Reducere Familia – To Lead Back Family
Sephiroth looked at Weiss intently, "I'm not going to lie to you, it will be a difficult and dangerous mission, you're leaving tonight, this mission is dangerous and it requires an elite team. The members I've assigned to you are still young as are you but we need the older staff here to keep the peace."
Weiss nodded looking behind him, Zack and Daniel were standing behind him, "so it's just us four sir?"
"Yes, we're going on our own, under the pretense of a training mission," Sephiroth replied. Crouched behind a stack of crates sat Ariella and Nero watching the group intently.
"You know what this means Ari?" Nero asked.
"They're going after Angeal…" she muttered.
He nodded, "yeah, and they're gonna leave us behind… again."
She sighed, "we're sick of being left out of everything… the last time they left Angeal never came back. Neither of us will let that happen again!"
Nero nodded watching the SOLDIERs springing to a salute, he leaped over the crates, Ariella blinked running after him, "Nero!"
"Hey we're coming too!" He shouted running up to the line.
She grinned joining him, "and you'll have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us!"
"Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission… quest… thing!" Nero added.
Ariella laughed, "Well that rules Zack out."
The SOLDIER glared at them, "hey!"
Sephiroth watched them, "what makes you two think that you can join us on a mission of this caliber?"
"Nero's an awesomely strong fighter and we're no slouch," Ariella glared at Sephiroth sternly.
The Commander watched them for a moment; Ariella was his best bet at convincing Angeal to come back. Nero would keep her company, what was he thinking? Taking little kids on a dangerous mission, but that look in their eyes, "Fair was this your idea?"
Zack shook his head, "no sir! I didn't even know they were in the room!"
Sephiroth nodded, "alright then… let's get ready to roll out."
Ariella tugged at the hem of Sephiroth's coat, "there's someone else I want to bring along too!"
Sephiroth raised his eyebrow, "who?"
An hour later they were standing around in the First Class Medical Wing, "come on please?" Ariella pleaded.
Of all the people they could be visiting, Dante Kobold, the former SOLDIER First Class and Restrictor was sitting in a medical bed glaring at Ariella, "why should I help any of you? Three of you committed insubordination under my rule, and the other two don't look very bright."
Nero and Weiss looked at each other, they'd spent years under the tyranny of the Restrictors so why was Ariella inviting one to join them? Sephiroth raised an eyebrow; he hadn't expected Ariella to want him. Zack was clenching his fist at the insult he been dealt, Daniel had his hand on Zack's shoulder restraining him.
"Please, remember what happened when you fought Angeal? Don't you want to give some payback? If you don't come with us then you may never get another chance to get him back for it." Ariella replied cunningly.
Dante closed his mako blue eyes running a hand through his brown hair, "for the love of Ifrit I can't believe I'm about to say this but… If you'll stop looking at me like some damn hopeless puppy then I'll go with you."
Ariella nodded, "alright then!" She stood up off of the bed and scampered out of the room grinning.
Dante looked out the window as the group left, "what's going through your head, Master?" He watched the clouds rolling through the sky, "it was nearly five years ago wasn't it? Time flies…" he leaned back against the pillows before kicking himself out of bed grabbing his clothes off of the chair and changing out of his hospital gown. He slid his twin gunblades through the special holster on the back of his black and electric blue lined jacket and walked out of the room, the sound of boots fading as he left down the hall.
A few hours later the mismatched crew of warriors stood in the armory gathering up any sort of things they still needed, Sephiroth watched as Nero selected some guns, typically frowned upon in SOLDIER however he had heard Nero had been trained on them in Deepground. Zack, Daniel, and Weiss loaded up on their claymores and armor. Dante was leaning against the wall looking completely unconcerned about anything. Ariella stood by the weapons rack examining the entire selection, she eyed them all closely before walking over to a bolted door, "what's in here?"
"Nothing, just some old weapons from the early days of Shin-Ra, why? You seriously weren't thinking of trying one of them?" Sephiroth replied.
Ariella nodded, "none of the weapons here are suitable so we wish to go into there." Sephiroth shrugged, he removed the bolt and flicked on the lights, she walked briskly to the very back of the room to a rather unusual nodachi, the handle looked like a long dragon's neck with the pommel as the head. The hand guard was the wings and forearms; the sheath covered the rest of the body. The handle looked to be covered in dust too.
"Ari that weapon's way too big for you," Nero had poked his head in watching. "Not to mention it's all old and crappy, get something cool like a gunblade or something!"
She glanced back before grabbing the sword and strapping it to her back through the thin cord. Sephiroth watched her, "Ariella that sword is so disused that it's rusted into the sheath. Even I can't get it out. Get something else and let's go."
Ariella shook her head and walked out with the hunk of junk sword, Sephiroth shook his head, and they had no time to waste anymore. The airship would be leaving with or without them soon. "Alright then, be it on your own head kid, let's roll out."
The group left the armory and headed out to the airship platform, Ariella nearly fell over trying to look at the massive ship. Nero grabbed her by the sword, "cool isn't it? It's an airship; I still find it pretty sweet to see one of these things fly! I've never ridden on one before!"
Weiss picked his little brother up onto his shoulders, "see I kept my promise, we get to ride on an airship."
Nero grinned, "yep! You're the best big brother!" He wrapped his arms around Weiss's head and buried his face in the SOLDIER's white blond hair.
Ariella watched them all the way up the gangplank to the deck of the airship. She glanced past them to see Daniel and Zack joking about something or another. She was still watching the airship wearily, Dante glanced at her for a moment glaring before continuing up the plank, Sephiroth had led the group up and was now inside. She sighed and started to walk up.
"Ari! Ari! Wait!" Came a faint cry, she spun around to find Kai sprinting to her, "wait… I… want… to… give… you… something…"
"Kai? What is it?" She asked putting a hand on her shoulder.
He looked up at her, "my… lucky charm…" he pulled out what looked like a small glowing black rock.
She took it and wrapped her arms around him, "thank you Kai. Promise you'll behave and protect the place in our stead?"
He nodded smiling, "you got it sister! You come back safe, promise?"
She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his, "promise. We must go, you get inside." He hugged her back.
They broke apart, Ariella charged up the gangplank and Kai retreated to the door watching the airship fire off its engines and take off. "You better come back in one piece or I'll never forgive you!" He shouted before running back inside as the airship vanished into the setting sun.
However not all was going well on the airship, the engines worked fine, the mechanics all in top shape, nothing was wrong with the ship. The problem lay with Ariella; she locked herself in the lavatory throwing up. Zack and Nero stood around outside, "is she okay?" Nero asked looking up at Zack.
Zack shrugged, "oy Ari knock once for yes I'm fine and twice for no I'm not fine."
Two hard thuds came through the door.
Nero watched the door concerned, "hey Ari you sure you don't want me to come in there?"
Two more raps on the door deterred the twelve year old from opening the door. Daniel walked up nervously, "um I have some medicine if that would help."
The door opened slightly and Ariella stuck her head out watching Daniel for a moment, he held out a small bag of powdered Yerba Mansa roots. He mixed up some of the powdered root with some water in a cup and handed it to her. She sniffed it and drank it, "thank you… we used to use this all the time to help with our stomach…." She muttered still feeling nauseous.
"No problem, my family was all a bunch of doctors so I'm happy to help where I can," Daniel smiled at her, mako glowing brown eyes softening.
"We'll be outside if you need us though… some fresh air should help…" she muttered heading for the deck.
Nero watched her for a moment before starting to jog after her, when Weiss put his hand down on his younger brother's shoulder. "Wait Nero," he whispered.
"Why? I want to help Ariella," Nero huffed determined.
Weiss sighed running a hand through his white hair, "it's hard to explain… it's technically impossible for someone who has mako in their system to get airsick. Right now she's got more of a psychological illness."
"What does that mean?" Nero asked his brother clinging to his arm.
"It means that she still misses Angeal, the stress all these events is probably taking its toll on Ariella, I'd say let her get some air and sleep," Weiss replied before ruffling Nero's hair, "which reminds me, we need to get you to sleep too, if this ship crashes it's where we want to be when it happens."
"But I'm not sle-sleepy," Nero yawned.
Weiss shook his head, "of course not, now let's get you to bed my little sleepyhead of a brother."
"Aww but I wanna talk to Ari! Besides if I gotta to go to sleep then she should too!" Nero whined.
Weiss sighed, "Nero could you try acting your age?"
"Sorry… I'm just worried about her is all…" he muttered.
Weiss smiled ruffling Nero's hair again, "you can talk in the morning. For now get some rest, we'll be on the Western Continent when you wake up."
Nero glared at him indignantly, "but what if I wake up before that?"
"Then you wake up before we get there," Weiss shrugged as he ushered Nero into a cabin and into a bed.
Nero sighed and clambered under the covers and gazed at the waxing Gibbous moon out the window. "Hey Weiss… I gotta question…"
"Fire away," Weiss replied from where he was staring at the ceiling.
Nero swallowed a little, "I think I like Ari…"
"Well that's a good thing, it's pretty hard to be someone's friend if you don't like them," Weiss laughed a little.
Nero rolled over to glare at Weiss, pupils narrowing slightly, "I mean I like like Ari."
Weiss turned his head, eyebrows up, "hmm… interesting, so what's the question?"
"How do I tell if she likes me back?" Nero asked sounding hopeful.
Weiss shrugged, "ah my wonderful little brother, women are a language men are not meant to understand."
"What does that mean?" Nero puzzled.
"It's something men aren't meant to get, simple as that, though when we get to Cosmo Canyon I'll help you out with telling if she likes you," Weiss grinned at his younger brother. "After all love's something no man is able to avoid forever."
Nero grinned at Weiss, "sweet thanks Weiss! Now let's get some sleep! Tomorrow's going to rock!" He rolled over and looked out the window listening to the snoring of his brother before he too drifted off to sleep.
A/N Yerba Mansa
is a plant that grows near rivers and smells like garlic, it's a
Native American remedy for stomachaches and fevers when ground up and
made into a tea. Oh and check out my profile to see what song I was
listening to when I write a chapter! BP if you caught the
LotR reference!