"If Wishes Were To Be"
By Dyne

Chapter One - A Newcomer

Dav Cole stood in the entrance to an unexplored cave hidden behind the Cosmo Canyon Mountains. His gold chocobo Jessika, named after his lost girlfriend, had followed the unexplainably elusive Midgar Zolom that had somehow left the Midgar Swamp and fled to here, a cave that seemed to be entirely carved in crystal. Dav was a monster hunter who had lost his friends to the reactor explosion in Gongaga. He was also the last descendant of the heroes who destroyed Kefka several hundred years ago. The seventeen-year-old had wheat-brown hair and stone-gray eyes.
Dav usually traveled alone but sometimes hitched a ride with a passing merchant caravan or even helped lost people (for a price). Dav had also joined the ranks of Shinra but was thrown out after the reactor explosion since his family was accused of setting the bomb that blew it up. Dav knew that explosion was caused by faulty design and the Shinra needed a scapegoat, and so they blamed the Linshire family, the only family he knew, the ones who raised him and protected his identity, and executed them.
Dav was lucky only to be kicked out of SOLDIER. Yes, Dav was on his way to being promoted to First Class when the accident happened. He too had idolized Sephiroth along with his best friend Zack and signed up. Zack was four years older than Dav and he disappeared before Dav entered the army. Dav seemed to have incredible strength for he reached Second Class in only a year.
He was concerned that the Zolom was waiting for him. But he had trained hard and knew how to handle surprise attacks; his training ensured it. As he rounded the next corner he expected the monster to strike… but he was wrong, it was a dead end.
Damn! he thought, I track this thing for a week to lose it now?
He guessed he'd have to either search for cave or find another trace of the serpent. He chose the latter. "Maybe if I can find a hidden switch or something?" he said to no one in particular and his gloved hand along the wall.
Hey! he thought, there're names along here!
Dav began to silently read the list of names as he searched for any opening, seeing as how the cave looked like a maze entirely of mirrors. He placed his hand onto an oddly-shaped crystal and saw a name he couldn't make out very well.
"Ae…Aer… what is this?" he said, and studied the writing closer, "Aeris Gainsborough!" he said about five minutes later. "Never heard of her. But why is her name inside this crystal with all these others?" Dav didn't know that the oddly shaped crystal was really a materia embedded into the crystal. This materia had the power to retrieve spirits from the Lifestream and place them back onto the Planet in this exact cave. The ultimate secret held by the planet, but only it knows who and why the names are embedded within.
"I guess I'll have to find another cave." Dav sighed, "The snake isn't here."
Before Dav reached the mouth of the cavern an ear-piercing scream was heard from the opposite side of the caves. Dav looked behind him and immediately saw another cavern that he missed, big enough for a Midgar Zolom to slither through!
"Looks like I was right in the first place." He smiled, drew his Mithril sword, and ran into the cavern. About a hundred feet later, Dav entered an unusually large cavern within the series of tunnels and saw his hunt attacking a young woman!
"You wimp!" he shouted through clenched teeth. "Why don't you pick on someone with a little better chance!" The Zolom was more than happy to do so. It turned its head toward Dav and struck without warning. Dav jumped to one side and thrust his sword into the snake's side. Rearing in pain, the Midgar Zolom threw its head back and howled. Dav ran over to the woman. "You all right?" he asked.
"Yes, thank you," she answered. "My staff wasn't enough to hurt him very much."
"Here," he tossed her a Restore materia, "just in case he gets one of us, we'll do this together."
"All right." She sounded nervous.
By this time, the serpent had recovered and was staring fiercely at Dav and the girl. It decided not to try to bite this time but attack with its tail. "Split!" Dav yelled, but the Zolom's tail hit him right before he jumped. Dav was knocked all the way across the cavern and hit his back on the wall. The Zolom turned toward Dav again, this time with a look filled with a showing of no mercy!
"NO!" the girl shouted and pulled out one of her own materia. "Diamond Dust!" Without hesitation the Ice Queen Shiva descended from the sky to answer the call, she shot many razor sharp shards of ice at the Zolom without a word and vanished as quickly as she had appeared. The Midgar Zolom was covered with gashes and it threw itself around the cavern, howling in pain. The girl quickly ran to Dav and cast Cure 2.
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
"I'm fine now," Dav said, "thanks."
"My pleasure."
Dav wondered how she could be so polite at a time like this, meanwhile an idea was forming in his head. "Give me your staff!" he said. "This just might work!"
"My staff?" she questioned. "But without it I'll be defenseless."
"This is no time for questions! If we want to kill this thing we have to get its head! Hand me the staff!"
"Okay," she said and reluctantly handed him the staff.
"Here goes!" Dav shouted and ran toward the still howling Zolom. A few feet away from the snake Dav planted the girl's staff onto the cavern floor like a pole vault and threw himself up into the air. At the apex of his jump Dav drew the Atma Weapon. "Hey! Bastard!" Dav yelled. The Zolom quickly looked toward Dav and prepared to strike, but it was too late. Dav brought the Atma Weapon down between the Midgar Zolom's eyes. The energy blade split the Zolom from its head to its body where Dav brought his sword down. The snake was killed instantly. Dav put his swords into their sheaths and wiped the Zolom's blood off of his skin.
"Damn," he said, "I didn't think that would work."
"I-I don't know what to say," the girl said, "but that was some amazing skill. Where did you get that sword?" She gestured toward the Atma Weapon.
"I received this when I was twelve. I had no idea why and so I didn't even use it until I left Shinra."
"You were in their army?!"
"Yeah, I had reached Second Class of SOLDIER…" Dav related the story of his life during the past year.
"How awful," the girl said. "It must have been hard. Wait, we don't know each other's names."
Dav looked up from where he was sitting and finally got his first good look at whom he had helped. She was in her early twenties, had emerald green eyes, long brown hair tied into a braid with a ribbon, wore a long pink dress with a red jacket; a very beautiful girl. "I'm Dave Linshire." Dav decided to use his fake name for the time being, until he could learn to trust her.
"My name is Aeris Gainsborough."