Test Terms

In the morning, Ed woke with a start and sat up suddenly, trying to figure out what had woken him. Then, he heard Minerva say, :Ah, you have woken, my Ancient Sentinel. Good. The Prodigal Son of the Star-Travelers has hit a rough spot and does not know how to respond entirely. If you know of the appropriate response, perhaps you can have the Champion of Allpaths inform him of what his response should be.:

:Okay...What's the situation, and what woke me?: he asked in some confusion.

:The circumstances have changed with the forces you knew would come from the northwestern pass into my land,: she informed him. :Something severe enough to have caused issue and waves of malignant energy into this area. None are injured yet, though that was not due to lack of intent, it was due to my intervention with Ishbala, forcing the waves to become non-harmful. You having some of our essence in you caused you to sense that negation. As did all those who have Mako within them.:

Ed sighed tiredly, knowing all the SOLDIERs and several other random people just started awake, too. :I get it. Thank you for the protection. What changed with Drachma?:

She seemed puzzled by the name, but then realized who he meant and replied, :That is, the ones the Prodigal Son is with do not seem to have ill intent, but such was not the case when he first arrived in their camp. They had apparently been creating creatures perhaps described as 'unliving' beings both powerful and deadly, but intended only to kill, not to protect. Their own people were executed if they investigated those experiments, so they stopped investigating—I would not blame them, under the circumstances, as very often, 'death' meant becoming one of those very experiments. A visitor from outside the camp arrived this morning and saw the destroyed tent. The whole camp has now been labeled traitors and to be executed.:

Ed flinched at the explanation, but realized something didn't jive. :Why not just say you want them to be given refuge here? Protecting them from their own people would earn their trust and respect, so you'd have no reason to refuse—unless there's something else wrong.:

For a long moment, the sentience paused, then sighed faintly. :My Ancient Sentinel...They carry a taint the likes of which I have never seen before. I do not know what it is or what it is for, but it is not good. It is not the 'blood' energies your birth people used, but something other than that. And currently, I also do not know if they were willing to take on the taint or if it was done to them either unwillingly or without their knowledge.:

The blond paused to think on the words, then said, :Then Cleanse them like you did us. They have to come through the Pass there if they're going to, so the deal is that they have to walk, willingly, through a field of Cleansing—and survive it—to gain our support. You'd only have to hold it for as long as it took them to cross, but regardless of whether they originally did it willingly, if they're willing to be Cleansed of it now, they should have that chance. Amestris is already a good example of circumstance and how people can change their minds, after all. Then, we can find out from them what it was, or what it may have been.:

He felt Minerva 'blink' at him in mild surprise, then smile and agree, :That may well be both the best and the simplest solution. This I will do, then. They have today, until the moon descends and first light comes tomorrow, to cross, as it is not a decision to be made lightly. Go find the Champion of Allpaths and inform her of what word needs to reach the Prodigal Son.:

:Okay, thanks,: Ed agreed, looking around the room. Everyone was still asleep—except Rashad—but he didn't think that would last much longer, since there was definitely light coming through the shutters. His parents, Al, and Zahir and Nasima were starting to stir, but not awake, and he wondered why Rashad was. "Why are you awake so early?" he asked the man softly.

Rashad raised a brow at him. "Why are you?"

"Some sort of wave flowed through Minerva's and Ishbala's energy flows, and I felt that," the boy offered. "Then Minerva wanted to talk with me. Do you think Lady Shinra will be awake just now?"

"Probably, though maybe not all there yet. She needs some time to fully come awake in the morning, unless she was awake very early," he shrugged. "By her shifts in that, if she had a full, proper home and care for her injuries, she could likely come right awake if need be—her pain keeps her from resting properly at night so she doesn't get a full rest right now. Even with your brother's healing water."

"I wish we could just get rid of that pain..." Ed sighed, then blinked and commented, "It would probably help her if I made another cane for her to walk with, though."

"Did she?" he asked in mild surprise.

"She had a cane for her better days and a wheelchair for her worse ones," the blond boy agreed, then pushed himself up carefully. "Let's go see who's around. I'm expecting to see all the SOLDIERs awake, though."

"Are you?" Rashad asked, brow raised into his hair line.

"Of course," he agreed, smirking. "Didn't I tell you they've all been infused with some of Minerva's energy in liquid form?" Rashad's eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't reply as he also rose and followed Ed from the room.

They stepped outside and began looking around the area, even as Ed began examining the surroundings for the materials to make Lady Shinra a new cane. He didn't think he'd be able to make a new wheelchair for her yet—he still wasn't anything like an engineer, so couldn't 'just make' things like that—but a cane was definitely doable. It only took him about half an hour to find what he needed (while Rashad followed him)—only to end up at the paddock of sorts where the Ishbalan horses were, and where the new warhorses had been turned loose.

His chosen mare was standing at the rail, head over the top bar as she nuzzled Lady Shinra's out-stretched hand with affection. The woman was standing with one hand on the rail and one up to pat the horse's nose, but it was also obvious she was getting uncomfortable with the position. Vincent stood nearby, watching with a bit of apprehension, as the woman apparently decided to bond with the horse.

Then, the woman turned to look at him and gave a faint smile. "What have you got there, Edward?" she asked, nodding at his hands, where he was holding things like scrap wood, stone, and leather.

"Oh, I was going to make you a new cane. Head preference?" he asked nonchalantly, setting everything down and resting a hand on the pile.

"It won't be gold, will it?" she asked in amusement.

"No. This stone doesn't have gold in it. Hell, it doesn't even have copper," he answered with a shrug.

"So either a black or a silvery metal," she murmured thoughtfully, and he nodded. After a pause, she shrugged and said, "Well, if we're going to do it, how about a tiger's head? I don't think we can keep that from effectively becoming our mascot now."

Ed grinned and closed his eyes for a moment as he cycled energy to make the items into a cane. He made it dark brown with black 'rings', and capped it with a dark, silvery tiger's head (iron with a bit of nickel on the surface) and leather for her to grip it with. Then, he got up and moved over to her with it in his hand and twisted the top off the cane pole, revealing a rapier-like sword blade. He gave the amazed woman a smirk, twisted the two parts back together, and held it out to her.

"Good?" he asked as she took it cautiously.

"Edward..." she began, still sounding amazed. "That's quite a nifty weapon. Thank you for your foresight."

Right then, Ed's Carbuncle landed on his head, which made him yelp and smack the thing—or try to. That time, it jumped away from his hands with a laugh, then landed again. "Stop doing that!" he glared upward at it, trying to calm his heart.

"Then hurry up and get big again so I don't have to land on your head anymore. Right now, it's the only part of you big enough to land on. Unless you're laying down," Carbuncle replied cheekily.

"Warning would be nice," Ed replied in annoyance, ignoring the adults' chuckles.

"When have I ever given that?" the Summon asked in reply.

The boy found that decidedly irritating just then, so shooed it off him with a burst of Lifestream energy directed straight up at the Summon—which in turn made it yelp and retreat to Lady Shinra's shoulder.

"Maybe you should be a little more thoughtful towards young Edward, Carbuncle?" Lady Shinra suggested in amusement as she braced herself on the cane. The small creature just made a whining sound, so she turned back to the blond boy and asked, "Would you be opposed to her name being Shana?" When the mare whickered and stretched her nose out towards Lady Shinra, Ed blinked in amazement.

"She responds to it," he said after a moment as the woman used her free hand to pat the mare's nose affectionately. "I don't know how you did that, but if she responds to it, that's probably the best name for her. Why did you choose it, though?"

The woman shrugged. "When I came here to have another look at her, I just thought it suited her. In that regard, I tend to name my animals based on instinct. Rufus, on the other hand—I put a lot more thought into his name. Humans aren't based on instinct, even if we can use it, so anything less would have been unfair to him. Animals, on the other hand, seem to appreciate an instinct-based name, since they seem to be able to grasp it and associate it with themselves that way. Of course, being exhausted like I was last night meant I was in no shape to try naming her."

"Is that also why it's so hard for you to name our new central town?" Ed asked in amusement. "Because you have to give it the same thought you gave your son's name?"

"That's it exactly. I like your idea of calling normal Gaian tigers just that and our new breed Aegis tigers, though," she offered. "You doing that simplified things. And so far, I haven't tried naming the tigers. I did think calling the smallest orange female by a power name, like Tyra (1), would be a good idea, but I haven't gotten further—other than not wanting all the tigers to have Wutain names. I banned Yufi and Shiro from naming the rest after the four they already named."

"Yukisa," Vincent corrected automatically, without changing his expression even a hair. It was like it was rote and irrelevant data he was so used to giving he didn't even get exasperated by it anymore. To be fair, he probably felt exactly that way about her code name, since virtually everyone still instinctively called her Yufi, Turk or otherwise. At least Turks usually made an effort to remember her code name, though.

"Still no luck on what to call the new city, then?" he asked tiredly, giving her a small smile.

"I have something at the edge of my mind, but it hasn't come clear yet," she shrugged. "Almost there, I think. How different is riding a horse from riding a Chocobo—excluding the obvious lack of feathers and wings?"

"You've been on Sleipnir and Unicorn before, so it's like riding them, except she really has no way to help keep you on her back—you have to do that by shifting your weight like you would with a Chocobo," Ed offered. "Also, because she's got four legs, not two, her center of balance isn't slightly forward from the legs, it's between the two pairs almost equally. And, when you saddle them, they tend to suck in extra breath so the saddle strap isn't as tight, so once you've put it on, you have to go back and tighten it after a minute, when they've released their breath. Otherwise, you risk the saddle slipping to the side and tossing you to the ground while riding."

Lady Shinra blinked at him once, then began chuckling. "Oh, what a clever animal! I like that little bit of defiance to the reins, as it were. It also means the unwary would be in a great deal of trouble very quickly, so it wouldn't be advantageous for someone to steal a horse without knowing that detail."

"A tip, then," Rashad commented in a bemused tone. "If you really find holding the reins is a problem, you can actually grab their manes and hold on without it doing much to them. Pulling on single hairs is painful, but a fist-full really isn't. If you're ever in a position where you have to ride bare-back, if they're used to reins, they'll even often respond to directional tugs on their manes like they would to the reins."

The woman hummed with a sound halfway between amusement and joy, still patting the mare's—Shana's—nose. Ed wondered for a moment how close that was to her original name, then decided he was probably never going to know, so said, "I'm actually up so early because something happened with Drachma, and you need to call Rufus to update him on the agreement so he can tell the Drachmarans."

"What's that, then?" she asked in a suddenly terse tone. Ed outlined his discussion with Minerva for Lady Shinra, who eyed him thoughtfully through the explanation, then gave a slow nod. "I see the point," she said when the boy finished. "If they go through the same Cleansing we all got and come through safely on the other side, it's safe to say they're good people and should be give protection and another chance. Healing, too, if it's needed, depending on the circumstances. Them knowing what they're walking into is a must, though. It wouldn't be fair for them to have no warning of the potential results of stepping through a Cleansing barrier. I'll call him, then."

"Sit somewhere, first, please," the boy told her in annoyance as he realized she was really starting to hurt, and it was showing in her eyes again.

She had to chuckle at that, but moved over the corral rail and pulled herself up onto the top rail to sit, her cane leaning against her leg. Shana shuffled over to lean her neck against the woman's side and as much as put her head in Lady Shinra's lap, much to the woman's amusement. She then pulled out her PHS and put in the call to Rufus.

FoWD-HC

They were sitting in the mess tent in the Drachmaran camp, Rufus and the General at the middle table and the Turks and a few other high-ranking Drachmaran officials with them. Nearly the whole rest of the camp was surrounding them. While breakfast had been put out for everyone to eat, most people were just playing with their food rather than eating it—their visitor that morning had left everyone disturbed. Frankly, Rufus was surprised the threat of annihilation hadn't been carried out yet, but everyone else seemed to have given up hope.

But still, a whole military unit to be executed, all because outsiders burnt down a tent of horrors? Where was the logic in that?

Then, everyone in the room jumped as his PHS rang, then Rufus quickly pulled it out to check the number. It was his mother's, so he frowned and answered it, asking, "Is everything all right, Mother?"

"Of course it is," she replied in dry amusement. "But I've been given to understand that might not be true out there. Edward told me—and it's true all those with Mako enhancements are currently awake, jolted awake like he was—by Minerva and Ishbala dissipating an energy attack aimed at you and over the border at us. She also told Edward that all those people have some sort of taint, so she has a proposition for them. She's going to set up a Cleansing curtain of a sort in the Pass, the same kind of Cleansing all of us already did, so it obviously won't harm any of ours."

The woman paused for a moment, so he asked, "What's the catch?"

"It's not a 'catch', exactly. Anyone who is not really a good person at heart is going to dissipate by passing through it. On the other hand, if they pass through and remain intact, not only will they feel a lot better, but they'll be welcome here—they'll have homes, livelihoods, healing, whatever they need. We won't ask them to stay there to fight their own people if they don't want to, so the majority will probably be joining up with us here. We'll work out more details from there," his mother told him. "It's only fair that they make the decision themselves, with all the data we have. They have until sunrise tomorrow morning to decide."

"I can do that," he agreed. "Thank you—and make sure Ed can thank Minerva on our behalf, too. And Ishbala for his help dissipating that attack." The General's eyes widened at the words as several others around them began murmuring with their neighbors, probably ones who knew Amestrian telling the others what had been said.

"I can most definitely do that. Thank you, Rufus," she replied. "Stay safe."

He said his own farewells to her and hung up his PHS, then looked up at the General to say, "Well, so Minerva and Ishbala felt the attack aimed at us and dissipated it rather than letting it destroy us all. Now, we've been given instruction by Minerva directly. I have to go over what the Cleansing is with you before you make your decision, so if you have questions, make sure to ask them, no matter how inane you think they are. You only have until tomorrow morning to decide, though you can make your decision at any time today or overnight, as well."

Silence fell for a long moment, then the General sighed and said, "Perhaps hearing you out is the best idea. First, why the Cleansing to begin with?"

"Apparently all your people are carrying some sort of taint—primarily, the Cleansing will remove that taint, regardless of the cause," Rufus offered. "I don't think we currently know the cause, not even Minerva or Ishbala, only that it's negative. That doesn't make you bad people, it means possibly that something was done to you without your knowledge, or that you participated in doing it without realizing what it would do to you. I'm sure some, or even most, of you here right now would survive the Cleansing, but I'm the first to admit not everyone will. We're the only ones who can claim a complete ability to pass through safely because we've already been Cleansed and survived."

"Do you mind if I take over the details of how it works and what it does?" Lakis asked as Rufus finished. "I'm the one who can cast localized Cleansing, after all."

"Can you?" the General asked weakly, suddenly looking faint.

"That's what I did to that big ugly," the Mage-Turk answered dismissively with a shrug. "I'm also not the only one of our people who can cast it."

After a long silence, the General asked, "Does that mean we would dissipate the way it did?"

"It would," Lakis agreed.

The man swallowed hard and asked, "How painful is it to experience that?"

Tipping his head to the side, the Turk said, "I used it once to give someone a merciful death. In battle, we don't normally have more than a moment to register anything, but that was gentle and happened more slowly because I was forcing it to dissipate a good person, not a bad one. What became very clear is that it doesn't hurt—at all. It's shocking when you aren't expecting it, but not painful. The point of it is to harmlessly return energy to the planet, to the planetary flows, and therefore to beings like Minerva and Ishbala. Suffering actually harms them. They created this as a method of harmless death for the times when nothing else would work."

For a long time, the General just sat and stared at his even gaze, then asked, "Do you have an example of this, somehow, or must we just trust that what you say is true?"

"The Turks took care of everything in the tent of horrors, but if you know of someone who could really use Cleansing now, not later, we could let you see it on them. Also, if one of us stands in Lakis' array and he's not forcing us to dissipate, we won't, but it would be the same array as someone needing Cleansing now, not later," Rufus offered.

"You would expect me to choose someone to—sacrifice?" the General asked in something like alarm and anger.

"Didn't one o' those hack scientists from the tent survive 'cause he wasn't in it at the time, yo?" Reno suddenly asked. "He's still here, right?"

A silence fell for a moment, then one of the others beside the General made a comment to him in Drachmaran. Several nods from around the room answered the words, so the General also nodded and said in Amestrian, "I believe that we can do. I will have some of my men bring him here. Which of you will be the corresponding example?"

"For now, I'll do it, unless one of mine is eager to be the test subject," Rufus replied evenly. "Of course, we'll all have to pass through the Pass and the Cleansing curtain with you, so we're all going to get it then, and doing it right now is rather irrelevant to us. This is only for your benefit."

"Your deity would make you undergo it many times?" the General asked in shock as murmurs rose around the room again.

"Needs a must," the blond man shrugged easily. "Of course, because we've already been through it, we know we're safe to go through it again—it literally makes no difference to us one way or the other. We have nothing to fear. It won't find anything different than it did the first time. And for the record, none of us even had warning or a choice when it was done to us the first time, so we know it's safe for us, and that it won't 'change its mind' later. Either you're too evil to be Cleansed and will peacefully dissipate, or you're good enough to be Cleansed and will be alive and well afterwards."

The General sighed at the words, then looked at Lakis and asked, "So, then, the details of how it works?"

As Lakis explained the functional parts of the arrays and what they did, some of the Drachmaran soldiers returned with the scientist—and with Angeal and a few others of the SOLDIERs, who had moved their camp to the Drachmaran side of the Pass. Rufus turned to look at him curiously, so the black haired Commander moved over to stand just behind him and leaned down to say quietly in his ear, "Virtually the whole camp woke suddenly about an hour ago. When we saw the Drachmarans retrieving the scientist, I thought we should find out what's going on."

"It's probably that you felt the dissipated attack aimed at us—Minerva and Ishbala were nice enough to do that for us," Rufus answered quietly. "My best guess is that the dissipation sent shock waves through the Lifestream, and anyone with Mako enhancements felt those, so they woke. We're going to be heading back through the Pass sometime today, probably with most of these people, but there's going to be a Cleansing curtain of a sort on the way this time."

Angeal blinked, then commented, "That's fine. I'll let the others know we'll have company, but we've already been Cleansed, so it won't hurt us to do it again."

"Glad to know you agree," Rufus chuckled faintly. "Did you need anything else before you go?"

"How long do you think it will take before we head back? Do we break camp now?" the older man asked shrewdly.

"Send about half the camp to the other side to wait for the new arrivals to cross," Rufus replied after a quick moment of thought. "In theory, they have until sunrise tomorrow morning to decide, and some may take that long—we're not going to send literally everyone over until the last of these ones have made the decision so we can cross with them as they go."

"Fair. I'll make the arrangements, then," Angeal agreed, and turned to leave. Rufus saw him talk with one of his men on the way out, who nodded and stayed where he was, while the others left with the Commander.

Several minutes later, the General finally sighed and said, "Well, let us see this 'Cleansing', then. The scientist is here." He made a motion in the pale man's direction.

Lakis nodded as he rose, then he went to the man, applying the Cleansing to him. Everyone watched the man's expression—and saw surprise, but nothing more. Then, as had been previously agreed upon, Lakis returned to Rufus' side and used the same arrays on him—and nothing at all happened, other than the blond looking vaguely amused. The General especially had paid close attention to the arrays as well, and hadn't been able to see any difference between the two. Rufus had known he wouldn't because the ones Lakis had used in both cases were the same, not a modified form.

"All right, it seems you speak true," the General agreed in a quiet tone. "We shall each think on this of our own accord and make our decision to stay, to go with you, or to seek refuge in either Amestris or Xing ourselves. You say this Cleansing and our guaranteed acceptance with your people will last for how long?"

"Sunrise tomorrow morning," Rufus answered. "Some of mine will be here until then, to walk through with any who choose so late."

With a nod, the General rose and made the announcement to his people in Drachmaran, just so there would be no confusion. The rest was just waiting for their decisions.

Notes:

(1) No, this doesn't mean her name will be Tyra, it means that's an example of the type of name Lady Shinra would be looking at giving the smallest of the cubs. On that same token, no, this cub isn't a runt by that definition—she's not small enough compared to them to be taken as one, she's just not exactly the same size as them.