Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ shinjitsu ni chikaku naru ( Chapter 23 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: awwaw 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.23.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 189 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.23.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.4K | Visits: 189 | Status: Completed
Standard disclaimers apply.
A/N: :-| this chapter is way, way overdue m(_ _)m forgive me!!
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
shinjitsu ni chikaku naru
"Oh wow," Cloud's first reaction was to give an exhilarated sigh, "would you look at that!"
Having arrived at the end of the tunnel, Cloud and Squall stepped into a dome-like underground cavern of sorts, encased from floor to ceiling with sparkling crystals. In stark contrast against the gloomy tunnel they had just left behind, this room practically blinded them. Carefully the boys stepped deeper into the area - until they were finally confident that there was no real harm in splitting up and searching the place for clues, or anything that would lead them to either the sorceress, or Necron.
Cloud knelt and scratched at the cakes of dried mud peeling off the surface of the ground.
"Looks like nobody's been here for quite a while." He made a random observation. Squall's reply was a snort of near indignation, like the implications of Cloud's words had been insinuating that he was an idiot who had yet to figure *that* part of the deal out. He continued poking miserably at the wall he was inspecting.
Silence reigned. And it was awkward and uncomfortable.
"Do you think," Squall was the one to speak up first, "that time ever ends?"
The blond mercenary did not turn around to look at his darker-haired counterpart.
"Why do you ask?" His reply was hollow of allusions.
"Just wondering..."
The only noises after that sentence was the muffled sound of boots on dried ground as well as the occasional slide of fabric against crystal walls.
"Does it matter?" Cloud asked, "If time ends or not?"
Squall stopped handling the brittle lump of crystal that had dropped out from the wall as he brushed past it, to consider that. "It's nothing, really..." He tried to appear calm and reassuring - reassuring himself perhaps, "... don't you feel like our journey is like a race against time somehow?
"So maybe, just maybe, if time does end, then we can be sure that... our journey does have a destination, after all..."
"Don't be silly," Cloud immediately intercepted, unsure of why he was saying that. He strode over and gave the moody mercenary a bonk on the upside of his head.
"We can never make time end, but we can to our journey."
The teenager sighed, unable to refute the wisdom of those words. As he struggled to muster up a semi-coherent and *somewhat* intelligent reply, something at the far-side of the room caught his eye. Blinking, he jerked in his position and raced towards his destination, ignoring the fact that he had almost knocked Cloud over in the event. In a short while he had arrived at the object of his excitement - a oddly shaped crystalline structure sheltered by roots of the trees above, twisted into an intricate design.
His hand reached out despite the warning signals to touch the wall beside the structure.
"Look!" He exclaimed, not pausing to check if Cloud was behind him or anywhere near him to actually be hearing him.
"Look at?" Fortunately, though, Cloud was rational enough to follow the boy as he had made his way here. His bright, sky-blue eyes peered curiously at what Squall was so intently staring at, sparkling with slight amusement. "Oh, that... I think I've seen it be-" He stopped himself from continuing when he realized what he was about to say.
Hanging precariously from the semi-translucent crystal walls which had a protrution just at their waist level, was a chain necklace, with two silver rings attached to it. Years of being buried underground had not toiled it in any way whatsoever, but however gave it a more eerie illumination than it originally had when it was still being adorned.
It was the necklace Cloud had seen Rinoa, the girl in blue in the various visions he had, wearing. This made Cloud frown. He was never one to believe that coincidences in situations like these would bode anything good at all. Before he could shout a warning, however, Squall had reached out and tugged the necklace from it's place in the wall.
The chain broke free from it's crystal prison with a melodious chime, effectively halting time.
Without warning the ceiling of the chamber opened up with splendour to welcome the piercing rays of glorious afternoon sun. Temporarily blinded, Cloud and Squall could only hold their hands up in defense as the seed Garland had make descend from the Invincible shimmered downwards, unseen by the audience, and promptly buried itself within the magical soil of the room. There was a pause, as the matter slowly developed itself according to the rhyme.
When Cloud and Squall felt ready to look upon the reflection of the sun on the sheering crystal walls, the ground was trembling, and slowly building up into an earthquake.
"Oh... no..." Cloud immediately looked around for an exit they could run to or a place they could hide. Logic told him running or hiding would mean imminent doom anyway, so both were not a good choice. Squall was also probably thinking along the same lines. They exchanged a quick glance with each other.
The vines then made their earsplitting entrance through the walls and started their random demolition.
Both Cloud and Squall could do nothing but leap and dodge the destructive, and somewhat sentient vines as much as they could. Of course, they didn't forget to shout words of encouragement to each other once in a while. "Hey, what's going on?" Squall had been first to ask, the necklace he had pulled out in one of his hands and the Lionheart in his other.
"You tell me!" The blond sounded cross. He jumped onto a vine which had buried itself from wall to wall and was currently growing in diameter. He hadn't anymore time to think before another vine twisted his way and forced him to leap some more. "Any bright ideas now?"
Squall wasn't having all that fine a time himself, having nearly been pinned to a nearby wall by the onslaught of 10 slim and sharp vines, had he not ducked and rolled to a side just in time. They both knew that their situation was dire - and that they had to get out of this vine-pit soon if they wanted to live to see another day. The severe quaking wasn't doing anything to help either. There was only one exit, and they both knew what to do when they next met each other's glances.
In a candid moment of unison, both Cloud and Squall got a firm foothold onto one of the vines which had stopped moving so much, and leapt towards the large, gaping hole which had opened from the surface of the earth down to where they currently were.
Cloud gulped and looked downwards from where he was hanging on unsteadily. Scaling slippery walls was a great challenge, but it was peanuts compared to the riot going on down at the chamber they had just barely managed to escape from. The vines were having a lovely time weaving around each other.
And when they ran out of space down there, they would have only one other place to exert their authority.
"Go, go, go, go!" Cloud could find no better word to describe his most desired action at the moment. Without waiting for a respond from his partner he began to secure the heights by clinging tenanciously onto the soft walls and climbing up slowly. The random bangs and crashes below them served as a great impetus, and both of them neared the cavernous exit in no time.
Squall flipped out of the hole first and quickly helped Cloud out. Just as the first large, ambitious vine burst out of the chamber it had been trapped in to taste the nourishing sun. Before long it was joined by it's other buddies, all wanting to get more sunlight to facilitate their growth sprout. Some of the vines twisted upwards, while the others cascaded outwards like a wave against the ground.
Of course, neither Cloud nor Squall was there to greet them.
"I swear..." Cloud found his voice despite himself, "... that I have never ran so quickly in my life before..."
The silence from Squall oddly denoted to him that the SeeD was thinking along the lines of, "So haven't I."
Through the thick trees of the forest they scampered, without a route or destination. There was no need for one, as long as they ran in the opposite direction from those dastardic vines, or roots, or tree trunks, whatever the sentient foliage wished to be known as. They ran so fast, they arrived at an outcrop in the area with surprise written all over their faces. Behind them, sounds of terror and destruction - in which the Iifa tree roots tore up all other minor trees in it's path and flung it in this direction or that - began to get nearer.
"Think we can 'Float' across this crevass?" Cloud was calculating his every move.
"We could try, but what happens after that?" Squall turned to look at the older person, hoping that he had some sharp insight into their situation he himself hadn't been able to think up of.
"I have absolutely no idea," the blond was brutally honest. However he didn't seem to be overly worried. "Why don't we get across this crevass first? Then maybe we can think of what happens after that."
Amidst the roar of the tendrils behind them wrecking havoc on the land, Squall turned to look at the deep, seemingly bottomless chasm they had to vault over for survival. He slowly prepared for the spell, but found some spare time to berate his companion nonetheless.
"You're so beginning to sound like Zidane."
At that, Cloud stopped fumbling with his materia for a while and turned to regard the dark-haired SeeD thoughtfully.
"I'm sure he loves you too, Squall."
-------------------------------
Zidane was brought to awareness by nature of the most thunderous sneeze he had ever sneezed in his life. In a daze he leapt to his feet, eyes glazed and expressions taut, wondering where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.
It took him a while to register that there were two other people in the control room, as opposed to the fact that there should have been only one. With tired eyes he yawned and stared blankly at the supposed newcomer, a balding, pasty man all decked out in black.
He grinned stupidly.
"Howdy!" A raspy voice slipped from his throat, prompting the monkey to cough a little at the unacceptable quality of his voice. Nevertheless he continued, "Wow, what happened? Looks like the ship just got more crowded than it already was!" Finishing which, his head automatically twisted in Kuja's general direction. The silver-haired man merely looked to a side, arms akimbo. He was emitting an aura of utter despise and Zidane was not ignorant to it. Still, he thought it would be nice if he could find out more about what happened during his nap and why the atmosphere was suddenly all tight and tangy at the moment.
Something else caught his attention, though.
"Hey, if it isn't the Cloudy Squall team!" He bounded happily towards the window of the Invincible, which was overlooking the rumpus that was the Iifa tree trying to anchor itself into the continent. His sharp vision had immediately spotted the two figures standing at the outcrop of the broken land, with ringlets of the Iifa tree roots clamouring nearer to them at every heartbeat. "We found them, Kuja! WOOH!" Zidane didn't bother to turn around to gesture, for Kuja had broken out of his reverie and was already by his side, staring out of the window.
"Oh, my goodness," the ex-villain breathed, "they're going to be tree toast if they don't find a way to get out of that place soon."
Zidane took those words seriously and pressed against the clear window pane closer than he should. "...... Kuja, anything we can do to help?!"
"Well we could-" Before Kuja could finish his sentence the ship suddenly hummed into movement from it's temporary hiatus. Both the Genomes spun arond to catch Garland hovering ominously over the globe of blood red. "-... what the heck do you think you're doing now, Garland!" Kuja's subject of conversation immediately switched focus. He was going to move closer to the globe when the ship jolted and trembled, causing both Zidane and Kuja to lose anchorage.
"Do not worry," Garland's authorative voice reassured them, "no harm shall come to your comrades, as long as the ship lives." Although being reassured by Garland, of all people, was rather ironic to begin with.
The Invincible soared the skies with rapidity and grace, lowering itself to a comfortable distance between Cloud and Squall.
Zidane and Kuja could see looks of bewilderment on the two mercenaries, as they were in the middle of crossing the ravine with a Float spell before the Invincible disrupted their original purpose.
In a blink, they were gone.
Replacing their position above the valley were the never-dying tendrils of the near-completing Iifa tree, as layer upon layer of the bark engulfed the one that was beneath, eventually winding into a braid of roots.
"... !!" Both Zidane and Kuja masked no emotion about the sudden change of events.
"What have you done, you Darth Vadar xerox?!" Zidane showed no mercy with his anger, bringing in even entities from the galaxy far far away to help him make his point. He had an accusing finger trained against the said xerox.
Garland spoke no more, as he departed from the globe and dissolved into the darkness.
The only thing interactive he left behind was the ominous drone of the engines.
And the glaring red globe of the Invincible.
Like blood.
-------------------------------
shinjitsu ni chikaku natta
17/10/2002
By the way! All you Vincent and Yuffie lovers out there, join the VnYmaGCc groups now!!! :DDD
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VnYmaGCc/
Go, go there, now! Join! Join! Join! :DDD Specially for all those who love the Vincent and Yuffie pairings, like me, mauhahahahahaha.
A/N: :-| this chapter is way, way overdue m(_ _)m forgive me!!
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
shinjitsu ni chikaku naru
"Oh wow," Cloud's first reaction was to give an exhilarated sigh, "would you look at that!"
Having arrived at the end of the tunnel, Cloud and Squall stepped into a dome-like underground cavern of sorts, encased from floor to ceiling with sparkling crystals. In stark contrast against the gloomy tunnel they had just left behind, this room practically blinded them. Carefully the boys stepped deeper into the area - until they were finally confident that there was no real harm in splitting up and searching the place for clues, or anything that would lead them to either the sorceress, or Necron.
Cloud knelt and scratched at the cakes of dried mud peeling off the surface of the ground.
"Looks like nobody's been here for quite a while." He made a random observation. Squall's reply was a snort of near indignation, like the implications of Cloud's words had been insinuating that he was an idiot who had yet to figure *that* part of the deal out. He continued poking miserably at the wall he was inspecting.
Silence reigned. And it was awkward and uncomfortable.
"Do you think," Squall was the one to speak up first, "that time ever ends?"
The blond mercenary did not turn around to look at his darker-haired counterpart.
"Why do you ask?" His reply was hollow of allusions.
"Just wondering..."
The only noises after that sentence was the muffled sound of boots on dried ground as well as the occasional slide of fabric against crystal walls.
"Does it matter?" Cloud asked, "If time ends or not?"
Squall stopped handling the brittle lump of crystal that had dropped out from the wall as he brushed past it, to consider that. "It's nothing, really..." He tried to appear calm and reassuring - reassuring himself perhaps, "... don't you feel like our journey is like a race against time somehow?
"So maybe, just maybe, if time does end, then we can be sure that... our journey does have a destination, after all..."
"Don't be silly," Cloud immediately intercepted, unsure of why he was saying that. He strode over and gave the moody mercenary a bonk on the upside of his head.
"We can never make time end, but we can to our journey."
The teenager sighed, unable to refute the wisdom of those words. As he struggled to muster up a semi-coherent and *somewhat* intelligent reply, something at the far-side of the room caught his eye. Blinking, he jerked in his position and raced towards his destination, ignoring the fact that he had almost knocked Cloud over in the event. In a short while he had arrived at the object of his excitement - a oddly shaped crystalline structure sheltered by roots of the trees above, twisted into an intricate design.
His hand reached out despite the warning signals to touch the wall beside the structure.
"Look!" He exclaimed, not pausing to check if Cloud was behind him or anywhere near him to actually be hearing him.
"Look at?" Fortunately, though, Cloud was rational enough to follow the boy as he had made his way here. His bright, sky-blue eyes peered curiously at what Squall was so intently staring at, sparkling with slight amusement. "Oh, that... I think I've seen it be-" He stopped himself from continuing when he realized what he was about to say.
Hanging precariously from the semi-translucent crystal walls which had a protrution just at their waist level, was a chain necklace, with two silver rings attached to it. Years of being buried underground had not toiled it in any way whatsoever, but however gave it a more eerie illumination than it originally had when it was still being adorned.
It was the necklace Cloud had seen Rinoa, the girl in blue in the various visions he had, wearing. This made Cloud frown. He was never one to believe that coincidences in situations like these would bode anything good at all. Before he could shout a warning, however, Squall had reached out and tugged the necklace from it's place in the wall.
The chain broke free from it's crystal prison with a melodious chime, effectively halting time.
Without warning the ceiling of the chamber opened up with splendour to welcome the piercing rays of glorious afternoon sun. Temporarily blinded, Cloud and Squall could only hold their hands up in defense as the seed Garland had make descend from the Invincible shimmered downwards, unseen by the audience, and promptly buried itself within the magical soil of the room. There was a pause, as the matter slowly developed itself according to the rhyme.
When Cloud and Squall felt ready to look upon the reflection of the sun on the sheering crystal walls, the ground was trembling, and slowly building up into an earthquake.
"Oh... no..." Cloud immediately looked around for an exit they could run to or a place they could hide. Logic told him running or hiding would mean imminent doom anyway, so both were not a good choice. Squall was also probably thinking along the same lines. They exchanged a quick glance with each other.
The vines then made their earsplitting entrance through the walls and started their random demolition.
Both Cloud and Squall could do nothing but leap and dodge the destructive, and somewhat sentient vines as much as they could. Of course, they didn't forget to shout words of encouragement to each other once in a while. "Hey, what's going on?" Squall had been first to ask, the necklace he had pulled out in one of his hands and the Lionheart in his other.
"You tell me!" The blond sounded cross. He jumped onto a vine which had buried itself from wall to wall and was currently growing in diameter. He hadn't anymore time to think before another vine twisted his way and forced him to leap some more. "Any bright ideas now?"
Squall wasn't having all that fine a time himself, having nearly been pinned to a nearby wall by the onslaught of 10 slim and sharp vines, had he not ducked and rolled to a side just in time. They both knew that their situation was dire - and that they had to get out of this vine-pit soon if they wanted to live to see another day. The severe quaking wasn't doing anything to help either. There was only one exit, and they both knew what to do when they next met each other's glances.
In a candid moment of unison, both Cloud and Squall got a firm foothold onto one of the vines which had stopped moving so much, and leapt towards the large, gaping hole which had opened from the surface of the earth down to where they currently were.
Cloud gulped and looked downwards from where he was hanging on unsteadily. Scaling slippery walls was a great challenge, but it was peanuts compared to the riot going on down at the chamber they had just barely managed to escape from. The vines were having a lovely time weaving around each other.
And when they ran out of space down there, they would have only one other place to exert their authority.
"Go, go, go, go!" Cloud could find no better word to describe his most desired action at the moment. Without waiting for a respond from his partner he began to secure the heights by clinging tenanciously onto the soft walls and climbing up slowly. The random bangs and crashes below them served as a great impetus, and both of them neared the cavernous exit in no time.
Squall flipped out of the hole first and quickly helped Cloud out. Just as the first large, ambitious vine burst out of the chamber it had been trapped in to taste the nourishing sun. Before long it was joined by it's other buddies, all wanting to get more sunlight to facilitate their growth sprout. Some of the vines twisted upwards, while the others cascaded outwards like a wave against the ground.
Of course, neither Cloud nor Squall was there to greet them.
"I swear..." Cloud found his voice despite himself, "... that I have never ran so quickly in my life before..."
The silence from Squall oddly denoted to him that the SeeD was thinking along the lines of, "So haven't I."
Through the thick trees of the forest they scampered, without a route or destination. There was no need for one, as long as they ran in the opposite direction from those dastardic vines, or roots, or tree trunks, whatever the sentient foliage wished to be known as. They ran so fast, they arrived at an outcrop in the area with surprise written all over their faces. Behind them, sounds of terror and destruction - in which the Iifa tree roots tore up all other minor trees in it's path and flung it in this direction or that - began to get nearer.
"Think we can 'Float' across this crevass?" Cloud was calculating his every move.
"We could try, but what happens after that?" Squall turned to look at the older person, hoping that he had some sharp insight into their situation he himself hadn't been able to think up of.
"I have absolutely no idea," the blond was brutally honest. However he didn't seem to be overly worried. "Why don't we get across this crevass first? Then maybe we can think of what happens after that."
Amidst the roar of the tendrils behind them wrecking havoc on the land, Squall turned to look at the deep, seemingly bottomless chasm they had to vault over for survival. He slowly prepared for the spell, but found some spare time to berate his companion nonetheless.
"You're so beginning to sound like Zidane."
At that, Cloud stopped fumbling with his materia for a while and turned to regard the dark-haired SeeD thoughtfully.
"I'm sure he loves you too, Squall."
-------------------------------
Zidane was brought to awareness by nature of the most thunderous sneeze he had ever sneezed in his life. In a daze he leapt to his feet, eyes glazed and expressions taut, wondering where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.
It took him a while to register that there were two other people in the control room, as opposed to the fact that there should have been only one. With tired eyes he yawned and stared blankly at the supposed newcomer, a balding, pasty man all decked out in black.
He grinned stupidly.
"Howdy!" A raspy voice slipped from his throat, prompting the monkey to cough a little at the unacceptable quality of his voice. Nevertheless he continued, "Wow, what happened? Looks like the ship just got more crowded than it already was!" Finishing which, his head automatically twisted in Kuja's general direction. The silver-haired man merely looked to a side, arms akimbo. He was emitting an aura of utter despise and Zidane was not ignorant to it. Still, he thought it would be nice if he could find out more about what happened during his nap and why the atmosphere was suddenly all tight and tangy at the moment.
Something else caught his attention, though.
"Hey, if it isn't the Cloudy Squall team!" He bounded happily towards the window of the Invincible, which was overlooking the rumpus that was the Iifa tree trying to anchor itself into the continent. His sharp vision had immediately spotted the two figures standing at the outcrop of the broken land, with ringlets of the Iifa tree roots clamouring nearer to them at every heartbeat. "We found them, Kuja! WOOH!" Zidane didn't bother to turn around to gesture, for Kuja had broken out of his reverie and was already by his side, staring out of the window.
"Oh, my goodness," the ex-villain breathed, "they're going to be tree toast if they don't find a way to get out of that place soon."
Zidane took those words seriously and pressed against the clear window pane closer than he should. "...... Kuja, anything we can do to help?!"
"Well we could-" Before Kuja could finish his sentence the ship suddenly hummed into movement from it's temporary hiatus. Both the Genomes spun arond to catch Garland hovering ominously over the globe of blood red. "-... what the heck do you think you're doing now, Garland!" Kuja's subject of conversation immediately switched focus. He was going to move closer to the globe when the ship jolted and trembled, causing both Zidane and Kuja to lose anchorage.
"Do not worry," Garland's authorative voice reassured them, "no harm shall come to your comrades, as long as the ship lives." Although being reassured by Garland, of all people, was rather ironic to begin with.
The Invincible soared the skies with rapidity and grace, lowering itself to a comfortable distance between Cloud and Squall.
Zidane and Kuja could see looks of bewilderment on the two mercenaries, as they were in the middle of crossing the ravine with a Float spell before the Invincible disrupted their original purpose.
In a blink, they were gone.
Replacing their position above the valley were the never-dying tendrils of the near-completing Iifa tree, as layer upon layer of the bark engulfed the one that was beneath, eventually winding into a braid of roots.
"... !!" Both Zidane and Kuja masked no emotion about the sudden change of events.
"What have you done, you Darth Vadar xerox?!" Zidane showed no mercy with his anger, bringing in even entities from the galaxy far far away to help him make his point. He had an accusing finger trained against the said xerox.
Garland spoke no more, as he departed from the globe and dissolved into the darkness.
The only thing interactive he left behind was the ominous drone of the engines.
And the glaring red globe of the Invincible.
Like blood.
-------------------------------
shinjitsu ni chikaku natta
17/10/2002
By the way! All you Vincent and Yuffie lovers out there, join the VnYmaGCc groups now!!! :DDD
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VnYmaGCc/
Go, go there, now! Join! Join! Join! :DDD Specially for all those who love the Vincent and Yuffie pairings, like me, mauhahahahahaha.