Dominos POV

There was a hammering at the front door, I stood up and went to walk over to it but suddenly realised I wasn’t wearing any clothes, cursing I quickly pulled on a top and trousers and left Thunderchild snoring in our bed, he was exhausted after all.

Opening the door I saw a Lindblum royal guard standing outside in full dress uniform, he seemed a little surprised at my somewhat dishevelled appearance.

“Err…Mrs Domino?” he asked

“Yes?” I replied crossing my arms in impatience.

“The Regent has sent for your husband and yourself.” He said, finally gathering his act together

“Oh right…we’ll be along shortly then.” I concluded before closing the door

Walking away from the door I laughed quietly at the guards reaction to my appearance, definitely not how he had expected to see the famous Domino she imagined…probably more in a battle dress or something.

A snore from the bed indicated that my also famous husband was still in the land of nod.

“Wakey wakey sweetheart.” I tried, only to be answered by a loud snore.

Rolling my eyes I leaned over to his ear and tried again.

“Wakey wakey…”

Another snore greeted my attempt, so I gave up and picked up a pillow and threw it at him, the pillow hit him in mid-snore and made him jump up in surprise and promptly fall off the bed.

“Wher…wha…huh?” came his confused voice from over the side of the bed.

“I said…wakey wakey sweetheart…” I said, standing with my hands on my hips.

His head appeared from over the side of the bed, his hair was completely messed up and his eyes barely open, frantically rubbing at them with his hands he looked at me like a picture of innocence.

“What…? Did I fall asleep?” he asked

“Only for the past hour…” I replied

He smacked his forehead with his hand

“I’m sorry sweetheart…it’s just that it’s been a tiring patrol and…”

“Hey…it’s ok, I understand.” I replied walking over to him and offering my hand to help him up.

He took it and then pulled me over so I fell on top of him, he then proceeded to tickle me remorselessly

“Hey…hey, stop that!” I cried amidst fits of giggles.

He relented slightly, enough to let me get my hands to his arms and start tickling him instead

“Hey no fair! I thought we had a truce!” he protested while trying to wriggle out of my grasp.

“No mercy!” I shouted

We stopped, our faces nearly touching…he looked up at me and smiled deeply, his deep hazel eyes reflecting the love I felt for him with the love he felt for me.

“I’ve missed you.” He said

“I’ve missed you too.” I replied before leaning forward and kissed him deeply.

We kissed for a minute or two, time seemed to slow down and so became completely irrelevant, and then we parted.

“Anyway…Cid wants to see us.” I said

Thunderchilds eyes went wide in surprise

“Already?!”

I nodded.

“Must be urgent then…I’d better get dressed.” He said looking down at himself.

He stood up and went into the other room to find his clothes.

While he was in there I suddenly felt dizzy, I hadn’t felt like this before and it surprised me. Before I knew it I had fallen backwards onto the bed, the world seemed to swirl around me, and then things went a bright blue. I reflected on the beauty of this light blue but then noticed to my horror that it was turning red…the colour of blood, a deep dark red. And then I heard a voice in my head, which I recognised as the voice of Garland…the supervisor and mentor of the genomes who I had left behind when I fled from Lawrence and Terra.

“The Four Angels of Death shall unite and turn the blue oceans red,” Echoed the cold voice

“Do not forget the truth.”

And then everything cleared and I found myself looking at the ceiling of our apartment.

Strange I thought I’ve not had a vision like that in years…

It wasn’t unusual for Thunderchild to get visions, he was very sensitive in that way, the alien side of him picked up very easily on visions. But for me to have a vision of some sort was very unusual but I decided not to mention it to anyone just yet until I was sure it wasn’t just my overactive imagination.

I sat back up just as Thunderchild walked back into the room.

“You ok Dom?” he asked seeing my slightly fazed appearance.

“Sure…I’m fine.” I lied as I stood up again and finished getting properly dressed, I found a comb and brushed forward my hair, managing to get it into some sort of order whilst checking the mirror.

<You look beautiful> thought Thunderchild to me, using our telepathic ability to communicate for the first time since he had returned.

<I’ll do> I replied, ever the modest one

He took me by the arm and led me out of the apartment.

<Right…let’s go and see Cid then.> He thought as we walked out onto the street and headed for the nearest air cab station.

Thunderchilds POV

“Attention!” shouted an authoritarian voice as I entered the palace yard, the palace guard came swiftly to attention at the sight of me.

I chuckled as Domino drew in a sharp breath, this was the first time she had been with me to the palace where I spent most of my time in active service.

“At ease men, before you strain something.” I said

The palace guard relaxed.

The captain of the guard, Smith I remembered his name walked over to me and saluted, I saluted him back.

“Captain…how goes the training?” I asked

Smith rubbed his moustache with his fingers and gave me a look

“Hard…many of these men don’t know their airships from their elbows.”

I grinned

“You’ll get ‘em into shape Captain…you always do.”

“I hope so…the Regent is in the conference room, you know the way.”

I nodded and saluted Captain Smith, he returned the salute and turned back around to his men.

“Right you ‘orrible lot, first one to the training field gets an early shower!” he shouted

I’ve never seen men move so fast before.

We walked on, Dominos hand in mine, through the parade grounds and into the palace, along the corridors that I knew so well. Saluting the guard on duty on the lift I ordered to him “Top floor, Throne and Conference room.”

He nodded and pushed the lever forward, closing the lift door and making the lift rise upwards through the palace.

Suddenly and very unceremoniously the lift ground to a halt, making me and Domino look at each other.

“What the hell…?” she asked

“Oh…I am sorry sir…this stupid thing…” said the guard as he struggled with the lift control, I turned around suppressing a laugh and noticed Domino looking at me.

<What’s the matter?> she asked

<Oh…I’m sorry, it’s just that despite all the modern technology around us…we still get stranded in a lift. Do you want to climb?>

She nodded and swung herself onto the wall, finding handholds as easily as a monkey.

“Wha…err…be careful!” was all the guard could muster as I followed her up.

While I could never hope to climb as effortlessly as Domino I could still follow her movements as thankfully I wasn’t wearing my armour so I had no extra weight to hold me back.

After a few minutes climbing we reached the top floor and Domino swung herself up and over the edge before offering a hand to help me up which I accepted and pulled myself up and over.

“Well…that was fun.” She said

“Yeah…why can’t we spend a normal day together?” I replied slightly out of breath

“Normal? Prfft, boring.” Said Domino making a dismissive gesture.

I laughed as I pushed myself up onto my feet and pushed down my uniform, only to find my hands were covered in dirt.

“Oh bugger.” I muttered as I noticed the muck had spread to my uniform.

Domino turned to look at me

“Oh…you’ll be alright.” She said helping me brush some of the dirt off.

“Why can’t you two ever do anything the easy way?” asked a familiar voice from down the corridor. I looked up to see a blond haired genome standing down the other end of the corridor near the conference room door.

“Zidane!” shouted Domino as she ran over to him and hugged him.

Zidane was rather taken a back by this display of emotion but he hugged her back.

“Hey…what’s this…an affectionate gesture by my sister…what has Thunderchild been doing to you?” he asked

I chuckled and walked down the corridor to them

“Weren’t me!” I protested holding my hands up in a surrender pose.

Domino stuck her tongue out at me and turned back to Zidane.

“What are you doing in Lindblum?” she asked

“Well…since I am the King of Alexandria I’ve got a right to call a meeting with Cid as a foreign diplomat…but really I wanted to see you two as well.”

I blinked

“Us?”

Zidane nodded and pointed to the conference room door.

“Follow me…” he said and walked through it into the room beyond.

I looked at Domino who shrugged and walked into the conference room, I followed her closely behind.

Dominos POV

When we walked into the conference room we were greeted by quite a few familiar faces, not only had Zidane attended this meeting, Mikoto was there too, Reiganna was standing in the corner and a strangely familiar dwarf from Conde Petite was pacing the room…the Regent was nowhere to be seen.

“Ok…what the hell is going on?” asked Thunderchild from behind me.

No-one answered, I walked over and hugged Reiganna

“Rei,” I said “It’s good to see you.”

“And it’s good to see you too Yugami,” she replied “I only wish it wasn’t under such circumstances…”

“Circumstances? What do you mean?” I asked

“Ah! You’re all here…good, good!” said a voice from behind me

“Regent, sir!” exclaimed Thunderchild, saluting

“At ease captain,” The Regent replied before taking his seat at the head of the table “I am sorry I am late…we’re been having problems with the lift system.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement, as did Thunderchild.

“Anyway,” concluded Cid “Let’s start this meeting.”

“Which is about what precisely?” asked Thunderchild

Mikoto stood up

“About three days ago I received a vision telling me that the four angels of death were to unite and ‘turn the blue oceans red’. The voice was that of Garland.”

“Who’s Garland?” asked my husband before I could say anything

“He was the mentor and guidance of the genomes after Terra was destroyed by the Borg. We need leadership, or at least the genomes at the time did…so they created Garland to guide them…it was Garland, with Lawrence’s assistance who came up with the idea of the assimilation process of Gaia by Terra.”

I nodded

“Yes…Mikoto…you said he said that we would unite and ‘turn the blue oceans red’?”

Mikoto nodded

“Yes…that’s exactly what he said…but he said four.”

Thunderchild frowned

“Four? But the angels of death…that’s Zidane, Mikoto, and Domino and that’s three of you.”

Zidane shook his head

“Nope…there’s one more.”

“Kuja.” I said

Reiganna spoke now

“I had the same vision even though I was not as high up in Garlands eyes as the three of you…I think that the vision went to all Genomes.”

“You’re right Reiganna, all of the genomes in the Black Mage Village received the same vision at the same time.” Said Mikoto

“Yes…I had the vision this morning.” I said

Thunderchild jumped and stared at me

“You never said anything!”

“I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

There was a pause as everyone gathered their thoughts, Cid spoke next.

“Well…that’s when we bring in our correspondent from Conde Petite, who I believe has some interesting information.”

The Dwarf stood up but since he was only just slightly higher than the table he had to climb onto a chair first before he could be seen clearly, Thunderchild recognised him first.

“Brother David?” he asked

The Dwarf nodded and smiled.

“Aye…tis me. I came tae tell ye aboot a strange thing we sae in the night sky the night befor’ last.”

I didn’t say anything for a moment trying to translate what the dwarf had said, it took me a little while but I finally figured it out.

“So…what was this strange thing?” I asked, while the rest of the people gathered were still running through what he had said

“It were a fallin’ star…and it landed at Mardain Sari!”

Mardain Sari, that pricked my ears up…the legendary town of the summoners, destroyed by the Invincible many years ago.

“A falling star?” asked Thunderchild

Brother David nodded

Thunderchild leaned against the wall and rubbed his chin

“Well…that’s nothing too weird…meteorites burn up in the atmosphere all the time.”

“But this one wer’ red!”

Thunderchild stood bolt upright, this sudden revelation shocking him.

“Red! Now that IS weird!!”

Reiganna seemed to be lost in thought as suddenly the whole room began talking out loud, Thunderchild was talking to the Regent about getting the Hildagarde out to Mardain Sari as soon as possible, Zidane and Mikoto was questioning Brother David further about the falling star.

“There’s something missing sister.” She muttered to me

I nodded, I felt it too, as though some vital piece of the puzzle was absent from the equation.

“I guess the only way we’re gonna find out is to go there.”

Reiganna nodded, her tail curled around her uncertainly.

The Regent was clapping his hands to try and get everyone’s attention.

“Ok…ok…listen up, I think everyone’s gathered that we’re got to go and investigate this. Thunderchild you’re right, we’re got to get there soon…however the Hildagarde is long overdue for maintenance.”

“What? With all due respect sir, that’s hardly necessary, she performed fine during our last patrol!!”

“Nevertheless Thunderchild, I’ve put back these overhauls as long as I possibly can but the technical department have been clamouring to get back on the Hildagarde for the past four months, she’s beginning to get outdated, she needs upgrading.”

“But sir, she can outperform any ship on Gaia…well, except my fighter.” Protested Thunderchild

Now it was Zidanes turn to step forward, his hand raised in the air slightly.

“Err…there is one other ship…”

Cid smiled and nodded knowingly

“Of course, Zidane…I was thinking you could use it to go to Mardain Sari.”

“Consider it done Cid.”

Thunderchild put both of his hands up in protest

“Wait a minute, wait a minute!! What other ship?!!” he asked, clearly confused

I grinned as I knew the answer, I could have sworn I’d already told him about the ship in question when recounting Zidanes fight against Kuja but obviously it had slipped my mind.

Oh well, he’s gonna find out now I thought to myself

“The Terran ship Invincible, we captured it from Garland whilst we were on Terra and brought it back through the shimmering island portal, despite a brief trip to Memoria, it’s now intact and in the shipyards at Alexandria.”

“THE Invincible?!!” asked Thunderchild, incredulously.

Zidane looked a little taken aback, I couldn’t blame him, I was confused myself…Thunderchilds reaction wasn’t quite what I thought it would be, he seemed shocked, sure, but also in awe…I concluded it wasn’t the first time he had heard the name before.

“I wasn’t aware that there was any other?” I said

“True…the other Invincible blew up on test trails…nearly took me with it!”

My eyes must have copied Zidanes as his shot wide open, it was his turn to be shocked.

“You are familiar with the Invincible?” he asked

Thunderchild nodded

“Yeah…I was on the fighter escort on her trail runs out in the desert on Terra. She’s not capable of space flight but she certainly has some powerful weaponry. Primarily a ground assault vessel, the main cannon is versatile, can throw pretty much anything at the enemy….Yeah, I know the Invincible.”

There was a silence in the room which was abruptly broken by the sound of Regent Cid laughing.

“See…I knew you were the best choice for airship captain! You know how to fly anything!!” he shouted, pointing at Thunderchild.

Thunderchild grinned sheepishly and shuffled his feet, I took that moment to talk to him telepathically.

Zidane nodded in agreement

“It took us a little while to figure out how to fly the Invincible…let alone how to actually use half the stuff that’s there…”

Thunderchild grinned

“Yeah…I could probably kick some of the stuff on the Invincible into gear.”

I grinned at my husband who seemed, once again, to be in his element.

The Regent stood up

“Then it is settled, you will leave for Alexandria by conventional steamship as soon as possible, then you shall take the Invincible from Alexandria to Mardain Sari and see what is going on there.”

With a murmur of agreement, the meeting broke up. I watched Thunderchild as the others left, for some reason I could not tell…there seemed to be something wrong with him.

“Are you alright my love?” I asked him

He glanced up and noticed I’d been watching him, quickly nodding his head and hiding whatever it was that was bothering him he replied.

“Fine sweetheart, just fine.”

I knew he was lying, but decided not to press any further.