Zonal wanderings of the inter dimensional rift.
I own nothing but my own ideas
Lenna never quite understood what rift meant until she entered through it.
Traveling through Mirage village, its people frozen in time, is terrifying. Are they aware? Do they know what has become of them? Do they see both worlds? To be cut off from everything, and to suddenly rejoin it, the world long since moved on without you, what must that have been like?
Had they even agreed to stay in the void, a consequence of the separation of worlds? Or had they been a casualty , a sacrifice?
Lenna doesn't know which would be worse. Moving through the frozen village, she can't help but feel, its not a sacrifice she is happy with.
The inter-dimensional has both everything and nothing. All feel like places she has been through on her journey? Perhaps they even are.
There's one major difference. Their all empty. Only daemons speak in here. One even gives Lenna a kiss. She can't help but blush.
It almost makes her think, they had found a real person in here. She's disappointed when they have to fight anyways.
The next area takes her breath away. Its space and crystal, eerie and beautiful all in one. Unlimited potential, everything and nothing.
How far do the stars go?
She can't help but look up as they make their way through.
It's a relief to find Gilgamesh, familiar in this strange place. He wants to fight, and at this point it's almost ritual to meet him like this.
By the time they fight Exdeath, their ready. Lenna didn't think they would ever feel ready, back when she first started. Back before she took up the sword and shield. They have been on a journey guided by memories of warriors past. Just as importantly, they have learned each other. She feels the Hastaga spell hit her, and jumps into the air, as her sister releases a Holy. They know what to do. It's been a feeling building up in all of them since they met Gilgamesh.
It's time to end this.
She jumps back down and joins the fray.
Their doing well, when she's hit by something she rather wouldn't have been. It takes her out of the fight.
She's not out for long, though when she wakes up, she feels drained in a different way, then being brought back to battle feels like.
There are more important things to worry about. They are in empty space. What happens now?
They hadn't really thought about what would happen after the fight. Lenna wonders if their fate is to be stuck in the rift forever.
Before she can think too much on that, she finds out they aren't as alone as she thought.
The crystal shards combine with the elements, and reforge. Being without her element leaves her feeling empty. There are no memories in her body but her own.
After so long, traveling with someone-else, she feels alone. The essence of water has left her, it, she had always been able to get up again, and fight, no matter how drained she had been. Now she just feels tired. She wants to lie down and never get up.
The dawn warriors are here. It's good to see Galuf, and her father again.
Hiryu is here to take them back, but she doesn't have the strength.
That's alright. She can stay here with father, Galuf, and get to know his friends.
Hiryu gets further and further away, and before she knows it she's alone in the stars. Infinity stretches around her, and not a soul to share it with.
It takes a long time before she can get up.
Part of her doesn't want to bother. Her grand purpose is done, her body spent, and empty of anything. She has no essence, no memories but her own, and has been left here in the rift. She could spend forever here, and not get up, and who would care.
Its routine more then anything that moves her. One doesn't spend what feels like a lifetime, but was probably years, travelling and fighting, just to give it up all of a sudden. Her feet know movement now, she's restless to see new sights.
There must be places to explore here.
So she starts looking.
The first place she finds, is a city like no other she had seen so far. It is certainly an experience. Everything about it is intense. Streaks of light move outside the window of the hotel she's in. The fabrics soft, the lights harsh, the buildings tall and imposing.
She likes the music, she decides, as a man exchanges dreams with the pianist, but she can't stay.
The next place she finds, she enters through a cave. It's a strange world, filled with even stranger beings. Some are furred, some fly, others seem to be made of ice. They are all different and fascinating. The place is peaceful, and she could almost relax here, if it weren't for the hostile atmosphere.
They don't like humans.
She keeps wandering. Sky cities, the moon, the underground, a forest of souls. But none of them feel right.
Sometimes she tries to dream of home, but she can never find it here. She finds visions, but they never quite make sense. Apparently these people are descendants of her fellow warriors of light. But why is she always queen. Honestly, she would hope their descendants would have more sense then that.
Nightmares she tells herself. The thought of being eternal queen scares her, as much a the thought she has outlived her friends in here.
For all that she has the worlds to wander, it's time to go home.
"This place isn't for you yet."
"What do you mean?" She asks almost desperately, before being kicked out unceremoniously.
She wakes up sprawled out in a field of flowers. The air here is almost familiar.
She looks up to see her sister and her friends looking at her, and very confused.
Water. She can hear it, almost feel it even. She looks around, but there is no water to be found.
She looks back at her friends. She wants to explain, but how can she, when so much feels both vividly real, and like a distant dream.
She can almost hear her father, telling her to start at the beginning.
Where is the beginning?
Where their adventure ended, for a start.
I wondered why it took a year to get out. So she went exploring
I decided that, since the Rift could be used to go to other final fantasy worlds, such as viii, Lenna could visit some too.
I almost had the voice say "what are you still doing here" before kicking her out, but I figured that would ruin the flow.
