Author's [err...not-so-quick] Quickie: Yow! [What's up with me and that word, huh? It's like a catchphrase when I sniff too much white-out. x_x;] Yeah, to get back to the matter at hand...I got a unprecedented thirty-something reviews for my last chapter. You guys really love me too much. But don't think I'm complaining! Alright, you want a response to your responses, no? While a GREAT majority of readers cast their ballots of "CLOUD! CLOUD! CLOUD!", I was pleasantly surprised that many also added that they wouldn't mind either way, as long as I was snappy with the chapters. In addition, the lesser number of people who rooted for Leon wrote the best reviews of all. [Hey, I go for quality, not quantity! But both are nice.] I think it's an accomplishment to reunite previously indifferent Leon-Aerith supporters to Leon's ...err...better qualities. This chapter is loooong! As a present for those who dropped such nice reviews. As to the outcome of how this fated Trinity will turn out...well...that's for you to find out and for me to know!
Project: Trinity
Chapter Six: Behind the Crystal Wall
"Olympus, huh?" Cid muttered as they walked out of the ship and down the ramp. He twisted the straw in his mouth and added, "It looks...weird."
Leon, who had followed him out, propping up a slightly pale Aerith as he walked, frowned and said, "It's...bright." Olympus was certainly so; everywhere they looked, the sun was beaming down on the land. As their feet touched the clumpy green grass, Leon tilted his head towards Aerith and asked with a wry grin on his face, "Are you okay?"
Aerith just shook her head wordlessly, clasping a hand over her mouth to keep from retching.
Moments before they were about to land, something had short-circuited in the control panel. It seemed that a gummi block had disappeared from the ship during warp drive, making landing a very uncomfortable possibility. Cid, ever so resourceful, had managed to temporarily crash land the ship on an empty stretch of green pasture. Of course, everyone inside, especially in the area around the cockpit, had gotten a good beating as the ship smashed into the ground.
Yuffie groaned and rotated her neck, rubbing the small bruises that were forming on her arms. "My body feels sore," she growled unhappily, "and I know I'm going to be black and blue by the afternoon."
"Stop your whining," Cid said gruffly, stooping down to examine the underside of the now-damaged ship. He ran a hand along the dented metal sides and shook his head sorrowfully. "My poor ship. Looks like we'll have to get completely new gummi parts if we're going to travel anymore."
Leon raised a hand to shield his eyes from the scorching sunlight. "I doubt we'll be traveling anytime soon. We don't know what people populate this place, or even if they're friendly."
"We have to try, at any rate," Aerith said, regaining enough control over the chaos in her stomach to speak. I'm never going on a gummi ship again, she swore fervently to herself. Or any type of transportation that involves crashing, for that matter.
"Yeah, of course," Leon agreed, nodding. He ran a hand over his hair and frowned deeply, taking a good look around the seemingly empty area. "But where do we start? It doesn't look like this place's inhabited."
"We can try over there," Yuffie said as she pointed to the grassy left side of the field.
Cid squinted in the light and scowled, "Why in God's name do you want to go there? It looks exactly the same as anywhere else! We could spend months walking in circles in this place!"
Yuffie's scowl deepened to match his. "Do you have any better ideas, old man?" she hissed furiously.
Aerith sighed and glanced at Leon beside her, who was gritting his teeth and massaging his temples with a vengeance. "Alright!" he interjected loudly, assuming reluctant leadership over the group, "Enough! We have to stop our habitual arguments if we want anything to turn out right."
Thoroughly scolded, Yuffie and Cid glared butcher knives at each other but kept silent as Leon racked his brains for a solution. "Hey..." They all turned to face Aerith, who had spoken. "Look over there." She pointed over to the horizon, where the verdant green hill curved downwards in a gentle slope. Something was coming towards them.
* * *
It turned out to be an old man, who looked like he was beyond the prime years of his youth. Though he was old, his gait clearly showed that he was in no hurry to get anywhere, his long stick with a bell attached to the top cradled in his arm jauntily.
Leon approached him with more than a bit of disinclination. The man was dressed strangely; and, from the way the man was eyeing them, no doubt they themselves looked pretty strange and out of place to him, a native of this place called Olympus. "Excuse me," Leon asked stiffly, assuming his characteristically cold manner, "I was wondering if you might tell us where we are, and how we can get to the nearest city."
The old man sent suspicious glances at them and the weird metal wreckage behind them, but answered after a moment, "You're in the outskirts of Athens. The city itself is over there." He pointed a long, gnarly finger to the right, continuing, "You'll see a road as you go further down, and then you'll come to the agora, the center of Athens. Can't miss it."
"Thank you," Aerith said, bowing to the old man in respect. They turned to leave in that direction, having already told the Traverse Town refugees to stay inside the gummi ship for the sake of safety while they went out to explore the conditions.
The old man shrugged, much ameliorated to the group because of Aerith's show of gratitude. So much, in fact, that he had one other piece of information to share with them. "What's the matter these days, heh?" he called back to them. "Strange people have been coming and going."
Leon paused, stopping in mid-step to twist back and look at the old man. "How so?" he asked in a neutral tone. Aerith looked up at him, noticing the tautness in the shape of his jaw. Was that a muscle twitching? she wondered silently. What's Leon so afraid of?
The man shrugged again, the bell on his stick jingling as he turned around to walk the other way. "People in chariots like that." He jerked his thumb to indicate the partially destroyed gummi ship. "Weird people. Some that don't even look human." His voice trailed off as he disappeared down the hill from general view, and Aerith had to stop herself from running after him.
"The Heartless?" Yuffie asked, a twinge of fear coursing its way through her skin.
Leon shook his head and reprimanded her shortly, "No. Heartless don't travel in gummi ships, remember?"
"Sora and the others, then?" Cid puffed out, chewing on his straw thoughtfully.
"Yes. That was one of the possibilities that occurred to me," Leon said, continuing to walk. Aerith watched him mutely, pacing herself to walk carelessly beside him. And what were the other possibilities you thought of? she couldn't help asking silently. He had looked so...desperate when the man mentioned other strangers in the world. Was it just her imagination getting out of hand again?
"Come on." Leon said slowly, looking up briefly from staring at the ground, "The sooner we get to Athens, the better." They treaded onwards without another word, each silently taking in the all-too foreign surroundings. The silence allowed for other things, such as remembrance.
* * *
After what seemed like hours to them, and what seemed like days to Yuffie, they finally saw the "city upon a hill", Athens. There was only one word to describe it...
"Crowded," Leon grumbled as the native folk jostled into him, sending him reeling backwards.
"Hey!" Cid shouted as a young boy slammed into him, leaving him sitting stupefied on the ground. "These people need manners." Yuffie, who was clinging to Aerith for dear life, squirmed as much as possible to avoid being smushed into the throng.
"Over here!" Leon shouted over the din, barely being heard by his colleagues. Aerith looked up and saw him motioning frantically to an alleyway across the path. Dodging the many tents and booths that were selling extraordinary wares, she dragged Yuffie along with her and flattened herself against the wall. "This must be the agora," Leon muttered. "The old man wasn't kidding when he said you couldn't miss it."
"You can't miss it even if you tried," Cid snorted. He searched around his pockets for his straw, which had disappeared in the rush. "Oh, dang. Lost it again." Yuffie looked at him strangely and rolled her eyes.
"What, is that like your security blanket?" Yuffie asked peevishly.
Cid sent her a dirty glare and patted his spear. "No, this is," he said threateningly. "And it's meant to skewer little brats like you."
"Where should we go next?" Aerith quickly interrupted, breaking the laser eyes they were shooting at each other. "It's impossible to wander aimlessly around."
"We need someplace to find out more information," Leon mused quietly. "Somewhere that would immediately draw foreigners' attention..." Aerith poked her head out of the temporary safety of the abandoned alleyway and looked up above the heads of the crowd.
It took her breath away. Obviously there were hills upon hills; a beautiful, snowy white columned building, enormous in size and delicate in detailed structure, sitting placidly above the rest of the city like a patron god. "Leon," she whispered, tugging on his jacket sleeve. "Look." She pointed to the glistening ivory staircase that lead up to the building.
Leon nodded wordlessly and twisted his head to face Yuffie and Cid, who had seen it too. "Let's go."
In unison they broke apart from the alleyway and headed towards the building. Though the crowd did its best to deter them from their goal, in the end they all made it up to the gleaming white staircase. The building looked even more monstrously powerful from up close; it sent shivers down Aerith's skin, raising goosebumps.
"Well...up we go." Leon said, starting the climb up the stairs. With misgivings the rest of them followed, unsure of what would lie behind. Or if it would really matter.
* * *
Cid gaped at the size of the structure, even though his chest was heaving from the excruciating pain of having climbed dozens of stairs. "It's....big...." he wheezed out, nearly collapsing against the big sign that was implanted on the walkway into the building.
"Olympus Coliseum," Leon read aloud from the sign, his voice thoughtful. He looked around, back down the flights of white stairs they had just come up from. It seemed that the Coliseum was a great festive arena, for many people were climbing the stairs just as they had done.
Yuffie twisted her face into a disapproving frown. "Coliseum? Isn't that where people kill each other and stuff?"
"They fight," Aerith corrected automatically. Luckily enough her readings from Hallow Bastion had not totally left her, though it was a daily struggle to remember things that seemed to have no worth. "They try not to kill as much as possible. You're thinking too much of Rome, Yuffie."
Yuffie shrugged indifferently. "Eh, same thing."
Leon, who had been listening to their part of the conversation, was dually engaged in reading the rest of the posted sign. "There's a tournament...and it's going on today." He glanced up to see Aerith's wondering stare and a brief smile flickered through his face. "That would explain all the people," he said, gesturing to the crowd that was forming at the stairs and the entrance to the Coliseum.
"Well, what are we standing around here for?" Cid asked disapprovingly. "I'd rather not be knocked down to the floor again by another mob, if you don't mind."
"Why can't they knock you down the stairs instead?" Yuffie muttered under her breath, and Aerith had to hide a quick smile behind her hand as she followed Leon through the curved double doors.
As if the Coliseum wasn't intimidating enough from the outside, the inside was even more lavish: around the enormous marble stage of the arena rose stone benches, where a large portion of people were sitting already. Nevertheless, despite the arena's awe-inspiring beauty, a deep prick of apprehension lodged itself in Aerith's chest and refused to be routed out.
"Incredible," Leon muttered. "It feels...unreal. Being in another world that is technologically behind but so culturally advanced." They nodded in mutual consent and Yuffie pointed to the fairly empty edge of the second row.
"Why don't we sit there?" she suggested, and with that well-known buoyancy of hers, ran over and promptly plopped down on a seat, clearly anticipating the show as if it was a circus event. Leon shared an exasperated look with Aerith and Cid and they walked over, taking seats beside the carefree and oblivious girl.
They waited a few more moments, taking the free time to scan the crowd for anything unusual or particularly helpful. Yuffie immediately lost no time in purchasing a bag of unrecognizable filled bread sandwiches from a passing vendor and offered each of them one, which they all politely but forcefully declined. It smelled too suspiciously of rotting fish.
"I wonder," Leon mused quietly enough so that only Aerith, who sat beside him, could hear, "if we'll end up staying here." He paused to pass a hand over his forehead, shielding his eyes from the rays of the sun, which shone brightly all the more so in the Coliseum. "So many things have happened...since Hallow Bastion."
Aerith opened her mouth to speak even though she had no idea what to say, but another voice interrupted her. "What are you searching for?" the voice said flickeringly, insinuating and dangerous. She nearly jumped, unsure if she was hearing things in her mind again, but the taut frown on Leon's face told her that he had heard it too.
"Heh," the voice chuckled, as if their anxiety amused him. The voice slowly took shape in the form of a strange dark man with a elongated face and--Am I hallucinating? Leon wondered--blue flames for hair. "No need to be so afraid," the man said silkily. Leon scowled, ready to retort against the stranger's assumption that he was weak, but he was quickly interrupted. "Hey, hey. Don't get your hair in a tizzy, kid." The man leaned in close, as if engaging them in a conspiracy. Who the hell is this? Leon thought with irritation. He was on verge of swinging out his gunblade to force the stranger away when--
"Are you looking for someone?" the man asked again. Leon froze in an instant. Aerith, whose frightened gaze had been darting from Leon to the stranger, dug her fingernails into her palm and swallowed painfully.
"W-why do you ask that?" she demanded unsuccessfully. It seemed the stranger was only interested in garnering Leon's attention, which he, for the moment, had ensnared.
The grin on the stranger's face grew wide, but to Aerith it seemed more like he was sneering than smiling. Yuffie and Cid, who had noticed the strained tension amongst the group, stared at the man with confusion. "The name's Hades. I can help you find...whoever you're looking for."
"What's the catch?" Leon finally said, his voice cracking at the wrong places. Aerith fixed him with an impenetrable stare. Who are you looking for? she felt she had a right to insist on knowing, but vehemently remained silent.
The man--Hades, as he had said--chuckled yet again and placed his hands on the many folds of his dark clothing. "Oho! I see that I can't fool you. But why would I need to, hey? After all..." his eyes gleamed with a special wickedness as he spoke, "one good turn deserves another, right?"
"Bullshit," Aerith spat out in disgust. Not that she herself wasn't highly prone to accepting his tantalizing offer, but... I'll resist, she swore to herself, hoping that her resolve was stronger than her temptation. After all...he would never stoop down to evil to find me...If he can be a strong person...why can't I...? But she was lying to herself; what she wanted, more than anything, was to find him... Be strong. She could almost hear his voice murmuring into her ear, as if he was right beside her.
Leon, though, remained in a gloomy daze, transfixed at Hades' haunting words. "Anyone?" he asked in a low voice. Aerith's eyebrows raised at his lengthy consideration of the demon's--for she was sure that this Hades was demonic, and her instincts never failed her--ludicrous offer. "Anyone we want?"
Hades didn't even flinch. "You got it, kid. Anyone. Even..." Hades lowered his voice and a crafty smile spread on his palsy gray skin, "the dead."
For a split second, Leon's gaze darted to the others and Aerith could see the turmoil that was so evidently broiling inside. He was like a frightened child, she dimly realized, wanting only to wake up and have someone tell him it was all just a bad dream.
"I'll do it." The words were barely out of his mouth when Hades, with a toothy smile, procured a pen and scroll for him to sign against the dotted line. Leon reached for it, but his hand was jerked away by a startlingly strong grip on his arm.
His brow darkened and he looked up, meeting Aerith's furious eyes squarely. "Do you..." she hissed, wanting to seize him by the shoulders and shake him, "have any idea what you're doing?"
"Yes," he replied roughly, although his eyes were looking guiltily away from her.
"Then you do know you're selling your soul to the devil? He'll have you doing anything he wants! Is it worth it? How can you let go everything you've worked so long for?" Perhaps it was something more than fury that had her retorting so bitterly, but it didn't seem fair. "I though you were stronger than that."
Leon wrenched his arm away from her grasp, steadying himself to answer her. It would hurt her, but... "You're right. I have worked so long for what I believed was right. But screw that." When he looked up again, there was a fiery glint in them that almost made her step back. "I've worked so long, and for what? No matter whatever we do, nothing changes. Everything just gets worse and worse, until I think I'm just losing my mind! After Hallow Bastion, I thought, if only I could get stronger...everything will be okay..." He laughed grimly, dragging a hand through his tangled hair and fixing her with a glare. "You're not the only one who thinks that you've had enough. I've had enough, too."
"You're an idiot."
It was pure reflex that had Leon's hand snapping up to slap her in the face. At the last moment, Leon managed to curtail his volatile emotions and checked his arm so that his hand stopped inches away from her flushed face. Defiantly Aerith glared at him, silently daring him to attack her while her heart pounded crazily in her chest. As it was, Leon let out a hollow laugh that barely escaped his lips and he turned to a scrutinizing Hades. With one loop of the pen he had signed his name in untidy letters: Squall Leonhart.
Yuffie stifled a horrified gasp and she pushed her way forward, along with Cid. "What have you done, Squall?" she yelled. Normally he would have corrected her with an annoyed "It's Leon." routine, but this time...he was strangely silent. She pointed an accusing finger at him. "You almost hit Aerith, and now you're following psycho freak around as his guard dog? Are you insane??"
Leon fixed her with a patronizing glance, as if she was hardly worth his time and effort. What he had said in words, it seemed now he was putting them into action. Hades smirked, rolling up the scroll and placing it peremptorily into the many folds of his garments.
"Alright, kid," Hades announced, placing a friendly arm on Leon's shoulder, which he was quick to shrug off.
"Just because I'm serving you doesn't mean I like you." Leon said fiercely. "Get that part right."
Hades held up to his hands in an effort to show that no harm was meant. "Touchy." He led his new disciple down to the first row, away from his pesky companions. Leon could feel their enraged stares practically burning a hole through his back. He refused to glance back at them, knowing it would only mean more pain. For everyone. Hades continued, oblivious to his frustration, "Your one and only assignment: Kill Hercules."
"Hercules?" Leon echoed, the name failing to spark any memory. Though his heart twinged at thought of killing anyone human, he forced himself to strengthen his resolve. It's for her...All for her.
"Yes. A young guy with blonde/red hair, Greek, wears armor. A real asshole; he's been a problem for years. I need to have him done with," here Hades drew a line across his throat with his finger in case there was any misinterpretations, "and you'll get your girl."
Yes. That was all that mattered.
* * *
"That bastard," she fumed, digging her nails into her palm with the force of a hammer, "We ought to let him stay here and rot."
"For the first time, I agree with you, Yuffie," Cid said soberly.
"No." They turned to stare unbelievingly at Aerith, who had spoken softly but with as much determination as she was able to muster with her frail conscience. "He doesn't want us to get involved, but that's what we're going to do anyway."
"But he was so cruel to you, Aerith!" Yuffie argued. "Why do you want to stay here and help that ass?"
Aerith grinned wryly. "Who says I'm going to help him? All I'm doing is watching what he gets out of this mess, if he gets out at all." The truth was, though, she was feeling a lot more insecure than she let out to be. You idiot, Leon. You stupid coward! At the moment her brain was busily engaged in thinking up vile, hateful names to throw towards the man who was sitting a row in front of them, oblivious to all their glares.
Just then, a gong rang, and the arena was suddenly still. All the competitors [at least, she assumed they were, since they were all carrying weapons], including Leon, stood up and walked outside.
One by one, as the gong rang, the warriors stepped into the screened-off ground portion of the Coliseum to fight. Through the fervent exchanges of loud talk from the rest of the audience, Aerith could figure out that the matches went by Seed number, and the one who made it to the top would face a strange man named Hercules. Leon, who had started at number one, was slowly but surely making his way into the top ranks.
Cid whistled as he watched Leon dispatch a horde of Heartless soldiers without the slightest difficulty. "You've got to admit, the kid's pretty good," and he added quickly, "But he's still a bastard."
Yes. Leon is good. Maybe we're just dragging him down. Maybe I'm just being selfish. Aerith shook her head in a vain effort to clear her thoughts. No use thinking about them now, she chided. By now, most the crowd had realized Leon's worth and were starting to cheer for him whenever his fight proved successful.
As Leon finished off a group of Darkballs with only slightly more difficulty than the rest, the gong sounded once more. Allowed a short reprieve, Leon steadied his breathing and met her eyes, where she was sitting nervously on the bench in the second row. Immediately his look hardened and he glanced away, preferring instead to stare elsewhere. Aerith felt bile rise into her throat at his snub and she squelched the rampant urge to shoot a spell at him. The gong rang again, signaling the beginning of another match and the emergence of a new opponent. Leon tensed, hand immediately propping his gunblade up in front of him in pursuit of another battle.
The shadows that were in the enclave in the front of the arena began to move, and gradually the form began to take definite shape as it walked forward. Slowly, as if nothing rushed it at all, the light fell in bright waves upon the man, illuminating his body like an some oddly dark angel. Something painful twisted itself into Aerith's heart as she watched the man come out, as if she knew what was coming. And when the light finally shone on his face, she could find no words.
Because it was him.
* * *
Ending notes: Ah. I'm so cruel, eh? Leaving you at such a cliffhanger. So what do you think will happen? Is this the end?
On a different note, I'm in a giving mood. This Thursday the 12th is my birthday, so I'm going to either 1) post the seventh chapter of this fanfic, 2) post an altogether different [AU, the one I had been hinting at earlier] Aerith-Leon-Cloud fanfic, or 3) write another fanfic from scratch. Any requests?