'Ah, there you are friends...'
As the party gathered outside the doors to Syrcus Tower, they watched the one figure still within stride forwards, stopping just short of the doors, crimson eyes glinting with an ancient intellect.
'G'raha! W-what are you doing?' Alexander wondered softly, the Summoner holding out a hand. 'C'mon, let's go...'
The Miqo'te shook his head.
'I'm afraid I cannot. This is where I must remain.'
'Don't be stupid, let's just seal up the tower and go.' Alex still held out a hand, waiting. 'Miki's making her special Mandragora hooch tonight to celebrate, we'll wake up tomorrow unable to remember our own names for most of the day.'
G'raha's smile was solemn.
'This is where I have to stay, this tower is too dangerous to leave ungaurded, too easy to misunderstand and misuse. Like Xande before, this tower will sleep again and I will sleep with it, to await the day when its power may be accessed safely, for the day when we rival Allag in technology.'
'... Please...' Alex's fingers tensed slightly, hand trembling. 'Let me come with you then! I'll be there with you, right by your side!'
The last Prince of Allag shook his head.
'I'll always be there with you, Alexander'
'G'raha, please... I will never be able to see you again...'
'Goodbye Alex...'
He turned and began to walk off, deeper into the tower. Alexander made a desperate lunge forwards but was restained by the hulking form of Leonard Lionblood, the massive Warrior holding him still.
'Don't be a fool, lad!'
'No...! No! Lemme go! Let me go!'
'Alex, calm down! It's going to be alright!' Miranda was beside him in an instant, channeling aether into her staff. 'I'm just going to apply a small sleep spell, don't fight it-'
He lashed out, knocking her staff from her grasp.
'No! G'raha! No! Let me GO!' With his free hand he turned and struck the Highlander across the face, his nose shattering. With his grip released, the Summoner made a full pelt dash for the rapidly closing doors, the last glimpse of his beloved before the doors slammed shut, sealed tight once again.
'NO!' He pounded desperatly on the door. 'Open these doors! Open them now!'
His meltdown continued for several minutes, the White Mage and Warrior could only watch as he slumped to his knees as a sobbing wreck. Clutching his grimoire desperatly to his chest, Alexander threw back his head and emitted a raw howl of torment. Then the shadow of the Highlander fell across him, one hand clutching his bleeding nose.
'Lights out, lad.'
With a single blow he was rendered unconscious.
Miranda carried his grimoire as Leonard carried the unconscious Summoner over one shoulder.
'This was never going to end well, was it?' The White Mage mused. 'You realise, Leonard, that you, me and Miki will have to be on watch, because the moment he wakes up he'll throw everything he's got at those doors. When he finally admits he can't get in, he'll... likely decide that his life isn't worth living anymore.'
'Uh-huh... I say bind him to a tent pole and keep an eye on that.'
There was a commotion back at the dig site, confused rumours circulated as to the fate of what had truly happened at Syrcus Tower.
'What happened here?' Cid's expression showed concern at the sight of Alexander being carried back.
'There were some... minor difficulties regarding the tower.' Miranda responded carefully. 'Minor as in "Alex will probably Enkindle that place until the doors melt".'
'So I take it his farewell didn't go so well...?'
'Nah, it was never gonna go well.' Leonard shifted Alexander into his arms. 'Anywhere we can put him to rest?'
'Well, you could try in there.' Cid nodded to a nearby crimson tent. 'I think he'll.. like the accomodation.'
'Mngh?' Alexander stirred suddenly, still confused.
'Come on Alex, it's time to go have a rest.' Miranda helped him to his feet and over to the tent.
He recalled walking to the tower, desperate to fulfil... something... Then it all became a blank as he found himself waking up on the soft blankets in a tent at the Mor Dhona dig. The fact didn't concern him, he felt that after all that he had been through he now deserved a rest. Sighing softly, he snuggled deeper into the blankets. He felt complete at last... He had only been snoozing for a short while before he was woken by a presence next to him. The Midlander Summoner crawled slowly in on his hands and knees, trying to get close without making a sound. Unfortunately, his attire had other ideas. Deep green eyes staring at him in disbelief from beneath a long mess of brown hair.
'... Are you... Real?'
'Of course I'm real.' He smiled in response, reaching out and playfully tapping the end of the Summoner's nose. 'Why wouldn't I be real? Or have you been on Miki's cheap liquor again?'
The Summoner still stared at him still, sitting before him, he seemed too stunned to say anything.
'The last time you drank that you kept me up all night ranting about how the Allagans ran their cities on the power of mystical pink sheep.'
The Summoner took a few deep breaths before reaching out and pulling G'raha Tia into a crushing hug.
'What...? Where's this come from, Alexander?'
'I thought I'd never see you again...' The young Hyuran gave a loud sniffle, seeming content to never let him go. 'Don't ever scare me like that again...'
When he finally pried Alex off of him, the Summoner looked to be on the verge of crying.
'... What's wrong? Tell me.'
'You...' Alexander swallowed thickly, trying to calm himself. 'You told me that you were going to sleep in the tower, sealing it off for the far future. I was in pieces coming back here and if Miranda and Leonard hadn't held me back I'd have chased you right in there. I come back here and here you are, dozing off.'
'Ah!' G'raha gave a cry of surprise and pain as he was put on the receiving end of Apocalypse's hefty bindings.
'Don't you ever make me panic like that ever again, G'raha Tia! Never! Ever!'
'Ow!'
Eventually the tome was tossed aside and Alexander ceased his light beating, out of breath.
'Finished...?' The Seeker wondered, looking up from where he had been shielding his head with his arms.
'Mhmm..' Alexander lay down on the blankets, staring up a the ceiling of the tent. 'It... It was all a bad dream. Seriously... Don't ever go back to that tower. Clean energy centuries from now is not worth the cost of losing you and all that you are now.'
'You said that I was at the tower? But I've been here the whole time. It's not like there's two of me...' Yawning, G'raha curled back into the blanket and drifted off to sleep. Smiling, Alexander softly ran his fingers through G'raha's hair.
'Sleepyhead...' Alexander scoffed lightly.
Miki, Miranda, Alexander and Leonard gathered around the bonfire on the cold night.
'So there's two of him?' Miranda wondered. 'One here and one in the tower? How does that work?'
'Evidently, one's a clone.' Miki responded, grilling dodo meat over the open flames. 'Question remains: which one?'
'Both have the same form, the same personality the same memories, even the same eyes.' Alexander mused, arms folded against the cold and Ifrit-Egi floating close by. 'I don't know and I don't care to know, as long as I have one of them, I'm fine. Although... Two of them could be useful... very useful.'
'Um...' Miranda suddenly covered her face with her hand, struggling to stem her suddenly bleeding nose. 'E-excuse me.'
The White mage quickly ran off, and Miki retrieved the food before it could burn.
'Well, at least Alex is over his, what I call, emotional meltdown.'
'I think that we all would call it an emotional meltdown. Certainly with the amount of beggin' and screamin' Alex was doing.' Leonard stated before tearing into his dodo.
G'raha poked his head out of the tent, sniffing the air.
'Do I smell something nice going?'
Alex laughed softly at the Miqo'te's brilliantly cute expression of curiousity.
'Don't go anywhere and I'll bring you some.'
'Works for me, I suppose.'
The Miqo'te slipped back into the tent as Alex speared the other piece of cooked Dodo on the stick.
He paused halfway to the tent, looking back at his friends.
'Yeah.. I think I'm going to be alright...'