::The Last Avatar::

Gamer Edition


BOOK TWO
TITAN


2.2

The First Vision


*Time to Start Balancing This Shit*
Story quest #6
...
Okay, you've made it out of Midgar and arrived in Cosmo Canyon.
I'd say well done, but it's not like you had much to do with it.
Your main goal for this quest is to get yourself reconnected to the 'Sprit World' or whatever.
It should have some interesting side effects I'm told.
Don't ask me what; don't know, don't care.
I also don't know how.
Figure it out, you're in a spiritual place, yeah?
Ask the locals brat!


They'd been in Cosmo Canyon for three days and Rue was beginning to get cabin fever. Though that might have had something to do with Angeal's mother-henning and Rhys' awkwardly distant companionship. She had been confined to their room, and bed, at the inn by both Angeal, enforced by Rhys, and the local healer. The latter had reinforced the knowledge that Materia wouldn't help her healing process at all, in fact, the healer had been surprised she'd already woken up after checking her absorption levels, or something like that. Apparently they were still pretty high, which was bad, Rue guessed by the way everyone was frowning at her whenever the subject came up.

Currently Rue was sitting in her bed listlessly, wishing she could just avoid being injured in the future, because she was kinda over it. The teen was also half convinced she'd spent more time laying around injured than she had doing things since she'd arrived on Gaia. She was just wishing that she had something to get her mind off of the burning pain radiating out of her body when, to her surprise, her PHS started ringing. Rue stared at the phone as it vibrated and The Victory Theme played through the devices shitty speakers. It was only when the theme started playing again and the vibrations continued that Rue realised it was a phone call, not a message and she was obliged to answer it.

"Hello?" she asked uncertainly. She hadn't even thought to glance at the caller I.d before picking it up, proving just how out of it her mind was.

"Rue?" the sound of Sephiroth's smooth voice and barely hinted awkwardness made a small smile to appear on her face. Rue relaxed back into her pillows, maybe talking to someone who wasn't Angeal or Rhys would do her some good?

"Hey Seph, how's life?" she asked lightly.

"Somewhat less stressful now I know you are indeed awake," he told her quietly with a barely heard sigh. The corners of Rue's mouth twitched higher as he continued; "Angeal finally reported in a few minutes ago and informed us you awoke before arriving at your destination," he was being formal and non-specific. Ah. He was in public, or at least the base camp, then.

"Sephiroth if you're not going to talk to the brat properly hand it over so I can at least let her know of my displeasure of having to be stuck in this goddess forsaken country during winter. AGAIN," Genesis complained. His voice was muffled a little, though he was obviously close enough for him to at least be able to hear her response. Rue did nothing to disguise her snort of amusement.

"Don't, please, Seph, spare me the melodrama," she jokingly pleaded. She heard a sound of objection, but a nearby explosion cut off any more conversation.

"Rue, we have to-"

"Go, it's fine, be safe guys," she told them before the line went dead. Closing her phone with a snap Rue sighed, she had no doubts they would be fine, but is didn't stop her from worrying and wishing she could change their fates. Wishing she knew how.

"Everything alright?" Angeal startled her out of her melancholy. Glancing over found him in the doorway, watching her carefully.

"Yeah, they called," she told him while raising her PHS up for him to see. Angeal sighed and shook his head.

"After I told them to let you rest," he griped.

"It's fine, Big Guy, the distraction was nice, if short," she assured him with a brief smile. "How goes the outside world?" she asked, changing the subject.

"About as well as can be expected when I'm the least welcome person in the canyon," Angeal told her with good humour. Rue winced and went to apologise automatically, but Angeal waved her off. "Don't worry about it, I'm used to it, I just hope that they don't displace that treatment to you after I leave," he frowned his 'worried for the future' frown.

"Doubtful, from what Rhys managed to over hear from the locals Bugenhagen told everyone the truth and they're all pretty cool with me being here," she told him with a sigh. She wasn't sure how things were going to go after Angeal left, but she doubted it would be whatever he was imagining.

"A truth you won't trust your friends with?" he asked sounding a little hurt. Rue grimaced and growled softly in frustration, he'd lasted more than three minutes this time. That had to be a record.

"It's not that I don't trust you," she repeated for the umpteenth time.

"But it's complicated and you're worried that if I know it'll somehow get back to the science department," he finished flatly. They'd done this dance before and he knew the steps far too well for her usual moves to work. "Still sounds like a trust issue and you know I have more honour than that," he finished tensely. Rue really wanted to throttle him sometimes, he was so stubborn.

"Okay, say I tell you and you understand and then you go back to Shinra, all honourable and happy. Then when you get back Tseng asks you what I told you, alluding that he already knows everything you do, you refuse because, of course you do, and then he makes it an order. You're honour bound to your employer as well Angeal. They have you all by the fucking balls and none of you even see it, you won't, not until it's too late and you're already up shit creek without a paddle and asking, forcing, your friends to put you out of your misery!" Okay. She probably shouldn't have said all that. Rue glared at Angeal heatedly as she breathed heavily from her small, angry, rant. He looked surprised and confused by her words, but more concerned about the way she was leaning forward with a pained look on her face.

"Rue-?" he began with a step forward.

"Just go away, 'Geal, please, I can't-" Rue swallowed the words down and shook her head. I can't watch you all die on me! Refusing to even look up until he'd left the room, Rue let out a shaky breath and stayed hunched over as her head pounded and back ached from the Mako burns. It hurt to think about, the more she sat and stewed the more it played on her mind. That her friends, those sweet, stupid, idiots, were going to crumble in front of her until nothing but a shell remained of them. "Someone, please, tell me how to fix it," she begged the universe, the Planet, her peanut gallery, anyone who would listen. Rue wasn't even entirely sure by what she meant by 'it'. JENOVA? Hojo? The Degradation? All of the above?
The pain in Rue's head got sharper and she groaned in discomfort, holding her head in her hands for a moment before darkness suddenly enveloped her senses.


There was a full moon hanging in the darkened sky above her, it was bright and peaceful, but the place she was in was distorted and hard to make out.
The only thing she was certain of was that she was not in a place of safety.
She felt like she couldn't breath properly, the smell permeating her nose, choking her, was everywhere.
Muffled sounds behind her made her turn sharply.
Nothing.
But when the young Avatar turned back to look at the moon she found herself face to face with the cold face of a woman with one visible red eye, silver hair and blue skin.
That was where 'her' humanoid appearance ended though and the Avatar realised what she was looking at.
JENOVA.
"THEY ARE MINE"
Pain lanced through the Avatar's mind, and then she was alone again, the Calamity was gone.
Other faces appeared out of the darkness around her, as she recovered from the pain.
Faces that reminded her of something she had forgotten.
Something important.
The sound of many legs skittering across the ground at once echoed around her and a dark masculine laugh made the young Avatar's stomach churn.


Rue's eyes snapped open and she managed to lean over the side of her bed before she emptied the contents of her stomach violently. She distantly heard someone call out to her and was aware of someone rubbing her back and handing her a bucket as she leaned back into the pillows piled on her bed. Grimacing Rue mumbled her thanks and apologised to Rhys who was now trying to find something to clean up the mess she'd made. He waved her off and told her it was his job to look after her now. Rue somehow doubted he had thought for a moment that his new job would include cleaning up a sick girl's vomit. She wasn't going to complain though, that dream, or whatever it had been, had been intense, scary and entirely not fun. Hopefully she would not be having more of those.

Pressing the heels of her palms against her tired eyes Rue knew she was just kidding herself, Avatar's did the vision thing, she was quite certain of that, and the constant lack of comments from her peanut gallery the longer she was in Cosmo was making her worry. Whatever had happened all those centuries ago was massive and it had something to do with what JENOVA had done. Lady Squid's words, because Rue was certain that had been JENOVA screeching at her in her brain, in her vision-thing were a worry too.

"Miss?" Rhys brought Rue back to the present. She tiredly glanced over at him as he sat on the bed beside her own, he was watching her like a hawk, he always did, but now he seemed more, something, what Rue was too tired to contemplate over.

"Hey, sorry, tired," she explained with as few words as possible. He nodded and looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure if he should. Rue waved at him to talk, not sure she trusted her still churning stomach not to try and expel the rest of what she had eaten for breakfast.

"I just, I think-" Rhys faltered. Looking uncertainly at her, probably wondering if that moment was a good time for him to be telling her what he thought. Rue sighed and sat up a little, keeping the offered bucket in her lap, just in case.

"Rhys, my name is Rue, not 'miss', I'm not a member of the army, nor am I going to tattle on you if you need to chew me out for anything, though the chance of you also getting chewed out in return is likely. So beware. I'd like to think we're comrades, if not tentative friends, so for the love of all things good. Spit it out," she told him patiently. Rue really wanted to just sleep off the after effects of her vision, and think, and deal, with everything else later.

"We tried to kill each other the day we met," he pointed out with a frown. Rue almost laughed at this.

"Most people try to kill me when I first meet them," she assured him. "I end up friends with most of them too, unless they happen to be insane scientists, then I Blood Bend them into submission, freak out and end up drenched in purified Mako," she joked weakly. While he didn't understand what she meant by 'blood bending', Rhys clearly got the reference and relaxed a little.

"Even Commander Hewley?" he asked curiously.

"Well, not exactly, Genesis was the one trying to kill me that day, but Angeal was there and there was fighting involved," Rue shrugged. "Angeal has that honour thing though, that plus unenhanced teenage girl do not equate to attempted murder," she added as an afterthought. Rhys stared at her for a moment and then started laughing and ended up flopping back onto the bed under him.

"Why won't you tell him what the people of the canyon are saying about you?" he asked after a quiet moment between the pair of them. Rue considered him for a moment, it wouldn't hurt to tell him, it wasn't like he didn't know what was being said after all. The people were less wary of him than they were of Angeal, they wouldn't even talk when he was around according to Rhys. Of course, she wasn't entirely sure what they were saying, all her information in that regard came from the teen laying on the other bed next to her own and most of it was too confusing for him to understand at this point. Something she would have to rectify if he was to be staying with her indefinitely as she suspected he would be.

"Honestly, if he knew, he'd worry about me more than he already does, and he'd tell the other two and then they'd worry. It would distract them and that's the last thing any of them need. The stuff you've been hearing, it barely scratches the surface Rhys, and I have to deal with that, but this isn't something they can help me with, at least not now," she tried to explain. Though Rue was unsure how well she really managed. Rhys was silent for a while, until he slowly pushed himself up to look at her with a thoughtful, and worried, look on his face.

"Can I? Or will I just be in the way?" he asked. His voice was a little lost and it hit Rue that he was likely only around the age she was supposed to be, younger even, and wasn't used to dealing with stuff quite as big as the shit-storm that was her life now. Rue found herself smiling at him encouragingly, the guy had been growing on her the last few days, even though he'd been distant. Probably likely caused by the confusion on how to treat her. She doubted Angeal and the others had been very clear on his role at her side.

"Well, every cool Avatar has their own 'Team Avatar', so I guess you could be the first member of mine?" she offered the tentative verbal olive branch to the confused trooper. He regarded her silently for another moment, it seemed this one was a thinker, Rue was relieved by this, she needed a brain around that worked. Her own could be too unreliable.

"What does a 'Team Avatar' do?" he asked curiously.

"Save the fucking world if pressed," she snorted with amusement. Rhys stared at her a moment before he grinned at her, something she returned, albeit tiredly.

"Sounds fun," he said brightly.

"It's not," she assured him with a sigh. "It's hard, and bloody and people die, and in the end, sometimes, you've lost more than you gained," she told him flatly with closed eyes as she settled back into her pillow pile.

"Is that what will happen to you?" Rhys asked her quietly. Rue felt her jaw tense unbidden, but she didn't open her eyes.

"Probably," she answered just as softly.

"Then I'll try and help you make sure it doesn't," he promised determinedly. Rue just smiled sadly, she'd read, watched and played too many of these stories to know that that promise was probably going to get the dumbass killed. Ah well. She'd just have to train him to be strong enough to survive the coming storm, not that Rue thought that she was strong enough. Not now. But perhaps, she could be, if she finished her training in time.

"Thanks boy wonder," she sighed before falling into a fitful rest.


AN: Well. Shit. I don't have a feasible excuse for how long it took me to get this chapter out other than serious writers block for this particular story and working on my own, original, work. The good news is I have some more solid ideas on Spirit World issues and villain-y-like things for future chapters.
That said, this chapter was not what I had planned it to be, which is why there's no Bugen or Nanaki here. This WILL be rectified next chapter.

I like Rhys, he'll grow into his own during this book and the others to come, he won't be a MASSIVE character, but he is important to Rue's character growth as well as being a good companion for her in the years to come.

Initially I was going to have Rue get another phone call at the end of the chapter, but by the time I got there, I didn't see how it would fit into the overall tone, so held it back for the next chapter along with the amusing outcome of said phone call. So look forward to that.

I would like to take a moment to address one of the guest reviews I've received, mainly because it's a guest, so I can't privately.
You mention that Rue is an adult, this is true, but an adult who has never been in many of these situations before and has little information on the whole situation she's found herself in, isn't always going to react as well as we would like. Book Two is where a lot of Rue's character development will occur, she's away from Shinra and the boys and has some serious shit to think about now she has the time to.
Yes, Rue has had some hand to hand combat training by the Wusheng and passed that limited training, but she, as a person, isn't comfortable getting close to her opponents and prefers ranged attacks. That's part of who she is, right now, however, her Earth Bending training will help her over come this slightly irrational phobia. Proper, regular, 'close combat' with Rue won't really happen until Book Three however, when she begins training with a different weapon obtained during this Book. Also her stint in Shinra Tower halted much of her training, as the only thing she could actually practice with was her water bending. All her other gear and weapons were confiscated, so she could hardly practice and with who? The three dudes who could break her in half if they wanted to? Because Rue would totally be up for rolling around on the floor with- oh. Yeah she'd be WAAAAY to awkward after even thinking about that shit lol. She's still in denial after all.

I hope that clears up a few things for you.

I'll try to not vanish for so long next time, I have a bad habit of that around November, mainly because of NaNo, and end up focusing on my own original writing for a few months afterwards.

So, now, with that said, I would like to thank everyone for the reviews, faves and alerts, they make me so happy!

Until next time,

RLK