Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Cetra Reunion ❯ Painful Nightmare ( Chapter 3 )

The cold violent winds outside stirred as a small invisable sigh escaped his parch, dry lips. Its howl echoed through the canyon, lending an eerie feeling to the small room he was in. Although he was unaware of it, a woman sat by his bedside, washing his head, removing the sweat whenever he would have a sudden outbreak of a nightmare, a remembrance of that awful day. The lump in his throat, that he tried to swallow pass, slowly grew, as the memories flooded back and swirled into a dream, which haunted him still to this day. Fuzzy at the edges, this time it solidified into a true relived experience, within his head. His body thrashed undernearth the blankets at the memory of it all, the feelings, the pain, the emotion. It hurt him so much to remember it all...

Small flecks of white snow drifted in eddies which circled around Icicle Village, and the small houses in it. It was not unusual for such a thing to happen. The white, wet snow outside was quiet, and pure, as the children who once played on it, were now in their houses, oblivous to the fact as of why, as a storm approached. He stood there, playing with his equipment, tampering with afew cords deep in the back of his recording device. A blue wire was held in his left hand, and scissors in his right, as he attempted to reconnect the USB video signal to the small television above his head, in the corner of the roof.

As he worked, he soon felt warm gentle hands wrap around his waist, and knew immedietly that it was his wife, Ifalna. Ifalna was the last surviving Ancient in this world, and was a very confused woman. She could hear the whispers of the planet, and it's never ending cry for help. Sometimes she would sit alone, at the table, staring off blankly, and then scream, clutching her head in her hands. The life of an Ancient must have been a hard one, he had thought, and that was why he had married her, brought her here, and gave life to thier baby daughter. They both shared alot of the same thoughts, and theories, and had found Icicle Village to be a nice secluded spot, away from the meddling of Shinra Inc.

He could feel her shift, as her full pink lips found his neck and tenderly kissed it. He hated it when she did that, because when she did, all he wanted to do was race straight for the bed, with her in tow. But now that they had a daughter, they had to be more careful.

Suddenly a knock sounds at the door, and Ifalna's arms relaxed at his waist.

"Ifalna, dear. Would you mind getting that?" he asked her. Her sigh told him that she would, but hated the thought of being parted from him for even one second. Gast chuckled at this, but then froze. Who would be knocing on their door, when a storm was approaching. Surely no-one from the village would be that stupid. He could hear the sound of the lock being slid out of place and the door opened, and it finally hit him; Shinra.

But by then it was to late. He turned to see the butt of a rifle slam into Ifalna's stomach, the end turning up to meet her chin. With a swift kick, the soldier in blue had her sliding across the floor to thump into the wall, head slumped to her chest. She was out cold. He screamed in anguish and ran to Ifalna's side, kneeling before her, to check her pulse. Although it was faint, he found it, there, barely. He wished there was something he could do for her, but he couldn't. The sound of boots marching into his house sounded, followed by the clack of high heels.

"Kya Ha Ha Ha! My, my, my! What a nice little establishment you have here Gast. Mind if I come in? It is a little cold out there!" a woman's voice sounded.

Gast stood and turned, glad that his daughter was off at a friends house. His cold grey eyes met the piercing gaze of the female in red. She wore a red, scanty dress that revealed the top of her cleavage, and her legs, as two strips of fine red material ran down, before and behind her from the waist down, seperated to show her seductive legs. She had blonde hair that was pulled up behind her head, with tresses falling to her shoulders, before them. Gast looked into her cold blue eyes, on her pale and beautiful face, daring to defy her grace.

"How could you! How dare you! No, you can not come in, and of course it's cold-" his eyes looked up and down her body "-just look at what you are wearing! You are a foolish woman Scarlett!"

The woman named Scarlett narrowed her gaze at him, at the insult.

"Gast, my poor little Gast. Running away after you failed to stop the JENOVA project. I am sure Hojo is pleased to find that you are still alive...but not for long." she mocked.

"Scarlett! What do you think you are doing! You have no right to come here!" Gast fumed.

Scarlett clicked her tongue at him, in disagreement and then her fingers at the soldiers nodding towards the machine, over beside her. A soldier immedietly was over there, accessing its database.

"I have merely come to collect your notes on our little project, and also on the so called 'Ancient'. My other task is this..." she trailed off, snapping her finger again as she pointed at Gast.

The remaining soldiers obeyed immedietly, and began firing at Gast. The sound was like a buzz of angry hornets, and he was not sure why he could not feel pain. Then it hit him, taking him off his feet, to slam into the wall, beside Ifalna. Where he slid, a crimson trail of sickly wet blood followed. His world span as he tried to focus his thoughts.

With the last of his strength, his forced his mind to form a thought and send it to Ifalna, via some Materia he held in his armlet.

"Ifalna, go! Take Aeris with you, go far far away!"

Before his world dissapeared, he heard Scarlett's mocking laugh.

"Strip him. I want him found with NO Materia! Just so he can't somehow manage to heal himself. Oh, how sad will everyone be, Proffesor Gast, dead..." she laughed again, as the soldiers done as bid, collected any information that was required, as they ransacked the house, then left.

...his memory collapsed as he could bear it no longer. He dared not remember what happened after that, else he'd die from the pain of it all.

His cold grey eyes snapped open to take in large beautiful brown eyes, belonging to a girl with a large bust, and large brown eyes. She leaned over him, washing his forehead with a wet cloth, as he watched her. She wore a tight white shirt, tucked into female fashioned overalls, that were designed especially for her, so as not to restrict her movement in battle. Her long brown hair fell down her back, tied in a blue circle of metal.

A deep sense of curiosity floated behind her eyes, as if she were wondering who this strange man was. He decided that he could trust her, so formed the words to speak in a dry, raspy voice.

"Aeris ... she is safe?" he asked.

The girl nodded.

"She is beside you, over there" she told him, pointing behind him. He would have looked if he could, but knew that Aeris would still be as she was when he found her. Cold and dead.

"I need you ... to do something for me." he asked. "It will make things much easier, and quicker for when I get better ... I need you to go to Bungenhagen's room, and find his message, left for me behind the thickest book on his shelf. I request that you recover Aeris' Materia from Forgotten Capital. I ask that you retrieve Sephiroth's masamune from his deep, mako filled grave. And I implore you find a pinion of a gold chocobo. Bring these things back to me, when I am well, and I will reveal to you, my purpose ... but please, I now need rest." he sighed, and closed his eyes.

Tifa stood, trying to remember what the man had said. She nodded absently to herself as she checked everything off in her head, and hurried out of the inn to tell everyone of the old mans strange request.