Act 3: Angel

Once more, Atomos loomed over the library. The only difference this time was that Sephiroth stood beside Zidane just to the rear of Garnet – the sword that he had managed to pry away from Steiner, Excalibur II, hanging at his waist.

With his suggestion of Vincent, she had wasted no time in performing the summons. It was now only two hours later than it had been when Sephiroth had come into the library out of curiosity and discovered Garnet's mistake. The silver haired warrior's dully glowing eyes moved between Garnet and the Eidolon standing before them as a dark spot began to take shape in Atomos' frame. He guessed that was Vincent. The shape began to grow rapidly until features could be made out. Long, elegantly waving hair…a cloak…an oddly shaped hand…and boots.

Zidane moved closer to Garnet as he watched; tail swishing behind him.

It didn't take long for Vincent to come flying out of Atomos, but this time the entrance was much less dramatic. The Ex-Turk tumbled to the floor, coughing. Zidane glanced questioningly at Sephiroth, who nodded and stepped forward with a sigh.

"Vincent…?"

"Nnngh…" the dark haired man began to rub his head and rise to his knees without opening his eyes, "What happened…?"

"Open your eyes."

Vincent opened one elongated red eye then quickly opened the other one, for once staring in disbelief, "Sephiroth…"

"In the flesh."

"I've died in my sleep…" the raven haired man said slowly, "And gone…to hell?"

Sephiroth sighed, "Fortunately not. This isn't hell…but it isn't heaven either. You aren't dead, Vincent…in fact…" he checked Vincent over – virtually unscathed, "You're far from it."

Zidane grinned, "Welcome to Gaia."

"I don't think I'm quite understanding this…" Vincent frowned, glancing for a moment at Zidane before returning his attention to Sephiroth, "I have four questions."

"All right – lets hear them," Sephiroth moved into a sitting position on the floor.

"First one…who is he?" the ex-Turk pointed to Zidane, and then to Garnet, "Next…who is she? Next…why am I here? Last one…why the hell are you being so nice all of a sudden? I've never seen…this side of you before. I was under the impression that you were an insane killer – although I have no idea whatsoever where I get that notion." He raised an eyebrow, waiting for the warrior sitting across from him to answer.

"The first two are easy…the young man over there is Zidane. The girl is Queen Garnet. She would be the one who summoned you here. In answer to your third question, the two of them asked me to select someone to bring here in order to help them defeat…something. Garnet doesn't quite know what it is yet, but she thinks its bad and I was worried I wouldn't be enough to stop it."

Vincent's eyebrow raised even further and his expression grew incredulous.

"That thing," Sephiroth continued, pointing to Atomos, "Is an Eidolon…from what I've heard, that's what they call Weapons here. It summoned you. Now…for your last question, the reason I'm being so nice is because I'm not insane. When I died, Jenova broke the control she had over me because, obviously, there was no longer any reason for it, understand now?"

"Yes…but I'm just supposed to believe this? How did you get here?"

The green eyed man glanced over at Garnet, "She decided to test Atomos' full potential, so she asked it to connect her to the Lifestream and I came out. When she forgot to dismiss it, something ELSE came out of the Lifestream as well. That would be where the problem arose. Vincent, look at me and tell me what you see."

Vincent blinked at Sephiroth's slightly random request, but did as he was told. Currently, he didn't have much of a choice but to give him the benefit of the doubt. He sighed, and then looked directly into the glowing green eyes of his…former… enemy. He frowned upon seeing something there he had never seen in Sephiroth's face before.

"What do you see?"

"I see…a respected warrior…" Vincent frowned, searching his eyes, "Your not the person I fought two years ago."

"Will you trust me?"

"Well…" the ex-Turk rose to his feet in a single, fluid motion and folded his arms, "We'll see. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Now…" he took a deep breath and turned to Zidane and Garnet, "Do you have anything else for me to work with? As long as I'm here the only logical thing to is to help you out."

"Your majesty?" Beatrix peeked in through the door, winked and smiled at Vincent when he glanced in her direction, and turned once more to Garnet, her expression growing serious. "About what happened with Atomos…I've discovered something that may relate to it."

"Oh?"

"I…told the Lady already. She was pretty upset…"

Garnet nodded slowly, "I'm assuming a report was filed…?"

The brunette nodded, "You got it – here. It came this morning, but I didn't want to tell you about it so early. Edward thought you probably wouldn't appreciate thinking about things like that when you'd just gotten up," she flashed a fatigued smiled and shrugged, "I took his advice. Oh – she wants to talk to you at the soiree tonight."

"That's right…I almost forgot about it…" Garnet glanced at Zidane, who was reading over her shoulder.

"A soiree?" Vincent looked inquisitive, "What for?"

Zidane answered him absently while continuing to read, "Aah…yearly thing. Big important people come from big important places and get to see each other," he chuckled at Garnet's jab, and glanced at Vincent with a grin, "No…actually, its just a friendly little tradition. Every year the Alexandrian rulers invite all the royals and nobles from the four countries that make up the world. It's big…its fancy…and we'll get to see some old friends again. Hey, Dagger…this doesn't look so good."

She nodded, "I know…I understand why she was upset now."

"So what are the chances this IS the same one as before? I mean, it DID get killed…"

The queen shuddered, "Not good, I hope. For her sake and ours."

For the first time in about ten minutes, Sephiroth spoke, "What's going on?"

Garnet brushed a lock of hair out of her face, "A dragon was spotted in a village not too far from here. The description given in the report was similar to…well, you don't have to know about that."

Zidane frowned, "I never noticed that before…"

"Noticed what?" Sephiroth raised an eyebrow.

"Noticed how much you really do look like…Kuja…and he looks so much like her…"

"Who is HER?"

"HER is Seraphim," the blonde grinned, "Commander-In-Chief of the Alexandrian army. I just noticed the two of you look a lot alike…same thing with Kuja – but that's something else you don't need to know about. It's a really long story."

The silver-haired man nodded, "I see…"

"Yeah…and we'd better get you changed…" Zidane regarded Sephiroth's long, Arabic-style open blue trench coat, tight, high collared blue shirt and black, leg fitting pants, "You don't really want to wear that to this…" he glanced at Vincent's dark ensemble, "You don't really want to wear that, either…"

"…"

"…"

***

The creature glided easily through a mountain range that continued to shroud it in shadows. Each peak was enormous, and any one of them would probably have killed anyone who attempted to climb. Finally, it landed on a small plateau and turned towards the mouth of a cave, folding its wings so that fitting through would be easier.

It made its way down the cave's corridor, glancing around now and then and nodding in satisfaction. This place obviously hadn't been found.

But then, what idiot human would be able to?

At the center of the room, in the stone floor, was drawn a circle, lined with ancient runes. It stood in the center on its haunches, finally stepping into the light.

On each of the dragon's massive wings were three silver claws, making them seem like second hands. It had two, reptilian talons extending from its four paws and a helm covered its face except for its eyes. Its body was entirely black and its eyes glowed like a pair of golden coals. It started to speak, its voice unmistakably feminine, although deep. The tongue in which the dragoness spoke was unrecognizable by any means as she recited something that seemed strangely familiar to her.

"…Ume anio…illias ume-nadé…"

Each of the orbs began to glow as she continued to speak, shining more brightly with each word.

"…Um, aum, iria…"

A ball of light formed beside each of the orbs, and they stopped glowing.

"…Garm…Loki…BloodRuby…Krishna…Vishnu…"

Five of the sphere's began to form themselves into animals – one, a huge wolf closely resembling Fenrir, another a mounted man that looked like Odin, the third resembling Carbuncle, and the last two resembling Ramuh and Shiva.

"…Ionite…Salamander…Titan…Behemoth…Rok…"

Another five of the spheres did the same as the first had, this time forming themselves into look-alikes of Atomos, Ifrit, Leviathan, Bahamaut, and Phoenix. Surprisingly, all the creatures fit nicely in the cave – not nearly as big as those they were modeled after.

"Fafner…Arch…"

The last two orbs came to life, forming themselves into likenesses of Maduin and Ark. The two bowed, coming a little forward.

"Mistress Tiamit…we have assembled."

The dragoness smiled, showing her pointed, dagger like teeth. A black mist coiled up from the ground, encircling the reptilian monster. Her body glowed black and began to mutate. Her entire form became smaller, and her neck shortened, as did her forearms and torso. Her legs changed to that she walked upright and her wings were pulled into her back. Her face shifted, her muzzle fading into it and its entire shape changing. Finally, a patch of thick, waving black hair sprouted from her head and cascaded down to her rear.

In place of the dragon stood a beautiful, black haired, brown-eyed woman wearing a long, form hugging dress and snake jewelry. "Yes…" she said, smiling in satisfaction, "So I see."

***

"Let's see what we've got here…"

Zidane closed one eye, moved a semi-circle away from his position, then closed the other eye. "Hmmmm…yeah…I like this better. That works…uh-huh. You're done." The ex-Turk had been dressed in a long, silvery-gray cape and his unruly raven locks had been significantly neatened. He wore a pair of high, spotless leather boots and a pair of black leggings could be picked out.

Vincent shook his head, "Thank you, your majesty."

The blonde shot him a wide, toothy grin, "You're welcome!" He received a grunt in reply when Vincent remembered that he WAS practically the king.

"All right…Sephy…you're next!"

***

Steiner raised an eyebrow and Beatrix shrugged helplessly at the shriek followed by maniacal laughter and yelling that suddenly burst from the room Zidane was getting Sephiroth ready in. Steiner sighed, then shook his head and rubbed his temples.

"Boys will be boys, I suppose," Beatrix giggled.

Another grunt, "I'd appreciate that a whole lot more if it didn't involve loud noises and…" he winced at the sound of something expensive being shattered into a million pieces, "…breaking various valuable things…" he sighed helplessly, "Good lord…"

***

After about a half hour, which left the room they had been in a disaster, Sephiroth and Zidane managed to walk down the hallway leading into the main ballroom. Zidane was still chuckling to himself, but Sephiroth was grumbling and his face was set in a firm frown. Apparently, the brawl earlier hadn't gone entirely his way, considering the intricately designed gold and black armor, embroidered with rubies and accompanied by a long, red cape he had been changed into. Vincent was walking behind them, a slight but distinct twinkle of amusement in his ruby coloured eyes.

"Aww…c'mon, Seph…" Zidane laughed, but abruptly stopped when he saw Garnet, "Dagger!" the call wasn't particularly loud, and he shot a hand in the air to further insure her attention.

She turned, laughing and clapping when she saw them, "I thought girls took longer than boys!"

The blonde draped his arm around the older, silver haired ex-general at his side, "Hey…we were bonding!"

Sephiroth snarled, and Garnet laughed once more, "Well, Seraphim is here…come on…I want the two of you to meet her. I think you'll get along," she trotted up the stairs to join them – neatly lifting her figure complimenting, rather long, elegant gold dress as she did so - and gestured the three to follow her.

The queen began to lead them through the crowd towards the far wall. She lifted a hand in a signal for them to wait and went ahead, coming back a moment later dragging a young, silver haired woman of about 24 wearing a long black cape under which was a rather tight blue battle suit and a pair of high boots. A slim rapier-like blade hung at her side, a rendition of a unicorn beaten into its metal hilt. Her hair short and stopped at her jawline and her eyes were a striking violet. From her cheekbone to just below her jaw was a tattoo of a black medieval unicorn - her arms and the flat of her right hand were decorated with Celtic-style tribal markings. She seemed to have a liking for feathers as well, because her outfit was adorned with them, "Vincent…Sephiroth…this is the Lady Seraphim."

Sephiroth blinked, She does look like me…

"A pleasure to meet you," Vincent nodded and shifted his weight impatiently.

"Likewise," Seraphim smiled briefly at him and then turned, raising a slender, questioning silver eyebrow when her gaze rested on Sephiroth, who hadn't said anything.

He coughed, "You'll have to excuse me…Zidane told me you looked like me and it seems he was right. It's an honor, your ladyship – I'm very sorry.

She smiled and gave a bowing nod, brushing a lock of silvery hair out of her face, "No need to apologize. I understand."

Zidane grinned, "I'm hurt…I don't think you believed me!"

"Did I have any reason to…?"

***

Tiamit smiled, her eyes closed as she lay quietly in a gigantic chamber deeper in the cave on what looked like a nest hovering in mid-air, cradling in her hands a purple-tinted orb, which crackled with electricity inside. A small entrance could be found at the far corner of the room. She was still in human form, although her pose was strikingly draconic.

A summoner…no…two or three…

"Salamander."

The fiery creature appeared in the doorway, its eyes locked on her as it awaited orders.

"Go to the Alexandrian castle. There's something I want you to locate." A brief silence settled between the two, and then Salamander nodded slowly.

"As you command."