Final Fantasy IV: The Quest Of The Paladin, A Novelisation.
Note to all. I have decided to make this, a novelisation of my favourite game ever, Final Fantasy IV. I know I am a crappy fanfic writer, however unlike my previous work, the horrendous Mental Goat Stupid, I am sober as I write this. After posting this first chapter, I'll rely on you people to tell me weither I should continue or not. If you want me to stop, I will, and likewise if you tell me to carry it on. Also tell me if it's really horrible, I will delete it promptly, and see to it that no-one else will have to endure something if it really sucks, then again Mental Goat seemed like a good idea at the time as well. I am doing this for a variety of reasons, 1: I have never read a good Final Fantasy IV fic. If there is one, tell me immediately, 2: Final Fantasy IV kicks ass, 3: I wanted to make subtle changes to make it more dramatic. 4: If Final Fantasy IV was remade in 3-D, I would want it to be like this. Enjoy
Chapter 1: The Skies Of Baron
The majestic red airships of Baron blazed through the brilliant blue sky. These were the ships of the infamous Red Wings, the main military force to the great kingdom, Baron. They had a traditional, red painted wooden exterior. Each side generously decorated with openings for cannons, should serious war ever surface. After all, war was expected after Barons attack on the magicians city, Mysidia. The interior was luxurious to say the least, but only if you were in the more high up ranks. With the expensive Champaign being served as if it were free and don't forget the magnificent Eblanese cuisine being handed to you from all angles, you could quite easily mistake this place for heaven. For your average soldier, however, life as a Red Wing was hard. Being restricted to claustrophobic living conditions and eating food far past it's use by date, only because theres nothing left, is hell. The deck was made up of hard wooden boards. It was in no mans language basic, for the Red Wing ships seemed to make anything look good, bar the soldier cabins of course. There were five of these ships passing through the sky, in a perfect, upside down "V" formation. On the leading ship was the captain of the Red Wings, Cecil.
Cecil Harvey was, and had always been, hard-working. By the time he was ten he had a steady job on top of being the top of his class at school. He was a rather tall young man, but wasn't a tower. He had medium length dark blue hair, it's because his hair always looked greasy that many people though he was a lowly peasant. His light blue eyes however were similar to the sea on a sunny day. They had a suspicious look in them however. Not bacause Cecil was a paranoid, suspicious guy, he was just quick to act out of anger, and he was rather careful of that. His pale skin made him look horribly under-nourished and because he was also a rather skinny guy he looked as though he had came from a poor family. If you didn't know who to look for, you wouldn't guess him as "The Hero of Baron," or even as the "Captain of The Red Wings," which was his proper title. When he was fifteen he took up training as a soldier. However, it was his magnificent skill with a blade that sent him down a different path of training; the path of the Red Wing. In two short years he had mastered the "Dark Sword," a technique which can take the average person up to fifty years to master. The King of Baron was most impressed, not only because of the boys skill, but also with his age, and the fact that he learned a complex ability in a fraction of the time. Immediately after learning this ability he was given a job in the Red Wings. It took him a mere four months to be promoted to Captain status. Cecil was often described by regular people as either a legendary warrior, or an unstoppable terrorist.
The Red Wings normally have a red uniform with yellow stripes down the arms, as do most captains, it is only because the king had him fitted with a special armour to compliment his weapon style that Cecil stood out. He had dark blue armour and his undershirt and trousers however were made of a black material with mystical properties. When he wore it, it made him want to fight, the anger fueled him through many victories. It also made him rather agile, and was good at protecting his skin. When he wore this, he barely suffered a scratch
On board the ship was the only place that Cecil really felt at home. Sure, he was royalty as far as the military goes, but this was the only place where he really felt in control of his surroundings, the ONLY place where people respected him instead of feared him. The only place where it was somewhat acceptable to wield a cursed weapon. Cecil gazed towards Mysidia, entranced by the beautiful forest, the magnificent mountains and the crisp sea that surrounded it. He was over the Mysidian sea, but he was going home. Back to Baron, and to Rosa. A single tear fell from the eyes of one of the lesser Red Wings. Coale was not usually one to let his feelings show, but he just had to let it out. He last at least an inch taller than Cecil, and was roughly two years older. He had a light tan in his skin, ruffled brown hair, and dark eyes. The tear fell suddenly, as if he was waking from a trance. It rolled down his cheek, and landed on the wooden floor. It was now that he spoke up.
"What did we do?" he said softly, then he spoke a little louder. "What the hell did we do!" Cecil broke away from his gaze on the now distant Mysidian coastline and walked towards Coale. His first intention was to comfort the, obviously rather upset man, but then Cecil began to think to himself. Wait, he's a soldier, he should be able to look after himself. He can't spend his life crying for things that cannot be helped.
"Hey, Coale, you did good today. You shouldn't worry, we got what we came for." All Cecil wanted was to encourage the guy. He did, of course kill more of the enemy than even Cecil did. "The mission would have failed if it weren't for you. You should be proud of yourself," Cecil reassured him.
"What the hell did we do today captain?" Coale asked.
"We took the Water Crystal." Cecil answered. He was now growing annoyed with the soldier.
"Yeah, but we took the crystal from a bunch of magicians who didn't even TRY to resist!" Anger was growing in Coales voice.
"His Majesty has already said that we need the crystal. The mages knew too much of the crystals secret and, therefore, were a threat to us." Cecil said this informatively. His Majesty has already told us this, why don't you listen?
"And that's why we murdered the Mysidians? To attack a fully armed country is war, but to steal a shiny crystal for the King's trophy, killing several innocent people in order to achieve the task is cowardice!" Coale was really upset now, and there were tears in his voice. Another drop fell to the soldier of his red uniform.
"We were doing as the king desired," Cecil said, "and by the way Coale, you killed more than anyone today." Cecil gloated. Cecil regretted the fateful words as soon as he had let them escape his lips, but nothing can change the past. He expected what he got.
"I'm not proud of what I did sir, but do "Kings wishes" justify mindless slaughter?!" Coale yelled at his superior. Punishment meant jack-shit to him now. They could chop of the bastards head, but the truth never remains silent. At least not in Coales eyes.
"If I were you, I would never have said that. Because I'm such a nice 'murderer,' I will give you another chance, however you'd better do a hell of a lot of ass-kissing before you get that promotion you've been bitching about." Cecil was ready to turn and forget it had ever happened. He wasn't really going to hold out on Coales promotion, it was an empty threat. How could he take away a promotion from someone who is supporting a wife and a child, with another one on the way. All he wanted was for the young soldier to get back in line. Coale spat at his superior. It was a good shot too, right in the eye. Spinning around, Cecil drew his sword and quickly raised it to the soldiers neck, holding the hilt with his right hand in one quick movement. The Dark grayish-blue blade glinted in the sunlight. Cecil was lucky he had good control. Anyone trying to make a closer strike would have sliced the boy's throat.
"I should kill you for that now. Insulting a military leader is a felony, you should know that. YOU sentenced the villiage drunk to death for attempting to push you into the mud," Cecil said. Almost twenty Red Wings had gathered on the deck. For someone with a sword pointed at their neck, Coale was acting rather calm. He had stopped crying, and was more focused towards anger than to sadness and remorse.
"Wouldn't that screw up your career Cecil? The career that is so fucking important to you? so much more important than another humans life?!" Coale was really pissed off now. He seemed to forget the sword pointed at his neck. The thing that hurt Cecil was the fact that everything Coale had said was true. What the hell had happened to him? What would Rosa say? What would the great kingdom of Baron say? 'Cecil? you mean the murderer who thought he was above all other life?' Cecil hated Coale for what he had said. He didn't think he was above all other life. He only did what he did, because the military was all Cecil had really had in his life. Cecil muttered under his breath...
"DarkWave" The force pushed Cecil back a couple of feet, and a gust of black wind sent Coale flying over the side of the ship. Coale almost fell off the side, but one of his colleagues grabbed on to Coales foot. The soldier was dangling over the edge of the airship. Cecil sheathed his sword and began to walk into the cabins when the pilot yelled an announcement into the loudspeaker.
"Monsters attacking from behind! Arm yourselves! Protect the Crystal, and the land of His Majesty, King Baron the Thirty-seventh!" Cecil looked toward the crystal. I could use just a tiny bit of the crystals magic. All that's going to come of the crystal is further death to whoever our next enemy is, but I can use the crystal to help people. I will save the Red Wings. I will be a hero. I can help with it's power... There were too many thoughts about the crystal going through Cecil's head at the time. It's like death wasn't a possibility. The crystal was making him forget about his sword, even what he had done to the Mysidians and to Coale. Without hesitation he took the crystal in him right hand, his shield in his left. With all his might, he squeezed the crystal.
A baby Zuu was gaining on the ship. It's huge wings flapping. A sickly stench was drowning the ship. The creatures obese, rotting flesh was catching up to the ship. It's hollow, soulless body was following the Red Wings closely. Coale readied his bow and shot and arrow that pierced the giant birds eye. It staggered a bit, and slowly fell into the sea, struggly to keep alive. Another Zuu approached, a fully grown one this time. Again, Coale readied his bow and fired. The giant bird dodged. Another Red Wing ran to strike the Zuu with a sword. He jumped onto the creatures back and, with all his might, drove his cold, silver-steel blade into the creatures back. This injured the Zuu, but it was not dead yet. With all of it's might it darted across the sky in front of the ships, showing everyone. They onlooked in horror. However, the soldier on his back stayed where he was, for now, anyways. The twenty-five foot bird finally flung him off into the air. As the brave soldier fell, the Zuu swooped down, and caught the warrior in it's horrible jaws.
It was when the Zuu came back for the main course that Cecil closed his eyes in fear and muttered a spell under his breath. When he opened his eyes the gargantuan bird was still burning away, and beginning to fall away in a pile of ash into the sea. There were still a few more monsters left and they were gaining on the ship quickly. Two Zuu's and a Cockatrice mounted Imp were flying towards the ship. Is the crystal this important to them? even the monsters are attacking us, Cecil though to himself. He took care of one of the Zuu's first. Again he closed his eyes, and when he reopened them, the Zuu was an ice statue, falling into the ocean. Coale took care of the other Zuu, piercing his neck with a glowing fire arrow, which started to slowly incinerate the beast. The Imp was drawing closer, it's vile tongue, praying in Impish. The filthy green creature drew his sword and jumped off of the back of it's yellow feathered, eagle-like steed. His slimy green skin shined in the light of the sun, as the four-foot demon charged at Cecil. Cecil decided this would be a better job for his sword. He threw his shield at the creature to knock it down, and drew his sword with his left hand, holding the crystal in his right. He pinned the creature, and thrust the blade into the horrible monsters neck. He got up, and switched the handling of his weapons. He was know holding his Dark Sword in his right hand, and the crystal in his left.
As he turned around, one of the Red Wing ships was going down, and another was suffering badly. The ship formation changed to a triangle, with Cecil in the middle. Cecil didn't see why the formation was so damn important at a time like this. Many of the Red Wings were badly injured when another wave of Imps had reached the airship. Coale hit a Cockatrice while it was in mid-air to take out both the Imp and it's transport when another Imp jumped off the bird it was riding and impaled the brave soldier through his middle. In a flash, so quick it may not have happened at all, Coale was dead. Years of life, pouring through his abdomen. Cecil focused his anger into the crystal when a gigantic tidal wave was summoned from the magic withing the crystal. All the remaining monsters died in the vast quantity of water. Thier bones snapped into a million peices, and they fell into the sea to die.
The captain of the Red Wings looked north and saw Baron. He was nearly home. he walked towards the fallen Coale, he knelt by the dead boys side.
"If only you had lived, you would have been MY superior." Cecil felt partially responsible for what had happened. Why did he lead the attack on Mysidia so mercilessly? Was this his punishment? Cecil wiped away a single tear and looked at all he had lost. Three quarters of the Red Wings were wiped out. "Prepare to land," he said to the pilot grimly.
"Preparing to land," the pilot said. He noticed the sadness in the captains voice. "Hey, are you O.K cap?" he asked with honest compassion.
"You know what? For someone who lost almost an entire airforce I'm doing okay," he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. The airship began to descend into the great kingdom of Baron. Cecil knew what his next trial was. Confronting the king. Explaining to him why there is only a tiny fraction left of the Red Wings. The Dark Knight didn't wnt to do it. He wanted to run away and leave Baron forever. He couldn't face the people of Baron after attacking a fellow soldier, for letting their relatives die... For leading the assault.
Cecil slowly walked towards the steps of castle Baron. The great castle was over a hundred feet tall and had existed for as long as anyone could remember. Rumours say that it was here before the settlers had even been this far south of Damcyan, and that was at least six thousand years ago. The castle was made entirely out of a very strong concrete brick. Although it had existed for several thousands of years, it didn't look like it had aged a day. As Cecil aproached, he saw that General Baigan was talking to one of the guards outside of "The Great Gates" of Baron. It turned out that he was waiting for Cecil, and was trying to dig as much dirt as he could about the dark knight. Baigan was a short man of about 5"4' due to his hunch. He had slicked back blonde hair, green eyes and had been the king's advisor for several years. This was a job he wanted to keep, the only way he could do this was by telling the king certain details that make the "subjects" look even worse than Baigan himself.
"Sir Cecil, the King wishes to speak with you." Cecil knew that this wasn't a very good sign at all. When the king sends Baigan as a messenger, it is either good news or bad news, and there wasn't a lot of good news that could come from this. "Do you have the Water Crystal of the Mysidian Kingdom with you?" Cecil showed him the crystal. As he produced the crystal, he noticed that it wasn't as shiny as it had been before. It was still a beautiful sight of course, but it wasn't the marvel it was as hour ago. Baigan whispered something to himself that Cecil didn't quite catch, but it sounded like "The bastard actually completed the mission. I hope the king sees that the fact that the fact that the Red Wings are practically gone is more important than the fact his 'son' brought back the crystal." Baigan eyed Cecil suspiciously and said in a voice that Cecil could hear. "Follow me, Sir Cecil," Baigan said with a slight grin. Baigan knew that the King was going to be somewhat unimpreesed with the current turn of events.
Cecil followed Baigan through the castles brick rooms and over the dark brown floors. Cecil, occassionaly looked at the previous kings of Baron. What would the great King Baron the fifth think of me, hell even King Baron the fourteenth would hate me and he was a dictator! Cecil thought to himself sadly. Then he finally reached the door outside the throne room. Baigan told Cecil to wait, and Cecil did so very gladly. That is, of course, until Baigans hatred for everything crept into Cecils mind. The wicked grin on the advisors face wasn't helping ease Cecils guilty conciense. Oh shit, Baigan's having a few "words" with the king. What's the bet I'll be fired now?
Baigan opened the door and Cecil saw the sick look of satisfaction on Baigans face.
"You may come in now Sir Cecil." Now Cecil was sure that he was going to get fired. He walked in slowly and King Baron eyed him carefully, as if Cecil was going to kill him at any given moment. The look of suspicion in Barons eyes hurt Cecil deeply. The King was a hairy man, who stood at 6"2', when he did stand, and had a large belly on him. Normally he was a kind man, especially towards Cecil. While he was teaching Cecil the Dark Sword, he thought he had found a son in the young fighter. In the past month's however, the king was growing conspicuous and had a short temper. The King Baron that tought Cecil to fight wasn't the same King Baron that sat for hours with no-one for company but Baigan. Frequently talking to himself when Baigan wasn't around.
"Lord Harvey." the king said, sitting in his throne. "You attack fellow soldiers to gain respect now?" Baigan smiled, however the king had a serious look on his face. "Or do you just want people to fear you?" Anger echoed through Barons voice.
"Your majesty, I cast Darkwave on Coale in hopes of getting him back in line." Cecil stated. "He verbally assualted me and spat in my eye."
"If I had a dark sword pointed towards my neck I would spit at you too, Lord Harvey. Not only that, put your little stunt almost sent him over the edge. I also hear that you let no remorse show, not even to help Coale up." Damn you Baigan. "I put you into this mission because you, normally, kept your temper out of others sight, not because you were someone your fellow Red Wings were frightened of," Cecil was now staring at his feet. He knew why the king was stating these, somewhat muddled facts. Baigan. Cecil looked at Baigan and noticed that the slimy rat was barely able to keep his everlasting joy inside of himself. If he wasn't in the presence of the king, Cecil would kill Baigan himself. "Speaking of the mission, where is my crystal?" Cecil silently produced the Crystal. Baigan walked towards Cecil, took the crystal, and handed it to the king. It was now that the most peculiar thing happened. The Kings eyes grew wide, and he now had a wicked smile on his face. The king licked his lips.... "Ahh... Water... The very essence of life...." The king said, almost as if he was in a trance. The King of Baron looked deep into the crystal and then his long gaze snapped away, back towards Cecil. "Lord Harvey, when I send you on a task to bring me the crystal, that does not permit you to use the crystal at your own expence." Cecil was shocked. How could he know about that?
"But, your magesty I-" Cecil was cut off by the King
"If you get out of line again, I will make sure you regret it. You have just been demoted to an ordinary Red Wing. I permit you to wear your current armour. You may have one chance to get to your old status, on one condition. Take this ring to Mist, the villiage of the summoners." Cecil looked at the ring in the kings hand. It was a fiery red, and it had a precence of evil around it. The King threw the ring to Cecil, now, get out of my sight." Cecil left the throne room a broken man. He couldn't fuck up any more missions, he couldn't afford to have himself demoted again. However he couldn't help but wonder why the King would want a simple ring to be taken to a villiage that has an unconfirmed modern exisstence.
End of Chapter one.
So, what did you think, what was your favourite part, what was your least favourite?
Maybe If I get enough responses, I'll put more detail into the castle scene. My favourite part to write was the fight on the airship, that was a fun scene. So is it more dramatic or not. I'll wait for your responses!
I have edited this story three times now. There, all typos are due to my bad spelling. A little bit more description is in this first chapter, although, it doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference... :(
