Harmonic Sync

Chapter 13: Goodbye Jade

I still had to think a lot about the choice I was going to make when the time came but there was something coming that was bigger than the choice I needed to make. I had to help the others make Akzeriuth fall just as the Score predicted. Only unlike the Score, only the replica Luke will die along with Ion, Anise, Tear, Natalia, Guy, and Jade. I should have felt horrible about killing Jade, but for some reason it was a relief, because then I wouldn't have to make the choice. It would be decided for me.

"Zora, it's time. Let's go." Sync said to me as we arrived on the Tartarus. I nodded and followed him and Van off of the ship.

"Sync, I want you to make sure no one leaves the city and Zora, you will come with me to the Sephiroth." Van ordered. I nodded once and followed him into the mines filled with the poisonous miasma. I coughed a little at the poisoned filled air, but it passed within a few seconds. My body wasn't use to the exposure to the impurity of the air here, so it took some getting uses to as we made our way down to the depths of the mine.

"Zora, I want you to go ahead to the Sephiroth without me as I wait for Luke and the others to come. I nodded and walked to the door to the Sephiroth. I knew there was a Daathic Seal on it but I had done some studying on them to see how they worked. It would take me some time but I would be able to open the door.

I put my hands up and started cracking opening the door.

"What happened to everyone down here?" I heard in the distance.

"Hurry, I will buy you some time." Van said walking away. I focused all my efforts on opening the door and when it was finally open I could feel my body drained.

"I can't afford to waste time here." I said to myself and I rushed into the area where the Sephiroth was. It was the first time for me to see one and it was amazing. It towered above like a skyscraper. How had we never noticed these beautiful things below us?

That's when I heard someone's voice. I backed away from the Passage Ring and into the shadows nearby.

"Now Luke, I want you to use your hyperresonance to neutralize the miasma." I heard Van say.

"Will that really work?" Ion's voice came. I looked down at the ground.

"Now foolish replica Luke." I jumped out of the shadows and grabbed Ion pushing him back into the wall. I shielded him from the blow. I turned my head and watched as the Sephiroth crumble to pieces. Then more shaking followed that. I jumped to Van's side and he put a hand on my shoulder.

"You did well, Zora. Now go." I nodded and jumped up to the path leading out. I passed Jade and the others quickly.

"Zora!" I heard Jade call out. I stopped for a second and looked back at him.

"Goodbye Jade." I rushed as fast as I could after that out of the city as it began to crumble away into nothing. Once I was safely away I turned back and watched the city disappear into nothingness.

"Hey Zora, are you alright?" I turned and saw Sync standing there.

"Yeah I'm fine. Everything went as expected." I hugged myself tightly and thought about Jade. "Jade and the others are dead..." I turned away from him and jumped up onto the nearby cliff.

Jade really is gone; no one could have survived that. Not even me. I'm so sorry Jade, but it had to be done. You would only get into Master Van's way and I can't have that. Not if I'm going to have my family back. Not if this world won't be rid of the Score. Forgive me one day, but I know not now. I have many more sins to commit before I will join you in the ranks of the dead. Jade the Necromancer, rest in peace now you deserve that much.

"You did well, Zora. I never thought you would open the door that quickly." Van complemented me when we got back to the base.

"Thank you." I nodded and looked at the ground still thinking about Jade. The look of sadness on his face as he watched me run away.

"Is everything alright?" Legretta asked.

"Yeah, I guess I still had some attachments to some of them. I just wish they could have seen things differently." Van touched my shoulder lightly.

"Some people will never understand the things we've lost. The people who will never get to live in this world because of the people who had killed them. Just think you got the revenge you wanted. Guy is dead along with that replica and Jade the Necromancer." I thought about Guy, he was a nice enough person, but he didn't even seem to care or remember who I was. So I guess I was a little happy he was gone for good. I could rest now easier knowing my mother and sister's murderer is buried in the ground just as they had been.

"You're right, having sympathy for those who have died is meaningless. They don't wish to have pity they wish to be remembered as they were." I turned and started heading for the stairs. "I'm going to bed; it's been a long day." Once I was in my room I plopped down on the bed.

We only have so much time in the world, but we do what we can with it. Some people die before their time to enjoy themselves comes. That might be me one day, but I want to enjoy this world while it's still here. Before everything starts over and the people I wanted to in the world to come back do but without any memories because they won't have any. Is that really what I want, to have a family back but they have no memories of me or of their own lives? Did I just make the biggest mistake of my life and not even realize it?