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Author's Notes:
These works were consolidated to one in order to demonstrate their continuity. The Author has forsaken all of his previous reviews, as FF.net services do not allow such things to be transferred.
Added commentary at the bottom, to clarify some points in this work that might confuse or be lost on people.
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The Fading
On
Opassa beach, three ghostly children turned their heads to the sky. A rumble,
an explosion, and a great black hole filled the sky, small yellow etheric
trails seeping out, searching... There is a sensation of motion, and for one
fantastic moment it seemed as though the entire planet is moving at an insane
speed, upwards, downwards, left and right.
The
ghost in the white dress huddled against the ghost with the red hair. "Is
this the end?" She whispered, half to him, half to herself.
"No..." The other ghost was coming up behind them, setting her
glasses more firmly against her face.
"It's
the beginning... all over again."
And
then that planet collided with another, one remarkably similar. They both were
torn apart. Flesh, bone, earth, sky... all became something much less,
something primitive. The ghostly children watched this, floating on etheric
waves.
The
mass that had once been two worlds, of two universes, began to shrink. It's
surface rippled violently, and as it shrank, the etheric streamers that had
come from the hole in the sky began to curl around it. Soon there was only a
yellow sun, so dense was the ether... and then in one eternal moment, everything
exploded.
Two
worlds became one. Continents shifted, alliances changed, people suddenly
remembered a great wealth of knowledge that couldn't be theirs. But not one
soul left that planet. Some people merged together, in order to allow the most
basic principle of time itself to be maintained... but not one person died.
Few
would remember it... those that did would soon look upon it as a wild dream, a
flight of fancy.
Fewer
still would remember why, that day, everything fell into place exactly as it
should have.
The
boy who had been, in that one moment, both alive and dead, awoke on Opassa
Beach. He felt the rhythmic beating of the waves, the touch of sand, and the
heat of the sun on his face, and rejoiced for reasons he couldn't explain. Then
he remembered his dream, an odd shade filled with a face, a foe, and a terrible
longing. He concentrated on those images, but they slipped through his fingers
like the wisps of dust they were, and took flight into his subconscious, where
perhaps one day they might resurface.
Defeated,
the boy turned to regard the sea again, and found himself facing three ghostly
children.
They
stared at him, and then the one that wore a white dress curtseyed. The one with
spikey red hair genuflected, and the purple haired one bowed deeply.
"We...
thank you." They spoke in unison, and then vanished.
It
was so far beyond the boy's sphere of knowledge, to comprehend what had
happened then. In the end, he would dismiss it as the effects of sitting in the
sun for too long. He totally forgot, and in doing so committed a deep and
horrible crime.
His
love, his Kid, who had spent so much of herself to Combine the two worlds, to
become the sentience of pure chaotic energy and chance, was forgotten. The time
that he shared with her, and all the others that had journeyed with him, was
too forgotten, hidden somewhere deep inside himself.
A
note too, of trivial importance, something he learned while traveling through
time and space; a rule that the new Combined world had abided by through Kid's
will. A rule that had caused the dead ghosts of Marle, Lucca, and Crono to
vanish.
One may not be in two places at once.
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Clarification:
After the battle between Serge, Kid, and a variable character, the two universes merge. Kid\Schala takes control of the Combining at great personal loss, to prevent death and\or erasure of elements from either Universe.
Serge wakes up without memory. The ghostly children vanish because 'one cannot be in two places at once'. Meaning that Crono, Marle, and Lucca have been brought back to life.
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