towerofanimus | Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

It was in one of the gardens that Sephiroth had stepped out into to check his bearings with regard to the watchtower that he heard a familiar voice. At first, he dismissed it as his imagination but-

Could this be Ocelot's World?

Sephiroth took a step back towards the doorway he had come out of and turned, inspecting the details in outline of the door as if it might hold some answer. The eerie silence of the garden he was in, after he thought he heard those words, seemed all the more encroaching in it's totality.

"Ocelot. Is that you?" He called eventually, in reply. Raising his voice to a point where it echoed around the grand architecture of the temple all around. Sephiroth had been to another dead world already, and knew well that there couldn't be anyone there to attack him. All but another Tower-reject or the soul which this world was bound to.

"Sephiroth?"

Was this his world? He hadn't spoken about his world with her, and she had never asked. But then, he couldn't have gotten trapped here, right? "Is this a place you recognize?" she asked slowly. He looked different, somehow. More real. Her own image was barely present on the wireframe.

"Where are you?" that was probably the pressing concern at the moment. If this wasn't his world, it was bound to be the world of another person from the Tower. They might as well look for that person, because standing around and waiting for the world to end simply wasn't an option.

The way that words reverberated around the fabric of the deserted temple made it sound as if Ocelot's voice were coming from all around. What didn't help were the archways framing the garden Sephiroth hadn't yet left alone. If he'd have been more of himself, sharper hearing would already have generalized an area in which Ocelot had to be but he was still not as whole as he should be so it was rather confusing.

"Not mine." He clarified to the disembodied voice as he made the decision finally to pursue it.

He took those remaining steps, through the entrance way and back into the adjacent corridor to the garden. He imagined his footfalls should echo louder than they did, testament to how incomplete he still really was. Purple-threaded strands within a faint impression of silver hair turned as he heard the voice come again. He was still unsure which way to turn.

"I've just come out of what might have been a garden once." He heard his own raised voice echo around the emptiness and wondered instantly if he wasn't better off in the garden. Too many surfaces in here for sound within nothingness to bounce around.

It was hard to find the source of the noise exactly. It was so empty-- and unfamiliar. But the clue on where Sephiroth was located was enough for her to navigate at the moment. She hadn't noticed an area outdoors, but now it wouldn't be too difficult to look for.

If only she had her real body back. Now more than ever, she wanted it. Ocelot couldn't remain trapped in this shell of a body forever, one where she could only see a faint outline of her true self on it.

Finally, she meets up with him, her face wearing a frown. "It can't just be you and I here. There must be someone else. This is the world of someone who was sent back, I believe."

He too paid too much attention to the transparency of his own 'glamour' that was projecting itself across the frame-and-film body he had. His cage for well over a year, which had sustained his existence within the Tower of Animus most of the time against his preference but still all that he had left in the absence the matter that made up his own body. He wondered, vaguely, why it had been finding others that had made him fill out more. What did his own image have to do with the others that knew him?

Once Ocelot came into view, he noticed immediately how much fainter she appeared compared to him. Had he appeared the same? It looked more alarming than he thought, though wouldn't say anything; Ocelot would probably not take it well. Sephiroth looked around the corridor from her, slower that time, while his thoughts processed.

"That's right. So whose World would be be drawn to, in order to find them-"

He knew that Nesir had been an acolyte warrior but didn't recall ever hearing of a temple. Perhaps he hadn't paid as much notice as he maybe should have.

"-I found someone in a light house, previously. I was trying to find a way around to the watchtower here."

If they were both drawn to the same world, the chances were good that it was one of someone they both knew. Short of it being one of the worlds of people who had been sent back months again, it narrowed down the list quite a bit.

In fact, there was only one person whose world this could be, come to think of it. It was possible that it was a coincidence, that it was someone else entirely, but she hadn't heard Nesir's voice in the cells. Hadn't she been raised in a temple?

"We have to keep looking. Someone is bound to be here."

And Nesir was perhaps the only person in the entire Tower that Ocelot had ever considered worth protecting. She wouldn't fail her, not now. "How much of the temple have you explored?"

The fact that Sephiroth hadn't heard Nesir's voice in the cells when they had been there really hadn't struck him as something to notice much at all. He knew Nesir had the emptiness and he imagined she could have sat there the entire time having retreated most of herself inward to that place where she would feel safer. It's not like she was as outspoken either, when compared to individuals like Richtofen-

"Undoubtedly." He looked over Ocelot for a few more beats, silently processing who it might be that would draw both of them here. Certainly there were only a handful of possibilities. Then, finally Sephiroth took a step outward and away from Ocelot, to face the way he had been progressing before the garden had caught his attention as a place for him to gain a bearing.

"I've worked every corridor between here and the last Garden. I'm heading for that watchtower." He looked and then pointed through the archways in the direction of it but quickly lowered his arm, not one to linger on a gesture.

"At the very least, if they aren't up there, we can get a better view of the grounds from up there." It sounded a little bitter. Oh if only he could have his powers here. But then, within such absolute silence in these halls, any sound that wasn't them might draw them towards it with only its hollow echo.

"Then we'll head for the tower together," she said, watching the direction that he pointed in. It was something she could handle, surely. Ocelot didn't know what could have drawn her here, but with Sephiroth here, searching for any lost person wouldn't take as long as it otherwise could.

She started towards the building, not waiting for him.

They would return to the Tower and have their revenge. One way or another.

As soon as Ocelot started to make a move towards the building, Sephiroth fell in behind her. He didn't need to be waited for and would have walked off also, had she not taken the initiative. Together they made their way through the vast network of corridors and hallways until they reached where the watchtower's stairwell had to be. He hardly ever cast Ocelot more than a glance to determine which direction they agreed to head in at a junction of corridor, before proceeding further.

Though he always remained alert, the silence in which they progressed, with only their footfalls echoing through empty halls was distracting on it's own. It was disturbingly quiet. Thoughts were drawn easily to how he imagined Gaia might be, stripped of all life like this World.

A small dismissive grunt was uttered as he cast such concerns aside and they began to climb the stairwell.

She could hear voices, but even in the still emptiness of the dead world they were too quiet for her to make out words. People were here though and Nesir had no idea how or why or if they meant her harm.

She remained on the top of the watch tower, a dagger drawn in her left hand (she had forgotten how much her right had hurt in the first few months after her injury). She watched the doorway, ready for whatever came up the stairs.

If there's someone in the tower, she's going to find out. Whatever it takes, it doesn't matter. Not really, not exactly. She has a real weapon on her, but she also doesn't plan on using it because the only person who could possibly be here is from the Tower.

This isn't some trick of Ruana's.

Still, the old soldier isn't the sort to opt for a sneak attack in a place she isn't familiar with. It's better to announce oneself given the current situation. "Is there anyone here?"

As they reached the last few steps leading up to the top of the watchtower Sephiroth took special consideration in keeping his footfalls as light as possible. If there were anyone up there, he had no way of knowing if they were an ally or an enemy-

He froze when Ocelot called up there, keeping his frame nearest to the wall and listening out well in the direction of the approaching doorway. Waiting to hear if there would be any reply first, or any indication of movement in the room at the top. He flicked a glance in Ocelot's direction before turning his head back upwards, he flexed his left hand slowly -yet knew there couldn't be Masamune here.

Nesir frowned, because she knew that voice. And it was not one from this world...

"Occelot?" She stayed wary, but she did step towards the doorway showing herself. "Do that be being you?"

Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

lets have Ocelot/Seph meet up first y/n?

works for me!

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Sorry about the delay

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