The Journey Begins
Next morning, Josh woke up and saw his dad in the bed next to him at the inn. Josh's body was super-warm and he winced in pain not only the physical pain of the fight but also the emotional pain over the loss of his mother. He later learned that Cid, Shera, Barret, and Tifa weren't the only ones that died that day, 20 others lost their lives as well. His friends and new family were downstairs in the inn.
"Hey, Josh you all right?" Ray asked as Ashley went upstairs to check on Cloud.
"Still weak, but alive," Josh replied, testing his limbs, a minute later, Ashley came down. She looked sad, and took a minute to collect her thoughts and feelings. Oh yeah, she had Cloud's Ultima Weapon in her hands.
"He told me to give you this, and to care for Holy and KoR, whatever that means," Ashley spoke up.
"Wait a minute," Ray interrupted "KoR, isn't that the legendary Knights of Round materia?"
"I remember my dad telling me about it, but I didn't think he actually HAD it?" Josh replied (Duh!)
"Well, now it's yours, lucky bastard," Chad swore
"Thank you, Dad" Josh said quietly.
"He also said that he loves you more than anything and that you guard the Holy and KoR materia at all cost, you are never to use KoR unless there is great danger to the ones you love, and the Ultima Weapon he entrusts to you as a token of his gratitude all these 18 years" Ashley spoke up. Josh then clutched his father's blade and made his vow,
"I will, upon my father's blade have my revenge upon the maniacal beasts who destroyed our lives and killed our families and I will find and free Areis' soul." Josh vowed.
"Areis…?" Ashley said, thinking
"I was shown a vision, 3 people were in it, and one was spiky-haired like me, only jet black. My father once said that he had a buddy named Zack so that could have been him, then a long platinum-haired guy with a giant sword of doom. It was bigger than dad's it was huge. The third person was a girl about 20 years old, brown-hair. Two ponytails, I think, green eyes. She was carrying a basket full of……something, I couldn't tell, but she had a magic materia in her hair and at first it was pure white but then it turned a pale green. They all had one thing in common, there was blood all over them. Zack was shot, the platinum haired one was cut in half and the girl was stabbed in the chest. It was pretty damn freaky!" Josh explained.
"Well the platinum-haired one could be Sephiroth!" Ray put in.
"What!" Chad asked
"My mom once told me to be good or the one winged-demon Sephiroth will come and take you away when I was caught stealing for the first time," Ray explained
"And he is dead now… right?" Ashley asked, kind of scared.
"Should be" Josh said "Dad killed him,"
"What about this Areis person?" Chad asked
"EURIKA!" Ashley Shouted
"WHAT?" The rest of the group shouted back
"Areis was the flower girl, My boss told me about her a long time ago I never forgot it" Ashley explained
"So that explains the basket," Josh said
"Now that we've figured out who, now what?" Ray asked Josh
"We go to the forbidden forest," Ashley interrupted
"Who made you in charge, Bitch?" Chad yelled at Ashley
"How dare you call me a bitch, you skinny asshole!" Ashley yelled back
"OOOOHHHH! Ouch!" Josh and Ray said together.
"You are just like those hoary, Midgar strippers who can't seem to ……Meep!" Chad said until he was hit in the crotch by Ashley's metal staff.
"Did that hurt?" Ashley asked Chad. He nods his head.
"Good! It's supposed to!" Ashley said and walked out of the inn.
"Pain…..Excruciating amounts….of pain," Chad whimpered as Ashley walked back in.
"I hope you didn't need that!" Ashley taunted him
"I hate you….So much!" Chad squeaked as he got to his feet.
"I'm totally in agreement with her, you deserved it!" Josh said
"If I wasn't in so much pain, I would end you right now!" Chad winced as the rest of the group walked out to Chad's Airship "The Ragnarok" we decided to store the Gold Chocobos and use that to get to the forbidden forest and from there the secret cave of the ancients.
