The Tragedy of Celes (future arc story)

[Rev]

Chapter 1

It was getting hot.

Celes had been crouching behind the generator for about ten minutes.

Damn it, she thought, her short, crimson hair beginning to stick to her forehead and the back of her neck. Her blue tanktop was also sticking uncomfortably to her body. I have to get out of here...

Inching her wrist slowly to her face, she heard scuffling coming from somewhere down the corridor. Just what she feared: it was mechanical.

"Larus," she whispered into her wristband. Nothing. "Larus." This time, a few buzzes. She paused and listened around the generator. Nothing coming towards her...yet.

She had to risk it.

"Larus," spoken in a low voice.

A voice buzzed, nerve-wrackingly loud. The hairs on Celes's neck stood on end. "Celes? That you? You still in the research facility?"

"Shh...I'm stuck in the basement. Elite. They knew we were coming here."

"How?"

"Possibly a snitch. I dunno, but I need a distraction."

"Hold it. First, did you find what Terrel asked you to?"

Her patience was waning. "At this point, are you so sure that matters?"

"Fine, but you'll deal with him directly for this one."

This planet, Husk, so named for its barren wasteland of a surface was beginning to sound like a nice home.

She gulped. "Okay, I'll take one more look around if you give me the chance."

Larus chuckled a bit. "One chance, coming right up. You'll have only a few minutes. We're lucky enough that we made it to this planet with all of the Queen's armadas everywhere. Find the blueprints."

Celes sighed. The blueprints. The supposed blueprints that may or may not have been the Queen's original blueprints. The blueprints that may or may not even exist. One small piece of record taken from a destroyed Elite captain's memory bank that was interpreted as either 'The Queen's Blueprints Are On Husk', or 'Husky Gentlemen Wear Slimming Jackets.' Either they're handing out compromising information to any ol' Elite nowadays, or they've decided that the fashion of overweight men is important. Either way, Celes was a little worried.

A loud explosion followed by the whole complex quaking and rubble beginning to fall around the lowly humming generator didn't make her feel any less worried.

That's my cue. She pulled her sidearm from its holster and jetted from behind the reactor. Nothing there.

Good job, Larus, she thought as she began sprinting down the corridor, her leather capris pants making a slight squeaking noise as she ran.

As she practically jumped up the staircase, she reentered the laboratory. Still nothing around. As she hurried around the room, she began tossing objects from tables, shelves, whatever, looking for anything that might remotely resemble an important document or oversized men's coat.

Finding neither, she was about to head for the nearest exit when she noticed something react to her last movement. She had pulled a beaker from a shelf, but it hadn't come free of the shelf, just tipped over. It was now becoming plain to Celes that it was actually a lever, since a panel on the floor was sliding open. It was only about two feet wide.

No way, could I have possibly found it? She practically dived for the hole, sliding across the metallic floor to see what it contained.

Her eyes widened as she saw what emerged from under the panel. She couldn't quite figure out why she was feeling so overwhelmed by it. Celes stared for a moment, ignoring the impending doom she had previously been feeling.

The book was quite old, that was obvious. The black leather the tome was bound in was almost grey from all of the dirt covering it. Squinting, she could just make out the words upon its cover. It was in a different language, but somehow, she could understand it.

Inanis Canor

What the-

She was interrupted by the sound of Larus's voice coming from her wrist.

"Get out of there, Celes! They're coming for you!"

She snapped out of her delirium. "What?! Where do I go?!"

"Try the north passage!"

"North, got it!" She got up and began to run for the northern door, when she stopped mid-step. She slowly turned back around to glance at the hole in the floor again.

After a moment of deliberation and the sound of a blaster, this time very close, Celes sprinted back to the book, picked it up from its dark prison (it was quite light) and booked it back out the door just as she heard the western door blow off its hinge.

Soon, she heard the sound of a ship's engines lowering down towards the end of the hallway, where she saw a bright light emerge.

She was safe.

[Rev]

Chapter 2

It had been two weeks since the incident on Husk. Well, one week and five days to be exact. Celes had had the privilege of informing Terrel that she couldn't find anything. After a jet of steam and a downed tree, Terrel had explained how much work had gone into giving Larus and her the opportunity to blow past the barricades surrounding earth, travel across three galaxies, and arrive at the Husk Research Facility without being immediately destroyed.

Of course, she could have shown him the book. She could have shown anyone the book for that matter. But she hadn't. Instead, after smuggling it into a maintenance closet in the ship's cargo hold, she slipped it into her personal duffel bag upon exiting the ship.

Now she sat on her cot, angry and abused, in her quarters.

It's not my fault that Elite had the wrong information. I wasn't even there when it was retrieved. Terrel just thinks he can't be wrong when it comes to the Queen. I almost died!

Her door slid open, and a man entered wearing a standard UPGF issued uniform. He was about average height in human standards, but it so happens that he was actually quite short for his race, who usually stood around 7 feet.

"What do you want, Larus?"

"I've been informed by Jace that Terrel has bumped you down to Corporal. I'm...sorry tha-" he began, but was interrupted by an indignant scoff.

"Because it matters. I'm no longer a lieutenant for this half-hearted attempt at rebellion? Big deal. This whole thing is pointless, Larus." Her eyes were glued to the wall.

Larus's expression became softer. "Don't say that, kid. The only way we'll survive is if we still have hope."

Celes turned with a smirk. "Really? Terrel seems to think the only way we'll win is if we all follow his orders no matter how suicidal. I think you need to clarify that."

"No need to be sarcastic about it."

"Larus, look around you. We're in a hut. A small, dilapidated hut. We're two of about maybe 4,000 individuals who have been set against billions. Listen carefully when I say this: We're. Screwed." Celes laid down on her cot with her hands behind her head.

Larus looked steadily at her, then at the floor, and then back. "Will you be eating with us tonight?"

"Eating? We'll need more than that to win this war. I'm not hungry, anyway," she said as she resumed staring at large sections of architecture, this time the ceiling.

After a pause, Larus turned around. "Get some rest, kid. It'll all seem better in the morning." He stepped out and slid the door shut behind him.

Better My plump juicy behind, she thought. Even with Terrel, Lone, and Moero, we still haven't made any advances towards a resolution. If only the other legendary crewmembers were here...

Her thoughts drifted to the stories she had heard Lone tell around the campfire when she had first joined. Lone had always lifted morale with the tales of the Newscast crew and their adventures.

The always fumbling, but courageous Terd Burgler. The ever-joyful and beautiful Ayame. The tough-as-nails amazon with an attitude Moero. The brilliant mind of the undead scientist Tay Frederick Mation. The always inebriated but loyal Sparky. Even Lonewolfe himself, who was a master swordsman from another dimension. And the last...

A sigh slipped from her as she thought of the final member of the legendary heroes: the traitor, Rev. The Eternal Coward, The Betrayor, The Dishonorable Mage. She had heard all the names around the camp, especially from Terrel and Moero on the rare instances they even thought of him. Celes had never really gained the hatred the other soldiers had for Rev.

Pity was the feeling that Rev drew from her. Even if he had run away, losing all of your friends was a horrible thought.

It's too bad you're not around, Rev. Your anti-technology magic could be the turning point for this fight.

As if reacting to her thoughts, her duffel bag toppled off of her dresser, spilling its contents next to her cot. The old book lay there, seemingly staring back at her. The words seeming even clearer than before.

Inanis Canor

Her eyes locked on the dirty exterior. Slowly, she leaned over and scooped it up. She held it up.

"What are you?" she asked it, not fully understanding why she was talking to a book. Suddenly, she could hear something.

This is the Inanis Canor, the link to Requiem. Among its pages are the secrets of the Void. Make thy pledge to the Void and gain the power thou need to fulfill it. Unless thy pledge is for thine own benefit, embrace these pages. A warning to those who would use Requiem for selfish agendas: If thou read a single word upon these pages, thine body and soul will be devoured by the Void.

With that, the book grew silent, and Celes was left with a deep feeling of uncertainty about what she had just heard.

Make a pledge to the Void? Body and soul devoured...

She placed the book back into her bag and resumed her thinking.

Requiem...

[Rev]

Chapter 3

Celes awoke to a knock on her door.

"Mmm, come in?" she mumbled, trying to quickly shake the sleep from her eyes.

A tall, furry man with large black wings stepped into her room. Upon seeing him, Celes immediately clammered out of bed and tried to pull off, what she assumed, was the lamest attempt to stand at attention that was possible at this early hour.

The fox-man raised his hand.

"That's not necessary, Celes."

Celes relaxed a bit as the anthro smiled.

"I actually just came to see how you're doing," said Lone.

Celes sat back onto her cot.

"I'm fine, sir." Her reply was tinged with bitterness.

Lone kneeled down in front of her.

"Listen, I wanted to explain Terrel's reaction the other day."

"It was over a week ago, sir. It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does, Celes. You've stayed confined in your room ever since you got back. You haven't heard about Gunner and the others."

An eyebrow raised on Celes's face.

"You mean the team that was sent to infiltrate the Elite Manufacturing Plant in Germany? I thought they were close to being finished there?"

"They were," replied Lone, "until their remote-unit communicator was picked up on a passing deathsquad's scanner."

Celes sighed and looked at her feet.

"You mean they're..."

Lone's blindfolded eyes stared intently at her, although if she could have seen them, they would have revealed an edge of sadness in them.

"Dead. Yes. No survivors."

"When did you find out?"

"We lost communication minutes before you and Larus arrived back from Husk. Terrel...didn't take it too well. There were fourteen UPGF on that team."

Celes looked up, anger and tears forming in her eyes.

"Then why do I get demoted?!" she shouted as she stood up, trying to stand face to face with the fox, but being no match against his 6'5" stature. "Why can't he get over it?! We're dying ALL THE TIME in this stupid war!"

Lone put his hands gently on her shoulders, he could feel her muscles relax slightly at the comforting grip.

"We know. And we don't want it anymore. We, as a council, have decided to crack down on sloppy missions." He raised a hand again as she tried to reply. "By that, we mean missions that all precautions were not taken on."

"But we-"

"Didn't use your signal jammer, did you?" Lone interrupted with a smile.

"We didn't think there would be any Elite at the Husk facility!"

"Those are the kinds of risks we're talking about."

"What about Larus? He didn't get demoted!"

"Yes he did. He didn't want you to know. He was afraid you'd become even more bitter and never come out." Lone chuckled at the thought. "We don't want to lose you, Celes. Or Larus. Or anyone else."

At these words, Celes's eyes seemed to brighten a bit.

"Then why not try something else?" she asked excitedly.

"Like what?" It was Lone's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Well, I was thinking about all of those old stories and I remembered how you and Terrel always mentioned how Rev had powerful ways to-"

"No, Celes," his face became very intense now, with a concentration she hadn't seen anywhere outside of combat, "we stopped looking for him a long time ago."

"But-"

"He's not coming back, Celes. I'll agree that he would have been useful, but he's gone. That's all there is to it."

Celes was feeling very uncomfortable. Lone wasn't usually this serious.

"I'm...sorry, sir. But..." she hesitated.

Lone's features softened a bit and he smiled.

"Sorry, go on?"

"Are there any other mages? Or ways to use magic?" she asked, getting that feeling that she may have asked a stupid question, but honestly didn't know one way or the other.

Lone pondered for a moment.

"I'm not sure. I know there were, at one time. But that all changed when the Queen showed up. But Celes..."

"Yes?"

"Don't go looking for it."

Celes became slightly taken aback.

"Why not?" she asked suddenly.

"Magic isn't something for young women like yourself. It's dangerous and only useful with years of study and practice."

"How do you know?"

Lone shrugged.

"Common knowledge. Now, I've gotta get to a meeting, so I'll be leaving you now. Take care, Celes. And don't worry, we'll win this thing yet." Lone smiled once more and stepped out, ducking to get his wings through.

"Yes we will," she mumbled as the door closed. She bent over and pulled the book from her bag.

Who needs to look for magic when I've already got it right here?

With a quick lick of the lips and a determined look in her eyes, she slowly opened the old tome.