

The two cadets headed down into the cavern, signaling Quistis when it was safe to come through. Quistis followed behind, bemused; she wasn't used to being the protected one on missions. Squall had been perfectly clear about that aspect of the mission, however. Quistis thought she should feel flattered by Squall's insistance that she and only she deal with whatever thing had been throwing their magical radar off for days; in reality, she just felt kind of annoyed, like some magical sheltered princess in a fairy-tale walking off to meet the dragon of doom. (Maybe it would be a dragon-bit. The last piece of dragon she'd had to consume had knocked her out for a day, but the skills had been more than worth it.)

One of the cadets signaled that the path was clear, and -

The magic hit her full-force behind the eyes, a wave of powerful almost-nausea that had Quistis stumbling for a second before she reached out for the nearby stony wall, trying to regain her balance. Something was pulsing, and every GF in her brain lit up like fire, simultaneously, their instincts on edge. But it wasn't the usual taut, fierce energy Quistis had learnt to trust like a second sense - this was different, something she'd never felt before. It felt like... it felt like recognition.

"Instructor Trepe!" One of the cadets dove forward, grabbing her arm, and jolted her back into reality. She stood upright, much too quickly, fighting the vertigo as her eyes blinked colors at her.

"We have to move," she said, through the dizziness. "We're getting closer. Be sure to be ready for battle, cadets."

A rogue GF. It made sense, though; Squall must have had his suspicions, which explained his insistence on having Quistis handle the magical source on her own. It probably explained whatever magical nonsense Rinoa had been spewing about the magic 'feeling friendly', too - Rinoa occasionally thought Cerberus was 'cute'. Garden had come into contact with one or two rogue GFs in their time, and - well, the results hadn't been pretty, although it was nothing Quistis couldn't handle. She fervently hoped that it was the kind of rogue that she could simply Draw from a rock with a little bit of time and effort, and not the kind of GF that insisted on fighting you before it let you Junction.

But the magic still felt - peculiar. No other GFs had resonated with her quite like that; only Blue Magic remnants coule get that sort of reaction from her magical core. The spells - her spells, her Blue Magic spells - it was as if they'd all stood up and waved their arms about. They were clamoring for recognition. Quistis knew that her Blue Magic tied her to the monsters of the earth a little more firmly than many; she didn't really like where that particular train of thought was leading her.

"Clear," said one of the cadets, and Quistis realized they were almost at the point in the cavern where they'd find the source. The Centran earthquake had been unusually localized and unusually powerful, which now made sense if there really had been a rogue GF causing the entire thing. "The map says the cavern is right up ahead," Quistis reported. "Stay alert. There may not be anything initially visible. I'm going to enter with you."

One of the cadets made an obligatory protest, but a single glare silenced it. The cadets seemed on edge as well, as if the magical resonances were meshing with their own GFs. "Let's go, then," Quistis said, drawing her whip.

One cadet led the way, moving cautiously down the small cavern and into the opening. He glanced around suspiciously, checking for visible danger - "There's something on the ground," he said in a military-trained whisper.

Quistis moved cautiously forward. At the bottom of the opening lay something bright, vibrant green, like a small patch of grass surrounded by stone. Her head was fairly buzzing; whatever was down there was the source of all this paranormal agitation. It wasn't moving. "Hit it with a Sleep spell," Quistis ordered, and was astounded when the spell seemed to take. Most GFs were resistant to the status magics... perhaps it was not a GF after all.

"Down." She motioned with her arm and followed the cadet as he picked his way slowly around the stone and gravel. She watched her footing more carefully than usual, fighting the sense of vertigo in her head. Calm down! she thought at her GFs, angrily, but they didn't seem to be paying any sort of attention to the order.

As they neared the form, Quistis could see it was a woman, with bright green hair covering her face. Her body was covered in an unusual garment - something long, flowing, definitely not made for battle. What if it's a Sorceress, Quistis thought, momentarily frozen in panic. She could take care of a rogue GF, but a rogue Sorceress? Did those even exist?

They stepped into the clearing - and the GFs in Quistis' head fell strangely, solemnly silent.

Quistis froze. The sudden mental quiet unnerved her even more than the strange clamor had; she had four GFs Junctioned, which usually caused enough magical interference that one or the other tended to grumble and snipe - especially when one was Bahamut. But even the dragon king had fallen silent, and a deep, almost respectful hush filled her mind as she took a step towards the fallen woman. Up close, she was surprisingly small, although Quistis could now see her face, and she looked to be at least SeeD age if not older.

"Can you hear me?" Her voice cut clearly through the small rocky cavern, betraying none of her uneasiness. Behind her, one of the cadets cocked his gun, always at the ready. There was no response; of course, they'd hit the woman with a Sleep spell, but there was no real harm in checking.

"Signal the Ragnarok," Quistis ordered, crouching down beside the young woman. Her strange clothing was torn and dirty, and her face looked battered. Had she perhaps been caught in the earthquake? Been beset by a rogue GF or some odd kind of spell? "Cover me," she warned the other cadet, and then reached out to touch the woman's face, intending to check her mind for abnormal magical activity.

Bahamut reared up inside her own brain as soon as her fingers brushed the other woman's face, and screamed.

Quistis shrieked, but Bahamut was already raging out of her mind, some kind of painful half-summon, half-manifestation; it hovered, in the air in-between Quistis and the unknown girl. Quistis gripped the girl's arm firmly and fought, trying to regain control over Bahamut before someone - anyone - herself included - did something stupid. The other GFs had awoken as well, pounding in her head with magic, Leviathan and Shiva wailing against the buzzing backdrop of her headache while Carbuncle swam in muddy, frantic mental circles. Bahamut screamed again, and dove in-between Quistis and the girl, and Quistis caught the backlash of some sort of magic -

- healing magic? But why would - and before she could even complete the thought, the girl sat up, her eyes wide.

"Levia?" the girl gasped.

And then Leviathan rose out of her mind with a thundering crash, and Quistis - wondering, faintly, at her loss of control over her own GFs - fell forward, into blackness.

- - -

Now, watch as I use this as an excuse to meta about my two favorite characters of all time and also make them make out. A WINNAR IS ME

i've sunk to a very new low