melodiesoflife | Preparing for things to come.

Entry tags:

Preparing for things to come.

Where: Aqures Ixen
When: June 29th – July 5th
Summary: Zelda isn’t one for war but she’s going to start practicing and thinking of strategies. She knows that there will be a meeting but she doesn’t want to attend empty handed. She is also on a look out for new heroes. It’s a bad time for them to show up which makes her think that they will.
Warning: None.

Zelda was always busy and with the threat of war she was even busier. She was coming up with plans using the city map as a guide. It would be better to use the cities natural strengths during the fight, such as preexisting walls, but it’s clear that this city wasn’t made to withstand a war. The best they could do was guess where the Empire might focus their attention and so Zelda made a list.

1.) Jessie’s Lab
2.) The Hospital
3.) The Fire Crystal
4.) The Castle
5.) The Old Observatory
6.) ~~The old Magitek Research Facility~~
7.) Mognet Office
8.) Airship Port

There were other possible areas too but she didn’t think they’d attack schools or homes. They couldn’t chance leaving areas unprotected but she supposed they could put a concentration of people around specific points. There were a few locations that worried her more than others. She didn’t know if they should move the heroes in stasis or if they should focus around the crystal of fire. It would really help if they knew what the Empire was after.

She worked late into the evening, pouring over notes and making scribbles and plans on small pieces of paper.

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She was planning to fight and while her skills lay primarily in wit she wasn’t a stranger to brute strength. She thought of changing her jobs back to the skills she had mastered but she knew that Link wouldn’t want her on the front lines. Instead she practiced with the bow that he had made for her: aiming, firing, and then fetching the five arrows she was using for practice.

Zelda could be found practicing in a few places. Right outside the town was the most common. She could aim at trees or things around her without the possibly of hitting a foolish passerby. She could also be found right outside the Observatory, pass the garden that she had create and along the back of the building. She set up a small firing range with a few straw looking dummies at the opposite end. They weren’t perfect but they let her practice without destroying any arrows.

She could also be found using her illusionist skills such as duplicating herself. This would be the easiest way for her to help from afar and she hoped that she could think of ways to use these skills in a larger scale battle. She couldn’t help but wonder how well the Heroes of Light would ban together. She remembered the first time they all fought. It was in the Chocobo Ranch and it hadn’t gone very well at all but since then people have grown and changed. New heroes have arrived and they found a purpose.

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Along with everything else Zelda was on the look out to see if new heroes would arrive. This was a constant duty that she gave herself but with war looming she decided to keep her eyes and ears out more so. It would be a perfectly awful time for the heroes to awake which made her think that they would. She also had no idea where they would show up which weighed heavily on her thoughts.

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"Yes. The guardian, she called him."

A few beats later Sephiroth thought he had enough of a handle on his thoughts so he wouldn't show them so much on his face. Though, perhaps it might have been a foolish attempt to hide them from Zelda who had known him for a a long time by now; it was a little obvious it were hurting more than he'd admit, just to cast his mind back to those details. The sting of relevance was never far behind them.

He hadn't understood, and then she had shown him.

"The guardian of 'Crystallis and Life'...I'm not sure I want to know exactly who...or what manner of creature that girl is."

Zelda listened, thinking about his words as she watched the small changes to his features. It was subtle but Zelda was used to talking to people and noticing the small facial twitches and slight changes in demeanor when someone was distressed or unsure. There were a lot of things about the dream that distressed her and she didn't even know where to begin. It was intimidating and she didn't know where to start thinking even as she wrote out her notes.

"I will look into it." Which she hoped would be comforting and lift a weight from the heroes shoulders. Zelda smiled up at Sephiroth taking a small sip of water before continuing.

That girl was created by the heroes of the past, according to her. Zelda wondered what it could all mean. "I've been collecting information about the memories from the other heroes as well. If I learn more I will make sure to inform you and the others." She assumed that he knew whom she was talking about. There were a lot of heroes but a few of them had been working together to try and find out more.

Perhaps the single most distressing thing for Sephiroth, was to come back from stasis only to have had the scene he had seen of himself cemented in recent memory. It wasn't even that recent a memory, chronologically speaking it had been before he arrived in Crystallis and he'd just...been made to forget before? It threw everything that had happened since in an entirely darker light for him, added relevance where there weren't very much before.

Sephiroth watched her, idly, while Zelda took a sip of water but averted his gaze away before he might appear to be rudely staring. He felt more than a little detached again, just thinking about it too heavily. Enlisting in Esdham in the first place had been a way for him to escape those heavy concerns; surely he'd feel a lot better once he returned to his work.

"Please do. Even though I'm not here as often as I should be." He had a fairly good idea who she might mean by 'the others' but Sephiroth had lost track of the current roster of Heroes a few months ago and had never managed to get back on top. Last he'd known, had been when Zelda herself made it her business to come and look after him while he recovered from his accident.

Odd, the weakness that the brutal multiple fractures had delivered to his leg before simply wasn't there anymore. As if it had never happened. Something else to consider with regard to changes since stasis.

"Sephiroth."

Her tone was soft and while her focus was on him it was gentle and worried. She didn't want to pry but she could tell that something was bothering him. She didn't have any advice that she might be able to give him but she could always lend an ear. She let silence settle between them for a brief period of time studying his expression before speaking.

"I'm always here to listen."

Zelda didn't have experiences that related to anything that Sephiroth might tell her but she could empathize with the feeling of distress, with not knowing what to do and with doing what you felt you had to even if you didn't want too.

"But only if you want to talk."

He was starting to tire of that look that some of the others gave him. That begging concern that just wanted everything to be alright Sephiroth had seen across so many faces towards him, that almost pleaded with his resolve to let them in and share some of his personal issues. Or at least, that's how it felt.

He must appear even more pathetic than he should even have a right to feel.

He couldn't comply. Wouldn't let himself give in. Since doing so would admit in more than one way that he couldn't handle it alone when he'd always been strongest on his own before. That notion of opening up scared him, and the very fact that he felt so sensitive over it was all wrong as well. What happened to his own personal standards of perfection? What happened to being stronger than this?

Sephiroth made a conscious effort to make himself appear less pathetic and unsure. Pulling his shoulders back and straightening his posture he forced himself to make eye contact with Zelda again. Carefully, he phrased the next question.

"What do you think, about being a part of the Calamity?"

Jenova...is a monster... It stung sharply, but he refused to let it drag at his iron-willed attempt to keep it together. As he looked at Zelda though, Sephiroth did wonder if she, like all the other Heroes, maybe had a right to know? If there were such parallels as Genesis had suggested...

Zelda met his eye contact and then looked up at the bright blue sky. She always looked up and to the left when she was thinking very hard about something. Once she made up her mind she met Sephiroth’s gaze again with a confident smile.

“It’s strange.” Her smile grew slightly. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. In a way everything is connected and if the calamity can get between worlds to destroy them like the legend indicates then that means the power to bring us here was probably from the calamity.” Though this was just a guess but it explains when the heroes of light from the past had stayed here as well. They were connected to the calamity which was still going to rise and hence couldn’t return home.

“We also don’t understand the calamity.” It was why she couldn’t say if it was good or bad, if she had the goddess’s gifts then she’d be able to tell but for now she didn’t want to assume. “It resets the world. Almost like it’s trying to fulfill a goal. Its intentions might not be destructive but with the heroes and the people here, well…” Zelda shrugged. “It doesn’t change the fact that it is and that it’s slowly covering the world but I suppose it’s just very complicated. I can’t say I feel comfortable but I feel like it’s important that we are connected to it.”

She had no idea if she was making any sense. She often thought herself in circles which didn’t do anything to help when she had a question.

His gaze didn't slip from her face at least even as Zelda looked up and away into the sky to gather her thoughts. It was a loaded question after all, and that was putting it mildly.

As the words slowly came out Sephiroth sat and politely listened to them. At first, he wasn't sure that he understood where Zelda might be coming from. Calamity, the word by it's very nature was a negative thing and not to mention what Genesis had told him about it had rooted it firmly in Sephiroth's mind as a destructive force which had to be stopped. The abomination that he was destined to become.

Yet, Zelda had a very good point with regards to how it connected them all. It begged the question, if it were a natural occurrence and if Crystallis refusing to succumb to it was really the heroic epic that the legend foretold it as. What if it were preventing some sort of larger cycle from being completed, or something?

"Legends are indeed only written by the victors." It would turn a lot of things on their head, to think about it from the opposite perspective and Sephiroth only rested on that thought for a moment before shaking his head a little. The notion that they might well be the Heroes, but that the legend was backwards like that unsettled something deep in his stomach.

A long breath was blown out before Sephiroth spoke again.

"There is a Calamity, in the world that I am from. Have you a similar phenomenon in yours? Something that may be similarly misunderstood?"

Zelda shook her head at his first comment but waited to respond. Once he had asked her those questions she was silent for a moment letting her thoughts sink into something that might be easier to explain.

"Those legends... they weren't written by the victor in this case. It's a case where everyone loses. We write what we want it to be." She looked at him then, meeting his intense gaze. "Whether it's romance or heroism. I've read many of the legends and they are always fantastic stories. Very little is fact."

She held up a finger as she spoke.

"There isn't a Calamity where I'm from. It's darkness. It isn't something like this and it isn't something as simple as making a bad decision or defining a bad person. It's pure and it can corrupt the soul if it's given an entrance. The purpose of darkness is to take over and destroy. Hoping that only darkness is left but the world here resets or something like it, if our memories are to be believed. I can't say if it's the Calamity or something else doing it but whatever it is that's resetting it... it's like it keeps trying to get a different outcome and each time the crystal surrounds the planet that outcome isn't achieved. So it tries again."

She lowered her finger and then let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry. I don't really understand. I've been thinking about this so much lately and I just run into circles. I don't want to assume anything."

Granted, victor had been the wrong word to put to it -Sephiroth had meant it in more of a 'those that were left behind or still alive' kind of context- but that's cleared up with a quiet hum as Zelda recounts how she feels of the legends. To be true, Sephiroth had felt the same way when he'd first spent the time delving into the various fantastic stories of the Heroes of Light that one could find in the Libraries. While there might be shreds of truth behind the basic premise, so much was filled out with fantasy it had always been a chore to try and pick one apart from the other.

"Whatever that outcome might be, we've yet to ascertain." Sephiroth nodded with a small smile at Zelda, to reassure her to that him at least she was making at least some logical sense. As logical as it could be given that so many theories dipped heavily into still-widely speculative variables.

"And that's key to gaining any insight. Why the world keeps needing to be reset."

Zelda gave him a quick nod and then a slight smile. She was glad that she had made some sort of reason from all of her cluttered thoughts. It was hard to keep them all sorted but being able to talk about it with Sephiroth has certainly helped clear them up.

“Yes, though I’m not sure how to answer that question.” She felt like it was a question similar to how do we get home? It will only be answered when someone sees fit to tell them and not a moment before. It would also most likely get answered when they were faced with a choice though Zelda couldn’t help but worry and think that the question might never get answered at all. She shook her head slowly, her gaze glancing down through the gesture before looking back up at Sephiroth.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions but I will keep trying.”

At least gathering, and summarizing information was something that Zelda can do. Even if at times it felt useless.

He might not be the best at socialization, but when it came to quantifying complicated theories Sephiroth was as razor sharp as his sword. Zelda could have put it any number of other -harder to follow- ways and chances were he'd still have managed to logic them out somehow. Being very much a thinker than a talker.

Sephiroth would always reject any notion that the only path to an answer to that question -and others- was when it were deemed that they either needed to know, or were ready to know. It took the control, that precious free will that everyone had, out of their hands. Unacceptable.

"Please remember that these answers are not for you to find, alone, Zelda." He commented, knowing well how Zelda had over-worried herself once before and became sick - over circumstances she couldn't do anything about any more than any of them might be able to.

Zelda sighed softly a slight smile turning the corner of her lips up. “I know.” Even now the young goddess put too much on her shoulders. It was heavy and she didn’t always have someone to turn to when working. She worked alone more often than not even though Asheila and others were always close by. It wasn’t by any fault of her own, it just happened that way.

“I just… I never feel like I’m doing enough.”

It was a small admission but it hurt. She kept trying and she wouldn’t lose hope and yet day in and day out she found nothing. Zelda almost thought she’s read the whole library by now trying to search for the smallest answer. They could go on expeditions to find more but she couldn’t go alone and she had promised Ashelia that she would stay behind. There had to be more that she could do from the observatory.

It was clear by the way that Sephiroth took to inspecting her face after that comment, that even though she said she knew it wasn't her burden to bear, that for the most part he didn't believe that she believed it. Zelda was just one of those people that would always give more of herself than she had to give, if it would help others.

Sephiroth might not understand that which drove Zelda to do so, so much, but in a situation like theirs when there weren't a solution readily available putting so much weight on your own shoulders, to find one, wasn't a good thing.

"Hmph, I know well that feeling." He commented dryly, not much liking that fact either. Sephiroth had always had a knack for going into any situation and coming out on top but more often than not here, he'd been knocked back. It wasn't that he blamed the fact that he didn't have his true capabilities here, but for sure he knew that it would be better if he had that strength. He wasn't much accustomed to being stuck feeling like he couldn't do enough even if he wanted to. Even within the military, there were limitations.

"But look around. This wouldn't have been achieved if it wasn't for your hard work. That must count for something, at least?"

Zelda smiled almost as brightly as the scorching rays of the sun. “Yeah. We’ve all done so much here. Sometimes it’s hard to believe where we started.” It had originally begun as a little dysfunctional but now everyone was working together in their own way.

It was just as Zelda hoped it would be.

“You do a lot to; so many of the heroes look up to you.” Not to stroke his ego too much but it was the truth. “I know that I look up to you as well. You are a brilliant fighter and someone who’s strong in many different kinds of ways. You use your head and you aren’t overly rash. You’re someone that can be counted on.” Zelda considered herself lucky to know him.

The blinding rays of sunshine that came with Zelda's smile threw Sephiroth's shadowy doubts out of focus, if only for a moment. It was rare for any smile to make all doubts go away and was for sure one of Zelda's strengths.

"No, I don't." Was said with all seriousness returned in a blink though. Being away in the military for as long as he did wasn't being there at all for other Heroes and there were so many more of them now, he'd lost track. The newer arrivals only had others' hearsay to go on about him and he hated such a concept - it was much better to form an opinion based on seeing things with your own eyes. Not to mention, he knew full well he'd been no where near his best in recent times.

But he couldn't argue with at least some of qualities that Zelda listed out, characteristics that Sephiroth himself had clung tightly too yet often found he was slipping away from. Particularly the part about being counted on. How anyone who knew anything about his doppelganger, or that memory of his, could think so was terribly misguided. It hurt further that he used to take pride in being strong enough to be counted on.

"I'm not so sure-" His gaze was focused on the glass once more, eyebrows starting to crease together at the top of his nose again. "-anymore."

Zelda looked up at Sephiroth taking a moment to study him. "Well, I'm sure and if you can't believe in yourself believe in me because I see it in you." She smiled again knowing that it was a small comfort to give him. He should believe in his own traits because that was what made them real. She couldn't give that to him.

"One day, I know you'll see it again."

She smiled against picking up her water so that she had something to fiddle with. She didn't think that Sephiroth would take her kindness but it was offered anyway.

He was trying so hard not to let the weight of those concerns he had banished when he came out of the hospital shortly after his stasis rise their ugly heads into his surface thoughts again and, to Zelda at least in that moment of studying him there was a more definite hint that he was struggling underneath. But it was one of those forbidden topics which, right now, just felt wrong to bring up.

Like when Terra ended up making him feel just a little better, even if he didn't let it on, Zelda's words did have a small measure of comfort to him. Sephiroth swallowed it all back and further into his conscious thoughts before he felt safe enough to speak again.

"I might well hold you to that." He tried to huff a dry laugh out with that as well in an attempt to lighten the turn their conversation had taken. He hadn't come to find Zelda to have her prop up or nurse his bruised ego.

Zelda laughed and the sound floated like sweet bells through the air. The tension was all but forgotten in the wave of such a pure sound. "Alright." Her smiled was bright and warm with no hint of hesitation. She didn't want him to feel sad but she knew telling him not to worry would be like telling her not to worry. It happened and the best thing to do was head forward.

She looked up at the sun as it slowly began it's decent towards the afternoon. They've been talking for a little while now and she knew he'd have to go soon.

"Why don't I give you something before you go? To take with you." She placed down the water and then quickly organized her things. "I was trying this new recipe for sweet cakes. I have extra's I don't know if you'd be interested in taking a few with you. It will at least stop Kopula from eating them all." That moogle was going to get fat.

Perfect. Just like that the mood lifted and it was almost as if Sephiroth shouldn't have even worried about it at all. It was only one of the first times he'd ever heard her laugh, come to think about it; being as Sephiroth wasn't one of those who ever attempted to achieve the same. He just wasn't much of a joker.

Zelda's offer woke him up to the fact that the afternoon were indeed beginning to draw on and he'd have to get on if he were to catch that shuttle.

"Hm." He nodded, but at the same time it wasn't as if he'd eat sweet cakes either. Spencer wasn't much for such treats either; it was a case of having to be considering Sephiroth's opinion of them. Smoothly, he made to stand and stepped away from the bench, shrugging the weight from his backpack back more firmly onto his shoulders. Silver hair rustled where he'd pulled it over his shoulder to keep it out of the way; it's length still met well passed his belt line.

"Perhaps some other time, but thank you. Though, could I trouble you to fill my water flask before I go?"

He wouldn't reach to the side pocket of his pack, to retrieve the same though, in case Zelda didn't accept to do so.

Zelda wasn't the type to laugh often except at times with Link and her were having fun. Those days were far away now and true laughter was often a distant fantasy for the young goddess.

She nodded her head with a wide smile taking the flash from Sephiroth. "Of course. It will only take a moment." She stepped around him and walked inside of the Observatory with a quick pace. She returned a few minutes later with the container filled with cold water. She had some chilled in a pitcher inside and she thought that it might be better than giving him warm water.

"Here."

It was something small but she was glad that she could help. "Stay safe okay and I'll try and write."

While Sephiroth waited for Zelda to return, he look a long sweeping look over the garden and the outside of the observatory as it stood there just starting to cast a shadow in the afternoon sun. As if for the first time taking in how the building looked considering he didn't very often come this way at all. He made something of a silent note to himself in that moment, to pop by every once in a while more than he had in the past.

If he were really going to put that which had been and what might be, out of relevant thought in the present then Sephiroth would have to rearrange what exactly he considered important in Crystallis. Zelda was right, now that he had a moment to think about it, there were a lot of others that he could really afford to dedicate some more time to getting to know better.

Other than those, like Jade, who just happened across his path every once in a while.

Stirring him from that thought, Sephiroth turned to face Zelda as she came back and took the flask from her, setting it back into the side pocket of his pack and shifting the weight around a little again before nodding finally with a small smile.

"Don't push yourself too hard." It was a final piece of advise dragged up from back in the conversation a little and it followed with a short two-fingered salute that came from his forehead as Sephiroth turned to leave.

Striding away from the observatory, the soldier didn't even look back over his shoulder.

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