Chapter 0 - Prologue

Two adolescents, both with buck teeth and black hair, lay in the grass with their bright, bespectacled eyes scouring the night sky, waiting for the predicted meteor shower. The boy pointed up as he saw a star move, and the girl clapped her hands excitedly, reaching to scratch beneath the jaw of the fluffy, white dog beside her.

–

A young woman and her younger sister, both with platinum blonde hair, gazed up at the same sky, through the hole in the ceiling of a decrepit church a long distance away. They had come to see the monument to a warrior inside the eroding chapel, and stayed for the light show. Neither made a move for their mobile phones as they alerted the women to someone's contact, instead wishing on as many shooting stars as they each could.

–

A young man tinkered with his grandfather's old airplane as his older sister looked on, holding two cups of steaming tea in her hands as she beckoned him toward her. As he obliged, he took a mug from her hands, and both enjoyed the sweet tang of pomegranate as the stars reflected in their eyes. He watched, fascinated, and decided he would have the plane fixed tomorrow so he could be closer to the stars.

–

Another young woman with raven hair stood from her leather cot, a gift from the natives she was staying with. She gathered with her two classmates – a girl with bushy auburn, almost purple hair and a small, slight girl with her hair cropped up above her shoulders and styled to look animalistic – to listen to the wisdom taught by the elders regarding the meteors. They spoke of a time, not long before the girls were born, in which one meteor stood to threaten all life on the planet, and they listened intently as the shower blazed above them.

–

A man and his brother stayed indoors for the duration of the night, but the younger sat up in his bed and stared out the window, awed despite himself. After a while, his older brother joined him, an arm around his charge's shoulders as they enjoyed the spectacle together.

–
Four people with red head wear and light weapons were careful to make no sound as they traversed the woods with little regard for what was going on in the night sky. At least, three of them disregarded it. But the last, a young woman with a grin like a shark, sat where she was and stared up stubbornly. The other young woman, one with an eye covered with a patch, grabbed the other's wrist and they moved on to their target.

--

A lone male slumbered restlessly in his bed at the same time, unable to free himself completely from the terrors the night consistently thrust upon him. He woke in a cold sweat and gave up thoughts of sleep, instead going for a walk outside in the deadened city. The light from the sky distracted him, and he looked up. Unable to stop the tears that flowed freely from his two-colored eyes, he wished fervently a single wish on the falling streaks of glitter, disbelieving it would ever come true but giving it a try nonetheless.

–

A young man and his best friend - or maybe a little more - thrust their way desperately through the undergrowth, the taller - yet younger - of the two dragging the other along, for he knew that if his friend hesitated they would be lost. Upon crossing the river the older looked up; their pursuers had been left behind long ago, but they had kept up their tiring pace out of fear; and he stopped. The tears had dried on his face long ago, and they were moistened again now, even though the spectacular display in the night sky tried to keep them at bay. His friend, his protector, approached He put his arms around the trembling shoulders, bringing his terrified friend's face to his waiting lips.

–

One more person witnessed the fire of the sky that night. Another young woman, her lush hair auburn in the light but in this darkness indistinguishable from black, ceased her excavating long enough to stare at the sky for a bit, then smiled and put her tools away. The artifacts she might have found in the daylight would stay undiscovered under cover of blackness, anyway, she reasoned. She picked her way carefully toward the camp she had set up earlier that day, but slipped on a half-buried stone in the path, tumbling down the mountain. For a moment, she thought she'd been hurt, but then picked herself up and looked ahead of her. And stared.

–

One young man, unfortunately, was unconscious throughout the entire shower, and woke several hours afterward with a dull throb in his head and a lump in his throat. He ached all over, and couldn't remember why he hurt.

In fact, he couldn't really remember anything.

He looked around. Around him were strange trees; rather than growing straight, they had curved over to form arches, rather like monochromatic rainbows, and the branches that curled upwards after they hit the grass were supporting small, unripened fruits. But there were no clues to suggest how he'd ended up here, and nothing his eyes fell on triggered even a small memory.

He clutched his head and sat, only to leap up again, grabbing at an empty holster instinctively, as he spotted glowing eyes – or, well, an eye - staring at him.

“Calm down, child,” said a kindly, deep voice. “I exist to protect.”

The young man squinted into the darkness; besides the eye, he could make out a glimmer of fire, stronger than a candle's but not strong enough to be a campfire. “Who in blazes are you?” he stammered.

He heard a chuckle, and the eyes elevated somewhat. A large, red, cat-like creature emerged from the shadow of a tree into the moonlight and looked up at him. The boy stepped back despite himself. “It depends. Would you prefer to call me by my given name, or by my family name?”

“Erm... What's the difference, in your case?”

“My given name is Red XIII, though I dislike that name for...personal reasons. Nanaki is the name given to me by my grandfather.”

“...Then I suppose I shall call you that,” the human answered, somewhat confused.

“And what is your name, boy?”

He had to think about that; the dull throb in his head was becoming a bit more than merely bothersome. “Um...Jake.”

“Um?” Nanaki questioned, his single eye narrowing slightly.

“I had to think for a moment. Bloody head's killing me.” Jake sat again, realizing that he was a little more weary than he should have been, considering the “nap” he'd just woken from. How long had he been out, anyway?

“What are you doing here?” Nanaki asked, lowering his haunches to sit as well.

“I don't really know. Can't remember much, really. Bit of a pickle, this is.”

“What the 'pickle' is, is your inability to speak full sentences.”

Jake laughed lightly. “Sorry. I'm getting tired.” His eyes tried to flutter shut of their own accord, and he nearly had to hold them open with his fingertips.

“I see that.” Nanaki approached slowly, pausing when Jake cowered slightly, involuntarily. “I'm not going to harm you, Jake. I just think you need a little more warmth on a night like this.” The beast went past Jake, only to turn back and come around his other side and lie behind him, curled slightly.

“I see. You're not going to eat me while I slumber, are you?”

“I exist to protect,” Nanaki repeated, putting emphasis on the final word. “Besides, I had plenty of time to 'eat you' while you were asleep.”

Jake nodded, exhausted. The pain from however many wounds he had acquired whenever he had acquired them was beginning to numb, and he lay back, using Nanaki as a pillow. The last thing he was aware of was the creature curling a little more to encase him in a circle of soft, warm fur; and then he drifted to sleep.

)O(

Dirk filled the shot glass with the syrupy fluid and knocked it back, efficiently holding back the slight urge to retch all over the counter. Dave looked up from his phone, glancing at him suspiciously.

“Bro, that's, like, the tenth shot of rum you've had tonight. The frack's wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” Dirk slurred deliberately, coming to sit beside his little brother on the couch and facing the blank TV screen. “I'm just getting ready, that's all.”

“For what, your meeting with the new recruit? Didn't think you had to be drunk for that.”

Dirk grinned. “frack off, little bro, if he doesn't like me drunk he won't like me at all.”

“Not the point.”

Dirk sighed and leaned back against the couch, looking up at the ceiling. “Fine. I'll stop drinking...if you put away your phone.”

“I'm texting Harley.”

“What? That cute little chocobo farmer?” Dirk laughed. “Yup, my little brother, picking up doges wherever he goes.”

“Back off,” Dave growled, looking up; the entrance of emotion into his tone was obvious to the one who'd raised him, though an outsider wouldn't have noticed the underlying, threatening tone. “Jade isn't a dog.”

Dirk grinned. He had an ability to hold his liquor. The same outsider that didn't notice Dave's change in tone would have also thought Dirk was completely sober, but for the smell. “Cool it, Dave, I was messing with you.” Sighing again, he straightened. “I should probably get going. We wouldn't want to keep this Jake guy waiting for me, would we?”

Though Dave's eyes were concealed by his sunglasses, Dirk could see, from his vantage point above his brother, the red irises rolling upwards in exasperation. “Just go, bro. I'm looking forward to having the place to myself.”

“It's not 'to yourself'. Sun hasn't left for the clinic yet,” Dirk pointed out, referring to the old town doctor that they were somehow, distantly related to. “Besides, I'm bringing the guy right back here, remember?”

“Just get out.”

)O(

Jake looked at the slip of paper in his hand, up at the sign above him, and back to the paper, comparing the lettering on the note to the words “7th Heaven” printed on the sign. He didn't know how the paper had ended up in his hand, all he knew was that when he'd awoken the creature called Nanaki had left. “At least he didn't eat me,” he'd thought to himself, as he located the gun nearby that had been in the holster strapped to his thigh.

Now he puzzled over the scribbles on the paper in his hand; they were written in an illegible, childish hand - actually, he wasn't sure if “hand” was the right terminology. It just looked as if Nanaki had found a flyaway piece of scrap paper and some thick charcoal and decided to leave a note or something.

“Gd xo 3dge, f1nd Tt4 H3yeam.” Jake tried to sound it out but failed miserably. “I suppose I can't blame the...cat? Dog? Whatever. It's not like he has very opposable thumbs, I'm just lucky he decided to tell me anything at all.” He'd discerned that “3dge” meant Edge, the city built on the...well, edge of a once majestic metropolis. However, none of the other words made any sense. Except “f1nd”, that obviously meant “find”. But find what? Jake sighed, exasperated. “He couldn't have at least waited for a chap to wake up, could he? Ugh.” He leaned back against the wall, sliding down it to sit on the warm asphalt. He pinched the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses – which were still broken – and closed his eyes.

“Looking for something?” A seemingly bored voice sounded above him.

Jake looked up. Someone had just come out of the building he was now leaning against, and was looking down at him through exaggeratedly pointy sunglasses. The man above him held out his hand, and Jake handed him the scribbled-on paper.

“I can't make out what the devil that note says,” he explained.

The other man laughed as his eyes scoured the paper, a sparkle of recognition coming to his eyes. “Well, I'm pretty sure it's hard to write without opposable thumbs,” he said through a chortle, squatting down. Jake smelled the odor of alcohol and realized the guy had been drinking.

Wait. What had he said?

“How did you know the writer doesn't have thumbs?” Jake asked, astonished.

“Because you came to the right place. You're Jake, right?”

He nodded and took the hand that the man now held out to help himself up. “You must be one hell of a good psychic,” he said.

“Not really, just perceptive. Fancy word for 'I pay attention'.” He kept hold of Jake's hand, shaking it in introduction. “I'm Dirk. Dirk Strider. Welcome to 7th Heaven, home of the notorious neo-AVALANCHE.”

This last part was said just above a breath, despite the distinct lack of city residents nearby, and Jake felt his eyes widen.

What have I gotten myself into? he wondered, mouth coming slightly open, as Dirk led him into the bar.

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