Hope in Love Chapter 8

Truth Revealed

By Sorceress Fantasia

"Ow," Tifa woke up dizzily. Her head was still spinning. ‘What happened to me? Oh yea. That light beam sucked me in and then…where is this place? It’s so dark. I can’t see a thing…’ Then suddenly, the place lit up. Tifa shut her eyes off from the blinding light. Then, she heard a voice.

"Tifa?"

Barret?" Tifa exclaimed.

"Oh, so we’re all here. Happy reunion." Reno grimaced.

They were still in the world of pink mist. However, four walls of mist acted as barriers and sealed them off from the rest of the pink mist. It was as though they were in a room with four pinkish walls and an equally pinkish ceiling. Looking closer, Tifa found that most of them were present: Barret, Reno, Elena, Vincent, Lucretsia and herself.

"Why are all of you here?" Elena questioned.

Then, they filled each other in about the things that happened to them while they were separated.

"So that’s what happened… This is fishy. Why didn’t the Cyclops kill us instead? They definitely have the ability to do so." Lucretsia pointed out.

"Perhaps they have something else in store for us." Vincent answered.

"By the way, have any of ya seen Cloud and Red? They don’t seem to be around." Barret asked.

"And where is Cid and Rude?" Reno asked.

In the midst of their conversation, two silhouettes appeared in a corner. Everyone stared at that direction and held their breaths, worried that it was enemies. Soon, the dark figures materialized and crashed onto the ground with a huge ‘THUD!’

The first figure panted, "Argh…I swear, next time, that guy’s dead meat!" It sounded like a teenage girl.

"What do you mean by ‘next time’? You wanna see them again?" Another voice snapped at her. From their tone, they probably just went through quite an ordeal.

"Yuffie? Cait?" Barret was stunned.

"Huh? Barret?" Cait replied.

"Hey! Everyone’s here!" Yuffie noted. "What happened to all of you? Why are you here? With the Turks?" She added, after seeing Elena and Reno.

"Don’t worry, they’re with us this time. We met your father and he said you were missing so we came to find you. But I guess we got caught instead." Tifa answered. "Why are YOU here? I mean, how did you end up in this middle of nowhere?"

"Since you’ve met my father, you should know why." Yuffie shifted her weight and let out a long sigh. She added, "Well, I was digging in this huge pile of treasure and then this archaic chest transported me here. I wandered in this realm for quite some time before I found Cait here. So, we decided to travel and look for a way out together. However, we bumped into this hideous looking monster and started to fight. We were winning, until a whole bunch of those creatures appeared. Of course we lost, and they threw us into this strange ray of light and we landed here. The rest is history."

"As for me, I was in the Shinra headquarters looking for a file which I need to rebuild the city. Then, I came across this bizarre looking chest sucked me in." Cait Sith replied.

"Now, this is a damn f$#@%*&ing weird situation." Barret commented.

‘I wonder where’s Cloud and the others?’ Tifa thought, hands holding her pendant tightly.

************

Cloud observed the surroundings. Everything looked the same. " Red, we seem to be walking in circles." He noted.

"Maybe we are. There’s nothing to tell us where we are or whether we’re on the right track." Red answered thoughtfully.

He was right. There was no way to tell where they were going. For the third time in the last few minutes, Cloud sighed. Judging from the way things are now, it was hopeless. They were having a hard time just trying to walk out, how are they suppose to rescue Yuffie and find the others? Then, a deafening ‘BOOM’ interrupted his thoughts. Something had crashed in front of he and Red, throwing up lots of dust--mist--whatever. Being alert fighters, the duo went into their battle stance. Cloud readied his sword and Red snarled, his claws ready to tear them into shreds if needed. Then, they waited for the dust to clear.

"You f%$@^*&ing idiot! How the heck do you guard a $#%&^* place like this when you can’t even fly properly!" A man, who was supposedly blocked out of view by the dust, cursed angrily at his companion.

"I only said that I would bring you here! I didn’t say it would be a safe landing!" His companion denied, cooking up a ridiculous excuse.

"F%#$*^@$%ing idiot…" The first person murmured under his breath, though still loud enough for Cloud and Red to hear however.

"…"

The three figures were finally visible.

"Cid! Rude!" Red shouted excitedly, happy to see them.

"Hi Cid! Glad to see you!" Cloud said.

"You should be, Spiky."

Rude never was one who would be frivolous; he decided to get on with the job instead of exchanging hellos. "Cloud, this creature here has got the others. The only way he’ll let them go is if we let him join us on our travel. What do you say?" He inquired softly.

"Who’s this short little guy?" Cloud asked as he circled Grim and observed carefully at its features.

"SHORT? LITTLE? WHO CARES ‘BOUT THAT?! AT LEAST I’VE GOT MORE BRAINS THAN CID!" Grim shouted at the top of his lungs (if he has one!J ). He had always hated being referred to as ‘short’ and ‘little’. It was as though he was some puny child and he hates it absolutely. He is very proud of his name but despises it when others make fun of it, just like what Cloud had just said.

"Hey! Why pull me into it?" Cid complained.

Cloud smiled apologetically, "Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you."

Grim calmed down. "Apologies accepted. The name’s Grim Reaper. You can call me just Grim. Oh, just one more thing, before I forget. I’m the guardian of this realm."

"Fascinating…I’ve read so many books and seen so many things in my life, yet I’ve never seen a creature such as you." Red admitted, studying the creature in front of him.

"Of course, I’m a magical being. Count yourselves lucky to actually see me." Grim folded his arms and grinned.

"Enough with all this f@#%&^*ing crap! How’s the deal, Cloud?" Cid reminded.

"Honestly, can we say ‘no’? We don’t seem to have a choice, or do we?"

"Yes!" Grim cheered. "Come on, I’ll bring you guys to your friends now."

"Wait." Red interrupted.

"What? Something wrong?"

"I just want to ask something." Red narrowed his eyebrows, "Why do you want to come with us? If you wanted to, you could always just get out yourself."

"You fussy little fur ball. Must you know everything?" Grim grumbled. Red nodded, "I don’t like doing things without knowing." Cloud agreed, "Same here." He clearly supported Red. Rude kept mum, but it was obvious from the look from his eyes that he wanted to know the truth as well. A look that says ‘Spill the beans, mister.’ Cid merely gave a silly smirk. "Come on, say it." He cajoled. Knowing he had no escape, Grim began his story.

"This place… is not… exactly my true hometown. My ancestors lived in a floating continent called the Pacific Kingdom, a long time ago."

"What!? The Pacific Kingdom? Ain’t that the place we’re headed for?" Cid asked.

Cloud nodded. "Right, the Pacific Kingdom."

"The kingdom was a beautiful place; flowers grew everywhere. Butterflies, birds and other small-tamed animals lived there, it was like a serene garden, an utopia."

"Serene? Utopia? But Red said the kingdom loved to fight?" Cloud asked.

Grim scowled at the question, "No! Absolutely not! The Pacifist were peace-lovers who hated war." He sighed, then continued, " You must have heard of the legend about the Pacifist treating your ancestors like trash and fighting wars in order to gain more land. That is wrong. Completely wrong. It wasn’t like that. Let me tell you the whole story and the reason why the kingdom disappeared into the sea."

Grim cleared his throat then started, " A long time ago, way before your time, there was a mighty sorcerer by the name, Sapphire. He was far more powerful than ordinary sorcerers or wizards and could summon nature’s forces to aid him. And when I say nature’s forces, I don’t mean those puny little spells that you cast with materias. But don’t ask me anything about it, cause I don’t really know. All I know is that it is more powerful." This prevented questions and thus he went on, "He was even said to have the power to revive the dead. You could say that he was a born sorcerer. He hated his own planet, as many of the warlocks and sorcerers were hungry for power. A lot of wars resulted from that. There was a lot of bloodshed, destruction and what have you. But…Sapphire was…different, I would say. He loved peace and serenity more than anything else. He wanted to live in a place where there are no wars and no destruction. Thus, he and his family left their planet when he was around twenty and wandered around, hoping to find a planet suitable for them. Your planet’s extremely strong powers attracted him and thus, they landed here, on this planet. At that time, this planet was only inhabited by a race of people who called themselves the Cetras. At first, they lived on the land’s surface, and befriended the Cetras. Then, it came. Jenova, or what the Cetras call ‘Crisis from the sky’, landed. It introduced itself as a friend at first, only to pass on a special type of virus to the Cetras later. Sapphire couldn’t prevent the virus from spreading; it was far beyond his powers. Jenova was too powerful, and he couldn’t kill any of those infected Cetras. Thus, he decided to escape, but was unwilling to leave this planet. So, he used all his powers and created a crystal called ‘Angel’…"

" ‘Angel’?" Cloud exclaimed at the word.

"Why? What’s wrong with that?" Grim asked.

"I’ve… No, not only me. Lucretsia too. We’ve been dreaming of this ‘Angel’ stuff for weeks. A voice called to us and requested us to get it."

"What? Is this the truth?"

"I don’t benefit anything from lying, do I?"

Grim hung his head, as he recalled what his father said about the orb. "Then…then it’s bad. If the crystal is asking for help, then something must be very wrong."

"What d’ya mean by ‘wrong’?" Cid inquired.

"It may mean a disaster’s coming soon…or worse still…" Grim lowered his voice as though revealing a secret, "…Apocalypse."

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