Chapter 8: The cave

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", Florian screached as loud as he could.

"Don´t shout into my ear, damnit!", Anise yelled back into his ear in exchange.

"Be quiet!", Luke demanded while the cutter was nearing the hard object, some kind of giant rock, more and more.

"What´re we gonna do?! What´re we gonna do?!", Anise yelled.

"Taking cover and hope for the best!", Luke shouted and let himself fall to the ground, followed by the others. He closed his eyes, waiting for the crash, and-- nothing happened.

"Are we in heaven now?", Florian asked and looked up from the ground. The whole area around them was fairly dark, as if they had entered a cave.

"What the...?!", Anise stammered and stared at the wall of rock behind the,.

"It seems as if we´ve just shot through a firm rock wall...", Luke said, eyes huge.

"But how?!", Florian asked.

"It seems the wall is some kind of illusion or something like that.", Anise said.

"How do you know that?", Luke asked.

"I dunno know. I´m just speculating.", Anise explained. "I´m not the Colonel who knows everything right away."

"Hmm... But an illusion for what purpose?", Florian wondered while the cutter was coming to a halt in front of a path made of rocks.

"We´ll see...", Luke said and jumped out of the cutter.

"Hey, wait! We don´t have time for that! We have to get to Grand Chokmah!", Anise protested.

"And what if this here is important? What if Dist is the one who built it?", Luke explained.

"Argh! Fine, do whatever you want!", Anise huffed and jumped out of the cutter as well.

"Wait!", Florian shouted and jumped onto the rocks as well.

"How do you know that this cave is connected to Dist somehow?", Anise asked.

"Well...", Luke started and thought. `Intuition´ would certainly be no reason for Anise to just leave the cutter and go on a an adventure trip when they were supposed to get to Grand Chokmah as quickly as possible. What would Jade do in this kind of situation? He looked at Anise and Florian who looked at him expactantly, to the ground again, then suddenly an idea hit him. "Do you remember this strange formation of rocks ever being here in this region? Well, I don´t."

"And? Do you know the sea by rote?", Anise contered and raised her eyebrows.

`Ouch!´, Luke thought. `Failure number one...´ "But why should someone hide this building with an illusion like this rock wall, huh?", he finally said.

"Well, it... could hide an old technology from the Dawn Age.", Florian suggested.

"I don´t think so.", Luke said. "Every place that has such a technology is built kinda strange. Think back to the places where the Sephiroth are. Think about Yulia City! This place isn´t built strange at all."

"So you´re just gonna trust you´re intuition and search thrugh this place while Dist and Co. can do as they like?!", Anise asked, slightly enraged.

"But we have to follow all leads we can find!", Luke retorted. "What about the Isle of Feres?! Had there ever been a cogent reason to go there?!"

"No, but...", Anise began, even more enraged.

"Or what about the duel against Arietta? Had there ever been a reason to waste our time with that?!"

Anise´s hand shot forth immediately and made contact with Luke´s cheeks quite hardly.

"Sor...", Luke started, appaled about himself.

"How... How dare you...?!", Anise started, her eyes huge and tears starting to fall.

"I...", Luke started.

"No one had asked you to accompany me to the duel!!!", Anise now screamed.

"I´m so--"

"If you wanna waste your time here that badly, then go!!!", Anise interrupted him and stormed back to the cutter.

"Anise, please come back!", Florian shouted after her and followed her. "Luke didn´t mean it! We´re all just hungry and therefore quite on edge, and..."

"Hmph!", was Anise´s only answer as she jumped back inside the cutter.

"It´s okay, Florian.", Luke sighed, depressed, and resumed walking deeper inside the cave. Florian looked from Luke to Anise and back, then followed Luke. "Don´t you rather want to stay at Anise´s side?"

"No, I´d rather not. She can be really diabolic if she´s angry.", Florian said, slightly shaking.

"I HEARD THAT!!!", Anise yelled, one of her shoes hitting Florian seconds later.

"I´m sorry...", Florian whined and hurried to follow Luke.

"Stupid Luke...", Anise grumbled and shielded her face with her hands. "Arietta..."

Luke and Florian had been wandering through the damp cave about half an hour, only the water that slid from the ceiling and hit the ground, accompanied the noise they made while wandering. No hint as to who had built this cave together with the illusion at the entrance had been found yet.

"Maybe Anise was right and we should go back.", Florian finally said.

"No, let´s move on.", Luke disagreed. "If I were Dist, I wouldn´t just place the thing I want to hide at the entrance. Especially not if Jade is after me."

"Jade?"

"Didn´t you hear?", Luke asked. "Anise told us while we we´re heading for the throne room back then that Jade had been assigned to find Dist and bring him back." He suddenly looked down, thoughtfully. "It´s strange... As far as I know two months have past since Dist broke out. And Jade still hasn´t captured him."

"Do you think... something happened to Jade?", Florian asked, worried.

"I dunno...", Luke said. "But the fact that Tear is now aiding Dist... no, I don´t think that Jade would..."

"What do you mean?"

"N-Nothing.", Luke said, hurriedly. "We´ll see what´s going on as soon as we reach Grand Chokmah."

"My, my...", Dist said inside a room whose walls were all pink. But not only the walls were adorned with this... headstrong colour: The floor, the carpets, the canopy, the desk, the chairs, the dil... um, everything was adorned with that colour! The former God-General looked from Tear to Sync´s replica and then to Natalia´s replica. "We finally managed to capture him, huh?"

"Yes, master.", Natalia said and kneeled before him.

"My, how nice! The queen herself is kneeling before me! I´ve always known that I´m special!", Dist squealed dreamily and looked at a cage who - you guessed right - was pink as well, a person sitting inside him, his three servants having him placed inside the cage just a few minutes ago. "Oooh, he looks just wonderful inside that cage! Totally adorable!"

"Hn...", was Tear´s only comment as she rolled her eyes.

"I saw that!", Dist snarled. "That´s it! No dinner for you tonight!"

"Hah hah!", a person holding a teddy laughted in one corner of the room.

"Silence, or there will be no dinner for you tonight either, darling!", Dist screached and then moved on: "Has the bait been prepared?"

"Yes, master.", Sync answered.

"Very good. And what´s the status about our... research project?"

"The major and the Fon Master Guardian are taking care of that right now.", Tear aswered.

"Fine, fine.", Dist happily said. "Operation `Fog´ is proceeding quite smoothly."

"Fog?", Natalia repeated, confused.

Tear rolled her eyes again and then said: "You know, `Fog´ is another word for `Nebel´. Just add a few more letters to `Nebel´ and you have--"

"Silence!", Dist bellowed and looked from Tear to the cage. "He doesn´t need to know everything, my ladies!" The person inside the cage grumbled loudly and glared at Dist who swallowed in slight fear.

Just who was that person inside the cage?!