Journey Thirteen – Alliance
Sephiroth and Aerith vs. Vexen
WHACK!
CLANG!
The sounds of Princess Guard and Masamune were gracefully attempting to break Vexen's defence, but as of yet when Sephiroth was in front of him, the long dirty blonde scientist have obviously had the advantage.
"I've got you now, One Winged Angel!" He smirked as he chanted with light blue aura around his shield weapon arm, he summoned his ice missiles on to the One Winged Angel's back as he turned around, but thankfully, Aerith was on time to provide last-minute defence as she twirled her staff and made the 'shattered glass' bowed in other directions.
"Thanks Aerith!" Sephiroth smiled a little as he positioned Masamune to his left offensive hand and lengthen the blade, to which after she let her staff lowered down their protection, he ungodly sped like the speed of light and performed his special attack, Black Slash, on to the XIII Order member as there were a few raven black feathers falling with poise. "Are you the shadows behind this Theophilus Star Government that want my wing?"
CLANG!
"Perhaps yes, since your black wing is such an interesting concept as a connection to Lost Eden's path." Vexen hissed as he counterattacked Sephiroth's charge with his shield weapon.
WHACK!
Sephiroth managed to defend eventually against the XIII Order member's strike as he smiled evilly, yet calmly at the same time. "If you're looking for an easier way to capture me, you're in for a shock! I have far greater strength than Hercules himself and I'm not giving up without losing!"
CLANG!
"Oh, really? Your strength reminds me of that famous Archangel Michael legend, where his strength is of ten hundred thousand men. Plus according to some research that I've found, he has black wings!"
WHACK!
"Shut up! I'm not here for you to hear some ridiculous myths from you!" And he retaliated with his Fire Storm spell, which did some damage on Vexen.
"Oh, I'm not telling you on some myths. Some centuries ago, there would be prophecies that the 'Son of the Archangel Michael would be the salvation to restore harmony and I believe you would be him."
CLANG!
"SHUT UP! I do not know, nor have seen the face of my biological father, but that Archangel Michael is NOT my father! You don't have proof to prove it!"
CLANG!
"I have, but you and that girlfriend of yours have gotten first to Seraphiel's Compass – the only object to locate the path to Lost Eden and give you the chance to see…"
"Sephiroth!" Aerith's voice shouted as she whacked Vexen's back, without realising his talk was his weak point of being defenceless. "Don't listen to him! Vexen's trying to distract your attention! Focus your attack!"
"You vile woman!" Vexen struggled to say as he positioned his weapon to her fragile, but tough body "I'll get you for that!" But unfortunately his counterattack was counterattacked again by the One Winged Angel's lengthen Masamune and with a few slash 'dances' and choreographed staff moves, Sephiroth sheathed his prized possession, slammed his hand on the ground; pulled out Kusanagi and attacked in just a quick time in addition to his explanation.
"Listen," he hissed angrily as his left hand was moving aggressively on the handle of the legendary sword, as he slashed Vexen's shield "and you'd better LISTEN good! That girlfriend you've mentioned of is not my girlfriend! She's just a friend with no common ground between us. And with Kusanagi on my left hand and Aerith's and my courage together, I'm sure you I could shut up for once!"
SLASH!
"Tch! Is this the power of…Kusanagi!"
Lawrence vs. Larxene
"Hold still, you fool!" The blonde female shouted as she attempted to threw her special knives at the crimson stranger, but all she had done was ripping his robe off, revealing his no-sleeve white shirt with a bright red necktie, arm-length dark maroon gauntlets alongside his jet-navy blue loosen trousers and dirty brown boots.
"Is this the best you've got?" Lawrence laughed, ignoring he lost the robe and mask, counterattacked with his archery skills at her, though she narrowly avoided his crimson arrows. "Seems, you're good at long range combat!"
"Well, you haven't seen my short range attacks!" And Larxene jumped quickly and tried to deliver a slash on to him, but he used his crimson dragons to lower the offence, while ambushing behind her with his short range assassin daggers, even though she quickly destroyed them.
CLANG!
His daggers were on contact to her knives. "Seems your short range skills are below par compared to my daggers."
CLANG!
"Shut up! Your attitude is worse if you're battling against women, especially me!"
CLANG!
"Oh come on! My female friend of mine never lets me to put my offence down, so I'll be treating the same to you!"
CLANG!
"Why are you, the others and your Master always getting in our way?"
CLANG!
"You XIII Order people constantly wanted to get something that are best left touched to my brother and his crew! So, this is an order from my boss – eliminate those who think they can steal first!"
CLANG!
"Grr! Guess I have no choice, but to kill you first!" Larxene threw her knives at Lawrence directly and summoned a spell of thunder and lightening at him, causing some minor damage to his arm.
"Hmm, very interesting. Guess I have to do that spell too." The crimson stranger then flipped backwards avoiding the lightening spells and when he was in the position, chanted a few Latin words and then, "BLOOD MAELSTORM!" and a whirlwind of crimson water came directly from the bottom of Larxene's position and deliver some damage. "Not bad for a completely new spell that doesn't require elemental properties!"
"Tch! I was just warming up, you hoodwink!" Larxene was struggling to get on her feet, as the cerise tornado died and her hands were full of glowing yellow knives, ready to deliver some major damage to him. "Now, feel my wrath of DESIRED DARKNESS AND HOPE YOU'LL SUFFER AS I HAVE FOR YOU!" And with her best efforts, she threw everything she can by means of the knives on the on-direct assault to the crimson stranger and then, it went on a blank canvas, as the attack was too bright to see the outcome of the fight.
Bach, brother. Lawrence to himself, while bringing out his bow and holding his arrow for a risky tactic. Take care of Ashura, Aerith and Sephiroth if I die, should my arrow does not pierce that foul lady's assault. Master, I hope you know what I'm doing.
Meanwhile on Ashura vs. Axel
Man, that crazy man must be good at swords! Axel unusually happily thought as he tried to give some damage to Ashura using his Firewheel attack, but then deflected by the M.P.D. person's Persian Shasmir sword.
"Come on!" Ashura shouted, his eyes still flaming red and just about to slice the red haired man's spike wheels oncoming to him. "Where's your strength? I want to see it, before I'll crush it with my swords!"
"Want to see my strength?" Axel sarcastically replied as he managed to knock Ashura's Persian sword off from his hands. "I'll give you one!" And he charged up his weapons and threw like a boomerang effect that did some minor damage on his body, but nevertheless grabbed another swords – this time his very favourite items, a Korean sword, Ryong-Ming and the most beautiful Chinese long, thin sword, Yue Xue.
Ashura laughed so wickedly, his demon strength has somehow rocketed above abnormal, even stronger than Sephiroth's strength. "Guess you're a good fighter, like Sephiroth! Now, that's what I call a very worthy opponent." And the wave of dances of defence and offence can seen as beautiful pieces of many Chinese ballets.
CLANG!
"Only, if you're a skilled swordsman! I'm not into that department!"
CLANG!
"Yes, that's quite true, but that does not mean I can treat you the same as the One Winged Angel himself!"
CLANG!
"Then, why are you getting in our way!"
CLANG!
"I'm only interested in fighting opponents that are worthy of their strength and skills. That includes the XIII Order members!"
CLANG!
"Oh really? Well then, what have you got some connections with that crimson stranger?"
CLANG!
"Lawrence? I wish I could give the full explanation, but I refuse! Now, how about your godforsaken reason to capture Sephiroth, huh?"
CLANG!
"You would have to tell my boss to do the work!"
CLANG!
"Aaaaaawwwwww. That's such a shame, considering you people like to hide some facts outside the Theophilus Star System; I would have added you as my bodyguard. Now, it seems I would have to severely punish you for this!"
CLANG!
"The same would be for you! Your strong malice and crazy strength would have been the perfect gifts to add to our XIII Order collection!"
CLANG!
"This is so much fun! Now, it's so sad to end this, but now I would have to use my power! WATER CUTS!"
To this, Ashura's blades were glowing astral blue auras and with his malice still in place, sliced every piece of Axel's body, even though the red haired person is guarding on his defensive positions.
Damn, this person is so hard to defeat, with all his malice in place. Axel thought.
XIII Order? Ha! Ashura thought, while still slicing like mad. Such a good opponent and yet, his strength is just too easy for me to defeat him!
Meanwhile at the Second Eden Governor's Head Office
The door opened automatically and appeared a young male, with short, but girly silver mane, dressed up for important issues, though holding on to some documents.
"Excuse me sir," he clearly explained to the red haired older person "but you've got visitors."
"Can't you see I'm busy, Kadaj!" He exclaimed angrily, as he was sorting out the files. "Tell them to bugger off and come back in about two months!"
"But sir, you have plenty of free time in your schedu…"
"I DON'T CARE! JUST GO AND TELL THEM!"
"Uh, okay." And Kadaj left the room, only to be in seconds later, being taken back to the office, this time a hostage to a lone swordsman, a young kunoichi, the girl with guns and the dirty blonde man with his shotgun, ready to shoot right at the young person's head, though in fear. "Uh, sir…"
"WHAT THE! Who the hell are you and why are you doing this?"
"No time to explain, Mister Corrupt!" Rufus smirked as he pulled the trigger and positioned his shotgun to Kadaj's head. "Either give us the full explanation or your assistant will go to Heaven, sooner than you think!"
"…" The Governor was all he could reply. "Fine, but my name is NOT MISTER CORRUPT! It's Renaults!"
Rufus grinned on his decision and let go of Kadaj, now running for his life from the terror. "Good, now if you're willing to cooperate, just give us one reason – Do you have any connections to the XII Order? We've heard one of your sons is a member of this organization."
"Why should I answer to that?"
"Well, I've heard that from him!" Yuffie exclaimed as she brought out her trademark large shuriken, while Leon was at the opposite of Renaults with his Gunblade pointing at his head. "So, you'll either be a nice man giving us what we needed or say 'sayonara' for the last time!"
"Okay, okay! Just don't cut my head off! If you really wanted to know about this, then fine.
"It all began when Theophilus Star System was at its highest peak of the Golden Age a few years ago, where technology and traditions were finally cooperating with other, after so many diplomatic terms tied. I was newly appointed as the Governor of Second Eden, whereas the others were Governors of Akagi, Genso, Mana Mosso, Agatiti, Senplice and Gravra. The core President of this Star System was a colleague of mine, Antoni Lewis and in a few short months, everything was calm and in peace after so many years of war and such ridiculous. However, a couple of months later, he was acting strange, muttering over some 'black cloaked men terrorising our position'.
"At first, I found this absurd, black cloaked men terrorising the Theophilus Star System, but then my luck was turning worse for wear – my eldest son, Alexi, went missing during that incident and after a few days in my office, those same men came out of nowhere and raided my place. Suddenly, there was a man covered in red and his head bandaged for some reason, came in front of my desk. He began saying his group, XIII Order, have taken the planets in the Theophilus Star System and even overthrown the core President's position. However, in exchange for hiding the facts that they are ruling this petit Star System, we have to research on this meddlesome planet Lost Eden, using the best technology this has been set up. My former classmate, Julian Yeager Senior, refused to make the technology needed for research and decided to leave the political issues and to start listening people over its products.
"On the other hand, those XIII Order members came to me again and provided with handful of cash. But they told me, should I refuse with this cash just to form another company, similar to Yeager Enterprises, my son would be killed. I was distraught they've got my son, yet at the same time, I didn't know what to do with this situation. And when I looked closely at one of them, I was…." He paused for such a long time, he could not even spit it out in front of the crowd and he broke into tears. "…I'm sorry. I can't continue with this."
"That's okay, old man," Rufus remarked, as he, Alda, along with Leon and Yuffie nearly left Renaults's office, "We've got what we wanted. It's up to you, whether you wanted to join our silent resistance for Y.E. or not."
A little earlier, in the streets of Serapha
"Dammit!" Bach cursed himself, as he was running at the same time, bringing out his guitar, Opera. "Why does that crimson bastard have to appear in this time of crisis?"
"Well, at least now we know where Ashura is." Eliza remarked as she was running with her puppet strings.
"And we know now Aerith and Sephiroth are in big trouble." Adrian stated, as he too kept his feet moving. "So, any news on their whereabouts, YESHUA?"
"I sensed their presences are nearly five metres away to the City Square." He replied without a note of emotion, but then unusually for a robot, he stopped, making the process continued to the crew.
"Why did you stop, YESHUA?" They all asked, but a column of bright light emerged in front of street and the people regardless of their activities, looked at the amazement, but also the horror behind this.
Moving to present…
The bright light disappeared and the unlikely alliance emerged, although with minor scratches and a few feathers shedding off Sephiroth's wing, in addition to the opposite, the XIII Order, with the crimson arrow now inserting the pain of Larxene's thigh, masses of cuts from Axel's body and a combination of blood-cuts and bruises, seen with the evidence of Vexen's face.
"Dammit…" The young blonde woman gasped "You'll be real sorry, when you're…messing with the XIII Order!"
"For now, we shall retreat." Axel smirked, as of all three member disappeared from trace and the citizens who were infected with Lawrence's spell, woke up, unaware what the event has happened and got back to life as normal.
However, on the other hand that the madness has calmed down, there were still some questions that needed to sort out this mess.
"Tell me," Sephiroth started with a question to the crimson stranger "Why are you still alive, without telling your younger brother?"
"Heh." Lawrence laughed a little when asked with a question. "That's a funny question you have."
"Well, not as funny as the connections with Ashura…"
"Ah, yes, Ashura. He saved my life a couple of years ago. Should I tell you the full story?"
"…Please do."
"Yes, but in exchange for my information, you must never tell this to Bach. I'm only here to test his commitment to his crew and if you should tell I was here talking to you, and then I had no choice, but to kill you in sight."
"…Fine with that."
"Hmm, where should I begin? Ah yes…"
Couple of years ago in Saint Maria of Eden Hospital
"I'm sorry," Doctor Depp explained sadly to Yeager Senior "I couldn't bring back your fourth child to life."
"I see…" He solemnly replied without a moment to contemplate himself.
"Your wife tried so hard to push him to the outside world, but then he stopped breathing. There's nothing we can about it, even though we've got the best equipment in the Theophilus Star System."
"So, this means my Lawrence only has a few months to live, right?"
"…I'm afraid so."
Eavesdropping on his bedside, the young Lawrence was worried that his life was at the very end and he still wanted to live as fully as possible. Until he saw two shadows on his lap and looked straight away – one with Victorian clothes and the other cloaked in white with the mask on.
"Hello, Lawrence." The white stranger said softly to him.
"W-w-w-w-w-who are you?" He asked, while being scared to death and coughed afterwards.
"Don't worry, he's with me." The young gentleman responded gently. "I am Lord Ashura."
"Ashura? Are you going to kill me?"
"Kill you? Absolutely not. I'm here to save you from your timely death."
"Really?"
"Yes, but at a heavy price you must pay."
"…Tell me. Tell me how to live longer and I'll do anything for this."
"You must leave your family behind and come with him. I'll provide you with the best medication I have for you in exchange for this."
"…Okay, I guess."
"Good, now take my hand and we shall make haste as soon as possible."
"…" That was all Sephiroth and Aerith could respond. Somehow, their thoughts were connecting to Lawrence and Ashura…and that white stranger too. Who are they and why did they want only them to get to Lost Eden and not the XIII Order?
"Now you see why I have to warn you two about?" Lawrence asked and they nodded in response "I can't tell that to your friends, because I would fear they too, would be involved, but you, my Master tells you, that you need to protect yourselves, your black wing and Jehovah from getting into the wrong hands."
"…"
"Lawrence, you have some company." Ashura called softly. "It would be wise to leave this area immediately, before anything gets too ugly."
"Agreed. See you later." With a click of his fingers, Sephiroth, Aerith and Ashura could only do, is to watch Lawrence's MA, 'Azura' descend upon him, get on to the cockpit and watch him fly beyond the blue sky. Seconds later, it disappeared and the oncoming party soon joined them.
"You're rather late for this occasion." The eccentric swordsman noted as he closed his eyes and reopen to show his lavender iris.
"Where is he?" The strange guitarist asked with anger.
"If you're looking for him, I'm afraid he disappeared, before you came here."
"But right now," the One Winged Angel interrupted, before Bach ever got the chance "the one we are now concern is this – the XIII Order, Lost Eden, Seraphiel's Compass…and myself. I wanted to know why they wanted my wing."
"Yes, it all seems connected now. What a small galaxy we live in." And Ashura looked up to the clear, with the rest soon followed.
Author's Notes: Sorry if this chapter took longer than a week, due to Graphics coursework over at school. Right, first things first, if you do not like my action scenes, then I'm apologise, though you can imagine that and time that in your head. I don't really care on how long the fights are going to last. And yes, for you Kadaj fans, he gets to have a cameo appearance there, just to please you.
And if you are still confused about this conspiracy I'm creating, then don't worry. Read furthermore and your head becomes clear. So, this is the end of Episode One – The Exploration arc, as I am going to call it, because the next Journey will focus on around two years after the incident in Second Eden, but don't worry. This isn't the end of Nimbus Exploration. Think of it as Rurouni Kenshin's arcs, only mixing with Xenosaga. Same title, different time or something. Roll on Episode Two – The Evolution arc.
Now, I would like to thank Lily Silver, Black Malva, Tish and fellow AeriSeph fans. Without you, I'll be writing another Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with flamers on and left you completely confused. Reviews, theories and comments are welcome, but no anti-AeriSeph mails and flames, please.