Homecoming [Forgotten Capital] (Cineris, Creon)

[Kupo]

Cael had been alone for a while now. Was it a year or just a few days? He didn’t know and it didn’t really matter. Hiding in the depths of the Northern Crater amid his shadows and the ice had seemed like a good idea but now he couldn’t say why. This was where she’d first arrived, this was the wound she had inflicted and this had also been her prison. He’d spent his time locked in thought about Jenova and all the evil she had wrought as well as the folly of the humans that had taken her from here. Regrets filled his heart and made it ache.

Would anything have been different if he’d been here when the calamity fell from the sky? Could he have prevented the destruction of the Cetra? Who could know now after all this time? These thoughts were bruising his soul, and when they became too much he felt like he was on a knife edge, balancing on the pinnacle of sanity with madness and despair on either side waiting to embrace him should he fall. It was in those darkest moments that he buried his thoughts and reached out to Cineris and Creon. He would mockingly ask if they had fixed their mistake yet but feel warmer for any contact.

He worked hard to hide his darkness from them but now that it was time to reunite with them he wondered it would be so easy in person. He rose from his gloomy alcove and allowed his shadows to recede. He made the journey at a smooth pace, avoiding civilisations and people as much as possible, secluding himself from contact with the denizens of the merged world. It was strange that ultimately he feared loneliness more than anything else and yet he’d go to such lengths to be alone. His mind no longer functioned as logically as it once did, it seemed, as he also had a habit of pushing away the two he wanted to be close to.

His return to the Forgotten Capital was difficult. This place was unchanging, as eternal as the Cetra who now gathered here. The only thing that had changed was the atmosphere. Once it was alive with activity and had played host to great festivals among the Ancients, then it had lifted his spirits and he had felt complete. Now it made him feel bitter as it was little more than the empty husk of something great. He wondered why she had made her home here after everything though, in thinking, it was no stranger than where he had spent his time of late.

~I’m here,~ he announced to her with his mind as he approached the lake. He paused to look in the water seeing only his own silver eyes gazing back at him. His hair was untidy and a little overgrown but he didn’t think he’d changed much. Maybe it hadn’t been that long after all. He really couldn’t tell. In his time in the Crater he had only been aware of periods of contemplation and the building urges to be with his ‘siblings,’ aside from that there was little else to mark the passage of time. He lingered there, staring into the water, as he waited for her. He took that time alone to ensure all his despair and all his love for Cineris and Creon was buried deep, deep in his mind, well out of their reach. They mustn’t know his weakness.

[Cloud]

It was beautiful. The summer sky, with light puffy clouds and brilliant in color, looked as if it was painted on canvas by a great artist. A gentle warm breeze blew in through the open window going across Creon who was lying there, relaxed with his hands up under his head resting on a pillow. Life had been slow for the ancient. Since the merge he did nothing but contemplate the events of that day and how he could change it. Cineris and Cael were supposed to be doing the same thing, but he wasn't holding out any hope for anything noteworthy from those two. It was what they wanted, after all. He should've refused. Should've, could've... didn't. At the time how could he say no? They were all he had. As the sun crept higher up into the midmorning sky, the birds came out, singing cheerfully in the fronds. The peace, to Creon, was invaluable. A perfect start to what would turn out to be a long dreary day of travel.

A long sigh escaped out from between his lips. Cineris and Cael, they wanted to meet up. The prospects of seeing them after what had happened was not something he enjoyed thinking about. They wanted to formulate a plan of action. Fixing their mistake was their number one priority after all. He heaved himself up out of bed, stretching before leaving his one room home. It was a simple structure made up out of driftwood, tree fronds, and whatever large branches that just happened to be lying about. It was to be sure a simple life, but it was one that he enjoyed. With the warm sand under his bare feet, Creon started off, leaving behind his home to start his journey to the Forgotten Capital.

It had been many years since the last time he walked the grounds of his ancestors. No, that wasn't quite right, was it? Creon paused as he stood a short distance away from the city, it's never changing facade lingering off in the distance, ghostly. They were not his ancestors, he was alive during their time. In that sense it was like coming to an childhood home, abandoned and neglected. At least it was before Cineris set up shop. Creon couldn't quite figure her out; nor Cael for that matter who resided in the Northern Crater. Their choice of home and the logic behind it was lost to him. The Forgotten Capital was a testament to their people, but that was it. A ruin of what was now a long lost civilization. The place was that of great pain and sorrow, a constant reminder of what was taken. Then there was the crater. The point of arrival for Jenova. The harbinger who brought chaos upon the Cetra and ended their time of prosperity, and ultimately cost them everything. Creon moved forward, laughing to himself at the thoughts going through his mind. Poor, poor choices, one after another.

Creon was confused. It struck him odd how such a place could resist the test of time. It had been centuries since the last inhabitants left the city, searching for a new place to eke out a living, yet the buildings still stood, strong and true. His people, as advanced as they were, never would had expected that their structures would still be around two thousand years later. He rounded a corner and lowered his hood, slowly and quietly walking up towards Cael from behind.

"It's been awhile, Cael." The voice, female, broke the silence. Cineris walked around the black haired man and stood facing him. "I'm glad you came. We have much to discuss." Her voice, quiet and calm, emotionless, showed no joy in seeing her companion, but it should be expected. Such luxuries were cast aside long ago. She took a step towards him, her flowing grey hair rippling in the wind, "... I wonder how much longer we're going to have to wait..." Impatiently she tapped her foot. "Technically speaking, the one already here should be the first to the party, right...?"

[Griever]

Perhaps it should have been a place of sadness for Cineris, this old, familiar city, scarcely changed in all the long years since its inhabitants had fallen. That feeling certainly did exist, somewhere in her consciousness, a distant, faint ache pressing upon the edges of her awareness, but it was no more now than a shadow of the loss that had once been so acute. The comfort of familiarity surpassed the sadness a thousand times over, when all the world had turned to something new, whether by their own hands or by the slow, insistent passage of time. The city of the Cetra was, in a way, a beacon of permanence, to which she had always returned after her travels, no matter how far they took her. It was home, and she wasn't going to give that up.

Here she had the solitude to think, to spend her days locked in deep communication with the Planet, searching for the source of their mistake so that they might correct it. The Planet, however, gave little but its cries to her gentle questioning, amplified by and echoing between the conflicting streams within it. Try as she did, there were times when the sound overwhelmed her, and she could do nothing but listen, helpless, as it drowned out all thought and reason. It was her price - the price of overreaching, of arrogance.

Eventually, though, the sound ebbed away, never silenced, but diminished, and she would rouse slowly, as if from a dream or a nightmare, to start her work anew. It had happened again, not long after she had called out to the others, rising like a silent scream inside her head to fill her consciousness. How long it lasted, she never knew. Time didn't mean the same thing it once had to her, as hours and days blurred together in her mind, scarcely noticed in their passing. It was the coarse, sandy floor beneath her that she did know, rough against her fingers as she pushed herself up from it, lifting her eyes to the iridescent, pale shine of the walls of the place she had taken up residence within, an ancient shell-home that perhaps had been hers once before, so long ago. She exhaled, slowly, grounding her thoughts back into reality as she stood, sliding her fingers into her hair to shake out the sand, brushing it from her skirt. At first, it had shaken her terribly, the constancy of that sound, the way it invaded her mind, but now she was calm as she looked around, then closed her eyes and sent out a quietly searching thought for the faint ripples of presence that emanated from her fellow Cetra.

They were close. No, not close...here, in the city, together, no doubt recently arrived. Strange to think about, but though it had only been one year, though her own memory stretched back over two thousand, it seemed so long since she'd last seen them. Perhaps they shouldn't have waited so long, when they all knew how wrong things had gone, but she wouldn't fault them for their absence. Certainly not when she'd made no attempt to bring them together herself. They all needed their own time to come to terms with what had happened, at least to the extent possible. To stay together would've been to invite animosity and blame between them, when they needed unity now, more than ever.

The feel of the whitish earth beneath her bare feet was a comfort. The Cetra's capital had been built in this place because of its unusual affinity with the Planet, and despite its pain and suffering, she could feel its life here, rising from the ground and through her entire body as she walked. It would've been easy to move herself to the others in an instant, but the distance wasn't far, and the time it took to traverse it was but a fleeting moment to their perceptions. It wasn't long before the path opened before her, the line of pure-white trees breaking on either side to reveal the lake, and there they were, waiting, Cael unchanged as ever, Creon visible beyond, wearing a face that wasn't his own.

"I wouldn't call this a party." Cineris stepped forward to stand face-to-face with herself, regarding the mirror image calmly, unperturbed by his imitation. "And I don't think it's the time for games." The barest hint of a smile touched her lips, first for him, and then for Cael as she turned to face him, though it faded just as quickly as it appeared. "But it's good to see you both. Thank you for coming."

[Kupo]

Cael felt the presence behind him, the quiet steps and soft sounds that announced it matched the eerie atmosphere that seemed to smother this forgotten city of the Cetra. He wanted to feel excited about seeing them again. He wanted to bound around and greet whichever if his companions this was with an embrace. That’s what he wanted to do, but not what he did. He would never risk such a display of affection. He would not allow an act of such weakness that could so easily betray him. Instead he raised his gaze from the gently shimmering reflection in the lake and turned his head to watch as Cineris moved around him.

Her voice cut the silence as she addressed him by name. In the recesses of his mind a sense of familiarity and comfort came flooding back to him, soothing him of the unease that had been tugging at the edges of his mind since his return to this place. He hadn’t realised just quite how uncomfortable he was here until it started to lessen. To her initial welcome he said nothing and as she spoke again he simply savoured her voice. It had been too long since it had touched his ears. The mental communication was never quite the same. “I suppose it’s time to clean up the mess,” he agreed quietly. He allowed it to sound as though the thought of the effort required to do so was wearisome.

In truth he was almost desperate to fix their mistake in an attempt to atone for it all but he let the apathy appear for the sake of hiding himself. He took in the sight of her; her thin, elegant form; her ashen hair as the wind played with it lightly. It was like a greyscale image in his mind was being filled with colour as his memory refreshed itself. But as she spoke again something felt off and his brow raised a fraction as he puzzled it out. Something in the mannerism didn’t feel right. Any confusion was wiped away only a moment later as that same voice came from somewhere else, not the woman’s form before him.

He turned to watch the real Cineris approach, admiring the detail with which Creon had mimicked her. That was one of his talents but Cael was a little annoyed he hadn’t noticed immediately. Perhaps it really had been too long since they last converged. He couldn’t help but agree with her words, now was not a time for games, so why had Creon toyed with him so? He had once been quite the jokester, Cael recalled, but that was a long time ago. He knew Creon had resisted the merge idea initially, was there bitterness from that? Was that why he lacked seriousness now that they had come to mend it? He wanted to know but wouldn’t ask; instead he decided it was easiest to ignore his little prank.

Cael caught the smile that barely even appeared. It was more like the essence of a smile but that subtlety of expression was something he had always associated with Cineris. It gave him warmth, regardless of how faint it had been. He nodded to acknowledge her sentiment but didn’t bother himself to respond immediately. He adjusted the scarf around his neck lazily as he considered what he could say without revealing his true thoughts. Words would never express how glad he was to see them, though, so he supposed he needn’t fear his speech giving it away. He made sure that sense of companionship was covered over and put away somewhere out of reach.

“You’ve thought of something?” he asked her with a hint of boredom in his voice. He doubted that she would have had them meet like this to simply discuss if she didn’t at least have an idea about how to put things back together. It was too far for them all to come with nothing to consider beyond their time spent in contemplation. He could be wrong; perhaps it was an inability to come up with a solution that warranted this homecoming. Regardless, he wanted to get to the point.

[Cloud]

".... Not a time for games, huh?" In a dark haze Creon returned to his original form, careful to keep his face obscured in the shadow cast by his hood. "You're quite correct..." he motioned towards Cael with the slightest moment of the hand. "... both of you. Time for games has long since past, but I do like to keep myself amused while surrounded by empty halls full of dreaded memories." His eyes darted towards Cineris, his tone sharp and well focused. It was obvious he had no desire to be in the Forgotten City, and made no effort in masking that sentiment. "And to you, Cael... if she had no plan, she would have not called you from your scenic chasm."

He circled around Cael, taking slow steps until he came to Cineris, standing close to her, yet not close enough to disturb her boundaries. "Your plan... I do hope you've thought it through... this time." Creon reached out and brushed a couple of stray strands of hair out of her face that were disturbed by the gentle breeze. "You're lucky, to have such beauty that is never changing..." He took a step back from her, his focus shifting to Cael. "And you, any woman would be foolish to turn you down, quite lucky as well." He clenched his fingers into fists and consciously put distance between himself and them. All plans of keeping his head together was starting to fall apart, seeing them was making him angry, seeing them both unharmed from their mistake, leaving him to take all the consequence. It wasn't fair, painfully unfair in every way.

"As for me... I am now tainted. My pure Cetra blood poisoned, my body rejecting what was once it's own. You both, blissfully unaware, plotting to fix what cannot be merely fixed with some simple magic as I writhe in pain every night." He sneered before roughly pulling back his hood, locking eyes with Cineris. "My Promised Land turned out to be hell. Thank you, thank you both for this wonderful gift! It is exactly what I had imagined! I was such a fool for doubting the plan."

There was a snap as his body was replaced by a puff black smoke, his physical form instantly reappearing behind Cael. "You... Cael, ever so content with misplacing the blame. Despite my warning you never heeded, the logic I laid out before you, you agreed to go along with Cineris regardless. You have as much of this on your shoulders as anyone else."

Once again he vanished and then reappeared, this time in front of Cineris. Creon didn't speak right away this time, just looked into her eye as if he was trying to read her mind. Unable to look at her for any longer, he turned away, locking his hands together behind his back. "Is this the world you longed for, is it, Cineris? I must say, it isn't at all what I had thought it'd be... though... there are many things that are different from what I had imagined."

Creon turned around and stood before them, pulling a knife out from inside his robe. He took it in one hand, and gripped the blade with the other. "Let me show you both exactly what you've done to the planet..." In a swift motion, Creon tightened his grip and jerked the knife out from his grasp, deeply cutting the palm of his hand. His blood, blackened, ran out from the cracks in his fist and steadily dripped to the dirt below. "You've doomed the planet, you've doomed me. Flowing through us both is this concoction created by the mixing of each planet's life force. A poison that was never meant to be, a mutant energy that must be extinguished. The merge cannot simply be fixed, it must be undone. The planet needs to be torn apart, returned to its previous state. This time, heed my warning, or else.... I fear... you have not seen the worst that is yet to come."