Humour and Sylph this chapter.
Anyway, I thought I'd get this next one up quickly as I'll be unable to write the next couple of days. Plus this fanfic seems to be easy to write some of the time.
In advance, sorry for the shameless reference to another one of my stories. (I'm not telling you which one! Hee hee).
Let me know if I make any naming mistakes. For the first part of the story I thought of Lightning and co. by their alternate names, and I did accidentally call Dajh 'Katz' a couple of times. I think I fixed most of them, but let me know if I haven't.
Enjoy!
Lightning knocked on the door again, standing ahead of the rest of the group: Sazh with Dajh, Snow with Serah, and Hope just behind her. Lightning looked back at them before, once more, knocking on the door.
"They're coming," the Sylph who'd helped them for the last five hundred or so years appeared with a flash in front of her. "Give them a chance," the fal'Cie smiled before vanishing again. A few reddish sparks were visible for a split second once the diamond had faded.
"You're back then, huh?" Fang opened the door, looking at the arrivals.
"We haven't left you once in the last five hundred years," Lightning replied, voice harsh, eyes soft, "We're not going to start now."
"We've got gifts!" Sazh called from the back.
"Gifts?" Vanille's head popped up over Fang's shoulder.
"Of course!" Dajh called, jumping and turning, darting around his father, to three velocycles parked a little distance from the house. He lifted a person-sized grey canvas bag from next to one, heaving it over the bike and dragging it towards the two Gran Pulsians. He moved it just past the last bike before giving up, and delicately opening the sack.
First, he withdrew a, slightly rusted, long, red spear.
"We found this I the ruins of Eden, thought you'd want it back," Dajh shrugged, "Sorry it's not in better condition. Anyway, guess what was wrapped around it?"
Dajh reached into the bag, taking out a Y-shaped rod, one that looked like an antler. There were a few strings attached to the top.
"There's a good lake for fishing around here," Dajh chuckled, giving the spear and rod to Lightning, who then gave it to Fang and Vanille.
"I hope we're not going to find a use for those again," Lightning said, giving the two, ancient, weapons to the ex-l'Cie.
"Not just that!" Dajh called as everyone began to walk in, "Dad didn't tell any of you because he wasn't sure it'd work, but he fixed it with the help of our good old Sylph," Dajh smiled, peeling down the zips of the bag, around a cardboard box, a rough cube, with height similar to a human's, from foot to knee.
Careful, Dajh knelt down, gently opening the cardboard box. He used his nails to cut down the tape at the sides, until the box lay flat on the ground, the net of the shape, with its contents standing proudly in the middle. It was a grey rock, split in two halfway down, carved roughly into the shape of a cube.
"Wait, that's not-" Dajh whirled onto the chuckling Sazh
"Sorry Dajh, I didn't trust you lugging him around. He's in the house, the key's in there," Sazh pointed to the two blocks of stone.
Dajh chuckled, shaking his head, as he pushed the top block of stone off of the lower. A small, silver key glinted in a small gap. Nodding, Dajh scooped up the key, running over to the house after.
"May I come in?" he bowed in a mock-formal manner.
"Go on Fang!" Vanille hopped, "I want to see the present!"
"Why not?" the black haired Gran Pulsian shrugged, stepping back to allow Dajh access. The other friends followed.
Sazh quickly walked ahead of Dajh, guiding his child up the stairs and to the left, then back down a small corridor to a tiny locked room.
Dajh knelt down to unlock the door. Sazh stood just above him, to the side, with Fang and Vanille at the head of the small audience massing in the corridor. The other members of the crowd, Serah, Lightning, Hope and Snow, stood just behind the two Gran Pulsians.
With a click, the door unlocked, swinging back as Dajh hopped out the way.
In the room was a small machine. Its main body was a cube, a reddish brown streaked with rust, with several lights and patterns along its sides. Two binocular-like lenses protruded from the top, peering around and eventually focusing on Vanille. The machine beeped, the metal rabbit-ear-like things sticking out from above the 'eyes' waggled back and forth, knocking a long, thin aerial on the machine.
"Bhakti!" Vanille gasped, kneeling down and scrambling close to her old mechanical pet.
"That's good engineering," Sazh muttered, "It's lasted a thousand years. Well, with my tinkering it has."
"Thanks Sazh!" Vanille quickly stood up, hugging the old man.
"Hope you don't mind," Sazh spoke, once Vanille released him, "It's still mostly the old Bhakti, mostly the same old parts, though we did install something extra."
"Watch," Dajh added, kneeling down next to the pet. He fiddled a little between the machine's eyes, until there was a brief pulse of light, and an image was projected into the air.
It was a map. The two Gran Pulsians recognized it by the shape of the land and the rough layout of the towns. Gran Pulse. There were a few labelled towns, with red areas denoting the original Gran Pulse cities. Several zones were greyed out, and a key identified them as the 'fal'Cie havens', areas where the fal'Cie lived, not interfering with human affairs. The white areas were the Cocoon settlements: New Oerba, Sunleth Lake, Palum and Polum, two cities presumably derived from Palumpolum, split in half by the fal'Cie haven in the Faultwarrens.
"What's that then?" Fang pointed to a bluish area, around the size of a town, in the centre of the map.
"Let's see," Hope stepped in, "CrystalPoint. You should know it well; that's where the pillar holding Cocoon up is."
"I'm sure the crystal was never that big."
"It isn't; people aren't allowed in the surrounding area, for obvious reasons. Not that anyone wants to; if they accidently break the pillar, the fall of Cocoon will destroy the whole of Cocoon and most of Pulse, oops, Gran Pulse."
"Just hope no one tries," their Sylph appeared with a flash, drifting and sitting down onto Bhakti.
"Don't worry," Lightning smiled (to Vanille's astonishment), "There are no Maker obsessed fal'Cie anywhere near it. Though there are some fal'Cie," Lightning pointed to a little grey circle just below the blue area. "That's where the Sylph live, mostly, when they aren't all buzzing around in our cities."
The Sylph gave her a strange look from atop Bhakti.
"The Sylph," it began, voice abnormally deep, before it shook its head, leaves fluttering. "Never mind," it suddenly squeaked, hopping up. Shaking, maybe even shivering, the Sylph hopped up and vanished yet again, with a diamond flash of light.
The Sylph's departure hailed a silence for a few seconds. Fang juggled her spear, before resting on a stand in the wall, along with Vanille's binding rod. A few more seconds ticked slowly by.
"Got to go," Hope eventually spoke up, "Need to see Asura in a few minutes," he patted down his own jacket, soon taking out a tiny pouch. "She said to give you this," he said, giving the brown bag, just a few centimetres in size, to Vanille. Nodding, smiling, Hope ran down the staircase, leaving the house.
Carefully, Vanille gently pulled a string on the pouch, opening the tiny bag. She took out two things; one was a small silver brooch, adorned with a sapphire, while the other was a bracelet, the decoration on the top of the bracelet with a tiny jade stone in, with the main and of the bracelet made up of metal segments that snapped into shape.
"Thanks Hope!" Vanille called, giving the brooch to Fang, and slipping the bracelet onto her own wrist.
Fang examined the brooch for a moment, taking in the pattern. It resembled how Cocoon looked; a sapphire representing the world itself, with silver metal around it, shaped like the crystal, moving down, tapering to a point. Fang clipped it to the part of her sari that went over her shoulder.
"Who's Asura?" Vanille tilted her head.
"Hope's girlfriend," Lightning replied.
"Girlfriend?" Vanille gasped in response, a sentiment echoed by Fang.
"You were expecting a boyfriend?" Lightning said, somewhat amused
Vanille didn't reply.
"Nah," Fang took advantage of the seconds long break, "We just though you and him had something special, Light," Fang rested one hand on Lightning's shoulder.
"Magazines," Lightning murmured, annoyed and speaking through pursed lips. "I thought I destroyed every copy of that one," She sighed, exasperated.
Lightning turned around.
"Don't look at me, sis," Snow shrugged, "It was Serah."
"I know, but she's my sister and I'd rather blame you," Lightning replied
The once-pinkish haired woman took a menacing step towards Snow.
"Is Lightning…making a joke?" Vanille stage-whispered to Fang
"Don't bet on it!" Snow called, backing away. Serah sidestepped away from her fiancée, giggling a little.
There was a tense silence spanning half a minute as Lightning glared at Snow. Sylph reappeared with a flash, as if to watch the fiasco. Slowly, Lightning took one step closer before, smiling a little, looking back at Fang and Vanille.
"You know what, I won't hit him this time," Lightning said, to a sigh of relief from Snow, "Go back to the magazines," Lightning continued, "Look at who they pair Snow up with."
Serah had a suppressed fit of laughter at that remark: she bought the magazines, she was the best acquainted with what was in them.
"Lightning turned down an opportunity to hit Snow?" Vanille whispered, shocked, "Things have changed."
"Sure have," Fang nodded.
Bhakti barked once, shutting down his holographic screen in the moments that followed.
"Speaking of things changing," Vanille leered at Snow and Serah, "What about you two? Come on! I want to know!" Vanille was practically jumping up and down.
"Complicated," Snow sighed, "Very complicated."
"Can't be too complicated if you can wrap your head around it," Lightning muttered to herself.
"I heard that!" Snow replied, "We got married in one of the first ceremonies down on Pulse, but then Serah was the first back into crystal stasis, and when we woke up, earlier this month, it turns out our marriage license was revoked, a whole new system now."
"Could've just asked," Lightning mumbled. She looked at Fang and Vanille, "There are a couple of people in the government who know who we really are, they give us jobs and identities whenever we wake up. Those two could've just asked for an updated marriage license, but, no…"
"Huh?" Vanille turned, "Why not?"
Serah smiled shyly, "A few reasons. Partly for Alexi, but-"
"Wait, Alexi?" Fang interrupted, a little tired of all the new names.
"I'm a dad!" Snow cheered in response, before his voice turned tender, "She was seven months old a hundred years ago."
"She's five now, we were there as she grew up, we wouldn't have it any other way. We wanted her to be there if we have to get married again."
"Not just that," Snow grinned.
"Why then?" Fang groaned.
Quietly, Serah stepped forwards taking two slips of paper from Snow as she moved towards the two Gran Pulsians.
"Vanille, Fang," she smiled, "We'd like you to come to our wedding."
X
Roxy lay down; she'd just finished her shopping for the day, she deserved a break. Back home, she collapsed onto the nearest chair. It was hard to move anywhere out in public; there'd been no official media looking for her, but plenty of the other people out there had seen her picture in a magazine, or some such thing. Apparently some of them had seen Sheri too, but invariably, something got in the way. With all the people mobbing her in the streets, asking for autographs or whatever, wanting to know what it felt like overseeing the release of the Chosen, well, it was a wonder she had any energy left.
"Tired?" a voice chimed. With a flash, a Sylph appeared, sitting down on the empty air just in front of her face.
"I own a door," Roxy sighed, rolling her eyes back
"Who needs doors?" the Sylph shrugged, hopping up and twirling in the air, leaves fluttering. "We've got Light."
"I've got lights too," Roxy shrugged, amused by the tiny fal'Cie's antics, "They don't warp me from place to place."
"Light, not lights. The Light that is all places."
"I'll take your word for it," Roxy sat up straighter, watching the Sylph land on a lampshade next to her armchair. Roxy breathed gently for a little while longer, still recovering from her journey.
"I would like your opinion on something," the Sylph spoke up, voice taking on a different tone, "Would you believe Barthendelus was an idiot?"
"Wouldn't everyone?" Roxy laughed,
"I know," the Sylph squeaked again, "So self-defeating, so many threads, but he cut off every one, save for the last. When that failed, he had nothing," the Sylph sighed.
"Not," a new Sylph appeared, joining the discussion
"Like," a third Sylph appeared with a flash, bobbing towards Roxy
"Us," a fourth Sylph almost shouted the word, breathing heavily as it moved across the room.
"So many," each word was spoken by a different Sylph, as many flashed into the room, "So many of us, each with different ideas. Some succeed, some do not. But in the end, we are everywhere, and we are everything."
Once the split-speech was concluded, a flock of Sylph, one for each word, were floating around the room. Roxy, a little worried now, sank deeper into her chair, as the first Sylph to arrive separated itself from the mass gathering, gently stopping in front of her eyes.
"You forgot us," it whispered, almost accusing.
There was a blinding flash, any observer would say it was shaped like a diamond. Each edge of the shape, two square based pyramids joined by the bottom, was several metres long, though the shape itself was almost blurred. It was as if the diamond wasn't the real image, just an aspect of an aspect, of something much greater. The diamond was blurred out by a soft, shimmering haze.
The diamond winked out of existence, taking the softly shining mist, and the room was empty.