Chapter Six
Cid continued to take huge gulps of the water from the jug in desperate attempts to get the alcohol out of his system. He needed to be thinking clearly right now, and getting the headache from his mind was a good start.
Another helpful idea was to try and find something to concentrate on. Cid had always been a bit different than other people. Though he was indeed strong as could be, he was a genius at heart and often found himself able to relax when he had something complex to study. At first, looking around the shockingly white room of which he was stored in, he decided to look at some papers.
Finding some blueprints of the science building he began to study them, become familiar with the layout. There were three underground levels where the 'important' research happened. They had an extremely well developed security system of which nobody could break through - or so he'd been told.
The first level was nothing but small, cramped rooms with biology experiments and some small-time machines that may do man a 'greater good'. He looked around and decided that was the level he was on.
The second level had animals to be tested with concoctions of all sorts. That was also where the superior scientists met weekly.
The third level Cid had never even been told about. It's security system was far superior to the rest of the buildings, and the things that went on down there were labelled far more important than anything else, supposdly. The pilot often worried himself to bits, thinking it may have something to do with Sephiroth or Jenova, or anything related to the Cetra. Scientists just never learned.
Moving the blueprints aside he looked around to see a small little machine on a table. It was crudely cut by hands that were obviously unexperienced, and it looked a bit jagged in the overall appearence, but it was immensely intriguing to Cid.
It's legs were about ten inches tall or so, made out of some kind of metal you'd expect from a childs creation kit. The torso was only a couple of inches with thick arms held at its side, all sorts of tools connected where fingers should have been. Then a small little flashlight seemed to be the head.
As soon as his fingers brushed it the light turned on and it leaped back, afraid of the newcomer. It seemed to be shaking in fear. Then, it slowly walked away from Cid, already forgetting him. Seeing the microwave it approached it, raising its heavy arm to tap a button. The button triggered the door to open and it knocked it across the table to the edge.
Frightened it began to cower, seeming to think it was under attack.
Cid was laughing hysterically. "Aw man! This little dude would make a fortune!"
"Already has." Cid turned around to see the first of the scientists walking in, Reeve right behind him then the second scientist in pursuit. "Most unfortunately, not by us.
"Some little punk hacker new to the biz managed to get all the information on it, and sold it to the black market. Most companies on the Planet now have their own models in developement. If you want one you may take it." Cid nodded, smiling.
Reeve wasn't at all amused though. "Cid. What do you plan on doing about our current... situation?"
Cid shrugged. "The hell should I know? This isn't really my line of work, y'know. What I can suggest, however, is that you let the press know."
The Presidents eyebrow raised skeptically. "You're kidding me?"
"Not at all. This would force Hakwing Enterprises to loan us some money to finish the job, since we would have expected this, of course. We simply say we have a backup plan and will need the correct fundings."
"And when they find out the truth?" Cid shrugged once again.
*
Later on that day, Marlene sat on the roof of 7th Heaven and wept. Her life had taken such a downfall, at such a tender age. She had never excpected all this to happen so rapidly.
What frightened her more than anything was that she had been expecting some of it to happen. She sometimes had dreams which were more like a twisted reality, as if she herself was actually there. Being a thirteen year old girl and witnessing such things as she had was not a very good mixture. But she could handle...
She had handled it, until she realized one day those visions were true.
But these visions she'd been having recently frightened her. She did not know what was happened, but she did know it was something far more important than the others.
One man cloaked in the shadows... The shadows swirl around him as he draws them around his slender form, as if they were his cape. Laughing madly he discards the shadows, drawing a broadsword. The shadows slowly fade away, the small tendrils reaching for their master as they die.
He moves like a ghost, his feet so heavy not once making a sound.
Across from him lies a different man. He is of the same size of the shadow warrior, and is similar in many ways. From his slender frame a holy light radiates, a sign of purity. Light and Shadow... They were never opposites; one cannot exist without the other.
But the opposite souls in one another are obvious to anyone. One is of hate, and evil, the other swelling with the same hate but a goodness too. Perhaps they were not opposites. A slight change, and they would be the same.
The second figure draws a broadsword like the shadow warriors, and as a single tear slides down his cheek he charges.
The vision ends at this point, as though their fate has yet to be determined.
She could hear the faint clatter of feet on the tiles. "...Hi Danny."
The boy spoke no word. He walked over to Marlene and sat next to her, swinging his hand around her small, tender one. He brought his other hand around to her shoulder and drew her close, leaning into her as she leaned into him.
On a late Summers eve, love was in the air. It is a terrible and terrific force, able to bring down empires but raise even mightier ones from nothing. It has the ability to bring two people from opposite ends of the world to one another, no matter what obstacles lay in their path.
If one could only wield love, they would never again know any negative emotion in the world. But humans, as sensitive as they were, didn't need to wield the magnificent power. To merely feel it in their hearts, that would be enough. It is not something of which you want more of - knowing ten years after experiencing a second of love you can still smile, and know it was the greatest feeling ever.
Danny didn't care whether or not others said children can feel the emotion. They were wrong, he knew that much. Children had seen as much pain in their lives as adults, but they were fresh to the emotion of love. For them it was magnified a million times. But Danny didn't care. Brushing his brown hair from his eyes, he leaned into Marlene, and told himself she was all he ever needed.
*
Marlene shivered as she suddenly became aware she had awoken. Looking around she found herself in her bed, in her own room. She was tightly wrapped in her blanket, and found herself to be smiling. Danny really did care about her...
She still felt as though something was wrong, so managing to get herself out of the tightly wrapped blankets she stumbled out of her room. As she approached the living room she could hear the television was on, and her father was sitting on the recliner, his fist clenched.
"Daddy?" The large man didn't say anything, so she just turned to the television instead.
What she saw could only be described as hideous. Waves of destroyed ground were raising up and down, taking the form of people. She was frightened of what it meant, and suddenly felt a gut-wrenching ache.
The bottom of the screen displayed the words 'Icicle Inn', and she could feel her mouth silently swear. Suddenly a howl pierced the eerie silenced wind, and the camera jerkily moved away from the current setting. It zoomed in on a different location that looked virtually the same anyway, and the picture seemed to be a wolf.
Marlene had the picture of cookies for some reason. After making the shape of a cookie she'd have to cut off the extra bits. In this scenery the extra bits were everywhere - the extra bits were the ground. At the moment it was only wolf shaped, but it tore itself away from the ground and flew through the air, landing painfully.
Cobalt eyes suddenly became alert, but they were cold and dead. The skin of the wolf began to change color from the murky brown to a deep blue, dotted with white spots. And it was alrger than most wolfs are - it must've been the same height as Marlene and it was still on all fours.
Roaring viciously, a stone flew from nowhere and slapped it on the newly formed neck.
Since it was in a 'baby' state the neck suddenly twisted, and the wolf fell down dead. What happened next, nobody was prepared for. The sea of rotten ground splashed over it, and when it sloshed away the wolf was good as new - it even looked larger and more menacing before.
Jerkily the camera changed once again to a reporter, who tried to speak over the eerie silence. Though it was silence, it was the loud sort of windy silence you had to yell to be heard.
"What you've just seen... I've been... I've been told it's the Elemental Energy of the Planet. Apparently... things are made from this energy, and... heal themselves with it!" The way the silence became louder than his voice at certain spots was indeed weird. Just so he could try to get his point through he made movements as he spoke.
"Daddy?"
"Go to bed, sweety. I'm... I'm going to Junon tomorrow. I'll leave you with Larry, okay?"
"But Daddy!"
"GO!" he roared, turning on her with furious eyes. That... wasn't her father, she had seen there. He was absolutely enraged, like she had never seen him before. Turning she ran back into her room, holding the tears at bay.
The young teenager took out a pen and pulled away a book that said 'My Diary' in a pink gel pen. Opening it up to a fresh page she wrote with rage.
*
"AHAHAHA! You... YOU?... challenged the... the Guardian? AHAHAHAA!" The inspector, along with the rest fo the filthy cops in the room, was laughing madly, tipping backwards in his chair. Reno was too pissed with the man, and kicked his chair down - the laughing idiot didn't even notice it.
"I do have feelings, you know. Well, not feelings, but I do have a rep to keep!" Everyone continued to laugh at him, their eyes shut with tears running down their faces. One of the men laid an arm on his chair so he wouldn't fall over. "That's it, I'm outta here."
Moving away from the chair the man who had been leaning on it fell over. He moved towards the door, getting ready to get out of the place. He spit a toothpick at the door and turned, catching it. Taking out another with his hand he lodged one deep into the handcuffs, poking at it with the second.
Satisfied with the click he threw the handcuffs away. Taking out a screw driver he knocked the doorknob out of place and poked the lock out. He pushed the door open and walked into the empty police station.
He took the nearest chair and tore the chair leg from it, lodging it into the hole for the doorknob. He then took a table and dragged it in front of the door. Whistling as the Turk admired his handwork, he moved out away from the place with happy thoughts.
Happy, destructive thoughts.
*
Cid leaned against the railing, admiring the clear blue sky far above him - and yet all around him, he reminded himself. This balcony was mostly hidden from most workers because, as Reeve explained, it was a relaxing one. He was a dickhead to his workers.
He flicked a cigarette away from the balcony and began to get carried away with his thoughts. He wanted to pull out some kind of theory about this now.
Everything he knew about materia. Normal materia was the Cetra's knowledge locked into small stones created from Elemental Energy. This was the energy of the land, unlike the Spirit Energy which existed in all living things. Bugenhagen had taught him about that, but Elemental Energy was a force only recently discovered.
Then there was Summon materia... The Beasts from another planet could be summoned by those with psychic powers, but this took a great amont of energy and psychics were hard to find. It was for this reason Summon materia was very cheap.
He soon enough decided that Summoning had nothing to do with this, but felt the Spirit and Elemental energy had a strong bond in this matter. Just as he was about to figure out what it all meant he could hear a ruckus below him and forgot everything.
"Well, if President Reeve isn't here where is he?!" Reporters, noted Cid with dismay.
One of the two men blocking the door to Reeve's private quarters looked a bit confused. "Well, er, we don't know. He said to not let anyone in though."
"Who CAN we talk to?!" The woman questioning the guard was fierce. She had a shocking hair of red, and was built to be very persuasive to the males. She was currently in a mini-skirt and very tight shirt. Well well well, who slept with the boss for a job?
"Captain Cid Highwind is right up there. He led the mission." Everyone turned to look at Cid who was leaning over the balcony. Traitorous bastards. The dozen or so reporters all ran for the side entrance to get to Cid as quick as they could. The red-head and her camera-man were through first, and apparently blocked the other side of the door with something. The other reporters began to yell, trying to get someone on the inside to open the door for them.
Cid leaned against the balcony-side and waited for the woman to emerge. At last she flew through the door with her reporter. "Hi wench."
The woman was obviously suprised at the greeting but shrugged it off. "Captain Highwind! Can you tell us about the recent attacks?"
"Sure. How about this? I don't know anything about them."
The reporter and cameraman looked at one another confused. "You mean... You haven't heard?" Cid shook his head, preparing another cigarette. "Well, the monsters... They've gone insane - moreso than usual, that is. They've already taken over the first barricade. We were hoping one of you officials could tell-"
"Holy shit! Monsters? Thank the Gods, I was bored as hell!" Cid went running through the door.
"...What just happened?" the reporter asked a bit confused.
*
The monsters were pouring in from all sides, like a waterfall closing in all around them. They were mostly wolves, deep violet colored ones that were immensely large. They were pouring down in the thousands, an army raised from Hell it seemed.
For every thousand wolves a single man in a dark black cloak, sat upon a warhorse, would ride out, guiding the army and telling them what to do.
It was indeed a bloody scene. The blood of the natives ran down the hills, the stench too horrible for the humans to take. But on that day, a miracle had happened.
Men of Fort Condor took their weapons and ran onto the battlefield, destroying all that lay in their path. The women had created makeshift weapons and were alongside their husbands or sons. The elders, far too old to fight, were miraculously managing to use any sort of weapon they could get their hands on.
Their only true weakness was the lack of magic, but it did not matter to them. By the time they had all been ruthlessly murdered, ten times their number had been taken. They were not stronger than the monsters, nor were they faster. Their courage was the strongest tool they had.
*
Her arm screamed to her brain in agony as fains at least two inches long dug into her arm. She did not scream, however. Using the pan she had made for a weapon she hit the wolf across the head.
The thing was gigantic - eight feet long, five feet tall. She had never expected they would evolve to such monstrous creations, but it had at last happened.
A paw swiped her face, drawing blood, but it didn't bother her. Bringing up a long knife she sliced it's neck. It stumbled along for a few more minutes before the message of its death reach it's brain, and it fell.
There had never been any hope what-so-ever of coming out victorious. Every inch of the terrain that didn't have a human was covered with monsters. Outnumbered a hundred thousand to one their only goal was to give them a fight they wouldn't forget.
One of the mercenaries came by her, his raven hair blowing in the wind. His broadsword cut through the neck of the monster before he was slapped across the chest and flew through the air. She turned to see he was okay, already moving through the monsters with ease.
Then the rest came. At the moment they had been dealing with about two-hundred thousand wolves, and the humans of course. But now dozens of more monster types came. For each type of monster there was twice the number of wolves.
Dragons came down in spiralling attacks, and she fell to her knees.
A dragon swallowed her whole and Marlene fell from her bed screaming in pain, and fear.
*
Nanaki was cursed to use his powers to only a certain extent. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get in touch with the Planet whilst on boats, planes, or anything else technological. The technology didn't kill it - it was just a shock absorber.
So he sat panting on the boat, wishing he could find out what was currently happening. He supposed that the Planet was getting worse with every ill-chosen action, but that had always been the way things worked here.
This suggestion to the mind was suddenly shattered. Even here on a ferry in the middle of the ocean, the noise came in at full blast. Even the humans near by could here the awful wailing; normally too high pitched for the humans the sound dipped lower as though it was losing it's breath.
The Planet had been hurt, an evil so great and so greedy that it could not suppress the pain. Mountains shuddered, forests toppled, and the lands quaked. The pain was unbearable - something was wrong.
Never had this kind of hate been felt on the Planet, and Nanaki doubted it would be felt again for a long time, if ever. Someone had been awakened; someone whom would destroy cities and bring the fiery storms of hell to the Planet.
Nanki, son to Seko, a legend in his own name, and Guardian to Cosmo Canyon, cried. His tears fell from his eyes, slowly travelling down to the floor of the ferry in slow motion. If only he could swipe his paw, catch the tears and deny they had ever been. But he could not. The first tear splashed the ground, the wailing at last stopping.
The humans too felt a great sorrow, and some also wept with the warrior. They did not know why, but they felt as though their fates had just been sealed.
Authors Notes: *Phew* I wrote most of that last night, but I'm still exhausted -.- Hope yall like it, most of it is pretty damn cool to me. The only places I felt I screwed up on were the Fort Condor scenes. Not nuff drama!
Um, okay... I took what's probably the most important tests in my life today. Well, the English one anyway. I'm pretty sure I aced it :D If I get top marks on Maths and Science as well, I get £300! Bout $450 for fellow americans.
And just as I wrote this AN it happened... I keep the entire fic on one file, and if the file gets too long it does that annoying thing where you try to write somewhere above, but it erases the next letters. For some reason it never did it with the other file, even though it's longer.
*Ahem* GO 23000 WORDS!
Now... As much of a bitch this may sound to you, Aeris won't really be much of a character until Part Two of this fic (Yes, I know I name the chapters of the fic by 'Part' - Part Two is War of the SOLDIERs [working title], like the second book or something). Vincent won't even be introduced till then, I think.
Good news is Part Two is the third chapter from now! (chapter 9 ends part one, i think, or maybe it's 8? ah, who cares)
PLZ R+R! If ya do I'll read ur fic! (er, try to, i honestly am a bit busy)
PS DAMMIT! The italics dont show up... I'll have to fix that when I check my fic
PSS? Thanks to everyone who's read this so far! Specially Krystal and Giggleplex since they review the hell out of it!
Cid continued to take huge gulps of the water from the jug in desperate attempts to get the alcohol out of his system. He needed to be thinking clearly right now, and getting the headache from his mind was a good start.
Another helpful idea was to try and find something to concentrate on. Cid had always been a bit different than other people. Though he was indeed strong as could be, he was a genius at heart and often found himself able to relax when he had something complex to study. At first, looking around the shockingly white room of which he was stored in, he decided to look at some papers.
Finding some blueprints of the science building he began to study them, become familiar with the layout. There were three underground levels where the 'important' research happened. They had an extremely well developed security system of which nobody could break through - or so he'd been told.
The first level was nothing but small, cramped rooms with biology experiments and some small-time machines that may do man a 'greater good'. He looked around and decided that was the level he was on.
The second level had animals to be tested with concoctions of all sorts. That was also where the superior scientists met weekly.
The third level Cid had never even been told about. It's security system was far superior to the rest of the buildings, and the things that went on down there were labelled far more important than anything else, supposdly. The pilot often worried himself to bits, thinking it may have something to do with Sephiroth or Jenova, or anything related to the Cetra. Scientists just never learned.
Moving the blueprints aside he looked around to see a small little machine on a table. It was crudely cut by hands that were obviously unexperienced, and it looked a bit jagged in the overall appearence, but it was immensely intriguing to Cid.
It's legs were about ten inches tall or so, made out of some kind of metal you'd expect from a childs creation kit. The torso was only a couple of inches with thick arms held at its side, all sorts of tools connected where fingers should have been. Then a small little flashlight seemed to be the head.
As soon as his fingers brushed it the light turned on and it leaped back, afraid of the newcomer. It seemed to be shaking in fear. Then, it slowly walked away from Cid, already forgetting him. Seeing the microwave it approached it, raising its heavy arm to tap a button. The button triggered the door to open and it knocked it across the table to the edge.
Frightened it began to cower, seeming to think it was under attack.
Cid was laughing hysterically. "Aw man! This little dude would make a fortune!"
"Already has." Cid turned around to see the first of the scientists walking in, Reeve right behind him then the second scientist in pursuit. "Most unfortunately, not by us.
"Some little punk hacker new to the biz managed to get all the information on it, and sold it to the black market. Most companies on the Planet now have their own models in developement. If you want one you may take it." Cid nodded, smiling.
Reeve wasn't at all amused though. "Cid. What do you plan on doing about our current... situation?"
Cid shrugged. "The hell should I know? This isn't really my line of work, y'know. What I can suggest, however, is that you let the press know."
The Presidents eyebrow raised skeptically. "You're kidding me?"
"Not at all. This would force Hakwing Enterprises to loan us some money to finish the job, since we would have expected this, of course. We simply say we have a backup plan and will need the correct fundings."
"And when they find out the truth?" Cid shrugged once again.
*
Later on that day, Marlene sat on the roof of 7th Heaven and wept. Her life had taken such a downfall, at such a tender age. She had never excpected all this to happen so rapidly.
What frightened her more than anything was that she had been expecting some of it to happen. She sometimes had dreams which were more like a twisted reality, as if she herself was actually there. Being a thirteen year old girl and witnessing such things as she had was not a very good mixture. But she could handle...
She had handled it, until she realized one day those visions were true.
But these visions she'd been having recently frightened her. She did not know what was happened, but she did know it was something far more important than the others.
One man cloaked in the shadows... The shadows swirl around him as he draws them around his slender form, as if they were his cape. Laughing madly he discards the shadows, drawing a broadsword. The shadows slowly fade away, the small tendrils reaching for their master as they die.
He moves like a ghost, his feet so heavy not once making a sound.
Across from him lies a different man. He is of the same size of the shadow warrior, and is similar in many ways. From his slender frame a holy light radiates, a sign of purity. Light and Shadow... They were never opposites; one cannot exist without the other.
But the opposite souls in one another are obvious to anyone. One is of hate, and evil, the other swelling with the same hate but a goodness too. Perhaps they were not opposites. A slight change, and they would be the same.
The second figure draws a broadsword like the shadow warriors, and as a single tear slides down his cheek he charges.
The vision ends at this point, as though their fate has yet to be determined.
She could hear the faint clatter of feet on the tiles. "...Hi Danny."
The boy spoke no word. He walked over to Marlene and sat next to her, swinging his hand around her small, tender one. He brought his other hand around to her shoulder and drew her close, leaning into her as she leaned into him.
On a late Summers eve, love was in the air. It is a terrible and terrific force, able to bring down empires but raise even mightier ones from nothing. It has the ability to bring two people from opposite ends of the world to one another, no matter what obstacles lay in their path.
If one could only wield love, they would never again know any negative emotion in the world. But humans, as sensitive as they were, didn't need to wield the magnificent power. To merely feel it in their hearts, that would be enough. It is not something of which you want more of - knowing ten years after experiencing a second of love you can still smile, and know it was the greatest feeling ever.
Danny didn't care whether or not others said children can feel the emotion. They were wrong, he knew that much. Children had seen as much pain in their lives as adults, but they were fresh to the emotion of love. For them it was magnified a million times. But Danny didn't care. Brushing his brown hair from his eyes, he leaned into Marlene, and told himself she was all he ever needed.
*
Marlene shivered as she suddenly became aware she had awoken. Looking around she found herself in her bed, in her own room. She was tightly wrapped in her blanket, and found herself to be smiling. Danny really did care about her...
She still felt as though something was wrong, so managing to get herself out of the tightly wrapped blankets she stumbled out of her room. As she approached the living room she could hear the television was on, and her father was sitting on the recliner, his fist clenched.
"Daddy?" The large man didn't say anything, so she just turned to the television instead.
What she saw could only be described as hideous. Waves of destroyed ground were raising up and down, taking the form of people. She was frightened of what it meant, and suddenly felt a gut-wrenching ache.
The bottom of the screen displayed the words 'Icicle Inn', and she could feel her mouth silently swear. Suddenly a howl pierced the eerie silenced wind, and the camera jerkily moved away from the current setting. It zoomed in on a different location that looked virtually the same anyway, and the picture seemed to be a wolf.
Marlene had the picture of cookies for some reason. After making the shape of a cookie she'd have to cut off the extra bits. In this scenery the extra bits were everywhere - the extra bits were the ground. At the moment it was only wolf shaped, but it tore itself away from the ground and flew through the air, landing painfully.
Cobalt eyes suddenly became alert, but they were cold and dead. The skin of the wolf began to change color from the murky brown to a deep blue, dotted with white spots. And it was alrger than most wolfs are - it must've been the same height as Marlene and it was still on all fours.
Roaring viciously, a stone flew from nowhere and slapped it on the newly formed neck.
Since it was in a 'baby' state the neck suddenly twisted, and the wolf fell down dead. What happened next, nobody was prepared for. The sea of rotten ground splashed over it, and when it sloshed away the wolf was good as new - it even looked larger and more menacing before.
Jerkily the camera changed once again to a reporter, who tried to speak over the eerie silence. Though it was silence, it was the loud sort of windy silence you had to yell to be heard.
"What you've just seen... I've been... I've been told it's the Elemental Energy of the Planet. Apparently... things are made from this energy, and... heal themselves with it!" The way the silence became louder than his voice at certain spots was indeed weird. Just so he could try to get his point through he made movements as he spoke.
"Daddy?"
"Go to bed, sweety. I'm... I'm going to Junon tomorrow. I'll leave you with Larry, okay?"
"But Daddy!"
"GO!" he roared, turning on her with furious eyes. That... wasn't her father, she had seen there. He was absolutely enraged, like she had never seen him before. Turning she ran back into her room, holding the tears at bay.
The young teenager took out a pen and pulled away a book that said 'My Diary' in a pink gel pen. Opening it up to a fresh page she wrote with rage.
*
"AHAHAHA! You... YOU?... challenged the... the Guardian? AHAHAHAA!" The inspector, along with the rest fo the filthy cops in the room, was laughing madly, tipping backwards in his chair. Reno was too pissed with the man, and kicked his chair down - the laughing idiot didn't even notice it.
"I do have feelings, you know. Well, not feelings, but I do have a rep to keep!" Everyone continued to laugh at him, their eyes shut with tears running down their faces. One of the men laid an arm on his chair so he wouldn't fall over. "That's it, I'm outta here."
Moving away from the chair the man who had been leaning on it fell over. He moved towards the door, getting ready to get out of the place. He spit a toothpick at the door and turned, catching it. Taking out another with his hand he lodged one deep into the handcuffs, poking at it with the second.
Satisfied with the click he threw the handcuffs away. Taking out a screw driver he knocked the doorknob out of place and poked the lock out. He pushed the door open and walked into the empty police station.
He took the nearest chair and tore the chair leg from it, lodging it into the hole for the doorknob. He then took a table and dragged it in front of the door. Whistling as the Turk admired his handwork, he moved out away from the place with happy thoughts.
Happy, destructive thoughts.
*
Cid leaned against the railing, admiring the clear blue sky far above him - and yet all around him, he reminded himself. This balcony was mostly hidden from most workers because, as Reeve explained, it was a relaxing one. He was a dickhead to his workers.
He flicked a cigarette away from the balcony and began to get carried away with his thoughts. He wanted to pull out some kind of theory about this now.
Everything he knew about materia. Normal materia was the Cetra's knowledge locked into small stones created from Elemental Energy. This was the energy of the land, unlike the Spirit Energy which existed in all living things. Bugenhagen had taught him about that, but Elemental Energy was a force only recently discovered.
Then there was Summon materia... The Beasts from another planet could be summoned by those with psychic powers, but this took a great amont of energy and psychics were hard to find. It was for this reason Summon materia was very cheap.
He soon enough decided that Summoning had nothing to do with this, but felt the Spirit and Elemental energy had a strong bond in this matter. Just as he was about to figure out what it all meant he could hear a ruckus below him and forgot everything.
"Well, if President Reeve isn't here where is he?!" Reporters, noted Cid with dismay.
One of the two men blocking the door to Reeve's private quarters looked a bit confused. "Well, er, we don't know. He said to not let anyone in though."
"Who CAN we talk to?!" The woman questioning the guard was fierce. She had a shocking hair of red, and was built to be very persuasive to the males. She was currently in a mini-skirt and very tight shirt. Well well well, who slept with the boss for a job?
"Captain Cid Highwind is right up there. He led the mission." Everyone turned to look at Cid who was leaning over the balcony. Traitorous bastards. The dozen or so reporters all ran for the side entrance to get to Cid as quick as they could. The red-head and her camera-man were through first, and apparently blocked the other side of the door with something. The other reporters began to yell, trying to get someone on the inside to open the door for them.
Cid leaned against the balcony-side and waited for the woman to emerge. At last she flew through the door with her reporter. "Hi wench."
The woman was obviously suprised at the greeting but shrugged it off. "Captain Highwind! Can you tell us about the recent attacks?"
"Sure. How about this? I don't know anything about them."
The reporter and cameraman looked at one another confused. "You mean... You haven't heard?" Cid shook his head, preparing another cigarette. "Well, the monsters... They've gone insane - moreso than usual, that is. They've already taken over the first barricade. We were hoping one of you officials could tell-"
"Holy shit! Monsters? Thank the Gods, I was bored as hell!" Cid went running through the door.
"...What just happened?" the reporter asked a bit confused.
*
The monsters were pouring in from all sides, like a waterfall closing in all around them. They were mostly wolves, deep violet colored ones that were immensely large. They were pouring down in the thousands, an army raised from Hell it seemed.
For every thousand wolves a single man in a dark black cloak, sat upon a warhorse, would ride out, guiding the army and telling them what to do.
It was indeed a bloody scene. The blood of the natives ran down the hills, the stench too horrible for the humans to take. But on that day, a miracle had happened.
Men of Fort Condor took their weapons and ran onto the battlefield, destroying all that lay in their path. The women had created makeshift weapons and were alongside their husbands or sons. The elders, far too old to fight, were miraculously managing to use any sort of weapon they could get their hands on.
Their only true weakness was the lack of magic, but it did not matter to them. By the time they had all been ruthlessly murdered, ten times their number had been taken. They were not stronger than the monsters, nor were they faster. Their courage was the strongest tool they had.
*
Her arm screamed to her brain in agony as fains at least two inches long dug into her arm. She did not scream, however. Using the pan she had made for a weapon she hit the wolf across the head.
The thing was gigantic - eight feet long, five feet tall. She had never expected they would evolve to such monstrous creations, but it had at last happened.
A paw swiped her face, drawing blood, but it didn't bother her. Bringing up a long knife she sliced it's neck. It stumbled along for a few more minutes before the message of its death reach it's brain, and it fell.
There had never been any hope what-so-ever of coming out victorious. Every inch of the terrain that didn't have a human was covered with monsters. Outnumbered a hundred thousand to one their only goal was to give them a fight they wouldn't forget.
One of the mercenaries came by her, his raven hair blowing in the wind. His broadsword cut through the neck of the monster before he was slapped across the chest and flew through the air. She turned to see he was okay, already moving through the monsters with ease.
Then the rest came. At the moment they had been dealing with about two-hundred thousand wolves, and the humans of course. But now dozens of more monster types came. For each type of monster there was twice the number of wolves.
Dragons came down in spiralling attacks, and she fell to her knees.
A dragon swallowed her whole and Marlene fell from her bed screaming in pain, and fear.
*
Nanaki was cursed to use his powers to only a certain extent. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get in touch with the Planet whilst on boats, planes, or anything else technological. The technology didn't kill it - it was just a shock absorber.
So he sat panting on the boat, wishing he could find out what was currently happening. He supposed that the Planet was getting worse with every ill-chosen action, but that had always been the way things worked here.
This suggestion to the mind was suddenly shattered. Even here on a ferry in the middle of the ocean, the noise came in at full blast. Even the humans near by could here the awful wailing; normally too high pitched for the humans the sound dipped lower as though it was losing it's breath.
The Planet had been hurt, an evil so great and so greedy that it could not suppress the pain. Mountains shuddered, forests toppled, and the lands quaked. The pain was unbearable - something was wrong.
Never had this kind of hate been felt on the Planet, and Nanaki doubted it would be felt again for a long time, if ever. Someone had been awakened; someone whom would destroy cities and bring the fiery storms of hell to the Planet.
Nanki, son to Seko, a legend in his own name, and Guardian to Cosmo Canyon, cried. His tears fell from his eyes, slowly travelling down to the floor of the ferry in slow motion. If only he could swipe his paw, catch the tears and deny they had ever been. But he could not. The first tear splashed the ground, the wailing at last stopping.
The humans too felt a great sorrow, and some also wept with the warrior. They did not know why, but they felt as though their fates had just been sealed.
Authors Notes: *Phew* I wrote most of that last night, but I'm still exhausted -.- Hope yall like it, most of it is pretty damn cool to me. The only places I felt I screwed up on were the Fort Condor scenes. Not nuff drama!
Um, okay... I took what's probably the most important tests in my life today. Well, the English one anyway. I'm pretty sure I aced it :D If I get top marks on Maths and Science as well, I get £300! Bout $450 for fellow americans.
And just as I wrote this AN it happened... I keep the entire fic on one file, and if the file gets too long it does that annoying thing where you try to write somewhere above, but it erases the next letters. For some reason it never did it with the other file, even though it's longer.
*Ahem* GO 23000 WORDS!
Now... As much of a bitch this may sound to you, Aeris won't really be much of a character until Part Two of this fic (Yes, I know I name the chapters of the fic by 'Part' - Part Two is War of the SOLDIERs [working title], like the second book or something). Vincent won't even be introduced till then, I think.
Good news is Part Two is the third chapter from now! (chapter 9 ends part one, i think, or maybe it's 8? ah, who cares)
PLZ R+R! If ya do I'll read ur fic! (er, try to, i honestly am a bit busy)
PS DAMMIT! The italics dont show up... I'll have to fix that when I check my fic
PSS? Thanks to everyone who's read this so far! Specially Krystal and Giggleplex since they review the hell out of it!