Prologue

By Craxton and Mr. X

There was carnage on AGFF. That, in and of itself, was not out of the

ordinary. But, even as scenes of carnage go, even on AGFF, this scene

was bizarre. A lone figure with black wings and clothes stood on a

cliff overlooking a battlefield. The battlefield below was populated

by Relm.

Or rather, Relms.

Hundreds of Relms.

Thousands of Relms.

Most of them fake.

It had started out as another typical night on AGFF. A little flaming,

a little innuendo, a little off-topic discussion... the usual. The

MilonZ had made the mistake of opening up some old wounds. He had

defiled Relm.

The man on the cliff (well, half-man, half-dragon, actually (with a

little Mooglish blood thrown in for effect)) was Craxton.

And, if this night was any indication, he was the last of the

Defenders of Relm.

He had torched MilonZ, of course. Doused him with alcohol, and then

hit him with a Fire spell. That had taken care of him nicely.

Unfortunately, defilers tended to travel in packs. Even more

unfortunately, the Defenders were nowhere to be seen.

To complicate matters more, Relm herself showed up. Several times.

Craxton had soon found himself engaged in mortal combat with a certain

Mr. Z. Or rather, several Mr. Z's. Z must have been some sort of

insane geneticist. He had created an army by cloning himself. Not only

that, he had made several varients on the clones, including Y's, W's,

V's, and several others. But Craxton was a formidible warrior. And the

clones had common weaknesses. Exploitable weaknesses. Craxton had

defeated them all.

So Z had played his trump card.

After felling several duplicate Z's, Y's, and others, Craxton had

looked up to see Relm fighting with herself. Or several selves. He had

deduced it was another clone created by Z, but not before the many

Relms had started sketching each other...

No, wait a minute, it had been the other way around... He had figured

out they were clones BEFORE they started sketching one another...

No, hang on a minute, there had only been TWO Relms...

Ah, hell. He couldn't figure it out. It had been a confusing night.

The point was, there were currently at least a thousand Relms having a

free-for-all down below. And Craxton's job as a defender (unofficial

defender, true, but the official ones were elsewhere...) was to

protect the true Relm.

Trouble was, which one was the true Relm?

Now, Craxton has in his possession a great many weapons. His primary

one is the Crystal KnightSword hung in a sheath on his belt. Not only

was it sharper than steel, but it's composition (the purest of

elemental crystal) allowed it to become a channel for any form of

energy in existance, including the eight elements. (Nine? Had FFVII

introduced a new one? He made a mental note to look into that.) If he

was disarmed, the razor-sharp claws that were attached to his arms

where normal hands would be on a full human functioned almost as well.

If he was faced with a serious problem, he knew most every magical

spell that existed, had a large belt pouch (bottomless, like most

item-carrying things in a FF world) containing a variety of useful

relics, and he could, if the situation warranted it, transform into a

thirty foot green dragon.

But around here, none of that counted for much.

Most of the Regs had already built up at least comparable arsenals,

and many had maxed themselves to level 99. Some had even declared

themselves gods. Brute strength rarely did any good, since everyone's

brute strength was more or less equal.

So the weapon Craxton relied on most was his mind.

Strategy was the key. With the proper application of the appropriate

weapons, in the appropriate circumstances, a single combatant could

easily cause incredible damage. His annihilation of the Z clones had

proved that.

His annihilation of the Relm clones would prove it again.

Fumbling around in his pouch, Craxton withdrew a curious device. It

was a hexahedron made of gold, with All materias at each of the

vertices. The device was designed so that all the materias were linked

together.

It was a HyperAll Relic. The spell Craxton was about to cast normally

worked on only one person. Obviously, he needed some help to cast it

on over a thousand simultaneously.

He concentrated on the relic and the carnage below, and spoke the

incantation to the Doom spell. He hoped that this would work. If not,

he would fail his duty in the most horrible way imaginable...

The ether bent and twisted to Craxton's will, and finally lanced out

to the crowd of battling Relms below.  The spell engulfed Relm after

Relm, snuffing out the life within them all. But it wasn't snuffing

immediately. The spell's effects had been diluted so much, it would

take a few minutes for it to work...

"They wear Memento rings, dolt."

Craxton smiled and turned around to face the mastermind behind all

this.

"Mr. X, I presume."

The figure looked slightly surprised "How did you know my letter?"

"It's the only one you skipped when making your clones. Plenty of Z's,

plenty of Y's, plenty of W's, V's, and U's, but no X." He smiled. "So

of course, X had to be the real you."

X smiled. "Clever, Craxton, clever. You are a formidible opponent.

But..."

X drew a long, steel sword, which was of course magical, although

Craxton didn't know what kind of enchantment was placed on it.

"...but this ends now. It's been fun, but I won't let you kill them.

No, I won't let them be killed. Nuh-uh. They are MY creation and they

are indeed beautiful!"

Craxton drew his own sword, which glittered in the dawn sun. He also

let his inner villian out to play for a while.

"Just how do you intend to stop me?"

"I intend to kill you."

"What about that little spell?"

"I told you, they have Memento rings."

Craxton laughed. "Fool! Don't you see that's exactly the point?"

At this, Mr. X slashed at Craxton, but the blow was blocked easily.

Craxton continued.

"There's only ONE genuine Relm, X..."

The swords clashed violently against one another.

"And this is the perfect way to find her..."

X blocked an overhead slash from Craxton.

"For, though you may clone bodies..."

Craxton leaped back to avoid a slash from X.

"Though you may duplicate abilities..."

X ducked, avoiding a potentially decapitating slash, and in the

process fell to a crouching position.

"Though you may mimic forms..."

X tried to leg-sweep Craxton, but Craxton jumped to avoid it.

"Though you may teach your clones identical spells..."

X rolled away to avoid another overhand slash, and quickly clambered

to his feet.

"Though they may sketch clones of themselves..."

Craxton parried a stab from the now-standing X.

"None of this can duplicate a mother's love!"

As if to punctuate that point, Craxton finally pierced X's defense and

knocked him to the ground again. X's sword landed a few feet away, out

of arm's reach.

Craxton held his sword triumphantly at X's neck.

"Thus, there can be only one true Memento Ring. And only the one true

Relm can wear it. SHE will survive. Your vile perversions of her

form... will DIE!"

There was silence between the two for a minute. The sound of screaming

Relms filled the air ad interim. They were weakening and in pain, but

from their own attacks, not Craxton's spell. X smiled.

"And yet they still live." he said. "You know why? Cuz... I said so!

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!"

His laugh was interrupted as all the Relms, with the exception of one

standing in the center, fell dead.

"Dammit." said X.

Forgetting the madman, Craxton leaped of the cliff and glided through

the air to the battle-worn Relm. The True Relm, he now knew.

"Relm!! Are you all right?"

For a moment she was too stunned and weary to talk. She fell to her

knees, trying to comprehend what had just happened. "Yes... I think

so... I..." She was clearly scared and confused. Seeing her on the

verge of tears, Craxton pulled her close and comforted her. She was

only 11, after all.

The booming voice of Mr. X assailed them from behind. "Fools. You

should never have turned your backs to me. Before this night is done,

I shall have cloned a whole, new large army of fooey Relms who are

IMMUNE to your Doom spells! I shall get my revenge on Relm yet!

Farewell!"

Craxton turned around... and saw no sign of Mr. X. He stood up, still

cradling Relm in his arms. They both looked around, but X was nowhere

in sight.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." said Relm.

Craxton felt a sudden chill. "So do I, Relm. So do I..."