~~~~Lightning's POV~~~~
We spent an extra day in the springs. Everyone wanted time to relax and clean off from the time in Mah'habara, I was in total agreement with them. The day was spent sharing stories, well, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack did the sharing. They just talked about random events and times they had in SOLDIER which really made me question the level of discipline in SOLDIER.
The story about an argument between Genesis and Sephiroth escalating into a fifty person food fight was the main thing that me question this Lazard's level of authority.
When they shared the fact that they even had their own fan clubs, I would have doubted they were actual warriors if I hadn't already seen them fight. Then Genesis told us he actually had two fan clubs and Sephiroth's fan club was full of stalkers.
And then came the questions I was fully expecting.
"So how many did you guys bed?" Fang asked the SOLDIERs. I could hear her smile, the one she got when she knew she was being annoying. Angeal and Genesis looked at each other, obviously sharing some unspoken words.
"More than I will ever admit to," Genesis answered coolly.
"What Genesis said," Angeal answered quietly almost a minute later.
"What?" Zack shouted "No way!" It sounds like Zack didn't know how to react to that.
"I was a reckless young man, Zack. No reason to be so surprised," Angeal replied in his mentor tone.
"But you always said that honor and protecting the honor of others takes priority in all aspects of life!" Zack looked more than confused.
"Wisdom comes from past mistakes, Puppy," Genesis stated.
"I just can't believe that Angeal-" Zack went quiet and just zoned out.
"Sooo... How many brats do you think you have runnin' around?" Fang asked with that smile of hers.
"None," Genesis stated.
"None?" Sazh asked confused "You sound sure of that."
"There was a series of false paternity lawsuits against us, including Sephiroth," Angeal groaned at what Genesis said.
"Most of the claims were debunked by simply figuring out we were clear across the world at the supposed time of conception," Angeal started to explain "Everything regarding Sephiroth was thrown out because Shinra always had eyes on him when he was not in the Shinra building and proved it with video recordings from the Turks."
"And to quell the rest of lawsuits, Shinra publicly revealed that Angeal and I had been sterilized by the Mako infusion process," Genesis said like he was talking about the weather "Truth of the matter is, Shinra intentionally sterilized us because of our heritage."
"Remember what happened after that?" Zack asked with a large smile.
"Oh in the name of Gaia, don't remind me," Genesis said as he buried his face in his hands.
"What happened?" I heard myself ask, guess my curiosity got the best of me.
"A few weeks after Shinra's announcement, the media erupted with all manner of rumors about Genesis and Sephiroth being in a relationship," Angeal told us. I felt my eyes widen and everyone else started to laugh "I don't know what stroke of luck spared me the misery but I am glad it did."
"Yeah, you and Zack had a good laugh while I worked my hardest to disprove those rumors," Genesis almost had a frustrated tone.
"What did Pretty Boy do?" Fang pressed.
"He stopped going out in public and cut himself off from all forms of media," Angeal answered.
"That's one way to do it," Sazh commented.
Out of nowhere there was a sound of a rock shattering. We looked towards the noise and there was smoke coming out of a hole in the ground that was not there a moment ago. I knew we all had our weapons ready. The smoke poured out and then went into a human shape then it just became Sephiroth. He looked exactly the same as right before that machine hit him into that tower and without a word he went and got his sword.
"You've all had enough time to rest, let's get moving," Sephiroth said then just started walking away.
"Sephiroth," Genesis said to stop him "You've just been revived, shouldn't you take some time to rest?" Sephiroth turned to him, facing all of us.
There was something different in his eyes. Before he, well I guess died is the right term, but now there was a new shine in his eyes. There was a renewed fire in his eyes and my gut was saying that was not good. I am not sure what to think about this change.
"You forget who you're talking to," Sephiroth said in his usual tone before kept walking away.
We all followed him out of Sulyya Springs and we all instantly saw a massive tower. Judging by the top and the massive pipe looking structure near the tower, it had once been much taller. Zack made a comment about the Shinra building. There was only one path to the tower, along the top of a cliff that went down so far it was pitch black. At least the path was really wide. After fighting through a few packs of Gorgonopsids, Fang said something I had been thinking for a while.
"Why don't we jus' use the Eidolons to fly to Oerba?"
"The air is calm," Genesis answered, answering nothing.
"What does that mean?" Snow asked.
"Everywhere else we've been has had all sorts of creatures flying around, except here. Which means-"
"There is something in the air that even the wyverns fear," Sephiroth said, cutting off Angeal "Therefore, we walk."
So we fought through the remaining Gorgonopsids and found our way into the tower. It was dark and dusty but the middle was open and had a forty foot statue in the center. It was a man and a woman, standing back to back, the woman had an outfit similar to Fang's and two small swords on her hips. The man looked to be wearing some kind of armor, his hair fell over the right side of his face and he was holding a giant sword tip to the ground beside him. I don't even know how to start describing that weapon, but in proportion, it looks like it would have been the size of the Buster Sword. Looks like the statues once had color.
"Who are they?" Aerith asked Fang.
"The champions of Cocoon and Pulse," Fang said "Their story is kind of interesting. Once upon a time Cocoon and Pulse were actually able to play nicely and... uh... Vanille? You take this," I saw Vanille roll her eyes at Fang then continue with a smile.
"It was during that time of peace that people started to distrust each world. Civil wars broke out because of leaders disagreeing on what to do with the other world. Both Cocoon and Gran Pulse were suffering because of the battles so Pulse and Lindzei each chose a champion, and made them immortal, to end the fighting. The champions," Vanille motioned to the statue "Did as they were told but those on Cocoon became afraid of a united Gran Pulse because there was ten times the people here than up there. Lindzei's champion came down to Gran Pulse and challenged Pulse's champion. It was agreed that the victor would be given dominion over both worlds," I looked around and saw that everyone but me and Sephiroth were interested in this story "They fought for decades and neither came close to beating the other, so they stopped fighting and decided to rule both worlds together. Cocoon and Pulsian people worked together to build Taejins Tower to be the throne of the two worlds and the champions ruled for a thousand years. They eventually had a daughter but she was not given the gift of immortality."
"That's so sad," Aerith commented. Vanille didn't keep telling the story after Aerith's interruption.
"What happened?" Genesis asked, obviously annoyed that the story had not been finished.
"I don't know. The rest of the story was lost," Vanille said with an apologetic smile.
"Someone has been through here," Sephiroth said from somewhere else. We all looked around, just noticing that he had wandered off. We followed his voice around the statue to a raised platform which was the base of some kind of track going straight up through the tower.
"What?" Angeal asked when we got close.
"Someone has been through here," Sephiroth repeated.
"You sure? I mean, we haven't seen any sign of people since we came to Gran Pulse," Snow pointed out.
"The dust has been disturbed recently. There is also this," Sephiroth held up a long dark hair for us to see.
"You sure that's recent? Zack asked, Sephiroth just glared at him and pulled a lever next to the track.
A chime sounded and a ball shaped thing came down the track and stopped in front of us and opened. We all packed in which left very little room.
"Well isn't this comfy," Fang joked. We rode the elevator in silence. When we finally reached the top of what's left of the tower, we all quickly got out and I kind of wanted to go back down.
Jenova was her on the tower, running her hand over a dead... thing. I have no idea what it was. Looks kind of like a large statue thing with two arms and faces. Oh. It's a fal'Cie, a dead one at least. Jenova had her back to us but none of us made a move.
"Dahaka!" Vanille squeaked.
"You're all so quick to jump to conclusions. I did not kill this being," Some kind of smoke started to pour out of Jenova's arm and into Dahaka "But you will need to," She laughed and vanished into the smoke.
Dahaka lifted off the ground and looked at us, its eyes glowing bright red. Just like Jenova's.
~~~~Fang's POV~~~~
The moment Dahaka was in the air, I felt Angeal cast some protection on me, and the others I'm assuming. Genny put out his wing and flew up to keep Dahaka's attention while the rest of used what magic we had. Not all of have wings so we can- Wait a second.
I summoned Bahamut and everyone else got their Eidolons out. Zalera and Bahamut have it easiest in this fight since they're both fliers. But us ground-users are gonna have a tough time.
With eight Eidolons beatin' on him, undead Dahaka didn't last very long. He was knocked to the ground and Pretty Boy pushed his sword into the fal'Cie's eye. Pretty Boy pulled his sword out then slammed his fist into the eye and somethin' weird started to happen. Dahaka, like, dissolved into Pretty Boy's arm, turned into that smoke and little greenish-blue lights and went into Pretty Boy's arm. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen.
"What just happened?" Hope asked, everyone could hear the fear in him.
"An extreme example of Sephiroth's blessing from Jenova," Genny told us "The fal'Cie are little more than constructs of the lifestream, Sephiroth possesses the ability to absorb that energy."
"So Sephiroth has just jumped ahead of us in power then," Muscle Head said in his cheerful tone. I'm not sure if he is stupid or just recovers faster than the rest of us.
"Stop gawking and get moving," Pretty Boy commanded as he walked over to the ruins that made a platform up to an elevator track.
It took a long time for the elevator to reach us but the wait was much better than having to crowd into the damned thing. Puppy and Muscle Head made a few jokes on the trip but everyone was still uncomfortable. When we finally stopped and the door opened, we almost fell over each other trying to get out but we all tried to hide that. It made me laugh.
We walked through knee high grass for about two hours until we saw anything. It was a Cie'th but it was still something. Then there were more Cie'th, a lot more. After a long time of fighting them, we went over a hill and found ourselves in one of Oerba's orchards. I'm happy to see they are still growing. I grabbed two of the purple apples off a tree and tossed one to Vanille. The others grabbed one for themselves.
"Wow, these are delicious," Sazh said.
"Yeah, the stupid trees make good apples," I said back.
"Stupid trees?" Angeal asked. I knew he was suspecting something but I couldn't decipher what.
"Yeah, the damned things grow fruit at random through the year," The moment I finished talking, Pretty Boy, Puppy, and Angeal had their swords on Genny.
"You have some explaining to do," Sephiroth said in a dark tone.
"Coincidence?" Genesis said sarcastically.
"Genesis, why are there Banora White trees on Gran Pulse?" Angeal's threatening tone scared me more than Pretty Boy's.
"Don't deliver threats Angeal, you're not the kind of man that would deliver on them," Pretty Boy moved his sword to Genny's neck and a drop of blood appeared "Sephiroth, however, is more than happy to be your hound," The darkness appeared around Genesis and he was safely away from the swords "There was a time when Gaia and Gran Pulse were one in the same."
"What does that mean?" Puppy asked loudly.
"Silence, Pup," Genny commanded "Before the Cetra-"
"The Cetra? I know their story!" Vanille cheered.
"Wonderful, anyways, before the Cetra lost their capitol to Jenova's corruption, they prayed to Lady Minerva and asked for her assistance. With Lady Minerva's unwilling assistance, and the sacrifice of the vast majority of the people, the Cetra split the world in two. Gaia was meant to quarantine Jenova and let the infection burn itself out while Gran Pulse was supposed to stand guard and the the last stronghold was supposed to produce an army to stand against the inevitable second rising of Jenova."
"That plan worked out great," Lightning reply as an insult. I'm starting to grow fond of Sunshine's sense of humor.
"Humans have short lives and shorter memories," Genny tried to continue but then Puppy interrupted.
"What about the fal'Cie on Gaia?" Genny growled at Puppy for jumping in like that.
"Because of the Jenova infection, they grew feral and to preserve some semblance of order, Minerva took their power to make l'Cie and collared the beasts."
"The WEAPONs..." Angeal said quietly.
"Are feral fal'Cie," Genny finished for him "To continue, two thousand years gave Jenova enough time to corrupt more and seep through the cracks in the boundary," Genny continued but Muscle Head interrupted.
"The boundary?" Genny let out an annoyed sigh at Muscle Head
"The border between Gaia and Gran Pulse that only the lifestream can cross. Going back to what I was saying, it was not just Jenova that got through. When Doctor Crescent found Chaos in that cave, and combined it with the young Valentine, it caused a breach in the boundary that allowed Jenova to create that Jihl persona some years later. However, Jenova passing through the boundary caused a shift in the balance which pushed a handful of people from Cocoon to Gaia. Most of whom are unimportant but the people of interest are Miss Averia Farron and her firstborn.
"What?" Sunshine sounded like she'd seen a ghost "My father said they died in an accident."
"Easier to say that than explain they vanished before his eyes. When they appeared on Gaia, they was just outside a backwater reactor town and Miss Farron changed her name to Aver-" Genny was interrupted by a branch near his head exploding and a gunshot.
We all dropped to the ground and Genny made that darkness cover the ground below us and moved us into Oerba. Somehow we wound up standing while in the darkness. But we're finally back in Oerba. It looks almost exactly the same as I remember it, which means it's been abandoned for who knows how long. The school, the shop, the beach, all look the same, with a lot more grass around the bottom but the same. The railroad looks like it took one hell of a beating though.
"Aerith?" I heard a woman ask.
"Sephiroth!" A man yelled "Those people are just more of his tricks!"
I spun around and saw what I had been missing. My team in a stand off with another group. There was a woman with dark hair and no weapon (and big boobs), an older guy with a spear, an animal thing, a black guy with a gun arm (strange but not the weirdest thing I've seen), a girl with a huge throwing star, two children (one boy, one girl), and a guy with blond hair and a sword like Angeal's but it had handles in the blade which is very odd. A second look told me something else about this group.
"They're Sanctum l'Cie," Muscle Head muttered sadly.
Boobs had a brand in the same place as Snow, Blondie had one in the same place as Lightning, Gun-Arm same as Sazh, that might be a brand poke'n out of Old Man's tee shirt sleeve which would put his in the same place as mine. Animal had a brand on its front left shoulder, and I can't see the others.
"Cloud, lis-" Pretty Boy was cut off by the other group charging at us.
Sorry about the wait and the length. I couldn't think of a way to bolster the part with Taejin's Tower and I'm not that good at battle scenes. Now for an announcement.
The original AbyssKeeper is back. I, Nate, wrote Fang's POV. Sorry about the let down of a battle scene but what do you expect from eight people with Eidolons? For them to play by video game rules? Anyways, what did you all think of that cliffhanger? I hope all the information presented in this chapter makes up for the length reduction.
Oh yeah, there is only like 5 chapters left. Could be anywhere from 3 to 7. Also, when I upload the next chapter I'm changing the title of the story to "When Dreams Turn to Prayers" I think it encapsulates the story a bit better.
As always, please leave a review.