Disclaimer : I don't own anything.
Note : I don't think there's many more Dream Worlds with Tommy after this one. I know it'll seem rushed in some parts and clearly boring, I was exhausted, but I apologize for the shoddy job done in the Dream World section of this chapter. I found it extremely boring and unimportant but I couldn't think how to leave a lot of it out, so I tried to skim through it instead.
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(FH)
Heading down to the infirmary as we docked with FH, I nodded to Dr Shayla as she stepped out of the office and walked over to Kapri. Placing my hand under her back, I lifted her into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around my neck before pulling her onto my back and heading off.
"Let's go, Kapri. Let's go meet Kelly. She'll bring us together." I whispered as I carried her through the Garden.
I didn't bother to alert the others to my plan, so as I left Garden, I was alone. I carried Kapri along the catwalks, climbing up and down ladders, and taking her down the lift. I felt bad for leaving everyone behind, but... Sorry everyone, but I can't keep going on like this...
We finally made it to the railroad and I felt my eyes go wide at the clear miles of walking that had to be done. As far as I could see, all there was, was flat railroad to walk along. "It's a bit far..." I mumbled, feeling the limp weight of Kapri on my back. Looking over my shoulder to her peaceful face, I smiled. "But we'll make it."
I started off, heading down the track and being extremely grateful there were no monsters on the way. As I stated before, the track went on for miles, and after what felt like hours of walking, I managed to check my watch and groaned to realized I'd been walking for two. I looked back and saw in the far distance, the docks of FH and our Garden, and looking in the direction I was heading, I saw nothing but more track.
Where was the land? Was it really that far away?
My shoulders and back were beginning to ache, but I refused to give up. Hoisting Kapri a little higher on my back, I started off again and walked more. Soon, the sun began to set, making me frown. I'd set off around lunchtime, meaning there should've been about six hours of sunlight before sunset kicked in.
Slipping my arm around in front of me, I noticed it was indeed six pm and frowned deeply, realizing I'd been walking for many hours.
Once again I turned back, only this time, all I saw was miles of track behind me. Looking forward, I saw a large landmass come into view and shook my head as sweat dripped down my face. It was clearly still at least an hour of walking, and my back was about to give out.
Looking to the side, I walked over to some old crates and carefully set Kapri down against one before sitting beisde her, looking out over the ocean.
...It's pretty far. I didn't think it would be this far... What am I doing...? Go to Esthar, find Kelly, talk to Kelly...but... There's no guarantee it'll help even if I do get to talk to her. Even so, I'm... Heaving a heavy sigh, I turned and looked at Kapri. I...sure have changed.
"I wonder what everyone's doing...?" I muttered out loud, feeling the need to break the silence. They're probably laughing at me, or maybe...they're angry...? "What do you think?" I asked the comatose Kapri. "To tell you the truth, I worry too much about what other people think of me. I hate that side of me. That's why I didn't want anyone to get to know me... I wanted to hide that side of myself. I hate it. Shane, the unfriendly, introverted guy. It made it easy for me when people thought of me that way. That's a secret between you and me, got it?"
She remained unconscious and I sighed as I closed my eyes tightly. Getting up, I kneeled in front of her and took her hands. "Kapri..." Pulling her back on to my back, I began walking once again, heading to that large landmass with a dim light of hope shining in my heart. It was a difficult walk, but I just kept repeating to myself that Kelly was there and would be able to help me.
As I drew closer and closer to the station on the edge of the landmass, I shivered as the cold air hit me and frowned at the ice-covered lanscape in front of me. I grew worried that Kapri would get sick and gently put her down, taking off my jacket and slipping it on her, before hauling her back on to my back and walk on.
It took me another hour to make it to the station at the edge of the large landmass signalling that we were near Esthar. As I approached the snowed-in, obviously abandoned station, I frowned and felt my eyes narrow to notice Dustin and Tori standing there, obviously waiting. When they saw me, they grined and walked over.
"Shane, you're late." Tori scolded with a smile.
Dustin shook his head and raised an eyebrow as they walked up to me. "Is the Princess still asleep?" he asked, his grin turning a bit forced when he looked at Kapri's face.
Tori nudged him softly and turned to me. Bending down a little, she looked closely into Kapri's fae before turning to me and smirking. "She might wake up with a kiss from the prince." she quipped.
I felt my eyes widen and face heat up as I took a quick step back. Taking a moment to collect myself, I frowned and felt my eyes narrow at them. "Is that why you came all the way here? To tell me that?" I asked dangerously. Did they come all this way just to tease me?
"You're going to Esthar, right?" Tori asked, turning serious. She folded her arms over her chest. "Well, we're going, too."
Dustin grinned a little and puffed his chest out with pride. "We're Miko's escort."
Miko came walking up from a little ways ahead, and I felt my eyes widen once again to just now notice her. Smiling softly at me, she nodded. "Shane. Let us go together to Esthar."
Looking around, I walked over to the station ticket building and knelt down, laying Kapri gently against the wall before standing up and walking over to Matron. "What business do you have in Esthar?" I asked, feeling a little suspicious. I knew that Sorceress Ultimecia wanted Sorceress Adel, who used to rule Esthar, and that Miko was still an open conduit for the Sorceress from the future.
Had she been possessed again?
Keeping her smile, Miko looked straight into my eyes and I relaxed to see that there was no yellow tint in her eyes. "I must go see Dr. Odine."
"Dr. Odine. You've heard the name, right?" Dustin asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"I remember..." Dr. Odine was well known for his items to suppress the magic within a sorceress. Tori had told me about when Kapri tried to help us in Galbadia. She'd had an Odine Bangle. "But, why do you need to see him?"
"Sorceress Ultimecia is alive. She can take over my body at any time." Miko replied with a shudder. "If that were to happen, I would once again bring terror. I, too, value my well-being. I want to protect myself. If it were possible, I want to be rid of the sorceress' powers. Dr. Odine may know a way. He may be able to help me."
Nodding, I walked over to Kapri and picked her up again. "...I understand. Let's go to Esthar together."
Suddenly, I heard the sound of running feet and turned to the maze-like paths up ahead of me, blinking i surprise when I saw Hunter and Marah running up to us. So, they're all here. I thought blankly. I guess I should've known.
"Yo, they're back." Dustin called lightly.
Tori turned to me and shrugged. "They went ahead to check the place out."
"How's it goin', Shane?" Marah asked with a grin as she walked up and looked into Kapri's face. "Is Kapri still asleep?" Grinning a little, she raised an eyebrow and lowered her voice. "Psst... Kapri sure is cute when she's sleeping."
Blinking in surprise, I turned to look at Kapri. ...She's right. Feeling my face heating up, I glared at Marah who's eyes went wide and she began to giggle. "Whatever. So, how is it?" I asked, trying to change the subject. "Is it safe to cross?"
"Whoo! Are you blushing?!?" Marah cried in her giggles, making my face heat up even more.
"Marah, don't piss off Shane." Hunter muttered warily with a sigh. Turning to me, he frowned. "Esthar's supposed to be on this continent, right? It's supposed to be huge..." He scratched the side of his head in confusion. "I don't know why, but I can't seem to find it."
"Couldn't find it up north or down south, but we didn't look east." Marah pointed out.
And with the rock wall blocking the way west, it was the only choice left. I had Matron and Tori join me in the main group, with the others as backup, and began down the snow covered trail.
"Hello...I don't see a city." Marah whined.
Miko sighed and looked at me sadly. "It looks like we are in for a long trip."
"Everything'll be alright." Dustin boasted with a grin. "We'll be by your side, all the way!"
This made her frown in worry. "Thank you, Dustin, but remember, even in my presence you must stay alert. As long as I can be myself, everything will be alright, but if Ultimecia gets inside me again... You all know what to do."
Everyone paused and seemed to worry as the images passed through our minds. Yeah, we all knew what to do. Fight and kill her, but... Would we really be able to? Would we be able to kill our Matron, or even fight her again?
Everything was quiet for a moment until Marah, who'd run a little ways ahead, looking for Esthar, came running back. She noticed the tesion and silence and frowned. "What? WHAT?? Did I miss something?" she asked energetically. "Uh-oh. It's so quiet and the airs getting heavy. Guys... What's wrong?" she asked with a worried frown. "COME ON!!" she yelled, startling me out of my thoughts. "We're all together again! We're gonna bring back kapri! It's like a picnic! We're gonna have fun!!!"
"...Someone once told me that if you say something bad, it'll come true." I said quietly, catching everyone's attention. "I don't know if it's just a silly superstition, but right now I want to believe it. So, let's not talk about it anymore." I stated firmly, starting off, down the path and bypassing two splits to the right.
It was like a maze, with all the splitting passageways, but we soon realized that they all converged on each other again. It was a small maze. Luckily, it wasn't snowing that heavily, so our foot prints in the snow were still visible, keeping us from getting lost or going in circles.
As we made our way due east, I frowned as I noticed the dark blue sky changing to a medium orange. It wasn't immediate or startlingly quick, but as we walked, I noticed that the snow was taking on a lighter hue of orange, and everything seemed to lighten up a bit.
Looking to the sky, I felt my eyes narrow as the dark blue of the evening sky, faded into a bright orange. I looked around for the source, knowing that despite the sunset color, it wasn't the sun, and noticed no visible source.
Also, there were no birds in the sky, or wild animals roaming the lands. No breeze, and no trees, despite the fact that it wasn't always winter here.
There were, however, monster roaming the lands. Giant white and green striped hands that seemed to claw their way out of the ground, as well as the top half of a humanoid head of the same colors, with gaping black holes for eyes.
Marah and Hunter had taken to calling the hands 'Righty's and 'Lefty's, depending on whether or not it was a right hand or left. They even took to betting on which we'd encounter next.
"It's a Lefty!" Marah cried excitedly, jumping up and down before holding out her hand with a smug grin. "That one's mine! Pay up!"
With a frown, Hunter dug out 20 gil and handed it to her reluctantly. "The next one's so mine!" he grumbled.
The rights casted powerful magic, and were good for drawing spells we didn't already have, and lefts were powerful melee attackers. The faces just sat back until the hands were destroyed, and then they'd lunge forward, ripping out of the ground to reveal a gaping hole in place of the mouth. Even as they rose at least three feet out of the ground, there was no bottom to the jaw.
They had powerful bites, but were easily defeated.
Otherwise, there were monsters that we'd faced before, that were easy to beat. Especially with Matron's strong magics on our side.
Soon, we'd made it to a giant ledge that overlooked a vast, seemingly enless maze of the exact same type we'd just wandered through. Below us, we could see tons more of the hands and faces, along with giant monster skeleton-type monsters that we'd never seen before. It was one huge monster-infested maze!
There was a rumbling beside us, and we spun to find a pile of bones shaking violently before the floated up to assemble one of those monsters from below. It let out a gasping roar and clawed at the air with deformed and odd-lengthed claws, and stared at us with gaping black holes for eyes, tiny red lights showing inside.
"It is an Abadon!" Miko called in a warning. "An Undead monster!"
"Use recovery-related magics and items on it!" I called with a nod, taking several steps back as it stumbled towards us. Marah, Hunter and Dustin all stood close together, in front of me, acting as a shield, and I quickly placed Kapri down gently, against a rock ledge a little ways away from the battle.
Heading back, I closed my eyes and summoned Cerberus.
A loud howl was heard as the sky turned black. A full moon was seen, along with a mountain top and a giant, three-headed dog on top of it. The dog jumped and flew through the air to land right in front of us before all three heads lifted into an eery howl, and I felt the effects of Double and Triple being cast on us.
Dustin and Marah nodded with grins to each other, and Marah reached into her pouch for a phoenix down. Dustin cast three Curagas on it and Marah followed up by using the phoenix down.
Unfortunately, it didn't work. It must've missed.
The battle was still fairly simple. With everyone double and triple casting Curagas on it, it fell in no time. Staggering to the side, I watched as it was about to fall over the ledge, but instead, it fell against the air and bounced off it before stumbling back over a cliff behind it and falling.
Frowning, I watched as the air seemed to shimmer before a brief glimps of a ladder was shown. "...There's something there." I muttered, walking over to it. I touched it carefully and jumped back a bit as a man-sized man-made hole appeared a little ways above us, as well as the ladder.
It was pretty odd, seeing a hole and ladder set into mid-air, but I knew better.
"WHOA!!!" Dustin yelled, his eyes going wide. "The hell is that?! It's just like, some kind of hole in mid air!"
I looked around carefully, before walking over and picking up Kapri again. Going to the ladder, I began to climb. "It looks like the only way." I called lightly over my shoulder, keeping a careful grip on Kapri so she didn't fall.
(Esthar)
Crawling through the hole, we came out in a large, metal room with a control panel standing at one side of the wall. I carefully walked over to it and raised an eyebrow. Pressing a few buttons, I watched as an image of the orage sky came up and looked at the description. "...Camoflage?"
"Whoa!" Dustin softly stated, standing beisde me, as he took in the image of the barren snow field we'd just gone through. "Hey... I got it now! They use these panels, all lined up, to hide the city! Yeah, that's why we couldn't see anything!"
"Uh-huh." Hunter stated in a 'duh' tone before he looked at me. "So, what're they hiding?"
I shrugged and walked into the next room. "I don't know, either. I'm sure we'll find out, soon." I stated, turning to watch as the others entered the room.
As soon as they did, it shook a little, causing us all to stagger, and I looked around in surprise as it began to move. I realized we were standing in a large elevator and somehow, it seemed able to tell when we were all aboard and set off to...well, to wherever it was going.
"Oh geez, whatever." Hunter mumbled with a roll of his eyes.
I don't know what I'm doing, or where I am. What if this doesn't work? Will Kelly even still be in Esthar when we get there? I don't even know if we'll ever get to Esthar. I looked at Kapri, whom I'd carefully laid in the center of the elevator floor. But... I don't care. "I'm not turning back now." I muttered quietly. Now when there's a chance...
The elevator shook again and came to a reluctant halt.
It...stopped? I thought in confusion, looking around. It that... Is that it?
"Well Shane, what're we gonna do?" Hunter asked me with a raised eyebrow.
Why ask me? I thought back. Leader or not, hell if I knew what was going on about now! I don't care at this point. Nothing's gonna surprise me. "What else? Let's go." I stated, pointing to a door that opened up in the opposite wall.
We walked into another room and I sighed as it shook and started up, revealing it to be another elevator. Seeing a panel on the wall, I touched the surface and gasped as the wall faded away. With wide eyes, I took in the scene that met me, rethinking that I'd thought earlier about nothing surprising me.
I'd accidentally set off the camoflage setting, making the walls transparent.
What lay before us was a massive city. Easily, we could see why it was called 'high-tech'. There were tubes running along over the streets, people running through them. It seemed they acted like sidewalks, and since they were suspended above the roads, cars couldn't hit them in accidents. It seemed that was the main way of travel, other than the cars I spotted hovering over the streets as they 'drove' by. There were the occasssional normal car, but they were few and far between.
People were dressed in lose, flowing robes. The women's were more intricately designed and formfitting. For either gender, it seemed white was a popular color.
The buildings seemed to go on forever, highways and lower roads all over with tubes running along side them. There was not one tree, and the sky was blue, despite the fact that it was night. No birds flew by, there were no bushes or parks.
"THE HELL IS THIS?!?!" Dustin yelled at the top of his lungs as his jaw dropped and his eyes widened.
Hunter nodded dumbly with wide eyes as well. "Geez! Will you look at that!" he cried, watching as railings appeared and the elevator continued along them, taking us over Esthar.
"Judging from their technogoloy, they must know we're here." I mused out loud with a frown, when I felt a dizzy spell hit me. Not now. Placing Kapri on the ground, I knelt beside her. "It's possible we might encounter some hostility, so stay alert." I ordered, shaking my head when the dizzy spell hit me. No, Kelly... Not now. I mentally begged. I felt myself getting weaker and felt my frown deepen. This...isn't good.
Next thing I knew, the ground was coming at me quickly.
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Ok I really need a new keyboard. My return button sticks 75 percent of the time. Half the buttons I hit I have to pound to get them to work, and then they often stick... Yeah. I need a new Keyboard. (Sighs)
Also, I will not be home for a few days, meaning I won't be able to work on this fic (seeing as my disks won't work for some stupid reason), so I have kept at least one chapter not posted so I have something to post when I come back.
Anyways, despite the shoddy job, I hope you liked it.
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"Oh...my sweet Kell...you make your Uncle so happy!"
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R+R please.
Thank you.
Tenshi