I DO NOT own Square Enix, which really sucks. If someone hasn't figured it out yet, I LOVE AURON! He's the coolest character in the game…(Takes a deep breath)…Whew, I finally got that out of my system. Anyway, I would like to say thanks to Chaka for reviewing again, and here is a brand new chapter.
Chapter 7: Love and Fayth
Panama City was once a beautiful beach resort town, but now it was well on its way to becoming a wasteland. Most of the buildings were gutted by fire, and were now just empty shells. This awful truth greeted Ria, Auron, and Bob when they arrived in the city. "What in the world happened here?" The sorceress' face was full of sorrow.
A survivor, an emaciated young Hispanic woman, crept out from inside one of the burned buildings and stared at the three of them with a hopeless expression on her face. "God abandoned this city," she told them, the light of madness glinting in her eyes. "You would be wise to leave, before the Dead return."
"We are looking for the Holiday Inn," Ria responded, keeping her expression neutral, "Could you please tell us where it is?"
The woman pointed a dirty finger southward. "It's down close to the beach, but that is where the Dead first appeared, so there is nothing there, now. If you go, however, then be sure to find a place to hide by sunset or they will catch you, too."
She then turned and ran back inside the building, and the sounds of her weeping were heard from the street. Bob peered at the darkness of the doorway and said, "That lady was crazy, wasn't she?"
"Yes, she is, and I imagine that a lot of people here are the same way," Auron quietly replied. "We can't do anything for her, so we need to move on."
A few minutes later, the three of them arrived at what remained of the beach, and found that some of the buildings here had completely collapsed. A priest walked along the shore, tightly gripping his crucifix, and saying a prayer at each wreck he came upon. When Snow absolutely refused to set foot on the sand, Ria dismounted and handed the reins to Bob. "Stay here," she told him.
When the Tonberry gave her a curious look, she explained, "I don't think that man would understand that you aren't a threat, so I want you to stay here and protect the chocobos for me."
The little fiend shrugged and said, "Whatever. I'd rather not walk on that creepy beach, anyway."
The young woman jogged down to where the priest was standing and said, "Excuse me, Father, but my friends and I are kind of lost."
The priest, a man who appeared to be in his mid-fifties, gave her a grave look. "We are all lost, my child. All we can do in this time of crisis is look to Heaven for answers."
Ria sighed, "That's not what I meant, Father. I'm trying to find the Holiday Inn, but it doesn't seem to be around here and…" she stopped when she saw the shaken expression on his face.
"Child, did you know someone at the inn?" he asked her, with an odd tone that was both kindly and sad.
"Yeah, my family was staying there on vacation. Why, did something happen?"
"I'm so sorry child, but the Holiday Inn was completely destroyed a couple of days after the monsters appeared, and everyone inside died." The priest nodded at the ruin the two of them were standing before. "This is all that is left."
The sorceress's legs refused to hold her up any longer, and she dropped to her hands and knees. "I don't believe you," she whispered, "You're lying."
"I wish I was. Really, I do, but…"
"What did you say to her?" Auron stormed to where they were with fury visible in every line of his body. He grabbed the priest by the collar and lifted him off the ground. "What did you do?"
"No, Auron, don't," Ria softly said, "Its okay, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, now will you please put the priest down?"
The swordsman let him go, and the older man straightened himself out. "If you just came into town, then you don't have anywhere to hide, do you?" he asked them.
"What are we supposed to be hiding from, priest?" Auron spat out the word like a curse.
The man shook his head and sighed. "Just get your things and follow me, and you can stay with me at the church," he told them as he walked away. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Father William."
They got back on their chocobos and followed Father William, who led them to a large, dilapidated cathedral. "This is one of the few remaining safe places in the city," the priest explained as he locked the doors behind them.
"Safe from what?" Bob wanted to know.
"Egad, what is that?" William gasped, staring at the Tonberry.
"This is Bob, and I can assure you that he's quite harmless," Ria answered.
"What are we supposed to be hiding from?" the little fiend asked again.
The priest sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes as a bone-chilling wailing began outside. "We call them the Dead. I guess they're the zombies that you see in the movies, but anyway, they started showing up about the same time as all the other monsters you see everywhere else. At first, it was only a few of them, and they were wearing these weird yellow uniforms, but then their leader showed up."
"And that's when everything went from bad to worse, I take it?" Auron's expression was unreadable.
He nodded, "Exactly. Their leader is a reanimated skeleton and it carries a pair of cursed swords. Many people have tried to kill it, but they all joined the Dead when those swords cut them. They hide during the day, but we don't know where, and we're running out of places to hide, because blasted thing keeps using some kind of unholy magic that leaves a path of destruction in its wake. Fortunately, the thing's magic won't work on holy ground, so all of the churches, temples, and synagogues have been converted into shelters."
Suddenly, the haunting tones of "The Hymn of the Fayth" filled the cathedral, startling everyone into silence.
William's eyes lit up when he heard the song. "The statue is singing again," he breathed, looking rapturous.
"A singing statue?" Ria was astonished.
"Yes, some people brought it here a few days back, claiming to have found it in the ruins of the inn, and it sang up until they left, so I had thought it to be a hoax." He smiled brightly. "It turns out that I was wrong."
Bob, full of curiosity, walked alone to go see the marvel, but when Ria and Auron moved to join him, the priest cried out, "Stop."
The two of them turned around and William gave the sorceress a stony-faced look. "Young lady, we need to talk."
"About what?" she asked, backing up a step.
"I've seen enough crises in my time to know the signs of emotional shock when I see them. You need to go ahead and accept what I told you earlier."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said flatly.
"If you keep your grief bottled up, it will eat you from the inside out. Do you really want to end up a hollow shell?"
Ria backed another step away, and wrapped her arms around herself. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. "I will not cry!" she hissed between gritted teeth.
Auron stared at the priest. "What's this all about?" he asked.
"She's refusing to accept that her family is gone," William calmly replied, his eyes still on the young woman. "They, along with everyone else, were killed when the Dead destroyed the Holiday Inn."
The swordsman, full of the compassion that can only come from one who suffered a similar loss, approached his friend. He laid one hand on her quaking shoulder, and in a gentle voice that even surprised him, said, "Ria, let it go."
Finally, the young woman's tears escaped her, and a wall of grief came crashing down on her. "Oh, Auron," she wailed, "They're all gone!"
The guardian said nothing, but pulled her close and gave her a friendly shoulder to cry on. Suddenly, Bob ran back from the small room where the statue was and shouted, "Ria, Auron, Whatever-Your-Name-Is, you guys have to come see this!"
They followed the Tonberry into the room, and Ria temporarily forgot her grief as she stared at a miraculous sight. Standing in front of the opposite wall, was an enormous side-viewed statue of a young man standing next to a winged knight, but what was truly extraordinary was the spirit that stood before them. He was tall, blond, and had a pair of merry blue eyes that twinkled with mischief. "Hello, Sis," the spirit said in a voice that seemed to come from far away. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Oh, Wes, what's happened to you?" the young woman cried forlornly.
"I remember you," Auron said, "You're the one from that dream I had back in Discovery."
"Yes, I am," Wes gravely replied, "But now is not the time to discuss it. Both Earth and Spira are in terrible danger."
"What? Wes, do you know why Spira has showed up here on Earth?" Ria asked him.
"A dark force has somehow shattered the boundaries between Earth and Spira through the use of the Afterlife. I can't tell you who it is, because the chaos caused by the rift hides this person from my vision. All I know is that the one behind it is currently on Spira."
"And whoever this 'dark force' is, they're also responsible for the fiends attacking everyone," Auron said, anger adding an edge to his voice.
The boy nodded, "Yes, they are responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people, which is why I became a Fayth in order to help you."
The winged knight from the statue appeared beside him. "I give to you the Holy Knight, the aeon Alexander. I know that you aren't a summoner, Ria, but when there is great need, I will come and aid you."
Then Wes and Alexander combined and changed into a ball of white light that surrounded the young woman and vanished. Ria said nothing, but stalked toward the entrance to the church with a look of grim determination on her face. "Wait, are you suicidal or something?" William yelled. "You'll be killed if you go out there!"
He ran to stop her, but Auron said, "No, this is something that she has to do."
The young woman stepped outside, and saw the Dead for the first time. Most of the zombies wore Earth-style clothes, but some of them wore odd-looking uniforms and carried rifles. All of them, however, had skin that was dark green flecked with hideous red splotches. Standing in the middle of the milling zombie crowd, was their leader. The description that the priest had given was accurate, but did not capture the horror of the fiend. It looked like it had rotted at the bottom of a swamp, and had teeth that were filed down to sharpened points. The skeleton's tattered red cape spread out behind it like a gruesome parody of a peacock's fan, and its rusty, cursed swords glinted sinisterly in the light of the waning moon. As it slowly advanced, Ria closed her eyes and said, "Brother, aid me now. Help me avenge our family."
Suddenly, the sound of great wings could be heard as the aeon appeared. Even in that dim light, Alexander's armor gleamed like a polished mirror, and his wings shined like the full moon. The aeon unsheathed his sparkling crystal broadsword, and held it up to the young woman in salute. Ria nodded once, and Alexander turned and thrust the sword skyward, and the heavens opened up with a barrage of Holy light in answer. The beams of light ripped though the zombie hordes, and when it faded, their leader was the only one left standing. The skeleton went into a berserk rage and launched itself at the aeon, who retaliated with a mighty one-handed swing that shattered the fiend's skull. As the fallen enemy faded away. Alexander faded away, leaving Wes standing in his place. "Sister, it is done," he intoned.
"Yes," she responded wearily, "We have avenged our family. Now we have to honor their memory by stopping the one who caused all of this."
Wes nodded and vanished as Auron, Father Williams, and Bob walked out of the church. "You did it, Ria!" the priest ecstatically cried. "You got rid of the Dead!"
"Yes, but I don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry," she replied.
The next morning, Bob, Auron, and Ria got ready to leave, and found William waiting for them. "Well, what is it?" Auron asked him.
The priest smiled and said, "I just wanted to say thank you, and to go with God, my son."
The swordsman gave him a quick salute, and rode off, leaving Ria and Bob to catch up. William continued to smile as they faded into the distance, and then turned and walked back into the cathedral, fading away as he walked. "Now, my death has been avenged, too, and I can finally be at peace…" the priest sighed as he was enveloped by Light and found the way home.
A little while later, Ria reined in Snow, and Auron turned around and asked her, "What's wrong?"
She shook her head. "Nothing's wrong, I just wanted to say thank you for being there last night."
He smiled and replied, "Hey, that's what friends are for."
As they rode off toward their next destination, Bob groaned, "You humans are just one complication after another."
Yay, a new chapter is finished! This is probably the saddest (emotionally) thing I've ever written. I think I did a pretty good job on this one, but I still want your reviews. Yes, I know that Alexander wasn't in X, and I can assure you that Ria is NOT going to be able to whip him out for every little battle. Hey, she still hasn't quite gotten the hang of her magic, yet. Anyway, keep those reviews coming and see you next time.