Darkness Falls Chapter 23
By Gemini83
It had been nearly a week since the Fortress of the Ancients had been
“unlocked” by Aeris. All that time, Reeve and the others had been
busy preparing for the battle to come. Yuffie had contacted her father, and
secured the support of the Wutainian forces. Together with the newly recalled
armies of Midgar, and the Cian, the planet had never seen such a military
force. However, plans had to be made, so Reeve called a meeting at the Highwind,
the new flagship of the planetary forces.
Red had not seen the others for quite some time, but controlled his eagerness
to meet with his friends. Instead, he let his father Seto go on into the
meeting room, while he talked with Kaede and Aeris on the deck.
Aeris was frowning in concentration, “tell me again Red, what was it
you found?”
Red nodded, “I searched through the records in Cosmo Canyon, trying
to find any scrap of evidence as to the purpose of the Fortress of the
Ancients.”
“And what did the records say?” asked Kaede.
“There seemed to be vague records of some kind of alien device. It had
something to do with the Cetra...a power generator of sorts. I could not
find much about it, but I did find one important piece of
information.”
“What was that?” posed Aeris.
Red shook his head, “certain...elements...have to be brought together,
but what will happen once they are is beyond me.”
“What kind of elements?” wondered Kaede.
“I’m not sure,” replied Red, “however, I do have some
educated guesses. I believe these elements, whatever they are, contain, in
short, the elemental powers of this planet.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Aeris, “like my White
Materia or something?”
“That could be,” conceded Red, “but I cannot be sure, for
what powers on this planet contain all the world’s
elements?”
“And what is this...BASTION OF THE HEAVENS?” wondered
Kaede.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” answered Red, “but something
tells me that the Drahk are coming because of it.”
“So can I,” agreed Kaede, “I can feel it in my bones...but
any foresight we could have had as to their plans went up in smoke when I
destroyed that communique of Xizor’s”
“You had no choice,” reasoned Aeris.
“True,” said Kaede, “but still-”
“Hey you guys,” shouted Yuffie, “you comin’ or do we
hafta’ start without ya?”
“Be right there,” answered Aeris.
Reeve had called all of Avalanche to the meeting. Seto and the Turks were
present as well as several military designates. Godo, Yuffie’s father,
was mounting his forces, and could not be present. Thus, Yuffie had been
made the Wutainian delegate to the meeting, which had caused a few laughs
among her friends.
“What’s so funny?” demanded the ninja.
“Ah...you’re not exactly political type,” smirked Red.
“Quite the opposite in fact,” smiled Vincent.
Yuffie gave him a wry grin, “well, if politicians are supposed to be
crooks and thieves, I’d think you guys would consider me perfect for
the job!”
They laughed at the joke. Rarely did Yuffie acknowledge her past pursuits
in “profiteering” for what they really were.
“Okay guys,” laughed Reeve, “enough.”
“Let’s get down to business,” agreed Rude.
Aeris began to feel dizzy as Kaede began to discuss the plans with Reeve.
Shera saw this and came to the Cetra.
“Dear,” she asked, “are you alright?”
“I’m fine Shera,” said Aeris, “just air-sickness I
guess.”
“How well are planetary forces spread out?” asked Kaede.
Reeve’s aides brought up a holographic schematic of the planet. Red
dots appeared all over the map.
“We tried to mix our armies together,” said Reeve, “Each of
these red units contains infantry from Wutai and Midgar.”
Seto continued, “my brethren and I have also added our forces. However,
we have concentrated ourselves into these task forces.”
He indicated several larger dots along the shores of Midgar, Cosmo Canyon,
and Gongaga.
“We have several legions of our forces backing them up,” added
Yuffie.
“What about artillery and drop ships?” asked Kaede, “and we
may need those solar/mako cannons to weaken Drahk forces before they make
planet-fall.”
Reno pressed another button, and scores of blue dots appeared all over the
schematic.
Vincent began to feel a strange tingling in the back of his neck. It was
always like this when danger was near. But why? Was the talk of war really
scaring him this much?
“We have plenty of them placed all around the planet,” answered
the Turk, “wherever they attack from, we should be able to hit them.
However, we have concentrated more firepower towards these
areas.”
Another press of a button brought forth a tide of blue along the coasts of
Mideel, Gongaga, and Junon.
“How about ships,” continued Kaede, “how many were you able
to make from the plans I gave you?”
“We made quite a few,” answered Reeve, “however, other than
the Kitana and the Highwind, only a couple of others can get
space-borne.”
“The others will be used as air-support and drop ships as needed,”
continued Elena.
Cloud backed away from the table, rubbing his temples.
“What’s wrong Cloud?” asked Tifa.
He felt a familiar ache in his head, but replied bravely, “nothing,
I’m fine.”
Elena looked away from Cloud and back to Kaede. She found him leaning against
the wall, his face covered by sweat as his shoulder and head drooped.
“What’s wrong man?” asked Cid.
Kaede tried feebly to push himself away from the wall, but quickly collapsed
to his knees as his head reeled in pain.
“Kaede!” shouted Red, “Kaede, what is it?”
The young Cian looked at his other friends, and saw that Aeris and Cloud
were also in pain. Vincent stared at nothing as if he had been stuck by
lighting.
“Hey guys,” said Yuffie nervously, “you all are really starting
to scare me, what-”
She was cut short as a darkness filled the room. It only lasted a second,
but for a few moments, it completely blinded her.
“Did you feel that?” asked Tifa.
Elena was gasping for breathe, “what...was that?”
The aides in the room looked on with curiosity. Why were their leaders acting
so strange?
The darkness subsided, and everyone’s pain was gone...leaving phantoms
of the darkness fluttering in their minds.
Seto turned to his son, “Nanaki, I felt something...like a disturbance
in the Lifestream, but obviously not as strongly as you and your friends.
What is it?”
Kaede slowly got to his feet, as did the others.
The Planeswalker answered Seto’s question, “the Planetary seal
has broken.”
“What?” demanded Barret.
“Remember the seal?” asked Kaede, “the one I placed around
the planet to give us warning? It has been destroyed.”
Aeris was the first to recover from shock, “but the
means.”
Kaede let out a deep breathe, “yes, they have finally come. The Drahk
are near.”
“Shit,” cursed Cid.
“There is more,” continued Kaede, “the emperor himself is
here...but it feels different. I can feel his power, even from this
distance...like a cancer in my mind.”
The others stared at him in silence.
“And where the emperor goes,” he continued, “the Horsemen
are not far behind.”
Barret broke the quiet, “I’ll be goddamned.”
“I hope not Barret,” answered Vincent, “for all our
sakes.”
“How much time do we have?” asked Reeve.
“A few days,” replied Kaede, “a week at the most...and that
is stretching it.”
“Hell,” cursed Reno, “that isn’t much
time.”
“It will have to be enough,” said Rude.
More silence.
Aeris looked pleadingly at Kaede, wishing it was not so.
“So,” breathed Cloud, “it has finally begun.”
“Yes,” answered Kaede, “the endgame is upon us.”
Author’s Note: You know why it’s so hard for me to flesh in these
last few chapters? Because I keep thinking about what I’m going to write
next! I’m getting fairly excited and falling over myself to get this
done!!! After this fic, I have some more planned. In fact, the other day
I caught myself mulling over the car chase and fight scenes in another fic
I am doing. Well, no more of that! Got to get working on this one so I can
move on to the others!
Anyway, I still got a few chapters left in me, actually, more than a few.
We have yet to see the WEAPONS and all the stuff that will happen when
“Darkness Falls.” You know, I’m planning on using that quote
in the story, but I might not if it sounds too corny (i.e. “The World
is not Enough” quote in James Bond. I like JB, but it was really a waste
to name the whole movie after one phrase which has little to do with the
actual plot, evil plans, etc.....AARRGGHH....stop rambling! I’m going
slow enough as it is!).
Getting back on track, I still plan to write two endings if I can, got everything
ready to go, just a question of detail and more details. I had a rather large
epiphany while writing this, and have had to change aspects of more than
a few chapters. Anyway, thanks for all your support, it’s readers like
you that keep me inspired to write!
Note to self: Make A/N section shorter in the future, must not bore readers.
.