Chapter Seven: Movements in the Mist
I awoke slowly, surfacing up through the layers of sleep until I was fully conscious enough to open my eyes, I looked around me, Zidane had gone but Reiganna, Mikoto and Kuja lay sleeping in the beds around me, Dominos was absent but I suspected she wouldn’t have come back to the room. Sitting up gently I brushed some of my medium length blonde hair out of my face and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
Dawn had broken already and it was the start of a fine day outside, the birds were singing and the trees on the other side of the town were swaying gently in the breeze.
I stood up a little unsteadily and walked out of the room, the innkeeper outside looked up and blinked
“Who are you?” he asked
“I’m with Domino.” I replied
“Ok, enough said.” Said the Innkeeper as he went back to stroking the ginger cat curled up on his desk.
I looked around outside of Inn and couldn’t see any sign of Domino on the street outside, I turned around and looked up on the top of the thatched roof of the Inn, the straw looked like it had been disturbed and I knew immediately what had caused it, or to be more accurate, who.
I climbed on top of a water barrel and perching precariously I scrambled up onto the roof and grabbing at handfuls of straw I made my way up to the top, and sure enough, there by the chimney stack curled up with her tail around her was Domino.
I gently crawled over to her and touched her on the arm, instantly she was awake and had a dagger pointing at me. I jumped backwards and overbalanced and fell backwards off the roof and into the water barrel, the cold water shocked me and made me lose some air uncontrollably before my subconscious kicked in and told me to hold my breath. I tried to stand back up but I had landed awkwardly and my feet were stuck above me, thrashing about with my hands I lost more air in bubbles trying somehow to surface, just when I thought my time was up a hand grabbed me around my leg and pulled me out of the water upside down. I looked up to see Domino holding on to my leg.
“You stupid choco,” she scolded me “What did you fall in there for?”
“You made me lose my balance!” I protested.
She put me down on the grass and knelt next to me.
“Are you alright?” she asked
I nodded coughing a little bit of water up
“I am now, thanks Dom, you saved my life.”
Domino smiled and pulled a rag out of her pocket to help me dry my face and my fringe.
“You looked in trouble there, thrashing around like a Leviathan.” She said, making a reference to the sea borne eidolon
“My feet were stuck, I was drowning.”
Dom nodded
“Thanks for saving me, you are a true friend Domino.” I said to her, smiling back as I stood up, my soaking wet clothing sticking to me.
“Hey, that’s ok Alex, it’s what friends are for…besides, you’ve always been there for me…and now you’re here again.”
I gave Domino a tight and extremely wet hug which made her jump.
“Bloody hell Alex, that water is freezing!” she said “You’d better change into some dry clothes before you get hypothermia or something!”
I grinned and shivered slightly.
“Yeah, I am getting cold now, I’ll just nip inside and get changed.” I said, Domino nodded in agreement.
I run around and back into the Inn, the innkeeper looked up to see me dripping wet and did a double take but shook his head dismissively, I could have sworn he muttered under his breath:
“Domino…enough said.”
I hadn’t realised that Dom was that famous around here, despite her heroics last year there were still many people on Gaia who hadn’t heard of the name Domino the genome.
I walked into the bedroom and got undressed putting my wet clothes over by the windowsill, suddenly I had this strange feeling I was being watched so I quickly looked around and saw Kuja awake sitting up in bed watching me.
“Hey! Do you mind?!!” I shouted at him covering up certain parts of my body.
“Mind what?” he asked
“I’m naked!! Stop looking at me!!” I shouted at him
“What’s wrong with being naked?” he asked
“Nothing’s wrong but just don’t look at me, it’s rude Kuja!”
He frowned and shrugged but closed his eyes.
“Thank you” I said, still a little amazed that I should be talking to the destroyer of worlds, with absolutely no memory of his past, the pain and suffering he had caused so many…him and that Garland. Shaking my head I bent down and picked up my spare clothes from the travelling sack I used when I went on my archaeology trips.
“Was I really a… ‘mass murdering maniac’?” asked Kuja with his eyes still shut.
I stopped in the middle of fastening my bra and just stared at him, it was as if he had read my thoughts.
“What makes you think that?” I cautiously asked him
“You said it last night.” He replied
I jumped in shock, he hadn’t been asleep!
“You were listening?!” I asked him
He nodded
“Well,” I started “You had an unsettled past…you did many things…”
“Were they bad things?” he asked me
“A lot of them were…yes.”
He thought about this for a moment and then asked
“Am I a bad person?”
I pulled up my trousers and did up the belt on them while thinking about his question, the Kuja I had witnessed attacking Alexandria was bitter and twisted, but the Kuja before me was quite different, he was almost like a child, trying to make sense of a world around him.
“I don’t know, you’re better off asking Reiganna that.”
Kuja nodded
“I will, thank you for being so honest with me Alex.”
I shrugged, a worthless gesture since he couldn’t see me, buttoning up my top I brushed back my hair into its usual spot and checked on my wet clothing which was drying nicely in the morning sun.
“You can open your eyes now.” I said as I walked towards the door.
“Alex?” asked Kuja, making me stop before I reached the door
“What?” I asked, a slight scowl crossing my face
“Will you ever forgive me?”
My world shook slightly, how could he possibly know of my hate for him? Was it that obvious to him? I couldn’t give him a straight answer but settled on a more cryptic:
“Maybe.”
Far away on the desolate world of Terra two silver haired genomes stood watching the setting sun, their names were Rhiana and Ilvian, they were both rejections from their society, like the majority of the silver genomes they had been discarded when they had outlived their usefulness, Ilvian still bore the scars of his masters attempt to kill him on the right hand side of his body, Rhiana had escaped unharmed and together they had stayed hidden on Terra, forming a sort of brother-sister relationship.
Rhiana looked up as a person approached them through the ruins of a destroyed city.
“Who are you?!” shouted Ilvian as he watched the person walked through the shimmering heat haze towards them, its black cloak blowing in the steady wind which whipped across the desert sands.
“Hey, I asked you a question!” shouted out Ilvian again as the figure made no reply and continued walking.
As the walking figure drew near Ilvian walked out and stood in front of the figures path his arms crossed. The figure stopped, its hood still drawn and its face in shadow.
“Where are you going?” Ilvian asked
“That is not of your concern.” Replied the figure in a hollow male voice.
“Hey, I live here so it’s my concern!” replied Ilvian, pushing the figure back slightly.
Before Ilvarin knew what was happening a sharp blade was pushed against his throat, he went to swallow but with the proximity of the blade to his throat he decided against it.
“And if you don’t wish to die here you will let me pass genome.” Warned the figure.
“You know what we are?” asked Rhiana as she stood up and walked over to the figure.
“I know the genome race well.”
“How?”
“That is also not of your concern.”
All the time Rhiana and the man had been talking, Ilvian’s hand had been creeping towards his weapon and while the figure was distracted replying to Rhiana he had drawn it and knocked the figures blade away from his throat.
The figure jumped backwards and crouched in a fighting stance, his robes blowing around him, Ilvian leapt forward towards him his own sword posed to strike the man in the chest but the figure darted sideways and blocked the blow with his sword.
Ilvian carried on forwards with the momentum of his leap but swung around quickly and just in time to block a strike which would have decapitated him. Their blades met in a shower of sparks and the two fighters faced each other their blades pushed between them.
“You fight well.” Said the man
“So do you.” Replied Ilvian
“Of course, I was born to fight.”
Another short and sharp sword fight ensued as the two fighters moved apart, the man moving quicker than Ilvian thought possible for a man his size, he was quite tall, and he handled his large sword in a manner as though it was only a short sword. Ilvian put up a good defence and managed to keep the figure off him, although Ilvians damaged right hand proved to be a hindrance, a couple of times it caused him to lose his balance and nearly stumble onto the strangers blade. Once again the swords met violently with the sound of crashing thunder and a blinding flash of flight, which briefly illuminated the mans face but it was all too brief for Ilvian to make out any firm details, they came face to face over their blades.
“You cannot defeat me genome, I am much, much more powerful than you could ever possibly imagine. I have vanquished souls a hundred times more powerful than you.”
“Ha, I can beat you, whoever you are…and I will.”
“Humph, continue deluding yourself and you may land up dead.” Retorted the figure
Then they parted and circled each other, both men looking for a chink in the others defences, the man moved quickly sideways in a feint manoeuvre which fooled Ilvian so that he couldn’t defend against the proper attack which the figure then launched, moving forward extremely quickly in a blur of movement, the man reached Ilvian and smashed his blade from his hand, knocked him to the ground and placed his sword against Ilvians neck in one swift fluid movement.
“Do you yield?” asked the man as he stood above Ilvian, his blade poised to end the silver genomes life.
“Never.” Spat Ilvian back at him, defiant to the end.
The figure chuckled, and threw his head back roaring with laughter, a sound which sent tremors of fear down both Rhiana and Ilvians spines for it reminded them of the evil laughter of their mentor Garland, and it was this type of laughter they heard again now.
“I like your attitude genome…I may have a use for you yet.”
“I am not used, I am not a tool.” Hissed Ilvian, his eyes narrowing as though mortally insulted.
The figure paused, as though the words effected him in some way.
“I know…then, I shall let you choose to join me with your own free will. You can stay here on Terra of course, but what is there here except destruction and desolation…or you can come with me and have the chance to command an army of your dreams. The choice is yours…power or desolation.”
Rhiana stood forward and knelt next to Ilvian looked up at the figure
“He is right Ilvian, there is nothing for us here.” She said
“How do we know you’re not deceiving us?” asked Ilvian
“You don’t…but what else do you have?”
Ilvian considered the figure in front of him, his black cloak slowly flapping in the wind and his hood concealing any facial features, the rest of his clothing was also back and on his belt he carried a strange device which was shaped like an L in a holster of some sort.
“How big an army do you have in mind.”
“More immense and more powerful than your wildest dreams.” Replied the man
Ilvian slowly stood up as the figure lowered his blade.
“Then we shall join you, of our own free will.”
“Of course.” Replied the figure
“Might we have the pleasure of knowing your name?” asked Rhiana
“My name?” asked the figure, as though he didn’t know it yourself.
“Yes…I am Rhiana and this is Ilvian.” She introduced herself and Ilvian to the figure
“My name…my name…is Fury.” Replied the figure
And then and there the three shook hands, cementing the bonds of a partnership which would bring darkness upon fair lands.
We left Dali late that morning, waving goodbye to Kuja, Mikoto and Reiganna. Zidane was with the fleet still searching for Thunderchild but I knew that they wouldn’t find him, that wherever he had gone it wasn’t here.
We walked in silence for a while, not knowing what to say to each other, the road twisting and turning and the landscape around changing from rolling fields to marshland.
Finally Alex broke the silence by remarking:
“I never knew that Kuja was your brother.”
I nodded
“Yeah, we share the same DNA so that makes us related, practically the same.”
“But you’re certainly not the same as him.” Said Alex
I shrugged
“I dunno, it’s only because of Jaras personality transfer that I am the way I am now, and even just seeing him there reminds me of what I could have been like.”
Alex nodded
“I guess we’ve been lucky.”
I nodded in return, running a hand through my hair I felt something come away and so I caught it in my hand and looked at it. There, sitting in the palm of my open hand was a black feather. Frowning I bent closer to examine it but a gust of wind blew it away from me and over into the marshes, I ran my hand through my hair again but didn’t find anything.
“Strange…” I muttered to myself
“Pardon?” asked Alex, she had stopped walking and was staring at me.
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” I assured her, while putting the black feather in the back of my mind and trying to forget about it, continued onwards towards the ever looming Evil Forest.
As we got to the outskirts of the dark and gloomy forest.
They don’t call it Evil Forest for nothing I thought as we walked into the trees and the sunlight was cut off, almost as abruptly as though someone had switched it off.
Cautiously I drew my short sword and advanced into the darkness.
“I hate this place.” Whispered Alex, we dared not speak louder for fear of awaking something lurking deep in the forest, gods alone know what beasts lay within the misty murk around us and I had no wish to find out.
“Me too, lets not hang about and wait for something to find us. The portal is this way.”
I could hear rustlings in the forest around us and once or twice I thought I caught snippets of conversation, I shook my head, my mind was playing tricks on me again, fooling me to be scared by things that didn’t exist.
The mist grew thicker as we approached our destination, as did my anxiety, it seemed that the forest was more threatening than ever before, more spooky.
I didn’t even hear footsteps as something came running out of the mist and collided with me knocking me to the ground and rolling me over in the dirt, there was a scream and a shout of “Oh damn!”, a human shout. I refrained from attacking the newcomer and took the time to look at what had just hit me, another thing about me which had changed, several years ago I would have plunged my sword into the newcomer and then found out who or what it was, now I was more cautious, more refined.
I gasped as I saw who it was who had hit me, a smallish boy of about fourteen with black hair and wearing his trademark red and white peaked cap.
“Ash Ketchum?!” I asked
“What the…? Domino?!!” He gasped in reply as he looked back up at me.
“In the flesh…Ash, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked in amazement, I hadn’t expected to see the Pokemon trainer again since our escapade with Lawrence and the Phoenix Eidolon many years back.
“There’s a mist monster after me, it was right behind me!” he warned
I instantly prepared for battle, as did Alex. We stood there, our weapons drawn as Ash waited behind me. But nothing happened, no monster came, nothing swept out of the swirling mist to viciously assault us.
“It was right behind me.” Repeated Ash
“Well, evidently not any more.” Said Alex as she carefully relaxed.
Ash relaxed too
“I wonder what happened to it.” He asked
“Probably got sidetracked,” I said as I let my attacking arm fall from its offensive stance “Now lets go before something else attacks us.”
“So what are you doing here Ash?” asked Alex
“Me? Oh, well I came through looking for some of those monsters of yours, I thought they might make good Pokemon.”
“Where’s Pikachu?” I suddenly asked
Ash jumped in shock, the familiar yellow creature was missing from Ash’s side.
“Oh no, he must have gotten left behind!”
Ash ran off into the mist back the way he had came from.
“Ash! Be careful there’s,” I began, but he had gone “Aw dammit, come on Alex, we’d better go with him!” I said as I ran after Ash.
We hadn’t run far before we came across the corpse of an Axolotl, its pink form lying crumpled in a bloodied heap, beside it sniffing anxiously at the body was the familiar yellow with brown stripes form of Pikachu.
“Pika Pika!” It exclaimed when it saw me and it ran over and jumped into my arms giving me a small electric shock as a form of greeting.
Ash was walking around the corpse prodding it uncertainly with his foot and frowning very hard.
“This was what was chasing me.” He said
I looked at the corpse and walked around it with him looking at the wounds, they were not teeth marks, they were sword blade marks.
“Someone killed this Axolotl with a sword Alex, and very professionally as well. Look at the markings.” I said pointing to the sword cuts along the neck and belly, points which killed creatures quickly and without fuss. Whoever had killed this Axolotl was someone who knew what he was doing.
“Looks like we owe someone a favour.” Remarked Alex
“I dunno…I don’t like the look of this.” I muttered
“Me neither.” Agreed Ash, he was still a little shaken from his escape from the Axolotl and nearly losing Pikachu at the same time.
“Come on Dom, let’s get to the portal before whoever killed this thing shows up, they might not be so favourable to us either.” Said Alex.
I nodded and we carried on walking.
The journey had been eventful, I had never travelled by portal before, and to step from one world to another in the blink of an eye was amazing.
“There are more incredible sights than that to come.” Promised Fury upon seeing my shock
We had emerged in a dark cave, in which Fury had gathered his bearings and spent a moment alone. I didn’t know what he was up to but I didn’t dare ask him, he seemed like a man on the edge between sanity and madness and I didn’t want to be the person who pushed him over.
Then we had walked out of the cave and into a mist filled forest, the portal glimmering gently deep within the cave behind us.
“Welcome to Gaia…although our journey isn’t over yet, there is still a long way to go.” Said Fury
I looked around, taking in the dismal surroundings around me, so this was the Gaia we had worked to destroy all those years, I could see Rhiana looking in a mixture of wonder and disgust as well.
“Is the whole planet like this?” she asked
Fury shook his head
“Oh no, there’s some lovely places too…but we’re not here to sightsee Rhiana, we’re here for conquest, so we’ll have to find somewhere quiet, and I think I know just the place.”
Behind us, came the older man who Fury had searched out for on Terra, he said that this man was vital to his plan although in my opinion the man was worthless, he snivelled like a small boy and looked too old to be of any use but Fury had insisted that appearances could be deceiving.
It was for this reason, Fury had said that he would not remove his dragon shaped mask, he said that he wanted his words to have more weight than his looks, although I sensed that there was something else, some other reason he wanted his looks hidden.
It was then we had come across the monster, as we walked out onto the footpath a small boy had come running past at a flat run with a strange pink monster close behind him. I had drawn my sword and joined Fury in attacking the beast. It hadn’t taken long before Fury had defeated the monster, its pink form collapsing to the ground.
Fury had looked around and had seen a small yellow and brown monster watching us.
“Go away!!” he had shouted at the creature before advancing on it with his sword.
The little beast had exclaimed “Pika!!” and had run off into the bushes. We turned our back on the corpse and left the footpath and went into the forest.
“If a boy was on the main footpath, he was bound not to be alone,” Fury had said “and the last thing we need is for someone with nothing else to do but nose in our business to start asking questions about our presence.”
And so we walked through the misty forest, our footsteps muffled by the clinging mist, the old man and Fury walked slightly ahead of us deep in conversation, we couldn’t hear anything of their talking and we didn’t want to disturb them for fear of inciting Furys rage.
“Do you think we can trust this guy?” I whispered to Rhiana
“Doesn’t look like we have a choice now, we’re committed.” She whispered back
“I think he’s unstable.” I hissed to her
“Maybe, but he knows what he’s doing. I just wish I knew what it was he was doing.” She replied
“Yeah, and what’s with the old guy?” I asked her
“I asked him, he said that this man was vital to our plans, but he said nothing else” She answered
We walked on through the trees for another moment of silence
“Just what are our plans?” I wondered out loud.
“Did you say something Ilvian?” asked Fury from ahead of us, he had stopped now and both him and the old man had turned back to us.
“I was just wondering out loud what our plans were.”
“Our plans?!” asked Fury, chuckling as though he was amused by something “We have no plan, I however, have one that I will reveal to you when I deem it the right time.”
“How are we supposed to be of any use if we don’t know what’s happening?!” I protested, he made me silent with a cutting stare.
“Just do what I tell you and you’ll be useful. Disobey…” he deliberately left the end of the sentence so Rhiana and I could imagine the nasty endings he could have for us.
“We’d do well to obey him.” Whispered Rhiana as Fury turned back around and continued walking.
“Yes, I dread to think what he’d do to us if we don’t.” I whispered back
Rhiana nodded
“Yes, just remember how easily he defeated you.” Reminded Rhiana
I nodded in agreement, he had a hidden power within him that could be unleashed with devastating consequences, and I didn’t wish it to be unleashed on me.
And so we continued walking in silence, through the misty gloom and danger which surrounded us.