Chapter 85: A Little Message

While Ramiel was going into sleep, he of course didn't need to. So he continued on with his development of at least trying to give Alexandra and the others from home, a notice that he was fine and dandy.

"Okay, I got a lot of energy from the wall of Fayth that Yuna got Ifrit from. I'll try this again, maybe I can do something." He psyched himself up.

Sitting in a lotus position, he communed with the planet. This time, the planet was more receptive to his call.

"Maybe absorbing the Fayth made a difference?" He was thankful for the people who sacrificed themselves and began boring a hole through time and space.

Ramiel started sweating and it was taking tons of energy. But there was some progress. Sending his ego out to the void, he fought tooth and nail against the abyss and located Gaia.

"Come on, think. What were the directions that took me here to Spira?" He was under pressure and his mind ran a mile a second.

Meanwhile, back at their room. Samus with her light sleep noticed something unusual. "Why can't I hear him breathe? It's been a few minutes already."

She was curious and thought he was training his breath for blitzball matches or something. But when she checked his body, he was completely shut down.

"He's dead!? No, this guy can't just go and croak while asleep." Samus began forming conclusions, she scanned him, but there was nothing. Except her Metroid DNA was tingling and she felt his energy wilt like a flower in a desert.

"Ramiel's doing something... But what? He's losing so much energy like a broken dam." She frowned and felt like his life was being consumed.

"Maybe I can do this?" Her hand was covered by her suit and it turned green just like the Metroids. With her newfound control over her powers, she pumped him full of her energy.

"He's sucking me up. Wait, that didn't sound good." She frowned as she felt her energy reserves plummet too.

"You better pay me back later for this, whatever you're doing is a pain in the ass for sure." Samus started sweating, but she continued supplying his body with energy.

She groaned and was quite in pain due to the massive energy drain, but she felt that it was going to be a big help.

At the void, he suddenly felt a surge of power and wondered where it came from. "Samus... Silly girl, thanks." He relaxed and mapped out where Gaia was in his head.

He immediately swam through the time streams and made minute changes in his trajectory. And after concentrating for a few minutes, he was absolutely exhausted mentally.

"Hah, I don't want to do this again. But I need to give them some peace of mind. Alex and Tifa will appreciate it too." He huffed and puffed.

Seeing a glimpse of his home, he powered through and he could feel the link he had with Alexandra.

"Just a little bit more." He gritted his teeth, entering through the barrier of Gaia's world. After he went inside, he immediately transmitted a message to Alexandra.

"Alex, I'm fine. I'll get back to you and Tifa soon!" He couldn't hold on any longer and returned back to Spira or he'll be stranded in the numerous streams of time and space. Or worse, get swallowed up by the void.

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At Midgar, Tifa was sitting beside Alexandra who was at least sitting on her bed. But she was still unresponsive.

"Eat up Alex. Ramiel wouldn't want you to miss your meals." Tifa gave a smile, but she was gloomy as well. Getting a spoonful of food, she opened Alexandra's mouth and slowly maneuvered her neck so she would swallow it.

The proud one winged angel just staring into blank space, without a single breath for weeks on end. Like a doll that was propped up for display.

"We gotta do something about Alex-nee." Aerith looked at her pitiful form and was tearing up, seeing her in such a state.

"We sure love to do something Aerith, but Ifalna already told us. She's like completely dead. Her heart doesn't beat, her brain shut down. Even the best doctors in Midgar diagnosed her as clinically dead." Cloud frowned heavily.

Zack gritted his teeth and thought that for a hero, her fate was too sad. "How about you Aerith? Can't you do something about this? Maybe something you can and Ifalna doesn't?"

Aerith looked at them with forlorn eyes and shook her head.

"Come on, you guys were the best. I've always thought we could count on you. But, please don't leave me too. You're my sister..." Tifa held Alexandra's hand and she put her head on her shoulders.

Alexandra was still unmoving and Tifa broke down in tears. "Damn it. Damn it all!" Tifa smashed the drawer beside her.

"If only I was better, he wouldn't need to do that." Tifa wailed. They found his notes and he recorded messages as well as his condition when she cleaned his room.

Aerith went up to her and hugged her tightly from the back. "Tifa, you know it wasn't your fault." Aerith frowned heavily and thought she must be having survivor's guilt.

And the worst ones were like hers. When you knew you didn't do anything wrong.

"It should've been me. Aerith, it should've been me." Tifa sobbed and her friend couldn't help but cry as well.

"You dumb girl, it should've been nobody. Don't tell me that crap." Aerith chided her.

Cloud and Zack couldn't look at them and had frowns on their faces. "We could've all done better, but he didn't push us to the deep end so we could just fight their battles." Cloud sighed and thought that Ramiel was a bit too nice to them.

Aerith and Tifa calmed down and they just stayed with Alexandra for now, but the two noticed something.

"Did you see that?" Aerith went wide eyed as she saw Alexandra's fingers twitch. "I did, Alex-nee. Are you there!? Please speak to us." She looked at her eyes.

In the deep recesses of Alexandra's mind, she suddenly felt something familiar and her body twitched at that connection.

She then received his message and her whole body surged with strength. Her eyes regained their light and she exploded with energy. Throwing Tifa and Aerith away as they crashed onto the walls.

"Ramiel... My brother, he's alive..." She suddenly spoke and the two girls coughed, waving off the dust that was in front of their face.

"He's out there somewhere. He sent me a message through our connection." Alexandra was panicking and was having an anxiety attack.

"Cloud! Zack! Help us hold her down!" Tifa shouted out as they felt her collect massive amounts of energy that will blow up Midgar to kingdom come.

The four of them immediately tried pinning her down and Aerith casted some calming spells on her.

Alexandra swatted away Cloud and Zack that was holding her arms and she stood up while Aerith and Tifa were clinging to her legs.

"I must find him." She wasn't hearing or feeling anything, just the desire to see her brother once again.

"Tifa! You have to make her sober up!" Aerith shouted out and Tifa donned one of her gauntlets. She then slugged Alexandra on the back of the head.

"D-did that work?" Aerith stuttered out as she knew that if she rampages, they can't do anything to her.

"Tifa, Aerith... He's out there, I need to see him." Alexandra was breathing shallowly and fast.

"Yes, yes. We will! Just calm down for a second, tell us what happened?" Tifa hugged her tightly and Alexandra sat on the ground.

She began explaining that Ramiel gave her a message and that he was out there somewhere. "I felt space and time magic. He might not be in this world even."

Angeal and Genesis then entered the room and thought that they were under attack or something.

"What the hell happened here?" They saw the thrashed room, Angeal checking out the surroundings.

"Alexandra's finally awake... Ramiel apparently gave her a message." Aerith started explaining, fixing her hair and taking out some debris from her braid.

"For real!? Where is he then?" Genesis wanted to get him immediately. Because Midgar's citizens were quite gloomy due to his departure.

"He isn't in this world. I can feel it, his connection with me is gone again." Alexandra squinted her eyes and remembered how she felt his signal.

"We need to tear through space and time. He entered from a place that I know doesn't exist here." Alex stood up and immediately went to the research and development department.

"Let's follow her, she might just follow him alone if we don't monitor her." Tifa helped Aerith to stand and they ran to chase her.

Alexandra kicked down the door and looked around for the person she was trying to find. "Alexandra!? Is that you? Oh my god, you're finally awake." Scarlet went up to her.

Alex pulled her and they went out of the room. "Tifa, Aerith call everyone for a meeting. I want to find him, now." She squinted her eyes and the two nodded.

At a conference room, everybody was there upon hearing that Alexandra called for them. She then explained what happened and she was clearly not going to wait.

"How will you go though?" Ifalna raised a valid question and she hadn't thought about it. But she could still remember where she last felt his presence and would travel there to exit where he entered.

"I'll go to where I last felt him, I'll follow his trail from there. Now who's with me?" She looked at the people in the room and some raised their hands.

Tifa of course wanted to go, along with Aerith, Zack, and Cloud. They idolized and admired him the most after all.

"We'll go with you as well. But we will be helping in creating an exit. We must stay here in Gaia, we can't just leave it after all." Genesis mused.

They would need to protect the place in their absence. "Everyone will help, I can maybe commune with the planet so you'll have an easier time." Ifalna was determined to help them.

"Thank you very much everyone, please help my daughter to find him." Lucrecia bowed and she wanted to spend more time with her children more.

"He's a tough guy, but he'll need all the help he can get." Vincent thought it was the perfect chance to help his son.

"Then let's go, what are we waiting for?" Aerith bounced around and wanted to start immediately.

Alexandra gave a small grin at her and she guided them all to where she last felt him.

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Back at Spira, Ramiel gasped and Samus fell over on him. "Finally... You're back." She was panting and Ramiel checked if she was alright.

"Thanks for the boost gorgeous. I was in real trouble there earlier." He was also exhausted and he patted her on the back.

"What the hell were you doing anyway?" Samus pushed on his chest and she squinted her eyes at him.

"I was transcending space and time." He said seriously. "Real funny, what did you do? You took a lot of my energy. Almost drained my suit even."

He just stared at him though and Samus went wide eyed. "Wait, for real?" She was flabbergasted and Ramiel nodded.

"Spira is actually the past of my world, though this world is a parallel dimension. Because if it wasn't then I wouldn't have been born due to the changes I've been making." Ramiel broke into a cold sweat and hadn't thought of that.

Samus couldn't believe it and she was having thoughts of travelling through time with his help. "You want to change the past, don't you?" He frowned and she was surprised.

"W-what makes you say that?" She stuttered and Ramiel hugged her. "You lost your parents and your home. Then you lost your second one too. If I heard there was a way to try and change that, believe me I would want to as well."

She trembled for a bit and went limp in his arms. Knowing that changing the past would bring about dire consequences. Like who will stop the Metroids, the x-parasite infestations, the Phazon crisis.

Samus was able to take care of it because of her determination and luck. And changing that might destroy the galaxy.

"Do you want to go see your parents one last time though?" He at least wanted to pay her back for helping him give the people back at Gaia a message.

"Wha?" She stared right at him and was shocked. "We could visit a nice little parallel world and at least see them for a bit." He had some ideas how to take her and she froze.

Samus then sliced her finger a bit. "What're you doi-" She suddenly put her bloodied finger inside of his mouth. "There, you're an x-parasite right? You could get my Metroid DNA with that."

He started integrating her blood, but it wasn't quite enough. "Uhhh, small problem. That was quite a bit low in amount."

She was about to cut her wrist, but he stopped her. "Hmmm, maybe we should do this my way no?" He chuckled at her urgency and he elongated his canines.

He then bit her neck. "What the heck, you a vampire now or something?" Samus snorted at his antics.

But when she felt his lips on her neck she got tingly. "Ummm, isn't that enough?" Breathing a bit harder, she patted him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks. I'll get on it, and the next time we enter another temple of Fayth. You'll be absorbing the Fayth with your suit so you can have more energy. And trust me, we'll need lots of it." He sighed and lied back down again.

"You promise you can do that?" She had doubts and he smiled assuredly. "Yeah I could, I already did it thousands of years into the future girl. What's 2 decades and some years?" He snorted.

She chuckled and put her head on his chest. "You better keep that promise. Or I'll hunt you down to the ends of the universe."

He covered her with his wings and thought she would be more comfortable with them, remembering the Chozos.

"I'm tired as hell, and I don't wanna move. Don't worry, I keep my promises. Though technically I already kind of broke one with my sister." He gave a nervous chuckle.

She started breathing more calmly and deeply with his wings covering her. And she was relaxed and asleep after a few seconds.

"Damn, she must've been exhausted by helping me. Well, better rest too." He closed his eyes and went to sleep as well.

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In the morning, the gang was ready to go to the temple in Djose. But it was getting late and they still haven't seen Samus or Ramiel.

"Hey, those two look like the type to always be awake before dawn breaks. Why aren't they up yet?" Tidus spoke to the group.

"I have seen Ramiel sleep before, his body completely shuts down like a corpse. Maybe we should check them and see if they just need to be awakened." Lulu squinted her eyes and remembered that from Besaid.

"We need to move, let us check on them." Auron suggested and they knocked on their door.

"Huh, weird. Maybe we should just open the door." Tidus turned the door knob and they saw that Samus and Ramiel were cuddling against each other while she was wrapped in his wings.

"Oh my." Lulu smirked and thought she could get back on him with the scene before her.

"Uhhh, I heard some groaning in their room last night. But I didn't know they were in a relationship." Yuna blushed.

"Hey, sleepyhead. It's time to wake up." Tidus squinted his eyes at him and was a bit jealous. Seeing Samus on him like that, especially when her zero suit doesn't leave anything to the imagination.

"Ugh, five more minutes." He whined and Tidus pinched his nose, not knowing he can live without breathing anyways.

"Come on, I'm really tired. I had a rough time last night with Samus." Ramiel groaned and Tidus gritted his teeth.

"You don't have to shove it in you know!" He plucked out a feather from his wing.

"Rude, fine. Let's go and go to the temple. Samus, wake up." He retracted his wings and shook Samus.

"Wha? Is there an enemy attack?" She was still sleepy, but she pointed her arm cannon at the peanut gallery and they immediately dived down to the ground.

"No, silly. It's late morning, come on. Put down your arm cannon and let's get going. Sorry about that, she's a bit trigger happy you see." Ramiel laughed and the group broke into a cold sweat.

"S-sure." Wakka started right at Samus' cannon that disappeared and gulped at how dangerous that thing was.

Samus then noticed that there were people watching them and she was on top of Ramiel. "It's not what it looks like."

"Don't make excuses lady, it looks exactly what it looks like." Tidus commented.

Ramiel made her float and stand up as he stood up as well and stretched. Showing off his washboard abs as he took off his shirt while asleep.

"R-Ramiel. Your shirt." Yuna stared right at him. "Oh, must've took it off last night." He snapped his fingers and wore his usual attire.

Lulu nudged her from the side and whispered. "You can't be having some lewd thoughts about a man with a woman Yuna." She teased her and she blushed like a tomato.

"Come on then, let's get going. We have much to do and too little time." Auron went back outside and they continued their journey.

They were all walking around and Samus saw some Chocobos. "What is that?" She might be a stoic lady. But she clearly still likes cute things.

"Those are Chocobos, pretty cute things aren't they?" Ramiel explained and she saw some saddles on them.

"People can ride them? They have saddles." She was thinking of riding one. "Well, yes they do. I have one back at home and it looks cool, wanna see?"

He took out his phone and showed her a picture of his Chocobo in its armor. "Yeah, that's a cool one." She nodded and Tidus overheard them.

"Yeah, shouldn't we like. Rent a Chocobo so we can get to the temple faster?" He was getting bored with all the walking.

"I'm gonna go check on the travel agency we were in earlier. I saw a sign that Chocobos were for rent there." Wakka went to the stall.

He returned, but he didn't look positive. "They say that the Chocobos are antsy and afraid due to a monster called the Chocobo eater."

"Hmmm, I am getting tired of walking as well. Yuna, should we take care of it?" Lulu looked at Yuna. She was the leader of the party after all.

"Umm, if everyone wants to go on Chocobos. Then we should, I want to try riding one as well." She made a decision.

"Hah, the young folk not wanting to walk." Auron sighed and was grumbling like the old man that he is.

"Leave that to me then." Samus donned her suit and she flash shifts and disappeared from their sight in an instant.

"Woah, she disappeared in a flash." Tidus was surprised, seeing her show some abilities of hers.

"You haven't seen anything yet, let's go follow her." Ramiel opened up a rift as he located where Samus was.

Everybody nervously walked in to the portal and they were shocked that they teleported. "Did we just transcend space..." Lulu looked at the portal curiously.

"Yes we did, now let's see how she takes care of that ugly motherfu- sorry." Ramiel stopped as Lulu glared at him. Yuna was there with them after all.

Samus quickly hunted down the monster and it looked like an ugly ass Geodude.

She pointed her arm cannon at it and shot a plasma beam. The group looked on in horror as the monster melted into a puddle.

"I... I was a little rude in waking them up earlier, right?" Tidus looked at Wakka and he nodded.

"Better apologize ya." He patted him on the back and prayed for his safety.

"Come on, I want to ride on those Chocobo things." Samus looked at Ramiel. "Hah, yes, yes. We will go now." Ramiel opened up a rift again and they rented some Chocobos.

After some time, they rested for a bit and overheard a crusader argue with a girl.

"I told you we shouldn't be using forbidden Machina. The Yevon faith has declared so!" The girl tried convincing the man.

"Enough, we need to defeat Sin and operation Mi'hen is already on its way." The crusader argued back and walked away, done with the conversation.

"But I... I just." The girl looked down on the ground and Yuna went up to her. "Are you alright?"

"Ahh, lady summoner." She bowed and Yuna greeted back. "I am Shelinda, an acolyte of the Yevon faith. I was just trying to stop the crusaders from using the Machina."

"What was that all about? An operation against Sin?" Wakka was really invested on it due to his hate of the Machina and the Al-bhed.

"Let them use whatever they want, they would still fail." Auron sighed, shaking his head.

"But it isn't just about defeating Sin. The teachings of Yevon must be upheld, the use of Machina is forbidden." The girl was faithful to their teachings.

"What a sad sight. She looks like a good girl, but they've poisoned their minds to that extent." Samus whispered to Ramiel and he could only nod with a sigh.

"They don't listen to me, because I'm just a lowly acolyte." The girl was downtrodden.

Yuna, even though she was having major doubts about the Yevon faith couldn't help but cheer her up.

"Don't say that, even I am just a new summoner. And I don't think I have deserved such luck. But I never give up." She gave a smile.

"Thank you lady summoner, you're right." The acolyte was thankful and she went after the crusader.

"You're too kind Yuna." Ramiel sighed and thought she would never break that girl's beliefs.

"It was just a few words of encouragement that's all." She smiled and they continued their journey to the northern gate. But now they knew Ramiel was right once again. The believers losing trust in the Yevon faith's higher ups.

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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.