Event || Genesis (Conclusion)

[melodiesmods]

Characters: Everyone!
Where: Aqures Tosf.
When: Night of August 03rd, twenty-eight years in the past.
Summary: As the Heroes of Light were transported to the past, it is now the conclusion of their time travel adventure. It is the final night of the Festival of Light and the city is filled with visitors-- As such, it is estimated there are currently at least a few million people on the Island. Can they be saved?
Warning: Terrible things.

Princess Sarah
The End of Aqures Tosf
The Temple of Fire
The Crystal of Fire

Comments

[they_call_me_sonic]

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!

[thegreatninja]

[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?!]

[pastnpcs]

[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!

[tacticallyminded]

[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.]

[they_call_me_sonic]

[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?

[shinrasfinest]

[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?

[red_planet_blues]

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?

[thegreatninja]

[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.]

[bloodypast]

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.

[pastnpcs]

[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.]

[they_call_me_sonic]

[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!

[not_most_days]

[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.

[tacticallyminded]

...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...

[thegreatninja]

[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.]

[unyieldingspirit]

[She takes half a step back, ears flattening. Something about this world has seemed wrong to her, ever since she saw Thancred's double. To hear that this crystal shines because of the death of the city's people… and what that means for them…]

No…

[crystals, and sacrifice. And a legend…

Perhaps it's a good thing that Yuffie's words filter through to her.]

Then is not the same as now! [this Kalki hasn't done those things at this point.]

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

"Death, that's what powers the crystal." A voice that has, so far, been uncharacteristically silent. "You need the energy of thousands of deaths? And that energy has to come from somewhere, or we're never summoned, and the whole timeline blows?"

Captain Jack Harkness steps forwards, looking not at any of them, but gaping up at the Crystal. It's stupid. He doesn't come back to life here, does he? But how is it even possible to remove his connection to the Time Vortex? The energy's got to exist in some form, right? And he's the center of the entire damn thing.

Fearlessly, Jack approaches the Crystal, getting dangerously close to the energy that surrounds it. He holds up a hand, as if testing for a reaction in the air. But it only hardens his resolve, as he turns back around to face the heroes. "It doesn't work, I won't hold it against anybody."

"But maybe some deaths count for more than others."

Jack draws his sword, and offers it hilt-first towards the Heroes.

"Kill me."

[red_planet_blues]

[There's a lot to be angry about right now, and before Sparks can properly react, Jack steps forward with his offer. After a moment of disbelief, he pushes the hilt of the sword away.]

What? Are you outta yer mind? What is that supposed to mean. How could it even work like that?

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

The Marshal. Always a voice of reason, and yet Jack thought he was going to have to keep Sparks from doing anything rash. But he might believe Jack.

Jack looks mostly at Sparks, but tries to project to the entire crowd. His voice is even, but he speaks quickly. "I have died tens, hundreds of thousands of times. And have come back to life. Every single time. Shot, stabbed, drowned, fought in every war you could think of, blown up, buried for two thousand years. I've done it all. Seen enough, lived enough, died enough."

He glances around, nods at a few familiar faces, Johnny, Yuna, Rikku, Cloud. "Some of you saw this. You know I'm telling the truth. Dying and returning, over and over. And maybe that's what this crystal needs."

He shifts his stance, wraps an arm around himself in part of his normal command pose. "You're going to try to talk me out of it, maybe it doesn't count, because it didn't happen on Crystallis. Maybe it's only trading one life for another. But if there's a chance, that I can put all those deaths to some good use. Then it's worth the try. If this thing wants death, there's nobody better than me."

The hand with the sword extends again, offering it up to whomever will take it.

[bloodynine]

"You want to die, you came to the right man."

Husks a low voice from the back, the tall northman shouldering his way forward, and looks at the sword for a minute. Logen reaches toward the sword with his right hand, as though to take it. Instead, he brushes it aside then, surprisingly quick for a man who appears to be on the long side of thirty, his left hand dips down and snatches a knife from his belt, spiking it towards Jack's heart.

"All I was ever good for, anyway."

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

The last look on Jack's face is one of startled surprise, almost amusement. Whether his stupid plan works or not, Jack will never know, but maybe that wasn't the point.

Not his finest last thought, as the dagger plunges in: Well, shit. That's how John would've done it.

The body crashes to the ground, and it's left for the Heroes to see what, if any difference, it made. One death for one life, or all his deaths for many lives?

[tacticallyminded]

Hold on! Shouldn't we think this through!? Before--before we--

[Too late. Jack's run through by Logen, the knife sticking out of Jack. She stares down at him, then up at Logen. She sputters.]

[She doesn't quite believe it came to that.]

That--you--

late to the party

[wickedone]

Once Albel finally fought past the crowds and the monsters, and other Heroes calling him a monster for not bothering to help with the attacks, he finally made it into the Crystal Room.

And froze.

It was the Time Travel Man... and someone... both Heroes. And yet...

"What are you doing?" he roared, going for his katana. He couldn't understand, why were Heroes suddenly killing each other now?

I'm late too, but I know you wanted this CR.

[bloodynine]

"Killed a man what asked to be killed."

He shrugs and gestures with his knife.

"I reckon that's what you do, if a man asked to die."

[gomu_ningen]

Luffy merely watches, not an inch or twitch of a reaction coming from him as his arms cross over his chest. He stares towards Jack, over the few others now surrounding them as they look on to the man who so selflessly (at least on the surface) asks to be their lynch-pin of hope.

"He's right."

He pushes past the first couple of people, looking for the sword and knowing that there's only one way for this to go. It's never been in him to take a life from some one else, his countless fights resulting in the defeat of his opponents but letting them remain alive to live and learn what it means to be a real "man".

And yet, the sword is taken, fingers lacing around the handle as it's held up to admire and look upon. He's only ever drawn a sword once before, and Jack is no where near the twisted visage of the Fishman he'd attempted to slice all those years ago.

"You of all people know the weight of "life". But you're gonna' ask these "heroes" to take some one's life? Ain't that kinda' messed up? You don't want a hero to have to live with that, do you?"

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

Luffy. Where others dismissed his rage, his pain, Jack knows what he sees in the man. Someone who wants to change the world, probably more badly than anyone else. And Luffy understands what would drive Jack this far, in an attempt to change the future. Didn't Luffy say it? That if they weren't willing to put their lives on the line, then the fight meant nothing? From one Captain to another, he looks Luffy dead in the eye as he approaches, as Luffy takes the weight of the sword for himself.

"Good thing I'm not asking a hero to."

Take the burden for them. Let the Heroes go sit in our nice houses, let us get the wonderful stories told about us. There need to be people who aren't heroes, to get the real work done. Luffy knows it. Jack gets it.

There is a slow, deep breath, and Jack lets his arms fall to the sides, gives Luffy a clear shot. There is so much that could go wrong. He could not come back at all. But whatever happens, he is ready.