I don't own Final Fantasy Eight

Alright peoples, this is my first FF8 fic (that's been posted :P) As
things are, I'm not sure if this is very good (I haven't even passed
it through my prereader .;;)

Now, I'd like to know if any of you care about the idea, or not. Feh,
in any case, there will be more chapters to this thing. I've got the
entire thing mapped out already. I found, while writing False
Identity, that knowing what you're doing in a story helps greatly.
Anyways, as things stand, this will be on the back burner, written
only when I get stuck on where to go with False Identity.



Shiva
Prologue : Birth
Li Xiang



"Did you hear?"

Quezacotl looked up from where he lay in the grass of his personal
wing of Eden's Castle. The castle existed outside the boundaries of
the human world, where the Guardian Forces, their servants, and any
they decided to bring with them, resided. He, as well as the lightning
elementals that were his servants, and subjects, as God of Lightning,
were lounging around in his wing. The sight of an ice nymph sprawled
across the grass beside one of his elements wasn't all that uncommon--
Saphira and Nikita had been a couple for nearly two human centuries.

"Hear what?" came the low thunder-like rumbling of Nikita's voice, and
Saphira giggled.

"Lady Shiva's is looooove!"

"What?" more of the lightning elementals began to gather around the
couple, and Saphira blushed slightly. Quezacotl was confused himself
-- Shiva, Queen of Ice, in love? It seemed impossible! Although, that
would explain why she hadn't been coming to the gatherings as of late.

"Lady Shiva can't love," scoffed one of the elementals, "She's the
ultimate icebitch."

Saphira's hand cracked against his cheek, having bound to her feet.
Nikita raised himself up just as swiftly, wrapping her in his electric
embrace. She calmed, then, having dealt with the insult to her Queen.
She sniffed haughtily, turning out of Nikita's arms and stalking away.
She called over her shoulder, almost acidically, "Lady Shiva is in
love with a human boy. She may be cold, but she's far from heartless."

Quezacotl bolted straight up at those words, seeing Nikita follow his
lover out. The lightning god saw nothing else, however.

Shiva was in love... with a human?!

---

The cold, imperial voice echoed from the bedchambers, "Enter."

The blonde swept a strand of hair from her face, hooking it over one
of the feathery wings atop her head. Using her free hand, she pushed
the room's door open, and strode in, as calm as any "allowed" into
Shiva's presence.

The Queen of the North was seated cross-legged on her bed, a position
Siren had never thought she'd see the imperial woman. Her face showed
deep concentration, and she held a silvered mirror in her lap.

The goddess padded closer, peering over her friend's shoulder, and
into the mirror. The ice queen was using it to scry-- specifically to
watch a boy no older than eleven learning how to fight.

"Oooh, he's cute, Shivers," Siren purred, leaning over to trace a
finger along the face in the mirror. Long, dark hair was pulled back
into a ponytail, and despite the cadet uniform, and the gun in his
hands, his eyes sparkled with life.

"I know," Shiva's voice held a note her companion had never hear in
it-- in all reality, had never expected to hear in it, despite her
fondest wishes: compassion.

"If he why you called me here?"

Shiva stared into the reflective glass for several moments, before
turning to face the other goddess, "Yes. Tell me... what does his
future hold, Siren?"

She knew, the moment "tell me" exited the blue skinned deity's mouth,
what she really wanted. Siren had a little known talent-- the ability
to see how one's life would end. She could not see the immediate
future, nor most of a being's life span. She could, however, see the
end of it. Shiva wanted to know, first and foremost, would he be happy
when he met his end. And if not... she wanted to know so she could
interfere with the mortal's life.

Siren fixed the boy's image in her mind-- never having been able to
refuse the one _she_ loved-- and reached along the paths of the
tapestry, to see the end of his string. Her voice was soft as she
spoken from within the trance.

"The one he loves will leave him, marrying another when he does not
return immediately from a mission. He will be bitter, sadden by life,
and retreat to the mountains. There he shall stay, until the eve the
Sorceress takes the souls of all men to feed her own power..." Siren
shook her head out as the trace-like state left her, "Ouch. Such a
happy boy should never have to live through that, eh Shivers?"

"No, he should not," determination raced across the ice goddess' face,
and she bolted from the room, "And he won't, if I can help it!"

Siren blinked back tears, "I hope you know what you're doing,
Shivers..." She stood and trudged from the room. Siren' bumped into
Quezacotl just outside the door, however. At the lightning bird's
enquiring look, the goddess explained in a quiet, but sharp voice.

Quezacotl sighed, "We've got to stop her-- let's find Odin. He's the
only one aside from Diablos I can think of helping Shiva do what she
wants."

"Right," Siren nodded, "Let's go, before it's too late!"

---

The two Guardian Forces made it into Odin's quarters, just in time to
see Shiva's icy blue skin turn to the soft peach of a mortal's. Her
multicolored hair seemed to fall limp, hanging around her face as it
turned dark. Her neon blue eyes also grew darker, turning to the color
of the sky. The now human woman shrank, becoming the equivalent of an
eleven-year-old human female. As this happened, clothing swirled about
her, created from the air.

Odin's voice was toneless as he commanded the spell's restrictions,
"On your tweleveth year as a mortal, the spell will end. You will
become Shiva once more, Raine Leonhart."

Shiva-- nay, Raine-- nodded sharply, "I understand. Thank you, Odin."

She faded away, then, being transferred to the mortal world. Odin
seemed to sag in his armor, dropping into the chair he'd risen from
when Shiva entered. He sighed heavily, while Siren and Quezacotl
slipped silently, unnoticed, from the room.

"Take care of my daughter, Laguna Loire."

End