Final Fantasy VI: The Wrong Path
Waking up in a light clearing surrounded by deep, dark forest, the girl decided that things couldn't have been much worse. The world was going to end, her friends were all probably being tortured, or worse, killed, and it was all her fault. Something had gone wrong this time. Whether it was something she had done differently, or something she hadn't done, she didn't know. All she knew was that just a few days before, (for her; it was actually a few years ahead) she had been trying a very difficult time spell, screwed up, and had reversed the flow of time.
As the hours, days, weeks, months, years flew ahead of her, she had instinctively cut off the magic to find herself in her past, with the only things precious to her: her clothes (obviously) and her name. Her name, Terra, was quite famous in the future, but in the present was worth nothing except to her friends, and her worst enemy: a mad man named Kefka.
She had, in the past (or rather, the future; she was going to have to get used to this time traveling thing) defeated Kefka and saved the world, but, this time, something messed up and nothing was going as had before. Kefka had spotted her as she and her friends approached his castle to confront him, and had blasted her off to this forest. She just couldn't think of her blunder! Had she been too careless, not covering herself from his sight as she had before? Had she simply flown through a concealed trap, sending Kefka a warning as to their whereabouts, just because she hadn't followed her exact flight patterns? She might not live to know.
A sudden earthquake rent the earth around her. Trees that had stood for centuries suddenly collapsed. Looking in the sky in the direction of Kefka's castle, she spotted Kefka ascending into the sky, clutching Shadow in one hand and Edgar in the other. Rising with Kefka were other limp bodies, most likely the bodies of the others. Terra sighed. The End was here. It was all over. Nothing could save them. All her friends had been brutally tortured then killed, by the looks of it. Maybe Shadow or Edgar twitched, but, as Terra watched he threw them quickly at the ground. The ground trembled some more as their bodies hit the ground. Terra fell to the ground as the tremors continued. "So this is how it would have been, had Kefka succeeded. And, now, this is how it is," thought Terra.
Suddenly, the ground reared and broke. She fell inside the crack, and, attempting to frantically clutch at the grass, fell into a sea of red.
Up in the sky, Kefka grinned, seeing the destruction he was causing. Looking east, he saw the forest where he had sent that meddling girl collapse. "Eeheehee! The rodent went POOF!" he said. Suddenly, he stopped moving upward. Smile faltering, he attempted to use all his might to keep moving. For some reason, his movement was impaired.
"Gah! I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE this!" he said to no one in particular.
In the heavens, the gods were quarreling, as they normally did. Cosmos and Chaos were the two gods that watched over all the worlds, not just one. On Gaia, Sephiroth and Cloud had been dueling, and Cloud was winning, much to the satisfaction of Cosmos. Cloud had dealt a final blow, and they both had turned to see the battle raging between Kefka and his enemies. To Chaos' delight, Kefka had destroyed all opposition and was ascending to his seat among the gods.
Cosmos reminded Chaos of their war, and how the world needed to be balanced to survive. Of course, Cosmos was right. She always was. And besides, Kefka intended to destroy the world. Chaos and Cosmos both had put too much work into that world, and making new worlds was so tedious. For the longest time you get worshipped as the sun, moon, rain, etc. and never as yourself. No, Chaos didn't want Kefka to put him through that again. Neither did Cosmos. Ending their argument, they stopped Kefka in his ascension and popped down for a god-to-god chat.
"What is this?!" yelled Kefka. His thunderous voice sent his tower falling to the ground, but he didn't care anymore. All he cared about was the itch on his rump. After having sent the rat that had attempted to bite his rear end flying toward the ground in a fiery ball, be turned his mind back to the problem at hand. Something was keeping him from taking his place in the heavens and enjoying the music of death screams, squeals, and squawks. Oh, he longed to send this annoyance flaming toward the ground and collapse some more buildings, but this barrier was otherworldly and didn't budge, no matter how many flames, lightning bolts and ice shards he threw at it. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "there are more gods than the fool statues."
As he said that, the clouds next to him started twisting and turning in utter turmoil that Kefka wasn't creating, and he didn't like it. Also, below him and the cloud, the ground was writhing even after he had ordered it to stop so that he could get off of the wretched mass before he imploded it. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, Kefka saw the clouds stop twisting. The clouds were now in the shape of a beautiful woman. He turned back to the ground and saw a massive horned beast with four arms burst out of the ground and leap up beside the woman. A thunderous voice that he could not describe, except that it seemed more aged than the earth itself came from the beast.
"Enough of this, Kefka! Do not destroy this land!" it said.
"Who are you to ruin my fun?!" Kefka asked.
"Why, Kefka, do you not remember us? I rather thought you would have remembered the last part of that never-ending war," said the woman. Obviously, the woman knew him. "Well, you might not recognize me, but surely you recall your old master?" she said.
"I have no master!" said Kefka.
"Ha! That is a good one, scum," said the beast. "Before Cosmos' followers kicked your-"
"Chaos! No need for that! He used to worship you!" said the woman.
"Well, alright then, before they beat you, you were a - erm... - pawn of mine. Yes, it is the truth, I shouldn't use euphemisms with a god," said Chaos.
"Wait! You say that I was beaten by some galaxy's minion? Son of a submariner! This world deserves to be blown up all the more if something that crazy actually occurred."
"My name is Cosmos, not 'some galaxy,'" said the goddess, "and you wouldn't even be blowing up this world if it weren't for that girl you killed just now."
"Oh, really." Kefka grinned like a feral animal as he asked, "And if I hadn't killed them? Hadn't sensed them flying through my trap?"
"Hah!" Chaos burst out. "Why Terra would have killed you like the mad white-"
"Chaos! The one you talk of is a god, now, and is standing right in front of you! You didn't call the Triad - er - that, did you?" reprimanded Cosmos
"No..." Chaos muttered.
"Well, then, why speak that way to Kefka?" Cosmos asked.
"Maybe because he doesn't deserve to be in this position, MOM!"
Kefka was enjoying the argument before him, but couldn't accept the low blow dealt by Chaos. It reminded him of the nerd convention Gesthal had sent him to, and some son-of-a-sandworm dressed like some stupid Ganglydork had called him Ronald McDonald. This was when he was having self-confidence issues. Luckily for Gnarljerk Kefka had started an affirmation for him, and everyone had left for home happy. Well, everyone except Googleduck.
"Hey, Chaos-guy, no need for the Googleduck imitation," he said.
Quizzically, Chaos looked at Kefka. "Googleduck??" he asked.
"Maybe he IS mad," whispered Cosmos into Chaos's ear.
"What happened to not insulting a fellow god?" Chaos returned.
Watching them quarrel for another minute, Kefka decided to intervene. "Okay, to set your facts straight, I AM mad. Speaking of which, wanna know how I got mad?"
"We already know, Kefka. You were a test case for Magitek, and the infusion drove you insane," said Cosmos.
"Actually, I was going to say something about my drinker father taking a knife to my mother, but that works too. Anyway, are you going to tell me what would have happened had I not spotted Terryl person and the other people?"
"Why, Kefka, they'd have beaten you and saved the world," Cosmos said simply.
"Unacceptable! I would have destroyed them and everything just the same, no matter who got in my way! Even you!"
"Kefka, you must realize that we are not going to let you destroy the world," Cosmos said.
"Yeah, you try making a world, living through the stone age and letting some human that only lives long enough for you to blink your eye come and destroy the whole thing," Chaos added.
Kefka laughed. "Are you kidding?" he said, "I wouldn't let a world survive longer than necessary to get several people simultaneously screaming when I destroyed it!"
Chaos nodded to Cosmos. It was necessary. "I see," he said. "I guess we can't talk you into it." Starting in a low, deep chant, he started casting magic. Cosmos joined in, harmonizing with Chaos in a higher soprano. Kefka recognized the words as words of magic. Frantic to stop the spell in its tracks, he sent a thousand volts of electricity flying at Chaos. A red energy barrier reflected the bolt as easily as a piece of crumpled parchment. He sent a 4000 degree blaze of fire at Cosmos. Another barrier, this one blue, also reflected it, with Kefka narrowly dodging it. He decided to send the attack he had been saving for the world, Forsaken, at the two gods. After a bright flash of white lanced with red, he noticed his magic had no effect on the two gods.
An explosion destroyed Kefka's line of sight. Chaos was keeping Kefka away! This meant his barrier was weakening! Kefka bombarded the god's barrier with blizzards, thunderstorms and wildfires of all types and varieties. The glow of red surrounding Chaos was weakening! One more Forsaken would destroy the shield and maybe even break the concentration necessary to cast such a powerful time spell. Kefka prepared to blast the god into the third dimension when his vision blurred. Suddenly, he saw his flurry of spells come rushing back at them. Unable to control his limbs, his arms reached put and absorbed the blasts at a frantic rate. Suddenly, Chaos were arguing again, except their mouths were making no sound Kefka could recognize, except when he had flipped the switch on Gestahl's record player to REVERSE for his own amusement. In his brain, he realized that the gods had succeeded and were turning time backwards. The rat shot back onto his rump and created a most unpleasant itch. Wishing he could end the time reverse, he watched his tower rebuild itself in three seconds (a very impressive sight, he had to admit, though the constructivness of it all was completely against his beliefs), some bloody smears on the ground reform and shoot back into his hands (very amusing; he would have to remember that one), and the forest re-flatten into its original state (not amusing at all. The Terra girl must surely live again). Suddenly, all was black. Kefka thought that it was because the time warp was too much for his eyes to handle. Appreciating the destructiveness of the time-reverse first came to him then. Oh, he couldn't see anything else, but that meant he didn't have to see any other destroyed structures rebuild. Then, suddenly, he found himself in his tower. Cursing the day the gods ruined his fun (for it was yet to come, in the current time), he leaned back to see if the girl would fly into his trap again.
"Setzer! Why are you not flying through the gap in those mountains?"
Setzer shrugged. "I don't have any idea! I would guess a gambler's instinct, because I have a feeling that that mountain pass is not the best way."
"Are you sure? I think that pass leads straight to his tower," Edgar returned.
Terra, to whom memories of what had happened still remained, said, "No, Setzer is right. He probably rigged that pass with a trap." And we flew into it before, she added in her mind. Happy that she had found the mistake, she resolved to continue as she had in the first time, and, hopefully, history would play as it had before. Looking up, she noticed a peculiar sight. A cloud in the shape of a woman was frozen in the shape of gesturing to the outside of the mountain. Puzzled, she resolved to think about it AFTER the battle and leave her mind clear until afterwards....