Final Fantasy;"Synergy",chapters 13,14 & 15.
Written by The Edge

New alligences are forged,as are new betrayals....

Chapter Thirteen;
"The Rage"

Squalls fists pounded into the punchbag with dazzling speed and 
ferocity.He did'nt SEE the bag,only Vega's face.His fists were bandaged
 and bloody from hours of punching.

Since the second Sorceress war some months ago,by special presidential 
order,Balamb Garden had been allowed to keep the Ragnarok as their
 official ship.They used it on missions and training exercises,and
 Squalls unit,as the senior staff,had their own quarters.Selphie had'nt
 let it rest at that,and before they knew it,Ragnarok now had a medical
 bay,a gym and a gameroom,to name but three.

Right now Squall was in the gym,beating the crap out of a punching bag.

His rage was unmeasurable.He was concentrating every part of himself
 into his anger,it was what drove him now-the thought of vengeance.
 Revenge.Riprocity.Whatever.Vega was gonna die.Put simply,there was no
 way Squall was gonna let that bastard live.No way.
But if he killed Vega....did that mean he had to to kill Cloud too?
Of course it does,you idiot!Have you been paying attention at all?
Cloud's been charging into battle without a seconds thought since he
 woke up here.Its like he doesnt care about his life.Like a guy who's
 already dead....
If it came to that,how was Squall to kill both of them at the same
 time?
More importantly,what was Cloud gonna do when they caught up with Vega?
He could do whatever he felt like,just so long as Vega was dead.Thats 
all that matters.
Squall had to do it for all of them.
For Quistis,who gave her life to aid him and Cloud.
For Zell,who'd had the courage to stand up to Vega and lead the first
 attack. For Irvine and Selphie,who'd tried to save them all,and died 
in each others arms.
And for Rinoa.....
...something was wrong.Ever since he woke up,he'd been having difficulty
 remembering her face.Which did'nt make any sense.Since they 
first met,he could'nt get her out of his mind.She'd danced with him and
 ran off,and he could'nt stop thinking about her,wondering if he'd ever
 see her again.Then they'd met on the Timber mission,and although they
 had plenty of arguements,he kept finding that his mind wandered to
 thoughts about her.It was'ent until she was taken from her that he'd
 realised it was love.

So why could'nt he remember her face?It must be Vega,Vega was doing to
 Squalls mind,he was sure of it.
Vega.
Vega,you're dead.
No long or short of it...i'm gonna kill you.
Thats how simple it was.

Squalls punching speed increased with such ferocity,he blew the punching
 bag right off its tether where it smashed against the wall.
He paused,out of breath,panting and sweating.He looked at his fists.Through
 the bandages,his knuckles were battered and bleeding.
He threw his jacket and shirt back on,and went back upstairs to the Bridge.

Cloud heard the lift hiss up and saw Cloud walk over and sit in the Pilot 
seat.Poor guy,he thought.
Cloud looked at Squall in the other seat.There was indeed something wrong
 with the guy.There was also something wrong with the fact that he
 had chosen THIS chair....it belonged to someone else...that girl...back 
there...on the planet...
Now Cloud REALLY looked at Squall.Yes there was something about that look.He
 had given that look many times too.He had no idea until now how
 distant it could make you look.Although the look was meant to give an
 air of solitude,Cloud knew to respect that,he decided against saying 
"a  Gil for your thoughts" and proceeded to navigate the Ragnarok and 
wonder what the guy was thinking...

...Squall kept playing back those final moments of his world.Automatically,
he didnt seem to have a say in what his mind was
 showing him...
Those eyes..she'd looked at him with fear..she'd been braver than him,
actually faced down Vega,using her Sorceress powers,confident of
 victory...
..and he had killed her for it.KILLED her,for daring to believe her
 power was stronger.He remembered those last seconds...her brown 
eyes,bloodshot from her cranial haemorraging...and he could'nt do 
anything.He could'nt even stop the blood.The blood that mopped his 
jacket,that turned her blue clothing a morbid purple,that matted her 
hair...and those words.Her final words...

"Squall...i...i'm scared..."

and nothing more.Now all he could do was to try to dam the flow of 
tears.He'd wait until Cloud left,Then he'd cry.Thats what he'd do.He'd
 do it for her,at least show her he was capable of doing that.


Staring out the glass into space he remembered them all...

"When Vega's dead...I'll cry for all of you" he thought... 


Squall glanced over at Cloud.There was something in his hands,something
glowing....
"Whats that?" he asked.
"Materia"he replied."Its only found on my world.Its the knowledge and 
abilities of the Ancients condensed into a form that humans can use."
"What are you learning now?"
"I'm learning everything the Ancients knew about Jenova....and i dont 
like what i'm finding...."
"What have you found?"
"Jenova did'nt evolve or create naturally.The Cetra,the Ancients created
it themselves."
"What?Why?"
"They wanted to evolve into a higher form of life.They began their 
existance as humans,billions of years ago,then evolved into the Cetra,
a very magical race.Then they wanted to take the next step of evolution
and evolve into beings of pure spiritual energy,in harmony with the
universe and the LifeStream.To do this,they had to cast off everything
about themselves that was impure or evil.
Legend has it that they gathered together and attempted to exorcise
all evil into another dimension,where there is no trace of goodness
and only raw evil and chaos exist.But it did'nt work."
"What happened?"
"For evil to be exiled,it had to be given a form that could be sent
to the dimension.Bravely,King Kane and Queen Jenova volunteered
to become the form the Cetra's evil would take.They would do it for 
their people....
But something went wrong.Once they had been changed into Evil incarnate,
they used their magic to halt the exile,and stayed in this dimension.
Kane and Jenova had changed.They were now no longer Cetra.Their minds
did'nt work in the Cetra way anymore.They could'nt even remember what
they used to be like.All they remembered was that they were the result
of an attempt to become superior beings.They began to slaughter the 
Cetra."

Squall could'nt think of something to say.All this had happened millions
of years before his world even formed.Now he was caught directly in the
middle of a war between Jenova and Cetra.Rinoa had been killed in the 
crossfire.They had taken the fight to his doorstep.He would have been
happy to stay out of the fight,but Kane and Vega had to take him on.
That was the mistake that would be their deaths.

"On my world there's an urban myth.It goes that a meteor fell from
the sky over Esthar.Inside it they found a genome chain.Dr.Odine 
supposedly had the genome injected into a pregnant woman in the 
hopes of finding a new form of life.But the baby was born and the
project was deemed a failure.Allegedly the baby was sent to an
orphanage where it began to hear voices telling it how to use its
powers.I never believed that story until now. 
What are you doing now?"asked Squall.
"I'm opening up a LifeStream conduit so we can go after Vega." replied
Cloud,pointing out the green glow that was beginning to form in front 
of the ship."They're links between worlds that souls use to travel from 
planet to planet.In theory,a person can use them to go to any world at any
point in time."
"Any point in time???!!!?"cried Squall"Can we go back to my world and
save Rinoa?"
"No...the past does'nt exist anymore.Past and future are being devoured,
like a candle thats being burned at both ends.You've probably begun
to notice that you cant remember things like your date of birth,or
where you grew up,or a friends face,or what you did yesterday.Like waking
up from a dream you cant remember..."
"Yeah,but i assumed it was the GF....."
"Kane is at the centre of the universe,and he's found a way to collapse it 
in all directions.Thats where we're going-get ready for war....."


Chapter Fourteen;
"Father And Son"

Kane raised its head and looked up into the sky.
"It will not be long now.Soon we will have our new universe.It will be our-"
Vega looked at Kane,ignoring the rant.Kane was standing on a podium.
That was the absolute exact centre of all of existance.The plan was that when 
the time came,they would stand there,father and son.The universe would
absorb them,then would re-generate with them as Gods with power over every
dimension and every form of life.
Vega had liked the idea,but felt it could use one slight alteration.
He grinned,and drew his gunblade.
"We will have absolute-"
FAZAK!!!
Kane stopped and looked down.
Its chest had been sliced open.
There was Vega,holding his gunblade with a long red smear down the blade.
"w...why..?" groaned Kane,dying.
"Sephiroth had no plans to share the LifeStream with mother.Why should i
share my universe with you?I think `i'll be a god` sounds a lot better
than `we'll be gods`.Dont you think? Oh,no,you dont think do you?Because
you're dead."he laughed insanely,and picked up his fathers carcass and 
hurled it onto the rocks far below.

He saw the green light out of the corner of his eye.
He looked,and saw an emerald of light open,and a ship that looked like 
a dragon fly out.

...Cloud...


Chapter Fifteen;
"Arrival"

Squall and Cloud charged down the embarkation ramp,gunblade and sword
drawn.
When they looked around,what they saw amazed them.
Shells of buildings,and not a tree,nor even a single weed or blade of
grass anywhere.
There was no life on this planet at all.
"What is this place?" said Squall,astounded.
"This is the Cetra homeworld.It was here,billions of years ago that life
was created.Its here the first ever Humans were born,who evolved into
the Cetra.Then came Jenova,who drove the Cetra from this world.
They became an itinerant race.They would migrate in,settle a planet,
then move on.
After a couple of thousand years they would begin to de-volve into
humans after being out of contact with their world for too long.
Meanwhile,Jenova and Kane ravaged this land,wiping out all life.
Then Jenova left to destroy the survivors."

They looked up to their left.
There was a huge metal tower,with a disc around it,forming a platform.
It reminded Cloud of the plate support structure in Midgar.
There was a figure up top,waiting for them.
"Vega!" shouted Cloud.
Squall pointed into the sky.
The event-horizon of the collapsing universe was approaching the planet.
"We'll never make it to the tower on time,its miles away!" shouted 
Squall,moments before the ground flew under his feet.
He looked up.Cloud was carrying him by the shoulders.
"You could have mentioned you can fly,y'know?"
"I dont like to use my Jenova powers.It reminds me of the parts of me
that are'nt human."

Vega watched as Squall and Cloud landed in front of him.
"Well,well,Cloud.This is a little unexpected.I thought you did'nt use
your powers.Tifa would'nt be very happy."
"How do you know so much about me?"
"We're in Synergy.I use my powers a lot more than you.I'm stronger."
He glanced at Squall.
"So,you cant kill me,so you're getting Squall to?Tsk,tsk,tsk.
He could'nt kill a Sorceress by himself,he needed his friends.
Did'nt you Squall?"
"Say what you like."said Squall"No matter what happens,there's no way
you live,no way."
"But at least i could kill a Sorceress,and i did'nt need any help" said
Vega,trying to provoke Squall."A real shame about Rinoa...
...She looked like one real good grade-A top fu-"
Squall roared and charged at Vega,Griever aimed right at his heart.
Cloud lept,His sword raised over his head,he roared,joining Squall
as the pair took on Vega in the Final Fight....