A/N: I've finally decided to start writing again, I'm sorry to any readers, but I needed to focus on schoolwork as I had my Leaving Cert coming up. But I finished that and finally have enough time to write again. I'll likely wipe the slate clean and rewrite this story and other from the ground up. Anyway, here's the second version of Road to the Promised Land!
Prologue
In the far frozen north of Gaia, the glowing, almost seemingly crystalline trees of the Sleeping Forest stand silently outside the perimeter of the Forgotten Capital, the last remaining testament to a long forgotten people. While normally serene, a sudden roar thunders through the still gaps in the trees. As the roar grows louder a blur is seen in the distance. Rushing along dirt road is a single motorcycle, heading straight for the Forgotten Capital. The rider is carried by a purpose, one carried by a whisper from a dream, a name, one he rightly fears
Sephiroth… the distant voice whispers.
So the rider hurries to the ancient ruin, in the hopes of stopping his foe.
After uncounted hours of travel the rider comes to a pool of still water, cast in the dim glow of a strange structure, a similar cold silver hue to the trees that surround it. The rider dismounts the motorcycle, from which two racks open from the sides revealing six individual swords, from these weapons he forms a larger gestalt weapon that resembles and massive meat cleaver with a point. He scans the area, eyes peeled for any signs of movement.
"You heard her too?" a deep gravely voice says from behind the rider, who whips around ready to lash out with his large blade.
"Vincent?!" the rider says to a tall man in a red high-collared cloak with dark hair, messy hair and ghostly pail skin. "What are you doing here?"
"Same as you, I'd presume," Vincent says looking to the pool. "Our old friend returns."
"Is he? Is Sephiroth returning?" the rider asks.
"I'm unsure as yet, Minerva has not told me much. Though I feat that might be through ignorance of his actions than through trying to keep us in the dark."
"I wonder what he's planning…" the rider says. "Aerith contacted me in my dreams. I've told Tifa and Reeve."
Vincent goes to speak but closes his mouth again when he hears some strange whooshing in the distance.
"Someone's coming," the rider says. Vincent nods, he then flourishes his cape and disappears to an ambush position. The rider hides behind a nearby tree. Soon after a pair of bike-like vehicles that levitate a few feet off the ground swerve into view. The rider looks around the trunk. He spots three figures, one with distinctively silver hair, another with dark hair and a third wearing a blue cloak with the hood pulled over his head.
Vincent appears in a branch above the rider. "Cloud."
The rider looks up, responding to his name.
"Which one of us should deal with this?" he asks.
"I'll go," Cloud says. He looks around to where the three strangers are staring right at the tree he is standing behind. He notes that the dark and silver haired individuals are holding rifle-like weapons at the ready. He steps out from behind the tree, confident that he can handle them.
"Who are you?" the cloaked one asks, his eyes glowing bright blue. The other two, who cloud assumes are guards suddenly aim their weapons at him. Cloud raises his hands and inserts his blade into a sheath on the small of his back.
"I'm Cloud," he says to the other three. "Who are you?"
"Who we are is irrelevant," the cloaked one says. "Where is the other one?"
"Who?" Cloud frowns, trying to conceal the presence of Vincent, while wondering how the cloaked one knows about him.
"We don't have time for fun and games," the dark-haired one says. "No point in lying to a Mind Mage. There's another person here, and we want to know who he is."
"And why he's hiding in that structure," the cloaked one says pointing to the building behind the pool.
Cloud can fell the nervousness rising in him. "Alright, alright, he says, he's a friend of mine, he's there in case of trouble…"
"We're willing to be peaceful if you are…" the silver-haired one says with an accent that's strange to cloud.
"Now why are you here?" the cloaked one asks.
Cloud considers his next actions carefully for a moment then says, "I'm here to stop someone. Not you three, an old enemy… a man named Sephiroth."
The three strangers exchange one glances at one another for a moment. "We're here looking for him as well," the dark-haired one says.
Cloud reaches for his sword. "What do you want with him?" he asks, his tone suddenly becoming harsher and more aggressive.
"Easy there, boy," the silver-haired one says. "No sudden moves, we just want to meet Sephiroth."
"We came to this Plane due to the presence of a unique form of colourless Mana, which you call Mako," the cloaked one says. "While studying it I heard echoes of his name. Even located him within the Mana streams below the surface."
"You found him in the Lifestream?" Cloud asks surprised.
The cloaked one nods. "Also found that he's a Planeswalker."
"A what?" Cloud asks.
"A being able to travel to other planes of existence," the silver-haired one says.
"Only one-in-one thousand are born with the ability to become a Planeswalker, and only a thousand of them ever unlock that power, we are three such individuals," the dark haired one says.
Cloud wonders what exactly all that means but allows them to continue. "We also found that he wields great power and might be of some use to us in the near future," the cloaked one says.
"He's dangerous, he wants to destroy this planet!" Cloud protests.
"If he does so, I'm sure that we can stop him," the dark-haired one says.
Just as Edgar says that the water in the pool begins to bubble Cloud and the three strangers look towards the pool, weapons at the ready. Something begins disturbing the waters surface some distance from the bubbling, which has now ceased. Eventually a crown of silver hair breaks the surface. Soon a man with soft, delicate features and glowing green eyes with feline pupils. He emerges from the pool wearing leather pants and a long leather greatcoat with multiple buckles. Cloud immediately readies himself for a fight.
The man instead directs his attention to the cloaked stranger. "Jace, you wished to speak with me…"
"You must be Sephiroth," the cloaked stranger says.
Cloud maintains a ready posture, watching Sephiroth like a hawk. "Yes, now, if you will excuse me," Sephiroth says as he begins to glow blue with contrails of black trailing into the air as if they are flames of shadow.
"Sephiroth, wait!" Jace shouts just before Sephiroth vanishes in a flash of light.
Cloud bursts forward looking around him. "Where'd he go?" he asks, glancing around him. Vincent drops down from his perch.
"He planeswalked," Jace says.