The Song of Eternity
Canto 2 : Gaia
Verse 1
Captured
Returned to what they once left,
The daughter returns home,
To find the truth about her brother,
Too late to save him.
"What just happened?" Lani looked around the grassland confused, talking to Amarant.
"Looks like we're back on Gaia," Amarant reasoned as he studied the landscape and sky. "Near Danguerro by the looks of it," he continued as he squinted at the mountain in the distance.
"Great, back home," Lani added sarcastically as Amarant began to walk towards the city. "Hey, wait up!" she shouted as she hurried to catch up to him. After walking for half an hour they came to the entrance of the city. "What the hell happened here?" Lani asked out loud as she noticed the changes in the city.
"This is new to me too," Amarant frowned as he stared up at the huge metal gates. "It's like a fortress," he muttered as he walked up to the closed gate and shouted. "Open up!"
There was a sound from within the city gates and they opened a crack to admit the visitors. As they entered the city, they were stopped by half a dozen guards. "Who are you and what business do you have here?" the leader asked them.
Amarant frowned as he spoke to the guards. "Amarant Coral. I want to see Shinji," he finished as some of the guards whispered to each other.
"Lani Shinji. I guess I'm here to see my father," she frowned as she looked at Amarant.
The guards looked at them for a second then conversed among themselves. Finally, the leader spoke to Amarant and Lani. "You look like them, but you disappeared six years ago. We are going to get Mayor Shinji, he will be able to tell if you are who you say you are." The guards then took their swords and kept them ready in case Amarant and Lani tried anything.
"Take it easy boys, you wouldn't want to hurt yourselves," Amarant chuckled at the guards. He sighed and rested his back against wall of a nearby building. "Better get comfortable, probably gonna take his a couple minutes," Amarant suggested to Lani.
"I know how long it will take him," Lani said angrily, then sat down on the ground. "What happened here anyway? Why is my dad the mayor?" She looked to Amarant for an answer. Amarant just looked off into space and shrugged. A couple of minutes passed, so Lani stood up to stretch. "What were you talking about on Parm, something about my brother-in-law? I don't even have a brother-in-law."
"I was just guessing about that. Your dad should b able to confirm it. Here he comes," Amarant pointed as an older man stopped to talk to the guards. The guards all saluted and went on their way as the man came over to talk to them. He was about five and a half feet tell with grey hair. "Hello again Ikari," Amarant greeted the man.
"Ummmm, hi dad…" Lani said uncomfortably.
Amarant and Lani suddenly found themselves being hugged by the old man. He wiped the tears from his eyes as he let them go and motioned for them to follow him. "It's good to see you two again," he commented as he led them into the city. "Even you Lani, it's been over a decade," he continued as he opened the door to a house and motioned them in. He took a seat by the fire as Lani spoke.
"You kept the old house after mom died?" She asked her father as she looked around the house.
"Help yourselves if you are hungry, we might be here a while," he gestured to Lani in the direction of the kitchen.
"Talk first, food later," Amarant overrode him. "Sit down Lani," he ordered as an angry Lani came in to the room and took a seat. "What has happened here? The city looks like a fortress."
"That'll happen when you're in a war. I'll explain, but where have you been?" he asked as he threw another log on the fire.
"Simply put, we got stuck on another world with some others from here. There were about half a dozen of us," Amarant explained. "We got back just now, we don't even know if any of the others made it." Amarant paused, then continued speaking. "Where is Starmore? I think it was him, but he had lost his memory, so there was no way to tell," Amarant finished and noted the surprised look on Toma Shinji's face.
"That's very strange…. I guess it might be possible. It might be good that he doesn't remember anything anyway," Shinji said thoughtfully.
Lani sat there with a blank look on her face. "Ummm, anyone want to explain what is so special about the guy with the metal arm?" She questioned both of them, noticing her father's face twist into concern.
"Metal arm?" He said out loud.
"Yeah, no idea where it came from. It has some stuff written on it too," Amarant explained. "I'll tell you everything I know about him," Amarant said as Toma nodded in agreement. "The man with the metal arm is called Travis Starmore on this world. He showed up here in Danguerro a year before I disappeared. I found him and his brother out on the plateau fighting grand dragons. They found a pair of swords on some people who didn't fare to well against the dragons and were holding their own. I was about to help them when they hit trance, so I stood back to watch. His brother's trance hit first. This red glow covered both of them. A dragon hit them before they could move, but they got up from it like nothing happened. When they attacked the dragon, they were moving incredibly fast and started ripping through the dragons like it was no big thing. Then things got really weird when Travis used his trance. His body turned all black, then white lights erupted from his skin, ripping right through all the dragons near them. When the dragons were dead and the trances wore off, I went to go check on them. His brother, Nathan, was no worse for wear, but Travis was a bloody mess. They weren't wounds from dragons either, it looked like his trance had taken out hundreds of small chunks of his flesh."
Amarant took a deep breath, then continued. "Nathan and I talked as we carried him to the city. He explained that they came from a world called Earth and that a wormhole had opened up and brought them here. Besides that, he had no idea about the trances that he and his brother had used," Amarant stopped and watched the fire for a few seconds. "So I brought them here, your father owed me one. He was up on his feet again in a couple days, he has a really good regeneration system. I left them here and went to Lindbulm and Alexandria for a couple months."
"While he was gone, the boys stayed here with me," Toma continued. "After a week or so I heard them having a big fight, but couldn't make out the words. This was just when the monster attacks were starting to get really bad. One day the scout patrols came back with disturbing news, there were grand dragons headed here, far too many for us to stop. They arrived near twilight, the time of the day when it isn't quite night, but it definitely isn't daytime. I was in the city, manning a crossbow to shoot them when they got close enough. When they were a hundred feet from the town they stopped. A huge fire started in front of the dragons, not hurting them, but illuminating them and two figures in front of them. I could only see from a distance, but the two figures dispatched the dragons quickly, using a mixture of steel and magic before disappearing."
"The next day Travis and Nathan moved out, they rented another place, but still came over to see me and repair their weapons in the forge," he gestured towards the basement. "It went on like that for a while, monsters showing up, and the two guardian angels fighting them off and disappearing. Finally Amarant came back to town a month before he disappeared," he gestured for Amarant to continue.
"I'd been going around helping people with their defenses at Zidane's request. We had no idea where the monsters were coming from. Sorry if I'm repeating things, but I have no idea when you left Gaia," he directed the comment at Lani. She shook he head and motioned for him to continue. "Anyway, I showed up here and saw the 'guardian angels' fight and knew the style and recognized and energy blast as belonging to the Starmores. I went and talked to them the next day. Nathan answered the door and let me in. Travis was laying on the couch all bandaged up, like when I first helped him. That confirmed what I thought so I told them I knew and they asked me to keep it a secret. They told me they had it covered here, that they could handle the monsters. And that's really the last thing that happened before I went to Parm," he finished.
"Not long after you left, things got weird," Toma continued the tale. "The monster attacks stopped and everything was calm for a while. Then a gigantic floating city appeared in the ocean. Everyone tried to get near it, but it would disappear or fire warning shots if people got too close. By this time Nathan wanted to move to Lindbulm, so he and Travis asked me to watch over their house while Travis helped him move. I asked Travis to pick up your sister Fiona and escort her home after he was done," he explained to Lani. "The trip out was uneventful, Nathan got settled in, Travis found Fiona, and they set out. A couple days into their trip back, we were attacked," he stopped for a second, remembering the day.
"Who was attacked?" Amarant asked him.
"Everyone," he responded. "The city, according to my knowledge and what I was told, was the failsafe for Terra. It was stored in between worlds so it escaped when Kuja destroyed Terra. It is full of genomes and has the technology to implant the consciousnesses of the Terrans into their bodies. And it had the WEAPONs. Alpha, Shadow, Sandbeast, Cloudchaser, 3 minor ones, and the one that was destroyed before it was given a name. 8 huge mechanical monsters, implanted with the minds of the greatest warriors of the Terran race and the sole purpose of enslaving us."
"Anyway, the cities were attacked by WEAPONs when Travis and Fiona were on their way back here. They only sent one to each of the cities, Alpha to Lindbulm, Sandbeast to Alexandria, Cloudchaser to Burmecia, Shadow to the Black Mage Village, and the other one we assume was headed here. It was rough, but all the cities survived and drove off the WEAPONs with help from the mages, Queen Garnet, Nathan, and others. The one that was headed here was ripping up the countryside and came across Travis and Fiona on the way back and decided to try to kill them."
"Fiona told me about it when she got back, so this is as good as I can describe it. Travis saw the WEAPON coming and had her get out of the way when the WEAPON landed. Once it had landed Travis had his sword out and was charging. She said he kept fighting the WEAPON, holding his own for about ten minutes before the WEAPON knocked him back near her and he could barely get up. She tried to help him, but he told her to stay back. She was up close when he unleashed his 'Starlight Blast'. She said his body got all black, like space itself. Then thousand of small pinpoints of light streaked out from his body and blasted into the WEAPON, eventually killing it."
"He was a mess afterwards," Toma continued. "She found a chocobo and got him here by riding two days straight. He was caked in his own blood, but his wounds were all closed. She said he made her stop after a couple hours when he had woken up. He made her turn away as he heated his dagger over a fire and used it to cauterize the wounds. It wasn't pretty, but it kept him alive until she got him here. He slept here for a nearly a week before getting up. She and I kept watch over him for all the time he was here. When he woke up he went back to his place and we didn't see him for a bit."
"There was no sign of him for two weeks, he didn't come out and he didn't answer the door. There was another monster attack, it seems that the Terrans were controlling them. Anyway, the Alpha WEAPON was with them this time," Toma's voice cracked when he said Alpha. "Travis battled the WEAPON while killing as many monsters as he could at the same time. Eventually the WEAPON saw what he was doing and ordered the monsters to fall back. They both eyed each other up for a while, then they started to battle. Travis held his own for a while, then unleashed another Starlight blast, wounding the WEAPON, making it retreat. He stumbled back to the city, bloody and battered, but alive. We took him under our care again, treating his wounds and the poison that was introduced into his system during the battle."
"The WEAPONs and monsters kept attacking us for the next two months. No help arrived. Travis had to fight them off himself. Barely able to walk most of the time, his wounds never healed until a dozen black mages and genomes arrived to aid us. We had to carry him out to the battlefield some of the time. Most of the time when he wasn't fighting he was unconscious, or trying to stay awake, lest he would die," Toma wiped a tear from his eye as he thought of the events.
"It turns out Nathan hooked up with Zidane and the others. The mages and genomes had scattered across the continents to help defend the cities with their magic. Nathan came to see him a little later. Travis told his he would help if they truly needed it, but he was needed in Danguerro most of the time. They parted on good terms and the skirmishes with the WEAPONs and monster slowed down, but went on for another year."
"Can you get me a glass of water?" He coughed to Lani. She nodded and got up to get the glass. When she returned, Toma took the glass and drank it down. "Where was I? Oh, yes. Travis protected the city for the next year and a half, until he left. Before he left, he and Fiona grew close, got married and had a baby boy. Fiona was really the only one he felt comfortable with. He was very uneasy about his powers. Things started to heat up again, and Nathan sent word that most of the WEAPONs were gathering to attack Alexandria. Travis knew he was needed so he left to join the battle. That was the last I saw of him, but I can tell you what I heard from others. All but the three minor WEAPONs were there along with their monster army. There were heavy casualties on each side. Shadow and Cloudchaser were the only ones that survived. But we had losses too. Fratley, Zidane, and Steiner were all lost in the battle. Travis battled Alpha the entire time in the sky. From what I heard, he unleashed a Starlight Blast, then attacked again, causing a black energy explosion in the sky which vaporized the pair of them."
"Where's Fiona and the kid? Can't I see my nephew?" Lani asked before her father burst into tears. "Are you okay dad?" She asked him as she gave him a hug.
"I'll be fine," he said as he cleared his throat. "When Travis was gone, the three minor WEAPONs attacked here. They were weaker than normal WEAPONs, but we never stood a chance. They came here looking to occupy Travis while the battle started. When he wasn't here, they attacked the city. Fiona tried to stop them, Travis had taught her some magic, but it was no use. They killed her and the baby."
"That's horrible," Lani said shocked as she sat down in her chair. "Where are the WEAPONs now?"
"Probably at the city."
"Stay put Lani," Amarant commanded as he grabbed her shoulder and held her in her chair. "We'll get our revenge, but we are going to need help. Travis should have came back when we did. He was on the other world, I knew it for sure when he recognized Lani last name."
"You mean Deke's my brother-in-law?"
"Yes, we need to contact whoever else is left to resist Terra. Can you help?" Amarant asked Toma.
"Sure, that was three years ago when we lost the battle, but Nathan and some others have gone underground since then, using guerrilla tactics. Head to the Treno auction house. But first follow me. These are the last things Travis worked on before he left, I just finished them," he ordered as he headed to the basement.
"I want those WEAPONs Amarant," Lani said as she followed her father.
"We'll get them. But we need to find Starmore," Amarant assured her as they went into the basement.
Deke fell to the ground and hit hard. "Ouch," he grunted as he pulled himself to his feet. The last thing he knew he was fighting ogres back on Parm, and now he was in a huge metallic city. "What in the hell?" He looked around and sheathed his sword, not wanting to alarm whoever lived here. "Anybody home!" He shouted, hoping for an answer, but then instantly sorry that he got one. He looked up and saw an enormous metal monster turn the corner and look down on him. "Ummm, I come in peace?"
"Scanning target," a voice came from the metal monster. "Target recognized, designate Travis Starmore, considered extremely dangerous. Deploy city defense system."
"City defense system?" Deke said out loud before a dozen energy beam popped out of the ground and buildings and blasted him into unconsciousness.