Palom left the portal, mind spinning. No matter how many times he jumped, he never got used to the rush of energy and light that flooded him with entry into a new world. It filled him with an inexplicable thrill that raised the hairs on his neck and brought a sense of clarity to his eyes when the dust faded. Like the stars themselves fueled his journey and burned a trail for him to breathe and fill his lungs with astral dust. Like Bhunivelze prepared the way for his arrival.
Palom flipped his staff in a neat circle and bounced along the road. He took in the grey—and green-colored city that God led him to. Arc trailed behind, checkered shawl fluttering with the wind.
This world already suffered from the assault of twisted creatures lost to the nexus between space and time, their hungry violence an ever-present scourge on the land.
Palom let out a rush of breath and channeled the adrenaline in his veins as a burst of magic that scorched the grass below his feet and sent ash in a spray of white. He licked dry lips and felt the surge of galaxies in his veins.
He froze the dirt and shriveled the green. Lightning crackled in the sky above him, ready for his call and his wish. Wind followed and whipped leaves about them, still lush with life from their origin branches. Still alive. Palom burned the leaves to flickering, black dust.
Arc came up beside him and glanced toward the city ahead. "That's Edge?"
"What else does it look like?" Palom left him and zipped up the side of a building to land on the rooftop. The roof sprawled out before him and unknowing citizens milled in the ignorant streets, likely taking advantage of a break in monsters.
So many minds and so many bodies to serve Bhunivelze's purposes. So many more than what they found on Spira.
He started with a small fireball. Not big enough to bring the whole of the population to awareness. Just big enough to startle people near the base of the building.
He dropped the fire and it exploded the wall. Short screams sounded, the abruptness of it earning odd looks before the witnesses moved on as fast as they could. He dropped another and that drew more heads. Still they moved on. The third attracted more attention. The fourth made the difference.
On the last burst, shouts and yells filled the air while people ran, and the building gave an ominous groan.
Palom aimed for another part of the city, close to a fleeing bunch, and started again.
Panic. The screams turned urgent and he increased frequency. Hit another place, and then another, and another—
Arc joined his attack with a sheet of ice that enveloped the places that Palom exploded. Then Arc trapped stragglers behind a prison of water that reflected the angry glow of the flames that enveloped small portions of the street.
They knew to take it slow. They were here to cause chaos and disorder, then kill all Bhunivelze's followers-to-be. The children to be enlightened. The brethren and sisters yet to be gifted with Bhunivelze's grace.
"STOP!"
Something—no, someone—rammed into him and Palom hit the ground. It scraped his skin, but his power numbed the pain. He knew the voice before he found a girl in epopt robes and pink-tinged hair. She had a powerful catalyst welded to her temple.
"Leonora," Palom hissed.
"Palom!" She stood taller and stronger than she should. "It's time to come home!"
He wiped blood from his lip and floated himself back to his feet. He called down a funnel cloud that whorled in the sky before snaking toward the ground.
Fear filled the girl's eyes before she steeled herself and blew him over with a gust of wind.
The funnel vanished in a puff of air with his concentration broken and Palom cursed before righting himself.
Leonora summoned ice and trapped Palom just long enough to grab his braid and yank him down. Pain erupted in his skull and she yelled, "I'm not leaving! Without! you!"
A distant flutter in his chest and he lost altitude. Paused on the ground at the tears in her eyes and the determined lines on her face. She didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. He had priorities and—
"You promised!" she cried, face red. "You promised you would train me until I became a sage and we could travel the world together!"
A distant memory, one she could manipulate and use against him. He shoved the thought away and blasted her with enough fire to force her back.
She cast ice and wind to keep it off and that gave him the opening he needed to get close and—
She opened a portal beneath her and dropped.
Palom screamed and summoned thunder to electrocute the place in crackling bolts of energy that burned and tore the air like Bhunivelze himself come to smite.
Arc joined in and added fire to the burning, abandoned edge of town. Signs melted and broke while buildings toppled to the ground in a heap.
"Find Leonora," Palom told him. "Before she breaks me."
"Yes, sir." Arc portaled out and soon fought on par with Leonora on top another short building.
Palom brought his staff flying back to him in a rush of wind. The ground smoldered beneath him and a window shattered nearby.
Arc forced Leonora to her knees and Palom only then zoomed in to join them. He landed beside her and covered the tip of his staff in a sharp icicle before raising it above her head.
Leonora looked up at him with eyes too wide for her idyllic self. Fear shone clear with a hint of grief. She swallowed hard and looked away. She started a spell, but Arc interrupted her with a kick to her arm that caused a crunching sound and—
Palom stuttered. The world phased in and out of view. Blackness. Staff slipped from his hands.
"Oh, no," Arc said, sounding distressed, before he summoned a blast of fire that he hit Leonora with.
Light fled him and Palom saw the grey world for what it really was. He saw grime and human life and terror. He saw Leonora's pain in her silent gasps and trembling body. She laid on the ground, barely moving.
Arc.
Palom screamed and forced him back with a gale force wind before throwing him off the side of the building.
Marlene kicked and punched at her practice dummy until her shins hurt. Her back felt wet and gross, and her fingers stung from contact with the pole. But she didn't stop because practice was how people got better and Tifa always told her that, because Tifa was an expert. Tifa was smart and took care of them. Tifa was strong and unbeatable.
With contact from one hit, the top half snapped off and slammed to the ground. Marlene waited to catch her breath before picking it up and staring. That was the only spare pole they had. The pillows she could use on another one, but she didn't know where they'd find another pole unless she took Denzel's.
Cloud entered her room with a soft knock. "Marlene."
"Hey, Cloud." Marlene pulled the pillows off and chucked the pole's remains into the bin.
"You're upset."
"I'm training."
Cloud knit his brows together. "Loudly."
"Training is loud. Tifa says if you're doing it quiet, then you're doing it wrong." Marlene huffed and sat on the bed. "What is it?"
Cloud closed the door behind him and took a seat beside her. "I'm gonna do a job for the storekeeper in exchange for groceries. Do you want to help?"
"Tifa doesn't want us going outside."
"I wasn't going to tell Tifa."
Marlene blanked. "You're not?"
"No. I wasn't much older than you when I left to join SOLDIER. And if this keeps up, I want to know you could handle it on your own if you had to."
"You mean it?"
"I do. You have ten minutes." Cloud rubbed at her head and smiled, then left.
She jumped to her feet and changed into day clothes. Then replaced her ratty gloves with fresh, white ones before opening her door and—
Denzel stood there, one hand up in a fist and eyes wide open. "Um—"
Marlene grabbed his wrist and pulled him in before closing the door. "Make it quick! Cloud's taking me out to help him fight!"
"He is? Oh. Because they don't trust me anymore."
"What? No, this is about me! He trusts me!"
Denzel crouched by the door. "Oh."
"Why? Are you okay?"
"Tifa's not."
Marlene's excitement turned to dread. "What do you mean?"
"Her hand isn't healing right. If I was better, I could fix it, but Aerith isn't here anymore and I don't know how to set a broken bone right. The hospital still isn't accepting any patients, and by the time they reopen next week, I think it'll be too hard to fix."
"She can't make it work again?"
"It won't be the same. Even the Turks don't know much about white magic despite their first aid knowledge. They're not doctors. And Cloud will notice eventually and get sad, and that will make Tifa angry and—" He trailed off and looked away. "I think they'll blame me."
"They would never!"
"I did what Tifa told me not to do. If I listened, she'd be okay."
Before Marlene could argue further, Tifa called her name and Denzel's.
The two exchanged a glance before rushing downstairs to find Cloud and Tifa. Cloud stood by the door and Tifa almost crashed into them at the bottom of the stairs.
"Get into the basement," she said. "Now!"
"Why?" Marlene asked.
Cloud stepped away and Marlene noticed a phone in his hand. "They're moving off," he said. "We could corner them."
"Corner who?" Denzel asked.
"Someone like the White Haired Men." Tifa pushed them toward the basement door. "Go!"
Marlene pushed back. "But I want to help!"
"It's gone quiet," Cloud said with a look their way. "I'll keep an eye out. Tifa, watch the kids."
"I'm not—!" She barely got a word in before Cloud disappeared outside. She glanced between the front door and the basement. "Damn it!"
Denzel pushed past her to the front door. "I don't see anything."
"That's because they've gone somewhere else for now." Tifa grabbed the landline with her good hand and dialed. "Let's triangulate these guys at least."
"Triangulate?" Marlene asked Denzel.
He said, "It means using different people to cover ground, I think. With three points, you can—"
"Who are you calling?" Marlene asked.
Tifa said, "The Turks. It's about time I called in their favors."
Leonora barely breathed past the burns that faded oh-so-slowly from her skin. They stretched and pulled and took too much white magic to dull. She lost Palom.
Panic clawed at her chest. She was so close. This could be her last chance to bring him home. She couldn't lose him!
Leonora looked for explosions and found none. The silence felt worse than their bombastic violence. A fleeting fear gripped her at the thought of Palom dying before she reminded herself that Arc would return to his devastation if Palom died. Palom was smart. He'd keep Arc distracted.
And Leonora could help him if she could get moving. If she knew where they went off to, then—
"Leonora?"
She startled at Irvine's approach. "You're still here?" she asked.
"What happened? You look like hell."
"I—I found Palom."
"That bad, huh…"
Leonora bit back angry tears. "I don't get it. I'm not stupid. I'm not weak. Why do I keep… missing?"
"Here." Irvine gestured. "I'm with Paine. Let's take a minute and figure things out."
"But—!"
Irvine reminded her to breathe. She couldn't find her target if she didn't breathe. Leonora forced herself to do as he suggested, though it did little to calm the raging fire in her stomach that urged her to run.
They found Paine, who looked tense as a northern hare, and Irvine explained their experience of getting here.
Leonora barely heard them. She listened for more explosions, every second ready for the sign that Palom was either killed or repossessed.
She finally got Paine and Irvine to agree to a plan of attack where they find Palom and Arc. They'd start with the city square. Leonora gave a silent prayer to her childhood gods that Palom make it until she found him.
