Chapter Seven:
Within the Rift
Luts crossed his arms. "So," he said, "Who's going first?"
Luts, Rani, and Cloud stood before the shifting, glowing, dome-shaped rupture in time in the all-but-abandoned Neo-Shinra camp. Understandably, they were reluctant to simply leap into the dome; the knew that, at best, they would be thrown into another time period, but were not positive as to whether or not time travel would be the extent of the dome's effect. The fact that Luts had been thrown through time fairly safely was not proof enough of the vortex's safety for the trio.
"You're the one who came through that thing in the first place," Cloud said with a shrug.
"So?" Luts said defensively. "What does it matter?"
Rani sighed. "Why don't we all go in at once? That way we'll be ready if anything attacks us on the other side."
Luts simply shrugged. "Sure, why not," he said, and, without further discussion, the trio stepped cautiously into the massive dome of temporal energy.
All at once, the three time-travelers attempted to speak, but found that no sound emitted from their mouths despite their best efforts to make noise. It seemed as if they were flying through a vortex of some sort, surrounded by bright, colorful energy that flew past them on all sides and seemed to wash over them as they traversed the fourth dimension. However, before they had traveled very far in this manner, it seemed as if they were suddenly jerked to the side, as if some unseen force had pulled them out of the time vortex, and were forcefully deposited upon the ground of an unknown locale.
Cloud was the first of the three to rise to his feet. Taking a quick look around, he could not help but notice that he seemed to be within a sort of closed-in wasteland; the ground beneath his feet was barren and red, as if it were clay of some sort, and the entire area was domed over by a massive field of ever-shifting energy. This thoroughly confused the hardened warrior and caused him to wonder how the "time rift" could have been a time rift at all, considering he had entered the supposed tear in the fabric of time and come out on the other side of the dome. However, before he had a great deal of time to ponder the situation, Cloud's eye was caught by the massive, half-built structure before him. It seemed to be a massive construction site of sorts, though the warrior could not determine what was being built. However, he found it quite odd that the entirety of the construction crew that was constructing the gargantuan structure were two-foot-tall, naked, demon-like creatures that never ceased to make chattering noises as if communicating amongst themselves. Cloud's brief search was interrupted by Luts, who seemed to have come to his senses and had his own look around.
"Well..." the mercenary muttered softly, as if to himself, "This certainly isn't home."
Rani had just dragged himself from the ground. After dusting himself off, he crossed his arms impatiently. "So you were lying about traveling through time? You've probably led us into a trap!"
"For the love of Hyne, calm down! Don't be so suspicious. Didn't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" Rani spat angrily.
"It felt like the time travel was interrupted. It was almost as if...as if we were pulled out of the vortex."
Cloud nodded. "Yes, I felt it too," he said simply. "It doesn't matter now; we've got more to worry about than the failed time travel at the moment. Look."
A large number of the demon-things had dropped their work and had approached the trio, seeming to examine them from a distance. Cloud immediately drew his sword, and Luts' hand flew to the hilt of his own. Rani, on the other hand, simply watched the creatures suspiciously, preparing himself to act on a moment's notice. However, the creatures were keeping their distance, and it seemed as if the time-travelers had little to fear for the time being. However, it also seemed as if their precarious situation would turn against them at any time, for a pale-skinned, winged woman clad rather scantily in black leather had made her way to the gathering of demon-things to investigate why the creatures had stopped their working.
Rani immediately stepped forward, proving himself to be an advocate for thinking before acting in battle. "Excuse me," he said slowly; he was still a bit dazed from the time travel experience. "Do you-"
Lazily, the woman raised her finger and pointed at the Neo-Shinra soldier. With a quick wave of her hand, Rani was tossed back several feet, landing painfully upon his back. Luckily, his armor partially broke his fall. The winged woman seemed to barely acknowledge what she had done before speaking. "What brings humans to our future base of operations?"
"We thought we'd end up in some other time period," Rani said. "We don't even know where we are."
The woman smiled evilly. "Unfortunately for you, you've managed to discover the future abode of the dark god Chaos. The time travel was a cover-up, you see; we had to send intruders somewhere while the dome was completing itself. Now that we've successfully removed this section of the Planet from the normal flow of time, we have begun construction on our lord's grand palace."
The trio simply stood perfectly still, their mouths agape. Of course, none of them had ever heard of an entity named Chaos who had the power to rip time and bend its delicate fabrics to his will, and none had ever expected time travel to be conceivable. Cloud, however, was far more able to cope with the situation, having faced a foe four years before who had come dangerously close to attaining godhood, and was not content to remain silent while the demon-woman revealed her god's plans to him.
"So how do we get out of here?" asked Cloud. His tone of voice betrayed the fact that he did not perceive himself to be in any great deal of danger.
The winged woman simply laughed at the sword-wielding warrior's inquiry. She placed a delicate hand upon her chin in thought, and her eyes quickly scanned the puzzled figure of Cloud that stood before her. "So which time period are you from? Perhaps the Era of Fire? No, not judging by that weapon of yours..." She was silent for a moment. "Ah! You must hail from the Era of Earth."
"Era of Earth?" Rani asked. Apparently, he had gotten over the initial shock of discovering his present location.
"Yes, of course," the woman said, speaking to Rani as if she were explaining a seemingly obvious fact to a small child. "The period of time in which the Crystal of Earth can be easily obtained. If you are as simple-minded as you seem, Chaos will be most displeased."
"We don't really care about Chaos or any of his plans!" Luts said angrily. "We need to travel to my time period, and we need to do it now."
The woman shook her head. "You...do not care about the plans of Chaos? Would you care if I told you that his plans include the domination of the three time periods to which this temporally immune sphere connects?"
By this time, the trio of time travelers had their weapons ready. It had become somewhat apparent that the woman and her impish minions could not be trusted in the least. However, the group was reluctant to jump to conclusions; Cloud attempted, for the last time, to extract a bit of intelligible information from the odd winged woman. "Explain to us how to get out of here and we'll be on our way," said the golden-haired hero. "To tell you the truth, we don't give a shit about Chaos at the moment, and need a little time to plot your demise or whatever you expect us to do." It seemed as if Cloud would stop, but he found that he had more to say than he had realized. "And trust me, if you think you can just waltz into our world and bring about the downfall of civilization as we know it, you've got another thing coming."
At this display of resistance, the woman simply laughed. "Back to work with you all!" she screeched at the demon-things that had formed a circle around her and the three time travelers. Angrily, the creatures stalked back toward the massive structure that had begun to take shape in the center of the gray wasteland under the dome of energy, leaving only the woman to face the time travelers. "You humans believe yourselves to be a match for me or any of my kind? You must all wish to die before your time. Now, away with you! There is much work to be done." Before any of the travelers could respond to her words, the woman waved her hand in the air as if brushing away an insect. This simple action caused the time travelers to fly back through the inner wall of the dome behind them, sending them plummeting through the river of time yet again. However, considering their forceful entry into the portal, they found it difficult to keep their balance, and slowly fell away into a black, semi-conscious state.
Within the temporally invulnerable sphere, the winged woman smiled as if she could see the hapless trio flailing in the unceasing stream of time as they struggled to remain conscious. However, she did not peer into the wall of the dome for long; there were legions of slaves to be commanded. Thus, without a backward glance, the woman spun around and hovered back toward her post, hoping that Chaos would not be overly angry that she had left it to deal with mere humans in the first place.
* * * * *
Xu was bored. As a result of this, Quistis was thoroughly annoyed.
"No, I don't want to play Triple Triad!" the blond SeeD instructor snapped. She had lost count of how many times Xu had asked her to play a round.
"Well, what else is there to do?" Xu asked. "I mean, I don't know how long we've been sitting in this god-forsaken inn under close watch by those ridiculous guards." She paused long enough to think to herself for a moment, then made her opinion known to her fellow SeeD. "They don't realize that we could kick all their asses in an instant."
Quistis shrugged. "So they don't have enough people guarding us. It's not like we have anywhere to go; as far as we know, that beam of light sent us back in time about fifteen thousand years."
"But that doesn't make sense."
"I know that!" Quistis had become a bit exasperated with her vocal companion. "Sorry...it's hard to stay calm in a situation like this. I suppose that's what we're trained for, but I don't remember ever taking a class that covered time travel back at the Garden."
"Come on, Quistis. We don't even know if we traveled through time at all. For all we know, we might be somewhere near Trabia Garden, considering the fact that it never stops snowing here."
"You're probably right," Quistis said with a sigh. "Still...that calendar I saw in the lobby of this place said it was the year 2005 AC. I'd like to know how that's possible."
"Maybe it's some sort of Shumi way of keeping track of the years. If we're close to Trabia, that would make sense."
"Still..." Quistis mused, "I've never heard of there being a village on this continent aside from the Shumi village to the north of Trabia Garden."
"Neither have I, but what other logical explanation is there for our location?"
Quistis sighed. "Logical explanation? There isn't one, and that's what pisses me off. Nothing makes sense right now."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of the inn room in which the two elite SeeD operatives resided. "Excuse me," said a voice from the other side.
"Come in," Xu said cautiously. She turned to Quistis, who simply shrugged, giving the impression that she did not judge the situation to be dangerous in any way.
The bearer of the mysterious voice was quick to open the door. He looked to be an elite soldier, being dressed in red body armor as opposed to the standard blue armor of an average Neo-Shinra soldier. "I apologize for the interruption, ladies, but a pressing matter has come up that may require the use of your knowledge of the future."
"The future?" said Quistis and Xu simultaneously.
"Yes," the soldier replied. "We have reason to believe that you have come from the future due to the explanation given to us by a certain young man by the name of Luts Vanguarde, who was apparently pulled into the time vortex soon after you."
"He must have been one of those two idiots near the ruins," Xu muttered to herself. However, without so much as acknowledging her, the soldier continued.
"The aforementioned young man has headed back into the vortex along with two others," the soldier explained. "However, a small group of odd individuals clad in black robes exited the vortex not long after the entry of the group commissioned by President Reeve. These individuals were quick to demand the unconditional surrender of the town of Junon, and stated that if Neo-Shinra did not comply with their demands, many others like themselves would seize the city by force. President Reeve wishes to speak to you about these individuals, and would be most appreciative if you would accompany us to Junon."
"There's nothing better to do," Quistis said with a shrug. "Besides, if these black-robed people came through the 'time vortex' or whatever you call it, they might be from our time period."
"Exactly," the soldier responded. "Will you come to Junon?"
"Sure," Xu replied. "What do we have to lose?"
Unfortunately for Xu, it would not be long until her question could properly be answered.
* * * * *
"So," Luts concluded, "The winged woman threw us back into the time vortex, and the next thing we remember is waking up on your ship." He looked at the man before him, a slender, fair-haired man clad in a white body suit, and sighed. It was obvious that the White SeeDs, the roving division of SeeD that had retrieved the three unconscious time-travelers from the Centra badlands, did not believe their story in the least.
The White SeeD operative was silent for a moment. "We've been investigating the energy phenomenon that has sprung up around the Centra ruins," he explained, "But we have no reason to believe that it serves as a gateway into the fortress of an evil god or a portal through time."
"I know it's a bit difficult to believe," Cloud said, "But I assure you that it's true. I was born approximately sixteen thousand and twenty-five years ago, and killed a threat to the very world on which we live twenty-one years after that. I was skeptical at first that Luts here had traveled through time, as it defies every law of physics known to man in my own time, but, after traveling to the future and having an encounter with a band of little impish demon-things and their master along the way, I have no more doubts about time travel."
Luts contemplated the situation for a moment. It was obvious that the White SeeD simply would not believe them without any sort of physical evidence. Therefore, the other pair of individuals who had traveled through time with he and Clest immediately came to Luts' mind. "Clest and I aren't the only people who were pulled into the vortex. Before it dragged us through time, it pulled in a SeeD helicopter. I think it was from Balamb Garden."
At the mention of the missing helicopter, the White SeeD's eyes widened. Before he spoke, it seemed as if he was having a bit of difficulty in forming an intelligible sentence. "But...two SeeDs from Balamb Garden were recently reported missing after flying here to investigate the energy phenomenon. No one has been able to locate them." He paused. "In fact, Senior Instructor Quistis Trepe and Xu, the famed CC group's 'Queen,' are rumored to be the two missing SeeDs."
"Holy shit..." Luts muttered to himself. He glared at the skeptical White SeeD in exasperation. "Do you believe me now? Two international heroes, one of whom helped to defeat Ultimecea, are missing, and the only three people who can explain why are failing to get their point across to a White SeeD. In the name of all things sacred, we should be talking to Cid! I keep failing to remember that our world is about to be invaded by an army of superhuman demon-people."
The White SeeD had stood from his chair; it was apparent that he could not afford to assume Luts' account to be false if a large-scale invasion force was on the verge of pouring from the dome of energy in the center of the Centra Continent. "Please, calm down," he said, though he himself had become a bit frantic. "I will contact Headmaster Cid of Balamb Garden as soon as possible. If you will wait here, I will return with a time of departure for you all."
"Departure?" Rani asked.
"Yes, departure for Balamb Garden. We must see what Headmaster Cid has to say about this."
Luts sighed. "In the meantime, there's nothing to do but wait."
"Wait for what?" Rani asked. "That supposed invasion force we've been worried about? It'll be too late then."
"Without the help of SeeD, there's nothing we can do. It's a little difficult to fight a war without an army."
"So I suppose we're stuck here for the time being," Cloud said distractedly.
"Unfortunately," Luts added.
Rani shrugged. "At least we'll be able to see the evil god's army when it comes out of the dome. Hell, we don't even know if that flying woman was telling the truth."
"Considering the fact that we saw a flying woman to begin with, I don't think we can take chances," Cloud said. "I'm beginning to believe that the fact that there is now a massive rift in time is truly all a part of some powerful being's plans, and if those plans involve world domination, it would be in the best interests of everybody for us to tell someone in a position of power what we've seen. At least we have a couple of missing persons to vouch for what we're saying, as ironic as it sounds."
After a period of silence, Luts pounded a fist against the arm of his chair. "I'll be damned if some dark god is going to take over this world."
Cloud stood. "As will I."
"And I," Rani said, nodding in agreement. "It might not be our world anymore, but it's the Planet nonetheless, and I'm not going to allow my distant descendants to be cut down by an army of demons."
Slowly, Luts smiled. "Thank you."
Within the Rift
Luts crossed his arms. "So," he said, "Who's going first?"
Luts, Rani, and Cloud stood before the shifting, glowing, dome-shaped rupture in time in the all-but-abandoned Neo-Shinra camp. Understandably, they were reluctant to simply leap into the dome; the knew that, at best, they would be thrown into another time period, but were not positive as to whether or not time travel would be the extent of the dome's effect. The fact that Luts had been thrown through time fairly safely was not proof enough of the vortex's safety for the trio.
"You're the one who came through that thing in the first place," Cloud said with a shrug.
"So?" Luts said defensively. "What does it matter?"
Rani sighed. "Why don't we all go in at once? That way we'll be ready if anything attacks us on the other side."
Luts simply shrugged. "Sure, why not," he said, and, without further discussion, the trio stepped cautiously into the massive dome of temporal energy.
All at once, the three time-travelers attempted to speak, but found that no sound emitted from their mouths despite their best efforts to make noise. It seemed as if they were flying through a vortex of some sort, surrounded by bright, colorful energy that flew past them on all sides and seemed to wash over them as they traversed the fourth dimension. However, before they had traveled very far in this manner, it seemed as if they were suddenly jerked to the side, as if some unseen force had pulled them out of the time vortex, and were forcefully deposited upon the ground of an unknown locale.
Cloud was the first of the three to rise to his feet. Taking a quick look around, he could not help but notice that he seemed to be within a sort of closed-in wasteland; the ground beneath his feet was barren and red, as if it were clay of some sort, and the entire area was domed over by a massive field of ever-shifting energy. This thoroughly confused the hardened warrior and caused him to wonder how the "time rift" could have been a time rift at all, considering he had entered the supposed tear in the fabric of time and come out on the other side of the dome. However, before he had a great deal of time to ponder the situation, Cloud's eye was caught by the massive, half-built structure before him. It seemed to be a massive construction site of sorts, though the warrior could not determine what was being built. However, he found it quite odd that the entirety of the construction crew that was constructing the gargantuan structure were two-foot-tall, naked, demon-like creatures that never ceased to make chattering noises as if communicating amongst themselves. Cloud's brief search was interrupted by Luts, who seemed to have come to his senses and had his own look around.
"Well..." the mercenary muttered softly, as if to himself, "This certainly isn't home."
Rani had just dragged himself from the ground. After dusting himself off, he crossed his arms impatiently. "So you were lying about traveling through time? You've probably led us into a trap!"
"For the love of Hyne, calm down! Don't be so suspicious. Didn't you feel it?"
"Feel what?" Rani spat angrily.
"It felt like the time travel was interrupted. It was almost as if...as if we were pulled out of the vortex."
Cloud nodded. "Yes, I felt it too," he said simply. "It doesn't matter now; we've got more to worry about than the failed time travel at the moment. Look."
A large number of the demon-things had dropped their work and had approached the trio, seeming to examine them from a distance. Cloud immediately drew his sword, and Luts' hand flew to the hilt of his own. Rani, on the other hand, simply watched the creatures suspiciously, preparing himself to act on a moment's notice. However, the creatures were keeping their distance, and it seemed as if the time-travelers had little to fear for the time being. However, it also seemed as if their precarious situation would turn against them at any time, for a pale-skinned, winged woman clad rather scantily in black leather had made her way to the gathering of demon-things to investigate why the creatures had stopped their working.
Rani immediately stepped forward, proving himself to be an advocate for thinking before acting in battle. "Excuse me," he said slowly; he was still a bit dazed from the time travel experience. "Do you-"
Lazily, the woman raised her finger and pointed at the Neo-Shinra soldier. With a quick wave of her hand, Rani was tossed back several feet, landing painfully upon his back. Luckily, his armor partially broke his fall. The winged woman seemed to barely acknowledge what she had done before speaking. "What brings humans to our future base of operations?"
"We thought we'd end up in some other time period," Rani said. "We don't even know where we are."
The woman smiled evilly. "Unfortunately for you, you've managed to discover the future abode of the dark god Chaos. The time travel was a cover-up, you see; we had to send intruders somewhere while the dome was completing itself. Now that we've successfully removed this section of the Planet from the normal flow of time, we have begun construction on our lord's grand palace."
The trio simply stood perfectly still, their mouths agape. Of course, none of them had ever heard of an entity named Chaos who had the power to rip time and bend its delicate fabrics to his will, and none had ever expected time travel to be conceivable. Cloud, however, was far more able to cope with the situation, having faced a foe four years before who had come dangerously close to attaining godhood, and was not content to remain silent while the demon-woman revealed her god's plans to him.
"So how do we get out of here?" asked Cloud. His tone of voice betrayed the fact that he did not perceive himself to be in any great deal of danger.
The winged woman simply laughed at the sword-wielding warrior's inquiry. She placed a delicate hand upon her chin in thought, and her eyes quickly scanned the puzzled figure of Cloud that stood before her. "So which time period are you from? Perhaps the Era of Fire? No, not judging by that weapon of yours..." She was silent for a moment. "Ah! You must hail from the Era of Earth."
"Era of Earth?" Rani asked. Apparently, he had gotten over the initial shock of discovering his present location.
"Yes, of course," the woman said, speaking to Rani as if she were explaining a seemingly obvious fact to a small child. "The period of time in which the Crystal of Earth can be easily obtained. If you are as simple-minded as you seem, Chaos will be most displeased."
"We don't really care about Chaos or any of his plans!" Luts said angrily. "We need to travel to my time period, and we need to do it now."
The woman shook her head. "You...do not care about the plans of Chaos? Would you care if I told you that his plans include the domination of the three time periods to which this temporally immune sphere connects?"
By this time, the trio of time travelers had their weapons ready. It had become somewhat apparent that the woman and her impish minions could not be trusted in the least. However, the group was reluctant to jump to conclusions; Cloud attempted, for the last time, to extract a bit of intelligible information from the odd winged woman. "Explain to us how to get out of here and we'll be on our way," said the golden-haired hero. "To tell you the truth, we don't give a shit about Chaos at the moment, and need a little time to plot your demise or whatever you expect us to do." It seemed as if Cloud would stop, but he found that he had more to say than he had realized. "And trust me, if you think you can just waltz into our world and bring about the downfall of civilization as we know it, you've got another thing coming."
At this display of resistance, the woman simply laughed. "Back to work with you all!" she screeched at the demon-things that had formed a circle around her and the three time travelers. Angrily, the creatures stalked back toward the massive structure that had begun to take shape in the center of the gray wasteland under the dome of energy, leaving only the woman to face the time travelers. "You humans believe yourselves to be a match for me or any of my kind? You must all wish to die before your time. Now, away with you! There is much work to be done." Before any of the travelers could respond to her words, the woman waved her hand in the air as if brushing away an insect. This simple action caused the time travelers to fly back through the inner wall of the dome behind them, sending them plummeting through the river of time yet again. However, considering their forceful entry into the portal, they found it difficult to keep their balance, and slowly fell away into a black, semi-conscious state.
Within the temporally invulnerable sphere, the winged woman smiled as if she could see the hapless trio flailing in the unceasing stream of time as they struggled to remain conscious. However, she did not peer into the wall of the dome for long; there were legions of slaves to be commanded. Thus, without a backward glance, the woman spun around and hovered back toward her post, hoping that Chaos would not be overly angry that she had left it to deal with mere humans in the first place.
* * * * *
Xu was bored. As a result of this, Quistis was thoroughly annoyed.
"No, I don't want to play Triple Triad!" the blond SeeD instructor snapped. She had lost count of how many times Xu had asked her to play a round.
"Well, what else is there to do?" Xu asked. "I mean, I don't know how long we've been sitting in this god-forsaken inn under close watch by those ridiculous guards." She paused long enough to think to herself for a moment, then made her opinion known to her fellow SeeD. "They don't realize that we could kick all their asses in an instant."
Quistis shrugged. "So they don't have enough people guarding us. It's not like we have anywhere to go; as far as we know, that beam of light sent us back in time about fifteen thousand years."
"But that doesn't make sense."
"I know that!" Quistis had become a bit exasperated with her vocal companion. "Sorry...it's hard to stay calm in a situation like this. I suppose that's what we're trained for, but I don't remember ever taking a class that covered time travel back at the Garden."
"Come on, Quistis. We don't even know if we traveled through time at all. For all we know, we might be somewhere near Trabia Garden, considering the fact that it never stops snowing here."
"You're probably right," Quistis said with a sigh. "Still...that calendar I saw in the lobby of this place said it was the year 2005 AC. I'd like to know how that's possible."
"Maybe it's some sort of Shumi way of keeping track of the years. If we're close to Trabia, that would make sense."
"Still..." Quistis mused, "I've never heard of there being a village on this continent aside from the Shumi village to the north of Trabia Garden."
"Neither have I, but what other logical explanation is there for our location?"
Quistis sighed. "Logical explanation? There isn't one, and that's what pisses me off. Nothing makes sense right now."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door of the inn room in which the two elite SeeD operatives resided. "Excuse me," said a voice from the other side.
"Come in," Xu said cautiously. She turned to Quistis, who simply shrugged, giving the impression that she did not judge the situation to be dangerous in any way.
The bearer of the mysterious voice was quick to open the door. He looked to be an elite soldier, being dressed in red body armor as opposed to the standard blue armor of an average Neo-Shinra soldier. "I apologize for the interruption, ladies, but a pressing matter has come up that may require the use of your knowledge of the future."
"The future?" said Quistis and Xu simultaneously.
"Yes," the soldier replied. "We have reason to believe that you have come from the future due to the explanation given to us by a certain young man by the name of Luts Vanguarde, who was apparently pulled into the time vortex soon after you."
"He must have been one of those two idiots near the ruins," Xu muttered to herself. However, without so much as acknowledging her, the soldier continued.
"The aforementioned young man has headed back into the vortex along with two others," the soldier explained. "However, a small group of odd individuals clad in black robes exited the vortex not long after the entry of the group commissioned by President Reeve. These individuals were quick to demand the unconditional surrender of the town of Junon, and stated that if Neo-Shinra did not comply with their demands, many others like themselves would seize the city by force. President Reeve wishes to speak to you about these individuals, and would be most appreciative if you would accompany us to Junon."
"There's nothing better to do," Quistis said with a shrug. "Besides, if these black-robed people came through the 'time vortex' or whatever you call it, they might be from our time period."
"Exactly," the soldier responded. "Will you come to Junon?"
"Sure," Xu replied. "What do we have to lose?"
Unfortunately for Xu, it would not be long until her question could properly be answered.
* * * * *
"So," Luts concluded, "The winged woman threw us back into the time vortex, and the next thing we remember is waking up on your ship." He looked at the man before him, a slender, fair-haired man clad in a white body suit, and sighed. It was obvious that the White SeeDs, the roving division of SeeD that had retrieved the three unconscious time-travelers from the Centra badlands, did not believe their story in the least.
The White SeeD operative was silent for a moment. "We've been investigating the energy phenomenon that has sprung up around the Centra ruins," he explained, "But we have no reason to believe that it serves as a gateway into the fortress of an evil god or a portal through time."
"I know it's a bit difficult to believe," Cloud said, "But I assure you that it's true. I was born approximately sixteen thousand and twenty-five years ago, and killed a threat to the very world on which we live twenty-one years after that. I was skeptical at first that Luts here had traveled through time, as it defies every law of physics known to man in my own time, but, after traveling to the future and having an encounter with a band of little impish demon-things and their master along the way, I have no more doubts about time travel."
Luts contemplated the situation for a moment. It was obvious that the White SeeD simply would not believe them without any sort of physical evidence. Therefore, the other pair of individuals who had traveled through time with he and Clest immediately came to Luts' mind. "Clest and I aren't the only people who were pulled into the vortex. Before it dragged us through time, it pulled in a SeeD helicopter. I think it was from Balamb Garden."
At the mention of the missing helicopter, the White SeeD's eyes widened. Before he spoke, it seemed as if he was having a bit of difficulty in forming an intelligible sentence. "But...two SeeDs from Balamb Garden were recently reported missing after flying here to investigate the energy phenomenon. No one has been able to locate them." He paused. "In fact, Senior Instructor Quistis Trepe and Xu, the famed CC group's 'Queen,' are rumored to be the two missing SeeDs."
"Holy shit..." Luts muttered to himself. He glared at the skeptical White SeeD in exasperation. "Do you believe me now? Two international heroes, one of whom helped to defeat Ultimecea, are missing, and the only three people who can explain why are failing to get their point across to a White SeeD. In the name of all things sacred, we should be talking to Cid! I keep failing to remember that our world is about to be invaded by an army of superhuman demon-people."
The White SeeD had stood from his chair; it was apparent that he could not afford to assume Luts' account to be false if a large-scale invasion force was on the verge of pouring from the dome of energy in the center of the Centra Continent. "Please, calm down," he said, though he himself had become a bit frantic. "I will contact Headmaster Cid of Balamb Garden as soon as possible. If you will wait here, I will return with a time of departure for you all."
"Departure?" Rani asked.
"Yes, departure for Balamb Garden. We must see what Headmaster Cid has to say about this."
Luts sighed. "In the meantime, there's nothing to do but wait."
"Wait for what?" Rani asked. "That supposed invasion force we've been worried about? It'll be too late then."
"Without the help of SeeD, there's nothing we can do. It's a little difficult to fight a war without an army."
"So I suppose we're stuck here for the time being," Cloud said distractedly.
"Unfortunately," Luts added.
Rani shrugged. "At least we'll be able to see the evil god's army when it comes out of the dome. Hell, we don't even know if that flying woman was telling the truth."
"Considering the fact that we saw a flying woman to begin with, I don't think we can take chances," Cloud said. "I'm beginning to believe that the fact that there is now a massive rift in time is truly all a part of some powerful being's plans, and if those plans involve world domination, it would be in the best interests of everybody for us to tell someone in a position of power what we've seen. At least we have a couple of missing persons to vouch for what we're saying, as ironic as it sounds."
After a period of silence, Luts pounded a fist against the arm of his chair. "I'll be damned if some dark god is going to take over this world."
Cloud stood. "As will I."
"And I," Rani said, nodding in agreement. "It might not be our world anymore, but it's the Planet nonetheless, and I'm not going to allow my distant descendants to be cut down by an army of demons."
Slowly, Luts smiled. "Thank you."