Author's Note: Sorry this took so long guys! Life kinda got away from me!
Time drifts by in a slow, anticipation-filled current. Years must pass before Garland is ready to strike, but many more years still must pass before Shiva's plan can come to fruition. Kuja's little body and mind must grow by leaps and bounds before either of his parent's dreams for him can be enacted. Time, though, is something Shiva relishes in. For, with each passing month that creeps by, she can feel the impatiens increase within the corpse of a man who is now her sworn enemy. Garland's body may be built to stand the test of time, but his mind is not. Shiva, on the other hand, has been around much longer than this man who calls himself immortal. The ice eidolon's patients is as infinite as that of the element she commands. No matter how long the wait may be, she will gladly take hold of her chance to crush the burning light of this world-destroying man in her icy fist. So, as the winter must wait for the summer to pass, she will wait for Kuja to grow.
Guileless son,
Each day you grow older…
Shiva looks on silently, perched atop a high platform, as Kuja and Garland participate in yet another ruthless exercise of magical might. There is hardly any real competition in this practice; Garland's power far outweighs that of his little artificial progeny. Despite being severely outmatched, Kuja still trudges on throughout the battle with determination and defiance shining in his eyes. Violently, the old crone attacks the babe, and still the child endures. There is no care in the way Garland treats his most valuable weapon. No praise for the student that learns far too quickly for it to be normal. No matter the heights Kuja is able to reach, Garland's standards are always just outside his grasp.
"Move faster, boy!"
Garland's voice echoes harshly through the rooms and halls of Pandemonium as he throws a ball of red energy at the stumbling figure at his feet. In a flash of silver and red Kuja bounds gracefully to the next mushroom-like platform. Unfortunately, not before being scorched on his right arm by the attack he has narrowly missed. Panting and flushed, the child comes to a halt and falls into a sitting position while clutching at his newest wound.
"Who said we were done?" The corpse king demands as he hovers over the child like a menacing carrion bird. "Are you so useless that after only a few meager scrapes you would fall in defeat?" Garland's tone is condescending as he snarls disdainfully at his creation.
Kuja, never having once taken and insult silently, glares up at his master with equal disdain. "No!" the seven year old protests loudly, "I will show you who is useless!" Shakily, the child struggles to his feet before falling back to his knees in pain. Those 'few meager scrapes' were all, in fact, sizable injures that all bled at a steady rate and would have had any normal Genome out cold from pain. Still, Kuja manages lucidity and defiance, but Garland refuses to give him credit for the accomplishment.
"Yes, you have shown me exactly how useless you are." The gray immortal says with a dark amusement tempering his tone. "Perhaps I should create a new angel of death?" Garland muses, floating upwards out of the room. "It appears as if a mere defect such as you will not suit my purpose."
Oh, how easy Garland is making this for Shiva.
Silently, the ice goddess slides from her perch and drifts down to the injured and distressed child. Unseen, she kneels down next to Kuja and strokes his silky hair with one hand while her other hand moves over his wounds. Healing light bleeds from Shiva's fingers, hastening Kuja's already accelerated recovery. The eidolon's menstruations soothe the angry babe, bringing back his usual calm demeanor.
Whispered words of praise flood past Shiva's cold lips, giving the desperate genome everything his master denies him. Laced in with her words of adoration are words of dissent directed at Garland. The foolish puppeteer has sown the seeds of hatred in his own puppet and Shiva happily nourishes those seeds. Garland is not the brilliant master mind he thinks himself to be. If he was, he would know that the best way to keep a dog loyal was to feed him, not beat him.
"You will show him, child. He will learn firsthand just how powerful you are."
It was in this fashion, each night after the brutal training and hurtful words, that Shiva soothed Kuja into sleep. She would pet his hair and build his ego, giving rise to a formidable personality. Like any good mother, she nourished Kuja's talents and encouraged his ideas. And, like any good puppeteer, she carefully led her marionette in a painstakingly choreographed dance towards destruction.
Each moment I'm watching my vengeance unfold…
No matter how much she had prepared for this moment, no matter how perfectly she planned out her revenge, Shiva did not find this day any less painful. As Madin Sari fell to the Invincible, a dark knot of despair and malice embedded itself in the ice goddess' core, turning her even colder. It was for this slaughter that Shiva had plotted her revenge, but somehow, she knew it would not change the sorrow she felt. Even after Garland was dead, even after Terra was destroyed, she knew this emptiness would remain. At the very least, though, her beloved Gaia would survive, and maybe a few Summoners with it.
Still...There needed to be some immediate retribution for this massacre of all that she had helped to create and all that she loved. That was why she was here, standing beside Kuja in the same room she had discovered him in. Before them was a young genome boy, playing with random objects that he had stolen from the village. He was the only other creature with a soul here in this sea of soulless golems and it was this child that Garland was seeking to replace Kuja with. That, Shiva could not have.
Leaning over, the ice goddess places a hand on her puppet's shoulder and whispered softly into his ear. She spoke of how the boy would be the end of him and how Garland wanted to make the child more powerful than Kuja. She told Kuja that he would be forgotten, that he would no longer be special because this child would out shine him. That was all it took for the already neglected Genome to gather up his little brother and whisk him away. Kuja formed a plan before Shiva could even direct him in disposing of the boy. The eidolon smiled at this, reveling in her creation's will to defy Garland.
Kuja dropped the boy onto Gaia, leaving him there to either die or grow old enough to die in the coming wars. Garland would be furious, but would be left with only one option; rely on Kuja. Now he hadn't the time to create another Angel of Death, he would have no choice but to send Kuja to do his bloody work.