Fantasy Thunder Chapter Four: Delta
By Blue Dragon
Delta? Here? Now? I thought he was dead. . .
The group stared in awe at this new development. Seifer pointed his gunblade towards the person that seemed to know something they didn't.
"YOUR Oren? The Oren?
"Is there something so special about me?" he asked.
"We've been hearing a lot about you, and here you are!" Zidane explained.
". . . They haven't mentioned killing me, have they?"
"Quite often, to tell you the truth" Zidane dropped his weapon by his side.
"Not again! They won't leave me alone."
"What did you do to them? What did we do to them? Why do they seem so dead set on eliminating us?"
"Zidane and friends, there are others like you that I have to attend to, but I think I can explain things to you. First though, lets get to your castle for a little comfort."
"Hold on!" Zidane pointed an accusing finger at Squall
"Why should I, the king, allow the entrance of him or any of his hooligan friends after direct defiance of the king? The only outsiders I will allow are you and Seifer.
How ironic, thought Squall. The one person that demonstrated wrong is the only one that holds the trust of King Hothead.
"Wait, Zidane" Dagger came with a hand on his shoulder.
"We saw the power of those two, and these arrivals seemed as if they were ready to fight. They deserve a chance"
". . . Only if Mr. Leonhart here agrees that my authority completely overrules his!"
"I will do no such thing!"
"Enough! We have impending doom upon us, you wish for me to explain, and my presence is needed elsewhere. I ask that we just make our way into the guest area and I'll tell you everything you need to know. We are all on the same side, so I don't need anyone jumping at each other's throats. Understood?"
The silence told Oren that he had got his message across.
As the group made their way into the main gates, they noticed the still unconscious soldiers including Steiner and Beatrix.
"What happened to them?" Zell questioned.
"What almost happened to me. We have to help them" Zidane went over with a few elixirs in hand, but was stopped by Oren.
"Hold on. . ." A blue glow surrounded them, and with a slight shimmer of light, their wounds closed up and the bruises disappeared.
"They're fine. Just let them rest for a while and they'll be as good as new"
Zidane made the way into the guest parlor, where there was a main room and three great conference rooms.
"First, you all need some explaining. Zidane, these guys are all from a planet across the universe. They have been in many battles. This Seifer fellow that you seem to trust actually has quite a past, but I'll respect his privacy and let him tell you himself"
The perpetual smirk on Seifer's face temporarily alleviated, earning him weird looks from Squall and his party"
"Those portals you have been seeing are really small rips in the universe I have created. My original goal was to get you two groups and the guys from two other planets you don't know about to meet, but unfortunately Pyros and his gang of warriors got wise to my plan, and used the portals to transfer themselves here"
Oren pause to take a breath.
"I will ask one group of you all to go to one room, another group to another room. I also need you all to mix so you can get used to each other's presence. Both groups keep in mind that the others are here primarily because they have aided in the salvation of their planets, so don't underestimate each other. Squall, I want you, Zell, Dagger, Seifer, and Irvine to stay here. Zidane, you, Rinoa, Selphie, Quistis, and Vivi go to the room on the left"
The directions were immediately followed, as both groups were eager for further explanation.
"Okay, are their any comments?"
Seifer jokingly raised his hand.
"No need to raise your hand, but acknowledged"
"What are you, exactly?"
"I am called a Zatach. The Zatach are an ancient race of people from about 39.8 billion light-years away."
"What exactly would a light-year be?" asked Dagger.
"The Zatach adopted this measure from a planet called Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year. Since light travels at roughly 186282.2 miles a second, a light-year would be about 5,874,595,459,000 miles, and that would mean I my planet is 233,808,899,300,000 miles from here."
Everyone's jaws dropped seemingly to the ground.
"How the heck did you get here?" Irvine asked in complete shock.
"I told you. I created a rip in the universe, a standard Zatach power. Anyhow, my planet became unstable and exploded seemingly without warning. The sheer power ripped a temporary hole in the universe, and I was blown to where I am now, seeing as I was in orbit at the time. Pyros and his warriors possessed ancient powers that allowed them to escape easily, and I had nowhere else to go. I banded with them and they said we would find another home. I found there plans were actually to take over some other planet. I escaped into a hiding spot"
"But why do they hate you so much?" Squall finally sheathed Lionheart, which he had forgotten he was holding.
"You see, an unknown source gave information about Pyros' plans to the planet they chose to invade. The planet's military retaliated and chased them off, and most of Pyros' warriors were injured. Omega was even killed. Because of the loss of Omega, they blamed me for giving out information, and I've been running ever since. Because they have found four planet so close together, they have decided that they would crush the possible forms of resistance before invading, and that would be you all."
"That still doesn't explain why they seem to dislike us personally. And that king also mentioned one calling him an ally of his very enemy. What's that mean?" Zell questioned.
"I honestly don't know. I have told you everything I do know, though, and that's all."
"Well, you can beat em, right? Those two ran off when they saw you!"
Oren sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"You don't understand. When Omega died, I took in all of his awesome power. But since I'm not the real Omega, I can't handle the power, and will soon go back to the way I was. Zatach are generally powerful, but nothing that you couldn't handle. I was once able to take on Pyros and his twenty-three warriors, but now I can barely handle four of them. Omega's power inside me is dwindling, and soon I'll barely be able to handle one. That is precisely why I tried to get you all together; to train you to defend yourselves and maybe defeat them. I cannot protect you for much longer. As a matter of fact, if Beta and Gamma come back with Alpha, Delta and Epsilon, then I'm pretty much a goner. I'm the first on their hit list."
Squall spoke up.
"Who were the others you spoke of?"
"They are from planets on the other side of this galaxy called Spira, while the other one is simply referred to as 'The Planet' as far as I know"
"How will you train us then?" the Alexandrian queen asked, further stepping into the inquisition.
"I plan on gathering you all in one place then going to Mr. Leonhart's planet. I have a fine facility arranged.
"One more thing" asked Seifer.
"Yeah?"
"Could you pull some strings with the government or something? You know my past and . . . "
"What makes you thing I am in such a position?"
"I noticed you have a Galbadian military logo of a high-ranking officer on your shirt"
"Oh that. . . I'll speak of that later. After I brief the other group, my friend Jessica will be here shortly for more assistance. After that you'll be on your own for a while, because I'll be gathering the others. Jessica has helped me a lot through my travels, and is probably the sweetest girl ever, really. She'll give you more info if you need it. Later, for now"
With that, Oren stuck fire across the carpet as he raced at an incredible speed towards the other conference room, setting half of the room in a light blaze.
"What the hell!?" Zell exclaimed.
"Think he'll teach us to do that?" Seifer asked jokingly.
***
Rinoa and Selphie were giggling over Oren in some sort of 'boy' conversation.
"He wears all of those clothes and that hood, I can barely see him. How do you think he looks underneath?" asked Rinoa to Selphie.
"Gross!"
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"He sure is taking his time. I bet he separated my queen and me on purpose! He even left my friend to that Squall guy"
"He did say we had to mingle a little, right? So maybe we should talk to those three girls and find out a little" said Vivi.
"You go on ahead"
The conference room was large and narrow with long tables and many large wooden oak chairs as well as floors and walls of pure marble made for only the finest of people to confer.
Zidane and Vivi were on one far end, with Rinoa, Selphie, and Quistis on the other.
Vivi walked up to them and introduced himself, straightening his hat.
"H-hello there" Vivi really wasn't normally as social as this, but he felt that he might as well give a formal introduction sooner or later.
"Hi! You.um.look kind of funny" Selphie said from her chair, trying not to hurt Vivi's feelings.
"I'm a black mage"
"Sounds pretty cute!" Rinoa speculated aloud.
"Actually most of the things are actually pretty violent"
"How so?" Selphie was intrigued by Vivi's claim.
"Because of the magic involved like Firaga, Flare, an Ultima now and then"
"You mean a little guy like you knows those spells!?" Rinoa stood up.
As Vivi began to explain, he was satisfied with himself that he was making a little conversation.
Quistis had remained silent until she spoke up about Oren's timing.
"He wasn't walking very fast, do you think he's crippled in the leg or very slow?" she asked. She hadn't realized how loud she had said it until Selphie, Rinoa, and Vivi looked up.
"What if he is crippled!?" asked Rinoa.
"Well he sure is slow!" yelled Zidane from across the room. Everyone chuckled, but tried to cover it up. People shouldn't be made fun of for being slow.
TTHHWAAACK!
Oren burst in, shattering the door and leaving a trail of fire.
"Damn! How the heck did you do that!?" Zidane asked, standing up in his chair.
"Do what?"
"You freakin' set my freakin' carpet on freakin' fire!
"Was I running that fast? I always thought that was pretty slow."
Everyone fell silent as they contemplated how fast he could be if he tried and how fast he was without it. They also gulped at the thought of how they had called him slow.
"I'm sorry about the carpet, it will be repaired, and the fire should burn itself out.
Oren briefed the party on the situation and his origin until they had as much information as Squall and the others.
"Alright. Now you all go to the main hall. Relax, talk, find out a little about each other, rest, find a room, get a battle plan, talk to Jessica, make fun of me behind my back, anything to keep yourselves busy. I'll be back shortly with more troops, and we can regroup to Squall's planet. Zidane, please gather your other friends. Amarant, Steiner, maybe Beatrix, Eiko, Freya, and if you feel desperate enough, then Quina as well"
Everyone nodded or gave a word of acknowledgement.
Oren was about to leave for 'The Planet' when he noticed Quistis had a worried expression on her face.
"Are you alright? Someone so beautiful shouldn't look so worried"
Quistis blushed slightly at the statement.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about me."
"Fine then. Farewell for now, everybody!"
Oren waved his hands in a strange fashion and then with a crushing sound a blue hole tore open in the air itself with a loud roar. Oren stepped through, and then him and the portal disappeared.
***
Oren found himself in what appeared to be a room in what he already knew was Cosmo Canyon. Inside was another portal.
Guess I'd better get rid of that.
Oren waved his hands again and the portal disappeared.
***
"We're goin' down! Everyone prepare for impact! She's losin' altitude fast!"
Cid's warnings rang out through the speaker and everyone on the machina airship immediately hit the deck.
"She'll be down in five, four, three, EVERYONE GET DOWN!"
The ship plowed across the grass fields and the friction began to fry the lower portion. Everyone on the bridge shook from the bumpy ride.
Cid looked up just a little over the seat, and saw a huge dune of sand by the beach.
"EVERYONE HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!"
The ship went from sixty to zero miles per hour in a second, sending everything that wasn't firmly attached flying forward from the amazing inertia, and Wakka and Tidus who hadn't had enough time to hold anything straight into the seats which were fortunately cushioned. It had been a good thing that the only people on the ship were on the bridge, or there might have been quite a bit of chaos.
After a few minutes, Cid slowly stood up.
"Everyone alright?"
"We're still alive, if that's what you mean" Tidus muttered from the deck.
Everyone stood up, a little shaky from the crash.
"What happened?"
Lulu noticed that their surroundings had changed dramatically. What had once been cliffs and cloudy skies were now very clear skies with flat fields, forests, and a beach.
The group assembled in the front of the bridge taking a look at the new area.
"Well, I don't think we're in Luca anymore" Rikku mentioned.
"I should think not, queen of understatement" Wakka said jokingly. He still loved to get a harmless joke in here and there at Rikku, likely from the lingering feelings about the Al Bhed, even though he was sure he had gotten over that.
"We won't get anywhere staying here . . . T-man, you and your friends scope the area and report back."
"Why us!?"
"Because your mostly young and battle-ready. So I'm relying on you, Timothy"
"But Yuna and I are seventeen, your daughter is sixteen, Wakka and Lulu are twenty-three and twenty-two respectively, and who knows how old Kimahri is!?"
Kimahri tried to ignore Tidus's last remark.
"Don't worry Tidus, the six of us are invincible" said Yuna reassuringly.
"Right. I'm counting on you to help me keep my ship safe, Ted"
"Fine. . . and its Tidus!"
"That's what I said"
With Tidus in the lead and Yuna by his side, who was flanked by Kimahri with Wakka, Lulu and Rikku bringing up the rear, the group set out the opposite direction they had came, noticing the gigantic trail the ship had left when it scraped the ground. They also noticed the broken trees in the forests that they had skimmed.
"Kimahri think that we find answers at beginning of trail"
Tidus didn't respond but knew that Kimahri knew he was following his idea when he shifted to lead his party towards the trail and along it in the opposite direction.
***
Cloud, Red, Tifa, and Cid rode the convertible from Cosmo Canyon as fast as they could, following the trail of broken trees and eventually the large crater of a trail.
"Whatever came through here must have been either very bad at aviation, not meant for it, or had some sort of navigational difficulty. . . " Red noticed the large trail.
Cloud hit the gas harder, sensing that he was coming closer to his goal. Soon, he saw six black dots on the horizon, and warned the party:
"They may be hostile, so have your weapons ready just in case"
Cloud drove with one hand and held the Ultima Weapon in the other.
Tifa exposed the Premium Hearts; and Red secured his headband that wasn't his most powerful but one of his favorites, the Seraph Comb. Cid set the Venus Gospel against the seat in front of him. They all hoped, however, the persons weren't hostile.
***
"Is dat a machina truck comin' dis way?"
Wakka knew the car as machina because ground machina transportation had become popular after the fall of Yu Yevon.
"It might be. Everyone have your weapons ready, just in case" Tidus instructed.
The party withdrew the Caladbolg, World Champion, Nirvana, Onion Knight, Spirit Lance, and Godhand (Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Kimahri, and Rikku respectively)
***
Cloud noticed that the party that they were approaching also had weapons drawn. Perhaps they were hostile. There was a blonde guy, another dark- haired female, an ominous looking woman with long black braids and a black dress, a guy that looked like he bough a costume from Costa de Sol, a smaller looking girl, and a lion-man.
"Funny-looking group" Cid muttered under his breath.
"Pretty friendly-looking, too" Tifa added sarcastically.
***
The approaching vehicle stopped, and Tidus halted his group about twenty feet away.
"Hi there!" he yelled.
"Do you want to hurt us?"
***
"It depends if you want to hurt us"
"Sorry, bad start" apologized the blonde.
"How about an introduction. I'm Tidus, and these people are Yuna, Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri, and Rikku"
"I'm Cloud. This is Red, Cid, and Tifa. What happened to you all?"
Lulu stepped in and clearly explained everything to the new acquaintances.
"Is this Spira?" asked Tidus. Everyone began to put up his or her weapons.
"Spira? I don't think so. Where exactly is Spira?" Cloud answered.
"Never mind. Thank you for your help, we should be reporting back now"
"Wait!" said Tifa "we just met you, do you want us to go back with you? If a ship crashed, Cid could probably fix it"
"I don't think an old Al Bhed guy has much expertise on that!"
"Huh?" Cid shifted his cigar.
"Oh, you mean that Cid. The pilot of our airship is also named Cid"
"He flies! What are the odds? I'd like to meet this guy, and maybe I could fix your ship"
"You mean you're a pilot like my father?"
"A full fledged one. I'd say I'm probably the best damn pilot this side of the universe!"
"What the heck. These people seem to know this place. Lets go!" Tidus motioned back the way they had came and the now larger group followed them back towards the airship.
***
The group had assembled, including Steiner and Beatrix, in the main hall and began relaxing on the many facilities. There was plenty of food, drink, and leisure to last for a while.
"Hey Rusty, I'm going to take a little nap, could you tell me when that transport is here?"
"I seems it already is, sire"
Just as Zidane thought he would feel the satisfaction of being called that, the heard a knock on the large doors. Everyone looked as they slowly opened. In the doorway stood Freya, Amarant, Eiko, and unfortunately Quina as well.
Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Steiner immediately went to greet their friends, who they hadn't seen in a while.
"Amarant, buddy how're ya doing?" asked Zidane.
Amarant slightly raised an eyebrow wondering how this big king now regarded him as a best friend.
"Well I've been stumbling over myself to leave Dali and come here, only to have an unpleasant trip thanks to that loudmouth Lani"
"Lani was on the ship?"
"She insisted that she come along, not my idea. Now how about you tell us why we're here."
"It's kind of a long--"
"Zidane! It has been a long time. You greet that pale-faced punk before me?" asked Freya jokingly.
"I didn't mean to ignore you, I was just about to--"
"Never mind that Zidane" the Burmecian slightly adjusted her red hat so she could look Zidane in the eye.
"Explain why we're here"
"It's because--"
"ZIDANE!" Quina landed behind him with a loud thud.
"Quina wish to know why you take from tasty frogs to come here!"
Zidane's expression became deeply annoyed.
"If you all would just--"
"Zidane! How's my favorite guy!?" Eiko jumped into his arms.
"I came all the way from Lindblum, doing my best faces at daddy to get here. Why did you call us?"
"Let me explain! I--"
Suddenly there was a roaring sound as a blue portal opened and a beautiful girl in her late-teens stepped from it, closing it completely. Her long white hair slowly fell in its ponytail down to her feet almost, her attire being a space-age type with tight pants and shirt, and one small gun strapped to her leg.
Everyone stared in silence.
"Are you Jessica?" Squall spoke up from across the room.
"That would be me, yes" she spoke in a light voice, nodding her head.
"I trust Oren told you all about me. For all of you that don't know. . . " Four lasers extended from her head and filled the room in a purple light, which then disappeared.
"Whoa!" yelled Amarant.
"Overload, definitely!" Eiko clutched her head.
"I apologize. That was just supposed to fill you all in. I suppose you know why you are here now."
Amarant, Freya, Quina, and Eiko nodded, the information being beamed in their heads of the situation suddenly overwhelmed them a bit, especially since it was their first experience of receiving telepathic understanding.
"Oren should be back in some minutes and we can head off for preparations. . . meanwhile he asked me to look after you all, so I'll just be in the corner if you need me."
Jessica rushed towards the far corner of the large royal area, streaking fire that sizzled and burned itself out across the carpet. Those that hadn't seen it before dropped their jaws. Zidane just put his hand to his head, partly because he never had a chance to explain, partly because he knew that the scorched carpets would be blamed on him because of the fact that he was a man in a high place.
Squall noticed Seifer leaning on a wall, staring at the new appearance. Squall was hesitant to trust him after his previous actions, but he would have to work with him, eventually.
Squall slowly walked over to Seifer's position.
Seifer felt the hair on the back of his neck tense as Squall closed in.
What could he have in store for me, now? Just don't be too hard. . .
"Seifer" Squall said when he had reached his destination.
"I know that we've had our differences, but please, let us just put those aside and try to work together. Is that understood?"
". . . Yeah. I guess. Squall, I have to tell you, my mind wasn't right back then. I'm not making any excuses, but I'm sorry for what happened. I can't change it, but I can rectify it. Is that okay?"
Squall was relieved to hear that Seifer was willing to cooperate and even apologize.
"It's beyond okay. It's perfect. Thank you for your cooperation."
Seifer found himself alone and continued staring at Jessica.
She's beautiful. Maybe she's doesn't have a boyfriend. . . what am I thinking? She's probably some survived Zatach, and I'm human. Not to mention that Oren guy. I have nothing against him but a girl like that is probably involved. Even if she wasn't I still have to compete with the likes of people like Oren. . . I have to talk to her.
Seifer finally walked to where she was sitting. She seemed to be studying a map of the galaxy with a tiny blue dot that seemed to be alive.
"What's that?" Seifer asked her as he stopped next to her position, sitting next to her.
"This? I use this to keep track of Oren. The blue dot is him, he must still be on that other planet. It shouldn't be long now"
"Good"
There was a pause as she continued staring at the blue dot slowly but surely move across the 3D-figure of one planet, slowly but surely to an area of water.
"So, are you and Oren. . . ?"
"Involved? No, not really. We're really just good friends, he's not my type"
"Not you're type? How so?"
"Well, he's to cautious, and too kind as well. He thinks too much about other people. Would you believe that we had to fight for our lives against notorious figures, and he, in all his power, has never killed anyone"?
"Geez. . . that IS pretty amazing"
"But that doesn't mean I don't like him. He's a good guy, and wanted to do everything he could to save your planets. He's only nineteen and he's seen more than what most people have in their entire lives"
"I see"
There was another long silence as Jessica continued studying the map.
"You know, I met him when I was looking for my brother, Omega. I thought Oren was him for a while because he had his power, but I soon realized the truth. He was very sympathetic towards me and we became friends. I joined him on his junky little ship trying to get to this place and save it. Even though those portals get us light-years, they have limits. We were still so far it took Pyros and his warriors about a few days longer than us to get here. It took us five years."
"Five years!? You must really care about us"
"No. I didn't care at all. Oren cared. I told him we were miserable enough, that we didn't need any more problems, but I was kind of selfish. He insisted that we go, so we did. I was only twelve then, so it's actually kind of a big thing that I'm finally in the galaxy that we were trying to save."
"That must be great"
"It is. It's wonderful"
Jessica finally put the map away.
"I think I'm more interested in talking to you than studying this map."
Seifer was flattered by her words.
"The only person I've opened up to this much since Zata blew into a trillion pieces is Oren, and I'm not even sure that I conveyed this much even to him. I like having you as a listener"
"Thanks a lot, except I've always been more of a talker"
"Then tell me, what were your parents like?"
Seifer paused and began to go into a short story that he would feel a little scared to tell for the first time in years.
________________________________________________________________________
AN: This chapter was about 4500 words, and that's how long I think I'll be making all my chapters. Don't forget to read my Kingdom Hearts fic, Crowned Hearts if you're interested. The next chapter will focus on FFVII/X since this one focused on FFVIII/IX. I also got word from a reviewer that Zidane's power should outlaw Squall's, which is mostly true, so I emphasized that a little earlier in this fic. Anyway, until next chapter. . .
By Blue Dragon
Delta? Here? Now? I thought he was dead. . .
The group stared in awe at this new development. Seifer pointed his gunblade towards the person that seemed to know something they didn't.
"YOUR Oren? The Oren?
"Is there something so special about me?" he asked.
"We've been hearing a lot about you, and here you are!" Zidane explained.
". . . They haven't mentioned killing me, have they?"
"Quite often, to tell you the truth" Zidane dropped his weapon by his side.
"Not again! They won't leave me alone."
"What did you do to them? What did we do to them? Why do they seem so dead set on eliminating us?"
"Zidane and friends, there are others like you that I have to attend to, but I think I can explain things to you. First though, lets get to your castle for a little comfort."
"Hold on!" Zidane pointed an accusing finger at Squall
"Why should I, the king, allow the entrance of him or any of his hooligan friends after direct defiance of the king? The only outsiders I will allow are you and Seifer.
How ironic, thought Squall. The one person that demonstrated wrong is the only one that holds the trust of King Hothead.
"Wait, Zidane" Dagger came with a hand on his shoulder.
"We saw the power of those two, and these arrivals seemed as if they were ready to fight. They deserve a chance"
". . . Only if Mr. Leonhart here agrees that my authority completely overrules his!"
"I will do no such thing!"
"Enough! We have impending doom upon us, you wish for me to explain, and my presence is needed elsewhere. I ask that we just make our way into the guest area and I'll tell you everything you need to know. We are all on the same side, so I don't need anyone jumping at each other's throats. Understood?"
The silence told Oren that he had got his message across.
As the group made their way into the main gates, they noticed the still unconscious soldiers including Steiner and Beatrix.
"What happened to them?" Zell questioned.
"What almost happened to me. We have to help them" Zidane went over with a few elixirs in hand, but was stopped by Oren.
"Hold on. . ." A blue glow surrounded them, and with a slight shimmer of light, their wounds closed up and the bruises disappeared.
"They're fine. Just let them rest for a while and they'll be as good as new"
Zidane made the way into the guest parlor, where there was a main room and three great conference rooms.
"First, you all need some explaining. Zidane, these guys are all from a planet across the universe. They have been in many battles. This Seifer fellow that you seem to trust actually has quite a past, but I'll respect his privacy and let him tell you himself"
The perpetual smirk on Seifer's face temporarily alleviated, earning him weird looks from Squall and his party"
"Those portals you have been seeing are really small rips in the universe I have created. My original goal was to get you two groups and the guys from two other planets you don't know about to meet, but unfortunately Pyros and his gang of warriors got wise to my plan, and used the portals to transfer themselves here"
Oren pause to take a breath.
"I will ask one group of you all to go to one room, another group to another room. I also need you all to mix so you can get used to each other's presence. Both groups keep in mind that the others are here primarily because they have aided in the salvation of their planets, so don't underestimate each other. Squall, I want you, Zell, Dagger, Seifer, and Irvine to stay here. Zidane, you, Rinoa, Selphie, Quistis, and Vivi go to the room on the left"
The directions were immediately followed, as both groups were eager for further explanation.
"Okay, are their any comments?"
Seifer jokingly raised his hand.
"No need to raise your hand, but acknowledged"
"What are you, exactly?"
"I am called a Zatach. The Zatach are an ancient race of people from about 39.8 billion light-years away."
"What exactly would a light-year be?" asked Dagger.
"The Zatach adopted this measure from a planet called Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year. Since light travels at roughly 186282.2 miles a second, a light-year would be about 5,874,595,459,000 miles, and that would mean I my planet is 233,808,899,300,000 miles from here."
Everyone's jaws dropped seemingly to the ground.
"How the heck did you get here?" Irvine asked in complete shock.
"I told you. I created a rip in the universe, a standard Zatach power. Anyhow, my planet became unstable and exploded seemingly without warning. The sheer power ripped a temporary hole in the universe, and I was blown to where I am now, seeing as I was in orbit at the time. Pyros and his warriors possessed ancient powers that allowed them to escape easily, and I had nowhere else to go. I banded with them and they said we would find another home. I found there plans were actually to take over some other planet. I escaped into a hiding spot"
"But why do they hate you so much?" Squall finally sheathed Lionheart, which he had forgotten he was holding.
"You see, an unknown source gave information about Pyros' plans to the planet they chose to invade. The planet's military retaliated and chased them off, and most of Pyros' warriors were injured. Omega was even killed. Because of the loss of Omega, they blamed me for giving out information, and I've been running ever since. Because they have found four planet so close together, they have decided that they would crush the possible forms of resistance before invading, and that would be you all."
"That still doesn't explain why they seem to dislike us personally. And that king also mentioned one calling him an ally of his very enemy. What's that mean?" Zell questioned.
"I honestly don't know. I have told you everything I do know, though, and that's all."
"Well, you can beat em, right? Those two ran off when they saw you!"
Oren sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"You don't understand. When Omega died, I took in all of his awesome power. But since I'm not the real Omega, I can't handle the power, and will soon go back to the way I was. Zatach are generally powerful, but nothing that you couldn't handle. I was once able to take on Pyros and his twenty-three warriors, but now I can barely handle four of them. Omega's power inside me is dwindling, and soon I'll barely be able to handle one. That is precisely why I tried to get you all together; to train you to defend yourselves and maybe defeat them. I cannot protect you for much longer. As a matter of fact, if Beta and Gamma come back with Alpha, Delta and Epsilon, then I'm pretty much a goner. I'm the first on their hit list."
Squall spoke up.
"Who were the others you spoke of?"
"They are from planets on the other side of this galaxy called Spira, while the other one is simply referred to as 'The Planet' as far as I know"
"How will you train us then?" the Alexandrian queen asked, further stepping into the inquisition.
"I plan on gathering you all in one place then going to Mr. Leonhart's planet. I have a fine facility arranged.
"One more thing" asked Seifer.
"Yeah?"
"Could you pull some strings with the government or something? You know my past and . . . "
"What makes you thing I am in such a position?"
"I noticed you have a Galbadian military logo of a high-ranking officer on your shirt"
"Oh that. . . I'll speak of that later. After I brief the other group, my friend Jessica will be here shortly for more assistance. After that you'll be on your own for a while, because I'll be gathering the others. Jessica has helped me a lot through my travels, and is probably the sweetest girl ever, really. She'll give you more info if you need it. Later, for now"
With that, Oren stuck fire across the carpet as he raced at an incredible speed towards the other conference room, setting half of the room in a light blaze.
"What the hell!?" Zell exclaimed.
"Think he'll teach us to do that?" Seifer asked jokingly.
***
Rinoa and Selphie were giggling over Oren in some sort of 'boy' conversation.
"He wears all of those clothes and that hood, I can barely see him. How do you think he looks underneath?" asked Rinoa to Selphie.
"Gross!"
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"He sure is taking his time. I bet he separated my queen and me on purpose! He even left my friend to that Squall guy"
"He did say we had to mingle a little, right? So maybe we should talk to those three girls and find out a little" said Vivi.
"You go on ahead"
The conference room was large and narrow with long tables and many large wooden oak chairs as well as floors and walls of pure marble made for only the finest of people to confer.
Zidane and Vivi were on one far end, with Rinoa, Selphie, and Quistis on the other.
Vivi walked up to them and introduced himself, straightening his hat.
"H-hello there" Vivi really wasn't normally as social as this, but he felt that he might as well give a formal introduction sooner or later.
"Hi! You.um.look kind of funny" Selphie said from her chair, trying not to hurt Vivi's feelings.
"I'm a black mage"
"Sounds pretty cute!" Rinoa speculated aloud.
"Actually most of the things are actually pretty violent"
"How so?" Selphie was intrigued by Vivi's claim.
"Because of the magic involved like Firaga, Flare, an Ultima now and then"
"You mean a little guy like you knows those spells!?" Rinoa stood up.
As Vivi began to explain, he was satisfied with himself that he was making a little conversation.
Quistis had remained silent until she spoke up about Oren's timing.
"He wasn't walking very fast, do you think he's crippled in the leg or very slow?" she asked. She hadn't realized how loud she had said it until Selphie, Rinoa, and Vivi looked up.
"What if he is crippled!?" asked Rinoa.
"Well he sure is slow!" yelled Zidane from across the room. Everyone chuckled, but tried to cover it up. People shouldn't be made fun of for being slow.
TTHHWAAACK!
Oren burst in, shattering the door and leaving a trail of fire.
"Damn! How the heck did you do that!?" Zidane asked, standing up in his chair.
"Do what?"
"You freakin' set my freakin' carpet on freakin' fire!
"Was I running that fast? I always thought that was pretty slow."
Everyone fell silent as they contemplated how fast he could be if he tried and how fast he was without it. They also gulped at the thought of how they had called him slow.
"I'm sorry about the carpet, it will be repaired, and the fire should burn itself out.
Oren briefed the party on the situation and his origin until they had as much information as Squall and the others.
"Alright. Now you all go to the main hall. Relax, talk, find out a little about each other, rest, find a room, get a battle plan, talk to Jessica, make fun of me behind my back, anything to keep yourselves busy. I'll be back shortly with more troops, and we can regroup to Squall's planet. Zidane, please gather your other friends. Amarant, Steiner, maybe Beatrix, Eiko, Freya, and if you feel desperate enough, then Quina as well"
Everyone nodded or gave a word of acknowledgement.
Oren was about to leave for 'The Planet' when he noticed Quistis had a worried expression on her face.
"Are you alright? Someone so beautiful shouldn't look so worried"
Quistis blushed slightly at the statement.
"It's nothing. Don't worry about me."
"Fine then. Farewell for now, everybody!"
Oren waved his hands in a strange fashion and then with a crushing sound a blue hole tore open in the air itself with a loud roar. Oren stepped through, and then him and the portal disappeared.
***
Oren found himself in what appeared to be a room in what he already knew was Cosmo Canyon. Inside was another portal.
Guess I'd better get rid of that.
Oren waved his hands again and the portal disappeared.
***
"We're goin' down! Everyone prepare for impact! She's losin' altitude fast!"
Cid's warnings rang out through the speaker and everyone on the machina airship immediately hit the deck.
"She'll be down in five, four, three, EVERYONE GET DOWN!"
The ship plowed across the grass fields and the friction began to fry the lower portion. Everyone on the bridge shook from the bumpy ride.
Cid looked up just a little over the seat, and saw a huge dune of sand by the beach.
"EVERYONE HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!"
The ship went from sixty to zero miles per hour in a second, sending everything that wasn't firmly attached flying forward from the amazing inertia, and Wakka and Tidus who hadn't had enough time to hold anything straight into the seats which were fortunately cushioned. It had been a good thing that the only people on the ship were on the bridge, or there might have been quite a bit of chaos.
After a few minutes, Cid slowly stood up.
"Everyone alright?"
"We're still alive, if that's what you mean" Tidus muttered from the deck.
Everyone stood up, a little shaky from the crash.
"What happened?"
Lulu noticed that their surroundings had changed dramatically. What had once been cliffs and cloudy skies were now very clear skies with flat fields, forests, and a beach.
The group assembled in the front of the bridge taking a look at the new area.
"Well, I don't think we're in Luca anymore" Rikku mentioned.
"I should think not, queen of understatement" Wakka said jokingly. He still loved to get a harmless joke in here and there at Rikku, likely from the lingering feelings about the Al Bhed, even though he was sure he had gotten over that.
"We won't get anywhere staying here . . . T-man, you and your friends scope the area and report back."
"Why us!?"
"Because your mostly young and battle-ready. So I'm relying on you, Timothy"
"But Yuna and I are seventeen, your daughter is sixteen, Wakka and Lulu are twenty-three and twenty-two respectively, and who knows how old Kimahri is!?"
Kimahri tried to ignore Tidus's last remark.
"Don't worry Tidus, the six of us are invincible" said Yuna reassuringly.
"Right. I'm counting on you to help me keep my ship safe, Ted"
"Fine. . . and its Tidus!"
"That's what I said"
With Tidus in the lead and Yuna by his side, who was flanked by Kimahri with Wakka, Lulu and Rikku bringing up the rear, the group set out the opposite direction they had came, noticing the gigantic trail the ship had left when it scraped the ground. They also noticed the broken trees in the forests that they had skimmed.
"Kimahri think that we find answers at beginning of trail"
Tidus didn't respond but knew that Kimahri knew he was following his idea when he shifted to lead his party towards the trail and along it in the opposite direction.
***
Cloud, Red, Tifa, and Cid rode the convertible from Cosmo Canyon as fast as they could, following the trail of broken trees and eventually the large crater of a trail.
"Whatever came through here must have been either very bad at aviation, not meant for it, or had some sort of navigational difficulty. . . " Red noticed the large trail.
Cloud hit the gas harder, sensing that he was coming closer to his goal. Soon, he saw six black dots on the horizon, and warned the party:
"They may be hostile, so have your weapons ready just in case"
Cloud drove with one hand and held the Ultima Weapon in the other.
Tifa exposed the Premium Hearts; and Red secured his headband that wasn't his most powerful but one of his favorites, the Seraph Comb. Cid set the Venus Gospel against the seat in front of him. They all hoped, however, the persons weren't hostile.
***
"Is dat a machina truck comin' dis way?"
Wakka knew the car as machina because ground machina transportation had become popular after the fall of Yu Yevon.
"It might be. Everyone have your weapons ready, just in case" Tidus instructed.
The party withdrew the Caladbolg, World Champion, Nirvana, Onion Knight, Spirit Lance, and Godhand (Tidus, Wakka, Yuna, Lulu, Kimahri, and Rikku respectively)
***
Cloud noticed that the party that they were approaching also had weapons drawn. Perhaps they were hostile. There was a blonde guy, another dark- haired female, an ominous looking woman with long black braids and a black dress, a guy that looked like he bough a costume from Costa de Sol, a smaller looking girl, and a lion-man.
"Funny-looking group" Cid muttered under his breath.
"Pretty friendly-looking, too" Tifa added sarcastically.
***
The approaching vehicle stopped, and Tidus halted his group about twenty feet away.
"Hi there!" he yelled.
"Do you want to hurt us?"
***
"It depends if you want to hurt us"
"Sorry, bad start" apologized the blonde.
"How about an introduction. I'm Tidus, and these people are Yuna, Lulu, Wakka, Kimahri, and Rikku"
"I'm Cloud. This is Red, Cid, and Tifa. What happened to you all?"
Lulu stepped in and clearly explained everything to the new acquaintances.
"Is this Spira?" asked Tidus. Everyone began to put up his or her weapons.
"Spira? I don't think so. Where exactly is Spira?" Cloud answered.
"Never mind. Thank you for your help, we should be reporting back now"
"Wait!" said Tifa "we just met you, do you want us to go back with you? If a ship crashed, Cid could probably fix it"
"I don't think an old Al Bhed guy has much expertise on that!"
"Huh?" Cid shifted his cigar.
"Oh, you mean that Cid. The pilot of our airship is also named Cid"
"He flies! What are the odds? I'd like to meet this guy, and maybe I could fix your ship"
"You mean you're a pilot like my father?"
"A full fledged one. I'd say I'm probably the best damn pilot this side of the universe!"
"What the heck. These people seem to know this place. Lets go!" Tidus motioned back the way they had came and the now larger group followed them back towards the airship.
***
The group had assembled, including Steiner and Beatrix, in the main hall and began relaxing on the many facilities. There was plenty of food, drink, and leisure to last for a while.
"Hey Rusty, I'm going to take a little nap, could you tell me when that transport is here?"
"I seems it already is, sire"
Just as Zidane thought he would feel the satisfaction of being called that, the heard a knock on the large doors. Everyone looked as they slowly opened. In the doorway stood Freya, Amarant, Eiko, and unfortunately Quina as well.
Zidane, Dagger, Vivi, and Steiner immediately went to greet their friends, who they hadn't seen in a while.
"Amarant, buddy how're ya doing?" asked Zidane.
Amarant slightly raised an eyebrow wondering how this big king now regarded him as a best friend.
"Well I've been stumbling over myself to leave Dali and come here, only to have an unpleasant trip thanks to that loudmouth Lani"
"Lani was on the ship?"
"She insisted that she come along, not my idea. Now how about you tell us why we're here."
"It's kind of a long--"
"Zidane! It has been a long time. You greet that pale-faced punk before me?" asked Freya jokingly.
"I didn't mean to ignore you, I was just about to--"
"Never mind that Zidane" the Burmecian slightly adjusted her red hat so she could look Zidane in the eye.
"Explain why we're here"
"It's because--"
"ZIDANE!" Quina landed behind him with a loud thud.
"Quina wish to know why you take from tasty frogs to come here!"
Zidane's expression became deeply annoyed.
"If you all would just--"
"Zidane! How's my favorite guy!?" Eiko jumped into his arms.
"I came all the way from Lindblum, doing my best faces at daddy to get here. Why did you call us?"
"Let me explain! I--"
Suddenly there was a roaring sound as a blue portal opened and a beautiful girl in her late-teens stepped from it, closing it completely. Her long white hair slowly fell in its ponytail down to her feet almost, her attire being a space-age type with tight pants and shirt, and one small gun strapped to her leg.
Everyone stared in silence.
"Are you Jessica?" Squall spoke up from across the room.
"That would be me, yes" she spoke in a light voice, nodding her head.
"I trust Oren told you all about me. For all of you that don't know. . . " Four lasers extended from her head and filled the room in a purple light, which then disappeared.
"Whoa!" yelled Amarant.
"Overload, definitely!" Eiko clutched her head.
"I apologize. That was just supposed to fill you all in. I suppose you know why you are here now."
Amarant, Freya, Quina, and Eiko nodded, the information being beamed in their heads of the situation suddenly overwhelmed them a bit, especially since it was their first experience of receiving telepathic understanding.
"Oren should be back in some minutes and we can head off for preparations. . . meanwhile he asked me to look after you all, so I'll just be in the corner if you need me."
Jessica rushed towards the far corner of the large royal area, streaking fire that sizzled and burned itself out across the carpet. Those that hadn't seen it before dropped their jaws. Zidane just put his hand to his head, partly because he never had a chance to explain, partly because he knew that the scorched carpets would be blamed on him because of the fact that he was a man in a high place.
Squall noticed Seifer leaning on a wall, staring at the new appearance. Squall was hesitant to trust him after his previous actions, but he would have to work with him, eventually.
Squall slowly walked over to Seifer's position.
Seifer felt the hair on the back of his neck tense as Squall closed in.
What could he have in store for me, now? Just don't be too hard. . .
"Seifer" Squall said when he had reached his destination.
"I know that we've had our differences, but please, let us just put those aside and try to work together. Is that understood?"
". . . Yeah. I guess. Squall, I have to tell you, my mind wasn't right back then. I'm not making any excuses, but I'm sorry for what happened. I can't change it, but I can rectify it. Is that okay?"
Squall was relieved to hear that Seifer was willing to cooperate and even apologize.
"It's beyond okay. It's perfect. Thank you for your cooperation."
Seifer found himself alone and continued staring at Jessica.
She's beautiful. Maybe she's doesn't have a boyfriend. . . what am I thinking? She's probably some survived Zatach, and I'm human. Not to mention that Oren guy. I have nothing against him but a girl like that is probably involved. Even if she wasn't I still have to compete with the likes of people like Oren. . . I have to talk to her.
Seifer finally walked to where she was sitting. She seemed to be studying a map of the galaxy with a tiny blue dot that seemed to be alive.
"What's that?" Seifer asked her as he stopped next to her position, sitting next to her.
"This? I use this to keep track of Oren. The blue dot is him, he must still be on that other planet. It shouldn't be long now"
"Good"
There was a pause as she continued staring at the blue dot slowly but surely move across the 3D-figure of one planet, slowly but surely to an area of water.
"So, are you and Oren. . . ?"
"Involved? No, not really. We're really just good friends, he's not my type"
"Not you're type? How so?"
"Well, he's to cautious, and too kind as well. He thinks too much about other people. Would you believe that we had to fight for our lives against notorious figures, and he, in all his power, has never killed anyone"?
"Geez. . . that IS pretty amazing"
"But that doesn't mean I don't like him. He's a good guy, and wanted to do everything he could to save your planets. He's only nineteen and he's seen more than what most people have in their entire lives"
"I see"
There was another long silence as Jessica continued studying the map.
"You know, I met him when I was looking for my brother, Omega. I thought Oren was him for a while because he had his power, but I soon realized the truth. He was very sympathetic towards me and we became friends. I joined him on his junky little ship trying to get to this place and save it. Even though those portals get us light-years, they have limits. We were still so far it took Pyros and his warriors about a few days longer than us to get here. It took us five years."
"Five years!? You must really care about us"
"No. I didn't care at all. Oren cared. I told him we were miserable enough, that we didn't need any more problems, but I was kind of selfish. He insisted that we go, so we did. I was only twelve then, so it's actually kind of a big thing that I'm finally in the galaxy that we were trying to save."
"That must be great"
"It is. It's wonderful"
Jessica finally put the map away.
"I think I'm more interested in talking to you than studying this map."
Seifer was flattered by her words.
"The only person I've opened up to this much since Zata blew into a trillion pieces is Oren, and I'm not even sure that I conveyed this much even to him. I like having you as a listener"
"Thanks a lot, except I've always been more of a talker"
"Then tell me, what were your parents like?"
Seifer paused and began to go into a short story that he would feel a little scared to tell for the first time in years.
________________________________________________________________________
AN: This chapter was about 4500 words, and that's how long I think I'll be making all my chapters. Don't forget to read my Kingdom Hearts fic, Crowned Hearts if you're interested. The next chapter will focus on FFVII/X since this one focused on FFVIII/IX. I also got word from a reviewer that Zidane's power should outlaw Squall's, which is mostly true, so I emphasized that a little earlier in this fic. Anyway, until next chapter. . .