Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Half the Answer to the Riddle ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer:….uh…I now have part ownership of my own characters….details later on….

CHAPTER 11: HALF THE ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE

I closed my eyes and felt the dream world gently overtaking me.

A large round room lit only in the center by a spotlight which cast shadows over a metal desk and two figures. Moving closer. Voices, arguing. "No! I can't do it now, it's too soon!" So familiar…I know one of them.

"Fine then. Have your way, but it must happen, and the sooner the better. Don't allow yourself to be drawn to them." A masculine voice.

"No…wait…I have a plan."

One of the figures turns and looks into my soul…a concerned look crosses his face as he approaches and embraces me, just before pulling out a knife and ramming it into my back. I scream as I feel the searing heat and warm liquid pouring down my back.

I suddenly jerked awake. I looked at the clock on the night stand. It was 3:00 in the morning. I looked over to see Riku sleeping fitfully, tangled in the sheets, mumbling and jerking. "…no…'Kira…" The words made me shiver.

I gently slid to the floor and kneeled in front of him, like I had done so many times before as a child, seeking his comfort whenever I had a nightmare. I gently placed a hand on his and watched as if by a miracle, the nightmare instantly stopped. When I withdrew my hand, the mumbling started again. I sighed and gently shook his shoulder. "Riku…wake up." I gently whispered, knowing how easy it was to wake him up from past experience, when he had lived with me and my mom as a kid.

Riku's breathing hastened and he jolted up, panting. He looked around, bewildered, then relaxed when his eyes rest on me. "A nightmare…" he softly said.

"Yeah. You okay now?"

"Akira…honestly, whenever I'm with you, everything is okay." He said with an earnest heart, reaching out to pull me up onto the bed next to him.

I only smirked and allowed him to lean up against me. "So, what did you dream about?" I gently asked him.

"Your mother's meat loaf."

I began to helplessly laugh. "That is so true." I managed to say, noticing how our crossed legs were touching. I didn't care. I needed the comfort.

"So…how come you haven't tried to hurt me yet?" Riku asked, leaning back away from me, much to my discontent.

"I…had this really scary dream…you weren't there, and someone tried to…" I turned my eyes away, now feeling stupid.

However, Riku's eyes instantly began to tear up. "I've been having the same dreams." His voice choked up a little as he leaned towards me.

Without any resistance I let myself be pulled into his lap and nuzzled my face against his warm chest, listening to his heartbeat beneath the soft cotton shirt, feeling his strong, but soft arms wrapping around me, keeping me completely safe from the outside world…my friend…

I felt something that had been missing from my heart, like a hole, fill up with a love that was so pure…so true…something warm, but wet dripped onto my shoulder. I looked up into Riku's face…and saw that under the long, dark lashes that so strangely offset the rest of his pale hair, tears glowing and shimmering in the moonlight. "We'll always be friends, right?" I asked him, sitting up and wiping his tears away.

"Oh, Akira." He softly said, his eyes gently glowing. He rest his head on my shoulder, making my heart do a triple back-flip.

After what seemed a peaceful eternity Riku finally sat up again and gently brushed a piece of hair away from my face. I secretly relished the feeling of his bare fingers gently stroking my face. Friends…I felt him pulling me forward, and I allowed my head to resettle against his chest, and listened to his heartbeat as the world seemed to fade back into dreams…

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(A/N: I have decided to co-write the rest of this story with the authoress chibi_Kisaki. As a result the rest of the story will be written in 3rd person. Characters thoughts appear in italics.)

Akirame awoke slowly when the alarm clock went off. She was in her bed. Had last night only been a dream? She looked up when Riku sat up and turned off the alarm. "Morning." He nonchalantly said. "You fell asleep last night so I put you back in your bed."

"Darn!" The quality of her life seemed to drop several points. "Riku, last night didn't happen, okay?" She told him, embarrassed.

"I won't tell anyone, but I won't forget it either. That was the best night of my life." He told her, reaching out a hand to help her up.

She took the hand and resisted the urge to tear his arm out of its socket. "I wonder where Erik and Red got off to last night." She said to herself as she got her stuff and headed to the bathroom.

Riku was ready, and was laying out on her bed, his face buried in her pillow. "Come on Riku, let's go wake up the others." She said, pulling on one of his legs.

Riku didn't budge, but instead muttered something into the pillow. Sighing, she dug through her bag and pulled out her bottle of body spray. She walked over to Riku and sat on the edge of the bed. As soon as Riku sat up to inevitably stare at her, she sprayed him with the sweet smelling scent. "What did you do THAT for?" He asked her, trying to rub it off his face. "Now I'm going to smell like…you for the rest of the day."

"Hey, don't insult the way I smell!" She told him, pulling him up.

Riku and Akira then walked out into the hall and began knocking on the doors to wake up their companions. Once everyone was awake, they all assembled in the lobby. Erik looked a little bit more tired than everyone else, his eyes a little bloodshot.

"So, where do we go now?" Kairi asked, leaning up against Sora.

"The library. Cloud should be waiting there for us. Vanna, can you take us there?" Riku asked.

"Sure thing."

They then trooped out of the lobby and back into the now peaceful city streets. As they walked along, chatting and admiring the late morning peace, a thought occurred to Akira. "Wait a mintue…that guy Barret, at the Mei Tenshi…wasn't he one of the nurses back at Balamb?" She asked Riku.

Riku thought for a moment and then looked at her. "Yeah…you're right. What's up with that?"

"Part time job." Vanna simply explained.

"Whatever." Akira thought.

After a while the library, a large white building with marble pillars came into view. Akirame and Riku were instantly in awe. The island library was minuscule compared to this. "Wow." Sora said, summing up their thoughts.

"Well, I don't think we'll have to worry much about limited resources, eh?" Erik joked.

"Guess not." Riku replied.

"Well, I'm going to wait for you back at the hotel." Vanna said.

"Okay, see you then."

The group walked up the many flights of stairs to reach the entrance. They filed into the well-lit building, quickly adjusting to the cool air. The building was seemingly old, the marble floors showing some sign of wear. Riku instantly made a beeline for the information desk. An old woman sat in chair behind the desk, reading an old novel. "Excuse me." Riku spoke, getting her attention.

"What do you want?!" The woman quickly snapped.

Riku drew back a step, startled by her angry response. "I-uh…I'm looking for someone…" he stammered.

"Yeah, like who?" The woman nasally shot back.

"Cloud Strife?"

The woman's face paled and her attitude immediately changed. "Oh my goodness, I apologize. Mr. Strife is waiting for you at the study tables in the history section, over to your left and up the stairs, on the second floor." She directed, pointing over to a set of wooden stairs.

Riku nodded and headed over, a little confused by the woman's response to Cloud's name. "I wonder what the big deal with Cloud is." Irvine whispered into Jerdania's ear, getting a shrug.

"I don't think it would take much more than a stare from someone like Cloud to scare people up." Erik said, gazing at all the tall shelves of books filling the second floor.

After a while of looking around, they finally came upon the study tables, one of them completely covered with a massive barricade of books.

"Woah!" Irvine whistled, "hehe, Cloud tends to overdo it a bit no?"

Suddenly they heard a faint mumbling. As they approached the table, the mumbling grew louder. They recognized the somewhat hoarse and very tired voice. Stepping around the corner, they saw Cloud furiously flipping through one of the many books, and even from a distance the group could tell he had been studying for a while. His hair was disheveled, and the faint rings under his eyes reminded Akira of her mother the night her father…

A sudden hand on her shoulder quickly cut off her thoughts. She looked up and saw the concerned look on Erik's face. She shook her head and he shrugged in return.

"Well kids, I've spent the past thirteen hours researching the library and I think I've come across a couple things." Cloud said, picking up the oldest looking tome up by its ancient and dust-covered binding.

Jerdania quickly eyed the book's title. "The SOLDIER? I've read that before, it's the biography of Sephiroth, isn't it?" She quickly asked.

Cloud nodded. "This book is based on a diversity of various journals that historians found and has been compiled together. The book rumors about what happened after his disappearance, up until the point where the reported sightings started to occur. There was a ten year lapse, and no one knows what he was doing during that time." He explained, as he browsed through the pages confirming what he was telling the kids.

"Doesn't the book say something about a lost journal, one that he wrote during that time?" Jerdania inquired.

"Yes, and I've been researching the books, trying to figure out the different suggestions given, and I believe I may have come across something." Cloud flipped to a page in a different book and laid it on top of the piled charts and manuscripts, waiting for the group to circle around him.

"This book contains a collection of Cetra legends and prophecies, closely translated from old hieroglyphics found in the ruins of the Temple of the Ancients. This legend here is only partially translated, since the rest of the story was missing from the ruins."

"Woah, what do ya mean, `missing'" Irvine asked.

"Either the rest of the story was never written, or someone stole the slab holding the hieroglyphics."

"Why would someone want to steal a rock with a bunch of doodles on it?" Sora asked.

"Who knows. But from what is still written, we are told the legend of Itami."

There it was again. Itami…what was the big deal? The sounds of his questioning companions were no longer heard, his psyche only acknowledged Cloud's voice. Something inside him said that his very life could possibly depend on this story. He knew he had to engrave it, not only in his mind, but in his heart too.

"Roughly translated, the legend tells of two people, brother and sister, both with different fathers, born of a great Summoner. One, quote, `has eyes but does not use them to see the present' and the other `is fated to save the world from transgression'."

"Transgression?" Sora asked, looking skeptical.

"It was the closest they could translate it to. To put it bluntly it means wrongdoing… in your daily speech, evil."

"Continuing on, the legend goes on to describe `the meeting of…Jenova and Golem…' and their attempt to `raise their love of old'."

"Okay, that doesn't really sound right. What is Golem?" Kairi asked, joining the skeptical Sora.

"Like I said, close translation, not exact. Stop arguing with the book!" Cloud testily said.

Sora withdrew, but kept his arms crossed. Cloud continued. "Unfortunately, the rest of it is missing."

"That's it?!"

"Sora, shut up!" Riku quickly said, turning to stare down the brunette.

Sora bit his tongue and backed off. "So…what does this have to do with us?" Irvine asked.

"Well, the only Jenova I knew of was a terrible… something, like a monster, that Sephiroth kept calling his `mother'. So I am assuming that Sephiroth may be involved. Why else would he be alive?" Cloud asked them.

Irvine cleared his throat and asked the question again. "What does this have to do with us?"

Cloud flipped to a different page in the ancient book of legends and pointed to a sketch of some strange symbols. "The legend concerning these symbols says that `a man marked will find his match, following a legend half-known."

The heads all turned to Riku, who looked down at the symbols. "How do you know it's just not some guy with a tattoo? Those symbols don't match the ones on Riku's hand." Sora tested once again.

Riku ignored the argument between Cloud and Sora, and read the page on the book to himself. "With no memory, a man marked will find his match, following a legend half-known. Destined to save, destined to destroy, a born leader will save the future from the past."

"What could it mean?"

"Listen, Riku. It speaks of you. Look at those symbols and remember them. They will lead you."

Riku opened his hand and placed it palm-up beside the sketch. "I know it's me because we already have half the answer to the riddle." He said, turning the book upside down.

He tilted his head slightly, pushed a few strands of his silvery hair away from his face and placed his palm once again by the sketch. He could feel some sweat forming in his brow, his heartbeat rising steadily. Inwardly he hoped that he was wrong, but he wasn't. Half the symbols matched the ones on his hand perfectly.