Fading Espers, by Boyce
Chapter 1 : Reunion
NOTE : This fanfic comes after the events of Blonde Exchange. You will need to read it if you want to fully understand this story. It's written in a different format than this story. For those who are too lazy to do it, here's a very quick recap!
Blonde Exchange : Mina finds a snow medallion in a shop. Celes finds a fire medallion in a treasure chest. Both girls decide to wear them, and both are teleported in each other's universe (Mina in Figaro, and Celes in Tokyo). With the help of Terra, Locke, Edgar and Sabin, Mina finds a black medallion. She frees the spirit of the black chocobo from the medallion, and the giant bird teleports her back to her own universe, also bringing Celes back. Mina manages to bring her friends back with her to Figaro, and a new friendship is born between the two groups.
Here you go. I hope you enjoy this new story.
/# Figaro Castle #\
Figaro castle… Under the warm rays of the constant, almost unconfortable sun layed the fortress owned by the king of Figaro, Edgar. The sea of sand surrounding it mixed with the ability to dive under the dunes of the desert made it easily the most impressive structure of the world. A quick look from the exterior might give the impression it's abandoned, but the castle hides very well all the action going inside behind its thick brick walls.
A year had passed since the crazy events which allowed Mina and Celes to visit each other's world occured. For the occasion, the young king of the desert had invited Serena, Amy, Raye, Lita and Mina to a large banquet to celebrate the new friendship born from this meeting. Locke, Celes and Terra had come to help the king transform the usually dark and repulsive look of the castle into a more festive, dynamic fashion. Only the king's brother, Sabin, would miss this reunion, since he had left the castle months ago for an unknown destination, to train his fighting skills into a higher level of perfection.
The festivities were to be held in the dining room of the castle. The countless maids at the service of Edgar had done an amazing job at transforming this usually intimate space for the king's dinners. The rather small wooden table was replaced by a longer and more sturdy one, capable of receving at least a dozen of people. The small number of chairs placed around the table saw their numbers at least tripled to accomodate all the guests. And the usually calm and serious portraits of the king and his ancestors were now decorated with a river of dancing streamers, their colorful reach extending beyond the dining room.
In the corridor leading to the dining room, the main doors were opened. The sun was ruling the sky, not a cloud fighting for territory. A couple of meters from the gargantuan steel doors, the king and his three friends were completing the preparations.
Sitting on the hard rocky floor around a box of ballons, like they were a group of campers admiring a campfire, the group was busy inflating the elastic objects to give the castle its final disguise. "Come on guys. They are going to be here any minute now. We need to finish the preparations." said an impatient Celes.
Locke got the balloon he was inflating out of his mouth, and held the nozzle with his thumb and index, so that the air stayed prisoner of his sixth balloon. He turned his head toward Celes, and sent her a petryfing glare. "Hey! We're going as fast as we can!" he said to her, almost yelling.
The blonde finished tying a knot at the nozzle of the balloon she had finished inflating, and put it with a bunch of other balloons beside her. Locke was observing diligently her every movement. Celes reached inside the box to get a new balloon. She started pulling the extremities of the red balloon she just picked up. As she was manipulating it, she moved her eyes away from her own actions to meet the eyes of the treasure hunter... "It's not fast enough, Locke. You know, you could put more effort into it."
She stopped her speach, pointing her delicate finger at the 5 balloons Locke had inflated, compared to the 18 balloons ready at her side. Knowing she had already won this battle, she grined slighly, took a deep breath, and blew the air in the red object.
Locke knew very well the hot-temper of Celes, but still, he never liked to lose a battle to his comrade... battles he usually lost anyway. He raised his left hand on his head, adjusting his bandana slightly, a stressful gesture he often did when he didn't know what to reply.
Celes had removed the nozzle from her mouth, as if she wanted to add another nail in the coffin of her victim. "Give it up. You can't win against me, Mister Locke Cole!" added the rune knight, smiling.
He never really knew what to reply to Celes, but today was different. From his mouth emerged a short but powerful response. "Yeah, I know I can't fill these balloons as fast as you…" He paused, an evil grin appearing on his face. Celes looked at him, her blue eyes puzzled. She didn't think Locke would add a word after her last sentence. But he continued. "After all, I'm not full of hot air as you!" ending his supreme answer, and by the same time, his losing streak.
Celes coughed as she heard the end of the very short quote of Locke. Her fingers lost the grip of her red balloon, and it started to fly around the hall, releasing an unpleasant farting sound on its trail before squashing itself on the wall. Locke jumped quickly on his feet, putting his hands on his hips and starring proudly at the ceiling, as if he was the hero of an entire nation.
The battle happened in front of the eyes of Edgar and Terra. The green-haired woman was shooking her head, one hand on her forehead while the king was laughing loudly, his joy echoing on every wall of the castle. He finally stopped laughing, drying a tear in his left eye. "My God, I can't remember the last time I laughed this much. Locke really did it this time." he added.
Terra turned her emerald eyes toward the ruler, not even bothering to move her head. Her gentle mouth spoke: "I dream of the day these two won't fight."
"Oh but you know what that means, Terra…" replied Edgar. "It's only a matter of time before one of these two declares his love for the other, I just know it!"
Terra thought about getting another balloon, but she erased that idea from her head. Still sitting on the ground, she slid her feet close to her body and threw her arms around her legs, holding them just under the knees and crossing her fingers to hold the position. A beautiful, yet tiny smile lit the corner of her mouth. "You're absolutely right!" she said, dreaming of the day this would happen to her.
Her mind wandered off on its own. She wondered if she would even find a man for her, since she was not entirely human. Her esper side might annihilate any chance she had at love. The smile disappeared from Terra's face, leaving now a more delicate, thoughtful expression.
Edgar looked at his magnificent friend, knowing he might have made a mistake talking about the relationship between their two friends. He knew that, more often than enough, Terra talked to him about her concerns versus love. He knew, and probably forgot about it briefly... briefly enough to make a comment about it. He sighed, turning his teal eyes through the opened gate, toward the cerulean sky. "Such a beautiful day…" he thought. A short but refreshing breeze entered the main hall, surfing on his face. He turned to face Terra again, as if the wind brought him some instant wisdom.
The king appeared to hesitate a bit, but still managed to find the force to put his left hand on Terra's shoulder. Reality caught up with the roaming mind of the woman. Surprised, her hands disconnected from one another, and her arms had to let go of her legs. She almost fell entirely on the floor, but luckily, her agility saved her as she was able to stabilize herself with boths hands reaching the ground.
She turned her head and her crystal clear eyes met the eyes of Edgar. "Oh! Edgar! Sorry... I think I just got lost in my thoughts here…" she finally said. A cough also escaped through her small mouth.
"Don't worry, it's alright..." the king replied. He hesitated again, but finally spoke again: "Terra, are you okay?... I ... You've been coughing a lot lately…" Although he really wanted to link this question to what he said earlier about love, he unconsciously took an alternate route for the question.
This interrogation seemed to surprise a usual calm Terra. "Uh... yeah, I'm fine Edgar." she answered after hesitating.
Edgar wasn't fooled by Terra's answer. After all, like he said, Terra was coughing a lot lately, and she did seem paler than usual. But for now, he was going to be satisfied with her words. Maybe she just had a small flu, and didn't want to talk about it he thought. And they still had to finish the preparations for the party. Their guests could arrive any moment now. "Good! Then let's take care of the rest of these balloons!" he finally answered her.
She nodded slowly, smiling at her friend. With that, she sat as confortably as she could on the ground, and extended her arm to get a new balloon to inflate.
While the king and the esper were talking to each other, the battle was raging on between Celes and Locke. The strong female warrior had push her adversary on the floor, and Locke had no choice but to lay on his back while Celes jumped aggresively on him. She was sitting on his abdomen, giving a very 'bad' impression about the action going on to whoever would enter the hall at this instant.
"Apologize now!" she yelled at the thief, her taunting, vengeful fist dancing in the air.
"Never!" replied the proud prisoner, smiling under the cover of his arms crossed in front of his face.
"You asked for it, you greedy thief!" Celes ended. She knew how Locke hated to be called a thief, but at the same time, she needed her strongest weapons to counter-attack.
Celes' fist was about to land on Locke, starting his unavoilable torture when a bright flash of light blinded the entire stronghold. Celes had to stop her attack and cover her eyes to shield them from the intense display of rays. Edgar and Terra had to do the same thing. A light so strong, it would cause them to have a blurry vision for at least a couple of minutes.
The light disappeared as fast as it appeared. Only Locke was lucky enough to avoid the beam, since he was already hiding his face under his arms to shield himself from the attack of Celes. The treasure hunter found very strange that he didn't feel the wrath of Celes yet. He had been under her for a full 30 secondes, not that he disliked it. More often than not, he blushed under these same circonstances, making his defences weak and proving to be an easy prey for his attacker. Not anymore though. He studied the tactics she used against him, and managed to defend himself more efficiently. Not an easy thing to do, especially when the attacker is a very sexy and beautiful woman.
Locke moved his arms to clear a path for his eyes, and see what the blonde woman was up to. Having missed the blinding show, he was puzzled to see Celes hiding her blue eyes behind her hand. "What is she doing? I was opened for an attack!" thought Locke. He hadn't even thought about solving the mystery that he immediately saw this as an opportunity to counter-attack the rune knight. He grined maliciously, and raised both arms in the air as his wiggling fingers were aimed directly at Celes' ribs.
"I hope we are not interrupting anything, Locke". The soft voice seemed to spook the man, and momentarily separated him from his evil ambitions. He turned his head toward the entrance, where the words had come from. The bright sunlight coming in forced him to squint his eagle eyes. Even then, he was only able to distinguish some shadows standing between him and the entrance… although he didn't really need to see who was there, since he recognized the gentle feminine voice who spoke to him.
"Mina!" Terra exclaimed with joy, stealing the name Locke was about to shout. Obviously, the flash of light announced the arrival of their friends, but none of them realized it somehow. The long blonde hair girl was walking toward the group, in a slow pace and waving a cheerful hand. Slighly behind the blonde, her closest friends were following her.
"Hello Ladies!" said Edgar.
"Hi Edgar, what's up?" Lita replied to him.
The king pushed himself on his feet, putting his balloon on the ground at the same time, and went to meet the girls, as a true gentleman would do.
Locke tried to free himself from the grasp of the blonde woman to go and meet his friends, but Celes didn't budge. "Hey Celes, the girls are here. Stop fooling …", he said, but didn't quite finish his sentence.
As he looked at her, he saw that her face was red as a cherry. He also saw that his fingers were still wiggling inches away from the woman's hips. "Uh oh", he thought, a red tan appearing on his troubled face.
The color of her face turned into an even darker tone of red, this time from anger. She wasn't even thinking anymore. Rapid and swift as a bird, her arm swung through the air, and the palm of her hand impacted directly on Locke's defenceless cheek.
As if time had stopped, Celes' arm halted its course in midair, and didn't budge for long seconds. Watching her victim, she finally sighed silently and got up, releasing Locke from her grasp. She turned slowly to face the guests, a gentle smile on her lips. Seeing her beautiful expression of joy, you couldn't tell she went berserk seconds ago.
Serena, Amy and Raye appeared at Celes' feet, Lita and Mina hugging Edgar behind their backs. "Good after-noon Celes. It's really good to see you again!" started Raye.
She extended her arms, reaching the back of Celes with her hands, and hugged her. The blonde returned the favour.
Serena kneeled besides the defeated thief. "Observe Locke! That is how you should approach Celes." she told him. Amy and Terra started laughing, after hearing the wise words of the leader. Locke just stayed on the ground, trying to hide his blushing face behind his hands.
After they all hugged and Locke found the courage to join the group again, the king spoke to them. "My friends", he said with an imposing tone. "You arrived before we could complete the preparations for the festivies. I'm terribly sorry." he added pointing the multiple balloons on the ground.
Mina put a stop to the guilty speech. "Hey, it's not a problem at all. We'll help you finish decorating the place".
She was supported by her blue haired friend. "Yes. Let's all do this together. It won't take long if we all help each other".
Raye and Lita agreed with Amy, while Serena was nodding behind them, a green balloon in her hand.
"I didn't want to impose this on you, but you seem so enthusiastic to do this… So be it", concluded the king.
"All right people, let's do it", commanded Celes, her fist reaching for the ceiling.
The five girls from Earth screamed "YEAAAAH" together, prompting a smile from Terra, Locke and Edgar. They took the maximum of balloons their arms could carry, and started walking toward the dining hall.
End Chapter 1
Please tell me what you think. I tried to write in a more "descriptive" way. I hope it's readeable