Oh…gosh… O_O How long hath we been on hiatus? Jeeze… We love everyone! *showers people with candies and chocolates that have "Forgive Us! T_T" written all over them*
Urm…So…Let's go! ^-^
Luverly Disclaimer: We dun own the roxx0rz FF9! Squenix does! XD
~Chapter 16~
Looking up as someone knocked on her door, Sephira whimpered a little in pain, sitting up. "Come in…" she said softly, brushing some hair from her face. Watching as the door slowly opened, emitting Kuja, she sighed, lying back down.
"Sephira, love, how are you feeling at the moment?" he asked lightly, sitting beside her, appearing casual.
"…I am…better," she replied vaguely. "Kuja, why are you here? Should you not be with the others, planning…Or, anything?" Averting her gaze from him, she raised her hand, biting lightly at the tip of her index finger.
He frowned a little, pulling her hand from her. "Do not do that. It ruins your skin," he muttered. She laughed a little at his vanity, smiling slightly. "It does. I do not lie…" Kuja murmured, arching a delicate eyebrow.
She laughed out loud, wincing a little at the pain in her back, saying, "I do not doubt you, Kuja."
"Then why do you laugh?" he asked, glaring mockingly at her.
She winked. "Because you are a vain narcissist," she retorted, sticking out her tongue. Brushing her hair from her face again, she turned over on her back, smiling. Folding her hands over her midriff, she looked up at Kuja once more. "So…why are you here, might I ask?"
"I came to see how you were doing," he replied simply. Reaching out and running his hand through some of her hair, he smiled. "You are healing, correct?"
"Of course, Kuja. No need to worry." Taking his hand, she took it from her locks, lightly tickling his palm, and he giggled a little.
"Hum… Sephira, what happened while you were there? How did you get all these injuries?" he asked, tracing the bandages on her hands delicately with a slender finger. "I know you were shot in the back. But, what happened here?"
"…A run in with Viteros' friend," she said, her voice laced with scorn.
"Hm… Really, now?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "What did he have to say?"
Practically spitting in anger, she snarled, "He's such an ignorant bastard, and the only things that came from his mouth were foul lies."
"I do not doubt that," Kuja murmured, looking thoughtful. Taking a breath, he frowned a little. "What exactly did he say?"
"Some ramblings about a Crystal…He thinks I am an embodiment of it, or something as such. He is a raving lunatic. He kept asking whether I was a normal genome…" Seeing Kuja's uncertain expression, her eyes narrowed. "Kuja, I AM a normal genome…"
Biting his lip, he shook his head, the murmured, "Yes…you are…"
"You are lying," she said, he voice flat.
Looking up into her eyes, he shook his head. "I am telling the truth. You are a normal genome. There is nothing special about you."
She thought on this for a moment, then searched his eyes. "…Are you sure…?"
He nodded quickly, his hair falling in his eyes. Reaching out and gripping her face in his slender hands, he pulled them together until their noses were practically touching. "I am sure."
She blinked at the closeness, then blushed a little, before turning from him, wrenching her face from his cool hands. Averting her eyes, she sighed. "Kuja, do not lie to me. I do not like it when you lie…"
"I am not!" he cried, glaring up at her.
"Really now?" she asked, folding her shaking hands together. Keeping her eyes from Kuja, who appeared in a rage, she couldn't keep her hands still, and wrapped them around her elbows, arms folded over her chest.
"Yes!" he shouted, standing, his face a little red with anger. Clenching his fists, he glared at her. "Why do you not believe me?" Pacing a couple times, he let out a snarl.
Cringing a little – she had never seen him in such fury – she pressed once more. "I do not know if I can believe you. Why are you so upset then? If you were not lying, I would not think you would be in a towering rage."
Halting abruptly, he whirled around, grabbing her by the shoulders, even though it caused her great pain, and he shook her roughly. "Do not question me!" he practically screamed, his nails digging into her skin.
"Kuja…" Sephira whimpered, trying to pull away.
"Stop it!" Kuja screeched, pulling away and, to Sephira's surprise, backhanding her over the face quite hard, knocking her down onto the floor.
Propping herself up on one elbow, her other hand holding her cheek, her entire body shaking, she stared up at Kuja, tears filling her eyes, the palm on her face moving over her mouth, trembling, and she let out a dry sob.
Kuja's gaze on her changed instantly from anger to bewilderment. Taking a step back, he fled from the room, fabric flowing behind him, slamming the door behind him. Before he had gotten a couple feet from the door, he fell back against the wall, sliding to its base, his quaking hands covering his face, and he pulled his knees to his chest, curling up.
What had come over him?
Viteros stumbled over, wiping his forehead on a white cloth. "Hey, what's up?" He fell against the wall and sighed long and hard with his eyes closed. He grinned and looked over.
Kuja gave him a long, long sideways glance and shrugged. He got up and walked away.
"Man………"
The door slowly slid open and Viteros looked in. Sephira lay on the floor, her face hidden by her hair. Wordlessly, Viteros strode over to look down at her. He looked for what seemed to him a very long time.
"Hey, I've got an idea," he said. "How about you take the bed, and I'll take the floor."
There was no response.
Viteros crouched down and shook her shoulder gently. "Come on…" There was still no response, so he sighed and leaned against the wall and looked out the window.
"Look outside," he said softly. "Look at the clouds in the perfect sky…beautiful, isn't it? It's incredible how wrapped up we get in ourselves and our little problems, and then you look up at the sky and just think, the sky doesn't worry about any of those things. It just…exists, and it is still just as beautiful, and just as magnificent. I think it's because it's so simple. It has no worries, like we do, about fighting and eating and surviving. It has its bad times and its good times, but in the end, it's always there, and it's always itself. You know," he said, walking over and slowly picking up Sephira, being meticulously careful not to violate her or hurt her, "we really should learn like that. From the sky." He set her down slowly on the bed. "But…you know, we have so much more to think about than the sky does. We can learn from it, but we'll never be just like it."
Viteros walked to the wall and sat down on the floor. "Where I come from, we have ideas of simplifying our lives until it becomes almost nothing. The same idea for our minds. But in the end, I think, that's just an ideal. All we can do is try to strive for perfection until we die, and then we'll just be as good as we could get."
The door opened again, and Zidane stood in the doorway. "We've got trouble. Cid says we have to move now, so we meet in the briefing room soon." His eyes flicked over to Sephira, then Viteros, who shook his head. Zidane nodded and left.
Viteros slowly stood, and walked to the doorway. "Sephira…we all have to try our hardest. Maybe we won't succeed. Maybe we'll fail. But no one can ever say we didn't try our hardest to be the best we can be. Heaven is reserved for the ones who try. Hell for the ones who don't. Believe me. I know. I'll…see you later."
He walked slowly out of the room, but before the last swirl of his cloak left, he heard a voice.
"Viteros…" said Sephira, getting up. "Wait. I am coming."
---------------------
"It's time," Viteros declared, "for our new campaign to be set forth."
Everyone was gathered at Cid's meeting table, and they sat there watching as Viteros stood and paced, talking.
"It's time for us to completely destroy Terisas, to strike where he can't defend himself and where it will cripple him indefinitely. However, if I know Terisas, it'll take a lot more than a kick in the shins to take him out. And there lies the problem.
"We have already noticed that his airship is unpleasantly difficult to attack directly, in fact, we are lucky to have escaped with our lives, let alone with our esteemed Sephira here. We know that there are at least eight Outer Heaven in operation currently, and that they are all self-sufficient, and the destruction of one would most likely be nothing but a minor headache for our enemy. Therefore, what should we attack?"
There was silence, as everyone thought. And then, quietly, someone said, "…Angel."
Viteros looked around. "Who said that?"
"I did," said Sephira, sitting quietly, head down, hands meekly on the table. "We need to kill him, then our victory is assured."
"Why?" asked Zidane.
"Terisas depends on him," muttered Sephira. "Did you notice that at every major attack and defense that occurred, Angel-Black was there? And he watched over me while I was held prisoner…I know that Angel is key to Terisas' plans."
Kuja nodded. "I wouldn't doubt it. He truly is the one we need to destroy. However, the pressing question is then presented to us. How? He is powerful, we know, and will be difficult to defeat. I would even go so far as to say impossible."
Viteros grinned. "Nothing is impossible. Observe."
He slowly walked from the head of the table down to where Sephira was sitting. "Your hand, please."
Sephira curiously extended her hand. "What are you…ouch!"
Viteros slowly lifted up the droplet of blood he had taken and held it shining in the light, white glinting through the crimson. "This blood is saturated with Angel Gene. This comes as no shock to Sephira, as it would seem Angel filled her in while she was incarcerated."
Kuja half jumped out of his seat, while Zidane was simply still with surprise. "How do you know that-"
"Angel told me," interrupted Viteros shortly. "Now, please, observe…"
He pricked his own finger and took the blood over to two small clear dishes and put them on. Then he put the now bloody dishes onto a glowing white square, projecting a hologram into the air. They all watched intently as Viteros mixed the Devil blood with the Angel blood.
An image flickered to life in the projector, a red liquid that pulsed and swirled with the movements of the tiny particles inside. White, faintly glowing little cells slowly floated around, making an odd sound like bells in the far distance. Zidane was about to ask what this was all about when…
The blood darkened, into a deep, deep red, almost black. Then the Devil gene appeared.
They had a black core, with a dim violet aura that slowly pulsated around them. As they moved, the Devil cells left a faint blue streak behind them, briefly illuminating the darkness they scattered. They slowly swirled around in the blood until an Angel cell drifted too close…
It was over in moments.
The Devil cells slowly drifted apart, leaving nothing but a faint cloud of plasma behind them where the Angel had once been.
"As you may observe," said Viteros matter-of-factly, "the Devil gene has quite a dramatic effect on its holier cousin. Put simply, the Devil gene utterly eradicates any Angel gene around, and vice-versa. In this time, Devil triumphed simply because there was more of my blood."
Kuja shrugged. "That's very nice, really, but what is the point?"
Viteros scratched his head. "Well, you see, that is the problem. I know that this information is critical, I remember Terisas saying something about this a long time ago, but I can't quite place it. So, if any of you think of anything, it would be very nice if you would-"
Boom.
A muffled explosion rocked the ship. Cid snarled, "What the hell!?" and ran to the bridge, stumbling as the deck shifted wildly from side to side.
"Well, everyone, it looks like there's some fun headed our way," said Viteros humorlessly as he paced over to the window. Outside, there was nothing visible but cloud. Zidane joined him at the window, squinting for a view of anything, when suddenly…
A cannon appeared.
"Holy-"
They both scarcely had time to jump away as the massive thirty-six inch cannon as it ripped a hole into the hull. Viteros clawed into the ground with his metal hands, struggling to stay in as the air pressure equalized. Zidane was about to be sucked out when they heard a steady chanting,
"Gavran o shilta Aeros davranis aldi massa goju Gaius taeguk-salchin do baravas in!" A sudden flash was in front of the hole, and a seal with the symbols for earth and sky swirled in front, and suddenly they could stand without struggling.
Sephira, having finished her spell, collapsed.
Zidane rushed over. "Sephira!" He propped up her head and checked for her pulse and breath, as Kuja helped as well. Kuja looked over his shoulder and shouted, "Viteros! What are you doing!?"
Devil Nine merely stood there and stared.
Kuja yelled again, "Devil! What the hell are you doing!?"
Suddenly Viteros' face twisted into a scowl. "Shadow magic…the power of Vashcoriladus…"
"Huh?" Zidane straightened. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll explain later," said Viteros, running to the bridge. "I'm gonna join Cid. See you all in a few minutes."