Lash- Hello, umm, this is really my first time entering a new fandom with a story, so forgive me if I don't get everything right…
Disclaimer- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is owned by Square Enix
"Hey, Marche? You think that whole Ivalice thing was a dream?" Ritz asked.
Marche sighed. They have been having this conversation everyday since they returned to the real world. He didn't bother to say anything, since Ritz usually turned their little chats into a rants about what she would be doing right now if she were back there, or theories and such. Sure enough, she did just that now, walking on with him next to her, just nodding and sort of listening. It was pretty much all she talked about when it was just Marche, her and Doned. (Marche had warned her not to mention anything in front of Mewt.)
Marche drowned out her words and looked up at the treetops. The two were walking home from school, having dropped Mewt off at his house. When he had first come to St. Ivalice, then returned back from Dream Ivalice, the trees were wrapped in frost, their branches dry and bare. Just like the trees, Ritz had been cold with him, apparently angry at him for changing things back. But she was past that now, and their friendship recovered.
She warm to him now, or at least as warm as Ritz could be without being awkward. The weather in St. Ivalice had bettered. Spring had come and with it warm days, even if they were often interrupted by a cold gust of wind. The tree were green and pink, small little buds poking out, some already bloomed into flowers. They were a pinkish-white, sorta like Ritz's hair.
"Marche! I asked you something!" Ritz's voice cut into his thoughts.
He looked at her. "Sorry, what'd you say?"
"Don't you wonder how things are going back in Ivalice?" She asked. Ritz had no doubt that Ivalice still existed, and that things are going on back there as they always had.
Marche shrugged. He really was afraid to say anything to get his own hopes up. It had been three months since they had come back, and if so many years in Ivalice went by in one night… then everyone they had known would be long gone…
"I'm pretty sure Shara's taking care of the clan" Ritz said. "Aren't you worried about Clan Nutsy? You started that clan with a Moogle, right? What was his name now?..."
"Montblanc"
"Right, I remember him. He was with you every time you came to help us. He was a strong when we fought that time!"
"Yeah… He was…" Marche whispered, a little disturbed. They had fought an all out battle against each other, but she didn't seem to think it was a big deal.
"I bet we would've won if it were a two-on-two between Shara and me against you two…"
"Probably…"
"Marche! What is wrong with you!" Ritz said sharply. "You act like you don't even want to remember Ivalice…"
"I do!" Marche protested. There were lots of things he didn't want to forget. Montblanc, for one thing, and Ezel, Babus, Shara and all his other friends… And he didn't want to forget seeing Doned walking, or becoming friends with Mewt and Ritz… "I'll never forget a thing that happened to me there…" They reached Ritz's porch. Ritz got up and motioned towards her door, leaving Marche behind.
"Well, you know what?" She turning towards him and crossing her arms. "Sometimes I wish Mewt would change thing back for a little while… Don't you?"
"…Sometimes…" Marche confessed. "But I wouldn't want to stay there forever…"
Ritz waved the comment off with her hand. "Just to visit… Or maybe we could come and go as we please… Like though a portal of something…"
"That would change things… but still…" Marche said. He had not told Ritz that it was the book that brought them together that changed the world. It was at his house, given to him by Cid to keep safe.
"Like a special spell or something…" Ritz continued. "I would love to see everything again… even if for a minute… Well, see you!" She waved and opened her door to enter.
Marche swallowed. He was gonna regret this… he knew it.
"Ritz, wait!"
"What?"
"Can…" Marche's voice had come out funny, almost straggled. He swallowed again. "Can you come over to my house? I… I wanna show you something…"
Ritz looked at him questioningly. She shrugged and stepped down from the porch. "Okay, what is it?"
"It's the… You gotta come see it…. Come on!" Marche took her by the hand and pulled her towards his house.
"Ok, I'm coming!" Ritz let him pull her along.
"You mean you've had a way back to Ivalice all this time!" Ritz screamed furiously, as she advanced on Marche with her fists up. She punched him in the ribs, propelling him backwards. He backed away, but not before she managed to pound his chest repeatedly. Doned wheeled his wheelchair back, avoiding their scuffle.
"Judgemaster Cid, I mean Mewt's dad, he gave it to me so that Mewt wouldn't open the way to Ivalice again!" Marche shouted, trying to block Ritz's jabs. He had shown Ritz the book and told her the entire story.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ritz said. Her voice had softened and she dropped her hands. Marche would've felt better if she had shouted. The hurt in her voice made his heart drop…
"I just thought you might try to go back to Ivalice…Ow!" Ritz had grown angry again and delivered a stinging slap to his arm.
"Well duh! Of course I would!" She punched him in the chest. "That's still no reason to lie!" She screamed, pushing him onto his bed with a punch to the shoulder.
"To be fair, he didn't really lie…" Doned said in Marche's defense. "He just didn't tell you…"
"I'm sorry, Ritz, but I couldn't let you change things again!" Marche shouted, trying to block the blows that Ritz was landing on his head.
Ritz stopped abusing him to catch her breath. She grabbed his pillow. "I don't get it… You… could've done so much… good with this …BOOK!" She punctuated her every other word by smacking him with the pillow.
Marche covered his head, laid on his side, and let Ritz beat him up with his pillow. It was better than her using her fists at least, and it was best to let her vent her anger first…
Doned smiled a little at the sight, but then he grew serious. "It's not really fair, though Ritz… That Ivalice was just a dream… a fantasy… It wasn't real, so it's not healthy to pretend that it all is… It's … It's escapism…" he said, quoting his older brother.
"How can you say that!" Ritz stared at the two. "Who would say something like that!"
Doned pointed at Marche.
"You!" Ritz threw the pillow in March's face. "How can you say that! You mean that everything we went through in Ivalice wasn't real to you!" She was gasping, almost hyperventilating. Her cheeks were red, and she slumped back onto a chair.
Marche sat up rubbing his head. His face was red; he was out of breath as well. "That's not what I mean… Those feelings…those are real… but Mewt's mom being there wasn't… and neither was your hair, or… or Doned's walking." He said.
Ritz glared at him. "Fine… I guess I'll have to believe you…" she said. She got up slowly. "If that book is as dangerous as you say it is…" She glanced at the book on their desk. "I'll leave it alone…" She walked towards the desk and put a hand on the book. "I wonder what would happen if I- See ya!" She snatched the book of the desk and ran for the door.
"Ritz!" Marche grabbed her by the shirt, swinging her back.
"Get off!" She shouted. "I'm going back to Ivalice!" She struggled out of his grip, but Marche grabbed the book.
"You can't!" He shouted, tugging at the book. "If you do that, I can't guarantee that we'll be able to come back again!"
Ritz wasn't letting up. "I'm not going to change the world! I'm just going to visit!"
The two played tug-a-war for a minute. "Okay… I leave it alone." Ritz sighed and let go of the book, plopping down on Doned's bed.
"…" Marche sat down on his own bed, holding the book to his chest. He wasn't going to give her another chance to take it…
"Boy, you two are stupid…" Doned said, wheeling his chair over. "It's just a book. Who knows? Maybe it's just Mewt that can change things back…"
"He's right…" Ritz smiled. "If we keep that book away from Mewt then we'll stay here … but if we give it back to him…"
"No Ritz!" Marche shouted. "We're not going back to Ivalice, okay!"
"Alright… I heard you the first couple hundred times…" she said, rubbing her ear.
"Ritz… I'm sorry… but I don't know what it'll take for us to get back here…"
"Yeah right…" Doned snapped. "You just gotta beat up the totemas all over again! And there's just five of them anyways…"
"You say it like it's that easy!"
"It's is!" Ritz said. "How can you help but win if I help you beat the totemas? Then we'll just get sent back here…"
Marche gritted his teeth but just sighed, his head drooping. They thought it was all that easy to just go back to Ivalice and come back, but who knew if things would come out right…?
"Hey Marche?" Ritz sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulder. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine… It's just- Hey!" Ritz had snatched the book off his lap.
"Come on, just for a day or two!" Ritz said, getting up as Marche snatched for the book.
"… Give it back!" Marche shouted. He reached for it again, but Ritz jumped onto his bed and held it out of his reach.
"Ha ha!" she giggled. "Come on, Marche! I'll go on my own, ok?"
"Can you take me with you!" Doned asked excitedly. "I wanna go back to Ivalice, too!"
"What is wrong with you two!" Marche clamped his hands on his head in frustration. "Do guys want to go back this badly!"
Ritz and Doned looked at him, then each other, then him again. They both nodded. "Pretty much…"
"You two are impossible! You're messing with forces beyond your control!"
Doned leaned back in his seat and Ritz drop to her knees.
"Marche…"She hesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry!" She flipped the book open.
"Ritz!" Marche made a grab for the book, but Doned grabbed him by the shirt.
"No you don't!" Doned shouted, pulling him back so forcefully that he almost knocked himself out of his wheelchair.
Marche shut his eyes and braced himself, expecting to be blasted into oblivion or Ivalice or some weird dimension… but nothing happened.
"What's wrong with the book, Ritz?" Doned asked, still latched onto Marche's belt. She didn't answer, but flipped through the pages.
"That's weird, I don't remember the book having letters like this…" she said softly.
"What?" Marche pulled out of Doned's grasp and looked over her shoulder. It was true. The book wasn't written with the English alphabet like before, instead, each letter was represent by a strange symbol. They looked like they could only be written by a paintbrush; the hooks and curves were carefully printed… or painted, the ink color differing for every other page and paragraph.
"You think it might be some other language? Maybe Japanese or Arabic or something… I've never seen letters like this…" Ritz said as she continued to turn the pages.
"And the pictures… They've changed too…" Doned put in. It was true. The pictures were still featuring the different races of Ivalice, but there were separate chapters for each one. The pictures for each race was littered with captions pointing at the different body parts. It was like an anatomy pamphlet, pointing at the ears of different races and the handprints and antennae and hair and such…
"There's some stuff about fighting here!" Ritz said. "And look, they've got girls fighting as well!" She pointed at a page where a male human soldier was wielding a sword, and right next to him was a girl, also clad in armor and wielding a heavy elaborate sword.
"This must be like a job section…" Marches said, as the book revealed three groups of black mage pairs. There were a male and female human, of course. And the numou woman was slightly different than its male counterpart. As for the moogles, he wasn't sure how he knew, but he could just tell that the one with the thin shoulders, blushed cheeks and wider wings was a girl…
"Some of the jobs are just for guys, though, I guess." He said as they turned to a page where a single male numou sage was casting a spell.
"Same thing for girls, Marche." Ritz said, her voice a bit sharp, pointing out a page where a human girl dancing around with bells around her wrists, her skirts twirling around her. "Maybe jobs are determined by race AND your sex." Doned concluded.
Ritz gasped as she flipped to another page. "They're a male Viera!" she whispered. The page showed a creature with broad shoulders and long arms that ended in long clawed fingers. The picture didn't have any color, but the hair was slightly shaded, so it probably wasn't all white, but it did have the trademark Viera ears.
" Maybe it isn't a Viera… it might be another race…" Marche said. "Hey, look. It's got a list of spells!" An entire half of the book seemed to be dedicated to a long list of spells, interrupted with different illustrations, probably the spell's individual effect…
"This book… I probably shows all the secrets of Ivalice!" Doned said, excitedly. "Like, a cheat book or strategy guide or something! Too bad we can't read it…"
"No… But I bet my bottom dollar that Mewt would be able to…" Ritz started but Marche stopped her by snatching the book away.
"You are not going to show Mewt this book!" he proclaimed. Ritz and Doned stared at him. "I'm…I'm serious!"
Ritz smiled. "We'll see, Marche, we'll see"
Lash- There you go… I think that's enough for you to tell me if I should keep it going, or if I should kill it… Reviews would be nice…