Redemption
A Final Fantasy 7/ Lord of the Rings crossover
By: Lazeralk
Standard disclaimers apply.
Once again, ("blah") denotes things said in Sindarin. 'Blah' is the Advents and Cloud sharing thoughts.
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"There are a great deal of skulls here." Mused Yazoo idly as they picked their way through the dark caves towards only Aragorn knew what.
"I wonder where the rest of the skeletons are?" said Loz, neatly picking up the tail end of his brother's thoughts. The Dúnedain said nothing as they quietly followed after their chieftain, booted feet crunching over bones.
At last they reached a great cavern, whose ceiling was masked by darkness and a great throne was carved into one stone wall.
"Who dares to enter my kingdom?" called a voice and the Dúnedain all drew swords and turned their backs together, forming a protective circle around Aragorn. Legolas and the twins knocked arrows and waited. A single ghostly form grew from the shadows, a dead king.
"One who would have your allegiance." Answered Aragorn, drawing his sword. The dead king laughed, truly amused. For centuries they had simply killed any who dared to enter their realm, it would be no different for this group of foolish warriors.
"The dead do not suffer the living to pass." Said the ghost king.
"You will suffer me." Growled Aragorn. Again the dead king laughed, and as the sound echoed through the dark, ghostly figures poured from the walls until the cavern was full of the glowing green spirits. Cloud watched them curiously, relaxing into the swell of their presence, so very like the lifestream, and yet with a totally different feel to it. He could almost smell Aerith's flowers.
"The way is shut. It was made by those who are dead, and dead keep it." The dead king and his army of ghost warriors surrounded them, menacing in their silence.
"The way is shut. Now you must die." Intoned the dead king, approaching, as the dead arm closed in around them.
"I summon you to fulfill your oath." Said Aragorn steadily, advancing to meet the dead king, fearless as a Grand Horn.
"None but King of Gondor may command me." Returned the ghost, triumph in his voice as he raised his blade to strike. Aragorn met his stoke and blocked. The dead king backed away in shock.
"The blade was broken!" he cried.
"It has been remade." Answered Aragorn, his sword gleaming in the dark. The dead army watched restlessly, confused.
"Fight for us!" called Aragorn, calling to the ghosts around them. "And regain your honor."
The ghosts were silent.
"What say you?"
Still the ghosts made no answer.
"What say you?" he called again, moving through their ranks.
"You waste your time Aragon. They had no honor in life, and they have none in death." Growled Gimli, ax raised and stance ready.
"I am Isildur's heir." Said Aragorn.
"I'm confused." Whispered Loz to Yazoo. Yazoo shrugged in return. Aragorn ignored them.
"Fight for me, and I will hold your oaths fulfilled!"
"Why do we need them to fight for us? They're just ghosts. We were taking down ghosts when we were five years old." Said Loz to Kadaj, who looked just as puzzled. Kadaj shrugged back at him, mimicking Yazoo. Overhearing them, the dead king rounded on the for outlanders.
"And what manner of beast are you four? Neither Elf nor Dwarf nor mortal Man, of that I am sure. Some foul thing come to blacken our bleak Path? I wonder if I should just kill you all now."
"Don't you dare threaten my brothers." Hissed Kadaj, his usually happy face black with rage.
"We are already dead, boy. You offer us no threat." declared the dead king smugly.
Kadaj laughed, the sound of it echoing gaily and arrogant through the darkness. The dead king frowned, watching the strange child who was mad enough to laugh in the face of death. Then the boy's chin dropped to his chest and his body stilled, the army hushed into a silence only the dead could achieve as they watched with interest. Cloud shifted, uncomfortably loud in the quiet, as an undercurrent of devious excitement built up in Yazoo and Loz. He glanced at them, but their faces were stone blank.
Something twisted in the air around Kadaj then, something like vapors or serpents or hints of lifestream that had Cloud on instant alert. Then he felt it, the sudden disconnect of his mind into the lifestream and then back to reality, Sephiroth's face flashed before his eyes for half an instant. A lancing pain hit his upper left shoulder and he reached for it instinctively. The ghosts felt it too and quailed, fleeing into the darkness away from the boy until only the dead king was left. The Planet shrieked in response, and the three elves collapsed to their knees screaming as they clutched at their heads, tears streaming down their faces. The Dúnedain moved to enclose them in their protective circle.
"Kadaj!" barked Cloud, and it was instantly gone. The Plant was silent, but Cloud could still feel her fear. The ghosts were still, but they remained hidden. Kadaj raised his head and smiled at the dead king, his eyes full of malice. Cloud knelt beside the three panting elves and gingerly laid a hand on Elrohir's shoulder.
"You going to make it?" he asked.
"What in the name of the Valar was that?" demanded Legolas, and at this question the ghosts crept out to hear the answer.
"Geostigma." Answered Cloud, sending a short glare at Kadaj. The youngest of the Advents raised his chin defiantly.
"What is Geostigma?" asked Aragorn, glancing between the dead king and Kadaj, who were staring at each other balefully.
"Its…like a virus." Began Cloud, and then began again when he saw the blank, confused looks the others were giving him.
"A virus is a tiny creature that gets inside other creatures and causes them to be ill. The virus uses the bodies of others the same way we use the earth. They seek out the resources they need to eat and live and reproduce. This is what causes most illness." He explained the most basic way he knew how. He kept forgetting that this place was in the technological dark ages and thus didn't have germ theory yet.
"Geostigma is like a virus, but instead of infecting the body, it infects the soul. If the Geostigma had spread here it would have taken the dead army and trapped them here, oath or no oath, and then trapped the rest of the souls on this planet until the cycle of life and death stopped moving and there was only death, and the souls of everything that once lived on this planet were trapped." Continued Cloud, watching horror creep across every face in the cavern save his brother's.
"Why? To what end?" cried Aragorn, deeply upset by the prospect. The ghosts shuffled uneasily, muttering amongst themselves angrily. The dead king clutched at his ghostly sword, unnerved.
Cloud turned away, shaking his head. Kadaj picked up the tale, his voice ringing bright and clear in the dark.
"Long ago, Mother sent out Geostigma on a planet and consumed it, and then she used the trapped souls to propel their dead planet through the cosmos in search of a new world."
"Like locusts, viruses, parasites. She moved from world to world, consuming all the life there and using the husk of the dead world like a ship to seek out the next. The souls perished along the journey, their essence burned away to move her through space. She came to my world thousands of years ago and was nearly destroyed by the Cetra. Aerith's people." Said Cloud, his voice absolutely toneless.
"Three years ago, we killed her and stopped the spread of the Geostigma. Our Planet was saved, but pieces of her still linger in our blood. Some have more of her in them than others." He continued, eyes locked on Kadaj. The smallest Advent nodded, and his eyes softened as he met Cloud's gaze. Then he turned back to the dead king.
"Just because you are dead, does not mean you are untouchable. Do not threaten my family again."
The dead king floated away, his army churning around him. Aragorn watched him warily.
"Fight for me and I will release you from this living death." He said, and the dead king paused and looked at him over one ruined shoulder. Then the dead king and his ghost army drifted away into the shadows.
"We don't need them Aragorn. Let's just go. Ghosts are really low level monsters anyway." Said Kadaj, his face bright and cheerful again.
"It doesn't matter if we need them or not Kadaj." Said Cloud quietly. "Aragorn was trying to help them. He wanted to free them." The scent of Aerith's flowers became quite strong and the elves lifted their heads.
"You just may be right Cloud. You'd all better hurry though, or you'll miss the battle!" whispered Aerith's voice through the dark and Cloud smiled.
"Let's go." Said Yazoo, already moving to the other side of the cavern, and supposedly towards the exit. Disheartened, the others followed. They emerged from the mountain side and into the sun, though their spirits didn't brighten.
Aragorn kicked at a bit of rubble in frustration and gazed down at the river bank where a fleet of corsair ships were burning the settlements along the river and heading towards Gondor.
"Now what?" asked Loz, eyeing the ships speculatively.
The dead king suddenly appeared at Aragorn's side and the two shared a look. Aragorn smiled.
"Now, we go down to the river bank and we take the ships."
They all trekked their way down to the water, the buzzing excitement of pre-battle jitters and the absolute surety that they could not possibly loose putting a spring in their steps. They made it to shore just as the first of the ships was coming upon them and Aragorn rested his blade against his shoulder and called out to them.
"You may go no further." He said. "You will not enter Gondor." He added as he met the eyes of the man he assumed must be the captain. The pirates laughed, unable to see the dead king or his army.
"Who are you to deny us passage?" barked the captain back, amused.
"Legolas, fire a warning shot past his ear." Requested Aragorn. Legolas readied his bow.
"What's the point of a warning shot?" Asked Kadaj. "Aren't we just going to kill them all anyways?"
"Yes, but it's the principle of the thing." Answered Aragorn.
Legolas loosed his arrow, then turned to glare at Gimli, who had bumped the base of his bow with the pommel of his ax to skew his shot. The arrow struck the pirate standing next to the captain and killed him.
"Well, now you've been warned. Prepare to be boarded!" called Gimli to the corsairs who laughed again, completely unconcerned by the death of one of their own.
"Boarded?" bellowed the captain incredulously. "By you and who's army?"
"This army." Answered Aragorn and the dead king led the ghosts into the river and onto the ships, decimating the pirate fleet in minutes.
"Well, that was anti-climactic." Said Yazoo as they pushed the last pirate corpse into the water and settled in for the ride to the battlefield where they would meet up with the Rohirim and Gandalf. The Dúnedain had been spread out across the rest of the ships, doing their best to keep them on track so that they could fool the enemy army into thinking that the ships were still crewed by pirates as they approached. It made no sense to give themselves away before they could get to shore. The dead army also helped keep the boats on the right course, under a Dúnedain 'captain'.
The men busied themselves raiding the vessel for anything they could use, new blades and fresh supplies of food or water. They had a bit of time before they reached the Pelennor, the vast field that separated Minas Tirith from Minas Morgul. The Anduin, the river they currently sailed, cut between them.
"Cloud?" asked Elladan, coming to stand beside the much shorter man as he rested against a stack of boxes tied to the deck of their ship.
"Hm?" replied the blonde with a glance of glowing blue eyes.
"I had a question if you didn't mind?" the elf said casually, turning to face the same direction as the blonde and watching him carefully from the corner of one eye. Elrohir and Aragorn both drifted closer while trying to make it look like they weren't. Cloud eyed them suspiciously but didn't comment. His shoulders tensed up a bit and he forced himself not to move, no matter how much he wanted to adjust First Tsurugi.
"What kind of question?"
"Well, when you say 'soldier', it seems to have more importance somehow. Why is that?" asked Elladan, trying to gauge whether his question was too personal. He could never really tell which sorts of topics were safe and which weren't with Cloud. The blonde glanced at him again, a slightly confused look on his face, but he didn't seem to be guarded or even annoyed at the question.
"SOLDIER is an acronym. It stands for Special Operations: Logistics, Demolitions, Infiltration, Extraction and Reconnaissance. Where we come from the military loves acronyms. SOLDIER is a whole branch of the military full of men that are specially trained for all of those fields." Cloud's answer was amiable enough, so the elf though he'd press his luck.
"I see, and what did you specialize in?"
Cloud shook his head, and turned his body so that he was not quite facing the elf, but as close as he was willing to come.
"All SOLDIERS are required to have at least a passing proficiency with each field. Then the SOLDIER specializes. Zack specialized in Extraction. He wanted to be a hero who rescued people." He trailed off wistfully, a slight smile on his face.
"I asked what you specialized in, not Zack." Said Elladan, somewhat jokingly, and was shocked when Cloud's face shut down faster than he could blink. The blonde pushed himself up and walked away without a word, his shoulders tense. Elrohir, who had been shamelessly eavesdropping, settled next to his twin with a frown.
"Well." Said Elrohir, crossing his arms over his chest and watching Cloud as he shifted his massive blade along his back. Kadaj bounced over to him, and approached carefully.
"Zack, it seems, is a sensitive subject. We shall have to find something else to talk to him about." Said Elladan.
"What though? Everything seems to be a sensitive subject with him. His family, his hometown, his work, his friends, everything." Replied Elrohir, his tone more resigned than cross.
"Weapons are safe, and…food perhaps?" said Aragorn, who'd come to join them more openly from where he'd been pretending to check several sets of ropes.
"We could ask him to tell some more stories?" suggested Elladan.
"Stories?" asked Aragorn, his interest piqued. "What kind of stories?"
"Strange tales. The likes of which I've never heard before. They seem to be children's fables. Perhaps it is worth a try. Kadaj, at least, will support it." Agreed Elrohir. The twins settled themselves to wait, each trying to prepare for the battle ahead and to discover some way to help their troubled allies.
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Holy cow, I wrote something! O.O! I can't believe I actually finished this chapter…
Notes: Ok before anyone asks, I intentionally didn't make a big deal out of Andruil or Arwen's standard. The path of the twin's has changed, so they can't bring the standard to Aragorn, instead it will come to him from Halbarad. Andruil will be explained later! Also, for those of you who have seen the extended edition of Return of the King and are wondering why I didn't try to bury everyone in a waterfall of skulls, and strangely only skulls, I thought it was a bit pointless. It looks cool in the movie but it doesn't really serve any purpose.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed while I was on hiatus! You have helped me overcome my writers block! I'm also not on the brink of death by grad school anymore so hopefully I can start writing again! Yay!