Chapter XIV

The Revival and a Friend's Stolen Heart

Before them stood a huge wall that stretched several miles to the east and west. There was mold growing on the stone and pieces crumbled and dropped into the ocean as they watched.

"You'd think they'd keep this thing in better condition if nobody was wanted in it," Bergljot said as they docked next to a large, unstable hole in the wall.

"At least we'll have an easy time getting in," Anselm smiled.

Gwandoya tied the ship to a secure rock and climbed out. There were several islands on the other side. Unfortunately, the one they wanted was in the middle.

"The ship has a rowboat that we can use. It should only be used for emergencies, but I think this is a good time as any," he muttered as he climbed back onto the ship to retrieve it. He was back a few minutes later, slapping the boat into the water.

"Let's go," Bergljot whispered, climbing into the boat.

The men got in and, after making sure nothing was watching them, began the trip to the island. Bergljot was amazed at the kinds of life there. Because humans hadn't invaded in nearly a thousand years, the Heartless disappeared (they much preferred human hearts to animals) and many new forms of life were able to thrive. On the way, they saw a wolf with bluish fur and an evil expression on it's face, a dog that disappeared when they blinked but reappeared elsewhere the next moment, a ten foot long green worm that smelled of carrion, what Bergljot swore was a centaur, a lion made of white energy, a woman who could become part of a tree (Gwandoya called it a dryad), a hyena-like creature that stood on two legs and carried an axe and shield, a small monster resembling a half-dog and half-reptile being eaten by a snake with the head of a woman, and a humanoid tiger. Creatures with webbed feet and hands periodically popped out of the water to see them, tridents held in their hands. There were also two sphinxes on one of the islands. Bergljot didn't choose to get a good look at them, as they were apparently preparing to mate. At the island before their destination, they also found a herd of…

"Unicorns!" Anselm exclaimed. They were the most beautiful creatures any of them had seen. They had brilliant white fur. As for the foals, they had golden fur. The horns were at least two feet long on the adults, but barely stubs on the young ones. Even Gwandoya found it hard to continue rowing. After a few minutes of gazing, the team was startled by several of the underwater creatures trying to over turn the boat. They hurried on reluctantly. Night had fallen long ago, a beautiful full moon guiding them. They finally came to the island.

"Well," Bergljot began. "This is it. No matter what happens, whether Sephiroth joins us or not, the three of us leave together. We don't let anyone or anything stop us from that."

"Right," both men nodded as they reached land. They were able to dock at the old one where Sora, Kairi and Riku used to leave their boats when they left the main island where they lived.

"You have the incantation, right?" Gwandoya asked Bergljot. At her reply, he turned to the waterfall a few yards away. "Let's go."

The three of them walked over to the falls quietly, not sure what creatures lurked on this island. Luckily, they made it with no problems. Until they actually reached the cave, that is.

"Fresh water," Bergljot gasped. She bent at the pool's edge. They had run out of fresh water the day before, and she was parched. As she cupped her hands in the water, she and her fellows were shocked to see a different face peering up at them.

"What's that?" Anselm asked as they backed away.

A tiny woman rose from the water, the liquid running off in sheets. She was practically nude, save a cloth wrap around her body. Unfortunately, it was made of a thin white fabric and wet, so it didn't help much. She had long, brown hair and pointed ears like an elf. Anselm and Gwandoya were taken aback by her beauty. She glared at them. They could almost read her mind: This is my pond, and you are not to drink from it or touch it in any way.

"I think they're called nymphs. Beautiful creatures," Gwandoya gasped. No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she lunged at them. Gwandoya pulled out his shield to block the attack, but it didn't help. The nymph grabbed the shield out of his hands and took it underwater with her. "Get back here!"

"Don't go after her. It's not worth it," Anselm called as Gwandoya threw off his cloak to dive after her.

"That's the only shield I've got!" he replied. The next moment, he was gone.

================

"He's been down there awhile," Bergljot whispered half an hour later. "Do you think something happened?"

"Nah, he's fine."

As he said that, his brother popped up out of the water.

"She's coming, but weak! Try to knock her unconscious!" He climbed out of the water as the nymph grabbed at him.

"Take this!" Bergljot cried as she hit her with the blades. She was stunned, but not for long. Anselm ran in front of her.

"Thundaga!" he called. The water was electrified, making her go limp in her place. She laid across the rocks, breathing lightly.

"Let's go after the bigger game now, shall we?" Gwandoya suggested as he slipped back on his cloak and put away his shield.

"First I want to get a fresh supply of water," Bergljot said as she knelt by the pool again. After they filled their bottles and pouches, then began again.

The group walked through the cave slowly. They came to a large room at the back. There were pictures all over the walls, including the ones of Sora and Kairi. Overlooking them, the trio came to what used to be the door to the world's heart. Since it was sealed one thousand years ago, it was now only another room in the cave.

"Ready?" Bergljot asked. The three of them took deep breaths and opened the door.

"Oh my god…" Gwandoya muttered as cold air overtook them.

The room was nothing special with the exception of a glass sarcophagus in the end of the room on a candle-lit altar. The coffin was large and frosted over. Bergljot approached carefully and wiped part of it off. She gazed at his face. His eyes were closed, and his hair was silver. His collar was black and reached his mouth. Feathers covered his shoulders and part of his body.

"Sephiroth…" she trailed off. The candles in the room went out at the sound of the name. "Anselm, can you light them again?"

"Fire," he whispered. The room was bathed in light again.

"Here's the incantation. Should I start?"

"Wait," Gwandoya stopped her as he looked at the scroll. "It calls for multiple people. Hold it here so we can read the other part."

"Okay," Bergljot muttered, taking a deep, calming breath. She began to read. "Now, under this full moon, I breath life into thee."

"Estuans Interius Ira Vehementi," the men recited together as she said her part. They continued reciting the parts in unison with her.

"Regain thy great strength, calling to you are we. Sephiroth! Sephiroth!" she continued. The last bit was said by all of them. She slowly spoke louder as she went on. "Arise from thy icy tomb, unsheathe the almighty Masamune. Slay thy foes, assist us I say! Sephiroth! Sephiroth! Rise up! Use thy strength! Thou art invincible! Prepare for battle! Thy power is incredible! Stretch thy limbs, let thy silver hair flow. Flap thy onyx wing, open thine eyes of green Mako. Sephiroth! Sephiroth! Bring forth thy cetra power, tell us of how the planet aches. Come with thy Ancient knowledge, arise now for our sakes! The winged one of the lower reaches. Arise for us! Thy time has come at last! Another force has challenged thou! Forget thy troubled past! Let thy blood course through thy veins! Be prepared to do whatever it may take! Take hold of Masamune, flex thy wing of power! Now is the time to awake!"

"Sephiroth!" the three of them yelled together. "Awake! All powerful! SEPHIROTH!"

The group sat there, staring at the coffin and breathing nervously.

"Maybe we did something wrong?" Gwandoya whispered after a few minutes.

Bergljot stood and walked over to the body. The case was still frosty, even the place she had revealed. Clearing it away again, she jumped back with a startled scream. As soon as she had wiped the glass clean, his eyes snapped open and his chest began rising and falling. Anselm carefully undid the latch and slowly opened the lid. Sephiroth wasted no time. He leapt out and pushed open the lid. He shoved Anselm to the floor and approached them.

"Who has brought me back?" he asked. His voice was surprisingly soft. It was, however, in no way kind. He looked at them. "Well?"

"I did," Bergljot stared at him bravely. They sized each other up for a few minutes. He's bigger than I thought he'd be. Bergljot thought.

He was at least six feet tall, and had long silver hair. He wore a cloak similar to Gwandoya's, except Sephiroth had a higher collar and no zipper. The jacket was held in place by a belt, the buckle adorned with two wings. His outfit was made entirely of leather save the suede gloves, and the top half of his cloak revealed his chest, stomach and a small shield protecting his abs. The gloves had red fins on them. Two reddish-brown belts were crossed over his front, and a single black wing stretched out from his right shoulder. Bergljot took a glance at his sword. Sephiroth noticed and held it across his body.

"You like Masamune? Eleven and a half feet long, and only I can handle it. Now, what business do you have that requires me?"

"Please, we need your help," Gwandoya said quietly. "You remember the Heartless, right?"

"No," Sephiroth replied automatically.

"They're creatures that steal people's hearts. They and their master have risen again, and we need your help to defeat them," Anselm explained.

"Why should I? You obviously don't know that for a long time now, I have been trying to destroy the planet. Why would I want to save it?"

"Because two people have been able to defeat you temporarily," Bergljot pointed out.

"Who?" Sephiroth looked at her suspiciously.

"Cloud Strife was one. You may not remember the other, but he was my very great grandfather. His name was Sora."

"Sora! Yes, I remember the little whelp. He wielded the giant keys."

"He was fighting the Heartless, and I now wield the Keyblades," Bergljot said bravely as she drew the blades. Sephiroth smiled slyly.

"I still have no reason to join you."

"Ansem is even stronger than you are," Gwandoya called. This made Sephiroth stop. "If he's not stopped, you won't have any worlds to destroy."

"But why me?"

"You're the strongest man in all the worlds, and with you on our side, we can destroy him," Bergljot said, becoming calmer around him every moment.

"I'll make a deal with you. If you are as strong as Sora was, then you can at least make me weaken," Sephiroth began. "If you can, I will join you. If not, I will kill you all and destroy the worlds. How about it? A one-on-one match."

"No," Anselm answered for her. "She's pregnant. I won't let her fight."

"I accept," Bergljot said as she stepped forward. Anselm watched helplessly. "And no outside help for either of us at any point during the fight."

"Very well. Let's begin."

"Wind!" Bergljot called as Sephiroth walked slowly up to her. As soon as the spell was cast, he leapt at her and sliced at her stomach.

"Ha!" he called. Fortunately, the wind absorbed the cut.

Bergljot charged and sliced at him. As she did, he tried to hit her at the same time. The blades collided, causing a long standoff between them. After Bergljot's shield began to weaken, she rolled away from the man. They kept slashing at each other, never causing any blows. Bergljot kept renewing the shield as much as possible, but it still didn't help her energy. She tired quickly, but Sephiroth looked like he could go for hours. They fought vigorously for what seemed like several hours, although it was only one. Bergljot finally fell to her knees and had to use the blades to keep her from falling face first on the ground. Sephiroth stood over her, sword held as if to strike her. The whirlwind disappeared and she looked up at him.

"Go ahead. Kill me. But please, let my friends go."

The blade came down, but it was not on Bergljot. The blade landed next to her, and a hand reached down to her. Sephiroth had a somewhat kind expression on his face, looking more like he did before he found out his heritage and tried to destroy the world.

"I have never encountered anyone, especially a woman, who could fight as long and hard as you. You are indeed a formidable opponent. I will join you," he announced as Bergljot took his hand. He pulled her up and looked at her stomach. "You fought well for somebody who's supposed to be pregnant. Are you sure you are? You don't look like it."

"I'm only about two months along. I'm Bergljot. Nice to have you on our side," she smiled.

"I'm Anselm."

"I'm Gwandoya."

"Now let's go home," Bergljot said. "I hope you don't get seasick. We have about one month of sailing to complete."

The four of them walked out. The moon was on the other side of the sky, telling them that it had been at least a few hours. The nymph was gone, but they still skirted around the pool carefully.

"There's the boat," Gwandoya pointed. It was still there and in good shape, so the nymph had apparently not seen them arrive.

"We're sailing for one month in that?" Sephiroth asked.

"No, we have a ship just outside the archipelago. This is just what we used to get from the wall to the island," Bergljot explained.

"Wall?"

"You'll see," Anselm said as they climbed in the boat.

Gwandoya rowed faster than when they were going to retrieve Sephiroth. As they passed the island where they saw the unicorns, a terrible sight met their eyes instead.

"Leave them alone!" Bergljot called. A group of elves was attacking the herd. The elves had long, white hair, jet-black skin, and skin-tight clothing to match their skin. Their swords slashed through the unicorn's flesh easily. Not wanting all the unicorns to die off, Bergljot jumped off the boat and waded to the island. Her friends followed, save Gwandoya. He tried to find a place to anchor the boat before joining.

"Face my wrath!" Sephiroth cried. His sword slashed through three elves, all of which screamed in pain as they died.

"Fire!" Anselm called as several elves leapt at him. Gwandoya was chasing some away with his shield. There were surprisingly few elves, but the unicorns were still falling fast. Bergljot managed to defeat a couple of elves that were attacking a foal, but it didn't make it.

"Rest in peace, little one," she whispered. She slashed at as many elves as she could get to, not caring about the pain of their swords. The elves finally gave up and retreated after the long battle. Bergljot approached a dead adult and the little foal. "Help me get them on the boat."

"Why?" Sephiroth asked as he wiped his bloodstained sword on the grass.

"I want to use the skins for a cloak."

"Okay, if that's what you want," Anselm shrugged. It was difficult, but the group managed to get the two unicorns on board. They reached the ship with no incidences, but when they had boarded the ship and were about to leave, the wall began tumbling all at once.

"Get us out of here!" Bergljot screamed at Gwandoya when she realized what was happening.

"I'm trying! Give me a minute!"

They had barely started when the wall began dropping right next to them. As the wall crashed around and water sprayed up around them, Bergljot, Anselm and Sephiroth struggled to get to the cabins. Sephiroth slipped just as he reached it and began to fall over the edge.

"Sephiroth!" Bergljot called. She grabbed his hand, Anselm wrapped an arm around her waist, and they pulled Sephiroth into the cabins. They slammed the door shut behind them.

"Well, this has been an adventure so far," Sephiroth snapped sarcastically as he flapped his wing, trying to dry it off. "I'm going to get killed before I get a chance to help you."

"Get used to it. At least this is the last boat trip we'll need to take. We have to use a Gummi ship to get to the other worlds. That's a spaceship," Anselm replied, peeling off his shirt and wringing the water out. He looked at Bergljot, who sat on her bed sadly. "You okay?"

"I've escaped death more than I should have. Ansem could have killed me when we first met. I tried to commit suicide. I was almost killed in the battle to seal this world. The crash nearly ended my life. Seymour could have destroyed me. Angra Mainyu tried to shoot me and then slit my throat. The battle at the Farplane nearly killed all of us. I was almost killed in the battle we had," she whispered as she looked at Sephiroth. He turned away as if he was embarrassed. "I want this to end. I don't think I can survive another close call."

"We'll make it," Anselm said reassuringly as he wrapped an arm around her. The ship had stopped shaking like it was. "I think we're clear of the wall. Let's go up and talk to Gwandoya."

================

The trip seemed shorter, although it took the same amount of time as going to the islands. Bergljot was able to skin the unicorns and sew a hooded cape. It was white, but had gold trim around every opening. She made a cord for the frog to keep the garment closed. She still had a lot of fur left, so she was able to make two baby blankets: one white, one gold. Her stomach was getting larger every day. By the time they returned, she couldn't wear her skin-tight shirts anymore, as they only covered about three-quarters of her stomach. The captain didn't acknowledge the difference or the fact that they had one more passenger, but he was happy to see them with the ship intact.

"Thank ye very much. I hope ye had a nice trip."

"Actually, yes," Bergljot said quietly. "We were able to see a lot of creatures and kinds of land."

"Well, thank ye fer renting from me little service. Hope to see ye 'gain."

================

The foursome traveled to the house slowly. They didn't want to cause any suspicions or attacks with Sephiroth. They were about three miles from the house when a group of Heartless attacked. The heroes saw the creatures first, but they still stayed in the bushes. The Heartless were in a small clearing in front of them. Unfortunately, the monsters caught the scents of the people. They couldn't find them.

"What are they doing?" Bergljot whispered.

"They're waiting for a heart to make itself known," Gwandoya muttered. He nodded.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked as Gwandoya stood. The group stared at him.

"When they become busy with me, run for the house."

"Gwandoya, no," Anselm whispered as he realized what was going in.

"Why can't we just wait for them to leave?" Bergljot asked pleadingly.

"They won't leave until they have a heart," Gwandoya replied, laying a hand over his own heart. "I won't let any of you pay that price."

"No! Please, you have to stay with us!" Bergljot sobbed as she grabbed his arm. She had begun to cry.

"Bergljot. I promised to protect you," he said softly to her. He stroked her face. "I intend to fulfill that promise, even if it means my life."

"No," she whispered through her tears.

"Hey. I love you," he kissed her softly on the forehead. "Sister."

Bergljot looked up at him in shock. He smiled sadly, stood, and walked into the clearing as he drew his shield.

"You bastards killed my family!" he called, catching their attention. "If you want my sister, you have to go through me first! Come and get me!"

The Heartless charged swiftly. He was able to hold them off for several minutes, allowing the others to slide around the edge of the area. They had just reached the other side when Bergljot turned to watch him.

"Run," she whispered as Anselm and Sephiroth knelt by her. "Run to us."

Gwandoya turned to a monster next to him and destroyed it. The price was leaving his body open to attack.

"NO!" Anselm and Bergljot screamed together.

"Uh…" Gwandoya gasped, a look of shock on his face. A Heartless latched onto his chest and stuck its claws straight through his chest, his heart clasped in them. The Heartless pulled it out, dropped it, and ran away with its fellows. Gwandoya stood in shock for a few seconds, but finally fell backwards, collapsing in a heap. The three remaining members left in tears (except Sephiroth) for the house. They never saw the body disappear. They never saw the black pool form, the yellow eyes staring after them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WAH! Not Gwandoya! I'm killing off my characters one by one, and proud of it! Not really…

Okay, for those of you unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons, the creatures they saw, in order, were: Barghest, Blink Dog, Carrion Crawler, Hellcat, Gnoll, Kobald, Spirit Naga (snake eating the Kobald), Rakshasa, Sahuagin, an androsphinx (one of three kinds of male sphinxes), a gynosphinx (only female version of sphinxes), and the elves were drow elves, the evil branch of the species. All of these creature can be found in the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, Version 3.5. Also, the Estuans Interius stuff is from Sephiroth's theme song, One Winged Angel. Give it a listen! it's good. I do not own the Latin in any way, shape or form. The line that says 'the winged one of the lower reaches' is a translation of a line in one version of the song (one has Gloriosa Generosa and the other is Haryu No Hanekata, which I used) and I do not own it, but I am the author of the rest of the english for the incantation, and have no problem with anyone using it as long as you give me credit.

Is everyone happy about Sephiroth? If you've never played Final Fantasy VII, you may not understand the line that says 'before he found out his heritage and tried to destroy the world.' It's a little too long to explain here, but I might post it on the (hopefully) soon-to-exist website of Soul Vagabond and myself. I hope that all of you will visit the site after it's up, whether I take this story off here or not.

READ AND REVIEW! PLEASE! I MUST HAVE REVIEWS TO CONTINUE!