Whew! This chapter was a doozy to write! Yeah, I've put off my other fics to write this one. (I'll finish the other ones later.) Right now, since I just got a Playstation 2 and Final Fantasy X for my birthday I'm in the mood to write an FF fic. Believe it or not, I've been planning this one for a while. Usual disclaimer stuff: I don't own Final Fantasy, don't sue me, blah blah blah. Okay, let's get this story started!
Final Fantasy: Quest of the Elements
Chapter One
Where am I?
Slowly the girl opened her eyes, but everything she saw was too blurry to make out. She became aware that she was laying on her back on the cold, hard ground.
How did I get here?
She squinted her eyes and slowly turned her head, trying to make out her surroundings, and was rewarded for her efforts with dizziness and sharp spasms of pain going through her entire body. She opened her mouth to yell out in agony but no sound came out. That's when she realized that she had absolutely no energy within her; she was so weak she couldn't even scream. She closed her eyes again, wishing she would just pass back out. But it was to no avail. Darkness would not claim her; she was in too much pain to sleep.
What happened to me?
She could only barely hear the voices of people talking somewhere near, although as muffled as the voices were to her, they may as well have come from a mile away. She then very vaguely felt as if her body suddenly rose swiftly off the ground and started floating quickly away, and she became aware that someone had picked her up and was carrying her. The strange thing was, although she had no idea who was carrying her, she felt completely safe in their arms. It might as well have been her father carrying her away.
Who are you?
She opened her eyes for the second time and saw the oddest pair of light-blue eyes looking back down at her. The eyes were so clear and bright that they seemed almost as if they were glowing. "Are you alright?", she heard a mellow voice ask gently. Before she could say "no", a loud explosion erupted just behind her and her surrounding began to rumble violently. The man holding her (whose features she hadn't quite made out yet) looked upward and around at the ceiling and walls, which were crumbling at an alarming rate. "I'd better get you out of here", the man said urgently.
"No", she managed to croak weakly. "I won't leave him. He needs me."
Who needs me?
Suddenly there was another explosion, even louder than the first one, and her surroundings were completely engulfed in a blinding white light….
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"Gaaaaah!"
With a loud cry of fear, Nova Tribal woke up sweating from her nightmare and quickly sat up straight in her bed. She was shaking all over, just like the last time she'd had the nightmare. She took a few deep breaths to try to calm her nerves. That's the third night in a row I've had that same dream, she thought to herself. What could it mean? Suddenly she heard a knock on her bedroom door.
"Your highness? Your highness, are you alright?", an alarmed and familiar voice asked. With a sigh, Nova stretched her arms and legs and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm fine, Steiner. Come on in", she said. No later than when she said that did into her room rush a muscular, stocky man covered from head to toe in a rusty suit of armor. It was Adelbert Steiner, the captain of the knights of Alexandria and her personal protector since the day she was born. "Princess, I heard you cry out and figured you might need my assistance", the knight said with a salute. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, yes", Nova replied, slightly annoyed. "And how many times have I told you not to call me princess? I get enough of that from my tutors and the townspeople. Just call me Nova, okay?"
"B-but, it's….. it's forbidden!", Steiner stammered. "A lowly knight such as myself has no business calling you, a princess of Alexandria, by her first name!" Nova sighed and folded her arms. "Ever the dutiful knight, aren't you?", she said, irritated. "You know, when I asked Beatrice to call me by my first name, she had no problem with it." At the mention of his fiancée, the great general of the elite knights of Alexandria, Steiner took a small step back and cleared his throat. "Urm…. Ahem. Well I suppose….", he said before trailing off. Nova smirked. It never fails. Just the mere mention of Beatrice was always enough to turn Steiner into a blushing, blubbering fool. It was really rather cute. "Oh, um, your mother asked me to wake you up this morning", Steiner said hastily. "She and your father have a big day planned for you today."
Nova yawned and rubbed her arms. "Yeah, I know", she replied. "Okay, I'll be down in a minute." Steiner saluted and turned to go, then turned back around as if he forgot something. He looked around, as if he was checking to see if anyone else was there. "Oh, by the way", Steiner said with a grin, "Happy birthday, Nova." Nova grinned back. "Thanks, Steiner", she said warmly. After Steiner had gone, Nova got up out of her bed and stretched her arms and legs some more. Then she stretched her tail a little bit, a long, furry, light-brown genetic heirloom she had inherited from her father. It was indeed her eighteenth birthday today. And just like all her other birthdays, her mother and her father had a big celebration planned for her. But this birthday they had something extra planned. For this day marks her first step into womanhood. Nova went over to her bedroom window and opened the curtains to let the morning sun in.
Womanhood. Yeah, right, she thought to herself. I still like ditching my tutors and sneaking out of study hall to go play kickball. And as much as I like boys, a part of me still believes they all have cooties. How can someone like me possibly be ready for adulthood? She then remembered with a smile that her mother Queen Garnet once told her that her father King Zidane and her older cousin Eiko, the regent of the grand castle town of Lindblum, were even more immature than she was. And look how great they turned out.
Cousin Eiko!, Nova thought as she hit upon an idea. That's it! I'll ask her about my dream! Her cousin always came to visit her on her birthdays. And she was good at reading the meaning behind dreams and premonitions. Maybe she could help her discover the meaning of her recurring dream. I hope so, she thought as she moved over to her dresser and started brushing her long, dark hair in the mirror. If she can help me figure out the meaning of this nightmare from hell I keep having, maybe it will go away and I can have a decent forty winks of sleep for once. Nova slipped on her silk robe and velvet house shoes and went outside her room, headed towards the royal bathing room. Time for this birthday girl to freshen up and make her royal entrance.
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"Whattya mean breakfast is over?", Nova whined as she watched the servants clean up the royal dining room and whisk the dirty dishes away to be washed. "It's barely been morning for over a minute!"
"Actually it's been morning for quite a while now", Queen Garnet said with her hands on her hips. "It's now one hour shy of noon. Honestly, missing your own birthday breakfast! The very shame of it! And we made your favorite, too!" Nova pouted. Her mother didn't have to tell her that. She could smell the aroma of waffles and strawberry syrup still hanging in the air. "You couldn't just hold breakfast for me?", she complained. "Why should we have to?", her mother countered. "You're eighteen years old! You should be old enough to make it down here in time for breakfast! Honestly, you're just like your father!" As if on cue, that's exactly when King Zidane walked into the dining room, stretching his arms and tail and yawning loudly.
"Man, am I starving!", the king announced. "What's for breakfast?"
Queen Garnet looked at her husband, then at her daughter. She then just shook her head and giggled. "Just like your father", she laughed. Then she turned around and started heading towards the throne room. "Come on, Nova", she said over her shoulder. "Your dad and I have something very special to give you." As she walked away Zidane looked around him in confusion. "Hey, what about breakfast?", he asked.
"Breakfast is over, dad", Nova said glumly. "We missed it."
"You gotta be kidding!", the king exclaimed, stroking his slight beard. "It's barely been morning past a minute!"
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Nova walked into the throne room behind her parents and was surprised and delighted by what she saw. The room was packed full of a variety of people from the royal servants to the highest nobles in the land. When the people saw the royal family they all cheered loudly. Zidane turned around and told her to wait there, then winked at her and followed his wife up to their ivory thrones. Nova grinned in the midst of the cheering crowd. She had to admit she was getting pretty excited. When the king and queen reached their thrones they turned to address the cheering crowd and Garnet held up a hand to quiet them.
"Welcome, one and all, and thank you for attending", the queen announced. "As you all know, today is my daughter's eighteenth birthday. It is not just a day for her parents to celebrate, however. This day belongs to all of Alexandria, for it is this day that our kingdom's princess has officially blossomed into a full grown woman!" At that, the crowd gave another loud cheer and Nova rubbed the back of her neck and looked down, embarrassed. After the crowd finally quieted down the king began to speak.
"Since this birthday is indeed a landmark occasion", Zidane said loudly, "her mother and I have decided to commemorate it by giving her her first two birthday presents. These are not just gifts, however. These items hold a lot of importance." Zidane then smiled and held out his hand. "Approach, Princess Nova." Nova walked towards the throne, doing her best to walk as gracefully as possible, although graceful really wasn't her style. She walked up to her parents and gave a small bow. With a smile, the queen held her hand out towards her. In her hand was a beautiful golden necklace with a dark red stone in the middle of it. Nova instantly recognized it. It was her mother's most valuable possession, the necklace she used when she wanted to summon her most powerful eidolon, Bahamut the king of dragons. The dark red stone in the middle was a garnet, which was of course her mother's namesake. Queen Garnet was a summoner that was born in Madain Sarai, a city full of people with the ability to summon creatures with practical godlike power and strength to do their bidding. That city was destroyed when Garnet was a baby, and she was the only survivor. The then queen and king of Alexandria found her and sawed off her summoning horn, which was a genetic brand on the forehead of anybody from Madain Sarai, and adopted her as their own child. Nova looked down at the necklace her mother was giving her, hardly daring to believe it. "W-wow", she said softly. "For me? Really?"
"Absolutely", her mother replied as she fastened the necklace around Nova's neck. "In times of trial and danger, may it always protect you." The queen then leaned forward and looked into her daughter's eyes. "Only in times of trial and danger, understood?" Nova nodded sheepishly, remembering when she was six and had taken her mother's necklace from her jewelry box and used it to summon Bahamut, trying to be a summoner like her mother. Too bad the sudden appearance of a giant red and black dragon in the skies over Alexandria didn't seem as cool to everyone else in the kingdom as it did to her back then. Luckily, before she had the chance to hop on the back of her big new pet and go for a ride, her mother reached her side and used her power to make the beast return to whence it came. "Hey, I was young and dumb back then", Nova responded. "I'm eighteen now, and full of the wisdom of womanhood, right?" Garnet said nothing but raised one eyebrow as if to say: You'd better be.
"And now for my gift", Zidane said proudly. He reached down at his sides and produced two extremely sharp and extremely deadly looking green daggers. He held them out handle-first towards Nova, who's jaw dropped almost to the floor. "Whoa! Cool!", she said. "First a summoner's gem, and now a deadly sharp weapon! No, two deadly sharp weapons!" She took the blades with a happy grin. "This birthday just keeps getting better and better!" "These are called the Twin Moon", Zidane said about the daggers. "They're pretty powerful, and pretty dangerous. Like the gem your mother gave you, these are to be used only when you're in serious trouble. Got it?"
"Yep", Nova replied happily. "Don't worry, I'll use them responsibly." Zidane nodded. He then took his daughter by the shoulders and turned her around to face the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen", he boomed "I present to you Princess Nova; your future queen has today become a woman. Let us now go to the ballroom and celebrate her coming of age!" A roar of cheering and applause when on throughout the throne room. Nova smiled and waved at the crowd, her eyes busily scanning the room for any sign of her cousin Eiko. Where is she?, Nova thought as her eyes darted this way and that. She's gotta be here….Oh, there she is! She finally caught sight of a smiling dark-haired beauty with a most unusual horn growing out of her head. Nova waved at her with a grin and rushed forward into the crowd to talk to her cousin. She was almost there when…."Yeaahhh!", Nova exclaimed as she almost tripped over something. She looked down and saw her best friend, Viva Orunitia, searching desperately on the ground for something. Viva was a black mage like her father Vivi, the most powerful wizard in the land who also happened to be King Zidane's best friend since they were kids.
"Hey, Viva", Nova greeted her friend. "Um,…whattya looking for? Did ya drop something?"
"Oh, um, hi Nova", Viva said looking shyly down at her fidgeting hands. She always seemed as if she were trying to hide under her huge cone-shaped hat. She was as timid as her father. "I, uh, I brought you a birthday present…. but….uh….some people bumped into me and I dropped it."
"Hey, no prob", Nova said happily. "I'll help you look for it." "Thanks", Viva replied, and the two girls began scanning the floor for the missing birthday present. Much of the crowd had already dispersed to the ballroom, so it was becoming increasingly easier to get around. After two minutes of searching, there was still no sign of the missing gift. "Darn, where is it?", Nova said as she searched around on the floor. She was glad she wore her slacks today instead of her frilly white dress, as her mother strongly insisted. Suddenly a pair of wicked looking boots stepped in front of her. Nova looked up to behold someone staring down at her. The stranger's features were completely obscured by a dark hood worn over the head and attached to a tattered cloak. The stranger held out an adorable plush teddy bear towards her. "Is this what you were looking for?", the hooded figure asked in a dark voice. Before Nova could ask "Who the hell are you?" her best friend spoke up.
"Yes! Yes, that's it!", Viva said excitedly. "That's your birthday present, Nova!" Cautiously, Nova reached out and took the teddy bear. "Uh….thanks, whoever you are", she said, suspicious.
"It is almost time for you to meet your destiny", the figure said, completely surprising Nova. "The stage is set, and you have been chosen as the lead actress in fate's play. Keep on your toes and stay strong, for much in this drama will be riding on your shoulders." The stranger then turned and was gone, faster than he appeared. Nova and Viva stared after him for a minute, perplexed. Finally Viva spoke up. "Weird", she said.
"Weird is an understatement", Nova replied. "Who the heck was that guy? And what was he talking about?" For a moment she pondered whether or not she should go ask him. Then she just shrugged it off. "Meh, probably just some weirdo who decided to crash the party", she said dismissively. "I'll let royal security handle it." She then looked at the plush bear in her hand. "This is really cute, Viva! Thanks!", she said with a grin. "How'd you know I liked stuffed animals?" Viva looked shyly down at her feet. "Ms. Eiko told me", she replied.
"Ahhh! Eiko!", Nova exclaimed, remembering she had something to talk to her cousin about. "I completely forgot! I gotta go speak to her! Where'd she go?" "Maybe she followed the crowd to the ballroom?", Viva suggested. "Aw, man! That means I gotta pick her out of the crowd again!", Nova whined. "C'mon, Viva. Let's go see if we can't find her." The two girls blended with the crowd on their way to the ballroom.
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"Hey! Vivi, Eiko, over here!", Zidane called out when he saw his old friends. He was pleased as punch that they decided to come, because it had been almost a year since he last saw them. About a minute later Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Eiko were embracing each other. "Man, it's great to see you guys!", Zidane said happily. "What have you been up to?"
"Well, I've been busy trying to raise eight kids", Vivi said somewhat shyly. "They're a handful. Especially Viva, my youngest. Man, her black magic powers are already stronger than mine, and she hasn't even learned the advanced skills yet. One time she did a fire spell trying to cook something and she almost burned the house down!" The four friends had a hearty laugh. "Hey, where's Steiner?", Vivi asked. "I wonder what he's been up to."
"Oh! Man, have I got some news about ol' Rusty!", Zidane exclaimed, calling Steiner by the nickname he gave him years ago. Even after all this time, it never failed to infuriate Steiner when Zidane called him that. "After years of an off and on relationship, he finally had the balls to ask Beatrice to marry him!"
"Really?", Eiko said, excited. "Well! It's about time! So, when's the wedding gonna be?"
"In the fall", Garnet said with a smile. "Then they're gonna spend their honeymoon in New Burmecia. That's so romantic!"
"It sure is! In fact, that's where mother and father are thinking about spending a second honeymoon!", Eiko said, speaking of former regent Cid and his wife Hilda, the kindly couple that adopted her when she was little. Her face then clouded over and became serious. "Of course, what with what's been happening for the past few months, I'm not so sure that leaving Lindblum would be safe for them right now."
"Yeah, I know what you mean", Vivi agreed. "I've heard the rumors too. About monsters killing people and stealing their souls."
"Yes, those rumors are quite disturbing", Garnet said with a troubled look on her face. "Beatrice and Steiner have already been looking into it, but so far they haven't been able to find out anything about these supposed soul stealing monsters."
"Well you know, it could be just a rumor", Zidane offered.
"But Zidane, the one thing that isn't a rumor is the fact that people are dead", Eiko said unhappily. "Just two weeks ago, a duke had to bury his five year old son. He said his boy was murdered and his soul stolen before his very eyes by one of those monsters." She then folded her arms and looked distressed. "Um, guys? I have something to tell you. For the past few days, I've been having this same dream, over and over." At that, her friends stiffened up and prepared to hear bad news. Eiko had been gifted with the ability to have premonitions, a power that only just revealed itself a few years ago. And more often than not, the premonitions were less than pleasant. "In my dream, the elements of fire and earth are tearing up the planet, just ripping it apart. Mountains crumble, the ground quakes; it's just a mess. Then I see the elements charge forward, as if they're attacking something. I look and see a bright light; that's what they are attacking."
"Man", Zidane said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "I'd hate to be that light."
"What if you were that light's father?", Eiko asked seriously. At that, Zidane's pulse quickened. "What do you mean by that?", he asked, his voice rising slightly. "As the elements of fire and earth close in on their enemy", Eiko continued, "the light begins to take on a human form. The form it takes on is that of your daughter, Nova."
For a few moments, there was complete silence. Then, in a shaky voice, Garnet asked "Did anything else happen in the dream?"
"Yes", Eiko said. "Before fire and earth can reach Nova, three more elements rush past her towards them; water, wind, and darkness. Together with Nova, they attack fire and earth. The fight is fierce; the earth rumbles violently as the battle goes out of control. And that's when I wake up."
Vivi whistled. "That's intense", he said in a low voice.
"Yes", Eiko nodded. "And what's more, I can't shake this strong feeling that the dream has something to do with the soul stealing monsters we've been hearing so much about."
"Wait a minute, you don't think they might come here after Nova, do you?", Zidane asked sharply. Every fiber of his being was now tense, as if he was just about to engage a gigantic monster in battle like he did in the old days. "I don't know", Eiko replied. "But I'd keep a sharp eye on her." Garnet looked around. "Where is she?", she asked anxiously, looking for her daughter. "I saw her and Viva heading for the ballroom", Vivi said. "Don't worry, I'm sure she's safe right no…." A deafeningly loud explosion cut off the rest of Vivi's sentence and the entire palace shook. "What was that?", Garnet asked. The only answer she got was the sound of panicked screams coming from the direction of….
"The ballroom!", Zidane yelled. Without another word, the quartet of friends rushed out of the throne room towards the ballroom. Zidane and Vivi were in the lead, ready to tear apart whatever might be threatening their children.
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"Any sign of her yet, Viva?", Nova asked as she and her best friend scanned the ballroom floor from the balcony looking for Eiko.
"Nope. Not yet", Viva replied. "Just a whole bunch of dancing and talking nobles and servants carrying food trays. Um, why exactly are you looking for her?"
"Well", Nova said, "I was hoping she could help me out with something. You see, for the past few nights I have been having this crazy dream…." That's as far as Nova got in her reply before she got the biggest shock of her life. A large explosion erupted throughout the ballroom as up through the floor busted the biggest and ugliest creature Nova had ever seen. People and food and wine trays went flying as the creature made it's not-so-grand entrance. Once it had revealed itself it shook it's blubbery body, separated the deadly looking pincers covered in green slime on the front of it's hideous face, and let loose a mighty roar.
"Whoa! What the hell is that thing?", Nova yelled.
"Antlion!", someone screamed from the ballroom floor, as if to answer her question. That's when all chaos broke loose as people began screaming and trying to make their way out through the large ballroom doors.
"Look at 'em! They're in such a hurry to get away that they're getting stuck in the doorway!", Nova observed. "At this rate, most of them will be lunch for that monster before long! We gotta buy them some time to escape!" Nova drew her Twin Moon and started to run for the stairs leading down into the ballroom only to be stopped by Viva deliberately standing in her way.
"A-are you crazy?", Viva said, terrified. "Y-you can't possibly mean you're going to take on that huge, ferocious monster!"
"Actually, I thought that we would be taking on that huge, ferocious monster", Nova replied. "C'mon, you're not gonna make your bestest friend in the whole world fight that thing alone, are you?"
"You are crazy!", Viva exclaimed. "Nova, please, don't do this! Let the guards handle it!" "The guards are among the people stuck in the doorway trying to escape", Nova pointed out. "Which means if anyone's going to do something to stop that monster, it's gonna be us. C'mon, we can do it! I've been training with Beatrice to fight since I was ten. And you've been practicing your black magic only your whole friggin' life! Besides, in order to make it out the doors we'll have to go past the antlion anyway! You think it's just gonna let us waltz out of here?"
Viva closed her eyes, looked down, and began to tremble. Nova gently took her by her shoulders. "We can do it", she said firmly. "Together." After about half a minute Viva finally just shook her head. "I hope you know what we're doing", she said in a shaky voice. Nova grinned. "Don't worry, Viva", she said lightly. "As long as we just fight our hardest and watch each other's back, we can't lose. So let's do it!" Viva shook her head again. "I wish I was as confident as you are", she replied as she revealed a medium sized oak staff. "O-okay, let's try." Nova and Viva rushed down the stairs and out onto the ballroom floor. They were just in time, because the antlion had picked up one of the guards by his leg and was trying to drag the screaming man underground with it. "Send that oversized cockroach a message, Viva", Nova yelled. "Okay, here goes", Viva said. She waved her staff at the antlion and the creature was assaulted by a small pillar of white hot fire. The antlion screamed, dropped the guard it was trying to eat, and turned to face it's attacker. "Okay, now that we got your attention", Nova said icily. "Let me show you how we deal with party crashers." Suddenly, as the antlion stared at her and Viva and readied to counter attack, Nova started getting a strange feeling that maybe the antlion was there just for her; that it was specifically after her for some reason.
But why?, she thought to herself. Why would an antlion invade the palace trying to get me? She was shaken out of her thought by the antlion lunging for her. She jumped quickly to the side, barely escaping the monster's assault, and quickly countered by slashing at it with one of her daggers. The monster roared in pain and reeled back. Yes! Direct hit!, Nova thought triumphantly. Then, as the creature let out another thunderous roar, this time in unquenchable rage, Nova decided it would be wise to just kill it now and wonder why it was here later. "Let's show this bug bitch how we do things downtown!", Nova yelled. "Y-yeah!", Viva exclaimed, and the two girls officially began their first battle.