Fantasy Thunder Chapter Thirteen: Nu
By Blue Dragon
Nu is incomplete without Xi and the mysterious disappearing other.
"Damn" Zidane kicked the wall in his room. Jessica had tried her best to heal the injuries, but it still hurt. Not only that, but they were no match for the new arrivals. And lastly, Alpha through Zeta would be back on their feet in only a few short weeks.
He looked pretty pitiful with his friends and a lot of others limping around garden back to their rooms. Most people wanted to know what had happened.
"To think I actually thought this would be easy," Zidane said to the ceiling as he lay on his back on his bed. When the students asked, they said that they had heard rumbling in from the training room, and that they were hoping that some sort of major battle had been won. It was painfully answered more than once that they hadn't exactly won at all. As a matter of fact, they just missed being annihilated. This wasn't something that could just be played with, something they expected to push their ways through. Now someone was actually dead. What if it was on his side? Someone close to him? What would happen if he lost his wife?
That was why he stared up at the ceiling. To ask himself:
Do I even know what I'm fighting for?
And Oren was missing, which he didn't even want to think about. Now they had no organization, no source of information, and had lost a major part of their team. Things had barely started and now they were going horribly wrong.
There was a knock at his door, and Zidane groggily went to answer.
***
Theta stood in front of Pyros who was on the couch.
Surprisingly he had caught Pyros in a bathrobe. Of all things.
"This had better be good, Theta"
He sighed. Iota had been important to him, and now he had to approach the great leader and even go to his quarters. The pressure from his comrades had been great.
Pyros is going to be on all our asses for a lifetime for this. Theta looked down at the ground.
"Sir, we beat them to a bloody pulp--"
"Did you kill half?" Pyros asked impatiently.
"Well, no. Not exactly, no"
Pyros got a 'I would politely like to know why before I kill you' look on his face.
"Why is that, my dear warrior?" he asked neutrally.
"Sir, Oren killed Iota. Not after a fight, just killed. He impaled her right through the stomach."
"What! What! That bleeding heart Oren killed Iota? I'm not hearing this! First Omega and now another?"
"We are very grieved"
"Hunt him down and kill him now"
"We don't where he is. We felt his signal flying off somewhere, but then it disappeared."
"Find him. I don't care how long it takes. I want you and Eta to find him. Tell Kappa and Lambda to finish off the others."
"Don't you think that that is a little too few?"
"One would have been too much for them, but if you're such a baby, bring Mu along for the ride. I'm feeling generous"
Theta kneeled with his head down.
"Greatest thanks. Permission to be dismissed, sir?"
"Granted. Now you and Eta search the stars first. I have a feeling he will be there"
"Immediately sir" Theta said as he hustled out of the room to Eta's quarters, glad that Pyros wasn't too angry.
***
Jessica had afterwards gone to the library and in a secluded area paced around mumbling to herself worriedly. Seifer was with her; sitting at the table near her as they puzzled over where Oren could have went.
"He seemed pretty upset"
"He's never killed anyone before. He's still young and hasn't ever needed to. It is very unfortunate that he's doing it the first time."
"Where could he be?" Seifer asked running a hand through his hair.
"He flew straight up. We Zatach never fly straight up unless we plan on going through the atmosphere. He's in space somewhere, likely. Maybe on some moon. I need to talk to him."
She looked at Seifer.
"I wish you could come. But a human body isn't built for the vacuum nor pressurization of space"
"I wish I'd paid more attention in my classes"
Zell walked from behind a shelf and sat at the table across from Seifer.
"Maybe you would have even learned something if you weren't constantly goofing off."
Seifer narrowed his eyes.
"I'm glad to see you too. How was your near death experience?"
Zell glared right back.
"Just fine and dandy. What were you talking about?"
"Didn't your eavesdropping produce useful results?"
"Hey, I have to keep a tab on you. I don't know what you could be up to. We have to keep an eye on you at all times." Zell countered.
"We can't have no witch's slaves like you running around"
Seifer folded his arms across his chest and produced a calm response.
"Let you let a witch herself run around?"
"Say WHAT!? You're freakin' lying!"
"Really? Am I? Check the conference room. You'll find none other than Ultimecia herself. Ask Squall, he knows"
"Yeah right"
"Actually, its true. Oren beforehand salvaged some extra help from the dead. She should be lounging somewhere"
Zell's face turned pale when he heard Seifer's statement backed up.
"N-no way! A mortal enemy of garden right here? I have to warn the others!"
Zell ran off before anyone could stop him.
***
"You're kidding! You actually compressed time?" Kiros asked Ultimecia. You see, they didn't know the name or description of her, and didn't know she was the dangerous enemy from before. They had just known the world was under the threat of a sorceress.
"Yes, and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids! And that rotten Angelo too."
Kiros sat with Ward across from Ultimecia's seat in the conference room. And they certainly were conferring.
Laguna was giving Jecht advise on being a father, while Jecht with give the perfect strategy for revealing fatherhood to his son. Auron decided he didn't feel like any big greetings just yet, and if he didn't show himself Yuna and Tidus would tell everyone anyway.
"My only regret is that I left my wife back at the farplane. I may not see her until I die again."
"I know she is glad that you have another chance at living." Auron laughed. "At least you had a chance to love"
Braska tilted his head.
"You intrigue me Auron. You are very mysterious and complex"
"Complex? How so?"
"For example, you carry your arm like it's a sling. You never used to do that."
". . . What does it matter why?"
"Tell me, your old friend."
"Don't go telling everyone, but arm was badly sprained, broken, and torn when Yunalesca killed me. I sputtered around crawling like an insect until I found Kimahri. You see, when Kimahri told your daughter that taking her to Besaid was a dead man's request, it was me she meant, not you. I was the dead man fulfilling your promise. Yuna had thought you were the dead man, even though you were. Simply not the one Kimahri was referring to.
Later, though, when Rin helped me I was carrying my arm in my makeshift sling. The pain always seemed to be there. It left, but I always felt nervous and uncomfortable with my arm out of my coat freely, so I keep it inside.
Braska blinked.
"That's the most idiotic thing that I've ever heard"
"My arm was hurting and injured for the longest time. Its like a pencil continuously breaks, and when you get a stable one, you still feel nervous and cautious about keeping it from breaking"
"That's the most idiotic analogy I've ever heard"
"Perhaps I should break you're arm to show you what I mean?"
"I'll be quiet now"
"You do that"
"I've got it!" Laguna concluded.
"I'll tell him tonight, that oughta raise his spirits a bit!" Laguna exclaimed.
"If you call telling your son about a father he doesn't even know he has and probably hates a good thing, then it should" Jecht said knowingly.
"Well what would you do?"
"The same thing, I guess. My only problem is that I want to be closer to my son. He's basically an adult and. . . and I've rarely ever been there for him. Even when I was back in the old Zanarkand."
"Zanarkand?"
"Never mind. We should just tell them flat out what we want. No better way to do it."
"I guess you're right"
Laguna stood up.
"Would you mind coming with me? Squall said he'd be just outside garden in the Obel Lake area."
"I don't know where that boy is. . . sure? Why not?"
Laguna and Jecht headed for the elevator in the back of the room, and turned to their friends.
"Guys, you coming?" the former blitzball star gestured with his hand. No one paid any attention; they were all preoccupied with their own conversations.
"Lets just go. Kiros and Ward don't seem interested."
"Fine then."
The two went downwards to the entrance, where Laguna would reveal his shocking news.
***
Twilight was falling rapidly as the sun went down in the west behind a mountain range making the sky a pale orange and soon black. One star could be visible high in the sky and the moon was gigantic, as it usually seemed. Seifer was next to Jessica who was looking straight up.
"Oren never had any family. When I try to talk to him about it, he says he was born alone, and would probably die alone" she said more to herself than to Seifer.
"No mother? No father? No brother or sister or cousins or anything?"
Jessica still stared straight up and shook her head.
"I'm really all he has. The closest friend he's ever had. . . He probably went to a nearby star or the moon. I have to find him."
She crouched down and a pale white light surrounded.
"I'll see you tomorrow Seifer. Meanwhile, you may want to clear the area"
"Yeah, okay" Seifer put took his gunblade from its spot stuck in the grass and took off in another direction.
She was temporarily nothing but white light, and then she blasted off into the sky and for a second, seemed to be a star herself.
"Wow" the gunblader mouthed to himself. It's a wonder that the alphabet goons they were fighting proved a challenge for people who could do things like that.
He planned on heading back to the entrance, when he saw two figures on the horizon near the massive purple side of Esthar Garden. One was sitting, the other swinging something around at high speeds.
Seifer felt his heartbeat quicken as he remembered the promise to fight Squall one-on-one. He soon realized that the figure sitting down was Rinoa.
"Hey!" he yelled.
Rinoa tensed as she heard Seifer's voice.
Squall set his gunblade down.
"Are you here to fight?" he asked casually as Seifer strode over.
"Yeah. The usual?"
Squall knew what he meant by "the usual". They would do the fight Oppenheimer style. Two gunblades would be stuck in the ground approximately six feet away from each other, the bearers twelve feet away from each gunblade. They would then run, claim their weapons, and fight.
***
Tidus and Yuna walked hand in hand to the doors of garden so that they could watch the sunset from outside. When they got there they saw something more interesting. Squall and Seifer had been standing from gunblades stuck in the ground, looking like they were ready for a duel.
Yuna had asked Rinoa what was happening, and she had said the two were going to duel.
"Maybe I can fight winner!" Tidus felt ready to pull out his sword.
Yuna immediately knew this and put a hand on his arm.
"You know you haven't had that for very long. They have probably been fighting for years"
Tidus' shoulders sagged as he felt the impact of the realization.
"You're probably right. But it would be a good fight to watch between the two of them, right?"
Yuna nodded and sat down beside him and Rinoa.
The two were locked eyes.
"Ready. . . " Seifer tightened his gloves.
"Set. . . " Squall tightened his.
"GO!!" They both said at the same time, rushing forward and grabbing the blades.
Seifer started with a flipping slash, Squall with a closed tornado. When the blades hit, their faces were illuminated as sparks flew, creating an impressive display that almost set the grass on fire.
"You've. . . bulked up a little" Seifer noticed.
"You've bulked up a lot," Squall returned.
The two jumped back and then forward, clashing in air. Squall slung his upward only to meet the part of Seifer's blade so far down it was almost the hilt.
Seifer slammed the hilt into Squall's blade, knocking it up, and leaving him open.
Squall knew his only choice was to step in to the blow, and slamming into Seifer's chest.
Seifer then used the momentum to flip himself backward and bounce forward in a lunge. Squall parried and countered by putting all his weight behind his blade as he knocked Seifer back once again.
Squall prepared for a big strike, but Seifer was too fast. Squall was open for no blows, so instead Seifer jumped right off his shoulders into the sky, coming down fast.
Squall jumped up and met Seifer halfway at eight feet, and the two landed with Squall back on the offensive. His body glowed crystal like Lionheart, and Squall gulped at what he knew was coming next.
"Lionheart!"
The slashes came quick and faster than Seifer could even count, and he couldn't even imagine how he was blocking most of them. A few got in and drew scrapes on his shoulders. The final blow came down and Seifer blocked it, the slowness of Lionheart made up for by sheer power. Sparks flew and almost set the grass on fire again.
Tidus let out a whistle.
"Not bad" Squall commented.
Seifer was too out of breath to answer.
My Fire Cross is no match. How about. . . Yeah. That'll work. Seifer thought to himself.
***
Jessica felt the burning atmosphere all over her body as she flew up higher and higher. The mechanisms in her Zatach body automatically pressurizing so that her body would remain intact and she could survive for a few hours without air.
She searched the black space for his energy signal, and found a faint one not to far away.
She pulled herself towards it, noticing the faint glow of blue just over the horizon of the very small but amazingly close moon of the planet.
As she got closer she felt bursts of power and slight concussions. She landed on the yellow rock surface, the currently the bright side of the moon.
In the distance she saw Oren on a rock and bounded over. She didn't want to be seen, but she didn't have to worry about being heard because sound couldn't travel in the vacuum of space. She stopped behind him and tapped his shoulder.
When he turned around he had a sad look on he face. He opened his mouth to talk, but no words came.
Jessica tapped her head and Oren nodded. A beam of purple locked to two's minds, and a telepathic conversation came.
OM: Jessica, why are you here?
JT: Why are you here?
OM: I'm a murderer. My hands are stained. I can't face the group.
JT: You're not a murderer. Most had killed before.
OM: Hah. They were monsters. I killed a sentient being.
JT: You had to. You had no choice, my life was in danger.
OM: Give me a break. There could have been other ways--
JT: But you didn't risk them because you knew my life was in balance. And you also took the opportunity--
OM: I sacrificed one life for another. I'm still a murderer.
JT: See it as you taking the opening to eliminate a member of Pyros' squadron. They would have killed you without hesitation, and planned on it.
OM: She didn't even have a chance to defend herself! What kind of person am I?
JT: Oren, please. We're virtually blind if you don't act as a link. They want you, and they'll just go against the auxiliary immediately if you're not bait.
OM: Is that the only reason you need me?
JT: That's not what I meant. Where will you stay? Can you just sit back and let the world be taken.
OM: . . . do you know why my eyes glow blue?
JT: You don't have to tell me again.
OM: You need to hear it again. I don't know what happened to code name Omega. I don't know why he's dead. I don't know. But I do know that his power is diminishing inside me. You know what happens when a Zatach is getting weak?
JT: Yes. The eyes glow blue.
OM: Exactly. But you've seen that I'm up on my feet on not the least bit weak. So tell me, why don't they listen to me when I tell them that I had nothing to do with his murder? I have power inside me that is his unique energy signal. And now after five years of denial, if there was even any doubt that I killed Omega that I would have liked, its gone. I've killed Iota, this time for real. And now they're even more determined.
JT: I understand. If you want to leave and seclude yourself, then fine. But please, finish these efforts to drive them back. Then you can do whatever you want. Okay?
OM: Fine. Whatever I want. But I'll try to help save these planets first. Deal?
OM: Deal.
JT: Fine.
OM: Fine.
The two simultaneously launched off of the moon, leaving craters the size of Bermuda on the moon.
***
"Seven crosses!" Seifer yelled with his blade held high.
"Fire cross!"
"Fira cross!"
"Firaga cross!"
"Meltdown cross!"
"Holy cross!"
"Flare cross!"
"Ultima cross!"
He yelled each name of the attacks he had been working on, interweaving the power inside him into his blade, and launching the seven respective crosses at the unsuspecting Squall.
Luckily, he dodged the last six, but it was the fire cross that hit him, sending a burst of flame surrounding the area.
The three onlookers gasped.
Seifer stood panting, sweat running down his face. Slowly, the smoke cleared and he saw that Squall was more or less intact, but covered in ash and looking annoyed. He coughed out a puff of black smoke.
"You friggin' cheated Seifer. You used magic!"
"No I didn't! That came from my own body, I don't even have any spells stocked."
"Right"
"Did I win?"
Squall got back into fighting position.
"Not by a long shot. You'll have to do better than that"
"Damn"
Seifer tried to pick up Hyperion again but failed miserably.
Squall laughed.
"Can't pick up your gunblade? I guess I win" he said, a little less confidently.
He turned to leave.
"Wait! Squall, pick up Lionheart."
"Uh. . . " he looked nervous and heard Rinoa giggle.
"Well, sure" he said semi-confidently.
He tightened his fingers around the hilt but dropped it.
"Owowowow. . . " he said taking off his gloves and rubbing his hands.
"Hah! You can't yours either. Looks like a tie Sir Puberty."
***
Laguna felt his heart beating hard in his chest as he and Jecht walked down to automatic doors that were the exits. Outside he immediately spotted Seifer and Squall with Tidus, Yuna, and Rinoa; Squall and Seifer looking exhausted.
Jecht got a look and said:
"Uh, I'm late for something! I gotta-"
"No way, you're just trying to weasel out because you didn't count on Tidus being here. You're going through this just like me!"
Laguna said, dragging Jecht over to Tidus before he could escape.
"Boy you're daddy has something to tell you!" he yelled running away so that Jecht couldn't walk off while he went to talk to Squall.
"Squall?" Laguna said as he approached him.
Squall turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
What's that clown doing in garden?
"Could I talk to you in private?"
Seifer took the hint and went off somewhere.
"Yeah?"
"Do you. . . know any of your parents?" he asked nervously.
"No. I've never seen or heard of them."
"Well, you know Raine, right?"
"Yeah. . . ?" Squall said slowly.
"What would you say if you knew your father?"
"I don't know. Do you have a point? I should be heading in soon" Squall said impatiently.
"Right. I loved Raine. And she loved me. Unfortunately after I left to go look for Ellone. . . "
He let it hang.
"Tell me you're making that up! You're lying!"
Squall backed off slowly but decided that he'd rather get out of there faster, slowly picked up his pace, found the power to pick up Lionheart, and ran off, almost into the doors before they could automatically slide open.
Laguna looked down at the now darkening ground.
"That didn't go quite as well as I hoped." He said to himself.
***
Sephiroth paced around the hallways, giving anyone who stared nasty looks.
Barret came up to him huffing and puffing.
"There you is!" He said, catching his breath.
"What mayhem have you been causing while I was off somewhere, huh? Did you decide to kill more people? Wreck the place?"
"Shouldn't you be seeing Aeris?"
Barret put a hand to his chin in mock thought.
"Hmmm. As much as I'd like to. YOU KILLED HER YA JACKASS!"
"She's near the conference room."
"Yeah right. How could she be there, huh?"
"Well I'm here, aren't I?"
Barret's eyes widened at this revelation and he hustled to the elevator just as fast, the poor man in his mid thirties seeming to be on the verge of a heart attack.
Down the other side of the hall, Rikku came walking, a sad look on her face. Not very fitting for her.
"All you all right?" he asked. He was surprised about himself. He didn't ever remember caring about anyone. Why now did he ask if she was all right?
She looked up at him with sad eyes.
"We were beaten. Badly, too. We lost the battle and aren't feeling too well. And Oren ran off somewhere."
"Oh. . . you won't lose again. Next time I'll make sure I'm there. Don't look sad, it isn't fitting for you"
She eyed him funnily.
"What makes you say that?"
"Uh, you just seem more in character when you're happy. It saddens me to see you out of character."
"Does it make you sad to see I don't have my normal personality, or are you just not happy when I'm not happy?"
Sephiroth pondered the question and was afraid to answer.
"Don't look so worried, I was just kidding!" Rikku said, brightening up.
Sephiroth was happy for two reasons, now.
"Well, its pretty late. Do you still want to do something?" he asked.
"Do you think you could teach me how to use that sword before I go back to my room?"
Sephiroth almost laughed. Few people could even pick up his sword, and NOBODY could handle it except him.
"I--guess?" he said, trying to keep from giggling.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Nothing, nothing." He said, removing the sword from its sheath.
"Okay, do you know how to hold a sword?"
"A little. Tidus did it all the time"
"Good enough. First things first. Pick the sword up." He said, laying it on the ground.
Rikku looked at him suspiciously.
"Are you just saying that because I'm a girl?"
Sephiroth finally laughed.
"I'd say that even if you were a full grown man. And you'll find out why."
With this assurance Rikku crouched down and braced her fingers around the hilt. And then, slowly, she tried to lift it up.
At first she thought she was doing it but realized that it wasn't moving from the ground at all.
"What? It won't come up!"
"Its not exactly a light sword"
She tried jumping on the end, using the ring of the hilt as a fulcrum to make the handle come up, but it didn't work.
Then she tried sliding it to a slightly elevated surface so she could have a better grip, but it wouldn't budge.
Then she tried to just pulling like crazy, but all efforts were in vain. After seeing people handle sword so seemingly easily, she had no idea that they could actually be that heavy. Or just the Masamune, to be specific.
Sephiroth laughed crazily.
"I told you it wasn't light! You want to try tomorrow?"
"I guess. I'm tired. I'll see you tomorrow, then." She said, walking back the way she came to the dormitories.
"Yes, tomorrow."
She left him pondering why he enjoyed being with her.
***
Eta and Theta arrived on the moon, but knew that Oren and Jessica had long since departed.
T: We missed them.
Theta telepathically communicated.
T: I would have liked to kill Oren.
E: Yes, I too. I guess it will have to wait.
T: Pyros won't be happy to hear that.
E: Pyros isn't happy to hear half the things we've told him. He's a hopeless case sometimes.
T: Maybe we could get Farfy to tell Pyros?
E: That sounds a bit unfair, don't you think?
T: Forget it, Eta. Mu is waiting for us.
The two silently blasted back at immensely high speeds.
M: I hear someone named Sephiroth has connections with Jessica.
Mu said in their heads as Eta and Theta retreated from the moon.
E: Theta told me about that. He said that Jessica sent residual waves directly into the computer on another planet from far away to gather information. She accidentally beamed it right into a project called JENOVA.
T: Well Theta was right. Theta said, referring to himself in the third person.
M: I presume you and Eta didn't find anything. But while you were gone I found something in our computers. Something in the waves beamed by Jessica. They were feelings. Real feelings. I got some from Oren.
E: Oren? So what? Eta asked.
M: It seems that Oren wasn't lying. And Oren may not be our true enemy.
Eta and Theta felt their hearts stop.
________________________________________________________________________
AN: Well, well, this took me a while. Also, due to my business in two fics, I fear The Trinity will be put on indefinite hold. I have one chapter half typed, but that's already twice as long as one of these! O_o I'll try and get one more chapter in this week before I work on my other fic for next week. OH! I also got Final Fantasy Origins! I and II on Playstation! Joy!
By Blue Dragon
Nu is incomplete without Xi and the mysterious disappearing other.
"Damn" Zidane kicked the wall in his room. Jessica had tried her best to heal the injuries, but it still hurt. Not only that, but they were no match for the new arrivals. And lastly, Alpha through Zeta would be back on their feet in only a few short weeks.
He looked pretty pitiful with his friends and a lot of others limping around garden back to their rooms. Most people wanted to know what had happened.
"To think I actually thought this would be easy," Zidane said to the ceiling as he lay on his back on his bed. When the students asked, they said that they had heard rumbling in from the training room, and that they were hoping that some sort of major battle had been won. It was painfully answered more than once that they hadn't exactly won at all. As a matter of fact, they just missed being annihilated. This wasn't something that could just be played with, something they expected to push their ways through. Now someone was actually dead. What if it was on his side? Someone close to him? What would happen if he lost his wife?
That was why he stared up at the ceiling. To ask himself:
Do I even know what I'm fighting for?
And Oren was missing, which he didn't even want to think about. Now they had no organization, no source of information, and had lost a major part of their team. Things had barely started and now they were going horribly wrong.
There was a knock at his door, and Zidane groggily went to answer.
***
Theta stood in front of Pyros who was on the couch.
Surprisingly he had caught Pyros in a bathrobe. Of all things.
"This had better be good, Theta"
He sighed. Iota had been important to him, and now he had to approach the great leader and even go to his quarters. The pressure from his comrades had been great.
Pyros is going to be on all our asses for a lifetime for this. Theta looked down at the ground.
"Sir, we beat them to a bloody pulp--"
"Did you kill half?" Pyros asked impatiently.
"Well, no. Not exactly, no"
Pyros got a 'I would politely like to know why before I kill you' look on his face.
"Why is that, my dear warrior?" he asked neutrally.
"Sir, Oren killed Iota. Not after a fight, just killed. He impaled her right through the stomach."
"What! What! That bleeding heart Oren killed Iota? I'm not hearing this! First Omega and now another?"
"We are very grieved"
"Hunt him down and kill him now"
"We don't where he is. We felt his signal flying off somewhere, but then it disappeared."
"Find him. I don't care how long it takes. I want you and Eta to find him. Tell Kappa and Lambda to finish off the others."
"Don't you think that that is a little too few?"
"One would have been too much for them, but if you're such a baby, bring Mu along for the ride. I'm feeling generous"
Theta kneeled with his head down.
"Greatest thanks. Permission to be dismissed, sir?"
"Granted. Now you and Eta search the stars first. I have a feeling he will be there"
"Immediately sir" Theta said as he hustled out of the room to Eta's quarters, glad that Pyros wasn't too angry.
***
Jessica had afterwards gone to the library and in a secluded area paced around mumbling to herself worriedly. Seifer was with her; sitting at the table near her as they puzzled over where Oren could have went.
"He seemed pretty upset"
"He's never killed anyone before. He's still young and hasn't ever needed to. It is very unfortunate that he's doing it the first time."
"Where could he be?" Seifer asked running a hand through his hair.
"He flew straight up. We Zatach never fly straight up unless we plan on going through the atmosphere. He's in space somewhere, likely. Maybe on some moon. I need to talk to him."
She looked at Seifer.
"I wish you could come. But a human body isn't built for the vacuum nor pressurization of space"
"I wish I'd paid more attention in my classes"
Zell walked from behind a shelf and sat at the table across from Seifer.
"Maybe you would have even learned something if you weren't constantly goofing off."
Seifer narrowed his eyes.
"I'm glad to see you too. How was your near death experience?"
Zell glared right back.
"Just fine and dandy. What were you talking about?"
"Didn't your eavesdropping produce useful results?"
"Hey, I have to keep a tab on you. I don't know what you could be up to. We have to keep an eye on you at all times." Zell countered.
"We can't have no witch's slaves like you running around"
Seifer folded his arms across his chest and produced a calm response.
"Let you let a witch herself run around?"
"Say WHAT!? You're freakin' lying!"
"Really? Am I? Check the conference room. You'll find none other than Ultimecia herself. Ask Squall, he knows"
"Yeah right"
"Actually, its true. Oren beforehand salvaged some extra help from the dead. She should be lounging somewhere"
Zell's face turned pale when he heard Seifer's statement backed up.
"N-no way! A mortal enemy of garden right here? I have to warn the others!"
Zell ran off before anyone could stop him.
***
"You're kidding! You actually compressed time?" Kiros asked Ultimecia. You see, they didn't know the name or description of her, and didn't know she was the dangerous enemy from before. They had just known the world was under the threat of a sorceress.
"Yes, and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids! And that rotten Angelo too."
Kiros sat with Ward across from Ultimecia's seat in the conference room. And they certainly were conferring.
Laguna was giving Jecht advise on being a father, while Jecht with give the perfect strategy for revealing fatherhood to his son. Auron decided he didn't feel like any big greetings just yet, and if he didn't show himself Yuna and Tidus would tell everyone anyway.
"My only regret is that I left my wife back at the farplane. I may not see her until I die again."
"I know she is glad that you have another chance at living." Auron laughed. "At least you had a chance to love"
Braska tilted his head.
"You intrigue me Auron. You are very mysterious and complex"
"Complex? How so?"
"For example, you carry your arm like it's a sling. You never used to do that."
". . . What does it matter why?"
"Tell me, your old friend."
"Don't go telling everyone, but arm was badly sprained, broken, and torn when Yunalesca killed me. I sputtered around crawling like an insect until I found Kimahri. You see, when Kimahri told your daughter that taking her to Besaid was a dead man's request, it was me she meant, not you. I was the dead man fulfilling your promise. Yuna had thought you were the dead man, even though you were. Simply not the one Kimahri was referring to.
Later, though, when Rin helped me I was carrying my arm in my makeshift sling. The pain always seemed to be there. It left, but I always felt nervous and uncomfortable with my arm out of my coat freely, so I keep it inside.
Braska blinked.
"That's the most idiotic thing that I've ever heard"
"My arm was hurting and injured for the longest time. Its like a pencil continuously breaks, and when you get a stable one, you still feel nervous and cautious about keeping it from breaking"
"That's the most idiotic analogy I've ever heard"
"Perhaps I should break you're arm to show you what I mean?"
"I'll be quiet now"
"You do that"
"I've got it!" Laguna concluded.
"I'll tell him tonight, that oughta raise his spirits a bit!" Laguna exclaimed.
"If you call telling your son about a father he doesn't even know he has and probably hates a good thing, then it should" Jecht said knowingly.
"Well what would you do?"
"The same thing, I guess. My only problem is that I want to be closer to my son. He's basically an adult and. . . and I've rarely ever been there for him. Even when I was back in the old Zanarkand."
"Zanarkand?"
"Never mind. We should just tell them flat out what we want. No better way to do it."
"I guess you're right"
Laguna stood up.
"Would you mind coming with me? Squall said he'd be just outside garden in the Obel Lake area."
"I don't know where that boy is. . . sure? Why not?"
Laguna and Jecht headed for the elevator in the back of the room, and turned to their friends.
"Guys, you coming?" the former blitzball star gestured with his hand. No one paid any attention; they were all preoccupied with their own conversations.
"Lets just go. Kiros and Ward don't seem interested."
"Fine then."
The two went downwards to the entrance, where Laguna would reveal his shocking news.
***
Twilight was falling rapidly as the sun went down in the west behind a mountain range making the sky a pale orange and soon black. One star could be visible high in the sky and the moon was gigantic, as it usually seemed. Seifer was next to Jessica who was looking straight up.
"Oren never had any family. When I try to talk to him about it, he says he was born alone, and would probably die alone" she said more to herself than to Seifer.
"No mother? No father? No brother or sister or cousins or anything?"
Jessica still stared straight up and shook her head.
"I'm really all he has. The closest friend he's ever had. . . He probably went to a nearby star or the moon. I have to find him."
She crouched down and a pale white light surrounded.
"I'll see you tomorrow Seifer. Meanwhile, you may want to clear the area"
"Yeah, okay" Seifer put took his gunblade from its spot stuck in the grass and took off in another direction.
She was temporarily nothing but white light, and then she blasted off into the sky and for a second, seemed to be a star herself.
"Wow" the gunblader mouthed to himself. It's a wonder that the alphabet goons they were fighting proved a challenge for people who could do things like that.
He planned on heading back to the entrance, when he saw two figures on the horizon near the massive purple side of Esthar Garden. One was sitting, the other swinging something around at high speeds.
Seifer felt his heartbeat quicken as he remembered the promise to fight Squall one-on-one. He soon realized that the figure sitting down was Rinoa.
"Hey!" he yelled.
Rinoa tensed as she heard Seifer's voice.
Squall set his gunblade down.
"Are you here to fight?" he asked casually as Seifer strode over.
"Yeah. The usual?"
Squall knew what he meant by "the usual". They would do the fight Oppenheimer style. Two gunblades would be stuck in the ground approximately six feet away from each other, the bearers twelve feet away from each gunblade. They would then run, claim their weapons, and fight.
***
Tidus and Yuna walked hand in hand to the doors of garden so that they could watch the sunset from outside. When they got there they saw something more interesting. Squall and Seifer had been standing from gunblades stuck in the ground, looking like they were ready for a duel.
Yuna had asked Rinoa what was happening, and she had said the two were going to duel.
"Maybe I can fight winner!" Tidus felt ready to pull out his sword.
Yuna immediately knew this and put a hand on his arm.
"You know you haven't had that for very long. They have probably been fighting for years"
Tidus' shoulders sagged as he felt the impact of the realization.
"You're probably right. But it would be a good fight to watch between the two of them, right?"
Yuna nodded and sat down beside him and Rinoa.
The two were locked eyes.
"Ready. . . " Seifer tightened his gloves.
"Set. . . " Squall tightened his.
"GO!!" They both said at the same time, rushing forward and grabbing the blades.
Seifer started with a flipping slash, Squall with a closed tornado. When the blades hit, their faces were illuminated as sparks flew, creating an impressive display that almost set the grass on fire.
"You've. . . bulked up a little" Seifer noticed.
"You've bulked up a lot," Squall returned.
The two jumped back and then forward, clashing in air. Squall slung his upward only to meet the part of Seifer's blade so far down it was almost the hilt.
Seifer slammed the hilt into Squall's blade, knocking it up, and leaving him open.
Squall knew his only choice was to step in to the blow, and slamming into Seifer's chest.
Seifer then used the momentum to flip himself backward and bounce forward in a lunge. Squall parried and countered by putting all his weight behind his blade as he knocked Seifer back once again.
Squall prepared for a big strike, but Seifer was too fast. Squall was open for no blows, so instead Seifer jumped right off his shoulders into the sky, coming down fast.
Squall jumped up and met Seifer halfway at eight feet, and the two landed with Squall back on the offensive. His body glowed crystal like Lionheart, and Squall gulped at what he knew was coming next.
"Lionheart!"
The slashes came quick and faster than Seifer could even count, and he couldn't even imagine how he was blocking most of them. A few got in and drew scrapes on his shoulders. The final blow came down and Seifer blocked it, the slowness of Lionheart made up for by sheer power. Sparks flew and almost set the grass on fire again.
Tidus let out a whistle.
"Not bad" Squall commented.
Seifer was too out of breath to answer.
My Fire Cross is no match. How about. . . Yeah. That'll work. Seifer thought to himself.
***
Jessica felt the burning atmosphere all over her body as she flew up higher and higher. The mechanisms in her Zatach body automatically pressurizing so that her body would remain intact and she could survive for a few hours without air.
She searched the black space for his energy signal, and found a faint one not to far away.
She pulled herself towards it, noticing the faint glow of blue just over the horizon of the very small but amazingly close moon of the planet.
As she got closer she felt bursts of power and slight concussions. She landed on the yellow rock surface, the currently the bright side of the moon.
In the distance she saw Oren on a rock and bounded over. She didn't want to be seen, but she didn't have to worry about being heard because sound couldn't travel in the vacuum of space. She stopped behind him and tapped his shoulder.
When he turned around he had a sad look on he face. He opened his mouth to talk, but no words came.
Jessica tapped her head and Oren nodded. A beam of purple locked to two's minds, and a telepathic conversation came.
OM: Jessica, why are you here?
JT: Why are you here?
OM: I'm a murderer. My hands are stained. I can't face the group.
JT: You're not a murderer. Most had killed before.
OM: Hah. They were monsters. I killed a sentient being.
JT: You had to. You had no choice, my life was in danger.
OM: Give me a break. There could have been other ways--
JT: But you didn't risk them because you knew my life was in balance. And you also took the opportunity--
OM: I sacrificed one life for another. I'm still a murderer.
JT: See it as you taking the opening to eliminate a member of Pyros' squadron. They would have killed you without hesitation, and planned on it.
OM: She didn't even have a chance to defend herself! What kind of person am I?
JT: Oren, please. We're virtually blind if you don't act as a link. They want you, and they'll just go against the auxiliary immediately if you're not bait.
OM: Is that the only reason you need me?
JT: That's not what I meant. Where will you stay? Can you just sit back and let the world be taken.
OM: . . . do you know why my eyes glow blue?
JT: You don't have to tell me again.
OM: You need to hear it again. I don't know what happened to code name Omega. I don't know why he's dead. I don't know. But I do know that his power is diminishing inside me. You know what happens when a Zatach is getting weak?
JT: Yes. The eyes glow blue.
OM: Exactly. But you've seen that I'm up on my feet on not the least bit weak. So tell me, why don't they listen to me when I tell them that I had nothing to do with his murder? I have power inside me that is his unique energy signal. And now after five years of denial, if there was even any doubt that I killed Omega that I would have liked, its gone. I've killed Iota, this time for real. And now they're even more determined.
JT: I understand. If you want to leave and seclude yourself, then fine. But please, finish these efforts to drive them back. Then you can do whatever you want. Okay?
OM: Fine. Whatever I want. But I'll try to help save these planets first. Deal?
OM: Deal.
JT: Fine.
OM: Fine.
The two simultaneously launched off of the moon, leaving craters the size of Bermuda on the moon.
***
"Seven crosses!" Seifer yelled with his blade held high.
"Fire cross!"
"Fira cross!"
"Firaga cross!"
"Meltdown cross!"
"Holy cross!"
"Flare cross!"
"Ultima cross!"
He yelled each name of the attacks he had been working on, interweaving the power inside him into his blade, and launching the seven respective crosses at the unsuspecting Squall.
Luckily, he dodged the last six, but it was the fire cross that hit him, sending a burst of flame surrounding the area.
The three onlookers gasped.
Seifer stood panting, sweat running down his face. Slowly, the smoke cleared and he saw that Squall was more or less intact, but covered in ash and looking annoyed. He coughed out a puff of black smoke.
"You friggin' cheated Seifer. You used magic!"
"No I didn't! That came from my own body, I don't even have any spells stocked."
"Right"
"Did I win?"
Squall got back into fighting position.
"Not by a long shot. You'll have to do better than that"
"Damn"
Seifer tried to pick up Hyperion again but failed miserably.
Squall laughed.
"Can't pick up your gunblade? I guess I win" he said, a little less confidently.
He turned to leave.
"Wait! Squall, pick up Lionheart."
"Uh. . . " he looked nervous and heard Rinoa giggle.
"Well, sure" he said semi-confidently.
He tightened his fingers around the hilt but dropped it.
"Owowowow. . . " he said taking off his gloves and rubbing his hands.
"Hah! You can't yours either. Looks like a tie Sir Puberty."
***
Laguna felt his heart beating hard in his chest as he and Jecht walked down to automatic doors that were the exits. Outside he immediately spotted Seifer and Squall with Tidus, Yuna, and Rinoa; Squall and Seifer looking exhausted.
Jecht got a look and said:
"Uh, I'm late for something! I gotta-"
"No way, you're just trying to weasel out because you didn't count on Tidus being here. You're going through this just like me!"
Laguna said, dragging Jecht over to Tidus before he could escape.
"Boy you're daddy has something to tell you!" he yelled running away so that Jecht couldn't walk off while he went to talk to Squall.
"Squall?" Laguna said as he approached him.
Squall turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
What's that clown doing in garden?
"Could I talk to you in private?"
Seifer took the hint and went off somewhere.
"Yeah?"
"Do you. . . know any of your parents?" he asked nervously.
"No. I've never seen or heard of them."
"Well, you know Raine, right?"
"Yeah. . . ?" Squall said slowly.
"What would you say if you knew your father?"
"I don't know. Do you have a point? I should be heading in soon" Squall said impatiently.
"Right. I loved Raine. And she loved me. Unfortunately after I left to go look for Ellone. . . "
He let it hang.
"Tell me you're making that up! You're lying!"
Squall backed off slowly but decided that he'd rather get out of there faster, slowly picked up his pace, found the power to pick up Lionheart, and ran off, almost into the doors before they could automatically slide open.
Laguna looked down at the now darkening ground.
"That didn't go quite as well as I hoped." He said to himself.
***
Sephiroth paced around the hallways, giving anyone who stared nasty looks.
Barret came up to him huffing and puffing.
"There you is!" He said, catching his breath.
"What mayhem have you been causing while I was off somewhere, huh? Did you decide to kill more people? Wreck the place?"
"Shouldn't you be seeing Aeris?"
Barret put a hand to his chin in mock thought.
"Hmmm. As much as I'd like to. YOU KILLED HER YA JACKASS!"
"She's near the conference room."
"Yeah right. How could she be there, huh?"
"Well I'm here, aren't I?"
Barret's eyes widened at this revelation and he hustled to the elevator just as fast, the poor man in his mid thirties seeming to be on the verge of a heart attack.
Down the other side of the hall, Rikku came walking, a sad look on her face. Not very fitting for her.
"All you all right?" he asked. He was surprised about himself. He didn't ever remember caring about anyone. Why now did he ask if she was all right?
She looked up at him with sad eyes.
"We were beaten. Badly, too. We lost the battle and aren't feeling too well. And Oren ran off somewhere."
"Oh. . . you won't lose again. Next time I'll make sure I'm there. Don't look sad, it isn't fitting for you"
She eyed him funnily.
"What makes you say that?"
"Uh, you just seem more in character when you're happy. It saddens me to see you out of character."
"Does it make you sad to see I don't have my normal personality, or are you just not happy when I'm not happy?"
Sephiroth pondered the question and was afraid to answer.
"Don't look so worried, I was just kidding!" Rikku said, brightening up.
Sephiroth was happy for two reasons, now.
"Well, its pretty late. Do you still want to do something?" he asked.
"Do you think you could teach me how to use that sword before I go back to my room?"
Sephiroth almost laughed. Few people could even pick up his sword, and NOBODY could handle it except him.
"I--guess?" he said, trying to keep from giggling.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Nothing, nothing." He said, removing the sword from its sheath.
"Okay, do you know how to hold a sword?"
"A little. Tidus did it all the time"
"Good enough. First things first. Pick the sword up." He said, laying it on the ground.
Rikku looked at him suspiciously.
"Are you just saying that because I'm a girl?"
Sephiroth finally laughed.
"I'd say that even if you were a full grown man. And you'll find out why."
With this assurance Rikku crouched down and braced her fingers around the hilt. And then, slowly, she tried to lift it up.
At first she thought she was doing it but realized that it wasn't moving from the ground at all.
"What? It won't come up!"
"Its not exactly a light sword"
She tried jumping on the end, using the ring of the hilt as a fulcrum to make the handle come up, but it didn't work.
Then she tried sliding it to a slightly elevated surface so she could have a better grip, but it wouldn't budge.
Then she tried to just pulling like crazy, but all efforts were in vain. After seeing people handle sword so seemingly easily, she had no idea that they could actually be that heavy. Or just the Masamune, to be specific.
Sephiroth laughed crazily.
"I told you it wasn't light! You want to try tomorrow?"
"I guess. I'm tired. I'll see you tomorrow, then." She said, walking back the way she came to the dormitories.
"Yes, tomorrow."
She left him pondering why he enjoyed being with her.
***
Eta and Theta arrived on the moon, but knew that Oren and Jessica had long since departed.
T: We missed them.
Theta telepathically communicated.
T: I would have liked to kill Oren.
E: Yes, I too. I guess it will have to wait.
T: Pyros won't be happy to hear that.
E: Pyros isn't happy to hear half the things we've told him. He's a hopeless case sometimes.
T: Maybe we could get Farfy to tell Pyros?
E: That sounds a bit unfair, don't you think?
T: Forget it, Eta. Mu is waiting for us.
The two silently blasted back at immensely high speeds.
M: I hear someone named Sephiroth has connections with Jessica.
Mu said in their heads as Eta and Theta retreated from the moon.
E: Theta told me about that. He said that Jessica sent residual waves directly into the computer on another planet from far away to gather information. She accidentally beamed it right into a project called JENOVA.
T: Well Theta was right. Theta said, referring to himself in the third person.
M: I presume you and Eta didn't find anything. But while you were gone I found something in our computers. Something in the waves beamed by Jessica. They were feelings. Real feelings. I got some from Oren.
E: Oren? So what? Eta asked.
M: It seems that Oren wasn't lying. And Oren may not be our true enemy.
Eta and Theta felt their hearts stop.
________________________________________________________________________
AN: Well, well, this took me a while. Also, due to my business in two fics, I fear The Trinity will be put on indefinite hold. I have one chapter half typed, but that's already twice as long as one of these! O_o I'll try and get one more chapter in this week before I work on my other fic for next week. OH! I also got Final Fantasy Origins! I and II on Playstation! Joy!