Chapter 27
A small teardrop from her eye fell on the page of her diary, as Phillona Strife continued to write, "I didn't want to hurt Relafen but I had to tell him the truth. A relationship is something I've never thought of with anyone, ever since Buganhagen died after telling me that he wasn't my father. And then maybe a couple of years ago, the only thing that looked like a relationship was the one between Gerard and me. And even though Gerard said he...loved me...he left to Shin-Ra, volunteering to be our spy.... the way he left so quickly and suddenly without even telling me his decision...it felt as if I never existed to him...And from then onwards, I'd made up my mind, not to have any more relationships...because they hurt...only hurt... and today...the pained look on Relafen's face when I turned him down...was...so...upsetting...I..."
Another tear trickled down her face, and she wiped it away quickly, "I don't think...that as long as I am afraid of getting hurt...I'll never love anyone..."
The door swung open and Avatar almost fell through it, panting, "Shin-Ra!"
Phillona shut her diary quickly and tossed it into a drawer on her table and followed Avatar outside. At a distance, a Shin-Ra airship had already landed and the soldiers were running towards Mideel followed by more of their kind. Then in the middle, a bulky man hopped outside, a wide grin on his face. General Rupert seemed strangely delighted. More Shin-Ra soldiers followed him.
As Avatar and Phillona ran out of Mideel towards the plain where Marlene and Trex stood waiting, Avatar looked at Phillona, "Don't cry over turning Relafen down, you had to...believe me, he'll get over it...besides, you couldn't possibly start one with a Shin-Ra commander, could you?"
She looked surprised at the fact that Avatar had seen through her. Avatar calmly mumbled, "Your eyes were watery...Kinda figured it out..."
"Whatever, Avatar, Stopping Shin-Ra is more important as of now ..." Phillona replied.
"You say 'whatever' like my buddy, you know..." Avatar said as the both of them arrived near Marlene and Trex.
"It's catchy, I guess..." Phillona said and turned to Trex and Marlene, "So guys...ready..."
"Got Shiva?" Marlene quipped, excitedly, "I say give to those scumbags!"
Phillona nodded and was about to take a step forward, when a 'slow' spell cramped her body from an advancing soldier, who was strangely masked. Marlene aimed her crossbow at him but he screened her sight with a blind spell. Avatar was about to move at him, but the masked soldier sent a sleep spell at him. Avatar ducked and the spell caught Trex unaware and he slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Phillona's hands were moving too slowly to summon, still reeling from the effect of the soldier's 'slow' spell. Avatar was about to attack when the soldier who had cast the spells cried under his breath, "Wait..."
Avatar didn't care; he was going to nail him with a flying knee when the man removed his mask, revealing his face. Phillona gasped, "Gerard!"
He stood pointing his gun at Phillona and Avatar so that the other soldiers wouldn't get suspicious. Marlene was still rubbing her eyes because of the blind spell.
"Look..." he hissed as a file of soldiers approached behind Gerard, "I have a summon materia..."
"What?" Avatar said surprised as the soldiers drew nearer, "What the hell are you-"
"No time to explain..." Gerard grunted and turned to Phillona, "Phillona, on three, summon Shiva..."
"One..." Gerard said under his breath. The soldiers suddenly realized that Gerard was talking to them.
"HEY!" A soldier shouted from behind Gerard, "What are you doing talking to those brats!?"
"Two..."
"HEY, YOU DEAF, SOLDIER?" barked a soldier a few feet behind Gerard. He started walking to him, signaling the other large group of soldiers to follow him.
"THREE!"
"What the hell?" The soldier muttered and staggered back when Phillona and Gerard spun around, and with a quick step forward, disappeared with a swirl of green aura around them. So did the other 'brats' behind them.
The entire party of over 30 Shin-Ra soldiers stood death-stricken at the thought that a guardian force had been summoned to annihilate them. The air went dead cold. It was so cold that a few of the soldiers started shivering. As the soldiers stood there with clattering teeth, a giant icicle shot out of the ground with the icy figure of a beautiful woman inside. A crack appeared on it and then the figure inside swung out her folded arms and shattered the icicle that had enclosed her. She stood in front of panic-stricken soldiers who watched her long blue hair fall behind her. She smiled and then raised her arms over her head and sent a howling storm of sharp icicles at the soldiers. Most of the icicles found their mark through the heart of Shin-Ra soldiers and they fell down, dead. Some of them avoided it, only to be stabbed by a second wave of deadly icicles. Shiva watched the remaining survivors scamper around in circles.
From far away, General Rupert aimed his spell at the guardian force that was getting ready to unleash the 'diamond dust' attack. A firaga ripped through the air and scalded Shiva on her stomach. Before she could see who had hit her, another firaga followed and scorched her neck, blackening her beautiful blue skin. She fell to her feet and shook her head as if to say that she can't stay any longer. And then she spun around, her blue hair swirling around with her, and disappeared with a sound of shattering ice. Only about twenty soldiers remained now, most of them bruised badly from icicle scrapes.
Rupert smirked and barked on the megaphone gleefully, "HAH! IS that all ya got!? MY SOLDIERS WILL KILL YA THE MOMENT YOUR bodies...re-appear...."
He let the words fade away. And then a worried look came over his face. The soldiers were waiting, puzzled, for Shiva's summoner and her friends to re-appear. But when none of the resistance group members re-appeared, the look on the soldiers' face grew even more afraid. The clouds looming over them turned strangely dark. Rupert was the first to start the wave of panic, "Shit...this doesn't look good."
He barked at his soldiers to stay and fight. He then boarded the airship, which rose in the air and zipped away beyond the mountains.
The soldiers shouted curses at Rupert and waited with sweat dripping down their faces. Soon, a symbol of their doom appeared on the clouds. As they watched, a shadow appeared with a distinct outline of a dragon on the clouds. As their eyes widened with terror, the shadow grew bigger and then with a humungous roar, the dragon God Bahamut, broke through the clouds and swooped down and landed on the rocky ground with a thud, crushing a couple of soldiers under his foot to nothingness. The remaining few went berserk and tried to fire at him with their machine guys, which looked like flies smashing against him. It only irritated the dragon more, as he cast a flare so powerful that most of the soldiers fell on the ground and stayed there, motionless. All these scattered soldiers running around in fear and trying to shoot him only amused him, but Bahamut was too lazy to play with them. He soared into the sky and opened his jaws, his eyes flashing red and then he let out crashing balls of flaring brightness, which turned the ground where the soldiers were standing into a battlefield of explosions. After letting out a piercing holler, Bahamut charged all the energy around him in to one single mega flare and tore the earth apart with a blast so violent and bright that the entire night turned to day for a minute. And then he disappeared, leaving charred bodies of Shin-Ra soldiers lying on the ground.
************************
"HEE-HAW!" Trex whooped after he and the rest of the Mideel resistance group met near the lifestream well after a quick rest, "Showed em', didn't we?"
"Yeah..." Marlene quipped, "All thanks to Gerard...."
Avatar was quietly examining the lifestream flowing in bright green inside the well. The happy mood of the people around seem didn't seem to be catching on to him. He just gave a quick smile at them and made his way to his room after saying goodnight. Morning.... he thought.... I'll go to the Fenis guardian in the morning...
Phillona stood silently with a half-smile on her face, Gerard standing beside her. Gerard started to speak but Trex cut in. "And...MAN, Gerard! Where'd you get Bahamut?"
"Oh...the Megiddo ruins..." Gerard replied, "its east of Midgar..."
"Cool..." Marlene said, "I should go materia hunting there sometime..."
"Well...." Trex yawned, "I say its snooze 'o clock. Hey Gerard, you can share my room for the night, ok? See ya in the morning..."
He ran away followed by Marlene who was pestering Trex for some money he owed her.
Only Phillona and Gerard remained alone. Phillona didn't say anything. She didn't want to act like there once existed any sort of relationship between the two of them but Gerard started first, "So...um..."
"Yeah?" Phillona asked, still not looking at him.
"Phillona...." Gerard said walking closer to him, "I...miss you...."
"..................."
During their relationship two years ago, there arose a need for one of the resistance members to be inside Shin-Ra as a spy. Gerard had volunteered for the job and had eventually found a girlfriend while he was in Midgar working as a computer technician for Shin-Ra. Phillona had heard of it and she felt hurt although they didn't have an ongoing relationship. Gerard had never bothered to even contact her or have any sort of link with her. She knew it was necessary to keep his cover but she felt insignificant and worthless. She felt like she had never mattered to Gerard. And now he was telling her that he missed her. After two years of nothing, he was 'missing' her all of a sudden. She didn't let the words affect her.
"I mean..." Gerard lifted her chin up and looked at her mako blue eyes, "...I miss...the way you tilt your head a-and smile...the way...you used to comfort me...at times when I was down..."
"Then why did you leave me?" She said quietly.
"Because.... I had to..." Gerard said, "I...I loved you but...no one else was willing to be the informant..."
"Ok...so...what about her...?"
"Elena's not important to me...don't you realize that?"
"....................."
"I still need you...." he said, sliding his arms around Phillona's waist.
She wanted to break away but she didn't. No one had held her for a long time. And that's why...she had made Sifan dance so closely to her.
She wanted to be held...but not by someone who had left her alone and gone away for a couple of years. But still, she remained motionless. He pulled her closer and moved his face nearer to Phillona's. The air between their lips thinned and he almost kissed her when Phillona turned her face away.
"No...." she said and pulled herself away from Gerard's touch, "I don't feel anything for you any more, Gerard.... I am sorry..."
And with that she walked away from him, in the cold night, leaving Gerard to stand all by himself.
************************
In a small cave, at the far end of the abandoned beach near Costa de sol, a group of hooded figures stood gathered around wooden pole to which a woman was tied. One of the figures walked up to the woman and cut the side of her arm with a knife and filled the glass cup in his hand with her blood. He then cast a cure spell on the woman and stopped her bleeding.
And then the largest of the hooded figure spoke, "Ah...My dear brethren...before I tell you the news..."
He walked around to each of the hooded figures and offered them the blood-filled glass. Each of them took a sip from it and nodded their heads. The hooded figure then gestured to another thin figure. The thin figure had a can of kerosene its hand and he poured it all over the woman. The woman cried in anguish but the figures around her simply laughed.
And then the head figure spoke, "My brethren...the time is finally upon us..."
A quick murmur went around the group.
"Our Lord's second life shall start.... the next full moon..." the figure continued, "Yes, my brethren...all the sacrifices of Half-Jenovasysed humans has finally brought our Lord his complete attainment of Jenovasysis. The Jenova part of the humans we have sacrificed...the part of their blood our tongue can identify...is actually a part of their life stream. And our Lord's life stream has absorbed that part every time we killed them..."
And then he cast a firaga spell at the woman soaked in kerosene...
"LORD SEPHIROTH!" the figure bellowed as the flames ate the woman, "THY NAME SHALL BE FEARED ONCE AGAIN!!!!"
The figures laughed as the fire consumed the woman whose screams were drowned by the crashing of the waves against the rocks and the laughter of her tormentors.
*********************
It had been two hours since she had left him standing by himself. But that didn't stop him from doing what he had come to do. Gerard had finished the whole thing in an hour. His mission required him to go slow and silent but Mideel was asleep and he had no problems whatsoever doing his thing.
He walked outside Mideel and stood amongst the bodies Bahamut had taken to the grave. He realized he had left the Bahamut materia in the restroom but he gave up the idea of going back for it. Soon, an airship silently landed before him. Gerard looked around and after seeing no one was around, he boarded the airship.
Inside the airship, a large bulky figure sat at a corner, a lit cigar in its mouth. Gerard pulled out a small device with a single button and tossed it to the figure as the airship rose into the sky.
Gerard smiled wryly, "Press the trigger fast, Rupert. I am sure you want to see my explosives 'light up' Mideel in front of you..."
***********************
-------_______________________________________________________________
From the author: ok guys...sorry for such a short update...just one chap...but I'll post one tomorrow...and maybe squeeze in another one...well...I think that after chapter 29...THERES GONNA BE A LONG BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAK. Like till about December...the reason? I am going to med school : - ( ...I wont have time over there...to do all this stuff....so...please...post ur reviews so that I can take a good look at them before I leave....who knows...if you smash my face with enough reviews... I might try something stupid in med school.....(like using the library computer after class hours...)..so anyway...no matter what happens....REVIEW!!! KEEP ME ALIVE! C'MON GUYS PLEASE!! SAVE THE DOC!!!!!
A small teardrop from her eye fell on the page of her diary, as Phillona Strife continued to write, "I didn't want to hurt Relafen but I had to tell him the truth. A relationship is something I've never thought of with anyone, ever since Buganhagen died after telling me that he wasn't my father. And then maybe a couple of years ago, the only thing that looked like a relationship was the one between Gerard and me. And even though Gerard said he...loved me...he left to Shin-Ra, volunteering to be our spy.... the way he left so quickly and suddenly without even telling me his decision...it felt as if I never existed to him...And from then onwards, I'd made up my mind, not to have any more relationships...because they hurt...only hurt... and today...the pained look on Relafen's face when I turned him down...was...so...upsetting...I..."
Another tear trickled down her face, and she wiped it away quickly, "I don't think...that as long as I am afraid of getting hurt...I'll never love anyone..."
The door swung open and Avatar almost fell through it, panting, "Shin-Ra!"
Phillona shut her diary quickly and tossed it into a drawer on her table and followed Avatar outside. At a distance, a Shin-Ra airship had already landed and the soldiers were running towards Mideel followed by more of their kind. Then in the middle, a bulky man hopped outside, a wide grin on his face. General Rupert seemed strangely delighted. More Shin-Ra soldiers followed him.
As Avatar and Phillona ran out of Mideel towards the plain where Marlene and Trex stood waiting, Avatar looked at Phillona, "Don't cry over turning Relafen down, you had to...believe me, he'll get over it...besides, you couldn't possibly start one with a Shin-Ra commander, could you?"
She looked surprised at the fact that Avatar had seen through her. Avatar calmly mumbled, "Your eyes were watery...Kinda figured it out..."
"Whatever, Avatar, Stopping Shin-Ra is more important as of now ..." Phillona replied.
"You say 'whatever' like my buddy, you know..." Avatar said as the both of them arrived near Marlene and Trex.
"It's catchy, I guess..." Phillona said and turned to Trex and Marlene, "So guys...ready..."
"Got Shiva?" Marlene quipped, excitedly, "I say give to those scumbags!"
Phillona nodded and was about to take a step forward, when a 'slow' spell cramped her body from an advancing soldier, who was strangely masked. Marlene aimed her crossbow at him but he screened her sight with a blind spell. Avatar was about to move at him, but the masked soldier sent a sleep spell at him. Avatar ducked and the spell caught Trex unaware and he slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Phillona's hands were moving too slowly to summon, still reeling from the effect of the soldier's 'slow' spell. Avatar was about to attack when the soldier who had cast the spells cried under his breath, "Wait..."
Avatar didn't care; he was going to nail him with a flying knee when the man removed his mask, revealing his face. Phillona gasped, "Gerard!"
He stood pointing his gun at Phillona and Avatar so that the other soldiers wouldn't get suspicious. Marlene was still rubbing her eyes because of the blind spell.
"Look..." he hissed as a file of soldiers approached behind Gerard, "I have a summon materia..."
"What?" Avatar said surprised as the soldiers drew nearer, "What the hell are you-"
"No time to explain..." Gerard grunted and turned to Phillona, "Phillona, on three, summon Shiva..."
"One..." Gerard said under his breath. The soldiers suddenly realized that Gerard was talking to them.
"HEY!" A soldier shouted from behind Gerard, "What are you doing talking to those brats!?"
"Two..."
"HEY, YOU DEAF, SOLDIER?" barked a soldier a few feet behind Gerard. He started walking to him, signaling the other large group of soldiers to follow him.
"THREE!"
"What the hell?" The soldier muttered and staggered back when Phillona and Gerard spun around, and with a quick step forward, disappeared with a swirl of green aura around them. So did the other 'brats' behind them.
The entire party of over 30 Shin-Ra soldiers stood death-stricken at the thought that a guardian force had been summoned to annihilate them. The air went dead cold. It was so cold that a few of the soldiers started shivering. As the soldiers stood there with clattering teeth, a giant icicle shot out of the ground with the icy figure of a beautiful woman inside. A crack appeared on it and then the figure inside swung out her folded arms and shattered the icicle that had enclosed her. She stood in front of panic-stricken soldiers who watched her long blue hair fall behind her. She smiled and then raised her arms over her head and sent a howling storm of sharp icicles at the soldiers. Most of the icicles found their mark through the heart of Shin-Ra soldiers and they fell down, dead. Some of them avoided it, only to be stabbed by a second wave of deadly icicles. Shiva watched the remaining survivors scamper around in circles.
From far away, General Rupert aimed his spell at the guardian force that was getting ready to unleash the 'diamond dust' attack. A firaga ripped through the air and scalded Shiva on her stomach. Before she could see who had hit her, another firaga followed and scorched her neck, blackening her beautiful blue skin. She fell to her feet and shook her head as if to say that she can't stay any longer. And then she spun around, her blue hair swirling around with her, and disappeared with a sound of shattering ice. Only about twenty soldiers remained now, most of them bruised badly from icicle scrapes.
Rupert smirked and barked on the megaphone gleefully, "HAH! IS that all ya got!? MY SOLDIERS WILL KILL YA THE MOMENT YOUR bodies...re-appear...."
He let the words fade away. And then a worried look came over his face. The soldiers were waiting, puzzled, for Shiva's summoner and her friends to re-appear. But when none of the resistance group members re-appeared, the look on the soldiers' face grew even more afraid. The clouds looming over them turned strangely dark. Rupert was the first to start the wave of panic, "Shit...this doesn't look good."
He barked at his soldiers to stay and fight. He then boarded the airship, which rose in the air and zipped away beyond the mountains.
The soldiers shouted curses at Rupert and waited with sweat dripping down their faces. Soon, a symbol of their doom appeared on the clouds. As they watched, a shadow appeared with a distinct outline of a dragon on the clouds. As their eyes widened with terror, the shadow grew bigger and then with a humungous roar, the dragon God Bahamut, broke through the clouds and swooped down and landed on the rocky ground with a thud, crushing a couple of soldiers under his foot to nothingness. The remaining few went berserk and tried to fire at him with their machine guys, which looked like flies smashing against him. It only irritated the dragon more, as he cast a flare so powerful that most of the soldiers fell on the ground and stayed there, motionless. All these scattered soldiers running around in fear and trying to shoot him only amused him, but Bahamut was too lazy to play with them. He soared into the sky and opened his jaws, his eyes flashing red and then he let out crashing balls of flaring brightness, which turned the ground where the soldiers were standing into a battlefield of explosions. After letting out a piercing holler, Bahamut charged all the energy around him in to one single mega flare and tore the earth apart with a blast so violent and bright that the entire night turned to day for a minute. And then he disappeared, leaving charred bodies of Shin-Ra soldiers lying on the ground.
************************
"HEE-HAW!" Trex whooped after he and the rest of the Mideel resistance group met near the lifestream well after a quick rest, "Showed em', didn't we?"
"Yeah..." Marlene quipped, "All thanks to Gerard...."
Avatar was quietly examining the lifestream flowing in bright green inside the well. The happy mood of the people around seem didn't seem to be catching on to him. He just gave a quick smile at them and made his way to his room after saying goodnight. Morning.... he thought.... I'll go to the Fenis guardian in the morning...
Phillona stood silently with a half-smile on her face, Gerard standing beside her. Gerard started to speak but Trex cut in. "And...MAN, Gerard! Where'd you get Bahamut?"
"Oh...the Megiddo ruins..." Gerard replied, "its east of Midgar..."
"Cool..." Marlene said, "I should go materia hunting there sometime..."
"Well...." Trex yawned, "I say its snooze 'o clock. Hey Gerard, you can share my room for the night, ok? See ya in the morning..."
He ran away followed by Marlene who was pestering Trex for some money he owed her.
Only Phillona and Gerard remained alone. Phillona didn't say anything. She didn't want to act like there once existed any sort of relationship between the two of them but Gerard started first, "So...um..."
"Yeah?" Phillona asked, still not looking at him.
"Phillona...." Gerard said walking closer to him, "I...miss you...."
"..................."
During their relationship two years ago, there arose a need for one of the resistance members to be inside Shin-Ra as a spy. Gerard had volunteered for the job and had eventually found a girlfriend while he was in Midgar working as a computer technician for Shin-Ra. Phillona had heard of it and she felt hurt although they didn't have an ongoing relationship. Gerard had never bothered to even contact her or have any sort of link with her. She knew it was necessary to keep his cover but she felt insignificant and worthless. She felt like she had never mattered to Gerard. And now he was telling her that he missed her. After two years of nothing, he was 'missing' her all of a sudden. She didn't let the words affect her.
"I mean..." Gerard lifted her chin up and looked at her mako blue eyes, "...I miss...the way you tilt your head a-and smile...the way...you used to comfort me...at times when I was down..."
"Then why did you leave me?" She said quietly.
"Because.... I had to..." Gerard said, "I...I loved you but...no one else was willing to be the informant..."
"Ok...so...what about her...?"
"Elena's not important to me...don't you realize that?"
"....................."
"I still need you...." he said, sliding his arms around Phillona's waist.
She wanted to break away but she didn't. No one had held her for a long time. And that's why...she had made Sifan dance so closely to her.
She wanted to be held...but not by someone who had left her alone and gone away for a couple of years. But still, she remained motionless. He pulled her closer and moved his face nearer to Phillona's. The air between their lips thinned and he almost kissed her when Phillona turned her face away.
"No...." she said and pulled herself away from Gerard's touch, "I don't feel anything for you any more, Gerard.... I am sorry..."
And with that she walked away from him, in the cold night, leaving Gerard to stand all by himself.
************************
In a small cave, at the far end of the abandoned beach near Costa de sol, a group of hooded figures stood gathered around wooden pole to which a woman was tied. One of the figures walked up to the woman and cut the side of her arm with a knife and filled the glass cup in his hand with her blood. He then cast a cure spell on the woman and stopped her bleeding.
And then the largest of the hooded figure spoke, "Ah...My dear brethren...before I tell you the news..."
He walked around to each of the hooded figures and offered them the blood-filled glass. Each of them took a sip from it and nodded their heads. The hooded figure then gestured to another thin figure. The thin figure had a can of kerosene its hand and he poured it all over the woman. The woman cried in anguish but the figures around her simply laughed.
And then the head figure spoke, "My brethren...the time is finally upon us..."
A quick murmur went around the group.
"Our Lord's second life shall start.... the next full moon..." the figure continued, "Yes, my brethren...all the sacrifices of Half-Jenovasysed humans has finally brought our Lord his complete attainment of Jenovasysis. The Jenova part of the humans we have sacrificed...the part of their blood our tongue can identify...is actually a part of their life stream. And our Lord's life stream has absorbed that part every time we killed them..."
And then he cast a firaga spell at the woman soaked in kerosene...
"LORD SEPHIROTH!" the figure bellowed as the flames ate the woman, "THY NAME SHALL BE FEARED ONCE AGAIN!!!!"
The figures laughed as the fire consumed the woman whose screams were drowned by the crashing of the waves against the rocks and the laughter of her tormentors.
*********************
It had been two hours since she had left him standing by himself. But that didn't stop him from doing what he had come to do. Gerard had finished the whole thing in an hour. His mission required him to go slow and silent but Mideel was asleep and he had no problems whatsoever doing his thing.
He walked outside Mideel and stood amongst the bodies Bahamut had taken to the grave. He realized he had left the Bahamut materia in the restroom but he gave up the idea of going back for it. Soon, an airship silently landed before him. Gerard looked around and after seeing no one was around, he boarded the airship.
Inside the airship, a large bulky figure sat at a corner, a lit cigar in its mouth. Gerard pulled out a small device with a single button and tossed it to the figure as the airship rose into the sky.
Gerard smiled wryly, "Press the trigger fast, Rupert. I am sure you want to see my explosives 'light up' Mideel in front of you..."
***********************
-------_______________________________________________________________
From the author: ok guys...sorry for such a short update...just one chap...but I'll post one tomorrow...and maybe squeeze in another one...well...I think that after chapter 29...THERES GONNA BE A LONG BREAAAAAAAAAAAAAK. Like till about December...the reason? I am going to med school : - ( ...I wont have time over there...to do all this stuff....so...please...post ur reviews so that I can take a good look at them before I leave....who knows...if you smash my face with enough reviews... I might try something stupid in med school.....(like using the library computer after class hours...)..so anyway...no matter what happens....REVIEW!!! KEEP ME ALIVE! C'MON GUYS PLEASE!! SAVE THE DOC!!!!!