Aerith and Bakusa the imp sat in the secret temple of the Cetra, watching the destruction of Midgar on big-screen TV. "Where could Rufus and Cloud's party be?" Aerith worried.
"Right here," a voice behind her said.
Aerith whirled. Rufus, Cloud, Sephiroth, and the rest of the party were standing in the doorway of the temple. "You can't just come in here like that!" Aerith exclaimed.
"She says we can't," Pesmerga observed. "Shall we see if she's right?"
Drawing their weapons, Rufus and Sephiroth led the charge into the temple. "Bakusa! Stop them!" Aerith commanded.
The imp snatched up his halberd and leapt to attack as Aerith used her Planet Protector Limit Break to make him invincible. Jack slashed at Bakusa with his sword, but the sword made a pinging noise and ricocheted off Bakusa. Jack shook and the vibrating sword fell out of his hands.
"Imp!" Cait Sith said, casting the spell Imp. A white field surrounded Bakusa as green smoke shot out of the floor. The field receded, and where Bakusa was now stood a human that somehow resembled the former imp.
"Aaaugh!" the now-human Bakusa cried, looking down at his human hands. "What have you done to me?" Panicking, he ran past the party and out of the temple.
"I always wondered what would happen if you cast Imp on an imp," Cait Sith said to Red XIII.
Sephiroth was looking around the temple. "You know, this would actually be kind of a nice place for Jenova World."
"What?" Aerith demanded.
"I've seen a flood and a supernova But there's nothing else quite like Jenova..." Sephiroth promptly began. Jack began accompanying him on his guitar.
"NO!! STOP!!" Rufus shouted, firing his shotgun at Seph. The bullets passed through Sephiroth's insubstantial form.
"So you're just a ghost, Sephiroth?" Aerith said. "You can't fool me." She waved her hand. "Begone!" The ghost of Sephiroth vanished.
While the rest of the party reorganized, Aerith held up her staff. "Ragu Ragla!"
A pillar of fire sprung up out of the floor and formed into Ragu Ragla. Ragu then cast Volcanic Bomb on the party. Fireballs spiraled down towards them. Emiko jumped in front of the others and surrounded himself with a blue aura. The fireballs struck him and exploded. Emiko staggered backwards and fell to the ground.
Jane fired her uzi at Ragu Ragla as Pesmerga charged towards Aerith with his sword drawn. Aerith unsummoned Ragu Ragla and turned to face Pesmerga. She cast Stop on the knight and turned to flee through a back door in the temple.
Jack used his Vaccuum Fast Draw and dragged Aerith back across the temple. Just as Jack was about to strike, a golden dragon burst through the ceiling of the temple with General Leo riding on its back.
The party backed off from the massive dragon, which filled most of the chamber. Aerith jumped on its back and the dragon flew off through the newly-made hole in the temple roof.
"Quick! Back to the Protowing!" Cid said.
"What about Emiko?" Cecilia asked.
"I'll be all right," the Elw said, climbing to his feet. "But I might not be able to use my magic for a while."
The party scrambled back down the passage through the dormant volcano to the underwater vent that lead inside. The Protowing-submarine was waiting for them. They climbed in and took off.
As they rose above the water, Red XIII pointed with one paw towards a speck on the horizon. "There's the dragon."
Rudy threw the ignition and the Protowing gave pursuit. The wings of the dragon were no match for the Protowing's powerful engines, and the party rapidly gained on Aerith and Leo.
Then the dragon dived towards Nibleheim. Rudy quickly whirled the Protowing around and dove after them. The dragon circled around behind a mountain. Rudy struggled to maneuver the Protowing around it, eventually managing to get the Protowing stopped and started again.
When they rounded the mountain, there was no sign of the dragon.
"Where'd they go?" Cloud wondered aloud.
Hanpan pointed at a silver-hued shimmering patch of land with rainbow streaks through it. "That's a dimensional portal if I ever saw one," he said.
"That or a really big gasoline spill," Jane said.
"Will the Protowing fit through?" Jack wondered.
"I think so," Rudy said, looking down at the portal.
"What about the chocobo in Midgar?" Rufus asked.
"The influence of the Chocobo Control Materia shouldn't be able to extend through the portal," Red XIII advised.
"Barret, Tifa, and I'll go back there and make sure everything's calmed down," Cloud volunteered.
"I'll come along too," Vincent said.
Rudy landed the Protowing to allow Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Vincent to get off. Then the rest of the group -- Rudy, Jack, Cecilia, Jane, Emiko, Pesmerga, Rufus, Cait Sith, Red XIII, and Cid -- checked their equipment and prepared for the journey to the next world.
* * *
The Protowing shot out of the dimensional portal into the world of FF6. "Hey, I recognize this pl -- aaaugh!" Cait Sith broke off as he suddenly was sucked up through the roof of the Protowing and vanished, leaving his moogle behind.
"Hey, where the @$#$ did Cait Sith go?" Cid asked.
"He just vanished," Cecilia said, confused.
"We'll worry about him later," Rufus said. "We've got to catch up with Aerith."
The Protowing soared southwest across the World of Ruin, passing over the plains around Kefka's Tower. There were no signs of Leo's dragon. As they circled the tower, something swooped down at them from the sky.
"Behemoth!" Red XIII shouted.
Cid rolled down his window, lit a stick of dynamite on his cigarette, and hurled it out at the Behemoth. The dynamite exploded, destroying the Behemoth. Hovering where the Behemoth used to be was a green sword.
"Look, a sword," Jack said, using his Vaccuum Fast Draw to suck it in through the window.
"That must be the Gamma Sword," Hanpan chimed in. "I've heard about it, but I didn't think it existed.
"It doesn't," Emiko said. "Angol Fred's up to his old tricks again."
* * *
"HELP!" Zed screamed through the door of the closet in panic. "I'm trapped in here! Uh... I've fallen and I can't get up!"
* * *
"Hey, Leviathan, what's a five-letter city in North Dakota?" Ramuh asked.
"Fargo?" Leviathan suggested.
"No, the first letter's an 'M'," Ramuh said, looking down at his crossword.
"Bahamut!" Leviathan called. "What's a five-letter city in North Dakota that starts with an M?"
"Minot," Bahamut said clinically, turning one eye towards the pair.
"Bahamut! Help! I can't get past this room in De Le Metalica that says 'Knowledge is the treasure.'!" Odin said.
"Bahaamuut! I can't find my Tamagotchi!" Shiva complained.
"Bahamut! Titan hit me!" Ifrit whined.
"He hit me first!" Titan said.
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"QUIET! ALL OF YOU!" Bahamut roared. "I'm trying to listen! An Esper just showed up in the human world. I don't know how it got there."
Chupon suddenly let out an anguished cry as he was sucked into the air and subsequently disappeared. Cait Sith dropped down in his place. "I'm baaaaack!" he said. "Did you miss me?"
"Hey, Cait, what's a four-letter word that means 'to saunter'?" Ramuh asked.
"How about 'tort'?" Cait Sith said, peering over Ramuh's shoulder at his crossword puzzle.
"Tort? What kind of a word is 'tort?'"
"I found it in the Scrabble dictionary," Cait said. "It has lots of good words of questionable existence." He turned to Bahamut. "Who was that guy that just disappeared?"
"That was Chupon," Bahamut said. "We brought him in from this world to replace you when you left to see what the humans were doing.... just what are they doing, anyway?"
"Later," Cait Sith said. "I'm looking for somebody named Aerith Gainsborough. Know where she is?"
"We can't go out into that world anymore," Bahamut said. "Magic doesn't exist there. But one of us got left behind... Magma."
"Never heard of him," Cait Sith said.
"He might be under the control of Angol Fred," Bahamut explained. "That's why we left him behind. What you have to do is bring an item called the Magma Candle to the Phoenix Cave and put it on the red star. Got that?"
"I think so, Bahamut," Cait Sith said. "But next time, you dump the moogle in the lemon meringue filling."
Bahamut gave him a weird look. "Never mind," Cait said. "See ya!" He grabbed his megaphone and disappeared from the Esper world.
* * *
"Reeve to President Rufus, come in Rufus," the Protowing's radio crackled.
"This is Rufus," Rufus said. "What is it?"
"I've lost control of Cait Sith!" Reeve said.
"You didn't!"
"I just said I did, didn't I?" Reeve snapped.
"What do mean, you lost control of him?" Rufus said.
"It happened just a few minutes ago, when you guys crossed into this world. He started talking all on his own, then I lost contact with him completely."
| Next chapter: Clone Wars |