Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ sore kara... ❯ monogatari da ( Chapter 30 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Standard disclaimers apply.


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sore kara...
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monogatari da


Cloud was running low on energy, and the sorceress wasn't giving him enough time to gulp down any item that would refresh him in that aspect. He had heard of how women can be really persistent when pissed, but this was completely new. Besides the initial Maelstrom, the sorceress hadn't needed any other recovery time at all. He could feel himself getting slower with each progressive spell. And he wasn't gaining any ground at all. He couldn't even get near within 3 metres of the sorceress to swing his blade at her without bumping into one Shell or another.

He swigged another long spell sequence and duck-rolled quickly so he could rest a bit and check on his comrades. Kuja had a triumphant hand in the air, with Zidane and Squall flanking him left and right. It looked like he had a perfect plan for thwarting the sorceress. Or so Cloud hoped.

"Hey Cloud, get out of the way!" Kuja pointed, ever so gracefully, at the mercenary who wasn't exactly having the time of his life.

"I wish I could!" Cloud replied, trying to imitate Kuja's pout, as he barely managed to avoid getting impaled by a loose icicle from a strong Blizzaga. He came to a sliding stop in front of the rest of his comrades, holding his huge blade outwards in preparation of any further attack from the opponent. "You sound like you have a fool-proof plan!" He managed to jibe while staring at the red mage from the corner of his eye.

"Maybe, maybe not," was Kuja's mysterious response.

"Enough!" It was the sorceress, and she didn't sound very happy. To bring her point across, she raised a finger and summoned a thick fog to surround the foursome.

"Oh, great..." Zidane's voice could be heard somewhere from within the fog. He didn't sound very happy either.

The fog progressively got thicker. Like a few thousand giant spiders had spun webs of oblivion around the four. They always said the darkness was impenetrable, but it appeared that the same also applied to all that was white. At least there were still sounds of the wind rushing against your ears. It would be horrid if nothing could be heard.

Soon, a dull silence settled over the group. Their senses were high on the alert, but it was unlikely that this would last for a long time. Between the continuous fog and the quickly being worn down heroes, it was a battle of patience and time they were definitely losing.

Zidane's eyes darted here and there. Being the most restless of the lot didn't contribute to the situathon. The Pumice glowed momentarily in his hand, then a sharp pain attacked him from within. Growling, he mentally cursed Necron to the ends of the universe and back, struggling at the same time to retain his emotional balance. He wasn't sure if what he saw next was an illusion or the real thing, but his body didn't really care. He was aching to do something, and even if it meant slashing at empty air, he would do it.

"En garde!" The boy tried to sound as playful as he could so his comrades could tell that he was trying to inject life into the dead atmosphere. Unfortunately, his strained voice coupled with the still throbbing sensation in his guts contributed to a more estranged pitch than Zidane had initially thought it would turn out to be. He winced.

"What? What??" Cloud was heard next. Even if he was not within sight, one could quite literally see him turning his head all around in confusion. "What is it??" He continued to ask, confused.

Zidane struck out at the image of the sorceress he thought he saw - and hit thin air. He quickly balanced himself on both feet and grinned. Not that anybody could see it, of course. "Sorry guys! Just got tricked by an illusion, good old Zidane!" He nodded and started scouring the whitish terrain for a shadow of someone familiar again. "At least it gave me something to do, you know?"

There was complete silence.

"Um, guys?" The golden-haired genome paused. He bit his lower lip and waited for a response.

And, there was none.

"Oookay, now this isn't funny at all, guys," the flustered bandit started walking, gradually gaining speed, until he finally was running, "Where are you guys? Hey, don't ignore me! Say something!"

Hostile sounds of cloth rustled from behind him. Zidane seized himself up and spun around, daggers at bay, quietly contemplating the terrain with sharp eyes. He looked to the left and right, and saw only the same thing. White. Pure white. The unsullied, pasty colour of purity and innocence. Definitely misleading. The genome's eyes narrowed. And the first flash of the supernatural skill known to all as Blizzara shot at him from the left, forcing him into a crouch.

Zidane managed to roll before the next spell destroyed where he had been crouching at. The mists cleared - recoiled against itself as the sorceress stepped into view in her new costume, with wards of ancient authority inscribed perfectly over her exposed skin. Of course, the usual Zidane would take this wonderful opportunity to balk and then chat up whoever was a soul as daring as such, but this was simply not the time for that. Instead Zidane began to take steps backwards, all the time never taking his eyes off the dangerous figure, as well as the surrounding, should the figure even be an illusion.

"My child," the sorceress spoke, "you are the one."

The genome kept quiet. Although his tail was a flurry of defiant movements.

The silence saw that the sorceress rose one hand into the skies, the majestic dark feathers perched on her shoulders following suit. The technicoloured surroundings visibly shuddered, then started to spiral around itself in a wormhole around her outstretched hand. "You are the one I must destroy!" She hid no malice from that statement, and with forceful strength directed the power she had gathered towards the hapless Zidane.

Pure power descended upon him before he realized what was going on. Gravity pulled at the soles of his feet, making him unable to move. "What the-" He tried - and failed, to get his body out of the primordial looking pattern of archaic symbols. Words continued to write itself in a perfect circle around him, until he was finally wholly consumed by the force it exerted.

"This," the sorceress Ultimecia calmly uttered, "is your Holy Judgment," as a blinding streak of light erupted from the core of the ward to attack their only target - the one they would judge, who was standing atop their court. Zidane's mouth opened to say something, but it was drowned out by the noise of the screams and shouts of previously maligned individuals, torn by force from their existence into one of despair. He was pulled into another dimension, where he would receive his punishment for standing in the way of the whimsical sorceress, bent to obtain her due in whatever way there was available.

As for the golden-haired bandit, he was powerless to stop the shearing pain from biting into his every nerve. The entire world was now rushing colours of black and white - and the variant tones in between. He wondered briefly what he was doing. And then he closed his eyes, resigning to the hurt, wondering that if he could pass out, would it perhaps stop.

Then from within him, another kind of pain grappled with his consciousness. He opened his eyes suddenly and gasped.

"That wasn't funny, Necron," he managed to breath, holding the spot of his imaginary pain with both hands.

Yet he understood why the jolt had been necessary. As much pain as he was in now, it wouldn't be anymore painful than the pain he would be in if the sorceress got her way, and everybody had to live in compressed time as her slave, without knowing when it would end. He braced himself and fought valiantly against the piercing colours. A darkness unlike the one the sorceress had thrown greeted him, bursting into the voids of dark and light in a comforting way. Zidane found his feet, and made sure he stayed on them. In a while more the howling and whistling around his ears ceased, and he found himself face to face with Ultimecia once more.

The sorceress looked on, emotionless.

And he was in an utter mess, he had to admit.

Breathing hard, he collapsed to the ground, unable to make any further advances. The sorceress then turned so that her back was towards him. She blurred and appeared again - but Zidane had long decided that it was useless depending on his eye to track the movement of the magically inclined. Her figure was quickly receding - melting into space. That just would not do. For this meant that she was done with him - and she was now going to prey on the rest of his companions.

An eerie glow illuminated Zidane from inside out. The inner strength buried within surged to make itself manifest. From his initial involuntary trembling, the genome steadied himself and began to instead visibly vibrate.

He glanced up, and his eyes flashed gold.

Grabbing the Pumice from the ground beside him, where he had dropped it, the boy conjured up his entire might, his entire force, and his entire spirit into the summon.

If he didn't break out of this dimension now, he was going to regret it.

With a defiant cry, Zidane unleashed the beast that laid dormant within the golden orb. He exhausted all his Trance on that one move alone and quickly collapsed in a heap on the ground. At the last absorption of the withering bandit's energy the Pumice stopped glowing, and returned to it's usual lustre.

Thereafter began a precise second of lurid silence.

The stars in this mini universe Ultimecia had put Zidane in began to spin around with great force and vigor, quaking the area noiselessly. Soon they became nothing but trails of luminosities stretching themselves across the inky backdrop of the cosmos.

The sorceress had stopped walking towards where she was going to. But she did not turn to face the monkey-boy.

Zidane's lips curled upwards into a sneaky smirk, baring the slightest bit of his pearly white teeth. At the very same time, behind him, the massive form of Ark broke out from wherever it had been hiding prior to the summoning, displaying the obligatory summon sequence before sidling up against the summoner in absolute obedience, awaiting the will of whoever had managed to call upon it.

The darkness had receded, time having been conquered by the colossal summoning, throwing Zidane back into the mist-filled dimension he had been pulled out from.

But Zidane had not forgotten where the sorceress last stood.

Unbuckling the Ultima Weapon from each other, he held one in each hand, struggling to his feet. Wiping the sweat on his brow and the blood slowly trickling down from his mouth, he stayed focused on his target. There was something inside of him pushing him into action. He had to get rid of the sorceress - although he was very sorry to Squall about that, because otherwise the sorceress would get rid of them. Nevermind if he would die trying. Zidane just couldn't stand the thought of letting Necron loose from captivity without having first put up one heck of a fight. As if sensing Zidane's readiness, the air around Ark stiffened.

Zidane slid into an attacking stance, daggers by his side.

He bent his knees.

Pushed forward.

And with full speed charged against the thick white mists - the only thing he presumed was between him and his target.

Like the sea being separated, the closer Zidane got to the mist the more they let him see what was beyond them. As the hypothesized distance closed in, Zidane lifted one dagger to attack and the other to defend as and when. Finally he could perceive a person standing where the sorceress had been.

Ignoring every warning signal his body gave him, ignoring the fact that his body didn't really want to do this, ignoring how he - Zidane, had seemingly taken back stage to another entity that was within him, the Tantulus bandit could only watch, like an uninvolved audience, as the dagger drove itself into the person who stood there, only stopping when it's width could no longer advance further into it's target.

A tiny speck of blood found itself landing on the pale, stunned face of the younger genome, completely stricken with what was unfolding before him.

Completely stricken with the fact that he was not going to be able to reverse this.

Both Cloud and Squall were staring at their comrades with eyes falling out of their sockets and mouths big enough for behemoths to climb in comfortably. The air was remarkably still with silence.

"Ku... Kuja..." Zidane found his voice first, the shock within his irises growing increasingly intense. "... I..."

He could say no further. His voice was drowned out by the tears welling up in his eyes.

From a far distance, the sorceress stood, watching without compassion, only awaiting for the time she could take advantage of the situation.

"Stupid monkey..." Kuja was using his whole might to force those words out of his mouth, as he craned his neck to look at his brother behind him, still holding onto the sword that was buried into his back, "... you were just... waiting for the chance to do that... weren't you... ?" he smiled without malice. As if he thought this whole thing was a big, big joke.

A big, big joke he knew would happen from the start.

"I'm sorry..." Zidane grabbed the hilt of his Ultima Weapon tighter, lowering his hot head in shame. He shook his head from side to side, unable to believe what he had just done. "... I'm sorry..."

The sorceress had placed the illusion there to trick any one of the four who would fall for it.

And Zidane had.

Now his Ultima weapon was sticking out of Kuja's back scornfully.

The same perfect circle of symbols began to trap the foursome, writing itself outwards as it had when it trapped Zidane. "This ends now, my eternal slaves!" The sorceress had a hand raised. "This is your Holy Judgement!"

But before the crushing whiteness descended upon them, a dark vortex rippled out from the center of the two genomes and wiped the entire scene away, switching it off as effortlessly as one would to a television with a remote. Cloud and Squall glanced at each other questioningly, both not comprehending the situation fully. Their attention was soon stolen by the neon blue figure rising up from the shadows. They gaped.

"Stop, Necron!" Zidane's voice was full of fear and desperation as he exerted the last of his energy to shout. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"That's Necron..." Cloud found that he was only able to repeat mindlessly.

Squall nodded. "Sure seems so."

The Eternal Darkness noticed that he was being watched. Turning his multi-eyed visage to Cloud and Squall, his glance lingered on them for a long moment.

Those eyes were unmoving, and depthless.

"I must be on my way, brave souls," the being spoke without opening his mouth, "just like you must be on your way."

Before they could demand an explanation, Necron zipped away, back into the shadows.

This time, however, not into the shadows of Zidane.

Into the shadows of Kuja.

And the silver-haired genome remained still for a only a while more before coughing and tilting his head slightly. "Do you mind, Zidane," he asked in a smooth voice, almost as if he wasn't injured at all, "that thing is beginning to irritate me. Kindly pull it out."

"...." Zidane's mouth was wide open. He blinked in disbelief.

Kuja coughed again, this time, along with a rather considerable amount of blood. "Pull it out!" He commanded, brimming with irritation.

"But..." The bandit was confused, "... I..."

Ignoring the doubt in Zidane's voice, Kuja narrowed his eyes in frustration. "Pull it out..." He growled, forcing the golden-haired boy to squeeze his eyes shut in preparation of what was to come. "... NOW!"

Zidane obeyed. He slid the single Ultima Weapon messily out from his older brother's back, eyes closed tight during the whole event. He wanted to ignore seeing the weapon - HIS weapon, covered with the blood of the person he had tried to protect. He wanted to ignore the reek of fresh blood pouring out of the same person, spattering over his face, over his clothes.

He wanted to stop the tears from finding their way out of his closed eyes.

The befouled dagger slid across the floor to another end of the room, abandoned, and perhaps never to be retrieved. Effectively stunned at the turn of events, Cloud and Squall stood rooted to where they had been standing, unable to determine what would happen next. Zidane collapsed backwards to the ground heavily, with eyes still closed. Kuja was a flash of silver and purple as he, too, fell forward until the only things holding him up were his palms and knees. He coughed up an unhealthy amount of blood, staining the floor before him. A noticable amount lingered on his lips and chin, which he took care to wipe away with the back of his palm. He gave a little, derisive snort.

Then with sudden determination, Kuja scampered to his feet and held the wound on his abdomen. He turned to Squall and pointed. "Now, Squall!"

Momentarily taken aback, realization soon hit home and Squall recalled what Kuja had requested for him to do prior to the whole upheaval. Giving a dumb nod he briefly recalled gesturing Cloud aside before getting into position.

Streams of power rushed out from where the dark-haired SeeD stood, to violently jump into the wobbly ex-villain, struggling to keep his feet firm on the ground.

"What's going on?" Cloud was beyond confused. He turned to look at the only other seemingly unoccupied individual, but decided that he wouldn't be getting any answers from Zidane, still in a state of shock. At this precise moment in time Squall chose to open his eyes, breaking out of his concentration. The SeeD raised the Lionheart and swung it backwards, as if he was hooked onto something and was now trying to fish it out. He didn't look like he was very successful, for the sword lingered in that position longer than it would take to draw anything out from it's original spot.

Cloud then turned to see where Squall was drawing from. He wasn't really surprised to see that the bright, rainbow coloured stream of energy from Squall was plugged directly at Kuja.

He was, however, rather surprised to see that as Kuja continued to wobble about his feet, the wound Zidane had opened up on his body was beginning to heal with an insanely impossible speed.

The bright-haired mercenary reassessed the situation. *Looks like Squall's trying to draw something out from Kuja...* His eyes narrowed. *... don't tell me he's trying to draw...*

His thoughts were interrupted with a menial fire spell, thrown at him from the general direction of Kuja.

"Having your head in the clouds at a time like this?" Kuja smiled weakly. "How about you put your time into better use by throwing a Firaga at me?" As if anticipating Cloud's fear, Kuja placated it with a wink.

"Don't worry, I'm a lot more fire resistant than you give me credit for."

Cloud remained doubtful only for a second more. Then he picked the materia and channeled his spirit into it, instantaneously conjuring a massive inferno and then sending it towards the person who had requested it.

The silver-haired genome had his smile fixed in place, although his eyes was now downcast. He ignored the bug-eyed Zidane who was still seated behind him, closing his eyes as a final respite to this short, tremulous time with his friends.

"Time truly does not wait..."

The spell hit dead center, knocking Kuja off his feet and into the arms of the even more confused Zidane. At the same time Squall made a final lunge and won, drawing out a large, pulsating blob of darkness which had been hiding from the now semi-conscious Kuja. The darkness entered into Squall, who only blinked and started checking his junctions. Cloud's hand was still outstretched in the position he had taken to cast the Firaga.

A calm, comfortable silence took over the company.

Until the scene started to shift, forwarding them through the worlds in it's different phases of life, shaking the foundations of the planet, but not affecting the four of them in any noticable way.

Slowly, surely, the world became visible through the now fading forms of the four travellers of time. Many words were striving to come out of the throats of the four, none eventually being voiced. Until Cloud bravely tried to say something before his comrades, his brother-in-arms, vanished without a trace, thrown back to another time without him having even wished them goodbye.

"I'm guessing the removal of Necron means time has been released," he shouted, hoping his friends would hear him through the noise.

"You guess right." Squall nodded. He didn't look very well, though. For it didn't take a genius to figure out that no one could hold the Eternal Darkness within themselves without at least suffering a bit.

"... Will you be all right?" Zidane's ghostly voice was addressed to the SeeD.

The boy held a thumbs up. "As long as I don't try to junction that weirdo."

Cloud saw that they were all nearly invisible by now. Himself included. "Bye guys," he sputtered in a sudden spur of emotion, "I hope I see you again."

The world was then quickly painted over with a coat of white, the disparaging noises of the winds of another dimension stopping completely, without much fanfare or announcement.

The last thing Cloud remembered before vanishing completely, were the smiling faces of Squall and Zidane.

No matter how impossible it seemed, perhaps it wasn't all that unbelievable to look forward to that one day, where somehow, they would see each other - again.


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monogatari datta
31/12/2002
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