Chapter 16: Emergence on Gaia
Dust cleared from the blood red sky. The rocky ground that AVALANCHE stood upon shifted madly underneath their feet. They heard a terrible screeching and through the upheaval of dirt and rock came terrible roots, spiked and withering, like a mass of snakes. The rocks fell from beneath their feet, but they floated. As the dust parted they saw a huge tree, hideous and ugly, standing on top of a rocky desert land. Beneath it was an armada of tentacles, it's roots, all tearing through the earth.
{What you are witnessing is the assimilation of Gaia by Terra. This is the Iifa Tree, an instrument in the destruction of this world.} The roots broke through the bones of the world, tearing through mountains, engulfing whole forests and villages. An airship flew by, watching the carnage from a safe distance. The tentacles burst through the rock and hills, bringing an apocalyptic end to this world, Gaia. Suddenly the roots stopped their onslaught. They stopped breaking through the bones of Gaia. They just stopped. The sky, like a sunset in reverse, shifted through the blood red to a bright blue. The Iifa tree also changed. Like the seasons in reverse, the tree changed from a hideous repulsive sign of a world's death, but to a beautiful sentinel of nature. Its ugly twisted structure was no longer. Birds began to sing and the wind rustled through the infinite leaves.
{The Iifas' tendrils have been ceased. The evil what was once is no more. Its creator is dead and the madman that tried to break all of existence is gone. The lord of darkness has stopped and begun to think that all life does not exist to live a short life of suffering and beg for death.}
{So far and away, see the birds as it flies by. Gliding through the shadows of the clouds up in the sky. I've laid my memories and dreams upon those wings. Leave them now and see what tomorrow brings.}
The world for AVALANCHE suddenly became very bright, and they appeared at the foot of the Iifa tree. Rubbing their heads and dusting themselves off, they looked into the sky to see the massive bulk of the Iifa's beauty set out before them. Cloud turned around to see the ship lying on its side on the desert floor. A massive wall of roots stopped any intruder from stepping into the Iifa. Cait Sith emerged with Morrid from the husk of the old steel ship.
Cid was the first to speak. "All right! What the %^&$ was that?! Where the %^&% are we?! Damn I'm pissed!" He bit into his cigarette.
"I-I have no idea where we are. This is amazing…" Red XIII glanced around. Where there were once tendrils, there were trees and vegetation. This gave Red the idea that some amount of time had passed since the vision. "I think that vision happened in the past."
"Oy…how can you tell Red?" Tifa asked as she pulled down her skirt.
"Well, The roots that were destroying this world in that vision are no longer here. In their place are forests. Trees just don't pop up over night."
"Yea, but we just don't fall into the desert by a huge tree from the ocean." Barret said.
"Where the heck are we?!" Cait Sith said as he managed to bounce up to the group.
"This is another world, right? That means EON…" Vincent trailed off.
"Oh…I think I'm going to be sick…" Yuffie said as she fell to her knees.
"Hey! What happened to da WEAPON?" Barret asked.
"He was torn to pieces. And it wasn't by us either, or we would have had a lot of maxed out materia." Tifa said.
"Morrid!" Cloud yelled as he approached the boat "Morrid! Are you all right?!"
"…Oh spoony! All my coffees' gone!" Morrid groaned as he toyed with a teacup.
"Will some one please explain what happened?!" Cait Sith yelled.
Yuffie took him over and explained while the rest gathered around the ship.
"What the %^&%ing hell do we do now?!" Cid stomped. "Shera's waiting for me! I promised her I'd be there for Cid Jr.'s birth!"
Cloud scanned the area. To the west was the ocean. To the north was this really big tree. The Iifa Tree I think, he thought. To the east was a desert, followed by some mountains….with a village.
"Hey! Guys!" Cloud shouted.
"What?!" They all yelled in annoyance.
"There's a village way over to the east by those mountains. We can probably find out where the hell we are by asking them.
"That village is Conde Petie, village of the dwarfs. It used to be only on the other side of those mountains, but after the Iifa tree destroyed part of the mountain, they expanded." Morrid said as he picked himself off the dusty ground. The others looked at him in astonishment.
"…And you know this how?!" Yuffie finally screamed.
"Well, I'm originally from here. Gaia, I mean not Conde Petie. My hometown is Dali to the south on the Mist continent. But there's no more mist, so I guess it's just Alexandria." He rambled.
"Amazing. How did you manage to get to our world?" Red asked Morrid.
"Well, for some reason, about a year after the Mist finally disappeared, strange things began to happen. Monsters were just getting pulled out of their homes and into another world. So I followed this one critter here, to the Iifa tree and BANG! I'm teleported to your world. Planet I believe." He said. "That was about a year ago, so I started a business in Wutai and lived there for a while."
"…" Vincent put his hand up to his chin in thought.
"…So if we go over there, we can accomplish…?" Cid asked.
"It's better than being out here in the dusty desert. Besides, we haven't eaten in hours." Tifa rubbed her belly.
"I think Cloud and Tifa are right fer once." Barret said aloud.
"Right. So lets get going gang!" Cloud said.
"$$##$^^$^#^ why does he always have to be so damn retarded about saying good catch phrases…" Cid mumbled as they went towards Conde Petie.
** *
AVALANCHE walked over a very, very large plant root over a deep chasm into the dwarven village of Conde Petie. They entered through a church or something like one. It was a large room, with a shallow pool in the middle with a boat on top of two arches stretching over the water. The sun came in as golden light. Specks of dust lazily floated through the sunshine as short, green, and bearded dwarves walked about. Vines climbed on the yellow stone brick. The village was really one great building built on two tree roots. The dwarves and tall chubby black mages waddled about, talking, doing business, and other aspects of normal life.
"Hoo boy. We sure as hell ain't in Coral any more." Barret whistled.
"Rally Ho! Wha cannae do for ye?" A dwarf approached the group.
"Uh…rally ho?. Uh…Listen we just have a few questions to ask, all right mister?" Tifa bent over to be at eye level with the little green fellow.
"Aye. Mah name be David. David Lightbringer. Come and have supper wit mah family. It haas been a wee bit a time since we had a fellow dat was no pyntie hat." David chuckled.
The group was confused. Only half of them could make out what he said through that really thick accent. But they followed him anyway.