Wild ARMs: Off on a Tangent

By: Chibi-chan

Part One

Scenario Three: “The Not-So Innocent One”

*

Innocent One… You can feel my mind in yours…

A not-short-but-not-terribly-tall boy with long blond hair found himself in an inky black void. “’Innocent One’? What color of crack have you been smoking? I’m not exactly ‘innocent’, if you get what I’m saying…” he retorted.

Oh, bull! You’re still as pure as driven snow and I know it, Innocent One! Tell me your name…

“Er, who the hell are you and do you mind turning on the lights?” he asked. The void suddenly came to life as a surreal, acid trip-like swirl of color and light filled the void. Er… not like I would know firsthand what an acid trip is like, but that’s what it looked like.

Tell me you name and once again we will be bound by the ancient contract…

“Ancient contract? Shouldn’t I have a lawyer present for that?”

Just tell me your name, you little twit! The world’s goin’ to pot and I need you help to stop it from happening. Tell me you name!

“Er… it’s Cecil.” No sooner did he say that did a black shadow of… something appear before him. “The hell…?”

Cecil…

Cecil…

Cecil, the Innocent One…

Cecil…

*

“Cecil…”

“Cecil!”

“CEEEEEECIIIIIIIIL!!”

“Wake up! Class is over!”

Cecil awoke at his desk with a start. “The hell? It was just a dream?” he muttered under his breath.

His classmate in the desk next to him quipped, “You feelin’ OK? It won’t look good if our prince has mental problems.”

“Ah, bite me,” Cecil retorted automatically.

The classmate at the desk opposite of the other classmate tried to diffuse what could easily become a bad situation. “Er, you’re turning seventeen today, right? And you also get to leave the abbey today, right? So maybe you should say good bye to everyone, right?” the classmate said.

Cecil sighed. “I guess I should…” He got up out of his seat and left the room.

*

“Oh, oh dear, what a mess I made!” the young library assistant cried. Books were here, there, everywhere except where they were supposed to be, that is the shelves. “I’m no good at this!” she wailed.

Cecil entered the library. Why did I come in here? Don’t tell me that wasn’t really a dream…

The library assistant squealed, “Oh, thank goodness! Would you be a dear and go borrow Anje’s magic pocket watch for me? I messed things up really bad here and now I can’t get out of this pile of books without stepping on them! If Sister Mary sees this mess, let alone footprints on the covers, I’ll be in deep crap!” She then tried her best to play on Cecil’s emotions by pouting cutely and looking really sad in general.

Cecil was a typical hornball teenage boy, so his brain shut down and he nodded dumbly when he saw her do that. He quickly made an exit to find Anje and her pocket watch.

“Tee hee, boys are so easy to manipulate!” the library assistant proclaimed with a smile.

*

Anje swore out loud. She needed the Tear Drop to test the link between the Guardians and the Tear Drop and the prince was leaving today! She just stared at the Guardian Stone and hoped for something to go right for her.

“AAAAAAAANJEEEEEEEEE! Can I borrow your waaaaaaaaatch?!” a familiar male voice rang from the hallway.

The prince! Fortune’s smiling on me today! Anje thought cheerfully.

Cecil finally made it into Anje’s room. “*huff*puff* Anje, *huff* I need *puff* your pocket watch for something…”

Anje smiled in a mixture of content and amusement. “Only if you help me with something, child…” she said, tapping the Guardian Stone.

Cecil took a step back in fright. “But madam, I barely know you!”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT I- *ahem!* That’s not what I meant, child.” Anje said. “You see this rock? This here’s the Guardian Stone. It reacts to the power of the Guardians. Rumor has it that there’s a link to the Tear Drop you possess and the Guardians. So if you would be a dear and use the Tear Drop on the Guardian Stone, you can have my pocket watch.”

Cecil wasn’t exactly sure what to say, so he simply took out a small blue crystal and held it towards the Guardian Stone. The Tear Drop shined as the Guardian Stone pulsed a red-colored light. Cecil put the crystal back. “Dude, what was that about?!”

Anje looked positively giddy. “There IS a connection! BOOYAKA!” She goes over and shoves a watch into Cecil’s hands. “This watch can reset object to their original positions in a room. It’s not a toy; remember that!”

“Uh, OK, cool…” Cecil mumbled before he left the room.

*

“I’m back, my lady…” Cecil said as he returned to a now-unoccupied library. “Uh, miss? Miss? Hmph, and she said she couldn’t get out… Oh well, I may as well clean up this mess…” He took out the pocket watch. Now how does this thing work…? He held it up. “Er, oh time, turn back to before this mess was made?”

!kcot ,kciT !kcot ,kcoT! !kcot ,kciT

The books were now in order on the shelves. Well, all except one. Cecil noticed the book and went to pick it up. The book opened by itself and the same mysterious voice called out to him…

Innocent One, please release me from the forbidden book! I am… Trapped in… The Sealed Library…

The voice faded into nothingness once more. Cecil, needless to say, was rather freaked out by this whole thing. “It… It wasn’t a dream?! What the hell is going on here?! Why are you bothering me?!”

*

“Sister Mary, I… I think I may be ill! I’ve been having these strange… visions, hallucinations, I really don’t know what they are, and a voice in them tells me to release it from somewhere called ‘the Sealed Library’!” Cecil managed to get out.

The sister didn’t seem disturbed in the least. “So, the Guardians have finally contacted you.”

“The WHAT have contacted me?!” Cecil exclaimed, now starting to think that Sister Mary had lost her ever-loving mind.

“The Guardians. Those in the Adlehyde bloodline share their thoughts with the Guardians. Apparently one of them wants you to seek out the Sealed Library. I am sorry, but I cannot tell you where it is. However, I can tell you this much: it is somewhere in this building…” Sister Mary explained.

Cecil could only stare at the sister blankly…

*

Cecil pushed the second statue into place. “Show ‘light’ to two mages at once, eh? If this don’t work, so help me I’ll…” He stood between the two mage statues and held up the Tear Drop crystal. A flash oh light, and two points of light circled the prince for a moment. They then shot off in the direction of the door. “Hey! Wait for me!” Cecil cried before he went in pursuit of the points of light.

*

“So, this is the Sealed Library. I was expecting something a little more… dangerous,” Cecil said. As if to grant his wish, a Blue Book thwaped him upside his head. Cecil turned to face his enemy and almost fell over laughing. “E-evil BOOKS?! *snicker* Now that’s just plain STUPID! ” The book took offense and cast a Freeze spell on the laughing prince…

*

Ten minutes later, Cecil was still shivering. #@)#)(& book… Now where is this “forbidden book” that voice was talking about? He stepped into the main library and saw shelf upon shelf of books as far as he could see. “Of course, it couldn’t be EASY to find, could it now?!”

*

Finally he found a book that looked suspicious. “De La Metallica?” He tried to open the book, but it wouldn’t budge.

Yo, stupid, wrong book! I’m over here, oh Innocent Twit! the now-familiar voice said from the book on the desk in the room.

“Oh,” Cecil said. He dropped De La Metallica on the floor and walked over to the desk. He didn’t see De La Metallica rise and put itself back on the shelf…

He opened the book on the desk and out pooped Sailor Mercury… wait, that’s a completely other story. Er, a completely different shadowy figure emerged from the book as the pages turned by themselves.

So, you think you can beat me and free Stoldark from my book? You can’t possibly beat my rap! the voice of the new shadow said.

“*sigh* Nothing easy is ever simple, is it?” Cecil groaned as he whipped out his staff. Er… I mean he took out his weapon, which happens to be a staff!

Come! Join me within the pages of my book!

“But I really don’t go that wa- YAI!” Cecil barely managed to avoid being squished by the massive beast that had lunged at him before he could finish his wisecrack. A purplish-black aura surrounded Cecil as he countered with a spell.

“FLAME!” he shouted as a double helix of fireballs hurdled towards the monster.

The monster screamed in pain as its flesh was seared by the flame. However, it wasn’t going to let this go unpunished. It charged at the prince and succeeded in hitting him and knocking him against the wall. The prince was knocked for a loop, to put it mildly.

Cecil stumbled back on his feet. Fire hurt it, but I wonder… Cecil thought as he brought up a gift from one of his teachers, a Crest Graph that Cecil had bound a new spell onto. The purple-black aura flared up again as he screamed out the spell’s name, “VAAAALKYRIIIIIIIIE!!” Eight multi-colored disco ball-like things shot off at the wounded beast, pummeling it down on the ground. Cecil paused to catch his breath for a moment, hoping that the monster was dead but fearing it wasn’t. He gingerly poked it with his staff to see if it would move, and move, it did! “Oh crap…” he muttered, trying to get out of the corner he was backed into.

The monster got back up on its feet and lashed out at the prince with its clawed “hand”. Cecil blocked it with his staff, but the beast was much stronger physically than he was, it didn’t do that much good. The pressure applied to the staff forced Cecil up against the wall.

CrapcrapcrapcrapCRAAAAAAAAP!! he thought as he was slowly being crushed against the wall. Ugh, just one… more… try… A much weaker purple-black surrounded the prince as he got off one final spell, “Val… kyr… ie…” The Disco Balls of Doom, as I like to call them, fired off at the monster, making the monster retreat as it began to fall back to the floor. This time, the monster fell down dead. Cecil dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. “Is… is it over?”

The pages of the book began to turn again. This time, the shadow from the prince’s visions emerged from the pages.

It’s about friggin’ time! I thought I was never gonna get out of that book!

“You’re a Guardian, right?” Cecil asked of the shadow. “Please say you are, because I really don’t want a fight like that again today!”

Yes, I am a Guardian. I am Stoldark, Guardian of Water. Innocent One! Can you hear the cries of the people and the land? The screams of the sea and the sky? Innocent One, the land is once again on the verge of being engulfed by darkness. Take with you my power and don’t screw up! You understand me?

“Uh… sure.” Stoldark transformed into a stone slab which gently floated into Cecil’s hands. “This… is not going to be easy, is it?’

*

Is he too young to be the sorcerer of the ‘Absolute Power’? If he doesn’t find others who can understand the burden this will be on his soul, damn straight. Watch out, ‘Innocent One’, for the burden of this might crush your soul…

*

End Scenario Three

Chibi’s notes:

… did the fight scene suck too much? Please tell me what you thought of it. ^^;;

Rudy: I’ve seen worse. “FFVII: TUS”… *shudder*

Ted: I’ve seen better, but…