This is a nice little set of oneshots that happen at the end of FFIX. There are going to be three (possibly more if I get a lot of reviews, hint hint) chapters: Mikoto, Kuja, and lastly a little surprise. Please R&R everybody!
Circle
He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like a gentleman- like you imagine when you were young.
- "When You Were Young", by the Killers
((((()))))
Mikoto
1
Time passes on and on, never ceasing but always changing. That was what I was told nearly everyday, but on Terra it seemed impossible that this was true. Nothing changed on Terra. I never experienced the change of seasons, the sound of a bubbling brook, or the joyous cacophony of birds chirping overhead in the vast, endless blue sky.
Nothing ever died on Terra, either, but death was something I could never shake from my mind. Over and over did the sting of death touch this place, all while only I realized it. When the second angel left, when the first followed him to Gaia. All of these, I knew, would end in death. Someday, I too would die.
But I tried my hardest to keep the circle in continuation for the day when life would overtake the feeling of death on Terra. I never once had a care for the thousands of crying souls taken far too soon from their life, so long as they would in turn help my home flourish.
I just wanted to feel the change of time.
2
My Terra was destroyed by the first angel, the one who was meant to save it. Irony had never before had a meaning in my life. Everything was once absolute. Now, it is all chaos. Peace and war, love and hate, friend and family- the two were never mentioned together. On this new world- this Gaia- everything is connected. There is life in great abundance.
I now feel undeniable guilt at my part in the reconstruction of Terra using the destruction of this wonderful place.
I have the second angel to thank for this. He has opened my eyes to what was truly important after all. Though not meaning to, he has taught me that nothing lasts forever and that you only have one life, so it is best to live it as well as you can before your time is over.
I wish could thank him, but for now I must live as he would want me to.
3
The second angel's words rang through my hollow heart on the day that I experienced my first "friend". A small black mage, stumbling along the well-trodden road of the peculiar village I made my stay at. Many times in the short while I had been here had other mages and genomes come to me asking for assistance in whatever they had been doing. I have always given up my now meaningless time for them all.
His name is Vivi.
4
After only a short while of staying in the village, I believe I have begun to understand why Zidane had gone back to the Iifa tree in search of Kuja. From what Vivi has told me of love, I think I now understand him more. He is such a small fellow that it does not make sense how his metaphorical heart could possibly be so large. Perhaps I have his friends to think for this. Again, a circle of kindness has resonated in many lives before arriving to me. To continue this, I tell the other mages and genomes of Vivi's wise words. My humble friend never takes credit for anything that speaks from his mouth, giving all credit to Zidane, Dagger, Steiner, Eiko, Freya, Amarant, and Quina.
He often speaks of them to me and the adventures they had.
I cannot help but feel an unwanted emotion towards these stories. Jealous of the life he has lived in his short years, I now have the want to do the same for the lives of those in the village. Together, Vivi and I encourage them to travel to other places.
5
The village is much quieter with many of the black mages and genomes gone. They migrate to Alexandria, Lindblum, Burmecia, and Conde Petite nearly everyday.
I often ask Vivi why he has never once wanted to leave. He always replies, "I don't have to find my home. It's here, where my family is."
It's odd as to why he says this. Black mages do not have a family. Kuja produced them nearly six years ago using a precise combination of magic and mist. I take it that Vivi either means the other black mages so like him or the villagers as a whole.
However, if they are his family, why does he encourage them to leave?
6
Love is letting go. Vivi told me this today after a long period of silence. Strangely, this has happened often. Vivi has gotten slower in his stride, his eyes seeming to dim. He is often silent, but still comes to visit me everyday.
I do not know why, but I feel fear.
7
It is raining today. Vivi stands by the window, his palm on the glass, and stares out into the dark sky. I ask him why he is simply standing there, and it a while before he answers.
He says that he does not want to forget how if feels.
We both walk out and stand in the chilly rain. It falls down my face in tiny streams, garnering the effect that I am crying. This also makes me have fear. I fear for an unspoken ultimatum of this world directed at me.
Somehow, I have the feeling there is something I must pay as recompense to what I supported on Terra.
8
Today I have experienced true fear. No longer a foreboding, it has frightened me more than anything before.
Vivi's face went completely black and he simply fell over, not moving. He looked like doll.
I now sit by his side, waiting for when he will wake.
9
A few other black mages have come to talk to me today. I don't know why they did. They have all told me of how the mages all eventually "stop".
I believe they think that Vivi is going to stop.
10
It is raining again today. Rains falls down on everyone's faces, but there is not a cloud in the sky. It is a vast, endless blue sky so like Terra that I feel like the ever changing Gaia and Terra are colliding and conflicting within my heart. I feel hurt for a loss that I also feel denial towards.
As a string of murmurs reach my ear during the funeral, I turn to Mr. 247 at my side. "What is going on?" I ask.
He shrugs and asks the genome next to him.
They both turn to me with excited faces. "He is coming back!" they both exclaim.
Every black mage and genome run away from the freshly dug grave- everyone but me. I kneel down in front of where Vivi is buried and take out the clips in my hair. I brush away dirt and bury them with him.
I do not know where he is going, but I want him to know that he still has his friend there with him.
Vivi's circle has ended.