Game Theory

Garnet til Alexandros, though she'd be quite upset at anyone who called her that, stared down from her window to the courtyard below. A thousand miniature Alexanders, white wings spread, stood solemly under the black sky.The drop was maybe...oh, seven stories? Dagger hadn't even explored the - her - their - castle, yet. Zidane stood behind her, holding her quietly. It was not a time for words. They'd already discussed what the stated rules meant. The plan was, tentatively, to wait and see, hopefully win without causing too much harm, and use the acquired powers to restore everyone's ails and injuries. Perhaps they could convince the others that conflict and death was unnecessary.

It was not likely to be so easy. As the white moon shone above, the loving pair looked across the bleak expanse. A cadre of black-swathed ninja was already attacking a formation of machina.

Cid stood calmly behind his troops. Yuffie hadn't bothered coming. He lazily smoked a cigarette. This wasn't a real battle - the kids (by which he meant Rikku and Yuffie) had just struck a deal to see just how fancy these troops were. It had already been well established there were no lives at risk: he had personally inspected the soldiers, and found not a single heartbeat. This was all about information. Information was the key to good decisions. And decisions were what was going to decide a winner.

Yuna stood nervously at her own window, watching the machines of her close friend (and some would say lover) engage an alien complement of ninja. Rikku had reached out to her, first. There was a pretty neat communications device set up. Each castle contained a circular room wherein ten labelled orbs were laid upon ornate jade pedestals standin on a parabolic stone counter - the nine competing heroines and the lady of the castle's champion. The orbs glowed different colours; for example, Nel Zelpher's glowed a dark crimson, and Femme's a verdant green. Holding an orb allowed telepathic communication with the person in question. An eleventh orb, unlabelled, black and shot through with streaks of electric yellow, stood at the apex of the parabola.

Yuna yet yet to touch that one. In fact, she had yet to touch most - the names, save Rikku's and Tidus', were unfamilar to her. She stared down upon a thousand halberd-wielding Ronso as a blonde-haired warrior clattered back up the stairs, sword sheathed, bringing news of his explorations.

Auron leaned on his sword. The skirmish had been brief - after all, winning wasn't really a concern, though one tried nonetheless. The unknown spearman picked his way through the broken machina. He'd already left behind his defeated score of ninja. The remaining eight robots clacked mechanical pincers at him as he approached, hand outstreched, but a wave from the red swordsman sent them wheeling away, back toward Rikku's tower.

"The name is Cid."

"Auron. I would not say it is a pleasure, but it will certainly be interesting."

"Agreed. This 'retirement' is crap."

Auron chuckled. "All too true. There is no honest occupation for a warrior."

The pleasant laughter was returned. Cid pulled his spear out of the loamy dirt and tossed the butt of a cigarette to the ground. "God, I hope I can get some more of these."

Auron was already retreating. Cid smiled and turned, aiming a wild kick at one of the remaining machina, missing by several feet. Chortling, he meandered back toward's Yuffie's waiting scorn.

Day 1. The white moon is cresting.

By now, most of our combatants, reluctant or otherwise, had figured out the nature of the world they were collectively trapped in. The castles were quite sumptuous. Floating ghosts acted as translucent servants rushed to carry out commands, though many details could simply wished into existence, such as food and drink. The interior decorations could be changed at whim. Really, the amount of trifles that could have kept one occupied were astonishing - all the better to separate wheat from chaff. The multiverse did not need a goddess who was amused by matching the colours of curtains and tapestries when engaged in a struggle for her life.

Nel

A few more scuffles and a few more meetings had taken place. Those that had known each other from their former life had talked. Nel and Maria Traydor were relaxing by a fire, idly discussing the nature of the game. They'd already resolved to wait. Where was the incentive to rush? Yuna and Rikku were also engaged, though mainly with Yuna trying to convince Rikku not to flood the battlefield with her troops. It wasn't easy calming down the excitable Al Bhed, who had already claimed the first victory on this world.

The men, warriors all, had mainly made a degree of acquaintance. It wasn't good to get too close to your enemies, but knowing roughly who they were was always desirable, at the very least. They'd all been interested in picking over the battlefield, though some more than others. Max, wrench in hand, and Copain, equipped with his Chevalier, had only taken a cursory glance at the detritus, while Albel Nox had painstakingly scoured the ground, seeking every tidbit of information.

Etna had sent forth a score of demons following the engagement between the forces of Rikku and Yuffie, which had spent some time idly in the middle of the circle formed by the ten castles before being challenged by a dozen stone golems, ubiquitous as her former foes, now bound to the fiery-haired Monica in servitude, though they'd only managed to claim four demon casualties before the last was cut down under Laharl's sword.

The remaining sixteen were quickly challenged by two dozen small spacecraft, belonging to the blue-haired Maria, led by Fayt, who managed to destroy the demon complement, sustaining only three casualties. This bizarre game of king-of-the-hill continued, with Rikku sending twoscore machina after these apparently fearsome contraptions. Fayt earned twelve dead robots as his cohort was ripped to pieces.

At this point, Yuffie had become quite agitated, yelling at Cid to take fifty more ninja and earn revenge. He placed a minor protest, but didn't really care. His eyes were shot for flying. If this was his last battle, he could live with it. He pulled his trusty spear out of a dead robot and did a quick count. Earning the top of the hill had cost him almost half of his squadron - twenty-four more unmoving corpses. He wasn't stupid. It was time to call it a day. A brief command reformed the ranks as he led the surviving troops back towards the safety of the castle.


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For those interested, yes, there is an actual battle system behind all combat resolved in this story.

However, since AFF doesn't take kindly to matrix notation, subscripts nor superscripts, it will remain confidential.
Try to figure it out yourself!


Statistics: Troops/Kills

Dagger: 1000/0

Etna: 980/15

Femme: 1000/0

Maria: 976/28

Monica: 988/4

Nel: 1000/0

Rikku: 948/65

Rinoa: 1000/0

Yuffie: 956/40

Yuna: 1000/0