Vita et Morte – Life and Death
While Sephiroth was chasing after Zack and Weiss, inside of the mansion Ariella choked,(it hurts… why does it hurt?) She tilted her head back staring up at the sky, "(A…Ang…Angeal…)" A lone white feather drifted out of the sky; she smiled slightly, "(A…Angeal... this one's sorry… it doesn't look like we'll get to see you Dad.)"
"Ari…" came a ghostly voice, "you can't give up just yet, you have to fight on. I'm counting on you. After all you're my pride, and you have your pride as a lion warrior am I right?"
"I… can't… do this… I'm not a full warrior… when you came for me I wasn't a full warrior… I never fulfilled the ceremony of the warrior…" She muttered back.
"It's okay, it doesn't matter if you're a warrior or not, what matters is your pride and your dreams, if you have those then you can win," he replied.
"I can't do this alone..." she sighed feeling her body surrounded by warmth.
"Yeah you can't but we can, just leave this to me kid" Came a mirthful reply, "After all a phoenix will always rise from the ashes no matter how many times it dies. We're of the same blood as the immortal bird, now pull that toothpick out of our chest and let's get ready to kick his ass"
Ariella's hand rose up and clenched the sword so hard it snapped, she freed herself from the wall watching Nate intently from behind, her wounds releasing a fresh wave of blood, as her hair started to get redder all the way around. She watched him, her right eye regrowing back into place, pupil narrowing on contact with Nate's face. Three long feathers started to protrude from the back of her head eventually forming into elliptically shaped trains of feathers each one possessing an eye spot in it. Ariella's body glowed fiery reddish gold, wounds healing, as a fourth feathery tail emerged to join the first three. Two pitch black angel wings protruded from her back.
Nate stopped cold, the temperature had shot up by twenty degrees, he whirled around to see Ariella looking very much alive smirking at him, hair a mix of reds and golds. "Impossible…. Who are you! What are you!"
"Among humans there is a legend that the phoenix rises from the ashes no matter how many times it is slain, well they were right. I am Adarna, nice to meet you, time to beat you," she smirked as thin tendrils of flames wrapped around her forearms.
Nate spat on the ground, "fuck you, I don't care about stories, I knew I should have stabbed you through the heart."
Adarna laughed running a hand through her iridescent hair, "feh, I've been watching you for a long time Nate Jackson, and now you're gonna pay for everything you've done to Ariella." She disappeared from Nate's field of vision for a moment; she reappeared behind him holding both of his arms behind his body with her foot slamming his head into the ground. "This was for the first time you ever touched her." Two long black spiked chains emerged from the flames wrapped around her arms, she kicked Nate's head pulling up on his arms dislocating them.
He growled lifting her up into the air telekinetically. He leaped up into the air before he flew forward, blood spraying over Adarna's face, his psychic hold broke, she fell to the ground seeing the prone form of Nate lying there. She relinquished her possession of Ariella's body, all of the signs she had been there disappearing, black hair replaced most of Ariella's and she had lost the feathered tails along with her wings. She gazed up at the balcony of the second floor seeing someone in red and black standing there, smoke drifting out of the barrel of a gun. Vincent Valentine brought the gun to his lips blowing away the residual smoke placing it in the holster on his leg.
He leaped off of the balcony landing on the floor in front of her, "my apologies for being late, I could not find suitable clothing."
She tilted her head to the side, "what were you wearing before?"
A faint blush tinted his cheeks, "we should go."
She nodded and walked over to the door holding it open for Vincent, he stepped through waiting for Ariella for a moment. "We should hurry…" He muttered.
"The reactor! We sense Angeal up there!" Ariella shouted suddenly.
Vincent spun around, "we won't make in time if we walk, Chaos can you help?"
A moment later he vanished in a shroud of darkness revealing the demonic looking Chaos standing there. Fangs poking out from behind tan lips, golden eyes studying Ariella. A crown of red spikes jutted from his forehead, and his black hair had also spiked back. His torso appeared to be a face of some beast, his chest made up the eyes, one red, the other glowing blue from the large piece of materia in it. Three long grey triangles formed the teeth, they made an even harsher contrast due to his lower torso being black. Both of his calves were covered in a mess of spikes, stopping at the four pointed star knee guards. His boots had a wicked recurved edge on the tips, matching his sizable claws on both hands. His red wings lay folded behind him as he stepped forward a little, kneeling down placing both clawed hands on her shoulders. "You're Adarna's host, I want to talk to her face to face."
Ariella stared awkwardly at the ground closing her eyes, her red hair returned along with the feather tails, chains, and wings. Adarna gazed up at Chaos for a long moment, she flung herself onto him sobbing, "I missed you… I thought you died…" She leaned forward kissing his cheek.
"Shh… we'll have time to make up for this later, right now I sense great evil in the mountains," Chaos whispered into her ear gently running his long fingers through her hair, he really did wish they could continue but they had something important to deal with first.
She wiped her nose off on a part of her arm that wasn't covered by chains, "yeah… I think it's the Calamity."
Both spread their wings flying off into the night sky and the imposing mountain range. They circled the reactor as they watched the fighting, in the back of Adarna's mind she could hear Ariella shouting at the top of her lungs for Adarna to stop the fight. She nodded at Chaos before sending one of the chains down wrapping around the combatants' weapons, "HOLD EVERYTHING!"
Sephiroth glared up at her, Genesis had a mildly amused expression on, Angeal's mixture of shock and relief showed through, and Dante still had his smirk on. Adarna nose-dived keeping the group secure sending her other chain to wrap around Sephiroth securely so he didn't try anything, she pulled the chains securely. She landed on the flat of the Buster Sword, "Angeal, glad to see you're alive and in one piece, you're in a shit load of trouble young man. Genesis, nice to finally meet you. Dante, been a while since we met, and it would seem the General needs to get his head on straight. Weiss, Zack, you two doing okay?" The silence was resounding, she laughed retracting the chain binding Dante in but kept it wrapped around Genesis and Angeal. "Neither of you are going anywhere, I have something to take care of in there first."
She walked up the stairs, the chains extending as she walked away, leaving everyone confused and silent. Angeal stared at his bound hands then back at the wings sprouting from his back. He knew this would never work, it was all over now, and they would be taken back to Shin-Ra and executed for high treason. He flexed his wing for a moment, where was Ariella? He had no idea if she was alive or dead or if she was even along on this trip. "I'm sorry Ariella…" he muttered. A moment later he felt someone kick him in the shins hard, he yelped, "OW!"
Sephiroth stood there, face once again looking like that of a sane man, well as much as Sephiroth's face could look sane. His eyes had lost their intense mako glow of a few minutes ago but a glower of fury had replaced that. "You are the biggest idiot I have ever met in my entire life!"
Angeal winced, "General let me explain."
"I already told you, you can save your explanation for the one who needs to hear it, namely Ariella," Sephiroth replied, "you and Genesis have always been closer to each other then I could hope to be to you two. You never let me in on anything… I suppose I'm used to living in the dark. But that gives you no right to do that to Ariella."
Angeal winced, he remembered when he broke into the Shin-Ra building with Genesis and she just stood there silently sobbing her eyes out. He bit his lower lip gazing at the ground. He felt the chains around his wrists slackening; he realized that even though each link had a pair of wicked three inch long spikes protruding from it none of them had ever pierced his skin. He stuck the Buster Sword into the ground, as he extracted his hands nicking himself on the spines. The sound of footsteps caught everyone's attention as Chaos accompanied down the stairs of the reactor by Adarna, both licking the blood of each other's talons.
The SOLDIERs hastily readied for combat Adarna just smirked at them, "You can chill out, we're on your side, name's Adarna. I'm Ariella's other half." She waved at them a little jostling the chain.
Angeal blinked, that meant that his daughter had just let some stranger lick some blood, he had no idea whose, off of her fingers. "You're in trouble… and you, young man," he turned his glare to Chaos. As a parent he had a right to know who his daughter's other personality was hanging around with.
"Time out, the name is Chaos, Adarna and I aren't doing anything so strange, what would you do if you hadn't seen the love of your life in two millennia? And besides you're hardly in a position to make threats about us being in trouble, considering you're in trouble. Besides you should be thanking us for saving you," Chaos commented as Adarna glared at Angeal for a moment, she swung one arm completely releasing Sephiroth unharmed before launching at Angeal punching him in the cheek sending him flying.
Zack ran forward catching him, Angeal stood up wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he stood up, the minute he did though Adarna tackled him jabbing him again. "YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ARIELLA! I'D KILL YOU RIGHT NOW IF ARIELLA WASN'T CRYING RIGHT NOW!"
Angeal studied her for a moment, he didn't doubt she would kill him, she sat back gazing up at the sky, "could you let me talk to Ariella?" He requested softly.
Adarna nodded, "You make her cry I kick your ass," she closed her eyes, a moment later the additional features had vanished, thus releasing Genesis, but Ariella sat on Angeal's stomach watching him silently for a moment.
"A…Angeal…" She muttered quietly before hugging him tightly. He put his hand behind her head stroking her hair gently.
"Shh. it's okay…" he muttered feeling her start sobbing.
"I missed you!" She sobbed clinging to him tightly.
He sighed glancing up at Sephiroth before watching Ariella wrapping his wings around her protectively, "I'm sorry… I don't know what I was thinking…"
She sniffled for a moment, "was it something we did? Did I do something wrong?"
"No! No! Gaia no Ari, I love you, I was just a little confused," he hugged her tightly. "You're my daughter I could never be mad at you."
She buried her face in his chest; he held her tightly still protecting her with his wings. Genesis turned walking away, however a gunblade pointing at his head made him stop, "You're not going anywhere," Dante muttered.
"Well I will say this much, 'like father like daughter'." He muttered smirking.
Chaos rolled his eyes, "Urg… Vincent get me out of…" he trailed off before flying into the air, something was heading for the city from the direction of the mansion through the forest. "Oy Adarna's host, Ariella or whatever your name was, we've got trouble heading for the city. Some sort of big, unnatural beastie is fixing to attack."
Ariella stood up along with Angeal, "General!"
"Our duty is to stop monster attacks," Sephiroth nodded, he beckoned over Weiss and Zack, both of whom had been quietly confused by this whole mess. "We're going to go on ahead, Angeal you're mission is to get Ariella to safety, Weiss, you'll aid Dante in guarding Genesis."
Ariella however had her own ideas, having left the group and switching places with Adarna, she took off into the air joining Chaos, "So slow I swear," she shook her head grabbing the chain wrapped around her left arm pulling a small segment taught. "Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth you're coming with us."
"What who gave you the right to order us around?" Sephiroth shouted up at them.
Chaos sighed, "Well we were trying to be nice but I guess that would just waste everyone's time." With that said the pair swooped down, Adarna grabbing both Angeal and Genesis, Chaos picked up Sephiroth, "you two porcupines and gun boy can catch up with us later."
Zack and Weiss took one look at the other, it took them a minute to figure out they had just been insulted. Zack clenched his fist, "that jerk who does he think he is!"
"I believe that is Chaos, I remember reading something about Chaos, Adarna and Omega a while back during my stay in Deepground," Weiss replied.
"Soul wrought of
Terra Corrupt
Quelling impurity
Purging the stream
Behold mighty Chaos
Omega's squire to
The lofty heavens
Born of the ashes
Raised in the fire
Crossing the border of
Life and Death
Behold fair Adarna
Omega's Fire
Chaos's Desire
Born of Life
Guardian of Death
When Adarna cries
Summoning Chaos
Behold benevolent Omega
Savior of the Planet
When Adarna's fire dies"
Zack watched him shocked, "how is it you know everything?"
"I'm not smart," Weiss replied a little embarrassed, "back in Deepground I was considered a child prodigy and was taught everything from martial arts to Planet History."
"Like I said how the hell is it you're so damn smart… I barely passed the entrance exams into the Cadets," Zack sighed.
Weiss wrapped an arm around him, "hey no worries, cheer up man. After all everyone has something they're good at."
Zack nodded, "yeah I guess you're right, come on, I'll race you back down the mountain!"
Weiss smirked and they took off. Dante, who had been hanging back looked up at the reactor, something wasn't sitting right with him. He ascended up the stairs, heading along the pipe work into the main part, carefully pushing open the back door he entered into a room full of pods, all of which had been opened, blood littering the floors. A large opening up at the top of the room caught his attention. He wandered up the stairs through to the open room, he saw a large metallic figure, feminine in shape thrown to the floor, behind it, about ten feet back he saw a broken tank, blood everywhere, he entered and crossed the narrow pipes. He headed for the tank and rubbed some of the blood between his fingers, he knew what it was and what it belonged to, "no way… did they… eat Jenova?"
A/N: Well we're nearing the end of the story, we just have some unfinished business to wrap up but it will have to wait until after I have trained as a monk for a week.