"Transcending Reality" by: Emerald Eyes
This is chapter eight! Whoa! I can't believe it! Eight
chapters is a lot to write in only a couple of months. This chapter focuses on
Eiko in Lindblum and the SeeDs in Balamb Garden… where some unexpected guests
show up! Thanx for the reviews everyone! It means a lot to me. I do not own Final Fantasy. Laguna does. He wrote the
stories when he became President of Esthar because it was a very, very
boring job. (translation: I will never ever write a boring disclaimer)
"I tried hard to mend my wicked ways, acted like a lunatic for years. Lord knows I try to be good. I'd keep my promises if only I could." –Garbage
Chapter Eight: Cryptic Answers
"Er, so you're trying to say that this guy is really, really bad… like Kuja?"
"Uh…" Alex attempted to answer the girl's gratuitous question, "yeah, he's kind of like Kuja, I guess."
Eiko summarized the information given to her before. "Okay: long silver hair, spooky aquamarine eyes, and a long scary sword. Got it."
"Good," Alex spoke into the PHS, "keep alert. I don't think he'll be there at the moment, but…" a pause "I have a feeling I know where he's at. I'll let you know if I find him."
He was about to end the conversation but Eiko frantically interrupted. "Hey, Alexander! Wait! I have one more question!"
Alex sighed, "What, Eiko?"
"Were you named after the holy eidolon?" the girl asked curiously.
"No, Eiko," the man said irritably, eager for the conversation to end. "How many times do I have to tell you? There aren't any eidolons where I come from."
"Oh," the girl answered simply and disappointedly, "Well, I guess you can go now."
Pressing a button on the PHS and ending the conversation, the girl stored the communication device in her pocket. She boldly stepped up onto the metal elevator and pulled the lever that had "upper level" printed next to it. Hmmm, I wonder what Cid's gonna say when I tell him a story like this. Soon she reached the top floor and the elevator came to a complete stop.
As soon as the lilac-haired girl stepped out onto the marble floor, Hilda, the Regent's wife, greeted her with open arms.
"Eiko! Oh my, where have you been?"
The girl smiled deviously. "You are never gonna believe what happened to me…"
^_^_^_^
"But I swear to Bahamut, it's the truth!"
As expected, the older woman didn't believe one word of Eiko's outlandish story. "Eiko, if you went somewhere without asking, the least you could do is tell the truth about where you went! Cid and I were looking all over for you!"
The small girl frowned. "But look, ma!" she said, holding the PHS out to Hilda, "Alex gave me this thingy! I can talk to him even though he's somewhere far away."
The Regent's wife stared askance at the young child. "…and what's that? One of Cid's bizarre inventions, is it?"
"No," the girl said neglectfully, shaking her head, "This is Reno's PHS."
A wry smile played upon Hilda's lips, quite amused that the girl could not falter under her irate glare. "Reno, huh?" she inquired, eager to learn what the exuberant child could imagine for her story, "That's an awfully strange name."
"Yeah, you're telling me! They're all pretty weird! And they dress funny too!" the girl complained.
"Oh really? What do they look like? What does Reno look like?"
"Um…" the girl searched her memory, "he's got red hair, like Amarant. But he is nothing like him at all! He wears a pair of dark glasses on his head and he dresses all in dark blue." The girl paused for a moment before an unexpected paroxysm, "And he said my purple hair was weird! The nerve!"
Hilda's ironic smirk changed to a perplexed frown. "'Dark glasses and dressed in dark blue'…?"
"Yep!" Eiko confirmed. She tried to remember the word she had heard in an earlier conversation, what the redhead had called himself. "Er, he said he was a 'Turk,' or something like that. And… he said he had two friends… Rude and Elena!"
Hilda's reaction to the information was what Eiko had least expected. The woman's mouth was agape, golden-brown eyes giving the girl an astonished look.
The girl stared back, equally surprised. "What did I say? Why are you staring at me like that, ma?"
Hilda moved her lips as if to speak, but she remained mute. Instead, she took the lilac-haired girl's hand and led her though a series of doors. They finally stopped when they reached the interior of a large room that Eiko recognized as the Regent's throne room.
Cid did not notice the two enter. He was involved in a heated conversation with two humans. Upon further observation the girl found Vivi sitting on one of the large steps leading up to the throne. His feet carelessly dangled above the red-carpeted floor. He was the first to notice the newcomers.
"Eiko," he exuberantly cried, "You're back!"
The child's overjoyed outburst distracted the Regent, letting him notice the missing child. "Eiko, where have you been?" the old man scolded, "You've been out all night! I've had half the soldiers out looking for you and none of them could find you! It's as if you've disappeared off the face of Gaia!"
"Um, Cid?" the girl asked meekly, "I kind of did disappear off the face of Gaia for a little while."
"What?"
"I…" the girl stopped mid-sentence, staring openly at the two people the Regent had been arguing with. They were both dressed in dark blue, like the redhead from her previous adventure. "Hey!" she suspiciously eyed the two, "Do you guys know Reno?"
Both the male and the female gaped at the lilac-haired girl, wondering how she could have known their insubordinate friend.
"You mean you've seen him?" the blonde lady asked, "Where's he at? Is he okay?"
Eiko sighed. Aw… do I have to tell this story again? She decided to tell the short version and get to the point. "He's okay. But he might not be for long. You see, lots and lots of crap happened and a lot of people from different dimensions met each other and then this guy said that this other guy, Sephiroth, was alive. The guy said that Sephiroth was kind of like Kuja and Kuja was real mean so I'm guessing that's not good."
The blonde stared dumbly at the girl for a moment, soaking in all the information. Her bald companion expected her reaction, but Eiko was completely surprised by her diatribe.
"Sephiroth is alive!?" she screamed, "That can't be possible! That jerkface, Cloud, killed him off, didn't he?" She pressed for an answer when Eiko didn't respond. "Well? Didn't he?"
Eiko meekly nodded, "I—I guess so…"
"If he hurt Reno like he hurt Tseng…!" The blonde trailed off, angry at the cruel news.
"Calm down, Elena," the passive bald Turk scolded, "We don't even know if what she's saying is the truth."
Oh, Great Bahamut, Eiko thought, Why does everyone have to think I'm lying!?
"If there's a really bad guy like Kuja out there," Vivi cut in from across the room, "I'll help get rid of him…"
Elena's attention was torn from her tirade for a moment to stare incredulously at Vivi. "How can a little boy like you stop Sephiroth?"
"I'm a Black Mage," the boy said simply.
Elena looked completely ambiguous. "Can you run that by me again?"
"I'd think I'd better tell the full version of the story," Eiko cut Vivi off, "for the umpteenth time today."
And this time, instead of her "short version," she told every detail, leaving out nothing. The story took several hours to complete, not one of the people in the room losing interest in the tale.
When it was finished, no one dared to speak. There were too many questions swarming through their heads to just pick one to ask. But no one had time to voice their thoughts anyway…
A loud crash was heard as two Lindblum soldiers stumbled through the door. The one was helping his injured friend walk to the person they sought: Cid.
"Regent," the injured one began laboriously, "Theater district…"
Cid immediately snapped to attention at the soldier's mysterious words. "What!?" he asked frantically, "Tell me! What!?"
"A woman with black magic…" the uninjured soldier continued, struggling to support his companion.
"Hmmm," Cid pondered, "Only the Mages like Vivi can use that kind of power…"
"So?" Elena inquired, "What's so unusual about that? She probably just has a couple of good, mastered materia."
"Uh-uh," Eiko shook her head, "Ain't no materia here."
"Is there a name to go with this mysterious woman?" the Regent asked.
"Uh…" the prone soldier replied, wracking his brain for answers, "Sorceress… Sorceress…"
"Sorceress Ultemecia!" the coherent soldier responded heatedly, "She's causing a catastrophe! I don't know where she comes from, but she's sure powerful!"
"Uh-oh," Eiko paled. She remembered Squall and Seifer talking about a sorceress earlier, and the more she thought about it, the name Ultemecia sounded real familiar. Oh, no! she thought, not only do we have Sephiroth, but now this sorceress, too!
She stared in horror at the assembly in the room. It wasn't going to be easy, but they could defeat her, couldn't they?
^_^_^_^
"Where'd she go!?" the girl asked heatedly to the ruins. And ruins they were. Everything was destroyed, not one building left standing. The culprit, however, was gone.
The few survivors gathered around the Regent, telling him tales of the horrible debacle. Cid and Hilda observed the ruined district with a pained expression written on their faces, upset to see their city so fallen. Vivi stood next to Eiko, his terror-filled eyes darting around the catastrophe. The two Turks observed the scenery with what seemed like sagacity, but a worried expression could be detected behind Elena's indifferent façade.
"Oh God," she whispered, "What kind of person would have the mind to do this?" She didn't intend for anyone to hear the comment, but somehow Eiko did.
"I dunno what kind of person Ultemecia is, but I hope Alex calls before she attacks again."
^_^_^_^
It was still. All was silent, and all was serene. Absolutely nothing stirred. It was so quiet, in fact, that one would be able to hear a pin drop… that is, until a shrill noise interrupted the calm.
The phone rang once… twice… three times. The fourth ring came and then the answering machine message: "Yo, this is Alex. I'm either not in or I don't want to talk to you, so leave a message."
The overly annoying beep sounded signifying the beginning of the message being recorded. "Reno, it's me," a voice responded to his own message, "Pick up the phone." There was a pause, the voice waiting for someone to react to his message. There was no reply.
"Reno, pick up the phone. It's Alex." Still no answer.
"Pick up the fucking phone!"
But there was no one there to answer the voice's desperate calls.
^_^_^_^
The first thing that registered in his mind when the light subsided was the Balamb planes, the tall grass making a familiar rustling noise in the waning darkness of dawn.
The second thing he noticed was Zell Dincht's unconscious form lying face-first in the grass. He hadn't passed out on his first trip to another dimension: everyone else had. The blonde had, however, been knocked out cold by the trip returning to Balamb Garden. Maybe Alex's device has some sort of defect that the Professor's doesn't. Whatever it was, one became immune to it after the first time. Squall didn't even feel the least bit sick the second time through. When Zell had woken up, Squall tried his best to explain the weird adventure that had taken place within the last 24 hours.
The third thing Squall noticed was a chaotic madness that seemed to be an aura around the Balamb area. The air was thick and seemed to play tricks on the eye, causing even the well-trained SeeDs to jump at the shadows. It cast about a slightly unnerving feeling that made one on the verge of panic, almost, but not quite losing sanity. Zell was the first to voice his opinion when he said ever so bluntly "It's creepy here."
At first everything seemed to be lost in a silent vigil, the only sound coming from the strong northern winds. Light slowly fell upon the place, but barely helped to brighten the travelers' moods. Daylight never really reached Balamb. Instead the place was thrown into a false twilight, color washed away by the never-ending gray dullness of the sky. It was not raining at the moment, but judging by the fresh dew on the grass and the soaked pavement of the road, fierce rain had fallen not too long ago.
A heavy mist obscured most of the view, and the disconcerting cacophony of battle could be heard before being seen. The unwelcoming noise gradually replaced the complacent silence.
Upon their arrival, the two SeeDs discovered that Balamb Garden was thrown into total disorder, SeeDs everywhere rushing forth to defend their home. Horrible monsters mutated beyond recognition flooded the place, attacking anything that moved.
For a moment Squall just stood there, not believing his eyes, but after the initial shock wore off he began to take charge. "You there!" he ordered, grabbing hold of an auburn-haired girl not much older than him, "What's your name?"
"Iraden Dehlvar, sir!" the young woman answered obediently. She shifted her weight to lean tiredly on her lance, soiled with the fresh blood of the remains of a behemoth scattered about the floor.
"Iraden," Squall began hurriedly, "What the hell is going on? Where's Rinoa?"
The woman shook her head, "I don't know!" she said above all the noise, "It just seemed like a normal night and then out of nowhere all these monsters started to attack." She paused, gesticulating wildly at the grisly scene behind her. "No one knows how they all got in here, or even how that many monsters came in here unnoticed, but I guess there's no time to think about that now… and Sorceress Rinoa," the girl continued, shaking her head sadly, "I've no idea where she's at."
"Shit!" Squall cursed at the answer he didn't want to hear.
"Yo Squall?" Zell began informatively, "Before I left to find you, I was with Rinoa in the cafeteria."
The auburn-haired SeeD, Iraden, frowned quizzically, "Maybe you should check there?"
With a nod of his head the Commander was off to find the sorceress, Zell following closely behind.
When they had disappeared down the hall the girl sighed, enervated, and allowed a small smile to play across her face. "Welcome back, Commander Leonhart."
^_^_^_^
The swirling mass of crimson light slowly gathered into a sphere, the deadly energy growing stronger. It hovered over her bare hand, and yet did not burn or scar it. Intense heat emanated from the condensed energy, but she felt no pain. She felt nothing. The only thing that existed was the scarlet light. It was all that mattered; everything else blotted out into a blurry nothing. And then the maelstrom, the inclement, angry chaos was set loose.
The intense Firaga spell crashed into another undulating wave of monsters. But however powerful it was, it didn't seem to even scratch the surface of the problem. They still came, and in the middle of the madness he was there. It was the face from the dream, she was sure of it. She could hear him in her mind, laughing. He was there somewhere, a twisted mind amidst the rancor of warped monsters.
It made her paranoid, and soon she found herself searching the heterogeneous mixture of man and monster for the one face that plagued her nightmares. He was the cause of this apocalypse, she was sure of it. He stood out in her mind so clearly; her unfortunate enhanced magic ability allowing her unwillingly to witness the horrible atrocities he had committed in the past. She looked for the white lab coat that graced her nightmares so frequently now. She searched for the greasy, black hair and the large glasses. She knew him more than she wanted to, and now she wanted to meet him face to face, if only to put a stop to this madness.
And sure enough, her search did not prove futile, for she found him. He was just as hideous as she had remembered from the dreams, possibly even more so. And she gasped, gaping at the man she had learned to abhor so much within the last few days.
He turned to stare back at her, mocking her with a complacent smile. "Well, well, well," he laughed acerbically, "Why aren't you that sorceress…? Hmm… let me see. What was her name? Oh, yes. You're Rinoa, right?"
"What have you done?" the sorceress asked evenly, the words soaked with antipathy.
"That's quite a simple question to answer," the man said matter-of-factly, "I am merely trying to prevent you and your companions from quelling my son's destiny to become one with the planet."
The words shouldn't have made sense to Rinoa, but somehow they did. Somewhere deep in the back of her subconscious mind the meaning was clear. It was her uncanny powers as a sorceress that made this possible.
"You're going to destroy the planet?" Rinoa asked in disbelief, not understanding why anyone would want to destroy so much life.
"Oh, no," he replied amusedly, "I'm not going to destroy one planet. I'm going to destroy several planets."
Rinoa stared at the man in shock, completely appalled by his machiavellian nature. Just as she was about to query him further, a familiar SeeD clad in black had spotted her.
"Rinoa!" Squall called to her in an apprehensive voice.
"Squall?" she asked hopefully, scanning the crowd for the one who had spoken.
The man in the lab coat turned his head to glare at the SeeD. "Why isn't it Squall Leonhart, leader of Balamb Garden," he said, smiling even wider that before, "I heard you've been on quite an unusual escapade."
Squall was puzzled and suspicious as to how the mysterious man knew his name, and furthermore, how he knew about his little adventure. Fortunately, he didn't have to contemplate the matter for much longer.
Zell ran up next to Squall. He recognized the man immediately. "Yo, Squall! That's Professor Hojo!"
Squall's eyes went wide. This was professor Hojo? Somehow he expected the man behind the madness to look less frail. He began to muse about how ironic it was. Here was this scrawny little scientist… and he was on the verge of destroying several worlds. Maybe it's because the man thinks too much… thinking is dangerous.
"You're the man who sent Alex the device, aren't you?" Squall spoke.
Hojo didn't respond, he merely laughed.
"Hey, uh, I got a question," Zell spoke up nervously from behind Squall, "Out of all the people in that other dimension, why did you give the thing to Alex?"
"Hmmm," the man pondered, "that's a good question… a good question, indeed. You see, boy, there's a lot of things you don't know about Alex." He paused, a glint of insane glee shining in his eyes. "In fact, there are a lot of things Alex doesn't know about Alex!" He burst out into uncontrolled maniacal laughter.
None of the SeeDs were thrilled by the scientist's cryptic answer.
"Listen, asshole!" Zell reprimanded acerbically, "You better come clean with the answers! You're outnumbered three to one! Now tell me one more time: Why Alex?"
"Why Alex?" the professor queried back, "Because he's part of the game, just like you and Squall. Just like the Turks and the former president of ShinRa. Just like the White Mage from Lindblum." He paused to make sure all three spectators were listening attentively. When he was satisfied with the amount of attention he was getting, he continued. "Just like Irvine Kinneas…"
The man's second answer was just as cryptic as the first, possibly even more so. But this time Zell, nor any other SeeDs, said anything about it. Instead, their minds focused on the last name mentioned: Irvine.
"What the hell did you do to him?!" Zell angrily demanded. The other two, even Rinoa, looked equally aggressive at the mention of Irvine.
The man simply shrugged, as if the answer should have been obvious. "Sephiroth is back. And the only way for him to have the power to become one with the planet is for Jenova to be alive. Jenova has been revived, therefore the Project must continue." He laughed at the disturbed look that was growing on each of their faces. "Don't you think it's amazing how you can recreate an entire being with only a few miniscule cells?"
"Why are you bringing us into this?" Squall asked in between clenched teeth, "It's not our fight."
"Oh, but it is your fight," he announced, suddenly dead serious, "And I'll tell you why: Jenova is Ultemecia."
Rinoa gasped. Ultemecia couldn't be back, could she? They had
killed her several months ago. She had watched her die. The sorceress from
the future… Rinoa thought, or is she? What if she is from another
dimension instead?
"Now if you'll excuse me," Hojo said, "I have an experiment to finish." The professor smiled heinously at the hapless SeeDs before a blinding flash of white light enveloped him.
He was gone in another dimension, busying himself with the Jenova Project… and Irvine.
"Oh, Hyne," Rinoa whispered, "This can't be happening."
End Ch. 8 at 05.17.01.
There's the chapter for you! Anywho, speaking of
Ultemecia, what do you think of her and Jenova being the same person? Freakish,
ain't it? So what kind of secret is Hojo hiding about Alex? What's up with
Irvine? Find out soon, but not in the next chapter because the next one
features Reno (yay!). O_o Oh yeah! And in the FF9 timeline, this fic takes
place after the end where Kuja dies (no shit), but before the part where
everyone discovers that Zidane is still alive.
Email me: spookyfox1@hotmail.com
Sorry it took me so long, guys. I was on
vacation! ~_~'