Author: Stormforce Sephiroth stood above the group with a smirk on his handsome face, "Have fun." he said disappearing from site as the Titan advanced forward. "Damn," Willow groaned trying to stand, "I don't think I've got enough energy to replicate what I just did." "Me either." Buffy shook her head, leaning against the stands. Clay glanced around, "Don't worry, you both just rest... I'm sure we can handle that thing." Not waiting for anyone else to speak, Donald cast a Thundaga spell and stood stunned when the Titan seemed to brush it off. As soon as the spell had exploded there was a flurry of motion from the group, everyone had split up, and surrounded the creature -leaving the princesses in the stands so they could safely cast healing spell and watch over the two weakened girls. "Go." Willow nodded to Tara with a weak smile and watched as she hurried into the battle with Faith right behind her -but only after have been told by Buffy, "You one of those Al Bhed thingy's that help restore your energy?" Buffy glanced over and shook her head, "No, but give me a couple of minutes and I'll make some." she reached into her pouch and pulled out several vials of different colored medicine and began mixing them together. "Ifrit! We need your help!" Willow's double called out as she glowed red for two seconds, right before a swirling portal of flames appeared on the ground in front of her. The Guardian Force broke through the ground with a mighty roar, sending chunks of dirt and rock into the air, "Burn him!" the double shouted as she shot her weapon, allowing the sharp blade to sail through the air and hit the Titan's chest before rebounding back toward her. Ifrit nodded thrusting both of his large clawed paws out in front of him and with a loud snarl let lose a ten-foot round ball of flames that shot forward. The Guardian Force stood straight and pushed more power into his attack as the ball of flames hit the Titan dead center, knocking it back five foot. The flames surrounded the giant and began swirling around his large body, growing smaller and smaller before it exploded, sending small balls of flames in every direction and knocking the Titan to the ground. The ground stood back with Ifrit growled and pounced on the fallen Heartless, and with two swipes of his large paws Ifrit disappeared -leaving behind a very stunned Titan with claw marks down his chest. "Now! Go for his head!" Faith shouted with her twin by her side, both girl jumped forward, one kicking and punching the Titan's head, and the other slashing with her Keyblade. "Holy!" Tara shouted holding her right hand out and then she felt something break inside of her. She didn't know what it was, but it felt as if a power was growing and just a small ounce had slipped passed the barrier, "Infuse!" she shouted once more raising her left hand, and firing four Firaga infused rounds into the Titan. The feeling of black magic shot through the blonde's body making her was to fall to her knees from the painful headache beginning to force it's way to the surface. Tara found off the feeling and let her white magic dull the pain as she fired three more rounds of Flare infused bullets at the giant Titan, What's going on? Why can I cast black magic? Tara thought confused but pushed it away, knowing there'd be time to think about it when the fight was over. Both Faith and her twin jumped back as the spell and rounds exploded, the twin thought nothing of it as she watched the Titan begin to stand, but Faith stared at Tara in confusion. How has she called on black magic? Tara only could call white magic...a non-elemental magic spell she could see, but black magic? Was this the beginning of Tara's most powerful spell coming to the surface? Willow and Buffy had blinked, they had seen what Tara had down, and just had to wonder just what the hell had happened. Like Faith they were thinking the same things; there was no way for Tara to know black magic. It wasn't just that either, Willow had felt something being pulled from her bode and hadn't known what it was until she saw the Firaga infused rounds slam into the Titan's head. Somehow her Firaga spell had been taken from her body and then had merged with Tara just long enough for her to infuse it with her bullets. "Simba! Please come to our aid!" Tara shouted firing three more rounds, and letting a Holy spell go, Mushu! I need your help!" she shouted once more when a group of Heartless appeared. The Lion King Simba appeared jumping through a portal and roared as his large paw swiped at, and knocked back two shadows. "Alright! The Great Dragon Mushe will destroy the enemy!" The small red dragon appeared sitting on Tara's shoulder, and began shooting balls of small flames from his mouth. The Titan roared as he swiped his large hands up, hitting and knocking Faith and her double back, and into the stands as he stood. Clay had readied and was calling for Doomtrain when she stopped, eyes going wide when a large block of ice fell from the sky, hitting the third Willow -knocking her unconscious. "Watch out!" Clay cried out just as another block of ice just missed hitting Princess Tara. The group managed to dodge away from another twenty or so ice blocks when fog began to rise and cover the area, "Dammit to hell!" Clay growled, "Tara where are you? Can you get this fog outta he- Oomph!" her voice cut off quickly right before there was a loud thud. "Faith!" Both Buffy and her twin screamed, one searching franticly in the arena and the other bounding down from the stands. "Wait, Buffy!" Willow shouted to her friend's back and stood on shaky legs, "You could have at least made that energy thingy, you know." she shook her head, "Princess you around?" "We're here." the princesses voices came from her right, "We are trying to come up with something to clear the air but-" a dull thud and two weak scream filled the air. "Girls?" Willow asked worriedly, "Well damn!" she cursed as a two foot round chunk of ice slid in front of her, "Tare! Hang on baby!" she cried out moving down the stairs quickly as she could. "Clay? Baby?" Willow number two called out and felt the ground shake, "Huh?" she narrowed her eyes trying to find where the rumble had come from, and screamed when she saw a large hand racing toward her, "Shit!" her voice was high pitched as she ducked and rolled under, only to stand up in the path of the second hand and get knocked back with a loud smack as the Titan's hand came into contact with her body. "Tara!" "Faith!" Both shouts came from the ex-dark twins when they heard their lovers weak screams, and both girls began slowly moving forward in the direction -they thought- was toward they princesses. "Buffy watch out!" the blonde turned just in time to see the floating chunk of ice, and had no time to move as it slammed into her body, and knock her into the stands. Willow number three cringed as the dull thud of the blonde's body hitting a stone pillar reached her ears, "Ouch!" taking another few steps her eyes widened as the form of the Titan began to take shape just two feet in front of her, jumping to the side she sighed in relief when he didn't notice her -or so she thought. A giant hand slapped her in the side knocking her to the ground where her head smacked against the arena floor, knocking her unconscious. A Flare spell exploded, hitting the Titan and knocking him back as Donald ran forward readying another and let it fly right after the first. The Titan roared in pain as the second spell exploded, ripping a hole in his chest, eyes flashing red, the Titan took a step forward, and swung his right arm out hitting the duck. With a loud and seemingly angry quack, Donald hit a stone pillar at the back of the arena. "Waaahooweeee!" Goofy's shout filled the area just after Donald's and a smack echoed when his body hit the wall. With no way to see the Heartless, Tara had dismissed Simba and Mushu, and stood silently, listening for any sounds of approaching ice, and the Titan. One pain filled scream reached her from behind, "Buffy, what's wrong?" she called out and received no answer, Tara had no was of knowing that Buffy had just been hit by a block of ice, and knocked into another before hitting the ground. A grunt and then an "Oh shit!" came from her right, "Willow, sweetie? Where are you?" she asked frightened, as she felt the pain from her wife roll over her body, "Willow?!" she shouted getting no answer, she didn't know that Willow had -by accident- ran into the Titan and was kicked into the stands where she fell unconscious just as the fog began to clear. Form slowly took shape, and all were lying either on the ground in the arena, in the stands, or in front of the stand, and all were the group. Tara began to shake, she could see the blood spatter around the area everywhere she looked, and spotted the small pools of blood around everyone, no one had been spared. A chunk of ice ten foot round fell from the sky above her as the Titan stepped toward her, "No!" the blonde shouted as the ice hit her and shattered into thousands of pieces before hitting the ground and leaving Tara untouched. The Titan stopped and stared at the blonde, the ice should have killed her, but it had never even touched her head, it had come within an inch of her and then exploded. The Titan was not stupid and stepped back, if the ex-summoner could do that without raising a hand then what could she do to him? He really didn't want to find out. A deep chuckle filled the arena as Sephiroth appeared and looked at the fallen ground before him, "Good work Titan, now finish the girl!" he ordered and was shocked when the Titan stayed where he was, "That is an order, Titan!" the man growled clenching his fists. "You bastard!" Sephiroth turned at the sound of Tara's enraged voice and his eyes widened as he stumbled back a step in shock. Tara had a gray glow covering her body, her eyes and hair had turned a dark gray and looked to be as if they were turning a darker shade by the second. He didn't know what the think, how could this girl, an ex-summoner and white mage only, glow gray? Not only that, it looked to be as if she were about to call on some serious dark magic that only a gray and black mage could call. "What the hell? What the fuck are you?" His voice never reached Tara's ears the white hot burning pain, the blood pounding in her veins, and the magic racing through her body drown it out. Tara was surprised, and frightened, she'd never felt this before, how was she calling on magic only the others could use? She could feel the black magic merging with her own white magic and didn't know what was going on, only that it was making her hurt all over, but at the same time making her feel stronger than she'd ever been. How was that possible? She didn't have the talent to call on black magic, only those who were born with it could, and she was born to be a white mage and summoner. The pain grew as her pain and terror filled scream echoed around the arena, cracking the stone pillars, and stands. A strong wind began blowing and got stronger as the seconds ticked by, and within a full minute the arena was filled with a swirling wind that picked up everything but the fallen group. Tara slowly rose into the air, her hair whipping her face under her glowing black eyes and leaving red marks that vanished as soon as they were made. All over the arena the group began waking to the sound of Tara's scream and could barely stand against the strong wind. Willow fought to stand upright and saw her lover floating in the air, "Tara!" she shouted pushing against the force and falling into Buffy, "What in the hellfire is going on?!" she shouted over the wind and saw Buffy shrug with a worried look on her face. "Don't know!" Buffy shouted back, "But I don't like it!" "Neither do I!" Willow shouted as she pulled Buffy behind her toward the others and stopped when Tara's scream faded, "Huh?" she looked around, the sound of the howling wind had stopped but the wind still pushed against their bodies as they stood watching the scene unfold in surprise. Sephiroth backed up against the Titan's left leg and gripped his sword, little did he know the sword would do no good for what was about to come. Tara raised her hands in the air as a black swirling mist formed overhead, "Annihilation!" she shouted thrusting her hands forward, and sending the mist toward the Titan and Sephiroth. The mist surrounded the two enemies within seconds and spun around picking the two up into the air as the mist began to shrink. Sephiroth screamed in pain as his body pressed against the Titan tighter and tighter, he took a breath as the pressure was released when the mist expanded outward. He could see the blackness turning even darker and began to worry more as a laughing filled the small enclosure, turning in all directions he saw nothing but the darkness and screamed when Tara appeared in front of him, "You should have never come here!" she growled and disappeared as whistling bounced off the misty wall and grew louder as a white light appeared in the center of the enclosure. The light grew brighter contrasting with the blackness of the mist and grew stronger, if anyone would have looked, they would have seen Willow fall to her knees from a power drain and clutch her head, "Tara! Stop!" she shouted hoping to get her wife to listen, but Tara couldn't hear her voice, "Dammit Tara! My magic will kill you!" she screamed just as the whistling burst forth from the mist and filled the arena just before an explosion knocked everyone back twenty foot and on their knees. The explosion was so loud that everyone in the arena besides Tara felt as if their eardrums had burst from the sound wave, and felt as if their bodies had been put through a grinder from the shockwave. When the light died down nothing was left of either the Titan or Sephiroth. Willow stood on shaky legs and looked up in time to see Tara floating slowly to the ground, "Holy Shiva!" Buffy shouted to be heard knowing that if her ears felt the way they did then the others had to feel the same. "You can say that again!" Faith shouted approaching the two and hurried forward right behind Willow and her lover as they caught Tara from falling to the ground. The blonde's eyes were closed as if she were sleeping, and Willow shook her head. "Is she gonna be alright?" Clay asked as she and the rest limped over, and saw Willow nod. "Yeah, she's just drained...and so am I. She was using my black magic...somehow it merged with her white magic..." she trailed off not wanting to shout, and decided to wait until everyone's hearing was back to normal. Hercules rushed inside rubbing his ears and hurried over, "Are you okay?" he asked in a shout, and saw the nods, "Good, if you guys want to go we can take care of the rest!" "Thanks!" Faith number two shouted as she and the group slowly made their way outside the arena and teleported back to the ship. All knew when Tara awoke there was going to be a lot of explaining to do, and hopefully she knew the answers to the questions on their minds. |