Licking his cracking lips with a suddenly all too dry tongue, Cloud crouched behind an outcropping, Rekkui left a short ways back, out of sight. Monsters milled around in small groups, perhaps 'tribes' was a better word, as there were several groups with distinct colors painted on their vaguely humanoid bodies. What were they? They weren't anything Cloud recognized. Perhaps they were from Earth or something, though Katy had never said they had monsters there.
Heart pounding in his chest, his coat suddenly feeling heavy, his chest plate and shoulder guard straps irritating him. Buster Sword felt like a metric ton on his back. Flexing his fingers, Cloud remained where he was, observing, not out of any need to do so, but because he couldn't get up. A jingle behind him brought him out of his fear-focused haze. Turning his head, he met Rekkui's eyes where the bird crouched low to the ground, brilliant blue eyes full of intelligence. Catching his breath, Cloud closed his mouth and finally gave a nod of understanding. They would get through this.
Sliding back from his position, he crept across the ground, rejoining Rekkui and his commanders. "They're distracted with infighting at the moment, but not all out battle. More like squabbles. There's something keeping them in line."
"We could do something to make them start fighting among each other for a bit?" suggested one man.
Cloud shook his head, "We'll stick to the plan as it was. We've got no way to tell the others on the other side of the change." The man nodded. Taking a breath, Cloud tried out those words of command once more, putting more confidence behind them, "Move out," he slipped back and remounted Rekkui.
Easily, the bird stood, lifting Cloud high- and into full sight of the enemy. Unclipping Buster Sword, he raised it high, letting light glitter off its edge. "Hyah!" he shouted and led the charge into the mob. The monsters scattered in fear at first, but quickly found their courage, turning back to engage Cloud's half of the forces. With a shout, the other have burst from their place, flanking the abominations of Jenova, quickly dividing the forces.
Feeling as if he were flying now, Cloud slashed at enemies as they came towards him. Rekkui darted and shifted beneath him, but never lost his rider, the show looking like it took an incredible amount of talent in both riding and fighting and training the bird, but Cloud had done nothing like this before except behind Sephiroth when they went to save Zack.
Monsters surged around him, a colorful mob, which, Cloud realized with a start, was getting bigger- reinforcements surging out of the grasslands on the side that they'd avoided coming in. "Regroup!" Cloud shouted to his men who were somewhat scattered now. "REGROUP!" he shouted again over the noise, but before he could repeat, one of the larger marsupial-ish monsters slammed into Rekkui's side.
Landing hard on the ground, Cloud tucked his arms in close, letting go of his sword as Rekkui rolled over him, knocking his breath out. Dazed, he lay there a moment and though the enemy hadn't stopped, some sort of stillness fell upon his men.
No! don't stop! Cloud gasped in his mind and finally found the wits to get up. Already creatures were running towards him.
Weaponless- Cloud nearly cursed, but rolled his fingers into fists, clinging to the moment with tooth and nail. If he had to die, he'd do it fighting any way he had.
As the first creature came near, he ducked its long reach, coming up beneath with a strong uppercut and swing to the side with his elbow into its midsection. A wash of rancid breath fell over him and the creature staggered back a step as Cloud gave a shout as he kicked hard, sending the monster back into it's fellows. Sparing a moment to wipe blood from his forehead, Cloud bounced on his toes, hands held tight, near his jaw, chest covered by his arms.
A pair of monsters came towards him, moving in a pincer attack. Cloud lashed out at one with his foot, spun around, darted to the side and attacked in a flurry of punches. From behind, a third creature grabbed his hair, pulling back hard and desperately, Cloud reached up to take hold of something near the monster's shoulder, taking handfuls of hair in return. After kicking the monster ahead of him one last time, he set his feet, pulling hard and yanking the creature off balance and over his hip. At last, the hammy hand let go of his hair and Cloud viciously stomped the creature's face.
Feeling something behind him, Cloud jerked around and breathed again when he recognized the man as one of his commanders. He was busy defending himself- and losing- having not realized that he'd nearly backed right into Cloud. Moving swiftly, Cloud swung around to flank the creature, sending a hard kick at its gnarled hairy knee. As the thing went down, the commander's sword sliced the air and bit deeply into the creature's head.
Light glittered off something in the dust- a monster came towards him, slapping Cloud firmly in the chest with its claws. Thrown back a few feet, Cloud rolled to his feet immediately, but remained in a low crouch as the creature, not understanding its danger, came steaming onwards towards its doom. Surging forward and up, Cloud slammed his shoulder into its stomach, lifting the slightly shorter than man-sized creature off its feet and heaved it into a patch of monsters bearing down on one of his other men.
Stumbling, Cloud fell into a kneel, eyes lighting upon the glitter in the dirt, recognizing the shape of Buster Sword. Scrambling forward, he reached for it. A shadow loomed up behind him, but before he could even turn to face it, something else darted out of nowhere, slamming into the shadow. Blood splattered across the dirt near his hand and Cloud grabbed his sword, surging to his feet again, turning to meet Rekkui's intelligent blue eyes.
Grinning, he took hold of the bird's saddle and surged up into it as he sped past. Remounted, Cloud now had a better view of the battle, which seemed to have changed since their initial outnumbering of the enemy forces. At the sight of him remounted, his troops gave a fierce shout and in a wave of courage and strength, they pushed back on the tide of enemies, regrouping around Cloud.
Wrapping his legs around Rekkui's chest rather than setting them in the stirrups, Cloud continued swinging, his arm getting tired, but the trail of decapitations and severely wounded he left in his trail kept him going. Rekkui too, was fighting, pecking and clawing, kicking and screaming at monsters that reached for him and his rider. None of the other Chocobos were present and more than a few yellow bodies littered the ground among the other dead.
Rekkui turning in a circle all on his own direction, Cloud slashed at creatures that got in his sword's reach, stabbing with savage fury as one actually got hold of Rekkui's wing, neither hands were on the reins now. How could he possibly explain this to anyone? He wasn't directing Rekkui, but the bird seemed to know what he wanted to kill next and they worked in a harmonious and glorious whole.
Swinging his blade down and firmly into the skull of a monster, Cloud pulled hard, finding his blade stuck firmly. Panic nearly took him, but it dawned on him that Rekkui had stopped moving, panting heavily from exertion, but no longer fighting. Looking around, Cloud blinked a few times, pain finally making itself known in his body.
Shifting, Rekkui brought up a foot and scratched at the body dangling against his side and Cloud took better hold of his sword and with his mounts help, he freed his weapon. Looking around, Cloud found his men watching expectantly, and even Rekkui turned his head to look back at his rider. Finding the energy to straighten in his saddle, he lifted Buster Sword high and gave a shout of victory, which though it was tired to his ears, the matching call his men gave was exhilarating. He tried it again, Rekkui even finding the energy to lift his head and give a wark as well, flapping his wings.
"You know, I hadn't even thought about it, but I'm going to have to go back in there. After what I did to those people..." Sephiroth sounded calm, words thought out and deliberate, but Katy's eyes saw through his mask and pierced his defenses, going straight to the core of fear he tried to hide deep in his chest.
Her lips pursed slightly from their habitual frown, her eyes informing him that she was trying to think of something to say to make him feel better. But he didn't want words. Nudging his bird closer to hers, he reached out to take her hand as they paced slowly towards the small, rebuilt town of Nibelheim, the SCYTHE Chocobo armor jingling in the silence of the late afternoon.
At last, she spoke, "I'm sure it'll be alright," she replied, "They lied for you, after all."
"Me? Or you?" he asked in return. Katy frowned slightly once more but squeezed his hand. She said nothing else, apparently not liking the conversation enough to continue it. That was fine with him, he wasn't sure why he'd spoken at all, except he'd wanted her to know what he was thinking. She'd been rather quiet on this half of the journey. She still seemed excited about her engagement and he found her playing with or admiring her ring with a smile, but she had no one new to tell the story to, so she hadn't repeated it.
As evening drew nearer, they got to the gates of Nibelheim. Once again, Sephiroth was left wondering why he didn't stay with Cloud and help in the battles to save townspeople from the monsters, or maybe he could have gone with Curt and his group. Anywhere but here!
The town was strangely quiet, windows boarded up, but sounds from within the houses whispered of life. "There's scratches on the walls," Zack noted, looking up, "Think this place is overrun too?"
Katy looked around nervously, her hand clinging a bit too tightly to Sephiroth's and he pried himself from her grip and nudged his bird ahead to scout further, as did Zack. Katy changed her grip to her reins instead as Aerith came up beside her. "I'll get to meet Tifa, this time," she said cheerfully.
"How can you..." Katy started, then shut her mouth and shook her head. That was Aerith, always thinking in strange upbeat ways, but undeniably, she was aware of the danger, her staff settled across the front of her saddle. Taking a breath, Katy kept her own hands away from her guns, for fear of getting startled and shooting someone innocent.
After a moment, Zack and Sephiroth returned. "Nothing in town," the dark haired one stated. "But in Gongaga, they only attacked at night," turning his head, he looked towards the west and stated the obvious, "and it's nearly sunset."
Sephiroth nodded slightly, "I'm given to think that's what's going on here. They couldn't possibly think that hiding in their homes from ME would really work." Pondering a second more, he added, "Besides, it was strangely quiet all along the way. Looks like we're in for a rough night."
Katy looked decidedly ill, and in a rather off topic statement, pointed out, "I seem to have spent an extraordinary amount of time on this world puking my guts out."
Flashing a grin at her, Sephiroth replied, "At least a few months of it you can blame on me."
She eyed him, then nodded, "Fine, I blame you. It's all your fault. Tomorrow it will be Zack's fault."
"Aww, it was my fault yesterday," Zack complained, having been informed that Katy was blaming him for the day and that the next day it would be someone else's fault that it was his fault that day.
Blinking, Katy looked at him. "Oh yeah. In that case, it'll be my fault tomorrow. How's that?" Aerith laughed, simply finding everything amusing at the moment.
Sephiroth shifted in his saddle, "In that case, since it's my fault, I'd better make sure I don't have serious incidents blamed on me."
Thinking on that briefly, Katy nodded, "Yah, you do that." He and Zack moved off to start work on finding a place to defend the town from. Once again, she was left alone with Aerith.
Aerith hmmed softly, hand absently petting her bird, "You know, Joulia seems rather intelligent for a Chocobo." She paused, "Like she really does understand what's going on and does anything I ask."
Pursing her lips, Katy gave a slight nod. "Yeah, Bel does the same. Almost like a set of books I read with these horses that had the souls of humans, but they were sent by the gods to the people bonded to them. They were called Companions." She looked down speculatively at the back of Beltoren's head, "Except the horses could talk." Beltoren muttered a wark.
Giving a smile, Aerith shook her head, "I'd like to see a horse. They sound pretty."
Katy nodded, "They are. Very beautiful."
At last, Zack returned, still mounted, "We've got your post set up, Katy," he told her, flashing a smile at Aerith. Without being told, Beltoren padded forward, moving to follow after Zack's bird, Dante.
Her post was apparently someone's porch, which she rode Beltoren up onto before dismounting to give the bird a rest and to stretch her legs a bit, shaking out the wrinkles in her pants and stiff muscles. Katy even went so far as to swing one leg up onto the railing and stretch out over it, then change. She watched as the others made ready in the square around the well and Katy moved aside, sending Beltoren down to join them. He was a better fighter than she, certainly.
Leaning against the railing, arms folded on it, she pursed her lips, eyes gazing at Sephiroth though she wasn't really seeing him. Suddenly, she yawned, raising a hand to cover her mouth at least, but blinked sleepily as the last rays of the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. And SHE had the best view of it, haha! "Hey Seph!" she shouted down to him. Immediately, he looked up, shook his head slightly in amusement as she waved at him cheerfully. "You owe me a backrub!" she told him.
"Why?" he asked blandly, "What've I not done?"
Shrugging, she laughed, "Nothing, it's because I blamed you today."
Pondering this a moment, he scratched the back of his neck, "Ah, alright." He just didn't understand her sometimes. Things done on a whim made no sense to him, but she seemed to enjoy confusing him- dragging him down into the world she lived in- one of never really knowing what was going on around her until it intruded on the little world in her head. He loved her, certainly, but she had her flaws. So did he, for that matter. He still hadn't figured out how to be as expressive as she was. He still scared little children just by looking at them.
Turning his attention back to the current situation, he closed his eyes, trying to think of his current scenery as just another battlefield. As darkness descended into a deeper hue, turning from purple to black the moon having not risen yet, a howl went up from the mountains.
"You know, it's rather strange that they would only attack at night..." Zack commented as the howling screams drew closer. He was really starting to hate these things. They were demented, twisted creatures, even compared to his world's usual fauna. They simply weren't natural, screaming like ravenous undead. Such tortured souls...
He shivered.
Sephiroth, his eyes still closed, blandly answered the rhetorical comment, "Why bother attacking in the day? It's a fear tactic. The less you see of the enemy, the more frightening they are. These people aren't getting any sleep, they're not able to get more food into town, too afraid and tired and hungry to run. I'm betting they weren't expecting you to make a run for it with twenty women, which would explain why you got so far."
Aerith spoke for the first time in several minutes. "The question is: why bother with fear tactics? They could attack during the day and kill them all. What's the purpose of having them stuck in this siege. It only ties Jenova's troops up in little towns."
"At first, perhaps," Sephiroth replied, finally opening his eyes, his sight having adjusted to Mako sight. Aerith glowed like a bonfire; Katy could probably have been seen from space.
The first of the creatures came scuttling into town, breaking off the conversation. They slipped between houses, scratching on the walls and rattling the shutters over windows with their bloody hands. Upon sighting the group that dared to stand against them, they began their horrible screams. "Ice!" Katy shouted, getting the first word in on the battle.
Sephiroth didn't even have to nudge his mount for the large gold female to spring forward, exactly the direction he'd wanted to go. Swinging Masamune down and around, he neatly sliced two monster heads in half, just above the nostrils.
Even Katy was exhausted, though that was mostly because she'd been up a full twenty-four hours or more. The sun had risen at last, the monsters driven from the town- except those too wounded to get away. Sephiroth and Zack were moving about, taking care of them. Feet hanging between the rungs of the railing on the porch, Katy leaned her forehead against the wrought iron bar, shivering slightly from fatigue.
Lifting one of her hands, she scratched the back of her neck, noticing that she hadn't had any zits or hives since coming to this world. "Maybe it was the food," she muttered, her mother being known to be allergic to MSG, eggs, chicken, and god knew what else. Her sister Samantha was allergic to eggs and chicken too, and Katy had begun to suspect she was as well, which made getting dinner a rather tiresome event.
She sighed, then hiccupped a small burp, adding a yawn to the end. A hand came down to rest on her shoulder and the smell of Sephiroth washed over her. Somehow managing to pull her legs out from where she'd stuffed them, she allowed him to help her to her feet, and on third thought, picked her up bridal style, carrying her down the steps to the ground. "We need to do something about this," he stated as he came up to Beltoren, hoisting Katy up to sit sidesaddle on the bird's back. His expression was rather serious, she blinked herself awake and looked at him, realizing that Aerith and Zack were nearby. "We need to find Vincent, but can't if there's that many monsters around. Katy, could you search through the planet for him?"
After a moment to translate what he said into something her tired mind could understand, she nodded, "But if I close my eyes, I'll fall asleep."
Sephiroth sighed, looking towards Zack and Aerith. Zack rubbed his stubble-covered jaw with both hands, "Yeah, and my guess is that they're not going to stop attacking till we're dead. We put up a fight and drove them off, but they'll probably bring more troops next time. In a few days we'll drop."
Chewing on the inside of his cheek, Sephiroth stared at Katy's knee, but didn't actually see it. "One would normally seek to dispirit idiotic troops by killing their leader," he stated.
"Yeah, but we'd need energy to do that," Zack pointed out a bit sourly. "Maybe that's what their plan is?"
Aerith shook her head, finally having rested enough to give the effort of doing so. "Why bother?" she asked, getting Zack's confused quirk of a brow. "Why bother pinning people down?" she clarified, voice hoarse from shouting spells. They were all too tired to realize that they were repeating the same conversation from the night before.
Katy could feel that there was some answer in the back of her mind, but she couldn't tell what it was. But if she didn't say it now, she'd probably forget it. In desperation, she started muttering to herself, "'slike they're feeding offa people's fear, like Mazoku, but that's not on this world, that's in the Slayers world, and they're not here, are they? I don't know, I haven't seen Lina Inverse anywhere."
Beltoren gave a soft wark and shifted beneath Katy, managing to fix her balance before she tumbled off the other side of his saddle. Sephiroth looked up at Katy, "What was that?" he asked, "You're speaking English again," he pointed out in irritation- then scrambled to catch her as she finally passed out.
"In any case," Sephiroth added after he just gave up trying to balance her on Beltoren's back and held her. "You guys need rest. I'll scout the area."
After a moment of thought, Zack nodded, "Be careful," he gave Sephiroth a meaningful look.
Glancing away, Sephiroth muttered, "Yes, I know. I won't do that to her again." He shifted her in his arms, pushing her a bit further up over his shoulder. Katy gave a groan, hand clutching some of his hair. She mumbled in English a bit more.
Turning away, Zack moved towards Cloud's house, having been told by his mother that next time he was in town, he could stay there. He fully intended to take her up on that one as they currently didn't have any money. Politely knocking on the door, he waited a moment, then knocked again. At last, the door crept open a fraction of an inch, an eye peered out.
"Good morning Ms. Strife," he said to her, "Ah, you offered a place to stay next time I was in town, you mind if my friends come in and get some rest as well?"
The door opened more fully and the nearly forty-year old woman stared at him in shock. "Zack!" she breathed, then her eyes moved past him. She turned pale, taking a step back. Sephiroth looked away with a sigh and mutter.
On his shoulder, Katy gave a sudden jerk and shriek, "Spiders!" She kicked his knee hard enough to leave a bruise. "Seph- put me down," she whined. Looking over his shoulders at her, Sephiroth set her feet on the ground, watching as she stepped back and nearly tripped over her own heel. Reaching out, he caught her shoulders, turned her towards Zack and Ms. Strife who was still staring.
"Here, just go in here, go to sleep," he told her, "There aren't any spiders, Zack will kill them for you if there are. Won't you Zack?" Zack nodded tiredly, "Right, see?" Katy muttered to herself, tripped and fell against Zack who hastily caught her. "I'll be around," he muttered darkly and headed towards his bird, which, if he'd named it, he hadn't said anything. Mounting the tired Chocobo, he turned her to head out of town.
Katy was getting heavier by the moment and Zack wasn't in much of a shape to stay on his own feet. "Ah, Ms. Strife?" he asked, drawing her attention again. Aerith stumbled up at last, leaning against the wall.
Taking a breath, the older woman stepped back, gesturing for them to enter. "But Sephiroth is dead!" she whispered, "That bastard is dead!"
"Hey-" Katy snapped, seeming to wake up fully, "Don't call my lover a bastard. It wasn't his fault. Too much mimimimimi mimimi..." she degraded into English once more and Zack dumped her on the bed in the main room, Aerith falling on it beside the other girl. Zack only just managed to remove his sword before flopping on the floor and slumping to his side, falling asleep just like that.
She woke at noon and with only a scant few hours of sleep, she felt rather irritable. Katy ate breakfast/lunch like it was some flashback from her summer life on Earth. The thought made her suddenly overwhelmingly homesick and pushing the bowl of cereal aside, she put her head on her arms on the table and burst into tears. Her nerves were too worn out to resist the urge, even though she felt uncomfortable with the stares she was receiving. Aerith tried to console her, but didn't know what was wrong and could do nothing.
Sitting up again, Katy waved her off, "I'm- okay," she hiccupped, "Just- lemme alone," getting to her feet, she made her way outside, wiping her face with her hand as she went, sniffling. In the yard around the well there were still some monster bodies, but they were the ones she'd frozen and the townsmen left were trying to cart the things off whole instead of bothering to melt them first.
Her exit from Ms. Strife's house drew immediate attention and the cheer that went up was so shocking that it knocked her back into the door she'd just closed. Swallowing a hard lump in her throat, Katy turned and ran from them, heading towards the path leading to the mountains, but stopped at the foot of it, panting and dropped to her knees there. She dearly hoped they wouldn't follow, she needed a breath of space, feeling like people had been rubbing on her personal space for too long.
Shivering, Katy stared at her hands, finally stopping her tears though her nose was still running. She wanted a hug, but not from anyone on this world. It was a rather frustrating feeling to want something so badly and be completely unable to get it. Her parents probably thought she was dead by now. Seven or so months had passed since that day she drove off the road into Wutai.
A new set of sobs shook her body.
"Hey," Sephiroth's gentle voice murmured as he crouched in front of her, lifting her chin, bare hands wiping away her tears. "What's this?" he asked, expression blank, though she could see care in his eyes.
She threw herself into his arms, stuffing her face against his neck. The force of it sent him off balance and onto his ass. She sniffled into his shirt, "I miss my parents! I really, really miss them!" she sobbed, unable to really articulate.
Settling his arms around her, he held her, rubbing her back gently, "I'll take you home then," he promised somewhat randomly, not too sure about how he might accomplish this, but he'd do his best. Pulling her legs up, Katy curled up in his lap. At least, she was beginning to calm down. His eyes drifted up to look at the townspeople who were creeping closer with murder in their eyes. Was he really reduced to this? Hiding behind a little girl? But what could he do!
Tucking his face against her hair in an attempt to find some sort of calm and center for himself, he closed his eyes, ignoring the people as they surrounded him. What could he do? Tell them to go away till Katy was feeling better? He refused to run, it wouldn't solve anything anyway. To ask Katy to tell them to piss off would be rather cruel, considering how upset she was at the moment. Damn it all.
Like an avenging angel, Zack pushed through the ring of people, making his way over to crouch next to Sephiroth, "Whew- you caught her, I didn't know if she was just going to keep running. She wouldn't say what upset her..." it was an implied question, and Zack spoke loudly, for the benefit of those nearby.
Lifting his head once more, Sephiroth looked at Zack, "Homesick," he replied, reverting to a bland tone of voice and empty expression. "She just needs some time to put herself back together," his gaze shot around the circle of observers. Katy curled up tighter on Sephiroth, nearly choking him. Wincing, he pulled her arm loose.
Nodding, Zack lowered his voice, "You're going to have to deal with them soon."
"I know, but not now. Not with her here."
Katy suddenly sat back, "and why not with me here? It's not like you're going to kill them all." Her eyes, puffy with dark circles beneath them narrowed.
Sephiroth shook his head, "Of course not," he replied but before he could fully explain she started bitching.
"You keep babying me, Sephiroth! How the hell am I ever going to be able to function on my own if you keep trying to protect me all the fucking time!" She stumbled to her feet.
Quickly following her, frowning faintly at her, "I don't-" he started to protest but she ran over him again.
"Well I can take care of myself and half the shit that happens to me is cause of you anyway, least you could do is respect me!"
"I do-"
"And if you really loved me then you'd be sweeter or something instead of running off when I need you and then bothering me when I don't and for everything I've done for you you've not done jack SHIT for me!"
Sephiroth desperately tried to fix the situation, "That's not true-" She wasn't listening. Zack was laughing. Throwing a metal-melting laser glare his direction, Sephiroth hissed, "Shut UP, Zack." This only made the young man snigger harder.
Now, Katy was shouting at the top of her lungs, the circle of men had backed up a step, then another. "You're irresponsible and erratic and just- just terrible to me! You never tell me you love me and it feels like I'm the only one putting any effort into this and it always takes someone else banging a pot against your head to get you to pay any attention to me!" wildly, she gestured at Zack, but her ire seemed to be completely focused on Sephiroth. At least the dark haired young man had stopped laughing.
Having stopped even bothering to waste his breath, Sephiroth stood silently, expression blank and eyes half-lidded, actually listening to her words instead of brushing them off. They left him rather cold. "Well you know what?" she snapped at him, hands clenched in fists. "I hate you!" she shouted, turned and like water, the circle parted for her, she stalked from it.
"Ah, Seph, go after her," Zack put in somewhat urgently. "Do it now or you might never get her back."
Easier said than done. Sephiroth couldn't move, feeling as if he'd been stabbed in the heart by an icicle. "SEPH!" Zack shouted in his ear. This at least started his breathing again. "Go AFTER her!" Zack punched Sephiroth's arm hard.
Those three words- horrible words! He'd heard them, said them, so many times in the past but why did it hurt so much this time? Was it because she'd said them? The back of his brain rather oddly pointed out that they were the opposite of 'I love you'. Now why was that so important?
"I- don't understand- what did I do?" panic started taking over. "What did I do!" turning, Sephiroth grabbed Zack's coat, clinging like a drowning man though these expressions didn't register on his face, his voice had cracked- perhaps even squeaked a little.
"Go fucking find OUT!" Zack pried Sephiroth's hands loose, shoving Sephiroth into a stumble after Katy who was heading towards the other side of town like the front of a storm.
"Katy-" Sephiroth called, jogging to catch up to her, trying to get her to look at him, tagging along behind her like a lost dog, "Please- what did I do? I'm sorry! I really am. I do love you- I'd rather die than lose you- please!" She wasn't listening to him, seemed to be getting angrier the more he tried to talk to her or get in front of her or stop her. It had ceased to bother him that anyone was watching. They may as well have been statues. In desperation, he reached out to catch her arm, but she swung around.
The sound of the slap seemed to echo.
Coming to a stop, Sephiroth lifted a hand to touch his cheek lightly. It was a shock- like hitting cold water. Katy stared at him, seeming just as shocked as he. Anger boiled in him, he nearly broke her neck at that moment but she turned and made to run again. Shoving the rage aside, he reached out and caught her arm, pulling her in despite her fighting it every inch and wrapped his arms around her. She broke into tears again, finally relenting and clinging to him, softly whispering apologies at him.
Glancing around, suddenly remembering where he was and that everyone still alive in town had just witnessed the embarrassing scene he gave a whistle and picked Katy up in one arm. Swinging up onto his Chocobo's back as the bird tore down the street towards him, he pulled Katy over the front of the saddle, holding her there firmly- the back of his mind aware that his expression was rather dark and this move probably wasn't going to gain the villager's trust, but he didn't want to work this out in front of them. It wasn't theirs to watch. Katy gave a shriek of fear and surprise as they shot off, Nibelheim passing in a blur. Within a blink, they were quite some distance from the town and Sephiroth dismounted, reaching up to help Katy to the ground.
Zack heaved a sigh as Sephiroth disappeared in a cloud of dust. "Idiot," he muttered to himself, rubbing his forehead.
"I think we're owed some explanation," a young angry voice stated.
Looking around, Zack met Tifa's eyes and gave half a smile, "Paranormal shit like possession and other weird stuff," he replied, "What Sephiroth did here before wasn't his fault, Katy managed to free him from it and he truly does regret what happened." He glanced around again, "Have you seen that strange man with the red cape around lately?"
Tifa frowned even more deeply. "No, not for months. How could Sephiroth possibly be alive? I SAW him die."
Zack shook his head, "Long story short, he is. That's all there really is to say about it. So you haven't seen Vincent. Damn." His eyes turned towards the direction Sephiroth had hauled Katy off in. Unable to help himself, Zack broke into a yawn, and rocked back on his heels. "I need more sleep," he muttered to himself, ignoring everyone gathered around him and headed back to Ms. Strife's home, intending to go back to bed.
At last, she felt like she'd gotten enough sleep and the memory of what she'd done while dazed and homesick made her wince inwardly. Katy knew she could be a pretty terrible person sometimes, but she'd never known she could be quite that cruel. At least Sephiroth hadn't taken her seriously, or more like, had been too damned determined not to lose her that he'd suffered the embarrassment of being slapped with no complaint.
Shifting from her slightly uncomfortable position, she dared lift her head and look at his face, finding his eyes closed. Sitting up, she looked down at his relaxed features. Sephiroth was such a handsome man... Lifting a hand, Katy traced the red mark on his cheek. Had she really slapped him that hard?
Opening his eyes slowly, he blinked at her. Her hands moved, unclipping his armor and belt, pulling him to sit up and take his coat off, then roll onto his stomach. Straddling his hips and sitting on him, she worked at his shoulders and back, digging her thumbs into all the places she seemed to get aches and pains. Sephiroth sighed, eyes falling closed again. "I guess we were both tired," he said softly.
"We spend a lot of time together, it was only a matter of time before one of us snapped."
His eye opened and looked towards her. Hesitating before he spoke, he thought over her words, "You suggesting we take some time away-"
"No," Katy stated immediately, "Nothing as serious as that. Doing that sort of thing is stupid and doesn't fix the problem anyway. That's for couples who don't need to be together anyway. Maybe just... maybe just less stress. I wish we could take some time off from this world saving business. It's taking too long."
Closing his eye again, he sighed, then murmured softly as she hit a particularly good spot. She continued working at it a moment more before her hands drifted elsewhere. "It'll be over soon." He sighed as she flopped over across his back, cheek pressed against his shoulder blade. "For now, think you can find Vincent for us?"
Taking a breath and sighing, Katy replied, "Yeah, I've got the energy for that." Light pooled beneath him, surrounded him- flowing up through him to her. Sephiroth's eyes fell closed as it seemed he was drifting free in a swirl of life, carried on a wind of green. It cradled him, whispering softly into his heart and at last, delivered him back into his body. "He's not here. He's not on this world at all," Katy announced, voice sounding small. "Seph- that means he's on Earth... who knows what he's been doing there!" She sat up, "We'll have to follow him there."
"Looks like it," he muttered, "I suppose we should head back to Cosmo then... What a waste of time here..."
Katy sat up, "No, we have to save the people of Nibelheim. I think... if you lead them to victory over these monsters, they'd forgive you." Her hand rubbed the back of his neck, fingers running through his hair, combing it out slowly then braiding it. Shuffling in her pocket, she found a rubber band to tie it with and played with it, sticking the ends of his hair into his ear.
Huffing and putting his hand over his ear to protect it, he replied, "I suppose I do owe them. I don't want to go back in there though."
Leaning forward, Katy looked down at him, pursing her lips, "I went to nearly two years of public high school, a bunch of angry villagers is nothing compared to the vicious backstabbing, name calling, and double crossing that goes on in that place. Hell, even Shinra Inc was a piece of cake compared to high school. You're a big man," she slapped his back, "so find your balls and just do it."
Sephiroth surged to his hands and knees, lifting Katy up with him. "Fine," he stated coldly, listening to her giggle.
Her hands went back to rubbing his shoulders, lips smiling faintly, "I like things like this..." she stated softly, "it feels 'adult', not just like we're a couple of horny teenagers fucking all the time." He had nothing of importance to add to that, so remained silent, just letting his head hang between his arms, staring at the way the fabric of his shirt fell. "I think we should head back, though. It's fairly late in the afternoon." She looked up at the sky with a sigh and stood, getting off him and stepped away a few paces. "So did you name her? Everyone else named theirs," she said.
It took Sephiroth a moment to realize that she was talking about his Chocobo, but once he figured it out, he returned to clipping his armor back into place, "Eris," he replied, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. At the sound of her name, the Chocobo came trotting over, giving a superior wark, but let him mount and pull Katy up in front of him. The bird started back towards Nibelheim at a sedate pace.
At last, after much nudging and prodding from Katy, Sephiroth had been forced to publicly apologize for his previous behavior, though it wasn't really his fault and promise to help them either drive the monsters from the area or help them escape before they were all killed. The villagers looked disinclined to believe him, but Katy remained latched onto his arm, so they would have to either pry her off first or just kill her with him. They weren't likely to do either.
At least Ms. Strife had been willing to let him into her house after he'd mentioned that Cloud was a crucial member of SCYTHE and was currently helping other towns in the same situation as Nibelheim. Tifa had even seemed interested in hearing about what SCYTHE's purpose was. Zack had been rather enthusiastic about it, and Aerith's being in it was another selling point. It wasn't like Tifa had any family left in Nibelheim, though she wasn't too keen on Sephiroth being the leader.
"Don't worry, Katy's got Sephiroth under control," Aerith murmured to Tifa softly as they stood outside in the last rays of the day's light. "You saw her slap him, right?"
Tifa nodded slightly, arms folded beneath her ample breasts. They were both a blessing and a curse. She got the attention of lots of guys, but never seemed to get the one she really wanted to look at her to actually notice... but this seemed to be her chance. How cool would she look in the SCYTHE outfit? But only if she could put up with Sephiroth...
Speak of the devil, the man stepped out of Ms. Strife's house, hair still braided from when he'd come back from making up (or out) with Katy after their public squabble, though it was rather one-sided. He hadn't stood a chance against the unstoppable force of a Cetra on the Rag. Even Tifa was still shocked that he hadn't killed her for slapping him. For a moment it looked like he was going to, and then he'd grabbed her and hauled her out of town, everyone had supposed that he'd gone to make her body some sort of visible warning for everyone and had even wondered about sending out search parties when he didn't return for a few hours. Then they'd come riding back into town, Katy clinging to him, glaring at anyone who even looked like they were going to try anything with him. Was she brainwashed? No- that had been obvious when she bitched him into apologizing for setting the town on fire.
Swallowing, she stepped up to him purposefully. Everyone else had retreated into their homes for the night. "Sephiroth- sir," she started, not quite sure how to start really. At last, Tifa settled on a direct approach, steeling herself as his eerily glowing eyes focused on her. "I'd like to join SCYTHE."
Silence fell as he coldly looked her over. "You're Tifa, right?" She nodded, "Alright," he said finally, turned and continued along to his original destination.
Tifa's jaw dropped and Aerith padded up beside her, clasping her hands behind her back, leaning around to look at the brunet girl's expression, and giggled. "But- but-" she stammered, then looked at Aerith. "But- I- it's not supposed to be that easy!"
Aerith giggled, "There's a reason why you were accepted so easily- it's because there was another path fate could have taken that day Sephiroth went mad. In that version, you were one of the key people who helped defeat him. You, me, Cloud, and a few others," she smiled and straightened. "However, we'd better go talk to Katy about getting you your Chocobo. We have a long ride ahead of us."
"Ride?" Tifa asked in confusion, looking up and over at Sephiroth as he mounted his bird easily.
Nodding, Aerith took Tifa's hand and pulled her over to the door of Ms. Strife's house. "Hey Katy, we've got a new member. She needs a ride."
Looking up from blankly staring at her hands where she sat on the floor, Katy blinked. "Oh- is it sunset already?" She got to her feet, looked at Tifa and gave a smile. "Oh, so she's finally joined us? Great!" Stepping out of the rustic little house, Katy glanced around, "Hm... I guess I could call one from here," she blushed faintly, then closed her eyes. Light shimmered around her feet, then flowed upwards, drifts of light twining around Aerith's legs as well. After a second, the light dimmed and faded. "He'll be here in just a moment. You can name him whatever you want." Beltoren padded over, butting his head against Katy's shoulder and she reached up, rubbing his neck gently before mounting. "Don't worry about having to ride bareback, he won't let you fall, besides, you fight better on the ground."
Slowly nodding, eyes wide with incomprehension and disbelief, she watched as another gold Chocobo trotted into town, padded straight up to her and huffed in her face.
Zack, mounted on his Chocobo, Dante, already trotted around a corner, quirked a brow, but nodded to Tifa, "Welcome aboard," he told her, accepting without question. Aerith stepped away to mount Joulia.
Taking a breath, Tifa hoisted herself up onto the Chocobo's steady back. "Okay," she paused, "Kede," she decided, "Let's go."
Thus named, Kede gave a wark and moved to follow the other four birds. Behind them, Ms. Strife closed and locked her door. "So where are we going?"
"To find the source of these monsters," Sephiroth replied, perhaps a bit stonily. He turned his bird towards the mountains, urging it up the rockier slopes, the others followed without a second thought.
Feeling a bit out of place, not only on the back of a Chocobo, but from the group in general, Tifa kept her silence, watching and listening to everything. Would she even be useful on this? What did they know about her that had made them accept her without question? What was this alternate path of fate that Aerith had spoken of! The lack of information was maddening, but to ask... None of the group looked back at her either, none offering any conversation, though that may have been for stealth purposes as they weren't talking among each other either.
Below and to the north, the hideous howling had begun. Swallowing, Tifa hunched down on Kede's back, clinging to his neck. He gave a soft soothing chirp towards her. What seemed an hour later, they stopped on a ledge in front of a deep cave, the moon was rising, casting silky light across the landscape, Tifa looked up towards it- half full. Like when she'd called the Chocobo- however she'd done that- light flowed up around Katy from beneath her bird's feet, at last, she opened her eyes. "This is it," she said, looking towards the cave.
As one, the uniformed members of SCYTHE dismounted and headed into the cavern, the birds fearlessly following behind. Tifa blinked a few times, finally sliding off Kede and stumbled after. Inside, it was pitch dark and none ahead were using lights, but somehow, they seemed to be getting along without them. Tifa wasn't doing too well. Her feet kept finding groves in the floor, rocks sticking up into the path, walls. Stumbling once again, she thumped into something soft and feathery. Bright blue eyes looked down at her and Zack whispered softly, "Hang onto your bird, he'll lead you." With that, the glowing eyes turned away and disappeared.
Grabbing hold of Kede, she clung to his neck desperately and didn't have as many accidents as she'd been having before but the ground still seemed to be out to get her.
Their path was decidedly slanting downwards. Tifa had thought she'd been all over these mountains, but apparently not- she didn't know this cave. It felt... different, somehow. Evil. At last, the feeling of being enclosed suddenly fell away and light glimmered into being around them. She shielded her eyes with one arm, wincing, though in retrospect, it wasn't really that bright.
Before them, a large reptilian beast of scarlet lay, tail quivering slightly as it lifted and fell. It opened its mouth, smoke trailing from it, and spoke, "Ah- I have been expecting you," it stated, eyes half-lidded. "You'll find me a much harder foe than my servants, however," it's lips curled back from its large... sharp... teeth. A wave of fear washed over Tifa and if she hadn't already been clinging to Kede's neck, her knees would have given out.
Wasting no time, Sephiroth drew Masamune.
Only five days had passed, but Cloud could swear it had been years. He lost men, gained men, lost ground and gained it, and at last freed all those trapped by the monster attacks and led them back to Cosmo Canyon in a journey that took three more days on top of his original five to complete his mission. Sephiroth stood in the front and center of the mob of people watching and waiting for his return. Katy was nowhere to be seen, though a young woman in the SCYTHE uniform stood beside him. For a moment, he mistook her for the tavern girl, but on third blink, she came into focus.
"TIFA!" he shouted, Rekkui breaking into a run, leaping ahead of his mob of unwashed and unruly fighters. Behind him, they shouted and surged forward to meet their family members. Leaping off Rekkui's back while the bird was in motion still, Rekkui continued past Tifa and headed towards the stable while Cloud ran with the momentum, nearly knocking Tifa over as he slammed into her, throwing his arms around her tightly. "Tifa-" he breathed, then stepped back, holding her at arm's length. "So you've joined SCYTHE, great!"
She laughed softly, pushing him off, "Yeah, heard you were following this lunatic's orders, had to come make sure you weren't insane as well."
Sephiroth's expression didn't change in the slightest, though he hadn't left either. Clearing his throat, Cloud shook his head, "What happened at Nibelheim... was an accident," he defended, then waved his hand, shaking his head, wanting to continue the conversation somewhere private. "Hold on a second?" he suggest to Tifa, then turned towards the General. "Area liberated, sir," he saluted, "five out of thirteen towns were already destroyed by the time we got there. It was the same pattern as Gongaga, no explanation for it that I could find, though."
Nodding, Sephiroth reached over, clapping Cloud's shoulder, "Good work," with that, he turned and left the two.
"Oh, I've got to return something to someone," Cloud said, pulling the star pendant from his neck, giving a shy smile. "Someone actually gave me a luck charm, Tifa!" he told her, taking her arm and heading towards the tavern, "I'm starving, we had a bit of a shortage of food along the way, so I set half rations and oh god those creatures are nasty! Do you have a Chocobo yet? They seem to be standard with the uniform now, I think," he grinned.
Tifa nodded, "Yes, I named him Kede," she replied, watching as Cloud pinned the young woman in the tavern and stood back out of the way as he placed her pendant back into her hands, then bowed over them in a rather knightly sort of way. He even went so far as to place a kiss upon her cheek. The burn in her chest forced her to look away before she glared holes into the innocent girl's head. Cloud returned to her finally, grabbing up a plate of food as more men came streaming in and managed to slide back out the door and led the way up the stairs to the room he shared with Zack.
Sitting on his bed, Cloud set his plate on the night table beside it and removed his boots, tossing them to the floor, then pulled his feet up and crossed them on the bed. With a sigh, he picked up his plate again, "So tell me what you've been up to?" he asked around a full mouth.
"Nothing really, just rebuilding Nibelheim..." Tifa moved to sit on the edge of the bed beside him, staring forward somewhat blankly. "Then Sephiroth showed up again, looking for that weird guy with the red cloak, but he wasn't around, so they gave up on him and headed after a dragon that was directing the monsters that kept attacking the town. They stayed an extra night to make sure the monsters had indeed lost their commander, then left... I really was worried about you," she hesitated, then lowered her voice, "I missed you too."
Swallowing hard, Cloud coughed, looking at her. "M-missed me?"
"Hey guys," Zack called, leaning in, "Curt and the others just arrived. Emergency meeting, usual dining room."
Cloud muttered a curse and set his plate down again, pulling his boots back on and headed out after Zack, Tifa trailing behind, watching Cloud continue to stuff his face as he walked. They entered a large room with several round tables set within it- the communal dining room for several families to use, or one large family. The others were already gathered, but there were five new faces looking directly at Tifa.
A slightly older looking man with chin length blonde hair pulled into a ponytail smiled charmingly at her. He was quite muscular, wearing the tank top shirt of his uniform currently, coat and armor dropped into the chair he stood behind. His sword remained clipped to his back by the harness strap he wore. "Hey, who's this cutie?" he asked, voice smooth. The four other men were just as obviously warriors, though one seemed to stand out from the others. He looked blocky, his brown hair clipped somewhat short and shaggy, a beard starting to grow in full on his face. His most notable features were his large craggy nose and grey eyes. A slightly smaller and thinner man with the same shade of brown hair and eyes stood beside him, though where the one looked like a barbarian, the other seemed ethereal. Of the last two, one looked more like he belonged behind a desk rather than in a battle, but mostly it was his somewhat close set and squinty dark eyes, close cut hair and thin mustache. The last was simply boring and forgettable, with brown hair, brown eyes, unremarkable features... The type that would be best suited to espionage.
"This is Tifa," Sephiroth introduced, he was seated in one of the chairs at the table, hands folded, resting upon the smooth hardwood. "Tifa, these are Curt," he pointed at the Barbarian, "Wren," he pointed at the elflike man, "Lloyd," he pointed at the clerkish man, "Morda," he pointed to the boring man, and lastly, he leveled his finger, almost accusingly, "and loudmouth there is Perrie. Ignore everything he says unless it's got to do with business." He glanced at Tifa, "and if you sock him one for inappropriate behavior towards a lady, I'll be on your side." With that out of the way, he gestured towards the table, "Sit," he ordered before Perrie could pout.
Once the shuffling ceased, Curt began, "We got there alright, but though we wandered around a lot and helped save some people from random monster attacks here and there, we couldn't get anything to follow us to the temple. So in other words, getting there was boring and somewhat tedious. Once there, we waited around for a while, nothing happened. We went in, explored a bit, still no one came. I sent Perrie and Lloyd off to get some mechanical toy to use," he glanced at Katy, "and we solved the puzzles, shrank the temple, and picked it up. Still nothing. So we brought it back here." Reaching into his coat, Curt pulled out a palm sized globe of swirling black. Setting it on the table, he rolled it expertly towards Sephiroth who caught it between his hands without even moving them from where he'd had them folded.
Heaving a sigh, he picked up the orb, looking at it carefully. "Just goes to show, it's not the tools themselves that are evil, but the uses they're put to," he muttered, then set the orb on the table once more, "Good work anyway, though out of all our missions, only Cloud's came off as intended and was successful. Vincent has relocated to Earth."
Tifa sat silently, watching from one speaker to the next, utterly confused as to what was going on and what anyone's missions were. She vowed to grill Cloud for a recap or something once the meeting was over. Wren spoke up, running a hand over his shaggy brown hair, "So what now?"
"I'd rather not have the Black Materia directly with us, so we'll need to find somewhere new to hide it," Sephiroth replied, idly rolling it back and forth between his hands on the table. "We're going to have to go to Earth as well to find Vincent."
Pressing his lips together, Perrie asked, "All of us?"
Five sets of eyes turned towards Katy, who had been sitting with her arms propping up her head on the table. She blinked, "What?" she asked and when everyone else looked towards her, she blushed. "What?" she asked again.
"Do you think you could get all of us to Earth?" Sephiroth repeated.
She stared at him, "It's a big question as to whether I can get MYSELF back to Earth," she replied. "Besides, the language barrier thing, though I might be able to do something... I'm not sure though, I wasn't able to ever use magic before coming here." Katy sat up and scratched the back of her neck. "I'll try though."
Perrie shook his head slightly, "No premonitions of the future?" he asked, clarifying his original question somewhat. He hadn't wanted to know if she could take them all to Earth.
Katy snorted, "Other than that gnawing fear that's been driving me for quite some time? No, and I never was an oracle, Perrie, so give it up."
He sighed gustily. "Then how do you know what was supposed to happen?"
Sephiroth winced, not wanting to hear that phrase 'that is a secret!' once again. "Just stop asking that," Katy stated instead, "I'll tell you in time, but right now it doesn't matter because it doesn't affect you so much."
Muttering to himself Perrie waved a hand of surrender. Katy took a breath and rubbed her face a bit, "God, something's going to have to be done about this whole crossover thing. Stabilize it or something. Maybe combine both planets into one, or separate them completely." Her lips pressed together into a frown at the last suggestion, her eyes clearing pained at the thought of doing such a thing.
Tifa, finally finding something to speak up about interjected into the silence that followed, "Combining the planets would play some pretty hell on the weather and geological processes," she pointed out.
Katy lifted her head from her hands, looking towards Tifa, "Ouch, yeah, don't want to throw the world into an Iceage again." She shook her head, "okay, so that's one option thrown out."
Silence fell again and just when it began to get oppressive, Zack spoke up, "There's a lot of dislocated people, splitting the worlds would be rather cruel to them. There's a chain of islands from Earth currently getting attacked by Shinra and Naomi, and Mideel is missing, probably dropped onto Earth." Katy winced at the mention of Naomi- how she failed Michelle... "So that leaves the best of both worlds, stabilizing the crossover into something manageable."
Katy nodded, shifting a bit in her chair. "Question is... how do I do that?"
"Ask the Planet," Aerith replied with a smile.
Turning her eyes and gazing past the edge of her glasses at Aerith, Katy replied, "Yeah, good idea," though her tone wasn't sarcastic; simply tired.
Lloyd hmmned thoughtfully and sat back in his chair, stretching his feet out in front of him, "I think having a set doorway in the physical world to anchor the gate into Earth would be the most useful."
Remaining silent, Katy stared down at the table, fingers tracing the grain pattern she found there. "You could anchor it to another doorway you know on Earth," Perrie continued, catching onto the idea gleefully.
"I'll just have to see what I can do, first," Katy pointed out stubbornly.
The two subsided once more and Sephiroth caught the rolling orb of Black Materia one last time and spoke again. "For now, we'll stay here," he stated, "defend the area from monsters and find somewhere to hide this thing," he gestured with the Materia. "Dismissed." He stood, watching as the others stood and left, except for Katy, who remained seated with her head on the table. "What's wrong?"
"I've got a headache," she murmured, "I don't know, but I think it's that thing... Give it to Curt to hang onto or something, keep it away from Aerith as well." Katy stood at last and made her way from the room, leaving Sephiroth standing where he was. Finally, he moved, heading out to search for Curt.
Katy lay on her back on a blanket she'd brought out with her. Currently, she was perched on a cliff overlooking Cosmo Canyon, though neither her thoughts, nor sight, were focused upon the view. Beltoren lay beside her, radiating warmth and smelling like greens. Such a sweet bird, she'd named him well, the name having come from one of her original stories- a half-elf/god bard with uncontrollable receiving telepathy and empathy. She'd always wanted to meet him, but Sephiroth was just as good. She couldn't have them all and be forever bouncing from one to the next.
She'd told Sephiroth she was going out, but not where. She'd wanted total peace and quiet to do this work, as she had a feeling she'd have to dive deeper into the planet than she'd ever gone before. Sephiroth was nice to be with, but sometimes he entered with her and was slightly distracting.
Closing her eyes at last, she relaxed, and after a yawn, she sighed. Her sense of the world faded, and though it had been strange and difficult to attain in the beginning, with practice, she'd gotten better and faster at clearing her mind and thinking only of her question or request. It was hard business being Cetra. She felt that, for every time she entered the Lifestream, she lost a piece of herself somewhere amidst the flow of souls. She tried to hang onto everything by leaving it all in the back of her mind, safely out of the way, but it wasn't just her imagination that she couldn't remember what her mother's name was. She was losing important things and she really needed to stop doing this, but they needed the information.
At last, when she lay in a cradle of blue-green threads, Katy brought herself semi-awake. "Planet," she stated, "I need to know how to stabilize the portal between here and Earth. Maybe putting it into a fixed gate point? Some doorway?"
The planet, being old as it was, did not speak in words, it simply shoved the knowledge of what she wanted to know into her head. It was definitely best to only have one question at a time. Head aching, Katy resurfaced to find Sephiroth seated beside her, frowning faintly. "don't," she whispered, feeling truly ill and even the volume of her whisper seemed too loud. He remained silent, staring at her face, waiting.
Finally, Katy rolled over and crawled off her blanket, discovering once again that vomit always seems to contain peas and carrots. Returning to her blanket, she curled up against Sephiroth's side, feeling cold and weak. "It can be done," she whispered, "just like Perrie and Lloyd thought too. How convenient." Tears sprung to her eyes as she made mental inventory off her memories of home, finding something so basic that she could recite it in her sleep was missing, "Sephiroth- I can't remember my house address, or my phone number, or my sister's name or father's or mother's or what pet I had or my best friend. I've got faces still, but their names are gone!" turning, she clung to him.
"Katy-" he murmured, shocked, this was the first he'd heard about her memory loss.
She stuck her face against his shoulder, "I want to go home- before I forget anything else."
"I'll take you home," he whispered into her hair.
"Hey Cloud, can I have a moment?"
Cloud looked up from grooming Rekkui to see Zack standing at the stall door, hands resting on the rough wood. "Sure, come on in," he replied, wondering why Zack would even have to ask such a thing. The dark haired young man was wearing his tank top undress shirt, everything but his boots missing from his current attire. Cloud had left his coat and armor in his room as well, but was wearing his long sleeved shirt. "What's up?"
Stepping into the stall, Zack closed both portions of the door, leaning against the wall. "Got something to tell you... It's sort of... well, odd and round about, but the information is the same. Katy's revealed her Secret to Aerith, Aerith told me, I'm telling you."
His hands stilled, "THE Secret?" Cloud's voice dropped to a whisper.
Zack nodded, fingers tapping lightly on his elbow, "You, me, Aerith- everyone Katy has mentioned by name... We're all a video game on her world. One called Final Fantasy Seven."
Cloud gaped, feeling as if the breath had been knocked from him and he'd just plunged two hundred feet and landed in a crater of ice cold water. "You're kidding!" he found the breath to hiss at last. Zack shook his head slowly. "Wow- I wanna play it!"
Breathe in...
Let it out...
Katy opened her eyes once more after taking that calming breath. She'd told Sephiroth everything she wanted to remember again later, names of people, events, places, things... As for the stuff she'd already forgotten, she told him that when they got to Earth, he'd have to take her to where she could relearn them and remember them with her- in case she forgot again. He'd been calmly supportive, though irritation boiled beneath the surface. Not at her, but at what had happened- and maybe a little bit of it was directed at her for not telling him.
She gazed at the natural arch of stone that had formed a sort of hollow in the side of one of the windswept cliffs. This was where she would construct her gate. Taking another breath, she closed her eyes again. The others were ranged on their birds behind her- the others being Cloud, Zack, Sephiroth, Aerith, and Tifa. Curt and his group had been assigned the task of keeping the Black Materia safe, Brugenhagen had helped with that task immensely by providing a place deep in the Canyon's Caverns to hide it. That assured that Cosmo Canyon would have five SCYTHE members keeping watch over it.
Good, Katy didn't want that thing near her, and she didn't want it in her parents' house either. That was only if she could remember where it was. Taking another breath, she let it out, cleared her mind, and reached for the planet. This archway was a bit distant from Cosmo, but still within the canyon system it resided in.
The air around her began to glow- then further away, the air seemed to burst into blue-green fire. It hung in the sky, writhing and twisting, swirling like the side of a soap bubble. Katy felt like screaming- the flow of energy going through her seeming to rub her raw, but it kept coming and going- an endless cycle- as if she were just a channel through which the power flowed. Pieces of herself broke off, she tried to catch them again, but doing so made the power flow more slowly- it wasn't going to work. She couldn't keep this up!
Trapped in a whirlwind of blue-green in her own mind, Katy tried to hang on to what she was doing, guide the energies she had called upon towards the goal she'd had in mind. It wasn't that she was using Mako to cast the spell, but that it was like water pouring through a dam, spinning the turbines that made electricity. THAT was where Shinra had gone wrong.
Sephiroth watched as it seemed that Katy was being immolated by the light of the Lifestream she'd called upon, the sky was on fire with it the ground began to tremble, then settled again. A scream burst from Katy's throat, the light faltered- flickered- then burst away from her in a wave. The sky seemed to shatter, then the view of the plane rock beyond the archway melted, a blast of humid air washed over them.
Dismounting as the light finally went out, Sephiroth ran to catch Katy as she collapsed, carefully picking her up and moving back to his bird. "go-" she whispered softly to him, "in."
So that was her vote- to keep going. Alright. He remounted and settled her sidesaddle in front of him, arms around her as he had no real need to guide Eris with the reins. As one, the Chocobos started forward, stepping through the gate. They stood on the steps of a large building, their gate having come out the other side of a pair of broad glass doors. The rest of the building reminded Seph of the Tower, but only vaguely.
Giving a shriek, the Chocobos dashed forward and away from the doors as they suddenly shattered, blasting glass across the steps. Looking back, Sephiroth gave a curse. The gate had collapsed. Katy murmured softly, opening her eyes and looking around, "It's- destroyed..." she whispered, though she was unaware that no one could understand her.
"Katy," Sephiroth said softly, then used the word she'd given him for spells, "Magic?" he suggested.
Nodding, she took a breath, snorted, then tried casting something. "Ice!" Nothing happened, she frowned and tried again, "ICE!" At last, the spell went off, freezing a bush. Looking around, she shifted on Sephiroth's saddle and he finally helped her transfer over to Beltoren, though she looked a bit ill. "I hate... really... really... hate... Alabama." She stated, understandable once more. Nudging Beltoren, she took the lead, down the street, turning left at the intersection and continued onwards. "Everything's destroyed here... what happened?" she muttered to herself, pushing Beltoren faster until they were all running fairly fast, as if it were some sort of race.
Leaning in close to Beltoren's neck, she crouched in the stirrups, lifting her body off his back and flowing with his movements. It really was fun to ride like the wind, but her urgency to get to her destination and see if it too was destroyed was far too prominent in her mind. "Faster-" she whispered to her bird and he put on more speed.
Following the roads she knew so well, she breathed again when she began to see signs of life- people driving on the interstate, airplanes in the sky, lights on. Her home- she was nearly there! Beltoren started to flag, but she cast Haste on him and the others- finally remembering they were panting behind her after a glance back under her arm. They were following her example by tucking in close to their birds and letting them just run, though they had no idea why they had to go so fast.
Closing her eyes briefly, Katy winced as a June bug hit her forehead and bounced off. She wiped at the sting with her arm, but continued on. The Clinton Road intersection loomed ahead, there were plenty of people driving in this area and she reined Beltoren in a bit, falling into the left lane behind the cars that were turning there. Better to go with traffic than against it and cause accidents. That wasted more time.
Though people honked and gaped and stopped in the middle of the road, Katy led them onto the new road, and down it at full speed again, taking to the sidewalk that ran along one side of the road. Her head turned and she gaped at one large sprawling building that was now a blasted and twisted wreck. "WOO!" she shouted and pumped her fist.
The street for the public library loomed ahead, she took that right turn instead of continuing down to the intersection. Ignoring the stop sign at the end of the street, feeling rather naughty for doing so, she turned left and took to the sidewalk again. Everything was just fine in this side of town, perfect actually- except for the immense amount of traffic. It looked to be five in the evening. She pulled to a stop to wait for the red light. "What was that destroyed building back there?" Aerith asked breathlessly.
Katy looked back at her and grinned, "My high school! Someone got em good! I could kiss whoever did it!"
"So where're we going?" Cloud asked, swallowing, then gestured, "Its green," he pointed out.
Katy started Beltoren across when no one was turning right and they strutted boldly in front of the stopped cars waiting their turn. "Home," she stated, "I'm going home." On the other side of the street, the sidewalk continued, but only for a short ways, but their destination was the second street on the left and they crossed. Going below twenty-five miles per hour was ingrained in Katy so deeply that she let Beltoren walk sedately, sitting back in her saddle and rolling her shoulders. Her house- she remembered what it looked like, but not the numbers on the brick mailbox. There they were- 119, a number that had always amused her. Counting the cars, she grinned broadly, "Oh! My sister's here too!" she exclaimed and directed her bird into the front yard and dismounted, letting her Chocobo lay down under the large red oak tree that sprawled across the front yard, though most of the space beneath it was taken up by one of her mother's flowerbeds.
"Look Aerith- my mom likes flowers too," Katy stated, pointing at the large pink iris standing proudly within the mass of shorter dark red flowers. "This one's an Iris," she continued and Aerith immediately got distracted looking at the flowers. Zack moved to stand with her after they had both dismounted. Sephiroth followed Katy to the door. The front door was open, the screen closed. Without knocking, she opened the door and entered.
Sephiroth stepped in behind, looking around the front hall of the house. He'd sort of been here before- the gray-carpeted stairs nearly directly in front of the door led up to Katy's room. The floor beneath his boots was dark brown and rather ugly hardwood. There was a half-wall built beside the front door, blocking direct access from there into the living room on the right- also floored with gray carpet. The ceiling in the living room was tall with the dark-stained hardwood beams visible, a ceiling fan hanging from a long brass pole wiggled in the center of the room. On the wall facing out into the front yard was a fireplace with a brick chimney all the way to the ceiling and on either side of that were windows. The other side of the room led into a dining room, also partially walled off with stupid half-walls, the floor there was gray carpet as well.
Seated on the light gray couches in the living room were four people- two were a young couple, both rather scrawny. The girl looked vaguely like Katy, with mid-shade brown hair hanging straight to her shoulders. She was not wearing glasses however. The man beside her had buzzed brown hair, somewhat puppyish eyes and round ears, but he seemed a trustable fellow, definitely not a warrior in Sephiroth's opinion. The other two were in their forties perhaps- early forties, the woman had shoulder length curly dark hair and wore glasses, her eyes the same shade of brown as Katy's. In fact, Sephiroth could see that this was where Katy had gotten her features from. She was nearly an exact copy of her mother. Her father had wild grown-out brown hair shot with gray and a growing beard.
Katy stepped into the living room, grinning from ear to ear, and for a moment nothing happened, no one moved- until she ran forward and threw herself on her parents. Sephiroth stayed where he was, listening to the high-speed babbling he couldn't make out and watching the hug-fest as Katy tried to wrap everyone into her arms at the same time. There were tears from all sides and finally after what seemed forever, Katy sat curled up on the couch between her parents and her sister and sister's boyfriend retreated to the other couch again.
"Mom, Dad... this is Sephiroth," she grinned.
