Noctis rolled to dodge a strong punch that landed on the ground and split the earth around it. The opponent's glove lit several different colors. "Prince Noctis! Just listen to me! One of your companions! They –" Her protest was cut of by a quick jab from another one of Noctis' travel companions.
A deep chuckle was heard from the prince. "Why would I listen to someone whose attacking me?! My cause is just! You're the ones attacking!"
The dark haired woman pulled her arm back for another strong punch after skillfully dodging a swipe from a blade. Her arm flew forward at a blurring speed; only to be stopped by the broadside of a huge greatsword. As the dust settled around the small scuffle, Cloud appeared through it with a smirk while adjusting his gloves, his coat tail being picked up by a small gust of wind. "Move along, Tifa. Your companion has been defeated."
Her caramel eyes fell onto Lightning, who held a fist full of ebony feathers. Her voice carried with a smug tone. "Looks like he couldn't handle the storm." Her eyes widened before smirking and chuckling lightly. "Cloud? Can we please start calling ourselves the storm?"
He chuckled as he folded his arms in an intimidating manner. "Hell yeah. Makes sense. Clouds and lightning strikes. Only leads to one thing. If we add Noctis to our little group we'll really be menacing."
Prompto stared at the duo as the attacker began to retreat. "Guys… She's getting away." He flashed his sapphire eyes towards the fleeing party and snapped a picture of her.
Lightning cleared her throat and threw a handful of materia onto Cidney's table. "With this, you can do far more than you could with any nuts or bolts. Looks like our "friends" have got some serious resources behind them."
Cidney eyed the four shiny balls as she calculated the possible strength of this new material. "I want the feathers too."
Shifting her weight to one of her hips, Lightning gave a stern stare. "No way. These are my trophies. Never faced a winged man before."
Sighing in slight defeat, the young blonde mechanic pulled her hair back. "Very well. I'll fix her up. But, she's a one of a kind! You can't keep neglecting her like that!" The pink haired woman nodded and walked out of the shop and stood next to Cloud quietly talking with him.
Cloud hushed Lightning and cocked his head up slightly before turning and running towards Noctis with Lightning not far behind him.
The prince blinked a couple of times, everything seemed to feel as if it was happening in slow motion. All the shouts seemed to be muffled. He could feel himself being pulled from behind before being grabbed up into Cor's arms and shielded.
Closing his eyes slowly, he reopened them to hear screaming from nearby patrons and his group. He locked eyes with Cor who was staring at him. Choking up slightly, he drew in a deep breath and whispered. "Listen to the crystals, be good. Don't let your fathers name fall." Noctis' eyes began to sting as he surveyed they area to see Lightning pulling the large ballista shot from Cor's back.
His eyes focused towards Cloud to see a clean, through and through of his chest, with the suspected L'Cie holding onto it. The blonde lifted his tired gaze from the massive arrow shaped projectile and made true eye contact with Noctis, mouthing: "This is not the end of me…"
Noctis felt himself grow heavy when Cor was full released. They fell to the ground as Cloud pulled himself off the medieval projectile. Cradling his companion in his lap Noctis could feel his body go numb. 'This is reality. This is the journey I face. Here are the losses I am meant to face… Will this be the fate of any who…' His musings were stopped as a loud cough was heard and Cloud fell to the ground.
Cloud held his chest and groaned as he sat up. "Oh damn."
Lightning came running out with Cidney. Searching the immediate area for a way to help, the young girl grabbed a materia ball and shoved it into Cloud's chest. "I read somewhere that might work."
Prompto shrieked in horror at the mechanic's actions. "You can't just shove crap into people's chest, he's not a car! Where has that thing even been?! Is it even clean?!"
The blond gasped for air as he fell over in a heap in front of the small crowd, curling himself into the fetal position screaming in agony. An older man stormed around the side of the garage yelling. "What is all the commotion about?!" He stopped dead in tracks when he saw the scene of carnage. He gasped slightly when his eyes landed on Cloud. "No… it couldn't be." He rushed over to his granddaughter and the strangers. "What did you do?"
Cidney shrugged. "Shoved some weird glowing ball in his chest."
Rolling the writhing male over onto his back, Cid started checking vital signs. He tore the shirt from Cloud's chest. "Materia?! Where did you get ahold of this?! This material has been missing for over 300 years!" He looked up at his grandchild and scoffed covering her eyes, while applying pressure to the wound with his free hand. "Give the man some respect!" His eyes took in the scene as he pointed to the arrow. "Tell me that's not what did this."
Lightning sat next to him. "We have suffered a casualty."
His green eyes glanced up to the mysterious woman as he released pressure off of Cloud's wound to reveal nothing more than a scar. "I will see to the care of his remains. For now. We'll fix up that car of yours and get you out of here. I can't have you troublemakers losing me business!"
-x-
Noctis sat in the office of the mechanic's shop holding his shoulders. "It all happened so fast… yet… so slowly at the same time." His eyes fell onto a wall of pictures. What seemed like the same man was in every one. The same tall blonde man with piercing green eyes.
A cup of coffee was set in front of the prince as Cid rounded his desk. "I believe it. I'll make sure Cor gets the respect his remains deserve. I've got a friend in the memorial service over in Zanarkand. Ever been? Huge city full of lights, they haven't even bothered with any of this crystal junk we seem to be squabbling about."
Noctis pointed to the pictures. "Are all of these you?"
The older man laughed and shook his head. "Not me, but the name Cid and the looks of my great great great… well, you get the idea. Our family is a prominent one, and we all seem to be machine savvy. Cidney is the first girl born to us."
The ebony haired man nodded and continued to look at all the pictures. Two in particular stood out to him. A similar man to Cid stood next to Lightning and a group of unfamiliar people with a few different looking machines behind them. All of them smiling save for Lightning, with Cid with a thumbs up. His eyes fell to a picture further away. It was a picture of Cloud standing with another similar man who had his hands on his hips. Another group of strangers surrounded them, but he recognized the woman with long brown hair as his attacker.
Taking a deep breath Noctis fell back into his chair and lifted the cup as a loud, mechanical roaring was heard from the garage. Cid smirked as he spoke. "Guess that means you'll be outta my hair soon." He stared out of the large glass window at the fully recovered Cloud and sighed. 'An L'Cie? He had the mark. He must have been saved for some purpose.'
A/N: The story never ended, just no one showed any interest in it, so I may have sorta stopped writing it, but for you: I will persevere and continue it! :)
