Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC's and the plot.
A/N: I can't believe a whole month has already passed and I haven't posted a chapter until now. It wasn't intentional, I can tell you that much; this chapter was a big pain in the butt to write, which is in stark contrast to the last two I've put up.
Basically put, this is another set-up chapter for what's to come. (You didn't actually think I'd end it here after all the work I've put into this now did you?) Looking back, I wish I'd given myself a little more to work with for this chapter, but it's not a big deal. It's not up to par with the last two, but I hope you guys enjoy it all the same.
Chapter 24
"Oh," Nathan groaned, sitting up and rubbing his aching head. Wait, he was still alive? His eyes shot open and looked over his body to find himself completely healed. Looking around, he noticed he was in the church, laying on one of the front pews.
"It's about time you came to, Sleeping Beauty," a voice behind him said. Turning, he found Noel standing at one of the entrances to the auditorium. The others, except for Brad, were sitting patiently in the overflow.
"What...who..." he stuttered in surprise. "How did you guys survive?" It only then hit him that the church, which had been annihilated in the battle as well, had also been restored completely.
"Why don't you tell us?" Noel asked, as they moved to his side.
"I...I don't know," he answered, his face becoming stressed as he recalled the battle. "I remember watching you die, the area being turned into a wasteland, and blowing that son of a..." He hesitated as he got warning glares from Alice and Alison, but quickly improvised, "...biscuit to kingdom come, but after that it's a little hazy." Suddenly, he remembered something else. "Oh, and there was this...girl. I couldn't tell who she was, but she played a strange tune on a harp. Before I conked out, I noticed the Master Sword glowing. Do you think there could be some connection?"
"I...don't know," Noel replied, unsheathing the Master Sword, which he had retrieved when they had first found Nathan, and looking at it. 'What other secrets do you have?' he thought.
"How long was I out?" Nathan asked, rubbing his head again.
"About an hour or so," Noel replied. "But we don't know how long we were out, so it might've been longer."
"Well, that explains this massive migraine," he answered, rubbing his temples slowly and wincing. "What about everybody else? Are they alive, too?"
"Every single one," Alice confirmed, barely able to hide the excitement in her voice. "I mean, it's like the battle never happened!"
"What about your friends? Did Sephiroth keep his end of the bargain?" he asked.
"Yeah, we found them nearby. They were also okay," Noel said. "They're helping Brad and Mrs. Harper with damage control. It's weird; we all remember dying, but nothing after that. Most people we ask, though, don't even remember the battle at all. Either they're in denial or…"
"…Or else it's the same thing that happened at the very beginning," Alice finished. "Something wiped their memories clean, which is actually a good thing. The last thing we need is trying to explain this."
"Naturally, I think it makes sense that you guys don't remember anything after dying," Nathan said logically. "Although it would be cool to see into the afterlife and then come back, that's not how it's intended to be." They all silently agreed, knowing that ultimately a High Power was in charge of everything. "So..." Nathan said, changing the subject, "now that Sephiroth is gone and the world is saved, what happens now?"
"Will and the others are probably worried sick about us, but Noel gains more power with each realm we visit so we'll stick around as long as we need to to train," Alice said, drawing a look from Noel. He didn't say anything, but nodded in agreement.
"Well, our home is always open to you. Without you guys we'd be dead," Alison said, although she added jokingly, "although you guys are the reason Sephiroth attacked in the first place."
"Well, thank you for that generous offer," Noel replied in gratitude, though there was a hint of humorous sarcasm. "Now if you'll excuse us, Alice and I need to run all this by our team." Alison was about to follow them out, but Nathan quietly called out her name. Noel stopped, too, but Alice tugged on his arm and he followed.
"I want to thank you," he said. "You saved my life."
"Don't worry about it," she said casually. "I was just returning the favor."
"Still..." he said, but she stopped him.
"Nathan, don't read into it, okay?" she replied. "Nothing has changed between us. Please just let it go." She turned to leave, but as she reached the door, she turned and added quietly, "What you did was very brave, though, even if it was a little foolish."
Noel and Alice watched as she walked by them and headed to the gym. "Do you think it was a good idea to leave them alone like that?" Noel asked. They hadn't heard the conversation, but they still watched through the large window.
"It might take some time, but I think they'll be fine in the long run," she answered. "And before you ask, yes, I'm fine with staying and training. After...I almost watched you die, I realized the importance in what we're doing. If we aren't at our best, we'll lose everything we hold dear to us. I want to stay and help you train."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," he replied with a smile. "And I want to spend as much time with you as I can." She smiled sweetly, a smile he always loved to see, and they embraced. "Plus, I can't change your mind once you've set it on something," he added with a chuckle, causing her to pull back and slap him playfully on the arm.
"Ahem," Nathan cleared his throat, drawing their attention to find him standing there watching them. "If you two are done flirting, we'd better catch up with everybody else," he said with a smirk. They chased after him to whack him, but he used his new speed to stay just a step ahead of them as they wound their way through the halls.
OOO
"So, Brad, what happened with you and Sunstar after we left you?" Noel asked that night, as everybody gathered around the campfire. The stress that had covered them had disappeared after the battle, and they were finally able to enjoy their free time.
"Well..." he started, poking a stick into the fire as he recounted his story.
"You want them you'll have to go through me," Brad challenged, standing in a casual stance as Sunstar picked himself off the ground.
"You're pretty brave," Sunstar chuckled, turning so his buster arm was faced away from Brad as it formed. "And a fool!" He turned suddenly, firing a Nova Blast at him. An explosion wrapped around Brad as the attack hit, and Sunstar smirked with evil satisfaction.
His happiness turned to fear as a voice was heard through the flames and smoke. "Pathetic," Brad stated, parting and extinguishing the fire with one swipe of his hand. "You're not even half as tough as you used to be."
"You arrogant brat!" Sunstar growled in rage, charging at the teen. He threw a punch, but Brad effortlessly ducked under it with a yawn. Sunstar followed up with several blindingly fast attacks, but each time the teen fluidly evaded them. Finally, after one straightforward punch, Brad jumped up and perched on his arm.
"Kinda hard to believe we used to have trouble with you, ain't it?" Brad asked with a mocking smirk, as he stooped low enough to look the frustrated Sunstar in the eye. Suddenly, Brad's gaze quickly turned to the gym, a serious look on his face. Taking this opportunity, Sunstar swung his free arm, slamming into Brad's face and knocking him to the ground. He got up slowly, but otherwise seemed unfazed. "Cheap shot," he stated with a smirk, rubbing his cheek. Taking a fighting stance, he said, "Sorry that I have to end this so quick, but my friends need me." Without giving Sunstar time to retort a response, Brad phased in behind him and landed a devastating blow to his back, breaking through both the armor and his synthetic skin. Sunstar's face lit up with shock as an energy blast ripped through his torso, almost severing the android in half. Without looking back, Brad left the wrecked robot and headed into the gym to face Sephiroth.
"So you killed him?" Noel asked, almost incredulously.
"Well, if he wasn't dead after the blast, he most certainly died from the wound later," Brad stated. "I didn't have much of a choice; I felt your power drop dramatically, and Alice's dropped soon after I landed the killing blow. I didn't have time to drag the fight out and wait for him to escape."
"He may not be dead," Nathan said, drawing attention to him. "I wasn't paying too much attention to the battlefield, but I didn't see him when we were fighting. Ganondorf might've transported him back to wherever he's hiding."
"If that's the case, then he'll probably repair him," Alison assumed.
"And you can make a safe bet that he'll be much stronger when we face him next time," Alice agreed. "Ganondorf doesn't like failure, but at this point in the game he can afford to power up some of his older troops rather than waste energy calling in new ones."
"Which brings us to our next point of business," Brett said. "It looks like we need to train even harder so we don't get our tails handed to us again."
"I'd be glad to train with you guys, but I still have school and I don't think the teachers will buy all this," Nathan added.
"And I don't want to have to explain it to them," Noel quipped with a sarcastic smirk. "However, I think training with two Guardians instead of just one will speed things up a little. I can open the portal at any time with the Master Sword, and I'm sure everybody wants to get back as soon as they can." Everybody around him nodded in agreement. "Maybe I can teach you some of my moves, too," he added. Nathan thought about it for a moment, but then shook his head.
"Naaaah," he stated. "I think these moves kind of make me stand out. I'd like to work on my own with what I have already. Thanks though." Noel shrugged, knowing that trying to persuade him otherwise would be pointless. The boy was as stubborn as he was at times. Instead, he turned to Alison.
"What about you? You interested in learning some of this stuff?" he inquired. She thought about it for a moment, but shook her head.
"I'd really like to, but I don't think my parents would go for it," she said.
"I can see that," Alice agreed. "My parents almost didn't let me do it, so it's no surprise that they'd be protective of you."
"Anyways, it's getting late," David interjected with a yawn. Again, the others agreed and began packing up their things. Noel, Brad, Brett, and David stayed at the campsite, with Noel staying up first to watch over the campfire, while Alice and Alison went back to Harpers and Nathan returned to his house. The upcoming training would be rougher than any before and they knew they would need to be fully rested to take it on.
OOO
A little less than two months passed and everybody had progressed tremendously because of their training. The final day had come and they all had agreed to meet in a field on the outskirts of town so they wouldn't be spotted. Well, everybody except Alison. She was the only one of the group that couldn't fly, and there was no way she was going to let Nathan carry her back to town. Therefore, the group had said goodbye to her the night before, so there were no hard feelings one way or another. "Take care of yourself," Noel said to Nathan, who responded with a slight nod.
"You too," he answered. "If you guys ever need anything, I'm willing to help out." Noel gave a slight nod of his own as he unsheathed the Master Sword. He raised it into the air, and it began to glow a bright blue. "Master Sword, heed my command and open the portal back home!" Noel shouted, slicing it through the air, opening a rip in the fabric of the space/time continuum. David, Brett and Brad were the first ones to step in, followed by Alice, who gave a quick wave. Noel looked back for a just a second before stepping in and gave a smile and thumbs-up. Nathan returned the gesture just as the portal closed in front of him.
OOO
"Noel, what's going on?" Alice asked in a panic, as the portal winds batted them around and lightning struck. This trip through the portal was just like the one they had come through that started the whole nightmare. Debris was everywhere, and it was everything they could do not to slam into one of the many hunks of rock that had somehow been sucked in through another gateway.
"Something's still upsetting the balance. Quick, everybody hold on to each other!" As they came within reach as a group, a strong bolt of lightning struck in the midst of them, causing a violent recoil that knocked them all in separate directions, each hurtling into the unknown darkness…
A/N: Yeah, this is a day late, and I apologize. I probably could've finished it yesterday, but I lost most of my inspiration and got sidetracked at the last second. It was hard to steer the dialogue and end it, but it wasn't as hard as previous projects.
The updates may or may not become a little less frequent. The problem is, I'm not going off my pre-written script too much anymore. The next several chapters should be okay, but some of the later ones I have to actually write rather than revise. I'll work hard to get them out, though. Once I get past this arc, it should be back to the basics so please just bare with me in the meantime, and I hope I can make it an enjoyable experience for everybody. Until then…catch ya later and PLEASE REVIEW.
