Just how hard can it be? *Shade, others PM*

While for everyone else the day was all normal and fine, but for a certain shop owner he was sort of freaking out after seeing what he did a few days earlier. The sight was seeing the mother of a close friend who thought she was dead, now he didn't ever learn HOW the lady was alive but he had to make sure his friend knew and quickly grabbed his Q Phone and made the call. When the phone was finally answered he then said "Shade, sorry didn't mean to bother you just need to stop by my shop real quick for a few moments okay. I need to talk to you about something important okay............ya I'll be here still by that time.......okay sure thanks Shade."

After hanging up Kaleb rubbed his head a bit trying to get rid of a headache before he heard someone walk in and looked up to see Zidane standing there, Kaleb waved at the genome and smiled a bit before said hero walked up to him. Zidane then asked "Hey Kaleb, what is wrong man?" "Oh just got to talk to a friend of mine about a touchy subject which might end badly...." "Oh well hey buck up I'm sure that friend of yours will understand." "Ya I hope so.....anyway what can I do for you?" "Eh nothing really just going to see what you got, but hey I'll hang around here to help if the convo with your friend goes sour okay?" "Ya that okay, thanks Zidane." Said Kaleb as the genome walked off to go look at some of the wears the store had that he didn't get to look at yet.

Well that was rather odd..... Shade stared down at her Coral Q phone for several minutes while pondering over the call. The small robotic phone simply gave her the same brooding expression across his tiny mechanical face and occasionally spitting a "meh" at her. It wasn't what little Kaleb said to her, nor was it because he said he wanted to speak with her. It was his solemn tone that struck Shade as strange. Kaleb was always the happy go lucky guy, and mostly with far too much sugar in his system. So hearing him sound rather serious led Shade's concerns to run through her mind. Without wasting further time, Shade left the Garden and headed to the small city of Balamb where the portal to the Multiplex was located.



Within minutes, she found herself within a bustling section of the center and winced from the noise and the sudden crowds of people everywhere. After scanning her surrounds, Shade spotted Kaleb's shop easily for it's foreign gadgets and flashy signs. With a faint smirk, Shade felt a sense of pride that the outworlder found his place within this maddening universe. Upon entering the shop, Shade side stepped what customers were in the the way, rather annoyed that some refused to move at all, but still managed her way toward the front counter where Kaleb was wrapping up a sale,


With her hip casually leaned against the counter, Shade crossed her arms and patiently waited while looking about at the random items in the store. Seeing Kaleb was done, her head turned back and she gave him a nod. "Nice to see you're doing well, stranger. But you sounded like something was wrong on the phone..... Are you alright?"

Kaleb was currently trying to get all the people that had come today their items sold and checked out and was starting to wish he still had his old workforce from when he had Swords R Us but he knew he couldn't afford it so he was stuck with just having himself deal with a ton of people as quickly as possible. Thank god for the fact his training has made him pretty damn fast at what ever he needs to get done, after getting the last person in the line their sale done he looked up to see Shade staring at him which made him smile happily a bit.

Moving from behind the sales counter he walked up to Shade and gave her a big warm tight hug as even Eva his scarf joined in on the hug as he missed Shade quite a bit these past few months, after hugging her for a few minutes he broke the hug then said "Sorry just missed you a lot, but ya there isn't anything wrong.....exactly but it is serious. One second though....*looks toward the door* Zenon close the door and lock it okay?" Zenon poked his head into the store and then looked at Shade for a second, he nodded his head and walked inside while closing and locking the door behind him as he put the 'sorry we're closed sign on the door.'

Zenon moved to lean against a wall as he stared at Shade and gave her a nod to her in hello before focusing on Kaleb, who by now rubbed his arm a bit then said "Well......you will never guess who I saw a few days ago.......I saw well your mother......or at least a Rinoa that says she is your mother and seems to fit the part and well........was...sorta wondering if you knew already so I figured I call you over and talk to you about it...." Kaleb obviously looked a bit nervous about this topic as he knew it was a touchy subject.

Shade would expect a hug from Kaleb.... even one of those running, leaping, charging, crashing into, ones. But to have his Eva scarf hug her too? She never would have believed that since Shade always had the feeling that the demon possessing the garment always despised her. But Shade managed to bring one arm up and pat Kaleb's back a few times before he broke away. It seemed the recent events of late brought a shield or two down from Shade's steel outer defenses, even if it was an agonizing slow process.


For now, she turned to see who Kaleb was talking to and nodded in greeting to yet another face she hadn't seen in a long time. Did Jayda even know he was here? And if she didn't, perhaps Zenon had his own reasons for it, but for now, Shade wasn't going to question what wasn't her business. She gave Zenon a friendly nod as well before turning back to Kaleb as he began talking again. His announcement wasn't what she expected, but Shade was already aware of the situation.


Shade looked away as she spoke and slowly crossed her arms again. Her tone wasn't all that cheery either over something one would expect to make her feel over joyed. "Yeah.... I know.... it's complicated, Kaleb." She could only bow her head and shake it a bit, still trying to understand herself. "She's a version of my mother, yes. But not the one who raised me. I saw the one who raised me get killed. This Rinoa comes from a dimension where she lived, but I was the one who disappeared on her."


Her hand ran over her hair in frustration to how confusing that must sound to him, but it was the best way Shade could sum it up. "Anyway.... I don't think she likes me very much. I'm not at all anything she expected..."

Kaleb was rather delighted that Shade had patted his back though a bit saddened by it as well since while on one hand she was opening up, on the other he wasn't there to help in the process like he use to. But shaking the thought as it wasn't the major thing he as a bit shocked to hear that Shade knew of this Rinoa as well, but the thing that really got him to tilt his head was hearing that this Rinoa wasn't her mother but in a way is.

Zenon was a bit shocked as well as he rubbed his head a bit then said "So......wait she is yet isn't your mom in a way.....ugh I hate these dimensional loops.....if there is another me running around in some other dimension I'm eating him just to save myself the headache...." Kaleb shook his head and said in a deathpan voice "Of course you would........and I bet you would even enjoy the meal...." "*shrugs* Jayda always said I was tasty...." "DDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOD! I DID NOT NEED TO HEAR THAT!" "Just saying.......*looks at Shade in a serious way* speaking of Jayda......have you seen her I been trying to call her but I can't seem to get an response......" "Ya and he tried to call her so many times his phone has locked itself down to save it from doing the call again...." "Shuddap...." said Zenon with a growl as he bared his teeth at Kaleb.

Kaleb simply held his hands up in defense before he focused on Shade and then said "But I can slightly wrap my mind around what you said, considering how dimensions are there most likely a Rinoa floating around that is from a copy of your world that has died and still has her Shade. Makes me wonder what that Shade would be like but that beside the point, I am sorry that the Rinoa that we know is not your mother yet well sorta is in a weird confusing way. Also this Rinoa will come to like you I bet, she just got to get use to you is all. When she does she will see you for the wonderful person that people like Jayda, Brix, myself and many others know you are." Kaleb placed a hand on Shade's shoulder as he said that and gave her a warm smile.

As he did Kaleb then got a cool idea that might be good for cheering Shade up as he got his classic crazy grin on his face before saying "Shade I think I also know a good thing for you to do that will help you, give you something not too confusing to focus on and give you a wonderfully great sense of pride~.....hehehe remember when I suggested we make a gunblade. Well if you got the time to get the stuff I'll be more than happy to assist you in building it, I'm actually getting pretty good at it thanks to Zenon giving me some tips on firearms and such." Zenon shrugged a bit when the part about him was said and simply responded by saying "Eh I was bored and you wouldn't stop bugging me about it anyway...."

When Zenon was the first to make a comment about the whole complicated mess, Shade actually felt relief that there were few out there that did grasp what she meant. Yet as always with Kaleb and his unpredictable group, the conversation took a drastic comical turn off topic, before jumping right back on track again.


So as Kaleb went on talking, Shade pushed away from the counter and approached Zenon instead. She simply nodded at him and held out her hand as a request to see his phone. While examining it, she tried accepting Kaleb's words, but her usual mind set was denial. She paused from tweaking Zenon's phone to turn her gaze back on Kaleb when feeling his hand on her shoulder. "I hope you're right Kaleb. I don't want to see her hurting anymore than she already is. I just..... I dunno..." She shrugged off her own thoughts and returned her attention back to the phone and pressing some buttons.


When hearing Kaleb speak of his old idea about a Gunblade of her own, Shade inwardly winced. It was far too difficult for her to bother explaining back then when he first suggested it, but already several events flipped her world upside down already that led Shade to behave a little differently lately, or maybe she just mellowed a bit from working the Gardens so damn much. "I've stayed away from Gunblades for a reason, Kaleb. Much due to the fact that many wanted me to excel at them simply because of who my father was. I already know I'll never be as good as him, so there's no point in me humiliating his name...."


She re-snapped the back cover of Zenon's phone and reset the power befor handing it back to Zenon and looking up at him square in the eye with a serious gaze. "You have to re-set the whole thing when you enter different worlds, Zenon. That would explain why your calls never got through to Balamb, or hers to you." With that resolved, Shade headed back to the counter to lean against it as before. "The place turned out real nice, Kaleb. Looks like you did rather well."

Kaleb had watched Shade move from the counter and over to Zenon to tweak with his phone a bit which caused the little robot to squirm and struggle a bit as it wasn't liking how it was being handled. Hell even its little black fedora fell off its head during the struggle and tried to gnaw on the woman's fingers to get her to let it go, Zenon just ignored it all as he saw how Shade reacted to Kaleb's words. Zenon then shook his head a bit and then said "Sometimes you just got to go with the flow and roll with the punches, life is made up of ups and downs so instead of focusing on the fact the Rinoa isn't exactly your mom be happy you got someone that is kinda like your mom and try to bond or something. Just like she should be happy that she met you instead of worrying about how you act and such, be thankful for what you got I guess is the main point of what I'm saying."

Kaleb stared at Zenon when he said that causing the man to just stare back before saying "What?" ".....That was oddly insightful Zenon, I'm impressed." "I'm smarter than I look you know...." ".....not like that is saying much..." ".....Fuck you man, fuck you and your little scarf too...." "I care about you too Zenon~" said Kaleb in a teasing tone as the assassin got his phone back from Shade after she fixed it he then told her thanks and quickly moved away from the group to brood in some shadows in the shop. Kaleb laughed a bit then became serious once more as he stared at Shade intensely before saying "I'm not saying you get a gunblade just to be like your father Shade, deep down you and I both know you have entertained the thought of using the weapon. Now I not saying we go buy the parts for this or the whole weapon......noooo I'm saying a long quest to find the pieces needed to make it and even going as far as to maybe kill a monster to get the raw materials needed.....Then after we get it all, you will help me in the building process as well so that your own blood and sweat went into making it." Kaleb placed a hand on Shade's shoulder and shook it very gently to help her pay attention to him as he smiled at her a bit.

"Anyway after you built it, you can show your kickass gunblade to people and wipe the smug looks off the faces of people that you know you would love to make jealous. But more importantly you will have a weapon that is distinctly you, a weapon that is without a shadow of a doubt......Purely Shade. So come on what do you say little sis?" asked Kaleb as he gave her a warm comforting smile to show he was just trying to help.

Shade studied Zenon closely while listening to him speak his mind on the matter. Even with such sound words, the half fiend still beheld his usual brash and sarcastic tone of voice to keep his tough image upheld. Still, what all he said came completely unexpected for his character, but held merit none the less. Then, of course, the usual bantering followed between Zenon and Kaleb, and the usual profanity, too. So Shade only had time to nod to what all Zenon had to say. Some things change, some things don't, she thought with a faint smirk.


But the main topic came back into play right after that, which led Shade's confidence to falter once again. Such a sensitive issue always left Shade to turn inward ever since the very first time Cid Kramer approached Shade about learning to use the Gunblade when she was going through SeeD. It never became a discussion, because Shade never allowed it to get past a question, or a suggestion. Whenever the topic came up about her wielding one, spoken by anyone for that matter, Shade replied with absolute silence and simply walked away. She tried that once with Kaleb, but Kaleb wasn't just anyone. Not only was he good hearted, but he had a knack for persistence. Where everyone else knew Shade's reasons without her stating them, Kaleb wouldn't know since he wasn't from her world.


With a defeated sigh, Shade's gaze fell to the floor again. "Of course I toyed with the idea, Kaleb. I'd be an idiot if I didn't. But it's not just the fact I don't want to be some replacement of my father that everyone else wanted. And I already know I'll never be as good as he was, or even close."


She decided to slowly pace about and look around at things to better distract her frustrations as she explained. "The fact is Kaleb, I've failed at a a lot of things. And wielding a Gunblade is not going to be one of those failures I'm adding to that list. I couldn't live with myself... so I don't dare risk it."


When she turned and saw him smiling, Shade felt completely sick. Great... now she most likely hurt his feelings like she did so before when he tried to get Shade to consider the same thing in the past. She looked away again to hide the guilt she felt, but she didn't know what else to say.

Kaleb listened to what Shade told him and kept silent until she was done since she was nice enough to not interrupt him, when she finished though Kaleb sighed a bit and shook his head as he then shook his finger a bit as he tut tut tuted Shade as she turned away from him, he reached out and placed a hand on her head and very very gently ruffled it like a big brother does for his little sister when she feels bad and needs some comfort. He then said "Now Shade what ever makes you think you wouldn't be as good as or hell even better than your old man, the very fact you have his blood in your veins is already one indicator that there is a VERY high chance of you having his skill. Actually I know it for a fact.....based on what Zenon told me you took down Garland inside his own lair, while he had the assistance of his very powerful Ra summon, with only Kichi the moogle for back up, and even went as far as to go Mortal Kombat on his ass and tear his heart out of his chest. Hun that is no small feat and is quite a bit like what your mother and father faced with the wicked witch of the watch, since she too was a highly powerful evil villain who used a summon to assist her in battle and back then Squall and Rinoa had one other person help them fight her as well as a wide assortment of powerful summons and spells. I do believe if anything you got the combined skills of your parents and could become the greatest female warrior of your world, but you must learn to believe in yourself like I believe in you."

Kaleb then focused on the failing issue she seems to be stuck on as he then said "Now Shade.....everyone fails at stuff, hey look at me I screwed up quite a lot of times in my time. I gone off the deep end and tried to kill people, I've screwed up missions I put myself, and I've messed up on other stuff I don't want to mention cause it would take too long to list it all. Everyone messes up and need to retry but that is okay, you are only a failure at something when you give up on it. I like to think I never did become a failure, I worked my ass off and finally got full control over my powers, I helped plenty of people when I can, and I've even opened a store that I am proud to own because I worked for all the money needed to make it. Now if a crazy half demon with a awesome scarf can do all that, then a talented young woman like yourself can easily become a world class gunblade user." "Ya know he got a point...." "Why thank you Zenon..." "If a nut job like him can do this, then there is hope for us all." "................May all your bacon burn you over grown pile of snot...." said Kaleb as he glared at Zenon with mock rage.

With a gust of breath through her lips, it was the closest thing Shade would ever get to a chuckle. Kaleb was relentless with confidence and hope. Yet the memory he spoke of when she defeated Garland by ripping out his heart core with her bare hands did lead Shade to inwardly flinch.

It was time she wished she could forget all together.

It was time when she had no control over her actions.... or who she even was.

While silently struggling to shake the memory off, Shade gave a rather weak nod to Kaleb's confident words of her strength and abilities, but added nothing to them. As for his lecture on failures, Shade knew he had a point, just as Zenon pointed out as well. It wasn't that she didn't believe him, it was just a mental wall virtually impossible for Shade to breach. It was if she felt she were constantly being watched by those simply waiting for her to fail, and when it came to something so personal as using a Gunblade, Shade not only feared herself to fail, but shame her name as well.


But her life was far more different know since she was torn away from her world and all she knew... and within these realms, there were far more threats involved. She thought of each world she knew of, she thought back to what all she fought against thus far, and what was out there she had yet to face. Then she thought of Alivia... and Serenity... and something snapped. What if Shade found herself too weak against something when trying to protect them? What if they were in some form of danger Shade couldn't fight against, or was unprepared for? Simply because she too afraid to try and become better?


Finally, Shade raised her head just in time to hear his bacon threat. After looking awkwardly at the both of them, Shade cleared her throat and literally had to force her voice to work. "Alright Kaleb.... I'll do it. Not quite sure how... and I'm not going to guarantee I'll be any good at this, or if I'll succeed, but... I'll at least try."
While scratching the back of her head, Shade looked away feeling rather foolish, yet she couldn't figure out why. She gave another glance back at her friend with a weak lift to the corner of her lips. "Happy now? I let you win for once..."

Kaleb was very very very pleased when he heard Shade finally agree to do what he been trying to get her to do for so long, he quickly glomped Shade head on wrapping his arms and legs around her in a full body hug as he yelled "YES SWEET AWESOME!!!" "You can barely tell he is happy huh......." said Zenon in a deadpan voice while watching Kaleb obviously break every rule of personal space one could bring up. He shook his head while Kaleb finally let Shade go a minute later, the energetic shopkeeper then heard the win comment and let out a loud WHOOP before saying "Yes I'll put that down on the score board."

Upon saying that his Q-phone poked its head out of Kaleb's pants pocket and looked around, it looked like most other Q-phones but the main difference was the fact it wore glasses and had a black scarf around it's neck. It soon brought out a score board that was set up just like this.
Kaleb ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shade
llll~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~llll llll llll llll
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~llll llll llll llll

When Zenon saw the score he laughed and then said "Dood you getting your ass kicked by her so badly hahahahaha!!" "S-SHUT UP MAN, SHE ISN'T EASY TO BEAT YOU KNOW!!!" "Ya ya......what ever helps you sleep at night man...." replied Zenon before he walked off as Kaleb just fell to his knees dramatically and hung his head in shame. His phone even did the same for a little while, after a few moments though he stood back up and shook his head before putting a brave face on once more.

He then said "B-besides what Zenon so CRUELLY said....it good to win.....and now I know just the perfect thing to go after to get the metal for your sword.....We gonna hunt down a Iron Giant and steal its sword, I mean those swords are pretty damn strong and hurt quite a lot so hell they must be made of some high grade metal no? Well kill it, take the sword, and then melt it down....condense allllll that metal into a smaller blade that will still have the same mass as the huge blade. Before you worry we'll add some float runes to it so that it won't be so heavy when it you using it....anyone else though.......ya they going to have a hard time using it." Kaleb was already getting the stuff worked out in his mind before he got a call and quickly answered the phone.

He moved away from Shade for a few moments to talk with the person on the other line for three minutes, he then cursed loudly before hanging up the phone and stuffing it in his pocket. He then said "I'm sorry Shade but I can't help you with it myself, some damn idiot that bought a mini-Chimera from me was insane enough to feed it a growth potion.......Now the no longer mini-chimera is causing chaos for the guy, I need to take care of it right now.......I am really sorry I guess we'll have to wait for anothe-*sees Zidane walking back to the front of the store* OH I KNOW!!" Kaleb quickly ran toward Zidane and quickly explained things to the genome, it didn't take long for Zidane to shrug his shoulders and nod his head yes to what was asked of him.

Kaleb soon grabbed Zidane and dragged him over to Shade and smiled as he said "Shade this guy here is Zidane, he is the ruler of Gaia as well as one of its original hero's. He agreed to take my place and help you with your quest to get the material, trust me on this Shade I know my stuff about this guy and I promise you that no matter what he won't let you down. So please just don't beat him up or maim him if he accidentally makes you made........I'm kinda a big fan of his.........anyway good luck and call me if you need help with stuff. CHAO~" With that the ever energetic man took off like a shot out of the building while Zidane rubbed the back of his head before holding his hand out to Shade and said "Nice to meet you Shade, so mind telling me what I just agreed to......Kaleb sort of talked a hell of a lot too fast for me to really understand anything he said.....I just said ya cause hey you don't need a reason to help people no?"

As Zidane waited his blond furred tail swayed to and fro behind him slowly, seems Shade was going to finally be working with a genome that actually has a soul instead of those blank ones she must of seen a ton of back with Kaleb.

Now, Shade was really trying to get used to this hug thing, even if hers were just one armed half the time with a pat on the back, and still quite rare to happen. But when you have two young nieces who demand such affection at any given time, it slowly broke down Shade's wall of isolation. But Kaleb wasn't just a hugger.... Kaleb was an all out wrap around human straight jacket. And in doing so to Shade, she found herself staggering a bit in attempt to keep her balance. Once he finally released her, he revealed some score sheet on his phone, where Shade simply raised an eyebrow and looking at him as if he grew a third eyeball on his face. But yet again, before she could say anything; that is, if she even knew what to say, the chaos of chatter ran rampant again.


Kaleb listed what all needed found and everything needed to be done for the weapon at a record pace and leading Shade's head to spin. Normally, she would have turned around and walked away so not to deal with the issue that sounded like far more trouble than what it was worth. But with those two little girls in mind now, Shade remained fixed in place in order to do what necessary to protect her nieces. But then Shade was caught off guard when Kaleb suddenly took a call and announced he wasn't going to be the one helping her with it all. Before she had a chance to tell him there was no rush over the matter, once again, his speeding mind came to a solution.


After Kaleb's hasty introduction, he fled out the door. The entire short scenario of events left Shade completely befuddled and speechless as she was now left looking directly at the genome. He sounded pleasant enough, although it was awkward in a way to see a genome acting of its own accord. So with a deep breath, Shade gave him a confident nod. "Apparently, he appointed you to help me get started on what I need for this gunblade he's had in mind for me for some time...." She rubbed the back of her neck feeling rather uncomfortable for being brought on as a burden. "Um, look... you really don't have to do this. It's not like I'm in any hurry"

Zidane listened to shade give him a rough draft of what he was going to be doing and smiled a bit since hey it sounded pretty fun actually, hell he was kinda jealous since he would of liked to have been able to get on the ground work of making one of his weapons. He then shook his head a bit when Shade tried to talk him out of it as he said "Hey I said I would help and I plan to keep my world.......anyway lets see my options......stay here get some shopping done and then go back to Gaia to deal with paper work.............ooorrrrr......go on an adventure with a stoic beauty and get into a bunch of trouble and have a lot of fun....hmmmm decisions decisions...."

As Zidane said those words he had lifted his hands up and had them move up and down like scales before giving Shade a look that screamed 'Do you really need me to tell you the answer?' He then put his hands back down and then said "So you are stuck with me, anyway I normally stuck with a demon child or a soldier with a thick accent so going on an adventure with you will be a fun change of pace.........speaking of the soldier I think he told me about you a bit......." Zidane tapped his chin with his right index finger as he thought before saying "Ya ya he told me about going to some shooting range and met two people he went on an hunt with, one named Shade and the other the big guy called Barret I met once. I'm betting you are the same Shade he was talking about too huh, I mean their can't be too many women called Shade running around."

Stoic what!? This guys was already nuts too.....

Shade groaned inwardly, wondering just what exactly Kaleb got her into. But this Zidane's humorous acting skills as an example to the decision did lighten the tension and brought a smirk to the corner of her lips. He was a rather light hearted guy and seemed most eager about helping rather than appearing put out as Shade once feared. And as he thought back over something, she was surprised to hear how he knew of her. Proof again that even in a realm of multiple worlds, the universe was still small in some aspects.


"Ah yes, I believe I know who you speak of..." That memory also brought a faint twitch to her lips when recalling the man at the shooting range who took exceptional care of her cherished weapon. Shade found herself to respect the guy right after that for his caring hand in fixing the Gryphon for her. "From what I've seen of him in such short amount of time, you have a good friend in this Victor. But yes, I'm the same Shade he met and he also repaired my weapon like new. I owe him a debt of gratitude for that."


She looked about the store for a moment, unsure as what to say or do now. Socialism simply wasn't Shade's game, per say, so when she looked back to Zidane, she gave a casual shrug to her shoulders. "Well.... he mentioned something about an Iron Giant's sword... so I guess we should get started?

Zidane snickered when he heard the groan Shade made as he knew that groan, it was the same one that Victor makes when ever he is questioning what the hell he got himself into. But soon enough he spotted the smirk on Shade's face and knew that he was winning her over or at least making her relax a bit, and sure enough Shade even confirmed his guess on who she was and she even gave his friend Victor a compliment which was always a good sign. Zidane then said "Thanks Victor is a good guy to have around, and rather fun when he relaxes too bad he still suffering relapses but eh not my place to talk about them. As for his treatment of weapons........the guy treats them like they are people which I respect though it gets a bit dangerous when he sees a person mistreating weapons or breaking them for the simple sake of destruction........sort of sets him off on a shooting slashing frenzy....kinda freaky when he goes into that."

Zidane shivered a slight bit when he thought of that as it made him remember a few goblins that had gotten into a forge and were breaking stuff just for fun........oh the screams.....the blood.......the gore......... Zidane quickly shook the thought off and then remembered the whole reason he was talking with Shade in the first place. Upon hearing the name Iron Giant Zidane let out a low whistle before saying "Those things eh.....well gonna be a bit painful to get a sword from one of them. I know where they are found in Gaia but I heard they live in other worlds as well, so really it up to you on which world's version of the things we try to kill." Zidane looked at Shade and waited for her answer as this was her quest not his, so she was the leader and he was just the support.

Shade listened to Zidane's light hearted speech about his friend and nodded. She could easily understand one's deep passion for weapons, having the same feelings about her own. But naturally, the discussion returned to the matter at hand, which led Shade to muddle over the decision. She only knew of the Iron Giants in her world, which were not easy to contend with. And by the sound of Zidane's reaction, the ones on his planet weren't any better.

But she thought over terrain as well. As far as she knew, Zidane had never been in her world, and the location of those things in her world may hamper his own abilities. Shade had been to Gaia countless times, and in various locations. Enough to know that she could adapt to pretty much whatever Gaia dished out, and she never had any complications with her abilities upon that world either. After thinking through her options, she finally nodded to her new companion.


"I think our best option is to search your world for one. I'm sure you have enough knowledge of them better than I do to know where one can be located there. I'm ready whenever you are." Inside she wasn't. She wasn't even sure she would succeed in this, nor how she would handle it if she should fail. For now, Shade stood with an awkward flicker over her gaze as she waited for Zidane to lead the way

Zidane watched Shade as she carefully thought out their next move and sure enough she came up with a pretty good plan of action, he nodded his head a slight bit then said "Well okay then guess we'll take my airship then huh?" Zidane turned around and headed for the door of the shop but did stop to look over his shoulder at Shade, he was going to make sure she was right behind him before he continued on. He soon walked up to a little girl with silver hair and wings and said "Okay Iki time to get back to the Invincible, oh and this is my friend Shade she will be coming with us so be nice okay?" "Okay daddy I'll be good. *looks around Zidane's legs and waves at Shade* Hello ^.^" said the little girl before grabbing hold of Zidane's hand and walking beside him.

Zidane smiled down at Iki before looking over at Shade to give her a comforting smile to show everything is okay, he and Iki led the way to the Invincible which obviously would look pretty strange to Shade as it sat in the docking area of this place. This would be mostly due to how it seemed like a floating castle instead of a ship, but then again that is what happens when magi-tech is used at times. When they drew near Zidane had the ship teleport them inside of the well decorated place and directed Shade to the control room, as they walked Shade would see a few of the female genome crew members hard at work keeping the Invincible ship shape.

After getting to the control room Zidane walked up to the main controls and powered up the ship as five other genomes worked various controls though they only did a few things at a time, it only got frantic in the room when a air battle happened or when the ship goes through rough air like storms and such. Zidane had the airship slowly ascend high into the air far away from the buildings below before it opened a inter-dimensional portal to Gaia on its own, as it flew into it Zidane then said "Next stop....the portal to Memoria located over the......Iifa tree...." Zidane had said the tree part a bit shakily......he HATED that place....Memoria though not so much.

[Topic continued on Gaia]