Note: This chapter is set in an AU containing elements of both Ordinary Heroes and Whispers of the Gods. As a result, you should not take anything contained in this chapter too seriously (i.e., do not expect this to actually happen in Whispers of the Gods).

X X X

Cackles of the Gods

The high priest turned his eyes to the heavens as he and his fellow clerics finished the last, haunting verses of their complex, long-winded prayer. For weeks, the woods near their city had been besieged by a terrible hydra. Dozens of hunters had gone forth to slay the beast, but all had failed. And with each day that passed, merchants and craftsman grew more and more reluctant to visit the city as tales of the beast's ferocity spread far and wide.

Now they had no choice but to pray to the gods for help. The high priest and his fellows had thought long and hard about which of the gods to call upon. They had consulted countless holy texts and waited for the most auspicious day to make their prayers. Finally, the time had come to call upon Lightning, the Sword of Heaven, the Blade of the High Mother, and the enforcer of Cocoon's sacred laws.

Surely, the great goddess would hear their prayers and come forth to smite their evil foe with thunder and lightning. To show their gratitude, the city had already prepared a sumptuous feast as well as fine offerings of gold, precious jewels, and silk for the goddess's temple. Perhaps they could even win the goddess's favour, which would doubtless ensure years of protection and safety for the city and its people.

The initial response to their prayers was most favourable. Almost as soon as they had finished, the clear skies began to darken. Ominous black clouds rolled in from the horizon, and soon a light rain had begun to fall. Moments later, the sky was torn apart by great ladders of electricity, lightning that sizzled from one end of the sky to the other. A powerful wind sprang up, and the howl of thunder washed over the city square where the ritual had been performed. All around the square, the city's people whispered amongst one another. The goddess had heard. She was coming.

And then she was there.

A titanic bolt of lightning ripped down from pinnacle of the sky, blinding in its brightness and terrifying in its force. The whole city shook, and the high priest stumbled back as the lightning bolt slammed into the centre of the city square.

When at last the light had faded and the high priest could see again, it was clear that a goddess had come. But not the one they wanted.

True, this goddess had pink hair that seemed to mirror the sky just after dawn, but instead of the blue of the summer sky, her eyes were vivid emerald. She was also a good deal younger than the high priest expected. The goddess Lightning was said to have the appearance of a woman in her prime. This goddess looked like a mortal of about fifteen.

X X X

Averia scowled as she rose to her feet. She still wasn't as good at the whole 'arrive in a blaze of divine glory thing' as she wanted to be. Even though she could ride the lightning and bend it to her will, her mother was so much better at it than her. It had taken her longer than expected too. She needed to be faster if she ever wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps. But those were concerns for another time. Right now, she had a high priest to talk to.

She let her eyes wander over the crowd of mortals, most of who had dropped to their knees and were in various stages of obeisance. The high priest – a fellow in ridiculously ornate robes – seemed torn between asking her who she was and running for his life.

A sigh left her lips. She was honoured that her mother had seen fit to let her take over some of her easier duties, but she was getting a little sick of this kind of reception. It wasn't like she'd been born yesterday. These people should know who she was. She might not have a temple to her in every city like her parents did, but she did have a few shrines here and there!

"Honoured goddess." The high priest bowed low, pressing his forehead to the ground. "We welcome you to our humble city. Please, great and noble uh… um…"

"I assume you were trying to get Lightning."

The priest twitched and looked up at her. "Yes, honoured goddess. But we would be more than happy to receive your help instead if you see fit. Only tell us your name so that we might –"

"Averia."

"Averia?" The high priest winced. "Is… uh… that all?"

Averia sighed. Gods didn't have names so much as they had titles, and it was just her luck that this high priest was one of those mortals who insisted upon hearing all of them. Frankly, she didn't care too much. Sure, there were gods who tended to take things like names very seriously – she knew at least three who'd tried to rain fire down on a city after people had gotten their names wrong – but her mom had always stressed the importance of taking it a little easy on mortals about stuff like that. Most of them were good people, and sometimes mistakes were made.

"If you must know, I am Averia, Heiress to the Blade of the High Mother, Wielder of the Spear of Thunder, First Born of the Wind and the Lightning, and…" She paused. "Scion of the Broken Mountain. But Averia will do. Now get up."

The high priest scrambled to his feet and a pointed look at the crowd had them on their feet as well. "We meant no offence, noble Averia, but we had thought to call upon your mother's aid…"

"My mother has matters of grave importance to attend to." It was almost true. Her mother had been asked to keep watch during another one of Cocoon's debates – debates that were supposed to be held in lieu of fights between disagreeing gods. In any case, the debates usually devolved into fights anyway. Her mother's job was too make sure things didn't get too out of hand. The High Mother and High Father were both nigh omnipotent beings, but both of them had gotten sick of the constant need to repair their palaces after yet another divine fistfight. "I have been chosen to act in her stead."

"Of course." The high priest bowed again, and Averia had to fight the urge to grab him by the collar of his robe. How were they supposed to talk if he spent half the time bowing? "If I might explain our quandary to you…"

"You have a hydra. You would like me to make it dead." Averia shrugged. The high priest had made that extremely clear during the course of a prayer that had gone for almost three hours. "Seems easy enough." She raised one hand. "I'll be right back."

And with that she was gone, a bolt of lightning carrying her to the dark forest beyond the city's walls. The hydra was exactly where she expected it to be: hiding in a dank cave. Another bolt of light brought the beast out of its den. To be sure, it was a foul looking thing. Its body and tail were a good seventy feet long while each of its necks was about fifty feet long. Dark red scales covered it, and the monster left copious amounts of slime in its wake. It had seven heads, each of which had dagger-like teeth, amber eyes, and a generally horrible look.

The hydra hissed furiously at her as it approached, and Averia moved to one side as it spat a glob of poison at her. She could probably kill it with her bare hands, but she had no intention of touching the thing unless she had to. Besides, the quicker she got this done the better. Diana had been mumbling something about visiting the mortal world again, and Averia was worried about what her little sister would get up to. Her lips curled. She loved her little sister, but she did not love the trouble Diana seemed to cause everywhere she went. She'd spent years – and would likely spend many more – trying to keep her sister out of harm's way.

Once again, Averia lifted one hand. "Come forth, Spear of Thunder." She had taken great pains to keep the invocation for her weapon nice and short. Unlike some gods, she saw no need to dedicate a whole epic ballad to summoning her weapon. In fact, she thought anyone who did was a bit foolish. What would happen if they needed to summon their weapon in a hurry?

The sky above her shattered, a vast, circular hole cut into the storm raging overhead. A glowing shaft of crystal thundered down and struck the ground beside her. She reached over and pulled the spear out of the ground. It was wrought of purest crystal, the seething force of a thousand storms bound into it. The tip was sharp enough to pierce a mountain, but she had something else in mind. After all, hydras could regenerate, so simply stabbing it wouldn't be enough.

The hydra hissed another challenge, and Averia lifted her spear. If she could destroy the hydra's whole body in one shot, it wouldn't be able to regenerate. Averia poured her power into the spear. The crystal shattered and the spear transformed into a bar of writhing electricity. With a low growl, she threw the spear at the hydra.

The result explosion obliterated the hydra – and everything else within a radius of one mile. As the light faded, Averia found herself floating over the middle of a large crater.

"Oh." She'd probably put a little too much of her power into that attack. This was bad. She didn't have the power needed to fix the crater. What to do? Wait…

She arrived back in the city in a flash of lightning.

"Rejoice," Averia declared solemnly. "For the beast is slain." She gestured at the offerings the city had gathered for her mother's temple. "In honour of the gifts you have prepared for my mother, I have seen fit to gift your city with a new lake, one whose clear waters shall soon teem with fish."

As the high priest and the people of the city shouted their thanks, she vanished. Oh, she was in so, so much trouble. There was no way someone wouldn't notice that new lake, not to mention all the damage she'd done to the rest of the forest. Hopefully, her Aunt Aerith wouldn't mind fixing up the forest and putting some fish in the lake. And speaking of the lake… a few of the lesser goddesses with powers over water owed her some favours, so she could probably get them to fill the crater up.

Yes, she thought. It would all be okay.

No, it wouldn't.

Her mother was waiting for her on Cocoon.

"I've been told there is a new lake in the south." Lightning's eyes narrowed. "One that looks to have been carved out of the ground with your power."

"Uh…"

"A hydra does not require that much power to kill." Lightning grabbed Averia by the scruff of her crystal armour. "It would seem that more training in control is necessary."

Without another word, Lightning dragged Averia toward one of their family's private training grounds. The younger goddess looked around for someone, anyone, to get her out of her predicament. Her mother's training was really, really tough. But not one of the gods they passed met her gaze. In fact, they all made a point of looking away. Even her Aunt Vanille – that traitor – took one look at Averia and Lightning and crossed the street.

"Help!"

X X X

Diana loved festivals. And the best thing was that she was finally powerful enough to sneak off to them on her own. In the past, she'd relied on her parents, her sister, or even Bahamut to take her between Cocoon and Gran Pulse. But now, she was good enough with her powers to make the trip on her own.

If there was a festival on, she could go to it, provided she could sneak off Cocoon without being caught. That was easier said than done given who her parents were, but her Aunt Vanille had been quite helpful in that regard. Her aunt was, amongst other things, the patron goddess of the Dian clan as well as healers and scholars. But she was also very, very crafty. In fact, Diana's mom had always said that Vanille could easily have been the goddess of tricksters if the position weren't already filled.

Today though, her parents were occupied at a meeting for the gods and her sister had been called down to Gran Pulse to deal with a hydra or something, which meant that Diana was free to sneak off Cocoon. And it wasn't like it was dangerous. Short of running afoul of another god, there wasn't anything on Gran Pulse that could really hurt her, even if she did have the appearance of a twelve-year old mortal girl.

Besides, today's festival was special. It was a Yun festival, and the Yun didn't have too many of those. From what she'd overheard, it was to celebrate the founding of the Yun clan. The normally dour warriors had gathered a truly impressive array of alcoholic beverages, sweets, baked goods, and all manner of food and drink. Diana's personal favourite was a curious beverage made by combining crushed ice taken from the mountains with fruit juice, sugar, and a few other flavourings.

With an illusion firmly in place to hide her divine nature, Diana had spent the last few hours wandering from booth to booth trying whatever caught her fancy. With a full pouch of coins, money was no object, and she'd already made a mental note to add a few of the things she'd tried to the list of acceptable shrines offerings. If people were going to leave things at some of her shrines, the least she could do was eat them.

Apart from food and drink, the Yun had also gathered entertainers of every kind. There were singers and storytellers, mimes and puppet shows. But Diana's favourite entertainers were the weapon masters. It was wonderful to see them in action outside of battle, and even though they weren't as good as Diana's parents were, they were still very impressive.

She was in the middle of petting a few of the local chocobos on display when the festival took a distinct turn for the worse. A large horn sounded and the warriors rushed for their weapons as everyone else looked for shelter. Diana frowned. She knew that horn meant: dragon.

Technically, a dragon had no business showing up here. Her mom ruled over the mountains and everyone, even the dragons, answered to her. The dragons had strict orders not to venture too far down the mountains. The Yun were likewise warned that going too far up the mountains meant trouble. The festival was being held in one of the lower lying villages. The dragon had no reason to be here.

"Come on, girl." Diana's eyes widened as one of the nearby Yun tried to drag her off the street. "We need to get out of here. Leave the dragon to the warriors."

The dragon landed in the town square with an earth-shaking thump. It was a good fifty feet long, more than a match for the few warriors that rushed to confront it. As the warriors fell into position, the dragon drew back its head and took a deep, deep breath.

Diana scowled. This wasn't good. The Yun were brave, but bravery wouldn't mean too much against dragon fire. Moving with a speed that no mortal could ever hope to match, Diana darted over to the dragon and jumped up to give a stout bonk over the head. Nobody was getting eaten or burned on her watch!

Whack.

"Why are you trying to eat people?" Diana waved her fist at the dragon as both the beast and the assembled warriors gaped at the sight of a twelve-year old girl berating a dragon. "You're not allowed to do that! If they go up your mountain, then fine, you can eat them. But you can't come down here and eat people during a festival when they're not doing anything to you." Diana paused to take another bite of the sweet bread she'd been enjoying before the dragon showed up. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

The dragon roared.

Whack.

"Don't roar at me!" Diana let the illusion hiding her identity fade. A sliver of her power was enough to summon a wind that rattled every window and roof in the whole town. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Finally, the dragon realised whom it was dealing with. Confronted by an angry goddess – the daughter of the goddess it owed allegiance too – the dragon did what seemed best: it whimpered pathetically and tried its hardest to look cute.

"Oh? You were hungry and you just wanted to play?" Diana nodded sagely. "That's still no excuse." She pointed up the mountain. "I'll let you go just this once because I feel sorry for you. But if you come back and make trouble, I won't be so nice next time." She patted the dragon on the head. "Now, shoo, get out of here."

The dragon took to the air once more, and Diana turned, ready to go back to the festival. The Yun were all on their knees.

"Honoured goddess, welcome to our humble town."

Diana bit back a scowl. There went her festival.

"Is there any chance we could go back to, you know, having a festival? It was actually pretty fun."

The warriors looked at one another. Clearly, this wasn't a situation they'd prepared for. Finally, one of the veterans nodded. "Of course, honoured goddess. But first, may we ask your name, so that we might know who has blessed us with her divine presence."

"Diana." Diana grimaced. They probably wanted the rest of her names too. It was a pity then that she'd never paid too much attention to all of that. "Heiress to the Fang of the Heavens… Second Daughter of the Wind and the Lightning… um… Bringer of… uh… Doom Upon the Wicked… um… Giver of Unlimited Woe… to… uh… um… the Evil… and –"

"I think she's just making this up," one of the warriors muttered.

"I heard that!" Diana frowned and the wind kicked up.

The warrior in question bowed frantically. "Sorry, honoured goddess!"

Diana sighed. "No, it's okay. You're… actually kind of right. Anyway, the first two were right, so that should be enough to tell you who I am."

"Indeed." The veteran inclined her head. "It is an honour to host the daughter of our patron goddess, the Fang of the Heavens. You honour us with your presence, truly it is a sign of our goddess's favour."

It wasn't, but Diana was happy to let them think that.

"You have also saved us from a dragon. Is there anything we can give you as thanks?"

"Hmmmm… now that you mention it…" Diana grinned. "Bring me two of every baked good, sweet, and, oh, some of those ice thingies too." She looked into her pouch. Good, she had enough money.

"There is no need to pay, honoured goddess."

"No, no, I'll pay. It's only fair. If you don't want to keep the money, you can use it to help orphans or something."

"Very well, honoured goddess." The veteran clapped her hands. "Fetch the goddess what she has asked for!"

By the time she got home, Diana couldn't wait to find somewhere to rest. She'd almost certainly eaten too much, but everything had been so, so nice. The Yun really knew how to cook when they put their minds to it.

Diana flopped onto her bed.

"Had fun at the festival did you?" Diana looked up. Her mom was there. Uh oh.

"Maybe."

Fang grinned. "You know, I don't mind you sneaking out to go to the festival, especially since it was a Yun festival. They're my people and that makes them your people too." Her grin widened. "But what I do mind is you not bringing anything back for me."

"Oh." Diana knew she'd forgotten something.

"Grab your sword, Diana. It's time to practice."

"But… but my stomach is full."

"Yes, because you ate far, far too much." Fang smirked. "But you can either get up now and train with me, or you can wait for you mother to finish training your sister and go train with her instead."

Diana was up in a flash. "Let's go!"

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off of this.

So… redkid11 keeps making these awesome comics based on Whispers of the Gods (you can find a link to them in my profile – they're on deviant art), and even though she's never asked for anything in return, I thought I'd send this her way.

Like I said at the top, don't take this particular AU too seriously. It's basically what things would be like if Godess!Fang and Goddess!Lightning decided to get it on and have kids. Strangely enough, them having children is actually more plausible in this AU than in most others since the gods in Whispers of the Gods aren't born so much as created (e.g., Serah). To vastly, vastly simplify things, you can just mix their divine energies a little, leave the resulting maelstrom of power to rest for a bit, and hey presto you've got a new god!

As usual, Averia is the more responsible of the two although she does have some problems with her powers. Namely, she has a tendency to blow things up because she's hasn't fully mastered the concept of moderation. On the upside, the people of the city now have a new lake to enjoy! They can even name it after her, I guess.

Diana is a troublemaker here too but a kind-hearted one as usual. As a young goddess, she doesn't have many chances to get down to Gran Pulse and enjoy some of the more interesting mortal customs, so she'll sneak out when she can. That said she has a lot to learn about being subtle.

You'll notice a few other differences too. First, nothing horribly bad has happened in this AU like it has in Whispers of the Gods. You can pretty much just assume, for the purposes of this chapter and any others that follow in this vein, that everything is perfectly fine. The High Mother and High Father are actually nice, caring individuals. Serah isn't a mortal, and Vanille has gotten an upgrade (because it wouldn't be the same without her around). Let me know if you'd like to see more of this.

I would also like to mention that I now have two short stories up on Amazon. If you're interested in a paranormal Western, "The Gunslinger and the Necromancer" may be what you're looking for. However, if you enjoy fantasy, you might like "The Last Huntress." There are links to both stories in my profile. Give them a try – you won't be disappointed!

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.