Through Emanuel’s Eyes
I fire three shots at Crimson as Fiend jumps on my baton. The blast hits his second skin spell. A chill runs through my body as he's pushed forward, but he isn’t injured. I’ve never heard of a second skin strong enough to block a blast from this close.
No time to slow down. I launch Fiend and Crimson, ans he turns. With his eyes on Fiend, he focuses on slashing him. It won't work. His arm stops as I block it with my baton. Crimson’s isn’t slowed down as his burning metal fist swings at Fiend, but Cid wraps slime around his forearm and pulls back. Leaving Fiend the opportunity to hit Crimson in the chest.
Without missing a beat, we all move to our next move. Our time training all comes together in this moment. Without exchanging words and relying on reaction time and quick glances to guide our attacks, we move as one and attack, block, and counter when we can.
Crimson is caught off guard as he takes blow after blow. It's clear he underestimated us, as we have him surrounded. Fiend jumps from me, strikes Crimson, jumps into Cid, and then strikes again. I focus on finding an opening and hitting him. Cid balances blocking any move that would hit Fiend or myself while punching him with a crystalized fist.
I can feel the waters shift as less and less hits make contact on Crimson. His eyes jump from all three of us, analyzing, learning. The metal clang of his blade blocking my weapon rings in my ear. He knew it would be there. He moves his head to avoid Fiend, and Cid gets hit, but Crimson is already reaching for his fist to burn him.
On Cid’s body, more and more cuts of burnt slime appear as his shield is being used to block any hits on us. Crimson moved from countering to offense. Now we are trying to block his slashes, his kicks. Our roles have shifted.
No matter how much ground we push, no matter how much I have improved, we’re still losing. Cid’s wounds tell me that before I got here, he was only able to keep up with Crimson. I thought that was because he was keeping an eye on me. Now that I’m here, we've made headway, but it's not enough.
I can’t mess with the ship like earlier as its full focus is on getting away from the Cosmic Swaler. Even then, it's growing and will be close to swallowing us any minute. My breathing is shallow as the weight of everything is hitting me like a cascading wave, over and over. Fiendkeeps getting up, but how much can he keep taking?
Then I see it. Cid’s eyes, for a brief moment in our fight, we make eye contact. I failed. I am supposed to support him. I am supposed to stand with him. In that single second, Cid sees all of my feelings that I am keeping to myself. My exhaustion, rage, pain, and, most of all, fear. I laid it out to him with no more energy to hold it back.
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Cid gets a second wind as I continue to follow his movements. Crimson swings at me, but Cid blocks it with a shield. One of his eyes moves to the back of his head and takes the shape of an arrow. He points across to the deck in the escape pod. I get his plan.
“This is all you have? Defease?” Crimson chuckles with glee.
Cid pushes him back, expanding his body to cover my escape. I run to the pod and thank whatever cosmic being looks out for us. It works. I turn it on and begin punching in coordinates into the console. It doesn’t matter where as long as it is far. It's better that I don’t know where it is as I can help someone get him back, and Crimson never needs to set foot on any rock again.
The pod hovers on the deck as I tilt it toward the stars. I leave the door open and the ramp ready. Fiend and I jump back in the fight, signaling to Cid it's all prepped. At that moment, Crimson stabbed him in the chest and pulled the knife down. He stabs Cid's side with his mechanical hand, and I can see the slime boil. I fire two shots in Crmson’s back as Fiend smashes his tail into his side. Cid knocks the knife out of Crimson’s hand with his shield. Cid crunches his body like a spring and launches forward with the shield, ramming into Crimson.
They soar across the deck and into the Escape Pod. I run forward with my blaster out, ready to provide cover fire for when Cid jumps out. If I am right, I can push Crimson back as the doors shut.
The metal hinges on the pod door creak and slam shut. Cid didn’t jump out. I rush to the escape pod and see Cid holding Crimson down. He expands to fill the room, using the shield to pin Crimson to the ground. His burning metal hand grabs any slime it can. Cid's groans inpain, but he keeps pushing him down.
“Cid, hit the button and get out. You can slip out through a crack.
Cid’s eyes turn to the button, and a slime tendril hovers over the button, but he doesn’t move. Slime covers the window, and his eyes appear there. They are filled with compassion and sorrow.
“Don’t do it! Let me in, and we can take him together! I can help!” It's hard to see Cid's face as my tears block my vision. His voice is kind, as always, barring the brunt of our pain when no one asked him to.
“Thank you, Emanuel. Keep Fiend safe,” he says as if he is going out for a walk. “I’m sorry I can’t keep my promise.” He presses the button.
‘Cid, please don’t leave.” I whimper out. “ I can’t do this without you. We were supposed to make it out together-”
The thrusters knock my body back as the Escape pod rushes into space. The Cosmic Swaller turns away from the ship as his prey flies into deep space.
It's my fault. He did that because of me. Fiend screams for Cid as we are left alone on the ship. tears run down my cheek as the fire's smoke covers the stars.
I scream, louder than ever as smoke from the fire fills my lungs and the stars are blurry by the tears in my eyes. I never wanted to fill this way again.
Our ship hits the pocket, and we are sent planets, if not galaxies, away from Cid.
