Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ torikaesu ( Chapter 26 )
[ 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: 02.27.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.1K | Visits: 202 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 02.27.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.1K | Visits: 202 | Status: Completed
Standard disclaimers apply.
Special thanks: Shuui, nyann, Nefas - for infusing fear into sentences... :O
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
torikaesu
The y stalked down the hallways of Oeilvert, scaring the little monsters that hung out there. Kuja had no idea what had possessed him to even enter into this place. Being a mage in practice, coming to a place where magic was rendered useless was tantamount to suicide. It was a big no-no. Even the insane wouldn't attempt it.
But sad to say, his curiousity had won. He wanted to see what the oracles looked like. He wanted to hear what they had to say. He wanted to know something - anything about what the future held.
He wanted most of all, to know if they could lead him to solving time compression, so that things would return to normal. Then maybe he could live the rest of his life out in peace.
They arrived at the familiar looking room filled from top to toe with scary looking metallic heads. Kuja remembered having ever seen it once during his time, but at that time the heads were broken and ruined, crumbling from the onslaught of time and tide. Now, however, these heads were beautiful and bright. One could clearly see how exquisitely crafted they were, and being a fan of all things bright, Kuja found himself unable to stop taking in the view with a quiet aura of admiration.
"Stand atop the podium." Garland solemnly commanded. Kuja rewarded him with a nasty pout, but slowly, hesitantly climbed atop the platform as instructed.
When both his foot connected with the pedestral floor, he could literally see himself blurring, like a child had recklessly poured a gaussian blur effect on him. The world trembled - or maybe it was just him, but no sooner than he had regained his balance, did he feel like he had trascended into another dimension altogether.
Suddenly, the faces were alive, and they were staring at him with their eyes of age and experience. He turned in all directions, feeling like an object on public display under severe scrutiny. Never had this room awed him so much as now. It was like he was literally standing in a courtroom, waiting for witnesses to give their testimonies. Upon becoming satisfied with gawking at the faces which had become real in an instance, Kuja settled down and waited for something to happen.
"Greetings, visitor," an old voice rusted with age boomed from his right, which he quickly turned to face. "What is it you seek?"
The silver-haired villian blinked. He turned to look downwards, where Garland was quietly mulling around. Seeing no point in asking him anything, he turned back to the warm looking face who was apparently still waiting for a response from him. A frown beset his quaint features. He hadn't remembered ever hearing the faces in this room asking him questions and waiting for an answer.
"You stepped on the dias and it rose," the voice patiently continued, "an indication of one worthy to speak to. Now, child, what is your question, and who will answer you from among this room of witnesses?"
In an instance Kuja's mind raced to piece the pieces together. Apparently these faces could detect what matter was of concern to the one standing upon the platform, and answer them accordingly. No matter how shocked he was at the moment, Kuja knew that he had to count on this chance to understand some things better. And the first thing that came to his mind was promptly answered by another face from the top left portion of the dome, stretching outwards to get his attention.
"The children of Hyne are not as hard to detect as many perceive them to be," the face said, "They reside where their heart is, always..." The voice paused, then continued, saying, "Untie the knots in the chosen child, and all of time shall be solved..."
It receded back into the wall, staying silent, his moment over. Only to be taken over by yet another face, who protruded from the wall to gain attention.
"Four warriors of time will journey to erase the mistakes of Hyne," the voice uttered, capturing Kuja's attention - for this was the part he had been hearing Garland talk about, "four will fall, three will rise. The eternal darkness repressed, the final destiny awaits..."
The face regressed, and another popped out from behind Kuja.
"The riddle of paths and processions..." it began, a short introduction to an important message, "... if one starts from his heart, one walks the road of a beloved. If one starts from his feel, one walks the road of a human. If one starts from his view, one walks the road of a hero."
The lightbulb on Kuja's head literally lit up, although his face remained impeccably unreadable. There were certain keywords in this riddle which struck him as strangely familiar. Now if only he could find out why...
Before that happened the face had already returned to statis. Another face continued from where it left off, as it mumbled, "The road of a beloved crosses the road of a human. The road of a human crosses the road of a hero. The road of a hero crosses the road of a beloved." The face receded.
Then one more face, the one who had greeted him at the outset, pushed forward and looked at Kuja straight in the eye.
"No road shall lead into the final destiny." The words were mouthed slowly, and Kuja's eyes progressively narrowed in concentration, "All roads shall." The face finished it's piece, still staring at Kuja in the eye.
The platform descended back to ground level, and the illusions dispersed from Kuja's mind like mist against a strong wind. He blinked, and the room had already returned to it's original state when he entered - a hollow, empty, and lifeless cast of metallic faces staring down at him just like he stared up to them.
It looked like from time past to now, this room never failed to utterly confound him with their incoherent babble.
"THIS," Kuja spoke to the only other person in the room who was listening, "is that oracle thing you were talking about?"
Garland remained incredibly silent.
"I think," the silver-haired man strutted off the platform twisting his lip in contempt, "that this has been quite an utter waste of time."
Striding forward, attempting to maintain his strong front, Kuja crossed paths with the unmoving Garland, never turning sideways to spare him a glance, never looking backwards to show a sign of regret.
His moment with Garland in this time was over.
A moment more and he was bound to suffocate.
-------------------------------
Clou d cut down the last of the coloured domino lookalike monsters lurking around the region of the desert palace and sighed. "Well Squall?" He checked on the current leader Zidane and himself were trying to cover while he went about feeling his way around the palace with that awesome ability he had declared his GF had. "Are we getting there yet?"
The reply was silence. Typical.
Noticing a pair of electrifying leopard eyes from the corner of his eye, Cloud quickly cast a wind spell in hopes of scaring the monster away. He was not interested in capturing a whirlwind of attention with anymore loud sword clashes. Any sound they made reverberated through the large hallways like they had spoken through a thousand and one amplifiers. And thus, more and more monsters gathered where they were, hoping to perhaps bite a chunk of them off for dinner. Nearby, Zidane had just finished flying kick another random monster over the railing and sent it plummeting down. The monkey boy sighed and looked uptight. Cloud wasn't feeling any better himself.
And they had only been walking around for less than half an hour.
Suddenly, Squall broke into a run, leaving two confused blondes behind, wondering what was going on. Of course, they gave chase. There was no logic in letting one person out of the brood.
"Hey, wait up!" Zidane called out at the SeeD, who tore down the corridors like a mad man on a wild streak. The wind brushed by his face, and the sound of their footsteps boomed loudly in his ear, reminding him how big, how lifeless, and how lonely this place was. In spite of all it's beauty, all it's elegance, despite how rich and awe-inspiring this place proved to be, it was just like an empty shell to an abandoned soul. A haven wanting but deserted of existence and verve.
Just like Kuja.
Zidane started at the connection. He could feel his own cold sweat rolling off his head, reminding him of what he had just been thinking of. He was still rushing down the hallways of the palace with speed and agility, but his mind was somewhere far away.
This place was so familiar.
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
As the boy continued running, so did the wheels to the floodgates of his memories.
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
He shook his head so that he would stop thinking about,
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
But by the time Squall led them down a flight of stairs, and through the twin statues donned with large wings and decorated with candles and candlestands, he could feel a mounting amount of pressure on his head - similiar yet different, to the times when he could feel his consciousness being taken over by someone else... something else...
They broke through a door (hacked through, actually) and scrambled past a long forgotten grand piano, dusty with age.
Lingering fear crept down Zidane's soul as his eyes widened at the sight before him, and what he was afraid laid ahead. But the momentum was in swing, and he had no intention of stopping here. Bracing himself, he swallowed hard and gained entrance into the next room, where his two comrades had stopped and were examining.
Zidane stopped as well.
But he could not stop the gears that had been set in motion the moment he step foot upon this desert palace.
He could not stop the torrent of voices from barging through the cognizant part of his conciousness.
He could not stop the stream of images from filtering through the closed doors of memories into his aware mind.
"... zidane..."
Baku... and the boys from Tantulus...
"... Zidane..."
The kidnap of the Princess... which ended up making him save the world...
"Zidane..."
All that had happened, just before the Iifa tree roots twisted in his face and sealed his recollection.
"Zidane!"
Or was it truly the Iifa tree which had done that... ?
"ZIDANE!!"
"Ouch!" The monkey boy felt his head going closer to the floor, but recovered in time to regain his balance, glaring at the person who had done that. "Hey!" He protested, rubbing his head at the same time. "What did I do now?" He whined.
"Hm!" Cloud nodded, "Looks like he's still him!"
"Well anyway," Squall cut in before Zidane started griping about how unfair the world was, "we've hit a dead end for this chamber here, and I think the coins are in the proximity."
"There are some pods across this catwalk," Cloud pointed down the metal bridge, "maybe we could try those first, since the coins seem to be concealed somewhere we can't see... ... Zidane? What are you doing?" The mercenaries watched the tail-boy make his way down the bridge without waiting for his companion to finish. Like a man possessed he strolled towards one of the pods to the left of the bridge and stood in front of it, taking this time to stare at the door and consider his options. The rest of the cohort caught up with him while he pondered.
"Out of so many doors, this is what your instincts tell you to choose?" Squall asked in wonderment.
"Not instincts," Zidane flicked open a panel by the side of the door, steathily keying in the numbers needed to make the heavy doors groan and tremble, lifting themselves up from the ground.
"Just a gamble on my newfound knowledge." He grinned at his two friends, as the door slowly opened to reveal the inwards of the chamber.
Staring right back at them from the exact center of the metallic floor inside, were two shiny coins emitting an all round familiar aura of mystic.
"And what do you know," the bandit was smiling, although his eyes told another story altogether, "it looks like I've won this round, at the very least!"
-------------------------------
torikaeshita
16/12/2002
http://www.tougenkyou.net/xd/
*shameless plug*
Join the VnYmaGCc!!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VnYmaGCc/
What are you waiting for? Vincent and Yuffie makes a great couple!! :D
Special thanks: Shuui, nyann, Nefas - for infusing fear into sentences... :O
-------------------------------
sore kara...
-------------------------------
torikaesu
The y stalked down the hallways of Oeilvert, scaring the little monsters that hung out there. Kuja had no idea what had possessed him to even enter into this place. Being a mage in practice, coming to a place where magic was rendered useless was tantamount to suicide. It was a big no-no. Even the insane wouldn't attempt it.
But sad to say, his curiousity had won. He wanted to see what the oracles looked like. He wanted to hear what they had to say. He wanted to know something - anything about what the future held.
He wanted most of all, to know if they could lead him to solving time compression, so that things would return to normal. Then maybe he could live the rest of his life out in peace.
They arrived at the familiar looking room filled from top to toe with scary looking metallic heads. Kuja remembered having ever seen it once during his time, but at that time the heads were broken and ruined, crumbling from the onslaught of time and tide. Now, however, these heads were beautiful and bright. One could clearly see how exquisitely crafted they were, and being a fan of all things bright, Kuja found himself unable to stop taking in the view with a quiet aura of admiration.
"Stand atop the podium." Garland solemnly commanded. Kuja rewarded him with a nasty pout, but slowly, hesitantly climbed atop the platform as instructed.
When both his foot connected with the pedestral floor, he could literally see himself blurring, like a child had recklessly poured a gaussian blur effect on him. The world trembled - or maybe it was just him, but no sooner than he had regained his balance, did he feel like he had trascended into another dimension altogether.
Suddenly, the faces were alive, and they were staring at him with their eyes of age and experience. He turned in all directions, feeling like an object on public display under severe scrutiny. Never had this room awed him so much as now. It was like he was literally standing in a courtroom, waiting for witnesses to give their testimonies. Upon becoming satisfied with gawking at the faces which had become real in an instance, Kuja settled down and waited for something to happen.
"Greetings, visitor," an old voice rusted with age boomed from his right, which he quickly turned to face. "What is it you seek?"
The silver-haired villian blinked. He turned to look downwards, where Garland was quietly mulling around. Seeing no point in asking him anything, he turned back to the warm looking face who was apparently still waiting for a response from him. A frown beset his quaint features. He hadn't remembered ever hearing the faces in this room asking him questions and waiting for an answer.
"You stepped on the dias and it rose," the voice patiently continued, "an indication of one worthy to speak to. Now, child, what is your question, and who will answer you from among this room of witnesses?"
In an instance Kuja's mind raced to piece the pieces together. Apparently these faces could detect what matter was of concern to the one standing upon the platform, and answer them accordingly. No matter how shocked he was at the moment, Kuja knew that he had to count on this chance to understand some things better. And the first thing that came to his mind was promptly answered by another face from the top left portion of the dome, stretching outwards to get his attention.
"The children of Hyne are not as hard to detect as many perceive them to be," the face said, "They reside where their heart is, always..." The voice paused, then continued, saying, "Untie the knots in the chosen child, and all of time shall be solved..."
It receded back into the wall, staying silent, his moment over. Only to be taken over by yet another face, who protruded from the wall to gain attention.
"Four warriors of time will journey to erase the mistakes of Hyne," the voice uttered, capturing Kuja's attention - for this was the part he had been hearing Garland talk about, "four will fall, three will rise. The eternal darkness repressed, the final destiny awaits..."
The face regressed, and another popped out from behind Kuja.
"The riddle of paths and processions..." it began, a short introduction to an important message, "... if one starts from his heart, one walks the road of a beloved. If one starts from his feel, one walks the road of a human. If one starts from his view, one walks the road of a hero."
The lightbulb on Kuja's head literally lit up, although his face remained impeccably unreadable. There were certain keywords in this riddle which struck him as strangely familiar. Now if only he could find out why...
Before that happened the face had already returned to statis. Another face continued from where it left off, as it mumbled, "The road of a beloved crosses the road of a human. The road of a human crosses the road of a hero. The road of a hero crosses the road of a beloved." The face receded.
Then one more face, the one who had greeted him at the outset, pushed forward and looked at Kuja straight in the eye.
"No road shall lead into the final destiny." The words were mouthed slowly, and Kuja's eyes progressively narrowed in concentration, "All roads shall." The face finished it's piece, still staring at Kuja in the eye.
The platform descended back to ground level, and the illusions dispersed from Kuja's mind like mist against a strong wind. He blinked, and the room had already returned to it's original state when he entered - a hollow, empty, and lifeless cast of metallic faces staring down at him just like he stared up to them.
It looked like from time past to now, this room never failed to utterly confound him with their incoherent babble.
"THIS," Kuja spoke to the only other person in the room who was listening, "is that oracle thing you were talking about?"
Garland remained incredibly silent.
"I think," the silver-haired man strutted off the platform twisting his lip in contempt, "that this has been quite an utter waste of time."
Striding forward, attempting to maintain his strong front, Kuja crossed paths with the unmoving Garland, never turning sideways to spare him a glance, never looking backwards to show a sign of regret.
His moment with Garland in this time was over.
A moment more and he was bound to suffocate.
-------------------------------
Clou d cut down the last of the coloured domino lookalike monsters lurking around the region of the desert palace and sighed. "Well Squall?" He checked on the current leader Zidane and himself were trying to cover while he went about feeling his way around the palace with that awesome ability he had declared his GF had. "Are we getting there yet?"
The reply was silence. Typical.
Noticing a pair of electrifying leopard eyes from the corner of his eye, Cloud quickly cast a wind spell in hopes of scaring the monster away. He was not interested in capturing a whirlwind of attention with anymore loud sword clashes. Any sound they made reverberated through the large hallways like they had spoken through a thousand and one amplifiers. And thus, more and more monsters gathered where they were, hoping to perhaps bite a chunk of them off for dinner. Nearby, Zidane had just finished flying kick another random monster over the railing and sent it plummeting down. The monkey boy sighed and looked uptight. Cloud wasn't feeling any better himself.
And they had only been walking around for less than half an hour.
Suddenly, Squall broke into a run, leaving two confused blondes behind, wondering what was going on. Of course, they gave chase. There was no logic in letting one person out of the brood.
"Hey, wait up!" Zidane called out at the SeeD, who tore down the corridors like a mad man on a wild streak. The wind brushed by his face, and the sound of their footsteps boomed loudly in his ear, reminding him how big, how lifeless, and how lonely this place was. In spite of all it's beauty, all it's elegance, despite how rich and awe-inspiring this place proved to be, it was just like an empty shell to an abandoned soul. A haven wanting but deserted of existence and verve.
Just like Kuja.
Zidane started at the connection. He could feel his own cold sweat rolling off his head, reminding him of what he had just been thinking of. He was still rushing down the hallways of the palace with speed and agility, but his mind was somewhere far away.
This place was so familiar.
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
As the boy continued running, so did the wheels to the floodgates of his memories.
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
He shook his head so that he would stop thinking about,
The ornate flooring, the meticulous stained glass paintings, the scrupulously sculptured statues.
But by the time Squall led them down a flight of stairs, and through the twin statues donned with large wings and decorated with candles and candlestands, he could feel a mounting amount of pressure on his head - similiar yet different, to the times when he could feel his consciousness being taken over by someone else... something else...
They broke through a door (hacked through, actually) and scrambled past a long forgotten grand piano, dusty with age.
Lingering fear crept down Zidane's soul as his eyes widened at the sight before him, and what he was afraid laid ahead. But the momentum was in swing, and he had no intention of stopping here. Bracing himself, he swallowed hard and gained entrance into the next room, where his two comrades had stopped and were examining.
Zidane stopped as well.
But he could not stop the gears that had been set in motion the moment he step foot upon this desert palace.
He could not stop the torrent of voices from barging through the cognizant part of his conciousness.
He could not stop the stream of images from filtering through the closed doors of memories into his aware mind.
"... zidane..."
Baku... and the boys from Tantulus...
"... Zidane..."
The kidnap of the Princess... which ended up making him save the world...
"Zidane..."
All that had happened, just before the Iifa tree roots twisted in his face and sealed his recollection.
"Zidane!"
Or was it truly the Iifa tree which had done that... ?
"ZIDANE!!"
"Ouch!" The monkey boy felt his head going closer to the floor, but recovered in time to regain his balance, glaring at the person who had done that. "Hey!" He protested, rubbing his head at the same time. "What did I do now?" He whined.
"Hm!" Cloud nodded, "Looks like he's still him!"
"Well anyway," Squall cut in before Zidane started griping about how unfair the world was, "we've hit a dead end for this chamber here, and I think the coins are in the proximity."
"There are some pods across this catwalk," Cloud pointed down the metal bridge, "maybe we could try those first, since the coins seem to be concealed somewhere we can't see... ... Zidane? What are you doing?" The mercenaries watched the tail-boy make his way down the bridge without waiting for his companion to finish. Like a man possessed he strolled towards one of the pods to the left of the bridge and stood in front of it, taking this time to stare at the door and consider his options. The rest of the cohort caught up with him while he pondered.
"Out of so many doors, this is what your instincts tell you to choose?" Squall asked in wonderment.
"Not instincts," Zidane flicked open a panel by the side of the door, steathily keying in the numbers needed to make the heavy doors groan and tremble, lifting themselves up from the ground.
"Just a gamble on my newfound knowledge." He grinned at his two friends, as the door slowly opened to reveal the inwards of the chamber.
Staring right back at them from the exact center of the metallic floor inside, were two shiny coins emitting an all round familiar aura of mystic.
"And what do you know," the bandit was smiling, although his eyes told another story altogether, "it looks like I've won this round, at the very least!"
-------------------------------
torikaeshita
16/12/2002
http://www.tougenkyou.net/xd/
*shameless plug*
Join the VnYmaGCc!!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VnYmaGCc/
What are you waiting for? Vincent and Yuffie makes a great couple!! :D