Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ hain no matsuei da ( Chapter 16 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: awwaw 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.20.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 233 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.20.2003 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 233 | Status: Completed
Standard disclaimers apply.
An apology for the incoherent babble that is part 16:
Many of the things here probably won't glue with the previous parts too well. I apologize for the lost in thoughts here.
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
hain no matsuei da
The window to the royal rooms were opened. The king sat by it, peering at the skies, as it turned darker. He was oblivious to the hustle and bustle on his palace grounds, happy to be in his own personal solitude. The winds gently played with the silk curtains by the windows. It was a cool, refreshing wind. A wind he had been feeling for a good part of this dooming reign he was holding. A wind, although physically uplifting, which brought nothing but ill instructions.
A flutter of black robes failed to get the king to turn his head. He had no need to, of course. He knew who stood there.
"The sorceress is pleased that you have done according to her wishes," the disembodied voice of the figure clad in black spoke up, "she will be coming in person herself, shortly this evening."
The king continued staring out of the window, giving nothing to indicate his attention.
"When the sorceress stands in power, you will be duly rewarded." The voice continued. "Everything is going as planned. Tonight will be the final night Galbadia stands independant."
Having finished his piece, the man prepared to leave the same way he arrived.
"Wait."
It was the king.
"Yes, sir," the man merely remained for a while in the room, politely giving his attention to the king's apparent doubt over something. All the while he had acted as Adel's messenger the king had never asked of anything of him. The king did everything the sorceress said. Since it was going to be the final night for the kingdom, the man figured he would acede to any request for information from the king, as a sort of final regard.
There was a long moment of silence.
"Nevermind." The king sighed, and returned to looking outside the window.
The man lingered around for a while more in an air of regret, before shuffling and disappearing in a whisper of wind.
The king closed his eyes, holding his sorrow in his heart. He did not wish to step out of his room, even when his servants called for him.
He did not know how to face his people anymore.
-------------------------------
"Oooh, great great great great! I love theatres! Just tell me what you want me to do!" Zidane's excitement could be clearly seen in his madly wagging tail. He bobbed all around Squall, who was trying to make head and tail out of the script Kuja had just handed him before hopping off somewhere himself, but to no avail. They walked down the corridor backstage, not quite noticing the dire lack of backstage helpers in hand.
"Squall, where's Kuja?" Cloud came up from the front, having gone forward first to check out the situation. The SeeD looked up from the script to see bright blue eyes staring right back at him, making him jump backwards and in the event knocking Zidane onto the ground.
"That was scary. Please don't do it again." Squall sighed, accidentally stepping on Zidane's tail as he tried to move out of the way of Cloud's unearthly eyes. The monkey-boy muffled a yowl of pain.
"Where is Kuja?" The mercenary only repeated, frowning as he did.
"What's wrong?" Squall asked quietly. The question felt like a prelude to something he really really didn't want to know.
Cloud looked away for a brief second, then beckoned at everybody. After first picking Zidane off the floor, they made their way towards the top of the theatre backstage, staring at the crowd that had gathered and the dark, inky skies.
Without a single word, he slowly raised a gloved hand to point into the distance, his expressions unsettled. First glancing at each other, Squall and Zidane then followed the direction of the finger and widened their eyes in disbelief at what they saw.
The people continued to gather, not yet knowing the drama that was unfolding above their heads.
-------------------------------
The black robed stranger floated, with his back facing Kuja, who had set up an invisible barrier infinitely upwards and downwards, giving the man no chance at escaping. The silver-haired man folded his arms, waiting patiently for the other party to turn around so they could talk. He kept his smile neutral, but it was becoming very difficult to leash up the malice growing stronger and stronger in his head. The black robed stranger was inducing all the wrong intents in Kuja's head by his presence alone.
"I do not know you." The stranger finally spoke up. "Why are you stopping me from leaving?"
The ex-villian smiled dangerously.
"Am I to allow the shadow of a person leaving from the royal chambers to come and leave just as he deemds fit?"
"You are not a palace guard." The man asserted.
"I am not exactly blind, either." Kuja frowned. "And I *am* under the services of the king, although in another department. Will I just let an assassin leave without putting in my part, then?"
"..." went the man, "... the king is well - he has not been harmed. If truly you are under his services, then go to him and see if this is true."
"There will be others doing that," Kuja smirked, "I have better things to do."
They faced off in mid-air for a while more.
"Release the barrier." The man sounded annoyed. "Or else."
Kuja chortled. "Or else?" He asked with wide eyes, challenging the stranger to finish his statement.
A dark, bloody aura surrounded the man almost instantaneously. Kuja took in the tension in the air and assessed the powers of the man. As much as he did not want this to happen, he had - unfortunately, overheard the conversation the man held with the king and was intrigued to a great extent about the situation on hand here. It sounded like the sorceress had actually ordered the king to do what he had done - and if that was the case, then the children of Hyne had much more to do with the larger picture than he had initially thought. One way or the other - Kuja wanted to know. Delaying, and perhaps defeating this man... was the key to the answer he, and the rest of the crew, had been seeking for.
-------------------------------
The large woman stepped out of her chariot, having a rather impressive height for a lady in general. She was accompanied by nobody - for she needed no guards. She scanned through the crowds quickly and strided through them just as quickly, finding her way to the front where she could grab the attention of the crowd with one sweeping glance.
A few persons were brave enough to point at her, silently questioning her place in a large group of ordinary people with their companions. The woman pointedly ignored them, deciding that she would deal with them later. Her features darkened when she could not find what she was trying to look for.
*His aura is here all right.* The sorceress Adel thought darkly to herself. *And yet he is not within the crowds. Where could he be?*
As if on cue, a huge maelstrom ignited above her head, causing screams to be heard from all directions.
Adel looked upwards.
-------------------------------
"You mock me with your presence, imbecile!" The stranger screeched, another spell powering up on his other hand. "How dare you make fun of the knight of the sorceress!"
"Hear hear." Kuja rolled his eyes, not affected by the weak spells the man was tossing out at all. "So the sorceress IS behind this whole facade. What is her motive? Why make such an elaborate scheme to capture Galbadia when all she has to do is to declare war on it?"
"You know not the wisdom of sorceress Adel." The knight sneered. "Of course she does this so as to minimize the damage on both sides!"
"I don't think so." Kuja turned his head in doubt. "I don't think so at all."
"Think what you want, then." The man laughed. "Sorceress Adel will kill the 4 travellers of time just as the children of Hyne (footnote) have been prophesied to! She who does that shall be the true chosen Child!"
The silver-haired man merely took in all of his ramblings with a quirked eyebrow. Travellers of time? Children of Hyne? Can we say... oro? He sighed. More unravelling to do after this... if he survives this...
"I am the knight of the sorceress." The man suddenly calmed down and glowed eeriely. "I will assist her into becoming the Chosen."
-------------------------------
Adel's anger could be instantaneously felt, when she saw her knight squaring off with one of the travellers of time she had intended to trap. The people within 5 feet radius of where she stood were, well, thrown backwards by the force of her rage alone. She turned around, storming unceremoniously towards the stage, which she could use as a soapbox. This caught the attention of the king, whose window overlooked the stage pretty well, and the rest of the gang, who were standing on the catwalk above the stage. In fact, it caught the attention of practically everybody else.
Adel took the stage and glared at everybody who had gathered. Sounds of an ensuing battle could be heard from above them all, which everybody else mistook as fireworks. Otherwise, there was deadly silence. They all thought the performance was about to begin.
"Pathetic..." Adel began, "... fools!" She ended with flourish. Not giving the audience much of a chance to react, she laughed. "This night marks the end of your beloved kingdom, Galbadians." She turned to the general direction of the palace, smirking, knowing that the king was shaking like a leaf within his abode. "Your peace ends n-!!!!"
She was interrupted when a semi-charred being was tossed towards her in front of the stage, rather well-done on firaga. Adel could only jolt backwards in a hurry, allowing her knight to collapse abruptly in a heap. The purple-clad mage we know as Kuja immediately touched down nearby on a passageway leading to the stage after that, slowly making his way down with a dangerous scowl on his face and quite a bit of burn marks on his otherwise pristine armour.
"You are soooo going to pay." He growled immediately when he came near the stage, shooting daggers at Adel, who shot them right back.
"You wish to fight me, here, now?" Adel asked, still glaring.
"No no, I think he meant something else." Zidane suddenly appeared from behind the tall sorceress and nodded his head gravely. Temporarily snapping out of her anger, Adel stumbled into confusion.
"... ?"
Kuja growled even more, this time at Zidane.
"He wants you to pay," the monkey boy stared seriously into Adel's eyes, without a glimmer of falsity showing, "for his laundry fees."
Adel blinked.
"Our story begins one fine day in Galbadia," Squall mumbled in a dead-pan tone into the sound amplifier, with the most horribly faked Centra accent he could muster. "The sorceress was doing her usual stuff, tearing up the streets and scaring little children into giving her their lollipops. However, she appears to have met her match. All the lollipops had already been stolen by a bandit, and that meant she could not have her usual fun of bullying children for lollipops. Now, the plot thickens, as the bandit and the sorceress faces off for all the stolen lollipops." Squall finished, stil lwith a dead-pan tone and a emotionless countenance.
There was a collective sweatdrop on the part of the audience.
Zidane took it as his cue to do something, and so he pushed his palm into Adel's face, breaking the silence between them.
There were 3 seconds of silence.
Then.
"YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Zidane whistled appreciatively, hopping backwards to get out of the ear-drum breaking range of the enraged sorceress. He managed to hop to a nearby stage prop when Adel made a swipe for him with her fingernails. He grinned inanely.
"Squall, I'm going to kill you." Cloud gave Squall the thumbs-down for his previous lollipop story and scowled massively. The teenager merely shrugged.
"Whatever." He said.
"Lollipops rulezZZZ~~~!!!" Zidane had somehow clambered all the way to the highest visible prop there was on stage and was currently leaping from bar to bar like a... well, monkey. In the meantime, he kept himself busy proclaiming the apparent sovereignty of lollipops.
More sweatdrops from the audiences could be seen.
While Adel continued shaking her fist at Zidane, Kuja blasted her with a flare spell, grinning maniacally as he did. Both Cloud and Squall turned blue in the face at the sight of that. This had degenerated into some spastic spell-tossing tournament.
Adel spun around, eyeing Kuja carefully.
"Actually," Kuja turned serious, the grin wiped off his face, "I've heard about all your plans from your knight." He shook his head. "Is this why you've come up with such an elaborate sham? To fulfill Hyne's half-wit prophecy about the travellers of time?"
"My goal is to take over Galbadia," Adel said, loud enough for everybody to hear, "and then destroy the enemies of Hyne." She frowned. "Have you never read the oracle of the Lunatic Pandora?"
When the rest of them stared at her with blank looks on their faces, she merely smirked.
"You will not have a chance to, then." She laughed. "For you shall die in this day, by my hands!"
The earth trembled and shivered, slowly, then quickly, to enter a full-scale earthquake, separating the people from the destined fighters. Kuja harumphed, quickly flying upwards to curb the damages, if any. What Adel did, however, was merely to lift the chunk of land the stage had been built on and toss it somewhere westwards, until it became a dot on the horizon. She then descended quickly into the valley she had just created, challenging the foursome with her evil smile as she did.
There was no time to think. There was only time to do. All four of them leapt in after Adel with no second thoughts.
The people quickly ran along, peering over the cliff of the valley, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was going on, and feeling rather stupid while they were at it. Thankfully for them, though, the valley was not too deep, and they could still see and hear what was going on downwards.
"Look," Adel was saying, as she stood in front of a half-buried structure covered with weird paintings, "the artifact of Hyne that will lead me into becoming the Chosen..."
The wind blew.
"That half-chipped fake crystal lookalike will lead you into what??" Cloud's mouth was agape with confusion.
"Hmm." Squall stroked his chin, pretending to understand but not knowing how that run-down junk could help anyone do anything.
"It doesn't look very edible." Zidane moaned.
"Don't try to eat it." Kuja rolled his eyes.
"..." Adel sweatdropped. "Go away." She sighed, tossing a large meteor spell as she spun around. "I've had enough of your idiocrasy. One more glance at you will make me sick."
The meteor hit the ground with a lot of noise but without much introduction or flourish. And the four of them were nowhere to be seen, after the cloud of dust cleared.
"You underestimate us, Adel," Kuja suddenly popped up from behind the large piece of space junk. He was followed quickly by the rest, who emerged from all directions. "Was that spell intended to hurt at all?" He smiled in mockery.
"You test my patience." The sorceress glared.
"And you, mine." Kuja glared right back.
"Sorceress," the black-robed man well-done with firaga suddenly appeared beside her, still well-done with firaga but at least conscious enough to talk now, "there is no need for this. Please consider your steps carefully."
"Hmph!" Adel snapped, still looking at the foursome with hot anger.
"Sorceress," the knight said firmly, "Hyne has not warned us against the time travellers for nothing. Please, consider your steps carefully."
For a while more, Adel continued staring at the four of them, jumping from one person to the other, unhappiness and annoyance showing in all of her actions. However, that moment soon passed and she closed her eyes, indeed considering her steps very carefully.
The knight was right.
Hyne had not warned his children about the time travellers for nothing.
She shifted her weight, preparing to leave.
"Oh, and leave that half-chipped crystal lookalike thingie you call an artifact behind, too." Zidane grinned maniacally, ignoring all possible dangers those words could put him to. He knew he had a strong team backing him, and being together with them always made him feel invincible.
The sorceress merely offered him a curt glance, before turning her back to them and preparing to leave with her knight, leaving the artifact behind.
"I don't get it." She was stopped by Kuja's voice, which she could feel was directed towards her.
"I don't get it at all." The red mage stood his ground, high on the fallen meteor rock, grave in his expressions, solemn in his tone.
"What would you gain by being the chosen child of Hyne?"
Adel's shoulders jerked slightly, as if she had just scoffed at the question.
Then, in a wistful voice, she answered.
"Even sorceresses... have things that they want..."
The winds began to hush.
"And sometimes... these things are so simple... nobody will believe it..."
She took a few steps forward, then disappeared in a split second. Her knight turned to glance at the group with an unreadable expression on his face, then he disappeared as well.
The starked terrain of the battleground that almost was howled sadly when a slow breeze travelled over it. It had many things to mourn about.
-------------------------------
hain no matsuei datta
2/3/2002
Footnote:
You know who Hyne is don't you? Hm? HHMMM??
Hyne is the first sorcerer/sorceress. The first to initiate the sorceress process. Therefore all sorceress are called his children, because their powers are from him. Hyne is generally thought to be sexless, but mostly referred to as a 'he'. Um... there's someone telling stories about Hyne in the house beside Zell's in FF8, I think. You can learn more about him from there.
An apology for the incoherent babble that is part 16:
Many of the things here probably won't glue with the previous parts too well. I apologize for the lost in thoughts here.
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
hain no matsuei da
The window to the royal rooms were opened. The king sat by it, peering at the skies, as it turned darker. He was oblivious to the hustle and bustle on his palace grounds, happy to be in his own personal solitude. The winds gently played with the silk curtains by the windows. It was a cool, refreshing wind. A wind he had been feeling for a good part of this dooming reign he was holding. A wind, although physically uplifting, which brought nothing but ill instructions.
A flutter of black robes failed to get the king to turn his head. He had no need to, of course. He knew who stood there.
"The sorceress is pleased that you have done according to her wishes," the disembodied voice of the figure clad in black spoke up, "she will be coming in person herself, shortly this evening."
The king continued staring out of the window, giving nothing to indicate his attention.
"When the sorceress stands in power, you will be duly rewarded." The voice continued. "Everything is going as planned. Tonight will be the final night Galbadia stands independant."
Having finished his piece, the man prepared to leave the same way he arrived.
"Wait."
It was the king.
"Yes, sir," the man merely remained for a while in the room, politely giving his attention to the king's apparent doubt over something. All the while he had acted as Adel's messenger the king had never asked of anything of him. The king did everything the sorceress said. Since it was going to be the final night for the kingdom, the man figured he would acede to any request for information from the king, as a sort of final regard.
There was a long moment of silence.
"Nevermind." The king sighed, and returned to looking outside the window.
The man lingered around for a while more in an air of regret, before shuffling and disappearing in a whisper of wind.
The king closed his eyes, holding his sorrow in his heart. He did not wish to step out of his room, even when his servants called for him.
He did not know how to face his people anymore.
-------------------------------
"Oooh, great great great great! I love theatres! Just tell me what you want me to do!" Zidane's excitement could be clearly seen in his madly wagging tail. He bobbed all around Squall, who was trying to make head and tail out of the script Kuja had just handed him before hopping off somewhere himself, but to no avail. They walked down the corridor backstage, not quite noticing the dire lack of backstage helpers in hand.
"Squall, where's Kuja?" Cloud came up from the front, having gone forward first to check out the situation. The SeeD looked up from the script to see bright blue eyes staring right back at him, making him jump backwards and in the event knocking Zidane onto the ground.
"That was scary. Please don't do it again." Squall sighed, accidentally stepping on Zidane's tail as he tried to move out of the way of Cloud's unearthly eyes. The monkey-boy muffled a yowl of pain.
"Where is Kuja?" The mercenary only repeated, frowning as he did.
"What's wrong?" Squall asked quietly. The question felt like a prelude to something he really really didn't want to know.
Cloud looked away for a brief second, then beckoned at everybody. After first picking Zidane off the floor, they made their way towards the top of the theatre backstage, staring at the crowd that had gathered and the dark, inky skies.
Without a single word, he slowly raised a gloved hand to point into the distance, his expressions unsettled. First glancing at each other, Squall and Zidane then followed the direction of the finger and widened their eyes in disbelief at what they saw.
The people continued to gather, not yet knowing the drama that was unfolding above their heads.
-------------------------------
The black robed stranger floated, with his back facing Kuja, who had set up an invisible barrier infinitely upwards and downwards, giving the man no chance at escaping. The silver-haired man folded his arms, waiting patiently for the other party to turn around so they could talk. He kept his smile neutral, but it was becoming very difficult to leash up the malice growing stronger and stronger in his head. The black robed stranger was inducing all the wrong intents in Kuja's head by his presence alone.
"I do not know you." The stranger finally spoke up. "Why are you stopping me from leaving?"
The ex-villian smiled dangerously.
"Am I to allow the shadow of a person leaving from the royal chambers to come and leave just as he deemds fit?"
"You are not a palace guard." The man asserted.
"I am not exactly blind, either." Kuja frowned. "And I *am* under the services of the king, although in another department. Will I just let an assassin leave without putting in my part, then?"
"..." went the man, "... the king is well - he has not been harmed. If truly you are under his services, then go to him and see if this is true."
"There will be others doing that," Kuja smirked, "I have better things to do."
They faced off in mid-air for a while more.
"Release the barrier." The man sounded annoyed. "Or else."
Kuja chortled. "Or else?" He asked with wide eyes, challenging the stranger to finish his statement.
A dark, bloody aura surrounded the man almost instantaneously. Kuja took in the tension in the air and assessed the powers of the man. As much as he did not want this to happen, he had - unfortunately, overheard the conversation the man held with the king and was intrigued to a great extent about the situation on hand here. It sounded like the sorceress had actually ordered the king to do what he had done - and if that was the case, then the children of Hyne had much more to do with the larger picture than he had initially thought. One way or the other - Kuja wanted to know. Delaying, and perhaps defeating this man... was the key to the answer he, and the rest of the crew, had been seeking for.
-------------------------------
The large woman stepped out of her chariot, having a rather impressive height for a lady in general. She was accompanied by nobody - for she needed no guards. She scanned through the crowds quickly and strided through them just as quickly, finding her way to the front where she could grab the attention of the crowd with one sweeping glance.
A few persons were brave enough to point at her, silently questioning her place in a large group of ordinary people with their companions. The woman pointedly ignored them, deciding that she would deal with them later. Her features darkened when she could not find what she was trying to look for.
*His aura is here all right.* The sorceress Adel thought darkly to herself. *And yet he is not within the crowds. Where could he be?*
As if on cue, a huge maelstrom ignited above her head, causing screams to be heard from all directions.
Adel looked upwards.
-------------------------------
"You mock me with your presence, imbecile!" The stranger screeched, another spell powering up on his other hand. "How dare you make fun of the knight of the sorceress!"
"Hear hear." Kuja rolled his eyes, not affected by the weak spells the man was tossing out at all. "So the sorceress IS behind this whole facade. What is her motive? Why make such an elaborate scheme to capture Galbadia when all she has to do is to declare war on it?"
"You know not the wisdom of sorceress Adel." The knight sneered. "Of course she does this so as to minimize the damage on both sides!"
"I don't think so." Kuja turned his head in doubt. "I don't think so at all."
"Think what you want, then." The man laughed. "Sorceress Adel will kill the 4 travellers of time just as the children of Hyne (footnote) have been prophesied to! She who does that shall be the true chosen Child!"
The silver-haired man merely took in all of his ramblings with a quirked eyebrow. Travellers of time? Children of Hyne? Can we say... oro? He sighed. More unravelling to do after this... if he survives this...
"I am the knight of the sorceress." The man suddenly calmed down and glowed eeriely. "I will assist her into becoming the Chosen."
-------------------------------
Adel's anger could be instantaneously felt, when she saw her knight squaring off with one of the travellers of time she had intended to trap. The people within 5 feet radius of where she stood were, well, thrown backwards by the force of her rage alone. She turned around, storming unceremoniously towards the stage, which she could use as a soapbox. This caught the attention of the king, whose window overlooked the stage pretty well, and the rest of the gang, who were standing on the catwalk above the stage. In fact, it caught the attention of practically everybody else.
Adel took the stage and glared at everybody who had gathered. Sounds of an ensuing battle could be heard from above them all, which everybody else mistook as fireworks. Otherwise, there was deadly silence. They all thought the performance was about to begin.
"Pathetic..." Adel began, "... fools!" She ended with flourish. Not giving the audience much of a chance to react, she laughed. "This night marks the end of your beloved kingdom, Galbadians." She turned to the general direction of the palace, smirking, knowing that the king was shaking like a leaf within his abode. "Your peace ends n-!!!!"
She was interrupted when a semi-charred being was tossed towards her in front of the stage, rather well-done on firaga. Adel could only jolt backwards in a hurry, allowing her knight to collapse abruptly in a heap. The purple-clad mage we know as Kuja immediately touched down nearby on a passageway leading to the stage after that, slowly making his way down with a dangerous scowl on his face and quite a bit of burn marks on his otherwise pristine armour.
"You are soooo going to pay." He growled immediately when he came near the stage, shooting daggers at Adel, who shot them right back.
"You wish to fight me, here, now?" Adel asked, still glaring.
"No no, I think he meant something else." Zidane suddenly appeared from behind the tall sorceress and nodded his head gravely. Temporarily snapping out of her anger, Adel stumbled into confusion.
"... ?"
Kuja growled even more, this time at Zidane.
"He wants you to pay," the monkey boy stared seriously into Adel's eyes, without a glimmer of falsity showing, "for his laundry fees."
Adel blinked.
"Our story begins one fine day in Galbadia," Squall mumbled in a dead-pan tone into the sound amplifier, with the most horribly faked Centra accent he could muster. "The sorceress was doing her usual stuff, tearing up the streets and scaring little children into giving her their lollipops. However, she appears to have met her match. All the lollipops had already been stolen by a bandit, and that meant she could not have her usual fun of bullying children for lollipops. Now, the plot thickens, as the bandit and the sorceress faces off for all the stolen lollipops." Squall finished, stil lwith a dead-pan tone and a emotionless countenance.
There was a collective sweatdrop on the part of the audience.
Zidane took it as his cue to do something, and so he pushed his palm into Adel's face, breaking the silence between them.
There were 3 seconds of silence.
Then.
"YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Zidane whistled appreciatively, hopping backwards to get out of the ear-drum breaking range of the enraged sorceress. He managed to hop to a nearby stage prop when Adel made a swipe for him with her fingernails. He grinned inanely.
"Squall, I'm going to kill you." Cloud gave Squall the thumbs-down for his previous lollipop story and scowled massively. The teenager merely shrugged.
"Whatever." He said.
"Lollipops rulezZZZ~~~!!!" Zidane had somehow clambered all the way to the highest visible prop there was on stage and was currently leaping from bar to bar like a... well, monkey. In the meantime, he kept himself busy proclaiming the apparent sovereignty of lollipops.
More sweatdrops from the audiences could be seen.
While Adel continued shaking her fist at Zidane, Kuja blasted her with a flare spell, grinning maniacally as he did. Both Cloud and Squall turned blue in the face at the sight of that. This had degenerated into some spastic spell-tossing tournament.
Adel spun around, eyeing Kuja carefully.
"Actually," Kuja turned serious, the grin wiped off his face, "I've heard about all your plans from your knight." He shook his head. "Is this why you've come up with such an elaborate sham? To fulfill Hyne's half-wit prophecy about the travellers of time?"
"My goal is to take over Galbadia," Adel said, loud enough for everybody to hear, "and then destroy the enemies of Hyne." She frowned. "Have you never read the oracle of the Lunatic Pandora?"
When the rest of them stared at her with blank looks on their faces, she merely smirked.
"You will not have a chance to, then." She laughed. "For you shall die in this day, by my hands!"
The earth trembled and shivered, slowly, then quickly, to enter a full-scale earthquake, separating the people from the destined fighters. Kuja harumphed, quickly flying upwards to curb the damages, if any. What Adel did, however, was merely to lift the chunk of land the stage had been built on and toss it somewhere westwards, until it became a dot on the horizon. She then descended quickly into the valley she had just created, challenging the foursome with her evil smile as she did.
There was no time to think. There was only time to do. All four of them leapt in after Adel with no second thoughts.
The people quickly ran along, peering over the cliff of the valley, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was going on, and feeling rather stupid while they were at it. Thankfully for them, though, the valley was not too deep, and they could still see and hear what was going on downwards.
"Look," Adel was saying, as she stood in front of a half-buried structure covered with weird paintings, "the artifact of Hyne that will lead me into becoming the Chosen..."
The wind blew.
"That half-chipped fake crystal lookalike will lead you into what??" Cloud's mouth was agape with confusion.
"Hmm." Squall stroked his chin, pretending to understand but not knowing how that run-down junk could help anyone do anything.
"It doesn't look very edible." Zidane moaned.
"Don't try to eat it." Kuja rolled his eyes.
"..." Adel sweatdropped. "Go away." She sighed, tossing a large meteor spell as she spun around. "I've had enough of your idiocrasy. One more glance at you will make me sick."
The meteor hit the ground with a lot of noise but without much introduction or flourish. And the four of them were nowhere to be seen, after the cloud of dust cleared.
"You underestimate us, Adel," Kuja suddenly popped up from behind the large piece of space junk. He was followed quickly by the rest, who emerged from all directions. "Was that spell intended to hurt at all?" He smiled in mockery.
"You test my patience." The sorceress glared.
"And you, mine." Kuja glared right back.
"Sorceress," the black-robed man well-done with firaga suddenly appeared beside her, still well-done with firaga but at least conscious enough to talk now, "there is no need for this. Please consider your steps carefully."
"Hmph!" Adel snapped, still looking at the foursome with hot anger.
"Sorceress," the knight said firmly, "Hyne has not warned us against the time travellers for nothing. Please, consider your steps carefully."
For a while more, Adel continued staring at the four of them, jumping from one person to the other, unhappiness and annoyance showing in all of her actions. However, that moment soon passed and she closed her eyes, indeed considering her steps very carefully.
The knight was right.
Hyne had not warned his children about the time travellers for nothing.
She shifted her weight, preparing to leave.
"Oh, and leave that half-chipped crystal lookalike thingie you call an artifact behind, too." Zidane grinned maniacally, ignoring all possible dangers those words could put him to. He knew he had a strong team backing him, and being together with them always made him feel invincible.
The sorceress merely offered him a curt glance, before turning her back to them and preparing to leave with her knight, leaving the artifact behind.
"I don't get it." She was stopped by Kuja's voice, which she could feel was directed towards her.
"I don't get it at all." The red mage stood his ground, high on the fallen meteor rock, grave in his expressions, solemn in his tone.
"What would you gain by being the chosen child of Hyne?"
Adel's shoulders jerked slightly, as if she had just scoffed at the question.
Then, in a wistful voice, she answered.
"Even sorceresses... have things that they want..."
The winds began to hush.
"And sometimes... these things are so simple... nobody will believe it..."
She took a few steps forward, then disappeared in a split second. Her knight turned to glance at the group with an unreadable expression on his face, then he disappeared as well.
The starked terrain of the battleground that almost was howled sadly when a slow breeze travelled over it. It had many things to mourn about.
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hain no matsuei datta
2/3/2002
Footnote:
You know who Hyne is don't you? Hm? HHMMM??
Hyne is the first sorcerer/sorceress. The first to initiate the sorceress process. Therefore all sorceress are called his children, because their powers are from him. Hyne is generally thought to be sexless, but mostly referred to as a 'he'. Um... there's someone telling stories about Hyne in the house beside Zell's in FF8, I think. You can learn more about him from there.