CHAPTER 2:

PRELUDE TO DESTRUCTION

Four years later…

"Catch me if you can, sis!" Rose laughed as she ran through the streets of Madain Sari, her messy black hair framing her features. Green eyes flashed from behind glasses. Morrison the Moogle had to dodge with a shriek as Rose barrelled past him.

"Hey, watch out, kupo!" Morrison yelped. Rose risked a quick glance behind her, to find Sarah, laughing, catching up. But Rose suddenly ran into someone. A very hard someone, wearing what felt like armour. With a yelp of pain, Rose fell onto her backside, and stared up. And up. And up, at a man who was as tall as Uncle Severus. And old, too.

The man was old, with a long beard, eyes with no pupil, dressed in grey armour with a cape, and with a glowing red light in his chest. He peered down at Rose, before smiling, and helping her to her feet. "You are somewhat energetic, child," the old man observed.

"Ener-what?" Rose asked. "Who are you?"

"My name is Garland," the old man said. "I am a scholar."

"You're dressed up like a knight," Rose said, as Sarah skidded to a halt near her sister. "I thought scholars were nerdy and wore glasses and things."

"I am a man of many talents, child. Would you be so kind as to direct me to the leaders of your village?"

"Rose! Sarah! Come here!" The two children turned and ran over to their mother, who looked at the newcomer. "Who are you, sir?"

"As I told the children, madam, I am Garland, an itinerant scholar. I have heard tales of the summoners of Madain Sari, and wished to speak with them to satisfy my curiosity."

After a moment, Jane said, "Sarah, Rose, head home. Don't leave it until I send for you." As the two children scurried off, cowed, Jane looked at Garland levelly, before she looked at his body. "You are more machine than man," she observed.

"A necessity. I have only a finite life, and so many things to learn," Garland said. "I have replaced much of my body with machinery of my own design."

"One should not fear death," Jane said. "It is through death that our memories of life return to the World Crystal."

"It is not death I fear, but a half-finished life, madam," Garland said. "Only when I have completed my task shall I allow myself the luxury of death."

Jane looked at the man, surprised at his dignity and grace. Eventually, she said, "Very well. But any treachery will be repaid in kind, Garland. We have few visitors to Madain Sari, and more than a few have sought to exploit we summoners and our Eidolons. None have succeeded."

"Madam…I can promise you that I have no intention whatsoever of exploiting the summoners. I am not a fool. Such destructive power would be foolish to take for one's own." There was no obsequiousness in that tone, just a quiet statement of fact. Even so, Jane couldn't help but feel that Garland was choosing his words with meticulous care…

Snape scribbled the latest developments in Madain Sari into the communication diary. Not that there were many developments in this quiet village. Black and Rose were the main sources of noise in the village, at least when Eidolons weren't being brought out. Rose Potter may not have been a Potter by blood, but she had inherited that fool James' impish nature, not helped by that cretin Black. At least the girl treated him with, if not respect, then affection of a sort. While he could not have the romantic love he wanted from Lily, he felt that a familial bond with Rose Potter was not a bad consolation prize. She was kind and attentive, and she was certainly intelligent enough to pick up things more rapidly than most. Though her sister, Sarah, had more intelligence.

The two girls entered even as he thought about them. They had certainly grown, he reflected as he stood. He saw the looks on their faces. "Rose, Sarah, what's the matter?"

"There's a stranger in the village," Sarah said. "Mother sent us home while he was here, and I think she was a bit afraid of him."

"He had a long beard, and wore armour with a cape with a light glowing on his chest," Rose said. "He was pretty nice for a stranger."

"Sometimes strangers pretend to be nice," Snape said. "They lie to get what they want, including little girls. Your mother did the right thing sending you two back."

Rose pouted. "Still not fair. We were playing!"

Snape rolled his eyes. "Even so, your mother must be concerned enough to have you stay home," he said. "I'd suggest heeding her advice every once in a while, Rose. Anyway, you have better things to do than run around and annoy the Moogles with your antics."

"Uncle Padfoot's more fun than you," Rose retorted, poking her tongue out.

As she returned to her room in a huff, Sarah said, "I'm sorry, Uncle Severus. We barely got time to play before the stranger, Garland, arrived."

Snape nodded. "That's all right, Sarah. There are some things your sister has yet to learn. And Uncle Padfoot is something of a bad influence. At least your Uncle Moony is a good influence."

Had it been when Snape first came to Madain Sari, he wouldn't have countenanced saying such a thing. But now, he came to respect Lupin. For all the werewolf's dangerous nature, and the fact he was in the Marauders, Lupin was at least level-headed and intelligent, Snape had to admit, albeit somewhat grudgingly. Black was a born troublemaker, whereas Lupin was an academic at heart, much like Snape, frankly. The two men had had spirited and quite intriguing debates on various realms of the Dark Arts, as they both had academic interests in the area.

Lupin became an apprentice of one of the local historians here, while Black was often the one sent to the Dwarf village of Conde Petie to trade goods. Snape had become the town's premiere Potioneer, not only learning how to make the potions of this world, but also supplying what potions that could be made with local ingredients to the populace. He was a bit bemused at his teacher in creating the local medicines being basically a teddy bear with wings and a pom-pom dangling from its head, but the Moogles were, for the most part, inoffensive, and certainly better conversation than many of his peers in both Hogwarts and the Death Eaters. For all their cute looks, they were also intelligent for the most part, and Snape found Moco, the Moogle who habitually guarded the Eidolon Wall, a match for his wit.

Of course, they had had the scare of their lives when, shortly after they brought Rose here, the medic here extracted, through an ancient and (normally) forbidden ritual, usually used to extract Eidolons (in the rare cases when an Eidolon innate to a summoner was causing them harm), a fragment of a soul. Snape had heard of Horcruxes, and had also heard rumours that Voldemort had created some. But to learn one was inside Rose…when he told Dumbledore the news via the diary, Dumbledore was surprised that there was a Horcrux inside Rose, and apparently elated that Rose survived the procedure.

Sarah went to their room. Snape considered the two sisters as he returned to the diary. The sisters, despite the disparate ages from the time difference between worlds, had unlocked their Eidolons more or less at the same time. Sarah had Shiva, Ifrit, Atomos, Odin, and Bahamut. Rose had Quezacotl, Siren, Diablos, Pandemona, and Doomtrain. Snape actually felt frightened at such power being locked away in the bodies of young children, and he thanked whatever merciful deities existed that one of the first things the summoners taught their children was safety involving their Eidolons. Making sure that none were summoned in anger.

It's strange how some people, even if related or close, can be opposites. Sarah was the quiet one, most of the time, contemplative and introverted, a bit on the solemn side, and very much a feminine girl. Rose was the tomboy of the pair, extroverted and enthusiastic, mischievous and cunning. Rose would probably be a Gryffindor, while Sarah would be a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, though she had a quiet bravery that would be a better attribute in Gryffindor than the brash kind Rose had.

The summoners were at least welcoming of the newcomers, once they had established their bona fides. New blood was always welcome in Madain Sari, and on occasion, summoners would venture forth to find new inhabitants on the Mist Continent, a continent across the sea, and where, apparently, the summoners came from, originally. They had once been part of Alexandria, one of the more powerful city-states of the Mist Continent, but a failed summoning caused them to leave.

Snape liked it here. It was quiet, mostly peaceful, and the people here didn't prejudge him too much for having too much of an interest in the Dark Arts, as long as it was directed towards defending the village.

About an hour later, Jane and Johan came back, looking troubled. "Is the stranger bothering you?" Snape asked. "The girls told me about him."

"Yes," Jane said. "His name is Garland, and he claims to be an itinerant scholar from Daguerro. He is mostly mechanical, though."

"A cyborg?" Snape asked. He may have been a wizard, but he knew enough of Muggle popculture to know the term.

"Cyborg?" Johan asked.

"A person who has replaced parts of their body with mechanical equivalents," Snape explained. "From 'cybernetic organism'."

"Well, he may be, or he may be a golem of some kind," Johan said. "It was hard to tell. We answered what questions we thought were safe to. He just seemed curious, but there was something about him that was uneasy."

"The Moogles sensed something different…something alien about his lifeforce," Jane said. "He said he intends to return. We need to be cautious, but he gave no sign of anything other than curiosity."

"We can hope he is little more than a nosy fool," Snape remarked. "I could have used Legilimency on him, found out what he is up to."

"It's a moot point. He's left the village, though he said he would be back soon," Johan said. "I've put the other summoners on alert, just in case."

Snape nodded, but he had to wonder, was it enough?

Sarah handled the book with great care, considering how old it was. Rose knew what the book was: a play called I Want to Be Your Canary, by Lord Avon. Rose shook her head as she looked over a book on the various Eidolons and their powers. She daydreamed about fighting monsters, and annihilating them with her Eidolons.

Seriously, Sarah wanted to read about princesses and stuff. Okay, Cornelia from that play she was reading wasn't too bad, but even so, she was pretty soppy and (if Rose but knew the term) passive, needing Marcus to rescue her. Rose enjoyed hearing stories about her adoptive family, the friends of Uncle Moony and Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Severus. James and Lily Potter, the ones who defied the evil wizard Voldemort, her adoptive parents who died saving her. A shame that evil wizard was dead, because she'd hit him with every single Eidolon in her arsenal, ending with him being run over by Doomtrain.

But she was back with her real mother, and that was what mattered. And nothing would ever tear that bond apart…

Sometime later, having taken the Invincible back to Terra, Garland contemplated his visit to Madain Sari. He felt that the summoners were an intriguing, fascinating people. What a rich, vibrant culture for such a small, isolated community.

A shame they had to die.

The Eidolons were too powerful to allow to remain unchecked. While they could be used in wars to speed up the assimilation process, Garland knew that the power of the Eidolons could all too readily be used against Terra. At the very least, the summoners had to be decimated, if not outright exterminated. They also seemed to suspect something of what was happening at the Iifa Tree, for they studied it as much as they worshipped it. And such knowledge was too dangerous to allow to remain unfettered.

As he sent the Invincible back to Gaia, Garland called, through his dedicated comms line, Kuja. Kuja had taken up residence at one of the Terran buildings that, as a result of the initial failure to assimilate Gaia by force, had ended up there. It had once been a palace belonging to royalty, so naturally Kuja, with his big ego, thought it a suitable abode.

Eventually, Kuja answered. "What is it, Garland?" the androgynous Genome asked irritably.

"I have a mission for you, Kuja, and I would thank you not to take that attitude with me. You are banished from Terra for what you did with Zidane. Abandoning him amongst the Gaians before his indoctrination was even begun. I would think you would want to take every opportunity to regain my favour."

Kuja snorted. "I know you, Garland. You abandoned me for Zidane. You just used what I did as an excuse to do what you've always wanted."

Garland didn't deny that. But not for the reasons Kuja thought. Kuja was a prototype Genome, his Angel of Death, designed to speed up the assimilation process by stirring up war and conflict. When you have a newer model, you discarded the old one. It was a fact of life. "Your bleatings are irrelevant, Kuja. I have a mission for you, and I have sent the Invincible to you. You are to head to the village of Madain Sari, in the north of the continent you reside in. I have put coordinates into the Invincible's navigation systems. Once at Madain Sari, engage the full thaumatic suppression field. Then, wipe them out. All of them."

CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:

A snapshot of life in Madain Sari, showing Rose and Sarah (aka young Garnet) just before Madain Sari gets destroyed. I also wanted to do some characterisation of Garland, because we don't have quite that much in the game, and I wanted to have something beyond this brutal pragmatist working to restore his people. I decided he came to Madain Sari partly to size up the summoners, and partly so he would remember what they were like. I would think that Garland, for all his brutality, would consider having some sort of record of the summoners and their culture before exterminating them.

By the way, Garland, as I think of him, is not quite a cyborg, not in the standard sense. I think he has organic components like his head, but he's a wholly artificial being.

No numbered annotations this time…