The Truth
Mikoto
I glanced back and forth between the first volume and the second. It was certainly Garland's writing in these books. Their text was in ancient Terran, a form of literature I'd never bothered to master, although I definitely could make out some of the text.
Hidden deep within the -- below the city of -- is a great amount of power from Old Terra. Each of the many nations sent the greatest -- to be stored on Gaia once it's -- surface cooled.
I leafed back over this passage attempting to reach a higher understanding, but came to none. Thus I set the book back upon my lap and puzzled over what could lay beneath this city. It seemed strange that the Old Terran's would have sent their greatest items to be protected and kept on Gaia.
I reached out with my mind and found that I could not sense Kuja. Instantly I sat up, worried by the loss of connection to my brother.
Zidane?!
Mikoto?
Kuja, something's happened I can't sense him!
Um… There was a prolonged pause as Zidane attempted to reach his brother as well. Your right.
That means he's dead Zidane!
Didn't know you were that concerned…?
He's my brother, I should be just as concerned as you!
Oh, well then you'll be happy to know that he's only flying over the forgotten continent, that place has a magic barrier around it. A Terran magic barrier actually, that's why you can't sense him.
Oh…
Yeah, so don't worry about it. Zidane's charming voice left me with all the comfort I could possibly need, and so I turned back towards the books. It was then that a little thought sprung up into my mind.
"I wonder if the old ones would have went about putting that city in an anti-magic barrier." I told the thought to the emptiness of the palace, and went back to my attempted reading.
A newer complex was added in 3196 in order to store results of the ComPsIV project.
That phrase was easy enough to read, but Garland had never mentioned the ComPsIV project before. In fact I doubted that I'd ever heard of it before. It certainly wasn't in the main database, I'd memorized all the projects in that particular database.
And that date? Almost four hundred Terran years had passed since then.
"Hun." I stated to myself, and sat the book aside so that I might notify Kuja of this, in all likely hood he'd know something of it.
Lumos
Lani had been yelling at me for the past three minutes, I dully ignored her sentiments, and rather focused on what had caused this little issue with the doors in the first place.
However, I knew far less then Lani did as to what caused the problem.
In her yelling I caught her mention of another genome, one with platinum hair, lurking about the city.
I was not such a fool as to immediately believe that it was Kuja whom lurked about these halls though. There were a total of 13 genomes who were roaming outside of the village, and it was possible that one of them had disguised themselves as Kuja in an effort to gain some of the Terran technology for themselves. They could easily have found the central control room and changed the codes for the doors, they might even have unlocked some of the other storage rooms we had yet to uncover. Assuming they contained that particular knowledge before our leaving Terra.
There were many genomes who were created far before I and who contained more information then I. This would surely give them a head start against me. Or perhaps enable them to drive me out of the search. This was the most likely possibility. Kuja had died.
What I couldn't understand is why any of them would want to go against Zidane.
He was as much our father or leader as Garland had ever been. To ignore what he had done for us and this world would be foolish. Not to mention he was far stronger then any of us could be, impossible for us to defeat the prototype.
"Damnit! Lumos are you even listening to me!?" Lani yelled.
"Of course I am." I replied flatly.
"Well then come on, we need these doors opened now!"
"I'm afraid that I do not know how to fix them, we have yet to find the control room after all."
"I know you moron, but I saw him go into it! So obviously I know where it is, now lets go!"
I started at realizing that Lani must have seen this genome when he was headed towards the control room. Perhaps her extensive training in bounty hunter had benefited her for this mission. Giving up on the door I followed her through the maze like world below the surface. It seemed to take a great deal of time. I wondered if perhaps she was lost, and then finally we approached a dead end.
"There's nothing here." I stated.
"Alright genome, time you learn something." She stated irritably. "Now look at this." She wiggled her finger at me and I approached the wall. She pointed to a crack that ran straight up, and then curved, and ran straight back down. I stepped back slightly and noticed that it perfectly formed a door.
"A door?" I queried.
"Of course! Now open it!"
I knitted my brows in concentration, but the door didn't budge. I reached out to touch it, and nothing happened. It wasn't a door, just a neatly formed crack, a trick that the other genome most likely put in place to distract Lani.
"It will not open." I stated. "And I do not believe that this is a door."
"What? Why!?"
"No other doors in this place are so hidden, they are all open to see. Terrain's had no need of hiding things in such a way, their technology is so advanced that it was not necessary." After giving my explanation I headed back in the other direction.
Lani kicked the door twice and growled at it quite firmly. And then followed me hesitantly away from the wall. "Wait!"
I turned about half way down the steps.
"The stairs!" She said.
I looked at them, uncomprehending.
"You knucklehead! They lead to nothing? There isn't anything up here except that door, so…!"
I finally put two and two together and smiled at Lani's impressive deduction. "They must lead to a door, you are right no terra would make a stairway for no reason."
"Hahaa!" She laughed at me and then crossed her arms, "So open it?"
"I can not." I replied again and stalked off back the way we'd come. Behind me I heard Lani furiously drive her axe against the stone.
I rolled the idea of a hidden door around in my mind as we walked. "Perhaps, it was a doorway, and this other genome disguised it a while back, maybe before we even came here."
"It would help prevent any genome from finding it." She stated. "And as a genome themselves they'd know this. You know Kuja was especially tricky about things like that. I saw his palace, he had all sorts of secret passageways and hidden doors in it."
"Kuja is dead." I stated. "It's completely impossible for him to have survived the genetic defect which Garland passed on to him."
"Are you sure?"
"In order to survive he'd need Terran technology equal or greater then what is here. And even if he had it, no one would have helped him to save himself."
"Except Zidane." She reminded him.
"Zidane would not know how to work that sort of technology."
"Okay, what about Mikoto?"
"Mikoto would never have agreed, she loved our father Garland to much, and she loved Terra too much."
Lani sighed and shook her head. "Do you know what time it is?" She asked after a minute.
"About four in the morning."
"Whoa, I suppose we should get some sleep."
"That would be nice." I stated, and pressed my hand against the front door to open it. Lani headed out, but I paused. "I think I will go look back at that door again." I stated, not really feeling tired.
"Sure, just take this with you." She said tossing me her bag of high potions.
I nodded to her and headed back, when I thought I heard a soft clicking of steps from a few corners away. I quickly jumped in behind the left over rubble and wrapped my dark cloak about my body. It was a navy blue and should match the rubble almost perfectly. I threw the hood over my head and then waited.
Sure enough a masked person wearing black came out from the doorway that was opposite to me. The mask he wore was made of bleached leather with feathers placed about the sides, and he wore leather pants and a leather vest.
Lani was not mistaken when she said that this genome has silver hair. She was not mistaken when she stated that the genome was Kuja either.
I could tell by the cat like walk and certain amount of felicity with which this person moved. How many times had I seen Kuja before, seen him wonder about Terra when he was just a new creation, see him marvel at my soulless tone? I had seen him age, seen him tortured by Garland, seen him destroy my home with magic beyond my own dreams.
And now he was here, walking passed me not two paces away, and heading towards a large amount of rubble at the other side of the structure.
I stared frozen in awe and fear at the Angel of Death.
At last he passed beyond the rubble and disappeared like some mythic apparition. I turned, feeling sick now, and headed back out the main door. Lani was almost at the airship and I yelled out to her. She turned looking back up at me curiously. And I dashed down to tell her she had been right all along.
Lani
Lumos was white, not white like he never got out to tan, but white liked he'd seen a ghost.
I started at him as he suddenly said.
"Your right, it's Kuja, it has to be, it's Kuja."
"What?" I asked annoyed at his senseless speech.
"I saw him, coming up from the other side of Oeilvert's halls. It was him, I know it, it walked like him, it looked like him…" Lumos shook his head franticly and shivered slightly.
"Come on, let's get on the ship, we're going back to Alexandria to speak with Garnet and Zidane." I said determined to get to the bottom of this.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean what if they already know he's alive, of course Zidane knows he's alive. Hell, he'll just wipe our memory."
"Not necessarily. Besides why would Zidane send him here to mess with what were doing? He wouldn't do that. So more then likely Zidane doesn't know Kuja's been hiding out here, he needs to know, he's probably the only one who can stop his brother if there's something going on."
"Ah…"
"Well fine, you got a better idea?!" I yelled at him panicking a little.
"Ah, well…. I think we should attempt to find out what he's doing. Besides, he's a mage correct?" Lumos stated. "You said that he'd never bothered to take any physical combat lessons here on Gaia, and I know he never learned any on Terra."
"That doesn't mean he hasn't learned recently." I stated, not liking where this was going.
"But even then he can't be a very good fighter, if you and I were to corner him…"
"He might have control over the doors in there, he could lock us in somewhere." No this wasn't where I wanted to go at all.
"Listen, Lumos. I know it doesn't sound like a good idea, but I don't think we've got a choice! Zidane wasn't alone when he took out his brother, he had a lot of help, and none of them at quite as powerful as they used to be. Lets face it, if Kuja's alive then that means that Mikoto knows about it, and was the one of to save him. But she could never have done that on her own. She doesn't know magic, and they would have needed a healer of some sort. So Garnet must be in on this plot as well. And I more then likely a few more of the Heroes know about him as well." He paused for a moment thinking things over. "Vivi would have to know if Mikoto knows, Zidane would never keep things from Tantalus, and Garnet might as well have told Beatrix or Steiner." He started to pace back and forth.
"I see." A though striking him, "Damn! You know I have reason to believe that some of Terra's most powerful weapons might be beneath this city."
"What do you mean?" I asked, thinking that Kuja was enough of a weapon by himself.
"I mean that, back on Terra, a lot of destruction was caused by powerful bombs that destroyed cities. They were called nuclear weapons. That's one of the main reasons why Terra died. The flora and fauna were contaminated by the poison of these weapons, and nothing would grow."
I stared at him. "Does Zidane and Garnet know of these weapons?"
"I can only assume they do, and that's why they wanted me to recover them. I believe Zidane said he wanted to relocate all of the old technology. And at least I believe that was a slight reference to those weapons. But he might not even know they existed. I'm not even sure if they exist here or not."
"I guess your right."
"I saw where he came in, I believe our best bet is to wait till he enters the city again tonight and then hunt down after him."
I nodded, not wanting to really be forced to confront Kuja at all. But with out his magic we at least stood a chance.
Kuja
Alright, so this was annoying. I came back to find that Lani had not only decided to station guards around the entire city, but she'd also seemed to have sent off the shipment she had of the faces to Garnet. It rather pissed me off to have to wait till some poor monster distracted a pair of guards long enough to let me sneak in.
Oh and then, Lani and her little genome started to stalk me about. I ditched them three times, only to have them bust down two doors which I'd set to not open, and circumvent the third.
I mean who the hell bothers trying to catch me? For crying out loud, didn't they get the point?
A crash from above said that Lani was trying to break down another door using some dynamite. The sad thing was that I hadn't even bothered to lock that door to her friend yet.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps I ought to check with the system to see where Lani and her friend were even at.
Sure enough one of them was not twenty feet in front of my path going up a set of stairs, and other not more then a single corner behind me.
That meant I'd have to fight them, or jump off this balcony edge which didn't look like there was anything to land on below.
Lani came around the bend in front of me and readied her axe. "Who are you, and what have you been doing?" She demanded somewhat courageously. I stared her down and then noticed the rush of foot steps behind me. Pulling out my rapier I flicked it behind my back, and then twisted around just as Zidane had shown me a few months back. The genome's own slim sword clashed against mine, I twisted my rapier about it and then with a flick of my hand sent the sword over the edge. Then grabbing his collar and spinning him around so as to use him as a shield against Lani, I took off.
Lani let out a scream and I heard the genome cry out. She mustn't have been unable to stop her axe from swinging down on him.
Oh well, at least it meant they wouldn't be able to get in my way for a while.
I dashed past two more doors, locking them both as I crossed through them. Quite suddenly found myself slipping through a wall.
What?
It was dark, horribly dark, and there was an eerie bubbling sound rising up from behind me. I stared for a moment at the wall I had just slipped through.
Tentatively I touched it and found that my hand moved through it easily. Just like air in fact.
I blinked and touched into the system to find out what this particular oddity was. The computer countered by stating that this was an Isolation Room, blocked off and disguised by holographic technology. The computer also notified me that this room was not part of the original city plans, and had been created a total of four hundred years ago by Garland.
I blinked again suddenly feeling quite confused. Nothing of this room had ever been mentioned anywhere I had ever looked.
I queued the computer to turn on whatever power source and light source the room contained. It readily complied and instantly the lights flickered on. They gave off a dim blue hue that looked identical to that which could be found everywhere on Terra.
And once my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the light I suddenly understood why nothing of this room had ever been mentioned.
Cloning tubes lined the walls. Most of them had shut down ages ago. The deformed and decayed bodies of what had once been Terra's last living people were highlighted inside their glass cages.
I stepped back in shock as I looked at one of the still bubbling green colored liquid containers. Inside rested a clawed and mis-formed creature. It's pearl like eyes remained open and unblinking as was typical of stasis.
Below each of the containers were little blipping computer screens. I approached the first and keyed in my inquiry as to what the creature was. The tiny screen informed me that this was Lord Vertalio ruler of the Gysia District.
I looked back up at his poor deformed body. Long sliver hair and claw like hands weren't his only defect; A pair of long cord like branches sprouted from his back and his feet were misshapen into something more similar to a bird's claws.
I stepped back and looked about the room. The others had not been so mutated, and most of the others were no longer living.
I keyed the computer system and paused as it blipped back that the only other living person here was a woman by the name of CisLia, and as I looked at her tube I noted that she too had suffered some mutations, although nothing quite so serious.
I wondered briefly if they would even survive outside of their little tubes.
The next thing I knew I was flying into CisLia's strange blue tube.
Lani
Lumos gripped his shoulder tightly as we finally blew open the final door. He was bleeding rather heavily from where my axe had missed and hit his shoulder. I felt awful for allowing this to happen to him, but there wasn't any help for it now, and considering that we only had a single high potion with us now…
"Come on." I said softly to him
He nodded, and then weakly said. "Sure…"
Poor guy looked ready to faint.
We stumbled along through the pieces of the blown through door and then Lumos tripped and fell over into a wall.
And then he was gone.
Just like that, one moment I was watching him fall over and then next he was gone.
I blinked and wondered if maybe he'd teleported.
I waited for a moment, touched the wall, felt the hard cold stone beneath my finger tips and then wondered back on my way towards the surface.
Completely confused for the entire trip.
And there was also this tickling little cold feeling that started to creep up my back, as though someone were watching me.
AN: Whoot! Enter the Anomalies!
You didn't really think I'd write a fan fic with out having some sort of OCs in it, did you? So yep, next chapter we will visit with Ziddy and friends, and the big secret that Zidane has been keeping will finally get out. Of course not before Lani shows up screaming her head off about the end of days.
Edit: May 18, 2008