Tempo Trigger Prologue
By Nanaki
Timeless
Vigo was as close as a cloud of floating green mist in the afterlife of the heroes of the ages could get to being bored. He had sent Zeal away for the moment, in case Rofellos dropped by unexpectedly. If he had a body, he would have been leaning back in a chair, snacking on something. He never understood how time flowed here, if time existed here at all. Millions of years could go by in the blink of an eye when it suited them, and then those years could reverse even farther, carrying them deep into the past. And then, there were times like now, where all there was to do was wait for the action to start. Gren, Arthur, and all the other heroes from his sector were out on assignment, and who knew when they'd be back. Word had it that Rofellos himself was on assignment too, although this may have been his lifetime off. But he had been all over this before. He had been over everything before, actually. He was bored.
Then, another cloud of swirling mist appeared next to him. But the odd thing was, this cloud had an odd orange tinge to the swirling green. Vigo quickly backed away from the unexpected guest. 'You! What do you want?'
'I want to help Schala, Lord Vigo. I want to make amends for what I did to her. Please.'
'Forget it Sephiroth! You blew it big time on your last assignment!'
The orange-green mist swirled in a submissive pattern. 'Yes sir. I thought I was ready to take on a Class A. Obviously, I was not.'
Vigo sighed. 'I really don't care that much. But Rofellos was quite clear. He said, and here I quote, "Why the hell did I let someone as inexperienced as him go after a Class A?! God, what a mess! He's not going anywhere else for a while." We had to give Aerith and Cloud a vacation lifetime after that one, because of you!'
'I know. That's why I want to help them. Besides, from what I saw of their so called vacation, they didn't have much rest.'
'True enough. I thought they would be able to handle a Class C easily. But they were a bit too young when the crisis came, and I think their long time apart drained their energies partially. They were designed to function as a set, and Cloud lived to be 103, I think. I wasn't here when it happened.'
'Why would that affect their powers in a timeless zone like this?'
'You'd have to ask Rofellos that one. I have no clue.' Vigo sighed again. 'Look Sephiroth, I understand where you're coming from. But I'm about to hit the one thousand mark, and I don't want to blow my chances by pissing off Rofellos now. I'm not going to give you permission.'
Sephiroth's mist began to swirl in an agitated manner. 'It's not my fault my host body was implanted with Lavoid cells before it was even born!!'
'Yeah, yeah. Tell it to Rofellos.' Vigo's mist suddenly swirled faster. 'Schala's about to land! I've wasted enough time with you!'
'Fine then, but I'm helping out, whether you like it or not!'
'Good luck finding a hero that'll give you permission!' Vigo laughed. 'Ah now, finally time for the show to begin...'
* * *
Schala dimly felt herself stirring from sleep. It felt like ages had passed since she had last been awake. As she became more aware of things, she realized that it had been ages, most likely. Probably a great many ages. She opened her eyes, and saw the beautiful light of a planet in daytime in front of her. Then, her eyes widened. Partially obscuring her view was the reason she was here, and MUCH bigger than she remembered it. 'So, I finally caught up with you!' She grinned sadistically. 'You won't get away!!' At a slight mental command, her shield instantly picked up speed, closing the gap between herself and the Lavoid.
'Oh no you don't!' She was surprised to hear it instantly reply. 'Maybe I'm still young enough that you can hurt me, but you have to catch me first!' The Lavoid picked up speed too, and a red glow surrounded them both as they began to enter the planet's atmosphere.
'I'll catch you all right!' She gritted her teeth as the shield began to shake. In a surprisingly short amount of time, they were actually in the atmosphere. Schala travelled straight downward, hoping to reach the surface before the Lavoid, but it pulled the same trick.
'I'm a Class B, human!' It yelled at her. 'You'll quickly learn that I'm not to be messed with!' The Lavoid's shell began to spin quickly in midair. Schala could only watch helplessly as it impacted on the surface, the spinning motion helping it to burrow into the ground unbelievably fast. But that was still not as fast as Schala was approaching.
'Hold that pose now. You're going down! Star magic-'
'In your dreams human!' Then, the Lavoid disappeared from sight as lava erupted from the ground, covering it completely. Schala dived in after it, but the lava ate away at her shield so fast that she quickly stopped and turned back. She doubted that even the Nooze would be able to save her from that intense heat.
Her shield came to rest at the base of the crater the Lavoid had made. "I failed again." She whispered to herself. "What can I do now? There's no way I can get to him..." The shield glinted dully in the sunlight, and she sighed heavily. "I guess it's back to suspended animation for me. But how will I wake up the next time?" Then, she angrily kicked the side of the shield. "Aw hell, like it matters! I'll wake up when he destroys this world!" Then she snapped her fingers, and the shield solidified inside. She instantly fell back into a state of dreamless sleep, not breathing, her heart not beating. Not like it ever did anyway.
* * *
The sleep wasn't dreamless for long. At least, it didn't seem like much time had passed. Schala suddenly found herself in the middle of a lush, green forest. Ahead of her, the sun was either rising or setting. She couldn't tell. But then, her eyes widened as she noticed a very familiar form leaning up against a tree. "Greven!"
He remained silent for a second, then stood up and looked in her general direction. "It's been a while Schala. I hope you're feeling all right. Well enough to take on a Lavoid anyway."
"Greven, this is-" But he didn't wait for her to finish.
"I hope you realize you're a wild card here. You should really be dead, like me. But the heroes have allowed you to remain in this form. I'm going to be one step ahead of you as a result. Now, pardon me for doing this, but I owe you one." With that, he turned and ran toward the sun.
"Wait a minute!" Schala cried. "What is all this? What's going on? Come back here and explain!" She started to run too, but for some reason it felt like she was running in slow motion. Looking down, she saw that her feet were moving, but she wasn't going anywhere. Greven got further and further away until the sun swallowed him up. "Greven!!"
"He can't hear you, you know. This is a prerecorded message. He's already been reborn." Schala whirled around to find a man with extremely long white hair standing behind her, an extremely long sword slung on his back.
"Who are you?" She quickly demanded.
"I was supposed to be a hero. But someone screwed up." He said sadly.
"I didn't ask what you were supposed to be!" Schala yelled, suddenly feeling angry. "I asked who you were!"
"I guess I'm nobody special." He shrugged. "Just a one winged angel."
Schala grimaced, taking that to be some kind of riddle. "In other words, not effective?"
The man smiled. "Yes, that's pretty accurate. A one winged angel isn't effective." He laughed a little, as if he had just realized it.
"Anyway, why are you here?" She kept a fair distance from him.
"It's pretty simple, actually. I want to help you take down that Lavoid."
Schala began to smile. "Well why didn't you say so? Of course! Why would you even need my permission for that?"
He remained silent for a moment, then frowned a little. "Because, once before, well, technically, I killed you."
"Oh." Her smile vanished for a minute, then appeared again. "Who the hell cares?! My own mother killed me! I don't care!"
"You mean it?" He began to smile now.
"Sure! Go right ahead."
He bowed to her. "Thank you very much, Lady El." He smiled at the confused look on her face. "You'll understand, far in the future. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a little time travelling to do."
"Wait! What's your name, anyway?"
"It doesn't matter. I'll be someone else the next time you see me, anyway. Goodbye lady, and see you soon." With that, he vanished from the forest.
.
Then, the forest vanished too. Now it seemed like she was underwater. In the distance, she saw Greven again, dimly. Whether he was drifing away from her, or she was drifting away from him, she couldn't tell, but they were getting farther and farther apart. "Stop!" She shouted, finding that it didn't seem that she was underwater after all. "I've had enough of this! I want to be with him!" She was extremely surprised to see whatever force had been acting upon her comply. She drifted closer to him until he was right in front of her. "What is going on here?!" She demanded of him. But he made no move to answer right away. 'Must be another prerecorded message.' She thought bitterly.
Then, he began to stir. "Hello again Schala. By now, I'm sure you're tired of all this talk about the heroes of the ages, and all these confusing dreams and insinuations. Well, that's all about to end. Are you ready to take on that Lavoid?"
"Of course! I've been ready!" She shouted at him.
"Well, I sure hope you said yes," he broke into a grin, "because here we go!" With that, he reached up with his hand, and placed it on her forehead. Then, an immensely bright blue light flashed in front of her eyes, and she was waking up...
.
"Don't worry about it."
"I can't help it..."
"Then, why don't you REALLY worry about it?" - Aerith Gainsborough and Cloud Strife
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