melodiesoflife | Event || Genesis (Conclusion)

[Despite their fight, once he was calmer Vincent had realized Yuffie was right in some ways. He was being selfish, and perhaps he was being blind too. Normally he didn't hesitate--not anymore--when there was a good reason. But he needed answers.

Once the chaos hit, he knew exactly where he might find some of those answers. He'd had plenty of practice ignoring everything but his chosen goal or mission; both during this life and his old one. Inwardly he winced, knowing he needed conserve ammo as he headed straight through the city, to the temple. Then through the temple, towards the crystal.

His eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, and the gunslinger was not surprised to see Yuffie already there. He took note of the other heroes there, one he'd met before and two he had not. But they weren't his priority, and so while they looked down the hole Vincent headed over closer towards Kalki, the other hero, and the computer.

Careful, and making noise on purpose lest he cause more confusion, given his dark attire allowed him to blend in more easily.]

What are you typing, Ms. Kalki?

[Keeping his tone calm and measured. He had a purpose choosing to be here, and being emotional would not help. Nor would startling their one obvious source of information.]es

Edited 2015-08-12 13:27 (UTC)

[Sparks has spent the day fighting monsters and doing his best to evacuate people from the city to as far off as possible. Unfortunately, there's only so much he can do there. The best way to prevent all these poor people from getting killed is to stop the Crystal from exploding, and he's desperate to do so. The marshal shows up scraped, bruised and exhausted, but ready to go.]

Whatever yer doin' needs to stop. You know what's gonna happen!

[it seems there are eyes already on Kalki, and so K'pandolu keeps her gaze on the pit. Those lights… that sound… Softly:]

Was something summoned?

[One ear twitches for a moment. The Kalki she saw at the Crystal of Fire in Aqures Ixen might contribute to something like this, but this younger version… She wonders. What is she typing?]

[Ashelia arrives moments later, looking somewhat worse for wear. She had stopped to help citizens being attacked by monsters on the way, but evacuating them was far from her mind. She had to get to the Temple. She had to see what Kalki wanted them to see.]

[She looks up at the viewing theatre, grimacing. All the yelling is understandale, but wouldn't help - in this incident, Ashelia is sure Kalki is blameless, or as blameless as a person can be while still serving on the research team. Ashelia is, however, drawn to the crystal, just as K'pandolu is.]

The...the Calamity? [A shiver runs down her spine.] Or...the spirit of the Guardian?

[Sonic hated this, but he had to come here. He had to see what was going on. And so, he did, banged up, exhausted and with a twin (Thanks, Clone ability!), their hands clutching a copy of that "Excalibur" as they stood their ground.]

...Crap, that crystal's glowing. Just like back home. There has to be a way to stop it!

[Jade joins K'pandolu and Ashelia in watching the crystal. Dangerous or not, he can't pass up this opportunity to see what will happen when the city is destroyed. It is perhaps a cold way to think about the deaths of thousands, but they need answers, badly.]

According to the Kalki in our time, this was all orchestrated to return Garland's memory of who he was. Otherwise there would be no Guardian to reset the cycle if we fail. Though as for what Palitutu did to achieve that...

[As eager as he is for information, Jade is worried. Whatever happens would be bad enough to twist Kalki into the woman they've known over the past months.]

[Robin runs in a little after the others hand on her sword. She slows down as she gets to Jade, and looks about -- peering between them and then back at the crystal. Predestination. A vision of the past.]

[She doesn't like it.]

Sir. Is there any way we could stop it? Given that it's... the past. [The implicit question, too, is whether they should stop it. Then she looks up at Kalki, and hesitates, before she calls out:] What are you trying to do?

[Kalki kept trying, without paying much attention to her surrounding. Even equipped with the Hacker Job, nothing would come from the station she was working on-- As if the Job was not working the way it was intended to. It was true for all of the Jobs, as the Heroes of Light's skills would be less reliable than usual in this room.]

I'm trying to stop it, but Palitutu has rigged the controls!

[She smashed the console when it went dark and stopped working altogether, but froze when she heard what some of the people around were saying.]

The past...? Kalki in your time...?

[Finally, she turned and looked at the Heroes who were assembling in the room, but slowly shook her head in disbelief.]

You-- Your Crystals-- You are Heroes of Light, aren't you? [She finally looked down.] That means she's already succeeded...

[Yugi was close to the hole, but went no further in fear that he could fall in and whatever was down there still might not be a good thing. He didn't want to risk it at all. Turning his head slightly, what did she meant by what she just said.]

Already succeeded? With what?

[Was it why they were brought here, or was that something else. Never the less this was a little too confusing for the young man to take in. Instead he's just going to take a few steps away from the hole.]

[...Of course. Although Jade had given their dream of the last cycle plenty of thought, something hadn't quite connected until now.]

That's it... In the last cycle, a group interfered with the system that brings Heroes of Light to Crystallis. [He turned to Kalki.] Palitutu is trying to restore it, isn't she?

Kalki.

[Chiaki looks directly at the woman once she turns from the monitor to meet the gaze of the assembled Heroes in the room.]

I don't know exactly what's happening here, but I have a request for you.

[And then she smiles, as comfortingly as she's able to manage.]

Don't give into despair. Believe in us, and believe in the future. I know it's hard. I know I'm asking a lot. And I know you don't even really know us. Take as much time as you need to overcome the doubt you're feeling. Because without that doubt, you can't ever come to truly believe in anything. But when you do... believe in us, and in hope.

Heheh...

[And Sonic was quick to join Chiaki, grinning at Kalki.]

I still don't know of much what's going on, but we're not one to give up without a fight!

[Yuffie looks at Chiaki and then shakes her head.]

Yeah believe in us but first tell us what the hell is happening!

[WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING THE HOLE IN THE ROOM AND THE SPIRITY THINGS AND THE RUMBLING?!]

[Kalki blinked a couple times upon hearing what the Heroes of Light were saying her. Were they seriously giving her speeches about believing in them and not giving in to despair and whatnot?]

You don't understand! Everyone in this city is going to die if nothing is done soon...! We don't have time for inspirational speeches!

[She shook her head at Jade's question though, as she did to the other ones. She rushed to another console in the hope to do something with this one.]

I don't know what you are talking about either. If you really are Heroes of Light, don't just stand there and do something!

[Oh... no.]

What do you want us to do? Can we stop--whatever's happening to the crystal?

[Robin approaches, slowly, to get a good look at. While... wondering if anything they can do will matter.]

[Sonic couldn't help but look at Chiaki, chuckling a bit.]

Tough crowd.

[Then, back at Kalki.]

I'm no scientist, but wouldn't the best thing to do is to drop the crystal into the the pit?

[He's more than a little behind the others, having had to fight his way back from the Personnel Quarters where he'd been with the others but then Sephiroth rushes into the room from the main passageway...sword raised and blood pumping...

To abruptly stop in his tracks as he's faced with the spectacle of the Crystal of Fire behaving erratically, suspended over what for all appearances is a black hole. That noise coming from within is enough to make anyone's blood run cold; for him, that's an achievement. Sephiroth finds his gaze distracted by one of the pyrefiles as it flits up out of the pit...isn't that vaguely familiar to...

It takes a lot of effort for him to tear his eyes away and glance over the others gathered but a knot sinks half way down his windpipe as he spots younger Kalki rush off to another console.]

You! [He calls out, loudly to anyone who might answer but directed at the young assistant.]

What did she do to the Crystal?

Y'know, Kalki, we'd love to help. We'd all love to help. But you were the one who sent us back in time to this point, with no instructions other than to "show us something". So you don't know what we're talkin' about, we don't know what we're talkin' about, and now we're all on the same page.

[No time for messing around. There's a lot of people to save.]

What we do know is we gotta keep this thing from blowin' its top. You said we gotta stop it. Stop it from what? What's overloading it in the first place? If that console is rigged, ain't there some other kinda failsafe?

[Yuffie is slowly backing up from the edge, her gaze looking down at the hole as if expecting something to come bubbling up from the darkness.]

Plus... the city is destroyed where we are from.

[She doesn't feel like this is what they were meant to see... like something else, something worse is about to happen.

Yuffie swallows feeling a shred of dread gather in her stomach.]

Vincent has stepped back, observing the lights, the crystal, and his gaze remaining on Kalki. Is this really the same woman they know in the future?

IS Palitutu trying to restart the cycle? Do you know what she did to the crystal, since she locked you out of the computer?

[Keeping himself calm, raising his volume to be heard. It was a good question that one of the heroes had asked, but they needed more information.]

We can't do anything until we know what she's trying to do, Kalki.

[Kalki listened to what they said, but absolutely none of it made any sense to her. Time travel, cyrcle, guardian-- Anyone looking at her would be able to tell she had no idea what they were talking about. But if they were indeed from the future...]

She's trying to summon you! And if what you say is true, she's already succeeded...

[She stumbled away from the console as what she tried to do had failed once again. But then she turned and looked at the Heroes of Light-- This time however, she was the one looking hateful.]

The Crystal of Fire is nearly devoid of energy, there's nothing left in it! It's not an infinite source of energy. She needs to refill it so she can summon you to this world!

[She shook her heads.]

Don't you understand? To recharge such a crystal, it would require... Thousands, no, millions. That's why she chose this city and this day, because...

[She didn't finish the sentence, it should be obvious enough.]

[Sonic thought back to his conversation with the present day Kalki, that she needed people to die to do what she needed to do with the crystal despite his own protestations...]

NO! There was no need for any of this!

[All of those people... and for him and so many others! He turns to the others, Captain Obvious moment or not]

When I talked to the Kalki of our present, she told me that the invasion was needed for a purpose. Now I understand what it is - those Crystals run on the power of the fallen and the more people are killed the more than can be used for other things!

Edited 2015-08-12 22:42 (UTC)

[Kidd's yes widened. A sacrifice of lives to bring forth heroes. And those heroes were the selfsame ragtag bunch standing about. All that they had done, all that they had been doing to save lives had come at the cost of countless more?

If this Kalki was to be believed it was. Which means that their "Jessie" may well have been playing them this whole time.

She lowered her head, her eyes hidden by her bandana and her hair.]

My apologies then. It seems there's someone far more deserving of my blade than you.

...That's...

[No. That--that can't be. She thought they were benevolent. That they... it means they have to sacrifice lives. Robin's eyes widen and she takes a step backward, as she realizes.]

[This was what Kalki wanted them to find out. That the crystals that brought them here... that they used the deaths of others.]

...it's too horrible...

[Yuffie glares at Kalki.]

THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US! YOU WERE THERE KALKI! YOU COULD HAVE TOLD US! WE COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN BUT INSTEAD YOU SEND US HERE?!

[She's shaking and about to jump at Kalki.]

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