melodiesoflife | The Hunt Begins

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The Hunt Begins

What: The beginning of the hunt for the Black Crystals
Where: Palitutu's Secret Laboratory
When: Throughout September

The written invitations went out to Fairy Tail (with a second invitation sent to Doc Ed, if he's such an Alchemist, Kaji wants him on board), Jade, Rukia, Sephiroth and Cloud, and anybody else Kaji can think of who has expressed an interest in the Black Crystals. There's also a request to tell your friends, if Kaji accidentally skipped over someone who would be useful.

He asks them all to meet in Palitutu's Secret Laboratory, the one that Jade and the others discovered recently. If there's anything to be cracked about the Black Crystals, he thinks it might be more effective here.

"We've currently got our hands on two of the black crystals, obtained from Mograma and our wonderful host here, Palitutu. There should be four in total, from what we saw in the Rift. The crystals formerly held by four Heroes of Light last cycle, Kalki, Nebilim, Igor, and...Ib." A frown when he says this. "I don't know which ones we have."

"But when we entered the Rift last year? I saw images of the four Heroes. And I tried to help Ib, to take her out of there. It didn't work, obviously." Pause. "But I got something else, instead."

Kaji slowly and deliberately pulls a small spice tin out of his pocket. There is obviously something clanking inside. He pops the top off, and overturns it. The object is wrapped in a small cloth, which Kaji slowly peels back. It is a black stone cut perfectly into the shape of a rose. If anyone has seen Ib's crystal, it looks exactly the same.

"Now. This is not one of the ones we're looking for. Well, obviously, because-" There's no better way to show his point, so Kaji finally picks the stone up with his bare hand, lets it rest on his palm. He looks down at the stone, then up at everyone else. No ill effects. "I can't do this with one of the real crystals. If Kalki is to be believed, it is a direct link to the Calamity. And it turns us into monsters. So. When we do find these, we don't use them, ourselves."

"But. It's not a black crystal?" He drops it back to the table. "I don't know what it is, instead. I'm hoping that the Crystal Resarcher Job or something in here is going to help us figure it out."

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Once again, Rukia found herself feeling a mild surge of frustration for not being pulled to this world sooner. There were a lot of things that happened in the past that might have been beneficial to her knowledge. This was the first she'd heard about one of their own being a Hero of Light in the past. And Kalki as well?

But what startled her most was the mention of Nebilim. She knew that name now, and she turned her head to look at Jade. She didn't want to ask him outright in case he hadn't told anyone else, but the question was there: the same Nebilim he had mentioned as being her mentor...?

She took a step closer to look at the stone, touching it, but feeling nothing. Interesting. "I've heard that our crystals will turn black if we die a certain number of times. Five, I believe it was." She'd died once so far, and with the way things stood now, it was no longer a viable option to die and wait to awaken from crystal stasis. "This might be one of those."

Satisfied with her inspection, she took a step back and folded her arms. "The one I wielded in the Sage's vision did not transform me, possibly because I was a shinigami at the time. We had intended to use it to merge and communicate with the Calamity. However," she sighed, "given that it was just a vision, I'm not certain that can be considered fact or truth. It might have a very different effect were I to handle such a thing." She reached up to tap lightly at her chin. "Mograma had the other one? So Moogles can handle them safely."

Herewith one of those loose ends which had been left hanging ever since the damned things had been stolen right out from practically underneath their feet in those first couple of months at the start of this veritable saga. Sephiroth wasn't too sure what to think, anymore, of the fact that only a select few of them left out of stasis might even be able to remember the inside of what had been the Magitek Research Facility of Aqures Ixen.

With everything that had gone on since, over the last two years, even his own memory was hazy.

He hadn't known that Kaji had come back from within the Rift, that time, with an additional something and so when the small black stone was revealed, he stepped forward from where he might have been lingering on the outside of the group, observing attentively. Sephiroth had never seen Ib's crystal, much less of Ib in recent months either but he'd easily pin that down to his work.

A few beats after Rukia finished saying her piece, he took the opportunity to speak up.

"Perhaps it, too, is a doppelganger of the 'active' one that might be out there still, in this cycle?" Though his slitted gaze stuck to Kaji, throughout the question posed, it wasn't long before it dropped and looked around to others nearby.

"Has there ever been any adverse effects, simply by handling one of them ourselves?

"It makes sense, if they are a direct link to the Calamity that they can be used to control any one of us by, perhaps, resonating with that fragment of it that resides in each of us but-"

What he was trying to say; why would something that was a link to the Calamity be harmful to a part of the same whole?

Jade noticed the look Rukia gave him and in return gave a small nod to indicate she was indeed thinking of the same person. He said nothing of it out loud, however.

"I was also able to carry a Black Crystal in that vision without triggering a transformation. Using it, on the other hand..." He shook his head before that memory could rise to the surface. "Well, I can confirm we don't want to be touching them any more than we have to."

He rather hoped nobody was going to ask for details about that. Thankfully, something Sephiroth had said just now tugged at his thoughts. Maybe...

"Actually... I think you may be right about it being a doppelganger." Jade looked from Sephiroth to the others. "I saw the images of those four Heroes in the Rift as well and when I asked Shakyamuni what they were, she said they were memories. Mere remnants of people long dead. If you got this stone from a memory of that other Ib... Isn't it possible that what you're holding is a memory of her crystal, before it was completely changed by the Calamity?"

It was still just speculation, but it would make some sense... Now if they could prove it correct...

"Kaji, have you tried scanning the stone yet? Black Crystals have a very distinctive energy signature. It should be easy enough to verify if it's one of the four." At least then they could rule out that possibility.

Kaji nods at Sephiroth and Jade both. "Maybe the danger is in actively using it, instead of just holding it. Not something that anyone wanted to risk, though."

The idea about the crystal being a doppelganger is an interesting one, and Kaji moves to one of the stations, the sort of thing that scans the Heroes' Crystals. "If it's a copy of the previous Ib's crystal...or even of our Ib's crystal, this should tell us."

He places the stone in the scanner and waits. He steps back so everyone can see the results. No Jobs are found, and neither is it putting out the kind of energy that the Black Crystals are. "At least we know it's safe," Kaji mutters. "And, okay, not a link to our Ib or the other one."

Ales nodded with Jade. He had been here when they encountered the four previous Heroes of Light in the Rift, through he hadn't bothered with taking their crystals.

"I also used the Black Crystal in the vision. Not to power my airship, but as a last resort when there was nothing left for me." When his army had been shot down, the Diamond WEAPON in danger, and his best friend after him. More than anything, he didn't dare lose. "But it also...transformed me. I don't know if it's a side effect specific to that future, or the Black Crystals really hate Heroes."

It was a recurring theme: natives were safe from the effects of all crystals, but Heroes were always in danger. Until recently, it felt like a counterbalance for their ability to come back to life.

"I would be surprised if these weren't a link to the Calamity. A death of a world, or one of us, would count as a sacrifice towards the Ancients' machinations, hm? And with enough sacrifices, you have a powerful crystal." He pointed at the one Kaji held.

Rukia held Jade's gaze for just a moment longer, before dropping back to the black rose. She couldn't imagine the rude shock he must have felt when he first learned of this. It might still affect him now; were she in his position, it would definitely cause no small amount of concern and upset. And yet he was able to maintain his composure so perfectly...

Maybe they'd talk about it later, instead of discussing ribald horror novels.

"Do we have any leads as to the locations of the other two?" she asked, holding her chin thoughtfully in her fingers. "If our future manages to fall in line with what Tear saw, they seem to be important to the Avatars. They might be the only ones able to use them without incurring an ill effect." Use them for what, though? That, she didn't know. Before that vision, she'd thought it was best to simply forget about them as they didn't seem to serve any benevolent purpose. But now she wasn't sure.

Sephiroth was being a little hyper-introverted, feeling unsure of his own logic, but as the others picked up his point and developed on it he seemed content to slip back into an observant silence as theories were voiced and eventually Kaji ran a scan of the black crystal he'd brought back from the Rift.

It was good to know that they weren't handling something that wasn't going to blow up in their faces. Or at least as far as they were able to tell. Ales' choice of words, though, crept a shiver up Sephiroth's spine that he couldn't hide too well. As a result, he looked directly at the teensie but then immediately down and away before his light grimace might show too obviously.

Transformed. Little did very many people know how close that ran to home with him when it came to dealing with black crystals.

"I daresay they both went into Heran possession, initially." He then answered Rukia, glad for the change of topic. "Given that they were lifted by those spies."

Jade still didn't feel quite convinced that the stone had nothing to do with Ib. Why would it have such a specific shape? Unfortunately, the results of the scan appeared to prove him wrong. He'd have to give it some more thought...

In the meantime, he was likewise glad for the change of topic. The knowledge that Ales had met the same end he had wasn't much of a comfort.

"Mograma got his from Kalki, who was part of the Triumvirat... And I'm sure Palitutu had no difficulty getting hers, given her connection to Garland." Jade tapped his chin. "There's a good chance the other two ended up in the hands of someone high up in the Empire."

"That will make them difficult to locate, as most of the Empire is scattered." She considered the crystal on the table for a moment. "Perhaps Prajapati may know something. At the very least, she's likely to be in contact with some of the others whose current locations are unknown to us."

There was just one thing that Rukia hesitated in asking, possibly because it was ridiculously common knowledge that had just somehow managed to bypass her all this time. Still, her pride wasn't so great that she couldn't take steps to resolve her ignorance.

"Why were they stolen in the first place? Of what use were they to the Empire, or to Palitutu?" Was it the only way they could hold more than one job? If so, why was that so vitally important to them?

Kaji holds up a hand. "I wouldn't say 'stolen.' They weren't originally in anyone's hands, they just kind of came here when the Cycle reset. These two might be the only ones that anyone has found. We got our hands on them because people were actually using them. The others could be sitting anywhere."

Kaji is fiddling with the knobs on one of the machines, and frowning deeply at the results. "Jade would you come take a look at this? I can't be reading this right." No matter what kind of spectrum that Kaji subjects the stone to, it is reading, literally, nothing. Not only no energy, but it is as if the stone is not there at all. Like the machines are trying to measure an absence of...anything.

Little footsteps as Shinji, Kaji's moogle, has become very curious about the goings on, and is fluttering up to look over Kaji's shoulder. "What if..." And then his paws close over his mouth as if surprised he said anything at all.

"I believe Narasimha was using one as well," Ales muttered at he stared at the reading. That left the fourth, wherever it was. Possibly being used by the Cult for all he knew.

The lack of readings caused him to glance at the power supply, in case someone had accidentally unplugged or blocked it. There had to be an error in how the machinery was set up, yes. Ales grabbed the stool he had carried around the entire meeting (on wheels, to help the smaller scientists reach books in high places) and clambered onto the input panel. The readings were wrong, they had to be displaying something.

"Is this set up right? There has to be some kind of output here. We've never had a reading of absolute zero before."

"All four of the Crystals were kept here in Aqures Ixen for a time, were they not?" Jade looked towards Sephiroth and Ales for confirmation. "It was before I came to Crystallis, but as I understand, the first time the Black Crystals were found in this cycle was in Aqures Tosf. They were then brought here and kept in the Magitek Research Facility until the Imperial spies took them."

He frowned. "As for Narasimha... I had a look at the ring Rialynn was controlled with. Remember how Kalki used a Black Crystal to develop weapons that could kill Heroes permanently? The ring was of the same design and the energy readings pointed towards a Black Crystal as well. How Narasimha got his hands on it, I don't know."

Even as he spoke, Jade was eyeing the readings with interest. Nothing at all... It did lend some credence to the idea the stone might be just a memory, but he still would have expected something to show up. He glanced over at Kaji's Moogle.

"Did you have an idea?"

The Research Facility. Kaji frowns deeply. He needs to speak to some of the Heroes that were there, that were awakened by Kalki.

Shinji's little paws worry at the edges of the Scholar's hat perched on his head. "Umm." Oh but Kaji always takes him seriously so it'll be okay. "Well. You keep the crystals. Because your jobs are stored in them. But we moogles are the ones that use the crystals. Artemicion was the one using the real black crystal. So. What if I tried?" Something the timid moogle hasn't had the guts to ask about until now.

Kaji picks up the stone. "The logic is pretty sound. You sure about this?" He eyes Shinji carefully.

"Kupo." Shinji nods. "Maybe I can help put right what he did." Artemicion. Kaji wasn't the only one angry about him.

Shinji takes the stone and closes his eyes. He tries to use the stone just as if he were changing a hero's job.

BANG! There is a loud explosion and an incredibly bright flash of light as the stone literally blows up in Shinji's face. "KUPO!"

The more observant among the group will be able to see that the stone shot out from the center of the explosion in a very specific direction. Despite the fact that it look like it exploded, the stone is also completely undamaged.

Shinji is also completely undamaged, but try telling him that, as he instantly zips to Kaji's leg and clings on.

Rukia was no longer there. All that was left of her was a faint plume of smoke. The real Rukia was suddenly on the other side of the room, hand against her chest, eyes wide.

Then the shock on her face turned to annoyance. Damn, the Smoke Bomb skill kicked in reflexively? She put her fist against her mouth and coughed quietly. No one saw that.

"What was that about?" she frowned, confused. She'd never seen a crystal do that before.

The fact that the small black shape wasn't generating any readings didn't surprise Sephiroth all that much, if anything it brought his theory about it being some form of a doppelganger of the original black crystal from the previous cycle, back up to his surface pondering. Not only that, why would memories -since by proxy it too had to be such a memory as those illusions of the previous four Heroes of Light- generate any physical reading at all?

He wasn't expecting such a volatile reaction to a moogle handling it though. Had he been Rukia, Sephiroth probably would have smoke bombed instantly away like that as well. But that doesn't stop him from also flinching backwards and turning his gaze a little away so the bright flash didn't blind him.

It just so happened that the trajectory that the stone flew was just about within his field of vision, and so with a frown and a careful look around at the others he made to follow it's path in order to retrieve it. Ignorant as to anything specific about the way it had been blown away; yet he paused when he came across it, noting that it didn't seem as if it had just been through a small explosion at all.

Before extending a hand to pick the stone back up.

The bang drowned out Ales's squeaking scream. It didn't hide how his hand flinched away from the computer, unbalancing the tall chair. He had a second of reprieve as it wobbles, but as Sephiroth walked towards the stone, it fell. The Teensie was unceremoniously thrown onto the floor, rolled away, and stopped right behind the SOLDIER.

Ales pushed himself up so his face wasn't touching the floor. "What does that mean?!" He shouted at the Moogle.

While waiting for that near-killer to answer, he stood up, brushed dust off his lab coat, and followed Sephiroth. Ales worked in the laboratory for many days not as a part-time research, but for private work as well. He would recognize the general direction the stone had fired.

Jade, meanwhile, merely blinked without moving an inch. That sure was an explosion.

Seeing as no one was hurt (other than Ales' dignity), he followed Sephiroth and looked over his shoulder. Nothing about the rock itself looked different, but there had to be a reason for such a reaction...

Clearly there was only one thing to do.

"Let's try that again, shall we?" Jade smiled brightly. "We should see if we get the same result every time."

Similarly to Kaji, there's no effect, for good or for ill, when Sephiroth picks up the stone.

Shinji pulls his head out of Kaji's leg to glare at Ales for a second. Like that was his fault!? He opens his mouth to speak, but then Jade's suggestion comes across.

"Ku- KUPO? Are you- kidding me?"

Kaji kneels down to pat Shinji. "Hey. Heey. Shinji. Are you actually okay?"

Shinji looks himself over, and nods, head and pom-pom bobbing.

"And you're not hurt. None of us are hurt. Just scared. Right?"

"Kupo." Another head-bob.

"So we know what's going to happen this time, and it's not going to hurt, and it'll be less scary, right?"

Shinji frowns. Brat. Trapped him. "K-kupo." Wryly, he has to agree.

Shinji does not look happy, but he flutters up to take the stone out of Sephiroth's hand. There's a quick 'why me?' look on his face.

He flutters over to the corner, away from everybody, this time, and concentrates, focuses, holds the stone out at the very tips of his paws...

BOOM! No less loud or flashy than last time. Interestingly, the crystal aims at precisely the same spot on the wall that it did last time, like it's trying to go someplace specific, no matter what is in its way.

"Did you see that?" Kaji sounds excited, but he looks to the more science-minded people, as if to confirm.

Rukia was prepared this time. She still flinched at the sudden noise, but at least she didn't embarrass herself by teleporting halfway across the lab or leap up to cling to the ceiling.

This afforded her a better view of the crystal's trajectory as well.

"It's attracted to something in that direction," she noted thoughtfully. "It's fortunate that we tested this indoors, as we might have lost it outside. Can we attach it to some fishing line, to keep it from flying off completely?" she suggested.

"Couldn't miss it, that time..."

And again Sephiroth was walking back over to where the stone had landed.

He looked up at the wall which it connected with this time, though, letting someone else retrieve the stone. After a moments pause he rose fingers to cautiously touch that spot on the wall, frowning lightly as he tried to visualize the schematics of what they knew of the secret lab, the room layout above them, and what could possibly be in that direction.

"...whatever it is, it's in that direction..."

Edited 2016-09-27 20:43 (UTC)

The next time the crystal shot out of the device, Ales didn't flinch. As much. He hoped that sort of reaction was normal to a loud noise, because he couldn't afford to look any more pathetic than he already did.

"There's no way it's a coincidence," he said mostly to himself as he stared at the wall, dented from being struck in the same place twice by a small object exerting a great force. Maintenance would throw a fit. "There's something over there its attracted to..."

Ales grew silent. North was in that direction, and he recalled seeing the Temple of Fire out the window of a nearby lab. The districts were laid out like so, thus the intended destination could be...

"Wait, I think..." He had a few ideas.

"It's definitely going someplace," Kaji agrees. "But you need a moogle to activate it? Seems a little..." what's the word he's looking for. "Inefficient?"

"What's the relationship between the moogles and the crystals anyway? Especially the black crystals?" He can't help but glance at Shinji.

Shinji shakes his head. "No idea, kupo. I've never even heard a rumor. We could- ask Artemicion. Or Mograma. But." Shinji doesn't really like either of them.

"Perhaps it's seeking out its counterpart, much like the Calamity seeks out what it lacks to become whole," Rukia suggested with a light shrug. "If that's the case, it will make finding one of the black crystals much easier." Either way, they'd best find a method to keep it from shooting off too far once they made the attempt outdoors. "I can speak with either of them, but I've never been formally acquainted."

That said, she looked to Ales, who looked to have trailed off in his speculations. "Something the matter?" she inquired, regarding him with curiosity.

Kaji looks at Ales, and he thinks he knows what the Teensie is up to. It takes some time to get a map, and he lines it up on the table as best he can. From the center of Aqures Ixen, okay. He looks at the mark on the wall, left from the Black Stone, and back to the map. "There's got to be a way..."

He's trying to determine where it's headed. If it's going anywhere obvious. He has a few places that he'd bet on.

"The compass." Ales rummages through his bag abandoned in the corner of the room when he sees Kaji pull out a map. He has one there, a portable one that he received when he was promoted to airship Captain. The paint on the casing had chipped over the past year, but the innards worked perfectly.

"Orient it to the east," he commanded before hopping onto the table and setting it down.

Sephiroth looks back over his shoulder as Kaji and Ales arrange to get a map out on the nearby table, flashing Rukia a silent glance in acknowledgment that he did hear her and understood what she meant. Before turning, retrieving the small black crystal again and coming back to the table with it.

He's used to picking out details on maps of Aqures Ixen, even if new maps -since the Battle- really weren't that old. He didn't quite get what Ales were trying to with instructing them to orient it to the east; he supposed so that they might look at it the 'right' way up in relation to their location currently.

There are a lot of landmarks to the east of them, but Sephiroth waits for Ales to finish making his point before he might comment.

"Moogles were supposedly the original inhabitants of this planet before the Ancients came. They would have been around when the Job System was first created. That might explain their connection to the crystals."

Whether it's the same for Black Crystals, Jade's not sure... but they were once Heroes' crystals. Perhaps that's why Moogles can still use them, even after they turned black?

He says nothing else for now, content to watch the others prepare the map.

Once it's lined up with the map, the direction of the Compass is more obvious. Shinji takes the opportunity to activate it a few more times, and they'll notice that one out of every four activations, it points in a different direction.

Three out of four times, they are correct, it points to the East, but the explosion and speed seems to be much more powerful, almost like the Compass is indicating that that Crystal is much closer.

But the fourth time, the Compass points to the Northwest, straight for the Lost Continent. With Ales' expertise, he can tell that the biggest landmark in that direction is the Village of Santa Claus.

Kaji looks down at the map. "I can get our flyers on this, try to pin down the location more. But what do you want to do about this?"

Rukia leaned over the map as she laid a thumb thoughtfully against the side of her chin. "It's likely that one of the leaders of the refugees holds a Black Crystal. I'll write to Prajapati and see if she knows anything about it. The Eastern crystal puzzles me, though. Mysidia?"

Looking at the map, it seemed to be further to the southeast of Aqures Ixen, and certainly not closer than the Santa Village. She folded her arms with a pensive hum. "It may be in the city...or the Ancient Caves. I've been meaning to travel there for quite some time, but I thought it had already been thoroughly explored."

As others step closer to observe what happens with the compass, Sephiroth found himself following suit. Like Rukia, he considered those three definitive eastern indications and by comparison found within himself that the north-westerly one was perhaps the easiest to fathom.

"So we're thinking of three potential draws to it in this direction-" He gestures on the map, as if they needed any more of an illustration. "-potentially distances apart with a third much closer."

A moment of silent pondering later

"Could it not simply be drawn to the cardinal Crystals? The Crystal of Fire could be the closest eastern mark to our position..."

But there was still the question of the fourth location...

"If they were pointing to the cardinal Crystals, wouldn't this shoot out in different directions? The Earth Crystal is in Hera..."

It certainly was a thought to consider.

"Do we know what happens when a Black Crystal and a cardinal Crystal meet? If this used to be a Hero's crystal, it might not have any connection to the Crystal of Fire, or it may as well lead to negative consequences."

"Roalie," Kaji can answer Ales' question certainly. "The Crystal will survive, but Cid is pretty sure that's what caused the explosion that destroyed his homeland."

"But there were still four in circulation after that point. Kalki was reported to still have one of the Black Crystals during her experiments in the Empire. So it wasn't used up." Pause. "We don't know if that is one of the ones we've regained. Palitutu could have gotten hers off Kalki when she killed her. Or Kalki could have hidden hers away, and this is the only way to find it." Kaji shrugs.

"We're going to need some people to search locally." Kaji glances at Sephiroth and something seems to amuse him. "I think I know somebody who can fly right into the Village of Santa Claus and not arouse any suspicion. I'll have to go along as Santa Cloud's Helper."

"The map we found here in the lab places two Avatars in the Santa Village, so I agree that's likely where we can find one of the Crystals. But the other..."

The force of the explosion is what stands out to him. It seems the eastern Crystal is eliciting a stronger reaction. If that's an indication the target is close by...

"I'm concerned that we still haven't located Narasimha. There's a good chance he's hiding here in the city, and if he has a Black Crystal in his possession... We could risk facing another incident like the murders in June."

"Agreed." With a nod, Sephiroth made the comment specifically about Narasimha in the wake of Jade's.

It was no small task, to root out that troublesome avatar before he might cause trouble again, with Aqures' population being so swollen with refugees. Already he called in a substantial fraction of his own standing army to help police the city, as well as having to schedule rotations around at least three other locations in the World. If he were to be brutally honest, strictly speaking he was pulling rank a little in getting the time to come to this meeting, at all.

"...we can only have faith that the sophistication that he's using to stay under the radar is also keeping him from repeating the same trick. Hardly ideal, hence the sooner we get these locked down, the better for everyone."

Sephiroth then turned his gaze from the others back to the map, not wanting to linger on the facts surrounding how the Black Crystals got out there in the first place. He spent long enough considering past failures on his own, let alone actually bringing it up for discussion.

Edited 2016-11-22 21:48 (UTC)

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The Hunt Begins

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