Soon the ship had settled on a course due southwest of Alexandria towards the southern archipelagos, Fenris quietly surveying the sky as he flew alongside the ship.
“Hey Fenris! You enjoying the view?” A voice shouted below, Fenris looked down, and it was the stubborn red-head girl known to all as Rose.
He smiled and swooped down to speak with her, “Not much to see except blue sky and clouds…,”
“Hmph, you take flying so lightly…,” she said dryly, “If I had wings I would enjoy it!”
“Not if you were called ‘dragonfreak’ for half your life! Honestly, flying is the only way I can get away from my problems.”
“Still, I don’t see why anyone wouldn’t like you…I mean, I think you look rather…noble…”
“Noble?” At this Fenris forgot flying completely and nearly crashed into the side of the ship.
“Oops…,” Rose smiled.
“Heh…I’m okay…it’s just you took me by surprise there…noble, huh…,” he let the word lull in his mind a few moments.
“You know…that’s the first time anyone’s ever said something really nice about my dragon wings…thank you…,”
“I wasn’t complementing your wings, silly, I was complementing you!”
“…Oh…” Fenris blushed.
Elsewhere on the ship, Tempest was leaning against on of the support poles of the ship, her lips pursed.
The reason why wasn’t apparent until Strife stepped on the upper deck, and quietly strode past, not even acknowledging her presence.
“Who are you…?” she asked in thought, too scared to speak.
She tried to, but the words were too complex to come.
“….”
Abruptly, he turned about and was looking at her, one of the looks he gave that seemed to fill her mind with more enigmas as to who he was.
It was a look of sadness…
Sometime later, in the captain’s quarters, a quiet lull seemed to fill the room.
Pharda was the first to break the silence, “Has Fenris found anything yet…?”
Andomiel replied, “His last report was two hours ago, nothing yet, and I’m starting to think this ‘Floating Island’ doesn’t exist…”
Urd retorted, “He’s only one guy, cut him some slack, we’ll find it! He’s our only pair of eyes and ears for this place, besides, how do we know this island doesn’t move from place to place like us…,”
“That’s the problem…we don’t know. And we can’t assume anything at this point.”
“I’m sorry kids,” Cid broke in, “but I have to interrupt, y’see, we got ourselves a bit of a problem…”
“Huh?” Pharda said, as if they didn’t have enough problems.
“See for yerselves out the window…,”
It was plain to see that the ship was now completely blinded in fog.
“…great…” Andomiel said resignedly.
“I’m going to slow her down till it clears some, you should get yer dragon friend back on deck.”
“Not necessary, guys, I’m already here…,” Fenris said as he stepped in the cabin. “And I can explain all the fog…,”
“If you say it’s cause of evaporated moisture, I’ll knock your block off!” Andomiel snapped back.
“Whoa! What’s eating him?”
“Time, that’s all, we’ve been up here for almost a day and no sign of that island you talked about.”
“Well, I found it, if that’s what you were wondering!” he said with a grin.
“Say what?” Andomiel jumped out of his seat.
“Yeah, you see, the island is disguised by a thick fog so nobody’ll go near it, they think it might be some sort of huge storm cloud.”
“So you’re saying we’re right in the thick of it, no pun intended?” Pharda said.
“Yes, you could say that, all we have to do is land the ship on the island and we’re all set…”
“Yeah, but where?”
“I’ll guide you…,” he said as he ran out to the upper deck and flew again.
Pharda looked back, “Cid you keep right on piloting, I’ll go up top and forward the directions to you as Fenris yells them to me.”
As the group made preparations, Fenris took the lead and slowly lead the ship up in the higher altitudes of the fog, until they were close enough to the island, that despite the fog, they could see it with their own eyes.
“Well I’ll be, the dragon-boy was right…,” Cid said in disbelief. “I’ll set up the landing gear, you kids get your stuff in order.”
As Cid set up the landing mechanism, he landed smoothly and quietly. And the group began to disembark.
Andomiel was speechless as the entire island was not only fog-free, but it seemed that the place had no high altitude pressure either.
“Hmm -- self-contained atmosphere -- looks like some sort of machine is running this island..,” Strife said aloud.
“Machine? How would you know about that, Strife?” Pharda asked.
“Let’s just say---I’m well acquainted with machines.”
As the group slowly and cautiously proceeded into what looked like a metallic orifice of some kind, it led downward into a corridor that seemed to have walls lined with electrical fields.
“Something tells me we shouldn’t touch the walls…,” Andomiel commented quietly.
The place opened up into what appeared to be a massive electric maze. Floor panels made of some obsidian material to deflect the electric current. The remaining paths winded around and were transparent, but around a corner stray current seemed to be moving about violently like loose wires.
“Short circuit?” Andomiel asked.
As they walked closer to the electric flow hovering about, it took form, electric claws formed, and a long snout with white eyes appeared.
“No -- it’s alive -- a Thunderwolf!!!!”
The being bayed a hollow cry and leapt towards them. Almost on instinct, Pharda cut at it.
His weapon hit the floor with a loud chink.
“It—passed right through!!”
“These are beings of electricity, we can’t possibly cut them down!!” Urd said fearfully.
“Maybe not you, but WE can!!!” Rose said as she raised her hands, which glowed a soft blue, as did Tempest’s.
“Swirling fluid form, rain your force down as a storm! Watera!!”
A watery bubble formed around the beast and disrupted it’s energy field, hurting it severely, but not enough to kill it. The result caused it to duplicate into multiple Thunderwolves.
“A whole pack of them!! Out of just one!? This isn’t good…” Fenris said.
Tempest raised her hands high in the air and with an echo in her voice pronounced her incantation, “Spirit of the deep, I summon thee, mighty Leviathan, come unto me, come upon this place as the very deluge of heaven!!! TSUNAMI!!!”
As she did so, the aquatic being known as Leviathan appeared, as if coming out of her very being, and rained heavily upon the area, followed by a massive wave of water from an unseen force, washing away all electrical beings, dispersing them from the group.
And as suddenly as it appeared, Leviathan was gone.
Tempest collapsed, exhausted.
“Huff….huff…I…did…it—,”
“You certainly did, and I am proud of you.”
“…Dad….,” she said her voice fading into unconsciousness.
Rose and Fenris were the first to grab her and hold her up.
“We can’t let her do this often, it’ll hurt her severely…” Pharda warned.
“That’s odd…?” Rose wondered, “I use magic all the time and it’s hardly anything…why would summoning wear her down like that…?”
“Because…,” Fenris said, “Summoners merge with their Aeons, so basically, whenever she summons that kind of energy, she uses up as much…,”
“Maybe….I’ll find some way for her to summon so that it won’t tire her out so much…is there a way?”
“Not that I’m aware of…,” Fenris answered, “But you can try…”
Rose tenderly looked down at the sleeping Tempest and said, “Someday I’ll find a way out for you…sis…,”
“Hmm?” Fenris said, “What was that?”
“Nothing…just a wish.” Rose thought, “Maybe I’ll learn how to summon Aeons like her someday…,”
As the path was clear of electrical monsters, they proceeded quickly down the obsidian walkways toward what they thought appeared to be an elevator of some kind. Fenris with Tempest slung over his shoulders.
“How do we operate this thing?” Pharda asked.
“Press the ‘down’ switch,” was all Strife said.
The electrical currents filled the area and propelled them downward toward what appeared to be a crystal-like device. The party uneasily drew their weapons in preparation for what lay ahead.
Suddenly waves of energy began to ebb and flow around the elevator like device, as if they were passing through electric barriers.
“Huh?” Pharda said as he pulled out one of the stones, “My shard is resonating…,”
“Mine too…,” Urd said.
“As is Tempest’s…” Fenris said, “I think we’re close…,”
“Too close......,”
“Strife, what do you mean?” Rose asked.
“This…place...used to be a Mako-Reactor....….....back when they sucked energy out of the planet, but now it’s self-powered with it’s own energy....and probably generates monsters like all the others…”
“Mako-reactors? I thought they were illegal? Because of all the radiation they emit, and all the…genetic…results....”
“Apparently when they destroyed them all…,” Andomiel surmised, “They missed this one…,”
“A floating mako reactor. So that explains where this island came from…,”
“That’s not all…the rock formations around this place…and the pipelines…they all say Nibleheim…,”
At this, Strife winced, at least they thought he had, and quickly turned away as he spoke.
“There were more than just monsters that came out of this place…,”
At about this time, Tempest awoke, but still weak to stand, spoke, “Strife…does this place mean something to you?”
“It means we get in, get the stone, and leave—no questions,” his eyes hard as ice.
At this everyone was silent, even the usually talkative Rose.
The platform had reached bottom level, and the party was surrounded by a sea of pipelines, but not just that, the center of the reactor appeared to have a powerful electric core within it, but along side this, a broken chamber with a plate that read:
“J.E.N.O.V.A. Project”
“Damn---,” Strife said under his breath.
“What did you say, Strife?” Pharda asked.
“There’s the shard---it’s in the core, we need to break it open to get it out.”
“Yeah, but if the shard’s powering this place, and we used the elevator to get down here…how will we get out?” Rose asked.
“There’s another exit below the core…,”
At this Tempest’s eyes widened and she stood up, “Strife! You’ve been leading us down here haven’t you! You seem to know this place quite well don’t you! Well? What have you got to say old man!”
Strife remained silent.
“So you have nothing to say? Isn’t that the way of a coward?” Tempest’s words seemed like a hot knife burning in his back.
“I have been here before, but my reasons are none of your business!” His eyes shot a hot glare at Tempest’s but hers seemed to be equally hot as well.
“Why is this place familiar to you? What’s J.E.N.O.V.A? Why does this place say my home town on it? DAMMIT! ANSWER ME!!!”
“Nibleheim is Tempest’s home town? Who knew?” Urd thought. But her thoughts were broken when an unannounced visitor arrived behind them, broke into the core and stole the Thunder Shard!!!
