VOICES: CHAPTER 7

Fuck he was tired.

They had made it, after the long haul from Eistla, to Stonehyrr. Through the throngs of Ash's beasts, through the hordes of her akashic armies, through the literal fucking behemoth guarding the Spine's gate. Thanks to Gav's timely suggestions and Mid's reckless driving, reinforcements had arrived before Joshua and Clive could be overrun by the battalions that had come up behind them. Clive even laughed, that giddy kind of laugh that only comes from exhaustion fueled mania, when Ifrit had pointed out that ramming the side of the fortress was his idea in the first place.

They'd even made it through Ultima and whatever hell dimension he pulled them into so he could croon over his inevitable victory.

But then the Mothercrystal fell, and from its ashes rose another. It hung ominous in the poisoned skies, revealing the true nature of the Mothercrystals. Not a thing of beauty or divinity, but one of death that instilled in everyone who looked upon it dread and wonder.

Clive barely had any time to process this on top of everything else before they were thrown back into the fray of remaining akashic the seemed to pour endlessly from the broken fortress. Through sword and lance and fire and ice and light, they had all made it out before fatigue won out, thanks largely to Dion covering their retreat back to the Enterprise.

They had spent a few hours after leaving Ash's shores trying to make sense of this new Mothercrystal, what it meant, what to do about, how to even begin to approach it. Eventually exhaustion and frustration had everyone on edge enough that it was agreed to reexamine everything back at the Hideaway after they'd had a moment to rest their frazzled nerves.

At least…that had been Clive's intention, but instead he found himself restless and unable to sleep despite his exhaustion. Too much had happened and too much of it still rattled around frantically in his mind. Ifrit had been uncharacteristically quiet since their return from the Rift. But then again, given what had happened, Clive really couldn't blame the Eikon.

The Rift.

The things they had learned in there, that Ultima had revealed…if even a fraction of them were true…

It made Clive shudder in revulsion, and he could feel Ifrit's unrest sitting unpleasently in his chest.

The revelations about humanity and magic alone were bad enough, but there had been an underlying current of dread starting to curl and writhe where Ifrit normally roosted the further down the path he and Joshua had gone, the longer Ultima preened.  

Until they crested that last dias, and they saw the husk impaled before them, and for a brief instant, Ifrit's embers seemed to snuff themself out; the equivalent of a human’s heart stopping in shock.

“Ifrit.  Or what’s left of him,” Joshua had said, stunned.

The reaction was visceral. No no no, that's not me.  That is not me, I AM NOT THAT THING!

Clive had been hard pressed to focus as Ultima reappeared, monologuing about fated paths and destined roles.  The roar in his ears was drowning out almost everything else as Ifrit recoiled in horror at the implications laid bare before them.

That while the Eikons were fashioned by Ultima as a means to feed whichever Dominant was to be his vessel, Ifrit above all others, was a monstrous variation of what might have been Ultima’s species' physical forms once upon a time.  A vain tribute to himself to mark his vessel’s appearance.

No! I am the Eikon of Hellfire! I cannot be one of them!

Clive tried to collect his thoughts enough to soothe the flailing Eikon but if he were being honest, he was having a hard time.  After all, had that not been his own reaction years ago upon learning he had been the one that tore his brother to shreds? Nearly killed him?  It was hard not to be swept away in the familiar sea of self loathing, rage, and despair. 

Hard enough that his temper slipped his leash and even having just thought about the implications of what that bond to Ultima might mean, he let Ifrit leap to the forefront and started to prime.  The howl of rage when Ultima gestured and pulled on the chains that had still hung around Ifrit’s neck, cutting off the aether and holding it hostage in the palm of one of his oil-slick skinned hands, rattled Clive’s bones in its intensity.

I am not his harbinger anymore! I will not go back! Ifrit bellowed through the chokehold of ethereal chains, thrashing to try and throw off Ultima’s grip on his chains, but only succeeding in pulling them tighter. It had felt like razors cutting into his mind the more Ifrit thrashed and the rage fueled panic started bleeding over into Clive. Maybe that was why Ultima had finally been able to….

“Clive?  Are you okay?”

Startled out of his thoughts, Clive glanced over his shoulder and saw Jill coming up behind him. Apparently she couldn't sleep either.

He couldn’t help but snort in amusement.  His earlier conversation with Joshua after they'd escaped had started the same way.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” he asked with false levity as Jill took her place at his side, leaning over the railing and gently nudging a shoulder against his.  “Yes, I’m fine.”

“Now when you say, ‘fine’....” she started, raising an eyebrow at him and letting her words hang with a slight knowing grin.

“I am, actually,”  Clive chuckled lightly at the teasing, but he paused and sighed, leaning back into Jill’s shoulder to accept the offered closeness and comfort.  Founder, he had missed her.  “Now, at least.”

Clive let out a long breath, trying to alleviate some of the tension in his shoulders he couldn’t seem to let go of.  Not since he’d had a moment to recount what exactly had happened after Ultima's proxy fell.  What had almost happened.

“It was close, Jill," he said quietly.  "When Ultima got his claws into my head. I was so close to just giving in…and it made perfect sense at the time.  Stop fighting and sacrifice myself to spare everyone the fight Ultima has in store for us.”

“But you didn’t,” Jill cut him off harshly.  “And that’s what matters.”

Clive shook his head bitterly. “I think I might have though, if Joshua hadn’t been there.  If the Phoenix hadn’t been there.”  

Founder, he had been so tired.

So much fighting.  So much death.  So little gained.

They were right, he had thought, the voices rattling around in the cages of those dungeons.  All Benedikta had wanted was to be loved.  Instead he had killed her.  All Kupka had wanted was the woman he loved.  Except Clive had killed her.  All that suffering and death wrought by Titan and his followers could have been avoided.  Kanver…could have been avoided.  If he had just given in, Barnabas would have had no reason to invade the city. Slaughter its people.

Their words ringing in his ears, Clive had almost missed the cell at the end, but he’d heard the shifting of chains, and a familiar deep rumbling of molten rock.  Glancing in, he saw the dull yellow glint of desolate eyes and the muted, nearly dead glow of embers in the shape of horns.

Ifrit lay nearly unmoving under layers of restraints.  He did not thrash in his bindings as he had been earlier, the rage having drained away.  In its place nothing but a dim presence.  An acknowledgement that he was there but nothing else.

The lights that lined the walls had gone out.  One by one.  

It would be so easy.  Let it all go.  Leave it all behind.

It was so tempting.  They were so tired.

No more fighting.  No more suffering.  No more voices.

It was at this point that things got a bit garbled in his memory, because at the time, Clive had been quite thouroughly distracted by Joshua's visage yelling at him. But some dim, distant part of him had felt Ifrit stir at something that drifted through their mindscape.  A soft keening chirp drifted through the aether of both Dominant and Eikon. For Clive, it had sounded like Joshua. For Ifrit, it apparently had a different voice.

After all this, you would really give up your words so easily?

He'd heard this voice before. Recently.

What good is a voice if I have no say?  The low rumble of Ifrit’s voice had mirrored the cloying trance Clive had been trapped in.  The chains are still there, still waiting for the master to bid me to heel.  I am not an Eikon of Fire. I am the elemental mimic of a deranged god.  

And what does that make your sister?

Ifrit had flinched some at that, but it did not seem to get the reaction the voice had hoped for. Undeterred, the Phoenix continued.

You ARE my brother. We are fire, no matter what form was fashioned for us.

I am nothing but ruin, was the despondant reply. You should run. Before I consume you too.

Clive shook himself out of the memory, turning the pieces over in his mind.  He could feel Ifrit’s distant attention glance his way, but the Eikon was quiet, still rattled by what had transpired.

"What do you mean, 'if the Phoenix hadn't been there?' Joshua said Ultima suppressed your Eikons," Jill asked. His fingers had become intertwined with hers while Clive had been lost in thought, and she squeezed tightly to draw his attention back to her.

"He did…but somehow despite all the chains he'd thrown on Ifrit, they didn't have the same effect on the Phoenix," Clive mused, squeezing back to reassure Jill. "Or maybe it's less that the chains didn't affect her, and they weren't chaining the right thing."

"What do you mean?"

“Ultima said something…that Phoenix should not have been there.  And now that I think about it, this happened once before.  When Titan fell and Ultima tried to take me.  But Joshua…does not recall any of this.  I think…it may have actually been the Phoenix herself protecting me all this time, through the Blessing Joshua bestowed on me when I became his Shield. Some remnant of her power and awareness instilled in it. Or maybe it was strengthened when Phoenix healed Ifrit.”

Jill's grip faltered slightly before tightening just a bit firmer than was comfortable, even through Clive's gauntlet. "I'm sorry, when Phoenix did what now?!"

"It was a very…eventful mission," Clive chuckled sheepishly. They had opted to stick to the important parts about the battle with Odin when debriefing everyone earlier, deliberately avoiding the gorey details of what had happened to Ifrit.  "Odin left some…nasty wounds on Ifrit. Which, apparently the Phoenix healed through some sort of connection with the Blessing. I'm still not entirely sure how they did it, you'd be better off getting an explaination from Joshua."

"I'll be sure to, believe me," Jill said, and the seriousness in her voice made Clive pity Joshua when Jill managed to get her hands on him.

“It's a genuine stroke of luck that Ultima needs both Sons of Fire, and yet the Blessing of one kept the other from his grasp," Clive said, letting it settle just how lucky they had been. 

"It's about time fate twisted in our favor,” Jill grinned, a dark and vengeful grin quirking up one corner of her mouth.  “I’ll have to remember to have Joshua thank Phoenix for bringing you back to me. After I make him talk.”

Clive chuckled. “Actually, you should probably also thank Shiva.  She was the one who finally managed to knock some sense into Ifrit.  I don’t know that I would have woken up if she hadn’t.”

Jill had an incredulous look on her face, and then an almost accusatory expression that passed quickly, likely meant for her Eikon. “Shiva?”

Clive hummed in affirmation.  It was still somewhat hazy, that part of the whole ordeal.  He had heard the exchange on some level, but it was only after, once things had quieted down that he seemed to be able to recall what had been going on in the background.

Phoenix's pleading had not seemed able to break past whatever haze Ultima had cast upon Ifrit, even as the fragment talking to Clive in Joshua's voice was slowly chipping away at that same haze.

But it was at this point that Clive had noticed there was another voice behind this first one.  

Pathetic.  

The second voice had cut through the background noise of the burning castle that had appeared in front of them, a harsh and bitter sting. That had gotten Ifrit’s attention, because under no circumstances should that voice have been there. It made less sense than even Phoenix being there.

You would submit simply because this thing claiming to be our maker fashioned you to look like its kind?  

After a moment, Clive had realized he’d heard this voice once before.  On the shores of the Shadow Coast.  Shiva’s voice.  The realization seemed to cause the chains around Ifrit to shift a bit more.

Because I am its kind, was the Hellfire warden’s reply, though it sounded a little less vacant than it had before, if only just.  

Shiva's scoff was like a crack in thin ice. A warning that you were about to go under. You know damn well we are more than what it made us.  We are the elements made manifest.

You…are. I am…not.

Maybe when it forged us, that was its intent. But we are our own now, and we are greater than some puny god who runs for its own survival. That pitiful excuse for the divine can no more truly control us than it can its own progeny.

There was a pause before she’d added with a sneer,   Unless you have decided to let this filthy pathetic worm hold your leash like a good little bitch. Is that it?

There was an unexpected snap, a suddenly flare before all went dark again. Like steel striking flint. Shiva's voice took a taunting edge, no warmth to be found in any of it. Its slick tone sharpened to a fine point so it could needle even deeper.

Your choice is to let this thing playing at godhood claim you are his to command?

No spark, this time, but there was a menacing shifting of chains.

You are the second of the Twin Flames, whether you like it, or not. If you were less my ice would have wiped the floor with your hide the moment you took my power. Titan would have crushed you. Garuda torn you to shreds. Bahamut pierced your skull. Ramuh seared your bones from the inside out. Odin would have managed to sever you so completely no amount of magic in this or any world could put your pieces back together.

They had stayed frozen there in that stalemate, Shiva pointing her weaponized words at Ifrit who, while still chained, was no longer lying listless on the floor. Until she decided to cast her venomous barbs one more time.

Hellfire bows to no one. If you are ruin, then show this thing claiming to be your master what that truly fucking means.

There was a vicious snap as Ifrit lunged suddenly against the chains and they began to bow and groan under the weight of his temper. The barely glowing embers were replaced with bared teeth and breathing, living, flame roiling just behind them. There had been a smile in Shiva’s disembodied voice.

There you are, my Ifrit.

A wash of warmth and feathers floated by with a chuckle.  Well, not the words I would have chosen, my friend, but to the same effect.

A snort of winter wind and shards of snowflakes.  You always were too soft a touch, firebird.  

Well Ifrit?  What say you?

The Hellfire Eikon thrashed again and a few of the links broke, twisting and tearing away volcanic armor as Ifrit fought to stand.

Ifrit… He had said, gold eyes stoked back to life. My name….is Ifrit!

That had been the final spark needed before the haze fell away completely, and Ultima in his stunned stupification, had simply balked as Ifrit and Phoneix burned his presence away.

“I could only barely hear her, I couldn't see her," Clive mused, trying to recall the details that he only half observed.   "I don’t know that Ultima even knew she was there. It was like that night on the Shadow Coast. Whatever…bridge or connection Shiva and Ifrit forged that night seems to have left an impression. Probably not unlike the Phoenix.”

Jill couldn’t help the little grin of pride.  “I suppose there are worse places she could have gone off to than coming to Ifrit's rescue.”

“They do seem rather attached to each other in their own way, don't they? And I don't just mean their shared love of foul language.” Clive laughed, the dark cloud from the Rift lifting some as Jill burst out laughing at the comment.  He put his free arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, gently pressing his lips to the top of her head and she sighed contently and leaned into him.  “Perhaps we’ve been a bad influence on them.”

“Eikons in love, what is this world coming to?” Jill laughed gently, and Clive felt Ifrit’s attention snap up at the comment.  He couldn’t help but chuckle.

That's not how it works with us, Ifrit rumbled, but even Clive could see through the feeble deflection.

I’m in your head as much as you’re in mine, you know, Clive bantered back at his Eikon.  It’s not hard to figure out.

Ifrit snorted indignantly but there was a flare of warmth behind it rather than its usual arrogance. He ‘glanced’ at the woman snuggled in Clive’s arm and raised a proverbial eyebrow. 

I’ll admit it if you do. 

Clive gave the hellfire Eikon a mental glare but it lacked any real ire.  It was actually reassuring to hear his Eikon's gruff indignation again. It was rather suprising how quickly he'd gotten used to it, and its absence was noticible.

They stood there at the edge of the ship, arm in arm, neither feeling compelled to break the comfortable silence. The horrors and implications of this insidious hidden Mothercrystal weighed heavily in air. There was no clear path; just an omnious taunt from a thwarted god. And after what had happened in the Rift, Clive was certain Ultima would not be caught unawares again. The Phoenix and Shiva had shown their hand, and Ultima would be on guard for such intrusions again. Ifrit might have broken some of the chains, but there were likely some that still dangled ominously from his neck.

Where do we go from here, I wonder? Clive thought idly.

The only way we can go. Forward, was Ifrit's quiet reply.

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