GuiltyRed's Into The Nexus

Act V

~ A ~

Even if the morrow is barren of promises
Nothing shall forestall my return

Time once stilled moved forward.

A call.

A whisper, too faint to hear, but felt within the heart.

Genesis stirred. Who is here?

Bright as stars, white wings flashed across his sight. Wake up, sleepyhead.

Angeal?

Your puppy needs you.

I don’t have a puppy.

Look again.

Genesis felt rather than saw the presence in the cavern below. One body, two souls. Two familiar souls.

Two wings: one white, one black.

He smiled. Yes, I suppose I do. Angeal…

I am here, Genesis. I am always here.

He’s an awfully big puppy.

Angeal’s smile felt like sunlight after a cold rain. Teach him well. You may want to start…with a name. Now, go to him. He has traveled far to find you.

I love you.

The golden warmth enveloped him, filled him with the grace of the Goddess. I love you too, child.

~ B ~

To become the dew that quenches the land
To spare the sands, the seas, the skies
I offer thee this silent sacrifice

Genesis dropped to the water’s surface, quietly but surely.

He listened for the sound of time, but heard nothing. It could have been hours, or it could have been millennia since last he walked the world of men.

It didn’t matter.

The still form of his charge lay waiting, frozen in mako light.

Genesis strode toward the body, his feet causing no ripples.

Two brothers held fast to one another within the pale shell, neither living nor dead; a vibrant darkness clung to the cool flesh like a protective ghost.

Genesis stood over him, listening. He could hear the brothers whisper in their sleep, their essences still intact despite the mako all around and the pull of time.

This…was a good thing.

High and far, another voice hissed and raged like sleet against coals. The fury had built and coalesced until now all it needed was a vessel.

The world was full of fools who would play god.

Genesis bent and picked up the one who would stand by him in this last battle, the one-who-was-two, with unseen wings of light and darkness. Regarding him with gentle affection, Genesis spoke, blocking out that distant voice for a few precious moments. “It is not yet time for slumber. We still have much work to do...my brother.”

A name…

Every story begins with a name, he mused, but this is the end of a story, not a beginning. Not yet.

He gazed up to the open sky; the building that had once stood above had long since crumbled. With a prayer for the fallen, past and future, Genesis stretched out his wing and carried the last SOLDIER to his destiny.

The name…could wait.