Fantasy Thunder Chapter Twenty-Three: Psi
[Part One]
By Blue Dragon
Cloud shifted uncomfortably, knowing he was in for another pointless fight. For some reason, Rho decided she would just stand there. A far away rumble could be heard followed by a vibration, and then vision went loopy. Things began to emit visible wavelengths, and Oren was the first to fall to the ground clutching his head. Cloud was next, followed by Zidane, later Squall, and finally Tidus, not able to make sense of what was happening. Finally, the metal shifted into blue, the smooth floor became a bumpy ground, the high ceiling melted away into a blue sky, grass sprouted, and two suns forced their way into the sky. And then after that everything stopped. For two seconds time itself froze, and then the five got up, Rho- Chi were nowhere to be found.
Oren stood up first and stared into the sky with two suns. Then to the left and right, then down. The four behind him stood up as he kneeled and sniffed the ground, after which he stood up abruptly and clenched his fists in anger.
"Where are we?" Squall asked.
Oren didn't answer. A small child ran by towards a cliff on the right of the party.
"Mommy!" he yelled.
"Hey kid!" Zidane moved to stop him, he was headed right for the edge. Before he could go over the side, the child jumped an impossibly long distance, levitating for a few seconds, and landed on the other side of the abyss.
Tidus was used to seeing the impossible, so he didn't ask. A group of children flew by them at hundreds of miles per hour, leaving a loud sound in their wake.
"Oren-" Cloud started.
"It is as you think!" he said sternly, cutting him off.
Squall didn't understand.
"What's going on?"
" . . . Bastards. Each and every one of them. What kind of torture is this? THIS? They're crazy. Simply crazy. I don't care if he is Pyros, or Allen, or whoever. I'll kill him for this, plain and simple."
Oren sounded like he was losing it. The he turned around, he eyes blazing, which gave the four behind him the incentive to move back a few feet. They had never seen him so angry.
"This is my planet. Et Uverone Alif. The Planet Zata. He must have used whatever that was to put this place back into existence and send us here."
"Isn't that good?" Tidus asked.
"Good? Don't you understand!? This place is gone, not really here. It should be put to rest, it doesn't exist anymore. Imagine using a dead body for your own purpose, that's immense disrespect to the dead. Now imagine taking the billions of dead bodies on this planet, plus the planet itself . . . the nerve. Not even PYROS would have done this. Whatever that thing is, it must be stopped. And fast." He turned around, took a deep breath, and sighed.
"I can feel Rho, Sigma, and Tau somewhere here. I want to tell you all, I thank you for staying with me. I gathered up countless of you because they gave to four of you the support you needed. You all felt strong because of them. But it is the four of you and a few others that overflow with the power to overcome this obstacle. You are stronger than anything Pyros has, probably tougher than me. You are the last light of this universe, in body, mind, and soul. I beg of you now to stay with me. Just know, that your lives are in immense danger, but if you wish to back out, it will not impede upon your honor in the least. I will fight even if I'm alone. I will stop Py-ALLEN, or die trying!" he stomped his foot on the ground, causing a fissure to form and rip the grounds in front of him in half.
"I'm in" Tidus said immediately.
Zidane gulped and shivered, and chuckled crazily.
"Not like I have much of a choice. Count me in."
Cloud's mind wandered back to Tifa, then Aeris, then everyone. What if he didn't come back alive . . . ? Not a thought he relished
Cloud slowly said:
"I'm not through yet."
Squall didn't like being the odd man out.
"I'll do it . . . but I won't like it."
Oren turned his back away from them again.
"Aren't we going to look for them? How'll we find them?" Zidane beat his tail uncomfortably in the grass.
They heard him chuckle like a person that was scared out of his wits rather than happy.
"They'll find us." He responded.
There was an eerie silence.
"How soon?" Cloud asked.
"Very soon."
Fifteen seconds went by and Zidane started tapping his foot.
"How much sooner?"
"Much sooner."
"Like today sooner!?" he burst out.
Oren ignored him. In three seconds, a sound like a roaring plane sounded and a three flares passed above them, circled, and then each landed in front of them.
Rho pulled off the mask revealing a head of long blonde that fell almost to the ground, even longer than Jessica's.
"That eager to die, huh?" she asked.
"I'll take her." Zidane said immediately, following her into the sky.
"Not alone!" Tidus went up after him.
The other two sat patiently, Oren materialized his blade.
"Are you just going to sit there?"
There was no response.
"I'll take the one on the right. Cloud, Squall, take the one on the left."
The two still didn't move.
***
"Come on!" Zidane twirled the Ultima weapon, Tidus scoffing the whole time as they slowly surrounded her. She yawned and ignored them, not even in stance.
Oren yelled up to them.
"On more than one occasion I've told you specifically not to kill them, but this is important. If they so much as come close to threatening your life, you have permission to . . . what is that quote? 'Waste 'em'"
Zidane left a sonic boom as he lunged forward and thrust the blade right into her middle, and she fell over it, as if losing consciousness or being killed.
Zidane smile, withdrew it, and noticed as she just floated there. He lowered himself to her face. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing softly.
"You got her!" Tidus yelled.
"This is wrong" Zidane ignored him.
"No labored breathing, blockage, sign of injury . . . "
"So?"
"Tidus, man, she's asleep."
"You put her to sleep!?"
"No! She just fell asleep! I didn't even do anything."
She yawned and curled up.
"Quiet! I'm sleeping . . . "
Zidane was flabbergasted.
"You're not serious. Get up!" He slammed down the flat side of his blade on her head, and she cringed as there was a crack.
"Zidane! You friggin' broke her skull!"
" . . . Look again, pardner."
Tidus looked at Rho, who was still sleeping.
"Check out my blade."
Tidus glanced at the Ultima Weapon, which now had a few chunks chipped off, and was cracked down the middle on one side.
"You aren't serious. Wake up and fight!"
She opened one eye and glared at Tidus.
"Do you realize we had to fly miles to find you? Shut up and let me take a nap! I'll take care of you when I wake up. And don't bother running."
Tidus dropped back to the ground with a loud thud, followed by Zidane. Oren looked up at them.
"What are you doing?"
"She said she was sleeping." Zidane responded.
"Well wake her up!"
"We can't"
"What?"
"I used the Ultima Weapon to no avail. We can't do anything till she decides to wake up."
"We don't have much of a chance in winning if we don't even stand a chance in waking her up." He motioned to the other two sitting perfectly still.
"How about her friends?"
Tidus gave him a sideways look.
"Weren't you supposed to handle them?"
"They say that Rho up there can take us all, and they won't act unless something happens to her."
Tidus sighed in defeat.
"We don't control anything anymore! Why don't they just go ahead and send Upsilon-Psi?"
"You wouldn't want them to send Psi."
"Why not?"
Oren looked up as if calculating something in his head.
"Psi isn't like anything you've seen. With his mind, he can emit waves around him for one hundred meters and two hundred meters above and below. They are very damaging."
"And . . . ?"
"The simple truth is that if you are touched by it, you will die, instantly. You'll dematerialize; every atom of your body will disassemble itself. It doesn't matter how strong, how tough, how fast. The only living thing that will survive is Psi. The upside, he has to stay in stasis most of his life to do this, so I doubt they'll risk using him unless we really become a pain."
This made Zidane uneasy.
"How can we avoid it?"
"Well, normally I would say to stay by Pyros or one of his fighters, but now that this Allen has appeared, I doubt he cares about anyone but himself. The only way we could stop him from using Psi is if we were near Allen himself . . . but we can't even switch off Fantasy Thunder, as a matter of fact, from what I've heard its not even completely ready and it can still do this."
Oren shivered and looked up.
"She's awake."
At first, Zidane and Tidus didn't know what he was talking about, and then they remembered. They both levitated upwards to meet her, rotating her wrists.
"Okay . . . I'm ready."
An invisible force slammed forwards, giving Tidus enough time to dodge, and Zidane enough time to put the Ultima Weapon up. Trees in the distance were neatly cut in half. Tidus immediately knew that he wouldn't match up anything like that, unless . . .
"Hey!" he yelled.
He tossed her one of his swords, the Excalibur.
"Tidus!?"
"Don't worry. Rho, take me on with sword fighting!"
"I haven't used a sword."
"You're supposed to be tougher than me!"
She just smiled and disappeared, a nanosecond later reappearing behind Tidus who deflected a blow and started a tightly woven battle with pockets of razor sharp air flying about.
Zidane descended in annoyance to where Cloud and Squall were sitting.
"Oren, Cloud, Squall! Get our your blades!"
"What?" Cloud asked, half asleep.
"Tidus wants us to quintuple team her!"
Oren materialized his blade, and Squall unsheathed the Lionheart, and Cloud the Ultima weapon. They lazily flew up after Zidane, and saw the ball of light that was made from the amount of sparks flying everywhere.
The four circled around, nodded to each other, and then started to dive in, slashing crazily at Rho, who moved slightly down with a speed that impacted even the ground below, and then for fifteen nanoseconds the party's blades were caught, and when they pulled it out, Cloud took Zidane's weapon, Zidane took Squall's, Squall took Tidus', and Tidus had Cloud's. Only Oren still had his firmly attached to his arm. Rho appeared behind Squall and brought down the blade with tremendous force, and Squall had no option but to swing around Tidus' Caladbolg. Squall was used to the gunblade, and the Caladbolg was lighter, so he ended up swinging it a bit too far, forcing the blades to connect in a way that sent him flying into Tidus, who gave Squall Cloud's weapon, and reclaimed his own. Squall and Zidane exchanged blades, and then Zidane and Cloud exchanged, giving everyone their rightful blades, in a time of forty nanoseconds.
The five swarmed around Rho like ants on a moth, and for a few minutes there was just a ball of slashing blades, then a wave of power, knocking all five assaulters off. Cloud was launching the most ferocious attack, so she went for him, the two engaging one on one, until the others attempted to interfere and were thrown back, Cloud himself trying to fend off her blows. Soon, chips of the Excalibur started flying.
"My sword!"
"Tidus! Cloud's winning!" Zidane reminded him.
"But my sword . . . "
"You have the Caladbolg, don't you?"
" . . . the Excalibur was one of my favorites."
Squall and Oren went behind Rho and were knocked back by one of her hands, and Cloud looked like he couldn't take much more parrying.
He spent three nanoseconds glowing, then the next two he executed Omnislash, making deep fissures in the ground for each of his slashes, while only one actually hit Rho in the shoulder, after which she impaled the Excalibur through Cloud, who had let his guard down but only impaled himself further upon it to get closer, and then when she couldn't pull out the sword she went into fighting position with her bare hands, blocking Cloud's sword.
She was no longer able to block all of the other four and Cloud at the same time, so blows began to hit her, aiming for the gashed shoulder.
Cloud pulled the sword out of his wound that immediately healed, and then dropped it to the ground.
One of the covered fighters sitting below made a motion, and Rho disappeared and reappeared next to them, her face pale from blood loss.
"Give me a few minutes to rest!" she yelled up.
"Give me a break." Oren launched himself down to finish the job, buy then the third fighter scooped up Rho, became a flare, circled around, and flew off into the distance leaving the sound of a roaring plane. The second followed them, becoming a flare and then flying off.
Oren landed on the ground, the other four coming behind him.
"We have to catch them before Rho has a chance to recover!"
Before they could get far, vision went loopy and there was a rumble. A sound like thunder, much closer, and then in a few seconds the scenery shifted. The grass was slightly greener, the two suns shifted position, a vast desert bordered a grassy border, and there were three primitive- looking huts and a very advanced-looking building the size of the Alexandria Castle.
Oren looked around, and looked down, his back facing Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus, and clenched his fists weakly.
After a few seconds Zidane was sure he'd go crazy again.
"Oren, you okay?"
He didn't respond.
"Hey" Squall went around, and noticed that drops of water that had blue twinkles inside were falling down his cheek. He was crying.
"Oren?" he asked. Oren didn't move.
A few seconds later, a petite middle aged woman with blonde hair falling down to her eyes with pale skin exited the hut, followed by a man with darker skin and much longer hair, a sword at his side. He hugged the woman and went inside, and then the woman ran up to Oren.
Oren was still looking down crying.
"Oren, you've been gone for almost an hour." She said.
"I know . . . mother."
"I've missed you! You're supposed to report back from school every fifty minutes."
"I'm sorry."
"Is that your mom?" Squall asked, stating the obvious.
"Are these your friends, would they like to come in? Invite them, dinner is finished."
She ran back inside.
"Cool, you get to see your parents." Tidus started.
"My parents . . . were blown to nothing five years ago. I've told you, this place isn't here. Fantasy Thunder simulates it so we are here as if nothing has ever happened."
Zidane sighed.
"I'm sorry. You gonna invite us in?"
"Sure"
He flew low over the ground and the primitive door opened automatically.
The other four followed and entered, finding a hole in the middle of an empty room.
Oren dove down, the other four jumping after him, and they all landed in a beautiful and very advanced interior.
"Welcome to my 'house'" he said unenthusiastically. The place was covered in a shiny silver metal, corridors leading to various places. Oren's mother and father sat down at a table for three, the table was empty. As Cloud got close the table became wider and a chair came up from under it. Squall and Zidane came closer and sat down as the table automatically widened and they then sat down. Tidus came close and then the chair appeared. Tidus spent too long inspecting and a machine came from behind him and lightly tapped the back of his knees, causing him to fall forward and roll into the chair, which automatically faced the table. Seven plates swished down from nowhere, each piled with strange looking fruit and meat covered in a brown sauce.
"So tell us about your friends Oren." Started his father, leaning back, not interested in the food.
"Their names are Cloud, Squall, Tidus, and Zidane. They . . . aren't from around here."
"There aren't any forks." Squall observed.
"Just open your mouth." Oren instructed, looking bored.
Squall opened his mouth and a gob of food from the plate flew in. He closed and chewed.
In a matter of minutes the food was finished, and Oren's father lay back.
"Why don't you show 'em your room, son? And don't forget to tell them about 'Athena'" he said, winking.
"Come"
Squall was the first to get up and follow Oren, and the other three stood up as well. The seats folded back in.
"I don't see any stairs." Zidane noted.
Oren flew up into a hole and the other four followed him. Inside was a modern looking room. A pod that must have been a bed, a couple of windows, a desk, a red cubic device, and a black box were the contents of the room. On the desk there was a picture of Oren's parents, and one of him standing next to a brunette about his age, both looking uncomfortable.
Oren sat down miserably next to his 'bed' and the other four pulled up chairs scattered around.
"Welcome to my room . . . we might as well wait till we can find Rho again."
An eerie silence.
Cloud twiddled his fingers.
"So five years went by here without you, huh? But they all are ignorant that they were destroyed, or that you were in space for the past five years."
"Yes . . . the power of Fantasy Thunder no doubt."
Tidus looked at the picture with Oren and the girl.
"Who's she?" he asked, pointing to the picture.
Oren took a glance.
"That is me and Athena. Athena was my chosen mate."
"There just chosen!?" Zidane asked.
"It is made so our spirits are evaluated, and we are supposed to be the perfect match" he replied indifferently.
"Do you like her?" Cloud dared to ask.
" . . . I liked her, and she liked me. As a matter of fact, I think I was beginning to love her. In two months I had planned on giving her this . . ." he removed a ring with a bright red stone on it.
"I was going to ask her to marry me. But then I went into orbit and came back to a destroyed planet, her life signal nowhere to be found."
"Hey, if this place was simulated, she should be here, right?" Tidus tried to cheer her up.
" . . . She will only be found if she wants to be found."
"What?"
" . . ."
Oren started shivering.
"Come"
He jumped out of the window, and Zidane ran over and looked down the two- foot drop. Zidane followed. Cloud dove our. Squall went out the right window, and Tidus followed Cloud. The two landed in front of the door to the hut that was next to Oren's.
"Why are we here?" Squall asked impatiently.
"Her name was Katherine Asuka. She lived next door to me."
"Who?" Squall asked again.
Out of the hut came Rho, rotating her wrists.
"Are you ready?" she asked, floating into the air.
"Oren, I knew you were familiar. You were the boy next door! Still looking for Athena?" she teased.
"Your heartless." He responded, materializing the blade and following her back up.
"It's time for round two!"
Rho's eyes became red and she grew out fangs and even longer hair that she wrapped around herself.
The others went up again for another quintuple team, the next battle was ahead.
______________________________________________________________________
AN: This will probably be a three-part chapter. Their movements are now measured in nanoseconds 'cause they're too fast to be measured in seconds again. Thank you for the reviews, I know have 70+, something I never thought would happen. You all are all that's kept me typing. Keep reviewin', and I'll finish in no time. (1 nanosecond =. 000000001 seconds.
[Part One]
By Blue Dragon
Cloud shifted uncomfortably, knowing he was in for another pointless fight. For some reason, Rho decided she would just stand there. A far away rumble could be heard followed by a vibration, and then vision went loopy. Things began to emit visible wavelengths, and Oren was the first to fall to the ground clutching his head. Cloud was next, followed by Zidane, later Squall, and finally Tidus, not able to make sense of what was happening. Finally, the metal shifted into blue, the smooth floor became a bumpy ground, the high ceiling melted away into a blue sky, grass sprouted, and two suns forced their way into the sky. And then after that everything stopped. For two seconds time itself froze, and then the five got up, Rho- Chi were nowhere to be found.
Oren stood up first and stared into the sky with two suns. Then to the left and right, then down. The four behind him stood up as he kneeled and sniffed the ground, after which he stood up abruptly and clenched his fists in anger.
"Where are we?" Squall asked.
Oren didn't answer. A small child ran by towards a cliff on the right of the party.
"Mommy!" he yelled.
"Hey kid!" Zidane moved to stop him, he was headed right for the edge. Before he could go over the side, the child jumped an impossibly long distance, levitating for a few seconds, and landed on the other side of the abyss.
Tidus was used to seeing the impossible, so he didn't ask. A group of children flew by them at hundreds of miles per hour, leaving a loud sound in their wake.
"Oren-" Cloud started.
"It is as you think!" he said sternly, cutting him off.
Squall didn't understand.
"What's going on?"
" . . . Bastards. Each and every one of them. What kind of torture is this? THIS? They're crazy. Simply crazy. I don't care if he is Pyros, or Allen, or whoever. I'll kill him for this, plain and simple."
Oren sounded like he was losing it. The he turned around, he eyes blazing, which gave the four behind him the incentive to move back a few feet. They had never seen him so angry.
"This is my planet. Et Uverone Alif. The Planet Zata. He must have used whatever that was to put this place back into existence and send us here."
"Isn't that good?" Tidus asked.
"Good? Don't you understand!? This place is gone, not really here. It should be put to rest, it doesn't exist anymore. Imagine using a dead body for your own purpose, that's immense disrespect to the dead. Now imagine taking the billions of dead bodies on this planet, plus the planet itself . . . the nerve. Not even PYROS would have done this. Whatever that thing is, it must be stopped. And fast." He turned around, took a deep breath, and sighed.
"I can feel Rho, Sigma, and Tau somewhere here. I want to tell you all, I thank you for staying with me. I gathered up countless of you because they gave to four of you the support you needed. You all felt strong because of them. But it is the four of you and a few others that overflow with the power to overcome this obstacle. You are stronger than anything Pyros has, probably tougher than me. You are the last light of this universe, in body, mind, and soul. I beg of you now to stay with me. Just know, that your lives are in immense danger, but if you wish to back out, it will not impede upon your honor in the least. I will fight even if I'm alone. I will stop Py-ALLEN, or die trying!" he stomped his foot on the ground, causing a fissure to form and rip the grounds in front of him in half.
"I'm in" Tidus said immediately.
Zidane gulped and shivered, and chuckled crazily.
"Not like I have much of a choice. Count me in."
Cloud's mind wandered back to Tifa, then Aeris, then everyone. What if he didn't come back alive . . . ? Not a thought he relished
Cloud slowly said:
"I'm not through yet."
Squall didn't like being the odd man out.
"I'll do it . . . but I won't like it."
Oren turned his back away from them again.
"Aren't we going to look for them? How'll we find them?" Zidane beat his tail uncomfortably in the grass.
They heard him chuckle like a person that was scared out of his wits rather than happy.
"They'll find us." He responded.
There was an eerie silence.
"How soon?" Cloud asked.
"Very soon."
Fifteen seconds went by and Zidane started tapping his foot.
"How much sooner?"
"Much sooner."
"Like today sooner!?" he burst out.
Oren ignored him. In three seconds, a sound like a roaring plane sounded and a three flares passed above them, circled, and then each landed in front of them.
Rho pulled off the mask revealing a head of long blonde that fell almost to the ground, even longer than Jessica's.
"That eager to die, huh?" she asked.
"I'll take her." Zidane said immediately, following her into the sky.
"Not alone!" Tidus went up after him.
The other two sat patiently, Oren materialized his blade.
"Are you just going to sit there?"
There was no response.
"I'll take the one on the right. Cloud, Squall, take the one on the left."
The two still didn't move.
***
"Come on!" Zidane twirled the Ultima weapon, Tidus scoffing the whole time as they slowly surrounded her. She yawned and ignored them, not even in stance.
Oren yelled up to them.
"On more than one occasion I've told you specifically not to kill them, but this is important. If they so much as come close to threatening your life, you have permission to . . . what is that quote? 'Waste 'em'"
Zidane left a sonic boom as he lunged forward and thrust the blade right into her middle, and she fell over it, as if losing consciousness or being killed.
Zidane smile, withdrew it, and noticed as she just floated there. He lowered himself to her face. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing softly.
"You got her!" Tidus yelled.
"This is wrong" Zidane ignored him.
"No labored breathing, blockage, sign of injury . . . "
"So?"
"Tidus, man, she's asleep."
"You put her to sleep!?"
"No! She just fell asleep! I didn't even do anything."
She yawned and curled up.
"Quiet! I'm sleeping . . . "
Zidane was flabbergasted.
"You're not serious. Get up!" He slammed down the flat side of his blade on her head, and she cringed as there was a crack.
"Zidane! You friggin' broke her skull!"
" . . . Look again, pardner."
Tidus looked at Rho, who was still sleeping.
"Check out my blade."
Tidus glanced at the Ultima Weapon, which now had a few chunks chipped off, and was cracked down the middle on one side.
"You aren't serious. Wake up and fight!"
She opened one eye and glared at Tidus.
"Do you realize we had to fly miles to find you? Shut up and let me take a nap! I'll take care of you when I wake up. And don't bother running."
Tidus dropped back to the ground with a loud thud, followed by Zidane. Oren looked up at them.
"What are you doing?"
"She said she was sleeping." Zidane responded.
"Well wake her up!"
"We can't"
"What?"
"I used the Ultima Weapon to no avail. We can't do anything till she decides to wake up."
"We don't have much of a chance in winning if we don't even stand a chance in waking her up." He motioned to the other two sitting perfectly still.
"How about her friends?"
Tidus gave him a sideways look.
"Weren't you supposed to handle them?"
"They say that Rho up there can take us all, and they won't act unless something happens to her."
Tidus sighed in defeat.
"We don't control anything anymore! Why don't they just go ahead and send Upsilon-Psi?"
"You wouldn't want them to send Psi."
"Why not?"
Oren looked up as if calculating something in his head.
"Psi isn't like anything you've seen. With his mind, he can emit waves around him for one hundred meters and two hundred meters above and below. They are very damaging."
"And . . . ?"
"The simple truth is that if you are touched by it, you will die, instantly. You'll dematerialize; every atom of your body will disassemble itself. It doesn't matter how strong, how tough, how fast. The only living thing that will survive is Psi. The upside, he has to stay in stasis most of his life to do this, so I doubt they'll risk using him unless we really become a pain."
This made Zidane uneasy.
"How can we avoid it?"
"Well, normally I would say to stay by Pyros or one of his fighters, but now that this Allen has appeared, I doubt he cares about anyone but himself. The only way we could stop him from using Psi is if we were near Allen himself . . . but we can't even switch off Fantasy Thunder, as a matter of fact, from what I've heard its not even completely ready and it can still do this."
Oren shivered and looked up.
"She's awake."
At first, Zidane and Tidus didn't know what he was talking about, and then they remembered. They both levitated upwards to meet her, rotating her wrists.
"Okay . . . I'm ready."
An invisible force slammed forwards, giving Tidus enough time to dodge, and Zidane enough time to put the Ultima Weapon up. Trees in the distance were neatly cut in half. Tidus immediately knew that he wouldn't match up anything like that, unless . . .
"Hey!" he yelled.
He tossed her one of his swords, the Excalibur.
"Tidus!?"
"Don't worry. Rho, take me on with sword fighting!"
"I haven't used a sword."
"You're supposed to be tougher than me!"
She just smiled and disappeared, a nanosecond later reappearing behind Tidus who deflected a blow and started a tightly woven battle with pockets of razor sharp air flying about.
Zidane descended in annoyance to where Cloud and Squall were sitting.
"Oren, Cloud, Squall! Get our your blades!"
"What?" Cloud asked, half asleep.
"Tidus wants us to quintuple team her!"
Oren materialized his blade, and Squall unsheathed the Lionheart, and Cloud the Ultima weapon. They lazily flew up after Zidane, and saw the ball of light that was made from the amount of sparks flying everywhere.
The four circled around, nodded to each other, and then started to dive in, slashing crazily at Rho, who moved slightly down with a speed that impacted even the ground below, and then for fifteen nanoseconds the party's blades were caught, and when they pulled it out, Cloud took Zidane's weapon, Zidane took Squall's, Squall took Tidus', and Tidus had Cloud's. Only Oren still had his firmly attached to his arm. Rho appeared behind Squall and brought down the blade with tremendous force, and Squall had no option but to swing around Tidus' Caladbolg. Squall was used to the gunblade, and the Caladbolg was lighter, so he ended up swinging it a bit too far, forcing the blades to connect in a way that sent him flying into Tidus, who gave Squall Cloud's weapon, and reclaimed his own. Squall and Zidane exchanged blades, and then Zidane and Cloud exchanged, giving everyone their rightful blades, in a time of forty nanoseconds.
The five swarmed around Rho like ants on a moth, and for a few minutes there was just a ball of slashing blades, then a wave of power, knocking all five assaulters off. Cloud was launching the most ferocious attack, so she went for him, the two engaging one on one, until the others attempted to interfere and were thrown back, Cloud himself trying to fend off her blows. Soon, chips of the Excalibur started flying.
"My sword!"
"Tidus! Cloud's winning!" Zidane reminded him.
"But my sword . . . "
"You have the Caladbolg, don't you?"
" . . . the Excalibur was one of my favorites."
Squall and Oren went behind Rho and were knocked back by one of her hands, and Cloud looked like he couldn't take much more parrying.
He spent three nanoseconds glowing, then the next two he executed Omnislash, making deep fissures in the ground for each of his slashes, while only one actually hit Rho in the shoulder, after which she impaled the Excalibur through Cloud, who had let his guard down but only impaled himself further upon it to get closer, and then when she couldn't pull out the sword she went into fighting position with her bare hands, blocking Cloud's sword.
She was no longer able to block all of the other four and Cloud at the same time, so blows began to hit her, aiming for the gashed shoulder.
Cloud pulled the sword out of his wound that immediately healed, and then dropped it to the ground.
One of the covered fighters sitting below made a motion, and Rho disappeared and reappeared next to them, her face pale from blood loss.
"Give me a few minutes to rest!" she yelled up.
"Give me a break." Oren launched himself down to finish the job, buy then the third fighter scooped up Rho, became a flare, circled around, and flew off into the distance leaving the sound of a roaring plane. The second followed them, becoming a flare and then flying off.
Oren landed on the ground, the other four coming behind him.
"We have to catch them before Rho has a chance to recover!"
Before they could get far, vision went loopy and there was a rumble. A sound like thunder, much closer, and then in a few seconds the scenery shifted. The grass was slightly greener, the two suns shifted position, a vast desert bordered a grassy border, and there were three primitive- looking huts and a very advanced-looking building the size of the Alexandria Castle.
Oren looked around, and looked down, his back facing Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Tidus, and clenched his fists weakly.
After a few seconds Zidane was sure he'd go crazy again.
"Oren, you okay?"
He didn't respond.
"Hey" Squall went around, and noticed that drops of water that had blue twinkles inside were falling down his cheek. He was crying.
"Oren?" he asked. Oren didn't move.
A few seconds later, a petite middle aged woman with blonde hair falling down to her eyes with pale skin exited the hut, followed by a man with darker skin and much longer hair, a sword at his side. He hugged the woman and went inside, and then the woman ran up to Oren.
Oren was still looking down crying.
"Oren, you've been gone for almost an hour." She said.
"I know . . . mother."
"I've missed you! You're supposed to report back from school every fifty minutes."
"I'm sorry."
"Is that your mom?" Squall asked, stating the obvious.
"Are these your friends, would they like to come in? Invite them, dinner is finished."
She ran back inside.
"Cool, you get to see your parents." Tidus started.
"My parents . . . were blown to nothing five years ago. I've told you, this place isn't here. Fantasy Thunder simulates it so we are here as if nothing has ever happened."
Zidane sighed.
"I'm sorry. You gonna invite us in?"
"Sure"
He flew low over the ground and the primitive door opened automatically.
The other four followed and entered, finding a hole in the middle of an empty room.
Oren dove down, the other four jumping after him, and they all landed in a beautiful and very advanced interior.
"Welcome to my 'house'" he said unenthusiastically. The place was covered in a shiny silver metal, corridors leading to various places. Oren's mother and father sat down at a table for three, the table was empty. As Cloud got close the table became wider and a chair came up from under it. Squall and Zidane came closer and sat down as the table automatically widened and they then sat down. Tidus came close and then the chair appeared. Tidus spent too long inspecting and a machine came from behind him and lightly tapped the back of his knees, causing him to fall forward and roll into the chair, which automatically faced the table. Seven plates swished down from nowhere, each piled with strange looking fruit and meat covered in a brown sauce.
"So tell us about your friends Oren." Started his father, leaning back, not interested in the food.
"Their names are Cloud, Squall, Tidus, and Zidane. They . . . aren't from around here."
"There aren't any forks." Squall observed.
"Just open your mouth." Oren instructed, looking bored.
Squall opened his mouth and a gob of food from the plate flew in. He closed and chewed.
In a matter of minutes the food was finished, and Oren's father lay back.
"Why don't you show 'em your room, son? And don't forget to tell them about 'Athena'" he said, winking.
"Come"
Squall was the first to get up and follow Oren, and the other three stood up as well. The seats folded back in.
"I don't see any stairs." Zidane noted.
Oren flew up into a hole and the other four followed him. Inside was a modern looking room. A pod that must have been a bed, a couple of windows, a desk, a red cubic device, and a black box were the contents of the room. On the desk there was a picture of Oren's parents, and one of him standing next to a brunette about his age, both looking uncomfortable.
Oren sat down miserably next to his 'bed' and the other four pulled up chairs scattered around.
"Welcome to my room . . . we might as well wait till we can find Rho again."
An eerie silence.
Cloud twiddled his fingers.
"So five years went by here without you, huh? But they all are ignorant that they were destroyed, or that you were in space for the past five years."
"Yes . . . the power of Fantasy Thunder no doubt."
Tidus looked at the picture with Oren and the girl.
"Who's she?" he asked, pointing to the picture.
Oren took a glance.
"That is me and Athena. Athena was my chosen mate."
"There just chosen!?" Zidane asked.
"It is made so our spirits are evaluated, and we are supposed to be the perfect match" he replied indifferently.
"Do you like her?" Cloud dared to ask.
" . . . I liked her, and she liked me. As a matter of fact, I think I was beginning to love her. In two months I had planned on giving her this . . ." he removed a ring with a bright red stone on it.
"I was going to ask her to marry me. But then I went into orbit and came back to a destroyed planet, her life signal nowhere to be found."
"Hey, if this place was simulated, she should be here, right?" Tidus tried to cheer her up.
" . . . She will only be found if she wants to be found."
"What?"
" . . ."
Oren started shivering.
"Come"
He jumped out of the window, and Zidane ran over and looked down the two- foot drop. Zidane followed. Cloud dove our. Squall went out the right window, and Tidus followed Cloud. The two landed in front of the door to the hut that was next to Oren's.
"Why are we here?" Squall asked impatiently.
"Her name was Katherine Asuka. She lived next door to me."
"Who?" Squall asked again.
Out of the hut came Rho, rotating her wrists.
"Are you ready?" she asked, floating into the air.
"Oren, I knew you were familiar. You were the boy next door! Still looking for Athena?" she teased.
"Your heartless." He responded, materializing the blade and following her back up.
"It's time for round two!"
Rho's eyes became red and she grew out fangs and even longer hair that she wrapped around herself.
The others went up again for another quintuple team, the next battle was ahead.
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AN: This will probably be a three-part chapter. Their movements are now measured in nanoseconds 'cause they're too fast to be measured in seconds again. Thank you for the reviews, I know have 70+, something I never thought would happen. You all are all that's kept me typing. Keep reviewin', and I'll finish in no time. (1 nanosecond =. 000000001 seconds.