Motivated by @estinininininen's post about Holy Dragoon Kain's design being better if he had a helmet, I tried my hand at an edit. It's not perfect, but I thought it was a fun proof of concept.
(Bonus bang version and a side-by-side under the cut.)
Man, I've really been in the mood to play FFVII lately, but I don't much the time. What time I do have I'm using to play FFXV, since I've never played it or seen a play through before. Of course, I've seen some spoilers on my dash, but they've only made me all the more interested. By the way, did I ever mention I lost my completionist save file? As in the save file I had where I'd gotten every character to level 99, all of Cloud's stats to 255, all but 2 of Yuffie and Vincent' stats to 255, half of Tifa's stats to 255, every master materia, like 6 Knights of the Round, etc.... I mean, it's of course fun to play through the game. But I never actually beat the Weapons on that file. Or Sephiroth. I was planning to get Cloud, Yuffie, and Vincent's stats all to 255 so I could crush him and the Weapons, but that never happened. Ugh. When I have the time again I'll go on Steam and play some. I have way too many unfinished FF files right now. IV, IV: TAY, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XV... I've watched full walkthroughs of all but XV and TAY, but I've only completed IV and VII on my own. So I have these games I want to play so I can say that I actually beat them, rather than.... well, watched someone else beat them. Playing them is really fun too, of course. That and I'm a completionist to the extreme. To play and beat every FF game is my goal one day. I've also beaten XIII on my own. I lost my I save file at the same time as my VII one. I only got 15 minutes into II, and have never touched III, V, XI, or XII. X I watched a play through of. So yeah. Gotta finish a lot. I don't know where I'm going. I have 25 more pages to take notes on tonight and I don't feel like doing it. I come here whenever that happens. Though I should probably finish that. I'm averaging 4.5 hours of sleep a night right now, and have been for almost two months. I've been doing the same thing off and on for about 8. I'm tired.
If someone has an unpublished multichapter fic that is several chapters in but the author is fairly certain they'll never finish, do you think they should publish it? Or just trash it/keep it in their drafts forever?
Actually related to this post (tl;dr, when you're a sacrificial maiden whose sacrifice has been prevented and you have to live knowing everyone was willing to sacrifice you), with a SW prequels/Obikin flavor...
Anakin is the sacrificial maiden in this case. It makes his life even worse.
His childhood up to TPM goes mostly the same as canon, but it diverges when not only is Obi-Wan's request to train Anakin denied, but so is his request to take Anakin with him. Upon digging through old holocrons, the Council decided that Anakin was, in fact, the Chosen One, and was adamant that Anakin be prepared for his destiny—something which Obi-Wan, young and overcome by grief, could not provide. Crushed by his own failures, Obi-Wan leaves the Order, unable to train Anakin, unable to take Anakin with him, and unable to retain faith in the Order which not only denied him, but did so on the grounds that they needed a child to die.
With Obi-Wan out of the picture, Anakin becomes Mace's padawan, confined to the Temple for nearly all of his tenure as the Council dares not risk anything happening to their Chosen One. This time there is no doubt as to who—or rather what—Anakin is, and in this verse, his survival is beyond essential. If Anakin does not survive until the day of reckoning, the Dark will almost certainly win, and it may be centuries before the Force is able to manifest another of its Chosen to defeat the Sith and claw back the balance that even in the present struggles to survive. To secure the future of the Jedi and the galaxy, Anakin must be kept safe until the time has come. To secure the future of the Jedi and the galaxy, Anakin must one day die.
The prophecy is interpreted to read that the Chosen One is the sacrificial lamb which must be martyred for the Dark to be banished and the balance of the Force to persevere. One life for another. If said life is not available on the day of reckoning, on Judgment Day, then the Jedi's loss will be inevitable. As such, Anakin must not die before he does his duty. Though at first it's not entirely clear exactly what Anakin has to do, the fact that he won't survive it is obvious. The prophecy speaks of mutual destruction: the sacrifice of the Light to conquer the Dark; the return of the Son to the Parent; the ascendance of flesh for balance, strength, and peace. There is no future for the Jedi where Anakin survives. Their job is to ensure he survives until his sacrifice can be made.
Anakin isn't informed of the intricacies of the Prophecy up front. He knows he's the Chosen One and that he's important, but he doesn't know what he has to do and the Council refuses to tell him. As the Council isn't exactly sure what Anakin will be required to do to vanquish the Dark they do still train him, meaning his lightsaber skills end up being pretty close to canon, but he's frustrated by his lack of field experience. Sure he can fight Jedi, and sure Sith use lightsabers too, but what about when he's knighted and has to face beasts or sentients who use blasters or vibroblades or who knows what? Mace does integrate some other weapon types into Anakin's training afterward, but it still doesn't satisfy him. It's suspicious. It isn't enough.
As the years go on and mentions of Anakin's knighthood stay incredibly vague, his suspicions about his role only grow. It's only after he steals a ship from the Temple hangar to investigate his visions of his mother's death, dropping completely off the radar until intercepting a call for aid at Geonosis and appearing there alarmingly unstable and with robes already spattered with blood, that Mace finally admits why they've kept him close for so long. Why the Jedi accepted him into the Order in the first place. Why he's still alive, why he isn't cast when Mace sees the blood (which couldn't have come from the Geonosians, as Anakin leapt from his ship straight onto the battlefield when Mace was right there, so it had to have come first), and why Mace doesn't (can't afford to) press him for its source.
Mace is a level-headed man and at times Anakin has wondered if he ever really gets mad or just annoyed, but after he loses his arm to Dooku, he learns just how mad Mace can get. He'd almost ruined everything. That's when the story tumbles out. When his world comes crashing down.
Anakin is, he realizes, still a slave. A pretty bauble for the Jedi to tote and protect until the time when it's profitable to barter it away. He may not have a chip, but he has a value, and his life is no more his own than it was when he was nine and ignorant to the power that dwelt beneath his flesh, that would answer his call with only a breath.
His first instinct is to run. To damn everyone who sought to use him. Who did use him, a whole decade of lies and deceit marking his time among the Jedi and dogging at every step he took, the feeling that he never belonged not just a bit of paranoia but real, because he was never supposed to be a knight, never supposed to be a real Jedi, was only ever meant to be a sacrifice done up in Jedi robes to keep him from seeing the reality of a situation that had him happily marching to his death.
But...he doesn't. Because it's about more than just the Jedi. Mace convinces Anakin that his mother's death was caused by the hold the Dark had on the galaxy, twisting the thoughts and actions of beings even in the Outer Rim, pushing the proclivities for violence and cruelty that had lead to her demise, and when that happens, Anakin falls to pieces. Because oh. If he doesn't do this, then his mother will only be one of many. And while he doesn't give a damn about the Jedi anymore—doesn't give a damn about anyone, anymore, he has no one, not after her death, not when the people who've eaten and fought and played and spoken with him these past ten years have all done so knowing he wasn't one of them and never really would be—can he condemn everyone else to that fate?
A part of him wants to. A part of him wants to watch the world burn for abandoning him. For not caring. For allowing that sort of stuff to happen in the first place, because it can't all be the Dark side of the Force when even in the bud of Light that is the Temple there are bullies and acts of cruelty, so maybe sentients are just evil at their cores. But a part of him just wants to be safe, and protected, and warm. And with that...
His staying with the Jedi is less a genuine belief that he's going to do the right thing and more resignation to his fate. If he tries to run they'll just hunt him down and bring him back. Maybe he does at one point; manages to get the slip on his handlers and steal a ship, maybe cuts down a few Jedi who track him down (non-fatally, though it's close, and it may be in part because he wants them to survive long enough to suffer from the sort of pain he's felt in this glorified captivity), ends up caught by a Jedi Master or three who were able to capture him after too many days of no sleep, no food, and enough stress that he just couldn't fend them all off, Force-abilities or no. In the end he's brought back to them. In the end, his feelings don't matter. He's going to stay with the Jedi until the day his duty's done.
Apathy defines the rest of the days leading up to the Day of Reckoning. To the day when he'll be cast upon the altar. What he does he does with no joy. He does it because he must. If Mace seems upset by his new attitude, it's not his problem. He's doing what they want. Shouldn't they be happy? If they're not, screw them. It's not his problem. Soon enough nothing will be.
He goes on a few missions during the war. Not many; he's only assigned to missions that are as low-risk as any on the list, and when even those end up having some sort of combat element, he's eventually pulled from them entirely. Every mission he's assigned is with a minder, whether Mace or otherwise, and as such, they don't feel real. He might as well be Temple Bound but with a fancy backdrop. Three years of war come and go with Anakin never becoming the Hero With No Fear, never becoming anything but Anakin, not-a-general, just-a-jedi, and without the confidence boost, he continues to shrivel.
Eventually the day comes.
As part of his sheltered upbringing, Anakin did not have the same sort of contact with Palpatine as he did in canon. They'd met a handful of times when Anakin accompanied Mace on Senate duty, but they don't have any real sort of relationship. To Anakin, Palpatine is the Supreme Chancellor. Just the Supreme Chancellor. Nothing more.
While everything else was going on, a team of Jedi worked to investigate the Prophecy and decipher all its intricacies, leading to the preparation of the elaborate ritual in which Anakin is to be sacrificed. When it's revealed Palpatine is in fact Sideous—something discovered not by Anakin, but by an anonymous note left in the Jedi's systems—the ritual is set in motion. A set of chambers are prepared for the Sacrifice. All that's left is for Sideous to be lured to their meeting place, and for Anakin to be Sacrificed upon the altar with Sideous in range, the release of Anakin's life and dissolution of self/energy into the Force working to destroy Sideous and his Darkness, eliminating the last of the Sith and bringing much-sought balance to the Force with the Sacrifice of One and Elimination of Another.
The ritual goes as plan.
Until the final second.
Anakin was brought into the chamber and told to simply wait. Either Sideous would kill Anakin and destroy himself, or Mace would do it if Sideous did not. Were the worst to come to pass and Mace was killed with Sideous not going for Anakin at all, the room was armed with enough explosives to render them both to ash.
According to those who had studied the Prophecy, Anakin's death was necessary as any other method of killing Sideous would not work for their purposes. Were Sideous to be killed without Anakin's Light/Force presence cleansing him, the Dark would merely disperse to be taken in by another, not destroyed. Anakin needed to die for the Dark to be defeated. There was no other way for the Dark to be neutralized. There was no other way for balance to be cemented. Anakin had to die.
Yet...he doesn't. Because as Mace and Sideous are fighting, Anakin resting upon an altar in the center of the channeling circle and its myriad Force-channeling components...Another figure appears.
Mace is knocked unconscious by Sideous' lightning just as the new figure enters and stabs Sideous through the gut, low enough to be fatal but not instantly so. Enough that he'll die, but not so much he won't suffer as he does so. Anakin stares in shock as the man drags a choking Sideous into the center of the circle, smearing blood all over it as the rough handling causes Sideous to bleed from the chest.
"Go," the man tells Anakin, the Force growing heavy around them as Darkness coalesces, choking in its intensity, fathomless in its depth. "Live your own life. You need not die."
Still the darkness grows stronger. Anakin's heart beats so fast he thinks it might burst. Whether it's from the Darkness surrounding them or the overturning of his world he does not know.
The man continues. "I could not fulfill his wishes, but neither could I abandon you entirely. I promised I would see you saved. It's finally time. So go, Anakin. Live your life. Your end has not yet come."
The Dark continues to coalesce, both leaking out of Sideous and seemingly being pulled in from the world around them, as if all the Dark in the Force was gathering into their little circle. It's tempting to reach out for it. If the man did not stop Anakin by setting a gentle hand on his head, he would have.
"Go," the man repeats. "I will manage him, dear one. Be free. Be the Jedi you wanted to be. I'm sorry I couldn't have done this sooner, but it was the only way."
Then, the Dark mounting ever higher, ever stronger by the second, Anakin's heartrate increasing ever higher itself, the Force in all its aspects screaming around him and his body thrumming with the energy trying to flee him and the energy trying to enter him both-
It all ends.
The dark dissipates, leaving Anakin, the man, Sideous' dissolving body, and Mace's unconscious one all in a room far more light than it had been in centuries if not decades.
In the cast of the setting sun, the man seems to be on fire, auburn hair and golden eyes burning as they're given life by the light filtering in the bay window.
Eventually Sideous has turned to ash in his entirety. The man kisses the crown of Anakin's hair before leaving him with a bow. Anakin's still sitting there, stupefied, when Mace rouses, disoriented and in disbelief at Anakin's survival.
There's much celebration when Mace and Anakin return to the Temple, Anakin credited with the destruction of the Sith and the elimination of the Dark which had choked Coruscant and the rest of the galaxy for so long. Jedi as far as the Outer Rim had reported feeling a sense of calm wash over them. A reduction in the ambient Dark. All because of Anakin's success. All because of something he did not do.
Among the celebration, there is shock. Every time someone sees Anakin they pause in horror, knowing his death was supposed to be the key to their salvation and seeing him as some harbinger of destruction, seeing as he's not dead and thus couldn't have really succeeded. They tend to clear up soon after; smiling and laughing awkwardly and congratulating him on his survival, telling him how they're so glad he survived, how he was so strong as to have done what he did, how it must be wonderful to be alive and free of the burdens that had weighed him down for so long.
It makes Anakin want to scream.
Because they don't care about him. Not really. All they cared about was his death. And now that he's alive? What good is he? He's done his duty. He's served his purpose. (Except, did he? Sure he felt something during that ceremony, but was that him being used as some sort of focus or just him being in shock at seeing him—seeing Obi-Wan, for it was surely Obi-Wan, Anakin would never forget that face, weathered by time and colored differently as it was or no—again?)
Anakin's not a real knight. He was "knighted" at nineteen, sure, but he's never been on a solo mission. He's never been through the trials. He was put on the Council as a consolation prize for his impending death. He'll probably be kicked with an awkward apology before the month is up.
He should be grateful to Obi-Wan. Logically. Obi-Wan saved his life. Living should be good. Most people want to live.
But Anakin? Anakin is pissed. He'd spent the last twelve years of his life working towards being a martyr, and now he isn't and will never be. He's spent the last three years of his life anticipating his death and knowing it would be the only thing that freed him from this farce of a life among the Jedi who've never considered him one of them and whom he'll never truly be a part of.
Be free? Be the Jedi Anakin wanted to be? There was no freedom for Anakin among the Jedi. The Jedi he wanted to be was a dead one. All Obi-Wan did was condemn Anakin to witness the disappointment of all the Jedi who wanted him that way. All he did was force him to walk back to his prison with his tail between his legs. In saving his life, Obi-Wan condemned Anakin to a fate far crueler than death. Never in his life has Anakin been so angry. Never in his life has he wanted to hurt someone more.
No one can stop Anakin when he leaves the Temple. Not this time.
First, why would they? He's served his purpose. They no longer have no need of him. What use is a lamb for slaughter when one has already feasted, and when food is bound to be plentiful for the rest of the lamb's life?
Second, how could they? Emotion is a powerful thing. It's what fuels the Dark Side of the Force. It's what fuels the Sith.
It's what fuels Anakin as he marches toward the hanger and steals a ship, headed for the point on the horizon where he feels a Darkness oh-so-similar to his own calling to him, bound together over a decade ago and reinvigorated upon their encounter only days before.
Golden eyes stare out at hyperspace as Anakin pursues his quarry.
It's been years since he's felt so alive.
And when he finds Obi-Wan...he will make him understand what he did to Anakin. One way or another.
...
[Okay so this started out as theory and then ended up more in line of a fic but.
Continuing on, Anakin would find Obi-Wan and they'd fight.
Obi-Wan would say he did it all for Anakin, Anakin would say Obi-Wan doesn't understand him, and eventually they'd sort of fall together as Obi-Wan asks Anakin to make him understand. As Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he can make a new purpose—that they can make a new purpose, together. Anakin is now the master of his own fate, and Obi-Wan will gladly help him figure out where to go. He didn't mean for Anakin to Fall with him. His goal was to take all of Sideous' Darkness upon himself and sequester it somewhere where it could not touch Anakin. He didn't want to burden Anakin with anything. He only meant to help.
Anakin counters that it's too late. He thinks he's always had this Darkness. He thinks the Jedi fueled it. He thinks this is who he is and who he was meant to be. Maybe it's who Obi-Wan was meant to be too. Who needs the galaxy when they have each other?
At first, Obi-Wan's kind of offput by how forward Anakin is after not having seen him in years—this is really fast for most people—but eventually he decides screw it. Intensity is fun. And Obi-Wan has kept an eye on Anakin anyway, ever since Geonosis.
So they end up together. Probably. Still working that bit out but it's a possibility :)]
I really do like the idea of Vergil ending up with a black cat post-DMC5.
There's this one stray cat that has hung around the shop for a year or two pre-DMC5 that Dante's been feeding, and when they get back, it's still around. Dante picks up on how Vergil kind of wistfully stares at it when it comes by, but he doesn't say anything, just continues to put out cat food for it when it comes by.
Then a couple days go by where the food isn't eaten. A raccoon shows up at one point to eat it, but Vergil shooes it away before it can eat too much. After almost a week the cat finally comes back, but it's clearly injured and not doing well. Neither Dante nor Vergil are animal experts but it kind of looks like it might have an infected wound, so they end up taking it to the vet where it's confirmed that the cat is on its last legs. Vergil, despite insisting he's fine and it's just a random cat, looks so upset that Dante ends up shelling out a hefty amount of his savings to get the cat the treatment it needs. And when the vet asks if the cat had a name, Vergil, creative man he is, calls it Shadow, which is pretty much what seals the deal to Dante and has him accepting the fact that they're probably going to have a cat now.
Once Shadow is well enough to leave the vet, they do end up officially adopting Shadow and taking it home with them. Shadow's recovery wasn't perfect and it's probably going to be pretty wobbly for a long time if not for the rest of its life, so Shadow becomes an indoor cat that gets to live in DMC. It loves curling up next to Vergil when he's reading on the couch, and Vergil ends up setting up a little bed for it in his room so it can sleep with him at night. Dante thinks it's helping both of them. For all Vergil said V's familiars were just convenient tools made of unwanted memories, it's pretty obvious that he misses them, and Dante's glad to see Vergil has something to fill the void.
