Final Fantasy 7
The Eternal Weapons
Disclaimers: This is an AU of FF7 and all FF7 characters belong to SquareSoft. This story is not for profit.
Chapter 2
The Discovery
Aeros had gathered the entire excavating team under one of the largest tree closest to where the miners were working, at the base of Mount Warlow. The shade of the tree was making the temperature a bit bearable as it suddenly rose to the 90's. The science team looked through the impossible rise of temperature calculations early that morning and none could come up with a logical explanation. But the subject was pushed aside as one of the miners found what it seemed to have been a piece of a metallic shell. The miner would have dismissed it as a simple material sample but the gold designs on it told him it was far more than that. Soon the order to keep digging through the mountain was sent. Aeros took a deep breath as the feeling returned again. He sensed something near and was positive of himself that the feeling was coming from whatever it was that they were so anxious to find. The designs on the shell quickly concluded his theory of something alien. It sent chills down his spine when the thought crossed his mind.
Sephral bit his lip as he watched the miners work. He stood next to Lucrecia who looked as uneasy as he felt. She kept eyeing him and frowning, but he was too focused on the workers to notice. Lucrecia turned to see Derma standing by Aeros side, taking glimpses of the two of them once in a while. Sephral had told Lucrecia about the night before, when he finally broke it off with Derma. Lucrecia did feel bad a little, she never thought of coming in between an engage couple but Sephral was just something else. She placed her hand on his shoulder as she felt him shudder. That was another thing, she had seen him shudder too many times in such a short period of time, and sometimes she would glance at his hands and would see them shaking. It worried her that something was wrong. She stepped closer to him and leaned closer to his ear.
"Sephral… is something wrong?"
Her voice seemed to startle him as he suddenly stepped away from her and looked at her with surprise. He cleared his throat and got closer to her and smiled.
"Sorry, you startled me"
"I can see that"
He laughed softly and took her hand.
Sephral didn't know what to think, either he started to hear someone's voice or he was going insane. That morning he had woken up to her voice, a sweet melancholy voice that seemed to be crying for help. He dismissed it as an aftershock of a dream but as the day progressed, the voice didn't go away. Every now and then he would stop whatever he was doing as her voice rang through his head. It didn't help that the morning's climate was not close to normal, the hot temperature made him feel sick on top of the thought of going insane.
When Aeros had announced that they were going to go to the Mount Warlow site, he felt a bit anxious to get there. But as they got closer to the site, the louder he heard her voice.
As they all gathered under a tree, he could almost picture her in his mind, her voice kept whispering to him. Not a language, but senseless whispers. He concentrated hard to block it out with no avail. Suddenly another voice was in his head; the contrast between them startled him. He looked into Lucrecia's eyes and the sight drowned out the other voice. His mouth had a mind of its own for he couldn't control what he was saying. He felt something in the air, a presence.
The scientists all came forward as they saw the miners carry something big out of the hole they had been digging. The black metal and its gold carvings were hard to miss. The miners placed the object on the ground as the science crew surrounded them. Rutus also came forward, shocked that they did find something. Once the object was on the ground, no one moved, they all stood as if waiting for something to happen. Aeros rubbed his hands together as Rutus jokingly hit his shoulder. Lucrecia held Sephral's arm as she saw him sway slightly. The object was about 6 feet long, and 3 feet wide. It was shaped as a coffin and some pieces from the corners were missing. The golden carvings were in what seemed to be, an unknown language.
"What is that thing?"
"Seems like some kind of shell"
"What do you think might be inside?"
"Wow, look at what we've found"
"Can it be opened?"
They were all talking among themselves, all at the same time. The last question had everyone stare at the person who asked it. Aeros cleared his throat.
"There should be a way to open it"
"What do you think it's inside?"
"A mummy most likely. It's what it seems an old burial form in which tribes mummified their people and placed them to rest in such a container as this that we see in front of us"
Rutus looked at the miner leader.
"Open it"
"Yes President sir"
Sephral shook his head. But nobody noticed but Lucrecia.
"They shouldn't open it…"
His whisper was too soft to be heard. He heard the voice louder and clearer this time. His head clouded with dread, and he wanted to run, run away from what was to come. He knew it would come for him.
The miners all got ready to work but they stopped as soon as the object, without any help, cracked in two. They all took a step back, speechless. A black fume came out of the crack and quickly dissolved into nothingness. When they saw nothing happened, they all took a step forward except for Sephral and Lucrecia. And what they saw made them gasped in surprise.
Sephral felt his vision darken, and the world spin. And suddenly the golden language made sense to him. He wanted to say something, felt the urge to warn them, but the darkness was taking over.
Lucrecia cried in alarm as without warning, Sephral leaned against her and suddenly his feet gave out and he fell to the ground, unconscious.