Chapter 9: The Quick strikes back
A rather small figure lay in the corner of a dark room, their whole body full of bruises.
"Am I... alive...?", the figure said, breath rattling, having regained consciousness just now, and tried to shakingly stand up, just to fall down again, legs not able to carry his weight.
"For now, yes.", a snickering voice said. Just now the door towards the room had been opened. "But only until operation `Fog´ is completed."
Another person with short golden hair who stood next to the snickering person went towards the little boy on the ground who now shouted happily: "Mommy!"
Luke and Florian were still wandering through the damp cave.
"How long since we started wandering?", Florian asked.
"More than an hour, I guess.", Luke said, whose short clothes weren´t really suitable for a place like this, and was shaking because of the cilly air.
"Ignis...", Florian mumbled quietly, and a small flame came forth from his hand, warming Luke.
"Thanks.", Luke said gratefully. "But you shouldn´t play around with your powers like that. You may have the original Ion´s abilities, but not his strength, just like..." But he stopped when he saw Florian´s face. "Sorry..."
"No, it´s okay.", Florian eventually said. "Do you think Anise will realize it someday?"
"Hmm?"
"That I´m not Ion, but Florian, a totally different person.", Florian continued.
"Hmm... I think she knows, but doesn´t want to acknowledge it.", Luke tried to explain. "Ion was... someone who´d been very, very precious to her. It´s just like with Asch and me: Natalia also had needed a long time before she had finally understood and accepted that I´m not Asch, and Asch isn´t me."
"Natalia...", Florian whispered. "Why... Why did Tear do that?"
"I don´t know.", Luke said and sighed deeply. "But the lookd in Tear´s eyes... It was pure hatred... The same look that Master Van had always given me. If only I had realized sooner that that look of his hadn´t been fondness, but that hatred..." Both men looked to the ground while they quietly wandered through the cave, just to close their eyes the next moment, because they were blinded by bright light.
"Hah!", Luke shouted triumphantly. "I told you!" Both stared with huge eyes at the giant factory in front of them. "I knew that something´s inside here! I bet the this is the replication facility where Dist created all of those Oracle Knight replicas!"
"It seems to be abandoned.", Florian said while inspecting the factory.
"Let´s explore a little inside.", Luke said and hurriedly resumed walking towards the building. "You know... This building reminds me of the Fonon Absorbation Reservoir in Belkend."
"You´re right.", Florian agreed. "The Fonon Absorbation Reservoir: A facility built by Kimlasca and Malkuth in order to preserve the last Fonons of the world that remained after shutting down the Planet Storm. It is some kind of recycling facility which gathers used Fonons from everywhere and makes them usable again. The Fonons which are consumed by the reservoir to be operable are made usable by said reservoir as well. The mechanism was invented by Doktor Jade Balfour and Doktor Spinoza."
"Everytime I hear that explanation it just sound ultra complicated.", Luke sighed. "But speaking simply: It´s a facility that makes used Fonon usable again." Florian nooded. "But why does this facility look just like the reservoir?"
"Well, I guess that Dist had to choose this model in oder to guarantee him having enough Fonons to use. Since the Planet Storm is shut down, the supply of Fonons is limited. The creation of replicas consumes a large amount of Fonons, and by rebuilding the Fonon Absorbation Reservoir he has that limited amount at his disposal."
"So this has to be a replication facility!", Luke said. "Then let´s go already!"
"Holy Lance!!!"
Luke and Florian jumped to the side just in time to dodge the lances of light that shot down exactly where they´d just stood a few moments ago.
"Damn, missed! The enemy is still alive!", a woman with blonde hair that was tied into a knot said, her clothes black, one gun aimed at Luke, one at Florian.
"Legretta the Quick?!?", Luke shouted in surprise and dodged several salvoes of pistol-shots while Florian was protecting himself with a barrier. Luke pointed at the ground on which Legretta stood which was impregnated by Seventh Fonons at once and exploded. The fractions of the ground all shot a Legretta who jumped backwards lightning-fast and jumped up at one of the replication facitly´s towers, summoning a giant ball of fire which she threw down at Luke.
"Argh! Damn Dist! He even created a replica of Legretta!", Luke cursed while reflecting the huge fireball with a barrier of Seventh Fonon back at Legretta.
"The power of Lorelei. How impressive!", Legretta said while dodging the ball and had to jump to the side seconds later, because Luke had followed the ball. "Argh!", Legretta gasped. She had managed to block the following sword hit, but the impact of that attack had thrown her of balance and a ball of Seventh Fonons that followed seconds later made her crash against a one of the cave´s walls from where she fell down to the ground. Luke was just about to jump down and followe her to finish her off when he felt a huge pain at his forehead.
"N... No... What the...?!?", he gasped while everything around him became blurry. The last thing he remembered was him falling down the tower of the facility, deeper and deeper...
Roaring of the surf was the first thing Luke heard when he regained consciousness. Light brown hair and the smiling beautiful face of a woman was the first thing that greeted his vision when he looked to the side.
"You´re really funny, Lorelius.", the woman with long hair who sat beside him at a beach laughed and looked up at the setting sun at the horizon.
`Lorelius? Who´s that?´, Luke thought, confused, when he suddenly opened his mout against his will and said: "No, really, I know the future, starting from the planet´s birth, until its end."