Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
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All Vivi could do at the revelation was blink rapidly as he stared up at Kuja. He was being let go? Something about being of no more use to him. Vivi looked down as he tried to process what was happening. He knew he couldn't really help with much, but weren't they friends now. If not friends weren't they just glad they had each other's company since there was no one else they knew except for Nero? Vivi had just nodded sadly and had gone to collect the few things he owned from his room when Kuja said they would be leaving immediately. With his book of fairy tales a tucked squarely in his hand and holding his hat with other, the two left for the nearest village flying on Ms. Ava's back.
Surprisingly Kuja had allowed him to come into the inn with him when they landed near the sun's setting. One night only. He'd be leaving in the morning and then Vivi would be up to his own devices. Vivi had just nodded energetically and tried to stay out of the way as Kuja did his nightly rituals. Although he read his book, Vivi continuously peered over the top of it watching Kuja wishing he would talk to him but not daring to be the one to initiate it. Still, it never came and Kuj slipped into the bathroom as Vivi concentrated at the finale of the "Princess and The Forest".
He thought he had fallen asleep when the vision came to him. A very pretty lady swam into his vision and Vivi could only look at her in awe as a feeling of comfort enveloped him. It felt the same feeling as when he was with his grandpa, or when Garnet would read to him and Eiko late after the others had gone to sleep. He looked up to her with sad eyes glowing as she explained her plight. The Lich??? Hadn't Zidane fought that while he and Steiner had fought Tiamat? Vivi tried to rush forward and reassure her that everything would be alright and that there was nothing to be worried about but as suddenly as the dream had come it vanished. Still he knew it was no dream as soon as the room swam back into view.
"Kuja!" he had yelled and wobbled over but as soon as he reached for the door Kuja had emerged. Vivi explained what had happened and about the woman they needed to go help, but all he got was a huff as Kuja made his way to the window. Without much else Vivi was told to do as he will and Kuja exited without much else in regards to listening to Vivi's plight. Vivi rung his hands and paced for what seemed like hours as the moon climbed in the sky waiting for Kuja to return, but when it became clear he wasn't Vivi took a deep stabilizing breath. He had to be brave; he had to go help that lady no matter what.
He didn't have a map or even directions but his heart knew which way to go. Vivi ran as fast as he could through the countryside, falling over himself plenty as he made his way to where he knew he needed to be. As he saw the village on the horizon the smell hit him first causing him tou double over. What bad bad thing could make a place smell that bad. Vivi slowed himself as the village came nearer the earth split to the point he had to jump across some of the gaps in the ground.
Vivi approached the village and knew something was wrong. Something in his tummy just told him so, still he pressed on as his body was wracked with jitters. The road into the town displayed many cracks and veins and as he walked across the cobblestone shook as though it would sink back into the earth if anything heavier than him had stepped on it. Moaning permeated the air ,but Vivi couldn't see what was making it but his arms drew closer to his sides as he braved his way through the streets.
Still a different sound caused him to jump as he passed by a house with it's front door torn asunder. Mews came crying from the interior, and Vivi hesitantly decided if he should investigate or keep going forwards. Immediately he knew he couldn't leave someone or something alone in this scary place, so he carefully waddled his one into the building and saw the source of the noise on the living room floor.
Three newborn puppies lay unable to see or understand what was happening as their mother lay not moving next to them on the floorboards. Vivi could only blink in sadness as he realized what was wrong with the mommy. She had stopped. No she had died he reminding himself to acknowledge things as they were, and now the puppies needed help. Vivi walked as quickly as he could to a table where a box of yarn sat and he quickly shook it out before he came back gently picking each puppy up and placing them in the box.
"It's okay," making sure his own unsure voice sounded stable as he uneasily ran a finger over their heads making sure. "We're gonna go back," he told them. Although his heart kept telling him to go help the woman, Vivi knew should would understand. Somehow he just knew.
Still as he carefully began to craddle the box up into his arms and out the door, a growl sounded from behind him. Vivi froze as his wide yellow eyes turned with his head. Standing just where it had been dead, the mother stood snarling, it's eyes sunken and the blood matted to its fur. Instinct took over as Vivi placed the puppies on the doorway and turned his back to them.
"Are you okay?" Vivi asked hoping against hope that was the case, but a gut feeling told him to take the puppies and run. Vivi reached out to pet it to calm it down, but a corrupt hoarse bark came from it as it's jaw snared back against its teeth and the smell of death seeped forward. Just as Vivi had extended his hand fully, the beast leaped no light behind it's eyes.
"Fira!" Vivi called out in instinct as the beast lunged at him. Vivi didn't even watch as he turned immediately grabbing the box of puppies and rushing into the street. It seemed the sound had drawn a crowd of humans from where he had come from and from the other side of the street and Vivi's heart leaped just as quickly as it sunk as he noticed they looked the same as the dog. Vivi whimpered, tears full in his eyes, as he escaped down an alley hoping to find a way out. He had to make sure the puppies made it out. He just had to.
As they left the temple together, Genesis couldn’t help but side-eye Sephiroth with every step. After so long spent resenting and then mourning the loss of his friends, it was odd to find himself walking side by side with Sephiroth again. He half expected Angeal to fall into step on his other side at any moment. Unfortunately that one remained a fantasy.
“Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess,” he mused as he looked over at Sephiroth. Funny that it only took years of separation and adversity to finally push them together. It felt like they were more in solidarity with each other than they’d ever been now that they were both against Shinra, and Genesis had to admit that he could get used to that. Even he didn’t want to admit to Sephiroth how pleased he was to have his friend back. But the silver-haired man probably knew him well enough to interpret his Loveless quote anyway.
“Shall we?” Unfurling his wing, he offered Sephiroth a hand with a slightly bitter smile. “Just if you need assistance. I assume flying is new to you.” Pushing off the ground, he meant to take to the air and follow Sephiroth’s lead back to where he was staying, but the sight of people shambling through the streets stopped him, and he ended up lighting on a nearby roof instead.
“Zombies,” he muttered, folding his wing to his back. He'd nearly forgotten in the excitement of finding Sephiroth, but now a look of disbelief returned to his face. “My friend, the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains.” Lamenting his fate, he whirled on Sephiroth a bit accusingly. “Do you know anything about this? Or is it a coincidence that I find a long-dead friend within an army of the undead?.” Ugh. Just saying that out loud made it sound like they were actors trapped in a trope-ridden, cheesy play.
Rolling his eyes, Genesis turned to consider the streets below them, frowning slightly as it looked like a group of them were converging on a tiny figure clutching a box. Was that a child? What was a kid doing in this city alone? Shouldn’t he have evacuated with everyone else?
“Please tell me we’re not getting involved,” Genesis muttered to Sephiroth. He just wanted to leave. He was tired. And hungry. And emotional. Surely his needs mattered more than some kid who was too stupid to survive a zombie apocalypse, but his thoughts ended in a swear when the small figure fled down a nearby alley. He swore he could hear the boy sniffling from here.
“Fine, fine! But you go play the hero and fly him up here.” he said with a scowl as he casually launched a fire spell into the shambling crowd below to slow them down. “I HATE children.”
The night sky was as empty as he’d left it. The moon was clouded. The stars, pinpricks swallowed by gaping black. Sephiroth slowed to a stop, head tilted towards them. The temple he’d left echoed with the tortured cries of monsters. Below him, the streets twisted into shadow, but above, there was nothing but silence. He closed his eyes and breathed the smell of blood and rot. This was no different from the battlefield.
”Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess.”
Sephiroth glanced towards Genesis. His friend gleamed with a satisfaction Sephiroth hadn’t seen from him in months. Though Sephiroth had rarely minded Genesis’ company in public, he’d generally tried to avoid meeting him without Angeal or a sword. Genesis was loud, dramatic, and dripping with passion that threatened to burst from him with every word. Maybe, in some quiet part of himself, Sephiroth admired that about him. Perhaps in a quieter place he might have even envied it.
Sephiroth gave a short hum, his lips twitching into something like a smile. How long had Angeal tried to make peace between them? Sephiroth could almost imagine him at their side, arms crossed and beaming with satisfaction. There was no better way to honor his memory.
Genesis offered him a hand. Confusion crossed Sephiroth’s eyes until he noticed Genesis’ extending wing. He intended to fly.
Sephiroth tensed. He had managed it once in a rush of pure instinct, and it had driven him to panic. Part of it had been shock, but not the nausea that struck him now. That weightless sensation, that sense of abnormality, the rolling dread of his own inhumanity. That hadn’t left him.
Still, Genesis watched him, confident and unashamed. He kicked off easily from the ground and hovered there, hand still outstretched. His wing towered above them in a six foot span, and in that moment, Sephiroth felt lost in its shadow. Sephiroth hesitated, eyes wavering, before reaching out to accept Genesis’ hand. As soon they'd touched, Genesis seized him, yanking him up with surprising strength. Sephiroth stumbled forward, startled and unbalanced. His wing thrust itself out on instinct, and before Sephiroth could shoot Genesis an indignant look, he realized his heels no longer touched the ground.
Sephiroth stared at the empty space beneath him. He felt suddenly unbalanced, and he held out his arms as though lurching on a tightrope. He had long ago mastered control of his own body. He could sense every precise movement, sidestep the obstacles at a bullet’s speed, and land with pinpoint accuracy on the most narrow of precipices. He had thought any mistakes beneath him, but here he was, struggling like a child only just handed a sword. His fingers clenched into Genesis’ palm as he tried unsuccessfully to force himself upright. The sense of vertigo nearly swallowed him.
Once they’d ascended, instinct kept him from falling. Genesis took care of the rest, and Sephiroth let himself be led along without complaint. The town was truly dismal from above. He’d seen his share of towns in ruin, but the sight never failed to sober him. The lazy drifting of smoke. The mounds of rubble and dust. The vaguely human figures crumpled into the dirt. Sephiroth had often closed his eyes, arms crossed, in a kind of half-meditative trance rather than glance out the helicopter windows. The soldiers must have thought him focused and aloof. In truth, his actions were nothing to be admired. He’d learned long ago how to minimize the flashes of blood that would seize him, gasping, in the night.
Sephiroth hardly noticed their descent until they’d both perched at the peak of a slanted rooftop. Sephiroth shot him a questioning glance, but Genesis was already overtaken by disgust, disbelief, and then accusation. He demanded to know if Sephiroth had anything to do with the monsters roving the streets. Sephiroth’s eyebrows raised. Did he think Shinra had given him the power to raise the dead? It became quickly apparent that Genesis wasn’t expecting an answer, however, and Sephiroth didn’t give him one. Instead, he followed his gaze to the streets below.
True to his word, the undead had gathered a truly impressive swarm beneath them. Sephiroth watched them impassively. At first he found only the same ruins he'd seen from the sky, but then an irregular movement caught the corner of his eye. A child. He spared one final glance to Genesis.
”Please tell me we’re not getting involved,” Genesis muttered so hushed that Sephiroth was certain they would. In the end, the choice wasn’t his to make. Genesis relented to his better impulses before Sephiroth had the chance.
”Fine, fine! But you go play the hero and fly him up here.”
Sephiroth’s lips pursed at his tone -- hadn’t Genesis been the one to make the suggestion? -- but he didn’t waste time chastising him for it. Instead, he darted forward, jumping from rooftop to rooftop rather than risking an unstable flight. Streaks of fire flew past Sephiroth’s shoulder along with Genesis’ bitter lament. The magic landed, enveloping the street in an explosion of heat and light, as Sephiroth spotted the boy and landed lightly between him and the swarm that stumbled closer with gnashing teeth.
”Stay back.” Sephiroth gave little time to heed his warning before he dodged a clawed hand and returned the blow with a well-placed sword stroke that cleaved the shrunken figure in two. The smell of rot hit him in a renewed wave as dried flesh splintered before him, but he didn’t pay it any mind as he fired off four more slashes of his sword that sent the rest of them stumbling back on recoil alone. In an instant, he was on them, landing a flurry of strikes before his conscious mind could catch up. His blade carried instincts all its own, and with the creatures funneled together into a tight alleyway, it was over in hardly more than a breath.
Heaps of bisected husks twitched with the last of their unnatural life at his feet. Beyond him, human figures streaked by engulfed in flame before losing balance and collapsing into the dirt. Genesis had always been one for spectacle, and even as his nose wrinkled at the acrid smell of burning flesh, Sephiroth couldn’t help but smirk. It felt good to balance the weight of his sword in his hand. It felt better to do it side by side with a friend.
”You shouldn’t be here.”
Sephiroth eyed the dried flesh that peppered his sword. He flicked it off and turned to face the boy, but froze as his eyes caught its face -- or rather, the lack thereof. What had from a distance appeared to be a child looked far more like a monster in its own right. It was disproportioned with clumsy feet, thick hands, and a triangular body completely buried beneath an oversized coat. Above that was a patchwork hat, and in between was…nothing. It was like looking into the depths of the night sky with two shining yellow lights gleaming out like stars.
Sephiroth felt the shock in his expression and cleared it, straightening even as he stared. Something about it evoked a flicker of disgust. He imagined it draped in black, hunched and hissing. His eyes cooled.
”What are you?” He didn’t care for more monsters or some mindless experiment. He'd had enough of that and bristled already with the waste of his time. Already, it seemed this life wasn't worth the trouble of saving.
All Vivi could do was try to not fall as he ran down the uneven pavement. He was breathing hard as he tried to keep his arms from shaking as he held the box and the puppies as close to him as possible. Every thought was a scrambled affair as he tried to remember his path into the village, but fear clouded the memories like miasma. His foot caught on an uneven cobblestone, and his eyes flashed with fear as he began to trip, but in a stroke of adrenaline and luck, Vivi caught himself and continue running around corners as the screams and howls of the zombies continued to pursue him and the puppies.
Vivi took a turn and was halfway down the alleyway before he realized he had run down a dead end. He turned quickly to head back, but the sounds of the zombies were closer than he had realized. He gripped the box as tight as he could as the first of the undead came rapidly coming round the corner. "I'm sorry," he said to the puppies as he put down the box and raised his hands. It seemed the only way he was going to be able to save them was to fight each and every last one of the people. He concentrated hard as he quickly thought of what spell to use on them. Then there was fire. Vivi blinked in confusion as he hadn't cast anything yet, but a man fell from the sky and Vivi understood
Vivi quickly obeyed as he grabbed the puppies and waddled far enough back from the man and the zombies. Vivi placed a hand over the box now cradling it just in case the puppies could see the actions the man was preforming. Bits and pieces of the zombies littered the ground as Vivi wondered if even Ms. Beatrix could command a sword so swiftly and precisely while maintaining a fluid grace to the whole thing. The man made short work of the menaces before speaking to him
"I had to," Vivi explained as the fear began to seep away now that someone had come to help, "the lady in my dream needed help real bad." Vivi shuffled his feet as he realized he hadn't been much help to her. "But then I found these puppies, and I think she'd understand I had to help them first." At least Vivi hoped she would. She seemed so kind and gentle that he was almost hundred percent sure of it. He gave himself a nod as he assured himself of it
Vivi took a tiny step back as the man looked at him funny. Vivi was used to people looking at him weird or as something mean, but he had to make sure the man wouldn't try to hurt the puppies over it. Still Vivi sighed as the man cleared the look and asked him what he was. "I'm Vivi!" he announced his eyes lighting up and the pride booming in his voice the same as anytime anybody asked him who or what he was. He was Vivi. No more. No less. "Thank your for helping us, Mr......." Vivi paused as he didn't know the man's name still it didn't seem like the time to just stand and wait. "Could you please help me find the exit? I want to get these guys to the safe village I came from earlier." Vivi looked up at the long haired man with his long sword his eyes pleading for the man to say yes as the puppies mewed and sniffed in their box.
Genesis leapt from rooftop to rooftop, carelessly tossing fire at the figures below. Flicking his eyes to the side, he noted with some satisfaction that Sephiroth had reached the child and appeared to be making short work of the zombies that approached them. Well, he’d expect nothing less from the great General Sephiroth.
Shooting one last spell towards two of the humanoid figures, Genesis sighed with something like contentment as they collapsed in an explosion of sparks and sizzling flesh. Perhaps this was what he’d been missing on Zephon so far. If he’d been so pent up, then no wonder he’d been unhappy. But taking care of a threat with a friend at his side? He could get used to this again.
That wasn’t nearly all of them, but it was enough to where Genesis was confident that they wouldn’t be approached for a moment. Gripping his sword at his side, he jumped down into the alleyway to join Sephiroth and the child, his wing floating at his side until he carefully folded it in against his back.
“Hero of the dawn, healer of worlds,” he greeted Sephiroth, as he flipped his red hair behind one shoulder. “We should be fine if we hurry.”
He’d just barely caught while he was descending that the kid’s name was Vivi, so he turned to glance at him and jerked back slightly in surprise. “Oh goddess, what’s wrong with its face?” Vivi had a large pointed hat with two bulbous shining yellow eyes peering up at him from underneath. He wasn’t even sure the kid had pupils. Or skin for that matter. His face outside of his eyes looked like an endless black void. Genesis resisted the urge to poke him to see what he was made out of.
“What lab did you crawl out of?” he asked curiously. He looked like something that Hojo would have cooked up after a bender at Costa del Sol. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Vivi came from their world originally, at any rate.
“Could you please help me find the exit? I want to get these guys to the safe village I came from earlier.”
What was he talking about? For the first time, Genesis peered at the box that he had clutched close to his chest, groaning when he heard the whimpers and caught the flash of tiny paws. “Puppies?” Seriously? He whirled around, his coat swishing behind him as he gave Sephiroth an accusatory glance. “Of course you get us involved with some abandoned kid and starving puppies. Of course, Sephiroth.” The silver-haired man was likely going to try to point out that Genesis had told him to come down here, but those were just details, and Genesis refused to listen to them.
“Fine, fine! The wandering soul knows no rest!” Genesis threw up his hands with a dramatic hand gesture. “Just take us to someone we can leave you with, kid. Anyone in that village?”
It was unnerving hearing a human voice come out of the inky void in front of him. The face (if it could be called that) was lipless and unblinking yet it spoke undeniably as a child. It didn’t seem to notice his hostility, choosing to thank him instead. Sephiroth remained cool and unmoved. The thing reminded him of something that had crawled from the depths of Hojo’s laboratories. It reminded him of something that needed to be put down.
Genesis’ arrival was heralded by poetry. He heard the click of boots behind him as his friend approached from behind his shoulder. Only once they were nearly level did Genesis recoil. “Oh goddess, what’s wrong with its face?” Sephiroth’s lips twitched into a smirk. Genesis had always found a way to convey his thoughts in the bluntest manner possible.
Sephiroth had noticed the box before it was brought to their attention. Weathered cardboard full of snuffling fur and cloying paws. Sephiroth hadn’t paid it much mind (what were dogs compared to the twisted life in front of him now?) but Genesis didn’t share the same conclusions. As soon as he caught sight of the puppies, he turned on Sephiroth with a familiar irritation in his eye.
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. He didn’t have to say a word. Genesis lost his argument with himself, throwing up his hands in exasperation. He supposed Genesis needed to pin his own conscience against something. Sephiroth’s smirk deepened.
”Feeling pity?” He tilted his head towards the wall. Genesis’ impulses had always been as erratic as they were passionate. Sephiroth wasn’t about to blockade himself against them.
”We’ll go by foot.” Sephiroth glanced at the box. A chocolate brown face popped over the side, scrabbling to escape its cardboard prison. Sephiroth turned and started back towards the street. ”I won’t be responsible for any casualties.”
Vivi continued to look up at the silver haired man with his own eyes glowing hoping for an answer. The box was beginning to get heavy in his arms, but he wouldn't complain about it. The most important thing to him right now was just making sure the puppies got back to the village. Vivi was about to ask another question when another person fell from the sky. This man was about as tall as the silver haired man but Vivi wondered if his favorite color was red the way he was dressed in his fancy coat. Vivi was about to say hello since it seemed clear the two men knew each other when the red haired man commented on his face
"What's wrong with my face?" Vivi asked a little spark of fear creeping into his voice. Had something happened to him? He noticed the man flinch a little bit as he looked at him, and Vivi's heart sunk a little bit. Did this man think he was something bad because he looked different like the people back home had? Vivi would just have to prove to the man he was a good person. At least the man would talk to him without running away. "I didn't crawl here. I walked from the village!" Vivi explained just in case the man was worried.
"I don't. My," Vivi began when the red head man would ask about who he could stay. No one. That was the truth of it. Kuja didn't want to see him anymore and he had none of his friends with him. "Nobody. I'm by myself." Vivi answered honestly his voice dropping a little bit at the truth of it all. He would turn to Sephiroth, that's what the other man had said, we he told them they'd be walking and that he didn't claim responsibility.
"That's okay, Mr. Sephiroth. If I really need to I can fight back. It's just really really hard when I can't use my hands freely. I won't let these puppies get hurt, thank you for helping me find my way out," Vivi beamed trying to make sure they knew he would protect the puppies if need be. Vivi began to waddle forward toward the entrance to the alley. "Were you guys here to help the lady as well?" he would ask as he turned to see if they were following. "I really hope someone is she seemed like she needed someone." Vivi turned back around to the exit of the alley. "Which way should we go?"
Of course this abomination in a pointed hat had to be least annoying child that Genesis had ever come across. Of course. “Stop being cute, damn it!” He complained when Vivi informed him helpfully that he hadn’t crawled out of anything--he had walked. Ugh. This night was turning into a roller coaster of emotions, and Genesis wasn’t prepared to deal with it.
“All that awaits you is a somber morrow, no matter where the winds may blow,” he cursed at Sephiroth when the man mocked him and asked if he was feeling pity. “I don’t do pity! Boring people do pity.”
It was at that moment that Vivi went on to answer that he had no one to go back to, his voice dropping into a sad, soft tone. The goddess was just toying with him now. Throwing up his arms, Genesis walked a few paces before turning back to give Sephiroth an accusatory glare. “You always get us into these situations, Sephiroth,” he complained. “Fine, fine! We’ll either find him somewhere in the village, or we’ll dump him at Zack.” Zack acted enough like a child anyway. Plus it would be incredibly satisfying to throw a problem at him. Or several problems, if you included the puppies in the box.
Sephiroth started walking away after proclaiming that he wouldn’t be responsible for any casualties, and Genesis rolled his eyes as he trailed after reluctantly. What if he was the one who died? Would Sephiroth feel responsible then? He debated asking the question out loud, but Vivi was happily babbling to Sephiroth about his ability to protect the puppies. If this kid didn’t stop being so innocent, then Genesis was going to strangle him from behind. Somehow he didn’t even think Sephiroth would argue now that they were away from Shinra and it wouldn’t cause him paperwork.
“What lady?” Genesis asked with a raised eyebrow when Vivi asked if that was the reason that they were there as well. He had no idea what the kid was talking about, and he glanced at Sephiroth to see if he had any ideas until they reached the entrance to the alleyway. They seemed to be debating about the correct direction to go, so Genesis rolled his eyes and leapt into the air, unfurling his wing as he rose higher and quickly scanned the horizon. The dark walls of the temple lay to their left side, and Genesis remembered flying north to reach it, so he glanced back towards the direction where he had first entered the city. He wasn’t sure if this was the same village that Vivi had been talking about, but Genesis had flown here from 'a' village, so it was a good enough place to start. He supposed that the room that he’d had in the inn was still good until morning, at any rate.
Dropping back down into the alley, Genesis gave no room for argument. “She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting,” he proclaimed, taking the path to their right as he entered the streets again. “How’d you end up in this wreck of a city anyway?” He asked, casually throwing a fire spell down the street towards a group of zombies in the distance. Maybe they’d stumble into a few buildings, but eh. That certainly wasn’t his problem if this place burned down. It would be the least of the city’s problems at this point.
”Dump him at Zack?” Sephiroth glanced back to Genesis, a smirk at his lips. Did he expect that Zack wouldn’t ask questions if he came home to a blank-faced child? Of course Zack would take him if it came to it -- Sephiroth had never seen a soldier so naively moral -- but that didn’t mean he’d appreciate the burden.
And where did Genesis think that he and Sephiroth were planning to stay? Genesis would burn the place down before he learned to tolerate the whims of a child.
Said child scampered after them with the box in his hands. The box whimpered as an undertone to the boy’s own barking. ’Mr. Sephiroth.’ Sephiroth laughed under his breath. Despite all of his fame and renowned, he had never met anyone so childish and good-willed to call him that. Perhaps because it sounded so stilted. He’d never been legally given a last name.
The rest was less amusing.
”Were you guys here to help the lady as well?" The boy hardly missed a step even as Sephiroth’s eyebrows furrowed. Genesis reflected his confusion and glanced back to see if Sephiroth had any insight to share. He didn’t. The boy had spoken so confidently that Sephiroth couldn’t help his unease. Why had he expected them to know her? And why did this woman need help? In the end, he chose not to ask, replying with a simple, ”No.”
Genesis used his wing to reach a self-made vantage point and calculate the most efficient path. The sight of the thing still set his teeth on edge, but he supposed he couldn’t deny its practicality. Genesis had chosen to take full advantage of the twisted remains of Shinra's research. Was it spite that granted Genesis such resolve or was it something more? He had never considered Genesis his equal in anything -- not in discipline, not in resolution, and certainly not in self-control -- but his ease in flight made Sephiroth wonder.
Sephiroth had started with every advantage. Genesis had forced his way from the bottom. In that regard, he was Sephiroth’s superior.
Genesis led the way to the north, and Sephiroth took a natural position behind their newest escort, keeping a sharp eye for any potential attacks that Genesis might have missed. He spotted several monsters down adjacent streets, but while Genesis chose to neutralize such threats, Sephiroth stayed his hand. Their goal was not one of extermination, but rather, of protection. He treated it as such.
Genesis asked how the boy had managed to find himself so far into hostile territory. Sephiroth couldn’t have cared less. Instead, his mind drifted back to that woman. How had the boy known to come here of all places? The entire city had needed aid, and yet, it was a single nondescript voice that had called him here. Sephiroth felt his eyebrows furrow.
”That woman.” He muttered it to himself perhaps too quietly for the others to hear. He hadn’t been called to help her, but what had called him here? He’d had no reason for it except intuition. Intuition from across an unfamiliar nation. ”I had a dream.” Sephiroth glanced to the cobblestone street below him. ”Something drew me here.”
Something had called him to a crisis he had no way of predicting, and in that crisis…
His eyes caught on Genesis. The odds of finding him on coincidence were nearly nonexistent. He had come without intel and without purpose. So why…?
”Our current route.” Sephiroth tore his eyes away and purposefully looked to the side. ”Do you have an estimated time of arrival?”
Vivi sighed as Sephiroth would state that they were not here because of the pretty lady. "Oh," he replied as he looked down into the box of puppies. Still Genesis had asked what lady, and even though Vivi thought he didn't really want to know, he spoke anyway. "It might have just been a dream. She was really pretty and really sad and asked for help against the Lich. I didn't make it, but the things that are happening here remind me of what I was told about him from my friend." Zidane had told him of the gross undead thing that he and Quina had fought when they went to place their mirrors. Vivi was already scared of the dragon he and Steiner had faced, so he couldn't really imagine what Zidane had gone through. Well he could now, he thought with a slight gulp
Genesis asked once again how he had ended up here. Vivi grip on the box became tighter as he thought of what to say over. "I came to help her. I tried to bring help, but" Well he had been outright dismissed. Abandoned. Thrown away now that he was no longer wanted or needed. Kuja had released him which was a weird twist, but had he been naive for believing that Kuja had changed a little bit. It didn't matter right now though. He knew that he wasn't going to abandon these puppies like that. "They didn't come." Vivi finally answered realizing that he had stopped explaining mid sentence.
As the trio made their way down the corridor, Vivi tried to make small talk to calm his nerves and provide the puppies with something to listen to rather than the moans, screams, and rumblings of the earth. "If the lady didn't ask you here," Vivi began looking at a large fissure in the sidewalk and having to walk the length of to find a small enough gap for him to cross it safely, "Why are you here? Did you guys see all the bad stuff happening and decide to help out?" Vivi continued to waddle down the street peering down alleys he passed to make sure nothing was coming their way. He couldn't wait for all of them to get safely away from whatever was happening here.
