Chapter 15

Miss Dolphin?

Wymond sat and talked with Shera about her acquired knowledge on Cetra names as Cid and Chuck worked out exactly what it is Cid wanted done, adding "money is no object." This made the negotiations much simpler naturally.

"You seem to know a lot about the Cetra yourself," Shera said to Wymond.

"I feel I'm a little bit closer to the Cetra than most people know," Wymond said grinning a little.

"So many people really want to know all about them, it's just too bad they're all gone," Shera said.

"Some think it may have been for the best, they think that they wouldn't have been able to live in today's society," Wymond commented.

"They're the Cetra, if they were as powerful as we've been told then they should have been able to adapt to anything," Shera replied.

"Maybe they wouldn't want to adapt, the Cetra were travelers, they never stayed in one place and lived there," Wymond said, "in fact the life of making a home and living in one place had a large part in the demise of the Cetra. If they still survived today then it would have only ended in the same way."

"You might be right, but we can't really know now, I guess," Shera said.

"I do believe the Cetra might be happier had it gone differently though," Wymond said. "They do enjoy life much more."

"You talk like you know, you're just assuming they do because of what we've been told about them," Shera said shrugging, "they might have been nothing like what the stories say."

Wymond nodded, "That's possible, but I feel strongly that what we know of the Cetra would be correct."

Couldn't have come from a more reliable source, not that Shera could have known just how reliable.

"Shera, could you help Cid and I? I wanna give him the specs on that new armour," Chuck said.

Shera looked to Wymond, "Excuse me."

Wymond nodded to her and she got up.

"I'll go look around, come find me when you're all done," Wymond said standing up.

"Don't get lost, it can be real crowded out there," Chuck warned.

"I'll make sure to stay in the general area," Wymond replied and headed for the door.

"We shouldn't be too long," Shera promised.

"No rush," Wymond said leaving the kitchen.

There however was a rush, he just didn't want to convey their problem to Chuck and Shera, Cid knew what kind of time limit they had and knew he should work accordingly. The Ancient Black shouldn't appear until roughly three days after the appearance of the building, so they had this day and the next. After that they would have to fight the Black.

Wymond left the shop and walked out into the crowd, managing to avoid collisions as well as could be expected in the mass of people. He looked around, hoping to find a quiet place, someplace to send a message across time and existences; he needed to check on Aeris. Knowing the message could take a long time to be received he knew he had to send it as soon as possible; he wanted her to know who exactly was behind all of this nonsense.

Though, he also really just wanted to know she was alive. Of course, being her guardian, had she died…not in the literal sense as she was really already dead, even in a different dimension, he would know. Their telepathic connection would have been severed had she been sent back to the Lifestream. Even though this was true Wymond still wanted to hear a return message from his charge. Wymond was in a profession that didn't allow connections with the Cetra you were protecting but it was hard not to like Aeris.

Their relationship, if you could even call it that, for a while was strictly professional, she was the only Cetra he had ever guarded that had broken the barrier and actually talked to him. It wasn't that guardians didn't or couldn't talk, however, it's just most charges if not all charges simply were to think of guardians as guardians alone, their shadows, protecting them, but gratitude wasn't necessary, they were just doing their job.

Up until he had met Aeris Wymond had, like all the other guardians, become comfortable with the unending silence and he had talked very little for most of his career let alone have a conversation.

Then when he was assigned to her, she had forced him back into a world he realized he missed, the world where he wasn't just a shadow no one could see. He had begun to enjoy the conversations he had with Aeris, though at first she had done much of the talking to herself, this didn't seem to bug her however.

Eventually, Wymond had what no guardian could claim to have: a somewhat friendly relationship with his charge.

In any case the prospect of being separated from her made him uneasy, not just because he would be in some serious trouble if she were to be sent back to the Lifestream a second time, but because she was a friend.

Wymond had also never told anyone the face he had seen while underwater in the Forgotten City. He had clearly seen and recognized the man behind it all, but with Vincent being killed everyone seemed to have forgotten momentarily why they had gone to the city in the first place. Above all he knew he wanted to make sure Aeris knew who she and her spikey-haired friend were up against.

On the side he was checking up to make sure the said spikey-haired man was doing his job of keeping her safe.

Wymond found exactly where he wanted to go and headed there, away from the town and bustle of people was a small beach with sparkling blue water beyond. He saw no people in the tranquil area and decided to head there, he went past a house and behind it the world changed. Immediately he had switched from an urban environment to an open, and amazingly quiet, beach.

Although he had been mistaken, he wasn't alone on the beach.

Standing on the shore in bare feet and an orange bathing suit was a girl; Wymond guessed she was probably close to being teenaged if a little younger. Off in the water Wymond caught sight of a dolphin shooting up into the air and landing back into the water with a splash.

Wymond heard a somewhat high pitched whistle and the magnificent grey creature jumped into the air again.

Wymond hadn't seen a genuine dolphin in many years; they were very rare after being hunted almost to extinction long ago. This one appeared to be trained by the girl in front of him as every time she blew her whistle the dolphin shot out of the water and into the air.

As the dolphin continued to shot through the air Wymond walked as if hypnotized by the creature's antics and found himself almost right beside the girl. When the dolphin stopped jumping for a while Wymond snapped out of it and suddenly realized the girl was staring at him.

"Oh, sorry," Wymond said, feeling a bit embarrassed, "I was admiring your dolphin."

"I assumed you were staring at Mr. Dolphin instead of me, but there are some weirdoes around here still," the girl said.

Wymond looked at her strangely.

"I was just kidding," she said smiling.

"Oh, of course," Wymond said.

"Priscilla, nice to meet you weirdo," the girl said sticking out her hand.

Wymond shook her hand, "Wymond."

"You like dolphins?" asked Priscilla.

"I haven't seen one in a very long time, they're rare creatures, fascinating," Wymond said.

"Nice to finally meet someone who likes them as much as I do, Mr. Dolphin's been around here for a while, he's pretty much family," Priscilla said.

Just as she said that Mr. Dolphin swam right up to the shallow water and called to them with a dolphin's signature screech and tossed some water at Wymond with his nose.

The water splashed on Wymond and he jumped a bit in surprise.

"I think Mr. Dolphin likes you," Priscilla said laughing.

"May I?" asked Wymond indicating he wanted to move closer to the dolphin.

"Sure," she replied.

Wymond stepped into the water a bit and rubbed his hand along the dolphin's wet and smooth skin. Being a Cetra he had an intimate connection with all creatures on the planet, dolphins, being one of the more intelligent, were the easiest to get through to. Wymond could connect with some of the smarter species on the planet telepathically and communicate.

Wymond closed his eyes leaving his hand on Mr. Dolphin's head, Priscilla looked at him curiously.

"She would appreciate it if you called her Miss Dolphin," Wymond said suddenly.

"What?" asked Priscilla.

"This dolphin is female," Wymond said opening his eyes.

"No, he's…how could you…?" she asked.

"I have a certain connection with animals, Mr. Dolphin is a Miss," Wymond said.

He said it with such a face of seriousness that Priscilla wasn't entirely sure the man was joking.

"You couldn't know that," Priscilla said in confusion.

"I tell you the truth," Wymond said, he looked to the dolphin, "she needs proof, two nods and a back flip for female, one nod and a back flip if your male, alright?"

The dolphin made a noise and nodded off in Priscilla's direction.

"She likes it when you blow the whistle," Wymond said, "she won't do tricks otherwise."

"Mr. Dolphin does any trick with the whistle, it won't prove anything," she replied.

"She's right, just this once without the whistle?" asked Wymond.

The dolphin screeched and Wymond spoke to Priscilla, "She wants two fish before she does the trick without the whistle."

Priscilla looked at him strangely for a moment and grabbed a silver bucket; she pulled out two medium sized fish of some kind and gave them to the dolphin.

"Okay?" asked Wymond.

The dolphin turned and shot out into deeper water.

"Two nods and flip for female, one and a flip for male, right?" asked Wymond.

There was a faint screech from the dolphin out in the water.

"Alright, go ahead," Wymond said.

The dolphin shot under water and came up again giving a clear double nod then shooting underwater and coming up again with a graceful back flip. She splashed back into the water and was in front of Priscilla and Wymond again.

"Wow," Priscilla said. "Mr. Dolphin never takes commands without the whistle."

Wymond shrugged.

"Miss Dolphin I guess," Priscilla corrected, "sorry Miss Dolphin."

"She's fine with it, just she could never tell you before," Wymond said.

"How do you do that, talk to her like that?" asked Priscilla.

Wymond walked away from the water and back beside Priscilla.

"Just something I gained over the years," Wymond replied.

"That's amazing, could you teach me?" she asked.

"Well, it's not something you can teach, people like me just have the ability," Wymond said.

"People like you?" asked Priscilla. "There are other people that can talk to dolphins?"

"Not very many anymore, I'm afraid," Wymond replied.

Priscilla's eyes widened, "You're an Ancient aren't you?"

Wymond was taken aback by the guess.

"What makes you say that?" asked Wymond.

"Everyone knows the Ancients were in tune with everything on the planet," Priscilla said sounding excited.

"What exactly do you know about the Ancients?" asked Wymond.

"As much as anyone else, everyone knows about the Ancients, I thought there weren't any left," Priscilla asked, "I remember seeing the last one before I heard she was killed."

"Aeris," Wymond muttered.

"Yeah, that's what they called her, Aeris, so you are an Ancient," Priscilla said happily.

"You could say that," Wymond replied, still wanting to sound vague but knowing it was out already. Not that it mattered whether someone knew there was somehow another Ancient around.

"This is amazing, everyone thought they were dead, where did you hide all this time?" asked Priscilla.

"I pretended not to be a Cetra, eventually I disappeared into the crowd," lied Wymond.

"Are you the last one?" asked Priscilla lowering her voice to a whisper.

"As far as I know," Wymond said continuing to play along.

"I won't tell anyone, it's just good to hear there's one left," Priscilla said.

Hearing the girl talk made Wymond wish he was really somehow a Cetra that had survived and not one that had been accidentally brought back temporarily to life. The thought of an Ancient still existing made the girl seem so happy, Wymond had never thought the Cetra were so well received.

"Is this man bugging you?" asked Cid coming up behind them.

"Hey, Cid, nah, he's just talking to Miss Dolphin," Priscilla replied smiling.

"Miss Dolphin?" asked Cid.

"The dolphin is female," Wymond explained.

"I guess you're gonna tell me you can talk to animals, eh?" asked Cid.

"Mostly just mammals," Wymond said.

"So then how can you talk to a fish?" asked Cid.

Priscilla giggled, "Cid, a dolphin's a mammal you goof!"

"Dolphins are fish!" Cid argued, "they live underwater they're fish!"

Priscilla shook their head, "They have to come up for air, silly, like us."

"I'm corrected again, Cid," Wymond said smiling, "she's smarter than you."

Cid was about to respond to Wymond when the ground started rumbling violently, Priscilla started to fall but Wymond grabbed her.

"Is that an earthquake?" asked Priscilla.

Wymond was just barely keeping his footing and supporting the girl, he looked around and then over the water, in the distance he saw the source of the disturbance.

"Priscilla, get back, quickly!" Wymond growled forcing her to her feet.

"Why, what…?" then she saw it, off in the distance something was emerging from the water.

In moments its entire body was floating in the air, it was an entirely black creature with large wings that appeared to be covered with spikes. It also had a pair of feet sporting three deadly looking talons each.

"It has begun to affect the water now," Wymond said looking at Miss Dolphin, "Priscilla do you have somewhere you can take Miss Dolphin that is away from wild waters?"

The dolphin screeched.

"Yes, I have a big water tank set up for her, my parents paid for it after Junon was expanded," Priscilla said.

Wymond realized the girl probably couldn't carry the dolphin.

"That won't work this thing could send Junon straight to hell, look, for you kid, just this once, I could arrange some accommodations for the dolphin on the Highwind and come back, leave some of that fucker for me, Wymond" Cid growled nodding to the huge Shadow. "Sorry." Cid added noticing he had just cursed in front of a young lady.

Wymond nodded and Cid ran over to Miss Dolphin, he lifted the dolphin up and started running, somewhat comically, toward the Highwind.

Wymond drew his Masamune Blade as the Shadow closed in on the beach.

"Go with Cid," Wymond ordered Priscilla.

"You can't fight that," Priscilla said.

"What?" asked Wymond.

"You're the last Cetra, if you die then there won't be any Cetra left," she cried.

The girl was naïve but her thoughts were in the right place, Wymond couldn't help but smile.

"Trust me, I've fought one of these things before, it would be a waste of my Cetra abilities if I didn't use them to defeat this monster," Wymond said.

Priscilla looked off to the incoming creature; Wymond recognized the look in her eyes.

He knew what it felt like to have that look on his face. She wanted to help, she wanted to help protect the last Cetra…naïve, but her thoughts were in the right place.

"One day, if you really want to, I'm sure you'll be strong enough to fight a creature like this, but you're not ready yet," Wymond said, "I can see the look in your eyes, you want to fight it, but to fight it is to die. If you truly wish to fight as I see that you do, dying here will gain you nothing."

Priscilla just nodded, knowing he was right, but she did want to help.

"I must be able to do something for you, anything?" asked Priscilla.

Wymond gestured back to the town, "Get as many people out of Junon as possible, as quickly as possible."

She nodded, "Alright."

Priscilla turned and started to run but stopped and looked over her shoulder, "Be careful, Wymond."

"I'll see you on the Highwind when you pick up Miss Dolphin," Wymond said.

Priscilla smiled and ran off.

Wymond watched the creature approach, the power of its wings made the water under it ripple. He hadn't expected such powerful creatures to be coming so soon.

"Somebody, help!" came a sudden shriek from behind the guardian and he spun around to see a woman running on to the beach with another woman, they were chasing after something. Wymond looked up and in the air was another of the Shadow creatures.

"That thing just grabbed a girl!" one woman yelled looking around desperately for help, everyone, however, was too busy trying to get the hell out of Junon.

Wymond immediately saw a person in the clutches of the creature's left foot; she had an orange bathing suit on.

"Oh, no," Wymond muttered, "you two, get the hell away from here, I'll take care of the girl."

The two women noticed him for the first time, whether they believed him, or it was the large sword that made them comply he wasn't sure, but they were gone very fast.

"Hold on," Wymond whispered looking around and finding his way to get to Priscilla.

The Shadow with Priscilla was flying toward the other Shadow which was now very close to the beach. Wymond ran straight toward the Shadow creature heading inland, Wymond was almost ankle deep in water before the monster was close enough.

The guardian jumped and landed on the flying Shadow's head, making sure to avoid the deadly spikes that lined its wings and back. He immediately pushed off from the thing's head shooting straight up into the air right toward the Shadow passing overhead.

Wymond rocketed upward blindingly fast and drove his Masamune Blade into the Shadow's underside. It let out a yelp equivalent to what sounded like a normal person getting a sliver or some other mildly inconvenient wound.

The guardian now hung on his sword and was right beside Priscilla.

Wymond looked to her; to his surprise she wasn't screaming and didn't look very scared, in fact she looked angry. She was punching and kicking with futility against the creature and hadn't even noticed Wymond.

"We meet again it appears," Wymond yelled over the rushing wind.

Priscilla stopped struggling and looked over at him, "Wymond!"

"Well, I'm going to try and…" suddenly the Shadow turned upside down and Wymond fell down on to the Shadow's underside, which was now pointing up to the sky. Then almost immediately the Shadow righted itself and Wymond jut barely got his hand back on his embedded sword before falling off. In his hurry Wymond accidentally grabbed the blade instead of the hilt.

To a normal person this would have probably chopped off all their fingers, Wymond, however, was able to hold on to the blade as it cut deep into his hand. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes for a second; trying to get his senses back and ignore the pain.

"Wymond…" Priscilla said seeing his hand and the blood now running down from it.

"I'm fine," Wymond growled and opened his black eyes, "Priscilla you're going to be falling for a few seconds but I'll catch you."

Priscilla just nodded.

Wymond let go of his sword and quickly grabbed it with his left hand, by the hilt this time. He ripped the sword from the Shadow and slashed hard into the monster's leg violently severing it from the Shadow's body. This got quite the high pitched scream from the monster, finally a true show of pain.

Priscilla fell with the severed leg; her stomach was still up with Wymond near the monster. She tightly closed her eyes, not wanting to see the ground come rushing toward her.

Then she felt a weight disappear, the leg fell off her and she was falling freely.

Then it stopped.

She felt arms around her waist and somehow she had stopped, her feet still dangled so she wasn't on the ground…but she wasn't falling. Priscilla slowly opened her eyes, all she saw was the blue sky, then she realized the arms around her waist were coming from behind her.

She looked back and saw Wymond behind her, they were floating.

"Wow," Priscilla said looking all around, she was suspended in the air, "you really are an Ancient."

"Cetra aren't the only beings who can levitate," Wymond said shrugging.

"Yeah," she said smiling back at him, "but only a Cetra can do it with so much style."

"Oh, well," Wymond said, "that…is a trait reserved for Cetra however."

Priscilla laughed.

Suddenly the cry of two very angry monsters interrupted them and drew their attention to the two fast approaching Shadows.

Wymond drew his Masamune Blade in his wounded hand and used his left arm to keep Priscilla in the air with him.

"Hang on," Wymond said as he readied for the attack by the Shadows.

"You're not gonna be able to fight them holding me," Priscilla said. "Get a little lower and drop me in the water."

Wymond shook his head, "There could be more of these things or things like them in the water."

"If you don't they'll just kill us up here," she said.

Of course Wymond knew she was right, but possibly sacrificing the life of a young girl for the ability to fully fight the Shadows wasn't a trade he could make. It wasn't a trade anyone should be able to make.

"Just hold on," Wymond said and readied his blade.

The Shadows closed in and Priscilla closed her eyes tightly again, fully expecting the Shadows to cut into Wymond and herself at any moment.

The sound of the creature's wings and growls were sounding very close, she gritted her teeth.

Then another sound drowned out the monsters, the sound of something screaming past them from behind so loudly it left Priscilla's ears ringing.

She opened her eyes and saw a projectile of some kind rocketing toward the Shadows. It was long and grey with a fire shooting out from behind, some kind of missile.

It stopped just between the two creatures and then erupted into a massive explosion that sent both monsters soaring away. One shooting straight upward, its body on fire, and the other straight down likewise set ablaze.

"Get on!" yelled a voice.

Wymond turned and coming up beside them was the Highwind, on the outdoor platform stood Chuck with some sort of large launcher on his shoulder and Shera standing beside him urging them to get on.

Wymond floated over and landed on the outdoor platform with Priscilla.

"Cid saw the second one and figured we'd need some more firepower," Shera said.

"Everything we need is on the ship; never stocked anything so fast in my life," Chuck said, "this thing is now a floating fortress."

Wymond nodded to him, "Good work."

Chuck shrugged, "That's my job."

"We should get to the bridge, those things are coming back," Shera warned, the Shadows were indeed turning back readying their revenge.

Chuck spun and fired the launcher on his shoulder and the projectile from it was the same as the previous one that had saved Wymond and Priscilla. It exploded again, this time one of the Shadows got out of range in time but the other was hit full on and dropped out of the air on fire yet again.

"There's some more time for us," Chuck said throwing the launcher overboard, "let's go."

They all charged toward the bridge and were standing there with Cid in a few moments.

The airship turned and the two Shadows were visible straight ahead coming toward them.

"Chuck, activate the new stuff, now's a good a time as any!" Cid growled.

Chuck nodded and hit a few buttons on a console.

Outside, the Highwind was suddenly covered entirely by a light green coat of something that appeared to be crystal like and scaled as if it was the skin of a lizard of some kind.

"What is that?" asked Wymond.

"A new armour I've developed, I call it Dragon Skin," Chuck said, "it's a powerful alloy created by mixing Materia with regular metal, reinforcing a ship's ability to sustain damage by something like two hundred percent!"

They all looked at Chuck; he appeared very excited that his new invention was getting tested.

He looked around at their stares, "Well…hypothetically, it hasn't been tested yet."

"It's about to be," Cid growled activating the ship's weapons, "hang on to something, it's about time someone blew these bastards into a lot of very small pieces!"