Na: Finally got here. I never thought I'd get this far. God when I accidentally deleted four fifths of the chapter before this I nearly dropped this, I was so frustrated.
I managed to hit my 2000 word mark without any author's notes so I'm happy.
11) A hidden Message
Yuffie spoke first, "I'm not sure why, but it seems like the planet is trying to create a war."
"It does seem that way. Personally the decisions of the life stream were beyond me. I had no idea how it worked. But I did understand that the planet wanted this temple sealed off before the war began. So did the others." Chaos replied.
Vincent looked to the others and asked, "Where is this temple?"
At this Chaos laughed for a moment. "Frankly I'm surprised Avalanche never found it. It was directly under the Temple of the Ancients. Had you broken through the top layer of stone where you picked up the Black Materia, you would have been at the main entrance where myself and my men entered."
Yuffie replied, "We had no idea." She turned to Vincent. "How were we supposed to know?"
Chaos let out a heavy breath. "No one is blaming you, besides its of little consequence now. Just listen. This part is important. Vincent, I can read this language, so when the time comes you will too."
Chaos was back in Remus's office, they were toasting the past. He had just finished explaining what he learned from the high council, with the exception of course of how the beasts could permanently keep their mental capacities. After Shiva announced that the demi-gods would disappear until a 'winning party' was determined, Chaos had no doubt there would be a war. Furthermore he had no doubt that the planet had foreseen intervention from the demi gods and was merely balancing out the sides.
Remus put down his glass. Before he started refilling it he quietly said, "I'm sorry Chaos."
Chaos smiled for a moment. "Don't be. It may not affect me at all. It all depends on... how I live."
"I have no doubt you'll retain your mind. It's just that... You'll be very lonely. There won't be many beasts who will be able to."
"It doesn't matter... What will happen will happen. We can't fight the life stream on its decision. Only carry out its wishes." As he spoke Chaos's mind wandered over his options. Kill the humans and protect his race and posterity or side with the humans and allow his own race to fade into darkness. To his own surprise he caught himself wondering just how he would commit genocide in his own city at the Border areas. Chaos quickly shook the idea from his mind. He had spent 15 years building that city, with human and beast. 'The life-stream won't let this happen. A solution will present it self.'
Chaos's train of thought was interrupted by Remus. "Your man Jacks will be ready to go by this evening. I informed your men of this. They seem eager to return to their families. How did you get here so quickly anyways? Travel by ship takes at least four days."
"The greater dragon Bahamut, youngest of the three Bahamuts flew us here." He replied. "He likes to act as a postman between the greater cities. It was luck that he was there when he was. He will be flying us back as well." 'Bahamut' he thought to himself. 'With his power destroying the city as a whole would be easy. What am I thinking. I can't betray them. They are my charge.' "Let us talk of something else. How go the transcriptions?"
"Well right now we are in the sorting stage. Shiva wants us to list certain cases and how we used the circle to cure them." He quickly took another gulp from his glass. "And it seems that the transcriptions are not in the purification chamber alone. No. They will be inscribed in all the hallways and offices in this place. Why right here will be... um..." The old man picked up a folder propped against the wall. There were several all around the room, and out in the halls as well. "Right here will be, separating joint minds. Yes... In the unlucky chance some poor fool gets another fool stuck in his head, this would be the sequence on the dais they would need to separate them."
Yuffie and Vincent looked up. "Isn't that?" Yuffie started.
"Yes, that is how I intend to split us." Chaos replied.
"Then we're done here! We can get back to Vincent, finish up here, and be on our merry way!" Yuffie called out in a singsong voice. Chaos looked a bit disappointed and let out quiet sigh. Vincent's expression had not changed the entire time.
Quietly Vincent shifted his weight to his other foot and unfolded his arms. "If its possible," he began Quietly Vincent shifted his weight to his other foot and unfolded his arms. "If its possible," he began. "I would like to see the rest of this."
Chaos looked up for a second, a thoughtful smirk on his face, "Really?"
"Really."
"So we're going to be here for a while?" Yuffie chimed in.
"I'm just curious how this story ends." Vincent replied.
"Cool" was her reply. Yuffie danced in front of the frozen figures of Chaos and Remus. They were still as if paused. Waving her hands about in a mystical fashion she began to randomly chant words. "Unfreeze! … Play! … Continue!"
Chaos looked over to Vincent and nodded. Vincent nodded back. "You might wan to try abra kadabra." Chaos idly commented, and instantly the memories resumed.
The mood that existed in the room between the two old friends was suddenly broken. A servant of one of the High Counselors tapped lightly on the door and let himself in. "Ahem, Lord Chaos! The High Lord Hades requests your prescience, and your transportation back to the Border territories has been prepared."
Chaos put the glass down. "I hate to cut this short…"
"Don't worry about it. I'll send your man to the surface in a few hours. You'll be on your way in no-time."
"Thank you again old friend. Maybe you should come visit me next time. Your work here is winding down. And the Northern Territories is a great place, I'm sure you'll love it there."
"I'd love to come."
"You'll have to come before next spring if its no problem."
"I'll arrive with plenty of time. But until then, I want you to hold this for me." Remus passed him the 3/4 empty bottle of liquor. "Hold it for me, until we meet in your house, where we can finish this off. Now you'd better hurry and meet High Lord Hades. It's not good to keep men like that waiting. We'll meet again in fair time."
"Until then old friends. Keep safe."
"You too."
Bottle in hand. Chaos walked out the door following behind Hades' servant. The beast took him to the surface. A short walk from there his men were disassembling camp in a clearing. A forest surrounded the area. There was a small town to the south. But most of the temple workers lived in the temple itself. The beast was leading him to a smaller clearing a bit closer to the woods, where Bahamut was settled. In the distance he could see Bahamut settled on the ground, but he wasn't alone. Near his head was a robed figure. As the distance closed, Chaos recognized the black and red trimmed robes as Hades. Hades had not seen them yet. But Bahamut alerted him as to their presence when he saw them over Hades' shoulder. Hades broke off from Bahamut and started walking towards Chaos. When they met halfway he dismissed his attendant, and they began to speak.
Hades was blunt to begin with. "You heard what the last part of the message correct?"
"Yes. But… I'm not entirely sure what it means." Chaos wanted to make him say it, to make him admit that he had complete genocide on his mind. As if it would in some way vindicate him of his own thoughts.
"It means we have a chance!" His voice was sharp and harsh. "I'll not stand by and let our race turn to the dogs. We are better than this, and if we act quickly we can end this before it has even begun. But all the same, I'd like to know that I have you on my side."
Chaos growled in anger, hatred seethed out his teeth. "You can do whatever you want here, an on the other continents, but should you ever journey North to my city so help me I'll destroy you."
"And you could too… There are only several dozen who could, but if they faced you, you would decimate them. I have no doubt about that. That's why we need you."
Chaos turned away from him.
"Look, we have the planet's leave to do this. If this war wasn't the will of the planet, why would it have made its edict a secret?" He placed his hand on Chaos's shoulder.
"I don't see why you need my help. You'll take the humans completely by surprise if you attack them."
"In our first battle surely. But you forget, they already have a standing army. The High Council has known about the beasts turning going insane for close to three months. All across the planet are standing militias and guard stations. If they were to unite now, they still would not stand a chance. But as time goes by we slowly loose more and more beasts. We can't make a move until this temple is effectively sealed away. I won't risk angering the planet. Myself and the other High Counselors have already started forming ranks. They'll move into the shadows and stay there until the time is right. We're gathering as many beasts as we can. The Leviathan can effectively stop transportation from the sea, and Zero and Neo Bahamut can bombard the human cities. But we still need beasts like you, on the lines battling.
Chaos started to walk away. But Hades grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "You don't know your own fame. 'Chaos' they say, 'he will be the youngest beast to enter into the High Council' 'He is a fantastic fighter'." He pointed his thumb at himself. "I will be their leader, but you Tupon and Bahamut will be their champions."
Chaos shut his eyes, and he saw countless human faces. Remus was there, Jacks, Jacks's wife, his men, comrades, workers, not just Humans but beasts as well. All their lives would be ruined by this war. He saw the immigrants who decided to start new lives in the border territories, he saw the students at a school he was made to visit each year. As their leader he showed up at numerous public works to show his support. On an annual basis, he attempted to explain expansion and resource consumption to the only school in the city. For twelve years he had done that, and saw those children grow up. There was one young man who had made the journey with them, he had carried Jacks's stretcher to the Purification Chamber. Looking over his shoulder to his group of men as they were packing camp he saw him again. 'That boy was in the first group of children I met.' He thought to himself. Chaos turned around to face Hades, and was about to tell Hades to go Fuk himself, but Hades beat him to the punch.
"Please don't answer me now. Think about everything we've talked about now, then think about the people, then think about all the beasts that will suffer if we stand by and do nothing. Are you willing to sacrifice yourself as well?" Hades didn't give Chaos a chance to answer. He quickly strode off towards the Temple, stopping only once to yell back to them that he had one month to decide. Chaos could only stare after him.
Chaos just turned his back to him, and began walking towards Bahamut. Wordlessly they met, and began making their way towards the makeshift camp.
Bahamut was the first to speak. "Is what he said true? Are we all going to become like Kain?"
"That depends entirely on the individual beast." He replied.
"But we can stop it if we kill all the humans?"
Chaos let out a sigh. "I won't lie to you. Yes, if all the humans die…"
A good half-minute passed before another word was spoken. "Chaos, you know why I voluntarily deliver mail between the continents?"
"Ummm... Boredom? Self loathing? You lost a bet?" Chaos jested.
"Because mail brings people joy." Bahamut said seriously. "It doesn't matter who you are, or how your day went. When people hear their names called to pick up a long-distance letter almost everyone adopts a grin from ear to ear and get all giggly. I loved watching it, people's expressions going from a bored clam to an exited happiness. Mail call made people's days. Seeing the people happy made me happy."
Chaos stopped and turned to face him. "Mail… You are one of the most powerful beings I've ever met and you are entertained by people getting mail…"
The dragon shrugged... if it were possible. "I've never had a family. It was always my two brothers and I. Those people were like distant relatives, a surrogate family. When the people were happy I was happy. Like you and your city."
Chaos sighed once. "Then it seems we're both in trouble." Chaos let out a laugh. "I have my city, at risk. You have your mail route..." Bahamut twisted his neck to face him as they walked he had an indignant look on his face. "Which happens to include the entire planet." Chaos hastily added. The sun was falling beneath the horizon, and both creatures continued to the camp in silence.
Yuffie Chaos and Vincent had followed most of the flashback on foot, but now there was a bright flash and they found themselves flying through the air at an amazing speed. A full moon lit the scene looking forward they saw chaos crouched down, behind them were 10 small humans clinging on for their lives, and below them was Bahamut. They all took a few steps forwards. The wind and that hindered the others had no effect on them. They were presently flying over the ocean, very close to the water. Yuffie took hold of Vincent's arm for support, and then leaned over to dragon to take a look below them. She let out a large gasp and would have fallen over the side had Vincent not grabbed her. Sure enough Leviathan was directly below them. He was matching Bahamut's speed in the air underwater. Suddenly there was a ringing sound in Yuffie's ears, she looked around Vincent half picked one hand up to cover his ears, and their host Chaos was rubbing his temples. She could feel Bahamut shudder beneath them, and looked forward to see the Demon Chaos rubbing his temples as well.
Their host Chaos called out to them, "The leviathan speaks through a connection in the mind."
Yuffie was as giddy as a schoolgirl, which ironically she was when she wasn't materia hunting. "You mean I'm gonna get to talk to Leviathan?"
"Something like that." Chaos replied bluntly. "But only if you shut up."
Yuffie stopped talking and opened her mind.
A stern and steady voice flowed into her mind. It was a masculine voice steady as stone. "Greeting to you Lord Chaos and Bahamut. I've opened a channel between our three minds so we might speak in private."
"Hail High Lord Leviathan" Bahamut and Chaos's voices called out in unison.
"I'm assuming that the High Lord Hades has already taken time to speak with both of you concerning… current events?"
"That he has" Chaos replied in a detached voice.
"Might I ask your decisions?"
"We are yet to decide." Bahamut replied. "But we have heard that all the High Lords will participate on behalf of the beasts…"
"Yes that is true. None truly wants to kill the humans. Luckily I am in a position where I may not have to. I can smash their vessels while they are sill in harbor, and create great storms to scare away those who would still risk a voyage. It is for those of you who would likely be assigned to the front lines I feel sorry for. Indeed if you chose to include yourselves in this war, you two would likely be champions for whatever side you defended. There is little I can do for you but offer this little advice. "Spend this next month with your people and with your fellow beasts and decide for yourselves what it is you want to do." There was a short silence between them. "If you will excuse me, Hades has asked me to gather as many amphibious beasts as I can to me for out legions."
"Thank you for your advice High Lord Leviathan." Chaos replied.
Yuffie watched over the edge of Bahamut as the shape and contours of Levithan began to sink deeper into the ocean and then turn off into another direction.
"Leviathan" Vincent said out loud to himself.
"I can't believe I actually saw the real leviathan! Not just some shadow from a summon, but the REAL DEAL! This is great." Yuffie practically screamed out.
Vincent interjected, "You realize, that he could have been considered a shadow from another being's memory, and that you never really met him." Vincent's lips formed a thin smile, as Yuffie turned red with anger.
She quickly calmed down and staring down her nose at Vincent replied, "Well this is the next best thing then…"
Na: Dear god… Doing all this is taking so much longer than I thought. At first I just wanted to just jump into the fighting, but I find myself having to explain everything and Insert little tidbits about their conversation. I thought talking about Chaos alone would just take up like 1 chapter, but now I think it will have to go on into four or five. I'm really sorry this is taking so long.
This was all so much simpler in my head. OK hes there they talk he leaves ppl die. he dies. a seriously convoluted string of deaths follows. But putting down in words all these thoughts and images you had is your head takes so much time, and so much of the actual storyline has changed from what it originally was.
Cattibrie393: Thanks for the advice and continual support. I'm still on the look-out for the style i want to adopt. I really appreciate it.
Ezri-Candy: Meh, Kain deserved it after sending Jacks into a coma. I'm happy you liked this chapter, there are a few which are exclusive to Chaos that i hope you'll like too.
Neko-Yuff16: Thanks for the support! Keep readin!
Empress-Eerian-Sadow: Its not as much that i'm trying to build a large level of reviews, I just love hearing from yall. Makes me feel all warm and tingly to see that people like my story. Like five times a day, i end up checking to see if i got any more reviews.
Vin-the-Mazoku: Thanks for the review! CHAOS RULES!!!
Hotaru170: Thanks for the review. I always thought a fic about Chaos would be really interesting, but was severly disappointed when i never found anything. So I decided to remove the animosity between Vincent and Chaos and throw Chaos a section of his own. Keep readin and I'll keep writing.
Shadow Reaver: The fighing starts in the chapter after this, but Chaos doesn't play a fantastically large role in that. But you have to update destined souls, i wanna see what happens next in that story.
Paine Kisaragi: Thank you very much. I was grinning ear to ear when i read that.
Matta raishu!